Chapter 252: Initial Assessments

The week - give or take a few hours - of observation passed by much too quickly for my liking. Given my status as a literal Central Legend, coupled with the fact that one of the rights of a Sponsor was to interact and question the staff responsible for overseeing their investments, Xalla and Xaz could only do so much to keep the various Sponsors in check before even their formidable defenses were broken and the floodgates were open. I was bombarded with a myriad of gods and other assorted higher beings who wanted nothing more than to suck up to me in various ways. 

Those divine interactions required me to dedicate way too much of my mind and left me with very little processing power to actually do what I wanted and scout the Earth Aspirants. I had wanted to just ignore the Sponsors entirely, but Noe warned me otherwise. I couldn’t be sure which Sponsors were neutral to my cause and which ones were on the Overseer’s side. 

Unfortunately for both Noe and myself, I still had no idea who was on whose side by the end of the week. It was hard to judge intentions when they were all so in awe by the fact that they got to see my work. About half the crowd were fanboys/girls/entities while the other half were just happy to see someone competent overseeing the Trial’s operations. Either way, I had absolutely no idea about the affiliations of the Sponsors present, aside from the few I’ve met before like Beelzebub and Skuld. 

In other words, the week with the Sponsors was essentially worthless.

“That is not true, my Host,” Noe interrupted, “We now know that our prior actions 10 cycles ago was well received. It is good to see our deeds rewarded and that our legend lives on, delayed as it is.” 

Yeah, a load of good that does us now.

Noe chuckled. “It is more relevant than that, dear Walter. It means that you still have a lot of sway and influence with Central than initially thought, at least for the Sponsors. Remember that their only goal is to see their investments pay off, and there is no better way to ensure that than to have the Legendary Lord Arbiter W supervising all of the Aspirants personally. They will not risk the chances of seeing their return diminish, which means that only the most die-hard Overseer fans will risk sabotaging your actions here.”

Oh, fair enough I guess. I frowned and looked over at the horde of Sponsors, some of whom were still trying to sneak a peak over in my direction. Did you notice any of those die-hard fans, Noe?

“There are plenty of your own die-hard fans, my Host.”

I rolled my eyes. You know what I mean!

“In that case, I have not,” she stated, “I believe that he will not risk tampering with the Sponsors with Xalla and her sister watching so closely. He is a rash and idiotic individual, true, but even he will not risk angering the Xollons over a single Trial’s rewards. I would be on guard, however, for any other kind of tampering.”

Good to know, and yeah, I’m sure that there’ll be some plausibly deniable hindrances making their presence known soon… I shook my head. Do you think it’s safe to just ignore the Sponsors from now on?

“To a degree. You must still maintain standard decorum when interacting with them, but it is safe to reallocate the majority of your mind to the relevant tasks. I believe Xalla and Q will help with that regard once the Trials start.”

Awesome, thanks Noe.

“You are most welcome.”

With the tedious part of the job out of the way, I allowed a small portion of my mind to stay with my main body while the rest of me floated back to observe the Earth. Now, while I was mostly busy with worthless bureaucracy this week, it did not mean that I was completely unaware of the Aspirant’s situation. To summarize, what I noticed was the following:

The men and women under Ryan were organized to the extreme. No, more like to a supernatural level. There was no discontent from his minions, even when they were given less-than-ideal tasks to perform, and in the entire week that I’d been spying on them, I hadn’t seen any kind of disputes or arguments among the soldiers. With a populace of roughly 20,000, that was impossible… if this was a normal group of humans at least. 

I don’t know if was because they had some kind of Aspirant with a strong hypnotic ability or the like, but either way, I could tell that my usual approach of inciting discord among the Aspirants wasn’t likely to work here.

“I think it goes without saying that the Overseer knows about your prior activities in Pandora and the Trials, my Host,” Noe added, “He will not allow you to get comfortable. They have taken precautions to ensure that you do not meddle with the minds of his people, and I believe that you will find your old methods increasingly infeasible going forth.”

I sighed. Damn, these people and their ability to actually change their methods! Why can’t they be like classic comic book villains and just let me play to my strengths?

“I’ll take that as a rhetorical question, my Host.”

Yeah, if only life were that easy… Anyway, Noe was right, I’ll have to readjust my usual strategies and try something else going forth. Either way, facing such a cohesive entity would be challenging, and that did not account for the two Anomalies. Unfortunately, those two remained an unknown factor; they couldn’t exactly use their full abilities before those aliens showed up. Ashwin was studiously practicing his combat during the week, sparing with any Apsirant that he could, but even an untrained eye like mine could tell that he wasn’t serious. I saw him in action back in that weird Earth, but I was willing to bet that he grew a whole lot more since then, so I couldn’t underestimate him. At least I had a rough idea of what to expect from this Asiprant. 

