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>>47853851

“Well,” Sho says at last, breaking the pall of silence that hangs over the dining room, “That was easier than I expected.” He pours wine into two cups, placing one in front of an empty seat. Grimacing a little as he takes a sip from his own cup – clearly, the boy is a stranger to drinking wine - the Emperor waves you over.

Things went smoothly, you agree as you take the cup, no bad thing.

“I wouldn't have minded a little more crying and pleading,” Sho admits, with just enough of a smile to take the sting out of his words, “But yes, this was all smooth enough for me. There will be more to keep an eye on, but I have Ra to take care of that for me. Everything is in capable hands, wouldn't you say?”

“I certainly hope so,” Ra, announces, appearing on the scene as if merely saying his name was enough to summon him, “I have confessions from eight of the nine conspirators, all pointing towards Takino.”

“Only eight?” Sho raises an eyebrow, “You must be slipping.”

“The final man has yet to regain consciousness,” Ra allows himself a small shrug, “I can't get answers from a comatose man. Between their testimonies, and Gahima's confession, we've got more than enough to pin Takino to the wall. It will be much harder to link him with the Ascetic, but I hardly think that matters now – one attempt on the Emperor's life is more than enough to seal his fate.”

“Yes, well, we'll take what we can get,” another sip of wine passes Sho's lips, and another frown creases his brow, “I don't wish to appear ungrateful, Ira, but I'm to have a lot of work to do soon, so if you had any business with me...”

Do it now, you finish for him. What kind of work, you ask on a whim, does he have to do?

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>>47853861

“Finding a good man to command the Stone of the South-East, for one thing,” Sho glances around at you, a smile touching his face, “Oh, and the Stone of the South-West as well, that's even more work to deal with. I don't suppose...”

No, you reply quickly, you respectfully decline.

“Shame,” the Emperor's smile doesn't falter for a moment, as if he expected just this answer, “But I have others I can turn to. That man Grahn – he's a little young, but I think he's got a bright future ahead of him. In a few years, he might be looking at a promotion.”

“It's a little early to be plotting out his entire career,” Ra reminds Sho carefully, “In fact, I think we should leave these matters until the morning. Time, after all, is on our side.”

“Yes yes,” waving a dismissive hand, Sho returns his gaze to you, “So yes, was there anything you wanted to settle?”

>I'd like to speak with Takino, if that's possible
>No, there was nothing. It's about time I returned to the Nameless Temple
>I had something I wanted to discuss with you... (Write in)
>Other

>>47853861
What do you think about....your enemies? About the Ascetic, about the Seer, and about Takino? They were definitely wrong, but it's important to put down what you took away from the conflicts that were started and the causes they called others to. Because Sho will have to deal with Kala in his own way, indirectly and probably in terms of how he rules rather than ever talking to her.

>>47853868
>It's about time I returned to the Nameless Temple

>>47853868
Don't really have anything to say to Takino. We're not one to taunt.
>No, there was nothing. It's about time I returned to the Nameless Temple
"It's been interesting travelling with you these past few days Sho. My only advice for you right now is when you pick your military leaders be sure to screen them carefully yeah? It looks like you've already started to do that though. If you need me you know where to find me."

Shake his hand and Ra's.

>>47853938
We could probe his mind for stuff, but considering he went out with dignity, I kind of want to spare him that.

>>47853868
>>No, there was nothing. It's about time I returned to the Nameless Temple

>>47853868
>>47853920
Go with this. It's a good question to ask.

>>47853920
Yeap. Supporting.

You've got a question, you begin, before you set out on the long road back to the Nameless Temple. He's come across a fair number of enemies in the past weeks and months, you ask, but have they taught him anything? The Ascetic, the Seer and even Takino... what has he learned about their causes and their conflicts?

Sho takes a long moment to think about his answer. That alone, you realise, is a good sign. He doesn't blurt out anything impulsive, foolish or even flippant – he considers your words, and then he considers his own response.

“They were all men who refused to bend,” Sho says slowly, carefully, “They were all driven men, willing to do anything for their cause. Admirable, in a sense... but ultimately, such men have no place in a peaceful land. I won't repeat their mistakes – if I am to rule, it will be with an open palm, and not a closed fist. Takino might see that as a weakness, but that's the kind of weakness I'm more than happy to live with.”

A good answer, you think to yourself, one that holds much promise for the future. It's been interesting travelling with him these past days, you tell Sho, and you feel like you've learned a few things as well. You've just got one last piece of advice to give him...

In future, be a little more careful about the kinds of people he puts in charge of his army.

“Yes, well, I rather think I've learned my lesson there!” Sho laughs, “No, I'm going to think long and hard about the people I choose to keep around me, in future. Who knows, in the years to come, I might not even need an army such at this – that would be a grand thing, wouldn't you say?”

Something to aspire to, you agree, a hope for the future. Reaching out, you take Sho's hand and shake it firmly. He knows where to find you, you tell him, if the need arises. Just... not right away.

You've earned a little time off.

[1/3]

>>47854196

Take care of things here, you tell Ra as you move to shake his hand as well, someone needs to keep things neat and tidy.

“Oh, I'll make sure everything is in its place,” Ra assures you, with a sardonic smile, “I think that's the perfect job for an old man like me. It'll be nice to take a break from all this... trouble.”

Stepping back, you face both of them and bow formally. It's been interesting, you tell them again, and you were glad to do your part. Now, though, you've got to return to the Nameless Temple – you've got people waiting on you. Before you can rest, though, you've got one last task to take care of. One last loose end to tie up.

-

Under the dark sky, thick clouds shrouding the moon and the stars, you set out through the city streets. Yet, as you walk, you can't ignore a vague and nameless unease that churns within the darkest pits of your mind. It's almost like Murmur's maddening song, except even more ephemeral and fleeting. Just nerves, you almost manage to convince yourself, a restless anticipation ahead of your journey to Makai. That's all it is – what else could it be? With that fearful dismay, that ever-shifting anxiety eating away at you, you take a horse from the city stables and hit the road. As the clouds finally part, and a brilliant – yet somehow sickly – moon shines down upon you, you begin the long ride east.

It feels like a retreat, running away from some phantom enemy.

[2/3]

>>47854285

The days you spend on the road are surreal, as if you ride partially through your own dreams and fears. At points, you guide your horse from the road and wait for a pursuer that you know – logically, at least – is not coming. Each time, you wait a few moments before pressing on ahead, and each time you promise yourself that you won't give in to that paranoia again. Yet, time after time, you find yourself looking about the road – be it under the cold moon or the hot sun – in search of the enemy that trails you.

It's no physical enemy, you know that. It just doesn't change anything. It may just be a phantom of your restless mind, but it still haunts your every step.

The Seer needs to be dealt with. You won't be able to rest easily until this is finished.

-

When the Nameless Temple rises high above you, it comes as a relief, but one that is strangely muted. It's a blessing, to return to civilisation for a time, but the comfort of home seems to elude you. Even now, you feel more like a thief hiding from his pursuers. No, that's not it – you feel like an animal cowering away from a predator, hiding within a tomb for fear of being hunted down.

This needs to end.

>Head south to the cult enclave
>Find Soma – you leave immediately
>Get some rest before leaving. Try to, at least
>Other

>>47854341
>Find Soma – you leave immediately
Lets get it done.

>>47854341
>Find Soma – you leave immediately

>>47854341
>Find Soma

>>47854341
would bringing the choke gauntlets help?

>>47854458

>In this case, no. They were crafted to deal with a very specific kind of enemy, the leech-children found in Nodens' city.

>>47854512
alright then, let's go.

we could fish for a spell from Mentor, but Takino was mortal through and through, no gods involved whatsoever.

>>47854341
>>Find Soma – you leave immediately
Umm why is Ira so paranoid now?

>>47854612
His childhood abomination is stalking him and he can sense it.

>>47854612
Ira has been tripping death flags by the dozen, the realization is catching up to him now.

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You're not here for the comforts of home. You're here to fulfil a promise you made to Soma, to take her south in pursuit of the Seer. With that in mind, you set out to find her – and it's not a long search. As you expected, she waits in the blank, near-empty space of her room, sitting on her bed and staring at the opposite wall. A charitable mind would guess that he was meditating, emptying her mind of useless thoughts, just as she emptied her room of clutter and waste.

Somehow, you suspect something less noble. She masks it well, but a single glance into her eyes tells you that she's mired in the same kind of restless unease that you felt on the road. Even without knowing you were coming, she knew that the end was fast approaching.

“It's time?” she asks, without even sparing the breath to greet you.

It's time, you reply with the same blunt tone, is she ready to move?

“I'm as ready as I'll ever be,” Soma confirms, a slight hitch in her voice suggesting otherwise. Perhaps she can hear that brief hesitation as well, because she hastily continues speaking. “Don't even think about leaving without me,” she adds angrily, her anger forced and phony, “I'll follow you, Ira, don't think I won't.”

Just making sure, you shrug, you wouldn't think of leaving her behind.

“Then let's go,” she mutters, pulling up the deep hood of her flowing robes, hiding her face from direct sight. Without waiting for a response, she slips past you and heads out into the corridor, leaving you to catch up with her. She rattles slightly as she walks, you notice, countless bits and pieces of metal clinking together beneath her loose garb. Weapons of the Seer's own design, you assume, brought to assist in his undoing.

It seems fitting, somehow.

[1/2]

>>47854680
> countless bits and pieces of metal clinking together beneath her loose garb
etc etc gokigenyoumotherfucker.jpg

>>47854680

The moon is still bright as you're riding out with her, your exhausted horse left to rest at the Nameless Temple and replaced by a fresh steed. A small dose of that vile stimulant from your little silver flask drives back the fatigue, and you feel ready for whatever might cross your path.

Together, you ride most of the way in silence. Then, after a number of hours – on the featureless road, a more specific guess becomes meaningless – Soma twists around in the saddle to address you.

“You look like death,” she remarks, blind to the fact that she looks far from serene herself. Her eyes are ringed with dark shadows, and her skin has the pallor of a fresh corpse. When she catches you looking back at her, she barks out a humourless laugh. “I know, I know,” the young woman says, “It's a bad time for everyone. Just... we just need to get this over with. That's all.”

