Chapter 46 - Pet Tyrant and Date in the Winter (Patreon)

Codex: Hextech Revolution

Hextech. 

A word that is probably said more than anything else in the new era, the Era of the Hex, that has spread from the Lands of the Ancient Lords like wildfire toward the other nations of the world. 

It was noted that for the first time, the Hextech was invented in the League of Khaz-Modan of the Holy Arcadia Empire. In the depths of the mines of the dwarven province, the dwarves and gnomes discovered Hex Crystals. 

Afterward, the Empire that was already embroiled in the early stages of the Industrial Revolution with the advancements and new inventions done to Steam Technology and other things shited all of their effort and resources to the newly discovered Hex Crystals and Hextech concept.

Only after a few months of research did the Holy Arcadia Empire have the first prototypes for the Hextech. From there on, everything was spreading like wildfire towards all corners of the Empire, and the research into the Hextech obtained unlimited support from the State, Imperial House, Elector Count Houses, and CHOAM, pooling their resources together to speed up the research of the Hextech.

Due to the close relationship with the Holy Arcadia Empire, the Kingdom of Corrin, and the Tsardom of Kislev, they were one of the first nations that managed to get their hands on some of the most primitive forms of the Hextech. In the Kingdom of Corrin, there was even Hexgate built within the Lion City of Corrin. 

Kislevites were known to buy a lot of armaments and heavy weapons from the Holy Arcadia Empire, especially to counter the constant threat of the Undeath Scourge in the Lands of the Always Winter that was threatening the borders of the Tsardom.

Not long afterward, the Hextech spread towards the Principality of Estalia and even to the Andalos Kingdom, though when it came to the Andalos Kingdom, it was done more of necessity,y and several decades later, when it was becoming clear that even the last parts of the Andalos would be conquered by the Kingdom of Corrin and Principality of Estalia that were furiously attacking the semi-theocratic nation of the Faith of the Seven. 

Within the Essos, the place where the Hextech flourished the most was obviously the Celestial Empire of Grand Cathay, which adopted everything it could do and, under the leadership of the Celestial Dragons, started creating their own branch of the Hextech.

The Free Cities of the Essos adopted the Hextech to their particular usage and needs, each reflecting the uniqueness of the Free Cities. The Braavos focused the Hextech mainly around their navy and defense of their city; the Hexships of their Naval Forces are, to this day, considered the best in the Known World of Azyr.

In the Slave City of Astapor, another unique example was the incorporation of the Hextech into the living human, basically augmenting the humans into the abominations of man and machine. However, only a fool would deny the combat abilities of their Skitarii Legions, who didn't know any fear, defeat, or death and who would carry every order from their master without any second thought.

These were just the most notable examples from the adaptations of the Hextech in the Essos that were known to create some really unique and particular pieces of the Hextech. 

It is ultimately accepted that Hextech, as we know it, changed the face of the Known World of Azyr and pushed the boundaries of technological development, societal structures, and living standards to a much higher degree. The end of the first Hextech Revolution was also noted to be the end of what we know as the Middle Ages.

In modern days, the Hextech represented the unknown possibilities, and only thanks to the Hextech, many kingdoms and nations around the world were, are, and would be able to effectively fight against the immeasurable hordes of the Chaos, Orks, Beastmen, and other terrors in the night.

- From the Book Technological Revolution of Azyr by a collective of authors from the Schola Progenium, Citadel Order, and Celestial University.

***

League of Khaz-Modan, Norsca Peninsula, Holy Arcadia Empire, Land of the Ancient Lords Lordran.

If they were lucky, they would be able to take some younger Danger Beasts that Karl Franz would be able to take with him. He was already taking care of several animals and Danger Beasts that were living in the Imperial Palace of the Anor Londo.

He had a habit of picking up promising creatures with strong potential and bringing them back with him. With enough resources and care, they would become powerful battle companions. 

