Chapter 611 — The Situation Wavers

"Yes," Byron acknowledged in a low voice. But after that brief solemnity he could not help grinning. "I daresay the plains nobles along the Dolgon will panic — if they are still alive, that is. More likely they will not even recognize our advanced warships..."

"This is a serious occasion," Philip cut in at once, face stern, then turned to Gao Yang. "My lord, what of the army combat corps?"

"Hold for now."

Intelligence was still insufficient. Gao Yang did not yet dare judge how severe the corruption or "curse" in the eastern plains truly was, nor how that uncanny "crystal cluster" spread, nor what had become of the royal army or the Eastern Marches forces in those regions. Severely short on information, it would be unwise to rashly commit ground troops.

On the other hand, the mighty arcane warships possessed a power that was all but unanswerable in this age, along with exceptional survivability; and a warship sailing the water could largely evade the "plague" threat from the land, and even if it did meet trouble, it could quickly withdraw.

Weighing both factors, he had decided to first send the arcane warships into the Dolgon River — to sail north along the river and confirm the state of the Holy Spirit Plains, while establishing reliable naval gun support along the channel and preparing the way for ground forces to enter. Only afterward, once Solinborg had gathered more intelligence, would he consider sending the following war machines and infantry into what might already be a very dangerous "corrupted zone"...

— The area where the royal army and the Eastern Marches faced off lay at the Giantwood Pass, somewhat east in the Holy Spirit Plains; though it counted as the eastern plains, it was in fact already close to the central region, and the Dolgon River ran right past that stretch. Thus the guns in the channel could provide effective support to ground forces on the eastern bank.

The meeting ended. Most of those present left the chamber, but Gao Yang kept Camille and Pi Yun behind.

"About those 'crystal-infected' Solinborg mentioned — what do you make of them?" Gao Yang's gaze swept between the two masters (though one of them, it seemed, was rather watered down), and settled at last on Camille. "It does sound very much like the 'godspawn' of those years, and yet the details seem different?"

"Quite right. Not quite the same as the godspawn in my memory," Camille nodded, his voice buzzing. "The godspawn we made back then — even the worst-crystallized batch — only grew crystal at the major joints, accompanied by swelling and distortion of the body. But by Solinborg's account, the 'infected' he saw had crystal covering more than half the surface of their bodies, almost a kind of creature compounded of crystal and organic matter..."

He paused there, then went on: "It gives me a very strange feeling. Our godspawn research back then was an effort to reduce the carriers' tendency toward 'alienation,' to make them more human even as they carried the godspawn factor. But what Solinborg saw... goes to the opposite extreme. It is working to make people... inhuman."

"Perhaps this is what they call the 'Great Evolution' — casting off the human body and embracing the new forms that mutation brings," Gao Yang shook his head, then turned his gaze to Pi Yun. "From what you know, by what routes do you think this 'infection' might spread? Or rather, what preventive measures would be most effective?"

"However strange the All-Ending Order's 'plague spells' may look, at bottom they are still plague, and plague spreads by only a few routes — water, food, air, and corruption through cursed corpses. Airborne transmission is the most efficient route, but it usually carries only the weaker plagues, and is easily dispersed by ritual magic. Next come water and food; the All-Ending Order favors those two above all, though boiling drinking water and thoroughly heating food deal with them effectively. As for the last — cursed corpses carry the strongest corrupting power, because flesh itself is an excellent casting material, and that is why our various burners are so necessary: every corpse must be burned, foe and friend alike, highborn and low, and reducing them to ash in the shortest possible time is always safest. And before burning, close or direct contact must be minimized — if contact is unavoidable, proper isolation measures must be taken, and detection spells used to confirm safety."

Gao Yang rubbed his chin. "Sounds like there's nothing particularly special about it..."

"To us, and to the people of the Southern Marches, perhaps. But out on the Holy Spirit Plain, any one of those transmission routes is deadly enough," Pi Yun said, shedding his usual flippancy. He twirled his beard and sighed under his breath. "The firewood needed to boil a single pot of water would buy you half a loaf of bread, and it's precisely because of that half loaf... that waterborne plagues can kill tens of thousands."

Silence fell over the room.

"We still have far too little information about these 'crystal cluster infections.' I can't produce a sufficiently accurate analysis," Kamael suddenly broke the silence after the brief hush. "If I had more samples, I should be able to make some progress."

"Suo Jilin will send a small squad to bring those crystal fragments back—once it's confirmed they carry no active magical properties and show no tendency to spread contamination," Gao Yan nodded. "I'll assign you a dedicated laboratory to study them. Until this incident is resolved, they will be our central focus."

...

After Kamael and Pi Yun had also departed, the room fell utterly quiet.

Gao Yang sat in his high-backed chair, quietly pondering the arrangements and developments to come.

That stillness lasted for who knew how long, until Gao Yang was abruptly startled awake by a faint stirring at the door.

He looked up to see the door quietly cracked open a narrow sliver, and a fellow whom he had nearly forgotten even existed was poking half his body in, peering about.

Tire.

Gao Yang had left his territory back in the autumn of last year and had been busy with the project near the wasteland ever since. It truly had been far too long since he'd seen this fellow.

In truth, though, even when he stayed in the territory, he had little time to meet Tire—since the weather turned cold last year, this sea slug had brazenly gone into hibernation, sleeping twenty hours a day in the pool. On occasion it crawled out only to bask on the balcony and flip itself over, behaving for all the world as though it had forgotten where it came from and where it was going... Speaking of which, why had this creature suddenly shown up?

A flicker of puzzlement rose in Gao Yang's mind, and he watched as Tire wriggled in, one heave at a time. The shame of all sea-kraken looked around the room once and wore a blank expression. "Oh—weren't we having a meeting?"

Gao Yang: "..."

"It finished ages ago," Gao Yang said, marshaling every ounce of his ability to keep his expression from collapsing, though he could not help staring at this saltwater freak with a peculiar look. "You... actually knew there was a meeting?"

"I did. Rebecca told me. But I dozed off," Tire said, wagging the tip of his tail with a helpless air. "And then you'd already finished."

Only then did Gao Yang hazily recall that Rebecca had mentioned notifying Tire to come—the salted fish was, after all, something of a technical consultant on military industry. But at the time it had gone in one ear and out the other—he had never believed for a moment that this fish would actually show up...

He had to admit: Tire had been of no help whatsoever, yet watching this muddled sea slug squirm about the room, Gao Yang's mood somehow lifted for no reason.

Perhaps this was the power of the Deep-Sea God of Mirth.