An hour since the last chapter…

Succubus Homeland, A large clearing near the exchange

 

The area around the exchange had originally been planned for a city, and the houses from his various workers had been springing up like weeds. Different architecture began to appear based on the species living there, with beastmen preferring round houses while most of the elves lived in modern-looking rectangular homes. The exchange was the succubi’s business, but the Pride of Men and the dwarves all had their own businesses around it now. Lanterns using paraffin candles hung from small glass bulbs and a bonfire had been created that was billowing smoke into the air. 

 

Tables were a very serious problem for the islanders who lacked wood as an option, and Rex hadn’t wanted to use cold hard steel so everything was injection-molded plastic. This also allowed them to make them a variety of different colors and he let the succubi get creative with the designs. The small round tables were done in a way that looked like the color had dripped onto the surface and smeared across the top like a melted candle. The plastic had been reinforced with a metal mesh and it made the entire structure much stronger.

 

Each set of tables and chairs matched, but they were different from every single set around it, they even bore price tags on many of the sets. As if Kira and Shaya had led the way for the rest of the succubi, they were also starting to take the basics that he gave them and turn them into real objects. But the real centerpiece of the feast was the large wooden table that had been dragged from the top floor of the exchange. Originally designed for a cruise ship of hundreds, it could easily fit all of the food that the islanders wanted.

 

Music came from various tables as instruments from all over the mainland were being used by the various islanders. The elves preferred instruments that used reeds or strings, while the beastmen used drums, gongs, or simple string instruments. While some of them resembled instruments he had seen on Earth, none of them were uniform enough to fall into any particular type and the sounds were all different. The discordance fit the personality of the island which was a collection of misfits from the mainland.

 

It was the same conclusion he had come to about the state of the succubus forces, it was currently only a well-armed militia. They had all of the weapons but none of the mindset or the doctrine necessary to be a soldier and outside of weapons, they lacked uniformity. Instead of career soldiers, they were moving in and out of the military, and this was all leading to a lack of discipline. The only way to correct this was to change the training structure, this would better train the succubus warriors and he would support them from behind.

 

“This is fun!” Kira commented from the side.

 

The table he was at had Kira, Welch, Flora, Borscht, Sara, her husband Glad, Lyserra who served Welch, and himself. A lot of the islanders were moving from table to table as Kira had the guards bring food for everyone present except for herself. The mood was a happy one, and alcohol was flowing endlessly from the reserves he kept deep in the mountain. As the first main holiday, it gave them away to move large amounts of alcohol that normally would have just collected dust. Some of the local brewers who had popped up were making money moving from group to group as they tried pushing their wares. 

 

“This was a good idea, I didn’t know how many businesses had appeared on the island,” Welch commented from the side.

 

“Materials and tools are cheap, we have such a small population that we live in abundance. It makes sense that all of these hobbyists were able to launch successful businesses since we don’t currently collect any taxes.” Rex explained before he showed the bracelet on his wrist. “We also have regulations, which ensures a minimum quality. The food and liquor can’t contain toxins or anything harmful, and we have the best inspector in the world.”

 

Lyserra felt her breath quicken and a deep fear began to creep up on her when she saw the bracelet, she had to squeeze the plastic table to stabilize herself. Never had she experienced such a terrifying feeling as the one she felt when that creature went inside of her to clean out the toxins. While her health had improved, she was still in the process of recovering, but that was difficult for her to do when she looked closely at the blonde woman next to the blonde man. As a mage, she could sense mana after having worked with it for so many centuries as a mage. 

 

However, what terrified her most was that she couldn’t sense anything from the woman at all as if she wasn’t there. In most cases, there would be a void or a hole where someone was hiding their mana, but this was completely different. If she closed her eyes, she would be able to sense the mana from the plants and the atmosphere and it seemed like it could move right through her with no repulsion. It was something that she had never thought was possible, most magical plants weren’t capable of such a feat. 

 

The only thing she had ever encountered that had this effect was the divine tree that grew in the great forest before the beastmen destroyed it. But she knew that the woman covered in flower petals was much more powerful than she looked, after all, she had caused the grass to cover this barren field with the tap of a barefoot. Seeing grasses grow before her eyes were something that she thought was impossible without the use of alchemical substances, and most of those were lost during their migration here. 

 

“Mistress, you said that she comes from a flower and not the other way around?” Lyserra asked.

 

“Yeah, it is bigger than my house! It also smells incredible! She has to get this weird mana that comes from mushrooms though.” Welch explained. “Do you know what she is?” 

 

“I don't. We know of a few different species of plant monsters that can take humanoid form but I have never seen anything like her.” Lyserra said with a shake of her head. “Only the Fluerasl had abilities like hers, but they are long extinct.” 

 

“Could she have been a survivor?” Welch asked.

