The Power of Ten

Chapter 13-351: The Work of a Legion

As always, touching the slumbering Presence of the local landscape was a new and magnificent experience, making them feel quite small. Owing to the massive amount of mountains, this Land definitely felt masculine. Lands with predominating plains, forests, and rivers were always Motherlands, while the mountains and hills were Fatherlands.

Like normally, the awareness of the Land was quite passive, suppressed by the Shroud. Still, the standard Pact energized, and the combined camouflage of earth and sky stole past them, effectively making them part of the background.

They watched the invisible lich’s dive turn into a swooping glide at speed, while they were sweeping between the pine trees in the area without rippling them. When the lich abruptly plunged through the trees, they fixed the location in place, reaching out to touch a tree, link to the Land, and zero in on it that way.

Without hesitation, they also dropped out of the sky, letting their wings dissipate as they hit the ground running and surged smoothly ahead.

The Land withdrew stray brush and branches from their path as they dashed forwards, flowing over the rough terrain and spaced trees with 5g agility and perfect coordination, reflexes, and the Waveskating Step sending them forward.

Their Land awareness was not a Commune, but a map and awareness of the local terrain was totally possible for five Tiers, so charting a path was easy enough, and the speed they were moving at was definitely superhuman, not even possible without accelerated reflexes.

They still had the horns, hooves, and the tail, the former helping with spatial awareness and the latter with additional balance, while the hooves were actually better than feet on most terrain. Telekinesis ranged out ahead to further clear the way, and also pushed and helped with balance, everyone working together to get where they needed to go faster and more smoothly.

They felt the subtle magic upon the area as they approached, and nodded in recognition.

A Stillflight Field, meant to intercept fliers at a distance, and a secondary Ward to sense active Pact use, both of them turned on very recently. If they were up all the time, that would have been like a big bright light shining, waiting to be investigated by the curious.

That was totally fine. An Amazon Pact was considered totally passive, after all. The magical-detection aspect of the Ward was overridden by the Astral Ward from the Amulet they were wearing, upgraded from a mere Div Ward II some time ago and empowered. The VI-Valence sensory attempt would have trumped a IV Valence or less Div Ward, and given the cost, the majority of such things were definitely at III or less...

The wonders of an unlimited budget were not lost on them.

All active magic ceased, but the bodywide Buffs of a lilitu and erinyes didn’t stop, either, although they had to be careful not to supercharge their tail. Lightfoot and ki wasn’t affected, either, so their hooves still didn’t really touch the ground as they moved. It took less than a minute for them to make their way over a mile of rough terrain and through woodlands to the right area, and doing so unseen and in total silence, without using their Pacts.

They were naturally very proud of being able to do this. Idiot was in Kill the Dead Mode, passively sensing for undead while in Dagger form in their hand. It nudged them west, which matched the subtle odor of alchemically-masked undeath they were smelling as they ghosted through the trees, everyone concentrating on passive skills, tracking, and observation, ripples of awareness flickering back and forth as they noticed and moved to avoid, without appreciably slowing down.

-We could do without the bust,- /groused Fang Fang, who was their insertion specialist, Shadow ki rippling about them and blending them into the background, tamping down noises, sliding past obstructions.

She was promptly overruled by everyone else, and Daisy almost laughed to herself. The reason she’d been picked by that Damned bastard was because of her curves, and for whatever reason, the combination of lilitu, Amazon, and herself meant they definitely had a larger bust than any Amazon did, while still not needing support, and naturally they were strong enough that there were absolutely no problems with their back.

Sure, it made them look like a sex goddess... but they could get away with it, and so they did. Master Fred’s opinion was basically whatever was comfortable for them, and when you were able to defy 5g’s, what was normal gravity?

There was a popping from just ahead of them, and they surged forwards, recognizing it instantly. The faintest wave of displaced air rippled by as they skated into the shadow of a random boulder dropped into the forest, ringed by old growths and fallen trunks here and there, only barely visible from the sky.

Making out where he’d been standing wasn’t hard; they’d triangulated the sound and pressure wave as they came in, and came to a stop next to the rock, dropping down into splits so they could look up to the underhang there.

Yes, there was a symbol etched into the rock, totally out of sight unless you actually got down low and looked up from almost flat on your face. Having 270 degrees of vision and being able to look out the side of their face helped immensely.

They reached up to touch it, finding direction and distance. Teleporting had to pass over the land, so Landbound could determine that with little effort, and distance was a matter of experience. ‘Porting around with powerful spellcasters was that experience...

Their head turned in consternation at the direction, and the range of the displacement. Wasn’t that too far? Wouldn’t he be out in the ocean?...

