Chapter 275: To Gaslight a Fallen

Next chappie: monday 16th!

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Priam's character Sheet (by the amazing guys on the discord!)

*

Priam blinked. The workshop was stifling, barely lit, and thick with the smell of sap and sweat, making it hard to breathe. Alain had dismissed the idea of digging an air vent, citing a potential security flaw. The underground bunker was designed to be a hidden workspace for secret projects, and even the smallest opening was a risk no one was willing to take.

“It reeks,” Jasmine grumbled, stepping out of a portal formed by the roots of Log-a-rhythm. It was the only way to access this place, carved directly into the bedrock by one of the tree's features.

“I’m trying to create an array to purify the air, but... it’s complicated,” admitted Rose, clapping her hands. A dozen lights flickered to life, revealing prototypes that could one day revolutionize Oasis.

Priam moved closer to one of the lamps, a wooden orb etched with rudimentary runic circles, hovering at eye level. It gave off a faint smell of burning.

“It’s a work in progress,” the teenager blushed.

“The design is interesting,” Priam complimented her.

He could do better, but the competition was rigged. His mental attributes were ten times higher than Rose’s, and if that wasn’t enough, his add-on had copied the runic formations of dozens of objects during his stroll through the tribal camp.

“Ambient aether absorption into a storage unit, then converted into light energy upon recognition of a specific sound frequency,” he analyzed. “Why not just keep the light on constantly? Ambient aether is abundant.”

“Constant drain creates energy currents in the room, which could mess with the more sensitive prototype rituals.”

“There’ll always be some interference.”

“We are working on an isolation system, but it’s taking time,” Alain said, grabbing a carved wooden block and some metal tools. “I have got everything I need; the rest has little value.”

“Try not to break everything!” Rose laughed as she made her way to the exit, her latest project in hand.

Priam waited until his father and the teenager left the workshop before sealing the entrance. In the dim light of the makeshift bunker, the three rivals stared at each other.

“It feels like you’re planning to trap a dragon,” Kazuki remarked, glancing around. Without Log-a-rhythm’s permission, no one could leave this place without tearing through twenty meters of bedrock. Priam’s Breath couldn’t affect that stone, so anything less than a Tier 4 would struggle to escape. “Is there going to be a problem with Sphinx?”

Priam shook his head. "I guess it's time for an explanation. Sphinx is being held captive by Bastard in the same cage as one of our rivals, Ève."

“Whose clone you're controlling with a sub-system.”

“Exactly. When I freed Sphinx last time, Ève escaped too. The problem is that her memory manipulation is a notch above her clone’s. She vanished without anyone noticing. Honestly, I didn’t even remember she existed until I rewound time. I was convinced the clone was the original and that she'd died detonating a nuke against the Fallen.”

“Ève probably ordered the clone to kill herself. The death severed your spiritual connection, erasing the last proof of her existence. Cruel but brilliant,” Kazuki admitted.

“A hidden enemy is dangerous as hell. What tipped you off?” Jasmine asked.

“After activating Back in Time, the System asked me what to keep from which timeline. When I saw that I’d lost memories despite my eidetic memory, I synchronized them.” Priam growled in frustration. Without his reward, he never would have suspected a thing. “The only difference was Eve’s existence. I figured she used Sphinx’s escape as cover to flee.”

“That bitch!” Jasmine spat.

“You want to trap her here with us to force her out,” Kazuki realized.

Ève hadn’t tried to harm him in the following battles, but that didn’t mean they were allies. After Seth and Arnold’s double betrayal, Priam wasn’t about to leave a third wildcard loose near his family. Back in Time was over, and he couldn’t afford any more mistakes.

“That could be dangerous,” Jasmine warned. “If she can mess with memories, she could make Kazuki turn on us.”

The hoplite conjured a spear of wood. “By fusing Spear Mastery II with [Spear Virtuoso], I can temporarily become one with my weapon. In that state, I’m pure instinct. She’ll have a hard time affecting me.”

Jasmine whistled in admiration, and Priam smiled. Kazuki may have failed his Tribulations, but he was still a force to be reckoned with. Opening a portal in the air, Priam retrieved Taishi’s legendary spear from Concepts Archipelago. He weighed it in his hand before tossing it to his friend. “This’ll do better than a wooden spear.”

“A gift?”

“From your future self.”

The hoplite ran his hands over the weapon before executing a few katas. “It’s even better than the one I was planning to buy. It feels like it was made for me.”

“It’s the spear you’ll earn: Taishi’s weapon, forged by the System for a ninth Tribulation.”

The hoplite champion’s eyes widened. His spear arm trembled, a sign that the news rattled him.

“... We need to talk.”

“Once Sphinx is safe,” Priam promised.

“Very well.”

Priam turned to Jasmine. “Think you can resist memory manipulation?”

“No,” the assassin answered honestly. “But our souls are linked by your system. She’d have to manipulate both of our memories at once to screw with us, and if I’m hidden deep in your shadow, she’ll have a tough time reaching me.”

