BECMI Chapter 533 – The Work of Centuries
“Indeed. I understand the fighting on Rikada is intense, but we are winning?” Magni inquired of me as he continued his harvesting.
“We’re burning through so much Resurrection magic it isn’t funny. Probably ten times the value of this garg beholder of yours a day.”
He just laughed as he smoothly yanked the other half of the brain out and tossed it onto the pile with a wet squelch. “Always happy to fuel the engines of empire!” he grinned in knowing irony.
He knew Thor was a far, far better emperor than he’d ever been, holding together the last remnants of mortals on the planet in the face of indifferent Immortals and hungry Carnifex.
The personal time of most Eternals was spent in Arktos, as they were powerful enough to survive out here alone and be dangerous, but stilllargely attacked in teams. There were simply far too many powerful Aberrants backed by things of Mythos out here for lesser beings, and that included most Masters, although Fellowships of such often came out here for blooding trips under Eternals who knew the land.
I glanced over the frozen field of ice, now spotted with hundreds of vivic bonfires leaching away dark stais of ichor, whose energies were basically used to hold back the planar leakage of Leng. Our attacks into Leng weren’t so much to reach the King in Yellow as to provoke massive retaliations of Leng natives, set them to vivus, and further strengthen Nown’s Veil against the eroding power of Leng.
Worked pretty well, too. Leng hadn’t been able to expand into Nown at all, but the damn place reached so many other realms that countless Aberrants of all types still swarmed into the border regions.
“The neh-thalggu still funning around with the cephalids there?” the former emperor asked lightly, proceeding to the last few organs.
“And keeping the ethergrim entertained to the east, while the kaorti harass them to the west,” I confirmed. All of them major, dangerous races on their own, all of them here, along with the cerevores, orbus, grell, hriezunkl, and several lesser races of Mythos, like the rukarazyll, adaru, psurlons, and various pseudonatural and farspawn monstrosities and lesser hordes that by themselves could have probably swept the planet if not contained here. “The protoa made another infiltration attempt to the south sides, but that’s probably just numbers pressure more than anything else. Except for the hagunemnon, that’s more extermination duty than real fights, as you doubtless remember.”
He did, the protoa zone one of the main introductions to the lethality of Arktos without having to dwell with actual intelligent opponents… up until you met the unlimited shapechanging of the protoa masters. The shoggoths, gibbering mouthers, and various forms of oozes of great size and psionic ability were all very good at displaying the threat level of the things that had to be fought here.
“The Mick said there’s another thoriacid breakout on the southwest,” he noted, digging out a massive gravilux organ, powerful enough to levitate the whole multi-ton mass of the beast, and so VERY powerful for making skyships of any kind lighter. “Pesky soul-stealing fuckers coming out of the Far Realms with nowhere to go here, and determined to get there.”
Which summed up the more insectile things from Outside Creation pretty well.
“That means a vermiurge or two, driving them forth. They like their pseudonatural bug swarms, too,” I noted. Which meant stumbling across or digging up the sneaky thoracsids while looking around for the ‘insect emperors’.
“He remarked about having to keep a Phoenix Cloak up for three days straight, yes,” the former Emperor of Siricil said, wrenching forth the xullgill that converted magical energy drawn in from the eyes, particularly from reading, into magical power for the rest of the beholder’s body. Again, a great tool for Artifice that transformed or transferred power. “Also something about Rainbow Ice Mantises the size of elephants traipsing across the high ice, too, and Prismatic Scarab Beetles. They’re having an interesting time up there,” Magni added cheerfully.
The bugs preferred to prey on anything other than one another under the guidance of the vermiurges, and would push right on down to the sea and possibly into it if they were allowed.
“Bugtown is a busy town,” I observed calmly.
“That it is!” he agreed, a wet schlorp accompanying the release of the beholder’s stomach, short intestinal track to follow. Great tool for Bags of Holding or Burned to help make Portable Holes, among other things. “I think that’s everything of real value?” he inquired of me.
I flicked up my Carving Knives and just pointed. The adamantine Blades flashed out and began to peel the hide away from the bone of the creature. “That’s 50k in value towards Steelskin Amulets,” I reminded him, or +5 to Natural Armor.
“Ah, right, the little ones are only about 2k and we usually just let them go,” he shrugged. “This is my first time killing a Gargantuan, I never got lucky before,” he shrugged.
He had two Barrels full of its ichor, too. “The Gargantuans are viable to be Burned just about completely, save for the muscles and meat. The bones are excellent for Wands, Staves, and any carvings of ivory, while the teeth are fuel for Weapons, unlike their smaller kin, because they are basically Dreadskull-worthy monsters.”
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“Too big to make into Dreadskulls against Aberrants?” he asked hesitantly, aware he might have goofed up here as I reminded him of that fact. Normal Beholders only made Baneskulls, and we had a lot of Aberrant Baneskulls after two thousand years of butchering them.
“No. I’ll Bonemeld it back together for you, don’t fret.” Dreadskulls against Aberrants were like the primary Skulls used on Weapons in Arktos… he had one made from a thorascsid on the hilt of Emeritus there, the cerulean flames helping carve through the corpse like it was made of soft butter and not supernaturally tough unnatural flesh and bone.
