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Chapter Seven: The Devils and the Spear.

"Once we have things developed, I would like to meet with the leader of Spearhead. I know you're history together and all that, but it's been a long time, I mean, obviously things have been a little turbulent with the incident earlier, but maybe we can just talk things out."

"No offence, but as your friend and Spikeholder, this could potentially go beyond bad. Impossobad, if you will."

"Huh, that's a new one."

"Veryveryveryveryveryverybad didn't sound as good."

"Look, I don't want to become a warlord. After all this time, I'd like people to be happy, so if we can settle this quickly… If there's violence, there's violence, I just need to give it a shot. In fact, I think a good bargaining chip could be each of us bringing a body guard."

"Do you really believe you'll need a body guard?"

"No, but it'd be more fair to them."

"I see. Well so long as we're armed, I think it's a good idea."

It had been about two days since the Deathmoon was brought to the village. Since then, Gonan had unexpectedly received a promotion. He was now a 'Spikeholder.' Essentially it was a sort of sensei role, but also giving him personal responsibilities to Ulla, making him the bodyguard they were speaking about.

Nux, Beldung and Oni were thankfully saved with a mixture of the villages medical remedies and the first aid kit on the Deathmoon. However, Nux was unlikely to regain use of his legs, and none of them would be fighting any time soon.

The Deathmoon had come in excellent use. Ulla quickly decided that the machine would be dismantled as much as possible in order to avoid her getting trigger happy. Instead, the individual pieces and components were studied and augmented to develop their new technologies. Nothing was ready yet, but the workers were already working busily on replicating the Vonometal. In the event Voodecalypse had a brother, they didn't want him doing half the damage that happened last time. As such they were also developing weapons based on those of the ship, though significantly weaker of course. Rather than copying Spearhead, they decided to base the majority around shields. In general, Devil's Nest was quite happily modernising.

And last of all, Voodecalypse was mounted atop the town centre. Most of it anyway, there was too much meat on the creature to waste. It was one hell of a taxidermy job.

Currently Ulla was overlooking reconstruction of the Market Place. There wasn't really all that much to it other than assigning people different buildings. The main priority was to rebuild any of the destruction. Obviously it would take some time to fully rebuild them, but fortunately the Pegali's drive to advance seemed to give them increased construction prowess, meaning that it would be done in mere days.

"I think the Market Place will be able to jump start the social world around here. Without Mr. Big Green and Horrifying, things are looking up, but we still have a ways to go."

"True," replied Gonan, "And what is your plan if Spearhead attacks before we can get anything done?"

"Aside from using the one intact Deathmoon laser? I guess a full attack by the Combat Academy. If we're lucky enough to not have that happen in the next few days, I'm hoping to get some sentries ready. We'll probably start with some barracks, then hopefully work our way up to small towers. With them we'll start out with spears, but hopefully we'll have those Laser Shields ready soon."

"You're actually taking pretty well to leadership all things considered."

"If you forget the tiny misstep of getting three of my temp body guards almost mortally wounded."

"They were right, we didn't mention their action patterns. It hasn't been a problem for decades after all."

"Uh, don't worry about that. We need to build us a Market." The answer was twenty two Pooshan years.

….

Construction had gone well and most of the essential stores, such as food and clothing, had been set up. After two hours of this she checked in on the Combat Academy. Baddax had been selected to design the new armour and uniforms, and reception had been mostly positive. Unfortunately there were enough people dissatisfied with the results to make him redesign them multiple times, much to both his annoyance and joy. Afterwards she lent a hand in removing the Deathmoon's jets. They weren't sure what they would be used for yet, but they had a hundred opportunities in each inch of that mammoth machine.

After it all, for the first time she was actually happy to sit back and receive her daily feeding from Sunn. "You are doing amazing things around here, Ulla."

"Thanks Sunn." Ulla managed to squeak as the excitable priestess inserted another bowl of fruit into her mouth. With a few mighty chomps, the bowl and its contents were paste sliding down her throat. Atop her belly sat Sunn and enough crumbs to make at least seven bowls. Since the festival and Sunn's new found enthusiasm, Ulla had again become a little uncomfortable to have her kneel on her stomach, dutifully feeding her; but not enough to ask her to stop. "How's our messenger coming along?

"We've found some people willing to go. I figure that it will be safer for a group to do it, once they have the weapons."

"Excelshhh..." It was hard to get a word out with someone stuffing your mouth full of food, as delicious as it was. "Nexsht, 'ulp' we should get to building the sentry barracks. It's sort of a priority at this Mmmph!"

"Ulla, you have had a busy day, you have time to relax now! In two days, you and Gonan can even help the architects work on their expansion plans. But now, how about I introduce you to a friend of mine. His name is Cavaza, and he's plump, juicy and full of enough calories to crush a house." Ulla eyed the new dish. It was a bug. Ulla had never really found insectoid dishes to be very appetising, but it smelt so decadent, and the wings just dripped with oil! And besides, she had eaten live people, so she was hardly one to be picky. In less than mere moments, the dish had entered the process of being gnashed against her somehow pearly whites. "And just think, without Voodecalypse keeping us down, your food portions are probably going to triple in the next few days!"

A sort of squeal rumbled from her gurgling belly, causing it to shake and jiggle, almost throwing the kindly priestess to the ground. "Well, it sounds like someone's excited."

….

"Here would be an excellent location for the Hot Springs. We'll save a lot of time and resources building the place around the footprints"

The footprints were quite deep, and their shape did seem actually quite comfortable. "That's a good plan, but I'm just thinking, is a Spa really a priority right now?"

"Should we be working on something else?"

"No, don't take it the wrong way. I'm just thinking that we should focus on more practical things until we deal with Spearhead."

"Ulla, I think a Spa would help keep people off edge. Considering that we're walking into a really big fight, that might be a very good thing."

"I can't disagree with you there. The Spa has my okay."

The architect smiled. Ulla didn't really have any objections, but she was trying to focus on protecting the village. Fortunately she had Gonan to remind her of smaller things that she wasn't too sure of. At the current moment, that meant people. Not that she didn't understand them, but she was mostly focussed on trying to end the tension with Spearhead. In fact, thanks to early completion of the prototype shields, her Messengers had already left.

"Okay, so aside from the hot springs, what else are we planning? Do we have masseuses?"

"What's a masseuses?"

"Right, you probably have a different name for it. Well it's someone who...Do you hear that?"

