Defiance of the Fall

Chapter 159: Infiltrators

The pain in Zac’s side kept burning as he sat down and meditated. No pill he owned worked on the wound, as the miasma in his body was stubbornly refusing to dissipate. The demon physician had examined the wound after the battle calmed down, and he was sure that it wasn’t the miasma itself that was the problem, but rather that the miasma contained some Dao.

It reminded Zac of the fight earlier, where the hand from [Nature’s Punishment] rotted into nothingness in less than a second from the so-called World Rot the Corpse Lord summoned. Zac believed there was a good chance that the undead leader possessed a high tier, or even peak tier Dao in something related to death or rot, which was why his wound refused to get better and instead kept trying to spread through his body.

His only solace was that the vibrant energy generated from the Dao of Trees somewhat alleviated his problems. It wasn’t to the point that he actually healed, but it managed to stop the spread of miasma and contained it in his wound. However, that meant he was forced to use the Dao almost constantly, and that he still needed to walk around with an open wound.

He currently sat in one of the secluded courtyards in his mansion, slowly going through the events. He was in no mood to look over the restoration of the wall or calm down irate citizens. After he killed the last leader yesterday, there was not much of a battle. He realized after a while that the arrays were once again active, and he activated the town protection array without hesitation.

It ensured the safety of the town, and also allowed the tired out Valkyries to gain some Cosmic Energy by killing zombies with bow and arrows from the safety within the shield. It might also have been him erecting the defensive array that ensured that a final attack never arrived from the proper forces.

Still, before it got to that point the losses weren’t insignificant. They’d lost Janos, 7 demon warriors, and 9 Valkyries. A few Zhix had died as well, but Zac didn’t worry as much about them since they weren’t formally his people yet. Most of the losses occurred from the Rockman leader’s area attack, though some of the Valkyries died from making mistakes.

Alyn had said the losses were acceptable, as most untested squads had large losses in their first battle. Their deaths would be the foundations for the survivors to keep each other safe. Still, Zac felt bad about so many of them already having died since he took them under his wing just a little while ago. He had already told them as much when they signed on, but talking about it and seeing it actually happen were two different things.

Instead of helping with the restoration work Zac instead focused on his wound. He kept trying to utilize his Dao in various ways in order to heal himself. He was also waiting on news from Calrin, but he didn’t hold much hope. Other than that he was simply waiting for the timer for the quest to reach zero. He still hadn’t received his rewards yet, and he assumed he would get them as soon as the timer ended.

His wound could be considered to be afflicted with poison, though it was a combination of Dao and transformed miasma. He would need a specialized type of potion to heal his particular wound, very much the same way a specific poison required a specific antidote. There were also higher grade panaceas that would heal most types of wounds like this, but those were extremely expensive and hard to get.

Another alternative was to find a proper healer who specialized in purifying Misma. There was no such person on the island at the moment, but perhaps people like that could be found on the border towns close to the undead incursion. But there was still a few days before the appointed time where Mr. Bernard would open the teleporter, so that option was still not available. And it wasn’t like he’d pin his hopes here being some healers waiting where he was going.

That left the Dao of Trees. He kept circulating the warm energy the Tree Fractal in his chest generated while thinking back to the vision he had. He was actually having decent gains, but his meditations were interrupted as he sensed the shadows congeal in the building, which caused Zac to furrow his eyebrows.

“So, do you want to talk about it?” the familiar voice said.

“Talk about what?” Zac asked without opening his eyes.

“The fact that you immediately assumed that I ordered Janos to attack you,” Ogras answered.

“I didn’t know what was going on, so I wouldn’t take any chances. It was you who taught me to be careful with friends and foe alike,” Zac said with an even voice. “I still don’t know what you’re planning in that scheming head of yours.”

“Don’t worry, I am quite happy with our current arrangement. I can move freely in the shadows while you stand in the light, drawing all the attention away from me,” Ogras said with a light voice. “And I even lost an arm for this town, you should know where my allegiances are by now.”

