BECMI Chapter 504 – Unaware Immortals

“There have been several attempts to unleash disasters upon the Bright Empire and Heaven’s Reach, often disguised as natural events of one sort or another, although the plagues of Demogorgon and Orcus’ spreading of lycanthropy were not admired, either,” Helos went on somberly, his dark eyes flashing dangerously. “We’ve had to kill over a dozen Immortal Avatars at different times who thought taking direct action against our mortal followers was perfectly acceptable.”

“There are stories about how it is dangerous to mess with our people directly, but there are few specific tales,” Emeril’s old-style android Avatar nodded to that. “They have a general respect for your ruthlessness and ability to act in secret while covering your tracks. The fact you don’t use that to push, expand your interests, and raise your political capital like all the rest of us do is what annoys the elders. You are outside their system, have no known Immortal sponsors, and thus are an unknown factor they’d like to be able to bring in and chide when desired.”

“Never thinking they’d be the ones to be chided in return,” Helos smiled knowingly. “Lunia is the first, but the rest of us will follow before she makes it to Greater God, just as Harse, Dame Adama, Chardon, and I will make it to Greater God before she can attain Overgod status.

“The most powerful of Hierarchs might be able to contend with Lunia now. Individually, that will not be true for any of them when we hit Greater God status. It is a much greater increase in strength and status than anything Immortal.”

“And they will not take it well at all,” Master Lalo smiled faintly, nodding slightly. “The older ones especially are very smug and confident in their power and their rights because of that power. They will not take any threat to that power well, implied or not.”

“Well, it’s definitely going to be implied when we start changing some of the Rules they’ve laid down on Nown and releasing mortals from some of their limitations,” Helos smiled back. “Making it known there’s another way to step beyond Mortality than their own Path will shake them to the core, I imagine.”

“Can they bring in other gods to challenge you?” I asked directly, face impassive but very interested.

“Not directly. However, their great and noble resistance against the Entities of Mythos is one of their achievements of which they are the most proud. Pragmatic as they are, abandoning those duties or even encouraging the Mythos as long as they discomfit us and our mortal servants is a tactic they’ve displayed more than enough willingness to use in the past. Obviously if we’re going to be so powerful, it more than makes sense for us to take care of such onerous duties ourselves, yes?” Helos shook his head.

“Since they’ll refuse to be subordinates, and you won’t bow your heads to their Immortal society’s rules and regulations,” I could only sigh. “So, Dame Adama’s opinions haven’t changed.”

Helos grimly shook his head. “I am afraid not, Edgina. When Lunia reaches Greater Gods, every single scenario devolves with frightening speed. Nown itself is destroyed in many of them, and in very, very few do aught but the most powerful and well-equipped mortals on the planet survive.”

“Help coming over from the Far Shore?” I asked calmly.

“Should be possible,” he nodded slowly, “especially as Lunia’s status stabilizes. However, the odds are they won’t be able to return until Confluence.”

They were still expecting both the Portal and Heavenly Gates to be shut down or destabilized, not that anyone but refugees would be using the Portal to leave. I might just be using it to bring in reinforcements, however! “Understood. What would be coming over on that route would largely be Master Aspirants and Eternals, if anything.”

“The help will be needed and appreciated,” Helos said sincerely. “Have you come up with any new ideas?” he dared to ask, as the scenario crunchers on the far side would be at least as helpful as our own here.

My eyes glittered. “I have a question for Dame Adama.” My smile was icy cold. “If the Hollow World spell restrictions were extended to the outer world, how would that change matters?”

Helos blinked. Very key among those strictures were the absolute banning of most kinds of Conjuration and Summoning spells, and anything that shortened overland travel by using dimensions, like Teleportation and Gates.

“We have access to technological conveyances that grant vastly superior transit speeds, and can make airships as well,” he murmured under his breath, dark eyes flashing eagerly at the implications. “Many of the more disastrous scenarios involve large-scale Summonings or open Gates to Mythos, Death, and realms with savage beasts and beings. If they cannot be accessed, that narrows down the scope of magical things that can be done immediately…”

“And it compounds on existing Immortal magic!” Emeril added quickly. “We can modify the World-Shield to do the resonance simply by informing Nown of what to do, and they won’t have a clue anything is happening until it does… and they can’t unmake the source spell without Nown’s approval at this point!”

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Helos nodded agreement with that. “It is a VERY powerful move… but it is completely dependent upon the nature of the threat being brought in. It will be of no use whatsoever if what is unleashed is highly magic resistant, and seeks to dominate by overwhelming numbers or overwhelming magic, such as armies of intelligent golems or similar forces.”

“The Bug Farm, blown up by a thousand,” Cirru pointed out in a low voice, having gone there herself to practice combat in a humanoid form. “Unless such numbers come from another world, barring such an advantage would only hamper us, not them.”

“Such has not been established in this world as yet, and likely never will be, but the point stands,” I agreed with her. “But all that means is we are wasting time on a defense that we will not need… which is annoying, but not lethal.

