Chapter 212 - In Pursuit Of A Shadow

Out beyond the isolated birdcages that life hid within nowadays, a frightful, alien world flourished in the detritus of the old world. It was a world of prolonged silence, stillness, and death intensely antithetical to anything that moved. The Infestation had spared not a single thing in the aftermath of the Great War. 

They had spared not even the smallest forms of life. The entire planet had been methodically sterilized, all the way down to the tiniest bacterium on the smallest pebble. 

"Just look at it... Completely stripped of its flesh and poisoned down to the bone," said Lu'um quietly as she gazed at her homeworld with a pitiful expression. "There's nothing left of my home except the decaying ruins of my people's former cities. And even they have begun to crumble into dust over the course of untold eons." 

Two months had passed since Reed and Lu'um had departed from Citlai into the Shadowlands and began their expedition into the great unknown of the planet once known as Mu. 

Aboard of the retrofitted Carnwennan, a former Ancient Mulian scoutship, Reed and Lu'um had embarked on a long journey that would take them across the entirety of Mu. It was an investigatory mission to doc.u.ment every aspect of the planet and the enemy in preparation for the upcoming offensive that they had planned. 

"We can always rebuild those cities," said Reed as he poured over the new data they were receiving from the cutting-edge scanning probes and sensors installed on the Carnwennan's outer hull. "And although we cannot bring back what was lost, we can restore this planet and give it life anew in time. Let us not get too ahead of ourselves for now, though..." 

Fifteen thousand feet beneath them, a vast hellscape of barren, grey land covered in a black, web-like formation was all that remained of the former garden world. From afar, that strange black formation seemed benign, albeit quite strange, but upon closer inspection, they had discovered a truly insidious affair in the making... 

Of all the horrors they had discovered and cataloged, that black formation was the most concerning to Reed and Lu'um, by far. Though it was a dormant entity, it posed the greatest threat to their plans simply by virtue of its mind-bogglingly immense size and scale. 

They had tentatively given it the name "Anchor-Root," in part for its dual nature as both a weapon and a shield for the Infestation. True to its name, the Anchor-Root was a homogenous superorganism that surpassed anything ever born naturally on Mu in terms of size, energy efficiency, adaptability, and overall durability. 

It was a root system that spanned, well, as far as the eye could see and beyond. Not only that, but preliminary scans indicated that it was not a shallow creature, either. The damned thing had buried its... roots in rather deep, deep enough that Reed reckoned that it had reached the planet's molten core. 

His pet theory made sense on paper; an entity that massive would require an equally massive source of energy to survive, even if it was hibernating to conserve its strength. 

Lu'um had always wondered what had happened to the planet's native flora and fauna — it had all been decomposed and reconstituted in a form that best suited the Infestation's needs. The part of the planet's biomass that did not have any combat potential had been repurposed to support the war effort in multiple ways. 

Reed frowned deeply and said, "This will be more difficult than I previously expected. The concentration of miasma in this region is so bad that the standard armor plating we use for our warsh.i.p.s will not suffice. Even our ship is starting to break down in this damned sea of toxic fog. We need to get out of this region soon, or we'll end up finding ourselves without a ship at all." 

What made things worse was that visibility was abysmal, too. It made it nigh-impossible to see without the use of advanced scanning equipment, rendering any would-be advantages gained from scanning the ground worthless. They would have to develop a method to quickly disperse and neutralize the miasma to stand a chance at retaking densely polluted regions... 

"We both know that isn't the real problem," said Lu'um turning her attention toward Reed, "I cannot even begin to imagine how we'll be retaking the seas. The concentration of miasma within them is a hundred times higher than even the worst region we've surveyed on land. It's so bad down there that it's impossible to enter without turning into a puddle of slime in a matter of minutes." 

Reed chuckled awkwardly and said, "Well, let's take things one step at a time, okay? Once we develop a neutralizer for the miasma, we'll have to produce a fair bit of it and a method to dispense it quickly. No, that wouldn't work. How about an armor coating instead? But that still wouldn't stop our warsh.i.p.s from getting melted from the inside out once they get penetrated and start flooding with that toxic sludge..." 

And then, there were the ever-watchful eyes that secretly kept track of every pebble, weathered building, and passing thundercloud in the wretched sky above them. These "Watchers," were yet another source of frustration, for once one was caught in their line of sight, the entirety of the Infestation would become alerted of their presence. 

These Watchers could also fire devasting beams of superheated corrupted Anima that could pierce through even the thickest shielding they currently possessed. Reed suspected that they were likely the biggest reason why Mulian expeditions rarely returned home.

