Amazon Apocalypse 5: Chapter 16

The first thing Prince Herius did after declaring victory was go clean himself up. That was probably a wise move, considering he planned to talk to a bunch of terrified townsfolk who had just lived through an extended occupation from a sect of infamously barbaric and ruthless cultivators. Announcing they were safe while he was covered in blood and gore would send the wrong message.

I was dirty too, so after I fulfilled my task and made sure the walls were ours, I took a brief trip to Sanctum, my mystic realm, to do the same. The contractors had done a wonderful job with the place, and it looked like a lovely stone town nestled in the wilderness.

“Ah, there’s the owner now. We were wondering why the portal shut. Also, why are you covered in blood?” asked the work crew supervisor I’d hired to build the place.

I froze. Had I not let these people out?

Mentally, I scrolled back a few days. They were working while I completed my quest, then I passed out for a week. After, we rushed off to rally with the army. I’d woken up and run off so fast I hadn’t even had time to look at the place, let alone check to see if the workers were still there. Carrying around a portable mystic realm would take a little getting used to.

“Uh... right... we’ve got some important things to talk about.”

I had a hard time meeting the supervisors’ gaze. Behind him was a small crowd of workers, mostly dwarves, all watching me expectantly.

“I... uh... have another job for you guys! I need walls around the town. There are monsters in the woods out there, so walls would be nice. I’ll provide the raw materials.”

The supervisor shrugged. “We always appreciate more work. But now’s about time for my crew to take a break, so if you’d kindly...”

“I’ll pay everyone double!” I promised.

That perked a few people up, and pretty soon, we had a deal. They would keep working on my mystic realm, now for double pay. I’d have to explain the situation sooner or later, but this would let me hold off until I could get a teleportation array together to send them home. They’d take the news that I’d accidentally brought them to a foreign battlefield easier if I had a way to get them back to Mucaria, or at least back to Glacia.

From there, I went straight to my tower and accessed the cleaning enchantments there. It was just the usual stock stuff common in homes in Mucaria based on cleaning spells, which felt like a strong gust of wind blowing all the grime off the user.

To me, it wasn’t up to the standards of a hot shower, but Mucaria locals loved them. I did a bit of aethersmithing to bring in water from elsewhere in the mystic realm, like an invisible pipe. It was surprisingly easy here in this space. Maybe that was the mana affinity upgrades the System had given me, or maybe it was the fact that I owned this mystic realm.

Whatever the reason, I left Sanctum clean and relaxed, then sealed the door behind me. Hopefully, Prince Herius set up the big long-range teleportation array we’d arrived here in again. I remembered seeing his elite troops packing it up and taking it with us.

I soon learned I wasn’t the only person in the army with a desperate need to get cleaned up, and since I’d just studied up on cleaning enchantments, I grabbed a loose piece of metal off the ground, heated and reshaped it until it looked like a mirror, and then applied basic cleaning enchantments to it. It wasn’t a hot shower, but it was certainly quicker and could be passed around quickly. I handed it off to Cyra, who took charge of it.

I walked around a while before returning to Prince Herius, where I reported my success. I knew where he was thanks to the party interface we were using, which was largely the same system of nested groups that I’d become familiar with on Themyscira. I still preferred a good radio, since the party communication system wasn’t without its limitations. If I dug up a spare, I’d have to introduce the prince to the technology.

When I finally tracked him down, our people had already rounded up a small crowd of terrified survivors for him. There were only around a few hundred people, which seemed quite small to me.

Mundwise seemed pretty large as far as medieval cities went, and there were a lot of abandoned farms outside that would have housed people who fled to the city walls for safety. I would think the city had around half a million people in it by the time it fell to the Black Beast Sect. Even assuming the citizens had taken heavy casualties, this was too few to represent the survivors.

In all likelihood, most of the survivors were convinced their new rulers were just as bad as their old ones. Winning over any trust from them wasn’t going to be easy. Luckily, that was the prince’s job, not mine.

“In conclusion, you are now under our protection! Please return to your ordinary lives. The lands outside the city walls are unsafe, but as long as we are here, the Black Beast Sect will dare not set foot in this city! Please, if any of you are or know a member of the local nobility, have them present themselves to me, and I shall direct them to reestablish your local government.”

Prince Herius finished off a long-winded speech, deflating a little as he didn’t get the applause he was probably hoping for. The crowd nervously shuffled from foot to foot. Their eyes darted to Prince Herius and the guards surrounding them like they were prisoners awaiting execution.

“Any questions?” the prince asked.

It took thirty seconds of silence for someone to finally raise their hand.