“Ah, my thanks. I don’t need the Dreadskull, but it can go on the stack, I don’t need the cash from the ivory,” he waved off the wealth casually. He still got the Karma of its value, and as an Eternal, that was the important thing.
He’d seen more goldweight equivalent in monster parts get Burned for his Gear as an Eternal than had ever flowed through his hands as an Emperor. Money didn’t have quite the hold on Eternals as it did mortals… but at the same time it supported the empire of mortals underneath us, and we certainly weren’t going to let the monsters eat them up.
“I’ll drop it off to the Butchers for you.” The door to my Sanctum opened, and he waved his harvest over there as I rapidly peeled that monstrously thick hide off the two halves of the Gargantuan Beholder.
A Flensing spell got rid of the last of the unwanted meat, leaving the oddly green-black translucent bone of the floating skull split before us. A Bonemeld and Telekinesis rolling the two halves back together united them as if they’d never been separated, and a simple Reduce Object shrank it down to about the size of a giant’s head, tossed through my Sanctum Door to join the rest of everything else.
He eyed the Tactical Map of the area in the Markspace for Eternals, and the winking lights indicating targets there.
“Ukker’s team going into the Orbus territory to administer a lesson?” I questioned for him.
“That sounds about where my talents would be best used!” he agreed. “Coming along?” he asked shrewdly, as much offer as inquiry.
“Cirru has the Ringlands in hand. Just be aware I may have to bail if something comes up in Rikada.”
“Of course! Master Duum, if you will?” he directed at my Familiar.
The bat on my shoulder flapped once into the air, and came down the size of a roc gently. The former Emperor of Siricil long ago bounced easily up to the Saddle, which grew an extra seat for him promptly. I took up mine and Duum flapped once, driving himself hundreds of feet into the air with a weightless beat, and zipped away towards the continuing action a few miles away, saving me having to spend Valences.
It was really, really easy to run out of Valences here, which was why every single being that came here had to be ready to fight, and that even included Overmagi who were proud they’d never bashed something to death in their lives, except maybe by dropping boulders on them with magic.
If you had no useful spells left and still needed to press on, you needed to fight. I had taught a LOT of Overmagi up to Grandmastery in the Staff and Dagger over the years, and those making Eternal often ‘took a couple decades off’ just to run around and play the Melee fighter, picking up Feats and Masteries and usually Spear Grandmastery, just like I did. It was great for helping support the mortal efforts of the armies of the Empire, having an Overmage on hand to help out if needed, even if he was only killing things up close and personal unless he had to.
Sacrificing a high Valence Slot for Nogged Golden Armor that worked just fine in an Anti-Magic field of any kind was also pretty key for survival when your Bracers and Rings and Buff spells went out, and the monsters you were fighting weren’t discomfited in the slightest. They tended to be surprised when the spellflinger popped a Spear out of the end of his Stave and joined the melee guys in going to town on them.
Duum hurtled north, towards the lands held by the various form of eyebeam-shooting and gaze weapon-wielding Aberrants coming down from the borderlands of Leng and its nebulous interactions with the Far Realms outside Creation.
It just meant time to make more goldweight and help reinforce the Veil further, containing the spreading of Leng.
I couldn’t even make an introductory Pyramid here without the full weight of the Empire backing it. All of the intruding forces would recognize the threat of the Domain, especially to Leng. My Domain would push back the Dead Magic Zone, and lock down space completely, extending towards the border with Leng. I would have to build the next Pyramid INSIDE that Domain, and the one after that, but then the third one would be pushing Leng back directly, and finally working on Sealing up this gaping hole in reality and shutting them down.
We couldn’t hold that, for now.
In time. Everything, in time.
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The seas were clear. Every time the Carnifex tried to open something underwater, we collapsed it and it cost them.
The Underdark was clear. Every time they went deep, we cracked open the creche and filled it with magma, just to show how much we didn’t like them.
The skies were clear. All the cloud islands and random floating mountains and sky cities that they had seized had been shattered and sent tumbling to the ground, or taken by us and used as troop transports and staging areas for our own forces.
All of the islands and the other major continents were clear. Disruptions were much, much easier see in smaller ecosystems, and we had stopped hundreds of attempts to set up Creches long-term in Nown’s countless islands and archipelagos.
The Hollow World was clean. Already blanketed with Pyramids from killing Annelids, they had never been able to successfully set up a single Creche before the Emerald Empire and its Eternals down there bombed them into oblivion or dug them out like rats.
The other continents were clean. Pyramids fueled by the deaths of countless monstrosities and every single other Annelid left on the surface had marched across the lands slowly, relentlessly, clawing back what had been taken, restricting where they could go, run, hide, rest, recover, rebuild.
We never got tired of the fight. We never called for peace. We endured the constant infiltrations and subversions of the weakest-willed members of our peoples, and we stayed On Plan. Despite the massive threat hanging over us, generations sent their best out to fight, and half of them didn’t come back… but those that did come back only got stronger, stronger, and even stronger!