Adamant Blood

Mark waited, hovering in the sky, Protected as of 20 minutes ago, and kinda bored.

He had Quark Protect him again.

The sun began to set and it was beautiful, really. Mark watched the sky turn orange and the auroras deepen, to take up more of the sky as the light began to vanish, to reveal the glows of rainbows all overhead—

"Attention, Mark," Aurora spoke up, through the coms.

Mark hovered at attention. "Yes. Here."

"Okay," Aurora said, "That's everyone cleared out of the area and the Kaiju Squad is prepared to respond. The Force Twin Archmages Lancer and Buckler, Mother, Grand Mage Rekaro Solari, and Reeni Thumb, are also watching. You're clear to try that Union again, and let's hope you don't actually Call a kaiju, or create one."

… What?

"I just wanted to try this Union with Aethercalling? How do we get from there to kaiju creation?" Mark asked, "Do you think it might actually cause a kaiju?"

"60% 'no', but some kinds of vast powers do cause kaiju, and Mother isn't too sure about what could happen after that brief Kaiju Call false alarm, so if it does cause a kaiju then it's a Crime Against Humanity, and we'd like to know about it before it happens in an uncontrolled scenario." She added, "Basically: We still use Crimes Against Humanity in total war situations, so we're testing it. So forget me hoping against a kaiju. I want you to actively try to cause a kaiju, if you can. Do what you need to do. Make it happen, if you can."

Total war, as in war with Goblinhome, huh?

Historically, goblins had gone to total war with humanity, and then threatened and actually unleashed kaiju when the goblins got themselves into a real danger of extinction, or population loss.

Mark felt a little uncomfortable. "… Can you cause a kaiju?"

"No," Aurora said, "I've tried."

"Can I, uh, talk to your mother and Rekaro? I guess? Reeni?"

"They're on the line already," Aurora said.

Elaria and Rekaro tried to say something at the same time—

But Reeni was on the line, saying, "We doubt any kaiju you make could be anything but a cat 3 since the area is already drained of kaiju potential due to regular gate activation, so just do it Mark, and try to make a kaiju."

Rekaro had a small scoff in his voice as he asked, with disbelief, "He couldn't actually do it, though?"

"Maybe he can!" Elaria said, obviously hopeful. "Dragons can cause kaiju, after all, and he's talzarki to a dragon."

Aurora muttered something that might have been a quick, small 'Mother', but Mark didn't hear it well enough to make that distinction.

But Reeni was saying, "Try to challenge a kaiju from the world, Mark."

… Well when they talked about it like that, Mark kinda understood why people were suddenly worried that Mark could make a kaiju. He Union'd with the world a lot, after all, and trying to actually challenge the world to cause a kaiju… It seemed like the world would respond with a kaiju, if Mark asked for one strongly enough.

Mark hoped he was wrong.

… Best to know about these things beforehand, though.

Mark flew tall and strong as he headed up, up, up. Half a kilometer up, into the warmth of a twilight sun. The world was blue and gold, and Mark spread his black outward, creating a 30-meter-wide rush of swords, knives, and cuts of adamantium, like broken blades, that pushed against the air below him almost as well as the tri-toroid rotor overhead. Mark pulled that rotor apart and connected every rushing blade together into one big circle that was a whole lot easier to spin than holding onto every individual blade itself.

Now that he was appropriately haloed, Mark centered himself, securing himself with the world.

Glory and Fear spread outward like a second sun, ringed in a black-knife corona.

Mark connected to the world—

He had an idea, born of that Ether Turtle from weeks ago, and of the invincibility of certain types of elementals, that could be kaiju-ified. He thought of Sigaldry, too. He thought of Grax, and how his titan-sized Light Body had caused all of this problem, and how the sun was setting on that threat, soon enough. The sun was also setting right over there, as well.

And there were more elements out there than Fire, Water, Stone, Air, and Light. There was Shadow, too, here in the sunset, and Death all around, and Adamant, here with Mark.

