A Piece in the Game of Gods part 28

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I was dead. At least, that was my first thought, though I soon realized that I would have better off if I had been dead.

I woke up to find myself stretched out on a table with my hands cuffed above my head, while my feet were similarly cuffed on the other end. Then for that extra sadistic touch, someone had also used barbed wire to help tie me down too.

My entire body ached, and not just where the barbed wire was digging into my skin. These assholes hadn’t been very gentle about kidnapping me, and I felt like they’d taken the opportunity to rough me up a little more while I’d been unconscious.

“Since we’re not going to just kill her,” Robe asked from a short distance away. “What are we going to do with her?”

At the moment, Robe’s hood had been pulled back so I got my first clear view of his face. He was a skinny guy with dark hair and a goatee. Without the hood, he came off a bit more as creepy than scary.

March was still wearing his armor, though he’d taken off his helmet, so I got my first look at his face as well. He was clean shaven, with short dark hair and well-tanned skin. Most women probably would have described him as having rugged good-looks, though I didn’t care about that.

“We can have some fun with her,” Nadine suggested with a sadistic grin. “Hell, I can use her to keep myself buffed…”

“You’re a psycho,” Harker said, though she almost sounded bored.

“Kr’aethar told me that Sievers is the key to beating Maelyne,” March explained. “If we have Maelyne’s champion, we can use that to get to her…”

“Yeah,” Nadine agreed with a look of impatience. “Pfath told me the same thing, but he didn’t explain how.”

Harker gave a wry look. “Br’ieze hasn’t told me anything, other than that I have to help you idiots, so that she can come to Earth and get worshippers.”

“That’s what all of our patrons want,” March said. “Among other things.”

“We have a couple options,” March said, looking at me. I closed my eyes and pretended that I was still unconscious. “If we kill her right before the next contest, her patron won’t have time to bring her back to compete…”

“Good idea,” Nadine agreed. “If we’re gonna kill her again, we might as well time it right…”

Robe gave a short laugh. “Well, it’s a good thing Arakthiel just sent me a message, telling me what we needed to do. I mean, killing the bitch would work for one contest, but like you said, if Maelyne is able to bring her back afterwards, we’ll just have to come after her again…”

“And what did Arakthiel tell you?” March asked.

“If we kill the bitch again,” Robe explained in a smug tone, “she MIGHT come back. The only way to make absolutely sure that she isn’t a problem, is to make is to make it so she isn’t Maelyne’s champion anymore…”

“And how do we do that?” Harker asked, now looking more curious than anything.

“Arakthiel says she has to renounce Maelyne,” Robe answered. “If she completely renounces her patron, then the game won’t recognize her as Maelyne’s champion anymore. And if she swears to serve one of our patrons instead…”

“She can become another champion of Kr’aethar,” March said, looking as though he wasn’t sure to be happy about that or not.

“Of course not,” Robe responded. “But that would get our patrons some major points in the game.”

“Yes, I imagine that would,” March said.

I felt chills run down my spine as I listened to them talk and plan. At least now I knew why they’d kept me alive, though I was starting to wish they hadn’t.

A minute later, Nadine abruptly announced, “Wakey wakey!” That was followed by a searing agony on my thigh and a scream from my throat.

“You BITCH,” I spat out at Nadine once I was able to talk.

“You killed me,” Nadine said, glaring at me with a sadistic gleam in her eyes. “You’re going to pay for that…”

I didn’t bother pointing out that she’d killed me first. Nadine didn’t need any excuses, because even if I’d never hurt her at all, she still would have been more than happy to make me scream in pain. Back when we’d been dating, Nadine hadn’t gone to this extreme, but she’d definitely enjoyed hurting others.

“Let’s start with a little…warm up,” Nadine suggested with a laugh, reaching out with a flaming hand and touching my other thigh.

“This is just sick,” Harker grumbled, definitely not looking happy about this, though she didn’t do anything to interfere.

“Maybe,” March responded. “But it is necessary. The other attempts to remove her from the game didn’t work, which leaves only this.”

