Chapter 10-315: Family Matters (2/2)

“A suitable amount of intense physical and magical effort would be an extraordinary distraction, for certain.” Legion paused, thinking. “She does not have a Blessing yet. She truly has no idea who she is dealing with, does she?”

“No.” Which would be a nice surprise on its own, and who knew what after that? Finding out I was also the most powerful and widely-spread Monarch in the world was also going to be something...

“You want to occupy some time?” Legion asked blandly, only a hint of an edge to their voices.

“When you can Teleport around the world, it is utterly remarkable how easy it is to triangulate in on something.” I flicked up a Holo of the globe, and oriented it precisely to their facing. “Where is that certain someone you want to visit again?”

They lifted their right arm and pointed precisely. The globe spun, and a red line arced across it, cutting right across America, I noted. I popped up the major cities there, and my Lived-Line.

Perhaps it was telling that the pointing line was crossing through Memphis, Tennessee.

“Let’s cross an x,” I murmured, taking their hand. Magic swirled, and I delivered us smoothly all the way across the Atlantic and half of America, to alongside a road in southern Illinois where we’d passed on the way to Mexico. During down time, I’d had Sleipner race me to the nearest section of my Lived-Line, as I hated not being in Teleport range. Going all the way back across the ocean in the blink of an eye, the shadow of Natural Renewal passing by with the rolling dawn, was nothing at this point.

We stepped onto the access drive over the ditch there, away from the traffic passing by on the road. It was still night-time here, six hours behind, naturally enough, but it was a main highway, so there was still traffic.

My Holo came up, and Legion pointed. A red line came out, and crossed the other in Memphis, Tennessee.

Legion’s eyes were very intense, but they shook their head slowly. “If we go with you, she’ll naturally be alerted and instantly Teleport away. She has unlimited ability to do so. You won’t be able to catch her... will you?” They cocked an eyebrow at me, knowing better to make an absolute statement out of that.

“It’s better to just use psychology. You said the first thing she’d do is Teleport away, fearing you’d sense her?”

“It is most likely. She knows she is not our equal in combat, and we are not required to act with decorum to her after...” They trailed off, and shrugged, although their eyes glittered.

Getting Hell-whipped and Scarred certainly counted as provocation.

“The Teleport range of Intrinsic Abilities is limited by line-of-sight from surface to surface under the Shroud. The curvature of the Earth means that it is much, much faster to Teleport from a high area with great line of sight to the horizon than it is to make multiple jumps in the same direction.” I looked at The Map, which was incredibly detailed about the place, and put a finger down on the northeast of the city. “The Global Divination System transmission tower extends up over a thousand feet, which is a thirty-plus mile jump range. If she wants to get away as fast as possible, she’ll jump there first, and then to another destination. It’s ten times faster than heading to any location in range.”

“So, we are being used to flush her from cover.” Their eyes glowed, but didn’t release light.

“Especially if you immediately starting Riding the Light in her direction.”

“And so, you only need to beat her to the tower,” they noted, their knuckles popping as they flexed, remarkably loud. “What do you intend to do with her?” they inquired.

“This might be a bit presumptuous, but I was going to give her to Shvaughn.”

They looked away, frowning for a long moment, then closing their eyes. “Shvaughn has been waiting a very long time to catch that bitch. She will rip her apart and take everything that is hers, as she helped so many others do. You have a reason for this?”

“Mmm. A Geas for her to never Grant a Pact. Which leaves a Pact Grantor of two very popular Pacts for Hell around that they aren’t going to be able to replace when it is time. Only one primary Grantor of a particular Pact to a world, you know.”

They blinked. “Ah. And that succubus queen has the same arrangement with the two Heart Pacts...”

“Yes. You aren’t going to just burn her dead. You’re going to refine her, leech her, and hold that spot, which between the two of you should prevent any more Hungry and Poison Heart or Kiss Pacts from happening on this world.”

“Ah, we were expecting to burn her, as we did the Burning Veil Grantor,” they nodded slowly. “Can we even contain them?”

“What’s your Sealing Level at?”

“Eight, I believe.”

“I think that after I Feeblemind her, Enervate her, Curse her six ways to Sunday, and Dolor her into submission, it’s not going to be much of an issue, but you should get it to Nine. You’re not going to be feeding vivus to the Land all that much while you Purify her, but it should be worth it.”

“What do they look like in their natural form?” they asked, trying to remember. I flicked up a holo of a lilitu’s eyeless face, long tail, cloven feet, and rather slender but oversized clawed hands. Oh, and another set of horns. Their eyebrows rose. “A tail and no eyes. How wonderful...”