Ch. 9: Dominance and Authority 1

Rainier and Sataska held on for dear life to the dead tree. Apparently this tree was a member of that mangrove Spider Web Tree species, so the roots were just thin enough for both of them to wrap their arms around.

They could hear the screams and screeches of arachnacosa and evoant alike as they fell to the center of the oasis trap’s mouth. The only future for those creatures was to be digested and become sustenance for the oasis trap.

It was like seeing a venus flytrap in action now that Rainier thought about it. Those plants too waited for food to crawl into their mouths before clamping down.

Eventually the screams stopped and the splashing into the center pool of the oasis trap’s throat ceased. The mouth began opening up, letting the moonlight enter the scene. Due to the moon’s close proximity to Ademptis, it was unusually bright like every other night.

“Shit… Finally, all done. Hmm?” Rainier saw a few limp movements over where the battlefield between the evoants and arachnacosa.

Both he and Sataska walked over to find the target of their plan, the evoant queen, lying down. She was missing one of her legs and a curved, serrated blade was sticking out of her stomach. She was going to die soon to blood loss, but Rainier did not want that.

“Mother… Itome.” Sataska stoop upright, looking down at her mother contemptuously.

The evoant queen, apparently named Itome looked towards her daughter’s voice. “Sataska… Why are you with him?” Through choking on her own blood, the queen was clearly surprised to see her daughter with the man conspiring to keep the two away from one another.

“You still do not understand, do you? I tried to escape the dark depths of the nest so often yet you just thoughtlessly took and sealed me away.” Fire entered Sataska’s eyes, her anger getting the best of her.

“It was… It was to protect you! Th-This world is far too dangerous for you… You won’t be able to survive by yourself out there!”

“You forget mother, I am a queen. And I am above these measly threats you are speaking of provided I find a mate I believe in.”

“Don’t tell me…”

Rainier didn’t like the sound of where this was going.

“Yes, it’s this man here!” Sataska glommed onto Rainier and began rubbing her head into his side.

Yes, Rainier really didn’t like where this went.

“This world is dangerous as you said, for both you and me, mother. In the end, you’re the one who lost this intense game of survival while I aim to succeed with Rainier.” Sataska sounded like a girl full of determination. She was absolutely certain that the two of them would live to an old age.

Finally Rainier interjected with a halfhearted response. “I have no clue what you’re talking about, but I am going to end this now. You and your damn evoant brood have been gnawing at my leg ever since I was taken to this world.”

Itome didn’t bother to respond to Rainier, only looking into her daughter’s eyes. Rainier didn’t care that he wasn’t being paid attention too, all he was thinking now what kind of power he would acquire from killing Itome with the Razor of Envy.

“You done talking to her?” Asked Rainier without much care for the situation.

Sataska nodded and walked away. Despite her desire to have her mother killed, it seemed she did not want to see the act being carried out.

Rainier placed the razor at Itome’s throat and quickly pulled it across. And finally, the oldest living evoant queen in Ademptis’ history died.

Itome, Evoant Queen- While being the oldest, was also considered the most immature and paranoid of the queens that numbered around forty strong. She was the firstborn evoant queen from the malicious experiment intended to instantly move humanity a step further in evolution. And from her brood many queens were born, many of which died and several of which had moved on to form their own broods. Gradually over centuries, evoants shifted from resembling humans to there being Avian and Elven hybrids to even dragon hybrids. If there was a monster with a desire to create children and the evoant queen was compatible enough with that monster to share genes, then they could procreate and form a new breed of evoants. Where Itome had made her home after such a long time since her birth remained a mystery. And while she sometimes visited other queens which were all technically descended from her, they shared no relation in the end. Sick of giving birth after birth, Itome and her last child queen nestled into their nest where they lived for several years until Itome’s death by the hands of Rainier Forrester.

Rainier read all this in the encyclopedia under the evoant passage. It had been updated sometime during his conflict between himself and Itome. He had no idea that this queen had such a long lived past. Although he didn’t put much thought into it now, Rainier found it very strange that his name was placed in the selection.

‘Are evoants immortal or something? Then Sataska herself might be as well’ Rainier had already endured the painful process of assimilating Itome’s soul and power, this time proving to many several times more painful than Skaren and any other monster he had encountered so far. The only noticeable difference he could see was that his antennae had fully sprouted from his neck back around his neck forming what one might mistake for a gothic choker.

