Chapter 185 - In the Clutches of Greed

*(mood song: "STAY - The Kid LAROI")

Ships of different designs filled the harbor, and even other floating city fortresses could be seen in the distance, slowly but surely getting closer.

Rhaphkar's simulacrum bot was controlled by Erik from inside the submarine, as it shook hands with a multitude of other lizardmen in the harbor, as more ships came and more important lizardmen came to the harbor, all of them looking at the gorgeous submarine before rushing to greet Erik with greed in their eyes.

The exterior nanobots of the submarine had changed shape and made it look like an intricate piece of art, leaving all lizardmen in awe before greed took them over.

A crab like boat full of legs that latched onto the harbor arrived at that moment. A door on the front of the boat opened, and hunched over lizardman with a robotic red eye and a metallic left leg and a robotic right arm came out.

The lizardman first examined the nearby submarine as a vicious smile crept to his face, before descending from his boat and getting to the harbor. Two highly muscular and cybernetically upgraded lizardman bodyguards accompanied him as they broke open the crowd to make a path for their master.

Erik saw them approaching: [Rose, did you figure out who they all are right?]

Rose: [of course~, the one approaching you is a city lord, and a high member of the Iron Sect-]

Erik: [What? they have sects?]

Rose: [...as I was saying, a high member of the Iron Sect, goes by the name Kardalok. Before you ask, apparently the iron sect seems to revere ancient machines and is trying to restore a "space boat" to ascend to the heavens in search of their ancestors and to do so, they aspire to replace as many of their body parts with cybernetic replacements... hmmm... guess the life support on it is fried]

Erik: [I see, that's enough knowledge I guess... would Rhaphkar know this? or will he overreact if I mention that?]

Rose: [well, we have nowhere to know that, so just beat around the bush just in case...]

Erik: [alright]

Kardalok finally arrived in front of the bot Rhaphkar with a wide grin.

Rhaphkar (Erik) nodded his head: "So you arrived Kardalok"

Kardalok: "Indeed I did..." he looked at the submarine and back at Rhaphkar "So... for when the guided visit? can't wait to tweak it to my liking"

Rhaphkar (Erik) laughed: "hahaha... there will be time for that later, what about..." he looked at Kardalok's ship "Your contributions to my city?"

Kardalok frowned slightly: "Is that so..." he took a peek back at his vessel "Well, I was gonna tell you about it after the visit, but so be it..., as you might be in need of a new vehicle after you sell that boat to me I brought a top of the line vehicle to add to my offer~"

Rhaphkar (Erik): "Ah, so that is how it is... so you already think it is yours?"

Kardalok scoffed: "Who else could offer you a better price than me?"

The other city lords around started murmuring as he said that: "what arrogance", "Well, he is part of the Iron Sect after all", "The Iron Sect... that explains it"

Erik: [seems like others around know about the Iron Sect, it should be okay]

Rhaphkar (Erik): "But... it is your money, or the Iron Sect's money that you offer?"

Kardalok's face got really serious as his red eye shone brighter: "You shouldn't be too greedy Rhaphkar... the Iron Sect practically controls this entire planet, If you offend us... you won't have an easy death..."

Rhaphkar (Erik): "Relax~ who doesn't know the power of the iron sect after all..."

Kardalok scoffed and looked around: your city is in ruins and you still try to play tricks... just be happy with whatever we give you, after all... we could just take if we wanted, you have no power left to stop us"

Rhaphkar (Erik): "haha... you must be joking, how would I dare stop you... of course, I will give your offer priority"

Kardalok: "You need ships, water filtration systems, food, and a repair force, as well as a defensive perimeter, we the Iron Sect came prepared to offer all of those things!"

*SPLASH!* a big splash of water occurred at the port, as more than twenty crab vessels emerged from the waters and clamped their claws to the harbor. Moments later the hatches opened and around two hundred lizardmen soldiers armed with power armors and huge railguns formed in line. More vessels soon appeared in the distance.

Erik: [Oh, they do have submarines!]

Rose: [well, not exactly, that can wouldn't last more than a couple hours underwater, they seem to lack life support systems, and are super easy to hack...]

Erik: [Oh, is that so...]

Kardalok: "Two hundred twenty of the most elite warriors of the Iron Sect and armed with relic equipment-"

Rhaphkar (Erik): "You are giving them to me?"

Kardalok: "Not forever, they will defend your city for ten years only"

Rhaphkar (Erik): "Hmmm that is indeed plenty of time to rebuild... and the ships should be okay... alright if no one makes a better offer, then the submarine is yours, but I still promised a guided visit to everybody, hope you can understand~"

Kardalok smiled widely: "hahaha! that is fine, I shall allow them to tour my new vessel once"

Rhaphkar (Erik): "Thank you for your understand-"

"not so fast!"

