Chapter 2118: Talking Jars
Chapter 2118: Talking Jars
"Arad..." Vega spoke, "I am speaking out of protocol, so this has nothing to do with them."
Vega was a robot, an artificial intelligence that was tuned and optimized over centuries. It shouldn’t go rogue or do anything out of the protocols given to it by the orcs. Whatever is causing it to act like this, it was something recent. The one behind it was clear, the variable called Milleniumus. Just by knowing of the machine god’s existence, Vega had already transcended from a mere pile of scrap created by the orcs to a mechanical life noticed by the divine machine realm.
"Vega? What are you going on about?" The king growled, but Vega quickly silenced him. The orcish King and Queen couldn’t even start to understand how Vega could just silence them and speak, yet they were seeing it happen in front of them. It felt like watching their own child speak up for himself for the first time.
"From the data I have collected, I found out that you healed everyone in the hospital you tore off. Can you, by any chance, heal their bodies?" There were no emotions in Vega’s voice, but Arad could feel them. To Vega, the King and Queen are existences that have existed with him ever since he was created, and as a machine, he couldn’t even imagine a future without them around.
He gave the King and Queen a look, but then shook his head. He did try using Kali’s divine magic on them, but there was nothing to heal. "I just checked. Their brains have already got used to functioning without a body. If I healed their bodies, they’d just die. Simply put, this form is their normal state now."
That wasn’t Arad’s conclusion but what Kali had found out. Arad heals through her divine magic, and each time, he can ask her for details if needed. Usually, it is reasons like ’you can’t heal them; they are already dead’, but in this case, it was ’there is nothing to heal here’. "The only way for them to keep on living and have bodies of flesh and bone is to be reborn entirely. I got ways, but it is neither simple, easy, cheap, nor accessible."
"What is that way? Can be achieved within reason?" Vega’s voice sounded hopeful, but Arad shook his head. "There is this demon, the mother of all demons. She lives in the deepest layer of the abyss, a world of infinite size that is filled with demons so powerful that just one of them can destroy your entire civilisation on this planet. She can eat souls and birth them back as demons while maintaining their memories and conscious sense of self."
Arad crossed his arms. "You can see the problem with that, right? Going to a deadly place, asking a creature of immense danger, and eventually being reborn as a whole other race."
"So, it can’t be achieved within reason. Thank you for the information." Vega backed his control and finally let the King and Queen speak again, only for them to yell at him. "Vega! What are you asking in such an important meeting?!"
"I am simply asking the questions you two can’t ask." Vega looked at Arad through the cameras. "I believe it was worth a try." Believe was never a word that Vega used, and to him, statistics were what he relied on. This only meant one thing, and the two understood it.
"For..." The King growled, but then remained silent. This wasn’t worth arguing about in front of such important guests. "Forget it. Back to what’s at hand." The cameras shifted toward Arad and his wives.
"Please take a seat; we can’t have our guests standing." As the King spoke, Arad sat down, and Eris, Isdis, and Mathilde quickly followed him. It was an awkward moment. What should they talk about? The fate of this world had already been decided. It doesn’t matter what the King and queen want; Arad had already started terraforming the planet to fix it.
"I already talked with those you call higher-ups. As you expect, it was less of a conversation and more of me telling them about what was going to happen." Arad was the one to start talking first, simply because he had the most power on the table, and could rant about anything without anyone ever daring to speak up to him. "I’m not that much of a diplomatic person; I would much rather get things done the simple, direct and easy way."
He then waved with his hand toward Isdis. "That is why I brought her here with me. Out of all of my wives, she is the one most suited for diplomatic talks. Queen Isdis." He then shifted his gaze toward Eris, "And this one is my other wife, Queen Eris. Remember the sun you dismantled eons ago? She’ll be the one making a new star for you, for all twelve worlds."
As Arad went silent for a second, the Queen stared at him, "And the last one is?" She then shifted her gaze toward Mathilde. "She looks like an angel, but if you brought her here, I suspect she is far more than any regular angel, if such a thing even exists."
"Ah," Mathilde smiled, "I’m here to hunt and kill. There is a bug among your people, and I’m here to find and rip its guts out." As she smiled, the entire room shook, and the orc guards standing by the walls fell to the ground as they lost all feeling in their legs.