He felt strange thoughts enter his mind, but Rainier attributed it to the corruption from the Razor of Envy trying to take hold of him. It gripped his mind like a strong adhesive. It clawed what Rainier guessed what his soul, which was a very real thing in Ademptis.

‘Christ, it feels far worse than the worst headache I’ve ever experienced.’

“Um…” Sataska was standing right next to Rainier, tugging on his sleeve.

Although he tried to ignore her precisely for the declaration she made before, it turned out to be impossible. “No matter what you said and are going to say, I will not become your damn mate, lover, breeder, husband, or whatever in god’s name you wanna call it. Not on your life!”

Sataska only heard the words what she wanted to hear, namely mate, lover, breeder, and husband. “I-… I know you’re just being shy, but I think it would work out perfectly! You are quite possibly everything an evoant queen looks for in a mate. Any beyond that, you are everything I was looking for in a mate too.” Sataska had her hands on her cheeks and swung her head around like a delusional child.

Rainier scrunched his face up, he wasn’t sure whether he was disgusted or he simply couldn’t understand her thought process. Clearly it was both.

“What hell is wrong with you? Who’s being shy, I’m in no way interested in an ant.” Rainier took a few steps back, wary for whatever Sataska did next.

Sataska seemed to not understand that she was being insulted, as she was lost in her own world. “I wonder how large the nest will be. How many children will fit? What should their names be? What about-”

In the end, Rainier stopped paying attention. The more he got involved with Sataska’s delusions, the more wrapped up he got in her twisted pace. Besides, there was something he didn’t like about the situation right now.

Something probed Rainier’s senses. His antennae felt much more attuned with his surroundings than ever before and he could sense something staying still out of the crater just past the battlefield.

‘Those rats… There are more arachnacosa hiding out there. Four… No, three in that direction.’

Not even the evoant queen, Itome, would be able to gather this much information from the signals her antennae provided her. Rainier had gone past that. If the man that created the evoants from that time long ago saw this, he wouldn’t be able to comprehend a normal human going past what he considered the next stage of evolution for the humans.

“Sataska!” Rainier gestured for Sataska to come closer.

“Yeeeeeessss?” With an annoyingly cheery voice, Sataska trotted towards her center of interest. “What would you have of me? Ah, um… Don’t tell me you want to start already?”

“Sataska.”

“I was thinking somewhere in the middle one hundreds?”

“Sataska!” Rainier hissed to get her to stop deluding herself and pay attention to his words.

“Hmm? Oh!” Finally his words got through to the merry Sataska.

“There are three arachnacosa left hiding somewhere in the underbrush past the crater. You head down to that boulder and move north, I’ll go up and around going south. We’ll trap the three in a pincer attack and kill them. No, I think one of them might be this expedition’s leader, we’ll capture him and kill the rest.” Rainier spoke softly so that he couldn’t be heard.

After a quick nod of confirmation, Rainier and Sataska briskly took action.

-----

“Kosh! Key nas mankosoo… Shit! They noticed us.” Among the three arachnacosa, one quickly understood their situation.

They had watched the battle between their forces and the evoants. And while it was bloody, their side were gaining the field despite the casualties they took. Then, without any indication, the oasis trap the battle was on closed its mouth, eating anything and every live creature inside the crater.

Kosok Kre was leading his legion of Arachs to find and eradicate the threat that slew several of their scouts on the southern half of Roseir Plateau. And when he found out that it was a single creature, no, a single human that acquire his people’s ire, he was mystified. Humans, as far as Kosok knew, had not been seen by his people in more than a millennium and then some.

Humans were terrifying to the Arachs. While they were the source of his and the evoant species, their initial birth into what meager civilization they had gave them distinct advantages over weak humans.

Yet humans grew far more quickly than they did, creating many new advances into arcane and mundane technology. The Arachs would not survive in the barely hospitable Ademptis without being outwardly hostile towards any potential threat, thus gaining their reputation as innately hostile and malevolent.

And right now, a member of the race they had no contact with for such a long time appeared and began killing them off one by one.

