adbindia Chapter 273: An Uneasy Quiet
Chapter 273: An Uneasy Quiet
“The heat is finally subsiding,” remarks the large blue dragon watching over the gathered group of survivors, shielding them from the rising fireball for the last minute or more as the hellish orange glow all but crawled up into the sky with its shroud of ash and molten debris. Several of the Chi’rinnis elders were wounded in the shuttle crash, but it was obviously far more controlled than if Magnir had done nothing.
For his part, the reptilian knight has visible scratches that are slowly oozing vibrant red blood on his torso, arms, and tail from the crash landing.
“Are you alright, Sir Magnir?” asks Zuzia.
“The heat was no trouble, my Lady,” replies the dragon warmly, though his own gaze remains locked on the mushroom cloud. It’s towering over them, and Zuzia feels ominous just being near it. The worst has passed, but she knows just enough to know they need to worry about fallout. Daniel may be right that Zenkon’s very nature will actively counteract it faster than the natural decay on Earth, but for the short-term, the fallout and irradiated materials are unimaginably dangerous to all of them.
Neith says with a light scoff as he helps bandage one of the Chi’rinnis elders alongside Kera’tai, “She’s referring to your injuries, Magnir.”
“Ah… I’ll live,” replies the dragon. “I had worse on my first flight as a child.”
Magnir and Neith chuckle together.
Senn adds, “Thank you for taking the impact for me, Lady Zuzia. I thought I could recover enough mana after the first wave, but it lingered longer than I expected.”
“No, I’m sorry it wasn’t a softer landing. Some of us can’t exactly fly.” She shoots a smirk at Neith, who gives an uneasy laugh this time.
But, Serrentuk comes to the grey dragon’s defense. “He did make an effort, if it’s any consolation, my Lady. Regrettably, he felt the need to rescue the elderly, it seems.”
“Isn’t Senn older than the rest of us as well? Well, maybe with exception of Yaulwembor.”
Everyone chuckles wearily together, save for the anthropomorphic reptilian woman who is pacing nearby anxiously.
Kera’tai asks after a moment, “Was that really Daniel’s power?”
“No,” retorts Zuzia bluntly. “He’s making it happen, but that’s all the more reason it cannot go any further.” She shakes her head in disappointment, whispering, “I hope we don’t have to regret this…”
There’s a moment of quiet, since it’s clear that Zuzia is displeased with the outcome, though she acknowledges it was an inevitability on some level.
“On the bright side, my Lady, it appears Sayrdarralouche is finally no more.”
“We need to survey everything before we definitively decide that,” replies Neith. “His regenerative ability was like an enemy we faced recently known as Kernuules, located in the forest west of the Citadel.”
“Ah, yes, I know the location,” replies the male elf, adjusting his glasses. He lost one of his lenses, but he is simply keeping his left eye squinted or closed to use his right eye comfortably. “I was distracted at the time, but it was on my list of things to address.”
“Kernuules was bound to the forest by ritual circles, and his core was a feldrok child that appears to have been kept in an undead state by some kind of magic none of us were familiar with.”
This turns Serrentuk’s and Senn’s expressions extremely serious, and they look at each other to confirm that the other took the same meaning as well.
“If you suspect it to be unnatural, that is our working theory right now.”
“Wait… So you’re saying… Sayrdarralouche was a zombie?” asks Zuzia.
Jeavana scoffs and replies, “If you’d been present earlier this week, you’d really hate what we had to deal with.”
“What are you talking about?” asks Neith.
The golden dragon realizes she’s actually in a loop that Neith isn’t because he and Serrentuk were busy ‘retrieving’ Zuzia.
Senn explains, “Morthybargaron’s animated corpse was deployed instead of a contract demon while freeing Jeavana. I believe Daniel was convinced that was the work of the, uh, Lurker.”
The grey dragon’s expression drains, and Jeavana pats him on the shoulder. “Obviously, we made it through. And, ol’ Harbinger killed him. Again.”
“How many threads are we dealing with right now?” asks Zuzia, trying to keep up.
