Chapter 1048: People Keep Making Fun of My Plans (Patreon)

Thadwick remembered what a hangover felt like, but those were old memories. The original Thadwick had been more than eager to drink himself blind and chug hangover cures in the morning. Energy vampire Thadwick had the same excruciating hangover feeling, but without any means of relief. Groaning as he stirred into painful consciousness,  opening his eyes was a horrifying mistake as daylight stabbed into them like lances. He immediately clamped his lids shut and let out another groan.

“How are we?” Jason asked.

“What happened?” Thadwick asked, rubbing his temples.

“Hitting diamond-rank turned out to be quite the vigorous process,” Jason told him. “Probably because it cracked the magic seal your old boss put on me. It flooded out and knocked everyone on their tender mercies. The party lounge next door was bit of a mess, unfortunately.”

Thadwick shielded his eyes with his hands before risking a peek from beneath his eyelids, finding it bright but barely tolerable. Still shielding his eyes with one hand, he used the other to push himself to a sitting position before looking around. Rolling plains extended off in every direction, with long grass and patches of wildflowers. He was on a low hill, with a lone tree providing shade. Plains spread out to the horizon in every direction, giving the hilltop a good vantage. The lowlands had little to disrupt his vantage, although some landmarks loomed high above his little hill. The mountain-sized weapons found across the realm were here as well, jutting into the sky. There were three that Thadwick could see from here, an axe, a spear and a sword.

“Do you think a giant made of all the remaining corruption would be big enough to use those?” Jason asked, seeing where Thadwick was looking.

“I don’t know. I’d think if there was something that large waiting for you, we’d have spotted it by now. How far are we from where the corruption is gathering.”

“That’s it right there,” Jason said as he pointed.

A river that rambled past their hill kept going through a town that wasn’t too distant. It was all stone and walled, occupying both shores of the river and connected by an arched bridge. It didn’t look damaged but did seem deserted, with no visible signs of life.

Thadwick was sitting on a blanket laid out under the tree. Jason sat nearby, eating snacks from a basket. He looked up at the tree, a hanging willow that did a good job of shielding them from the sun.

“This is what it’s like in the shade?” Thadwick asked. “It’s too bright already.”

“Yeah, I thought you might be a little light sensitive. Raythe looked like she’d been on a week-long bender. Plus, you’re a vampire.”

“Where are we?”

“Deep in what was, until a few hours ago, corrupted territory. The corruption has drawn all of its power into one place. I grabbed you and brought you here. It gets really nice in this realm, once the corruption sods off.”

Thadwick frowned, squinting against the sun as his beleaguered brain tried to process what Jason was saying.

“Why did you bring me here?”

“It seemed like you were rousing and I thought you’d like to wake up somewhere pleasant.”

“I’m a vampire. Darkness is pleasant.”

“It’s the best I could do in the area.”

“And why did you drag me here unconscious?”

“So we can fight a conglomeration of corrupted souls with the collective power of a demigod.”

“What?”

Jason pointed to the town.

“All the remaining corrupted are gathering in that town, and we’re going to fight them. Or it, probably. They’re going to blob together into a big monstrosity, I suspect.”

“Okay. I have, uh, some questions.”

“Like why I’m letting it gather together and grow stronger?”

“No… well, yes, now that you say it. I was more wondering why you brought an unconscious vampire to a fight in the middle of the day.”

“Ah, I see the confusion. Don’t worry, I have a plan.”

Thadwick rubbed his forehead again.

“I think I’m going to go ahead and worry.”

“It’s fine. Having all the corruption gathered together in one place is a perfect opportunity. Yes, it will be powerful enough to breach the fundamental rules of this world, threatening to break the whole thing apart, but if we can take the whole thing out while it’s all in one place, we’ve won. Cleansed this entire afterlife.”

“That’s not a plan, that’s a goal.”

“I was getting to that,” Jason told him, and explained his plan.

“That is the most insane thing I’ve ever heard,” Thadwick said. “And I used to be a box with a sword in it.”

“The plan is way more sensible than that. It’s basically me fighting the guy and you supporting with your magic-sword-that-turns-into-an-arm-wrap thing."

“It’s more the specifics I’m thinking of. Who comes up with a plan like that?”

“I do,” Jason said defensively. “It’s a good plan. You’d rather go over there and fight a demigod-level threat straight up?”

“The very first part of the plan is you going over there and fighting the thing straight-up,” Thadwick pointed out.

“Yeah, the first step. There are other steps.”

“Are you alright? You’re looking a big ragged around the edges.”

Jason did have very flaky skin, along with missing patches of hair and beard. As Thadwick watched, there was a sizzling hiss as smoke rose briefly from Asano’s forearm.

“I’m fine. Kind of. This avatar was never built to hold the kind of power I have going on right now. I’m probably going to explode in the next couple of days.”

