Chapter 111: Dark Skies
Chapter 111: Dark Skies
Kalli sat in her office, waiting for news, until the construction team entered.
"We’ve got the walls done as well as we’ll get them. The entire area is surrounded, and the cliff we built on the hill has a five-metre tall wall at the top.
We’re a fully encircled fort now.
The only access point is the bridge across the moat, four metres wide. Big enough that we can move vehicles or other equipment in and out when we need it. However, we don’t have the materials to make a proper door for it yet."
Kalli nodded. "We can cut trees and make a timber door for the opening. It’s going to be defended anyhow. But did you get all the drainage work done?
I certainly hope so. Because we’re likely to find out how good your engineering skills are."
"We’re all worried about the same thing. But we will find out in a few minutes. There is a rainwater cistern under the Academy that should fill up fast, and once it does, we will start to see the storm drains flowing, along with the ones that we cut.
The moat outside might take a while to fill, we didn’t have anything inside the wall drain to it. All the grounds inside the wall are sloped to drain down the hill, so we put a large storm drain in the cliff. It’s a potential access point, but that’s a risk we need to take to prevent flooding.
There are also two smaller ones further out, but they’re not large enough for most threats to enter.
They’re more for secondary drainage to keep the fields from flooding in heavy rain."
Kalli nodded and added everything to her notes.
"Excellent. Now, what’s next up on the group request list?"
The construction team shared a conspiratorial smile. "You have high-tech gear available, right? If this all works out the way that it’s supposed to, how about you donate a couple of scout vehicles to the cause?
Give us some range to track monster movements.
But if those are too expensive, I know that you have some options to make turrets for the walls. The robotics team has been working on something, but now that everything is under a metre of ash, I doubt that they’re going to be able to get the parts."
"You’ve got a point. The purchase will be expensive, but I might have to buy some turrets to place along the new wall. Just give me some time to build up the points and make sure there aren’t other pressing needs.
I should be able to get a five-person team worth of dirt bikes that will run on mana by the end of the day, though.
Will that work for your scouts?"
The team nodded. "I think so. They’re all Rogues, fast and agile with stealth skills. Motorcycles that can run on whatever that ground out there turns into should be perfect."
As they talked, the sound of rain on the building began to change.
The moisture had caused the ash particles in the sky to aggregate, and they were falling as gravel sized stones, banging off the roof, while everyone ran for shelter.
Kalli gave a prayer for the safety of their food, but knew that the tubers should be alright, as the core of the plant was underground.
However, the teams that had left to go find monsters were about to have a very bad day if they couldn’t get back in the next few minutes.
"I’m going to assume everyone has the sense to get in out of the hail. Let me know if there is any sign of major damage." Kalli instructed.
"Oh no, you don’t. We’re not going out there until this is over. We’re staying right here with you."
The concrete specialist of the construction team stared in mild horror out the window, but most of the pebbles that were falling were smaller than a kernel of corn. Enough to call them gravel, but not enough to damage stone buildings or metal roofs.
The only real threat would be if too much accumulated on the apartment buildings, but that shouldn’t be the case, as the sky had already begun to clear before the rain started.
The hail continued for nearly three hours before the rain stopped, and the skies began to clear.
Only, they weren’t the skies that Kalli remembered.
These were the blood-red skies of the very first incident, lit with two suns, one a pale yellow, and a deep red one on the horizon.
But Kalli could see that they were still at the right point in the day. The pale sun was just past noon, so the two stars were only about four hours apart. That would give them at least a little bit of night, while both suns were facing the other side of the world.
The more concerning question was: Why didn’t they see it earlier?
But there were abundant theories, each more terrifying than the last.
"Do you think that the world is changing more because too many groups have already failed the trial? Like, our world started merging into theirs because we did a crap job of defending the Capital, right? So, could the world outside our immediate area be the same?
Like the sky and moons are changing because the world as a whole is failing the trials?" Alexei asked.
"It’s a possibility. I don’t actually have any information on it. I wish that I did, it would make my life much less stressful. Or more stressful, given the circumstances.
But we’re all in the dark as to how this ends.
What I can tell you is that I have a power meter here in the office, and the solar panels are working overtime. That red sun is emitting mostly infrared light, if my guess is right, and the solar panels are eating it up.
If anything, we might have to cover some of them to avoid overloading the fuses on the input side.
That’s how much energy we’re getting."
"I had an infrared cooking element in my dorm when I was a student. I’m not sure if that will be good news for us on the heat front."
Kalli shrugged. "Well, the Trial is to survive the change of seasons, right? Perhaps we’re about to see summer."