Chương 491: 491

Sally stared at her phone, at the 0 missed calls from Mark, and laid back in her chair. And then she shrunk herself down to a decimeter tall and crawled between the cushions to hide from the world for a little while. For that little while everything was quiet. Sure, there was a dust bunny and someone had lost a popcorn kernel down here from maybe 3 days ago, when they were watching the report from New Tokyo and not getting any calls about it from Mark …

but nothing was on fire and nothing was exploding and no one was dying. And then a hand pulled the cushion away, Sally groaned and laid down on the bare couch, head pressed into the back of the seat and not willing to look outward." Hey, Sally," Uva said, voice like warm honey.

"How's it going?" Sally groaned and enlarged herself to maybe a meter tall, to lay in the valley between large couch cushions and stare at the ceiling, as she said, "It's going objectively well. Too well. The Church of Drakarok is integrating well… Executioner Walter is a fucking jerk but he's not angry at Mark much anymore. They're settled in and… and Eliot is with Shawn as they're doing that thing in Memphi for the Church of Freyala and they're doing well, too… Fuck. I should be out there with them.

What if there's an attack?" Uva hmm'd, saying nothing. Sally continued dumping, "My parents are… are annoying as hell, but I love them. They're okay." Sally asked Uva, "It's weird that I'm expecting a nuke, right? Things are going well. But all I can think about is the Winter Ball Attack and then the shit that Mark prevented, and that I wasn't there to help— And now we're getting 20 more high-powered people! 3 full Kaiju Squads. Dawncoast is doing great, right? … Right?"

Uva listened, and then she asked, "Want me to put the couch cushion back and you can shrink me down, too?" It was like a cloud breaking and the sunshine coming down. Sally laughed, and then Uva smiled, and she was so pretty. They ended up on the couch, normal-sized, cuddling for a bit and talking about nothing at all. It was exactly what Sally wanted. Later, Uva asked, "If there was one fear to pick out as the largest… What is that fear?"" Gate Day," Sally said, without needing to think about it at all."

Scared of being ignored, even as a giant woman?"" Yeah," Sally said, loving that Uva understood.

"Retribution means that everyone ignores me if they can, and I fucking hate it. And Okuana is gonna have tricks. They're going to pull the most shit! And what am I? I'm a giant lady with an even gianter target on her face! And even if I am targeted… You know Titanfist in Memphi— Ben. You met Ben yet?"" No I haven't met him, but I heard about him. Mark fixed him up, right?"" Yeah, he did, and that's another thing. I can't overdo anything because only Mark can heal me when I get really big.

Titan's Strength and even Size Manipulation is trading away my health for a war. I don't want to be crippled at age 30… assuming I can even live that long. Holy hell."" There's Justicar and his mother. They have True Union and they're offering to do Gate Day."

"… Oh shit?" Sally felt a large portion of her worries flow away.

"They are? When did that happen?"" This morning."" Nice… but..." Sally still had a worry as she said, "The Cultists had specific tools to fuck up Ben a whole lot. Mark was already the only person who could heal him but then Mark became even more the only person who could heal him, and where the fuck is Mark right now, but off doing crazy shit for those People, or whatever they're called. It's pretty fucking stupid that they call themselves 'The People'."

Uva smirked, saying, "They thought they were the only people alive at all, didn't they?"" The height of hubris." - -" Freyala's fucking Union," Eliot muttered, as an alarm bell blared at the edge of the work site. It wasn't the bad kind of alarm; the bad one was an absolute-piercing-wail type. This one was more of a loud honking.

It still meant that all work had to stop, so Eliot carefully controlled the fall of a literal million tons of rubble and raw metals, letting it collapse into columns and piles, and he looked over his computers, muttering, "What's happening out there? Shawn?" Eliot could have pulled up the information himself but he had been deep into foundation construction, putting together a new district in Memphi for Freyala's new Citadel, east of the main city, and it took a moment to switch gears.

The other person in the crane should be watching all of that stuff for Eliot, but the problem was that Shawn was the other person in the construction crane. Shawn was never the most attentive helper. As per expectations, Shawn was looking down at his phone, flicking fast and reading the whole thing. Eliot would have to do it himself—" Sorry," Shawn said, tearing himself away from his phone to take in all the information on 10 different screens.

In a single moment he digested it faster than Eliot could have, and said, almost incredulously, "Looks like the New Madrid Seismic Zone is acting up?" Eliot paused. And then he scrunched his face and looked at the screens, delving deep into the Man-made information located beyond the machine-surface. Mark would probably call it 'looking into the dream', but for Eliot it was like looking at computer directories that coalesced at his demand in order to give him what he wanted.

