Chapter 19- Grand Finale Continues

“Look out, there is more coming!!!” Knox shouts from the tree.

Andrea rushes to John squirming on the ground. She is relieved to see the mistress still awake despite her legs being gnawed on, and raking wounds across the wings. With hardly a warning John’s arm is pulled up and his body is quickly dragged several meters back in the direction of the tree Knox remains up in.

“Mistress I mean no disrespect, but you first. I’m grateful for your consideration, but you can’t stay down here. Also…”  Andrea glances at Sakura providing cover with the mithril sword as the two close in on the tree. “I don’t want the responsibility of letting any more harm come to you…”

“CATCH!!!” is the last thing John heard from Andrea.

Knocks wasn’t ready for the speed that the Mistress was sent flying up into the tree. She just barely caught on to John’s hips and legs above the severe bites. Carefully John’s body slid down Knock’s until he was paused gazing at her face to face. “You’ll be safer up here Mistress. But it’s best to be higher up than this point.” Carefully Knocks slid her hands back and forth across John’s body again working in reverse. Promptly John’s bottom was deposited on another branch at the height of Knock’s head. “Keep going up a bit higher and we will try and slow down the beasts. Then we can try to treat your wounds.

            The unilateral support John has just received from this party of monsters caused his heart to thump harder; it wasn’t just the gross wounds or stabbing pain in his legs causing a heart murmur. Each monster or person, core or fox kin just wholly defended him, and handled his body gently. Almost like one would treat a child or lover. It was so stirring for his emotions to have been cared for this way in a life and death situation. This is the total reverse of how most of the people in the other world treated him. The loathing and disdained he so frequently received in most of that life was like an open wound and this was like a band aid for his heart. The likes of this filled in part of the pit left in his heart. These entities were not his biological parents, nor were they long term friends. But they worked so smoothly together for his good it drove his heart into actions. To give as well as he got, a total reciprocation of what has been done to him.

            Only one wolf was away from the group trying to scratch, rub, shake and jump away from its new burning necklace that would be called Dee-Prudence. But despite being smashed, and scratched the slime held on and rapidly kept trying to dissolve the neck of this beast gone wild. Dee had to dissolve rapidly to keep from taking too much damage and losing hold of the neck. The only thing going for Dee was position and the difficulty to hit that position. In moments the fur, skin and neck muscles were dissolved away and it was working into the blood, veins, bone, and throat of the wolf.  Dee’s hold remained firm onto the wolf up until the last gurgling breath the wolf took, and the last beat of its heart. Only in this moment did Dee spend any attention at the location of itself and the party. With a sigh Dee looked around to note this place before trying to make way back to the group. Dee was hoping this wasn’t going to be a problem. After all at least one wolf died after attacking the Mistress.

            Andrea put her back toward the tree and grabbed another fallen branch as blood ran down off her body. She took up position next to Sakura

            John called to mind the pain in his body and the pain in his past life and tried to pull that blackness out. He channeled his energy into the darkness of that substance like crude oil and focused on extracting one element from it. He remembered Naphthenic acid from crude oil, and projected his energy into the space away from the tree. The space among the encroaching wolfs. He added the conjured element Palmitic to the Naphthnic Acid, and then mixing those particulates to an aluminum salt. John’s eyes burned with a golden intensity and the magic was nearly electric to anyone who could feel it. But he thinned it out as a mist in the open field trying to cover the ring as the wolves continued to emerge from the trees.

            Knocks called a warning again to Sakura. “Sakura, Mistress is doing something strange again. And I don’t think it’s going to be pleasant. This feels extremely unpleasant up here and I don’t understand what’s going on.”

            The wolves could sense a malintention in the field.  At first a few avoided the area and tried to circle around the tree. But nothing happened as they passed into the area. The tree contains something delicious.  It is just like a cornered beast growling before it dies to the power of the pack.  With nearly half a dozen of these large wolfs stalking in like an inevitable wall of death the end is obvious.  The pray should simply fall over to be eaten. It will happen and nothing shall change the truth of it, this is the belief of the wolves pack. However tiny droplets start forming and adhering to every wolf entering the field. But the mist clings to everything it touches. Just like a thin fog of tar.