"Hear what, your highness?"

"Shh, listen. Do you hear it?"

"I..hear something."

Ulla turned and looked around. Her eyesight was pretty good, but she didn't have night vision. Such a thing would come in handy for a woman ruling a location on a planet permanently stuck in a nocturnal state, but sadly it was not to be. She knew could see something, but the darkness hid it. Just the slightest movements revealed something hidden. There was only one solution, she had to catch it.

A small blast of dust erupted from under her feet as she sped off, fortunately shielding her from the eyes of Gonan and the architects, as the image of her humongous body jiggling freely through her armour with every step and movement would have made her very difficult to take her seriously as a leader. Whatever she was looking at clearly did not agree, as it quickly made for the opposite direction to her. Unfortunately for it,  her hundreds of pounds of fat actually seemed to speed her up, meaning that she was running at a devastatingly fast pace.

"Your not getting away from me!" With a leap, Ulla found herself flying towards the cloaked creature. However, as her hands neared it, she became quite annoyed to discover that this creature wasn't running away, but rather hovering away, and that hovering was the limit of its power; quickly proven by the thing floating up and out of sight, and leaving Ulla to crash head first into a small rock formation, completely obliterating it.

"Your highness! Are you alright? What happened?!" The small band quickly surrounded Ulla and began to pull her to her feet."What was that- Oh..."

"What? Oh." Ulla felt at her face. A deep gash cut itself from her forhead to her nose, the blue fluid oozing out slowly, "Don't worry about that. I just need a few Cazavas and I'll be fine. I need to talk to Baddax."

….

"You saw my creature?" The mohawked artist questioned, "You actually saw it?"

"Saw it? I almost tackled the thing! Before I get your hopes up, I didn't learn anything other than its kinda big, flies, and is real."

"I see. Well, its a relief to know I'm not crazy. Do you have any thoughts on what it may be?"

"I am really hoping its just a really big bug. If its mechanical, we may be dealing with the Onyx Empire."

"The people who destroyed your home? That's not good news at all."

"No, but on the against side, you said you saw them a few weeks ago, before I even arrived. That definitely takes away from the chances."

"I suppose it does. So um, would you like to know how the current armour designs are going?"

"It would be my pleasure."

He stood up and pulled forward his desk. Atop it sat the latest design. This one was to incorporate the prototypes for the artificial Vonometal, making it considerably more durable, and the design was took heavy inspiration from Ulla's outfit, though it now came with a helmet and didn't leave the gut exposed, as well as being coloured dark blue instead of goldish brown. Ironically, the Vonometal would actually make it stronger than hers.

"I like it. Is that the final product?"

"Yes, well, until someone decides it doesn't look good enough to protect their 'oh so glorious' torsos. I was surprised the five you sent yesterday didn't raise a fuss."

"Tell them this batch is Ulla approved, that might sway their opinion."

He smiled through a shrug. He hadn't originally cared much for Ulla's arrival, but after all she had done, it was hard to say she wasn't Baddax approved. As he began to cart his desk back into place, the front doors opened to reveal aforementioned five. Their armour was covered in scratches and dents, their shields matching almost perfectly. Fortunately the damage seemed to be restricted to the metal clothing, leaving them unharmed and actually quite full of life. Upon seeing them, the green royal practically launched herself from her chair, though at her size, it briefly hugged her hindquarters before dropping down to the floor again.

"Lord Devulla! Our mission has been a success!"

"Are you all okay? Was anyone hurt?"

"All of us, many times," one of them answered, "But nothing serious, Baddax's armour proved invaluable."

"Ah, well you'll have to get used to this new pair thanks to the rest of the Academy, and it's almost twice as heavy," said the man himself, nibbling away at a Zomzom.

"I'm glad to hear you're okay. I'm guessing they weren't too pleased how our little 'meeting' went the other day."

"True, but they still seem to be thinking twice about doing anything rash against us. On the one hand, the main reason why they couldn't do so before is gone, but on the other, the thing that killed it is still here."

"Ah, good to know I'm coming in handy. So if they attacked you, how did you get them to agree?"

"After surviving six guards, they decided to hear us out. The leader will meet you  around this time tomorrow at the previous location of the Deathmoon, as that is, ahem, 'where the blood of their warriors was spilled.'"

"Technically it was about fifty feet in the air, but okay. And they understand the body guard terms?"

"Yes, one body guard per leader, as you specified. They want to avoid as much godly wrath as possible."

"Well, that's understandable. Well I'll be there with Gonan. The sooner we get things sorted, the better."

….

"I really don't think this is fair," Ulla exclaimed looking upon the situation.

"Not fair? How can it be unfair? This is exactly what you specified, one body guard per leader."

"In fact, you seem to be more in the wrong for assuming we had just one leader."

That idea never occurred to her for one minute. It was technically a possibility, after all Sunn was also technically the leader of the village, but she didn't bring her along. Spearhead was led by a warrior council of eight, meaning they had eight bodyguards. They had sixteen warriors ready to find an excuse to cut her and Gonan's head off. And their weapons seemed much stronger than the ones from the other day.

"I suppose you're right. My mistake. So, let's not get distracted then and get down to business."

The eldest, who apparently preferred to speak for the other seven nodded. "Very well, to business."

"There have obviously been some extreme hostilities between Spearhead and Devil's Nest for a while now. Branching out from deep into the past regarding your differing opinions on the one known as Saliss."

"Ah, alright then," exclaimed the one closest to her.

"Pardon?"

"Up until this point, we were pretty sure you were Saliss."

"Well no, we just seem to have the same skin tones."

"And strengths, ideals and appetites."

"I was different before. Something happened to me to make me like this. I personally don't eve know the full story myself. Let's try to stay on topic."

"Very well." He seemed to force himself back on track. "You killed eight of our soldiers."

The green goddess huffed. The slightest thing could set them off; generations of feuding would not be so easily forgotten.

"We encountered one another, I offered a peaceful resolution, and they refused, deciding instead to attack me. After taking down one of them, I offered the rest a chance to surrender. They took it, and shot at me the minute I had my back turned, After taking care of them, I found one of your soldiers who had avoided me had brutally beaten all but one of my guards"

"That is to say they were not killed?"

"No, they survived, but barely."

"A shame," one murmured in the back.

"Ssshhh!" commanded the eldest. "Allow me to apologise for that incident. Their mission was to observe and retrieve anything from that the large vehicle that they considered worth studying. Clearly the presence of you and your men was misinterpreted."

