Chapter 302: Prosperity (1/2)

Elysium's vessel landed, its weight leaving a thud even under the ocean. Lifting a hand to the ship, I pulled water from the vessel by generating air and ascending the liquid with gravity. The remnants inside paled as I raised my arm, but they sighed with relief when I made entry easier for them. Moments later, a message from them popped up in my status.

A vessel is asking for permission to enter your city's perimeter. License granted: Y/N?

I selected yes, and a panel slid sideways along the vessel's bottom as they passed into our city limits. Emissaries from Elysium paced out on a fancy space platform that hovered down from the ship's opening. They wore lavender robes with runes glowing under their surface. No matter the enchantments, they exposed themselves to us, any of them death fodder for our guild.

Walking up, I wasn't the only one aware of that fact. Fear laced in the remnants' eyes, each of them having a pinkish purple skin tone with white hair. They gawked at me like I was a demon, a horrific monster made of teeth and claws. Wanting to break the ice, I pointed at the goods shown along the underside of their vessel,

”Do you guys need help moving anything?”

They peered between me and the gear before bowing. One of them spoke with a voice like silk, ”We will move it. There's no need to stress yourself or your guild members after such a harrowing battle.”

I scoffed, ”Thanks for the consideration, but I'll be just fine.” I moved my arm in a circle while grabbing a shoulder, ”Plus, I've got the strength for it.”

I lifted a hand, saturating their gear with antigravity wells. A bit of resistance stopped my magic initially, but I forced through it in a burst. Once cast, the sorcery floated their gear from the ground with a gentle rise. A feather's weight on the heavy boxes would keep them from floating off. I waved a hand over their vessel, casting the same mana saturating spell over their ship, finding the same blip of resistance at first.

Either way, the ship stayed grounded from the crew members inside, but the vessel would be weightless for a few weeks. I gave them a thumbs-up, ”There you guys go. That should make this take only a few minutes, tops.”

Beads of sweat oozed from the remnants' foreheads as their hearts pounded in their chests. I frowned, ”Uh, are you guys ok?”

The talkative remnant spoke up, ”I, uhm, yes. We are, of course. We are more than ok. Thank you so much for doing this. We-we appreciate the help.”

I raised my brow, ”Alrighty then...I don't know if I believe you. Both of you look sick.”

The nontalkative one glared at me for a minute, his expression unreadable. Impressed by his grit, I raised a hand to the guy, ”My name's Daniel. What's yours?”

The glaring remnant bent over and puked out his guts. I scratched the back of my head, ”Huh...yeah, you're sick. Let me take you back to your shi-”

The speaking remnant raised palm as if he were attacked, ”No. No. That won't be at all necessary.” The remnant emissary glared at his compatriot, ”He will walk back himself.”

The unspeaking remnant hobbled away while trying to cup his own throw-up. He hacked up his lunch one more time before going back to the vessel, unable to meet my gaze. I blinked at him, ”That guy had a nasty breakfast, I'm guessing. Either that, or it was me.”

The other remnant's eyes widened in abject terror as I finished speaking. His hands locked up as I looked down at him. He murmured, ”No...We're fine. Completely fine.”

He might as well have been the Niagra Falls of sweating at this point. Drips formed on his face in realtime, both comical and absurd. I waved my hands, ”Look, there's been a misunderstanding here. I have no intention of killing you, your friends, or destroying your ship over there. Don't plant any bugs here. Don't try anything else either. Do that, and you won't have to worry about any consequences for meeting me. Now, what's your name? Mine's Daniel, like I said earlier.”

”It's Phalanthorixiatocosadoreauy.”

”Damn, that's a mouthful. What about Phalanth?”

”Anything. You can call me anything.”

I gave his shoulder a light pat, ”It's good to meet you, Phalanth.” I gestured to the ship, ”What did you guys bring me?”

Phalanth scrambled with his status, the red screen popping up. He coughed into a hand, ”Ahem, we have everything you asked for, though we took liberties with what information was, erm, given.”

I frowned, ”What does that mean?”

”We...we didn't grant high-level access to certain topics, such as our cloning operations or how we plan to enact reforms on Schema's system.”

”But you have the general ideas in there, right?”

”Oh, most certainly. There isn't any locational data regarding where Elysium's planets are located or the like, however.”

