“Please. Why are you doing this?”
Simona stared at the woman for a moment.
Fear was a good lure for the monster she hunted.
The noise was not.
It could attract extra attention from other creatures stalking the forest.
A flurry dusted them with fresh powder.
Something screeched in the distance.
“You’re supposed to help—”
“Silence.”
The woman’s mouth worked. Her wet, red-rimmed eyes widened as the veins in her neck bulged.
Simona checked the chains fixing the woman to the pine.
She had just enough to wrap around most of the woman’s torso.
She could’ve chosen a younger tree, but only a venerable grandfather had the stout trunk and entrenched root system to withstand the draugr’s strength.
She had thought about risking it.
This was her 7th trap.
The spirit could only be permanently killed after forcing it to go through multiple flesh suits.
She had done it in the past in as little as 3 to as much as 15.
Timing also mattered for the monster could recover between each killing.
Except it was driven by more than rational thought, seeking a new host as quickly as possible.
An unearthly howl echoed.
The bound woman’s struggles grew desperate.
Accumulated snow rained down from the pine’s boughs.
Simona pulled a spear from her bag of holding and thrust it into the hard ground beneath the nearly knee high powder. Enhanced strength plunged it all the way down to the cross-guard below the spearhead.
A long-handled axe followed.
Both weapons created faint clouds of vapor as the runes covering the steel and wood glowed faintly.
The small village’s runesmith had recharged them for free almost immediately after she had arrived to hunt and slay the monster.
That had saved the old woman’s life.
Only cull the most useless.
That was one of the rules Simona lived by.
She had many but they branched out from one main rule.
Slay monsters.
That was her tree trunk.
Everything else were like the roots that fed water and the leaves on the branches that took in sunlight.
She had watched and listened to dozens of people plead, cry and curse.
It was no different from the squealing of the animals she hunted and butchered for sustenance.
Would the 7th be the last?
There were no more in the village that wouldn’t be missed.
It had been easy to blame the draugr for the 6 deaths since it had killed the same number in the last 2 years if the villagers had been accurate.
However, a few villagers were getting suspicious, pointing to that fact.
6 in 2 years versus 6 in the 2 weeks since she had arrived.
People were slaves to their emotions.
They lacked her cold logic.
7 deaths to prevent many more.
It was basic math.
Left unchecked the draugr would consume them all eventually.
Her way was optimal.
Kill the draugr.
Gain the Quest rewards and leave the village before anyone realized the true cost of their continued safety.
Simona blinked.
A jail cell replaced the cold, white forests of her homelands.
“Thanks, Britt. I’ll take it from here.”
“Sure thing, Mr. Cruces.”
He waited for the one-time flesheater to exit the wing before addressing the monsterslayer.
“I’ve moved the schedule up a few days.”
Simona rose from her bed to move closer to the bars.
In her youth, the platinum blond woman would’ve been at home on magazine covers and ad campaigns back in the old days.
It was a mark of her level that she appeared close to a decade younger than her actual mid 50’s age.
She stared down at him with her arms at her side.
The scars on her face and exposed skin would’ve made her at home on the ad campaigns of the present day.
There was a certain irony when one compared Britt and Simona.
In the pre-spires days both wouldn’t have been likely to end up behind bars.
Britt’s evil deeds came from a single moment when as a teenager she had been forced to partake of the Meat Parade’s blessed sacrament.
Simona’s evil deeds came from the inability to empathize with other people.
Both their classes had pushed them deeper into the mire.
Britt had lost hers after years of work in a mindscape because she didn’t want it.
Simona had yet to approach that point.
Thus, her icy blue eyes looked like they would’ve been at home in a shark.
There was a chance he could’ve changed her.
Alter her personality into someone that could imagine themselves in the shoes of another person.
Would it stick? Or was an individual’s baseline personality set?
He had never tried such a brute force method because if he could fix a sociopathic killer then why didn’t he fix all of them? Why didn’t he fix everyone that could potentially commit evil? Why not make it so no human would even think of doing evil?
“Will that work for you?”
“Yes.”
The agreement was straightforward.
Freedom in exchange for tasks completed.
Holly was the best example.
Simona would be easier to handle since she was only a threat to other people in a narrow set of situations.
She wasn’t the best person for what he had planned, but she was the closest available.
