An Unbound Soul

"The anomaly has ended," stated Serlv.

"That was even quicker than last time. Maybe their equipment isn't completely repaired?"

"I do not know. Let us check the area and then seek Horail."

They certainly seemed determined. Me forcibly shutting them down last time should have let them know in no uncertain terms that they weren't welcome, yet they were back in a matter of days.

We arrived in the area minutes later, a desert towards the south of the continent. As usual, there was nothing there beyond a slight decrease in ambient mana.

Or at least, that was what a first pass with [Mana Sight] told me, but a flash of brown below didn't seem to correspond to anything I saw through [Mana Sight].

"Down there!" I shouted, pointing. Of course, I was on Serlv's back, so she couldn't see me pointing. "By the dune on your right."

Serlv stared. "A small animal of some sort?" she asked, confirming my fears.

"It doesn't show up properly to [Mana Sight]. It has no mana circulatory system."

She dived towards the creature, and the moment it came within range of my [Soul Perception], I knew. A rat. It wasn't the only one, either; as we buzzed the ground, I picked up others. They'd sent their collection of rats through. Why? What purpose did that serve? They didn't seem to have any more control over their portal endpoint than Harry's team, so it wasn't as if they could stop by later to check on the results of exposing rats to this world.

What purpose could they serve if it was just fire and forget? Maybe the damage on the other side had let some of them get loose? But I hadn't done anything that could damage the cages, and they'd had a couple of days to fix things.

... Maximilian had been sponsoring research on epidemiology, and there was a very particular reputation held by rats.

And after Harry's team had been so careful about the spread of foreign diseases, too...

"Kill them!" I screamed. "With extreme prejudice! They carry disease!"

Was I right? Was this an attempt to wipe out civilization on this world? Deciding they didn't want to invade a world where I'd misled them into believing the citizens were bulletproof, were they engaging in biological warfare to clear their way? It had the advantage over large bombs that it would spread without requiring accurate targeting, and unlike the radiation of nuclear weaponry, they could vaccinate themselves against their biological weapons.

For her part, Serlv didn't hesitate. My [Mana Sight] blanked, utterly blinded by the mass of mana she released.

"May Boreas breathe upon this land," she boomed, and the desert was replaced by a frozen tundra. I shivered, feeling the chill through my rank five ice resistance despite the fact I hadn't been hit directly by the spell.

"Woah..." I muttered. I'd seen the results of Krana going all out, but I hadn't been there to witness it when it happened. Serlv had released an expanding sphere of mana, and the moment it impacted anything—sand, rock or rat—it had frozen. The range exceeded that of my [Mana Sight], so it should have been plenty to take out all the rats. I was a little concerned that microbes could often survive being frozen, but she'd bought plenty enough time for Krana to get here and incinerate it all.

Thank goodness the attack had been made in the middle of an unpopulated desert.

The thought was just beginning to form that the number of rats I'd picked up was far smaller than that in the portal chamber, and that ejecting them from only one portal would be inefficient and risky, when Serlv's neck snapped around. "Another anomaly."

Damn.

"We need to stop them! This is an attack! They're trying to spread some sort of disease around the world."

Thank goodness they'd sent through rats, and not infected people. For now, the Law didn't interfere with Serlv's ability to see the danger.

Serlv accelerated quickly, forcing me to hang on tightly, flying north-east. "It has closed," she commented, not slowing down.

"About the same as the last one. We need to get there and clean up the rats. Given the number of rats I saw on the other side compared to how many were in that desert, they have enough for maybe ten of these."

"No. We will not win this by defence. We must stop the assault."

"What?" I questioned, as I realised we were flying towards the Emerald Sea.

"The first anomaly occurred above a desert. It was not an issue for me to destroy all life in the area. The second occurred above the sea in the far north, and we need take no action. The creatures will not survive. Should one occur within a settled area, however, we will suffer a disaster. We must endeavour to stop the attack before that happens."

And how, exactly, were we supposed to...

Oh...

She was going to collect Horail, get me to an open portal, and expect me to do something.

I had a choice of two somethings. Shut it down with raw spatial affinity again, or bomb the other side.

I hadn't even confirmed this really was an attack! I couldn't think of any legitimate reason to be sending batches of rats through portals, but maybe I was assuming the worst? Maybe the goal wasn't genocide, but to blackmail us with a cure. That would still be bad, but was it I-should-murder-them-all bad? I couldn't just bomb the other side!

If we could make a monster core fuelled bomb, what about a monster core fuelled person? Could I pass through myself without worrying about what the lack of mana would do to my health? Preferably with Darren, too, so we could get home. Although having mana ourselves wouldn't guarantee Darren could open a portal from that side...

"A third anomaly," stated Serlv, interrupting my train of thought. "Within the ruby plains."

The original settlement of the centaurs. Great. We were already too late, then. Assuming Centaurs could catch human diseases in the first place...

Serlv didn't switch direction, but continued back to the same unfeasibly large tree as last time, once again landing. Horail popped out moments later.

"What is it this time?" he sighed.

"An attack. They have struck the ruby plains."

"Attack? What do you mean?"

"There is no time. Bring us there."

A confused and concerned Horail, still using my bracelet of transport, teleported the three of us to a luscious green field, with not a single centaur in sight. Nor was there any evidence of them. Where had he teleported us to, if not the settlement?

