I've been doing online research as well as some tinkering and was planning on building a prototype to demonstrate the first ever vacuum balloon, but I'm running into issues with expenses and time. I believe I've identified 2 approaches using well known materials that should work but one in particular that could be pulled off by a garage tinkerer with extra time and money to spare on the project.
Along the way I also started experimenting with creating foams using a technique I've basically invented as far as I can tell. I can't find any literature on it. I've gotten mixed results with it and am just not sure if it will ever work at least without being done properly in a lab setting. The approach has a lot of promise and I'll explain why.
There's a lot to go into on this subject. I've written about vacuum balloons before so if this is a new concept for you, you should give it a read.
I'm human so some of this work could have errors in it, but I have done experiments to test my theory and gotten interesting results. I have measured weight reduction in some of my designs and I have accurately predicted the results in cases where I could measure properly. That gave me a lot of hope to continue on at first but it's just a lot of work and I went way over budget early on. I can't keep pouring money into the project anymore and it hurts to say that because some of the results are so interesting. Also, life gets's busy and I can only tinker for so long.

Shapes

The best shape is a sphere because you need to withstand the atmospheric pressure outside the balloon pushing in at about 14 psi. For the same reasons we build bridges with arches, the sphere is the best shape for this because it will spread the forces out evenly. It becomes a matter of having a material that can withstand the compressive forces and in the case of non-uniformity (which to some degree is always going to be present) shear forces. Of course, the material also needs to be lightweight or it will never lift. Many sources will erroneously tell you no such material exists, but this isn't true. In theory, there are multiple materials that would probably work but the issue starts to become the total size of the balloon (and defects.) You could make it out of glass, but the balloon would have to be incredibly large and would be insanely prone to shattering and that's even if it was made defect free so there's really no point in trying normal glass. This is where choosing your materials is key so that you don't waste your time.
The volume of a sphere is V = 4/3πr^3
To calculate the buoyant force of lift at atmosphere you can simply multiply the volume by 1.29 kg/m3 and that will give you the amount it can lift in kg. Simply multiply by 2.2 for conversion to get the number in pounds. This formula was derived from the formula below.
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The 1.29 kg/m3 is the fluid density of atmosphere and I simply removed the acceleration of gravity to show the force in units of pure weight rather than in Newtons. It's a simple calculation and understanding it is key to helping you design the vacuum balloon.
Now that you understand how to calculate the lifting force of vacuum in a sphere you can run a bunch of numbers and see for yourself that the lifting force is very small below radius 1 and grows exponentially above radius 1. This means it will be exceptionally hard to build a working vacuum balloon below radius 1 but unfortunately there are limitations to building large structures as well. Usually you want a prototype to be simple and cheap, not experimental in and of itself. This means the first demonstrated vacuum balloon will likely be about 2 meters in diameter or about 6 feet. It also means a vacuum balloon of very large proportions would potentially have incredible lifting force.
Now that you understand the relations between size and lifting force all you need to do is calculate the volume of the envelope of the spherical balloon. This is done by simply calculating the volume of a sphere of the size of the envelope and then subtracting that by the volume of the inner void. The difference is the volume of your envelope and you can easily calculate the weight of your envelope by multiplying the density by the volume. If you do this while calculating the lifting force and plug different numbers in you can easily see how the ratio of weight to volume works. You can also see how the density influences this and even can compare the volume of different shapes if you really want to just to see how much better a sphere really is than perhaps a square.
It's very important to point out that one of my biggest lessons in building prototypes is that there can't be any defects. I originally was making hemispheres and trying to join them together before pumping down to vacuum and every time there was a failure it was at the meeting of the two hemispheres. One solid piece seems to be necessary. It's conceivable that two hemispheres can be joined and bonded to become one solid piece free of defects, but I unfortunately did not have the materials to do this. I did do some experiments and found that you can reinforce this area with lightweight bamboo if necessary. However, these were small preliminary designs and I'm not confident that would scale well.
It's worth noting that the next best shape is a cylinder with hemispheres on each end. Basically a tic tac shape. It's only worth attempting this shape if you have reasons to from a manufacturing perspective. For example, I played around with the idea of making a foam sheet and then rolling it into a cylinder before it set rather than attempting to cast a foam hemisphere. It only makes sense if you are attempting a volume too large to pull off as a sphere for practical reasons (like it would't fit in garage or won't caste evenly.) Because it still needs hemispheres it's a design best left for after demonstrating a spherical design.

Materials

I dive into the use of aerogels and xerogels in the article referenced above. The purpose of these foam materials is because when engineered properly they retain a lot of their strength but lose a lot of their weight which actually increases their strength to weight ratio and that's exactly what we need to make this work. There is no material in bulk form worth pursuing for this design. You absolutely have to use a foam material. Even if you could pull it off using glass or beryllium, it's just not practical even for demonstration purposes. During my search I found the most attractive material in the bulk to be polycarbonate. It's still not worth trying in bulk form, so I invented a way to make a foam out of it. Polycarbonate is lighter and stronger than glass. Nobody has ever made an aerogel out of it that I'm aware of. I did not image my foam because I'm not doing this work in a sophisticated lab, but I can say fairly confidently that it's about 75% porosity. That's impressive, but I suspect that a lot of the bonding is weak and there's defects, but in my defense I used an insanely primitive and low tech technique.
There are two well known foams we all have access to that in theory should work. Styrofoam and polyurethane.
