The Gamer Chapter 1213 – No Holds Barred Finale – Clarity of Objectives (Patreon)

Sprawled out before him was the entirety of the assembled forces. Lone wolves, famed adventurers, volunteers and political actors were all sitting in a semicircle. Humans, elves, harpies, gods, dwarves, young and old, were all around the platform that had been spawned into the room. John recognized so many faces among them. Maximillian, his once enemy and now best friend. Ted and Chemilia, the two generals from Little Maryland. Elu, the representative of the Hidden Tradition in the military and de-facto general as well. Alice, the first Maiden of Null and children’s fable. Remia and Theron of the Lake Alliance. Nariko, Rave’s mother and high-up in the Abyss Auction. Sol, goddess of the sun and one of Romulus’ loves. The Horned Rat, trickster, enigma, monster, and close ally. Olaf, a Viking standing out with how stereotypical he was. The Hobomice, aid to the Horned Rat, who had suddenly appeared just five minutes ago. Moira and William of the Order of the Golden Rose, keepers of what was pure.

A long list, containing only those in attendance that John had known previously. Many came with their entourage, containing one to five people, swelling the numbers immensely. Representatives of several major guilds had shown up. Beyond Sol and Olaf, there was a group from Prometheus and the Mandate of Heaven. The latter were especially interesting, considering the situation on the west coast. A conversation for another time.

Counting Lydia among them, six of the current nine established Divided Gates were present. Only the Great Sultanate, the Purest Front, and the Dangun Clan had no one even loosely affiliated present. John was rather thankful for that. It spared him the moral question of whether he wanted to work with slavers, Nazis, or the people raiding his girlfriend’s ancestral homeland. Under the current circumstances, he would have at least considered.

“I want to thank you all for gathering here,” the Gamer finally addressed the congregation. “Friends,” he nodded to Maximillian, “volunteers,” his eyes wandered to the members of Fusion, “allies,” they darted onwards to the Horned Rat, “righteous,” he gestured towards Moira and then Sol, “adventurers,” he smiled at Olaf, “and opportunists,” he laughed at Nariko to take the bite out of that word, “I well and truly thank all of you. I’m under no illusion that not all of you are here with the purest of intentions, but you are still aiding me in something that matters to me. For that, you deserve my gratitude. For the boldness you show, my respect.

“I will take one moment to remind all of you what this is about. Through one of my many unusual abilities, I acquired access to a Kingdom, an Illusion Barrier of sorts that exists independent or decoupled from Earth. In it, I knew I could find the cure to the ailment that has befallen the good friend of Nightingale, an alchemist named Delicia. Through a device found on that world, I could crystallize her soul and create a new body for her, one not plagued by the rejection of her spirit by her physical form. That initial goal was quickly supplemented with upending the horrid tyranny I found there. The Iron Domain, as it is named, governed by the people who had been undergoing that same process to achieve immortality, curated by their Emperor and creator of the method, Arkeidos. While my initial campaign was quite successful, Arkeidos did eventually manage to not only launch a counterattack but to take hostage the sole Ironborn whose morality was not utterly corrupted by the environment. A woman named Claire, which I quickly came to… let’s say fancy.”

Nobody laughed at that one, understandably. John let the words sink in for a moment, before continuing. “I want everyone to understand what you stand to gain from the trip itself: nothing. Once my business there is concluded, the Iron Domain will be cut off from Earth, possibly forever. You won’t be able to take anything from there with you. We will have no guarantees that the world we save will recuperate from the tyranny. You will be risking your lives, to liberate the world, so I may rescue Claire and acquire the cure for Delicia. This will be your last chance to opt out of this. There is no shame in it right now. After this strategy meeting, after we have accounted for your individual strengths, if I don’t see you tomorrow, I will hold it against you forever. This is your last chance.”

John took a step back from the podium and gave everyone a few minutes to consider. It was formal more than anything. All those that had come here had done so perfectly aware what was happening. They likely would have reconsidered if the allies present would have been subpar. With the entirety of John and the harem and a total of five gods present, morale was high. The Gamer was right there with them.

“The amount of power in this room is enough to topple nations,” he said when he stepped back to the podium. “And I’m glad all of you are committed to this endeavour. Were we to face Arkeidos and his forces head on, I would guarantee us a victory with minimal to no casualties. Our situation, however, is more complicated than that. As all of you are aware, he holds someone hostage. There are many things you can say about Arkeidos, but not that he violates his promises. As long as we play by his rules, we will have a fair fight. The problem is that he will create a situation where our advantage will be broken up.” The Gamer looked over to Scarlett who activated the large screen positioned behind him. “Let’s start with the general information.”

The first image appeared on the screen. A sketch of the Eternal Fortress, created by Eliana, described to her by John. “This is where our fight will most likely take place. We have absolutely no knowledge about the insides of the structure and it is massive, expanding several kilometres up, across the surface, and possibly underneath it. Arkeidos has been holding absolute rule over the Kingdom for almost a thousand years. There is no telling what all he has in store for us in the seat of his power.”

