“Piss off,” I snap, the priest doing his little air pats.
That never works. If anything I get more pissed that someone’s consciously or subconsciously trying to shove my feelings down. Eat my feelings? Really? If I ate my feelings there’d be none left to care about if you live or die!
We’re surrounded by the patrolmen, but they’re actually a lot less belligerent now than when it was just me and the priest. I wonder what he told them. Or is it because the bears are huge? Wonder how they’d act knowing they’re not massive bears but actually even larger rats?
I giggle to myself as I imagine everyone imagining getting swarmed and eaten alive by bear-sized rats that can carry them off like family-sized snacks for consumption on the run. This gives me pause as I wonder about chips, I’ve eaten chip flavored things? Now I want some crunchy goodness. I’ve got ‘tatoes. I can fry them up, but there’s no guarantee that they’ll taste like potato after I fry them in oil. I’ll have to find the right oil, and then what do I do about seasonings? That’s going to be a whole other thing.
“We will try to help, but we require a void key artifact,” Bendy says.
I just saved this bitch’s life, again, and when she gets a full recovery the first thing she says is she’ll help kill me, but she wants a void key? I’m politely letting her fuck herself as she explains that they, -- as in all the bears, -- were told that I’ve probably got a rare item responsible for the massive pocket space, and that if they killed me they could have the whole place to themeselves. The request system? Part of the void. The ability to create and transmute matter? Void. Like I’ve got a mythic level void key that grants all wishes, but the trick is knowing what to wish for and giving the item enough time to recover.
I know that that’s a lie. I know that they know that’s a lie. Red was the one who told me they had enough access to my logs to not fuck me over. What the fuck does she mean she wants “one” of my void keys?
I pace back and forth in a little bubble of miasma, -- apparently the priest is trying to trap my bullshit in a shield --, as I try to figure out what the fuck is going on. This isn’t a betrayal. Bendy and Bertha are straight up trying to rally the guards and priest into attacking me with tales of rare and powerful treasures. Fucking what?!
I’m in my Logs as I hear Red try to explain that, while I was asleep, they’d had numerous communications with people from the outside who weren’t always acting in their best interests. Red points out that I’m not using several void keys connected together to form a greater void, that I’m where the void originates from, and Bertha and Bendy shout them down. They claim Red received special treatment for not mutating, and I have to stop and process this new bullshit.
Some of their mutations are from interacting with poisons, and the fact that Bendy kept fucking around with poisons sounds like they were robbing me out of spite now. Thought they were trying to increase their resistance to prevent any more mutations. So Bendy’s argument for why Red is on “my” side is that Red didn’t rob me and keep fucking with my shit so I’m nicer to them? Sounds legit. Makes sense. How is the counter-argument to why I’m not the void I just have treasure? I’m a void moth bank bug.
When I refocus on the argument Bertha is marching over to me, jaw set, radiating resolve, and I wonder if the priest talked her down until she swings and nearly takes my head off my shoulders.
Pacifist
Achievement 100+
I transfer to my void to just… recover. I’m stunned, my head hurts, but I can still think, -- although I don’t want to, -- and I know that I’m going to have to kill maybe everyone but the priest.
I can’t just kill Bertha, the other three bears won’t like that at all. Even if it is self-defense. If I take out Bendy and Bertha, then Red and Tiny are going to be pissed, resentful, or afraid they’re next. Might as well go out swinging.
Unless they really are cultivators. I go to my Logs, remember I can see outside of my void, then close my Logs to peek out.
The priest is sitting and praying with his head bowed and one hand raised, chanting as Bertha wails on his shield. Bendy is attacking Red, but Red’s not fighting back, arms raised and just tanking the looping punches and claw-first jabs Bendy is raining down on them. My heart breaks a little as a group of guards descend on Tiny who just shakes her head, backing away before they cut her down, stabbing her energetically. Not sure who noticed first, but Bertha drops aggro from the Priest and shifts it to the cluster of patrolmen who had just killed Tiny, ignoring the patrolmen that attack her as she races past.
