58 The War Game Denatus (2)
A.N. There are no advance chapters left on Patreon because my life has been seriously hectic and I haven't had the time to write. But seeing as we're very near end of the first volume of this story, I hope to see a increase of support when we finally do finish Steve's first arc here.
So that means more powerstones, more reviews, more paragraphs comments, more people in my discord and hopefully more patronage, any kind of support really since I will only begin the next volume if I actually see proper, more worthy support for this novel.
And yes, I am saying this in an arrogant tone because I am the almighty author.
So, it's all in your hands guys...
Also, you're welcome for the early release!
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~Well, they say the sky's the limit~~And to me that's really true, ah~~But, my friend, you have seen nothin'~~Just wait 'til I get through~
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"I am saying, when you lose, your Familia members shall be subordinate to mine." Ptah placed forwards as his last and final demand.
Silence reigned in the chamber as all the gods stared down at him in shocked stupor, unbelieving of what had just come from his mouth. They looked at each other with awe and disbelief, before glancing back to the Primordial who sat in his chair with his arms folded, dead serious as if he had not just made the most outrageous demand in the world.
Hermes almost tripped backwards on air as he stared at Freya in trepidation. The goddess's smile, though it had not changed at all, looked all scary for some reason as she too digested his words.
"Excuse me?" Freya whispered in a surprisingly calm and reasonable voice.
"You heard me." Ptah said. "You lot are the ones who brought this crap to my doorstep. And you'll be the ones to clean up after yourselves and you'll lighten our load as well. Our Familia shall become the masters of the South and you will obey our directives and fulfil our image of the future of Orario. Zeus and Hera practiced this in their time with their own extraordinary children. And I possess something far greater than any adventurer they have ever produced, so why should I not exercise the same?"
Freya glanced downwards as her face became downcast, shadowed by silent anger. Distant as they had become, Ptah could still read her like an open book. Truthfully, he was dying inside for having to do this. But Steve had firmed the point that Freya needed to be kicked down a few pegs and her children had to be leashed, because whether they intended it or not, that Familia was always in trouble, either being the direct perpetrators of it or indirectly fanning the flames.
"...you would do this to me?" Freya whispered so that only he could hear. "After everything they did, you want to torment me too? Not only will you take away my children...but you'll be making the rest of us submit."
"I am not collaring you." Ptah said. "There is nothing between the two of us. But when certain events take place, Steve will simply be taking command of your children as if he were their leader. He has great ambitions he wishes to realize...but for it he needs powerful adventurers. Your kids are a bunch of snobs however who only serve you or their own interests. What better way to make them co-operate than have them serve us?"
"This is not like you at all." Freya looked back at him, the smile gone. "Even you can't be this cruel...it's him isn't it? He's the one making these conditions."
"Somebody had to." Ptah answered quietly. "I definitely couldn't."
"...He aims to humiliate me." Freya said, a subtle hint of ice creeping into her tone.
"It's what he does with everybody who challenges him." Ptah said. "Steve is no gallant hero, driven by nobility and chivalry. He's a sadistic, opportunistic bastard who uses his powers for selfish purposes. And though they are not evil, he does not go out of his way to do good. He only seeks that which makes his life more interesting, and if that means bringing every adventurer in this city to their knees, then he will do it."
.
.
.
And that was nothing but truth. Steve nodded in satisfaction as he heard his patron make his position known amongst the assembly. It was the entire reason Steve was in this world. He had no aims or ambitions to be a hero; that job could be left to the bunny protagonist sitting opposite him flicking through recruitment papers.
He was just a guy who was there to have fun. And fun was all that mattered. He did things just for the sake of doing them. He didn't think twice about setting a dude's house on fire just because he blindly threw a spoon out of a window and managed to catch Steve in the face. He didn't care if he randomly body-slammed Bete almost every time he walked past the werewolf.
