Chapter 181: Jane, 1/2

Chapter 181: Jane, 1/2

Jane landed atop the second wall, feeling restless in her blue tarantula form.

It was night and the battle was going as expected, but a few drops of corrupted soul matter clung to the bright blue hairs of her abdomen. The last greater amalgam had been another slug-type that sprayed especially viscous goo that clung to her through all her [Prismatic Body] and personal [Cleanse]ing efforts, and it would cost her too much mana to actually clean up the problem herself. She just had to wait. Hurry up and wait, hurry up and wait. The motto of any army, on Earth or on Veird. Whatever! The solution to this particular problem was already on his way.

Jane’s foot claws gripped tight on the edges of the wall as Moriz, her [Cleanse]r for the last few weeks, stepped out of his rest area to the side of Jane’s prep station and opened up his aura. Thick air began to roll away from Jane’s massive, tarantula form, and she started to feel better. Lighter. With her Surround Sight, she took in the kid standing between her first and second legs on her left side, well inside the range of her fangs, and yet, Moriz had long since lost his fear of her.

He yawned.

Jane would have rolled her eyes at him if she could, but spiders lacked certain capabilities that most animals were able to do; rolling her eyes was one of those. The night was not over and protocol demanded the kid remain vigilant, but Spur had long since lost its fear of the black ooze.

They were farming the greater amalgams, now, when an easy kill presented itself. Silverite was doing some political shit that was apparently great for Spur, according to the full streets, and hotels, and bustling businesses all across the city...

Jane was still enjoying this, though. Adrenaline, or whatever the spider-equivalent was, was still pumping through her circulatory system. Moriz’s lax attitude kinda pissed her off, but that was fine. Jane focused on herself, and this adrenaline-feeling inside of her. She had been trying to fix her biology for a long time now, to try and understand all of what was inside her when she [Polymorph]ed, and all this downtime between big battles was great for her mana sense practice. She hadn’t actually managed to make a mana sense, yet, but that wasn’t too much of a problem. She could feel her insides rather well these days.

Most small spiders didn’t actually have real veins and arteries and normal circulatory systems. In a way, her tarantula form was like those small spiders, but Jane had incorporated a more normal system into her larger, chimeric form, mutating the nascent circulatory system that her mutated body already had into something stronger. Additional hearts and arteries, and a few other systems, kept her body feeling fresh without the need to use [Greater Shadowalk] all the time in order to properly breathe. With a nice set of lungs attached to her abdomen and another breathing hole near her mouth, she could actually breathe normally.

‘Normally’.

There was absolutely nothing normal about her chimeric form, but it felt nicer to have some lungs she could open and breathe through when she was waiting for the next battle. Besides the normalcy, which was nice on its own, this way she could conserve some mana between fights, as she didn’t need to run [Greater Shadowalk] in order to oxygenate her blood. And with all those changes, she had even gone a bit further and decided to use the Queen Blood Weaver’s mimicry voice box, combine it with the Shadow Spider’s, and add in some more lungs up front, so she could actually talk normally now.

Surprising even herself, she had gotten tired of the horrific voice of her past spider forms. She didn’t think that was possible, but then it happened, and now she was here.

Moriz yawned again, then he sleepily asked, “Think there’s gonna be any more amalgams before sunrise?”

She spread her fangs a bit and exposed a second mouth located above the first, behind her chitinous lips. With her normal, human-form voice, Jane said, “Probably not, but vigilance is never a bad thing.”

“I stayed up too late yesterday.” Moriz said, “I can barely stay awake now. This is tiring.”

At that, Jane smiled, with both her mouths. “It can be.” She glanced up and noticed the first rays of sunlight touching the highest clouds. “Sunrise in half an hour and then another hour of cleanup after that, then you can go home and sleep.”

The land ahead of them was already awash in sunlight from the hundreds of [True Sunlight Rift]s Kiri had littered across the front lines, and atop the outermost wall. Despite the name of the spell, though, it was still fake sunlight. The sky was still dark, and beyond Kiri’s line of light was an apocalyptic ocean of black, dead souls, churned into an ooze that spread out every single night from Ar’Kendrithyst. It attempted to cover the land with its power; to take every living thing it touched and meld it with the other nearest living thing, creating amalgams. Those amalgams then swam in that ocean of dead souls, looking for more living things to absorb. Each one was at least level 70, and some were all the way up there as level 95. Jane had been killing the things for well over a month now and she had gained level 98. One of the highest levels that Spur had ever before seen. And yet...

That ocean of darkness was soul mutilation, death, or a fate worse than death, depending on who you believed back in the city. People argued every single day about what the soul ooze actually was, and where it came from. They argued about ways to properly defeat it...

And recently, they had begun to openly speak of ways to keep milking it for all it was worth.

Jane wasn’t the only newly-minted level 98 person in Spur. This level of Levels on the Surface was unheard of. Killing them was still horribly fucking dangerous, with people dying every day when they failed to respect the enemy, but... The amalgams were comparatively stupid and weak.