A fat lizardman then charged to the front of the group.

Erik: [who's that?]

Rose: [I copied their VR database so... that one should be... Sarlex Zoth, leader of the lizardmen merchant union Golden Dawn... they have a lot of money and private armies as well as resources]

Rhaphkar (Erik): "Sarlex Zoth, an honor to meet you..., I take it you have a better offer?"

Sarlex looked at Kardalok and scoffed, looking back at Rhaphkar: "Of course we do, researching the technology of that vessel would make us a lot of money, so we are willing to offer five thousand soldiers in a ten year contract, along with repair personnel and patrol and transport vessels, along with support to make this city be up and working again in no time, our technology is-"

Kardalok laughed coldly: "ha ha ha... your technology? Can your soldiers even compete with ours?" he pointed at the lined up special forces "Look at that, the special forces of the Iron Sect, each one a veteran armed to the teeth! your five thousand men would just mean a couple more shots for them, that is all"

Sarlex: "ho ho~ you want proof? Maybe we should do a dramatic entrance like you did?" he then took out a whistle from inside his coat, and blew it.

*FZWOOOSH* fast moving shapes were then seen under the ocean as what appeared to be golden beasts with a golden horn on their heads, and with lizardmen covered in golden armor appeared on the harbor, taking off respirators from their faces. hundreds of them emerged as they filled the harbor.

Sarlex pointed at them: "Those are the Golden Shadows of the Golden Dawn group, are you sure you can take them?"

Rhaphkar (Erik) whistled: "Why is their armor golden, and why are the beasts golden as well?"

Sarlex looked at Kardalok with a sly smile, and then back at Rhaphkar, and said with a laugh: "Seems like you noticed our golden dawn armor, which is made by our artisans using the shell of a floating leviathan in the South, as for the beasts... as you know, you just need to feed them the shells and they turned golden~ they are the pride of our union"

Rhaphkar (Erik): "That is good but, what about those floating leviathans with golden shells? could I have one?"

Sarlex: "That... I don't think that would be possible, they are peaceful creatures and allow us to shed their old shell layers, but we can't... force them to go anywhere they don't want to..."

Rhaphkar (Erik) laughed loudly: "If that is the problem the solution is easy my friend, you just need to make them wanna come here, for example using a vessel to drop a trail of bait for them to follow, a good enough bait is the most important step~"

Sarlex seemed pensitive for a moment: "Bait huh... I guess it could work..." he then looked at Rhaphkar "Thanks for the idea, I will make the others in the union know"

Rhaphkar (Erik): "Haha... no problem" he then clapped loudly "Now people, I'm sure you are all tired after the long journey... " he saw boats arriving at the harbor, lots of them of the rejected refugees coming back "lets feast for now, after that, we will have time to visit the boat after you have all expressed your contributions to the city reconstruction!" he saw nods of approval and continued "now now~ follow me, people"

Erik: [how far is the beast wave?]

Rose: [already attacking some of the floating fortresses that were on the way~, but don't worry, they won't get any kind of signals about it~]

Erik: [haha~ Time for a feast then]

Erik guided them all to a hall in Rhaphkar's building that had been renovated. As they crossed the now metallic and exquisitely decorated doorframe, a scanner scanned them completely as they entered, without any of them knowing, while their guards waited outside. Bots readied in another room already changing to look like them.

Erik sat at the host position of a long golden table as everyone else started sitting on both sides, lizardmen bots steadily served them dishes and drinks, the first dish being a grilled steak of fish pig, followed by a side dish of fried algae. Followed by a second dish of a meat porridge.

Rhaphkar (Erik) took his fork and knife and signaled for everyone to eat: "Now, let us eat!"

The crowd smelled the steak and were surprised, the smell was really good and it seemed to be spiced, though it was just a blend of salt, pepper, and garlic powder, it was something the lizardmen had never experienced, making the hall silent as everyone deeply enjoyed their food.

The second dish arrived and people tried the meat, similarly surprised as the porridge contained cream and flour, along with a base of algae full of msg, giving it a deep flavor. Again, silence ensued as the spoons flew up and down from the plates to the mouths of the lizardmen.

Erik: [look at them eating kukuku, their last meal]

Rose: [indeed~]

Erik: [by the way, is it fine for the bot body to eat?]

