Chapter 014: Setting Course

"Uhm, Avhar? Talk to me." Vaera looked at Leria with disbelief. I didn't even know if he appraised her. All you had to do was look at her to feel something changed.

I groaned in an almost physical pain. It must have sounded like a wounded animal.

"Leria got so pissed off at Pentagram for tricking her that she swore herself into the service of a certain god. And he answered her." It's hopeless at this point. I will not leave the Hold. Ever again. "He made her a Chosen One. With only a Lesser blessing, but still."

It might be paranoia, but I began considering that Shearazhyra planned this all along. Pushing Leria into despair and shock, making me unload my frustration on her and push her into swearing herself to Overtyrant. It fit her plan too well. Now it was 'kill Ambryxis or die trying' for us. If it was like that, then an archdaemon’s level of insight and manipulative capabilities was frightening. And they were supposedly as far beneath gods as we were beneath them.

Leria looked at me with her eyes calm and intelligent. Much more than they were minutes earlier.

"This blessing made us resistant to appraisal. No matter who tries it, they will see fake readings that seem consistent with what they know about us." She spoke with almost cold confidence. "So you do not have to be afraid."

"Great. Then we might survive. This week, at least." I sighed. It was hopeless, but less than it was a little while ago. "So what, am I now your underling?" It was rare for more than one person in a stable group like this to be Chosen. And they were bound to become strong, at least unless something slew them early.

"No." She answered swiftly. "I might be a different person than I was before, but I still trust your judgment and intelligence. All I will do is to kick you in the ass if I came to the conclusion you are doing something wrong." She smiled. "Metaphorically, of course."

Of course.

"Ehm, who is Overtyrant?" Simea and Lena came closer, eyeing Leria cautiously.

I guess it's time for me to describe what just happened in detail. Uh.

"A bastard son of Jesus Christ and Cthulhu, essentially. Though Azathoth might have been a better, if slightly unknown, example due to him being a creator of reality in Cthulhu Mythos." I sighed internally. No way they were deep enough in Lovecraft's lore to even know of Azathoth. "The most powerful Eldritch Abomination in existence. All Eldritch Abominations warp mortals in their image. The image of Overtyrant is what we consider normalcy."

I would not go into the details of his theology here. It was neither the time nor the place. Besides, DFI might have changed something from World's Requiem.

"And that's bad... why exactly? Master?" Lena was the first one to talk.

"Let's see... Oh, I know. We will use you and Radakar Varangian as examples." She froze, when I reminded her of her painful experiences. "The local version of Jesus would make his worshippers free you. They would imprison him and he would receive a fair trial before being hanged. They would also give him a chance to repent by religion, which he would refuse but even if he did not they would still hang him. Because justice."

She nodded. Her mood was better now. She must have imagined it.

"Well, most monotheistic gods would do it, because they have high standards and oppose slavery as an institution." I concluded the first point of my answer. "Now, the majority of polytheistic gods. They would have Radakar executed or enslaved and sold to some bad place, but that isn't a rule. In the same time they would probably not free you because their approach to slavery can be summed up by the word ‘indifference'. But your future owners would be much less abusive. And if you suffered even more abuse at his hands, you'd probably end up being sold to a temple to participate in the menial parts of various rituals. With many laws set to protect you from further abuse." She nodded again, understanding everything as far.

"Now, Overtyrant." I sighed. It would be painful. "His approach to slavery is pretty much indifferent as well, but what he did to you would qualify as sinful abuse. Because of that and being a willing and happy part of Doomplace they would classify him as the enemy of Overtyrant. They would have freed you... and enslaved him." I paused for a second. "Then they would probably rape him multiple times, chop off his limbs and genitals, use his limbless torso as a masturbation implement, break his mind into the state of pain-filled madness, make him eat meat off his own limbs... when he died, they would cook him and feed other slaves like him with his meat, while probably using his skin to craft something pretty and gruesome."

Everyone besides Leria looked at me with a look of utter disbelief and disgust on their faces.

