Chapter 317

The Roman Theatre, Bosra, Syria, 1:15 AM

“I’m going to need as many details as you can provide,” I told the Oracle as I sighed, snapping away the quest complete screen from Sara now that we knew what had messed up the timeline.

Without looking up, I motioned for Mercury to come down. He was by my side in a heartbeat. The gunman flinched backwards at his sudden appearance, but was disciplined enough not to start shooting. My companion gave him an awkward wave, and it was returned the same way.

The Oracle of Cinders took a moment to collect his thoughts, and nodded before he began speaking. “This man was hidden from me through means unknown,” he started, his voice making it clear that he disapproved. “His identity, class, even where he came from were obscured. I could feel that he was connected to his companions in some intrinsic way. They stayed outside of the city, far from my network, but I could sense some fifty of them though they could not be identified.”

“Some fifty Angels?” Mercury asked incredulously, and I raised an eyebrow at that number myself.

Thankfully, he shook his head. “No, I only sensed three of those prowling around, the intruder included,” the Oracle answered, much to my relief. “But they were clearly dangerous individuals. There is a reason I pretended to comply rather than start a firefight in the streets of my home.”

“You did well,” I told him honestly. “Just one of these people is a force to be reckoned with, but three with support could have taken the whole city depending on who they are.”

The Oracle scowled, but didn’t say anything. He was already lamenting his weakness, and I could relate.

I looked towards the sky. “How can he make so many Half-Angels?” I asked. “Could you do the same? Make more like me, I mean.”

<<<>>>

[[Patron Message]]

I, personally, cannot, but that’s because of how I choose to bestow my power unto you.

Everything that makes you a Half-Angel is in your ring, and it has linked us in a very permanent way, and I don’t mean just in marriage. Even if it’s destroyed or lost, you’ll still retain your powers even if you won’t have access to Break Free anymore, like when I removed it when you last visited.

The alternative was to bestow my power through less permanent means, which wouldn’t be nearly as powerful. It would have meant that I could give it to your companions, but even now I don’t feel like that was a good choice.

A Half-Angel that I would hypothetically bestow that lesser power to would have to renew their own holy energy themselves. Siphoning it off of someone with an abundance would work, such as taking it from a halo. Once it runs out, though, there’s nothing they could do until they restore that power source.

Which is why you are superior. You can transform at will, even when your Mental Points hit zero because it would take your hard-earned points.

So, hypothetically, I could pass my power on to others. I do not, because I give it freely only to you.

<<<>>>

“That’s good to know, Sara, thank you,” I said aloud.

By not talking about anyone in particular, she was able to get around her information restrictions. Sara was clearly calling back to when Coe sucked the power out of Glaraphel’s halo, giving him more juice for his own transformation. He had tried to do the same to me, but I returned to my base form too quickly.

I still wondered if Glaraphel was okay or not. There had been no word on whether or not he had reformed in Heaven or what would happen with his halo’s energy consumed. Unfortunately, I probably wouldn’t have any answers until after my fight in Washington D.C. Plenty of Angels were going to show up after that.

“Man, this sucks,” Mercury complained, kicking at a loose rock on the floor. His words snapped me back to the present. “I can’t believe those asshats figured out where you were going to be.”

“It was always a possibility,” I said with a sigh. “There are only a handful of options that can fix the damage I’ve got going on, and I’ve had to use them on others like Jeremiah before. Healing should be my number one priority, which my own Patron pointed out. There’s no reason why Aaron couldn’t remember me going through these methods in the past back when I didn’t know he was watching.”

“You call the Father of Sins, Aaron?” the Oracle asked incredulously. He seemed confused by the way I was talking, but didn’t inquire further.

“It’s a longer story than any of us have time for, but yes,” I answered. “Do they know I’m here yet?”

He shook his head. “They have prepared for your arrival with magic, but that is all I can tell. I sensed no diviners in their party, though… Patrons may be another story,” he said, both his frown and his tone making it clear that he didn’t like the thought of them one bit. “They are, of course, looking for the entrance to ensure that you do not succeed.”

