SoK Chapter 212

“Are you ready to submit to the Heaven Devouring Serpent?”

Raya’s repetition pulled TJ from his brief satisfaction. He snapped towards the origin of the voice as he hissed to Molly, “Take Luz.” He stepped forward, unwittingly pulling wind whipping towards him as he went to speak with Sven’s second in command. She stood maybe 50 feet away, and how she had managed to appear while evading his constant awareness was, at the very least, not a good sign. If TJ was a little more honest with himself, he’d probably call it nerve-racking and a bad sign.

The wind howled around him as TJ sought out her exact position, though it didn’t happen immediately. The place where he saw her didn’t return any feedback, letting him know his eyes had been deceived. After another ten or so seconds, TJ realized that, though he could see the woman’s silhouette, she wasn’t actually physically present. The wind moved through where she “stood“ without any resistance, and she continued waiting for his response.

“Raya. You know that’s not gonna happen. What’s going on here, and why is Sven called that now?”

“The Heaven Devouring Serpent has solidified his rule over the New Republic. All the surroundings have bent the knee, and tens of thousands follow him willingly.” Raya‘s voice was almost reasonable, even though they both knew that she was a harbinger of war. Beyond that, there was something more to her tone and her attitude, an emotion he couldn’t quite understand yet. “As the leader of a pantheon, he cannot allow a fledgling to try to usurp his rule. He’s giving you additional time to realize your mistakes, now bow down and join his flock, or die.”

TJ Appraised the woman standing in front of him, though he knew that, probably regardless of what level she was, he’d come up with the same answer.

Acolyte (Copper (I)), 48

TJ sucked his breath through his teeth, realizing that, holistically, this woman was higher level than him. She was still a copper, and he had every confidence that one of his levels was better than hers, but this remained a concerning difference. How much higher level was Sven if she was this high of level? As his mind wandered, something in his Perception shifted, and he realized that his Appraisal shifted and revealed something else.

Transmission

“Raya, do we need to posture liked this?“ TJ asked, the transmission of Raya becoming less clear the longer he looked at it.

“It’s a genuine offer.” She answered, not giving a clue as to her deceit. “You won’t be the leader of a pantheon if you submit, but, besides Sven himself, you probably have the greatest potential of anybody I’ve seen. If you join in under him, your way forward will be smooth and prepared for you to do whatever you want. Don’t you want to protect your son? That little girl I saw is like a stand in for him?”

“I’m not replacing my son!” TJ snarled back.

“But you are treating that girl as a test to see how you will do with your son when you can bring him back.” Raya replied. “That’s not a bad option, and you are protecting a little girl. Joining in with a civilization many times larger than yours will give you greater security in protecting your son moving forward. We don’t want to fight you, there are enemies beyond our comprehension out there, we lost nearly 100 to a stray Silver that wandered nearby last week. Killing someone like you to consolidate our power is a waste. The Heaven Devouring Serpent will do it, but only if we absolutely need to. Please, TJ, be reasonable.”

Despite everything else, TJ forced himself to think about it. His immediate knee-jerk reaction was to say no, but if he had to choose between taking a backseat and death, death wasn’t even really an option. He felt his Bloodline revolting against the thought of submission, but he felt something else beyond that. It could have been from Shaman, just his own gut, or something else, but TJ felt it was strange that, if somebody could reach out from a distance, it wasn’t Sven himself. In the past, the man was all too willing to do the dirty work himself. That raised the question, then, why wasn’t he doing it now?

“I want to talk to Sven.” TJ said. “You’re only a messenger, but I’m a ruler. It’s only fitting that the rulers speak to each other, and not subordinates.”

“Unfortunately,” came the smooth, rehearsed answer, “the Heaven Devouring Serpent is currently unable to speak with you. If you have any questions, you can ask me, or I will ask him if I am unable to answer them immediately.”

TJ's suspicion grew stronger as he shook his head. “That’s not good enough. If he’s unable to ever speak with me, then I’m not even being treated as a subordinate, but a subordinate’s subordinate. Let me speak with him, and we can talk about a good relationship moving forward. Until then, stay away or things will get dangerous.”

“TJ,” Raya‘s voice became something slightly different from her usual excessive professionalism. “You really should consider this without troubling him. Things have changed in the past months, and what was once acceptable has changed.”

“Are you scared of him?“ TJ asked, incredulous.

“He is a God.“ She answered simply. “Great and mighty is his wrath, and one should not tempt fate nor the divine.”

“Raya,” TJ raised his eyebrows, “you realize he’s still a person. Like, actually becoming a god only comes at Ruthenium. You know, six tiers from here?”

She just shook her head instead of saying anything else. When TJ didn’t have anything else to say, she implored again, “Please. Is there any way we can resolve this without me bringing disappointing news to him?”

“I’ll never join under somebody who’s unwilling to speak with me.” TJ answered simply, making the blurry face of Raya sink in with disappointment. He knew that wasn’t his real hangup, and he suspected that Raya knew that as well.

“Then I wish you good luck.”