“Then you’ll be my anchor. Let’s get started.”

*

Under orders from the one who held her life in his hands, the clone entered Sumstreh’s lair. She passed through a forest teeming with high-Tier rabhorns and arrived at the central clearing. There, Sumstreh’s skeleton waited next to a cage. A fae and a sphinx were trapped inside.

“I wasn’t expecting a report today,” the Fallen growled. “Still refusing to open your mind to me?”

“Hand the shield to your original and let me speak.”

“You’d better save them both,” the clone muttered. The assurance that Priam wouldn’t endanger Sphinx pushed the clone to obey him, but the Fallen’s gaze filled her with dread. She glanced at the cage and blinked three times with her left eye, signaling the original to deploy her Domain.

Ève’s sphere of authority briefly repelled Sumstreh’s, allowing her to synchronize her memory with the clone. Using [Memory Slot], a skill that transformed an item into a memory, the clone handed Priam’s mythic shield to Ève.

“Just in case,” Priam had said.

The spiritual equivalent of a lightning bolt briefly stunned the clone. Sumstreh had flexed their authority, shattering the fae’s Domain and punishing the offenders.

“Ah, Ève, I’d almost forgotten about you. Is this a mutiny?”

“Indeed, but not on Ève’s part,” the clone’s mouth said, now acting as the First’s proxy. “I, Priam Azura, Lord of Oasis, see the heir of Sumstreh Rbhn.”

*

The atmosphere froze, tension so thick you could cut it with a blade. Priam couldn’t help but feel schadenfreude blooming inside him at the sight of his enemy’s stunned expression. Revenge was within reach.

“How do you know that name?!”

The divine mark hidden in the clone’s soul activated. The Fallen was shocked but not so weak as to lose his composure for too long.

“A parasitic skill? No, more like a connection doubled with a killswitch. Clever,” the Fallen admitted as they probed the clone's soul space. “Too afraid to face me in person, Priam?”

A smirk tugged at Priam’s lips. He tapped into the sample of [There is no Heaven] he had embedded into the clone’s sub-system, using it to strike at the divine mark. It exploded, much to its creator’s surprise. As the clone dropped to her knees, her soul space wounded by the blast, Priam followed the connection back to Sumstreh’s soul. Recognizing the immense yet corrupted sphere, he targeted one of its most critical fissures and poked it.

The Fallen shuddered. The message was clear: this Tier 0 could fight back!

“I was making puzzles more beautiful than the patchwork you call a soul when I was four,” taunted the Champion.

“You dare?!”

The Divine Kingdom trembled under the weight of the Fallen’s wrath. Despite the distance, despite the Necromoon, the divine mark placed on Priam’s soul trembled.

“Damn right, I dare, and there’s not a thing you can do about it!” he roared, deploying [There is no Heaven] on his own soul.

With a surgeon’s precision, Priam attacked the web Sumstreh had spun into his soul. The tired remnants of the divine mark collapsed, releasing toxic energy that found no purchase on Priam’s proud soul. The second Merit of [Iconoclast] revealed its utility.

“You’re so predictable,” Priam chided, striking again through the connection and delivering a vicious blow to the Fallen’s soul.

The specter dropped to their knees, convulsing. When they rose several seconds later, pain radiated from their gaze. They stared at Priam, the tiger it had mistaken for a kitten.

“You are playing a dangerous game. [Iconoclast] is a taboo Title.”

“The Empress did advise me against acquiring a celestial soul,” Priam said, his tone casual. “But according to her, the other Merits won’t trigger a Pantheon’s kill order.”

To wrest Sphinx from Sumstreh’s clutches, Priam had a simple plan: gaslight the enemy. If he could scare the Fallen while hinting at strong backing, he was almost sure the Tier 4 would be cowardly enough to fold.

“... The Empress?”

“Ayank Iluva, Empress of Knaya. The one who condemned your original, remember?” Priam’s voice dripped with sarcasm.

The Divine Kingdom trembled again, a telltale sign of the Fallen’s shaken nerves.

“H–How?!”

Controlling the clone’s face, Priam adopted an amused expression.

“When your veil of lies is pierced, you’re rather pathetic. Unfortunately for you, I’ve got better things to do than answer your questions.”

“You, a Tier 0, dare speak to me this way?!”

Mimicking Priam, the clone raised an eyebrow. “I dare, and there’s nothing you can do about it.” Priam needed to reverse their roles in Sumstreh’s mind. After a beat of silence, he smiled. “I think you’re starting to get it. I could just summon the Empress’s clone, and your lifespan would be… significantly shortened. Her clone would slice through you and your Domain faster than I could kill a baby rabhorn.”

“The Empress wouldn’t kill me. I’m no longer the god who broke her law!” the Fallen shouted in desperation.

“Really? Then you won’t mind if I summon her clone, right?”

Sumstreh growled. “You want me to believe you can summon a clone of the Empress, a pseudo-Immortal, at will?”

