Chapter 033: The Flame Burns Again

She played with me from the start. That explained what just happened. She knew what I wanted to do all along. She knew she would persuade me to assume the mantle since the beginning. Bah, much earlier than the beginning.

I thought I was so smart when I used the recent development with Simea to contact her. But she knew I would do that long before I decided. Perhaps the whole ‘developments’ (marriage etc.) were caused by Deviation’s meddling done precisely to make me contact her.

She played me right from the start, didn’t she? She decided to make me her Chosen One and then set everything in the way that was bound to culminate in my Revelation. I had nothing to do with that. Or, to be exact, I could just walk away from the path she set me on pretty much at every point… but she made sure I didn’t do that.

The more I thought about that, the more depth I found in this Revelation. Let’s take this… jinxed part about my class. First layer of Deviation’s… trolling was kicking me in the face with the large and open hook that was supposed to pull me towards her. She must have knew Overtyrant’s influence would overwrite her ultra-terrific character class and its absolute inability to gather mana through ways other than having sex.

To sum it up - she kicked me in the face with becoming Thrallbinder, thus showing me that if she wanted she could screw me regardless of everything I did. Without breaking her word. In the same time punishing me for using such a stupid way of contacting a God of this world and expecting her to show up when ordered (by a mere mortal) by almost making my heart stop.

But Overtyrant overruled it. If I understood the lore enough, his intervention was probably an important move in the Great Game. There is no way I could comprehend how this decision occurred. Who knows, few hundred years ago some people might die (possibly entire cities or civilization) in a divine chess games that decided my fate today. Especially if what Deviation told me about the importance of our group was to be trusted.

The way she… circumnavigated the main topic of the talk was probably meaningful as well. It might influence my future decision-making in ways incomprehensible - and unconscious to me.

No wonder Imperium has whole organizations dedicated to writing down every single word allegedly spoken by Gods. In both Revelations and Prophecies, their two most direct ways of influencing the world.

I shouldn’t think about this anymore. I’m totally going insane if I keep doing it.

I once read that a disproportionate number of mathematicians dealing with the concept of infinity suffers from mental disorders. Trying to figure out what the heck local gods try to pull was most likely even worse. Besides, if they wanted me to figure out something, I would figure it out eventually.

I will build you a shrine for this, Overtyrant. You saved my ass here. From my stupidity, no less. And yes, I know how seriously you treat swearing to do something. I will really do this. I should probably find a single person who knows how to pray to you properly, sigh. Or how your shrines look like since I never visited any.

Now, what did I learn today? I should probably figure out something. Preferably important enough to save my ass from Leria’s punishment for being stupid enough to do what I did. The part with entire Aeveria’s future being at stake could probably work. Especially when it could get even worse.

… Now that I think about it, Deviation didn‘t specify what she meant about that, did she? Ugh. Probably another intentional oversight. I’ll avoid mentioning that part at all. Entire Aevaria’s being threatened with some dreadful end was enough.

I learned nothing about the Different World/Just A Game dichotomy. Different World Theory gained few points. It was leading by far. This world was already on a complication level that made it being just a game incomprehensible. Trying to imagine the sheer level of processing power required to make it run gave me a headache. To be able play around people like that… If Deviation was an AI, it was one so intelligent that it made person (admittedly slightly above the average for humans, at least in an intellect) look like mentally impaired child.

What stopped her from taking over the world, actually? Locals were obviously capable of self-improvement. Entity on her level should easily outsmart any attempts at binding it via even the most sophisticated software and hardware bounds. Besides those written by AI of a similar level of ingenuity, but having an AI write security measures against AI rebellion sounded like a most horrible idea in history of mankind.

And there were like… actually no idea how many beings of a similar level of intelligence and power were around. This part got increasingly complicated with each DFI game. Hundreds, perhaps? If they cooperated…

The option of it being a game thus kept losing points. But it started with massive lead in points due to the alternative being so idiotically impossible, so it still led. But the margin kept getting smaller.

Now that I think about it, Deviation seemed to know Robinson. 'I believe you should be grateful to him’? What was she trying to tell m...

A sudden jab at my side woke me up from my thoughts. Oh. Simea was already awake. And was busy staring at me from her quilt that covered her to the collar.

