The Power of Ten

Chapter 13-354: Legion Plans

“It has been a group project for us all,” they replied quietly. “She was active on Earth here for over a thousand years under various guises. We’ve basically folded up those in her Cult.” That had been a wonderful Karmic experience for many members of law enforcement and the Heavenly Churches, and the fallout was still rippling through the higher levels of society in Europe. The lilitu hadn’t been the type to expand her influence among the poor, after all.

“We’ve relayed on the names of other Dark Pact Patrons she knew of, but there is one that we held back. Oymizlavitazzrkali, the Saber Queen.”

Traveler inclined her head thoughtfully. “Wasn’t she the Kali stand-in?” she asked slowly. “She has not been seen in at least two centuries by the Heavenbound.” Traveler did a lot of reading of Heavenbound records through others’ eyes, as did they. Old records and history were powerful clues at times.

“Chinese Magi and Hindu Priests tracked her down and Sealed her away in the late eighteenth century, and nearly got Rayetizvisha, too. Kali’s Thuggee Cult has been trying to spring her ever since, but naturally did not have the power to do so.”

Traveler sighed. “But they soon might, with the Double Helix method, all the undead, and when the Shroud comes down.” She got a thoughtful look on her face, reaching out into Sama and Shvaughn’s Allegiances for a look around. “Ah, that must be the common tie that binds Oroto and his men together in dark faith and belief. What Pact did she grant?”

“Tyrant of Ten Thousand Years.” It was a demonic Pact of murder and slaughter, designed for adept bladesmen. However, it had not been seen in centuries, according to Heavenbound Hall.

Ten Thousand Years, Oy Kali!

“And you propose to do something about it?” Traveler asked calmly.

“After the Queen is fully refined.” Their voice dropped lower. “We are her lover, after all. She cannot harm us now.”

Traveler smiled despite herself. “I am now picturing you with six arms!” She snuggled back happily.

“There is also an extended family of hu hsiao operating in China, Korea, and Japan. Shvaughn has proposed folding them up with our help.”

“Foxwomen?” The soul-eating spirits of old China were not much different from succubi in how they acted, although their appearance was somewhat different. “I am now picturing you with nine gloriously fluffy tails, too!”

“Their matron does indeed have nine tails. She has been bewitching the powerful in China for at least four hundred years, and even the Magi there never went after her.”

Traveler sort of slumped in Legion’s arms. “Of course not. There were benefits involved,” she sighed. “Foxwomen... one of the Fey Pacts. Nine Veils of the Lotus?”

“Yes. And... it seems she is also one of our ex-lovers now.”

Traveler laughed softly at that news. “Well, getting them all in one spot is good for them, I suppose. I think I’m going to have to lay a Major Curse on you.”

“Oh?”

“Non-human entities entering your Pactspace get the treatment, just like Rayetizvisha, Chaining off of her.”

“That will certainly make them easier to manage,” Legion agreed. “I admit to being somewhat surprised at your reaction?” she asked, somewhere between amused and concerned.

Two artful succubi horns flowed out of Traveler’s temples, and she snorted as arcane sparks crackled along them. “I think one of the reasons that the Shroud is making me play catch-up on Masteries is so I give up and start taking Succubi Levels, and paying for them monstrous racial Stats.

“Unfortunately for it, I want to hit Ten and take my Atlantean advance in Halvyr. Succubus isn’t a Legendary template, so I won’t qualify for any form of speed advancing, unlike Sama and Briggs, so paying for it all is going to take years regardless of when I start, so there’s no hurry. I’ll be just like a normal succubus, having to pay off the negative Karmic debt for being so demonically awesome.”

Legion considered that point. They were stepping around it themselves, using the power of the Hell and Heaven Pacts to refine away the sin of the lilitu and take her power directly. Basically reduced to brains of pudding by the combined Feeblemind and Major Curse, then having her higher thought processes replaced by the Amazon Pact in Master Fred’s image, they were fusing with the lilitu directly, removing the unpalatable elements and using Karma to replace them with more positive aspects.

Working her way up to lilitu had taken the demoness centuries. The Karmic costs of such incredible Stats and abilities were not small, and even after earning the right to evolve, they still had to earn more Karma to pay back the favor bestowed upon them by the Abyss... and that debt was now Legion’s to handle.

For instance, lilitu demons could also grant a Wish a day. However, their Wish drew directly on demonic powers, and directly endangered the spiritual purity of the person making the Wish. Paying that off in a more positive direction was likely going to take massive amounts of Karma.

Mmm. Well, it wasn’t like that wouldn’t be coming, unless they went Down...

“Question. If we refine the lilitu, what does that mean if we die?”

Traveler frowned in their arms. “You have a unique situation. I’d say that Hell gets itself the service of a lilitu-equivalent. If that does happen, I suggest the lot of you do a full merge. You don’t want to be split off and taken separately.”

They nodded slightly. “We understand,” they agreed.

“In any event, your real goal is to break Twenty, become Eternal, and exceed the limits of the Hellpact, in effect being sworn to the general power of Hell and transcending its ability to grab a mortal soul. Hell simply won’t be able to contain you with a Mortal Hellpact at that time.”

“Ahhh...” they murmured. “We were wondering if being a lilitu would do it. Obviously not.”

