What can a group of 100 souls, who were once prisoners and puppets of Madness, rejected by Mistress Death, feared and abhorred in the history of Escana, could even do? What can the 500 succubi accompanying those souls do?
If someone was to ask me those two funny questions, I could only flash a wry smile, “You address these questions to the wrong person.”
And if that person would ask, “Who is the correct person to ask these questions?”
I would wait for the night to come. I would point my finger up at the night sky, where the black moon hangs, where the red moon has already disappeared forever, and where the Sun, the Great Throne of Naharis had sunk.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
The people in attendance were more than just my General Staff. There were also my stupid people of dreamland and Lust’s succubi. Back then, when I formed my General Staff, I asked them to lend me their strength and their rest, we stood at this square. Now, when I am about sending them to the real world, we stood on the same square. But this time, my DDWD stood out in four small rectangles separated from the rest of the General Staffs.
“Here we stand, my dearest.”
Sensing the nostalgia in the air, I addressed my DDWD, my war machine, repeating to them the very words that I had kept telling them every day. Why I must address to them one last time over something that they had already known. Why I must send them out early. Why I had chosen and trained them differently from the rest of the General Staff. Why their roles, tasks and missions are the hardest.
People, regardless of their races, are complex beings that need purposes in order to live, to fight and to die for. People long to know their purpose in the grand scheme of life. People need to understand their role and purpose in the murky chaos of the world. But people can often forget their purpose in the cruel passage of time and the relentless beating of life. Therefore, I simply spelled and repeated my purpose to my staffers, similar to how the high elves of Escana often speak and address themselves in third person. The high elves treasure their names as if they treasure their own life. They speak their name in third person in order to never forget their name. Thus, they could live for the length of three millennia and still remember their name. Similarly, in order to win against the toxic timelessness of my own conjured Divine Dream, I repeated myself like a true idiot.
Whether it is on Earth or Escana, words gain power when they are repeated over and over again with purpose.
Of course, none of the staffer of my DDWD is dull enough that I have to keep drilling my words into their head. After all, they are among my most expensive capital. They are the luxury items of the world. Each of them is on the same level as those First rank strategist and tactician characters living on Escana at the moment, if not better. Despite undergoing their specialized training to fight on Divine Dream front by Lust and me, the staffers of the DDWD were well-rounded enough to operate as an independent warlord on Escana with the right setup, similarly to the other members of the General Staff.
In RTDS, Craxus, the Dragon Slayer became a master of arms within a single Divine Dream, blessed and trained in the eon of time by both Wonten and Sinintee. While I could not bless my DDWD with miracles and train them to be superhuman like Wonten and Sinintee, I can share my knowledge with them and give them an unlimited amount of time to train themselves.
My staffers, they were trained and educated with me by the best of our own specialists on various fields.
Together, we learned to speak, read and write various languages to a near native level. We studied naval warfare from Sasengun and other sea masters. We learned to read the sky from Isonos. We learned the dark art of briberies, crusade and black ops from Ember and various spy masters from our own ranks. We knew how to make a land cursed and blight for centuries to come from Lynx and his alchemy clubs. We studied and exchanged the knowledge of culture and warfare among our ranks.
These staffers of mine, they were the most well-rounded and sagacious people to ever appear on the ground of Escana. Tell them to be diplomats, they shall. Challenge them to raise and train an army within a limited time, they shall. Tell them to be traders and create a sustainable economy to fund my war, they shall.
Despite being specialized in the Divine Dream warfare, the staffers of my DDWD had the comprehensive knowledge of the game, its participants and its pieces from various perspectives. They understand the game from the viewpoint of a player and a warlord. That is a massive advantage. These people were treading on the barrier between the First Rank Characters and the Rank of the Broken 14. What they lack is a living body for them to move around and execute my vision. But that is an easy problem to fix and bypass, and depend on the perspective, their lack of a living body, in itself, is an advantage. In term of value, these people are more expensive than a Divine Relic.
Similar to how Craxus gained a ridiculous bonus of 100 Might points from his
The DDWD would be my most reliable source to gather and share information with my staffers and General Staff. I cannot win battles and continue winning battles without knowing my opponents’ action, thought, and whereabouts. Information is vital to win wars and battles.
