The Power of Ten

Chapter 8-241: The Blame Game’s Winner

A time-lapse began to click off the days, and the map of Sydney, and the terrain about it, began to turn grey as the Shroudzone expanded by the day, grabbing acreage, killing off everything, faster and faster, taking more and more land as it hit less fertile ground, wiping away farms and grazing land, natural habitats, woods and plains, lakes and rivers emptied of the foundational life that made them possible, and the mana beyond it.

“The undead of Sydney have either not realized how much power they have to wipe the continent clean of life, or they have been mollified by you sacrificing your own to them.” Faces twisted at the implications, not knowing which was true, even if the sacrifice was totally repugnant.

“You could do nothing about them in the past, but that is no longer true. Vivic Weapons exist, and can kill the undead forever. You can advance to Nine, and higher, and Hallow the ground.” My voice was not encouraging. “The problem you now have is one of scale.

“You have a circle of ground over sixty kilometers across you have to Hallow before the Land wakes up and kills you all.”

Breaths caught in throats, eyes opened up in shock.

I held up a finger. “The Land does not care what color your skin is. It does not care how long your family has lived here. It does not care what culture you come from. It does not care about your revenge, your hates, your anything.

“You are dust mites on Her skin. You are NOTHING. Except...” I lifted up my hand, and tapped the back of it, the same place most of them had looked upon themselves, “You are the cause of the Blight She will be suffering when She wakes up.”

They started to protest, and I just stared them down. “Undead are the cause of the Blight. Undead born of Her. Undead who ripped Her power from Her.” Their faces were going all sorts of shades, especially Master Dorrian’s. “The other Powered still alive did nothing to stop this. Indeed, they were ENCOURAGING IT.” My eyes turned on Priest Brevington, who almost swooned under the condemnation there. “Even the non-Powered were participating in it, and helping protect the tainted by ADDING MORE UNDEAD TO THE SHROUD.”

I let all that trail off for a long, chilling moment, letting them all think about the consequences of action and inaction.

“In the lifespan of Australia, you are a passing breath of wind, and all you have proven to be to Her is a painful Blight, which you all have either helped grow, or have stood aside and allowed to grow. When She wakes up and finds that Blight there, She will discover its sources, and then she will remove the causes of Her affliction, just like you or I would scrape away mold growing upon our skin.”

I wasn’t about to spare anyone now.

“You are now in a race against time. Your first potential race is against me, because I am going to bring down the Shroud, and free the souls that have been trapped inside it in torment for years uncounted... including all those you’ve ever known who have died on this planet.

“That includes your parents, probably your grandparents, and even great-grandparents. Don’t even think of stopping me.”

Mouths starting to open clamped shut under my glare, and they couldn’t speak up to ask for more time.

“The second thing you are racing is the Great Shroudzone in Russia, as am I.”

They all sat bolt upright at that. There was another party to this?

“Two Shroudzones on this planet have completely fallen. I have cleared the Fireshroud in Yellowstone in North America, and the Polar Shroud in Antarctica,” I stated firmly, leaving them gaping at me. “The New York City Shroudzone is falling by the day; I estimate it will be cleared within ten days. The Washington DC Shroudzone will follow, and slowly, others will begin to shrink.

“The Great Shroudzone is going to feel all of this. It is going to feel its time is getting short. It knows it has to do something... break the Curse that binds it to a Shroudzone, or find some other solution.

“It has to die before it finds that answer.

“You are now racing the rest of the world to the collapse of the Shroud, or the annihilation the Great Shroudzone is going to unleash if it is not killed first. And when that Shroudzone falls, you best have cleared up your mistake, or the continent is going to be very, very angry with you... and when you are angry at ants, the ants get squashed.” I leaned forwards slightly, and they swallowed. “You don’t qualify as ants. You aren’t strong enough.”

They were all shivering now.

“I am not here to clean up your mess. I have far too much work to do. I have to clean up the Cultivators in China, who will enslave even the Mother Lands if they can. I have to wipe the Buddhist Mantra, which will forcibly indoctrinate the world. I have to build up the strength of the world so that when the Earth finally comes out from the Shroud, and all the divine powers, Good, Evil, and just plain insane, finally turn their eyes on you and see you, the planet is ready to face them.

“You have made a horrible mess worse. Clean it up, or you had best run as far as you can.”

Luminous Chalker slowly rose, staring at me. “That is why you are giving us this Helix Method,” he said softly. “So that we can become Nines, and help with the clearing of the Shroudzone, and the Hallowing of the Blight.”

“It is a question of math. Plain, pure, simple.” The grey of the Shroudzone was a circle in the air behind me, sixty kilometers across. “The best place to Hallow from is the center of effect, for it will slowly and cumulatively spread out in all directions.

