Chapter 765 – Reality’s Legalisms
The Second Arc is being consumed.
It consumes everything. No disease serves as a cure. No cure serves as a disease. We have thrown bodies into it, we have burned the oxygen away, we have attempted to cut it down. There have even been those who pled. Soulworking has been tried and proven to be of no effect, either the monstrum possesses no soul, or it possesses a soul entirely walled off through arts we are not capable of breaking and lacking in the time to study.
It crawls across magma lakes and burns away in the heat, then it tries again, and again, until the flowing rivers of red settle down into stone that is to be consumed. The air within the contamination zone is deadly, for its spores serve as seeds that instantaneously sprout into fresh growths of the cursed Ardan wood. It clogs and sprouts even within filters. The roots spread so deep that it has spread to all the layers of the Second Arc already.
Blacksteel flexes, bends and shatters under its voracious devouring. The plans suggested from Prince Belphegor is bound to fail. We do not have the current reserves of Blacksteel to make a wall thick enough to close off the Second Arc. Likewise, I myself do not believe it would do anything but by us time. It did not consume rocks at first but it seems to have gained that trait.
Mass burning attempts have stalled and seized individual pieces of ground, but we would need to organize every flame-speaker in Tartarus, mass them, supply them, and then begin a slow and gruelling retaking campaign. The Ardan forest does not rest, it does not sleep, it spreads, it grows, it dies, and it regrows again. To battle against it would be to try and wage a war of attrition against an endless opponent.
Heat, it practically ignores. Flames only slow it down.
My Emperor, the situation cannot hold. I know what I propose, and I do it with a heavy heart. I propose knowing it is apocalypse, but I propose our apocalypse to stop theirs.
Break the ring.
- Letter from Prince Atan, of Tartarus, to Emperor Leonifer, of Tartarus.
200 Days after Victory-Day.
Arascus had collected every Imperial Divine he could from the ancient era of Monsters and of Gaia. And now as he sat down at looked at these relics of the past, there were not a lot of them left whatsoever. There was him, with Irinika by his side in her dress of living darkness. She smoke on the pipe he had given to her, with tobacco the tobacco she relished. This entire compound was Of Darkness’, Arascus had been more than happy to give her as much land as she wanted for her plantation.
But it was an investment through and through. So far, Irinika was actually winning the so-called battle of the budget, she was one of the few Imperial Divines that was bringing in a profit. The Irinika-brand cigarettes, cigars, and everything else that came from her plantation had surged to be the most popular brand in the matter of a few months. That wasn’t unexpected though, who wouldn’t want to smoke the very same leaves that the Goddess of Darkness did?
Arascus began the meeting as everyone sat down in the huge room. This plantation had become their unofficial meeting spot. There were no cameras here and no suspicion to raise for why a father should come to visit his daughters and bring some friends. It was better than the schemes of the Imperial Palace in the past, that was for sure. “I have to start charging.” Irinika said lightly, a cloud of smoke launched from between her lips towards the centre of the table. “You people are starting to eat into my budget.”
It wasn’t a large meeting. Maybe it was nostalgia? Maybe it was just easier to cover up when the ancients met up? Next to Irinika was Neneria, sat still and quiet, straight backed, looking down at her hands. Her pale fingers were interlocked together. Then Iniri, sitting much like Neneria. The Goddess of Nature was always quiet. She wore a simple green dress, the wood on it living and curling around her. And then Fortia. Of Peace leaned back and crossed her arms. “I did bring drinks this time.” She did, from her mountain home that had been completed.
The war was won six months ago, the Empire was starting to settle into the age of peace. Swords were sheathed, not beaten into ploughs, but sheathed nonetheless. The economy world was booming, trade had resumed, the snows that fell this winter were indeed white. “I’ve called you here because we spend little time together.” Arascus said.
It was only a temporary hiccup, but the management had to go on. Every day, he would get a new issue to solve. Whether it was the Arikan nations finally petitioning to join the Empire or the massive public works that had been the brain child of Helenna and Arascus. The MisseM pills were a blessing during the war, now, they were a curse. Every soldier that returned from the war came back with a chemical dependency. Kavaa’s Clerics could get rid of the physical symptoms…
The symptoms weren’t physical though.
