Chapter 79

I stood atop Tetsu's dragon back, standing at the front of the massive wedge of soldiers, siege engines and all the beasts that were being ridden or pulling. With eyes on everyone, I simply said one word, and I made sure there would be no mistaking what I said.

"Accept." I said, the one language easing out of my lungs with authority even the Shield couldn't auto translate.

And I sent out a party invite.

To some, it might have looked like I was having a seizure as my eyes flicked back and forth, quickly shunting all the new names into a secondary party tab. But everyone, animals included, were now in a little sub tab under my actual party's members.

I switched to the Gengar Shield, waited for Usa to nod at me from the back of his knight dragon, and continued, "Your only job, is to distract it. Once I give the signal, you will begin a fighting retreat. No exceptions, no heroics. Protect yourselves and your fellows, and get as far away from the tortoise as you can. Once out of sight of the beast, regroup and be ready for the Wave!"

I didn't wait for a cheer, I didn't wait for a nod, I simply switched to the Book Shield, held it out in front of me as the book opened and lay flat over my palm.

"Dritte Aura!"

My mana bar went from full to just a little over one percent, but every living soul in my party was suddenly given an all purpose buff that covered everything they would need for a long run.

Satisfied the initial part of 'the plan' was done, I sat down properly on Tetsu's back, gave the top of her head a scratch, and gave her sides a little nudge. Behind me, Usa hugged my middle, just tight enough to seem like a little more than 'holding on', but relaxed a little as Tetsu's stride lengthened and the rumble of marching troops and siege engines followed behind us.

The Queen, despite my assurances she wasn't really needed on the field, rode up beside me as we got within sight of the spire we would likely be climbing.

Her filolial, like her, was too well disciplined to react to Tetsu's friendly wave, while Tetsu pouted at being unable to even start the process of reaching an 'understanding' with this new bird. "We are withing sight of the spire. And we might be ahead of schedule as well."

"Good. The first test will be how everyone reacts when we get over the next ridge." For the past little while, Usa had to hold on to my tails to keep them from thrashing around, "Part of my nature is to be sensitive to creatures like this. And while it doesn't rank in the top ten of 'singular' most powerful beings I've gotten close to, it's really up there."

"If that is the case, it is no mystery how you are able to come up with plans so quickly to deal with threats on this scale." She said with a little smile, "Do you truly think your plan will work? Will it seal the creature away again?"

We started up yet another hill, the slope gentle, but still fairly high. "I hope so."

We got to the top of the ridge, and yes, my first impression of the landscape in front of us was indeed 'natural arena'. To our left and right were natural, if a little uneven, paths that led around. The 'target' spire was a giant thing a couple hundred metres high on the left, while on the right was a more natural shard of rock that looked to have once been a mine.

But straight ahead was the tortoise. While not the largest monster I'd seen (though I never did get to say hello to the Great Red), it was certainly 'epic scale'. The mountain on its back was old and worn, mossy and grey. Under that, an unnaturally (or natural considering) smooth shelf of yellowed shell, and under that, a titanic head. The Tortoise itself had black skin, tiny (comparatively) eyes and of all things, a herbivore's mouth. If it wasn't carrying a mountain on its back that had clouds of bats over it, it would almost look friendly.

"I hope so." I repeated, "Help me direct traffic. We don't have long before those bats notice us."

"Indeed." She nodded, "Archers ready! Now!" She signalled with the Fan, "Our goal is in sight!"

For the Queen, they gave a little cheer, the archers among the soldiers running past us and keeping eyes in the sky.

"Once you are in position, have something to eat and drink!" I reminded them.

No cheer for me, but Raphtalia (who was riding Kuro with Rishia) dismounted next to me, "Follow your own advice." She said, "Tetsu? Usa? Clive?" Pause, "Clive?"

"He's gone ahead with Tenno." I said, "Good luck Mirellia."

"You will have to tell me of this 'top ten' you mentioned." She said, "And how you beat them."

"Beat them? I'm friends with half of them." I laughed behind my mask, "Tetsu?"

"Just lemme..." She was taking stuff out of one of her own saddlebags and just crunching down on things as they got into her mouth, "So glad you saved those coconuts!" Crunch crunch.

"Raphtalia? You seen to the signallers?"

"All set." She nodded back to me.

"Fohl, Atla?" I looked to the tiger siblings, their filolial dancing under them, clearly not tired yet.

