Chapter 666: Whagt the Swarm Came to Cure

Jason stood in an empty room, looking through a window wall down at the evacuee camp. It was far more than just the few dozen people from the town Jason and his team had gone to, as towns across the southern region likewise had adventurers investigating. It had started with seven teams and expanded once the truth was discovered.

Through Shade’s eavesdropping, Jason was keeping an ear out for how things were going. Jason and his team had encountered one of the worst-gone towns, almost entirely taken over. Some were only in the early stages and had been saved by adventurers who drove off or killed the messengers in them. Unfortunately, it was not all good news.

“Of the seven teams initially deployed, two of them lost members in the process of killing or driving off the messengers they found,” Shade reported. “In both cases, it was in larger towns than we were sent to, where multiple messengers were present and the teams did not have a gold ranker with them. Also, one team was lost entirely. Their deaths have been confirmed using their tracking stones.”

Each Adventure Society branch maintained tracking stones connected to the adventurers operating in that area. One of the first things Humphrey had done on the team's arrival had been to visit the Adventure Society and notify them that the team would be operating in the area so that local tracking stones could be produced. This was based on soul imprints taken by the Magic Society.

As souls shifted over time, the imprints required refreshing, especially after rank-ups. This was why Farrah had extra problems when identifying herself on her return. Also, other changes in the soul could invalidate an imprint, which was very much the case for Jason. The solution was to obtain a personal crest, which was only possible while at iron rank. It was common amongst nobility and provided a fixed marker for soul imprinting. The Adventure Society had simply copied Jason's imprint when creating one for his John Miller alias.

“If someone was able to take out an entire adventuring team,” Jason said, “are they thinking that location is the central hub for worm production?”

“There has been speculation, but I don’t have access to the full information,” Shade said. “I am only going by what the Adventure Society officials here in the camp have been discussing. I do know that the location in question was one of the larger towns.”

"So there might have been a whole messenger contingent there. There certainly had to be a gold-rank messenger.”

“From early reports, Mr Asano, there is a particular messenger tactic that the team will need to be wary of.”

“Oh?”

“Messenger abilities vary quite a lot, but many seem to be able to isolate themselves and an enemy such that neither can leave until the other is dead.”

“Allowing them to take out critical enemies,” Jason said. “Healers, glass cannons and the like. Any restrictions, or can they just go in and pluck people out of our formation?”

"It seems to require a certain level of physical isolation. So long as you keep the core members together, it is likely that they will be stuck targeting your more mobile members."

“That’s acceptable,” Jason said. “Rufus, Humphrey, Sophie and I can all handle a one-on-one. Lindy, in a pinch, although best if we can avoid it. If we keep her, Clive and Neil together, we should be alright.”

"From what I can tell, it is a category of ability the messengers possess, not a specific power. Each messenger who possesses such a power will have their own variant, so there is no predicting exactly how that power will work. I think it is inevitable that you will encounter such a power, Mr Asano, but there is no telling what the exact effects will be."

“You picked up all this from hearing about just a few encounters?”

“These powers are responsible for the two deaths in the teams that lost members but weren’t wiped out,” Shade explained. “It has been a topic of some discussion, and this is far from the first time that the locals have clashed with the messengers.”

“I see.”

Jason continued to watch the camp’s activity. There was an arrival area where portals or flying vehicles brought in survivors from the towns and villages. They were brought into the cloud palace where Jason had set up screening and treatment rooms. Jason couldn’t see this process through the window, but could observe anything happening in cloud palace, should he desire.

The screening rooms were a redundancy measure, as sufficiently close observation should allow worm hosts to be picked out from their auras. Jason fully agreed with the measure anyway, because of the specialty worms. They had yet to be implanted in the adventurer prisoners Jason's team had found, but there was no telling what the results would have been. The disappearance of several adventuring teams had been the original prompt for the sweeping investigation into the towns, which left others potentially infested with the special worms.

The precaution was proven valuable as a group of liberated adventurers was brought into the cloud palace. Jason detected an aura mask placed over them, subtle enough that he might not have even noticed in person. In his cloud palace, however, very little escaped his perception. As they entered, Jason sensed an aura mask similar to the one used by Benella, the elf who had been a spy for the messengers.

At a mental command from Jason, an image of a hallway appeared on the window in front of Jason. It was the group of liberated adventurers being escorted down a hall by a woman in Church of the Healer robes and a man wearing an Adventure Society emblem. They were all bronze rank, according to their auras, and were on their way to the screening rooms.

A second mental command brought up a second live image from within the palace. This one showed Arabelle Remore, in one of the palace’s administrative offices. She was standing over a desk with a scowl on her face as she organised procurement lists.

“Arabelle,” he said and she looked up, glancing around.

“Jason?”

“You’re working with the person running the evacuee operation, right?”

“Yeah,” she confirmed, half-groaning. “I’m in charge of making the most of your magic cloud hospital. Right now, supplies are being brought in as quick as people can get their hands on them, which is not the basis for an efficient system. I’m trying to make sure things go where they’re needed without too much getting lost in the shuffle.”

“Unfortunately, I need to add to your load, I’m sorry.”

“Can it wait?”

“I think there is a group of worm-infested adventurers in the building.”

“So, ‘no’ is what you’re saying.”

“Pretty much. A group of rescued adventurers just came in, but they’re all wearing aura masks. The sophisticated kind I’ve seen the messengers use.”

“And you think they’ve been infected.”

“It could be something else. They could be magically disguised messengers for all I know. Unless I poke them hard enough that they notice, I can’t tell what they’re hiding.”

Arabelle left the room, the image on the window moving to track her quick stride.

