151 Chapter 151: Lesson

Chapter 151: Lesson

/The Hunter had failed to kill the Thing, and their compass pointed elsewhere. They nursed themselves back to health, and went back to the hunt. But it was no longer as satisfying as it had been.

Failure. They'd never encountered it before. Yet a single one was already bitter and infuriating.

It made them more ruthless on their future hunts. Each success only made them feel further inadequate. They used serrated daggers, cruel traps, and vicious poison. None of it was good enough.

Hunt after hunt, they felt disappointed with themselves. Not fast enough, not precise enough, not good enough! The drive to be the greatest was slowly eating them up inside, and their compass began feeling like a betrayal. Was this truly the best prey around?

Their thoughts continued as such, until they failed again.

What should have been a simple hunt was unsuccessful because of their impatience. The first failure had been infuriating, but the second was sobering.

For a few days, the Hunter was still. No longer was there a need to go out and seek prey, because they had become their own enemy. But they did not know how to battle the self, and as such, they learned.

One after another, the Hunter discarded things. Their ego had to go first, because it stood in the way of a true predator. Then their pride went, and their fury. They needed not hunt for any of those.

Bit by bit, they honed their mind to a knife's edge, and when their six eyes opened after six months of meditation, the Hunter was no longer the same. Their gaze was clear of immaturity. The first failure had brought them anger. The second had brought them temperament.

For the first time, the Hunter felt like a proper adult. Their steps were calm and elegant, and slowly, they sought out their next prey. They needed not hurry, for if anything deserved to be hunted, they would come for it eventually.

And thus, the truest Hunter was born./

(Legends: The Hunter - 6; Grace of forged Iron)

- - - - - -

"Wh- where am I?" the bishop stuttered, his breath catching in his throat as he looked around.

Whisperstar was flitting across the sky, watching the human kneeling in the grass. The air was pleasant, and the ground soft to Mercury, but he was sure the bishop didn't feel quite the same way.

'Mercury, who is this?' the excited spirit asked in his mind. 'They here to play? Here to stay?!'

'Sadly not, Star. Right now, they're just here to have a chat. Make sure to play with our visitor later, yeah?' he told it, making sure to transmit some of his intent. A game of tag, of chasing the bishop a smidge. Mercury could practically feel Whisperstar's excitement, and quickly asked them to wait.

With the star vibrating in the sky, the mopaaw turned to face the bishop again.

"So, Nemo," he spoke out loud, his body in the dream functioning the same as the one outside of it. "How do you do?"

"You!" the bishop yelled, his frantic eyes locking onto Mercury. "Seeker Starlight, what kind of trick is this?!"

Mercury chuckled. "Oh, bishop. There's no trick involved. The fourth time you tried to influence my mind, and I still can't believe you tried four whole times, I decided I had enough of your shit. Maybe you should've realized that when I struck back the first time, hm?" he asked, cocking his head.

"I would never do such a thing!" the bishop called back, unrelenting. For a moment, Mercury considered believing him.

"You wouldn't? Truly?" he asked, just to be sure.

"Yes, truly, I would never," the bishop said, but his thoughts told a different story. There was a vindictive pleasure in there as he lied, a desire to convince Mercury, to carve out an advantage for himself. And the mopaaw sighed.

"Sadly, this is my realm," he explained, gesturing all around himself. "A dream I crafted from nothing, Nemo. In here, I'm… king, I suppose." He chuckled at the irony of that thought. "And unfortunately for you, that means I can tell what you think."

The bishop's face immediately fell into a neutral expression. "Then you should know I spoke the truth before."

Mercury could smell his nervousness, read the hint of worry about being found out in his mind. Once again, he gave a light, dry chuckle, little else than a mockery. "Alright, Nemo," he said, "I'm not exactly one for lies. You start being honest, or I'm gonna start making your time here less than enjoyable, you got me?"

For a moment, the bishop seemed to nod, but then thought better of it. There was a moment when his expression changed, from slight confusion and cockiness, to a deeper settled worry. Mercury had imbued his statement with intent, and knowing that it held weight made a threat so much heavier.

"I- I see," the bishop said. "What… do you want from me?"

