An awkward matter was the ‘when’ of Lee leaving.
John still needed her around for these trials. There were 7 of them and, Fianna excluded, they were 8 people to take them. Not a lot of wiggle room to deal with the 3 trials that he did get to pick his candidate for. Of course, keeping her around also introduced the threat of Veridion picking her for a trial she was poorly suited for. That, John could not avoid no matter how few he brought along.
The general competency of his harem was absurdly above the norm, so he elected that having her around was much better than the alternative.
“Once you were part of a trial, though, you can spend most of the ti back in the Guild Hall,” he finished up his reasoning.
“Sounds good to ,” Lee responded from the third row of the car.
The enormous semi-truck was rolling down the road. As the ssenger had outlined, they had been given a location to visit earlier today, coming in via a letter delivered by a mundane mailman. A neutral way to deliver ssages, all things considered.
Aclysia was driving. Nahoa was on the seat next to her. John sat next to Nathalia, the two of them sharing the 3-person bench in the middle. Lee and Layla did the sa in the back. Though they could have fit, the elentals chose to stay incorporeal.
The drive was less than half of their actual journey. They parked on a public lot, then began a trek on foot up one of Hawaii’s volcanoes – Kohala. Of the five, it was one of the two inactive ones. Paranoia suggested to John that this wasn’t necessarily a set situation on the Abyssal side.
“Illusion Barrier ahead,” Lee said, almost ten minutes before John’s own additional sense picked up this fact. Eventually, they arrived at the top of the mountain. There were so other tourists around, using the location for whale spotting or whatever else. They didn’t matter, fading like the wind as they entered the magical pocket space.
The Gar and his won imdiately found themselves face to face with a group of their enemies. Veridion sat at the centre, judgentally staring at a pocket watch.
By his side was Kael, the god of vengeance. His nightmarish form was imdiately distinct, a black thing of animated ash. Glowing embers ford the bones, light seeping through the cracks. When he turned his head, the air was filled with the snapping and scattering of orange motes accompanying the collapse of a log into a greater fire. Though his long-limbed form was already inhuman in its proportions, it really was the head that made the god appear as a monster. Black eyes glittered dimly in a shattered helt, poorly fitting around a bestial head with too many and too large teeth.
[Kael AI: scdn.imgchest/files/486153e567cc.png ]
John regarded the god of vengeance with an additional bit of paranoia. If he was going to start viewing every entity with a dark body and a mask as potentially associated with the Tzitzimih, he was going to have a long list of people and gods to track – the Horned Rat chief among them. Just because he wasn’t going to do that (without extra reasons) did not an that he wasn’t going to be extra cautious around such entities.
Aesthetic overlap was far from infrequent in the Abyss. The human mind being what it was and the world being such a huge and such a small space, it was inevitable. Often, it ant nothing. Sotis, it ant everything.
Further thought on that front was eliminated by who else was around them. The two gods were surrounded by a multitude of small humanoids. They seed to be sothing like the local variant on dwarves or gnos, possessing the darker skin and traditional garbs of the natives while having modernized in a variety of smaller ways, mostly futuristic goggles that sat atop their heads. John identified them imdiately as the nehune.
Beside them were a multitude of people that looked regular at first glance, but openly delighted in switching their faces. A ripple, a chuckle, a grin, a gesture, and what were set features in one mont were replaced with new ones in a blur. These were the Kupua, no doubt.
The third set of people were four native humans seated around a fifth that was no longer such. Though undead, the ghostly form of that fifth man was incredibly solid, barely showing any transparency even under the strong sun. He was a massive man, though not in a supernatural way. Around 1,90 tres tall, it was his girth that mostly made his silhouette so impressive. He had the body of a strongman, his impressive muscles shining through despite the layers of fat.
John found his face to be a bit peculiar. His eyes had a slant to them, the inner corners higher than the outer ones. He had big, dark eyebrows and short, white hair. The empowering fat made his chin look a bit bigger. Though he may not have been the most aesthetic individual John had ever looked at, that man radiated a natural confidence that could not be denied.
