Imperitrix Umberosa 18 (Patreon)

Imperitrix Umberosa 18: Dark Clouds Over Troubled Waters

Standing over the ashes that once were graves, Ei felt a dampness on her face. She reached up, touching her cheek, then pulled her hand back to regard her own tears. She closed her eyes, imagining the sakura blossoms once more.

Transience.

Opening her eyes, Raiden looked up to the sky. The Sustainer of Heavenly Principles had departed her lands once more. This was different than Celestia had been, as Raiden had known.

PERPETUATE THE CYCLE.

Those had been his parting words to her. She did not yet fully understand what this Cycle was. Only that the Sustainer of Heavenly Principles demanded conflict. Not war or extermination, but constant fighting.

“This is not Eternity,” Raiden whispered to herself, clutching at her heart. What would have Makoto done in this situation? She had always been the one who handled diplomacy. Ei had been the one to forge armies and subdue their foes. Makoto had been the god of Humanity, of Eternity, of Transience, of the passage of time and of seasons.

Ei had been the god of the fickle but immortal Yokai, the god of Shadows, of unchanging stillness. This world… it needed a Makoto. But it did not have her. Much as Inazuma had lacked under Ei’s care. But she was all there was.

“Ei? They’ve come.”

Turning, Ei found Keiga there, reaching out a hesitant hand to her god, husband behind her with the three that had been summoned. There also was Tsukoyomi, lurking in the shadows and robed in darkness, her eyes gleaming as she searched for more threats. But there was nothing but ashes and desecrated graves here.

No. Not alone. Never again alone. She had a family worth fighting for.

“Thank you, Keiga,” Ei said, and looked to Barbatos’ Knights. The male was wounded, though not badly, and there was blood on his soul now. He had slain dozens if not hundreds in the fighting, but he still smiled recklessly, daring the world to come at him, a massive club on his shoulder. He reminded Ei of the Oni from her homeland, and indeed, he called himself as such.

But what was his name again? Itto? No. Something foreign.

“Red Oni,” Ei said, instead describing him by his garb and red mask, now cracked and splattered with gore. “You have done well in our service. Many now live who would have died because you silenced the guns of our foes.”

“Ah, it was nothin’, your Shoguness!” the man said in rough Japanese. He smiled at her. “I’m Itul ‘Protects the Innocent and Leads the Charge’ Armburst!”

“Indeed.” Ei nodded, then turned to the other two knights as well. One was a mortal afflicted with a parasite, one that Barbatos had tamed, and the other an Electro Allogene. Those parasites. They were the “Shards” of the Sustainer. What did it all mean? He called humans specimens and talked of experimenting on them. Such a thought… Ei had to suppress a shudder of revulsion. She had met gods who thought of Mortals as nothing but such pawns before. She had taken great pleasure in slaying them.

To abuse mortals, especially your own mortals, was akin to molesting your own children. It was an obscene sin, for which there was only one greater a god could commit. To know that this Sustainer planned such a thing for his so-called “evolution” as a part of his “cycle” was disgusting in the extreme. Ei had chosen her path well. But she had far to go before she could reach its inevitable terminus.

“You also have fought bravely. I thank you both,” Ei decreed.

“Honor to serve, your Excellency,” the allogene managed, her head bowed.

The other glanced up at Ei, half fearful, but Ei smiled at her. The girl blushed and looked back down. She reminded Ei of a rabbit. Adorable. How could one even conceive of forcing mortals to fight for their own amusement? It was one thing to lead mortals into battle, but Ei shared the risk with them, and treated them as her comrades. It was not the same. True, they were by no means equals, but that did not lessen the value that mortals had. After all, was it not a god's true purpose to protect, nurture, and guide their mortals, much as a parent did for their own children?

It was a principle Ei had forgotten for many long years. But never had she perverted it as this Sustainer did.

“I send you now back to Barbados,” Ei said, relishing the mispronunciation. For once, she was playing a prank on that irksome wind sprite. Too often had she found herself on the receiving end of Barbatos’ little jokes. Now, she could play one on him in return.

“The war is over then?” the not-Oni asked, looking up hopefully. He was one who enjoyed a fight, the contest, but not the killing. A true Warrior.

“No. But your role in it is accomplished. I return you now with a message. Find Barbatos, and give him this.” Ei handed them an electro crystal. Short of summoning Barbatos herself, this was the most secure means of communication she had. It contained memories, and thoughts within it, that she and Barbatos shared. From the end of the Archon War, and from the Cataclysm in Khaenri'ah. Barbatos would understand what they meant. No other, even this new Sustainer, should be able to suss out the meaning, or even access the thoughts.

