Purpose
Once we were finished telling the others what happened, there was a long silence. The four newest additions kept looking at each other, and I could almost taste their fear.
Their presence was a bit of an elephant in the room. I didn’t want to send them away just so that the rest of us could talk, but they weren’t really part of our group. We had an agreement with them, they had to lead us to another trial that started in six days. It might actually be the last one we could do, there was just about a week left in the challenge.
Our efforts in the trial had netted us a lot of points, pushing me to the top spot again, and giving Terra the lead which meant that others had done well too.
This also made me a target, my points alone were nearing a million, if someone killed me, they would get all those points for themselves.
Our plan didn’t change, we wanted to win, and we were on track to do just that. Both Jiyun and Aurora had risen in the ranks, getting in the top twenty. They hadn’t killed any of the Suul so their points lagged behind a bit.
“Was there no other way?” Khalil asked after a while.
I turned to look at him. “They decided to press us, to make us agree to their proposition. They threatened Aurora and Jiyun just in order to talk to me.”
Khalil grimaced. “Dubois’ offer does make some sense. If we can get through the next period without violence, we should explore that path.”
“Without violence?” I asked. “He’s obviously made a deal that requires him to take out people who are likely to oppose the other factions, people like me. That makes his deal with the Naga-shan inherently violent.”
Khalil looked at me, then sighed. “You’re right, of course. I just hate seeing conflict amongst our people at a time when we should be as united as we can be.”
I opened my mouth to rebuke him, but then thought better of it. He’d always been an idealist. Yet, I did trust him to understand that sometimes there were no good choices.
“Before I left for this challenge,” Khalil continued. “Constantinople was preparing to send out expeditions and gather survivors, we’ve repaired a couple of boats and were going to head along the coast.”
That reminded me. “You should have them head west, across the Mediterranean and into the new inland sea.”
“You mean for us to meet up?” Khalil asked.
“After what just happened, I think that we need a more unified front. I doubt that we’ll be close enough to help each other. But communication, even delayed, should be our priority. I will head north with my group,” I said slowly, thinking about the survivors back at the military camp. I didn’t know if they would follow me, but… I was done wasting time. Dubois’s action had shown me that I had less time than I even thought.
“If what my sire told me is true, the coast is days away, I’ll try and establish ourselves there. Having access to the sea and routes across and along it will be instrumental.”
I’ve been thinking about what kind of an area I could lay claim to for when the portals open, something defensible would probably work, but that would mean a lot less territory. But if I could gather more than one group, all along the coast, where we could use the sea to travel in between us faster than on foot? That might work.
“I’ll need to find some coastal towns, commandeer some boats,” I smiled at him.
Khalil had a pensive look on his face. “Many of the modern ones survived; fiberglass and composite materials didn’t seem to be as affected as metals are. You’ll need to find boats with sails though.”
“That’s good, then my plan could work.”
I turned around and looked at the rest, my eyes settling on Aurora. “You’re north of me, in the states?”
“Alabama,” Aurora answered. “Monroeville.”
“You should head east,” I told her. “From what my sire told me the entire US East Coast now comes out on the inland sea.”
Aurora was the one that worried me the most out of our team. She was all alone back on Earth. Her town was abandoned by the time she returned from her term as an Exemplar.
“You think that’s smart? I don’t know if my home was shifted around. The coast used to be south of me,” Aurora said.
“It’s either that or you stay put and I try and find you. Though that might be harder.”
“You really mean to have us meet up?” Aurora asked, her voice low.
I blinked; I realized that somehow that had started being one of my goals without even consciously deciding on it. I looked over at the others.
“Yes,” I said softly, my eyes finding Jiyun and Daehyun. “I don’t know where Korea is, my sire wasn’t that specific, he only said that part of Asia was missing from the northern part of our continent. But we know that there is a giant new inland sea in what he believed to be the center of our continent. Finding it might be a good orientation point, as Constantinople should be at the north-eastern end of that sea.”
“We can try,” Jiyun said. “Though we are surrounded by rifts and beasts. Seoul is in between us and the coast, and we don’t know what is behind us, we’ve been unable to explore the wild and see if we can reach the other coast.”
I nodded; I had already expected as much. The two of them were potentially far away, unless Korea had been shifted someplace closer.
“You mean to come to Constantinople?” Khalil interrupted with a question; his tone surprised.
“If I can, or at least close enough that we can communicate. Honestly, what you said about how the city united to survive has me optimistic that they would be good allies. And it is a good, fixed point that all of us should be able to locate. Find the inland sea and follow the coast until you reach the Mediterranean, and the city is on the other end.”
“The vampires of the city are some of the oldest in the world, do you owe them your allegiance?” Khalil asked, then tilted his head. “I know that the way it usually works is that a vampire owes fealty to their sire and that line. I don’t know where your sire and the Colombian covens fall in that hierarchy. But from my understanding, the oldest vampires are generally accepted as leaders over others regardless even of coven or bloodline.”
