CHAPTER 99: THE 20TH DAY MARK

The new Smart Assimilation Defense, or SAD for short, had transformed the New Vaingall Consortium’s grasp over the Eldritch City Xenorealm.

"Why the name, Eldritch City?" Blanchette asked since she was the last one amongst the high members of the New Vaingall Consortium. "Calling an entire alien world with their own laws and exotic environment, a city, sounds a little misleading, no?"

"Since when do you care for the nomenclature?" Kivas raised an eyebrow with a faint smirk.

"Just curious, you know."

"Well, the reason is simple," Kivas snapped her finger. "It is easy to remember, and it rolls off the tongue."

With its network of fortified gates tapping into specially tuned assimilation signatures, scouting expeditions could enter and return from the Xenorealm with significantly reduced risk.

The defensive grid filtered out hostile activities, no matter how uniquely unfounded and severe the attacks were, while facilitating controlled access to alien zones that had once been unreachable.

And just like that, within a span of a few days, the Consortium transitioned from being cautious with the Eldritch City to being a total punk who cares nothing the moment a brand new dome of SAD was deployed on an uncharted territory.

"To think that you didn’t even bring me once there, you’re quite cruel," Blanchette said with a wide smile and fully-lidded eyes, obvious to her own humor.

"As your sister, I’m obligated to care for your wellbeing, Blanchette," Kivas said with an equally sarcastic smile. "Imagine if you got sick from an alien disease, or even suffered from an allergy that no beings in Fathomi had ever contacted. You’re a precious member of the Consortium, and losing you would be a huge loss to us."

"The moment you lose your Anxiety, your sarcasm has been nothing but hurtful."

Kivas giggled. Though, her eyes barely showed any kind of kindness. "Now that I woke up, I have my eyes on every soil of Vaingall by default. Your laziness is like an open, big, and empty book. So much weight, taking so much space, yet barely has any meaning or substance."

"I want my old Kivas back."

"You can try dying," Kivas said with nothing but a kind smile, but murderous eyes. "Who knows, maybe your whole life will reset to where you first set your gaze in Fathomi. That way, you can relive the experience of your beloved old Kivas."

Seeing the two’s interaction from the sidelines, both Samael and Oizys began to feel empathy for Blanchette with how cruel Kivas’ words could be as of late.

"You know, I never thought that words said with such a smile can be so sharp at the same time," Oizys hushed over to her fellow Divine Hive. "I might have an eternal beef with that brat, but I feel quite bad."

"Fortunately, I do not care," Samael replied with pride. "The two can bicker all they want, as long as Kivas comes out as the top."

"Right, I expected too much from you," Oizys wryly smiled. "So how’s your progress?"

"It’s been a smooth wailing so far."

"I think you meant ’smooth sailing’."

Samael, who had made another breakthrough in her Genesis Core, had quietly expanded her army of divine constructs.

One hundred additional Limbo Tier Divine Constructs joined the existing force—bringing the total to two hundred Limbo Tier and one Lust Tier.

Their presence turned reconnaissance missions into organized operations. Curio items of highest rarity from the Edritch City began appearing in shipments for tradings. Not only that, exotic items were also automatically be put on the menu now that the harvesting route had been established.

Crystalline alloys with anomalous memory properties, pulsating nodes of raw energy, alien catalysts that bent gravity, and artifacts shaped by forces beyond mortal geometry.

Not only that, there had been a successful attempt to analyze and to know if the living alien monolith who sprawl deadly tentacles were even a target for poaching—organic compounds that altered wavelength absorption, alloys that resonated with soul-echoes, and tentacle-mimetic fibers woven from living void-flesh—all had been analyzed after the first successful hunt done by a group of 10 Limbo Tier Divine Constructs.

Though, deadline with more than one was still a great effort, especially since it had been found that each Nuelith—the new name assigned to the monolith that fell from the alien sky of the Eldritch City—possessed a great level of variety in terms of strength and durability in its material.

To think that Azulus could defeat a huge group of them in a single slash, Kivas still remembered how much of a great feat that was.

"This should make repairing our relationship with the Karasu Association easier," Oizys commented.

Samael merely scoffed. "There isn’t anything to be mended with. Not like we owe much to them with how much I contributed to their information gathering."

"Make sure to say those words beyond their ear lengths."

"Worry not, I have already imbued all of our temples with a strong spell concoction that would give anyone who dares to peep—a strong jolt in their groin or most sensitive area. That should teach them a lesson that we’re equal, not one below to another."

"That reminds me, don’t you think that the Claturians have been building too many temples lately?"

"As long as it is attributed to Kivas’ divinity, I don’t mind."

"I mean, we’re literally standing in a temple, made on top of a temple, with originally two temples that were close to each other as a base."

"Huh, now that you mention it, maybe they really made too many temples."

Regardless of the excessive temple predicaments—the latest discoveries related to the Eldritch City Xenorealm had promptly created a new trade bridge with the Karasu Association.

Gift shipments and proof-of-concept prototypes of the lesser variance of SAD also eased the lingering mistrust. The Consortium granted the Association access to vetted samplesIn return, the Karasu Association opened more of its merchant routes, allowing Vaingall access to pedigree goods: carbon-etched alloys, refined materials of all kinds, and rare machinery from distant ruling places.

Technology exchange flowed in both directions. The Consortium’s coffers and innovation prospects swelled accordingly, and thus the Karasu Association reaped the benefits and gave the Consortium even more benefits for being such profitable allies.

What a lovely relationship!

