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The Gamer Chapter 1698 – Linking Up and Marching Forwards
🕑 Added 2024-06-13 11:19:24 +0000 UTC
John had to hold back his laughter.
Momo stood in the doorway of the living room. Her gaze kept darting back and forth between Nahua and the Gamer. For once, this wasn’t because John was inappropriately close to a woman he had met very recently. In fact, he and Nahua sat quite far apart. The axolotl demigoddess even had clothes on. It had taken a moment to get something tailored that fulfilled her cultural desires.
No, Momo’s struggle was a different one. The twin urges of berating and cuddling John were fighting her intense need to riddle Nahua with every question she had conceived on the way. To John’s surprise, she picked the former.
Momo dashed across the room, where John sat in an armchair so broad it could be classified as a couch (or a harem chair, as he liked to call them). He shared it with Metra and Ehtra, who had plopped in his lap the moment they had gotten back. Well, Metra had. Ehtra had needed just a little bit of convincing.
“You stupid!” Momo declared, just as her ass landed on John’s groin with all of the weight and softness of a fat-bottomed fairy.
“Stupid what?” John asked.
“Just stupid!” Momo harrumphed, crossed her arms, and dropped using his chest as her backrest. John would have cuddled her immediately, had his arms not been around the two Metracanas by his side. Instead, he put his chin on her slender shoulder. The poncho that usually covered it was already removed and the rest of her clothing was gradually following. “Hmph!” Momo harrumphed again and demonstrably looked the other way.
“Are you just being extra bratty to get a rise out of me?” John wondered.
“She totally is,” Metra stated.
“No, I am not!”
“She is lying,” Ehtra drawled drily.
“Oy! I won’t be corrected by Lady ‘No, I totally did not want my tits this big’!”
“I am Lady Vengeance!”
“That’s not a retort.”
“Neither is what you said.”
“Ladies.” John put a bit of authority in his voice – the actual kind, not the erotic variety. The bickering stopped and Momo dropped the act of being completely bratty. She didn’t immediately turn towards lovestruck though. She was just herself instead. “Surprised you didn’t go riddle Nahua with questions.”
“I will later.”
“Oh joy!” Nahua put her hands together. “I would ask we do it over sweet tea and sugary goods, if I could still eat.”
“Have you tried Aierium yet?” Momo asked. “It’s pretty good.”
“Statement: her taste is bad and expensive. The best tasting metal is slightly enchanted iron,” Beatrice stated.
“Can you ever not be you?” the sassy maid wanted to know. “I mean, it must get really exhausting to be this annoying.”
“Retort.” Beatrice reached into her inventory and held up a medium-sized mirror.
Momo looked angry for a few moments, then she sighed and laughed and shook her head. “It is good to be home,” she said with a little smirk. “Seriously though, the questions aren’t that important now that we have a living primary source….”
“Do I detect disappointment?”
“It’s kind of like getting a walkthrough in the middle of a new Fromsoft game. I was enjoying the exploration and unearthing.” Momo rolled her neck. “Important now is only that we get this mess untangled.”
John just nodded and moved the conversation to the mental level, where Nahua could not listen unless he invited her. ‘I am 75% certain that Huitzilopochtli is at the root of all of this in some form.’
‘That theory has holes,’ Momo pointed out.
‘I know. The Giant’s Puss doesn’t line up with the powers of a god of sacrifice. Even if it does come from him anyhow, how did it kill all of the other gods? It’s potent, yes, but potent enough to destroy an entire pantheon?’
‘There is still Delicia’s theory that it’s just a vanguard disease.’
‘Even then, how did all the gods get infected? Was Huitzilopochtli really the cause of everything or just a benefactor? Is there someone else pulling the strings? Why hide for 500 years? Where did the giant come from? According to legend, it was the source of the disease.’ John paused. ‘We know something is wrong but not what and I hate it.’
‘We’ll get our answers once Nahua lets us meet the guy.’
“I assume you’re talking disparagingly about me and mine?” Nahua asked while inspecting her fingernails. “I can sense that I am being kept out, if nothing else.”
“You’re learning,” John complimented her. “What we discussed will remain secret, however.”
Nahua smiled and inspected her clothing. The noble clothes she had asked for consisted primarily of a loincloth and a tilma, a kind of cloak that was open at the front. A tight band around her chest hid her breasts as well, a surrender to modern day sensibilities. All of it was covered in gold thread and coloured with bright dyes. “The quality of this clothing continues to buy you my good will.”