Helenna’s IBI had been expanded to have an office in every Imperial nation, primarily to monitor those who had left Kassandora’s forces. They would not rebel, of that Arascus was sure, but they weren’t stable either. The oversized garrisons were financial drains, but the people had to be kept somewhere. “The issue is on the direction of the Empire for now.” Arascus said, he looked at the confused faces. Irinika was the only who one who didn’t obviously question what he was saying, and Irinika leaned back to smoke her pipe.
“Aren’t we uniting Arda?” Fortia asked. Iniri leaned forward.
“Arda is already united.” Arascus said. “If unofficially. Karaina is still not out of financial shock, Ilwin and Daganhoff have been at work there.” It had been Iliyal’s request that his only remaining family not be included in the war. Arascus had kept that promise as long as he could, but eventually, the Tremalis would have to face each other. Karaina’s economy had crashed once during the war, then crashed straight after it, and now it was struggling to compete with the sheer scale of the Empire.
They had crossed the point of being able to even tariff goods coming in with the Red-White-Black over them, Epa had been the industrial heart of the Empire, and after the war had ended, Arascus could finally sit down to see the figures when they stopped. Ammunition was measured by tons, as there was no point to even bother with individual rounds, but the tons surpassed millions. More than a hundred thousand tanks were built, once all vehicles were included, they measured close to five million. The airforce was a similar deal.
Now, the most common vehicle on Imperial highways was the bread-and-butter Big-Bear truck, the backbone of a logistics corp that had shrunk from hundreds of thousands of soldiers to a mere fifty. “If Arda is united, then why do we see an independent Guguo, UNN and Karaina?”
“Karaina is collapsing.” Irinika spoke up. “Guguo is still separated by sects, the UNN was set back a century by Continent Cracking. This is world revolves around one pole.”
“The UNN will join eventually, I am running talks with Etala. The Karaina issue will be solved.” Arascus raised his hand. The country would enter crisis this year, next at the furthest. There were already parties in Karainan government talking about requesting Imperial soldiers to quell their own unemployment riots. Arascus was not letting the pressure off them either, that nation now drove Imperial cars, it flew Imperial planes, its tech sector had been swallowed by the Empire’s. There was no independent Karaina in that sense. The only matter was one of government. “After that, it shall be Guguo. Nevertheless, I did not come to discuss that here. I came to discuss the direction of the Empire.”
“And like I said, aren’t we skipping a step?” Fortia argued back. It was that attitude that served as half the reason for even bringing her here.
“No, because I handle Imperial expansion.” Arascus said. And for now, Imperial expansion had to evolve and adapt. They could march on every country in the world, and they would win, and then they would be sitting here. And they would be in a far worse situation than before, because at least now, they still had the ultimate option of what to do with the soldiers.
If the Empire could not deal with the its own problems internally, then they would deal with the problem externally: War could still be declared.
Nevertheless, with three apocalypse scenarios to deal with, there was enough work to do. The Ashlands in Arika were still being seeded and expanded into. The Eparika which lay between Arika and Epa was being cleaned. The coast of the Sassara likewise. Anyone who wanted a job could get one, and it would be hard work, and gruelling, and the pay was dismal. But it kept minds occupied and it was something to do for men who had been taught not to think for themselves. The vast majority of the soldiers were sent to do that. “Very well Arascus, so you handle expansion.” Fortia said. “So what is the issue?”
“It is the next step of Empire.” Arascus said. “And it is one of two, which we cohesively focus on. The victory over Tartarus has given us initiative, now it is time to use that initiative before we are forced to react once again.” He leaned back, arms crossed. “We have two directions to focus on, down or up.”
Irinika chuckled, the rest of them stared at him. “Currently, I am investigating down.” He said. “But there is another option, although I don’t know who of you will be on that team.”
“So we’re the down team.” Fortia said dryly. “Wonderful.”
“Well…” Irinika smoked. “Where else would I stick you?” She chuckled at her own joke. “So?”
“It is the Aris issue, specifically what Paida found. The up team is on space travel.” Iniri took a deep breath and shook her head.
“I’ll much prefer the down-team thank you very much.”
“Why are Malam and Helenna not here then?” Neneria asked. “They know about this more than I do.”
“How do you even know they’re on this issue?” Fortia asked.
“Malam told me.” Neneria said. “How do you know?” Fortia stammered out a wordless reply that he did not particularly care to listen to. Fortia was not as smooth at spying as Helenna, nor as elegant with her words. Helenna could make topics flow to where you forgot what you were speaking about. Fortia had straight up asked him how the Aris-Catacombs was being handled.