 

“They died out before our ancestors arrived, it was even said that the divine tree was a grave marker for the last of their species,” Lyserra explained. 

 

“You said there was a species of plant monster in the elven lands?” Rex asked with interest.

 

“Yes, but there is no way she could have gotten here from there,” Lyserra said with a shake of her head.

 

“That’s where you might be wrong actually. Did you know that the land below this island connects to the island you passed with the succubi? Bob has told me that the water level isn’t very deep in a lot of areas, and Simbad has even discovered sandbars between the two.” Rex reported.

 

“And what does that mean?” Lyserra responded with some suspicion.

 

“I bet there used to be a large landmass here, and it either sank in the ocean due to an earthquake, or the sea levels rose,” Rex responded with a nod. 

 

“Really?” Welch asked with shock.

 

“Yeah, Bob is serious about that dam so he has been mapping some of the seafloors in his spare time,” Rex responded with a sigh. “He wants to start with a tunnel between here to Acid Island for a train. This will be a reinforced tunnel that will be the base of his great dam.”

 

“I thought that we couldn’t go to that island because of all the poison…” Welch commented.

 

“That’s right, the gases from the volcanic activity are heavier than oxygen and push it out of the way. But if we build underground then we can include a large pipe out of the ground to draw oxygen in from above the poison, then we can use it to push the poison out.” Rex explained. “The tunnel would take years to build though, we don’t have a good way to remove the dirt.” 

 

“That is why you wanted to create an enchantment research group, wasn’t it?” Kira asked from his side.

 

“Right! Bren already got a group of 30 for it and Star is teaching them how to properly makes prints at the docks.” Rex explained. “The issue is that most of the enchantments we have gotten from the monsters require, or use water. A lot of them are similar to each other as well and aren’t anything new or exciting. The answer we need to the birth issue will probably come from there as well.” 

 

“This is a party! Not work time!”  The large white bear reminded him. 

 

“Hahaha! You’re right, Borscht!” Rex agreed as he took a drink from the beer in his glass. 

 

With a snort from his large nose, he lifted his glass that resembled a bucket and began drinking from the beer that was stored within. Dwarven brews were much heavier than what he was used to on Earth since it was meant to be a meal in a cup. The taste was smooth and a lot more grainy than he was used to, but it had a rich and full flavor with a hint of a spice to it. Meanwhile, Borscht had a large mustache across the top of his lips formed from the thick foam on top of his glass that he had to use his long tongue to remove every time he took a drink.

 

Flora pointed her hand at various items as she wanted to know what they were called. From her side, either Rex or Kira answered her questions and sometimes Welch also jumped in but so far she hadn’t said a word and seemed to mimic the sounds she had heard from nature. Flora’s large eyes were filled with curiosity and excitement that he had only seen in little kids who were still figuring out the world around them. So far, she had yet to eat or drink anything that was offered to her, making Rex believe that her main body was still the plant.

 

Several loud bangs came from the sky causing Rex’s attention to turn towards bright flashes caused by fireworks being set off by some of the succubi. These were recent inventions that used the same chemical engines that propelled explosives was repurposed and were made non-lethal. Rex had never associated fireworks with Thanksgiving, but they didn’t have any other holidays yet. The founding of the island was a day that the succubi had never thought to record, so no one knew what day it was established.

 

“Rex, what is that?” Welch asked as she pointed to a large contraption that was being moved to a corner of the feast by several workers.

 

“Shaya made it, it is an instrument… I guess.” He said after a moment of hesitation.

 

It had a square stand that looked like a piano from the front but instead of felt mallets it had a system with rails that were filled with bullets and the mallets resembled hammers featured on a revolver. A large hopper stood on top of it that was filled with small .22 caliber bullets that were as short as his fingertip. The bullets were then divided and moved through various tracks that lined them up for the instrument to fire. These bullets were all used to play a large xylophone that featured metal keys that rang loudly when they were struck by anything. 

 

A succubus wearing a flowing red dress walked onto the stage and sat at a small bench behind the wooden instrument as she stretched her fingers and put her foot on a petal which activated an engine that began to feed bullets through the system. With a few presses of the keys, a loud pop was issued from the bullet firing that then led to a loud cry from the metal bars ringing. With each keypress, the bullet going off acted like a drumbeat for the succubus’ music, it was both aggressive while maintaining a catchy tune.

 

“She wanted to practice feeding bullets from a system before she tried to incorporate it into other inventions,” Rex explained. “This feeding system can be used for tank rounds as well as high-speed machine guns.” 

 

“Wow! Is that the one for the tanks?” Kira asked with excitement.

 

“It will be used in tanks and the train artillery. One day I might even use it in trucks to move artillery.” Rex commented.