Right, you assure her, it's going to be over soon. You're impressed, actually, at how steady your voice is – your nerves feel shot, worn thin by the invigorating potion and the nameless fear that stalks you. As silence descends for another long period, you try to imagine what might wait for you in Makai. One last show of spiteful defiance, or a broken and defeated old man?

It's hard to say. You couldn't even begin to guess what the Seer might be thinking. Someone like him, one who has lived more years than any man has a right to, how can you know what he might be plannning? He could simply wait out there for a hundred years, returning to cast his shadow upon the next generation.

“We're getting close,” Soma declares after another long stretch of silence, “The passage shouldn't be too far from here.” Then she falls silent again, turning away from you and focussing on the road ahead.

>Ride on in silence
>I'm going to kill the Seer. If you can't handle that, turn back now
>When you see him, what are you going to do?
>Other

>>47854786
>When you see him, what are you going to do?
If I remember correctly we already told her we were going to kill him when she brought up this idea of coming along with and she accepted that.

>>47854786
>>When you see him, what are you going to do?

>>47854786
>What do you think of Sho now? Of how he measures up against the cause you first believed in?
>What kind of place do you think Tengaru should be?

>>47854786
>>When you see him, what are you going to do?

We didn't stop at the notpetra temple this time, strange.
>Ominous even.

When she sees him, the Seer, what is she going to do?

Your question seems to fall into the void separating you from Soma, vanishing without a trace into an abyss from which no reply, not even a hint that she heard the question, comes. At several points, it looks as though she was about to answer, even going to far as to turn and open her mouth, but every time she merely turns her eyes back to the path ahead. Then, when you've given up all hope of an answer, she speaks up.

“Talk to him,” she replies vaguely, “Ask him... I don't know. I've got so many questions, but I don't know if I want to hear the answers. As it is, I can almost convince myself that he was... that he had good intentions once. When I'm standing face to face with him, I'll know for sure. Maybe that's going to be enough – just seeing him one last time.”

What about the Emperor then, you ask after a lingering pause, what does she think about him and his cause?

“I wish it hadn't taken so much to teach him a little perspective,” Soma admits, “Looking back... I don't think he was ever bad, not like I thought. Young and foolish, maybe, but not the tyrant I was prepared to fight against. Now though? He was willing to swallow his pride and speak peacefully with Lord Lapis. That alone is more than I ever thought possible of him.”

And Tenngaru, you ask as you dismount your horse, what kind of place does she wish it to be?

“A place where men can live with the gods, and not struggle against them,” she decides, “I don't know about how a land should be ruled or governed, but the gods have a place here – I'll defend them, their place here, for as long as I live. Soldiers defiling sacred ground, or twisted men trying to shape the gods in their own image... it doesn't matter, I'll stand against them.”

As you consider her answer, Soma thrashes into some tall bushes and drags out a small boat, pushing it into the mouth of the river. Ahead, the cult enclave awaits.

[1/2]

>>47855151

You row the small boat onwards, into the tight and choking confines of these strange tunnels. Soma sits in front of you, holding a short carbine to her shoulder and scanning the waters ahead for any threats. She needn't bother – there is nothing here at all, either threats or friendly faces. The only sound is that of your oar cutting through the water, propelling you ever onwards. The further you go, and the closer the tunnel walls become, you start to move slower and slower. By the time the cavern opens up, you're barely moving.

“Someone should be here to meet us,” Soma says suddenly, “That's how we worked – we'd hear boats coming in, and we'd come out to meet them. If there was anyone left here...”

True enough, you think as you look out across the makeshift settlement, the place looks abandoned. Not just deserted, but smothered under the deathly air of a barren land. Makai's presence is in the air, heavy in your lungs and grating against your already frayed nerves. As your boat bumps up against the crude dock, and you both rise up into the settlement, you find yourself wishing for someone to emerge. Even a desperate shot from a rifle would be a welcome sign of life.

Of course, nothing comes.

“So...” Soma murmurs as she traces the barrel of her carbine across the dead settlement, “Pharos... you can lead me there?”

Hopefully, you reply, you just need to take a look through these lenses. That should uncover the path. You'll find a good place to set things up, and then you can get to work.

“I... I want to take a look around first,” Soma asks, “I know we shouldn't be wasting time, but...”

>No, we'll look. There might be something hidden here
>There's no time for that now. Stay close and keep an eye out
>You go ahead and look. I've got to focus on these lenses
>Other

>>47855281
>No, we'll look. There might be something hidden here
Finagle with the lenses while we walk.

>>47855281
>No, we'll look. There might be something hidden here
>Sorcerers have the bad habit of turning corpses into death traps for passers by.

>>47855281
>No, we'll look. There might be something hidden here
notes on what the seer aspired for, maybe.

gnight

>>47855346
this

>>47855281
>>No, we'll look. There might be something hidden here
Maybe the runaways left something behind.

It's not a waste of time, you reply, there might be something left behind here. Something hidden, perhaps something that might shed a little light on things here. That alone would be worth the time spent searching. You'll both have to be careful, though – sorcerers have a habit of leaving traps behind, vile things sculpted out of dead flesh.

“Gods...” Soma mutters darkly as she starts to move into the settlement. Perhaps it's your grim warning that's to blame, but she seems less eager to search all of a sudden. Letting the carbine dangle from its sling, Soma draws out a heavy pistol – one of the cult's usual revolvers – and presses into the first building she comes across. As she sweeps through the small shack, you take out two of your lenses and study them. The patterns carved into the glass are wild and hypnotic, sprawling lines twisting out into pathways that cheat the eye. It would be all too easy to lose yourself in those designs, and it's with a great effort of will that you look away. They lenses all have one marking in common – a single marking at the top. Line those markings up, and the secrets will be revealed.

Maybe.

“Something here!” Soma calls out, her voice breaking you out of what you realise was almost a trance, “It's safe, just something you might want to see.”

Following Soma's voice – when, you wonder, did she get so far ahead? - you enter a larger building and stare, amazed, at a truly monstrous weapon. Far too heavy for any one man to carry, it looks more like a pile of rifle barrels arranged around a set of vast gears and mechanisms. You couldn't even begin to guess how it works.

[1/2]

>>47855621

“You turn this crank here,” Soma tries to explain, “And the barrel here fires, faster than any rifle or revolver. It's inefficient though – it was used once, and it burned through nearly all of our stored ammunition. Still, it's a terrifying thing to behold.”

It was, you agree as you realise what you are looking at, even more fearful when you're on the other side of the barrel. Sometimes when you close your eyes, you still hear the thundering sound it made when it fired, and the shriek of bullets falling like rain.

“Oh...” Soma hesitates, grimacing a little, “I hadn't realised...”

It doesn't matter, you shrug, keep looking.

The next time Soma catches your attention, it's for darker reasons. In her own, long-abandoned quarters, she finds a folded letter, one addressed to her. “Three people,” she says as she reads it, “That was all he had by the end of it. Three people, desperate enough to hang on every word and promise he made. Maybe... maybe they'd thrown away everything else. No better than those monstrous assassins the Ascetic used – and they're little more than weapons as well.”

And what about her friend, you ask, the one who wrote that letter?

“He said he was going to try to escape,” Soma grimaces, “But... I should have heard from them if they'd gotten out.”

Perhaps...

“No, don't say it,” she interrupts, “I know – prepare for the worst. Listen, these weapons... what do you want to do with them? As far as I know, the Seer kept all the plans and designs in his private chamber. If we destroy them, these weapons will never see the light of day again.”

>We'll destroy them. The land is safer this way
>I'll take the plans. This information could be valuable
>Leave them here. We don't have a right to decide this
>Other

>>47855880
>>We'll destroy them. The land is safer this way

>>47855880
>We'll destroy them. The land is safer this way
Revolvers and her grenades are fine, but gatling guns? Those are weapons of war which we don't need.

>>47855880
>>We'll destroy them. The land is safer this way
>I'll take the plans. This information could be valuable
Have Howa lose it in the library. If it's needed the gods will give some poor stupid Wanderer with more balls than brains a nudge to find it.

>>47855880
>>We'll destroy them. The land is safer this way

>>47855880
>We'll destroy them. The land is safer this way
"I don't believe for a second that getting rid of these designs will permanently stop it's widespread creation. We aren't ones to stagnate technology wise, specially with Sho at the helm. But we can slow it down a bit and give this fragile peace a better chance at getting stronger without it. Hopefully by the time it is reinvented there will still be no need for it."

Destroy them, you tell her, the land will be safer without these weapons falling into the hands of the military. Even with Sho's new, more moderate perspective, putting so much power into his hands could only lead to disaster. Destroy the prototypes, burn the plans, and let the knowledge be lost to the mists of time – it's better this way.

“I agree,” Soma nods, producing a small device from underneath her robes. A small clay pot, stopped with a thick wad of cork and trailing a length of cord. A bomb, you guess, of a particularly crude and improvised variety. With a sigh of faint regret, Soma leans down and places her bomb underneath the monstrous weapon, playing out the fuse so that it doesn't get tangled or cut off. With flint and steel ready to set a spark to it, she reaches out to the fuse. “When I light this, we'd better get out here quickly. It's not going to be a huge blast, but...”

Better safe than sorry, you agree, now do it.

“Here goes...” grimacing, mouthing some prayer to an unknown god, Soma flicks a few sparks onto the fuse, rising bolt upright as they take hold. Together, you flee from the shed, pressing hands to your ears as the bomb detonates. It's a fairly flat explosion, the sound muffled by the shed walls, but Soma still flinches away from it. After taking a moment to be sure that the building isn't about to collapse, you enter it once more and examine the remains of the weapon. It's a shattered mess, twisted metal scattered to all four corners of the room. “There,” Soma nods to herself, “Dead and buried.”

If only you could be that optimistic. Even without plans and a prototype, this technology will – one day – return to the land. That's something you can't stop, no matter how hard you try. At least this way you can slow it down, and buy the land a few more years for the fragile peace to settle.

That's all you can do, all you've ever been able to do.

