69novels Chapter 268: The Tolling of the MAD Bell
Chapter 268: The Tolling of the MAD Bell
Daniel feels a great weight on himself as his surroundings settle into a completely new location. He feels guilty, as if he ran away from battle. It’s not “fleeing”, but a part of his body and soul don’t want to carry out what he has planned with Ucahote. He wants to stay right where he is.
Going forward means putting his own life in danger. This danger is almost as certain as one can be that death is on the horizon. For his gamble to work, assuming there’s even a shred of a chance, the bomb can’t just be dropped. It has to be delivered to the very bottom of the crater, where the blast will be directed upwards as much as possible by the crater itself. He knows he’s trading one of the advantages of a traditional airblast for a major reason the airblast was settled on; the radioactive fallout will be many times worse with all of the soil, rock, and debris that will be flash-irradiated, vaporized, and fall back to Zenkon as radioactive dust.
The reason Daniel is willing to take this chance is exactly that; as far as he can tell, the ambient mana of Zenkon is primarily a “surface effect”. It’s a part of the natural system of the world, but it is most ‘concentrated’ in the air that exists between the dirt and sky, with ‘veins’ of mana in the ground, similar to the spiritual concept of ley lines on Earth. This is Daniel’s working hypothesis for why the carbon nanotube pillars could be submerged and gather mana in large enough quantities to power Kernuules or the Citadel, as well as Kaeralegier’s strange ‘artifact’ that helped summon Daniel, Rikuto, and Zuzia to Zenkon, while the natural abundance of uranium ore seeded throughout the mountains separating the continent could continue to exist without being rapidly decayed away by the inverse action.
And, if Daniel’s hopes pan out, most of the radioactive fallout can be handled by the abundant mana in Zenkon’s atmosphere, like a magnetic field specifically effective at countering radioactivity. For all he knows, the sun for Zenkon is blasting them with thousands of times more radiation than Sol did for Earth, but Zenkon ‘evolved’ a celestial, geological, and biological balance to counter it.
Regardless, a fireblast or fallout killing a lot of people still has to be weighed against the whole world, and it has him terrified.
“Your Grace, the shuttle is ready…” replies Ucahote, successfully snapping Daniel out of his momentary pause.
“R-Right… Thank you.”
“If… there is another way, your Grace. You don’t have to go. Perhaps you could give this choice to…”
“No. It has to be me,” replies Daniel, his own voice sounding alien to him as he walks forward wearily, stepping off of the hastily made receiving station. He didn’t teleport to the normal ingress point. He arrived at the dam’s power station, which is functional, but mostly maintained by golems because of the extreme danger power-distribution levels of electricity provide to professionals, let alone people who have very little understanding of how dangerous a completely innocuous looking piece of metal can suddenly be. They aren’t devoid of knowledge, since it’s widely considered suicidal to handle electrical-element magic crystals.
Regardless, the power station is the safest place so long as Xyreko’s attention is drawn away. She won’t necessarily stop Daniel, but she will tell everyone, and far more people will forcibly involve themselves in what could be Daniel’s most dangerous mission.
Lucy hovers out in front of him as Daniel takes the feline helmet off. She gives him a smile, trying to cheer him up. The mechanic gently pets her side with his bandaged right hand. “Thanks, Lucy. I suppose I was supposed to be giving you a second name for each element, huh?”
The little pixie is still in her dual-toned elemental form, which carries a more graceful, more ‘mature’ look to her form in spite of her equally colorful appearance. Daniel decides rather swiftly, and he says softly, “Selena. How does Lucy Selena sound?”
Lucy smiles and cocks her head, but she hugs Daniel’s hand gently.
“I’m counting on you, if you can believe it. I know… my odds aren’t great right now.”
Lucy gives a pumped up arm-flex, twirling once as Daniel keeps walking. “Thanks. Let’s save the world one more time… and then relax for a long time afterwards.”
Lucy nods in agreement.
However, as Daniel’s approaching the modified shuttle, he is met with a surprise that horrifies him for a moment.
A small troop of goblins and the three Dattakoriens Daniel knows, Baeka, Paet, and Weya, are standing at the troop bay of the shuttle.
“My sincerest apologies,” states Ucahote. “In order to keep what little secrecy remained… I had to agree to…”
“No,” states Daniel loudly to the group. “Absolutely not.”
“Daniel…” starts Baeka.
“I said no! This mission is dangerous enough already…”
“All the more reason you need assistance,” retorts Weya. Daniel looks at her with an agitated expression. He’s not angry at them, specifically. He’s just not willing to gamble the lives of others when the odds of success AND escape are so low.
Baeka steps right up to Daniel, handing him a rolled up letter. She growls, “You don’t have a choice, Daniel. We’re going. And, you’re lucky it’s us.”
“We could all die,” whispers Daniel with pain in his voice.
“And, we might be able to save you,” retorts Baeka.
“You’re…”
“In love with a cruel, cruel man?” asks Baeka with her own scowl. “Yes. And, I don’t want either of us to die.” She shoves the letter into his chest, saying sternly, “Read it, and you’ll quickly understand.”