“Quick version;...” starts Magnir. “The Lurker is a potential threat to all life, but our only glimpses at her are through a curse on Daniel and random attacks. The next is Grand Prince Yaulander, and the potential for civil war within the Empire if he’s not handled correctly. And, lastly are the embers of the Demon Hegemony, though Djihnlierr seems to believe that her force attacking the Citadel was the bulk of the remaining demon-kin who hadn’t scattered to the winds. Our primary threat now will be individual power-threats like Brosjak was.”
Neith nods in agreement, and Zuzia muses sarcastically, “Jezu… You’ve been some busy boys.”
The grey dragon laughs, replying warmly, “Not just us. Our Emperor seems to have a nose for leading us into these troubles, alongside his… lovable Empresses.”
“Heyyy…” warns Kera’tai. “I’m right here.”
One of the other Chi’rinnis approaches, and he has slightly different tones to her skin, her tattoos and hair, and even her antlers are a bit more elaborate than Kera’tai’s. “Your Grace, my Ladies, my Lords,... Without the shuttle, it will be difficult to move our wounded. Even with the help of Lord Dragon…”
“Transportation is on the way,” replies Jeavana. “Magic devices are only just starting to work again.”
“Jeavana, if you would, stay here with the Chi’rinnis sages,” starts Neith. “Magnir and I will investigate the crater for remnants of the mana fire. Lord Serrentuk…”
“No need to ask, Sir Neith. Of course, I’m going with you.”
“I’ll go as well,” adds his daughter. “I may not be able to use gate, but I should be able to manage the other spells we know now that work on small amounts.”
The dragons nod. Neith explains further, “We’ll have to keep an eye on Sayrdarralouche for signs of life. If he has a core, we’ll need to isolate and destroy it. I don’t think there should be a ritual circle here that he can regenerate from, but we have nothing on us at present that can break through.”
“I’m going as well,” replies Zuzia. “The poison that will be raining down from this thing could be dangerous, and if one of you clowns falls out of the sky again, I’ll drag you back myself, if I have to.” She gestures at Magnir, who is to her what she would be to a mouse in terms of size. “Sir Magnir already crashed once, and you’re asking him to fly again.”
Magnir chuckles, flexing his neck, shoulders and wings for a moment. He replies gently, “I thank you for your concern, my Lady, but I do not exaggerate when I say my first flight was far worse. The, uh, senior youngster of my time was not as friendly as Sir Neith, to put it plainly.”
“The greatest and only disappointment is that we shall not savor his suffering for a century or two,” jokes Neith, and the blue dragon nods in agreement.
Magnir then continues to finish reassuring Zuzia, “I know my limits, my Lady. Please trust me that much, at least.”
Zuzia nods. “I trust you dragons well enough. You seem too honest for your own good.”
“Hah!” scoffs Jeavana before she starts laughing. “We are relaxed. There’s no need or resentment fueling deceptions right now.”
“We’re also the dragons willing to have conversations with human-kin,” adds Neith. “That was a rather… recent development, with few exceptions, because of the consequences of violating it.”
“I see…” murmurs Zuzia. “Well then, Sir Magnir, my life will be in your hands once more.”
“I’m honored and feel the same, my Lady.”
“Do we have a way to communicate with Yaulwembor?” asks Senn. “I believe Daniel was hoping she could copy Father’s Gate spell.”
“No one other than Hekate knows Yaulwembor Sign Language?” asks Zuzia skeptically.
“No,” replies Jeavana. “The hand gestures are somatic spellcrafting. Hekate wastes mana to create ‘intent’ or something, and because of her prodigal understanding of magic, Yaulwembor understands that intent at a glance.”
“Well, no use not trying,” replies Neith. The draconic woman in question is pacing around as she watches the mushroom cloud, growling and chattering like a dinosaur or an anxious ratite like an ostrich or emu. The grey dragon does the gas-lighter sparking noise with his teeth, and she snaps her gaze to him. Neith warbles deep in his throat with a soft tone, patting his chest.
