Chapter 115: Book 2: Chapter 16

What I learned about archfiend’s from Quixbix over the rest of the day was rather disturbing. They weren’t bound by the same fertility rules that characters were. Sex with one of them virtually guaranteed pregnancy provided the woman in question was capable. And it didn’t necessarily have to be a woman, apparently, some of the archfiends were none too particular about what they were mating with and would insert their bits in anything remotely female.

I had to stop the imp from going into details on that front. I really didn’t need to know.

Not that the pregnancy was a cause for joy, at least not for the unfortunate mothers.

The progeny of any archfiend allowed to grow outside of their bound demesne would become a horrific abomination that would kill the mother during childbirth. If you could use that phrase to describe their emergence into the world. Picture the chestburster scene from Alien, but a little bit lower and you are somewhat closer to the truth of these abominable ‘births’.

The progeny of archfiends developed quickly. Expectant mothers usually had a day to terminate before it became impossible to do so without killing them in the process and perhaps a week to reach the correct realm to prevent what she carried in her womb from mutating into an abomination.

Some of the more reasonable archfiends would offer safe passage to their realm for the women they put in the family way. Although very few of those women were ever heard from again, so whether the fiendish fathers were being reasonable rather than opportunistic kidnappers was up for debate. Even the true cambion children produced from the union rarely left their father’s realm.

And then there were the fiends who deliberately unleashed those kinds of horrors upon the world.

The only silver lining for the worst cases was that provided an abomination of an archfiend’s lineage lived, the archfiend himself was made vulnerable outside of their bound realm. They could be permanently harmed, even killed while in the Darkwyrlds as opposed to only being temporarily weakened and reforming back in their demesne.

Otherwise, as with the gods, to truly harm them you needed to travel to their place of power and do the deed there. Which is not something you wanted to try. Armies had been successful against some of the weakest archfiends, but the most powerful were virtually unassailable.

The takeaway from the anthropological lesson was that I wouldn’t be letting Fang Mei treat with one of these asshats anytime soon. Almost certainly never. I would see if I could make use of my special relationship with Dean to find a workaround to power her up without making her beholden to one of them.

As for our expedition, Leland proved to be a wreck.

It was a coastal town with an inland lake behind it on a relatively sparsely populated peninsula of the Michigan mainland. In short, it was the perfect breeding ground for a wide variety of spawning monsters. It also wasn’t very large to begin with, and we picked clean what was left in less than an hour.

Our scavenging did attract some of the local fauna. A pack of wargs came loping down the main street from the north of the town. They looked like shaggy, giant, rabid rottweilers and not wolves as I’d expected. Their tails were stubby, and their legs engorged with thick muscle.

 

Warg x 17

Grade: Q

Level: 4 (average)

HP: 2,100

Loot Value: Moderate

Threat: Low

XP Value: 2,100

Mob Description: Large, aggressive canids. Although they lack the physique for speed and endurance of their canid cousins, their powerful limbs provide an impressive ability to leap. Wargs have been known to clear twenty-foot fortifications despite their bulk.

 

The threat rating was low as the entire raiding party was grouped together, including Fang Mei. Thankfully, subtlety wasn’t part of the warg’s combat repertoire and we were prepared for their arrival. We didn’t get much XP, but they did drop a few pieces of decent loot that were upgrades from the standard gear I’d outfitted my people with.

After that bit of excitement, we continued on our way.

As the day progressed, we visited several other small settlements along Michigan’s western coast. Glen Arbor, Empire, Frankfort, Elberta, Arcadia and Onekama. The story was the same in them all. They had either been abandoned or overrun.

These had all been small places with populations in the hundreds, but it illustrated that what Dean and Quixbix had warned me about was coming to pass. The ‘tutorial’ phase of integration was over. Any community that hadn’t learned to play the ‘game’ was going to be wiped out. If they hadn’t been already.

The news we gathered when at some of the larger settlements wasn’t much better.

We stopped off at Manistee to get the lay of the land further south but didn’t go in swords drawn.

The mayor of Manistee had pledged himself to the Governor, so technically the place was off-limits anyway. Unless we wanted to break our agreement with Tricky Dicky.

But they were barely hanging on by a thread. Nestled between them and the populated areas of Central Michigan was the Manistee National Forest.

There be monsters in that forest.

A lot of them.

Manistee was holding on as the town was northwest of the national park and most of the forest, and therefore the beasts, were further south. They hadn’t heard from Ludington, a similar-sized town and our next port of call, for over two weeks. The people of Manistee instead had concentrated their efforts on survival and were pooling their resources to purchase a seaworthy ship so they could sail to Lake Huron and Saginaw Bay where they could link up with the Governor’s people in East Michigan.

But vessels like that were expensive to buy directly from the Framework and until Earth’s quarantine from the rest of the Darkwyrlds was lifted you couldn’t get them any other way. Not until somebody on Earth started making them.