In the same spirit, most enemies of the White Winter Empire had learned that Lanxer, the Zombie Dragon of White Winter, was a beast in espionage, counter-espionage and black ops warfare. Well-defended fortresses opened their gates to his army with little to no fight. The head of enemy generals would mount on a pike and parade before the battles even began. People were afraid of fighting against White Winter because Lanxer, the Master of War of White Winter, was capable of producing and reproducing such feats at will. But what they should have been afraid, instead, was his ability to anticipate every tactic and strategy that his enemies employed against White Winter. The nationalists of Neversummer had tried to mount a slave and serf rebellion in Neversummer in an effort to reclaim their kingdom, but the flame of that rebellion was doused as soon as it sparked. That is the most terrifying aspect about Lanxer in the lore of ROC. He always seems to know everything that is needed to be known. And he will use such knowledge to a ruthless efficiency.
Lanxer had his network of spies, the Men of No Banner, fatbirds, and his legendary bird beacons. I had my DDWD.
When I was done with repeating my every day word, I moved on to the next part of the speech.
“Lortenite, who lived during the time when the Children of Naharis chose to settle their quarrel over a Throne by using the lives of the mortals of Escana to settle their conflicts, when the first round of Reign of Chaos started, she is not here with us today. She is already on Escana with Lust, acting as my spearhead and arrowhead. I wish I could have her to be the first speaker. Lortenite would be the better person to tell all of you of just how dark those days were.”
Lortenite was a titan magic caster who was named as Yasubotay’s first Champion. The cause of her death was suicide. She killed herself when she understood Yasubotay’s nature, making sure that Yasubotay would not be seated on the Throne. What makes her story so incredible was the timing. It happened in the era when the titans were siding with the Demon Lords. That did not end well. Lortenite was the first mortal to enter Sanguine’s bowel, kept and held as a trophy of madness.
“Those were the darkest days of Escana, so dark that this Reign of Chaos seemed to be a radiant ray of hope. It was a time when the lives that had been sacrificed to the Game were called “Champions.” These Champions were pitted against each other in battle royale, fighting without armies. They were not just the Champions of the Immortals. They were also the Champions of the people. They died so that Escana could live. They participated in the Reign of Chaos so that the other mortals of Escana were spared from the chaos. It was a time when the losses of 55 people appeared to be a good deal to those who claimed to be the protectors and guardian of Escana. Logically and mathematically, it was back then and it is, still today, a good deal because it is better to lose 55 people than to see the total eradication of every race and every creature living on Escana. But these Champions died so that these children of Naharis could elect a person among them to sit on the Great Throne and put an end to the battle, the chaos, the madness and the destruction on Escana. They participated and died with conviction, pride and dignity. They participated in the Reign of Chaos believing that chaos would end with their sacrifices.”
I spoke coldly. How Lortenite had died without blaming anyone, believing that her death would contribute to the end of chaos. Sacrifice a few to save the lives of many. How the world had cruelly and coldly sacrificed the lives of various people so that it could survive. Logically and mathematically, I am with Lortenite on that noble belief. But emotionally, I am not. If I had to choose between Lortenite and the world, I will rather see the world burn. If the world cannot allow a person like Lortenite to live without sacrificing her to its madness, I would set that world on fire myself.
The Reign of Chaos, ROC, on Earth, it was just a game. A stupid game with a stupid premise and a stupid setting, a game that I have played, a mean for me to earn money, a bridge that connected me to my brothers and friends, the rope that tighten me to The Alliance. But here, in this world, it is an amalgam of evil. It is evil. It is the breeding ground of demons and worms. It is something that I cannot tolerate.
“Since the first round of the Reign of Chaos started and ended, Escana had grown so much older. Millions upon millions upon millions years have passed, still the Reign of Chaos continued. And its rules and laws have changed significantly. The lives that are sacrificed to a single round of this Game is no longer just 55 lives, it is hundreds of thousands. This Game shows no sign of ending. It only gets worse. It only escalates.”
I remembered my short debate with Sinintee, before I dunked him into that cesspool, and a murderous rage washed over me. Every time I remembered that debate, fury filled my body.
“Why? I asked Sinintee, your Great God. Why would you let this game continue? Why would you allow this game to evolve and escalate to this size and format?” I hissed the words more than I have intended.