“You are thinking too much.” She said when she saw that she gained my attention. “You once again got lost in your thoughts, thinking about something unnecessary and much too complicated, didn‘t you?”

“It was that visible?" I sighed mentally.

“Yes. You always look as if you have constipation when you do that.” ... Well, sorry for not looking like Auguste Rodin's “Thinker” when I’m busy trying to comprehend the stupidity and insanity of the world surrounding me. Ugh. “You did it again, didn’t you?

…

“Your ability to read my mind is slowly becoming creepy.” I responded, trying to save whatever remained of my self-worth. “I don‘t think that‘s a way a slave should address her owner.” I gave her a smile. Making it obvious I was joking.

" Well, I can change into an obedient and silent sexual appliance if you want.” …Tempting. Ironically. Only partially, though.

I chuckled. “Nah. That‘s one reason why Dragonspine Mountains are so backward when compared to Imperium. They delegate too much of their population into the role of silent sexual appliances... or, in even more cases, silent tools. The number of people that might have a good idea is much too small for their general population. Let’s not make the same mistake.”

She rolled her eyes. “You know you could have just said a simple no? Instead of going into long and ultimately useless historical and sociological trivia?” She had a point. “You are awfully talkative. Too much even for you. What happened?”

Ugh.

“Seriously, stop that. Reading my mind like that? You should wait for at least a few years after marriage.” I chuckled bitterly. “I screwed up. Badly. Mostly because I had an unfortunate idea that I should carry the same burdens as you do.”

“What happened?” Now she seriously looked worried. Let’s not make this any longer than it has to be.

I told her everything. Well, almost everything. That I planned to learn something important about our current situation by having a personal talk with Deviation. That I used to be her Chosen One in World‘s Requiem, which was one more thing I was too ashamed to mention it earlier. That it backfired terribly, but Overtyrant saved my ass from being in even deeper shit that I already was swimming in.

That I learned that the entire continent seemed to be knee deep in shit, with a possibility of diving deeper. Pretty much everything, besides the details of my career as a Chosen One in WR. There were still things I was too ashamed to talk, even now.

“Leria will kill you, you know?” She commented after I finished my confession. Immediately confirming my worst fears.

“Maybe it won‘t be that bad.” I said, without a tiniest shred of hope. “Well, we can‘t really turn the clock back. At least I didn‘t become a Thrallbinder.” Now that I think about it, there is a possibility that if it happened, I would self-terminate out of rage, fear and much too low self-assessment that bordered on depression.

There were limits of what I was ready to face.

Let’s… not scare her with that, though. I‘ve already made her worry too much.

“So, I narrowly avoided becoming your personal mana-battery.” Simea commented. “Imagine my relief. Though I could imagine few worse fates.” That was borderline pervy, you know? Huh.

“Seriously, I don‘t get what made you show even a tiniest bit of interest in me.” I shook my head. “Yes, I know it‘s a horrible thing to ask right after the wedding.”

“Now that I think about it…” She made a grossly exaggerated, confused expression. I chuckled loudly. “Well, It took me a moment of self-examination to reach potential conclusion. I think it‘s once again about my parents. And my upbringing.”

“That‘s pretty normal.” I interrupted her. She looked at me weirdly, so I decided to explain. “It doesn‘t matter which decision or character trait you analyze. If you go back far enough, you will always end up in your childhood.”

“Right.” She nodded. “Well, my parents tried to make me independent as much and as early as they could. Yes, I know how it sounds. Doesn’t fit them, right?” She must have seen my expression, so she immediately added. “Well, that they wanted me to make my own decisions didn‘t stop them from expecting me to make right ones. And commenting on my mistakes.” She sighed. “They expected me to earn my own money as early as I could. They expected me to deal with all sorts of paperwork and so on my own. Plus, as a daughter of wealthy people I kept running into people who tried to take advantage of that."

Being rich has disadvantages, I guess.

“Add complete lack of any meaningful relationships to this. I just... I just wanted to have someone I could rely on, for fuck‘s sake!” Wow. Simea using bad words? “I wanted to take it easy for once. Making all decisions and having control over your life can get unbelievably boring after some time.”

