The Sabi Race (2)

"Hope this works out."

I muttered it while watching Alkema and the others bolt off in a panting scramble, like frilled lizards that begrudged even the time it would take to walk. Franc drew a small breath and spoke.

"The results ought to come within twenty-four hours. We need only wait."

"It'll depend on how much weight Alkema's word carries."

"Shall we make preparations of our own, then?"

When I asked what preparations, she asked me to raise a unit of aberrants with mental control and make them obey her commands. If a fight broke out, I would take the sky while she ran the unit on the ground — that was the shape of it. Even if it never came to blows, she said, dozens of variants lined up like a folding screen would exert no small pressure. I told her it was a good idea.

Preparing for battle, I brought out the scale-hide of Baekcheong that Franc had been wearing in place of clothes. She draped it over her garments like a surcoat and cinched the waist tight with a cord. Watching her, I ran through the creatures I had already placed under mental control.

At present that was one Highest-Rank Variant, eight Peak-Rank Variants, and twenty-four High-Rank Variants. The Highest-Rank was Darky, of course. The Peak-Rank were Agureum, Gecook, and the rest. They occupied about a third of my mental control capacity, and I figured I could still bind one more Highest-Rank Variant and somewhere around ten more Peak-Rank Variants. Ever since a Phase Stone had formed in my heart, that capacity seemed to have grown a great deal. At the start, dominating Darky — my equal at the time — had eaten half of it.

Roughly... one Highest Tier equals twenty-five High-Tier equals six hundred twenty-five High Grade?

Hmm. Then one Highest Tier, six High-Tier, and about a hundred twenty High Grade. That would do.

Franc objected.

"I must object to pushing the manipulation to the limit of your capacity. It will place too great a burden upon your brain. If you make only one of them Highest Tier, and fill half the remaining capacity with High-Tier and High Grade, that will be more than sufficient. And should a battle break out, they and I will draw the Sabi's attention. In that opening, you may deal with the priests and the ranked ones, Seoha."

"All right."

And so, over the next five hours, I seized every aberrant that entered the range of my Spatial Perception. I ended up with forty assorted reptilian and amphibian aberrants, among them three Toxin Black Alligators, two Thorn Lizards, and five Luvans. Lined up by kind under my mental control, they made quite a sight. The way they moved in crisp unison at my command — you could almost call it an army. I amused myself giving orders based on what I'd picked up at a military experience camp, then decided to evolve the High-Rank Variants first.

Two of the three Toxin Black Alligators, and the Thorn Lizards, were Peak-Rank Variants. The rest were all High-Rank, so thirty-six of them into Peak-Rank variants...

"Huh?"

Wait, wait. If I captured a High-Rank Variant, laid mental control on it, and then evolved it into a Peak-Rank variant — would its ability reach Highest-Rank Variant level, while the capacity it consumed stayed at Peak-Rank Variant?

"......That's straight-up cheat-tier, Boss."

"......That is a cheat."

"I haven't even tested it yet, you know?"

I answered in the negative on purpose, but the anticipation was real enough. If it worked the way I thought, I could finish an aberrant unit that was pure cheat-tier.

Heart pounding, I evolved a High Grade Luvan — yellow eyes, irises split wide across the horizontal — into a Peak-Rank variant, and...

"The mental control capacity really isn't changing?"

"Completely cheat-tier, Boss."

"It truly is a cheat."

Then if I caught a Lowest-Rank Variant, bound it, and evolved it, I could push the thing all the way to a Highest-Rank variant while spending almost no capacity at all?!

Giddy, I turned to the Luvan, whose colors had gone even more garish now that it was a Peak-Rank variant. It twitched its limbs, began to shudder, threw its maw wide, and started to shriek.

Kwaaak! Kuak! Kwaaaaak!

"Wha—!?"

The air had turned wrong. I boxed the Luvan in with a Blue Space Wall, and with the sensation of something cracking apart inside my head, the creature went kuak! Kkyaek!! and began thrashing like mad within the Wall of Space.

"What is it? What has happened?"

"Ah, well. There goes the good part. Becoming a Peak-Rank variant seems to have broken the mental control on its own."