“Life has spread to every known and discovered corners of Escana. From the desolated and barren Starfell Isle of the frigid northern world to the pit of the Devilhole of the southern hemisphere. People from various intelligent races had traversed across the seas and lands of the Escana to claim their place in the world of mortals. So argued Sinintee, the Reign of Chaos is good. He argued that this is the result of the Reign of Chaos. He argued that it is because the Reign of Chaos continues in loops and rounds that life and various civilizations on Escana could sustain and develop until this very day. He argued that the intelligent races of Escana could on survive thus far because the Games had minimized the damage to Escana. He argued that it is only thanks to the Reign of Chaos that the mortals of Escana could live in the forgetful ignorance of just how terrifying the Demon Lords of Kharigan could be. ‘These mortals think they know, but they don’t.’ Said Sinintee and I quote. So, the Reign of Chaos is good, according to your Great God. The Reign of Chaos must continue forever and ever for the greater good of Escana, he said. This, all of you know, since you have watched the record of my debate with Sinintee.” My voice became heated in a quick hurry.
That was the most foolish conclusion that I have ever heard in my entire life and I have heard a lot retarded conclusions from my own mouth. And Sinintee was aware of his own bullshit. It was just stupidly garbage. It was like Sinintee was trying to tell me that he is my equal or greater in being an absolute mentally challenge retard of the world. That or he believed that he could change my mind with something so stupid and garbage.
The content of that debate between me and Sinintee rushed back into my head as I delivered my speech.
“How about you don’t settle your fucking conflicts on Escana?” I asked him. “Life would sustain and spread across the world. Civilizations would develop regardless. How about you stop playing this fucking game and slay those Demon Lords and put an end to this game? Life and civilization would blossom so much more in the absence of your game. That, I am sure.”
Sinintee argued that even if the Reign of Chaos did not happen, wars and chaos would manifest on Escana just like they had manifested on Earth. Therefore, it is better for him and his kind to regulate and control the wars and chaos. Sinintee argued with me that the moment the Reign of Chaos ended, the Demon Lords of Kharigan would use Escana as an outlet of their twisted evil.
“Even if wars happen in the absence of ROC, people fought wars to end wars, because war is just a mean to an end. That is how war perceived by leaders of nations, kings and queens. When their end is achieved, war ends. To the common men, they draw their swords and fought war to protect their family, their home, their people and their country. They take up weapons and kill people to protect their nation. They fight wars for their home. When war ends, they return home. Warmongers, those who found romance and reap benefit in war, exist in every corner and era of the world. But the people, who loath war and desire to put an end to war and conflict, are more.
War will not end even when those warmongers die, but war will slow down, and peace lovers will see war to an end. War will end because there are more peace lovers than warmongers. War will end because that is the will of the common men. They don’t want their home, their family, their people and their country to be damaged and destroyed by war.”
I argued with Sinintee base on my little knowledge and experience about war. But I poured my heart out to have a real talk. The employers of that PMC I hired from time to time, most of them longed to be peaceful with themselves and the society, but cannot. Most of them worked for that company because they can no longer return to their peaceful world. When they were trapped in wars, the world moved on without them. When they were freed from war, the world alienated them and they had no idea where they belonged. Many of them held a gun because they simply want to die with a gun inside their hands. And even the warmongers among them knew that there is no romance in war, only gambles, and those who set their feet on the battlefields are gamblers who gambled with their lives. The employees, executives and the employers of that company knew that they can gamble for so long. The top brass of that company realized that they could only run the company for so long. It’s the money, the rich, the capital that they want. Not war.
I stared Sinintee and shouted.
“War will end because the lives and the goal of people are finite. When lives and the cost of human capital run low, war ends. When goals are reached, war ends. When the cost of war outweighs the defined goals, war ends. But your games are different. They happen because you want them to happen. These wars, these rounds of ROC that you have played, they happen because you will them to happen. And you people don’t die, so this endless war will never end until you end it. I ask you, why don’t you just destroy these Demon Lords? Why don’t you show any intention or plan to kill these Demon Lords? Eogaill suggested this game to divide these Demon Lords and destroy their unity. The Reign of Chaos was created for that end. Now that unity is already fractured, why don’t you try to destroy it? You said that these Demon Lords are evil. Why don’t you have a plan to assault and destroy these evil that you spoke? Why are you playing games with them when the goal of the game is already in your sight?” It was a short debate because that debate was meaningless. A debate is only meaningful when the people on the pros and cons were willing to acknowledge the other’s point of view.
I played games. Sinintee played wars. I am a human and he is God. We don’t see eye to eye with each other. The more I remembered about my short debate with Sinintee, the more I felt like my speech would fill with curses. I took a deep breath before readdressed my staffers again.