"Didn't you think it was a little strange that the Pegali goddess would show up the same time as a gigantic spaceship?" Gonan interjected, though Ulla did try to silence him with a deathly glare.

"Again let me apologise, we were too intrigued by the vehicle to realise that perhaps you still had some use for it."

"Now," spoke a younger Spearhead leader, twirling sideburns stretching out a few good inches, "what do you hope to gain out of this meeting? That we leave Devil's Nest alone after centuries of feuding?"

"Or maybe that we become friends and live in peace, using each other's advancements to build ourselves a little utopia?"

"The first one sounds like a little less to ask," she replied, trying to remain civil. "How about you tell me the history from your perspective,"

"Certainly," the eldest resumed command of their collective voice. "Records show that in the centuries beforehand, we were a simple people, preyed upon by those larger than us, though not what one would call completely helpless. We were great Turpac herders even then, so it says. One day she came, from almost nowhere and offered us a hand in our lives in mere exchange for food and shelter. We complied and she kept her side of the promise. Almost anything we wanted or requested, she did for us. She proved to have quite the lifespan, sticking around for quite some time and outliving at least three generations. All the while, she helped build our homes, grow our crops, fight off enemies and generally stay alive. She was a life giver, a heroine and..."

"Poison!" Declared yet another leader, this one distinguished by his pointed jaw. At least five voices in the crowd murmured in agreement, while others seemed to groan. "Her actions towards us may have seemed like the best intentions, but underneath lay something different. She was poisoning us with her near godly assistance. Another generation, maybe two, and we'd have been totally dependent!  If she was to leave, we would be completely lost and quickly decay into nothing. But no, our ancestors knew what had to happen.
"If Saliss was to leave as soon as possible, before we were totally reliant on her, we would be saved. And then, once enough knew of the idea? They were shunned! They wouldn't have it! Kill the one who helps to keep us well fed, healthy and alive? Madness they said, they were not looking further than Saliss could be thrown by a two year old. We have come to admit, murder may have not been the best option, but it was simpler times! But they fought for the truth, and in many ways we succeeded. Saliss knew she was the cause of all this violence, and she left. The deed had been done without her death, yet they were still driven from the camps like animals! And so began many centuries of anger, violence and hate."

"I see, the stories actually match up almost perfectly. Thank you for being honest."

"And now you stand her" he continued, "The avatar of all we oppose. I thank you for the jump start, but I think we've managed things very well without you."

"But I'm helping Devil's Nest. Why do..."

"Our hatred has grown beyond you, Green One. It is the Devil's Nest that we have grown to despise for their opposition to us."

The eldest looked upon him disapprovingly "Jaibock…"

"It was immeasurably entertaining watching the beast Voodecalypse ravage their homes, even if it did keep us at bay for many a generation." A clang emitted from Gonan's shield as his hands gripped it tighter. "You have slain the creature, eight of our warriors and have somehow advanced them in mere days to what took us generations to accomplish! If there is any greater reason to hate you, please present it."

"Jaibock!" The eldest spoke aloud. "You have said enough! I refuse to let you-"

"Actually I've just scratched the surface, sir. Hold him."

The man stood shocked as his own body guard stepped forward and held his arms tight around his back. "What in the name of Ragellion do you think you are doing?"

"Our job, my Lord. Our job."

Many of them were suddenly less tolerable of her now that the man was incapable of using his hands.

"Ulla, I have an extraordinarily bad feeling about this…"

"Let me echo that question we presented you with earlier. What do we stand to gain from destroying Devil's Nest?"

"Revenge."

"Land."

"Shelter."

"Revenge."

"Food."

"Their new found technology."

"More revenge, I have a lot of vendettas."

"You see, your efforts here are wasted! Both of you! What you are doing is like trying to make a Turpac swim. If it swims, it wouldn't be there to fertilise the Cavaza nests, and thus it would have no purpose."

"L-let him go!" Ulla didn't know what to say. Was she just supposed to stand there and watch while they did this?

"We agreed this would be a peaceful discussion! We weren't going to be the aggressors!:

"My apologies sir," said the thick sideburned one "I'm afraid this is beyond your authority."

"But-"

"But you're the Chancellor of this Council? You lost that authority the second you voted against the death of the Green One." The body guard increased his hold, pushing the man to his knees, and apparently knocking the strength from his bones. "But we decided it was best not to make a scene and just go along with your ideals until we got to where we needed to be. Right here."

Ulla's jaw dropped a distance. She had not felt the Spearhead's above using this opportunity to attack her, but treachery amongst themselves? "You're going to kill ot him because he didn't want to kill me?"

"Were you all like, dropped on your heads when you hatched or something?" stated Gonan, in equal disbelief.

"Kill him? No, don't be so stupid, we wouldn't do that to our former Chancellor. But if we did, it would be the fool's own fault. Changed ways and the greater good are nice ideals, but when the devil herself is at your doorstep, the game changes."

"In short, I'm afraid the only way you are getting us to stay clear of Devil's Nest is if you kill us."

"No! It shouldn't have to come to that!"

"I respectfully disagree, but do not fear for our people. If we do not return, another council has already been selected to continue our work; finding ways to dispose of you. So, which one of us will strike first? I may even let you choose."

"Sick bastard…"

"If you people don't bring us harm, I have no intention of bringing any to you! Why isn't that enough for you!?"

He smirked cruelly, "My dear...Uma was it?"

"Ulla."

"Yes, thank you. My dear Ulla, We have in fact been awaiting this moment for some time now. I most certainly have. You see, it was prophesied that we would meet here. The outcome is not certain, but what we do know is that it is a battle to the death."

Gonan pulled forth his shield, now in full battle pose. "You're just saying that to psyche us out!"

"Am I? Perhaps I am. But if you are to win this fight, it was also prophesied that darkness would befall Devil's Nest."

"Yeah, you're running a little late, it's always dark."

"Darker. What the sky did offer, will be shunned as something takes its place. A creature? There will be panic and wanton destruction, and it will be all for your precious 'goddess.' When this happens, then maybe you'll realise why you should have just let us execute you."

She looked upon the fifteen hostile Spearheads, and the one unconscious Chancellor before her. Then to Gonan; he merely tilted his head as she pulled hers back to them. "Fine, if you'll have it no other way, we'll fight."