Zuzia does the same, saying her name, since it worked earlier. “Yaulwembor…” She then clicks her teeth and pats her chest, and the strange draconic woman glances at the mushroom cloud again, which is already darkening the night sky even further, which actually makes it difficult to see the vast majority of the cloud.
“I think she wants to mimic that,” jokes Jeavana.
“Don’t tell Rikuto,” retorts Kera’tai just as bluntly. The Chi’rinnis wipes her hands off and faces Neith. “Neith, the gloom inferno was working, so if there are hold out fires and Lord Serrentuk needs assistance, we still have enough mana to handle it.”
“That’s good to know,” replies Senn. “We weren’t sure if it was effective. I can feel my mana coming back…” The elven beauty flexes her right hand, and a staff materializes in front of her, which she catches. She unsummons it just as quickly, saying, “Yes, it seems the waves were no different than before…”
“You might want to keep it handy, Lady Senn,” urges Zuzia politely. “If it is as simple as radiation itself negating mana, we’re about to be enter a desert sustained by the fallout.” She looks at Neith and Kera’tai, who seem to know Daniel the best. “Did Daniel mention anything about alphas, betas, gammas, or x-rays?”
“All of them,” replies Kera’tai. “I wasn’t there when he used the first ones, but he has explained his theories when we use materials that rot only.”
“Rot?” asks the Polish woman.
Kera’tai winces uneasily, and she looks at Neith. The dragon cups his chin, thinking. “Ah! [Decay], is that the correct one in English?”
“Yesss…” murmurs Zuzia skeptically.
“Our words for rot and decay are interchangeable, and very similarly pronounced,” states Neith.
Hearing it in the Eastern Imperial Trade language, now that she’s paying attention and hearing them basically side by side, the two words are extremely similar, and it does make sense that they don’t really have an association for it in regards to radioactive decay, other than Daniel doing his best to basically pioneer the science itself and figure out how to explain it to people who don’t yet have the fundamental knowledge, let alone the more advanced levels a modern high school education can get to. Daniel obviously has more knowledge than that level alone, as does Zuzia, with her extra decade or so of life experience, but she can forgive the miswording.
“Right, sorry, Kera’tai. That makes sense. So, about those words I said…”
“Daniel thinks Alphas are the least effective, but not negligible. I think said something about it not necessarily being the radiation itself, but something… smaller… that may be associated with it.”
“Gammas are the smallest, I think…”
“No, he says gammas would potentially be part of the same thing,” replies Neith. “[Quantus], maybe? Does [quantus] make sense?”
“‘Quantum’?” asks Zuzia. “As in ‘quantum mechanics’.” Neith snaps his fingers.
“Yes! That sounds right. He said it was even smaller than the little balls that make pure elements.”
Zuzia sighs. She can’t fault Daniel at all for starting so simplistically. No one in his inner circle is stupid. And, for speedrunning the entire industrial revolution, he seems to be doing a pretty decent job of trying to be the rising tide that lifts all of his boats, not just himself.
“I’ll buy it. I only vaguely recall some of my college classes, so… hmm… Kvarki {Kwarki} and gluony… I don’t remember what those are in English for certain…”
“Gluons… sounds like something he mentioned once,” murmurs Kera’tai as she glances at the others.
“Regardless, we should focus on ensuring no holdout fires grow beyond our means of control this time,” states Serrentuk. “Will the specific decay field change your intended advice for this mission, my Lady?”
“Yes. Alphas and betas are stopped by clothing and skin, respectively, if not sooner. But, ingesting the ‘anti-magic’ dust will poison you for the rest of your life. And, I’m not exaggerating when I say that applies to everyone here. A touch hyperbolic, yes, assuming you survive the first hundred years or so. Incorrect to be cautious about, no.”
“Understood. Senn?”
Senn is already activating her void bag, which is thankfully working again. From it, she withdraws two helmets, which have cutouts to allow their long ears to be comfortable as well. They have a fairly modern design, similar to Daniel’s spec-ops murder-goblins, though obviously made with metal instead of resin-coated aramid fibers or something similar.