 

It was robust enough that it could be scaled up to large rounds that were too heavy for a succubus to move easily. A revolving drum worked using metal fingers to move the bullet onto a metal track that acted like a magazine. Rubber connectors allowed the gun to move freely without interfering with the feed mechanism that was done in a way he hadn’t seen before. The other prototype was used in a small cannon that was scaled down to a .22 caliber for testing purposes.

 

This instrument was used to test if the feeding mechanism was fast enough to provide ammo for something like a machine gun. Rex was thinking that after the trains were done, it was time to move into the air and that meant he needed even better machine guns. Dropping shells and linkage from belts could kill your soldiers from the velocity they would gain from their fall, so systems like this were needed that didn’t use linkages. It would also throw off the weight of the plane if it spits out all those heavy casings. 

 

“She does well on projects like this when you give her parameters to work within, her mind is very flexible since she has spent most of her life around engineering principles,”  Rex said before he made a prediction. “The first succubus to go to space will probably do so on a Shaya-made rocket.”

 

“Space?” Welch asked.

 

“Past the sky,” Rex explained. “The territory of the stars.” 

 

“Do you think we will get there?” She asked.

 

“Definitely,” Rex said with confidence.

 

It only took humans 700 years to enter space from the invention of the first lathe, so it was a given that they would be able to make it too. Technologically they were floating around the 1900s but they were having issues replacing electrical components. His goal was to begin mixing enchanting with engineering to begin advancing their technology even further. While he seemed to have problems with this, for Shaya it was natural since she didn’t possess a lot of Rex’s inherent biases. 

 

A prime example of this was the gun she was creating that used so many enchanted parts to replicate modern earth equivalents. She had made a flashlight, a laser pointer, and even a flamethrower using the same pumping spell that moved water. He had no idea what her imaginary enemy was, but they better look out! That was his honest thoughts when he saw how she went about her development cycle for weapons.

 

“Rex, why you look like you age 10 years?” The large white bear asked him.

 

“We are both getting older, we also need to start thinking of how we are going to get you a wife,” Rex murmured.

 

“I will go myself! Just put bear on boat!” He replied honestly.

 

“That might be a possibility, I want to free all of the slaves under the elves,” Rex said with an explosive sigh.

 

“You want bear to lead?” Borscht asked with excitement.

 

“Of course not, you will be a guide,” Rex explained.

 

This sentence seemed to cause the bear’s excitement to flow away like the tide.

 

“I plan to have the succubi infiltrate then a second force moves in by sea. We will mostly be taking as many of the slaves as we can onboard the ships and then breaking out by land and moving across the continent to where the sea ottermen and the beavermen will be building a fortress.” Rex explained.

 

“Isn’t that what we did before?” the bear asked with confusion.

 

“This time we will be using tanks and other vehicles to protect all of the slaves. While most of them will probably return to the beastman plains we can absorb them using Greko and Lunas, as well as the beavermen.” Rex explained. “We have a major shortage of people, and at this rate, we don’t have the next generation to replace us when we all get old. Therefore we will take a population.”

 

“But I thought you were going to move some of the people from their clans already?” Borscht asked.

 

“Of course, that will be happening now that we can build a port on the mainland,” Rex explained. “They have more food problems than we do so taking the extra women and children makes it easier for them. This also isn’t a bad place to retire.”

 

“But then won’t we just have more old people?” Borscht commented. “I thought that was bad.” 

 

“It can be if you don’t have the resources to support them. In our case, we can just use machinery to replace the workers necessary to a certain extent…” Rex commented as he took another drink of the beer. “I thought we weren’t talking about work?” 

 

“We are talking about women! This is very important!” The bear told him as he looked at the women around Rex and wondered why his cub got all the luck.

 

“Alright! I got it!” Rex said with a laugh.

 

Suddenly they could hear the sound of a siren tearing through the air, it was coming from one of the shore defense stations. Soon more of them joined in and a loud whine began to fill the island from the side facing the mainland. This was followed by the sounds of several cannons begging to ring out furiously one after another. Then the ground began to shake as a roar reverberated off in the distance that caused Rex to have to cover his ears as he heard yells and screams coming from the people in the banquet.

 

“What was that?!” Rex yelled out.

 

Suddenly the ground shook and he saw a massive torrent of water splash up near the shoreline, he almost fell over but suddenly he felt firm arms on both sides of him. Both Kira and Welch had taken the chance to grab him and keep him from falling over as they looked off into the distance.

 

“They are fighting something massive!” Kira reported from the signs of their combat.

 

Suddenly they could see pieces of concrete and steel go flying in the air accompanied by a large geyser of water. The sound of cannon fire began to increase in pace as more and more of the various shore weapons joined in the fray, making it sound like a war was happening. 

 

“Mistress Kira, is this normal?” Sara asked from the safety of Glad’s arms.

