The Gamer Chapter 1037 – Consolidation Diplomacy 3 – Ivy and Spring and Bone (Patreon)

“He will rise as ivy and spring and bone,” the Horned Rat mumbled, kneeling down next to the pit.

Remaining about a metre away from the edge, John stared at the god. “You aren’t about to throw a bone in there, are you?” he asked. “Because that’s the last thing that is missing.”

“Depends on whether or not I meant spring as in the water or spring as in the season,” the Horned Rat responded. “Either way, I am considering it. Heavily considering it.”

“I’d rather you not. I have enough on my plate as is.” The Gamer circled around the spring, keeping a bit of a distance.

“Afraid of falling in?” The Horned Rat’s deep voice was laden with light-hearted mockery. “This is a small puddle, not like the vortex Remus is trapped in. You could get out between some flashbacks.”

“I’d rather avoid that. Statistically speaking, it’s a lot more likely that I will remember a moment from the first eighteen years of my life than one of the last year. There is not a lot of my mundane life I’d like to remember. Best case, I remember the time I beat Dark Souls. Worst case, I have to deal with Frank’s face again.”

The Horned Rat stayed quiet for a couple of seconds, then giggled. “Are you certain it is wise to reveal your emotional vulnerability to your enemy?”

“My enemy?” The Gamer stopped in his tracks, his eyes darting from the pitifully shouting phantom rising and collapsing in the water to the god. “You’re not my enemy, Richard, you’re an unreliable influence on my life. Unless… you want me to see you as my enemy?”

The Horned Rat continued to cackle and gave no answer. Instead, he moved on. “Seeing Remus is quite fascinating. He was long before my time. I know of him because of the book I stole from Romulus.”

“Is that why he hates you?” John asked.

“Yes, yes, it was the start of a chain of events that lead to our adversarial stance,” the Horned Rat waved off. “It is quite a standard tale, as far as rivalries go, so I won’t bother you with it.”

“How about you bother me with how you are involved in this mess then,” the Gamer pulled the topic back to the matter at hand. “I know that you have a deal with Ferikrona, Nathalia told me that much. You can’t expect me to believe that you having an association with the goddess of time and the appearance of the Sands of Time are not related.”

“Believe it or not, I have nothing to do with this one,” the Horned Rat said and stood up. “Which I loathe. Remus’ return will be a cataclysmic shift in the balance of power. I prefer when those happen by my design.” The god of future calamity stepped back. “I’ll not throw a bone in there after all. The more time I have to prepare for the eventual return, the better. Any theories as to how he is doing this?”

“None better than yours, I bet.”

“Observe may allow you to work with better information than I do. I surpass you in distance and piercing through protections, but that scrying spell of yours can reveal a lot more detail.”

“Not in this case,” John shook his head, “Observe doesn’t work here. I only ever get an item description for the Sands of Time or the water.”

“Is the water special in any way?”

“Not as far as I am being told.”

“Hm,” the Horned Rat rubbed his bone chin with his claws, “quite the interesting situation. The thing is, Remus in the hourglass appears unchanged.”

“Maybe he will only come out once the process is complete?” John suggested. “Either that or what is coming out here isn’t Remus at all. It might be that… how should I put it?” The correct way to phrase this eluded him for a couple of moments, because of the oddity of the possibility. “It might be that Remus will remain stuck where he is and what is coming out here is… a god of Remus.”

“That would be my guess as well,” the Horned Rat said.

“God of Remus?” Nia asked. The pariah had been quiet the entire time, poking and inspecting the vines around. Now that she no longer followed what was going on, she was quick to ask a question.

“Remus is the Godmaker, we know that much.” As John explained, he walked over to Nia and crouched down next to her. Holding her while talking made the whole affair more pleasant. “He can channel Faith into objects and thus create a god with an aspect of his choosing. With that ability, it is impossible for him to leave the hourglass. It might be that, as a workaround, he has been creating a god that is basically a copy of himself from whatever grains of sand he touched at the time. The Faith he used for that may be everything he himself generated while being trapped in his memories for several millennia. Therefore, the entity that manifests is a god of Remus.”