Rose: [I added a digestor stomach don't worry, it will convert organic matter to electricity]

Erik: [that's convenient, the food has no taste though]

Rose: [you can't have everything, your mouth would taste like metal all the time the moment your brain is connected to the drone anyways, as the nanobots change materials and oxidize inside the artificially moist mouth]

Erik: [hmm... well in that case, you could just use oil inside the mouth to avoid rust, and filter those flavors maybe? or using a scanner like the one in your mouth to taste things]

Rose: [Sigh Erik, the bots are disposable, your brain might filter the taste if you stay connected to the bot for a long time, but there's really no need to add taste or complex mechanisms or good materials, they can repair themselves by sourcing metal by themselves, that is good enough, and the reason they can be mass produced ¯\_(ツ)_/¯]

Erik: [true...]

The first to finish was Sarlex, patting his belly satisfied at the right of Rhaphkar.

Sarlex: "My compliment to the chef, this meal was certainly delectable, though a bit lacking in amount" eyeing Erik's meat porridge that was almost untouched.

Rhaphkar (Erik) smiled: "haha~ I'm glad it was to your liking" he took his porridge and gave it to him "in that case you can have mine, I must fulfill your expectations as the host right?"

Sarlex smiled widely: "indeed~ that's how it should be"

Time passed and lots of the lizardmen choose to repeat until they were full, believing Rhaphkar to be a pushover by now.

-- Inside the submarine --

Timberly and Inky had sat beside Sarah at the dining room, along with lots of other octopeople, bored from waiting inside the submarine.

Sarah had only come to eat something since it was empty when she arrived, but it quickly filled leaving her confused and wanting to run away, but the hands of Timberly and Inky on each of her shoulders din't let her.

Timberly looked at her up and down, nodding to herself: "seems like you look a bit like us now, good~" she sniffed Sarah "a familiar smell..."

Sarah: "wah! can... can I go now?"

Inky smiled widely: "hehe~ are you scared? Erik and Rose have kept you away all this time, you can't blame our curiosity~"

Sarah: "...how did you know I was here?"

Timberly: "well, you smell different than us after all, it's quite easy to notice actually"

Sarah: "I- I see, maybe I should go shower then-"

Timberly slid her right index finger down Sarah's spine: "I could... scrub your back if you want?"

Sarah: "N- NO!"

Timberly was surprised by the sudden yell, as she was used to Erik's teasing attitude.

Timberly got serious: "excuse our teasing then, we would just wanna know more about Erik and Earth"

Sarah relaxed a big deal hearing the serious tone: "I see, in that case I can tell you all"

Inky: "how did you meet Erik?"

Sarah: "eh, well we met at work practices and later we went together to the young cadets space program for deep space exploration"

Timberly: "how many humans are there on Earth? more than us?"

Sarah chuckled: "billions of humans"

The octopeople around whispered among themselves.

Jana: "so... what profession were you?"

Sarah: "me? I was a genetics engineer"

Jennifer: "and that is?"

Sarah: "I took DNA samples from organisms and put them in others, like making crops resistant to diseases, or curing human genetic diseases"

Timberly: "DNA? I heard Erik talk about it, it's inside our cells right?"

Sarah nodded: "indeed, its the essence of your being, deoxyribonucleic acid, and it contains all the information to make your cells" She tapped on her digital bracelet and a hologram of the cross section of a human cell appeared "this is a human cell, the DNA is contained here in the nucleus in the middle"

Jennifer: "Fascinating..."

Sarah: "Right?"

Jana: "Hmmm... so, how far is Earth? can we go there?"

Sarah held her chin in thought: "That would be difficult, the only reason I managed to arrive here is due to some strange gravitational waves that Erik told me were made by Rose, though I don't understand how, so in the end... if you go or remain would depend on Rose" she made a pause and tapped on her bracelet again, a hologram of the solar system with the planets going around the sun appeared "this is Earth's solar system"

Timberly: "so everything spins around your star in the center?"

Sarah smiled: "not exactly" she tapped it again and the hologram showed the sun speeding away like a bullet while the planets left light particle trails behind as they followed around it "our sun also speeds around an even bigger center, the Milky Way galaxy"

Inky: "what about our planet?"

Sarah: "well your planet would be Rose, I didn't see much else from orbit, other than your star and lots of debree floating in space..."

Jana: "space... I wanna go to Space!"

Sarah: "haha... you will have to train then!"

Timberly pointed at her strong flexed left arm with her right index finger: "so I can go to space then?"

Sarah: "...I meant learning how to operate the spaceship to get to space and life support systems, though a strong body helps with enduring G's during acceleration of the ship and evasive mannouvers, it's more essential to know what to do in emergency situations"

Jennifer: "that makes sense"

Jana: "can you teach me?"

Sarah awkwardly nodded: "well, I can teach you how to pilot a human spaceship at least"

Jana: "yay, thanks!"