Kosok Kre had two choices to stay alive along with his remaining comrades, fight back and most likely die. He was not weak. In fact, he was a spirited and talented magic wielder, though there were no guarantees in being talented in magic. The second was to give up and surrender.

Kosok Kre gambled and took the second option. While the humans in the stories he heard from his elders were supposedly extremely volatile and dangerous, that did not mean this man was the same.

“Both of you lay down your arms.” His subordinates looked at him questioningly and hesitated. “Don’t think, follow my order and quickly drop them and surrender!”

Kosok Kre threw down this serrated blade and totemic wand and raised his arms up in submission. “The human out there! And the evoant! If you have mercy, grant it, we surrender because I do not believe we will survive a confrontation against you!”

Several long minutes passed brought Kosok Kre slight relief. The fact they have not been attacked yet meant that either the human was being wary for a trap or was considering his offer, most likely both.

“The three of you, put your hands behind your back. If I see them move from your back, we won’t hesitate to kill.” Rainier would definitely follow through as well. “Sataska, make sure those two don’t do anything.

Sataska nodded with a slight smile. She stood diagonally behind both of Kosok Kre’s guards and rested two blades protruding from her palms under their necks. If Rainier asked for it, she would instantly end their lives.

The two guards didn’t even have a chance to react to Sataska’s entrance. They didn’t notice until her chitin blades were at their throats, ready to perform the ending slice at any moment. Of course they were going to do as their commander asked, thus they didn’t make any sudden movements that would result in theirs and Kosok Kre’s death. Though should it come to blows, they would die for their leader.

Rainier himself made his entrance, stepping before Kosok Kre with a wary gait.

Kosok Kre was initially surprised. The human he saw before him had surprisingly well mended clothes, though they were currently marred from some sort of battle. Perhaps he also fought the evoants prior to his troop’s arrival? Other than that, the human wore a strange mask with a neutral expression. The cheeks were puffed and were slightly red as if covered by blush makeup. The lips were also ruby red but like with the rest of the mask, there was no indication of expression. In fact, Kosok Kre couldn’t see anything belonging to the humans face, as the mask completely covered it. How could this human see without slots for the eyes? Kosok Kre guessed that the human was either naturally skilled in using his other senses, possessed some sort of magic to help him see, or the mask itself was a magical artifact. Though he didn’t know, Kosok Kre’s latter assumption was the correct one.

“I have a hard time believing you want to have a peaceful confrontation when so many arachnacosa have been trying to kill me since I came to Ademptis.”

“Wouldn’t you want to eliminate any potentials threats to your home so that your people could live freely knowing one less danger is stalking about?”

Rainier stood silent for a few seconds before casually nodding. “I can’t refute that. Though I never thought about joining the military at home. Still, the same could be said about my actions, I defended myself against your arachnacosa that tried to kill me.”

“And I don’t detest you for that. Let us simply have bygones be bygones and not attack each other in the future.” Kosok Kre was actually quite surprised. This was the first time in around two decades the arachs have met a creature that was willing to converse instead of kill.

“However, please refrain from calling us ‘Arachnacosa’. My race refers to us as the arachs. arachnacosa is a disgusting term thrust upon us by the humans a long time ago. Of course I hope you can be more sensible.”

Rainier raised an eyebrow. He honestly didn’t expect a civilized encounter with the arachnacosa. “Yea sure, Arachs.” Rainier could say whatever he wanted in his mind, so he didn’t care what he said in words as long as if it kept him alive.

“Now may I ask this… Her to remove her weapons from my companions necks?” Kosok Kre was about to refer to the evoant queen behind them as an ‘it’ but decided against since it might enrage the two.

“Hmm? Sure. Sataska, over here.” Rainier flicked his head beside him.

“Of course!” With a bounce to her steps, Sataska took a place by Rainier’s side.

“I’ll ask some questions? Oh and call me Rainier since I haven’t introduced myself yet, this is Sataska beside me.”

“I am Kosok Kre, Kosok for short; my followers are Ion and Musuk. And I don’t see why not. I’m grateful we could come to terms for peace between us so as long as if I can ask some questions of my own, I do not mind.

Kosok Kre was more than glad his potentially stupid gamble to converse paid off. He not only managed to let him and his companions to live, but he also managed to befriend the human before him. Though the word befriend was a little strong for the current relationship between the two.