Mark made the sign for kaiju with his right hand, which was an open hand with fingers curling inward, over the mouth, like a maw devouring, or a cavernous mouth Calling, roaring, as he made the sign for goblins with his left hand, which was pinky and index up, with middle and ring curled onto the thumb, as though biting the thumb, which represented humanity. He put the maw onto the goblin, as he Called,

Death To All Monsters.

Black and white veins pulsed outward from Mark, rumbling with the shockwave of his voice, crashing into the sunset, into the land down below, cracking the ashen land with the force of Mark's Call. His Call was like a tidal wave leaving the shore, revealing what lay beneath.

Bones. So, so many bones. Goblin bones, like children, but fully grown, each with glittering fangs made to puncture skin, and transform what was bitten. It was ten thousand vectors. Ten thousand individual embers of death. Ten thousand possible elemental forces.

Mark Unioned them all together, into a single force, and that's when Mark passed the tipping point between 'Ah, that worked' and 'Oh, this worked really, really well'.

Each bony body suddenly sank into the hungry ash, into devouring dead black flames that were hungry for more. It was ash crawling on ash. Bones turned to dust and then swirled into itself. Death joined with Ash and Shadow and an Adamantine drive to devour all goblins.

Mark kinda hung there, in the sky, watching it all happen, Unioning with what he was creating, instilling Glory into the heart of the developing kaiju, gifting it the power of Fear. How was this happening? He didn't know. He tried to understand it. All he could really tell was that he had awakened the land, joined together elementals that could be joined together, and now the land was hungry to consume what it had already consumed.

It was all a mess of ash and roaring desire to bite.

It wanted more goblins.

Mark beat with a white/black heart of Glory and Fear, and the land came together, faster, as small bits of his adamantium dissolved into the kaiju down below, reinforcing its insides, its vector. Ten thousand small vectors were already Unioning into one, but Mark's adamantium turned that fragile action solid.

The cloud of ash, all 600-meters-wide of it, collected on itself, onto bone-like shapes, into black death-like fire. It was a mockery of Grax, of the Light Body Titan, and it was hungry.

It looked at Mark, and its vector seemed to regard him like a warm light. It wanted to eat him if it couldn't eat goblins.

Mark hovered higher, turning his blades of adamantium into a rotor that he spun northward. He began flying toward the goblin city about 42 kilometers that way; a beacon of Glory in the sunset, night crawling overhead.

And the death elemental kaiju, like a 600 meter tall storm of ash and bone and black fire, flew after him. It faltered at first. It had no idea how to move.

But it saw Mark's Glory, it felt his warmth, and it wanted more.

People were freaking out on the other side of the coms. Mark heard as much. He also heard Elaria softly praising something before her voice was silenced, cut from the broadcast. He heard the Archmage twins whooping and hollering, and talking about 'already knowing what he was doing!' and 'Fuck those goblins!'. Mark was in the flow, now. He was good to go.

He flew over the Shine, toward the goblin city on the twilight horizon.

The Death Elemental followed.

Aurora's voice actually cut through the flow, as she said, "Godspeed, Mark."

"Heard and Understood, Aurora," Mark said, softly.

The Death Elemental roared alongside Mark's words.

Mark flew on.

The goblin city loomed in the distance like a tiered, green cake, full of holes into deeper levels, and plateaus that rose high above the rest. Goblinfruit trees grew like skyscrapers, acting like pillars to support those layers, those plateaus. Brilliant fires blossomed at the top of every major tree, and at the edges of the goblin city. It would have had 250,000 goblins by tomorrow, according to the calculations buzzing on the coms in Mark's ears, but it only had 180,000 right now. It was still building defenses. Some of those lights at the edges of that layered cake did not go all the way across those edges.

More and more warning lights flickered on as Mark drew closer and closer, leading his kaiju cargo of death elemental like the light at the front of an anglerfish.