"Two things, really. On one hand, I'd love to know what Skill it is that lets you manipulate people like that. And then, I'd like you to never use it on me again, can we agree on that?" Mercury asked, his tone sweet, his intent less so.

"Yes, of course, yes. There are multiple Skills for the effect. The main, active one, is <Penchant for People>. It allows me to use mana to make someone simply like me slightly more. There is also <Hear My Words>, which is a much more temporary, but stronger compulsion," he explained.

"What about the one that lets you use your followers' mana?"

The bishop's eyes went wide at that. "It's- that one is called <Pious Donation>, Seeker Starlight," he said.

Mercury nodded a bit. "No need for such formalities here, bishop. Just specially for you, how about you call me Mercury, eh?" he tapped the old man's cheek with a paw, leaving a slight hint of dirt behind. "So, multiple Skills all aimed at control. What's up with that?"

"I-... They are mostly used to alleviate the worries of believers. To give them some comfort, I mean." That part was genuine, Mercury noted with some surprise. "They do also come in handy when people cause trouble though." Once again, not a lie.

"What constitutes trouble? I hardly believe a single kin speaking to a friend would incite the use of such Skills, would it?" Mercury prodded further, now circling the bishop, who was still kneeling down. He'd attempted to get up once, but a smidge of pressure from Whisperstar was enough to stop that in its tracks.

Now, he was simply watching where Mercury went by moving his head. He seemed unsure. "Well, the voice is known to be somewhat headstrong," he began to explain. "She also carries some views that not everyone aligns with…"

"Oh? What would that be?"

"Well, for one, many people would like someone less… prone to violence," the bishop explained, and Mercury nodded along, even when he felt the old man being disingenuous. "Her… reputation could also be better."

"Get to the point," Mercury chided.

"Ah, yes, I… suppose I shall. In truth, many of the church's supporters simply dislike seeing her associate with those of low birth so much. The weak should not be ignored, but to be seen by the highest of Order, they should do their duties first," Nemo admitted.

Wow, how wonderful, truly. "So, you thought me a mutt from the streets, then, when you saw me exit the lady Lucia's chambers?" Mercury asked pointedly.

The bishop began sweating more. "No, of course not!"

It was a very blatant lie. "Do I really look that dirty? Like, does the whole cloak and jewellery not make it obvious?"

"I didn't take you for anything other than what I saw. All I saw was a true kin, one that strayed far from their usual home. A wanderer at best, and an exile at worst. I simply saw it as my duty to protect the integrity of our church!" the bishop said.

Mercury sighed wistfully, and lightly smacked the old man's face with his tail. Not enough to hurt, more a playful tap you'd do to chide someone. "No, Nemo, that isn't really what you were doing at all, is it?"

"What do you mean?" the bishop asked, nervous.

"Well, let me ask you this. Do you think you have enough power in the church?"

"Yes, of course. I am happy to serve my current position." Mercury had never seen such bullshit before.

"Alright, alright. I think that's one too many half-truths for me to ignore. Nemo, are you familiar with the game of tag?" Mercury asked.

The bishop blinked with confusion. "No," he said simply. Well, maybe it was an Earth-exclusive, or the bishop had a horrifyingly boring childhood..

"I'll explain it for you, then," Mercury nodded. "Someone is gonna chase after you. Don't get caught, alright?"

Before the bishop could reply, Mercury gave the mental command to Whisperstar, and they raced towards the old man. Of course, given their unique constitution, that meant that a tiny piece broke off the star in the sky, a dark orb shrouded in black fog flitting towards the bishop.

Suddenly, the weight on his legs was gone. Immediately, Nemo pushed off the floor and started running. Maybe Mercury should tell him that there wasn't really too much danger? Well, there could be, but Whisperstar was a decent kid at the end of the day.

After a good amount of chasing, maybe a bit over half an hour, he told Whisperstar to stop again, letting the Bishop drop to the floor in exhaustion. Which was funny, since this wasn't even Nemo's real body. Just a representation woven by his mind, and strung together by the nexus.

Mercury looked at the old man, and felt a smidge of pity in his heart. He definitely wasn't made for torturing anyone, even if this was fairly mild.

"Alright old man, go on, sit or something at least. You're gonna make me feel bad."