“I’ll go first then. Where’d you learn how to speak English? The language we’re talking in right now.” Rainier wanted to understand how Sataska, Itome and her brood, and now Kosok Kre could all speak English. After all, it was another world he was in after all.

“Hm… Well I don’t know this language’s name, but it is universal in this world. Though us Arachs also speak in our own language which is rudimentary but all of us Arachs learn it. As for this English you speak of, it was said that it was the language of the human empire when they were still around and it has become a sort of tradition to have our races children learn it. I encourage it, because I hope someday that our race will stop idling here and emerge to become powerful.”

‘That makes a little bit of sense I guess if the extinct humans of Ademptis could speak English. But if the humans were from earth like I suspect, why don’t they speak Latin, Chinese, or bloody Spanish? Whatever, I won’t question this convenience.’

“My turn to ask. Are you the only human around or do the humans have some sort of last bastion hidden in the wilderness?” Kosok Kre believed that if Rainier was this amiable, perhaps he could ally with him and his clan if they could find them.

“I’m the only human on Ademptis that I know of. I know that humans have gone extinct, but here I am.”

In a sense, being the only human in this world made Rainier feel incredibly lonely and lost. It was a miserable thing to now realize you’re truly the only one of your species on a planet. It didn’t matter that there was still the world earth he came from, right now Rainier was on Ademptis and knew no way of getting back, not that he really wanted to.

“I see.” Kosok Kre didn’t see that as a terrible loss for himself. He did feel a bit sorry for Rainier who had a mournful expression on his face.

“Are there any other possible threats from a group like the evoants I may encounter on the Roseir Plateau?”

“Recently, on the northern half of the plateau which is where the majority of my race lives, there have been some incursions from a race we have never seen before. So far, our skirmishes against them have provided us with little casualties and information, a blessing or not, I do not know. As for the southern half which we have completely scouted, the only major threats are the evoants that have been completely slaughtered just now. Well, there are also a few groups of Doblins, but they are only dangerous in large numbers. A single one of them could be effortlessly been killed by an Arach child. They’re alive still, so they must have something up their sleeves. Thankfully they are divided into tribes that are as hostile with each other as they are with us.”

Doblin- A short humanoid monster that ranges from three to three and a half feet tall at their maturity’s peak. They often form small compounds of up to ten families each which interbreed mindlessly in order to ensure their groups ongoing survival. Even the smartest doblin only has half the intelligence of a mentally disabled human. They use whatever supplies they can scavenge and only show an ability to pick up objects as tools like sticks and rocks instead of combining the two to create a more efficient tool. Doblins are hostile to any living creature except to other doblins from their compound. They do have an unusual sense of smell and often uses it to identify females from other species which they try, and usually end up failing, to capture for breeding purposes. They attempt to mate with any female of any species aside from those that are physically too large or small. To compensate for their high amount of deaths per compound, their children are birthed in many and grow up fast, usually to end up being dead way or another very quickly. The average lifespan of a doblin is three months, though there has never been a recorded instance of a doblin actually dying of old age aside from those in captivity.

“If you are the only human, then where do you come from? You were born, thus there must be more humans out there.”

Rainier mulled his answer over. He didn’t think there was any harm in telling the truth.

“Believe it or not, I actually was brought to this world, teleported I guess, from another world where humans are the sole sentient race living on it. There is no magic like here on Ademptis and our technology is far superior to anything here. As for how or why I was teleported, I have no clue really. All I’m trying to do now is survive.”

“Truly?! Another world? Such a thing is possible, for life to exist in places other than Ademptis?” Kosok Kre could see no lie in Rainier’s eyes and was quite amazed by the prospect brought by the human’s words.

“Yea, though it doesn’t matter. In fact, while it is a possibility, we don’t believe that there is sentience on other planet. And here I am in a world where that theory is meaningless.”

A world where magic doesn’t exist is something Kosok Kre can’t fathom. But it must be true, it aroused his interest vastly. “Well, for now let’s do our best to coexist. Moving on to more important matters, should we establish a boundary between my outpost and your race’s territory? I and Sataska are only two people, so I don’t really care about true borders. All I want is access to both halves to the Roseir Plateau.”

“What do you intend to do?”

