Chapter 452: Day 885 (2) – Relentless Bombings

Chapter 452: Day 885 (2) – Relentless Bombings

“Supreme Governor Clarissa, requests your presence Emperor Michael,” a messenger told me after I finished cashing in my points. A small drop to what I already had, but worth it in my mind. I nodded at the messenger who bowed and then took off. There were dispatch points with how the messages worked.

Clarissa had set up a System during her time in the wilderness. It made my head hurt a bit, but there were nodes, and a messenger would go to a node who kept track of where key people were in a given area. That way the messenger could track them down.

It wasn’t perfect, and sometimes it took time to track down a person, but somehow Clarissa had found capable people and had gotten it to work. In city, it wasn’t as complex, and my schedule had been the same for the last deek or so.

My soldiers followed me as I went to the administration hub, which was next to the palace. The palace was where I slept along with Clarissa and other key people. The Imperial Administration building was where the day to day governing was carried out and Clarissa’s office was located. The security around the Imperial Administration was less tight due to the fact that people from various cities showed up, delivering news, bringing crystals, and correspondence to and from the various governors running the various cities.

Even my identity was checked when we reached the area with Clarissa’s office, or as I liked to think of it, the inner sanctum. While I could have bullied my way through, it was important to show that not even the emperor was above such identity checks. The Astrologer was still out there and still a threat.

I made my way into Clarissa’s office, and she gave me a head nod which I returned. I wasn’t about to make her stand up and bow. She had more than earned the right to remain seated. Our respective soldiers guarding us were dismissed outside the room and the door closed. “What is it?” I asked as I sat down across from Clarissa.

“Did you murder his wife, or a beloved pet?” Clarissa asked me.

“No? I don’t think so. You mean the Astrologer. Why are you asking?” Clarissa let out a long sigh.

“He his relentless. He has to be shitting bombs with how many are being detonated. I have people working on putting together a map and trying to track him down, but every time we think we have him in a net, he manages to escape. We were testing people with a needle drawing blood, but now we are confident he has a way around that.”N0v3lRealm was the platform where this chapter was initially revealed on N0v3l.B1n.

“How bad?” I asked. I hadn’t gotten any updates for a while now.

“Like you and the Ritualist kind of bad. He just won’t stop. We are looking at over ten bombs per day. We suspect that people might not even be carrying bombs, or he has a way to impact their memory. Director Katz believes that he is using energy manipulation to impact their thoughts. We have even lost a governor.” That wasn’t good.

“How and where?” I asked wondering if I would have to intervene.

“New Beijing. His attacks are mostly centered in the East part of our Empire, but there are attacks in the West now where the old Dragon Empire used to be. It just takes longer to get messages and news back here.” Clarissa was getting stressed again. She wouldn’t be telling me all of this if there wasn’t a reason for it.

“What do you want me to do? You know I can’t fight him until I fix myself,” I replied.

“I know. How is that going?” Clarissa asked me.

If I died, the Protector would move in, and the Avatar would support him most likely. While he claimed there was a debt and that was why he had met with her, and then disavowed her. I wasn’t so sure anymore.

The Avatar was forcing my hand. No one else would be able to cross a level 4 zone and there was only a single other city that was exposed to offer up as a tempting target. And it would take a while before we had airships. The moment I left, the Astrologer would move on me, and I would die without removing what he had done to my body.

It was convoluted, which meant it was probably correct. The Avatar’s brain was like the Almighty System, twisted and vicious. Instead of offering to work with us and paying her points, she was plotting her way to ultimate power.

While no one could kill her without killing themselves, she couldn’t kill anyone directly either. She had helped me out to make me lower my guard and give up a city. Now it was being used against me. I show one moment of letting go my hate and she was already stabbing me in the back a short time later. She was officially the worst.

I sat in Clarissa’s office in silence, not voicing my thoughts. I considered sharing them carefully. “We have the superior position. We should abuse it. Attempting cloak and dagger against the Avatar won’t work,” I finally said.

“If that is your decision. I didn’t want to make it without you,” Clarissa told me. I appreciated that.

“Thanks,” I said and then I began to explain my thought process behind what was happening and why the Avatar’s faction was being stubborn at the moment. Clarissa agreed with me unfortunately. It was all a plot to draw me out, and have the Astrologer kill me and then have the Protector swoop in and kill the Astrologer, cementing his control over my empire.

“We do nothing, except wait out the bombings. How much damage are they really doing?” I asked.

“A fair bit. But we are progressing faster than the bombs and people are much more vigilant,” Clarissa explained and I nodded at that.

“Then we keep doing what we have been doing while I continue to work on the curse damage. They want us to act and to respond exposing a weakness. But if we stay the course, eventually they will screw up,” I replied.

“I am glad we are in agreement then.”

“You hear that Avatar, go get wrecked,” I said out loud. I knew she would hear me, since she had admitted to spying on me once before. I used to think that her choice for a meta-point was foolish, binding herself to the Almighty System.

But that was the only thing saving her life. It was honestly infuriating to a massive degree. That sense of doom when I had threatened her in the throne room so long ago, was still vivid in my mind. She just couldn’t be killed. No wonder the Divine Empress chopped off her limbs. She just couldn’t stop scheming.

Like the story of a scorpion asking for a ride across a river from a fox. The fox refused to give the scorpion a ride, saying he would be stung. The scorpion promises not to, and the fox changes his mind. In the middle of the river the fox is stung by the scorpion, drowning them both. Before he drowns the fox asks the scorpion why. The scorpion replies, it is in his nature.

I had forgotten that lesson. A scorpion is a scorpion, no matter what it says. It will sting and pull everyone down. The Avatar was back on the list and not coming off it now.