Amazon Apocalypse 6: Chapter 57

The teahouse was completely empty when we left, though the city streets were still crowded.
"We'll fly out. I'll take you on my flying sword," the Goddess in Jade offered.
"Doesn't the city give out fines for flying here or something?"
She smiled. "Not to me."

She pulled out a wide, flat sword with enough room to stand on it like a surfboard. It seemed like a very precarious way to travel to me, but the Goddess in Jade held me steady in front of her.
It was a bit of a weird feeling riding tandem, especially as the little spoon, since the Goddess in Jade was so much taller than me. I couldn't complain too much though, since the twin airbags behind my head were exceptionally supportive.

When we were past the city and flying toward the portal, it occurred to me that Hyacinth and Mimiko were still in the city.
"Wait, I think we forgot the others," I said.
"Oh. One moment."

So we flew back around. Mimiko and Hyacinth had been struggling to keep up on foot, pushing their way through the crowd.
"Hyacinth, pick up Carter's assistant and let's fly. The city won't stop you so long as you stay close," the Goddess in Jade said.

Hyacinth stooped low and scooped Mimiko up at the waist, tossing her over her shoulder. Then she produced a smaller flying sword similar to the Goddess in Jade's, and all four of us flew toward the exit of the Ninefold Lotus Heaven Realm that Mimiko and I had entered through. Mimiko's ride was considerably less comfortable than mine.

There were more bandits surrounding the gate, waiting for someone to come through, but at the slightest hint of the Goddess in Jade's powerful aura, they scattered. We ignored them and flew straight through.

Once outside the Ninefold Lotus Heaven Realm, I realized how weak and flimsy reality seemed compared to what it had been within that special place. My power had been greatly constrained there, as had the Goddess in Jade's.
Now those restrictions were lifted, and the Goddess in Jade tipped her flying sword to the sky in an explosion of magical speed and strength that made rocket ships look slow. Soon we climbed to the upper atmosphere. I took one last breath of air before it became too thin to breathe, then pointed to my ship in the empty void.

The Goddess in Jade studied it for a moment and came to a stop by its hull. A mental command had the ship's internal teleportation systems shift space around us, and suddenly we were inside. When I sensed Hyacinth and Mimiko approach trailing behind us, I had the ship take both of them in as well.

"So we're headed to the void." I scratched my head, suddenly realizing I wasn't sure what direction that was in.
"Take us away from this world. Reality is strongest near habitable planets. If you take us deep into interstellar space, it will be easier to tear a rift open than to prevent one. We don't want to actually cross into the void, though. Void monsters are at their strongest there. We'll clean up those that crossed into our reality around some uninhabited star so we have the advantage," the Goddess in Jade explained.
"Good idea. But first we should probably drop off your followers on a colony world. Where do you want them?" I asked.
"Oh, them. Yes, you think rightly. We'll look for an uninhabited system. If we're lucky, there will be some void monsters to clear out there. The best unoccupied worlds are always guarded by ferocious A-Grade void monsters. Perhaps we'll get lucky and be able to slay two demons with one arrow." The Goddess in Jade frowned, seemingly having forgotten all about her followers until I brought them up.

Normally, A-Grades were supposed to have perfect memory, but she had taken a lot of attacks during that fight with Vayly Vaust, some of which were probably to the head. I could understand letting less important things slip for a bit after something like that.

And so we set off. I debated telling the Goddess in Jade about Seraphyne sleeping in her quarters in a hidden corner of the ship and went back and forth on the idea several times. The Goddess in Jade would most certainly deal with her one way or another. The cultivators and the creators of the System were ancient enemies, after all.

But again, finding a completely helpless woman, stealing her ship, and then killing her off was a little too cold-blooded for my tastes. Besides, if she could be reasoned with, she would be an incredible source of knowledge in the future once I reached the peak of A-Grade and was unable to progress further with the System as it stood. Just studying the modifications she'd made to her own attachments to the System would be of incredible value.

The Goddess in Jade made no secret about wanting to win me over to the side of the cultivators. But I wasn't sure I was ruthless enough to live as they do. This sleeping A-Grade could be my only ticket to forging my own path.

