Collide Gamer

John separated from his apartment after having a snack and returned to his office to get a couple more hours of work in. Work was now reviewing proposals and allocating the royal treasury to whatever he wanted done, alongside with answering requests from his ministers, who were spending the imperial treasury. Beatrice had insisted the two were separated and John supported the idea. Imperial funds came from the taxes levied on everyone and royal funds came from the cuts John took from produce of the Guild Hall, his own dungeon runs, and everything his women wished to contribute.

Being not only the controller of the purse strings but also the private entity with the most funds to invest was yet another way to control a country. John planned to diminish his influence here over time. He was not a fan of state run economies and for the Guild Hall to remain the largest producer of wealth in a country the size of the Fusion Empire would have taken an economic approach of deliberate impoverishment.

‘My slice of this pie chart will get smaller and smaller with time,’ John thought, looking at the economic data. Right now, the Guild Hall dominated the Fusion economy with more than 75% of economic activity. This only made sense, since everywhere in Fusion was rebuilding and the Guild Hall had massive stockpiles of the raw materials needed to remake a magical infrastructure.

The door to John’s office quietly opened up. Something small jumped off the outside handle, then skittered into the chamber. John could not see it, its tiny body covered by the paper he was holding, but he knew what it was. The door was closed with a light push.

“I was wondering when you would show up.” John put the paper down just as a mouse jumped on top of the table. The rodent was small enough to fit in the palm of John’s hand. Its grey-furred body was well-groomed. The head, however, was a blank skull with tiny, red dots of light for eyes. “There was no way you were just going to leave without grilling me on the Re-Alignment of the Abyss.”

“Yes, yes, there was no way I would do that,” the tiny piece of the Horned Rat responded.

John tapped the head of the woman under the table. Lips glided up his cock, relinquishing his hardness bit for bit, until the erection sprung free from its hot sheathe. The loud pop was the signal for the Gamer to close his eyes and meditate for a moment. While he made his erection go down, Scarlett moved out of the leg compartment.

He opened his eyes back up to the sight of Scarlett wiping her face off. The steamed towel cleaned the various fluids off her features easily, leaving the redhead only with the rosiness of lingering arousal as a sign of the last twenty minutes she had spent as his comfort hole. She tossed the towel back into the leg compartment, to clean it up later alongside the wet spots she had left on the leather padding.

“Up to your old habits in your old office,” the Horned Rat remarked. “I would have thought you would upgrade your work space now that you have the grand title of emperor.”

“I am still working out what I want to upgrade to represent my new prestige. Some places remaining as they were is just comfortable.”

The door to the office opened again, suddenly and without a knock. John closed the window he had used to get his pants back on, ready to scold whoever was breaking etiquette. The words got stuck in his throat.

Remus closed the door behind himself. The twin brother of Romulus wordlessly approached one of the shelves, walking by the folders and reading the names on each. “A good sorting system,” he complimented, his voice dry and stern.

Using the Vision of Calamity, his contact lenses, John switched to a magical way of looking at the world. The answer as to how the Godmaker was present was quickly answered. “I suppose someone would have needed to discover how to use magic to make multiple bodies.”

“An advanced application of Possession, yet rudimentary for people like you and I.” Remus’ dark eyes leisurely wandered to the Gamer and the Horned Rat. “I had deduced you would meet at this hour.”

“By what method?” the Horned Rat asked. The small mouse on the table gradually swelled, flesh bubbling and birthing humanoid limbs. Gargling, the god of future calamity continued to speak while the transformation was ongoing, “I covered my tracks.”

“You covered them well enough to fool others. Alas, you are a creature of Faith. I know when you are around. From there, I simply had to consider the gaps in schedules and the habits of both of you that Luna shared with me.” Remus approached the table and regarded Scarlett with a simple nod. “You have my respect, Lady Thorne.”

“For what?” the naked technomancer asked, crossing her doll-like arms.