Daniel hesitates, but he unfurls the letter and skims it over, slowing as it sinks in what he’s writing.
And more importantly, who wrote it.
“[That’s right, Daniel,
You’re a fool if you thought I wouldn’t discover your little clandestine backup mission. I was operating secret missions before you even knew how to write this language. I know I can’t come with you for three very obvious reasons, and I won’t say goodbye as a result. The reason is simple, this will not be goodbye.
You will come back, alive and well, or I will personally snatch your soul back from the void, find a way to revive you, and then tattle on you to Ryuo and everyone else. You will never be allowed to leave your Palace again.
So, now that we understand each other, I hope you will trust me, too.
I love you, Darling. Come back safe, and take care of your troop.
Since you’ll be coming back to help me raise our children one way or another, I trust you’ll make the right choice.
Give our children the best future.
Sincerely yours now and forever,
D.]”
Daniel holds the letter for the wrong time. He doesn’t need to know whose initial it is. There’s only one it could be, and only one who would conspire against everyone else for her own ends.
“This doesn’t explain you guys…” murmurs Daniel as he stares at the letter.
“I just did,” retorts Baeka. “I care about you, I care about your family, and I want to be a part of this great future that we’re all working to build. You saved my people in more ways than one, and I owe a debt that I don’t expect to be able to repay in this life.”
Paet and Weya add, “We owe you the same debt, your Grace, and we will protect our Mikadresselle, no matter what.”
The goblins, members of Grendel Six, stand proudly and salute. Daniel sees Mosko, the oldest member of Grendel Six, Machken, Hap, and a few others that he doesn’t recognize. Mosko states, “Grendel Six is duty-bound to the Emperor, and we are the Fang of the Fievegal. If Field Marshall Klur was battle-ready, he would be leading us as always. I hope you can trust Grendel Six in his absence to guard your life, Human-Emperor Daniel.”
The mechanic clenches his fists as he closes his eyes tightly, trying to resist the conflicting emotions. The shuttle will struggle enough to function, but more people does increase the chances of mission success.
The problem is, he had every intention of trying the teleporter pack again, but with the knowledge that being surrounded by strange mana from the mana fire and embers would almost certainly teleport him anywhere else in the world but the return station he just used.
With so many people, he would be lucky to take Paet and Weya with him.
“If you knew what I was about to do, you wouldn’t want your name attached to it…” murmurs Daniel.
Baeka cups his cheek. “If it is the right thing to do, then I will share this burden with you. The rest of them are just following orders…”
“Mikadresselle!” “My Lady!” protest Paet and Weya, but she silences them with her left palm.
“Loyally following my orders. So, either I carry this torch with you, or they will follow very different orders our ‘secret’ accomplice gave me permission to give.” She gestures at the letter crumpled in his hand, confirming Doephluev had a hand in sneaking a small troop out to Daniel’s secret shuttle, and even got Ucahote to cooperate with the same threat.
‘Accept this extra insurance, or be denied entirely.’
Daniel asks softly, “Even if it means taking innocent lives?”
Baeka pauses, and her confident and irritable expression fades a bit. She is quickly realizing the gravity of why Daniel was being so secretive about it.
The dattakorien ‘princess’ balls her own hands into fists for a moment, thinking through her own feelings.
She replies, “I shall… say a prayer to the spirits to protect them. The world… must come first.”
Daniel sighs. It was her opportunity to disrupt his mission, but instead, she’s set on going along with it. Daniel adds, “This isn’t the right thing to do. Not… not entirely… We’ll… I’ll be condemned for all time…”
“No… Only some will condemn us,” retorts Baeka as she takes his hand. “It saddens me to think that the other Empresses would be here beside us if they knew, rather than it being a special moment just for us. But…” She smiles softly and a little bitterly, repeating, “The world must come first.”
Defeated, Daniel looks at Ucahote, asking, “Is everything else ready?”
“Yes, your Grace. The shuttle has enough lift to stop its descent, which the ‘kickers’ you requested. It… will be a rough landing. If… you survive the landing.”
Daniel takes his teleporter pack off, pushing it towards Baeka. “If you’re going, you’ll be our escape strategy, then, Baeka. My hands will be tied up, so…”
“You plan to slip out of reach to ensure as many of the rest of us go, don’t you?” growls Baeka as she takes hold of the pack. “I would sooner destroy it right now.”
“We don’t have time! If you’re going, follow my orders. I’m… I barely have a plan as it is. But, I’m not trying to die. If you want to help, help. If not, stay here and safe… and out of my way.”
Baeka twists her feline-esque lips just enough to show her left canines, and she lifts her head haughtily. The dattakorien Mikadressele tugs Daniel’s collar aside to reveal the scarred canine marks on his upper shoulder where Treia bit him during an intimate session. “I hope you won’t mind me being forward, Daniel, since I know, now, that’s how to interact with you. But,...” She looks Daniel directly in the eyes, saying sternly, “I intend to make my mark as well.” She takes the teleporter pack, adding, “If I have to dig my canines down to your bone to make sure you go with us, I will.”
