Chapter 194: Another Realm (1/2)

I watched the edited footage, a seed of genuine hatred forming in my chest. The video editors connected the footage in such a way that I hated the gialgathens, and that I supported Thisbey. The news report had never been live. It was a staged act, spreading propaganda for Thisbey's media campaign.

It was a good thing I filmed it. Even then, it felt ridiculous that this kind of bullshit was even allowed.

”Why are they allowed to do this? Surely this is illegal.”

Kessiah shrugged, ”On some planets it is. Giess doesn't really have a government to look after this kind of thing. It's too spread out and chaotic for that. It's a, 'If there's no one to report the crime, then no crime was committed!' sort of thing. Sucks for sure.”

Torix stepped up into the forest clearing, pacing out of the stairs behind us. With his arms crossed, ”Well that interview was a disaster. IT seemed rather unlike you. Perhaps an explanation is in order?”

”They framed me,” I stated with a shrug.

”Ah yes, of course they would. Hmmm, this is a rather testy predicament we've found ourselves in.”

I pulled out my obelisk, ”Not really.” I showed the footage of myself, ”For once, I thought ahead and recorded everything before it happened.”

”Well well Daniel. I'm impressed. I believe this should be all the proof we need that your words and intentions were altered.”

”Where am I supposed to post this video? Is there a site for it or something?”

Kessiah bit her lip, ”So, I've got bad news about this. You know, great idea and all to record the footage. Posting it won't matter much though. No one will see it anyways.”

Torix cupped his chin, ”Perhaps you could explain why that is?”

”See, here's the thing. Very few people own an obelisk on Giess anyway. Even if you could get your video up on a dozen different sites, no one on Giess would see it. You'd be putting your word against the media corporations too. That would be hard to pull off, and we don't even have two months too pull that off.”

Althea chimed in, ”Why don't people have obelisks though? They aren't expensive or hard to get.”

Torix gestured a hand to Althea, ”Obelisk operate on your personal reserves of mana. Considering the lack of leveling or use of personal mana by most espens, obelisks are out of reach despite being subsidized by Schema.”

”But couldn't he get it posted onto some news channels maybe?” Althea chimed.

I scoffed, ”Yeah, Thisbey would shut that shit down in seconds. His hands in the pocket of everyone on this damn planet.”

”Ok, so it's not all bad though,” Kessiah said while spreading her hands. ”Those revolutionaries are going to spread like wildfire after seeing this. That means they clear the dungeons, which helps a lot with clearing out Giess.”

I grimaced, ”We're sending them on a witch hunt. It doesn't sit right with me to start a race war to help save Giess. Sure, the revolutionaries might kill off the silvers and eldritch and take back Giess. Whoopdy-fucking-do. They'll do to cull an innocent species. I'm no saint, but that's fucked.”

I shook my head in disgust, ”At that point, what would we be saving?”

The group replied with somber silence. Althea rubbed her forehead with a hand, ”It's so hard to win this fight. We're fighting on Thisbey's home turf, in a battle that he's so good at. Thisbey is probably organizing the revolutionaries right now and making obelisks outlawed in their groups. He's probably feeding them a bunch of lies, and then the people start to believe them...Just like with Yawm in the lab,”

Althea's eyes hollowed, ”It's like everyone just feeds on each other. The worst part is, the bigger the lie, the easier it becomes to believe. Uh, at least from what I saw.”

I shook my head, ”Not quite that grim, though I can get your reaction considering the situations you've been in. Still, I can't help but wonder what Tohtella is even doing?”

”I imagine it's quite difficult for her. Thisbey was born and raised on this planet. She's an outsider, so she doesn't fully understand the culture and influences here,” Torix said.

Kessiah rolled her eyes, ”Uh huh, sure. From what I can tell, she's just incompetent.”

”I'd hate to agree, but yeah. That's what this shit looks like. She's getting throttled during this entire media campaign. It's weird though. The Overseer seemed to think she was pretty intelligent. So far, she's failed miserably at, well, everything.”

”Uhm, she did seem stressed last time we saw her.” Althea crossed her arms. ”I can't even imagine having that much on my plate. I'd crumble.”

I grabbed the side of my head, ”Hmmm, this shit's complicated.”

”It's not too bad though.” Kessiah said. ”You can just post the video during the fight while the cameras are rolling. Thisbey might have the stream shut down before you can show the entire interview, but maybe not.”

I snapped my fingers, ”How didn't I think about that? That'll put Thisbey in a very, very shitty position. Hell, he might have dug his own grave with this one in fact.”

Torix opened his status, ”Well, the Harbinger, Lich, and Arbiter can't think of something that simple...Perhaps you should be running the media campaign instead of Tohtella.”

Kessiah stood up straighter, ”About damn time I point out something you guys missed.”

”Now, on to the next matter at hand,” Torix spread his arms. ”Perhaps we can ascertain the location of Emagrotha and Lehesion's battle site?”

”The only hint I've got is from Chrona.” I waved my hand, trying to remember. ”She mentioned that Lehesion drained his surroundings to gain enough mana to defeat Emagrotha. Millions of lifeforms dead, standard apocalypse stuff.”

Torix tsked, ”What an amazing revelation. Truly noteworthy.”

I narrowed my eyes while tapping the side of my head. A few moments later, an actual revelation popped into my head, ”Wait a minute. If Lehesion drained that much mana, then he must have created a ridiculous amount of mana pollution.”

Torix's fire eyes grew larger, ”Wait...that kind of cataclysmic event would leave an ocean of sludge behind.”

I pointed at the lich, ”And we know where an ocean of that gunky bullshit is.”

Kessiah pursed her lips, ”We do?”

Torix moved his hands across his status screen, ”In fact, it's quite close to where we warped on Giess. Remember how Daniel carried us over that purple ocean that had been walled off? That is by far the largest concentration of mana pollution we've seen on Giess.”

Althea raised her hands, ”So, hm...that means they fought somewhere there.”

”Precisely. In fact, they most likely fought at the bottom of the ocean there. The mana pollution came thereafter.” Torix said.

I gripped my hands into fists, ”Yes. We got a lead now.”

”I'll analyze our flight path and gather historical records of the wall's construction surrounding the indigo ocean. Using a bit of geometry, I should be able to get a rough estimate of the sea's center.” Torix said.

Althea raised her hand, ”I'll get the location of Thisbey.”

Kessiah glanced at Althea, ”What for?”

”To kill him,” Althea said with a frown.

”Oh...” Kessiah mouthed. ”That's going to raise your bounty. You sure that's worth it?”