Chapter 68: Chapter 67: A Bit Of Normality Part 2

“Good! The progress you two are making is astounding. We’ll stop for a bit of lunch and then get back to it.”

Carl and Klaire collapsed onto the hard rock of Archyon’s surface. “Carl, are you getting those messages too?”

“Do you mean, Gillian, Blanc, Sophie, or the dozens from my mums about how we managed to keep Levi and Squidge in line?”

“All of them…”

“Unfortunately… At least that business with the dwarf is done, don’t be too hard on him Tiamutael was made to be an example of what our kids can do… Even if I do just want him to be a kid.”

“I’m not, what I’m mad about is Blanc not noticing Sophie because he’s too busy praising “Carl, our lord and saviour” I think he said…”

“Yep, he did say that, then what looks like he smashed his face into a keyboard…”

“Would helping those two out be overstepping?”

“What? I already gave them both the day off tomorrow to rest up before an intense and monotonous mapping of the electrical systems… Should I not have?”

“I said “lunch” not selective breeding experiments!” Lillim shouted.

—In the demon realm of Tartarus—-

The demon realm of Tartarus is a hellscape unlike any other, where rainforests abruptly lead to deserts, where you can reach the top of a mountain and find yourself on a single pillar of land amidst an ocean.

It is the demon realm where an elder god once had the titans sealed away, only for the same elder god Noah had met just three weeks earlier by his time.

“Reaga, any sign of the damn bird?”

’Sorry Dad, nothing yet. Did you want me to go scout?”

“Nah, take it easy, patience is half the game. Move too much and it will scare the thing off.”

“Dad, you have asked me once a minute for the past ten. That doesn’t sound li- Trouble coming, Burrowing death under ground.”

’Telepathy only until it passes.’

As he gave the order a shadow caught Reaga’s attention. As he used his telescopic vision to focus in on the movement, a bird about half a metre tall with four wings that were each the same length as its body was hovering above a tree.

It’s most distinguishing feature was the prehensile flail it had trailing behind it.

’Dad… The bird, it’s landing about fifteen hundred feet in front.’

’Damn it, doesn’t matter, we can’t catch it if we’re dead.’

’Dad… I think it’s mocking us… Wait! No, worse, it’s about to clobber the tree…’

’That fucking bird is mine… Cloak and get it in range, the moment you can paralyse it and I’ll try to deal with the titan spawn. Anything goes wrong Call your Carl and save yourself, do not let Carl in here.’

’…Understood…’ Reaga cloaked immediately, swimming through the air and growing as it closed the distance between them.

Before it reached the bird however, a large hollow *THUNK* echoed through the rainforest.

It was painfully close to being neutralised, the bird found itself paralysed beneath Reaga’s gaze before the noise had a chance to echo, but it wasn’t enough and as Reaga snatched it out of its freefall with his tail, the ground erupted.

The burrowing death was enormous, the head reminiscent of some kind of dragon mutant, its shovel like forearms designed to move through the ground like it wasn’t even there. it reached the height of its jump a mere fifteen feet from Reaga, who had began ascending as soon as he had caught the bird and managed to reach an altitude of a nine hundred feet.

’Dad! It’s paralysed! I really did it!’ Reaga shouted triumphantly as Noah launched himself from his perch.

“Great job son! Let’s take the boss some materials as interest for making him wait though. Activate skill: Hunter’s spear dive.”

As Noah spoke, a nanite spear, made from a unique nanotech that Alysse had created as a prototype began to form, the skill accelerated his descent to terminal velocity immediately, Alysse’s nanites was feeding of the system generated perpetual energy to grow denser and denser.

On impact the system reflected the full force of the attack on Noah’s target, mitigating the lethal blowback that he would have suffered otherwise.

The attack was devastating, completely obliterating the entire section that had been struck and cutting the exposed portion of the monster’s body in half.

“What the hell did that madwoman make? Kids should not be able to make stuff like this…”

“Want me to tell Alysse you don’t like it?”

“Hey! Lying is bad, this thing is bloody awesome. I said she shouldn’t be able to make it, not that she should waste the ability if she has it.” Noah chuckled, quickly turning his attention to the bird.

“Dad, I’m keeping it away from you until you calm down. I want to go home and tell Orm everything that happened and the boss has waited long enough, don’t you think?”

