Его не звали, но он приперся / They never called, yet he is here: Глава 15

Chapter 15

Camrad_RIP 01.08.23 в 15:56

* * *

Camrad_RIP 01.08.23 в 15:56

The capital of the Empire of Ages was a very deep city, and only high-ranking security officers and the top of the capital's guards had a complete map of its dungeons. The vast network of tunnels and catacombs beneath the city could hold another Eternal, with its entire population and even livestock. Frankly speaking, these catacombs were another frontier of the city's defense and a reserve warehouse of impressive capacity.

Camrad_RIP 03.08.23 в 17:41

Unlike Tavimark, these tunnels, though dangerous, populated with all sorts of creatures, monsters, and a couple of dozen weaker analogs of the memorable Trail anomaly, were controlled in a much better way. Tunnels were explored, dangerous areas were fenced off, the most dangerous ones were sealed, and all the tasty locations, located most conveniently or even directly on (non)large energy anomalies, served as transit points, warehouses, training camps, or research sites. The incredibly old stones of the city hid the equally ancient magic that gave it its name, and who better than a dynasty as eternal as the city itself to use that magic to its fullest?

Camrad_RIP 03.08.23 в 18:02

Of course, the underground was used by both simple bandits and a lot of all sorts of people, where it was almost impossible to distinguish one from another. They used it, but only the Imperial Chancellery and the omnipresent Eyes ruled there, the latter in a secondary role. It was easy to hide in these dungeons, but not to be found when the search became serious was incommensurably more difficult. This detail was the main reason why our team did not hide underground, preferring to look for lairs above.

Camrad_RIP 03.08.23 в 18:04

We're not hiding there now, either, but that doesn't stop me from crawling through remote parts of the catacombs, occasionally sawing out the overly brazen and eyeballed creatures of the local biocenosis, leaving bits of mirror bookmarks here and there. As much as I wished otherwise, the likelihood of the Kostik-Misty communication line being traced was beyond all reasonable limits. Counting on fending off or cheating the search, I didn't forget to re-insure my ass in case cheating and hiding didn't work out. Well, to be honest, I didn't think about it myself, but after Tia's kick, who suggested the whole thing with the pieces of mirrors in the subway. I'd just limit myself to the same kind of decoys. The liquidator with too long ears popularly explained that my plan was good, but only because of my class abilities and general awesomeness. But her version, though it required a lot of fiddling, gave me a much larger window of maneuver: the tunnels would work as another network of interference, preventing them from picking up an accurate signal, and the Library's searchers would wonder if the very research labs under the palace were trying to organize industrial espionage.

Camrad_RIP 03.08.23 в 18:16

Although the Library faithfully serves the Throne, the two organizations are in constant competition for funding, grants, and the Emperor's favor. The latter needed both a counterweight to the Library, which threatened to become a monopoly on "hard science," and its scientists, who could work on issues that the Library could not. The two organizations, though the underground scientists were a much more loose collection of separate groups and research institutes, were too different to clash seriously, but the tension was palpable. Of course, such a "trace" would be considered a setup, but in our case, if they opened the communication channel and followed the deceptions, they might believe it. It would hardly be possible to say it was someone who had left a laxity in disguise on purpose, hoping to frame the most obvious competitors. Success, according to the elf, is quite possible, though unlikely, but the minimum confusion will be raised in any case. And in troubled waters, the real culprits are the easiest to escape.

Camrad_RIP 03.08.23 в 18:20

That's how Kostik crawls through all sorts of crap, poking his blanks everywhere and thinking about where to get a new mirror. The old stock is slowly running out. The atmosphere here is quite unpleasant, and I don't just mean the stench of sewers, drain pits and sewage, nor the stifling dampness of the usual tunnels. These places were full of all sorts of things, and the monstrous fauna was not on the first line or even on the tenth. When I said that the catacombs were inhabited and used, I meant exactly that.

Camrad_RIP 06.08.23 в 10:45

I wish it was a typical fantasy dungeon under the city, where no one controls anything and it's a war zone just a step away from the capital. Alas, there are no fools living in this world, and they wouldn't keep their asses on a deployed anti-tank mine for so many years. Most of the sealed areas were created by the Imperials themselves - at least three full legions of undead with control circuits sewn in were clearly one of the capital's defenses, and a couple (or more, I wasn't looking that closely) of sealed Legends were clearly held in a strong cage, and even if they managed to break free, weakened by the imprisonment and breakout, they would be easy prey for the elite guard. There are plenty of people in the Eternal who can give the legendary a one-on-one fight, and there will be more than one. As I understand it, the prisoned legendary shit is being milked, drawing out their powers, reagents and simply studying them in order to put what they've learned to use in some useful way. And in the far reaches of the dungeon, at great depths and under piles of all sorts of barriers and traps, they are kept just so they won't have time to make trouble if they break out.