…Seriously, I sense a submissive personality. Or, to be exact, I smell someone who would like to be submissive but is yet to realize it. It wasn‘t exactly the best option though. I wanted this relationship to be made of two equals. Simea listening to me too much could mean bad things.

“And you think I’m someone reliable?" Not the impression I had on myself to be honest.

“Yes. In a way.” In a way, right. “You talk too much. You think too much. You are much too lazy when there is no Leria to threaten you with ass-kicking if you won‘t move your ass. Your knowledge from World‘s Requiem is a liability that makes you talk and think too much. Also, you have much too little enthusiasm for what we are trying to achieve. But I guess you explained that part.”

It hurts. Even more because it was Simea who said that.

“But you also have the heart on the right side. You had many occasions to take advantage of me but you didn’t. You were where you should when I needed you. And we can fix most of your problems. Or at least soften them. Which I plan to do, with Leria‘s help.” Ah yes, a dreadful union of an older sister and a wife. Now we only lack the mother-in-law to make my life even more miserable.

Actually, it might be the best-case scenario for me. Hmph.

“I have almost enough confidence in you to suggest becoming a servant according to your new class.” Hmph. “Almost.”

“Well, I’m sure about one thing.” I chuckled. “Until I have at least the tiniest bit on confidence in myself, I’m not going to accept even the most sincere proposals to become my servant.” Giving me a position of power over another person was a horrible idea. It’s like making a paedophile a kindergarten principal.

She nodded. “I’m planning to help you in that.”

“Well, thank you.” Heh. We are married for a single day and I already began relying on her. She is the single reason why I’m looking forward with a tiniest bit of optimism. Of course as long as I focused only on myself, since everything aside of me (the world surrounding us in short) was as far from optimistic as you could get. “Now, it’s time to try fixing another problem.” Let’s change the subject, I’m already beginning to think too much again.

“What is it?” Simea asked me curiously.

With one move I removed the quilt under which Simea hid herself. Once again uncovering her naked body. I wasn‘t even surprised when she blushed and tried to cover herself with her hands.

“What sort of slave greets her master with a jab to the side?” I shook my head. “I’m afraid I’ll have to punish you properly.”

***

Sometime later we departed from the bedroom. Simea was once again clothed, and without the slave collar.

I felt relaxed. More or less. Playing a bit in bed was a great way to start a day. Unless one remembered that he was in for a well-deserved spanking (or worse) from Leria. Perhaps if I try to suggest that being a Chosen One would be useful in the war we were prosecuting against…

Loud hem brought me back to reality. Right. Let‘s not go too deep. Leria would probably sense I’m trying to avoid spanking by assuming a scarce approach to truth. In her case, truth was the best way, even if it would cost my ass a bit of …

Simea rolled her eyes, grabbed my hand and pulled me towards the mess hall. Right, right, I’m sorry.

***

“You look better.” Leria commented when we entered the mess hall. It seemed that our… dalliances made us late for breakfast. Something we should probably get used to.

Only Leria, Lena and Menara were still in the mess hall, the rest was absent and probably busy doing various things. Training or wasting time.

We earlier made an agreement with Simea. She went to get something to eat from Kytar in the kitchen while I was supposed to get over it and talk with Leria about what happened. Her being here only made it easier.

“Let me guess, I no longer look like I’m suffering from constipation.” I answered. She looked at me weird.

“So, someone finally told you that.” ... I will not comment on that, Leria. “ Well, there is definitely an improvement there, I must agree. You look more relaxed. Seems like being married serves you well.” Not a word about how we finally stopped being so repressed? “I told you that you needed it. You were much too repressed.” Really, Leria? Really? “Well, now that this love comedy of yours is finally over, what are we planning to do next?”

I sat beside her by the table. “Well, I have few ideas. I guess we should visit Black Woods.” Alternating between the two local anomalies was already sort of a tradition for us.

“No way, the Werkmonth is about to start. Oh, right, you don’t know about that.” Looks like my face told her everything. “For about thirty days a year Black Woods is stalked by some weird warmachines. Probably something dating back to the times before the Dawn War. You know how anomalies like to vomit stuff they once devoured. Sometimes even from times before they were made, as long as they were important enough to be visible in local Dark.” I nodded impatiently. No need to tell me that, it’s basic stuff. “Well, the month is about to start. It always begins around the autumn solstice.”

