They bid the vendor farewell and stepped into the passageway, the trellised door creaking ominously shut behind them. The passage was dim and poorly maintained, light skirling off the periphery of one's eyes like will-o-the-wisps, darting and shifting as they moved.
"What is that?" Letrizia complained, blinking her eyes shut to drown out the disorienting movement of the light.
They should clearly invest more in their lighting! How are prospective rescuers supposed to follow their secret passages with such poor illumination? If they expect us to fix these technical problems ourselves, they're in for some major surprise, since the solution Hunger prefers are quite final. No Tower, no technical difficulties, right? Well, not that the main combatants in our party would get really annoyed by simple issues like these, they're each superhuman in their own way.
Hmm, just how superhuman are they, actually, excluding aberrations like Hunger?
Gisena is a High Sorceress, which is a bigger deal than a normal Sorceress, plus Sublime Attainment was specifically focused on enhancing her stats. It said her stats would be comparable with Hunger's, but he had been basically a baby at that point, not even a single EFB or Defining Advancement under his belt, though he already had Quickening. Actually, it's not difficult to measure thanks to our character sheets, so it seems his physical stats were around 20 back then, devoid of most modifiers we've acquired since. So Gisena should be somewhere around there too, plus however much projected growth was included in the Sublime Attainment option. In terms of Agility that's... still at least several times the speed of sound, I think?
Letrizia is harder to quantify. She doesn't have physical enhancements beyond whatever implants she got before she met us, - oh right, and the blood buffs, assuming we keep those up, - but she has managed to train her up significantly, at least enough that she could momentarily neutralize Hunger's Pressure before he got the Crown Feat. She needed her Element's help for that, but still. Rank by itself doesn't really enhance physical parameters though, from what we know, so unless Sharpbright does that for her too, she should be close to baseline physically.
Aeira and Aobaru are even more difficult to gauge, since we don't have many concrete numbers on them or examples of feats. We know that Aobaru can give us +70% physical parameters, but that's clearly much less than what he can apply to himself, either because our stats are so big already or because it's just more efficient to buff himself. And Aeira has that weird +Agi from her Shadowcord Element and can presumably keep up with Hunger somewhat, at least going by what her training is supposed to achieve. So the question of what they can do is still up in the air, maybe we'll find our later.
There's Versch as well, but he's absent at the moment. Poor Armament, left behind while his companions decided to go on an adventure on their own. Hopefully he won't start eating people out of despair.
So, considering all of the above, it's not surprising that Letrizia is the only one bothered by the strange lighting. Rather, Shouldn't her Rank help with that too somehow? I guess she needs more Rank!
"Spatial magic," Gisena explained quietly. "It's an artifact of how heavily space is compressed here. The builders must not have been very skilled, or they could have compensated for the effect!"
And you are certainly an expert on crazy magical architecture like you're at everything else, right, Gisena?
...Actually, she might just be. While I don't remember the specifics of Joyeuse, Sylvie's works had certainly sounded impressive, and she did it at least partially through
findross infusion and rearrangement of ordinary materials IIRC. That isn't a capability unique to her, other than the scale and effectiveness of her Grace. There were other Sorceresses who did the equivalent of Artifice judging by Gisena's explanations of her dresses, and there's little reason why they would limit themselves to personal Artifacts.
Or wait, did she take the time out to examine the Temple's structure while we were busy murdering our way through its inhabitants? I recall that it had quite a bit of time-space fuckery going on as well. I imagine that there wasn't much else to do while she had to wait outside, so why not busy herself with parsing the magical structure of the wondrous edifice right next to her? Might be a bit masochistic given she probably believed she wouldn't get any magic other than Nullity at that point, but sometimes we can't help poking things even when it hurts us.
Well, even if Gisena hadn't learned about magical architecture back then, her explanation here might just be the result of her regular magical perception and the Azure Ring. I would certainly trust the Ring's expertise on this front.
"Or they simply didn't care about the help," Hunger said.
"Come now, would you attribute so uncharitable a posture to the royal family of Mirellyian?" Gisena teased. "Are you not both royalty, bound by honor and common interest to defend each other's rights?"
