Amazon Apocalypse 6: Chapter 61

Seraphyne pulled my arm back, which Jade responded to by pulling my other arm in her direction. Pretty soon, I was being yanked in both directions.

My mind was filled by a long-suppressed memory of Myrina fighting another girl over a stuffed animal they both wanted to play with when we were young. She'd pulled one way, and the other girl had pulled the other. Pretty soon, that stuffed animal was ripped in half and stuffing flew everywhere. That stuffed animal was me, and all the stuffing was the bits I very much wanted to keep inside me.

"Ladies, ladies, let's not get... Oof!" I groaned as they each pulled on my arms. I wasn't interested in finding out firsthand how hard two peak A-Grades could pull. Since they had both my hands, it was time to put my foot down.

"Enough!" I said, with heat in my voice. I used Shadowrealm Stride to slip from their grip. "I can leave on my own. And I'm afraid I have a lot to do back home, so I really can't go with either of you at the moment. Seraphyne, Jade, it was a pleasure watching the two of you defeat that Void Leviathan, but I'll be leaving now."

I opened up Sanctum again. Mimiko and Hyacinth were on the other side waiting to return. They'd both changed their clothes and cleaned themselves up after suffering through the backlash from that last fight.

Seraphyne looked Hyacinth and Mimiko over, but I sensed most of her attention was on the mystic realm behind me. Her fingers flickered over an invisible keyboard, and then she turned away.

"I set the ship in motion as soon as we reboarded, and we are nearing an inhabited cultivator world. I won't be staying long, so make sure you get off then," Seraphyne said, nose upturned in a subtle but unmistakable air of natural authority. 

We waited in silence for a few minutes more before the Oraculum came to a graceful stop above an inhabited planet. I took a step back into Sanctum. Jade threw me a significant look, which I felt certain meant she wanted me out of here the moment she was out of sight to save me from Seraphyne. I nodded in silent agreement, and as she teleported down to the surface of the planet, I closed the portal to Sanctum.

"Well, that was an interesting trip. Unfortunately, I didn't finish that quest of mine, but..." I cut myself off a moment later when the portal I'd just closed cracked open again.

"You forgot this," Seraphyne said, stepping into Sanctum as she rolled the extra-large Void Leviathan core through the portal toward me. Blue and golden light circled the portal now, like it was being forcibly held open by the power of the woman in front of me.

"Oh... you can open portals from the other side..." I chuckled awkwardly, suddenly very aware that there was an A-Grade looming over me.

Mimiko's face beside me went pale. I gestured for her with my hand to get out of here, and in an instant she was gone, running for Crownhill. Not that there was much she could do there. Even if she rallied all my women together to help me fight, I wasn't sure they'd be enough to drive off Seraphyne.

"I meant what I said earlier. Cultivators are a barbaric and superstitious lot. You should be wary of them," Seraphyne said. Her eyes followed Mimiko, and for a moment I feared laser beams were going to shoot out of them or something. But Mimiko left in one piece, and soon it was just me and her.

"I'll keep that in mind," I cautiously replied.

"I've been reviewing the ship's logs. You possess valuable skills that would be wasted with them. I wish I had a proper gift to give you, but since I don't, I'll give you a little warning. Whatever you're doing now, a storm in fate has emerged near you. Not in the future, not someday, but right now, and you're walking into it."

"I've heard this prophecy of doom before, but thank you for the warning." I smiled my best please-go-away smile.

Seraphyne tapped her chin. "You're unimpressed? Perhaps I can be more specific than that. Someone is the cause of all this. I'm not sure who, but it is creating quite a stir throughout your iteration of the System. You aren't the source of the disturbance, but you're close to it. Be mindful of who you hold close. Has anyone new entered your life recently? Someone ancient and powerful?"

I frowned and scratched my head. "Only two people meet that description. One is Jade, the cultivator you fought alongside. The other is you."

Seraphyne frowned. "And yet it is neither of us. Be mindful. And if you need shelter from your coming tribulation, you may seek me out again. It would be a fair way to repay the debt I owe you."

Then Seraphyne inclined her head to me, turned, and gracefully departed. The portal closed behind her.

It would have been like any other departure, if not for the notification that flashed up in my vision.

Special Quest Available!

Seraphyne of House Nemaryth has invited you to her faction's headquarters! Meet her there and receive a substantial reward.

She must have issued a quest to me just then. I could do something similar thanks to my Shardlord title, but that was only in a territory the System recognized I controlled. She'd issued the quest in my own mystic realm.

I was still standing where she left when Mimiko returned. I saw Frank jogging along behind her.

"Carter! You all right? Mimiko here said you were about to be torn apart by two angry, sexually repressed giantesses?" Frank yelled.

"He was the only one I could find on short notice," Mimiko said, breathing hard from running to get to me.

