Chereads / Nasty Ink / Chapter 12 - Chapter 12: Undercurrents

Chapter 12 - Chapter 12: Undercurrents

At the same time Oliver was evolving, in a far off empire named the Unotia empire...

In a dark room with blue lanterns only barely illuminating the surroundings, a dark red robed figure was seen in a sitting in a meditative position.

Surrounded in absolute silence, one might think that the figure was a statue if not for the slight expansion and contraction of the figure's chest from breathing.

Knock Knock.

The silence was disturbed by the sudden sound of knocking on the doorway as the robed figure spoke with a ragged voice, "Come in".

The door was opened to reveal a fellow red robed man of around 30 years of age enter, with the surrounding lights only barely illuminating his slightly greenish skin.

"What is it this time Samuel?" The robed figure said towards the newly enter man.

"Sir elder, we've received a new report from the light faction's foreseer department." Spoke the standing man in a respectful voice.

"And what of it?" Replied the elder.

"They predict that a flood is to begin soon" Said Samuel.

The elder fell into silence for a few minutes as he processed what the man had just told him.

Eventually the elder spoke up again, "So soon? The last one wasn't even 300 years ago... What is the severity of the flood going to be this time? How many candidates are going to appear?"

"At the current moment, they only have the means to tell that it will be upon us soon. It's still too early to how many candidates will appear, and how intense it will be." replied Samuel back.

The elder chuckled, "It's a flood, it's always going to be intense..."

The elder let out a sigh, "Very well. Begin another recruitment offer for our red faction and increase the rewards to be twice as high."

"Also send some of our people to auction houses around the empire, in search of rare materials and artifacts, and put extra focus on fire based ones."

"Are you sure about this elder?" The man asked. "This will put a strain on our budget, and could result in our faction spending more than what we we're given... The other's might not agree with what you've ordered."

"Yes, yes, just do it... I know you're still pretty green (hehe) because you've never experienced a flood, but I like to think of them more as opportunities rather than a catastrophe." The elder spoke.

"Especially when it comes to money." The elder said amusedly.

The elder got up and began walking the door of the room.

"It's time for our faction to show ourselves again." The elder said as he paused near the door while facing away from the man.

"The others have been showing better results than us in these recent times because we are based more on combat and war. But we'll show them again." The elder said seemingly confident.

"Praise to thee, Prometheus" Spoke the elder before he left the room.

"Praise to thee, Prometheus" repeated the man as he watch the elder depart.

He eventually followed after the elder through the doorway as he went to begin preparations for the upcoming changes...

...

The following new broke out the next morning around the Unotia empire.

"A Flood is to begin soon!"

"You're being subject witness to the creation of a new Era!"

"Turbulent times will fall upon us!"

"Get your fish insured today!"

Many announcement's sprung up within hours of the discovery, many but not all of which included noting the citizens scared at the prospect of this upcoming calamity.

The situation in the empire had already begun to deteriorate so the Empress decided that she would hold a conference to address the flood.

In less than 12 hours since the original message was reveled by the light faction, hundreds of reports were in a room in the royal castle, with a single empty podium at the forefront of it.

"I heard that this is all a lie by the light faction to help them gather more support from the royal family."

"No no no, this is definitely a setup by the Goraje Empire in an attempt to begin a secret war on us!"

"Pssshhhhhhh! Both of you are dumb! Clearly this is a setup for the government to implant new A.I. chips into our brain and control our very sense of selves!"

The reporters were noisily talking to one another, coming up with conspiracy theories more crazy then the last very quickly.

Click Clack! Click Clack!

The sound of shoes on the wooden floor soon became apart as all the reporters stopped their conversations and looked towards the woman approaching the podium.

The woman who walked in was surrounded by jade colored armored guards.

She had long blond hair, and was wearing a stunning blue dress, and had light blue skin unlike most of the light greens, yellows, and red colored skins from the audience of reporters.

She was also completely adorned with jewelry of all kinds including, necklaces, rings, bracelets, earrings, and most importantly... the shining platinum crown atop her head.

"The empress..." One of the reporters whispered, as another one whacked him on the back of the head telling him to shut up.

The woman grabbed the microphone atop the podium, brought it closer to her mouth, and spoke with a clear voice, "Today I am here to address the recent concerns of the flood which has been released in our Unotia empire. First and foremost I would like to clarify. The news regarding this flood is true."

With those words confirmed the crowd of reporters broke into frenzied whispered but they quickly died down as the woman calmly raised her hand and spoke again.

"We still don't know the intensity of this flood, nor its current origins. However what we do know is that it is currently still in its first stage."

"Now, is there any question's you all would like to have addressed?"

Upon asking that question, the hands of all the reporters present shot up as they began to get noisy again.

"You there, in the front left side with the green suit" The woman chose and pointed to a port bellied reporter who was eagerly standing with his hand reverently raised.

"Thank you your majesty! He squealed. "I wanted to ask if the safety of our empire and us humans are going to under change in the foreseeable future!"

'A reporter just looking for a front headline, no matter if positive or negative' Both the other reporters and empress thought.

"Of course not." The empress spoke. "While we may have not had a flood in the past few centuries, many of our advisors have experienced the previous one."

"From their experiences they have confirmed that with the current strength of our empire we should no doubt be fine from a flood, and most likely, our empire will experience even more growth from it." The empress said confidently. "While us humans may not be as strong as the creatures truly born in the sea, we certainly are not weak either." She assured

"But is there not going to be dangers for those who live on the outer edges of our regions?" The reporter said eagerly as he still wanted his major scoop.

"It depends on the origin's location of the flood, however I promise, that as Empress Sylvia of the Unotia empire, I will use everything in my power to keep all citizens safe." The empress said sternly.

The crowd once again broke out into strong whispers as they typed down the words of the empress.

'This should keep the media off me for now' The empress thought as she looked around the room.

"Any other questions?" She asked again.

"You there." She said pointing to different man who was calmly sitting in the back of the reporters with his hand raised.

"Thank you your majesty." The man said. "I would like to know how the factions are currently responding to this news." The man asked.

The queen puffed out her chest as she spoke proudly, "All of the factions are currently preparing to the best of their abilities in their current fields." She began.

"The factions are also focusing on their strengths in order to help the empire to their fullest which includes things such as the earthen faction buffing up the defensive structures which they are known for in both our major cities and settlements alike."

"Does that answer you're question?" The empress spoke as she looked at the man.

"Yes it does. Thank you your majesty." The man said as he sat back down and began scribbling in his notebook while smiling.

"Good. Then I'll answer one last question." The empress said, and she pointed to a young woman in the front row.

"You, what's your question?"

"Thank you your majesty. I-I would like to know if the candidates of this flood are known?" The woman stuttered as she nervously asked her question while standing.

All the sounds in the room instantly stopped, as all the eyes of the reporters looked over to the empress to see her response.

'I hoped no one would ask this' The empress lamented, as she opened her mouth.

"The current candidates of this flood are unknown in both location nor species. However, the light and water faction are both doing their very best in order to find the creature which caused this event, rest assured, we are the Infallible empire!"

"Thank you your majesty!" The young woman shouted, and quickly sat back down almost as if she could feel the sour mood radiating inside of the empress.

"Very well then! That will be all for this conference! Glory to the Empire!" The empress spoke as she walked down from the podium and walked back through the door which she came from with her escort of guards.

"Glory to the Empire!"

The reporters all repeated after her in unison, as they soon began to disperse to finish their articles.

The following morning the first of the articles was released and it was named,

The Infallible Empire!