Daniel nods once. “It… won’t be able to transport everyone.” He scans the other three dattakoriens and the goblins, and Mosko adds, “We’ll take our chances with the shuttle, Emperor. No worry for us. We know risks.”
Daniel sighs. “Anyone who wants out, I welcome you to unvolunteer. I am only going myself because I need to set the bomb. It’s a secret I prefer to take to my grave.”
No one budges, and Paet says softly and confidently, “Looks like you have your answer, your Grace.”
“You heard her,” adds Baeka as she gingerly scratches Daniel’s right cheek with one of her tiger-like nails. “The world…”
“Must come first…” murmurs Daniel, causing the woman to grin. Her hand is trembling a little, but she is trying to prevent Daniel from seeing through her facade.
She’s unlikely to be as nervous as Daniel is, because he knows the kinds of things people will likely say if this all goes wrong.
Let alone if they go right.
As they board, Daniel inspects the shuttle for one last moment. This one is weighed down by plates of uranium and lead, the latter of which will be shed upon arrival to engage the ‘anti-magic field’ that will hopefully let them reach the nadir of the crater. Given the clash of powers, they will likely only have a very few minutes before they are engulfed, which is why they’ll have to ‘fly’ as carefully as possible until they reach the bottom, avoiding the largest surges of mana flames, as well as the lava jet. They will have no way of knowing where the deepest point is once they’re in the crater, other than Daniel’s ability to see the mana fire’s ‘true’ form without the additional ‘glare’ caused by the intense mana itself, which the Zenkon natives can’t see through.
Additionally… “You know… you’ll all likely feel nauseous, right? Possibly cripplingly so.”
“The goblins are minimally affected,” replies Weya, “And we’re wearing mithril armor, which should help.”
“Either way, we’re going. So, take care of me, ‘Darling’,” teases Baeka.
Daniel finally manages to scoff. He feels a little better, though the grimness of his task is far from lost on him.
“Then… I guess… this is it.”
Daniel boards the shuttle, and he says, “We’ll be dropping in, so don’t get too comfortable, and be ready to brace yourselves. The landing is going to be hard, if we’re lucky enough to call it a landing.”
“We’re actually touching down!?” asks Paet.
“No choice. The shuttle is too heavy with the extra plates to climb back out in time. It’s a shield to buy us just a little time. Hang on!”
Daniel nods at Ucahote, who will be piloting the shuttle for as long as he can. The golem is lead-shielded, which might prevent some of the interference from disrupting the ‘temporary soul’ copied into it, but it risks doing harm to the real Ucahote if he remains connected to the unending mana barrage.
Daniel can do the basic piloting, but he doesn’t have the reaction time to perform the landing they need.
A portal opens beneath the shuttle, and gravity shifts as they instantly start falling. Daniel calls back from the cockpit, “It should be about thirty seconds! Be ready for impact! Discarding shield plates in three… two… one… Dropping!” Daniel pulls a lever, and a series of small blasts pushes the lead plates off of the shuttle as the cockpit fills with a white glow from their rapid descent towards the false inferno threatening to destroy the whole world.
Lead does have some shielding effect against mana, just as it does with radiation, but contact with the mana inferno will still ‘incinerate’ them. Daniel only left them on as long as he did once they were through the portal to help armor the uranium against the wind shock and any debris that might be present.
Daniel calls out, “Oh… I forgot to mention, Sayrdarralouche is still alive!”
Baeka calls out, “What!?” She was on the airship when it was attacked, so she has every bit of the knowledge of how dangerous he is.
“If we’re lucky, he’ll die as well. Stay away from the windows!”
The uranium is working already, though barely. Daniel can see the embers that aren’t being snuffed out streaking by the windscreen as the shuttle plummets towards the ground. Obviously, the mana fire isn’t ‘hot’, thankfully. It’s just a terrifying rush, because any one of the embers reaching the inside of the shuttle, which is shielded against the uranium on the outside by another layer of lead, which is why the shuttle will barely be air worthy, even if they didn’t crash land.
Daniel watches the mana flames below, where they are actually disintegrating the bowl of the crater. They’re approaching rapidly, but it’s still too far to really make out any detail.
That said, Daniel has driven a car in both windy snowstorms and thick fog. What you can see is very different from what it actually is.
“Start vertical thrust, Ucahote! Balance us out.”
“Decelerating,” replies the golem. He cycles the throttles and directional levers, but he asks, “Are you sure? Mana readings are rising. The shielding is failing.
“The ember density is skyrocketing. We’re getting close, and the thrusters will take a long time. If you see the ground, fire the kickers.” The mechanic calls over his shoulder, “Everyone, brace for impact! I don’t know when!”
“Bracing!” replies Baeka as everyone holds tightly to their seats and the railing around them.
Daniel holds tight to his own position. He can feel his weight increasing as the shuttle desperately whines and roars, trying to slow down the massive weight. The Earthling has his eyes closed for a long time, praying silently to no one in particular.
When he looks, he is startled by what can only be some sort of negative-afterimage, since he’s obviously surrounded by light, and the thing he saw for just a moment can’t possibly have existed.