I understand that may cause you to sigh in disbelief. After all, polyurethane was invented in the 1930's at IG Farben and styrofoam in the 1940's so they are not only old but very ubiquitous. I should also point out that aerogel was invented in the 1930's and was once mass produced by Monsanto. None of these materials are new.
I used the given compressive and shear strengths published by a local styrofoam manufacturer to identify some common commercial grade foams that are very light weight that should work in theory if there's no defects. I tried working with them to have some custom shapes made, but they unfortunately are limited to 4 feet for one of the dimensions of their die blocks. This is very problematic even if we knew how to fuse two styrofoam hemispheres together. I'm not going to say it's impossible, but it makes pulling it off more challenging. I did do some experiments with small 1 foot diameter styrofoam hemispheres that are commonly available and managed to measure a weight reduction before it imploded. Anybody can replicate these experiments. I expected it to fail because the thickness was less than 1 inch. I found the best design was to nest two of these styrofoam spheres within each other but with the orientations opposing so that the point of failure for the outer sphere was across the strongest points of the inner sphere. This should create a perpendicular crossing of the hemispheres of the inner and outer shells. This is also where I tried some glues. Gorilla glue works best and sure enough it's a polyurethane. I was so impressed by it that I switched over to attempting polyurethane designs for the sphere.
I found a polyurethane foam used in boating that is only 2lb/ft3 which is very impressive. It also boasts a compressive strength of 38 psi. I figure that means half an inch of this stuff would be able to handle 19 psi theoretically. That's 5 psi above the 14 psi we need for our vacuum balloon. It's not a lot of room for error, but it works in theory.
What I like about polyurethane is that you can fairly easily make custom shapes with it and DIY. I experimented with a few different techniques and can say that you need this foam to be open to the air to set properly, but it does take on conformal shapes fairly well. The best method I found to make a hemisphere out of it was to actually blow up a rubber balloon and fit that snug into a styrofoam sheet for support and then pour the polyurethane foam onto it and let it set. You can then use cutting tools to clean up the extra material. This method works, but the cutting is a pain as I did it by hand. Precision will likely be necessary to properly join the two hemispheres and I learned this the hard way when I tried to join them. A more precise way to form the hemispheres I found was to buy plastic hemispheres and coat them in wax (to make removal of the polyurethane easier.) This is far more expensive than the balloon but gives more precise results. You can find people selling these in sizes up to 6 feet but it will get pricey. It's worth mentioning that I had a hard time removing the set polyurethane from the plastic even with a wax coating (which I also verified experimentally is the least sticky thing to use) so I'm not sure it's even the best approach. I've tried reaching out to polyurethane component manufacturers but so far no response. I'm sure outsourcing this would remove a lot of headaches, but also be very expensive for such a custom piece.
Just to highlight why I think this commonly available polyurethane foam is promising I want to calculate a 1 meter radius sphere of one half inch thickness to show that it should work in theory. Of course, this means no defects including the joining of the two hemispheres which is still a problem to solve but it's possible gorilla glue and precision would solve it. Maybe a DIY'er with their own CNC may want to give it a shot.
Using the volume of sphere formula given above we see that the volume of 1 meter radius is 4.187m3. The volume of a sphere of 1 meter minus 1/2 inch is 4.0295 m3. The buoyant lift of that is 11.44 lbs. The difference in volume (to find the volume of the polyurethane used) is .1575 m3 or 5.56 ft3. At a density of 2 lbs/ft3 that gives a weight of 11 lbs of polyurethane. That's less than the 11.44 lbs of lift.
I know what you're probably thinking. How does it hold vacuum? It's true that polyurethane and styrofoam are not expected to hold vacuum (I actually did find experimentally that styrofoam does hold partial vacuum for a few hours after it's shrunk much like the LANL aerogel) but you can simply wrap the sphere in plastic to hold vacuum. I planned on experimenting with dip coatings, but for experimental purposes I came up with a very clever design that I will explain later. Just know that the plastic doesn't have to be very thick to hold vacuum so it's very much within the range of possibility to coat the sphere in a thin plastic layer at less than .44 lbs. Plastic is very dense, but we are talking about literally a few mils of material. This is also why I roll my eyes at people who mock me for attempting a design with materials that don't hold vacuum. You are not limited to materials that hold vacuum for your design when you can simply add a layer for that later.

Experimental Set Up

I initially bought one of those vacuum chambers made out of a large steel pan and thick acrylic. Mechanical pumps are easy to find and relatively cheap. Mine came with the chamber. However, I quickly found it wasn't big enough and attempting to build a larger one looked costly. This is where I got clever and shocked myself with a very cheap set up that actually works. I simply bought regular large sized vacuum bags designed for storing cloths because they have a clever little self sealing mechanism that traps the vacuum. These bags are not meant for actual vacuum with a mechanical pump so I wasn't sure how it would work. I also had to find a way to rig it all up. As funny as it sounds my solution was to take the nozzle of an empty plastic bottle that happened to fit onto the hose and then I cut a piece of EDPM rubber to cover the end meant for the bottle and put a small slit in the center for air to move through. I then pushed this into the self sealing part of the vacuum bag and it actually creates a seal and pumps down! And when you remove the pump it self seals!
I found I sometimes had issues with pumping down properly and solved this by using a metal straw that I placed inside the bag near the seal and directed towards the sphere to act as a channel. Once again, to my surprise this works very well.
So, I then disassembled my original steel pot vacuum chamber and used the parts along with some parts I had to buy online to rig the pressure gauge into the system so that I could verify how much vacuum I was achieving. I'm a bit proud of this DIY set up because it works so well.
