Black Hole: The Book of Iratus, Episode 45

Chapter 441

A few days passed until day 51, when Iratus and Venatio arrived at the abandoned base. The old fox woman gave a huff while the two spied on the ashborn, monsters of ash and embers, as well as the scaleborn, with their tan and thick scales covering their bodies. Their cartoonishly large and permanent grin hid their actual intelligence, still as drone-like as most other monsters, but these things could react and think.

Venatio, "Why is it just the two of us?"

Iratus, "I'd still like to give the girls time, and as for Commercium, he seems to have greatly retracted himself from combat. I don't know if we can count on him to help us in most monster fighting scenarios."

Venatio, "A shame. I was really hoping for more bodies to throw at monsters. Should we wait for a larger party?"

Iratus, "We can take it slowly instead."

The old fox woman placed her hands on her hips.

Venatio, "How much could we even get done? I see a lot of you at the tower hard at work, and I don't see how you can put it off for too long."

Iratus, "That's the thing; I'm just looking for some time away from all the work. We are always in and out of the tower. I'm constantly juggling between my children and switching with my wives to go out and work. I can't even work on the wall at this point."

Venatio, "Four babies is a lot of work."

Iratus, "And that's also taking into account that I've hired the two youngsters into helping us."

Venatio, "I've noticed. Okay, how about we take a look around for today and come back at another time? The two of us can't do much against an army of monsters anyways."

She drew her crossbow, borrowed from Victoria.

Iratus, "Yeah, alright."

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Chapter 442

Circling around, the two found a hole in the wall caused by growing trees and decades of weathering decay. They carefully climbed the branches and hopped over the wall. The two sneakily moved along the desolate buildings and easily hid away from the ashborn. Looking inside some buildings revealed scattered and destroyed equipment. Venatio looked over some old guns and shook her head. Iratus grabbed a usable knife.

Venatio, "We already have a billion of those."

Iratus, "Hey, you never know."

Venatio would also grab some grenades, and when Iratus looked at them, she shrugged, as she didn't know if they were still good or not. They'd both stuff their backpacks with many canteens, with Venatio grabbing a pair of binoculars and a gas mask. They couldn't get inside the medical building because of all the monsters, but looking in a window revealed nothing in any fine condition.

The pair would begin to head back and, unfortunately, had to wrestle an ashborn and slay it before they got out. As they headed for the tree line, they turned to see a wave of ashborn heading for them. Within their ranks, towering slightly above them was a scaleborn armed with a spear and wooden tower shield. Venatio threw one of the grenades, which did go off, and it sure did scatter ashbron everywhere. A few still charged at the pair with their ember feet cooking the grass beneath.

Iratus managed to slay the two that made it to him, with the scaleborn taking up their spot. Iratus expected well-targeted strikes, but instead it thrashed its spear around. Iratus tried to strike back, but the distance between them was far, and even striking didn't do much as the monster did not need to wield the shield well for it to guard half its body.

Venatio fired a few bolts at it, and the bolts seemed to only stick into the scales, while Iratus couldn't do anything with cuts. Once the monster opened itself up from a long lunge, Iratus deftly dodged and countered by slamming the point of his blade into one of its eyes, only hearing an audible thunk. It didn't seem to be an actual eye, but perhaps something similar, because the scaleborn staggered and flailed about. Iratus tried to grapple with the creature, but he was quickly thrown off his feet and slammed into the ground by the brute strength of the monster. The monster slammed its spear into Iratus, with the padded armor holding up well but the force crunching something.

A bolt stuck into the creature's neck, which gave Iratus enough time to stand and use the handle of his sword to slap around the monster until Venatio came up to help grapple the monster to the ground. Iratus bashed the creature until it stopped moving, and Venatio quickly grabbed and pulled at him as more ashborn came pouring out of the military base.

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Chapter 443

Iratus arrived back home to his wives, dumping the four babies on him. He looked after them as the girls headed out for their own duties. He spent his time alone, making sure they didn't get hurt as they had begun to enter the crawling stage. The rest of the day, Iratus and the girls took the babies outside to show them the world.

On day 52, Iratus took a break with each wife at the hot springs cave, with Ignis being the first one.

Ignis, "Such time alone that I finally have obtained."

Iratus, "Yeah, but I'm stuck here for the whole day."

Ignis, "A sacrifice you will find your wives are able to make."

They headed to the hidden bathhouse and began to bathe in its waters.

Ignis, "Ah, fresh waters."