"Finally, I was beginning to think we agreed to this for nothing." They pushed the Chancellor to the side. "Get her."

Within seconds, green spikes filled the air. Blue fluid began to fly from Ulla's immense body as the sharp bolts struck her flesh. Gonan held his shield in defence, still receiving the occasional cut or scratch on his legs as they fired rapidly in their direction. Ulla shielded her face as she began to step forward. In response, they merely intensified their blasts. Gonan decided it was time to get a hit in and he pulled the trigger on the back of his shield.

Only one of the Spearheads got hit by the ensuing strike of energy, a bodyguard, though he found it more than enough as his armour suddenly found a large hole in it, and the others were disorganised for the briefest second, allowing Ulla to leap toward and open her mouth wide over the head of one of the leaders.

Unlike previous eatings of enemies, Ulla found herself with quite some difficulty. As she attempted to swallow, she also had to deal with fourteen enraged warriors armed with at least three laser spears and a series of sharp blades each. Gonan quickly proved himself to be worthy of his new body guard position, doing his part to them busy during the fight. As the green spikes and sharp blades continued to cut at her skin Ulla was finally starting to feel the blood loss getting to her. Fortunately, with a gulp, the leader was sliding down her throat and into her digestive track.

"By Ragellion..." The remaining fourteen paused for the briefest moment as the form of the Spearhead leader bulged through her throat. But no sooner than they stop did they start again. One of the female leaders pulled forth her spear and snapped, causing it to heat rapidly like those on the Deathmoon. Thrusting it towards Ulla, the enormous woman clasped her hands around the unheated metal and pulled hard; this quickly resulted in the leader swinging over her head and shooting her several times in the back. Fortunately for all her fighting prowess, this woman was not strong enough to survive a giant green fist to the face.

Apparently severing a person's head wasn't nearly as horrific as swallowing one whole, as nobody stopped to look this time. Ulla didn't give it much thought, she just went on trying her best to dodge and throw punches. One bodyguard found himself thrown into the air, to be blasted by Ganon's shield. Despite managing to dwindle the group down to twelve, the fight didn't seem to be turning in their favour.

"What's wrong Nester? You can't take on fifteen of us? And now I thought you were supposed to be some kind of god!" The one known as Jaibock seemed to speak for the group now. His cackling voice seemed to be all the qualification he needed. And he was right, though she could continue on for some time, Gonan seemed to have reached his limit and heck, she wasn't feeling at her max. Nonetheless, she had to keep going. She hadES to let them know she wasn't going to stop for them. She was going to help the Pegali of Devil's Nest, dammit! She was going to...burp.

Ulla hadn't been the gassiest girl in the world since she transformed, but belches were nothing new. Though this one seemed different. Her throat was burning. And the new leader was charging at her. Fortunately in his bout of intimidation, he lost himself a little and trapping him underneath her foot was quite an easy task, even if he immediately began to stab at her foot.

"Oh, I feel sick! What was in that guy?" The eleven warriors charged towards her and Gonan, spears a blazing, and ready to take them apart. "UuuuuuuuUUUUUURRRRAAAAAAAAPHFAAAAAAAAH!" While not the longest, that was certainly the loudest belch Ulla had ever given. But that wasn't what made it interesting. What made it interesting was that standing before her and Gonan were twelve figures screaming in pain, as their bodies slowly burned away under green flames.

"Ulla…How did you do that?"

"Um...." She had no answer.

"You killed them! You killed them all?! By…by…I can't even say it!" screamed Jaibock

Ulla couldn't quite understand it herself, and his sliding from beneath her foot to examine the freshly burnt bodies served as testament to that.

"I decided to cut this short. Now, you know what? You're lucky. I am going to let you live. You can go back to Spearhead and let everyone know that if you attempt to even set foot in our territory, I'm either going to do that to you, or eat you. Simple."

"Simple?" He asked. "I don't think you understand what you've just done. You're going to-ARK!" The Chancellor non-challantly rose up behind him and casually snapped his neck. He then turned to the remaining duo.

"I would like to apologise for what has happened today. You will not be bothered by my people for quite some time if I have my way."

And with that, he began descending the cliff side. Of course, after all that, they did not have much intention of ending things right there, but no matter what they said, what words they chose, or how loud they were declared, they fell on deaf ears. The Chancellor was soon shrinking into the distance.

"He…Do you think he was serious? Or do you think maybe I was so brutal I changed his mind?"

"I uh, don't know. I'm going to guess the first one, though."

"That would be nice. He seemed like a big enough exception; I don't think that's much of a permanent solution, but for right now, it'll do," she said with a content sigh. Gonan didn't appear quite as satisfied. "Are you okay?"

"Yes...I just...I think this is the first time I've seen you eat someone. In fact, I don't think anyone else has seen you do it at all."

"Ah, right. I'm sorry if that freaked you out or anything. You know I'd never do that to someone who didn't deserve it. Promise."

"And the Belchfire?"

"Actually that's new. I guess I haven't unlocked all the secrets this body is holding"

"Fair enough. Well, on that note,, maybe we should do something about the bodies?"

Ulla looked over to the remains of the leaders and body guards. Most of them were actually cooked! She didn't see much point in wasting them, but then again the fact that they were dead somehow dampened the aspect, "I actually think a few graves would do the trick."

….

Ulla and Gonan had finished burying the remains of their opponents and had begun heading back. "I'm glad we didn't have to go to war to resolve that."

"Not yet anyway. That council went against him who's to say the new one they mentioned won't do the same?"

"But then again, Voodecalypse kept them away, and I killed that thing, and now they know first hand what I can do."

"Well I guess we'll find out sooner or later."

As the too prepared to descend the cliffs, Ulla's mind began to bubble with her thoughts on Gonan. He was skilled, willing to go to great lengths to assist her, and managed to accept her 'quirks' pretty easily. Maybe Poosh offered a life of luxury, but something about this world made her feel more comfortable, and for lack of a better word, full than she had ever felt at home. She was almost ready to put more thought into it, when she was interrupted by the crack of thunder. "What in the...?"

Looking outwards she finally saw Spearhead, illuminated in red to show all its technological, if fairly primitive glory. What could it mean? Smoke was rising from the streets and what could be heard sounded like explosions. It wasn't entirely clear what was happening but as pieces of the towering structures began to crumbles apart, the implications were obvious.

"Okay, maybe sooner."

To Be Continued.

