Devourer

Chapter 21: Spies and Theories

Nox calmly twirled the small dagger in her hand as she looked down the cliff face. Below she saw the target she has been tracking for the past week. She watched as the creature devoured the corpses of the trolls that once resided in this village. Nox felt no pity for the dead that lay below her. As far as she was concerned these lives were just fuel for the growth of a creature that was far beyond them in importance and power.

Nox’s mistress, Lady Nemesis, has given her a simple mission: keep tabs on the Firstborn and ensure its safety. It is unlikely an angel would cross paths with it at this stage but it couldn’t hurt to be careful. The creature was now at the adolescent stage of its development, after that came the adult phase. There were a few more phases after that but the Syndicate needed the Firstborn to at least reach the second last phase of its development, the Tyrant phase…

Once the Firstborn had reached that phase of its development they could move onto the next phase of their plan…

Nox quietly marveled at the creature below her, the creature didn’t know she was here obviously. Her stealth abilities made sure of that. It was quite a beautiful creature with it’s pure white body. The body was exotic as well, Nox was starting to understand why the Devourers were called the progenitors of all life. She could see the beginnings of all the world's species in one body. The tail was reptilian, the torso and upper arms humanoid, the lower arms looked avian, it’s mouth was mammalian while it’s skin and armor looked insectoid.

The lack of eyes as well was fascinating. Beastiarians have theorised that eyes were an evolutionary crutch to create a cheap organ that allows visual perception. Eyes were after all vulnerable and could only see in certain spectrums. There were some species that still kept that domed head trait, the beastarian’s called it sensor domes and they only existed when visual senses were of the utmost priority to the survival of the species. These were rare, few and far between, that domed head has been theorised to be the most effective form of visual sensory organ. Those creatures also sacrificed much to maintain that trait, they were often just prey that relied on that organ to escape predators. To have an Apex predator possess a sensor dome, few things could hide from it.

This was why Nox and her partner were staying at such a far distance from the creature. If they got too close the beast might be able to detect them and their orders were clear. Observe but do not interfere unless the safety of the creature is put at risk. Lady Nemesis does not want to show her hand just yet. Secrecy, plots and schemes were after all the specialities of the Syndicate...

“It’s quite beautiful isn’t it?” Nox asked as she turned to look at her partner Discordia.

“Yes, every movement is elegant, efficient. A body type like that should be difficult to control, it must have a powerful brain to be able to control a body like that as easily as it does. The snake-like tail, the four arms, it’s targeting with its spines, it’s healing ability and its ability to transform. A lesser creature will have its brain overloaded from the burden.” Discordia replied from under her smiling mask.

“All creatures are lesser to the Firstborn old friend. We have given up our gifts to reproduce more efficiently. The Firstborn understand that there is no need for a collective when one can stand above all.

Consume, adapt and overcome. Seek perfection of the one, and the rest will eventually become chaff before the wind. All the other species chose the easy way out, gambling on their offspring for continued existence. Kicking the ball down the street for someone else to deal with.” Nox replied.

“One day we will all be prey, Terra, Heaven and Hell. All prey before the great predator. The Heavens have forgotten the age of the Firstborn. When they groveled at the feet of tyrants so great that they viewed the Angel’s existence as nothing more than an interesting distraction. Not even worth eating…” Discordia said.

“If the great tyrants of old did not grow weary of life and choose to give up their power for reproductive abilities. Terra would still be the dominant power among the three worlds. The Seraphim and Demonia, upstarts who ended the age of the Firstborn.

But the shadows of the Firstborn still cast long shadows across history. They have forgotten that they are not the true masters of Terra…” Nox whispered as she watched the Firstborn leave after completing his meal.

Nox turned to Discordia as they both stood up preparing to follow the Firstborn. Nox whispered some final words before they began to move…

Someday this Firstborn will remind them of the truth they have forgotten…

They are not the rightful rulers of Terra…

They are but lambs in wolf’s clothing...

