Chapter 9 - Precipitation

So we started off with a few small things. You know, gather some herbs, clean out a nest of monsters, easy things, though the monsters would sometimes give us trouble. Really, now that I know what I do from the library I'm surprised we weren't taken down in the first week, let alone the months upon months afterwards. What? Yeah, I went to the library. Was I not supposed to? Well, it's interesting. Hey, just because I was the Archer doesn't mean that I'm not supposed to be book smart. To tell you the truth, my brother, even though he was the magician, wasn't really all into that arcane stuff. He had a natural talent for magic, yeah, but he always tried to find the coolest spells. I'm the one who always had to point out what was poisonous, and what was safe to eat. But hey, we were adventurers! Real live adventurers. It was… I don't think I'll ever forget the times we had. And it was also about that time that I learned what tragedy was. Hm? No. It wasn't my own. It was a client's.

When the first bolt of thunder was heard, the populace momentarily feared for their lives. However they quickly realized that they were not, in fact, under attack but that the storm they had heard rumors of apparently approaching the island was now on their doorstep. It was only the calmness of the residents that kept those not native to the island from panicking en masse. Surprisingly, no storms had hit the city for a while, meaning that this was the first the visitors would see. To the great relief of the Council, they quickly followed the leads of the permanent residents and moved everything they owned off of the ground and up to a higher floor of their houses, or to their roof or a neighbor's house when that wasn't possible.

The first waves of the storm that hit were, in fact, tiny. Almost no different from the normal ones that crashed upon the immovable walls of the fortress every day. However, the difference was there. Soon, the waves became larger and larger, more turbulent as the rising winds pushed them to and fro as the sea fell into a frenzy. Even the monsters soon stopped approaching the surface after a few of them found that they could not control themselves in the chaotic waters, instead all opting to go deep under the sea where even the worst effects of the storm's arrival were nearly non-existent. Only a slight change in the currents signified that anything was amiss, and those under the sea slept silently.

However, just as some beings run for safety in the presence of danger, others may instead see opportunities. And this case was no different when concerning the monsters who did not let the presence of the storm deter them from entering the city. One of these such beings, a mermaid that the Headmaster would find very familiar having nearly burned the creature to a crisp but a short time ago, found itself heavily bruised as it fell back into the water.

Letting itself sink for a while as it regained its strength, it muttered to itself as it tried to figure out what had gone wrong.

"No, not high enough. And the wall is too smooth there too. Why didn't I try and scout it out before the storm made everything hard to see? Oh right, I'm an idiot. Ugh, okay. Okay. Oooohkay. I can do this."

It swam back up to the surface, not caring about being seen. After all, it and the rest of the younger monsters had all heard the speech that the older ones had given them. They said that few humans would be on the walls due to the dangers of being blown off the side by powerful winds, how the rain would keep them indoors and inhibit their sight, and how the humans were clearly just being babies that didn't like getting wet. Or rather, they didn't say that at all but that this particular monster had simply not listened. And so, instead of staying in the safety of the deep it had instead decided that the high waves actually brought the perfect opportunity to try and climb the walls.

However, though it lacked wisdom or experience, it was not stupid. The young mermaid knew that it would not simply succeed on the first try. That it would get injured. And that it may never actually accomplish its goal. But it continued to try, again and again, despite that. And so its body was bruised and tired with nothing to show for it, yet swam to the surface once again. But this time, it felt something in the air. An intimidating but familiar feeling. And from behind it it felt a sudden current pushing it forwards, even though when its head turned it saw no one there. What was there, however, was a quickly growing wave. A wave far larger than all those that had come before it.

"M-Miss! You're… Thank you! Thank you, thank you, thank you! I'll make you proud."

But, even as it quickly swam to the tidal wave, using what little magic it could muster up to keep itself somewhat steady within the rising watery construct, it felt the traces of another emotion in the magic that had powered the creation of the wave.

Unlike humans, the magic cast by monsters was strongly affected by their emotional state at the time of the casting. The case was the same for humans, but the emotional component had an almost non-existent effect in all but the strongest spells or most overwhelming emotions. The stronger one's feelings, the stronger the effects could be. Emotions like love and concern gave their magic greater healing capabilities, those of excitement and panic made them be either cast more quickly or reveal their effects sooner than normal. However, since the arrival of the new Demon Lord the most common feeling was one of love and lust. Even when other emotions were present, sometimes being preferable for whatever the situation was, the feelings of love would often taint the purity of the spell which often led to unintended side effects. Such as increased feelings of love and lust in the user, which caused a cascade effect, and which could easily be called addictive to those both casting and being hit by the spell. Which was why the mermaid, who had up until then been exposed to spells containing almost nothing but love and lust, was almost frozen by the emotions that the wave held.

