Amazon Apocalypse 5: Chapter 32

My time with Sakura took me into the night, especially when Bridget and Myrina found us and joined in. The process gained me another fifteen levels, split between my race and class.

Congratulations, your class, Sage of Forbidden Knowledge has reached level 261!

Congratulations, your race, homo fatum deus, has reached level 260!

I didn’t want to take too much from my ladies, especially with Sakura and Bridget so close to B-Grade. But I needed every extra boost I could get for what was to come. I even made sure I had fresh talismans of protection from good, evil, order, and chaos in case I needed to use the fourth level of Mania again.

I also hadn’t forgotten about that Chaos Dragon title I’d gotten and the massive stat boost it could provide, though given that title couldn’t be unequipped, I wouldn’t be putting it on unless absolutely necessary.

The following day, I received a discreet message from Mimiko through one of those magical morse code rods the wizards of the dragon lodge loved. The message was a simple one. She was in position and the initial phase of my plan had gone well.

With Mimiko in position, I was on a timetable. Velicia was clearly having a tough time finding a moment to bargain with me, so I assisted her.

“I’d like to pass a report along to Prince Herius. A few of my diviners are worried there’s a large-scale attack coming to retake Yarris,” I said to a runner from the first legion. The young soldier nodded, then took off.

An hour later, I saw Prince Herius riding a griffin along with some of his most elite soldiers toward Yarris. No doubt Velicia suggested he could best ward off assault by making his presence known there.

With him gone and no longer clinging to Velicia, we finally made our trade deal. I returned to the city lord’s manor and took a seat before Velicia, who already had a local brew of tea laid out for the two of us.

“Prince Herius should be away for at least a day. He took an interest in several of the treasures I’d prepared to trade for you, so I had to replace a few of them, but the replacements all do generally the same things. Look and tell me what you think.”

Velicia seemed considerably less patient this time around. Instead of pulling out each treasure one at a time, she heaved the whole chest up and plunked it on the table.

I flipped through the items and noted they were all the same or better than the items I was promised before. I was eager to agree, but looking too eager would simply be bad negotiating. So, I put on a show of mulling things over and looking reluctant.

“Got any job upgrade tokens? Or maybe an enchanted cauldron or two?” I asked.

“Nothing that would be suitable for a Master Artificer,” Velicia replied.

“Not for me.”

Velicia stood and turned a corner. A minute later, she returned with two new items, a low-rarity job upgrade token and something that looked like a fancy metal skillet.

I smiled when I saw both and examined them.

Frying Pan of Godly Chef (Mythic)

This pan has a slight probability of enhancing any food cooked with it to a higher level of rarity, granting the chef massively boosted experience points for the dish. In emergencies, it can also be used to inflict blunt damage.

Basic Job Upgrade Token (Rare)

Can be used to evolve any job at or below rare to a higher ranked job containing the same skill.

With those two trinkets secured to sweeten the deal, I shook Velicia’s hand.

“Velicia, we have a deal. I don’t know what you and your band of heretics wants with this pillar, but hopefully it doesn’t cause too much trouble for Prince Herius.”

Lady Velicia shrugged. “I’m sure someone like you is hard to kill. As for the rest of the legion... their survival will be up to them. With this, my task is complete. Several B-Grade comrades of mine will be arriving to this world before the end of the day to take the System Planetary Hub. Don’t get in their way.”

With those callous words, Lady Velicia stood and left me. Our business was done, and she had no more need for me.

“I’ll find a way to clear the city as best I can to avoid prying eyes. Don’t countermand my orders, please.” I called to her, retreating back.

She gave me a backhanded wave of acknowledgment. No doubt she’d already put me out of her mind and was thinking of a promotion among the ranks of her heretic friends.

Little did she know, this day would be a long one for all of us. And it was only getting started.

***

I alerted Mimiko that the bargain was struck and the timer was ticking, and with that, there was no turning back now.

Then I started issuing a flurry of orders to mitigate unnecessary casualties.

“Legates one and all! I need to have an emergency meeting. I want everyone at the Nineteenth Legion’s headquarters as soon as possible!”

I sent the message out through all channels I had access to. Mostly that was the radio system I’d set up, but also quite a few messengers as well.

As I feared, only some legates saw fit to answer my call. Cyra and Myrina naturally showed up. As did Thadeaus of the Fourth Legion. Morin and Abesa had both replied with some variant of ‘I’m busy. Go away.’

“What’s the emergency, Carter?” Cyra asked with concern. “A lot of us heard Prince Herius flew off to Yarris in a rush. Is there some sort of emergency?”

I nodded gravely. “There is. I have it on good authority that there’s about to be a massive cultivator attack.”

“Truly? What a terrible time for Prince Herius and his elite knights to be away. Could we set up the teleportation array to recall them quickly?” Legate Thadeaus asked.

“Doubtful. Not on both ends,” I replied.