Exhausted, weary, hungover, and partially-still-drunk Daniel would swear, if he wasn’t self-aware enough about his condition, that he just saw a face give him a grin amidst the mana fire’s swirling embers, dissolving into the swirls of the faux blaze.
Daniel squeezes his handholds, and his instincts crawl. He wouldn’t be able to prove how he knows, but his gut just twisted in a knot. Maybe it was a sign that he saw, maybe he actually saw something that his peripherals recognized. Regardless, he does his best to yell, “This is it! Br-!”
BOOM!
***
Zuzia keeps glancing at the worst possible thing to see while the evacuation is progressing at a snail’s pace.
Sayrdarralouche has been reanimated once more.
This time, however, his shape is a little different, glistening in the light from the spikes that are sticking off of him like a gigantic horned lizard or something similar, but with more aggressive ‘horns’.
Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.
While she’s walking in that direction, she quickly types numbers in on her phone, which she summoned back to her hand, and she hits send. Zuzia calls out to the others that were with her, including Heralesse and Rikuto, “I’m going! Keep evacuating!” She glimpses Rikuto wave in confirmation, though he might have been trying to signal something else. But, it’s irrelevant. Zuzia will find her own way.
Once the ringing starts, she breaks into a run towards the eastern perimeter of Urflasdat, headed for the returned threat she is responsible for.
A few moments of the strange ‘Amalaskae-generated’ ringtone pass, and a fiery voice answers. “Hello! Zuzia, hello? This is Geirahoel. Why are you calling Mukori?”
“She knows he doesn’t have it, Geira…” grumbles Reignleif’s voice nearby.
Zuzia cuts to the chase, doing her best to keep the phone steady against her cheek while she talks, “Geira, Reina, I need Neith or Magnir to pick me up! I’m running east of Urfuldatz or whatever it’s called, headed directly towards Sayrdarralouche! Tell them to do a fly-by and scoop me up!”
“Is everything alright?” asks Reignleif’s voice. “Is there anything else we can do to help?”
“No! Just send a pickup! Sayrdarralouche is already readying to attack again!”
“Understood,” replies Geirahoel’s voice. “Roetta, the Rose-pink dragon is on the way. Onii-chan and Magnir are already attacking, and there’s a lot of interference from their proximity to the mana fire.”
“Thank you! I owe you guys!”
“Wait! Before you go, where is Mukori? We can’t see his helmet. He promised to keep his helmet on.”
“Mukori… Daniel, right? Uh… Last I saw him, he was at the base camp. He wasn’t wearing a helmet then, but we discussed evacuating the city before dropping the nuke. I don’t like it, but now, we got Sayrdarralouche again. I’m one of the few that can physically move him, so I gotta get over there!”
“Tell Mukori to-...!”
Geirahoel is cut off with a scuffle of the phone, and Reignleif quickly says, “Do your best to protect Mukori, if you would, Zuzia. We’ll be standing by the phone to send any assistance we can.”
“Got it! If you can figure out how to redial me, call me for anything you need! Oh, and tell Amalaskae to just make my phone appear in my face or something.”
“Understood. Be safe, Zuzia. Reignleif and Geirahoel… um,... Over.”
Zuzia scoffs again. They’re trying, and she can see the pink dragon in her armor approaching at high speed. Zuzia only briefly met Roetta, but she’s like Magnir in that she doesn’t have a stupendous amount of mana. If Zuzia could go toe to toe with Neith, defeating Magnir or Roetta in a one on one battle would have been like fighting a human baby. Not that Zuzia would, but it’s an objectively easy standard to compare it with. Or, maybe a feisty toddler.
Regardless, Roetta is still a strong being in this world. Zuzia is just too strong.
The pink dragon arrives at Zuzia’s location carrying a woman that gives Zuzia momentary pause. She’s wearing a simple dress and apron…
… Ones tailor fit for a half-human/half-spider being typically known in fantasy works as an arachne or a drider. The anthropomorphic wolfman Halkadon and the more tigress-like ‘dattakorien’ ladies were one thing, the goblins were surprisingly easy to digest for what they are, but a drider hits all of the uncanny valley points for Zuzia. She doesn’t dislike spiders, but seeing a mostly-human woman at the top suddenly turn into a spider is definitely a shocker for at least a moment.
Roetta remains in her dragon form, asking, “Lady Zuzia?”
“Yes. Roetta, right? Or… Lady Roetta?”
“Dame Roetta, if you please, my Lady. Magnir and I are knights, and though we will receive noble status, not yet.”
“And…”
“I am the archpriestess of the Divine Children of the Star!” proclaims the drider woman.
“She’s a prisoner. I have to guard her, so pay her no mind. She’s cooperating in exchange for the right to worship her new ‘god’ with the understanding we’re about to kill it.”
“You cannot kill the Star, foolish dragon! The Star is undying purity! Even if it is driven from this wretched world, it is only this world that suffers!”