“Is that what you’re trying to do with this crazy plan? Explode that body and kill the corruption?”

“No, although…”

He rubbed his chin thoughtfully before shaking his head.

“No, I’ll stick to the plan we’ve got.”

“Are you certain that your brain isn’t being affected by what’s going on with you?”

“Of course I am. I don’t have a brain.”

“That’s becoming clear.”

“Hey…”

***

Under a clear blue sky and bright midday sun, the town could have been taken from a European tourist brochure. The tasteful stone architecture, cobbled streets and picturesque bridge, all nestled in broad fields of green. Jason walked along a wide road towards it, the pavers still in place despite years of weathering.

“You wouldn’t think that this was the heart of corruption territory,” he said. “This would be lovely if it wasn’t for the creepy absence of animals. No birds in the sky or adorable burrowing creatures. Not so much as a worm or insect.”

“This place does seem tranquil,” Shade agreed. “I would have expected our foe to be more evident.”

Thadwick had been left behind. Jason was wary of having him get too close, so now meandering along with his familiars. Having broken the seal shutting him away from his astral kingdom, he had been able to shape diamond-rank vessels for each of them, although there was little difference to look at. The most overt change was with Gordon, who controlled a swarm of no fewer than twenty nebulous orb-eyes. He was able to control them further from his body than at lower ranks, and had them moving around the whole group where they could respond to unexpected attacks.

“It looks nice, but it still feels dead,” Colin complained. “There’s no life here. Let’s find this thing, kill it and go someplace where the food screams in fear of its life.”

Jason turned to look at him from under raised eyebrows.

“Uh, I mean where the food is fresh. Like lettuce or something. I don’t think people are delicious.”

Jason gave a resigned shake of the head.

“I wouldn’t worry. I suspect you’ll have plenty of chances to gorge yourself once we’re out of here.”

“Yay! I mean, boo, not bloody ceaseless conflict.”

“We still have this place to deal with first. I’m not sensing anything, though.”

“It is likely more powerful than you now,” Shade reminded him, “while your power level is suppressed to gold.”

“Which sucks, but is probably the reason this avatar hasn’t popped like a balloon already. It’s going to take some time to make a new prime avatar at diamond rank.”

“That will slow down your activities, even once you leave this place, Mr Asano.”

“Maybe. We’ll have to see how my plan plays out.”

“I will admit to sharing Mr Mercer’s trepidation,” Shade said. “That being said, I’ve seen many of your other plans.”

“Why do people keep making fun of my plans? I’ve had a lot of success with them over the years.”

“You have almost died many times in their execution, Mr Asano, and actually did die on several occasions.”

“Nah, that doesn’t sound right. I don’t remember that at all.”

“I knew I should have sanctioned myself to be Miss Emi’s butler.”

They drew close to the entrance of the town, the road leading up to an archway in the walls. The walls themselves were not especially high or thick, certainly not enough to stop a determined monster. They more served as platforms for defensive magic that had long-since burned out, Jason’s senses picking up the inert mana pathways built into the construction.

The arch was absent of gates, revealing the town beyond. The road led through the archway and straight onto a wide boulevard that appeared to be the main thoroughfare. There were no signs of life, but no signs of abandonment, either. The buildings were in good repair and the streets looked freshly swept.

“I was kind of expecting a giant looming over the rooftops,” Jason said. “I don’t suppose the bad guys pulled up stakes.”

“It would explain the pristine nature of the town,” Shade replied, “but I would not go rushing to conclusions.”

“No,” Jason agreed. “I do get the feeling that the other shoe is waiting to drop.”

They continued down the abandoned town’s main street, looking around as they waited to be attacked. Fluctuations of power finally teased at their aura senses, swiftly followed by movement. Butterflies started flying up over the rooftops, looking quite similar to those Gordon produced but with two key differences. One was the colours, a regal purple and gold. The other was the size, each one as large as a person. Dozens rose up over the town’s low skyline, threatening to blot out the sky. Jason conjured his cloak around him and drew his sword.

The butterflies did not move in on Jason and his familiars, instead keeping their distance. They settled on rooftops and on the street well ahead and behind them. The moment each butterfly touched down, it started changing shape, taking on a very familiar form. They were mirrors of Jason himself, but with nebulous eyes of purple and gold instead of blue and orange.

Like Jason, they conjured cloaks to shroud themselves in visions of distant voids, but theirs were very different to Jason’s. His felt like a gateway to infinity, the bright stars and distant nebulas offering a glimpse at a place without horizons, eager to be explored. The Jason copies had cloaks filled with sickly-yellow stars, the nebulas within them red like splashes of blood. It was a window into a tainted universe were corruption was not contained to a single, sealed-off afterlife.

“What the hell is this?” Jason asked.