Glancing over his shoulder, John confirmed that the slide changed to a representation of Arkeidos himself. It was considerably more accurate and detailed, as Eliana had seen him in person. “This is the Emperor – or one of his bodies, rather. Arkeidos is a lich, who takes possession of suits of armour he has forged over the ages. The alloys he used in the process contain the same elemental extreme metals that Fusion used to create Strimata.” Lydia drew the rapier just to give everyone a reminder what that meant. “They also contain an incredible amount of necromantic energy made metal. He wields a weapon containing a high amount of Astrotium. From what we can gather, he had a total of nine bodies, two of which we destroyed. We don’t know if he can control all of them at the same time, but it’s safe to assume that he can. If we’re lucky, his power gets diminished by this parallel control. Gambling on luck here would be foolish. Arkeidos’ power exceeds my own, but Eliana was able to beat him. This means that only the most powerful members among us have any hope of facing him and only a select few may do so on their own.

“Next will be our primary known problem for the initial stages of the combat.” The slide changed to a golden, highly ornate humanoid. “Jevaine, the Gold Eater, one of the three remaining Monarchs of the Iron Domain. Her Innate Ability lets her convert value into temporary power. We can’t be sure what the upper limit of that ability is but when we saw her use it on what was an object of practically indescribable value, one of Arkeidos’ bodies, including part of his soul, she became powerful enough to overpower Eliana. It will take at least two of the gods with us just to match her.

“Further, we have two more Monarchs and two Iron Maidens. Severest, someone using sound magic. Reetha, utilizing emotion manipulation. Meteora, capable of fire and earth magic, as well as melee capabilities. Lastly, Ell, capable in water and shadow magic. All four of these are roughly equivalent to one of my familiars. This means, for most of you, they will be impossible to take on alone.

“Underneath these elite individuals, we have a host of Ironborn that range from an Abyssal elite to around the capability of the exceptional individuals gathered here. Those will be the primary opponents for most of you, in all due likelihood. The Monarchs and the Iron Maidens will make this fight difficult. The gods and most powerful among us will be busy dealing with Arkeidos and Jevaine. Any questions so far?”

“You said he was a lich?” Sol immediately raised her voice. “We can just find his phylactery and be done with it.”

“As said already, the structure is massive,” John reminded. “It’s not feasible to just stumble over it. Fundamentally, I’m open to having some people try to find it.”

“If I was this Arkeidos,” the Horned Rat chimed in, “and I was one to stick to my oaths no matter what – which is the assumption under which we have to plan to even consider the secondary objective as viable – then I’d place my phylactery in a container alongside the hostage and make it impossible for it to be destroyed without Claire getting caught in the blast.”

“…I’ll defer to your craftiness, Muris, if nothing else,” Sol conceded.

“Any other questions?” John asked the crowd. No one raised their hands, so he continued, “Alright, so there are two surprise factors we can utilize. First, this will be useful for many of you, the Ironborn have no knowledge of martial arts. Although they were once people, they all have bodies practically identical to Artificial Spirits, so they never discovered nor practiced this style of combat. They will not be familiar with your techniques. Secondly, the Ironborn did not have contact with a pariah before Nia here. Remember that when she and Alice fight by your side: you may be fearful of their alien presence, but the Ironborn will be terrified.

“General combat tips you should keep in mind: the lower ranks of the Ironborn fight with immense discipline. Higher ranks did not have the pressure of competition to retain their ability to work in a cohesive unit. You may be able to exploit that. More important is that you should not enter wars of attrition with any of them. As said, the Ironborn have bodies akin to Artificial Spirits. This includes their regeneration factor. Aim for their cores, typically located where the heart would be.” John tapped on the corresponding area of his chest. “Everyone got that? Yes? Good. Then I would like to play through a number of the most likely scenarios and what we will do if they come to pass.”

Hours of in-depth preparation followed.

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John stared at the ceiling.

Music softly played in the background. Upbeat jazz, almost a mockery of their current situation, removed the silence with its steady tones. It was a remainder of the orgy that had ended minutes ago. Breathing all around was calm. No one was continuing what usually would have lasted for another half hour minimum. Lying in bed, he and his women were satisfied and too concerned about the coming day to continue fucking.

“Darling, are you afraid?” Nia wanted to know. The question came out of nowhere and was yet entirely expected.

“No,” he answered truthfully.

“Worried?” she suggested an alternative.

“Yeah, that’s more like it,” the Gamer groaned and sat up. He wanted to rest his back on something, but he was in the middle of the bed. The wall was several metres away. Crossing his legs, he looked around the sprawled out harem around him. “You already know all I could say. I could use any one of you to save someone. I could use any one of my friends to save someone. Just because that someone is a person I desire does not make it right… but you also all made the choice to help me anyway.”

“’Cause you’re sexy when you want things, tiger,” Rave joked and filled the room with giggles and approving nods. His girlfriend lay about two metres away from him and stayed there, while several other haremettes piled onto John. “It’ll be alright.”

“But what if it won’t be?”

“Then that’s gonna suck, but we’ll deal with it.”

And that was really all there was to it.