Harker got a little defensive. “I mean, Sievers doesn’t seem like she’s worth all this trouble…”

“She isn’t,” Robe agreed. “But her patron is. You know that.”

Nadine didn’t seem to even be listening to her friends as she touched me again. I screamed, remembering the night I’d died, burned to death by this same psychotic bitch. The feelings of deja-vu and terror were overwhelming.

“This is too much for me,” Harker said. “I don’t want to watch this…”

“Nadine seems to be enjoying herself,” Robe commented. “I say we leave this to her for now…”

March, Harker, and Robe all left the room, leaving me behind with only Nadine with company. At that point, I would have preferred to have had any of them staying back instead, not that they asked my opinion.

Nadine burned me several more times, though she didn’t seem interested in interrogating me or in demanding I renounce Maelyne. In fact, I wasn’t sure she even remembered why she was doing this.

Finally, Nadine stopped and said, “I guess I can’t do much more at the moment, at least not without killing you…”

I was gasping for breath, trying to breath through the agony. I was barely aware of what was going on, only that every inch of my body hurt like hell. It was like the first time, only slower.

“I’ll give you a little time to heal up and regenerate,” Nadine said in a frighteningly cheerful tone. “It’s a good thing we champions heal so fast…”

After Nadine left, I remained where I was, both wanting to die so this would end, but also wanting revenge. I wanted to hurt that bitch as much as she’d hurt me. I wanted her to pay for everything she’d done.

Nadine had been right when she’d said that champions heal fast. My regeneration wasn’t nearly as high as a lot of the more physical champions, but I would heal a lot faster than any normal person. If I waited here long enough, I’d probably heal from everything that she’d done to my body. Fortunately, I had other options as well.

Once I’d recovered my wits, I used ‘lesser healing’ on myself. It didn’t do enough, but it did repair some of the damage, which reduced some of the pain. I healed myself a couple more times until I was almost entirely healed.

It was only at this point that my mind was clear enough again, for me to realize just how much worse Nadine could have hurt me. I was terrified of her coming back and continuing, but tried to distract myself by thinking about what little protection I had.

Maelyne’s blessing protects me from twenty percent of all damage. My armor, which was torn up and charred, but still on me, protected me from twenty percent of all magical damage. That meant, I’d only received sixty percent of the damage that Nadine was dishing out. That was a terrifying thought.

“These would have been great powers for a tank,” I muttered to myself. As it was, the forty percent that I’d been protected from could easily have been the difference between life or death, or for my being so out of it that I wouldn’t be able to heal myself. “At least now I have a chance…”

I tried getting my hands free, but it did no good. As much as I tried to get loose, all I ended up doing was hurting myself with the barbed wire.

March came back into the room a short time later, which meant that I couldn’t keep fighting against my cuffs. Instead, I remained as still as I could, pretending that I was unconscious from what Nadine had done to me. My armor was badly torn and charred, so he didn’t notice that beneath it, I was healed again.

By this point, I had absolutely no idea of what time it was, nor was I even sure of the day. I didn’t know how long I’d been unconscious when they brought me here, how long I’d been left on my own before Nadine began working on me, how long she’d tortured me, or even how long I’d been playing possum. Everything was just a big blur of confusion.

I hoped that March would leave the room soon so I could try getting out of the cuffs. Unfortunately, between him and Robe, I didn’t have another moment by myself until Nadine returned.

“Wow, it looks like you healed up nicely,” Nadine announced, sounding oddly pleased by that. “You must have slotted your regeneration like crazy…”

“It looks like you’ll have to start over,” Robe commented.

However, Nadine just smirked. “You mean I GET to start over.”

And with that, Nadine’s hand burst into flames again and she touched my leg, making me scream in pain. There was no way I could keep pretending to be asleep now, nor any purpose.

“Now, where were we?” Nadine asked, running a finger along my arm and leaving a train of burning skin behind. “Oh yes… You were going to renounce Maelyne and promise that you wouldn’t be her champion anymore…”

“Screw you,” I spat out.

Nadine slapped me, burning the side of my face in the process. I screamed again.