Iratus, "Well, fresh from the river above. I wonder if there is a maintenance area we can search through."

Ignis, "Oh, I say we should have a look in a minute then. Until then, how has your time been spent, my love?"

Iratus, "Tied down. We have so many things to do each day, and I feel so alone because you girls are busy with the children. I mean, thank you for caring for my spawn and working when you can. I just wish I could do more."

Ignis, "You would have to leave us eternally in that tower."

The mouse boy leaned in and licked his lover's neck.

Iratus, "I want you girls to be free and have plenty of time for yourselves."

Ignis, "And at least I thank you. A regret that I focus on our family's livelihood and leave very little for myself. At least I can coerce you to sit here with me."

Iratus, "We could always have all the girls here."

Ignis, "It may fill you with glee, but a full run of the girls is just a party and not what we desire at the moment. Just comply with your duty as a male and spend your day here."

Iratus, "I suppose so. Okay, how about we search for that maintenance area? I'll grab our clothes."

Ignis, "Leave them."

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Chapter 444

After Ignis's time, Aestus was next, and she moved from pool to pool, feeling as many different waters as possible, with Iratus watching, conversing, and sometimes joining her.

Iratus, "Are you going to spend all your time trying every pool?"

Aestus, "Yes!"

Iratus, "Going to be hard to talk if you are preoccupied with all the running."

Aestus, "We can talk because I can talk and plunder these waters at the same time. I just wish there was a bigger pool to swim around in."

Iratus, "The bathhouse part has a large enough pool to...sort of swim in."

Aestus, "Yeah, yeah. Let's do it."

Aestis practically dragged Iratus to the bathhouse part of the cave, where she did her best to swim in the large pool.

Iratus, "Having fun, are we? I swear you are just a bundle of energy."

Aestus, "Well, it is because we never get to do all the fun things. We never have enough board gaming, never enough hiking, never enough of anything. All we do is hunt and gather crops, and it's so boring."

Iratus, "I feel you, for I too would like our free time from a year ago."

Aestus, "Like, I love my baby, and I will love all my future children as well. I just feel like we are always watching our kids instead of getting work done and taking time off."

Iratus, "Then I must double my efforts to please my girls."

Aestus popped up next to Iratus and then jumped in his lap. He giggled as the otter girl rubbed her head on his chest.

Aestus, "I say we find a way to have more time. We should have many days where we just play."

Iratus, "I shall see what I can do."

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Chapter 445

After Aestus left, Iratus was surprised to see both Victoria and Resonantia enter together.

Iratus, "Oh? I thought you girls wanted to meet me one-on-one."

Victoria, "And we do."

Resonantia, "The two of us already spend so much time alone with you."

Victoria, "Usually we see each other by working. We hunt together and explore together the most."

The group found a small and deep pool to soak in together. They would partake in mostly small talk, but the two girls would often just cuddle with Iratus. Iratus watched as Resonantia would just melt into the water as Victoria never stopped holding onto him, which just made the mouse boy smile that much more. Iratus held on to the ground with his legs free in the deep pool while the two girls would come holding his body.

Irauts, "Have you girls found enough time for yourselves?"

Victoria, "Too much, actually, despite the circumstances."

Resonantia, "Have you noticed we both have gained twice the allotted time by being here with you? This is what we need—the feel of your fur."

Victoria, "Among other things."

Both girls giggle.

Iratus, "Ah, so you would rather spend time with me than have some alone time?"

Victoria, "Oh certainly. I despise not holding onto you at all times."

Resonantia, "And lucky us, we shall travel to that monster-infested location and bond over slaughtering our enemies."

Victoria, "I find it funny that fighting for our lives is so desirable."

Iratus, "Well, it does give us an excuse to get out of the house, get away from the woes of childcare, and we get to spend more time with each other."

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Chapter 446

The next few days saw terrible weather until day 56 arrived and the land was finally dried out. Iratus and his group reached the old military base once again. Venatio, Victoria, and Resonantia readied their weapons as they started to move around the base walls.

Venatio, "The others seemed quite upset about the two of you going on this adventure; what was that about?"

Victoria, "You ask that now? Now?"

Resonantia, "It seems like they wanted to actually fight this battle. The two of us simply fought the most for it."

The group waited for any movement from the entrance, but nothing came out, and they saw no ashborn in wait.

Iratus, "They made the case that we might be coming back early if weird things happened, and then the other two would join me in the next scouting."

