Chapter 375

Sonya decided that morning that there was nothing quite like waking up next to someone that she actually wanted to wake up next to more than once. A little self-dig at herself, perhaps, but as she reclined against the pillow in her bedroom and watched the steady rise-and-fall of Carla’s shoulders, she couldn’t help but think it. Little selfish thoughts drifted through her mind as she sat there, one leg pulled up to her chest while she fiddled with her phone in her hand. Things were progressing as smoothly as they could, though yet another media group had somehow managed to get to Otis to interview him again. Her lips pressed together as she pulled up the interview, eyes narrowing at the screen.

Otis was standing there outside of some university in Indiana, his arms crossed behind his back and a look of mild contrition on his face as the interviewer brushed her hair back and tried not to stare too hard at his face. Her nose wrinkled in disgust and she connected to the audio mentally, conscious of her sleeping partner.

<”...and how long have you been doing this?”> The interviewer asked, her microphone held up to Otis’ face. 

He gave an easygoing smile, showing just the right amount of those disturbingly white teeth. <”Long enough to draw a little attention it seems like.”> he said with a small chuckle.

The interviewer laughed. <”And where’s your next stop?”> she asked. <”Sounds like you aren’t done.”>

He tilted his head and shrugged. <”I’m sorry but I can’t share that information for security reasons, as much as I’d like to.”> He glanced at the camera. <”I can confirm that I have been assigned all of the North American minor dungeons.”>

The interviewer hesitated for a moment, glancing at the camera and then looking back at him. <”Did you say all of them?”> she repeated, her tone the picture of stunned surprise. Sonya’s lip twitched and she closed the video, shaking her head. She leaned back and flicked to social media to see if he was trending. It didn’t take long for the hashtags to show up but so far it was staying on the low side. 

Her lips twitched. Renown, huh? She thought as she stretched out her leg and crossed her ankles. She leaned back and was about to set her phone down when the chime for a call went off in her head. She huffed and checked the caller id. Anonymous. Her lip twitched, and she answered it as Technopathy flickered through the connection like a whipcrack. <”Prichard, I certainly hope you have some good news for me.”>

There was a moment of silence on the other end before the Vegas-based entrepreneur answered with a sigh. <”Can’t even be subtle, can I?”> he asked with a weary chuckle.

<”Oh, do keep being subtle, darling, just know I’ll see right through it.”> she teased him. <”Now! What do you have for me?”>

<”Some good news, some bad.”> he admitted, his voice sounding a little strained with frustration. <”I’ve had some intermediaries ask questions at that agency you mentioned and a few others that looked like they were winding up for visiting low-level dungeons ahead of tonight’s news broadcast,”> he said. <”The first one’s director doesn’t even remember being informed about the lead. He passed it off as a gut instinct.”>

Sonya’s lips twitched. Now there’s the Otis I remember, she thought with a small grind of her teeth. She tilted her head and let her hair fall a little as she exhaled. <”And the others?”>

<”It’s creepy, ma’am. My people pressed them, and it was like dealing with someone who’d just found religion,”> he said with a slight twist of disgust in his voice. <”Saying things about how it’s only natural that a hero working so hard for the common man should be given the attention he deserves.”>

Sonya scoffed. But low-tier dungeons are basically trash duty, That was the point of this whole exercise. What he’s doing isn’t impressive, it’s just tedious. She clenched the fabric of the sheet over her knees with whitening knuckles and narrowed her eyes, her jaw tightening. <”No word on who they dealt with?”>

<”Eh, they wore a mask, called themselves ‘the Prophet’, wore loose clothing to hide gender identifiers, everything,”> he said with a grunt of irritation. <”At least the ‘prophet’ part is meaningful, though. Your ‘nemesis’ is looking to start a religion it sounds like.”>

Her expression went flat, and her throat tightened a little before she spoke into the technopathic connection to her phone. <”A page out of Liberty’s book…”> She shut her eyes and let out an exaggerated sigh before popping her neck and grinning a little. <”...Okay, then. Are the actual reporters in on all this?”>

<”Not from the looks of it,”> Prichard said. <”Their higher ups just tell them where to go and how they want it spun. It’s all local stations too so- oh…”>

