SoK Chapter 214 (Patreon)

It wasn’t long before TJ walked away from the lake shore, leaving a monster eager to finally sate its most monstrous appetites in his wake. Having Appraised the beast before he walked away, TJ was doubly glad to have been graced by such a patient monster when he tried to fight it those months ago. An Elite monster that was currently level 69 could probably compare to the thunderbird Boss that TJ had fought. Honestly, TJ knew he would have more trouble fighting Lanny than he had against the Thunderbird. After all, the thunderbirds were agile monsters, potent and dangerous, but much easier to harm and kill than other Elites at their level.

Regardless of his own chances against the Ahuizotl, having a monstrous ally on his side to fight against whatever was coming was more than welcome. TJ hadn’t seen Lanny fight outside of the lake, and he didn’t know what exactly would happen, but he figured bringing a torrential downpour would weaken their attackers while strengthening his side, whether they be monstrous or otherwise. With the Blessing that gave a 5% boost to his followers while in the storm, they’d have another leg up, as well as the bonuses from following him and defending their land. That would be his next order of business, he supposed, shifting the storm away from one with a little rain and lots of wind to a true thunderstorm. Not having the thunderbirds lurking and threatening was a glorious change that gave further flexibility for his storms.

As he made his way back to his little settlement, TJ wondered how much time they would have. With the siege in the Tutorial, they’d at least had that countdown and thus known exactly when to prepare by. Now, it was just a nebulous question of how long the New Republic would take to decide to attack. Or, he supposed, there was a chance that Sven would decide not to engage in a wholesale slaughter of others to feed his ambitions of ascending to the Divine Throne. TJ wasn’t quite willing to go that far, and going off of how his greatest supporters feared Sven, TJ doubted there’d be any such change. Maybe the man would become reasonable in the next few days, but TJ couldn’t hold off on protecting his people hoping on that assumption.

Fortunately, while he drew closer to his little town, Gus’s screaming struggles had died out. TJ could still feel a little bit of the Ritualistic Transfer Skill continuing, so the man hadn’t died or continued to resist. There was a small trickle of resources flowing into his temple, TJ could feel, so he jogged closer to check out what was happening at the Ziggurat. Looking at the top floor, Sarah still held Gus by the arm, but the crazed man no longer struggled with any notable strength. He twitched and whimpered, and TJ felt his stomach twist, looking at the victim of his own need for power.

He’d promised the System, and he’d promised himself that he would become a monster. He said that he would do it for his son, but was he willing to continue to act like this for the rest of his life? Was he going to be somebody who would torture people who threatened him to help keep himself safe? The sight of Gus there, a sacrifice in all but name to his greed and need to be in control, made him question his path.

He gritted his teeth and looked at Gus‘s tear streaked face. He forced himself to acknowledge the fact that, despite any moral compunctions, despite how he felt about it, this was what he had done. Worse still, he had forced people who followed him to do it instead of dealing the blow himself. He’d done that knowingly, he’d tortured this man unhesitatingly, and he needed to confront that fact. Yes, Gus was an ass who enjoyed continuing to be an ass. Yes, TJ’d taken his Occupation knowing what this Skill could be used for. And now, he’d finally gone and used his strength to take from someone weaker than him. This was a door he couldn’t close or a path he couldn’t step back from. All he could choose now was if he would continue to walk on this path.

It took a brief moment’s thought for him to say what he’d said so many times now.

Yes. Maybe he’d break his soul every time he did it, but to protect his son, to protect himself, to protect these people who now followed him, TJ would do this and worse. He would visit this despair  on others now and for all the future that he survived, if it would allow him to protect himself and others he cared about.

Divine path self-realization, part 2/?? complete.

The first time TJ had gotten that notification, it had come as a response to how he’d promised to be strong enough to protect Luz. Now, he got it when he was determined that he would harm and even kill people for his own benefit. He’d said it before, but now, he wouldn’t question it. At least, he felt he could say he wouldn’t.

“Thank you, Sarah.“ TJ spoke as he stepped forward. His Valkyrie nodded and stepped back, and Gus, too exhausted from the torture of being drained of everything that made him, laid there. “Is there anything that I should know about?”

“No, Storm Serpent.” Sarah answered. Despite the casualness with which she’d begun as a partner in this, she couldn’t master the energy to be so blasé again.

“Very well. Again, to all of you, thank you. And I’m sorry for having you do this, regardless of your willingness to participate. I doubt any of us could ever count ourselves truly ready to engage in the terrors that continue to become more common in this world. Go, get some rest. I’m going to take some time before I gather ten people together  to recast Awakening on soon, so be ready. We don’t know what timeline the New Republic is going to be working off of. Please, let me know if you have any questions.”