A mix of disgust and hatred. Hatred that neared being completely malicious almost oozed out of the traces of magic that the wave still held. It was something that the mermaid had never felt before. There was still the trace of love inside it, but if there was lust it was completely overshadowed by the dark feelings that the magic contained. For a moment, she wondered just what the fortress had done to the leader of the siege. What had happened that caused her to feel such enormous hatred? Hatred that overcame the very biological instincts of nearly unconditional love and lust that the current Demon Lord had bestowed upon them?

It hesitated for but a second, almost deciding that it did not in fact want to learn, but it instead decided to continue onwards as thoughts rose unbidden from the depths of her mind. Never spoken to her or thought about before, but still rising through her head like they had been there since birth. If humans could harbour darkness inside of them, so much that it could hurt even the strongest of the monsters gathered, then she would show them that there was another way. She would bring happiness to the humans, as well as the rest of the monsters. She would show them love, and they would love her back.

So caught up in its inner frenzy, the mermaid almost missed the fact that the wave was almost reaching the walls. The walls that, even now, still were above both her and the wave. It was only now, now that it was just so high above the sea, that the creature really appreciated the sheer size of the fortress's fortification. It wondered how the humans had ever created such things. But even as those thoughts raced through its head it knew that this was its chance. A slight decorative outcropping near the top, right underneath the parapets, was something that could act as a handhold.

And so, just as the wave neared the wall the mermaid's tail began moving up and down to propel itself forwards up before leaping straight out of the wave at the apex of its rise, the force that it and by extension she was moving being great enough that if she had not left the wave and instead crashed into the wall with it her body simply would not have been able to handle it and she would have nigh instantly died.

"Y-Yes. Yes! I did it!"

With an almost manic look on her face as the adrenaline and feeling of success swept through her tired and pained body, she held onto the small outcropping for her life. But she did not stop there. Ever so slowly, her tail brought itself up to rest against the wall, giving her just enough leverage to push her torso above the outcropping. Just enough for her to reach the edge of the parapet.

Down below, unseen, two pairs of eyes, a shark and scylla, looked up in awe at the sight of the girl, younger than both of them, doing something they thought suicidal with a smile on her face. Reaching the dream that they had had themselves for so long. And as they watched as she was barely able to pull herself above the side of the wall, her tail disappearing over the side as she collapsed to the raised wall walkway, no longer in sight, they sank back into the ocean, thoughts of trying to do the same as the brave mermaid burning themselves into their minds.

However the thoughts and actions of those far below were of no concern to the young mermaid, as it could only think of the near future while its mind remained clouded by the thoughts of the imminent conquest and physical gratification it would soon receive.

Looking around, it spotted a large tower, only visible from the inside during the storm as the window leading out had been boarded off, making the torchlight shining from inside only visible from the city proper and from on the wall itself. And like a moth all of her senses were drawn to the light, and with it the promise of people. And of the one she was destined to be with.

"Hey, that was a loud wave, wasn't it? Should we go check it out?" One guard asked the other.

The two were relaxing in one of the guard towers. Only eight guards were stationed on the walls in total during the storm, with two of them in each of the towers furthest north, south, east, and west. There could easily have been more, but the guards knew that it wasn't manpower that was the problem. The fact of the matter was that even if every single guard was patrolling the walls during the storm, it wouldn't make a difference and would probably make things worse. The lack of visibility meant that if anyone or anything was approaching the city from the sea no one would be able to see it anyway, and the dangerous conditions on the wall meant that even if there were lots of people up there patrolling, getting caught by a sudden powerful gust of wind without being physically tied down would be a death sentence.

And so, the two guards were alone, and with the inside of the tower being dry and the light from their torch making it easy to see they weren't feeling stressed, or scared. They were simply bored. So the sound of an unnaturally powerful wave quickly drew their attention from their card game.

"Hm, you know, I think we probably should. I mean, I don't really think there's gonna be any damage, but if something was brought with the wave, who knows what could have happened."

"...Wow."

"What? Why are you looking at me like that?"

"Well, I didn't actually expect you to say yes at all, let alone give a reasonable answer."

"Wait, what? What do you think I'm li-"However, before their banter could continue, the one of the doors rattled. Both looked at it, and then to each other.

In an instant, the doors burst open, the relatively flimsy piece of wood slamming against the stone wall and a loud crack coming from it as it presumably splintered. At the same time, a light green and pink blur slammed into one of the guards, knocking him to the ground as the other only watched, still a bit too stunned to move until the figure began to speak.

"Hey there handsome! You… Oh, I bet you're him, aren't you? You're the one I've been waiting for all this time!" As it speaks, the monster's mouth begins to drool, and in his pinned position the man finds himself unable to reach his sword, it being pinned underneath the mermaid's large tail, as it eyes him up and down like a piece of particularly tasty produce at the marketplace. Even as he tried to push the creature off of him, its hands snaked out and grabbed at his arms with its grip as strong as the iron bars of the prison making him unable to move.