This was rather common among the Imperial Aristocrats and powerful Professionals because many of the Danger Beasts had high potential and could become very powerful if they were properly cultivated to such a level.

Not many Danger Beasts managed to achieve their true potential in the wilderness, mainly due to the constant struggle for resources and the lack of them or due to the permanent fight, and many died before they could properly mature.

"We are right now entering the territory of the Springers, so be careful..."

Karl Franz said as they exited a narrow pathway that led to the small valley that was covered by tall trees and snow.

Most, if not all, of the trees growing in the Norsca Peninsula and, in fact, probably the entire Lands of the Ancient Lords, except the Grand Provinces at the southern edge of the Empire, were Pines and Spruces. However, in the south of the Empire, there were also many Maples and their variants.

"What are the Springs?"

It was Cirilla who asked the question as they were descending to the valley to take a look at it in their search for the Danger Beasts.

"A Danger Beast native to the Norsca Peninsula, though they also live in the Grand Province of Klandor, edges of the Grand Principality of Reikland, and some parts of the Grand Province of Sylvania. They are rather large lizards, preferring to live in very cold climates. Also, they are pretty memorable due to the five black planes on the head and five more from the back to the tail, with blue skin and almost golden amber eyes. The strongest ever, Springer, achieved the Special-Class on the Danger Beast ranking. Within the Norsca, they are most commonly hunted by the people for food or used as a means of transportation or in the Provincial Armies or Imperial Legion. Due to the good condition within the Norsca, they are one of the most populous species of the Dnager Beasts in the Lordran."

Even Karl Franz was surprised by the lecture that Cersei gave about the Springers; some things were unknown even to him, mainly the fact that they lived even outside of the Norsca Peninsula...

It was clear that somebody was doing her homework rather diligently.

Certainly, it was admirable that she managed to learn that much rather unimportant information about the Springers and most probably also the other species of the Dangers Beasts that were living in the Norsca Peninsula.

"Ignore Springers for the time being; they are not really the prime target for us today. We are searching for something more powerful, most preferably if we could find a Tyrant."

Karl Franz stated that Springers were not really that interesting for the Holy Imperator of the Holy Arcadia Empire. Tyrant, on the other hand, was an entirely different case because this species was one of the most dangerous and powerful Danger Beasts across the entire world.

Though they lived only in the Norsca Peninsula, arrogantly, some of them were also seen in the Dark Lands across the World Edge Mountains as they dominated their entire regions and terrorized the place. 

Which was already something to behold.

Karl Franz, as the Imperator of the Imperium long ago, wanted to get his hands on the Tyrant, but it was tough to find a young one.

Mostly because the young Tyrants were typically protected by the elder Tyrants most of the time. 

Tyrants were rather particular Danger Beast species because while they were very individualistic and often acted alone, they actually lived in the colonies together as they were very intelligent and knew that the numbers were power.

Even some of the most powerful Danger Beasts could be brought down by some weaker ones if there were countless numbers of the weaker ones. So the Tyrants lived in the colonies, where there were usually something around thirty to fifty Tyrants, from which the majority were adult ones, meaning they were very powerful.

Karl Franz, no matter how powerful he was, even he would dare to enter the colony of the Tyrants because that would only spell his doom. Among the Tyrant colony, there were bound to be at least two or three Super Danger Beast Levle Tyrarnats that were ELders of the colony, and their power was even above the Levle 6 Professionals.

Most of them even had Omega Danger Beast Level Tyrants that were at Level 7 in form one of the ancients. Tyrants, unlike many of the different Danger Beast species, were very long-lived, and they could easily live up to several thousand years if they were not killed.

This made them not only dangerous due to their raw power but also due to the sheer skills and experiences that they could gather during their very long life.

Among the Danger Beasts, there were not really many that had such long lifespans, actually, there was only a very small number of the Danger Beasts that could live past one millennium, and even the number of the ones that could live a few centuries was very low.

"Tyrant? Those things are very dangerous, and even approaching one would be a death sentence..."