He didn't care if his activities in the Dungeon forced it to evolve and create new monsters like the Prisma Guardian he'd accidentally made, a monster powerful enough to take on several middle class adventurers single-handedly. He didn't care if he let his words prick every nerve in a person's body. He didn't care if he emotionally and psychologically tortured a girl by using her own fascination against her, just for being disrespectful to him.
Nothing whatsoever mattered to him from all of that. Good and Evil? The chase for either of these two ideals yielded nothing for him, because nothing could be taken from him that he could not just bring back instantly, and nothing could be given to him which he either didn't already have or that he could not multiply its number infinitely. He had his own ideals, and he had power to bump them all forwards.
After all...it was still just a Game.
.
.
.
"I tolerated his rudeness." Freya said coolly. "And I tolerated his petulance. But this I will not stand for. You will see it Ptah, that my children will fall upon him like an ocean after they hear of this. Even if he is a level 9, he will never be able to handle all of them."
"We shall find out if that is the case or not." Ptah crossed his hands. "We are the smaller party, so it stood to reason I demanded more from the more advantageous and bigger party out of the two of us. Now the question is, do you accept the terms and conditions?...there's still a chance to walk away you know?"
Freya began seriously weighing her options now. Perhaps she could have accepted the loss of some of her children, and no longer being the queen of Orario that she was. But Ptah was by nature a sitting duck. He had a measure of cruelty, but he was always powerless against her simply because of how dear he'd held her to his heart at some point. Even now she knew for a fact that he could not make these demands of her by himself.
No...it was that boy. That adventurer whose presence had turned the whole city on its head. No background to speak of, nor a rational explanation of why his level was so high. But he had a cruel sense of humour, and a very deep level of insight. Stephen Hewer seemed to know exactly what made her tick.
It would have been one thing if Steve had demanded her as his recompense for the stress of the War Game...but Ptah's Firstborn had deliberately targeted her children knowing that it was the real thing which would irk her. Freya was notorious for being a collector and a powerful, ruthless enchantress. But what people did not know was that she had not used any of that for her children.
If she'd wanted the biggest and most powerful Familia in the world, she could have charmed the whole planet and made everyone do her bidding with zeal and religiosity, at such intensity that she would probably have had legions of first class adventurers now. But that would have been the loyalty of a puppet. And what was that sort loyalty worth, in terms of meaning, significance and overall in matters of feeling?
Nothing. Absolutely nothing.
It was much better to have people want to serve her, to do her proud and fight for her. And so, contrary to popular belief, every member of her Familia were people who had chosen to serve her out of their own volition. And due to her nature, she loved them with all her heart for that.
They were her soft spot and Steve had gone directly for that, using Ptah as his cover instead of doing what most men did and gone for her...how clever.
It seemed she had still underestimated this Stephen Hewer. He was even more heartless than she could be...and he'd fooled everybody, yet concocted this whole scenario to put that message through to her, a message which flew over everybody's heads. He'd made a monkey out of every god including his...but not her.
It made Freya smile a very different smile...that boy had become all the more interesting. So without hesitation, she decided to respond to this silent challenge. If he intended on challenging her like this, then she was more than up for it!
"I agree to your terms and conditions." She said surprising everyone in the room as she offered her hand over the table. Ptah raised his eyebrows in surprise that she had not begun contesting him. But seizing the opportunity before some other factor decided to interfere, he shook her hand.
And with that, Hermes wrote down the last stipulation. The War Game was set, the wagers finalized.
And with that part of the Denatus done, it was time to decide the format.
---
(Kaios Desert)
Finn clutched onto the fur of the great wolf beast he was riding on as Ari dug her heel into the side of her own Warg to urge it to run faster across the scorching sands. He grimaced as he blinked rapidly to stop the sand grains from getting in his eye as he bore with the mad nuisance that was Minecraft Ari Hewer as she yelled while slapping the neck of her Warg.
"C'mon boy, faster faster!" She yelled as the wolf lowered its head and charged at greater speed than it did before.
