Godfather's System

144. Development - 40

"Something wrong?" Zolast asked me even as he continued to lead his prayer session, using a spell to conceal his voice.

"I feel uneasy. Something doesn't make sense with this trap, but I'm not sure what," I answered. "Any ideas?"

"Nothing substantial," Zolast answered. "The information about the corrupted gods and their minions is highly restricted. Even as a previous church leader, I didn't learn anything more than some methods to cleanse their mana. I was also given a kill-on-sight order."

"Gods don't love their corrupted brethren," I said even as I turned my attention to the cultists, slowly surrounding our magical defenses rather than attacking directly. "Something is truly wrong," I added, getting even more determined in my conclusion. "Do you think you can handle the mess here for a few minutes while I go and poke around a bit?"

"After you turned the poor baron into a believer, not even a challenge," Zolast said. "How did that happen, by the way?"

"I just hit him with a combination of hope and guilt."

"Ahh, the good old religious special," Zolast said, barely holding back a chuckle. Which was important, as he was still leading the mass prayer as a conductor. I had a feeling that it wasn't the first time he had a conversation while leading a mass prayer. "Though, that leaves me in a bind: Who the fuck is the sun god?"

Unlike Zolast, I didn't bother hiding my chuckle as my helmet still hid my face. "I'm guessing we can't use Apollo," I said, and only received a deadpan expression. I remembered his explanation about how Apollo's temple was one of the most important organizations on the whole planet, and not to be crossed lightly.

"Why the sun god in the first place?" he asked.

I shrugged. "I only had gold paint while I was faking my identity, and the sun felt like a good symbol. Do you know any other sun god whose name we could borrow?" Zolast shook his head.

I paused for a moment to focus inward, trying to remember anything about mythology, which was, unfortunately, not my strong suit. A few names, like Thor, Apollo, and Zeus, I was able to remember, but anything more was a struggle.

Even the Memory Stat, which was good for remembering things when I had paid attention at the time like an accounting report and a scene from a movie I enjoyed, felt like it was of no use.

It was much harder to remember things I didn't pay attention to at the time. Like how a television worked …

Or the stories about the gods. Greek gods, I knew because the stories about Zeus had been catchy enough. Thor, I remembered because he was a fun guy with a hammer going around killing giants and getting black-out drunk.

Set, even after that dream, I barely remembered anything about it. Something about him being Egyptian.

Then, another piece of information popped into my mind. One that I didn't remember immediately because I had only seen it on crossword puzzles … but a lot. The Egyptian god of the Sun. Two letters.

"How about Ra," I said. "Does he have any churches or temples around?" I asked.

"I didn't even know of his name," Zolast answered. "Did you just make him up?"

"No. I barely remember him from the stories in my own world," I answered, not bothering to explain the context. "But, I'm almost certain that he is supposed to be in some kind of a fight with our angry friend who's busy creating cultists, so don't use it unless it's an emergency. I have no idea exactly what kind of trouble it might cause."

"Noted," he said with a deep sigh. "Our lives would have been so much easier if you picked a book or two."

I sighed, not bothering to answer. No need, when he knew exactly how much that annoyed me as well. Life would have been much easier had I picked a book about ancient mythology for fun instead of recent history.

Who would have guessed that would end up as the most critical information?

"Just send me a warning if there's an emergency, and tell them I'm in my tent, and that no one is allowed to walk in, as they might see my face. Find a religious reason."

"We can say that you can't show your face until we eradicate the cultists," Zolast offered, and I nodded.

"Make sure to distribute all the advanced skills and help them absorb it. I have a feeling that we'll need it," I said. Zolast nodded, and I went to my tent where we had built our secret escape tunnel. We had no intention of being pinned down to a desperate last stand.

However, I didn't neglect grabbing a bow as I left. I had some destruction mana I needed to discharge…

And I had the perfect target in mind.

The tunnel led to a small cave an elatriss away, looking the opposite side of the cultist base, Concealment allowing me to get away easily. With that, I ran at full speed toward Town Maell. However, my destination wasn't the town itself.

No, I just wanted to meet with some people halfway.

"Bingo," I murmured as I made a turn, and saw eight flying carts, flying closer to the ground than I expected … no doubt due to the fact that they were over the carrying capacity. More importantly, they were much closer to the battlefield than I had expected.

