2938 Exploitation Rights (Part 2)
Only a small part of the private colonists would be actual farmers while the rest would be miners and Crystalsmiths. Abominations couldn't work in the mines, but they could still Chaos Warp everyone to destination, protect the settlers, and use earth magic to develop the fields.
The mana geysers would also ensure a steady supply of energy for the members of the Organization, ensuring that they would leave no trace of their existence.
As for the mined goods, until Vastor found a way to safely smuggle them via the Gates, they would be stored inside dimensional amulets and collected by his hybrids from time to time.
While exploring the areas between the outposts and the mines they planned to exploit, Orulm and Abthot found an ideal spot for a settlement. It was relatively close enough to the Transoceanic Gate of Darmoq and surrounded by fertile plains.
It would have been easy to cultivate and the lack of natural obstacles made it impossible for anyone to approach the area without being noticed from a long distance. In one word, it was perfect.
So perfect that it was already taken.
"What the fuck is that?" Orulm asked in surprise.
Below the Eldritches, there was a magnificent city that extended for kilometers in every direction with streets bustling with activity. The greys stones of the defensive walls bore no trace of recent conflict and so did the merchant and residential districts inside the city.
The streets were busy but clean and the citizens were full of smiles.
Their body language and voices were relaxed which was the creepiest thing of them all. Not only because there was no one on the battlements to keep guard but also because the populace was beyond heterogeneous.
Even from above, the Eldritches could spot humans mingling with plant folk, Emperor Beasts, Lesser Divine Beasts, and even monsters. The members of the Fallen Races spoke in snarls and growls yet everyone understood them just like they understood at least ten different languages.
"What the fuck indeed." Abthot kept looking at old and new maps of the area, finding no mention of such a city even in Jiera's Council reports dating right after the plague. "This place shouldn't exist. Or rather, it can't.
"Even assuming that everyone down there is an Awakened, how can they coexist with monsters and why do they speak so many languages instead of just Tyris'?"
"Wait a minute. Is it me or is the world energy thinner here?" Orulm squinted his eyes in focus as he racked his brain, feeling that there was something familiar in the city below them.
"Now that you mention it, it is thin. Let's go down a bit." The lower they went, the less world energy they felt.
It was then that Orulm noticed the lack of cultivated fields. The green areas inside the city turned out to be parks filled with luscious flower bushes and trees laden with fruits. Yet the vegetation outside was withering and the soil was dry.
The inconsistent details jogged his memory but it was already too late.
As the Eldritches approached, their presence further sapped the world energy, angering the lost city of Auros. The buildings collapsed one after the other while the people inside burned alive until their physical form was lost, leaving behind only a mass of mana and life force.
As everything fell apart, a lonely figure walked out from a sloped roofed building that Orulm recognized as the temple of the sky god. The man would have been unremarkable if not for his aura of power that the Eldritches could perceive even from a great distance.
A power that grew exponentially stronger as the city around the man collapsed and the energy released by the dead flooded his body.
Soon flesh and blood were no longer capable of containing the collective might of Auros. The man's mana core freed itself from the constrains of a mortal body and turned into a giant figure comprised of golden light.
["Leave now or die. I won't stand parasites to live."] Auros said.
["The pot calls the kettle black, old man."] Orulm replied in the same dead language. ["I almost didn't recognize you after the makeover. The last time we met, you were much smaller and had but a fraction of the slaves you have now."]
[Thank you for noticing, Orulm the Breaker.] The colossus' mouth curled up in a smile filled with pride and confidence. [I haven't wasted any time since I've regained my freedom. I've taken in all those who sought for order and safety amid the chaos of this new world.
[Without the restraints of my old cage and so many new hosts, my power has soared beyond the wildest dreams of my creators. There is no limit to how much I grow, Eldritch.
[Unlike you pathetic leeches, I'm no longer restricted by the presence of mana geysers to exert the full scope of my abilities. The world energy answer to my will and the whole Mogar is my playground now!]
To prove his point, Auros emitted a burst of golden aura that lit the area as if a second sun had risen. The world energy from the surroundings swirled around him, feeding his pseudo cores and the many mana cores that supported them.
Such was the pull the lost city exerted that even the energy that inanimated things had yet to fully convert into their own mana was forcefully assimilated. Rocks cracked and plants wilted while the ground where the lost city had been until a second ago turned out to be dry and barren.
[Sorry, pal. No can do.] Orulm replied. [There's no way I can let my first mission end up in failure.]
[Then let's settle our score once and for all.] The giant raised his golden hand, pointing a single finger at the Eldritch Abomination.
A black-emerald blast comprised of Spirit and darkness magic hit Orulm with the speed and the mass of a speeding train, knocking him off the sky. Darkness magic was the bane of Abominations.
By mixing it with Spirit Magic, Auros had removed its only weakness: slow movement speed.
["Have you grown senile or did the passing of millennia haven't been kind to you?"] Auros was confused by how easy his victory was.
The lost city had used a single finger not because he believed it to be enough. Eldritches were apex predators and unless one consumed all the Chaos they had accumulated inside their bodies, they were impossible to kill.
The blast had been Auros' way to test his newfound powers and force Orulm to reveal his best spells. Thanks to his most recently acquired hosts, the lost city had a good idea of how much magic had progressed since the time of his imprisonment.
The problem was that very few among them had a proper magical education.
Auros was eager to learn and master all of the new branches of magic, something that unlike his flawed siblings like Thaymos, he could do. Auros' enchantments were as outdated as those of any lost city, but he could still study magic.
The main difference between him and any other cursed object was that Auros wasn't limited to a single host.