Rockets streamed overhead like blazing fireflies in the twilight, fired from the settlement and aimed into the goblin city. Those rockets struck shields erected from fire, or from stone, or bolts of lightning scattered across the sky to trigger the explosives before they could get close to the city at all. But some made it through. Fires bloomed. Destruction disrupted responses.

And Mark sailed forward like a dark god, shining brightly, kaiju at his back.

Goblins scattered, screaming, dying already to Mark's draining Fear, as he focused Glory into the kaiju, bolstering it, while the kaiju became a storm of ash and biting goblin jaws that settled into the goblin city like a roaming death.

Glorious Goblin showed up like a streak of roaring nothing.

Mark infused Glorious Goblin with Adamantine Fear and that mockery of humanity went screaming, running, escaping, alongside tens of other goblins that also flew in the sky, trying to back him up. The mockery's backup wasn't worth shit. And that was all Mark had to do. The Death Elemental Kaiju did all the rest.

It was unkillable by normal means.

That probably should have worried Mark more.

But the goblin killer kaiju was a storm of death focused entirely on the goblins. It roamed, it ate, it solidified, and Mark healed it of anything that the goblins tried to inflict, at all. The goblins couldn't even approach Mark. They fired power from far away. They tried tricks.

Mark weathered explosions, direct attacks, and all manner of horrors thrown from horrible people.

Insidious powers broke his Protect, and Quark was already reapplying it.

Every action against Mark exposed an enemy, and Mark ruthlessly exploited every exposure, marking targets through his vector, guiding the Death Elemental to its next meal. The Death Elemental was as powerful as Mark was supportive. It ate, and Mark healed every injury it suffered. Mark got clipped by strong bullets that somehow got through his shields of adamantium, and he sipped from the Death Elemental, healing himself instantly.

In half an hour Mark had taken the kaiju on a merry trip around the entire edge of the goblin city, leaving behind infernos made of black fire that gradually became red, natural fires. Some goblins tried to escape on the ground, but the Death was strong. Animated black flames cut off all normal means of escape. It was not a complete kill. There were holes here and there. It was fine.

Mark lured the kaiju in a circular pattern, spiraling the kaiju along a path toward the center, slowing down at problematic areas and making sure those areas were fully dead before continuing.

Several hours later, under the aurora-filled night sky, Mark had circled the kaiju throughout the entire place, and now Mark hovered at the center of a black-fire wasteland.

Sunrise was close, but it would never come for the goblins of this city.

Everything was dead and burning, and many strong goblins had escaped to the west, but according to the voices in Mark's ears, Kandon, the Archmage Twins, and Yoro, had gone after those enemies. Rubber and Goofy had escaped, again, but 24 other strong goblins were now dead.

Mark hovered far overhead of the death elemental, staring down at the burning black bones, at the swirling ash, and at a vector that was still hungry. And now that hunger was looking up, at Mark, at his shining beacon of Glory.

Mark asked the kaiju, "Will you go quietly, and return some other time?"

"Even if you could pack it up for later, we can't allow that, Mark," Reeni said, as she stood beside Mark, feet on one of his blades of adamantium. It seemed completely normal for her to be there. She was already a part of his Glory, and she was looking down at the elemental, but then she looked at Mark, and her eyes were deep, deep green. "Death to all monsters."

Mark breathed deep and stared down.

The Death Elemental roared up at Mark, whining, jaws opening to swallow him whole. The elemental rose against Mark, jaws spreading wide, ash swallowing the sky all around him as black fire tried to burn away his Glory.

But Mark flipped his Union with the Elemental, Calling out, "Rest."

It was a shrapnel detonation. A dissolution of purpose. What was once pointed toward Glory, was now shoved in every other direction and running in absolute Fear. A single vector fractured easily, becoming ten vectors, becoming ten-thousand, and then more. Fear blasted through the elemental and ripped it apart from the inside out, the skull disintegrating to scattered bones. The rib cage and claws and arms and swirling ash all rushed to get away, to escape, as Mark pulled his Glory and his adamantium back out of the elemental.