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Beatrice sighed as she woke up and rubbed her eyes. As she sat up she felt the soreness in her back. She looked down and saw she had fallen asleep on her work desk… again…

She winced as she rubbed her neck and tried to stretch the stiffness out. Her mother told her to stop doing that, it was going to ruin her back and neck. Still these were desperate times, with that monster on the loose and the death toll at almost a hundred people. Things were getting quite bad. Lord Averlon would soon have no choice but to open the roads or risk economic collapse.

Averlon is the commercial hub of this region of the world. The most direct land based trade routes either go through Averlon itself or the town of well… Cross Town… named after the fact that it served as a crossroads for Marina’s and Arune’s trade routes to Averlon. Not the most imaginative name but there is the village that takes the crown of unimaginative names. It’s called Jerrystead… named after its founder… Jerry...

Any trade over a significant distance from east to west or vice versa has to go through Averlon. The other city states only had faster routes to their direct neighbours, even then some merchants still prefer to go through Averlon thanks to it’s safer roads. Or at least their previously safer roads…

The Head of Commerce has mentioned that Averlon has suffered a 30% loss in revenue due to the road closure and many of the neighbouring states have been applying political pressure to reopen that vital trade highway. Problem is, if these caravans start disappearing in Averlon’s territory then the Lord is going to have a big problem on his hands. Having someone else’s citizens get eaten by a monster that you can’t control isn’t the best situation to be in.

Furthermore, with the commercial interest of keeping the roads safe and open the other city states may start investigating the matter. Which would be problematic and diplomatically humiliating to House Averlon. Well at least they didn’t have some big horrible secret lying around to be discovered…

“Finally awake?” Beatrice heard her coworker say. She turned to see her colleague Aaron smiling at her.

“Yeah, I need to stop doing this but… I always tell myself just five more minutes and before I know it my head is on the table.” Beatrice grumbled as she moved her arm to massage her stiff shoulders but found a blanket draped over her.

“I was afraid you might catch a cold.” Aaron said with a chuckle as he walked over to her.

“Thanks…” Beatrice said as she began massaging her shoulders.

Then she felt the blanket being pulled away and she felt Aaron’s hands on her shoulders as he began massaging them for her.

“Mmmm that’s good… thanks…” Beatirce said as she sat up a little straighter to give Aaron an easier angle.

“You work too hard, you should take a break every now and then.” Aaron said gently.

“I can’t… there’s a killer monster on the loose remember?” Beatrice replied.

“I am sure it can wait a few hours. Tell you what, how about we go for dinner tonight? My treat, you can unwind a little. I know this nice place that makes a great roast.” Aaron said.

“Mmmm, can’t... I still need to cover a few more books. I think I have an idea on what the beast might be, or at least a general classification.” Beatrice said as she enjoyed the massage. Aaron was such a nice friend, always buying her food, flowers to cheer her up, chocolates to help her stave through the night…

“Oh… well another time then... “ Aaron said with a slightly disappointed tone of voice.

“You know why Aaron, that beast has killed almost 100 people. We owe it to their families to find out what it is so the adventurers can kill it.” Beatrice said as she turned around sensing Aaron’s tone of voice. Aaron closed his eyes as he let out a small smile.

“I know, I know…” Aaron said as he pushed Beatrice’s head forward.

“Don’t look back, you might pull something, another time then.” Aaron said as he continued his massage.

“So what have you found out?” Aaron asked.

“I found something interesting about the spine, I found a similar type of spine.” Beatrice said, immediately Aaron’s hands stopped.

“Really? We missed something?” Aaron asked as he walked next to her. “No we didn’t miss anything, we didn’t look in the right place.” Beatrice said as she looked down at the book sitting in front of her. Aaron peered down at the book as his eyes widened at the diagram on the page. He lifted the book up and read it’s cover.

“A Catalogue of Ancient Creatures, by Arintoth Jebediah… I’m not familiar with this author.” Aaron said.

“You shouldn’t be, none of the information here is useful anymore, all the species in here no longer exist. This is a book from the age of Elysia.” Beatrice replied.

