Chapter 201 - Sweet dreams are made of this. (Patreon)

Once again, they were on their way to the cathedral. The crew was getting smaller every time they entered the car again. In addition to Momo, Rave was now staying home. His girlfriend was of the staunch conviction that running into her mother was just about the worst thing that could happen. 

Instead she was now going to take care of something that John couldn’t. John checked his phone. 13:30 o’clock, they were pretty late today, by Lydia’s standards, but still half an hour early. Romulus original announcement had been ‘Two times after the bell has rung after noon’, which turned out to be a fancy way of saying 14 o’clock.

Anyhow, today was also the day he should have met up with Herman. The car parked as he was lost in thought. Not that there were a lot of conversations to miss, neither Lydia nor Aclysia spoke a word. ‘Herman hasn’t answered to my text yet. Maybe he is a bit angry after I cut our call short last time? Better call him so we can have a guy’s evening with Street Fighter or something,’ he thought. 

Aclysia opened the door and they stepped outside. The cathedral was packed with people. Half an hour early and people were already sitting on the benches pressed shoulder to shoulder, many more standing wherever they found room at the sides. 

“Seems like the drama yesterday made for good promotion material…” John whispered to Lydia, the princess just frowned, so John continued with a more interesting topic, “You are going to announce that Nia girl today, right?” “Yes, I already sent the necessary text to Luna,” Lydia crossed her arms and allowed herself a self-assured smirk. “She is going to be very valuable indeed.” 

“You are talking about her like she is a rare gemstone,” John said. Shrugging, he added, “But I guess that is be expected from something as uncommon as a Pariah.” “I wouldn’t call Nia an outcast,” Lydia raised an eyebrow, “but how would you know about her anyhow?” “No, no,” John waved off, “Sorry, that’s Warhammer speech. A Pariah is a blank soul.” 

Now her forehead wrinkled as her second eyebrow joined above. “I don’t remember telling you what she was,” she stated. “You did just now,” John smirked, “I took an educated guess.” “Educated on what? If there is anything you found online that’d be highly concerning and I need to be informed,” Lydia demanded to know. 

“I just thought about our talks some more, you dropped some hints by accident back when we talked about soul types,” John said. “Hints?” “Body language, slight smirk here, seemingly unrelated topic break there. I am getting pretty wise, you know?” John joked. 

Lydia had more questions but they ceased their whispering when Alexej, the enemies first candidate, walked towards them. “Hrello, Hrello, Hrello!” he said in an overplayed accent that vanished as he continued speaking. “What an honour, I think we have never talked before,” he kissed Lydia’s hand in a smooth gesture. the princess just let it happen, but, just like with Maximillian, she pulled her hand back as soon as courtly acceptable. A moment later Alexej extended his hand to John. 

The Gamer looked at the hand for a moment. Then he put on an unsure smile. “I guess? Honestly, you remind me of somebody,” John said as he shook his enemies hand. Cameras went off, people were chatting. Them simply speaking in public would probably end up in some sort of history record of varying importance, depending on what sort of scandals would happen during the tournament. 

John got a text at that moment. He checked, it was just Rave letting him know that she was about to meet up with Herman, 13:45 o’clock. “Something interesting?” Alexej asked and acted like he wanted to peek on his display. John quickly let his phone vanish. “Nothing that concerns you,” he said, wanting to put his phone away, but getting another message from Rave before he could. ‘Itsxc vfds?’ John's confusion was big indeed, ‘Well, with a butt of her gloriousness, I would not be surprised if it tries to call me on its own.’ 

“On the contrary, John Newman, everything about you concerns me,” Alexej shrugged while John put his phone away for good, his brown robe whispering as cloth softly rubbed on cloth. “See, I am the guy responsible for information on our side of this conflict and I have been digging on you. Despite all the material available on your daily life, your powers are largely a mystery. It is, however, impossible to get this strong in such short a time, especially if you started from zero, like the information claims you to have. So, let me ask this straight-out,” the secretive blond looked at Lydia.

“Did you fabricate his whole backstory just to make digging harder?” he asked. Lydia raised an eyebrow. “Maybe,” the princess stated, her hands folding behind her back, “You do not expect an actual answer, do you?” “Well, one can always try,” Alexej laughed nonchalantly, “Call it professional interest, because if that were to be the case that would be some impressive preparation. Ah well, we will see if you are a genuine article or something crafted in advance soon, John,” the blond winked and turned, “Cya!” 

“What an irritating guy,” John mumbled, looking after Alexej as he quickly vanished between the people present. Was the man really unaware of the truth or was this another ploy to make John unsure whether or not he was SecretBlonde? The answer remained hidden. “Indeed,” Lydia agreed, “The fact that we haven’t found out a thing about him only makes this more annoying.” 

13:59, the princess got a message on her phone. She looked at it with elegance, then angrily hissed, “Oh for heaven’s sake.” “What now?” John asked, this did not bode well. “Nia got lost,” Lydia started typing furiously, then her eyebrows jumped up in a mixture of anger and confusion. “She is in…Aachen?! How did she even get there! She was in Cologne for the past week! You trust people to look after themselves and then they get lost, typical.” 

