Buttopia
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Chapter 233: Splitting the Party
🕑 Added 2025-09-15 02:37:31 +0000 UTCI watched in vain as Mel rocketed off toward the escaping ship. I even reversed the gravity to give him as much added momentum as possible. But it was too late. I knew he couldn’t catch them. The jesters had kidnapped William. They had taken my grandchild. I had to find Alex. I only glanced at the experience notification, pulling up a chat window instead as I began to frantically search.
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!Invasion Defeated!
Jester Elite Force (x1) {1E10 Experience}
-Experience Gained [1E10 Points]
+Multipliers Applied+
No Armor (x1.1)
No Weapon (x1.1)
Faction Strength Disadvantage (x1.5)
Faction Leader (x3)
Do a Little Better (x1.5)
-Total Experience Gained [8.168E10 Points]
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>Dave: You all heard Timon. They have William. We need jesters to interrogate. That means we need them alive.
>Corey: Make sure that message is relayed to everyone you find, unless it’s Rabyn, Connie, or the brothers. They have soul knots, and we need to treat them as prisoners for the moment as well.
>Dave: Yes, I don’t like it, but we don’t have a choice. We will have to assess everyone in the city as well.
>Karlinovo: I’m heading for the workshop. I have Bert and Johan with me. Since I assume we are going after them, I’m going to capture the destination of their ship.
>Dave: Absolutely. They declared war on us. I have zero intention of letting that message go without a reprisal.
>Beta: For the Empire! For the lost son of the Empire!
>Maud: What’s happening? I just woke up. :(
>Dave: I will explain later. Where are you and who are you with?
>Maud: Elody and Yorela. Elody is working on keeping Yorela alive. She’s in bad shape. So is Elody. She’s holding her own organs in while throwing all her own magic at Yorela. Both of them look like they could die at any second. We are under the hall.
>Dave: Okay, I’m coming!
>Alpha: Found Alex.
>Dave: Get her to the meeting room in the hall. I’ll be there as soon as I can.
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I ran as fast as I could toward the hall, wishing I had the speed of Glorp. Inside the building was a flurry of action as Grant and Quarilyn were fighting off a few remaining jesters. “Keep them alive, we need information!” I yelled, not stopping to help. I’d be back. I had to keep people alive.
Grant had said something about the school. The last words got lost in the blur, but it didn’t sound like a disaster, so onto the sublevels I went. I dodged two jesters as I ran, planning to deal with the moment I had the time. Right now, I wasn’t willing to lose anyone else.
I swallowed back that thought. William was not lost. We would find him, and we would make the jesters pay for even thinking they could try this. The Empire of Dave would not allow anything like this to happen again.
Fighting for their lives in a circle of dead jesters were Elody, Yorela, and Maud. Maud currently had her hands pressed to Elody’s stomach, likely holding a wound shut while Elody poured her own healing magic into her friend. Yorela was barely there, and Elody wasn’t doing much better. I had no idea how she was even conscious to do this.
“Maud, find John. I’m going to need both of you. I’ll take care of these two,” I said, looking down at just how bad Elody’s wounds were, checking all her organs were on the inside before triggering stitch other. I saw the tiniest look of relief pass over her face as I worked to pour mana into the wound.
I heard Maud’s footfalls as she ran from us. As worried as I was about the remaining jesters, I had to keep my focus here and now. Maud could handle herself.
“I think I’ve got you as patched up as I should risk for the moment. Likely going to need to heal a lot of people before today is done,” I said as I moved to help Elody work on Yorela. She was worse than she had been when I entered the room. I swallowed down another load of fear and started by slinging her head wounds back together.
“Just need to get her conscious, she can regenerate herself if we can get her that far,” Elody said between grimaces, making me wish my pain management mana skill could be used on others as well.
“Once we have her stable, I have to see Alex. As much as the rest of the city will need me, I cannot leave her to face this alone.” The fear of what my daughter was already experiencing was impossible to push away entirely.
“Did they take the kid?” a hoarse voice asked, barely above a whisper. Yorela had woken up.
“Yes,” I said, rage flaring in the single word as it left my mouth. I bit down hard, grinding my teeth, trying to keep myself under control.
“Help me up, we don’t have a lot of time to get on their tail then. Where’s your daughter?” Yorela’s voice was louder now.
Several of her wounds were shrinking as Elody helped her to her feet. At least we had that small comfort going. No, I wouldn’t see their lives as small. No matter how much the loss of William was hurting, the fact that these two were alive was a miracle, and one I wouldn’t waste.
“Upstairs, if there’s anything we can do to get him back, I’m listening,” I said as we made our way much too slowly to the meeting room. Yorela promised to explain once we were all there. Strangely, all the jesters we passed were now dead. Had Maud done that so silently?
