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Chapter 938 - Wake the Beast
🕑 Added 2022-02-14 09:46:47 +0000 UTCThe door was shaking on its hinges.
A piece of Legion history, the door to the Consul Chamber had stood for three thousand years. Abyssal steel, forged during the Rending, formed the core of the massive doors, which stood over ten metres tall, covered in potent enchantments of hardening and regeneration powered by Mythic cores. Atop that unbreakable frame, layer after layer of compressed, living stone had been placed, bonded together to create an impenetrable bulwark that defended the highest officer of the Legion.
Intricate and detailed carvings covered outer face, legend had it that the hands of the founders themselves had held the chisel. The images were mirrored from one door to the next, the form of the ideal Legionary imprinted in glorious, expressive lines. A body of steel, weapon drawn, perfect form, eyes that blazed with determination and a heart that burned even brighter.
Despite its incredible density and weight, despite being a bulwark that could receive a blow from a battering ram without shifting an inch, it was shaking.
Outside the door, two of the finest soldiers the Abyssal Legion could produce, stood to attention. Praetorian Guard, armoured in the rarest of the rare, full Abyssal Steel Praetorian armour. The two stood an imposing four metres tall, weighted polearms held steady. Two veterans, they had earned the honour of guarding the Consul Chamber through numerous campaigns in the depths of the Dungeon, fighting the worst enemies the sentient people of Pangera could face.
It could not be seen behind their visors, but sweat beaded both of their brows. The rolling waves of pressure that hammered against the door and bled through beat down on them. Lesser beings would be on their knees, blood pouring from their mouths, but within their coveted armour, they were safe.
Inside the chamber, it was far worse.
Idly, Commander Myriam began to wonder if this was how she would die. Not at the hands of ancient, or some other terrible monster in the depths, but here in the heart of the Legion's strength, crushed to death by the rage of her own superior officer.
She felt blood well in her mouth so she leaned slightly to the side and spat in her helmet which she held tucked under her arm. It wouldn't do to stain the floor of the Consul's office.
It was quite a thing to see, the legendary berserker rage of the Consul. This was the power that had given her the ability to rocket through the ranks, ascending all the way to the highest office atop the bodies of innumerable monsters.
Minerva drew deep steadying breaths as her fists clenched and unclenched. If she'd had her axe in hand, goodness knows what might have happened, thankfully it hadn't come to that.
Breathe in. Breathe out.
The overwhelming pressure that filled the room pulsed with every exhalation of the Consul, causing the reinforced stone that formed the walls to creak and groan.
Blind, overwhelming rage filled her mind, blanketed her vision with red and flooded her body with strength. Containing it was difficult, just standing still was a trial. That power yearned to be used. It thrashed and coiled and whispered in her ear. She could lash out, she could strike, she could kill. Anything to let it out, set it free.
Just breathe.
Head down, eyes closed, the Consul went to war with herself in a way she hadn't done for decades.
I'm in control, not you.
She grit her teeth and slowly unwound her fists, allowing the tension to drain from her muscles one by one.
Commander Myriam leaned to the side spat once more as the pressure slowly began to ease. It looked as if she wouldn't die today after all. The next time she came to report to the Consul, she as coming in armour, no matter what it looked like.
"I apologise for lack of control," Minerva eventually ground out as she finally managed to force down her anger. "Your words took me by surprise."
"I can't imagine why," Myriam replied dryly.
The radiating aura that had been so crushing only moments ago receded to a more a more tolerable level, though it remained, simmering beneath the surface.
"Those damned lizards. They choose to flout the laws that have stood for thousands of years now? Which idiot thought this could possibly be a good idea? I'll ring his idiot, scaled neck…"
Minerva stopped pacing back and forth behind her desk, a habit she had unconsciously fallen back into, and breathed again. It wouldn't do for the rage to emerge again so soon after she had put it away.
"I communicated to the Mahaan that you would be displeased, Consul. I also noted that the gathered clutch were predominantly younger and untested."
"Throwing away disposable pawns so they don't have to taint their own claws," Minerva grunted, a mannerism in which she was almost identical to her husband. "The whole enterprise reeks of cowardice."
"I suspect that they believed our own disagreements with the Mother Tree would lead us to look the other way as they instituted this program. I tried to warn them, Consul."
"Too stupid to listen. Pride will doom this world a second time. I will not carry water for these fools."
She slammed her hand down on her desk and the shockwave blew Myriams hair back. Remarkable, the table held.
"Send in the scribe!" The Consul roared and the massive doors opened a crack.
The scribe entered in full armour, gleaming with enchantments that protected the wearer from outside influences. The commander nodded. A wise play. Except the Consul's face darkened at the show of weakness. She stomached it, for now.
