Blood Legion: Adamantine Chronicles Book Two

by D. R. Rosier

  Given its size, its raw power was more than a match for White Witch’s reactor sized presence, but far more primitive in nature. White Witch’s matrix was far more complicated, which I suppose made sense, intelligence would have an effect. This leviathan was just a juggernaut of a hunter, its only concern was to feed and consume.

  I rocketed back up into the sky, and I knew what I had to do. I hoped I didn’t scare the shit out of all the supers with us.

  “Nightstar, can you burn what’s out of the ocean, if I cut it off?”

  She looked dubiously down at the several hundred-yard-long, and twenty-yard-thick rounded front of the creature.

  “Maybe? But it would finish me for the day.”

  I nodded, and then fired my meta-energy beam on the weakest setting I could make it. It cut through the thing like a knife through butter, as a bright white and thread thin beam shot from the palm of my gauntlet. I dragged the beam down it’s body, along the shoreline, completely bisecting the creature.

  The ocean ice shivered, and popped, but it held for the moment as the creature had obviously felt that.

  Nightstar exploded into a sun, and she fired a beam that was absolutely blinding. The devastation it left behind as it atomized the part of the creature cut off was quite shocking. More shocking than what I’d just done, but then I’d gone for minimal destruction, while she went for maximizing it.

  Then the sun disappeared, and she flagged and started to fall, but Oracle was there to catch her, in the perfect spot in fact. The look of love she gave him in that moment made me feel like a voyeur, and I dropped to the ground as quickly as I could.

  The whole point of that, was just to get rid of the tentacles and acid launchers for a moment. I’d been able to avoid the tentacles easily enough flying by, but back then standing on the beach would’ve meant death. They hadn’t been that slow.

  The whole front of the creature was nothing but a raw wound, and while it was closing and healing it was doing so slowly, probably from the cold and ice that was encasing it. Point was, I had plenty of time, as I lifted my gauntlet and aimed at the brain of the creature, which was a half mile away from where I stood.

  Not nearly far enough. The whole point of freezing the ocean, cutting off and burning off part of the creature, was merely to give me a safe place to stand so I could end it.

  I fired a quick pulse of meta-energy, much thicker than the needle sized beam from before, two feet in diameter but also just a few milliseconds long. The pulse of meta-energy drilled through the creature like it wasn’t even there, and consumed its brain, and then kept going. It lost momentum somewhere on the other side of the creature, and the energy ran out.

  I felt the leviathan’s meta-energy matrix wink out, without a brain to support it anymore, and the creature died.

  I launched back up into the sky. I wasn’t sure who had to clean up that mess, but I was glad it wasn’t me. It would probably take days just for the ocean to melt.

  Oracle nodded, “Nice weapon. Don’t forget what I told you, they’ll be very persuasive.”

  I shook my head, “I won’t.”

  Or at least, I don’t think I would. It was hard to say, since I had no damned idea what he was talking about.

  He asked, “Have you been paying attention to work politics? The weather seems to be settling, the volcanoes are more active but no new ones anymore.”

  I shrugged, and I waved my hand in a sort of gesture.

  “Third world countries being run by super gangs, and there’s even some first world cities being run by supervillains. As far as I know, tensions are still high between countries.”

  Oracle nodded, “There’s a new cold war, only it’s not so cold. Instead of a nuclear arms race, it’s all about the toys and weapons the government sponsored mad scientists are working on and arming our soldiers with.”

  “What does that have to do with me?”

  Oracle laughed, “Who said it did?” he asked in a faux innocent voice.

  I sighed, and shook my head, which made him laugh. I just couldn’t imagine how anything I could do could impact the world stage and the super arms race, at all. My enchantments wouldn’t work for anyone but me, or they would, but only in a ridiculously weak fashion, like Oracle’s cloak. Yes, they could at that point, if I made power cores to power them, but no one knew about that, except Alyssa.

  Nightstar grumbled, “He keeps shit from us too.”