Cersei said with a rather shaky voice because she knew that the Tyrants were one of the most dangerous and powerful Danger Beasts across the Lands of the Ancient Lords. She wasn't really keen on the idea of even approaching the Tyrants, because it was very dangerous.

"Cersei, my dear... what time of the year is it right now?"

They crossed over the bunch of fallen trees that were entirely covered by snow as Karl Franz looked at his fianceé and asked.

"Winter Season, the Deep Winter to be precise..."

As soon as she stated that, she stopped in her tracks because she realized the truth.

"You want to to pick up one of the younger ones that was kicked out?"

Karl Franz nodded to her question as poor Cirilla looked clueless about the entire conversation.

Seeing her confusion, he then decided to elaborate on the topic. 

"Tyrants are mating only during the Winter Season in the Deep Winter... when the adult males start mating, sometimes they would go to mate with a female that has small cubs or much younger Tyrants, and thus, they are sometimes either kicked out from the colony, or they leave based on their own accord."

This was a rather common occurrence for the younger male Tyrants to be kicked out of the colony from time to time during the mating seasons. While it wasn't really that rare, there were many occasions when things like this happened.

What was the most problematic thing when it came to the younger male Tyrants that were kicked form the colony in this fashion, most of them would return to the colony after the end of the mating season in fact.

So, if he wanted to capture one of the fledgling Tyrants, he would need to hurry and capture them right now before they are able to return home, where they would be protected by the Elder Tyrants. 

"Hmm... that seems to be doable, but it is still a very dangerous idea, and I would have preferred not to approach any kind of Tyrant."

Cersei loudly protested against Karl's idea of going out there and searching for the Tyrant because it still seemed to be very dangerous. Nevertheless, right now, her protests were mainly ignored because Karl Franz was dead set on bringing back with him a pet Tyrant.

"Don't be such a worrywart; this could be a great adventure!"

Unsurprisingly, Cirilla already stood on his side because she was great for any adventure, and catching up with one of the legendary Danger Beasts that lived in the Lands of the Ancient Lords sounded pretty appealing to the young witchiness.

Obviously, she was going to say yes to Karl's not really safe proposal of catching the Tyrant.

"So it is decided, two against one... Now, let's not waste any more time; we need to start tracking down the Tyrant. As far as I could remember, we are right now in the Winterscale Valley, and rather surprisingly, there should be a small colony of the Tyrants in the depths of the valley."

Winterscale Valley was an enormous valley that was covering around several thousand of square kilometers and it was considered as second largest valley in the Lordran. However, that only applied to the areas under the control of the Imperium because the areas of the Dark Lands are still very much unmapped. 

The Winterscale Valley was home to many species of the Danger Beasts and was something akin to a protected reservation because hunting in the Winterscale Valley was strictly forbidden by the Imperial Law, the punishment of the death penalty for breaching the law.

Karl Franz saw it very important to create several protected areas where the Danger Beasts could safely live and procreate and not be hunted by the people of the Imperium.

While it wasn't entirely necessary, due to the existence of the Forbidden Zones, which were areas of the Lands of the Ancient Lords that were so dangerous that nobody dared to enter them, he still made his decision.

In his past life, humans on Earth hunted many species of the Danger Beats to extinction, which was very sad. Across the Imperial Territory, there were many protected areas where any form of Imperial activity was strictly forbidden and punished harshly.

Sometimes, it was to preserve the Danger Beasts that were living in such an area; sometimes, it was due to the unique flora that was growing in such an area. One could say that there were many reasons behind those decisions. 

"Stick together when we are going there. The Winterscale Valley is very dangerous and we area heading to the deeper parts of the Winterscale Valley."

The Tyrants were living in the core regions of the Winterscale Valley, where the most powerful Danger Beasts made their home. The heart of the Winterscale Valley was the region that was filled with the most powerful Danger Beasts, while at the same time, it was also the most resource-rich area, and the Magic was densest in the heart of the Winterscale Valley.

