An Inucubs Life - 163

Chapter 163

((Im a bit tired writing to 1 AM, going to reread and edit this tomorrow…probably going to change how he influneces Sofiel to cooperate))

Sofiel, the archangel, was talking to Vida, and surprisingly, Vida was not agitated talking to an ice orc.  Then I realized she must be charmed by the angelic.  I thought Sofiel would have screamed and had everyone in the room attack me when she realized I was a demon.  Instead, she continued her conversation with Vida and just kept me in her line of sight.

I moved Aurora, who was at the dessert table, and selected items to try by putting them directly into her mouth.  “Aurora, we have a problem,” I said, picking up some glazed meat on a stick.

Aurora looked around, not seeing anything. “Is there an enemy I need to be made aware of, Apollyon?”

“Vida is talking to the angelic who oversees the Sendings on the planet, and I am certain she has already unmasked my disguise. I may need you to help restrain her while I kill her.” I looked around the room, trying to judge other threats that I would need to take care of. “After I kill the angelic, get the others to safety.”

Aurora studied the ice orc talking to Vida. “Maybe we should try talking to her first? Maybe you could charm her, and if that doesn’t work, you can stab her with your spear.” She had a grin, and I was having trouble figuring out the woman. It was like she was going to take as many pleasures in life as she could and was not concerned about dying. I admit that her unconcerned sense of humor was refreshing.

“Fine, I will try diplomacy. All I really want to do is get into the transit anyway. I think I have what we need. Please back me up,” I told the ex-Inquisitor. She quickly loaded a plate and followed me across the room.

I approached the angelic and studied her core in my abyssal sight. It was only lower tier two. She was definitely a powerhouse on this planet, but not much to concern me. She watched my approach and smiled as I interrupted her conversation with Vida.

She opened the conversation, “Your concubine has so many nice things to say about you, demon.”

“I am sure. Vida, please go and check on Bedalia,” I ordered as I made eye contact with her and used my charming eyes and voice on her. She was charmed, as I had assumed, but it was not very strong. My own power overrode whatever the angelic did to her.

Vida smiled and nodded, “This is Sofiel, she is very nice, and you should talk with her.” I patted her on the back and directed her away.

Aurora was at my back, eating off her plate, and she seemed amused. Sofiel studied Aurora and nodded to her, “So this is your pet, then?” My mind was confused until I realized that my core obfuscation device showed my core power at just 0.69 while Aurora was at 1.66. She assumed I was a servant to Aurora. Being this close to the angelic, I guessed her core was around 1.9, maybe slightly stronger.

I tried to use this to our advantage, “Be more respectful when talking to my master!” I snapped just loud enough to keep my words from being overheard. The angel arched an eyebrow at Aurora, who was stuffing something that looked like a creampuff into her mouth.

Aurora talked with her mouth full, waving her hand at me, “Talk to my Champion.”

“I am more curious about what two powerful human mages are doing here. Did you come by transit or starship?” Sofiel said calmly and confidently.  Bedelia was lower tier two, and Aurora was upper tier two.  It made sense that she could see through the guises and see their cores.

She looked between Aurora and me, and I answered her, “We are looking for two humans.  William and Eloise Cartwright.”

Her blank look told me that she was either a good actor or did not know. It had been worth a shot. She studied me again and squinted her eyes some, “What type of demon are you?”

“The best kind,” I answered reflexively.

She looked to Aurora, “Your pet’s lack of manners is starting to upset me. I think I have been very amiable. You are visiting my planet, I remind you—uninvited.”

Aurora looked at me, and then Sofiel said, “Sorry. Maybe we could talk in private.”

Sofiel weighed her options. She wouldn’t be stupid enough to go with us somewhere. She said, “There is a private room just through those doors.” Okay, maybe she was that stupid. We followed her through the crowd, and everyone made way for her. Gundella moved to come with us, and I tried to wave her off, but she did not take my warning.

Gundella was in my ear, “Why are you going with the Supreme Spiritualist?” She sounded a little worried. I couldn’t ask her questions as to exactly what a Supreme Spiritualist was, but I assumed she just traveled from Pyramid to Pyramid and advised the clans.

The room had no windows and a table with no exit. The angelic closed the door and smiled, “I have spelled the door to not allow any sound out or in.” I think she thought she was blocking the door.

Gundella bowed, “Supreme, how can we assist you?”

Sofiel ignored the old orc and addressed Aurora, “Now you can either tell me why you are here, or I will disable your toy and force it out of you. There are no humans on Mercanious.”

Aurora looked at me, and I nodded. Her aetheric chains rippled out of her and attempted to bind Sofiel. Sofiel’s eyes went wide, and she tried to grab me. She was shocked when I dodged her and used a judo throw, slamming her hard into the floor. She struggled, but I quickly got an armbar on her and had her pressed hard into the floor.