In the end, indecision won out. If Seraphyne showed any signs of waking before I was ready to deal with her, I'd immediately turn her over to the Goddess in Jade. If not, I would wait until I was powerful enough to deal with her on equal footing. I could always change my mind later if I chose to do nothing for now, but once I told the Goddess in Jade, things would be out of my hands.

"I haven't fully explored this ship. Be careful going into rooms. I've been putting 'keep out' signs in front of malfunctioning rooms."

"This is a remarkable ship you found. It's of heretic make, but I believe it is one of their legacy vessels. They no longer have the artistry required to make something like this." She looked around, fingers running along ancient consoles and equipment.

"Can you believe I bought it for pocket change at a scrap yard? The owner didn't even know what it was." I chuckled.

"I believe I know how to use the navigational equipment. Allow me to chart a course," the Goddess in Jade said.

At her skilled touch, dormant consoles lit up. A holographic orrery of nearby space appeared, with certain parts flashing red. Some of the red dots were moving.

"We're in luck. This ship is well equipped for dealing with void monsters. I think this one is on your list." The Goddess in Jade twisted her hands in the air and zoomed in on one sector of space, then showed me how to repeat the feat myself through a series of mana manipulations.

Despite diverging from the Architects some time ago, the cultivators must not have lost their taste for good user interfaces. It turned out the Goddess in Jade was able to operate most of the modules on the deck in a similar fashion, though she hadn't the slightest idea how any of them worked.

"Many ancient devices like these are still in service today within the heart of the Eternal Spring Sect. Though we can no longer build new ones, those that still function are cherished," the Goddess in Jade explained.

I suspected the instrument that could spot void monsters from afar would be invaluable to a high-level cultivator on on its own. With anyone else, I'd be worried about them taking it, but the Goddess in Jade displayed no covetous thoughts.

Eventually, we approached the monster that the Goddess in Jade identified. It swam around an eerily empty star system. The star drifted alone, surrounded only by small clumps of asteroids drifting together through the void. The only thing left was a single rocky planet drifting in an eccentric orbit around the star.

"Do you see it?" I asked.

The Goddess in Jade frowned. "The instruments say it is right here."

It was at that moment that the planet turned to regard us, and I realized it wasn't a planet at all.

A rocky shell surrounded an enormous creature covered in both spines and tendrils. An eyestalk projected from a deep crevice on the planet's surface that I'd previously thought was an asteroid crater. A beady yellow dot locked onto us, and I felt a sense of primordial terror flow through me.

Mimiko and Hyacinth were both flung to the far wall. Mimiko coughed a mouthful of blood, and Hyacinth wiped blood dripping from her eyes.

"Stay with the ship. I'll keep its attention."

The Goddess in Jade teleported outside the ship in the blink of an eye. A slender sword made of crystalline jade appeared in her hand, and her fingers flickered until a small domino-shaped piece of stone flew from her hand. I didn't even realize it was a talisman until it was flying at near light speed toward the enormous planet-sized void monster.

What followed must have been an explosion on par with a nuclear bomb, but against so vast a creature it hardly seemed to do anything at all besides get its attention.

I looked outside and got a chance to see the thing.

Juvenile Cutholoid Planet-Eater (Level 652)

I cursed, realizing this thing was stronger than the damn Chaos Wolf. I turned the ship's guns on the beast and activated the weapons I'd figured out the ship had.

Two huge laser beams shot through the void and scoured a pair of twin trenches across the surface of the Cutholoid, but that was far from enough. Most of its back was the hollowed-out shell of a planet, and getting through that much rock would be next to impossible with the caliber of weapons I was working with. There had to be something bigger.

"Mimiko, take the controls. Hyacinth, search for guns somewhere," I shouted.

The two of them pulled themselves off the floor and rushed to the controls. Mimiko had experimented with piloting once already on the way to our meeting, and she took over quickly and started to circle around to the other side of the monster.

"Look for any big craters we can shoot into. This big thing will be more vulnerable if we can get past its rocky shell."