They were still each at the power level of an Ancient, though. One wrong move and you died. One failure-of-reconnaissance or failure-of-execution and people died. Or worse, they became one with the amalgams, making even more of a problem for the people who would eventually have to put down the newly-empowered amalgams before they could breach the walls.

Moriz, with his [Cleansing Aura] still flowing across Jane, asked, “I heard the Mayor talking in town about finally ending the soul ooze, but that was a week ago. You heard anything else?”

Jane frowned, unsure how to answer the kid. Despite the surety of the defense of the walls of Spur, they were still one bad night, one oddly-empowered amalgam away from needing to abandon the city. And the problem of the ooze wasn’t getting any better. Moriz was likely hearing the same things Jane heard in town about ‘farming the ooze’.

Jane said, “I’m just a grunt. I don’t know anything.”

Moriz huffed a laugh. “Yeah right.”

The kid had obviously seen through her lie, but it wasn’t that much of a lie. Jane said, “I might know a bit more than you, but I don’t have access to the inner workings of Spur. I don’t sit in on any meetings. All I know is that I need to defend this section of wall.”

“... Aye.” Moriz sighed again.

“You need to get better sleep. That’s the tenth yawn tonight and we still got an hour of cleanup after daylight breaks.”

Moriz sighed, and this time the word came out sadly, “Aye.”

“I would have more sympathy for you if you hadn’t gained 65 levels just from cleaning me every night. I still don’t know why Phagar gave you that 1% that one time.”

Jane’s barb had found a sensitive spot.

Moriz practically shouted, “I almost died when that amalgam broke through!”

“Yeah yeah.” Jane smirked, then telekinetically flickered her black sword into the air ahead and gave it a good spin. Prismatic light spun from the suddenly-appearing ten meter length of Force extending from the blade. And then she stilled it, saying, “You were never in any danger.”

Poi’s voice came through, ‘Don’t play with your sword on the backlines. It makes people nervous.’

Jane ignored the voice in her head.

Moriz had another complaint about how he almost died. Jane assured him he was fine.

... The little shit had almost died, but Jane had been there, and there was no need to panic the kid any more than he already was. Jane knew he wasn’t getting any sleep. A lot of people weren’t sleeping well these days. There had been more incidents of amalgam ooze transporting itself on people, who then went back into the city, where the ooze grew in darkness and swallowed those people whole, turning them and their neighbors into amalgams.

One of Moriz’s neighbors had suffered that fate early on, and now the kid was out here with the Class ‘Cleanser of Rozeta’, and dedicated to keeping the world cleaner than it was before. Apparently the kid was quite devout, but he never spoke much about that part of his life.

Eventually, the sun broke the horizon and the black ocean of dead souls screamed as it evaporated in the light. The shadows spilling out across Ar’Kendrithyst’s wall retreated, plunging back down into the depths of the Dead City; out of sight for another day.

Another hour of cleanup later and Jane was cleared to exit her [Polymorph] and return home, which is exactly what she did.

Back at home, Jane dug into a fried potato and beef stir fry dinner that Teressa had kept warm, just for her. Everyone else had already eaten and some of them had already headed off to bed, but at least two people were still awake. Jane went upstairs, to the war room, where Teressa and Poi stood beside a wardlight map of the area.

They always looked a little bit worried every morning, for they weren’t enjoying the thrill of the kill like Jane was. But today was different. They were almost somber.

“What’s the bad news?” Jane asked, as she entered the room, glancing at the map.

The map showed Ar’Kendrithyst in the center, about a decimeter across; large enough to show the major geography of the dead Geode but too small to have any detail. Spur was a simple dot on the north side of the map. Frontier, or ‘New Brightwater’ as ‘Blessed Shade’ Farix and the survivors of Brightwater were calling it, was a dot on the south side of the map. Kal’Duresh was another small dot, about half a meter away from Ar’Kendrithyst to the west. Below the map, sat a stack of papers. The papers could be flipped through to show the history of each previous night; where monsters appeared, how far the ooze managed to flow, everything of large importance. There was apparently a bigger version of this mapping system inside the Courthouse; the official map of the battle that would be saved for all history, if possible. There were a lot of maps like that in the Courthouse.

Jane looked at their small, private map, and she saw why Poi and Teressa were concerned.

“... Oh,” Jane said.

Teressa said, “It’s getting worse.” She gestured to paper maps, saying, “Flip through, but I guess you remember the parameters of yesterday’s map.”

“That’s... A lot faster expansion than everyone thought, right?” Jane leafed through the stack of maps, which had been laid down in a three-ring binder of sorts, and flipped to yesterday’s map. She frowned again, then she flipped back to today’s map, saying, “That’s a hundred more kilometers covered in a single night? Than the night before? I knew it was bad, but... this bad?”

Poi said, “120 more kilometers; yes.”

