Chapter 172: Psyche Up – Part 2

Chapter 172: Psyche Up – Part 2

Intermission – Skylander Soldier

We march in formation across the island's open field, an almost barren land cleared of trees in preparation for this exercise, but one would barely notice it as it's teeming with men and tents. Even the sky is full of winged soldiers and airships, but the monstrosity that the land-dwellers brought with them overshadows everything.

It's three times as thick as a Leviathan, has dozens of wings like a Kite Dragon, and there's even a swarm of planes flying around it like Dreamers protecting their Mother Moth. It's a thick beauty with a very round bottom, and it's so sexy-looking that the other airship-sexuals and I can't keep our eyes off it.

Luckily, we're pretty good at marching, so we don't make fools of ourselves in front of our ancestors. And since we're talking about them... nobody could believe that there are ancient Chimera spirits among the guests, let alone that they've sworn loyalty to land-dwellers, but the Behemoth floating above us is proof that it's true. There are also the [Sense Presence] fellas, who all agree that half of the guests really are spirits, and that's creeped out everyone.

"Halt! Line!" the Land Commander orders, and we line up with the land-dwellers, who flank us on each side. They outnumber us on land, but most of the winged soldiers are ours, though nobody knows how good those airplanes they have are.

"Maybe I can get my wings after this..." I mumble absentmindedly.

"Maybe I can get a cozy seat on an airship gun after this," the fella to my right mumbles wryly.

But this is as much chatter as we're capable of as everyone is tense, and the eerie silence from the land-dwellers doesn't help loosen our tongues, while the cold drizzle of a Day of Ne makes our ballsacks recoil. Then I notice that their steel(?) armor is, like, super glossy, and under the sheen, I can see a number of curved lines all over the surface, which is a weird pattern to put on armor.

They do look a bit awfully thin, though. Are they eating well?

Still, I get envious of what they wear and wield as all we get is scale and a gambeson, but then I remember that they're supposed to be Lordsguard, and they serve, like, seven Queens, or something, so I think we're doing fine considering our position. Except that now I'm worried if our levels and skills are high enough to actually fight alongside them.

Aren't we just going to embarrass ourselves here? They even have [Blessing Magic] enchanted into their armor!

Oh... maybe this is why all the officers looked like Waimarie blessed their tea this morning.

Then I notice that a land-dweller mage is walking in front of their line, energetically sprinkling something onto the soldiers. I sniff loudly as I sense a familiar scent, which makes me confused for a second, but then I see the liquid fall onto the armor of the land-dwellers, and that confirms it: the mage is sprinkling blood.

What in Heaven and Hell...?

"Look alive!" the Land Commander suddenly shouts, and the murmuring ceases as everyone clenches their assholes and straightens their backs.

"Ironic words!" a jokester makes a mistake, and the murderous look the Commander throws in his direction makes me think he'd strangle the dog fella if he could.

We all look forward, but then our eyes are drawn to the shiniest winged soldier I've ever seen, which means that they're definitely not one of ours. Their wings are also the purest white and have such a wide span that they could easily wrap around someone like a blanket and hug them tight to make sweet love to them as they're caressed by the ticklish softness of those white feathers.

Weimarie's blessing...

Then the shiny and horned winged angel raises an equally shiny glaive as they begin their speech, "Soldiers! Today, three different cultures, along with that of migrants, unite under a common goal: to protect the Sky Lands and its people! Here, Sky Lander, High Elf, Hauhuri Chimera, and the migrants who have joined us shall all fight side-by-side! There will be glory and Experience aplenty for everyone, but this is still only a prelude to the true fight to come! Show us that you're worthy of accompanying us further into the Fortress of Calamity! Show us your might!"

And their shininess becomes so bright that I can barely force myself to look at them, but I also find it hard to look away. What in Heaven and Hell is going on with that?!

"[Men! What do we say to her challenge]?!" a land-dweller officer suddenly shouts in Andraste, which I can understand a bit, and his gentle but strong voice sounds just like how I imagined an elf would sound.

"[GUIDED BY THE LIGHT]!" the rest of the dwellers roar back so loudly that a few of us even jump in surprise. Then they all suddenly assume a combat posture at the same time, which is eerie as hell.

"To arms!" the Land Commander orders, and so we also assume our combat posture, which is merely "point our sticks forward."

Even their formation is fancy.

Then a horn blows, sounding the unsealing of the dungeon's entrance, which releases the swarm of monsters that was trapped within.

Before we even see a hint of hair, hide, or scales, we hear the distant sounds of explosions coming from far above and behind us, but we were already warned about it, so nobody's surprised when we hear more explosions, now coming from ahead of us. We can't really see what's going on aside from noticing that the rising cloud of black dots stops growing as the monsters suddenly start dropping like flies, which makes this land-dweller weapon quite terrifying.

At least you can see arrows or sense spells. But this? Just a *bang*, then another, and you're dead. All we have to do is wait as scores upon scores of monsters crash down upon the barren ground, and the way that my Experience slowly trickles up proves that a huge number of them are dying.

But the officers also said that this wouldn't last; it's merely a brief test. The explosions stop as suddenly as they began, and now our turn comes. The black cloud of the swarm grows bigger, and the dots take the shapes of flying monsters. Then a low rumble reaches us as the stampede approaches.

"FOR THE KING!" someone shouts excitedly.

"FOR THE QUEEN!" I shout back as the inspiring speech finally gets to me.

"FOR THE QUEENS!" another shouts, and I realize it's the land-dwellers that are shouting, but they're using Reo, so it must be one of our ancestors.

