The Gamer Chapter 1647 – Bachelor’s Night Finale – Privacy and Home (Patreon)

They found themselves in a green area. How it had been quartered away between the various caves and caverns, John wasn’t entirely sure about. Above them were manifold silver crystals, basking the environment in artificial moonlight. The silver reflected off the equally argent flowers that decorated in six-petalled beauty the tall, thick-leaved hedges around them. The sylvan lilies assured the tranquil quiet of the well-visited establishment, eating the various sounds around and spitting them back out as music.

The only break in the privacy was the delivery of three glasses of wine. The waitress was an attractive young thing, covered only by a V-string that stretched from her crotch to her shoulders, barely hiding slit and nipples in the process. She wore a decorative blindfold that either did nothing or did not interfere with her alternative method of seeing the world. A pair of mufflers on her ears prevented her from listening in on whatever conversation was happening.

“It’s not quite a strip club, but it does work well enough,” Maximillian slurred, staring at the swinging hips of the waitress as she left. “I’m surprised they let us in.”

“I made arrangements,” John reminded him and sipped on his wine. The drink was fruity and sweet, a dangerous combination for how much alcohol was in it. “You can thank Suel for showing me there was so much more under the surface.”

“I mean because we’re drunk,” Maximillian clarified.

Between the two of them, they had needed at least 30% longer than usual to get here. Magnus had kept them on track. As per usual, the Fateweaver was comparatively sober. He had reached a level of tipsy sometime ago and now only drank to hold it.

“You’re not as drunk as usual,” Magnus pointed out.

“Yeah… and we’ll probably go home after this one,” Maximillian said.

“Already?” John asked and checked his phone. They had been out and about for five hours by now. It was past midnight, so it wasn’t like this had been a short stint into the city, but for a bachelor’s night this was tame – it was tame even compared to their usual binge drinking nights.

Maximillian leaned back in his chair and looked at the ceiling. “I’m getting old. I don’t want to be hungover tomorrow… I just want to lay in bed with my fiancée and cuddle.”

That was a justification John fully understood. “No strip club then,” he said.

“Why is that tradition anyway?”

“Something about exposing the groom to temptations one last time before he speaks the vows?” the Gamer theorized. “Also, did you mean this is the last establishment or this is the last drink?”

“I’m not that old just yet,” Maximillian answered and sipped on his wine. “We have too much to talk about to keep it to one drink. Who wants to start?” He looked expectedly between Magnus and John.

The Gamer did a pointing gesture at Magnus and the Fateweaver hummed deeply. “You would learn about this in the next couple of days anyway, John. I figured it out.”

“Figured what out?” the Gamer asked, leaning forwards on his cushioned bench. He had an inkling, but he needed it spelled out.

“Self-sustaining Mobile Barriers.” The revelation made the two rulers at the table breathe in with excitement. Magnus grabbed a few things on the table to make a display of what he explained. “I already had limited success in creating a small Mobile Barrier without anyone in it, if you remember.”

John motioned about to emulate the dimensions of the table. “The barrier was about this large and not stable for more than 15 metres, yes, I remember. Mostly because I remember you losing a World Gem.”

When an Illusion Barrier closed, anything material in it was lost. When one was experimenting with unmanned Illusion Barriers, spontaneous loss of research materials could therefore be expected. That did not make it sting any less.

“Why do you think no one has been researching this for so long?” Magnus asked and took a gulp of his wine. “We can smoke here, right?”

“There was a sign at the entrance.”

Magnus reached into the inside breast pocket and retrieved his expensive cigar box. Inside were three different brands of rolled up tobacco. After a moment of deliberation, he picked the one on the left. Carefully, he snapped both ends off with the cigar cutter. The ends, he placed on opposite ends of the menu, which he had previously placed flat on the table.

“So?” Maximillian asked, clearly eager to hear about this new development.

Rather than answer, Magnus concentrated on lighting his cigar. The dense tobacco took a moment to catch fire, then several more to reach a level of heat that he was happy with. With the slightest hint of a smug smile, he blew out the first puff of smoke. “After the mentioned setback, I decided to approach this conservatively,” he began his tale. “Mindless experimentation wouldn’t get me anywhere, so I studied the textbooks for a while. I gathered up any unconventional approach or historical oddity regarding Illusion Barriers I had access to. I found the answer thanks to Momo and Ehtra. Have you ever heard about Half Barriers?”

