Amazon Apocalypse 5: Chapter 63

The next several rescue missions went far more smoothly than before. I ended up asking the Goddess in Jade for multiple coordinates at a time, that way I could get a whole assembly line going. First, I showed up and did the whole divine shock and awe thing.

Usually, this meant a few big illusions followed by a sermon or two. At first, I was mostly plagiarizing Jonathan Edwards’ Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God, but I switched it up occasionally with some lectures on the Dharma or Teshuvah. I never thought I was religious before the integration, but maybe I was wrong considering how many of these bits and pieces kept popping into my head.

I blamed my intelligence stat. As I kept leveling it up, my memory kept getting better in odd ways. I wasn’t sure if I could be considered any smarter since the integration, but I sure as hell could be dumb a lot faster.

After the big illusions and the speeches, the second thing I would do was chat with the local leadership. The uncooperative ones got a much more personal scare, while the friendly ones who recognized my title annointing me as a divine emmisary got a much more friendly and truthful explanation of what was going on.

“B-but holy saint, we can’t abandon our fields. We have spent generations blessing this barren earth to fertility. If we leave, we will have to start all over again.” He was an old man, stooped and bearded as he walked with a cane and stared up at me with wizened old eyes.

“Young man,” I began, mostly to mess with him, but I also wanted to imply that I was far older than I seemed. That was usually true for powerful people throughout the Arcadia Multiverse, so it wouldn’t exactly be leading him astray, even if it was technically a lie. “What makes the soil fertile?”

“Surely, it is our years of prayer and dedication to the Goddess in Jade. Each year, we sift the dung of our beasts into the soil and say a prayer. The holy dung festival blesses our waste and enriches the soil through divine power,” the old man said.

“Indeed, that is truly a powerful ritual. But what if I told you of one even greater? One involving the dung of bats?”

“Bat dung?” the old man asked.

“Indeed. Learn well the following ritual and your new fields shall grow crops greater than any you’ve ever imagined...”

I taught the old man how to make fertilizer while we walked. By the end, he seemed at least interested in the idea, and he gathered his following up where I’d indicated. Once Mimiko gave me the all-clear signal, I opened up Sanctum, and we started funneling people through.

From then on, we entered the third stage of our rescue opperations, where Mimiko could take over completely. She hearded people in while Sakura’s administrators got them settled into housing units and Bridget’s chefs kept them fed. Meanwhile, I’d be off redoing the shock and awe routine on a new world getting the ball rolling there.

All in all, the holy saint felt less like me doing something and more like acting out a role based on what I thought a holy saint might act. That made the whole thing a lot more tolerable to me, someone who generally preferred free thought and letting people think for themselves.

The only issue I was afraid of was how the various refugees I’d kidnapped might interact if they saw one another.

At first, we’d been keeping most of the refugee groups separate. All of them were from entirely different species, let alone societies. Nor did they speak the same language, since none of them were lucky enough to get a Forerunner title like what I had. Unfortuantely, we didn’t quite have the manpower to keep people from wandering, and eventually people from two groups bumped into one another.

Fortunately, that turned out to be an unnecessary precaution. The Goddess in Jade had at least done a good job instilling a unified system of values in all her people, and she’d even taught a few basics of her own language in the cultivator’s tongue to the various people who worshiped her. As a result, the high priests could talk with one another, at least a little.

There was naturally a bit of screaming as a result of the alien encounter, but not nearly as much as I thought. All in all, both groups seemed relatively accepting of the other, even when minor differences in their respective faiths came up.

Still, I kept a close eye on them to make sure no conflicts broke out. While I kept an eye on the refugees settling in, I looked over my rewards from the Goddess in Jade. So far, I’d turned in three batches of refugees and gotten another three prizes.

Apocalypse Dragon Bone (Legendary)

This rare bone once made up a rib of a mighty A-Grade cosmic dragon. These mighty dragons traversed the void, bringing ruin to world after world. They are some of the most powerful users of void magic.

I’d chosen this bone because it shared some resemblance to my first Signature Skill, Incarnation of the Apocalypse Dragon. As best I could tell, the dragon bone was made of incredibly dense and tough exotic matter, like the sort of stuff humanity envisioned only being possible within the core of a star. Somehow, Apocalypse Dragons had evolved to grow their bones out of it.

The bone made my toughest steel look as weak as wet clay, and it went right through an ordinary breastplate without any resistance. Only my new cultivator robes had any chance of stopping a weapon made from this thing.