"It's fine, she left on her own." I waved at the empty space before me.
"Damn. I was hoping there was another sexually repressed giantess for me," Frank chuckled. "Anyway, it'll be good to have you back. Things have gone to hell since you left."

I looked up at him in surprise. "What's going on?"

"Monsters. Monsters everywhere, most of them those creepy void guys. I don't know where they came from, but they're angry about something." Frank shrugged.

I looked at the huge S-Grade Void Leviathan core next to me.

"When did this start?" I asked.

"Shortly after you left, two weeks ago or so," Frank replied.

That ruled out the core, but my mind went back to what Seraphyne said. She was the third A-Grade to warn me that something big was brewing in the Kindling Dimension. Truthfully, I was getting a bit tired of all these cryptic prophecies of doom without any substance. But apparently whatever long-predicted doom was coming my way had finally arrived.

These void monsters couldn't be too tough compared to the enormous A-Grade monstrosities I'd been fighting with the Goddess in Jade. Truthfully, clearing out a few void monsters seemed a bit anticlimactic, considering how many A-Grades had warned me about this.

"There's one other thing," Mimiko added. Nervousness was plain in her voice as she matched stride with me while I prepared myself for a long day of clearing out monsters.

"What is it?" I asked, already crossing Sanctum to exit in Crownhill.

"I wasn't able to bring Bridget because her pregnancy has progressed faster than anticipated. We may need to fight our way to Crownhill's clinic," Mimiko said.

"What?!" I jumped with nervous fright and immediately put Seraphyne and even the void monsters out of mind. I thought I had a month or two to spare at least before the baby came due. Had I known Bridget was anywhere near close, I never would have left to hunt A-Grade monsters.

I stepped out into my courtyard, where I found Marcus and several other guards from Crownhill manning the walls alongside Governess' mannequins wielding guns or simple weapons. Presumably Frank had been fighting alongside them, guarding my home from the void monsters.

But most of the fighting was being done by Reluna as she slaughtered void monster after void monster. Her level had climbed massively ever since I stuffed her into that suit. No doubt Bridget and Governess had taken the opportunity to use it to keep her motivated to fight ever since these void monsters started showing up.

And, if anything, Mimiko had undersold the scale of the void monster attack. Things were as bad here as they were when the System gave us a quest to stop a void monster incursion. Except there was no void portal in sight now, just a constant stream of twitching, writhing, ugly void monsters.

I took to the air, surveyed the battlefield, then conjured a magical projectile for each enemy. Each attack flew, hitting vital targets and slaying twenty on the walls and another hundred in the woods just beyond the walls of my family compound.

Frank flashed me a thumbs up. "Nice work."

"Is it this bad everywhere?" I asked worriedly. Crownhill was probably safe even under this much pressure, but places like San Antonio or the treehouse village would struggle under this kind of pressure.

"Not everywhere. If it were, I'd be back in Crownhill, not defending your house. For some reason it's particularly bad where you live. I guess these monsters really hate you." Frank flashed me a helpless shrug.

I frowned. The portal to Sanctum had been open all this time, so the most recent attacks could be for the S-Grade monster core. But according to Frank, the fighting had been happening before that. What, then? Maybe they were after that golden beetle I inflicted with my death curse ages ago? I'd have to track that thing down in Sanctum, if it was even still alive.

I suspected it was something else, though. Seraphyne mentioned a big disturbance in the System, which meant a big disturbance in the Kindling Dimension. Maybe someone powerful doing something big could cause enough ripples to open up void portals in mundane space.

I'd puzzle my way through the cause later. For now, there was someone more important than any number of void monsters. I rushed into the castle to find Bridget.

I found her easily, basically because she was impossible to miss. In all my years of life, I'd never seen someone so pregnant. Forget having one baby, she looked like she had three in her. And kicking must have turned into punching, because as I watched I saw what I was pretty sure was a baby's palm print on the inside of her belly.

"Damn. Should I be worried about you popping like a balloon?" I asked as I rushed over to Bridget's side.

"I'm tougher than I look," Bridget said with a wince as she tried to sit up. A normal woman would probably be bed-bound at her size.

"Let me examine the baby," I urged Bridget back down.

I peered through dimensions to look at the baby. At first I'd figured there'd be an extra kid or two in there that I missed, but it was just one big baby.

And what a kid he was. He wasn't even born yet and already seemed past the infant stage, crossing over into being a toddler, though even then he looked like the sort of toddler that had spent every waking moment in the gym since his birth.

I couldn't scan for his level because Bridget's own level obscured his, but I got the distinct impression that if I could scan him, he wouldn't be level one.

Worry needled at me, especially since our child hadn't even been born yet. I had no reference for what the child of B-Grades was supposed to look like. Was this normal? Was this healthy?

"Something wrong?" Bridget asked.

"Nothing. It's just... that's one big baby."

"Adrian. That's the name we agreed on. And he's not just a baby, he's our son," Bridget said.