"Hmm. So the mental control must be laid to match the grade."

"Yeah."

I'd thought I had a trump card for the fight against the Meo Azitos. Shame.

I bound the raving Luvan so it couldn't move, then laid mental control on it again. It occupied a normal High-Tier share of capacity.

"Even so, is it not something that it does not consume Highest Tier capacity?"

"That's true."

I released the now-docile Luvan and asked Darky what it had been shrieking a moment ago.

"What the fuck did this spine-folding, thick-skulled piece of shit just do to me—"

The instant I asked, a festival of profanity poured out, as if it had been waiting.

"Enough."

I shut Darky's mouth. Franc was silent. I closed my eyes and held still for a moment, and Darky began to sneak glances at me.

"Somehow I get the feeling those curses were packed full of real emotion... That's just my imagination, right?"

"I-it's your imagination, Boss!"

"It would be, wouldn't it?"

"Yes, sir! You have no idea how much I love you, Boss!"

"Right. Of course. So why do I feel like you dumped all that swearing the second you thought, now's my chance?"

"Eeeep."

I seized Darky and shook the slime until it rattled, then went on evolving every remaining High-Rank Variant into a Peak-Rank variant and laying mental control on them again. I looked at the two Toxin Black Alligators and the Thorn Lizards that remained, and muttered.

"Evolve these and they'd probably become Highest-Rank variants... but I'm a little uneasy about doing it."

Evolve a Peak-Rank Variant and it would become a Highest-Rank variant, theoretically gaining power on par with Franc. But making something I steered by mental control into a being with Transcendent-grade ability sat wrong with me, somehow.

"Then let us stop here. Thirty-six Peak-Rank variants — that is no different from thirty-five Highest-Rank Variants gathered in one place. With this... honestly, I believe we could overturn a nation."

"Right? I wasn't keen on making Highest-Rank variants either."

Setting aside whether simple aberrants like these could even become Highest-Rank variants in the first place — just as the experiments at the Asumpfre Sunken Ruins had shown.

Content with thirty-six Peak-Rank variants, we moved to kill the ordinary Peak-Rank ones. The Thorn Lizard, its whole body packed with sharp spines, blinked its docile-looking eyes, oblivious to the fact that its life was hanging by a thread.

...Damn it. I met its eyes.

They say the men who ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠work a slaughterhouse try not to meet an animal's gaze. I understood why, now. There was the Muscle Bear, and the White Thorn Turtle, too. Scowling at the awkwardness of it, I kept raising my hand and lowering it again, and Franc gave me a bitter smile.

"It is all right. Please leave the cleanup to me."

She said it as if she understood exactly how I felt. Then she activated her Phase Power, gathered it in her hand, and shattered the Thorn Lizard's head in a single blow. Peak-Rank Variant or not, its head was pulverized under her strike. The limbs and tail trembled, and then the body went still. She cut down the rest of them in turn. Watching her, I felt my mood sink a little as I put their corpses into Subspace Storage.

Mm. There wasn't much space left. Would the remaining parts of Baekcheong even fit? If not, I'd pull the High-Rank Variant corpses out and dump them.

I formed up the Peak-Rank variant unit and ordered them to obey Franc's commands.

Kwek! Kwaaak! Shrrk. Kichichik!

A cacophony of cries burst out, each one different from the last. Preparations were finished. This much force ought to be enough.

There was no reason to hide anymore. When lunchtime came, I took out the cooking gear and, with Franc's advice, made kimchi fried rice. While I did, she chanted the secret art of miniaturization and shrank herself — this time, down to fifty meters. Her size kept decreasing, and the duration kept lengthening. I had a feeling it wouldn't be long before she could come down to something close to my own height.

After I finished eating, I lay in the hollow of Franc's collarbone like a hammock, injecting as much TP as I could into a High-Tier Blue Stone, when she called me.

"Seoha. A dust cloud is rising at the foot of Mt. Veltical."

"Hm?"

I frowned toward Mt. Veltical and strained my eyes, but there was nothing to see. No — it would have been strange if I could make out a dust cloud rising from more than a hundred kilometers away.

"I can't see a thing. Besides the dust, is there anything else?"

