Devotio’s eye flashed, and a stream of information flooded our minds. It was like downloading a manual directly into my brain.
[Delay | X]: Delays all inner [Incantations] by X%. Each % costs 10 mana. Only applicable to [Incantations] that have a delayed start time.
[Expedite | X]: Expedites all inner [Incantations] by X%. Each % costs 10 mana. Only applicable to [Incantations] that have a delayed start time.
I noticed that each of these [Incantations] was separated by a straight vertical line followed by a cross. It seemed that we could replace the cross with a number.
“Okay, so speed up or slow down,” I analyzed. “Useful if we want [Sacrificial Limb Bomb] to go off later or sooner.”
[Add Delay | X]: Adds an X-second delay to all inner [Incantations]. Each second costs 10 mana. Has no effect on [Incantations] with a delayed start time.
“This one adds a flat time delay,” I noted. “Not sure if that will be useful yet. We can already time stuff with [Blood Spike] and [Blood Spike Launch] without needing a delay. ”
[Temporal Extend | X]: Extends the duration of all effects of inner [Incantations] by X%. Each % costs 10 mana.
“Useful for our projections,” Samsara pointed out. “If we want them to last longer than an hour.”
[Augment Effect | X]: Increases the effect of all inner [Incantations] by X%. Each % costs 10 mana.
“Raw power boost,” I thought, grinning. “Simple. Effective. I like it.”
Then came the complicated ones.
[Thaumic Stipulation | <>]: All inner [Incantations] do not trigger until another spell or ritual involving [Thaumic Link | <>] with the same
[Thaumic Link | <>]: Triggers all [Thaumic Stipulations | <>] with the same
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“I can keep track of that,” I confidently said. My arithmetic skills were coming in handy.
Actually, wait a minute, wasn’t there an issue when using [Thaumic Stipulation | <>] with [Sacrificial Limb Bomb]? It would just delay the separation of our limbs.
[You make an excellent observation,] Devotio said. [This is why I will also teach you about [Sacrificial Limb Detach] + [Bomb Infuse]]
[Sacrificial Limb Detach]: Causes one of your limbs to fall off. This costs 1,000 mana. This allows sacrificial [Incantations] to be applied to the limb, like [Bomb Infuse].
[Bomb Infuse]: Causes a detached limb to turn into a powerful bomb. This costs 1,000 mana. This requires the limb to be removed via [Sacrificial Limb Detach]. The explosion will occur after 1 second.
Wasn’t this more expensive than [Sacrificial Limb Bomb]? That cost only 1,000 mana in its entirety.
[Indeed], Devotio said. [That is why I taught it to you first. However, if you want to prepare in advance, then the combination of [Sacrificial Limb Detach] and [Bomb Infuse] will be infinitely more useful for you. Feel free to test any of these new [Incantations] out.]
“We probably shouldn't try the spells that Devotio just taught us in the village,” Samsara telepathically mentioned to me.
“Yeah, blowing up a detached limb or delaying a blood spike inside the valley seems like a recipe for disaster,” I agreed. “And I just noticed something too. [Add Delay | X] will be useful if we ever put [Blood Spikes] on a detached limb. We can then launch them later.”
“Oh, good point!” Samsara said. “We can test that too.”
We stood up, our massive Kaiju forms casting long shadows over the river, and began to make our way toward the village entrance. Even though we were leaving physically, our projection was still traveling with Nara.
Through the projection’s eyes, I watched Nara bounce up the stone steps carved into the valley wall. My projection followed her, my hand held firmly in hers. It felt strange to be this small again.
“Everyone! Come meet Ramona and Samsara! Or, well, the small versions of them!” Nara announced as we entered one of the stilted homes.
Curious heads poked out from doorways. A girl with large, floppy ears and gray skin stepped out first. She was an elephant girl, judging by the trunk where her nose should be if she were a human. Behind her came a girl with striped fur and sharp claws, likely a badger girl. They waved tentatively at us.
I waved back with the projection’s arm. “Hello.”
“Hello!” Samsara cheerfully waved back.
More villagers emerged. There was a stunning variety here. I saw a girl with large bat-wings, another with rainbow spiky quills, and one who seemed to have a menacing scorpion tail. But then my eyes caught sight of a couple of monster girls standing near the back.