Reluctantly, Nemo obliged, pushing himself off the floor and into a lotus seat. Mercury did him the favour of not applying pressure. "Look," the mopaaw said. "I'm gonna level with you here. You gotta chill a bit. None of this mind control stuff, not with me. Don't even consider it, okay? Because I will drag you here again."

The bishop nodded, too busy gulping down air to answer.

"Second, be nice to Lucia. She doesn't deserve all the shit you give her. Seriously, she's doing her best. Stop the whole "peasants bad" act. That's weird, and gross, and you shouldn't be doing it, alright?"

This time, Nemo took longer to reply, but nodded at the end.

"Finally, relax a bit. Take things at pace. Figure out who you are, where you stand. Just… don't be a crappy person, for fuck's sake."

Before Nemo had the chance to nod or anything again, Mercury lightly smacked his face with his tail again. "Now get out of here."

And with that, the old man vanished, off to whatever other dreams he had.

Mercury stretched his back with some minor satisfaction. He hoped his lesson would stick without being too harsh. Then again, old people tended to hardly change their habits, even when said habits were stupid.

He shook his head a bit, banishing upcoming memories of his rather cruel grandparents. He didn't have to worry about them anymore. Now, he had a silly bishop with some silly standards to deal with. Maybe Nemo would learn now, or he'd learn some other time.

It didn't matter too much. If the lesson hadn't come across yet, Mercury was happy to invite the bishop for another chat. This was probably still much better than going for some more… extreme action in the outside world, or so he hoped.

Whatever the case, he turned his attention to Whisperstar. 'Did you have fun, kid?' he thought to them.

'Yes, yes! Very fun! Visitor ran so much!' they said back, full of childish glee. Mercury couldn't help.

'I'm glad you had fun. If you'd like, we can play again some other day?' he asked.

'Yes! Play!' Whisperstar celebrated.

Mercury gave some thoughts of affirmation, then returned to what he usually did in his dreams, practicing his weaving. He'd gotten quite a bit more consistent now, but still had trouble producing many objects. Oh well, he wasn't about to run out of time.

- - - - - -

Bishop Nemo's eyes opened wide in the middle of the night, and he found his bed drenched in his own sweat. Panicked, his eyes darted across his rooms, looking for any signs of that furred monster. Only once he had covered every inch of it did he relax a little.

Slowly, he pushed his aching bones out of the comfortable embrace of his sheets and changed his soaked robes for new ones. He took some time to go out to the balcony and watch over the city. Down in the dark streets, some people still toiled.

He pitied them a little, those with slow lives. Looking at them, he thought back to the nightmare. It'd felt so… real. And all of that after really being knocked out by the seeker?

The bishop scoffed at himself. What was he thinking now? There was certainly no way that creature would have done something like that. It was simply his own worries acting up.

Yes, his Skills had failed against the thing. Did that mean so much?

He began sweating once more.

Perhaps… perhaps it did mean something.

Quickly, the bishop headed back inside. He headed to his largest shrine, one carved to resemble the interlaced ring of metals that represented order, and kneeled on the cold stone floor in front of it. Then, he prayed.

It wasn't words he prayed with. He offered thoughts instead, all of them rapidly going through his head. He owned <Devotion of Mind>, after all, allowing him to think far faster when it was about his faith. And by praying, he could make almost anything about his faith.

What should he do about the creature, that kin who had disrespected him so often?

His mind ran at a dozen miles a minute, and it always returned to the same point. That beast. Why had it appeared in his dreams? Were those his dreams? He struggled with the thought of it all being imaginary, but he also struggled to imagine such a creature could have such abilities.

No, perhaps he should doubt it less. He'd have to assume that everything he saw had happened. Immediately, he jumped up and ran to the bath, violently scrubbing his entire body. It was not orderly for a bishop to kneel in the grass, nor to be touched in the face by some other thing.

Nemo panted heavily by the time he finally felt clean again. A vein was bulging on his forehead. He felt so… angry. Not furious as before, when the kin left the Voice's room. That had been a slight against his pride, his honor. It had been bothersome, and infuriating, but not in this way.

Now, he felt angry. Deeply angry. His chest felt tight with fury, his arms were shaking with wrath. The beast had spit not only on his honor and pride, it had spit on the reputation of the church, and then spit on Order itself. That was unforgivable.