“The will of Civilization is not our side, my dearest. He will definitely work against us. Neither will Nature be on our side. She will not be with us, fighting on our side, but be glad that she will not be our enemy. She will sit out of this war.”
It is good to know that I don’t have to fight with Niwdar. It is a relief that I don’t have to fight the twelve Valkyria. It is a huge relief that I don’t have to fight with every tree, animal, fish, insect and micro-orgasm of Nature living on Escana.
“Wonten said nothing to every question that I posed. So I sat by his side, telling him stories. I told him the story of the Sword Demon of the Chaasenods and the Empress of Chong’kiona. How the two of them met. What they have fought for. How they have fought and died. And what was their fate after their departure from Escana. I told Wonten the story of the person that Escana had remembered as the Wailing Queen. How she had lived. How she had exchanged her sanity for information and prophecies to combat her enemies. How she had fought to save her people. How Escana and Fortuna has rewarded her. I told Wonten the story of a kobold who was too wise and too kind of his own good. The old kobold married no wife and sired no child, fearing that they would suffer. The old kobold made no friend, fearing that they would be named sacrifices for his success. He slaved himself, his health, his soul for his people in life and in death. I told Wonten the story of an orc who had slaved his soul for a mean to save his dying nation. I told Wonten the story of a Naga who did everything to bring her people out of the swirl of chaos. I told Wonten the story of a faun jumped off a cliff because he was prophesized to be the harbinger of destruction to his people. I told Wonten the lesser known history of Escana, the stories of the defeated, the broken, the hurt, the demented, the cursed and the sacrificed.”
The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.
“I told Wonten the stories of men and women fought wars believing the just causes, the greater good of the people and the world, and not trying to make benefits or becoming famous through the land or winning crown and throne. These people were a thousand times more righteous and honest and noble than the like of Bloodbeard had ever been. They did not try to take advantage of the chaos to become the lords and nobles. I told Wonten of how these people had struggled through the chaos and how they had met their end, and how the afterlife has rewarded them for their deeds and intentions.
I told him your stories even before you had given me the permission to share it with him. Why?
The thing is, had I told Wonten, ‘Over 200,000 souls had suffered to the evil of Sanguine and his stooges,’ that means nothing. Number like that means nothing. So I sat by his side and told him over 200,000 tragedy stories penned by the will of madness. I told him how over 200,000 lives that had been undone by the maddened injustice of the world.
Even to this day, I have no idea if my talk with Wonten is considered a talk. It is so one sided. I had done nothing but talk. And he just sat there. I asked Wonten if their fate was the will of justice. I asked Wonten if such madness was the intention of justice. I asked the reason why a person who should be beacon of justice would play this malign game for so long. He did not answer.
But when I told Wonten that I am going to put an end to this so called Great Game, this Reign of Chaos, he agreed to be on our side, for now. Wonten is with us. Justice is with us, for now. The Truth is also with us. She is the one who set me up for this war.
So, half of the holy spirits of Coeles are with us.
But they don’t matter to me, my dearest. I don’t care about either of them. Whether they are on my side or not, I don’t care. Their abilities don’t matter. The miracles that they can conjure don’t matter. Their godhood doesn’t matter. Their life doesn’t matter. If they die, I will play them the world smallest violin.
You matter more to me than the two of them combine. Your existence and lives matter. You have showed me something that neither of them had showed me. Real strength. Real heart. That’s more valuable than everything else.
It’s common belief that there is nothing in this world can hit harder than Wonten’s mighty hammer or Wrath’s claws.
I say that such belief is needed to be changed. Wonten hits hard. Life hits harder. Wrath hits hard. Life hits so much harder.
My dearest, all of you have known what it felt like to be beaten down by life when life hit you as if it was out to destroy you. There is absolutely nothing you can do. It is hopeless. It does not matter if you possessed the strength of Wonten, the healing power of Niwdar, the wisdom of Eogaill, and the gifts of Sinintee. It does not matter because when life hit you at full force, you just break into pieces. Look no further than Wonten, Niwdar and Sinintee. What they have become!
When life hit you hard, you become less of yourself. Hurt, broken, destroyed, scarred, crippled. When life hit you as though it is out to destroy you, there is little that you can do to defend against it.
But here we stand, my dearest. Life hit us hard, but here we stand.
It is not easy to stand up after being beat down by life, but here we stand.