“Malam and Helenna have the SIS and the IBI respectively to organise, in addition to the search for Of Empire.” Arascus said. Alice was not turning up any leads. They had given up on the girl two months ago, she had been given a home and Helenna had apparently done her the favour of recommending her to a school program. “They are busy, so I did not invite. Although the part of this club too.”
“There’s a club?” Neneria asked, looking around the table and questioning the faces.
“It’s seniority club.” Irinika confirmed. Both Of Death and Of Nature looked around with the dawn of understanding on them.
“Because it deals with the issue, and there’s another thing.” Arascus said. “Although there’s one of us who doesn’t know.” He looked around the table. Iniri, Neneria and Irinika looked at each other for a moment, then turned to Fortia.
Of Peace sat there, stunned, with a straight face. “What do I not know?”
“We begin through introductions.” Arascus said. “Firstly, on the blades above our heads.” Arascus looked, it wasn’t there. But Irinika, Neneria and Iniri all looked up at the same time. Iniri let out a breath of relief, her fingers losing the tension. Arascus did not see his blade either, Neneria and Irinika turned back down. And Fortia just stared at them.
“I assume you mean something literal and not metaphorical.” Fortia said dryly.
“I have tasked Elassa with researching this as well, she knows about you, Irinika, Neneria, Iniri. She thinks it’s a curse.” Arascus sighed and leaned back. If it was a curse, it should be easy to break. Something in his gut said that it was something far far worse than just a simple curse though. “Likewise, just for your information, Anassa is also cursed, and she has the same style as I do. Elassa already knows, I’ve more or less shared everything with her.”
“I see.” Neneria said. “I don’t give her much luck.”
“You don’t?” Arascus said.
“I’ve tested it myself and…” Neneria shrugged. “Well, I did play around with the blade. It’s connected to me. I can…” She exhaled. “I can’t do anything with it, but I can confirm it’s connected to me.” She looked around the table. “Oh.” She said.
“Oh what?” Fortia asked.
Arascus raised his hand, Neneria had never been good at explaining in the first place. She just needed the time. “Explain to us like we’re children.”
“Well because I can touch it with ghosts, it’s not magical. I can’t do magic, I can only do soul manipulation.” Arascus made a mental note to send that information over to Elassa then.
“You’ve touched it?” Irinika asked.
“Well…” Neneria said. “I mean…” She trailed off. “What? It’s not that high, you just reach up. My spirits can phase through matter.” She looked around the table as if that was any sort of revelation. From the faces staring at her, it was obvious that the bombshell she thought she was dropping was not a bombshell whatsoever. “And they can’t phase through the sword. The bounce against it. But they can’t move it and I’m not really intent on testing whether they can hold it if it drops.” She looked to Arascus with a pleading gaze and he nodded. She would break the curse if he asked, and he too was not willing to take that risk.
Fortia raised her hands. “Why am I here?”
“Because you’re the unsolicited advice.” Arascus shut her down immediately. “Because any method Kassandora thinks up of will be inherently risky due to coming from her, so I’ve called upon you.” And there was another reason too. They may have fought wars against each other, but ultimately, back in the day, they did work together. Death could come in an infinite amount of ways, but Arascus was sure that whereas infinity did include Kassandora’s recklessness, it did not include Fortia’s sabotage. If the woman was going to kill him, she would do it in the open, and it would be a battle. Nothing less would suffice for either of them.
“I see.” Fortia said, obviously not seeing.
“Then we start narrowing things down, I assume you put your names in the stone.” Arascus said. Fortia raised an eyebrow but the rest of the table nodded.
“Oh.” Irinika said.
“You put it there too?”
“I saw Allasaria’s name on there too.” Arascus said. “And my curse, as they said, is to never leave my realm again. I got stopped during the Baalka awakening when Anassa sent me to her soul-realm.” Neneria sighed and her posture collapsed. She looked down at the table, dark eyes darker than usual and tone even more apologetic.
“I’m sorry.” She said. “It should have never happened that way.”
“What happened happened, we are all still here, and we are all still alive, so the curse is not final. Nevertheless, I know your curses are to not speak of the Age of Gaia.” Arascus turned to Fortia. “What do you make of that?”
“You put your name in a stone and were ordered not to leave your realm again. They were ordered never to speak of things that happened in the past.” Fortia said. “What am I supposed to make of it?” Fortia raised her hand. “Nevermind, ignore me. Just go on, what else?”