“A desperate gambit, but the only one he may have available,” the Horned Rat agreed. “This current state certainly resembles the legion state that precedes the consolidation into an Abyssal or godly entity. Different aspects and memories of Remus are combining and vying for dominance. The end result may be what he used to be or someone entirely different.”

“I see.” Nia just nodded, showing her understanding. “What do we do with that knowledge?”

“Honestly?” John got up again and pulled her along. “Nothing. It’s too risky to try and subvert the formation process. Whatever or whoever finally rises from that pond, I’d rather not be on their bad side.” He kissed her on her cheek, arm slung around her waist. “Unless Richard has a bright idea on what we can do, that is.”

“I must, must indeed, disappoint you on this one,” the Horned Rat squeaked, his deep voice momentarily supplanted by the mouse-like sounds inside it. “Would you mind if I sent some of my own servants to monitor the situation alongside your soldiers.”

“You have spies in my army anyway, so it won’t make a difference,” John sighed and waved his hand in defeat. “They won’t speak to Remus, however. They can report his rise to you, when it finally happens, but the initial negotiation will be left to me.”

“That is fine by me.” The Horned Rat bowed his head.

With that they were done with their inspection.

___________________________________________________________________________

The trip home took a while, mostly because of the drive back to the teleporter. They didn’t speak about anything important on the way. It didn’t feel like the proper setting for a discussion and John wanted to have more information at hand than the car and a smartphone would allow him. Because of that, they moved to one of the Fusion Administration’s board rooms once they were back.

Outside the door, John could hear the hustle of a busy and efficient bureaucracy. While their president was occupied with diplomatic affairs, the average administrator still had to deal with the day-to-day business of the federation. On the one hand, that could not have been particularly exciting. On the other, John missed the simplicity of his office. ‘It’s too boring when I sit in my chair and too exciting when I have to deal with the fallout of these situations. The human brain truly keeps one working and confused at all times,’ he thought.

Nia had left to do some additional work, while Nathalia and Scarlett had come in. The latter because she made operating the television a lot easier and the former because she was interested to see just exactly how her man went about negotiations nowadays. When they parted, John had a lot less weight to throw around.

“Now that we have all of the catching up done,” John began the meeting, “we need to discuss Fusion’s position in the world.”

“Indeed, indeed,” the Horned Rat agreed, having sized up to the point where he just barely fit inside the office chair. “To begin with the obvious, you are about to become a whole lot safer. The alliance between our guilds will officially begin in five days.”

“On the seventeenth.” The words were underlined with a calendar popping up on the screen. “You really think that’s necessary?”

“You hauled my ass out of my office for this, if I do nothing, I’ll die of boredom,” Scarlett told him. “Can we go back to the blowjob schedule already?”

“Blowjob schedule?” Nathalia asked.

“We have this thing where one of us is under John’s desk during work hours, sucking him off.”

The dragoness was silent for a solid five seconds before stating, in the most baffled tone John had ever heard from her, “That may be the most amazing thing I have ever heard.”

“Staying on track,” John spoke over the lewd conversation that was threatening to dominate the room, “the alliance is coming in at a good time, all things considered. At Fusion’s size, the great powers of the world will take notice of us pretty soon, I reckon.”

“You were saved by distance this far, but between you pushing towards the Mandate of Heaven’s American tributaries and this Lorylim affair, the eyes of the world will indeed shift towards you.”

“More than welcome on the latter account,” the Gamer said and leaned back. “I want to pull several of the great and regional powers of the world into an anti-Lorylim coalition. Surely this is one enemy where everyone can agree to prioritize taking them out over other issues.”

“That purely depends on the other issues,” the Horned Rat posed. “Fundamentally, it is a good move though. You won’t make it stop as a defensive alliance though?”

