//
and they formed a fast moving swarm of flying rats
Rats with feathery wings. Pretty much omnivorous locusts. In Nineteen-Eighty-Four, by George Orwell, they will attack a baby in the proletarian areas, and strip it to the bone in minutes. This is a swarm. It will attack adults, and they will get everywhere. As said in mentioned book, they will usually attack the eyes first, or burrow into the soft skin on the side of the mouth, below the cheeckbones.//
//By this time most of the Dark Continent will be covered by these invisible barriers.//
One of the acolytes, who had once been in the intelligence section, shouted, "Brothers, that is the Emporer himself!"
Then the attack hit, and he and a few others were not quick enough to put up shields, and were vapourised.
The others had reacted in time and had saved themselves. They sent forth another bombardment of about 50 balls of shade. One of them did not, however, and fired a small dart, too small to cut skin, at Draven, in order to get it to attach itself to the back of Draven's cloak. It was very small, about the size of a grain of rice. It would act as a homing device.
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Quintus flew North a little way, followed by a group of acolytes. They flew into a forest the order had tended for millenia, with a clearing in the centre, and inhabited by many dangerous animals and evil beasts. They landed in the clearing, and stood in a circle around the edge of the clearing. The clearing was 1000 metres wide, and there were about 6000 acolytes standing around the edge, confident in the knowledge that the inhabitants of the forest would not attack them.
They each stuck either their right or left arms out, more often right than left, pointing towards the centre. Spreading out from the centre, the foundations of a circular building were magically laid, then a system of hypercausts and then the floors, on and on, building up the building layer by molecular layer, at super speed, so that it rose in height by a couple of centimetres a second.
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Melkoth stood waiting for a while, pondering about how long this would take, this time. He always did that each time he attempted a take-over, at the beginning.
Let us instil a faint sense of foreboding and fear to add to the effect pf hindered travel and transport, he thought.
Above him, the whole sky began to uniformly (not concentrated over himself) fill with a black smog, turning the clouds from puffs of cotton wool over a blue ink to disturbing dark blotches on grey, decaying, necrotic skin.
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In villages around the world, and in cities too, there was a slow panic as people saw the darkening of the sky, when it still was morning. Some of the more religious among the population of each village started talking of the end of the world, while the more educated were making comments about how, in some ways, it might as well be, since they could guess that some of takeover by cruel masters was about to happen. Typically, the names of such cruel masters escaped them, as their education had been scanty, and a long time ago, so they only had a sense of unease.
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Salazar saw the darkening of the sky, and some thoughts raced through his head. Is this the work of revolutionaries? No, it is too threatening to be a sign of hope and struggle to the proletariat. It is a take-over that is coming. Worrying, but an opportunity.
He glanced South. He knew that beyond the Southern horison were territories of Wahabia, and the continent beyond it. This would be a perfect cover to take it over, especially because of the wave damage they have sustained. Laus was obviously destroyed, so there was no more reason for him to tarry here.
"Fly South, today we take Wahabia."
The mage-soldiers flew South, singing nationalistic and Fascist-style songs as the landscape and sea passed below them.
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The waves were now only twice the size of normal waves, and so would not cause any more damage to the coast.
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Haraldur sat down by the door, after performing a time distortion operation to accelerate time in Laus compared to all other universes, to fit a huge amount of time into a second of another universe, to cut it off from interdimensional time, and said, "There is, somewhere, a universe where I have spent a lot of time. It is a universe that has never had magic of any form, and recently some technology. Let me tell you of some of the events of this planet in this universe, called by its inhabitants: Earth..."
Haraldur explains about the features of the solar system, and shows them images of the geography of Earth. He also shows the evolution of languages, cultures and the movements of peoples. This took a few weeks in Laus, but barely a second for the other universes.
He then starts to explain about the early industrial revolution.
In the meantime, cultivation of the surrounding land has started, and dams have been constructed to obtain electricity. Factories powered by the dams have been built, fully automated, producing many things, from clothes to chocolate. A system of distribution has been introduced, based on the energy consumed in producing any particular item.
Outside the city, five large structures are starting to be contructed. The purpose is not immediately obvious as yet, but they are large enough to contain many thousands of people.