Romulus stood up and started some introductory speech, recapping yesterdays events. John was barely listening, he was just watching Lydia typing a storm. The giant at the high plateau stopped, that made John glance over to the front. He saw Luna whispering something to Romulus, wrinkles appearing on his forehead before making a dismissive gesture.

“What just happened?” John wanted to know, smelling Lydia’s involvement in this. “I turned in a favour with Luna to have her get me some time. I doubt she can give me more than 10 minutes.” “That’s not enough to get somebody here from Aachen, is it?” his voice was quiet, Aachen wasn’t far away, giving modern transportation, but that didn’t make it close. “No, of course not,” Lydia had stopped typing and was reading notes, “I am looking for a precedent I can use to argue for having her in the tournament despite her not physically being here. I need her against Maximillian…maybe I should just announce Aclysia instead?” 

John heard the people talking everywhere, wondering what this delay was about. Maximillian was already in position, Lydia was standing still where she was. People were likely starting to make the connection, but it didn’t matter as long as Luna covered for her. 

“Wish I could help you by using that Apothecary skill to put our minds together,” John joked. “What are you talking about?” Lydia whispered into his ear in answer, absent-minded, concentrating on the information on her fingertips, “Mind Melding isn’t an Apothecary skill, it was developed by the Nazi’s during the war.” His mind was cleared of all jokes and comments as everything fell into place. Months of friendship suddenly broke apart and he turned on his heels. 

It was Herman. It had always been Herman. The awfully convenient way they met, the call from SecretBlonde he had gotten at the exact same moment as he saw Herman. The conversation about the importance of information manipulation he had with Momo. The shock on his face when he found it Thana was dead. His uncaring attitude about the other people that died during the incident. Little things suddenly pilled up. That smell…that smell that always seemed to be around Herman.

The iron smell of blood.

“I have to go!” he said and ran away without another explanation, Aclysia quick on his heels as she, too, realized what this meant. “What?” Lydia’s question reached his ear but he didn’t stop. Pushing and shoving he worked his way out of the crowd and right to the cars waiting outside. He ran, his target was closer on foot than it was to wait for a car.

His feet were flying over the streets, even when he broke from the Illusion Barrier he didn’t stop running. Luckily his Agility wasn’t outlandish yet, otherwise the speed at which he was storming through the streets would have far exceeded anything a human was able to do and the turning heads of people would have been cause for Gaia punishing him some shape or form. This way he was only fast enough to make sports agencies all over the world drool, would that be fast enough though?

John stormed into the building and almost ran over the ‘Veteran Meeting, 13:30-17 o’clock’-sign at the entrance. It was one of those rentable halls, John hadn’t even paid any attention to the outside, neither did he care about any of the inside. Any people that would have tried to stop him, he would have ignored. But there was nobody. Even as he burst through the last door and got inside a room filled with rows of chairs in front of a makeshift podium, filled with an iron stench, John only had eyes for his target.

Although that target was nowhere to be found. The only person in the room was Rave, when he entered her cat ears turned before her head did. She seemed ready to pounce at John at a moment notice, then she realized that it was him. “John! SecretBlonde is…” “Herman, yes, I figured it out!” John completed the sentence for her. Rave was highly alert, she wouldn’t have changed into this form, one which she couldn’t control completely yet, if danger wasn’t imminent. So, he tossed Ashkandi to Aclysia, who had followed him here like the faithful guardian she was, and all of his elementals took place as his battled regalia materialized. 

The burning of the fixed armguard ruined the sleeve of his favourite, read only, suit. John barely took note of it. “Where is he?” “Somewhere! Be quiet! He keeps vanishing and I can only try to track him with hearing. Fucker destroyed my phone!” “I know somebody who is better at that than you, no offense,” John said and his elementals materialized, all but Siena who kept hiding in his shadow. “Gnome, Sylph, try to find him.” “I w-will do my best!” Gnome pumped her fists. “Yes, yes…ehm…what am I supposed to be tracking?” 

An echoing voice laughed. “Oh come one now, Sylph, it’s easy, just track the vibrations of my voice…good luck finding the original source, though,” Herman said from everywhere. “So, you ARE here,” John growled at the walls. “Did ya doubt me?” Rave questioned and allowed herself a quick glance at her boyfriend. ““Not really, but affirmation is nice, you know?”” John answered and so did Herman.

The Gamer froze. “”How did you do that?”” “”Are you in my head?”” “The best character in LoL is Teemo! HOW WOULD YOU KNOW I WOULD SAY SOMETHING SO ABSURD?!”” Herman giggled and something pushed John a few steps forwards. The liar stood there, waving with his gloved hand, in the complete outfit of SecretBlonde, from the leather trench-coat, to the swastika around his neck, to the gas mask, currently pulled over the side of his head. Of course, there was a rather notable change, in that his brown hair had turned platinum blond. 

