Strongest Among the Heavens
Chapter 522: Shima’s Ride Company

Chapter 522: Shima’s Ride Company

The doctor almost stood up and slammed the table, and didn’t because she had a fork to stab into the table. "Excuse me—what?"

Aya Nakamura was not the type to react hastily. So for her to blink five times in one second was what Dasha expected. It meant, "Are you serious?"

"Professor, I came here hating every bloody step. What makes you think I will EVER go to the Slums or the Nyx Port or whatever is beyond those ridiculous walls! It’s suicide and it’s nasty! Utterly nasty! At least with the Underground, there are king and queens and valor. But over there? Nothing but waste and shit."

"Do not worry, I have been planning for your arrival for a while now. The journey will be safe for you, I promise."

She punctuated her words with a stab of the fark. "Are you serious, Professor? Are you meaning to tell me you want us to set-up a teleportation circle there? Of all places? Not here, not in the heavens, but there."

"It is not a matter of choice. I must go back there."

Afterall, Xavier was taking care of Old Rocco’s remaining children and those were Dasha’s primary leverage. No doubt, Old Rocco discreetly told his men to search for his orphans. He would never find them, not so long as he and Dr. Thornton shared this same primal fear of what lay past the Great Wall.

It was Dasha’s greatest and most inconvenient obstacle. He had to get back there. He had to retrieve his leverage and do while establishing a way to and fro.

Hence the need for a teleportation circle, a rare and high-class magic.

The calculated radius of the Black Wolves Disaster and the stores needing support were numerous. Among them was an engineer of the Industrial Revolution. A former player who failed to make headway in the Heavenly Games and relegated herself to tech support.

"Come, let’s go. We are heading to Shima’s Ride Company." He cast a look at Aya. "Savario, could you pack up our food? We will be eating on the way."

Aya very much appreciated the gesture, unlike Dr. Thornton who did not seem keen in moving or eating.

***

Shima’s Ride Company was at the base of the Complex Demonic Red. Dr. Thornton grimaced.

"Damn beasts...!" Dr. Thornton muttered.

At the base were pens or the perhaps the modern term would be garages. Regardless of the term, they were filled with beasts that earned the doctor’s ire and fear: an extra-large sized lion beefed up by potions and drugs, a teenage griffin, a pegasus with wings almost too wide for the pen, and a unicorn whose horn was half-broken from battle. Ferocious serpents hissed at every walking man and women.

Dasha was already used to it. As a matter of fact, he used to own a zoo back on Earth. This was no different.

The muck of the streets and the air itself stank. For a sophisticated woman like Dr. Thornton, it was a travesty. Her grimaces went beyond simple hate. Owners fed their beasts with meat, often needing to heave it over due to their size.

They left their pens open on purpose. It was a show of power and a method of keeping thieves from approaching. These pens, like the rest of the Demonic Red Complex, had a portion that served as homes.

Since it was close to the Dark Tower, it was an excellent location for Animal Tamers and Monster Tamers. After all, there were no rules stipulating against familiars.

Luckily, Black Wolves Incident did lead to a number of garages opening up. New warriors had taken shop.

Including one of Dasha’s own. Not a warrior but an engineer, a near dying woman he discovered in the flames. By agreeing to a small loan and a hefty sum of sponsor money, he earned the engineer’s trust and pedigree. Her name was Shima and she had been walking with groceries the day of the Black Wolves Incident when she was attacked. Being a former player, she managed to get away but the explosions caused by Wang Lun’s battle led to injury.

Which was where Dasha found her, on the day after the incident, patching her up and offering a hand.

Shima’s garage did not contain beasts. Most importantly, it did not consist of just one garage but three. Shima had already had her own store and was not willing to upgrade unless Dasha put his money where his mouth was. She wanted real worth and a massive space for her operations.

One garage was already expensive enough. Three nearly emptied Dasha’s pockets. Luckily, the owners wanted new renters ASAP and when Dasha approached, he received it on a first-person-basis. A thousand gold coins per month for every garage slot. Three thousand upfront. In points, that was nine-hundred thousand.

It was his biggest investment. Luckily, the owners of the Complex Demonic Red were demons that enjoyed coin and rare items equally as much. To make a long story short, by eyeing the rich men and women of Ares’ Symposium, Dasha managed to retrieve some very lucrative items and artificats. The demons did not question it and happily took the items.

"Professsooorr!"

Entering the garage, he was greeted by a short woman in thick black coveralls, endless straps and belts, dusted in oil and dirt, and with a sunburnt complexion. She was grinning, a finger snapping a strap to her shoulder, and strode up to him for a hug.

Dr. Thornton wanted to vomit. She stank of oil.

"Ay, are these your wives?" Shima asked. Her Japanese didn’t make sense. Dasha surmised it was a mixture of Okinawan and years of mix-up with the locals. "Nice to meet ya!"

"What is she saying?" Dr. Thornton asked.

"Nice to meet you," Dasha translated without missing a beat.

Shima looked Dr. Thornton and Aya up and down. "Look at their clothes—damn. Must be from the heavens. Hey, is it true that you’re already married to marry multiple people up there? Ah, but I guess I answered my own question."

"This buffoon is speaking too much," Dr. Thonrotn said, which meant, "Translation?"

"Don’t worry about it," Dasha said. Meanwhile, Aya was looking around. One garage alone was fit for a store portion and a pen of fifty animals. With three, it became a massive factory with over two dozen carriages being worked on. Here, the smell of oil and steam overpowered all else.

"Steam engine," Aya pointed out.

"Oh, hey, I heard that! Steam engine, she said steam engine!" Shima cackled. "I know me some English, haha!"

The Madam of Futharks was not impressed. "So she’s an engineer that works on carriages. Sorry to offend, but carriages will not help us get through the Great Wall—"

"Understand that bit too! Great Wall!"

Okinawan Japanese muddled with the Underground’s melting pot of languages and classical English, thereby leading to popular words transcending culture.

"The Kingslayer sure fucked that thing up."

Dr. Thornton went wide-eyed and then snapped at Dasha. "Did I hear her right? She mentioned Kingslayer. The Kingslayer?"

The Kingslayer: another transcendental word in culture.

"The news hasn’t arrived?"

"What news!?"

"The Kingslayer is back. He destroyed the Great Wall."

"But—"

"The repair mechanism of the Great Wall is not operational," Dasha explained.

"H-how...? I was told...Professor Aífe even tried...I don’t...how?"

Stupid question.

"It’s the Kingslayer," Aya stated like that explained everything—and it did.