"We're ready." Fohl nodded.

"Let's go then." I then dropped everyone but them from my Party, and all at once, my mana started to recover. It kind of felt like the early days when I was learning how to use my gifts, without really knowing what they were.

How to climb a nearly vertical spire of rock... Well, you could find handholds and go up like an insect. You could use a hammer, pitons and rope. A fair bit slower, but safer.

Or you could do what we were doing. Having a giant humanoid bee fly upwards with a smol dragon-newt and the end of an apparently infinite length of rope, tie it to something sturdy, then have the dragon-newt turn into an actual dragon, and pull everyone attached to the rope upwards. There were precious few ledges, but just so we could regroup, recover, and kill the occasional bat that managed to 'see' through Raphtalia's stealth spells, we stopped occasionally as we went upwards.

The occasional bat also let me see how well Kunshu's, now Tenno's 'metal swarm' worked. The answer? Brutally. With his compound eyes, he could keep track of dozens of the little metal spikes, and with a thought turn what ever got close into perforated sludge almost instantly. It wasn't perfect however, and by the time we got up near the top, there were a few missing from his 'armour' as bits of the swarm failed to return to him.

Now huddled at the top of this particular spire of mossy grey rock, we got a better look at what our landing zone would be.

"Click!" Clive pointed at something on the very slowly moving mountain as it rumbled past, each step making the ground vibrate alarmingly.

I squinted in that direction, "No way... Is that..."

"It looks like the ruins of a town." Usa said, Fohl nodding beside him. "Shh!"

A handful of bats flapped overhead, spun, then returned to the cloud over the tortoise's back.

Raphtalia took a sip of mana water, and mumbled something, the air around us feeling a little heavier as she renewed her stealth magic, "Imagine living on that." She said once the spell was in place.

"Atla? See anything we don't?" I asked.

She had been mostly silent all the way up here, using one word replies and making the occasional grunt of effort like everyone else as we moved. Still, her near 'light' blindness hadn't really hindered her so far. But it was easy to tell she was distracted.

"I... You are all covered in a thick fog... It makes it easier, and harder, to see. You all shine brightly, but everything else is so... dim. And that..." She pointed to the Tortoise, "Is like a black... pit..."

There was a shimmering metallic noise, and I idly noted Tenno's level tick up by one.

"I need to get to that blackness. The darkest part of it." I said, "I think what you are seeing as 'fog' is all the energy these bats and other familiar are sending back to the tortoise. I need to get there so I can stop it."

"Sister? Can you see any other lights? Like us? Over there?" Fohl asked.

"I..." She squinted in the direction of the tortoise, "I can't tell, no." She looked away, and towards the ant-sized soldiers lining up on the ridges that the monster was walking towards. "I can't even see them... I know they should be there, but I can't see them."

I thought about that for a moment, then shook my head, "It might get better when we get inside... If we can." I looked to the crouching giant Bee next to us, "Tenno. It's time. Be careful. Raphtalia?"

"Here." She handed Tenno a little clay pot, "Just open it when you have it secure."

He took the little pot, then the end of my Rope Shield's rope, accepted one last headpat from me, and zipped off towards the tortoise's back.

It wasn't long, maybe ten seconds, before the bats overhead seemed to notice something wasn't right. Ten seconds after that, it was obvious Tenno had been spotted, the clouds of bats over the mountain starting to spiral like a tornado of wings and fangs.

"We have to help!" Raphtalia called out, "But..."

"Usa? Lightning protection, Clive, ready to shoot. Tetsu, throw that when Usa starts casting his second spell. This isn't how I wanted to signal them, but it will have to work." I looked to Fohl, "When we get about half way, start casting."

The spiral of bats started to converge on the sliver/black streak of Tenno, but before they could reach him, the front 'point' of monsters just... dropped from the sky. I lost sight of the Emperor Bee for a moment, then there was a flash of bright white light from Raphtalia's little clay jar. "It's secure!" I said.

An instant later, my status screen lit up with a little lightning bolt icon, Usa's protection magic. As instructed, as soon as he started the second spell, Tetsu heaved a clay pot of iron dust out over the expanse between us and the tortoise, and we all got on her back. "Hang on!" She called out.

With my ankles formly hooked under her wings, and everyone else now on her back, or in Usa's case, held by her front 'legs', she spread her wings and stepped off into the air.

