Chương 85: 057 – Kaiju and Breaches

It was like something out of a monster movie. Not the kind that were shown in theaters, but the kind of cinematics used in story trailers or climactic reveals in videogames, the kind that had no problem revealing their monster in all its terrible glory. The Void Kaiju crawled awkwardly over a field of what looked like white grass and trees topped by cotton balls, lumbering like a walrus that had come out of the sea an hour ago and was getting tired.

All around it, toy-like Kaedekin tanks were keeping their distance, moving with the kind of nimbleness that made them look like units from a video game. In the air above it, what seemed like hundreds of glowing lights in a rainbow of different colors were flying about and shooting what seemed to be beams of some sort towards the creature. Not lasers, since they could actually see the beams. Plasma weapons? Were those some kind of magic-powered drone armed with plasma weapons?

Loren saw movement, and noticed power armors entering the field. She couldn't even find it in her to be surprised that none of them were standardized. They came in different colors, had different weapons, and while many seemed to share a common base chassis, there were so many differences between them it was hard to be sure. Many were flying on jet thrusters, making Loren wonder what idiot approved that waste of fuel.

An absurd number of them seemed to be wielding swords or spears—though from the shape, they looked more like lances—but just as many had back-mounted guns, or were carrying large rifles sized for them— And then she saw one move next to one of the tanks, and the scale of everything reasserted itself. These weren't power armors like the navy used, but towering giants that stood next to the tanks and had the latter come up to their waists or knees, moving impossibly light on their feet.

The giant robots moved smoothly, their steps seemingly light when they weren't jumping through the air and shooting more beams of plasma as they did so. Speaking of plasma beams, though…

"How is it still alive?" Loren asked, watching as massed fire struck the Void kaiju, visibly causing it to recoil… but that was all it did. Hegemony plasma fire could melt hulls with enough repeated hits, but the thing's skin wasn't even charred!

"Shouldn't plasma weapons have more stopping power? That much plasma should be burning that thing to coal." The excursion party looked back at the screen, in time to see another wave of concentrated fire, forming a brilliant mismatched rainbow. Had those been anything like Hegemony plasma, the thing should be screaming in pain no matter how thick its hide was. Instead all it did was flinch, turning away from the massed fire, but continuing to move forward. Were Kaedekin plasma weapon… weak?

However, Kaedekin all looked horrified at her words.

"What… NO!" Namine said.

"That's horrible! Why would we do something that cruel to an innocent animal? While some of that is probably plasma fire, it would be calibrated not to hurt it. Most of the rest are kinetic beams to push at the kaiju so that it will turn around. It's so big any single kinetic beam won't really be noticed, and if a beam has too much energy, it might punch through their skin and wound it." That… what…

"But why?" someone else asked, their voice vaguely familiar.

"Why do all that instead of just… killing it?"

"Several reasons," a voice that didn't belong to any of the Kaedekin in the cabin said before Namine could reply. Loren's eyes traced the voice to the spirit-possessed tablet at the Kaedekin's waist.

"Firstly, it avoids unnecessary cruelty. Secondly, in the long term, the most efficient means of moving a large animal from a metropolitan area is to have it do so under its own power. Thirdly, killing it would greatly increase the risks and logistical difficulty of dealing with it. A living kaiju can be convinced to relocate to another location using a mixture of chemical irritants, massed kinetic beams, plasma fire to act as negative stimulus, and lures.

A dead kaiju is a significant biological hazard weighing several thousand tons that will begin to decay within the day, and will inevitably contain several unknown bacteria and other pathogens.

Disposal would require either dismemberment to manageable volumes, which will greatly increase the likelihood of contagion; setting up an antigravity field that will encompass the kaiju's remains for transfer to another location, which will require time and lead to progressive decay of the corpus, resulting in a greater pathological load and increased likelihood of dispersal once the remains are moved; or onsite incineration, which will aerosolize bacteria and foreign matter of unknown composition."

"Yes! All that! Thank you, Abyssal Glass," Namine said.

"Also, doing any of that would be monstrous. What kind of person just kills an innocent creature because they find where it is to be a little inconvenient?" All the other Kaedekin nodded in agreement. Loren and the other members of the excursion party stared at them. The party turned back towards the screen, where another shift in camera angle made it clear that the wide field was some kind of public park, surrounded on two sides by a large if underdeveloped city.

Buildings seemed to rise to only ten floors on average, with bright spotlights hanging from the edges of their peaks and shining yellow light down onto the streets below.

"Having a giant monster in the middle of a large city is only a little inconvenient?" Commander Bronze said You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

"Of course. Migration season is much more hectic, especially since it coincides with storm season," Namine said, as if that settled the matter.

"How often does this happen?" someone else—one of the rakido, Loren thought—asked.

"About once or twice a month, although it can happen as many as five times during migration season," Namine said matter-of-factly.

