Chapter 247: Priests and Prospects

Holy fucking shit, why did I agree to have the goddamn creepy ass bug priest help me? What in the name of everything unholy made me think that was a good idea? My eight buddies agreed wholeheartedly with that assessment as they were screaming at the top of their lungs.

I didn’t blame them. If I didn’t have a role to play here and an image to maintain, I’d be screaming right along with them! The goddamn bug priest, upon meeting us, had literally exploded into a pile of insects. Like, the critters started to crawl out of his eyes, mouth and ears at first, then his skin started to stretch before rupturing entirely like an overripe watermelon. That’s when things went to hell. Thousands upon thousands of centipedes, spiders, beetles, bloat flies and the like ate through his body and spilled out into the ground.

The damned insects seemed to multiply without end as they left the deflated balloon of a body. Thousands turned to tens of thousands, then hundreds, and before long, the room was practically a pit of creepy crawlies. The Aspirants did their best to fight the unending horde of insects off, and while individually, the bugs weren’t much studier than normal, it was the sheer number and disgust that got to the fighters first. It wasn’t like anything they did worked. As fast as my forces were able to squish, burn, and obliterate the insects, more would simply take their place. It was a war of attrition, and I didn’t like our odds.

They only lost their cool when the first individual was engulfed entirely within the sea of legs and chiten. By then, we were all hip deep in a moving mass of bugs. I did my best to ignore the horrid sensation of having an uncountable number of bodies crawling all over me. At least Marcus had the sense not to allow them to bite me, although I don’t think the same could be said of my minions. 

Walter’s Fine: Marcus, uh, aren’t you going a little too hard with the bugs? We’re supposed to win here, not drown in a sea of insects.

The Sheppard: Trust me, Walter, I am doing this for the best interests of the group. Humans cannot shine without adversity and misery, for it is only in the depths of despair that the human soul can shine its brightest. 

Walter’s Fine:  Um, that’s a great philosophy and all, and I’m not going to debate you on spirituality, but how’re they going to “shine” if they’re all dead? 

The Sheppard: They are not deceased, Walter. They are simply in a state where they can contemplate their own existence. 

Yeah… I think that translates to something along the lines of my Aspirants being in a state that was only tangentially alive, where they are wanting nothing more than to embrace the sweet release of death. 

Walter’s Fine: Don’t you think this is still a tad extreme, though?

The Sheppard: Perhaps, but I am acting in my official capacity as one of the executives of the Abyss Guild. If your plan is to be a success, then we must ensure that the perceived power of our guild is undeniable. It would be a terrible blow to our reputation if your plans went off without issue.

Okay, that was a fair point. The whole premise of my rag-tag gang of resistance fighters hinged on the fact that they believed that I had their best interests in mind. Sure, they were thoroughly enthralled at the moment, but that’s only because they didn’t have a chance to think too critically yet. If they saw that I was able to hinder the growth and operations of the Abyss guild without issue, then a lot of annoying questions could arise. 

Maybe those rumors might not be too terrible at first, and they’d see me as some kind of god among men, but even that situation’s not ideal. After all, if I were able to effortlessly destroy the executives of the Abyss guild, then why am I not destroying the guild as a whole if I were that capable? My Charisma might be damned high, but as Noe said, my ability to convince people was also based on the believablity of the lie, and making things too easy would poke holes into my lie. 

Damn the creepy bug priest and his creepy bug logic! 

Walter’s Fine: Alright, fine. So, how long do you plan to keep this up? I still have to convince them that I’ve beaten you and did some damage to our operations. 

The Sheppard: That part is quite simple. Just leave them with me for a night and I shall drop them off with you once I am done. If you rough yourself up a little, and with the help of Claire, you can no doubt convince them that you have fought an epic battle with me and narrowly succeeded in your task. You can even bring the remnants of the so-called artifact back as proof. 

Ugh, this man’s good. His plans are straightforward and practical, while mine tend to be… I shook my head. Never mind, let’s not think more about this topic.

Walter’s Fine: Alright, please incapacitate the rest of them soon and do your thing. I’ll, uh, I’ll wait at the front for you to finish.

The Sheppard: Of course. It has been a pleasure working with you, Walter.

And true to his word, the priest undid his swarm ability once the last poor sucker was engulfed in the sea of creepy crawlies. The various insects began to congeal and reform Marcus's body, and before long, the same “friendly” father was greeting me with his smile. Any indication of what had just happened was completely gone, save for the unconscious - and no doubt traumatized - bodies of the eight Aspirants I had brought along. 

“Thanks for the assistance,” I forced myself to say. “You did great.”

