Chapter 83
Chapter 83
Max sat, watching and waiting as the centaurs gathered, ate the food, and drank the drink he had provided.
“We are honored to have been given from your hearth,” Aeacilles. “Many will be jealous to hear they missed out on such a treat.”
“It is the least I can offer,” Max replied. “Tell me, what has happened here? It wasn’t like this when I last visited about… ninety years or so ago.”
The older centaur nodded while Talanos scoffed.
“For the last forty or so years, a drought has afflicted our world and we have been without water,” the younger centaur stated. “Our plains have decreased, our people have fallen in numbers and those who were once part of our gatherings can no longer cross the vast, barren area. Do you know what that means?”
Shaking his head, Max said nothing.
“We are forced to find mates within our herd. This causes problems if not fixed and soon we shall have children with deformities because of it!”
“It is not that bad,” Aeacilles said. “We are generations from that.” “We may all be gone before that moment has a chance to arrive!” Talanos shouted, silencing the conversations that had been taking place nearby. “Look at our people! How many of our brothers and sisters have fallen ill, never to run again? How many of our children are born with no life in their lungs? How can you sit here and still blindly worship a god that doesn’t know our plight and fix it?”
“Because I am old and have faith!’ Aeacilles shouted, rising to his feet.
Both centaurs stood, each pressing their hairy chests against the other, the ground beneath their hooves being torn up as they began to assert dominance.
Should we intervene?
I doubt it. That would probably be worse as this is most likely their tradition for who is in charge. The last thing you want right now if you’re hoping to gain their trust is to break a tradition like that.
Keeping one eye on the pair who were now wrestling of sorts, Max looked up at the sky and considered what he had heard so far.
Can we fix this? I mean I could spend some Divine Points and purchase a few of the blessings. That would help to alleviate the problem… or should.
Unless it's more than just a drought, we’re going to be spending DP on something you can’t necessarily fix. Jazzjak might have a solution or some ideas.
The sound of something snapping made Max focus on the pair of centaurs who were wrestling, the older one on the ground, his front leg broken. Talanos stood above Aeacilles, nostrils flaring as he towered over him.
“You will no longer lead this pack. For too long, we have followed and it has not led us anywhere.”
Max watched as the rest of the centaurs shifted, the division he hadn’t realized had been there widening as those who had been on the somewhat smaller side of the gathered horsemen all moved to the left, leaving less than a dozen milling about.
Keeping his temper, Max moved to where Aeacilles lay on the ground, unable to right himself yet.
“You’ve proved you're stronger than him,” Max said, getting into the younger one's space. “Let him be. If you care enough about your pack surviving, you’ll not let him suffer any more than he has to or die. Doing so just proves you don’t care about anyone but yourself.”
“You don’t–”
Max didn’t lift a hand as cords of air surrounded Talanos. He was lifted off the ground and bucked and kicked as like a fish out of water.
“Put me down!”
Max ignored him, moving to stand beside Aeacilles and holding out a potion toward him. “Drink it.”
A pair of black eyes glanced at the potion and then at Max. “I’m not worthy nor do I deserve to live. I have failed the pack and I have–”
The back of Max’s hand struck the older centaur, knocking him off his precariously perched position and onto his side.
“Do you wish for me to treat you as nothing and to leave, letting the rest of you all die?” Max growled. “I came because I saw the need to help. I would have come sooner had I known but I am here and I won’t play games with any of you. Drink this and live. Submit to Talanos if you want, but either two things are going to happen right now.”
Max looked up from the older centaur who was holding his cheek, a red area already appearing. He glared at the rest of those gathered and saw them back up a step. A few had bows or spears out but he doubted any of them were foolish enough to use them.
With his flight skill, Max rose from the ground and stopped a few feet from where Talanos was still struggling to move. The pair of them hovered fifteen feet above the rest.
“Put me–”
Max repeated the same action he had just done with Aeacilles, slapping Talanos and silencing him.
“Do not think for a moment that I will hold back if you cannot find enough wisdom to realize who you are to me,” Max said, glaring.
Those eyes of the centaur before him widened and for the first time since they had met, Max swore he saw something that looked like fear appear.
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“I will either help you because I said I will or I will slaughter all of you except Aeacilles. I will then take him to another pack and let him tell them of what happened to the fool Talanos when he spoke to a god wrong.”
The gentle breeze that was blowing was the only sound the centaur before him made. After a few seconds had passed, Max nodded and Talanos fell to the ground, removing the bonds when his hooves touched. He then moved to where Aecilles was and held out the potion once more.
“Drink it and do not argue. I won’t offer it again.”
The older centaur's hand shook for just a moment as he reached out, taking the offered gift and drinking it. In moments, he was back on all four hooves, looking better than he had minutes ago.
I like this version of you. Well done. Now then, what path will we take from here?
With a little bit of effort, Max kept himself from smiling at Bob’s comment.
“Now listen, all of you. I will do what I can to help, but if you think for a moment that this is a conversation where you get to dictate to me how things will happen, I will not hold back like I did when I struck those two.”