I hoped I’d eventually be able to make a sword out of it. It was a little big for me, but I could either whittle it down or make something for Doomblade.

On the Manipulation of the Soul, Volume 1 (Legendary)

This book contains an introduction to soul information by a cultivator named Daoist Everlasting Torment, who became famous for capturing the souls of his enemies and trapping them in a horrific illusion where they were a powerless mortal and forced to do menial labor at low wages to survive.

Mystic Realm Mana Signature Collection (Legendary)

This collection of unique mana signatures can be used to rapidly upgrade a mystic realm’s size or time dilation effects.

The other things I’d requested were a book on soul magic since the Goddess in Jade seemed so good at it, and another set of upgrades for Sanctum. B-Grade monsters were lurking in the wilderness now, and I probably could have cleared them out, but at the moment, it was easier to just expand the habitable space in the middle, giving the refugees more room to wander without danger.

Besides, this mystic realm was proving pretty useful, and I figured in the long run, making it as powerful as possible would help.

I sensed Mimiko approaching from the side. She had her hands folded and watched me quietly while I studied the artifacts. She would stand like that for hours until I turned to her and took notice. Cultivator culture demanded that kind of respect from cultivators of lower realms to those of higher realms, but I was slowly nudging her toward being more direct.

So without acknowledging her so she could speak, I turned, scooped her up, and set her down in my lap, then went back to examining my items. She remained silent, though it was clearly more of a struggle now. Despite my best efforts, eventually, I broke first.

“Alright, fine, what is it you wanted to tell me?” I asked.

“My lord...” Mimiko began, but I raised an eyebrow and waited for her to begin again.

“C-Carter?” she said, and I nodded for her to continue. “Carter, the refugees are settled. We can deliver this load to the Goddess in Jade.”

“Fantastic news. Tell me, and be honest, is there anything you might want from the Goddess in Jade? I don’t want to hoard all the prizes for myself.”

Mimiko bit her lip, and I laughed a little internally. The answer was an obvious yes. No doubt there were a million things a powerful A-Grade cultivator could do for someone at the cultivator equivalent of C-Grade, like Mimiko. Unfortunately, Mimiko had yet to figure out how to stay conscious when in the Goddess in Jade’s presence, so any sort of training from her was out the window.

In the end, she settled on a few technique manuals she thought the Eternal Spring Sect might have that would be suitable for her. They were the kind of things she’d have to fight tooth-and-nail for in the Black Beast Sect, and now would be practically impossible to obtain now that she was living outside of cultivator space. She had the collection of technique manuals we’d raided from the various elders of the Black Beast Sect on Ladwick, but that had been a mismatched collection. This was something much more specific that she thought would fill holes in her repertoire.

***

Once done, we left to visit the Goddess in Jade again. The teleportation nearly failed, likely due to some unusual spatial fluctuation nearby. Thankfully, I corrected the issue as it occurred and prevented us from being dumped into empty space.

Once there, I immediately noticed something different about the Eternal Spring Sect. Before, they had looked like a small city going about their business, but now the activity around the portal had been redoubled.

“Halt! How did you get our teleportation coordinates?” demanded a powerful cultivator woman with a B-Grade level aura to her. The woman wore no veil, putting her charisma on full display. Despite her harsh words, there was an undeniable allure to her. A lesser man would be driven to answer all her questions with a clueless smile on his face.

The unveiled Eternal Spring Sect cultivator was a lower level than I was, but without a cap to her charisma stat imposed by the System, she possessed a level of beauty that was dangerous to look at.

Mimiko shrank back behind me, but I remained calm.

“Easy there, miss,” I waved my hands to calm her and her companions down. “I’m here by invitation of someone you probably know as Senior Sister Jade. I’m doing some tasks for her.”

“Senior Sister Jade left for battle late yesterday,” the cultivator said. She was still warry of us, especially now that I had shrugged off her glamor.

“Troublesome, but this was an ongoing task she had for me. Is Outer Disciple Hyacinth here? She would recognize the two of us.”

The women turned and whispered to one another, and eventually, they called to Hyacinth, who came hurrying to our side. From there, we were let into camp.

“Apologies, my task list has doubled ever since Senior Sister Jade left,” Hyacinth said.

“She’s off fighting then? You are truly battling the Vaust family for control of this region of space?” I asked curiously.

“I shall not answer that question,” Hyacinth replied.

