RinoZ
patreon
Chapter 1292 - Anthony On Tour pt 33
🕑 Added 2024-01-25 05:41:01 +0000 UTC“What are the lizards playing at?” Morrelia growled.
Commander Chryon chuckled humourlessly as she watched the activity in the port city with unblinking eyes.
“Trying to slither back into our good graces, I don’t doubt. Leadership is still furious with them, to put it mildly. It’ll be decades before relations get back to anything like what they were.”
“Decades. That’s not much to them.”
“True. Hardly even a blip. They may even view it as a worthy trade off for the ‘experimental’ action they took.”
“Are we really withholding support during the waves?”
“Completely. Thanks to that we’ve got more resources freed up for trivial, ‘save the world’ type actions like this one.”
From the top of the old Legion fort they currently occupied, the Colony could clearly be seen. The ants were as industrious as ever, putting up their nest in a staggeringly short amount of time. Morrelia felt she could barely blink before the construction was done and hordes of ants ran in and out through the main entrance, carrying in goods from the ships down on the docks. Blink again, and the fortifications had improved, soldiers were patrolling, lookouts were positioned high up the nest and mages had begun controlling the flow of mana in the vicinity.
The Commander noticed the direction of her gaze.
“They’ll be a terrible enemy,” she nodded toward the still growing mound of dirt and rock. “They’ve spun that entire thing out of thin air. Imagine how quickly they could fortify in a Dungeon tunnel and how effectively. Dislodging them will be a nightmare.”
An uneasy feeling uncoiled in Morrelia’s gut. It was still difficult for her to think of Anthony and his family as an enemy. She hoped it wouldn’t come down to fighting, but what choice was there.
“There are millions of them now,” she said softly. “They have territory, resources, expertise. At what point does it become too costly for us to try and eradicate them.”
Chryon glanced at her Tribune, then nodded slowly.
“It’ll be expensive, and the Legion likely won’t act alone. However, getting anyone to put their hand up to do anything other than look after their own backyard is becoming harder and harder. The waves have people spooked, mana levels just surge higher and higher each time. Your father believed another Rending was coming, right from the start. People mocked the idea at first. They aren’t laughing now.”
Morrelia felt a chill. In the face of another Rending… what could they even do? It wasn’t as if the original members of the Legionem Abyssi, those founding legendary figures had actually triumphed over the cataclysm, they had merely outlasted it.
Chryon leaned against the waist-high stone wall, eyes glittering coldly in the light.
“The ka’armodo, the golgari, the tower, church of the path, the golden city, everyone has grown complacent, confident. They were able to fend off the waves well enough. The worst they had to deal with were Krath raids, which were unpleasant but manageable. It’s hard to blame them, I suppose, it’s been several thousand years since something like this occurred, perhaps they thought it simply never would again.
“Now things are looking different. Neglected defences are being stretched. Underfunded armies are buckling under the pressure. The Legion has diplomats in every court, council chamber and market square screaming about being ready for the worst. Some are willing to hear it, some are not.”
“Are we ready?”
Chryon snorted out a laugh.
“No, of course not! We’ve been cleaning up after everyone else's mess for hundreds of years. Not enough recruits, not enough funds. We can’t possibly be in all the places we’re going to be needed. Which means some parts of the Dungeon will be let go, perhaps as soon as the next wave. At least our resourcing is getting better as the danger grows closer. People are starting to wake up and remember their old promises.”
She hadn’t thought it was this grim. She’d known it was bad, that was an inescapable fact, but this bad? There were places in the Dungeon that leaned on the Legion for their defence. If the troops were withdrawn… they would surely fall to the monsters. How many thousands, tens of thousands, even hundreds of thousands, would perish were that to occur?
“Is there a chance the Colony could be used to block some of those gaps for us?” Morrelia wondered out loud. “I’ve seen the reports, just as you have. They’ve held against the waves remarkably well, defended every city they’ve taken and regulated the Dungeon to an incredible degree. They could be a weapon we can use to blunt the waves.”
The Commander gave her a warning glance.
“Using monsters as weapons is precisely the reason why we are mad at the lizards in the first place. You’re a tribune now, so it’s important that you learn and think about the big picture, but I caution you against this line of thought. Aye, I’ve read the reports. The ants are doing extremely well against the waves, because they’re monsters. An endless flood of Biomass and cores. What they did on the third? Those massive demon farms? The waves are strengthening them. If we use the Colony to blunt the waves, we only sharpen the sword that will inevitably come for our own neck.”
“The brathian seem confident that the ants are resistant, that they won’t turn against us.”
Chryon rolled her eyes.
“And did they test them against an Ancient? We have to assume the worst case scenario. Besides, this is all over our heads. We are here for one reason and one reason alone. There is a prospective Ancient over there in that nest and they must not be permitted to descend. That is the end of it.”
“Yes, Commander,” Morrelia snapped out a brisk salute.
“Good. Now get below and sort out the troops. This isn’t shore leave, I want them doing drills and gear maintenance on double shifts. If we’re going to be sitting around on our backsides we may as well our own blade receives a little sharpening.”
Comments
ManguKing
The colony could conquer and purify the entire fifth stratum, build cities, and charge rent for all other civilizations. What would the legion think then?
jeffrey niski
I'm so hungry for more chapters. I can't wait to see the colony just cleanse the entire 5th layer. It will be a tough fight but I think they will finally develop the tools and spells that just neutralizes the 5th realm which no other race has done before.
Grey Knight Lord
Even that is not 100%
Roombot
I wonder if there are monster cows that you can literally milk
Roombot
Then why doesn't the Legion just subscribe to Patreon and gain access to all this information??!
