A few days later...
“So, she is doing well?” Errant confirmed, as the two of them watched the impromptu Shrine to an Elder God burn both up and down. Half a dozen Mother Vines populated the area, and a Simming Pod was blazing with cerulean fire.
Over two hundred Pod People had to be put to the sword. It was not a job the young woman next to him needed help with, but since he was in the area and close by, it didn’t hurt to stop by.
Helped add to his Baneskull collection, too.
“You should have seen her at this noble gala we were cooking for. Perfect application of the frosting, and inserting stilettos in a few places, too.”
Errant smiled despite himself. “That is good to hear.” He tossed a thumb over his shoulder. “I have her Hagmother’s head.”
Hazé considered that. “I was thinking of going after her myself, but I couldn’t verify where she was magically, and I’m rather busy. Did you get lucky and catch her at home?”
“Yes.”
“Any issues?”
“Other than her being a Legendary? I was expecting it and planned for it. Scraped her face down ten thousand feet of stone at 300 mph, and then kept stabbing her after she landed until I drew real blood.”
“A Legendary.” Hazé winced visibly. “Okay, I probably could not have taken her.” Health Qi could be expended to eliminate status effects, and there was no way she’d be able to put out that much damage while also being attacked. “So, a question.”
“Go ahead.”
“You look a little older than me. What’s your birthday here?”
“Icebreak 13, 1419. Died March 22, 2006, brain tumor.” He knew what she was trying to do. “Had about four years in game. Started at launch.”
Her eyes spun, and she took in a breath. “I died June 9th, 2008, six years in game. I was born with diabetes mellitus. I was reborn on Fairwind 9, 1421, but I was quite premature...”
“So, it lines up, to some degree.” He wasn’t surprised. “Just what kind of game was that? Was the Archmage actually real?”
“We’d have to go home to find out.” Her nostrils flared.
“Or we could ask some angels,” he pointed out helpfully.
“I already tried. They have never heard of Terra. Researched it and everything. There was no such world under Aruan purview,” she told him softly.
“There are way too many similarities for it to be a stretch of imagination from some game designer,” he replied with a frown. “So... we come from outside Aruan purview? What does that mean?”
“It means there might be others here.” Hazé’s eyes lit up. “Do you think we might be able to go home?” she wondered aloud.
“With all our uber powers?” he instantly shot her down. “No. We only got here on a spiritual basis, something sent us across the divide here, and we don’t know how... only that anything that can mess with reincarnation and death is above our pay grades.” He shook his head once. “We’re here, Hazé, make the best of it.”
“Oh, I am!” she said confidently. “Mystic, Divine, and Arcane Theurgy! You were called The One Sword and The Heavenbound, weren’t you?” she asked him.
“Oh, you know who I was?” He laughed despite himself, but she just looked at him softly.
“You weren’t the only one dying of disease who got a Title,” she said to him, and he just shook his head. “Of course I knew who you were. There’s a statue of you at Heavenbound Hall in the game. The Purity Mastery is credited to you. I daresay most of the people playing the game have heard of you.”
“Ah? Well, it was a good escape from the slow dying and treatments. I suppose I did leave something for people to enjoy behind. You earned a Title?”
“I am The Star Mage.”
“Forgive me for not knowing that. You must have received it after I died.”
She nodded shortly. “Yes. You know about Star Magic?” He nodded vaguely. “I discovered a Fifth Star using Clerical Domains and Mystic Theurgy. Five Stars to Sustain!” She was quite proud of herself.
“Sustained? Like Aelryinth, and his Ring?” Errant was impressed.
“And Sole, and his Five Acting Pacts.” Errant’s eyebrows rose, and he whistled. “There were others. It was a fairly select group, at least initially.”
“Purity equals Pacts. I must have not done something I could have to not get the benefit. I’ll have to think on it.”
Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.
“Perhaps it is a function of power. Sole was a power-leveling machine, as I recall.”
“Possibly,” he agreed.
“Speaking of which, how is your Karmic Debt? I have been traveling and repaying it since I was four, but real life is much harder than a game with unlimited leveling options before you...”
“Killing the Crone was productive. I’ve been playing Robin Hood in the city of my family, and you probably won’t find it remarkable how many dark and sinister plots go on in a city ruled by Hell worshippers. I have stolen a lot of money from a lot of people, I have killed a lot of people badly in need of killing, and generally haven’t done too badly. It’s not gone, but I’m about halfway or so?” He looked at her. “Sounds like you were in the higher Ten Ranks. A? B?”
“B,” she confirmed readily enough. “I am quite some ways away in a real sense, although working with who I have been has been productive enough, and my Lived-Line goes all over the place!” she added proudly.
“This is close to the furthest traveling I’ve done. Haven’t been the child of choice to tag along when my father pays obeisance to the Emperor.” Errant shrugged casually.
“How do you manage to stay Heavenbound within a family of Hellbound souls?” she asked, shaking her head. “I am amazed that you have not left them.”