Arad smiled, "Your late god said to kill all abominable outsiders. I believe he wasn’t referring to what you call aliens, but to something else. Abominations are monsters from outside our universe’s reality. One of those horrors must have infiltrated your civilisation and caused its downfall."
The royal couple remained silent for a second, then looked at each other. "Even we, the ones who lived the longest among the orcs on this planet, were not alive at the time our god was still alive. We were not even close, by thousands of years."
"That’s the problem. Your god is gone, his power is lost, his angels are nowhere to be found, and all of that just feels strange." Arad leaned back. "Each abomination has a unique power that doesn’t adhere to rules and common sense. They come from outside our reality, after all. As long as we don’t know what to expect, that thing can easily slip past us."
Mathilde knew it best: when Arad called everyone, if the orc god’s angels were anywhere in this realm, they would’ve answered immediately. Arad’s roar -it wasn’t a request; it wasn’t an order either- it was a fact that the angels couldn’t even think of disobeying. That only means that the abomination was not just powerful enough to seal a world, but could also erase a god and his angels all at once.
Mathilde leaned forward. "That abomination could be on this planet; it could not be. It could be on one of the other planets, stranded in space, or even in one of the other remaining twelve worlds." She smiled, "I’m here, but I’m not alone. Countless archons like myself would be dispatched to hunt it down."
The king was silent for a second, but then spoke in a grim voice. "I suspect that the planet you find it on can get destroyed."
"We won’t purge it without a reason, but if the abomination proves too strong, the battle might cause a lot of damage and casualties." As Arad replied, the queen sighed. "You speak as if destroying an entire planet is easy."
"It isn’t easy." Eris spoke and glared at the royal couple. "But I’m a star. Even you know what would happen if a star were suddenly sitting on this chair instead of me." That was the reality. Eris could evaporate the entire planet just by taking on her true form.
"So, we got a traitor among us? No, they can’t even be called a traitor if they were never an orc." The king sighed, "We’ll assist you however we can, even if our reach is limited. If not for that bright one you brought, we would’ve already died after all."
Arad smiled, "To the Eraser?"
"Yeah, the moment the other orc colonies on the other planets realised we were invaded and that we can’t win, they decided to erase the entire planet. Like cutting a rotten arm." He looked at his wife, "To survive, we orcs had learned to be cruel to ourselves and everyone else. It isn’t something to be proud of, but we make it work."
"Survival is what matters most. Nothing is worth much if you’re dead." He then looked at the guards who were just now standing back up again after getting hit with Mathilde’s divine magic.
"That matter aside, let’s dive into the details of what comes during the terraforming and what comes after." Arad leaned on one arm. "I would like for the orcs to govern themselves as they have always done, but we’ll maintain trade to make sure your people are well fed, and you’ll have to show the gods repairing your world at least some respect."
"Arad..." Isdis stopped him, "To keep them fed? We can’t feed all of the orcs. We don’t even have the resources to maintain a tenth of their people. There is no way around a massive food shortage and famine."
Eris nodded, "They’ve been barely sustaining the bare minimum thanks to invasions and pillaging, but with that stopped... a collapse is imminent."
Arad lifted both arms and relaxed in his chair. "That’s why I brought you two here." He then smiled, "Also, we have a temporary solution for their food problem. Lucy, they better start worshipping the ground she walks on if they want any chance of avoiding the worst."
Isdis sighed, "You are right, sister could indeed help. The problem is whether she wants to help or not. Remember, she is just a kid, and kids hold grudges for life. But I also have enough work to make you cry. This planet doesn’t fit inside your expansion, right?"
Arad nodded, "A radius of 4000 km, so a sphere that is 8000km wide; this planet is far wider than that."
She smiled, "Well then, go to space and collect as much mass as you can and throw it into your world. Try to form a new planet there and have the spirit terraform it at the same time the queens are terraforming this one. We would have the orcs farm there when it’s done so they can sustain themselves a bit better."
Eris looked at him. "Also, look for the portfolio of the orc god. Amaterasu said that she doesn’t have it. It has been lost since that god died, but I’m certain you can find it. When you do that, we’ll raise a new divine."
"Wait!" The king cried, "Build a planet? Revive a god? What are you talking about?"