Camrad_RIP 06.08.23 в 11:11

In the visions, he dug up echoes of a battle fifty years ago when one of the imprisoned creatures had managed to break free. Incarnate Madness straight from the Dark Plane, powerfully hitting with planar attacks, devouring any energy and souls, replenishing forces at a huge speed, and just unrealistically hard pressing its madness in the mental plane, turning even experienced warriors and mages either into whimpering hulks or into dangerous for everyone maniacs-crazies... Once at large, they were brutally and uncompromisingly slaughtered. It managed to kill only fifty researchers and guards, among whom only a couple-three were valuable personnel, not auxiliary personnel. The locals had long ago become adept at quickly and decisively fixing the consequences of such shit and nothing that could seriously tear the anuses of the entire Metropolitan Guard was stored in the dungeons, having long ago disposed of such inconvenient neighbors or phenomena.

Camrad_RIP 06.08.23 в 13:13

By the way, despite installing dungeon dodgers, no one has even mentioned not putting them all over the city as well. More reassurance and room to maneuver is only a good thing, especially if resources and time allow. Since with my classes and build, all the resources required for this case were limited not by epic-grade (minimum) reagents, not by laborious work of agent networks, and not by mortal risk for deception installers, but only by one very unfortunate summoned with a bag of mirror scrap, the elven dictator and tyrant in one cute face went full force of her paranoia nurtured on the experience of past mistakes. Honestly, I feel like she's just forgotten that no one ever put Yoke on me. She certainly rides me like a horse!

Camrad_RIP 06.08.23 в 13:20

I was not the only one working, but my "class superiority according to Marx" was the problem here, thanks to which I was the only one who could properly install, hide, and secure the deceptions among all of us. Besides, the catacombs of the Eternal, especially their deeper and "tastier" tiers, turned out to be decently protected by all kinds of magic.

Camrad_RIP 06.08.23 в 13:21

And yes, there were sapient being here, too (and not just the permanent human residents), albeit in small numbers - several communities of rats, not monsters, but endowed subspecies, were officially resident here, and they did the work of plumbers, sanitizers, and goldsmiths, knowing the tunnels well and not shy to poke around in the shit. They did not go into the protected areas, safely weaned from foolish deeds, but the upper tiers, drains, and sewers were completely in their power.

Camrad_RIP 06.08.23 в 13:26

I met up with a couple of their patrols, only two individuals of which were level ten, finding myself less than impressed. The unendowed ratfolk looked more like rats than humans. These were distinguished by a very humanoid, albeit not very pleasing to the eye, greater intelligence, and less of the thwarted cruelty for which this subspecies of monsters had gained its notoriety in the first place. How could they, with all their reputation, be tolerated here? No, it's understandable no one wants to swim in shit, and if the toilets are cleaned from above by human goldsmiths, it's dangerous for them to go into the deep drains. Still, I don't understand something in this world, and I haven't for a long time.

Camrad_RIP 06.08.23 в 13:31

The first thing I did was check to see if the head of these guys was called Splinter, but there were no such names among the rats, and that was a pity. However, two of the First Tails, the Third Tail and the Eighth Tail, had the classes of Assassin, Monk, and Tunneler. The latter was the base class for both fighters, keeping their communities in check. Still, they were surprisingly peaceful around here, docile and providing no trouble while floundering in the foul waters. I didn't have time to check really carefully, but I can feel some high-level slavemancers were involved. And, as I suspect, built into the very blood of these tribes and passed on to their descendants by inheritance - it was quite in the spirit of both the Imperials and the whole of Alurei in general.

Camrad_RIP 06.08.23 в 13:34

Alas, or fortunately, there were no reptiloids or turtle-like creatures in Eternal territory, and yet such a reference was missing! If I were someone from the summoned of the past, I would have put these two ethnicities in the sewers just out of a sense of beauty. Though how many of them were summoned from Earth or the other world where this cartoon was even released?

Camrad_RIP 06.08.23 в 13:41

The whole operation had taken me less than two days, but during that time, the damn dungeon smell had almost grown into my brain. Even though the shadow steps a priori rid me of any dirt or stench, subconsciously, I kept smelling the damn stench. Honestly, I'd rather it smelled like shit than all that mold.

