The human camp that Quaritch had built was now surrounded on all sides by endless piles of Pandora's animal corpses.
Yet, even so, more and more beasts were still swarming toward the camp from the distance, as if they no longer valued their own lives.
These attacks had continued without pause for a full day.
If not for the sheer scale of the mechanical army Josh had traded to Quaritch—its overwhelming firepower, warships, fighters, and weapons of mass destruction scouring the land clean with bombardments—the defenses might already have collapsed.
At the heart of the camp, on a hastily constructed altar, a towering Yaungol stood. Elemental power flowed from his hands, resonating with the crystal set upon the altar.
This was Koruno Shanhoof, the Tauren shaman Josh had sent to aid Quaritch.
At last, the glow faded from Koruno's hands, and he let out a heavy sigh.
"How is it, brother?" asked the staff-wielding druid beside him—another Yaungol, his blood kin, Kairensa Shanhoof.
Their bond was not only of tribe, but of family.
"My findings are the same as yours," Koruno rumbled. "The spirits of this world are furious. Furious at us. They refuse to commune with me at all."
"What a pity," Kairensa said softly, his eyes drifting toward the scarred and blackened land in the distance, where bombing had stripped nature bare. "Never have I felt nature's spirits so vast, so powerful. Yet all of that strength now turns against us. Their hatred is too deep."
As a druid, the devastation before his eyes pained him. Still, he was no blind zealot—he knew friend from foe.
"Then we report it as such," Koruno said, placing a heavy hand on his brother's shoulder before stepping down from the altar.
"Master Koruno, what did you find?" Quaritch stepped forward quickly, waiting at the base of the altar.
"The commander's guess was right," Koruno said solemnly. "This world's nature spirits have awakened into a will of their own. What we see now—the frenzy of Pandora's creatures—is their rejection of us. Of all outsiders carrying the breath of alien worlds. The solution is simple: if we and the Proto Dragons leave this world, the resistance will fade."
"Nature spirits? What are those?" Quaritch frowned.
"In the terms of your science," Koruno explained carefully, "this planet, or rather its entire ecosystem, has developed a self-consciousness. A will."
Though a shaman, Koruno and his brother had long since been traded by Abbendis into Josh's service and joined Ouroboros. Since then, they had learned much of the science of the Marvel universe, and were no strangers to technological concepts.
"What? The planet itself has a will? God almighty…" Quaritch's face darkened with shock. "Grace Augustine's theory was true after all."
Dr. Grace Augustine, the head of the Avatar Program, had once fought to turn against the RDA Corporation alongside Jake. In the escape, she was mortally wounded by Quaritch's gunfire.
When Quaritch returned to Pandora, he had reclaimed the old human camp—and with it, every scrap of Grace's research.
When they moved Grace's research files, one of the researchers had found a log in which she had written down this very theory. But at the time, there was no way to prove it.
To Quaritch and all the former RDA staff, it was nothing more than Grace's wild imagination—a delusion that explained her "betrayal." None of them ever took it seriously.
Now, however, Koruno's words had confirmed it. If any of his own subordinates had made such a claim, Quaritch would have dismissed it outright. But this came from one of the supernatural beings Josh had personally sent—creatures who wielded real magic. Quaritch had already witnessed too many extraordinary things from the two Yaungol. He could not afford disbelief.
"You spoke of this Grace… who was she?" Koruno asked curiously after hearing Quaritch's outburst.
"A scientist who betrayed us. She's dead now. She proposed the same idea as you just did, but we never believed her," Quaritch explained.
"A shame," Koruno muttered with a shrug when he heard Grace was gone.
"So… this 'nature spirit' you speak of—is it the same as the god Mr. Kahn mentioned?" Quaritch pressed.
"In a way, yes. It could indeed be called a god," Koruno nodded.
"Then I'll let you both rest. Once I've spoken with Mr. Kahn, we'll decide our next step," Quaritch said, giving a respectful nod to the Shanhoof brothers.
The two made no protest and left. Communing with a spirit was exhausting—especially one filled with hostility. And as beings tied to nature, the slaughter and destruction outside the perimeter was unbearable for them. Better not to watch.
After seeing them to their quarters, Quaritch returned to his office and re-opened communications with Josh.
"Looks like you have your answer," Josh said at once, reading the look on Quaritch's face.
"Yes, Mr. Kahn. Just as you predicted." Quaritch carefully repeated everything the Shanhoof brothers had concluded. "I've already ordered all the Proto Dragons recalled. Soon, with the help of the two masters, I'll return them to you."
"You're saying… the rejection only extends to the Proto Dragons and the Shanhoof brothers? The dinosaurs weren't affected?" Josh asked instead of answering, his eyes narrowing in thought.
"That's right," Quaritch confirmed with a nod.
That made things interesting.
The dinosaurs were mostly genetic recreations that Yuri had taken from Earth's Cretaceous era. And Earth—at least in Yuri's world—had no planetary will.
The ones rejected were the Proto Dragons and the Shanhoof brothers—both from Azeroth. And Azeroth had a world-soul: Azeroth, the sleeping Titan.
As children of Azeroth, those beings carried its essence within them.
Which meant Pandora's will wasn't rejecting all outsiders—it was rejecting Azeroth.
But why? Was it because of Azeroth herself? Or because Pandora resisted any world-soul like its own?
And if it were Tiamat instead—what would Pandora's will do then?
Josh fell into deep thought.
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PS Goal: 100