“Unless those helmets have filters on them, they won’t do much good…” warns Zuzia.
Neith offers Zuzia one regardless. He holds it so he can gesture at a certain area on the chin, saying, “This activates an air dump through magic crystals. It’s not perfect, but we use it for diving. It’ll continuously dump air out, which keeps dust out quite well.”
“I can attest that it works fairly well for gases,” adds Magnir, even though his helmet has the shape of his reptilian dragon head, and very much doesn’t seal his mouth.
“I’m serious. We can’t inhale or swallow any of this dust. Even a little can be harmful.” The honey-haired brunette takes the helmet from Neith, studying it for a moment. It has cushioning inside, but she won’t be able to keep her messed up bun as it is, so she pulls her hair tie free, feeling the knots and grime already that she’s going to spend the next week or so in the best bath the Citadel has.
Daniel better not have skimped on the beer AND baths, or I really will kill him.
“Daniel is pretty cavalier about all of this…”
This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.
“He says so himself,” replies Jeavana dryly. “The only person in this world that we can’t heal with magic is the very same one doing what he can to protect the rest of us with what we have.”
“If you wish not to go, my Lady, we won’t force you, but we must ensure the mana fire is extinguished,” urges Neith gently. “I accept the risks, and I will maintain ‘Alara’.”
Hearing this word perks Zuzia up. She doesn’t know how or why it should, but when she looks at Kera’tai, who notices the surprise, the Chi’rinnis Empress states, “[As low as reasonably achievable] in English. It means we minimize our time exposed to it, same with the mana fire itself. The golems require magic to function, and lead golems are too heavy to fly.”
“They also can’t use the amount of magic we may need,” adds Magnir. The blue dragon then adds with his palm on his chest, “I, too, accept the risks, knowing the protection isn’t proper, but the best we’ve got.”
Zuzia looks at Senn and Serrentuk, and they both nod with smiles before putting their helmets on.
The earthling lets out a defeated sigh. They’re not wrong. Pressurized helmets will work ‘well enough’ for now. But, she may have a solid position in the Fievegal as their safety administrator, and she’ll never be without work, by the looks of it.
“Right…” She puts the helmet on, and it’s just snug enough to hold onto her face without wobbling too much. The visor is transparent, though she doesn’t think it’s regular glass.
Serrentuk takes his own glasses off, tucking them into his own chest pocket. “Senn, I’ll need you to be my eyes for now…”
“Of course, Father.”
“Actually, if you’ll trust me with it,” replies Zuzia. “We can divide and conquer if Neith and Magnir are willing to separate. I’ll go with Serrentuk and Yaulwembor, and Senn, since you can also combat fires with ‘gloom inferno’, was it?; if you’re alright with it, that may allow us to ensure we get to everything as quickly as possible.
“A good idea,” confirms Senn. “Father?”
“Agreed, as long as you don’t mind helping a blind old man, Lady Zuzia,” jokes Serrentuk. He knows she would never mock or refuse, given their time together in Gate, and especially because she offered in the first place.
“Of course. My Lord.” The brunette throws the last part on with a smirk, since everyone keeps calling her a Lady, and by the sounds of it, Serrentuk has an ancient lordship before he was entrapped and bound to the Contarro family.
“Very well,” starts Neith. “Senn and I will start westward towards Urflasdat. Magnir, Serrentuk, Zuzia and Yaulwembor will head eastward, and we’ll address any outcroppings as we work towards the other side.”
“What about the deeper parts of the crater?” asks Jeavana as she looks south to the slumbering calamity and a few glows that could be wildfires from the heat or false flames from the mana fire.
“We’ll survey as much as we can and meet back up with everyone else. Magnir, avoid the ash and smoke for Yaulwembor’s sake unless you must engage a holdout, since I doubt anyone other than Daniel will be able to convince her to wear armor.”
