October 28th, 629
A few days passed.
Just about all of my waking hours were spent organizing the entirety of this new Wonderland site. As the replacement to the main facility, it needed to be fitted accordingly. The original Wonderland had grown into its status as the world’s darkest and most advanced research facility. This place, while even more secret, had lost a lot of its enigmatic luster.
That would only change once projects could get back into rhythm. While some projects would be continued, such as those responsible for propulsion, aeronautic, and astronautic technology, others had been generally scrapped. Even those that could be considered continued were being redirected.
Without a war to directly fight, priorities could shift.
My days were not wasted merely thinking, however. After speaking to every team leader and getting caught up to speed on everything occurring on the island, I was able to launch just about every project I had in mind. After that, I was able to form the teams and delegate responsibilities. The team that had resided on the island for the long term before the dissolution of the original Wonderland facility was intermixed with the newcomers. I hoped that would solve any onboarding and assimilation issues, making the entire island one coherent and cooperative force of development.
With the foundation established, things were able to begin slowly and surely moving forward. There would be growing pains and a lot of confusion in the first month, but that would fade in time. After all, the primary causes of that confusion were the projects themselves. Their topics being as esoteric as they were, most researchers were going to have to adapt.
That was a job in their hands now. With those most pressing matters out of my hands, I was able to shift my focus.
First order of business, my Desert Eagles.
It hadn’t been long, but most of their business had been taken care of. Those like Feiden, Tana, and Ponteck were able to secure their noble families, and others like Aki, Katta, Jaya, Kwon, Song, and Aria were able to think about their next steps. Shadowbane and Blackblood, being from the Raven Family, were also able to speak with their Chief and ponder what they needed.
Now, on a plane heading toward the island was everyone who would be following me. I had already told them that eventually I would leave, and while details were sparse, they knew what following meant. The dissolution of my Command over Iron Legion was a turning point in our paths, and not everyone wanted to continue as they had.
“They’re here.”
Umara glanced at her Aerial and spoke. I had received the same notification, so I silently stood and followed her out of our workshop.
Erhan escorted us to the airfield in my backyard where a plane was coming to a stop. We drove to it, arriving as the door opened, letting out its occupants.
Feiden and Tana were the first to step out. Ponteck was next, Katta close behind and looking particularly excited.
Kwon and Song were behind them, both of them covered, as always. Following those twins then were Aki and Shadowbane.
I saw nobody else step out. Those eight plus Umara and I made ten, down from fourteen.
Those left were Ilinca, Jaya, Aria, and Blackblood. I already knew Ilinca would be staying. Although initially a valuable member of the team, she had unfortunately been getting outclassed. Not just in general Authority either. She was slightly weaker than the others, and after Umara started learning healing, those weaknesses became more pronounced.
I was willing to have two healers anyway. It was always good practice to have fallbacks, but it seemed she wasn’t keen on continuing on anyway. She had already told me that she would be staying with her family and helping on that front.
As for Jaya, Aria, and Blackblood, I hadn’t received any messages. I assumed the ones before me would have it.
Feiden and Tana approached me with everyone in two. I smiled at them, reaching out and clasping hands with Feiden while Umara hugged Tana.
“Good to see you, my brother.”
“You too. Has a bit of time in this tropical paradise cooled you down?”
Feiden smiled at me, his words making me chuckle.
“Slightly. I’ll be fine. Seems like some of you guys are in good spirits too.”
I glanced over at Katta, giddy as she was.
She nodded and threw me a peace sign.
“I managed to sneak away from my father. Of course I’m happy!”
“Yes, I’m pretty sure there was a call from Anderson I ignored regarding that. Thanks, by the way. I do enjoy having the world’s most powerful military general angry with me.”
“Eh, I heard about what you extorted from them, so it’s not like it matters that much. You’ve already pissed off the rest of the world. What’s one more old man?”
“That old man can move Sovereigns.”
“Well it’s a good thing they like me then.”
“...Anyway.”
I sighed, looking at the others.