Camrad_RIP 06.08.23 в 13:43

"Ideally, of course, it would be ideal to plant part of the mirror right in one of the guarded laboratories." Hestia stretched thoughtfully, leaning over Tia's (hand-drawn!) rather detailed map of the city and the deceptions located. "It would be doubly ideal to stage a diversion to release one of the prisoners you've spotted, Tin, the kind of prisoners that are rightfully called Legends."
111

Camrad_RIP 06.08.23 в 13:56

I leaned over the map, too, though more to hide my eyes, which were almost closed in slumber. Tia's work was very detailed, with a lot of notes that she had lovingly made while she was preparing for the king's assassination. The druid drew some from memory, some from personal observation, some from suspicion or vague visions, but the resulting map would be a great reason to demand a lot of money from any resident, spy, or even a bandit ataman, though getting paid with steel under the ribs was more likely. Not that these details were so unique, but putting them all together on one map was quite difficult, even for a high-powered person. She also had a whole stack of smaller parchments showing individual districts, even if they mostly focused on Imperial Park and the surrounding neighborhoods. The park is drawn almost to every bush and tuft of grass, which is not surprising.

Camrad_RIP 06.08.23 в 14:01

"How bloodthirsty you are, friend," Taria replied just as thoughtfully, trying to think of a couple of new escape routes right now in case the ones she'd already thought of didn't work out. "Is it worth it? The creatures will kill a lot of people, but they'll still run after us, and they'll look harder for us afterward. I don't feel sorry for the швшщеы, but there's a lot of risk and not much outcome."

Camrad_RIP 06.08.23 в 14:04

"I'll agree with Taria's words, albeit not the form of those words." Issuing her strong opinion, the only one of us not looking at the map at all, as she knew it perfectly well from memory. "Diversion will only benefit and take the blow away from us if we are guaranteed to fail the retreat while taking away only some fraction of the enemy's retaliatory maneuver. The risks of installing the necessary mechanisms are defiantly high and unnecessary. Besides Tin to entrust this part of the preparation, which can be honorably and truthfully in words estimated in another flight of lonely leaves, unfortunately, no one. Neither I nor Hestia can make all the necessary preparations quickly and correctly. Or rather, it's not within my power to do it promptly. In a different situation, I would demand that the operation be postponed for several months, or better, a year. With the potential of our group, it wouldn't be hard to turn a third of the Eternal into a prepared ground at once, but knowing Tin..."

Camrad_RIP 06.08.23 в 14:26

She said the last words with such an ineffable intonation that I was embarrassed for a second, but only for a second, no more. Even if I took away the factor of my pain in the ass not allowing me to sit still, I subconsciously felt that I shouldn't linger in the city. I'd spent the day and part of my non-renewable supply of clairvoyance-enhancing potions trying to figure out the reason for my barely-formed premonitions, despite the infuriating yelling of the boys who'd decided to play near the cursed area.

Camrad_RIP 06.08.23 в 14:35

I didn't understand, simply not finding their source, as if all possible vectors along which I could catch the key image turned out not to be blocked, not even disguised, but simply absent. It was as if the very stones of the ancient sidewalk, the creak of decayed doors, and the groans of indestructible walls were speaking to me. There was something wrong in the city, something not specifically directed at me but still ever-present. The long-healed wounds of a body that had almost dissolved into black sludge ached madly, and the image of a beautiful maiden with an empty face and a body that seemed to consist entirely of black pins came back to mind.

Camrad_RIP 06.08.23 в 14:37

"A flight of lonely leaves?" Losius, like me looking at the map simply out of politeness, interjected a term he was unfamiliar with, as he always tried to remain erudite in any situation.

Camrad_RIP 06.08.23 в 14:39

"An operation conducted outside the support of any allied state and entity in which the first petal, the group commander, is left with only his squad and whatever he can use without outside help," Tia replies casually, shifting her nowhere stare strictly to me. "It is considered in case of failure, you are recognized in advance as fallen leaves and have no right to help or even escape. Only death in battle or at your own hands. Tin, is something bothering you? Something to do with your gut?"

Camrad_RIP 06.08.23 в 14:46

She sensed it, though, damn it.

Camrad_RIP 06.08.23 в 14:47

I should not have remembered that skirmish. The memory of her agony and her near-death, which was far worse than death, broke through even my armor of denial. Not much, but my eared colleague, who had worked with me more than once, had enough experience, simple life experience, to catch that brief moment of weakness. And after her words, which she had deliberately said in front of everyone, the whole team looked at me. I could get away from Tia alone, but if I got all of them, especially Taria and her pity-pressure skills, I'd either have to get stoned or go for a walk around the city.

