Adamant Blood

"… And so, with a heavy heart and high honors, we remember the fallen, the lost, the brave, and the fearless," Mayor Emilia Ramirez intoned, standing on her podium before the gathered crowd. And then she raised her face to the sun, continuing, "And we look to the future, to the prosperity of all, and to a brighter, better Memphi, leading the way to new worlds of promise!"

A big white button sat on the podium in front of her.

The gate loomed far behind her.

A plethora of transport ships, not a single one smaller than a rugby field, hovered to the sides of the gate district, ready to move on through once the gate was open. All of them had banners and ribbons on them, like bright vines and splashes of color on otherwise freshly painted white, black, and a few different colored hulls. Eliot's spiderbot hovercraft was in there, with Lola sitting behind the driver's seat. Mark spotted a bright green ship that kinda stood out from the rest, but all of them had been cleared for transport several days ago, re-inspected every day since then, and also heavily inspected as of 4 hours ago, and now they were waiting for the go-ahead.

There had been statements. There had been stories.

Episode 4 had even aired last night, on Friday, the 19th. It had been nice to watch, but Mark had opted to get himself as drunk as possible before it aired, before he could see himself and all of that badness once again. From how everyone around him had felt when they watched it, to how Isoko was beaming with joy even a day later, and how everyone was looking at Mark with newfound appreciation…

It had been a good Episode 4.

Mark would need to watch it in private, sometime.

Mark had said farewell —for now!— to his uncles this morning. But with the gate opening, they'd only be a hop away, so it wasn't like Mark was going far.

And now they were here, standing before the gate, and it had been a whole ceremony, broadcast to all of Memphi on public access television, over the last 6 hours. Mostly, it had been last minute double and triple checks through prognosticators and otherwise while all of the world looked on, and all of Memphi prepared. Again.

Mark stood with his team, to the side of the Mayor's podium, all of them dressed well, Mark in his scales, the others in suits and dresses. Mark was 'on duty' for what came next, while the others would be here with Eliot. Credenza was also here, and she'd be staying here at ground zero, alongside everyone else. Her Luck was already heavy in the air, and things were clicking along at a great pace. No interruptions. No problems arising. Everything was falling into place exactly how it should.

Other people on duty included Titanfist, Kraigen Steele, and Sentinel, standing on the opposite side of the Mayor.

Mark and his team and the superheroes and otherwise hadn't been here the whole time, but they had come out in the last hour, to stand and present, and prepare.

The audience was small; mostly news organizations and historical societies.

And the Gate loomed in the distance, the half-kilometer-sized structure looking like a square of stone grey and black, with a great big open sky in the middle.

The ceremony wasn't anywhere near it; they were about 3 kilometers away from it, actually. The entire land here was set to be able to be dropped fast, deep into a secure bunker if necessary.

It should not be necessary.

The Mayor 'asked' her people, "Are you ready for Memphi to step into the future?"

"Aye!" the heroes and Mark and his team all shouted at once.

"Are you ready to defend us from what might come!"

"Aye!" they shouted, louder this time.

The Mayor slammed her hand on the white button, and it was the opening of the Veil.

Light and power shattered behind them, in the gate, and the path opened up to Daihoon. A short path, only 10 meters deep, but very wide. The short way around the world; instead of taking possible months to get through Endless Daihoon, instead of braving that danger of endless kaiju, you could take this path, this short distance. You could brave a few kaiju.

The gate was open, and mana poured out across the world like a shockwave punch to Mark's chest.

A roar.

A beckoning.

A demand to fight that overwhelmed the senses. It was so much stronger than a small gate opening.

Mark's scales turned sharp as he gasped inward, momentarily overwhelmed. But then he focused and gathered himself and all of the people around him into a Union of purpose, of Adamant and Ethereal. Focus returned for everyone. Drones flickered and danced across the gathering, across the sky, taking pictures and documenting the event.

Eliot pulled up some computer stuff out of his trenchcoat to hold in front of him, saying, "Kaiju contact as expected. Only one! Looks like a cat 3. Basic… Fish? Just a big fish— Catfish! Electric attacks, land transformation into mud! Not a flier!"