She chuckled. <”I’ll have one of Charon’s zombies come to you. Pay the ones without any integrity to spin it towards him grandstanding on trash duty,”> she began, <”Then coordinate with the Night Society to set up a few talk shows discussing the program he’s participating in as a novel punishment for heroes that cross the line. Don’t mention his name.”>

He laughed over the other line. <”Got it. I’m on it. Later, boss.”>

She leaned back as the call ended and crossed her legs, brushing her hair back and looking out towards the door of her bedroom. Her lips curled up impishly. I know you’re after Renown, Otis. If you think I’m just going to make it easy for you, you’re dead wrong. She glanced over to Carla sleeping soundly next to her and reached out to brush a strand of hair from her face. I have even more reason to beat you and get away with it. You’re only carving your own gravestone.

—

Lillian leaned against the wall across from the latest portal and frowned, her orange eyes narrowing into slits. She tapped her fingers restlessly on the plating of her armor, the staccato tap of her armored gauntlets against her biceps sounding like a ticking clock in the enclosed space. Her jaw tightened, and she shot a look towards Evergreen, who was lounging on an armchair made of snow, her chin resting against her knuckles while she played with her phone. The Guildmaster’s eyes fluttered open and flicked in her direction. “Restless?” she asked.

Lillian shook her head. “Just wondering where all the press is coming from.”

“One press release got out, more will come; that’s how media works, Crusader,” Evergreen said with a yawn and leaned back in her seat. She narrowed her eyes at the portal and hummed once thoughtfully. “Though I admit I fail to see what’s so exciting about a punitive task when there are Heroic dungeons starting to pop up.” She turned her head and flipped her hair. “That new sword of yours came from the one that popped near India, right? I thought it looked familiar.”

Lillian’s hand dropped to her hip where the sword was sealed away in its own strange little space. Her eyebrows rose. “You were there with Teacher?” she asked.

Evergreen laughed. “Of course I was! Going into a Heroic dungeon alone is suicide! Even for a monster like Black Lotus.” She shrugged her shoulders and looked distant for a moment. “It wasn’t like anything you could imagine. It was a palace floating in the clouds, we started at the bottom and worked our way up. There were entire segments on the outside where we had to fight across platforms over a drop into nothing…” she trailed off, her eyes going cold. “The monsters did not make it easy.”

Lillian swallowed, pressing her back harder against the wall as she crossed her arms, her grip tightening a bit as she tried to imagine. The training dungeon had been a forest with some ruins, not some enormous fortress floating in the clouds with deathtraps and, from the sounds of it, monsters that were intended to pull you into those deathtraps. She exhaled a tuft of gold flame from her lips and closed her eyes. “I wonder if my team is ready to take one on; they got to use those tokens from Miss Sonya,” she said. “They should be practicing right now.”

“Or taking a well deserved break,” Evergreen said. “Shanghai wasn’t long ago, Lillian.” She put an emphasis on her name. Lillian glanced up at her, met her eyes, and cleared her throat, looking away. “I’m sure you have your reasons for joining in on this little task, hero, but even you deserve a break now and then.” 

I’ll take a break when Marc Mallory is held accountable, Lillian thought bitterly, her eyes flicking towards the door to the exterior of the portal containment room. “Where is he?” she asked, changing the subject.

Evergreen frowned but didn’t push more. “Probably playing with the reporters. They only arrived a few minutes ago and standing orders aren’t to interfere with the press if they show up. The Committee doesn’t suppress freedom of speech.”

Lillian scoffed and looked towards the portal, shaking her head. “It’s suspicious.”

Evergreen hummed and looked to the portal as well. “I agree,” she said, “The boy’s getting far too much attention for a glorified city-level lurker slayer.” She waved a hand dismissively. “Ishtar’s strange fixation with him notwithstanding.”

“Why is Ishtar obsessed with him, you think?” Lillian asked after a breath. “They fought like animals during the Liberty war and she made a point of calling him out.”

“Jilted lover?” Evergreen offered helplessly. “I don’t know. I was there for Otis’ debrief at headquarters following the battle - we had Verity there and everything. He doesn’t know who she is, but he definitely hates her. He did say that he had an encounter with her after Vegas, which started his own interest.”