            Everyone at this point could make out a blackening mist forming in the clearing. Like a dark sinister cloud that emanated a particular nasty intent. Sakura poured mana out and raised a half defensive wall ringing half the base of the tree. Maybe if they could choke the area they could limit the amount of wolfs they would have to fight.

            The darkest command and intention Sakura has ever felt from John presses her to obeisance. In a voice that dropped in tone, John hissed out a command for everyone.

            “Sakura cast just a little fire into the darkness, and EVERYONE GET DOWN AND BEHIND SOMETHING!! Don’t let the flames touch you!”

            The wolves close in to get ready for one final pounce and eat their snack. Their muscles tighten and with barely a shake the few ready take their pounce.

            Sakura overwhelmed with a bad feeling did as she was told. She sent out the smallest amount of mana producing dancing flames the size of candles into the black misty cloud. That cloud shape made a donut around the trees in the clearing, and is bigger round than the largest of the five foot tall wolfs.

            Dee-Prudence felt some strong compulsion cause her human form to throw her body flat to the ground behind a tree. Rational mind thought this was very wrong. But something inside her core forced this action. Dee did not have the time to troubleshoot this conundrum.

            John poured over 500 energy into the dark cloud, and as soon as Sakura launched the flames he tried to roll out of the tree and squeeze the eyes shut. He hoped he could land on the ground with the party behind the stone wall. With as much mental focus as possible he maintained the chemical spell cloud and prevented it from dissipating. With luck the effect would kill as many of the wolves as possible.

            Knox did a belly flop to the ground and landed near Andrea behind the small stone wall Sakura conjured. Then Sakura landed on part of the other two crowding in the limited space between the wall and tree.

            The forest grew quiet for just a heartbeat.

Everything suddenly lit up in a white and orange cloud, accompanied with a sudden concussion from the wind. A cloud set a blaze rolled up out of the forest. Trees broke from pressure and flames stuck to debris. Everything in the area was tossed and jostled from where it was. The trees were splintered and thrown; the ground was broken and tossed. A sound more intimidating than thunder rolled away from the area, and the ground shook from the explosion. Small rocks were set to rolling on the nearby mountain slope.

After the explosion the forest in the area fell gravely quiet except for the falling debris, and the lingering flames. All the wolves that were in the area were gone reduced to pink mist, and chunks of gore. The clearing was devoid of anything on the ground and barely any trunk was left of the gnarled trees that were once entwined in the center of the field.

In the early dawn hours an eerie light glowed in the forest south of town.  Many leaders were brought reports of people panicking when a sinister noise like thunder echoed from mountain to mountain. They believed this is an omen of bad things to come.

The orb that Aurora was using to fix yet another problem had for a couple minutes been thrown into a glitch state. Numerous errors were popping up related to magic, gas, mineral, chemical, and a whole host of problems before going all static. This blasted orb not only shut down the error she was trying to fix, but then flipped out over all sorts of other stuff. After more than an hour she finally got the thing to start working right. She reopened the error she was just working on only to find out the errors doubled from closing unexpectedly. In addition she couldn’t find what had caused the crash. But the list of errors has changed. Now she needs to check an area far to the south near the city in the mountains. It is in the direction of the humans.

            Dee-Prudence was rattled to the core as the forest was shaken and thrown. For long moments Dee remained curled up and held on tight to tree roots. Suddenly a blast of wind struck the tree and blew past. Part of this massive tree was snapped off and came crashing to the ground. Other than being torn up by loose debris and falling branches Dee fared better than most of the woods in this area. But this entire thing is unsettling. As soon as the worst of it settled down Dee reformed to dislodge the branch that pinned part of the torso to the ground. Then with cautious steps Dee moved forward to find everyone. This scale of destruction is unimaginable. Trees were impaled and broken.  Once Dee got close enough the clearing was obvious.

