I Have just come back from the worst day in my life. I came in front of my peers to tell them the absolute truth and they told me I was a liar. I decided that today is the best day to take out my unopened Virlusiun Wine imported from the demon provinces. What the heck! Take out a few fine cheeses and cured meats as well. These items were meant for celebration, a great reward for a hard day's work. But of course we are probably going to die soon, and I can't really do that much about it.
I hear a knock at my office door. [Come In]
A large rotund man squeezes into my room and says [Ah Willam, have you set up a fine meal for me, ah you wouldn’t have] The man sinks into a chair custom built for his bulk, he comes by often.
[No Breivik this is a meal of celebration, coming out preemptively]
Breivik's cheery face turns to concern, he then states [Ah, well, Willam, there has been no holidays recently? So what exactly are you celebrating?]
I turn my tired face toward Breivik, mostly to check if he is actually serious. He's the type who would know about this type of thing before me. I guess I'm lucky in a way.
[No Breivik this is a celebration of failure]
Breivik mutters under his breath. “Failure? It's not The Meeting is it. It really better not be The Meeting.” No cheer emanates from the man now, and probably not anytime soon. I let him stew in his thoughts well. I poured him a glass of wine. Building tension when handing out gossip is always interesting no matter if I'm the main subject.
[Yes Breivik it was the meeting]
Breivik first had a look of pure shock, then absolute horror, a somewhat funny reaction coming from the man. Breivik is a Crimelord, not only a Crimelord, the biggest one in the conglomerate! This man who has probably killed millions of souls to get into the position he is in, and that man is afraid! Oh who am I kidding, I am William the Hero and my back is spined like a coward. In these types of situations we simply need to tough it out. I tell myself that.
Breivik brings up a point [Do you have any other plans or did you just think telling the Conglomerate would work?]
I admit [I'll probably start fighting, I mean what else is there to do? It's not like I can just get up and walk to a different world now can i?]
Breivik mentions [i don’t know much about different world nonsenses, but the god of knowledge probably has something]
Really? [Dimensional magic? That sort of stuff sounds a tad bit shady, and really I don't want to get in trouble with the church.]
Breivik looks at me like I'm an idiot [The church doesn't exist in other planes. Although maybe not our church, quite a bit of nonsense.]
Well, I get up and chug the rest of my wine, no waste, we need to start doing something at least.
As I'm getting up, someone nockes frantically on my door. [Come In, i guess i'm getting 2 visitors today]
A messenger comes into the room and quickly puts some paperwork onto my desk, ah well i guess i can’t get up just yet. I slink back into my chair a tad bit sluggish as the alcohol slowly kicks in. I start to look over the papers “ah well, it looks like there's some more on our plate”
Brevrik looks intrigued “what exactly is important enough to “add” more to our plate”
I tell him exactly [The Fortress City Albon has fallen, and the demons are currently regrouping. Forming a staging point to cut into Vircuis]
Brevrik has a strange look on his face before cautiously going [Ahh, i don’t want to be too personal, but don’t you have family in Albon?]
Ah yes. [Another monster like myself? A selfish fool, takes what he has and lets it rot. Don’t think too hard about it. I have cut off such things a long time ago]
[So there is another monster like you out there? Why don’t we grab em and force the fool to fight for a proper cause?]
I do genuinely think about it for a moment. My brother Ken, if properly trained and introduced to proper understanding, would probably be quite an asset. But [The demons probably got him, if albon has fallen, he is probably some fresh undead corpse rambling out there. The man won’t fight for good causes anyway. Even when he was alive the man wasn't the type.]
Brevrik looks surprised [What a difference! If true, blood breeds blood, but I guess that saying failed in this respect.]
I look at Brevrik questioningly, should I be offended by that? Ahh, well let's move on, [well since we have information about the situation we can come up with something.]
Brevrik looks depressingly snide [Ah you know, that Albon has fallen, the linchpin of the bureaucrats upstairs. Vircuis is by no means in a situation to deal with a modern army. If I may ask? why did we never modernize them?]
Well straight to the point are we [Vircuis’s modernisation is a bit difficult, but something i was trying to lobby for quite a bit. The Dwarfs are to blame, they thought that it would be a waste of industry!? As soon as we Modernize Vircuis, industry would be far too “forward”, meaning that we would have to Modernize them again. Although I think that's an excuse, I believe they simply don’t want to do it to an economy primarily reliant on guilds and rife with interfering nobles. No matter what grand strategic sense the actual maneuver would be].
Brevrik has a skeptical look to him [I have worked with dwarfs, so I somewhat understand their religion. Usually this sort of talk means that it won’t expand “their” industry. They are quite selfish in that sort of way. Although usually they have good reasons for not accepting such offers. They thoroughly calculate such things.]
I know [They brought up their calculations during the meetings. Really if those calculations accounted for the current severity of this demon invasion, I would be very annoyed.]
