Chương 196: Chapter 4-194 – Fire and Water

More to the point, the infusion of Fire over Earth was changing the focus of Lord Quake's Bloodline back to the Fire aspect, and his wings were starting to evolve, with trademark Phoenix Fire gold scales to them. If a Drake becoming a Dragon could cry, he no doubt would have been weeping for joy. He would never be a Fire Avian and so a preferred servant of a Phoenix, but he didn't care. His Oath was given, and Lord Quake would be a faithful Dragon and servant of Fire Phoenix until the day he died!

I was not one to pass up the opportunity, and noted to Fire Phoenix that there were a lot of Dragons forced into the status of Earth Drakes because they did not have access to Fire Mana. If He wanted loyal servants who would fight for Him, and He wouldn't feel too sad if they died, He could do worse than recruit somesuch Drakes and change their futures... He said He would think on it, His tone thoughtful at the idea... and it would definitely tweak the nose of Heavenly Fire Emperor...

"Anything not kneejerk reactive about the dire threat to Humanity's preeminence to actually be worried about?" I asked her, trying not to doze off and mostly failing. I think Sama had restuffed the couch to give it a circumstance modifier to QL to me. It was so damn comfortable... Conveniently placed just at the edge of her extended Null, too. My extra thoughtstreams were mostly zzzzing right now, my ongoing duties being carefully pared back with the Council of Emperors coming up soon.

"There's a few posts alluding to master plans being set back or needing to be adjusted, but only two of them have any teeth." Her fingers and hair were tapping at four other keyboards while she watched five different boards at once, and was listening to commentary on the news and some other places. We had a couple hundred people who monitored specific boards for us, scattered across the spectrum, and hundreds more who frequented other ones casually.

Yeah, we had word-following programs these mage-putzes had no idea were even possible, completely unaware of the power of math vs imbued magical applets and stuff.

"Huh, I think I just cracked the phone of an Angel." She smirked as her hair kept typing, thousands of keystrokes a minute manifesting on the screen as she wrote programs on the fly customized to her target, making sure his phone's interface didn't display anything unusual going on.

"Someone needs to teach these idiots information security. Yeah, this is one of Raguel's agents, one of the Beatitudes. She's in Seattle right now. From the tone, she's trying very hard to not break into a hate-rant about humans rising up and not allowing the Beasts to do such a thing."

"I take it she doesn't know that there's no Human on the planet who's a match for Fire Phoenix? Before we just doubled and more His power in His new Domain?"

"Synodic agents are not graded on their analytical ability and open minds, you know," she reminded me happily.

"And information containment applies to fanatics, as well," I had to agree.

"Proper information dissemination and fanaticism is a hard balancing act," Sama nodded along.

"Hello, what the fuck is this?" She flicked me over an eyeball view so I wouldn't have to get up.

"Uh... is that a Swarm of some Magical Beasts, the size of Hawaii?" I had to ask, as the photographic view of a flyover from great altitude scrolled past. The water was literally filled with uncountable numbers of white-shelled Aquatics. She was already tapping out search parameters for a different screen, going through a bunch of secure databases whose owners would have been severely stressed knowing that she had access to them.

Not wanting to inflict unnecessary pressure on them, she graciously didn't inform them.

"Got a hit off the Shanghai Hunter's Guild. There was some kind of kill mission..." She read through it with her other eye while watching this utterly massive collection of creatures scroll past, before there was kind of a ripple and warping, and suddenly the whole image washed out and was gone.

"Got sniped at thirty thousand feet." Which was why I didn't go flying over the ocean.

"Kill mission?" I prompted.

"Apparently some kind of new Aquatic had invaded one of the inland lake areas in China and was spreading with incredible speed. They found it was a native lizard-type who was mating with a shelled ocean creature, and the pairing was incredibly fecund, to the point where they called the sterile young Shelled Salamander Demons.

The young grow incredibly fast, and their hides are steel-hard, giving them Commander-level durability for their size and power, to the point it was taking Mage-level spells to one-shot Servants." Tap.

"They found the male creature, a Spiral-Shelled Natulusk, and eliminated it, along with multiple Blood Poison Lizard mates." Tappity-tap.

"Something about Warding Rock and Ironwall Stone being mined in the area, so the Beasts were probably eating the mining results to fortify their skins." I looked at the replay going by her eye again.

"I be stooopid, but I'm thinking that any kind of size analysis will confirm that the creatures there number a whole bunch stronger than Servants." Tappity-tap-tap.

"I've got definite grades up to Commander, and the drone wasn't even to the middle of the Swarm," confirmed Sama.

"Something this big has to have a Ruler backing it directly, at the very least, and it wouldn't be out of sorts for a half-Emperor or more." This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

"You wanna tell me what they are eating to pull off the growth of millions of a brand-new species with presumably no territory of their own out of their asses?"

"Hard pass."

"You wanna tell me what one of those creatures was doing so far inland in China?"

"Probably sent there to create a separate, rapidly-expanding force of children. The Sea Emperors are pretty good at strategy and tactics after watching and fighting Humans for so long. This kind of infiltration isn't beyond them, especially with a Great Flood to help matters along."