"The Crashpoint breach is the largest on the planet, so it's the easiest one for Void kaiju to find and crossover through. We think they're drawn to the smell of the local wildlife."

"This happens once a month?" Ben said, the other Pyrotheurgist sounding aghast.

"At least once a month," Namine said.

"It's not as common around the other Void breaches. They're smaller and harder for Void kaiju to fit through, but things sometimes crossover through them too." There was that word again.

"What's a breach?" Loren asked.

"Void breach," Namine corrected.

"They're holes in reality that lead down into the Void. The Mass Production Models passed through there before they ended up here on Surcease." She tilted her head.

"Ah, Sky Ranger traffic control has finally gotten back to us. We have clearance and a vector towards our destination now." Even as she said it, Loren felt the boat changing course as the screen changed again, becoming a map. It was far more detailed than most 'X hours/kilometers until we reach our destination' infographics she'd seen, with topographical lines, roads, and cities and towns clearly marked.

One of the dots near the mark that seemed to indicate their boat was labeled Crashpoint City, which had a red tag that read 'kaiju in progress'. Several lines connecting to nearby dots were red, and while there was no tag to indicate why, Loren could guess what they probably indicated.

"What do you mean 'hole in reality'?" someone else asked. Namine shrugged, and it was conveyed in her voice.

"It's a hole, and it's a hole in the universe rather than the ground." The Kaedekin held up a hand, palm down.

"This is the breach, and if you look into it, you'd see a hole leading down." Her other hand formed a fist and moved it under the hand.

"But if you get under it, there's no hole there, just dirt."

"You're talking about a wormhole," a voice said excitedly, but Namine shook her head.

"No, a wormhole is a tunnel that has both ends in this universe. A Void breach just goes down."

"Are these… breaches dangerous?" Commander Bronze asked.

"Beyond the fact they allow for these… kayjews to pass through them?"

"Kaiju," Namine corrected.

"Nothing immediately dangerous, but we're pretty sure that the Void breaches are the reason why there's so many surceasetrial kaiju on the planet, and why many of the animals are Crystalborne. Every so often hunters report animals with variant abilities. And prolonged exposure to them can cause mutations to unmanifested souls, potentially altering someone's magic if they haven't started using magic yet. Just being on the same planet as them has a statistically significant effect on decanted littlest sisters.

On Nightmare, there's an average one in a thousand chance of a little sister having varianted magic, and a one in ten thousand chance of them being decanted with magic other than Thaumaturgy. Here on Surcease, an average of three to seven percent of little sisters manifest varianted magic, and point-seven to one-point-five percent have magic other than Thaumaturgy." … Wait, what the fuck?!

"What do you mean it can potentially alter someone's magic?" Falling Stillness asked, and Loren was both really glad she didn't have to ask the question, and that it was being asked.

"Energy radiating from the Void can have unpredictable interactions with raw magic, which is basically what souls are," one of the other Kaedekin said. Loren hadn't gotten her name.

"We're not sure if the change happens immediately once the soul forms in the tank, or is continuous until a little sister actually manifests her magic for the first time. Beyond that, it seems to have no effect on people who've already manifested their magic. They'd know more at the College of Flames, Pyrotheurgy is better suited for examining the soul than Thaumaturgy is. Seraphine, know anyone we could ask?"

"Hmm?" Seraphine said, raising her head. Wait, had she been napping?

"What was that? Sorry, needed to rest my brain a bit there. That was a lot of heat, I'm full…" Lucky woman.

"Do you know who in the College might know something about souls beyond what we learn in school?" Namine asked.

"Souls? Uh, let's see, souls, souls… no, don't help me, I know this…" Seraphine said, patting the possessed computer in its square holster at her side.

"Well, if you don't count anyone doing pseudo-vampire research, there's Rei, she's been working with some of the Spiritualists to find a way to identify and catalogue the feeling of people's magic. Uh, last I heard, Akemi was trying to find better ways to artificially create Flame-based spirits. There's… um, Sakura and Hayate have been trying to figure artificial composite magic like the Court of the Twilight Cosmos have, but they're pretty sure that's going to be a multi-generational project.

Oh, and they were helping Sentinel and Ring with their research into reproducing the Void dolls, though that's only tangentially soul-related." Loren twitched at the mention of vampire research. Vampires had creeped her out as a kid, and growing up to learn they were real had led to many sleepless nights and four years of wearing metal-plated chokers to protect her neck before she grew out of it.

While people should know better than to try and make a vampire, much less become one, she knew all the old monsters took the subject as seriously as a hostile takeover. A cousin had joked all the old monsters were actually vampires once, and no one had seen him for a month. When he finally resurfaced, he'd run off to become a Catholic priest, and all the grown-ups had let him. If the Kaedekin were conducting vampire research…

yeah, she was going to have to say something to them, even if it meant doing it in front of normies. Vampires being made on a planet that was perpetually dark? Hell fucking no.