Aquatic Nightmare

The Imperial family has shown its true colors! Emperor Wilnius kills our children, and the children of our loved ones. Now his son declares his allegiance to the very foreign powers who we fight! May the central nobles breach his palace, and place his head on a pike! I'm sure this invasion of norththings is also at his hand. The leader of The North is one of these things, they must have called forth some foul ritual to bring the sky on our heads! Goddess preserve us!
-Duke Northspire, at a speech in the city of Northspire

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This world burns. It was inevitable.

The materials are fighting amongst themselves. They do not realize the threat brought forth by the interdimensional connection to this planet. So far only wild ones have reached planetside, but no doubt will one of the more organized groups make their landfall. Only Lady Esstrey seems to have realized the extent of the threat, and I have kept in close communication with her to provide information about their combat strength.

Lady Esstrey is not happy with the information provided so far, especially when I revealed that one of the corpses she found is from the organized groups. The squid-like face, and pink-purple skin could only be a mindflayer. Regardless of the threat these interdimensionals provide, the more current threat is Duke Northspire. His army has been building up for an offensive with the goal of splitting my forces up.

My forces consist mainly of the native barbarian population, fiercely loyal to the being they had summoned forth to lead them. The Coalition of Nations has also provided me with additional forces. Quintillian pirates patrol the western flank, disrupting supply lines for the Duke's forces. Mazurio's contribution is a battalion of harpies to ensure communication are up to standard. Weapons have been supplied in great quantity by the Crystalspear enclave, which is still insistent that they do not have the manpower to engage directly, but will keep us supplied with the finest weapons. Eden's royalist faction has sent a general with a small army to 'reclaim' the north region of the Empire, this action keeps us supplied with a steady stream of defectors, and most importantly legitimacy to make takeover's smoother. The lichdom sent one of their more experienced liches, he has been hard at work recycling the fallen wherever they are.

The Duke's forces are a much larger, but less capable force. His own men have great deals of experience against my Northmen, and even some against Quintillian pirates, but completely lack experience for dealing with the Empire auxiliaries, or the undead. The bulk of his army is made up of the Noble Alliance troops, units that have experience fighting the Empire auxiliaries, but lack against everything else. They have also been provided with a Dalkan mage core, and Theocracy clerical support. The Dalkans according to the Shadow Hand report have attempted to warn the Noble Alliance of the varied capabilities of our Coalition, but were dismissed due to poorly constructed arguments by the mages, who insisted that whatever Mazurio were to sent is the greatest threat.

As usual, they are fools. The greatest threat isn't any of my forces. With the lowering of dimensional protection upon this planet, spatial movement has become much more... cost-effective. The weakened borders of reality aren't only being used by Xen wildlife to find some new grazing grounds.

"Outer One, the preparations are made. The ritual stands ready for usage." A Northman informs me, and I don the sentient armor. I step into the center of the circle, surrounded by sacrifices, and chanting cultists. The circle lights up, and the light clings to my flesh, strengthening it beyond the usual.

The real greatest threat at my disposal, is me.

I rip open a gash in space, and slip to the other side, where I am met with...

"W-what the fu-" A man loses his head, before he could finish his word my arm had already eaten his neck. His armor clatters to the ground, no doubt alerting others to my presence. I rush through the opulent hallways, searching for my goal. I run into more soldiers, who all take combat stances. One of them breaks a small gem, and a noise erupts through the hallways followed by the voice of a man with a distinctly Dalkan accent.

"Dimensional breach in the upper mansion. Mansion personnel are to report to their commanding officers for suppression." The voice sounds calm and practiced. Despite the alarm going off the people here are anything but alarmed.

One of the soldiers charges at me, but his life gets extinguished when I grab a hold of his leg. I eat my way towards his vitals through his leg while he screams the whole way. Another shoots a crossbow at me, and he is rewarded by the sight of the bolt embedding firmly into my mass. Puncturing me at this scale is useless, I estimate he would need to be able to fire two bolts per second to be able to start damaging me. The man looks in surprise at me absorbing his comrade, and the enchanted bolt. I fling the magic absorbed from the bolt through his upper body, and he collapses on the ground gurgling.