I didn't waste any time. I didn't even bother to use the concealment ward plates Zolast had prepared. No need to waste. I was already concealed, both physically and through my stats… and if there was someone looking for signs of destruction mana, there was something more attention-grabbing just ten elatriss away.

[-5 Archery of Destruction]

[-5 Archery of Destruction]

[-1 Archery of Destruction]

I nocked my bow, and let out three arrows, two glowing with the full strength of destruction mana, and one more anemic.

Each targeted a different flying cart.

As the arrows flew, I changed my hiding spot while observing the show, wondering if it would be enough to bring them down.

I expected it to be enough. Flying carts reminded me of helicopters. Impressive looking and strategically important … but fragile. Worse, not only were the ones that the traitorous uncle had been using had been filled over the carrying capacity, but they were also the civilian variety of carts, clearly not as robust as the ones the military would normally use.josei

As it turned out … that was more than enough. I expected the hit to impair their flying speed, or force them to land. Instead, the two that I hit with the full-powered arrows dipped down with all the elegance of a brick, and the one that had been hit by the weak one wasn't too far behind.

It didn't cause any death … nor did I expect it to. Most of the passengers reacted fast enough to jump out, and even the slow ones that failed to escape managed to get away with a few cuts and bruises that they were able to heal.

Health was a useful feature.

The lack of death didn't bother me, because that was not my goal. Yes, Baron Maell's uncle was a traitor, but I only cared because he was being supported by the same faction behind the Night Blades. Yet, for it to have any impact on me, first he needed to get control of the house, then strengthen his control, then recruit enough forces to be a problem for me.

Not exactly a viable path … especially since he failed at the first step. As long as his nephew was alive, it wouldn't work.

No, I attacked him for a simpler reason. I wanted to slow him down … but not stop him completely. I was receiving constant reports from Limenta about the successful assassination of cultist cells. They were already well into double-digits.

I wanted them to finish their work before adding in the uncertainty of a civil war, but I also didn't want to deprive the town of a group of reinforcements. Rebellious as they might be, they would have to fight against the cultists like everyone else if things really devolved as badly as I was starting to suspect.

And, as for the uncle in question … well, I'd rather leave him to our friend who had suddenly found religion.

I wanted to see whether they would split or decide to march on foot — I preferred the latter, but the former had some advantages as well — but I didn't have time to stay there and observe.

Instead, I continued to move around, using my Speed to the limit as I visited several locations with access to their web of tunnels, both around Town Yoentia and Town Maell, trying to find signs of movement.

While I searched for that, I also stopped by the traitorous uncle, confirming that he indeed chose to march together with his army, which didn't surprise me. After all, he had just gained their allegiance after betraying his nephew. If he tried to leave half of the group to keep himself secure before he could solidify his power, he would end up with a fresh rebellion.

While that worked as I had hoped, the same didn't apply for the cultist forces.

I managed to detect considerable signs of movement in some of the entrances, but it was almost exclusively around the tunnels near Town Maell, the movement spread around to completely wrap the town. I didn't know just how much force they would commit to that attack, but I doubted that it was a small force.

It wasn't like they were exactly struggling to find disposable pawns.

I would have loved to say that the discovery allowed me to understand their plan and relax … but there was still one detail that was driving me crazy.

Three-quarters of the Baron's army was pinned behind what the cultists assumed to be a death trap, but rather than attacking it directly, they were content with besieging the location — Zolast constantly kept me informed about the developments through our connections.

What was supposed to be worse for them was Limenta and Karak, eliminating their cultist cells with great efficiency. Combined, it should give them a good reason to hasten their plans.

Yet, they still waited. For what, I didn't know.

I pulled a message stone, one that would send a prearranged code to Takis, signaling him to march to Town Maell. They were currently camping in a nearby location, and it would take less than half an hour for them to arrive at their destination. I had been planning to keep them waiting until the plan was on the way, allowing me to keep the initiative.

But, the more I examined the movement of the cultists, the more I had to recognize that they had a plan I failed to predict. No, it would be for the better to push the situation further.

I bit my lips, struggling to come to a decision.

Then, I received a message from Zolast, alerting me that the attack had started.

I activated the message stone, giving Takis the signal. It cost me the initiative, but it didn't matter.

Trying to outplay an enemy that I couldn't predict would be the height of the folly. Sometimes, one had to push his chips on the table, hoping that his opponent didn't have the stronger hand…