Disclaimer: Black Clover is owned by Yūki Tabata, Studio Pierrot, and Shonen Jump.
Saga 15: Welcome To The Jungle Part 1
Heart Kingdom, Evening
"You guys heard?" spoke Yami while everyone ate around the fire.
"Heard what?" Jack murmured behind his bowl, "you're the one in charge of communications today."
"The alliance," he answered as he stood up from his seat, "Spade Kingdom's in it with us now."
Everyone around the fire grumble in acknowledgement. "Figured as much," said Fuegoleon, "so who's with us now?"
"Ulster sent a guy named Cú Chulainn while Libratium sent their coffee guy," Yami read from his daily report, "former's the Chieftain's eldest son while the latter's bringing a giant magical suit of armor that she rides in." He then leafs through another sheet. "Oh, and Avalon is sending reinforcements shortly after they make a delivery back to their territory. Something about a 'Stigmata' or something."
"Another Demon?" sighed Mosin, "typical Libratians... letting their toys run wild..."
"Technically, it was a Devil," answered Yami.
"What's the difference?" Jack grumbled.
"Don't think too hard about it," Mereoleona snorted as she put down her bowl, "just punch em as usual. That's what I'd do."
Mosin and everyone else nods in agreement, saving Yami the trouble of having to explain the absolute clusterfuck that happened at Libratium. Not that it would matter regarding their current mission, since they'll find out eventually.
"Swear to fucking god that these hellspawns are popping up everywhere like gophers..." Magna groaned as he stared into the fire, "... wonder if big sis is alright."
"Angra, right?" Gauche pointed out in his newfound sense of compassion, "... I know that feeling."
Vanessa places her hand on the now-ex older brother of an amnesiac sister. "... We're all going home, no matter what."
"We're all worried," En stated, "family... it's a burden, but it gives purpose."
"Enough of this sentimental crap," Jack cut in, not caring about this subject of family, "what about the shitheap that we're currently in?"
Yami then shuffles through his back pockets for the other report. "Apparently, [Alf-Layla-wa-Layla] is still being developed, just ticked up another 1% this afternoon," he reported, "defensive lines are still holding strong, but the enemy encirclement is still intact. Silver lining, we don't have to worry about starving to death."
It was true. Heart Kingdom even after years of being assaulted by giant Demons from all sides still held a strong crop yield despite over half of their usual harvests being devoured by the Thanotophages. In fact, it is this encirclement that allowed the goods that were meant to be shipped to Clover Kingdom for commerce to be distributed among the people as provisions.
One forthcoming issue with this measure would be the economic problems, but given that they were trying to not end up as fertilizers, this little conundrum can be overlooked.
"So it's the same old shit?!" Jack then kicked his bowl into the flames, "even after weeks and a whole fucking month, we're still at a stalemate?!"
"Clearly, you haven't been to a war," sighed Yami, "wouldn't be one if the enemy just lied down and died."
"He did say 'two birthdays'," Leopold pointed out, "and it even my first birthday here yet."
As the tensions between the volatile Green Mantis Captain and everyone else was about to snap at any moment, Yami then lets out a deep sigh before walking back to the foliage.
"Gonna take a piss," he stated as he walked away.
The crude statement then diffuses another possible meltdown between the Magic Knights and the High Inquisitor. For as much as Jack's current behavior was unwarranted, even they internally agreed that their current war of attrition was starting to take a toll on their minds.
The enemy weren't beings that can be reasoned with. They're nothing more than a slight step up from unthinking savage beasts of fairy tales. And on their sides were creatures of reason whose minds cannot be satiated with this paradox.
As everyone cleaned up their gathering spot while Jack kicked dirt into the flames to put it out, he then notices something.
"Hey," he then looked around before facing the Black Bulls, "where's the midget?"
Elsewhere...
At the Queen's chambers, at it scentral pool was a large, elaborate array of magic circles written in both ancient Heart Kingdom runes and Dama letters was being built upon with an absurd focus of mana and time. At the very center was [Alf-Layla-wa-Layla]'s physical catalyst, a simple horn trumpet nicked and worn through the ravages of time, but nevertheless hardy in bearing.
Standing around opposite ends of the circumference of the overly-complex set of magical arrays, Lolopechka and Scheherazade were pouring their very sweat, blood and tears into completing this ultimate spell that would break the current deadlock that they were in.
"Holding up, Queen of the Heart Kingdom?" asked the Dama envoy.
"No sacrifice is too great..." she answered as she struggled to keep herself awake while developing this spell, "... if it's for my people!"
That 1% that they managed to break through this afternoon was a morale-booster for the two of them. Every single step taken forward, regardless of how little, was aa reminder that their efforts weren't in vain. It was this thought alone that kept them going throughout this herculean task.
They continued working through the night, burning the midnight oil for the umpteen time.
Just outside, Charmy was drawn into one of the many hidden caves that led to the Queen's chambers and is now currently meandering about, sniffing the air that drifted through the cave shaft that she'd wandered into.
"La..." she murmured as drool spilled from the corner of her mouth, "... this smells... tantalizing..."
What she didn't know was that Charmy was actually smelling mana, which in her mind was registering as a smell akin to a soup that her mother had made back when she was younger. This nostalgia combined with her propensity to trail after whatever satisfies her carnal appetites is what led the little Black Bull to wander towards the magical arrays up ahead.
"Lolo dear," Undine spoke from above, "I sense someone coming from outside."
"Who is it?" she asked before she looked back to find a drooling Charmy walking up towards her. "... Miss Pappitson? What are you doing here?!"
"How did you find this place?" Scheherazade asked, "we had guards stationed at the entrance!"