 

He had returned to his elven form and it was the first time that Rex was seeing it. The first thing he noticed was how thin and fragile the man looked, he seemed to give off a gentle aura and he had a smile on his face that seemed to contrast his blood-red eyes. His clothes were made from a blood-red material that seemed to grow around him as he took his elven form. His blonde hair was long and hung freely in the wind.

 

“Be careful, dear,” Glad told Sara as he seemed as steady as a mountain. 

 

“A monster must have risen from the deep, we should head over there and see what is going on,” Rex said calmly.

 

“Get on bear!” Borscht called out.

 

“That’s a good idea!” Rex said as he stumbled over to him with Kira and Welch’s help. “Flora?”

 

She made a few confused chirping noises before she walked over to him and climbed behind him on the bear. Kira and Welch were too distracted to notice the way she wrapped her arms around him as rubble began to fall from the sky. Kira immediately pushed her wings out the openings in the back of her shirt and Welch began sprinting alongside him as the bear began his loping run. They didn’t get very far when a colossal beam of water struck the island and caused it to start shaking again.

 

“What is attacking us?” Welch yelled.

 

“I think we made too much noise with the festival! There have been instruments and gunfire going all day!” Rex yelled. “It might have also smelled the food!” 

 

This was something they had long prepared for since they were so close to the ocean, but it was the first time they were being attacked so fiercely. This thought crossed his mind as a loud eruption happened next to him from a large twisted cannon barrel slamming into the ground. His stomach suddenly fell as the bear’s legs left the ground for a moment as the impact caused him to bounce off the ground before he caught himself.

 

“Whatever it is! It is pissed!” Kira yelled out in worry. 

 

These were cannons from the shore defense stations since they were not modified, she also knew that those would have been the first ones to open fire. Every time she saw the massive stream of water hit the island and knock pieces of the shore defense or the various fortresses flying, she would feel a sinking feeling deep in her heart. Suddenly a loud crash came from ahead of them where the docks were placed and then white bones went flying over the cliffs towards the buildings along the shore. Loud crashes were heard as many of them were able to deflect the heavy bones, but some weren’t so fortunate.

 

Asides from the docks, most of their structures were away from the waters where they could be damaged by storms. This planning was paying off as the giant streams of water kept hitting the island. Suddenly a loud crunching was heard as they began to approach the cliffs and Rex’s heart sank as he saw a large metal vessel go flying through the air that looked like a smashed can. The newest ship they had made was bent like a banana and the walls were folded in.

 

“Borscht! Dodge!” Rex yelled as he saw it begin to approach them.

 

The bear’s four feet began to dig into the stone of the rising hill as he began to quickly scramble to the side. Rex grabbed Flora behind him and pulled her towards the bear’s body as he felt something pass over his head followed by a loud crash as the ship smashed into the rocks. He gripped the fur tightly to avoid being thrown off but Welch was picked off her feet and thrown into the air. 

 

“Welch!” Rex yelled in fright.

 

Leaning forward she used her hands and began to tilt through the air before she pushed off and led with her legs as she did a quick flip and landed on her feet. The maneuver had been quick and graceful and showed off the dexterity that was inherent to the elves. He didn’t have much time to admire it before Kira yelled out what she could see over the waters.

 

“Rex! There are lots of them! They look like the whale monster we killed before!” Kira yelled from above.

 

“A whale?” Rex asked with confusion.

 

It didn't take him long before they got to the top of the cliffs and he could see over the waters himself. What he saw was many streams of fire coming from the various shore defense weapons, followed by splashes of water and blood from out in the waters. Many large bodies were floating with massive wounds, but countless more of them were breaching the surface as they launched massive streams of water in return. There were more than the whales attacking as they could see a giant squid monster using its tentacles to tear apart and throw sections of the dock. 

 

“Rex! Why are there so many different monsters attacking us?!” Welch asked from the side.

 

“Rex! There is more coming!” Kira yelled as she could see more bodies breaking out of the water in the back.

 

He could see that these were the most monsters they had ever been attacked by at a single time, the waters in front of him looked like they were boiling. Machine gun fire began to pepper the waters as the creatures continued to approach and blood began to fly more liberally, but he could quickly spot a problem. There were easily hundreds of massive monsters approaching the island from the direction of the ocean. 

 

“It’s a monster wave!” Lyserra yelled. “There must be a big one controlling them!”

 

She had been the slowest as she was still recovering. Her breath was ragged but there was a deep fear in her eyes as she saw the massive stream of monsters. 

 

“We need to run!” She yelled.

 

Suddenly sirens and cannon fire began to erupt from other parts of the island, it sounded like they were thoroughly surrounded. The ground began to shake more violently as more eruptions rocked the island from various directions and pillars of water rose into the sky from hitting structures. 

 

“Run where?!” Rex yelled as he looked at all of the monsters.