“Don’t worry. I don’t think I want to contact this race that’s moving in on your race to the far north. In fact, I’ll be doing a lot of moving around so I take out any threats that I see to your south. Not that I can catch all of them of course.”

Kosok Kre was relieved. “To be honest, I did suspect you were in league with this northern race. And if you are lying to me-”

“Like I said, don’t worry. I doubt a race that’s this hostile to foreign influences that they’ve yet to see like yours will be any nicer to me. Since I was brought to this world randomly, I’m more along the line of trying to find out what exactly I want to do.”

As much as Kosok Kre didn’t want to antagonize Rainier, Rainier didn’t want to antagonize Kosok Kre.

“I understand. Very well then before I leave, let me apologize for my people’s hostility and your influence in eradicating the evoants. If I told my people that you did kill so many Arachs as you have, they would of course want vengeance. Thus I will keep quiet about that and simply say the evoants killed them and you slew the evoants after. Ion and Musuk, I ask you to keep this lie with me as well.”

“Of course.” “As you command.” The two other arachnacosa nodded their heads in affirmation.

“One more question…” Rainier noticed these two arachnacosa held Kosok Kre in high regard. Surely this person was not a simply army commander.

“By all means.”

“What exactly is your position among the Arachs?”

“I am the Kre, rather in this language of yours, I would be the prince of my people.” And with that, Kosok Kre and his two guards headed home to their home.

-----

“A prince, he says?” Rainier respected the way Kosok spoke with him. He accompanied his words with the right amount of humility and arrogance in every sentence, despite those two adjectives being antonyms.

“Huh, I expected it to be more raggedy. It’s been a while since I was last here.”

Rainier and Sataska were inside Outpost Roseir. The underground base was exactly the way he left it, though with all the traps still in place he left behind for any intruders in his absence. All the dead arachnacosa outside the entrance were consumed by carrion eaters judging by the remains left behind. He left that disposal to the next day, as he was too tired to do any cleaning today from all the running and walking he did from the oasis trap back to the outpost.

Sataska showed none of the abysmal attitude an evoant would have in a cave other than their own. He attributed that to the fact that she herself was a queen of her species.

In truth, Rainier hoped that he and Sataska would go their own separate ways after he killed Sataska’s mother. He was quite annoyed by Sataska’s newfound clinginess.

It was like he was some sort of male prostitute and Sataska was purchasing him. ‘That’s kind of disturbing when I think about it.’

It was already night time and Rainier dusted the sheets on the bed he slept in previously. It was a good morale booster for Rainier to have decent accommodations again. He felt the antenna that wrapped around his neck to find it melding with his skin. He wasn’t alarmed, in fact it felt natural.

The antenna was a part of him as much as his arms and legs, no matter how recently it formed. When Rainier touched the antenna, it felt bony to his fingers. To the antenna itself, Rainier felt like he could feel every tiny gap of his finger’s skin. “It’s too damn sensitive, it’s hard to process so much information continuously. Hm…” Rainier tried pushing the antenna into his neck and back. Although it was only a hunch, Rainier believed he could store the antenna in his body and unleash it whenever he had need of it.

It was as if his body conveyed to Rainier his own capabilities.

Before Rainier knew it, the antenna was completely covered by his own skin. “It’s like when I use one of these bone spikes. The skin heals up pretty quickly and I can pull it out whenever I need to.”

Of course it was safe to have the antenna out at all times to watch for threats, Rainier just felt more at ease when he didn’t have this appendage attached to him conveying so many sensory details to him at once.

And then Rainier sighed. “I’ve finally acquired a little bit of peace. There are still many dangerous things out there, but I would be relatively safe if I decided to stay here provided the arachnacosa don’t decide to off me.”

Rainier looked at the encyclopedia besides him. There was quite a bit of information inside the book that he had been collecting since his stay, many entries he had yet to read. While he got ready for sleep, Rainier made a meal consisting of a carnifer vine, which on the inside resembled a red cucumber along with two starmongers seared over a makeshift grill.

As he ate, he set aside a large portion for Sataska considering her enormous appetite. Though he wondered where she was at. ‘Well if she left that’s okay, if she’s still here in the outpost… Well, whatever, she can do what she wants.’