Well, our score for governments deposed vs supported is 3 vs 0 so far? The only ones that ended up somewhat well are the people in charge of Elixir, and even they lost their position and their most important properties. It's not quite mind-break and murder, but they might not be quite as grateful for the rescue from the Rotbeast as one would expect. Good thing Adorie is basically an exiled princess! This way our habits of fomenting rebellion and upsetting the existing order work
for her rather than against.
Man, I imagine a day will come when people will simply bar Hunger from visiting their country because it's always just a prelude to conquest, whether he intends to or not. I would almost think that Apocrypha is helping him train for his future Geas task on the sly, but there is no way our Curse can be this nice!
"That doesn't obligate me to like them," he observed. "Case in point, my Princess Regent is fond of causing me frequent vexation."
"You could just not play along," Aobaru said helpfully. Gisena's eyes glowed faintly emerald in the shadow as Aobaru lit an illuminating flame. For a while they walked in silence.
For a moment there I imagined Gisena and Aobaru facing each other in a Mexican stand-off.
'So the young puppy has started growing some teeth? Perhaps I should teach you the dangers of being too snarky near a Nullity Sorceress'
'Bring it on, you won't depower this Chosen One so easily!'
I think it was the glowing eyes and being mentioned in the same sentence that gave the impression, I certainly didn't expect her to just quiet down after the jab. But the boy Aobaru is sadly too late with his advice in any case, Catherine had already conditioned Hunger to obey Princesses during his previous adventure, Gisena simply took advantage of the formed habits. The takeover of Elixir had clearly been a nefarious plot to exploit this chink in Hunger's impeccable social armor. Hmm, maybe he has a Princess fetish? If so we might be a tad disadvantaged against Adorie...
No longer after they reached a fork in the path, the left side caved-in, the right blocked by a shimmering waterfall. Hunger glanced at Gisena, who stepped forth, already examining the rightwards juncture.
"It's... a domain," she frowned. "The territory of some supernatural creature, with wards of shielding and divination. The vendor didn't mention anything like this. Think it's a trap?"
Hidden passage, yeah right. Next time a vendor who is secretly a royal spy points us at obscure tunnels and mysterious entrances that we can use to get past an usurper, we'll know what to expect! I wish I could say that it's Hunger's fault for forgetting the basic common sense of adventure stories, but it's not like we did much better. My own fault for expecting wholly positive results out of high rolls and forgetting that we aren't the only ones who can roll well, or just make sufficient preparations that rolls don't matter.
We find out a bit more about the Lord Protector's capabilities in this chapter at least, rumors of super-competence aside. Perhaps wards aren't the most exciting field of magic, buy they're a solid choice for an entrenched wizard. Most are kind of useless against Hunger's MurderDeathKill Cut and the newly acquired teleportation Sign, but it's not like preparing for a hostile Cursebearer is easy.
"Possibly. And the other side?"
"Wholly mundane, except for the usual magics."
Man, isn't Gisena really convenient as a magic trap detector? I'm starting to worry that we'll start relying on her too much in that department and she will miss something one day. It's not like her magic senses/vision are perfect and can't miss anything. I would suggest that Hunger should develop some magic detection capabilities as well, but I think he's firmly of the belief that 'just destroy all hostile magic' is the best solution to the problem, given the existence of the Magic-Defeating and All-Defeating Stances. No wonder him and Gisena get along so well!
"Halt," came a voice from the right, and Hunger felt a fell energy shiver down his spine.
A beast padded forward, a female lion with eyes of kaleidoscopic pink and grey, the sigil of an inverse E across her forehead. She stopped at the waterfall boundary and observed them with keen intent, the Pressure of her Astral presence like a curtain thrown across the world. The Forebear's Blade trembled greedily in his hand.
That's some dedication to math, tatooing an existential quantifier onto her forehead. Had she been a nerd during her tenure as an amusement park guide? Or had her creator been one? Not that I expect the Foremost to perfectly parallel our mathematical notation, but neither would it surprise me given all the other similarities and even the incredibly unlikely language overlap with the modern inhabitants of the Human Sphere and the Voyaging Realm. Maybe we could once again chalk it up to convergent principles.
