Chapter 431

Cain calls the flight of Pegasus to them and the group quickly mounts and trots off down the road. 

Once they get a few kilometers away Cain orders the mounts to take flight, moving them to a quiet spot in the woods to talk.

“How about a round of introductions. I suspect you are no ordinary Companion, little Moana.” Cain says reaching into his pocket to rub her scaly head. 

The seahorse-sized creature that looks more like a mermaid than a leviathan flies out into the open, leaving her clone inside Cain’s pocket.

“Right, yes. That does need an explanation. Hello everyone, my name is Moana, Queen of the Starry Night Leviathan Clan. I suppose you’ve never heard of us since we went extinct during the war between the Gods. This naturally isn’t my proper form, but a convenient transformation, like most of you are using.

When the energy of the Planet was mostly used up and the Ley Lines collapsed at the end of the war between the Gods, the last few survivors of the Great Leviathan Clans, myself included, transferred our essence into an egg to wait for the planet to recover. 

Like our allies, the Ancients, we require mana to live, only we need much more of it than this planet can currently provide on its own, and they exude it to make a suitable habitat for their young. But then, you might also know that. I’m rambling.”

Everyone waits quietly for her to continue while the tiny Leviathan gathers her wits.

“There is still not enough mana in the air for me to mature on my own, that’s why I chose to transfer my essence to your Summoning Spell and I’m only Mythic, but hanging around you, I should be alright. I can teach you a technique to exude more mana later, but if you’re powerful enough to awaken me, then it won’t be long before the evil ones notice.”

Cain gives her an alarmed look. “Which evil ones?”

“The Human Gods of course. They bear a grudge against all that the Creators made, you, me, the other Ancients if any lived through the war. They even try to kill off the Dragons and Beasts to take over everything they see. They are pure evil.” Moana rants. 

“We heard the Ancients were like that?” Nemu asked her, confused. 

“Not the same way. They tended to treat everyone like children, just because they were so old, and after the Bunny God said she had things to do other than hang out with them, they started making new things to keep as pets. It was a childish protest at first, but some enjoyed it so much they just couldn’t stop. 

We watched the whole thing in action but didn’t have the power to do anything to stop them. We were still exhausted from our journey then. The Leviathan Clan didn’t start here, the God of Rebirth and the God of Magic came to our planet while we were fighting the Human Gods and offered us sanctuary.”

So the Gods that rule over the humans are bigger jerks than the Ancients? Cain can understand that since he used to be human. There is a lot of evil in humans, and it really comes out in some of them when they get power.

“Hopefully we have some time before Human Gods show up again. We’re not exactly on a level that could challenge them.” Cain points out. 

“True. What do the others say?”

“What others?” Cain asks. 

“There are no others? The Ancients have or had two levels of consciousness. Themselves and the whole. They operated both as individuals and as a collective, sharing power, knowledge, and even thoughts. If you don’t know, then there are none left, At least not anywhere that can be easily accessed from this dimension.”

Despite the fact that it is terrible news for the Ancients, it is good news for child-raising. They will be able to understand his thoughts, so they can start out with at least that level of knowledge. 

“You mentioned that you transferred your essence to my Spell. How exactly did you do that?” Cain asks, eager to find out how she altered his passive ability.

“The Starry Night Clan has an Innate Ability to alter a single line in spell effects that target them. When your System recorded me, I simply altered the spell to add “And a one hundred percent chance of summoning Queen Moana on the first encounter.”

Everyone looks at the small creature in shock. What sort of broken innate ability is that? She could reflect spells, make them heal her instead of doing damage, all sorts of things. Cain inspects her with his interface, seeing that it is exactly as she described, but that it takes ten seconds to cast. So it isn’t great in combat, but if the enemy is casting some grand magic that could actually hurt a Leviathan above Mythic Level, she would have a chance to alter the effect to her benefit.

“What does your natural form look like?” Laura asks curiously, wondering if she is still the largest and mightiest of the Companions.

“With the Mana that I’ve absorbed so far, I could grow my Leviathan form, much like the Blue Armored Whales of this world, if you have seen them, to about ten meters long. This body is still very much a newborn, despite having a very old mind.” Moana shrugs, unconcerned by such petty concerns. 

At her age, time is almost irrelevant. Even if it takes a century to grow to adolescence, both she and her new master are Immortal Beings, so they’re not going to die before she has time to catch up.

“I saw a device in an Ancient City that said the Ley Lines had recovered to 9 percent. How much more did they need to recover before the Leviathans could survive and grow here on their own?” Cain asks his new companion.

