Chapter 229: Proposals.
Hammer against alloy, I struck the final blow. A different pair of hands worked to finish the engravings. An explosion of steam rushed through the hellforge as the heat was quenched from a reddish metal that gradually returned to an ethereal silver.
I waited with bated breath and impatient silence alongside Moonwash, as we watched our creation take a solid and unbreakable form. She applied just a few adjustments, the finishing touches, even as smoke yet continued to billow off the set of armor.
It might’ve been the most materially intricate piece she’d made yet.
Finally, she turned to me and said, “Try it on.”
I was way ahead of her. I grabbed my new set of armor, and chucked it into my body. I strapped all the pieces tight with the help of my girlfriend. There was heaviness to it, but exactly the right heft for me to carry at full power. Made from the various Materials that could be harvested in the Folded Planes, the armor’s surface was covered in carvings of geometric perfection. It depicted space in flux, a force at peace, wielded by the great Devil.
It was incomplete, a thousand channels of power without a core. The creation had a large and noticeable gap, a wound of its own world. Only when I wore it was the armor’s true meaning revealed, as the Mark of The Beast etched itself unto void in the breastplate, surrounded and worshipped by the enchantments embossed in blood and bone.
Mana began to radiate out of me. Tendrils of space magic moved to thread through the grooves and ridges made by Moonwash. At times my power followed these channels exactly, and at other points the element coiled and embraced through the existing artwork.
I finished the great and intricate weave of magic. I pushed my mana into it… only to then fail.
Huh?
Why?
I frowned.
Did we make a mistake? Was my forging imperfect? It couldn’t be Moonwash’s etching, that was perfect. But maybe creating an interconnected set of enchantments specifically meant to work with the way I connected my body to inanimate objects through veins of mana–like with my sword for example–was doomed from the start…
I shook my head, and reexamined the weave with all my minds. I breathed a sigh of relief when I found the many small mistakes that I made. I corrected them, and then made some more corrections again once I found out that it still wouldn’t work. It took a few cycles of this, but finally, my mana began to circulate properly through the armor!
From my body, to the half-organic alloy, and then back again. It had become an armament under my full control. Its powers were mine to wield. Space bent around me and then focused on myself as if I were a black hole. My very presence exerted a pull on this world, but my surroundings didn’t have to just sink all the way to me. That would only attract all attacks further towards my body, which would be stupid! Instead, with my mana focused only in the armor, I became able to tug and pull and twist the space it was in contact with. Like a blanket pulled from one edge, I became able to affect the greater whole.
“How is it?” Moonwash asked.
I grinned and appeared right in front of her with a single small shuffle. Like a glitch in reality, my hand flashed right to her chin and I tilted my head down to give her a deep kiss.
“It’s working very nicely.”
~~~
“Hah! Your hero is eaten by my archangel!” Elfernando exclaimed, raising his arms in victory.
“Hey wait!” I protested. “You know it was this armor!” I was still using my wonderful new gear as we played the boardgame. “Why the fuck would I feed my hero to your archangel!?”
“Because I’m very very hungry,” he explained, rubbing his belly. Not that there was much there. Elves only seemed to get smaller and smaller.
Arx reached with his middle limbs, and then positioned his dragons while I wasn’t watching.
“ARE YOU GUYS GANGING UP ON ME NOW!?”
Moonwash moved her army of dwarves against me.
“MOONWASH YOU TOO!?”
A band of mercenaries and a goblin army intercepted them, only to be mowed down by the dwarves so easily.
“Thanks, Mom and Dad…”
“You’re very welcome!”
“I WIN!” Berry suddenly shouted, as she’d just baited a leviathan to flood The Big Neutral City, and now her sailors were moving in to steal the core!
“Wait shit!” Elfernando screamed.
“Somebody stop her!” Arx demanded.
“Bwahahaha! You were an excellent distraction!” Berry laughed at my face, and then everyone else who’d been fooled.
I bared my fangs at her, and then ordered my horde of demons to sacrifice their lives to kill the enemies at my gate!
“Haell…!”
“WHY???”
“SHUT UP YOU’RE GOING DOWN WITH ME!” I gnashed.
Berry stole the city’s treasure, which she quickly fled away with on her ships!
The wall right behind me suddenly collapsed as a familiar shout came barreling through!
“HAELLLLL!!!!! AND MOONWASH!? ARX??!?!? YOU’RE ALIVEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”
Elfrafim crashed into my back and clawed at my waist in trying to wrap her tiny arms all the way around me.
“HNNNNNNGGGGG…!” she struggled. “You are Haell, right? What is this... weird wavy thing you got going on???”
“Space magic.”
“Ooooh. Right. But it feels weird and different…”
“It’s my armor. I learned a few new tricks.”
“Great! You’ll have to show me later!” She nodded, and let go of me, before then crashing into Arx and Moonwash like an archangel’s arrow.
