The Power of Ten

Chapter 8-214: Who is the Greater Evil?

I had the overview above, and sent it to Sama, who I could see shooting through the water like a submerged missile, clouds of blood exploding like inkbombs in her wake. I could see all the submerged sahaug and the larger sharks they were using as beasts of burden, complete with nets ready to haul their spoils.

There were plenty of bloodstains on the deck, along with the viciously disassembled corpses of crewmembers who had become dinner, gore running in the rain from scattered white bone and scraps of meat and organs not devoured by the ravenous shark-men.

Vivus was starting to crawl over everything, as a massive incoming rush of necromana from the slaughter came sweeping in to set it off.

Keeping an eye out below, I sent a blast of Silver Magic into the sky, reaching out for the ephemeral strings of the Control Weather effect the kraken had put up to isolate the ship, grabbed them, and tore them apart.

The winds started dropping an mph a second, and the rains faded just as quickly, while the frothing sea raging below calmed down with unnatural speed to the appropriate direction and strength of waves. The default winds came sweeping in patiently to take over and do their thing.

Magic comes, magic goes, physics cries.

Sama had me Marked, and I had Master Fred Blessed, making me the /tellepathic link between both sides of the /tellepathic networks. I flicked that on to real time and exchange in the back of my head, linking up with Sama doing much the same, added my visuals and hearing to the display if they wanted to see, and kept up here on overwatch.

The remaining sahaug in the water were fleeing like rats, while their cargo sharks were trying to do the same, and getting hacked apart in doing so. I noticed Sama was slicing at their cargo, focused on her visuals, and found myself snarling.

Human corpses, all ages and genders, reluctantly getting set alight with vivus as Sama’s Sword went through them.

Fresh corpses, because they weren’t undead right now, yet were still intact. It was likely they’d drowned when put into the net, although the lolling necks of many said they’d had their spines snapped.

-The cargo is people!- I /snarled out.

Briggs was moving through tight corridors below, reading every footstep on the metal and every claw on the walls with merciless accuracy. He wasn’t using his Hammer, of course, but his fists were just fine, crushing, cutting, piercing, twisting in a whirlwind of hand techniques, while grasping claws and razored teeth got to try to deal with Hardened steel armor. Supernaturally strong creatures of the deep were trying to swarm him, and the wet crunch of their cartilage breaking and bodies exploding under the cutting edge of Versatile UA and the grim electrum glow around his limbs was everywhere.

The control cabin was also clear now, parts of sahaug here and there, along with what looked like what might have been the command crew.

Master Fred focused on an intact face at my thought.

Definitely Oriental. Not in what would be a uniform. Master Fred scanned around for a book or log, opened it up.

Bird Script...

-Look for surviving captives. Assay them to see if they are Powered.-

Briggs acknowledged, Master Fred Rode the Shadows to another entrance to belowdecks, and entered without hesitation.

My Allegiance had been watching this since my first spell, and was swallowing as they caught the implications of what was going on here.

-Lady Traveler,- Sir Pellier /asked me gravely for all of them from thousands of miles away, -What is going on?-

The Paladin had sworn in under me after the Firezone, and was one of my nine Directs, helping rapidly organize a Shroud-cleaning force that was now en route back to New York City to slowly begin the clearing process. Helix and Father Bower had both joined in under him, the former a bit reluctantly... but rather stunned when he realized Windgraf Mochtal and the Angelos were both my Directs after the Firezone was cleared and I’d made a special Teleport back to Detroit, just for them...

The Angelos now had a clearer link with the Heavenbound Sworn to me than he’d had as their Pact Sponsor. Every Heavenbound who could was now swearing an Oath to join in, and they were rapidly organizing themselves, communication taking off, coordination ramping up, information exchanging in real time.

You know, what an Allegiance was supposed to be and help them do!

Non-combatants could basically tune into a fight at almost any time now, happening somewhere for some reason, giving huge numbers of witnesses to any conflicts.

This fight was getting monstrous amounts of attention, and I knew it was from Sama’s side, too, although her Marked didn’t proliferate quite as fast as my Vassals did, as she didn’t have the people skilled enough to make the Tat-Marks yet.

-The Sahaug who eat the brain of a human Powered can evolve and take Class Levels, not just Racial Levels. It doesn’t matter if they are powerful or not. I think these are weak, low-Level Powered who were captured, drugged, and sold off to the Daoists to be refined into pills for their Cultivation.-

Quite a few Vassals promptly puked as they realized what was going on.

Sahaug, eating Powered so they could become stronger. Daoists, eating Powered to gain more power for themselves, and eliminate their competition.

Which one was the greater monster? One raiding the other for their cargo of human beings...

The racket from Briggs’ area grew much, much louder, and the squeals and the cries there from that deep, deep rumbling bass shaking the metal around them suddenly sounded a lot more panicked than previously.