"Are you guys cooking up something without me?" asked the mini Black Bull, drool still dripping from her wet lips, "can I have one bite?"
Undine tried to reason with her, but stopped upon noticing that Charmy's eyes weren't even focused despite being open.
Is she... sleepwalking?! thought the Water Spirit, she's not even conscious... yet her motor functions are working as if she were wide awake! she then looked back at the developing [Alf-Layla-wa-Layla] that the little Magic Knight was stumbling towards, can she... smell magic like food?
Undine's questions were then answered as Charmy sniffed the air around her before her drool became akin to a waterfall. "... Gimme."
"Charmy, there's food like... everywhere around here," Lolopechka stated, "just not here."
"Gimme," she persisted, ignoring the Queen's words as she kept walking towards the complex array of magic circles, still asleep as her own hunger talked in her place.
"You're being unreasonable, Miss Pappitson!" Scheherazade stepped between the unconscious Black Bull and the Heart Kingdom's Queen, "it's time for you to properly sleep-"
"DO NOT DENY ME," Charmy's voice then dropped several octaves before a giant lupine shadow stretched itself out from behind, making itself known. The shadow then swallows its host into itself as it took solid form of a giant white wolf creature with its forehead stitched together into an "X" and around its shoulders was a fleece of a ramhorn sheep that it wore like a vest.
"I SMELL FOOD!" snarled the wolf, slobbering all the while, "HAND IT OVER!" It then lunged towards the incomplete [Alf-Layla-wa-Layla].
"Undine!" Lolopechka then called upon her Water Spirit as she readied to defend herself.
"[Water Spirit Binding Magic: Cassiopeia Fetters]!" Undine then summoned an array of water shackles to bind the beast in place. The manacles clamp around the wolf's neck and limbs as it pushed itself against its restraints. "PUT IT TO SLEEP, NOW!"
Scheherazade began rapidly chanting in her Daman tongue as her scroll unfurled, unleashing a storm of golden letters that formed themselves into more restraints. "[YANAM]!"
But just as the order to make the beast sleep can be delivered, the wolf simply gorges on the spell itself, slurping into its maw as if they were strands of freshly-boiled noodles. "I NEVER TRIED ETHNIC FOOD," the wolf smacked its lips as it then proceeded to eat the shackles around its arms and legs, drinking the former while prying off the latter with its freed claws. "... APPETIZER!"
"It just ate our spells," gulped Lolopechka as the beast then tried to pry off its collar around its neck, "what do we do?!"
Scheherazade lets out a sigh of regret before she prepared her more deadlier spells. "... Force it is," she then began chanting rapidly, this time, her incantation begin recited in a deeper octave.
The beast then unleashes itself from the last of Undine's [Cassiopeia Fetters] as Scheherazade successfully casts her next spell. The beast was then sucker-punched by a horned entity made purely of fire, with its upper torso being large and muscular while its lower half was a wisp-like protrusion akin to a ghost's.
"[Ifrit]," spoke the Daman envoy before she turned towards the fiery apparition, "(do not kill her. Subdue the beast overwhelming her)."
The fiery spirit nods before it then engaged the wolf in a wild grapple-melee, rolling each other across the cavern floor like a pair of struggling beasts fighting over each other.
"SPICY FOOD," spoke the beast, the hungry look in its eyes intensifying at the sight of [Ifrit] mounted over him. "MAIN DISH!"
The beast then proceeds to stuff the apparition into its maw even as it continued to set its predator on fire.
"I'M HOLDING IT BACK!" said Scheherazade as she tried to hold back the beast by keeping [Ifrit] manifested physically, "TAKE IT DOWN, NOW!"
"R-RIGHT!" Lolopechka then hastily conjured her grimoire before casting her spell, "[Water Creation Magic: Knights of Nereids]!"
A squadron of scale-armored knights made of water armed with longswords all rushed towards the beast in an effort to cut down the beast and hopefully rescue Charmy before things got too hairy. The beast takes notice of the incoming knights, and it smiled.
"SEAFOOD!" it jubilantly barked as it then upchucked the fiery apparition towards the knights, causing them to evaporate upon contact with the scorching spirit. "SO HUNGRY! I NEED TO MAKE THIS FOOD MYSELF!"
From its body, it then appropriates Charmy's own grimoire. As its pages began to flutter, the disproportionately-large beast then gleaned at the spellbook's contents as if it were looking through a restaurant menu. "I'LL HAVE THIS ONE!" it declared both [Ifrit] and the remaining [Knights of Nereids] were all sucked into its vicinity upon the chosen spell being unleashed. "[FOOD MAGIC: HELL'S KITCHEN]!"
The reality around them transformed into a brick-and-mortar kitchen fit for a giant with the ground itself being the countertop.
"What the hell is going on?!" Scheherazade looked around in panic, only to notice that her scroll-staff was now unresponsive, "I can't use any more of my spells!"
"Neither can I!" Lolopechka replied, "this feeling... it's like a [Mana Zone], but somehow distorted reality to its image!"
"This beast's grasp on the flow of mana itself rivals my own..." grimaced Undine as she then found herself transformed into a flopping fish the size of a blue whale, "WHAT THE-"
Before it can speak any further, the giant wolf, now dressed in a chef's attire of white apron and hat, grabbed the transformed Water Spirit by her tail, lifting her flailing and thrashing body up as it then made its way towards a cutting board with a large filleting knife rested at the top of the board.
"IT'S SERIOUSLY GOING TO EAT UNDINE!" Lolopechka panicked as she saw the wolf began sharpening its knife against a whetstone, "WE HAVE TO STOP IT!"
