Chapter 211: Ava’s job beyond the veil.

Beyond the veil, there was no flood, no storms and the earth was not shaking. Everything was normal--well, as normal as it could be. Ava’s work to convince the soul maidens in the containment centers to switch over to the Somnivores’ side was ongoing and it was turning out to be way easier than she expected.

The main hurdle hadn’t even been the maidens themselves_ it had been the rigid, muscle-brained humans who had been assigned the task. Before Ava stepped in, things were run by Petra and the commander of the knights named Leif.

Leif was a towering mountain of a man with braided blonde hair, a scowl that could curdle milk, and a mind about as flexible as a granite rock. When Ava first suggested using basic diplomacy and communication, he had looked at her like she’d suggested fighting the enemy with flowers.

"Negotiate?" Leif had bellowed during their first meeting, slamming a heavy gauntlet onto the table. "With prisoners? They are stubborn cattle! We stick the Crown Slugs onto their heads, we let the parasites break their wills, and eventually, they obey. That is how it is done!"

"And how’s that working out for you, big guy?" Ava had replied, leaning back with her arms crossed. "Zero soul maidens converted ever, instead those slugs have been killing them in the end. I did not need a crown slug to turn because I already a reason to change, I just needed to know what benefits it would take to send me off the cliff."

Petra had immediately jumped in to defend him. "Commander Leif’s methods have worked on the other humans though, Ava! We cannot show weakness if the humans refuse to listen."

Ava had just rolled her eyes. She wasn’t sure if Petra actually believed that nonsense, or if she was just too wildly infatuated with Leif’s golden braids to think clearly. The woman seemed to become a fool around Leif, so much so, that she needed to be reminded to breathe at times.

Ava was sure that Leif would be Petra’s cause of death someday. Her obituary would read "death by lusting over a handsome man with golden braids."

On realizing she was wasting her breath on the dynamic duo of stubbornness, Ava had gone over their heads straight to Ivar, son of Almeida. Since Ivar held a senior rank in the Somnivore hierarchy, his word was absolute law.

"They’ve been sticking slugs on their heads for years and getting zero results," Ava had told Ivar plainly. "Give me three days. If I can’t get them on our side with words, you can go back to Leif’s terrible worm strategy."

Ivar had approved it, much to Leif’s visible fury.

And Ava’s plan worked.

She didn’t torture the maidens. She had told the guards to remove their chains, allowed them to be bathed and changed, brought them decent food, and used the oldest trick in the book: painting a common enemy.

"Look at you all," Ava had told the Soul maidens in the cells, her voice dripping with sympathy. "You think Trinity is your savior and she is coming for you? Wrong! she’s a criminal. Her little gang is pushing this new world into chaos, leaving innocent people to suffer while she plays hero. Your true sacred duty isn’t to protect her or the wealthy, it’s to bring peace to all humanity, and that is what the Somnivore want. All they have ever wanted was a home, to live side by side with us.

We give them peace and they provide technology and alien knowledge. That is the world we should all aspire to. Not one where first-class citizens eat while third class ones starve. Haven’t you noticed that aside from me and maybe two others, the rest of the Soul maidens trapped here are from poor or average families? We have to change things for ourselves. And to do that, Trinity has to fall. You need to visit Wisteria, and you will all understand what I am saying. Don’t assume you know who the enemy is basing on a few unproven stories."

A good number of the Soul maidens had actually bought it. They were exhausted, broken-hearted, and hungry for another purpose. Of course, a few stubborn ones refused to bite, glaring at Ava like she was a viper and a traitor. Ava didn’t waste sleep on them; some people were just lost causes, their fear for Trinity was just too great.

Currently, Ava was standing in the command hub of the Red Center, sipping warm tea while looking over a sprawling map of the frontline near the veil. Ivar stood beside her, his dark eyes fixed on the reports coming in from the Watch towers near the veil.

"The water levels are still rising on the other side," Ivar noted, his tone flat. "The floods are terrible."

"Good," Ava said, setting her cup down with a light clink. "But you know what usually comes after such a disaster, right?"

Ivar gave her a side-eye. "Rot. Sickness."

"Bingo," Ava smirked. "Diseases move fast when people are crowded and wet. If we can catalyze the situation_ speed things up a bit_ they’ll collapse from the inside before we even draw a blade."

Ivar crossed his arms, tapping his chin thoughtfully. "If it’s poison or biological warfare you want, we have various gas reserves stored in the lower vaults. Depends on what kind of suffering you’re looking to inflict."

"We don’t need to kill every civilian, Ivar." Ava said, waving her hand dismissively. "We just need to break their military force. To weaken the humans and get them to surrender, we have to target what makes them strong in the first place."

"Their Half-Life Beasts," Ivar realized immediately. A rare, faint smile touched his lips. "Cut off their beast bonds, and the soldiers are just ordinary humans with outdated weapons, like they were in the past."

"Exactly," Ava grinned. "Got anything in stock for that?"

"Veyrot gas," Ivar answered smoothly. "It suppresses mutated energy. Once inhaled, the bond between human and their beast gets choked off. Their physical strength drops, their special abilities stall, and their beasts go dormant."

"Perfection," Ava chuckled. "All we have to do now is wait for the floodwaters on the other side to crest. Once they’re thoroughly miserable and soaked, we release the gas in the border towns and move on to the next stage of the plan."

Before Ivar could reply, a low chime echoed from a watch on Ava’s wrist. She touched it and a small blue dot on her ear that looked like an ink spot lit up.

"Speak," she commanded.

"Soul maiden Ava!" a knight’s nervous voice entered her ears. "We just got a fresh batch of captives. They have brought down to the dungeons."

Ava’s smile widened, her eyes gleaming with predatory delight. She touched the watch and turned toward the door. "Duty calls," Ava said with a theatrical sigh, though her voice bubbled with amusement. "Excuse me, Ivar. I have a gospel to spread. The gospel against the Johnson legacy."

Ivar smiled and nodded for her to go ahead. He wondered why the Soul maidens who were once revered had come to such an ending. If Eve Johnson had known what her legacy would be in the end, she would cough up blood.