“I see we’re missing three.”
“Jaya and Aria wanted me to let you know.”
Aki stepped forward, and I smiled at her.
“Hi Aki.”
“Hi John!”
“I’m guessing Jaya knew she was falling behind?”
“I think so, yes. She said she was afraid to disappoint you, but knew that she couldn’t take her alchemy that much farther. She said she felt more like a liability than a help.”
“I wouldn’t go that far, but yes, I was able to see her limits as well. My only worry was that she’d try and push herself, then get hurt in a way she couldn’t recover from. I wouldn’t deny her fight either though, so I’m glad she came to this conclusion herself. Now, what about Blackblood?”
Aki’s smile froze at the mention of his name, Katta perking up.
“Oh, when asked if he wanted to follow you, he said that you could fuck yourself with an axe head and that he’d rather have a child with Jaya.”
“How charming. And Aria?”
“Her words were few. She only said that she hopes she can master the Bloodsworn by the time you get back.”
“I see.”
I nodded, thinking about the messages I had gotten some time ago. Aria had helped secure the Puppet Master, who had then provided everything he knew regarding the puppetry technology for the Magisterium’s training grounds. It was a valuable tool using both psychic illusions and magic, and now that I had it, I’d be able to build off of it. Not to mention, he’d now be helping train Iron Legion soldiers as he had elites at the Magisterium.
I was glad to have him on our side, as long as it had taken.
After looking between those before me, I waved them into the estate where we headed to the living area. Erhan already had snacks and drinks waiting, which everyone happily took to as I scanned them.
Each of them were incredibly valuable to have on my team. Kwon and Song as a pair were perhaps our strongest combat force. Aki wasn’t far behind them either. Besides the twins, she had the most fighting experience, having come from the Pillars of Creation. She had her own Invocations, and her Aura, to this day, continued to be even deeper than mine. Her skill was undeniable.
Katta had fought with and was trained by the Order. Being the daughter of the Church’s most renowned General had its perks, including the loving grace of its most powerful Sovereigns. With improvements to her Serums being made and her ever growing Aura, she was only becoming more powerful.
Behind her was Ponteck. Initially around Aria’s level upon his introduction to this special task force, he had grown into his role and improved accordingly. Currently, I was the only one who could see through his Aura. He was able to toy with everyone and everything else, not to mention how his strength had only increased as he fought against people like Feiden.
I also planned on getting him a better Crown. Similar to Feiden’s, it would be made of materials from Anarchy, but I planned on including some Unholy Light for its mental affects.
Tana and Feiden didn’t need to be explained. They had been my most trusted companions since the beginning, and they had both the talent and grit to continue growing. The Great Barrier had been fast approaching for the entire group. I was pretty sure all of us, besides those who couldn’t, were just about knocking on it.
It was an attribute of the Calamity Class, I supposed. We were fairly unique in that we had been exposed to Anarchy back then. Triumphing over it was like a filter. There were only 23 in the Class who had barely survived Purple Sky, and they were then faced with the rationalization of Anarchy.
I had already looked at the subsequent numbers over the years. Of those 23, only 8 had managed to rationalize Anarchy, and currently, 5 of those were in my living room. The 6th was being driven like a slave by the Church, the Undying Vetsmon.
I had tracked the 7th and 8th over the years. One of them was the child of a Count and had become a Nephilim, and in the past year, was killed by one of my Sector 4 teams. I didn’t need that kind of talent being corrupted.
The 8th was a certain Wolfrum Baker. The child of a successful merchant, he wasn’t noble and hadn’t been corrupted. He seemed to have gone on to become a fairly talented Knight, leaving the Magisterium after graduation and dodging the subsequent draft by escaping with his father. They had been quiet for some time but with the recent outbreak of Nephilim and national chaos, they had resurfaced and settled in the Whetted City openly, even if they had changed their names.