"Well, I overdid it a little, but you get the idea. Their policy of fighting darkness by flooding it with darkness is pretty much like fighting fire with fire." I shrugged. "It works. In a way. Decemberists used a lot of them as shock troopers and terror tactic specialists. Whole cities or even armies of the Glorastian Empire surrendered, sometimes unconditionally, when the December Council threatened to let Overtyrant's worshippers go wild." They were useful, if scary. I was once sent as a messenger to one of their commanders. To the part of the city they captured. That housed most of the local slave trading. It was… an enlightening trip.

"You overdid it a lot." Leria interrupted. "Not all His servants are sadists. But there probably are a few." I looked at her while shaking my head.

"Quite the opposite. The number of sadists among Overtyrant's servants is bigger than normal because he allows them to go wild while still portraying it as good, as long as they do it on enemies of Symphony." I shrugged. "Getting off on another's pain is still something most of them would consider weird, if not an impurity of character. It's supposed to be done in the name of Overtyrant, to scare off his other enemies from being evil, rather than for your own enjoyment. Besides..." I turned towards the rest of the group. "In World's Requiem they couldn't do most of the things I mentioned. Torturing confirmed 'sinners' of Glorastia to death in a creative way, using disturbing imagery and magic, taking prisoners as slaves, trying to make as great slaughters as possible, to the point of rivers of blood running through the drains, that sort of thing."

One of their warlords conquered the city whose governor was none other than Radakar Varangian. By surprise, so he captured most of Radakar’s court alive. Almost none of the citizens managed to flee in time. It is said that the pile of mutilated bodies they erected to honor the Overtyrant reached all the way to the second floor of his residence. That all of them were like Radakar in terms of character and morality was another thing. They spared every slave owner whose slaves tried to help hide or stood up for. This, together with the fact that the rest of the slaves from the city helped them in erecting the pile made this a case of laser-guided karma.

I decided against telling them that the other disturbing descriptions I used weren't a product of my twisted mind. They were things from the backstory that happened in canon. There was once a Grand Emperor of the local version of Kynevia that due to divine schemes ended up as a servant of Pandaemonium, WR version of Pentagram. It took him a few years to replace all key figures of the court and imperial organizations (like the Imperial Magic Guild and the Imperial Army) with more Pandaemonium-worshippers. When he finished, he started a reign of such terror it made the Third Reich look like a liberal democracy.

The long civil war ended when Overtyrant’s worshippers - part of the War of Symphony, their version of the Crusades, proclaimed against the mad imperator - stormed the capital and took the ruler (and most of his court) prisoner. Then did the aforementioned things to them. The Imperium actually went damnatio memoriae on details, expunging him from all records. Most of its ingame leadership refused to acknowledge there even was such an imperator. According to the rest, after the symphonists finished their ‘well deserved tortures’ (my God, what an understatement) they handed what remained of the emperor to the Imperium. Which, supposedly, did even worse things to him, applying the most terrible punishment in their justice system. That made everything the symphonists did look like lover’s caresses.

The Imperium made scaring its opponents shitless part of its national policy of law enforcement. It worked.

All of that was in the backstory. Even during the war against Glorastia they never came close to this level of sadism. World’s Requiem was quite censored in that matter. But considering the fact that Gates of Eternity was an uncensored version of WR...

"So..." Lena interrupted the brief silence. "Leria is now an extreme chaotic good version of a paladin?" Seeing my look she concluded. "I played a pen & paper RPG. Once."

"Well, trying to sum up Overtyrant as chaotic good is stupid, if you ask me. I agree with DFI’s conclusion that this is limiting. As Robinson once said: one civilization’s genocide is another civilization’s social assistance." Which soon became a famous quote since he said it right after the Hamburgian Commune tried to help its war effort against federal government by euthanizing all people too old or weak to work. Which ended up unifying pretty much everyone in Europe against them. They barely started before they were gone. Even insanity should have limits. "But yeah. Leria is now a paladin." I looked at my ‘sister’ with curiosity. "So, you changed your ways?"

