Amazon Apocalypse 6: Chapter 18

I dropped Frank off back in Crownhill. Bridget and Sakura stayed up late waiting for me. Sakura was reading a travel guide on Onibushi, while Bridget was taking another look at that parenting book. She had her shirt up as she rested on the couch, and music played lightly in the background.

I sat down between the two of them, gave each a kiss and then ran a hand along Bridget’s exposed stomach.

“Is that a baby bump I see?” I teased.

Bridget pulled her shirt down. “No, I think I’m just sampling too many pastries while cooking and not getting enough adventuring to compensate.”

“I don’t know. Looks like one to me.” I gave her stomach a pat.

“The book says it’s way too early for that.” Bridget gestured to the book she was holding.

I chuckled and planted another kiss on her cheek. “Don’t believe everything you read. Anyway, Sakura, still planning that trip?”

“I’m looking at a travel guide I had Thulga send over. There is a sizable Miyamoto Clan on Onibushi. I bet my father is there. Maybe the rest of my family too.”

I kissed her on the cheek again as well. “We’ll make the trip as soon as things are stable here. Something came up recently, and I’m concerned about the number of B-Grades another pair of shards have. I just need to confirm a few things and maybe wait until Myrina and Cyra are here. Perhaps Reluna and Mimiko as well. Once Crownhill is secure, I’ll feel safe enough for another trip abroad with you.”

“Promise?” Sakura asked.

“Promise.”

I told Bridget and Sakura what I’d been up to with Frank and all about the Sages of Camlaan, as well as the Dark Sorceress I’d captured. She would need to be interrogated, either by me or someone else. I’d prefer a wiling captive, though, because what I really needed now was to feel out her faction the same way I had the Sages of Camlaan.

They were the last piece of the puzzle for this stage of the integration. Once I knew who all the players were, I could stop worrying about unknowns and start figuring out how to solve the problems we had.

But as Bridget and Sakura both returned my kisses in kind, I figured that could wait for tomorrow.

***

After a long night with little sleep, I left to see Terrance and the dungeons again.

He was telling some new guys about the deal and if they wanted to sign up for it. I hadn’t realized we were having many arrests lately, let alone convictions. I asked him about it as soon as he was free.

“Oh yeah, we’re getting a steady trickle of new troublemakers all the time. About half of them are willing to work off their debt to society fighting on the front lines,” Terrance said.

“Where? I haven’t seen any arrests.” I frowned, staring at the people in cells. They all looked pretty normal to me. Nothing like the crazed troll-orb-addicted swamp people or the former convicts-turned-killers we’d dealt with in the past.

“Oh, all over. When Frank and the other adventurers turn up at a newly discovered human survivor group, about a third of the time, the place has been taken over by some band of psycho killers with unconventional ideas about slavery or the age of consent. The adventurers deal with the worst of the lot in more permanent fashion, but collaborators get a traditional sentence once the evidence is brought to court here in Crownhill.”

“I guess once people realize it’s the end of the world, they don’t think their crimes will ever be held against them.” I shrugged, slightly disappointed in my fellow humans. Still, the fact that two-thirds of people didn’t go nuts and held it together had to be worth something. And we hadn’t even met the most successful settlements yet, since they would have made it further into the integration.

“Good work. Show these guys that civilization isn’t dead yet. As word spreads, maybe we can scare some of the survivor camps we’d found straight before we even have to deal with them.” I shrugged.

Terrance grinned, eyebrows raised. “And if we don’t, the Chain Brigade will be ready to do whatever it takes to keep these lands safe.”

After walking me past a few rows of fresh convicts, Frank brought me to one of the better cells toward the end of the facility. There, the Dark Sorceress sat in a chair, legs crossed on the seat as she stared at a wall and waited with her hands cuffed in front of her. If she still had access to her cultivation, she could have snapped them like twigs, but after draining her dantian, she was considerably weaker.

“I had her moved to this cell. It wouldn’t do for you to walk down the female inmate aisle,” Terrance explained.

“They hate me that much?” I asked.

Terrance chuckled. “I wouldn’t say hate. I’ve got this big portrait of you and I tell the girls... well it’s not important. Go on and get some answers out of that goth chick in there.”

Terrance went to open the cell door, but I waved him off and bypassed it by stepping through the Shadow Realm. The Dark Sorceress glanced at the table one moment, and the next time she looked up, the empty seat was filled by me, arms crossed and looking like I’d been staring her down for who knew how long.

“I trust you understand your current predicament now?” I asked.

The Dark Sorceress blinked in surprise, nearly falling from her chair at my sudden appearance.

“W-what? How?” she stuttered.

“Let’s stick to me asking questions and you answering them. First, I’m going to need a name.”