“Good to hear,” John answered. “Not enough to skip burning out these ants, I assume?”
“No. You have killed plenty of the Mummy Lords and thus recompense is needed.”
“They attacked us first,” Aclysia stated plainly.
“Oh, yes, you’re so right, how could I forget that you invaded our sacred temples and then people tried to throw you out!” Nahua’s sarcasm was only elevated by the sweetness of her tone. “I’m so, soooo sorry, I’m just such a ditzy bimbo.”
“We gotta teach her English,” Rave complained.
“How about you learn Nahuatl?” he asked the feline Lightbearer.
“I’m kinda smart these days, but I’d rather not?”
“You up for learning our language?” John asked Nahua a moment later. “It should be relatively easy thanks to the mental connection.”
Nahua shrugged. “Might as well do something to break the monotony.”
At that moment, John received a message from Lorelei. Much of it was a lengthy description of the Grim Reaper’s reaction to the revelation that his prize had been snatched away. At the end was a request. It was simple in wording, but perhaps difficult in execution. “Nahua, would you be willing to share the location of the Stinking Corpse?”
The smile dropped and was replaced with an expression of pure disdain, then with contemplative neutrality. “If the Purple is ravaging the magical layers once more, then the seal on the corpse is likely broken,” she thought out loud, her voice cool and calculating. “Do you seek to delay our bargain to find the bottom of the Thirteen Hells?”
“No, this is a request by the Grim Reaper,” John answered.
“The great teacher?” Nahua asked with no small amount of veneration. “He is here?”
“He was looking for you, to find himself a rider of Plague… essentially, he wanted to do what I did with you, but as an undead instead of a golem,” John confessed and scratched the back of his head. “Something that I did not consider in the middle of it all. I just wanted to solve the problem.”
“I see… Well, I would have liked to know about the options. No use dwelling above the rotting pit, however.” The demigoddess closed her eyes, then nodded to herself. “I have not been to the Stinking Corpse myself. My father insisted that the seal was best left untouched, as it was all that stood between us and the outbreak of an even more virulent strain of the Giant’s Puss. The great teacher, however, should be able to interact with it without issue. Do you have one of your interactive maps?”
John nodded and brought Nahua one of the tablets. She took the electronic device with no small amount of veneration. To her, these things were more magical than magic. She scrolled around for a little while, then furrowed her eyebrows.
“Is this an earthly map?”
“It is of the mundane, yes,” John told her.
“It will have to suffice. South of this tiny archipelago, there should be a large Illusion Barrier and in it an artificial island. There the corpse of the giant has been stored.”
“I’ll relay the intel,” John promised.
“Your people regard the Grim Reaper with such respect?” Momo asked.
“The great teacher gave our god the means to preserve the deserving past the time of their death,” Nahua answered, gradually returning to her upbeat tone. “That’s, like, totally generous and nice of him. Really mean of you that you would deny him what we owe him.”
“We aren’t the ones that denied him, your father is,” John stated.
Immediately that smile was wiped away again. “You suggest that my father is a breaker of his word?” The hissing of her words was underlined by the hissing of purple fog that formed from the dissolving mucus on her skin. All over the room, the protective elements of the harem tensed up.
Before anyone could act, Nahua’s eyes widened. John’s memories flooded into her with all of the force of open sincerity. The encounter between Claire and Famine and, more importantly, the encounter between Aclysia, Tezcatlipoca and Glory were shared in full detail with the demigoddess. The miasma in the air was pulled into her stomach through clenched teeth.
“What is this?” she muttered. “What trickery do you impose?”
“You already know that my mind is open to you to check,” John said.
Nahua just growled, baring her sharp, purple stained teeth at him. “The lord of darkness is acting on his own.”
“Then why does he gain power from the magic of Huitzilopochtli? Why do the ants?”
The Gamer felt a heavy decision being made behind the barrier of Nahua’s mind. At first he thought that it was because she was accepting the possibility that her father did have something to do with the ongoings. The truth of the matter was even more complicated. “I understand you are of one soul, yes?” Nahua asked the room. “If I swear you to secrecy, then none of what I say to you will be spoken to anyone outside this room?”
Universal nods all around. “No treachery will be allowed,” Ehtra assured.
“My father’s powers are… great and terrible,” Nahua spoke slowly. “Every sacrifice to him empowers his might but… he must return on the investment, if only a minimum.”
“He has no choice in the matter?” the Gamer asked, grasping at the implication of these statements.