"Yes." She answered. "Before, I was stupid. Even my pledge of loyalty to Overtyrant was caused more by being offended than by a genuine wish to strive for good. But... what for you was a split second for me was like an eternity. Weeks, maybe months spent in a void, basking in His darkness. He made me understand a lot of things." She went silent for a while. "Pentagram is a symptom, not the cause. It works because people feel that becoming evil and striving for power rather than for self-improval is more beneficial. It works because people are selfish. And the Dragonspine Mountains are filled to the brim with impure people like that." She growled. She was angry. "To stamp out Pentagram is to stamp out impurity. To stamp out the abhorrent civilization of the Dragonspine Mountains is to stamp out impurities, even if only locally."

We all looked at her, dumbfounded. This monologue about morality was the last thing we expected from her. I guess getting used to her new self would take a while.

I would have been more shocked if she claimed to speak with Overtyrant. He never spoke to anyone. If he did, they would die. Meeting Agony or Malice would break one's mind like a match, and he was more powerful than them by an order of magnitude. It wasn't even his real name since he never introduced himself to anyone.

What she described was a brainwashing. All Aberrants warped mortals’ minds; it was called depravity by specialists and was a part of the general corruption they caused. What was different was that Overtyrant’s 'brainwash' was closer to enlightening. His ‘depravity’ was our empathy, conscience, intelligence and morality.

"...Well." I began after a short while. "So, I presume, we are now tasked with making sure that the new version of the Seventh December Treaty will triumph and conquer the Dragonspine Mountains. Which will be trivial. Tens of thousands of disciplined soldiers, tens of thousands of adventurers, dozens if not hundreds of archdaemons, guardian deities and archmagicians... TRIVIAL I say.” And it’s going to get worse when some demigod decides to help defend it. They made Shearazhyra look like a puppy.

"Yes." Leria didn't notice my sarcasm. Or, more probable, she ignored it. "Our first target should be killing Ambryxis."

"... Even if it means listening to HER?"

"Yes." Leria nodded. "But before we do it, we have to finish the investigation of The Descent. And find out the truth behind the Black Woods. Don't ask me why, I just know it is like that. The Descent is required, the other one optional. We shouldn't kill Ambryxis before we do it, no matter what."

... Mhm. Interesting. So Ambryxis has some ties with… how was he called? Khyzarich the Defiler? Something like that.

Alright. I guess this might have its advantages. Triggering the fall of the region - or at least helping it - should be easy once armies of righteous warriors start demolishing every semblance of civilization in the area. Best case scenario, we will open the gates during the siege or something. Seeing the Dragonspine Mountains - or even Ambryxis - fall will be sweet. Like Glorastia all over again.

I didn't have to ask Lena and Simea for their opinions. I could see it in their eyes. Lena hated everything the Doomplace stood for. Fervently. This would just allow her to stop restraining this hatred. Simea's disdain was less... straightforward, but DFI had screwed her over, pissed her off, and set her against sex, especially the forced kind. And she was inside the world's capital of forced sex. There was only one unknown in this equation...

"Vaera?" The mountain elf looked at me questioningly. "Are you ok with us going that route?"

"It depends." He turned toward Leria. "What do you think of the mountain elves’ customs?"

"They are abhorrent." She answered swiftly. Oh right. One of the khardic impurities of character was dishonesty. A Chosen One of Overtyrant would never lie to someone she considered a companion. Against enemies of their god, sure. But not against those that trusted them and did not deserve to be lied to. Even if the truth was painful. "The raids against your neighbours and enslaving them are the only problem, though. If you promise to make them abstain from it, I'm fine with you doing whatever else you wish."

"I'm fine with that, then." Vaera shrugged. "To be honest, after seeing the world I must agree that our customs are rather... outdated. Spending less time murdering each other and more on discovering agriculture might be a good idea. I would also love to see the world outside the Dragonspine Mountains for a comparison, by the way."

I nodded. "We can try to do that. Now... could we please return to summoning familiars?" I sighed. "Maybe we can do it for real this time." Getting screwed over AGAIN would be too much, even for DFI.

