In the 20 minutes that Mark and Andria had been gone the 6 mithril guardian statues had fully turned away from the sun kaiju. Lightspeed slimes clogged up the heart holes again, but the overall coverage of slimes was minimal, and the sun once again poured out simple quasar-like streams of ejecta from the north and south poles.
Mark had covered Andria’s orb with a layer of adamantium, protecting her from the golden motes that swarmed the layer, further away from the sun. But now they were 2 kilometers away, and the number of motes in the sky were rather minimal. Mark didn’t even see any active lightspeed slimes flowing on any magnetic rivers.
“Taking off the shield,” Mark said, as he pulled back adamantium from Andria’s orb. “Can your mithril handle it?” There were much fewer golden motes here, but there were still motes. Mark watched as one of them skimmed along the surface of Andria’s mithril sphere, bouncing off like so much glitter. “Looks like it can… Mostly.”
The mote had caused a scratch in the mithril.
… Hmm. The mithril statues around the sun kaiju had to be enchanted somehow? Probably.
Andria filtered her vector into the mithril and sealed it up, softly saying, “The incursion is minimal. There is a reason they used mithril in the construction of those statues, and I was right. I’m fine. I can fill in the mithril if it gets damaged, so I’m fine.”
She was nervous again.
Mark didn’t blame her for being nervous. Mark eyed some lightspeed slimes flowing on the magnetic rivers out there, and thought that this endeavor was probably very, very stupid.
But they were here.
Mark said, “I’m not begging, so you’re going to have to, Andria.”
The world rumbled at that moment, and it was a kaiju’s laugh.
BLACKTHING RETURNS.
… It was already talking, huh? That was a good sign.
Mark Called back, “I’m helping her. She wants to talk to you.”
THEN SHE CAN SPEAK FOR HERSELF. SPEAK, LITTLE ONE… LITTLE MITHRIL ONE.
Andria turned on the big speakers, blasting her voice into the sky, “I am Andria Metallicmore and—”
The ejecta from the north and south poles doubled in power. The voice was angry.
SPEAK UP. I AM OLD. AND REMOVE THAT SILLY SHELL. I WILL NOT HURT YOU, YET.
The world around Mark and Andria crashed with magnetic forces, creating a bubble of protection from the golden motes. A few lightspeed slimes traced down the new magnetic flows, ‘showering’ around the space with Mark and Andria. It was a casual display of power and danger.
Mark stupidly wanted to fight the sun kaiju, but he recognized it was a stupid reaction. He was not suffering from ‘dragon wake’, thank you very much, Lola.
Mark told Andria, “You need to Call.”
Andria took a moment to make herself strong, and then she pressed a button and a hatch popped open. She hovered herself out of there, using her mithril as caltrops, and then she stood as proud as she could on the surface of her hoverorb, about 3 meters away from Mark. She was all sorts of ‘girl next door’, with brown hair, brown eyes, and a cute face, and Mark usually didn’t notice that sort of thing, but the way she stood in front of certain death had a kind of charm to it, Mark supposed.
Andria’s voice was terribly weak, though, as she Called out, “I am here to petition for prismatic mana and a secondary Awakening to Prosperity.”
… WHAT?
Mark infused Andria with Glory.
Andria’s voice boomed out, “I am here to petition for prismatic mana and a secondary Awakening to Prosperity!”
AH, THAT IS BETTER. ALSO, NO. IF THAT IS ALL, THEN YOU CAN GO AWAY. I AM SLEEPING HERE.
“… Please? I’m begging?”
BEG A DIFFERENT GOD.
“Are you a god?” Mark Called.
Might have been some scoffing in there, too.
BAH! THE IMPUDENCE— YES! I AM A GOD. HAVE YOU MET MANY GODS? HARRUMPH!
Mark Called, “I have personally met at least one god several times, in a good and helpful way each time, and I’ve probably met a lot more without knowing about those meetings at all. The gods I know are usually quite helpful.”