Everything was scoured from the ground and all the nearby trees were broken making the clearing immense.  But according to her core this is where everyone is.  Yet before her eyes nothing remains. Dee-Prudence runs for the clearing.

Sakura could feel everyone’s panic and the shear agony coming from the Mistress.  The earth around the party started to fall apart as if dissolving and one by one they fell to the ground of a black pit. Sakura used her powers of the dungeon to have claimed and buried the party into the ground. But the party was almost lost even with that. She tried to cover the party up to 20 feet below the ground level. But when the explosion happened they were nearly sucked out of the hole.

John could only moan in distress while the blood just poured from his legs. One leg was ripped off at the bite wounds and the other leg was broken and snapped sideways from the bite wound. Very quickly everyone was being covered by John’s blood. He was screaming and trying to deal with the wound for long moments before the core covered them with earth. And still the blast tore up the ground and rattled John to an extreme.

With no time to spare Sakura set at fixing up John’s mutilated wounds.  She figured it would be like before, but she was wrong. Even she could feel the vibrations from the explosion and she was worried for a time her core would just shatter. But everyone made it. The last person in the hole was the one on top, meaning it was her Mistress. Minor fractures litter the bones, and muscles were ripped from being so close to the explosion. To make it worse most of the leg is gone. Her fleshy tendrils are fine for knitting together stuff, but she can’t seem to use them to make what is not there at all. John’s body is doing like before and using the tendrils for replacing small missing gaps. They have the effect of filling in a crack. But with no leg to attach then this is a problem. So she settles with stopping the loss of blood first.

Eight Hours Later

            The party has moved John to a small three walled shack. Just outside of the missing wall is a campfire that could be used to cast heat into the shelter. As far as they could guess this is the human road John spoke of. So traders should pass through here from one direction or another. They should learn the direction to the nearest settlement from anyone arriving here.  This is where Sakura is practicing being John’s nurse, doctor, and moral support. John has yet to awaken after the injury. Their mistress has only to gain some lucidity before passing out again. It could be from the pain or just the damage in general. Maybe with help they could remedy this problem. Time will tell, as John put it. As a note to the dungeon party they should never anger their Queen of Null. Everyone remembers the scene of destruction well, so let us work to avoid that happening a second time.

            Sakura has done all she can but most of John’s one leg is gone and she can’t just regrow it.  The smallest fractures have mostly been treated and healed. The larger ones are still mending, and the muscle was the fastest to heal over. But there was a lot of damage. For a time she considered trying to make a leg and then attach it, but she never did a full examination before. So it could be a waste to make a leg that is not equal to the other. There is no way to know if the fake leg would be fixed up equal to what was lost. She will wait and ask John when he is conscious. So for the time being she intends to be more productive than to gamble and waste mana.

Starting with John’s remaining foot and working up she penetrates all the flesh to examine everything closely.  The fleshy vein like tendrils vary in size from tiny to large ones the size of a #2 pencil lead. She tries to record everything to her memory. The placement of all the veins and arteries are recorded in relation to the muscles and bone. She notes how nerves and other things function in conjunction with one another. And she starts to update her knowledge on a humanoid body.  So much of what she has made herself was superficial in function and appearance. There is so much more in John’s body that it makes Sakura’s efforts look like a child playing games with clay. She records the sensations of pain, and pleasure from John through the close intimate connection. But this is still not the same as when John is awake and has conscious feeling. It is like touching a wall with gloves on and describing the texture you feel with your fingers. Even so she doesn’t try to cause pain intentionally.