Then I'm suddenly filled with an indescribable feeling. Our ancestors are here, right beside us, and they're willing to bleed for the future of the Sky Lands.

This is the start of our rebirth!

"FOR CHIMERAE GLORY!" I roar as the furor overflows from within my heart. I've resolved to die for my homeland, but it won't be here.

And my rage is contagious, for my comrades also begin to roar. It's a pity that these monsters are mindless, for even orcs would be intimidated in the face of our fierce battle cries.

But we're still far from being worthy of standing alongside our ancestors, for as soon as the mass of monsters collides with our immobile wall of pikes, the crazy land-dweller fellas start fighting like they're possessed. We thought the Punishers that were prowling about a couple of days ago were scary, but they've got nothing on these beasts over here.

This is only an exercise, though, so we should use this difference in level and strength as inspiration to learn from them, for the real battle is still to come.

Intermission end.

Rupegians have an interesting definition of "joint exercise," but we got a neat little live test, so I ain't complaining.

Then lunchtime comes, and the girls feel like it'd be appropriate to invite The Four, so we do so. But when they arrive, we immediately notice a problem: they're a bit resentful of the wives. Maybe they noticed that the girls made them lose quite painfully, or maybe they're just sour after the brutal training, but the important thing is that we can't let this tense atmosphere persist.

Unfortunately, it means that I have the most potential to fix things, so we start to brainstorm together to come up with a solution for this. Fortunately, I quickly get an idea regarding a very interesting topic.

"So, we've established that our Earths are different from each other's, but I'm wondering what cool, unique stuff there is on our home planets," I promptly begin with an eager tone as I give everyone a glance.

"Ooh~..." Samkelo hums as he raises his eyebrows in excitement, and even Caterina seems interested in hearing about this.

Then Lily instantly pokes a hole in my idea, "Yeah, but how will we know what's 'unique' to our worlds unless we talk about every last detail and compare them?"

Shit...

But the gnome boy salvages the plan, "Well, to start, I'm pretty sure there's something fucky going on with the geography around Cambodia-... Cambotcha? How did you pronounce it?" And then he gives the snow cat a smirk.

Thant sighs and slowly explains, mildly offended, "Cambodjia, but I'm from Burme, which is next to Cambodjia."

"I've never heard of Burme, so maybe it's one of the differences between our worlds," I remark.

He doesn't seem to be too eager to talk about his home nation as he continues with a rather dull tone, "It's a big country surrounded by Vietnam, Cambodjia, and Bangledash. It's also near India, so Lily was supposed to know of it," -he very subtly smirks at the cinnamon loli, likely a bit scared of making fun of her- "but now that we know that our worlds are all different, it's obvious that my Burme isn't the same as hers."

"There are a lot of small countries in that area, so I couldn't remember exactly where it was," Lily replies, and by her impassive expression, I know she's hiding her embarrassment at her less-than-stellar geographical knowledge.

And Thant continues, now just a bit more enthusiastic, "But on my Earth, there aren't any small countries in that area. Burme invaded their smaller neighbors after the military coup, but the US and China told them to chill before they could threaten Vietnam since that was right after the Americans pushed out the commie Chinese from there, and they were very protective of their one ally in that area of Asia."

"The US lost the Vietnam war on my Earth," I promptly state.

"Same," Lily hums.

"Not on mine," Chesa softly follows up.

"Vietnam war?" the gnome innocently asks, but nobody feels like explaining it, so we just consider it rhetorical.

"Wait, the Philippines is still very much dry on my Earth," I worriedly state.

"Same," Samkelo hums, his mouth full.

"Same," Thant echoes, his mouth not full.

"Not on mine," Lily soberly hums. Then she suddenly makes a complicated expression but ends up chuckling. "We built underground cities like dwarves."

"The Gods have a sense of humor," Alissa playfully remarks, and we all chuckle.

"I don't get it; what do you mean?" Urmeie promptly questions with a frown.

So Lily explains with a surprising amount of kindness, "There are only humans on all of our Earths, and I was turned into a dwarf because the people in my world were starting to live like them."

"Shit... are the Gods implying that the beastfolk are violent animals or something...?" Thant quietly talks to himself, unsure if he should be offended.

"They are," Urmeie immediately replies, 0% joking, and Thant makes a complicated expression.

"How did you make underground cities viable?" I push the conversation forward because I don't want to dwell on "are the Gods being racists or not?"

And the cinnamon loli's face lights up as she finally realizes what's unique about her world. "Drills, vibrating drills, but I don't know much about them. Though, I do know a lot about Project Atlantis. It was nothing short of a miracle that so many countries cooperated to build the underground cities before the flood killed millions."

"Flood?" Kaatohe curiously inquires. As a flying-island-cat, seas and flooding are completely alien concepts to her.

So I happily explain to my curious kitten, "Basically, all of our Earths were dying, though apparently, some were more dead than others. The seas were rising and flooding the coasts, reducing the amount of land available to live on as there were no mer, only humans."

The Rupegians also don't have a word for "apocalypse," so Kaatohe hums a very familiar word to her people, "Calamity..."

Samkelo then assumes a very cynical expression as he jokes, "The 'heroes' got ripe enough for harvest, so the 'human experiment' was over, and the 'Earth multiverse' started shutting down."

And I grumble as I can't help but be a bit cynical myself, "I hate how much sense that makes."

"I have no idea what you're all talking about most of the time, but I still enjoy hearing it nonetheless," Kaatohe gently remarks. It's interesting how she's the opposite of Alissa, who hates being left out of the conversation.

And at least my little clingy orange fox has the decency to be embarrassed about it.

Announcement

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