The sneakiest types he had in his jail weren’t controllable through his normal methods and would’ve either tried to flee or go on a murderous rampage. Slashers, shapeshifters, vampires and other inherently predatory classes.
“We’ll go at midnight. So, prepare yourself however is best for you. Though, I’d recommend sleeping after lunch.”
“I’m used to keeping strange hours.”
“Well, it’s been a few months since that. You’ve been sleeping regularly from 10 to 8. So, try to sleep after lunch.”
“You’re in charge.”
He planted a thought in her subconscious.
She was skeptical, but she would try and succeed.
The appointed hour arrived.
Simona’s surface thoughts were filled with nervous excitement.
Freedom after months in a jail cell and strictly regulated environment was sweeter than she had imagined.
She was fresh and eager.
The thought of killing him was only an undercurrent.
Keeping her deprived of all physical sensory input while flying helped suppress that.
He returned her senses after landing on the outskirts of the Washington, D.C. territorial boundary to the north.
“Here.” He handed her the magitech scanner. It was a one-off because Ms. Teacher had been the only one on the world that could cast the spell they needed to detect those ritual circles. “Don’t mess with it. Just keep it on you. Don’t put it in your bag of holding unless absolutely necessary. It won’t sync its information if you do.”
“I got it. I know what I’m supposed to do.”
“Tell me.” He didn’t need her to, but it helped reinforce her focus on the task— Quest, now.
“Go to the first location and walk around until I’m told to go to the next.”
“There will be timed distractions to draw their attention. If a patrol happens to stop you—”
“I’m a monsterslayer looking for contract or freelance work and I like to hunt at night when there’s less chance of collateral damage. I’m here because of the call for combat capable classed.”
“Your name is already on their rolls and there are plenty of adventurer and mercenary types roaming the city so you won’t be out of place.” He didn’t add that he was going to be nudging patrols and any other eye away from her. The only wild card was the demigod, whose helmet blocked his powers. “I’m done. Do you have any questions?”
“No.”
Remaining on the other side of the invisible barrier, he floated Simona to a few blocks away from the first location he wanted tested.
She moved quickly thanks to a Skill.
Another pair of eyes watching from the clouds set off cascading explosions by cooking off the ammunition not so secretly stored in a block of row houses.
The old American government had taken to storing munitions away from the obvious locations, which they had now just learned weren’t so secret after all.
Sirens blared.
Patrols diverted.
Sleeping soldiers woke against their desires.
While watching eyes and listening ears had another place to be, Simona did her job.
The first location was a residential block that was kept empty.
It lay near the northwest tip of what pre-spires weirdos had believed was an inverted pentagram formed by landmarks and monuments in what was either a diabolic symbol or something called sacred geometry.
Truth was that was all garbage.
Ms. Teacher had said that there was nothing magically significant about it and ley line formation happened post-spires.
That wasn’t to say that magic could be expressed through geometric patterns and diabolic pacts because they could. Again, post-spires.
Simona stayed outside the empty homes as instructed. She walked around the block a few times, pretending to be on the trail of some monster before the magitech scanner pinged a negative.
“Move to the next location.”
She didn’t betray his voice in her ears as she proceeded to the next area.
The hours wore on in the same pattern.
As she neared a potential main ritual site something blew up nearby.
The scanner took a few minutes to send back a negative and off she went to the next.
She spent most of her time running to each location.
As promised, he kept people from noticing her presence.
Patrols ignored her.
Guards watching through cameras ignored alerts from motion detectors.
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Trained animals and controlled monsters were made to be just as oblivious as the rest.
“Please tell me to hit the White House,” Eron said through the comms.
“Don’t. It’s better that we don’t test their defenses for now.”
“Monuments?”
“Same.”
That area was the most heavily defended part of the city and he didn’t want to trigger them. It’d be like punching a beehive, making it harder to keep Simona’s presence ignored.
“Stick to the plan.”
Draw soldiers away to the rest of the city to thin the numbers around the White House, the National Mall and the Capitol.
It made sense to place the main ritual in that area.
Not only was it heavily defended, it also contained an underground bunker complex.
Time moved.
The witching hour passed.
Dawn drew closer.
Fires burned while sirens blared.
Enemy comms chatter indicated that they thought that this was it.
The big one.
He didn’t need the ability to scan their thoughts to know that the soldiers were like a guitar string wound too tightly.
He felt a bad for the civilians.
They suffered the same fears.
To them it was the potential end of the world.
