Chapter 201: Moving Forward.
Poke.
Poke.
Elfrafim poked the dead angel corpse.
Moonwash looked at it with different lenses crafted from the different eyes of previously living specimens. Mostly monsters, of course.
“Uh… what are you doing?” Arx asked our elven friend, and I let out a snort.
“Poking the angel!”
“But why?”
“Hmmmm… That is a very deep and profound question.” She nodded very thoughtfully. “Why do we do anything? Why do we poke anyone? Can we not just stay hidden forever, and never bother anyone!?”
Arx tensed. Elfrafim blinked.
Poke.
“Ah! I didn’t mean it that way, Arx! Sorry! Glad you’re out in the open now!”
“...I’m not sure I am.” We’d predicted correctly, and needless to say, the inhex were now being punished by the Edengar Kingdom for Arx’s killing of Evel. It was the big news all over, and… it did honestly irk me a little that most of the credit seemed to be going to Arx for some reason! It should be mine! And also my late grandfather’s, of course. That was even more important. But this was no fault of my friend, I knew he wanted just the opposite.
“Ah… Yeah. Those damn angels! We should go beat them up!” Elfrafim exclaimed.
Poke.
“Ah, we already did!”
Arx let out a snort. “Alright, alright. So why are you playing with the corpse?”
Poke again.
“Oh, this? I don’t know, really! I was just thinking about how tough Evel was in life, but now not so much.”
He tilted his head and looked at her weirdly, “Well yeah. She’s dead.”
“That’s not what I meant! I mean, I think it would be very very easy for me to just dismantle her now.
“She obviously enhanced herself with her holy magic,” I shrugged. “But the materials you harvest off a creature are also never as good as they were in life, to varying degrees.”
“Yeah. She did fight just like you!”
“Excuse me?” I spat in affront. “I do not fight anything like her. You were there too! You know Evel sucked ass. All she had going for herself was raw power. You wouldn’t have stood a chance if it was me at the same Level!”
She alone already gave us too much trouble. Arx should’ve been dozens above her in Level, but our combined efforts still only barely took her down. We still lost someone…
The sight of my grandfather dying flashed in my mind…… and then I remembered his final smile.
It was a good fight.
“To be fair,” Arx spoke. “She was an archer. And she hit me right on from so far away. I think that’s why she sucked so hard in close combat, but another angel might actually be quite skilled.”
“Hey! Who’s side are you on!”
“Not hers! We killed her. But I won’t lie about her skills. Those arrows fucking hurt!”
“...That’s true,” I allowed. Our enemies weren’t incompetent, and I should not treat them like such. That was a classic downfall, which I would not fall for. My enemies would only die to my maximum effort, and die they shall.
“She could enhance and heal herself endlessly,” Elfrafim continued her earlier train of thought. “That’s what I meant by her fighting like you, Haell. It’s that same cheat!”
“Oh please. That’s too superficial,” I huffed. “You can’t just compare me to any old bat who can heal and enhance themselves… okay, yeah. That is rare.”
“It is,” Arx agreed, then thought better of it. “I assume, anyway. I would know the least, out of all of us here.”
I looked at the big inhex man, then smiled kindly. “We can rectify that.”
He paused for a moment, and shrunk on himself a little. “Is that a good idea?”
“Of course it is! You’re out and proud, which has caused problems for your already battered species. But that’s why you gotta take what joy you can.”
“Yeah, yeah! We’ll show you around!” Elfrafim cheered. “Arisen has been adding a lot of more fun things lately!”
“I know a lot of things that you might like,” Moonwash added for the first time as she continued to scrutinize her notes. The cutting edge of art and entertainment had been flowing harder to my city, thanks to her and Granuel’s efforts.
“Okay… thank you,” Arx smiled wholesomely with his mandibles.
Poke.
“Elfrafim. Get off my subject, and stop poking it.” Moonwash then finally shooed Elfrafim off the dead angel corpse, as she’d finished the adjustments to her planned ritual.
She drew it with Evel’s corpse in the center, and then spoke the incantation.
“Space Identification.”
