Working on Bane and Dreadskulls for Thunderbird and His servants was a task I passed off to Sama and Briggs and those working for them. Such Baneskulls took the form of enlarged Skulls worn like Rings on their talons, something not to be lost in the middle of combat.
Any Dragon fighting an Avian with such a thing was going to be in for a hurting, as the effects of the Skulls affected both physical combat damage and magical attacks, helping all of them land as if the wearer was a Tier higher in power.
For a Dreadskull, it was two tiers!
It wasn’t defensive prowess, but that was something else we could work on. Great Beasts getting their own defensive boosts was definitely something we could give our allies, and not just pets.
Mostly, I just kept up with my schedule. Littoral Zone runs, mostly for healing duty and eradicating ‘special surprises’ the Aquatics came up with; extending my lived-line down South America while leaving behind buried Vivic Braziers; making thousands of Vivic Braziers a day; sussing out veins of precious metal for our miners to carefully gather up, smelt, and bring back; Energizing the rarer stuff we needed for certain operations; doing Markspace instructions and education for artificers, alchemists, and wizards; helping oversee production operations and logistics; administering Geases after vetting new recruits, and seeing off those with Loyalty to other forces trying to infiltrate; and naturally maintaining the flow and operations of the Spellhouses.
All that in addition to working on Thunderbird’s Pyramid, Meditating with the Great Beasts, and helping them out with Widened Commune with Natures. I was also making sure the new White Mana Zones were going up in a timely manner, and things were going okay with the coastal communities in Mexico and Central America.
No, no, I wasn’t busy at all. Add in reviewing lesson plans for the Coralost Academy and College, real estate operations around the Spellhouses, and financial matters regarding the massive income we had incoming and where it was going, while fending off all the many, many forces trying to tap and drain it off, well, yes, I stayed busy.
Sama and Briggs weren’t doing any worse, with a great deal of their hands-on time spent teaching actual combat skills, and going out and removing persistent problems, respectively.
Everybody was busy, everybody was motivated, and everyone could see how they were changing the world... and changing themselves, being able to grow in ways they’d never imagined possible.
Also, the pay was pretty damn good.
--------
There was a pulse through the Manafield. It literally swept over the entire planet. I paused in my construction of the final ten levels of Thunderbird’s Pyramid, my eyes turning with the Emperor Eagle’s and looking south.
Way, way south. ALL the way south.
My eyes were a little wide as I did the math on whatever spell that was, and just how much Mana was required for it to generate a pulse we could feel over two-thirds of the planet away, and right through Thunderbird’s Domain, to boot!
Water Magic. Unstoppably powerful Water Magic. But it hadn’t come from the ocean, it had come from the South Pole...
Thunderbird Emperor wasn’t paying attention to what I was doing, so I automatically stopped. I rose up into the air next to Him, looking south, and then north and west, towards the nearest seashore.
I wove the Ride the Lightning, He noticed and hooked into it. A second later, there was a big thunderclap. We shifted clear over the horizon in a boom and burst of arrival, and were out of it above the waters, right over the shoreline.
My Detect Magic V was already up, and I swept it over the waters below as Thunderbird glided onward and outward, a massive dark silhouette that darkened the clouds and lit them up at the same time as He swooped by them.
The waves were unnatural as they were coming in. This was the outgoing tide, it shouldn’t be happening like this...
“The Ice Emperor is raising the sea level?” I murmured from my grasp on the side of His neck, His thousand-foot wingspan not needing to beat as Thunderbird swept along at hundreds of miles an hour, yet I felt only a slight breeze.
“THE CREATURES OF THE OCEAN ARE AGITATED AND EXCITED. THIS IS AN ANCIENT ENCOURAGEMENT AND ENTICEMENT TO INVADE THE LANDS ALONG ALL SHORELINES,” Thunderbird informed me coldly.
Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.
I put a finger to my head. -This is a Markspace Alert, current Yellow, long-term Red! The Ice Emperor of the Antarctic has used a world-wide spell to begin the process of raising the sea level! Every person in a Littoral Zone needs to be on high alert! This is a prelude to Aquatic invasion on potentially every shoreline in the world!-
-Gods Damnit!,- /muttered Briggs instantly. -That is some level of power. I felt the surge pass even here, so far inland!-
-Someone tell me what the fuck inspired this move!- Sama /swore. -That hoary bastard wouldn’t do something like this on a whim, even as strong as He is!-
There was a flurry of movement in the Markspace and people exchanging information, making contact with others, pretending they’d felt a magic that was too far above them and could read its effects as tides shifted literally all around the planet.
