Amazon Apocalypse 6: Chapter 12

"Paperwork?" Reluna asked, voice full of dismay.

"Come on, you love paper. You're always making talismans with it." I ran my fingers through Reluna's hair.

"It isn't the paper I have a problem with. It's the other part..." Reluna grumbled. But then she sighed, mustered her resolve, and nodded. "Alright, I'll look over everyone from the Nineteenth Legion. Just so you know, not everyone will sign on with you. Many of them gained a lot of levels during the crusade on Ladwick and have everything they need."

"But some will have nothing better to do now that the crusade is over. So why not keep working for their legate? To someone on campaign, there shouldn't be much difference between Ladwick and Crownhill. I'm sure you'll find plenty of recruits." I rubbed Reluna's head fondly while I reached into my satchel.

"Work..." Reluna gasped like she was dying, slumping at the mountain of papers I was stacking in front of her. Each was a file from my time as legate containing the name, history, and personal details of all the thousands of soldiers in the Nineteenth Legion.

"You'll have to update these first. I did everything up to when I put you ladies in charge and resigned as legate. That means going through and figuring out who was promoted, what their current pay and level is, what they're doing after the crusade, and making sure they'd be a good fit for us."

Reluna groaned again, clutching her heart. I laughed at the sight. I suspected I might get this reaction, so I'd prepared a secret weapon.

"I know it's boring, at least without your special artifacts to help you... erm... concentrate." My mind went back to the massage chair Reluna loved so much. Back in Crownhill, she'd done all the paperwork the settlement needed from it without complaint. Ever since leaving it behind, her productivity had been greatly diminished. Thankfully, I'd forseen this problem and prepared a little present.

"Yeah, I miss that chair..." Reluna sighed, but then she held her breath as she saw me rummaging through my satchel.

The bag opened wide, then wider still untill eventually her favorite chair reappeared in my hands, though now it sported a few additional enchantments.

"Behold! I call it the Productivity Enhancer 1000! I upgraded it specifically for you," I said, when presenting my invention to Reluna.

"Is that my chair?" Reluna asked, suddenly regaining all her lost energy and hopping up stright into it, exactly as I'd planned.

"It is your chair. But I took the liberty of making a few modifications to it."

The moment Reluna settled into the massage chair, several metal bars sprang out, binding her ankles in place, along with her left hand. A small table swung up from the side, and I moved the stack of papers into position.

"W-what?" Reluna yelpled as she squirmed against the bindings suddenly trapping her in place. It was useless though. I'd completely replaced the chair's frame with the new magical alloys I was experimenting with. Underneath the plush upolstry was two tons of a special mana-saturated tungsten alloy the System was classifying as adamantium.

The restraints were elysium, which based on my analysis of the samples we'd recovered from the dungeon on the world we were currently on, was an alloy often combined with equal parts platinum, iridium, and the kind of storm mana found in low-pressure zones.

The resulting alloy exhibited some mana-siphoning effects. If I could work the kinks out, it would be perfect for restraining enemy spellcasters.

Reluna's face flushed purple and she squirmed in her seat.

"I-I've been tricked! How marvelous..." she smiled from ear to ear, squirming against her bonds. Perhaps there were some kinks I didn't need to work out.

"The computer I've installed in this System is something only I can access, and it's programmed to recognize your biometric signature. It combines earth technology with Architect knowledge to read psychic and mana emenations in the kindling realm. Basically, the computer knows when you're working and when you're slacking off, and it will reward and punish you accordingly. Currently, it's set to maximize the amount of paperwork you're going to do for me."

"H-how long?" Reluna. The chair vibrated slightly, and she squirmed. When she picked up the quill on the table in front of her with her one free limb, the chair vibrated more.

"A few hours to a few days. It depends on how productive you are. Consider this a premptive reward for getting all this work done for me. If you do a good job, maybe I'll come up with more inventions like it in the future."

"Alright. I'll -- ah! I'll see who's interested and worth recruiting." Reluna bit back several moans as she spoke. The massage chair did a lot more than just massage now. Reluna didn't know it yet, but it was programmed to tease and deny her as long as it took for her to get her work done.

Seeing her working and biting her lip at the same time, I ruffled her hair again and left her to it.

Just like that, I would hopefully get a chunk of my army back ready for service on a distant world. I liked to pride myself on thinking outside of the box, but this solution to my expanding workload was really thinking in another dimension entirely. I would have to keep checking in on her remotely to make sure everything was working as intended, but I had a good feeling about my new productivity management device.

***

Once done with Reluna, I checked in with the others. I wasn't sure how many off-worlders the System would allow on our shard, but I wanted to be sure I could match every bit of reinforcements the oni might draw from Onibushi.

The only other thing I wanted was to make sure Cyra could come home with me. As a B-Grade, she should be at the upper limits of what the System would allow on our shard. She and I walked arm in arm through Sanctum and eventually to the portal I'd left open for my visit. There, she saw my home for the first time.