While her reptilian skin creates an uncanny ‘body-suit’ look to a human’s eyes, the ancient woman is essentially nude. It just doesn’t feel as vulgar, since it sounds like she was essentially a relatively uncontacted cavewoman until the Fievegal took her in, and they haven’t reached ‘clothes’ yet.
“Alright. We have a plan, so let’s be careful and make sure the Harbinger of Calamity didn’t earn his name in vain.” Just before she’s about to approach Magnir, she pauses, remembering one more important thing. “Ah! If you can and need to, contact Reignleif if telepathy or whatever doesn’t work to reach us. Reignleif can get in contact with me regardless of magic, I think. I can explain more in depth later.”
The others nod, and they break into their respective teams to inspect the aftermath.
Zuzia still needs to have serious words with Daniel, but the horror will have to wait. It really will all be for nothing if there is even one ember of the mana fire that remains.
***
Rikuto sits up, panting heavily. The evacuation zone for the main camp is in shambles. Most of the vehicles were much further ahead, but the area where the buckrokh riders and personnel on foot were taking a rest has been turned into a second area of chaos requiring as much triage as the people sent away.
Those with sensitive hearing are screaming in pain as they clutch their heads. Others are incapacitated on the ground, with soldiers that can do so scrambling to capture maddened and panicked buckrokhs, check on the fallen, and otherwise gather sense of everything that’s going on.
It would be a miracle if there were no deaths.
Damn it! Why did he go so early!? There’s no way the evacuations were complete. Even some of his consorts are here!
He looks around and finds one of the Stalvaltan Guards helping Aramellianna sit up. Rikuto climbs to his feet, his ears still ringing. His skin is crawling, and it wouldn’t be surprising to him if they’re all dying of radiation poisoning at this very moment.
The young Japanese king calls out, “Grand Duchess Senior!”
She looks wearily, her face cut and part of her head bleeding. But, she seems to have her wits about her for the most part.
“Your Majesty,” shouts Aramellianna in return. It’s not the distance nor disrespect. Neither of them can hear very well right now. “If you intend to ask, I didn’t know.”
“I know. Are you alright?”
“I am, thank you for your concern. Are you injured, your Majesty?”
“Less than I feared, more than I would like. Does the Fievegal have a plan for after?”
“Yes. Primarily, avoid the crater, establish refugee zones, and put out any wildfires and remnants of the mana fire. It’ll take me some time to determine the status of our forces.”
“Please do.” Rikuto looks around. Heralesse was on her own tasks, so for now, the young king will have to focus on what’s in front of him until her status can be confirmed as well. He’ll also have to wait until everything is as safe as possible before checking on Larravu.
He spots Chebnom wrangling a buckrokh, casting some kind of magic that swiftly calms the steed down, which is what many of the Stalvaltan soldiers are doing as well. The titanic princess known as Arachne approaches, and it sends a shiver up Rikuto’s spine. Many of the Mornistae and Imperial knights that are in the secondary group with him back away to make a path for her to approach.
“Grand Duchess Senior, the Empresses present are gathering near Vaergraes. Please join me.”
“Yes, thank you.”
Rikuto says quickly, “If it’s alright, I’ll join you in a moment! I need to get Chebnom real quick so we can prepare an expedition to check on the status of the fires.”
“Understood your Majesty,” replies Arachne with an unchanging tone. She has no fear or unease about the situation. Even the legendary Aramellianna, formerly the matriarch of the Stalvaltan house, is trembling and gawking at times when she looks at the dark shadowy cloud looming over them and blotting out all of the stars in the sky for as far as they can see in virtually every direction. He knows it must be night time now that the mana fire is gone, and the darkness is so deep, but he wouldn’t be surprised if a Tsar Bomba-sized bomb could make it feel like night time under the ‘hood’ of the mushroom cloud, which is said to have spanned a couple hundred kilometers or so.