[1/2]

>>47856304

With the prototype weapon destroyed, your next move is to destroy the Seer's plans. Except, you don't get that far. As you head towards his private domain, the great sealed door – barring the path to Makai - looms into view, and you are both struck dumb by the hideous, mocking sight of it. For the door is not like you remember it, blighted by the addition of a new and macabre trophy. Strung up upon that door, arms spread, is a battered corpse – old, and falling into decay. Around its wasted neck, however, you can easily make out the sign, and the word painted on it.

DESERTER.

“Gods...” Soma breathes, turning away and retching, “That... that bastard!”

It's him, you ask, isn't it? Her friend, the one who had been feeding her information? Unable to form the words, Soma merely nods, still facing away from both you and the awful sight. When she can finally trust herself to speak again, Soma returns her gaze – burning with newfound hatred – to you.

“We're cutting him down and we're burning his body,” she snarls, unwilling to accept a single word of argument.

Very well, you reply with forced calm, you were already going to put a torch to the Seer's papers. They'll serve as his funeral pyre.

-

Standing outside the Seer's chamber, you watch as the flames consume the structure from within. You don't say anything – no prayers or ritual words this time – but you simply watch. When Soma turns and walks away, returning to the great sealed door, you turn your back to the fire and start setting out your three lenses. The pyre casts off light enough for you, and it's about time you learned where this route will take you.

It takes a bit of awkward arrangement, but soon the light of the fire and lenses casts out an image, a vision that you lose yourself within.

[2/3]

>>47856484

It's impossible to properly describe what you see, to put a name to the wild and furious journey that you mind flies down. If you were asked to draw a map there, leading to dead Pharos, you simply could not do it – the directions have been wiped from your mind mere seconds after they were burned into it.

What's left is pure instinct, a longing urge that tugs you towards that great and ancient tomb. You might not be able to draw a map or name the directions, but you could set out on the path to Pharos as if you were a blind man, and you'd never stray.

Such is the divine power contained within these lenses.

Still reeling slightly from the experience, you stagger to the great door and join up with Soma again. She has donned her gas mask already, the smeared glass lenses not quite enough to cover up her reddened eyes.

“The Seer can't be allowed to walk away from this,” she announces as you draw close, her voice cold and hard, “He dies today.”

>You're right. It's time for him to pay for his crimes
>Nobody is beyond redemption, Soma
>This isn't your call to make
>Enough. You're staying here – I can't risk taking a liability with me
>Other

>>47856584
>You're right. It's time for him to pay for his crimes
Dude is spite incarnate. Mentor earned our trust as an ex-sorcerer with everything he has done as penance and the fact that he is so afraid of using most of his powers it drives him to inaction instead.

Seer committed atrocities and for all his talk about hating sorcery he used it often and made an apprentice that could then teach more people of the practice.

>>47856584
>>You're right. It's time for him to pay for his crimes
I really hope the seer sees this one coming a mile away. Also I hope Soma has a Baph charm on her, because we are probably going to have to murmur.

>>47856584
>You're right. It's time for him to pay for his crimes
That's the plan yeah.

>>47856645
Soma doesn't know magic so she'll be fine. Remember that our spell is a much quieter version of Murmur's chant, almost unhearable. It doesn't disorient.

>>47856584
>>You're right. It's time for him to pay for his crimes

>>47856584
>You're right. It's time for him to pay for his crimes
I'm willing for Soma to have the final blow. It'd be fitting.

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Right, you nod, it's time for the Seer to pay for his crimes. If he had simply slipped away into Pharos, running away to hide, then you might have stayed his hand. Then, with this last spiteful insult, you know that such mercy would be pointless. He won't stop or back down, so it falls to you to put him down.

“I wanted to know if there was any good left in him,” Soma remarks, before nodding back to the dying remains of the funeral pyre, “That's the only answer I need.” Slowly flexing her fingers – she looks like someone dreaming fondly of strangulation – Soma finds the hidden mechanism and pulls it, the sealed door slowly grinding open. As a gust of dead, ancient air rushes out to meet you both, you pull on your own gas mask. Looking out through stained and filthy glass, you set your sights on the wasteland beyond.

Neither of you says anything as you press on through the newly opened tunnel. You follow the instinct that sings out within you, while Soma merely traces your steps. As you emerge from the passage, and dead Makai stretches out before you, a shudder of revulsion runs down your spine. This place was bleak before, but now – now that you're starting to uncover the role Tenngaru's great gods played in its destruction – the wasteland is a place of true horror.

Pharos hides the Truth. You're not sure if you even want to know it.

“Here,” Soma manages to say, passing you one end of a short rope, “I don't want to get separated. Not out here. Not now.”

Nodding mutely, you tie the cord around your waist. Then, closing your eyes for a moment – listening to the alien guidance howling within your mind – you start the long journey to dead and forbidden Pharos.

[1/2]

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>>47856891

The things you see as you travel cannot be justifiably named, for they seem to obey no laws that you recognise or abide by. You pass through ruins of ancient temples – or maybe just buildings of an unspeakable archaic style – and empty courtyards of vast size. The one time you stop to examine your surroundings, brushing dust from cracked and shattered flagstones to peer at the designs beneath your boots, the things you see twist your stomach. The Nameless Temple is an uncanny thing, unnatural and unnerving to strangers, but the ruins you pass through in Makai are of a whole other order – looming, leering and twisted like cancerous bones.

After the first sickening time, you don't stop to examine anything. You just press on, keeping a close eye on the rope binding you and Soma together while the ancient guidance calls you on.

When the vast bones of titan beings – already dead, you suspect, when the mountains were young – loom up either side of you, you know that you're getting close. That's something you could guess, even without the directions burned into your mind. Forming a macabre set of archways, the bones lead towards a great stone door, one guarded by the shattered remains of inhuman statues.

Those statues – little more than legs and ankles, really – aren't the only sentinals. Three loathsome things, fleshy little monstrosities, are slumped across the broken, ashen ground, staring up at the door with mute stupidity. The abominations have the horns and claws of savage beasts, but the limp and soft nature of a mistake, something born before it was ready. They offer no resistance, simply flopped out facing the door.

Almost as if they were prostrating themselves in prayer.

Three last followers of the Seer. Three malformed abominations.

You can guess what happened here.

[2/3]

>>47857070

Forcing down your revulsion, you pass the fetal abominations by and slip through the great stone door, passing through the ajar opening. They paw vainly at you as you pass, moaning like cattle, but you ignore their piteous attempts and head into Pharos. From the outside, the building looked close to the Nameless Temple – larger, grander and somehow more complete – but inside... it's hollow, perfectly empty and barren.

From the entrance, you can see all the way to the furthers corners. You can see everything there is to see in this place – but there is only one single thing TO see. Sitting, meditating, in the precise centre of his vast tomb, is the Seer.

He wears no mask. He wears nothing but a thin robe to protect him from the harsh land, but he still appears perfectly in his element.

“Gods...” Soma whispers – the first word she has said in a very long time.

Numb, you approach the Seer with your weapons drawn, the muzzle of your revolver never straying far from his forehead.

“Have you come to kill me, Ira?” the Seer asks, without looking up, “A defenceless old man like me?”

He's not defensive, you retort, he probably has more power than you could ever possess.

“Perhaps so,” he admits, “But what if I choose not to use it? What if I choose to accept whatever judgement you pass?”

Is that it then, you ask, he's just going to give up? He's run this far, he's murdered and mutated the last of his followers, and now he's just going to let you kill him?

“Perhaps that is the case,” the ancient sorcerer tells you, finally looking up at you with his mismatched eyes – one dead, blinded from a look into the future, the other flat and blank.

>Why?
>I won't kill a man who refuses to fight back. Defend yourself
>It's time to die, old man
>Let me ask you something... (Write in)
>Other

>>47857244
>>Why?

>>47857244
>>Why?

>>47857244
>>Why?
Be ready for trickery, get ready to land the final blow and get the answers that Soma want.

>>47857244
>>Other
Turn on Song of Discord. Better safe than sorry.

>Why?
"Everything I've heard about you says the contrary. That you will keep blindly following your goal to prevent a future that has no chance of actually occurring now. Selene played you Seer."

>>47857244
>Why?

>>47857244
>Why?

>>47857244
>Other
Song of Discord.


>Why?
>Let me ask you something... (Write in)
"How is it that you claim to be fighting for the gods and then you go ahead and create an apprentice of sorcery?"

Why, you ask again, why won't he even raise a hand to defend himself?

“Ira... do you know how long I've lived, drawing my plans and working towards my goals? Can you even comprehend the time I've spent?” the Seer asks you in response, “All that time, I've never allowed myself to stop, to compromise or to meet my enemies halfway. To bend even an inch was to accept defeat. Even now, I live by that – I cannot stop now. For as long as I live, I must fight against the future. To even consider surrender would be to cast aside every second I have devoted to my cause. That, I cannot allow.”

Then why not fight, you ask as Soma draws up next to you, why accept death?

“...I'm tired, Ira,” the Seer replies slowly, his voice betraying a crushing weight of fatigue, “I cannot allow myself to rest... but perhaps there is rest to be found in death.”

As Soma points her own gun at the Seer's calm, serene face, you call upon Murmur's discordant song. A flicker of pain crosses the Seer's face as he senses the magic, soon replaced by a dark amusement.

“Even now, Ira, you suspect me of trickery,” he lets out a hollow laugh, “I suppose I've earned that much.”

Is it any wonder, you retort, when he uses sorcery – an ancient blasphemy – to achieve his own ends? He claimed to be a defender of the gods, and then he passed the forbidden arts to a new student. How exactly does that work?

“In war, one must use every tool in one's arsenal,” he answers, “If it offers you any comfort, it was not a decision I made lightly... and it was one I quickly came to regret. Desperation makes men do foolish things, does it not? To that end, I ask you – how desperately do you wish for peace? Enough to shoot a defenceless old man?”

[1/2]

>>47857590

If you let him live, you say slowly, he'd just keep blindly chasing his vision of the future – a future that can never happen now. He might have stolen that glimpse of the future from Selene, but she'll have the last laugh. He was played, led down this path by a goddess with her own agenda. How does it feel, you ask on sudden impulse, to be the butt of her joke?

