Chapter 556 - Moonfall II (Patreon)

A bell, amplified by both skills and enchantments, rang out, the pure notes resonating through the entire villa. The entire place boiled with action as people shifted around. [Priests], [Paladins], and a dozen other assorted religious-types, along with a solid chunk of the Valkyrie Order headed towards the chapel, and I anticipated a number of arguments over who was allowed in and who would have to wait outside. I had things to do and went to find Skye, bumping into Nina on the way over.

She was doing great. Energetic, a bounce in her step and a glimmer in her eye. Life was treating her well, and I always enjoyed hearing about the improvements in people’s lives. Less so about how she got those results, but even Iona had begrudgingly admitted Nina’s strategy paid off well. The gossipy part of me wondered if she’d ever get married - a long string of boyfriends had appeared over the years, but her dedication to her craft and constant traveling put a strain that no romance had been able to overcome yet. 

My biggest concern with Nina was honestly her level. She leveled slowly - level 388 right now, maybe I was spoiled on my leveling speed and Iona’s - and some rough math on her vitality and age - mid forties - worried me. Physically, she was older than Iona at this point. That, along with Iona’s assertion that Valkyries didn’t die of old age - they died when they slowed down too much. 

Nina wanted to stay mortal as long as possible to continue honestly operating in mortal lands. ‘Only breaking one major law at a time’ sort of thing. 

“Elaine!” She quickly stepped in, wrapping me in a tight hug. Her fur was so soft, and it was always a miracle how tall she had gotten. 

“Hey kiddo!” I completely disregarded that she was, by all accounts, middle-aged. “Not attending the ceremony? Iona’s looking for you.” 

She shuddered. 

“I’ve got a dozen arcs riding on there being a brawl, and I think Iona will appreciate me not breaking a candelabra over a priest's head when this is all done.”

I snorted at the mental image. 

“Yeah I’m sold. Hey, walk with me, I was going to see Skye.” I said. Nina hurried after me.

“Hey, so, um, I know everyone and their brother is trying to get you to bring something with you to the moons.” She waffled, and I snorted. Nina was too old and too experienced to be waffling.

“What do you want me to bring?” I asked, cutting to the heart of the problem. She hadn’t been kidding about everyone wanting us to bring something to the moon, and once word had gotten out, we’d been inundated with various knick-nacks, items, and donations to the temple. End of the day we only paid for a few initial items, and the requests kept coming in. Including absolutely last-minute requests like Nina’s.

Of course, it was Nina - I’d be taking her requested item one way or another.

“They’re over here.” Nina beckoned, and led me deep into the Valkyrie-claimed portion of the villa. It was all ours - but some parts I mostly stayed out of to respect their privacy, just like they stayed out of ‘our’ wing. 

Nina tapped a crate, and I gasped as I saw what was inside.

“Nina! It’s beautiful!” I said, and she flushed with embarrassment, handing me a sheet of paper.

“Here are the calculations for it. If…”

I didn’t let her finish her sentence, swooping the kitsune into a hug.

“Of course we will.”

“Can you keep it a surprise until you get there?” She asked.

I grinned impishly.

“Oooh, that sounds like fun, yeah! I’ll do that!” I hefted the crate, and with a bit of effort, popped into [Tower of Knowledge].

The years had been kind to my skill leveling, if not my class levels, and I had a whopping 43 floors. The first floor had been retooled in preparation for this mission, filled with endless emergency measures. The second floor was my combat floor, my entire armory carefully stationed, and the third to tenth floor were purely survival supplies for the trip. 

I gently floated through the floors, snagging some clips on the twentieth - the ‘tower supplies’ floor - and noted that I seemed to be getting low on barrels again. Might make a few more when we got back, see if I could level [Dexterous and Handy]. 

Temple supplies were kept near the top, and I blessed the zero-gravity in here, along with Nina’s thoughtful decision to pack everything in a crate. I gently pushed the box where it belonged, then strapped it down so it wouldn’t float around.

Technically, nothing should move without me pushing it around, and I didn’t need the straps. In practice, I never got anything to truly zero speed, and it would be far too easy to set off a long chain reaction. I’d un-fucked my tower once, I wasn’t going to do it again.

Nevermind that I’d want to reorder the floors again after the mission.

Satisfied, I popped back to existence.

“Right! I need to find Skye.” I said. “Want to come, or was that it?”

“That’s it!” Nina said. “Thank you so much again!”

“Oh, nothing to it, you’re family, of course!” I said.

Nina’s hug was to hide her tearing up, but she forgot about [The World Around Me] - I could see everything. I patted her on the back.

“Pssst.” I mock-whispered to her. “If you want to get involved in the ‘surprise’ the Valkyries are trying to pull, you should leave now.”

Nina pulled back and looked at me in horror, and I winked at her.

“I haven’t told Iona yet, don’t worry. But it is my house, I know what goes on here. Now shoo!”