“Fact of the matter is that the Lorylim are particularly active in North America at the moment.” The Gamer swayed left and right in his swivel chair, folded hands in front of his chest. “Naturally, Fusion will be the frontline against any activities. It would be best if there was some kind of foreign aid to adequately prepare the Federation for any attack.”

“Such foreign aid would naturally include everything a good military needs to function,” the Horned Rat leaned back in his own chair, “equipment, good roads and other infrastructure, surplus food coming from specifically enhanced crops, ships and heavy machinery.”

“Just so happens that the general economy also benefits from most of those,” the Gamer shrugged, “isn’t that lucky for me?”

“It’s making the best out of a bad situation,” Scarlett chimed in, putting a cigarette in her mouth. Her lighter refused to play along. Rolling her eyes, the technomancer got up and walked over to Nathalia. The goddess did her fellow haremette the favour and lit the cigarette with a quick flame breath. “Thanks.”

“The sole birthday present you wanted, I take it?” Nathalia asked.

Scarlett laughed, “HAH! You are not fucking wrong,” and started smoking.

“We’ll see how successful your little scheme is,” the Horned Rat said. “As it currently stands, the Illuminati have no intention of sending any direct help or funds your way. We are still occupied with the integration of Britain.”

John stopped in his swaying and sighed, “I don’t expect it to be a massive improvement, but every little bit helps. Primarily, Fusion needs capable and educated people. We have all the resources we could ask for, but not enough specialists to make something worthwhile out of them.”

“And you continue to create programs to syphon them away from other, more established powers,” the Horned Rat noted.

“It’s easier for us than most other nations. Abyssal America and Britain may be insignificant, but in the real-world English is practically the lingua franca. Plus, granting absolutely absurd research grants is attractive to everyone.”

“Indeed. To give my final word on the topic of a coalition, the Illuminati will support the formation and join it. Necessary arrangements to that end have already been made.” The Horned Rat rolled his neck. “I’ve also decided to back you up whenever you decide to pressure the Mandate about their tributaries on the west coast.”

John raised an eyebrow, that was good news, but also unexpected. “Why’s that?”

“Because the Mandate of Heaven is too powerful for my liking,” the Horned Rat told him. “The Abyss is ruled by two emperors, such is the saying. Romulus in the west and the holder of the Mandate of Heaven in the east. The two of them are in rough balance with each other, although Romulus remains, ultimately, the Apex. I want to weaken either where I can.”

“And you will use Fusion as the weapon in this instance.” John waved away some smoke which Scarlett blew in his direction. “If you’re so bored, why don’t you throw up a map for us?” the Gamer requested.

“That’ll keep me occupied for – done,” the technomancer’s dry sarcasm rang out. John would have laid her across his lap and spanked her if she hadn’t been smoking at the moment.


“The Outer Mandate remains quite far away,” John said. “There is no dealing with it before we’ve dealt with the Order of the Golden Rose.”

“Have they contacted you yet?” the Horned Rat asked.

“No, and we haven’t reached out since the Death Zone affair concluded either. We’re preparing our public statements. It may only be a matter of time before their scouts run into our occupation forces though.” The Gamer rolled his neck, his voice thoughtful. “I can’t imagine they didn’t have any issues with the Death Zone expanding.”

“They might have had a lucky break,” Scarlett chimed in. “The spell was drawn to bodies of water, particularly saltwater. It may be that the spell was naturally pulled east because there was more ocean to be attacked by in that direction.”

“It should have at least spread equally along the coast,” John pushed back, only to rub his forehead and groan. “Not that we can know definitively. That spell was as impossible as it was large. Either way,” he lowered his hand, “with the current state of affairs and the external threat of the Lorylim, we need to consolidate the areas around us and start propping up military bases around the country, if only for general surveillance. Don’t really like having to do that, but necessity wins out over wishful thinking.” Suddenly there was a knock on the door. The Gamer exchanged a glance with everyone else, then said, “Come in.”

An official opened the door hastily and took a nervous bow. “Mister President, the… well, he said he was… anyway, the god of war wishes to talk to you.”

“Oh fantastic,” the Horned Rat hissed, “that guy.”