You could always risk it in pre-Framework sailing boats, but the problem with them is they are pre-Framework. With no mana infusion, they are vulnerable and the kinds of boats sturdy enough not to be holed and sunk by waterborne monsters required engines which would not work.

They were too far from the Governor’s current strongholds to be helped and the overland trip was just as dangerous if not more than holding tight and grinding the coin required to purchase an escape craft.

A proper catch twenty-two situation.

We couldn’t do anything about their predicament today, but I smelled an opportunity.

There were over three thousand people left in Manistee and Marena’s Mercy wasn’t large enough to act as a transportation vessel for that many. Not at her current mark one size.

However, if things went as planned tomorrow and the day after, we’d have more fuel for her dungeon and that would drive her toward dungeon level six and trigger the mark two upgrade.

All the dimensions of the ship would be increased by fifty percent, both external and internal. Additionally, mark two ships gained a third deck the same size as the existing lower deck. This would enhance our carrying capacity from the five hundred we’d managed to squeeze in before to over fifteen hundred.

Anastasia could manage two round trips to Saginaw and back in a day without expending too much of her energy to speed the ship along. Paying us an exorbitant transportation fee would still be cheaper and more importantly, far speedier than buying a ship themselves.

They might grumble a bit about price-gouging, but they weren’t part of the Shattered Storm, and we were a pirate crew, not a charitable foundation.

They could complain to Tricky Dicky for not putting his hands in his own pocket to buy them the ships they needed to abscond without our assistance. But that was a matter for next week. Manistee was in no imminent danger.

We didn’t even stop in Ludington.

A pitched battle was in progress in the small town and neither side involved were the original human inhabitants. The town had been occupied by a tribe of forest goblins recently. Before they could dig in and build defences, they came under siege by a clan of fomorians who attacked them from the lake.

I doubted this was the same clan of fomorians that troubled my shores. We were a bit too far away by now and recent events in the former town of Freeport indicated they hadn’t left the immediate area.

“Who do you think will win, Captain,” Kristoff asked as we watched the conflict from afar.

“The fomorians, but it might take them a few days,” I answered without hesitation.

“Really? What makes you so sure,” the former smuggler pressed. “The gobbos seem to have the numbers and have the advantage of some fortifications even if they aren’t complete.”

“The goblins are too far from the forest which means there is no easy way to gather reinforcements. And they are essentially opportunistic cowards. The bigger ones will keep the runts on the frontline fighting, but at the first sign that they might have to get involved themselves, they will hightail it.

“I doubt the goblins killed the people of Ludington or at least they weren’t the primary cause of its de-population. They would have been ranging out from their own territory and found it unoccupied or as good as and tried to set up shop. That’s basically how they are programmed to operate. Find ruins or abandoned villages, dig in, and despoil the place.

“They might survive the early probing attacks, but the presence of the fomorians will prevent them from digging in. Eventually, the foul fishy fuckers will find a weakness and breakthrough.”

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Kristoff nodded in acceptance of my sage words.

None of which were really mine. Quixbix had told me most of that a few minutes earlier and he was now grumping that I hadn’t given him any of the credit.

“Should we do something?” Kristoff asked.

“Nah,” LT answered on my behalf. “Let the little bastards wear one another down. This place will still be here on the way back.”

“Well said. Another day or two should see both sides weakened and provided we’re not licking wounds ourselves we can come in and clean up.”

A few minutes later and the town was out of sight.

 

***

 

We sailed through the canal and into Muskegon Lake as the sun started to set. The city was really three that sat cheek to jowl with one another. Muskegon, Muskegon Heights, and Norton Shores. This triarchy of cities had a combined population nearing one hundred thousand pre-apocalypse and had founded their own faction rather than join the Governors.

Technically, that made them fair game for us, but my priority was weakening Luca and I didn’t want to risk losses before we went after bigger game tomorrow. Plus, there had been a correctional facility nearby. Many of the former Ionians knew people who lived in the area. Why risk alienating people under my command when there were alternative targets to pick.

Speaking of connections. Brant had come along with the express purpose of smoothing relations. He rowed over to the docks in a dinghy while we remained aboard, moored in the middle of the small lake. The locals were understandably perturbed by our sudden and unexpected arrival.

The last time we dropped by it was only a short time after integration and the triarchy were less organised. That and we slipped into Norton Shores a bit further south via Mona Lake and managed to avoid the suburbs on our way to the prisons on the edge of the city.

As I watched the town and waited for word from my emissary a pair of arms wrapped around my waist and a body was pressed into my back.

“Evening, beautiful,” I said to Shana in a hushed tone. “Come up for air, have you?”

“I missed you and wanted to watch the sunset with you,” she mumbled into my back.

“My attention is kinda’ in the wrong direction,” I pointed out.

“We can change that.”