The old stories that a vampire had to obey their sire, the supernatural control part, were just that, stories. But they came from truth. Vampires operated in covens, and usually when a new vampire was made they became part of that coven, with fealty to their sire and their sire all the way to the oldest and most powerful vampire in that coven. Only Elder Vampires could make a new coven, and to do that they must leave their old one. Sometimes a group would leave together, do that was rare. They usually start by siring new vampires themselves. Though their new covens usually remain allied with their old covens, that wasn’t always the case.
This was common knowledge, I learned it in school before I was turned, probably where Khalil learned it too, his order had probably sent him to learn from the vampires themselves, as many had been our teachers.
I opened my mouth, then closed it. I didn’t know how much to tell him, how much I could trust him. On one hand, I trusted his words about what happened in Constantinople. And I trusted him as a person. The people in charge, the ones he served… that was another thing entirely. Once, my allegiance was to the Lágrima Sangrienta Cartel and its master, Pascual de Andagoya. Because I believed that my sire was part of his coven. Now I knew that wasn’t the case, my sire was there because of a debt. And besides, they tried to hang me, so fuck them.
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By vampire law, my allegiance was to my sire, though he hadn’t expressed any desire to exercise that right. I didn’t know if he even cared about those laws, he probably predated them by a significant margin. But even if he did, there were only two vampires that would have authority over me, my sire, Akatsuki Jin, and his sire, the first vampire who was either asleep at the bottom of the ocean or had hidden herself and was doing who knew what.
I locked eyes with Khalil, thinking. Relationships were give and take, they were a net of debts owed and paid. Khalil had trusted me by staying with me in the challenge when many have left. He had stood by my side, and listened to my counsel, followed me, when he had no need to. And despite everything, he was still my friend.
But still, I wasn’t ready to reveal everything just yet.
“There are only two vampires in the world that could assert themselves over me, the one who turned me, and his sire. In terms of hierarchy, they would be above any of the vampires in Constantinople.”
Khalil looked surprised at that. “It was my understanding that one of the oldest living vampires is currently head of the Constantinople’s coven.”
I grimaced. My school of being, the philosophy that I lived my life in accordance with, was based on debts and obligation. On a balance in relationships. A lie, to me was an offense, and therefore it incurred debt. If I was to lie to him, I would shift the scale, increase my debt. Misleading him was the same, and I had already done that when I implied that I had reached the Elder Vampire stage because I advanced my Mask.
He was going to figure out the truth eventually, when the other vampires advanced their Masks and didn’t see the same results. Though, it wasn’t really a complete lie. I was certain that my Mask did contribute to my maturing, but so had drinking the highly Invested blood of powerful beings and individuals.
I got more from them than most vampires did. My thirst was closer to the source, less diluted.
Still, I had to live in accordance with my school of being, my Oath.
“I’d rather not say,” I told him finally.
He leaned back, and I saw his mind whirling behind his eyes. Finally, he nodded. “I understand,” he said, but I did note a tiny twinge of hurt.
I sighed, at least he wasn’t too offended.
I turned my attention to the four people who sat next to us and had been silent so far.
“I know that we’ve only just met,” I started. “And obviously we have an agreement, but you are free to try and do the same as the rest of us once we leave this place. You said that you were in Congo, yes?”
“Uh,” Jason blinked, surprised to be addressed. “Yeah. Honestly, we are just trying to survive.”
“As we all are,” Khalil told him.
“Right,” Jason looked at his friends. Then at the rest of us. “We are nobodies really. Not like you guys.”
I leaned forward. “No, you aren’t nobodies. The fact that you are here in the first place tells me a lot. None of you are Exemplars, yet you still managed to advance your Masks to the top one hundred list from amongst all of our people. You are strong, and you are survivors. You are exactly the kind of people that we need if we are to survive and keep what we have.”
The four straightened up at my words, flattered.
“I’m not going to ask you to join the rest of us, I doubt that even we will be able to really gather again on Earth. But if we try to work toward the same goal, ensure that there are people, survivors, and establish a presence that can defend what we have? Then we’ll be in a lot better position.”
“You really think so?” Diana asked.
I nodded. “Yes, my plan is to set up on the coast of the new inland sea. I’ll make sure to build ways of signaling to others that there are survivors, that there is civilization. And I’ll try to gather as many as I can, spread across the coast and establish a territory that can protect itself.”
“That is ambitious,” Jiyun said.
I nodded. “It is, and I will do it. It’s the only way for us to weather the storm. I won’t be making any deals with invaders that include them taking our land and resources. Though dealing with them is inevitable, we must become big enough a threat that we can stand up to them.”
“I do agree, and perhaps we have a chance,” Khalil said. “Though I’ve seen some of the power that the high Investment Masked have. It equals and perhaps exceeds that of Elder Vampires.”
“It does,” I added. “From what I’ve been told, high Investment Masked are like Elder Vampires on steroids that also have magic. But, that is why this is our chance. The Grand Spell gives us opportunities, even as it destroys our world. We are growing at a faster now, gaining Investment at an accelerated rate. That is another thing that the other factions will come here to exploit. They will send people that can benefit from the Investment gain on Earth while we are under the Grand Spell’s protection. We need to reach high enough that by the time the portals open we can fight back.”
