Chapter 92 – Approved Diet

At first, Kairon wasn’t overly concerned with the orange light. It was just all part of the process, right? In the past, these things only lasted a clawful of seconds.

A few minutes at most.

Unfortunately, this was not one of those times.

The first several minutes went by as expected. The brood imps were scared, the wrath imps were irritated, and the void imps were entranced.

Fifteen minutes later, nothing changed. The orange light shot into the air, the ground shook, and the Infernal Industrializer still rose behind the curtain of forgeful energy.

At the head of the gathering of the city’s populace, the brood imps were practically beside themselves. Fifteen minutes had been long enough for them to realize nothing was going to blow up. First, their fear had turned to confusion. When another ten minutes went by, that confusion eventually tipped into that far more dangerous zone of interest.

Interest that, finally, bled into curiosity. The last thing Kairon wanted his brood imps feeling in the wake of his newest arrival.

“Pretty!” said one brood imp, raising his arms and waving at the forge district.

“Let go!” chimed another, excitement clear in its orange pupils.

“Can eat?” said a third. A line of drool dripped down, pooling at the stone below.

More and more joined, and before long a group of brood imps looked as if they were just about to break from the main mass and depart towards the distant glow. They wanted to see what was inside, after all.

For his part, Kairon did too. He was positively fascinated with it, just itching to see what this tool of The Creator’s could do.

He was not, however, about to let his brood imps go near the thing—especially not while it was half formed.

Thankfully, he had middle management for such matters.

“Nod. Take care of it, please.”

“Already on it!” The Demonic Resources manager shouted something at his underlings. Bob and Shake—his assistants—ran up behind him, sheets of bark gripped in their claws.

Striding with purpose, the trio moved down the stone stairs and out into the city proper.

“Move aside! Move aside!” Nod was an average sized brood imp, but when he spoke, imps listened. Without needing to be told twice, the mass of wrath and brood imps parted like the seas, allowing the DR crew through.

“What doing?!” Nod’s eyes were blazing, fangs showing.

“Light! Want see! Maybe eat?” said one of the imps.

Nod had made his way to the front now. He was speaking loud and clear—even from where Kairon was, he could make out the conversation clearly.

Next to him, another brood imp looked horrified. “Uh oh.” He poked the eager brood at the head of the huddle. “It supervisor Nod. Supervisor!”

“Yes! It is!” agreed Nod. “That light not for eat. Not on approved diet!”

“But—”

“No! You not listen! It hurt! Not hear master? You want die?!” Nod already had his bark out, scribbling down the infraction.

Satisfied events were under control, Kairon went back to studying the result of the third ring ritual.

From his spot atop the citadel steps, Kairon’s source powered body could clearly sense the enormous amounts of envious corruption leaking from the forge district.

But that wasn’t what had his attention. And it wasn’t the light either. It wasn’t even the three building slots this ordeal was swallowing up.

No. It was what was clawing its way from the depths of The Plane.

The Creator’s Infernal Industrializer.

It was hard to make out under the glow, but drawing the power of source to his vision allowed a semblance of sight. Wherever corruption leaked, Kairon’s vision seemed to zoom in.

He could just see a metallic structure wider than all three of the rookeries put together. More and more of that structure continued to rise from the ground. At this point, it was nearly as tall as the towering rookeries in the distance.

“Amazing, isn’t it?” asked Kairon.

By his side, Sythara rubbed her shadowy tentacles together. “It had better be. You have taken from The Creator, child.”

Vorathrex, Bean, and Shiny were all nearby as well. Each with expressions varying from consideration to excitement.

“Actually.” Kairon turned, facing them. “We have taken from this Creator. After all, the pact is as much with the city as it is with me.”

“What?!” hissed Sythara.

“We are partners, are we not?”

“I mean. Well yes but that doesn’t quite… Oh child…” Sythara looked as if she might faint.

Vorathrex, surprisingly, just studied Kairon. “This is a bold move, fledgling. What will you—” Catching himself, the general did something that positively delighted the city lord. “No. What will we do next?”

“What our city is best at. Exploit the hell out of whatever this plane gives us—Creator or not.” Grinning, Kairon hefted his staff and began descending from the stairs.

Not waiting to see if his entourage would stay or follow, Kairon made his way through the citadel and void districts, stopping right before the newly made forge area.