My vision of the lab distorted. It was so much more drastic than it looked, as I could feel through my dimensional scanner how the space bent and compressed and contracted. It was dizzying at first, until my spatial sense grew more used to it, and I perceived how the effect wasn’t chaotic, but rather very orderly. Mana blanketed the air, as the ritual sought to identify the dead angel. We’d discovered that space was somehow a very good element for Identification rituals, just like how it was once used by a powerful mage while I was trapped and chained… beneath this very manor. Or at least, what it had once been.
I myself knew a fair bit about the element of space, for I could actually use it. That wasn’t always the case, nor could I wield space all that well today, but I believed it was my use of the Localized Dimension Scanner Matrix that made me capable of using the element eventually. I knew my wings made use of spatial mechanisms too. Moonwash benefited from my insights as I actually had a dedicated organ to perceive space itself. It was all very interesting stuff that we loved to theorize about. How exactly could someone learn to wield magic of a certain element? Could it be brute-forced through certain methods? Was it just a matter of working harder and smarter? I was eager to know!
The ritual finally finished. Moonwash immediately began scribbling away on her notebook without even looking. Her eyes seemed to be focused on something else, something deeply profound. Her hands wrote so fast, that it would’ve created sparks had her paper not been especially made. Second by second, she filled page after page, until her pen finally stopped.
“Learn anything new?” I joked.
“Yes,” she answered in all seriousness. “I got the entire Status Sheet of Evel. Including her Mutations and their every description.”
“What…?” I boggled. “What!? How?! Did your rituals get that much better? Because that should be impossible! It’s already so difficult to do anything like it for a living creature, much less a dead one! And you didn’t even separate out the organs to try and concentrate the Identification attempt on them. So how were you able to do that? Are you… joking, actually? Because that would be fucked. And funny. Or maybe your rituals did just get that much better, and I’m just too… not as skilled at them to notice? They are amazing and beautiful, but I haven’t noticed a recent leap or anything…”
“I did not lie. I did get all that information,” Moowash answered, calm as ever. “But it’s not entirely my doing. From the description I got, the angel possessed what’s called an ‘Angel Body,’ and it makes the body of an angel ‘specially mutable.’ That’s the thing that stands out to me as a possible cause of why their body had far less of a defense against being identified than I expected or even believed possible, for someone of their Level.”
“I… huh.” I took a moment to process. “Okay. I see. I think?”
Moonwash dropped more things to consider on my lap. Literally, for she’d just handed her notebook over to me.
“Here. I copied her entire Status.”
My eyes widened, and it wasn’t just me who was interested. Elfrafim and Arx crowded around me to read the same thing.
_________________
Name: Evel
Species: Angel
—Mutations—
Angel Body: Level 93
Angel Halo: Level 91
Angel Wings: Level 94
Angel Brain: Level 95
Holy Faith Accumulator: Level 94
Holy Repository: Level 94
Angel Bloodsap: Level 93
Angelic Bow Limb: Level 95
Angelic Pulling Arm: Level 95
Angelic Regenerative Arrow Bones: Level 95
Angelic Farsight Eyes: Level 94
_________________
[Angel Body: The body of an Angel is specially mutable.]
[Angel Halo: The halo of an Angel can control holy mana.]
[Angel Wings: An Angel can soar through any environment.]
[Angel Brain: The nervous system of an Angel is holy.]
[Holy Faith Accumulator: An organ that gathers the faith of the faithful, and converts it into usable Holy Mana.]
[Holy Repository: An organ that stores Holy Mana.]
[Angel Bloodsap: The Bloodsap of an Angel will always belong to that angel. The blood can return to the body upon contact, and use of Holy Mana.]
[Angelic Bow Limb: A limb that functions as a powerful bow weapon.]
[Angelic Pulling Arm: An arm that is very good at pulling.]
[Angelic Regenerative Arrow Bones: Powerful arrows that grow all over the body, and can be healed quicker by Holy Magic.]
[Angelic Farsight Eyes: Eyes that are adept at seeing faraway objects.]
My mind swam as I took in all the information. There were more notes here, detailing the many theories Moonwash had already come up with in the short time that she’d glanced over here.
“Faith!” I suddenly exclaimed. “That’s why those angels are so obsessed with conquering world after world!”
“Those bastards!” Arx gritted out, his gaze still fixed on the notes.
“And the blood! That’s why it was so hard to bleed them out!” I did try.