Then I felt her arms tug at me insistently to turn around to look back out over Lake Michigan to the West, rather than inward towards the town.

“Relax,” she continued and let go of my waist and put her arm through mine. “LT and Kristoff will let you know if Brant returns. You’ve been out here all day.”

“Got to keep the crew’s morale up. Besides, I was giving Fang Mei some space. She has a difficult decision to make, and I want her to make the right one.”

“She will,” Shana answered confidently.

“How can you be so sure?”

“You told her to tell us the truth, silly.”

“Shana, you didn’t…” I let my query trail off.

“No. I promised not to push too hard. There was a lot of girl talk. We talked about her mostly. Her life and how she ended up here. Once Fang Mei relaxed, she proved to be quite chatty. The enforced truthfulness meant she let a few things slip here and there that I picked up on.”

“Does that mean she is ready to be bonded?”

“Not tonight. Your resolve is being tested, Torin. Fang Mei is a bit like Anastasia in that respect. She knows you could order her to accept and suspects you will show your true colours if she delays. Her experience with authority in China has left her wary.”

“With all due respect, Shana, that does not sound like she is either ready or willing to accept a permanent bonding.”

The gorgeous elf laughed lightly “She likes you, Torin. You are her type, and her lady parts get all fluttery around you, she will agree. But you are correct, she isn’t ready, yet. Fang Mei has led a hard life and trust is in short supply.”

“I’m her type, eh?”

“Tall, rugged, handsome. You’re a lot of ladies’ type. You have a nice ass too and you do like to wear those tight, tight, jeans to show it off. Fang Mei was definitely checking it out as you left the room.”

I tutted Shana and bopped her nose with my finger. “I find your objectification of my ripped bod to be wholly inappropriate, young lady.”

“Oh dear,” she mock exclaimed and covered the O of her mouth with her hand. “I’m very sorry, sir. I think you should punish me for my transgression. A thorough spanking will set me straight, I’m sure of it,” she breathed sexily.

The sunset had been forgotten and things were moving in a very pleasant direction when a voice punctured our flirtation bubble.

“Sorry, Captain, but Brant is on his way back to the ship,” Kristoff announced in an apologetic tone, picking up on the ambience of the moment between Shana and me. He hastily withdrew after delivering the message and left us alone.

“Scuppered again,” I sighed.

“I’ll make it up to you, tonight,” she promised.

“Brant will be a few more minutes. Did you learn anything else?”

“Yes, I did. Do not trust Li Qiang at all. He is a duplicitous snake.”

“Really? I mean I did get a used car salesman vibe off him but didn’t detect any falsehood in what he told me.”

“Well, this is all coming from Fang Mei, so she at least believes what she told me about him is true. He is as slippery as an eel and reminds me of my stepbrother Hector. Li Qiang was a minor official in Luchang known in some quarters for being petty and corrupt. It was his brother who was the big cheese and apparently, he kept most of Li Qiang’s…activities…quiet in order to preserve his own reputation.

“It was like that before integration and worsened after. Li Qiang was telling the truth about being the source of the podium escape plan, but only because his brother caught him trying to collar and sell a bunch of elderly villagers from a nearby settlement during a census visit.

“His brother kept it hush-hush and imprisoned Li Qiang. He was left behind in the cells during the evacuation of Luchang, but his brother took pity on him and asked the elderly volunteer to release him and send him through the podium with the others once they were gone.”

“Okay,” I said. That all sounded plausible. “How does Fang Mei know all this?”

Shana smiled widely. “Don’t let on that I’ve told you this, okay. She was in the cell opposite and heard the whole conversation between Li Qiang and his brother.

“Fang Mei was a bit of a pickpocket before integration. Tourists, mostly. She was caught and awaiting transfer to a proper facility when integration happened. She took the Warp Blade class because she thought it would help her escape and the Jade Cambion species because she wanted to appear fierce and dangerous.

“The plan backfired. With her warping ability active, she wasn’t noticed in the cell, but nobody came to open it and allow her to escape. Without food, she had to eventually drop the field. That created a new problem for her as she no longer appeared human. Hence, she cut up the bedding in the cell and wrapped herself in it to hide the changes as best she could.

“Fang Mei was fortunate. The old gentlemen who freed Li Qiang was kind and did the same for her. But he insisted she don the collar first, so she couldn’t slip away afterwards,” Shana finished.

“Probably just as well,” I mused as Brant pulled himself up onto the ship and I beckoned for him to join me on the poop deck. “Quixbix has been filling me in on some of the limitations of the warp field. The more people the field must actively conceal you from the more likely it is to fail. Which is probably why it was only partially effective on me the first time and failed the second. Too many other crew members on the deck. If the zombies had observed her, and they likely would have, she would have been killed in her weakened state.”

Brant ran up the steps and stopped in front of us.

He smiled brightly. “Good news. They are willing to talk.”

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