"I was meant to go back and guide miss Noor after we stopped by the cartographer's guild." Finn said as he leaned forward and shouted over the wind rushing in their ears. "Why did you have to bring me along?"
"Because Noor is only ever interested in the stuffy animals she wants to tame every time we go to a new place." Ari grumbled. "A waste of time if you ask me." Her Warg looked up at her and grunted. She smacked its nose. "You be quiet and keep running." She chastised it.
"But still, the Ganesha Familia would have been more than happy to accommodate us in the Amphitheatron." Finn reasoned. "We also would have been enjoying ourselves watching them tame the new batch of monsters they got from the Dungeon. Much more entertaining than having to put up with these punishing conditions." Finn shaded his eyes as he looked at the sky where the sun burned brightly and the heat bore down on him. Even with his supernatural physique and his resistances, it was bound to become uncomfortable in the desert after a while.
"Oh trust me, we're going to do something a lot more fun." Ari grinned. "Once Steve finds out about my genius plan, he's going to be so pleased. It will boost our Familia by leaps and bounds."
Finn suddenly remembered that this was the girl who apparently had a penchant...or rather an obsession for blowing things up. His forehead began to sweat a little more as he registered the possibility that he'd be witnessing a spot of violent destruction very soon. Ari rode until the dunes levelled out a bit where the sand fell away to more revealed rock and sandstone. She pulled back on the Warg's mane and made it come to a stop as she slid off.
Finn jumped off of it beside her and looked back at the wolf.
"He's a little bit smaller than Bathsheba. Are the males like that or is he just younger?"
"In a way, both." Ari replied as she took out a small device with a screen. She placed it on the ground before looking back at Finn. "Steve's is a Matriarch, and she gave birth to the rest of ours. Matriarchs are hard to come by, but once you get one, you can get almost an infinite amount of litter from her so long as she is alive....it was a lucky find."
"Why do I get the impression you're not so happy about that?"
Ari looked away with a pout.
"We left their natural habitat before I could have a chance to find another." She sighed before balling her fists and pulling out a large hammer from her inventory and lifting it into the air, channelling her sudden annoyance into her arms as she brought it down on the ground. "AY-HO!"
The impact of the hammer on the ground created a mini-earthquake that made Finn wobble on his feet and the shockwave blew all remaining sand away from their area, leaving behind what was just millions upon millions of years worth of heavily compacted sediment to form the bed of the Kaios Desert. Ari kept her foot on the device to stop it from being blown away but she watched the readings intently as numbers jumped all over the screen.
Finn physically felt the residual tremors embed itself deeper and deeper within the earth as the planet absorbed the force of Ari's hammer strike. He looked up at her puzzlingly.
"What was that for?"
"You'll see." She said as she continued to watch the device. Finn then took note of it and tilted his head.
"Uhm, what exactly is that thing supposed to be?"
"It's something that tells me if there are any open spaces beneath the ground." Ari explained as the readings came to a plateau and she picked the device up. "And I'm talking about REALLY deep, like several thousand metres deep. It uses the tremors measured by my hammer strike to map out a complete map of the ground below us and if there so happens to be any pockets of riches in the ground, it will locate it for us."
"Riches?" Finn raised his eyebrow. "Oh yes, Steve has mentioned that you lot were big on excavation...still, that contraption of yours is unlike anything I've seen. How does it operate? Magic?"
"...You could say that." Ari nodded her head before looking back at the screen as it drew out a digital map for her. "Usually I use a massive device that thumps the ground with this giant metal rod. That alone usually creates sufficient tremors, but ever since I got stronger, I have no need for it anymore."
"Right." Finn put a hand on his hip as he used the back of his other hand to wipe off the sweat. "Can we hurry this along? I do want to get back to Orario as soon as possible."
"Good things come to those who wait."
"YOU'RE the one looking for good things, not me. Why do I have to wait around?"
"Fair point. But we'll be done here soon." Ari said as she saw something on the digital map that made her eyes sparkle in delight. "After all, I've found what I came looking for."