--Back at the banquet hall --

Finally, after some hours of chatter, the plates were taken away and the table was cleaned.

Rhaphkar (Erik) used a spoon to hit his cup, the clear ring making everyone pay attention: "Now now, I believe it's time for some introductions as everyone announces what they will contribute?"

Kardalok that was sitting at Rhaphkar's left scoffed: "So you want us to bet now?"

Rhaphkar (Erik): "No, of course not, just some getting to know each other, nothing else"

Kardalok rolled his organic left eye: "Sure... I'm Kardalok, vice chancellor of the Iron Sect, and that vessel in the harbor belongs to us"

The crowd was speechless as Rhaphkar coughed.

Rhaphkar (Erik): *cough!* *cough!* "So... contributions?"

Kardalok: "...two hundred twenty two elite veteran soldiers of the cult, thirty patrol vessels, eighteen hunting boats, twenty eight crab boats, two water purifying plants, and one hundred cyborg slave workers" looking at Sarlex with a smile.

Sarlex rolled his eyes: "guess It's my turn, Sarlex Zoth, representing the Golden Dawn merchant group we offer, five thousand silver armor regular soldiers, one hundred beast rider golden soldiers, one hundred multi purpose boats with cranes, and armed with defensive equipments, from explosive harpoon launchers to depth charges...." he took a sip of water " and of course, two hundred transport vessels worth of food and water, and finally... six hundred specialiced workers from the Golden Dawn group" scoffing with a smile in the direction of Kardalok, much to Kardalok's displeasure.

Other lizardmen stood up one after the other as they kept citing their offers one after the other, but none were better than Kardalok or Sarlex's offers.

Rhaphkar (Erik): "Well after hearing all of your offers-"

Rose: [Just so you know, Kardalok's forces have surrounded the building, just say he's the winner, their neural cortexes will be mine in a couple of seconds anyways~]

Rhaphkar (Erik): *cough* "I believe... the boat should belong to Kardalok, his elite forces, and technological prowess will be needed for the reconstruction after all, and a relationship with the Iron Sect is something we value after all"

Sarlex frowned for a moment and was about to say something, when he suddenly coughed, and used his hand to shield his mouth, but... his face paled as he saw it covered in his own blood, getting really scared as he looked back at Rhaphkar.

Sarlex pointed a finger at Rhaphkar: "You! You poisoned us!?" but his arm soon fell on the chair without any strength, only his eyes still able to move, as veins all over his neck and face bulged and slightly shone with a violet color, the nanobots that were in the food having taken control of their entire nervous system by now.

Rhaphkar (Erik) chuckled: "ha ha ha~ no... something way worse~" and clicked his fingers, as bots with their exact appearances entered the hall and stood behind their organic counterparts. Everyone in the hall wanted to run and scream, but they soon found out unable to move or speak, as a small cable came out from the back of their heads and connected to their respective bots "Don't you worry, you won't remember that your new body is fake even, you will just for some reason feel like giving me all you have, follow my orders, and allow me to control your new bodies at any moment~"

Hours passed and the guards outside were starting to get nervous, but soon the doors opened, with a smiling Kardalok leading the group, he and everyone else were bots with a twisted copy of their counterpart's memories, even wearing their same clothes and cybernetics inside, as the organic bodies had been cast aside, something they didn't remember at all.

Kardalok made a motion with his hands and his bodyguards stood behind him again, and after giving his guards an order they both nodded and went away, as he looked back at Rhaphkar: "I guess it's time for that visit right?"

Rhaphkar (Erik) laughed loudly: "Of course~ please follow me there"

He guided the simulacrum bots to the harbor and lead them inside while the guards again stood outside, and once out of view all the bots including Rhaphkar powered off, as Erik woke up in his bathtub, wearing a helmet full of connected cables.

Erik: [well that went well~]

Rose appeared behind him: "It indeed did~"

Erik quickly turned around surprised: "Don't do that!, you scared me"

Rose chuckled holding her mouth: "Sorry, sorry haha... but I found something really interesting in that Kardalok's and Sarlex's memories, for starters the Iron Sect has been preparing a giant armored boat to go to the North to retrieve the celestial artifact, basically your space ship, and the location of the space boat they are repairing, an almost functional spaceship we could steal and go to orbit to restore my... eyes. Once in orbit, we could also reactivate 2137's fortress body, the others are too damaged but we could use their parts to repair him and at least have one floating fortress operational!"

Erik: "And Sarlex's memories?"