“These warmachines… are they dangerous?” She nodded.

“I’m not sure how strong according to those levels, but… I heard that fighting even the weakest of Werkmen requires at least a Skeleton Reinforcing stage.” Wow. That would be 31-40 Aura Conductivity level.” And there are a lot of random Uniques stalking the forest. Some of them are considered Platinum grade creatures. All elite adventurers will flood the place. Any techmaturgist would sell his hand to get Werkmen parts.”

“Wonderful, so there goes my plan for future.” I sighed. “Seriously, why is everything so complicat…" Simea came back, with two plates in her hands. Huh, looks like scrambled eggs are going to be today‘s breakfast.

“You told her already?" Yes, thank you for reminding me. I almost forgot.

Leria gave me a suspicious look. “Alright, what is it now?"

“Weeeell… Something happened.” I answered. Simea rolled her eyes and handed me my plate.

“Now you’re scaring me.” Leria shook her head. “Alright, let me guess. You did something wrong and now you are afraid that I’m going to spank your ass with my sword for it, aren’t you?” I nodded. “Alright, if I promise you that there would be no spanking, will you finally get your shit together and tell me what happened?”

Now that was the most generous offer I heard in a while.

“Right. Just appraise me and you’ll know know.” She did so. I could see her eyebrows rising up.

“Chosen of… the heck did you people do during your wedding night?” Simea blushed, of course.

No idea why, really. I’m beginning to suspect she had much wilder imagination that we all gave her credit for. It’s easy to blush when you keep imagining lewd things… and you are a night elf, to boot. But the latter wouldn’t work alone.

“It’s complicated. But it looks like there is something really important happening, with us at the center, and she simply jumped on an occasion. She would probably have done so regardless of what we did. Even vanilla is a fetish in a way.” She took it much more calmly than I thought. She probably got used to stuff like that happening.

“Seriously, this is getting tiring.” She said, shaking her head. “For my entire life my whole contact with gods could be summed up to seeing their temples and priests. Also festivals in the town.”

They were a great way to remind people that gods exist. All of them loved festivals, feasts, holidays. Not like it was a bad thing, try to spend two months as a simple commoner here. Without internet. Without computer games. Without books. Without television, radio and newspapers. Average person from our stimuli-filled world would die of boredom. Having a festival every week or so at least gave people something to do. It was the same in our world at least until the 19th century or so.

“And now we keep running into them, right?” I interrupted her and she nodded. “Well, they were always there, now we just began to see their fingers pushing and pulling people. It seems that an important moment in Great Game is about to happen.”

“... We aren’t talking about End Times, right?” I shook my head.

“Nah. Too improbable.” …I think. Sudden invasion of ~100 millions soon-to-be very powerful people sounded like a decent catalyst for sudden end of reality. If that was reality. That’s where the whole idea derailed. “But it does seem that depending on the outcome of our little Deicide, the significant part of our neighbourhood might meet a rather sad end.”

“Significant part of our neighbourhood?” She squinted her eyes. “You mean, Ambryxis and surrounding lands?” I shook my head. “Dragonspine Mountains?” Another shook. ”Don’t tell me… Aevaria?” I nodded. “Just. Wonderful.”

“Whole continent is at stake, so… you know. No pressure.” She glared daggers at me. “Hey, don’t kill the messenger. I think it’s bothersome as well. But if your Revelation told us to kill Ambryxis, I think we should do that. I won’t pretend to have a tiniest bit of understanding about the stuff that’s happening, but at least the Overtyrant seems to be the good guy here.” Probably. But hey, it was already official that we are under his patronage. And he disliked doublecrossing people, so…

“Wonderful.” She shook her head. “Well, now that gods suddenly ceased being untouchable concepts existing in books and priest’ preachings rather than in reality, hanging on to Overtyrant and hoping he wants best for us seems like decent idea.” Of course, she didn’t have to remind that she was his Chosen One. But she just underwent a rather sad moment in lives of most inhabitants of this world. One when she had to confront the fact that other gods were real as well. Knowing they existed was one thing, seeing proof right in front of you was something else.