“Uhm... sir... t-that is, your highness...” a nervous matronly woman stuttered. “A-are you going to put an end to the spirit stone refinement?”

Prince Herius frowned. “What is this refinement you speak of? Is that what the Black Beast Sect required of you?”

It took a lot more prodding to find out what she meant by that, but soon Prince Herius and I were led to a strange-looking building full to the brim with bodies.

“By the System... what horrors happened here?” He choked back a wretch, and even though he’d been hacking his way through people just minutes ago, he looked sick at the sight before us.

With good reason, too. A long series of great bronze cauldrons lined up like equipment in a factory. I could see people floating half-dissolved within the nearest cauldrons. Some seemed mostly whole, others were little more than bones.

I examined the enchantments with a careful eye. I’d seen something similar when I fought that cultivator witch from the Black Beast Sect. Her method of interfering with the System and stealing Kindling energy had been indirect, though. Here, the cultivators were distilling something far more personal. They’d found an artificial way to repeat the same thing I’d done when I was dead and trapped in the System dimension. They were stealing stat points and condensing them into a physical jade-like substance, likely so they could consume them and take the extra stats for themselves.

“They were refining the city’s population into something akin to experience pearls...” I muttered as I picked up one of the fingernail-sized chips of jade. I picked one up and analyzed it.

Low-Grade Spirit Stone (Rare)

Contains the life energy of an E-Grade entity. Can be consumed to replenish energy reserves or absorbed for a tiny increase in stats.

These spirit stones weren’t a particularly good medium for storing stat points, and I figured the user wouldn’t end up with much more than a single percent of the power person refined into these stones. These things wouldn’t be worthwhile as a way to get stronger, especially for someone around my level of power. They would, however, be a good way to power enchantments since most of the energy in the spirit stones was coming off as completely neutral mana.

I tossed the stone to Prince Herius, who stared at it with disgust. He tossed it aside, where it fell back into the cauldron that made it. The stone boiled and bubbled, and the corpses floating in the cauldron looked a little less withered, but otherwise didn't stir.

After the wet plonk noise of the stone faded, I heard the faint sound of chiming chains in the distance. Prince Herius and I both turned to the source and found a holding room off to the side of the main chamber.

The prince pressed his ear to the door. “I think there are people behind this. We need to get it open but this enchantment--“

I waved my hand, picking the lock with a bit of mana manipulation. The door swung open to reveal a cluster of terrified people, most of them unconscious as they curled in on themselves inside the room. All were pale and looked like they’d already come to terms with the excruciatingly painful death that awaited them. All save one.

A young woman sat near the center of the room, just behind the door. Her feet were bare and her clothes had once been fine, but looked torn to rags now. Her face was covered in soot, ash, and grime, but that didn’t do much to mask her regal features.

She turned her head at our entrance, scanning both me and Prince Herius. Something about her appearance and the brief calculating look she had when choosing between us struck me off, like she was too calm for someone in her situation. But perhaps she just had the mentality of a survivor.

“Uhm... y-you don’t look like Black Beast Sect cultivators...” the young woman said. Her red lips were pursed tight, and she brushed silky black hair to expose a shy blush and ample cleavage. The show was for both of us at first, but she must have seen a look just as calculating as her own in my eyes because she soon turned her full attention to Prince Herius.

“Fear not, citizens. We’ve defeated the foul cultivators occupying this place. You’re free now!” The prince struck a heroic pose. A few eyes rolled in his direction, but only the young woman climbed to her feet.

“Truly? I can’t believe it. My hero!” Fearlessly, she embraced Prince Herius, wrapping her arms around him and looking up at him with adoring eyes. “Thank you so much!”

She nuzzled against him, and Prince Herius suddenly seemed awkward, though this seemed to be exactly what he'd been hoping for. He’d been expecting a little thanks and praise, but not quite this much. Still, he didn’t push the young woman away.

“I will call my healers to see to your wounds and find you somewhere safe to stay." The prince awkwardly patted the young woman's back.

“W-wait! I know a lot about this city. I can help you!” the young woman offered. She reached up and stroked a finger along the prince’s cheek. “Besides... I can’t let my savior go unrewarded...”

The prince chuckled awkwardly at the forwardness of the offer. This was the first time I’d seen his cheeks flush with embarrassment. He reminded me a lot of Cyra in that moment.

“Okay, fine. I need to interview the survivors, and if you’re willing and able...”

“More than willing, and very able...” she purred.

Prince Herius laughed awkwardly. I examined the woman suspiciously for a moment.

