Chapter 300: Those are rookie numbers (Patreon)

The days that follow string together—as they tend to when you don’t sleep—into a blur of preparations.

Alec finishes his new armours, and they look sick. They’re still blue and scaley, but this time—with a little help from Farouq—they’re made of lacquered Darksteel, rather than leather. He made four sets, one each for himself, Jacob, Dave, and Loudmouth. Apparently, Kaitlynn had never seen the Hoig bawl as hard as during the fitting, making it almost impossible for Alec to get the armour on him.

I wish I could’ve been there, but I’ve been busy working with Elysia. We’ve had to grow her larger at a decent rate, a process that makes her duller, slower, and kinda confused.

Herman assures me the effects are reversible, and he’ll be shrinking her down after, but for now we have to deal with it, so we’ve been training her the whole time, descending into the Yin-Yang Realm on a daily basis, into Suri’s increasingly large pocket dimensions. Of course, pulling Elysia down became harder and harder as she grew bigger, so we were soon forced to call in more reinforcements. Mainly trusted members of Agath’s staff, which come in a variety of shapes and sizes.

After a while, none of that was enough anymore, and frankly, Suri could no longer produce pocket dimensions of adequate size to contain Elysia. So we had to switch to dry practice, walking through the process with Elysia step by step, sharpening her memories of it.

It’s exhausting work, but it needed to be done. Now that we’re only days away from the event, we’ve stopped expanding her, to allow her to get used to her size, but we’re still running through the process regularly. We can only hope she’ll be able to perform when the day comes...

Meanwhile, Sudo and Jacob managed to learn where the Peilor military kept a set of complete, three-dimensional blueprints of the Voidcannon. After some discussion, we ordered Yog to obtain a copy through any means that wouldn’t expose our plans.

He actually seemed rather pleased with the mission, perhaps as it required him to use rather heavy-handed tactics, including bribery and coercion to get his way.

In the end, however, he delivered.

Dave has pretty much been spending all his time poring over the blueprints since, a practice I’ve joined him for occasionally, in an attempt to familiarise myself with the Voidcannon’s architecture.

Right now, however, I’m experiencing a rare moment of downtime, and I’m chilling with Kaitlynn on a couple of reclining deck chairs on Elysia’s massively expanded beach.

A gentle breeze rolls over the water before playing through my hair in a joyful swirl. The light coming from Elysia’s now much larger pseudo-sun feels nice and warm on my closed eyelids.

“It’s been a while since I had you all to myself,” Kaitlynn says after a while, turning on her side to face me. “How’re you holding up?”

“I’m doing okay, I guess,” I reply, turning over as well. “Stressed, obviously, but... managing. You?”

She sighs, reaching out to grab my hand and play with my fingers. “I’m worried, mostly. I mean, we’ve only got seven days left to stop the Earthshift, and there’s still so much left to do... when is Akir scheduled to return?”

I shrug. “Soon. Depends on how well-organised the departure is, pretty much. Honestly, rather than the timeframe, I’m mostly worried about the anchoring issue...”

“Yeah, what is that all about, exactly?” Kaitlynn asks with a frown. “I’ve heard Dave mention it in passing, but he was doing a lot of muttering to himself and making little sense.”

I let out a sigh, sitting up and pulling my hand free so I can gesticulate. “So, here’s the thing. Our method of pulling Elysia into the Yin-Yang Realm depends on these tethers, right?”

“Right,” she says, sitting up as well and mirroring my position.

“Well, those tethers first need to be anchored. If they’re not, we’d be holding the other ends in our hand in no time, without Elysia ever moving an inch. During testing, I simply ferried the tethers over and planted them one by one inside the pocket dimension after Suri formed it. But during the actual operation, we’re going to have limited time to plant a lot of anchors in a pocket dimension with a likely rather irate Starmother trapped inside.”

Kaitlynn’s eyes widen. “Oh, shit...”

“Exactly,” I reply tersely. “It’s our biggest headache at the moment. Now, we don’t necessarily need to wait for the pocket dimension to form before we plant the anchors, but that would mean somehow placing them around Starlight Palace unnoticed before the assault, and praying to Goddess that nobody spots them in the meantime... still not ideal.”

“Not exactly, no,” Kaitlynn comments. “So what’s the plan?”

“The current plan is to rush over to the pocket dimension after it’s formed, and then putting the anchors on the outside. Now, we managed to do some testing with this with Elysia before she got too big, and it’s not... ideal. Half the time, we ended up descending outside of the pocket dimension, and trying to find the right balance, pull the right tethers, to get inside. But right now, it’s the best plan we’ve got.”

