SoK Chapter 215 (Patreon)

“Michelle. Do you think you can go and stall him for maybe two minutes?” TJ grimaced as he looked down at the Battlesmith. He’d made the decision that he was going to get Ritualistic Transfer finished before going to talk to Sven. The best option he could think of was to leave Michelle herself out. She still retained the ability to heal people, and getting everyone else ready in the event that the man now known as the Heaven Devouring Serpent was going to take this opportunity to eliminate an enemy.

“Is there anything in particular you want me to say or do?” She hadn’t taken a second to follow his command, jumping straight up and merely asking for additional guidance. Michelle walked past her forge and stretched a hand down to the armor that sat in the corner there as she waited for an answer. Metal flowed up her arm to outfit her completely as TJ shook his head.

“If you need to bullshit it, do it. Ideally, you can say that I’m on my way and he’ll wait, but I doubt it. He knows that I was here recently, and he doesn’t seem to be particularly patient in any circumstances.”

He didn’t take any time to say anything else as instead he gestured for his people to fall in around the Zigurrat. More than he could see it, TJ could feel the anticipation and fear that filled so many of his followers. He wished he was a better public speaker, and beyond that, he wished he had any opportunity to speak confidence to his people right now. There was no time and he’d just barely given a speech, but there could never be too much high morale, right?

For now, he needed to trust in the benefits from his Titles and Skills, instead speaking steadily through the chants of Ritualistic Transfer as he flicked small globules of blood into the air to hover before each of his people’s faces. He was only a minute into the ritual as Sven’s enraged voice called out for his attention.

“I know you’re here! Stop ignoring me, or any possibility for that peace you seem to want will disappear. I know you can hear me, TJ!”

TJ saw the faces of his people twist at the volume and overwhelming presence of the call, the words somehow making the ground shake as Sven vented his rage. There was nothing TJ could do in response but to continue channeling his Skill. He finished the chanting and began including each person in the ritual, the sigil of a snake in flight emblazoned itself on each of their faces as the ritual drew to a close. TJ felt his mind connect to the nearly boundless resources of his temple as he finalized the connection between himself and his temple and followers. Instead of glorying in the sensation, TJ needed to go to address the man obviously growing angrier by the moment.

“Come to me, TJ! I hear he’s a god, isn’t he? Then stop cowering. You are not a man, you are to be a myth! Prove yourself.”

TJ bolted through the fields to where he could hear the stomping of feet that would have made him think of a toddler, if it hadn’t made the ground shake even more than Sven’s voice had. Just a few seconds later, TJ had crossed the mile or so to get to witness Sven throw an angry punch at Michelle. She tried her best to evade the strike, but TJ heard her radius and ulna snap as, through her armor reinforced by Skills, her forearm broke. It bent ninety degrees as she flew back with a groan of pain. With the use of her own healing, the Disciple turned Battlesmith recovered, but it was obvious that there wasn’t anything that she could do in this circumstance other than hope for help. Just before he said anything, TJ appraised the other man and fought back a curse at the result.

Tyrant, (Copper (I)) 57

“Sven! You’re not thinking that you can hurt my people in front of me without consequences, are you?”

Sven whirled to TJ, his mouth bared in an angry smile. His lips now spread much further than before, becoming almost serpent-like as his nose flattened. There was a certain series of movies about a resurrected wizard and his ties to snakes that Sven’s face evoked. Even so, the blonde man was somehow still handsome in a somewhat serpentine way, though he no longer resembled a human but a strange fantasy creature. Most striking of all were his eyes.

TJ had found that his own eyes began glowing as he gained levels and he had been told that he was changing bit by bit as he embraced his divinity and continued to grow stronger. Sven’s body’s changes were striking, but his eyes now had no sclera. The gray that had colored the whites now covered everything from the whites to the iris, just a prick of black in the center of his eyes. There was no iris, and there was, for lack of a better way to say it, a snake like hatred in his bearing and eyes.

Before either of them could say anything, a System notification flashed in his eyes that TJ imagined Sven was getting a similar one to. 

Nascent Deity: Storm Serpent and Nascent Deity: Heaven Devouring Serpent have met. Potential overlap in divinity detected. Potential for creation of pantheon through subordination of the Heaven Devouring Serpent. Potential conflict detected in the path of heaven devouring and path of storm ruling. Potential for creation of pantheon through establishment of everlasting enmity. Potential for acquisition of multiple achievements regarding growth as a deity through the conquest, subordination, or destruction of the Heaven Devouring Serpent.