Teressa added, “But the bigger thing is that this large increase coincides with Anhelia receiving assistance with more Light Domains yesterday, and grabbing three more kendrithyst towers instead of her normal one. This confirms our theory that her tower reclamation is the direct cause of the size of the ooze.”

Jane’s eyes went wide and as she looked between Poi and Teressa and saw that neither were lying. She felt a pit in her stomach. “Ah. Shit.”

“Shit is right.” Poi said, “Everyone else will have noticed this after tonight, too.”

“What’s going to happen?”

Poi said, “Kal’Duresh will either appreciate amalgams at their doorstep tomorrow, instead of needing to venture out into the black sea to find them, or they will not. That’s all this really comes down to.”

Teressa said, “Everyone likes the free levels.”

Poi said, “We’ve started to notice Kendrithyst Mimics out in the Crystal Forest, too. First one was spotted this morning, sitting out there in the desert like a spike of red-purple crystal. It died to adventurers about half an hour after it was spotted.”

When the ooze retreated every morning, it left behind presents of amalgams all across its area of effect. Those amalgams were greatly weakened and ripe for the picking, which is what practically every adventurer in the guild or in Spur did every single day. The crystal mimics cleaned up the rest.

Jane found herself frowning even more. “This is all asinine, though. Right? I love fighting the big ones as much as anyone, but... People are asking me when this is going to end. And every single night, some stupid adventurer thinks themselves stronger than they are and throws themselves against amalgams they can’t handle and dies. Every night, it’s like this.”

Nirzir spoke from the doorway, “It is more power than most people will ever grasp.”

Jane had noticed her come into the room thanks to her Surround Sight, but said nothing until now. She glanced at Nirzir’s silk-thread nightclothes that were practically good enough to wear out on the town, and said, “I thought you were asleep?”

“I couldn’t sleep once I heard you talk about the iron wrought’s [Domain of Light].” Nirzir said, “My people noticed this long ago, but I was waiting for the night to be over before I had this discussion...” She asked Poi, “Has your Mayor changed her position in light of this irrefutable evidence?”

Jane stared a bit. “You noticed this a while ago?”

Nirzir gave a small, polite nod, saying, “It was unsubstantiated until today. Now we know. Anhelia’s [Domain of Light] is expelling something from those kendrithyst towers, into the Dead City, and this is [Grow]ing the soul ooze.”

Teressa gave a small sigh.

Poi said, “Kiri is having this discussion with Silverite and the archmages right now, at the Courthouse. They’ll tell us what’s what when they’re done. From what I have already heard, we think there will be a full-scale attack to try to discover a possible core to the soul ooze. If there is one, then we will kill it and that will be that.”

Nirzir nodded regally, looking a lot more relaxed in that moment than before. “Thank you. This danger is too large to let it flourish too much longer, no matter what boons it might bring, and I appreciate that Spur is doing the right thing.”

With some fatalism in her voice, Teressa said, “This soul ooze has been too profitable for too many people, just like Ar’Kendrithyst when the Shades were in charge. Their pure wealth has blinded everyone to the danger, and suckered even more people into the abyss with them.” She thumbed at the window, saying, “You see that new mansion out there, right? The big one? New human nobles; more refugees from Ar’Frontier.”

“People are calling it Ar’Frontier now?” Jane was already looking out the window. “... The white one?”

“The ivory one past that.” Teressa added, “The ‘Ar’Frontier’ thing is new, but I think it’ll catch on.”

Jane stared at the massive ivory house, saying, “... Oh. That’s a big one.”

Nirzir asked, “I was under the impression that nobility did not exist in Spur? That Silverite could just decide things and it would happen. Could she not just order the Army to assault the core? Or whatever it is?”

Teressa chuckled once, then said, “Silverite does what she can, but it’s hard to tell rich nobles with a myriad of political connections that the party is over.”

“Ah.” Nirzir nodded. “Plutocracy. Not true nobility.”

“We could use more venturacracies, in my opinion.” Teressa said, “That’s what Spur used to be.”

“Spur still is that, Teressa.” Poi said, “Silverite, the Adventurer’s Guild, the Mage’s Guild, and the Army still have majority control over the city. Nobility from all across the world used to have their adventuring holds here. Silverite knows how to deal with these people.”

Teressa frowned, saying, “Yeah... yeah. You might be right. But if you ask me, I think we should end this threat, and soon. Within the next few days... Because...” She blinked.

Teressa stared to the south, her eyes fixated on a stone wall that held nothing.

Jane glanced at the wall to make sure that there wasn’t something she was missing.

The large woman just stood there, looking into the far distance, but all that lay ahead of her was the room they were in. She could be looking at something outside of the space. Her mana sense range was at 200 meters these days, but she just stared at the wall, unblinking.

Nirzir looked Teressa over. “Uh?” She asked everyone else, “Is that...?”

Jane asked, “... Teressa?”

She almost reached out to touch—

Poi grabbed her hand, sudden fear in his eyes as he whispered, “Don’t. Don’t anyone do anything. Everyone quiet. Shhh.”

