The Systemic Lands

Chapter 452: Day 885 (2) – Relentless Bombings

Chapter 452: Day 885 (2) – Relentless Bombings

“Supreme Governor Clarissa, requests your presence Emperor Michael,” a messenger told me after I finished cashing in my points. A small drop to what I already had, but worth it in my mind. I nodded at the messenger who bowed and then took off. There were dispatch points with how the messages worked.

Clarissa had set up a System during her time in the wilderness. It made my head hurt a bit, but there were nodes, and a messenger would go to a node who kept track of where key people were in a given area. That way the messenger could track them down.

It wasn’t perfect, and sometimes it took time to track down a person, but somehow Clarissa had found capable people and had gotten it to work. In city, it wasn’t as complex, and my schedule had been the same for the last deek or so.

My soldiers followed me as I went to the administration hub, which was next to the palace. The palace was where I slept along with Clarissa and other key people. The Imperial Administration building was where the day to day governing was carried out and Clarissa’s office was located. The security around the Imperial Administration was less tight due to the fact that people from various cities showed up, delivering news, bringing crystals, and correspondence to and from the various governors running the various cities.

Even my identity was checked when we reached the area with Clarissa’s office, or as I liked to think of it, the inner sanctum. While I could have bullied my way through, it was important to show that not even the emperor was above such identity checks. The Astrologer was still out there and still a threat.

I made my way into Clarissa’s office, and she gave me a head nod which I returned. I wasn’t about to make her stand up and bow. She had more than earned the right to remain seated. Our respective soldiers guarding us were dismissed outside the room and the door closed. “What is it?” I asked as I sat down across from Clarissa.

“Did you murder his wife, or a beloved pet?” Clarissa asked me.

“No? I don’t think so. You mean the Astrologer. Why are you asking?” Clarissa let out a long sigh.

“He his relentless. He has to be shitting bombs with how many are being detonated. I have people working on putting together a map and trying to track him down, but every time we think we have him in a net, he manages to escape. We were testing people with a needle drawing blood, but now we are confident he has a way around that.”

“How bad?” I asked. I hadn’t gotten any updates for a while now.

“Like you and the Ritualist kind of bad. He just won’t stop. We are looking at over ten bombs per day. We suspect that people might not even be carrying bombs, or he has a way to impact their memory. Director Katz believes that he is using energy manipulation to impact their thoughts. We have even lost a governor.” That wasn’t good.

“How and where?” I asked wondering if I would have to intervene.

“New Beijing. His attacks are mostly centered in the East part of our Empire, but there are attacks in the West now where the old Dragon Empire used to be. It just takes longer to get messages and news back here.” Clarissa was getting stressed again. She wouldn’t be telling me all of this if there wasn’t a reason for it.

“What do you want me to do? You know I can’t fight him until I fix myself,” I replied.

“I know. How is that going?” Clarissa asked me.

“Slow. But I am still working on the issues with my gut. I have no idea how I will check my brain and then I need to scan the rest of my body, specifically my spine. I wouldn’t count on me doing anything. What about the Avatar?” I asked.

“That was what I was going to ask you to handle. She has closed her boarders and says he is our problem. They haven’t sent an embassy either.” I closed my eyes. I could see it now.

“You think they are supporting him in some way?” I asked.

“I don’t see any other group and the Protector is working to track him down and kill him.” That was another problem. By now everyone and their mother will know about the Astrologer due to his relentless bombing campaign.

Whomever killed him would get a lot of popularity, which was the entire reason why the Protector Cai Fan had accepted the task. He was aiming for my position if I died. Until then, he was content to bend his neck and play it safe for the most part.

That was what I disliked about the man. While he was very steady, he also put on a nice face and act to fool people. One didn’t get as strong as he had without piling up the bodies. The fact he had wanted to remain in his city was also a huge black mark against him.

“You want me to send a message or invade?” I asked.

“The two main cities the Avatar controls are to the Northeast, across level 4 zones,” Clarissa said and at that point I instantly understood the problem and why the Divine Empress hadn’t bothered to conquer them. It was too difficult for regular people to go there.

So, while the Divine Empress might rampage, with the Avatar’s ability to spy and communicate remotely, it was impossible to take the cities unaware. In fact, she was probably listening right now to this conversation.