“Ah, fair and noble Selene,” the Seer laughs bitterly, “Yes, if anyone was to play men against one another, reducing them to little more than toys, then it would be her. You may think me a manipulative man, Ira, but I learned it from her. But as you say, she was the better game player – she moved her pieces against me, and I lost.”

“Is that all we were to you?” Soma cries out, “Pieces on a chess board? Tools and weapons, to be thrown away when we were no longer of any use? My brother – was he just another pawn in your game?”

“Of course,” the Seer replies, turning his head to look her in the eye, “I won't lie or pretend otherwise – I used you all. I must say, you were a great disappointment to me, Soma. I expected better from you.”

With a wordless gasp of hate and despair, Soma begins to tighten her finger on the trigger of her revolver. Her hand shakes as she holds the gun to the Seer's head. Seconds away from death, and the Seer looks... happy.

The bastard looks happy.

>Let Soma shoot him
>Pull her aside and shoot the Seer yourself
>Pull her aside, let the old man live
>Other

>>47857590
just give him a gun with only one bullet

>>47857642
>>Other
Both at the same time. Make sure he's dead. One in the head, one in the heart.

>>47857642
>Let Soma shoot him

bastard wants a suicide by cops, wanderers in this case.
If he wish to an hero, he can do it while we watch.
>Ira "Do it faggot" Furyo

>>47857642
>Shoot him in the gut
>Leave him a knife to finish the job.

>>47857642
>Hold Soma off for now
>Don't let him be a martyr

>>47857642
>Let Soma shoot him
Let her close this chapter of her life.

>>47857768
A martyr for who? I don't think you get what martyr means.

>>47857642
>Let Soma shoot him

>>47857768
He is going to die in an abandoned temple in the middle of nowhere with no one believing in his cause. A martyr he ain't and cannot be.

>>47857654
>Giving him a gun that he might shoot one of us out of spite with.
>Instead of just giving him a knife to sudoku with.

I mean there is still a danger but a much more manageable one.

>>47857861
I'd rather not give him anything and just end. HE has no honor as it is, so it's just putting down a mangy old dog.

>>47857879
True enough, I was just pointing that out on the off chance it went through.

>>47857642
>>Other
Veragi's dagger must taste his blood!

>>47857642
>>Let Soma shoot him
Just get it over with quickly.

The sound of the gunshot seems very small, almost insignificant, in this vast tomb. Even if the noise is swallowed up by the empty space, however, the effects are anything but ineffective. A clean shot, even with the tremors gripping Soma's hand, the bullet drills into the Seer's temple and knocks him back, leaving his unresponsive body sprawled out across the ancient tiles, and the lunatic designs they form. As the sound of the shot fades away, it is joined by a second, far smaller sound – a metallic clatter as the gun drops from Soma's unresponsive hand. Fumbling for her mask, she turns away from the body and lets out a heavy, rasping gasp.

As she recoils from her act, you slowly kneel down and press your fingers to the Seer's throat. His beat has grown still, and already the body is taking on the waxen texture of a corpse. Black flowers of decay start to blossom across his skin, the countless years of his unnatural life rushing to catch up on him. By the time you've risen to your feet, you can already see bone through his crumbling flesh. A moment more, and that bone is pitted with signs of age.

Watching the dissolution of his flesh and bone, you feel... something. It's like something brushing up against your mind, creeping around and trying to find a way in. Soma doesn't seem to notice it – she's far too busy staring off into space, her eyes hollow and dead – but still, the sensation tugs at your awareness. Then, it speaks to you.

“Don't you want to know?” the voice – three voices, all whispering at once – rushes into your mind, “Don't you want to know the Truth?”

Of course, you realise, this is Pharos – where the Truth of dead Makai is said to slumber. Now, it comes to you with the offer – and the curse - of knowledge.

>Open your mind to the Truth
>Close your mind. You don't need to know

>>47858064
>>Open your mind to the Truth
We've gone this far to find it. Time to experience it for ourselves.

>>47858064
I feel like it's more trouble than it's worth. Our percpetion of things is good as it is without digging into the past and bringing up ancient knowledge.
>Close your mind. You don't need to know

>“Don't you want to know the Truth?”
"What I want is to go home and take a nap with my lover."

>>47858064
>“Don't you want to know?” the voice – three voices, all whispering at once – rushes into your mind, “Don't you want to know the Truth?”

Okay just the way that was phrased is giving me bad vibes. I am going to go with my gut instinct here and not give into temptation, as anti-climatic as it is.

>Close your mind. You don't need to know

>>47858099
>>47858133
Like hell I'd fall for that last bit of 'are you sure you're sure?'. We've come here with a goal knowing full well that it could change us, but still being us at the end. We have went into dangerous situations unheeded before and came out of them. It is not like Ira to throw it away just like that.

>Open your mind to the Truth
We may be an old wander, but seeing the world and all aspects of it, we should see the truth as well. Even if it's ugly. For thats who we are.

>>47858064
>>Open your mind to the Truth

>>47858213
>We've come here with a goal knowing full well that it could change us,

We came here to kill Seer. Pharos's offer is just a bonus. But if you think it's worth the risk, whatever that risk may be, I guess go for it. I'm just getting bad vibes.

>>47858064
>>Open your mind to the Truth
I've got my own theories and I want to see if they were close.

>>47858245
This was always going to be a risk. We knew that. It's the same truth that scared Seer and Mentor on their paths. But the thing about knowing truths, is that they don't necessarily change you.

I do agree with you though. This is going to lead to trouble one way or another. The truth always has after all. Yet we have always gone for the thorny path to get it. Even on our first mission. We seek the truth no matter what, and in doing so found ways to right old wrongs and help the future. This is just the last big surprise awaiting us before we tie up the past.

>>47858343
>last big surprise awaiting us
Oho I bet there are two more for Ira coming up very soon.

Curiosity, once aroused, can be near impossible to ignore. It's driven men to destruction, that capricious desire to learn, to study and understand the land's secrets, but you still cannot resist giving in to it. How many men get the chance to know this, the ultimate Truth?

Not many.

Accepting the risks, the dangers of what you're doing, you sink down to your knees and you close your eyes. Here, in the darkest corner of dead Makai, you close your eyes and open your mind to the Truth. When you open your eyes once more, you're no longer the man you once were.

-

Your name is Titanos, and you hunger for strength, for bloodshed and glory.

Your name is Nodens, and you thirst for knowledge, for secrets of arcane wisdom.

Your name is Selene, and you lust for power, to hold dominion over the hearts and minds of men.

That's why you started down this dark path, ripping the power from the gods themselves and using it to fuel your own selfish desires. As many have done before you, and few will do afterwards, you have pulled the gods from their thrones and taken their crowns for yourselves. Now, driven by the desperate urge to surpass your past sins, you have turned your hunger upon the last and greatest of all the gods. Here, in Pharos, you consumed the sun itself.

And it still wasn't enough for you. Fattened and drunk on stolen power you gathered here, upon the grave that was once a grand temple, and you reached into the land itself. Wherever life flourished, you fed, leaving naught but empty dust behind. Men and animals, plants, insects, stars and hope, all those were taken to feed your hunger. With such power within your grasp, you gained true divinity – true strength, true knowledge and true power.

But with those blessings came the curse of insight. With hubris cast aside, you were faced with the depths of your crimes.

What else could you do, other than fleeing to the peaceful lands to the north?

[1/2]

>>47858064
>>Open your mind to the Truth
this is the second reason we are here!

>>47858505

You – once again Ira Furyo, an ageing Wanderer and the pivot upon which fate has rocked – watch as the land blossoms around you, Tenngaru's history playing out in front of you. Too fast to notice all but the broadest strokes, you watch as the three great gods – liars, frauds and cannibals all – cast aside much of their old histories, and with it the burden of their sins. Unpunished, escaping the weight of their crimes, they settled in to rule over the land as three almighty gods. Old now, and distant from their ancient selves, they still reign – Tenngaru's past, present and future all within their grasp.

This is the Truth they conspired to hide, the Truth that Selene warned against. Shame, bitter regret, and grotesque self-pity, this Truth is stained by all those.

Now you know it too.

-

“Ira?” Soma shakes you, gripping you tightly by the arm, “Ira, wake up! Wake up, damn you! Agh... stop passing out on me!”

You're awake, you reply numbly, you're still alive.

“Well... good!” she seems to have recovered her wits – how else would she cry out like that? - but her eyes are wild with fear, “We need to get out of here, now! I can feel something... something clawing at my mind. Come on!”

She feels it too?

“I don't want to feel it!” she snaps, punching you hard on the shoulder and tugging at you, “We need to GO!”

>Right... we need to leave
>Soma, you need to know this. The gods aren't what they say. Sit down and listen!
>Other

>>47858725
>Right... we need to leave

So a sorcerer got really fucking powerful and was insatiable for more power. Killed Pharos and every other god in Makai, drained the land, realized how fucked up things have got, fled to Tenngaru and split into the Trio of gods.

Shit is heavy, but what's done is done. We might not look at them the same way, but for the most part they have changed.

>>47858725
>The current gods were sorcerers who killed thier way to true divinity
Called it!

>Right... we need to leave

>>47858725
>>Right... we need to leave
And that is the simple truth. Though in a way, they still suffer and are making penance. Titanos is teaching people how to be better, enlightening tribal people to help everyone.

Nodens suffered greatly and is making amends. Celeste? She's a bitch, but as time passes she is going to lose power and followers as the people come and go and new ideas are brought. Her visions will be mired.

We came for the truth, we got it, and it is what it is. The past is the past, and Ira is Ira.

>>47858787
3 sorcerers but yes

>>47858725
>Right... we need to leave
The Bitch is coming I think.

>>47858725
>>Right... we need to leave
We can't let this break us.

>>47858725
>Right... we need to leave

It takes an effort, a mighty act of will, but you shake off the lingering grasp of the past. What's done is done, and you can't let yourself become mired in the secrets you've been given. The gods have their own share of sins, but even now they strive to redeem themselves. As the Mentor labours away, trying to purge himself of what he sees as an unforgivable sin, so too do the gods work to pay their penance. This Truth is a weighty one – you're not sure if you'll ever be able to see the land in the same way – but you refuse to be crushed by it.