In order to properly record your results you must weight the vacuum bag and the metal straw as well as your experimental sphere before vacuuming. Then vacuum it down and pay attention to the gauge. If your design is not very good it may implode before achieving full vacuum. That's okay. You can actually measure a weight reduction without reaching the full vacuum. "Full" vacuum in this case is actually what is known as low vacuum. Low vacuum is all you need for a vacuum balloon to work as you have effectively removed most of the air and it's not necessary to reach medium or high vacuum.
This set up was for spheres of only 1 foot diameter and I don't think there are bags large enough for 6 foot spheres. However, my plan was to use a heat gun to stitch a bunch of the bags together to make it work. It's dirty but once again it should work theoretically. I was also planning on using a heat gun to section off portions of the bag to seal it around the sphere and cut off excess material but that part is really only necessary if you are about to achieve lift. I imagine it's possible once you've proven you can make a structure strong enough and light enough for lift that a better technique would be to incorporate a valve and find a way to dip coat the sphere to seal it. I never got this far.

A Potential New Approach To Foam

I mentioned experimenting with making foams and identifying polycarbonate as good material to turn into a nano foam. I use the term nano foam because aerogel wouldn't be technically correct. They are both nano foams. The aerogel is made using gel. This approach doesn't. It's very low tech and dirty. I theorized I could use the fact that polycarbonate is a thermoplastic to my advantage and mix it as a powder with another material that can withstand it's glass transition temperature but is also easily soluble in water. So, I found some polycarbonate powder (first American apparently to buy it) and mixed it with some ordinary table salt then put it in the oven. I know this sounds ridiculous. Then I washed the sample after it cooled in the sink and dried it with paper towels. Then I soaked it in rubbing alcohol and dried that with paper towels. Then I let it sit overnight to fully evaporate if it's a big sample. Then I weighed it. When I mix the powder in a 1:1 ratio by weight the sample after washing it weights exactly half of when I started without losing any volume. So I washed out all of the salt. But, that's not all. Because this method is basically sintering the particles together, it already had lots of air pockets in it to begin with. I attempted to make a one cubic inch sample to measure the density and it's not the most precise but the density is roughly 4.7 g/in3 which is about a quarter of the density of bulk polycarbonate. This means it's porosity is about 75%. It's not he 90-99.99% of commercial aerogel, but I personally find the initial results surprising. There's a lot of ideas I have to tweak this including playing with the mix ratio, grain size, uniformity of the particles, and aerating the powder. What I find very interesting about this technique in general is that it actually would work with anything that can be sintered including other thermoplastics, ceramics, glasses and metals. This means this approach could be used to make porous metals or even metal nano foams.

The 2009 analysis of the metal sphere UFO

I've recently been made aware of the 1994 spherical UFO that Steve Colbern published a report on in 2009. A few things stand out to me as someone who has been actively working on vacuum balloons and ways to make porous metals. First, it looks like two hemispheres nested inside each other exactly as I describe was my best approach to making a vacuum balloon based off of experimental results. Second, the sphere is presumably hollow. Third, the report clearly states that the sample analyzed was a porous metal with nanostructures present. A hollow porous shell with nested hemispheres of opposing orientation is exactly what I would expect a vacuum balloon to look like. There are ways to use my technique on titanium to make it porous although I haven't done so experimentally because it's melting point is very high. Materials other than salt could be used but even if salt was used it would be interesting because it would vaporize at the glass transition temp of titanium which actually might help make it more porous. I do believe Na and Cl impurities were present in the sample according to the report. Perhaps one could experimentally recreate this sample using this method (minus the isotopes.)

Crowdsourcing

If anybody wants to crowdsource the work on this with me I'm open to it. Also, if people are open to crowdfunding the research I'm open to that as well. Either way, it's up on the internet now. Maybe 10 years from now somebody as crazy as me will pick up where I left off. I might return to this at a later date, but without help I think I need to take a break.

The sunset – all days have a beginning and an end, no matter what happens, no matter what tragedies or celebration might befall those who’re on this earth, this phenomenon would never change, at least not for the millions of years that still lay ahead.
The refugees had stopped for a small rest. Some wanted to eat, to have something to drink, and some needed to relieve themselves. All of that was to be done behind a thick wall of conjured stone. But to even witness it, one would first have to spot the dome of magical darkness; Eve’s camouflage spell hid the reinforced camp from the rest of the world. She, Freia, and Ellen were put in charge of guarding it, while the others…
Keyaruga stood aside, witnessing the extravaganza of brutal wildness clashing against Setsuna, carrying the gilded egg on his back. She battled a monster, a weird and creepy horned freak with the body of a boar, a human-like head (which looked much more like a clay parody of one) and the front legs of a horse. The world’s ambient mana produced many such creatures, much of them were rather normal-looking, but this… Calamity, as it read in the view of the jade eye, looked like a hand-made chimera of some mad sorcerer.
“Ghh! Ha!” Setsuna yelled, mutilating the massive behemoth with her claws of ice. Each blow of hers shred through the monstrosity’s flesh, bleeding white bile out of the monster. She danced around, masterfully avoiding each and every blow the wrathful monster could send at her in an acrobatic flurry of dodges. Each flip she combined with a slash. Blessed by Caladrius, her frozen gauntlets easily pierced the thick skin of the pinkish hairless abomination. In a war of attrition, it stood no chance.