"Hang on!" Scheherazade, noticing a pot of freshly-grown stalk of basil leaves next to them, grabs the Queen first before running towards the giant plant sprig and pulling themselves back while grabbing onto it. Using the built up force from the tense stalk, the two then vault themselves across the chasm between the counter and the main kitchen's stove, landing roughly on the wrought-iron stovetop before hastily making their way onto the brick counter.
"That was... wild," heaved Lolopechka before she and the envoy broke into a sprint toward Undine. "... You do this often?"
"I was a bit of a tomboy back when I was younger," answered Scheherazade as she then felt her own face, "... why do I feel fuzzy all of the sudden?"
Before the two can realize that they turned into the kitchen's rats, a massive rolling pin slammed before their path, with the snarling wolf now glowering upon them. "RATS!"
Their objective quickly switched from "rescue Undine" to "RUN THE FUCK AWAY" as the beast began chasing them through the kitchen countertops, attempting to either crush them under its wooden column or chase them out and leave Undine to her fate as a fried fish dish. Either resolution wasn't desirable for the two of them, so as they manically ran away from their pursuer, they had to come up with a new plan of action in order to escape.
"SO!" squeaked Scheherazade as the rolling pin thundered behind their tails, "HOW IS THIS THING MANAGING THIS MUCH CONTROL OVER MANA WHILE ITS HOST IS ASLEEP?!"
"I THINK IT MIGHT BE A CASE OF THE MAGIC ITSELF SUPERSEDING ITS USER!" Lolopechka pointed out as the beast behind them snapped its rolling pin into two, "IT'S RARE, BUT SOMETIMES, WHEN A USER'S MAGIC GROWS STRONGER THAN THE PHYSICAL VESSEL, IT SORT OF DEVELOPS A MIND OF ITS OWN!"
"KINDA LIKE YOUR WATER SPIRIT?!" squeaked the envoy as a kitchen knife embedded itself into the wall right above her back as it was flung from the beast's direction, "BUT UNLIKE HER, I THINK ITS ACTIONS ARE LIMITED WITHIN THE CONTEXT THAT WE'RE IN A KITCHEN!"
"MEANING THAT IT PRIORITIZES PLAYING THE ROLE OF THE 'CHEF' LIKE WE ARE THE 'MICE'!" the Queen then yipped as another thrown kitchen knife stuck the countertop right behind her tail, "WHAT ARE YOU SUGGESTING?!"
Scheherazade then scampers towards the edge of the counter nearest towards where the wolf was before it leapt onto its face and began gnawing on the beast's nose.
The giant wolf lets out a pained howl as its nose began to spurt blood from its open wounds. As it flung around the kitchen in panic, Lolopechka then makes her way to the fish-morphed Undine lying on the cutting board.
"Undine!" she spoke, "are you alright?!"
"Thankfully, it didn't take into account that fish need water to breathe," she answered, still alive and well despite being out in the open while being a fish. As the two looked towards the flailing beast trying to swat or pry the rat off of its face, the Water Spirit began to take note of something. "... It's strong, but it's pure instinct. It's more or less its host's hunger personified rather than a sapient being with its own will."
"Meaning?" asked Lolopechka.
The fish Water Spirit then flops around for a few seconds before swatting its own cutting board into the kitchen's sink, blocking the drainage with its width. "Start pumping," she ordered while gesturing to the water pump above the sink, "I don't have opposable thumbs right now."
Lolopechka then skips up towards the pump handle and began jumping up and down while not letting go of the lever, causing water to began filling the sink bowl.
At the kitchen floor, the wolf continued to struggle as Scheherazade began to opt for running around the beast's body as it swatted and tackled itself on every flat surface in an attempt to crush her. "FILTHY! BOTHERSOME! YOU ARE RUINING MY PEACEFUL COOKING!"
In a surprising reversal, the wolf then strips off his chef attire off of his torso while catching Scheherazade inside a makeshift bundle before tossing her into the stove and slamming the grill shut followed after with the lock being fastened tight.
The wolf then strikes a matchstick before flicking it between the bars as Scheherazade scrambles out of the disposed clothes, right in time for the fire to begin spreading throughout the oven and threatening to cook her alive.
"STAY PUT," the wolf ordered as it then menacingly approached the fish Undine. "NOW, WITH THAT OUT OF THE WAY..." The wolf then picks up the filleting knife with Undine by her tail fin. "TIME TO PREPARE AND SEASON YOU-"
Out of nowhere, Lolopechka leaps towards the wolf's face, all the while, belting out a hysterical scream of both fear and courage. With her tiny body, she blinds the beast, forcing it to drop Undine along with the knife onto the floor as it descended back into panic.
Okay, the sink is definitely overflowing, thought the Water Spirit as she flopped around the wet floor. She looks around to see if she can find any method that can defeat the wolf in chef's clothing in one fell swoop. First she looks at the sink, which was still flowing, so waiting for the puddle to slip the unsuspecting beast is an option. But then said option was null and void when the Water Spirit noticed that Scheherazade was inside the lit stove, slowly being burned alive, now establishing a time limit for their operation.
Realizing how near both the filleting knife and the wolf's bare ankle were toward her, Undine decides to take a desperate gamble. She first grabs the knife handle by her mouth, which, if she were any other fish, would've been impossible, but the wolf had to make her a salmon of all things.
As the beaked mouth gently snugged itself between her lips, she then flops towards the wolf's ankle with all of the might, jamming the pointed end into the wolf's achilles tendon located in its hindlimb, causing the beast to lose its footing, the sudden leverage causing it to slip onto the now-sufficiently filled puddle, causing it to slip and fall.
