Alpha Strike: [An interstellar Weapon Platform’s Guide to being a Dungeon Core] (Book 2 title)

“Careful! I said careful! Try not to jostle him too much!”

Zolzaya stood in front of Alpha as Ganbaatar, the guard Juatan, who Alpha learned was the young woman’s father, lowered the injured Yutu to the ground. They’d arrived at their waypoint after a few hours of travel with nothing of note happening in between. Well, not anything that hindered them, at least.

The only thing Alpha found interesting was the change to the prairies themselves. He’d noted that as the days in the village passed, daylight hours had quickly shrunk. When he landed on the planet only a few weeks ago, a “day” had been roughly 12 hours, with 18 hours of night. How that math worked, given the apparent size of the planet and the required rotational speed for something like that, he didn’t know.

When they’d arrived at the village, “days” had shrunken to nearly eight hours, and by the time they left only a few days later, daylight only touched the prairies for a measly four hours a day.

What this -Darkest Night- was, Alpha had yet to fully understand. He could surmise it was a recurring weather phenomenon of some kind, and it was related to the shrinking daylight, but not much more than that. For as much as people talked about it, they said very little in ways of detail. Most likely because it was such a well-known event that any native should already be highly familiar with it.

All he knew was that it was extremely dangerous, and they had only a few days before it started, meaning time was short. The interesting part was how the surrounding grass changed. The vibrant mix of rainbow colors took a sudden shift, almost overnight, as larger patches shifted between dark purples, pale whites, and ethereal blues. When the group finally stopped, nearly 60% of the surrounding grass had taken on one of these hues. From what Alpha had gathered, that number would only grow as the -Darkest Night- drew closer. Alpha theorizes it must have been an adaptation by the grass to deal with whatever was coming, further supporting the possibility that this was a recurring event.

As for why they had stopped…

Off in the distance, a towering obelisk stretched into the sky, several times larger than the one at the ruined temple. That such a tall structure couldn’t be seen from further away had been strange to Alpha. As Kallik put it, the Earth Shrines were naturally obfuscated by the [*I$*$@#%] that they collected.

This obfuscation only grew stronger during the -Darkest Night- and only a -Grassreader- like her could find them. That was one reason her profession was so highly respected in these prairies. It would still be a few hours’ walk for the humans from here, made slightly longer by their cargo. Said cargo was finally lowered to the group as the group loaded the young man into the simple gurney carried by Kallik and the armored young woman who’d introduced herself as Munkh.

The two men jumped down and turned to Alpha, bowing. Juatan was the one to speak.

“We thank the Lord Protector for his help in getting us this far. If we had attempted the journey ourselves, we might not have made it in time to be of any help, ourselves. You remember the plan for here, correct?”

Alpha nodded. Of course he did! Hurrah for quantum state memory storage! Not that it was a complicated plan. The humans would make their way to the obelisk and contact the pup’s family, or at least attempt to.

While they did that, Alpha would head toward the signal, a roughly two-day trip. Once in position, he’d bunker down in a small outpost used by natives to contact the -Akh’lut- and try to gather as much information as he could. It would have been slightly faster, but the group urged him to pace himself. Both to buy time and because the prairies would become far more unstable in the coming days. Sure, Alpha could have charged in, guns blazing, but without knowing what the kidnappers had planned or even who they were, they would take a more… subtle approach. The hope was that whoever the pup’s family sent could either help clarify the situation or snatch the child to safety while Alpha… dealt with the kidnappers.

Juatan nodded.

“Good. With any luck, someone will meet you at the designated location shortly after you arrive. We wouldn’t assume to tell you what to do, but if at all possible, please wait until they arrive. Both for our and the child’s sake.”

Again, Alpha nodded in confirmation. Even he could understand this was a delicate problem. Hostage situations always were. That said, if he deemed it necessary, Alpha wouldn’t hesitate to do what he needed, regardless of the political ramifications.

After all, as the newest Federation civilians (whether they knew it or not), their old laws had no power over him.

At least that was the excuse he would give Si’dia when she yelled at him for it.