And, all of that is going to come back down as fallout eventually. Damn you, Daniel. We didn’t have to rush. Did you think we wouldn’t…
Rikuto pauses. He won’t accept it as an excuse, but Zuzia comes to mind right away. She was prepared to deny its use until every last person was accounted for and evacuated. Rikuto essentially agreed and still agrees with her stance, but he does understand that Daniel had already accepted what he knew he needed to do. Maybe his nerves were faltering and he went early to avoid backing out and losing the willpower to do it when the time came. Rikuto isn’t sure if he would be able to ‘push the button’ himself, but it’s no use thinking about that.
I need to calm myself down. I’m no good to anyone if I fall apart. This isn’t history. It’s real. I need to focus on what comes next…
As he’s jogging to Chebnom, he can’t help but slow again as he looks once more at the terrible darkness in the sky, hiding even the three moons from view. The fireball wasn’t visible to anyone, or everyone within miles of the crater would still have been give a coin toss on their survival odds at best, between being vaporized by the intense light energy, the radiation, or the full shockwave.
At least you did that much right… Though, I’m surprised you were able to get a bomb to the heart of it… And, it sounds like Sayrdarralouche is incapacitated again. Let’s hope that killed whatever power was keeping him alive as well…
“Sir Chebnom!” calls out Rikuto. The gatonine perks up and turns.
“Your Majesty! I saw you were being checked on, so I turned my attention to…”
“No need for any of that,” replies Rikuto. “Gather Sir Loxourren and join me with the Fievegal’s Empresses and the Imperial officers. I’m not sure what their immediate plans are, but I intend to quickly search the perimeter and make sure everything is out.”
“Understood, your Majesty! Leave it to me. Just… Just to check though, are you unharmed?”
“‘Unharmed’ is a stretch, like the any of us.” Rikuto gestures at the top back corner of his head, where Chebnom’s feline ear would be, since there’s visible blood coming out of his helmet.
“I took a potion right away, your Majesty. If you need one, I have one more.”
“Save it for someone who needs it. If you need to, request help from the Stalvaltans for calming the buckrokhs. They seem to be using some sort of spell.”
“Yes, your Majesty. We’ll join you shortly.”
Rikuto nods, and he scans quickly for any other quick tasks before joining the Fievegal’s currently gathered ‘staffers’, since they are more like a military cabinet than royalty at present.
Treia is covering her right ear with a rag, still, while Veiranoei has a helmet on that is definitely one of Daniel’s modernized models, which apparently provide hearing protection, tailored to each race wearing them.
Aramellianna welcomes him, saying loudly, since everyone’s hearing is in various stages of ruined for at least the moment, unless they received healing magic or took potions right away. Treia has a half-finished potion, instead of the alcoholic potations they use in the Fievegal, but she’s visibly nauseous right now.
Vaergraes is being tended to by a few of her own people, the Uhl’tall, and she’s leaning on a sawhorse that was brought over in a hurry, along with Roetta the pink dragon behind her, Ochibenara the blind drider sitting on the ground and praying towards the fire with tears streaming down her face, and one more Uhl’tall who is counting the imposing Death Knights and ‘angels’ that aren’t Silence or Arachne. Rikuto thinks her name was Djihnlierr or something, but some of the more exotic names here on Zenkon are even harder for him to remember than English names.
Arachne casts a spell, and a bubble forms around the group, which only causes a few of those who weren’t expecting it to flinch, including Rikuto. She says in a normal voice, but it’s easily audible to Rikuto, as if it is bypassing his ears entirely, but isn’t quite telepathy.
“Please speak at a normal volume. For the moment, this spell should work roughly the opposite of a sound-isolation barrier and make our voices audible.”
“Yes!” states Treia with surprise. “Amazing, Arachne.”
“Thank you, your Grace,” replies the Death Knight with the same stoic tone she always seems to use, as if nothing at all matters.
Aramellianna steps forward, saying, “If everyone here will permit, I’ll start the brief of our current situation. As we all can guess, we’re still alive, and there doesn’t seem to be a continuous fountain of exploding fire-rock, or magma, I believe it was called, so it seems our Emperor enacted the final phase. But, that leaves us very much in the dark about the state of everything around us. Our casualties are not zero, unfortunately, and many of our supplies have been lost or destroyed.”