THEN WE MUST BE IN THAT SORT OF COSMIC AGE WHERE THE GODS ARE CODDLERS, FOR YOU CANNOT POSSIBLY BE WORTHY OF GODLY ATTENTION, FOR IF YOU ARE, THEN THE WORLDS ARE DOOMED. SO I SAY YOU HAVE NOT MET ANY GODS AT ALL, FOR GODS ARE NOT HELPFUL. THEY SIMPLY ARE. I AM A STANDARD GOD; I SIMPLY AM.
I SHINE.
WHAT DO YOUR LITTLE GODS DO, HUH— AH! ACTUALLY, DON’T ANSWER THAT. I DON’T CARE.
WHAT DO YOU DO? WHY ARE YOU OUT HERE?
“I, personally, am going to figure out how to kill all monsters forever,” Mark replied. “My friend here is much more socially-aspected than myself. She’s a crafter looking for a bit more Prosperity in her life; to solidify the Prosperity Power granted by her chosen goddess.”
The sun god/kaiju seemed to pause.
KILL ALL MONSTERS FOREVER, HUH? MIGHT AS WELL TRY TO STOP THE TURNING OF THE WORLDS. BUT YOUR FRIEND… YOU SAY SHE IS SOCIALLY ASPECTED? AND TO A GODDESS OF PROSPERITY? WELL MAYBE...
TELL ME, LITTLE MITHRIL SEEKER OF POWER… IS YOUR GODDESS... CUTE?
A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.
Andria easily, proudly, gloriously declared, “In her mortal life Victoria Sterling was an army logistician, then shipping magnate, then business tycoon. My Goddess rebuilt empires and the Two Worlds in the wake of the near-absolute destruction of the Reveal! She reconnected civilization and peoples! She is the bank behind the biggest Powers in the Two Worlds. She is the Goddess of Gold, the Empress of Earners, and she had a harem of suitors! She was and is beyond cute! She’s hot!”
THEN I LOOK FORWARD TO MEETING HER.
A raw blast of prismatic light shone out of the sun kaiju, before Mark could do anything at all. It blasted Andria a hundred meters away and then cut off instantly, and Andria kept flying backward. A deeply golden/red eye opened in the heart of the sun, while a horde of lightspeed slimes flowed through the sky, aiming at the insensate Andria—
Mark was already 10 meters away from the partially destroyed hoverorb, aiming at Andria, flowing his adamantium at her, reaching—
The lightspeed slimes got there first and they surrounded her and then rushed her far, far away, moving way too fast—
YOU AND I WILL TALK NOW.
Mark controlled himself as much as he could, though he was incandescent inside. He turned back toward the sun kaiju, the ‘god’, and Called, “Speak.”
If the sun kaiju understood that Mark was mad, he did not seem to care.
WHY DO YOU, A SMALL, ALMOST-HUMAN, NEED TO KILL ALL MONSTERS? DON’T YOU HAVE GRAND PROTECTORS FOR THAT?
His tone was almost like that of a concerned teacher.
Andria was alive, but far, far out of range.
Mark was still furious, but he was thinking fast, moving from ‘rage’ to attempting to have a productive conversation. Mark Called out, “You’d have to tell me what a ‘grand protector’ is for me to be able to answer that.”
… HMM. HAS THE ENDLESS COURT TAKEN LEAVE? HAVE THEY… I CAN’T EVEN IMAGINE IT. HAVE THEY ‘ENDED’?
“Don’t know what that is, either. Sounds important.”
… THEY USED TO BE IMPORTANT, YES, BUT THINGS CHANGE. WHAT IS THE CURRENT AGE?
… Mark answered in several ways, “I count it as 80 years Post Reveal, but also as 2050 Common Era, and also as 4,300-something Daihoon, though that last time keeping system is linked to the Dragon King and has fallen out of favor, and pretty much every nation on Daihoon counts the age differently, with some at 6,500 and some at only 600, so the people of Daihoon moved over to Common Era of Earth, or Post Reveal, after the Reveal.”
I KNOW NONE OF THOSE RECKONINGS. THIS IS TROUBLING. WHAT OF THE ELVES?
Mark startled.
Elves?
Holy fuck.