As the group gathered, they turned to Alpha and, as one, bowed. No other words were spoken between the two groups, and each turned their separate ways and departed.

Only time would tell if this gamble of theirs would work or if it would only result in more tragedy.

—————

Zolzaya watched the Lord Protector with mixed feelings as he disappeared into the distance. Her gift told her that his worry for the child was genuine, but she also knew he was still using them. How and why, she didn’t know, but she knew the mysterious Spirit Beast wasn’t the benevolent “Progenitor” the others saw him as.

She’d only been able to voice her concerns to her father, possibly the only one who could feel what she did, even if his “gift” was far weaker than hers. Yet he had told her not to think too deeply on the matter. That sometimes you had to take the bad with the good and that people, Spirit Beast or human, would never be as one-sided as “good” or “evil.”

Even those who worked against you might do so for noble ends, and things were never as simple as they appeared on the surface.

Zolzaya wouldn’t go so far as to disagree, but her own experiences had taught her that sometimes people were just that simple. She’d found most people wore their thoughts, or at least their emotions, on their sleeves. Even if they were skilled enough to physically not show it.

Few were skilled enough to not let their emotions leak to the surface entirely, her father being one of the few she’d ever met besides the Captain and the nice old couple who used to teach Yutu.

The Lord Protector, though, was… different, even compared to them. Not that his emotions were hidden; he was surprisingly emotional for a Spirit Beast, who were typically more… beastly.

No, the Lord Protector’s emotions felt “distant,” for lack of a better term. Separate. As if his emotions emanated from his soul itself and not his body. The only other time she’d felt anything similar had been from the Elementals that guarded the Earth Shrines. They were lesser Elementals, true, meaning they weren’t truly “alive” in the same way as other lifeforms, but she couldn’t help but make the comparison.

What was the Lord Protector, really? And, more importantly… what did he want?

——

7 hours later

——

The group made it through the Earth Shrine checkpoint with little issue, in large thanks to the documentation provided by the Elders of the Slatewalker village. It wasn’t uncommon for villages to send envoys ahead to prepare things for the approaching village, though most of that would be handled by Juatan.

The Earth Shrine wasn’t too different from any of the others, or so Zolzaya had been told. Few in the Wandering Cities made a habit of visiting other Earth Shrines if they had to. The actual shine was simple, comprising little more than a few squat buildings and the gargantuan 400-meter stone obelisk. The cart-buildings of Jadewalker City, two million strong, circled the obelisk with an empty ring of roughly 100 meters separating them. A 100-meter ring patrolled by hundreds of lesser Earth Elementals and several dozen intermediate Earth Elementals.

Each of the Lessers was the equivalent to a [Gold Spirit] ranked Cultivator, while the Intermediates were rumored to be as strong as an early [Shackle Breaking] Cultivator. If they ever chose to do anything more than continue their eternal patrol, not even the full force of the Jadewalker clan could do a single thing to stop such creatures.

Thankfully, unless attacked, they never left this small strip of land or even paid much attention to anything beyond it.

Only the priests of the Prima Temple were allowed to approach the shrine proper, not that there was much of a reason to do so outside of ceremony. Most of the priests instead lived on the large temple cart that was technically part of Jadewalker City but officially answered only to the Akh’lut.

The same temple cart that happened to be their destination.

At two million carts and three times that in human bodies, not to mention various domesticated Spirit Beasts, it sufficed to say that Jadewalker City was nothing like the much smaller village she called home. The Grand Elk that pulled the various carts were especially intimidating if one didn’t know the creatures were gentle and timid by nature. Unlike the young Spirit Beasts that pull the carts of villages and towns, these “City Elk” were ancient, some older than the city itself. It was a tradition for existing cities to donate an elder Elk to a new city as a sign of union.

The oldest and largest, which towered over the surrounding buildings, were said to be in the low [Golden Spirit] step and could tow entire districts themselves. That was hundreds of buildings, some of them just as large as they were. When it came to sheer physical strength, very few creatures could match an elder Grand Elk in its realm.

