The Gamer Chapter 1545 – Advances (Patreon)

“You’re the greatest cure to my paranoia, you know that?”

Nightingale hummed at this. Her feathers connected to the surrounding shade through an ethereal curtain of misty black. Even though the room had no door, the isolation surrounding it was more absolute than most things John had ever encountered. They were as invisible to practically all kinds of spying magic as a trapdoor spider was to most things period.

“I hope I am useful for a few more things, my patriarch,” the harpy said, hiding her smile behind the curve of a half-folded wing.

“We’d still be here tomorrow if I started the short list,” the Gamer answered with a huge smile.

Then he heard a piece being moved and directed his gaze to the table in front of him.

Projected by the bowling-ball sized machinery Hailey had put together, a Warhammer game was in full swing. Moving all their minis with them was too tall an ask, but this way John could still indulge in one of his favourite time wasters. Point cost of the games was kept moderate, to keep the number of units and therefore the number of rolls/turns relatively low. They did not want to be stuck with these games for hours at a time.

‘Them’ being John, Scarlett, Hailey, Nia, and Eliana. He and the technomancer had to do most of the moving, as the holographic ball only reacted to input of the magical variety. Something about needing the thought patterns to power its illusionary engine. Another thing John understood but had no idea how to put into theory or implementation himself.

The battlefield was a pentagon. One army was situated in each corner and six objectives had been scattered about in random locations, separated by forests and ruins. It was nowhere near a balanced battlefield, but balanced wasn’t the intention anyhow. They were playing as five people in a ruleset optimized for two and between the mysterious work of the dice and having five players, any advantages and disadvantages regarding starting positions would dissolve eventuality.

Every move was accompanied by simple sounds, to keep the realism of it all as close as possible. “Laaaaaaaame!” Rave shouted from the corner.

“You know you can swing your perfect fucking ass out of our game chamber whenever you want, seizure hands,” Eliana cussed back immediately. Her eyes moved about the battlefield, sharp and focused. A lovable look, so seldom found. Eliana preferred to busy herself with being artistically frustrated. That was to say, she preferred to curse at everything she made, as she made it, insisting it was all terrible when it was actually pretty darn wonderful to look at. To see her like this, entirely contemplative, was a rare treat.

Scarlett, Hailey, and Nia, by comparison, were various flavours of how they usually looked. Scarlett sipped on a martini, Hailey half-smiled while she leaned onto the edge of the table (which was actually there under the illusion), and Nia stared her piercing blue stare.

“I can leave, but that’d make you no less lame.” Rave took another bite of her sandwich. She, Nightingale, and Claire were watching the match.

“Your complaining is really fucking repetitive, it’s been two years, you daft fucking cunt, you can share a little bit in the hobby!” Eliana shot back.

“You always playing World Eaters is repetitive.” Rave made a sour face, as she always did when she realized she knew who was who.

“I connect to Angron on a spiritual level!”

“Don’t we all, don’t we all?” Claire hummed and wrapped her arms around John. “I must say that your choice is very boring, Master. Very, very boring.”

“The Gathering Storm converted me; I’m a true Ultramarine believer.” John shrugged and put an arm around her. The eyes of the vampire maiden flashed red with excitement. While he let her recharge her ‘Master Batteries’, Nia took her turn. No need to pay much attention there, the pariah was located on the opposite side of the map. “Anything to report to me?”

“I hate the sun?” Claire suggested.

“Anything new?” John chided her with a soft chuckle.

“I’ve lost the turf war in the coliseum.”

That was, all things considered, hardly surprising. Claire’s powerset had revealed to John yet another layer of the Abyss: familiar spy warfare. In the corners of any large building many powerful factions stayed in, there were constant battlefields. Unseen by the public, magical entities fought viciously for the best spots to listen in on conversations or to simply deny enemy factions entry to one’s own inner sanctum.

The kind of familiars used in these information wars were disposable and cheap to replace. They were small and typically dissolved without a trace. Claire had been slowly growing wise to it. Annoyingly, she wasn’t well built for this kind of situation. Since the power of her familiars scaled with their size, remaining inconspicuous while fielding appropriately powerful entities was near impossible. Then came the additional complication of her familiars only being capable of receiving orders in close proximity.

Granted, Claire’s familiars were still on the stronger side and the Rivers of Blood meant that no intel was ever truly lost, which was a notable boon. It wasn’t like she was the weakest user of familiars around, far from it. However, she was competing with several other members of the Divided Gates, the Horned Rat most of all.

“As long as we can protect our core areas,” John said. “What we need, above all, is consistent access to Vier.”

The mention of the name made Rave stop chewing for a moment, while Eliana let out a deep, wolfish growl. A traitor to one, a hated creator to the other, the origin of the clone was disliked across the room even if there was no direct connection. “I hate that we work with the guy,” his fiancée ultimately complained.