The other 15 who had failed to rationalize were now either dead or catatonic. Unwilling to let their children live while they were eternally maddened and violent, the families with those unfortunate kids had put them down. Those who were now catatonic were the lucky ones, and although some had been put down as well for being a vegetable, others had somewhat recovered and were living with their families quietly. However, they’d never be able to advance their Authority again. Whatever it did to them, it killed all ambition and magical control. Perhaps in order to rationalize, they adopted beliefs that were directly antithetical to everything Anarchy was, making them something of a pacifist.
Overall, it was safe to say that the six true survivors of the Calamity Class, those directly associated with me, held abnormal talent, and Ponteck was one of them.
Although I was more than a little irked that I couldn’t have Vetsmon with me, I at least knew that he was being pushed in a way that would make him realize his full potential. I wasn’t concerned that Anderson would let such a talent waste or die.
With a sigh, I finally addressed everyone, their faces stuffed with tasty foods.
“I’m sure all of you are wondering what plans we have for the future.”
That grabbed eyes, so I tossed a projector device on the small table between the couches, images being spit out.
They consisted of various scenes of wastelands, most of them dark and dreary. They somewhat resembled what Scourge territory looked like in the northern lands, just a thousand times worse.
I was sure they all already had guesses. Now I confirmed it.
“These are images of what is supposed to be the old territory of the Mantle of Wisdom. A special reconnaissance team was formed years ago and tasked with collecting intel on Scourge territories on the other side of the world. Initially this was proven difficult, the reasons for that being the same reason why the Church could never establish teleportation links between us and the Pillars of Creation.
“The Scourge corrupts the very atmosphere they reside in. Apparently that doesn’t just make it near-unbreathable, but also too unstable for certain scales of magic to be used. We’ve seen this to some extent during our northern campaign, but that phenomenon can’t be compared to how it is in the heart of Scourge territory. Those special recon teams found out rather quickly that enchantments degrade at a rapid rate when present within hostile atmospheric magic. They’re calling them HAMs. Over time, Wonderland worked to develop countermeasures, modifying or augmenting enchantments enough to indefinitely prevent HAM degradation. It has only been within the last six months that we’ve been successful. Now, we finally have the means to not just go to the Mantle, but live there for extended periods. It’s also a reason that my Declaration in the sky took so long to finish. Those people were not happy when they had to remake every single enchantment on the plane.”
I flipped through images while speaking. Although everything in them was clearly of Scourge occupation, there were also oddities. Most notably, areas where the Scourge didn’t live, none of their most common bio-constructs to be seen.
There were also ruins. They were sparse and heavily degraded, but imaging showed clear human constructions, signs of civilization in tucked away corners not obviously or easily accessible. Given their locations on the global map, it was obviously within old Mantle territory.
The implications of my words naturally had most of them besides Umara surprised. Katta was the first to speak.
“You mean, you want to bring us to the Mantle?”
“Yes. The circumstances will generally be the same as our excursion to this island. I want to explore and see if I can find old technology. We already have a few good leads, primarily the data contained within the archives of this island. They held maps of the continent, so we know where every major population center was located. There are also locations of other research facilities, including some hidden away in darker corners. I’m hoping at least one or two places will be preserved enough to excavate and explore, even if the chances are small.”
“You want to find the technology that made the automatons here possible. Don’t you have the brains necessary to remake them yourself though? Why go through the trouble?”
“Automaton technology was developed and perfected by a nation of summoners over many decades. That’s not something I can recreate by myself in any reasonable amount of time, even with Wonderland. Plus, there’s a whole host of other technologies they had on top of that. The Mantle was and remains to be decades ahead of any enchanting technology the Kingdom has ever developed. If we manage to find anything in just half a year, it’ll yield more gains than the same amount of time researching.”
“Or it’ll yield nothing. That also isn’t weighing the risks of diving head first into the heart of the Scourge. How many Sovereign class enemies do they even have over there? And we’re supposed to evade all of them? Any fighting and we’ll be an anomaly that trips every alarm they might have, and then there will be a manhunt.”
Katta voiced her concerns, all of them earning a nod from me.
