Amazon Apocalypse 6: Chapter 66

Myrina and I defeated the Void City Eater after about half an hour of fighting. We ended up taking it down fairly quickly compared to the last few, partially because of how much hacking and slicing Myrina did, and partially because I was getting good at figuring out where these things kept their vitals.

Despite their level and immense size, these things weren't too tough unless you were a low-level civilian living in a large city. If you were fast and strong enough to actually fight them, like Myrina and me, it wasn't too tough to dodge all their attacks and deal enough damage to take these things down. It was more tedious than dangerous.

Unfortunately, the sorcerers were well and truly gone by the time we finished, but all wasn't lost. I was certain they'd each taken a few hits from me. Between my Corrupting Marks, Hemorrhage, and Destined Death effects, they would be in increasingly worse shape as time wore on. If I was lucky, I might even get a few of them before they found a way to cure themselves.

Since the sorcerers were out of reach, I knelt down next to Liliana and Sorcerer Mourningstar. Liliana had already added her signature, but Mourningstar's hand hovered over the line in the treaty.

"Any questions for me?" I asked him.

"What's the catch?" Mourningstar asked, peering up at me.

"The paperwork is more to keep the System happy than either of us."

"You want to complete this stage of the integration early, I take it?" Mourningstar asked.

I chuckled. "I want to complete it bloodlessly."

Mourningstar scoffed. "That isn't going to happen."

I sat down next to him. "Sadly. I think you're right. Still, I'd like to try. Everyone should try to build a better world than the one they found."

"And when it doesn't work?" His eyes met mine.

I shrugged. "Then we'll go with my backup plan. And no, I'm not telling you what it is. Just know that by signing that piece of paper, you'll be making it possible."

I watched him carefully.

"My daughter told me much about you, Emperor Carter. She said she was your prisoner once, and yet now she's back with me. You are a man of honor, and I feel I can trust your word." Sorcerer Mourningstar signed the treaty.

Congratulations! You have gained the tenuous loyalty of the ruling faction of the Citadel of the Order of Sorcery!

A key leadership position has been subverted by you, and two others have been gained by treaty. But other leaders have survived, though they have fled the former seat of their power.

If you can purge these dissident elements, your new vassal's loyalty will increase.

You currently control five of five shards.

This stage of the integration has ended. Foreign faction restrictions have been reduced. However, your integration will not progress until greater unity has been achieved.

I was pleased by the notification, and doubly pleased to have the System confirm I could bring more people over to Crownhill. I'd been banking quite a bit on that, though I suspected that would be the case after my adventures in San Francisco.

B-Grade undead shouldn't have been able to show up on that shard unless the System was treating the shard as a force from the next stage of the integration. And even then, I suspected the Chaos Raven had pulled some strings to loosen the rules. Only time would tell if I could replicate the feat.

"Emperor Carter," Liliana dipped her head toward me, a blush plain on her face. "I fear we parted on poor terms before. Since then, I've spoken with Doomblade. Who's informed me of how all that occurred between the two of us was your way of showing interest in me. If this peace requires it, I will agree to be your captive again, and you may torment me any way you wish."

The way her cheeks flushed scarlet and the way she wrung her hands together made me think somebody had given her very vivid descriptions of what I supposedly wanted to do to her.

Myrina flashed me a big thumbs up, and I slapped my palm against my face. Apparently, 'not doing anything I wouldn't do' to Myrina meant luring women into my dungeon for sex. On that topic, I was completely innocent. Yes, I did have a sex dungeon, but only because Reluna and Myrina built one without my permission.

I plucked the treaty from Liliana's hands. "I'll have to get back to you on that."

***

I left for Crownhill as hastily as I could. Bridget had been on my mind the whole time while conquering the other shards, and she was going through a battle every bit as important to me as the ones I'd just taken care of.

There were far more void monsters infesting the shard than before. When was that help the System promised us going to arrive?

I ended up taking care of some small groups of void monsters on the way and did a second circuit around my territories to make sure nothing big was coming their way. Then I finally returned to Crownhill.

The eclipse had progressed, and there was a certain feeling of anticipation in the air. Between the shrouded sun, the rows of stars, and the shaky flow of time, I felt like I was on the edge of my seat about something. Maybe the storm of fate we were in had reached its climax. Or maybe I was just feeling very anxious about my pending fatherhood.

I bypassed the barrier and appeared next to the clinic. I swung the door open, then came to a sliding stop by Bridget's bedside.

"Sorry, I'm back. There were a few more void monsters to kill than I thought." I took Bridget's hand in mine. She turned her head, but her brows were drawn tight.

I'd missed her water breaking, and her legs were up now, so she was clearly in the early parts of labor. Mimiko and the nurse were both sitting on the other side of her.

"I'm glad you're here..." Bridget squeezed my hand.

I stayed close, kneeling by her bedside as I held her hand.

"And I'm going to stay right here. Nothing is going to drag me away—" Before I could finish, somebody burst in through the door behind me. I turned to find Marcus standing there in Crownhill full city milita uniform. One of the nurses held him back, but he stood in the doorway looking at me with a worried, near-panicked expression on his face.