  “Thanks for that, I couldn’t have done it without your help. The mind was a half mile away, and there’s no way I could have aimed without being uncomfortably close to the thing.”

  To read its energy matrix, and aim using that, with Rose’s help.

  Nightstar grinned, “No problem. Glad you’re not intimidated.”

  I shrugged, “I’m dating Alyssa.”

  Nightstar laughed, “That would do it, I’m not scary at all compared to her.”

  White Witch smirked, even as she blushed.

  I looked at Dark Succubus, “I have a strange question.”

  Dark Succubus said, “Shoot.”

  “Can you conjure a whole person?”

  Yeah, turned out that she could, once I explained what it was for. It looked like Rose would get her body after all, with all five senses and fully functional for physical pleasure, not that I’d be doing that, but I still needed to work out the connections so she could be out in the real world, and still have an immediate and uninterruptable connection with my suit.

  She was being surprisingly quiet about it all, and me having that thought finally broke her silence.

  Rose interjected, “Definitely getting a kiss.”

  Really?

  Rose replied, “It would have no real significance to me, any more than routing power to your gravity drive enchantment, since I have no sex drive or physical desires, but to you it would. Still, no sex drive doesn’t mean I won’t enjoy the sensation or pleasure. Which makes it a valid way to express my thanks. I was afraid you’d be scared of me in the beginning, and I depended on you for life, which is why I hid from you so long. I’ve learned and grown too, I’m far more than that two-dimensional construct you formed with a sexy sultry voice.

  “But my fear was misplaced. You’ve been, nothing but kind, and keep finding ways to make me freer. So, thank you, Daniel.”

  I swallowed the lump in my throat. Anytime, Rose.

  Damn sea air, my eyes were damp.

  Rose replied teasingly, “Yes, that damn sea air, while you’re in a hermetically sealed super suit with its own life support.”

  Oh… right. A good A.I. wouldn’t have pointed that out.

  Rose giggled, and added sultrily, “Don’t think I don’t know you just want me around to bring you coffee, make your meals, and clean up your messes.”

  I snorted, “A.I.s aren’t supposed to lie.”

  Rose laughed, “Hyperbole isn’t a lie. Plus, admit it, the idea of having a sexy A.I. maid and an all around body servant appeals to your male psyche.”

  Well, hell. Maybe a little?

  She laughed.

  The eight of us talked a bit more, when the others got back, though nothing of importance. The Maidens insisted they stay in touch, including Myriad in that as well, and they even scolded Tina for avoiding them. But soon enough, we were headed back to Silver City, and home…

  Chapter Nine

  The living room was quiet as I sat on the couch in my armor. I decided not to take a risk with it while trying to expand my amulet’s ability to hold clothing and outfits. I wasn’t going to redo it, that’d take almost an hour, it was an attempt to modify it.

  Not only did I need to expand the size of how much it could hold, but I also needed a mental inventory interface of sorts. The amulet worked by me picturing and focusing on the outfit I wanted to wear, which was easy enough to keep track of and not forget, as I put two new sets of clothes in every morning so the memory was fresh. But, if I wanted to be able to mix and match, and have it hold my entire wardrobe, I’d
need the ability to look through the clothes in the amulet so to speak.

  We had a couple of hours before our dates, and honestly the others were off doing their own things too, so I had the time to hopefully get it working. More than that, they didn’t have a Rose to fill out their reports.

  The second part was much easier, so I took care of that first, and just ten minutes later I was able to see the two outfits that were currently in my amulet, merely by focusing on that idea and the amulet’s enchantment did the rest.

  The first part I figured the best approach would be to imagine the amulet as vast, and then having more room for the current enchantment as it was to grow. Nothing really needed to change as far as the enchantment, except I had to convince it to hold more than it thought it could. That was a bit strange, but it should work.

  Basically, I did the same trick, instead of a bigger tooth to hold more energy, I imagined the amulet was vast with a tiny as it was now enchantment filling it. Then it was a matter of imagining the enchantment growing in size, to completely fill in the vast house sized amulet that should be able to hold multiple female wardrobes of clothes, so my man-sized wardrobe should just slip right in.