“The first Hallow can be up to ten meters per Caster Level in radius, which can stack with up to five of you in a formal Ritual. So, five Nines would make a circle four hundred and fifty meters across.” In the circle behind me, a tiny white dot formed. “Every successive Ritual is one meter per Caster Level.”

They all began to blanch as thirty thousand meters of radius remained. With Nine Casters, that was over three thousand Castings of Hallow!josei

“The Ritual Form of Hallow takes twenty-four hours to Cast.” They sucked in breaths in disbelief. “Perhaps you will take Rapid Ritual, and get the time down to an hour. You will need to take Divine Metamagic to break the metacap to do so. Perhaps you will take Widen Spell to double the amount of area you affect, and accelerate your work. Perhaps you will have a 20 Wisdom, so that you get two spells a day.

“Perhaps you will be at Ten, so that you can get three.”

I paused to look at all these powerful Priests and Casters, the best of them mere Faux Sevens, actually Sixes. None of them could do anything, now.

I turned my eyes on the Imprusar Priest, staring at the grey circle behind me, his face pale. I grabbed his eyes and held them.

“I don’t think I have to tell you what Imprus will think of any Priests of His who are such horrible stewards of His lands and servants. What He does to failed servants is His business, not mine.

“Your superiors, and much of your church, has taken a very short term look at things, and subordinated Imprus’ desires and ambitions to their own.

“They have failed the Imperial God, and I do not imagine their endings are going to be good.

“But, they have given you one great example that you can take to heart.”

He looked like he was begging me for anything he could do. He was a fanatic at heart, and I had burned Truth into his soul. He couldn’t not believe me at this point.

“They have shown you that mortal souls have the power to affect the divine mandate.” He blinked in shock, as did everyone else. “There are wise and just emperors. There are calculating and efficient emperors. And... there are tyrannical and ruthless emperors, although that lot normally goes to Huul. I would not be surprised, in the end, that if we were to trace back the sources of your Humanist, Elitist, rabid powermongering, we will find devils whispering into ears eager for power.”

I pointed at him with one finger. “You, a mortal soul, have the power to determine the impetus of Imprus on this world. Will He be a just, righteous, and a beloved Emperor, ruling rightly and properly, a true godly king?

“Or, equally acceptable to Him, will He be cold, callous, pragmatic, and efficient, disposing of all obstacles on the way to His rulership?

“You and yours, NO OTHERS, have the ability to define Imprus’ reach on this world. He does not care, He wishes only to rule. Your Church exists to serve!... but it is you who determine HOW you serve!

“From Duty comes Loyalty! Take responsibility for your deeds! You are a mortal soul, free will is yours! How the Imperial God interacts with the Mother Land every atom of your body comes from is yours to determine!

“To one, your life, your body, your flesh and blood! To the other, your soul! You are the mortal soul standing between them, and to you comes the great responsibility and power of making that relationship work, or tearing it down to shreds, and dooming yourself and all that Mother and Emperor would accomplish!”

Flames roared outside loudly, and fuel tanks lit out with roars, fiery light coming in through the windows as the trucks his men had come here in were set ablaze, shadows of their destruction dancing across the wall behind me.

I waved my hand at two of the Harsites nearby. “Remove this supplicant from my sight.”

The grim Justices got up, grabbed him under the arms, and impolitely dragged him out of there. The roar of the flames got much louder for a moment as the doors opened, then quieted as they closed.

I gave my attention to the rest of them, especially Master Dorrian. “The Imprusar are the most powerful Church in these lands, and the Druids are possibly their equals at best. But they are not enough, and they are not united.

“Only the Churches of Heaven, united in common cause, can actually make this happen, as I’m sure you have realized. You will need the help of other Churches; you cannot do it alone, even with all of you.

“You have to get Drained, you have to re-Level. You need Vivic Weapons now, now, now, and if that means turning your treasuries inside out and making beggars of yourselves, that is what you need to do.

“You will need to Mediate between the Imprusar and the Druids, and show them there IS a better way, and the Land simply does not give a shit about the conflict between the mites. They are all in the same boat, and if they aren’t going to fight to save themselves, then by the Ivory Throne, they had better run very far, and very fast, because Justice for them abandoning what they set in motion is going to be coming!”

Every single servant of Mithar, Valus, Harse, Nuava, Flora, Aru, Sylune, Scriba, Tiirith, and Rampart, even peaceful Amana, nodded. If those people thought they could abandon what their hate had made worse, and make other people pay the price for it, there were indeed souls who follow them to the ends of Creation to settle that debt!

“I have tools for you to use that can aid you in this process. The first of these is my Allegiance, and the second of these is the Blessings I can give you towards your cause.” I surveyed them all, as the things that had brought them here from their associates in other Churches was finally on the table. “Let me tell you how these will work...”