Both Clarissa and I knew this, and if there was anything truly important, we would communicate in writing and in code in messages. But that was only to be done if we were going to move against the Avatar or directly counter one of her plots.

It hadn’t been easy to set up and we weren’t sure if the Avatar knew what we had planned, but it was our only hope to counter her spying ability. I was already regretting now taking her airship and kidnapping her. She was playing all angles once again.

“I don’t get her end game. Is she trying to take me out?” I asked.

“Yes,” Clarissa said, and my eyes went wide. She was giving me a look, which meant she wanted me to figure the issue out. What would the Avatar want most? Limbs. She would want limbs. How would she get them back?

I doubted the Almighty System would give her another meta-point, which meant she had to find another way. The Spirit stat. She wanted to raise her stats to increase her control over energy and to reverse the damage the Divine Empress had inflicted on her. We were sitting on the biggest pile of stats, or more specifically me.

Her cities had been wrecked multiple times. The number of people on her airship weren’t that many and were low level 4 combatants. I was around mid-level 5 in terms of my combat level. Her people had probably invested everything in her rescue operation, then they got wrecked by the Divine Empress, and now they had a small income.

The request for a city, was a staging ground. A supply point for the Astrologer where the Avatar could funnel him supplies for his terror campaign. I had no doubt the city would be protected, and it was a trap. A trap to kill me.

If I died, the Protector would move in, and the Avatar would support him most likely. While he claimed there was a debt and that was why he had met with her, and then disavowed her. I wasn’t so sure anymore.

The Avatar was forcing my hand. No one else would be able to cross a level 4 zone and there was only a single other city that was exposed to offer up as a tempting target. And it would take a while before we had airships. The moment I left, the Astrologer would move on me, and I would die without removing what he had done to my body.

It was convoluted, which meant it was probably correct. The Avatar’s brain was like the Almighty System, twisted and vicious. Instead of offering to work with us and paying her points, she was plotting her way to ultimate power.

While no one could kill her without killing themselves, she couldn’t kill anyone directly either. She had helped me out to make me lower my guard and give up a city. Now it was being used against me. I show one moment of letting go my hate and she was already stabbing me in the back a short time later. She was officially the worst.

I sat in Clarissa’s office in silence, not voicing my thoughts. I considered sharing them carefully. “We have the superior position. We should abuse it. Attempting cloak and dagger against the Avatar won’t work,” I finally said.

“If that is your decision. I didn’t want to make it without you,” Clarissa told me. I appreciated that.

“Thanks,” I said and then I began to explain my thought process behind what was happening and why the Avatar’s faction was being stubborn at the moment. Clarissa agreed with me unfortunately. It was all a plot to draw me out, and have the Astrologer kill me and then have the Protector swoop in and kill the Astrologer, cementing his control over my empire.

“We do nothing, except wait out the bombings. How much damage are they really doing?” I asked.

“A fair bit. But we are progressing faster than the bombs and people are much more vigilant,” Clarissa explained and I nodded at that.

“Then we keep doing what we have been doing while I continue to work on the curse damage. They want us to act and to respond exposing a weakness. But if we stay the course, eventually they will screw up,” I replied.

“I am glad we are in agreement then.”

“You hear that Avatar, go get wrecked,” I said out loud. I knew she would hear me, since she had admitted to spying on me once before. I used to think that her choice for a meta-point was foolish, binding herself to the Almighty System.

But that was the only thing saving her life. It was honestly infuriating to a massive degree. That sense of doom when I had threatened her in the throne room so long ago, was still vivid in my mind. She just couldn’t be killed. No wonder the Divine Empress chopped off her limbs. She just couldn’t stop scheming.

Like the story of a scorpion asking for a ride across a river from a fox. The fox refused to give the scorpion a ride, saying he would be stung. The scorpion promises not to, and the fox changes his mind. In the middle of the river the fox is stung by the scorpion, drowning them both. Before he drowns the fox asks the scorpion why. The scorpion replies, it is in his nature.

I had forgotten that lesson. A scorpion is a scorpion, no matter what it says. It will sting and pull everyone down. The Avatar was back on the list and not coming off it now.