Chapter 801 – Questions, Questions, Questions.

The first assault to try and secure a beachhead onto Arda was a total failure of such proportion that we cannot even fathom it. Allasaria has revealed herself to be an open traitor, working with Irinika. The Imperial Military had secured the position in advance. Rhomaion was and is a ruin that only frequently visited by tourists and nothing else! The Empire is not so grand as to have a standing army spread across its entirety, that is a sheer logistical impossibility.

Yet likewise, it only strengthens Archangels Rapheum’s position. If the Empire has advanced to the point of people able to either pre-conceive of our entrances or pre-scout our openings. As things stand, the rate of advance on Arda falls outside of any predictions. What they have done in a matter of years is insulting, and it is exactly what we have feared after the First Arascan War ended. That planet has a relentless drive, we now have to go into the long haul and assume the worst scenario.

The possibility of a successful impact and destruction of Arda by the Second Arc is not a certainty.

In fact, the Conclaves have decided it is not even a near certainty.

- Proclamation by the United Conclaves of Paradeisius.

Fer sniffed the air and raised her hand. The first time, she thought it a hallucination of the senses, even though her senses were never wrong in the first place. This was the second time though. Once could be a hallucination, twice was far too much to be more than happenstance or chance. She really had smelled a shifting in the air. “Stop” Fer barked.

“What is it?” Fortia asked, Of Peace and Of Order now led the party. Fer and Malam had been relegated to just being the scouts, with Iniri and Neneria taking the rearguard.

They had outpaced the soldiers, the tunnel here bore no junctions anyway. Every now and then, the echo of a loud crash where a drill was cutting into stone would catch up to them, or a joking swear hurled between the men, but they just seemed like they were having a good time. They should be, to some extent. Being assigned to the Divine’s party meant that they were pushing ahead the fastest out of any of the teams, but also that they were in no danger whatsoever. “I just smelled something.” Fer sniffed the air again. “A breeze?”

“You sound as if you don’t believe it yourself.” Maisara said from ahead, not even turning around. One arm held her flashlight at hip-height, illuminating the cold tunnel ahead of them, the over moved, its fingers curling into a grip that held nothing. She was readying to summon her axe. Fortia was always tense down here.

“I don’t.” Fer said. “Is there some sort of wind-monster Mal?”

“There are a few.” Malam said. “But not anything that would fit in this corridor.”

“It could be a new type.” Fer stepped to the side as she talked. After that creature they had fought in the pillar room, the tactics had changed. Neneria stepped into to fill the gap. They would not be giving second chances or moments of hesitation at this point. If it could rival a Divine, then they would not be holding back with their own Divines.

“Of course.” Fortia muttered. She stopped, held her flashlight forward and squinted. Fer did too. The light travelled some two, three hundred paces before dimming into yet another wall of blackness. That atmosphere alone was surreal.

Malam licked the air. “It’s thicker here.” She said.

“You’ve been saying that for the past two hours.” Maisara commented.

“Well it gets thicker every time.” Malam said.

“Do you know why?” Fortia asked. Malam answered with a flat glare. That was answer enough.

“I don’t sense anything.” Iniri said. “There’s none of the ancient wood around us.”

“Should there be?” Fortia asked.

“It cut out just before the pillar room.” Iniri pointed down to the ground. “I’ve not tested it, but…” She pursed her lips for a moment. “Well, I know where the Dwarven Highways are.” Everyone did in the upper echelons of the Empire, they were relatively common knowledge. “There should be one below us.”

“I assume you’re not thinking that the Dwarves are there?”

“The Grand East-West is there.” Malam said.

“Does that not go through Karaina?” Fortia asked.

“It stretches all the way down to the UNN.” Malam said. “That’s one of the Highways…” She turned to Iniri. “It’s one of your works.”

“Elassa and Kassandora were there too.” Iniri said. “It’s one of the tunnels I flooded during the dwarven surface invasion.” She looked down again. “So there’s an ocean underneath us.”

“A filled highway.”

“That’s worse.” Fortia said. Fer felt the hairs all over her body stand up. Even the mermen stayed away from those holes. Fish did not swim there, unless they were forced and they did not return from them either. Supposedly, algae and coral and other such things did not spread to them either. Malam let out a deep breath.

“Of course Paida missed that.” She said.

“That creature then.” Fer said. “Do you think it could have been an amphibian? The not-Divine?” That was what they had started calling it. It obviously had not been a Divine, it did not have a soul but a presence instead that Neneria couldn’t get a hold of before it slipped away. Going by Iniri’s logic of not being able to control flora from before her time, then it must have been a pre-Gaian entity. But the other monsters were the same. Fer preferred the not-Ardan theory more.