"What kind of riches are you looking for anyway?" Finn asked. "I've heard old folktales that there are supposed to be giant reserves of gold underneath the Kaios desert, though how they could ever come up with that, I am not sure."
"Some have called it a type of gold." Ari said. "Not a literal metal but in its value. But if you know how to make proper use of it, it's real worth is far more valuable."
Ari began walking, trying find the exact spot above the place she was seeing on her map before the ground started rumbling and the dunes started to collapse as shrill roars could be heard in the distance.
"Well, well." Finn said as pulled Fleinnleptr from the saddle that was placed on the Warg. "It looks like we have company. I should have anticipated this."
"What?" Ari questioned as she started to see patched of sand caving into itself in the distance as it became very obvious something was making its way over to them. "What's coming?"
"Sand Worms." Finn said. "They are quite literally what they are called except a good few times bigger than normal worms and they've got mouths full of teeth with an extremely rotten attitude. They must have been attracted by that kerfuffle you raised earlier."
"Yes, slithery creatures with no eyes tend to depend on tremors and vibrations to locate prey." Ari said as she put the hammer away and the device in her pocket. "Should have expected something like that to exist in a place like this."
"You mean you had no idea of them before?" Finn asked. "Where exactly are you all from? Forgive the comment but you all seem quite ignorant of...what I should say, are some very common facts."
"Blame it on Steve and his keeping us all in one place for years at a time, only leaving when he wanted to but not allowing us the chance to have a bit of independence." Ari rolled her eyes but then grinned widely as she rubbed her hands and then wriggled her fingers as she stretched them, her fingertips throbbing as they sensed the amount of jostling they were to face ahead. "But now he's not here to tell me what to do...so I can put these monsters on a diet for a change."
"A diet?" Finn asked as the rumblings fringed on the blown out area Ari had made. "If that's supposed to be a sort of joke or you're trying to convey some metaphorical meaning, I'm afraid I don't get it."
Ari's shoulders drooped as she realized the audience she had.
"Urrhh." She rolled her eyes again. "Medieval peasants and their primitive tech." She then reached into her inventory and pulled out two massive items that had Finn both surprised and extremely baffled. Because to him, how could any of these things be counted as weapons when they didn't even have a single sharp point?
But to Ari though, they were her hobby and pride. A giant minigun in her right hand, held like it weighed as light as a feather, while her left hand held over her shoulder an M202 FLASH, all four rockets primed with extra explosive material she'd cooked up herself. The flap to the FLASH was open and her fingers were on the triggers as she waited for the beasts to show themselves.
"Ari...what are those?" Finn asked tentatively as his thumb began throbbing violently.
"Behold, the ultimate form of dishonour on battle. A symphony of utter destruction! No chivalry, no cavalry, no glory of the blade." Ari's grin became maniacal as her eyes flashed. "Nothing but the sweet taste of fire and metal! Now watch Pallum, as I make these pests eat lead!"
...
Just on time, several grotesque purple bodies burst out of the ground and wriggled in the air as a few Sand Worms surfaced and appeared to survey the area they were in even though they had no eyes. Their hideous, long bodies were segmented like any normal earth worm, but the key defining trait of these monsters was that one end of their bodies, which was the end that was sticking out of the ground, was just a massive hole full of vicious teeth about longer than spears, sickly drool spilling from them as their growls shook the air.
"As ugly as I remember them." Finn said before he looked beyond the monsters. "Though they're quite small compared to what I'm usually used to. They must be a clew of wormlets."
"So where's mummy and daddy then?" Ari looked at him.
"Probably not far behind. The smaller ones move faster because they don't have to push as much of the earth out of their way, but if we don't deal with them now, then we'll probably get flanked by an even nastier surprise." Finn said as he looked for the Warg but then suddenly found him cowering behind a rock. "Hey, what's up with your wolf?"
"Oh I seem to have gotten the biggest sissy out of the litter that Bathsheba had." Ari said. "Every time I'm about to fight, he always goes into hiding. Not once has he actually fought off a monster for me."
