Learner’s Notes Day 8:

I am unable to gather as much information about the System as I wish due to obvious issues with communication, so I instead improved my hearing and language processing centers through trial and error.

By listening to every hooter conversing within about a hundred body-lengths, I have been able to pick out more tidbits about the System here and there, mostly from flabby hooters to hooters just on the verge of differentiation.

It seems as if in order to get the System, one must Break. This means one must achieve a lethal dose of Warp, which is a contaminant that settles in living things and is immediately released into the environment when someone or something dies. The System will then step in and use that Warp to modify the creature to be more proficient at…whatever it does.

Odd.

It has also been revealed that too much Warp, completely unchecked, will cause dangerous and often fatal mutations.

If my guess is correct, Warp is composed of leakage between my reality and this one. It would stand to reason, as around those rifts, the familiar predators and prey I was accustomed to were drastically altered with terrifying abilities to do things like…move, and manifest physical bodies, and….

Think about things?

It seems as though I have been drastically altered by this Reality without realizing it. It seems to be no cause for alarm as all my units are stable and I am using this mutation to great advantage.

As far as I can tell, Hooters are the only ones who benefit from the System, and other creatures either mutate, die, or shrug off the effects of Warp toxicity.

So in order to fool the System, I would have to disguise my Units as fixed human cells, more than skin deep, and engineer a lethal intolerance to…my own reality.

Requires more study.

Side note: No progress on the mouth-to-mouth control parasites yet, but with my enhanced hearing I was able to make out many lumpy hooters taming the flat ones. Their hoots made my lower guts feet warm. Is this a side-effect of the hooter condition or a weakness of this form specifically? It felt nice, so I ignored it.

***Underground***

The massive polyp of brain matter that had been slowly building underneath Mujenan considered the problem at hand. It had been seeded on the eastern continent to further One’s agenda, and two weeks into its expansion it had received its first setback when it tried to ambush Origin’s Vessel.

16% of above ground forces lost in first contact with Origin’s Vessel. Results unacceptable. Adjust strategy. Vessel has shown substantial growth in Bent capacity and summon morphology since last contact. Possible mutation or outside supplement to Bent supply.

Scanning hosts for information regarding Origin’s Vessel…

Scanning…

Hit.

Hit hit hit..

Captain Gadsint….

The mass of brain dedicated to coordinating One’s assault collated the data regarding Origin’s Vessel that was stored in the brains of the hosts under its control. Gradually a picture began to emerge as it poured through the minds of hundreds of the twitching citizens of Mujenan, as they slowly dissolved into the flesh surrounding them.

The Vessel possesses a mutation that allows rapid Bent siphoning from females. And…it can use this ability at range through a pale-skinned, black-clad, host, created by an ability of the vessel’s

The polyp’s brain drew more information out of the host’s dying minds.

Captain Gadsint…The Vessel, left for Uleis…

Uleis. City of hosts in the inhospitable desert to the East. Vessel was presumably in that location until last rotation.

Likelyhood of pale-skinned, Black clad host acting as a Bent lifeline in Uleis: Very high.

Adjusting Tactics…

Designing countermeasures.

Gestating.

Deploying scrubbers.

***Calvin***

“You expect me to believe you took control of Uleis?” Andra asked with a raised brow.

“Not if you don’t want to, I suppose,” Calvin said with a shrug. “That’s your business.”

Andra cocked her head to the side, a frown blooming on her face. “Are you still loyal to Gadvera, Calvin?”

“Loyal?” Calvin asked. “I like the land, it’s where I grew up. I like the people, I even like the people who run the place. I want nothing but good things for Gadvera, but if you’re asking me to die for it or surrender Uleis, that’s a big ask.”

Andra tapped her fingers on the table, looking him over carefully.

“What’cha doin?”

“Deciding whether or not to kill you.”

“That seems like an extreme reaction.”

“Does it?” Andra asked. “Because I distinctly remember ordering you to be Kala’s guard, not stage a coup.”

“They threw Kala in a hole.”

“After you killed one of theirs.”

“After he tried to kill me.”

“After you defrauded Uleis of thousands of Glimmers.”

“They got to keep the lace.” Calvin protested. “Not fraud at all. Legitimate business. They pushed me into taking over their country.”

Andra sighed and scratched her head. “Are they getting enough food? You didn’t wreck the entire country, did you?”

“Oh no, I put the former rulers of Uleis under me as my advisors. Their leader reports directly to me. Everything’s business as usual.”

“And you expect Uleis to be…under your control when you get back?”

Chained spirit.

16/33 Bent remaining.

Kurawe stepped out of the green smoke as it curled into him, forming the imposing man’s skin and clothes.

“Kurawe, Is Uleis still under my control?”

“It is, ravager. The arrangements for the holy war are still being made, but Rufe and the others have already set out across the desert to guide the way. We expect to be able to head out three days sooner than estimated.”

