Chapter 226, 1/2

Chapter 226, 1/2

The Pit loomed below like a scar upon Veird that someone had corralled behind battlements, fortresses, and half-made walls. It also kinda looked like a skate park, what with all the totally tubular half-pipes and gnarly grinding areas. Erick felt that the neighborhood kids back on Earth would have really loved to use it as a playground. He supposed that ‘as a playground’ was sort of what the adventurers and newly-named delvers had been doing with the place, too.

Professional play, with gold prizes and stiff competition in the form of man-eating coral eels.

So like. A professional skate park. One with prizes and tournaments.

And also a lot of yelling, apparently, now that Erick had told the very-worried people near him that he was going to solve it all, and make sure no one died in the process. They didn’t seem to believe him right now, but at least one of them was far beyond being scared of the ‘big bad Wizard’.

Aroido, one of 49, and the ‘Face’ of the Aroidos, yelled at the Archmage of the Regency, “We had it contained, Wiloza! And then you had to go get House Benevolence involved! I had it contained!”

He was probably having a mental breakdown right now. Erick glanced at Poi, and Poi gave a small nod, so Erick decided to just let the man have his breakdown. Perhaps he could get it all out of his system, for now, and Erick could get some good intel in the process.

Wiloza was not prepared for Aroido to turn his ire on her, though. Wiloza instantly declared, “I thought it would be a simple prognostication!”

That relationship there was obviously a complicated thing. Wiloza was the ‘human oversight’ for the dungeons, which was a rather normal position for a kingdom to have. But such an arrangement was usually a small group of people, with one person in charge and several underlings, and then one repro for each dungeon under the auspices of the kingdom. Storm’s Edge had it all wrong, with Wiloza being the only one in that ‘Head Dungeonmaster’ position, taking the place of the entire office of workers, and with all the Aroido, all repros, being the majority of the dungeon-oversight forces.

And that was it for their entire office staff. 50 people. One ‘in charge’, who was only there in case of emergency, and 49 others all doing whatever they wanted inside the dungeons.

Erick didn’t have the full story about all of that, but he would be getting the full story eventually, and he was getting quite a lot of sideways-information right now. It wasn’t like he needed to go anywhere at this very instant, either, for Quilatalap had closed off his dungeon, and he probably wasn’t ready for anyone to come knocking on the gate quite yet.

And so, Aroido had his mental breakdown.

Aroido raised his hands and flapped them around angrily as he yelled, “It’s never a simple prognostication! The very second you got them involved you put me and my brothers at risk!”

Wiloza scowled. “You put yourself at risk when you chose to threaten those two immortals.”nôvel binz was the first platform to present this chapter.

“I had it contained! I was—”

Okay. Erick had had enough of that particular lie. “You did not have it contained,” Erick said, and Aroido suddenly realized that Erick was here, and that maybe he shouldn’t be screaming like he was. As Aroido fell deeply silent and Wiloza professionally demurred, Erick continued, “And it was a simple prognostication. This prognostication of a coming storm is a big deal for you, but we have dealt with many different situations like this before now. We can solve this —all of us together— and none of us need be enemies, and no one needs to die.” He said to Aroido, “But if you think the Regency will actually harm you, then you need to relocate. If you and your brothers want [Reincarnation]s, then I can do that, but you will have to submit to the [Reincarnation] process.”

For one bright, shining moment after mentioning [Reincarnation], Aroido was thrilled. He saw a path forward for him and his brothers. And then reality crashed back into the forefront of his mind. He said, “They would never let us go. We know too much about the kingdom.”

“The option is there. Consider it.” Erick moved on, turning his sight back to the Pit. “What was the plan here? Leave the immortals’ dungeon alone? Attack it and breach the seal, and the dungeon beyond?”

Aroido said, “We have a plan for if the dungeons ever truly break. It involves contacting the Dungeoneer’s Guild down by Adventurer City. They were going to have some big elites come in and break the cores if they ever got out of control... Or if me and my brothers ever rebelled.”

Erick mentally looked to Poi, asking him to get that information.

Poi did not outwardly say or do anything, but a few more tendrils of thought flowed away from his head.