Selene said that it would break you. You refuse to give her the satisfaction of being right.

“Stand up old man!” Soma rages, sending a sharp little kick into your backside. That, as much as anything else, is what blasts away the last traces of your fugue.

Right, you declare firmly, it's time to get out of here.

“Thank the gods,” Soma breathes, holding onto your arm as you rise to your feet. Perhaps it's terror that makes her cling to you like that, or the simple fear of getting lost. Maybe she worries about your old bones, and holds on in case you fall. Whatever the reason, it takes a lot to shake her off.

And no more of that old man talk, you tell her as you both head towards the entrance, or you'll leave her behind.

-

You can't avoid comparing your flight from Makai with the journey undertaken by the gods – or those ancient sorcerers, as you can't help but think of them. Just as they sought to flee from their sins, so too do you flee from the knowledge of them. Even so, you know that you'll never be able to strike it from your mind. Once learned, this Truth is a part of you until the day you die.

And you don't plan on dying any time soon.

[1/3]

File: Howa.png (763 KB, 650x885)

763 KB PNG

>>47859067

The sun has risen by the time you return to Tenngaru, to the land that you call home, but you have no idea how much time has passed. A matter of hours, or a matter of days? A deep hunger gnaws at you, matched by a great and deathly exhaustion, but that doesn't mean much. In Makai, the flow of time seems abnormal – as if those ancient devils shattered all natural laws when they fed on the land. Whether it has been hours or days, the facts remain the same – you need a damn good meal, and a damn good sleep.

Both rest and food can be found at the closest outpost town – not exactly good rest or good food, but you're willing to take what you can get – and when you return to the road, your mind is clearer than it's been in days.

It doesn't last.

It's only a small thing at first, occasionally glancing over your shoulder as you ride, but soon the crippling paranoia that blighted your journey from the capital has returned. No, it's more than returned – it's worse than ever. Whenever you close your eyes, you can practically feel bony claws closing around your face, the hot breath of a predator caressing your back. Soma rides on ahead, blissfully ignorant of the horror that gnaws away at you. When she gaily announces that the Nameless Temple is close, the most you can manage is a strangled murmur of acknowledgement. When you arrive at the temple itself, you nearly fall from your saddle as you dismount.

This isn't right. This should be over. This IS over.

Hiding your turmoil behind a dead, expressionless mask – a passing glance would mistake you for a man broken by fatigue – you enter the Nameless Temple and lock eyes with the woman you love. She was waiting for you, waiting to welcome you back.

Waiting like a spider, a sick part of your mind whispers.

[2/3]

>>47859205
IT'S NOT OVER YET, SNAKE!

File: Young Ira.png (1.07 MB, 868x1227)

1.07 MB PNG

>>47859205

“I thought it would be nice to have a meal together,” Howa remarks as she leads you to her quarters, “I know I'm not the best cook in the world – so I don't want to hear any groans out of you, Ira Furyo – but I've been reading up. It's really not too difficult, you know. It just takes a little care. I suppose it's common sense, but I never thought you had to watch a pot like that...”

She keeps talking, mindlessly rambling away as you follow her. If she notices your deathly silence, she puts no special value on it, lending it no significance. Outside her door, she stops, turning to give you an unusually shy, girlish smile.

“It's finished now, isn't it?” she asks, “We can really settle down now, together.”

Together, you croak. At that moment, it feels like all the bile in your body is surging up to choke you, a tight fist closing around your wounded heart. It takes all your strength, everything you can scrape together, to give voice to another few words. Just the two of you, you add.

“Actually...” Howa reaches out to take your hand, lightly pressing it to her stomach, “It's going to be three, soon.”

It breaks you, that single innocent word. Something inside you snaps, and a thick pall of darkness falls across your mind. Dimly, you hear Howa crying out your name, but that seems far away and unimportant.

You're too busy fainting to pay it any heed.

-

You wake up in the last place you want to be. It's not a wasteland, like dead and murdered Makai, but a simple village, one surrounded by skeletal trees. The village of your birth, still in the grips of the famine that nearly took your life.

And you're a child again, burdened by a sword you can barely use and dragging your weak body towards the shrine. Towards the cause of all this.

>Follow these familiar old steps
>Resist. The past has no hold over you

>>47859347
>Resist. The past has no hold over you
We aren't a child anymore. Break free from this and kick it's ass Ira.

>>47859347
>>Follow these familiar old steps
Time to put an end to old demons and loose ends.

>>47859347
I can't tell which of these two options has us confront this thing, preferably in the real world where we can kill it.

>>47859347
>>Resist. The past has no hold over you
We are Ira 'RIP AND TEAR' Furyo! We hold Verangi's dagger! We sing Murmus song! We did not break from The Truth! IT WILL DIE!

>>47859347
>Resist. The past has no hold over you

>>47859347
>>Resist. The past has no hold over you

You're not some weak child, powerless to resist the cruelties that life has subjected you to. Maybe once, a long time ago, you were that frail and fragile child, but those days have long since past. You're a man now – an old man, as everyone is so fond of reminding you. No longer are you at the beck and call of whatever monstrosity tries to claim you.

You reject this past, and the hold it has over you.

As this resolve hardens your heart, you feel the weakness seeping from your limbs, a new strength – the venerable strength of age and experience – rushing in to replace it. Once more a man, you stand in the village you once called home. As you regain your strength, the buildings around you are plunged into decay and degradation, collapsing into ruinous piles as strange, alien plants coil around the remains. Within moments, this place bears only a passing resemblance to the village you grew up in, instead appearing to be nothing less than the garden of a cruel and cosmic god.

“Yes...” a voice hisses out from all around you, “Such strength! I want it...”

Who's there, you bark, who's out there?

“A fool's question, child. You know who I am,” the voice continues, purring with cruel satisfaction, “The time has come, has it not? We had a deal, you and I, and it's time for you to pay your debts. Oh, you can try to run, to resist, but it will only be buying time. Come to me, child of man, and we can settle our debts...”

Never, you whisper as the ungodly growths consume the last of your village, never!

“Come to me...” the voice hisses, fading away with the rest of this nightmarish illusion. The next voice you hear is Howa's, crying out your name.

Reality returns, and with it comes the knowledge of what you must do.

You need to go home.

[1/2]

>>47859671

You've made it three paces down the corridor before Howa catches up with you, grabbing your arm and pulling you into a tight embrace. Her walking stick, carelessly abandoned as soon as she got within arm's reach of you, clatters to the floor. That brittle sound, as much as anything, is what wakes you up properly. With numb and trembling hands, you return Howa's embrace.

“What happened out there, Ira?” Howa pleads, “Just talk to me, what happened?”

Nothing happened, you murmur, not out there. It was... something else. Something... you've got to go. You've got something you need to do.

“You said things were over!” she cries, still clinging to you, “Now there's one more thing? What about after that, will there be something else? It's never going to end, not until you're on a funeral pyre, and I'm a widow.”

It's not like that, you try to assure her, it's not like that at all...

“Don't you understand, you old fool? You're going to be a father – a father!” Howa's grip tightens on your arms, her fingers digging into you, “You can't... you can't leave me like this.”

>This is something I have to do. It's personal – I have to settle a debt
>You don't understand, this is for the good of the land
>You can't stop me from leaving
>You're... right. I need to be here, to stay
>Other

>>47859818
>This is something I have to do. It's personal – I have to settle a debt
It's because I'm becoming a father that this must be settled. I'm not letting some abomination taking it's price out of my wife or child. Nor am I going to run from the past. If I want to face the future, I mus face my own mistakes.

>>47859818
>This is something I have to do. It's personal – I have to settle a debt
"The thing that killed our village Howa. I met it. And now it wants to collect for sparing my life back then. It needs to die before I can move on else it'll keep haunting us. I would never leave you Howa. Either of you."

With a pointed look at her stomach.

>>47859818
>What killed our town wasn't a god going mad Howa. It was a Sorcerous abomination. It got into my head when we were starving, and it's calling me to it now. It needs to die or it will drive me insane more surely as Murmur's song. This isn't by choice, I don't WANT this, but it has to be done, lest I put you and our child in danger. I won't have some monster hurt the woman I love or my child. This won't take long Howa. Won't take long at all.

>>47859818
>This is something I have to do. It's personal – I have to settle a debt
"If I don't put this thing down I'll be looking over my shoulder for the rest of my life. This is to protect you as well. To protect...my family."

>>47859818
>You're... right. I need to be here, to stay
but
>This is something I have to do. It's personal – I have to settle a debt

>>47859818
You know, thinking about it, the sword we have, is it the same sword we had ever since that event? Because I have a feeling we may have to legacy weapon this bitch.

>>47859818
>This is something I have to do. It's personal – I have to settle a debt
looks like I made it in time

>>47860056

>I hadn't thought about that until now, but I don't see why it shouldn't be. Using a family sword is a pretty cool thing to do, I think!

Howa, you whisper, this is something you have to do. This is to settle a debt, a debt that has been hanging over your head since you were a child. If you don't settle things now, you'll never be able to rest. It'll keep hounding you, driving you mad just as surely as Murmur's song would, until you put this evil down.

“What evil?” she murmurs, but the edge of hysteria has left her voice, “What is it? Can't... can't someone else handle, just this once?”

This is personal, you tell her, this is the monster that killed your village. It was no god, it was an abomination of sorcery. You were both starving, desperate, and that left you open to its influence. This is about putting right your past mistakes, and you can't face your future until this has been put to rest. You wish you didn't have to do this, but it's out of your control now – until this is over, you'll never be able to settle down with her. You're doing this to protect your wife and child – you won't let some monster prey upon them.

Howa, her face buried in your chest, is silent for a long time. Then, pulling back and looking up at you with reddened eyes, a tiny smile touches her lips. “Wife,” she whispers, “You said “wife”. I heard you say it.”

Well, you hesitate as you realise she is correct, she said “widow” first.