I looked her up and down and noticed her hair seemed more frazzled than before. When I’d last seen her, she’d seemed more like an artist’s depiction of a woman than a living, breathing person. Now that her hair was slightly frazzled, her clothes a bit wrinkled, and she wore a worried crease between her brows, she seemed much more human.

I nodded silently at her words. No doubt the cultivators would be keeping their military maneuvers secret since I wasn’t one of them. But the lack of an answer was an answer on its own. The final battle was fast approaching. No doubt the System would contact me soon to finish what I’d started.

I once again traded refugees for rewards, and Hyacinth sent us on our way. She was clearly in a hurry, so we didn’t linger long. From the suspicious glares we received, I felt we weren’t welcome visitors in the Eternal Spring Sect’s camp.

I got several more items, including Mimiko’s new technique manuals. I also got a few rare crafting supplies that would let me make new weapons and armor for myself and my ladies. Perhaps I could dress up a few suits of Mark Two armor into something special for them, like the Feisty Redhead armor Myrina had worn for the tournament.

***

I teleported to the next set of worlds with Mimiko, and after the usual illusions and prophecy of doom, I set her to the task of rounding up the people there. She’d gotten good enough at it that she only needed my help for the most stubborn groups of refugees, and even then usually all I needed to do was flash my Supreme Holy Saint of the Goddess in Jade title to make their local high priests fall in line.

While she rounded people up, I returned to Ladwick to tell Reluna that things were happening and to redouble her efforts at warning Prince Herius. Only when I did, I discovered the legions already knew.

“What’s going on?” I asked Reluna.

“Prince Herius received a series of powerful A-Grade enchantments, and the legion is racing to set them all up. Your old legion is proving indispensable. Those of us who recognize the designs know it’s some sort of advanced single-use, large-volume teleportation system. I expect the God-King of Glacia plans to enlist the help of a few of his A-Grade wizard friends in the Dragon Lodge. Together, they will scoop this whole planet up and move it somewhere else.”

My mind went back to one of the things Prince Herius said when we first set out on campaign. He planned to take this world to rule if he could manage to liberate it. And by all accounts, he had. Good for him.

I had Reluna pass along a few messages to Cyra and Myrina instead, just in case. I wanted to check in with them before all this was said and done.

Unfortunately, Prince Herius’ current arrangement had them spread out on opposite ends of the planet. Thankfully, he was calling a meeting soon, and they’d both be there. Technically, it was legates only, but Reluna had enough connections that I knew the time and place to show up, where I could catch them both.

***

I grabbed them both in a warm embrace.

“Hey, you two. You get the presents I sent?” I asked.

“The creepy-looking ring? I did. What’s that thing do, anyway?” Cyra asked.

“It’s called a Probability Engine. And you don’t need to worry about it, it’s just supposed to help you get out of a sticky situation. What was your meeting about, anyway? Prince Herius preparing to leave?”

Cyra nodded. “He is. We’re all getting ready to take this world and get out of here. Our crusade is nearly over. From what he told us, we won this planet, but most other crusades failed. This whole region of space is in trouble. The local teleportation network is as active as it can get right now, and we’re flooding this planet with as many refugees from nearby worlds as possible. It’s the only life raft out of here for anyone below C-Grade.”

I nodded along. “I figured it was something like that.”

It seemed the Goddess in Jade wasn’t the only person eager to get as many of their people out as possible before everything went to shit. From everything I’d heard, the final A-Grade battle between the cultivators and Vaust family might be quite the show.

I chatted with them both a bit and passed along a few more hints that I’d be busy, and they should get back to Earth sooner rather than later.

***

We parted ways far sooner than I would have liked, and I caught up with Mimiko, who was dealing with more of the Goddess in Jade’s refugees. We got through another two worlds.

We were on our way to the Eternal Spring Sect’s military camp and were mentally preparing ourselves for another less-than-warm welcome when I finally received the notification I’d been waiting for.

New Quest Available: Free the System.

Complete a successful data transfer from the Vaust System Node to a new hub.

Reward: Ongoing aid from one System node.

You will be automatically teleported to the location of this quest at some point in the next 24 hours. Be prepared.


<Note>
We're closing in on the end of this book here. I'm writing 65 today, and I think that is either the end, or maybe a chapter off from the end, plus an epilogue.

I vaguely remember promising to do some shorts last book, which I pushed to this book due to running low on time. If you think of anything you guys want to see, let me know. I haven't decided what I'll do.