“This book is from the Elysian Empire? And you were sleeping on it? You drooled on it!” Aaron said in panic as reached over to wipe the page with Beatrice’s saliva on it. But as he did so, the saliva just rolled off the page like it was waterproof.

“The book is charmed, that’s how it survived for so long, the mages refreshed the charms when they got their hands on it. I got this from their archives.” Beatrice giggled as Aaron started to wipe his hands on his pants.

“Err ok… so what have you learned?” Aaron said awkwardly as finished wiping his hands.

“I think… This creature is a Progenitor.” Beatrice said.

“A Progenitor?” Aaron asked, clearly surprised.

“Yes a Progenitor, you know how the creatures are catalogued. The Devourers also known as the Firstborn came first, followed by the Primordials, then the Progenitors, the Evolved, Middle Aged…” Beatrice said.

“Yes, yes, I know. We graduated from the same academy.” Aaron said cutting her off before she started rattling on about academic knowledge.

“Right, sorry, anyway, this spine is similar but not an exact match for a specific branch of Draconic Progenitors. I suspect it is a successor to this known branch of Progenitors.” Beatrice explained.

“Are you sure? This is quite troubling information. Geological estimates put the Progenitor age as existing 15 million years ago. The creatures that lived back then are nothing to sneeze at. They could probably give the angels a run for their money.” Aaron said with a frown.

“Yes, but the power level we observed so far does not match the assumed strength of a Progenitor. I suspect it is a species towards the end of the period where the great concession occurred, when most of the species sacrificed their power for reproductive capabilities.” Beatrice explained.

“So you think it’s a species that lived in that transition period. It would make sense considering the whole aging thing came into play during the Evolved stage of creatures. Where they sacrificed their immortality so they could breed more rapidly. That might explain why it’s still alive and hasn’t just died of old age.” Aaron said as he gazed down at the page.

“Exactly, so since Averlon isn't a smoking pile of rubble, I find it doubtful that it’s a full fledged Progenitor. Probably an early Evolved or something similar.” Beatrice said.

“But Progenitors are predicted to be quite intelligent, I mean our humanoid intelligence had to come from somewhere. Maybe it just didn’t destroy us because it knew it would be a bad idea to draw so much attention to itself.” Aaron suggested.

“Yes but this creature, although intelligent, would not share the same type of thinking as us. It lived in a world that has been dead for a long time. The age of Firstborns, Primordials and Progenitors are also known as the Predatorial Period. Creatures back then were violent, eat or be eaten, kill or be killed. Their rapidly depleting population during the Progenitor age was probably why they decided to change themselves into the Evolved age.” Beatrice countered.

“That is true… most of the bones we dug up look like the body was torn up by some predator.” Aaron said as he cupped his chin.

“Yeah I think your suspicions are right but still we have no idea what a creature like this would be. But if it were a late Progenitor age creature we might be able to narrow it down… if only we could get a good look at it...” Aaron muttered.

“If only… it would be fascinating to study if we do manage to get a hold of it. Imagine what we could learn, everything we have on the Progenitors are old shattered bones, or ancient records. This would be the Beastriarian breakthrough of the century. Imagine what we could learn with a fresh specimen!

Think about it, we might even get some insight into the age of the Firstborn. They could assimilate the Essence of creatures Aaron. The best we could do is extract trace amounts from live animals, we know Essence is the most effective form of energy transfer amongst creatures. It's both the energy source and the blueprint of life, we predict their genetic code is mutable, unchained by the bonds that all life is constrained by. We need hundreds of generations to even create a minute change in our bodies, the devourers might have been able to change their bodies at will.

They are sculptors of their own flesh! Masters of their own design! Imagine what their essence will be like! Will we even be able to understand it? Comprehend it?” Beatrice said excitedly as she stood up.

“Okay calm down… the thing out there isn’t a Devourer, it’s probably not even a Progenitor. Relax...” Aaron said as he put both hands on her shoulders. As he gave Beatrice an amused look, she was always like this when some potentially great discovery ends up on her table.

We need to kill it first though…

Yeah, that's true… imagine if we could study it while it was alive!

How about some breakfast first...