Rikuto speaks up. “Forgive me for interrupting, but we should assume anything not protected by at least one layer of metal is contaminated and dangerous to our health. Though the nuke appears to have been as effective as we hoped in stopping the mana fire, and Sayrdarralouche along with it, the amount of poison that it sends out is about as widespread as the shockwave and the return winds we just narrowly survived.” He adds softly as he glances at the triage area nearby. “Those of us who did, that is.”
Aramellianna nods. “This weapon’s use in an inhabited region is unprecedented, so we’ll trust your advice for now. His Grace the Emperor was clear these kinds of things were likely as well.”
“Is it why the potions taste worse than I remember?” asks Treia wearily.
“It could be,” replies Rikuto. “Though, glass that remains intact and sealed should protect it from most of the dangerous contamination, so it’s really just ‘flavor destruction’. I can’t speak to whether or not the magic effect is preserved, of course.”
Treia grimaces, and she dumps the rest of the potion on the ground.
Rikuto adds, “Daniel seems to have intentionally detonated the bomb deep in the crater, which actually spared us much worse effects, if we can believe it, since none of us were exposed to the line of sight of the main fireball. That said, we should assume all of us were exposed to intense radiation and monitor for signs of radiation sickness. It’ll present as sunburns, blistering, vomiting, and other symptoms, and can lead to death.”
Vaergraes asks, “Can treatment for poisons be used to counteract the effects? Antidote potations aren’t exactly abundant, but the Fievegal should have enough for our most dire patients.”
“I honestly don’t know, your Grace,” replies Rikuto sincerely. “This world has magic drinks that you can pop one open for lead poisoning, animal venom, and arsenic poisoning using the same potion, and it can save you from both. Each was a separate process on Earth. It’s hard to describe at this world’s knowledge level what the destruction from radiation is actually like, even if we call it ‘radiation poisoning’.”
Aramellianna states, “For the worst patients, it can’t hurt to try. If there’s any doubts, we’ll have to put them into void bags for now to buy ourselves time, same with any of the other wounds we’re dealing with.”
“Father has said that mana provides some protection to those of us who possess it. It does seem to follow from my current assessment that those who have perished or been most severely incapacitated from the detonation in fact possessed the lowest natural mana to begin with, including those who were depleted.”
“Does that mean Daniel…?” murmurs Treia, and everyone, including Rikuto, is silent for a moment. If he was anywhere nearby, Daniel would have been ‘naked’ to the effects compared to everyone else.
“Father is alive,” states Arachne with a totally unwavering tone. “There were only a few minutes where I could not feel my connection to him.” She touches her heart, and for the first time since Rikuto has known of the giant ‘princess’, she seems to soften in both presence and ‘aura’.
“Armor seems to have helped as well,” replies Loxourren, bowing from behind Rikuto. “I’m not especially potent in mana, myself, and I had my full armor on at the time. The heat was unbearable, but the wave of nausea and weakness passed quickly for me. The last I saw of his Grace, he was armored with even more advanced materials than I’ll ever be able to afford.” A few of the other knights from all factions present give a weary chuckle. Most of them are distracted by the man-made disaster that just occurred and the horror that it was, in fact, summoned by the hand of man. Though, ironically enough, there are already rumors starting that it was the power of the gods, so Daniel may actually slip out of the responsibility of this one if he just plays along with ‘You’re right; no human could do this. It was the power of the gods protecting this world because even we, the divine summons, weren’t enough.’
And, honestly, Rikuto isn’t sure if it would be better to leave that belief lie or try to ensure Daniel is held accountable.