Briefly, under an aurora-filled pre-morning sky, Mark became an early sunrise, rimmed in black knives, and all the world below was a tidal wave of black spreading out in all directions.

The Death Elemental Kaiju broke the land in its own breaking, rushing to get away, drawing furrows in the ground like the lake elemental had before, but these furrows burned with black fire. Everything burned with black fire. House-sized death elementals hurried to escape.

A mountain of bones burned black beneath Mark.

Mark hovered in the sky for a moment, still Glorious, and then he flew downward, Reeni standing on one of his blades that Mark held still, as Mark pursued the death elementals that now plagued the land. Fear popped house-sized elementals into something smaller, and then smaller still.

By true sunrise Mark was done killing every death elemental larger than a human. The rest could remain because there was still a lot of land that needed clearing.

Mark switched from Fear and Glory to Earth and Bubbles, churning the land into sand and debris, causing great gouts of fresh fire to rise into the sky like twisting pillars of black and red flame. Mostly red. Sometimes mostly black. Mark had to kill a few more death elementals, and by 8 AM, when the whole settlement should have been gathering for a great push against the goblin city, Mark had already turned the land into fresh dirt and a lot of burning things. The fire was mostly orange, yellow, and red, now. Not much black fire at all.

Reeni had left him a while ago.

Quentin was still there, though. Quentin said, "You did all the work but I'm beat!"

Mark smiled at that. "Thanks for staying awake, Quentin." He asked, "I take it that's everything?"

"That's everything on the list. The remaining death elementals should die off in a few days based on what we're already seeing, but until then they'll kill everything. That'll take care of every possible Green-rank problem, though I don't see any goblins on the imaging at all, so the elementals will probably die faster than 'a few days'. Maybe just 24 hours. The few remaining Yellow-ranks and all of the many, many Oranges, can all stay there. The army that was set to deploy today isn't heading out, but a lot of mages are." Quentin finished with, "And we're done! And by the way, you're very much a Blue-Rank now. You might have summoned the kaiju and killed it, but that still counts for promotion, so congrats!"

Mark chuckled once. "Thanks, I guess…" He looked around, his voice turning distant. He asked, "This was a Crime Against Humanity, right?"

"Oh yeah. But considering the circumstances you'll probably get a pardon and an invitation to Crytalis, to meet Emperor Salvation. Or at least that's what I hear some people saying. Come back in, Mark. I can't leave my post until my charge is back at post."

Mark scoffed as he started flying south, saying, "You could have switched out ten times!"

"More like 2 times, but I was never going to do that. That was too cool, Mark."

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Mark grinned, but he said nothing.

He arrived back at the settlement to something like a party.

Truthfully, attacking the goblin city was going to result in deaths. 100% chance of losing at least a few teams, to the person. That's what Quark and all the analysts had said yesterday, and the day before. A lot of people had been scared of that. Of what was to come. But they were also warriors, wanting to do the job, to be strong. So it was understandable that when Mark approached the city, someone fired off fireworks into the sky, from the War District, and Mark was pretty sure they were mostly from Eliot. But other people were shooting off fireworks elsewhere, and especially over the stadium, and probably because they had firework-stations there. They just had to load up some stuff that was already ready to go. Carl, of the Grey Whale's crew and standing on the roof of that large hovership, was even firing off bright fireballs into the sky. Those fireballs exploded with colors and a cheer rose from the gathered armies set out north of the gate, waiting for marching orders that were not coming. The 'army' was haphazard and undisciplined because it wasn't moving today. A lot of people were happy. Some were really fucking disappointed, but they'd get over it. Probably.

Mark had stolen all the glory on this day.

Mark set down at Castle South, at the main meeting room with its big balcony.

