Chapter 138 (Patreon)

Those assholes, Thea thought as she moved back and forth.

“Analyze them,” Henry said as he looked at Thea.

“They’re assholes,” she only muttered as she kept pacing about.

“Thea,” the old man said with some reproach in his voice.

She rolled her eyes but took the exercise seriously this time. She knew that her grandfather wouldn’t stop until she gave a satisfying answer. Some things hadn’t changed just because the world ended after all.

“The monk is very strong. He beat up those people without breaking a sweat. The demon is also strong. I barely had time to react before John’s leg was pierced. Are you OK by the way?” she said as she turned to their guardian.

“I am fine my lady, with the help of the pill I will have no problem fighting,” John quickly assured her.

“Focus,” Henry reproached.

“Well, they are also rich. They spent even more than we did,” she said, still feeling a bit peeved as she remembered that monks stupid face as he kept increasing the bid. 

She didn’t know what that stone had been, but her [Petalstorm] craved it. But with the family’s operation underway she had handed over much of her wealth, and she really hadn’t expected to need such an amount of money in the short run. Who knew those useless bureaucrats of the New World Government would actually have good things to sell?

“You’ve listed things that anyone with eyes could see. Focus, what happened in your altercation with the demon?” Henry said, obviously not satisfied with her performance.

Thea stopped pacing about and thought back to that moment. She had directed one of her petals to nick the throat of the glib demon, putting him in his place. She hadn’t been ready for the shameless response and still felt a bit flustered the tactic. She knew the question the demon asked was rhetoric, but she wondered what the answer was. 

Would she have been able to kill the demon before grandpa and John died? Thea quickly refocused, knowing her grandfather was expecting an answer. She went over the whole incident, focusing on every action and every facial expression of the members of the odd group.

“They weren’t afraid,” she blurted out with a start. 

“Good. Continue,” Henry Marshal nodded with a small smile. 

“The demon called it ‘a little pre-auction fun’, and while he was mostly joking he did truly not seem to take the situation too seriously. The monk seemed worried, but about the wrong things. He seemed afraid that the demon would actually hurt us, rather than me hurting them. All in all he seemed more annoyed than anything else,” she continued with a frown.

“What does this mean?” Henry urged her on.

“Neither the monk nor the demon really saw us, or me, as a threat. Ignorance can’t explain it, as they clearly knew of our identity. The same can be said for their whole group, only the old Asian man seemed worried, but he was clearly just a weakling. They believe the demon is stronger than me, even though my third spot on the power list.”

“What was the power dynamic between the Monk and the Demon?” her grandfather asked, switching the line of questioning.

“Friends. No, wait,” she said as she frowned a bit. “The demon acted out two times, both times he stopped after the Monk intervened. It might not be official, but the Monk is in the dominant position.”

“Good. Revisit the earlier question,” the old man said.

Thea stopped for a few seconds and went over her earlier line of reasoning.

“The demon might believe himself stronger, or at least equal to me. But judging from his personality he would not take orders from a weakling, so the Monk should be at least as strong as the demon,” she said, her eyes widening in realization. “The whole group believes that not only the demon, but even the Monk can defeat me.”

That was an uncomfortable realization. She hadn’t stopped pushing herself for a second since the start. She’d even actually underwent with the suicide mission and assassinated the incursion leaders, which made their current advances possible. 

Anytime she walked the streets she was met with fear or reverence. She didn’t care about all that, but the fact that she was looked down upon after all her struggles was quite maddening.

“Excellent. Remember, a small glance or an innocent conversation can expose far more than was intended. That’s why it’s important to always act in a measured and deliberate manner. But you still are missing details,” Henry said.

“You seem to consider the demon an impulsive character, your opinion perhaps discolored by preconceived notions of what a demon should be like. I see the creature as a planning schemer hiding behind a guise. Just like we gained valuable information from the exchange, so did they. 

“Your time in the wilderness has made you extremely strong, but your actions unnecessarily simplistic. If you remembered your old lessons you would have gained information without giving any up,” Henry continued, and it looked like he was gearing up for another sermon.

Luckily for Thea he was interrupted by an extremely dangerous feeling erupting from something in the area. 

It was as though a monster had been released in the Opera House, making even Thea’s neck-hair stand on end. Even the invisible petals of her weapon started shivering as they danced around her. 

“It seems the New World Government angered the Super Brother-Man” Henry said with a small smile as he looked in the direction of the ominous feeling. 

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“What do you all think?” Thomas said as he looked at the group.

Many of the delegates still looked a bit frazzled from the earlier encounter. Thomas couldn’t really blame them, as there was a huge amount of adrenaline coursing through his vein at this very moment. 

It was one thing to read a name on some ladder, and a whole other thing to be confronted by the very power that the list represent. The first spot on the power ladder wasn’t for show, and Thomas didn’t doubt for a second that the Super Brother-Man could make good on his threats if he wished.

They might be able to take him down in the end with concentrated focus-fire, but not before he’d killed all of them.

“He could become a great asset. He has already shown goodwill with the information crystal,” Asano Kobo said hesitantly.

“It’s too dangerous. We can’t have such a person running lose,” the French representative said with a frown.

“How would we stop him? He would simply kill us if we tried to interfere,” Johana retorted.

“He wouldn’t be an asset if we can’t control him. We would be running the risk of setting up a global network, only for him to swoop in and crown himself king,”

“Is there anything we know about him? You have met him before Thomas. What have you found out?”

“We have strong reason to believe he is American, and has some connection to the town Greenworth. It was one of the towns he asked about when he arrived at New Washington the first time, and he immediately rushed there after visiting an information broker,” Thomas began.