They didn’t have fur, and they didn’t have scales. They didn’t have tails or extra limbs. They just had plain skin and regular faces.
I blinked my projection’s eyes. “What kind of monster girls are they?” I asked Samsara mentally. “Are their clothes hiding their monster girl mutations?”
“Not sure, but you can ask Nara,” Samsara said. “I’m sure she would be glad to help us out.”
“Nara,” I asked through the projection, pointing a finger at the group in the back. “What kind of monster girls are those? I can’t tell what monster girls they are supposed to be.”
Nara looked over her shoulder and smiled. “Oh! They aren’t monster girls. They’re humans.”
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I stopped walking.
“Humans?” I repeated, my voice rising in disbelief. “You have humans living here? In a monster girl village?”
“Yep!” Nara chirped, tugging on my hand to keep me moving. “They’re not like the imperial humans in the Imperatrix’s Empire–– they ran away from the cities or the outposts to get away from her reign years ago. Halinka says that as long as they don’t cause trouble and help out, they are welcome here. They help with washing the clothes since they aren’t as strong as we are.”
I was taken aback. I had assumed that this village would have killed any humans and eaten them as meat. That was what I did after I turned into monster girls. We had to protect ourselves from the others ratting us out. We couldn’t let the empire know what happened to us.
“That’s… unexpected,” Samsara said, her thoughts mirroring my own surprise. “But I guess it makes sense. Not all humans agree with the Monster Purifiers.”
“Still weird,” I noted. “I wonder how they would taste since they are wearing clothes made from monster girls.”
“Ramona!” Samsara scolded. “Don’t eat the villagers.”
“I’m just curious,” I defended myself. “I won’t actually do it.”
Nara guided us deeper into the house. A handful of baskets carrying meat were inside. They were way smaller than the baskets that we put the deer girl corpses into yesterday.
“We should help out with the meat,” Samsara suggested, shifting her focus back to the task at hand.
“That’s a good idea,” I replied. “It will build rapport with the villagers, which will keep them worshipping us. Plus, it gives us a chance to test something. I want to see if the projection can absorb excess mana or souls if we eat with it.”
“Always thinking about the benefits,” Samsara teased, though I felt her agreement.
We directed the projection to help Nara and the others.
“Let us help,” my projection said. I walked over and grabbed two of the massive baskets. Even in this smaller form, we were still strong. I hefted them effortlessly.
“Thank you!” the elephant girl said.
While the projection worked, my main body sat down just outside the village entrance in the Wild Lands. I checked our internal reserves. Creating the projection had cost us 5,000 mana, dropping us to 15,000.
“Before we do anything else, we need to refill,” I told Samsara. “I don’t want to be running on three-quarters of our mana capacity.”
Aisling had joined us outside the village. Since she had worshiped us before, I figured it would be fine to have her worship us in her feral state.
“I worship Ramona and Samsara,” Aisling said, kneeling.
The familiar warmth flooded our Cores, topping off our mana instantly.
“Perfect,” I thought. “Now we are back at full capacity. We should delay testing those new [Incantations] until the projection is done eating. I want to make sure we are at 100% mana when the projection consumes meat, so we can check if we still get excess mana from it.”
“Agreed,” Samsara said. “Let’s just focus on being good villagers for now.”
While my projection laughed with Nara and handed out chunks of raw deer meat to eager villagers—including the humans, who seemed to cook theirs over a fire first—I decided to shift my attention elsewhere.
I focused on the soul link with Seraphina.
The luxury room at Outpost OU-M-7 came into sharp focus. Seraphina had just woken up again, her body groggy from the previous night's emotional exhaustion. She walked into the bathroom, the tiles cold under her bare feet.
I watched through her eyes as she splashed cold water on her face, staring at herself in the mirror. She looked tired. Dark circles haunted the skin beneath her eyes. She turned the shower on, steam quickly filling the room. She stood under the spray for a long time, letting the hot water run over her golden wings and skin. Actually, it was more like the water phased through her wings.
Once she was out and dressed in a fresh, identical golden bodysuit, she sat on the edge of her bed. She pulled out that expensive folding phone of hers.
She tapped the screen, opening her notes app. Her thumbs hovered over the keyboard.