They needed to be extra careful when threading there because there were many Special-Class Danger Beasts within the heart of the Winterscale Valley.

The two of them nodded their heads as they knew that it was better to not wander off and remain together. Dividing their forces could be rather dangerous if they were abused by some Danger Beast, and neither Ciri nor Cersei were, in fact, particularly powerful.

Due to the Old Blood, Cersei would be considered physically as strong as someone standing at the peak of Level 3, and in fact, she wasn't really that far from Level 4 because her faith in the Great Ones was very strong. 

Even though she had a good grasp over her abilities, she was just as strong as some Beta-Class Danger Beast, which in the great scheme of things was nothing remarkable. Ciri was even worse at that because she was physically as strong as Level 2 Professional, which was even below Cersei in terms of physical power.

Yet, due to the Elder Magic, it was almost impossible to catch her when she wanted to warp out of the place. This gave her a unique position within their group because even though she was weakest physically, she could escape at any time she wished.

That was the reason why Karl Franz ordered the two of them to always stick together, because if something went wrong, then Ciri could take Cersei with her and escape from the place.

He himself was at the peak of the Level 6 Professional, with tremendous boosts from the Old Blood and as the Holy Chosen of the Great Ones, so technically speaking, he would be able to fight and kill even the Level 7 beings under a specific situations. 

"We understand..."

Cirilla stated as they then started descending deeper into the Winterscale Valley at a slow pace. During the following two hours, they encountered several species of the Danger Beast, some of which were rather rare specimens that lived only in the Winterscale Valley. 

Karl Franz was beginning to grow annoyed by this because even though they were very close to the heart of the Winterscale Valley, they had yet to encounter a Tyrant.

Even fully adult would be good because it would mean that they were getting close, and hopefully, they would be able to find one that could be caught and brought back to the Imperial Palace.

He had the Longinuslanze Testament in his hands, as he cut apart several trees that were blocking their way in one narrow pathway, just as Cirilla suddenly stopped in her tracks and looked behind her.

This didn't escape his attention when he sensed the spatial fluctuations in the air, which meant that somebody was using Spatial-Temporal Magic like Cirilla's methods of teleportation through the Elder Blood when she was hopping from one world to another. 

And that meant only one thing.

That the Wild Hunt has found her again and decided to attack once more. 

Rather ironic that they would be appearing in one of the most dangerous areas within the Lordran. 

Hopefully this time, there would be more of the Wild Hunt soldiers so they could have more prisoners for the Empire. The ones from the last time didn't last long under the experiments that were conducted on them at the Byrgenwerth.

However, some died even sooner because they couldn't handle the interrogation methods at the Office of the Imperial Military Intelligence. Even though the elves of the Aen Elle seemed to be tough guys, they broke rather fast. 

Which was most disappointing. 

"It seems that we have invaders from the Wild Hunt... this would be the prime opportunity to test the new Skynet System."

Karl Franz stated that this was the prime opportunity to test the new Skynet System that was now functioning across the entire Imperial Territory of the Holy Arcadia Empire, and he was rather eager for it.

Till now, the Skynet was used only at the Skycrown Gate, and it has worked splendidly against the Daemons of the Chaos. Some of the weakest of the Daemons were even directly banished back to the Realms of the Ruin. 

Which was even exceeding the expectations of the Imperial HighCom.

At the same time, now with the addition of the Hextech, the Engineer Guild and Byrgenwerth were creating enormous Skynet Hex Generators, and coupled with the Pylons that were partially recovered from the Nehekhara, they could spread them across the Empire for higher power of the Skynet.

Some of the prototypes were already even distributed across the Captial Cities of the Grand Provinces.

He immediately took out a small Hexdevice that looked like a smartphone from his past life and tapped several times on the screen through which he activated the Skynet because he felt that the Temporal-Spatial Magic had been dispersed.