Brevrik has a kind of pitying look to him [Well.. they probably did. If leymen like us can figure that out. Why wouldn't the highly skilled dwarfs in their Calitorium get it.]
Well [Most of the counsel didn’t show any inkling of care about such a thing when I brought it up. The dwarfs have decent excuses, which I guess shows they at least somewhat understand the situation. The elfs? pompous asses only concerned with their world tree projects. The Empire? Unconcerned as the demon invasion is in their “colonies”. Most of the various immortals of the counsel didn’t even show up in the last meeting?! Among the few immortals who showed up. The only ones who care are people living in the border regions.]
Brevrik brings up [You know what, lets calm down a bit eh? Let's move to the Map Hall. I haven’t seen that idiot Bendan in a while as he locks himself up in there. And Really, if we are going to find a solution to all of this. We will need our strategist, and a big map will make things easier in general.]
Honestly, good idea, [But we need to eat our cheeses first]
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Brevrik looks at his gut [sigh, well let's at least hurry]
-
With papers in hand I stand in the doorway to the map hall. Brevrik right behind me trying to be cordial in his movements. I hear a snoring sound, probably Bendan, he works hard the bugger and sometimes i feel bad for him. I give a signal to Brevrik and he shifts his muscles around to fit a more agile frame. He silently stalks troward Bendan, or at least that's how it would be. He is making a sound which is strange for him. He may have packed too much weight. The immortal does not stir, and Brevrik is able to hit him straight in the belly. He yelps with a bit of pain and immediately flops to the floor banging around and gasping for air. After recovering he gets up and sets himself to attention. [High General Willam, to what i owe the pleasure]
I am frank [The Demons have breached Albon, and it seems no-one has a solution to it. may i ask if you do?]
General Bendan Fei Yu stands to attention and in respect he answers [I have High General, well you were playing with politics i was making strategy. The Crag may be a good place to retreat to or we could even just reinforce the nation states Basilisk and The Windy Hills. Vircuis is a good buffer; their honorbound nature will allow them to fight to the last. giving us at least some time. I am worried however about if their lack of industry will hamper that aspect of them.]
So we are just going to throw them to the wolves? [Bendan? Is there any way to save Vircuis and its people? Or is that truely a lost cause?]
I can tell that Bendan started sweating, it seems there is no real way. I guess we just have to live with it? A sacrifice like that for our future.. It's something we need to stop, but I have been trying to stop it for a while now. The political arena is something I don't want to understand, I just want to stab something.
Brevrik speaks up [You know William, I have been telling you this for a while now. You need to accept these things, if you live life without such troubles, you won’t “have” issues like this. Accept what I do, I have killed a lot of people it's not that bad?]
Fei Yu notes [Brevrik, you must understand that's not the best thing to say]
It's Fine [He is within limits, he is true in a sense, although maybe not in the right place. You are right, Bendan, I have been playing politics for too long. I need to help people up front, I can't trust to make the system do it.]
Fei Yu is a tad bit frantic [Hold your horses High General, we need you to do one last thing. The dwarfs requested that you meet with them about a “plan” they had in the works.]
Ok, [Why would I ever accept a plan made by those short bastards? They kick me in the shins and want me to aid in their “plans”!? Really explain to me why it's needed.]
Fei Yu tries to be careful [The dwarfs are your only access to the modern military. You “need” them, and you will just slow down whatever they are doing by not cooperating. I am not sure why you got in their bad graces, but that's unimportant. This is not a request from the dwarfs, it's a demand.]
So they are demanding what? I guess I can go over and shut down whatever they are doing manually. [I’ll go]
I get up to leave, I don't want to be a part of this farce any longer than needed. I say all I need to say [Breverik discuss how we should mobilize our forces, when I get back I'll write a letter to the adventures guild. Prepare a good bounty for those greedy fellows.]
-
I step out of the teleportation network into a web of poorly lit tunnels. No reception and nowhere to go? A few of the locals even looked at me like I'm a weird animal, typical. Well I guess I can just choose a branch of the dwarven power-structure and when they aren't the people who requested me. I can sow a bit of confusion in the dwarfs' annoying little plans. Of course, navigating the dwarven capital is really really annoying. The dwarfs inherently have some sort of sound based navigation and lowlight eyes that allow them to thrive in the caves. They also have 3 forms and versions depending on how deep you are into the earth. As pressure increases they just get uglier. So if a headquarters is located in the lower depths I may have a bit of an issue moving. And I also need air, the mix of the deep dwarven atmospheres are not breathable by humans. I can just use magic for that but it’s annoying that I have to. So which ones are the nearest? Remembering correctly I think there is a government hall nearby. The dwarven government would love it if this was a plan of some House, But if it's a plan of the Church, they will just let it be. It's annoying that most people don’t understand the power-structure of the dwarfs; they just like to call it “dwarfs” instead of any of the dwarven factions. Then I wouldn't have to go through this sharad, they would just tell me a dwarf to go berate and then I would be done with it.