I suddenly had a bad feeling. Marcus was a good kid with a good head on his shoulders. Him coming in here like this meant there was an emergency.

"Sorry to disturb you sir, but I heard you were here," Marcus said.

"Is this urgent?" I asked, shoulders slumped and frown on my face. It was like fate was laughing in the face of the promise I'd been about to make.

"Very sir. There are some B-Grades from who knows where. They're demanding to meet our king. None of us can stop them if they decide to get violent. Sorry, Sir." Marcus shrugged helplessly.

Bridget squeezed my hand again. "Go on. I'll be alright."

I looked at Mimiko. She nodded and squeezed Bridget's other hand.

I stood and Marcus led me outside. We traveled quickly, and I felt my anger growing. I wasn't sure who these B-Grades were or what shard they came from, but unless they were extremely powerful, they were going to meet me in a very bad mood.

I saw the man with his back to me arguing with Rick, one of my top fighters who'd been with me since that battle to take on the trolls and ogres. The discussion looked pretty heated, and it was clear the adventurers were making hefty demands.

"Look, we don't want to speak with underlings. Just take us to your king or whoever runs this place. He'll recognize us. We're famous questors." The man arrogantly jerked a thumb at his own chest.

"Now's a really bad time," Rick grimaced, staring at the shimmering barrier around the city.

No doubt he felt like he should be out there instead of arguing with whoever these people were. The extra manpower wasn't actually needed, otherwise I wouldn't be so sure Sharky and the shields would hold long enough for me to be with Bridget as she gave birth. But someone like Rick likely wanted to be out there killing void monsters and finishing some of the quests I sent out, not keeping these guys out of trouble.

I stormed up behind the hostile B-Grades. "What's the problem here? Can't you all see there's a battle going on?"

I cocked back my fist, debating on whether or not to throw a punch. There were five B-Grades here. The strongest was a B-Grade was older than the others, with white starting to crawl up the sides of his hair, though he still had the handsome good looks of a movie star.

There was a woman next to him with a slender stabbing sword at her hip. Despite sporting pure silver hair, she was younger than him, and her purple skin made her stand out as much as Reluna did on the streets of Crownhill. She had the arrogant upturned expression of a spoiled noblewoman, despite being outfitted for battle.

On one side was a horned woman from some particular brawny species. She had a huge mace on her hip and an even more enormous greatshield leaning against her hip. Next to her was a much daintier young woman in a leather cap wearing round spectacles and looking a bit out of place as she looked at my concerned people and her own nonchalant team.

The man turned around at my words, lips and brows drawn tight until he saw me. Then his expression lit up in recognition.

"Wait! It's you! The crafter!" the older man said as he regarded me. I blinked and looked at the party again. Now that he'd turned to face me, I realized I knew this man and his companions.

"Jazon Jestario? What are you doing here?" I asked, blinking in surprise. I let go of my clenched fist.

While undergoing the System's training quest, I met this man and his comrades during my eighth quest. We'd been grouped together to un-corrupt some isolated pocket realm that had been taken over by void monsters.

It had been a challenging quest for all of us. The job had proven far more complicated than it first appeared, and Jazon and his team had to hold off the enemy while I worked on purifying the pocket world's core.

"The same thing you are, I reckon. You signed up to fight void monsters again as well? Good! This is a pretty rare opportunity. We're the third team of B-Grades the System's dropped off here. Apparently we're supposed to fight some A-Grade void incursion. That ain't the sort of thing that happens every day."

"A-Grade?" My eyes widened, and I straightened.

Jazon shrugged. "That's what the quest says. Anyway, we're just waiting around here for the local king to show up. You know how these backwater kingdoms nobody's ever heard of are. He's probably some C-Grade. Hopefully the local king hasn't run off already. I've seen that sort of thing way too often. If he hasn't fled already, he's probably packing his things right now. I just want him where I can keep an eye on him so he doesn't do anything stupid."

Marcus coughed to get everyone's attention. "Ahem, honored guests. Allow me to introduce Emperor Carter the Magnificent, King of Crownhill, San Antonio, the Golem Forests, and the Dragon Mountains, Protector of San Francisco, Overlord of New Kyoto, Camlaan, and the Citadel of the Order of Sorcery, Shardlord of—"

"That's enough," I said, interrupting Marcus. I hadn't realized how long my list of titles had gotten as of late, or I would have stopped him sooner. I held out my hand to Jazon. "Anyway, you were looking for the local king? Well, here he is."

Jazon scratched his head awkwardly as he took in the situation and realized what he'd just said.

"Uh... well... I mean..." He struggled to find a way to regain control of the situation.

I waved him off, showing I wasn't offended. "It's fine. Truthfully, I wouldn't even be running this place if there was anyone I thought could do a better job. But I do contest Crownhill being a backwater. Maybe we're a bit out of the way, but if you tour the place you might find it's got more amenities than most of the Arcadia Multiverse."

"Right, I'm sure. You have a lovely kingdom," Jazon eagerly agreed, though I wasn't sure he believed me. "Anyway, since we lucked into meeting you again, I just wanted to apologize for last time. We heard news afterward that what you did was no simple mana purification."