Description
Chapter Seven: The Devils and the Spear.

"Once we have things developed, I would like to meet with the leader of Spearhead. I know you're history together and all that, but it's been a long time, I mean, obviously things have been a little turbulent with the incident earlier, but maybe we can just talk things out."

"No offence, but as your friend and Spikeholder, this could potentially go beyond bad. Impossobad, if you will."

"Huh, that's a new one."

"Veryveryveryveryveryverybad didn't sound as good."

"Look, I don't want to become a warlord. After all this time, I'd like people to be happy, so if we can settle this quickly… If there's violence, there's violence, I just need to give it a shot. In fact, I think a good bargaining chip could be each of us bringing a body guard."

"Do you really believe you'll need a body guard?"

"No, but it'd be more fair to them."

"I see. Well so long as we're armed, I think it's a good idea."

It had been about two days since the Deathmoon was brought to the village. Since then, Gonan had unexpectedly received a promotion. He was now a 'Spikeholder.' Essentially it was a sort of sensei role, but also giving him personal responsibilities to Ulla, making him the bodyguard they were speaking about.

Nux, Beldung and Oni were thankfully saved with a mixture of the villages medical remedies and the first aid kit on the Deathmoon. However, Nux was unlikely to regain use of his legs, and none of them would be fighting any time soon.

The Deathmoon had come in excellent use. Ulla quickly decided that the machine would be dismantled as much as possible in order to avoid her getting trigger happy. Instead, the individual pieces and components were studied and augmented to develop their new technologies. Nothing was ready yet, but the workers were already working busily on replicating the Vonometal. In the event Voodecalypse had a brother, they didn't want him doing half the damage that happened last time. As such they were also developing weapons based on those of the ship, though significantly weaker of course. Rather than copying Spearhead, they decided to base the majority around shields. In general, Devil's Nest was quite happily modernising.

And last of all, Voodecalypse was mounted atop the town centre. Most of it anyway, there was too much meat on the creature to waste. It was one hell of a taxidermy job.

Currently Ulla was overlooking reconstruction of the Market Place. There wasn't really all that much to it other than assigning people different buildings. The main priority was to rebuild any of the destruction. Obviously it would take some time to fully rebuild them, but fortunately the Pegali's drive to advance seemed to give them increased construction prowess, meaning that it would be done in mere days.

"I think the Market Place will be able to jump start the social world around here. Without Mr. Big Green and Horrifying, things are looking up, but we still have a ways to go."

"True," replied Gonan, "And what is your plan if Spearhead attacks before we can get anything done?"

"Aside from using the one intact Deathmoon laser? I guess a full attack by the Combat Academy. If we're lucky enough to not have that happen in the next few days, I'm hoping to get some sentries ready. We'll probably start with some barracks, then hopefully work our way up to small towers. With them we'll start out with spears, but hopefully we'll have those Laser Shields ready soon."

"You're actually taking pretty well to leadership all things considered."

"If you forget the tiny misstep of getting three of my temp body guards almost mortally wounded."

"They were right, we didn't mention their action patterns. It hasn't been a problem for decades after all."

"Uh, don't worry about that. We need to build us a Market." The answer was twenty two Pooshan years.

….

Construction had gone well and most of the essential stores, such as food and clothing, had been set up. After two hours of this she checked in on the Combat Academy. Baddax had been selected to design the new armour and uniforms, and reception had been mostly positive. Unfortunately there were enough people dissatisfied with the results to make him redesign them multiple times, much to both his annoyance and joy. Afterwards she lent a hand in removing the Deathmoon's jets. They weren't sure what they would be used for yet, but they had a hundred opportunities in each inch of that mammoth machine.

After it all, for the first time she was actually happy to sit back and receive her daily feeding from Sunn. "You are doing amazing things around here, Ulla."

"Thanks Sunn." Ulla managed to squeak as the excitable priestess inserted another bowl of fruit into her mouth. With a few mighty chomps, the bowl and its contents were paste sliding down her throat. Atop her belly sat Sunn and enough crumbs to make at least seven bowls. Since the festival and Sunn's new found enthusiasm, Ulla had again become a little uncomfortable to have her kneel on her stomach, dutifully feeding her; but not enough to ask her to stop. "How's our messenger coming along?

"We've found some people willing to go. I figure that it will be safer for a group to do it, once they have the weapons."

"Excelshhh..." It was hard to get a word out with someone stuffing your mouth full of food, as delicious as it was. "Nexsht, 'ulp' we should get to building the sentry barracks. It's sort of a priority at this Mmmph!"

"Ulla, you have had a busy day, you have time to relax now! In two days, you and Gonan can even help the architects work on their expansion plans. But now, how about I introduce you to a friend of mine. His name is Cavaza, and he's plump, juicy and full of enough calories to crush a house." Ulla eyed the new dish. It was a bug. Ulla had never really found insectoid dishes to be very appetising, but it smelt so decadent, and the wings just dripped with oil! And besides, she had eaten live people, so she was hardly one to be picky. In less than mere moments, the dish had entered the process of being gnashed against her somehow pearly whites. "And just think, without Voodecalypse keeping us down, your food portions are probably going to triple in the next few days!"

A sort of squeal rumbled from her gurgling belly, causing it to shake and jiggle, almost throwing the kindly priestess to the ground. "Well, it sounds like someone's excited."

….

"Here would be an excellent location for the Hot Springs. We'll save a lot of time and resources building the place around the footprints"

The footprints were quite deep, and their shape did seem actually quite comfortable. "That's a good plan, but I'm just thinking, is a Spa really a priority right now?"

"Should we be working on something else?"

"No, don't take it the wrong way. I'm just thinking that we should focus on more practical things until we deal with Spearhead."

"Ulla, I think a Spa would help keep people off edge. Considering that we're walking into a really big fight, that might be a very good thing."

"I can't disagree with you there. The Spa has my okay."

The architect smiled. Ulla didn't really have any objections, but she was trying to focus on protecting the village. Fortunately she had Gonan to remind her of smaller things that she wasn't too sure of. At the current moment, that meant people. Not that she didn't understand them, but she was mostly focussed on trying to end the tension with Spearhead. In fact, thanks to early completion of the prototype shields, her Messengers had already left.

"Okay, so aside from the hot springs, what else are we planning? Do we have masseuses?"

"What's a masseuses?"

"Right, you probably have a different name for it. Well it's someone who...Do you hear that?"

