“What is it that you seek?” the Horned Rat asked.
“I want two things,” John answered. “One, I want you to give as much of your energy as I can hold.”
“Are you not afraid I will gain even more control over your life if you do that?” the Horned Rat mused.
The god’s face was directly in front of John’s, the red orbs gazing closely at him. “I will just have to beco stronger than you, might as well wield your power as a weapon until then,” the Gar freely stated. “I’m a small piece on the chessboard right now. I hate that role, but I’ll play it.”
“Mhmhehehe,” Richard giggled, his teeth parting a slight bit and a white steam rising from the gap. A sll of rotting flesh and electric smog filled John’s nose. “I can agree to that request. State your second desire, and I will consider what I want, want in return.”
John waved away the stinking breath. He had the inkling suspicion that this was all still going according to the Horned Rat’s expectations. Either this outco had been planned all along or the god was very good at playing it by ear.
‘I hope all of this is worth it.’ “Secondly, I want you to tell what you know about this,” John pulled the tracana from his inventory. He had already asked Nathalia about it, but aside from what its na was, the dragon goddess was helpless as well.
A whistling noise escaped Richard, “Now that is sothing rare you have there. Which one is it?”
“Its na is tracana tra, if that is what you are asking.”
The grin vanished and the Horned Rat took a respectful step back. “The first one, the high priestess,” he muttered and rubbed his bony chin. “How did you get your hands on it…? Ah, it could only be that…, yes, it was stuck in Thana’s head, wasn’t it? I can’t think of another explanation for her curse and you getting your hands on this.”
“I already told you all you need to know,” John cut this discussion short. There was no reason to confirm what the Rat guessed, even if it happened to be correct. There was also no reason to keep that knowledge, other than that John was annoyed with the god’s conduct.
“Indeed, here are my demands: First, you tell exactly how Thana ca back. Second, you, and whatever guild you will form eventually, will enter into an alliance with the Illuminati – starting next year,” Richard said.
“Next year in days or just next year?” John probed as he thought about the proposal in detail. It was December after all, so there was a massive difference there.
“365 days,” the Horned Rat clarified, “a purely defensive alliance between us.”
“Wait, BETWEEN us?” John asked, “Not having to aid you?”
“No, a two-way alliance,” the Horned Rat raised his hands. “I am here to nourish you, John Newman. To mould you. Make you the weapon that becos my way to counterbalance Romulus and his empire ddling in my affairs.”
“So, you want to be your nuclear warhead?” John asked with a raised eyebrow.
How John understood it, there was an extre unbalance in power in the Abyss. There was Romulus at the top and then there was a gap no one could properly fill. There were contenders, but none powerful enough to more than inconvenience the one at the top. The Apex, the sole dominator, who no country or organization that earned his ire could resist. It was evident that Romulus had stopped caring a great deal about the affairs of reality, but a return was always possible. When that happened, one did not want to be on his naughty list. Not without having soone who could push against him, at the very least.
And that was exactly what John could beco for the Horned Rat. Accepting this would put him in a collision course with Romulus. It may happen in one year or in a thousand, but it was likely to happen.
However, the alliance was going to be purely defensive. In a world where Romulus was going to be the aggressor and John was strong enough to stop it, it was better to stop it early. ‘And if I beco that strong I can always break that alliance,’ John thought. ‘Not the honourable thing to do, but always an option.’ “Fine, I accept,” he finally said and, after being presented with it, shook the Horned Rat’s hand on the matter.
As the weaker party in the agreent, he was the first to uphold his end of the bargain. John told him everything about Thana’s revival. That included how he had gotten the tracana, so he learned that after all, but he wasn’t going to break his end of the bargain.
“Disappointing,” the Rat said at the end.
“Disappointing?” John wondered. “It all ca as you prophesized. The hell do you an ‘Disappointing’?”
“Ah, prophecies are such a fickle thing, do you know how they work?” Richard seed to ask genuinely. John had to shake his head. “Do you think I am more intelligent than you?” the Horned Rat asked out of nowhere.
“Currently? Yes.” John had no doubts about that being a fact. Maybe the Gar was smart, but the Rat was a genius scher. “I would say your analytical prowess surpasses mine twice fold,” John took a wild guess.
“Mhm, let’s say I agree to that. My Intellect stat is about ten tis yours, yes?” Richard continued asking.
John let out a frustrated sigh, “That’s the number you showed , so let’s say I agree to that.”
Snickering for a mont, the Rat continued, “I would say when you reach around 1000 Intellect yourself you will unlock it, the ability to guess the future.”
“Guess?” John asked, “You are telling that you GUESSED that whole prophecy?”
“Divination is nothing else but a mont of extre clarity,” the Horned Rat calmly explained. “The pieces fall together, all of the information you have forms a neat little picture. The problem is you will never have all the pieces and they can be put together in drastically different ways. In the case of Thana, I knew all the important players; however, it turns out I was wrong in the end,” the god turned towards the house. “She did not ascend.”
“What do you even an by ‘ascend’ anyway?” John wanted to know. If it wasn’t her coming back to life, he was truly confused.