"We are still some distance away," stated Serlv, grabbing us both. "It is doubtful we shall arrive in time, but I shall try."

She shot off once more, flying at her usual ludicrous speeds that turned the ground beneath us to a green blur.

I'd been feeling pleased about holding my stomach contents on my inside following the teleport, but the high-speed flight swinging in Serlv's claw broke down my resistance, adding a tiny patch of orange to the green.

"I wish there was some sort of nausea resistance enchantment or skill," I complained.

"You aren't the only one," agreed Horail, who was managing to look sullen, his arms crossed, despite the way he was dangling from a dragon's claw.

"The anomaly has closed," said Serlv, ignoring us. "I will dispatch as many of the creatures as I can before the next one opens. With luck, there will be no centaur herds in the area."

This time, luck was not on our side. As Serlv flew, numerous centaurs came into view. Oddly, there was still no settlement that I could see. I'd never met a centaur before; even in Synklisi, they were rare. They probably had more difficulty navigating buildings built for bipeds than even harpies, who had taloned feet that were unsuited for walking.

Alas, this wasn't the time for a cultural lesson. It was time for hunting rats.

"Hear me," boomed Serlv, instantaneously getting the attention of the entire herd. There was nothing quite like being a twenty-metre dragon for attracting attention quickly. "A mana anomaly was reported in this area. It may have produced creatures. Small, quadrupedal and furry, with long fur-less tails. They are dangerous and must be destroyed."

There was some movement amongst the herd. I saw one larger member rushing forward, but I also saw another area, where members turned and faced a smaller child.

The child was holding a rat by its tail, the rat scrabbling madly at the air, trying to bite its captor. Great.

[Eye of Judgement] showed both rat and foal had the [Diseased] status ailment.

Serlv landed and gave a fuller explanation to the elder centaur, and in turn, he confirmed that they heard the anomaly opening and rushed over to see what it was. He described a tear much like I had seen, and that rats came pouring out of it.

"You should kill the (rats) and get everyone healed of diseases," I said. "I saw one among you who already had the diseased status condition."

"These (rats) are that dangerous?" asked the elder, chewing over the unfamiliar word. Meanwhile, I was taking in the unfamiliar centaur. He looked largely as tradition dictated, with the lower body of a horse and the upper body of a human. Unlike a human, he wore no clothes whatsoever. None of them did. At most, they had bags slung over their backs.

Why were centaurs a different species to beastkin? Yes, they were rather more horse than Cluma was cat, but the basic premise of part human, part animal still applied. And they were all shades of grey or brown, while the horses of this world were far more colourful. It was another hint of outside influence. Although given the biological pointlessness of the local horses' colour schemes, perhaps it had been them that had been messed around with. Perhaps one of the previous civilisations had bred them like that, like Earth humans had bred dogs.

"Yes. We believe they are a weapon designed to spread a contagious and deadly disease around," I confirmed.

He shouted something I couldn't understand, causing a stir among the herd. "We'll destroy them all, then," he agreed. I didn't think this world had multiple languages? Although it sounded like there should have been recognisable words in there. It was a shame we were in the middle of a panic, and I couldn't take my time to learn.

"Another one. The Scar."

"I have no teleport points near there," said Horial.

"Take us back to the Emerald Sea, then, but first, remember this place."

He took on a brief look of concentration before teleporting us again. Whatever was required to 'remember' a teleport destination was obviously not onerous.

Despite the quick teleport, we didn't make it to the Scar in time, due to the distance Serlv still had to fly. Thankfully, the Scar was completely uninhabited, so she froze another chunk of landscape then had a shivering Horail teleport us back to the centaurs.

"Thank goodness you're back!" exclaimed the elder, who had apparently been waiting for us. "This disease... What more can you tell us about it? Trying to cure it through magic isn't working!"

What? This wasn't like the case of Harry and his gang, where they kept getting reinfected by local germs. With everyone here cured, there shouldn't be a source of infection remaining. Nor should he sound so worried; they'd been infected little more than ten minutes ago. Even Harry's team hadn't succumbed to the local pathogens that quickly.

"Well?" asked Serlv, and I realised with alarm that the word was directed at me.

"I have no idea! I deduced that the purpose of the rats was to spread disease, but I have no idea what they're spreading. Traditionally, rats are known for something called (plague), but this is probably something else."

"So, we have no hope, then..." he muttered.

"Hope? How bad is it?"

He pointed away from our teleport location, where part of the herd had split out. "We separated out everyone who had a status condition. Thankfully, the status condition shows up before visible symptoms."

"Symptoms? It's been ten minutes! How can there be symptoms already?"

The smallest of the separated group, the young foal who'd been playing with the rat, chose that moment to topple sideways. Even from the distance, I could see the bulbous growths on her sides, visibly expanding as I watched in disbelief. One popped, sending a cloud of dust into the air.

Serlv instantly put up a barrier of ice around them, trapping the infected in with the infection. The ice blocked my vision, but it didn't block [Mana Sight], and I watched on helplessly as the foal grew weaker until her flow of mana ceased completely.

She was, thankfully, well outside of my [Soul Perception] range. While I had a scientific interest as to what I'd see through [Soul Perception] when someone died, I had no desire to exploit this murder to satisfy my curiosity.

Well, that settled it. The first portal we made it to in time, I was sending through the bomb.