I shook my head. "Forget it. It's all water under the bridge now. Can we backtrack to what you said earlier? What's this about an A-Grade?"

So Jazon showed me his quest screen.

Personalized Team Training Quest Part 4: A Challenge of Heroism.

A newly integrated world is being invaded by void monsters in clear violation of System restrictions and surpassing the level of enemy typically allowed on newly integrated worlds.

Teams of promising questors have been sent to deal with the threat. You and several other B-Grade groups must join forces to defeat a powerful early A-Grade Void invader.

I grimaced at the System prompt and started giving orders.

I rearranged the quests, giving massively increased rewards to people with a scouting class who could search the nearby area. There were two things of interest to me. One was this A-Grade invader the questors were supposed to fight, and one was for any more teams of B-Grades like Jazon's group.

The A-Grade monster wasn't showing up, but the moment I put out the quest, it was returned to me nearly a hundred times in quick succession. Clearly, Jazon's team wasn't the only one sent our way.

They were in every settlement nearby, and likely near the Order of Sorcery and Camlaan as well. Most were C-Grade rather than B-Grade like the team standing next to me, and after radioing one of the scouts, I confirmed the C-Grades had a more general quest to eliminate as many void monsters as possible and protect the locals. There were even a few teams that the System sent in at D-Grade.

Once I started looking into it, I realized the System had already put a thumb on the scale in our favor. Low-leveled people left and right mentioned they started receiving skill book selections out of thin air, just like we had at the start of the integration. Defenders were gaining levels at an amazing pace. I just hadn't noticed it. The System was a bit stingier with giving out things someone of my level would find useful.

Upon asking a few of the adventurer groups through proxies, I learned it was only the B-Grade teams that were supposed to help me take down the A-Grade void monster that was on its way. So I ignored all the other adventurers and had any of my scouts who found a B-Grade team make their way to Crownhill. I wasn't sure where the A-Grade monster would spawn exactly, but I had a growing hunch it would be somewhere nearby.

"Well that's something you don't see every day. You sure your sky is supposed to look like that?" Jazon said as he stared at the solar eclipse overhead with the rows of stars surrounding it.

"No, not normally." I looked up at the moon covering the sun. Was it getting brighter?

"I think there's a crack running through your moon. You might want to get that looked at." Jazon pointed up at the moon.

Sure enough, there was a large seam running through the center that I didn't remember being there.

"Weird. I don't remember that. Now that you mention it, the crack looks like it's getting bigger."

As the two of us stared at the moon, the outer crust split open, like an eyelid peeling back. Then, a beam of light descended from the sky. It was maddening to look at, and next to me, Jazon reflexively shielded his eyes.

"Don't look!" he ordered. Nearby Rick was too slow to avert his gaze.

Rick cursed, rubbing his eyes and coming away with bloody fingers. "What the hell?"

I was too slow to look away as well, but unlike Rick, I was unaffected. I'd seen this strange light before, though never from anyone else's hands. It was that unknown impossible color that existed when I activated my ultimate ability, Secrets of the Unseen. Whenever I used it, this color would permeate whatever ability I was using and dramatically enhance it.

Now, that same color was enhancing an attack from a damn moon. While everyone else walked away, I looked up and saw the wall of light shimmer into existence overhead. That was the barrier the System formed over us during the integration to manage external interference.

For a moment, I feared the barrier was going to give way, but as the beam of light grew brighter and cracks spread, the barrier suddenly doubled in strength. Then tripled, then quadrupled right after. The System was reacting to the attack and strengthening the barrier accordingly.

Soon, it wasn't just a matter of more power. It was like a greater intelligence than the one that usually saw to such small matters was suddenly taking an interest in our world and the barrier that shielded it.

What was once a simple barrier of interlocking hexagons instead turned into something more profound. The shapes shifted and changed, stacking upon one another in both this dimension and adjacent ones. Suddenly, the shield overhead stopped cracking, the damage reversed, and it was whole once more and holding strong.

As the barrier reformed, I caught a glimpse of an incredibly complex bit of enchantment. If I'd seen it even a few months ago before my recent studies on barrier enchantments, I would have even called it unfathomably complex. Now, I could call it inspiration.

But before I could make any more detailed observations, I realized something had gotten through the barrier. It was small, perhaps only the size of a human. And staring into the sky where it hovered, I realized it was humanoid. No, she was humanoid.

I could see the tattered remains of cultivator robes wrapping around unnaturally pale skin. Her veins ran with chalk-white blood, and there were two empty sockets where her eyes had once been. Both had been replaced by a far more grotesque eye carved of lunar rock in the center of her forehead. She looked like someone who had given up on her humanity long ago.

Then she spoke. Her voice carried clear over the shard, audible from one side to the other with the kind of might I knew only A-Grades to possess.

And worse, she spoke. Her voice quavered, like it hadn't been used in a long time. But I heard the words nonetheless. We all did.

"The star child must die."

<Note>

So Myrina has been telling Liliana that Carter wants her as a kinky sex toy. Does Carter have another Reluna on the way?