Demonic City Builder - Cattacomb - Chapter 91 - Industrialization (Final Book 2 Chapter)

This is the final chapter planned for book 2. There will be 4-5 epilogues as well.

There was a soft, gentle tremor. As if something was shyly reaching up from beneath the ground, feeling at the city foundation. Seemingly finding what it was searching for, the trembling stopped.

CREAK.

The entire city shuddered as what felt like thunder erupted beneath it. Glowing, violent lines of demonic text took hold, stretching out in an enormous circle beyond the second ring of buildings. Sulfur and iron scented steam hissed, and the power of the plane took hold.

Just like that, the enormous stash of wealth that Kairon had accumulated—the results of weeks of scheming, plotting, planning, and blood—began to be carried out by the claws of the brood.

Meanwhile, Hush pointed forwards. “Remember… Feel the plane… Feel the air… Feel the emotion…”

Putting the sigil out of his mind for now, the city lord slowly breathed in, then out, putting all of his focus back on the ritual itself. In, then out. “I’m trying. I’ve done this before. It’s just… I’ve added a bit of weight this time around.” In the past, Kairon had easily formed a sort of mental connection with the rituals being done.

He’d also found that the larger the ritual, the more powerful the connection seemed to become. And of all the rituals he’d done so far, a ten thousand gold third ring expansion was on an entirely different level.

But this time, he wasn’t going to absorb some dark star and let it draw him into another flesh eating bargain. This time, he had his own wager in the game.

Over the last several days, as Kairon spent time with Hush, he started experimenting with source energy. A trick, he’d found, was that the golden energy could be used for more than a simple shield against the whispers and emotions of the plane.

Calling back to his training over the last week, he called upon the power of source. He focused it intently in one place.

His eyes.

Kairon’s vision shifted. From color, to nothing, to gold. Everything took on a tinted, glowing hue.

“Okay. I’m doing it, Hush. I’m doing it.” In their practice, he hadn’t yet tried this on a ritual. Instead, he’d stuck to just watching as Hush called upon minor callings from the plane. Wrath upon a pebble or hunger upon a beetle.

Small things.

This would serve as the first large application of his theory in real observation. In retrospect, Kairon did contemplate for a moment if he should have tried this on a smaller ritual first.

But then again, what fun was that?

The cacophony of pure emotion called upon by the ritual before him reeked of so many feelings. It wasn’t of any singular feeling—hunger, rage, violence, or any other—but rather, of all of them. Every single one, mixed into some kind of articulately crafted concoction of demonic power.

It was just like the callings, only much, much larger in scale. At its core of power, the plane wasn’t doing magic—at least not in the typical understanding of such. It wasn’t using some kind of runic language of power. The symbols themselves had no magic to them. They were a language. A language that when viewed like this looked less and less like words and more like… a recipe or a mixture.

“I knew it, Hush! I knew it! I wasn’t sure just watching you, but now seeing this, I know it’s true! It’s all just a fancy mixture! A potion! A recipe…” Kairon’s mind reeled. It was all so obvious, yet… He’d just always assumed the symbols themselves were the key. That they had some hidden meaning. But the more time he’d spent with Hush, watching as he’d done his callings, the more he found that not to be true.

When you really, really felt for it, the callings weren’t pure. Wrath didn’t just call upon rage. It called upon all the aspects. Each had their own role.

The more he watched the powers and emotions before him, in a way that only his glowing golden eyes could visualize, the more sure of that theory he became.

Rituals did the same thing on a much larger scale.

“Oh. Oh my. I think… I think it’s starting to come together.”

What Kairon was seeing was a lot. It was like trying to go from letters to entire books, skipping the things that made them like words, sentences, paragraphs, and chapters. But the theory was there. It was right there.

All he needed to do was increase his comprehension, and turn theory into practice.

“Bark! Get me bark!”

With the brood busy, it fell to Hush and a few of the void imps to serve as his assistants. They hurriedly ran off, before making it back moments later with several of the flattened bark pieces they kept handy.

