Amazon Apocalypse 5: Chapter 59

I accessed the Sanctum mystic realm at the first opportunity. Reluna and Mimiko followed behind me, and we toured the place, which was still largely in ruins from Elder Blackhand and the heretics’ climactic fight. I looked around, eying my surroundings.

The signs were faint, but somebody had definitely been here. They’d flown, so their tracks weren’t completely obvious except at the destroyed decoy System Planetary Hub. Someone had taken what little was left of the scrap that was lying around.

I wondered who’d come for it. Was it the heretics? The cultivators? The Vaust family?

Whoever it was, I soon confirmed that they hadn’t gotten the real prize. The true System Planetary Hub was still completely disassembled and scattered across the mystic realm.

“You ladies make yourselves comfortable. Maybe pick over my ruined tower here and see if there’s anything worth salvaging. I’m going to gather some stuff up. Afterward, I will hunt down some contractors and see if I can get them to build me a few shelters.”

I still had some time before my scheduled in-person meeting with the Goddess in Jade, but I needed to get this whole thing set up properly to receive refugees, then hold and feed them for however long it took me to get them wherever they needed to go.

And the Goddess in Jade wasn’t the only person I was working for. Once this Planetary Hub was reassembled, I suspected the System would want my help again. And the time to give that help was coming soon.

When the Goddess in Jade and the cultivators confronted Vayly Vaust in force, I’d have the opportunity to fulfill my other favor. If this all worked out as planned, I would hopefully be able to leverage my rewards for advantages that would pave a smooth path for the rest of the integration. Or maybe even my next few dozen centuries of life. I wasn’t sure how long B-Grades lived, but I was pretty sure I had a lot of time ahead of me. It might be nice to settle down for a few hundred years and finally give Bridget those kids she’d once asked about.

But all that was for later. And later wouldn’t come unless I finished what I came here to do in the here and now.

I gathered up all the Planetary Hub’s component pieces and verified that they were there. A small piece of housing was gone, likely taken by whoever was searching this mystic realm. But that was something I could easily replace, so I wasn’t upset about that. Actually, rebuilding the Planetary Hub would have to wait, though.

I reached into Morgathor’s Satchel, where I was keeping one of the presents the System had given me as a reward for my most recent integration. It was such a good fit for this project that I couldn’t help but feel like the System node that was my partner in crime in this little data-heist sent a message suggesting it as a reward. Maybe Lyra and my local System node received it in a box with my name on it, or something to that effect.

Would you like to bind this Mystic Realm Anchor to Sanctum?

Sanctum will increase significantly in level. This action can not be undone.

I affirmed my decision, and the Mystic Realm Anchor dissolved in a burst of light. A moment ago, the Mystic Realm Anchor had looked like a metal sphere, but when the light coalesced again, my hand was adorned by an unfamiliar ring.

The connection between the ring and the orb was obvious. Both glittered with the same metallic silvery color. But the connection between the ring and the Sanctum mystic realm was even more obvious. In the ring, there was an odd blue and green jewel sprinkled with bits of brown and gray. All in all, it would have been an odd and imperfect crystal, at least upon first inspection.

On looking closer, I saw the jewel was no jewel at all. It was a tiny porthole, and through it, I could see the entirety of the Sanctum Mystic Realm. All looked as I remembered from flying toward the upper edges of the mystic realm, though something strange was happening near the edges now.

“Carter, the walls around your mystic realm are flashing red,” Reluna said, tapping on my shoulder with more than a little urgency in her voice.

“Perhaps I should have done the upgrades from outside the mystic realm. Let’s get out of here!” I gestured, almost by reflex, and a portal opened up out of the Sanctum mystic realm. This anchor would be far more convenient than lugging around the big throne. And more importantly, it would streamline any travel through the mystic realm by providing a second exit.

I grabbed Mimiko to bring her out of the mystic realm, but she had already found the other exit.

“Many cultivator training events are held in collapsing mystic realms. If you don’t develop a sense for spatial instability, you die,” Mimiko explained.

I sat down on the throne and fiddled with Sanctum’s settings for a few minutes, going through upgrades.

1000 unique mana signatures have been added to your Mystic Realm.

Sanctum is transforming from a C-Grade Mystic Realm to a B-Grade Mystic Realm!

New monsters will spawn based on generated biomes. Monsters may now reach B-Grade.