That’s when another of its abilities would be revealed – It could ‘blink’ over small distances, leaving nothing but bluish rifts in its wake. Once it’s activated, there’s nothing you can do – the monster just teleports inside your body, blasting it from the inside with its gargantuan mass.
“No, you don’t!” The hero snarled, shooting the abomination with a beam of light. He wasn’t just standing around, instead monitoring the fight through his new power. The Carved eye, how he called the purple cross, granted by the divine bird, allowed him to see two seconds into the future, and since nothing was set in stone, he could glance at a few variations at the same time. Well, this time everything ended in the same horrific manner for the ice-wolf girl, and so…
“GRROUMNGHUGO-O-O!!!” When the piercing light punched through this aberration of nature, it bellowed an enormously gruesome shriek of rage and pain. It lost focus, allowing Setsuna to get closer to its head. The she-wolf plunged toward the monstrosity and slashed its twisted neck. And she did so in style – it was finally mortally injured when copious amounts of blood spilled from the monster’s insides.
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“You’ve gotten faster, stronger.” The man admitted, looking at his companion, brutally finishing the poor beastie off by sticking her armored hand inside the flesh just to break its neck from the inside. It cracked, and everything was over. “I like what I see, Setsuna.”
“Uh-huh. It’s thanks to my new powers.” The huntress happily replied, getting ready to butcher the revolting carcass. The Hero of Healing just happened to have a spare cart standing not so far from them, in which he’d pull the meat toward the camp.
As for the ice warrior, she now had a level of fifty-nine, while Keyaruga enjoyed a mark of seventy now. An impressive result, seeing as the gray-haired girl could now stand toe-to-toe even with a hero. What was the most impressive, though…
“You’ve seen what happened to Ellen. It took her a whole day to even get used to walking around after the surge of strength Caladrius gave her. You, on the other hand… Let’s just say, I never expected such battle prowess from you, Setsuna.”
“Uh-uh, I’d be dead if not for you.” The wolf girl admitted, shaking her cute head with the ears pressed against it. It was interesting how this cutie preserved that gorgeousness of hers, even while doing something as gruesome as butchering a forest mutant.
“How could you tell?” The red-haired lad asked, placing carved chunks of meat (after a little blood draining and cleansing, of course) on the cart. The thing she killed weighed at least half a ton, so the food would be plentiful for the time being.
“Intuition.” Setsuna revealed, getting rid of the lungs and stinking stomach, just as morbidly twisted, as the rest of the chimera. The huntress masterfully cut the meat from the bones with nothing more than her claws, sharp enough to act like an excellent knife.
“Not really surprising for a genius like you. Your senses and agility are just superb.” The man praised the girl, helping her with his keen reddish saber.
“Uh-huh…” The ice warrior mumbled in reply, focusing on the task at hand, rather than flustering at the compliment. Something wasn’t right. Keyaruga never saw Setsuna this depressed, and it saddened him as well. “Is there something on your mind?”
“Nothing, it’s alright.” She answered without even trying to hide her displeasure or, rather, the girl thought that maintaining her neutral expression would be just enough.
“Well, I don’t believe you.” The healer uttered, masterfully carving the last slices of flesh from the dead abomination. It didn’t look particularly appetizing, but at least its meat wasn’t that different from anything else. “You know, I’m worried about you, Setsuna, and I don’t want you to hide anything from me.”
“What’s the point? You’ve got everything you want now, even a child.” The she-wolf lamented, kneeling above the reddish skeleton of the monstrosity; at least three hundred kilograms of meat now rested in their cart, waiting to get delivered to the camp. And so, she had nothing to do anymore other than to dispel her claws, letting them melt along with the fat, blood, bile, and gruesome viscera.
“The point is…” The lad began, crouching right next to the she-wolf. First thing first, he washed her hands. Water pumped from his palms, which were shining with sorcerous sigils, but magic aside, he simply wanted to offer her a human touch. “…I really care for you. Ellen says it’s my weakness, and I could treat it as such. You know, I could get rid of my empathy, and that would be that. But I don’t want to. I want to feel and sympathize, so now I sense your distress.” Keyaruga deadpanned, still holding the girl’s arms, even if they were as clean and can be, even if there was no sorcery to see and feel anymore. “I want to help you, Nayuta, just like you’ve helped me.”
And as he spoke. The man remained right where he was; ready to stay there as long as he needed, he gently put his palm on the huntress’ shoulder. There was nobody to hear them, and so, he addressed the girl with her true name.
“Keyaruga… I…” It wasn’t easy for her, all those contradictory emotions, loyalty clashing against what her very soul wished for – it metaphorically speaking, tore Setsuna apart from the inside, making her chest severely ache. To do nothing would ensure the status-quo, nothing would change, and there would be nothing to worry about. Yet… “I’m feeling sad, and lonely.” To say these few words, Setsuna needed all of her bravery and might. It was literally harder than facing the dangerous monstrosity and defeating it in a battle.
“What… about Ellen?” The hero asked of the girl, trying to not be too persistent. Everyone had their highs and lows, and now it was the turn of the she-wolf.
“It’s… not the same. I want you. And you’re with Eve.” The huntress admitted what’s been bothering her all this time. The oppressive solitude she felt couldn’t just be healed by pairing her with someone else, and although spending time with the princess had its merits, the ice warrior craved someone different. And yet, she understood how much the black-winged lady needed him right now, but that didn’t make it any easier.
“Setsuna… Listen, you’re precious to me, no matter what. I won’t abandon you.” The healer promised softly. He wasn’t the type to loudly declare his love, but someone who’d support the ones he was close to, no matter what.