The Fox Valkyrie looked even more horrified at that, and I chuckled to myself as I went to meet Skye. Amber was there, looking like she’d just rolled in, and frankly, at this point, I just expected her to show up at exactly the right moment.

Eye and limp or not, losing a third class or not, the deal she made with the fae continued to pay off for her. She turned with a serious expression on her face.

“Got lucky.” She said. “Managed to find an auction house that was willing to advertise what we were selling, and the winning bid was 5.6 million arcs.”

Skye and I whistled.

One of the ways we’d helped fund the entire thing - Skye knew the exact numbers, and looking at them made me sick to my stomach - was we’d auctioned off a single ‘we’ll bring this to the moon for you’ slot. Amber had projected a little short of a million arcs - multiple lifetime earnings - but had clearly done better than that.

“What are we bringing?” I asked.

“An urn.” She patted her bag. “And a small plaque.”

Skye’s eyebrows hit the roof and I staggered over to a chair, putting my face in my hands.

“Oh Ciriel.” I swore.

=====================================

The meeting with Skye had to happen at the last minute, and was of critical importance.

Skye had acquired and managed to hide literal crates of books, all of which I’d happily taken into [Repository] without looking at them closely. The upcoming trip promised to be boring as hell once the initial excitement was done, and I needed some serious entertainment or else I’d go insane. Possibly literally. 

[*ding!* [Repository of the Magus] leveled up! 651 -> 652]

The last minute meeting with Skye went well, and soon a holy procession was emerging from the castle, a small amount of divine might causing the candle to flicker in unusual ways. Iona naturally led the procession, carrying the candle, and honestly one of our biggest challenges in all this. 

Going to the moon by myself? Relatively simple.

Going to the moon with Iona? Now we had challenges.

Going to the moon with Iona, and bringing a sacred candle? Whoof.

The candle was a big sucker, at least 16 pounds, and had a number of rings on it to try and help tell time. We had a few protective casings for it that would help oxygen come in, and destroy smoke and carbon dioxide. 

At the same time, a [Paladin] of the Moon Goddesses building a literal consecrated temple to them on the moon? Her level-ups were going to be legendary. Nobody would bet with me if her eyes were going to turn Gravity instead of Celestial over it.

“Sorry, gotta run.” I apologized to Skye, with minimal fanfare. It felt weird - so long planning, and this was sort of how I was saying goodbye? I had to remind myself it wasn’t forever, and did my best dashing impression, restricted by my suit, and zipped out.

It was going to take the procession a few minutes to make it from the villa to the front door, and I decided to treat myself just a hair by bouncing awkwardly through my beloved mango grove.

I’d planted every seed myself, lovingly tended to every sprouted sapling over the years. Slowly coaxed them into growth, pruned them when needed. Fertilized them, found skill-enhanced soil, cut back offending trees trying to shade them, cast enchantments and rewrote reality. I’d used several tricky spells and spent far too many hours working out how I could ‘stagger’ the trees, such that there was always one with ripening fruit. My own little slice of paradise, a heaven made here on Pallos. I went through the grove, finding a few more mangos that had achieved the perfect ripeness, and carefully picked them for my trip.

Or for now. Depending on my self control.

[*ding!* [Tender Gardening] leveled up! 371 -> 372]

Beautiful loot secured, I met the procession at the terrace.

The sky was clear and the stars were beautiful, this entire thing happening at nightime. It was one part ‘vampires are more active at night’ and several thousand parts ‘we need the stars to navigate’

I winked at Iona as I fell in behind her, all the [Priests] and various other religious types singing hymns and more. A cheeky part of me wanted to pray to Ciriel, but I could feel the sheer weight of divine attention on us.

Selene and Lunaris were invested in this. 

Frankly, the project was great for basically everyone. Levels galore, money circling madly, fame and prestige all around - what was there not to like? The procession marched down the mountain trail, where the Valkyries had set up their surprise. It wasn’t quite an arch of steel, but they made their presence known in a thunderous display. 

Honestly, they could’ve just asked to join the procession instead of going all cloak-and-dagger over it, but I wasn’t going to rain on their parade.

Fenrir hovered overhead. He could fly impossibly slowly if he wanted to, another miracle of dexterity. 

I sent a longing gaze at my beloved mango trees, wondering if they’d be alright in my absence. I’d set everything up ahead of time. I’d pruned the trees, pollinated the flowers, put fertilizer by them all, trimmed back the forest’s trees to make sure they got light, pulled up weeds, and enchanted it to the gills - but I still worried about them. 

I quickly caught glimpses of the Sixth Legion at the foot of the mountain, the men and women whose lives I was responsible for utterly destroying anyone’s hope of traversing the road normally. One did not simply go around a fully deployed Legion, and Katerina was hoping enough pomp, ceremony, and effort around this would cause everyone to gain levels. Then there was the morale factor, and a bit of an excuse to throw a party and have people go to Sanguino for a bit. A fair take, and I took brief flight near the bottom, drifting over to a palanquin specially for me.