Part in haze, and part in focus, Kairon began scrawling notes and symbols. “That… The part is what I’d estimate maybe two thirds forge, with the rest split unevenly with brood, void, and pact. More brood… some void… and just a dab of pact. And there. Right there. Something I don’t recognize… Universal? That’s gotta be it…”

Time was slipping away, and Kairon meant to make use of every moment. He wasn’t spending body parts for this ritual. He was just spending seconds.

Scrawling as fast as he could, he notated every change he noticed. When stone shifted, or steam erupted, or symbols were written, glowed or erased. When he felt a presence, and when he didn’t.

Cause and effect. Variable and outcome.

He tried to take everything to those two components, and then feel at what the plane was using.

A tiny giggle escaped his lips. “Thank you, my demonic friend. You’ve unknowingly given me a front row seat to the secrets of your most fascinating source of power.”

Ring Ritual Complete - Third Ring Construction Available - Select 3 Districts — Brood, Wrath, Forge, Void, Pact

Before Kairon knew it, it came to an end. Half a dozen pieces of bark littered the ground around him, each scrawled with notes. Each showing piece after piece of observation.

Each ingredient of the plane’s recipes for rituals and its power came down to the variable aspects at play. Based on what he’d just witnessed, Kairon deduced that it was something like this:

Forge for creation. Pact for agreement and information. Void for unraveling the realm. Wrath for power. And brood for consumption and fuel.

Which left Universal. What was it for?

He bent down, stacking the notated bark sheets neatly next to him. Straightening, he noticed that his little show had gathered quite the amount of attention.

Sythara, Bean, and Vorathrex were all staring at him.

“So… are you gonna tell us what that was about?” Bean smirked, putting his claws on his hips. “You looked pretty excited, master!”

“Nothing good,” rumbled Vorathrex.

Sythara glanced at the bark speculatively, then at Kairon. “Child… Were you trying to decipher the ritual?”

“Something like that.” Kairon waved dismissively. “We’ll speak of it later.”

“Master! Brood! Choose the brood!” A tiny red form practically blasted into Kairon’s side. It took him a moment to realize it was Shiny. “Brood! Brood! Brood!”

“Hey, hey. Shiny. Calm down.”

“Master! Need more brood! We hunger for more!”

“I know, I know. But we discussed this. I already told you that we would not be making another brood ring. Not yet. Which is exactly why I promised the tier two brand Sythara’s working on will be a brood one. Remember?”

Kairon could tell from the furrow of the imp’s brow that he did indeed recall their chat. It was just last night, after all. But he seemed quite… distressed. Kneeling down, Kairon put his lips to Shiny’s ear. “Something just occurred to me. If I were running, oh I don’t know, some kind of… sustenance based operation. I might worry less about growing my base of employees—you have plenty after all with more to follow each day—and more about growing my market. And I have to tell you, Shiny, customers will always pay more than an employee for your goods.”

Shiny thought about that. “Brood is one, master. So all brood employee… Of mine?”

“I mean they’re really my employees, but as middle management, they’re sort of your employees too.”

“Which mean…” Shiny spun around, staring at the freshly carved ring. “Oh… Yes… Yes I see. Master, I understand. Make new. More more. Lots more. Not brood! But pact! Forge! Void! Oh! Even Wrath! Charge them most! Hah! Haha!” Snickering to himself, Shiny shook his head. “Yes… Price increase. I think we do that. Oh…”

Patting the little guy on the head, Kairon turned his attention to the waiting choice. He’d mostly made his decision on the matter already. Forge, pact, and wrath.

Forge because they didn’t have it and they needed it. Pact for much the same. And wrath because it only had three building slots in the tiny first ring. That was an enormous limitation. Judging by the size of the rings this ritual had finished carving into the city, they were going to have a lot of building slots.

But he hoped the combination for his third ring would give his city the tools it needed to succeed in the upcoming challenges in this world.

Looking inwards, Kairon confirmed the golden sigil was floating aimlessly. Grabbing his staff, he strode outwards.

“Where going?”

“Master!?”

“Child?”

Not answering their questions, he kept walking. Past the citadel district, the wrath, and out onto the freshly branded scripture of the ritual.

Then, he let his frozen foot make direct contact with the ritual scripture itself.

