Amazon Apocalypse 6: Chapter 69 (Nice)

The Many-Mouthed horror snapped at me with dozens of mouths, and I flinched back in nervous fear. Anyone else would have done the same in the face of such a strange extradimensional creature.

I tried to examine it, but got nothing back. The System was dependent on real physics to estimate the levels of creatures and things that weren't integrated, and this extradimensional space adjacent to the Kindling Dimension couldn't provide that.

I prepared myself for the worst and readied several spells, but a moment later learned I wouldn't need any of them.

Something black, shadowy, and powerful swept up from underneath me and snatched the Many-Mouthed horror between large jaws. The strange extradimensional creature squished, was punctured, and was soon shredded into bits. The creature responsible then turned and curled around me protectively.

Naturally, the creature was my dragon shadow. If it wasn't, I'd have much bigger problems on my hands. I'd never gotten the urge to pet the frightening draconic thing produced as a side effect of my Chaos Dragon title, but now I had.

I reached out a hand, and it skirted away from me. Apparently it didn't like to be petted.

I couldn't pay it any more attention than that. Though the many-mouthed horror that ate my tether proved to be much weaker than I'd feared, it had still screwed me over. Without that rope I was stuck here in this strange border dimension.

I kept one hand on the tube-like infrastructure of the System. Was there anywhere the System crossed over into mundane space? I knew it had the power to create things from pure energy and send it into the nearby reality, since that was how it manifested treasure chests and skill books as rewards. But I wasn't sure I'd survive the same process it used on items.

I looked to find my draconic shadow waiting for me in the extradimensional space. Normal eyes saw nothing but a watery aether near the System's tubes, but my Kindling Architect senses could feel my shadow in a slightly lower dimension.

My gut told me it was pointed in the right direction. Was it trying to lead me home?

I decided to take a leap of faith. Just as the dragon shadow's tail flicked past me, I reached out and grabbed it. The moment I did, the shadow took off, taking me with it.

I held on for a trip that felt like hours, but was actually twice as fast as my ascent through the dimensions. Pretty soon I spotted light at the end of the tunnel, and I went flying out of the cloth loop I made and face-planted against a nearby building.

I shook myself a moment, removed some brick and mortar from my hair, and gave my shadow a wave. It was hidden from sight already. It had probably returned to the shadow realm, where a shadow like it was most comfortable.

I tugged on the cloth tunnel I'd made and pulled it apart. There was no sense in leaving an extradimensional portal in the middle of the city when I was already fighting off an army of void creatures.

Now that I thought about it, that Many-Mouthed Horror did resemble void creatures in some ways. Perhaps the void creatures were descended from creatures from that place. How and why the Architects ever thought to build the System there still boggled my mind.

***

The others were still in the clearing outside the city when I found them. Apparently they'd continued coming up with plans in my absence and had finally settled on something. Though what that something was I couldn't yet fathom.

More importantly, I glanced up at the moon. My heart was pounding as I looked at it, at least at first. But then I looked closer and realized the beam of energy it was shooting down at us looked far less fearsome than before.

What had previously been a planet-destroying beam of power was now something more like a city-destroying beam of power. It was still fearsome, but the potential for destruction it brought was greatly reduced. It wasn't hard to figure out why.

Demon Moon (Suppressed - Level 399)

As the System had promised, it had suppressed the Demon Moon down from the peak of A-Grade to the peak of B-Grade. Something that had once been an untouchable monster of devastating power was now something I could handle on my own.

Like the City Eaters, it would probably take me half an hour to take it down. Less with help. I was even confident my enchantments surrounding Crownhill would hold if they were struck.

So I took the chance to check in with the others and see if they were ready and able to sally forth from our defenses and crush this thing in one glorious charge.

"What are you all doing?" I asked.

"We found an exhaust port! Look!" Myrina handed me a kid's telescope, then pointed it at the bottom of the moon.

If the one-eyed moon was actually a huge void monster, the exhaust port was right in the center of what I'd call its ass. The moon was spherical enough it was impossible to be certain, but I was pretty sure that Myrina had identified the moon's anus.

"We're dropping a bomb in the exhaust port!" Myrina pointed to the other B-Grades, who were all contributing as their skills allowed in building an explosive device. Everyone was digging through what they had on hand and stuffing explosive items and talismans together in a metal dumpster.

Presumably, all the incendiary devices would go off at once, after Myrina inserted the barrel into the moon's... exhaust port.

I shrugged and decided that was as good a way as any to fight the giant angry moon in the sky and contributed some of my own explosive devices to it.

"Carter, you're packing heat! You just filled up the whole barrel!" Frank said as I dumped a small portion of the explosive devices I kept on my person. Mostly that meant mana bombs and talismans, but there were a few odds and ends. My Mana Overload skill helped make just about everything I made explosive when the enchantments were pushed the wrong way.

"Hold on, I'm just getting started."

I made some adjustments to the barrel. I ended up shrinking it down a little, but spatially expanding the inside at the same time. With about ten times the number of explosives and some extra magical reinforcement in the metal barrel rim, the crude explosive device was just starting to reach acceptable standards for an improvised explosive.