“Mine? Uh... they call me Liliana,” she said. She seemed considerably less sure of herself than she had the other day, but she’d had a lot of time to cool off since then and realized just what kind of trouble she was in.

“Don’t worry, I’m not going to hurt you, Liliana. I much prefer the carrot over the stick. I assume you’re smarting over those lost levels of yours?”

Liliana nodded, and I withdrew a spirit stone and dangled it in front of her.

“All that was lost can be regained, and then some. All I need from you is a little help here and there.”

The stone caught her eyes, and I recognized the same look of ravenous interest I’d seen on Mimiko’s face not long ago. This was familiar territory to me and I settled in for a good, long chat.

***

As I worked on Liliana, I realized I’d gotten better at this. At first I thought Liliana was just ready to jump ship, but upon further questioning she seemed much more loyal to her order than Mimiko had been to the Black Beast Sect.

Within an hour, she was telling me everything she knew, starting with who her organization was, who the major players were, where they were located, and what their plans were going forward. Liliana summarized it all for me when we were done.

“The Order of Sorcery was founded when one of the Sages of Camlaan unearthed what we now realize was an ancient long-range communication device. It took years of study for him to realize that the blinking light was a pattern and, from there, translate the pattern into language.

“That initial communication eventually led to a meeting with a group of rogue cultivators who taught our founders the error of their ways. The ancestors the Sages of Camlaan revere were nothing but cowards fleeing like beaten dogs when the fighting grew too fierce.

“Worse, they clung desperately to heretical technologies, chief among them the System node buried deep within our ancestor’s arc. If we capture the capital city and deliver the System node to our benefactors, they will accept us into their ranks as peers, and our world can rise from the dustbin of history.”

Liliana seemed invigorated by her own speech, and some of the fire returned to her eyes, at least until she remembered she was handcuffed and captured. When that realization struck, her shoulders slumped again.

I chuckled. “At least, that was your plan before the integration. Now that you’ve been integrated, you realize the cultivators will never take you in. They abhor any and all connections to the System. Something about corrupting the soul. They’re a very spiritual people.”

“That’s... a good point.” Liliana’s shoulders slumped.

“So the Order of Sorcery’s entire purpose is moot point now. Seems to me like you should give it up.” I raised an eyebrow questioningly.

Liliana shook her head. “We’ve been fighting too long and too hard. This is all the elders of our order know. I lost two brothers and my grandfather fighting the Sages. I almost lost my father, too. This is about more than making a future for our world now.”

I rummaged around in my bag as we spoke and eventually came up with my secret weapon, my Stylish Sunglasses. Upgraded to B-Grade, they were probably the strongest charisma-scaling item on multiple planets. I put them on and smiled warmly at Liliana.

“And what do you think? What’s the future you want for your people, Liliana?”

“I want to defeat the Sages of Camlaan. It might be a bit bloodier than I’d like, but they must pay for what they’ve done. Except... I’m not sure my father and the others are going about it in the best way. Our Dark Knights are ruthless cutthroats, not the heroic peacekeepers we need. It’s only to be expected when you recruit bandits and lowlifes, but...”

Her voice trailed off as I slowly amped up the effects of my skills, and her eyes went distant like she was being hypnotized by my gaze. I had Diplomat’s Charm running at full throttle, but most of the charisma bonuses I was exploiting were coming from my Instrument of Fate Signature Skill.

“I think what you need is a partner. Someone to give you more leverage in your organization,” I said.

“A partner? I... yeah, maybe that would be good,” Liliana nodded along, drooling a little as she stared into my sunglass-shrouded eyes.

“A partner who can give you very good advice to help keep you out of trouble and bail you out when things go wrong. Someone strong, smart, and who gives very good advice you would be wise to listen to.”

“I need a smart and strong partner to tell me what to do,” Liliana said.

I nodded, smiling happily. “You’re a smart one, Liliana. Tell you what, I think I’m going to let you go. I don’t care about your little civil war with the Sages of Camlaan. I just don’t want your people messing with mine. Feel free to carry that message home with you.”

“That’s a good idea.” Liliana nodded her head slowly.

I wasn’t sure what a small army of Dark Knights was worth to the Order of Sorcery, but after going over what happened a few times with Liliana, she started believing in a record of events that wasn’t entirely accurate but made Crownhill look very reasonable to anyone who heard it. No doubt some of the knights Frank fought off had already returned to share a different story, but they only knew Frank, not me. There was no proof Frank had been acting officially.

This was a bit of a risky ploy on my part, but it was the best plan I could think of on short notice to keep the Order of Sorcery from sucker-punching Crownhill while we were busy with something else. I needed to establish a line of communication with them. And Liliana was that line.