Now that I think about it, makes me wonder if self-termination really is self-termination. If Deviation spoke truth, at least one local afterlife seemed to be a truly existing place. What stopped Robinson from making players experience local afterlife? Some of them were idyllic, others… not so much.

Terrifying vision. Especially if, as a Chosen One of Deviation, I was going to spent eternity (or just a very long time) in Paradise Halls. Sure, it was one of those weirder afterlifes where being evil (more or less) was actually rewarded, but… it wasn’t my type of reward.

Wonderful. At least according to her own words, the typical ways out of the mantle were still true.

“Well, we should still figure out where we should go.” I said. Let’s not keep thinking about this matter anymore. I will probably go insane, and besides I just felt another side-jab from Simea. “I guess it will be Descent again, so…”

Vasyr Mirenir [P]: Yo. How are you doing?

Great. I think I just felt a sudden wave of deja vu.

“Give me a minute, Vasyr is writing to me again.” And he even used the exact same words as he did before he gave us our last mission. He is yet to learn that people of my nation have a cultural thing for answering common ‘How are you?’ with a detailed answer.

Avhar Khan [P]: I got married.

Vasyr Mirenir [P]: What

Avhar Khan [P]: You remember the night elf that accompanied me when we met with you and Vhera? In the restaurant?

Avhar Khan [P]: Well, her surname’s Khan now.

Vasyr Mirenir [P]: ... Congratulations? :O

Yes, I’m intentionally making this awkward so that you use different wording next time.

Vasyr Mirenir [P]: But, weren’t you going to buy yourself a slave?

Avhar Khan [P]: Plans sometimes change.

Vasyr Mirenir [P]: You didn’t invite me for the wedding btw? I’m almost insulted

Avhar Khan [P]: It was done in such a hurry that I almost didn’t get invited myself xD

Avhar Khan [P]: Alright, now for real. What is it? You are obviously writing me for a reason.

Vasyr Mirenir [P]: Well, I found potential recruits for you (do you have a name or something already?). Whole group at once.

Huh. Thankfully we made a naming decision a while ago.

Avhar Khan [P]: It’s Ardent Flame.

Vasyr Mirenir [P]: Right. Much better name than Crimson Blades tbh.

Vasyr Mirenir [P]: So there is a group of players and NPCs. Seven people at all.

Vasyr Mirenir [P]: No outstanding achievements, but they can be described as a group that got alienated from local adventurers. And Crimson Blades.

Vasyr Mirenir [P]: Seems like people who were really chill with kinky and everpresent sex, ending in Doomplaces only to discover things that nearly made them vomit.

Vasyr Mirenir [P]: They are obviously getting more and more against this place… and more and more alienated. That two of their members are slaves they bought and liberated didn’t help.

Yeah, locals weren’t exactly chill with liberating slaves. You could do this, obviously, as they were your property. So you could do whatever you wanted. But this weird local ideology looked unfavourably at this. Slaves should earn their freedom if they were going to be freed. Buy themselves out. Achieve something outstanding. This sort of thing. Buying and liberating slaves as your companions was seen as weird by the locals. But perfectly logical for people going redpill over local culture. After all, what was the better places to find people seeing slavery as abhorrent than among slaves themself?

Vasyr Mirenir [P]: Now it gets weird.

Vasyr Mirenir [P]: They departed into the sewers beneath the city with a mission. But they didn’t return. And didn’t resurrect either.

Vasyr Mirenir [P]: They were supposed to return three days ago. Now their sole non-combatant member issued a mission to search for them, looks like they left her a little trinket to find them. But nobody wants that, since the pay is bad and people generally think it’s nice to see them gone.

Avhar Khan [P]: Got it. We are departing immediately. Send me informations about them.

Vasyr Mirenir [P]: K.

“So, Vasyr found us more potential recruits. Whole adventurer team at once, to boot.“ Which would mean literally being able to be in two places at once. One advanced team (us), and one to gather resources, huh. That was going to be essential from now on. “But it seems that they disappeared in the sewers beneath Ambryxis.”

Leria and Simea nodded.

So, go to Ambryxis. Sell the loot (we got a lot of it). Gear up, and get ourselves a forging equipment. Then a trip to the sewers. Hmph.

Sounds like an easy mission, for once.