“That does make sense actually.” Malam said. “For why I would have never seen it.” Fer’s ears bristled and turned, although that definitely had been a hallucination. She did not just hear the waves, instead, the cacophony of sounds from all around was blurring all into each other.

“It didn’t have gills though.” Maisara said dryly. “That’s under the assumption it needs oxygen to breathe.”

“Do you want to capture one and send it to space to find out?” Malam asked.

Maisara opened her mouth, closed it, then thought for a moment. Fer had honestly assumed Malam was far too smart to joke about with Maisara. “You do understand she takes everything seriously?”

“How feasible is that?” Maisara asked, finally turning around and crossing her arms. “That thing was strong, we should have run tests on it.”

“I’m glad you want to play scientist now.” Malam said.

“It was in the heat of the moment when we killed it.” Maisara said, turning to Fortia. “But we should have experimented a bit at least.”

From her expression, Fortia was obviously having none of this. Fer could not agree more. It was one thing to kill a creature like that but without Kavaa, they would have to rely on their own regeneration. And they didn’t know if that thing had more tricks up its sleeve, or if it could grow in power, or if it could wield magic and just hadn’t. “We know it regenerates with an absurd speed, comparable to Kavaa’s healing.” Fortia listened off what they had learned. “We know that it is fast enough to outpace a National, most likely Kassandora too.” Fortia looked to Fer.

“Sounds about right.” Fer said. “Kassie is fast when she needs to be.”

“I know.” Fortia said. “But that thing was faster.”

“It was.” Fer agreed.

Fortia continued. “We know the body is merely a shape, and that even crushed, it was trying to regenerate. We can assume it sees in the dark because it was eating, or if not, then it echolocation or some other such side-stepping of sight. We know fire burns it. We know that Iniri’s wood can block it, we know it’s sensitive to souls because it dodged Neneria.”

“That could have been a fluke.” Neneria said. “I just saw it looking at you.”

“That’s true.” Fortia said. “We know it fights to kill, and it seemingly was smart enough to try and go for Malam and Iniri and Neneria and not us three.” Fortia waved her finger around to indicate the Big Three. “That’s enough information to form a profile, and to know it has a brain, and that it’s dangerous.” Those bronze eyes settled on Malam again. “We’re not taking it back to the surface.”

“Well we did actually learn something else.” Malam said. “You missed it though.”

“Pray tell and it better be smart.” Fortia crossed her arms, she took a step away, then leaned on the side of the wall, her head moving back from the front and back to them. “Fer, keep watch.”

“It did not look at you once.” Malam said. “Did you notice?”

“Its eyes were on me for the majority of the fight and entirely once I closed in.” Fortia said and as Fer took watch, her ears twisted though, and she angled herself so that she could watch the rest of the group too. Malam pointed at Fortia, then down to her bronze skirt, then to her legs.

“No it did not.” She said. Fortia looked down at her legs, moved one of them, raising them into the air and then planting it back down on the ground.

“Either this is stupid or it’s so genius I’m too stupid to understand it.”

“It did not look at Fer either.” Malam said. “And look at her.” Fer looked down at herself, what exactly was she going to be looking at? Her tummy? Shirt? Legs? Maybe her hands, she inspected them.

“Oh.” Maisara said. “I see.”

“See what?” Fortia asked.

“No, that is actually something.” Maisara said. “It did not glance at us lustfully.” Fer stared down at herself, then pinched stomach. Excuse me? What exactly was she listening to?

“Mmh.” Malam said. “Now I’m a beauty enough to chat a stray look, but you three are harlots. You two are like schoolgirls and Fer is…” Malam waved in Beasthood’s general direction. “Well, that’s practically nude.”

“I wear a shirt!” Fer picked at the cloth. It was torn from her transformation and her own fur growing out, although she used that to cover up! And only because Arascus had told her.

“When was the last time you had a fight where someone did not glance at your legs? Even once?” Malam asked. Maisara and Fortia shared a look, Fortia’s mouth opened and closed again and Maisara answered it in her boring monotone that she used for every great revelation.

“Never.” Maisara said.

“It’s not based off humanity.” Malam said. “That is one thing I am sure of.”

“I fucking hate you.” Fortia leaned her head back against the wall as Neneria joined on the lean. Iniri was pulling nuts out of a pouch and eating them, flicking the shells onto the ground. “Do you know that Malam?”

“That’s genius though, isn’t it?”

“It’s smart enough that I’m not going to dismiss it.” Fortia said. “The amount of assumptions there is too much.”