Nirzir instantly straightened her back, her eyes going wide. She stared at Teressa with comprehension in her own eyes. She knew what was happening.

Jane could only guess.

Teressa stared off into the distance. A flicker of grey magic dashed across her eyes, like an image reflected off a mirror, revealing something in the room that wasn’t actually there. And then her eyes glazed over with grey light. The room turned cold. Jane breathed out a puff of clouds as her skin prickled, both from the cold, and from the sudden terror of the moment. Nirzir looked half-panicked. Poi gained a few new psychic tendrils around his head.

Teressa’s voice came out of her as though from a deep distance, “We need to end this threat before it can find or produce...” Her voice trailed away, like a dying echo in a deep tunnel. And then her voice came back, and Teressa spoke with power, “Before the soulless ooze can carve a permanent home on Veird, the hands of the living must bring True Death to the deepest wells of the ooze’s power, or else death will march forth and consume us all.”

And then her voice vanished back down the tunnel.

No one said anything. They all waited.

And then Teressa blinked hard as she groaned and held a hand to her head. “Ah. Shit. Fuck was that.”

Nirzir whispered, “A True Premonition.”

Kiri’s green couatl summon, Sunny, who had been curled up on a pillow in the corner of the room, listening, perked up. Kiri demanded, “What the fuck was that, Teressa?”

Nirzir breathed out, “A warning.”

Poi agreed, “A warning.”

Teressa collapsed on her ass and Jane moved fast, doing her best to heal the larger woman. It was a confusing few minutes after that, but Teressa was more or less fine. She did sit down in a chair and lean back, though. With a conjured ice pack draped over her closed eyes, she rested while she healed.

Elsewhere, news was spreading.

- - - -

As morning’s light rose higher into the sky, twenty people of importance had gathered into a long room in the Courthouse of Spur. Kiri was one of those people of importance these days, and though she loved it at first, recently, there had been an issue. An issue of politics.

She had long since told people that she wanted to end the threat of the soul ooze, but the benefits of the ooze’s presence were much more than that of Ar’Kendrithyst when it was inhabited by Shades. Privately, Silverite had told Kiri that she wanted to end the threat, too, but she had public obligations, and the threat of the soul ooze —as long as proper procedure was followed— was not a great threat. The soul ooze was even less of a threat now that Kiri’s magics were up to the challenge of truly defending the city. She still needed help now and then from the true archmages of Spur, and the adventurers in town were pulling a lot of their own weight (for profit, of course), but Kiri could handle the basic defense all on her own.

People were gaining levels. People were moving to Spur. Humans and incani were meeting in the streets, and though there was violence, of course, there was also a lot of newly-discovered comradery. Frontier was dead, after all, captured by the Blessed Shade Farix and turned into New Brightwater. And Spur welcomed the humans with open arms.

But in coming here, those humans wanted certain things, like experience and power which they could take from the greater amalgams in the form of levels.

And so, the arguments for killing the ooze had quieted.

But now...

Today’s argument was special only because they now had a clear link between the size of Anhelia’s cleaned territory and the size of the soul ooze, and representatives from Kal’Duresh had gotten involved fast and were already in this room, arguing for nothing to change. Their message was simple: Kal’Duresh was ready to accept the soul ooze at their walls. They were prepared and they wanted to ensure that the soul ooze kept coming, and that no one did anything to stop it. They wanted to enjoy all the bounty that Spur enjoyed! Who gave Spur the right to make this decision on the behalf of everyone present?

And so on and so forth.

The words themselves were politer than that but Kiri was very tired of this shit.

The representatives from Kal’Duresh weren’t even in the room, either, so Kiri couldn’t be mad at the person actually there. They had sent some sort of magical lightward construct in their place. And besides that, one of the images had Kiri hold back her more vitriolic comments; it wouldn’t do to go upsetting an archmage, no matter who Kiri’s master was. They wanted the bounty of levels, or more specifically, the bounty of powerful people attracted by the promise of relatively easy levels. That was the backbone of all trade in the Crystal Forest, anyway; these cities all traded on providing safe harbor for people to venture out and have their middling-level adventures.

People ran from everything larger than a crystal mimic until they had killed enough crystal mimics to reach level 35, or feel safe enough to continue, and then they hunted the larger, more dangerous prey that ranged from level 45 to 55. At level 50 you were eligible for a Class, and that was as far as most people went with this lifestyle, unless they truly did love the life.

It was that second group of people, who truly loved this life, that flocked back to Spur and the rest of the crystal forest because of this soul ooze. This ooze represented power and a draw to keep these powerful people in the area, and maybe they could settle down here.

Because, after all, it was only these powerful people who could actually defend a city from the actual dangers out there. People like Kiri, or Jane Flatt, or any of the thirty-or-so other adventurers out of a hundred thousand that moved around in search of true adventure.