“His choice is the spectrum between power granted in a time of need and total support of the forces of the Aztecs,” Nahua answered. “Even if he does not wish to grant someone any boon, power will be granted when it must be. You understand why this secret is best kept to the Aztecs themselves?”
John nodded and realigned his expectations for the future with this new bit of knowledge. This titbit drastically reduced the chance that Huitzilopochtli actually was behind everything, courtesy of it no longer being guaranteed that he was in support of everyone who John had seen empowered so far. ‘But that first Mummy Lord still only attacked us after he was empowered,’ the Gamer considered. ‘Was that the mummy itself calling upon the power because it saw us as such a threat or was that deliberate manipulation? Is this the truth or is Nahua being deceived?’
In the end, John still knew nothing. What he had to realign were his expectations. His plan of action remained the same.
The next three days were largely eventless. Nahua picked up English rapidly, while their plane rolled on through the forest. Gnome paved over the forest in front of them. Occasionally they stepped out to scout the immediate surroundings, but for the most part they stuck together. Since they were no longer looking for ruins and had a guide, they had no need to scatter out. The only delaying factor was how fast the plane could move.
During the journey, John also picked up the next Silver Arcanist Perk.
The choice here was obvious. The Rat Cage was an interesting spell, one that John knew came from the Horned Rat himself, but really not that interesting an addition to his own arsenal. Argent Lance was just underwhelming all around. He never got to play at that level of distance. The Babylon Companion gave him a means of applying mana free crowd control and it made the pulse from the Mandala Sphere more potent as well. All around just useful.
Nahua sat by one of the windows. A melancholic expression dominated her face, while she watched the trees drift by. While John considered approaching her, Rave just did it. “Reminiscing about the past?” she asked.
“I remember that cliff,” Nahua stated and pointed to a jutting elevation that stuck out of the otherwise fairly flat jungle. “There was a little tribe there, no more than a hundred people, ten of them mana-touched. They were primitive people, preferring nakedness and incapable of even dying their clothes in shape and patterns. I found them amusing. They offered me a patty made from crushed ants.”
“Sounds… tasty?” Rave suggested.
“It was and wasn’t. I do enjoy eating unusual things.” Nahua turned away from the window, to pick one of the various shreds of metal in the bowl before her and munch on it like others would on a pretzel stick. A flowery smile bloomed on her face. “Sweet!” she exclaimed and continued in an overly cheery tone. “I am trying to figure out where I am now, you know? Because the place I grew up in is gone, even if the physical location still exists.”
“Yeah, we got a few of those here,” Rave said. “Metra, Ehtra, Eliana to a degree, you have yet to meet her, Claire is from a whole different world… if ya ever want to talk about it, we’re all ears.”
“Before I talk about anything, I want to know how much remains. My father is still out there and he hid himself for a long time. Many of my people may yet remain, you know?” Nahua shrugged. “Also, you should stop the plane. We’re there now.”
John gave the mental order to Aclysia, even if he had no idea where ‘there’ was. “Lee, did you notice us melding with any barrier?” he asked.
“Not yet,” the gamer girl answered.
“The Serpent’s Graveyard is nothing as dull as a simple barrier.” Nahua answered and stood up. “Let’s go and I will show you!”
John nodded. “Metra, Ehtra, you two stay here. I expect that area attacks will be more useful for this.”
“Roger that,” Metra answered.
“As you want, Master.”
“Hope you’ll keep yourself busy,” the Gamer added towards the crafting crew. Hailey, Delicia, Scarlett and Lee all had little to do at this current time, but little was still something.
“Nooo, we will just be totally uselessly sitting around while you’re out,” the shortstack alchemist drawled.
“Have fun,” Scarlett just said, while chewing on a piece of dried meat.
“Try findin’ me somethin’ interestin’, hon,” Hailey added.
“What interesting things could he find in an ant hive?” Lee asked.
“Ain’t exactly a regular ol’ ant hive.”
John left them to their bantering and followed Nahua out of the plane. He only stopped because Velka was waiting expectantly for him by the door. “You’ll get to sniff around after we clear the place out,” he told the Magryph. For once, there was no complaining warble.
This was no mission even for powerful bird cats.
Comments
gordianTangle
Or that some deal is struck where she ends up a Rider but keeps the connection with John. Or even both. That's a powerful bit of networking, even if it is a split allegiance. It wouldn't be the first.
Jan
I love Nahua, hope she makes it into the harem.
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