By the time the large rat gets to Tiny’s attackers she’s in rough shape, Red and Bendy attacking the guards flanking her as she goes in on Tiny’s murderers. When she’s cut down it’s just Red and Bendy against the remaining patrolmen, the priest still off to the side, possibly giving last rites. With his supposed skill he might have thrown up a bubble so they wouldn’t interrupt his prayers for the dead. Dunno what kinda fighter he is, just know the rats are dead and most of the patrolmen are dead or dying.
I slip out of my void, transfering to the road and looking around while checking my head for blood, ichor, or any other signs of damage. By this point the memory of the pain hurts more than my actual head. I watch as the few patrolmen still capable of fighting even marginally gather together, facing off against me, and I’m still no doing shit.
They charge me, I hide behind the priest, and then there’s another Qi pulse, just a wave of energy centered on the priest as it expands outward, travelling who knows how long, -- me if I bother to check my Logs, -- launching the patrolmen backwards where most of them appear to die on impact while those who were better off aren’t any more.
“Karma is the cycle that forces us to release our desire for worldly things,” he says quietly, sucking his teeth and shaking his head. He shakes his sleeves down, head rising as he looks around a bit sad, and probably very disappointed.
“What’s the pulse thing do?” I ask. A quick check of the logs says it’s a repel, but I didn’t go anywhere.
“It’s a pulse of Qi meant to repel all aggressive creatures within my Cultivation Realm,” Spring Cow does another quick prayer.
“What realm are you?” I ask, checking my own information.
[Name: Kisandera “Kissy Kissy” or “Sandy” or “Eclipsed Rainbow”]
[Affiliation(s): Thousand Valleys, Seven Moons, Companion of the Sacred Phoenix Sovereign, Inner Void Productions, Wimble Sunrise, Scarlet Silk Society, The Naturalists, Hunter’s Association, Eager Heart, Red Silk Clan, Red Silk Spider Sect]
[Race: Celestial Void Moth Queen[Shattered] (Saint)] 🦋
[Current Form: Hunan]
[Current Realm: Shimmering(Tier 5)]
[Current Karma: 95,298,452/107,275,977]
[Master: Shimmering Steel]
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[Max Will: 9,579,451]
Rank: SS
[Current Condensed Qi: 1,831,227/23,824,613]
[Current Qi: 1,836,021/957,945,100]
[Mortal Wallet: 12E,692K,180P,697R,179Da,155De,105k]
HP: 9,579,450
[Spirit Wallet: 0Dr,0Ph,0Th,1325Di,126Co,10680St]
When I remember that the colors of the affiliations named indicates their rarity or ranking versus how much they like me I wonder when Eager Heart got a glow up. Think they were a common affiliation. The Naturalists moved up too, though not as much. I haven’t gone up a realm, my Karma hasn’t changed, I can’t get excited about my SS Rank knowing that it’s probably from banking, my Qi capacity is through the fucking roof, and my health is blatantly disrpespectful.
…
I have health?
I shake myself then hold up a hand, begging for patience. From myself? I tell myself to shut-up and focus.
[Name: Kisandera “Kissy Kissy” or “Sandy” or “Eclipsed Rainbow”]
[Affiliation(s): Thousand Valleys, Seven Moons, Companion of the Sacred Phoenix Sovereign, Inner Void Productions, Wimble Sunrise, Scarlet Silk Society, The Naturalists, Hunter’s Association, Eager Heart, Red Silk Clan, Red Silk Spider Sect]
[Race: Celestial Void Moth Queen[Shattered] (Saint)] 🦋
[Current Form: Hunan]
[Current Realm: Shimmering(Tier 5)]
[Current Karma: 95,298,452/107,275,977]
[Master: Shimmering Steel]
[Max Will: 9,579,451]
Rank: SS
[Current Condensed Qi: 1,831,227/23,824,613]
[Current Qi: 1,836,021/957,945,100]
[Mortal Wallet: 12E,692K,180P,697R,179Da,155De,105k]
HP: 9,579,451
[Spirit Wallet: 0Dr,0Ph,0Th,1325Di,126Co,10680St]
Didn’t I just get decked? I’m back up to full health already? How much damage did it do? Part of me wants to ask the priest to hit me, and the rest of me wants to get together and beat the absolute living shit outta that part.
I turn to the priest who is praying quietly, sweat beading on his bald head, and he tenses. I can see his health… As a bar above his head. That’s how I could tell that the others were near death and not stunned.
