The Record of Unusual Creatures

Hodeceus floated silently by the side of the crystal mine, which faced the now drastically changed Sacred Mountain. The seismic "remodeling" had since died down, yet the real chaos was just about to begin. The knights and werewolf cavalry who successfully retreated under Marshal Ophra's lead had returned to the main camp in Hodeceus. They rendezvoused with the other generals and cardinals who were manning the floating fortress. But as they sought to finalize their next course of action, the various factions fell victim to infighting.     

Before Ophra could even take off her cuirass, she, Uruk, and a few other leaders—still drenched in the enemy's blood—sat at the front of a long table. She appeared like the goddess of war as she sat there and looked on at the rather rowdy atmosphere. The seat next to her belonged to the pope and it was now empty.     

"The Pope has been martyred." Cardinal Orben looked at the seat beside Ophra. His rune-covered face was rather emotionless, but there was a tinge of dignified stiffness. "The Pope could not have possibly survived that explosion. Additionally, there was no trace of his spirit after that.     

The meeting hall door was pushed open as a robed figure walked swiftly into the room. He was a cardinal who had just calmed the nerves of the ordinary soldiers and believers with a few other clergies. The clamor outside was obviously weighing on him. "Things are still in a flux outside. The Pope's martyrdom shook the faith of many. Plus, there's the fact that even with his sacrifice, the evil god managed to escape without a scratch. We need to come up with an explanation for this."     

"What about the goddess? Anything from her?" Ophra turned to Big Beardy who was seated silently at the side of the table. From the moment the pope was martyred, the pious ascetic had been deep in thought, trying to communicate with the goddess. She was hoping that the ascetic's special mental ability to mend the connections with the goddess, and the long prayers would bear some fruit.     

Big Beardy opened his eyes slightly as he looked at the marshal. "Her voice is vague, but it is certain that the Pope spoke with her before his martyrdom. His actions were probably in line with her will."     

Cardinal Orben immediately nodded. "Alright, we can start from there at least—"     

"The explanation can come later. The most pressing matter is how do we tell His Majesty," Prince Hoffman suddenly interjected. His head was glistening from sweat but this time around, he did not bother wiping it off. "His Majesty needs to know if the kingdom is still safe. That black thing has escaped, unscathed I must add. You can spin it to say that it was the goddess' wrath that scared it away, but that will only work for the masses. His Majesty needs an even clearer answer. Will the thing come back? And if it does, how do we face it?"     

The questions Prince Hoffman asked were piercing, a stark contrast to the smiling bald guy he was known for. This was however, the way he operated, and as he finished his sentence, Uruk spoke.     

"It's a mess in our place as well. The collapse of the Sacred Mountain has been a massive shock to the tribes, and we also need to explain how an evil god's been hiding in the mountains all this while. So, for the meantime, the tribe nations will be recalling their mercenary companies in Holetta."     

Due to their fierce nature and martial talents, the werewolf tribes were able to export their fine troops and commanders as an important means of revenue. Their mercenaries could be found on all corners across the south of the continent. Furthermore, the tribal nation had excellent relations with the Kingdom of Holletta. Even during the time of Kayton III's uprising, he had a loyal band of werewolf warriors with him. As such, even the Hollettan standard army had many werewolf bands in it, and some of them even held office in the army.     

Ophra frowned. "That will affect Holletta's security, and it goes against the accords."     

"We will not disregard the accords, but the situation demands it." Uruk's expression stiffened, and his voice stern. "We are only reassigning a part of the soldiers to solve our urgent need for manpower. After the peak collapsed, many towns in its vicinity were affected, and many other places are at risk of avalanches as well as aftershocks."     

Uruk glanced at Ophra as he left the last part out. Holletta is a mighty kingdom, surely this won't affect you?     

As Uruk finished, the generals and cardinals present also started to discuss the situation. Some were doubtful of morale, some were worried about doctrines, some were talking about diplomacy, or amendments of the map and texts because there was a need to measure the highest peak of the southern continent again... When Lady Ophra heard the last part, she buried her face in her palm as she massaged her temple. If at all possible, she did not want to get involved in this situation. She only belatedly realized that she had gathered a rabble there at haste and in this situation, it was quite literally too many cooks spoiling the broth.     

"My word... I'm really bad at this." The marshal shook her head. "Even when the king died it wasn't this chaotic..."     

The drops of sweat from Prince Hoffman's bald head really streamed down this time. "Marshal... this... is not the time for that..."     

"I know." Ophra sighed as she looked up and slammed the table. "Silence!"     

Perhaps the hall was too big and this was the first time her table slamming was not effective. A few ministers were still having a heated discussion with their fellow generals. Seeing how things were, Lady Ophra took her longsword out, still sheathed, and slammed the table again. "Sile—"     

Before she could finish, a crash followed and the table shattered into pieces.     

A few of the ministers immediately followed the table and crashed to the ground: They were too engrossed in their arguments and were pretty much on the table already.     

Lady Ophra blinked, as she shuffled awkwardly. "Is the table that fragile?"     

The old werewolf, Elson rolled his eyes. "Oh, stop with your excuses. This is not the first time."     

"Well, that's that." Ophra waved it off. "This doesn't affect anything anyway, and at least it will stop you lot from continuing your crap. Do I need to even remind you lot? This is Hodeceus, the kingdom's most powerful floating fortress! Even the lowliest of soldiers here are elites of the country! Elites, hah! Just look at you lot. Panicking over something like this? And you deem yourself worthy to step foot here?"     

After having their egos bruised by the marshal's terse words, the hall fell silent. Lady Ophra gave a nod of satisfaction. "That's more like it. Let's lay things out, and solve it one by one. We'll do what we can, what we must and I frankly don't give two hoots about who's losing what. Everything won't matter when that black fortress comes back again."     

Having said her peace, she turned to Uruk and Cardinal Orben. "My apologies. I may have overstepped my boundaries. I have no control over the Church or other nations, but let me remind you lot. Before that black fortress, your religion or nationality does not matter."     

Cardinal Orben's expression changed immediately the moment the missing black fortress was mentioned. "The key problem is still that evil god's weapon. It is an awesome weapon, and even the Pope's martyrdom could not destroy it, only drive it away. If it makes a comeback, our efforts will have been in vain."     

"Didn't you say that the outsiders have gone to solve this?" Prince Hoffman looked at Ophra. "Why hasn't there been any news till now?"     

"This..." Ophra was at a loss of words to explain. "They'll probably be in touch soon. If anyone can do it, it's them. After all, they were the ones who took out the First Born."     

Even as she said that, Ophra was not fully confident. She only had a vague knowledge of Hao Ren and his crew's powers as well as their backgrounds. She had no idea how the "black fortress" even came about. She only relied on her experience of solving issues with them in the past to trust them with the job of destroying that monstrosity. She wondered if she should call for Becky. That silly mercenary had spent the most time with the outsiders and knew more about them than Big Beardy. As she pondered on the idea, a flash of light appeared in the middle of the hall.     

"Don't worry about the black spaceship." Hao Ren led his crew out of the white light. "I have more important things to tell all of you."