Lillian whipped her head towards Evergreen. “After Vegas? He was there? Before the camps?”

Evergreen nodded. “Apparently, yes. According to him, that’s part of why he even signed up for the camps. To get his license and hunt Ishtar down. It’s all very dramatic backstory nonsense in my opinion, and he was vague in a lot of areas.”

“Vegas…” Lillian trailed off, her own thoughts drifting towards the very idol who had inspired her to become a hero. Firestorm’s example at Vegas had spurned her on. Now, apparently Otis had taken something similar from Vegas, in a different way of course, but the commonality wasn’t lost on her. She set her jaw and opened her mouth to speak when the doors opened and Otis strode inside, perfectly coiffed hair and dazzling face as always. She set her expression back into flat neutrality. “Done playing showstopper?”

Otis hummed, his smile warm in a way that made her stomach curdle. “If the people want something to give them hope, who am I to deny them that?”

Evergreen laughed. “So you’re a symbol now?”

Otis shrugged and walked towards the portal. “I’m whatever they need me to be,” he said casually, his hands slipping into his pockets. “Though they did seem a little more pushy today. We got back on track, though.”

Lillian narrowed her eyes and stared at the back of his head as he examined the portal. The nerves from the first few solo runs were gone, she could tell. Whatever he’d been worried about was nothing but a forgotten memory. She tilted her head. “Well? Get this one over with. We still have plenty of old dungeons to get through,” she said with a huff, her eyes flicking towards the portal instead of his irritating mug. “I’ll get the observation drone going.” She pushed off the wall and walked towards a suitcase sitting near the wall.

“It won’t take that long,” Otis said dismissively. “Don’t bother.”

She was halfway through kneeling next to the large metal suitcase when she looked up at him. “That’s not how this works, Otis,” she said sharply. “You can’t just- HEY!”

He was already walking through. She shot to her feet and even Evergreen was rising from her seat when the portal swallowed him with a flicker and a crackle of mana. Lillian clicked her tongue and turned back to the case, yanking it open.

“I’ll take care of it. Poke your head in and keep an eye on him,” Evergreen said quickly. “Your senses are better than mine.”

Lillian looked up at her for a moment before glancing towards the portal and nodding. She shot to her feet and marched, letting out a sharp whistle. Alphonse’s cry filled the small room, and he fluttered down from a high perch, landing on her shoulder as she stepped through. The static-like sensation of passing from the real world into a dungeon space washed over her and she alighted onto a platform made of some sort of obsidian glass. She whipped her head around. “Otis! I told you to wait!” she shouted.

The space was huge, a vast open emptiness that gave her an immediate sense of vertigo-by-scale. She was standing on a massive disk-shaped platform that hovered in that void, a path made out of that same material stretched out in front of her, leading towards another platform where small shapes lingered. Her eyes narrowed, and she turned in a full circle, stepping around behind where the portal stood and saw him. He was standing with one arm behind his back and the other tapping at the air lazily with a smile on his face.

“Otis, what are you doing?” she demanded.

“Getting ready for my run,” he said casually. “It takes me a moment to warm up.”

She flicked her eyes towards where his hands were moving, What is he doing? I’ve never seen him do that before, she thought as a gold sword appeared in his hand. Is that how he calls out his sword? She frowned. “You could have prepared outside while the drone was readied.”

The air shifted as he tilted his chin up and met her gaze. “But then you wouldn’t have followed me in,” he said and a strange tingle passed over her - no, through the entire dungeon. Her breath caught and something metal hit the ground behind her. She whirled and saw the drone that had just floated through the portal clattering on the ground, its connection from the real world cut off. She stepped quickly over to the portal and pressed her hand against it, her fingers jerking back as a sharp snap crackled against them.

She rounded on him, drawing her sword and pointing at him. “What did you do?”

He cracked a grin and shrugged, all pretense of ‘goodness’ fading away into a look of bland malice. “Oh no,” he said dryly. “It seems we’ve found ourselves in a glitched dungeon,” his eyes flashed as they looked directly at her sword. “I do hope nothing unfortunate happens to us while we’re trapped in here.”