The rope was really just to make sure Tetsu could keep her 'balance' in the air. While not 'fast' by any means, the tortoise was still moving forward, and it wasn't long before she started to drift towards its 'rear'.

Before THAT though...

Tetsu's throw was even better than the one in Lerno, and the clay pot flew high and far, well over one of the thickest clouds of bats. As she stepped out into open air, (with a little 'eep' noise from Raphtalia) Clive's bow thrummed and sent a little sliver of light towards the pot. As before, the pot shattered, a cloud of black dust bursting into the sky.

But it was only when we had started to drift towards the rear of the walking landmass, that Usa called out the last of his spell.

I hoped, really hoped, that Tenno had shed, or lost the metal swarm.

(On the ground, before the signal)

"Catapults! FIRE!"

No one who had ever laid eyes on the Queen of Melromarc could call her timid. Without hesitation, without fear, without flinching, she was barking orders, and when needed, standing with the soldiers as they fought.

At first, as predicted, as expected, Bats were the problem. While setting up, the more curious of the bat swarm were slain by archers. However, the familiars knew 'resistance' when it felt it, and it wasn't long before the 'curious' became a 'swarm'.

But one of the Shield Hero's gifts was ready to use. With buckets filled with little metal 'grapes', the catapult crews aimed not at the giant walking mountain, but instead shortened their range and aimed almost straight up. With heavy 'thumps' the catapults let out scoops of deadly spheres towards the flying threats.

Skies momentarily clear of all but the most lucky of threats, the ballista aimed for the charging beasts running among the tortoise's feet.

"Mages!" Mirellia called out, "Ready!"

The mages weren't actually close, they were quite far away, hidden behind a small wall of archers and infantry, behind a boulder that kept them mostly out of sight. It was from here, that one of them saw a signal arrow, and as one they started to cast.

It wasn't their job to stop the beast. If the stories were true, they couldn't. Not really. But slow it down? Maybe... That might be possible. It was actually an idea given by accident, Tetsu wondering how big the tortoise's foot was, and someone else, one of the surviving generals, commenting at the lake sized hole the tortoise left when it woke up.

There was a little, beacon bright glimmer from the back of the tortoise, and a moment later a sun bright burst of clawing, crawling lightning over its peaks.

Then the mages pulled the 'trigger' on their ritual spell, and suddenly, one of the tortoise's feet vanished up to almost the shoulder in a sudden pit of mud as it took its next step.

(Back in the sky)

With the crash of thunder still echoing off the peaks on the tortoise's back, the beast made its very first noise as it, and everything on its back listed sharply to the left. Amusingly, the noise was really just a breathy 'hooooooooonnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn' as the front corner of its shell slammed into the ground under it.

"You guys... are so heavy..." Poor Tetsu pouted as her big dragon wings shivered with the effort to keep us all aloft. Even gliding, it was hard on her.

"Fohl!" I called out, then a little quieter, "Raphtalia."

The Shield started to reel in the rope, and my arm and shoulder felt like they were going to tear apart. Raphtalia wrapped her arms around me as best she could, to help anchor me in the saddle, while both her and my legs tried to grip Tetsu's sides.

Behind Raphtalia, Clive held on to Atla, who held on to Fohl, as he finished his most powerful spell. "Dritte Flame!"

By now, we all knew we would have the attention of the bats, but instead of one arrow at a time from a gliding dragon with more than she could really carry, Fohl was using the third spell he'd learned. Essentially? A flamethrower. It was literally 'fire for effect' to keep as many of the bats off of us as we basically fell sideways towards what looked to be the ruins of that village.

"We're not going towards the light!" Tetsu said with a groan, "It fell off when the turtle tripped!"

"It's fine!" I said through gritted teeth, "We're close enough! Raphtalia!"

I stopped reeling in the Rope and dared to let go of the saddle and hold my wrist instead. With nimble motion, Raphtalia let go of me, hopped over my shoulder, boffed me with her tail, and started down the rope. "Usa grab her!"

Raphtalia held on to the Rope just past Tetsu's head, and a moment later Usa grabbed her ankle. She curled up, half pull-up half squat, and Usa used his other hand to grip the Rope himself before the two of them half slid half crawled down to the 'surface'.

"Clive! Atla!" I called out as Fohl let out another wave of fire, back to back casting before the first spell had even stopped its effect.

Atla 'eep'ed behind me, "I'll hold this. Please don't drop me." She added, as polite as always even if we were... really high up.