“Before that, there was a room with watchers in. They called me Godling.” Arascus crossed his arms and sighed. Fortia chuckled, Iniri’s eyes grew wide. Neneria went paler than she was before. Irinika just blew on her pipe. “What about you?”
“The fact of the matter is I cannot speak on it.” Irinika said. “Because I don’t actually know where the line is. Dad confirmed that confirming existence of the blade is not the line so…” She trailed off.
“So I’m doing the talking because the curse is different.” Arascus said. “So we confirm it’s not something like the universal curses but more like controlled magic.” That, Elassa had already figured out by herself. Fortia narrowed her eyes as she raised her hand for him to stop speaking so that she could keep up with the new information. That trait of hers had been there for thousands of years, even going back when they were discussing on how to actually force the Concordats on Dragonkind. It was Fortia who originally came up with the idea to just force it on them at the point of the spear.
“You were called Godling?” She said.
“I was.”
“So they’re higher than Gods.” Fortia said. “Or at least consider themselves higher than Gods.”
“I assume so.” Arascus said. Fortia leaned back across the table and smiled devilishly.
“So do you want to run off with this idea or no?” Fortia said.
“What idea?”
“That there exist beings so much more powerful than us that they can apparently intercept you on your way to a Soul-Realm and then make you sign something, and make some sort of magic soul curse sword appear over your head after you sign their stone.” Fortia raised an eyebrow. “Because that does sound like a lot of shit to me.”
Irinika glare was so displeased at the comment that the lights darkened. The cloud of smoke from between her lips lingered in the air for a moment as Iniri’s brown eyes bounced nervously between Of Peace and Of Darkness. “Yet it is true.” She said. “And whether you believe it or not, it is true.”
“I believe it.” Fortia said. “I believe it because you are sitting across the table from me, and because Iniri is here, and you’re not Fer or Malam to pull these sorts of jokes on people. But no, I am saying it sounds like shit.”
“If you could take the sword over my head, then I very much would give it up.”
“Why are you alive?” Fortia asked. Irinika narrowed her eyes.
“Because I am?” She said. Arascus saw the point of the question only after Irinika answered. No. Fortia was correct. Of course he should have brought in a military commander earlier.
“Fortia is correct.” Arascus backed her up. “Because why are you alive? If you shared the information in a crowd, would they suddenly curse thousands?”
“If you shared it on EIE, would they curse millions to just not speak of it?” Fortia asked. “The easiest way to stop the flow of information, and the only way in…” She looked around the table. “I would say all of our experiences, is to kill the source. If you three know things you should not know, why are you alive?”
Irinika’s eyes suddenly grew wide with understanding, she leaned back, the ambient darkness in the room receded after a moment and she tilted her head at Fortia. “That is a good question.”
“So I repeat it. They call Arascus Godling, they summon these blades, they are powerful enough to apparently intercept between soul-realms.” She raised an eyebrow. “And? What else? Look at how we speak of Tartarus. When Maisara says the demons are not worthy to be called anything but a plague upon existence, they do not suddenly become germs, do they?”
This time, Irinika was smiling. “Are you sure of that?”
“I’m talking in actual reality, they are not mindless single-cell organisms. The plague is metaphorical, not literal.”
“I’m not taking the risk on it just being an illusion Fortia.” Neneria said. “Like I said, I can confirm the sword is real, it’s just immaterial, but it’s immaterial reality.”
“What I am saying is the fact they obviously know who we are, and they talk down to us, and now I sit here and look at the mighty Irinika and Arascus, Neneria and Iniri, and all of you are sat, knees shaking, at the fact someone had the audacity to call you Godling.” Fortia said. “Well? What? Don’t tell me my insults aren’t more creative than that.”
“That is the point.” Arascus said. “They may be immaterial, but we can confirm they’re real.” He could feel the energy in the room starting to rise. Fortia was correct, maybe it was the fact she had no clue what she was talking about, but how many great ideas were called stupidity at first? How many times was a great thinker decried as insane or nonsensical? “And if they’re real, then we can kill them.”
Fortia nodded. “The only true universal rule is that we all die in the end. Whether you’re a ghost or a God. It does not matter. You can still be killed.”
“Will that break the curse?” Neneria asked.
“One step at a time.” Arascus said. “If the curse breaks, then it breaks, if it doesn’t, we’re back here and we’ve lost nothing.”