“Will and ingenuity.” Remus had nothing more to say, turning to John and the now fully formed body of the Horned Rat. “May we speak as equals?”

“Certainly. Come along.” John had not signed up for this to be his evening. Now that this was the situation, he would play his part in it.

The Horned Rat, Remus and Scarlett did follow. The redhead had not been excluded from the meeting by anyone and John saw no reason why she would be. Not only was she a point of intellect in her own right, she would learn everything that was about to be said anyway.

Through the teleporter, into the Palace, and then to one of the speaking chambers that the Palace had possessed even before its massive expansion. A dark, oaken table stood among various cabinets, many of them filled with decorative glasses and expensive bottles.

John sat down on one chair and Scarlett sat down on him. The soft, skin-like material of her left arm pressed against his neck, the artificial limb wrapped around him for stability. She found sufficient room to place her round butt on one of his spread legs. He held her by the waist, to complete their union.

He loved her for her choice of seat. The stoic look on her androgynous face was unmoving. She was equal parts placed on him as a signifier of her status and leaning nudely on him as a signifier of his.

Remus meticulously moved chairs from the table until only three remained. The Horned Rat had also sat down by then. A fact that quietly displeased the Godmaker, who attempted to place his own seat in a way that made the three of them exactly evenly spaced out. As a fellow enjoyer of patterns, the Gamer moved his chair with little hops until the task was made possible. Richard cackled.

“I suppose you won’t tell us what your plans are, especially regarding Romulus?” John began the conversation, once Remus was seated.

“I will not. Assuming I had certainty, I would obscure it. It is obvious that you will scheme to remove Rex Germaniae from my brother’s influence either way.”

The Gamer, the Bloodsoaked Technomancer, and the Horned Rat all answered that with simple silence. To deny or confirm, both were pointless. No truth could be spoken in this chamber, everything that was said would be questioned.

“So, we are intellectually flexing, is that the reason why you wanted to be here?” the Horned Rat asked and folded its bone-clawed hands.

“It is the vision each of us have for the future that I wish to understand,” Remus told them. “I believe I understand you, but I have not been walking this world for long. This is a strange world, disappointing in many ways, impressive in others. My decision to isolate the mundane has been proven correct by their brilliance. The Abyss, in its abundance, has developed slower than I would have thought.” He shook his head. “A god less than half my age, a Latebloomer of this era, and I, an ancient returned. The three of us will shape the future.” Thɪs chapter is updated by 𝗻𝗼𝘷𝗲𝗹•𝓯𝓲𝓻𝓮•𝕟𝕖𝕥

“You think it will just be us?” John asked.

“Humanity is led by the few that have the will and power to drag it to the future,” Remus stated. “A few that are cultivated by the few that came before. Cut the string, civilization crumbles. Only the elite matters, and of the elite, only those with the intellect and influence to mobilize the power matter. My brother is mighty, but he never had the vision to change everything.”

“Loathe as I am to give Romulus credit,” the Horned Rat spoke up, “but it is not that his vision is limited, it is that he has the humility to recognize that humanity’s true potential comes from merely existing. As long as mankind survives, the competing thoughts and ideas will give rise to the next step. It is not a dragging that brings the species forwards, but a messy, drunken shambling.”

“You are both wrong,” John declared. “You hold extreme positions. Humanity doesn’t exist so that it can be governed by the strong nor does it merely need to live. What humanity always needs is a hierarchy that is in tune with the common goal. A society that is legitimate, with those that have the good of the commons in mind.”

“And the capacity of the capable to rise of their own power from the muck at the very bottom all the way to the spires of the very top,” Scarlett added.

“Take the new Abyssals.” Remus tapped the table. Something split from whatever he was Possessing to make this projection of himself, something that immediately morphed into a crowd of human figures. “They are without guidance.” The crowd turned in on itself, enacting a miniature battle with slings and arrows. “Without a strong leader, they will break.”