The kaiju that was going to spawn when the gate opened was always going to be random. No way to know about that beforehand. Not really. So to hear 'cat 3' and 'not a flier', was a big deal. The palpable relief on the faces and in the vectors of everyone in the nearby area was real.

The Mayor and a whole lot of people could already see what was happening far afield. Eliot was just talking and telling people about what he was seeing so that everyone in the area was able to see and plan, and also for the cameras.

The Mayor said, "Titanfist and Blackvein, report. Kraigen, Sentinel, and Credenza on reserve."

Blackvein stepped forward, the scales of his shoulders, forearms, and around his calves and ankles thinning to the point of being barely-there, as he threw a tri-toroid into the air above him. He held out a handle across the presentation platform for Titanfist to grab. Titanfist grabbed that handle, and then Blackvein spun that tri-toroid faster than normal, lifting straight up and away. He hitched only a little under Titanfist's weight, but Blackvein had been practicing for a few days with Sally, and then with Ben this morning.

Mark sailed off into the sky and Ben trailed behind.

The crowd watched them go.

Mark soared forward and northward, and the show was over. Real life was here.

Quark opened up a channel for some guys in Central Command to talk. Mark didn't know their names, but Quark helpfully supplied those names in Mark's vision. Ben was probably getting the same things, without the names, through his earpiece.

Takon Smith (Main Organizer, first class): "The Electric Catfish Kaiju is a cat 3. Verging on 4. The Castellan anti-spawning wards held up well; 95%. The kaiju is 5 kilometers north of the gate district, and it appears to have hard scales, earth-to-mud powers, and electrical attacks. Expect numbness and possible paralysis when in contact with the mud for a kilometer around it, through a TT effect. Do you see it now?"

Mark crested the Wall of Memphi while Takon spoke, and yeah, he saw it.

Far beyond the Wall was a bend in the Mississippi river. The kaiju pulled itself out of that river and it brought the river with it, creating a new side-lake that was more like a mudhole. The monster itself was catfish-shaped. Big mouth, big gills, long whiskers, mostly brown, big fins to the sides. Its fins had some downward protrusions, which was weird. Mark wasn't sure about that… And then he realized what he was seeing. Those fins looked like what you'd see on fish that could walk on land, and yeah, as Mark flew over the Wall, the catfish kaiju began to crawl further onto land.

Lightning crackled across its whiskers, shocking the land, sending a flash of lightning across the spikes all across its dorsal ridge.

Ben hung below Mark, gripping the sword Mark had given him the other week, eyes focused on that kaiju. "I see it. Estimation of lightning? Is it a Natural Power?"

Ben's Power was Titan Strength in Body, and though Mark didn't know the number, exactly, he guessed Ben was at 95 in Body, at least. He wasn't a paladin at all, though, so his Natural Power Level was at 15-ish, though he did have some enchanted stuff to make up for that weakness.

Natural Powers were strong against him.

"Natural Power, confirmed, so your weakness," Takon said, "According to all our projections and based on the kaiju cuttlefish from the Battle for Memphi, Blackvein can compensate for that."

Ben said, "I know he can, but this is gonna hurt."

Mark said, "I got you. How you wanna do this?"

The 'Kaiutfish' was still coming to terms with its new body, but it was already mad. Lightning flickered and raged, all across its entire body and the nearest kilometer of churning ground, as everything turned to mud.

Ben said, "Straight from above." He gripped his sword. "2 kilometers up, Mark."

Ben needed enough height to fully expand on the way down, so Mark soared up as fast as he could. Quark kept track of an altimeter, and soon Mark was approaching the required—

Ben let go, ready before Mark was.

Mark stopped spinning his copter enough to guide his fall.

And Ben expanded on the way down, his sword, Mark's gifted sword, growing bigger, too. Soon Ben's black and yellow webweave came out of his ripped suit, and he was bigger and bigger, and Mark connected to him with Adamant and Ethereal. Down they fell, though Mark needed to pull back up so he didn't run right into the expanding Titanfist.