"Hear what, your highness?"

"Shh, listen. Do you hear it?"

"I..hear something."

Ulla turned and looked around. Her eyesight was pretty good, but she didn't have night vision. Such a thing would come in handy for a woman ruling a location on a planet permanently stuck in a nocturnal state, but sadly it was not to be. She knew could see something, but the darkness hid it. Just the slightest movements revealed something hidden. There was only one solution, she had to catch it.

A small blast of dust erupted from under her feet as she sped off, fortunately shielding her from the eyes of Gonan and the architects, as the image of her humongous body jiggling freely through her armour with every step and movement would have made her very difficult to take her seriously as a leader. Whatever she was looking at clearly did not agree, as it quickly made for the opposite direction to her. Unfortunately for it,  her hundreds of pounds of fat actually seemed to speed her up, meaning that she was running at a devastatingly fast pace.

"Your not getting away from me!" With a leap, Ulla found herself flying towards the cloaked creature. However, as her hands neared it, she became quite annoyed to discover that this creature wasn't running away, but rather hovering away, and that hovering was the limit of its power; quickly proven by the thing floating up and out of sight, and leaving Ulla to crash head first into a small rock formation, completely obliterating it.

"Your highness! Are you alright? What happened?!" The small band quickly surrounded Ulla and began to pull her to her feet."What was that- Oh..."

"What? Oh." Ulla felt at her face. A deep gash cut itself from her forhead to her nose, the blue fluid oozing out slowly, "Don't worry about that. I just need a few Cazavas and I'll be fine. I need to talk to Baddax."

….

"You saw my creature?" The mohawked artist questioned, "You actually saw it?"

"Saw it? I almost tackled the thing! Before I get your hopes up, I didn't learn anything other than its kinda big, flies, and is real."

"I see. Well, its a relief to know I'm not crazy. Do you have any thoughts on what it may be?"

"I am really hoping its just a really big bug. If its mechanical, we may be dealing with the Onyx Empire."

"The people who destroyed your home? That's not good news at all."

"No, but on the against side, you said you saw them a few weeks ago, before I even arrived. That definitely takes away from the chances."

"I suppose it does. So um, would you like to know how the current armour designs are going?"

"It would be my pleasure."

He stood up and pulled forward his desk. Atop it sat the latest design. This one was to incorporate the prototypes for the artificial Vonometal, making it considerably more durable, and the design was took heavy inspiration from Ulla's outfit, though it now came with a helmet and didn't leave the gut exposed, as well as being coloured dark blue instead of goldish brown. Ironically, the Vonometal would actually make it stronger than hers.

"I like it. Is that the final product?"

"Yes, well, until someone decides it doesn't look good enough to protect their 'oh so glorious' torsos. I was surprised the five you sent yesterday didn't raise a fuss."

"Tell them this batch is Ulla approved, that might sway their opinion."

He smiled through a shrug. He hadn't originally cared much for Ulla's arrival, but after all she had done, it was hard to say she wasn't Baddax approved. As he began to cart his desk back into place, the front doors opened to reveal aforementioned five. Their armour was covered in scratches and dents, their shields matching almost perfectly. Fortunately the damage seemed to be restricted to the metal clothing, leaving them unharmed and actually quite full of life. Upon seeing them, the green royal practically launched herself from her chair, though at her size, it briefly hugged her hindquarters before dropping down to the floor again.

"Lord Devulla! Our mission has been a success!"

"Are you all okay? Was anyone hurt?"

"All of us, many times," one of them answered, "But nothing serious, Baddax's armour proved invaluable."

"Ah, well you'll have to get used to this new pair thanks to the rest of the Academy, and it's almost twice as heavy," said the man himself, nibbling away at a Zomzom.

"I'm glad to hear you're okay. I'm guessing they weren't too pleased how our little 'meeting' went the other day."

"True, but they still seem to be thinking twice about doing anything rash against us. On the one hand, the main reason why they couldn't do so before is gone, but on the other, the thing that killed it is still here."

"Ah, good to know I'm coming in handy. So if they attacked you, how did you get them to agree?"

"After surviving six guards, they decided to hear us out. The leader will meet you  around this time tomorrow at the previous location of the Deathmoon, as that is, ahem, 'where the blood of their warriors was spilled.'"

"Technically it was about fifty feet in the air, but okay. And they understand the body guard terms?"

"Yes, one body guard per leader, as you specified. They want to avoid as much godly wrath as possible."

"Well, that's understandable. Well I'll be there with Gonan. The sooner we get things sorted, the better."

….

"I really don't think this is fair," Ulla exclaimed looking upon the situation.

"Not fair? How can it be unfair? This is exactly what you specified, one body guard per leader."

"In fact, you seem to be more in the wrong for assuming we had just one leader."

That idea never occurred to her for one minute. It was technically a possibility, after all Sunn was also technically the leader of the village, but she didn't bring her along. Spearhead was led by a warrior council of eight, meaning they had eight bodyguards. They had sixteen warriors ready to find an excuse to cut her and Gonan's head off. And their weapons seemed much stronger than the ones from the other day.

"I suppose you're right. My mistake. So, let's not get distracted then and get down to business."

The eldest, who apparently preferred to speak for the other seven nodded. "Very well, to business."

"There have obviously been some extreme hostilities between Spearhead and Devil's Nest for a while now. Branching out from deep into the past regarding your differing opinions on the one known as Saliss."

"Ah, alright then," exclaimed the one closest to her.

"Pardon?"

"Up until this point, we were pretty sure you were Saliss."

"Well no, we just seem to have the same skin tones."

"And strengths, ideals and appetites."

"I was different before. Something happened to me to make me like this. I personally don't eve know the full story myself. Let's try to stay on topic."

"Very well." He seemed to force himself back on track. "You killed eight of our soldiers."

The green goddess huffed. The slightest thing could set them off; generations of feuding would not be so easily forgotten.

"We encountered one another, I offered a peaceful resolution, and they refused, deciding instead to attack me. After taking down one of them, I offered the rest a chance to surrender. They took it, and shot at me the minute I had my back turned, After taking care of them, I found one of your soldiers who had avoided me had brutally beaten all but one of my guards"

"That is to say they were not killed?"

"No, they survived, but barely."

"A shame," one murmured in the back.

"Ssshhh!" commanded the eldest. "Allow me to apologise for that incident. Their mission was to observe and retrieve anything from that the large vehicle that they considered worth studying. Clearly the presence of you and your men was misinterpreted."