Camrad_RIP 06.08.23 в 14:50

"I remembered when I had the same problem. I couldn't smell anything either." I answered reluctantly, not wanting to remember, nor relive it, nor scare the others with nothing but a too vague premonition of trouble on my hands. "I've developed my instincts quite a bit since then, so I can't be fooled by tricks like that. I'll calculate by the voids. It's just that the situation itself is similar. Silence on all spectrums, like you're banging into a wall of absorbent cotton and feathers."

Camrad_RIP 06.08.23 в 15:10

He spent the next couple of hours recounting his adventures in the Kraj in detail, and with Tia, it was impossible to do otherwise. She listened with an unreadable expression on her face and an equally unreadable tangle of feelings in her soul. I could clearly distinguish only one shining morning star image, the closest analog of which would be "and how you, moron, having learned about the madness going on in the asshole town, did not leave it the same hour, faster than your squeal?". A perfectly understandable reaction, which I fully share. Had I known in advance the scale and danger of the creature lurking in the town, I wouldn't have gotten involved, but at first, I still thought I could take them all down and be that, and then it was too late.

Camrad_RIP 06.08.23 в 15:14

"Black Sky..." She said slowly, literally rolling those words on her tongue like the rarest sort of floral honey or a sip of excellent wine. "And hatred of shadow energy itself. A strong connection to the Darkness, provoking physical mutations and building recruitment chains through distortion. Have you not tried to examine that blackness with your gift as an alchemist?"

Camrad_RIP 06.08.23 в 15:18

"I didn't think about it, and I don't think about it now." I'm choking on that kind of accusation. "It's too nasty and dangerous, especially for me at that moment. I gave the image. Even now, I wouldn't want to touch that stuff, and then I'd have to puke at the thought. And I don't think it was the essence, even if it was distorted. Maybe I could have missed that detail behind my disgust and apprehension, but the last time we met, I literally bathed in that filth. And it's also too invisible as if the stuff doesn't even exist until a critical mass of it builds up, allowing it to manifest in reality. I feel like I've seen not the abomination itself but its imprint on the universe, a marker, if you will. Something akin to the materialized effect of Aegis, an embodied lapse into the Darkness."

Camrad_RIP 06.08.23 в 15:21

For a few seconds, she evaluates my words, obviously going through all the data archives she knows, which are stuffed in there enough to be wanted by every influential person on the continent.

Camrad_RIP 06.08.23 в 15:23

"It was something very ancient." She finally decided on an answer, immediately playing Captain Obvious in all his might. "Ancient and weakened beyond belief. I've read a few scrolls that said something suspiciously similar to the words about the black sky, but they were parchments so old that even those copies, taken from decayed scrolls, were almost crumbling to dust in my hands. Scrolls that spoke of something far older than even the Eternal Forest. I can't say much more until I've done some guided meditations to re-energize the dust-covered memory."

Camrad_RIP 08.08.23 в 14:01

"Take the potions in the common locker." I prompted, remembering if I'd put the memory potions she'd asked me to put in there. "I'm still not sure if it's the same thing in here. Or similar. Different handwriting, different nuances, different everything. Common only in elusiveness to my senses. Maybe this is even a foreshadowing of Alishan's soon-to-be diversion. On the border, skirmishes are already turning into full-fledged hostilities, and the emperor has sent as many as three and a half armies to those regions if you count the Jaeger corps."

Camrad_RIP 08.08.23 в 14:03

"Even so, I won't forgive myself for brushing aside a hunch because of the low chance of it being true." Tia parried, and I realized that I would have to spend the next week alone, as the former liquidator would focus her attention entirely on her new area of interest.

Camrad_RIP 08.08.23 в 14:22

I wondered if she was really worried or if she'd just gotten out of an exhausting joint psychic session. The latter, of course, is unlikely because she appreciates such an opportunity to develop skills and class abilities, but I still feel left out in the cold.

Camrad_RIP 08.08.23 в 14:29

"Yes, yes, I remember Konstantine and the Low Chance Theory. You've complained to me about that before." I waved it off, focusing on the current situation. "Then I'll leave it up to you, and I'll take another look in about four days, see if I can catch anything."

Camrad_RIP 08.08.23 в 14:35

"Someday, I'm going to make you tell me what your full family name is, you bastard." Tarija puffed up like an owl, and Lósius and Hans agreed. Why are you making such a big deal out of this?

Camrad_RIP 08.08.23 в 14:37

The discussion went back to the business direction and even managed to enter it, but the same bad feeling of foreboding did not give me peace of mind. It seemed nothing had changed, but somehow it seemed the time before some bad fuck-up had become a little shorter.