With all the help Sakura is able to provide the Mistress, and the things they can do like share memories or let Sakura knit John back together there is an obvious fatal flaw. She can’t always be touching the Mistress’s body. Reluctant as Sakura is to spending mana unnecessarily, she makes a decision to remedy this problem. Hopefully this would help John process energy into mana, while at the same time connecting them deeper. As an added benefit if there is a problem with the Mistress’s health then hopefully the core would give her access to the insides without worrying about contact. Maybe John could also absorb the core into herself and be better connected to everyone. So with that in mind Sakura tries to implant her Mistress with a fresh clean core. She sends one tendril deep in John’s soft chest and gathers mana on the end of it forming a small core near the heart. She then attaches some links between the core and John’s heart with these intention and orders;

 “1.You must obey our Mistress, and become an extension of our Queen’s will.

2. When our Queen wishes it then you must let our Queen Jane absorb you and your power into herself.
3. The primary job is to monitor the health of the whole body, record any changes that occure. You must do this so when the Queen of Null is injured you may help facilitate repairs, in order to preserve the Queen's life. This is especially important in times like this when our Queen is not expressing her will.
4. The final duty you hold is to become our link to the Queen so all her orders are obeyed and disseminated. You should update me on the Queen's condition, and all the structural information you gain on her body. I need to know everything you learn so I may be able to help make repairs too. This is for the good of the Null Core, Sakura and all those that serve our Queen of Null. ”

Sakura used all the names and titles as listed on the character sheets for these instructions so there was no confusion in the core’s primary directives.

After digesting all the information, the new core gave an affirmation and confirmation to Sakura. Yes, it well understood its directives and is eager to serve.

            With those instructions the core was made as a level 8 servant. Sakura also imparts all she is learning from John’s body over the core connection. Once this directive is put in the core Sakura starts to attach this core with vein tendrils to every major organ in the body. She also adds extra sensory organs to the limbs and other body parts to help record all the states the Queen is in. This should help troubleshoot any additional issues that crop up with this celestial form.  With all this effort it should provide Sakura information on anything that she is unfamiliar with, while at the same time educating her from John’s knowledge of human bodies. While both are a like there are things that are obviously different from Sakura's probing. The most immediate change in status is maximum Energy Capacity, and maximum Mana Capacity. Both numerical counts leapt up a few thousand points higher than what it was previously. Other changes occurred like upgraded Conversion rates for energy to mana. Sakura finds transferring rates like mana has increased, but it wasn’t just the stats she can see, but also the effectiveness for her to give to John while also doing it remotely.

Sakura has lost lots of mana trying to repair a John’s body, and also from the 20 foot deep area she claimed for cover. She still takes a loss trying to recover mana spent on controlling the earth like that. While the expenditure was partly offset with the death of the wolves, she also lost energy because when they died it topped off her energy cap and she lost everything over that. In addition, she couldn’t really find any substantial body for absorption. She got no furs except for the one Dee-Prudence killed. That wolf was skinned in a way similar to a tentacle nightmare movie while being eaten by a spider, dissolved by a slime, gobbled on by a worm and steaming from the contact with some of Sakura’s tendrils.

Even after all that, this little shack must serve the Mistress as a shelter for the time being. It needs to be secure, and the party needs a good plan for when they meet others. She used a little more magic to turn the pelt into a special covering for her Mistress. Just like adventurers or others they have lots of skills. So maybe they could use this to their advantage. However what would be proper and how would John do this? It also appears as if there is a muscle cramp in John’s guts. Occasionally the party can hear a grumble sound like two muscles rubbing together like cicada wings.

The party makes another meeting while John is healing and unresponsive. They were warned about many things and told to be very careful with humans. Not all are foolish, and some are very able with lies or deceit. Their goals are a positive trade, and the healing of the Queen. From now on they should all go by the provable truths. The method John described to everyone as the proper amount of honesty so not to cause misunderstandings. It is also their skills they will use to manufacture and trade. But as Mistress said, loose lips sink ships. We have to be careful not to let others know of our manufacturing methods. They spent the following hours preparing for their first contact with humans.

Chapter 20- First Contact