Imminent attack by superhuman bogeyman as trumpeted by their news media.
Brown-skinned traitors that wanted to destroy their way of life.
To take their freedoms and raise their children as communists, socialists, atheist and several other things they had been taught to fear and revile.
Years of the noise ramped up in recent months.
Since the beginning of the war the old American government had started… the demigod had started.
“Have you considered a formal challenge?” Eron mused. “That’s probably a thing for them. Thunderdome it. Two men enter, one man leaves. Winner gets the country.”
“Yes, but he won’t accept. That’s what I got from the eidolons. Besides, there’s no reason for them to risk their claim on a one on one fight.”
“Have you considered mind control?”
“No.”
“Just this once.”
“It won’t be just once.”
“I’m coming around on that. Say, just control the politicians. All they’ve ever done was the bidding of whoever gave them the most money or paid for their mom’s house or gave them a house or free resort vacations and private jet flights. You’d be no worse than old timey billionaires. Better actually since you wouldn’t do pedo stuff. Speaking of…”
“I’ve been doing it this whole time. It won’t be forever, but those sorts of people will think of other things to do with their free time.”
“That’s great, but why not make it permanent?”
“We’ve talked about this.”
“Listen, if you don’t want to, then I can make it permanent.”
“No. This isn’t the time for this.”
“Shit!”
He caught it a split-second after his brother.
A sudden build up of familiar energy.
A bright golden pillar of energy erupted from where Simona was.
“I can’t see her. Do I—”
“Fire!”
Simona’s thoughts had vanished the instant the light flared.
He watched as the air scorched from on high.
Solar heat plunged into the divine energy.
Suiteonemiades was a blank mind to him, but there were other minds in the vicinity.
He grabbed them, using their eyes and ears in a vain attempt to locate the demigod while his brother—
The gold vanished as abruptly as it erupted.
He felt the energy in the air.
Traces that dissipated too quickly to track.
“Motherfucker! I didn’t see him. I think I saw or felt one of his portals.”
“What’s it look like on ground level where Simona was last?”
“I can see the subway.”
“What about her?”
“Sorry. She was right where he blasted through the street. Unless he teleported her first. I’ll look and listen for her, but you can do that better than me.”
“Keep looking for both of them. I’m going to use the people.”
He borrowed the senses of over a million people, hopping all over the city.
He found no traces of Simona nor Suiteonemiades.
----------------------------------------
Southern California, Winter 2053
“This is a plan.”
Alin watched his dad’s face in a futile attempt to gauge his dad’s thoughts.
Nope.
A stone cold mask.
Not even the slightest micro expression.
It was deliberate.
He knew his dad could, but didn’t often do it on account of not wanting to trigger the uncanny valley stuff in other people in normal, everyday interactions.
“It is a plan.” His dad repeated himself as he read through said plan at blinding speed, pages and slides almost blurring across the holographic projection above his desk.
The tone didn’t sound good for the prospects of the plan gaining support, let alone approval.
Alin had worked on it since the summer, consulting with as many experts and non-experts as he had access to, which was considerable. He had even spent valuable Universal Points to correspond with Caretaker on the Threnosh World in hopes that their unique predictive algorithm could help refine his plan into something his dad couldn’t reject outright.
“… a plan…”
Alin remained silent, reminding himself to keep emotion out of it.
Nope.
No emotion.
His plan was strictly based on reason and logic. Optimal, if dangerous, but providing the greatest chance of success commensurate with the risks.
“Hmmm… no.”
“Okay. What needs tweaking?” He was ready for this. Tablet in hand for notes and such.
“Objectively? Not a lot. However, also objectively, the entire thing is unnecessary at this point.” His dad scrolled back to the beginning. “Reading once is never sufficient. But, please continue. I know you’ve got arguments.”
“I wouldn’t frame it that way.”
“Arguments aren’t—”
“— necessarily a bad thing.” He nodded.
“You put a lot of work into this.”
He shrugged. “I had time.” Barely any duties more difficult than a couple hours on the walls shooting and using his powers on monsters. He had been kept almost suspiciously as far away from any conflicts involving the old American’s as they used the demigod’s portals to occasionally menace the settlements that continued to refuse a return to the fold. So, it was a lot of easy fights and training. The latter had been a lot harder than the former. However, the growth he had experienced in the weeks after the demigod attack his home and in the months trapped in the Fae Realm had slowed of late.