“Here goes.”

He made his selections on the floating prompt.

Forge district allocated. Corruption increased. Connection to the demonic plane strengthened. New city building projects available.Forge districts may contain: Smeltery, universal buildings

Forge City Project Unlocked --- Workshop (repeatable)Build Workshop --- 50 Wood, 25 Stone, 50 Gold

Pact district allocated. Corruption increased. Connection to the demonic plane strengthened. New city building projects available.Pact districts may contain: Whispering hall, universal buildings

Pact City Project Unlocked --- Whispering Tether (repeatable)Build Whispering Tether — Variable

Wrath district allocated. Corruption increased. Connection to the demonic plane strengthened. New city building projects available.

Wrath City Project Unlocked --- Wall Tower (repeatable)Build Wall Tower --- 10 Wood, 50 Stone, 50 Gold

Calculating Major Demon options...Ring District Density — 33% Forge, 33% Pact, 33% WrathRing Power — 3Surveying Available Pacts…

That, like last time, was a lot. More than a lot, really.

Kairon had three new building projects—of which the workshop seemed of particular interest—that he was more than itching to try out.

Not to mention the whispering hall and smeltery.

But all of that could wait for now. Kairon had an exploit he was itching to try, and it was now or never. Staring at the blinking notification, he willed his sigil to move.

With a slurp, it slid from within him, spilling onto the ritual and splashing over the menu.

Kairon had briefly considered making the ring power thirteen or thirty one, but figured that would be pushing it. He’d learned to be careful after all.

So instead, he changed one line that he thought wouldn’t cause too many problems. And, if it worked how he hoped, he’d get a rank three demon—powerful but not overly so—but one that was massively attuned to the forge aspect.

Submit Query? Y/NCost: 25 Source

Hurriedly, Kairon selected “Y”.

Ring District Density — 133% Forge, 33% Pact, 33% Wrath

With a click, thirty-three percent forge became one-hundred thirty three percent.

Stepping back, Kairon hobbled back towards the tower as quickly as he could manage. In the corner of his vision, that same line of text remained.

Surveying Available Pacts…

Once he made it to the steps of the citadel, he collapsed onto his butt with a sigh of relief. “Whew! Quite the walk! When one leg’s frozen, that’s really a long trek.”

Ranks of lined up warriors, dozens of brood, and several demons all stared at him incredulously.

“Just what were you doing now?” asked Sythara.

“Oh nothing! Just a little experiment.”

“Oh? So you can experiment, but I can not?”

“It’s not like that. Though it is a bit odd. Thought it’d have found a pact by now.” In front of him, that same message about surveying just sat there.

“What?”

“It—” began Kairon, only to stop speaking as something did finally change. The message began to wobble. “It’s moving.”

“What do you mean it’s moving, child?”

He waved a claw tiredly. “I mean the menu is moving around. Doing its thing. Just give it a moment.”

Whatever she said back Kairon hardly heard. He was far more interested in the notification that popped into existence.

No available pacts found. Expanding Draft Pool.

“Oh. That’s new. Expanding the pool. I think that’s gotta mean good things…”

“It’s what?!” Sythara placed her hand on his cheek, tapping him urgently. “Child. What did you just say?”

“I said it’s expanding the search. We pumped a lot of forge juice into the query and now it needs to find a demon worth the squeeze, so to speak.”

“What do you mean by that? The only way it could expand the draft pool is if it’s trying to find a candidate with more aspect than… No. Child. This… This… Alteration. You used it, didn’t you? The same one we planned for my research comprehension on the tier two brand? If it works like that then…” Suddenly Sythara’s face grew a shade more pale than it’d been before.

No available pacts found. Expanding Draft Pool.

“Listen. I admit, I did use the sigil. I understand everyone’s concerns, and agree to their validity. But, I spoke with Nod. I ensured all imps were accounted for and prepared far away from the new ring. Which is why we are all here, together!”

“That. Child. I do not care about the little ones.”

An incredulous yelp of anger came from Nod in the background. Sythara, however, paid it no mind. “Do you understand? Just. What number did you make? And of what aspect?”

“Forge! And I put oh… A hundred and thirty three percent.”