My dearest, brothers and sisters who standing here today, you are not just the victims of the madness that are the Sanguine, Rasahlu and Yasubotay of the world. You are victims of the negligence of duty of the holy spirits of Coeles, those who claimed to be the Gods and Goddesses of Escana. You are victims of the injustice. You are the victims of war. You are the victims of the Reign of Chaos and this so called game for the Great Throne.
My dearest, many of you have been tortured and mocked in indignity for your self-sacrificed to save your people. Many of you have been punished, collared and enslaved to the cruel sadism of madness. But punished for what crime? Fight for your nation? Protecting your people? Defending your family? Saving your loved one?
If those are crime, this world is mad. This game is mad. And those, who played and allowed this game to continue, are mad.
So here we stand, my dearest, to end this madness together. Once and for all.
How? You asked? Our enemies are the God and the Demon Lords of the world.
My dearest, we have learned that bitter taste when our happiness, dream, hope, pride and joy turn into ash before our eyes to choke us. We knew that feeling when our beating heart just broke. We have drunk that mud of despair when we could only stare and could do nothing to undo everything. We have bowed. We have cowered. We have kneeled. We have flattened ourselves on the muddy ground.
But here we stand. Life hit us hard. But here we stand.
It does not matter how long it takes for us to stand up. It does not matter what method we have used to stand up. It does not matter how many times we have slipped and hit ourselves hard trying to stand up. It does not matter which and whose hands we have relied and held to stand up. It does matter if we look like shit when we can finally stand on our feet.
When life beat us, we stand, refusing to stay down. That’s what matter. Here we stand, my dearest, that’s what matters.
Our enemies are immortal beings. They possess the power to warp reality to their will. They possess the strength to destroy the world. They possess the cruelty to destroy people’s dream, happiness and dignity. Their power is vastly stronger than us.
But let me ask you, my dearest. Can they hit us harder than life had beaten us?
No, I tell you, NO. NO. HELL NO. They cannot. But even if they can, I want you to look at them in the face and say, Here we stand.
We would show them something that they, their kin, their brothers and sisters had not been able to do. We are not like Wonten who had been hit the injustice of world once and then refuse to stand up. We will not be like Niwdar to be hit by tragedy once and refuse to stand up. We would show them our bravery and resilience. We would stand up on our feet and we would declare, Here we stand.
Ask them, can they? Can they stand when life hit them hard? Because that is their future. I am going to hit them. And I will hit them hard, as hard as life would beat them with the intention to destroy them.
If Sinintee stand in my way, I will let him know the cost of that decision. If he comes at me with the force of war, I will show him war. If he intended to play games, I will show him why I am a pro-gamer. It’s going to be costly for him.
And these Demon Lords.
Kharigan is their home and origin. I am going to blow it to star dust. Can they call themselves lords again when they have no territory or demon to lord over? Can they call themselves the rulers of Kharigan when Kharigan no longer exist? So what are they? Lord of nobody and hobos, I tell you, a bunch of hobos and self-proclaimed lords.
Their arrogance is that they can and are allowed to treat our lives as parts of their game. Their arrogance, I will reverse it. They will discover that they are the parts of the game and we are the players.
They took pride in being born from Naharis and, thus, are legitimate to sit on the Great Throne. I will not permit that kind of fragile pride in my presence. That legitimacy shall be destroyed. I promise you.
Their grip of power is large and vast in the realm of spirits and Escana. I am going to destroy it. The day would come when no spirit shall acknowledge their power. The day would come when Escana would look down on them.
The stories of their horrors and powers, I will erase them completely. Why? Because history will be on my side.
Their game. The Reign of Chaos. I will end it, every aspect of it. I am going to put a definite end to it. I will end it in the way that no one can repeat it again, ever.
Why?
Because I can, so I will.
Because I am Fearless, the Prince of The Alliance.
Because I am the best Ender. Because I am the Ender of Enders.
Because this, this piece of manure, this so called Great Game, has lasted for too long. Because this game has long infested Escana with nothing but tragedies and destruction. Because this injustice has long been overdue. Because this madness has lasted long enough.
So here we stand. To say ENOUGH.
So here we stand. To declare the end to this injustice. This godforsaken madness. This sick chaos.” I trained my sight to the Baku Division. “Baku, what is your motto?”
“SHOW THEM NIGHTMARE,” Meireen, the leader of Baku and other the sisters of the Baku roared.