Perhaps he was being unreasonable? The thought flashed in his mind, and like all of them, he tried to examine it thoroughly. Worse things could have happened in the dream, physically. But yet… he also felt vulnerable.

Was that beast a… threat?

His mind seemed to pause at the thought. There was a disconnect.

Something so much lesser than him… a threat? Something with no respect for Order… perhaps. But at the same time, it was simply a wise mopaaw, a kin! Nothing more than that. Viewing it as a threat felt like it further sullied his pride.

And yet.

<Devotion of Mind> told him that he needed to act. Every angle he considered, he had to act. Whether the thing was responsible for the dream or not. Whether it had meant to spit on his honor or not. He needed to teach a lesson, desperately felt the need to make things right. To make sure Order was upheld.

The thing had stepped on his freedom, refused his justice, and ignored the church's laws. That was beyond unforgivable.

Nemo felt his chest ache as he made a decision. It hurt his heart to forsake someone such as this, but he knew deep down that it was right, that it had to be done. If the creature could not be swayed by Order, by the truth, then perhaps it needed to live through the consequences.

Bit by bit, Nemo's pacing through his room slowed. He could feel <Devotion of Mind> releasing its hold on him, and peace returned to his thoughts. Bit by bit, the shaking of his body ceased. He straightened out the folds of his robes, let the last strings of consideration find their end, and made his decision.

The mopaaw would pay.

Then, the old man went to bed, at peace with what had to be done.

- - - - - -

Mercury woke up blissfully unaware of the bishop's decision. He went through his day as normal, helping out across the city a bit more as he thought things over. How long exactly should he wait to leave Stormbraver? Maybe a few more days? Probably something around that.

Then again, who would already be finding him? He did say to meet there. Did Yasashiku know he beat the eclipse? Maybe he should go visit the old man. The thought made him smile.

Maybe he should just learn some more runes for when his smithing teacher found him. He'd been working hard on weaving, and hoped to soon learn to make metal with it. That would probably take a bit longer though.

If he carved a bunch of runes into some metal plates while keeping up his ihn'ar, maybe that would help? It probably could. But was it really ethical to practice silly runes when he could be helping people who no longer had houses?

Tough choices to make. For that day, he decided to simply help with the cleanup. It was great practice for <Telekinesis >, and occasionally, he'd focus on the rubble a bit with ihn'ar. Just to meditate.

With his higher stats, and all the mental Skills, keeping a single Skill active definitely didn't take his whole attention anymore. So he busied his mind differently, practicing his ystirs, his zeyjn, and trying to once again form multiple rijns. It was hard work, but he was making progress.

Sometimes, when his head started to ache, he would move on to other things. Briefly, he considered making a <Bet >, but decided against it. There was no need yet. After all, most of his titles would help him break through a bottleneck, so he could just relax for now.

He also looked at his stat points for some time, but decided to save them. Getting adjusted to higher stats took some time, especially with big bursts, so he was still struggling a bit after the latest levelling spree.

People probably weren't supposed to go through half a level threshold and an evolution in a single stat-update, yet here he was. The thought made him shake his head. That was a frankly insane advancement, and probably much more than people usually got.

After all, that one moment had fulfilled quite a few of his long-held desires at once. That, and some quests, and some experience hit with a delay. Sometimes, the system works in mysterious ways, he supposed.

With idle thoughts drifting through his mind, Mercury managed to spend the last bits of the day. When the sun began to set, people trickled back to their homes, and Mercury got to the guild. It was still quiet, but things were slowly going back to normal, as they usually did.

Every day, some more things were done to help rebuild the city. More people were beginning to visit, merchants coming by again and peddling wares. Building supplies were gathered, and major construction had begun.

A couple new buildings popped up every day. Roads became more visible, and everything looked cleaner. He shuddered a bit to imagine the scenery right after the city got destroyed, but it was better now. All about taking it step by step.

The days continued to flow lazily like that, a few of them passing. Mercury would carve runes in his dream, and try to peer into what made the rubble during the day. <Telekinesis > levelled once, after days of usage, going to level 4.

Mercury was happy to help. The people seemed to remain relatively wary of him, but that was fine. He didn't mind that much. Until, one day, someone decided to spit on the ground in front of him, very purposefully.