Sythara audibly choked.

Vorathrex and Bean had joined them, their expressions comically in contrast. Vorathrex with a resigned terror, and Bean with a goofy, child-like grin.

“Did you hear that?” she asked them.

“Yep!” Bean gave his master a claws up. “I don’t really know what it means, but it sounds fun, master!”

Vorathrex groaned, slapping a meaty palm to his face.

Draft Pool Search Extended. Querying Other Entities.

“Oh. Sythara. It says the search is extended.” Kairon wasn’t worried, however. This was good. Quite good. The system had to find them someone, and if not in the pool, then maybe a more respectable demon?

“No! Halt it! Stop it! This is not good!” This time it was Vorathrex. “You do not understand.”

“Vorathrex, I hardly think that the plane is going to cheat us out of giving us a worthy reward for our third ring. You came from our first, and Sythara our second. And you’ve both been invaluable.”

Vorathrex turned, gesturing wildly at Sythara. “Do something, woman! Can you not do your shaping! Undo this madness!”

“Hold on. I thought this through. I’m just encouraging the plane to give us a forge based candidate of extreme resonance with the aspect. What is so bad about that?” Kairon really thought they were overreacting this time.

“Child.” Sythara was practically clawing at her own face as she spoke. “Do you understand what it means if your corruption for any aspect is over a hundred percent?”

“That you’re very, very well attuned to it?”

“Yes. And do you know what happens when you reach such a threshold?”

He shrugged. “Power? New abilities? Maybe it’s a requirement for reaching higher ranks? Like rank five?”

She barked out a laugh. “No. No, child. Rank five is before that. There are only five demons in all of existence in the entirety of the fucking plane that have reached such a corruption threshold in any single aspect.”

Suddenly, the demonic compendium references to the board came back to him. “The board! The ones sitting above the table! Which means…”

Match Identified.The Creator has rejected your pact offering.Querying Other Entities.

“Okay. Good news. The Creator rejected the pact. I guess that’s what you were worried about?”

“The Creator?” Sythara wrapped her tendrils around her protectively.

Vorathrex made a sound like something between a squeak and a moan.

Entity Found. Assigning Pact.Pact Assigned with The Creator’s Infernal Industrializer.

Kairon cocked his head sideways. “Oh.”

Seemingly not knowing that a pact had indeed been formed, Vorathrex managed to find his voice. “We got lucky, fledgling. If he did not accept this, there are none who can. This was a foolish trick you tried today. We may have missed out on a reward for the nest, but I think this is for the best.”

Sythara began to visibly calm, seemingly coming to the same conclusion. “Yes, child. The pit demon is correct. This is for the best.”

Bean was the only one to deflate. “Oh man… I wanted to meet this big bad creator…”

In the back of the tower, a high pitched giggle echoed off the walls. Scampering forward, Hush’s cloaked form broke into the daylight. He climbed atop Vorathrex’s back, pointing one trembling finger in the distance.

“It’s comingggg.”

“What? What’s coming?” Vorathrex tried to swat the void imp from his shoulder.

Sythara on the other hand put both her palms on Kairon’s shoulder, squeezing hard. “What does he mean? Child? What does he mean!?”

“Nothing, nothing. I didn’t do anything. A pact was assigned from something called The Creator’s Infernal Industrializer.”

Sythara just gaped at him, sapphire eyes going entirely dim for a moment. “The what?!”

And, for the third time since coming to this world, a beam of energy erupted from the ground, stretching from city to sky.

BOOM.

The column was as thick as the citadel itself, an orange line stretching from the forge district and blasting an enormous hole in the clouds above.

Dozens of imps fell to their feet, warriors crouched on instinct to hold their balance, and Kairon shifted his view immediately to Sovereign Eye.

Below, he saw his city. The newly made third ring, enormous in size compared to the first two. Each of them holding twelve building slots, for a total of thirty-six new plots.

That was great.

What was of slightly more concern was the enormous eruption of energy that had swallowed three entire building slots—a quarter of the new forge district. And beneath, something was rising.

From all three at once.

“I think we’re about to meet this Infernal Industrializer.”