"I can see something racing this way through the cloud."

"Ugh. When we get out of here, I ought to buy a telescope."

"Hehe. I need only be your eyes, Seoha."

The answer put me in a good mood. I snickered, and Franc smiled as she described what she saw.

"Judging by the way the dust rises and the shape in which it spreads, I believe a number close to two hundred is running at speed. They have a force of ninety thousand. If it is merely two hundred, they do not seem to intend a fight."

Reading all that from nothing but a dust cloud — impressive. I checked the time. Three in the afternoon. Eight hours since Alkema had gone back. I'd thought we wouldn't see a response until midnight at the earliest, but they were faster than I'd expected. Did that mean Alkema had made her case well? Then again, they might be coming to fight as a small elite.

Watching the dust cloud that was finally coming into my own view, I spoke.

"Come to think of it, the Sabi are all reptiles. They're awfully active for winter. Winter nights are even colder."

"They are aberrants, after all."

Mm. True enough. I was circulating Phase Power to push the cold back myself, so there was no reason they couldn't do the same. And if they hibernated, other aberrants might hit them in the gap. I woke Darky, who had been sleeping noticeably more of late, equipped the slime as armor, and stepped out in front of the dust cloud racing toward us.

"Be careful. If Ahumrek and Kalka-kum are mixed in there, I'm guessing both are Highest Tier — but there's always a what-if. Assume they might be Transcendent-grade."

"I shall remain on my guard."

I told her to strike first if they showed even the slightest sign of attacking, then watched her deploy the Peak-Rank variants under mental control. Franc and I held the center. She set the ones with the greater stamina to either side and the swift ones at the tips, and the formation settled into the shape of a crane spreading its wings.

Is this what they call a crane-wing formation?

We finished preparing for battle and waited, and Franc gave me a precise count: three hundred forty-four. She'd said a dust cloud's worth of about two hundred, hadn't she? Seeing my expression, she smiled faintly and explained. One hundred seventy-two Sabi, riding one hundred seventy-two squat lizards, two of them at the head, charging in an arrowhead with its wings spread.

So close to two hundred had been right after all.

They didn't slow even when the distance had shrunk to a quarter. Thinking they might have chosen to fight rather than hand Baekcheong over, I reinforced my body and raised a mana aura. Franc wielded her Phase Power as well, clenched her fists, and glared at the Sabi raising the dust. At that moment, as if they had been waiting for it, their speed began to drop. By the time they entered the range of my Spatial Perception, they had slowed to the pace of an ordinary man running.

They stepped into my Spatial Manipulation range without a flinch. No Transcendent-grade among them, then?

I scanned the one hundred seventy-two Sabi. Only seven were Highest-Rank. The remaining one hundred sixty-five were all Peak-Rank Variants. At the very front, Alkema came with two of the Highest-Rank. One was a lizardman with the same white scales as Alkema, but half again as tall. The other was similar in size, slightly lean, with scales the color of the dawn sky. Five more Highest-Rank Variants followed behind them. All seven wore loose robes the same color as their scales, and each gripped a staff a meter long.

"Only seven Highest-Rank. The rest are all High-Tier. Their Phase Power isn't activated, so I don't think they're here to fight."

"Mm..."

Franc let out a quiet sound, then calmed the Phase Power she had raised and drew it back into her body. At the same time the Sabi picked up a little speed and came on. One of them raised Phase Power and scattered the billowing dust entirely with wind. Through the clearing air, the High-Tier lizardmen came into view. The ones I took for the warrior class all had wooden rods slung at their waists by cords, and not a single one of them held a weapon. As I'd thought — the warrior class were all Elemental types.

Once they had closed to within a kilometer, they came on at a walking pace until they were a hundred meters off. As they approached, I could see Alkema speaking with the two I took for adult versions of her, but I couldn't make out a word of it. When they had come within thirty meters, Alkema looked at the aberrants lined up around me like a folding screen, and she could not hide the tremor in her eyes — eyes that could not comprehend how a force like this had appeared in eight hours.