Meanwhile, Erick said, “I don’t get that. That last part.” Erick asked, “You’re the repro of the original Lord Aroido, yes? And your brothers are more copies of you. If they felt that you would ever actually rebel, then they never would have allowed that many of you to exist at once, yes? How many of there are you, anyway?” Erick pretended ignorance, “Ten? Twenty?”

“... 49,” Aroido said, after much self wrestling.

“A larger amount than expected.” Erick said, “That’s a non-insubstantial number to add to my usual monthly [Reincarnation] list. But it’s doable. I want you to really consider that option, Aroido, if they’re really going to kill you. House Benevolence doesn’t abide by the murder of uncooperative repros just because they’re uncooperative. It’s usually the grabbing of power and becoming a plague upon the land which makes us and the Core Delvers of the Dungeoneer Guild decide to end a dungeon core. Even after the debacle of the Freedom Dungeon over at the Freelands we only executed a few people, and almost none of them were dungeon-born.”

Aroido looked mollified, for now. His stance was back to normal. He had never allowed his tears to fall, but it had been a close call. His voice was even, as he said, “Thank you, Wizard Flatt. If you do not mind, I would like to speak a bit on the true situation unfolding here, pledge myself to House Benevolence, and then go get my brothers and help end this horror happening right now however we are able. And then we’ll move on, or whatever you decide needs to happen.”

Wiloza was saddened by Aroido’s change of allegiance, which surprised Erick a little bit, but not really. Erick had almost expected Wiloza to be angry at him, but the elderly archmage surprised him with her compassion.

Erick wasn’t ready to accept Aroido into his House yet, though. “It’s not quite that easy to become a member of my House these days, but your enthusiasm is noted, and marked. I suspect what’s going to happen here, at Storm’s Edge, is that I’m going to enter into a joint dungeon-creation endeavor with the Regency. That means a lot of things, but it also means that there might be places for you here at the Pit. I’ll probably ask Quilatalap to get involved here, too, in order to properly run the dungeon. That will happen either alongside Vanya and Soltic, or without them. I’ve yet to even ask Quilatalap about all this, so he might say no.”

Wiloza paled at the mention of Quilatalap, but she also saw this as a maybe-good-thing. She would withhold judgment until she needed to judge.

Through a pale expression, Aroido lied, “That would be an absolutely wonderful option, Wizard Flatt.”

“As I said, such a joint operation would mean many things, all of which will be decided later, if the Regency is even up for it.” Erick said, “Now, please give me your true order of events, starting from the first moment you heard of Vanya and Soltic. If you have the capability to do it through a memory [Telepathy] packet, then that’s good, too. You can give that to my man Poi, here.”

Aroido faltered. He wasn’t that good with [Telepathy], then? Not a whole lot of people were, but... That was surprising, too. Aroido was capable enough to have a Force Domain, but not capable enough to do well-made [Telepathy] packets?

Something was going on there.

Wiloza spoke up, “I can give that information packet for I was there for most of the interactions with Miss Silver and Mister Cross, which is obviously a call out of the Silver Cross of Koyabez, but I admit that I was unable to find them inside any Church of Peace registry.”

Erick’s eyebrows raised at that statement. Wiloza was the second person to bring that naming scheme up. He kinda wanted to kick himself for calling themselves ‘Silver Cross’, for that was obviously a code name. Sometimes, apparently, he could still be dumb.

Poi did not smile or laugh at all, for he was more controlled than that, but Erick could tell that he was laughing inside.

Aroido, fully embarrassed and hiding it, blurted out, “I prayed to Koyabez not half an hour ago, and he deigned to give me a message through the Script saying that I should have trusted Soltic and Vanya more than I did.” Aroido looked to Erick. “I fear I have messed this up, and this is all going to get dumped on me.”

Ah. Good ‘ol Koyabez.

Erick hadn’t spoken to him in a while.

Erick said, “Let’s not worry about that right now. Wiloza. The packet.”

Wiloza sent a packet of information to Poi.

Poi pulled it apart, and then handed it to Erick.

There was little there that Erick didn’t already know, though it was odd seeing Vanya and Soltic from Wiloza’s perspective, as Vanya gave her presentation. Wiloza’s information packet was colored with her utter disgust of the whole affair, for she wished that people would leave the dungeons well enough alone. So what if they were breaking all the time? Big deal. If people simply left Aroido well enough alone, then the dungeons would work well enough on their own. Who needed a Grand Dungeon, anyway? No one. Grand Dungeons were nonsense, anyway; monster lures and killing zones were good enough.