If you had good ears and put your head to the hull, you could hear that Song, too...

“Endure, we are coming...

Up from the deeps, where the kraken sleeps,

Where sharks steal through the endless gloom.

Seeking hot strife, thirsting warm life

And finding our wrath, meeting your doom.

Tremble, oh oooo oh, Tremble, Tremble, Tremble...

We are Coming!

“Endure your endless black,

Suffer your cold, dank abattoir,

Sleep in your blighted, briny den.

Your blood stained the water,

Icy waves drank slaughter,

And we are coming for you again.

Tremble, we will be back!

Tremble, oh oooo oh, Tremble, Tremble, Tremble...”

All in Aquan, of course. It would carry for miles and miles and miles, carrying that Intimidation Check forwards with some Heartsong reverbs for that delightful shiver down the spine.

Some other sahaug tried to get out from belowdecks in their panic, ran into Master Fred. He just put up a Wall of Icefire and froze them hard before cutting them apart. He didn’t want to damage the ship, naturally.

The few who came up ladders or hatches not guarded had no idea I was up top watching, and none of them made it off the deck. Flashing Starshards from my Crown of Stars were more than enough to cover the whole of the ship as I waited atop The Old Steed up in the sky, now proudly back to his silver-burning flames.

“I have eyes on survivors,” Briggs growled, finally pulling off some of the fresh corpses draped atop him that hadn’t wanted to let go.

I saw the racks on racks of people, multiple races, stacked up like dummies, the flimsiest of sheets on them, every age from babies to seniors.

All the racks nearest the main doors to this hold were empty, with occasional traces of blood, and half a dozen corpses were nearby, their heads cracked open and brains missing.

I could feel more people vomiting far in the distance.

-Sama, see if the propellors are fouled,- Briggs /directed her, a terrible primal anger filling him, like a great beast rousing to life. It was quite intimidating, although I wasn’t Aware enough to feel Fate bending around him as his heart swore an Oath, even if his mind didn’t make it formal.

They Will Pay For This.

-Eyes on two surviving crewmen.- Master Fred tapped against a steel bulkhead; his Crystalfoot tremblesense clearly revealed two quivering bodies out of sight of the door there, plastered against the walls and doubtless terrified for their lives.

All four of us, and thousands of others, locked onto that image.

-This is going to get very uncomfortable for them.- I didn’t like Charm magic on its face, but nothing was going to stop me from Dominating these twats and learning everything I wanted to from them.

-Someone get me a ship captain online. Trav, get down here and Assay these people, find out what’s keeping them comatose. I can smell they aren’t dead.- I prompted Steed to start dropping towards the deck at Briggs' words, and he did. -Master Fred, go find that logbook. I want to know where this ship came from, and where it is going to.-

Briggs was like a volcano ready to go off. He really, really hated the shit in the sea...

-Find a ship captain ready to take control of this ship and sail it into a safe port. I will fetch him here. Find us that safe port, and get a Salvation team there to receive these people.- I /modified his orders, and he backed them without even thinking about it.

There was a chained net fouling the propellers. An adamantine edge was currently slicing through it to cut the ship free.

-Now, I’m gonna take me that kraken’s head and mount it on the prow of this ship, and then I’m going to collect a lot of future Baneskulls bobbing about in the drink. There is going to come a day where I’m going to follow these bastards down to the bottom of the sea, and help KILL THEM ALL.-josei

Just because the sea makes the biggest creatures doesn’t mean it makes the deadliest ones.

-------------

It was pretty obvious that Sama and Briggs’ relaxing fling to butcher shoggoths and overpowered Frozen Undead was careening seriously off-target. Briggs already loathed the sahaug, and Sama had already committed to the Cultivator fight. Finding them both here, feeding on people who couldn’t defend themselves, just lit them both off, even if they were Powered. The weak were the weak, and if you wanted to prey on humanity, you had better be ready to receive what you gave.

The people here were unconscious and paralyzed by a particularly potent alchemically-enhanced variant of curare mixed with a Feign Death spell so they didn’t need to eat or drink. Even if they woke up, they’d remain paralyzed, trapped in their own skins... but they weren’t meant to wake up.

Their last port of call was Matarani, just this morning. Word went winging out quickly, and members of the Good Churches down there were very, very quickly starting to track down who had dealt with this Rokugunate there, and very, very tellingly, where that cargo had come from.

The people would soon be awake, but judging by their ethnicity, they were rural native folk who’d been singled out for this treatment.

To my utter lack of surprise, there was a considerable Chinese quarter in that city, too.

Well, there was no way I was doing anything resembling serious investigations while looking like this, so my plans were only temporarily on hold. We discussed our plans, what we were going to do, especially me zipping here and there, and plotted out our next moves.

I was especially curious about who was profiting from this trade, because they and theirs were going to catch a severe case of Death by Sama soon...