Venatio, "The burning silver? Why is everyone trying to get in on this dangerous mission?"

Iratus, "They just want to help."

Venatio, "Ignis I can see, but Aestus isn't a warrior."

The group slowly walked inside and saw many of the buildings smoldering with ash and embers. Everyone went quiet as their senses searched for any threat. The whole camp was burned and blackened, with very little still standing.

One building was still in good condition, and it was quite different from the other buildings in that it was made of sturdy concrete, scorched but not damaged. The building was a tower-like structure, short and wide, with one entrance and no windows to speak of.

Ten ashborn were walking around it, and once they spotted the party, they began to walk towards them in a mindless drone-like fashion. Venatio held up her iron spear while Iratus readied his long sword. Victoria and Resonantia used their ranged weapons to thin the enemy numbers, and when the ashborn got to the frontline, Iratus and Venatio held them off with the old fox woman's spear doing great work with its range. Iratus was forced to strike with an upper strike, slaying an ashborn by cutting a massive gash in its lizard-ash head, then slaying another by turning the sword in one motion and slicing down its neck. The monsters collapsed into ash that dove right into the poor mouse boy.

Iratus backed off, as he was partially blinded and the embers burned pain into him. Victoria covered Venatio's side by picking up her own spear. Iratus shook his head and joined back in by circling around and catching the monsters on the flank. Once all slain, the party looked at each other, each person covered in ash and checking for embers lingering in their hair and fur.

Iratus, "Everyone good?"

Victoria, "God, it's miserable."

Iratus, "We could head back early. We took out quite a chunk of them, and we could grab Venatio's rifle."

Venaito, "I won't be wasting my few bullets on this. I must save them!"

Resonantia, "The scales of the scaled ones are too much for our arrows."

Venaito, "Non-sense. You just have to hit them in a weak spot on their scales. Those scales are so large that you just need to hit in between them."

Resonantia, "Huh...I guess."

Venaito, "That's the spirit."

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Chapter 447

The party didn't even discuss retreating and instead headed inside the tower building. The ground floor of the building was guarded by a sturdy, heavy-reinforced door, with a spacious foyer on the other side. The walls were lined with metal panels, and the floor is made of polished concrete. There was a security checkpoint with burned and ash desks, melted computers, and other things. There were a few other rooms dedicated to irrelevant rooms and one empty storage room. One hallway led to a control room, which was filled with computer control panels and communication equipment, or rather, it did if everything wasn't melted into slag.

The group found the stairs, which were filled with workspaces and support facilities. The elevator clearly didn't work with several conference rooms around the corner. There was also a vantage point where people could look down on the first floor. The group headed towards the stairs that led to the basement level, but hid when they saw a scaleborn walking towards them. The monster rounded the corner and was jumped by the party of four, who quickly held it down and smashed its head in, with the monster letting out a flurry of pained cries.

The basement was lit up by the many embers and small fires, with the basement level itself being torn apart with smashed-in walls and piles of melted equipment.

Resonantia, "I hope, uh, which one was the lord of the ashborn?"

Victoria, "Eretz, the Sin Lord of Change."

Resonantia, "Yeah, I hope this guy isn't like the other guys in that he makes versions of our loved ones."

Iratus, "Like the gray masks or Buba?"

Resonantia, "Exactly. If I find a fake Clamor in here, I'm going to be really upset."

Iratus, "You and me both."

One room seemed to have held up well, and so the group got into a combat position as Iratus moved up to the door.

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Chapter 448

The basement level was already hot and stuffy, and the heat from the metal doors was just as burning, but not enough to set it aglow. Everyone had a stressful expression from the heat, but carried on. Iratus listened at the door and then turned to the group.

Iratus, "Something is definitely behind this door."

Resonantia, "You know, if there are so many ashborn, then why isn't the jungle outside all burned up?"

Venatio, "It takes time for the land to change. This location has already begun to turn into their lair."

Victoria, "Until we showed up. Now let's start the violence, shall we?"

Everyone was stiff from the tension until finally Iratus swung open the door. Inside was a long-since ruined room with nothing remaining but several large blocks of metal with three scaleborns moving them around. There was one clear lead creature, a blazeborn like Emily from the train or the crocodile in the burning city from long ago. It looked rather human, but its lower half, limbs, and part of its face had already converted slightly to the lizard-like form the ashborn have. The lizard's lower body was already dying out into orange ash, while the rest of the body was like transparent skin holding in lava blood, with the flames looking more firey than molten rock.