“I know, and thank you,” Zac answered as he opened his eyes and stared down at his own hands.

None of the two said anything for a while as the silence stretched on in the small courtyard, and Zac once again slowly closed his eyes.

“We found him, you know. Janos. Well, the real Janos,” Ogras said after a while.

That actually made Zac open his eyes and look over at the demon. Ogras looked a lot better compared to before, but his left sleeve was still conspicuously empty. There was also a burn on his throat that still hadn’t fully healed.

“Really, he’s alive? That wasn’t a corpse puppet earlier? How could a Zealot replace him?” Zac asked with a frown.

“He was followed by a group of priests after he fled back toward the camp. They caught up with Janos and tried to burn him to death with their nasty fire. Janos used his last cosmic energy to create an illusion where he was burned alive while he used an escape skill where he burrowed underground,” Ogras said.

“However, he was already over-drafted when he used his ultimate illusion to cover the whole church-camp for a few breaths. He passed out as soon as he went underground,” the demon continued with a snort.

“So they thought he was dead, and one of them took his shape, confident Janos wouldn’t return himself,” Zac finished, and the demon nodded in response.

He was relieved to hear that there really wasn’t actually a second betrayer among the generals. Mr. Trang had already told him yesterday that there might be something weird going on, but he wasn’t able to tell for sure.

“What about the monoliths?” Zac asked. “Have they been destroyed?”

“Destroyed? No, I had Calrin sell them for two million Nexus Coins each. They are not bad weapons if you want to ruin someone’s domain. Too bad we’re not able to properly store them,” Ogras said.

“Great,” Zac said, always happy to earn some extra money. “And the Zombies?”

“Most are dead. Some wandered off somewhere, but the barghest should take care of them,” Ogras said. “The only remaining trouble is that we don’t know if there are any more Zealots hiding in the town. I had no idea those lunatics were so crafty. I always imagined them being meatheads who just went around burning everything to the ground, leaving nothing behind.

“The fact that they were able to both infiltrate our town to capture Adran and pose as Janos proves that they are far more crafty than that. It’s a real headache, as we don’t really know whether there are any more of them remaining on the island. I have conducted interrogations with the main personnel though, and the Adran you saved is the real one.

“How do you know that? Do we have a method to expose the spies? That monk didn’t even revert back to his real form when he died,” Zac asked.

“We don’t have any method yet, but I asked the Sky Gnome to get a quote from the Pavilion of Myriad Eyes on a dossier regarding this matter. It will probably be pretty damn expensive, but we might not have a choice,” Ogras answered with a grimace. ”For now I asked things only the real ones should know.”

“What was the first thing you said to me?” Zac suddenly asked.

“… I said ‘You natives truly are barbarians, so aggressive’,” Ogras answered.

“Who’s the shipyard’s foreman?” Zac followed up without missing a beat.

“Karunthel, and he’s a spider golem from what you told me. And no, I haven’t met him myself,” Ogras answered with a roll of his eyes.

Zac only nodded in satisfaction.

“What do you mean not have a choice?” Zac asked.

“Our town is pretty small so far, so I’m quite sure we can individually interrogate every single one in hopes of catching any more people in hiding,” Ogras said. “But this capability poses another problem. Who knows what they have done over the past months in the world? Were the ones we met in New Washington even humans?”

A cold feeling gripped Zac’s heart. As he realized the wider implications of what Ogras said. However, he soon calmed down a bit.

“They should have been. The officials used teleporters to get there, they can’t be invaders,” Zac hesitantly said.

“Perhaps, or perhaps the transformation enables them to use teleporters, who knows? Besides, not everyone teleported. What about that Thomas guy, the big boss? What about the clan members of the Marshall clan who stayed behind wherever they live, instead of going to an exciting auction? They can be everywhere,” Ogras retorted.

When Ogras talked about it, it truly sounded like a pain in the ass. Even worse, there might be Zealots hidden in the human ranks who subtly pushed the government toward a path of no return so that The Church of Everlasting Dao later could gobble them up without any organized response.

“So what do you propose?” Zac asked.