I repaired her cultivation for her, and she began regaining levels rapidly. No doubt she’d be far less susceptible to mental influence like the kind I’d just worked on her once her level had returned to B-Grade, but now the seeds had been planted and I planned on treating her well so long as she continued proving to be a useful pawn in my schemes.

I patted her head a few times once we finished and she was a drooling mess. “I’ll let you pull yourself together and see you off myself.”

I left the room and immediately started rubbing my hands together. Who was I going to foist this project off on? Kyle? Marcus? Both of them were young and ambitious. I might have to guide their hands a little, but as long as I set things up right I was pretty sure I could guide them to wrap this young woman around their finger.

I could already see myself kicking back at home I stuck one of them with the job of making sure the Order of Sorcery didn't cause problems for Crownhill. It would probably even be a good experience for either of them in the long run. I just needed to make sure I set up the right introduction for them.

***

The next day, Liliana was much recovered. I returned to her with everything she'd need to make it home safely and tell everyone the lord of Crownhill had generously released her. Her people would come to think that I wished for nothing but peace between our peoples, which was close enough to the truth as long as they didn't start causing trouble for us.

“Here, don’t forget your gifts!” I said, handing Liliana a bag of holding. It was filled with food and some decent cultivation supplies. The bag had been on the body of one of the many Black Beast Sect elders I’d killed. I had a practically endless supply of cultivator goodies thanks to the crusade on Ladwick.

“Thanks so much, Emperor Carter!” Liliana said. Her smile at me was warm, genuine, and inviting. It seemed like a complete inversion of the haughty and angry persona I’d first encountered. But I was someone who’d read Ted’s book. Precious few men had the kind of insight ‘Interpreting the Fairer Sex’ could provide.

“Guards, let her through.” I waved to the guards, one of which was Terrance himself. They let Liliana go and she wandered out of Crownhill County Prison and off into the wilderness beyond it. I waited until she was nearly out of sight.

“You’re really just going to let her go? That’s an enemy B-Grade.” Terrance looked at me nervously.

I chuckled. “I’m not just going to let her go. I’m following her home. Hold down the fort for me while I’m gone. This shouldn’t take too long.”

I soon came to regret those words.

I had hoped that this would be a short trip, but it soon became apparent that following Liliana was going to take me several days. I’d provided her a detailed map back to the city Frank had saved. She was glancing at that map quite frequently.

At first, I thought she was up to no good. She circled the same area several times and even came close to wandering into Crownhill proper a couple of times. I stared at the map from afar, wondering if she was scouting us out. But when she stumbled into the web of a giant spider for the second time, I had a better idea what was going on.

“Okay, that’s it. I’m lost.” Liliana let out a long breath and slumped back. Or at least as far back as she could while stuck in the web of a giant spider.

By this point, I’d already been following her for an entire day and a half, taking a break at night to return home before flying out for another sixteen hour shift of following this girl who hadn’t the faintest clue how to read a map.

“This is going to take up my whole week, isn’t it?” I muttered to myself as I sat in a tree watching her struggle against the web. A big C-Grade spider monster was creeping up on her from behind. This wasn’t the first time some monster had gotten the better of the girl. I’d discretely taken out most of them so they'd stop slowing her down, though it hadn’t done me much good. Her sense of direction was aweful.

This just wasn't working. I had to try something new.

So I let the spider have its way with her and even helped it along a little. A stray gust of wind knocked the Liliana’s staff from her hand at just the wrong moment. A small burst of fire mana elsewhere brought a few other spiders scurrying in her direction. Soon, she was trapped in a web and surrounded.

I’d given her the time and mana stones to restore most of her cultivation, but not all of it, so she wasn’t quite B-Grade again. Not that she’d been a particularly good B-Grade fighter to begin with. A couple of C-Grade giant spiders were a threat to her at the best of times. Weakened as she was, these things might just finish her off.

So I wasn’t surprised to see a few moments later a few spiders were pinning her down and bundling her up like a fly. Soon, she’d be quite thoroughly trapped.

I was tempted to let her sit like that for a few hours while I got lunch as payback for all the waiting around she’d put me through. Unfortunately, these spiders seemed the venomous kind, and since I was dealing with a squishy mage, she probably wouldn’t be able to shrug off the venom easily. The last thing I wanted was for this trip to take even longer while I patched her up.

So this was as good an introduction as any. It was about time I showed off my new and improved Doomblade power armor anyway.

I snapped my fingers. Glyphs appeared around me, and suddenly black and gold armor took shape around my body. I felt a wide smile come over my face as the helmet settled over me, concealing my identity. There was something all too liberating about being anonymous. Besides, a spellcaster pretending to be a brutish warrior always tickled something deep down inside me.

“Unhand that fair maiden, foul creatures!” I said in my Doomblade voice.

<Note>

I've been waiting to see Doomblade again. I've always liked secret alternate identities.