Several moments later, the Skynet was activated, and several energy impulses shot through the skies above the Winterscale Valley.

With the Skynet being activated, soon enough, all oMagic Magic in the area was being "hijacked" by the Skynet itself, and only those who had permission to use Magic within the Skynet would be allowed to use it.

This was one of the additions that were added to the Skynet after the discovery at the Badlands. The Skynet wasn't just an Anti-Magic Net, but it had a certain degree of sentience, and everyone who had a specific ID could be exempt from the effect of the Skynet.

Originally, the Skynet should have been working just as an Anti-Magic Net that would forbid the usage of Magic for all, but that had a lot of different downsides.

Due to that, after the Holy Imperial Crusade into the Badlands and the Pylons that have been recovered from the ruins of the Nehekhara Research Facility, the Imperium was able to design it in a different ways.

"The Skynet has been activated, so the Wild Hunt soldiers are imprisoned here, and they don't have access to Magic. But, it is clear that more are on the way."

Karl Franz said as the Skynet was already showing its power in the full because the Aen Elle won't be able to use Magic. This was a great downside for the Wild Hunt, which heavily depended on Magic for their power.

Most of them depend on Magic to intimidate their enemies. This was one of the primary means of the Wild Hunt to fight through terror, fear, and intimidation, but once someone really started fighting them, they would discover that the Wild Hunt soldiers were far weaker than they appeared to be on the outside.

"We are going to dispose of them and prepare a trap. According to Skynet's readings, there are some forces that are attempting to create a portal to his place. Even though the Skynet is a powerful piece of Magic and Technology, it can't block the incoming teleportations to the Azyr."

Even though the Skynet was something very powerful and very advanced, it wasn't actually that advanced enough to block the incoming teleportation attempts to the areas that were being covered by the Skynet.

However, it was rather fascinating to have something that was able to predict the incoming teleportation attempts.

He knew that in the Byrgenwerth, they were working really hard on the technology that would also solve this problem because right now, the Empire was vulnerable to the possible attacks of the Wild Hunt due to Ciri's presence.

"Then let's go!"

Ciri shouted excitedly because, for her whole life, she had lived in fear of the Wild Hunt and always tended to consider them as the strongest entity, something that couldn't be overcome or defeated.

After spending several months in the Holy Arcadia Empire, she realized that the Wild Hunt wasn't anything to be feared because out there, there were several more factions that were far more powerful than the Wild Hunt.

So now, that her worldview had been shattered and she was even training a lot in the Empire and thus she had enough courage and power to fight back against the Wild Hunt for the first time in her life, and she was feeling rather eager for the confrontation against the Wild Hunt. 

This would be the first time she actually fought back against the Wild Hunt and their forces, and it was something that was very important to her. To overcome this last obstacle in her path and achieve her full potential.

She knew that the Aen Elle were very powerful and that the Wild Hunt was their most elite military unit, but they were not unbeatable. Within the Empire, she had seen many stronger individuals than the Wild Hunt, so in the end, after all of that, they were not the untouchable entity that they once were.

Karl Franz had told her many times that the lingering fear of the Wild Hunt that she had developed as a child was holding her back greatly. Although she didn't really want to admit it, she knew that he was right.

She felt that the constant subconscious fear from the very own existence of the Wild Hunt was holding her back in everything. In fact... after living in this world for several months, Cirilla didn't even want to really leave this place. 

In the Lordran, she had everything she could ever need. The world itself was very similar to her birth world, but at the same time, it was more advanced in many areas. In the Lands of the Ancient Lords, there was no prejudice or discrimination towards the other races like the humans of her own world had. 

Even though this world had certainly it's own problems, it was still better than her own. Even if her own world wasn't tainted by the Ruinious Powers, the Ruinious Powers have been active in Azyr for ten thousand years, and the world still stood.

Cirilla even made a few friends here at the Empire, so she was certainly reluctant to leave this world behind entirely. She rather enjoyed spending time with Maria and Cersei; they sparred often or trained, and sometimes, they would go to the city and shop for clothes.

