Chapter 1374 (1/2)

“God fucking damnit…” Kaan Swacc growled, smashing his fist against the locked door in front of him once more. The lock was a purely metaphysical one, but he was completely barred passage all the same.

Timing had not been on his side these past few days. In the aftermath of it all, it felt like he had a bubbling cauldron in his chest, constantly threatening to explode outward and devour what little remaining self-control that Kaan possessed. Yet Kaan lightly clapped his hands together, releasing three harmonious chimes. It didn’t completely rid him of his rage, but it did let him focus.

Pressed her back up against the stone wall of this secret chamber in the System Ways around Earth, Lyra watched him. He ignored her for now. Once more, he reviewed the circumstances of the last few days.

The Special Investigator Kaan Swacc had watched with relish as the humans began their attacks on the final Danger Zone. He had begun his own preparations to launch an attack on Randidly Ghosthound and force him to reveal his Nether affiliations when he received the emergency distress beacon sent out by the frontline nearest to Cohort 7.

Despite the importance of his mission on Earth, his duty to the Nexus came first. Per regulations, he left Earth immediately and proceeded to reinforce the frontlines. But by the time that he had arrived there, the forces of Aether were already slaughtered. So he went to the closest Xyrt Brigade facility to figure out what the situation was.

Apparently, he had missed the Xyrt Brigade emergency response team’s departure by mere minutes. Which was good, because the entire group had been slaughtered without even having time to send a report as to how many opponents were in the Nether horde. But it was bad because, when Kaan Swacc had finally established contact with the Xyrt Brigade chain of command, they took the fact that he hadn’t been in time to join the emergency response as a deliberate act on his part.

Due to that ‘cowardice’, he was relieved of his military rank, pending a trial that would happen after the current crisis was resolved. In effect, Kaan Swacc was dismissed and exiled to Earth in the interim.

The frustrating part of that was that, when Kaan returned to the planet, the Epic Danger Zone had already been cleared. Even worse, although he noticed the presence of Nether in the sky, part of the privileges that he lost when his rank was striped was the use of the Xyrt Brigade dedicated channels of communication. So he could not report to the higher command that this was the beachhead of whatever assault Nether was planning and earn merit in that manner.

But he supposed that the System would release an emergency beacon as soon as its constructs were breached. Already the natural defenses against the Great Rift around Earth were wearing thin. He would not have long to wait.

Each hour, more painful disharmonies radiated outward through Aether. Very soon, the Nether forces would break through. And there was nothing that Kaan Swacc could do about it.

“All this… is your fault...” Kaan Swacc whispered, picturing the smirking face of Randidly Ghosthound. In truth, Kaan should have been prepared for this; from the beginning, he had known that Randidly Ghosthound was a talented Nether spy. But some part of Kaan hadn’t quite acknowledged the threat that Randidly represented.

Not the boy himself, obviously. He was just a foolish brat that was in over his head, despite all the Nether he held in his body. But the fact that he was able to fake several impressive exploits and earn a Commandership on a frontline, even a minor one, meant that the Nether forces had put significant resources behind him.

Was it any shock that they would even send a Nether King with perfect timing to foil Kaan’s plan…? Or probably Randidly had given the signal, giving the Nether inside information to take advantage of the situation once Kaan Swacc had been pulled away from the planet.

Still, all was not lost. Despite all of the rest of Kaan’s life coming crashing down around him, one fact continued to make him smile. Stretching out his hand, Kaan produced the Aether Mine controller and was glad to see that none of the Aether Mines had yet been deactivated by Nether. Each remained functional. With all four Danger Zones emptied, Randidly Ghosthound every breath must be agony at this point.

“You want to see which of us can hold out longer…?” Kaan Swacc forced his rage down and his mouth stretched wide in a smile. “I won’t fall for your trap… I’ll wait until you reveal your true colors...and then I will crush you…”

*****

The long and short of it, Octavius explained to Randidly, was that the Nexus had been completely caught flat-footed. Although there were defenses in place to prevent this sort of thing from happening, twelve hundred years of relative peace for the Nexus had made its vigilance lax. Those protections had atrophied to nothing, as could be seen in the fate of the emergency response force.

Real power would need to be brought to bear and that would take time. Although it was much easier now that Randidly had reported the location of the attack. Octavius had known the attack was coming somewhere but hadn’t had much luck locating its exact position.

His initial few searches hadn’t included Earth at all. Apparently the further through the System’s tasks a world progressed, the more it would move toward the center. So he had started with planets that were deeper in the System process.

So Octavius had been arranging for his aides to physically travel to each of the planets that were engaging a Calamity when Randidly had arrived. Octavius shook his head, continuing to look down at his scroll. “It makes sense that the Nether would pick a planet like yours, however. About to engage with a Calamity, so near enough to the center of the Cohort. But since the Calamity has yet to occur, the Nexus isn’t watching as closely. Is there anything else you remember? That could explain why Earth was targeted…?”

Octavius Shrike gave Randidly a sharp look as he spoke. Randidly thought about it. Aside from me, do you mean…? “There’s nothing that you don’t already know… but I was curious if it could have to do with the special trial the Earth was given. There were additional Aether constructs engaged, right?”