“Please, stop speaking…” grumbles the dragon over her shoulder as she helps Zuzia up onto her large back. Roetta is smaller than Neith and Magnir. Zuzia didn’t see much of Jeavana’s true form, but even she was significantly larger than this pink dragon.
Regardless, compared to Zuzia, Roetta is still the size of an orca, if that orca had an elongated neck and tail. And, she lifts into the air with relative ease, carrying the drider woman and Zuzia as if they aren’t there at all.
“So, uh, Archpriestess…”
“Her name is Ochibenara, but like I said, she’s a prisoner,” replies Roetta over the wind noise. “And, forgive me, but I won’t be able to remain in the battle with you unless things get even worse. I am to protect the encampment and our leadership as much as possible.”
“I understand,” replies Zuzia over the wind. “Thank you! As for you, uh, Ochibenara… You… worship the mana fire?”
“It is the cleansing blaze that will purge all of the evil of this world!” exclaims the spider-woman with actual glee. She’s very obviously blind, given how her eyes stare at nothing, even when her head turns to face Zuzia. But, she is fanatical about the inferno everyone else is trying to stop.
“It’s destroying the world though…”
“Such is the extent of the rot of this world! Where once we were drowned in darkness by the Great One, the Children of the Star will set us all free! These fools dare to challenge the divine with of true purity and perfection.
Zuzia glances ahead at Sayrdarralouche, who is towering over everyone, just as before. The newest problem among all of the terrible tribulations plaguing them is that the dragon is standing in the mana fire, not disintegrating. If anything, his lower half has taken on the same sparkly black hue as the rest of him, leaving no traces of the dragon he once was, other than being a ‘draconic’ form.
He looks somewhat like a specific classic movie monster, but only at a glance. His limbs are far longer and his head more sleek, though not nearly as sleek as the european-esque dragon that he is. Like a crude and weathered stone statue of that same dragon after centuries of neglect.
“Alright, Roetta… I trust Neith and Serrentuk with my life, so if you could, please take me close to one or both of them!”
The pink dragon nods her head once, banking only slightly to adjust her angle and make a beeline straight for the grey dragon while both he and Magnir breathe jets of fire at Sayrdarralouche to very little effect. It’s the most they can do right now, since he is in the mana fire itself, somehow withstanding the flames that are slowly disintegrating the world itself.
“Also… Remind me to punch Rikuto in the face after this is all over! It’s his fault I’m here fighting leviathans!”
The wind makes it impossible to hear, but Zuzia can feel Roetta chuckling under her knees and hands. But, she stays on mission, giving a loud roar to announce her presence, which draws Magnir’s and Neith’s attention. From there, Roetta says, “I’ll fly you past! Jump when you feel the time is right!”
“Roger!” shouts Zuzia as she lifts herself up into a runner’s position. She watches Neith as Roetta leans slightly right, and whether or not it’ll help, Zuzia screams, “Catch me Neith!”
The Polish woman takes a leap of faith and jumps, sailing through the air with a rush through her body as she really notices how high they are. She knows now that she can pretty comfortably survive a 200 meter drop… or rather, her brain knows it. Her body and instincts still believe she’s just regular old Zuzanna of Earth, born and raised in a small town a bit closer to Kraków than to Warsaw, but very much removed from the true hustle and bustle of the metropolitan life itself. She used to be able to hike to the top of a mountain in a few hours or so. Now, she could probably jump to the summit in four or five bounds.
Regardless, Neith is quick to react, and he uses wind magic to catch Zuzia as he retreats from Sayrdarralouche for a moment, depositing the brunette onto his belly to fly upside down and backwards.
“Zuzia!? I thought you were in the city!”
“Bydlak here is my responsibility. And this time, I’m gonna huff and puff and kick his tłustą dupę right into where the sun does shine. Frickin’ orbit.”
Neith scoffs and laughs, wincing and trying to shield Zuzia when Sayrdarralouche roars once more. It’s not quite as “voluminous’ as his directed shockwave roars, but it is more metallic, like a titanic metal fork scraping a gigantic ceramic plate. It doesn’t sound nearly as natural as Neith’s, Magnir’s, or Roetta’s draconic calls.
Zuzia stands up on Neith’s belly, yelling at the seemingly-mindless, unstoppable force of nature. “I hope those are your last prayers! Because the Ronin of the Plains of Fire has come to grant you one final Pożegnanie before God takes care of the rest!”
“Big words for a tiny woman!” calls out Neith. “I know you can back them up, but what’s the plan!? He’s even more resistant to our attacks than before, and he has a passive magic-eating barrier around him!”
“What!?” calls out Zuzia. Magic eating barrier? Is that why he’s not disintegrating from the voodoo fire? Hah!
The honey-haired brunette punches her own palm, rolling her head back and forth to loosen up her neck. “Hah! If magic won’t work, then it looks like I’m not so useless after all! If he is withstanding magic, then get me close. Either his barrier will burn out or he’ll be stuck in a really deep hole that’s going to have a really bad day very, very soon.”
“Understood. But, if you plan to hit him full force…”
“I’ll handle my own footing! I just need you to get me into range of him. Preferably on his back and then you make him turn into the crater.”
