Lux Locus: Fractured Family

Once again at the bridge, and under the surprise of everyone, Zenith had the main viewport repurposed as a massive screen from which all communications were transferred. Of course, because of the oblong shape, the image had to be corrected and resize for both ends.

Colors and shapes took form as the process was being done, then the other side was brought bare. A single woman clad in silver armor whose arms were draped in red and black cloth appeared on a screen of light held together by light projectors and mana condensers. The cloth was easily thrice the size of her arms and extended to a collar around her neck. Her silver armor was a flat and solid piece of armor with the symbol of the prosecutors carved into her chest plate.

She was a visibly aged woman, easily in her seventies and with a shaved head. By Zenith, judging by the glowing blue veins on her head and filling her one brown iris, she was attempting to extend the well-being of her body through a rather illicit practice of excess mana absorption.

"The fool," he thought. "She can't hold in so much mana. It will destroy her from the inside-out." He shook his head in disappointment.

"What is it that you want, most experienced of prosecutors; The Night Spirit."

"Great Prosecutor Ierfehand First Ehry Frumshes, I wish to invoke the right of planetary lockdown."

"What?" she responded with a modicum of anger.

"I have found evidence of Blumarak: God of blood, bone, and marrow, deep within the confines of this despoiled world."

"You would dare accuse the ones who follow the work of the Administrator of failing in surveying their own home?"

"Yes. I experienced this myself. I fought a lesser demon of the fowl deity and--"

"It's not a matter of simply stating experience. These can be easily falsified." She scratched her chin and hummed. "That being said, your unique position would be justification enough for these accusations, but I find it hard to believe that just one follower could bring about such a creature."

"I am perplexed as well, but I and my bodyguards have seen it of our own eyes, and arm had been torn off and needed replacement."

"This still does not indicate how one individual summoned a blood demon, nor how one such individual can cause any form of damages to this world. If you followed procedure and sent out arrest warrants, bounty hunters and the less fortunate will be hunting the culprit down as we speak. It is not uncommon to find a rat or two in a boat."

Zenith's voice modulators crackled as though he were gritting his teeth.

"I have also found evidence of the other one being here."

Ehry's eyes widened. "What? Impossible. For one god, it is not impossible, but two?"

"Yes. I was sent here by one of your offices to investigate reports of a new god here on account of many of our prosecutors being sent to and around the Calaghi System, among other things," he trailed off.

"What does that have to do with the second god? I heard reports of that old man, and his intentions were not ill willed nor were his followers harmed."

"Mumbass does not harm, for that would deter loyal followers. No. He brings promises of joy and satisfaction, but his greed and envy are his true purposes."

Ehry waved a mechanical hand flowing with mana. "All of us already know of Mumbass and his intentions, but I find the possibility of any sort of symbolism to be more of intention to summon him, rather than him being already here."

Zenith smashed a fist into a railing next to him, bending it like a thin, aluminum stick. "Why do you not act?! This is what happened five hundred years ago, and--"

"It will happen again. We do not have the power to protect everything. The most we can do is delay until we can perform the necessary rites and evacuations, but this is in the scenario that evil deities have corrupted a world." She narrowed her eyes. "Then you execute your power as prosecutor."

Zenith snorted. "I refuse to use that. There are always ways to flush out a pest without burning down a house."

Ehry leaned against her arm and sighed. "Why...Why do you persist in this thinking? This is something that has befuddled me for so long. Prosecutors of long standing have multiple accounts of using their power as they see fit, but you are the only one who has utilized it but a few times, yet you have lived the longest." She coughed a long moment, interrupting the conversation. "Your behavior now even suggests a hidden envy to take my place." She cocked an eyebrow.

Zenith averted her leering gaze and shrugged. "I will not deny that I have coddled the thought."

"Then why did you refuse this place? You would be able to execute the planet-wide lock down based on this 'hunch' of yours."

The prosecutor laughed dryly. "How would you feel if the one in charge lived for five centuries, while all the potential successors died as princes?"

"I would be...quite irritated," she said.

"Exactly. Leadership requires a fresh new mind, and my ultimate goal requires me to travel our systems, something I wouldn't be able to do in a bureaucratic position such as yours," he explained.

The woman shifted uncomfortably in place. "Be that as it may, it still does not brush away the irritation you demonstrate. If we were to reveal the presence of the gods of bone and greed on one of the Magus Imperator's own planets, then what would happen to the rest of our organization? What would happen to the common folk? Even the Colored People ruling the Terran Expanse would be forced to intervene when they aren't supposed to."

"What of it?!" Zenith gestured to his crew who were less than excited at being used in his example. "These people rely on us to keep. The gods. In check." He smacked his palm with a straightened hand for every word he said. "If our organization falters and prefers to keep such news hidden, then, when it is discovered, rumors of corruption at the highest ranks will start spreading until people start to revolt. Our 'honor' is not relevant--"

"It's NOT about a question of honor!" Ehry interjected violently. "It's about security! As you mentioned, people will revolt against us and start to destroy everything we worked on!" She exhaled loudly and slumped back into her chair whilst rubbing her face in irritation. "For someone who has live for five centuries, you sure have a very naive point of view of the workings of the Terran Expanse. We are a relatively new race, Night Spirit, and thus we must be more cautious than the others. The only three races we've met have nothing in common with our own species. The Puwandese war because they're 'bored', the Joros Daman are literally just beasts having somehow developed organic space travel, and now these Xith'Kai whose motivations are entirely unknown, not that the others were."