“I don’t need it.” Leria spoke, reminding me that she is now a magic user, since Tyranites use it.

She straightened her hand in front of her. I was about to ask what she was doing when I saw that something small and dark was looking at me from beneath her cuff.

Shard of Bravery

Familiar of Leria Khan

Category: Eldritch/Overtyrant

Type: Daemon/Spirit

Threat Grade: Copper I

A small shard of Overtyrant’s influence, given form and limited sentience. Attuned to the purity of Bravery, it can buff nearby allies of good character, but is incapable of attacking enemies on its own.

Knows following spells and hexes:

Touch of Bravery

I whizzed with admiration.

"Copper I with the ability to cast support hex? That's rare." The familiars could grow stronger overtime, feeding on our own achievements (slain daemons, general fame and popular belief in our strength) and even evolving into stronger beings. It was the main reason for them to answer our calls.

Considering the ways of the Dark, there was a literally unlimited number of such Shards dwelling in Harmony, the khardic afterlife, and the realm of Overtyrant. This limited their chances to advance and become something greater. Most of them never had such a chance ... though they were immortal, so they could all potentially have it one day.

There was a chance to get much stronger familiars - Iron grade, for example, sometimes even higher - but having a hex while being on this level meant that there was a lot of potential to grow. Not to mention that it amplified her magical abilities, increasing her manapool by serving as a living pipeline flooding her with power drawn from the Dark. Sometimes they also allowed their contracted casters to use unique spells and hexes. All of this while being easily summoned to fight alongside you.

"Are we doing it or what?" Simea must have grown impatient by our sidetracking. I nodded.

"Yes, yes. Don't be so impatient."

***

Once again, I was the first one to be the center of familiar summoning. Our mana mostly regenerated so we decided to do without delays.

As I expected, there were no complications. DFI must have temporarily backed off from its mission to make my life miserable. After a microscopic breach into the Dark was opened, I sent a magical spike tainted with Doom Magic. A few seconds later, something showed itself in the hole in reality.

It was a floating crystal, an uneven ball not bigger than my hand. It was white and not transparent, making it look like crystalized milk... or something else. Fuck you, Doomplace, you make me think of weird things.

Sunstone

Familiar of Avhar Khan

Category: Eldritch/Doom [Whitesun]

Type: Daemon/Spirit

Threat Grade: Copper VI

A spirit-grade daemon connected to the mysterious Aberrant called White Sun. While its cult is considered a proscribed one in Imperium, it is hostile to Pentagram and because of that is mostly ignored by authorities as long as it doesn’t grow too strong.

Knows following spells and hexes:

Purifying Light

Whitesun Flare

Recently I discovered that you can appraise the spells and hexes of the already appraised target, to see what sort of tricks they have in store. Normally you only know what you observed, so this trick ability to spy on enemies is rather limited. Since the skill names were already visible, I looked at them.

... Nice. Purifying Light made it project some magic light that was 'slightly' unnerving to sanity, but suppressed debuffs cast on you and your allies, while weakening Life, Death or Lust Magic attacks on lifeforce (only 10% though). Whitesun Flare was a simple offensive hex, that fired a small bolt of 'whitesun fire' that, surprisingly, caused mental damage on contact while burning target's mana. It wasn't even hot. Hmph.

Let it be. I accept it. Normally you could break the contract before it settled properly, but in this case there was no need. For an added benefit, the Eldritch/Doom [Whitesun] suggested that it might serve as an opening for a subschool of Doom Magic. Not now, but perhaps one day.

The hostility towards Pentagram was… troublesome. Let’s hope that it doesn’t mean that another eldritch power jumped on the bandwagon to start meddling.

We made a break to regenerate mana in peace. We also informed Kytar of what happened. He returned to work, planning to keep digging the passage in the collapse on the other side of the corridor leading to the ritual room until the time comes. I retreated to my quarters and spent the whole break drinking and reading a book on my bed.

This morning was tiring. Really fucking tiring. I guess that Simea got her 'reason to work' she pestered me about in the city. Being marked by Overtyrant set our priorities straight. Survive, improve, overcome, turn the population of Ambryxis into a limited edition toothpaste. No problem. I do stuff like that for warm-up.