“Haven’t seen any elves that weren’t corrupted by something that I still don’t understand, but I have been led to believe that there are more of them out here in Endless Daihoon, in these layers that wind through the dreamlands like roads connecting Daihoon to the demon city of Arakino on the moon. But if they’re out here then I haven’t seen any. Most people stay out of this place, aside from commonplace minimal excursions, just to be able to travel between the Two Worlds. Besides myself and my team, and a few dragon-controlled lands that we all only just found out about, there is only one other excursion I know about that came out here in recent memory. That was 80 years ago, to stop the Reveal from killing everyone and tearing apart the Two Worlds.”
The sun kaiju’s eye never stopped pointing at Mark, though it did flex wider in response to some of his words, especially when Mark mentioned ‘demon city’ and Arakino. Mark was too far away from the sun to sense his emotions with Unionsense, but he could still feel a general pull on the world indicating deep interest… And sorrow.
The sun kaiju sounded almost distraught as he spoke next.
THE ‘DEMON’ CITY? THE ‘DREAMLANDS’? NO ONE COMES OUT HERE? AND THE ONLY KNOWN ELVES ARE CORRUPTED… THE ELVES… THE ETERNAL COURT IS TRULY... THIS…. THESE WORDS YOU ARE USING ARE ALL LACED WITH SO MANY… BAD THINGS.
THIS IS A BAD ERA.
HOW DO YOU HOPE TO SOLVE THESE PROBLEMS— YOU ARE GOING TO SOLVE THESE PROBLEMS, YES?
“Probably through a lot of monster killing and society expansion, yes. I’m good at the first one, bad at the second, so other people can do the other jobs.” Mark stared at the red-gold eye at the center of the sun, and Called, “I have a question! Who are you?”
The eye regarded Mark.
And then Andria’s sleeping body, glowing with prismatic inner light, came back to Mark, embraced by floating slimes like she was on a bed of soft silver clouds. Her vector was completely internal.
I’M NOBODY IMPORTANT, BUT IF YOU SHOULD REESTABLISH LIFE IN THIS ‘ENDLESS DAIHOON’ THEN YOU WILL NEED MAGICAL POWER FOR YOUR CIVILIZATION.
IF YOU DO MAKE CIVILIZATION UP HERE THEN YOUR FRIEND CAN RETURN AND PETITION ME FOR MAGICAL POWER, AND I WILL THINK ABOUT GRANTING SUCH POWER. UNTIL THEN I WILL BE MOVING AROUND THIS ‘LAYER’, SEARCHING OUT ANSWERS FOR MYSELF.
IN THE FUTURE, DO NOT TRY TO TAKE POWER FROM ME WITHOUT MY PERMISSION.
THOSE ARE MY SIPHONS. YOU ARE NOT TO TOUCH THEM.
GOOD DAY.
“… Good day to you too, Nobody Important.”
The gold-red eye seemed to nod as it closed.
As Mark dragged Andria in a black cocoon through the layer, toward the Dreadnought in the ‘Softer Land’, he was pretty sure the sun was more distraught than angry. Deeply worried. Mark had never gotten close enough to actually Unionsense it at all, but its effects were layer-wide, so… Mark wasn’t sure about a lot of things right now.
“That went well, right, Quark?” Mark asked, as he dove into the dreamlands with Purpose.
Quark responded, “I have made several annotated notes, connecting many things said in that conversation to many known histories and theorized histories. In short: It went well, but it could also be the start of something horrific. Nobody Important is a sapient category 7 kaiju, at the very least. He also seems to be a willing power source for a possibly-elven society.”
The dreamlands parted and Mark descended into the Softer Lands with Andria in tow. The Dreadnought was far below them by a few hundred kilometers, and repairs looked to be going well, based on Quark’s zoomed imaging.
Mark looked over to the black cocoon containing Andria, and said, “So she doesn’t seem to be a demon plant, because if she was then that probably should have gone a lot differently.”
Quark said, “That seems a reasonable stance to take, but consider this: Nobody Important was able to pick up on your language, your intent with all of your words, the history laced within your words, and he knew what you meant when you said ‘demons’. His powers of sight are probably unparalleled, so when he expressed dismay over demons being called demons, he meant it.”
“… Ah.”
“ ‘Ah’ indeed, sir.”
Mark kept descending toward the Dreadnought.
Quark was silent.
“That’s… something to keep an eye on.”
“Yes, sir.”