Kiri thought all of these concerns were rather stupid. And since she had a bit of power in this land, she chose to say something to that effect when she could. “This soul ooze regularly kills hundreds of people every night and day, and the danger of an accidental spreading event grows ever larger as the beast grows commensurately. We need to kill the thing.”

Silverite said, “I agree with Miss Flamecrash. Kal’Duresh will be lucky to survive its first night. I would like to move this discussion toward ending the threat, or at least to speak of how we would go about ending the threat when it proves necessary for us to do so.”

Kiri was too practiced at politics these days to smile at that, but she felt great to finally hear Silverite speak on the side of reason.

But of course, the delegation from Kal’Duresh only got more belligerent.

The image of a woman in black and gold robes, the Stone Archmage Peatrice Shallowhammer, said, “We do not believe you are correct. What might actually be happening here is that you have allowed the humans into your land and they have gained power, but now that it seems we incani of Kal’Duresh might get a taste, it is time to shut off the spigot.”

A human noblewoman by the name of Gwynewyn Clayfield, who was Kiri’s neighbor, diplomatically stated, “We new humans of Spur have been allowed exactly as much access to the walls and to the greater amalgams as the incani who live here have access.”

Silverite spoke, “Guildmaster Zago, who would be here if not for the necessity of maintaining the walls, has reached level 95, alongside her Summoner daughter. They both routinely help in the trenches, as well. And please, Archmage Shallowhammer, we know your power can defend your land, but the simple fact is that the Cleansing of Ar’Kendrithyst is eventually going to make a problem too large to ignore, and I would prefer we end this threat right now.” She added, “It is quite possible, since this whole thing started with [Domains of Light] cleaning out the place, that even more soul oozes will form. We could have a whole two years of these things happening, but this one, now, is too large to ignore, and we shouldn’t let it get any bigger.”

Shallowhammer inclined her head, and then she hammered on her points yet again.

The conversation moved back and forth, with Kal’Duresh’s stance clear and Spur’s stance also clear. No one made any headway.

Which was why Kiri was gazing through Sunny, looking at everything else happening all around Spur, when she saw Teressa’s True Revelation happen, as it happened.

Events proceeded rapidly and chaotically from there. She, of course, told Silverite what had happened, but her warning had been redundant. Poi had already told Silverite. The Mayor did ask Kiri to stand up and tell everyone what had just happened, though.

Which she did.

There was a bit of panic. And then people started yelling.

The arguments heated to an unprecedented degree.

97

Willpower

95

+62

157

Focus

95

+62

157

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Favored Ability waiting!

Favored Ability waiting!

Favored Ability waiting!

TRIPLE YOUR AVAILABLE FAMILIAR FORM SLOTS

UNLOCK ABILITIES

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DOUBLE HEALTH REGENERATION

DOUBLE MANA REGENERATION

Five points left in reserve for whatever New Stat she decided on taking. At this rate, she was leaning toward Intelligence, but all of them were good options. Perception might be what she needed to finally understand and unlock her mana sense, which would then allow her to get all the Sight spells, which would also allow her to switch out her Class Ability Hidden Monster for Surround Sight with something else.

Maybe she’d keep these doubled regens and switch out Hidden Monster for Elemental Dedication. For some reason, she was pretty sure that she needed that one to truly advance in her Prismatic Class.

Jane said, “As soon as I get [Greater Prismatic Body] then I’ll probably Favorite that one. Or maybe if I figure out a Domain that I want I’ll Favorite that, instead... Or I could work on a Domain with Health costs, and use Favored Ability on it... I don’t know. Any success on your Domainwork, yet?”

“Maybe!” Kiri happily said. “I did some work on it this morning but I didn’t last long before bed called me back.”

That was new.

“So you have an idea then.” Jane asked, “What idea?”

Kiri smirked. “I’ll tell you when I have a better grasp of it.” She stood from her chair. “Anyway! I have to get to my [Scry] chair, and you have to turn into a horrible spider again.”

Jane laughed, saying, “Spiders are great. I have like... All of my good Familiar Form Abilities in that form, too.”

Kiri almost said something, but then she paused, and instead said, “So this is a very bad idea, and I am not telling you to do this, but a [Cleansing Domain] is rather strong.” Kiri added, “You use that spell a lot out there, anyway, and [Cleanse] is all about balancing the mana and erasing threats.”

Jane stopped in her tracks. “Ah.”

Kiri stressed, “But I’m warning you... [Cleanse] is dangerous. The base spell includes a lot of highly sophisticated targeting with Elemental Destruction, so it kills almost everyone who tries to take it apart. But it’s also an elemental balancing spell. You could focus on the second half, you know. Ignore the Destruction all together.”

Jane stared off into nothing for a long moment, thinking. And then she smiled, telling Kiri, “But the Destruction is the fun part!”

Kiri punched her in the arm. “You’re horrible! Don’t mess with [Cleanse]!”

Jane laughed loud, saying, “I am a horrible spider, yes ma’am!”