“You must not have family here,” he said calmly, and she stiffened. “There might come a time when I have to fight my family, but childhood is not it, and Heaven isn’t going to force me to do so.
“But, my time with my family is indeed coming to an end. I’m going to bring back the head of this Hag, collect my reward, burn it all on Gear, and take my leave.”
“Going where? Would you like to join me? We could definitely use the talents of a skilled Heavenbound, given the stuff we fight.”
“I was under the impression that discretion and misdirection was a great part of what you required to do your job properly... and especially not being followed by those interested in exacting revenge.”
Her eagerness did dim somewhat at that. “And a Heavenbound is not discreet enough at this time,” she admitted. “We still have to grow up...”
“Separating the Caster doing work for the Brotherhood from yourself would make little sense with the same Heavenbound along for the ride. Be that as it may, if you would like to drag me along on an excursion or two, I definitely would not say no, if it is appropriate.”
Hazé tapped her cheek thoughtfully. “The Brothers have already recruited an Archtheurge of Sylune. I do not think they will blink at all at exploiting the proclivities of a Heavenbound. I will bring the matter up. They will quickly realize you are a reincarnate, so be prepared.”
“It is a non-issue.” Working for the Void Brotherhood... since Hazé’s goddess was not opposed to it, Heaven itself probably would not care. The Brotherhood would probably regard him warily, as he was Sworn to an otherworldly power... but generally speaking, Good people made the best neighbors, and were the most eager to stand against the kind of dim, dark shit the Brotherhood fought anyways, so they made the best and most motivated pawns.
And if he died, the Heavens would just shift his Pact to someone else, no harm, no foul to the Land. He lived with a family of devil-worshippers, and had died and been reborn. The last thing he had was a closed mind, even if he whole-heartedly believed in the path he had taken.
“Where, then, did you intend to go?” she asked directly.
He smiled grimly. “Well, I think I might have a very interesting time in Zynozure, with no end of fun things to do.”
Her eyebrows rose, as she had very carefully steered away from the Imperial Capital in her travels. Too many rival Casters and powerful people in that place, and the aura coming over it was not encouraging at all.
“You will need a backer,” she warned him. There was simply no way he could conceal what he was in a place like that.
“Well, of course. I seem to have a contact with an infamous Order of assassins. I was thinking of complementing it with one of the knightly Orders that have not yet Fallen... or working with the Church of Harse as an Inquisitor.”
Her lips pursed. “Why not all three?” she asked him.
“Why not, indeed?” he laughed softly back.
------------------------
They parted easily enough, back to their own destinies. The way things were going, they’d have to be adults to truly work together openly, and naturally that was some years off.
His arrival back in Gulder generated remarkably little fanfare for his absence. The guards at the gate were happy to see him, and then gawked at the head tied by lots and lots of hair to his backpack, the strands still fluttering with residual magic on their own.
There being some coinmages attached to the gates to monitor the Wards that scanned everyone entering and exiting (and politely not getting too nosy about a nobleman wearing anti-divinatory wards); word literally did spread ahead of him as he rode towards the family manor on the opposite side of the city. The guards were quick to let him borrow a horse, and would even have called for a carriage if he liked.
He moved the head to the saddlehorn, white hair billowing around it like serpents, and rode through Gulder, letting everyone see, and those who understood point it out and inform everyone else.
He, Errant Gilderalz, the most worthless son of the Gilderalz Ducal family, had killed the Stormcrone Zouma; alone, with no entourage, soldiers, or hirelings.
He made sure to take a detour past the halls where adventurers and mercenaries gathered, so they could point and curse and a certain posted reward would be taken down...
---
The guards at the gate knew him, of course, and straightened up when they saw him coming. He hadn’t ridden fast, word had spread ahead of him, and he could already see people outside, others at the windows, waiting and pointing as he rode in. They stood straighter for him than they ever had before as he rode by, their eyes drawn to the head of the Hag and that writhing hair.
He dismounted easily on the drive before the main walk, ignoring the servants and guards gathered around for the most part. He pulled the head off the cantle, wiped it off with a cloth, directed one of the guardsmen there to return the horse to the men at the city gate, knotted the Hag’s hair up in his fist, and strode towards the doors.
His sisters had come up to greet him, and started to step forward to say something when his eyes swept across them, and they all faltered. He didn’t have to guess to know what they had been saying about him vanishing, and he noted neither of his brothers was daring to make an appearance. He was coming back with the head of the Stormcrone Zouma... just what did they look like in comparison?
The guards and servants couldn’t keep a combination of admiration and fear out of their gazes as he strode by. He was always the worthless youngest son; no magic, no chi, no advantages, and he’d been given only the respect due his birth and not a jot more for most of his life, forever relegated to be no better than they were.
That certainly didn’t apply any more.
His father would be in his study, and the way the guards were stationed confirmed it. They only gave him nods as he passed by, and he opened the fine wooden door to see his father seated on the far side of his desk, waiting for him.
He closed it behind him.