"I think little Adrian wants out. We should get you to Doctor Roswell's clinic. I'm not sure we can wait for him to get any bigger than he already is." I gave her a comforting stroke on the cheek. Bridget frowned reluctantly, but she didn't outright protest.

I scooped her up in my arms, then took flight to Crownhill. Mimiko followed behind me on foot. Meanwhile, Reluna and Frank would keep the house safe.

I hoped for a peaceful flight, but shortly after leaving my farmhouse compound, we were attacked by several flying void monsters.

Void Flying Raptor (Level 49) x135

Hundreds of flying little creatures like bony bats swarmed the two of us. I took out most of the horde with a flash of Eldritch Blight, then followed up on the survivors with a few Mana Bolts constructed with Mana Arsenal. That cleared the skies for about thirty seconds, by which time a second group of similar low-level creatures was descending upon us.

I shot down a dozen more, but the little bastards were fast and numerous. I hadn't had to fight off this many little creatures since I'd ditched my Death Curse. The skies seemed empty, and yet as I flew, more and more of these things emerged from the treeline to swarm me. If this kept up, I was going to have to start building and handing out weapons-grade flyswatters.

There were a few larger monsters too, some of them much larger and more powerful versions of the void monsters I'd been fighting.

Void Ravager (Level 125) x12

They were a bit more difficult to deal with, since they were durable enough that I could only kill them in one shot if I landed a critical hit. Thankfully, I was pretty good at hitting things in their vitals, so I dropped the twelve trying to swarm me in short order. I couldn't pick up their cores or anything else on them, though, since my hands were full with Bridget, and if I lingered in one place too long, I'd get swarmed again.

The trip to Crownhill's gates ended up taking far longer than it should have, thanks to all the fighting, but I entered and passed through them.

"Welcome back, Sir!" one of the guards said, opening the gates as soon as he saw me approaching.

"These flying bats are everywhere today. If anyone sees a void rift, let me know right away so I can close it."

The guard saluted me, and I took flight again once on the other side of the wall to make a direct trip to Doctor Roswell's clinic.

The flying attacks finally stopped once inside the city, thanks to the barrier surrounding us, but I could see groups of them high overhead. Even more were accumulating with each passing second, despite guards shooting them down with arrows, abilities, or even bullets.

I found Doctor Roswell's clinic and walked in. The assistant behind the counter took one look at Bridget, went pale, and then gestured to a room down the hall with a bed, promising us Doctor Roswell would come see us right away. Sure enough, he wandered in a few minutes later, staring at a clipboard.

"Another pregnancy check-in? Hmm... yes, I think..." The moment Doctor Roswell's eyes left his clipboard, his jaw dropped open.

"Something wrong?" I asked worriedly.

Doctor Roswell blinked, reached for a pair of glasses in his coat, put them on, and then blinked again. "I've never seen someone two years pregnant before!"

"It's hardly even eight months, depending on how you count the time dilation," Bridget said as she lay on the bed.

"You're still able to talk like... that?" Doctor Roswell ran a hand over his head, equal parts shocked and morbidly curious.

"I'm not dying, I'm just pregnant," Bridget said. It was something she'd said often throughout her pregnancy.

"Well, let's just double-check to make sure," Doctor Roswell replied as he rummaged around for his tools. Apparently I hadn't been the only one to start adapting magitech, because most of Doctor Roswell's gadgets would have been unrecognizable to any doctor from before the integration.

I recognized a lot of the medical supplies as stuff from Glacia that I'd dumped onto the market myself in the hopes that somebody from Crownhill would figure out how to use them. It turned out that had been a smart move.

Other devices probably came from the ruined Architect city, a portion of which I'd dropped off in Crownhill for people to pick over, and so we could hijack its power source to run our city. Between the two, Doctor Roswell came to a swift conclusion.

"Well, I'll be damned. You're not dying, just pregnant," he declared after running Bridget through a battery of tests.

"What should we do?" I asked worriedly as I held Bridget's hand.

"I think I have to induce labor early. Any longer and the kid's not going to be able to fit on the way out. Hell, at his size I'm half certain he might just crawl out of there himself and say hello," Doctor Roswell said, shaking his head in wonder. "I've seen a few births after the integration, and they're always a bit special depending on the level of the parents. But I've never seen something like this."

I looked at Bridget, who clasped my hand tightly. She nodded at me.

"All right, doc. Do what you think is best."

It looked like I was going to be a father a lot sooner than expected. Doctor Roswell nodded and left to fetch some supplies. A moment later, a horrific screech tore through the sky outside. Something big was on its way to Crownhill.

<Note>

I feel like Doctor Roswell's bedside manner has declined a little since the apocalypse. But it's not like there's anyone who can fire him.

Also, how do you guys feel about Seraphyne? Do you guys want to see more of her?