"Just because you fear the unknown does not mean it should go entirely unnoticed. Using caution got us this far, but fear caused the war a thousand years past between magus and craeft. We don't need this happening with the Magus Imperators."

"Then what do you suggest we do, hm?" she inquired.

"It is time to revamp our system. We can no longer react to things like this in time. Too many heads to count and speak to. We need to create sub-groups with different tasks than ours whilst still needing to answer to us for the important things."

Ehry laughed. "You first came to me to tell me of the infiltration, and now you say we need sub-groups. Your mind is a complicated but understandable one. If you really want this, then you need to come to the Golden Eye which I'm sure you've seen after arriving here."

"Then I will be there at once."

Ehry's face became darker as she prepared what she needed to say in her mind. "These negotiations could take weeks. Are you prepared for the risks to the people that entails?" Zenith remained silent. "And, I expect you to have one Afol Anda with you."

Zenith stared at her blankly. "What?"

"You heard me. Someone of your stature without one of them won't be seen with a good eye. It will be seen as a sign of weakness on our part. Too many incursions and not enough manpower to deal with them."

"I..."

"It will only be for as long as the negotiations last." She sighed. "If you don't have one, then we'll send you one," she explained in an uninterested manner.

"I don't."

"Then you will get your temporarily assigned sanctified one in an hour. I will alert the other heads on this planet and elsewhere of this idea of yours, and we will negotiate it upon your arrival."

"As you wish," Zenith replied with disgust.

Deep within the bowels of the city, the worshiper of Blumarak remained. She hid her marks with a drab shirt and large pants, allowing her to pass through the crowds somewhat unnoticed until she reached a rather large facility built into the stone walls. There she was greeted by fellow worshipers wearing red leather armor and brown clothes underneath them. Unlike the woman, they were not into the tribalistic stylisms and kept everything 'modern'.

"You were found," a fat man draped in large bands of sown leather. "By the Night Spirit no less!" he bellowed.

"It wasn't my fault! I don't know how he found me or even learned about me."

The fat man shook his head. "I told you fools this was a bad place to summon Blumarak."

An anorexic woman came out from an adjacent room and glared at her yelling colleague. Every step she made with the help of a staff thrice too tall for her echoed upon the polished, white floor. There wasn't much in terms of decoration in this room save for a few needed plants to help circulate oxygen as well as the artificial sunlight made by the lamps in the ceiling glaring over all in their vision.A second floor reachable by a split stairway stood in the middle of the room. Its steps were dilapidated and its handles stretched and strewn along the base of the stairs and surface of the steps. The floor was damaged and many of the once colorful tiles were now nothing but dim shades of moldy dust permeating into the stagnant air.

"It is not your place to decide when and where Blumarak can be summoned," the old lady scolded. "He wanted us to come here, and so he shall."

"But when do we spill blood and gather bones for him?" another woman bounced in place eagerly. "I yearn to kill and spill blood."

The anorexic woman shook her head in disappointment at the behavior of the berserker? She raised her staff and started focusing her mana into it. The staff split along its middle and opened up to the sides with a disgusting crackling of dried liquids breaking through their dried surface. Blood dripped from the sides in large columns. What didn't drip onto the floor focused into the middle like a spider's web and revealed a massive head made of red crystallized blood. At its center was a demonic skeleton with a passive expression.

"What is it?" it asked.

Everyone bowed to him. "Blumarak, I have dire news about your efforts to turn this planet into another Blood Anchor for your forces," the anorexic explained.

Blumarak's orbits shifted in mockery of a raised eyebrow "Do tell."

"I...I have learned that one of our operatives was discovered by the Night Spirit while Mumbass also covets this ball."

Blumarak looked to the side, taking in the realm his followers could not witness. "Night Spirit being here is no surprise. Mumbass is not extremely discreet, but when he's around, so are they. We shouldn't worry too much about him." Blumarak leaned against his hand. "Mumbass is another story. That gluttonous blob has forces that could cause me trouble. If we are to succeed in capturing this planet, then we need to determine where his followers are located and destroy anything used in his summoning rituals.

"But what about the Night Spirit?" the woman pleaded.

Blumarak snorted. "Send operatives against him if he gets too snoopy. Otherwise, leave him be. He'll find the Mumbass followers before us."

"When can we kill, Mighty Blumarak?" the berserker blabbed.

"Not now. I am sated in blood for drink and bone for meals."

"B-but, we can't just stay sitting here like this? And you'll get thirsty soon. I can feel! Let me ill you for you, ple--"

The berserker was stopped by a massive hand coming out of the portal and crushing her entire body in its grasp. Once let go, her body was a mangled form more akin to aluminum than human.

"I grow tired of your prattling, berserker. I am sated. That is as it is."

The fat man took a loud gulp. "Um, and what if Mumbass manages to get a foot hold here and we can't flush them out?"

"Kormsin will be sent to you when you've acquired enough ritualistic materials to break the barriers between our realities. Until then, keep quiet, or I will find your bodies to be my next source of nourishment."

"Yes, Blumarak," the remainders said in unison.