“Yes!” Sven’s excitement was loud as he threw his left fist in the air in a seeming sign of victory. Michelle was forgotten as she retreated behind TJ and looked at Sven with obvious fear in her posture. 

“Get out of here. Get with everybody else, take it easy.” TJ’s quiet command was answered with a quick nod as Michelle turned and sprinted away. Her escape was loud enough that it pulled Sven’s attention back to TJ. He grinned maniacally at TJ and held his arms open in obvious excitement.

“We get just what we wanted now, don’t we? I mean, we have here the opportunity to make a pantheon. Finally! Now, will you submit yourself? Or shall we fight for survival? I must say, I won’t submit.”

“Yeah, it’s good to see you too,” TJ drawled, a little more relaxed now that he was the only person near the madman. “Can’t we talk a little bit before we get into whatever this is?”

“I suppose, if you wish.” Sven leaned back a little, no longer quite so hunched and seemingly readily for battle. “You should know, I missed you when you left.”

“I didn’t have any interest in being a part of the New Republic. Didn’t love the way that things were going. Figured I’d get out and let you keep doing what you were doing. Seems like you’ve done pretty well for yourselves,” TJ responded. “I heard you’ve got thousands of people following you now?”

“21,524.” The blonde man closed his eyes before he answered, some measure of his connection to his followers seeming to allow him to know exactly how many followed him. “I am ready for more to fall in line, TJ.”

“You don’t need to look at me like that when you say it.” TJ scoffed. “I know what you’re talking about. I’m not going to jump to follow you again when I already left from even being a resident in your camp before. Besides, I can see that you lied to me right now. Were you ever a Monarch or were you always a Tyrant?”

“A Tyrant is merely an absolute monarch with total control.” Sven shrugged, obviously unconcerned with his long deceit. In fact, he didn’t even try to adjust the other man’s perception of his lies.

“So why should I trust to have any long-standing relationship with you if you’re going to lie to me?”

“You saw for yourself, you’re not gonna have any choice in this.“ Sven continued to lean forward as he said it his apparent desire to get into a fight settling back over him. Long gone was the affable, reasonable, yet forceful man. In his place was a barely contained beast, someone whose first thought was violence and finding the opportunity to “justifiably“ lash out against his enemies.

“Do you have any idea what that’s all about?” TJ asked, trying to keep the man talking. “I haven’t looked a whole lot into what exactly makes up a pantheon, haven’t had any reason to. Looks to me like there’s effectively three options that the System wants us to take part in, while I see a fourth.”

“Subordination, conflict, or destruction,” the Heaven Devouring Serpent’s answer came quickly. “And you think that the fourth option is to leave each other in peace. That was already your choice, but this is no longer an option. Will you submit? Or will you fight for your life?”

“Do we really have to do this?” TJ sighed. “Despite everything, I truly don’t mind just being neighbors, you know? You must have had those before the Integration. People who live nearby, maybe you’re friendly, maybe you don’t like ‘em, but you just see them every so often and you move on with your life? That sounds pretty nice to me. If some monsters are trying to kill you, we help you out, if some Boss needs some additional help over here, you help us? That sounds better than getting a bunch of people killed, if you ask me.”

“If you want that, subordinate yourself to me.” Sven’s voice was hard. “We will not be friends, we will not be allies. If you fall under me, we will be master and servant, and if you do not, we will be enemies. If you choose to suborn yourselves, I will protect you as I so desire. If not, fight to survive. Those are your options. Cease your weakness and your hesitation and give your answer.”

At that, TJ could no longer push off the painful pride coming from his Bloodline. In fact, he knew that only part of it came from Kukulkan’s Bloodline, while another part came from his divinity, and the final part of it was just plain Thiago Jorge Harris IV not wanting to listen to this arrogant prick as he tried to tell him what to do. His face twisted as he planted his spear in the ground and glared at the man behind the Heaven Devouring Serpent.

“Sven, consider this my final rejection, then. I’ll never fall in line, nor will my people. You want to be my enemy? Then be my enemy.”

Your leader has declared war! Factions that you are currently at war with: The Heaven Devouring Serpent’s New Republic.

Before TJ could do anything more, Sven threw his head back and laughed loud, his voice carrying further than it should have. With Storm Manipulation, TJ could feel that this was a command that went out for at least a mile in every direction, and Sven’s people all sprinted towards the settlement from where they’d prepared to ambush TJ’s North Tempe. It would seem that the maniacal man had stalled for time just as much as TJ himself had. 

TJ activated Divine Transformation, relying on the boost to his Attributes that came from the Skill as he did so. To his dismay, he could see when Sven did the same.