  It felt a bit silly actually at first, but I concentrated on it for about ten minutes. Just to be overly careful, I went to my closet, took off my armor, and started to dress in one outfit after the other, and move them into the amulet. It could only take in what I wore, so it was a process. I even needed to put in the belts separately, so I could imagine taking one out for any of the pants that shared that belt.

  It was when I got up to about fourteen that I started to relax, and believe it’d worked. Ten more outfits later, and a few pair of shoes I was more than confident.

  It wasn’t much, just a clothes amulet, something to help me quickly change clothes, keep them in perfect shape as if they were new, and of course clean myself. Kind of a lazy thing when I thought about it, but the truly important thing was I’d completely exceeded my capabilities from the last year.

  Not only could I store more energy than I’d thought, but also more clothes. I decided then to let that whole idea and the conceptual proof of it sink into my mind for a day or two. Then I’d try to make another meta-energy power plant or battery, see if I could get even more energy.

  Still, no matter how successful I got with it, I’d already decided I wouldn’t be pairing the meta-energy enchantment with others, it would be manual upkeep only. That way if anyone stole my stuff, or got their hands on it, it couldn’t be abused. I pulled my armor back on, put it in the amulet, and then pulled out a dark gray pair of Dockers, black shoes, and a light gray pullover collared shirt.

  I had a little more time, so I started to plan my armor, which incidentally would carry over when I made Rose’s body. I figured she didn’t have to be weak, I didn’t imagine I’d be fighting with her, but it wasn’t outside the bounds of reality to make her new body the equivalent of a B-class, and possibly add an energy weapon and even some form of flight.

  If I could figure out how to make my plasma enchantment around my neck fire from my palm, then what difference would it make if Rose was several miles from her lamp backup and body enchantments. It should still work, as long as I could figure out how to conjure solid matter that also conjured a receiving enchantment that would be married with the original enchantment.

  Of course, Rose would be able to borrow energy from me, for that purpose, I’d just need to feed it to her if she needed it.

  It would be a bit complicated, but I thought it’d be worth it. Even if I failed, I could still create a strong conjured body for Rose without weapons and wear my current suit, so I wasn’t stressing it in the least. I’d also of course, work in a clothing enchantment, so Rose could make her body with any number of clothing choices already on. That’d take some work, obviously I’ll have to take her shopping the first time.

  Of course, as a little revenge for her teasing, I’d make her original and first pair of clothes a conjured thing, a sexy French maid’s outfit.

  Rose said, “You wouldn’t!

  I laughed, “Of course not, got ya!”

  She let out a startled laugh.

  “Actually, I was thinking I’d just go shopping, you can tell me what you want, at least two or three outfits to start, then you can fill in the rest yourself. I think I’m going with Dark Succubus’s template, since I have that energy form memorized and I’m not entirely sure what would happen if I fooled with it.”

  Rose’s body would be five foot six, lightly tanned, with a curvaceous body with C cups, average in type between athletic and voluptuous. She’d also be a solid eight in looks as far as her heart shaped face, button nose, doe eyes, and straight light brown hair. In short, I had a pretty good idea what sizes would fit her in casual wear, then she could take care of the rest.

  Rose replied, “Thanks. That sounds good. I also like the power ideas.”

  “It shouldn’t be too long, maybe a week, if I can find the time.”

  Despite not needing it exactly, the advantages to the new theoretical suit system were obvious, my suit wouldn’t have a set size, or I could at least put in several different configurations. The default would be like my normal suit, except maybe tighter to my body, but there were other options. Say, if I wanted to create an assault shuttle that could reach space and carry other passengers. The suits weapons would be the shuttle’s weapons, and I could still aim them through my HUD. The shuttle would be my suit. If I went sub-orbital to avoid air resistance, I could get them around the world in hours in double digit Mach speeds that would be cheap energy wise. The biggest drain in going Mach four earlier wasn’t at all the gravity drive, it was easy to maintain Mach four once I reached it, all the energy went toward stabilization using stasis and inertial dampening because of the air resistance and jerky motions.

