Dear Diary,

I think I'm gonna have to prioritize talking to Hades. Yeah, he seems like he's fully behind us, what with his brother beating him nearly to death and literally killing his dog, but right now there's the whole problem of finding where these fuckin' kaiju Titan Jotnar Hybrids are coming from and stopping them.

Yeah, Saffron's right; it seems like the kaiju in each wave are smaller, and these were small enough that our top end Hero types could face them and win. I'm honestly not even sure that Saffron is the second most dangerous individual in the Alliance, and she took one down. Being able to Mimic something's size probably does a hell of a lot towards that, but even so, Marie was making progress against the one she fought, and my two non-partner ladies took out the final one. Honestly most of what I did in those last two fights was defend the Tentacles.

That means that next wave might be things the Tentacles can fight. Things the Black Dragon can execute with the sixteen inch guns, maybe even with enough shots from the five inch DPs. But there were four in this wave. Two in the one before that. One solo in the first wave. I'm a Math teacher now, I can recognize simple numeric patterns, odds on bet that the next wave will have eight kaiju. Which means that for the first time, the Alliance Navy is gonna be outnumbered. We're gonna need to pull in some merchant marine types, or have individual Cities put whatever warships they have on the line, or get more Heroes involved, whether that means aboard ship or in those little coastal watch towers Saffron's been building.

I'm gonna do everything I can, but it's an odds on bet that in the next wave, somebody's gonna wind up dead. So it behooves me to correct the Earthshaker before that happens. If I even can, because I have no idea where Tartarus is, or if I can even get in. But Hades will know both of those things, and so I gotta prioritize talking to him.

So after I brought the girls home, Marie and I fed everybody stew. Don't look at me like that, everybody in the house is still recovering, and stew is easy. Also, we baked a bunch of different kinds of bread to go with the stew, so we had our nice mix of protein, carbs, fats, and veggies, all without too much stress.

Because while I definitely felt better after a night of Worship, and couldn't point to any particular part of my body and say 'this, this hurts now', other than the ongoing ache of my scars, I still felt a little under the weather. While all of us soaked in the Bath after dinner, I asked Saffron about it.

She pondered a bit, then nudged Siobhan, who'd been sort of listening, but mostly vibing with Hailee. "Thoughts, Darling?"

Funny, Siobhan stared deep into Hailee's eyes while she pondered, then said, "is the problem a type of fatigue?"

I opened my mouth to deny it, but stopped myself and took a moment. "Maybe? Kinda, yeah? I don't know that I've ever really pushed myself and not been super injured before."

"It's not like you weren't injured in this battle," Saffron pointed out.

I nodded. "Yeah, but you guys healed me up between the whale and everything else, and all I got after that was the impact with that one kaiju skull." I winced a little in memory, then looked at my hand and flexed it. "Wait, didn't I break this one?"

Siobhan giggled, and Hailee echoed her. "Hairline fractures only. The heat did more damage, really. And we healed the worst of all of it before you went to your Revel."

At that point Saffron, with a squirrelly look on her face, muttered, "ah, I think I may know."

We all looked at her, and I said, "okay, Kitten. Spill."

She sighed. "It's related to my Soul strain. Mimicking even that much of Mimic's size requires Mana far in excess of what I have inherently."

"But you did that at the Battle of the Walls?"

She shrugged. "For a few moments, and I did nothing more strenuous than kick a few holes in their walls. You nearly slept the clock 'round after that, and you terrified most of Newark and New Amsterdam." I frowned, but she added, "it's not your preferred form of Worship, but it still replenished your reserves."

"Yeah, but I got Worship the other night."

She snickered. "Your reserves have gotten far more extensive, love. And I used a fair amount of them in doing what I did."

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I thought about the battle, and remembered the otherwise inexplicable fatigue I'd felt when I jumped to her side. "Oh. Oh, shit, yeah. I mean, I think it was just local, maybe? The tentacles around you seemed kinda drained."

She nodded. "That makes sense. So if you're feeling slightly off, but otherwise well, it might just be that your Mana hasn't had a chance to fully recirculate."

"I thought that shit was nigh instantaneous." The rest of the adults in the bath snickered. "What?"

"Only you, love. Well, not only you. But... You have a very high Mana density."

"Did you just call me dense?"

Marie deadpanned, "Shoe Fits." Everybody went silent for a moment, then broke down laughing, me included.

We floated there in companionable silence for a while, until I glanced over at where Mads and Karen floated, in the Bath with us but a little apart, and asked, "why did you guys use Mana Blades instead of doing what Saffron did?"

