Chapter 810 – Salvation, Brick-By-Brick

The Age of Monsters ended during the Slaughter of Karakokum, where forces led by Goddess Malam, of Hatred, surrounded the forest, set fire to it, and marched just behind the flames, eliminating everything that tried to burst through the them. Karakokum was not the grandest nest to ever fall, nor the largest, and strategically, it is located in the far east, closer to Guguo than to Epa. Nevertheless, it marks the end of the Age of Monsters due to its position in Malam’s own recordings of the age.

It is the last nest she has ever encountered on the surface. Whereas Monsters still roamed in valleys and woods, and had to be hunted for another decade after the Slaughter of Karakokum, there was never again a presence on Arda that conglomerated into anything that could be called a nest. It was a final death-throw of their kind, not a last stand, nor anything else. And by that time, the monster population had already been in decline throughout all lands which had enough people that archived their history. We can assume this to be a universal phenomenon.

Whereas the event has been talked to death, the Goddess of Hatred herself has put it best in her work ‘A Century Without An Antagonist’: “The amount of lives lost, the amount of blood spilled, the amount of loved ones lost, or worse, those who were damaged beyond repair was a debt that Karakokum did not even hold a candle to. We should have captured, reared them and used them as slaves for eternity, we should have maintained a stranglehold over their kind forever. And instead, we got Karakokum.”

“It was not a battle, nor a purge operation. It was a slaughter, there were some five to six hundred of the creatures in that forested basin. Twenty-four men died in the battle. A small skirmish that marked the end of the Age of Monsters. In the far east, there is still a night of bonfires that celebrates the battle, although I did not bring the tale back to Epa.”

“It was a horrifically terrible end to their kind, because it was a disappointment. After Karakokum, we simply had to hunt down their remains, or kill those that ventured too close to our towns. It should have been a celebration. Many did treat it as a celebration, although those celebrations where done after people realised that there were no more nests to clear out.”

What Goddess Malam describes here is the same problem that we historians deal with today, which is the scale of the monsters, and the lack of outright resistance they put up against humanity’s conquest of Arda from them. There were too many, initially, and then there were not enough killed throughout. The mood back then was obviously one of fatigue, and it is not something that our ancestors should be blamed for. They did get rid of the problem.

Now, that the Monsters have not shown themselves for more than five hundred years since, we have enough comfort to actually ask the question of where they went. Ultimately, all the theories are made entirely without evidence and only shots in the dark, to try and make the story fit: from spontaneous inexistence to Arda opening up and swallowing them…

- Introduction to the “The Myth in the Myth”, written by Historian Ratchet Alakazar, during the Age of Tyranny.

Arascus stared at Lattice #1, Salvation in Grey, as it hovered in the air. There was still work being done on it, even after the first test had officially declared the thing ready to use. None of the structure was being changed, but the locals here and the commanders had decided that it should be furnished. Heavy military helicopters were making constant courses, bring armchairs and tables set of interconnected floating islands.

A magnificent sight, Arascus had to give it that. White gemstones stuck out from the underside of each island, and tiny bridges connected them, crewmen were working on them, affixing huge Imperial flags to the structure so that the Second Arc would know what destroyed it. Arascus didn’t put a stop to it, if the flags ripped off, then they’d rip off, if they stayed on, they’d made for good photos.

Lattice #2 was behind Pheonix nest, Arascus couldn’t get a few on it, but now that a design had been completed and tested, Million Man Command, the team in charge of this entire operation, had given the green light on another twenty four to be built simultaneously. Lattice #3 Empire’s Embrace, was half visible from here, four of the nine islands where as close to the ground as they could get, and cranes were bringing up steel beams to them. Lattice #4 Render Unto Apocalypso had two of the islands being connected, and a team of specialist engineers were working on the nuclear reactor that had already been set into its central node. Lattice #5 Coffin Not For Me was also working on the nuclear reactor installation. A massive military helicopter with a blade on its front and on its rear was bringing more parts and tools to the central nod. Lattice #7 Journey To Heaven was a blinding party of welding torches. Here, the bridges were going to be fashioned before the reactors.

Huge cranes ferried entire vehicles onto the islands, bulldozers and diggers with long arms, although all the dirt and rubble was just pushed off to created massive mounds on the ground. There, steel locks and mechanisms that had already been fabricated in Allia, or Doschia, or Rancais or Lubska, were being stitched into position by massive hooks and nails that pierced into the dirt. The welding lights came from melting the binders into the constructions themselves. Lattice #8 Apocalypse Denied already had its mounting in place, there, the thin bridges were being locked into position as mages were shifting the structures into position for the initial installation.

On Lattice #9 Funeral In One Hour, a crane was slowly bringing up a massive pile of servers and electronics that were all tightly wrapped, people even stood on the platform, secured by ropes. They jumped of, slid down their ropes, and then signalled to the operator on how to ensure that the positioning was steady with green, red, blue and orange lights. Arascus watched them for a few minutes, he had come here to escape Helenna’s incessant annoyances with the propaganda war and the game they were playing in terms of him auditing her building of the Imperial Palace.

That structure was beginning to grow walls now, one wall in specific, and it was slow, and he would slam her down with an inefficient management of time law if she was going to pester him again. But really, he did not come here to inspect the lattices, he came to see what exactly he was rearranging the entire Imperial economy for.