“ARX! MOONWASH!” she called again. “I’m so sorry about what happened! I could’ve been there to help! I heard you died, but you’re alive!!! But, umm… What about Granuel? Where is he…?”
She stepped away, and the sadness gradually seeped into her face as she felt the despair in our silence.
“He’s dead,” Moonwash confirmed.
“Oh. I–I thought maybe, because you guys survived, but… but…” She sniffed and then started screaming as she cried. We all hugged each other, sharing in our grief.
~~~
I flew far above Countess Elindraza’s Compadore City. A few guards pointed their bows at me, but were quickly warned off by their fellows. Wise.
I waved at them, and then flew deeper into their territory. People’s gazes followed my descent, as I landed in front of the place’s central manor.
Elindraza rushed towards the gate, awaiting my arrival.
“Welcome, Demon Queen Haell Zharignan.”
“Well met,” I grinned. “No need for secrecy today?”
“No. We’ve descended into full on civil war. There is no need for that anymore.”
“I see. You’ll have to keep me apprised of that.” Pandora had focused way too much on Koraxis’ expended arrows, to keep proper track of the political situation up north. But that’s also what led me here, for Countess Elindraza Compadore had obtained what I–and especially Moonwash–wanted.
“My condolences for your loss,” she mentioned as we walked inside her manor.
I looked at her, and searched for the sincerity in her bat-like eyes.
“Thank you,” I said. “I’m sure you lost people there too.”
“Yes.” We stopped to watch her predominantly chiron staff tending to the many fruit trees along her extensive courtyard. “I’m lucky to have survived. But many of my people were not. Our King died, along with so many others of our nobility, hence the current chaos.”
“It looked peaceful enough outside,” I mentioned, referring to her city.
“We’ve had our share of troubles. But New Grandera had been at war for decades with Edengar before, and there were still many pockets of peace were there not?”
I thought over her words for a few seconds, before nodding my agreement. “True enough.”
A sound barrier suddenly enveloped us, and I raised a brow in amusement.
“I wished to speak with you today about the potential deal we’ve once spoken about,” Elindraza explained. “Would you still be willing to assist my side in winning this civil war?”
I pondered for a moment, and let her question stew. “The situation has changed much since then. I was under the impression that this meeting is about Koraxis’ arrow-bolt that you recovered?”
“Of course, I’ll give that to you as part of your payment. But the same general factions of back then yet stand. Those of us who wish to treat our new former Edengarian citizens fairly, against those who wish to enslave them as they have us for generations. Of course, further complicating that is how those who remain loyal to the failed state of Edengar are now taking this opportunity to strike a blow against us, leading to many attacks across all our territories. It’s chaos out there.”
“I see.” I hummed non-commitally. We reached a well-protected warehouse, and I beheld the pillar of an arrow that was used to kill me and my friends. I wished I had all the information, but Pandora was still rebuilding Granuel’s information network after his death–A problem that she contributed to, given how she gravely misunderstood my intent before. I also needed to find Exaber, and who knew where the guy could be at any moment? We were friends, but he remained a mystery. “I’ll need to think about it some more.”
“Alright. That’s all I ask.” Elimdraza gestured at the arrow-bolt. “Please, take it with you.”
I raised a brow. “I haven’t agreed to anything yet.”
She shook her head. “You’ve already helped us enough, when you killed the lower rungs of our… adversaries.”
To cut through the bullshit, ‘Thank you for killing my genocidal slaver colleagues,’ was about what she meant.
“We shared an objective. I did my part, as you did yours.”
“That is true,” she conceded the point. “But you still did an excellent job back then. We wish to give you this as a gift and a gesture of good will.”
I narrowed my eyes suspiciously, “This does not mean that I will fight your civil war for you.”
“And I don’t expect you to. We’ll have to come up with another great treasure to pay for your excellent services,” she chuckled lightly. “Otherwise, we can fight it on our own, struggle until the end. I fear that the enemy might have more numbers and stronger elites than ours, however, and I would hate for them to once again plunge this continent into the same depravity of the past.”
I stared at her. Was she… trying to play the pity card?
I searched through my perfect memory, and processed what information I did have with all three minds.
Finally, I asked, “They’re getting attacked a lot more by the Edengarian rebels than you, aren’t they?”
Elindraza returned my gaze in surprise.
“...Yes. The situation is still precarious, but that gives us at least some breathing room.”
I frowned for a second, but then chose to just laugh at her admission. I grabbed the archangel arrow-bolt that she gifted to me, before lifting it on my shoulder like the log of a tree. “And that’s why I don’t just decide on the spot.” I walked back outside, and started flying, creating a great gust of wind. “Good luck with your war. We shall in the future, if I end up in your battlefronts.”
~~~
“It’s beautiful,” Moonwash said as we beheld the massive forest of trees that all towered higher than the largest skyscrapers of my previous world.