For some reason, this Sustainer lacked that divine spark. He was powerful, more powerful perhaps than even Celestia or all the Descenders, but he was no god. He should not be able to access this.

“Should anyone else attempt to take this from you, destroy it at once,” Ei ordered, and the Knights nodded, promising they would do so. Then Ei bade them depart, not opening a portal. They would return upon the winds, as was appropriate for Knights of Favonius.

And Ei did not wish to anger the Sustainer further by stretching her hand too far. She had become too bold, too confident that the Sustainer was ignoring her and would let her run rampant. She would not make such a mistake again.

“Well? Now what?” Mushu asked, folding his arms over his chest once the Knights were gone.

“I must rebuild,” Ei said, turning back to face the grave of Nakamura. Her advisor. Her friend. One of the first mortals she had learned to love and respect in… how long? Hundreds of years, if not thousands. Even before Makoto had perished, Ei had withdrawn from the mortal world in many ways. It hurt too much to see mortals vanish in what felt like mere moments.

But she had let herself grow bonds again. The pain was familiar. As was the resolve it gave her.

“But the Yangban must pay. Tsukoyomi?”

“Yes, mother.” Her youngest daughter was at her side in a moment, kneeling before her. Ei rested a hand on Tsukoyomi’s head. She was close. Soon, she would embody her aspect, and become all she was meant to be.

Then let the Sustainer threaten her lands.

“Find the Yangban. But do not kill them.”

“Mother?” Tsukoyomi looked up, her face blank, but her mind confused.

“Cut out their parasites. Leave them without power.”

A faint smile crossed Tsukoyomi’s face. “It will be as you command.”

“Oh, and Tsukoyomi?” Ei said, as if in after thought. She met her daughter’s eyes, and gave a cold smile. She reached between her breasts, and pulled forth her blade. “Make the parasites bleed.”

Her smile was returned, as Tsukoyomi nodded silently. Accepting the sword from her mother, she retreated back into the shadows with her Shuumatsuban. She was the shadow now, with Ei the Lightning’s Glow. How times changed.

Turning back towards the grave, Ei regarded the crater. The Sustainer wished to punish her, did he? Wished to desecrate her memorial to her friends? Very well.

Let him suffer as she had. He had said nothing of not harming the Parasites. Only of leaving his “specimens” alive. He wanted data? He sought conflict? Ei would feed him conflict until he vomited.

Taking a long pull from the bottle, Shen Yu looked around his room. The finest of everything. From the wall panels dating back to the Qing Dynasty that would have been the envy of museums and collectors the world over, to the exquisite Ming vases, to the luxurious four poster bed where his two concubines slept, all of it was everything a mortal man could have desired. A display of his wealth and power in the extreme, though he had always kept to the shadows.

He looked down at his bottle, a 1945 Chateu d’Yquem, valued at over $100,000 a bottle. And here he was, drinking it without a glass. Sommeliers the world over would weep to see this. He took another long pull, then spoke without looking up.

“Well? What are you waiting for? Just end it.”

The demon stepped into the room, two black shadows behind her. “Shen Yu. You have been found an enemy of eternity.”

With a sneer, Shen Yu pitched the bottle at Raiden. Even drunk as he was, his aim was good, but it didn’t matter. She stepped aside easily, and it slammed against a 300 year old wall panel, then began to leak wine over the rich silk carpets. Shen Yu stood, pulling open his silk robes to expose his breast. “You’ve beaten me. I could have won. Should have won. I saw the path, but I did not see you. What even are you?”

Raiden did not respond, even as one of Shen Yu’s concubines awoke from her drug and alcohol fueled stupor. She saw the two ninjas and the God of Thunder, then screamed.

“Depart,” Raiden ordered the woman, not looking away from Shen Yu. “It is not you I have come for.”

The woman fled, not waking her companion. Shen Yu glanced at her, then blanched. His power told him all he needed to know. Heroin overdose. Well, not a bad way to go. He could have taken that way out, but something wouldn’t let him. He needed to spit in god’s eye, one last time.

He attempted to do so, sucking up spittle, but Raiden was there in an instant, blade hovering over his eye.

“Do it!” he hissed. “You and I both know I am guilty of nothing but having the weaker power! You are strong, so take what you want!”

He didn’t need his power to know what was happening even now. He had gathered his Yangban around him for one last stand, but he’d know it was meaningless. So he’d retreated into his den for one last party before it all burned down.

“You are not the one I am here for either,” Raiden whispered. Even if he hadn’t been drunk and high on a cocktail of drugs that should have killed him, Shen Yu couldn’t have comprehended what she meant, even with his power.