“How bad is the situation?” Elody’s voice almost sounded normal as she asked her question, but I could hear how hard her breathing was. She was nowhere near healed.
“The jesters declared war on us. I have no idea if they see it that way, but I do. As for a body count, we don’t know yet. Likely this would all be much worse if Mel hadn’t made a timely return,” I answered, my tone much harsher than it should have been, but at the moment, I had no way of clamping down the anger.
“Yer damn right it would!” Mel roared as we entered the room. There had been more dead jesters in the hall. Had no one been able to take one alive so far?
There was so much screaming that I could barely hear Mel’s usual yell over the other yells. Nearly everyone in the room was expressing their unbridled rage at the wrong targets. The problem was I was right there with them, and seeing the absent look on Alex’s face did nothing to help.
Luckily, before I could say anything to make it all the worse, an unlikely voice took charge. “Everyone shut the fuck up and sit down! We do not have time for this!” It was the first time I had ever heard Timon use that tone. I hadn’t been aware he was even capable of it. Everyone listened.
Timon’s head swiveled to me. I had no clue where he was going with this, and was still entirely too angry for any sort of calm discussion. So I nodded to him to continue.
“William is gone. There are maybe three of us here who can fight a ‘best’ jester…” he started before Alex cut him off.
“How do I find my son? I don’t care what I have to do, just tell me how we do it!” The rage and desperation in her voice broke my heart further than it already had been.
“We don’t got a lot of time to talk about this. You want to find your kid? Then we need to get going ASAP,” Yorela said, nodding firmly at Alex.
“Wait, how are we doing this?” I asked, looking over at Pryte, who had his own worried expression.
“We aren’t doing anything. You can’t go anywhere. And neither can I,” Timon replied.
“Which means it’s me that’s gotta go then. Still, I’m gonna need an answer to Dave’s question. I ain’t never chased a jester ship,” Mel said, some of his anger vanishing in a firm resolve.
“We’ve gotta find Squidlen, and get after them. He’ll know where they’re heading if anyone managed to track their entry point into chaotic space,” Yorela answered.
“Yorela, you can’t go back to chaotic space. It nearly killed you last time,” Pryte pleaded. Was that what he had been so worried about?
“Of course I can. I sure as hell don’t want to. But those damned monsters took a baby, and as long as Alex is ready to chase them, I’m gonna do everything I can to help,” she snarled the words back at Pryte.
“Look, I’m going too. Alex isn’t doing this alone,” I said. Why the hell did they think I’d stay behind?
“No, you aren’t. Timon was entirely right there. If you leave now, the brothers lose their homeworld, and this planet likely won’t be here when you get back!” Pryte said forcefully, turning a glare to me.
I was starting to understand why they had all been screaming at each other. We all wanted to charge off into the unknown and save an innocent, and it just wasn’t feasible for all of us to do that. We had to decide who was going and quick.
“We can check with Ivan if he managed to track them. Since we’ve already decided neither Timon or myself can go. That also likely excludes Pryte. No one with a soul knot, either. I’ll check everyone who is going as soon as we make the decision,” I said. I took a deep breath and slowly released it after I spoke.
“I’m going. He’s my nephew. Rabyn can handle the kitchen without me,” John said, the first to speak.
“If John is going, so am I, and the cats,” Maud added.
“I wish to go too, I am useless here. Perhaps I may find a way to be useful in chaotic space,” Sanquar said, joining in the volunteers.
“We are capping it here. Almost too big anyway, and I don’t want Elody trying to come, she’s too broken,” Yorela said firmly, turning to look at her fellow librarian. “Dave scan us all.”
Just as I started the scan, a message window popped into my view. I read it while doing my best to check their souls.
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>Alpha: Found Glorp. Need help in outer forest, bad shape, alive.
>Dave: Okay, I’ll send Grant in a second.
>Karlinovo: I’ve got their heading. They entered chaotic space at CS-17.32 from this universe.
>Dave: I have no idea what that means, but I’ll relay it. Yorela is taking a group after them with the help of someone she knows.
>Gamma: Are we going?
>Dave: It has been pointed out we can’t. We have the competition coming up, and the Twinoges need us.
>Maud: I’m going though. I will make sure you all stay informed! :)
>Dave: Have you found any live jesters?
>Beta: Got one! Glunderlin is fighting to keep it alive. We will need assistance.
>Dave: Okay, I’ll have someone there too.
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I closed the message window and checked the scans. No one had any new soul knots. At least we had that going for us. “Okay. You’re all clean on soul knots. Ivan says they entered chaotic space at CS-17.32 from this universe. I assume that means something to you, Yorela?”
“It does.”
“Good. I wish I had time for longer goodbyes. I wish I could go with you. There’s a lot I wish. Please try to keep them safe, Mel. Elody, I need you and Grant to meet Alpha at the northern woods. He has a wounded Glorp he has to get back here. I have to go find Glunderlin and help him keep what appears to be our only prisoner alive,” I said, standing up as I spoke.