“You talked to a lot of people.”
“I was completely transparent with my intentions.”
“I know.”
“They… tattled?”
That was unavoidable. In a way he would’ve been disappointed had some of them not reported to his dad. The more eyes on a problem the better the solution.
“That’s… uncharitable.”
“You know what I mean. Not a big deal anyways. It’s better since that means you’ve had more time to think my plan over. Not that you need it. I’m sure you’ve gone over it a hundred times already and torn it to shreds and pieced it back into something better.”
“Maybe not quite that many. But, yeah, you’re right.”
“Well?”
“I’ll get back to you with my thoughts. It’s a bit busy right now for me and since your plan isn’t happening anytime soon or possibly, at all, then there’s no need.”
“To be fair, you could do that in minutes.”
“Technically correct.”
“Which is the best kind.”
“I’ll have to disagree on that.” His dad sighed. “Good plan. I like the effort and thought you put into it. But, I’ve already got people in D.C. looking for the central ritual location.”
“And… how has that been going?”
“You already know that since you’ve been paying close attention and attending all the briefing meetings.”
“That’s what happens when I’ve got a lot of free time.”
“Hmmm… maybe more training? How’s a few hours extra per day in the mindscapes?”
Alin narrowed his eyes. “You said I was already at the maximum safe limit?”
“I did, but things change.”
“Seriously?”
“With power growth comes resiliency.”
“Wait? When did you learn this?”
“A few weeks ago, but I wanted to be sure.”
“Hence the increased check-ups, scans and what not.”
The latter had expanded to encompass such esoteric means as witch magic, which involved him drinking a big mug of cauldron juice and said witches chanting and dancing around him… naked. Kat had been very upset about that because the witches were objectively hot, but he mitigated by keeping his eyes closed the entire time. For some reason that hadn’t mollified her. He had to get his dad to swear to her that, yes, the eyes had been closed every single minute, every single time.
There was also a weekly session in Manila with Ms. Teacher, which was worse because the High had treated it as a lesson for her students. Thus, young men and women, sometimes especially gifted children poked and prodded at him in a magical sense, though sometimes in a literal one, as a scary immortal woman more beautiful than it seemed possible watched.
“I was under the impression that I didn’t have anything to worry about.”
“You don’t. Safeguards are still in place. They haven’t weakened. I’m proud of you taking control of your power!”
Alin had continued to work hard on that. Control was always his number one priority in regard to his gray.
“Please don’t change the subject.”
“I’m hurt,” his dad said flatly. “I’d never use such transparent tactics when I can just say ‘no’, which I already did.”
“C’mon, Dad. Your agents have spent months searching and they’re not any closer to finding the site. That’s all we need to put an end to this stupid war crap. I’m confident that I can find it. They don’t have a Lilah, let alone the right sigils or wards to keep me out of anything. If you authorize me to spend some time in Tokyo and the other sites then I know I can get a feel for the rituals so that I can recognize them easily.”
“That would necessitate me or your uncle and we’re both too busy.”
“Why? There’s no indication that the demigod knows I’m your son. Or that I’m on his radar as anything more than a random fighter. He didn’t even notice the gray when I tried to use it on him. You said that yourself.”
“As far as I can tell from reviewing footage and poking around in everyone’s heads… aside from him, of course. Still not willing to risk it.”
“You can use it as a trap.”
“Yeah, I read that part. You understand why I wouldn’t want to use my son as the piece of cheese.”
“Cheese?”
“They used to put them in mouse traps.”
“Okay… I guess. I’m cool with being the cheese.”
“Well, I’m not and your mom will be upset.”
“Wouldn’t it make things easier? It’s worth the risk to save us all the time, effort and lives.”
“Yeah, I see you’ve put in Caretaker-backed risk percentages for nearly every stage of your plan.”
“I ran it through our primary V.I. a bunch of times.”
“Yeah, I know. There have been complaints about resource hogging and such.”
“I did it at lowest impact times.”
“Many people will be glad that you’re done.”
“Am I?” Alin frowned. “I’ll need to do multiple iterations with those tweaks. I’m going to get this so tight that no one can object.”
“Oh? Someone can always object. Numbers aren’t everything.”
“These aren’t normal science numbers. They’re super science numbers.”
His dad made the noncommittal noise.
A sort of grunt exhale.
It was downright nostalgic.