As the beast fell and with Lolopechka being sent flying into the air, Undine attempts to cushion her host's fall with her own body while the beast landed its head's rear against the corner of the kitchen counter, knocking itself out and reality returning to normal.
"LOLO!" Undine then catches the Queen in her arms while Scheherazade let out a series of coughs, covered in burns and soot alike.
"I'm fine..." said the young queen, her hair now all frazzled and her breathing a little labored as if she just came back from a barefoot marathon. "... Just need a long nap afterwards-OH CRAP! THE ARRAY!"
All three of them looked towards the pool where the arrays were at, and find that some of the letters were ruined where Charmy dove into it.
"No no no no NO!" screeched the envoy, "OUR WORK! IT'S RUINED!"
Both Undine and Lolopechka gasped in silence at the sight before them. A storm of ire and sorrow flooded their hearts, both wanting to blame solely her for simply showing up at the wrong time but are also too distraught that their sole hope was now naught but ash.
"... We're done for," Lolopechka sobbed, trying to bottle up all of the emotions that she can only describe as "an ugly mass of bile and vitriol."
But just as the three continued to mourn, something began to happen to the complex set of arrays.
"... Wait," spoke Undine, "look!"
The two then look towards the broken array and find that the scattered letters were beginning to reform themselves back together. At the center, Charmy's own mana began to synchronize with the array itself, beginning the process of completing [Alf-Layla-wa-Layla] on her own, all the while, completely in slumber as she began talking in her sleep.
"... Hello? ... May I take your order?" Charmy mumbled in her sleep, as if she were talking to the magic itself, "... one Pork Pot Pie with a birthday hat for the kid... one Paradise Cheeseburger Combo with large red glass of Red Wine... large stacks of Banana Pancakes..."
"... Is she..." Lolopechka adjusted her glasses to see if her eyes were working properly, "... talking to the magic itself?"
"No, it's not just that," Scheherazade then saw that the letters, both ancient and Daman alike were listening to the girl at the center of [Alf-Layla-wa-Layla], "... she's doing all of our work faster then both of us combined."
Just by sleeptalking and with pure instinctual connection with mana itself, Charmy was now contributing to the creation of the [Ultimate Sealing Magic] itself. In mere minutes, Charmy has already reached 70% completion of the spell's development. Through sheer ignorance.
"... You go look up who the hell Charmy is," Scheherazade requested, "I'll go tell the others after I put her under watch."
"And if she wakes up?" asked Undine.
"Don't tell her anything that happened. Or at least until after she's finished with our work," she replied, "for now, assume nothing. And hope that this all works out on its own."
Rotten Elysia, Neutral Territory, Midnight
Elysia. Once a secret pocket of unspoiled nature founded by fleeing elves and found as an ildilic paradise away from the influence of humanity and their material vices.
However, upon Caligula and his swarm spotting this untouched patch of land, they wasted no time turning it into their second central hive, turning all of the elves into foodstuff for the grubs and Dryad, the elves' patron guardian deity of nature, now the hive's new "Queen"/incubator, birthing out more Thanatophage grubs from whatever available orifice that was present in her anatomy.
"Don't die just yet!' Caligula jeered as the imprisoned nature spirit vomited out another stream of mucus-covered larvae, "another eight billion or so and maybe I'll probably let up!"
The fly-Demon himself was enjoying the torture displayed before him. After all, just what can be even more painful for a woman than to give birth? Let alone make her keep giving birth with increasing agony while in a state of denial towards death?
Dryad wanted to give vitriol, just to scream and curse of how much she despises the monster before her with all of her heart. But alas, once again, she was denied the right to even speak as more maggots regurgitated from her mouth in place of her curses.
"Keep watch over her just so the bitch doesn't try and off herself," the fly-Demon ordered his two cockroach Thanatophages armed with scythes made of elven bones and hoods made of their flayed and tanned hides, "I need her for my next phase of my plan."
As the Dryad was left under the two lesser Thanatophage's vigil, Caligula walked down an isolated path leading towards a hidden passage below Elysia.
"I don't know who are the real idiots," smirked the fly-Demon as he buzzed down the secret path while grinning to himself, "the humans who built their settlements anywhere they damn liked or the elves who assumed this place was untouched to begin with."
At the bottom of the chasm was a ruined metropolis of ivy and moss-covered buildings of chipped marble and rusted iron, and at its center was a burnt-out crater with a giant, winged skeleton of a Dragon at the very bottom of the impact zone.
Despite the strongest Elderbeast's deceased state, this Dragon still reeked of excess mana. In fact, part of the reason why Elysia was classified as a Grand Magic Zone in the first place was that most of its mana was influence and amplified by the dead Dragon's residual mana radiating from its remains buried in this part of land countless eras ago.
"History has a funny way of being an endless loop of rises and falls," spoke the Demon, "drunk off their pride, mankind begins to expand and grow through the method of trampling over others that don't fit into their definition of a 'future." Caligula went on as he glanced below the resting Dragon. "Even then, despite everything that they've built, all it took was one reversal of fortune to simply end it all. With a whimper."
Below his flight path were a pit of freshly-excavated skeletal remains of humans who presumably tried to escape in vain from the Dragon's rampage that were dug up by his Mole Cricket Thanatophages a few weeks prior (along with the rest of this hidden civilization months after his successful takeover of Elysia). All of them were heading towards an unorthodox-looking structure that was reminiscent of a grimoire tower, but only bigger and tall enough to seemingly reach the heavens above, and at the tower's base were an array of verniers and thrusters, indicating that this structure before him wasn't meant to stay in one place.