And why would he not, considering he was the first unifier of these islands?
“You bring to a man of great mana,” spoke Kahaha. His English was fluid, even modern. However he had ended up in this state of being, he clearly had not been spending it just sitting around. “I approve of this selection, Veridion.”
“As it is, then.” The god of oaths sounded almost disappointed by what the king had said. With a snap, he closed his watch and put it into his pocket. “Make sure your little dog does not get off her leash, Gar.”
John took a short glance at Layla. Her enmity was practically manifest. Though the hate was written in her eyes, though her body was tense, she did not make any signs of actually launching herself at the god of oaths.
Cackling, Kael shook his head. “Oh, Veridion, Veridion, Veridion… kekekeke… you know how to make people just hate you.”
“Everyone hates the one that keeps them to their promises,” the god dismissed.
The continued shaking of Kael’s head only grew stronger. ‘A dividing line I can hook into, perhaps?’ John wondered. ‘The Concord of War is far from a properly unified force… wonder why Kael is here in the first place.’
He did not have the chance for chatter. Kahaha stepped forward, his royal cape fluttering in the gust of his large strides. What level could this ghost be at? 100? 200? 300? Could he benefit from the Great Re-Alignnt through the surge in power through the Leylines? Was he perhaps more powerful now than he had been in life?
John did not know. He kept his Observe to himself. Putting an exact number on Veridion or Kael hardly mattered, he already knew they were between him and Nathalia in power. For everyone else, he did not want to deliver an insult unless necessary. The trials ant that he was unlikely to have to fight any of these people in a direct confrontation.
“I am John Newman, Emperor of Fusion,” the Gar introduced himself to the unifier of the islands. “If I clear your trials, I inherit your kingdom, do I understand this correctly?”
“If you prove that you possess not just great mana but great allies, then you shall indeed be found to rule my people,” Kahaha responded, his deep voice reverberating with a friendly baritone. “Such is the way of the prophecy.”
John wasn’t going to start (audibly) questioning any traditions that gave away control over land to foreigners based on prophecy. In the Abyss, that was a perfectly reasonable stance to have. Plus, it worked in his favour here.
“If you are done with the preparations,” Veridion declared, “then we shall proceed with the first trial.”
Regarding the god of oaths with a hateful glare was John’s initial response. None of this structurally disagreed with him, only the circumstances by which he had been forced into it. “By all ans,” he spoke, diplomatically.
A simple wave of his hand gestured for all to follow Veridion. They left the flat mountaintop behind, moving towards a gap in the side of the inactive volcano that John doubted was present on the real side of things. The cave was shallow, ending abruptly in a pitch black space surrounded by swirling, prismatic particles.
‘That’s an instance entrance,’ John thought instantly. ‘Well, that’s my WoW brain damage.’
“Is this a known type of Natural Barrier?” Aclysia asked the question that was bouncing around in his own head, while they approached this ‘Swirling Point’.
“It’s a known anomaly, yeah,” Lee responded. “Though the unusual part is less this happening and more a Natural Barrier lasting for long enough for it to happen.”
‘Fascinating,’ John thought. He had never dealt much with Natural Barriers. Create I.D. had given him so much more efficient ways to grind levels and then he had spent most of his ti in the Abyss bouncing between population centres. Natural Barriers were an essentially unexplored concept for him. ‘That’s likely going to change soon. If the Atlantic Fuse will experience a surge, so will everywhere else.’
The Asian situation would beco… very interesting.
It also wouldn’t be John’s problem. India, especially, would have to sort itself out. Not only did it lay beyond the scope of his interventionism, he also was moving on thin ice. It was Veridion today, it would be the entire Concord tomorrow, and if he did not back off at so point, the entire world would coalition against him eventually.