Making the unit had been the right call after all. From the look of her, she'd sensed just how strong the aberrants under my control were. They seemed to be keeping their distance and taking our measure, as if they meant to wage a contest of presence. I folded my arms and watched them with cold eyes, as if to answer the faint heat rolling off all three hundred forty-four.

A moment later, the talk apparently finished, the two Sabi who had stood beside Alkema — one white, one sky-blue — dismounted and walked forward. Robed in white and deep sky-blue to match their scales, they looked at me where I stood with my arms folded, then laced their fingers and bowed their heads.

"Well met, hero of another race. I am Ahumrek of the White Mane, who leads Hevült."

"I am Kalka-kum of the Sky Mane."

White Ahumrek. Sky-blue Kalka-kum. These two could make their meaning understood ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠directly as well, so the talk would be easy enough.

"It seems Alkema conveyed the situation properly. For the two of you to come in person."

"If one has grasped the situation accurately, it is a matter that leaves one no choice but to move in person."

"I heard the full account from that child."

Their relationship didn't seem as bad as I'd expected, for that matter. If I'd chosen the route of killing Baekcheong head-on, I would almost certainly have ended up on the route of fighting the entire Sabi race. As the two lizardmen spoke, their eyes often drifted not to me but behind me. Not only these two — every Sabi gathered at their backs had their gaze fixed on Franc.

Because of Baekcheong's snakeskin?

"Surname Jeong, given name Seoha. I'm glad to meet the leaders of the Sabi, but the situation doesn't seem well suited to a warm and friendly conversation."

At my words, the two of them swept their eyes over Franc and the Peak-Rank variants lined up like a screen, and their expressions hardened a little further. Ahumrek, white and horned like a lizardman, stepped forward and addressed me in a voice firmer than before.

"I agree with that view. Before we go further, I would ask one thing. The scale garment worn by the giant standing behind you... is that it?"

"It's Baekcheong's hide."

A murmur ran through them.

Kalka-kum closed her eyes and opened them again without expression. A faint red, meanwhile, seemed to be rising in the scales of Ahumrek's face. Did a lizardman's face flush when the blood rushed to it? Interesting.

"Lady Baekcheong is the hero of our race... no. She is a being who serves the same One we serve. Are you aware that to attack her is an act no different from making war upon our race?"

He had been about to call her the hero of their race when Kalka-kum, beside him, whipped her head around and glared, and he changed course in a hurry. In that moment I caught a glimpse of a henpecked husband. More than that, a fair amount of hostility was seeping out of his reaction, and my own mood soured.

"Didn't you say you'd heard the whole story? It seems you failed to grasp that we're the victims here, and that the justification is on our side."

"And how are we to know whether that justification is truth or falsehood?"

This was picking a fight, wasn't it? The look on his face, mouth corners lifted in a taunt, and the tone that all but said I was lying. Faced with an attitude that wasn't friendly, I couldn't see any need to keep my speech respectful. They had clearly gone aggressive first, so I dropped into blunt speech without hesitation.

"Don't know. What matters is Baekcheong attacked us first and tried to kill us, and all we did was take the revenge we were owed. If your race won't hand Baekcheong over, I'll use whatever it takes to clear away every obstacle standing between Baekcheong and me."

As my words grew short, Ahumrek's face twisted. But from the way he couldn't bring himself to reach for force, I realized that Franc, standing behind me, was acting as a deterrent all by herself. If I'd known it would go like this, should I have hidden my strength a little? Let them underestimate me and swing first. Things would have gone more easily.

Unaware of what I was thinking, Ahumrek started running his mouth. Not even bullshit — lizardshit.

"You are at best on a level with the priest class, and no more. If you conduct yourself so rudely because you trust the giant and the beasts behind you, then you would do well to know that behind us stands the One we serve."

Unbelievable. What was this — a brat throwing a tantrum and yelling that he'd tell his mother? Ahumrek put force into those pitch-black eyes and glared at me as he spoke, and I glared at Alkema, who was flailing her four-fingered hands. Franc seemed just as dumbfounded, staring him down with a fierce face. How had Alkema explained things, for them to be treating me as Franc's proxy?

At this rate the talk would end in a fight. I steeled myself inwardly and smiled with a curl of the lip.