Her form fizzled away at that, and TJ was left questioning what exactly had just happened. Raya had always been happily complicit in everything that her master was doing, but now, she was, if not cautious, terrified of the man. Something had changed, and TJ couldn’t say if he’d threatened her, if it was something to do with the communication coming through a transmission, or something else entirely, but it was just another thing to worry about. He kept an eye out on the surroundings, purposefully expending more of his MP than usual to extend his control as far as he could manage while still being able to look where he was walking.

He found nothing, and it wasn’t long before he was near the center of their middle settlement, where Molly had already been gathering people together. They looked at him in curiosity, their belief in him keeping them from real fear. They looked to him for reassurance, but instead, all he provided was a finger to his lips as he ascended to the top of his pyramid and sat, spreading his awareness as far as he could while in the seat of his power. Wind pulsed out away from him, finding nothing for a quarter mile in every direction, for half a mile and every direction, for three quarters of a mile in every direction, and at a mile in every direction, he finally came across something. It wasn’t one of the Jackalope monsters that inhabited the plains, but a human. Not one of his people, all of his people were currently in town, celebrating their victory over the thunderbirds.

TJ opened his eyes and turned to Sarah. “I’ll direct you. There’s somebody about 1 mile away in that direction. I’ll let you know when you’re close. Don’t kill them, bring them back.”

Valkyrian Descent immediately flared into armor all over the woman as she turned and sprinted in that direction without a single word. Since her Attributes were so high, Sarah crossed that mile in seconds, and the person who lurked stood and tried to escape. Sarah didn’t need TJ’s guidance to apprehend the person. They tumbled on the ground for a second before the person disappeared. There was no time to react as Sarah stood up, saw something outside of TJ‘s range of perception, and disappeared.

Before he could curse to himself, she was back, a struggling individual under her arm as she rushed back. Less than a minute after she left, Sarah had sprinted a mile away to the east, had a brief fight, gone further east, won the fight, and brought her prisoner back more than a mile to return.

“Gus! What a surprise.” TJ was genuinely surprised to realize that he recognized the man, and that he remembered how he met him. Maddie was an Acolyte on the outskirts of the New Republic in those first days. TJ’s first interaction with some of Sven’s people, other than that man in Riverview Park, was with Maddie. She’d been a reasonable enough person at that time,, and she’d ended up joining him when they left the New Republic. The next person that he’d met in the New Republic was a much less pleasant person to be around—Gus. The man had insulted Maddie for the way she acted the moment she brought TJ and his companions back into the New Republic. That, however, was the most positive interaction that some of TJ subordinates had had with a man.

“Stinky Seth! You’re still around? Didn’t get killed? What a shame.”

Gus had called Seth “Stinky Seth” the moment that they came back in contact after the Tutorial. It would appear he hadn’t become any more prudent and the time that had passed since. While TJ waved for Seth not to throw himself at the other man, TJ Appraised Gus.

Devotee (Copper (I)), 42

A pretty high level, considering he hadn’t been particularly outstanding among Sven’s subordinates before TJ and his people left their territory. That he had changed his Class, though, was terrifying. Sven had always been quicker in the more social aspects of leadership that TJ, probably something to do with his Monarch Occupation. TJ had finally started to feel what the Shaman Occupation could do for him as he led his people, so as a Monarch, the man’s Skills would be uniquely well suited to gathering strength as the leader of tens of thousands of people. If he was able to grant people different Classes in the middle of their tier, TJ wasn’t sure what to think.

“What are you doing here Gus? If you get yourself into too much trouble, there will be problems.”

“You’ve been hiding for long enough!” The man began frothing at the mouth as he said it. “Now that you’re found, there’s nothing you can do! You will bow or you’ll be subjugated. You’ll be at the bottom of the totem pole, subjected to education, until you understand the true way to safety and divinity. You’ll see. Oh, those like Stinky Seth will be forgotten, and those of higher value will be brought into the fold to establish the true nation!”

TJ blinked three times slowly. The man that Sarah had taken captive was exhibiting all the characteristics of what his Class once had been: Zealot.

“Seth, I’m not sure why you think that, but we’re not just going to let people turn us into slaves.”

“In the face of the Heaven Devouring Serpent’s wrath, there is no strength of will that will save you. And in the face of a tyrant’s approach, there is only subjugation or destruction. You choose now, but if you choose wrong, only those who strike my god’s fancy will be permitted survival. You will bow or you will die! Bow or die! Bow or die!”

Gus‘s eyes rolled back in his head as he repeated the refrain, his already offputting loose grip on his sanity slipping away entirely. After that, Gus seemed to slip into a slightly clearer frame of mind, the ecstatic smile on his face fading to a calmer, but still devoted smile.

“He is coming. If he must come himself, there will be no staving his hunger off with a scant a few lives. Make your choice, because the Heaven Devouring Serpent will consume everything that he wants until he is full, and then he will devour more. There is no slaking his thirst or sating his ravening. He comes. He comes.”

After that, Gus wouldn’t say anything, but continued to whisper, “He comes.”