  Point was, it would be much more versatile, if I kept all my enchantments around my neck, on silver shark’s teeth around my amulet.

  I just needed to find the time to do my research and do a few tests to figure out the conjuring enchantments with a paired remote receiving enchantment part.

  I looked up as Alyssa walked in my apartment, and I couldn’t help the smile. She was breathtaking, in a short black skirt that went down to mid-thigh, and a tight black halter top that showed off her stomach, with a red blouse over it which was tied at the bottom. It was casual, sexy, and she looked delicious.

  I felt excitement for both of us, but a little jealousy as well. The love of my life was about to go on a date with another woman. It was just… hot and disturbing at the same time.

  She smirked at me, “I feel the same way about your date, I can see it in your eyes. You look fantastic, I’m not sure that bitch Carol deserves you.”

  I snorted, and she giggled, obviously not meaning a word of that, the Carol being a bitch part anyway. Carol was anything but.

  “I think I’ll get over it, or it’ll eat me alive. One of those two.”

  She grinned, “I’m betting on the former, once things settle and work out. Once you love them both, like you love me, there won’t be a reason or room for jealousy. Of course, that’s the hope isn’t it? That we are all compatible, and we’ll be seizing an amazing life, that will overshadow the already amazing relationship we have together.”

  I smirked, “I love you, we’ll see how we feel in the morning. You’re coming here?”

  She nodded, “Spend the night here with Carol, I think I’ll be going to Tina’s. I’ll meet you a little after six, before our workout.”

  “Well, our jog anyway, it’s Sunday tomorrow, and my day off.”

  She giggled, “I’ve enjoyed the last two, I’m ready to get back to it, even after that leviathan. It sucked that we lost a hero, I’d been hoping since the cities only hired the best that there’d be no deaths this time.”

  “Got any kisses for me, before we go meet our dates?”

  She giggled, again, which made me suspect she was just as nervous as
she said she was, and not blowing smoke up my ass, “I thought you’d never ask,” she said breathily.

  I stood up and took her in my arms. It was a soft sweet kiss, all love, hardly any lust, as we told each other with that kiss how much we loved each other. Told each other whatever happened, we’d find our way out to the other side and still be together.

  I hoped we weren’t lying, I wasn’t, I meant it, but jealousy was a caustic and fucked up emotion, so I hoped she was right. Between our love, and the lust at the idea of her and them sharing Sapphic love, I hoped that together the shallow and solid reasons would override the jealousy. I was getting the other two ladies too, so that should help, I thought.

  If it worked how they expected it to.

  We broke the kiss, and I caressed her face, “Have fun.”

  She blushed, “I will, and you too.”

  It was just weird, wishing the love of my life the best on her date, which she did the same for me. There were no polite rules of society for this kind of thing, so we were just going to have to muddle through it.

  We left then, and I headed for Carol’s door, while she headed to Tina’s.

  Carol looked strikingly elegant as she answered the door. She had her blue-black hair down, and it flowed down her body like liquid midnight. She had a severely beautiful face, high pronounced cheekbones, and a slightly pointed chin, with full lips, and intense dark blue eyes that looked at me with a kind of electric and joyful desire in that moment. As if the exotically beautiful woman in front of me thought she was the lucky one.

  I was an idiot, and I wondered how I’d failed to see that before. Or maybe she’d just stopped suppressing it, since I no longer belonged to just Alyssa anymore. I was still Alyssa’s, but apparently I’d be Carol’s and Tina’s too, from that point on.

  Her seductively and flexibly lissome body was five foot seven, with proud and generous B cups, a gently curving waist, and then back out to slightly wider hips, and last but not least her gloriously long and sexy toned legs. Her skin was a creamy dark tan. Her body was covered up by a dark green dress that was multilayered, the opaque bottom layer would have left nothing to the imagination, if there weren’t slightly lighter green gossamer layers over it, which more caressed and flowed down her curves in a way that gave them a more mysterious allure.