And sure enough, Eliot found the warnings and the seismographs and traced the alarm to a generalized warning about activity in the NMSZ. Eliot came back to reality, face scrunching even more, as he said, "It's not impossible, but it is highly unlikely that the NMSZ is active."" Didn't they stabilize it in the 80s?" Shawn said, tapping away at a separate screen and pulling up information at a much slower pace than Eliot's usual speed. Still faster than most other people, except maybe Andria.

"Yeah, they did stabilize it."" And then again a few months before the Gate's construction," Eliot said, looking at other screens by now.

"... What the fuck?" The alarm that had gone off had been a generalized alarm, but perhaps it should have been the big alarm. There was seismic activity everywhere below the surface. Eliot frowned, and then looked out of his hovercrane spiderbot, down at the new ground for Citadel Freyala.

The construction zone was all plain stone right now, about 30 kilometers across, located about 10 kilometers past the eastern wall of Memphi, but it already had its own wall and Eliot was going over the whole thing and laying down the solidity necessary for future buildings. He had put the 'New Citadel's' wall up first over a day, making a basic circle of flat stone with a few different allowances for the curve of the land.

It had rained this morning, but only a little bit, wetting that bare land and keeping down the dust. There was dust in the air from something shifting underground in that direction, about 2 kilometers forward, near a crack in the ground… That crack hadn't been there earlier. Eliot had a bad feeling. Was it a kaiju? No… Couldn't be? Right? Firstly, the kaiju alarm would have blared if there was a kaiju around, stomping and making the land move. That alarm was very much a thing that existed.

That alarm hadn't gone off. Just the generalized 'stop work' alarm. Already, according to the screens, guys on the walls and guys doing specific, special work underground and on the surface, were getting up and out of wherever they were, to stand on the open land and look around, wondering what was going on. Some were running like it was a kaiju attack, but then other people were yelling at the runners, and the runners slowed down. Running was scary for everyone.

They were technically outside of the main city walls, after all, even if the Castellan of the city had been extended in this direction, making this a 'tamed' section of the Wilds. But disasters often happened when people tried to tame the Wilds. Kaiju were not unheard of. Eliot glanced at the seismograph readouts again and then he threw a few more sensors into the suite of machines that scouted the land all around his hoverspider crane, and sure enough, the NMSZ was active.

Nothing had happened, but something could happen, and so... Eliot told Shawn, "Call it. Work is stopping for today." Eliot put his hands to the controls, though he didn't actually have to do that, and then he pulled up on the vehicle, saying, "Maybe Lenny can come out and Geokinesis it more stable, but I'm going to send a request to Aluatha or the Central Cities for a proper Land Shaper to come out and restabilize the land—"" Wait."

Shawn sat up in his chair, looking out at the dust cloud floating up from the ground. And then he focused and grabbed the radio hanging on the wall, holding down the big button, projecting his voice out across the entire site, "We have an underground disturbance. Everyone is to evacuate as orderly and as quickly as they can. I repeat, there is an underground disturbance." Shawn pointed to the right, just beyond where Eliot could see as he continued to speak into the radio, "Evacuate in an orderly and quick manner."

Eliot turned the wheel and the spider-crane twisted a little, letting Eliot see whatever Shawn was pointing— There was greenery on the ground out there. Eliot slammed the big warning button and a klaxon sirened on the base of the vehicle, and on the ceiling, echoing the big warning into the work site. A kilometer away something green pushed out of the ground, erupting the surface with a thousand tendrils of greenery.

It had been lurking underground, moving as slowly as it could, greenery extending from a crack in the ground far ahead, now reaching closer, but it had been found out. A dryad twisted out of the ground before it could get right underneath them. Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author. It was all vines and then a trunk and then a swell of purple-black Death mana at the core, like a rotten fruit being born on a suddenly-there tree the height of a city wall.

The ground vibrated, sending people into the air, crushing some just by virtue of the land moving too fast under them. Eliot felt for the people who couldn't run fast enough—" Evacuating time, Eliot," Shawn said, putting a hand on his chair. He was going to rip out the chair, with Eliot in it, if Eliot didn't move fast enough with the crane itself.

Eliot might not have gotten that Solar Flare staff that Addavein had brought back from New Tokyo, that Mark had made specifically for him, but Addavein had created several strong contingency spells in recompense for taking that staff for himself. Eliot had been kinda miffed about that, about how the staff hadn't worked for him without that disastrous side effect of potentially burning everything within his astral body, but now he was happy for those contingencies.

Eliot mentally tapped a button linked to a compartment in the back, secure spaces of the construction spider. A 'speed bubble' popped up around the vehicle and suddenly the world outside slowed dramatically. One guy out there, on the ground, was trying to reach for his bright yellow hardhat that had popped off of his head when the entire ground vibrated him into the air.