It was only the slightest of will, but they bounced back to their feet, orienting precisely along that line as the Visual File drew it out, and the distance, and overlaid the map of the globe on it as it extended out.

-The North Pole?- most of them /blurted out, and the view really zoomed in at the angle and inclination.

It wasn’t going over the ice, which was actually possible for getting a connection there. It was all a massive floating icefield, after all...

But this was a destination along a true Lived-Line, under the ice, down on the ocean floor at least four kliks down!

-He walked the ocean floor to get there?- Daisy /asked for all of them, shocked until she remembered it was a lich they were talking about. It would have been no more than an inconvenience to something undead, as nothing down there was going to eat them, except maybe a wandering Carrion Linnorm, if there were any active that far north.

They all tensed as they felt a stronger bout of attention slide across them, and despite themselves, sighed at her mental touch.

They knew right where she was, coming up the Sea of Japan along the Russian Coast, painting the locations of settlements and outposts of aquatics to the Map... and opportunistically killing them if they weren’t deep enough to avoid plunging Aquaeous Shards coming down, directed by Detects that didn’t like them at all.

-It appears that the Illuminati have something at the North Pole,- she /agreed with them. -I have a task to do that no one else can do, but I did not go Mapping up to the Pole.-

The rendezvous point popped up to the west, and they were instantly running to get out of the Warded area, before popping their wings to get some altitude and real speed. It would only take them minutes to get there.

------

Traveler and the Old Steed burst out from the surface of the North Sea with a splashing disturbance of the water that never touched them.

There were quite a few things they could have done, but setting down behind her on the Old Steed’s back and simply holding on was easiest. They were effectively weightless, and the Old Steed was more than strong enough to carry them both without a problem regardless.

The trio fell back into the waters, and blew out of the ocean ninety miles away and out to sea further north, where Traveler’s Lived-Line ended.

Daisy let Pure Wrath run through Traveler, pulling her back softly, and they all felt her sigh and melt into their embrace, feeling very satisfied as the thrumming, multi-layered power of her Aura meshed into theirs. Multiple flavors of ki danced and swirled together, finding their partners and flowing between them.

Traveler had very strong, yet very fine hands, one clasped to the grip around her as she just sat there for a minute, and the Light glowed under her skin on the traces of a Pact which could not be filled.

“What’s with the pin-up girl curves?” Traveler asked, clearly amused.

Daisy was far from the only one who blushed. “We didn’t want to look like every other Amazon,” they managed to say, with some spirit.

“When you don’t have horns, double-size hands, two sets of wings, and a three-meter tail?” Traveler asked archly.

“Exactly!” they agreed without batting an eye they didn’t have at the moment, snuggling up more. Swirling with layers of subtle ki and so many flavors of magic, Traveler had a unique smell, like you were inhaling the whole world, and places beyond it, even if some of them were dark and grim.

Daisy had never been attracted to women before, but the ones who’d been here longest included both Priestesses and Amazons of Rue, who generally speaking had little use for men at all. So, the physical attraction to Traveler was very real, spurred as it was by the others, and her own admiration of the halvyri was enough to do the rest.

“How are you and the others adapting, Daisy?” Traveler asked calmly, as the Old Steed coursed across the waters that had formed a level path under his bi-flaming hooves.

“Master Fred is very polite and generous, and the others are understanding, even if they did not experience the same thing. They are now very aware of what Master Fred could be doing to them, even if he did nothing to them,” the five of them replied together. “And the fact he still is not consigning them to the Shroud for what they did is impressive.”

Trav’s other hand reached up to caress the cheek on her shoulder. “He’s a Good person. They aren’t that common, you know.”josei

“Yes,” they all agreed softly. He didn’t have to be doing any of this.

Traveler’s head slowly turned towards the shore, and she sighed, but there was a hard light in her eyes.

They only turned their attention towards the land now past the horizon, and the Map Awareness came up.

There were Fey in one of the isolated fjords there... Elemental spirits of water, and there was an Aura of power there, too.

With an active Water Pact at the moment, they could all feel the presence of a Pact Grantor there.

“The Drowning Pact,” Legion murmured, the name simply coming to them out of Water. Water had its own Elemental factions, of course, and preying on mortals was just another lethal aspect of Water. “Five of them?” they asked grimly.

“The most common Grantors are sea hags, sirines, and nereids, although vodyanoi and rusalka are possible, but they prefer fresh water...”

“They probably have Pacts with the local fishermen. They likely sacrifice rivals or competitors to them. Were there any such Grantors around Iceland?” Legion asked quietly.

“Not Fey or Elemental, no, or anything with a lair.”

They looked over the Map of the area, and the vast amount of area it covered. “No aquatics nearby. A territory?” Legion conjectured.