Amazon Apocalypse 6: Chapter 52

"Hell yeah, go get him, Sharky!" I let out a whoop of joy as the spell I'd been gathering dissipated. There was no need for it now. I'd never seen anyone survive once Sharky had them in his jaws. Maverik the Despoiler had come to the wrong planet.

The army of voidlings Sharky brought was just as valuable as his own arrival. The zombie army had us massively outnumbered, and though Sharky's horde couldn't quite match them, they were enough to make the undead turn and fight on two flanks.

Sharky made a quick pass over the walls, much to the terror of all my allies besides Sakura.

"Ahhh! First undead, now this thing? We're completely screwed!" someone shouted.
"Monster, monster! Heavens above, I've never seen such a terrifying monster!" another screamed.
"It ate that Maverik guy in one bite! Now it's going to eat the rest of us," yelled another.

I waved my hands and shouted back at them. "Everyone calm down. He's on our side. Sharky may be a bit scary, but he's very friendly once you get to know him."

Many eyes turned to look at me, all of them full of skepticism.

Looking at things from their perspective, I had to admit that the huge, hungry void leviathan definitely did not look like something I would consider friendly. Between the rows of teeth, the strange tentacles, and the obvious resemblance to an apex aquatic predator, I realized someone who didn't know Sharky's lovable nature might even consider him scary.

The terrifying bone-white army of chittering voidlings certainly wasn't helping either. Even from here, it was easy to see the agonized humanoid faces painted on every shell, and more than one claw or leg was actually a malformed human appendage. While I'd never say it where he could overhear, some of Sharky's creations were really quite hideous.

"Just trust me, he's on our side!" I insisted. "Sharky, go show 'em! Eat all the bad guys."

"Nom nom," Sharky replied in the affirmative. He circled overhead, and an armored figure dropped down. Reluna used the jet boosters on her power armor's feet to slow herself as she fell, and she did so with remarkable grace. Soon, she landed next to me.

Meanwhile, Sharky swept back over the battlefield, jaws open like an industrial shredder as he scoured the horde and turned entire rows of undead into mincemeat in an instant.

"Sorry we're late," Reluna said.
"What took you two so long?" I asked.
"Originally, there was supposed to be another wave of undead after this one. Sharky and I found the Priests of Undeath who raised this army from bags of corpses. They had a hundred thousand more ready to go," Reluna said.
"Damn. We can barely handle things as it is," I cursed, throwing off a few more spells into the horde to keep them from pushing through the breach and pouring mana into my Divine Seal to cover the gap while I prepared more spells.
"I said they had a few thousand more. Not anymore. Now the only one who's had anything is Sharky, and the only thing he's had is his appetizer," Reluna replied.
"Better, then. Listen, can you and Sakura hold this position? I want to take out those Priests of Undeath, and it'll be a lot easier if I'm not stuck here. Those guys with shields and swords can help you if needed, but they're pretty low level, so don't let them get overwhelmed," I instructed.
"Understood," Reluna said. I heard her breath hitch a little as the reward modules in her armor buzzed to life at my orders.

Then I went to the air. Once over the battlefield, I had a better view of the fight against the undead and the voidlings. The undead were superior in number, but that wasn't helping them against Sharky's spawn.

Each crab-like voidling had a hard shell and enough arms and claws to fight off ten times their number in undead. The voidlings were generally low level, albeit with some exceptions. And those exceptions were growing.

It seemed like with each undead the voidlings devoured, they grew larger and stronger. Some sprouted a third claw. Others grew more eyes. Some became faster, and others developed far stranger powers.

In the distance, I could see a voidling that seemed only half-present as it flickered in and out of this dimension. Each time it moved, it rematerialized in a different location. It grabbed its prey one at a time, dragged them off, and ate them before coming back for another. I noticed it mostly because it was hunting the same prey I was and grabbed more than one Priest of Undeath moments before I slew them.

I ignored it and flew to another corner of the battlefield. Now that I could use every mana bolt I generated to hunt specific prey, I was making short work of these guys. Perhaps I should have done this from the start, because once the Priests of Undeath were out of the picture, my afflictions started spreading normally again and were taking out large swaths of the undead army all at once. At this rate, I didn't even need the Divine Seal except for its passive effects.

