Chapter 16-415: Proper Formations (2/2)
The weight of Doom came down with every syllable. It rang in the destiny of the planet, and the Void Brother Believed... and swallowed despite himself as suddenly all of Briggs’ steps resounded in Fate all that much harder.
Inevitable. Inexorable. Unstoppable.
“I don’t know how long it would have taken us to get to that point. We may have run out of time for everyone else first, but we would have done the job.” Metal creaked on Endure’s handle softly, while Drum beat slow and confidently. “She gave us a better path, and a quicker one, scaling up nicely, buying the time we needed... or rather, taking away the time the undead need.
“More importantly, she’s going to leave a much stronger, prepared world behind her when she goes.
“Maybe she’s Doomed to fight the Shroud on world after world for untold millennia. But the fact remains that she will fight, and she will win.
“They can’t stop her. You’ve seen her Detroit speech, right?” Black Rat nodded. “Keep in mind this: Every new world that falls to the Shroud has a weaker Shroudlord than the one before it.”
Because the stronger would stay behind, the weaker were sent out to claim their own world...
“From talking with her, it’s plain the souls in the Shroud who are dragging her along by the nose are not stupid, and they are ruthless.
“They’re going to be moving her to another living world trapped under the Shroud, currently being invaded. They’d be utterly stupid not to.
“She’s going to save that world, get stronger, and get sent to the next, hopefully with more allies.
“World to world, she’s going to go, and she’s going to grow, until she’s a Shroudbound Eternal, and can truly abuse the Shroud all she wants to.
“Then, and only then, are they going to send her to fallen worlds waiting to sally forth with new Dead Marches and expand to other worlds, so she can save multiple worlds at one time, instead of just one.
“She’ll snuff those anchor worlds, and if she’s good enough, and fast enough, and there are enough mortals working at it, the rate the Shroud is spreading will slow, then halt, and then it will begin to fall.”
Briggs inhaled slowly and deeply, seeing the scale of what had to happen to stop the Shroud from advancing. It was already so far along... the size of what needed to be done was immense.
And there was no Divine help coming. It had to be done by mortals!
“You sound as if you wish to join her?” Black Rat asked carefully, but Briggs shook his head slowly.
“No. All my instincts are to stay here, to protect this Earth from the shit that is coming. Now, sending people after her, to help save other worlds... that’s totally a thing. Post-Tens are coming, Brother Firesword. They are gonna be looking for things to fight so they can keep growing, and the Shroud has a literally unlimited number of things for them to do. Even if the majority of the undead are weak, there are going to be some that are very strong indeed... and the Glory award for taking down a Shroud is going to be worth all the effort of killing the chaff on the way.”
The Void Brother felt the Aura around the Source. He had already gathered the Fate of the Forsaken into a great and mighty river, crashing forward against the fate-defying existence of the Daoists, and was slowly drowning them.
They could not lose. This wasn’t passive antipathy from Creation. This was an oncoming tsunami, gathered with skill, force, and motivation, Doom marching with fire and steel upon the Daoists.
They were all going to die, be bled, and be Fed to the Land thereafter.
It was a good thing!
“A minor question, Master Smith.” The Void’s change of focus earned him a glance. “We confess to being slightly surprised at no infighting among your people, and... somewhat unnerved at the power of the Weapons being wielded by many of them. We are... surprised that some of them aren’t killing others to Burn their Weapons?...”
Briggs grunted. “You weren’t told this? You guys need to chat more. A Named Weapon won’t cough up any higher Burn value than its QL limit, which is generally a tithe of its Named Investiture.
“You Name a Weapon, it’s yours, Bonded to you. If you die, your Weapon gradually loses power every day, until all that Named Karma is lost.
“The only permanent Gear is Infused or Invested, and that includes Named Weapons. If you want to pass your Weapon on to someone else, you need to Burn goldweight... and other Named Weapons generally make crappy goldweight to Burn.” He tapped Endure tellingly. “My Named Karma in Endure is nearly half a million in goldweight. Burn it, you’d get maybe 4k for an adamantine Weapon? Now, that’s not bad, but is it enough to get yourself killed by everyone else who owns a Named Weapon?”
“Probably not,” Black Rat conceded, touching his own Sword, which was also nearing two hundred days of Naming Karma. “So, to make things permanent and lasting, we still need goldweight.”
Briggs nodded shortly. “If you ever Awaken its spirit, you best Invest the goldweight to keep it around, or the Spirit of your Weapon dies with you... very cruel.”
Black Rat nodded his understanding. “I will inform my Brothers, and we will keep this in mind.”
“Start guiding some of the teams to Daoists. I’ll talk to Lady Traveler.”
Black Rat bowed himself to the kingly Ancient who was the focus of Loyalty for literally millions of Chinese, and would one day no doubt stride across Asia as its High King. He raced off quickly, his lightfoot extremely well-developed. His Helices instantly flared brighter as he left the warm, unstained Sun that Briggs threw off, and felt for the revolting touch of fresh Qi exuded by the Daoists...