The same couldn’t be said about Ryan. I knew next to nothing about him, not even what type of combatant he was. Even the Rookie Arbiter skill failed to get any info out of the man - no doubt another hindrance courtesy of the Overseer or the Trash Matrix - so I was quite literally going in blind when it came to Ryan. The only thing I could gather from my brief time observing him was that he was a damned good commander and that he knew way more about Trial than was normal. 

In the short week that he was here, he had already won over (or more accurately coerced) the poor Canadians who lived in the city. I mean, it wasn’t like the other Aspirants were slacking off either, but Ryan had taken control of the entire city within the first two days. And he did it without any bloodshed. He showcased the abilities that his people had, explained the threat that was to come, and then outlined his plan to keep the populace safe. What was even more surprising was that the people - regardless of ethnicity, walk of life, and all that - believed him. They just allowed these strangers to take over the city and even seemed happy to do so. 

“I think it is clear that Ryan has some kind of ability to manipulate the masses,” Noe said, “And it might be even greater than your own ability to do the same. This is a city of over two million people, and he has them under his control entirely. We would not be able to achieve the same results as we currently are.”

I frowned. Noe was right, but I highly doubt that was the extent of his abilities either. This would be a tricky puzzle to solve, but thankfully I was juiced up due to my worshippers. Plus, I wouldn’t be alone either. Jae-Hyun, our trusty Regressor, was also in the city, and I was willing to bet that he would do everything in his power to screw over his adversaries. I don’t care what strings the Overseer pulled to make Ashwin and Ryan an Anomaly, but I was putting my money on the Regressor winning out in the end. Hell, he probably didn’t need my help, but it wasn’t like I was willing to risk it in any case. 

Speaking of our glorious guild leader, he wasn’t just hiding out during the week. No, he was gathering information, probably faster than I was as well. His paranoid and cautious nature was paying off because he had immediately grasped the odd situation going on with Toronto. Or, more accurately, he noticed that Ashwin and Ryan were anything but normal. He had warned the guild via the Trash Matrix’s chat that things on his end might become more problematic than initially planned, but he assured us that he had things under control. 

Knowing Jae-Hyun, he had contingency plans for any situation, so I didn’t worry about the guy, especially with Claire there to help. He had, in the span of only a few days, figured out Ryan’s commanders and higher-ups, and with a bit of sneaky positioning, he had managed to separate a few of the men among those commanders to have an impromptu rendezvous with Claire. By the end of the week, he had secured five of Ryan’s most trusted men, giving him unlimited access to the inner workings of Ryan’s guild, and minions who would defect from the man’s cause on command. 

Man, I never realized just how scary Claire’s abilities could be until now. The brainwashed minions were doing their absolute best to impress and appease the woman, morals and common sense be damned. It wasn’t even mental pollution, according to Jae-Hyun at least, so there was no cure once her unique powers infiltrated a person’s mind aside from their own mental fortitude. No potions, remedies, or even magic could fix this obsession. They were simply in love with her. It was a disturbing thought. 

Anyway, worrying about those two was a waste of time. It was about time for the aliens to invade, and what I would do next was dependant on how the Aspirants react to the threat. 

“Five minutes, ladies and gentlemen,” Q said with a smile, addressing the anticipating crowd that gathered around us. “Please be mindful when giving out Sponsorships and respect the 48-hour grace period before initiating communications.”

The various gods and goddesses all nodded.

“And,” Q continued, this tone firm, “Please remember that Arbiter W’s group is off limits due to his personal involvement with those Aspraints.”

Someone, a beefy red individual frowned and spoke up. “But that Marcus individual’s sponsored by Beelzebub! That’s a direct violation of the rules!”

“Yeah,” another god said, “You can’t enforce unfair rules that do not unilaterally apply to all participants. It is stipulated under section 11 of-”

Q raised a hand. “Before you go on to cite more regulations, Thoth, I would like to clarify Sponsor Beelzebub’s position.”

Thoth? Wasn’t that the guy who made my life miserable back in that village trial? Yeah, I had a few things I wanted to say to him… I raised a brow and studied this speaker again. He was an unassuming individual, human-looking enough aside from his bird-like head. I think he was some kind of Egyptian deity, although the exact information I couldn’t recall. Yeah, I’ll keep an eye on him.

“Beelzebub,” Q continued, “had initiated his contract prior to the Aspirant Marcus’ involvement with the Lord Arbiter. If there is anyone to blame, it would be everyone else here for not recognizing the brilliance of the Aspirants under W’s care.”

The others grumbled, and it appeared that Thoth wanted to retort further before a quick glance from Xalla shut the man up right quick. That was when I noticed something else odd… if almost all of the Sponsors were here, then where were Rogue and Big Bob? I had almost forgotten about them, but surely they represented Q and his Training Site, but they were oddly missing. I’ll have to ask after all the commontion dies down. 

“Now, if there are no more questions or concerns…” No one else said anything, especially now that Xalla and Xaz were in full security mode. Q smiled and nodded as he saw the two working well. “Then let the true Trials start!!”