Which begs the question... Caligula then looked up towards where the tower peak was pointed towards, where was this thing supposed to end up?
That little curiosity aside, Caligula then lands back at the ground to meet up with his worker drones. "Take me to the brood nest," he ordered, to which the Mole Cricket Thanatophage Demon chirped in acknowledgement. "Rest of you not following me, harvest the Dragon's bones. Just try not to catch fire from the fucker's mana flaring up everyone now and then."
The fly and the Mole Cricket make their way down towards the deeper level of the chasm while the rest danced around the magical minefield that was the central crater of the lost civilization.
"Any of them close to hatching?" Caligula asked, to which the Mole Cricket jittered incoherently, with only words that Caligula can only understand. "Good. The cocoons have slept long enough."
As the two enter the underground chamber full of cocoons with freshly-molted, battle-ready Thanatophages emerging from their secondary maturation process.
"MORNING YOU LITTLE SHITS!" barked Caligula as the recently-matured Demons chittered and hissed incoherently, "I HOPE YOU ALL SLEPT LIKE BABIES, BECAUSE LISTEN UP! AS YOU KNOW, THE HUMANS AT THE HEART KINGDOM HAVE BROUGHT IN NEW FRIENDS! AFTER THE OLD GUARD FAILED TO FULLY INTERCEPT THOSE MEATBAGS FROM REACHING THEIR ALLIES, THE POSSIBILITY OF THEM NOT DYING QUICKLY ENOUGH IS NOW PROBABLE! YOU BROOD OF DRYAD, EMBUED WITH THE MANA OF THE NATURE SPIRIT THAT I HAVE CAPTURED AND SUCCESSFULLY PERFECTED YOUR GROWTH PROCESS AFTER COUNTLESS FAILURES WERE EITHER DELEGATED TO WORKER UNITS OR DISPOSED OF, YOU LOT ARE THE FIRST SUCCESSFUL GENERATION OF THANATOPHAGES WITH PROPER ATTUNING OF YOUR SURROUNDING MANA! NOW [MANA ZONES] WON'T KILL YA! PROBABLY!"
In truth, Caligula's knowledge regarding how magic is supposed to work within the context of his offshoot-[Mutation Magic] is "self-taught" at best.
"YOU WILL ALL TAKE FLIGHT AT DAWN!" ordered Caligula as he was then whispered something into his ear by his Mole Cricket secondary, "... which is apparently now." He then looks around only to realize that he forgot to build a way out other than the same way that he and the Mole Cricket Demon came in.
Wasting no time, both the freshly-matured Thanatophages swarmed towards the only available exit while Caligula buzzed into the air while carrying his adjutant with his tiny clawed arms. "... In hindsight, I didn't want this place to be found too soon, accidentally or otherwise," he looked down at the carnage taking place below. "... Not my fault, though. It was a security measure."
The Mole Cricket rolled his eyes. All two compound eyes, rolling from up to down simultaneously.
As soon as the carnage has left behind a few stragglers crawling their way towards he exit or eating their injured brethren. "Well, that's out of the way," Caligula grumbled as he looked towards the Mole Cricket. "Dismissed. I'll be at my private quarters, and there's gonna be a delivery coming this afternoon from Dama. Don't miss it, or you're tonight's dinner."
Upon dismissal and passing by the exploding idiots being popped from the excess mana coming from the Dragon's skeleton from below, Caligula resurfaces back up and returns to his segmented area within the second main hive.
The room in question was more or less a storage full of insects encased in jars. However, they weren't ordinary insects that one can easily find in their backyard.
"How fortuitous of me to find such rare samples of prehistoric fauna back then," Caligula smirked as he recalled the time where he was but a mere fly that infiltrated into a nation named "Clover Kingdom" during a time when the dead walked the earth, eavesdropping into a fight between a man named "Julius" and "Crowley" that resulted in the fabric of spacetime being raped omnidirectionally.
Within the opening and closing of the temporal gaps, Caligula was able to spot and trail prehistoric insects that fell through the gap, and take them home as his personal pet project/"Plan B" upon acquisition.
"The best part about humans and their hubris..." the fly-Demon smirked maliciously as he set the jar of prehistoric insects to the side into a certain formation, unlocking a secret contraption that he'd built for himself to reveal a set of crudely-made giant vats with humanoid bodies made of repurposed (human and elven) meat floating inside their preservative soups, "... they sure know how to keep things interesting."
Heart Kingdom, Morning
"... And that's what happened," Scheherazade concluded her summarization of what happened last night.
"Huh, who knew that the midget had it in her," Jack commented.
"I knew that she was holding out on me before!" Meroleona flared with excitement, "as soon as we're in the clear, I wanna piece of her! No holds barred!"
"Still having a hard time wrapping my head around her little 'incident' that happened beneath our notice," Vanessa remarked, trying to fight off her cold turkey over having gone without alcohol for over more than a few months, "hell, I don't remember things like this happening before the whole Demon suppression campaign started."
"Captain, is there something that you know about her that we don't?" asked Magna, "I mean, relatively speaking, I only joined a few years back with Charmy, so I outta know her somewhat. But this? Kinda mind telling me what's her deal with her magic acting all cuckoo all of the sudden?"
Yami lets out a tired sigh before he began speaking. "Truth is, I first met her when she was around 10."
"That early?" Fuegoleon raised an eyebrow.
"Isn't that like the late stages of the Clover-Diamond Kingdom War before a ceasefire was achieved?" Leopold pointed out.