“You know, this is all Maelyne’s fault,” Nadine continued. “You wouldn’t be here if she hadn’t picked you and then given you such lame powers… I mean, it’s like she fucking sabotaged you from the very start… I bet she’s laughing her ass off at this…”

I no idea how long this session lasted, because time stopped having any meaning for me. Nadine alternated between punching and burning me while talking about how this was Maelyne’s fault, and how I could make it end just by renouncing her and my position as her champion.

Eventually, Nadine took a break, leaving me a burned, broken, and bloody mess. I’d been in too much pain to even think about healing myself, and once she left, I was still too out of it to remember that ability.

Awareness slowly came back to me, even with all the pain. I had popups. Two of them. I had absolutely no idea when they’d come in or how long they’d been there. It took me a long time before my mind even focused enough to realize what they said.

BY YOUR LOYALTY, YOU HAVE EARNED MAELYNE’S BLESSING: RANK 2.

I read this popup several times, feeling stunned and confused. Maelyne’s Blessing was a gift, and gifts didn’t rank up or level. I’d had a conversation about this same thing with Cassandra and Don while we’d been wandering the dungeon, and both of them had insisted that this was the case.

The second popup was more familiar.

THE NEXT OFFICIAL CONTEST BEGINS IN 24 HOURS. TRANSPORT WILL BE PROVIDED.

I still didn’t know how long ago that notification had come in, and I didn’t feel like looking at the timer. In fact, I was scared of looking at my stats and seeing just how low my health was. There was no doubt that it was low, and that I was barely holding on.

Since I had a period of clarity, or at least semi-clarity, I finally remembered my healing ability. I felt it rush through my body, though I barely noticed any difference. I used it a couple more times before I actually started to feel any relief, which told me just how badly I’d been hurt.

Once I was finally healed, I let out a sigh of relief and finally turned my attention to my screen. The timer said that I had less than three hours until the contest

“Crap,” I muttered, trying not to think about how much time I’d lost.

Since I doubted that Nadine and her allies were going to let me compete, I knew that my time was limited. It wouldn’t be long before she returned to give me one more chance to turn on Maelyune, made sure that I was too injured to actually compete, or just killed me when there wouldn’t be time for me to be rezzed for the contest.

I had a moment of terror and panic at the thought of her returning, along with desperation. I had to get out of there quickly, or I’d never get another chance.

I struggled against my cuffs and chains but didn’t have any more luck than I had earlier. After I realized that this was pointless, I looked at my screen, looking over all my assets and hoping that something would jump out at me. And then, I saw it.

MAELYNE’S BLESSING- RANK 2. 20% PROTECTION FROM ALL DAMAGE. ALL DAMAGE PREVENTED THIS WAY IS ADDED TO YOUR NEXT ATTACK. WHILE PROTECTING OTHERS, SHIELD STRENGTH AND SHIELD DURATION ARE INCREASED BY 50%

I let out a gasp of surprise, then read through the notes a second and third time. ‘All damage prevented this way is added to your next attack.’ That was new. It was a variation on the damage buff on my spear, but it was definitely a new addition to that gift.

“Too bad it doesn’t do me any good while I’m tied up,” I muttered in frustration, struggling against my chains again.

Then it suddenly dawned on me that this gift didn’t say anything about requiring my spear. I gasped as the implication hit me, and for the first time, I really felt hopeful about my chances.

Maelyne had just given me the keys to my freedom, though I had a feeling that she’d stretched the rules to do so, if she hadn’t straight-out broken them. I wasn’t sure what rules she and the other gods were supposed to follow for their game, but I did know that I had a way out of this, and I only had a small window of opportunity to use it.

Unfortunately, it was at that moment that Nadine returned to the room, and she wasn’t alone. Robe was with her.

“I figure we’ve got two hours to finish breaking her,” Nadine told the robed figure. “And if we can’t, we’ll just kill her before the competition starts. Either way, she won’t be a problem this time around.”

“Cold,” Robe said, though he nodded his approval.