- - - -

Jane, resplendent in her blue tarantula form, stood atop the western wall, watching as the sun set in the far distance. As the final sliver of gold light passed beyond the horizon and twilight gathered, Sunny brought back a bit of the day by dropping [True Sunlight Rift]s all along the outermost wall, returning sunlight to the land one kilometer-wide stretch of wall at a time.

The Fonts and a few other guards from Songli stood on a part of the wall that had been extended outward to serve as a minor staging and recuperation area. This area was larger than Jane’s usual roost, at nearly thirty meters wide and filled with secondary support structures meant to assist her on her major defense of the wall tonight. They had combined both Jane’s and Killzone’s support staff for this. Sergeant Nanark was wrangling it all together though, so Jane didn’t need to worry about logistics. Logistics were a pain in the ass. All she had to do was actually kill things, and that suited her fine.

As the black ocean poured up and over the walls of Ar’Kendrithyst and the soft gasps of the newly arrived Fonts filled her senses (they were completely new to this view, apparently), Jane merely watched, and waited. When the black ocean reached Kiri’s Rifts, the corruptive liquid began to boil. To burn. To evaporate into gloom that then vanished under bright lights.

As nothing happened, Jane’s mind wandered.

She considered a [Cleansing Domain].

If, like her father and Kiri had told her, [Cleanse] was little more than ‘setting the Elements to balance’ as well as targeted Elemental Destruction to turn various matter into mana... Okay. Well. Using the terms ‘little more than’ in conjunction with that whole suite of effects was likely foolish to the extreme. It was like saying ‘spiders are little more than legs and venomous fangs’ or ‘magic is little more than combining it all correctly’.

Jane filed the idea of a [Cleansing Domain] away, next to the idea that she could maybe go back to Songli, back to the grass travelers, to talk with Koori of Clan Pale Cow about her [Cleansing Domain]. None of that was happening now, though. Not when there were amalgams to kill.

... Not when there were usually amalgams to kill.

Some small beasts had begun to drag themselves out of the black ocean and over the outermost walls, exposing themselves to True Sunlight as they did, baking away much of the black goo on their bodies. And then they dropped off that wall, into the trenches. Eventually, those amalgams would make their way through the funneling trenches to the killing fields, where other people would handle those smaller beasts. Jane was only here for the larger ones; the ones with too much power for most people to handle. The ones that could actually break the wall.

She smiled a bit at that fact. She was strong. Stronger than most. Being strong felt good. Sure, she wasn’t as strong as her father, but she was still capable in her own ways. Jane breathed out, settled in, and as [Fireball]s and [Force Crash]s altered Decay began to spread across the land between the second and third wall, she tilted over a bit, toward her staff.

Jane asked, “Battle Status?”

Biggie, a fellow soldier who Jane had been working with for the last month, stepped forward, saying, “Nothing spotted yet.”

Another soldier named Fireball stood beside a [Viewing Screen] that showed a closer image of Ar’Kendrithyst’s wall. “I’m not seeing anything on [Scry]. Nothing coming over the walls.”

Jane turned back toward her targeted wall and whispered to herself, “Hurry up and wait,”

And then she settled in just a bit more.

Eventually, she decided to practice her mana sensing.

Eventually, morning came.

And not a single greater amalgam had appeared all night long. Jane wasn’t complaining too much for she had gotten in a lot of mana sense practice. Maybe a few more weeks and she might actually see something. It would probably go faster if she was able to actually focus on her mana sense, instead of needing to be half alert the whole time, but such was life.

She tried not to think about how having zero battles an entire night made her feel more nervous than meeting the Headmaster for the first time. Everyone around her was nervous for similar reasons and it would not be good to panic anyone else. A ‘night of no battles, and what that might mean’ was a lot less worrying than meeting Melemizargo that first time, anyway.

So. Small mercies.

As the sun rose and Jane’s cleanup took a lot less time than normal, she helped out with the [Cleanse]ing of others to make it go faster, or to at least spend all the new mana that she had gotten for herself. She had been topped up all night long, ready to go at a moment’s notice.

But nothing happened.

- - - -

“What the fuck was that!” Jane asked, storming into the kitchen where everyone was.

Teressa squashed burgers on the grill while sipping a beer; she looked mad. Maps had been spread on the kitchen table, where Poi, Nirzir, and Kiri stood, going over them. Everyone but Teressa looked up as Jane rushed into the room; the last one to show.

“Not a single amalgam!” Jane said, “And your side didn’t get any either, Nirzir. I know; I asked.”

Poi said, “They all went after Killzone instead.”

Jane jerked. “Is he okay?”

“Oh yeah. He’s fine.” Kiri said, “Lost sight of the target, though.”

“Well he obviously needs some personal help to find and kill the Well!” Jane said, “I volunteer.”

“We’re not allowed to get close.” Kiri said, “No Domain makes us easy targets and the Well uses Soul Magic. It’d rip through us like adamantium through paper.”