Aurora was there, alongside Yoro and Kandon and the Kaiju Squad with Sam and Lee, while Elaria, Reeni, and Rekaro stood in the back. Quentin and Deedee of the command center were there, too. Sally, Isoko, and Eliot were nowhere to be seen, but they were probably at home, or whatever. The people present were all happy, though, and Mark felt safe, and he'd see his guys soon enough. Elaria, standing back there, was practically beaming with joy. Parts of this whole day made Mark worried. From how he had just committed a Crime Against Humanity, to how the people here all accepted it as the cost of doing business, to not knowing where the archmage twins were right now, to the memories of watching goblins run, screaming, and die, terrified, to feed the kaiju Mark had created… It was a worrying kinda day. But Mark wasn't worried about anything right now. Not with how secure Aurora felt, and how happy Elaria was, and how smug Rekaro was feeling… Though that 'smugness' was kinda weird. Whatever.

Today had been a worrying, wonderful, Glory and Fearful kinda day.

Aurora stepped forward, saying, "You saved a lot of lives today, Mark. You can also never do that again without express permission. I hope you understand this restriction."

Mark nodded. "I understand."

Aurora grinned gently, then proclaimed, "With this action, I officially elevate you to Kaiju Killer."

Mark smiled and he couldn't help but chuckle.

Elaria clapped loudest of all, but Kandon and the others clapped, too.

Aurora spoke softer, saying, "If what you did works against all unkillable elemental kaiju then you're probably getting hired out across the Two Worlds. Elementals can be very, very hard to kill."

Mark breathed deep. "Okay!"

Aurora smiled. "Go get some rest. There will likely be celebrations tonight, and you will be the guest of honor."

Mark easily accepted those orders.

He got home, saw that Eliot, Sally, and Isoko, were all there and safe, and he practically collapsed with exhaustion. All his reasons to stay awake were gone, and they all instantly recognized that. Mark still got to talk about how dangerous, cool, and weird that was. None of them talked about what they were actually feeling. They had big feelings right now.

Mark was too tired to keep his eyes open, though.

Isoko eventually said, "Go sleep, Mark! You're making me tired just looking at you!"

Mark giggled, recognized he had the giggles, and then went to bed, Purifying himself before he wrapped himself in adamantium and closed his eyes. Mark kept Quark's handy body outside so he could be lookout and reapply Protect as needed, which, to Mark's sleep-addled mind, seemed weird, but Mark was too tired to think about why he wanted Quark out there to Protect him.

Mark had Quark reapply the spell once more.

And then Mark slept.

- - - -

Isoko sat across the dining room table from Eliot and Sally.

Isoko was fully excited.

The other two were not.

The three of them had been talking for the last half hour, ever since Mark got back, and especially after Aurora handed down some proclamations regarding Mark's capabilities, and future obligations. General Valen had given Mark the short version, but she had given the three of them the much longer version. Mark, and the three of them, if they wanted, were getting put on a short list for worldwide teleportation, like Crystal Tower on Earth did for Glorious Man and his own personal response team, and Teams Mithril, Orichal, and Iron.

But the teleporter could only take 3 people. 2 people were better. 1 person was best, but Aurora had been very adamant that Mark should not be alone when ported. Someone needed to go with him.

Sally was against the whole thing.

Sally said, "It just seems dangerous and weird. We already know they want Mark doing shit for them that he shouldn't be doing. And now the Empire wants to sign him up for teleportation to anywhere they want? Dangerous and weird. I think we should talk him out of it, and when he goes for it, because he already has, then we should be prepared to rescue him. I'm still working on my Size Changing Alteration and… And it's going well. But I need more time."

Isoko was stunned. Not because of Sally's recalcitrance; that was normal. But the other stuff. "Holy shit, Sally. That's the first time I've heard you talk about your Executioner magics!"

"I'm not going to make a habit about it," Sally said, "But since shit is happening and we're prepping for the big leagues… Now you know."

Eliot had gone mostly quiet, but he spoke up now, saying, "I agree with Sally. We should talk him out of it."

Isoko scoffed. "But…? Why? I kinda understand Sally. But why you, too?"

Eliot simply said, "The settlement needs Mark and all our stuff is here, and I'm not ready to go exploring the world anyway."

Isoko confronted Eliot with the big question, "Would you even want to port with him? Toward unknown dangers? Toward kaiju?"