It was crazy, being fly-sized right next to Titanfist, as he raised the weapon Mark had given him, his vector focused down into the enemy. Lightning flickered all around—

The kaiutfish's vector came along with the lightning, and Mark latched on to that astral body, invading it, taking it for everything it was worth, and giving it all to Titanfist. The lightning died. And then Ben landed, striking downward with the sword and landing along with the 500 meter long black blade.

Shlick~!

It wasn't the normal crunch that Mark was used to hearing from Titanfist striking with his normal kaijublade. It was an easy sinking. A severing. Black metal proved to be sharper and stronger and more than up for the task of cutting through lightning, scales, and fish, all at once.

Sparks flew. Titanfist struck over and over.

It was the sound of flesh parting and then landing in huge chunks.

Mark pulled from the beast and gave it to Titanfist, and also himself. His scales grew. The claws on his gloves elongated.

Flopping flesh splashed around in mud and the kaiutfish died.

All was silent.

Ben was so very, utterly surprised that the weapon had worked that well. He smiled wide, his vector turning from confused, to fantastically happy as he stood triumphant, blade in the sky, foot on the kaiutfish's broken brains, roaring toward Memphi, "KAIJU KILLED!"

Mark was smiling as Ben shrunk back down and hooked back into his handle, for the flight back.

"Easy peasy!" Mark said.

Ben smiled. "Easy peasy!"

Mark asked, "Was the sword okay? Because I saw it looked pretty shitty at 500-meter-sized. Little imperfections everywhere?"

Ben laughed. "You have to be joking." He waved the sword ahead, saying, "This thing is perfect just like it is, though. It held up completely! Usually things break and they need to be reforged every 5 kills—"

They passed the Wall.

Ben was still talking.

But the air felt weird behind Mark.

A familiar voice echoed across the land, "Don't mind if I do!"

Mark whipped around, right alongside pretty much every single person in the area, or at least those who weren't already looking at the remains of the kaiutfish. Mark only saw a silver tail, the tips of two big dragon wings, and several spiky pillars of adamantium pull up from the ground, to vanish into an invisibility in the air.

80% of the kaiutfish was gone. Little bits remained, stuck in the mud; the pieces that Ben had cut away.

… Mark hovered above the Wall for a moment longer.

Ben asked, "That was your brother, right?"

"… yeaaaaaah."

Ben said nothing, but his vector said a lot. Mostly 'this is kinda fucked up, ain't it'. Which Mark agreed with.

Mark continued on toward the ceremony platform.

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The Mayor eyed him.

No one had said anything to Mark.

The people in the audience, from the news orgs, had a lot of questions, though. They clamored and called out; they wanted to know.

Meanwhile, the ships were moving already.

Ships sailed through the north entrance of the gate, and they also sailed from Daihoon to Earth through the southern entrance. The gate had openings on both sides, after all. No one here at the ceremony platform seemed to care at all about the historic event. The opening of the gate, for real. The transfer of goods and people without the need to go through Endless Daihoon, or across half of the globe, through untamed and dangerous land that was not really near any of the empires of Daihoon at all. The real event of the day.

They wanted to know about Addavein.

Someone eventually made themselves a problem, standing forward, holding out a mic, a drone flying around, as they asked, "Is Memphi able to defend itself from that dragon?! The people want to know! Tell us!"

Blackvein had had enough, so he stepped forward and said, "He closed the Rift in Memphi during the Battle. The least we can do is let him have some fish! I hear they're good eating." And then Mark turned toward his people. "Let's go home."

Mark spun up a propeller of adamantium into the air and with a few grips of adamantium Mark pulled up his people and escaped the ensuing questions, while the Mayor restored order at the podium with a lot more decorum than Mark had managed.

Mark flew forward, carrying his team, speaking into the coms, "I can't wait to have clothes that repair themselves again."

Isoko teased, "You don't like going naked out to every fight?"

"I am not an exhibitionist by choice, Isoko."

Sally said, "I'll miss all of the food choices."

Eliot said, "I'm thinking about hiring some Nigerian guys from my father's lands to come to the settlement and build a restaurant. You want to get in on that, Sally?"

"… I kinda really do," Sally said, after a moment of deep thought.