Poi said, “You would die if you got close. It could probably target you through Sunny, too, since it targeted Killzone’s watchers through their [Scry]s.” Poi told Jane, “We’re calling it a soul ooze, and it amalgamized three of Killzone’s watchers through their [Scry]s. Killed four people total, including the original three watchers before it could be put down.”

A spike of worry slammed into Jane’s side. Four Army watchers were dead. How many had she known? Being a watcher was rightly considered the least dangerous job out there. Almost nothing could attack through a [Scry]! And even if it did, the attacks were usually weak things, to just let someone know they were unwanted; like the False Damage of an unwanted [Telepathy].

But she had seen first hand how her father had been attacked through Ophiel...

And that was a thought, wasn’t it? She didn’t want this to be a part of her father’s Worldly Path, but it sounded like it was.

Jane focused on the part of this she could actually solve.

“Did the watchers have reflective magics?” Jane asked, already knowing the answer was ‘no’.

Poi told her, “Silverite is now considering calling your father back to Spur to take care of this problem. It might be a part of his Worldly Path.”

Jane repeated, “Did the people in the watcher’s room have reflective magics active while they were [Scry]ing.”

“No,” Kiri said, staring at Poi. “It was an understandable lapse of judgment from the Army. The amalgams and the ooze have never been able to target through [Scry] orbs before. This is new.”

Teressa spoke up, “We need to kill it. Today. We can’t wait for it to develop any more capabilities.” She smashed another burger patty flat, adding, “It learned how to pop Kiri’s Rifts, but Kiri can add more whenever needed, so that’s not a big deal. Then there were the [Grand Dispel]s that ripped apart spellwork, which rapidly became counterspelling and smothering, but you can use internal Elemental Bodies and avoid that. The greater amalgams used to attack one at a time, or whenever they spotted Spur, but now they sometimes wait until there are three or four out there, and they attack together.” Her eyes turned hard. “Killzone discovered the eye-arm caster today; the one Jane has been trying to kill for a month. It wasn’t dead to some other force; it was hiding near the Well, shaping amalgams into better forms. It’s learning. They’re all learning. The soul ooze has a subordinate general, now, like how the Shades used to do it when they went to war. They raised up their terrible dead and kept raising them, so that they learned from their mistakes and the next time would be different.” With controlled grey light in her eyes, she stared through Poi, and Kiri, and Jane, and Nirzir, looking elsewhere, as she said, “The soul ooze is close. So close... to something I cannot see. The soul ooze needs to die today. Drastic measures need to be taken.”

No one spoke for a long moment. The only sound was the sound of sizzling beef.

And then Jane said, “So this means I’m going in, right?”

Poi frowned. “Your father would murder me if I got you killed, Jane.”

Jane burst out laughing.

No one else laughed.

Jane scoffed loudly, saying, “He would not! Holy fuck, Poi. This is bigger than my father, anyway.”

Nirzir kept all emotion off of her face; she was a viewer of this drama, and not a participant. Kiri looked away, not wanting to get involved in this particular argument. Teressa flattened another burger as she stared at Poi.

Poi glanced from Teressa to Jane, then said, “Erick is in a tense situation, and you dying would put a strain on the entire world that we don’t need to have.”

Ah.

He was serious.

... He was serious.

Jane had to mull over that fact twice before she actually accepted it. And then she almost roared at the man, but the tension of the room made her rethink how she handled this. After a calming moment, she said, “Then it’s time for some extreme magical measures. Runic bombs from Enduring Forge. Maybe Songli has access to the dirty bombs that were used against them. Get some [Duplicate] extreme light materials from the Headmaster for the material and drop those bombs into the heart of the Well. Hey Nirzir? Want to learn the truth of sound that my dad never got to show you? Blow up that mountain that you never got to blow up? I’ll tell you how if you get those dirty bombs here. And Kiri. Have you tried to make [Vivid Gloom] yet? Make some [Vivid Gloom] oozes and drop them into Ar’Kendrithyst.” Jane said, “And don’t forget some [Cleansing Slime]s. A lot of people have to have that spell, right? Just have them fly over the city and release millions of them over the course of a day. That might be enough to solve this problem, or at least expose it.”

“We have some plans.” Poi said, “There’s no need to go that extreme yet.”

“You’re wrong, Poi.” Teressa said, “This problem needs to be solved today. It will be a miracle if we live past tonight.”

Poi bargained, “Okay. Okay. Silverite is now aware of the severity and she—” He paused. He looked away, his eyes going wide. After a moment he sighed.

Teressa suddenly relaxed, her eyes flickering grey as a small, hopeful smile played across her face. And then it was gone, and she realized that they were all still in danger.

Poi said, “Shade Farix of New Brightwater has reached out to Spur, as of ten minutes ago, asking to assist in solving the soul ooze problem. All of his prognosticators are foretelling utter doom if he does not act now, and with every possible force at his disposal, which includes allying with Spur.” He added, “There will be a 30 minute meeting and then, if everything goes well, our forces will work next to each other to kill the soul ooze. Standard Shade-operation rules apply. Jane, you’re to be read-in and involved in the final assault, along with practically everyone else who has proven capable of following orders. Kiri, we expect you to remain on sky support.”