“Um…” Setsuna growled, rising back onto her bestial feet. When Keyaruga rose as well, she grabbed his shirt and pulled him for a kiss, a surprise to be sure, but a welcome one. “Then fuck me, right here.” She demanded with a blushing, yet aggressively seductive expression. There was only one thing to do now.
“Bend down.” The lad demanded, unfastening his belt to reveal his penis. It wasn’t erected enough to show its full glory, but a few strokes got the work done, all while Setsuna herself leaned on the nearest tree, wagging her tail and pulling down the white sheet that served her as an underwear. She was jealous of Eve, Ellen stole her exclusive morning duty, feeling abandoned; the huntress had suffered in silence, but not anymore. “We don’t have much time, so no foreplay this time.”
“Uh-huh…” The girl nodded, enticing the man with the majestic sway of her hips. “A-a-ah!” Setsuna gasped, as the lad thrust his manhood into her up to his balls with a single thrust. Keyaruga grasped her fit butt, the rippling muscles underneath the girl’s pale skin were just as enticing as the warm wetness of her narrow vagina – even without any preparation, the huntress could easily take the man’s cock. “Agh! A-ahh!!!” She yelled and moaned, swaying her hips and wagging that tail of hers.
“Ugh…” Keyaruga felt it – the suppressed lust, the passion, the fervor – they burned like raging fire, threatening to scourge everything and everyone. “A-a?!” The hero felt it first – Setsuna, unhappy with how slow he was, pushed him aside, stood up… and jumped onto the lad, bringing him to the ground, pressing against his chest with her hands, recklessly collapsing onto his penis.
“Keyaru…” First of all, the she-wolf was a predator, a dangerous and an aggressive type. Her humanity was always there too, but even that temporarily fell to the onslaught of her bestial urge to mate. “A-a-ah! Keyaru-u!” It wasn’t just a slip of tongue, the girl, jumping on his dick, called upon his true name with a vicious grin on her face.
“He-he-he-heh! I know, Nayuta!” The lad sneered, grabbing his companion’s butt with a juicy slap. “I’m here for you.”
Setsuna had the most loyalty among the man’s companions, and since none of them would betray him anyway, that spoke a lot for her conviction. But such devotion had its cost, and now, lying on the ground and pounding the wolf-girl hard and fast, with a maniacal grin on their faces, Keyaruga was paying this price.
…
Eight days – this was how long it took to reach the walls of Dantoma, and oh boy, was it a pretty ride. The entire day the man marched forward, while looking around to make sure nothing ambushes him, his girls, or their charges, babysitting those thirty-two (thirty-three, apparently, one women got pregnant) people, and four more – Keyaruga wanted nothing more than to end this already.
The heroes are often romanticized, their feats are turned into legends, and their personalities are washed away by the images they make for themselves. The healer got everything a historic figure like him would want: a clear goal, power, money, an entire arsenal of equipment, a harem… The latter was a little problematic, though.
Each morning, he was sucked off by Ellen and Setsuna, every afternoon the she-wolf would take him for a hunt, where they would have some crazy sex, just the two of them, over their fallen prey. It was still fine for the hero while they were dealing were monsters, but one time they butchered an enemy scout and made love while the body was still cooling, and another day they did it, surrounded by the corpses of murderous geese! Yes, these woods were just that dangerous!
After the daily outing, though, it was just more walking and keeping everyone safe. Not bad, not terrible, especially when it came to the evening encampment, when everywhere they stayed turned into a small citadel of enchanted stone. It didn’t save everyone from sleeping on blanketed ground, but at least Freia’s fortifications were safe and sturdy.
Mayala would always bother Keyaruga each time he was around, Ellen experimented with new and dangerous diseases, testing them mostly on herself, just to feed them later to her patron (oh, was she disappointed to find out her power didn’t agonize her, like it did to others), Freia would simply stick around the hero, annoying him just enough to get a rough retaliation each time it was her turn to kneel before him, and Eve… Well, ever since the tragedy at Visou, she mostly spent her time studying magic with the elder princess, and politics with the younger one. And how could all of them reinforce their bond other than with sex? Oh yeah, the five of them had sex, lots and lots of it.
It wasn’t too bad, in all honesty. Even with all the insects and parasites around, Keyaruga had a lot of fun just walking around and witnessing new things. It’s just that he hated being responsible for others, even caring for his girls left a toll on his paranoid mind, and leading an entire commune…
Get used to that, man. If you’re up for a usurpation, that’s what you’ll get soon enough, but ten times worse. Or better. Can’t care for every subject, when they’re millions of them.
“Turna, turna! (Daddy, daddy!) Nanue karu? (What’s that?)” Right as the man was about to sigh and get back to monitoring the vicinity with his jade eye, the girl, riding on his shoulders, cheerfully yelled while pointing across the massive ravine with a raging river on its bottom.
“Karu… (This…) Mayala pora arua musnak. (…is your new home, Mayala)” Keyaruga spoke, standing on the edge of a gully. There was a long bridge, and across it everyone could see a fortress. An impregnable-looking stronghold on the edge of gargantuan cliff that looked nothing like Keyaruga imagined it would. Simply the scale of the ‘settlement’ already betrayed its nature as a great city with at least fifty thousand or so in population, and its great ramparts clearly showed that Dantoma was not like some village amidst the fields, but a regional center of trade, art, craft, and governance.