A part of him did want to go scurry through the tower that had grown as a result of the ring expansion ritual—he’d been here for weeks and his place of primary residence had hardly changed. What might The Plane have done to the now far larger citadel?

But that want of his was a small consideration right now. Most of his mind was just so taken by the fruits of his latest exploit.

Being this close to the pillar of creation, the whispers and anvils of The Plane sounded against his source barrier. Blow after blow landed on metaphysical iron, ringing out its forgeful call—begging to reshape all that was near.

Interestingly, the effect had even begun to impact the forge district itself. Where most of the district was an orange, smooth cobble, the parts surrounding the three building slots being engulfed were malformed.

Instead of orange stone, something more akin to polished metal was growing along the ground. Like a portion of this district truly was being industrialized. Getting closer, Kairon even smelled the aroma of burning, smoldering coals.

“That’ll take some getting used to.” Kneeling down at the divide between forge and void, he placed one claw against the reshaped flooring. It felt warm. But more importantly, it vibrated.

Closing his eyes, he tried to sense it.

Like beeps of sonar in his source powered vision, tendrils of luminescent forge appeared in his mind. They were digging down and down until they hit a purple mass—what Kairon assumed must be the gate to The Plane that was bringing the structure here—and disappeared.

Then it dawned on him.

“You sneaky… Hush! Where is Hush?!”

It seemed his demonic companions had followed, including the hooded void imp. “Master? You feel? It’s… Envious…”

“Yes, yes. I feel. Quickly. Gather your brothers—as many that have the will to enact a calling.”

“Master… The side effects… We spoke of… They may worsen.”

Kairon thought about that. “If we make callings. Maybe two. What will that cost us? You’ve told me during our lessons that the more we call—especially the more frequent we call, the higher the price. Will we lose any to The Plane?”

Hush blinked slowly, rubbing his spindled fingers along his cowl. “I… Do not know. But we pay… The Plane hungry… The Plane requires… Price…” He made a humming sound, before lifting one, then two, then three fingers. “Three… At least.”

Currently, the city spawned six void imps a day. Half of the daily spawn to stop what he thought was happening?

A price, but one Kairon would pay. He didn’t enjoy it, and it was not waste. But it was necessary. A trade was a trade.

“Understood. We will pay this price. Hush, the industrializer stopped rising a few minutes ago. The Plane isn’t building it. It’s draining it. Selfish sucker wants all the forge energy back. Come to think of it, it’s probably why it didn’t fight us on the dynamic pool bit. It wanted this as much as we did. It wanted the forge energy!”

“Mmm!! I see!” Hush turned about, dashing off to gather more of the hooded voidlings. Currently they had thirty-five of them. Far more than he hoped to need here.

“That… Child, is it not enough that we have taken from The Creator? Now you want to go against the will of The Plane itself.” Sythara stopped beside him, staring down in concern. “Are you certain that is wise?”

“Honestly? No. But I can think of more than a few ways to use all this forge aspected corruption, and none of them are going to happen if The Plane takes it all. Besides, what I’m sensing is inside our new building. I don’t know how hard it is to get the forge corruption within it like that. If we can just use a calling, or if it needs a specific method. Being The Creator himself made it, something tells me the void imps aren’t going to be able to help us directly.”

“That’s a lot of assumptions.”

“It’s all we’ve got.” Kairon rose, thinking furiously for the best way to go about this. As he glanced at the demoness of void before him, the answer practically slapped him in the face.

“Hush!” he shouted urgently.

“Comingggg,” cooed the little void imp. Behind him, thirty odd void imps chittered, each scampering like monkeys as their tattered robes whipped in the wind.

To the rear of the wriggling mass of voidlings, Kairon could see the impatient brood grow even more so as the void imps departed. But Nod was doing his job, screeching something at them and shaking his claw, cowing any that tried.

That nearly brought a smile to his lips. Nearly.

Kairon pointed at the enormous pillar of forge, then lowered his claw to the ground below it. “Hush. Choose a dozen of your kin. I want you to enact a calling of void. I desire… To make this ritual embody the void. For it to embrace the end of all things, the sloth that is the inevitable conclusion.”

In the past week, Hush had also given him more tidbits about the callings themselves. Apparently, there was also another cost. One not expressly mentioned in the demonic compendium about using them.

But Kairon couldn’t be bothered with that right now. He saw an opportunity, and The Plane was trying to sneak it out from under his very nose.