"Really?" Finn observed the wolf's expression and the direction of its gaze more intently. To his surprise, the Warg was not paying any attention to the monsters at all, but instead was gazing fearfully at Ari. "...for some reason, I don't think that's why."
"Here they come!" Ari said as one of the wormlets dove for her. She aimed with the minigun and unleashed a torrent of bullets on the monster. "I'LL SEE YOU BASTARDS IN HELL!"
To Finn, all he saw was a bunch of large metal constructs flying out of the spinning barrels of the minigun, looking like they were covered in flames when really they were just heated up a bright orange. These big capsule shaped lumps of metal flew quicker, truer and sharper than any arrow or spear and blew holes right through the monster's hide, shattering its teeth and splashing sickly green blood all over the desert sands.
Finn blinked and rubbed his eyes to make sure that he was actually seeing what he was seeing. The Warg began squealing and making scared whines as it completely ducked down behind the rock, while Ari began roaring like a crazy person as she peppered every wormlet that came her way. The constant output of bullets, and the force of the large gun made the ground shake beneath Ari and the worms used that shaking to detect her.
One by one she felled all these high level monsters without even taking a single step, and only stopping when the last wormlet had collapsed right in front of her, groaning weakly as it died in absolute agony. She simply stood there and admired her work as Finn stared at the scene with an open mouth.
The barrels of the minigun were glowing red hot and smoke was rising it as she set it to rest on the ground. Finn could see what remained of the sand beneath her melt and become glass-like.
"Ari...what...was...that?" Finn emphasised.
"This is called a gun." She said as she held it up again. "It fires bits of specially shaped metal called bullets at enemies. Think of them as mini hand-held cannons. And there are many different types. With these, I can kill monsters from afar without even having to be in their vicinity. It's what I call real hunting."
"...That barely lasted a few seconds." Finn murmured. "It would have taken more than a few minutes to defeat these monsters if my Familia had been here...but you didn't even take them on yourself. Instead you used this...gun?...and wiped them all out with no effort."
"Now you see why I said that with these, there's no room for honour." Ari smiled at him. "With these, it's no longer a battle, but just a glorified massacre."
"...That's just unholy." Finn said. "Just death and destruction...you're not using those in the War Game are you?"
"Unfortunately no." Ari said. "I'm not allowed to use guns against other people. Last time I did that, I got a particularly painful bonk over the head from Alex. I still think there's a crack in my skull to this day from that."
"You're definitely cracked, that's for sure. You all are." Finn then looked over to the other weapon on her shoulder. "What about that one. Those are so much bigger than the...bullets that came from the one in your right hand."
"These are not bullets." Ari shook the FLASH on her shoulder. "This thing shoots something a little bit meaner than just mere bullets. The ones you see loaded in here are called rockets."
"Rock-its?" Finn repeated. "They seem very much metal to me."
"...Shut up and watch." Ari deadpanned as even greater rumbling ensued and two large worm heads burst out of the ground. These were even bigger than the wormlets, about four times bigger each, with one being a bit larger than the other. Ari took that one to be the mother. "Right on time."
The Sand Worms seemed to nudge the corpses of their children around. Perhaps they could smell somehow, but sure enough they recognised their offspring and roared in absolute fury. They directed their cries of outrage at the two adventurers and Ari was forced to watch those grotesque teeth open to reveal the inside of their mouths, lined with several rows of smaller teeth and the bottom of the pits being a hole that led into the guts.
Ari cringed in disgust as how disgusting these creatures were and opted not to give them a chance of attacking at all. She lined up the FLASH and fired two rockets, one each into the maws of the worms. Finn was made to watch and experience two absolutely massive explosions rock the desert as fires climbed into the sky, followed by mushroom clouds as the heads of the warms exploded too and showered him and Ari, and the poor Warg hiding behind the rock with monster blood and monster flesh and guts as the heavily desecrated corpses which were burning with flames collapsed to the ground.