“Pff, ‘settlement’ my ass! That’s the best bastion I’ve ever seen!” Ellen exclaimed, looking around. She could certainly spot a whole lot of eyes, looking at the black-winged vagabonds. To even approach the gates, they had to pass a massive bridge, full of traders, adventurers, prowlers, and even a circus troupe. All that time they’ve been avoiding major roads, and now they were finally back to civilization.
“They’re watching.” Setsuna pointed out, unmistakably recognizing a few highly-trained sentries among the bystanders. There were quite a few of these: panthers, goats, toads, horse-men, deer, but what’s drawn the huntress attention the most were… “Rabbits.”
“Rabbits, huh? I guess, we’re in the right place, then.” Freia uttered with a smile. While others marveled at the beauty of the stone walls and towers, she already picked a few spells to ruin them for the worst-case scenario.
“Don’t drop your guard.” The healer urged, placing Mayala next to him, so that her mother would take her away. The child complained a bit, but even a single look at the man’s troubled face was enough for her to understand how little he wanted to play with her now. “These aren’t rabbits, they’re hares.” He said cautiously, as if it was supposed to somehow scare the rest.
“Ehm, Keyaruga, what’s even the difference exactly?” Eve asked dumbfounded. The queen-to-be just walked in the front, she was sure that the only reason they were still safe, and nobody claimed a reward or two for a kokuyoku was because of the multiple patrols guarding the peace.
“Rabbits have short ears and rounder bodies, they’re pretty much domesticated, and you can keep them as cattle. Hares… Well, those are bigger, their ears are massive, and they eat everything, from grass and carrion to shit, and even their own kids. Ugh, awful creatures, especially when you try to raise crop, and they just come to munch it all.” The former farmer declared with clear signs of revulsion. It seemed, like only the language barrier spared him the trouble of being called out for his slurs, but knowing the truth about their leader didn’t really help Keyaruga with his bias. He could swear Ellen was giggling at him right now.
“Ushigma denue (who’re you all)? Nezah Dantoma shia kane (what’s your business in Dantoma)?” And it certainly didn’t get any better, when a tired-looking guardsman among the star… hares stopped their little column for a check.
“Shall I?” The hero offered help in handling this to his white-haired companion. Just one touch – and the guardsman would become their docile marionette.
“No. I’ll handle this.” And having said such, the Me-ua kahul stepped forward for negotiations. This would be the first true test of Eve’s charisma and her ability to persuade others. And she…
…
“Alright, I’ll admit, you nailed it.” …succeeded. Not only had she gotten a few houses for their little winged commune, but the whole party now was to meet with the man himself. Very soon they’d meet with Carol, so the hero had only one thing to say. “You’ve really handled it well.”
“I couldn’t have handled it without you, Keyaruga. I’ll never forget what you’ve done for me… for us all.” The lady in red paid tribute to the red-eyed man, placing a faint smile on his face. She sat next to him on the top of the citadel in the center of the city, waiting on a bench before the traitor would be ready to properly meet them, since he was such a busy hare, and all.
“Hey there! We’ve also helped!” The Apostle of Caladrius exclaimed like the small child she looked like. Seeing the all-knowing queen sulk like a maiden amused her so much, the younger princess could bully her for the whole of eternity.
“Don’t disturb their cuddling, Elly.” Fortunately, though, Freia was also there to suppress her sibling’s attitude. After all… “She’s just too precious to do that.” …the sorceress had her own ideas of how to fluster the kokuyoku princess.
“I hear you! Please, shut up!” The white-haired woman snarled at the sisters, but that only made their glee even worse. Better to ignore them completely, it seemed. “I bet you’ll miss Mayala.” So instead of putting up with the princesses, the tanned girl attempted to bother Keyaruga a little.
“Not really. But, I know I’ve known them for two weeks, if something happens to her or her mother here, I’ll raze this whole place to the ground.” The man promised, noticing a slight grin of mockery on the lips of a nearby guardswoman.
“Dantoma is big, and there are many ma-zok here.” Setsuna pointed out. It’s not like she had any doubts in the hero, but even he wouldn’t find it that easy.
“What else did you expect from the heart of the opposition?” Eve mused, addressing the she-wolf.
“To get crushed.” The ice warrior answered in her usual phlegmatic manner.
“Now that you shouldn’t worry about.” Suddenly, a door had opened, and a middle-aged hare-gentleman with a monocle emerged from it to greet the party. It was Carol himself, and he spoke near-perfect Phasian. Everyone got tense, finally meeting the betrayer. Everyone that is, besides Eve and Keyaruga. “Kokuyoku have received four homes, and we’ll build five more for them shortly. As for Hakuo, you can rest assured; his forces cannot breach these walls, however much they try. We’ve got enough troops and resources to drive his marauders out.” The man with an annoyingly-looking short mustache proudly declared, sitting behind his desk. Although his remark was meant to be soothing, it was filled with lies. Even if Dantoma was a powerful fortification, it stood no chance against a full-scale invasion from the sky. Ellen held a smug grin on her face, since there was too little this place could do to counterpose Flare, mounted on a gryphon’s back, and the current Me-ua had an entire tribe of dragon-mounted troops.
“Thank you for having us, Carol-murnaz (Lord Carol).” Eve stood up and said this graciously, yet her words were merely a ceremonial formality. Keyaruga rose as well. First things first, he offered his arm for a handshake, knowing all too well, how uncommon this gesture was here.