Gundella was incredulous, “YOU CAN’T TOUCH THE SUPREME!!” She kneeled, “Forgive him. He is from the transits. He doesn’t know.” I was surprised Gundella was defending me, but I didn’t need it.

Sofiel struggled, but it was obvious she had almost no fighting skills.  A sudden kinetic blast threw me into the ceiling. However, Sofiel was still pinned by Aurora’s aetheric chains. I landed softly, rubbing my head.  “That was not nice,” I said, straddling the angel’s hips. I squeezed my knees, and the next force blast had both of us rise a few feet off the ground before slamming back down. Our positions were unchanged.

Gundella was frantic now and did not know what to do. “Gundella sit!!” I yelled at her. “Aurora, restain the Matriarch.” Aurora sent some aetheric chains to bind her.

Sofiel was cursing up a storm in a language that I assumed was angelic, and my translation charm was giving a colorful interpretation. “Calm down, Sofiel. This is the first time I have had the upper hand on an angelic. Last time I got my ass beat, and he let me go. I am inclined to do the same for you but have no reservations about killing you.”

“What in the abyss are you? You are not a tier-one demon!” Sofiel shrieked at me after she had struggled for more than a few minutes. Gundella’s jaw dropped when she called me a tier-one demon. Thankfully Aurora’s aether chains silenced her. If I needed Gundella, I could always charm her.

“No, you are right about that. I am not a tier-one demon. But I need some answers, and then my companions and I will be on our way. Will you cooperate?” I asked, feeling in complete control.

“There are no humans on Mercanious,” Sofiel repeated.

“What about in the transit or higher layers? Have any humans been brought from Earth to here?” I questioned patiently.

The angel squirmed underneath me, and I was starting to find my dominant position slightly erotic. As a demon, the thought of dominating an angel was—appealing. She finally answered, “I don’t know. I rarely have communication with the Uppers.”

Aurora asked, “Are there any rumors?”

Sofiel considered, “I heard a space battle occurred on a higher layer above this planet, but I do not think it was humans who attacked. Elves?” She sounded unsure.

I patted her head, “Good. You can be cooperative. I might even reward you.” Aurora arched an eyebrow at me. I shrugged as I was just trying to play the good villain. “Do you know what layer the battle occurred on?”

“No. It was not the 22nd or 21st, or I would have heard,” she answered. Shit, did that mean Andromeda was on the 20thlayer or higher? With her weak core, Iris could not go any higher than the 21st layer.

I looked at Aurora, “Go get the others.” I patted the angel, “No need to call for help when the door opens.”

Bedelia, Vida, and Iris joined us in the room, and Bedelia added her own silence spells to the door. They all looked confused, so I explained, “Drop your guise Sofeil.” The angel reluctantly did and transformed into a golden-haired woman. She briefly had white feathery wings but dissipated them when I jerked on her arm.

Vida looked confused, “A mage?”

“No, an angelic. She supervises the sendings of the young orcs to Earth and Everhome,” I replied. “She also heard about Andromeda on the higher layers. “Can you change the Sending to Earth instead of Everhome?” I asked Sofeil.

“There is no scheduled connection to Earth.” The angel asked.

“Have you asked the angel if they are working to destroy the transits?” Bedelia kneeled to look the angel in eye.

“Answer her. Are you working to destroy the transits?” I put pressure on her shoulder joint.

“No, we are not trying to destroy the transits,” Sofeil said softly. From her tone she knew what they were trying to do.

“So, what are you trying to accomplish with the Pyramids on the three planets?” I asked.

“We are trying to open a permanent World Gate between the three planets!” Sofiel grunted.

“Can you hold her for a while?” I asked Aurora. Aurora nodded and added layers to her aether chains. When I was satisfied, I slipped into my mind space. I found Lilith, Pandora, and Nashima working on the books in the library. They had a screen for the outside world, so they knew I was coming.

Lilith shook her head, “It is too early. I can not give you answers. If you wait here and give me more time…”

“Five hours,” I said. About five minutes would pass in the real world. Lilith didn’t look confident but worked on the books I had just given her.

Even after I gave them five hours, they did not have answers from me. Lilith looked lost, “Caleb, it looks like she is telling the truth. The Pyramids are trying to link the three planets. But it just does not feel right. There might still be some missing data.”

Nashima supplied, “My ancestral knowledge of layer and transit physics is not very strong, but I agree. I think they are making too many assumptions about creating these World Bridges to make a permanent World Gate. The power has to come from somewhere.”

Pandora of all people, asked, “What if they established these World Bridges and drained all the aether from the Source?”