They both look at the mana embers that are rising and swirling into the sky, especially around the dragon. But, like Neith said, Zuzia can also see that the dragon is, in fact, seemingly dissolving the mana embers that are within a few dozen meters of his newly-stony hide.
And… diamonds.
Even with Neith keeping some range, it seems like the glistening is either obsidian or actual diamonds of some kind, which does make some sense to Zuzia, given the intense forces, and subsequently, heat that would have been involved with Sayrdarralouche’s meteoric impact with the ground. Since he takes the form of substances around him when he regenerates, it obviously gave him some new kind of ‘armor’ that is somehow resistant to the mana fire itself.
The only other, and even more horrifying explanation, would be that both mana fire and dragon are servants of the same master; a master capable of preventing ‘friendly fire.’
Heh… ‘Friendly fire’. I’m an idiot.
Zuzia smacks her cheeks to center herself and focus.
“Magnir! We’re going to rely on Zuzia’s strength for this. I’m going to drop her off and try to draw his attention over the center,” calls out Neith suddenly, and Zuzia sees him rapidly approaching the blue dragon, who is using some sort of magic bag to continuously drop bombs on the titan below them now.
“Understood!” calls back the blue dragon. He slings the bag back onto his arm, fastening skillfully in spite of his long body and head making it difficult for him to look directly at his chest, and the two dragons split off into separate formation.
“Zuzia, if Magnir can’t retrieve you…”
“I know! I have to get back to ‘safe’ land myself! Just get me a chance to hit this thing, and then we’ll all get out of here and go…” Zuzia notices movement falling from the sky over the near center of the mana fire. She wouldn’t normally pay it any mind, except that she recognizes the shape, especially the shadow it casts when it descends into the tip of the ‘mountain’ formed by white embers that can disintegrate all matter.
It’s an airship making a diving run into the heart of the mana fire.
And, that can only mean one thing.
You son of a… Daniel… I swear to all that is Holy, I will kill you if… Damn it! No time!
“Neith! Hurry! I think we’re out of time!”
The dragon looks, and he flinches, “My liege…”
“Hurry, hurry! We have to drive fatso in to make sure he takes the brunt of it! Just throw me at his face, I don’t care!”
This is when the unthinkable happens. Sayrdarralouche takes a deep inhale, and his whole body seems to be breathing in from every possible surface. Mana embers are pulled in like he suddenly became magnetic to them, and his black teeth start to glow brilliant white as an ominous glow flecked with all colors of the rainbow, as well as black, starts to build in his maw.
Even if it were only going to be fire, it’s a terrifying appearance that suggests the most devastating, laser-like beam of concentrated heat that a gamma-laser or ‘GASER’ would be proud of.
However, given all of the context, and Sayrdarralouche’s newfound penchant for making use of the environment around him as his new ‘biology’, it’s something far worse and with far more grave implications.
His likely about to ‘breathe’ a jet of mana ‘fire’, a stream of the very sinister out-of-control disintegration they have been fighting for the last couple days.
Neith hesitates as all of the horror of his friend and liege Lord, brother in name and by law, and friend seems set on something reckless, while Sayrdarrlouche becomes an existential threat merely as a walking embodiment of the already unstoppable mana fire. Zuzia screams, “Neith! Now! Throw me now!”
She has no idea how long Daniel plans to give them, nor why he’s flying the shuttle into the flames instead of dropping it from above. It seems pretty counterintuitive if the bomb gets disintegrated before it ever gets a chance to detonate, but if he has some sort of psychotic plan, he obviously neglected to tell her and Rikuto because he already believed they were out of time, and Sayrdarralouche certainly wouldn’t have given him any further confidence.
Damn it, Daniel! I thought you understood! I trusted you! People are going to die! Your friends are going to die!
Regardless, Zuzia knows she needs to focus. She has to save the screaming and yelling for when they’re all face to face again. And, that day will never come if she doesn’t make sure Sayrdarralouche dies once and for all when that nuke goes off.
“Neith! Do it now and retreat! You have to flee! Please!”
The dragon finally tenses, and he roars, rolling over in mid-flight to catch Zuzia in his claws, and he flies directly for the titanic dragon. He roars at the top of his lungs, “I am the First Jomsviking of this world! I am the Demonic Dragon Neith Gur Lawson! Say your last prayers and prepare to die! RaaaaaOOOAARRRRRRRR!” Neith’s bellowing finish penetrates the air like the deep bass of an over-powered stereo system, filling Zuzia’s body with a sort of invigorating rush as Sayrdarralouche turns his gaze from Magnir to the grey dragon.
He is slammed by the force of Neith plowing directly into him full-tilt, ‘shoulder-checking’ the titanic dragon before using his left foreclaw to grip Sayrdarralouche by the neck and keep himself out of biting range.
“Brace yourself, Zuzia, and strike with the hammer of God!”
Zuzia braces against Neith’s fist, only able to see through the gaps in his fingers. He slams his fist into Sayrdarralouche’s jaws, which were only partially open, and the grey dragon fearlessly uses himself as a ‘forced entry vehicle’ to deliver Zuzia inside of the gigantic beast.