“I must thank you for stopping by.” Just as the healer predicted, the hare-man refused his hand, instead placing his palm on his chest while bowing to the two of them. Did he just dismiss the hero completely? Oh, that was good. “Come on, have a seat.” Carol invited the future queen to take the sofa before him, and so she did. “It’s been some time since we’ve last met. You have changed a lot since then, my fair princess.”
“You’re too kind, Carol-murnaz.” Eve responded with just as hypocritical of a smile as her host. This man leaked every bit of info he could to Kinacrith, and so, he couldn’t be trusted. Not this time, not like she did before. “We’ve come here to strike a deal with you.”
“Certainly, your people are already being given an accommodation here, as well as our guarantee of safety.” The long-eared warlord spoke, rhythmically tapping against the table. One-two, one-two, one-two-three. It clearly meant something, since one of the guards just went out.
“No words would be enough to express my gratitude for you and your people.” The queen-to-be said almost unemotionally. How could she show any amiability to a traitor?
“That was nothing. Our alliance with your people still holds on, and I would be ashamed to look at your late mother’s face if I were to reject you now.” Carol responded, making Keyaruga, unwilling to sit down, as he was playing the role of Eve’s knight, ready to strike down everyone who dares to endanger his suzerain.
His awareness came especially in handy when the guardswoman, who sneered at the lad’s ambitions, returned with a plate of two cups of tea. Oh, how the man hated those!
“Please, drink. This will restore your strength.” The hare-man offered, tinkering with his monocular. At first, Keyaruga took a cup, he smelled it – nothing, he tasted it – nothing. Whatever the iuei saraga put in it – it didn’t work on him. But he still had his jade eye – this little present of the star nymph allowed him to spot… the serum of truth. Which was actually just a relaxant, which would merely cloud one’s awareness. Either way, the man simply bit though his lip and drained one drop of his blood, making sure it’d neutralize any effects and restore Eve’s focus, instead of literally popping her head, for example.
“That… is kind of you.” The lady in red spoke, taking a cup from the hero’s hand. It was common for a lady of her scale to have a taster, who’d be the first to spot the venom, and so Carol could say nothing in opposition. He did seem rather troubled, though. “But we’re not here to hide.” And much more so, when the Me-ua kahul was finally read to speak about her goals.
“Please, don’t be so shy. We know about your power, and we know of what happened to the Gramgrim. Caladrius’ grace is with you, I see.” The elder of the ‘rabbits’ tribe (Tarenago had no distinction between those two sub-species) spoke, rather pleased to see he wasn’t called out for poisoning, as the lad just chugged the entire cup in a single gulp.
“W-what? No, how could I-?” Eve played an act of innocent ignorance, and that looked rather convincing coming from her in all honesty. All Keyaruga could do for her was to maintain his apathetic expression.
“You’re wise to keep silent about this power, but no kokuyoku can grow horns without his blessing.” The hare-man said, feeling rather proud of himself for this insight.
“Caladrius is a woman, and I’m carrying her egg.” The hero revealed, pointing at the treasure, strapped to his back.
“And… you are?” Only now Carol properly recognized the lad’s existence as something more than Eve’s henchman.
“Keyaruga. I’m Eve’s knight, and these girls are her courtiers.” The healer introduced himself, simply holding his left hand on top of his saber’s crude handle, really unassuming compared to its reddish blade. “I was the one to battle with Gramgrim. And I won.” The man admitted in a deliberately ambiguous manner. Could a hero defeat the entire brigade all on his own? Definitely, but to come to this conclusion, one must realize who he was dealing with, and judging from the traitor’s disregard, he didn’t.
“That is strange company to keep.” The first of the ‘rabbits’ mused, stretching his arms. A sign of carelessness? Or outright disdain? One could certainly win a one-on-one battle with a southern tribesman, but to slay hundreds? No… “Still, my data suggests otherwise. Caladrius is with you, and you’ve destroyed Gramgrim with her power, Eve-maran.” Carol admitted, unimpressed with Keyaruga’s boasting. He just knew of limitations of a human.
“Ha, alright-alright. I did. I really did.” The future queen played at frustration from being chased into a corner. She even took a sip of the cured tea to imitate distress. “Anyway, now we’re seeking vengeance.” Eve spat through her teeth, slamming the cup against the table. This blow wasn’t strong enough to fracture the porcelain, but clearly mighty enough to sprinkle the liquid around. Was it a farce? Or the true emotion of hers, concerning the tragedy of Visou and Carol’s treachery? One could only guess.
“That is… inspiring.” The hare-man uttered, silently urging a guardsman to bring a towel. He had only two warriors there, a man and a woman, and both were elites, hardly a match for any of the party, but still. “We’re always glad to have you on our side.”
“Thank you for agreeing to give refuge to the black wings. Your help won’t be forgotten.” The healer pronounced, trying to sound regal. Not like he had a lot of success, but that was fine. Carol had to think of him as a muscle-head, playing a knight.
“The pleasure is mine Keyaruga-ugal (Sir Keyaruga). My name is Carol, Carol of the star rabbits.” Only now did this bastard think it was appropriate to properly introduce himself, which the lad couldn’t fail to notice.
“You’re a hare, Carol. Not a rabbit.” The former farmer pointed out with a reserved smile on his face. That was for the scorn he gave him.
“Ha-ha-ha-ha-hah! A good joke, indeed.” The leader of iuel saraga chuckled, yet there was no true amusement in his faked laugh, just a formality.
“Carol-murnaz, how did you know about Caladrius?” Eve wondered, knowing all too well he upheld a double-sided connection to Kinacrith.