Lady Velica of Mundwise (Level 85)

My suspicions eased a little. If she had been B-Grade, I would have been on my guard, but someone who was only D-Grade was a lot less dangerous. She appeared to be a former noble of the city. Perhaps she had a better hiding spot than most, which was why she seemed healthier than the others. On Eowyn’s world, I’d seen plenty of noble ladies eager to throw themselves at the first handsome officer they met just so they could regain some semblance of safety to their lives. It wasn’t an uncommon reaction to danger.

“Go question her. I’ll see to the rest of these people,” I suggested.

With his face still flushed, Prince Herius nodded in thanks and turned to leave. Lady Velica clung to his side like a barnacle, and at some point, she pulled herself fully into his arms.

Before leaving, the prince turned to me one last time. “Also, once you’re done with the other survivors, light this place aflame. I want everyone across the city to see it burn.”

I threw him a salute, and then he departed.

I called Cyra to send over a bunch of wizards with powerful fire spells. While waiting for them to arrive, I examined the foul creations I would soon destroy.

While I was tempted to take the cauldrons, they would need so much modification to be turned to a non-horrific purpose that I might as well build new cauldrons from scratch when and where I needed them. The Spirit Stones, on the other hand, might be useful. Destroying them wouldn’t bring back the people used to make them, so I might as well gather them up.

I didn’t think Prince Herius would be too fond of seeing them again, so I tucked them safely away in a bag of holding. Next time I went to my mystic realm, I’d stick these away somewhere safe.

***

A short time later, my wizards arrived. We picked up everyone who could be saved, then burned the place to the ground. It was tough to keep the flames contained in this part of the city while making sure the flames burned hot and bright enough for everyone to see, but I cheated a bit by enlarging the fire with Lightsculptor’s Brush. Most of the fire was illusory, but that was all we needed for our purposes.

I learned that Prince Herius had assigned the rest of the legions to clean up the city and find empty homes to quarter in, as we’d be using this as our base of operations for the foreseeable future. He’d taken over the city lord’s mansion and would reestablish the local government with the sole surviving heir of the former city lord. I strongly suspected that sole surviving heir was Lady Velicia.

But thanks to his announcement and the burning of the spirit stone-making factory, the city was finally safe. We found a few Black Beast Sect cultivators trying to hide among the survivors, but a quick examination always revealed them in short order.

Originally, we wanted to take them prisoners, but I suspected they thought we’d be as barbaric and brutal to captives as they were. Whenever one was held captive, they did some strange thing with their central energy mass and exploded themselves. I suspected they might have some sort of surgically implanted magical bomb, but I could find no evidence of such a thing among the debris after they detonated. Perhaps it was an ability they studied to avoid being captured alive.

Since we would use Mundwise as our headquarters on this world for the foreseeable future, I went about repairing the damaged walls. The enchantments were more similar to the walls of Shadefall than I thought at first, and it was clear the enchanters here were competent in a completely different magical tradition. I made note of the few tricks I saw that I was unfamiliar with, but I was more interested in recruiting survivors. I wanted enchanters to repair my legion’s equipment.

On that front, I had minimal luck. The people here were absolutely terrified of us, though Prince Herius was doing his best to thaw the ice. All the work our army was doing to make the city livable again was doing a lot to win us goodwill from the locals.

While Mundwise would take generations to recover its former glory, all the magic and manpower we were throwing into rebuilding it meant it could at least resemble its former glory. I even had the perfect spot to get rid of all the rubble. My construction crew trapped in my pocket realm needed new material, so I had them pulling masonry blocks, lumber, and nails out of the stuff I was delivering and recycling the scrap. They still wanted to go home, so I moved them up to triple overtime pay. I could tell they had questions, but none were pressing enough to risk losing their current pay rate.

I had hoped Prince Herius would set up the big teleportation array soon so I could send them home, but I’d hardly seen him outside at all the last week. He was spending an awful lot of time in the city lord’s manor as he helped Lady Velicia reclaim control of the city, and without him, nobody could retrieve the array components. I wasn’t the only who suspected that reestablishing a local government wasn’t the only thing he was helping her with while cooped up in her manor.

But we had won our first real victory quite handily, and everyone deserved a chance to celebrate.

For my part, I spent the week enjoying the passive levels and experience gained from being on crusade. Cranking out a few more cleaning mirrors for my legion gave an aethersmithing level. I also identified a few Dragon Lodge students who minored in enchanting.

They wouldn’t be as good as Gobgob, but with a little personal training, I was confident I could raise them up until they could repair the basics. Maybe I could upgrade some of their classes to artificer if I could figure out how to make one of those job upgrade books. But somehow, I didn’t think this short period of peace would last all that long.


<Note>
The little mystic realm of Carter's will probably end up a bit nicer than it needs to be for an army on campaign.