Chapter 64 – Preparing to Depart

A few weeks had passed since the confrontation between Baal and Thrasir. The guardian had danced a little goodbye to Tiny and the demons and had left for depths unknown two days ago and now, the team who dealt with siren was slowly arriving one by one on the chariot to discuss what would happen next.

When Melody teleported into the Nemesis’ lounge, Anne, Famine, Focalor and Kuria were already waiting.

Focalor greeted her. “There you are, Famine just read us a message from the elder.”

The inquisitor handed the paper to Melody. “The elder is busy currently but she wanted this message to be delivered and archived properly.”

Melody took a moment to read it. “Are we doing this today?”

Focalor shook her head. “No, but soon. While the elder has asked all sirens now in Hell, we want to make sure to give them a proper deadline and enough time to prepare. Even if they all agree that they don’t need or want to return via the portal, it’s best to not rush closing it.”

“Yea, that seems for the best. So it’s all done then? All the sirens who want to move to Hell resettled, all their culture relocated. Are there really no female sirens left in this world?”

“None. They all decided to move, even some of the males did but most of them stayed.”

“I know we’ve been here for just a few months, but this just feels so… final.”

“I know. It does… we can’t leave a portal to Hell here out in the open, we can’t have a permanent outpost here, defending the library is already a big task.”

Isha arrived. “Hey, sorry about being late.”

“It’s okay.” Focalor nodded at her. “We were just discussing the closing of the portal.”

“Here.” Melody handed her the message from the elder.

Isha put it on the table. “I already know what she wrote and I agree. We can’t leave this gateway open. Who knows what can come through without us guarding it and we can’t just stay here forever.”

Famine nodded in agreement. “We will give everyone time to prepare and then leave within a few weeks.”

“Have we told our human friends down there?”

“Not yet.”

“We should tell them soon.”

“Agreed, but we need to have exact plans first.”

Kuria spoke up. “And those plans need to include what we can do to help Harriman and his crew when they arrive back home. I doubt their government would simply allow them to go home after all that has happened here.”

“It is not their protection that worries me. We can keep them safe.”

“It is the fact that their government knows about us and now there is no FBC, no group who knows the rules. Just a corrupt regime with the knowledge that demons and angels are real, a regime run by religious fanatics.”

Melody grimaced. “Pure human supremacists like Pierce were the least of our worries… religion breeds fanaticism like nothing else.”

Famine nodded. “Precisely.”

“And they are already picking apart Douglas and everyone on his ships. Everything the FBC left behind, everything Broysc’s institute studied, everything they can get their hands on will be weaponized against us. Because we are the enemy of all.”

Anne sighed. “And sooner or later, the greatest human intelligence and surveillance network to ever exist will find Discordia and the high inquisitor. They will retrace their steps, find out about the pattern emitter and then try to stop anyone from getting to that prison before they do. We all know that whatever the power in there is, they will try to weaponize it.”

“And no matter if they succeed or fail, it will be catastrophic.”

“And potentially the point of no return for Azazel’s prophecy.”

“Famine… how do we stop them? We can’t just stage a coup.”

Famine shook her head. “I don’t know. That is something the entire inquisitorium must discuss.”

“I am eager to help if you need me.”

“I appreciate your enthusiasm but we need to deal with this on our own. This is the reason the inquisitorium exists.”

“Still, if you need anyone, I am here.”

“Thank you. I want to think about positive things for a moment. Isha, you mentioned progress on your home when we last met?”

Isha nodded. “We finally found a spot. You know those spires a few hundred kilometres down the coast from Dis? They are large enough to be hollowed out for a home and close enough to the coast and each other to connect them with bridges. Lucifer suggested we might create an entire siren settlement there.”

Anne sounded excited. “That would be amazing! I’m glad you get to keep your community together, even after you are turned.”

“I am too. The waters there are also deep enough for everyone who hasn’t been turned yet. There are quite a few among us who want to remain sirens for a while and maybe procreate one last time.”

“That’s a pretty sad thought… no more young sirens around.”

“We will all be demons. There will be no siren hatchlings just like there will be no demon children. It’s sad but a small price for a safe eternal home.”

“Yea, fair enough. I never really wanted kids myself but once humanity is gone, there will be no more kids around at all… that’s just sad.”

“I wonder if maybe the weapons could be implanted into younger bodies and grow up that way.”

Famine nodded. “We haven’t succeeded in creating a child body yet, but we will keep trying if that is something any weapon would prefer to developing in a synthetic environment.”

“It might be a nice option.”

“One our scientists will keep pursuing. Isha, have you already spoken to Jorogumo?”

Ishs nodded. “We started planning my spire two days ago. There is much to be thought about not just about my home but how to connect the spires and mainland. There is also a problem we need to consider. We all would prefer to keep our homes safe from storms without using magical barriers.”

Melody tilted her head slightly in thought. “Reinforcing the stone structure with a magical weave might be an easy option. Humans also have something called rebar, basically adding steel reinforcements to concrete. One could weave thin adamantine strands into the rock itself to reinforce it without actually needing to physically break it open. That should give it enough stability in combination with the basic protection enchantments to weather any storm.”

“Fascinating! I didn’t know you knew so much about demonic material science.”

“I had to learn a bit when I tried to apply demonic science papers to human materials. Often times humans create things that perfectly fit the needs of something else without even realizing it. The polyethylene foam that pool noodles are made from and the basic technology found in a toaster can be combined to create a very basic but directed proton emitter. The entire design is incredibly similar to the emitters built into the hull of the chariots.” Melody sounded very excited about this topic. “An excitement lattice built into the outer hull structure that is essentially invisible and allows for a particle beam of any intensity to be projected from any point along the lattice surface. My little toaster can only point protons in a single direction, but this assembly can point nearly any particle, even full synthetically assembled atoms en masse, at any target the lattice surface can see. All that without any magic and small enough to fit into a shoebox.”

“What’s a shoebox?”

“A cardboard box about this size.” Melody made a vague shape with her hands.

“That is small.”

“Especially for a particle synthesizer and accelerator. Human particle accelerators are massive structures, usually rings kilometres in diameter, all to accelerate a single particle to near lightspeed. And here is a box that can do the same for countless particles at the same time, not in a kilometre long loop but over a few millimetres. And it is so amazing it got me sidetracked from what we were talking about. Your home.”

Isha smiled. “And it is really cute when you get sidetracked by stuff you love. I don’t mind.”

Melody blushed. “Aww. I just worry sometimes. This isn’t a topic you can easily talk about.”

“I am happy to listen and learn. As much as I want to ask you to continue about awesome physics, I worry about Serena. Wasn’t she supposed to be here too?”

“She is late, yea… Let me send her a text.” Melody did so and waited a few minutes. “She received it but hasn’t read it yet.”

Famine let her gaze wander across the group. “There is something wrong.”

“What do you mean?”

“With Serena. I have a bad feeling about her delay. We need to check on her.”