A horrible smell filled the air as worm meat cooked in both the fires and under the heat of the sun.
"...Maybe I went a bit overboard?" Ari nervously giggled at Finn, who simply felt his eyes twitch at having his remaining outfit soiled.
His laundry basket had mysteriously disappeared the night before and he couldn't find where it had gone.
So he was left only with his attire today and no doubt it would be stinking of guts when they returned to the city. He'd hoped that he'd be able to buy some more clothes in his outing today...but instead he was baking in these filth ridden garments under a desert sun, surrounded by an ocean of stinking monster blood.
Beyond that, he'd just been introduced to demonic weapons, wielded by what appeared to be a psycho girl who only thought about her actions after she had committed them and not beforehand. Even the special spear that Steve had made for him was dripping with bile and slime. Ari made to gesture but he quickly held his hand in front of her.
"Not another word." He said quietly.
"...yes Captain."
---
"Well that was a disaster." Ari said to herself as she followed the digital map by herself through the desert. She'd left behind a water bucket and cauldron for Finn to use while cleaning himself. In respect for his privacy, since he had to strip completely to wash down, she'd left him behind and was now wandering the dessert by herself.
Well not so much wondering as she knew exactly where she was. Her interface always told her the coordinates she was at and she'd put to memory that of Orario so she could easily make her way back when she was ready and able.
Finally she came to the place she was aiming for and put away the device as she took out a shovel. She quickly began shovelling out blocks of sand as Genkai was made to conform to Minecraft physics momentarily while she made her way down. When she hit sandstone, she took out her pick and began mining out blocks of sandstone as she quickly descended deeper and deeper. They say that the first rule of Minecraft is that you don't dig straight down.
But she wasn't in Minecraft, plus she was very good at maths and that's why she knew exactly how far to go. It wasn't for nothing that she was called the group's engineer and inventor. Building tech and machines were her job, so it would be embarrassing if she didn't get simple measurements right.
When she'd dug down a certain amount, she pulled out the device again to double check her location. Seeing she was not too far above where she intended to be, she scaled the walls and quickly made her way out of the hole, jumping out when she hit the sand layer. She then placed several TNT over the hole and lit them all as she watched them plummet into the darkness of the tunnel she'd made. A moment later, the ground began shaking and she saw the flashes of explosions as she caught sight of the fire.
She then noticed how the darkness of the tunnel seemed to condense and begin rising faster and faster and she jumped back well in time for a geyser of dark, sludgy liquid shoot out of the ground and into the air, collecting itself in a pool of what looked to the layman like filth. But to Ari and to anybody from the 21st century, it was an ocean of opportunity and usefulness.
"EUREKA!" She punched the air with her arms. "I KNEW IT! Why wouldn't a planet crawling with monsters have more of this stuff? While these idiot mortals build their industries on scarce magic stones, I can siphon all of this out to power our tech and my robots! And nobody will even have a bloody clue!" She grinned and danced around the geyser in happiness as her stomach flipped in triumph and excitement.
In her joy though, she didn't notice the geyser chuck up something hard and solid out of the ground until it hit her on the head, staining her hair with sludge and maker her wince in annoyance as she watched the thing tumble to the ground after getting it's headshot. Her frown quickly disappeared though as she came closer and studied this foreign object.
It was mostly rock in nature, black rock but rock nonetheless. However, she noticed purplish streaks in it here and there, and there looked to be tiny purple gems growing along the lines of those streaks.
"What do we have here?" She asked herself as she lifted it. She took out her pick and struck it hard with the sharp point. The rock broke open to reveal the inside to be made out of layers of...something. Something smooth and shiny like a gem, almost like those amethysts they'd find in geodes, but with a dull glow to it even in the desert sunlight.
"Curiouser and curiouser..." Ari mumbled to herself.
Perhaps she would take this to Steve, or Zuri. She'd come here just for the black gold...but perhaps she'd stumbled on something even more interesting.
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