“If we do need it, it is very important.”

“And it leverages our one absolute advantage: access to technology. The only scenarios where such is not absolute are Mythos races coming in with biotechnology on forbidden levels,” Helos pointed out calmly.

“Mythos will be severely hampered by loss of planar access. Biotechnology can be a world-killer, but without reinforcements, they will die with speed, and then it can be contained or destroyed with sufficient magic brought to the task,” I pointed out. Which clean-up probably involving spending a lot of Wish spells… and maybe Nown breeding anti-Mythos viruses which devoured the bio-technology in turn.

“We can only put the tools in place to adapt to the foe as much as possible, and increase general competence in the meantime,” Helos agreed. “The number of Master-class combatants available to fight is a crucial mechanic, but even with the Dungeon Doomrose, that number is only going to rise so high, and many of those might well be loyal to the Immortals we are fighting who are ending the world.”

Probably with guarantees that their own friends, families, and/or cultures would be saved as they betrayed the rest of the world for their gods.

“How bad will it be on the Divine side?” I asked, making sure I knew they were not going to be just watching.

“Not all Immortals will be barred from Nown, so we will have to counter all the many things they will want to do to make the situation worse. They could be calling or allowing in creatures they would normally fight, like Mythos entities of Titanic stature, which mortals simply cannot face, and we will be forced to.” Helos shook his head grimly. “The planes will be shaking, the Astral Sea is going to be an absolute mess, minor planes and Immortal Realms are going to be collapsing. They are going to be trying absolutely lethal and uncaring tricks, and we will be returning them and replying in kind.”

“Centuries of exploring, down the drain!” Emeril complained, tossing up his metal hands theatrically. “Whatever shall I do?”

“Any pressure coming from to choose a side?” I asked him calmly, a regular inquiry. Such pressure could indicate questioning his loyalties, putting pressure on him to join a faction was a sign of building up forces, and similar mischief.

“None beyond the casual inquiry as yet. The informal nature of Immortals pursuing their own goals is deeply ingrained into the culture, and puttering around for decades on inscrutable projects is all a part of things. Refusing to get involved in the grand schemes of others for no benefit to one’s self is also written into the culture,” Emeril replied evenly, after taking a moment to consider all his Immortal interactions since he’d last answered the question.

“Which doesn’t mean the Hierarchs or stronger parties won’t bring down pressure to follow their directives using their authority as higher members of their Spheres. They especially keep the Initiates, Temporals, and Celestials busy with such ‘requests’, considering it training for a ‘true’ Immortal,” Lalo said wryly, having had to suffer his Master Shef Avatar going through the process to see what it was like.

It was a good thing Immortals could divide their attention among Avatars, and he was quite a bit stronger than a Temporal when he did it, or he wouldn’t have had the time to effectively run his true network of Mystics and the Postal Union.

“From an outsider’s perspective, it looks very much like Temporals and Celestials dispatched by Hierarchs are responsible for keeping Immortal society intact despite all the crap the Eternals and Empyreals get up to that have to be resolved,” Emeril noted wryly. “I had blizzards of exploration ‘requests’ sent my way from Hierarchs of Energy once they realized I didn’t have a local patron. They kept me quite busy, mostly because I was very good at my job, right up until I hit Empyreal, and then the number of requests dropped right off.”

That seemed to be about right, most of the time. That idiocy with the Greek Pantheon had been started by the Eternal pretending at playing Zeus, and most of those involved were Empyreals. Then the Hierarchs got involved and it really got bad…

“Well, what are the centuries for, but to rise to a level where Hierarchs finally realize you have better things to do with your time?” Master Lalo half-laughed, shaking his head. “I will say I gained a LOT of experience throwing parties for very narcissistic and self-obsessed greater beings, and I have the temperamental chef persona down to an art form now.”

“He does,” Emeril confirmed with a click of gears on his android face showing a harsh smile. “Do not dare to criticize his food at an Immortal party! I watched him chase a Hierarch right out of the building, spewing curses upon his head and threatening to never cook for him for a thousand years! The fellow actually sent him an Artifact as a gift to get back in his good graces…”

“I am pretty sure there’s some form of charm, trap, or enslavement function built into that knife. It sits in my drawer on Pandius awaiting an unfortunate thief,” Master Lalo sniffed. “Kolrix is an arse, but he didn’t want to be excluded from being served at half the parties in Pandius. If I just vanish abruptly, it would salve his ego.”

“Isn’t he a rival of Hogoth? Ask him to investigate the knife and see if there’s anything unusual about it, if you want to send some sparks flying. Otherwise, bring it to me,” Helos offered calmly.

“Not here,” Master Lalo stated firmly. “The Inn in Celestial.”

“A good compromise,” Helos agreed. “Identify at XV should do the job, I should think.”

“THEN you arrange something to set off some sparks!” Emeril smiled. “I would slide it Catleya’s way. She is so good at knowing how to start trouble…”