“Close but not quite. I am the Avatar of the one you call the Almighty System.” Those words echoed through my head while standing at the foot of the Throne of Tortured Souls.

“How?” I asked.

“How else? A meta-point or a god-point. I wished to leave the confines of my body and experience true understanding. To become one with the God that controls the Systemic Lands.”

My mind swirled. I hadn’t even considered something like that being possible. “But why are you a prisoner then?” I asked. She had clearly been cut up by the Divine Empress.

“Being the Avatar of the Almighty System does not make me God. It merely makes me a spokes being for it. I am still bound to my flesh. The Divine Empress came to my city, where I guided my people and she killed so many. She captured me. But dared not suffer the punishment for killing one such as I.”

“A punishment? What kind of punishment?” I asked. What would the Almighty System actually do?

“A life or the reward from a meta-point. Since I could not be killed, my various body parts were removed. My tongue! My eyes! My hands! My feet! All done by the Divine Empress and then sculpted so I wouldn’t die by that pile of flesh. She let that pig have his way with me.”

I gulped at that. There was clearly a lot of buried rage there. “I am kept around to torture for answers and information. The Chief Diviner was useless compared to my sight. For I see all that the Almighty System sees.”

My heart trembled. I would finally have answers that I had long desired. “I cannot read your mind, but the greed on your face hidden under that helmet is plain to all. I am bound to the Almighty System, you will not have the answers you seek.”

I yanked off my helmet. “Then, I am more than happy to leave you behind. I think the price for taking you from this place is a hundred questions answered,” I demanded without hesitation. Fuyuka stared at me in shock, but I didn’t care. I was not about to be cheated out of answers.

“If only it were that easy. Everything has a price. It just depends on what you are willing to pay and what the Almighty System deems you worthy of. And no, freeing me would not get you a meta-point. For it will only punish my death, not reward your aid. So foolish to think such a thing is so easily earned.”

“So, you were just waiting here then?” I challenged this Avatar.

“Yes. The Master Fleshcrafter fainting was quite amusing. But I suppose I can offer something for a favor.” Now there was the trap I was expecting. Anyone who was the Avatar of the Almighty System, would squeeze the lifeblood out of a stone. Then charge them for the privilege.

“If you agree to take someone from this city, and not harm them, then I will tell you something quite interesting. Something about the Divine Empress. This person would not be me or the Master Fleshcrafter.”

I could smell a trap coming from a mile away. “Could I just let them go in the wilderness?” I asked.

“A city at the very least. But take them out of the Forbidden City, unharmed. If you break your word I will know and can act on that.”

“I want to know the Divine Empress’s actual weaknesses. All of them. Not one or two. Otherwise, you can carry this person from the city yourself,” I countered.

“I will tell you three things about the Divine Empress that you would want to know. For taking, protecting, and ensuring their safety from all others. For a period of no less than one hundred days. You may not kill them or intentionally harm them yourself for one thousand days or lead to them being killed. After that you may kill or harm them if you wish.”

I thought about it carefully. “If I try my best but the Divine Empress or someone else kills them?” I asked.

“I will judge you by your own intent. You cannot rules lawyer me. You must make an effort and put your life on the line for this person.” Well this Avatar was clearly reading me like a book since I would not accept anything open ended. A time limit was more than reasonable.

“I accept your terms.” Knowing the Divine Empress’s weaknesses was more than enough payment to get someone out of this city.

“Very well, the deal is made. The pact is struck. The path is set. The first piece of information, is that the person I want you to take and protect is none other than the child of the Divine Empress.” My eyes went wide at that! That was bullshit! A child would be the perfect thing to strike at the heart of the Divine Empress.

While it was a child, I would have put him at the center of all the bombs. All of them. Bombs that had bombs that were combined with other bombs. The Divine Empress would go there, then I would blow them both off the face of the Systemic Lands. It was a sure fired way to kill her. If that didn’t work, I would have stuffed her child with bombs and blow him up to take her out and deal emotional damage at the very least.

While I had a soft spot for children, the Divine Empress was an existential threat. If I could defeat her by killing ten children, a hundred children I would make that trade. For a single child, that wasn’t even a question in my mind.

This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

This just confirmed that the Avatar truly was the Avatar of the Almighty System since it was a mega asshole. I would have to keep the kid hidden away for three years. The kid probably had a tracker on it as well. I couldn’t carve up the child to find it either or try and extract it. That would be going against the deal I had made.

In addition, that was one wasted piece of information. I could see now why the Divine Empress mutilated this woman to this extent. I was already feeling unending amounts of rage and frustration. That didn’t even answer the question of why the Almighty System wanted the child to be saved in the first place. Why didn’t I get some of that VIP treatment? Where were my meta-points and System interventions to save my life. Unfair, completely and utterly unfair.

“Well get on with it, what are the other pieces of information?” I asked feeling quite annoyed at the entire situation. I was about to be saddled with a young master.