"I found her behind Diamond Kingdom territory," Yami began telling his story before everyone, "I was doing recon when I found her rummaging food through my rucksack while I was asleep. Her clothes weren't rags, so either she's a fresh war refugee or she was relatively well-off, I don't know how she got there to me. But I let her tag along just so that she doesn't squeal that I was an enemy scout."
"Logical," Mosin nodded.
"Anyway, she and I trekked together until I was caught in an ambush while I was setting up for camp for the night," the Black Bulls Captain continued, "by the time I woke up, I was being interrogated by some guy with a goatee, sayin' that I was the one who gave him the scar across his chest earlier in the war. Don't know his name though, although he did sound remorseful when taking a kid as a leverage. Then, shit happened."
"Regarding Charmy?" asked Gauche, "I mean from the way she described it, it sounds like a fever-induced nightmare."
"[Hell's Kitchen]?" Yami pointed out, "yeah, it happened to all of us in the encampment. Suddenly, we found ourselves in a hot springs resort town with open food stalls everywhere. Guess those guys didn't eat as much like I did, because they immediately gorged on the food like pigs, stuffing their faces with boiled fish, baked game hen, and all sorts of fatty and mouthwatering foods that even I couldn't resist eating one. And I would've if it weren't for the fact that I was not only tied up but also drugged."
"That sounds different from what me and Lolopechka experienced..." Scheherazade noted with slight worry.
"It was actually a good thing too," he continued, "because suddenly, those men who ate the food turned their heads, and they became pigs themselves. Literal pigs."
Everyone gasps in horror and revulsion at the image of gluttonous men turning into their own embodiments of gluttony.
"And upon that, a wolf creature wearing a ram's fleece showed up and began snatching the pigs from their seats, those fuckers not even being aware of what was happening to them even after they were separated from their food," he went on sharing his personal horror story, "we never saw them ever again, and only me, that guy and Charmy were the only ones left. As soon as I freed myself after being left for dead, I got back to Clover Kingdom, dropped her off at a local church and a few years later after she joined the Black Bulls, those attacks just... stopped."
"Why though?" asked En, "could it be that she somehow learned how to control her powers?"
"Nah, it wasn't the case," answered Yami, "truth is, Henry's little 'condition' of siphoning mana from everyone living within the base kept her magic powers under control. I'm guessing the reason why it came out now of all times is that not only Charmy was kept separated from Henry for too long and I forgot to feed her a midnight snack."
"She was sleepwalking when we found her," Scheherazade pointed out, "is she a regular sleepwalker?"
"I take a shit-ton of dumps during the night, ran into her one night prowling about like a zombie, heard her stomach grumble, and I got the message," Yami stated, "every night, I make her a grilled cheese sandwich because it uses the least amount of ingredients possible, fills even me up after one serving and tastes good enough to satisfy her cravings at least one night per week. I think her own magic went cold turkey and instinctually went after the nearest concentration of mana to detox itself."
"Wait a minute, just a sec," Meroleona pointed out, "last I checked, Charmy used [Cotton Magic]. And Schehe-how do you pronounce your name?"
"Scheherazade," she answered, "and yes, [Food Magic]. Normally, at Dama, no one is born with an affinity and its considered a rarity to have a singular specialty."
"So you're saying the midget was born with two different affinities?!" Jack remarked before he looked at the Black Bulls Captain, "keh, lucky bastard."
"So you're saying that she's not human?" Leopold suggested, "I mean, not being racist or specist or like, but given that we had run ins with the Twrch Trwyth Tavern with a bunch of half-breeds of non-human races, it wouldn't be surprising in hindsight that Charmy, at bare minimum, has non-human ancestry that allows her to have access to two different affinities."
"Ah! I just remembered something!" Finral remarked, finally breaking his silence since last night, "that Fana-girl has [Fire Magic] and [Crystal Magic], but her grimoire looked like two different grimoires crudely stitched together! And so did that Mars guy back at the dungeon!"
"You're suggesting that the Diamond Kingdom were on the process of figuring out how to weaponize hybrids?" Fuegoleon pointed out.
"Doesn't matter," Jack scoffed, "they're all six feet under."
"Whatever the case, Lolopechka is looking into her biology while she's still talking in her sleep," Scheherazade stated, "also, with Charmy's help, [Alf-Layla-wa-Layla] is nearing completion. We should be able to activate the spell within this week."
"So no two birthdays for all of us," grinned Meroleona, "about time too. I'm getting hangry to serve some piping-hot knuckle sandwiches."
"And be sure to ready her a venerable feast when Charmy wakes up," Yami suggested, "she's going to need it after missing out today's breakfast. And god forbid if someone tells her that she missed any meals."
"... You sound like your entire squadron's mom," Meroleona snickered, "and come to think of it, the Black Bulls are kinda like a family full of weird kids."
"Little wonder why Charlotte wants to pounce ya," Jack snorted much to everyone's surprise at the latter part of his remark, "what? It's obvious! That and well I can totally see Yami be the stay-at-home parent raising a bunch of tykes while thorn-for-tits is the overworked breadwinner."
"And I can see why you're loathed by everyone," Mosin sighed with pity towards the abrasive man.
"It's called 'fear', you strumpet!" snapped the Green Mantis Captain.
Mimo Amazon, Heart Kingdom, Afternoon
"Goddammit, I'm sweating like a fucking pig out here..." panted Rades as he sloppily followed Valtos and Mammon/Morris.
"To be fair, it is summer," said the Devil (or the scientist; the two of them are indistinguishable at this point), "Mimo Amazon is a rainforest, ergo, humidity is a factor."
"Which is why I am currently having a war against mosquitos right now," Valtos grumbled as he swatted his exposed naval from his sleeveless crop-top, killing a mosquito in the process, "last thing I need is malaria."
