Chapter 8-241: The Blame Game’s Winner (1/2)
A time-lapse began to click off the days, and the map of Sydney, and the terrain about it, began to turn grey as the Shroudzone expanded by the day, grabbing acreage, killing off everything, faster and faster, taking more and more land as it hit less fertile ground, wiping away farms and grazing land, natural habitats, woods and plains, lakes and rivers emptied of the foundational life that made them possible, and the mana beyond it.
“The undead of Sydney have either not realized how much power they have to wipe the continent clean of life, or they have been mollified by you sacrificing your own to them.” Faces twisted at the implications, not knowing which was true, even if the sacrifice was totally repugnant.
“You could do nothing about them in the past, but that is no longer true. Vivic Weapons exist, and can kill the undead forever. You can advance to Nine, and higher, and Hallow the ground.” My voice was not encouraging. “The problem you now have is one of scale.
“You have a circle of ground over sixty kilometers across you have to Hallow before the Land wakes up and kills you all.”
Breaths caught in throats, eyes opened up in shock.
I held up a finger. “The Land does not care what color your skin is. It does not care how long your family has lived here. It does not care what culture you come from. It does not care about your revenge, your hates, your anything.
“You are dust mites on Her skin. You are NOTHING. Except...” I lifted up my hand, and tapped the back of it, the same place most of them had looked upon themselves, “You are the cause of the Blight She will be suffering when She wakes up.”
They started to protest, and I just stared them down. “Undead are the cause of the Blight. Undead born of Her. Undead who ripped Her power from Her.” Their faces were going all sorts of shades, especially Master Dorrian’s. “The other Powered still alive did nothing to stop this. Indeed, they were ENCOURAGING IT.” My eyes turned on Priest Brevington, who almost swooned under the condemnation there. “Even the non-Powered were participating in it, and helping protect the tainted by ADDING MORE UNDEAD TO THE SHROUD.”
I let all that trail off for a long, chilling moment, letting them all think about the consequences of action and inaction.
“In the lifespan of Australia, you are a passing breath of wind, and all you have proven to be to Her is a painful Blight, which you all have either helped grow, or have stood aside and allowed to grow. When She wakes up and finds that Blight there, She will discover its sources, and then she will remove the causes of Her affliction, just like you or I would scrape away mold growing upon our skin.”
I wasn’t about to spare anyone now.
“You are now in a race against time. Your first potential race is against me, because I am going to bring down the Shroud, and free the souls that have been trapped inside it in torment for years uncounted... including all those you’ve ever known who have died on this planet.
“That includes your parents, probably your grandparents, and even great-grandparents. Don’t even think of stopping me.”
Mouths starting to open clamped shut under my glare, and they couldn’t speak up to ask for more time.
“The second thing you are racing is the Great Shroudzone in Russia, as am I.”
They all sat bolt upright at that. There was another party to this?
“Two Shroudzones on this planet have completely fallen. I have cleared the Fireshroud in Yellowstone in North America, and the Polar Shroud in Antarctica,” I stated firmly, leaving them gaping at me. “The New York City Shroudzone is falling by the day; I estimate it will be cleared within ten days. The Washington DC Shroudzone will follow, and slowly, others will begin to shrink.
“The Great Shroudzone is going to feel all of this. It is going to feel its time is getting short. It knows it has to do something... break the Curse that binds it to a Shroudzone, or find some other solution.
“It has to die before it finds that answer.
“You are now racing the rest of the world to the collapse of the Shroud, or the annihilation the Great Shroudzone is going to unleash if it is not killed first. And when that Shroudzone falls, you best have cleared up your mistake, or the continent is going to be very, very angry with you... and when you are angry at ants, the ants get squashed.” I leaned forwards slightly, and they swallowed. “You don’t qualify as ants. You aren’t strong enough.”
They were all shivering now.
“I am not here to clean up your mess. I have far too much work to do. I have to clean up the Cultivators in China, who will enslave even the Mother Lands if they can. I have to wipe the Buddhist Mantra, which will forcibly indoctrinate the world. I have to build up the strength of the world so that when the Earth finally comes out from the Shroud, and all the divine powers, Good, Evil, and just plain insane, finally turn their eyes on you and see you, the planet is ready to face them.
“You have made a horrible mess worse. Clean it up, or you had best run as far as you can.”
Luminous Chalker slowly rose, staring at me. “That is why you are giving us this Helix Method,” he said softly. “So that we can become Nines, and help with the clearing of the Shroudzone, and the Hallowing of the Blight.”
“It is a question of math. Plain, pure, simple.” The grey of the Shroudzone was a circle in the air behind me, sixty kilometers across. “The best place to Hallow from is the center of effect, for it will slowly and cumulatively spread out in all directions.
“The first Hallow can be up to ten meters per Caster Level in radius, which can stack with up to five of you in a formal Ritual. So, five Nines would make a circle four hundred and fifty meters across.” In the circle behind me, a tiny white dot formed. “Every successive Ritual is one meter per Caster Level.”