"So this is where you live?" Cyra asked, looking around at the castle walls that bore more than a little resemblance to Valkyrie's Watch, especially in the room I'd set aside for Cyra.

"Not just that. It's where we live." I hugged her and gave her a kiss on the cheek.

Cyra blushed. "I guess so. Though my mother and the ancestors won't be happy if I leave Valkyrie's Watch empty for too long. I'm not supposed to leave until we can hand off the place to our kids."

I felt a tingle run up my spine at that. First Bridget, now Cyra. There were more than a few little ones in my future. Maybe I shouldn't have stopped at building one nursury.

I showed Cyra her room, and she looked around. It was more an office than bedroom, since I knew from experience with Sakura, Reluna, Myrina, Bridget, and Mimiko that they needed somewhere to pile their stuff. Any actual sleeping would be done in the master bedroom.

"It's bigger than my room in Valkyrie's Watch," Cyra commented.

I chuckled. "You mean to say you still haven't moved into your mother's old room yet? You've been running the place for what? A year?"

Cyra blushed. "I've been busy. Besides, I spend half my time in the manor in Shadefall. And recently there's been the whole crusade..."

I chuckled again and gave her another peck on the cheek. "Well, that just means you don't need to bother with all that. Just move your stuff in here. I think it'll be nice. Between you and Myrina there'll be a Samhain branch family even bigger and better than the one Grandma Luthrin built on Glacia."

Cyra couldn't stay long. No one knew exactly how the System calculated how many foreign-born warriors could participate in an integration's battles, but we had some fear keeping her here took up slots that could be filled by a dozen C-Grade Amazonian warriors or Glacian wizards supporting my adventurers. But just having the option to bring her over if things went bad eased my worries about the future considerably.

I was sad to see her go, but settling a colony world was no easy feat. Besides, Cyra had a brother there she barely even knew, so I didn't want to take this time away from her. If I had my way, we'd have hundreds or even thousands of years to relax together once all this was said and done.

***

There was one last meeting I wanted to have before going home, only I wasn't sure if it would be easy to just drop in and chat with the God-King of Glacia.

I took a trip over to Glacia and approached the palace to try for an audience, but was stopped by the guards.

"None may pass," one of the guards said, metal clanking as they barred my way.

"Can I make an appointment or something?" I asked hopefully.

"His supreme emenince is attending to some extremely important godking buisness outside the palace. Both his whereabouts and the date of his return are unknown. As such, no appointments are availible," the guard said.

"Damn. Alright, thanks." I nodded to the guards and departed.

Personally, I prefered reception desks over having two guys with halberds standing in front of a gate, but that seemed to be the style across the Arcadia Multiverse. Perhaps after the integration was won and Earth was secure once more, we could spread the invention of clerks and secretaries.

I wasn't bothered by not getting a meeting with God-King Ted though. I usually did my shopping in Glacia or Shadefall. All the crafting I did, plus the aid I distributed in Crownhill, cost a lot of resources. And while my enchantment buisnesses were throwing off good coin I figured I might as well trade it in for useful stuff every chance I had.

Food hadn't been an issue for a long while, thanks to getting the Omikyr farms operational and supplied with tractors. Between that and the pocket realm meant for raising children reaching full production, we didn't even really need to loot abandoned grocery stores in the wilderness for food except for lost old-world delicacies like canned food.

That being said, one could never be too well supplied during a major conflict, and I had a hunch some of the human survivor groups we were going to be meeting would be far less well off than we were. So I bought a few odds and ends, as well as Bridget's usual order of magical milk and butter. Stuff like flour, beans, or other grains I could pick up from Themyscira at a much cheaper price.

Since I was shopping, I figure I ought to stop in and say hellow to Galbatorix. He was an old friend at this point, and he'd been the one to point me at the Dragon Lodge. I had to let him know I'd survived the crusade on Ladwick, and even picked up a few levels for it.

Beyond that, I also had my new collection of magical metals to show him. Old Earth produced metals of exceptional purity, and I'd kept that essence in mind even when crafting new alloys using magic. I wanted to give him a few samples and see how my Earth-made magical metals compared with what the Dragon Lodge was used to.

"Hey, Galbatorix? Guess who's back!" I said, rapping on the door.

"Come on in," said a voice I recognized, but which definitely wasn't Galbatorix's.

The man was bearded and wore the same sleepy expression Galbatorix usually did, but that was where the resemblance ended. The man behind the counter had a wild, unkempt beard, sleepless eyes, and the wild look of someone who'd slept behind bushes as often as beds.

I knew it was a disguse, because even with his messy clothes and beard, I still saw the man for who he was. This was the God-King of Glacia, the most powerful A-Grade on the planet.

And for some reason he was wearing an apron and sitting behind Galbatorix's cash register.

"Uh... Ted?" I asked, not concealing my surprise. It didn't seem appropriate to address him as his majesty, considering the setting.