“That is your job. Teach them that Escana know only one true god, his name is Nightmare. If they want to come to Escana, playing Gods and Demon Lords, they shall face Nightmare. You are Baku, the creators of Nightmares, so show them Nightmare. Trap them, torture them, and beat them with Nightmares until my executioners come to reap their soul.”
The soul of an Immortal was vastly different from the soul of a mortal. The soul of a mortal would drift toward Mistress Death’s hall the moment its flesh body is destroyed. But soul of an immortal would return to the object that defines its immortality by acting as an anchor and vessel for its soul. This object would be a pair of gauntlets for Greed, a red throne of bloodied tiles and crimson stones for Magnamor. Every Demon Lord was crafted and given a different object to define and constitute their immortality. The soul of a mortal, when destroyed, would reform itself inside the hall of Mistress Death. The soul of an Immortal, when destroyed, would simply reform itself inside the object that define and constitute its immortality.
Having this crucial knowledge is a difference between having the ability to kill a Demon Lord or not.
Other than the surefire combination of Dragon Bane and the Sealing Blade, there are more methods to kill an immortal being than the world has believed. But these methods have one thing in common, their first step, which was to destroy those objects of immortality.
If everything worked according to my plan, the moment Wonten hit Kharigan with his hammer, nothing on that red moon could remain other than Sloth’s giant sleeping bag. Those thrones, those statues, those objects that constitute the immortality of the Demon Lords would be destroyed, saved for those on my side plus Munezee, Flokí and Gluttony, the three who hidden the objects of their immortality or has already devoured it. In the case of these three, only the combination of Dragon Bane and the Sealing blade works aside from Death herself.
After that first step, it was a puzzle of how to destroy the astral body of a Demon Lord.
For instance, Acrẽa’s
Similarly to Acrẽa’s
The Baku was created to turn the named Champion of a Demon Lord into his prison and jailer until my executioners would arrive. The task of eliminating these Demon Lord would be given to Lortenite, the leader of my executioner units.
I narrowed my sight on the Morpheus Division. “Morpheus. What is your motto?”
“OUR DREAMS, OURS.”
“Exactly. They have abused their ability to create a Divine Dream to turn people into their chess pieces, puppets and avatars to further chaos. They made prophecies. They twisted ideologies and personalities. They had the monopoly to this technology long enough. In this day and age, show them what we can do when we possess the same technology. Show them what we, mortals can do when our dreams are ours.”
To combat the risk of a Divine Dream, merely staying awake was a short fix to a long term problem, meaning it was not a fix. You only need to close your eyes once, that’s game over. You wake up a changed person. Normal people need to sleep to function. Telling them to “Stay awake” for indefinitely is telling them to do the impossible. I cannot just keep telling my followers to stay awake forever. Therefore, I needed to create people who don’t fear being harmed and affected by a Divine Dream. I can only and work with such people, trusting my life and my plan to them. The Morpheus’s main responsibility was doing just that, creating people who can say, “My dreams are mines.”
Sun Tzu said, know your enemy, know yourself, a hundred battles you shall not lose. This is the basic of war. You need to know your enemy’s strategy and tactic to defeat him. Thus, you need to install spies inside the rank of your enemy to learn what he is thinking. Whereas the normal men must train and buy their spies, these Gods and Demon Lords simply use their
I turned my eyes on the Warren. “WARREN.”
“INCOGNITO and FLUID,”
“You are to stay the limbo of time, dream, reality and avarice items. Our enemies can know that you exist. But they must not know your identity, call sign, password, movement and means of transport. Your topmost priority is to stay in incognito but, you must keep information network up and going at all time. Everyone is counting on you to share the intelligence.”
The Warren would traffic and gather intelligence between the members of DDWD through various means. Be it by trusting the intelligence to their succubi or writing letters in the real world, using dream journals, transferring messages through the delivery of an avarice item… the imagination is the limit.
I then looked at the Baí Zé.
“WE PREDICT.”
“Show these Gods and Demon Lords that mortals can predict the future as well. Show them that we are capable of making prophecies. Show them that their ability to make prophecies is laughable. I am counting on your forecasts.”
When I first heard about the price of a single providence that Sanguine and his stooges charged their Champions, I was mad. The first prophecy is free. The ones that came after that are not. Sasengun was asked to let her love die so she can have a vision about the whereabouts of her enemy’s armada. Searek was asked to drink one drop of Sanguine’s venom for a whisper and a vision. These three stooges had no intention of winning the game. They just played the game for the sick fun of it. Even worms like Bloodbeard received Wonten’s providence without a price, without asking. But Sanguine and his stooges charged their Champions for the fun of it. Other champions were equipped with prophecies and miracles by their patrons for free, these three stooges asked their champions to pay a price for everything. These stooges dragged their Champions into the swirl of chaos and then made fun of them. In war, a single prophecy could all the differences, and these stooges charged it.