...Wait. It just really occurred to me, but why are we still speaking the same language with everyone we meet? Ok, let's assume Letrizia speaks English due to shenanigans and 'ontological similarities', as she explained, but what about the rest of the Voyaging Realm? I can accept the Elixir Sovereignty, since they only fled from the Empire relatively recently, and maybe the Temple had enough intercommunication with all the invading adventurers to somehow avoid linguistic drift, but what about Nilfel? They'd been pretty isolated so far from what I understand, so how in the world do we understand each other without further effort? Is there 'magic in the air'? Gisena did mention something about that, and I wouldn't be surprised if Nilfel's mythos dealt with such problems.
A worthy opponent at last. Since he'd killed the Rotbeast it'd had nothing but scraps. The Doom of the Tyrant flared within him. He would not be commanded by this creature, this monstrous beast. Not now, and not ever.
Gisena stepped back politely, but Hunger pressed forward, blue of the Praxis already materializing across his blade's edge.
Wow, that's a lot more bloodthirsty than I ever expected from Hunger. Sometimes I forget just how battle-crazy he can be. Surely there is no way this state of affairs can be our fault! And naturally just a single word from the lioness procs Tyrant, why would I expect anything else? The Doom had been relatively tame so far, as Curses go, but it is still a Curse. One slip is all it needs to flare up to its full terrible glory.
Gisena's actions here make me both grateful and sad for what they represent. She knows Hunger and his situation well enough that she's aware there is no point trying to convince him once he's in the grip of the Tyrant's Doom, so she just quietly gets out of the way. It's good for her survival chances, but it is a stark reminder that their relationship is inherently unequal. They may joke and banter, but the Doom is something she has no answer to, so she can only bow once it procs, no matter what she would actually prefer to do.
The creature took a step back. "Please. I do not wish to harm you. Were we to battle, neither of us would escape unscathed. In actuality I come bearing a gift for one of you."
Hunger stopped, tide of the waterfall sheeting and humming over the edge of his blade, its supernal sharpness splitting the ward-magics down to their core.
Beware of lions bearing gifts, eh? We could easily do without such 'help'.
Still, I'm more at peace with the Chains choice now, by the way. Had we chosen Dearly Departed or Runes of Mastery, this would have likely ended in a Tyrant proc and a messy battle. And while the consequences of awakening Aobaru to his destiny prematurely are horrible, at least Hunger didn't randomly trigger and slaughter this creature who tried her best to find a peaceful resolution despite the perilous circumstances. Not that she did it out of pure altruism, as we learn later, but it's best to stay civil while one can.
"The Lord Protector summoned me to intercept you," The creature said. "But I see now that our mutual opposition would be folly. So long as the Chosen One travels alongside you, our interests are aligned. I, too, would see this Realm restored to its former glories."
Don't expect me to like you just because you are repeating Baenlixnair's and Zang Kong's line, creature!
...huh. It was meant as a joke, but I think my paranoia is starting to get to me, given the theories about the Voyaging Realm's (and Nilfel's specifically) connections to the AU EFB world. Had she known one of them back then? I wish we could have pumped her for lore, she must have known tons of hidden secrets. Too bad the oaths the Lord Protector bound her with are so effective. Maybe we can summon her again later? Our summoning spell might only target the Astral Realm for now, but expanding that to other Realms is a good direction to develop it into if the want the Sign to remain useful in worlds without Astral, and the Realm of Forms sounds pretty universal. Not to mention that we could find all kinds of interesting beings in there.
It stared at Aobaru. "Come forth, Chosen One. Allow me to take a look at you."
"Not too far forward," Hunger said casually. "Don't let it lunge at you."
There are children's stories about stuff like this, Aobaru. Don't complain if she tries to swallow you in one bite after pretending to be your grandmother! I wonder if Hunger was simply taking precautions or if this is really a Red Riding Hood reference from him. He can remember surprisingly random things from his life as an Earthling.