“What are we going to do?” Cyra asked.

“We need to fan out and cover the countryside. We’ll even draft as much of the city’s population as we can to help. I want everyone outside the city walls within the next few hours before the cultivators can torch the farms and crops.”

“Won’t that leave us vulnerable to being picked off as they approach?” Cyra asked, brows furrowed in confusion as she cast me a hard look.

“Not necessarily. I’m pretty sure we’ll be up against Elder Blackhand himself. He’ll be moving fast and won’t bother to stop for small bands of people. He’ll be coming straight for this city. You’ll only need to worry about his low-leveled subordinates.”

More questions came, and I fended them off as best I could. I was lucky I’d brought Sakura in on things. Cyra seemed suspicious, but will take my word on it.

In the end, we emptied most of the population of Mundwise and got them out past the walls and into the fields and towns beyond it. Lady Velicia even helped the process by having her guards aid in the evacuation process.

The flurry of unexpected and seemingly bizarre orders left most of the city confused. Why were Lady Velicia and I suddenly intent on emptying the city? And why was so much of the leadership suddenly concerned about an incoming attack?

Speculation was naturally running rampant, but the sheer scale of the operations meant people were taking them seriously.

In just a few hours, the innocent civilians were gone. The criminals and thieves were ignoring my orders and staying behind to rob and loot stores while everyone else was gone, but that would be their own folly.

I probably could have painted far less of a target on myself by not concerning myself with the city folk and the common soldiers. This would no doubt look very suspicious in retrospect. But I wouldn’t drench this city with innocent blood if I could help it, even if I had the System’s approval.

On that front, the System was helping out. Quests popped up left and right for Cyra, Myrina, Thadeaus, and all the other active legates, promising massive rewards for ordering their troops far from the city. I was thankful for that since if this all blew up in my face, I could just claim the System had given me a similar quest, which was close enough to the truth.

***

Lady Velicia’s fellow heretics arrived a short while later and had come in surprising force. Lady Velicia must have a secret off-world teleportation array somewhere of similar scale to the one Prince Herius used. Wherever it was though, it was outside the city, because I saw no signs of its activation.

The heretics arrived shrouded in mana, invisible to all eyes but mine. They came across the city walls looking like they intended to fly straight through them, and were surprised to realize they couldn’t.

I knew for a fact that I could step right through most wards with Shadowrealm Stride. And I doubted I was the only one with such an ability. So I’d spent some time patching up what I considered flaws in the usual enchantment patterns.

As the designer, I naturally had ways to manipulate the barrier. I wasn’t doing as much manually as the cultivators had been when we took the city, but I could pull a few levers and open up a hole for our guests in the right location. They sensed the invitation for what it was and came straight through. The trip took them directly to the city lord’s manor, where they no doubt knew Lady Velicia was waiting to receive them.

I picked up the anchor for my mystic realm, put it in storage, and then went to join them. As I approached, I finally got a good look at the heretics.

I had originally thought I’d be meeting with a cabal of free-thinking idealists. Maybe they’d be young people from noble houses like the Vaust’s dreaming of breaking free from the confines of the existing System and building something new and better to take its place.

These... were not those people.

In fact, I wasn’t sure I was even talking to people at all. Every one of them wore deep, flowing robes of black and crimson. The roomy garments kept them looking humanoid, but as I approached, I realized how flimsy that deception really was.

Bits of wire and tubes of metal pierced skin on their skulls and arms. Extra appendages complete with claw-like grippers writhed along their backs and poked out their fronts. Bits of little lights glowed here and there within their robes, like these heretics were wearing naked circuit boards on full display. A lot of what they were wearing reminded me of my Doomblade armor’s inner workings, but without the extensive space-folding I’d done to keep the internals well protected behind elegantly shaped plates of metal.

More bits of metal covered the lower halves of their faces, leaving only their eyes exposed. From the way the metal pressed up against their skin, I figured a considerable portion of the contraptions were buried directly in their flesh.

“You are Velicia’s friends, I take it?” I asked as I approached.

“They are,” Velicia answered.

The other heretics turned cold and unfeeling gazes toward me. I felt a tingle run up my spine, though this one felt more invasive than usual. Since they were scanning me, I wasn’t shy about doing the same to them.

Unidentifiable Entity (Level 351)

Unidentifiable Entity (Level 271)

Unidentifiable Entity (Level 257)

Unidentifiable Entity (Level 214)

Unidentifiable Entity (Level 203)

There were five of them in total, all of varying estimated strength, but all of them were quite powerful. The strongest of them would even be a match for Elder Blackhand.

“You are the one in possession of the artifact?” asked the lead heretic. The robotic voice sounded female beneath all the metal and wires, though it was hard to tell.

“I am,” I replied casually. “And what can I call you?”

“My designation for this mission is Alpha,” the lead heretic said.

I smiled at Alpha, though with a face like the one she had under all that metal, that was a difficult thing.