Iratus got out of the way as Resonantia and Victoria fired their shots, and one of them landed a lucky blow as one of the scaleborn dropped flat on the ground. Iratus tried to slam the door shut, but one of the scaleborns managed to dive into the doorway and got slammed instead.

The mouse boy did his best to move out of the way as Venatio took up the space to hold back the enemies with her spear. Iratus got ready and slashed away as the second scaleborn came barreling through the doorway, knocking the first one over. These scaleborn didn't have any weapons until each one ripped a tooth out of their mouth, giving them an improvised dagger. Iratus shoved his sword into the mouth of the scaleborn he was engaged with, and while he hit something soft and meaty, the scaleborn continued to struggle. Venatio was being pushed back to the point where she was thrown to the ground, with Resonantia slamming an arrow into the beast. Iratus focused back on his fight and used his superior position to trip his foe to the ground, where he threw his blade into the monster's mouth a few more times until it stopped moving.

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Chapter 449

Iratus was about to move to help Venatio, as Resonantia and Victoria already had to intervene and try to grapple away the creature from the old fox woman when the blazeborn came through the door. Up close, Iratus could now see its female-like form with its hair like thick rope, but on fire. The heat made Iratus turn away from all the pain, but luckily it wasn't as bad as the man from far under the summoners tower, which gave Iratus some ability to face his foe.

Gritting his teeth, the mouse boy stuck the monster, only to see his blade bend as it never stopped walking forward. Iratus tried to get his blade back into a stance until the blazeborn reached out with her hand, which made Iratus cry from the heat and forced him to run away. Iratus turned when he thought he had enough room only to be met with the monster right on his heels, with the mouse boy gritting his teeth again and launching a deadly slash at his foe's neck, but the blazing creature lifted its arm to block.

Iratus pulled his sword and left a sizeable cut into the monster, which, when Iratus took a glance at its face, could have sworn he saw a worried expression. Iratus warded off the monster, who backtracked a few times as it scanned for an opening to strike, and when Iratus bumped into some ruined equipment, it launched itself forward, trying to tackle the mouse boy.

Iratus smiled as he shifted his position by taking his left foot from forward to back, which gave Iratus just enough clearway to dodge and counter at the same time. The creature back peddled and held onto its chest as glowing red blood started gushing forth from it. Iratus had one eye closed, and he came back into the previous pose by taking one step forward and striking down right into the neck and torso parts of the monster. The creature fell to one knee and tried to hold its arm in defense as Iratus struck down again and nearly decapitated the monster.

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Chapter 450

Iratus came up with his two loves covered in cuts and Venatio, also bleeding in several places, pinning the scaleborn to the wall with Victoria and Resonantia stabbing the creature to death.

They dropped its body, which landed in front of Iratus, who only looked at it for a second before turning to the three women.

Iratus, "Everyone good?"

Victoria, "I'll live."

Resonantia nodded her head as Venatio rested herself against a wall. Everyone took a few moments to breathe before getting back into action by taking a look into the hot room with several large blocks of various metals around.

Iratus, "What's with all this?"

Venatio, "Don't look at me."

Victoria, "Don't look at what? Isn't this your expertise?"

Venatio, "You mean the various metals of the once-computer equipment or the ashborn doing things that I can't even guess at?"

Iratus took the initiative to look around the room, finding more ash from once-wooden materials and a metal door that led into a black room.

Iratus, "Flashlight?"

Resonantia came in with a light and revealed the room to be a small one with very few burn marks, and while there used to be items inside, they were removed as opposed to being burned to ash. There was one crate that was filled with several of the metal blocks.

On top of the crate was some sort of clipboard, like a shipping manifest or something.

Iratus handed it off to Venatio, who took a minute to read it.

Venatio, "Well, that is concerning."

Iratus, "Oh please. Please elaborate."

Venatio, "It looks like that one Japanese castle held a very specific secret."