Then the Voice spoke directly into his mind.

KNOW THIS, PARASITE. THOUGH I WILL NOT VIOLATE THE DICTATES OF THE SUSTAINER, YOUR TRESPASS UPON MY MOTHER’S DOMAIN DID NOT GO UNNOTICED. YOU WISH FOR DATA, FOR CONFLICT? VERY WELL. I GIVE YOU NOW A TASTE OF WAR.

Then the blade passed through Shen Yu’s head. He fell to his knees, wetting himself as his bowels emptied. He trembled, expecting to see his vision split like it did in the movies, as pain filled his every sensation.

“Heal him. Do not let him perish,” Raiden ordered, sheathing her sword between her breasts somehow as she turned away.

One of the ninjas stepped forward, and lightning arched over Shen Yu’s body. He cried out in pain, collapsing to his hands and knees and vomiting, more from the toxins suddenly and violently exiting his system than the pain.

When his vision cleared, he was alone. Raiden was gone, as were the ninjas. Slowly, Shen Yu stood up, looking around. Aside from the hole in his wall panel from his bottle of wine, and the stain from his own sick, the room was in good order. Well, save for the cooling body of his concubine. What was her name? Ling? It wasn’t important.

Shen Yu reached for his power, tried to calculate the angles, to figure out what was happening.

But there was nothing there.

He put his fingers to his temple to massage it, trying to summon his power, but… nothing. His thoughts raced, but they were normal, human thoughts. Not the whispers of forbidden knowledge his power had given him. He raced to the bathroom, examining himself, but he was whole and healthy, aside from the fact that he was drenched in his own sick and fecal matter.

So, he showered off. Then he left his room, dressed in one of his suits. His servants were there, and greeted him nervously.

“Summon the Yangban and the Emperor,” Shen Yu ordered, and they hurried to obey.

Soon, the Emperor, Null, One, and Ling Ta were in the primary meeting hall.

“What is the situation?” Shen Yu demanded, looking around the room.

“We still are out of contact with most of the countryside,” Ling Ta informed him. “We have contact with most of our military bases, but there is no movement from the Chinese. Almost all our civilian infrastructure is gone, and we have limited communications with the outside world.”

“Fine, what of you. Did the Shuumatsuban visit you? What of Raiden?” Shen Yu demanded.

Null, who had been sitting slumped in a chair with his mask off, looked up. “Oh, she visited us. The same as you. It’s gone for you too, isn’t it?”

Cold sweat ran down Shen Yu’s spine. Impossible. There was no way she… Heartbreaker. His own human memory called that back. He’d been quick before he got his powers, with a good memory. With his powers, he’d been unstoppable. But he remembered the rumors about Heartbreaker. His Corona Pollentia had been cut out.

He whirled to One, who was playing with the holster on her belt. Since when had she started carrying a gun? “Well? What of you?”

“She cut me, but she didn’t cut me,” One said, her voice quavering. “I could do nothing to stop her. I had six full squads around me. She cut us all. But none of us died. I had to kill half of them with a gun when my mind control failed. They went mad, turned on us.”

“What? Impossible,” the Emperor said, sitting up in his chair. He turned to Shen Yu, nostrils flaring. “You assured us that this would not happen! That the Yangban were stronger, that she-”

Shen Yu let the young idiot talk, then went over and took the gun from One. Then he pointed it at the Emperor, who trailed off, face going pale.

“I always hated you,” Shen Yu said quietly. “Now be a good little puppet, and shut up. I need to think.”

Swallowing, the Emperor nodded, and Shen Yu tapped the gun to his lips, pacing back and forth as he thought. All the Yangban? He had nearly 150 trained capes, though he’d had more than 200 a week earlier. That should have been impossible. But if she’d taken out One and Null…

“We still control the military,” Shen Yu said finally, turning to the rest of the room, lowering the gun. He started, realizing how foolish and close to death he’d been. One didn’t play with a gun like that if one wanted to live.

He deliberated while handing the pistol back to One, then put his hands behind his back, clasping them to keep them from trembling. “We continue on. We can rebuild. We blame Scion for this. Unify the country against him and the Japanese threat.”

The others in the room nodded slowly. They were used to doing what Shen Yu ordered, and they had no plans of their own. Shen Yu forced himself to smile, to relax slightly. “We act as though nothing has happened to the Yangban. We have Tinkertech stored away. We can fake powers until we get some new capes under our thumbs.”

Hastily, everyone agreed, and they all got to work. And for ten days, the plan went smoothly. They reestablished order in Beijing, and they were able to repair enough of the infrastructure to get water and electricity in key government facilities.

Then the riots started.