“So, Alpha. As I’m sure your friend Velicia told you, I have your special pillar. Originally, I wasn’t willing to part with it, but your friend paid me quite the pretty sum. Come on, let’s take a look.”

I reached into Morgathor’s Satchel to withdraw the throne that would lead into the Sanctum Mystic Realm. But one of the other heretics placed a firm hand on my shoulder.

This one spoke in a more masculine voice, though it was still as mechanical as Alpha’s. “You have been compensated to excess. If the artifact is damaged in any way, your body will receive similar damage. And if you have deceived us about the artifact, your soul will meet with extreme agony after your death.”

I stared at the hand on my shoulder. the grip was tight, but not impossibly so. The heretic had some ten levels on me, which was a wide gap in B-Grade, but not an unbridgeable one for someone like me with so many self-empowerment abilities.

His grip was tight enough right now, but if I activated Blood Frenzy and my Apocalypse Dragon Signature Skill, I would have no problem shrugging his grip off. But I held my annoyance in check and did neither of those things as I set down the throne and opened up the entrance to the mystic realm.

“If she’s Alpha, I’m going to assume you're Beta?” I asked.

“That designation is inaccurate, but sufficient for your purposes.”

Mentally, I began referring to the male heretic as Beta. As far as I was concerned, he was Beta-male.

I opened the portal and waved Alpha forward. After a few of the lesser B-Grades entered the mystic realm and came back and confirmed it wasn’t a trap, Alpha followed them.

For a moment, Beta-male and I were alone.

“Outsider, as I have stated, your compensation was excessive for something we would have discovered on our own. If you wish for honest bargaining with us, you will return the materials you have been given and give the artifact to us. Goodwill contributions to our cause will be more valuable to you than any material possessions,” Beta-male said.

If I could, I would have rolled my eyes. “Unfortunately, I’m rather fond of material possessions. And especially fond of receiving them as part of a trade. Come on, we don’t want to keep Alpha and your other friends waiting.”

Beta-male reluctantly released my shoulder, and we both entered the mystic realm.

Sanctum was the same as I’d left it, though there was much less activity now. I’d emptied it as much as the city. Even the civilian construction crew had gone out to fill a sudden job request. Sakura had them salvaging materials from a ruin outside the city. Bridget was cooking in the field today, and the wounded at been wheeled out for fresh air and sunshine as they continued their recovery.

The small town my people had put together seemed eerie without anyone in it. Until now, I hadn’t realized how much building had been going on.

“It’s up ahead. Follow me.” I waved and led the way through the city, intentionally taking a long and winding route.

“Delta, guard the entrance,” Alpha ordered, and one of the lower-ranked B-Grades retreated and stood by the portal.

“That is a fountain we just put in, it’s rather interesting the story behind those stones. The fountain itself is supposed to be thousands of years old, and we salvaged it from--“

“This information is irrelevant. You are delaying our mission. Extracting the artifact will take considerable time. Do not delay us further,” Alpha said in stern rebuke.

I was silent for the rest of the walk until we approached the pillar. My heart tensed as the heretics fanned out around it. They ran their eyes up and down the pillar, taking it in.

I held my breath, ready to fade into the shadow realm at a moment’s notice if something went wrong. That would give me enough time to call on Mania and my other buffs, which would be the only way I was going to get away from these people. If things went wrong, my backup plan had been to lock these guys in this mystic realm while I made my escape, though the guard on the door made that plan more complicated.

Thankfully, that proved unnecessary when Alpha confirmed the legitimacy of my pillar.

“This is what we came for, and it is still in working condition. We must extract it with care and haste before exiting System space,” Alpha said.

“Wonderful. I’m glad you all have what you wanted. There’s a bathroom inside the tower if any of you need it. I’ll go back outside and--“

“You will stay with us until the extraction is concluded,” Beta-male commanded, and I grimaced.

This crew really wasn’t much for conversation. For once, I actually wished Lady Velicia was here with me. She must have known these heretic friends of hers were awkward.

Thankfully, Mimiko finally came through on her end, saving me from fidgeting awkwardly for too long.

My radio buzzed to life, and every heretic turned to face me with a creepily sudden jerk.

“Centurion Asimi to Legate Carter. I just spotted several blurs moving quickly over our position. I suspect this is the cultivator attack you were worried about!”

Beta-male stood and turned to me, hostility in his cold eyes. “What is this device, and what did the voice mean?”

I replied to Asimi first. She was considerably more polite, so she got priority.

“Thank you, Asimi. Keep your position and remain hidden. Your unit is too weak to engage B-Grades.”

“Explain. Now!” Beta-male demanded, louder this time.

“That was my subordinate.” As I spoke, a thunderous explosion echoed from the other side of the open portal back the way we came. “And that would be an attacking force of cultivators trying to breach the city barrier.”

<Note>
I like Asimi. Wish she got more page time to develop her personality a bit more.