Chapter 797 – Star of Epa

For we exist in a state tarnished, and we sit below the throne of Divine majesty.

Because we live in a land of great malice, and we serve under the throne (singular, emphasized to be singular for some reason. Likewise, it is obviously metaphorical and ‘crown’ could be substituted instead, although there is a sign for tyrant here too? Emperor?) of God (The word is odd, although it obviously means ‘God’. In the same way that we ‘very big’ is more than just big, this is ‘very God’. Single-God?)  

Under Divine rule, to hold back the darkness that has been thrown upon Arda.

Under very-God’s leadership, to bargain-back (different to hold) into (similar to back, mistake is easy to make) into the blackness (darkness is a different word, blackness is far closer. It is used in the context of ‘nothing’, rather than the absence of light. ‘Null’ could be a substitution. Likewise ‘Void’ is a good word here.) over-all-encompassing (untranslatable word, ‘flooded’ is similar, but it means to cover everything) Arda.

To cast away the haunts which lurk within nightmare and within nightmare.

To cast away the ‘haunts’ is the correct world here, but the language is so literal it could be mistaken for metaphor, it means ‘otherly-incarnate’, as in something that literally is not Ardan but here. Which lurk (lurk? Dwell?) within dream and within nightmare. (Dream and nightmare are the same word, translation mistake. This makes more sense).

The spirit cast away shall be returned to us once again, reborn from its ashes.

The ‘spirit’ (word for God is used here too, it a different variation once again, but it is non-physical-deity. This one lacks the ‘Tyrant’ sign from before? These are two different entities, very-God is not ‘The Spirit’), shall return to us once again, resurrected (reborn would be a different word, this one lacks the born sign) from its corpse.

Cut down and burned into annihilation, in a folly of our creation.

…Completely wrong, lacking proper grammatical nuance. It should be: ‘Cut down (by us) and burned (by us) into nothing (nothing that is ours), in a mistake (mistake is the closest, but it is wrong. I do not see what it means, the traditional word for mistake contains ‘fool’, this once contains ‘noble’?)… in a well-intentioned mistake? Of our (own) creation.

To rise once again, the phoenix through whose light we sail into the future.

To go upwards (endlessly) again, the… Pheonix is a good word because the word has no translation. It is ‘Very-big-flying-animal-spirit-deity’ through whose (signs for possessive, there is no translation, but through whose is good enough)… light as in the opposite of the blackness we saw before. It literally means material-existence. We go-towards-and-possess the future.

Return, almighty God, return, almighty Arda, and bring us shelter once again.

Return, very-God, return (to) precious Arda, and transact-with us for safety again.

- Iniri’s translation of the words on the text found by Paida’s expedition.

Saksma and her friends stared up at the massive fortress that was the Star of Epa, they had gone through name change after name change, but finally settled upon this one. Arcadia kept the plans of the floating islands for themselves and every attempt at contacting the Goddess of Magic had been ignored, every attempt to go through the Bureau of Magic had been sidelined, and Saksma had even tried to call Arascus on the issue; he just told her to go through either of the previous options.

But they had built an island, largely based off the fact that Arcadia could not afford to be secretive about how they built. The massive crystals were of Epan construction, Rancais to be specific. Their college of magic had the most experience in aeronautics. Doschia and Lubska had designed the cathedral-fortress on top of the structure. Allia and Rilia the internal electronics and decorations respectively. And all of it went into creating a capital for Epa that could move around, and be an operations centre, a trade depot, a place of worship and a military base at the same time.

Unlike in Arcadia, where the floating islands were ripped from the dirt, Saksma’s idea had been to carve out a mountainside instead. The War College managed to somehow make huge masses of dirt hold together, that was the more difficult thing than to design a floating crystal. So they had taken a structure of rock as a base. The mountain twisted, it’s top blew off as explosions from pre-set explosions caused a landslide down its sides. “Liftoff!” Saksma shouted and opened the bottle of champagne, everyone had brought drinks to celebrate.

Olonia put her fingers in her mouth and whistled. Aliana raised her hands and cheered. Agrita and Paida hugged each other at the sight of the first Imperial floating island that did not come from Arcadia. Maybe it was a small thing in the grand scheme of things, but it was everything for them. “Super!” Agrita shouted.

The mountaintop itself stood with that cathedral fortress, mid-way through, when the Empire sent the first island to space, the plans had changed and the structure had been redesigned to be fashioned out of metal. The stone on the outside was purely decorative. The battlements had airlocks leading to them, the front door was large enough for a tank to pass through. Enough for every Divine in the Empire.

And, most importantly, the Star of Epa was there’s. A real ownership system had not really been set up yet, they would vote on it, hopefully, but it was not for Arascus or Helenna to take and requisition and make into their own. Saksma had gotten that promise in writing, when she gave away some of her own land for the Imperial Palace.

In the distance, the crowds were singing, cheering and waving their own flags as cameras recorded the event. That was also important, the Second Arc was nothing to be joyous about, and people needed something to be joyous about. This event was being broadcast on every news station throughout the Empire today. Allia had even mounted artillery on the Star of Epa, naval batteries, the same that were used for battleships and coastal batteries. They would not compete with Arcadia in terms of Magic or sheer scale, so they had to beat it with grandiosity. That had been Olonia’s logic, and Olonia created the Land of Gods, so the Goddess of Lubska must know what she was talking about.

The cathedral-fortress on its top was huge, and half of the building was hidden in the rock as well. Maybe they were playing close with fire, because what had been built should obviously be handed to the Imperial Military, but everyone had buried their heads in the sands and Saksma relied on Helenna’s bargain to keep the Star of Epa in their control. And if not that, then she would call Arascus.