”Well yeah, I didn't want it. Schema can tell me that if I need it. I just want to know what you guys planned on for improving Schema's system. I've seen a few of your worlds already, and you guys have some good ideas.”

I stared in disgust at the decaying corpse of a Hybrid in the distance, ”Just your methods...They make me sick.”

Phalanth gazed up at me, ”I, I thought you were a conquerer, some bloodthirsty monster based on the footage and reports. You're more measured than anticipated, I must say. I'm...astonished. I thought you would despise us.”

”What? You, individually, no. Not really. You didn't do anything to me or my guild. It's your military I don't like and how it's managed. Your domestic practices seem much more in line with my own way of doing things, outside of the Hybrids and genocide, of course.”

Torix paced up, his hands interlocked behind himself. Even our ancient necromancer, who I stood over, dwarfed the emissaries. I never noticed how big we all were, but now it seemed outright strange. Torix peered down at the emissary, ”I'll trust there will be no enchantments on the information, nor viral data either?”

Phalanth went right back to trembling, ”N-no. Never.”

Torix leaned over, an inch or two from Phalanth's face, ”We will make you pay if we happen upon them. Perhaps your corpse will dance in a pool of maggots, or I'll make trap your soul in a dying body, over and over. My point being, I'll come up with something that will be quite uncomfortable should you attempt to trick us. Am I clear?”

”Y-yes.”

Phalanth seized up as Torix walked past him. Poor guy. More Remnants showed up beyond the diplomats. Two armored ones strode past me with Sentinel-like paneling, their dimensional slicers not as violent as Schema's own spears. It still impressed me that their guards had them at all. Those same bouncers gawked at me while they carried equipment from their vessel.

Their hands trembled as well, both of them anxious as a panic attack. It was probably a strange sensation being beside a mortal enemy so soon. I'd killed many of the Elysian forces, and even the Hybrids exceeded these guards in net power. They were the fodder for the fodder, but that didn't mean I would just murder them in cold blood.

I mean, if someone walks through a person's kitchen, most people aren't worried the owner will rummage through a drawer and draw a knife at their throat. To me, being afraid of me now was akin to that. It mounted unnecessary stress on both of them, along with the six other guards behind them. They might've seen me in action, though, so maybe that analogy didn't hold up.

Either way, I figured we needed people sifting through the incoming stream of new stuff. Sending messages, I collected John McSmitty and several other guildsmen who practiced spyware and the like. They rushed on over, getting ready for some work while I took a portion of untampered land nearby for my own purposes.

Using a spot of sandy stone, I melted the grains into glass while crafting them overhead. Getting the paneling right, I made a sphere of glass for the talks with Elysium, and as I did, my guild chatted away about Blegara and our future plans. It was inspiring stuff, giving me plenty to do in the future. To my surprise, the most excited one of them was Amara.

She arrived earlier, and she already donned the armor I made for her, having grasped intuitively how to wear it. Finishing a curt discussion with Other Hod, Amara walked up to me in metal. The interlocking panels slid without friction, having gravitational augments for them. She stayed light on her feet. Feeling the light rumble beneath her steps, she actually became lighter than before she wore the armor. Perfect.

She even used the wires already, spreading her hair out with a gleeful abandon. With those strands, she menaced those around her like a child just gaining a new toy. Krog glared at her when several of her hairs grazed his wing, and Torix struggled not to pluck the hairs out when she did the same to him.

Amara's fragile image also faded in the dark metal. She lacked eyes, her jawed helm ominous and threatening. It radiated strength, density, and power in a way she'd never had. Amara relished that feeling, standing up taller and straighter compared to her regular clothes. They were just dirty-looking rags by comparison, but it was amazing what a wardrobe change could do for someone.

Those observations washed over me in a moment as she peered at me through a camera without needing to lift her hands,

”Hello, Harbinger. I wish to thank you for granting me your flesh and blood to wear. No eldritch would do the same. It is beyond us.”

Oh man, she reacted to the gift oddly like I worried she would. I turned to her, putting my hands up, ”It's just payback for helping us get the eldritch here under control. I did the same thing for everyone else in my guild, pretty much.”

I lifted a hand and etched with a heated telekinetic point, trying to get the damn glass I worked on to look right, ”Anyways, what's up?”