Priam had been waiting for this question and took great pleasure in responding truthfully.  “Absolutely.”

Well, technically, Sphinx can.

The slight tremble in Sumstreh’s spectral form told Priam he had already won. The Fallen had ways to verify a claim, and as a Tier 4, they had enough confidence in their own abilities to believe Priam couldn’t trick them.

“... You made contact through the Sun Auctions, didn’t you?”

Ah, the beauty of an enemy digging their own grave.

“Does it matter? All you need to know is that your fate is in my hands.” Priam let his words hang for a moment before continuing. “Enough stalling. I want Sphinx, Ève, one of the three fulcrum fragments you have left, the Tier 3 aetheric core hidden beneath the pond, your enchanted comb, and half of your core reserves.”

The specter’s face fell with each item Priam listed.

“...”

Priam could practically hear the gears grinding in the Fallen’s mind as they processed it all. What else did the Champion know? It was an unanswerable question, one that would keep Sumstreh up at night for a long time.

The answer was simple: Jasmine had scoured the ruins of the Divine Kingdom and pieced together an inventory of whatever hadn’t been obliterated in the fight. A lot of it was beyond identification, but that didn’t matter. Priam’s list was meant to rattle Sumstreh, to make them think he knew many of their secrets and second-guess any thoughts of deception.

“That’s too much,” Sumstreh finally replied after a few moments of tense silence.

“You’re underestimating the value of your life,” Priam shot back with a grin.

The specter stiffened, like a cornered animal ready to lash out. Priam kept smiling, confident in his psychological profile of the Fallen. Sumstreh was a shadow of a god willing to fracture their soul to survive. If there was an escape route, they would take it—that was their nature. Now, ask me where the way out is.

“... What guarantee do I have that you won’t inform the Empire of my survival?”

Lvl Up: [Intimidation] lvl 11
CHAR +3

Checkmate!

Priam nearly burst out laughing. The Fallen needed an excuse to give in, and the Champion was more than happy to oblige.

“I’m willing to swear on my Potential that I won’t reveal your existence to anyone for the next five months. During that time, I won’t actively seek to harm you. I’ll add that I’ve yet to reveal anything about you to anyone outside of Oasis, and they’ll make the same vow. Of course, you’ll swear the same oath.”

“You could betray it.”

“Not without losing all of my Potential. For someone like me, a collector of ideal skills, that’s unthinkable.”

The Fallen let the silence stretch, likely torn between pride and cowardice. Priam sighed; he couldn’t wait for his enemy to find a loophole in their conversation. Strike while the iron’s hot.

“I’m sure you’ve got nothing but time on your hands, but I don’t. I need an answer.”

The Fallen growled. “Why not just kill me and loot my corpse? I find it hard to believe you would give me a chance to take revenge.”

“That’s the dumbest question I’ve heard today,” Priam scoffed, intentionally aggravating his foe to cloud their thoughts. “The answer’s simple: summoning the Empress’s clone comes with a cost. I’m willing to pay it for Sphinx, but if I can avoid it, why not? Besides, you’re more useful to me alive than dead.”

Seeing the bewildered expression on Sumstreh’s face, Priam summoned a smile to the clone’s lips.

“I know you’ll want to find a new hiding spot; it’s in your nature. Good news: I know the location of a hearthstone. With it, you’ll be almost impossible to catch.”

Arnold, I hope you’ll enjoy my little gift.

Every strength in Priam had a matching flaw. His love for his friends was only rivaled by his grudge against his enemies.

“We have a deal,” sighed the Fallen, defeated.

Lvl Up: [Intimidation] lvl 12
CHAR +3

*

Status:

PHYSICAL:
Strength 782
Constitution 1 179
Agility 930
Vitality 1 130
Perception 823

MENTAL:
Vivacity (D) 599
Dexterity 684
Memory 859
Willpower 1 168
Charisma 767 (+11)

META:
Meta-affinity 923
Meta-focus 444
Meta-endurance 804
Meta-perception 443
Meta-chance 379
Meta-authority 258

Potential: 12 295 (+4)
Tier 0

Sun point: 726 (+48)

[He Who Eludes Death] charge: PRIMED

Concepts:

• Breath (T0): 100% / Dormant

• Fire (T0): 100% / Unity

• Pyro (T1): 95% / Symphony

• Mist (T1): 100% / Symphony

Bloodlines:

• Phoenix: 1%

• Dragon: <1%

Rewards standing: 

• Fusion Token - Epic skill

• Evolution Token - Legendary skill

• Affinity Token - Tier 1 (30%)

• Alien Concept fragment (7th Terror)

• Bloodline Purification (+1%)

• Talent Token - Seraph Rarity (Upgrade)

[Tribulation]: Five Tribulations pending.
Future Tribulations delayed until:
Time: 152 days 3 hours 28 minutes 49 seconds.

Next thresholds: 12 attributes > 600 / 6 attributes > 900 / 1 attribute > 1 200