Sarkha’una too, buoyed by her recent role in stabilizing Yoiglah’s core and securing xenorealm wards, pitched an independent research initiative.

With the Consortium’s support, she started mapping potential key interlinks using some references of Kivas’ ongoing projects.

Her interest in alien biosigil structures dovetailed neatly with the assimilation project. To put it simply, she now had funding, staff, and access to more amenities that the Consortium procured during their influx of trading.

As for what her personal project may be, that would be a story for another passage in time.

"I’m so good at surviving now," Kivas praised herself.

"I’m so good at nodding to self-compliments now," Blanchette praised herself.

"I’ve developed resistances to tomfoolery, what a great achievement for myself," Samael nodded in praise for herself.

"The hell are you three doing?" Oizys questioned herself.

By the twentieth day of this third timeline, the core of the Consortium’s scattered holdings—temple precincts, sanctuary forts, research wings, and many more fields—had received functional S.A.D. nodes.

Travelers, envoys, and supply caravans that went through from the Karasu Association as the middleman had passed through assimilation checkpoints. Entry points activated only when that divine baseline was detected.

And as such, without the interference of the Claturians or any members of the Consortium—intruders, migrating Voidlings, and unknown wanderers were deflected with spectral coils or repelled by ward cascades that the SAD would send if the interaction was too hostile.

Obviously, they could enter just fine if the SAD found no trace of hostility in them.

Of course, staff members from the outside that could not bypass this filter could transit with a fairly distributed matching sinew-runic chips that they themselves needed to personally sign with their own spiritual signature.

It simply worked like the Void Hunter Tag. In fact, it was inspired by it.

Any signing attempt would then be analyzed and confirmed by a specialized group of a growing security team that would cooperate with the Karasu Association to review if certain members or frauds had attempted to sign their spiritual signature.

This also increased the Karasu Association’s ties with the New Vaingall Consortium even more, making them less and less cautious and more happy and willing to work together for future projects.

Thankfully, Oizys was there to make sure that the deal couldn’t go wrong.

Leaving Samael alone to lobby would be enough to leave Kivas with a worry, even though Kivas had no longer possessed any shred of Anxiety.

Operation tranquility reigned across the lands. Trade routes stabilized. Cultivated fields in highland precincts extended godward aura and huge inbound of harvest.

Even Karasu envoys through the shared border sighed over how clean security had become, or just the overall vibes that they experienced with the newly reformed Vaingall.

They too share the sentiments of seeing too much temples in their time inside, surprisingly enough.

Yet as stability secured territory, new winds of conflict rose on the horizon.

A scheduled council convened at dusk under the usual committee members.

Samael initiated the meeting with a low nod, subtle weight behind her voice. The council quieted.

"A distortion shift will occur in twelve hours," she said. "One of the Karasu Association’s bastions will be relocated—by force—into proximity with our westernmost conjoined land. They’ve requested immediate support."

While it was not the most serious meeting they had, it was still as important now that their own Vaingall was related to it.

"The name of the bastion is Monochara," she continued. "It’s one of their primary industrial holdings. What they produce there cannot be moved or evacuated. Which is why they’re still maintaining it even while a Nihil begins closing in."

A Limbo Tier Divine Construct standing nearby extended its arm. The air split into a lattice of light, resolving into a detailed holographic projection of Monochara: a towering bastion in the style of gothic citadels, built on a fog-sheathed plateau. Arched spires curled upward. Its high walls were layered in shifting runes and filigree steelwork. Inner courtyards buzzed with arcane activity.

Samael gestured toward the image, then explained.

"Monochara is a production bastion," she said. "Under full ownership and jurisdiction of the Karasu Association. It serves as one of their highest-volume manufacturing nodes for advanced utility constructs. One of the major outputs is the black living cloud—animated atmosphere units that double as masking agents, teleportation devices, signal disruptors, and dynamic matter-field stabilizers. You’ve all seen the reports on what those can do."

Blanchette curiously raised her hand. Her bratty smug was as present as ever.

"What’s the context of trying to force the bastion near our territory?"

"Because the Nihil is targeting it, and we’re currently one of Karasu Association’s most reliable new allies when it comes to information and secrecy," Samael answered. "Of course, we’re not alone. We’re there to help, and they too will be deploying their own countermeasures and as well a great subterfuge to those who want to dug deep into their invulnerabilities.

"Regardless, if Monochara is compromised, it’s not just a logistical loss. That breach would disrupt the entire production chain for Karasu’s tech, disrupt their cloud-forge, and ruin five other dependent friendly bastions that depend heavily on it."

Another construct gestured. A second projection replaced the first.

It was a storm. A titanic funnel of whirling crimson, rotating across unseen landscapes. Tendrils of blood vapor coiled through the spiraling wall.

Teeth jutted in unnatural patterns, glistening along the storm’s skin. Dozens of disembodied eyes spun in and out of visibility across the vortex’s structure.

"This is the Nihil," Samael said. "Or at least, one instance of it. Karasu doesn’t have a formal designation for its genus, only a tracking number. This one’s migration arc intersects with Monochara’s position for some reason, and it remained that way even after numerous relocations done by the Monochara’s side."

Blanchette leaned forward, her eyes narrowing with amusement. "So we’re about to stick our necks into a vortex filled with teeth. What’s the payout?"

Samael didn’t blink as she answered. "We’ll receive exclusive rights to one of Karasu Association’s advanced schematics. Their choosing, but guaranteed to be full-access. That includes cross-application licensing, iteration rights, and production ownership within Consortium’s bounds."