“No.” Malam said. “There are no assumptions, it saw you and it registered you as an enemy combatant immediately. All of us. There wasn’t even a shred of thought or doubt or anything.” Of Hatred flicked her hair back in satisfaction, then crossed her arms as she grew a smile so smug it even annoyed Fer. “And if you think the reasoning is wrong, disprove it.”

“How exactly am I supposed to disprove that?” Fortia asked. “I can’t.”

“You can’t because the logic makes sense.”

“How exactly do you even think of that?” Fortia asked.

“Because even monsters will have some reaction to us.” Malam said. “And if you were trying to kill me and walked in on me naked, you would too. There’s no one who wouldn’t.”

“Wouldn’t Kass?” Fortia asked.

“Kass would blush for an instant.” Fer said. “She’s shy about things like that.” Fortia muttered a swear under her breath.

“Arascus then.” Neneria, Malam and Fer all turned to look Fortia with doubtful looks. Now that was stupid.

“My father is not some lifeless automata.” Neneria said first.

“Do you think I’ve not seen him catching glances at you?” Fer asked. Of all people, Fortia should be one to know that Arascus’ blood ran hot.

“That is idiotic. Arascus is passion incarnate.” Malam said. “He’d still fight you, and he wouldn’t blush, but you would know he’s enjoying the sight. That creature was not.”

“Why is that important?” Fortia asked.

“Because from my end, that looks like a total lack of humanity entirely.” Malam said. “Total lack of Arda even.” She looked to Fer. “It was humanoid, but it behaved more like an animal, didn’t it?”

“I see it now.” Fer said. That was entirely true now that she recalled the fight in her own head. “It fought like a hungry wolf, we were prey, nothing else.”

“Just so you know.” Fortia said. “I wear this for range of motion.”

“Mmh.” Malam said. “Sure you do.”

“Malam, we are so much faster than you that you are slow to us. Armour slows us down.” Maisara said and turned to Fer. “Doesn’t it?”

“I just regenerate.” Fer said. “Steel can’t regenerate and it’s worst if it lodged in me but Malam’s reasoning is correct. I’m for the not-Arda rather than pre-Gaia side now.”

“What about mutated animal?” Maisara asked.

“But then you get into feasibility.” Neneria said. “If you’re going to make a biped, why not just use a human as the base?”

“What about if you kill off the humanity inside?” Fortia said. “Malam?”

“You can’t kill off instinct like that.”

“Can you not?”

“Who here is not scared?” Malam asked and looked around the group. No one answered or raised their hand.

“I’m unnerved.” Maisara said. “Does that count?”

“Well obviously.” Malam said. “That’s just the baseline of fear. Lust is the same thing.”

“What if it’s been down here for so long it forgot what humans looked like?” Fortia asked.

“What if it’s been desensitized for three thousand years and then saw you.” Malam said. “Yeah, great point.”

“I’m normal.”

“Because you dress like that everyday!” Malam raised her arms and voiced. “That thing did not. Take it or leave it Fortia, that thing did not see us as its own.”

“Does it even have an own?” Iniri asked.

“Well if it was human or ex-human, it would.”

“What about ex-Divine?” Neneria asked in her whisper and the conversation stopped. Fortia closed her eyes, craned her head down and froze. Even Fer dropped her smile, you could always trust Neneria to say something utterly horrible. Iniri stopped eating her nuts and Maisara just stared at Neneria in unblinking awe. Malam no longer seemed to find her discovery so fun.

“Pray save me from this.” Peace muttered, then added several swears for good measure.

“What about ex-Divine though?” Maisara said, then turned to Malam. “What about that option?”

“How do you make a Divine into that?” Malam asked, although it was weak defence.

Fer tried to step in. “Would Divinity not naturally regenerate to its own body? Even if we…” She spun a finger at her head. “You know, go coo-coo, we still look like we look.”

“What about a monster-Divine then?” Maisara asked. “Did we just kill one of their Gods?”

“And Fortia said I was jumping to conclusions.” Malam said. “It’s not possible for a monster to incarnate a God.”

“Is it not?” Maisara asked. “Didn’t we just see one?”

“They would need souls.” Neneria said. “They would need collective will, they would reveal control over the immaterial through possession of magic. They would need to organise and…” Neneria trailed off when Fortia started flicking her flashlight off and on towards that overwhelming darkness which seemed to be a wall for the light.

“Neneria.” Fortia said. “If that is not control over the immaterial, what is?”

Fer closed her eyes, feeling every single on her body stand up.

They had just killed a God.