“About thirty percent should be good enough. Anything lower than that and the Leviathans and Ancient Children will suffer from Mana deprivation and either starve in the case of my people or be trapped as eternal children in the case of yours. I mean, look at yourself, you are almost matured, but still Mythic, and your form can’t be more than maybe fifteen meters tall at full growth. If the planet had reached a proper level, you should have reached Immortal by now, bypassing Spirit Awakening by the time you finished puberty, and you would be a hundred meters tall in your natural form.”

“So this low mana level will be an issue for my children when they are born?” Cain panics.

“We can supplement them with magical devices to gather mana into them. It’s what the Ancients do when they create magical beings in sealed environments to prevent interference from outside influences. That shouldn’t be a problem. But it looks like a lot of knowledge was lost in the years between the war and now. It’s unavoidable if the Ancients and their cities are gone, but it is still sad to see. They could have made things so much more interesting.” Moana pouts.

“Well, now I have you. If you know about things I should understand, just tell me and I will work on them. I managed to get a book on Spell Crafting, and I have followed the path of the Puppet Master and the Ancient Flesh Crafter before becoming a Watcher From Beyond.” Cain suggests, making the little Leviathan’s eyes glow with an excited blue light.

“That would be great. There were so many great spells in the world before. Can you make the Puppets that take care of daily chores? Those were so amazing that even we had them make a few for us.” Moana asks and the other Companions smile at her enthusiasm.

“That I can, I also have a pair of echoes, half-power clones of myself, as well as the newly gained ability to call for a [Pet Sitter]. It is a [Lesser Watcher] and I don’t know what its ability is, but I have a pretty wide variety of abilities available to keep from having to do things myself.” Cain explains.

“Oh, the watchers are nice. You should call one when you get a chance. They get their own helpers, like your Puppets, that take care of chores and lesser species. They can even summon food and water if it’s needed and grow plants to create terrariums.” The way she happily describes creating terrariums for beastkin and humans as something normal makes it very hard for Cain to keep a straight face, but if they come with that knowledge it will be a great help to the Echoes who are attempting to perfect the fruit trees.

“What all can you do, other than swim in the air?” Nemu asks, tilting her head as if it will reveal more about the Leviathan if she just looks at it from a new angle.

“Honestly not much. I can control water and space, and I can eat almost anything if you have failed experiments or enemies that need to be disposed of.” Moana sighs, lamenting her lack of powers.

“Well, we are heading to the next city to inquire about an elf, a former puppet that should still have most of a Public Library from an ancient city with her. It survived right until a few hundred years ago, when the city was destroyed and she fled, but I don’t have a way of tracking her.” Cain informs the small creature, who thinks a while before replying.

“Give me some time and I can find the books I think. I’m good at finding really old things in space, and if they’re on this planet it shouldn’t be too hard. But if you just want to go to the city, here we are.”

A shimmering circle opens in front of them and Cain sees the image of an unfamiliar city reflected through it as if viewed through a heat haze.

“That only works for a few hundred kilometers, but it is very convenient for short trips. If I want to go further, I would need a marker. Do those still exist at least?” Moana asks.

“Both the ones that go between cities and the ones that go between continents are still in use, though maybe not the same as before. Most things now have been altered to comply with the System that the Laughing God set up after the war between the species a few centuries back. The humans were summoning Heroes from other worlds, and the Laughing God altered it to give them to most species.”

“Oh, well that is good news anyhow. Yes, looking through the interface I see that you have a bunch of locations marked. That’s a relief, I thought we would actually need to fly home. You have no idea how much effort that would take in this tiny body. Before I died or transferred, whichever you prefer, I was more than a Kilometer long. Compared to that, this tiny body is a nightmare of scale.”

Cain laughs at her tiny angry face, unable to take her anger seriously in that body. “It is going to take you a while to adjust for sure. Hop back in my pocket with your clone and we can use the portal to visit that city. Maybe they will have a clue for us, or at least something worth seeing.”

The group all steps through the gate, but they have forgotten one small detail. The gate faces the city entrance from inside the walls, and it isn’t visible from the other side. Seeing a group of assorted transfers appear out of nowhere, but inside their security perimeter, causes instant panic among the guards stationed by the main gates.

“Halt, who are you and how did you get into the city past the anti-transport wards?” The guard sergeant shouts as soon as he sees them.

The group shares an embarrassed look with each other, not having expected the city to prohibit magical travel, and forgetting that Travel Circles don’t work inside the Awakened Zone.