Chapter 839: Guaranteed to Become Enemies

Jason had a measure of connection to his claimed territory, although it was not as strong as that to his spirit domains. As the territory expanded to continental size, it took increasing amounts of concentration and effort to get a sense of what was happening in distant reaches. Standing in the control room of the lightning mesa, his eyes were closed as he extended his senses to a distant location. Neil, Nik and Belinda were observing and waiting.

“When we were being sold on the adventuring life,” Belinda said, “no one mentioned the parts about standing around watching some guy concentrate quietly.”

“I’d usually agree,” Neil said, “but I think I’ve had quite enough living on the edge of life and death for a while. I’d be quite happy giving up excitement for a real sky, a reclining chair and a fruit platter.”

“It doesn’t have to be life and death,” Belinda said. “Maybe just a nice heist where the worst case is having to beat up some rich prick’s private guards as we make a break for it.”

“You realise that we’re all extremely rich ourselves, right?”

“We are?” Nik asked. Neil looked at him, then back at Belinda.

“You realise that you and I are both extremely rich, right? Neil amended.

“Oh,” Nik said, hanging his head.

Jason opened his eyes.

“It should be any moment now,” he said. “They’re just about to complete the ritual linking the other node to this one.”

They all looked at Nik expectantly.

“Okay,” the rabbit man said. “Now I’m getting performance anxiety.”

“Don’t worry,” Jason assured him. “You shouldn’t need to do anything; it’ll just happen. It’s like healing magic: it doesn’t take any skill.”

Neil turned his head to give Jason a look that was almost a special attack. Jason failed to keep a straight face, smothering a laugh.

“Nik,” Neil said sweetly. “Do remind me to tell Rufus’ mum what Jason just—”

“Hey hey hey!” Jason said urgently. “What happens in the lightning mesa stays in the lightning mesa.”

“Yeah, sorry, Jason,” Belinda said, “but that’s not how blackmail works.”

“I think it’s happening,” Nik said and all eyes turned to him. “Yeah, I can feel it. I can feel it. I feel… is that it? Wow, that’s anticlimactic.”

“But you’re connected?” Jason asked.

“Yeah,” Nik confirmed, “but it’s like expecting a biscuit and only getting a crumb. We need to connect a lot more if you want this to be anything.”

“I suspect,” Belinda said, “that Clive won’t be disappointed to hear that.”

***

“How is it going?” Miriam asked Jason. They were catching up in his office in the mountain fortress. Jason was in his throne-like chair, the lava waterfall spilling down behind him.

“Over the last month, we've linked almost all the nodes we have access to. It’s looking like we’ll need to connect most, if not all before Nik can do anything effective with them. He can control the others remotely, but can’t get the nodes to work together or function beyond their localised areas.”

“But he will when the node network is complete?”

“He says yes. He compared it to trying to run a half-built machine. We need access to the rest of the nodes.”

“Clearing the remaining territories is getting slower,” Miriam said. “I’ve started restricting even most of the gold-rankers. At this stage, Lord Pensinata, Mrs Remore and Boris Ket Lundi are the only ones I’m confident will return safely. If we didn’t have Gareth, we’d have to take larger risks. But since we’ve got the power of a demigod on side, we may as well play it safe. He works slower when almost alone, but he remains unstoppable."

“So long as we don’t go so slow that the zone starts breaking down, I agree with your approach, Tactical Commander.”

“Do you have any idea how long it will be until the zone destabilises?”

“No. I’m not seeing signs of it, so I think we still have a goodly amount of time. Even so, we shouldn’t waste it on anything not worthwhile.”

“I was hoping that we could try something that might accelerate the process,” Miriam said. “Something that would require you to do more than just show up at the end to claim the cleared territory.”

“Please,” Jason said. “I’ve been feeling useless watching everyone else work. My magical knowledge is too specialised in astral magic to help set up the nodes and I'm too weak to clear territories. All I can do is swan in to claim them after everyone else does the work.”

“I think you’ve made contributions enough, Operations Commander. You were the one to finally eliminate the avatar.”

“Yeah, but that’s weird cosmic power stuff. I haven’t done much as an adventurer, or even as a commander. We both know that you’re the one doing most of the work on that front. Which is not me trying to horn in, by the way. You’re doing a great job.”

“As an adventurer, Operations Commander, you’re a silver-ranker. Do you think all the others without the expertise to help link the nodes feel any different?”

“I suppose not.”

“Then, might I make a suggestion?”

“Please.”

“Perhaps you should show some solidarity with those idle silver-rankers, and perhaps our brightheart allies. Build morale.”

Jason slapped himself on the head.