Rose: "Not as interesting to me, but still you will like this, they capture and farm leviathan creatures and have an evolution lab with genetic samples from an enormous amount of beings, you could literally choose the DNA you wanted to gain any traits you wanted if you went there, we could make you, the octopeople, and Sarah evolve to a whole new level~"

Erik's eyes opened wide: "That does sound interesting~" he composed himself "So, which one should we go to first? I'm more inclined to go for the genetic labs first, as some stolen DNA samples won't be that noticeable, but a stolen spaceship probably would..."

Rose: "Yeah I was thinking the same, also I added the memories and knowledge needed to completely repair the spaceship to Kardalok's bot, he will just feel like an inspiration suddenly hit him haha~"

Erik nodded in agreement: "That is indeed the best choice, so... what now? is the beast wave close?"

Rose got serious: "Yeah, it appears to be only four hours away, but some of the more agile smaller leviathans should be arriving now"

Erik nodded: "what about all the congregated forces?"

Rose: ".... it seems the alarm has already been given, all the boats in the harbor are being set in a defensive perimeter around the submarine, with their guards and our bots ready to hold the line... Kardalok's forces in particular are setting themselves in different buildings on vantage points, I'm sure they will be useful"

Erik: "That's good, with the forces we have here we might even endure long enough..."

Rose: "Yeah, and the reinforcement forces from the Golden Dawn group are almost here approaching from the South, so there's indeed a chance" she smiled "put the helmet back on, watch this"

Kardalok woke up and came out of the submarine hatch roaring: "protect this vessel with your lives! all the leaders we shall remain inside it for our safety!" and went back inside, soon powering off again.

Rhaphkar (Erik) saw it all happen and was really impressed, taking his helmet back off.

Rose: "now they are just my puppets hehe~ this should make them give it their best to protect the submarine"

At that moment there was a knock on the door, as the mutated Sarah came inside the Erik's bathroom, looking like a smaller and weaker version of Erik's new race.

Sarah: "so... what's happening outside?"

Erik clapped and stood up naked from the bathtub, a boner starting to appear as the swim suit put itself on his body.

Erik walked to her and grabbed her chin, looking at her face.

Erik: "before that, Rose really did a good job, you look weaker but more refined... I don't know how to put it... but you look beautiful..."

Sarah blushed and looked away: "so- so... outside, what's happening?"

Erik shrugged: "nothing much, some city lords arrived wanting this submarine and we replaced them with bot clones and will now use their forces to repel an incoming abyssal beasts wave coming for the lizardmen corpses in the waters~"

Sarah's face paled

Erik chuckled: "it's fine don't worry, what's the worst that could happen? we are safe here anyways"

Sarah's gray face paled even further: "don't you know saying that gives bad luck?"

Erik: "the flag thing? nah, logic beats superstition, our defenses are solid" he pointed at the bathtub "you can use the bot to go out and take a look if you want"

Sarah: "which bot?"

Rose: "yeah, I can connect you to the city lords guard, he attacked you in the city" Rose pointed her left index finger at her face "the one with the scar on his face, wanna control his bot for a while?"

Sarah hesitated for a moment and then nodded: "okay"

Rose patted the water: "come then, I will set it up for you"

Far away in the horizon, floating city fortresses and regular cities from nearby city lords that had come to lend a hand out of greed were now turning into a carnage, lizardmen guards quickly died as beasts kept jumping out of the water and onto the city, while others directly chewed through the metal and poured inside like a tide of sea water, flesh and bone, devouring and drowning everything in it's path.

Those that tried to escape on their boats soon were dealt with by the beasts, the only remaining safe place were the buildings on the surface, as more and more lizardmen escaped the undercity and pushed their way onto the buildings as the cities kept sinking further, there was no escaping the ever hungry jaws, but just the promise of a slight delay in that horrible death was enough for lizardmen to kill each other as they climbed the buildings to their very tips, but... the cities kept sinking, and soon it was their turn to be chewed up.

The noble and those rich enough, had closed themselves inside their panic rooms, but either the water seeped in drowning them slowly, or they ran out of air as the beasts kept chewing on the buildings themselves.

Those on big transport ships suffered a similar fate, as the beasts sank their ships too.

The workers that had once been focused on piloting their master's boats, the nobles that were arriving late to the feast, the cyborgs that lifelessly stood still under the decks... in the clutches of greed, their divisions vanished into the abyss. They pushed each other to be the last one to fall into the waters, but the boats kept sinking, and the voracious monsters, indiscriminate in their hunger, spared no one. Whether commoner or noble, organic or cyborg, the distinctions lost their significance as all succumbed to the depths. In those merciless waters, the greedy mouths tore through flesh and metal, devouring all, as only the mutations in the monsters that devoured them were left as a final sign of their existence.