All it took was for a single Watcher to pick up on the slightest abnormality in the area — a change in temperature, air pressure, natural light, or anything else in the electromagnetic spectrum. —  for them to raise the alarm and begin their assault on any would-be trespassers... 

The only reason that Reed and Lu'um had not been detected since their journey began was because Reed had been using his eldritch abilities to mask the ship with a veil of sorts. With his Outer Sight, he had created a veil of corrupted Anima that gave the elegant-looking Carnwennan the outward appearance of some atrocious flying abomination and the foul aura of one, too. 

If there was one thing to thank, though, it was these pesky Watchers required an enormous amount of energy to fire their wretched beams, which meant that they were dependent on the only energy source the Infestation had on the planet, the Anchor-Root. 

The only other thing they had discovered thus far was that most of the places they had doc.u.mented were virtually empty. Besides the Anchor-Root that had spread across the planet, the Infestation's main forces could only be found in cities. Suspended in fetid cocoons that were connected to the Anchor-Root for sustenance, they were reserve forces that had been put in stasis after the Great War. 

"I hate to say, but the... environmental policies your people embraced have ended up strangely helping us," said Reed ambivalently. Because of their great love of nature, the Ancient Mulians had turned an overwhelming majority of Mu into a planet-wide wildlife refuge. Over 99% of Mu had been left for Mother Nature, and the other 1% had been allocated for the Ancient Mulians to utilize.

"Had you lot not been so invested in keeping the planet nice and green, the Anchor-Root would not have grown so extensively, I wager. Still, it's a bit ironic how the very thing we are striving to protect might end up proving critical to our success. Their real forces are only concentrated in certain areas, mainly the major cities, so that's one element we won't have to worry too much about..."

The Ancient Mulian's eco-friendly philosophy had created a situation where the main resistance — in the form of combat-duty Infested — was not as high as anticipated. Still, the number of Infested that they would have to face numbered in the hundreds of millions, at a minimum. According to old records, over 680 million Ancient Mulians and other alien refugees were present for Mu's final stand against the Infestation. 

This was, of course, not counting the original invasion force that had initially seized the planet during its last days. And that was what worried Reed and Lu'um. Over twelve and a half billion Infested, the original hordefleet that invaded the planet were...

Missing.

The detailed scans they conducted had brought into light something of a mystery. Of the four continents that were on Mu — the fifth and final continent, Mulia, not included — they had successfully surveyed two of the four lost continents over the course of the last two months. 

But their numbers were not adding up to the hard facts. They found that the continents of Iuho and Lahtal only contained about 290 million Infested in total. And they knew two remaining continents, Miral and Qudo, did not have enough cities or population centers to make up for the missing headcount.

According to Lu'um, there shouldn't have been anything of interest that could have motivated the Infestation to move the brunt of their forces to those continents, either. 

Something was clearly off, and it unsettled them deeply. Where had this missing force gone off to? There wasn't much left of anything out in the wider universe, as the Infestation had stripped to everything down the bone. Planets had been sterilized, stars had been snuffed of their light, and anything that had a pulse was killed and enslaved by the Infestation. 

They would have to solve that mystery before going back home; otherwise, their plan would never come to fruition. It was absolutely unacceptable not knowing where the other 12.9 billion Infested were hibernating. But that would have to be postponed for the time being, as Reed and Lu'um had a bigger matter to attend to. 

Their destination was Talfano City, formerly a beautiful metropolis situated in the heart of Mu's hottest and driest desert. It was a world-reknown oasis once called the Heart of the Emperor, for it was his original birthplace...

Reed pulled out a small, silver-looking key made of some type of dull crystal. It was the first heirloom he had been given by the peculiar restaurant owner called 'Uncle Bernard.' The man had advised him to head towards Talfano City to seek out what his Father had left for him, but Reed never got around to doing that for good reason — much had happened in Mulia, after all...

The first heirloom that had been given to him by Uncle Bernard was still in his possession, kept tightly secured within a small, metallic canister inside his cloak, and had never left his side after he reclaimed it. Reed had still not forgotten about her and how much he owed her. 

If there was a way to save her, Reed was resolved to find it. He'd do anything short of selling his soul to the devil to undo the pain that his actions had caused. However, his options were running out. And in his desperation, Reed remembered something very curious that he had been told a long time ago. 

"The cloak's an old keepsake of your pops, lad." 

There was no other way. In order to bring her back, Reed would need to find its first owner and ask him for help. 

He needed to find the former Emperor of the Mulian Empire. The same man who had once ruled the Multiverse and forsaken it when it needed him the most and...

Joined hands with the enemy.