“Wow, someone’s a go-getter. Good to hear.” Calvin thumbed over his shoulder “Get eyes on the situation while you’re here. Should help, knowing the situation.”

Kurawe moved to leave.

“He’s not going anywhere,” Andra said, hand on the pommel of her sword as she stood. Calvin was pretty sure she could cut him in half in about the time it took him to blink. “Did that man say something about a holy war?”

“Ehh…” Calvin waggled his hand. “Kurawe thinks everything I do is holy, so I’m sure he just slipped it in there by habit.”

“Your struggle against the gods has been foretold and repeated for countless eons. If there is something holier than that, I don’t know what it is.”

“You see?” Calvin asked, pointing over his shoulder at the fat giant.

“Who are they going to war on, exactly?”

“Ostensibly?” Calvin asked “You.”

Andra narrowed her eyes.

Must not get cut in half.

“But what do you think they’ll do when they get here?”

Andra glanced off to the side as she considered it, her scowl fading to something approaching respect.

“They’ll be drawn into the conflict with the Malkenrovian abomination, taking pressure off Gadvera.”

“Ideally. Kurawe and I are happy to help steer public opinion toward fighting these monsters rather than Gadvera, but you have to give it time to play out, and if I’m dead, Kurawe ceases to exist, and you won’t get an army marching in here to push these bastards out of your land. You get a bickering city-state of precisely no use to anyone during this invasion.”

Andra considered it long and hard.

“I guess I won’t be killing you. When do you expect your army to show?”

“Two weeks.” Calvin said.

“We’ll starve before then,” Andra said, shaking her head. “We’ve got a plan to leave – well, we had a plan to leave, until I saw those giants hidden under the earth.” Andra cursed quietly under her breath.

“You didn’t know they were there?” Calvin asked.

“No, we had no idea. There was a plan for Earth specialists to dig our way out, but now we don’t know if we’d be risking connecting our tunnel to one of theirs and simply creating another access point. I can’t give us another front to fight on.”

“Why not?” Calvin asked.

“What?”

“Why not make another front to fight on?” Calvin asked. “Obviously we’re going to have to drive them out from underground at some point. I’m fairly sure I could do a lot of damage to these things.”

“Planning to win instead of planning to fail, huh?” Andra asked with a chuckle.

“That’s something you taught me.” Calvin responded.

Andra sighed, sitting back down in her chair. “You’re right, of course. Uleis doesn’t have the capacity to feet everyone. Not by a long shot. We need our farms, forest and ocean, and if we let this thing drive us off our land, that’s it. Gadvera as a country is over. most of our people will be dead, and the rest assimilated into other countries.”

“I guess I just balked at the idea of using children as weapons.”

“What?”

Andra leaned forward and met his gaze.

“Two weeks ago there were precisely no earth elementalists in the palace. We rounded everyone up with one Break or less and taught them the skill, then forcibly fed them Warp until they were all fifth Break.”

“Children.” Calvin supplied. Adults wouldn’t have less than two at least.

“Yeah.”

“How many?”

“Enough to tunnel us halfway to Uleis, in theory.”

“I have an idea.” Calvin said.

***

“This,” Calvin said to the awestruck children. “Is a fireworm.” He placed an easy hand on Moab’s side. “This particular one Is named Moab.” The nearly sixteen thousand pound grub jiggled its pale flesh as he laid a hand on it. The thing’s hairs, which were normally invisible, were almost the size of his thumb, now. It was a monster that dominated the basement they were in.

“It’s got a series of organs that create a self-igniting compound that burns like a motherfucker,” he said, pointing along the creature’s side.”

Jinnei scowled at him.

“Whoops, I mean, it burns good. Anyway, the plan is, you guys are going to make us a tunnel out of here, and when we run into a tunnel that’s not ours, we’re going to fill it with fire.”

“Alright!” a skinny kid shouted, stepping forward and pumping his fists. “Let’s get started!” With a wave of his hand, a massive hole opened in the floor, angled straight downward and ten feet deep. Calvin was fascinated by the way he could feel Bent moving inside the boy before it even came out, and bridging the gap between the boy and the floor.

“Hold on!” Calvin said, but the kid hopped into the tunnel, taking out the next chunk of stone in a matter of seconds.

“Ella, could you retrieve him?”

“Why me? Do I look like some matronly figure, fit for wrangling spawn?”

“I have a hole in my stomach.” Calvin said, pointing.

“Fair enough,” Ella jumped into the hole without further complaint and climbed back out, holding the overeager child aloft by his shirt.

“What’s your name? Calvin asked the scowling boy.

“Malacath the Destroyer.”

Calvin cocked his head. “Really?”

“His name’s Goob.” One of the little girls in attendance said helpfully.

“Is not!”

“Listen, Goob. What I just gave you wasn’t the plan, it was the goal. I spent a lot of my life going into stuff with just the goal in mind, and it hasn’t always turned out great. Trust me, if you wanna be destroyer of anything, you gotta make plans.”