Camrad_RIP 08.08.23 в 14:38

Once upon a time, when I was running through the woods in the company of goblins hungry for a cut from my ass, I, a little intoxicated by my newfound abilities, allowed myself a little (not really a little) fun. Killing not only guaranteed and maximized efficiency, sparing to the reserve, but doing it artistically. The power, hitting me in the head, the pressure of a barely formed planar connection, my own idiocy, not yet etched by the blackened steel of Alurei's realities - all these were equally the reasons for some illogic for preferring pathos over correctness.

Camrad_RIP 08.08.23 в 14:41

It has been a long time since then, even if it may seem like a few moments to some. My strength has increased, and at such a rate that there will be a long line of people from here to dinner who want to repeat this explosive growth, even if they pay even more than I refused to pay. On the contrary, the desire to fool around in battle is long gone. I could only tease and jab when the mockery was more painful than the blade, and in other cases, I preferred to kill immediately and without delay. The fate of the first of the legendary creatures I met, who was eaten by the abomination I had summoned simply because it decided to play with food, was more eloquent than any instructions and lessons.
111

Camrad_RIP 08.08.23 в 15:15

On the other hand, the opportunity to play with other people's dreams, minds, and even souls became a kind of release when I let my slightly (or not so slightly) sick fantasy run wild in the absence of the usual victims for trolling. Let's leave out the immorality of my actions because what I'm certainly not going to do is justify my actions with typical bookish hypocrisy. Far more importantly, if I've ever chased the spectacular, the funny, or the beauty of the moment, it's in my use of the mirror class. The very nature of Dream is such that it indulges this fantasy, calls for it, and forces it to never be repeated. Any creature can be destroyed with roughly the same lump of shadow energy, but every Dream work is unique in some way, dependent on thousands of little things, thoughts, desires, dreams, personality traits, mirror glare, and other principles even less clear even to me.

Camrad_RIP 08.08.23 в 15:25

A Shadow is a hungry beast that will kill you first of all if you only give a slack, if you only stumble once, or if you look away in fear.

Camrad_RIP 08.08.23 в 15:25

A Dream is a lazy and unfathomable striving for something, where the main problem is to preserve oneself on the way to the goal because the price for each step is huge.

Camrad_RIP 08.08.23 в 15:27

So different, but at the same time, so similar in their nature facets of the universe. It's just a question of how much of yourself you are willing to give for the sake of another piece of power, a new title, a level, or a closed skill. Each realm asks for its own, gives its own, and changes you in its own way, but the result is somehow the same. Flirting with planes is like a huge intestine: it doesn't matter how you get on this road, it doesn't matter who you were and what path you followed to the goal, it doesn't matter what the goal was - the output is still just digested shit. However, from my point of view, not only connection with other planes but also just life under the sky of Alurei has such nature.

Camrad_RIP 08.08.23 в 15:33

All of us, even the Summoned ones, are his children in some way.

Camrad_RIP 08.08.23 в 15:35

Losius, for example, is quite definitely a child of this universe. When he asked for his revenge, revenge for the terrible and shameful of a proud noblewoman's death, He did not care about the proportionality of his revenge. His mother, the one who had given him life and raised him, had been despicably murdered, and her body and honor had been despicably violated - that would be enough for a moralist to forget about morality. Losius, in spite of my friendship and respect for him, had neither the mild character nor the forgiveness of a Christian passion-bearer. And in asking for vengeance, he wanted the pain, suffering, and despair with which his soul was filled, and with which the soul of his dying mother was filled. For all who were involved, for all who were dear to those involved.

Camrad_RIP 03.08.23 в 18:22

I did not speak in vain about the absence of happy fathers and mothers among the executors of that long ago and, no doubt, already forgotten by them. Because I'm not sure if I could fulfill Losius' request in such a case. Losius is a child of his world. For him to execute the entire clan of his mother's murderers in a torturous manner is an act as good as it is right. Perhaps, just perhaps, he would not have been able to stab with a sword blade a seven-year-old boy whose fault it was to be born of the murderer's blood. Far more likely, he would have simply given the order to the family retinue, albeit through force.

Camrad_RIP 08.08.23 в 15:40

I gave my word that there would be no live performers among those people, and neither would their families. It would have been easy to kill only those who disgusted me personally and to tell the fellow that I had done everything. But that would be wrong to Asterium, who had fought with me shoulder to shoulder more than once, even if he would never know about it if I didn't want him to.

Camrad_RIP 08.08.23 в 16:00

Once you're in, do it.

Camrad_RIP 05.08.23 в 12:38