Crimson Eternal - Book 6 - Chapter 40 (Patreon)

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Table of Contents

Click the following link for the 1526 word chapter 40:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1z4llFdDVVPBE8qPkZTNe84VXSjDzwmXbNuXulLpvmMQ/edit?usp=sharing

Or you can read the unformatted version below:

Somewhere deep in the Underground

“We have yet to find the source of the war energy flooding the Underground, and the war energy is only increasing in density as we waste time here talking,” Commander Po of the Underground First District grounds out while gritting his teeth in anger and frustration. “How much longer are we going to waste time as the Underground falls apart?!”

“It’s not fallin’ apart,” Commander Jason says with a roll of his eyes. “It’s just startin’ the wars that’ve been brewin for hundreds of years in one large wave.”

“How’s that any fucking different?!” Commander Po roars while slamming his fist on the vast round table in the middle of their meeting hall. “We’ve spent centuries trying to keep the peace between these idiotic districts, and now they’re all rushing to kill each other because of some bizarre war energy flood?! We’ve wasted all of our efforts, and more of our efforts will continue to be wasted until we find the fucking source!!!”

A brief silence fills the room after Commander Po’s shout fills it with tension.

“Do you think this might be something from outside of the Underground? Maybe the doing of one of those outsiders?” Commander Rackfol eventually asks, his incredibly deep voice echoing through the room and breaking the silence.

“If it is, so what?” Commander Rhitera asks with more than a little distaste in her voice aimed at the outsiders. “Should we just break out own laws to send people outside of the Underground? We would be hypocrites no better than the other warring districts!”

Unlike most other nations, the Underground is a nation that strongly dislikes connections with the outside universe. So the most they will have are outsiders requesting mining rights.

Those very outsiders are not allowed to live inside of the cities, nor can they sell anything to those living in the Underground.

The districts are all fully united on keeping the Underground as separate as possible from the outside universe. To the point of even avoiding news from the outside.

But Commander Po doesn’t care about their history or traditions anymore.

“We need to find the source immediately!” Commander Po shouts while slamming his fist into the table again, still not damaging the table despite his level being in the five digits range. Proving just how durable the table is. “Those bastards in District Two are already eyeing our mining territory, and they were just working with us to keep the peace less than ten days ago! I don’t give a fucking damn about the outsiders anymore! Let them mine! There are far bigger problems to deal with, and if we can learn what the source is from the outsiders, we can solve our problem faster!”

Commander Rhitera scoffs and asks, “You’re really willing to rely on those outsiders despite everything they’ve done over the years? Who was it that said he would never let a single outsider anywhere near the Underground First District?”

Commander Po understands her complaints perfectly well, but he doesn’t care anymore. Even after spending his entire life fiercely blocking any and all outsiders from getting anywhere near the main district of the Underground deep at the planet’s core.

“The situation has grown too severe already to not involve the outsiders,” Commander Po shouts, his fists clenched to hold himself back from slamming the table again. “Almost every single district is now at war with another district, and even the outsiders mining camps are having internal conflicts with each other. All thanks to this damned war energy! If the problem isn’t solved soon, our entire society here in the Underground could collapse!”

“Then we put it to a vote,” Commander Rackfol declares. “Those who wish to contact the outsiders, voice your approval. Those who don’t, stay silent.”

Immediately after he finishes speaking, Commander Po states, “Approved!” And a few seconds after that, the one commander who hasn’t spoken much during this meeting, Commander Silvers, raises her own hand and says, “Approved.”

However, the other three commanders stay silent. Clearly expressing their intention to reject the motion.

Commander Po feels his anger surging again before he opens his mouth to shout at them, only to pause when a call rings from the center of the table in front of them. And, without even glancing at Commander Po, Commander Rhitera accepts the call, making a hologram appear above the table.

“Commanders of the First District, I bid ya greetins,” a man, who the commanders recognize as one of the commanders of the Fourth District, declares with his hands in his pockets and his back slightly slouched behind him. “We’ve got an unknown outsider wanderin’ around here in the Fourth District, an have no idea what to do bout it. Mind helpin?”

His words calm down Commander Po’s anger for a moment before he coldly asks, “What’s so difficult about the situation that you need our help?”

“Look fer yourselves,” the commander of the Fourth District states while waving his hand and making a screen appear next to him on the holograph. One showing a battle between the Fifth District and the Eighth District.

Nothing on the screen looks out of place to the commanders of the First District at first, although it pisses some of them off due to their current topic of discussion. But then an anomaly appears in the form of a beautiful woman who just waltzes onto the battlefield without a care in the world.

She is wearing a military style black and crimson jacket, with a black shirt and pants on beneath it. Yet she doesn’t have a single scrap of armor on her body, and all of the bullets and other attacks hitting here merely pass through her clothes before vanishing after hitting her. Not doing even a bit of damage to her in the process.

What confuses the commanders even more is that she’s just walking around with the look of a tourist with her hands in her jacket pockets despite the attacks.

“What the fucking hell am I watching?” Commander Po eventually asks the question on the minds of all the commanders present, not to mention all of the commanders who have seen this footage before them.

The commander of the Fourth District doesn’t even get a chance to say anything in response before the woman steps on a landmine that blows up the area several meters around her. Only for the woman to just continue walking out of the smoke and debris before it clears without a single scratch on her.

“What is her level?” Commander Rhitera asks, her voice only slightly wavering for a single second. Not long enough for most people to notice.

And Commander Po isn’t most people, nor does he blame her. Because, if this outsider is really powerful enough for all of these attacks to not affect her at all, her level must be in the five digits at the very least.

“Her level is barely above one thousand,” the commander of the Fourth District answers, shattering the imagery the other commanders all had in their minds. “And her number is black no matter who looks at it. Even for me.”

A person just barely over level one thousand is seen as a black number by someone over level ten thousand? How the hell does this make any sense?!

Black numbers implying that someone is completely impossible for the one looking at their number to kill aren’t impossible to find in the Underground. All it takes is a low level child seeing one of the commanders in passing, and they’ll see a black number.

But for a commander to see a black number just barely above level one thousand makes no realistic sense to any of the commanders present.

“What reason has she given for being in the Underground’s deeper layers?” Commander Rhitera ask with a scowl. “Is she trying to get mining rights?”

“She claims ta be a tourist,” the commander of the Fourth District says while looking more than a little confused. “And she hasn’ done a single thing ta us or the current minin camps. Just been wanderin’ around lookin at everything.”

Commander Rhitera shows a very confused expression, and Commander Po finally agrees with the sentiment expressed in it.

A tourist? Really?

“I approve of tha motion,” Commander Jason suddenly speaks up, changing his mind and making it three against two for the motion of contacting the outsiders for news on what’s happening. “And we should ask about tha’ lady while we’re at it!”

Commander Po feels mildly annoyed at the idiot commander’s desire to fight popping up again, but his joy at the motion passes is greater at the moment. So he just nods his head and agrees, “That can be done.”

“This motion now passes,” Commander Rackfol declares with a faint frown. “Now let us decide on our method of communication.”

Thus the four commanders of the First District begin discussing how to open communications with the outsiders. All while keeping an eye on the live footage of the strange woman wandering across battlefields without a care in the world.