From what Erick was now seeing, Wiloza was changing her mind on that most recent opinion, due to all this ‘nonsense’ happening all around the Regency right now. Her hope at the end of all this is for a dungeon that no one needs to worry about anymore; however they get there is fine by her. She just wanted less danger in her life. That’s why she became an archmage in the first place; in order to have the power to make the world safer for everyone all around her.

After pretending to take a moment longer to understand what he was seeing, Erick said, “That was informative. Now, before I give you two some orders, and then I go down to the dungeon, is there anything else major that I need to know about? Something that you don’t tell others. Something that seems to be missing from this information packet, Wiloza.” He looked to Aroido. “Something having to do with Gold Taker, the ‘archmage octopus’ that keeps your dungeons mana-positive.”

Wiloza stilled. And then she relaxed. She was ready for anything. But she did not speak.

Aroido sighed a little, then prepared to disappoint Erick, as he said, “Gold Taker is Everbless.”

Erick nodded. “Thank you for coming clean about that, too. Now that we’re all—”

“You’re immune to the intervention, too?!” Aroido exclaimed. And then his eyes went wide. “Ah. Pardon my outburst. Uh. Wizard Flatt.”

Erick bushed over that outburst, saying, “I am immune to a great many things, as most Wizards are.”

Aroido suddenly had half of a thought.

Erick realized what that thought was right before Aroido could fully form that thought. Perhaps he shouldn’t have made a link between Wizards and immunity to magic, but he wouldn’t [Return] in a social situation like this. He had just fucked up a little bit, as yes, Aroido paled, and yes, he put a few things together that he probably shouldn’t be putting together—

“I think Soltic might be a Wizard,” Aroido said, very seriously.

“No!” Wiloza shouted, her voice full of sudden despair.

“It fits!” Aroido said, “He’s immune to the intervention, too!”

Erick ended the conversation with a wave, saying, “Then the fact that you’re still alive is proof enough that whatever happened here was not meant to harm you, so I urge both of you to put away preconceived notions about Wizards and what might be lying in wait, and relax a fraction. Anyway! Aroido, at my side. Wiloza, here with Poi, on the battlements. You two should converse about the happenings here, and know that I’m watching.” He summoned and stepped onto a Platform, and then he looked to Aroido. “With me.”

Poi stood strongly, as ordered. Wiloza glanced to Poi, and then gave a courtly nod.

And Aroido walked forward, onto Erick’s Platform spell, softly saying, “He might be a Wizard.”

“Aye; he might be a Wizard,” Erick said, as he lifted the Platform into the air and began moving down into the Pit. He aimed for the black disk hanging in the air; the locked Dungeon #6. “Or he might just be someone Called by Sininindi in order to do a job.”

Aroido’s eyes went wide, and so did the red-eyed man’s, but less so, as they watched the shadow meld back into nothing, under the open sun. The shadow hadn’t even been there till it showed itself.

Erick looked to the red-eyed skeleton man. “What is your name? I haven’t gotten that yet.”

Red-eyes languidly turned his blazing sight back to Erick, and easily said, “This one is freshly born and not a real person. For now, this one is a vessel for Vanya Silver to speak through.” Vanya said, “In time, he will become real, and thus take a position as one of the bosses of this dungeon, Wizard Flatt.”

“Ah! Splendid,” Erick said, “You’re in quite a lot of trouble, young lady. Or should I say ‘apparently young lady’? Some sort of immortal, I understand?”

“Yes.”

“... A woman of few words, then.”

“I have given these people no reason to distrust me, and every reason to allow me to do my goddess-given mission of turning this set of dungeons into a real dungeon, one where people can learn real magic.” Vanya asked, “Have they told you all of what I planned to do? And my qualifications?” She held herself back from spitting her next words, but it was a bare thing, as she said, “And why are you even here?”

