[MA] 126. The Smell of War (Patreon)

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[A/N: I forgot to say it on Monday, but I got a friend to help me with posting the chapters. That will stop me from simply forgetting to post.

2/3 chapters this week. Next one on Saturday.]

"Florida declared independence too," an energetic man in his sixties, wearing a suit, told Evelyn.

They were sitting by a long wooden table in a spacious dining room. Two maids waited by the walls while the old man and the girl ate their dinner.

"They are the fifth state," the man continued, "and many others will follow. That's how the US falls, like a domino." He pointed the fork at her. "And your friends toppled the first piece."

"I don't think they were part of the attack," Evelyn replied.

"What you or I think is irrelevant," the man said, getting back to eating. "I'm not willing to spend political currency to make my version become the true one. Are you?"

"I am... not," she said unwillingly. As much as she wanted to do right for Alicia Winter and Feng Shen, she wanted to stop the US—or what remained of it—from descending into anarchy even more.

"Don't worry about them," the senator said. "I heard they can defend themselves."

Evelyn sat straighter. "What does that mean?"

"It means you should send them a private message telling them you believe in their innocence. If they die, it won't matter. If they survive long enough to become strong, you'll have supported them all the while." He shook his head. "I still can't believe you gave up on the Title. Try not to act like a moron again."

Evelyn smiled bittersweetly. That was the exact reason she had done it. She couldn't resist her family, and God knows how much advantage they would have had in the country—and taken of her—if she were a Pioneer.

"I'll try, senator," she replied.

"At least we still have the Pioneers. Say what you want about old 'Softheart' MacArthur, he was good at training soldiers. I'm surprised the Winter girl ran away; the other six can't go to the bathroom without asking permission. I'll have one of his attendants teach you his techniques. Do your best to learn."

"Yes, senator," Evelyn said.

The dinner with her father went by painfully slowly.

= - = - =

"It worked," the wisp whispered as it passed by the dark elf in one of the crystal palace's halls.

Liya showed no sign of acknowledging the words and kept walking in the opposite direction.

She had no interest in the pathetic games of Observers, but she had been forced to act anyway. No one would believe she had no agenda if she kept quiet, and that would cause them to unite against her.

So she had manipulated things to save Feng Shen from something he definitely didn't need saving. The nukes had been the perfect excuse. Mortals overestimated nuclear weapons too much, while the other observers didn't understand the rudimentary tech. That way, the others would look at her and see something they could understand.

Liya had even asked someone else to pursue the matter to make it look like she cared if others knew about her move. However, she had chosen the greatest gossiper among the Observers, the wisp, to help her. Now, everyone knew she was playing and that she was an incompetent player. That would let her act and react slowly, thus saving her precious time.

As she moved to a training area to get better acquainted with her stats, she thought about what her people might be going through.

Observers could receive no external communication. Of course, no one obeyed that rule, but she would have to. She was there to survive a possible purge of her people, and getting expelled for breaking the rules would be unwise at best.

Liya clenched her fists and opened them again slowly, repetitively, wishing she could fight someone to vent her frustrations.

= - = - =

Sai rushed through the streets of Bengaluru. The moon was covered by clouds, and electricity had long stopped being something most cities in India had.

The night was dark and filled with assassins.

He had gotten a dark leather armor with dark metal pieces as the reward for becoming a Pioneer. For a weapon, he had cheated and gotten two twin black daggers. The downside was that they couldn't show their true power unless he simultaneously held both. He could stay at most three seconds without one of them before both become only as good—and brittle—as a kitchen knife. They also did not have the usual self-repair enchantment. If he ever broke one of them, or if he lost one, he would've lost his entire weapon.

But an assassin who didn't understand his target's capabilities, or missed a vital spot and hit armor instead, didn't deserve their name.

Well, he wasn't an assassin, not really. He was only hunting big criminals with Bounties. The system didn't generate as many as he would've liked, but India was a heavily populated country with many issues. Giving different castes similar power had not been good for the social order. Well, kind of similar; the top casts still controlled the military.

He was midway through an alley when someone jumped in front of him.

It was a man wearing armor and holding a shield, just like the one that appeared behind him. At the same time, arrows and spells came from above. An ambush. Sai didn't know why and he didn't care.

He was too fast for the idiot in front of him. He dodged to the side and went past the man. The projectiles never got close to him.

He might've killed those people in another situation, but Bounties were rare and disputed. He wanted AP, not the blood of idiots. He kept running toward his target.

Suddenly, the system gave him the Decree.

Countless dots appeared on his new radar.

Sai's eyes shone brightly, and he checked the Bounty. Disabling a nuclear weapon rewarded between 1,000 AP to 10,000 AP depending on its yield. It wasn't enough to turn from his current Bounty; killing the guy who called himself "Dark Shiva" would give him 30,000 AP. But after he was done, he might go for the weapons if there wasn't any better Bounty around.

Sai thought of Shen, but as much as he wanted to reunite with the cultivator, he had a family to care for in India. He needed the money to leave with them, but he had none.

Fortunately, his first wage as a Guardian would be paid in a week. He hoped it would finally let him get away from the hellhole that India had become.