Zuzia has never been inside of a submarine, but she obviously understands that navy sailors on such ‘small’ warships have room to navigate while standing up, and that’s how she feels inside of Sayrdarralouche’s mouth as he clamps down on Neith’s arm, trying to claim the appendage from the brazen and fearless dragon knight. Zuzia doesn’t have enough height to pry the titan’s jaws off of Neith’s forearm, given how deeply his teeth have already carved into Neith’s flesh, but the grey dragon is obviously fighting, given the violent thrashing and booms that jolt Zuzia inside of his mouth.
I get it! Thinks Zuzia as she braces against the violent bucks using Neith’s forearm. Find the soft spot and kill him! But, how do I do that with so little… No, wait… I’m inside his head. Sure, I blew his head off once, but…
Zuzia clings to Neith’s arm with one hand and clenches her other one into a tight fist.
If just his head alone won’t work, then I’ll work deeper with each punch. Eventually, I’ll find the thing he can’t live without. It’s not like he’s Eren Jaeger!
Zuzia quickly times her movements with ‘surges’, which want to launch her upwards given the pitch of the brutal giant battle going on outside. Using this, she reaches the top of Neith’s forearm, which is bleeding profusely and latched onto by Sayrdarralouche’s stony teeth. In spite of their stone-like appearance, they hold fast against a dragon, and they even have distinct, massive ‘veins’ of diamond-like material. Maybe it’s glass, maybe it’s cubic zirconia. Zuzia doesn’t care, since he has to die, and she wants to rescue Neith from being pulled into the mana fire in the process, if she can.
The brunette Polish woman rears her fist back, and she says, “Zuzia Spolskia, Fałszywa Dentystka, at your service, ya jerk!”
She braces her knees and holds fast to Neith’s forearm as best as she can. She calls out, “Titan Tool Removal Punch!”
Whoo-KRA-Kaboom!”
The explosive force hitting the titanic dragon’s tooth causes all kinds of violent movement as he manages to let go of Neith’s forearm, and the dragon catches his upper and lower jaw, bracing through his own pain as he says, “Zuzia!”
However, something feels off to the young Polish tax-accountant.
She has slipped many times while hiking. She has scraped her knees from pretty much every angle, her shins have felt like bare chicken bones, and her forehead has had more than one nearly-scar-worthy wound from her many tumbles learning the best way to pick footing, climbing routes, and judging the stability of terrain. And, in the few instances where a short stint of rock climbing was necessary, she has ‘degloved’ one or more of her fingers plenty of times, as well as scrapes and bruises.
The tell-tale ‘heat’ is the first thing that causes her to look at her right hand.
Nothing is apparent at first, but she can already feel and see her hand trembling as she tries to brace against Neith’s forearm. As she watches her relaxed hand, particularly her knuckles where the heat has gathered most, even in the shadows of Sayrdarralouche’s partially-closed mouth, she can see speckles of red appearing more rapidly and more numerously than the stars in an evening sky.
Suddenly, it all hits her at once.
Within a very few seconds since her punch, the ‘red stars speckled across her knuckles’ have become streams of blood, relentless and unstoppable, and the ‘heat’ immediately ignites into a full-on, relentless burning sensation that forces Zuzia to scream. She flings herself away from Neith’s hand on instinct from the pain, landing on Sayrdarralouche’s stony-tongue, and she clutches her wrist with her left hand. The young woman screams in pain as she experiences the sensation in full for the first time since she came to this world.
“Zuzia!” cries out Neith. His voice barely reaches her, and she’s too busy thrashing from the immense, unimaginable pain. She feels like she just experienced a million paper cuts all at once, with the pain of each stacking until it became worse than a stove or boiling water burn.
She would happily trade this for all of her degloving and scrape injuries she encountered over her life at the same time. It is excruciating, and though her hand is technically intact, it feels like every single cell has been separated from the one next to it, the way streams of blood are coming out of her hands like her skin has become nothing more than tattered cheese cloth.
Neith tries to reach for her, but Sayrdarralouche is far from incapacitated from losing one or two teeth, or even a chunk of his jaw in the undead-seeming state that he’s in. There’s a terrible crack and boom from calamitous impacts that rips Neith’s foreclaws away, leaving Zuzia to tumble through the titan’s mouth until she plummets towards his maw.
In some last semblance of self-control, she desperately manages to grab onto a stony ‘crag’ or ‘fold’ in his throat before she falls into a tight-squeezing pressure point below, screaming as she tries to shield her wounded hand.
How is this possible!? Was it glass? This is exactly like glass if I was still normal! Did I lose my powers!? But… I broke the tooth! What…!? How could this be!?
Tears are clouding her vision, and she is surrounded by darkness inside of the cavern-like maw of Sayrdarralouche, who hardly seems to care about swallowing her so much as destroying everything around him.
