Vol. 4 Chap. 68 Foreign Agitator

Truth snagged the Major’s cap and wallet on the way out the door. The cap went on his head, the wallet into the sack with the rest of the loot. He rushed down the hall. If he saw a policeman or internal security type, they got a needle to the head courtesy of Major Tsu’s needler and Graeme’s arrow.

Graeme's arrow punched through skulls and cinder block walls with equal ease. Truth’s Level Four Cultivation made overpenetration a serious problem. Which was fine. Overkill was kind of the point. He raced around until he found the comms room- altars with their code tables laid out, and a frantic cop reporting that they were under attack by someone. Truth put the needler to the back of cop’s head, and coughed.

“Sorry to interrupt, but don’t worry, I’m here to help you. You want to give them more answers, right? Nod your head.”

The cop nodded, sweat running down his face. There were screams coming from all over the building. Over penetration was terrifying that way. All of a sudden, your concrete wall wasn’t protecting you any more. Death could come at any time, from any direction.

“Tell them that I have taken you captive.” Truth waited. “Tell them that I will speak through you.” He waited again, as the message was relayed.

“They, they want-”

“No. They will listen. Hear now the words of the King. Major Tsu was the first, his name picked out of a hat by laughing soldiers. On the other slips of paper are generals, ministers, merchants and others who think they are important or powerful. And there are the names of their parents, their children, their pets. Their hidden bastards and lovers. And we are going to pick a new name out of the hat whenever we want.”

The cop looked ill, repeating what Truth said. His face had lost all color, the blue veins over his temples looked like they were going green.

“Some days we will pick a lot of names, other days, just one. But every day, you will lose people. Every day you will hurt. Not because we expect you to surrender, or even apologize. It is far, far too late for that. We just want you to know what is coming. The King of the World will descend on the Great White Mountain once more, and all heaven and earth will give their obedience.”

The cop was shaking now. The words stuttering and spilling out of his mouth.

“All the people of the world will be ranked and ordered in their proper places. All cared for, all given proper lives. Except for the people of the dead nation of Onis. You dared bare your fangs at the ritual site. You dared try to dirty the purification. You dared raise your heads before the servants of the King. Your families, your descendants, will never raise their heads again. You will be below even the slaves. Forever. And there is nothing you can do to stop the King’s rise.”

The cop looked like he was about to faint. He finished repeating the words, and waited.

“Thank you for your service. As a reward, you will be spared the sight of what your nation will become.” Truth knew his words would be picked up by the altar. As would the sound of the needler ripping through the cop. He felt ill doing it. Killing the Major was, somehow, fine. This felt ugly. Well. Ugly was kind of the point, so he would have to suck it up and deal.

Job done. He raced out of the station, ignoring the armory. A lone wolf terrorist might need to liberate equipment. The PMC never would. On the horizon, he could see a blizzard of flying clouds coming in, as well as summoned spell beasts of various sizes. Nothing he needed to stick around for. Truth got running.

It would be another night sleeping on the forest floor. But that was fine. He could deal. He was playing a fool, not an idiot. Onis had a reputation for both thoroughness and not giving the vaguest damn about the comfort or convenience of its citizens. They would search every scrap of the city, digging three meters deep if necessary, to try and catch his trace.

He smiled grimly. Truth’s body was now refined to a degree he wouldn’t have imagined was possible on this planet. Seamless, as the System called it. Any diviners trying to sniff him out would be very disappointed.

He found a spot about twenty kilometers from the city. Near a stream, with a ridge of earth between him and the wind. It wasn’t luxurious, but it would more than do.

Truth started sorting through the loot. There was a little currency from the Major’s wallet, though not as much as he had hoped. It seemed he would be stuck shoplifting for the foreseeable future. As for the rest… he had no idea what any of it was. Very important looking ledgers, memoranda, reports… office stuff.

System, little help?

<<Little is the word. What you are currently holding is the duty roster for the officers overseeing the prefecture’s censorship department. Not exactly the stuff of blackmail gold. Start flipping through, I’ll see if anything jumps out. Then we can check out the memory crystals, see if they are secured or what.>>

Truth nodded and started doing just that.

<<On a completely different subject, but since you were thinking about it, we should discuss your body cultivation.>>

Oh? I don’t think there are any problems. Better than ever, really.

<<There isn't and it is. I’m starting to get a better feel for what happened to it in the chamber with that Eminence. Seamless is the right way to think about it, but also incomplete. It… Hmm. Frustrating. I can see it,It and understand what I am seeing, but you don’t really have words for the concepts.>>

Start with basic ideas and build up?