"Come to keep your father-in-law company for a boring shift?" Ted asked, flipping through a book half-heartedly.

"Why are you here?" I couldn't help but ask.

Ted shrugged. "The old man asked me to cover a shift for him."

My mind flashed back to the gate guards and how they'd told me their supreme ruler was off doing important god-king stuff. Apparently, important god-king stuff included working a retail shift.

"But... why?" I asked.

"I had him help out moving a planet recently while I fought a big snake. It cost him a bunch of his clones, and he'd disappoint a lot of loyal customers if he had to shutter doors for a few weeks. So I'm returning the favor."

Ted shrugged, looking for all the world like a normal man. His level was the same as when I'd met him that first time and mistaken him for a homeless guy. Based on all my senses, he wasn't even level ten.

Someone came up to the counter, and I waited patiently while Ted haggled with them over trinkets worth bare coppers. As a powerful A-Grade, the man could buy this entire districit if he wanted to. Or destroy it with a single spell. It was a strange sight when I remembered the scene of him battling the Chaos Serpent in the skies above Ladwick.

I waited a few minutes for the other customer to leave before speaking with Ted again. When the store was clear, I spoke again.

"So, after I went all Chaos Dragon and started chasing the Chaos Wolf, what happened?" I asked.

"You got him good, I'll say that. I suspect you're curious about what Chaos Gods really are, aren't you? I won't pry into how the System slipped you one, but they are dangerous things. They tap into power beyond A-Grade," Ted explained.

"Beyond A-Grade? There's a level beyond it?" I asked curiously.

Ted leaned forward and nodded. "The cultivators call it Ascension. We call it S-Grade. In essence, it is simply a step beyond A-Grade. Only the creators of the System never quite managed to figure out how it works, at least for most of us. As a result, those of us who've reached the System's level cap must look elsewhere for further power. For a long time, the Chaos God titles were a subject of great interest to my comrades of the upper reaches of the Dragon Lodge. Abandoning that path caused quite the schism with the man you know as the Chaos Serpent. Alas, the Chaos God titles are not as reliable as we'd like. Originally, they were only supposed to go to members of the Architect race affiliated with System expansion and development, but now that the few remaining Architect families are both fractured and corrupt, what little emergent conciousness still remains governing the distributed System nodes distributes them to anyone suitible."

"And it picked me?" I pointed at myself.

"Indeed."

A level beyond A-Grade sounded intriguing, though decades or even centuries off for me, who hadn't even entered A-Grade yet. The way Ted spoke of the Chaos God titles lined up with most of what I'd heard from the Goddess in Jade, though she'd never tied it to the Architects' efforts to build another realm of power beyond A-Grade.

"What do you think I should do?" I asked.

Ted shrugged. "Whever you want, in truth. There is power there, to be sure. Though if I were you, I would keep it sealed. As you've no doubt already experienced, the mental effects of the title are quite powerful. I would look into aquiring another Potion of Absolution or something like it in case you ever need to activate the title again."

I grimaced, and my mind flashed back to that glimpse of scales I'd seen just after the tentacle monster incident. "Perhaps. Truthfully, I'm not sure even that will stop it. Perhaps I was imagining it, but more than once I've sworn I've seen flashes of scales on the backs of my hands."

Ted shrugged. "It could be a Chaos Dragon title manifestation. On the other hand, it could simply be ordinary draconification and nothing to worry about. Just keep an eye on it. I will keep an eye out for a spare Potion of Absolution for you, though they are seldom ever sold, and I want one to replenish my own emergency stash first."

"Of course, thanks for keeping me in mind, father-in-law." I smiled, turned to leave. Ted had been surpisingly fine with my whole Chaos Dragon problem. I was pleasantly relieved.

I doubled back when I remembered the whole reason I'd swung by Galbatorix's shop to begin with and presented Ted with my magical alloy samples. He seemed interested, though not as interested as Galbatorix likely would have been.

"Just pass those samples around. They're hopefully a bit better than the magical alloys you're used to. I'm still refining the recipie, but it uses good stock metals and I'm hoping you guys find uses for them," I explained.

"Ah, so you're Galbatorix's secret supplier of exceptionally pure metals. Impressive work, young man. Mundane metals can only handle so much power. If you can produce something as pure as the copper you've provided in elysium or mythril, even I might be interested." Ted ran his fingers through his loose beard.

After, we parted ways, and I returned home to Earth.

<Note>

If it feels like Reluna's chair thing came out of nowhere, it's because I edited in a few paragraphs of Carter coming up with the idea back in chapter 7 during one of his earlier crafting sessions.

I've been touching up the previous chapters, since drafting is going a bit slower than I'd like as I puzzle through some stuff. I will probably quietly update them, but I'll let you guys know in these notes if there are any major changes.

Also, I think I'm forgetting something I wanted Carter to talk with Ted about, but it's not coming to mind. I'll probably just edit it in if I remember what it is.