My afflictions would have spread across the whole force if not for the remaining priests slowing and countering it. I found the work more tedious than terrifying, though I was certain the opposite was true for most of my draftees on the wall.

Putting the undead army down ended up taking most of the day, by which point I realized we had another problem I'd have to deal with. What were we going to do with all these voidlings?

They had only grown in number since the beginning of the battle, mostly thanks to Sharky's efforts. He'd acted more like a living vacuum cleaner than a combatant throughout the fight, and he and I together had wiped out roughly eighty-five percent of the undead army on our own.

While Sharky had some influence over the voidlings, that was only enough to drag them into battle, not actually lead them. Once they ran out of zombies to kill, they would start seeing the human settlement beyond the wall as a tasty snack.

I needed to take care of them by then, but how?

The answer came in the form of a System notification. Apparently, Myrina's Amazonian superstitions had more than a kernel of truth to them.

New Mandatory Quest Initiated!
You have slaughtered several hundred thousand enemies many levels weaker than yourself, dramatically altering the local political landscape and robbing lower-leveled individuals of much-needed combat experience.

Due to your high reputation with the System, this punishment quest has been greatly reduced in severity, but not eliminated.

To atone, you must assist local forces in gaining their lost combat experience. Several rifts leading to void space will appear and not close until you have produced at least 100 D-Grades and 1000 E-Grades. Thank you for your cooperation.

New Quest: Developing San Francisco
• Produce 1000 new E-Grades (710/1000)
• Produce 100 new D-Grades (85/100)
• Penalty for failure: You will be forcibly sent on another lengthy training quest.

I cursed at the realization that things weren't over yet thanks to the System's intervention. But then I realized the punishment quest wasn't such a punishment after all.

All the people who had already leveled up counted toward completion of the penalty quest, and giving the locals a few more levels was something I'd planned to do anyway.

But more importantly, the penalty quest triggered the opening of a void rift. We had a whole lot of void monsters at the moment, and there were far too many for us to get rid of.

Now though, with the help of the System, we didn't have to get rid of them. Instead of void monsters spilling into our reality, they were spilling out of it into the void. I was used to void portals sending monsters into our dimension, not the other way around. I watched that teleporting void creature vanish through the portal with more than a little relief. That thing could have phased right through the walls at any time if it had a mind to.

Soon, Sharky's horde of ravenous void monsters was much diminished, putting the few remaining zombies on more equal terms with them. Eventually, things were close to ending, and I rallied a thousand of San Francisco's ambitious, low-level people.

"There are still zombies and voidlings out there. If you're brave and bold, follow me out the gates to rout the last of them! I've got free gear for any who volunteer for the job, but know your life is in your own hands the moment you walk out those gates. Who's with me?"

Enough came to make clearing the area around the city light work. I saved about a hundred people from near-certain death while flying over the battlefield, which did a lot to boost my numbers. The punishment quest was over by the end of the day, much to my relief. It really could have been much worse for me if I hadn't been in the System's good graces.

***

The real work began after the battle was over and we were cleaning up. Suddenly, there was more work for my construction crews to handle. The need for the wall wasn't going to go away anytime soon, nor was the need to keep it running.

Thankfully, Kyle and a few other guards from Crownhill had come to help, along with the Red Torii Group's soldiers, and I assigned them to begin training officers from the new D-Grades who'd risen up from the masses during the battle.

Then, Nakano and I gathered up all the surviving corporation heads and finally got to that vote we'd been meaning to have regarding leadership of the Marketplace Collective.

"Given recent events, it is clear that there are traitors among the corporations. They must be rooted out. To that end, a new government shall be established here in San Francisco to administrate the process, and to ensure the walls are guarded and the streets maintained. All of your corporations shall be beholden to this new government, and yes, that will include paying taxes," I announced.

There was much grumbling among the corporations over that, especially when I started mentioning taxes. But the political winds had shifted since my arrival here. Half the corporations had been in league with undead or outright possessed by them, and those that remained were under tight scrutiny by a public that suddenly had the levels to do something about them.

No longer could large portions of survivors be shoved to the corners of society, and now the Marketplace Collective would be an organized political entity rather than a loose alliance of corporate interests.