Light danced below their canopy in a dazzling display. A thousand vibrant shades of green captured our attention, as if the air itself sought to welcome us into the place. I could just smell the freshness in the wind. The grassy ground rose and fell like waves, shaped by the roots of these giant trees, and by the enthusiastic acceptance of the very earth beneath our hooves and feet.
Life thrived in this place. It blossomed among the flowers that swayed happily alongside the grass, or in the moss that grew joyfully along the trunks of trees. Rabbits peaked over the ‘hills’, while squirrels stared at us from far above. A giant sloth monster walked across the ground, several times larger than an elephant, yet it fit so comfortably in this environment. A flock of colorful Level 40 birds flew far above us, beyond even the canopy. A majestic winged snake appeared in their path, and the birds scattered, but not before losing a handful of their number.
Ah, nature. I accepted with a happy smile.
This truly was the Grandest Forest of all. I absorbed every inch of its beauty, desperate to take back the sense of wonder that I lost because of how my last visit went. My first impression was forever tarnished, taken away from me by circumstance.
My hold on Moonwash’s hand tightened, as I thought–not for the first time–about how the archangels had taken this away from me too. And yet this continental wonderzone was truly beautiful, no matter if I’d been here before or not. I endeavored to just take in all this grandeur as it was, and bury that regret deep inside.
Thankfully, I had great and extensive experience in micro-managing my darkest emotions. I accepted the small tiny thing that I lost, in exchange for my friends’ lives. Granuel would’ve been proud of how good a trade that was.
“Let’s go.” Moonwash tugged on my arm, and we walked deeper in, to the Grandest Forest of all.
~~~
I had a very fun date with my girlfriend, as we traveled through the forest of the elves. I explored all the new plants and creatures of this place with her, amazed at the sheer diversity of them. From flowers that naturally spun, to a caterpillar/butterfly that could switch to either form after one night spent in a pupa. We caught a ride alongside many other animals atop this hedgehog, whose spines were soft, fur-covered, and capable of movement. I found the hidden tree crocodiles for Moonwash, along with all the other stealth creatures, for her to prod and examine.
The trees were less varied, but that was only relative to everything else. We still found countless new fruits we’d never heard about before, and indulged along the massive branches that held them aloft. Some fruits were larger than even my body, but that only made it more fun to devour them from inside. Bonus points if both me and Moonwash could fit within the shell. That was fun.
One tree was literally alive and able to move, counting in my senses as a Level 80 creature; though I was sure its Status System, if it even had one, remained far different from what I had. The plant was friendly enough, so I decided to show it mercy just this once.
That wasn’t to say that we did no fighting at all. Combat and bloodshed was part of how we expressed our love.
I assaulted a pair of Level 80 moodfoxes, and they predicted and dodged my weaker casual swings well enough, until Atrocity’s trajectory suddenly changed on them. One died, and the other swiftly panicked.
I appeared right in front of a Level 80 nullcatcher, and the frog covered in fur-attenae yelped in surprise. My arrival caused little lasting disturbance despite my speed. Space warped around me after all, and that displaced even the air.
I found a cute wool-covered woolf that actually got the jump on me when I tried to pet the seemingly weak and docile creature. Its aim was tossed right off, however, and it just slid right off. Still, that was one weakness of this armor, for enchantments could be very delicate, no matter how much we tried to toughen them up. I would need to just use this as a jumping off paint, and develop these abilities myself. I knew it was possible.
Moonwash took furious notes for every function of my Void Maiden that I mastered. I’d come up with that new name for the space armor, and we both liked it! I continued to test the mettle of the creatures that roamed this forest, though even this place wasn’t able to just readily produce combatants at my level of power.
I decided it was for the best. Something bloody yet cozy like this was the best atmosphere for a date.
~~~
We dangled our hooves and feet beneath the raging waves of a stone-breaking river. I intertwined my fingers with my girlfriend, the gesture far less awkward while we were sitting like this. We stayed in comfortable silence for a good while, just watching the vibrant vegetation that somehow grew underneath a surge of water this strong.
That’s not how it’s supposed to work! I could just hear some old friends say, from a life long past. Moonwash might have been like that, had she been born on Earth. But probably not. Anything new and unexplained would’ve only given her more excitement.
I loved that about her. I loved her curiosity. I loved the way that she explained everything so thoroughly and concisely. I loved that more than the subtleties I or anyone else could convey. Sometimes I wondered if it would be better if everyone was like her instead.
She was the best, and I almost lost her.
Thank you. Thank you Moonwash, for surviving.
I really truly loved everything about her.
“Moonwash.” I took my eyes off the river, and crashed into her in a deep kiss.
“Yes?” She pulled me down, and I allowed myself to fall deeper in love with her as we collapsed right on top of each other beside the raging water.
“Will you marry me?” I asked the burning question.
“Yes. I will. Right now. Let’s go.”
I laughed. “Maybe not right this instant. But let me make it up to you.”
“Oh no. It’s the curse of disrobing,” she deadpanned, as our gear came right off.