"Chosen One? Me?" Aobaru said dumbly, coming to a halt half a handspan behind Hunger.
"The legacy of the Builders lives on within you," the lioness explained. "Only you can re-activate the control array located at Realm's center. Power beyond the uttermost imaginings of your presently-mortal mind, should you prove worthy to hold it. But you are not awakened yet... Your potential lies curiously dormant. The hour of destiny has not yet come for you. I could change that, awaken what slumbers within. It would be a gradual transition, and you may attract dangers beyond your personal capacity to handle, but your friend the Praehihr should keep you well in stead. He seems eager for a fight, regardless."
We had known about Aobaru's protagonist status for a while thanks to Rihaku's hints, but it still seems quite surprising to me too. Like, there had hardly been anything other than his significant talent that made him stand out when we first met him. Well, in hindsight maybe we should have payed more attention to what had led Letrizia and Versch to that school in the first place. Versch often knows way more things than he lets on, and as part of the Foremost legacy it wouldn't be surprising if he could recognize their... successor?.. from afar. Strange that he didn't say anything more once we arrived, but perhaps he knew that us picking Aobaru up was inevitable at some point.
Reading what she says about his task more closely though, why would someone need to manually re-activate any control arrays? That they can be activated means they're intact, but shouldn't there be some mechanisms to automatically maintain and trigger them? Then again, perhaps the Builders weren't believers in automatism, given the existence of the Interdict of Cognition.
Also, thanks for the vote of confidence, miss lioness, though I would have preferred to avoid reenacting the Doom of Culling, especially since we don't get any Remittances for it. This is revenge for calling Hunger hardcore one time too many, isn't it?
"That sounds pretty amazing," Aobaru said cautiously, "But how do we know that any of what you're saying is true? This... this is crazy. Why me?"
"An accident of circumstance," the lioness shrugged. "Or perhaps something deeper. I would have you awakened to your potential. That is the only price I request for the safe passage of your entire party to the Princess' Tower... and the information I bear on the Lord Protector himself."
It's not a bad trade, to be fair, given what the alternatives were. And the info on the usurper is dead useful, since we're probably about to fight him. I had hoped that we could push that off and deal with Decimator first, but it sounds like he's too competent to leave him up to his own devices. Well, except when it comes to binding summoned creatures to their oaths, but to be fair he's hardly the first wizard to fall into this trap.
Speaking of potential, shouldn't Aobaru be a possible Sorcerer too, since he carries the legacy of the Builders and all? Maybe that's what she meant when she spoke about potential being dormant, though it sounds like she expected him to be awakened already. It seems like she doesn't know about whatever happened to produce this outcome. Hmm, and we've posed some theories about the reasons why humans have lost the capability to produce and manipulate findross after seeing the Cut Fate advancement, like it being a Fate/Destiny effect, which appears even more interesting in light of the fact that Aobaru is the Chosen One.
"I'm surprised at your latitude of action," Gisena commented. "He summoned you, but you wriggled very adroitly out of those bindings! Yet you don't resemble any of the Astral denizens I've met at all... I wonder where he got you from?"
Most Astral denizens we've met tried to eat our face, so that's hardly conclusive evidence of the lioness' different origins. We even bought a spell that lets us summon and negotiate with Astral beings recently! Or will buy in the future? Time has gotten even more confusing now that we're jumping back and forth with build votes.
I guess Gisena could also be talking about the creature's magic. It might be different enough to make it obvious that she's from somewhere else other than the Astral Realm.
"A place halfway between here and there," the lioness nodded, nudging the supernal blue of Hunger's blade-edge. Her muzzle came up fully against the cutting blue, and yet she was not cut.
His eyes widened. A being from somewhere along the gradient between this base reality and the true fundament beneath. Did it inhabit the same realm he'd ventured into to strike against the Rotbeast? What was the Lord Protector that he could call upon such a creature?
When I read the first line, I involuntarily imagined Hunger pouting and poking the lioness with his shiny blue sword while complaining that it's supposed to Cut anything, no type weaknesses to felines allowed. I was thankfully reminded that Hunger wasn't really trying here, so I can rest assured that Cut can't be so easily resisted by any random summon from the Realm of Forms.