“Of course,” he said. “I can’t believe I didn’t think of that. What is wrong with me? I need to throw a barbecue.”

“That’s not exactly what I—”

“I have to go,” Jason said, standing up.

“Operations Commander.”

“There’s a barbecue and outdoor supply shop in town I can raid for supplies.”

“Operations Commander.”

“I don’t think the butcher will have anything edible left. I’ll have to check the supplies we brought from the surface. No, that was all spirit coins and ritual materials. Maybe I can—”

“OPERATIONS COMMANDER!”

Jason was pulled out of his thoughts, looking at her distractedly.

“Hmm, what?”

“You may recall, Operations Commander, that this tangent began when I said there was something else I was hoping you could do.”

“You didn’t just mean the barbecue?”

“No.”

“Because I have this whole barbecue to organise now.”

“Mr Asano…”

“The barbecue was your idea in the first place, is what I’m saying. It seems odd that you’d be the one to—”

Miriam’s aura rose angrily and Jason chuckled.

“You seem tense, Tactical Commander. We all are. We’ve all been in here for months. Breaking bread with our worst enemies. Facing power we can’t match and fighting battles we don’t understand. We need a tension breaker. A little bit of normalcy, as much as we can manage here.”

“That… is not an invalid point. But there is something else I’d like you to do.”

“You want me to see if the ghost fire I enhanced by eating the avatar can help clear undead territories.”

It was a statement, not a question, but Miriam wasn't surprised. She knew that while Jason might seem hands-off, leaving everything to her, he was always watching. Often by means she didn't understand.

“None of this is easy,” Jason said. “You and I have the greatest responsibility here and I’m the one with all the answers. All the secrets. The power to interact with the strange forces that govern this place. You’re doing amazingly Miriam, under extreme circumstances. When you want me to try with the undead, let me know. In the meantime, I have to try and find some viable meat.”

***

Gary, Arabelle and Amos protected Jason as he delivered his afflictions. The ghost fire was applied alongside each other affliction in Jason’s repertoire, although it did take time to be effective. The quality of the flames had massively improved since fuelling them with refined divine authority, but the source was still Jason and Jason was still silver-rank.

As was the nature of afflictions, application plus time would inevitably reap results. While Gary disassembled individual undead at a pace that made Jason seem harmless, the territories poisoned by undeath energy teemed with unliving anomalies. The escalating power of Gordon’s butterflies spreading Jason’s afflictions could clear an undead territory faster than the demigod.

Many of the unclaimed territories were marked by undeath. It was a reflection of the zone being made from the subterranean realm of the brighthearts that was deeply tainted by undeath energy. One territory was like an Earth city that felt like a zombie movie. Another was a forest the size of a large nation, the trees leafless and dead as snow covered the ground. Ghoulish unliving elves stalked through the trees attacking in bursts of savage speed.

Territory after territory was claimed. They reached the boundary of the territory containing the massive tree, but it was impenetrable. Unlike the shadowy veils bordering normal territories, it was surrounded by impermeable darkness. They continued unifying the territories around it, adding any environmental nodes they uncovered to the growing network.

While territories were being claimed, the uneasy group of allies was increasingly idle. Some of the adventurers participated in linking the nodes, surrounding the control centres in massive ritual circles of carved stone or other resilient materials. But with the claiming of new territories slowing down, they soon caught up to all available nodes. After that, linking each new one as it was found became a leisurely affair.

Miriam and Jason’s main task became preventing cabin fever. Their large and disparate alliance included former and potentially future foes, along with outright enemies. Even members of the same group could end up clashing if left with nothing to do. Adventurers, especially elite ones, were not known for their accommodating humility.

One of the ways they sought to keep the peace was by separating the groups. The largest group by far were the three factions of messengers. The smallest faction were Jason's prisoners, led by Marek Nior Vargas. They had quickly subordinated themselves to Boris, however, treating him like the Unorthodoxy messiah. They proved more enthusiastic than the people Boris had Shanghaied into obedience.

Most of the messengers were those liberated from stasis as their territories were claimed. All were free now, courtesy of Jason, but discontent still simmered within many of them. No small number had been used as cannon fodder slaves, including by members of the alliance.

Given their numbers, the messenger groups were given the residential sections of Jason’s town. The Builder cultists took over the nicer motels, of which there were many in the tourist town. The adventurers occupied the pleasure yachts at the marina or the mountain lair, whichever was their preference. The brighthearts all stayed in the mountain. The enclosed stone construction and lava waterfall were comforts to the subterranean people, as close as they could find to the home the transformation zone had annihilated.