Rainier also spent some of his remaining time cleaning his clothes in a vat of clean water he collected through a cistern. He disliked being dirty himself, so he used the rest of the clean water to rinse down his body and dumped it off the cliff where the open air room was at.

In the distance, he could see that imposing steel giant marching solemnly, steam venting off its shoulders.

“This world has so many mysteries and possibilities. I can’t even begin to imagine how something like that was built. Judging by the steam, it must be technology compared to magic. Does this world have advances in both fields?” Rainier had only understood technology all his life, that fact that magic exists in another world was still strange to him.

“Well, maybe I’ll learn how to use it someday. Even if I can’t use magic, I can still use magic items.” Rainier looked at the ground, thinking hard. “I think I know what I want to do next, hunt for more magic artifacts. I don’t know how to use this mask, but the Razor of Envy has proved indispensable.”

What Rainier intended to do was easier said than done. However, he already had a place in mind to search. ‘Those hanging coffins with those dhampir whatchamacallits, surely one of them must have something useful.’

“In any case, time for sleep.” Rainier lay down on the bed and stripped himself to his undergarments before covering himself with the sheets. He placed the encyclopedia, mask, and razor on the surprisingly stable nightstand beside the bed and laid back. “Where exactly is Sataska? Things would be easier with that ant girl around.”

“That’s… That’s… That’s the first time you showed worry for ME!”

“Holy shit!” Rainier jumped from the bed to find that Sataska was slumped over the other side like a dog begging for attention.

“Is there something wrong with me? Am I really of no interest to you?” Sataska, though she had acted like a devoted girlfriend for a good majority of the time since Rainier’s success in his plan, was worried that Rainier had no interest in her.

Of course considering how young she was, especially for an evoant queen, it was purely natural. She had practically no interaction with the world outside her mother’s nest. And while she acted haughtily when she first met Rainier, she grew gradually attracted to him. She was especially amazed by his sheer perseverance and strength in obtaining victory no matter how stacked the odds were against him. He also had a sly deviousness to him that pricked her personal interest.

Sataska didn’t think she was ugly, but of course she had no idea if she was attractive to other beings, particularly Rainier. “Tell me... Are you at all interested in me?”

Rainier sighed and placed his hand on Sataska’s head like he was petting a cat or dog. And he answered honestly. “Nope.” And quite cruelly at that.

*Plomp*

Sataska face planted into the bed, though she immediately recovered. “Huuuuuuuh? I was supposed to be tugging at your heartstrings with my adorable act and you ruined the mood by saying ‘Nope’ of all things?!”

“Let me make this clear. I have no romantic interest in an ant, anything that’s not human I guess.” Rainier knew that it was fairly unlikely he was going to meet another human in Ademptis, but he refused to back down.

“What’s wrong with me? Am I ugly? Is there something wrong with me in general or do you just plain disdain me?”

Rainier slightly wanted to be evil and comment ‘All of the above’.

“No, you are not ugly. Truly, any guy other than me would be more than happy with your looks. And as for the other two, well your personality is kind of screwed up, but that’s not the point either.”

“Then what is it!”

“I honestly have no decent reason I can think of. I’m simply not interested.” It looked like Sataska was about to cry, so Rainier then added, “If it’s a matter of whether I have come to care for you, then yes I do care. You’re the first person I’ve been able to speak with normally and I consider you a friend as a result.”

“A… Friend?”

“People that you can joke with, share hardships with, help out, and care for without romantic involvement. That’s a friend. My best friend back on Earth, the other world I mentioned with Kosok Kre, has a younger sister who looks similar to you, and since I lived with my friend’s family for a time, she came to be a like sister to me too.”

And that was Rainier’s main reason why he had no interest in Sataska. While she resembled his friend’s sister, Sataska still looked older and more developed, thus he was having a hard time trying to avoid any complications in his mind.

“…”

“Here, you can sleep in this bed, I’ll sleep somewhere else. Wake up reasonably tomorrow, there’s a place I want to head to tomorrow.”

Rainier grabbed his belongings and went to another room with a smaller, but still clean bed he originally prepared for Sataska.

“That girl may be like a sister to you, but I am not. I am a queen and I will not be giving up as easily as you hope.” Sataska was determined to make Rainier fall for her charms.

Rainier raised a single eyebrow. “Heh, good luck on that.”