Unfortunately, that strength came at the cost of very poor Spirit control. Elder Elk rarely broke past [Bronze Spirit] in the wild, as even lower-level predators could kill them easily if they took advantage of the Elk’s poor ranged ability and slower speed. Not that it was easy or safe, but only here, under the care of the Wandering Cities, would you ever see the creature grow to such sizes.

The sights and sounds of the big city were often things people could never forget, especially people like her who hailed from smaller places like her. They were places to aspire to, ones filled with excitement and awe.

For others.

For Zolzaya, things were different.

So many people and Spirit Beasts, packed so closely together, each with their emotions and desires, just added another layer of “noise” on top of the already chaotic and loud city. It could be overwhelming for her, sometimes even painful. Zolzaya grimaced and rubbed her temple as they moved through the streets, which were little more than the meticulously planned gaps between various carts.

This was a major reason she never enjoyed visiting Jadewalker City, even if most of the young adults her age took every chance they could. She much preferred the “peace” of her own village.

A large hand on her shoulder caused the young woman to turn and look into her father’s face. The man frowned and furrowed his brow as he stared at his daughter. Despite that, the waves of love and concern washing off him went a long way in pushing out the painful ambient emotions.

She smiled and was going to thank him, but she froze instead. Zolzaya narrowed her eyes and snapped around, scanning the crowd. She’d felt something. Something… familiar. Something she’d hoped never to feel ever again.

In the direction the feeling was coming from, she could see a quiet commotion rippling through the crowd and watched it slowly part, making room for the approaching party.

All other things faded away from Zolzaya’s perception until all that was left was the quickly approaching emotional signal and her own rage.

A raw, boiling, seething, primal rage.

—————

Yu Xiurong knelt down and plucked the strange shard from the stone. The razor-sharp shard had embedded itself deep into the hardened rock, but Yu Xiurong’s expert control prevented it from shattering like the others.

They were fragile things, and without the small coating of Concept holding them together, they would quickly break apart and dissolve into pure air. When she and her group of disciples arrived at the abandoned temple, the destruction and ruin reminded her of the battlefield… because that’s exactly what it had been.

They’d tracked the signal from the Star Thief to this location only a few hours earlier, expecting to find more of the same, maybe a campsite with more clues about who or what they were tracking. Instead, they’d walked onto the remains of a battlefield.

Not just any battlefield, either. She couldn’t identify the Concepts used, but the aura of the massive groove radiating out from the central compound terrified her. Fang Peng had gone to examine the massive crater even further away while the rest of them searched what remained of the central compound.

That had turned out to be… not very much.

The entire structure had been demolished, with little remaining in evidence. What was there told a story, however.

Many Grassbreaker remains, in various states of pulping, had been found scattered around. The most intact bodies were found inside the compound itself, while the largest concentration of… remains (they couldn’t rightly be called “bodies” anymore) was found on the same side of the compound as the groove.

The pattern of the debris suggested that whatever had destroyed the compound originated from the inside, likely the same thing that had caused the groove. Strangely enough, however, they saw no signs of an explosion or elemental force. Lin Weiyuan theorized it may have been a purely physical shockwave that had caused the damage, but how it had formed left them stumped.

The compound itself showed signs of excavation as if whoever had remained had tried to clear the rubble. It was unknown if they’d found what they sought, but it was an interesting theory.

What had caught Yu Xiurong’s attention the most, though, had been these tiny “shards” they’d found scattered around the compound. She had no clue what to make of them; all of her physical senses told her she was holding a thin sliver of ice. Yet… it was hot to the touch. Not just hot but burning, even to her scale-covered hand. Stranger still, when she observed the shard with her [Spirit Sense], she didn’t find an ounce of Fire energy in it at all.

Instead, she felt an intense amount of Air energy crammed into it, along with a Concept she could only describe as an immense weight. As if its singular reason for existing was to press down on the world. This Concept tightly bound Air energy into the shard, reducing what should have been a free-spirited, shackleless energy to a small, rigid form.

What was it they were really dealing with here?