However, that was mostly on Cersei's insistence because, in this regard, Ciri was similar to Maria. Everything that she needed was a pair of armor and one casual outfit for ordinary days, and that was it.

Perhaps the knowledge that the Empire would protect her if they were attacked by the Wild Hunt put her at peace. She also noticed that she grew rather comfortable within the imaginary confines of the Holy Arcadia Empire that was protecting her from the constant threat of the Wild Hunt.

It wasn't actually that far from the truth. 

***

Deep within the Winterscale Valley, the Wild Hunt soldiery that arrived at this world, didn't really have the best day around. When they have arrived at this world, which was confirmed to house Zirael, they arrived at a place that was extremely hostile to anything.

Initially, there were twenty-five of them, but just after several hours, they were down to seventeen. The beasts were extremely powerful, ferocious, and aggressive and tore several of theirs as if they were made from paper. 

And then, their Navigator informed them that he lost access to his Magic. This was something rather disturbing, but when the other soldiers of the Wild Hunt tried to cast a Spell, they were met with the same result.

Nothing.

Absolutely nothing. 

This was a very serious problem for the Wild Hunt because a large part of their power was attributed solely to the Magic in their disposition. Without the usage of Magic, their combat prowess would drop by more than half, but at least it seemed that nothing else was affected. 

Still, being unable to use Magic meant that they were basically stuck in this world and couldn't leave because the Navigator in their group couldn't open the portal back home.

This was a rather serious problem because nobody wanted to remain in an unknown world for the rest of their world, and it seemed that this world was certainly powerful. Just the fauna in this place was strong enough to kill several of them in a short time, and that was taking into consideration the strength of every single soldier of the Wild Hunt.

They were best of the best from the entity army of the Aen Elle. The most elite unit of the Military that was always put in the vanguard of the most dangerous operations or the invasion of the different worlds.

They had access to the best weapons and equipment, they got the best possible training and education, access to the free Magic study, and everything in order to create the strongest and most powerful soldiers for the glory of the Aen Elle.

Yet, it seemed that in this place, it didn't matter at all because one average-looking lizard-like creature with blue skin just skimmed through their camp and tore one of the heavily armored soldiers apart with its claws.

The soldiers of the Wild Hunt were no amateurs, though. They immediately grabbed their weapons and attacked the lizard. One of the attacks pierced the creature's neck, which was extremely difficult because its skin was excessively thick and sturdy.

This was a relatively fast victory, but their number once again dwindled, and now just sixteen of them remained. The captain of this squad realized that if the help from the Aen Elle didn't arrive as soon as possible, they would become food for these creatures.

And with the rate at which the creatures managed to kill them, he predicted that it wouldn't take really that long, in fact. 

Which was another disturbing fact.

Still, he really, really hoped that the other reinforcements would be arriving soon because their squad was supposed to be scouts. For several months, Wild Hunt has been preparing for a larger incursion into this world due to the confirmed presence of Zirael, who seemed to remain here.

Which was most unusual because she usually jumped from one world to another to escape their pursuit.

Though now, she was in one world and for much longer than anyone had predicted, so General Eredin, the leader of the Wild Hunt, concluded that she must be hiding among the natives of this world and ordered the entire Wild Hunt to find her and capture her for good this time.

They had been preparing for this for several months, and even though it was most probable that they would get into a confrontation with the natives, nobody among the higher leadership of the Aen Elle seemed to take it seriously.

It was common knowledge to the elves of the Aen Elle that most, if not all, of the natives in different worlds were far inferior to the glory of the Aen Elle, as history has proved several times, when they invaded and conquered many, many worlds during their very long existence. 

So, nobody really took the possible confrontation with the natives seriously. Even the disappearance of the two Squards of the Wild Hunt, who were in pursuit of Zirael several months ago, was attributed mainly to bad luck, if nothing else.