“We do what we must.” John let out a long sigh. “I think setting Vier loose on the world is ultimately the lesser evil compared to letting Mengele exist, but we’ll have to find out.”

“Y’all dealin’ with the heavy stuff again,” Hailey drawled, while going through her turn. “Person’ly can’t believe I was in the same room as Judas.”

“Yeah, that was hard to swallow,” John agreed. “Still can’t believe it…”

“Ya shouldn’t waste your brain cells on it. He wronged us more definitively than anything ya read in an ancient book could.”

“It’s good to keep tabs on the past, Jane.”

The feline Lightbearer shrugged, expressing her mild disagreement that way, before returning her attention to her sandwich. Hailey swiftly moved through her turn. Having fielded Imperial Knights, she did not have a lot of units to consider. Once she was done, it was John’s time to concentrate on the board. The conversation continued while he simulated offenses, counter-offenses, and defense of the various chokepoints.

“I really like this game,” Nia said, as sudden and unexpected as ever.

Without missing a beat, Hailey responded, “It do be fun.”

“It’s useful,” the pariah responded in her even tone. “It mimics the Abyss well enough, with its vastly different strengths between units. The confines of the battlefield do well to simulate an Illusion Barrier.”

“It was designed by an Abyssal, so that’s not too surprising,” Scarlett answered. The redhead was chewing on the toothpick the olive of her martini had been on. “Our plan to murder Mengele is in full swing then?”

“All the pieces have been aligned,” John said, while moving one of his Primaris Marines into cover. “It won’t be easy. Our window of opportunity is slim and there are risks involved…” He looked at Eliana. “I don’t have to ask whether that’s worth it, do I?”

“Then why the fuck are you?” the failed goddess answered plainly. Arms crossed, golden formations in amethyst eyes circling, Eliana just stood there and stared. “Don’t make me doubt.”

“Admittedly, I struggle with that,” John mumbled and moved the last of his pieces into position. “Once we’re in position, though, there is no turning back. At that point, there is nothing to doubt anymore.”

“Good.”

John decided to change the topic just as they moved into the Shooting Phase. “How were your experiments, Hailey?”

“Like a Texan BBQ,” Hailey responded. “Mediocre.”

“You know, every time you say something like that, you accrue negative karma?”

“Nah, the entire world hates Texas.”

“I don’t.”

“Ain’t the first time you’re wrong about somethin’.”

John let out a half-sighed chuckle, then repeated the question, “But seriously though, any progress?”

“Same way there’s progress to you gettin’ better at laying bricks one brick at a time,” the country gal drawled. “Can’t say I got notably bett’r at it as I was at it, but imma get a feel for what does what with time.”

“Are you going to keep researching tomorrow?”

“Pro’ly, why?” Hailey clicked her tongue when her unit was bombarded by Scarlett’s Imperial Guard. “Your army really does work under the motto ‘Dear Grid Coordinates’, ain’t it?” The technomancer only answered with a satisfied, crooked smile.

“Because I fully expect someone to make an attempt to nab the Rose, at least, if not you with it.” John rubbed his forehead. “I’m wondering if a few more of the girls should stick around you as bodyguards. Now that Nathalia is free, she could make for the ultimate deterrent…”

“…I hear a ‘but’?” Hailey coaxed.

“…but,” John confirmed, “I’m not sure if it wouldn’t be beneficial to invite the attack. I’m confident in Aclysia’s abilities to defend you.”

“I could stay around, I’m fairly inconspicuous,” Claire offered. That was true enough in normal situations, her being capable of masking her presence and shapeshifting to a moderate degree. However, she found the weakness with that plan quickly. “If I wasn’t around, the missing of my familiars would be noted.”

“As would be the absence of almost everyone else. It would be a lot easier if I could spare the Mandala Sphere. I could just anchor the elementals to it and if they’re needed use the emergency teleports to move them over… but not having my second body during a tournament fight would be just as questionable. Also, I’ll probably need it.” He took his hand off his forehead. “Aclysia will have to be enough.”

“Ain’t like I’m easy to kidnap either.” A turn of her wrist, and the country gal held a shard of azure blue ice as sharp as a scalpel knife. A second turn and it was gone again.

“The good news is that they have no really optimal combat data on either of you,” John agreed. Aclysia had last publicly fought during the conquest of the Small Lake Pact, if John’s memory was served correctly. An estimation could be made by those that had helped during the Iron Domain pacification, but only by those that had fought their own shard of Arkeidos. Sol aside, that was a list of John’s close allies. No one would have directly seen the maids fight the tyrant. Everyone could only say that they were strong.