“That sounds like they haven’t found it yet,” I pointed out, and the Oracle’s expression morphed into a smile. “That’s good, at least. It’s not supposed to be something easy to get into; there’s a ton of stipulations just to get the place to open up.”

<<<>>>

[[Patron Message]]

There are very few other Patrons in this area. Mostly ones based on local deities. There’s a lot of interest in you right now, but it’s hard to tell if it’s because they’re actually paying attention to you or if they’re following the Oracle of Cinders.

I’m inclined to think the latter given the chatter I’m seeing, but I wouldn’t trust that. All it takes is one, and I wouldn’t bet your safety on it.

<<<>>>

I nodded. There was always going to be some danger involved either way. 

“Okay, I need a moment to think,” I said as I crossed my arms and closed my eyes.

The Oracle could sense three people like me, and the man who threatened him was connected to around fifty people. The extras really wouldn’t be all that threatening in the long run; what really mattered was how much the Half-Angels remembered, and who they were.

The number of people capable of receiving Memory Orbs were limited to those who visited Arontalscion. Out of ninety-nine runs, the first could only belong to Geraldine McCoy, the only other survivor, and Coe had claimed to remember thirty-two of them.

I doubted anyone had as many second place victories as Coe. Nearly a third of them belonged to him, and he might have even had more Memory Orbs stashed away. At the very least, I didn’t think he was lying to psych me out. He would have known any falsehoods of that kind would backfire.

Aaron had mentioned Klaske Bos, who I certainly believed would make the jump into a portal similar to Sara’s, along with Darnell Montiago and Jason Wills. Whether their names were simple misdirection on his part and he was lying or not didn’t really matter. Jamie had at least one confirmed visit to Aaron under her belt. Mercury likely made it, too.

It stood to reason that, aside from a couple of standouts, most people would only have access to one or two visits to Aaron’s domain. That made them more of a threat to my plans and friends than they were to me. Since the continental barriers were still up and very few people had means to bypass them, that meant I had some clues.

The Middle East was in the strange position where the administrators didn’t want to decide if it belonged to Africa or Asia, so players from both could enter it before the continental barrier stopped them from going too far. That trimmed down the amount of endgame powerhouses these could be by a considerable margin.

Considering that two of the paths I could take to heal my body were in Asia, with one being in Kazakhstan and the other in Japan, I would assume most of the people Aaron had access to would visit those locations. Either to guard the monster in the case of the hag, because she was nearly unkillable this early on, or to destroy the Yokai who could fix me.

Out of the three, I assumed that at least one would be from Africa. They’d have to have been mobilized rather quickly to make it here before us. Aaron would have known about my soul damage when it happened, so he had a couple of days to get people prepared. 

“I think I know who one of them is,” I finally said, crossing my arms. “Which, given how many people it could possibly be, isn’t too bad.”

“Oh? Care to enlighten me?” the Oracle of Cinders asked, intrigued.

“Somali warlord by the name of Faarax Mustafa Omar,” I answered. “Terrible man, but phenomenal at inciting the masses. He has a Charisma-based class that allows him to target his followers, those who are true believers, and borrow their hit points and abilities. If you strike him down, someone else falls in his place. They were probably the connection you felt. I’d imagine he’d have about fifty or so at this point.”

“So he came in here and threatened me and my people, knowing that he would leave a free man because any attacks would simply kill others?” he asked, spitting on the ground. “Detestable. The more I learn about what is happening, the more I hate it.”

“Me, too,” I sighed.

Faarax’s inclusion in the early endgame raids were an unfortunate necessity. He survived until the end and we needed both his strength and his manpower. Once I started being able to cultivate people and learned how to move events the way I wanted them to go, he was one of the first things I cut.

His death wasn’t slated for another two months, though the Dealer already had the letter in case something happened to me. It took the stars aligning to put Faarax in a vulnerable spot that would allow a traitor close to him to take him out without everything spiraling out of control.