“Our definitions of a strong leader will differ,” John said. “I do not have the arrogance to claim I should dictate the way the entire world needs to be run.”

“If you are correct, to wait for the affirmation of others is to expose them to cruelty.”

“Rhetorically correct, realistically difficult to measure.” John looked at the Horned Rat. “You are being quiet.”

“Your squabble is proving me right, there is nothing to be added,” the god answered with its typical, skull-faced grin.

Sighing, the Gamer waved off. “We can debate philosophy, but it won’t be fruitful. I won’t change my mind based on approaches I have already known and considered.”

“What is more fucking interesting is that claim only these three powers matter now,” Scarlett continued John’s line of thought. “Explain yourself, Godmaker.”

“A simple analysis of the capacity of world nations and their leaders,” Remus responded. “My brother is strong, but he is a defender of the status quo.”

“Except in the fact that he wishes to end this status quo,” the Horned Rat drawled sarcastically. “Now, now, do not let me distract you. The Great Sultanate may reform under the prince, but it will not ascend. The Mandate of Heaven is in league with you, John, and thus under the sway of your will, just as South America is falling under the sway of Remus.”

The revelation had John narrow his eyes. Could it be true that the remnants of the Purest Front could be taken over by Remus? ‘It’s not a racial ideology he has, but if they are looking for a new, strong authoritarian figure…’ “And I assume your power is unseen everywhere, Rat?”

Richard just cackled and shrugged.

John shook his head. “I am not playing along with this assumption,” he told Remus. “You are systemizing too much and trying to do so in a world that has been shaken to the core.”

“It is my duty to sort it all out. I had hoped I could recruit your aid in this.”

“Proper structures emerge organically in the marketplace of ideas,” Scarlett answered. “The only thing you need to do is let people compete fairly.”

“On this, I agree,” the Horned Rat spoke. “Competition will see the world rise, not your systems.”

“A garden unkempt is without purpose,” Remus responded.

“Nature shackled is not nature at all,” John retorted.

“A wall’s value comes from what it protects,” the Horned Rat concluded.

With a sigh and no other word spoken, the Godmaker left the room. He did not bother rising. All he did was cut the spell that had animated this puppet. A mass of dried mud and clay was left behind where he had sat, crumpling away.

‘Aclysia, I have to inform you that Remus has left you a mess.’

‘I hate him,’ the first maid hissed back. ‘I hate him already for opposing your goals and now he makes our home dirty? May I stab him, when the opportunity arises, Master?’

‘I’ll consider that request.’ John tilted his head, throwing the Horned Rat a questioning gaze. “Anything else you wanted to discuss with me?”

“I only wanted to give you a warning, between… friends.” The Horned Rat’s skull creaked as the smile widened. “If you manifest your designs in Asia, you and I may find ourselves opposed. Secretly opposed, that is.”

“Oh?” John’s fingers held Scarlett’s hips a little tighter. He was not going to lie to himself: the idea of being opposite of the Horned Rat in a conflict was terrifying. In combat, he believed he could best the god now, provided he had access to all of his familiars. Their clash was unlikely to take on that sort of character. “Am I running contrary to your designs?”

“It will be a simple chess game between you and I,” the Horned Rat answered. “I will not scheme to take from you, only to claim land before you do. A warning from a place of fairness.”

“I… appreciate it?” John responded with no small amount of confusion.

After that, the Horned Rat took his leave as well. John decided to pick Scarlett up princess style and move her out of the room, just in case Remus had left some spying enchantment on his puppet. If he had, that at least was some explanation why the Horned Rat would have planted a false flag. He stopped to give Aclysia a quick kiss, before the head maid entered the room with a shovel and a bucket full of Cleaning Slime.

“What do you make of all of that?” John asked the redhead.

“Typical fucking posturing of schemers with too much time. Ignore all of it and continue on as usual,” she answered.

That probably was the most productive thing to do.