Wandering in the approximate direction of the Government hall I feel a hostile presence. I go into a more quiet location to figure out if they are my reception. I pretend to walk like I don't even know they are there, and just conveniently found a shortcut. The dwarfs are loud, I can hear them a mile away. They are tring to be stealthy but its utter incompetence. I let them get close to see what they would do, I can sense they are hostile so how are they going to “subdue” an immortal. They sneak up behind me and try to smother me with a cloth. The cloth had a really interesting poison on it. It was magical in nature, and actively tried to slow down and stop my body. Honestly I'm impressed, I take the poison out of my system and throw it at the dwarf who is trying to smother me. As the poison hit the dwarf, he almost instantaneously started to jitter uncontrollably before slowly rotting then turning into dust. Not necessarily something I thought I would see today, but I do notice that the gloves he was wearing were not affected. After sweeping the dust around which made all the other dwarfs instantly step back a few paces. The Pouch the poison was stored in became revealed. It's a sort of dust, well I know a good way of figuring this type of thing out. Pointing out [You there, dwarf, can you by chance tell me what poison is this?]
The dwarf looks very shocked, and shakily says [ y-y-y-yes mr william, it is a poison called, s-s-s-singularity dust. It stuns immortals making it s-s-so we could, transfer y-y-y-you to your meeting]
Well I guess it's time to go to a meeting. No more fun and no more harassing dwarfs, I feel sorry for the unfortunate soul that I have killed. Really my anger should be targeted toward the high brass of the dwarfs and not their pawns. I may have been too rushed in this instance not showing the maturity of my age and position. [Bring me to the meeting, we should get this done with]
Although my pride may not let me admit that openly.
-
I stand before the 3 most powerful people in the dwarf empire, the 3 High Inquisitors. HI-01, HI-02, and HI-03, the dwarfs love to get rid of the emotion and meaning behind a name. HI-01 a fat old dwarf with a spider-like mechanical frame. Starts the discussion in a slow droning voice [Hero William, we have.. “Cough” “ARRACH”]
The dwarf starts a coughing fit and HI-02 similarly old, but filled with battescars and war-augments, he has been scowling this entire time. [Willam, we have a plan to deal with the demon invasion, it will take time, yes? But even your pathetic nature will allow you to be a tool for industry on this occasion. Progress will be made no matter the sacrifices.]
“Sigh” well [no matter the sacrifices, eh]
HI-02 looks offended, HI-01 Finishes his coughing fit and resumes what he was trying to say [We have.. A technology… Lost to the ages… Estimated Potential, over 95% Success rate.. Small problem. Forbidden, but solved recently. Technology can now be implemented. Without problems, Another Problem. Too forbidden, Technology burned from archive. Need time to reassess. Reverse engineer. Time you will give us.]
The old dwarf looks almost out of breath, HI-03 a dwarf with cold mechanical eyes, speaks up [HI-01 you don’t need to overexert yourself. This technology is a weapon, a weapon we are not necessarily sure about what it does. All we know is that this weapon was sealed for a reason, the history states it was an absolute mistake. But vague in accordance with the sealing laws. But we can discern that it's destructive. Destructive enough to destroy the unprecedented organized demon invasion? Hopefully, you can make a deep enough dent that they will be tired before we bring out the weapon.]
Tired? [I know that this invasion is bad, but do you know the specifics?]
HI-02 yells [YES WE KNOW THE DAM SPECIFICS, WE ARE THE DWARFS! “Our” “Diviners” “state” “THEY” “will” “Push” “to” “the” “Empire's” “capital”]
HI-03 stops the rant [It's Very Bad Sir William, From this point forward we of the church are willing to give our full support. The houses are preparing to defend the homeland when “they” come. And the State is shipping resources to build the weapon in the empire. We need some fragments located in the Vault of Albon. The city of traitors apparently had some un-sealed information on the technology. You, as the strongest Immortal of the current era, are the best candidate for retrieving such information.]
It's at least nice they are trying to flatter me but [I will try to protect and save as many people as possible. But how much do you think those papers will affect your research?]
HI-02 responds [it won’t affect much, but the information in those papers may reveal the actual use of the weapon. We know it's some sort of wide-scale grand ritual, those types of things require a lot of strategy if they don’t have range. The damn thing may only protect the empire without such pieces of information. It supports industry, but I dislike the idea of placing it somewhere where it can’t protect my home. You will do this, if not in the name of the dwarfs, in the name of The Conglomerate. The Conglomerate doesn’t have a purpose if The Empire is the only thing left. And the New Continent is going to be left for death at this rate. Willam, I need my Home, And I need my County, many dwarven lives are at stake here.]
Even the Fundimentalist is pleading for their life. Really? What is the world coming to?