“So, what tipped you off?” he asked and rummaged in an inside pocket of his coat. Everyone was ready to attack him, but no one was willing to make the first step. “I found out that the thing you did when you looked through Aclysia’s eyes with me was a skill used by the Nazi’s, not the Apothecaries,” John explained, a mental battle took place in the meanwhile.

‘Attack him, Siena!’ he commanded. ‘Mhm, but what if I don’t want to?’ the nightmare elemental moaned back, ‘You two big boys seem like you have a lot of catching up to do.’ ‘For fucks sake, he wants to kill me!’ ‘No, he doesn’t,’ Sien moaned back, ‘if he wanted to, he would have deeply penetrated you with a knife.’ 

John grit his teeth, he had no patience for her backtalk. ‘You either obey me on this or I am changing the rules so that you have to!’ he threatened. ‘Do what you must,’ Siena said nonchalantly, but he felt her tension building up. Forcing her hand here would damage their relationship into something that would be even less healthy than the murderboner she currently had for him. ‘A deal then,’ he gnarly suggested, ‘you get a 5-minute window to kill me tomorrow.’ Siena went silent. ‘Ten,’ she demanded, ‘and you don’t get to wear that glove.’ John’s teeth started hurting, ‘Fine, just go!’

“Ah, the princess right? Other people wouldn’t have that knowledge. They just go ‘Oh, I am stupid, and I don’t know anything about the schools of magic apothecaries learn, hurr durr, look at me, I can punch stuff and I have cat ear’,” Herman laughed and Rave hissed. “Not that it matters now, I already got all I wanted,” the betrayer of all fished a firecracker from his pocket and ignited it with an off-handed motion, using a lighter that he pulled from his sleeve. 

A tower of shadows erected behind Herman, careful not to enter his field of vision. Siena didn’t want her prey to slip away, enjoyed the sight of a victim unaware of their imminent and swift demise. Well, her summoner only allowed her to cripple this one, but there were ways to cut the throat that didn’t lead to imminent death. Best concentrate on that, it would make her master furious if he lost the chance to talk to this one after all. That would be worth any amount of time in maid service.

Herman dropped the firecracker and it exploded at his feet the moment Siena wanted to strike. The sudden light banished her from his shadow and she fell down, having lost her standing. She landed elegantly on all fours, claws ripping apart the red carpet. Hissing, her hair standing upwards, her eyes burning like yellow fire, she dropped into another shadow to wait for her next chance. 

“You know, I tracked that little trickle of mana that your early Possessions were,” Herman said in an amused tone, “what makes you think I cannot see that giant arcane flow between you and your elementals? To me, her being in your shadow is as plain as having her stay next to you.” “Eat fire, traitor!” Salamander shouted as she threw a fireball. It went right through Herman and hit a chair instead, which quickly went aflame. 

John’s eyes widened, “Undine, put that out!” He hurriedly commanded, sending her his mana. Quickly she obeyed and a wave of water extinguished the flame before it could cause any more damage. “Salamander, we are not inside an Illusion Barrier!” he reminded her, “The moment the authorities are here, Gaia will fuck us up the ass!”

“Oh, don’t worry,” Herman, at least John hoped that was the real one, appeared on a seat, hands and head on the back lean, legs dangling over the sides. “Gaia will push all of the blame here squarely on me.” Rave’s foot crashed through that seat and into the floor. In the settling chaos there was no body, that was another Illusion.

“Why would she do that?” John asked. “Look above for your answer,” Herman, now standing next to Rave, said. John didn’t even try to attack that one. Slowly he raised his head. “What the fuck?” he said, feeling his breakfast boil up in his stomach. He had to swallow hard to keep it where it was.

It was if somebody had taken the heart of a giant and smashed it onto the ceiling. The thing was several metres in diameter and branched out like a spider’s net towards the edges. Made from completely from a red liquid that, due to its crimson colour and the iron stench in the room, could have only been blood. 

It pulsated with a steady beat, the edges slowly crystallizing and pulling together. “Ow!” Rave, who had been staring just as John, suddenly cried out. His neck whirled to look at her and found Herman having made a small cut to her shoulder. John threw and Arcane Explosion, but by the time it went off, he had already vanished again.

“What is that? Why aren’t you fighting? Why do you betray everyone?” “My final -and greatest- work, because that shove I gave you earlier is literally the peek of my physical strength, my magic is not really harmful and because I have a purpose,” Herman appeared again, this time directly in front of him.

“I will tell you everything, just don’t interfere,” his eyes were an earnest plea but he also smiled smugly, “I know you will take this deal, after all bringing her back is in your interest as well, goody two shoes that you are.” John saw the impossible as Rave’s blood started flying towards the ceiling. It wasn’t a lot of it though, enough to make John worried for a moment, for sure, but then it suddenly stopped. Rave looked at the, now normally bleeding, cut with confusion, then she realized what John was already asking to affirm. „You can’t mean…

Thana?”