The Bureau of Agriculture had already stated, complained really, but stated was the official position, that the Empire would have to rely on external food producers this year. The lack of spare parts for machinery was sounding the alarm bells, and they predicted the farming sector to come to a borderline standstill. Arascus looked up at the sky as a floating island appeared from behind the mountain, a massive 10 painted on in white on its understand. Then it was going to the lattice of the same number: Ledger We Keep.

The military was not happy either, the shortage on nuclear reactors could be circumvented with alternative power sources. If worst came to worst, they would go with the worst idea, which was to just stick massive diesel tanks on these things and send them into space. A lack of steel could not be circumvented. No amount of delaying would bring them closer, so Arascus had given the orders quickly.

Every ship in the Imperial Military that was damaged to the point of needing replacements was to be scrapped, its metal smelted down and brought here. Every ship currently under production had been halted, no matter whether civilian or military. There would be no insurance premiums paid out for it either, that would bankrupt the Empire. They were in a matter of saving the planet right now. Nothing else came close.

A letter to Ciria had been sent out, although the Goddess of Civilization could not even do that much. The problem was with a rack of raw resources in the first place, and not with specialist manufacture. Arascus stood, arms behind his back, as a truck with the number 11 drove on one of the many roads here and disappeared behind a hill. It would be going to A Moment for Eternity.

The car industry had already stalled, although the whole thing had crashed. Trucks from the Tartarian War were already being brought to salvage yards and cut up, but the civilian vehicle sector would have to suffer too. Arascus took a deep breath as he thought of how to present the news. Maybe Helenna could receive it? She was annoying enough that she deserved the punishment? It would be needlessly cruel though. No. Everyone would be told straight: Your choice was a car for six months or an Arda for eternity.

The airforce… Arascus thought on it and then shook his head. Wasn’t the airforce just alloys and things like that? Now that he thought about it, he only had a cursory knowledge on what planes were made out of. Besides, how much metal could they possibly salvage out of a plane? Communication had been sent to the UNN already, and Etala had been responsive, although the whole world was. Steel was coming in from Guguo, although no one was pressing as hard as the Empire.

Undersea exploration then? Arascus thought on it. The first thing that would be done would be the floating islands themselves actually. Elassa could be slowed down. If they found deposits in the ocean, the Goddess of Magic could just rip the relevant parts of the crust out and bring them onshore for Ciria to cannibalize out of metal… He took a deep breath and noted the idea. That would be done.

Likewise, mining operations could not be stalled. The dwarves needed more manpower. Imperial prisons had been emptied, conscripted, during the Tartarian War, and since then, they weren’t even a quarter full. Arascus sighed. A civilian conscription then, people had to be sent underground to mine. Six months of this work, for the survival of Arda, was not the end of the world. And unlike in the military, no one was dying, Kavaa ensured there were far more than enough Clerics about.

Salvation was going to be built brick by brick, and next year, they would be the heroes that had saved Arda. Salvation was going to be… Arascus’ phone buzzed. The God of Pride was brought out of his brooding thoughts as he slid the device out of his pocket. Arascus stared at the phone number. Not government, not military, not state, no one who he knew personally. Maybe Helenna had gotten a new number? Or Ilwin? The moment lasted more so due to the sheer confusion of receiving an open call rather than anything else. He answered and put the device to his ear. “This is Arascus speaking.” No other introduction needed.

“Oh it worked!” Someone tired, but someone filled with so much relief that Arascus didn’t think it was possible to fake emotion that clearly. “Sir! Emperor! Sir!” Arascus’s eyebrows dated downwards as he listened in, this obviously wasn’t a scam call or anything like that. But how did it through to him? His number was secret. There was an automated system that asked for a password too…

“What is it?” Arascus asked. “And who are you.”

“I am Sergeant Thompson of the Second Aris Expedition Sir!” Arascus could practically hear the clap of the salute from the other side of the phone. “And I am ringing because…” He blinked. “We couldn’t find a way to send you this audio, so Fer gave me your number and we’ll play it over the phone”

“Is she safe?” Arascus tried to listen sound in the background. The man was breathing hard, and it sounded like he was running.

“Sir.” A pause. “Sir yes Sir, she’s alive. But she…” Arascus had to forcefully stop his hand from shaking. “Sir, she told me to play you this audio.” There was a pause and more running. A scream from behind and a roar. Then the sound of a sonic boom. So Fortia was alive too then. For a moment after Fortia threw her spear, there was silence, and then the men resumed running. “WHERE’S THE PHONE!” Thompson screamed obviously not to the camera. “PASS IT FUCKING HERE THEN! I’M WITH ARASCUS NOW!”

Arascus stood up and turned around from the meeting room. “Are you alive Thompson?”

“Sir Yes Sir!” Thompson shouted back, clicking was followed by a beep. And then a click.

Arascus heard Fer’s panting immediately. “Dad.” She said. “We’re down at the bottom, we found a bird. There’s a lot of them, endless.” Fortia interrupted her.

“Tell him where we are.”

“WHERE THE FUCK ARE WE THEN FORTIA!?” Fer screamed.

Maisara came to speak, her voice got louder and louder, she must have been pulling the recorder closer to herself. “West of Aris, roughly a hundred miles, not under the Alanktyda though. Iniri said we’re above the old Grand East-West. Arascus, if this reaches you, send help as quickly as possible.” There wasn’t fear in her voice, Arascus doubted whether the Goddess of Order truly was capable of that emotion, but there was a certain panic as if they were getting overwhelmed. “Back to you Fer.”

“Yeah.” Fer said. “So Dad, send help.” And then, the worst word she could have ever said. “Please.”