The remaining two men who didn't have time to act, decide the time to act is now. One of them flees back to where they came from, while the other hides in one of the rooms. I chase after the latter, and find him attempting to hide under the bed. Dragging the man screaming from under the bed, I decide to apply what I learned from Lady Esstrey.

"You will [tell/talk/sing] about the one known as Northspire. You will do so [quickly/rapidly/with haste] lest I grow ravenous. Failure to do this will result in [death/final breath/being devoured]." I hold the struggling man close to one of my mouths, which gives him a lick across the face like I have seen canines do so often in the imperial capital. The man seizes up, and attempts to shield himself with his hands, but I grasp his hands with some tentacles, and pull his face close to mine.

"My patience is [thin/fragile/weak]." I attempt to improve my odds by recreating Esstrey's teeth right down to the detail, and bare them at him. She makes it look so easy.

"T-the Duke is currently in his tent discussing the coming offensive! He pays for thirty percent of our wages, and there is a rumor going on that the Duke is planning to become the next Emperor! I don't know anything more than that! Please don't hurt me!" Most of that information is useless to me now.

"Where is his [tent/forward operating base/hideout]?" Fortunately, most of it is not everything.

"In the center of the camp!" The man is not telling something, but I do not have the time to figure out how torture works. I simply throw him aside, and I feel vibrations approaching my location. Multiple footsteps, roughly ninety kilograms each. I slip out of the nearby window, and crawl up to the roof.

I look around the mansion, and find what I had been looking for. A large warcamp is before me, the Duke at the center of this few army strong camp. Troops are still heading to the mansion to intercept me, and a barrier is stabilizing space in this region. A normal interdimensional would have difficulty breaching this barrier at long distances. None of those features apply to me.

I tear open another gash in space, and jump through. The other end has humans in armor, and cloaks standing around a map. I am greeted by the sight of a woman with the religious markings of the goddess, a wizard that reeks of experimental magics, and a great deal of humans in high-end imperial armor. Before any can make a move, I make the move first.

Growing to a size more advantageous to me, I engulf the cramped tent. Tentacles move around rapidly, and are cut down almost as quick. Every tentacle that gets through claims a victim, turning the nobles into effigies on the spot. If they fear, they will not think clearly.

"Helga! What is this thing? It isn't like the others!" A large imposing man manages to scream it towards the woman in the chaos.

"I don't know, the signature is much more powerful than anything I have seen before!" Of all the looks of panic, there is one that stands out. One man looks at me with unfiltered hatred.

"Its one of the false Emperor's lapdogs! The norththing itself! This is our chance to end the northen' menace!" His words themselves are a simple truth, containing no useful information, but the weight behind them is obvious. He is the highest authority here.

Advancing on the frail man draws attention, and the wizard and cleric change from attempting to keep me from the nobles, to protecting what can only be the Duke. Instead of playing along with their little game, I redirect and slam into a group of nobles at the side. Their swords are swung around a few more times inside my mass, before coming to an abrupt end. Soldiers are also pouring in at this point, but I have my own tricks.

I rip open another hole in space, and Northmen high on Halshroom emerge from them. Their reddened eyes see no friend, only foe. They charge into the largest mass of humans, and in the confusion I launch a piece of myself at the Duke. It is disguised like a projectile, but actually contains my true condensed mass. The mass I leave behind loses cohesion, and starts turning into nothing more but another wild beast. I myself reform to my usual self in midair, and before I can be intercepted the Duke's head is in my hands. I am about to drop his head to the ground, but stop myself at the last moment.

Beheading isn't always lethal for materials, just usually. I rip open the last hole, and sacrifice some mass to block attacks from the cleric and mage. I throw the Duke's corpse through the hole in space, and eat his head while staring at the duo. I will need to remember their faces to make sure to eat those later.

Arriving back at my nest, one of the Northmen approaches me with a letter.

"Outer One, a letter arrived by harpy a moment ago." I take the letter in my tentacle, and feel its contents

I already know what the letter speaks of, and that it is a letter from Lady Esstrey. I do not need to read the letter like materials do. I do not need to open the contents to know the message Lady Esstrey has for me.

I open the letter, and read. It is only nice to do so for a fellow interdimensional after all.