Jeff found that his land was rather fascinating. LoGaK in its entirely was a massive machine. Not to say the entire planet had been dug out and fixed into a massive mechanical structure, which would in itself be interesting. The entire planet was mechanical, a massive clockwork orb with its entire continents moving and rotating and ticking over like a clock; the gentle hum of gears at work audible beneath the metallic ground.
But that didn't explain the ever so slight sense of unease Jeff felt as he spoke with the humanoid ladybug consorts who inhabited the town he'd found his way to. He couldn't explain it, there was just something off about something he was seeing or hearing in the world around him. It wasn't the consorts, though the consorts did seem to be feeling the same thing.
Eventually it clicked. It being the chiming of the massive clock bell at the peak of the planet's largest mountain. It rang out loud, the coils and metal pillars spreading the sound of it throughout the planet so it could be heard by every living creature on LoGaK. It would have been utterly majestic were it in tune, and more to the point, on time. The clock chime was off by almost five minutes.
That's what had been throwing Jeff off he realized, the ticking, the gears, the whirling of the steam, eve the chime; it was all off. How precisely Jeff had been able to identify this without ever having known what the clocks schedule was, or knowing what time it was currently, was a matter of debate, but the fact remained that he knew it. "Is that a problem?" Jeff asked the market keeper, getting an uneasy feeling from it.
"Only way to fix the clock is to find the key." The lady bug said, "There's four sections where the minor gears are wound, and a central gear to be found. Long ago there were many who would be tasked with maintaining the gears, but that darned Denizen threw everything out of whack. The keys have been lost somewhere out where those monsters are guarding the,. The planet's been running fast or running slow ever since."
"That's terrible." Jeff said with a frown, "Has no one ever tried to find the keys and fix it?" "Tons," The market keeper said, "But none of us ever come back. You'd have to have a clock built right into your mind to keep up with the planet's cracked schedule and not get ground up in the gears or burned in the steam. It's utterly impossible! Denizen said so themself."
Jeff though about this, tongue clicking as looking out of the town towards the metallic landscape in the distance. He could probably find a few keys.
Valtina had perhaps spent more time in the consort village than she meant to. She hadn't exactly wanted to spend so much time in the village without progressing through the game, but she didn't like the idea of leaving so many of them at the mercy of the utter rot spreading across LoGaR.
Many of them were sick from disease or wounded from monsters, and the energy flowing from the Pedal Palm gloves Valtina wore seemed remarkable at healing them. She spent quite awhile just making sure everyone was okay before she actually thought to ask the cause of all the destruction.
She learned from the villagers that it was brought on by the presence of some beast called the Denizen. On top of spreading the vile contagion ruining their land, the Denizen also destroyed the knowledge of how to tend the land, so that even if new fertile land somehow came about, it would still be just as useless to them.
Valtina gave a grin when she heard this, "I think I might be able to help you with that." She said, taking out her gardening tools.
Arvis didn't give the ogre guarding the gate to the town time to realize he was there. His leapt at the creature and liberated its head from the rest of it with his hook sword in a quick slash. Arvis' nerves had been holding him back he realized as he'd alchemized as many hook related weapons as he possibly could, arming himself with hooked gloves, two hooked swords, and as soon as he'd had the rope for it, a grappling hook.
He was starting to think that making such a powerful sprite, and because of this such powerful enemies, wasn't such a bad idea after all. He'd been beaten and cut up a dozen or more times, sure, but having such a massive wall in front of him at the start had forced him to get better faster. The imaginary friends he told his real friends about would have been proud to see how good he was getting with his weapons.
Oh, and also his real friends to. Especially Java he hoped.
Mutosi kicked the door of the cathedral open. She knew that, stupid as her consorts shitty religion was, they could still probably raise one hell of a riot if she let them. Even for the stupid there was at least strength in numbers. Thankfully, she'd been practicing her powers for just such an occasion. Her ability to control animals wouldn't have been enough for an entire town of dumbass camel people.
But she'd been practicing on the underlings that roamed the desert. Since they're bodies were more often than not composed of several different animal parts, but their core's were always that of non-animal monsters, it made them harder to control, but still possible. It let her train the power like a muscle while she trained her physical skills with her weaponized broom.
And now, as the camels stood and took up their arms to drive Mutosi out of their cathedral, she was ready. She rose her hands, spreading her influence throughout the massive building. The camel consorts felt their minds suppressed by the brown blood's influence, her will taking precedent over their own as she requested they bring her any and all spell books their cathedral contained.
Now that she had control over the cathedral, she could do away with their focus on whatever pointless things they'd been focusing on before. They'd thank her later. And in the meantime she could learn a few new tricks.