"Withdraw all forces from the lands of the Ka'armodo, on every strata. End all joint exercises, training and missions, immediately. Close all diplomatic channels and make preparations to relocate every base and training facility that falls within their sphere of influence."
Myriam was staggered.
"Are you sure, Consul?" he asked, her voice steady despite her shock. "Some might see this as a grave overreaction. Certainly the Ka'armodo will not look kindly on us abandoning them in the face of the coming disaster."
"Us? Abandoning them?" Minerva sneered. "We did not turn our backs on three thousand years of tradition. We didn't spit on the memory of those who died in the rending. We didn't break the taboo and create self-sustaining monsters to do our bidding and fight our battles for us. We have held fast, fought the good fight and stood firm in the face of the worst this world has to offer for the good of its people. A sand baked hunk of lizard meat thinks to test our resolve? This is the Abyssal Legion and we are unmatched beneath the surface. We have battled since the cataclysm to preserve this world and I am not going to stop now."
The Consul stood straight.
"Some lines you only have to cross once. There is no going back. They will tell us it was only a rogue element. They will tell us it was done without knowledge or approval. They will tell us we are too hot blooded and need to calm down. They can get stuffed. From this day forward they are poison and we have cut them out."
She glared at the scribe who quivered in his armour in the face of the most powerful human in the world.
"I have spoken," she ground out.
Comments
Daniel P. Kim
Definitely not, but seeing how blood was boiling through my whole body, I can see the biological confusion
ManguKing
Why am I so turned on right now?
BS91
That sounds like a stretch, Asekhan. My reading is "The Rending already doomed the world once, and now pride is going to doom it again."
Asekhan
There's some hints pointing towards it being much worse than it appears "Pride will doom this world a second time" "spit on the memory of those who died in the rending" "the taboo" It feels like, some people actually know how the cataclysm started. Maybe it wasn't such a random event after all
Cindermoth
I also suspect that the soul eating ability is making the whole thing even worse.
Void
I think you mean chapter 938
guvvuf
Gosh, things are ramping up huh. And that’s putting it lightly,
Nikita
In addition it's a heavy insult for the Legion. The lizards have basically spat on all their efforts of defending the world, all their suffering, their ideals. So the reaction is actually very reasonable.
Touch
Hehehehee kill them all
Dan K
Unlike the termites (damn their souls), the colony is technically naturally occurring and not created by a race that should have known better. The reason she is so pissed is that an intelligent mortal race. Intentionally created what can be considered a self sustaining and propagating bio weapon. It would be like a modern day nation creating a super virus vs a naturally occurring one.
Jayson Legott
Does the Consul know about Anthony and the colony yet? I’m curious if she feels the same about them.
Variation
Yesss!! Surprise satisfaction, favourite chapter In ages, love this!
Runaway_Cactuar
Well, guess that combined offensive with termites+lizzies will be canceled on the account of a massive diplomatic boo-boo. And the ants will roll up the lines when the lizzies retreat. #TermitesAteMyFace hashtag gonna be trending soon~
Sean Hibbitt
Ahhh yes, a great chapter!
Chymor
From legion point of view, this is just defending the RULES. If they're negotiable and can be bought off by using scapegoats they're not really RULES, just guidelines. For the legion this isn't one of those rules. Also they're right about the impact of this. Creating social and intelligent monsters to fight your battles for you is guaranteed to end with them breaking free. If not the first time, then the second or the third... And if people get away with it, they will try again. And having others fight your battles for you is a disastrous policy in this story. Because fighting creates powerhouses and the powerhouses who wins the wars will later make the rules. So if you don't fight your battles it won't be your powerhouses making the rules. You cannot afford having others fighting your battles, unless they're already outside of what you can handle.
Brandon14754
The last time we saw her she made the determination to get said power.
Aidan Mcarthur
And now the ka’armado will find themselves fractured as the menace splits them apart. Forces so long entrenched departing and leaning gaps so large in their defenses they cut the empire apart in the next wave surge. And so, the ants take control of the nearby chunks. And later that can probably take in a more than a few refugees that aren’t anti-ant, who will bolster the colony by breaking open new floodgates of knowledge to accelerate their growth Or, massive fighting! The first really seems like a good place for lore..the latter seems like a more gripping read. My love for lore and action are split!!
Runaway_Cactuar
She's not the Consul. She doesn't have the power to set foreign policy in the Legion.
Brandon14754
Isn't that what Morrelia is for? To calm down tension and maybe stop a war with the colony?
Imspinnennetz
This is how the legion will fail to defeat the colony. They are too rigid in their application of the rules and lack the ability to compromise.
Bluqcuzu
With? another 937
