Taking over the Abyss

29- Ruse Cruise

Sipping berry juice out of a wooden cup with a bamboo straw, you laid back in the admittedly intricate wooden lounger chair crafted for you by the hilichurls. If only you had a pair of sunglasses, but you were amazed that the hilichurls had managed to build this in the first place. You were impressed by the craftsmanship of the hilichurls that had been using wooden pot lids as shields just a week ago.

Sindri was pacing back and forth while relaying to you in a frenzy everything he had learned, "They won't allow me to take part in the plans because of my screw-up from earlier, but I did some looking around and learned that some of their plans are being held up. I mean, I knew that anyway, because I was on the team for creating a distraction to give them more time, but they're like... REALLY held up by this."

"By what?" If you had sunglasses on, this is where you'd push them up. But you didn't, so you just took another sip of the sweet berry juice you'd been provided.

"So basically, the whole plan is to use Osial's limbs as part of a mechanized god to topple Celestia," Sindri filled you in, unaware that you already knew that info. You nodded, urging him to continue, "But they're held up because some giant monster called Beisht keeps attacking them. So they're trying to look into ways to try and deal with her, but they still have to find another thing too."

"Beisht, huh?" You sighed. Osial didn't have much lore, and Beisht had even less, so you just had to make assumptions, "Beisht must protecting Osial from harm, since he's been resealed, and therefore is vulnerable to attacks."

Sindri nodded rapidly, "I see, that makes sense. As expected of Lady (Name), you deduced the reasoning immediately."

It was actually a pretty easy conclusion to come to, all things considered. You certainly didn't deserve that much praise... but it still felt nice. "Beisht is Osial's wife, so it's only natural that she would protect him when he's been weakened. You said they were trying to find something else?"

"Ummm..." Sindri paused to think, "Oh, right. They found this stupid dumb statue thing, and hung it upside down. They're gonna use some sort of core thing to power it. If you ask me, it'd just look like a huge mess. Even if it was mechanical, wouldn't Osial's limbs just flop everywhere?"

The abomination Sindri described popped into your head. A giant tentacle monster made out of a disgraced god, a defiled statue, and an old robot core didn't sound too magnificent, but throw in some Abyss magic and it'd probably turn out horrifying. You shook that thought out of your head, "I'm guessing they're going to try and prioritize finding this core then."

Sindri nodded, "Yeah! I mean, they're doing a really, really bad job with holding off Beisht- it's kinda embarrassing, honestly- so they're going to put more resources into locating it since it should be easier. They've been redirecting some of the forces in the Chasm to this, too. Also, we've- eh, they've taken over in Enkanomiya since it was completely empty."

So, that quest would coming up soon. You already sort of knew that, but it was coming faster than you thought. You'd have to figure out a way to participate without throwing everything off too hard. At the very least, you could try and spare Andrius from some pain. Not wanting to risk Sindri getting caught for both his safety and your own, you gave him a new order, "Take some time off, you can stay here with the hilichurls for now."

Although Sindri didn't a visible face, you could tell that he was very happy about that, "Seriously?!"

"Yep, seriously," you watched Sindri scuttle off to go and boss around the hilichurls. Hopefully his nasty attitude wouldn't come back, you didn't want anybody to get beat up. You laid back in your chair and took another sip of juice, "Mm, this is the life..."