I also ended up adding one of the spent zero point reactor modules I'd picked up from Seraphyne's ship. I hadn't had much time to pry into them, but what I did see scared me enough that I thought there was a fifty-fifty chance that the modules would go nuclear when opened. Naturally I decided not to poke them too much until I was certain. Now would be a good chance to test that theory.

I stuffed that into the center, then welded the barrel together.

"Now how do we get up there?" Myrina asked.

"Hold on tight. If anybody else can fly, we could use a distraction."

I grabbed Myrina under the arms, and bit by bit most of the B-Grades joined me under their own power. Those that couldn't jumped atop Sharky's back. As one, we ascended into the sky.

The Demon Moon saw us coming. Its big central eye blinked for a moment and made to turn.

"Spread out!" I shouted, using the last of the fading atmosphere.

We did so, though I had to use Shadowrealm Stride to grab Liliana before she could be vaporized and pull her out of the way.

She mouthed words of thanks as she realized I'd just saved her life, but I was already off again ascending higher.

The Demon Moon tried to turn and blast us again, but this time I was ready and shot a few spells directly at its big eye. That forced it to blink a moment, and it brought its full attention on me. It eyed me with ill-intent and fired up another big blast from its eye, but I activated Aegis of the Void, and its beam shot off into nowhere.

By the time it realized it had been tricked, we were already underneath it. Myrina found her exhaust port, and with a vicious shove, she slammed the barrel into the moon's backdoor. I took us away as rapidly as I could, and even then we were nearly too slow.

A tremendous explosion shoved us back toward the planet below us. Light filled nearby space, and when I looked back I saw the bottom chunk of the Demon Moon had been replaced with a huge mushroom cloud.

Myrina let out a silent cheer, and we circled back around to finish off the moon.

It ended up being a lot tougher than the Void City Eaters in terms of durability, though not in its ability to fight back. This thing was an A-Grade in body, even if the System had figured out a way to suppress it in level. But after blowing the damn thing's rear to pieces thanks to Myrina's ingenious plan, the rest of the fight felt more like digging ditches through damp moon rock than it felt like slaying a powerful A-Grade void monster.

The other monsters living on the surface of the moon were no slouches either. There were plenty more of those titan crabs crawling around looking to eat us. But as luck would have it, the System considered such things interlopers as well, and had restricted their levels just like it had the Demon Moon. As a result, difficult fights became trivial even for the weaker B-Grades on the team.

I was the one to deal the final blow. Sharky had carved a tunnel through the fleshy rock that made up the Demon Moon's body, and I followed it down into the center of the beast. There, I found an elaborate series of enchantments, along with what might once have been a control room of some sort. Apparently Demon Moons were made rather than born. But there was still plenty of organic matter in the mix, and that exhaust port had been exactly what I thought it was.

Once the control room was destroyed, a change overtook the Demon Moon. It was a change I'd observed several times before.

Congratulations, you have slain a Demon Moon. You are at the maximum level for B-Grade. Your experience shall be held in abeyance until you reach the A-Grade.

Suddenly, the entire body of the moon withered. It aged at spectacular speed, and I hurried to gather everyone up and get them off the surface of the moon so they wouldn't interfere with the process. One moment there was barren lunar rock, and the next there was damp soil blooming with fresh grass, trees, and other signs of life.

Pools of blood and broken veins became streams, rivers, lakes and oceans, and what had once been threatening to destroy our world suddenly looked like a freshly built paradise ripe for colonization. It was an awe-inspiring transformation, even to me who'd seen it several times before.

Seeing it now and for the third time, something tickled the back of my mind. It was like a bit of the magic I was witnessing had settled in the depths of my soul, and if I chased that feeling I might be able to seize some of this power for myself. The System agreed.

You have gathered a third clue to an unknown and forbidden branch of magic!

Quest Completed: Master of Forbidden Knowledge.

• You have learned the secret art of transfiguration, a long-forgotten and forbidden branch of magic. A relevant signature skill will be added to your abilities upon reaching A-Grade. For now, a more limited form of the ability has been granted to you.

Quest Completed! You have defeated the Pale Moonlight Scholar and the Demon Moon!

• You have completed the bonus objective of repairing local System defensive measures. Your rewards will be increased proportionally.

"Oh hell yeah!" I heard Kogai yell. That was when I realized there was enough air on the moon to talk again.

I settled down on the surface of the new moon. All things considered, this thing was pretty big. Earth had a pretty big moon to start with, but this was much larger and more proportional to the huge planet the System had crafted for us.

I wouldn't know for sure unless I measured it, but this moon seemed more in line with the size of old Earth. More importantly, as with the other planets Jade and I created, this world had a core that once belonged to a void monster. And a peak A-Grade void monster at that.

If a planet like this had appeared in cultivator territory, it would be a wondrous find and a future cultivation paradise.

It was less important for us System users though, since ambient mana concentrations were pretty meaningless when the System did all that for us. But Mimiko might appreciate the world. And I probably would as well at some point.

