"So, good news everyone, negotiations went well. We got two years of supplies, we have ten agricultural blessings and I got some intel on The Carrion." Carl said as they had the now firm post-dinner meeting.
"Why so many? Gaia is notoriously distrustful of humans because of the way they mutilated the Earth during their unsupervised tenancy. Please tell me you didn't offer that woman too much." Faylorna added with vivid memories of her bitter rants about the heartache it caused her.
"Well I promised to release Rhea here into her care, my system told me it should be possible after the rewards."
"Was she really so taken with them? Rare, though I do suppose the bare a stroking resemblance." Lillim mused as she leant in to inspect Rhea more closely.
When Carl was done explaining everything they got done, Gillian and Alysse took their turn.
"So we got a full treaty signed with Golgia... "yet" came sooner than we thought. Alysse beat him in a bet, after you guys left."
"Pfft... I'm offended he thought that tacky crap would beat me."
"Alysse, for crying out loud, he literally created a miniature planet. I still don't know if you actually won, or just destroyed his self-esteem."
"Gil, be honest, what did you let her do?" Carl asked with a certain sense of worry.
"I just told her they could only use what they had to hand and they had an hour each. He spent the entire two hours I gave them, pouring blood, sweat and literal tears into this beautiful miniature planet, complete with arctic poles, forests, deserts, everything but life.
Alysse berated the effort every second, then in an instant, used her skill to reprogram the nanites and they replicated it. As her prize, she made him sign a full treaty, got his blessing and made him swear to an eternal agreement."
"An eternal agreement?" Everyone else asked the question in unison as they ignored Alysse's smugness.
"Every year, they redo the challenge, under the same terms. The winner has to grant three wishes within their power to grant immediately, wishes can't be to the detriment of the loser's faction or people... Unfortunately because we don't mean them any harm, that let Alysse take him for all he's worth..."
"No words. I have no words." Carl said, breaking the near perfect silence, which was only flawed by Lillim glomping her blatant favourite.
"Carl, I forbid you from speaking ill of her." Lillim spoke with a hyper-defensive tone that would have worked under usual condition, unfortunately the story they just heard had ruined their perception of reality.
"Alysse, you are going to write him a letter of apology. Not for beating him, just for the bad sportsmanship. Caffeine deprivation has us all on edge, but luckily that situation is resolved. Other than that, the annual wager is your own affair, I only ask you keep it in keeping with our factions morals... They're plenty loose as it is."
"Thanks boss! See Gil, I'm good."
After that, everyone finished giving a full report on their day. Carl then announced he was off to collect Alisha.
"Oh and Gil, since the food situation is sorted and we have no immediate Diplomatic affairs to think about, you can get your fiance and the packs enrolled on the same grounds as Daniel's family.
Gaia worked out her two years based on two hundred individuals, if I'm not mistaken the packs only work out to about seventy mouths."
"Yeah that's right, give or take ten, been a few babies born and a few realm dive deaths... That leaves us with about three-hundred mouths worth, if you include what we get from the dwarves."
With that Carl and Klaire headed off.
When they arrived back on earth to collect Alisha, she was waiting with what few possessions she had.
"So this is where you grew up... I've wanted to put a place to the stories for so long."
Klaire looked around first, the barren wasteland that stood in almost the same area where Samael had first arrived and apparently almost the same location where Jupiterran was born.
The small settlement before them rested on top of the red rock, the earth had been fyed red with the blood of humans when Samael's army first stepped through, not to mention the hundreds of monsters that crawled from myths and nightmares.
It had been compacted into solid rock beneath the feet, hooves, talons and claws of creatures that mankind couldn't even comprehend when it happened.
The shack that Carl had grown up in was dire, constructed like a gazebo out of metal sheets, not even secured to the ground and leaving how it had even managed to stay standing so long a mystery.
"It's not a mystery, it collapses once a year, that's the "redecorating" we were always talking about. Growing up unowned lands means no permanent structures, even if it doesn't fall naturally, we have to destroy it and rebuild." Carl's fists were clenched as he thought about how much his mother enjoyed just to raise him.
"Sorry Carl, if families like mine let the Reaga be raised amongst them then...."
"Don't be, humans destroyed this world, we don't have the right to complain about its creators being pissed off about it. I used to be angry, but after I made Squidge I understood."
"I suppose another creator would understand how it feels to see your creation abused."
Carl nodded, understanding, but still angry his mother suffered this life for his sake.
"Welcome, Klaire. Finally convinced him to let you see this place?"
"Mum, don't say that, not like I was embarrassed or anything."