“Holy shit, I can see health bars,” I say out loud, arms out to the side to help me balance. I think I need to sit down.
I turn in fits and starts, a little one way, then back to where I was, a little the other way, then back to where I was. I’m afraid to pan my vision around to see. I already feel faint, I don’t want to give myself vertigo.
But that hit earlier hurt. I felt it. Am I a low defense tank? How the fuck am I a glass tank? That fucking hurt and I’ve got all this health! Oh, my fucking fuck, why make me able to feel every injury and give me that much health? That’s just cruel…
“Get in the cart,” the priest says forcefully, leaping into the air and landing neatly on the driver’s seat. He drops down to sit, grabbing up the mule’s reins. “We need to get you to the temple before you mutate any further.”
I race to climb into the cart, ducking down and still dizzy despite being almost prone. Pretty sure he just wants me back to the temple before I make myself a target for some more greedy people. I’m a bank, void, treasure producing treasure, and I can see people’s life! True, I don’t auto know defense and abilities, but I bet being able to tell if your punch actually did damage or not goes a long way in confrontations.
When did this start? Like, why didn’t I notice it? What else have I been seeing? No. That’s not fair. I’ve been acting weird, and I know it’s from eating people. Right. Then there was the whole soul suck vs absorb vs eat thing. Never did figure that out, or, if I did, I didn’t fully acknowledge it.
If we’re in such a hurry, why are we taking the slow ass mule cart? I raise my head to look around. Kinda figured the mule was a hidden talent that would race off like a maniac under some urging, but no. We’re still moving at the same leisurely pace.
“Are we more likely to be attacked for moving leisurely or for flying with all due haste,” the priest says, pretending to be casual, but he’s still sweating.
“Oh!” I leap out of the cart, the priest swearing and grabbing for me as I run back the few seconds to bank all the bodies, blood, debris, then straighten up the road. -*Pretty sure leaving all this here will draw more attention to us, not less.*-
“And you didn’t just do it for the ‘loot’?” the priest hiss whispers at me, furious.
I hop back into the back of the cart. He went from scared to angry real quick. Doesn’t seem very enlightened.
“Shut up!”
I lay flat with my feet up on a side panel and try to remember what I was doing. We’ve got a long way to go and I’ve got a lot of catching up to do.
There’s tea, but Spring Cow tensing and glaring at me means no. I don’t know how to tether my tether to an object. Sitting on the cart and setting a tether just has me in mid-air, and I don’t want to imbue and bind my tether to a cart. So no void stuff.
I could do bank sorting, Spring Cow is interested in finding out what all I got, so that’s another no… He sucks his teeth and I think “to myself” that he’s supposed to be investigating the Black Rock and Eager Heart events, not invading my privacy. Nosy!
He snorts and I remember wanting to know how he was responding to the patrolmen. That’s not being nosy, that’s self-preservation! How am I supposed to know he’s an upstanding priest and not just some corrupt random pretending to be a priest to steal me and try to get me to work for him? Wouldn’t be the first time.
So no cleanup, no void maintenance, --. Oh. I sigh when I remember that I was waiting for the bears to make a deal with the priest. My real plan was to get them to decide to settle somewhere else then I’d try to shift their shit out. I was trying to help. I’m tempted to see what all the others have in their burrows while snacking on whatever Bendy had going on, but then remember there’s the whole tether thing.
No bank, no void, so that just leaves Logs, but what to look for first. I flip off the priest while trying to see his thoughts during the last confrontation. Him rattling me means he’s going to have to contain my shed scales and any essence I discharge in annoyance.
I continue through my logs, middle finger still raised, when an arrow pierces through my hand while more fly through where the priest was sitting. I retract my hand to stare at the arrow going through it, because what the fuck? The priest is dodging more arrows and the mule screams.
“Seriously?”
I leap out to do my part, annoyed that the assholes aren’t keeping track of where their arrows are going. When I see they’re targeting the mule, -- that hand shot wasn’t an accident, -- I’m pissed. Mule don’t give a fuck about anyone. They could kill us and the mule would just be annoyed if they don’t set it loose. They’re killing the fucking cart mule? Assholes!