I was a bit confused by her explanation of her origins though, to be honest. Till now I thought the Realm of Forms was just an abstraction of reality, not an actual place. So her 'living' there sounds a bit strange to me, like humans saying that we live in space. Technically correct, but doesn't everything have a representation in the Realm of Forms one way or another? It could be that Hunger's first interpretation was wrong and she simply means that the Lord Protector used that Realm as a search engine and/or transit station to drag the lioness from wherever she was before to his place, but I trust his expertise in this case.
"I'll do it," Aobaru said. "If it gets us past you without having to fight, and also gives us intel on this Lord Protector guy... it sounds like a good deal to me. What do I have to do?"
"Nothing," said the lioness. "Simply stand there."
Of all the lessons to learn from Hunger, it just had to be heroism, hadn't it? He has no idea what he is in for. Well, it's not like the lioness explained all that much about the dangers, simply saying that Hunger would deal with it. I reckon his opinion might have been somewhat different if he learned that he's provoking an enemy with potential equal to Hunger's own with this. Hopefully we'll survive to regret this decision! Or not, if the rewards are good enough.
There was an instinct in him to halt this, to have the boy re-consider the precipitous course to which he'd agreed, but Hunger stilled himself. Much as he'd like to intervene, it was ultimately Aobaru's choice. That he personally had suffered from his stint as hero of destiny did not mean the boy was doomed to the same. Certainly not if he had anything to say about it.
I think the Runes of Mastery are representative of what could happen if we tried to take on too much responsibility. Broad as Hunger's shoulders are, they can't bear everything. Still, from his perspective this is truly Aobaru's decision to make, so I can understand not intervening despite his instincts blaring non-stop warnings. I don't know how well we'll be able to protect him, but we'll certainly do our best! If only to avoid something as ominous-sounding as Apocryphal Onslaught. Nothing called Onslaught had ever been good news, especially in conjunction with a Curse like Apocrypha.
The lioness gently stalked forward and laid a paw against Aobaru's hand. There was a brief flare of magenta light and Aobaru gasped.
"Whoa. I- whoa..."
That was quick! And painless, from the looks of it. What a deviation from the usual tropes!
"Now then," the creature continued, "As I have turned wholly against my summoner, we have limited time before the terms of my conjuring result in my inevitable banishment. Your chief priority must be the defense of the Chosen One; with the forces arrayed against him you can scarce afford further distractions. I cannot see your full intentions but I assume you will not be deterred from your opposition of the Lord Protector. In your current state you have very little chance of opposing him directly."
I'd almost lost it then and there before remembering that this is before we pick up the Tears and the Tower. Because having no chance against the Lord Protector after getting not one but
two EFBs would have been a bit... well, even with them we're apparently not strong enough to overcome his legions, though we may be pretty enough to subvert them. Man, I almost regret getting Sky Veil now, it would have been hilarious to see Gisena going gaga over the new and improved Hunger. Not like we could have gotten the Opalescent Tower advancement without Sky Veil in the first place, but it's the principle of the matter!
That we need to focus on defending Aobaru goes without saying. Even if we didn't have any personal attachment to our squire, the consequences of his death alone don't bear thinking about. Like, we literally couldn't possibly survive them, since the name implies the Apocrypha attacking us repeatedly and possibly releasing whatever limiters she has. Since she's mostly limited by wanting to keep things 'interesting', making her explicitly want to kill us is a bad, bad idea.
She paused and trembled, cracks like splintering stone forming across her back. Through them peered a light of unearthly paleness, like the sun filtered through clouds.
No Praxis blue or magenta? I have a sneaking suspicion this lioness simply likes playing with colors and even her kaleidoscopic eyes are just there for appearance's sake rather than due to any special eye magic.