My heart jumped up in fear as I clearly remembered what that bitch had done to me. I wasn’t going to give her the chance to do it again, so before either of them could get too close, I activated Maelyne’s shield. I might have done that a little sooner than I needed to, but I wasn’t taking any chances.

“What the fuck?” Nadine snarled in surprise and anger. “She’s healed again…”

Nadine blasted my shield with several fireballs while Robe threw a ball of purple energy against it. My mana began to drop under the pressure, but I couldn’t worry about that. It only had to hold out long enough for me to get free.

I struggled against my cuffs again, but this time, I didn’t try to slip out of them. This time, I focused on trying to hit them with my hands. Normally, this would be less than useless, but thanks to the damage buff that Maelyne had given me, there was a flash of light and the cuffs shattered. I laughed in delight, especially at the fact that Nadine herself had given me all the damage that I’d used to break loose.

“She’s getting loose,” Nadine exclaimed in frustration.

“Even if she gets out of those chains,” Robe calmly reminded her, “she isn’t going anywhere. Sievers is trapped in her own bubble…until she runs out of mana.”

Robe was right, so I desperately scrambled to undo my other bindings. I tore myself up a bit from the barbed wire, but with my hands free, I was able to work myself free from that. The only thing remaining were my ankles, which were cuffed about as well as my hands. And unfortunately, I’d already used up my stored damage.

“Not all of it,” I frantically reminded myself.

Even though I had no idea where my spear had gone, that wasn’t a problem. I simply willed it to go back into storage, then I summoned it again in my hands. Without hesitation, I stabbed at the shackles holding my ankles and they shattered and blew apart.

I climbed off the table, grimacing in pain as I did so. Though I’d healed most of my injuries, I’d hurt myself again in the process of breaking myself free. Apparently, blasting apart cuffs resulted in my hands and feet being bruised and torn up, and I couldn’t afford the mana to heal them just yet.

“Play through the pain,” I told myself bitterly, repeating a favorite line from one of my old coaches. “Walk it off.”

I dropped my shield to conserve what little mana I had left, though I still had to deal with Nadine and Robe if I wanted to escape. Acting more on desperation and instinct than anything else, I held my hand out and formed a shield wall, though I didn’t anchor it to anything at all. Instead, I focused in pushing it away from me as hard as I could, which soaked up every last bit of mana that I had. Still, my shield flew back, slammed into Robe, and continued going until it slammed the psycho into a wall.

Even though I felt a brief moment of triumph, I didn’t have time to enjoy it. Nadine was coming at me, but I was completely out of mana. So instead of throwing up a shield, I had to dive for cover behind the table. A ball of fire flew right over my head, just barely missing me. At that moment, I was grateful for my relatively high agility. Now, if only my reflexes had been a little higher.

“I’m gonna burn your ass to a cinder,” Nadine threatened. She was nearly foaming at the mouth, which would have made me smile if it wasn’t for the fact that I was out of defenses.

Suddenly, the hairs on the back of my neck stood out and a cold chill of dread ran down my spine. My eyes were drawn to Robe, almost on their own.

“Enough,” Robe said as he got back to his feet. His voice was strange and creepy, somehow echoing and sounding hollow at the same time. And then, I saw his eyes, which were glowing purple. “Mortals cannot be trusted with even a simple task...”

“Mason?” Nadine asked nervously. “Andy?”

“Aw, crap,” I gasped, feeling like I was about to piss myself.

Robe was radiating a feeling of overwhelming power, similar to what I felt from Maelyne, but much colder and hungrier. At that moment, I knew without a doubt, that this was no longer Robe. Somehow…I was facing his patron.

I’d always thought of myself as being a pretty brave guy…person. Hell, my first reaction to most threats was to charge right in with fists swinging. However, this time was different. This time, I KNEW that there was nothing I could do against the being who wore Robe’s body.

“Crap,” I groaned in terror, shaking as I did so. “I’m screwed…”

There was no doubt that Robe’s patron was going to come after me, so I did the only thing I could think of. I threw my spear as hard as I could…at Nadine. It ran right through her stomach, completely impaling her, and for a moment, I REALLY wished that I still had some damage stored up. Then while they were distracted, I turned and ran out the door as fast as I could.