It was madness that Sasengun could actually defeat over 1000 warships in a series of battles with only 50 ships. It was pure madness that Isonos could nearly conquer a continent.
I have predicted the destruction of Kharigan before I killed Bloodbeard. I have predicted that either Wrath or Wonten would assist me to accomplish that feat. I have predicted that Xaara, being the hasty fool that he was, would be first Demon Lord to come at my place searching the vengeance. A person does not need to become a God or a Demon Lord to be able to predict the future. With enough information provided, anyone can predict the future. The Baí Zé would be the instrument that demonstrates that belief of mine.
I slowly swept my eyes across the square packed full of people.
“Here we stand, my dearest. I, a supposed to be pieces of lucky charms to be shared and worn by Demon Lords and Gods, here I stand. You, tormented prisoners of Sanguine, here you stand. There is no place for you or for me or for us on Escana. Even if we are here, trapping the Demon Lords and scheming of ending the chaos, there is no place for us on Escana. We are walking dead men and dead women. We are rejected by the natural ordinance of the world and the Death of the world. The world out there is that kind of insane, cruel, unjust and thankless place.
But here we stand, declaring our intention to fight for Escana when Escana should have fought for itself. So don’t fight for Escana, fight for yourself. It’s all right to be selfish. Fight for yourselves. Fight for our brothers and sisters. Fight for your love.
Here we stand, my dearest. I send you, my heart, to sail through the flame of chaos to the most punishing voyage. You, my dearest, you shall face what I have once faced, a test against father time. What appears to be an hour in the real world could be many millennia to you. It will be a lonely, harsh, and thankless voyage. You will discover that the harvest that you have toiled and cultivated with millennia of sweat and tear would be converted to but a short moment of triumph in the real world. That day might or might not come when your heart will be broken due to the futility of being endlessly tested by father time. It might or might not come, the day when you will curse me for burdening you with such a heavy and unrewarding task. It might or might not come, the day when you no longer care about this fight against the chaos of the world and move on. It might or might not come, the day when your heart could not take it anymore and fall into despair. It might come, the day when you are unfortunately captured by my enemies. It might come, the day when you decide to forget everything and let go of everything. Regardless of whether that day shall come or not, you have my promise that I will come to pick you up, my dearest. I will not blame you for I am the only one to blame. I will release you of your thankless burden. I will cry and I will tell you that I am sorry for tasking you with such heavy burdens. I will hug you inside my arms. I will tell you that I was extremely thankful for your sacrifices. I will tell you how chaos was ended not by the valorous champions and ingenious heroes of the gods. I will tell you how chaos was ended by your devotion and sacrifices to embrace the thanklessness of your tasks. Then we will gather here again.
And we will declare, here we stand, for we have already ended the unending chaos of the world,” said I. I gave every staffer of the DDWD a warm hug and a long kiss before sending them off with Lust’s succubi. Meireen, the leader of the Baku and my favorite S queen, made me read my promise with her one more time before sending her off. “I will take a better care of myself,” promised I, shaking my head.
“Make sure you do,” Meireen said and seized her long goodbye kiss.
Many women asked me to promise them my love for their service. They are already qualified to be called ‘stupid’ because they should have known that I am a womanizer. But Meireen and Sasengun just had to take the cake. Sasengun asked me to always have a place on my side. Meireen asked me to love myself. One is the wailing queen of the world who had sacrificed all of her love to defend her people. One is the Sword Demon of the Chaasenods who killed her emotions for her Empress. They should be able to kill their dependence to me and their adoration of me. But they just relentlessly refused to do that. One day, I might change the word ‘stupid’ in my dictionary into ‘Sasengun’ and ‘Meireen.’
As I was sending my DDWD off, Faugus talked and exchange farewell with other members of my General Staffs and a crowd of my dreamland stupid people. As usual, the old kobold was acting like an old grandfather giving advice to his grandchildren. When it was Faugus’ turn to leave, I knelt down to his size to give him a tight hug.
“Take care,” I said, having nothing else to say with Faugus.
“You too, shandorei,” replied Faugus and headed off.