"Didn't you think it was a little strange that the Pegali goddess would show up the same time as a gigantic spaceship?" Gonan interjected, though Ulla did try to silence him with a deathly glare.

"Again let me apologise, we were too intrigued by the vehicle to realise that perhaps you still had some use for it."

"Now," spoke a younger Spearhead leader, twirling sideburns stretching out a few good inches, "what do you hope to gain out of this meeting? That we leave Devil's Nest alone after centuries of feuding?"

"Or maybe that we become friends and live in peace, using each other's advancements to build ourselves a little utopia?"

"The first one sounds like a little less to ask," she replied, trying to remain civil. "How about you tell me the history from your perspective,"

"Certainly," the eldest resumed command of their collective voice. "Records show that in the centuries beforehand, we were a simple people, preyed upon by those larger than us, though not what one would call completely helpless. We were great Turpac herders even then, so it says. One day she came, from almost nowhere and offered us a hand in our lives in mere exchange for food and shelter. We complied and she kept her side of the promise. Almost anything we wanted or requested, she did for us. She proved to have quite the lifespan, sticking around for quite some time and outliving at least three generations. All the while, she helped build our homes, grow our crops, fight off enemies and generally stay alive. She was a life giver, a heroine and..."

"Poison!" Declared yet another leader, this one distinguished by his pointed jaw. At least five voices in the crowd murmured in agreement, while others seemed to groan. "Her actions towards us may have seemed like the best intentions, but underneath lay something different. She was poisoning us with her near godly assistance. Another generation, maybe two, and we'd have been totally dependent!  If she was to leave, we would be completely lost and quickly decay into nothing. But no, our ancestors knew what had to happen.
"If Saliss was to leave as soon as possible, before we were totally reliant on her, we would be saved. And then, once enough knew of the idea? They were shunned! They wouldn't have it! Kill the one who helps to keep us well fed, healthy and alive? Madness they said, they were not looking further than Saliss could be thrown by a two year old. We have come to admit, murder may have not been the best option, but it was simpler times! But they fought for the truth, and in many ways we succeeded. Saliss knew she was the cause of all this violence, and she left. The deed had been done without her death, yet they were still driven from the camps like animals! And so began many centuries of anger, violence and hate."

"I see, the stories actually match up almost perfectly. Thank you for being honest."

"And now you stand her" he continued, "The avatar of all we oppose. I thank you for the jump start, but I think we've managed things very well without you."

"But I'm helping Devil's Nest. Why do..."

"Our hatred has grown beyond you, Green One. It is the Devil's Nest that we have grown to despise for their opposition to us."

The eldest looked upon him disapprovingly "Jaibock…"

"It was immeasurably entertaining watching the beast Voodecalypse ravage their homes, even if it did keep us at bay for many a generation." A clang emitted from Gonan's shield as his hands gripped it tighter. "You have slain the creature, eight of our warriors and have somehow advanced them in mere days to what took us generations to accomplish! If there is any greater reason to hate you, please present it."

"Jaibock!" The eldest spoke aloud. "You have said enough! I refuse to let you-"

"Actually I've just scratched the surface, sir. Hold him."

The man stood shocked as his own body guard stepped forward and held his arms tight around his back. "What in the name of Ragellion do you think you are doing?"

"Our job, my Lord. Our job."

Many of them were suddenly less tolerable of her now that the man was incapable of using his hands.

"Ulla, I have an extraordinarily bad feeling about this…"

"Let me echo that question we presented you with earlier. What do we stand to gain from destroying Devil's Nest?"

"Revenge."

"Land."

"Shelter."

"Revenge."

"Food."

"Their new found technology."

"More revenge, I have a lot of vendettas."

"You see, your efforts here are wasted! Both of you! What you are doing is like trying to make a Turpac swim. If it swims, it wouldn't be there to fertilise the Cavaza nests, and thus it would have no purpose."

"L-let him go!" Ulla didn't know what to say. Was she just supposed to stand there and watch while they did this?

"We agreed this would be a peaceful discussion! We weren't going to be the aggressors!:

"My apologies sir," said the thick sideburned one "I'm afraid this is beyond your authority."

"But-"

"But you're the Chancellor of this Council? You lost that authority the second you voted against the death of the Green One." The body guard increased his hold, pushing the man to his knees, and apparently knocking the strength from his bones. "But we decided it was best not to make a scene and just go along with your ideals until we got to where we needed to be. Right here."

Ulla's jaw dropped a distance. She had not felt the Spearhead's above using this opportunity to attack her, but treachery amongst themselves? "You're going to kill ot him because he didn't want to kill me?"

"Were you all like, dropped on your heads when you hatched or something?" stated Gonan, in equal disbelief.

"Kill him? No, don't be so stupid, we wouldn't do that to our former Chancellor. But if we did, it would be the fool's own fault. Changed ways and the greater good are nice ideals, but when the devil herself is at your doorstep, the game changes."

"In short, I'm afraid the only way you are getting us to stay clear of Devil's Nest is if you kill us."

"No! It shouldn't have to come to that!"

"I respectfully disagree, but do not fear for our people. If we do not return, another council has already been selected to continue our work; finding ways to dispose of you. So, which one of us will strike first? I may even let you choose."

"Sick bastard…"

"If you people don't bring us harm, I have no intention of bringing any to you! Why isn't that enough for you!?"

He smirked cruelly, "My dear...Uma was it?"

"Ulla."

"Yes, thank you. My dear Ulla, We have in fact been awaiting this moment for some time now. I most certainly have. You see, it was prophesied that we would meet here. The outcome is not certain, but what we do know is that it is a battle to the death."

Gonan pulled forth his shield, now in full battle pose. "You're just saying that to psyche us out!"

"Am I? Perhaps I am. But if you are to win this fight, it was also prophesied that darkness would befall Devil's Nest."

"Yeah, you're running a little late, it's always dark."

"Darker. What the sky did offer, will be shunned as something takes its place. A creature? There will be panic and wanton destruction, and it will be all for your precious 'goddess.' When this happens, then maybe you'll realise why you should have just let us execute you."

She looked upon the fifteen hostile Spearheads, and the one unconscious Chancellor before her. Then to Gonan; he merely tilted his head as she pulled hers back to them. "Fine, if you'll have it no other way, we'll fight."