Nathan Quitugua
Likewise, bunch of hypocrites
Roombot
Don't think they would. Big monster fought monsters. Happens every day
Roombot
HA! I totally forgot about that. Legion is screwed.
Roombot
Yep, too jaded and self-righteous.. even if the whole Ancient mind-control thing means they're not COMPLETELY out of line
Nathan Quitugua
Which seems like a dumb thing now that its been said out loud. The original founders of the Legion couldn't do squat against the ancients and they are supposedly mythical levels of power and all they could do was survive. Even IF the colony did come under the sway of an ancient...what more could they do that an ancient couldnt? If I was the legion, id think this might be a way to groom a candidate that I could control myself. Make them indebted to the surface races for protection.
Nathan Quitugua
We all assume thats why they hooked Anthony with the Call. Personally I think its a dinner bell. As you grow stronger, it becomes harder to gain levels and biomass, the ancients rose up and started eating indiscriminately because they are trying to maybe reach their last evolution. I like to think they are all currently in a stalemate with each other. Neither of them can really move against the others without it devolving into an all out slug fest in which no one might win, and so they have an uneasy truce where whoever achieves that final evolution will be put in a position to get rid of the others. I have a WHOLE fan theory behind the dungeon anyways. That its actually a living breathing monster, just a huge GIANT one and the waves are its immune response to the creatures living in it like white blood cells. I also think the reason why it operates the way it does is because the actual monster at the center of the dungeon is still unformed. It's searching for the best form it can assume and its testing out a variety of abilities and such to find the perfect combo of skills/organs that will be the absolute best. Even the ancients are just a means to an end for it to find the best form. This is all just speculation though...
alt31415
All this is easy to say from our perspective as all-knowing readers.
alt31415
Would they care if they did receive it?
Anthony Romanov
They could sense that Anthony carries around the souls of Colony. As long as Anthony is not trampled by Ancient (don't see why Ancient would attack candidates). The colony should be Safe from external soul manipulation. Hack Brilliant was able to spot a person spying on Anthony's evolution to tier 7 and chase him off. And Anthony brought a demon that was under Demon God directly but no longer as long as Orion(sp?) believes in Anthony. Legion has amazing intelligence gathering but they don't delve deeply for How and Why. Brathians on other hand are merchants so any tiny tibit of information is important to them, so they probably know more about Anthony then Anthony about himself.
Anthony Romanov
Church of the Path can literally milk monsters of their Exp and transfer it to anyone. I have no doubt that they have paladins that are constantly being fed exp.
Thunderhoof
Did they eveb receive the report of Anthony fighting Torefex and the others? It was a large fight and lots of mythic monster fighting. It would be hard to not notice.
Khajar
When they arrive back at the nest, and the Legion sees five more tier 7 monsters (3 mythical), they might have to change their plans.
Buzz1089
Man I hate the legion. Fuck them completely
Grey Knight Lord
That the funny thing, the Colony’s mountain leads down into the 5th and by the time the tour ends it will be a fortress of legend.
BelligerentGnu
Man, the chapters for this story really can't come fast enough.
Preston Murphy
ya they already have a way down :P
Shaitan
Can’t wait to have Anthony go back to the nest and have the legion camp outside, only to realize he left without them realizing
Grey Knight Lord
I agree, just saying if the The Legion try with just a legion they will fold. It will take their elites and the Colony shall fight mandible and claw to survive. Another Evolution to tier 8 and only someone like Titus or his wife might have a shot at bringing him down and not alone.
Buck
Anthony is powerful but the elites of the other races are not to be underestimated. Folk blademasters, Abyssal Legion with their praetorians in Abyssal armor, golgari elites with their living stone armor and weapons, karmodo with their ability to seamlessly cast cooperative magic with their Setsula snd even the Brathians with their mastery of water magic. No idea what The Tower, The Golden City and The Church of the Path bring to a battle but it is doubtlessly powerful. I do not think that Anthony will truly be “safe” from them until Tier 8 at the earliest and possibly not until Tier 9.
Cindermoth
Nope, because this doesn't solve the underlying issue that is the risk of an Ancient taking control of the colony. Which is a very valid concern. They would certainly be interested in those pets, and might even try to get their hands on them. But they can simply research their cores after having taken them, they don't need diplomacy for it.
CUI13
But it would open up an ENTIRE layer of the dungeon AND get rid of the biggest dungeon threat other than them
Nasrak Ragnarok
Obviously they don’t, it just reminded me of that whole incident when they said that.
Jac Onue
The Legion doesn't know this though, they can only guess that the Brathians tested the colony against the merdmaid, or whatever monster they had that was controlling to lake monsters.
Grey Knight Lord
Anthony faced down a avatar of Arconyndom and told it to get lost. Sure the Demon God was still down bellow, but any sapient would have folded
Scion
nope, they are specist, dont care if there intelgent and peaceful or not. they just take and take and take.
Grey Knight Lord
That Ancient grows stronger the more of his kind their are. If he is at the front lines even as a Tier 7 when backed up by a army of the Colony even a Legion of the Legionaries won’t be enough to bring him down. He may have faced a fresh new legion, but he faced them down as a tier 5 in the second strata. He has undergone 2 massive evolutions at tier 6 and now 7 Mythic. You can’t face down a Black Hole. You shall be crushed under the preasure.
Scion
Thanks for the chapter ;-)
CUI13
I wonder if their tune would change at all if the Legion learned that the Colony had a possible counter to the Krath
Nasrak Ragnarok
Im pretty sure they did get tested against an Ancient in a sense. Weren’t demons in Anthony’s Vestibule(Nave? I forget) resistant to Arconidem’s control? Now, that doesn’t necessarily prove that that’ll stay true, but it’s certainly a step in the right direction.
