5

With fifty days left until the arrival of Blasphemy I have enough shards and fragments to complete five spheres, I just don't know how to, yet. I have also found more burnt out farms and even villages, dead mindflayers, and doom tortoises. I've amassed quite a few shards and fragments this way.

At this moment I am creeping closer to an intact mindflayer village. They are armed to the teeth and clearly a bit on edge, clearly they know about the farms. Sadly they speak an unknown language but I notice that as soon as I first hear them conversing I begin to gain proficiency in its understanding, and so I sit behind a tree and through my various senses observe them. Thanks to the vast reach of my senses, by the time I summon new clones I have learned enough of their language to carry a simple conversation using the local lingo.

After sending the clones off to continue exploring I begin to casually make my way to the village entrance. Obviously I am not a mindflayer and my appearance causes quiet a ruckus. The crowd is however calmed by the appearance of a mindflayer in an ornate robe like armor made of small metal rings and oddly stylized plates with tentacles on top of her head and for a lower body, and though only about twenty five % of the gathered mindflayers have wings she indeed did have a pair of them. She is in charge of this village's guard and her name is Zka'thlaroea.

I take some time to explain that I am not a threat to them but once I do they prove surprisingly friendly and Zka'thlaroea freely explains what seems common knowledge about this planet. This is a forge world arranged centuries ago by an advanced star faring empire in order to groom combatants for a war effort. There are more than thirty different sentient species scattered about the world, with dragons and vampires being the most advanced, and mindflayers holding the fifth rank, and the goblins being the last. This world was also seeded with a vast assortment of hostile non-sentient creatures.

While conversing I am also observing a doom tortoise flying almost high enough to reach orbit. As soon as it positions itself above the village it retracts into its shell and begins to free fall. As soon as it gives itself over to gravity it begins to accelerate ever downward, with in a brief moment the friction of its passing ignites the atmosphere around it. As I look up my action spawns others and others look up as well. There is a scream, and like a damn broken, people begin to flood out of the village. On foot, through the air, some even teleport, to my amazement Zka'thlaroea remains standing with with a resigned expression. I wonder if I hadn't looked up would anyone have noticed before it was too late, even if they flee how many can even escape the area of destruction that this impact will cause.

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Imagine a tortoise the size of the Indianapolis motor speedway (I don't know what that is but I know it covers a vast area)pretending to be a meteor. As it begins to fall I ready a spell, when it enters my range, I cast. The spell is called blood stasis and it fixes the targets blood into the spacial coordinates it occupies when the spell is cast. Now imagine a fiery free falling speedway sized tortoise suddenly have all of its blood locked into a stationary position suddenly mid fall, the blood tears out of its usual pathways shredding the passing flesh as the body continues falling, until the stationary blood meets the nearly indestructible shell bringing said tortoise to a very sudden stop several hundred feet above the village. Sadly the ball of fire engulfing the turtle bomb continued down toward the ground, conveniently Zka'thlaroea had just cast her own spell creating a barrier intended to direct the impact and its subsequent damage away from the village and its fleeing people as much as possible thus protecting it and them from the fire.

I left it hanging there as its own shadow devoured it much to the amazement of the returning mindflayers. Zka'thlaroea seems to be in shock muttering, “Instantly killed. Stopped its fall. Saved the village.” luckily she regains her composure by the time the mindflayers had regathered. She lowers her gaze to look at me as she says, “This village owes you a life debt, I swear by the ancestors I will repay it.”

This is awkward, I respond, “No worries, I killed something that attacked me, just like everything else that attacked me since I hatched in that goblin infested maze fifty days ago.”

“Why you saved the village does not ma..... Wait, did you say you hatched in the goblin maze? Fifty days ago? Huh...” And then she collapses, seemingly fainted. I catch her easing her to the ground before standing and fanning her with one of my wings. The gathered mindflayers all begin thanking me and though they seemed genuinely grateful, many seem as if they had just walked in on me in an embarrassing situation leaving them equally if not more embarrassed.

Well now its even more awkward. I wait for them to calm down and grow quiet before accepting their gratitude and tell them it is unnecessary. I gesture toward the fainted mindflayer laying before me and ask if she is going to be OK.

Before anyone can say anything in answer my question, Zka'thlaroea jumped up with surprising fluidity before turning shades of pink and red, even her robe changed color to match. She suddenly spreads her arms and wings while standing as tall as her five foot three frame allows, before once again announcing that she will repay the villages life debt. This declaration results in a strange rhythmic humming combined with exuberant tentacle waving from the crowd.

After a resigned sigh I agree but only if I can call her Zka. That brings about louder humming and more vigorous tentacle waving. I am going to believe that this is the mindflayer way of laughing, cheering, and/or applause until I am informed otherwise.

Once the crowd begins to calm down Zka guides me on a tour of the village while explaining about the shards and why the doom tortoises are attacking.