The Power of Ten

Chapter 16-415: Proper Formations

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, shell 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.

Shes 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 doesnt explain why you dont 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 itll 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 dont 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. Youre right. You realize she doesnt 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 Rats 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 dont 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.

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 dont 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 Endures 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, shes going to leave a much stronger, prepared world behind her when she goes.

Maybe shes 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 cant stop her. Youve 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, its plain the souls in the Shroud who are dragging her along by the nose are not stupid, and they are ruthless.

Theyre going to be moving her to another living world trapped under the Shroud, currently being invaded. Theyd be utterly stupid not to.

Shes going to save that world, get stronger, and get sent to the next, hopefully with more allies.

World to world, shes going to go, and shes going to grow, until shes 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.

Shell snuff those anchor worlds, and if shes 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... thats 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 wasnt 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 Voids 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 arent killing others to Burn their Weapons?...

Briggs grunted. You werent told this? You guys need to chat more. A Named Weapon wont cough up any higher Burn value than its QL limit, which is generally a tithe of its Named Investiture.

You Name a Weapon, its 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, youd get maybe 4k for an adamantine Weapon? Now, thats 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. Ill 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...