“Just let me pluck a few feathers…”

“Dad, I will paralyse you…”

“Pfft, fine. Let’s get this thing in storage so those crazy kids can put their imaginations to good use.”

—Back on Lunellia—

Kon and Blaine were leading survey teams from some newly discovered swamps on Lunelia.

“I think it is just a waste Kyubi had this place and didn’t even bother to visit once since the day she claimed it.”

“She only claimed it because she walked through a gate in search of a way to bring her kind back.”

“I know, I know, still though…”

“I do understand the sentiment, all these new species of flora and fauna. Earth used to have animals like the ones here apparently, maybe we should do a full sample spread and determine their origins.”

“Think they might be descended from old earth animals?”

“It’s possible and Carl wanted them, something about one day restoring Earth to how it was. I just hope he doesn’t have those ideas shattered.”

“Professor Kon, forgive me, but why did you join up with him?”

“I joined because I was asked, the reason I stayed though? Simple. He worked harder than any student I had ever seen, even when he succeeded he kicked himself over the mistakes and made sure the plan was perfect.”

“So academic respect?”

“Yes and no, I definitely respect him, but I’m also very concerned about him. He doesn’t celebrate wins, he suffers them. I wanted to stay close, make sure he knows that when he fails he can do the same.”

“Ah, so just being his teacher.”

“Yes and no…” Kon chuckled at the repetition. “…Failure is inevitable, if we let him beat himself up every time he experiences it he’ll break eventually. I do not want to see what happens when that man breaks, so I will do my duty as the member of an exhausted species and make sure it doesn’t have to face that threat.”

“Dad, trouble, movement underground.”

“Underground? Kon, we haven’t encountered any subterranean species yet, have we?”

“Not on Lunelia, No. Any idea how large?”

“About fifty metres? Not sure, I’m not good at assessing sizes, sorry.”

“Don’t worry Orm, just be ready to open your eyes okay.”

’Sitter, are you not detecting anything?’

’No, I’m not feeling a thing, well the earth is a bit itchy.’

“Sitter, surface now! Get ready to encase everyone in vines. Everyone on Blaine! Orm ascend to the edge of your paralysis effect, me and you are going to distract and attract, Sitter defense and support.”

Kon suddenly sprinted off, realising some ropes lined with as many weights as there were feet in the group that he had coiled on his backpack.

“Profesor Kon! It’s following you!”

“That’s the plan! Tell me when it’s emerging!”

“That’s what I meant! Grab my tail!” The tail in question swung in front of him and he lunged at it, gripping Orm’s tail like his life depended on it as he was pulled from the surface.

“Dad, I’m super itchy!” Sitter suddenly shrieked.

“The plants here are carnivorous, whatever calls this place home must poison the ground to stop them spreading roots in their territory… Sitter! climb a tree and pull the vine barrier up, then get inside and ask Blaine for help.”

“What’s the plan professor?”

“Sorry to put this all on you, but I’m going to hold on as tight as I can, unlike Levi you can petrify too, right?”

“Yep, wait, no… I can’t petrify you while you grip me, you could shatter!”

“Relax, I need you to petrify it when it emerges, but just enough it tries to flee. Then I need you to stalk it and I’ll make sure everybody is safe and follow it underground. When I flush it up to the surface you paralyse and kill from a distance.”

“Okay but then why are you holding tight?”

“I need you lash the ground with the ropes and weights, it will either scare them off or draw them out.”

With the plan set, that was exactly what they did.

What burst from the earth wasn’t a massive singular beast, but hundreds of smaller creatures like a mix between beetles and crabs.

The moment the emerged and began to feel the effects of the petrification, they stampeded back to where they came from.

Some were trample and maimed under the blade like legs of the masses as the back rows pushed out and the front ones pushed in.

What was left were crippled and half petrified specimens…

Kon dropped down to finish off the injured and let Orm move unencumbered but whilst they collected the remains, Blaine suddenly turned to Kon. “My boy says the problem is bigger than we imagined, he isn’t certain but he thinks the main structure of the creatures network is roughly a kilometre wide and incredibly deep.”

“Damn, we’re going to have to disappoint him. We either go on an extinction campaign, abandon the planet, or come up with plan C.”

“Well, I’m sure Carl will figure it out, wiping species out is kind of the opposite of Carl’s way.”

“I hope you’re right, I know he wanted this as a menagerie world, but that might not be feasible without wiping out the entire native ecology.”

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