“I suppose that’s not a different word for Intermediary Barriers?” John asked.

Magnus shook his head and took a huge, self-satisfied gulp of wine. “A Half Barrier is a title we gave to historical ruins found especially along the old Silk Road and Akkad. They were Illusion Barriers that we did not know how they could still be around after several hundreds or thousands of years. Even Protected Spaces would run out of power eventually. In the Akkadian case, we typically found Lorylim buried in them eventually.”

“Since Ehtra and Momo were involved… I guess it had to do with that miniature IBMA?” John asked.

Again, Magnus shook his head. “That would be too easy, wouldn’t it?” he said. “No, it was what came after the miniature IBMA that had my attention. The original creator was murdered, Ehtra had the details of that, and after picking her brains for a bit, we got some more names. Momo and I then scanned all the historical documents we had to see if there were any apprentices or assistants of his that survived or at least a chambermaid or something. Anyone or anything that may have known something about the work of that ancient genius.”

‘The things that little fairy gets up to while I am not looking… maybe giving her 50 extra bodies was a bit much,’ John thought.

“She managed to work out a lineage that connected the Akkadians to the people that lived along the Silk Road. We then approached Dramar with that intel.”

“Why that?” Maximillian asked. As king, he would know who the owner of the Abyss Auction was, but not much more.

“The Abyss Auction has its origin in the Silk Road. If anyone would still have records of that time, it would be them.” Magnus took another pause. “Momo really did the heavy lifting here, lending me two dozen of herself to just scan documents for any names or overlapping events. In the end, we stumbled across a local who sold a special kind of service that gave access to an Illusion Barrier between two points of the Silk Road. I flew out there, I located where that Illusion Barrier was supposed to be – and I found it still there.”

The plot was thickening and John beat back the drunken haze as much as he could to listen.

“It was one of those Half Barriers. I had a look around, and in the end, found the way it worked.” He grabbed a number of pretzel sticks on the table and put them between the two pieces of his cigar. “Modern Protected Spaces constantly ward off against barriers melding and to keep them active even when no one is inside them. This one was using a special alloy, buried in the ground, to ‘collapse’ the Illusion Barrier when it wasn’t being used. It still required a Fateweaver to enter at either end to function though.”

Magnus reached down and snapped all the pretzel sticks into smaller pieces.

“Once I had figured out the alloy, I combined its properties with my independent Mobile Barrier archetype. The working prototype has the Mobile Barrier generator move back and forth between the entrance points. As it moves, it activates the dormant Protected Spaces. Its own, constrained size is negated by being one with a much larger, pre-existing Illusion Barrier. The drawback is that it only works on rails.”

“Was about to say, so this lets us make Abyssal railways?”

“Essentially,” Magnus answered.

That was already pretty useful on paper, although John knew that the building costs were currently more prohibitive than just training more Fateweavers to man trains equipped with Mobile Barrier generators. “A breakthrough is a breakthrough… I’d ask what the alloy is made from, but I wouldn’t want to let the foreign power learn even more.”

Maximillian threw his hands up. “And I fully support that decision. I already learned way more than I should… More wine?”

John nodded; Magnus asked for whiskey. The scantily clad, pale-skinned waitress came over, silently switched out their empty glasses for full ones, and left them to enter the next topic of conversation.

Before John could speak up on the topic of Lu Zhi, his phone buzzed. There were very few people that had his number and even fewer that would make his phone buzz when they contacted him. When opened up the message, he giggled immediately. It was a video with a tag line by his first fiancée. “Eliana is doing it again,” he read out, then put up the volume. Whatever this was, everyone around the table deserved to see and hear it.

The bachelorettes were in some kind of beer hall. The sizable gathering of young women had the entire establishment to themselves. Eliana and Irielz were standing on top of one of the long tables. The bride was drinking heavily, while John’s pretty little psycho was singing at the top of her lungs.

“Everybody was Fuck-Town fighting!