Eliot would have had one answer yesterday. Isoko knew that answer.

But today, after tonight?

Eliot answered, "Yeah. I could go fight kaiju with him."

Isoko was stunned.

But Sally instantly said, "Eliot! Really?"

"I know it's strange. But!" Eliot rapidly continued, "Mark can sand an area down and that qualifies as Man-made, so I'm not starting from scratch. I need to study crystalline architecture some more so I can build like they do down in Crytalis, but maybe, with Sigaldry and maybe an AI from United Sapients, we might make a great rapid response pair. We need to go to Crytalis to learn that stuff, though, but I can see it happening. I can even see the teachers of that stuff coming up here to the settlement instead. I just need to tell Mark and Mark will tell someone and it will happen. He'll get me a private tutor. And Mark can probably Fear people away from me in actual battle, so that's 80% of my kaiju-battle concerns taken care of. The point is I trust Mark, and it's weird with the dragon stuff, but I trust him." He added, "NOW! That said: I am last in line for a teleport with Mark. And I'd like you to stay with me Sally, here in the settlement, because I'm pretty sure Isoko wants to go with Mark a whole lot and I still need to plan for goblin genocide."

Isoko and Sally were both surprised.

Isoko looked at Sally and said, "You wanna stay behind with Eliot?"

Sally frowned deeply, vector going wild, and then she breathed deep— Her vector flicked left and right, and then she realized something. She solidified. She told Isoko, "You need to be able to fly without assistance to keep up with him. When you can do that, I'll be good with you being with him."

A solid grin spread upon Isoko's face. "I'm working on it." And then she asked, "So I'm going with him, then?"

Eliot said, "Derek can go with you all, too. He's already in every major city out there. He might not need to be teleported that much, and he would love the extra responsibility."

Sally rolled her eyes. "I guess it's better for the world's deepest spy to be working with us instead of against us… if that is what he's really doing."

Isoko asked, "What do you have against the guy so much, Sally? Freyala approves of him."

"Freyala's only given him Good and Bad, right?" Sally asked, rhetorically. "Anyway. I said my piece. No need to go hurting possible cooperation due to my own preconceived notions about how Derek could be some 100 year old guy pretending to be young again but with deep triggers set to go off when his handlers say certain words. But that's just my paranoia talking! I'm sure."

Isoko commented, "That's a new one." She sarcastically asked Eliot, "You heard that one before?"

Eliot rolled his eyes. "That's a new one, but I could see it. Maybe not with Derek, but with someone else, sure."

"It was literally Grey Phantom from Memphi, like, 4 months ago," Sally said, to an audience that had heard it enough.

Isoko remembered something. "That reminds me! Why is the Thrashtalon-Cultist-sign a white handprint over the face? Or elsewhere on the body? Is that some sort of Sigaldry? A Protect effect?"

Eliot uttered, "Ohh! Yeah? What is that?"

Sally sighed, and then rattled off, "It's a Protection from detection, specifically. Protecting the face? Meaning protecting the face. It can do a whole lot more than that, too, depending on the nature of the blessing, but most cultists use it to protect themselves from detection, and then they take it off and go back to being sleeper agents."

Isoko's mouth dropped open. "Like a Mind Nudge effect?"

"No fucking way," Eliot went, "We're protected from those."

Sally said, "It's multipurpose. Like… I don't know what you want me to tell you. It's divine intervention. It can do a lot of weird protective shit."

Eliot hummed— He paused. "… Wait." He looked away, his vector going inward and then spiraling outward, thoughts multiplying, as he muttered, "Is there a way to strip that Protect effect? I should know this already."

Sally said, "As far as I know it can't be stripped because it's not an actual effect until the god is using it. Really deep Cultists have Protections against parts of their minds, and they might not even know they're Cultists until Thrashtalon pulls away that Protection and lets the original mind flow into the big mind. But also, like… I am 70% sure I should not be telling you this at all, since this sort of paranoia is caustic as shit to a functioning society, but if we're splitting for any real length of time then everyone who goes with Mark on these missions needs to be VASTLY more paranoid about all of this stuff."

