“That be among the more disturbing sights I be seeing, ever,” the Mick drawled for everyone’s benefit.

  That inlet was now crimson in color, and the entire length of it was churning with bodies scaled and slimy feasting on bodies bulbous and bloated. All the blood was naturally drawing in even more of the Aquatics, homing in on the buffet prepared for them.

  There was more than enough for them to eat, too. Hundreds of tons of Eaters were charging forth into the waters, driven mad by hunger, and if they died, they didn’t care if it meant they had a chance to fill their bellies with something.

  “If you look out onto the landscape, you can see three young Eaters, little Biters, spawned out there,” Master Oswald said dryly for everyone’s benefit.

  Masks of Clarity turned, swept the littoral regions so covered with snow… and yes, indeed, three young Eaters, only the size of soccer balls, were ambling around randomly… but in the direction of the gory feast on the beach.

  “From eating Summons?” Knight Chum-li protested in disbelief. Everyone knew they just broke apart and vanished soon after death, even less permanent than creatures that still had Deathstone effects working on them.

  “Aye, they can gain weight and size from eating ectoplasm, and damn fast, too,” Master Oswald replied grimly. “Killing a Summons goes directly to growth, it’s like a perfect food… except it never hits what passes for their stomach. They just get bigger, stronger… and their hunger is never satisfied.

  “It’s totally possible the Eaters dying there have never eaten a real creature in their entire lives, glutting themselves on Summons until they swell in size so much they can barely move, and then they charge out into the sea for one reason or another and die by drowning or being eaten alive.

  “The cycle won’t stop as long as a single Eater can chew on Summons and put out their spawn. They multiply with breathtaking speed if they have food, and the Summons are endless food.

  “There’s probably four or five waves of Eaters on this island alone, sweeping across it, eating the spawns, pumping out the young, increasing the size of their horde until they reach a point like this, and go charging into the sea to eat or be eaten.”

  “No wonder the creatures be ignoring us. They’ve been eating their fill on Eaters for all these years?”

  “Yes. And this isn’t all of it.”

  Nobody was looking forward to that news, but there was nothing for it but to resume our progress west.

  -------

  “The green be gone,” the Mick said flatly, staring at Traitor’s Island ahead of them as their Waveskating Step slowed once again. The Aquatics nearby were ignoring them, as if they weren’t of interest at all. “That should be trees and meadows, all before us, a green and splendid place to live…”

  “And the Eaters ate everything,” Kris finished for him, her pale violet eyes scrolling from right to left. “Plenty of Summons visible. That means either some time since the last wave of Eaters, or they are due for it.”

  “You can see the Hall of Karlun from here,” Master Oswald pointed out the tall mount in the far distance, Masks of Clarity easily able to make out the Keep atop it. “There’s an inlet that reaches almost up to it, but the entire length of it is fordable and exposed to the Eaters. Our best chance is to come in from the east, across the ridge there. In my experience, there is always an Eater horde close to the Keep. They can smell the living in there, and so they stay in the area, looking for something left alive. Sometimes they go surging through the inlet in a wave, scaring up any fish or frogs or whatever might have come into the water, probably the only time any get real food.

  “There are two Dungeons on this island that have Eater Summons, too. Even if all they eat is rats and bugs, eventually they spawn Biters, and the cycle starts anew. The only thing slowing it down is the fact Biters aren’t very dangerous, and generally keep to the shallows hunting fish until they can grow big enough to kill Summons. Once they can, however, they multiply quickly, and the Biters can nibble on Summons to increase size far more quickly.”

  “And they ate every bit of grass and tree and shrub and flower,” Briggs murmured, looking around. “That is a LOT of Eater meat, and the Aquatics have just been pulling them off the shore, into the sea, and feeding on them, all these years…”

  “What about the Mad Cow and the Red Bull?” Knight Xena asked. “Why haven’t they been eaten?”

  “Because they blow whole Eater hordes apart piecemeal, and feed on the remains,” Hunter Adso spoke up from next to his teacher. “The Eaters can’t hurt them fast enough to bring them down, and the two of them can kill whole swathes of them in return. Then the Eaters start feeding on their own dead, get distracted, and the two aurochs slaughter them all.”

  Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

  Everyone pictured that happening, but it was Queen Elysa who asked slowly, “So, just how big are those two aurochs?”

  Master Oswald’s smile was thin and cruel. “They were over ten feet at the shoulder when last I saw them, not a year after the Fall. Now? Well, now, that’s a good question.”

  “Ye be sure there’s still living at Karlun’s Hold, then?” the Mick asked warily, as he and Kris turned north to parallel the shore here.