Lilith’s eyes went wide, “That is what I missed!! The math is for one World Bridge!! If the World Bridges were Earth to Everhome and Earth to Mercanious, then the aether would be drained too fast, and then the stability of the transits would be in question.” She grabbed a book and paged through it.  “It looks like they accounted for that, but they are assuming only one transit access will remain functional after the Bridge is established.”

Nashima seemed skeptical. “The higher layer transits are capable of transmitting large amounts of aether down the layers. I don’t think these lower layer transits can handle the load,” Lilith nodded.

“Okay, English, please,” I requested.

Lilith thought for a moment, “Think of a planet like a head. Each strand of hair is a transit going up to the next layer. They are trying to take another head of hair and braid them together. That is how they are establishing the World Gate. The transits threads that are disappearing on Mercanius are also disappearing on Everhome because they are being tied to each other. They think if they can connect enough of them, they will establish a bridge. But it is all bullshit.”

Nashima finished, “They will succeed in establishing the bridge according to the texts, but because they redirected too many threads to twodifferent planets, the Source will burn out the transit.”

“So they are trying to destroy the transit thread?” I confirmed.

Lilith nodded, “Yes, I think that will be the eventual outcome. I would say 75% certain, maybe 70%.”

I nodded, “Thank you.”

I returned and had been gone six minutes. I kneeled in front of the prone Sofiel. “So, they lied to you. Establishing your World Bridge to two different planets will burn out the transit and cut all three planets from the Source.”

Sofiel narrowed her eyes, “You read the manuals? That is why you were with Ergoth. The fool.”

“That is all you have to say for yourself? You are going to kill billions of people.” I stood and could see the gagged Gundella, confused. I explained it to her, “The Angelics control three planets. They are manipulating the populations of all three planets to…” I paused, thinking. “To remove their access from the higher layers. I don’t know why.”

Sofiel rasped, “It will work. The World Bridges will be self-sustaining.”

“Do you know what happens when a planet is cut off from the Source? I have been told by a powerful mage. All life ceases to exist after a time. The planet becomes a wasteland.” At least, that is what Rincewind told me. I looked at Aurora, “Release her.”

Aurora’s eyebrow went up. She shrugged and released her. Sofiel stood and resumed her ice orc disguise. “You are wrong. The Uppers would not kill billions of people. The plan is to create a Trinity of planets for movement across this galaxy on the 23rd layer.”

“Change the Sending to Earth. Vida and Iris are going home,” I announced.

Sofiel looked defiant, Vida looked angry, and Iris was confused. I looked to Iris, “Andromeda is on the higher layers. Your core is not strong enough to survive there. You can not come; this is the best chance to get home.”

Bedelia asked, “What makes you think she will cooperate.” She motioned to Sofiel.

“She will see the truth of what the Uppers, you call them, are doing. You have a mind space?” Sofiel nodded. “Check the equations when you load a transit on a single world with Two World Gates.”

Her mind space was just upper tier two, and her time dilation was not as strong as mine. We waited nearly an hour for her to return from working with her two constructs in her mind space. Sofiel was still defiant, “They didn’t account for Two Bridges, but that does not mean it still will not work. There is no premise for this…”

I stopped her, “Are you kidding? The powerful angelics have been experimenting for hundreds of thousands of years. They know exactly what will happen when they do this!”

It took some time to convince Sofiel to switch the Sending to Earth. Her contacts on Earth would not be happy when they had almost no time to prepare for the arrival of the orcs. I charmed Gundella to forget about what she observed. I implanted the memory that I was going into the transit but would eventually be back to check on Tevega’s progress as a warrior. She assured me Tevega would work hard day and night to earn my approval.

To the surprise of the Fiery Snow clan, they quickly made adjustments to the keystone to connect to Earth instead of Everhome. Sofiel announced that my two companions would be joining the young orcs going through the gate to earn their right. Iris was not happy to be going but understood. Vida was angry and I had to charm her to go. One odd thing before they left, Bedelia said the child had not matured inside Vida. That meant there must be a trigger for the pregnancy to advance as some magic was holding it in place.

I told Iris to get help for Vida when they returned. The Sending was not quite what I expected. The orcs were naked and marched through the stone in the center of the Pyramid. Most of the orcs had a look of fear on their face as they passed through the World Gate. I couldn’t save everyone, and I hoped Iris and Vida, who entered as a pair, would not have trouble getting back to Virginia since the exit was mostly random.

After the sending, I prepared for Bedelia, Aurora, and Sofielto enter the transit together. We would not be exiting into the transit but skipping the transit and arriving on the Mercanious planet on the 22nd layer.  This was part of my ability, and Sofiel shared this as well. Sofiel was going to be our guide. I was excited to see what the 22ndlayer was like. The aether density was supposed to be greater, which gave people stronger aether cores.

a human underneath with golden hair.