“The difference between greater devils and the unique devils is crossing that Twenty barrier. It’s not easily done by any soulborn. A lilitu would still had to have paid back all the Karmic Debt for her evolution, and somehow get over Twenty. Someone like that would not be on this world. I’m sure her memories indicate this world might be fun and well-populated, but in the greater scheme of things, she was sent to a backwater with too many fish pecking at it.”

Legion nodded agreement after some thought. “Yes. Magic was too low, souls were too weak, and too many people were totally unaware of the powers of Sin and Virtue, only dogma. While a harvest could be reaped, the lack of awareness meant it was always a pathetic amount, and there were few powerful individuals to corrupt, generally speaking.”

“And that very dullness helped insulate mortals from true corruption,” Traveler prodded them, getting another nod. “And the fact there was a World-Angel and a Planetar around to kick her ass meant she had to be very careful regardless.”

“All true,” they agreed. “And yet, she still Damned hundreds of idiots directly, and thousands, even millions more just as fallout...”josei

“Yes. And they wonder why we want to kill them for having so much fun.” She stiffened in Legion’s arms. “Well, well, well...”

Concentration on The Map narrowed to two points that had just come into range of the spell, ninety miles ahead of them.

One was a cave carved into a massive iceberg, large enough to not be moved or drift around, and somewhat able to withstand the elements. The artificial nature of the cave made it stand out in the Commune with Nature... as did the undead standing inside it.

A tick of the clock to both the east and west in an arc down in the water on the sea floor were groupings of undead, exactly one hundred of each.

Powerful undead, at the level of Black Sea Brines, the highest tier of basic undead.

“Spotters,” Legion deduced instantly. “They are not holding position in the water because they would constantly drift with the current...”

The Old Steed pointedly snuffed out his flames as Traveler tapped his dark skeletal body, and with a ripple of illusion, he turned a pure and snowy white, the exact same hue as the ice and snow all around them.

The three watched as they rode closer, and the second set of posts above and below the water came into range. It was pretty easy to draw a connecting arc and impose it on an overall map of the area, which circled the North Pole quite accurately.

“Spaced every five miles. High points to allow clear views of things moving over the ice, close enough to probably hear things moving under the water. Fifty miles out from the Pole,” Traveler murmured. There were literally thousands of undead involved in this, although the ones in the depths completely outnumbered the spotters up above.

There was a second force of undead at twenty-five miles out, but these were only a mile apart, clearly able to reinforce one another more quickly. A second tier of staggered spotters, set to fill in the gaps from the outer spotters, was in place, too.

The Old Steed hadn’t slowed down, so the miles still raced by quickly, the top of the world coming up on them swiftly, glaringly obvious with the pulse of the magnetic pole streaming out of it.

On the surface, there was nothing.

Down below, there was a very conspicuous mile-wide sphere of complete blankness. But below that...

Their forward progress didn’t change, but everyone was staring in disbelief at the long tunnel that was plunging from the seabed and into the mantle, falling down, down, down beyond the sight of the Commune, even as their range looking down continually increased as they drew closer.

There were signs that it had once been a lava tunnel or something, but it had long gone cold, and there were feelings of carvings and other artificial influences on the shaft.

Pointedly, that long plunge was not filled with water, but air. More importantly, there were no side passages coming in to connect to it.

Traveler took a deep breath. “Someone find a Ghoul Sage and very, very pointedly ask them if this world has a Hollow World inside it,” she said for Markspace to hear, and fingers started stabbing phones.

“Burroughs was right?” Legion muttered. “Pellucidar is real?”

Traveler just groaned in disbelief. “You read those stories?” she asked, and Legion nodded. “Right, then. Where were the main places to enter Pellucidar?”

“Ah...” They thought about that. “Antarctica?” they winced, remembering Master Fred and Traveler had already been to the South Pole, but that was where Hyperborea had somehow been moved to. “The North Pole, and... Africa?”

“The Tarzan stories are full of hidden lands inside Africa, time-lost and isolated from the rest of the world.”

“But... Africa has largely been explored. There’s no such lands of dinosaurs and the like there!” Legion protested, going searching for some more recent maps to make their point.

“There’s a whole severed continent in the Antarctic, there’s a potential Hollow World tunnel here, and you’re certain there’s no hidden lands in Africa?” was Traveler’s reply.

Legion was silent for a moment. “There were a lot of Old Gods in Hyperborea...” they finally admitted.

“And they all had to come from somewhere,” Traveler agreed. “Thankfully, there are no Greystokes, so a great white hunter raised by apes is probably not going to be there... but Beastlords, Rangers, and similar things are all very part of magic.

“If there are time-lost lands, they are likely to have a lot of the more primal Classes there, too.”

“Would other organizations know about these things?” Legion wondered, their eyes narrowing. Queen Rayetizvisha actually didn’t know anything specific. She worked with the modern world, not in the private realms of Old Gods.

“Their records go back a long way, and the Heavenbound did not make many inroads in Africa until the past century or two. My guess would be Hells yes.”

“You never crossed North America with Commune up,” Legion suddenly realized. “Only the general area of Yellowstone, and then... when we went hunting my Hellpact Grantor.”

She instantly focused on that section of The Map, and Traveler quietly opened up the view going down.

Down, to where vast caverns existed in what should be molten spaces, connected by mazes of caves and tunnels, canyons and rifts, as if they had sprung out of nowhere.

Those caverns were teeming with life, some of it sapient, and it all extended off the plotted area on The Map.