-Lady Sama,- Huang Su, a very quiet representative in Hong Kong, /spoke up after several minutes, while we glided along and I watched the Water Magic almost-but-not-quite-fade into the background. If you didn’t know it was there, it was practically invisible, but it was bloody EVERYWHERE on the waters below us. -It was very hush-hush, but the sudden magic convinced some lips to loosen. There was an attempt by assorted Sages of Ice from several nations to penetrate the Forbidden Zone of the Antarctic and reach The Ice Emperor.-
-#*%^(^BN*O&^(GT)*Y*T*)&^)^)YOUGH)*Y*OP&^)R)H&*(&*&*^)&TY!!!!!!!- Sama /swore instantly. Said words added to with great emotion by a great many others.
“Oh, shit.” Thunderbird turned His head marginally to glance at me with one great golden eye. “It seems a bunch of Human Ice Sages got together and barged in on Ice Emperor, thinking they were impressive. Your Imperial Majesty,” I added belatedly.
Thunderbird didn’t even need to reply to that. The results spoke for themselves.
-I want news of that magic sent out repeatedly and broadly to every single Littoral Zone and seaside community in the whole world. Use your contacts. Some high-and-mighty fucktards fucked up, and now EVERYONE ELSE gets to pay the price for their idiocy,- Briggs /rumbled, and the ire that rose up throughout the Markspace was not feigned in the slightest. -I want a construction team of Earth Mages assembled for the coastal communities who are most vulnerable to this crap. There’s no way they can afford your services directly, but that’s not why we do this. I want maps and geography of every community under our protection gathered to plan while we start raising defenses of some kind or another.-
-And if you know anyone in any of the island nations, get on that NOW,- Sama /ordered icily. -If the sea level rises, that means an attack Wave will literally wipe some of them off the map. They need to know!-
The Allegiance was an immediate beehive of activity, getting the word out to whoever and whatever they could contact. The Hunter’s Guilds were the best way to get contacts and the information out, but this was literally life-or-death to the communities on the smaller islands.
“Your Imperial Majesty, how long will this magic last?” I asked Him with a sigh.
“IT WILL NEVER FULLY FADE IF THERE IS EVEN MODERATE SUPPORT FROM THE OCEAN EMPERORS. IT CAN ONLY BE DISPELLED,” He replied knowingly. “IT IS AN EFFORT THAT WOULD TAKE DOZENS OF LAND EMPERORS TO ACCOMPLISH.”
I closed my eyes and clenched my fists. I could likely Dispel the effect in a limited area, my Caster Level check was in the +80’s area. But I wouldn’t have the raw power to undo the entire spell... and in those little areas, I was sure any Ocean Emperor with the desire could simply re-establish the spell under their own power.
Which would be part of the point of it, forcing them to burn their strength instead of doing something else...
-Someone arrange me a complementary schedule to what Briggs is doing with the defenses. I can Dispel the effect over a limited area, which is extremely advantageous to the smaller communities that won’t attract the attention of an Emperor to replace the effect.
-If it just so happens to leak that I can do so for the larger communities, let’s see what they will offer. Briggs, I suggest you let it be known that you can do the design work for proper coastal defenses with amazing speed. All they’ll need is the Earth Mages to start devising things.-
-Any idea of the scale of the sea rise?- Briggs /asked me reasonably, his thoughts already churning to the task.
“Does Your Imperial Majesty know how much the sea will rise?” I asked Thunderbird gloomily, wondering just what this portended.
“PERHAPS TO TWICE YOUR HEIGHT. THE NOBLES AND EMPERORS WHO FOLLOW IT WILL DRIVE IT MUCH HIGHER, OF COURSE.”
I /relayed that on, which inspired more curses. I’d seen Littoral Tides exceeding twenty feet from some distant Rulers at play. An Emperor could flood a coastline to thirty or forty feet or more!
Depending on how fast the Ocean Emperors reacted to this, it was going to occupy huge amounts of magical muscle... muscle that likely needed to be gathered to undo the massive spell.
Thunderbird was naturally heading to see if the Ruling Aquatics were moving, particularly in the direction of North America. The Emperors and Rulers along the shorelines of the Land would need to be informed.
It was said that an Aquatic fighting in the water was three times as strong as a Land-bound Beast of the same tier, and that included the Emperors. That was why the Tidal Floods were so important, allowing the sea Creatures to surge inland and keep their superior prowess as they did so, as well as flowing right over and completely swamping many Human coastal defenses completely.
This asinine move was going to cost millions of lives before it could be set right. Aquatic attacks backed by Rulers all around the world? The number of people displaced by the rising seas alone was going to be immense. And what happened when some Human communities could no longer fish for food?
Expand, overreach, get mauled, pull back. I had to wonder who had triggered this incredibly unwise move...
-And someone find out the names of the idiots who did this, and make damn sure none of them survived,- Sama /ordered harshly, echoing my sentiments, and people in the know in many places got right on that, too.