“We’ll make it work,” Kaitlynn says firmly.

I hum, leaning back to rest on my elbows in the chair. “Yeah, I’m sure we will. Somehow.” I fall silent, looking out over the water. After a while, Kaitlynn draws up her knees with a slight frown marring her brow. “What is it?” I ask, recognising the signs of brooding in my girlfriend.

She’s quiet for a bit longer, and I patiently wait for her to gather her thoughts. “I’ve been thinking, lately... what are we going to do after?”

I blink. “You... we’re trying to save Planet Earth and you’re concerned for our plans... after?!”

“Oh, shush,” she says with a wry smile, sitting up straighter running her fingers through blue locks. “All I’ve had to do lately is keep up appearances and fend off nosy neighbours, so I’ve had a lot of time to think, okay?”

I chuckle. “Hey, it’s a fair question, I guess. I’ve just been too swamped to think about it... Let’s say we save Earth. What would you like to do after?”

“Well, I’d like to get my body back, for starters.”

“Ditto. Though, to be honest, it doesn’t feel anywhere near as important as it used to.”

Kaitlynn nods, and continues more quietly. “And I’d like to see my family, somehow. If what Suri said about the laws of the higher Realms being able to overpower those of the lower ones... it should be possible, right?”

That’s... a good point, actually.

“Yeah, I think so,” I muse. “When we arrived in this Realm, the Laws of Being here overpowered the laws of physics we came in with rather quickly, but the process should be much slower the other way around. Given enough Lavi supplements, we should be able to maintain our changed bodies in the Entropic Realm, at least for a while. If we stayed in the Entropic Realm for too long, however, the laws of physics would probably erode the ones our bodies currently run on, and trigger some kind of reversed acclimatisation. And we have no idea if that’s something we can survive. To be honest, I feel like the laws of physics might be even less forgiving than the Laws of Being when it comes to survival. Still, our spirits ought to be strong enough to allow us to escape, even if our bodies fail.”

“Visiting occasionally would be nice,” Kaitlynn says. “Actually going back permanently... is it weird if I say I don’t really feel the need anymore?”

“So weird. Like, seriously, what is wrong with you?”

“Oh, shut up,” she laughs, pushing my shoulder. “It’s a serious question!”

“All right all right,” I reply, easing up with a smile. “And no, for the record, I don’t think it’s weird. Crazy and horrible as this adventure has been... it’s also been incredible. I mean, frig, we’ve transcended humanity. We’ve transcended life! Even in physical form, we can fly and shoot friggin’ lasers out of our eyes!”

Kaitlynn cocks her head. “Can you really? I thought you never got into Cold Vision...”

“All right, wise-ass, I can’t do that yet, but it’s on my to-do list.”

She bites her lip to keep from laughing. “Sorry. You were saying?”

“I was saying... we gained a lot. And I think we could be quite happy here.”

Looking at the smile blossoming on her face, her hair flying in the breeze, her storm-grey eyes, rapidly darkening under my attention, I feel the truth of that statement hit me like an anvil.

I clear my throat and continue. “But if we want to keep all of it, we first need to win.”

She nods and opens her mouth, but at that moment, a flicker of movement causes us both to look up.

Up in the air, above Elysia’s by-now rather sizable lake, a dark portal has opened, which is rapidly growing.

My initial fright turns to joy when I realise what’s happening.

“It’s Akir!” I call out enthusiastically as I spring to my feet.

Kaitlynn is by my side in an instant, grabbing my hand and craning her neck alongside me to stare up as a wooden beam emerges from the swirling darkness. “So exciting!” she exclaims. “I never actually got to see the finished Ark. How many raptors do you think he’s bringing?”

“You know, I’m not sure,” I reply distractedly. “I guess it really depends on how many of them agreed to...” I trail off as the ship begins to emerge properly, blocking out the light from Elysia’s pseudo-sun with its massive bulk.

“Holy shit,” Kaitlynn whispers. “They built this... in a month?!”

“Akir can grow really large,” I mumble back, “and he had a lot of help. Pinch me.”

“What? Why.”

“Because it’s full. It’s friggin full, Kaitlynn!”

Despite the ship’s mind-boggling size, Akir is able to steer and land it in the water quite deftly. Unfortunately, I’m not quite able to finish counting the raptors inside of it before the floodgates open and they start pouring out, ruining my count.

Still, having counted a sizable portion of the raptors stowed inside, I manage to get a conservative estimate for the contents of the entire ship, of... 1.2 million.

Which is just insane.