“Our plan,” Calvin said, motioning to all of them. “Is a fifteen degree decline, eight foot diameter walls. Only four of our Elementalists are going to be down there with us in the tunnel at any given time.

“Break into groups of two, the first group will dig as far as one of them can dig. When the first person runs out of Bent they run back and get the next group to replace them while the second person keeps digging. One the second person is done, they leave it to the relief group. Rinse and repeat. Understood?”

“Where does the fourth person come from?” A girl asked. “If one of us is already out of the tunnel when the relief shows up.”

“That’s where we have our next job.” Calvin said. “I need one of you to stay with us the entire time. It’ll be that person’s responsibility to make a seal around the fire worm so we don’t get roasted, and if there’s a sudden attack or something goes wrong, it’ll be that person’s job to get us out of there.”

“Ooh, ooh, pick me!” Goob said, waving his hands. Ella, perhaps remembering he was there, set the boy down, whereupon he immediately started dancing in front of Calvin, waving his arms as if he was trying to signal him from a long distance.

“This is going to be the most dangerous role, as the extra time in the tunnel drastically increases the odds of getting hit by an explosion or having a cave-in dropped on your head.”

“ooh, ooh, me, meee!” Goob said.

Does this kid seriously want to die or am I just misinterpreting that?

“And I want them to have full Bent.” Calvin said, hoping that would shut the boy up.

“I’m right here! I have full Bent!”

Calvin experienced a minor snap.

“We literally just saw you use Bent to dig that hole right there!” Calvin shouted, pointing. “And if you hadn’t done that, I still wouldn’t pick you because nobody should be excited about this!”

“…Oh.” Goob deflated and returned to the group of children among some friendly ribbing.

“Wow,” Jinnei said, brows raised. “You’ve gotten a lot more-“

“What you should be excited about is the pillars of fire this baby is going to make on the surface.” Calvin said, patting Moab on the side again. The enormous grub shuddered and twitched. “I’m hoping for fifty feet of fire straight into the sky or more once we fill the enemy tunnels to capacity with burning fuel.”

Goob’s jaw dropped, eyes wide.

“Huh?” Calvin turned toward Jinnei. “What was that?”

“Nevermind,” his sister said, waving him off. “Forget it.”

“Now,” Calvin said, turning his attention back to the children in fornt of him. “Who wants the dangerous job?”

“Ooh, ooh!” Goob said, waving a hand.

“I already said no, Goob.”

Goob pouted while Calvin picked someone who looked like they had their priorities straight. It was hard to tell with children, who was flighty and who wasn’t, so he’d have to watch them close.

***

The mission itself was uneventful, if tense. They crept through the earth several hundred feet before they finally struck another tunnel. It opened up in a wave of foul odor, the smell of rotten flesh mixed with seawater.

Calvin spotted pulsating flash against the far wall, and several humanoid shapes buried inside with his enhanced darkvision before he summoned Moab and quietly ordered them to close the tunnel again as they crept backwards.

Moab’s name was Elliot’s idea, calling the barely mobile eight ton grub ‘Mother of all bombs’ but the description was accurate enough to go with it.

Calvin had replaced all its digestive and respiratory organs with Crystal Lattice catalyst organelles. Each one was about the size of Calvin’s torso and primed to pump their mixture straight into the creature’s ass valve.

If the wasps he’d made were anything to go on, this would make a huge volume of fire.

Calvin ushered the groaning kids backwards as they whispered to each other about the nasty smell, slowly filling the tunnel back in with stone.

At least they didn’t see the people embedded in the wall, or I’d probably have a panic on my hands.

Once Calvin was confident he had at least twenty feet of solid stone between him and moab, he told it to do it’s thing.

The grub squirted a huge amount of clear substance that burst into flame in midflight. That flaming goop expanded, adding more of itself as the catalyst bonded with the substance it was in, creating more and more flaming goop, until one tunnel couldn’t support it, pushing into more and more tunnels, filling the entire underground tunnel system and the city’s sewers with clinging flames.

There was a deep rumble overhead as the fire expanded rapidly through the city, shaking the earth itself. Thankfully they’d backed far enough away and put enough stone between themselves and the source of the blast for it to find other outlets.

“Let’s go!” Calvin said, ushering the children back up the tunnel, not stopping until they were once again above ground, standing in the palace courtyard.

Peeking above the high palace walls, Calvin could make out plumed of fire and smoke from where it must have escaped the underground.

In the middle of all this rumbling, Calvin heard the patting of bare feet on stone.

The noises resolved into Goob coming down the stairs from the wall and dropping to his knees in front of Calvin.

“That was awesome!”

****

The Polyp felt the end coming, a burning pain that suffused the being of every unit buried under Mujenan, spreading rapidly outward from the center of the city and burning every aspect of it’s being.

It was with a single reflexive response that it decided to deploy Magenta. The prototype was unfinished, but it knew its mission.

The Polyp died, satisfied that One now knew of the Vessel’s capabilities, but frustrated it hadn’t done more.