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Comments

Run

In this situation all you can hope for is that Robe's patron can't manifest very long, or that Robe's patron is cheating so blatantly that the Referee will step in.

Again, thank you for posting these so quickly. I don't know how long I could have stood waiting for the resolution of last chapter's cliffhanger.

Of course, now I am waiting for the resolution of this chapter's cliffhanger. :-)

Wow!

Talk about an exciting chapter! New powers, new ways to use her shield, and then the twist at the end . . . I wonder if Jeri can call Maelyune and bring her into the mortal world? I can't wait for the next chapter!

Cheers
Zapper

Wow - so didn’t expect that ending!

D. Eden's picture

And what a cliff hanger. Faced with a god, what does Jerri do? Shoot the hostage. Sorry, just a little quote from the movie Speed, lol.

As Sun Tzu teaches, “On desperate ground, fight.” He also said, “On hemmed-in ground, resort to stratagem.”

I think Jerri did both very well here. She fought well, and when hemmed in and faced with a god whose powers she could not face, she used a stratagem to make good her escape. She diverted the attention of her attackers, and used the ensuing opening to flee. Quick thinking, and one can only hope that Maelyne has seen what happened and called in the cavalry because I don,’t think Jerri can outrun a god.

But she sure seems to be making a mess out of Nadine’s day, lol.

This has been a really enjoyable story - you have surprised me repeatedly, and have kept me glued to the action. Looking forward to tomorrow!

D

D. Eden

Dum Vivimus, Vivamus

Re: "Wow - so didn't expect that ending!"

Re: Sun Tzu Quote:

The correct quote is:

"In difficult ground, press on, In encircled ground, devise stratagems; In death ground, fight."

OR

"In difficult ground, press on; On hemmed-in ground, use subterfuge; In death ground, fight."

********************

Footnote (1): "In Death Ground" is the title of a science fiction novel by Steve White and David Weber. IMHO, it is the best galactic conflict novel ever written.

********************

Rules Lawyer Solution:

As soon as Jeri:

"... saw his eyes, which were glowing purple."

& heard:

"Mortals cannot be trusted with even a simple task..."

SHE SHOULD HAVE SCREAMED:

"YOU CHEATED - REF HELP!"

Instead of gasping "Aw crap,"

Other than that, she did about as best as she could given her desperate situation.

********************

After running out of the room
(as soon as she has enough mana) she might try:

(a) [option (a) will be discussed later]

(b) Summon Companion [ Matt - if he appears, tell him to hide and call for help with his cell phone]

(c) Try "Summon Don" [More on that later]

(d) Try "Summon Cassandra" [More on that later]

(e) If (a) & (b) didn't work, Try "Summon Companion Cell Phone" [More on that later]

(f) Try Summon Teri

(g) Yell "Maelyne Help!"

(h) Continue running!

(i) If none of the above work, Summon SpearStaff, turn & face the enemy and die like a Samurai!

Of course, she could offer to have sex with Robe's Patron ["Please don't let me die a virgin"]... If her charisma & flirting skills are good enough, maybe she can delay his...

Actually, your quote is incorrect......

D. Eden's picture

Perhaps you should either read the book, or buy a better translation. It was required reading at command college when I attended. As a flag ranked officer, Sun Tzu, Guderian, Von Mellenthin, Julius Caesar, etc., we’re required reading.

Sun Tzu broke out nine types of ground, the last, or ninth, being Desperate Ground. The eighth was Hemmed-In Ground, with the major difference being that desperate ground had no avenue of escape.

There are many translations, quite a few of which try to be too philosophical. I can recommend a good translation if you would like one.

D

D. Eden

Dum Vivimus, Vivamus

Second death for Nadine?

How many more does she have left?

Payback is a bitch ^_^

So, does Maelyne get to intervene and protect her champion against another god?

Oh and another cliffhanger.

Morpheus is never gentle on the protagonist, that’s for sure.

Wow!