I walked to both of my children, giving them deep hugs. John promised to do everything he could to find William. Alex was silent. I was tempted to say to hell with the Empire of Dave and go with them anyway. If it hadn’t been for the brothers, I probably would have. We shouldn’t be forced apart again like this, but it had to be done.
“Go get everything you need. Meet me at the gate in twenty minutes. We are heading for the giants’ homeworld. I should be able to figure out where old Squidlen is from there,” Yorela said, just as everyone stood and started making a hasty exit from the room.
We all had our jobs to do. I realized as I ran for Beta’s location, Timon had decided to join me on mine. “I’ll handle the interrogation and imprisonment once we’ve got the thing stable,” he said as soon as I looked at him.
“You said you’ve gone up against a ‘best’ before, right? I need you to tell it to me straight here. Is there any chance of rescuing William?” I asked, desperate for some added hope.
“This has all moved beyond anything I’ve ever been involved in before. But I can tell you a kid was just kidnapped, and if there is anything in the Spiral that could motivate Mel to punch a god in the face, it’s that. He’s going to put your kids through hell and back on their chase, but everyone who survives it is going to come out of that trip far stronger than they started. Mel ain’t a legend for nothing,” Timon replied, some of his missing jovial attitude finally returning to his words.
Spotting Glunderlin in the distance with Beta floating nearby, I left what Timon had said hanging. Not that I had much to add to it, I desperately hoped they could do it, and I wished I wasn’t stuck here. Hell, I wished we were so powerful we could send an army after my grandson. Yet again, the universe had decided to give me more reasons to grow this damned Empire.
“Hurry, we need to heal it!” Glunderlin yelled, seeing us.
“I was wondering if they had some protocol like this,” Timon replied as I triggered healing magic while scanning the jester.
“Did someone poison them?” I asked, not understanding the readings I was getting.
“He just fell over foaming at the mouth as I grabbed him. I don’t understand what’s going on,” Glunderlin answered.
“I do. Can’t leave anyone behind that might give their plans away. This is likely the only jester still alive on the planet. Can you keep him that way, Dave? It would be a shame to waste him,” Timon said, smiling menacingly down at the jester.
“Yes, probably. I wish I had a way to actually use regeneration on someone besides myself, but this should stabilize him. My telemetry says he should recover,” I answered, not sure if that meant anything about him trying it again.
Assuming, of course, he couldn’t do it again. Was he actually a he? Honestly, I had no idea how the different types of jesters worked. They seemed pretty far off from humans despite the looks of at least these regular ones.
“Perfect. I’ll take him from here. You should probably track down Glorp and make sure he’s actually doing okay,” Timon said, giving the monster another smile. “You and I are going to have a lot of very long talks. Why don’t you join me on the bus?” Timon then grabbed the jester, swung him over his shoulder, and left us at a casual stroll back toward where we had left our transport.
“Anything else I can do to help?” Glunderlin looked at me, his face full of a deep worry. I understood why, yet again, his people had been attacked.
“Yes, get whoever you need to help and start working on the full census. We need to determine how many people were lost, and we need to inform their families. I’ll also have to scan everyone for new soul knots. I don’t know what your tradition is for funerals, but I promise we will give everyone a hero’s send-off,” I said, just as a message window popped up.
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>Gamma: I found Connie, Rabyn, and the brothers. They were secured under a statis field. I destroyed it. They have zero memory of the entire event. What should I do with them?
>Dave: See if you can catch Mel before he leaves. Find out if there’s anything he needs from them.
>Maud: He’s waiting at the gate.
>Gamma: Taking them there now.
>Dave: After that, bring them to the meeting room. Don’t let them escape. I’ll be back once I have Glorp.
>Gamma: Okay.
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The gleaming glass ostrich is a mana beast that at first glance seems like a simple foe. Glass is usually easy to shatter, and its cries sound like those of a chicken, not of a bird its size. In this case, looks are very deceiving. This monster is fully capable of channeling magic, as you see, it is not made of glass. It is, in fact, somehow a form of mana orb that has mutated into these creatures.
Their origin remains a complete mystery and would generally defy what we know of dungeon beasts, core beasts, and mana beasts, but as they exist, it is hard to refute the point that there is something we do not understand at play here. It is strongly recommended to never face off against one of these creatures without an ability to detect mana types.
Currently, they have been documented to exist in over five hundred different varieties, and no one has unraveled exactly how they find their mana type, as any attempt to capture them has resulted in catastrophe. But as their remains are a very potent source of mana shards, hunters continue these dangerous pursuits, with no end in sight.
Mana Bestiary Volume 1 by Elody Lylin Rels, Paladin of Knowledge