“Agenda for today,” she muttered to herself. “10:00: Breakfast. 11:00: Meeting with Director Quinta.”
She began listing items to talk about with Director Quinta:
- Ask her why OU-U-1 wasn’t as well guarded as OU-M-7.
- Ask if she has any updates for me.
- Ask if I’m being redeployed soon.
I seized control of her index fingers. Seraphina flinched, her breath hitching as her fingers moved without her permission. I forced her to type a couple of new lines under the meeting with Director Quinta.
- Ask about the monster girls stored in the labs, as well as the monster girl blobs.
- Ask about the meat blobs powering the mechs at OU-U-1, as well as the ones on the conveyor belt.
Seraphina stared at the screen, her hands shaking.
“I… I didn’t write that,” she whispered, terror seeping into her voice. “Did I write that? Or did… did the Kaiju make me write it?”
She looked around the empty room, her chest heaving. “Are you inside my head right now?”
I didn’t answer. I just released her fingers.
She sat there for a long moment, staring at the questions. Seraphina sighed, folded the phone, and shoved it into her pocket.
Seraphina left the room, grabbing a quick, tasteless nutrient bar for breakfast from the cafeteria before heading outside. She launched herself into the air.
She flew toward the center of the outpost, where a massive skyscraper dominated the skyline. It was made of dark glass and steel, which made it impossible to see what was going on inside. She landed on a designated platform near the top floor and walked through the automatic doors.
The interior was sterile and white. She navigated the corridors until she reached Director Quinta’s office.
Director Quinta sat behind a wide, silver desk. A window displayed a portion of the massive outpost behind her. Quinta looked up as Seraphina entered, her expression professional but softened with a hint of sympathy.
“Archangel,” Quinta said, gesturing to a chair. “Please, sit.”
Seraphina sat down, her body rigid.
“I wanted to formally apologize for what happened at OU-U-1,” Quinta began, folding her hands on the desk. “It was a devastating loss.”
“I still haven’t gotten over it,” Seraphina said, her voice hollow. “Azar… everyone. They’re just gone.”
“I know,” Quinta said, nodding slowly. “And we are taking steps to ensure it doesn’t happen again. I am currently drafting new plans to push the frontier forward. We will be reclaiming the territory we lost.”
She tapped a holographic screen on her desk. “Do you have any questions for me, Archangel? Anything regarding your reassignment or the new protocols?”
Seraphina hesitated.
“I saw the base defenses here,” she said, gesturing to the window. “The jets, the tanks, and the advanced mechs. Why didn’t OU-U-1 have this? If we had even half of this firepower, Azar might still be alive.” Maybe the advanced mechs might have helped, but we would be fine against the jets and the tanks.
Quinta sighed, leaning back in her chair. “It comes down to resource allocation, I’m afraid. The inner regions of the Empire are prioritized. The logistics of moving heavy ordinance like that to the frontier are… complicated. But we are rectifying this. Every outpost will be receiving upgrades in the coming weeks.”
“Director…” Seraphina said, her voice stammering. “Moving forward, do you have any updates for me? Regarding my status?”
Quinta tapped the silver surface of her desk. A holographic file spun and appeared out of thin air. “Your psych evaluation is pending, naturally. Given the trauma of being the sole survivor, standard protocol suggests a mandatory leave period.”
Seraphina nodded, her grip on the phone tightening. She looked at the last bullet point she had typed.
“So, that means I’m not being redeployed soon?” Seraphina asked.
“Indeed,” she said. She didn’t elaborate further. “Do you have any other questions?”
Seraphina nodded, but her hand clenched into a fist on her lap.
“Director,” Seraphina started, her voice shaking slightly. “At OU-U-1… before the Kaiju destroyed everything… I saw something.”
Quinta raised an eyebrow. “Oh?”
“They almost looked like Aberrations,” Seraphina said, the words spilling out fast. “A bunch of faces and limbs attached to a sphere, and they were all made of meat. They were inside one of the mechs. And also several of them were on a conveyor belt in a lab. The Kaiju ate all of them. Why were they there?”
Quinta’s expression didn’t change. She remained perfectly still, her eyes locked on Seraphina.
“Why wasn’t I informed of this?” Seraphina asked, her voice gaining strength.
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