The two of them went a little quiet. Then Karen chuckled. "I'm a Hero now, and even I don't have the kind of Mana Capacity the Imperator does. I could maybe do it, maybe not, but..." she went quiet.

Mads broke the silence with, "I don't think I could, and even if I could, it would kill me. It would destroy my Soul to do so."

I tensed up, realizing how much of a risk Saffron had taken, but she felt it and ran her hand along my back. "No, love. I risked injury, certainly, but Karen is right. I am, as you've seen, an Archmage as well as being a Hero and the Imperator; all of those enhance my Mana capacity in one way or another. They strengthen my Soul. As does being your first and central Priestess. Karen has some of those things, which is why she could certainly do as I did, but might not survive."

"I could." Tallulah's blunt statement didn't have any kind of self sacrificial bluster, just simple factual data. "Without harm, in all likelihood, due to my connection to the Global Spell Network."

I nodded. "Okay, yeah. Is there a reason we're not tryna figure out a single best way to kill these fuckers?"

Saffron blinked, then after a brief paused, chuckled and said, "three reasons?"

"Lay 'em out."

"First and foremost, we'd been following your lead. You used a new method each time you engaged."

I hadn't even thought about that. After contemplating a moment, I said, "I think I was tryna be unpredictable. Don't want them figuring out how to counter me, so making them react different." I winced in memory and shook my hand. "Didn't work with mister iron skull. What's up with that, anyhow?"

"I believe that his Jotnar heritage showing through. Some of them are throwbacks to Ymir, whose bones are said to be pure Cold Iron." That bothered me, but I nodded. "The second reason would be, of course, that each of us has different strengths, and we've played to them. That has dovetailed well with our efforts to boost the Navy's morale and show the Alliance military, not to mention the auxiliary forces of each City, that these things can be beaten without Divine intervention."

I rolled my eyes. "You Mimicking Mimic isn't exactly 'no Divine intervention', Kitten."

"Is it not? Did you consciously enable me to do so?"

"No, but..."

"You are not the only Deity in the Alliance, love. Not even the only Deity in our Pantheon, and definitely not the only Deity arrayed on our side of the equation."

I nodded slowly, then said, "we never signed the Pact, but I'm kinda iffy about Deities throwing down where collateral can happen."

"Which is why Clergy, especially High Clergy, might be critical in repelling subsequent waves."

"Oh. Oh, shit. Yeah, I forgot about Clergy."

She just nodded. "Clergy, High Clergy, Heroes, Warriors, Mages, Karls, Jarls, Jotnar, all of those can pitch in. Even if Olga is by far the premier Jotnar combatant in Norfolk, she's far from the only one."

Nodding in return, I said, "yeah, I feel a lot better about our odds if one of those things reaches shore now. But you said three things?"

She sighed. "I did. The 'kaiju' who have arrived are monstrous, but they ought not be." She gave us all a moment to let that sink in, then said, "if it's possible to cure them of Lyssa's madness, to restrain them rather than killing them, we ought do so, don't you think?"

That didn't even bear thinking on. "Yeah. Yeah, that's true. Didn't think you'd be the one to say that, Kitten."

"Whyever not?"

I shrugged. "They're Gods?"

She rocked her head back and forth. "They've claimed no Domain or dominion. They've no Worshippers I know of. They're simply beasts in human form. They might even technically be Monsters, but..." She trailed off, and after a long pause where we all pondered, said, "Baby."

I sighed. "Yeah. Shit." I took a deep breath. "But we still put down Water Panthers when they threaten innocents."

"We did. We will. But I will still see if I cannot find a way to heal or confine them." She nodded, then said, "but until we do, we ought not hold back." She looked around the Bath. "Only we know this about the kaiju, and I expect you to keep this information to us. Until Tabitha or I say otherwise, kill them. The only mercy to show is to do so as quickly and painlessly as possible."

Before I could say anything in response, all the other adults in the room said, "let it be so."

Even Siobhan, though she said it with tears in her eyes.

Dreamt of my ladies relaxing in my Maw, watching reruns on the big screen. Siobhan floated atop Saffron, and Marie and Tallulah clasped her hands. Times like that I'm really glad my ladies have each other then, because all I can do is non-verbal tentacle stuff.

Through the day today, I spent time with my ladies, including returning Mads and Karen to their respective Temples. I visited Olga, where she sat on the waterfront, legs dangling into the harbor, as she oversaw repairs to the Plundering. In the literal 'watching over people' sense, because she wasn't really giving orders, just commenting and watching and resting.

After spending the day recuperating and checking in on the Black Dragon and the other Tentacles, I stepped back to the Academy and held out a hand to Marie. As she took it, I thought, I'm heading to talk with Hades. Let me know if anyone needs me.

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