The final group were the young messengers, released from stasis and with little idea of who or even what they were. Jali Corrik Fen took it upon herself to shield them from any influence or manipulation by the other groups. She was aided by Tera Jun Casta, the messenger Jason had forcibly freed. As well as Jali being her only friend, she was antagonistic to Marek and Boris both, loudly and repeatedly calling them traitors.

More than hatred, however, Tera felt a kinship with the young and unindoctrinated messengers. She shared their lack of purpose, not knowing what to do or even who they were. Some of these messengers grew experimental, exploring the town and trying to decipher the artefacts of Earth.

Jali had been unsure how to handle this but Jason told her to leave them to their curiosity. More than once she found Jason amongst them showing off different bouncing devices. One was a springy pole that appeared to be a wildly inefficient vehicle. Another was an inflatable room that held no discernible purpose at all.

Jason held his barbecue. While the messengers were allowed to attend, few did. Boris and one of his gold-rankers showed up, the offsider getting along well with Jali Corrik Fen who attended with some of the more curious young messengers. Marek Nior Vargas and his people didn’t join in other than an adventurous woman named Mari Go Rand. Boris found her name hilarious and she challenged him to a fight, despite his higher rank. She didn’t seem to take the subsequent beating to heart.

Only the Builder cult was excluded, being the only ones guaranteed to become enemies again once the transformation zone had been escaped. They also didn’t eat regular food, all being bizarre magical cyborgs.

***

The social gathering did help alleviate some of the tensions in the groups, but Jason and Miriam had no illusions of it being anything but a band-aid solution. They had been trapped for months in this strange place, facing lethal danger that claimed friends and allies. Now they were left idle, with little to do beyond think about what they had been through and what they had lost.

This was especially true of the brighthearts. They had been fighting longer and lost more than anyone else. Now they found themselves the safest they had been in a long time, which did not speak well of the previous circumstances. Most of their populace was dead and their home had been destroyed, yanked into a pocket dimension they didn’t understand.

Jason found the brightheart resiliency to be inspiring. All they had lost yet they were probably the most stable of the groups in the alliance. He had discussed this with Lorenn, their leader, hoping to find something that would help the others. She told him that before the arrival of the expedition from the surface they’d been hiding with nowhere left to run. Waiting for the last of their people to die. They had lost almost everything, but now they had hope. Although it was hard and strange, there was a path forward.

Jason wasn’t sure if that was something he could use to keep the rest of the alliance from going full Lord of the Flies but it certainly made him feel better.

***

Gary eventually became the only one clearing territories. Partly this was because of the danger, and partly because the last gold-rankers he had been working with were occupied. Jason also stopped as Gary was uncertain of being able to protect him alone.

Boris became increasingly involved in managing the other messengers. Left alone, Marek Nior Vargas kept trying to recruit the new messengers. Boris knew that if that behaviour kept up, Jason would hold Boris responsible and it would hurt the burgeoning trust between the two men.

Arabelle had turned to her primary profession, tending to the mental health of the group as a whole. Miriam and Jason were grateful as their expertise stopped at discipline and barbecues respectively.

Amos Pensinata had become distracted, the famously stoic man uncharacteristically troubled. Jason one day noticed him in a metal dinghy, far out into the water. He flew out and joined him, sitting down but saying nothing. They sat there for hours before Amos started talking.

“I failed my nephew,” he said finally. “I pushed him and his team into this. Now his friends are dead or broken. I don’t know if any of them will be adventurers ever again.”

Jason was unsure what to say. From his arrival on Pallimustus, he'd been startled about the cultural acceptance of throwing children into violence. It was a violent world and they had to learn to survive but it still seemed brutal and savage.

The consequences had seemed obvious to Jason but Amos seemed surprised. Jason wasn’t sure how to respond, as Amos wasn’t factually wrong. The now fallen team Storm Shredder had chosen their path, but it was Amos who had laid it out for them. Who wouldn’t trust such a well-known hero’s intentions for his own nephew? Jason himself had trusted the man as well.

Even if he'd been inclined to moralise, Jason knew he had no high ground to stand on. He'd thrown himself and his friends into everything team Storm Shredder had faced and worse. He wasn't Arabelle and didn't know the right thing to say without making things worse, so he didn't say anything. Instead, he took out a six-pack of beer stubbies and handed one to Amos.

“I didn’t think you liked beer,” Amos said.

“I don’t, much,” Jason said. “But I’m Australian, and one thing Australians know is that, for some things, only beer will do.”

“That seems like an unhealthy attitude,” Amos said.

“Oh, definitely,” Jason said. “Our culture massively overlooks alcohol abuse.”

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