“I did, didn't I?” her smile deepens slightly, “I think we just proposed to each other.”

She might be right about that, you admit. So... one last task to take care of. Reaching down, you pick up Howa's cane and gently press it into her hands, letting her stand on her own. You'll be back soon, you assure her, this won't take too long at all.

Wiping her red-rimmed eyes, Howa lets out a shaky sigh and nods once, firmly. Then, with a burst of desperate strength, she reaches up and presses her lips to yours. “Something for you to remember,” she murmurs, “To remind you of what you've got waiting for you.”

As if you needed a reminder.

[1/2]

>>47860214

The ride to your old village is not a long one, but it seems to take hours – days, even. The haunting paranoia that had haunted you earlier is gone now, replaced by the serenity of acceptance. This is what fate had in store for you, what has been lying ahead of you ever since you first came to the Nameless Temple, and you're finally ready to face it head on. With Veragi's dagger on one hip, and your old sword on the other – the same, heirloom blade that you brought to the shrine all those years ago – you feel as ready as you'll ever be. Whatever lies ahead... you'll fight to the last drop of blood in your body.

The thought that you might not return from this is always there, dancing around the very edge of your mind.

Always an isolated spot, the ruins of your old village are shrouded in thick trees, their leaves tainted with a diseased, unnatural colour. The awful, bulbous plants that coil around the ruins of the buildings are worse, the perfect match for those alien growths that you saw in your nightmare. Gritting your teeth, you only glance at them as you pass. Those vile plants are not your concern – it's the evil that sleeps in the old shrine that is to blame for this, for everything.

From the outside, the shrine looks... normal. An old, broken down shrine, the kind that could be found in any number of old villages. It bulges slightly, as if the wood has become damp and distended. You approach, and then the hissing voice pierces your mind.

“Come inside...” it leers, “Come, join the Diaspora. Feed me, and our children will spread across this land. Won't you just come inside? Just close your eyes, child, and all your debts will be settled...”

>I refuse
>I wholeheartedly refuse
>Show your face, monster – I'm here to kill you
>Other

>>47860339
>>Show your face, monster – I'm here to kill you
My debts have long been settled. Time for you to pay yours.

>>47860339
>>Other
if we have granades, throw one in. otherwise draw your weapons.

>>47860339
>I wholeheartedly refuse
>Show your face, monster – I'm here to kill you

Just cast Wrath right now. If this bitch gives us time to buff up thats her funeral.

>>47860339
>>I wholeheartedly refuse
>>Show your face, monster – I'm here to kill you

>>47860415
Only smoke grenades unfortunately. Soma has all her frags.

>>47860339
>>I wholeheartedly refuse
>>Show your face, monster – I'm here to kill you
Wrath if we can target her, As the mountain if we cannot.

>>47860460
Wrath can just be *on*. The combo resets if we change targets however.

>>47860459
damn, still even if it does not breathe the dissrespect of the act would be fun

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You wholeheartedly refuse.

Your debts, you spit, were settled long ago. Even if they weren't, you don't owe a thing to a monster such as this. Now, she'd better show her face – you're here to kill her.

“Ssss...” the monster – Diaspora – lets out a slow hiss of rage, “Then I'll take your life for my own! This could have been easy, feeble child, easy and painless, but you chose the hard road. So be it!” Then, as you call upon Titanos' power - directing his baleful eye down upon the lurking monstrosity – you draw your weapons and clash them together. The sound of metal rings out like a bell, and the ground rumbles in response. Like the beating of a great and terrible heart, the walls of the old shrine bulge out, festering wood straining to contain the fiend within.

Come on, you snarl, come out and die.

It doesn't waste words on answering you. Instead, the abomination explodes free of its prison, shattering the shrine apart and boiling out like a sea of corruption. Like tainted bones and rotting branches, the creature churns and shifts into some semblance of form.

You've seen this so many times - in your nightmares, in Zulathoon's cursed visions, and at one terrible point in your childhood. Now you're here again, face to face with the monster that has been looming over you for your whole life.

And you're going to kill it.

>Please roll a D100, aiming to beat 80/90/100. I'll take the highest of the first three, and this is at +5
>Name a spell card if you wish to use it, as well

Rolled 82 + 5 (1d100 + 5)

>>47860668

Rolled 45 (1d100)

>>47860668
Either wrath or murmure's

Rolled 16 + 5 (1d100 + 5)

>>47860668

>Ah, I realise I should have mentioned. We're starting this with Wrath of the Gods activated. My mistake!

>>47860694
>>47860668
Cool. As the Mountains

We get another permanent buff and it'll break the 90 tier pass.

>>47860668
As the Mountains. We'll get 90+.

Rip and Tear Ira.

Rolled 24 (1d100)

>>47860668
As the Mountains

>>47860668
Wtf did we agree to anyway? I feel like we should know what the deal is, I get the strangest feeling that it has to do with our child.

>>47860746
>>47860776
It needs to be done!

>>47860821
Basically it was: "I'll spare you now, but when you become an adult and get all powerful with magic and shit I will return to eat you and make abomination babies with you."

Nothing to do with our family. Just wants the Ira brand magic.

>>47860668
As the mountain to buff offense and defense. Murmur will make her more feral so we need to be properly prepared. REMEMBER, we can use 1 card twice for this fight. Either it be teleportation, a buff, healing, what have you.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jgInZivVMHQ have some final boss music.

Rolled 5 (1d100)

Heedless of his past, caring neither for his crimes nor his sins, you call out for Titanos to gift you with his strength. With the old man of the mountains watching over you, you will not break.

You can't allow yourself to lose now. Maybe Takino can accept defeat, maybe even the Seer can give up at the last hurdle, but you refuse. You won't back down now!

As the Diaspora coils towards you, limbs that are neither emaciated bones nor withered branches reaching out to tear at you. Ducking low and close, you rake Veragi's dagger across its stomach – what passes for a stomach, at least – and slash high with your sword. Your blows part flesh, but no blood spills from the wounds you open. The pieces you cut free simply drop free like falling leaves, while the shorn stomach spills out a gust of powdery spores. When some of those glistening spores touch your skin, they burn, clinging like resin to your skin.

Cursing, you break away and put a little distance between you and the monster, swiping at the seeds that burn you. They're painful and irritating, but not dangerous. Not yet, at least – you wouldn't care to be covered in them.

“Don't run...” Diaspora coos, “Come a little closer...”

>Please roll 1D100, aiming to beat 80/90/10. I'll take the highest of the first three, and this will be at +15 now.
>If you wish to use a spell card, or any specific tactics, just mention it
>Also, I'll roll a D100 for this thing's attack. Aiming to beat 50/70/90

Rolled 63 (1d100)

>>47860943
sublime strike?

>>47860943
>laughing Ira and Howa.gif

Rolled 48 + 15 (1d100 + 15)

>>47860943
Lets put on

[Earth] Saint's Perseverance
“Bear suffering with nobility, and you will be blessed with endurance.”
Activate while suffering from a hostile environment, such as fire, extreme cold or deep water, to gain immunity to the negative effects of that environment until the danger has passed.

To protect us from those seeds yeah? They are a hindrance.

>>47860957
Don't see why not. It's one of our few true offense cards. Make her bleed.

>>47860981
Actually, if this is a hazardous enviromental effect, I'll back >>47860976 A poison timer is never good. Especially in a long fight.

Rolled 41 + 15 (1d100 + 15)

>>47860943
Do the spores count as enviromental? Sublime otherwise

Rolled 4 (1d100)

>>47860943
let the fire purify with it Sublime Strike

>>47861034
>>47861013
>>47860976

>Yes, the spore will count as an environmental hazard, so Saint's Perseverance will protect us from them.

>>47861053
We should use it then. With Sublime we'd only hit the low tier passing attack.

We can use her fuck on her roll to shore up our defenses and negate one of her main attacks.

>>47861053
Then Saint's perseverance. Poison effects that could weaken us are a bitch and we wil not allow her to use trickery.

>>47861080
Wait I lied we break 90+.

I still think we should use Saints though. Up to you anons.

>>47861127
We need to stop any fight long debuffs she might cause with the spores

Rolled 16 (1d100)

Ignoring the creature's taunts, you focus on the spore that cling to you, tingling and burning away at your skin. In the space of a breath, you've accepted the pain as a reality, but you've denied it any influence over you. With that denial, the pain vanishes as if it was never there, and you can return your attention to the abomination before you.

>Saint's Perseverance activated.

Perhaps it's that ancient and nameless saint lending you some of his grace, but you don't feel the normal boiling rage that these creatures inspire in you. If anything, you feel quietly happy – as if this is the way things were meant to be.

With serenity clearing your mind, it's easy to see the attack that Diaspora prepares, a slithering rush that aimed to crush you beneath its bulk. Having seen it coming, it's even easier to be somewhere else, to swiftly slide around to the creature's bloated rear. Row upon row of lashing branches block you from launching an attack, but you're safe and prepared to face the next pass.

>Please roll 1D100, aiming to beat 80/90/10. I'll take the highest of the first three, and this will be at +20 now.
>If you wish to use a spell card, or any specific tactics, just mention it
>Also, I'll roll a D100 for this thing's attack. Aiming to beat 50/70/90

>>47861204
This bitch can't get a break and that's how I like it.

Rolled 93 + 20 (1d100 + 20)

>>47861204
ok, now we sublime strike. Seems like this is going to be how Ira ascends into god hood.

Rolled 87 + 20 (1d100 + 20)

>>47861204
dc 100 or 110?

>>47861271
On second thought.. never mind. Seems fate has decided to bless Ira with the sheer gift of justice. Bloody hit 10 over the critical.

Rolled 100 + 20 (1d100 + 20)

>>47861271
Don't even need to use Sublime with that roll honestly.

>>47861204
Hey Moloch would added Sublime strike to that roll do more damage even if we already passed the 100+?

Rolled 42 (1d100)

>>47861204
now I think we should use Sublime Strike
"Are you ready to repent?"

>>47861336
Pfft.

>>47861336

>It wouldn't add anything extra, I'm afraid. We're already hitting her as hard as we can for this attack, and that's without an extra spell!