“This challenge has pushed us ahead significantly,” Jiyun said. “We’ve all stepped into our Second Investment.”
“And we need to do more,” I told them. “The moment our year is up, we will lose the accelerated gain and be on even footing with the rest of Kirios. That will slow us down significantly.”
It occurred to me at that moment that perhaps these challenges were introduced to allow the new races more avenues to grow and catch up to the races already on Kirios. The Grand Spell had to be aware of what happened in the past with other races. The Harpiem, from what Shadow had told me, have a very small number of high Investment people, and every race before them had less than the one before them. The Elves and Dwarves were the ones that had the most.
“You are almost to your third,” Aurora said. “You really are advancing faster than the rest of us.” It wasn’t an accusation, more a curiosity.
“The type of Investment that I need is easier to gain here.”
“Type of Investment?” Jason asked. “Khalil and Daehyun told us some of it, but, uh, we didn’t quite understand fully.”
“Each Mask requires a certain type of Investment, think of it like this: you grow by doing things that are in line with your Mask. Someone with the Mask of a Fighter needs to fight. My Mask requires blood to advance.”
“Oh,” Jason said, his tone betraying his nervousness. “I guess that makes sense.”
I looked over everyone as the conversation died down. We had a rough plan, at least I thought that we did, for when we left the challenge. Now, all that was left was to survive until the end of it.
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I took the first watch as the humans went to sleep, so I sat with Saia next to me.
“Feedback: The boots have a sound muffling engram,” Saia said as she finished inspecting my rewards.
“Useful for sneaking around, though not really for me, I’ll give it to one of the others. Next?”
“Feedback: The lantern gives off light but can be recharged with light related Source. Leaving it in direct sunlight would be the easiest way.”
I looked the golden lantern over, just a tad bit disappointed in it. “What about the scroll?”
“Feedback: It possesses an engram, and an infusion of Source-Weave. This unit sees no way for it to be recharged so it is my belief that it is a single use item.”
I blinked. “Really? How do I use it, and what does it do?”
“Feedback: Opening the scroll will activate the engram. It will launch a concentrated fire Source-Weave from its front facing side.”
“It’s a fireball,” I said slowly, my jaw just about to hit the floor.
“Feedback: That term is technically correct.”
“Hah, I got a scroll of fireball. Sick. Wait, can you replicate the engram?”
“Feedback: Possibly, but why? The engrams this unit already possesses are of a far higher quality and destructive level.”
“Can you use your other engrams?”
“Feedback: I’m getting close to repairing [Plasma Shot].”
“You’ve been getting close for a while, could you replicate and make this fireball scroll reusable?”
Saia hesitated for a while. “Feedback: Yes. Though it would there really is no point. I shall have the [Plasma Shot] engram operational soon.”
I opened my mouth to ask her to do it anyway but paused. It really seemed like she didn’t want to do it. I got the sense that she was proud of what she was, what she could do, perhaps she felt like the scroll was beneath her? Either way, I knew that she would do as I asked, she couldn’t really disobey my orders. So, I decided not to press her about it.
“Okay,” I said and stashed the scroll away. Then I pulled out the ammo box. “Could you make me some new rounds for my revolver?”
“Feedback: Yes, but I’ve actually come up with a way to improve on resupply.”
I tilted my head. “How?”
“Feedback: My work on incorporating the Source crystal into my [Plasma Shot] has given me an idea.”
“Oh?” I raised an eyebrow, then furrowed my brow at her. “Wait, where is that crystal? You were keeping it whole, is it inside of the drone?”
“Feedback: I’ve cut it up into smaller pieces to make it more manageable to carry.”
As she said that a dozen small crystal shard rose to the surface of her dragon head. I blinked. “That didn’t destroy it?”
“Feedback: No,” she answered simply.
Well, she did know better than me after all.
“So, what’s this new idea?”
“Feedback: I’ve made progress in the repair of my [Manufacturing] engram. Enough that I believe that I can utilize the Source generated by these crystals to make a substitute propellant and craft new bullets from my mass.”
“Really? How would you do it?”
“Feedback: The substitute would be a variation of a small fire explosion engram. The firing mechanism of your weapon would of course be useless, I would need to trigger the engram remotely for every round, but it will still serve to operate and load the next round as well as a sign for me to trigger the engram in the first place.”
I got, or at least I thought I did, what she was saying. Though I had some concerns. “Would there be any lag?”
“Feedback: Mari, I’m a sentient artificial life form designed for intense asymmetrical warfare. No, there will be no lag, in fact my design will fire the bullet before the pin even strikes the primer.”
“Right, of course,” I nodded, then something occurred to me. “So, this fire explosion engram, would it resemble something like this scroll by any chance?” I tapped the fireball scroll at my waist.
She paused for a few seconds. “Feedback: It’s design has contributed to my idea, yes.”
I shook my head. “Well, let’s test it out.”