"Finally, I was beginning to think we agreed to this for nothing." They pushed the Chancellor to the side. "Get her."

Within seconds, green spikes filled the air. Blue fluid began to fly from Ulla's immense body as the sharp bolts struck her flesh. Gonan held his shield in defence, still receiving the occasional cut or scratch on his legs as they fired rapidly in their direction. Ulla shielded her face as she began to step forward. In response, they merely intensified their blasts. Gonan decided it was time to get a hit in and he pulled the trigger on the back of his shield.

Only one of the Spearheads got hit by the ensuing strike of energy, a bodyguard, though he found it more than enough as his armour suddenly found a large hole in it, and the others were disorganised for the briefest second, allowing Ulla to leap toward and open her mouth wide over the head of one of the leaders.

Unlike previous eatings of enemies, Ulla found herself with quite some difficulty. As she attempted to swallow, she also had to deal with fourteen enraged warriors armed with at least three laser spears and a series of sharp blades each. Gonan quickly proved himself to be worthy of his new body guard position, doing his part to them busy during the fight. As the green spikes and sharp blades continued to cut at her skin Ulla was finally starting to feel the blood loss getting to her. Fortunately, with a gulp, the leader was sliding down her throat and into her digestive track.

"By Ragellion..." The remaining fourteen paused for the briefest moment as the form of the Spearhead leader bulged through her throat. But no sooner than they stop did they start again. One of the female leaders pulled forth her spear and snapped, causing it to heat rapidly like those on the Deathmoon. Thrusting it towards Ulla, the enormous woman clasped her hands around the unheated metal and pulled hard; this quickly resulted in the leader swinging over her head and shooting her several times in the back. Fortunately for all her fighting prowess, this woman was not strong enough to survive a giant green fist to the face.

Apparently severing a person's head wasn't nearly as horrific as swallowing one whole, as nobody stopped to look this time. Ulla didn't give it much thought, she just went on trying her best to dodge and throw punches. One bodyguard found himself thrown into the air, to be blasted by Ganon's shield. Despite managing to dwindle the group down to twelve, the fight didn't seem to be turning in their favour.

"What's wrong Nester? You can't take on fifteen of us? And now I thought you were supposed to be some kind of god!" The one known as Jaibock seemed to speak for the group now. His cackling voice seemed to be all the qualification he needed. And he was right, though she could continue on for some time, Gonan seemed to have reached his limit and heck, she wasn't feeling at her max. Nonetheless, she had to keep going. She hadES to let them know she wasn't going to stop for them. She was going to help the Pegali of Devil's Nest, dammit! She was going to...burp.

Ulla hadn't been the gassiest girl in the world since she transformed, but belches were nothing new. Though this one seemed different. Her throat was burning. And the new leader was charging at her. Fortunately in his bout of intimidation, he lost himself a little and trapping him underneath her foot was quite an easy task, even if he immediately began to stab at her foot.

"Oh, I feel sick! What was in that guy?" The eleven warriors charged towards her and Gonan, spears a blazing, and ready to take them apart. "UuuuuuuuUUUUUURRRRAAAAAAAAPHFAAAAAAAAH!" While not the longest, that was certainly the loudest belch Ulla had ever given. But that wasn't what made it interesting. What made it interesting was that standing before her and Gonan were twelve figures screaming in pain, as their bodies slowly burned away under green flames.

"Ulla…How did you do that?"

"Um...." She had no answer.

"You killed them! You killed them all?! By…by…I can't even say it!" screamed Jaibock

Ulla couldn't quite understand it herself, and his sliding from beneath her foot to examine the freshly burnt bodies served as testament to that.

"I decided to cut this short. Now, you know what? You're lucky. I am going to let you live. You can go back to Spearhead and let everyone know that if you attempt to even set foot in our territory, I'm either going to do that to you, or eat you. Simple."

"Simple?" He asked. "I don't think you understand what you've just done. You're going to-ARK!" The Chancellor non-challantly rose up behind him and casually snapped his neck. He then turned to the remaining duo.

"I would like to apologise for what has happened today. You will not be bothered by my people for quite some time if I have my way."

And with that, he began descending the cliff side. Of course, after all that, they did not have much intention of ending things right there, but no matter what they said, what words they chose, or how loud they were declared, they fell on deaf ears. The Chancellor was soon shrinking into the distance.

"He…Do you think he was serious? Or do you think maybe I was so brutal I changed his mind?"

"I uh, don't know. I'm going to guess the first one, though."

"That would be nice. He seemed like a big enough exception; I don't think that's much of a permanent solution, but for right now, it'll do," she said with a content sigh. Gonan didn't appear quite as satisfied. "Are you okay?"

"Yes...I just...I think this is the first time I've seen you eat someone. In fact, I don't think anyone else has seen you do it at all."

"Ah, right. I'm sorry if that freaked you out or anything. You know I'd never do that to someone who didn't deserve it. Promise."

"And the Belchfire?"

"Actually that's new. I guess I haven't unlocked all the secrets this body is holding"

"Fair enough. Well, on that note,, maybe we should do something about the bodies?"

Ulla looked over to the remains of the leaders and body guards. Most of them were actually cooked! She didn't see much point in wasting them, but then again the fact that they were dead somehow dampened the aspect, "I actually think a few graves would do the trick."

….

Ulla and Gonan had finished burying the remains of their opponents and had begun heading back. "I'm glad we didn't have to go to war to resolve that."

"Not yet anyway. That council went against him who's to say the new one they mentioned won't do the same?"

"But then again, Voodecalypse kept them away, and I killed that thing, and now they know first hand what I can do."

"Well I guess we'll find out sooner or later."

As the too prepared to descend the cliffs, Ulla's mind began to bubble with her thoughts on Gonan. He was skilled, willing to go to great lengths to assist her, and managed to accept her 'quirks' pretty easily. Maybe Poosh offered a life of luxury, but something about this world made her feel more comfortable, and for lack of a better word, full than she had ever felt at home. She was almost ready to put more thought into it, when she was interrupted by the crack of thunder. "What in the...?"

Looking outwards she finally saw Spearhead, illuminated in red to show all its technological, if fairly primitive glory. What could it mean? Smoke was rising from the streets and what could be heard sounded like explosions. It wasn't entirely clear what was happening but as pieces of the towering structures began to crumbles apart, the implications were obvious.

"Okay, maybe sooner."

To Be Continued.