Ethereal: Part 3

I hoped there weren't any uber-monsters swimming between the surface and the location of Atlantis. Or that there weren't any uber-monsters calling the city of Atlantis their turf. Aerial warfare was one thing, but I wasn't sure how to fight in the water. I'd be relying on pets, mostly. Once they'd shifted into the awkward frog-people, I ran through the portal. The feeling of freefalling toward the ocean was exhilarating despite the fact that I could fly faster. Lethe apparently didn't share my feelings, because she became a storm that slammed into the surface of the ocean like a meteor. I watched, curious as to how her storm would translate in a world of water. Surprisingly enough, it didn't work at all. She sank toward the depths as a Tyderun. I could almost feel her pouting at the indignity of it all well before I came near the surface.

I hurled a fireball at the point I thought I'd hit to break the surface of the water just before I was enveloped by the moisture. I tried to stop sinking as I would if I was still in the air and found that it didn't feel any different at all. It was identical, including the sense that I could go extremely fast. I looked at my hands and saw the lightning arching through water with a good deal less control and even more range than the air, but otherwise it was the same. My hand was still made of smoke, it just looked more like ink in the water than a cloud. So why was Lethe sinking slowly toward Atlantis? I shot through the water to catch up and realized she wasn't swimming at all. She was sinking. Unconscious. She'd knocked herself out? I made a mental note to never try landing head-first when making an abrupt stop.

"She's out, isn't she?" Phyx giggled as she swam lazy circles around us. She was a lot more talkative than I remembered. Or…had she ever not been talkative? I wasn't sure. I ignored people as a general rule, so she could have been running her mouth constantly while we were in the throne room together and I wouldn't have noticed at all. Maybe the real question was why I noticed now. Did I actually want to fuck her? She was sexy and I still hadn't entirely adapted to the role of "father" so it was possible…but I had no way of verifying it until the threat of Lethe's dagger was removed from my unconscious mind. "That's why you land on your feet."

The water was dangerous for us, though. I wanted out as soon as possible. The darkness was harder to pierce than Chiropteran spheres, and anything could be waiting for us. I didn't fancy meeting a leviathan or kraken down here without preparation, an army, at least one of my dragons, some preparation, maybe a ritual or two, and especially some more preparation. That was assuming those were the worst uber-monsters down here. There could be old-world gods of the ocean down here, and I wasn't sure I'd be able to kill one with preparation and an army, let alone survive without either. I didn't remember any Lovecraftian elements, but would they show up before Cthulu woke up? Maybe Atlantis was sitting right on top of Cthulu's head.

Just as I was considering this, a serpent similar to the bone monstrosities I controlled in Heaven snapped its jaws around me and vanished into the gloom. I glared at the pulsing red flesh around me and started carving my way out again. It screamed, and acid filled its mouth. I became a storm of lightning and gave in to my rage for the second time in as many hours. The scream stopped and I started smelling something delicious. I swam out of the mouth and slashed at the face of the monstrous snake as the flesh rotted off and it became my pet. The fin on the back that proved it wasn't actually a snake remained fixed to the skeleton, giving it the ability to swim instead of sink like bones normally would in such circumstances. It swam towards Atlantis as I ordered it to. The deeper I went, the colder it got. Now I understood why the Tyderun needed their cold resistance. It wasn't enough to inconvenience someone of my level, but the newborns of an aquatic species would be hard-pressed to survive without resistance to cold damage. The pressure also increased, but I doubted that would be a problem. So long as a city could be created, it was habitable. I hoped. Otherwise the Nagae were fucked.

As I entered the pasture area I saw shells. Everywhere. Was that the pasture beast? Floating shells? They didn't seem very…maneuverable. The rest of the pasture beasts could be used as mounts. Would riding a floating shell do anything at all to increase speed? Then one decided to attack me. Ten tentacles ripped out of the shell at one end and started pulsing like a squid. It sped at me with a speed I didn't think was possible underwater. So they could be fast. I killed it by flicking it with my pinky finger and it exploded. The thing was smaller than the average dog. As the zombie shell rose, though, I realized how large they could be and killed every one within the range of my necromantic aura. Massive spiked shells with krakens powering them ripped through the water like living cannonballs, tearing through their former friends. Very effective battering rams. The size of busses. They might even be able to hinder some of the uber-monsters through sheer force of mass. Though…legendary underwater beasts were generally ridiculously large. Battleship sized or larger. Maybe these wouldn't be that useful against the beings that called this watery grave home.