“Here’s a crazy thought,” Mercury started with a gesture. “We choose a different path and come back later.”

With a half-hearted smile, I shook my head. “Going to Kazakhstan or Japan would take too much time.”

The ninja crossed his arms. “Somewhere else, then. We can still heal you in other ways.”

“The issue with that, is that the damage is spiritual. It’s literally my soul. Angelic, too, which means only certain places will work or we’ll have to counter it in specific ways. Like a genie’s wish.”

“There’s plenty of spiritual healing places out there,” he protested.

“Yes, but the administrators are assholes and those places are well-known,” I countered. “Most of them lose their power after enough uses, and regain it slowly. We’re in a period where none of them are going to be at full capacity because people sorely needed healing during the first few stages of the system. Sure, I could go and find the Fountain of Youth. That’s fairly timeless, but unfortunately we missed its most potent phase by about a week, and it won’t open up again for a month.”

“Your knowledge is impressive, Anthony Franklin,” the Oracle of Cinders praised, stroking his beard. “If I did not know what happened to the last of my kind who touched you, I might be tempted to try and discover some of your secrets.”

“What’s he mean?” Mercury asked.

“The Red Oracle, back in Sedona, offered to read my future. She saw things she shouldn’t have, and she lost her class abilities,” I told him bluntly, causing the ninja to whisper to himself, before turning back to the one in front of me. “I know that you feel the need to look into as much as you can, which normally makes you great at your class, but I’m really not the one to be doing that to.”

“Believe me, crossing you is the last thing I want to do. And I do not say that to placate you like I did this warlord,” the Oracle of Cinders said, holding up a hand. “You have been nothing but polite, offered me vengeance, and have answered many questions that I have had.”

“But he hasn’t answered a lot of questions at all,” Mercury pointed out.

“Oracle,” I explained, tapping my head.

The ninja looked down in thought for a moment before sighing. “I… guess that explains everything?”

“You’ll get used to it,” the Oracle of Cinders said, clearly amused, before turning to me. “So, what is your plan? I can transport you both to Al-Safa in seconds. That is not a problem, but the enemy is.”

I nodded. “You’re capable of sending us to two different places, right?”

“Hold up,” Mercury said, holding a hand up to his chest. “You want to split the party?”

“You want to get in a fight where it’ll probably be necessary to kill people?” I asked, arching an eyebrow.

“Well, no…” he said, slowly lowering his hand.

“Unfortunately, that’s the likeliest outcome,” I replied. “At the very least, taking out Faarax here will save lives in the long run. Killing him with only 50 casualties from his followers? That’s a bargain compared to what happens later. The other two I’ll have to play by ear. Plus, you’ll be fine. So long as you don’t take anything and present the genie with the lamp, you’re going to be golden. I’ll probably even be done before you get back.”

“You’re sure, though?” Mercury asked, clearly uncertain.

With a smile, I placed my hand on his shoulder. “Yeah, man. I know you’re just looking out for me. Your concern is appreciated, but better spent elsewhere. So don’t worry. You’re going to nail it. Get that genie, and all will be good.”

“This is going to be the second time you throw me into a dungeon saying that I’m going to nail it,” he returned, but I could tell he already accepted his fate. “Guess I’ll do what I can, then.”

“Excellent,” the Oracle said before I could speak. “To answer your question, yes. I can split you up. From the sounds of it, I assume you want your companion at the entrance to the dungeon?”

“You are correct.”

“Then where do you want to be?” he asked.

I smiled, pulling away from Mercury. “Put me smack dab exactly where they’re expecting me,” I answered without reservation. “If they’re planning on trapping me somehow, then I’m going to need to teach them that they are woefully unprepared for the prey they’ve decided to hunt. My entrance needs to make a statement, and they will know fear.”

The Oracle of Cinder’s grin was a feral one. Honestly, with more pseudo-regressors out there having their memories back, the smile on my face at the mere thought of facing them wasn’t much different at all.