“Save for the fact that we stop more of these curses from being made.” Fortia said. “If they can intercept, then so can we, so something in reality must touch them.” She shook her head. “But okay, so Arascus can’t leave this realm, yours exactly is what?”
“It is something I learned in the Age of Gaia, so I will not confirm nor deny it. I...” Irinika shook her head, her eyes going up. “Well it’s not there right now, but that’s all I’m willing to risk.” Iniri took a deep sigh, her fingers closed around the end of the table and she stood up slowly. All eyes turned to the Goddess of Nature, she was larger than a human but here, she didn’t even reach up to anyone’s chest. Stood up, her eyes only just managed to get on Arascus’ level.
Iniri opened her mouth, her small tongue wetted her lips. She took a deep breath. Arascus realised what she was going to do. “I was also called Godling.” Iniri said, she held her breath, then looked up. Then breathed a sigh of relief, a moment later, she squeaked with awe. “I know what I can’t talk about then!”
“What?”
“When I went into the room with Mary and Mathew and the others, the wooden one with no doors. Then they showed me memories that aren’t mine.” Iniri said. “And I saw…” She trailed off. “Well, it is that. That is the thing. Do you know what I’m talking about?”
Arascus had no damn clue. Irinika shook her head but Neneria’s mouth fell open. “That is…” She nodded vigorously. “Yes! Yes! That is it. I… It is that. And that’s how I describe it too, memories that aren’t mine.”
“So that is the issue.” Irinika said. “It is not these elders themselves but it is what they made you sign for.”
“What is yours?”
“I…” Irinika trailed off. “My curse is very similar, but I am banned entirely. It’s…” She blinked. “Ahh…” Fortia stared at her from the other side of the table.
“You are banned from memories that are yours, so to say.” Fortia said.
“That is a much better way to put it, yes.” Arascus knew he should have brought of Peace here.
“So that means you discovered whatever you are not allowed to speak on Arda.” Irinika pursed her lips.
“You do know I can’t answer that question.”
“But you could answer it if I were wrong.” Fortia said. “It is like playing word games with Maisara. She can’t speak just as she’s about to contradict herself.” She sat there and sighed. “But other than that, I’m out. You’re going to have to give me time on what questions to ask.”
“That alone is a lot.” Arascus said. “I’ll relay this to Elassa.”
“But there’s something else.” Fortia said, she pinned Arascus with those bronze eyes of hers.
“What?”
“This is a serious question but what is your realm?”
“Well it’s Pride of cour…” For once, it was Arascus who trailed off. That was his demesne, and that was something that these elders would no doubt not recognise in the first place. Fortia’s lips curled up into a smile.
“Exactly.” Fortia said, she looked up at the sky. Arascus leaned back and stared up at the ceiling.
“I’ve left the Imperial borders since that time so we can confirm it’s not national borders.”
“Does it matters if it’s just working on Soul-Realms?” Neneria asked. “I mean, it’s not optimal but it’s not necessarily important.” Fortia opened her mouth to answer but Arascus got ahead of the Goddess of Peace.
“If it was important enough to bind me to it, then it is important enough for me to leave the restriction.” Arascus said.
“My words exactly.” Fortia confirmed, she stared up at the ceiling and took a sigh. “When are you putting the first Ardan into space?” Whereas the factories had been retooled from tanks to cars, the laboratories had been retooled from weaponry to civilian science. The jumps in technology from the Surface War were already being adapted. There were already prototypes of self-guided rocket boosters built off the base off the MURGS design that steered missiles to target, although none of them were getting close. But it was the ICDT towers that had been the largest hurdle.
Their engines were massive, and the Empire even had a stockpile of the boosters. If they could lift a tower to stratosphere, they could lift a spacecraft out of it. “Next month.” Arascus said.
“Then we can test it.” Fortia said. “Godling.” Her lips curled at the term. “Because I think individual realms are not real in the first place, but there is a realm we share.” She pointed down at the wooden floor, her eyes going around the room. “Because we can consider it reality, but then that goes back to the soul-realm problem. If Arascus is bound to reality, then what is he barred from in question? If you were some elder, and you found a God travelling to another soul-realm, where would you bind him to?”
Arascus thought over the question for precisely one moment before he realised the answer. It was so simple that he didn’t even realise how it had been missed. “Arda.” Irinika said, blowing out a cloud of smoke.
“Arda exactly.”