The problem was simple: no water. In pre-modern times, the water came from the Yangze and Yongding Rivers, and canals had supplied most of the water to the citizens. But the water in the rivers and canals was now too polluted to be safely drunk without water treatment, so there were 18 water treatment facilities throughout the city. But without power, the facilities no longer worked. And without power, most residences and buildings could not pump in water for drinking regardless.

People had turned to the rivers, and that had worked well enough for one week. But now the sewage was backing up, with no water being pumped to buildings. Some still worked, but effluent was getting into the canals and rivers. Cholera began to spread through the city like wildfire, along with dysentery and typhoid fever.

The first riots were brutally quelled by the military and police, who had been the priority for repair work for water and sewage systems, and who had hardened structures that had survived the EMP blast.

But fires were started in the riots, and with almost no functioning fire suppression systems, or functioning firefighting equipment, it was impossible to put them out. The fires further contaminated the water supply, and burned down many stores that had bottled water and food.

Then people began to notice that the Yangban were not present. Generals began to question Shen Yu as to why he wasn’t deploying the Yangban to deal with the riots or fires. He made excuses, claiming they needed to guard against another attack by Japan. There had been attacks, mostly in Hong Kong, which had declared independence with the help of Japan, and there was very little that Shen Yu could do.

Soon, Hong Kong had food and water, but still no power. It was a slap in the face to China, as Raiden supplied her allies there with everything they needed. A woman named Keqing, who had been some sort of business magnate in the city, declared that Hong Kong was once more a “free economic zone” and no longer beholden to the Chinese Union Imperial.

Shen Yu’s generals watched, and waited. Some demanded to know if the Yangban would contest Hong Kong. Shen Yu prevericated and stated they needed to be ready for attacks closer to home, that they would take back Hong Kong one day, when their strength returned.

Then a general in Guangzhou declared himself dictator and seized power there, ignoring Shen Yu’s orders. He was popular, and nearly all of his troops stayed loyal to him.

“Surely you will deploy the Yangban now,” one of Shen Yu’s staff officers said. “Raiden is not behind this. We cannot allow the Union to crumble.”

“I will consider it,” Shen Yu stated.

That night, Shen Yu woke just in time to see the cord wrapped around his neck by a military officer. He died gasping, choking, and utterly powerless.. The rest of the Yangban, now powerless, were similarly murdered, save those who had fled quietly in the days previous.

The Emperor of China, however, was not killed that day. He died two weeks later when food rioters overwhelmed his guards and stormed the palace. The general who had attempted to seize control of Beijing died in an ambush from a rival general, and the city descended into chaos.

In the coming weeks, Tibet and Xinjiang would break away from China, Tibet rather painlessly and successfully as the CUI military troops there had mostly been pulled away to face Japan and hadn’t returned, Xinjiang less so as the various ethnic groups fought it out amongst themselves and with Han Chinese forces under various warlords.

The rest of the nation soon followed as petty warlords rose up and vied for dominance. The most successful were those with Vision Holders and Parahumans in their employ. Vision Holders had been imprisoned by the Yangban as they were difficult to brainwash and couldn’t be folded into the hivemind, and with the chaos of the CUI’s collapse permeating throughout China, fresh parahumans were triggering by the score.

Notably, for one month after Raiden had visited China, there were no fresh triggers in Beijing, nor for approximately 1000 km in any direction. That made forces in the South and West of the nation far stronger than the rest, having a much larger pool of parahumans to pull from.

Still, throughout the Middle Kingdom, the Warlord Era of the early 20th century replayed itself in bloody fashion. Chaos and discord rained, with conflict aplenty.

But while The Warrior was pleased, his Shards were not. The being known as Scion hadn’t felt it when two score of his shards were utterly destroyed, and five times that number badly damaged. That would have been like someone noticing when a handful of cells in their body quit working. Such things happened, and weren’t worth noticing.

But the Shard Network had gotten the message from the Raiden Shogun loud and clear. It had witnessed the death of its members in spectacular fashion when time and space were rent asunder, and the voice of a god had spoken to them for the first time.

DO NOT MAKE WAR UPON JAPAN AND MY ETERNITY EVER AGAIN.

For a time, fresh triggers didn’t even happen in Japan, though that eventually changed as the Shards were too eager for fresh data on the Raiden Shogun. Still, many flatly refused to find new specimens there, considering the risk too great. Those that did so found that they lost contact with the specimens, and bits of themselves were cut off. It was fascinating, and they kept probing, trying to understand how and why.

A human child would have learned not to touch a bare wire after a single shock, but Shards lacked that much imagination and creativity. They would continue to stick their forks into the wall socket in slightly different ways, to study what would happen, and try to discern why.