He gave me a kindly smile. “I was only doing what was needed. There is no need for thanks.” He turned to the passed-out bodies, and his smile lessened. “Now, if you will excuse me, Walter, but I must have a chat with these poor, misguided individuals. I shall return them to you promptly.”

I tried my best to ignore the way the father was commanding his bugs to collect the unfortunate souls, suppressing a shudder as the bodies skittered away on top of millions of tiny legs. “Yeah, you do that…”

Once the father was out of sight, I hurriedly scurried away as well, rushing back to my room (well, I had to get Noel to collect me first, since the damned ring that the Regressor gave me didn’t work since I had no mana - I’ll have to get transportation to Dracula’s castle sorted out one of these days) to take a very well needed shower. No amount of soup and water could erase the feeling I had just experienced…

I had just enough time to slather on some make-up to make selling my wounded appearance less overwhelming for Noe, and went over to collect the horribly traumatized Aspirants. According to Marcus and Claire, they should all remember roughly the same thing, which was to say, encountering one of the execs of the Abyss guild and the subsequent epic fight between him and myself. 

We were sure to adjust their memories so that I only eeked out a narrow victory, and only because my goal was to destroy the artifact and not to kill the Father. That way, I was still victorious, but the threat of the Abyss guild could be greatly exaggerated as well. In their minds, the higher-ups of Jae-Hyun’s organization were thoroughly engrained into their psyches as true monsters, beings so strong that they had no hope of fighting against them on their own. 

The only person who stood even a chance was, of course, their glorious leader, and it would only be through him that they had any hope of survival. That fact was so ingrained into the Aspirants' brains that it even overrode their trauma from being swallowed by a sea of horrible, venomous insects. I have no idea what kind of brainwashing the father and Claire did, but it was quite terrifying. 

Either way, with the proof of my “success” and the honestly exaggerated accounts of my exploits from the mission, my position as the defacto leader of the Resistance army was irrefutable. One of the members was even able to record my fight with the patrol group, and I had no idea what Noe did, but she managed to trick the ability into playing that cringe-worthy fabricated scene. There were some dissenting voices among my followers before, especially after my long absence at the Hospital, but my new, super-brainwashed goons quickly overwhelmed the rest.

Of course, as the head of a nascent, mysterious organization, I had to be properly elusive, so I disappeared shortly after giving out new instructions to the Resistence. They were to simply amp up recruitment and gather notes on the Abyss guild’s response to the destruction of the artifact. I’d set up some simple instructions for the guild on how to behave for the next few days and make a public announcement about this new threat to their rule, so things should settle down for the time being. 

It was about time for our presence to be made public, and that’s when things would really get interesting. If my guess was right, then the announcement of the Resistence group, one strong enough to threaten even the Regressor and his band of monsters, should divide public opinion quite drastically. Those who harbored dissent and hatred for Jae-Hyun should naturally seek out this underground organization, which means that the only ones - or at least most of the ones - left are in staunch support of the Abyss’s way of doing things (i.e., the Evil way!). 

All of that is to say, the new recruits for our guild should be easier to screen, making the lives of everyone that much easier going forward while simultaneously herding all of the true dissenters into one easy-to-manage group. Man, I am good!

All that was left for me to do was watch the show go on and make subtle adjustments as needed. On the third day after my “operation”, the Regressor, his sister, and Marcus gathered all of Pandora’s populace and made a grand speech about this new rebel group and the danger that they posed. He stressed that the leader (that’s me!) was a highly dangerous and deranged individual who would stop at nothing until they destroyed Pandora and its people, before finishing his speech with some classic dictator talk about the need for unity and all that jazz. 

I didn’t pay too much attention to the Regressor’s albeit flawless speech. No, what I was looking at was the reactions of the common masses below him. The vast majority, I’d say close to 70%, were still too scared and intimidated to do anything other than cower before the man. A smaller, yet much more enthusiastic bunch near the front - all of whom were very sketchy-looking individuals, might I add - were latching on to Jae-Hyun’s every word, looking ready to get up and destroy this so-called rebel organization as soon as possible. Those were the ones we could safely employ, if for nothing other than as disposable manpower. A similarly sized group were the exact opposite, practically glowing at the mention of the Resistance. 

However, it was the last group that got my interest. These ones, all huddled in loose clusters at the back, were trying to mask their emotions to the best of their ability. With Noe, however, they were like open books. These were the ones who were not paralyzed by the might that Jae-Hyun and the others showed but were still ambivalent about their decision. They were the ones who were not governed by emotion and were thinking about the best way to approach this. These ones I could make use of down the line, whether that be for my guild or the new organization. 

Either way, I watched on in the shadows, and before I knew it, months had passed and the eve of the next Trial was fast approaching.