He remembered hearing it often in his younger days to his more outlandish requests, like for a wyvern pet or a laser sword or a water slide that ran through the entirety of their hotel-casino compound instead of just around the main building.
“What did your mom say?”
He could almost hear the words.
“I’m surprised you didn’t include the magic numbers,” his dad said.
“Too much power involved to get anything but garbled junk.”
He still felt really bad about Robbie’s mini-breakdown.
The rangers’ best young oracle had tried to get a read on the danger levels of his plan’s many stages. The others had tried in smaller, bite-sized chunks, but ended up with migraines for days.
A witch blew up her entire supply of small animal bones. Like, they vaporized utterly when she had tried to do the same.
After that, he had given up on magic and Skills.
“Welcome to the club. Congratulations!”
“No way. It wasn’t about me. It’s obviously cause of the demigod, the strength of his ritual and you and Uncle Eron’s being close to that whole thing.”
He didn’t want it to be because of his metaphysical presence, so to speak, that those attempts had ended up in stunning failures. Power was a double-edged blade. It gave you what you want, but drew attention from other just as, if not more powerful people and other, worse, things.
And that wasn’t what he wanted.
Nope.
Hide in the gray.
That was his thing.
Leave the huge, noticeable acts to his elders.
“You’ll note that percentages of our enemies taking note of me if I sneak, so to speak, aboard of the skyships as they make their rounds.”
“I saw. You mapped it all out. Multiple routes, even. Your plan is very detailed and the research is done well.” His dad made that noise. “Some of your information is out of date though.”
“Which? Where?”
“London is currently unsafe to visit.”
“Since when?”
“Early this morning.”
“Um…”
“Your uncle has already offered to help. It shouldn’t be a huge problem in a few weeks to a month or two. The Levant and Taiwan as well are currently… less safe for nonessential travel.”
“Huh?”
The former had been devoid of human settlements since the early years post-spires. The latter was no better or worse than most places ever since his dad had finally gotten the Phoenix Dynasty to leave it alone. Truth be told, it was less his dad and more the internal challenges the dynasty faced from the world events and the ongoing Stone Lords invasion from beneath the mountains north of Hong Kong. The Stone Lords had started popping out of scattered locations throughout the mountains all over Southern China.
“You can read up on it after this meeting,” his dad said.
“Okay, so, I cross those places of my list.”
The Levant was on the bottom of said list anyways.
He had no desire to set foot in that monster-infested hellhole.
Densest concentration of out of control spawn zones in the world.
Researchers theorized that the level of human on human violence in the immediate aftermath of the spires’ appearance had something to do with that.
“The others are tentatively on board with the plan.”
His dad sighed. “Yeah, I got that much. They’re all deferring to me.”
“Well, you’ll be the main lifeline and emergency extraction method, so to speak.”
“5 years? That’s a long time to be away from home.”
“That’s more toward the max end of the range. You’ll note, that it can be done in less than 2 if one of your agents could get directly involved and bring us in. I think the congresswoman would be ideal for that role.”
“Yes, I see you’ve cover several scenarios to make that insertion seem natural and organic.” His dad frowned. “You’re giving up a lot of your tech advantages. Not just you, but everyone on this hypothetical adventuring band.”
“I suggested a mercenary company was a better cover.”
“Too many people will be in the know. Too many stress points that could break and give you up at any time.”
“That’s where you come in. Obviously, the memory alteration stuff will be completely voluntary. You’ll note that I’ve already got a lot of them to agree to that.”
“You’re counting on a lot of that.”
“That’s okay, right? I mean, I don’t want to put you on the spot, but I think it’s worth it to end this lame war. Innocent people are dying or worse. I mean, not to blame you or anything, but your scans have come up with literal blanks when it comes to the specific location.”
“Boy. That’s the nature of war from the very beginning of human life. When Oog’s cave wanted the berry bush that Uug’s cave owned.”
“Well, there should be enough berries to go around this time. It’s just that the wrong people are in charge. So, let’s fix that before it’s too late. The American’s have one demigod. We both know what they’ll do if more show up. You handled 2, but what if next time there’s 10? Or worse, a ‘god’ becomes impatient and decides to do it themselves?”
“No. For now. I haven’t exhausted my options. Keep refining your plan while I do that. You’ve got plenty of time for that, right?”
“Sure.”
Not an outright refusal.
All in all, Alin was satisfied with the outcome.