“They don’t have a musculature Mutation!” Elfrafim boggled. “And the bones! I don’t think that’s a general bone Mutation. I don’t think it affects most of her bones, just those bloody arrows! I might have guessed that she was just stupid and de-synced it, but Evel doesn’t have anything synced for there’s nothing to sync.”
“It’s probably something similar, but the angel doesn’t have a flesh Mutation either,” Moonwash added. “That’s unheard of. Instead, Evel has her Angel Body, and this bit about it being specially mutable is very interesting. It explains so many things. That must be why the angels can be so different. It must be why the archangels look like they should be different species altogether. I don’t think other angels will have the Angelic Bow Limb nor the Angelic Regenerative Arrow Bones. In fact, this is just a guess based on the naming scheme, but the set of Angelic Mutations might be different for everyone somehow. It’s not like there isn’t any precedent. The fountans do have different mana founts depending on their element. So do the horned rabbits have different sets of magic-related Mutations. But other than possessing different elements, I’ve never heard of a species that differed from each other nearly as much as the angels, unless if they can maybe apply life magic. It’s possible that Holy Magic can achieve the same thing. But this is different. They presumably have full working Mutations despite how their bodies might be altered, if it’s even a conscious process. They are allegedly born that way. Unique and different from each other. They are a species so inherently capable of being different in a way that no other species can. And yet they want everyone to be the same, all the other species to conform. Why are they like that? I don’t get it. It’s so very ironic.”
I raised a brow after Moonwash’s rant was over, and then chose to hug her. I wasn’t sure why, it just felt right in the moment.
Our discussions over this wealth of discoveries lasted well into the next evening.
~~~
People stared at us as we walked out of Pandemonium. From the guards just outside, to the people in the streets. They should’ve been used to my presence already, but it was one of my friends they were dumbfounded about today.
Moonwash didn’t look too imposing, despite now potentially being the most powerful human alive in Varyala. Elves were still very rare to encounter around these parts, but Elfrafim was a common enough sight. It was Arx, on the other hand, who had not shown himself this publicly until today. He walked behind us and took up way more space than a common wagon. He would not fit along the sidewalks at all. Inhex as large and powerful as him had long faded into legend, if that. Grandpa… had once told me about the stories of the earlier inhex nation, but I doubted people knew much about it even here. New Grandera didn’t hide their history of course, nor did my Arisen City, but inhex society had fallen long before our time.
“Oh damn… Aren’t we attracting too much attention?” Arx shrunk in on himself a little. “Maybe we should just leave after all.”
“Nonsense,” I retorted. “This is my fucking city, and they will not drive my friend from it.” A few people winced, or glared, or averted their gaze upon my unhidden words, but I did not care.
“Okay… I guess there is no reason for me to hide now…”
“There isn’t. Cat’s out of the bag.”
“What cat?”
“Expression.”
“Ah.”
“So just don’t worry about it. Things can’t get any worse.”
It was just as I said that, that a group of inhex approached us.
“Hey Arx!”
“What the fuck did you do?!”
“Why?!”
“That was awesome!”
“What was it like to kill an angel?”
“Nice to meet you…”
“What do we do now?! Fuck!”
They stopped way too close in front of us. They could not make up their minds. The gathered inhex began to throw contradictory statements at Arx, some coming for the same fucking person. I could see that he was struggling to find a response, so I interjected.
“Hey!” I puffed out my chest and huffed. “I killed the angel too! We did it together! Especially my grandfather, Golex Zharignan! He did the most out of all of us!”
“Oh shit, it’s Haell!”
“Hello! She's been here all along, idiot.”
“Congratulations on killing an angel!”
“Thank you!”
“And Arx here helped out a ton.” I rested an arm on his head. “It was a whole group effort.”
“Ah, that’s great…”
“It’s just…”
“He’s an inhex, and we’re fucked! They might kill our queen Iz for this!”
“They’re already tightening the squeeze on our people still in Edengar…”
I let that sink in for a moment, before I nodded. “So I’ve heard.” I stepped back to let Arx do the rest of the talking, for this was his battle in the end, fought in a battleground that I… quite honestly sucked at.