<<Your apertures are a sort of symbolic recreation of the heavens. A nine-point constellation, if you like. Your body is either ignored, as per the overwhelming majority of mages on this planet, or something that gives you extra abilities. If you remember way back when you first were “deciding” which body cultivation you would choose, all the other spells gave special abilities like shooting burning rays of light from your eyes, high speed movement, that kind of thing.>>

Sure. And the deck was stacked in such a way that I was definitely going to pick the Meditations.

<<Exactly, yeah. And the two big advantages of the Mediations, other than cost, was that there was no cap on how far it could develop and, developed far enough, it could affect things on a conceptual level. Which you have been enjoying, by the way, every time you have used Incisive to change your identity.>>

Wait, what?

<<You are literally changing how people, how the whole damn universe, identifies you. Identity being a concept of the object indicated. In this case, you.>>

Truth felt his face twitching. It made sense. It made complete sense. He had been chalking it up to the Meditations making him “more real” than everything around him.

<<It’s doing that too. Merkovah is a seriously nasty guy. I can’t even guess how many spells you have slipped past by just not being who they were looking for. “Blow up a bank? Not me! You must be looking for my cousin, Arson Medici.”>>

Oh God. Alright, so what’s this got to do with whatever changes you have been seeing with my body cultivation?

<<It’s a few things coming together at the same time. The isolation from the Nephilim, the sheer improvement of your body and soul, the way you pull on and shed identities, the way you enforce your own reality on the world around you, even the way your spiritual body aligns essentially perfectly with your physical body. I think you are in the process of becoming… I don’t know. Your own universe?>>

There was a pause. Then a longer pause. Truth looked up from flipping through the reports to stare blankly at a tree.

You… doing okay there? I know the Snake that Eats Its Own Tail did something to you too.

<<I know how batshit insane it sounds. Like I said, we don’t have a language to describe this. You are becoming not just self contained, but a point of reference for determining reality. I have some frankly wild speculations about where this is all going once you hit peak Level Nine, and one of my theories is that all this somehow amalgamates into one thing. The body cultivation, the spells, the blessings, your understanding of the universe and how you, yourself work, your understanding of reality- all of it. Imploding and condensing into a singular, perfect whole. Self sustaining. Not needing anything from outside itself but able to accept things from outside itself, on its own terms.>>

Truth tried to process that. He could understand what the system was talking about. Everything worked together. Everything reinforced each other.

Body cultivation is more or less normal on other planets, right?

<<That’s what people have told you.>>

So let's assume that this is the “normal” or “right” way to cultivate. Level one- body cultivation. Build the foundation for everything else. Level Two through Nine, you are stacking spells. You only get eight plus the body cultivation, so you better pick good ones with lots of utility. Because your spells are going to define you, literally, when you break through the barrier at Level Nine.

Truth started nodding, feeling like things were coming together.

It’s why modern magic is so easy to pick up, and so limited by comparison. There is no need to be complex. The user isn’t breaking through the barrier. It’s why the old fashioned spells all seem to have personalities too- they really are an expression of their creator’s personality. Someone broke that barrier and passed down a bit of their understanding of how the cosmos worked to achieve a certain effect.

<<Graeme’s Arrow isn’t just a “shoot him” spell, it’s how Graeme understood the concept of sending something small very far, very fast and very accurately. The reason the “modern” version of the spell feels scuffed is it lacks Graeme’s murderousness and understanding of the universe.>>

The better you understand your spells, the better you understand the universe and the principals that make it up, the better you understand yourself and how you think and feel about things, the more perfect a system you have after you break through the barrier. The stronger your universe is, I guess. Maybe you can’t even break through until you reach a certain level of understanding.

<<Divine Revelation. You can’t learn it from other people. You have to go and experience it for yourself.>>

It’s why I came so far, so fast with Incisive. I literally had a revelation of Botis. I could see how he existed. “Self Contained” would be a pretty good term for him.

<<Yeah. So what did your revelation from your “Rough Patron” show you?>>

Truth was stumped by that one for a long time.

That night passed uncomfortably, but quickly enough. Truth packed up his few belongings and started jogging off down the road again. The looted data listed some confidential informants, cooperating business people, and hidden police stations. Nothing major on a national scale, regional stuff. He would see how many he could hit in a reasonably short period. Paranoia should carry him the rest of the way.

He wasn’t strong enough to crack the mountain fortress. But the last-ditch, desperate efforts of the frankly enormous army of Onis, determined to save their skins and those of their descendants? He liked their chances. At the very least, they would force Starbrite to reveal more of their hidden cards.

He tisked reprovingly as he jogged along. This was more being a terrorist than a fool. Provoking the overreaction. On the other hand, maybe the greatest sign of a fool was making a fool of others. Besides, he was still planning on charging into the dark tower alone. He had a princess to save.