Clive's reply was a barely audible click of his mouth, as he put a hand on my shoulder, stepped over me, and grabbed the Rope as well. Atla clung to his back, his bow slung over her shoulder 'cross body'.

"So much lighter..." Tetsu sighed, "NO! BAD BAT!" followed by crunchy squelch as she smashed one with a claw. "Can I go down now?"

"Yes!"

Then the Tortoise did something... flashy.

(In front of the Tortoise)

"Success it seems." The Queen nodded, "Signal the retreat." She said to a nervous young man with a quiver of arrows.

One of the 'local' generals scowled, "Is that really needed now? If the Hero is on its back, our victory is all but secure!"

The poor boy with the bow looked between the two leaders, his bow ready, but his hand hesitating over the coloured feathers of the stored arrows.

"Have you forgotten? We have been given a task by the Hero. The task is done, now we must make ready." The Queen replied, looking towards the boy.

The General was about to retort, but off in the distance, the tortoise stopped trying to heave its leg out of the mud, stopped trying to use its long neck and head as a lever to help dislodge itself, and turned to look directly at the line of balista and catapult to its right.

It opened its mouth, a ball of pink/purple energy forming between its upper and lower 'beak, and without warning, noise, or ceremony, obliterated the line of artillery, most of the ridge, and probably everyone on it with a stream of energy. There was no noise, at least, no noise until it hit something solid. Then it was like a hurricane mixed with a power drill as it eroded everything in its path.

"You killed those people." The Queen said, snatching the bow from the stunned boy, selecting the correct arrow, and firing it herself. "Retreat!" She yelled out, holding up the Vassal Fan and making it glow the same red as the signal arrow, "Fighting retreat! Behind hard cover! Soldiers protect the archers! Archers protect the artillery! By the Four! Move!"

(Kodori)

I didn't know what happened 'in the real world', but spiritually, whatever the tortoise had just done, expended a large amount of spiritual energy. Poor Atla was rubbing her eyes as I felt the effect ebb and the area around me return to feeling oppressively heavy.

"Are we all here? Where is Tenno?" Raphtalia asked.

"My wings hurt..." Tetsu, now in smol form twitched her wings with a wince.

"I hear him." Usa said, his ears turning towards what looked like stairs that had been carved into the stone, then upwards. "There I think." He pointed to what looked like part of a roof peeking over a ridge of rock.

We collected ourselves, did a ten second weapon check, then broke cover and started fighting up the hill. Running single file up the worn (but still impressively carved) stone steps made us easy targets, but now that we weren't on the back of an overcrowded dragon we could fight as normal. Quick flashes of lightning, conservative flashes of fire, arrows made of energy, singing steel, and the occasional kick got us up the steps quickly. With the addition of the Shields unlocked by the Whale, I could use the Air Strike Shield almost constantly, keeping us from getting overwhelmed. To be fair, only Fohl and Atla were in any real danger, since the rest of us were level ninety or so.

"He's in that cabin there!" Usa said, the spiked end of his whip slamming into a yeti's eye, then dragging the body forward as he yanked it out of its skull.

I could hear it now too. Anyone who's heard an upset wasp nest knew that noise. Scaled up to 'human' size, the sound of Tenno fighting in the enclosed space sounded kind of like a weed-whacker with the occasional wet noise of his spear ripping through flesh.

Raphtalia broke ranks, running ahead, cutting through another yeti, then calling out, "I'm almost there!"

"Look, a weird squiggle rock!" Tetsu commented, pointing for a moment before her other hand threw a shard of rock through a bat.

I finished throwing a line of killer icicles upwards, then put another Air Strike Shield above Atla's head so she could kick in the skull of a not quite dead bat Clive had shot in peace. "Wait what?" I looked towards where Tetsu had pointed.

Yeah, it was a 'squiggle rock'. Or rather, another stone slab with writing on it, like the one in Cal Mira. Sadly, this one was basically illegible, time, and lack of care from the long gone inhabitants of this shattered village had taken its toll.

"I'll look more later! Probably not important!" I heard more fighting inside the building where Raphtalia and Usa had rushed into, "Everyone into the building! I'll cover! Go go!"

Once we had all entered what might have once been the largest building in the village, killed a few more bats and one last yeti, things seemed to calm down a little. Did they not attack the buildings? Had we actually thinned them out enough to slow them down?