>>47861336
Well.. considering you just rolled a perfect bloody 100. Jesus christ Ira. You really are becoming the god of getting shit done with that roll.

>>47861364
Well okay then. I guess no spells this round.

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>>47861336

>>47861336
>Ira "sorcerous fucking shits" Furyo

>>47861336
And so they said
Nodens: May his past rest
Titanos: The time is NOW
Selene: For a brighter future

>>47861364
>>47861391
I also agree that we should keep Sublime Strike for the next turn

Rolled 83, 78 = 161 (2d100)

As Diaspora lumbers around, you can't avoid noticing how slow and cumbersome it is. The sinuous grace you remember from your childhood is gone, almost entirely absent. It's not hard to realise why – the bloated slug of a lower body, fat and swollen with... with something you're not entirely sure you want to identify. It's a loathsome horror, a sadistic abuser, and a blasphemy against the gods...

And it's pregnant... or it's preparing to bear a child.

Setting your burning gaze upon that flabby belly, you slash out with your sword, hacking and cutting away the bristling thorns that guard it. When you've sheared through them, leaving the disgusting thing open and exposed, you lunge forwards and drive your dagger into the Diaspora's flesh. It shrieks, the sound piercing your ears even as it writhes and tries to shake you loose, but Veragi's dagger has bit deep, and the beast can't shake you loose. Clinging tight, you saw through the thick layer that covers it's lower body – not the chitin of an insect or the bark of a tree, but something else entirely. Whatever it is, though, it can't stand up to the divine weapon. As the abomination finally throws you clear, you rip the dagger down and out, splitting her lower half open.

What drifts out looks like dandelion seeds - pale and feathery, carried on the wind. As those seeds fill the air, the Diaspora rises, pulling itself clear of the shattered lower body.

“You'll regret that,” she purrs, once more the lithe predator that stalked your boyhood nightmares.

>Please roll 1D100, aiming to beat 80/90/10. I'll take the highest of the first three, and this will be at +25 now.
>If you wish to use a spell card, or any specific tactics, just mention it
>Also, I'll roll a 2D100 for this thing's two attacks. Both are aiming to beat 50/70/90

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>>47861336

Rolled 73 + 25 (1d100 + 25)

>>47861519

Rolled 55 + 25 (1d100 + 25)

>>47861519
Ok, teleportation is needed for this. Those two attacks are going to be a bitch if we aren't careful.

Rolled 13 + 25 (1d100 + 25)

>>47861519
Probably Veragi's Step

Rolled 76 + 25 (1d100 + 25)

>>47861519

Rolled 15 (1d100)

>>47861519
Time for Veragi's Step, take down the child!

Rolled 54, 90 = 144 (2d100)

Unchained from the burden of her bloated, seed-filled womb, the Diaspora is free to strut, walking with the arrogance of an apex predator. Her gait is easy, rolling and smooth as if there was nothing in this land that could concern her. The seeds that fill the air almost seem to blur her outline, shrouding her in a thick veil of feathery mist. As the mist grows even thicker, she vanishes for a brief second.

And then she's back in sight, bursting through the veil with countless grasping limbs outstretched to rend your flesh. Appearing a few meagre feet away, she practically falls upon you. With no chance to dodge back or around her, you pick the only other option – through her. Slashing out with Veragi's dagger, you step through the waking world and enter the space between, a seemingly limitless black tunnel.

It's a short hop this time, and you're back in reality before you know it. You emerge behind her, clinging to beast's shoulders. As she reels, grasping for a target that is no longer there, you drive Veragi's dagger into the side of her throat, sawing furiously at anything you can touch with that midnight black blade. Although you open a deep rent in her, the abomination throws you aside before you can completely decapitate her.

As she rounds upon you, she reaches out and mimes strangulation with her twisted, skeletal hands.

What's wrong, you sneer, nothing to say?

>Please roll 1D100, aiming to beat 80/90/10. I'll take the highest of the first three, and this will be at +30 now.
>If you wish to use a spell card, or any specific tactics, just mention it
>Also, I'll roll a 2D100 for this thing's two attacks. Both are aiming to beat 50/70/90

Rolled 58 + 30 (1d100 + 30)

>>47861740
Burnt offerings Veragi's step again

Rolled 97 + 30 (1d100 + 30)

>>47861740
welp, used that new card to get our teleportation back.

>>47861769
Welp....

Rolled 64 + 30 (1d100 + 30)

>>47861740
Burnt Offerings to Veragi

>>47861740
Vespucci Step again!

This time, when the Diaspora steps forwards, it is with a lurching, unsteady pace. The inhuman grace is gone, replaced by a care and caution unlike anything you've seen from an abomination. Then, laughing aloud, you realise why it's moving so slowly, so carefully.

It can't move any faster without losing it's damn head.

Pathetic, really.

Sheathing your sword, that old family heirloom, you spread your arms wide, inviting the vile beast to attack. Come on, you shout, this one's free. If she wants to settle this debt, you're right here. Just come and take what's hers. The abomination has no answer, no spiteful words to say, but she doesn't need to give voice to her rage and hate. The furious, self-destructive rage with which she lunges for you is enough. She hurls herself at you, but you're no longer there.

Sometimes, the gods can be cruel. At other times, they give something back. As Maia Veragi, long and near-forgotten hero, sends her strength to you once more, you slip into the space betweeen spaces. When you appear, you're behind the helpless abomination, watching as it stumbles forwards.

With a laugh – a dismissive “heh” - you unsheathe your sword and plunge it forwards, stabbing it right through her back. She doesn't scream – she can't scream – but she throws her head back as if she could. With her head lolling back, hanging loose on the threads on unnatural flesh, it's too easy to pull your sword free and swing it around in a deadly arc, shearing off that monstrous head completely.

As the body collapses, crumbling into filth, you let out a long-held breath.

Your debt has been settled.

[1/2]

>>47862003
>With a laugh – a dismissive “heh”
Nothin Personnel kiddo

>>47862043
Except it very much was.

>>47862003
You know, while the SMT London crew were amazing in their own right, Ira goes beyond them. This is a old man by rpg standards using a limited selection of spell cards plus a bog standard sword for the most part, and yet his kill list includes a god, abominations, a sorceror that was at the peak of physical health, and so many escort missions.

And now he has kids.

>>47862142
Like Levi vs Any of the Titan shifters in AoT

Or Corvo vs. just about anyone who actually studies Outsider lore.

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>>47862160
stay salty anon

>>47862003

You spend a long time after that, just lingering in the long-abandoned ruins of your childhood home. A large part of that time, you will admit, is spent watching the Diaspora's remains. It's like watching an ancient tree succumbing to decay, at a decade a minute. Having first crumbled apart, the pieces – hollow and cracking – turn to thick slime. Not even the flies touch that filth, staying well away until the last of it has been boiled away by the sun's rays.

When you finally trust that she is dead, you allow yourself a walk through the ruins, occasionally touching the remains of some house or another – it makes it all feel real, touching the worn, decaying wood.

This isn't your home, you realise slowly as you walk, and it hasn't been for a very long time. This is just another set of crumbling ruins, left for the forests to reclaim. Of all the houses you pass, you can't even remember which one was yours. They all look the same now, reduced to broken shells.

It doesn't matter. You have a home now, somewhere you can settle down and raise your family.

Family... that's an idea that's going to take some getting used to.

But that's fine as well – you've got as long as you need. With a future free from war, and a past no longer haunted by phantoms, you can focus on the present day, and all the challenges that might come with it... and there will certainly be challenges.

A father at your age?

What an old fool you are.

>>47862142
While our two Devil Summoner girls both have incredible accomplishments by the nature of their field they were never alone in tackling their enemies.

Powerlevels wise though I think its Mia > Ira > Amelia. Mia just kind of hard counters a lot of Ira's tricks.

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>>47862236

Well, I suppose I'm going to call that finished. I have something of an epilogue, I suppose you could call it, prepared, so stick around and I'll post it up in a few moments. I'll be online for a while longer if anyone has any questions to ask, or comments about the quest in general.

I'd like to thank everyone who contributed, read along, or just enjoyed Sleeping Gods Quest – it's been a lot of fun to write!

I'll be returning soon with another project. Details will be posted on twitter as I decide on them!

Again, thanks for all the support!

>>47862242
>Inb4 Murmur's song negates summoning


>>47862268
Did you expect us to rollover Diaspora that easily?

Are Ira and Mentor going to have a long talk about the truth? Will Ira tell anyone else?

>>47862268
Thanks for another incredible quest Moloch. This one, like the last ones, was a lot of fun to participate in.

>>47862268
Was a good read and I enjoyed the progression of the story. Can't wait to see the epilogue.

>>47862242
Yeah, Amelia for the most part had a lot more support when it came to her demons while Mia just became scary on her own.

>>47862268
Awesome quest, thanks for running!

Time passes.

Days turn to weeks, weeks turn to months, and the months slowly turn to years. Men grow old, and children are born. Time passes, and the mantle of responsibility is passed to the next generation. A generation that you happen to be part of, born into an age unlike any the land of Tenngaru has seen before. The gods loom like the ancient guardians that they have always been, watching over the land as men forge ever onwards to an uncharted future. The fires of industry burn hot, but men have not turned away from the gods. Far from it – even in the formerly godless capital, flickers of divine life have emerged.

You were there, watching as the very first temple that the capital had seen in many years was formally opened, and you felt the vestigial power stirring within. In time, that power might blossom, and a god will once more play the role of master to whatever flock gathers around it. That, though, is for the future – you can't think that far ahead, you don't want to think that far ahead.

All you want to do right now is get some sleep, but it's not easy. It's not the clatter and clank of metal, the sounds of a speeding train, that keep you awake. No, it's the passenger sitting opposite you that keeps you from slipping into a slumber. She never sits still for a minute, alternating between scowling at nobody in particular and cracking her knuckles like a prizefighter. She's pretty young, about your age, but she already has a fierce light in her eyes.

It's distracting, is what it is.