The lioness licked her lips and continued. "He is owed many favors by the foremost entities of this Realm of Myth. That said, you are a Praehihr and capable of progression beyond limit... look into the armamentarium of Mirellyian dynasty. They harbor artifacts that would work perfectly with your style of magic. The Tower itself is forged of the same material as your incomplete Cloak of Sky. Marshal your powers quickly and seek aid from the legions of House Eruntael. You may be sheltered against many divinations but your companions are not. The next entity he sends against you may lack my raw potency, but will be more finely-tailored to-"
At last the lioness could continue no further, the speed of her disintegration hastening until with a thunderous crack the fissures overtook her entirely. Like pulverized stone she shattered, leaving only fragments and dust behind, and the waterfall receded steadily, become an intermittent dribble.
I wish she could have told us something more useful than vague hints, since we knew most of that OOC. Well, some pieces of information are still valuable, like the fact that he owns favors from the 'foremost entities' of this Realm. We have no idea how strong they are, but they are presumably quite dangerous given the average levels of encounters here. One more reason not to give him time before we strike him down, as it would mean allowing him an opportunity to call upon those favors. On the other hand, free picks? With OaF that might just be survivable.
That our companions aren't shielded from divination is good advice too, though there isn't much we can do about that. Maybe Gisena could whip something up with her Ring of Time, but we're already expecting quite a bit of work from her. Expecting her to solve our every problem might be a bit too much...
And finally, the lioness mentions summons that would be of lesser potency than her but more finely-tailored to... target our weaknesses? Assassinate the princess? Actually obey his orders? I don't think he can divine Hunger well enough to summon something that can defeat our MC specifically, though the same cannot be said for our companions. Assassination of the princess is a worry too, as she's going to carry our newest Artifact, which represents a significant fraction of our power. She has a lot of Rank, but not a lot of combat experience, so we'll have to see what her own opinion is. And he clearly won't repeat the same mistake of summoning something that doesn't do what he wants it to!
"Well," Hunger blinked. "That was a lot to take in." They had underestimated both the speed and the resourcefulness of this Lord Protector. Had they been forced to fight, would he have won here?
Yes. Yes he would have. Hunger probably wouldn't have liked the price for victory though.
The lesson to learn here is that we need better divination capabilities yesterday, if we don't want our enemies to catch us off-guard so easily next time. As the bearer of the Time Ring, that sounds like a job for Gisena!
"Whoa..." Aobaru said once more, before snapping out of his reverie. "That... was..."
"Care to share with the class?" Letrizia said archly.
Sounds like someone is upset they've been left out of all the fun. She has mostly been following us around, hasn't she? And now even Aobaru has gotten his own Destiny Quest, how unfair! Next thing you know we'll adopt Aeira and she'll replace Letrizia's position as our daughter. Now that sounds like a way to awaken Zea to her potential as the Devouring Sorceress...
He rubbed his brow. "I can't really describe it with words. She showed me a little bit of what the Voyaging Realm used to look like, millions of years ago. I think it - the section I saw - was some kind of amusement park."
"An amusement park?" Aeira said slowly.
The orc Armor mentioned something about a Park too, though we kept guessing whether it meant just the nearby area or something more. And there were other speculations in that direction too, iirc. Weird how an amusement park had rules on unlicensed mutations, but given what the Voyaging Realm is like nowadays, the Foremost had a very different idea of what amusement is about than we do. Rough for Aeira to find out this way though, that the death world she lives on is just runaway entertainment for the Foremost.
He shook his head. "I know how it sounds. But I don't mean that in a frivolous way. They took amusement very seriously. The being we just met, she used to be part of their analogue to a petting zoo. A protector and companion for the kids that were dropped off while their parents and older siblings went on the rides."
Man, it sounds like a whole race of people like Nameless. He would have fit right in! They even had elven waifus and everything. Hell, orcs are basically Cultivators without Reality Effects, and Rank can substitute for that. Plus Builder Sorcery and whatever elven magic is like... huh. He might have actually fit right in as someone who flourishes through application of synergy between different magic systems. Well, I'm not sure if these ones are actually compatible, since they all use
findross, just in different ways, but Nameless would have found some way to fuck things up for the Fates in any case.
"And she wants her job back?" Letrizia guessed. "Even after millions of years. Wholly committed to her purpose, just like Verschlengorge. The Foremost sure knew how to make 'em."