"Gods-damned Sages," I muttered without force.

"And for the real question?" Tapping, tapping.

"Projected course is almost drifting with the current, but it's headed towards northern China or Japan."

"Aquatic creatures with full terrestrial adaptability are a freaking nightmare, Sama," I noted worriedly.

"Yeah, and this kind of creature isn't that special in terms of power, but the numbers and defenses make it ideal for being a disposable horde of servants," she nodded. Keys clicked and tapped.

"I'm sending the data and analysis off to a whole, whole bunch of fairly intelligent but otherwise disparate individuals in various locations." And the tragedy of leaked data and revealed emergencies to the world continued!

"Are there any similar amphibious Lizard species not on the East Asian coastline?"

"Checking..." Monster archives rose up, drawing comparisons as much as we were able to.

"Ugh. On the Pacific, there's three possibles in Mexico and Central American in jungle territories. There's one in California, but it's up in the mountains and probably inaccessible to the Spiral-Shelled Natulusks who started the whole thing.

"Over on the other sides, we've got positives in the Amazon and further south, the Everglades, potentially in the swamps of Georgia and the Carolinas, and at least five locations along the shores of Africa, too. We don't know if they'll have the same results, but the Lizard species aren't all that different." I considered that somberly.

"So... how many in the Pacific islands? And how many of those islands have gone silent?" Her tapping stopped for all of a second, and then started again. I watched screens dance around with her, gathering some data and calling for others to grab more, feeding it in around the location of that blot of white shells and drawing a different picture.

There were at least fifty islands within a hundred miles of that blob or its projected track that weren't responding to communications or simply weren't inhabited by humans full-time.

"Well," Sama said icily, "if they cleaned off the vegetation, too, that's definitely enough biomass to make the horde, right?" I was silent another moment.

"Other stupid important question."

"They called them 'Shelled Salamander Demons' because they use 'Demons' as a euphemism for Magical Beasts, and Salamanders because they look like fish-lizards and have steely hides, and they didn't care if they weren't actual amphibians or the Elemental tribes from deeper in the mantle."

"That's the one. Thank you. I was going to get so annoyed at their naming conventions." Sama smirked.

"I think we can assume they aren't true Aquatics, which is why they are covering the surface of the sea and are not underneath it. Furthermore, they are rapidly depleting the food around them, so the majority of the Horde is conserving energy until they can get to proper food sources, and hence they are drifting with the ocean."

"And they aren't stupid enough to start feeding on the ocean Tribes, as they'll be set upon from all sides and devoured in turn..."

"While their combined traits make them a superb littoral invasion force. Their progenitors can just sit back and make more of them, sending them inland to hunt for food endlessly, and don't have to worry about them reproducing out of control." Sama grit her teeth.

"Okay, I want these things dead in the worst way. The Sea Emperors are obviously giving them a convenient pass on things..."

"Which Sea Emperors?" I asked her mildly, and her tapping slowed for a moment again.

"That's... a good question," she admitted, considering the point.

"Might I venture that the Orcas and the Cachalots would find the idea of a species who eats stuff that increases the toughness of their hides to be an incredible discovery to get ahold of?"

"You might, but only if you're a sadistic bitch who doesn't mind feeding a new species of ecological disasters into the stomachs of a bunch of fun-loving, peaceful cetaceans!"

"Apologies, then. It was obviously your idea. I'm certainly more of a glutton for punishment than an inflictor of it."

"Good that you have that straight!" Sama grinned ferociously, eight canines shining.

"Although I noticed you have not spent any time at Death Zones to really prove that..."

"Going to one would immediately start a war with the Undead Sages who dominate them. I'm fully aware of how much I loathe undead and wouldn't be able to stop until they are expunged."

"Yeah, those stories Reynard tells about you in the Beast Realm made it pretty plain just how much you wanted them dead and gone. I noticed you were barely exerting yourself against those Black Curia idiots down in Ohio, too... right up until you treated Husker's horns and hooves and he fucking owned that Noble Shade." I just sighed slightly.

"I am an utterly terrifying foe against Undead and Fiends, Sama. The Holy Metas are literally designed to fight them. The magic that can be wielded here is absolutely horrifying in its potential scope and endurance, even if the creatures are similarly enhanced to withstand it.

"I probably had enough spell power to kill that Ruling Shade myself if I needed to." She glanced my way for a moment, then just sighed and nodded.

"Briggs and I figured that, but you didn't want to stand out that much with all those Archmages there... or alarm the Black Curia or the Netherworld itself. Just the existence of vivic fire here is a hint that it followed you."

"They may or may not know a human was in the Beast Realm, and they won't attach any special significance to it, unless they realize mortal humans aren't supposed to be able to go there to begin with. As planar travelers, they probably just don't think humans evolved there, and I was generally just described as a 'Furless Monkey' by most of the Beasts who'd never met a human.

"But, yes, I didn't really want a Shade Assassin coming after me anytime soon, just because of the collateral damage... although I admit to looking forward to stunlocking one and watching you or Briggs murder it."