“That is easy to answer. Your graceful bird is a legendary god, and when the fiercest battalion of Kinacrith had vanished in Visou, while trying to attack it, I would guess there was only one answer as to how that happened.” The long-eared chieftain replied rather carelessly. For him, this tragedy was but a skirmish on the outskirts of his domain. But for Eve…
“They weren’t ‘trying to attack it’! They razed it, burned it, murdered my people, and even danced on their bones! How dare you tone down this tragedy, Carol?!” Saying this, the white-haired woman felt like she’d lost any semblance of control, that she was being pulled inside a vortex of terrible emotions, that’d lead her to saying something unreasonable for the current situation. “You!..” As she descended into this pit of traumatic reflexes, though, Keyaruga simply put his palm on her shoulder and gave his lover a potion of violet hue – this would calm her nerves. In the meantime…
“I’m sorry; my suzerain’s wounds are still too fresh.” The hero spoke, resisting the urge to pat the lady’s head, as she calmly drank his remedy. Something he and Ellen brewed together for the suffering black-wings. They even resolved the possible addiction issue by combining their expertise. Still, this wasn’t about wonders of alchemy. “Let’s cut the formalities a ‘hare’ short, Carol. Now that Eve’s past that trial, we want to kill Hakuo and raise the new Me-ua to the throne. The Reese dynasty will once again rule over Tenanulic.” The red-eyed man declared, dramatically clenching a fist on his chest. It should’ve been enough to dispel any worries within the long-eared governor, but it didn’t.
“That… seems quite possible indeed, with your current strength.” He still pretended to be involved with the overthrow plot, but small actions, like tapping against the table, or tinkering with his monocle betrayed Carol’s anxiety. “Yet, to so easily overpower the strongest of threats… I do not believe such might can be given out unchecked. There must be a price to pay for that, to be sure.” Oh, that was it! The very thing the man was placed here for. Certainly, his only function was to get any useful info about the true opposition and leak it to Hakuo. This wasn’t an exception.
“Yes, indeed. There are conditions to call upon Caladrius, Carol-murnaz.” Eve, pale and distressed, replied with a slightly gravelly voice. The betrayer never even bothered to apologize for the lack of empathy, and now he wished to know her weaknesses? Fine!
“I knew it. And what are they?” For a moment, the ‘rabbit’s’ excitement got better of him, and that was a serious mistake.
“Why’re you asking?” Keyaruga asked with all due seriousness. This man never even bothered to sooth his lady’s grudge, so he didn’t deserve a respectful tone.
“Oh, Keyaruga-ugal, to strike Kinacrith means to take it whole, or be taken by it. No other option, and when we do, I wish to be ready for what’s to come. Logistics, supply lines, troops – I cannot provide that without knowing the entire picture beforehand.” Although true, this reasoning really smelled more like a quickly made up excuse, rather than a serious argument. Much too ambitions for what’s still to come.
“The moon and stars – Caladrius drains her power from them. The only way to use it is to wait until the stars align properly. That… would be one month later.” The lady in red spoke an obvious lie. She simply needed time, and giving herself three weeks to hone her magic and gather true allies seemed like a good deal to her anyway.
“Norpaga (september)…” Carol mused, now tapping against his own temple. This gave him time, and a lot of uncertainty along with that. The state of ignorance was never what you’d call a power, and so, only one thing could be done about it. “Are there any weaknesses to contrast Caladrius’ strength?” The leader of the iuel saraga wondered assumingly. He seemed to believe that the serum worked, and that would be his downfall.
“Yeah! She’s a bitch!” Ellen exclaimed, raising her arm, like a prudent student, always ready to present an answer without even being asked. It made her look rather childish, but this remark was to be used to the fullest.
“She’s right. Caladrius is fickle, so if she doesn’t answer the call, it can’t be helped.” Eve said with a sad smile. That was truth, and it was worth revealing. In the end, this notion played in their favor anyway.
“And, as if that’s not bad enough, you can only eat one apple to protect yourself from her poison for an entire day.” And if the current deception wasn’t good enough, Keyaruga added one more piece of disinformation there. It was literally the first thing that came to the former holder of an orchard’s mind, and seeing Carol’s eyes widen just enough for his monocle to fall on the floor was worth more than anything to the lad. “Apples are fruits of life, so those who ate it were unharmed. It didn’t save them from me, though.” The hero added, shrugging his shoulders. Right now, he had to gather every last bit of his willpower to not laugh like a madman.
“That’s… fascinating.” The hare-man marveled at the new ‘discovery’. So much so, that he got ready to finish the audience. “Eve-maran, Keyaruga-ugal, it’s getting late, and you deserve some rest. Caryl!” The long-haired traitor yelled, summoning a boy from behind a door. This youngster looked awfully distressed, making the party wonder, just what kind of job this fellow was doing. “This is Caryl, he’ll accompany you to your new mansion.”
“A-ah… Youmela. (Nice to meet you.)” The kid spoke, getting all flustered standing next to four beautiful ladies. So much so, that Keyaruga had to drag him away toward the door, trying to figure out how could one blush so much just by being next to a woman.
“We’ll meet again. Your strength will greatly help us in overthrowing Hakuo.” It was those words, that Eve spoke exiting the office. Indeed, the traitor had a lot of uses, even if the most probable of them was to parade his head as a warning.
I saw it… This was the head that Panakea showed me.
“Rot.” The she-wolf quietly murmured. For that stench is what she smelled coming off of Carol.