The White King

White Beasts

Octanus finally relaxes, her entire body collapsing in a tired heap. The trains of Kosmos were fast, ridiculously so, but lying down on top of them while it was soaring across the land was surprisingly easy.

Decelerating on the other hand...

The damn things took just over a minute to fully stop, but their speeds were at such an irresponsible pace that even then it was subjecting passengers to multiple Gs.

At least the people on the inside had seatbelts.

The doors open below her with an audible whoosh, not that Octanus cares. With her arms thoroughly wiped clean of energy and the rest of her body coursing with pure adrenaline, she'd lost all will to get up.

But then, after a few minutes spent idly watching a few puffy clouds slide along the sky, the sound of the doors closing befouls her ears.

Ugh...

Still drained, she forces herself to roll off of the roof of the train...

And crash painfully onto the platform, one at a town near the North edge of Central's territory.

With a wince, Octanus flips onto her back. It wasn't exactly a comfortable position, but it was far better than the already moving train she could see from the corner of her eye.

"Rowl."

Octanus turns towards the creature responsible for the sound.

"Hey, there. What are you doing so far from Central?" she rhetorically asks, easily identifying it as a Pansa, a basic Hokori modeled after its namesake, the panther. While it's body was coated in a layer of thin white armor plating, a variety of gaps at the joints still revealed its purplish fur.

This tier of Hokori wasn't particularly dangerous to a trained fighter like herself, especially when the person who controlled them, The White King, saw fit to use them as genuine police.

Yes, the people they went after usually died, but he only used them against violent criminals anyway.

Speaking of, I wonder how he actually controls them... Is it some kind of mental link? she wonders. But if-.

"Rowl," it says again, it's slitted eyes looking down at her, obviously trying to get her to move without touching her. Smart, for a Hokori, anyway, since their unretractable claws would slice right through her.

"Yeah, yeah, I'll get up," she let's out as a whine. It takes a moment, but she does follow through with what she said, pulling herself to her feet.

Being a pan wasn't always easy, especially when you're one based off of the giant tropical sloths.

They weren't as slow as their smaller cousins, and god damn were they terrifying in nature, but they were still lazier than any pan ought to be.

Sparing a moment to stretch, Octanus looks around the nearly empty train station. There were only two rails here, one for each direction, and equally many people waiting around for them.

Though a few probably boarded a moment ago, she acknowledges with a shrug.

Besides her, the two others, and the Pansa, the place was empty. No clerks, nobody from the previous train sticking around...

Huh.

After a moment to confirm she hadn't lost anything on the train, Octanus starts walking away from the station.

Central may have roads leading everywhere, but she didn't have a vehicle. On top of that, teleporting, something she'd been learning recently, had a very limited range based on your magic levels.

Despite her skills, she was definitely not running high in the reserves.

Man, if I had James' pool, I could have just warped there.

That was a bit of an exaggeration, but it wasn't far off. The distance:cost ratio was exponential, so the trip would be divided into a few teleports, but he could definitely make it.

But he couldn't build a new Solar Spire.

Magic was actually not a very old system on Kosmos. It was only ever documented around two centuries ago, and new abilities are being discovered on a nearly daily basis. The only category of magic that this isn't true about is transmutation, but that's mostly because of how it's defined.

Pretty much any spell you create does exactly the same as the first, so all you can really do is shorten the time it takes.

Despite being fairly new, information was spreading fast, and primarily from the East, where magic is most commonly used. Due to constant turf warfare, new spells were being developed literally all the time.

Unfortunately, that kind of information had a price, and it was one she didn't have the money to pay. Genius or no, Solaris simply didn't have the economy needed to buy off spell details, so information could only trickle down.

Lleterof, however, was well known as a wizard attraction. Magic seeped through the ground, providing a wellspring for their experiments while also allowing the environment to replenish itself limitlessly.

Even she could use that.

Best part had to do with the Solar Spire she was going to create, though. Since magic was everywhere there, it would be practically free to power.

Perfection.

But first I have to make it there, she acknowledges somberly. The trip wasn't going to be particularly long, only two weeks on foot, but it was going to be slow.

She could deal with slow, to be sure, but slow and boring wasn't anything to look forward to, especially for someone as accustomed to leisure as she is.

On with it, then.

Waving back towards the Pansa- because it was the only thing she'd really spoken to here- she sets out into the wilderness.

Unbeknownst to her, a certain chimera atop the station roof waved back.