Eventually, Mimiko spotted something, and I rushed to the weapons station alongside Hyacinth, where I activated the mining cannon I'd found earlier. A flash of energy shot from the ship, triggering a huge burst of Earth mana. The energy beam shot straight through the hole and into the great beast's side.

That finally had an effect, and we tore a bloody gash in the side of the monstrous creature as a whole chunk of its shell exploded.

Meanwhile, the Goddess in Jade had been probing the enemy and keeping its attention. She seemed so small compared to the enormous Cutholoid, but when it whipped a tentacle the size of a city at her, she whipped her dainty sword around and projected a far larger version of it before her. The sword flickered into existence for just a moment, but that was enough to sever the tentacle in a single blow.

"Take cover, it's going to look at us again!" I warned as a second eyestalk emerged from the planet-sized shell and scanned space for us. I rushed to the warp button and tapped it for just a moment. We entered warp space, then vanished a second later on the other side of the systemIt had lost sight of us when we vanished, and under my direction, we performed another strafing run with the mining cannon.

We repeated this series of attacks for nearly an hour. If we'd been alone, we'd have had no choice but to flee. Thankfully, the Goddess in Jade was doing the bulk of the fighting and keeping its attention. I got the impression she could have slain the void monster already but was waiting for me to kill it so it would count toward my quest.

It was a brutal fight, but besides that opening attack I felt like the Goddess in Jade had things under control. Toward the end of the fight, I left the spaceship just as Mimiko flew by an open wound. I activated Secrets of the Unseen alongside Mana Arsenal. That strange, unknown form of mana flooded my body again and gathered in massive quantities. I'd been charging this spell to maximum power for nearly an hour.

It filled the void with a bright flash as I released the majority of my mana all at once. Like a lance through the heart, it shot straight from one wound on the side of the planet-sized creature and out its beak-like mouth at the front. The Cutholoid let out a shuddering gasp, but I didn't celebrate until I received the System notification.

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

I returned to the spaceship, and the Goddess in Jade joined us a short time later. She stopped by the bathroom first to clean off, then, once changed, joined us to celebrate.

"Well done, Carter. Truthfully, I was hoping to see that same attack you used on Vayly Vaust. But that beam attack worked well enough," the Goddess in Jade said.

"That's not something I can do regularly." I chuckled. Truthfully, that attack had been the System using my body, not me.

"Of course. But now let's watch the corpse. These planet-sized monsters often die quite beautifully." The Goddess in Jade pointed to the front of the ship, where we gathered to watch the Cutholoid stop twitching.

The moment it went still, its body turned to black smoke, like cosmic dust. The dust filled in the gaping holes in its planet-sized shell. It shifted and twisted until it was bigger and rounder, then eventually started changing color.

The inky black blood smeared across the world's surface turned bright blue, and its broken flesh aged and rotted away. At first I thought mold was growing on it as it turned dark green, but then I looked closer and realized they were countless shrubs and trees.

Within minutes, the transformation was complete. What had once been a horrible space monster was now a life-bearing gem of a planet.

"Beautiful, is it not? Many habitable planets in mundane space are the result of battles like the one we just experienced." The Goddess in Jade smiled as she saw the wonder on my face.

"How? Why?" I asked with surprise. There had to be some sort of magical effect. It was like time had shifted for the monster after it was slain, and billions of years had happened over the span of minutes. It was an incredible transformation, and not something that should have been possible.

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

I realized witnessing this was probably why the System wanted me to kill one of these things, and from the feeling in my gut, I'd need to see it at least twice more to make any sense of what had just happened.

"Looks like we've found a habitable planet. Let's set my faithful followers down as colonists," the Goddess in Jade suggested.

"Is that safe?" I asked.

She shrugged. "As safe as any A-Grade corpse can be. Come on, let's go."

<Note>

I just looked at the chapter count for the first time in a while. Man, we're already at chapter 57? I thought I had at least 50 chapters left to go. Well, I guess it just means there's plenty of content to save for book 7. Still, I should try to sneak in a few more three- or four-scene chapters so we get a bit further down Carter’s timeline before the end of the book. We will end the book at what I originally thought was going to be roughly the 60% mark.