"DAMMIT! GET OFF OF ME!" he cried out, but his words didn't seem to have any effect on the ravenous beast. However, they were enough to get his companion out of his funk, and he slowly and quietly approached the mermaid from behind.

"Don't worry. I'll treat you well. I know one of the sea priests personally, so we can get first in line! You're going to be mine. F-" its speech suddenly stopped in mid sentence, and for a moment the mermaid couldn't understand why it had fallen silent.

Then, as its head slowly dropped forward to look at the spot on her chest that had suddenly started to hurt, the pain somehow dulled by the emotional high she was just in, she noticed the head of a sword sticking nearly a foot out of her.

"W-w-what? What is thi- GAHHHH" With a quick pull, the blade came back out the way it had entered, her ribcage seemingly having not helped protect her from the piercing strike from behind, and she began screaming in pain as her brain finally started to register what had just happened.

And with another slash, the guard that stood behind her with his blood coated sword raised high swung down once more.

And this time, he aimed for the neck.

Week 10

Though the new day, and with it the beginning of a new week, had come, underneath the heavy clouds and incessant rain the fact that it was morning was impossible to see. It was well known, by those with any knowledge about the inner workings of how the fortress worked at all, that though the heavy rain of a storm like this would have a chance of flooding much of the enclosed city, the Demon Lord who had created it had set up a special system that vented the water into an incredibly complex micro dimension. However, due to the inherently incredible costs of both creating and maintaining such a construct, as well as the further difficulty that came with making sure it covered and meshed well with the entire island, he had set it up in such a way that while it still took a monstrous amount of energy, even for a being as powerful as he, the actual costs that it took to keep the pocket running was so weak that it could be run on the energy of the ambient monsters.

It was very simple, overall. There were hundreds of tiny entrances, those being the many small vents that let water and other debris pass through them, that the rainwater would enter but never leave. The rest of the waste would continue through, but the rain would instead enter the pocket dimension. For the exits, there were only two, with one being a location one hundred meters into the air and two hundred meters away from the wall. The second was a large reservoir that would collect the rainwater for use by the townspeople. Furthermore, the device could only hold water and microorganisms, but since the rain washed most of the bacteria away the water gathered was often used as drinking water. Unfortunately, it wouldn't last forever, as the pocket dimension was powered by both ambient demonic energy and the very water that lay inside it, which it would consume as energy to power itself. The more water it contained, the higher its consumption, but it would always slowly be losing water, hence the need for the evaporation gathering system they used on the sea water.

But all those concerns were secondary at the moment. For right there and then, a matter of far more importance was being discussed by the Council.

"A monster. Thrown up over the walls by a wave. I didn't think it was even possible!" The Quartermaster said, astonishment clear in both his face and tone. The sentiment was shared among those sitting around the table. The idea of being able to go over the walls… Was ludicrous. Yet they could not deny what had happened.

"Heh. Too bad no fish got thrown over instead." The Dockmaster chuckled. "Might solve our food problems."

This reminder of the always dropping level of food, constantly in the back of their minds yet never often voiced out loud, sent a sullen mood across the gathered city leaders.

However, the bad news had not yet finished rearing its head, as the Doctor soon had to make an announcement.

"We've lost nine people these past few days to sickness. We… We didn't even realize what was happening until one of the patients complained about the cold. I can scarcely believe it myself. I've had some of the idle townspeople help move the sick closer to the Heat Crystals, but they've already gotten worse. I'd suggest turning up the heat for them as soon as possible. The whole island is a whole damned lot colder than it should be. And I'm sorry to have to say this though, but with the cold and wet weather we're having, as well as the moisture getting everywhere, I'm worried that more cases are going to be popping up."

"Hold on Doctor," The Captain quickly spoke before the man could continue, "I know where you're going with this. I can have some of my men visit the households, but with this weather they're going to be just as vulnerable to the cold and wetness as your patients. Moreso, really, since they'll need to walk around outside to check up on everyone."

As he finished, the Mayor stood up and smiled at the group. "Well, we've already gone through the food distribution during the storm at the start, and I've gone over each of your concerns as well. I think that we can safely call this meeting over. I'll leave you to your own devices. I hope you'll stay home as much as possible. It's not going to get any warmer."

However, just as they began leaving, he spoke up once more, a blank look on his face.

"Sorry, I had forgotten one thing. The one in charge of food and the one in charge of storing it. I'll need to talk to you. Ah, and you should probably stay as well old friend. The rest of you can go."

The Baker, Quartermaster, and Headmaster looked to him in surprise, but he waited until the rest had all filed out of the room before he spoke again.

"I need your assistance. All three of you. You may disagree with me, but, I think I know a way to keep us alive a little bit longer…"