Even though it's only been a bit over 2 days, I've been looking for this posting since the end of Part 27. So, lots of unknowns; how will Jeri get away, what will happen in the next contest, will Arakthiel face consequences for acting directly in the game, is robe now toast, is Nadine out of lives, is the game surrogates fighting structure itself going to collapse, what happened to Cassandra?

Thanks for sharing. Please keep the postings coming.

Rules

That has definitely got to be against the rules for his patron to manifest. I hope Jeri manages to get away and I hope Maelyne has her back. I hope some kind of hammer comes down on Mason’s patron since he is constantly breaking rules. Also you are so evil with your dang cliffhangers.

hugs :)
Michelle SidheElf Amaianna

Fooh.. what a relieved

Thanks to her patron, she still have some hope atlast. Now if only she can escape, hide or avoid being captured for a couple of hours until the transportation.

I hope she have not forgotten March and Harker may be waiting around the corner.

I just hope she will make it through. Crossing my fingers.

Run like the wind

Samantha Heart's picture

Girl run as fast as you can but I THINK THIS VIOLATES the rules a patron coming after a mortal NO! Not GOOD not FAIR Mr. Referee where are YOU AT when your needed? I'm glad Meline helped Jeri/Heather. she need all the help she can get right now.

Love Samantha Renée Heart.

Read through

I read through the other comments before I posted this. Not much I can add except excellent cliffhanger! Oh I do hope that March and Harker were not watching the doors. Also hope that she gets a buff from spearing Nadine! Nice buff on Maylene's blessing. If Maylene is cheating the others are flat out ignoring the rules. All but open combat on the mortal plane. I do agree she needs to start yelling REFF!
Oh yeah, Sun Tzu, Attack! Which actually Jeri did as soon as she was able. Nice. When outnumbered and outgunned a strategic advance to the rear is in order. Oh and doing so at best speed is recommended. Or in other words run like a mad dog is on your heels!

Strategic retreat

Good job she has better stamina now.

True!

Very true, all that work she did is paying off!

Love this story.

Running is a great idea, but one wonders how the rules handle this. I do not think a blessing bump is against the rules otherwise the first one would not have been labeled with a level number, but for a god to take over a player probably violates a few if he uses his powers beyond what his champion could.

All I can say is this is going to be a great next chapter.

Hee

Even after breaking up, getting killed, resurrected, and tortured, he still gets to nail Nadine...

Penalty

I am guessing a forfeiture would be the minimum penalty for this rule violation.

Considering Jeri managed to fight off multiple opponents, she should level up.

So how does the whole defeating an opposing champion work when one gets defeated because one is outnumbered vs one-on-one? Did Nadine and company get points for initially defeating Jeri and kidnapping her and while torturing her?

Will Jeri get points for killing Nadine and defeating Robe?

Points

From what we've seen, one member of the team that captured Jeri would have gotten points. The only time we have seen rewards shared was in the dungeon, which was explicitly described as being scored as a collaborative effort, and even there points for killing champions were given to individuals, not teams.

I am sure that this contributes to conflicts between team members about who gets the final blow.

One wonders if two champions have ever tried to game the system by alternatively beating each other up, but not killing each other. On further thought, I don't wonder if anyone has tried this; I just wonder if anybody has gotten away with it when they tried.

On another subject, I don't think Nadine is dead at the end of the chapter. The wound did not appear to be instantly fatal. She might die from it, or she might recover. Jeri can survive such a wound, but then, Jeri has the very powerful spell "Cure minor wounds". It does not seem that anyone on Nadine's team has any healing beyond their ordinary regeneration (indeed, they did not recognize that Jeri has a healing spell and used it). Whether that regeneration is enough to save her is not clear.

Re: "Points"

Jeri, Matt, and Teri have been training hard. Jeri has received levels due to training! It would appear that the tactic will work. The question is are the other Champions smart enough to think of it?

I suspect most of the Champions are doing little or no training :

"Training? Training? We don't need no stinking Training!"

**********

With regeneration, I believe Nadine will probably recover. The wound is serious, a normal human would probably die without immediate medical assistance. The question is will she recover sufficiently in two (2) hours to be able to participate in the next contest? It would be ironic if Greatsword's plan worked - ON NADINE!