“I’m here because of a Benevolent prophecy about how these dungeons need to hold all the life of the Archipelago that we wish to save from a coming catastrophe which will occur anywhere from between 4 to 10 months. Maybe sooner, maybe later. But somewhere around there.” Erick spoke seriously as he asked, “Would you be able to fulfill that sort of requirement? Or is that more than what you can handle on your own?” He gestured to Aroido. “Because there’s 49 helpers right here, though he seems to be scared for his life, thinking that the Regency will murder them all if they are found wanting in their job.”

Aroido breathed out relief as yet another thousand-kilo metaphorical weight fell off his shoulders; Erick believed him. And then he realized that Erick was setting him up to work with the necromancer on the other side of the [Gate]. Somewhere in there he thought back to Erick ordering a shadow to go and investigate the house on Seafoam Road, and that piled onto the man’s mental problems.

And just like that, Aroido was now wearing multiple tons of metaphorical weight. Erick saw as the man accepted his lot in life, though; there was absolutely no way for him and his 49 brothers to live on their own, outside of the auspices of some sort of power. House Benevolence was a fine power to live under.

No emotions at all passed across the undead servant’s face upon hearing Erick’s news of a Benevolence Prophecy, for that wasn’t how this undead captain was set up. He was, in effect, the perfect way to separate oneself from a meeting, and to ensure that no microexpressions or otherwise gave away what the operator was thinking.

Of course, red-eyes could just be Quilatalap in a new form, but probably not. This one here was probably set up to die, if necessary. There had been no way for Quilatalap to see what was happening outside the dungeon once it was sealed, just like there was no way for anyone to look inside when it was sealed. (Except for Melemizargo, and other godly beings, of course.)

Vanya’s voice was steady, but subtly worried, as it came out of red-eyes’ mouth, “I would like to hear this prophecy.”

Erick told Vanya the prophecy.

And then Vanya said, “I will be able to do some sort of a... ‘Grand Shelter’, but it will require a great deal of changes to the plan... And I could use the Aroidos’ help. For starters, I need— A lot. I need a lot.” And then, perhaps a bit miffed, she said, “I wanted to make a real Grand Dungeon; not a shelter. This is not what I signed up for with Sininindi.”

“Then make your dungeon how you want,” Erick said, “But add a big red button, or something, in the center of the place that can transform the entire dungeon into a shelter when needed.”

“But that means no permanent traps and—”

“Miss Silver,” Erick said, “I appreciate your plight, but if you cannot do what is needed then perhaps you and Mister Cross should leave this dungeon to the Regency and to House Benevolence.” And then Erick added, “If, however, you are fine with this adjustment, and you are simply playing for more resources, or what-have-you, or whatever, then please state your terms now.”

“... I was going to have a False Society in here anyway.” Vanya added, “So I suppose being able to house more people is fine— No.” A moment passed in silence, and deep, deep worry. And then Vanya blurted, “There’s 25 million people in the Archipelago.”

“Yup.” Erick nodded. “The problem is a lot larger than the one you signed up to solve.”

Aroido quietly said, “22.5 million.”

Red-eyes’s eyes went wider, which was probably an affectation, like when he purposefully glanced at the shadow that was Goldie zipping away. But then Vanya spoke, and Erick thought that maybe it wasn’t an affectation at all.

Excitedly, she said, “Holy Gods. That would be the largest dungeon this world has ever seen!”

“Yes. Everyone is in a bit of a panic over here because of that and a dozen other issues,” Erick said, “So while your enthusiasm is noted, make sure you don’t get too carried away with this task laid before you.”

“Right, right,” Vanya rapidly added, acting suitably chastised.

Aroido nodded solemnly.

Erick continued, “My primary concerns are having enough space and amenities inside this dungeon, and for there to be a way for people to get into that space as fast as possible. House Benevolence will be able to provide some sort of Gate Network shenanigans to alleviate some of the stress of moving that many people, but I imagine that you would need to grow this dungeon far, far beyond your original plans. It also will only nominally be under Regency control, because when the issue is this large, involving this many different nations of the Archipelago, I am stepping in, and House Benevolence is taking a concentrated interest in this land. I plan on stopping whatever disaster is coming, but—” Erick asked, “Are you prepared to be the master for a shelter of 22.5 million people, if necessary?”

“Fuck no I am not prepared for that, but I can be.”

Erick smiled. “Good to hear that. You and I will have a discussion later about all this, in private. For now, what do you need to happen, in order to make this dungeon work how it needs to work?”