Still, Clive kept watch as we collected ourselves, "How bad is it?" Usa asked me as I tended to Tenno.

"Not sure I can save the arm." I admitted, "I only have two friends back home with a body like this, and one of them just opted to remove the broken segment so it could regrow."

Poor Tenno had suffered the worst out of all of us. His exoskeleton had been cracked in a couple of places and one of his middle arms was a mostly mangled mess. Bandages and directly applied healing potions fixed the wounds on his carapace, but the arm was more like a seeping jigsaw puzzle than a limb. His wings were a little bit of a mess too, but they were already straightening out as Raphtalia gently wiped healing salve over them with a cloth.

"Remove arm, will grow again." Tenno said quietly, careful not to touch people with his wings while he 'talked' through my horns. "Will hurt less."

"Very well." I said, "Usa? One cut here." I put my hand against Tenno's side, while the other gripped the broken carapace past the elbow joint. "Someone give him a hug."

Raphtalia held him in place, and with a quiet noise, almost like canvas being cut, the mangled forearm came free in my hand. Fohl was there almost instantly, holding the stump while Atla applied a bandage over the oozing wound.

Oddly, Tenno seemed to not care much about this. Once the bandaging was done, everyone stepped back, and he 'spoke' something to Raphtalia.

"Please, find a place to nap then." She said.

And just like Kunshu, he handed his spear to the nearest person, walked to the corner of the room, and curled into a fuzzy ball.

"I might just use this." Atla said.

"buzz." Tenno replied, a clear 'go ahead'.

"So, now what?" Tetsu said, "And... kinda hungry again..."

"Well, now we look for a way in. Shouldn't be too hard. One of us sees the energy its eating, and I can feel it." I looked to Atla, "Fohl, Raphtalia, go with Atla. Usa, Tetsu? With me. Clive, hold this spot, in case we need to retreat here. Stay under what ever cover you can, and be as quiet as reasonable." I also pulled out a few snacks from the Shield's inventory.

"I wonder what happened to the people here..." Usa mumbled.

Had it not been on the back of a (still trying to right itself) walking landmass, this might have been a nice place at one point. Though, if what little I had heard was true, this giant monster spent a lot of time sleeping. Of course, if the bats and other soul eating familiar were something that only happened when it was awake...

"I hear something..." Usa mumbled, almost into my ear. "The wind is catching on something, making a different noise."

"Smells like that food we forgot to cook..." Tetsu said, wrinkling her little nose.

"This way." They both said, pointing down what might have been a narrow street once upon a time.

While time and weather had mostly reclaimed the village, the fact the buildings were still standing was impressive. Sure, some looked to be held up by nothing but vines and moss. But it had a very distinct Japanese style to it. Part of it, was the landscape. There were clear remains of small terraced gardens. Looking under a partially collapsed cabin revealed primitive but still used to this day 'floating supports' where the house was standing freely on many stout stilts of wood that rested on flat stones sunk into the dirt. And even with the rather extreme listing of the ground, the remaining houses were still upright! They knew their stuff, and knew what they were building on for sure.

It did raise a few questions though... Where did they get their water? Did they import soil? Did they even know what they were building was a death trap? If this was one of the world's guardians, did the Phoenix, Tiger and Dragon exist someplace in the world?

"More stinky smell over this way..." Tetsu pouted, "It makes me hungry... but not hungry..."

I glanced at Usa, who shook his head, "I've lost the sound, but it might just be the direction we're in."

I nodded, looked up, spotted no immediate danger and knelt, "The air is so thick with weird energy, but it's all going in a single direction."

"Be careful Ma'am... Will it hurt you like it did on the mountain?" Usa asked.

It took a moment for me to remember, "I'm not sure. This is just... life energy being pulled in instead of let go. Not like the zombie dragon, with an actual will behind it. Now... If there were a soul that still had its awareness? Maybe?"

"And I thought you to be an expert in such things?" Glass taunted from around my neck.

"Honestly, my children are almost as good as I was before I arrived here. Not a lot of time to practise back home. Here though..." I put my metal and leather clad hand to the ground, "That's... odd."

(Someplace near the sunken leg of the Tortoise.)

Kuro and Rishia were working themselves up to 'board' the back of the giant monster. It was more 'Kuro trying to encourage Rishia', but they were still a team, and they were quietly trying to figure out 'what next' if they managed to actually get on board the thing's back.

