(Written while listening to: "Nightmare(The Devil)" by Fame on Fire on YouTube)
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'Child of Weaver?' Laito thought with a growing headache. He recalled everything he knew about the "mythology"(if even it can be called one since it was just his new reality) of the Shadow Slave universe.
Seven Gods(officially six): Sun, Shadow, Storm, Beast, Heart, War. And also the forgotten one.
With the respective seven deamons who are also children of the forgotten one. They are also said to be manifestations of mentioned gods' flaws: demon of Desire: Hope, demon of Dread: Ariel, demon of Imagination: Mirage, demon of Repose: Rime(Her name was revealed literally in the last chapter he read before he was suddenly transmigrated), demon of Oblivion: …- He couldn't remember the name!, the youngest among the demonic siblings: Nether, demon of Choice.
And the one whose presence was most prolific through the entire story, the oldest of them: Weaver the Demon of Fate.
At first: Gods used the Flame of Desire to create the Universe and its corresponding absolute laws the likes of: Fate, Death, Flaws…- maybe even more normal stuff like gravity and workings of electro-magnetic fields, who knows.
Then the big boys came around: Void…- and its Corruption. Forgotten One became corrupted, he created deamons.
There was an all-out war between deamons and gods. that eventually turned into a sort of "all versus all" kind of battle.
There were some legendary mortal heroes known as "The Nine" involved.
The gods died. The deamons died. The mortals died. The end.
Not entirely though.
At least that's the summary. The fallout of that war was the existence of Nightmare Spell and slow creeping of the Void's influence into the reality, which manifested as "Waking world" being slowly devoured by Dream Realm.
Now…- Laito wasn't from the "Waking world" was he? But from "Meta World!" with quirks and heroes, anime cat/bunny-girls and stuff. How could all of these get so conflated? As if just one of these weren't complicated enough.
Maybe his Nightmare Spell is just an exclusive version he got from his ROB, so it doesn't mean that Shadow Slave universe is actually "there"? But the ROB said that "He" is not going to give him any system…- or anything really, so his Nightmare Seed should have come to him from somewhere else…
'But how, when, where and what the fuck?' Laito got stuck in his frantic recall of the plot into which he was thrown within.
"Anything to say?" Fang interrupted the thought process of the dazed boy.
"Huh? Oh right! You guys just admitted to being cultists of the most hated being in existence! Probably something really illegal here or whatnot. But do not worry. I am really magnanimous, so I won't rat you out! You are allowed to be grateful!" Laito, as usual, spouted completely random nonsense.
The Ascendant Forgemaster got speechless for a moment.
"I…- see, that everything that Marigold was saying about you was true, it seems. Unfortunately.
Laito opened his mouth to retort, but was cut off with a dismissive wave of hand.
"No. Shut up. Just listen."
"First thing: Yes, you are technically correct that, within the Sun Empire, the worship of deamons is outlawed and while Incandescent are officially part of the Empire…- said Empire didn't care much about all of us for a long time, did it?"
"For years this outpost was only a convenient way to remove inconvenient factors from the mainland while maintaining the "humane" reputation."
"In times of crisis, the Emperor first just cut us off from the obvious way to save everyone with organized evacuation, which would allow us to simply starve that bitch and be done with it." He pointed with his thumb in the direction of the battle.
"And finally when it's time for the conflict to erupt. Instead of moving his own ass here and help, or at least sending some reinforcements from one of his many other Knight's Orders, he just shows his apparition and eavesdrops on whether we want to use this situation to uproot his authority as if he has any left here." He paused his rant for a moment with a spat.
'I see. So the CEO appeared only for a Zoom call…- that explains the complete lack of an aura.' Laito realized.
"Easy to say: Lord Commander…- and neither anyone here, are not happy with the Empire for a long time already. That is why the Lord Commander is tolerant enough towards us two, especially considering our common goal."
"Which is to alter the course of Fate for this doomed region. By any means necessary." Fang said grimly.
"Figure our surprise, when a Gastac's own apprentice, shows himself suddenly, carrying the complete form of Lord's Spell, while having "an amnesia"." He made the quotes gesture with his fingers.
"Nobody believed that for a second by the way, but we don't care as long as we can use each other to survive." With that, Cultist Forgemaster went silent and fell into his own thoughts for the moment, while Gastac only could spare a side-eye glance at them, before he had to continue his work.
Laito had a lot to think about. Considering that all he could do for a moment was to wait for the battle's outcome, he sat down and tried to figure out what he could.
'Weaver is also known as "master of lies" so there is no point in asking them too many questions unless I would want to be lied to. Their presence somewhat explains why Incandescent artifacts were at least somewhat partially compatible with the Spell, not completely though, as Weaver wasn't supposed to teach anyone about Weave Sorcery, my guess is that this guy-' He glanced briefly at Fang. '-just used Runes and his own Aspect, to just barely make it work.'
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'Alter the course of Fate… I guess in a situation when your destined Fate is: "You will die miserably in a horrific way.", then trying to oppose cosmic forces seems like the only option, even if you fail, at least you tried, right?'
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Similar thought kept passing through Laito's head while he waited for the end of the part of the combat operation that was far too "high level" for him to do anything more.
[30 minutes later]
After some time Gastac garnered the attention of Laito and Fang by stretching himself and groaning tiredly:
"Aaaand, Gate's clos'n now. Evacuation done! Battle's done! The Keep's completely surrounded now. Time to regroup."
"How it went?" Laito instantly asked.
"We ain't dead yet lad. That's more than it was s'pposed to be! I'll call it a win."
'So the "surprise" did end up changing something, as in the original course of action we all were supposed to be getting overrun and wiped within the next two hours.' The boy thought with slight relief.
"Now what?" He asked as the three of them exited the array's underground bunker.
"Now we need to keep trying to survive the Siege, until help arrives." Master Fang said without enthusiasm.
"Huh? So the Empire is sending help after all?" Laito asked, confused.
2x "
"Nay lad. It's the strongest Saint who's comin'! Exiled Saint Godar "The Beast King"! Gastac answered.
"He's also Tirabeth's father so you know." Fang chipped in. At this point they were approaching the surface.
"Additional Saint? That's nice. We already have four of them here, but every one is a huge powerhouse I guess. Having another one would be good."
"Just…- another one?" Fang asked, surprised.
"Kid, Lord Godar is not "just another one"! When he was witnessed last time he was already close to supremacy." Ascendant Knight argued like he was an offended fanboy.
"So is Lord Commander and even with him here we would already be dead, if not for a whim of Fate…- wrong expression, but you know what I mean!" Laito couldn't see the Cultist's point.
Gastac quipped:
"Ye lad don't know? Lord Godar's holdin Divine Aspect!"
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"Ohhhhhhhh…" Laito finally got the message, right as they reached the outside.
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[4 years left until MHA plot beginning]
[Chapter End] The story is not over yet