  “Yes, I’ve met with them several times. I was unaware of the Lived-Line mechanics, and there were too many water gaps for me to transport them away, so I could do little more than run supplies to them every now and then, and give them advice on gardening. They always had things to trade, however.” That earned him more curious glances. “They have an NPC shopkeeper up there, who happens to sell a fairly wide variety of food, and he never runs out of wares, despite never having access to livestock or farmers selling wares. We never tried to feed him Notes, or he might have been long gone, but I’ve been buying packs of oregano from him for years, and selling him basic ironmongery and lockpicks in return to generate the coins needed.

  “All those blue packs you saw on the people in Stonehold? They came from him.”

  None of the NPC’s in Stonehold or the Plateau had kept that status after Oswald took over the places, and just about every native had owned a blue leather pack, purse, or pouch.

  “A rare treasure, then,” Briggs nodded, “and used wisely. I imagine his prices dropped quite a bit, too…”

  Even Oswald was startled at that observation. “You’re right. They came down at least a third after he moved to the Keep. Interesting.” A minor detail, but it meant something was watching. “Of course, the man should have tons of pyreal and be spending it in return, but he is an NPC, and doesn’t even need to defecate like a normal person does.”

  That was a given, as well as not needing to sleep and being available at all hours. NPC’s were slaves and had no lives outside their position.

  That had probably saved the lives of the refugees up there, too.

  “How many survivors?” Princess Fan asked quietly.

  “Two hundred, which would have been very crowded were not the Keep actually a Dungeon, too. Much of the interior of the mount was empty and could be divided up among the refugees, and they’ve slowly expanded it ever since, leaving the top and outside open for gardens and the like,” Master Oswald informed her with a pointed glance. “They’ve children, but not many, and the situation is stable for now. The fighters can isolate individual Eaters and butcher them for leather and ivory from their teeth, which the Shopkeeper will take in exchange. The other Eaters clean up any remains soon enough, but the warriors of that place are truly experts at killing Eaters by now.”

  “Hell of a life,” the Mick muttered.

  “They tried building a wall so they could plant more gardens, but the Eaters are on them before they can get it finished, and knock it down in their frenzy to get at some living meals. They’d have to somehow fight their way through three waves of hordes at the least to get the time needed to put one up successfully, and even if they did, Eaters have been known to chew through stone eventually to get at what they want.

  “When we get closer, you’ll see quite a few tunnels chewed into the base of the mount by hungry Eaters. They don’t get in far before the ley line reinforcement just fixes the damage, but they look like pig-sized rat tunnels, trying to get to the living inside.”

  “This is a very bad place,” Knight Enki murmured, the lightning of his Mask pulsing slowly as his hand rested on his Saber.

  “I don’t know about Summons, but their unrestrained appetite is what wiped out the Fiuns and destroyed their homeworld. I can only imagine the desolation that their homeworld is, with only the littoral regions having any sign of green, doubtless warred over by starving hordes of Eaters,” Master Oswald nodded to nobody in particular. “Call me cruel, but the extinction of the Fiun is not too small a price for them to pay for the disasters they’ve caused.”

  Nobody could gainsay him that belief. Fucking around with artificial life had birthed true monstrosities the Fiun had not had the will or power to exterminate properly when they had their chance. It had gotten away from them, turned on them, and killed them.

  There was really no defense for their deeds, and a powerful, scholarly, and highly magical race was now extinct on Dereth and their homeworld because of it.

  “I think this world was very, very fortunate that the Fiuns and their Eaters ended up here, on this isolated set of islands, and not on the continents proper, or even on Dereth,” Knight Tia said softly.

  There were grim nods from Roaches and Knights alike at her observation. The sight of those Eater hordes, and thinking of them tearing across Dereth, eating EVERYTHING in their path, growing more numerous, multiplying with the unlimited food that Summons represented…

  Yes, that was not something anyone here wanted to experience first-hand.

  ------

  “Well, this is not going as planned,” the Mick murmured with a hard smile. “I be gathering we be having to pull them through the Shoreward?”

  Some three thousand Eaters were gathered on the Shoreward, just up off the beach, the short cliff discouraging them from leaping down at us and killing themselves.

  However, all those unblinking black eyes and little hooked tentacle-sensors were aimed in our direction, and they were all watching us.

  Shifting position had done nothing. The whole horde had shuffled along to keep us in front of them. They had us in their sights, and they’d pace us as long as we were visible.

  “Well, at least the people in the Keep noticed our valiant efforts.” Everyone glanced at the Keep raised on its hill a good two miles away, just enough angle from its tallest towers to see what was going on here.

  “Can ye bring them down, lass?” the Mick asked shamelessly. “We can be patient.”

  “It rather seems to me to be an excellent opportunity for some Naming Karma. There’s only like a hundred and fifty Eaters each, right?” I lobbed back at him.

  They all blinked.

  “We will need to vivify the lot of them,” Briggs instantly agreed, “no matter what the Aquatics might want. They are still going to get a good meal. Can you create us a battle platform and a bridge for the handy use of the Eaters there, Magos?”

  I smiled widely. “Commander Briggs, it would be my pleasure!”

  ============================

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