“I would posit, Mr Asano, that their cloaks are representative of their intent: to endlessly spread their putrescence across the cosmos. What they have taken as a model is that which they have seen most effectively spread what they see as corruption: you and your ghost fire.”

“So, the corruption models me so it can spread itself back over all the territory it was forced to give up. More efficient than the zombie outbreak model it was using, I guess.”

Jason and his companions looked at the Jason clones surrounding them. They stood, unmoving, glowing eyes staring from dark hoods.

“This isn’t a fight for the daytime,” Jason said, and tilted his head back to look up. Every part of the sky that fell under his gaze was painted with gloom, turning the sunny day into deep twilight. The town was filled with shadows, for a moment hard to see in at all. The dark was suddenly filled with blazing light as stars came pouring out of his cloak as if a dam had broken, flooding over everyone in a great rush. The sparkling blue-silver star motes were each a point of transcendent damage, tiny but utterly unstoppable as the punch through the Jason clones like needles passing through cloth. Everywhere they went, the transcendent pinpricks left wisps of rainbow smoke drifting in the air.

The clones did not sit still under attack, immediately swarming Jason and his companions. They all grew multiple shadow arms, each wielding daggers of black, purple and gold. Colin turned into red mist and melted into Jason, as the clones had no life force to feed on. Shade had already disappeared, his multitudinous bodies nothing but shifting shapes in the gloom. Gordon moved to intercept the attackers, his orbs becoming shields that intervened in the attack paths of the clones.

Jason played bait as the clones struggled to get past Gordon’s shield swarm. They hammered at the barriers with their weapons while those behind them moved to slip past, crashing together to overwhelm the shields with sheer numbers. The tactic worked as several squeezed through, only to be met with Jason’s sword. The clones might look like him, but they had not none of his skills, being rabid things that knew only rushing and swarming.

At first, the attacks of the Jason copies were entirely blunted, Gordon filtering them as Jason cut down those who got through. Afflictions swiftly riddled them, Jason’s afflictions rotting and melting even their corrupted flesh. Ghost fire certainly had an impact, yet wasn’t nearly as destructive as it should have been. Clearly, the mind behind the corrupted was getting better at resisting.

Gordon sacrificed one of his shields, turning it back into an orb before sending it to sink into the most afflicted clone. Once it had, blue and orange butterflies started emerging from the victim and rapidly spreading out.

The first hit Jason took was when the butterfly-producing clone detonated, launching him into one of Gordon’s shields. Others started exploding as well, cracking shields and destroying the butterflies before they could affect more clones. Just as it seemed like the clones might detonate themselves into defeat, fresh waves of giant butterflies appeared from all over the town, swelling the number of clones as they transformed.

It was a tactic Jason had seen before, enemies killing their own to prevent the spread of his afflictions. If a foe was dedicated enough, it was an effective means to prevent Jason from overwhelming whole armies with his afflictions, which he could and had done in the past. His best reply was to start doing things the long way round, although that was not as slow as it had been in the past.

Shade had been spreading all two thousand, three hundred and eleven of his bodies through the town, and now they started growing shadow arms, each one holding a black and red dagger than looked more suitable for human sacrifice than combat. Like stunted, haunted trees, their twisted limbs reached out strike at anyone within reach, even as the number of clones continued to swell.

Jason himself disappeared into the shadows, reappearing and vanishing again after a flurry of surprise attacks. Gordon, no longer needing to defend him, turned the shields back into orbs that unleashed beams of blue and orange light. They scythed across the battlefield, their transcendent damage slicing up the clones like vegetables. What was left were chunks scattered over the ground, rainbow smoke rising from where the beams of pure annihilation had carved them up.

It was Gordon unleashing so much transcendent damage that triggered a change in the battle. Every clone, and every remnant chunk of clone that had been cut down, dissolved into mist. It immediately started flooding away, over rooftops, through street drains and into doors and windows. It all flooded in one direction, towards the centre of the town.

“Track where all that’s going,” Jason said, suddenly left in a street empty but for himself, Gordon and a few hard-to-spot Shade bodies.

“I already am, Mr Asano.”

“Thank you. Is it just me, or was that way too easy? I wasn’t feeling the demigod level power.”

“I don’t think any of us believe that we are done, Mr Asano. Perhaps it was an attempt to provoke you. Draw out more of your abilities that it can better imitate you.”

“It bailed kind of quick, though.”

“I suspect it was relying on its ability to reclaim itself, even when cut apart or ruined by afflictions. It was not ready for the amount of transcendent damage you have access to at diamond-rank, which can clearly eliminate it more permanently.”

“How do you think it will counter?”

The Shade bodies turned to look at a vast plume of smoke rising from the centre of town, filled with bloody red and sickly yellow light.

“I believe, Mr Asano, that we are about to find out.”

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