Fragments will be randomly integrated. You may reorganize this process through your Realmlord menus.

You have mystic realm attribute points available to allocate toward additional land mass or improved time dilation.

I looked through Sanctum’s settings. The area was now an order of magnitude larger than before, roughly similar to the territory the Samhain main family occupied on Themyscira.

It was more than enough space for my purposes, so I ended up throwing all the remaining points to time dilation. That brought up Sanctum’s time dilation up to around twofold normal time. Eventually, I’d like to get the time dilation up even further, perhaps surpassing the time dilation effects of the Mucaria mystic realm. I could probably do that at the start of A-Grade if I was willing to keep Sanctum relatively small.

My mind went back to the small mystic realm I’d encountered Eowyn in, the princess in disguise as a prince. I’d freed her world from a Demon King and the influence of a chaos god. That had been a small mystic realm, smaller than Sanctum was now. But at twenty-five fold time dilation, there had to be some sort of trick going on to make time flow so fast.

Once the upgrades were finished, we packed up both anchors for the mystic realm and went into Mundwise, where I said hello to my old officers, who were surprised to see me.

“Asimi, what’s the status of the legion?”

“We’re combing the countryside for any cultivator holdouts, but the pagodas have left orbit. Any cultivators that survived are likely in deep hiding,” Asimi said with a salute.

“Good. You can tell Prince Herius I’ve returned, but I don’t think he needs me at the moment. You have things well in hand. Right now, I’m here as a private citizen to attend to the businesses my ladies left behind. That means the chefs and camp followers. Also, I had a construction crew around here somewhere. I assume they’re still available for work?”

Asimi pointed me in the direction of the construction crew, who were still in Mucaria, and more numerous than ever. After the portal back home had opened up, they’d brought more of their people over to take advantage of the crusade bonus and the high pay rate they could get working in a warzone.

“All our hard work, destroyed!” the crew manager said when he saw the state of the Mucaria mystic realm.

“It’s not so bad. The foundations are still there, as are most of the materials. I just need you guys to put things back together again,” I said.

The construction crew manager grumbled at that, but I was pretty sure it was just his way of haggling for higher pay. We soon settled on a deal, and repair work began.

After, I chatted with Bridget's chefs.

"I see you're not cooking as much for the legion. Why is that?" I asked Bridget's head chef.

"Now that the army has taken most of the world's remaining cities, there are plenty of out-of-work locals willing to cook for them. I'm afraid work is drying up for our little company," the head chef said.

"Well, you're in luck. I'm hiring you all on for a private job. I'll be feeding a lot of refugees soon. Be ready to report to my mystic realm as soon as repairs are finished. It's the same mess hall as before, I'm sure you remember."

There were nods all around, and soon I had food taken care of.

Next up, I went to see Sakura's people, who were in a similar situation to Bridget's cooks.

"We used to handle logistics for the legion. Odds and ends like extra waterskins, tents, eating utensils, intimate encounters, that sort of thing. It was a good gig while Lady Sakura was here. Unfortunately the legions are doing a lot less marching now and a lot more occupying cities, where local businessmen are undercutting our old prices. It might be time for us to pack up and return to Mucaria," said Sakura's head manager.

"Don't be so quick to leave. I have a private job. I need people to direct refugees and hand out supplies."

Soon, they were on board as well.

Lastly, I hunted down Myrina, who had been bored stiff ever since the fighting ended. She'd been overjoyed by my surprise visit.

"Carter! I've been dying of boredom here! I wish I could say I was surprised to see you, but Grandma Luthrin sent a message saying I might be due for a surprise visit soon..." Myrina gave my shirt a coy tug.

"Oh. Right. Uh... surprise!" I rummaged around in my bags for something that I could pretend was a surprise gift Myrina could unwrap.

I never finished though, since Myrina was a lot more interested in unwrapping me than any present. About an hour later, I finally got the chance to talk, which was when I told her why I'd come to see her.

"I need to borrow a few troops for a bit of an off-the-books secret mission. I need some security in our mystic realm."

"Secret mission?!" Myrina said, eyes full of excited delight. "I'm in!"

And just like that, I had a small army of Amazonians willing and able to maintain order. All would be necessary to make this rescue operation run smoothly. If I'd been forced to do this on my own, I was certain half my time would be spent dealing with petty squabbles between refugee groups or handing out food and basic supplies.