"I am certain I can jump that distance, the next time it sinks into the mud." Kuro said, shifting from one big bird foot to the other, squinting her eyes and trying to judge distance.

"What if it-"

"What now. Not what if. Kodori may be a little scary, but she has a lot of good sayings." Kuro said, "We both want to save our masters. But we need to get on first."

"fueeeeh..." Rishia pouted, hugging Kuro's wide feathery back like a pillow, but letting go after she'd 'fueeeeh'ed all the air from her lungs. "We could maybe attack its head? If we get on top of the shell..."

"Oh, now that is an interesting idea." Kuro's clawed feet clenched, making divots in the dirt under them. "Sadly, we lack Raphtalia's sword, but..."

"It looks like its trying again..." Rishia said, "Maybe start running now? Please don't fall short?"

Kuro nodded with a firm 'hmm hmm!' and her feet started smashing the ground to pick up speed. "I'll teach you to pick on my master..."

Rishia had no trouble holding on to Kuro as she got up to a rather (excessive?) impressive top speed. "I wonder why Kodori didn't ask for us to join her?"

"I think..." Kuro started, "she wants us to figure something out on our own. She got us here..." She extended her wings, more for balance not an attempt to fly. "But gave us a choice to try on our own."

The ledge Kuro was aiming to jump from was coming up fast, so in an effort to help Kuro pick up as much speed as she could (not because she was scared she might not make the jump, no sir!) Rishia got as low as she could on Kuro's back.

"Uh oh, it looks like it's actually going to get free! I'm going to go faster!" Kuro said, the tortoise across the expanse managing to push with its head and neck to get its stuck leg out of the mud finally, "Hold on!"

(Kodori)

We met Raphtalia's group as they came to the same conclusion we had on 'where the entrance was'. Discarding game logic, the cave looked a little unnatural, the opening and domed roof of the little cavern entrance more like the inside of smooth geode.

But, with something this big, it might well have been a blister on the outer shell from ages ago that never healed, leaving a 'natural' gap in the shell that had rotted around the edges, then never closed properly.

"I already signalled Clive." Raphtalia said, demonstrating with a little glow stone she could turn on and off at will. "We passed by the building he's in and hid under a roof so we weren't seen from above."

"Goo-"

"click." Clive said from a few paces away, his well loved but still very functional camouflage cape shedding the colours from around it and returning to stone grey.

Everyone but Usa jumped a little at his appearance, yes, even me, but he handed me something. "What's..." It was a wrapped up bit of paper. I unrolled it, nodded, and smiled, "Forgiven. I'll give it to HIDA later, maybe she can figure out what it said." It was a bit of paper with a 'rubbing' of what was left of the words on the rock.

"Are we going into the cave then? What about Tenno?" Fohl asked.

From under Clive's cape there was a quiet 'buzz.'

"Wow... How are you so compact?" Raphtalia asked, "But..."

"Tenno? Stick to the ceiling here. Its taller than the yeti, and the bats have mostly thinned out for the moment." I suggested.

Clive's cape bulged and flexed, and Tenno uncurled from underneath it, stood, then reached up with his top two arms and pulled himself up to a new spot on the ceiling. I made sure to give his back a pat before he got out of reach.

"Okay..." I said, "There seems to be two things going on under our feet. First, is our target. There's two, and I can't figure out which one is the right one."

"Two? So not just where the energy is going?" Raphtalia asked, "Atla?"

"I don't know. I see so much darkness, but much of it is going into the cave here."

Fohl gave his sister a pat on the shoulder, "With how weird the world is, if I had to guess, one is its heart, where all its power starts, but the other is something else, related to this soul eating thing its doing." I said, "Honestly, its heart would be my first target, since one will stop the other, while this other target will only, maybe stop the familiars eating people."

"We'll follow your lead." Usa said, "If its the heart you are after... well..." One of his ears twitched.

(Outside, front lines)

Mirellia, along with many soldiers, had all started the retreat. After the 'delay' in giving the order to retreat, and the cost of the example for such foolishness, everyone was all too happy to find a safer place to be than near a tortoise that could annihilate part of a mountain with a sneeze.

"help... the pain... tormented soul... unworthy wielder... disrupting the order..."

The voice sounded like it was behind her left ear. But aside from a little hair that had escaped its tightly braided confines, there was nothing there. However, the gem on the Vassal Fan was glowing faintly.

NOTES!

Oh wait... hear that? It's plot being kicked clear of the tracks!

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