Chapter 46: A Broader View
I'm not going to lie, I'm a bit apprehensive with how this chapter will be received. I've been wanting to do an experimental chapter like this for a while, but it's honestly quite the sudden shift that I'm worried that it might be a bit too jarring. But at the same time, I feel like that this would be an appropriate place to do it, considering what happened last chapter. I'll just let you kind readers be the judge of it. So, let's get on with it!
XXX
In the above distance, an eye of metal and circuitry gazed downwards towards the sad world it orbited.
It was a world that had been shattered like the egg of a newborn bird, and only in the recent past had the pieces been put back together. Not perfectly of course, the fracture lines were still evident from up above. The fact that the orbital platform was drifting through a shoal zone of razor-sharp pieces of metal, glass, and plastics was a testament to the wounds that the world still had. The scars of the world's noosphere ran deep, and would most likely never heal.
The eye did not care about any of those things. It dispassionately focused down on one of the planet's more prominent regions, Fódlan. It was probably called something different back when the world was still new, but that hardly mattered anymore. The only things that mattered down there was what was happening to those who bore the astral interloper's blood. That was all that mattered to the owners of the eye.
Connecting…
…
…
Stabilizing connection…
…
…
Video feed connected.
Narrow search to grid coordinate 0451.
Coordinate reference confirmed.
Focusing…
…
…
Display live feed? Y/N
Y
The eye of steel and glass focused itself on the mountainous region in the center of Fódlan and displayed a view of an elaborate complex of stonework and gardens nestled between some of the tallest peaks of the land. Although due to image artifacitng and pixilation, it was hard to make out any specific forms, it was plainly visible that there was activity down on the ground. People and creatures moved hither and there, their sprawling movements making them look like a colony of ants on top of their ant hill. Fitting, considering the kind of lowly life forms they all were. Borderline troglodytes, relying on primitive structures to live, mingling and valuing the interloper's blood that spread among their sub-human kind.
Their time would come. It was ordained by the highest of authorities that it would. Agents had been active in the ruined lands for ages now, biding their time for when the moment was right to restore the correct order of things to the land. Thales had seen to it well, having installed Solon, Myson, Kronya, and the like to the exact places they had needed to be for when the time was right. All that was needed was a few pushes and prods here and there, and soon enough the world of the degenerate primitives would give way to a world where the heroic and superior race would guide the nation with a firm and pure hand.
In any case, patience still needed to be exercised for the moment. Greatness was never achieved instantly, nor were empires built overnight. Millions of years of evolution, minus the Fell Star's interference, had been leading up to a climactic moment, so it would do no good to become hasty and try to deal with the Fell Star's spawn before the right moment arrived. The situation was much like a fruit dangling off the branch of a tree, it needed to be plucked when it was thusly ripened.
Besides, there was much to do aside from the main plot in motion. As much as the Star Spawn needed to be dealt with, much the same could be said of the primitives dwelling on the surface. While their technology had at least reached medieval levels ever since the collapse of civilization long ago, their scientific growth had since stagnated for well over a century. They still lived in stone and wood buildings, and fought with roughly-hewn weapons of a time that should have been long since passed.
In many ways, that was a boon for the grand plan to retake the surface away from the Star Spawn. With the remaining technology that was at hand, it would hardly be difficult to make the degenerate nations of the surface roll over and beg for surrender, not that it would be granted. The land did not rightfully belong to them anyway, so there was hardly a doubtful thought in anyone's minds that they could be reduced to a chattel state, if they were to be kept around at all.
Change map view. Reference grid coordinate 1313.
Coordinate reference confirmed.
Focusing…
…
…
Display live feed? Y/N
Y
The view focused on a pitiful collection of huts and barns, all made of wood and stone with thatched roofs. According to reports that Solon had made, the hamlet's name was Remire in the local tongue. Such a detail didn't matter in the grand scheme of things at all, although Solon did note that it was originally the planned travel destination of a certain unplanned variable that had since come up out of nowhere to become a teacher of sorts at the "Officer's Academy", or whatever the institution's name was. It frankly didn't deserve any name, due to it being associated closely with the heathen religion that worshiped the Fell Star, but that went without saying. In any case, the village of Remire had only come across the cabal's scope of awareness once more attention was paid to the unplanned variable.
Normally, a pathetic gathering of huts would hardly warrant any attention, but Solon insisted that such a place would be a suitable test environment, if due to nothing else but for how isolated it was from other, larger settlements. It being an isolated community that most likely had mixed pan-national blood in it, due to the proximity it had to some national borders, had at least stoked enough interest in Solon to give it some of his attention. Such a place was suitable enough for him to run a few weapon tests in it.
Solon always had a penchant for alchemy alongside his main interest in the thaumaturgic arts. In preparations for the upcoming reclamation of the surface world, one of the many projects he oversaw before his field deployment was the concoction of a powerful alchemical agent, capable of being aerosolized for rapid deployment or used in liquid form for prolonged exposure. Combining the potency of a narcotic with the alchemical process of cleansing the mind through albedo, the agent had proven itself to be quite adept in provoking madness and dementia in captured surface-dweller test subjects. However, to truly test the effects of the alchemical agent, a wider testing base was needed. Remire Village was rather well suited for that process.
In the view-finder, a surface-dwelling whelp ran alongside her presumed male sibling, with what was presumably their pet dog trailing behind. They dashed across the brown streets of the village, presumably playing and tussling around in the dirt like animals. Yes, having young test subjects like those would be beneficial to gathering a full spectrum of weapon data. In this case, long-term dosage of the agent would most likely produce the best results.
Terminate video feed.
Video feed ended.
…
Satellite connection severed.
It had been decided, weapon tests were to begin alongside the main surface reclamation project. Now it was only a matter of execution without detection. However, existing without detection had become the Agarthan's forte at that point. It would only be a trifling matter.
XXX
Again, while I've been wanting to do a chapter like this for a while, I'll certainly admit that it's quite different from the norm. I hope you all like the new kind of tone present in this experimental chapter of mine. I suppose that's one of the finer points of writing serialized fiction, you get to hear reactions to the work in real-time.
Anyways, this is The Draigg, and I'm signing off on this chapter for now!