***Tirnanog, Mount Aerie***

***Magnus***

I used the following days to catch up with my acquaintances.

First on the list were Gurney and the leaders of the Organisation, Jakob and Chloe, who to my utter shock had decided to partner up. When asked, they informed me neither of them had been in a romantic relationship and purely logical reasons guided their partnership. A marriage of convenience, so to speak, and since both of them had taken the starfish mutation, also one involving a lot of ‘fun’. Upon meeting them, it was my first time seeing the full extent of what the starfish mutation could do to a person. The few days between the mission to the Mycelium and now were enough to turn Chloe from a well-aged fifty to a thirty-looking woman. I almost didn't recognise her at first.

Afterwards, catching up with Gurney was also littered with a few surprises. He gave me a detailed report of his time spent as a Thich prisoner and revealed he had decided to follow the Organisation to Mount Aerie. “It’s not like I have anywhere else to go, and your people have all that nice equipment,” was his only comment on the matter, his eyes shining at the thought of returning to his old calling as a true scientist.

I used the chance to hand him Gaia’s list, disguised as one of Thalia’s research papers. Thalia had been working hard on ways to determine the compatibility between various mutations for years, albeit limited by the available instruments.

To her, it was a matter of a few modifications to insert Gaia’s revelations plausibly into her work. There was no doubt the elders would utilize Gurney’s expertise sooner rather than later, and then it would be only a matter of time until more people dreamt of Tirnanog’s ‘goddess’.

After discussing the matter, we concluded that standing up in front of the council of elders and declaring our firm belief in Gaia's existence was probably not a good idea. I mean, in a religious sense it would have caused raised eyebrows, but our ultimate goal was not to sound like complete lunatics upon claiming we had contact with an ethereal entity.

Furthermore, we decided to take the next opportunity to come clean with Astra's and Thalia's parents at the very least. And depending on how it went with those four elders we could increase the circle of 'enlightened' people.

But first, we had to catch all four of them in the same spot.

Next on the list was a visit with two Caravaners who I had kind of abandoned during our joint mission. As it turned out, cleaning up the remnants of the Thich raiding party had been no problem for Elijah and Linda. Bereft of their juggernauts, the remaining warriors had either chosen to flee or to fight to the death. And given Tirnanog’s wildlife, those who fled had likely only lengthened their suffering by a few days at most.

Travelling without established safe-houses along the route was generally considered a death sentence for anyone below the juggernaut classification.

I used the chance for a few training bouts with Elijah, but nothing had truly changed between us power-wise. Despite not being a speedster, Elijah’s mastery of precognition was beyond me, leaving us in a stalemate as long as I didn’t decide to resort to potentially lethal attacks. Given my most recent improvement thanks to the thunder eel and Gaia’s training I might be able to obliterate the Caravaner with a feat of pure power, but that was hardly the goal of a friendly bout.

The last visit on my list was Elder Gilbert. The blacksmith and newly minted wormhole artificer had messaged me and claimed he needed to show me something.

So I happened to find myself in the man’s workshop which was strewn with creature cores and abandoned or failed projects.

“I see you have been hard at work since your most recent success,” I commented while looking over the mess. It was clear Gilbert was beginning to get a grasp on the strange bio-technology which powered the wondrous abilities of Tirnanog’s creatures.

His first experiments had been fairly simple, from glorified flashlights to chemical mini-factories. Till now, it had been nothing more than simply taking an existing creature core and employing its functionality in a semi-useful device – for things like a flashlight were of no use to someone with my mutations.

The wormhole was Gilbert’s greatest achievement so far, as it united a worm’s wormhole generator core and power supply with a suitable control mechanism managed by humans.

“Don’t lull yourself into a false sense of security,” the elder commented while leading me over to a desk with several pieces which looked like armour parts. “I still need you to identify the activation sequences of more creature cores.”

“Glad to be your decoding device,” I commented. “So what is this?”

“If it works, this will be a portable power source for your armour!” Gilbert explained. “And it is the first creature core I tried to hack!”