I still had yet to truly appreciate that wood spirit root I'd gotten from Mimiko, but I would use both that and this moon when the time came to study how the System and the soul worked at a fundamental level. That was something I'd have to do if I ever wanted to reach beyond A-Grade.

As soon as I stood on the surface of the moon, I saw what Kogai and the others were so excited by. A chest appeared in front of me, directly manifested from the System.

I flipped the lid and found several trinkets inside.

You have received the following rewards!

• Potion of Absolution (Divine)

• Ancient Theorycrafter Spirit (Mythic)

• Scroll of Kindling (Mythic)

• Hero's Beacon (Divine)

I read through the list of rewards. From what I could sense of the other chests, what I was receiving was a notch above what everyone else was getting.

I was very grateful to finally get another Potion of Absolution, since that was the only thing that could remove my Chaos Dragon title once equipped. The other items I didn't recognize, so I analyzed them for better descriptions.

Ancient Theorycrafter Spirit (Mythic)

• This tablet can generate a ghostly apparition of an ancient theorycrafter well versed in techniques and abilities of the golden age of the Architects and has guided many powerful fresh A-Grades. Contains one day's worth of power for the spirit.

Scroll of Kindling (Mythic)

• Previously belonging to the Pale Moonlight Scholar, this scroll is capable of dramatically enhancing the power of mental manipulations using the Kindling Dimension. With focus and power, the words written upon the scroll's pages will rewrite reality.

Hero's Beacon (Divine)

• This beacon summons whoever the summoner most needs.

The Ancient Theorycrafter was most obviously useful, besides the Potion of Absolution. I'd been wondering how I was going to get good advice on picking abilities after I reached A-Grade. A-Grades were rare enough that data on what abilities were best with what builds had to be scarce, and I'd never even heard of a theorycrafter advertising A-Grade services. This neatly solved that issue.

The Scroll of Kindling was interesting as well, given how well the Pale Moonlight Scholar had used it. I still didn't know who she was, other than being someone aligned with void monsters. It was a shame I hadn't been able to interrogate her and figure out who or what actually sent those things my way and why.

I figured the scroll would be useful given what I'd learned about using the power of the Kindling Dimension. The dragon scales on my arms had been crawling further and further along recently thanks to the intense fighting I'd been doing. With this thing, maybe instead of several months of rest and work, I'd only need a few weeks.

The strangest item of all though was the Hero's Beacon. Maybe the System intended it as a way to get in contact with Seraphyne again? I would have thought my node would be resentful of the ancient Architect noble family remnants, after all she'd suffered at the hands of the Vaust family.

I pocketed the treasures and rejoined the others, most of whom were tossing Myrina in the air and celebrating.

"Targeting the exhaust port was inspired! Truly a work of genius!" Jazon said as he congratulated Myrina.

"Genius, me?" Myrina pointed at herself.

"Yes. Truly a genius." The big horned woman next to Jazon nodded appreciatively.

Myrina's cheeks flushed and she ran fingers through her hair.

I started a cheer. "Myrina! Myrina! Myrina!"

Pretty soon everyone was congratulating her on her hard work. I figured it'd be best to give her all the credit for this one. I made my escape before the drinks went around.

Back in Crownhill, the solar eclipse had finally ended. The circles of shooting stars still lingered in the sky, but they were falling one by one. The sky was painted the soft glow of late afternoon.

When I went to the clinic, I realized I'd already missed the big moment. I took a peek through the wall of the clinic and saw Bridget looking exhausted as she lay in bed, but she looked otherwise alright. And in her arms, she held a large baby-sized bundle.

I wanted to join them and walked into the clinic, but the nurse at the counter pointed at my clothes. It wouldn't do to walk into a nursery with who knew what goop and gunk I was tracking in from the battlefield. Fortunately there was a place to get cleaned up in the clinic and I had a change of clothes on me, so I walked in clean a moment later.

Bridget rocked the little bundle of cloth with an expression of motherly love. Mimiko was staring at the bundle too, looking almost hypnotized by the baby. As I entered, all three of them turned to look at me.

<Note>

I edited the previous chapter to clarify that Myrina is not in Doomblade's armor at this point. I think it's better if she isn't for these final scenes.

Anyway, I think Adrian will be interesting. He's more than a baby honestly, and will grow up faster than a kid should. But Carter still needs the dad experience.

I'm not sure if any of Adrian's siblings will get into the series early enough to become full characters in their own right, but Adrian should have a pretty big roll to play, somewhat reminiscent of Comela from Spellheart (One of Theo's eldest daughters.)

It actually wouldn't be as terrible as I thought to end this book here or maybe after one or two more chapters, though my original goal was to end after Carter reached A-Grade. Might have to swap out the cover art though and move Eowyn to the next book or later. I should have a Jade cover on the way.

We'll see. I don't want to go over 250k words, but I do kinda want to get Carter reaching A-Grade in this book. I will just avoid cramming things in and let the story split where it may. I think 6 books in I can get away with a less than perfectly clean ending, so long as I'm not too slow in publishing book 7.