Stepping through the Swirling Point was fundantally similar to teleportation. There was a minor visual difference, in that the world stretched for a brief mont before getting squished back into regular dinsions, but beyond that it all functioned with the sa underlying principle. It wouldn’t have surprised John to learn that studying this phenonon was how arcane mages figured out how to use teleportation.
The theory was put aside, as the heat was a much more pressing issue. As John had thought, the inactive state of the volcano ant fairly little to the Abyss. They were now deep underground, in a massive chamber that could only have belonged to a videoga or a fantasy world. A magma lake the size of three-dozen football fields stretched out before them, filling the space with an orange glow. Despite the bubbling, molten rock being so present, the air was perfectly breathable. John doubted that air in underground magma pockets typically was devoid of toxic gases.
‘Then again, we might just be resisting all the negative status effects,’ the Gar thought.
They spread out over the black rock shore of the magma lake. As they did, a dragon rose from the incandescent stone. It was more of a gecko than John was used to from the greatest of fantastical creatures. Big-eyed and wingless, it rose up, revealing its three-tre-long body. Even at its size, it was quite cute looking.
Nathalia seed to read his thoughts, producing a jealous growl. “Watch what scales you covet,” she warned him.
“I may be a deviant, but I am not a furry… or scaly or whatever,” John told her dryly.
“Nathalia,” the Mo’o addressed the goddess of volcanoes with a bowed head. The voice of the Hawaiian dragon was even and pleasant – clearly female. “I am honoured to et you once more.”
The dragoness’ annoyance with her mate was replaced with an uncertain expression. Taking a deep breath, she bowed her head in turn – though it was a gesture of apology. “The woman you once t is soone I try to no longer be… I am sorry, but I do not rember you.”
“You… oh…” The Mo’o did not try to hide her disappointnt at all. “We t in the shadow of the Failed Ash, partaking with many other higher dragons in the sap of the tree that failed to be?”
That jogged sothing in Nathalia’s mory. “Kihanarea?”
“You do rember !” The Mo’o sounded equal parts relieved and excited. “I am honoured, Mother of Volcanoes! To be recognized by the greatest of the black dragons, by the Fla of Destruction herself, is nothing short of my pleasure.”
“I am sure it…” Nathalia swallowed the rest of her haughty response, in part because Salamander manifested besides her – with a judgental elbow jab. “The honour is mine as well. The path I have embarked upon will hopefully spare the humiliation of forgetting such a pleasant host for even a second. Perhaps I will even be known by an additional title in due ti.”
“Your molten heart shines bright with preparation for new life, Mother of Volancoes, I can feel it!” Kihanarea spoke eagerly.
Nathalia flipped back her orange hair in a prideful gesture, as her entire figure seed to expand with the inflation of her ego. Breasts pushed out, spine straight, smile on her red lips, she was the very image of a haughty goddess. “The supre seed of my chosen mate shall take hold within before long, granting this world a new generation of demigods.”
“Oh, such joyous news!” Kihanarea’s tail curved in genuine glee. “If ever you need a ward for a daughter, please, I am available!”
“I shall consider.”
“You already have the glow of motherhood, Fla of Destruction, I cannot wait to see it manifest in full. Truly, none-“
“Enough!” Veridion interrupted. “To stroke a destroyer’s ego is the last thing we ca here to do! Kahaha, present to them the challenge so that we may advance towards the mont the Gar ceases his aggression.”
The unifier of Hawaii gave Veridion a long and pondering look, before stepping forward. “The Fire Trial!” he announced and extended his hand. Created from nothing, a golden sphere appeared atop his palm. It was the size of a football and entirely smooth. “The challenge is difficult, though simple in its nature. Carry this sphere across the lake of magma using only your feet. If it is destroyed, you lose. If you place it in the socket in the mouth of the ancient Mo’o, you have proven worthy. Veridion, as the sworn defender of these islands, you chose their first contender.”
“Lee Magus,” Veridion stated instantly.
‘…Well, I suppose I got my wish,’ John thought.
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