“Not long after he arrived he massacred the whole leadership of the town, and erected a large monolith in a graveyard. Our hypothesis is that the cultivators who took control of Greenworth killed someone close to him, and he killed them all in revenge. Unfortunately we have no way to find out exactly who were killed by the cultivators.

“We have been asking around as much as possible, but information is sparse, and our government workers have some trouble with cooperation as our last representative ruined our reputation a bit. We have also been showing a picture of Monk to citizens of Greenworth in hopes that he would be recognized by someone. Still we haven’t had any luck.

“There is one more morsel of information. I just received a report that Mr. Monk went around asking parties where their cities were located. When he found out that Mr. Bernard’s town was close to the Undead Incursion he tried to broker a deal to use their teleporter.”

“How is this important information?” Johana asked.

“One of Greenworth’s cultivator groups were dropped off close-by to that location. Mr. Monk might be trying to locate someone important to him that might be in that group,” Thomas said.

“You’re saying we should capture his friends or family?” the Japanese delegate asked with a frown. “That seems to be playing with fire.” 

“For now we should focus on locating them, and from there try to extrapolate Mr. Monk’s identity. We already believe that the town’s name should be named after him, and that him saying the town is run by a council largely a lie in order to keep his persona hidden. So if we find an Atwood in the cultivator group we can almost identify him for sure,” Thomas said.

“And then what?” a delegate asked.

“See if we can place or make use of someone close to his family. We would then gain a great asset, both for intelligence, and if needed, covert action.”

“I believe he will be instrumental in fighting off the incursions. You all know how bad it looks. If we can push him to the frontlines we would have a far better chance of succeeding,” he added.

“And after that?” a delegate asked worriedly.

“After that we don’t need that kind of trouble in our backyard,” Thomas said with a steely expression.

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“I am not sure about this. I want wealth as much as the next guy, but you need to be alive to enjoy it,” Davon said with hesitation.

“It will be fine as long as we are careful and plan everything out,” Red retorted with a sneer. “Remember, it wouldn’t be the first ranker we killed.” 

“Still, that guy looks seems pretty strong. I get the goosebumps just thinking about him. He clobbered those poor bastards like they were just some target practice. Didn’t even break a sweat,” 

“He isn’t an immortal or god just because he can clobber some people. His head will still explode from a high caliber sniper round. No one is powerful enough to survive the strongest old world weapons yet, so this is a small window of opportunity before they get too strong. If we shoot a few rounds in a staggered manner no treasure or skill will be able to protect him,”

“His companions will be scrambling for safety, giving Ricky the opportunity to snatch the body and disappear,” Dany added. 

“He easily dropped 6 million on a stupid rock, who knows how much stuff he has in is Cosmos Sack,” Red sed enticingly, and even those hesitating couldn’t help nodding.

“We’ll skip the last part of the government stuff, and set up our trap instead. We’ll go with the same setup as the last time, you all know what to do?” 

The small group of eight somberly nodded.

“Good. In a few hours we’ll be filthy rich.” 

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“Good job standing guard over the boss for so long,” Alea said with a smile as she handed Namys a cup of tea.

“It is my duty. Our duty, you would do well to remember. I have seen you cavort with the human. Never forget it was Lord Ogras who brought us out of misery and provided us a place in the multiverse,” Namys tersely responded, but still accepted the cup.

Alea sighed as she sat down next to the scarred demoness in the small gazebo at the outskirts of the town.

“I truly miss the crimson skies. Looking up at this endless blue makes me feel that I’m continuously walking through a dream, or that I am stuck in one of Janos’ illusions,” Alea said with a sigh as she took a sip of her cup. 

“Lord Ogras will bring us home in glory someday after he’s taken control of this planet. We’ll show Clan Azh’Rezak who their true leader is. Either they will bend the knee or they will perish,” Namys answered, a fanatic sheen glimmering in eyes.

Alea glanced over with some sadness in her eyes and sighed.

“I remember when I was a child in the slums of Ter’Ferizan. My mother was a prostitute, and who knows who my dad is. Mom always resented me since I came in the way of her business as she saw it. ‘Stole her youth’ she called it. She beat me, abused me, and forced me to beg for food just to survive. 

“Still I adored her, and I always felt she was the most beautiful person in the world as donned her beatuful dresses and make-up for work. She was perfect in my eyes, and I was the one in the wrong,” Alea said, her eyes moistening as she looked at her sister of over twenty years. 

“What are you talking about? Wh..” Namys asked, her words slurring a bit at the end.

“I am talking about the fact that strong emotions such as love or devotion can create an image of reality, even though reality might be different. You see Ogras as the dashing scion of clan Azh’Rezak who once saved you, and will once again reclaim his place as the leader of us demonkind. From there he will walk the time tested path to become a true Arch Demon.”

“But haven’t you seen? He’s changed. He’s found solace and happiness as he cut his ties to Clan Azh’Rezak. Returning back home is the last thing on his mind, as this is truly his home now. But you have been walking around trying to get Ilvere and Janos to help you assassinating Lord Zac, unheeding of the fact that you are actually trying to destroy Ogras’ sanctuary. We tried talking you ot of it but you were too adamant,” Alea said as she looked sadly on Namys who was slumping down in her chair. “Something needed to be done.”

“Wh.. how..? Lord Ogras.. avenge…” was the last words that escaped Namys’ mouth as her eyes glazed over and she exhaled her last breath.

“The carriage will not work if one of the wheels is aligned in the wrong direction,” Alea said, her eyes reddening. “Silly girl, do you think I would kill you unless I was ordered to?”