"I know, you just didn't want anyone interfering because you decided it was your job to rescue me from this place. The thing is, I didn't need rescuing, or want it. I loved these people that helped me when I was trying desperately to raise you."
"I know, in the end Faylorna made the decision for you."
"That's right, by the way, Jenny was here helping me. She wanted to speak to you about something."
"Sure, let's go find her... Wait, is that?... Where did you find it? I thought it was lost after I left for SATS." Carl approached a leatherbound book that was resting on the items Alisha hadn't stored in her faction armlet.
"Me too, I found it while I was collecting your things hidden in your bedding."
Carl picked up the book and passed it to Klaire. "This is that creature taming book I used to read all the time."
Klaire took it with a gentle smile, turning a few pages with the care she would show a sacred relic. "Wow, this is where you learnt to do all that crazy stuff that melted Noah's brain? Maybe we should show it to him."
They laughed then Carl stored all his things including the book in his own armlet, then the three of them walked to the shack the settlement used for meetings.
"Carl! So good to see you again!" Jenny shouted when they entered. "We were actually just talking, we have a request for you."
"What can I do? Want a pet to help you hunt? I was thinking of leaving one as an apology. I was so focused on rescuing Mum, I neglected the rest of you. Honestly, I think it was unforgivable, I wouldn't blame you for hating me."
"We don't hate you Carl. We understand, but we wanted to ask if you would take the children in. We have a lottery prepared if you can't take them all."
Carl stared at her, then turned to Klaire, who just smiled. "How many of you are there?"
Jenny looked at the box they had prepared for the lottery. "I know it's quite a few... We have ten children..."
"No, I meant how many in total, everyone. I'm going to take in anyone who wants to come with us, but we still need to watch numbers, population growth is inevitable. What, I'm really asking, is whether there is anyone who wants to stay behind."
"What? You can't be serious, that would be too many people." Jenny's words came from the mouth of someone who had come from generations of living on unowned land, where the idea of staying in the same place you're born is an impossibility.
Not only that, but each temporary settlement could only safely hold fifty occupants, age and race didn't matter and hard calls were often made to avoid the penalty.
It wasn't just dangerous in terms of resources, but if a settlement allowed more than fifty occupants to linger, the owner of the land was increasingly likely to allow incursion gates to appear.
"Numbers aren't an issue in territory, anyone trespassing in my domain opens themselves up to legitimate retaliation. Not just from me, but from those we have ties with. I should warn you though, we host gods and immortals regularly."
"Carl, you might be overwhelming them. Give them a day to think about it, I'll come back with Klaire tomorrow."
Carl nodded then activated the gate, making a portal crackle into life behind him.
"In the meantime, anyone who wants to come with us, write down your build and what kind of role you would like to play. It will help us find the best place for you when everything is settled."
Carl then ushered the others through the portal, then followed them.
The next day, Carl, Gillian and Blanc returned to Lunelia with Alysse's prototype vehicle. "What was it Alysse said?"
"Activate three seater beta." Blanc said, eager to get a move on,
As he spoke the box transformed into a two-wheeled vehicle as it had before, but had an attached section to one side for an additional passenger and stability.
Thanks to the vehicle, they made it to the site they had battled in from the forward base in no time at all, unfortunately there were three of the centipede-type Carrion.
"Time for round two... Blanc, you want to take point with your new toy?"
"Sure, let's show em what we practiced. Activate spirit element conversion." As he spoke, he placed the box form of his weapon and activated it with mana, then his body turned into blue spirit fire, which Link then converted into electricity.
After his body became electricity, the weak current was almost imperceptible and he moved in to take control of the weapon that was growing into a human shape.
"Well guys, let's see how this goes." The human construct ran towards the centipedes with blinding speed, the movement not expending energy but actually making it increase perpetually.
The moment he was in range, he punched a metal fist into the same carapace that broke the wyvern-slayer, and then straight through it.
As the metal sank into the soft centre of the Carrion it began to writhe, then the energy discharged as electricity and began cooking it from the inside.
"Well looks like he ain't a slouch in a fight anymore, let's go join him now he's got nothing to prove to himself." Gillian said as he changed into his lycan form, already covered in scorch's fire.
"Yeah, but I think we're maybe stroking Alysse's ego too much here... She's putting us all to shame, let's pull our weight." Carl called the bladed hilt into his hand from his armlet and fed some mana into it.
As they looked at Blanc rip the carapace of his one apart piece by piece as the others moved to try and surprise him from the sides, they charged in, aiming instead for the human torsos.