The three of them continued to scour around the jungle, looking for things that they either don't have or might need later. Rades would complain more about the environment basting him alive, if it weren't for the fact that he was collecting a lot of dead bug corpses the size large animals.
In fact, his largest haul was an anteater roughly the size of an entire crop field. Granted, it was merely a shell of its former self, but Rades isn't the kind of person who is picky of whichever he wants to convert into his undead minion.
"Seriously though..." the necromancer panted, "... is there a river around here? I'm fucking parched!"
"Better yet..." Valtos then slaps his own cheek to kill another mosquito, "use your magic to make us not thirsty!"
"Unfortunately, I cannot as of now," sighed the Devil, "for you see, my [Result Magic] and my host's [Implant Magic] can only dictate one scenario at a time. Were if I wish to quench your thirsts, I would have to drop our stealth mode and we would end up being assaulted from all sides."
"THEN FIND US A GODDAMN RIVER!" Rades hopped madly as the three continued to traverse through the jungle, the remaining Thanatophages ignoring them due them being hidden from their sensory organs due to Mammon and Morris's magics.
The three then hear rushing water. "Well, there you go," snarked the [Spatial Magic] user, "... although our canteens are running dry."
"Just don't fall in!" said the dark blight as Rades rushed towards the rushing river before him, drinking greedily only to find that the water tastes strange.
The three look ahead and find a rotting pile of dead creatures and humans damming the river, manned by Backswimmer Thanatophages piling the bodies from the other side.
Valtos then immediately vomits upon the realization that he was this close to getting dysentery from drinking dirty water, but Rades himself wasn't bothered by the revelation. "Eh, I drank my own piss one time."
"That is gross," bluntly said the monster, "let us all forget that we ever saw this, agreed?"
Everyone agrees without a word, continuing to traverse through the jungle as thirsty as before.
"So, Mr. Spirito," asked the Devil, "you didn't seem bothered at the sight of those corpses polluting the river water."
"When you were born and raised into a family of gravediggers, you've seen it all," sighed Rades, "and weren't you a mad scientist or something like that? Aren't you used to used seeing cut-up bodies on iron slabs?"
"That is true, but only because I chose it," admitted the Devil, "how does it feel to be... well, born without a choice?"
"At first, it didn't matter to me," said the necromancer, "then when I snuck out of the crypts, I saw people doing something other than touching dead bodies. I saw... life. It both fascinated and disgusted me at the same, felt so alien yet so familiar... it felt like I was... missing out on something bigger."
Valtos was utterly speechless at Rades's recollection. The way he described his past as a member of Clover Kingdom's gravekeepers and undertakers felt so genuine and full of soul. Which begged the question: how did he end up so shallow and resentful that it made him join the same terrorist group that he himself joined? Did he also lose his faith in humanity like he has? Or given his initially innocent disposition, was the pain even worse?
"... Hm, can't say I envy you," said Mammon/Morris, "people born with nothing usually want nothing. Only when they realize that they're without anything that they begin to desire everything."
"Right-o," Rades nodded, "after I got my ass beaten by my old man, I struck out on my own, developed my unique form of [Soul Corpse Magic], and even manage to climb my way up to become a Magic Knight. Then those Purple Orca fucks framed me for a crime I didn't even commit, and no one defended me simply because I was a son of a gravekeeper. Magic being everything? What a joke. They only care about what kind of magic you have, and some might say that I should've used my powers for good regardless of how much shit was thrown at me, but if no one's gonna accept me for who I am, then I figured that the others need to be reeducated on it feels like to wear my shoes."
"... I'm sorry," said Valtos, "to go through all that... without a choice."
Rades then looked at him with confusion. "... What do you mean you're sorry?" he pointed out, "you ain't living my life."
"No, but that is called 'sympathy," said the Devil, "no two walks of life are the same, so the next best thing is for birds of similar feathers to flock together."
"... So what you're saying is that we're all kinda alike?" Rades asked.
"Sally herself lost her funding, Helena's passion project was snuffed, Nikolas was stabbed in the back, Valtos was embittered by the evils of the world, my host was born blind and he was forced to overcompensate, and I'm pretty sure Alister is probably the most cursed man in all of existence," the Devil stated, "no two people are 100% the same, but I think that as long as there is a .01% chance of difference between two people, I think you guys can be friends."
"... Friends?" Rades crinkled his eyes, "isn't that what normal people can do?"
"Then clearly, we are more normal," Valtos smirked, "it's just that the rest of the world is fucking insane."
Rades nodded in agreement. "... Yeah," he smiled upon registering Valtos's line of thought, "guess that checks out."
The three then emerge from the foliage and find a giant hive crawling with Thanatophages inside. The structure itself was crudely stitched together with webs and brick alike. If one were to look at it, it was less of a conventional hive and more or less an old mansion that was taken over by giant insects and their refurbishing.
"Huh, that wasn't there when Sally and I visited the last time," Mammon/Morris remarked, "remembered that thing being a lot less... solid."
"... Odd," spoke Valtos, "if feels as if this thing is flowing with mana. Not the hive, but... what's inside the webbings."
"What, like if the whole thing was a giant-ass cocoon?" Rades pointed out only for the other two to realize that his assumption might hold some truth.
And then, it hit all of them.
Insects are usually working as colonies/collective groups. So by that logic, it wouldn't be too much of a stretch for the swarm to collectively coordinate their movements into that of a giant superorganism rather than an army of loosely-bonded individuals.
What stood before them was a giant super-Thanotophage that was currently in a state of maturation, it's internal workings being composed of several thousand sub-Thanatophages acting as its muscular and nervous system.