If Nadine dies, Jeri will get the +20 benefits. If Nadine is unable to recover before the next contest, I assume she would still get credit for defeating a Champion.

As for Robe, we will have to wait and see...I have no idea if your body being taken over by a Patron kills the host. In Room In Hell, Satan took over the body of a police officer. When done with the body, Satan emerged and the host was spread over the room. In Star Trek episodes the host usually survived.

**********************

The actual quote is:

"Badges! Badges! We don't need no stinking badges!" - Treasure of the Sierra Madre"

The discussion of quotes in two (2) earlier comments is a case of "dueling quotes".

Actually...

it's "Badges? We ain't got no badges, We don't need no badges, I don't have to show you any stinking badges." (The actor -- and possibly his character(g) -- said he was always bothered by the misquote; the actual line about the stinking badges is perfectly grammatical.)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VqomZQMZQCQ

There's been some discussion as to whether that line is misquoted more often than "Play it, Sam." from Casablanca. I'd say it's awfully close to 100% of the time in both cases.

Eric

Out of the frying pan

and into the fire as the saying goes. How do you escape from a god? The next chapter should be very interesting.

One Thing No One ...

...has commented upon, so far:

Harker gave a wry look. “Br’ieze hasn’t told me anything, other than that I have to help you idiots, so that she can come to Earth and get worshippers.”

“That’s what all of our patrons want,” March said.

The enemy patrons here are planning to invade in order to get worshippers on Earth, which has to be against the rules; that's the kind of thing the limited-warfare element of the contest is supposed to prevent. Apparently the enemy patrons have decided that Maelyne is somehow the key to their being unable to do it, which seems hard to explain. In the patrons' domain, from what Maelyne has said, she's been subjected to ups and downs that would strongly suggest she's not in a particularly powerful position.

So are the arbiters' patrons losing control? We don't know that they're actually strong enough to enforce the agreement, except by the consent of the governed. If there's a revolt against them, they very likely have to rely on the support of the stronger side to keep them in control and the game rules intact. Does that mean compromise, as in looking the other way at Mason's patron intervening directly? (Or for that matter, at the loopholes both Maelyne and Arakthiel have been sliding through: Mason's soul-killer, Heather's reboot as Jeri, and the new blessing from Maelyne, offered not as a reward but from desperate need?)

One further point: since the arbiters aren't gods themselves, but champions (albeit from multiple contests and with high stats), they won't be able to control Arakthiel in any case. Possession, if you'll excuse the play on words, is at least the proverbial nine-tenths of the law in this case. It'd take direct intervention by the arbiters' patrons to sanction him. That would give Arakthiel's allies two uncomfortable choices: back him up in a total revolt, with the first battle most likely taking place on (and destroying?) the Earth when their opponents respond, or sacrifice their ally and probably lose whatever chance they have of success in their plan for worship on Earth for the foreseeable future.

There's one more unknown that may be relevant: I'm assuming that all we're dealing with in terms of "worshippers" is the adversary's desire to increase their holdings by adding Earth people to the "home, territory and people" that Maelyne says constitutes wealth. If, as in other universes of this type, worshippers add to a god's physical abilities, there's another threat here to those on the god level.

A final point: did Arakthiel permanently destroy Mason's soul by taking over? If so, is there an implied threat to the other champions here if other gods find it necessary to respond in kind?

(And finally, if the contest will go on as scheduled in -- what, about ninety minutes? -- which seems iffy, since Arakhthiel could go to the site and start destroying souls until another god takes over a champion so they can fight back -- does Pfath have time to revive Nadine? And can Jeri regen fast enough to be competitive, especially if she has to cope with Harker and March in the meantime?)

Eric

Arbiters

I don’t recall what the arbiters are, but I don’t think they need to be gods to be effective if the contest rules were a mystic contract by the participating patron gods and all they have to do is invoke the clauses.

Obviously there are loopholes that somehow slip through but clearly I agree that we are in the dark as to what the full contest rules are.