Another few people were just gore, splashed away from the echoing purple light of the Death-concentrating dryad, their bodies already spiraling into undead horrors, scythes of ribs half-formed while skulls began to glow with purple light in empty eye sockets. There was no choice but for Eliot to run, and so he did, opening the throttle and lurching the entire construction spider into the air, to the side of the targeting dryad— And then suddenly the sky was filled with fire.

A voice boomed with delight, filling the space between the walls of New Citadel Freyala." Begone foul agent of Okuana!" Addavein, moving speedily, called down the rays of the sun itself, pointing Solar Flare at the dryad. A single line of sun-bright illumination touched the dryad, and the dryad caught fire. The world caught fire around the dryad, and then the world collapsed onto the burning tree. It was an implosion of solar might. Eliot had already made it to the Citadel's new wall by then.

There was no need to go further. He settled the construction spider onto the wall, time resuming as speedy-time ended, as the fire on the dryad died out, sucked inward, and left behind nothing but a charred husk of a kaiju-level threat. Shawn stared at the dead dryad, saying, "So I guess leaving the staff with Addavein was a good idea?"" Of course it was!" Addavein said, alighting onto one of the construction spider's arms, right in view of the crystal windshield in front of Eliot and Shawn.

"I'm glad you activated the speed shield, otherwise I wouldn't have known to come out here in time. Of course, now I need to give you another one." The human-sized dragon grinned, looking rather draconic in that moment, as he said, "Used to be that one of those speedy artifacts I gave you would have beggared an entire city to provide the necessary mana to activate speedy magic of that level, especially at just a press of a button." He held aloft Solar Flare.

"But this thing is a game changer! I even piggy-backed on the speed magic you activated myself, to get out here in time. I can do better with the next one, now that I know how well it functions." Eliot interrupted Addavein congratulating himself, saying, "Thanks, but how many people died today?"" Several! But Jessie is coming back this way in a few hours, so we're going to get them back."

Addavein added, "And, unless I am mistaken, this dryad here should have gotten you, so Jessie would have had to Resurrect you, which would have set our defenses back considerably and exposed him to more danger, so there probably would have been an attack for him when he showed up. We'll still trigger that attack, but we'll be ready for it. I suggest you go into hiding for a day." And with that proclamation delivered, Addavein stepped into the air, flying forward.

He called back, "I'll gather up the horrors for Jessie to resurrect properly! Don't dawdle! Get back to base." Shawn said, "We're going back." It was almost a question. Eliot turned the construction spider toward Memphi and got going. Quickly. Shawn's fingers tensed on Eliot's chair, his Tactile Telekinesis locking Shawn to the chair and to the floor underneath his feet. His voice was quiet as he said, "I'm supposed to be able to fight those kaiju. Strength Unending, Telekinesis, Battlemind…

but all Battlemind was telling me was that I was gonna die if we stayed."" All that means is that you're not insane," Eliot said.

"Mark is the insane one." Shawn chuckled a bit… and then he went quiet.

"Who is Mark?" Eliot scoffed… but he didn't have the energy to answer. He looked forward and… No. Wait. Hmm. And then Eliot landed at the gate and hastily took the small gate back to Dawncoast. As the domain of Eliot's own castle enfolded around him, through him, pushing back the Forgetting, Eliot exclaimed, "Mark! You know Mark! Shawn? Right?" Shawn paused and looked up, asking, "Who— Oh. Yeah. Sorry."

He loosened his grip on Eliot's chair, revealing indentations from his fingers where he had been holding on too strongly.

"My mind was, uh, occupied with other things. Yeah. Mark— Oh. Uh. So before the dryad I was reading about New Tokyo and the hundreds of new people who rose to true power in the aftermath. Is it true that Aluatha is sending us a whole bunch of them?"" Yeah, probably."" Are they sending enough?"" Probably?" - - Tartu stood in an orchard of his own making, trees coiling tall, each of them spilling out mana crystals of fire, of air, and of death.

It was a fell harvest of bombs for the war, and some Death mana for Eliot. With a twist of power Tartu pulled mana out of the very air itself, into the harvest, each fruit doubling in size as the forest drained Dawncoast of its manasphere, like sponges soaking up possibility. The trees sagged as their fruit bulged, the ground withered, and Tartu's throat felt dry. The dryness was psychosomatic. It still felt real. And then it was done. Tartu sat down, almost collapsing from the effort of his action.

Lenny stood to the side, his astral body flexing through the ground, Geokinesis turning the ground, softening the now-hardened soil around the roots here and there. When Tartu drew power out of the world itself, though his orchard of mana-tree-vines, stuff tended to crystallize, and the soil was no different. With practiced action, those crystals broke up and the trees relaxed into the softness. Tartu let out a deep breath as it felt like Lenny was removing stones from his shoes.