To the sides, airships flew forward, toward the big opening in the world that revealed the settlement, the tram rails, the lake, the walls, and the green, green lands beyond. To the sides, Lola drove the spiderbot hovercraft that Eliot had built. She waved out the windows, and Mark waved back, before flying her way, to land on the roof.

Lola called out from below, "Nice showing with the kaiju!"

Isoko added, "It really was."

Sally said, "And then that asshole dragon shows up. What was that about?"

Eliot went down into the ship, saying, "I need to know how the hell Addavein evaded all of our sensors. I thought I had put up some that could detect him!" He plopped himself onto a seat with a computer, and began typing away much, much faster than his fingers were actually typing, his vector going off into the distance.

Tartu, Shawn, and Lenny were there, too, sitting to the sides, being kinda quiet. Lola was kinda quiet, too. All of them were looking at Eliot right now. From Tartu's vector with regard to Lola's vector, Mark imagined they had talked to each other a bit, or maybe Lola had talked at them. She was a wrangler of wayward mage children, and they had all been infiltrated by cultists. Mark imagined they would be having many conversations going forward… Or maybe not.

Addavein's appearance had kinda shattered whatever conversation they had been having, though.

Mark turned his attention to the ship, to the path forward. No one was driving the hovercraft. It was set to follow the commands of the air control towers out there, to ensure everything got through the gate in a controlled manner.

… And then Mark sat down and tried to be personable to Tartu and his people, saying, "Hey guys!"

Tartu nodded; that was all.

Shawn drummed up conversation, "Did you guys really not watch Episode 4?"

"It was good," Lenny said, trying to be friendly, too.

Mark said, "They all watched it. I got as piss-drunk as I could possibly get."

Sally said, "He drank 5 bottles of tequila!"

"Barely enough," Mark said, "Blackthorn broke out the good stuff, too. That helped more than the tequila."

Tartu huffed; looking chagrined. But Mark could tell he was actually amused.

Shawn said, "… Well I liked it."

"Me, too," Lenny said, quieter.

Isoko smiled wide as she said, "It was fan-fucking-tastic, is what it was! I loved the..."

Mark and everyone felt it as the mana of the world turned dense, like they were descending into water, but it wasn't water at all. It was merely Daihoon's manasphere pressing in from all sides. It felt good, really.

And then they were in the shadow of the gate, darkness passing overhead, the windows blackening. All was silent as they slowly taxied through the gate itself, through the changing atmosphere, onto Daihoon.

Then they were on Daihoon, and the controls of the hovercraft flickered with announcements that they were being deposited in some configuration down below, south of the gate, or over to the side, to be inspected over there—

The intercoms came on with a woman's voice, "Welcome back, almost everyone, and new Inquisitor guest."

Mark happily said, "General Aurora! We were held up! Sorry for the delay."

"Don't worry about it. You and I will talk soon, Mark. All of you, actually. Mostly the meetings will be scheduled for the following days. Please check your emails twice a day for the next few days." And then Aurora added, "Mister Solari and team, please report to my office immediately. We will be discussing Kardi after I settle the gate opening ceremony on this side."

The line clicked off.

Shawn paled.

Lenny groaned and laid his head between his knees.

The hovercraft parked itself onto a field and the power-down sequence began.

Tartu stood up, saying, "It will be just as bad as all the others."

Shawn stood and mumbled, "You're supposed to say it won't be as bad."

"It'll probably be worse, actually," Tartu said, and then he started walking toward the exit. "Come on, Lenny."

Lenny followed Tartu and Shawn out of the spiderbot.

They all watched them go, and then the door closed behind them.

Mark quietly asked, "I'm not sure what Aurora plans to get out of them?"

Lola supplied, "Likely not much. I imagine General Valen has been under quite a lot of fire herself, so she is likely seeking to understand what happened, and how she could not have foreseen Kardi's actions." Lola stood. "I understand the settlement is under the buddy system, yes? May I please have an escort to see Sir Galen Greene-Shield? I need to find a buddy and integrate."

Mark said, "Sure! Yes. Let's go to the paladin enclave." He looked to his team. "Who wants to go where?"