“We wait for the quote from the blue bastard. We need to know more, both for Port Atwood and how we relate to the rest of the world. If the infiltration skills the Zealots showed on our island are common, then we can’t trust anyone,” Ogras said with a sigh, but soon perked up. “Besides, it’s time to drag some dividends out of Calrin.”

Zac could only agree and got to his feet with a grunt. The pain erupted in his side, but he could only bear with it, though a sheen of perspiration covered his forehead. At least he had learned to use the Dao of Trees while walking, so he was able to keep the wound in check as he traveled.

Ogras was quite correct about the dividends. He had owned a stake in the consortia for a while now, but the gnome hadn’t coughed up a single Nexus Coin so far. The only thing he’d gotten transferred was 6 million right before the wave hit. That wasn’t profit though, but part of the money the gnome owed him.

As the two slowly walked through the town a lot of people threw surreptitious glances at them.

“Why are people staring?” Zac asked in a low voice to ogras who walked by his side.

“Things are a bit tense. You weren’t the only one who thought a coup was taking place during the wave. Itʼs a bit tense between the races at the moment,” Ogras said with a shrug. “Hopefully seeing us together will alleviate the rumors.”

The visit at Calrin’s took over an hour, but at least they left satisfied. Zac’s private reserves had swelled with an astounding 48 million Nexus Coins, and that was after paying 15 million for an information missive. It could have been way more, but Zac chose to keep all Aetherbloom in order to train himself and his forces.

The bundles of the magical stalks that Calrin and Ogras procured in New Washington were worth roughly 30 million nexus coins. However, Zac didn’t have much to spend his coins on at the moment and felt it was better to use the herbs to create body refining paste for his people.

The missive from the Pagoda of Myriad Eyes was a personalized query, where Calrin had asked two specific questions. One was how common it was for the priests of The Church of Everlasting Dao to have the shape-shifting capabilities. The other asked for an identifying method.

The first answer cost 5 million nexus coins, and the second 10 million. Zac wondered just how much money the information network made, if two simple answers cost that much. The Church was a huge organization, and the information they asked for shouldnʼt be some big secret in the multi-verse, yet they made money so easily.

It turned out that while it wasn’t a main heritage of the church, there were quite a few infiltrators in their ranks. One could expect there to be well over a thousand of them in a standard incursion. They were mainly used when the natives were strong and organized, and some planning was required to purify the planet.

The second answer was quite simple. It told them to feed everyone a certain root. It was harmless to most people, but to the lizardmen it was like cyanide, even if they were E-ranked powerhouses. Zac didn’t possess any of the root at the moment, but it was quite common so Calrin was already working on procuring a bunch of it.

The only downside was that Zac didn’t know whether there were only lizardmen in the ranks of the church. There had only been that species on the island apparently, though he hadn’t really seen the Zealots. They never made an actual attack on the town after Ogras’ successful attack killed a good portion of them, including their high priest, and they instead returned in defeat through the incursion.

Actually, the reason Ogras had been absent after resting up for a bit was that he once again set out to the incursions as soon as he could. Instead of killing a throng of Zombies for little Contribution he opted to go for the stronger warriors that each gave a great amount of points.

The warriors of the church and the rockmen were just like the demon soldiers, giving huge amounts of energy and coins since they were actually level 75. That bonus apparently transferred over to the Contribution points as well.

The only reason Ogras didn’t pass him in total contribution was that the third wave actually only took around 4 hours in total. It took a few hours more apart from that to clear out the unrelenting Zombies, but when the third leader was dead the quest was considered finished.

The third wave was a test of raw power in a sense. The system sent over three powerhouses with their personal armies, while it blocked any defensive or offensive arrays. There was no way to turn it into a defensive siege since a wall couldn’t block the attackers, and if Zac ran he would fail the mission.

The only real way to finish it was to possess superior raw power. And the result was clear. Two of the leaders were killed, and the third one was forced to flee while barely alive.

The wound in Zac’s side however reminded him that the victory wasn’t as clear as it might have seemed.