“Hack?” I asked.

“Yes!” He replied eagerly. “As you probably can see from my vast collection, I have gathered a lot of experience dissecting the things without destroying the individual parts. The more complicated ones are still beyond me. Finding someone with x-ray vision would be helpful.”

I snorted. “I will immediately inform you, should I come across someone who can shoot radiation out of his eyes. I can only make mine glow within the visual spectrum.”

Gilbert pointed at two different cores which had been disassembled and laid out in their various parts. “This one is a molerat’s heart. Fairly simple and easy to recognise as a peristaltic pump once you know what you are looking at! There is no mystery behind its function, while the other one is far more complicated. Personally, I lack the knowledge to guess how the second one works, but I know if you supply the thing with power and add the right ingredients through these feeds, it produces a highly effective acid! So, do you notice any similarities between these two cores?”

I looked them over, setting a few sub-personalities to the task for additional support, and quickly came to the solution. “This part here is identical between both cores. It looks different, but it has the same amount of connections as the other one. What is it?”If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

The two pieces were cut out from the cores and filed down to reveal several metal 'contacts', for the lack of a better term. The bio-technology of Tirnanog’s wildlife was strange and sometimes mind-blowing, but it followed the laws of physics. A peristaltic pump was a peristaltic pump, even if it was clearly not a device assembled by human hands but had rather ‘grown’ in a perfectly optimized way.

Circuit boards in human devices were flat, space-wasting, and easy to recognise by any modern person for what they were.

The cores were mashed together balls of highly condensed electric circuitry with resistors, ICs, and capacitors. How they were formed inside a creature was still a mystery, but I would bet quite a lot there was nanotech involved.

I couldn't blame people for not recognizing the cores as biotechnology at first sight. While I classified some of the inner workings as electrical components, they hardly came with a company label or even a standardized appearance. Each core had its own individually optimized and moulded together components. And I doubted many people even knew how a diode or an IC looked like without a neat isolation housing and company label printed on top.

Of course, once a core was destroyed the build procedure made it impossible for us to put it back together. And if randomly cracked open, most cores looked like ceramic rocks with veins of metal inside.

“These are the control circuits controlling the cores!” Gilbert said, sounding giddy. “And as far as I can tell, apart from the physical layout of the individual parts they are identical! They might not look like it, but they were just slightly altered for the given shape of the creature core. They are a standardized design! Like someone took the same micro-controller blueprint and just altered it from core to core because he didn't want to bother with re-inventing different control circuits.”

“And this means…”

“And this means!” Gilbert took the control circuit for the molerat core, one I had deciphered for him months ago. “That I can take this circuit, to which I know the control sequences, and connect it to the other core after cutting out its control unit! What does this mean for our most recent alien theory? I have no clue! But it also means we can take apart cores and use their components to make things like this!”

“A backpack?” I asked, following Gilbert’s finger to the largest armour piece. It looked like several thick scales overlapping each other.

The elder slapped me on the back of my head so fast, I had no time to dodge. “It’s not a backpack you fool!”

“Sure looks like one, albeit a small, thin one,” I defended my claim. “Maybe more like a generous spine protection.”

Gilbert sighed. “It’s one of the lightning eel’s cores which you brought with you. I took one apart and as far as I can tell, it’s a highly efficient power cell. One which will be without a doubt capable of increasing your power output by a magnitude.”

“Huh...” I looked at the newest upgrade to my armour. “But I still need to charge it?”

“That is the downside,” Gilbert admitted.

“How much can it hold?” I asked.

Gilbert shrugged. “The only way to know is to test it. I am not sure how much power you need for one of your long-range teleportations, but I would be surprised if it didn't at least enable you to take an adult with you.”

I rubbed my hands together, already imagining what we could do if Astra and I could take people with us through jaunts. The Thich wouldn't know what hit them if juggernauts moved unpredictably all over the front, making it impossible to plan the right countermeasures for their given abilities. “Then what are we waiting for?”

***Tirnanog, Thich Fortress City***

***Zacharias***

The magistrate reported the newest developments, kowtowing before the throne while the representatives of various influential families watched.

