Trent had dreaded this communication.
The Mystic had managed to avoid it by spending the last week looking for Tophua, but now that he was heading out, he didn’t have any good reason to put it off any more.
The white-haired, green-eyed God appeared in the middle of his tent.
“Brother.” Iver looked down at the seated man.
“You only call me that when you want something.” Trent folded his arms, “I know about Gues making moves towards your city. I’ve already talked to Mavery and Tres, but you’re in a different Ward. There’s only so much they can do without it becoming a global event and you know what happens if it gets taken to that level.”
“Thanks for your concern, and I need to talk to you about that later, but the reason for my call is something else.” The image of Iver took a seat across from his half-brother.
There were over fifty years between them and they had different fathers, but both had inherited so many of their mother’s features that at this age, they could pass as full siblings.
Trent swallowed, “It’s really bad then.”
Iver opened a screen between them. It was a map of the world and there were circles around a dozen Desolations.
“My city sends a lot of raw materials all over the world.” Iver began pointing to some of his major trade partners. “I have contacts in a lot of families and they are all telling me stories that are almost the exact same.” His eyes narrowed, “I understand there was almost a dungeon break at Wurn that you helped stop?”
Trent had no idea how that information had gotten out, but it was just a matter of time. There were too many people who’d died. Too many families that were going to have to be investigated. Too many Adventurers who’d seen too much.
“The potential dungeon break on the sixtieth floor was a diversion so that a cultist could summon the Wurn Mantle from the sixty-ninth floor and bond with it.” There was no point in hiding the information from his ally. He’d figure it out eventually anyway.
Iver stroked his short white beard. “I’m hearing similar things about the resurrection of Thalda. Her fanatics are picketing the dungeons here and in every other city in the Ward.”
“Have you found any dungeon seeds?” Trent cut into his brother’s report.
“Dungeon seeds?”
“About this big.” Trent held his hands open, “About the size of a melon. Except it's a melon with stringy black hair and purple ooze.” He took a deep breath, “And they can cause dungeon splits, upgrades, or fusions. It’s also how the Cultists were able to force a portal to summon the mantle.”
“I haven’t heard anything about any of that yet. All I knew about it was that there was a Noble that was able to open a portal to the Mantle floor, but I’ll ask around.” Iver shook his head, “If the Nobility are trying to summon Mantles of the Gods, why aren’t the Primus showing up?”
“They may not be as informed as we thought.” Trent shrugged, “I know most of the Adventurers here really well, I doubt any of them are secretly a Divine class.”
“Then maybe this is a good thing.” Iver shuffled some papers around, “Maybe they won’t be looking at you so hard.”
“I can only hope.” Trent tried to smile. It wasn’t a great feeling knowing that there was a secret organization of Gods with their eye always on him.
“Anyway, the reason I have been trying to call is to let you know that based on how the Cultists are starting to ramp up, it appears like what happened at Wurn may have been a test run. And once whoever is behind this figures out how to control it better…”
Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.
Iver started putting Xs on all of the towns with Dungeons that didn’t have Gods. There were over a hundred Godless towns in the world. The Cathedral Ward by itself had eight. And only one of those was a Desolation. If the Cultists started opening portals to the lower floors where the Mantles were and leaving the portals open. A lot of people were going to die.
“I doubt this is enough to get Gues off of me completely, but it has gotten at least Slece to back down.” Iver swallowed, “If nothing else, it’s bought me some breathing room, but Trent…” His brother paused, “A war is coming.”
A week ago, Trent had thought the same thing. In fact, he’d been trying to rally a resistance against the war he thought was brewing. But this. This was strong enough to get all the Gods' attention.
“What do you need from me?” This wasn’t just a social call. Trent knew his brother too well.
“I need more allies and…” Iver sighed, “I’m not popular. I know that. You are. I want you to use your contacts to get some of the Gods together. The Adventurer Games are in the Shrine Ward this year. If we can ride this out for that long. I want you to help me sell them on the idea of taking all the Mantles off the table.”
That was going to be a big ask. Sure, there were a lot of Gods walking around who didn’t have a city, but to actively have all of the towns, outposts and Desolations assigned? It would be chaos trying to stop the level of infighting that would unleash. Trent wasn’t sure that such an outcome would be better for the people, but he knew it would be better for his brother. Because if there were over a hundred new cities, then Iver’s enemies would be looking at the weaker Gods to absorb instead of having a whole city to conquer.
“I’ll think about it.” Trent shook his head, “But even if I say yes, you know how big of an ask this will be.”
Iver nodded, “I know, but at least with Gods, we know what we’re dealing with.”
Trent wasn’t so sure about that statement. But something needed to be done before the Cultists moved to populated areas.
“Was that all?” Trent also needed to talk to his contacts in Atray and Haux. If Slece really was backing down, then continuing with a Mundane evacuation wasn’t necessary.
Iver nodded. “Let me know if you need any resources. I’m willing to put up a lot to get this done.”
There was a pause and Trent could tell his brother had something else on his mind.
“There’s something else, isn’t there?”
Iver looked very uncomfortable. “You’re going to Klix on this little tour thing of yours.”
Trent just nodded. His ‘grand tour’ was all over the news with people wanting to talk to his son. He needed the fanfare to die down, and hoped that once he finished this publicity stunt, the Nobles would be satisfied and leave him and Atlas in peace.
“I owe Klix a favor.” His brother was starting to look sick. “A very BIG favor. And she’s calling it in. She wants to have a face to face talk with you and your son…” There was a little contempt in the God’s voice as he said the word. “When you go there.”
“You want me to pay your favor?” It was typical of his brother. When Trent was younger, at least he’d been paid for the favors, but now, he could probably earn more in the Dungeon than the time it would take him to do whatever task Klix had in mind for him.
“It’s urgent and…” His brother paused. “Not something that can be talked about even on a secure line. But I promise you, if you’ll hear her out, you won’t regret it.”
Trent sighed, but he had a problem that his brother could fix while he was with his class. “Fine, but I’m going to need something in return.”
Iver smiled. “I’m sure that it will be easy enough…”
“A set of Tier Seven gear.” Trent smiled at how quickly his brother was silenced.
“Why do you..?”
“I’m Tier Seven now and I have a feeling that if I’m seen working with you, the Primus are going to come for me. I’d like to be as ready as I can, but I don’t have the time at the moment to farm level seventy gear. And it’s not something that you can buy on the open market.” Trent folded his arms, “You want my help and that’s my price.” He leaned forward. “For the thing with Klix.” He wanted to specify that the price for setting up meetings with the other Gods was still open.
“That’s…” Iver sighed. “I have some old gear that you can have. I was going to use it to get my current gear enhanced, but I suppose it would serve you better.” He rubbed his eyes, “I’ll send it to Klix and she can give it to you when you get there.”
Trent nodded. He would have preferred to get the gear up front, but Iver didn’t do business that way.
“I’ll talk to you again after you meet with her.” Iver waved his hand over the screen, reaching for the button to end the communication. “I’ve got to go and start collecting your things.”
Trent sat alone in his tent after his brother ended the communication. This wasn’t how he thought things were going to go. He was going to have to look into it more, but there was one thing that he knew for sure.
A global war was coming.