Her blood flows down her arm as she tries to push the pain out of her mind, knowing how much danger she’s in and how little time she has. But, she can feel a similar biting pain in her left palm now, as if every surface of Sayrdarralouche, when met with force, is causing wounds to Zuzia’s impenetrable skin. She manages to calm down a little, panting desperately to try to steady herself, but her right hand is in agonizing pain, and her left is hurting while also remaining her only anchor point to avoid being swallowed. It’s now that her back starts to hurt, with the warm sensation of liquid flowing down it.
It has to be his flesh, right!? But, how can this be!? Even if he turned into glass, I should be fine, shouldn’t I!? I-Is it diamond? Can diamond form that quickly!? And, even if it did, my feet didn’t get cut by the diamonds that formed when I threw him! What is this!?
As Zuzia tries to desperately sort out what happened, feeling her grip on the single hand-hold she has start to falter, a wave of light illuminates the entire cavity around her from below. She looks down with a start, recognizing it for what it is.
It’s not a convenient source of light nor a sudden adaptation of her eyes to see in darkness.
Sayrdarralouche is charging up his mana breath once more. And, if he unleashes it, Zuzia will be far from the only casualty.
O-Okay, Daniel… A-Anytime now. Nuke him. Send my fuzzy little Mała in here to save me and nuke this big lizard to kingdom come. I’ll forgive you… Please, just end this thing…
It’s a moment of desperate panic, but Zuzia squeezes her left hand as much as she can. She knows that empty prayers out of desperation are typically the most useless ones of all. She truly believes God has a plan for everything, but it’s not the ‘best plan that everyone lives happily ever after’. It is a series of trials and tribulations that people must overcome in order to prove their sincerity.
Zuzia cheated to come to another world and receive powers no human was normally designed to wield, and as such, her trials are proportionate to the gifts she gained. She knows that, and she also knows another human might save her, but that’s no reason for her to do nothing.
She does her best to clench her right hand into a fist, biting her inner cheek to try to offset the immense, burning pain caused by flexing her knuckles even a little bit.
“I don’t know, personally, but I hear something like this is child’s play compared to bringing a life into this world. So, screw you, Bylak, and your razor-skin, too. Only one of us gets to survive, and I am certain I still have God on my side.”
She does her best to find footing enough to brace against so she can rear back her right fist again. Her eyes are watering, and her instincts are screaming at her. But, like a mother lifting a car off of a child, or a woman placing herself between a child and an enemy, she is able to summon the deepest core of her maternal instinct to protect what she cares about; the lives she has come to love.
She knows she’s not the most feminine woman in the world either, so maybe it’s even a touch of masculine heroism that drives her.
Regardless, a little pain from a few paper cuts is hardly comparable to protecting the things she has come to love; Neith, Serrentuk, Wulfsten, Verbert, Halkadon, Amalaskae, Ryuogriar, Geirahoel, Reignleif, and Hekate. There are many others worth protecting, but Zuzia’s cup of loved ones runneth over already, even as little as she knows some of them.
And, I’ll be damned if I don’t get a chance to know them better.
That is the only word that Zuzia feels needs to be said before her absolute angel-given brawn meets the pinnacle of magical defense that once knew the name Sayrdarralouche.
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A/N 1: “Żegnam.”, if I’m not mistaken, is a very formal “I bid farewell.” It can be used in a lighter-hearted sense (often as a joke), but it is also associated with the final farewell to the departed, or, more specifically, to say explicitly to someone that “I don’t intend to see you again” (as is how Zuzia is using it now).
~A/N: (Chapter afterword) Hey Dear Readers! Your fearless guide through the world of Zenkon, Silas K. here! And, I just wanted to do a quick (and probably overdue) ‘temperature check’. This chapter is certainly not the first, but I finally realized I should probably ask; at over 7,400 words of content alone, this chapter is absolutely on the longer end of what I aim for when I’m writing. I generally ‘aim’ for an ABSOLUTE minimum of 4,000 words, while trying to reach 5,000 words if I can. But, I am obviously a bit more ‘lax’ about exceeding 6,000 words, because I do believe that more content>less content, without trying to sound too “product” minded. But, seriously, for me, if I’m playing a game or watching a movie, as long as the substance is ‘good’, I am perfectly content with more, rather than less. And, sometimes, when I’m writing, I feel both “halves” of a chapter are appropriate, but the final word count ends up rather beefy, to where I COULD split it into two, but I feel like “weekly pacing-wise”, still providing both parts on the same day is a bit better (in my opinion lol).
So, having said all this, are you guys fine with a chapter like this occasionally popping up, where it is essentially >/=50% longer than my typical chapters, or would you rather I split the chapter into two halves, making the first section of this chapter one separate chapter (with a little extra length to get it to at least 4,000 words) and likewise, the second half to a minimum of 4,000 words, or do you guys find a 7,400 word chapter fine, since my chapters are already on the ‘longer’ end of webnovel chapters to begin with (as far as I know lol)? I’d appreciate your feedback, but of course, your silence of continuing to read and not complaining is also good enough to tell me that it must be alright for now, am I right? ;D
And, with that, I sincerely thank you all, both anyone who answers and my perfectly content silent readers, and as always, I hope you’ll continue to enjoy! Heart emoji! xD~
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