The massive structure finally left the crumbling mountain. Its jets fired up. The crystals themselves were purely for vertical movement, a ring of massive jet engines would give it thrust. By Saksma’s and Paida’s own calculations, it should be many times faster than a standard island. The place even had a fountain and a garden in the centre. Aliana took her out her phone. “I have a crew taking pictures already.” Saksma said.

“It’s the news.” Aliana said.

“What?”

“I have notifications on from Internal Affairs.” Aliana said. “You don’t?”

“No.” Saksma looked around to her friends. “Do any of you?” Three heads shook in return. Who would ever do something so sad frankly? If the news was important, then someone would tell Saksma. And if it wasn’t important, then she did not need to be alerted about it. It was that simple.

“Great.” Aliana said dryly. She brought out her phone and opened the pop-up. The catching of breath was indication enough that something important had just been declared. “Guess I’m the only one then.”

“I have a government that tells me what is important.” Paida said.

“Aimone handles most of Rilia’s affairs.” Agrita added and Aliana rolled her eyes.

“Great, thanks for that.” The notification finally loaded as the Star of Epa finally settled into position, just below the cloud layer. From its sides, the massive battery fired a salvo of celebratory tracer shells that arced and created a false rainbow across the sky. The crowd kept on cheering. This event would be worth celebrating for at least another week, if not longer.

Saksma leaned over and saw the image first. It was a black rectangle, curved slightly. By its side, cut off largely but taking up the whole right edge of the image, was the sun. Behind it dots, those had to be stars. Saksma’s eyes went to the title: Second Arc reappears from behind the Sun.

Aliana sighed as she scrolled down, then looked to the Star of Epa. “That doesn’t feel so impressive anymore.”

“That feels like we’ve done something that only Elassa could do, and instead, we’ve done it.” Olonia said. “So it is.”

Aliana held her phone so that Olonia could read the article. Saksma leaned over Olonia’s shoulder to read with her: The Imperial Space Aeronautics has announced that a photograph of the Second Arc has finally been seen. Three men in Allia are credited with finding the object and will receive the Imperial bounty for their feat. This is the first image that we have of the Second Arc.

The Imperial Military has already announced that a plan is being put into action and likewise, the Emperor-God Arascus, Goddess Helenna, of Love, Grand Marshal Tremali and the Bureau of Internal Affairs have all independently stated that a plan known as the “Million Man Miracle” is being put into action. Currently, the ISA is investigating on tracking the Second Arc’s course.

It wasn’t a long article, but it was there, and it would be the first and best source of information regarding the event. Internal Affairs was always good for these massive events. They would set the tone. Aliana scrolled up to the image, the rectangle itself was formless, and it was visible more from where it covered up the medley of stars behind it than through its shape. “That’s the Arc.” Aliana said. “There it is.”

“It’s big.” Saksma said. She honestly did not know what to say, instead her eyes went to the Star of Epa, then back to the image on Aliana’s phone. It was poor timing to announce it now, although it seemed like a standard play by Helenna. The Star of Epa was already booked for constant television broadcasts, they were most likely going to the use floating fortress as a shield to not show the Second Arc to the population. “I prefer our island.”

“I do too.” Agrita said.

Aliana stared at her phone. “They don’t say whether it will hit or not. Everyone said they would.”

“It’s a yes then.” Paida said. “Or they’re still running calculations.” Paida did not sound scared in the least. Her voice could have made out a chunk of a world that was several times Arda’s size to be nothing more than a nuisance.

“That’s it.” Olonia said dryly. “Whatever.”

“Whatever?” Aliana said.

“Whatever.” Olonia confirmed. “That’s it, we knew it was coming. What? Am I supposed to cry because we have a picture now?”

“Can we destroy it?” Agrita said. “I mean, we can, right?” A notification popped up on the article: Update deployed, please refresh the page.

“We can. No even, we not just can, we will.” Olonia said. “We’ve managed to transmute a sky. This is simpler.” Saksma didn’t know if that was true or not, but she wasn’t going to be arguing with Olonia over it. Let the woman say it was simpler, but that did not mean it was easier.

The Star of Epa hovered in the air and deployed flags. A pattern of every Epan nation in order, and then topped off with the Imperial flags at the ends, before the flags began to repeat. “You should refresh it.” Paida said. “What’s the update?”

Aliana stared at the image for a few moments more, her thumb trembled. “It’s huge.” She whispered.

“And it’s not good enough.” Paida said. “Because I do not believe that our world will fall to a fucking rock, and if it will be a rock, then it will certainly not be a Tartarian one.” Aliana let out a deep breath and shook her head.

“You make me jealous sometimes.” Aliana said and Paida put her hand on Of Allia’s shoulder. Saksma understood it though, Paida and Olonia were the pair that was bravest of them and it did not even come close. And the worst part was that everyone knew why: Olonia had singlehandedly led the One-Seventeenth under Ashen Skies, she had as much experience there as the greatest of Imperial Divines. In the whole Empire, the only two people who spent longer in there had been Irinika and Anassa, and they were holding Imperial lines in Esberia, not marching through Arika.

And Paida had watched her nation go through the Anarchia Crisis which culminated in Operation Ratsweeper, and then led an expedition into the Arisian Catacombs. And now, there was another expedition that she had not been invited for. If they were made of the same things in this world, then they certainly did not have the experiences. “Aliana, we’ll make it.” Paida said. “How and with what, I cannot tell you, but we will make it.”

Aliana nodded and scrolled her thumb across the page to reset it. The headline did not change, nor did the image, but a subheading had appeared: Imperial Space Aeronautics has calculated the current timeline for collision.

Six months.

seventeen days.

Four hours.

Thirty-three minutes.

Twenty seconds.

Nineteen….

Eighteen….

…

..

.

Tick-Tock.