"Oh, is that so~? Are those eyes just decoration, and those earholes just knotholes? We were still showing you courtesy, and ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠the Sabi like answering goodwill with rudeness, is that it? Think that way, then come and try it. In the few seconds it takes your heads to leave your necks, take a good look at whose hand does the cutting."

"What did you say...!"

"Please wait a moment. Akur Seoha."

As the situation worsened, Kalka-kum stepped past Ahumrek, who had flared at my provocation, and spoke calmly. He looked at her, displeased that she had set herself in front of him, and she rebuked him with a touch of anger.

"Ahumrek. Did you come to hold a conference, or did you come to pick a fight?"

"No... I..."

"Do not put on that wronged face. As anyone can see, it was you who first picked the quarrel, and with threats besides."

"......"

Watching him clamp his mouth shut, Kalka-kum let out ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠a small sigh, turned, and addressed me with a slight bow of the head.

"In the account our daughter Alkema brought us, there was also word that you had beheld Him with your own eyes, yet that was a portion difficult to accept as truth. Upon that point, can you declare — swearing upon your honor and the meaning of your existence — that it is true?"

I looked at her, bringing up an entirely different matter, and asked with a displeased face.

"And if I do, what changes?"

"If it is fact, then I and the faction I lead will withdraw our protection of Lady Baekcheong."

"Hoh?"

Whether from the shock of her words, Ahumrek bristled his scales and shouted.

"Magus! What manner of outrageous speech is that!?"

"Until now he has spoken with us in firm will and in truth. He himself, and every one of them save the giant positioned behind him, has received the blessing of Spex, and each gives off a presence akin to our priests. As for the giant, she is lesser than Lady Baekcheong, yet she is a being who bears a hero's aura approaching hers. Should he march upon Hevült, then by Alkema's testimony it stands clear before my two eyes that the Sabi race will walk the road to extinction."

"So because you fear battle now, you mean to stand aside and let that one kill the apostle who serves Him?! Is that what you are saying!"

Watching him pick his words for a quarrel and cry them out sharp, Kalka-kum answered with a slight crease in her face.

"Did you not say that it was Lady Baekcheong who began it? And if He has given confirmation as well, then the righteous cause rests with him. In such a circumstance, if we clash with him and our race falls to ruin, what do you intend to do?"

"What disgrace are you speaking of! Strong though they may be, if our hundred thousand Sabi fight resolved to die...!"

"So you would lead the Sabi race that serves Him down the road to extinction, for the sake of your pride and your hunger for honor. Do you fail to understand that if such a thing comes to pass, a flaw will be struck into His honor as well?"

What? They didn't hold a meeting and settle on one position before they came?

I stared at the two of them, who had suddenly left me aside and launched into an argument with each other. I stole a look over their bodies. Between Ahumrek's legs sat a bare mound with two large, darker scales set into it, and hidden inside was a thin, elongated length of flesh forked in two. Kalka-kum, by contrast, had two openings concealed behind her scales. So she was female, and he was male. Alkema, behind them, was female as well. Were the ones gifted with language the females?

Ahumrek, sharp-edged in the argument, began to lose his words and fumble under the succession of Kalka-kum's orderly rebuttals. Watching him, I seemed to see myself laid over the image — me, pushed back in a war of words with my older sister until I had nothing left to say. Even so, he couldn't give it up. He pulled out this claim and that, insisting Baekcheong was the hero of the Sabi race and that they could not drive her to her death. It was talk with no logic in it, only emotion shoved to the front, and her reasoned replies routed every word of it.

"O God of the Blue Sea. Why have You sent such a trial down upon the Sabi?"

This was a disaster that bastard Baekcheong had stirred up. I didn't see it as a trial handed down by the Lord of the Great Sea. Beaten in the war of words, Ahumrek started blaming the circumstances around him rather than himself — the way a troll usually does after getting fact-checked into the ground — and Kalka-kum delivered a stinging rebuke.

"This is not a trial. It is the due consequence of the fault Lady Baekcheong brought upon herself."

"......"

Having picked a fight with words for nothing and come away only the worse for it, Ahumrek let out a great, heavy sigh and hung his head.

Hooked.