I was opening the gate and letting the Tyderun through by the time the girls caught up. Luckily, the portal didn't let water out, otherwise they'd never have been able to push through the pressure. The frogs were happy, though, playing with their new giant clam friends. The bank was interesting, though, since the natural landscape made it stick out even more than normal. It would probably be the only building with the doors on the ground floor in the entire city, as well. 

The girls had lost Htaed and Lethe somewhere along the way while they got attacked by a school of sharks. According to Phyx, Lethe had been completely useless in the fight. She'd vanished and hadn't appeared again. She found Atlantis, and the gate I left open there for her, just in time to see me opening a gate in Nagaea for my Nagae. 

I'd tested out underwater gates more extensively while we were waiting, just to make sure I wasn't creating a lake when I opened one under Zezhria, and water didn't flow through them. I had to be in Nagaea to open a gate there, so it took me a few minutes to get my second aquatic city set up. By the time I finished all my tests and returned to see the first houses rise in Nagaea, Htaed had finally found Atlantis. Apparently none of us were made to live under the waves. That didn't surprise me in the least.

Htaed's story was the best one so far, apart from Lethe fleeing the sight of a school of sharks. He fought a crab. He described it as being larger than my new bus shells, but I questioned that. From his story, he'd won through use of his sword. Imagining him using a blade underwater was ridiculous. As well as fighting a crab anywhere but on the ocean floor. Maybe he thought the word "crab" was not the same crustacean I thought of. Maybe he was thinking lobster. Even then…how could you kill any form of crustacean with a blade while swimming? A spear or a harpoon, maybe, but a sword? Unlikely at best. He would have to dive-bomb it. Any underwater creature that couldn't avoid an inexperienced swimmer wasn't a threat anyway. Then I remembered that he was a divinity too, so he had a solid foothold in whatever environment he wanted a foothold to be in.

We ported back to Zezhria, dripping all over the throne room. I blasted the floor with fire, wording it to burn water and nothing else. And had the pleasure of seeing nobles screaming and running for a few seconds until they realized the fire wasn't hot.

"So what happens now? You've set up your cities, you told me Heaven and Camelot aren't going to be attacking, and there doesn't seem to be anything to do. What's the plan?" Lethe was sitting on her throne, carefully arranging her cloak to cover all of the stone seat. I didn't see the point in looking fancy for all the mindless nobles. I could order them to forget anything I wanted or change their opinions on a whim. What did it matter if they thought I looked lazy?

"Now we prepare for a full on war against Hell. I don't think the goblins will be too much of an issue, so we'll take them in a day, maybe two. After that, we've got to prepare for an extended confrontation. Hell has ten times the population, both in npcs and monsters, of the entire 'mortal' world. Taking it with maximum speed means we're going to be fighting every city. I guess three will fall before we hit a real army against us, but it will be massive." I doubted the lowest levels of Hell would stand by and watch as I conquered the upper floors one by one. They'd unite in the name of destroying my forces. I needed more pets. And all of them needed mythic armor. Especially my dragons. They would turn the tide of war in my favor. Divinity, angel, poltergeist, Oracle dragons wearing mythic armor would win the war for me. There were other options as well, even if Shyndyn still hadn't figured out how to teach my dragons to be Oracles. Still, the threat would be massive. My living dragons hadn't hit level three hundred yet, but they would pass it before we reached the Spire of Agony.

I was distracted from my musings on my own power as agony ripped through my back. I whirled to look behind me, but there was nobody there. The pain wasn't letting up, though. It felt like someone was holding my shoulders under a slow drip of lava. The pain continued to grow until I dropped to my hands and knees. I was looking through the map at the room, but nobody was attacking me. Then I saw something I couldn't believe. Tendrils of lightning were ripping out of my shoulder blades. I could see them ripping through the armor as it molded itself to fit my new shape. What the fuck! The black lightning burned as it whipped around with my agitation. The molten whips of pure energy were reacting to my will. I wasn't in control of their motion, but I could feel each motion as it happened. Two of the whips slammed into my throne and I could feel the stone as it shattered at the contact. The stone showered the wall behind it, the smaller chunks glowing like my wings were actually that hot. Wings? I'd used the word unconsciously, but it felt right. The whips of dark energy were my wings. I'd thought I'd get feathered wings, like the angel I'd killed. I glanced through my passives, trying to distract myself from the burning agony, and found my new racial modifier; Fallen Archangel. I'd forgotten that angels and demons got promoted when they hit level two fifty. A concussive blast ripped from me as I finished building the wings. I climbed back to my feet, pain completely gone, and started rebuilding my throne. I had a war to win.