“We have a team of Adventure Society enforcers on standby for this reason,” she said. “They’re stationed by the screening rooms.”

“I know, but they won’t act on my say so.”

“I’ll get them moving; if something is going to happen, it will be in the screening rooms or on the way. Whoever or whatever we're dealing with, they'll get violent once they realise their disguises won't hold up. Can you use the building to assist?”

“Of course. I just didn’t want to contain them out of nowhere and alarm the people working here.”

“I’m pretty sure they’ll be alarmed anyway.”

"But at least about the right thing. I want people worried about intruders, not the building randomly eating rescued adventurers."

"That's not my responsibility. Once we've contained these adventurers, I want you to meet Hana Shavar, the woman in charge. I don’t have time to be your mouthpiece all day.”

“Yes ma’am.”

***

Five elite worm hosts were moving down a hall, in a building with white walls that looked like smooth tiles but were actually absorbent cloud-substance. The hosts communicated silently, much like Jason’s voice chat, wary of their situation. The facility all the rescuees were being taken into was beyond expectations, preventing their magical senses from moving beyond what they could see.

Unlike slave worms, the elite worms were one worm to the host, and had independent minds. While they were capable of commanding slave worms and communicating with the matriarch, they could operate independently, without control. They were independent minds within the swarm.

They had realised that the messengers had never intended to leave this world to the worms once attackers started descending on the initial breeding sites. As the matriarchs started dying, with minimal reaction from the messengers, the worms realised that their agenda no longer aligned with that of their winged allies.

The elite worms had no recourse but to go along, looking for an opportunity. They at least still possessed the aura masks left on the host bodies by the messengers, meaning that they could look for the chance to slip away. If they could rejoin the other elite worms in the city they could begin to work on redeeming a situation that had turned dire. They had not yet had a chance to quietly escape, with so many eyes on them.

Now they were in this strange building, with walls that could block their senses and soft floors that muffled sound, meaning any corner could have people just around it. At least there were only the two people moving with them, now. Even better, they were the same bronze rank as the aura masks inscribed into the host bodies. With the host bodies enhanced to silver, they could put their escorts down quickly and move on.

From what the worms gathered, one of their escorts was a kind of healer, Gloria. The other, Lomius, had a role that was alien to the worms. He seemed to have been given the task of helping others of his kind organise one another, which was the kind of inefficiency that only came from creatures with isolated minds. Without the swarm to guide them as a colony, their fractious psyches would quickly fall to confusion and disarray. They even had to designate one another with names, just so they could effectively interrelate. The swarm memory had seen this over and over, with countless worlds and countless species. This was what the swarm came to cure.

If the worms were going to move before they reached their destination, the timing was as good as it was likely to get. The two weaklings with them would offer minimal impediment.

“Where are you taking us?” one of the elite worms asked.

"Just a screening to double-check you don't have any of those foul worms in you," Lomius said. "Frankly, I think it's a redundant time-waster, but does anyone listen to me? No, and now you poor sods are stuck jumping through rings instead of getting cleaned up and fed. You’ve been through enough already, without any extra poking and prodding.”

The elite worm made the host give a friendly smile.

“I don’t suppose you could skip it, then? We’ve already been through so much.”

Lomius looked to the healer.

“What do you say, Gloria?”

“No.”

“Come on.”

“No.”

“You know they don’t really expect to find anything. Otherwise, they’d have more than just us escorting them.”

“Lomius, if we had the people, we would have.”

Gloria shook her head firmly.

“My Adventure Society colleague may think that this step is unnecessary,” she told the worm hosts, and then her expression softened. “I truly am sorry to stretch things out for you, but when the cost of a mistake is so high, redundancy in safety measures is exactly what you want.”

“Oh, come on, Gloria,” Lomius said. “Do they look like dead bodies being puppeteered by worms to you?”

“No, Lomius, they don’t. Which is why we have a screening process instead of having you and me eyeball it.”

Lomius shrugged at the worms.

“Sorry, but you heard the lady. Rules are rules.”

Without warning, the smiling worm shot into motion. A hand was flung at Lomius, drill-bit-like spikes emerging from its fingers like claws. A wall of cloud stuff started coalescing between the host and the elf, but was not enough to stop the attack. It did slow it down, at least, meaning that only the finger spikes were buried in Lomius’ head. The silver-rank strength of the host would have otherwise buried its entire hand into the bronze ranker’s head, leaving him very dead instead of just injured.

Another worm host went for Gloria, but another cloudy barrier gave her time to toss up a magical shield. The single strike was enough to break it, but there was no follow-up. The air around the worm hosts had rapidly grown opaque, condensing into thick cloud-substance. Like a mix of marshmallow and concrete, it left the worm hosts stuck, only the two arms that had made attacks visible. They jutted comically from the cloud-stuff, thrashing impotently.

Gloria only stared for a moment before turning to Lomius on the ground. She threw out a fast healing spell and started assessing his injuries. He was conscious but incoherent, having had several three-inch spikes puncture his head. Bronze rankers usually still had brains as a massive vulnerability, especially non-adventurers.

Another glance at the now-blocked hallway told Gloria that the adventurers were not likely to get free. She examined Lomius and realised he had dangerous puncture wounds to the brain that her quick heal hadn’t come close to fixing. She assessed that immediate treatment was more important than evacuating him from danger and potentially exacerbating the wounds, so she went to work on a more powerful, ritual-assisted healing ability.

Gloria was still working on the ritual when the Adventure Society enforcers arrived, only moments after the attack. The team leader directed her people to protect Gloria, but wasn't sure what to make of the white wall with two arms sticking out. They had spike-claws jutting from the fingertip and were jerking helplessly.

“What do we do with this?”