“Yes, I’ve thought of the same things. It’s a risk I’m willing to take though, because we have the worlds best escape tool available to us.”
I flipped the projector to another image, a feed of the Declaration appearing.
Katta’s face went placid.
“Oh.”
“The Declaration is rigged with its own teleportation nexus, and with some more development using Umara’s Skipper technology as the foundation, we’ll be able to build a new module into our suits capable of teleporting us from anywhere on the ground straight into the plane. And, assuming the stress tests are successful enough, that plane will be able to ride the line between atmosphere and space, staying too high for even a Sovereign to attack, let alone detect with our camouflage systems. It’ll be entirely self sustaining, capable of housing a crew numbering in the thousands without ever touching the ground. Given success in the coming months, it’ll be able to stay in the sky theoretically forever, and at the bare minimum, multiple years. It’ll be our home for the duration of our trip, as well as our source of escape. Not even Sovereigns will be able to kill us in the time it’ll take to simply teleport to safety.”
I paused, everyone looking between each other with some questions and doubts.
Katta was right to be as concerned as she was. Nobody had ever been to that kind of Scourge territory. Not even the Church had so much as touched the outer boudnaries of the true Scourge. The Mantle, as far as we knew, was where the Scourge first started. It was only after the Mantle fell that the Pillars finally followed. It was unlikely that the Scourge had been as big as they were before then.
It was ground zero, the birthplace of the Scourge, the origin of the Kings and the heart of evil itself. I wouldn’t be surprised to find a literal gateway to hell hiding within that place.
It would be riskier than anything we had ever done before, and we’d be going in there almost completely blind.
There was one thing I was hinging some of my success on, though.
Gradually, everyone thought of it too, our eyes turning to the twins, who had remained silent as I spoke.
I smiled at them.
“What do you two think? How would you feel about returning to your old stomping grounds for another round?”
They didn’t respond immediately, glancing at each other before Kwon nodded.
“We’ll do it. We can give you everything we know, though most of that knowledge probably doesn’t matter anymore. You’ve likely discovered more than we could give from this island.”
“You may not have knowledge, but you do have experience. We will learn from you. Still, you seemed to have agreed rather readily. Do you desire a return for any particular reason?”
“Well… Let’s just say it might be a good opportunity to find some closure. There’s a place we’d like to visit, a place rather hidden and hopefully less ruined. That’s the only request we’d have.”
“Depending on where it is, it can be one of the first places we go. You have my word.”
“It is appreciated.”
Kwon nodded at me, as did Song.
With their agreement, and knowing that they would be able to provide us with valuable insight, the others seemed more confident. Of course, it hinged on our ability to arm the Declaration with the necessary teleportation tech, but that was only a matter of time.
I leaned back, shutting down the projector.
“This is where I plan on going not long after the turn of the new year. Given two or three months, I’ll be able to finish up the projects I need to, get us all as prepared as we can be, and ready the Declaration. We can take more time, but the sooner we get there, the sooner we can get back. I don’t intend to delay any longer than we have to. All of you have the choice to follow me there, or stay behind. This isn’t a trip I can force any of you onto, even if you’ve already decided to come to this island with the intention of following me.”
I stood, Umara standing with me.
“Talk amongst yourselves, look at the intel, and deliberate. You have the next few months to decide. If you don’t want to, then you can either stay here or return to the mainland. Otherwise, I suggest you all begin preparing. I will be working on my projects in the meantime. If any of you need anything, don’t be afraid to notify me. This trip is going to be exorbitantly expensive, and I don’t intend to be cheap with your preparations. So whether its suits of armor, custom weapons, drugs, or special tools, tell me and I will order them. I suggest we all prepare stockpiles for at least 18 months. We never know what might happen, and I don’t want any of us caught unprepared. Sound good?”
I looked between everyone, getting nods and affirmatives from them.
With that, I left for Wonderland to properly begin my own research, Umara linked with my arm.
First on the agenda: Invocations.