He watched as the pack before him all glanced at each other and knelt almost as one, their front halves bent to the ground while their flanks were perched high in the air.
Talanos and Aeacilles repeated the gesture a few seconds after the others, and when Max grunted, they all slowly rose.
“Now listen, I need to talk with someone on one of my other worlds. In the meantime, you will wait, not fight, and make peace,” Max stated. “I do not have time for petty quarrels. Wait here. I will return shortly.”
Without waiting for an answer, Max flew upward a quarter of a mile, hovering in place.
[ Celestial Gate ]
***
“That is an interesting predicament,” Jazzjak said, his red eyes focused upon the tablet in his hand. “A world that is suffering under some sort of affliction and yet you don’t know what or from where. The timing is also strange since it coincides with some of your previous incidents with other gods.”
“I was thinking the same thing,” Max said, watching as their helper continued to work on the problem at hand.”
“But why summon us?” Fowl asked. “It’s not our world?”
“For experience, you oaf,” Batrire muttered. “Someday it might be.”
“She’s right,” Max said. “Everything I do now is going to be shared as much as possible. Each of you will someday hopefully suffer the problem of having multiple worlds that require your attention. Just as we sent Miranna, Shale Spark, and the rest of her team with all the knowledge and help that we could, I want you to have that chance as well. Who’s to say you won’t win a world in the arena or find one you created, dealing with something similar? How can we best fix what we’re not aware of or why it took place?”
“But how often does something like this happen?” Cordellia asked.
“More than you realize,” Jazzjak said, not looking up from his tablet. “Don’t forget, Max spent that DP early on and ensured your world was under the blessing that all of you enjoy. Not only that, your world has seven Oblesiks that grant a bonus to everyone here. Based on the information I can gather from the data I’ve stored, this other world appears to be a single god world, barely having been given much aid at all. I don’t believe it was a secondary world and most likely was a god who came out of their protection period and was immediately killed by Kherbann.”
A display appeared, showing a graph of the decline in Divine Points coming from Radiant Steppes .
“Max is correct,” their helper continued, “that almost fifty years ago the decline of DP began, and it was so slight that I didn’t notice, even when I should have.”
“So how does Max fix it? Have him spend points here on that same blessing, and everything will suddenly be better?” Tanila asked.
“If only,” Jazzjak replied. “Instead, he’ll have to locate the room like this one on that world and then touch the panel. That will then give me access to it back here and I can then find out more information.”
“Uh… that’s a bit of a pain,” Sog stated. “Why make things so hard?”
The vorpal rabbit burst out in laughter and Max could sense everyone reacting differently to his apparent amusement.
“I’m not sure that was… that funny,” the demon said.
Wiping a tear from his eye, Jazzjak nodded. “You… don’t realize that the System doesn’t make things easy, do you? I mean, look at the learning curve each of you has already experienced. Consider the potential death that awaits every god after 300 years. Factor in how hard it is to get DP, and then ask yourself the real question most of you haven’t considered yet.”
What happens if you get a helper who doesn’t care?
Bob’s words echoed the thought Max had had a few times already.
Sog glanced at the others and then appeared to see the look on Max’s face. “Do you know?”
“I think I do,” Max replied. “I think the real question is ‘what happens if your helper doesn’t help or doesn’t care?’”
Jazzjak chuckled and bobbed his head. “Exactly! Imagine if you pissed me off from day one and I didn’t think you were worthy of my time! What’s 300 years for someone like me who is over 80,000 years old? Or the gods who abused me? Why do you think they didn’t make it long?”
“Wait… are you saying you allowed those under you to die by giving bad advice?” Fowl asked, leaning onto the table.
“Give, didn’t give, allowed to fail, what’s the difference?” their helper answered. “I haven’t mentioned it because it would probably make you think less of me… and for the first time in a very long time, I actually care about that. I won’t ask a question I know the answer to already, but I have been abused for longer than I wish to admit. The things I’ve witnessed and experienced at the hands of gods with no regard for life are atrocious.” Jazzjak’s fist pounded the table softly. “The character you all display is beyond impossible to describe… I mean… Max is–”
Jazzjak’s words were cut off as he watched Cordellia moving around the table and coming to where he was.
“I’m sorry you’ve been hurt. You know I only understand a fraction of that, but I’m here if you need,” she said softly before pulling the vorpal rabbit in for a hug.
Max felt something he hadn’t felt in a few years tug at his heart. A few hours earlier, he was going to wipe out a few centaurs to prove a point. Yet in this moment, Cordellia reminded him that sometimes when we’ve been hurt, we act the wrong way.
A hand touched his and squeezed. Turning, Max saw Tanila smiling at him.
Wiping a tear that had formed and slowly escaping down his cheek with a thumb, he smiled back, taking a deep breath.
It appears that I may need to apologize for my earlier actions.
Imagine a god who apologizes. Those centaurs may die from a heart attack instead of by your hand.