Three hours later I heard a loud knocking on my bedroom door. The heck?

"Come in!" I expected Simea and braced myself for inevitable awkwardness. Surprisingly, it was Leria.

"Get up, it is time." I sighed.

"Why? I have 95% of mana, it's enough for the summoning, but I can surely get 100% before..."

"Three seconds. Then I kick your ass." What?!

"Leria, I know you will be strict from now on, but…”

"Two seconds."

"Hey, I want to rest properly! There is no point in…”

"One second."

I jumped out of the bed, almost tripping over an empty bottle. Uh, this will be a pain.

"Good. There is a difference between rest and indulging in your laziness." She informed me. "Before you go to the ritual room, you should clean this place up."

Well... she had a point. There were ten empty bottles beside my bed. And an unstable tower made from read books I had no time to put back in place.

"This is plain tyranny!" ...But I wasn't going to surrender unconditionally.

"This is guidance." She replied, unfazed. "You might have great knowledge of this world and you are a very intelligent person, but you leave a terrible mess behind you and work exactly as hard as you have to. Not to mention your tendency to procrastinate. I will beat this out of you."

"But..."

"If you keep going like that then your 'but' will meet my boot. Have I made myself clear?"

I nodded. "Yes, madam."

"Good. I'm leaving. Trust me, I will know if you make Kytar clean it up." She turned back and disappeared through the door.

FUCK.

***

We all met again in the ritual room. This time even Kytar came to observe what would happen.

The fact that Leria came surprised me.

"I want to see Simea's familiar." She smiled like a rascal about to make a great joke.

It was good to know she is still capable of having fun. This would obviously be funny. For everyone except Simea, that is.

"I see. So you do have a sense of humour after all." I commented while taking my position for the ritual.

"What are you two talking about?" Simea looked at us suspiciously.

"It's nothing. Let's start." She still looked at us like that when I started. Once again we used the combined magic power to breach a hole in Reality and send a magical spike to the other side. This time I tainted it with Simea's Lust Magic.

Soon a levitating ball manifested itself in the breach. It was like a mix of pink and red colours, almost transparent and not bigger than a man's fist.

Spirit of Passion

Familiar of Simea Rymarz

Category: Life/Lust

Type: Daemon/Spirit

Threat Grade: Copper V

A lowest grade of daemons loyal to Deviation and Hedonism, a pair of gods ruling over Paradise Halls. It hails from the power of the former one, an Imperial Goddess of Sex, Lust and Perversion.

It is literally a sexual desire made semi-material. While not strong in itself, it can be dangerous when combined with other beings that can use more powerful Lust Magic.

Knows following spells and hexes:

Foreplay

I could saw Simea eyes opening widely… and Leria’s chuckle from the background. I restrained myself. It was inevitable, yes, but considering the trauma I shared with Simea… it was sad. Leria didn’t know the details of it and from her point of view, even after her conversion, we were both idiotically prude and restrained. So she found it funny.

"Looks like its hex is a very powered down Arousal." I said to Simea. Judging from her reaction she was yet to look at that part of the description. "It also makes the target more... sensitive to further Lust Magic spells. I guess it fits you."

"But... I don't want it!" She almost cried. Damn, now I wanted to hug her. She looked so pitiful... Eh.

"Simea." She looked at me. "You are a Lust Magic specialist. Your magic signature is bound to draw Lust Magic aligned daemons. In fact, they are the best fit for you."

"Can I change my class?"

I shook my head. "Theoretically yes, but your race has bonuses only to Lust Magic. It's worse than average in other schools. You will be much weaker if you try. And by saying 'much' I really mean it. Like, 40-50% on level 100?" She looked down. "It's a terrible idea considering the fact we will require every bit of firepower we can muster to survive."

She sighed.

"Let it be." The Spirit felt her acceptance (however reluctant it was) and drifted towards her.

So, it's only Lena left, and then we can say goodbye to the familiar summoning ritual, at least for now.