Those cheeks clapped loud as lightning.

In fact, it was really exciting,

The way they bounced with expert timing.

There were horny subby girls, from horny subby town,

They were getting knocked up, they were getting cuddled down,

It’s an ancient submissive art and everybody knew their part,

From a wink into a slip and a swinging of the hip,

Everybody was Fuck-Town fighting!

Those thrusts plapped as loud as lightning.

In fact, it was really exciting,

Then the doms got to the binding.

There was red rope for shibari and gags of many kinds,

Doms said, “Let’s start with the fun, you pretty little thing.”

We let it happen and got bound, started swaying with the ass

A sudden plunge started the trip, now we’re getting a new kid!

Everybody was Fuck-Town fighting!

The doms were as if struck by lightning.

In fact, it was really exciting.

The subs had finished their binding!”

The group around the table laughed and the video ended after a bit of moaning to the bridge of the song. “Shouldn’t it be ‘the doms had finished their binding’?” Maximillian asked.

“No,” Magnus answered immediately.

“You’re not as much of a dom as either of us, are you?” John asked in a teasing tone.

Maximillian just shrugged. “I don’t need to rope someone up and choke them to get off, sue me – then explain.”

“Doms do the physical binding, but being with a really good submissive just puts you in a trance,” John explained. “They’re roped up, but you are bound at the soul to that woman. Before you know it, you do anything you can to keep her happy.”

“That’s just being in love.”

“Yes and I love submissives with the entirety of my existence.”

“Let me guess, the empress of China is a submissive too?” Maximillian asked.

The Gamer nodded. “Switch tendencies, but that woman can really get off on orders.”

“How do you do that?” he asked. “How do you attract powerful submissives on a global radius?”

“You know, a year ago I would have understood that question, but come on.” John gestured at himself. “I’m handsome, powerful, rich, and probably the most famous dom on the planet. I have everything to offer. Why wouldn’t they be attracted to me?”

“It’s not like he’s getting a bloated harem because there’s only demand,” Magnus said.

“Exactly!” John agreed a bit too enthusiastically, then stood halfway up to shake the Fateweaver’s hand in thanks. Two things happened in quick succession. First, the Gamer’s field of view suddenly split. Then the sense of vertigo that the disorientation caused made him fall back into his seat, causing him to knock against his wine glass in the process.

Cursing, the Gamer relinquished Possession on one of his contact lenses. Half of his field of view went instantly away. His brain interpreted it as black for a few seconds, before realizing there was just nothing there at all.

“Desynchronized your field of view there?” Maximillian asked. A wave of his finger had the half-toppled glass upright itself. John grabbed the wine and drank it before he could knock it over again. “That’s your last glass.”

“Yeah,” the Gamer agreed. When his control slipped to that degree, that was a very clear signal to stop.

“So, you and Lu Zhi on sleeping terms?”

“Yeah, well, that’s the lucky coincidence of the relationship she planned out with me… you have to promise to never tell anyone about what I am about to tell you.”

“Okay?”

“Right, so she wants us to marry and make a global super empire.”

Maximillian blinked a couple of times. His drunk brain was working through the implications. “Are you for fucking real?” he asked. “What the fuck are you talking about? You can’t have Fusion and the Mandate of Heaven… fuse!”

“Said the king of Austria-Czecho-Hungary,” Magnus threw in.

Maximillian was at a loss for words. “Fuck.” He rubbed his forehead. “Keeping this a secret will be a giant burden on my conscience.”

“Oh…” John only now realized that he was talking to a Romulus loyalist. Between the drunken buzz and the relaxed atmosphere, it had slipped his mind. Lydia would always be loyal to her guild first, so Maximillian did not have to worry there, but if Fusion and the Mandate of Heaven did eventually unify, there was no question that the newly formed state would be the new global superpower. Not even Romulus could drag his empire to that level of relevance. “Sorry?”

“…No, fuck you, I’ll just one up you!” Maximillian cussed back. “You watch out mister, I’ll… conquer Poland or something!”

“Last time someone from Austria tried that, history did not like that,” John threw back.

Even with this secret between them, they kept on bantering like usual.

Friendship was beautiful like that.