“I’m sorry everyone. I know I’ve been selfish. I didn’t want to make things any worse for us, but I… but…” Arx took a deep breath, and finally firmed his posture. The other inhex instinctively took a step back as they suddenly remembered that Arx was the undisputed strongest of them all. “I have been preparing in hiding all this time. I’ve thought long and hard about how I could reverse the situation we’re in.” I knew just how much he wanted to share that there was still hope, so long as he could succeed in evolving, but he did not inform basically everyone of that like we’d discussed. “And when I came back, I saw that there’s this New Grandera that’s helping us. Haell’s own Arisen City. Things have gotten better, and I’m very very happy for that, but at this rate, we’re still headed for ruin and destruction. They’ll kill Queen Iz even as they suffer and die. So, I decided that if we’re doomed to inevitably fade and go extinct anyway, then let us at least roar for one final time. Let us strike a blow to those who have brought us so low. A flame burns the brightest at its final moments, so let us have that, instead of being drowned by our oppressors until the very end!!! RAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!”
“ORAAAAAAHHH!”
“YEAH!!!”
“Hell yeah!” Wait, why am I also cheering?
“No! You can’t!”
“Do you know what you’ve done!?” Of course he does, you stupid bundle of shit. He just explained it!
“Something we’ve been wanting to do all along, that’s what!”
“That doesn’t mean we should! ‘Queen Iz will be killed anyway’–We don’t know that!”
“Hey jackass! You ran away with us to New Grandera! If you wanted to suck Anglore’s balls so hard, then you could’ve just stayed with the empire!”
“Yeah!”
“That’s not fair! You know that’s not fair!”
“You don’t just get to decide this!”
“Then who the fuck does!? Edengar?! Angelore!? Are we still their fucking slaves!?”
“No! I didn’t say that!”
“Then why must we keep doing what they want!?”
“Because they have our queen! Or have you fucking forgotten because you’re living it up here while the rest of our people suffer!?”
“You’re doing the same thing idiot!”
Someone finally threw the first stab-punch. Things had gotten so heated, that they just started a brawl right in the middle of the street. Inhex against inhex, all jumping at each other, and nearly crashing into people, had I and Elfrafim not pushed them away on time.
“NO!” Arx quickly shouted, and placed himself in the middle of the brawl. He did not hurt anyone, but instead just took all their bites and stabs to his carapace. “Please, everyone! This is not what I wanted.”
“We don’t care about what you want–” the inhex woman choked on her own words as just a little bit of my aura leaked through.
Arx shot me a look, and then shook his head. I clicked my tongue, but backed off.
“Please. PLEASE!” he pleaded. It hurt to see him like this. I was right here and I could break everyone, but that wasn’t what he wanted. “I know, I know it’s been selfish of me. So you can attack me if you want! But please just stop fighting amongst yourselves. We’re hurt enough already. The war will only get worse, and I’m sure… I will have to kill so many of our inhex bretheren in the battles to come. Edengar will send the inhex slaves they have. So please… don’t spill any more of your blood.”
“If you knew that…” one inhex man finally pulled his claw away, “Then why did you do it?”
Arx looked at him sadly, and didn’t react when another inhex tried to bite at his leg. “Because we’re at our breaking point. At least, I am. And maybe that’s my shortcoming. But things are about to massively accelerate. If we don’t join in now, if we do not fight, then we will just fade into oblivion, having accomplished nothing. Or worse, the angels might win. Angelore might win. We’ll forever be slaves. And do you want that? Because I… do not.”
I knew just how much he wished to tell his people of the one hope they had left, of one of them achieving species evolution, but the chances of that would only plummet if Arx got targeted and killed. Not that Edengar, or even Angelore, didn’t want him dead already, but things could always get worse. Arx also did not wish to give false hope to his people, for something that wasn’t even assured. It was only a small chance that might fade all at once.
A few more blows rained down on him, until the violence finally stopped.
“I guess… it’s done.”
“What’s done is done,” another inhex agreed, harrowed.
“We can’t really take this back…”
“You had no right.”
“I know,” Arx agreed, his voice choked. “I know. But I have decided anyway.”
The crowd went quiet after that, and we just walked back to Pandemonium.
Goddammit, we were supposed to show him around today. The people, the society, which he had long been deprived of! He hid it well, but I knew just how hard the years of isolation had been, especially for such a communal species as his. And these people dared to give him shit after all he’d sacrificed!?
I wanted to smash their faces in… at least a little.