The same was true for Hailey. They had fought the giant lobster creature at the Atlantic Fuse, but most people would know neither how powerful it was nor just how easy that had been for her. They could make their estimates, but any reasonable estimate would inevitably fall short.

They had long since left the realm of reasonable.

“I’m thirsty,” Nia casually said.

John didn’t even think about it. His hand had disappeared into his inventory and withdrew one of the bottles of water he kept in there. Only when he had already thrown the bottle of water across the table did he realize that he had been moving at all. Reading the unsaid from his girl’s lips was practically instinctual at this point.

“They do have combat data on Beatrice, to compare,” Claire did caution. “It’s not optimal, since the fight was so one-sided. Still, something to consider, Master.”

“That is fair…” John rubbed his chin. The annoying thing was that he did not know how many people his potential enemies had that were even capable of executing an operation to steal the Rose of Artifice. A degree of stealth was required to get onto the Boating Seaquence and to then make it out after the Rose had been ‘extracted’. That stealth had to come on a person that could either themself defeat Aclysia and Hailey or be capable of smuggling such a person in.

If anything was reassuring here, it was that the number of people that could conceivably pull something like that off was incredibly slim. If they could be found anywhere, though, it would be in the Divided Gates.

“Claire, can you head out to the Boating Seaquence and leave your unlimited range familiars there?” John asked. “Just scatter them about the boat and have them hide and wait for Aclysia to engage potential enemies. If nothing else, they should delay the enemies for long enough that reinforcements can arrive.”

“Can do,” Claire promised. Her Familiars packed quite a punch, their maximum level being equal to 75% of Claire’s, capped at a collective maximum of her Charisma. They were just Stat blocks, heavily weighted towards whatever that particular kind of familiar specialized in, but Stat blocks were still effective at range. “Do I have to right now?”

“You can wait until the sun is down,” John calmed her nerves.

That was as much security as he could prepare without it looking too suspicious. With one worry down, he moved to the next one. “How is everyone liking our chances for the rest of the tournament?”

“Victory is the only choice, my king.” The First of Wrath had stepped through the protective layer of shade just before he had asked the question, as if summoned by its stating. She joined Claire in attaching herself to his side. Vampire and wolf woman cuddled up to him, it was difficult to move. Good thing he had mental control over the game board. “You’ll have it delivered to you.”

“You sound exceptionally confident.” John let his doubts flow into his words.

“Because I’m the weapon of my chosen king. Losing was never an option.” Her lips spread in a dangerous grin. “Besides, you’re not the underdog here, John. I don’t think you’ll ever be again.”

That was an interesting thought. This one had crossed his mind before. At an average of level 600, his harem was just too powerful. Even if he were to fight Romulus at this stage, with his entire harem behind him, he would stand a legitimate chance. He might even be favoured, if it was just them against just him and his two goddesses.

It was odd to think of the Azure Tribe as the ones that had to struggle against them as a supreme force but… the evidence pointed that way, did it not? They were 5 to 4 and it was highly doubtful that the two remaining fighters of the Azure Tribe were as powerful as Orkos or Arkan.

John looked around his own side. All five remaining fighters were gathered in the room. Rave was unlikely to score a victory against either the Father or self-proclaimed Grandfather of Arcane. As was the Gamer himself, by all expected metrics. Maybe, just maybe, he could eke out something against Orkos, but he wouldn’t bet on it.

His eyes moved on to the remaining three. “Victory may be our only choice, but it’s not the only possible outcome,” the Gamer cautioned.

“It is not the only possible outcome,” Metra agreed, “but it is the only acceptable one. I’ll break your enemies until I can howl your sovereignty from the rooftops of their shattered citadels.”

Claire chuckled, a mad approval in her eyes. “You just have all the right energy bundled in you,” the maid stated. The two kissed, unified by their goal to see their Master succeed. White-haired vampire from another world and ancient weapon from an empire scattered by Gaia and time, both unified in being such beautiful and dangerous parts of his life.

The scene itself was wonderful, but John was of two minds regarding her announcement. Metra was far from delusional when it came to the reality of battle, so her advice was best taken seriously. Simultaneously, overconfidence was a slow and insidious killer.

Seeking sober counsel, John’s eyes moved to Nia. The blonde was studying the board. Her body language was open, plain. Her arms hung simply from her shoulders. Her back was straight, but not too straight. Her head was tilted just enough to remove rigidity from her stance. “I said it before: I can defeat Arkan.”

John remained cautious about that claim. Giving her the benefit of the doubt, they came out with 3 people that could beat the 2 enemy elites, in theory. It wouldn’t be easy, but it would be possible, likely even. The strongest pariah in the world, the First of Wrath with her Entropy Arena to even the odds, and the goddess of genocide.

Perhaps they really weren’t the underdogs here.