“I agree it probably helped,” adds Rikuto. “These weapons were only ever used offensively on Earth twice, three days apart. No one was wearing full plate armor by that point in our history, and many of the survivors were shielded by simple concrete, er, uh, ‘poured stone’, or being in their basements, even ridiculously close to the fireball itself against all odds.” Rikuto points up, and everyone follows his finger; the target of his point is the underside of the terrible, unnaturally ‘smooth’ cloud cap that has extended for dozens of miles in every direction, centered over the crater. “The problem is that. In that cloud is all of the dirt and vaporized rock that the bomb’s blast carried into the air, no doubt cannon-fired upwards by the crater with even more power. Billions of tons of material will come back down as anti-magic poison, as you all know it, over the next few days, making this area a dead zone for potentially decades. Let us pray Daniel is right about mana being a counter, or a large portion of every country bordering Centerhold will see casualties worse than the blast itself for years to come.”
“We’ll have to focus on figuring out the most reliable cures, then, to be certain,” states Vaergraes. “And, we may need to find out what became of our Founding Empress to see if she and our other friends can counteract it directly, at least anywhere that needs to remain habitable.”
Aramellianna nods in agreement. “For the immediate future, until we can restore contact with our various nations, we should operate under the assumption the mana fire is not completely extinguished.”
“I was just going to mention the same, your Grace,” replies Rikuto. “I’ll take some men and ride to the crater and start an investigation. If we run into anyone else already doing so, we’ll coordinate from there.”
“Very well, your Majesty.”
“In that case, we’ll investigate the remains of Sayrdarralouche,” replies Vaergraes as she gestures to Djihnlierr next to herself.
“We will? Oh! Of course, my Lady!”
“I’ll go as well,” offers Treia. “Magic wasn’t effective on him before he became immune to the mana fire. I don’t know if the railguns will work on him, but we’ll try.”
“I-...” starts Veiranoei, but she’s interrupted by the two Dragonslayers of the Stalvaltan house speaking up, Sirs Resken and Helbeit. “We’re with you, your Graces.”
Resken adds, “We’ve been briefed on the resolution of the Kernuules incident and have been practicing search and destroy drills when possible.”
Treia nods, and she glances at Veiranoei, who had raised her hand.
A little embarrassed, given her posture-shift, the other gatonine adds, “I’ll accompany you, if I won’t be in the way.”
“We’re all blind right now,” states Aramellianna. “His Grace undoubtedly wished to avoid this outcome, and whatever made him decide to do so without warning, we will have to function as best as we can. Dragonslayers, I leave it to you to protect their Graces the Empresses. You may take anyone from the fourth company willing to go with you. No one is to be forced, due to the extreme level of danger, though.”
“Understood, your Grace,” replies Helbeit as both men bow.
“I shall defend the evacuation in the event of unexpected circumstances,” adds Arachne for herself. “If I am needed, I will answer the call to any team’s location with the greatest haste I can manage. Djihnlierr, I will send five of the angels with you to protect Mother.”
“Thank you, your Highness,” replies the secondary Uhl’tall woman gratefully.
“Dame Roetta,” says Rikuto. The pink dragon perks up in turn, and the Japanese king requests, “If you would, could you escort my team to the crater edge? I don’t mind if you take both parties, but if we are to prevent the mana fire from restarting, I don’t want to waste any time riding all this distance.”
“I am willing,” replies the pink dragon in her true form. “With Treia’s and Vaergraes’s permission, of course.”
“Please do,” replies Vaergraes. “Though, that means Ochibenara is coming with us.”
“I have no objections,” replies Rikuto. He knows Ochibenara has become obsessed with the mana fire itself, but none of the Fievegal seem to possess any fear of her, so she must not be a particular threat.
And, even if she was, Rikuto should be able to survive as long as he can lay hands on her.
I won’t try anything stupid with Roetta… I’m exhausted, and I should conserve my mana to capture any and all mana flames.
“If there’s nothing else, we should get moving,” states Rikuto.
“I’ll handle triage and the withdrawal. As soon as possible, I will re-establish communication with the Fievegal Proper and get relief supplies and reinforcements to replace our incapacitated knights and soldiers. Please handle the investigation with care and safety everyone.”
Rikuto takes a breath and gathers with the group that will be travelling on Roetta’s back.
He hopes everything is finished, but everyone is scrambling blind, since a nuclear weapon this close is the exact counter to every ability they tend to rely on normally.
***