“I just expected… more,” the Horned Rat gave a cryptic answer. “Maybe. I think. To reiterate, it is a mont of extre clarity. Even the one speaking a prophecy is often left confused as to its contents. Maybe I will receive what I want another ti. But enough of this matter, let’s give you that power boost.” Richard tipped John on the nose. “Boop.”
‘Finally,’ John thought, ‘sothing to counter all of that spying shit going on!’ The bonuses were okay, free Intellect and Arcane Resistance was nice, also an SEP, but THIS skill would hopefully lessen the giant headache he got whenever he had to deal with information brokers.
“Onto the next part then,” Richard said, pointing at the tracana. “I think I don’t need to explain to you what an Artificial Spirit is.” John looked up at Momo, still soaring through the skies.
“That is a pretty safe assumption, yes,” he agreed.
“The tracanas are to Artificial Spirits what the atom bomb is to the nuclear power plant. They are the first application of the creation thod, an artificial sentience created from the theory of how to create a golem. The ancient Akkadians ca up with the thod, and their king, Sargon of Akkad, was the one to finally succeed in it, aided by the star god Enki and the goddess of chaos, Tiamat. By combining the technique with the most valuable tal he could find, Astrotium, a tal that is only present where a falling star crashes into an Illusion Barrier, he made an autonomous, artificial, and sapient being,” the Horned Rat explained.
“Okay. So, this,” John held up the tracana, “is an Artificial Spirit prototype made from a teorite?”
“Correct,” Richard said, “but also oversimplified. Artificial Spirits are the tar, more publicly useful cousins of tracanas. They are creations of war and of a less civilized ti, when Gaia wasn’t quite as uppity about interfering with normal folk. They can be reprogramd for pretty much all of the nasty stuff you can think of. Acclimate them with your mana for long enough and eventually they will have so sort of reaction to your intention based on which one of them you have. The dormant personality will awaken.”
“That is very vague,” John pointed out.
The Horned Rat made a helpless gesture, “The how to create them and all finer details about the individual tracanas were lost in the burning of Alexandria. All I can tell you is that they pop up throughout history, typically as advisors or generals to ascending or established sovereigns, rarely being outspoken about what they are. tra is the first tracana and bears the title First of Wrath – a title that similarly limits her approach to things.”
“…So, if its owner wanted to use it to sedate soone, that soone would only be able to feel while in battle,” John extrapolated.
“Indeed,” Richard agreed and then tapped John’s chest in a jesting manner; “If you were to awaken it, the tracana would most likely turn into a beautiful berserker woman.”
John stayed silent, that was not unlikely. It would be kind of weird, but not unlikely. “So, wait, are these things shapeshifters?” The Horned Rat just stared at him for a few seconds. John waved off, as soon as the stupidity of the question dawned on him. Aclysia could already change her exterior to a certain extent, so having things that were like her be able to do the sa wasn’t unusual. “Just continue,” he urged the Rat.
“Once you form a bond with a tracana you agree on a contract. After that, one of three things happen: either the mission you gave it is fulfilled, in which case it will either disappear by using the remaining mana as fuel or ask for a new contract. Second option is: you die, in which case it will blank itself after confirming your death. Last option is that the tracana rebels against you, although I have rarely heard of this. Not that tracanas commonly talk about their past contracts.”
John nodded, that was a lot of information but largely understandable. There was one more thing he wanted to know though, “How dangerous are these things?”
“You tell ; it evidently wasn’t dangerous when it ca out of Thana’s head,” the Horned Rat shrugged. “Maybe your Gar powers will warp the rules of this thing as well, maybe it will beco an equipnt piece or useless trash. These things are like the Japanese curses or the passing down of the Mandate of Heaven, mysteries of an older ti. You would need to find a truly ancient god of knowledge to inform you in detail about these things.”
“And where would I find one of those?” John probed.
“You have heard about Babylon?” the Horned Rat returned the question.
“The attempt to kill Gaia before Pompeii? Yes… they are all dead, aren’t they?”
“From Marduk to Thoth, pretty much,” Richard admitted and looked at the moon with worry. “As a last titbit of knowledge, there has not been a single report of a tracana being permanently destroyed.” The Horned Rat glanced at the moon above. “Now, I’ll have to make an exit, before Luna reconsiders whether her dislike of is stronger than her wish to see her love and Nathalia on talking terms again.”
“I really hope she associated with one and not the other,” John pointed out, and the Horned Rat cackled in response. Then, the god turned into a liquid of so kind, glowing a light blue before being whisked away. ‘Is that what teleporting looks like from the outside?’
John had another SEP to spend while he waited for Momo to finally land. Still no reason to hold onto these. What to use it on though? Blink was an eligible new target, but he had the feeling that he would get sothing like proper teleportation next. While that sounded aweso on paper, he doubted he had the mana to support that at this ti.
‘Let’s go with Mana Ray,’ John decided on a whim. His goal wasn’t even to evolve it necessarily, but maybe he could get a new skill out of it? He could use sothing else in the long-range departnt.
John was all fidgety to test the skill tomorrow. He was almost more excited about that than the tournant starting.
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