Quickly, Hush picked his chosen. The twelve made a semi-circle, and began their chant.

This was the first significant void calling Kairon had made. The impacts were rather… slothful.

A feeling of absolute dread fell upon the city. A hopeless pressure that begged any who bore it witness to just lie down and let time pass.

As they were, the demons were able to bear it. In the distance, even without being the focus, many of the brood imps, however, weren’t.

Worker imps began to sleepily close their eyes and lie down for a nap. Some had even dropped half eaten sticks of ashroot, deciding there was no point to eat if everything would simply end one day.

It was a reminder of just how alive the powers of The Plane truly were.

Turning his attention downwards, Kairon connected his senses back to the Infernal Industrializer. This close, its factory-like body was practically seething behind the wall of orange light.

But every moment, it was growing weaker. Like it was being drained.

Which, quite frankly, it was.

“You little devil. Taking it right from under us with the guise of a pretty light show. Unfortunately for you, I’ve caught it. I just hope it isn’t too late.”

Just as he finished speaking, a purple vortex of nothingness popped into existence. As he’d desired, it was placed in the ground below the industrializer—where whatever pact-bound ritual was still taking place.

The ground rumbled, and the world dimmed. With a whoosh, the air nearest Kairon was displaced and simply drawn from existence. For a moment, he had nothing to breathe. It seemed that despite his best intentions, the calling of void was even undoing the air itself. Sucking it into the ends of nothing.

Keeping calm, he waited until fresh oxygen blew into the de-pressurized space. Letting his lungs fill, he took a breath and witnessed.

Witnessed as The Plane’s thievery was undone. The devious little ritual that hadn’t quite stopped was leaking. At first, a few strands strung off in his mental vision from the purple gate below. They sucked into the vortex of void, disappearing into nothing.

However, a calling was a volatile thing. It was not really a surgical tool, but a hammer of desire. And, as he was learning, the bigger the ask, the bigger the deviations could be from his original request.

Ground below the industrializer began to quake more and more. Frowning, Kairon honed in with his source vision. He couldn’t see it physically, but as he looked closer, he saw the bits of forge and corruption that made up the underbelly of the area below his city. To his dismay, they were simply being erased from existence.

“The calling is taking the ground too…” Best he could tell it wasn’t all of it, but enough that dirt and rock were likely being sucked into the vortex.

As the ground shaking intensified, that theory seemed more and more plausible.

This was quickly becoming a race. What would run out first—the ritual, or the very ground beneath the industrializer? What would even happen if the thing collapsed?

Glancing at the progress of the void calling and its negative impact on the ritual gateway, he estimated it would take another few minutes to finish destroying the gateway at this rate.

And… looking at his drained industrializer through his source powered eyes, it seemed like it only had a fraction of its capacity of orange forgeful energy.

If The Plane polished it off, Kairon might just be left with a big fancy metal building taking up three building slots and nothing to show for it.

No. He couldn’t have that.

“Okay. Hush! Choose another six void imps. I desire a calling of forge. I want you to reshape the ground beneath the void calling into strong, fresh stone. Then another six of void with the same instructions as the first. Go, go, go!”

“As you wish…. It shall be…” Giggling, Hush drew back his head and motioned at his brethren, drawing fresh hooded void imps into the fray.

More and more songs of void joined the night, the callings intermingling into a symphony of dread and creation.

“Child… This is starting to feel like last time…” remarked Sythara. He wasn’t sure if it was a warning or an observation.

Kairon decided it didn’t matter.

“I know, I know. But we’re undoing this time, with just a dab of forge. This is not a flywheel. It is an execution—an ending.”

As if to emphasize his point, the dread around the clearing intensified. With it, the speed of The Plane’s gateway’s demise too increased.

“It is shaking!” Vorathrex’s arms were flexing and unflexing in worry. “Fledgling! The ground beneath this thing is shaking!”

“That is why they are calling upon harder stone, Vorathrex.”

For such a big guy, he really didn’t seem to enjoy the unstable floor.

Despite his reassurances, his companions were right. Callings were dangerous, and their control was terribly limited. Kairon needed to understand corruption, the five aspects, and his own growing power as soon as possible.

He promised himself that as soon as urgent matters were dealt with, he was going to start allocating his own study of The Plane.

For now, he clenched his claws and waited to see who would win.

Creation, Void, or The Plane itself.