Akir comes flying out of the bridge, grumbling even before he reaches me. “How the hell did you ladies become so popular?” he demands, narrowing his eye slits as he floats before us. “I have bloody raptors coming out of my gills!”

“Wait,” Kaitlynn says, holding up a hand. “Octopi have gills?”

“Not the point, girl,” he grunts. “What did you do down there, teach them about reach extenders?”

I roll my eyes. “Their arms aren’t that short. Honestly, we just... well, I guess you could say we stole their hearts with our natural charm.”

Akir glances at Kaitlynn. “Ah. Yeah, now it’s starting to make sense.”

“Hey!” I protest, as Kaitlynn covers her mouth with a hand, her eyes crinkling up happily.

Before I can rib him back, however, my attention is grabbed by the approaching procession, which forces me to turn serious. Akir notices my change in posture, and comes to hover beside me as Bhat approaches.

“Honour to the Descendants,” the majestic raptor growls, his voice carrying over the growing crowd behind him, and causing them to quiet down and listen.

Great. More public speaking.

“And honour to you,” Kaitlynn replies with a small bow. “You know, technically we’re not Descendants here. In fact, one might say that you’re now all Ascendants.”

That sends excited titters through the crowd, and even Bhat smiles a little, baring some of his sharp teeth. “Thank you, Kaitlynn, but to us, you will always be the Descendants, the Divine Envoys that came from above to save our Great Guardian Clan.”

The crowd roars approvingly, the collected noise so thunderous that I worry for a moment people might be able to hear it outside of Elysia.

Akir arrived here for a reason, after all. The Peilor can definitely not find out that he brought half the friggin’ population of the Realm below this one here.

I glance back at Herman—who’s come out of his hut at all the commotion—for reassurance. Seeing him not look the slightest bit worried puts me at ease. Somewhat.

“And it is our honour!” Bhat somehow roars over the noise. “To fight by your side, in service of the Divine One!”

I wait for the clamour to die down a little before I steel myself and open my mouth as well. “Words cannot express how grateful we are that you’ve all come to aid us in our time of need, truly.” I wait a little longer, until the cheers die down and I can be heard again. “Happy as we are to see you, however, we’ve no time to celebrate right now.” As I grow more serious, true silence finally falls over them. “The operation is only six days away, and there’s a lot to be done. Please closely follow the instructions of your assigned leadership, and don’t play around. There’ll be plenty of time for that... after we’ve Erased Goddess’ enemies!”

This time, the crowd roars.

Now, let’s get to work.

Akir’s beautiful Ark, painstakingly constructed, is taken apart at an incredible rate. It kind of hurts to watch, but there’s nothing for it, as the raptors need the materials—and then some—for their preparations, and it would be risky to smuggle large amounts of Extant materials into Elysia.

Trying to organise a group of 1.2 million beings to do anything is obviously a mad endeavour, but Yexl is doing an amazing job of it. Though we’re mainly relying on the raptors’  ability to self-organise, forming teams and assigning leadership among themselves in a cascading system, until the entire group has a chain of command. A rather long chain, which slows things down considerably, but a chain nonetheless.

While they’re working on their preparations for the big battle, I’m mainly working with Herman in his special little sanctum, struggling to communicate with a rather sleepy, and frankly somewhat cranky Elysia about the external anchors.

“I think she needs to, like, hibernate,” Herman at some point posits. “To adjust to the changes, you know?”

“You’re probably right,” I reply, rubbing my temple, “But she can’t hibernate yet. I mean, that would probably take years, right? If she falls asleep now, and we can’t wake her...”

He nods. “Yeah, you’re right, dude. We gotta keep her awake, at least for a while longer.”

I sigh, rubbing my temples. “Do you think she gets it? About the external anchors?”

“I dunno man, I sure hope—” He cuts himself off, turning around all of a sudden.

“What? What’s wrong?” I ask.

“That little goth dude and the secret agent just arrived,” he replies, reminding me that what I’m talking to isn’t his full spiritform, and that most of Herman is in fact outside of Elysia, and his senses actually cover much of it. “And they’re calling for you.”

I frown, stretching out my own senses in the direction he’s looking, and indeed finding Jacob and Sudo there.

I warp over, popping out in front of Jacob, and immediately spotting the grimace on his face. “What’s going on?” I ask, a bad feeling brewing in my stomach.

“It’s Kaitlynn,” he replies grimly. “She’s been arrested.”

Author's note:

Buitenkunst was amazing, but I'm back and ready to write. ^^

Hope you all enjoyed the chapter, and thanks for reading!