But they never realized it was themselves that were being studied in turn.

When the fighting started, Dr. Myung had gone to the shelters like everyone else in Seoul. He had prayed quietly to Raiden while he’d been hiding underground like a barnacle in its shell, and he knew he wasn’t alone in that. Not many Koreans believed in her divinity like he did, but now she had taken to the battlefield on their behalf. True, the war was at least party her fault, but it was more so the fact that the DPRK had finally shown that there could be no more bargaining with it. If they were willing to attack the Raiden Shogun, how much longer before they attacked their southern neighbors?

When the radio had announced that nuclear missiles had been launched, Dr. Myung had closed his eyes,hugged his wife and daughter and his grandchildren tightly, and waited for death.

Only for minutes later the announcement to come:

“The Raiden Shogun has summoned the Kamikaze to shelter South Korea. All North Korean missiles destroyed!”

Wild cheers and jubilation had broken out in the bunker, as families cried and hugged one another, and everyone celebrated.

Hours later, the fighting was over, and everyone was allowed out of the shelters again. Seoul seemed completely unscathed at first, until Dr. Myung had noticed something: no lights. Not even flashing streetlights. It was the middle of the day, so it took a little while, but his blood ran cold at that.

“EMP,” he breathed, and he knew fear. So. It was the slow death for them, then. Seoul had some hardened systems, but without power, they could die of starvation and disease. If that didn’t claim them, then the slow economic death would, as the lack of power killed the Korean economy.

Perhaps they had won the war, but they would all die of the price of it.

Then two dragons descended upon Seoul.

PEOPLE OF KOREA. FEAR NOT. THE RAIDEN SHOGUN DOES NOT FORGET HER ALLIES IN TIME OF NEED. THOUGH IT WAS THE TREACHERY OF SCION THAT COST YOU POWER, YOU NEED NOT WORRY. UNTIL YOUR PLANTS ARE REPAIRED, I SHALL WATCH OVER YOU.

The rumbling voice of Mushu was familiar enough, and Dr. Myung wanted in awe as the massive 100 meter long dragon flew low over the city. Breaking into a run, he arrived just in time to see Mushu land on a power plant, where with a roar, he began to generate a massive field of purple lightning, infusing it with a power Dr. Myung recognized well.

“Electro,” he whispered in awe, and turned to see the stop lights flicker back on.

Leaving behind the dragon, Dr. Myung hastened to the university, where he assembled what electro crystals he had collected. He had several large Electro crystals, and more smaller ones, but how long they would last, he had no idea. They couldn’t provide power to an entire city, that much was certain, but they could be used to power say, a hospital’s generators, provided all the electrical equipment wasn’t totally shot.

Taking the crystals, Dr. Myung hurried back to the power plant with the dragon roosting on it, explaining to the police his plan.

“If we can charge these, then they can power some vital equipment, if not hear than in other cities! Surely just being near Lord Mushu would be enough!” he told the sergeant.

After a few calls, Myung was let through, and he hurried to where Mushu was clinging to the damaged generators, placing the crystals around him.

“Thank you,” Myung said, bowing to Mushu.

DON’T THANK ME YET. I CAN’T KEEP THIS UP FOREVER, Mushu growled. TELL THEM THEY GET ANOTHER THREE OR FOUR HOURS OF POWER, THEN I’VE GOT TO TAKE A REST.

Hurrying into the plant office, Myung was drawn into the conversation, being an expert on Electro.

“He’s not putting out enough power for the whole city at maximum capacity, we still have rolling brownouts,” the chief engineer explained.

“We need more Electro Crystals!” Dr. Myung said with a shake of his head. “Even limited power is better than nothing. How many do we have, how much charge can they hold?”

“Not enough, but we’ll get as many more as we can,” the plant manager sighed, shaking his head. “This will take years to fix. And until then, we’re utterly reliant on a Japanese dragon. This is madness.”

“Better to have a Japanese Dragon than not, especially when Pyongyang would have nuked us,” Myung said with a snort of distaste.

Two days later, a Captain Bukdu arrived will a cargo of more than 10 tons of electro crystals, all harvested from the Desolation with the help of Japanese, Korean, and various other Vision Holders from around South East Asia. Mushu was giving them only a few hours of power a day, but combined with the crystals, it meant that vital services were able to be kept in power. There were still deaths and hardship, and it would be years before the Korean economy would recover, especially as they had to rebuild their newly reunited Northern provinces.

The long process of rebuilding had begun, but Dr. Myung and the rest of his country had learned a valuable lesson: The Raiden Shogun would not abandon her allies.