That was also a psychosomatic feeling, but it was also rather real. Tartu was more in-tune with his forest than he ever thought possible. Every tree in every direction for 3 kilometers was his; an extension of himself. Each one was important for the war, too. As Lenny worked the ground, flexing his kinesis here and there, drones flew through the air, picking the fruit.

Those little drones were part of the war efforts, commissioned by the Empire, along with this entire forest, to provide the necessary mana crystals for massed bombardments. It was the normal stuff. Fire and air worked very well to burn away dryads, no matter the protections that Okuana wove into their workings—" That takes a lot out of you, huh?" Lenny asked, for not the first time. This time was more serious than the others, though. Tartu hadn't collapsed the first several times he did this.

Tartu opened his eyes and looked up at the sun, beyond the withered canopy. Green leaves fell from the dying canopy. And then Tartu flexed his Farmer out into the fields, into the air, touching upon each tree in his garden and fortifying them one by one. It would be the work of a day to get it all back to production-ready." It does," Tartu said." Gods…" Lenny said, "This was how Okuana had power over everyone. This was why Okuana was so angry about those mana crystal vines. This right here.

Taking mana from the atmosphere and then turning it into crystals." Tartu took a deep breath and then stood up, each tree he repaired making him feel just a bit better. He said, "There are many tricks to turning atmospheric mana into usable mana, though it does tend to result in monsterization so mostly people don't do it. Mana does crystallize naturally in monsters though, and also, as we can see, in plants."" Do you think that Dynamo staff does this, but on a grander scale?"" No way.

The only way these trees are working at all is that they're dying to crystallize atmospheric mana better, but I can heal them back to full with a little bit of shifting power between them… and they're plants, so they can heal rather easily. Whatever Solar Flare does—" Tartu corrected himself, "Whatever Dynamo does is closer to what a person does when they make mana, but on a much more dynamic scale. Perhaps the name itself is a clue to how it works.

Dynamos take initial energy and then keep going, and you can bleed off that energy for work later. So perhaps there's a 'rest' period that stores greater creation of mana for later?"" Do you think Isoko will come back from New Tokyo with more staffs for the rest of us?" Tartu said, "I already sent her a message to that effect." Lenny grinned.

"I did, too. She told me to take it up with Addavein. What'd she tell you?"" To take it up with Addavein…" Tartu looked up at the sun beyond the canopy, at the trees flexing outward with new health, greenery closing over, blocking out the sun. Tartu said, "I still can't believe that Okuana would ever risk losing such a weapon to outside forces. What do you think caused them to risk bringing it out to the blockade?"" They probably didn't expect Addavein to show up and break the blockade all on his own."

Tartu hmm'd, something not sitting right with that statement… or with his own… and then he got deeper into the work, healing the trees faster. Lenny got deep into the work, too, letting the conversation lapse. - - Addavein stood on the wall of Memphi, looking out to the east, to the New Citadel of Freyala. That damned eldritch nuisance was back, swirling around Addavein's new staff. He couldn't see it, but he could feel its influence. It tugged at Addavein's memory of the staff. Of where it came from.

Addavein shook the staff and flickered power through the adamantine length of inscribed metal, the orb at the top shining bright and burning away an invisible mist. That action briefly gave visibility to the eldritch nuisance, and then the nuisance was banished. For now. Addavein had revised his earlier assessment of the eldritch thing that had latched on to Mark sometime in the last few months, and then been revealed at the Winter Ball.

Mostly, Addavein recognized that the eldritch thing was not as dangerous as he initially feared. He had just forgotten about it, and thus lumped it in with all other eldritch entities of the same category. This particular eldritch entity was not actually that dangerous, unless you used it too much. If you were simply fighting it, then it fought harder. It didn't degrade who you were, or swallow your life, like other such entities. The only problem with this particular entity came when you used it against others.

It did not like that at all, and if you kept using it in such a way, it would invariably try to kill you in the most brutal way possible. … Addavein wondered, though, if he could 'use' the eldritch entity to take all of Mark's fame for himself. Wouldn't take much to do, either. A few public claims here. A few demonstrations there. And then Addavein could become a true hero in the eyes of the Two Worlds.

After all, what was more believable: that some kid had survived Addashield's Contracted Tutorial kills and then thrived to stand upon the entire stage of all the worlds? Or that Addashield had come back from dragonization and was now fully himself? That Sloane Addashield, in a new body, had led a team of divine backups to Endless Daihoon and come back with true power? Addashield had already been to Endless Daihoon once. Going a second time was… reasonable. … And yet..." Dick move," Addavein told himself.

A total dick move. Addavein never expected the world to forget Mark this easily, so he would need to lay some groundwork to ensure Mark could come back later. Perhaps it would be easy for him to come back. Maybe the world would rebound and he'd slip right back into his old life just fine. A lot of things that boy did were world firsts, though, so who knew how this would all play out.