Chapter 16-415: Proper Formations (1/2)
The Black Rat hemmed and hawed, unperturbed by the death of the Daoist. The Cultivators had naturally long ago worked out that Briggs was in charge, and dearly wanted to kill him. Sniping attempts and assassinations were rote stuff for him now. Got him his Naming Karma most every day!
Briggs naturally enough was happy they were springing this shit on him and not on more vulnerable members of his forces. One of his Powered helped him comprise the notices, but he still dictated every death letter personally.
That way, he knew all their names. It was just one more reason everyone followed him.
“Yes, we think it is a situation worthy of her attention,” the Black Rat finally admitted.
“You know if a Void Brother just asks her, she’ll do it, right?” Briggs half-smiled.
The deadly killer of the Forsaken winced in a most un-Tenlike manner. “We... do not like to disturb her, Commander Briggs,” he finally admitted.
“And why is that?” His eyes wandered over to where Qi and chi were exploding in a suddenly flurry as a bunch of ambushing Cultivators ran into a slaughterfest of Dragon Warriors assigned to bait them out. Support elements were already moving in to pincer the Daoist reinforcements intending to collapse on the fight.
The Cultivators had become aware of the differences in strength between their enemies, and it was easiest to see by individualistic attire. The stronger Classed Powered vastly preferred individual looks to make themselves stand out, while the Racials of all types preferred uniforms to show solidarity.
Briggs was very happy to cater to this perception on the part of the Cultivators by having the Powered swap their colors. Running into a bunch of Dragon Warriors instead of Orcs and Humans was a huge swing in the power curve, and the hee-hee backslapping at the simple trick spread through the forces quickly. With magic and a bit of illusion, two forces flowing together could separate with complete color exchanges. The pragmatic Daoists preferred to NOT go after those who could go toe-to-toe with them, after all...
The Black Rat fell in beside him, visibly relaxing as his Helix entered Briggs’ Sun, and its colors all started to fade away into nearly-transparent flickers revolving around him.
“Did you know we can feel her from anywhere on the world?” he finally spoke up.
Briggs raised an eyebrow. “No. None of you have bothered to tell us that.”
The young man turned his head in a particular direction. Briggs noted the location, and a few moments later some lightfooters came up behind it and there was an explosion of violence as the waiting killer there suddenly was involved in nasty close combat.
A bright flight of Shards, nine in total, flew in among the combatants and detonated on the Cultivator faultlessly, sending him sprawling across the ground. A Spear was in his liver and a Sword in his throat before he could slither away.
“She’s in the North Pacific now.” The Black Rat pointed with a chop of his hand. Briggs matched it to what was pouring into The Map, and nodded. “If there is one person alive the Land is actually aware of, it is her.”
“And the Land approves of her?” Briggs reasoned out.
“Yes. Her power Sings across the manafield. Even at this distance, we can hear the music of her Song on the ley lines. There are several other Singers of the Sublime Chord starting to rise, but none of them approach her.”
“Still doesn’t explain why you don’t want to bug her. Her whole shtick is taking care of problems with the time she has left here.”
“We all know of her tie to the Shroud, too,” Black Rat went on softly. “It is right there, in every note of her Song...”
“So you can absolutely confirm her tie to it and that it’ll be taking her with it?” Briggs asked grimly. “She basically figured that out months ago.”
“And she is bending so much Fate on a colossal level.” Briggs watched the Void Brother shudder softly. “What you are doing here, raising a river out of nowhere, it all started with her, shattering so much Fate and sending it careening down a course it never should have had...”
“Yeah, Powered do that sort of thing, especially if they are Beyond Law and Chaos,” Briggs agreed reasonably. It was one of the reasons why Daoists were so envious of them, after all. “So, you just don’t want to bother her and what she is doing?”
“We are actually rather frightened of doing so,” Black Rat sighed. “Just watching everything going on around her is like watching the Wrath of Heaven coming down and just changing things forever. It takes great nerve to invite that over to play somewhere else.”
Briggs nodded slowly. “You’re right. You realize she doesn’t really need any of us to do this, right?” He swept his big hand out to encompass everything. “Sure, it would have taken her longer. But she could have even taken care of Tibet if she had to. She would have directly hunted down and purged every single Cultivator, trapped dark Pact Patron, evil monstrosity, vile demigod, forgotten horror, and established Dark Church on the whole planet before finishing off each and every Shroudzone.”
Black Rat’s grimace was definitely interesting to see, his dark eyes darting around as he processed all of that.
All of the undead. All of the monsters. Everywhere...
“And she is not because she knows that we have to do so instead,” the Void Brother sighed.
“Let me be a bit blunt, and declare that Sama and I could and would have done the exact same thing.”
The Void Brother stared at him sharply. Briggs went on calmly, confidently, looking around.
“Oh, it would have taken us longer. We don’t have the shortcuts a Powered has. We would have to Level, and Level, and Level some more. But there is a point coming where even if she and I were the last living things on the planet, we would Kill Them All, and take the Shroud down.”