Humming, I considered the future. It was funny how a few insignificant developments could change an easy win to a stalemate. Most of it was due to this mysterious organisation which had messed with things. I wondered whether it would have been possible to foresee their involvement, but even Greta, the great Matriarch of Hochberg couldn’t foresee their involvement or even her own demise.

Our contact with Earth had been silenced practically overnight. And if the spies were correct, then there was no hope of getting more assistance until the Tibet Gateway facility could be rebuilt. Rumours mentioned a nuke, so not counting on getting help from that direction was probably wise.

The loss of additional research subjects would have to be addressed somehow.

I sighed.

Which meant we would have to double down on that breeding program.

On a positive note, we still had the Vier on our side. But Nisha had started asking clone Seven some inconvenient questions. I would have to be very careful with my answers. Having the Vier turn on us would be a strategic nightmare.

Things like the unexpected loss of our two best speedsters were comparably low on my list of things to watch. The sole survivor who managed to get away spun tales of the fight being over within seconds and some strange nightmare hunting down the fleeing raiding party in the dark.

Instead of believing in the tale of Aerie possessing two outstanding speedsters who crushed my people, it was much more likely to assume someone had fucked up and our scouts had gotten ambushed most unfavourably.

Well, it didn’t hurt to deploy juggernauts which countered speedsters as soon as we got another hint of the enemy making use of those mysterious warriors.

I consolidated the information with all my clones. The annoying mental hole which was left by the traitorous Eleven was still there, but it had gotten more bearable over time. From time to time my clones could still hear his corrupting whispers, but he wouldn't regain control over the whole so easily.

Getting up, I walked down the stairway from the throne and past the magistrate.

Ignoring the guards who began trailing me, I wandered down to my palace’s courtyard where one of my eight high priests held another sermon for a group of prospective adjutants for our generals.

Grinning inwardly, I wondered what the brother would think about his sister taking so well to our teachings. She had quite the ambition to reach so high, though I had to make sure she was watched and loyal to our side. Having one of the psychics select the right partner for her would be vital.

I mentally noted the matter for one of my clones to take care of and continued my casual inspection of the palace.

There was little to see on the upper levels apart from government infrastructure and glamorous bling to woo the eyes of the influential families. As much as I would have liked to, I didn’t have the means to rule Thich’s population with mental control. A certain degree of support from the powerful and influential was a necessary evil to rule effectively.

And while I could have probably subdued them on my own, giving them at least the illusion of having something to say proved wise. It meant I had to remind them of why I was at the top only every century or two instead of purging the families every two or three decades. After all, purging my own subjects was nothing but a waste of resources.

My wanderings led me down to the lower floors where the real research regarding my tentative ally was going on. It would have been perfect if I had been able to recruit Gurney, but I had already learned more than enough by interrogating him. His joining my cause had been unlikely anyway, and giving a man like him access to my facility was a risk. No, it was probably better that Mary had taken him.

Passing laboratories working on genetic experiments and technological advancements, I finally reached the deepest part of the facility which was hidden beneath the palace in a natural cave which had been there since time immemorial.

I had been informed it was time for the latest test.

Two girls stood on a platform, surrounded by several rotating rings. It looked like a gigantic gyroscope, but it was actually a much more advanced version of a human wormhole generator. Something which had been created by our mysterious benefactor.

The two touched the control globe hovering in the centre controlling the machine. Their faces showed expressions of deep concentration as the rings began to glow and I watched with a savage grin on my lips as it began to activate.

There was a flash of light blinding my senses and then the girls were gone. Two more test subjects were taken to a mysterious place without return. I wondered why the platform was only taking twins with the right mutations. If there was anyone else on the device, it wouldn't even power on.

Turning to the lead scientist overlooking the experiment, I raised my eyebrows. He knew the question well enough.

“Ninety-eight per cent!” he reported eagerly. “We are close to cracking the activation sequence. Only a few more experiments and I guarantee you, we will have complete control over the device.”