“The second piece of information are the two meta-points the Divine Empress has received. She had the knowledge of energy manipulation and her second choice was knowledge of external energy manipulation.”

That wasn’t helpful in the slightest. Well maybe a bit. But that is like saying, we added more nuclear missiles to the nuclear sub. It was already insanely dangerous, this just confirmed that fact. Or made the dragon’s flames even more deadly and powerful. It was already a dragon.

“Hold up. I could have found out about this child on my own. Without your input or hints. I get the meta-point choices are unique and I would have no way of knowing them otherwise, but that is a bit of a rip off,” I said with a nod to punctuate my point.

“Then know this. The father is the Astrologer.” WHAT?! How was that…I don’t get…wow. Okay then. That was an important piece of information. I inclined my head to show that I accepted it as I tried to get my head around that. Wow, he really liked the older women. Talk about interpersonal drama. No wonder why the Divine Empress wanted to find him.

“For the third and final piece of information about the Divine Empress, she has no weakness of the flesh or of energy. Her weakness is one of mind. While she grasps onto some of the profound truth, she lacks foresight and understanding.”

That was the most useless pile of garbage I had heard yet. “No skill to counter her? No friendship beam?”

“You make jokes, but lack favor compared to her.”

“You mean to tell me that the Almighty System would look out for me if I got a couple of meta-points or those, I am close to?”

“If that is what you want to believe, I will not stop you. Your thoughts are your own. But you have heard my words and my side of our deal is fulfilled, no matter how unfulfilling you might find it.”

I raised up my hand to melt this woman and a massive feeling of dread settled on me. I shook as the feeling of immense danger intensified. “Or you are just tricking people to think you are the Avatar of the System.”

“Then kill me and suffer.” Dammit! I couldn’t even torture her a bit, since anything I did paled in comparison to the Divine Empress. I slowly made the hand sign I needed. If I was going to get scammed, well I was letting the Almighty System know that was complete and utter garbage. Screw it, she was dying!

I twisted my hand to make the necessary hand sign and struggled to say the words. “Acid Shot.” If this was going to be it, then so be it. I was not going to get scammed by this woman or Avatar, no matter how much doom I felt.

She flung herself off the Throne of Tortured Souls and rolled down the dais to base, laying on the ground. The throne melted as the screaming heads slowly made their last sounds and we were left in silence.

“Nice trick you used there.” I said while staring at the naked nugget shaped woman lying face down at my feet.

“It wasn’t a trick. If I die you will die as well.” I kicked her onto her back and rested my spiked boot against her throat.

“What does being the Avatar of the System mean if you really are one.” I still felt that sense of dread and pressure as my boot rested on her neck. “And why save the child? Why do you care?”

“It means that I know things I can’t speak about and set I motion things I would rather not. I don’t know why the Almighty System wants what it wants or why it does various things. I just can look over the land and get instructions. Like a mental download from the store.”

“You must have some guess. Why the child?” I asked. There had to be reason.

“I truly do not know. But it wants the child to live. The way it was conceived…it was unnatural. Perhaps the Almighty System wants to see the long term result.”

“How was it conceived. You said the father was the Astrologer?” I pressed for an answer both verbally and with my boot.

“Only in the loosest sense. He used a skill on the Divine Empress and she became pregnant. It makes no sense, but that is what occurred. Her studies into the flesh and children have only increased, fueled by the Master Fleshcrafter.”

That was all I needed to know about him to make a decision. “Acid Shot,” x20. He was covered in a deluge of acid and quickly awoke. His obese body heaving and rolling as he melted and screamed.

“You should not have done that.” You couldn’t say that sooner? I pressed my boot down a bit more on the Avatar’s neck. “I desire to live, but if my death comes so be it and you will be cursed with me.”

“What do you mean I shouldn’t have done that?” This woman had more drama than a theater.

“He has taken steps to keep his mind intact in case his body perishes. You must leave the Forbidden City quickly and defeat the Inquisitor who guards the child. The Divine Empress had invested much into her as a guardian.”

Nothing was ever easy. “And what about you? You seem to be the real prize.” This Avatar was a trap. Once I saw Clarissa again, this woman was getting permanently banned from any place I controlled. I actually sympathized with the Divine Empress. As impossible as that sounded, I couldn’t imagine how this Avatar could annoy me even more. I would stick her in a pit myself right now if I could.

“I will crawl about and be kept alive somehow.”

I wasn’t leaving the Avatar of the System behind no matter what. Even if she was annoying, she still had information I could use. Also, I couldn’t leave her to the mercies of the Divine Empress. And if the Divine Empress came, perhaps she could be used as an early alert System. Even if she just infuriated me with her cryptic teasers and half deals.

The worst part was I didn’t know if she had the power to enforce it. I was stuck following through. Even if it was a scam. I couldn’t take that chance. This woman was too strange. I picked her up carefully and set her in Abs arms. The fact she knew Abs name was all the proof I needed she was legit in learning information at a distance. The golden shield from that skill the Master Fleshcrafter used was further proof.