Eliot was glancing in the air a little, but he came back to say, "So Addavein spoofed a bunch of shit with regard to the new sensors… And that's someone else's problem to solve."

Isoko said, "I bet Aluatha gets involved now that he made an actual appearance."

"Probably," Eliot said, "But I have a list of requested builds 10-days-long in the settlement, and one of them is a paladin barracks, so that's my priority. Also, I'm fully updating this entire settlement into a mini-city, with turrets and shit on the walls. It will be as safe as inside Memphi's Wall when I'm done— and I need to talk to Azocar, who is in that direction, too." He said, "So yeah. To the paladin enclave by the farms."

Isoko looked to Sally, saying, "I need to go to the church, too, and commune with Freyala."

Sally said, "And I need to commune with Drakarok, so yes, let's all go."

Lola smiled a little, and her vector touching everyone in the group, feeling vicariously happy. And then she asked, "So Mister Cybersong. I hear you have a nice tram station here?"

Mark led the way out of the vehicle, grinning, as Eliot spoke to Lola about how, yes, it was an amazing tram station. Set up to transport a million people a day, if needed! All they needed were more metals to make more actual trams.

Mark breathed deep the mana-dense air as they walked around other parked hovercrafts, as people floated in the sky with scanners and whatnot. A lot of people around Mark were a lot excited, but almost all of them were staying in their vehicles. They were ready to move on; they were shipping stuff, after all, and they had places to be. A lot of people were experiencing a little bit of mana sickness, too, which was what happened when you went from low mana density to high mana density, or back, but those slight headaches and achy bodies would acclimate fast enough, and Mark helped the process along as he went, feeling pretty good about everything.

The air was nice.

It smelled wet and fresh and so very clean. It was not like the air of Orange City, which was always a little murky with a touch of salt and fish. It was not like Memphi, which was just so full of people everywhere, all the time. It was like breathing in the smell… of home.

Ah.

Yeah.

This was home, then.

Mark smiled.

Behind them the gate flickered and shut, and a cheer went up from a lot of people for a successful first 'major' gate shipment.

Eliot was saying, "It's only like 500 million goldleaf worth of stuff, if you're not counting the ships themselves, which no one is. It's not a major shipment at all."

Sally was saying, "It'll be a lot more later, though. Billions and billions, right?"

"Sometime in the next half a year, for sure," Eliot answered.

And soon they were walking through a scanner gate for anyone coming from Earth who wanted to stop off in the settlement.

The scanner pinged on Mark as a smuggler, whirring and beeping and flashing red.

But Deedee, who was manning the scanner with her little spider bots all over it, instantly got up and said, "Don't worry about that, Mark! I got it." She tapped the side of the scanning arch. Lights blinked. "Try again."

Mark stepped through again.

It went off again. Beeep! Beeep!

"Dammit all…" Deedee said. And then she kicked it. "Try again."

Mark went through and the alarm did nothing.

Deedee smiled. "Just needed some percussive maintenance!" She truly, sincerely, added, "Saw the show, by the way. Amazing work."

Mark blushed a little under his helmet, under the onslaught of Deedee's sincerity. "It was a group effort."

"Yeah, Deedee," Isoko sarcastically teased, "Group effort."

Deedee scoffed at her.

The team walked on.

Soon they were on the walkway toward the tram station. The massive edifice to the future of the settlement was like seven angular buildings all stuck together, rather artfully.

Lola smiled a little, saying, "I like it."

Eliot waved a hand at his past accomplishments, dismissive, saying, "I'll fix it up better."

And then they went through the big tram station and were soon on a tram, taking a short ride over to the farms. The trees were looking a lot better than the last time Mark had seen them, during the depths of winter when he had used them to break the Winter Auroras. They had been brown and losing leaves back then. Reeni Thumb had probably been working overtime right alongside the priests of Verdago to heal the damage that the ritual had done. That kinda work showed itself everywhere, from the perfectly manicured protective hedges of the farm, to the bright green leaves and tiny flowers everywhere on the trees, in the grasses, and in the bushes.

The future, and the farms, were looking spring-green and full of promise.