Until then, he had people to kill.

He kept running in the night.

= - = - =

With each step Shen took, he smelled War.

The roads were all but gone, either bombed or damaged from having to withstand the many tons of tanks and military convoys. Alicia and Shen found the first metal debris that had previously been a convoy a few miles from a relatively big city in Northwest Italy. Not far from there, they saw the remains of an attack helicopter.

Things got only worse after that. The city with an unknown name had been almost razed to the ground. Countless buildings had been put down, destroyed cars and corpses littered the broken streets, and crows ate what they could.

Whoever used to live there was either gone or hiding.

"This is fucking horrible," Alicia said, being held by him.  She covered her nose to ward off the terrible smell.

"Logic dictates that we search for someone hiding around for information," Shen said. "They will be afraid and vulnerable, which will make them more cooperative."

"That sounds fucking horrible," she said, not hiding her disgust.

"Yes," Shen agreed and ran toward the next city.

The most important thing they needed to find out was where the Maiden used to live. She would likely arrive there. The US had probably known but hadn't told him.

The first living people they found in Italy were in the middle of a road. Shen identified the insignia of the French military at a checkpoint with concrete blockades, war tanks, and lots of people pointing guns. He recalled an atomic bomb had been used in their country not long ago, but he didn't know if the chain of command had been kept. These people might either be soldiers following or modern highwaymen.

This side of the checkpoint had two tanks pointing their barrels at nothing, three manned mounted machine guns, a big truck in the middle preventing the passage, and concrete walls surrounding everything. Shen could see people behind the walls, wielding weapons, ready to fire.

Shen slowed down as he approached. A guy left the truck in the middle of the road, took a bullhorn, and said, "Halt!"

Alicia and Shen were only two, unarmed, and still over two hundred yards away. It seemed they had learned to fear Guardian magic.

"State your business or go around us," the soldier said. "Keep this distance from us the whole time, or we will open fire."

If Shen recalled it correctly, France wanted to keep the current Maiden. Whether that was still the case after being nuked was anyone's guess.

He used the Lion's Roar to reply, "I'm Feng Shen, the Rising Star. I'm here to save the Maiden. I want information about where she'll appear."

The man in with the bullhorn widened his eyes, and another soldier went to look for someone. A moment later, an officer took the bullhorn. "Get closer for me to Inspect you," he said.

Shen complied, and the guy said a low "Shit" before telling Shen to approach and ordering everyone to lower their guns.

"Be ready for anything," Shen told Alicia as he put her on the ground.

Nothing bad happened, though the captain and his soldiers were really tense the whole time. They told Shen that Marzia hailed from San Marino but had probably been at school in Florence when the Alliance arrived.

"Her family should know more," the officer continued, "but they allied with some mafia families and parts of the government and founded some weird mix of a paramilitary group and a city-state. I have no idea how they got France to ally with them, and they told us shit about the Maiden. Well, not to me anyway, but who cares? I'm just waiting for a bored Hungarian bomber to decide it will be fun to kill me." Hungary wanted to kill the current Maiden.

Then he proceeded to explain how Italy had become hell on Earth.

Most of the fighting was going on in the air—or at least coming from the air. Planes, drones, missiles, and artillery destroyed everything they touched, including each other. Supposedly, there was also some maritime fighting, but the man knew nothing about it.

"Any chance you can go decimate Spain for us?" the Captain asked. "They are biting the hardest, the fuckers."

Spain was supposedly pro-current Maiden too, but they had changed their position a week ago, after a coup. The troops, which had been together with other allies, had backstabbed everyone for max damage.

"To be fair, only about a tenth of the fuckers killed us in cold blood. The others retreated first. Then they attacked us from our weak spots. They knew what to exploit."

He finished the tale by telling Shen to beware of anyone he met. Even some Frenchmen had decided the Maiden was better off dead; they believed the war would end if she died. Shen should also take cover if he heard any plane.

"Your best bet is making the Maiden's family believe you want to help and stay in Florence," he concluded.

"Thank you, Captain," Shen nodded and took Alicia in his arms.

"Just one thing if you don't mind," the Captain said.

"Yes?"

"Were you in on it? The murders?"

Obviously, the Captain was talking about the President and the General. Shen shook his head. "I didn't. I can do whatever I want to humans, so I probably won't have a criminal record no matter what I do. But you can Inspect Alicia. The system didn't mark her as an accomplice, and she was there too."

Of course, she might have just been ignorant of Shen's plans, but that was the best he could do.

The Captain did as told, then nodded. "Good to know our strongest guy isn't a murder hobo. Good luck in Florence. I'll let them know you're coming."

There were vantages and disadvantages to arrive unannounced. Shen decided he would make a better first impression and avoid friendly fire if he didn't hide his approach. Also, the man was a soldier, so asking him to keep a secret was the same as asking him to betray his country. Shen didn't want to ask someone to betray their honor, especially when Shen's gain would be minimal—a little less danger as people would know where he was and where he was going.

"May you tread your Path with honor, Captain," Shen said and resumed his journey with Alicia.

Not long after, they spotted the troops surrounding Florence.

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