>>47862290

By this stage, I did kinda expect us to beat Diaspora without too much trouble. It's very much a narrative point rather than a challenge thing, in my eyes.
I could see Ira keeping the Truth a secret. If nothing else, it could cause a lot of problems if it came out. Speaking with the Mentor about it is probably enough to keep him sane, though.

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>>47862368

“Hey,” she says suddenly, “What's your name?”

Acedia, you reply carefully, Acedia Furyo. What about her, what's her name?

“Me?” the girl shrugs, the leather jacket draped across her shoulders – very modern, very stylish – riding up with the motion, “Just a fellow traveller, I guess. My name's Am-” Then she stops, another scowl creasing her brow, “Ah shit, I hate this bit...”

As the train hits the great northern bridge, the rattle of the rails beneath you intensifies, turning into a deathly clatter that threatens disaster with each passing second. Then, all of a sudden, it is over. Lord Lapis, once again, has blessed you with safe passage. Both you and your nameless companion pause, each of you offering a silent prayer of thanks to the great Azure Dragon.

“So you're going to, what, Garuna?” the girl asks, “Going to see the temple city?”

Garuna first, you tell her, then across the sea to Dumas.

“Huh, same here,” she laughs a little, “You studying there or what? That's what I'm heading up for. Well, that's what I was told, at least – I reckon my folks just want a break from a troublemaker like me, and they think a bit of meditation might cool my temper. I guess we'll have to see, huh?”

Sure, you reply with vague confusion, but you're not just heading up there to study. You've got another reason to travel to that distant, lonesome isle.

You're visiting family.

>>47862268
thanks for running and for making this quest Moloch
I think that now I will go trough the archive to see your other quest
again thanks for making this really enjoyable quest

>>47862425
>Leather Jacket
>Am
>cracking her knuckles like a prizefighter.
Weeeeeeelllll

And with that, I declare Sleeping Gods Quest officially concluded!

I probably should have put that in at the end of the last post, but eh. Mistakes were made.

>>47862425
Was Ira blonde this entire time? Actually yeah, his younger portrait had light hair.

Also hi NotAme- I can't even say that, she has the same name I think.

>>47862425
Yay, my naming scheme was used. Quite a fitting one too for the sin used.

>>47862483
F

>>47862483
I would love to read more of them, but I thank you Moloch for this quest.

>>47862483
How many kids did Ira and Howa have?

Any chance of them accidentally deifying themselves?

>>47862483
Man, Moloch. I love your shit, and I loved this quest. London will always be special as one of the first quests I've read, but I enjoyed this one a lot more through out the whole way. Can't wait for your next one, and may it be great like this one!

>>47862483
Thanks again Moloch.

Ira and Howa living in Dumas now? Does the Nameless Temple have another learning area up there that Amelia is going to?

>>47862496

Ira's hair color is a little, ah, ambiguous. He had pale hair when he was young, so that's something.
I did use a bit of art for him early on in the quest, but I'm kinda regretting it now. I'm pretty sure it's a picture of Nic Cage.

>>47862583

Just one child, Ira isn't crazy enough to deal with more than that!
And, well, who knows about becoming gods? They'd have to do something pretty special to manage that!

>>47862632

Howa and Ira are living together on Dumas now, yes. The Nameless Temple has kind of a school there - more of a "practical learning" place, compared with the more scholarly one on the mainland.

>>47862483
well it look I will have to go through the archives to get that epilogue

>>47862686
does Maia gets more worshipers thanks to that school?

>>47862686
>And, well, who knows about becoming gods? They'd have to do something pretty special to manage that!
Ira gets flagged as the god of wanderers, Koa collecting stories of him and then printing them as a cerial on Ayas paper

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>>47862686
>Nic Cage.
Had this picture of Sad Keanu in the early threads, then as time went on he switched to Wick Keanu.
>Everyone keep asking me if I'm back in business.
>Yeah, I'm back.

>>47862686
Oh I can tell the Amelia expy and Maia are going to spar so damn much.

How are the ships doing?
Aya and Koa, if that indeed was a thing, it never really came up in quest.
Miura and Sho
Tawn and Soma, she ever send that letter to him?

>>47862686
Was the Temple that opened in the city NotPetra's?

>>47862776

She gets a few more, yes. The "Veragi style" is a fighting style developed at the Dumas school, focusing on quick attacks and evasion. The name alone has attracted a fair amount of interest, and that translates to new worshipers.

>>47862821

Well, it won't happen overnight, but that's the kind of thing that can happen. Tall tales become legends, and legends give rise to new faiths. In a few generations, who knows how Ira might be remembered?
As a dashing young man perhaps? Ah, but legends need to be at least a little bit realistic...

>>47862877

Miura and Sho went on to have a long and fruitful marriage. I forgot to put it into the epilogue, now I've gone back to check, but I meant to mention that they would later have twins. Sho really beat the prophecy!
Tawn and Soma... I think Soma would have sent that letter. Personally though, I imagine they settle down as friends rather than lovers. They tried a relationship, but it wasn't built to last. Sometimes, that happens!
Aya and Koa? I'd say they kept their relationship on a professional level except for that one time with all the wine.

>>47862930

It was, yes.

>>47862970
>that one time with all the wine
>[/ss/ intensifies]

>>47862686
>They'd have to do something pretty special to manage that!
You mean arrange a peace find a place for nameless Temple in the Empire, Being known as a man who successfully slaughtered sorcerous abominations and their masters wholesale, and a Warrior without peer. Of course what good is a man who's goal is peace without a stunningly beautiful, intelligent and witty wife?


>>47862970
>except for that one time with all the wine.

So I take it lots of mortification?

I doubt the Mentor though to print his memoirs?

>>47862970
>As a dashing young man perhaps? Ah, but legends need to be at least a little bit realistic...
A wanderer who lost the way after a perilous battle sacrifices his eye for the youthful energy and body to persevere and the knowledge to pursue the evils of the land. He defeats the monsters and demons plaguing both the land and the people and forms bonds between gods and humanity before peacefully joining them.

So says grandmaster Koa and his glorious beard.

>>47862970
What of Kala and let's not forget the lenses

>>47863037
>>47863071

Well, consider that Maia only needed to behead one measly sorcerer, I think Ira might just quality for becoming a deity. Still, these things take time!

>>47863037
>So I take it lots of mortification?
Hey, waking up naked and covered in printer's ink is not something you can recover from easily!

>>47863041

I think he'd need to edit them down quite considerably to make them printable!

>>47863240
>Hey, waking up naked and covered in printer's ink is not something you can recover from easily!

Did they need it for lubrication?


How's Mentor doing? SAme ole, same ole, or did he decide to pass on his gifts?

>>47863240
I just saw this thread. Thank you for such an enjoyable story, and I look forward to your next project.

>>47863314

The Mentor is still doing his thing - being vague and mysterious, giving out nonsensical quotations and generally playing up the role of "mystical teacher" to the hilt. He can afford to play around a little now that the situation is calmer!

>>47863367

Thanks for reading!

>>47863427
You didn't answer the other question Moloch.

Also does acedia cause as much trouble as Ira?

>>47863427
Ira ever visit Kala after things calmed down?

>>47863441

This is a worksafe board, we've got to keep things family friendly!
It was a mess. Ink gets spilled on clothes, dirty clothes are removed, things kinda develop from there.
Acedia is too lazy to get into trouble! I imagine it would take some pretty unusual circumstances to get her to cause that much trouble.

>>47863442

He did visit her, a few years after the situation settled. She's taking things well, considering - she made the kind of bluster and threats that could be expected, but her heart wasn't really in them. With the lengthy peace, she might be looking at a rare period of sleep. For a god that is as active as her, that might not be a bad thing - maybe a nap might improve her temperament?

>>47863533
>I imagine it would take some pretty unusual circumstances to get her to cause that much trouble.

Like befriending a Amelia expy and getting involved in antics?

>>47863533
>Like a non God maintained sorcery library getting found a bunch of sorcerers getting bad knowledge and worse powers? then of course go after the family of the most famed sorcerer killer.

>>47863533
So is Acedia a full fledged Wanderer that can use magic at young age like Miura did?

>>47863582

Well, that new girl is certainly a troublemaker...

>>47863615

She's still an apprentice, but a particularly promising one. She's got a pretty big name to live up to though, and all that "hard work" stuff just doesn't suit her!

>>47863597

Well, there might just be lost troves of knowledge still out there. Sorcerers kept their secrets close, and their tombs well hidden. Even so, someone might just stumble across one, and who could resist the promise of ultimate power?

>>47863712
>who could resist the promise of ultimate power?
Probably Acedia. Getting ultimate power seems like too much effort.

>>47863712
I could see Howa and Ira on a porch in rocking chairs when they here some jackass making a lot of noise regardless ultimate power. Ira gets up kisses Howa walks off, five minutes later he takes off his bloody coat, gets back in the rocking chairs and continues having a pleasant evening.

It that weird?

>>47863712
Ira got around to returning the knife, right? What did Veragi think of his use of it?

>>47863773
>With Maia getting stronger as a god Veragi's Step can now teleport across the continent. Potential sorcerers get Ira'd wherever they may be before they can really do anything. Sometimes he takes Acedia with him for bonding.

>>47863773

Sounds like business as usual really! Getting bloodstains on the coat must be a real bother though - maybe Ira should learn some cleaning magic!

>>47863833

I like to think he held onto it a while longer, just for an excuse to send Acedia out to do some damn work for a change. It might do her good, meeting new and interesting people!
Veragi was very proud - Ira certainly but the dagger to good use!

>>47863893
Did Koa mentor Acedia at all or is she mostly independent?

>>47863954

She's worked with Koa a little bit, doing some field work with him, but he's not mentoring her in any kind of formal capacity.

>>47862483
Thanks for the great quest again Moloch!

See you for your next project.

...which knowing you is like a week from now.

Thanks for running, Moloch. It's been a hell of a ride, as always.

that was magnificent.

How many QMs can claim to have finished 3 quests, anyway?

>>47867561
MercCommand. That's all I really know for sure

>>47867618
How many QMs can claim to have finished 3 satisfying and well written (in my opinion) quests? I like Merc Command but after like 6 Quests that are basically the same I just can't do it anymore.