TJ‘s followers nodded their acceptance of his words as they walked away. He couldn’t help but wonder if some of those looks that he was getting were people questioning if they should have stuck around as long as they did. He felt his Bloodline and what he decided was his divine path forcing his doubt away. He’d made the right choice, and he wouldn’t question it.

“Everybody! I’ll be changing the storm from this more pleasant one to a heavier rainfall until after any fight is concluded. The water will better suit us than our enemies, and the storm will protect you. For the sake of the weaker, I’ll ensure that the rains that fall are warmer than they usually would be in March, but make sure that kids stay warm and get dry before they sleep.”

After making the announcement, there wasn’t any real reaction, as he’d frequently shifted the form of the storm to protect them from the thunderbirds. This was, for most people, business as usual. The announcement made, TJ hunkered down next to his prisoner.

“Gus. Talk to me. Since I told Raya no, is Sven going to actually talk with me like I requested? Or should I expect him to just come in, guns blazing?“

“He comes. He comes. He will not stop, he will devour everything in his path, and if you remain in his path, he will come. He will devour you.“

Despite the anger and the pride that spiked at the threat, TJ, with this reminder from the System about his divine path, wondered how much of what originally made Sven was actually left. From what little TJ knew, the man was probably a bit of an asshole even before the Integration. But with a Bloodline pushing him to consume and destroy everything in his path, could he be expected to retain whatever sanity and peacekeeping tendencies he once had? TJ could remember the moment he’d nearly thrown his life away in a blind rage while trying to hunt Acalan, so taken up in the throes of his Bloodline’s aggression was he. Sven… was he lost to the aggression of the Jormungandr?

Whatever the reason for Sven’s rampage, that didn’t matter nearly so much as the fact that he was on the warpath towards TJ and his people. And if he turned his ire towards TJ and North Tempe, then TJ’s problem wasn’t why his enemies were coming, but how to stop them.

“Gus, we’re gonna hold you here for a while. Hopefully, keeping one of his devoted here and alive will help us to have some sort of conversation with Sven. We’re going to continue to drain your resources like we did today to ensure that you don’t harm anybody while we keep you prisoner. For you and our sakes, it won’t be nearly so painful if you don’t resist in the future, so please don’t. We don’t have a prison that can hold you, and frankly, we can’t trust you if you can start to rampage. In an hour and a half, I’m going to drain you again. Please don’t resist at that time.”

Gus started rocking where he sat once again, and TJ shook his head. Just with a wave of his hand, he got Farid to come and take Gus somewhere a ways off where he could be as comfortable as the settlement could make him. As soon as the top of the temple was clear, TJ settled into the ritual circle on the top and pushed his awareness up into the storm. Through a combination of his Divine Authority and Stormcaller, he twisted the storm to become wetter, pulling moisture out of the air from as far as Four Peaks and directly from pools and lakes nearby to engage in a torrential, localized downpour.

With thousands of his own resources put into it over the course of 15 minutes, TJ shifted the storm to better suit himself and his people for this upcoming fight, especially Acalan. Once the storm was changed, TJ began channeling Storm Serpent’s Awakening. Since the temple was built to facilitate such ritual casting as this, TJ‘s closest confidants already knew what it meant, and, without any discussion that he noticed, made the decision of which 10 people would benefit from Awakening this time. Given that it was channeled through the Ziggurat, each individual would benefit from the Skill for three hours, which, originally, would only have affected them for one. The 100% increase in potency made the Skill capable of affecting 20 at a time, and the Ziggurat’s 50% increase in the duration of all rituals cast with it combined to triple the effective time in this case. When it was time to retire for the night, TJ would have to choose fewer people to affect at the same time to ensure that there would always be people ready to help, in the event they were assaulted while most people were resting.

He felt himself tense up as he finished the ritual, frustrated to be in this situation but taking every step that he could to ensure that he and his people emerged for the better on the other side. Fortunately, Ritualistic Transfer was quick to cast, down to a mere fifteen seconds with two additional seconds per participant, so less than three minutes total with his 67 subordinates. Could he depend on three minutes of warning before a fight began?

TJ shook his head, deciding whether to begin Ritualistic Transfer right now, but was forced to decide when a voice rumbled through the air, accusatory and enraged.

“TJ! Come and speak with me now!” Sven called. TJ gritted his teeth, calling for his people to gather as he decided if he had those three minutes right now.