Numerous thoughts that Rades never even comprehended began racing throughout his wicked mind as it connected the dots of what he can do. "Idea..."
The Moon
"... Ugh, pieces of shit," grumbled the giant condor-Demon perched atop the craggily surface of the lifeless rock orbiting the blue planet below, "they take one cheap shot, AND IT WASN'T EVEN IN MY PRIOR CLAIM! HAVE SOME FUCKING DECENCY AND TRY AND HIT ME, THE GREAT ZIZ, LORD OF THE THOUSAND TEMPESTS, FROM HEART KINGDOM, YOU CUNTS!"
No one can hear him, for the Demon himself was the only one around the lifeless void of space blanketing all of the universe. The truth of the matter is, among his Fallout Four compatriots, Ziz was arguably the most proficient at the job that he was created for.
Leviathan was bound to the sea despite being a mammal-based Demon, Goliath was beyond stupid, and Behemoth is nowhere to be found after his debut with the rest of them. Ziz however found the perfect sniping spot being the planet's moon, where nothing can reach him and his eyes were perfectly adjusted to spot his target from all the way from space.
He had his target, Undine, at a perfect lockdown. Now all that it took was for him to finally kill the bitch the moment that she shows herself after this 1000 year-long song and dance. Meanwhile, he himself was doing target shooting to not only keep his skills sharp, but also to keep himself from getting bored. The sudden population boom of insects just prolonged his tedium, but it was still nice to have new things to shoot at every now and then.
He was perfect. The perfect Demon. So it still befuddled him on why his creator Lucifuge despises him like everyone else. At least when on the moon, nothing could ever reach him.
"Another quiet day..." sighed Ziz, "... not a lot of people moving from place to place. Totally not my fault. No sir."
From his eyes, a pair of unfamiliar-looking cloaked people approached the newly-spawned cloud of insects at the neutral region between Heart and Spade Kingdoms. Behind the pair was a child with a small bag tied around his waist.
What surprised him even more is that the cloud of insects began to dissipate as one of them simply stabbed the ground with her sword, causing the surrounding vegetation to begin rotting away in tandem with the insect swarm seceding.
"... Strange," Ziz then gleaned closer towards the two strangers, "... it's like if those insects weren't there for them to begin with... how strong are they?"
The vacuum around the condor-Demon coalesced into a singularity of flowing wind.
"[Wind Magic]," the Demon declared as he aimed his sights towards the two, the concentrated wind between his wings now crackling with bolts of electricity built from the accelerating force of the gale itself, "[Tempest Snipe]!"
A lightspeed bolt of lightning was then shot towards where the two were at, only for the bolt of lightning top be redirected towards the south, scorching a patch of greenery into ash-black.
"... Goddamn," said the Demon, "is this what it feels like to be both impressed and pissed off? I feel both, and IT IS INFURIATING!"
Even then, Ziz accepted the fact that there now new players amidst. However they each fare, may the rains fall where they may.
"For I'm watching you nerds."
To Be Continued...
Author's Notes: AND I AM BACK, BABY.
Long story short, my semester before this chapters long-overdue release is that one of schedule mishaps, technological lemons, and humbling of my credentials as a writer. Word to the wise, do not take the Tolkien course fresh or blind, or you'll regret it. Silver lining, I am confident to say that I have sort of improved as a a writer.
With that out of the way, this arc is all about the Heart Kingdom and the inevitable clusterfuck just waiting for all the clash together. The main roles, I'm giving a focus on Yami, Charmy, Scheherazade and Rades for the first half, and the latter half is up in the air.
Good news, [Alf-Layla-wa-Layla] is now nearing completion ahead of schedule. Bad news, they're now going to have to explain everything upon the reveal. And worse news, Caligula is now planning his endgame and is about make an attempt for a checkmate. Thank god all of his Thanatophages are dumb as bricks without his direct command.
Also, Illuminati/Neo Eye of the Midnight Sun are now acquisitioning their resources in the meantime, and Ziz is now revealed in all of his feathered glory, taking potshots whenever he feels like it. Too bad his recent targets are not exactly his usual fare.
This chapter is meant to be a buildup, after all, so with more questions then answers, I'll see to it that they are answered in the next Saga.
References:
- The arc title is named after the Guns 'N Roses song with the same name.
- Lolopechka and Undine's spells are references to the Greek myths of Cassiopeia (the arrogant and vain mother of Andromeda, and yes, I've been playing Pokémon Scarlet), and the Sea Nymphs collectively called Nereids (50 of them named and counted for).
- [Hell's Kitchen] is named after Gordon Ramsey's reality TV show, while the setting itself is based off the Ratatouille Disney Film.
- Charmy's sleeptalking menu named after songs like "Goodbye Pork Pie Hat" by Charles Minglus, "Cheeseburger in Paradise" by Jimmy Buffet, "Red Red Wine" by UB40, and "Banana Pancakes" by Jack Johnson.
- The Cockroach Thanatophages are based off the Reaper Legion Roidmudes from Kamen Rider Drive. While the Mole Cricket Thanatophages are based off [Earth Dreamer] Megacolony unit from Cardfight! Vanguard.
- Yami and Lotus's encounter with Charmy's [Food Magic] during the war is a reference to Hayao Miyazaki's Spirited Away.
- Rades's "Idea..." line is lifted straight from Hot Fuzz.
Hypothetical Voice Actors:
- Ziz: Tatsuhisa Suzuki (JPN), Mark Oliver (ENG)
And as usual, please leave a comment or a review, for I'd love to know what my readers think!