Jane felt relief and trepidation war within her. She was ready for a final assault, and had been ready to do as much for the last twenty days, but Spur benefited from the soul ooze, so Silverite hadn’t pushed for an end to the ooze until now. After a moment, Jane decided that she was relieved. She was ready for a final fight, and to put the danger of Ar’Kendrithyst to rest. It should be easy as soon as everyone started to work together to solve it, right?

Right!

... Hmm.

For a long moment Jane wondered if she should take this more seriously.

Like, obviously she was a bit worried.

But more than that, she was ready to end this looming, highly profitable threat. She had gained level 98, after all. A lot of people had. Guildmaster Mog had even gained level 99, apparently. Jane wanted level 99, too, and she wanted to know what Mog had seen after reaching level 99 that she wasn’t willing to tell anyone else. But the world didn’t need to suffer this soul ooze any longer.

Jane considered how she should feel about everything, while Kiri did the same, and Poi spoke to the other young woman in the room.

“Nirzir.” Poi said, “Spur would ask you to remain as a final line of defense, please.”

Nirzir, who had been rather informal while living with them and working closely with the defense effort every night, code-switched back to her former self. She spoke with the authority of her people behind her, saying, “Songli has soldiers eager for glory so my people will join the final assault, while I remain here operating as I have before.”

“Your wishes will be followed.” Poi gave a small bow. “Spur thanks Songli for your dedicated assistance.”

Teressa flipped the final burger out of 15 onto a waiting bun, saying, “Before you move out: eat something, and take a break. Sleep, too. The diplomats are moving fast but we won’t be moving out for a few hours.”

Nirzir rapidly went back to her friendly, almost sister-like demeanor, rushing over to the kitchen, saying, “And I made a cake, too!” She hoisted out a great big chocolate-covered monstrosity, half a meter across, that seemed to have way too much icing along with shaved chocolate, white chocolate accents, and chocolate drizzle.

“Holy gods.” Jane chuckled nervously, saying, “You made it.”

“Death by chocolate! I couldn’t get the idea out of my mind and I finally made it several hours ago in my downtime.” Nirzir set the cake to the side where it could warm up a bit and wrapped it in a protective [Ward]. “But that’s for later.” She breathed in all of the burgers Teressa had made while the larger woman grabbed the fries out of the oven. “Oh. That smells so good, Teressa.”

Teressa smiled a little, but it was a sad sort of smile, as she said, “Made with lots of bluebell, too.”

Kiri set the table while Teressa handed out plates with food, and soon, everyone was digging in, together, at the same table. That hadn’t happened very often, but it probably happened more than Jane remembered. The only person missing was Erick. He would have really liked the cake Nirzir made, for it looked like everything one could ever want from a ‘death by chocolate’ cake. Or, at least, it probably was. Jane had never had one of those kinds of cakes before, but she had read about it a few times.

In her opinion, and without actually tasting it yet, Nirzir looked like she had done a great job.

After dinner, Poi informed everyone that a meeting with Shade Farix and a delegation from New Brightwater would be held at a neutral location to the west of Ar’Kendrithyst in three hours; right before noon.

Poi said, “So get as much sleep as you can. You’re going to need it. Anyone want a [Sleep]?”

“I’d take a [Sleep]; yes. Thanks,” Jane said.

Kiri and Nirzir both accepted a [Sleep], too.

As Jane fell asleep, she thought it would be nice to have the [Sleep] spell herself, if only for this exact reason; to be able to fall asleep on command.

Hours later, it was time to get up and go save the world.

... Now. Honestly. Being real honest with herself for a moment: She knew she was acting flippant about the whole thing. Too flippant. Jane knew the severity of it all. She had almost been killed a hundred times over in her life on Veird, from moon reachers to the Ancient Unicorn Queen, to the Shades of Ar’Kendrithyst, to Melemizargo himself.

She would not be saving the world today. The whole of Spur and even New Brightwater, apparently, would be saving the world, together. Or at least they would be saving this small part of the world.

But holy damn, was it empowering to transform out of her weak human body and become a true monster that could withstand everything and tear apart the world as she wished. There was the major problem of not having a Domain yet, so, like, being even more honest with herself, she was lucky that she was even being allowed to participate in this assault on the Well of Souls, otherwise known as the Dark Heart of Melemizargo.

Jane had some thoughts about that, and told them to Poi. “I’m basically going to be backup here. Aren’t I? Like when the Champion went into the Dead City?”

Poi frowned a little, then said, “Shade protocol applied there, and thus you were untouchable unless you broke convention. This is just a soul monster, Jane, and it has a Domain, so that makes it so much worse.” He added, “I don’t know what position they’ll ask you to take, but it likely won’t be forward position.”