I had no doubt the surviving corporations would still try to stick their noses where they didn't belong, but I wrote the local constitution as best I could to stifle their influence.

Setting up a new government also was what finally triggered the third stage of the integration to end for the city. It was probably the secret traitors among the corporations that had been preventing the integration from progressing further. It would be two weeks or so before the System expanded their land area, and but hopefully by then everyone would be on board with the way things would be done from now on.

Thanks to the vote, Nakano became chairman of the Marketplace Collective, but his position would be subordinate to the new office of mayor. From the look in his eyes, I suspected Nakano had eyes on that office as well. The election would still be a ways away though, and first he had to repay me for taking care of his problem by taking care of mine.

All in all, I found I was rather satisfied with my trip to San Francisco. We had another base of operations like we did in Shadefall and Mucaria. This one was a bit less developed, but we had more local pull politically, so things balanced out. Plus, we also had new recruiting grounds for Earthlings if we wanted to teleport more people over to Crownhill, or even have our people train elsewhere.

There was only one thing that was bothering me about my trip here. I hadn't noticed it until long after the battle, but those stubborn dragon scales had appeared on the back of my hand again. It probably happened just after I reached level 399 in both my race and class.

No doubt the scales had something to do with my suppressed Chaos Dragon title. And I was becoming increasingly certain that the title was what had been giving me a bad feeling about breaking through to A-Grade too early.

I took to wearing gloves for now, but I would need to deal with this little dragon issue sooner rather than later. To that end, I needed to figure out what rank-up quests the System had in store for me now that I finally had the chance to look.

A-Grade Rank-Up Quests

Quest: Master Forbidden Knowledge

• The secrets of certain void creatures have long eluded even the founders of the System. Several targets have been selected for you to hunt. Kill them and glean their secrets.

• Reward: Become founder of an unknown branch of magic, and gain an additional Signature Skill slot at A-Grade.

Quest: Master of Prophecy

• Prove your knowledge of fate by seeing an ancient prophecy through to realization.

• Reward: Your mastery and presence in fate will allow you to shroud yourself, letting you pass unnoticed on occasion instead of always drawing important events toward you.

The two quests the System had in store for me were both fairly straightforward. The System would probably find a way to use me as its errand boy for both of them, but that was alright as long as I was appropriately rewarded.

My Sage of Forbidden Knowledge quest seemed to be a basic hunt-and-kill, with perhaps the added task of studying the corpses of whatever it was the System wanted me to take out so I could study their magic. I wasn't sure how useful the new branch of magic would be, but the option for another Signature Skill would certainly be handy. The only concerning thing was that all the targets the System laid out for me were A-Grade, but I'd fought against long odds before. It seemed the System thought I could do so again.

The Master of Prophecy quest was a little harder to define. I wasn't sure what prophecy I was supposed to fulfill. The only one I knew of was the one with the Sages of Camlaan and their big old sword in the stone. I could save that for whenever I was ready. I'd leave that for last.

The reward would certainly be useful. I suspected the reason why San Francisco essentially collapsed during my short stay with them was all because of the weighty presence I had in fate. According to the Goddess in Jade, I was doomed to drag important events toward myself. Having the option not to might be handy from time to time. If a day came when this whole integration thing was over, I wanted to be able to take a peaceful vacation with my ladies without throwing entire planets into revolution or collapsing ancient societies left and right.

First, I'd handle the Forbidden Knowledge quest, then save Master of Prophecy for when I had my Chaos Dragon issue solved. For that, I'd need to know how to address it, and there were only two people I knew of who could handle something at that scale.

I'd already spoken with Ted about it, but maybe it was time I had another chat with the Goddess in Jade.

<Note>

I think we still need to have some time in Crownhill getting Nakano set up on his New Kyoto infiltration mission, but we will be seeing Jade again.

Also, there have actually been very few female PoV scenes this novel. I've wanted to do one of Eowyn, but it's tough to figure out where to put it. I may have to just add it in retroactively later, assuming she shows up this book and not next one.

Maybe I'll do a Goddess in Jade one soon, if it feels plot relevant. Looking in on her now with my magic author inter-dimensional spy glass, she's mostly just sitting around brooding thanks to failing to break through to the cultivator equivalent of S-Grade. But maybe she'll start thinking about Carter soon.