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EPISDOE 45: END

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Episode 45 End Character Sheet
Name: Iratus Lionheart
Species: Mousefolk
Age: 15
Coverings: blonde fur, white gambeson (many repairs, some leather patchwork), leather gloves, tactical vest, tailorcraft backpack, leather plate helmet, delicate gold chain with a small pendant shaped like a lion's glare, flashlight
Weapons: Long Sword, 3x Knifes, Short Sword
Equipment: belt, belt bag, water skin, leathercraft backpack, 2 bags, 29 oval copper coins, 6 small silver bricks, 20 fine silver coins,15 fine gold coins, metal keycard

Wounds: none

Relevant Community Stash: a fire starter, whetstone, several leather items, 2 glass jar, 12 empty bottles, 1 fish net, primitive sewing kit, a bunch of small wooden figures, wooden dice, metal scrap, lots of rusted metal, several small fish nets, sextant, some bedrolls, a tent, a large barrel, writing material, 73 cloaks and other clothing materials, some fabrics, 5 carts, 8 tattered tents, skin drum, beautiful arts of tropical scenery, floatation devices, wildlife figures, lots of tropical clothing, ancient era hyenafolk clothes

Armory: 10 wooden spears, 47 short swords, 49 knifes, 23 daggers, 33 metal spears, 21 rusted weapons, many armor pieces, ruined metal armor, semi-automatic rifle (no ammo), 3 hunting traps, 3 snares, 4 backpacks
Aestus: leather vest, leather helmet, metal spear, short sword
Victoria: scrap metal breastplate, leather helmet, metal spear, short sword, crossbow, flashlight
Resonanita: breastplate, metal helmet, metal spear, short sword, compound bow, flashlight
Ignis: leather helmet, metal spear, crowbar

Treasure: 52 oval copper coins, 19 oval silver coins 44 ancient metal coins, 8 fine silver coins, a tarnished silver brooch, a small ornamental figurine, a handful of sparkling glass beads, a few antfolk tapestries, some antfolk art, 46 copper lion coins, 5 silver lion coins, 2 gold lion coins, 57 wolfen metal coins, bronze lantern, bronze idol, some jewled trinkets, iron lantern

Home Base, Tower: Large Storage Area (many crates, clay pots, and wooden chests), Basic Workshop Area (lots of tools, woodcarving tools, glue, sandpaper), Kitchen Area (many tools, many cutlery items, pots&pans, makeshift grill), Library, Armory, Infirmary Room (surgery tools, first aid kit, plenty of medicine and equipment), Guest Quarters, Master Bedroom (proper bedding, sensual antfolk sculpture), Six Bedrooms (proper bedding)

Outside Base: Butchering Hut (modern butchery kit, smoking rack), Tannery Hut, Underground Storage Area, Garden Area (fenced in), Tool Shed (fishing gear and supplies, trowel, woodcutting axe, woodworking tools, lots of rope, rope ladder, plows, hoes, sickles, rakes, shovels, scythes, chisels, anvils), Partially Built Wall, Small Cabin

Books: 3x woodworking books, weathered leather-bound journal, war game booklet, sketch book (from warband), Bathhouse Reviewers (entire 80 book series), cards, Fractura's Notes, Tempestas's Notes

Year 1, Day 56

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TOWER FOLK:
Iratus of House Lionheart
mouse, male, blonde fur, blonde hair, gold eyes, 6'4 (193cm), age: 15
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Victoria
raccoon, female, gray fur, black hair, brown eyes, 6'2 (188cm), age: 15
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Aestus of clan Riversinger
otter, female, red fur, red hair, blue eyes, 5'11 (180cm), age: 14
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Ignis Yang
red panda, female, reddish-brown/white fur, black hair, golden eye, 6'3 (190cm), age: 15
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Resonantia Diamond Heart Steel
shark, female, blue-gray hue skin, white hair, blue eyes, 6'3 (191cm), age: 15
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CHILDREN:
Negligere
shark, male, steel gray skin, white hair, gold eyes, age: 0
-
Ruina
otter, female, orange fur, vibrant orange hair, blue eyes, age: 0
-
Gula
red panda, male, brown fur, dark brown hair, gold eyes, age: 0
-
Tenacitas
raccoon, female, silver fur, dark blonde hair, amber eyes, age: 0
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NEIGHBORS:
Venatio of Wise Storms, Mother of House Black Jewel
fox, female, red fur, red hair, brown eyes, 6'6 (198cm), age: 71

Studium of Winter Winds
fox, male, gray fur, black hair, blue eyes, 5'6, age 12

Fuligo
otter, female, black fur, blonde hair, blue eyes, 5'4, age 12

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THE COBALTS:
Commercium Jade Blue Cobalt
rabbit, male, white fur, black hair, gray eyes, 6'8(203cm), age: 24
-
Abrasione
hyena, female, tan fur, blonde hair, gold eyes, 6'5(196cm), age: 20
-
Kuxatura
hyena, male, tan fur, black hair, gold eyes, age: 0

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