“Give me a minute to think.”

Red-eyes went silent; distant. Erick and Aroido waited.

Vanya said, “I need the Aroidos to move their dungeon entrances back to the Pit, and then I need them all to detach from those dungeons and come into this dungeon, while I send out minions to secure those other dungeons under my own power.”

Aroido frowned. “What?”

Erick asked Aroido, “What’s the problem? All that seemed reasonable to me.”

“I have no idea what she means ‘send out minions to secure’.” Aroido said, “I can do all the rest but I’m not sure what she means to do, exactly.”

“A ritual to the Dark, to bring all dungeons together into one,” Erick said, then asked, “Right, Miss Silver?”

“Correct.”

Aroido paled once again, as he muttered, “Oh great. Cultists, too.”

Erick ignored Aroido’s discomfort and asked the man, “Can you do as requested?”

“Yes, I can, and I suppose falling to the Dark is... Well it’s notexecution, I suppose.”

Erick gave the man a look.

And Aroido straightened up, and realized where he was and who he was talking to. He rapidly said, “I can work with Miss Silver!”

“Good.” Erick added, “When I get a chance, and if you want, there are [Reincarnation]s waiting for you, if you are tired of your current life.”

“Right!” Aroido said, “You said that, too. I think some of my brothers will certainly take you up on that offer— Uhh. The dungeon entrances were moved into Regency control, into the bunker pit we have set up for a potential break... One time one dungeon broke, and then it rapidly broke two more before we got that back under control. I won’t be able to get to those places when they are under Regency control.”

Erick said, “I have already removed that separate area from Regency control, through a few polite conversations with the local guard.”

About a kilometer east of the Pit there was another, smaller ‘Pit’, located behind a mountain. A bunch of Regency soldiers had been there guarding the dungeons and wondering ‘where the fuck is Gold Taker; he should be here’, until Ophiel had shown up and promptly secured the area. According to Poi, who was in contact with Erick right now, the Regency was demanding Erick stand way, way down, but Erick had already told Poi to tell them that he was not standing down at all.

“You can go over there right now, actually,” Erick said, waving a hand and conjuring a [Gate] directly to that side-Pit. “The way is clear for you to go talk to your brothers.”

Aroido took all of a half-a-second to realign himself, again, to his new lot in life. And then he bowed and rushed through the [Gate]. Erick watched Aroido leap into one of the black holes in the world, under the watchful eyes of Ophiel, and then Erick closed the [Gate].

Erick turned back to Vanya, saying, “Still no sign of Gold Taker, or Everbless out here. I have half a mind to go right up to his tree and ask him what’s going on, but I have been told to stay away until recently. What has been your experience with him?”

“I have barely been able to interact with him, but he seems like a decent sort. If it weren’t for him then these dungeons would have collapsed a lot more than they have, but I don’t believe that a child should be killing people inside a dungeon, anyway.”

Erick nodded, and then he had an Ophiel flutter down from the sky, to hover in front of Erick, who already had an Ophiel on his shoulder. “I’ll be leaving Ophiel here at the entrance. Call out if you need something.”

Vanya had red-eyes go down to one knee and press one fist to the ground. “As you desire, Wizard of Benevolence.”

Erick nodded again, and then he left in a flicker of a lightstep, off to the next destination.

He felt that the act with Vanya had gone pretty well. He also felt that this whole thing was a great big mess (an understatement, considering 22.5 million people needed a shelter in the next 6 months), he was terrible about lying long term (and he was in the eye of the world usually, so people were always looking at him) so he was probably going to fuck that up sooner or later (hopefully a lot later; years, perhaps), Everbless was still worryingly absent (seriously; where the fuck was he), and whatever the fuck the Regency was up to at Seafoam Manor was probably something rather immoral.

... Hopefully not too bad, though. Hopefully it was just routine immoral executions. Those were easy enough to solve. Erick could arrive, say ‘no’, strip the bad guys from power and forcibly repent them, if necessary, and then that would be the end of that horror show. House Benevolence would come in next and deal with greater fallout, like putting survivors back into homes, getting them work, and then doing whatever else needed to be done.

With any luck, whatever was happening down at Seafoam Manor was not too deep of an institutional problem.

Toppling a government was never Erick’s preferred option.