Chương 25: The Great Extinction

"I'm sure all of you must be hungry. I doubt that you were able to pack food while being chased by hundreds of guards. Let us eat." Offered Commander Alia as she gestured to a few Calidum Lutum Guards to bring food here, speaking their own language.

With the little invasion plan put behind them, choosing Eric's little team only to invade Gaster town. Food would be the most polite thing to offer right now.

Mogranius had an instant reaction the second he heard the word "Food".

Standing up, he hollered, "Food?!. Finally. We have been eating plants and nuts for the past two days! I need freshly cooked, delicious meat!"

Understanding the need, but having no way to provide it, Alia enumerated. "We don't have meat, quite difficult for 10 foot tall people to hunt and we choose to stay here so we don't attract new people, far too many met Lava already."

Pushing away that odd feeling where everyone will look at him once he talks, Eric appealed. "If you can't hunt, how do you feed all of these people? Doubt that Gods would help this way, like everything it needs work."

To this at least, she can reply with pride. A smile on her face stretched and she even rose up on her toes in enthusiasm! "Our Indoor farm! We have a big one."

But sadly, her enthusiasm met an end when she recalled the farm's current condition. "Sadly, our food is barely half way through from growing and our supply from last year is almost at its end."

After finishing that sentence, she continued with a calming matter. "But let's not worry about that now. Now we shall eat."

After finishing her sentence, a guard approached with what seemed to be a two foot long and wide bucket of food. It had a lot of vegetables in them. Melons, bread, corn too, etc and of course precious water.

The bucket also carries a few fruits that are growable deep underground, such as grapes and oranges.

Eric's tongue drops down after seeing so much taste filled food but his curiosity is growing greater than hunger. "You were able to grow all of these, underground? You said you were short on food!"

Not used of the Ignites eating habits, wearing a perplexed look on her face, she answered. "I did and we are. This bucket who could feed four of you, can only barely feed one Guard although they can extract energy enough to last a week without food."

The Gang didn't exactly have the chance to count how many people are here. Basing it only on how many people he saw, Stefan foretold. "Well, your farms must be miles long."

Commander Alia proudly answers. "They are, each farm is a mile long, although not so wide. Except for the fruit farms. They are half a mile long, each."

Woldemir being a farmer himself for quite over a decade, insisted. "You have to give us a tour later."

But before Commander Alia was able to say a word, they were hearing Mogranius doing a... painfully shameful act.

Not shameful as in running around naked, but still. The Geezer doesn't seem to mind that there's no meat.

And has curled around the Food he stole from the bucket, laid 5 meters away from everyone elsea and now he's flirting with his food. "You are a beautiful, juicy food aren't you. Oh yes you are. Oh yes."

After that he proceeded to chuck down as much food as humanly possible, bashing his teeth through an entire Melon... even eating the hard parts.

Now, he's laying on his back with his belly large, mumbling under his breath. "Now that's a meal..."

Commander Alia after witnessing such an animal eat, an urge to ask a question arose. "He has a big appetite, that's for sure. But yet he doesn't seem overweight, I wonder if Akareas put him on a diet."

Under his breath as he raised his finger on the air to grab attention, Mogranius sighed. "Yes. I was not on board with her plan though."

Paying less attention to the disgusting scene his Mentor brought, Eric quizzed. "You know Akareas?"

Shaking her head from left to right, disagreeing, Alia clarified. "No no. personally I did not meet her, but the Guards talk about the great Extinction a lot."

Stefan follows up while chewing down on some wheat bread and boiled potatoes. "The great extinction you say? Are you talking about the Blue Goblins?"

Happy that these Ignites know about such rare to come upon knowledge, her entire face smiled as she repeated. "Yes Yes."

Afterwards dictating. "Like my men and women, the Blue Goblins were Lava Controllers. But unlike my people, they didn't plan to burn everything to the ground."

Eric follows up in disgust but he did not stop eating of course, he's too hungry to be dramatic. "In that case I'm glad they are gone! Less work for me. But how does Akareas connect to this."

A second after they saw Mogranius standing near the edge of the Volcano, looking down at the lava. As if he wanted to look badass, which kinda worked.

But yet again no one saw him stand up and walk his way there. Perhaps he used the invisibility spell because of the Volcano providing little or no smoke?

Slowly but surely, he recited. "It's where Akareas discovered her powers. As a fan of nature she was just happily running across a field, Only sixteen years old. A hole suddenly caused by the Blue Goblins made her slide and tumble all the way down to their underground Town."

Commander Alia decided to add a few words of her own towards this topic. "Indeed, it was a few miles down actually. It is a miracle how she survived, but it's good that she did. Legend has it that she tumbled down a day before the Blue Goblins were about to burn everything to the ground."

Then Mogranius was suddenly a foot apart from Alia, staring directly at her eyes, slowly demanding. "I'm telling the story."

After that he walked his way to the edge of the Volcano again and yammered. "A Blue Goblin who opposed her own kind's plans, rescued Akareas and got her back on her feet. But once the Blue Goblin town Count discovered that his own kind aided a non Blue Goblin, he executed the one who rescued her. Dumped her down on Lava!"

Relating to his past experience, Eric asked. "That's what triggered her powers? right?"

Contradicting, Mogranius cited. "No, it was something else. The Goblin Count was ten foot tall while his troops were five foot each, he saw it fair to duel Akareas one on one. After throwing her a vicious beating, Akareas discovered her powers out of desperation. Without an outburst that is, she started controlling lava. Putting an end to a five thousand people civilization."