In an Early Chapter...

...we're told that the arbiters are champions, not gods, which implies that they have their own patrons. I'm assuming it's those patrons who reward or discipline the gods, since I can't see these egotistical junior deities allowing mortal arbiters to have any power over them even to enforce a rulebook. I guess the other alternative is that the rules are enforced by consensus at that level, with everyone agreeing on the game rules and procedures (as a preferred alternative to greater destruction) and the group as a whole destroying any outlaws. Not sure these gods could have kept it together as long as they apparently have -- we have to take Maelyne's word for that, like a lot of background -- without enforcers with teeth.

There's the magical contract alternative that you bring up -- something that enforces itself somehow without deific or human intervention -- but it so (as you said) there sure seem to be magical loopholes operating right now. (That may have something to do with our villain here using his champion's body instead of his own, though; the rules may explicitly ban the latter while being silent on the former.)

Eric

Arbiters

Actually, I said in an earlier chapter that the Arbiters are a group of neutral gods who oversee the games and all the rules. The Coordinator, Referee, and Cleaner are champions of three of the Arbiters, and act as their agents among the champions and contests.

The waking world is but a dream.

Thanks, Morpheus...

I misread it -- got confused by the part that said the Arbiter gods had their own champions setting up the games, and wrongly thought those mortals were overseeing/refereeing the games as well.

Thanks again, Eric

Hmmm

Harker gave a wry look. “Br’ieze hasn’t told me anything, other than that I have to help you idiots, so that she can come to Earth and get worshippers.”

“That’s what all of our patrons want,” March said.

Maybe Earth is Maelyne territory or at last she has 'dibs' on Earth?
That would explain why they want her out of the game and is targeting her.

By Miri-tan


"People don't change. They may want to. They may need to. But they simply don't." House M.D


Sorry my poor english, i am from Brasil >_<

Seems only Fair

My5InchFMHeels's picture

If Mason's patron can occupy his champion, Maelyne should be able to as well. If she doesn't, I hope Jeri can get enough of a mana to buff, and kill the body of Mason, leaving Nadine and Mason both out of the contest.... that's providing the spear hitting Nadine kills her before the contest, or atleast keeps her from Participating.

A Mortal Can't Kill a God...

...unless Maelyne was bluffing with that stat screen back in Chapter 3. Her mana pool and recovery rate were both in five figures to Jeri's three. Arakthiel ought to be in the same general range. No reason I can see why the god's numbers would plummet while in Mason's body, when you consider that Jeri could tell the difference in power and menace between the mortal and the god even before Arakthiel spoke. Jeri knew all she could do was run.

Eric

Mason's Body

My5InchFMHeels's picture

The key is Arakthiel is in Mason's Body, It's possible that All of the gods powers inhibit a standard body. Jeri could force the patron out by killing Mason's Body. Best case scenario would be Maelyne taking over Jeri's body with her own powers, especially if Maelyne's Blessing level 2 is still active.

Referee!

Beoca's picture

HOW this is not against the rules is beyond me. Good for Jeri for pulling this off, though I do feel like she should at some point tell Nadine that she killed him first (as I'm not sure Nadine realizes). Not that Nadine would care, she is that sadistic and messed up.

Reward

While the second level of Maelyne's Blessing was clearly an improvisation based on desperation, one can not say it was not a reward for loyalty: Jeri stayed loyal in the face of sustained torture.

Re:

x

One psycho psycho

Jamie Lee's picture

The Red Queens' yell comes to mind, "off with her head." Nadine is one of those humans where power corrupts absolutely. She's one of those who needs taken into an alley and snuffed out, she is that corrupted.

And once again Jerri has bested Nadine, maybe not fatally but it had to smart suddenly have a spear sticking out of her middle. Next time it should be slightly above, and between, her shoulders. That would definitely take her out of the next match.

With Jerri's given abilities, how was she going to go up against the patron of Robe? It might seem like valor to stay and fight, but that would be suicide. Best boogy and fight another day--get another crack at putting psycho bitch down permanently.

Others have feelings too.