Isoko could agree to that, but there was a problem. Isoko started with, "Look, Sally. I'm not trying to be a bitch right now, but I really do need to know if this paranoia actually matters since Drakarok is always retributive anyway." Sally was getting mad, but calmly. Isoko continued, "Like… Chances are if something happens then one of us is dead and the rest have to avenge instead of protect. That's what Executioners are, yeah? You even said it yourself. If you died then that would reveal Mark as a hidden dragon. You were the canary in the coal mine. A willing sacrifice, but a sacrifice nonetheless."

Sally's almost-anger flowed away. She sighed, "I said my paranoia is caustic to a functioning society, and I meant it. But… Shit. Mark pulled a kaiju out of whatever, and then he threw it at an enemy that was slated to kill anywhere from 20 to 300 people today, and where are the archmages right now? What do the demons have to say about this? You know that there are only… Well. Maybe you don't know. I don't know either. How many people can make kaiju and control them like that, Eliot?"

Isoko and Sally looked to Eliot.

Eliot was still far away right now, still checking on how to strip Cultists' Protect effects.

Sally poked him in the shoulder, bringing him back to reality.

Eliot blinked. He looked at Sally. "What?"

"How many people can make kaiju and control them like that?" Sally asked.

Eliot blinked, his vector halfway-elsewhere as he went, "Ahhh… Looks like… Currently there are 2 supers on Earth who can make kaiju on demand and control them. One is Verdant Guardian. She did some plant manipulation that turned monstrous. Kaiju-sized monstrous. Happened in the 2000s and she got that World-Class lawsuit against her. Currently in an unknown prison."

Isoko remembered Verdant Guardian from world history class, but she did not remember much beyond what Eliot had already said.

Sally said, "She's in Tokyo under guard but mostly living a normal life, last I heard."

"More than what I heard," Isoko said. "But only 2? Really?"

"It's pretty hard," Sally said. "Aurora can't do it and demons don't teach their archmages how to do it, either."

"What about the list of people who can make kaiju," Isoko clarified. "Not make and control."

Eliot continued, "The list of people who can make kaiju and control them is the same as the one that can make them. I don't think they want people knowing that it's possible to make them… Or something like that. Anyway! The other maker/controller is Hexbreaker. She's still around and working in Crystal Tower."

"Who is she?" Sally asked Isoko.

Isoko was surprised. "Hexbreaker? Really? I didn't know that." She answered Sally, "She's like Lawful Goose; she curses things down to 0 Power Level, but she can obviously do more than that."

"I guess so," Sally said, her mind going elsewhere.

Isoko guessed, "Lawful Goose is not a Cultist, Sally."

"He could be! Those kaiju out there didn't come from nothing. They were planted," Sally said, "But you're probably right." She asked Eliot, "Who else?"

"I've found a lot of kaiju attributed to unknown experiments on Earth and in Daihoon, including something in Jacksonville, just north of Mark's Orange City in the Floridas. Jacksonville had kaiju spawn inside the walls. Crystal Tower didn't want to help them, so the city is an exile city now. 2028, so not too long ago, really."

Sally nodded knowingly, saying, "Scary shit."

"Daihoon sources are being a lot less open about answers," Eliot said, vector spiraling elsewhere, spreading and pulling, digesting and learning. The screens in the living room flickered. The lights dimmed a bit and then came back. Eliot came back and said, "We'd have better luck asking the Inquisitors, but chances are Mark just entered a very, very exclusive club."

Sally said, "I'm sure people are gonna show up here and want to talk to him, so I'm gonna stress bake." She got up and went to the kitchen. "Anyone got any requests?"

Isoko said, "Berry tarts! Not too much sugar, please." She got up too, saying, "And I'm gonna practice wind shaping."

"Those cinnamon rolls you make," Eliot said, as he got up, adding, "And I need to do some experiments with crystal building practices."