Now, with a sizable team behind me, I could be able to focus on getting people in and out as quickly as possible. The Goddess in Jade had mentioned greater rewards based on the more people I saved, so it would pay off to be diligent here.

When that was done, my planned meeting with the Goddess in Jade was nearly upon me, so I sat down with a teleportation array and started messing with it.

The Goddess in Jade mentioned the teleportation arrays of the Arcadia Multiverse weren’t entirely compatible with cultivator arrays, and I found that to be true. Thankfully, I had plenty of cultivator teleportation arrays to compare with. I also had Mimiko sitting next to me to walk me through the basics of operating the cultivator teleportation array.

The key advantage the cultivator teleportation arrays enjoyed was that they could be used without the aid of a technician. It didn’t take any job or special skill to activate them, just some fundamental understanding of spatial magic.

But that was probably the only advantage they enjoyed. While Thulga could scoop me up and safely take me across who knows how many planets, these teleportation arrays would struggle just to jump between solar systems. I’d need to make more stops to get anywhere. They were also considerably more risky to use.

The less-than-secure nature of the spatial folding techniques cultivators used meant if there was a spatial anomaly between you and your destination, your teleport would end prematurely. Oftentimes, this meant the cultivator in question would be left floating somewhere in empty space.

“And cultivators still use these things? It looks to me like there’s one in thirty chance of something going wrong!” I said, aghast at the risky design.

Mimiko shrugged. “Cultivators risk their lives for power all the time. This is merely a more direct means of risking your life.”

I shook my head at another example of cultivator recklessness. I wouldn’t be willing to use these devices at all if not for my recent item acquisition. I would be making dozens of trips on this little scouting trip between worlds, so a one-and-thirty chance of being dropped in inhospitable outer space would turn into a fifty-fifty coin flip when all my teleports were finished.

Thankfully, my new mystic realm anchor meant that I could leave the throne here. That way, if I found myself stranded in space, I could just double back and try again. While it might be panic-inducing, I had a backup way home in case the teleportation failed.

By the end of the day, I had a working cultivator-compatible teleportation array. From there, the only thing left to do was start plugging in the coordinates the Goddess in Jade gave me.

“Reluna, keep an eye on the legion for me. Try to subtly warn Prince Herius that something big might be coming. I have it on good authority that the A-Grade battle is going to start soon. He may have won this planet, but this war is a lot bigger than Ladwick.”

“I shall ply my many talents to ensure he is prepared without giving away the source of the information. From your stories of him, I know what will be most effective. One of my friends from our school days is part succubus. She will be able to gain his ear.”

I had asked Reluna for recommendations when sorting out who would be coming with us on campaign, so a lot of her friends were in the Nineteenth Legion.

“Good. I’m counting on you. Mimiko? You’re with me. We’re leaving to meet with an A-Grade cultivator.”

Mimiko strode up next to me, wearing cultivator robes once again. She seemed even more nervous than I felt, but she put on a strong front nonetheless.

“The Eternal Spring Sect has a generous reputation. The ladies there may be idealistic, but they are not known for having excessively erratic reputations or killing juniors out of hand. We should be fine,” Mimiko said, more to reassure herself than me.

“I know the Goddess in Jade, and she’s promised us safe passage. Besides, she needs a big favor from me. Killing us for some minor perceived slight would make that impossible, wouldn’t it?”

I gave Mimiko a comforting squeeze on her shoulder, and some of the tension left her.

I shot Reluna one last nod before telling Mimiko to activate the teleportation array. And then we were off to see the Goddess in Jade.


<Note>
My internet is really spotty right now, so I might not respond to comments much over the next few days. I uploaded today and Wednesday ahead of time. Hopefully, by Friday it will be fixed. I'll try to get some writing done in a coffee shop or something and be online then, but if I'm not responding to discord or Facebook messages, that's why.

Also, taxes are nuts. I had to have a meeting with my company's CEO (me) the CFO (also me) the CMO (also me) the head of HR (me again) and write down what "we" discussed and the time during which "we" discussed it.

...As far as the IRS knows, this is a good Christian book company, and we did 14 minutes of bible readings and 1 minute of voting to allow me to keep doing what I have been doing, thereby filling the 15 minute minimum timeblock.