I recognized tons of faces in the crowd, the men and women I’d spent so much time with. I could only name about a third of them easily, but with thousands and thousands of people and names, I was satisfied with that.

Oh! Nix had gotten promoted! He was a line leader now! Good for him. I’d been worried when he first came to my door and said he wanted to join the army. So far, he’d survived and thrived, and my guilt over the situation was slowly lessening. 

“Sentinel Dawn.” Katerina smiled at me. “Good to see you here.”

“Can’t wait to get rid of me?” I teased. She snorted in amusement.

“If I could only be so lucky. Legion! Forward! March!” She commanded, and with great fanfare, we set off.

I was tempted to break into my book stash thirty seconds after we started. Holy Ciriel above, I’d forgotten how slowly an entire Legion moved, and how far away we were from Sanguino. I managed to hold out for another two minutes by leaning on my vanity aspect, but rapidly got suuuuuuuper bored. Iona and the rest were still waiting on the road, waiting for us to pass! THE REAR OF THE LEGION HADN’T EVEN STARTED MOVING! This was pure agony. Torture. The worst of the worst. The corner of Katerina’s mouth twitched at my obvious discomfort.

“Something the matter, Sentinel Dawn?” She asked with a traitorously straight face.

Actually… I was bored, chatting or trading insults would pass the time.

“Your face.” I flippantly replied, grabbing the handles of the palanquin as the legionaries carrying me missed a step. 

Katerina shot me a flat look, and I replied with a smug one. I was on vacation, and the War Sentinel attached to a Legion was socially equal.

“I’m so sorry to hear how terrible your taste in faces is.” Katerina smoothly replied. “Perhaps some ogres from Osmonpondia would be more to your taste?”

I mimed being shot by an arrow, and the parade quickly passed as we traded good-natured barbs. A few of the soldiers were brave enough to join in, much to Katerina’s consternation. 

About a mile outside of the city, a scruffy dog ran up to us with a missive between his teeth.

“Marley!?” I half-shouted at Night’s immortal pooch. I skimmed the letter with [The World Around Me], laughing at the contents.

Elaine,

I have given the subject much thought. As you well know, I am predisposed to allowing others to make their own mistakes, and to face challenges they themselves have selected unwarned. In this instance, at the final hour before you depart, Susan has strongly advocated for you, and my heart has wavered a small amount, and I do not wish to see one of my oldest friends die. And yet, I do not wish to simply hand the solution to you to read. Marley is going to return with a second letter. I wish for you to store it without glimpsing at its contents, and to only read it in case everything should go wrong. With that being said, and this is of critical importance - READ BEFORE YOU TELEPORT.

Please do not reach for my letter first. Try a thousand different tactics and solutions, endeavor to solve the problem yourself, before reaching for the crutch that is the answer hand-delivered to you. 

Yours,

Night

Arachne here. 

While Night’s sending you all a letter, I figured I’d add on. The Moon Cult was planning a large-scale sabotage of the operation. Given the size and severity, I personally stepped in, and it’s been handled. Launch away with no concern on that front!

I’ll be personally watching!

Arachne

Marley ran all the way up to the soldiers carrying my palanquin and started to trot along, wagging his tail while he panted.

“Thank you Marley.” I said. One of Katerina’s [Adjuncts] snorted and offered his hand to the dog, who promptly delivered it then scampered off towards the city. The [Adjunct] tried to offer me the letter, and I mentally shrugged, pulling it into [Repository].

My personal library was getting a workout today! The little dog appeared a few minutes later, bearing a second letter. My curiosity was so powerful, but I trusted Night, and I stored it without reading. 

The city gates were thrown open at our approach, and I happily let my healing extend as far as I could push it. [Universal Cure’s] range was a good chunk over a kilometer, but I knew it wasn’t at a kilometer and a half yet. More precise measurements hadn’t occurred. Occasionally I checked behind me to see what Iona was doing, but the winding streets quickly made that pointless.

There was one heck of a turnout for the event, even though the Sixth wasn’t returning triumphantly from some campaign or another. I still felt like we’d been robbed after returning from the Han Empire and not getting a parade - I suppose this made up for it. I could see morale going up in a thousand smiling faces from the soldiers as we marched through the city.

The crowds loved us. Flowers and small candies were thrown at us, magical dust floated around, arcanite coins rained down - half of them were illusions - skills were fired off by absolutely everyone, and one grinning soldier peeled off an expertly shot pair of underwear, blowing a kiss back into the crowd.

Then we were at the colosseum, and the Sixth parted smoothly up the stairs while I waited for Iona.

Then hand in hand, divine candle in Iona’s other hand, we walked into the area filled with a hundred thousand cheering citizens, with the object of all this fuss right in the middle, pointing up.

The Argo II.