Is it slavery when following the preordained purpose is inscribed in their basic nature? The Tyrant Armament says no, cause otherwise it would have gone on a rampage long ago. Yeah, the Foremost sure knew how to make things last for ages, all the stranger that none survived till now. Sounds like they were Doomed, to be honest, though their disappearance could be any number of causes.
"Okay, roller-coaster tycoon," Hunger said amusedly. "We know you've got to revive the dilapidated park, but did you get any tactically useful information from this glimpse? What were the Foremost like? Were they humanoid in appearance? Did they display any unusual capabilities? Any hints as to the nature of the forces coming for you?"
Well, we know that they got around, in many senses of the words. I have a sneaking suspicion Hunger expects to fight the Foremost at some point, given the tenor of the questions. I honestly can't blame him, given everything that happened and the existence of Apocrypha. Their return is almost inevitable once we progress in the completion of our Geas task if not earlier, cause that is bound to make things more 'interesting' for us.
"Nothing on that last one," Aobaru shook his head. "It was wild. There were dimensions involved that I can't really describe, and I don't know if it was purely metaphorical, but they looked like humans to me. More or less regular humans, though some of them had some pretty sick mods. Elf, orc, kind of like the stuff you'd see in Voyaging City but way more refined."
...Mods. He sees orcs and elves and the first thing he thinks is 'cool mods'? Modernity has spoiled the romance of men! Where is that passion you're known for, Aobaru?! Such a lack of appreciation for the finer things in life, I'm so disappointed.
Too bad we didn't find out more about his nemesis IC (or OOC, if our guesses about their nature are wrong). Though no information is information in itself.
Praehihrs are normally immune to divination.
"Speaking of Voyaging City," Letrizia mused, "I really should be getting back... it's no hurry though! I want to stay with you guys and develop my Element as much as I can!"
"Unconcerned with matters imperial?" Hunger raised an eyebrow.
Letrizia pouted. "Just let me have this, okay! It's nice to be free, even if I'm just following you guys around. Besides, there's no place safer than next to my bodyguards!"
Just ignore those death% that crop up from time to time, Letrizia, you're perfectly safe. It works for Hunger!
I'm surprised just how blasé she is about putting off her return. I had the impression that she actually wanted to be back as soon as our circumstances allow. If she prefers to continue adventuring with us a bit longer, that might influence my decision-making in that regard quite a bit. Not that what she wants is necessarily the best for her, but at least she'll be in a good mood while we travel around. Till we get back and she realizes just what our procrastination cost us and her, anyway.
"Flattery will get you nowhere." Hunger turned to Aobaru. "I've been involved in the Chosen One business before. It never goes as trivially as they say. We'll do our best to make sure you have it easier than I did, but be prepared for severe adversity. When we're done here I'll tell you a bit about what I went through. It's not something I'd wish upon any but my worst enemies."
I don't think Hunger had many other people who qualify as 'worst enemies', so... Tyrant? Man, Tyrant as a Chosen Hero, what would that have been like? We don't have even a single line from him - even Catherine had one! - so maybe he would have been a silent hero like Link. Or he would have mostly screamed and roared, that's somewhat popular among Berserkers too.
I would love to hear more stories about Hunger's past though, as we have only the broad strokes.
"Don't set yourself up as some sort of mentor figure," Letrizia said worriedly. "Those are almost always fated to die!"
"Fate promises many things," Hunger said bitterly. "It rarely delivers. And if it wants a piece of me, I would welcome the opportunity."
Pfft, as if we would succumb to the Doom of the Mentor. It's not a real Curse if it doesn't even need to be Mitigated.
Quite a bit of pent-up resentment for Fate in there, I notice. To be fair I would have been upset too, had I gotten a decade-long guerilla war instead of a fun adventure that was promised initially. Here is a chance to get it back though! Disproportionate revenge had always been the province of Tyrants, and since we're taking on the burdens of one, we might as well get some of the benefits.
Just don't start violating the Evil Overlord rules, that never ends well.
