Uh oh. It's possible that Battle is Closing because we are now talking rather than fighting, but with that crimson color I doubt it. That we just grabbed Crimson Flare could mean there's still hope for peace? Nah, I'm from the future, I know better.
On the bright side, this should mean that were one step closer to putting this godforsaken Temple behind us.
fishing was a mistake
Soon, he promised mentally, addressing the imprisoned Ring, willing his own to act as conduit. He did not know if the Rings could actually speak to one another, did not know if it was merely a futile gesture, but sought to offer whatever hope he could: the strength, perhaps, to resist for one day more, to deny its exploiters whatever power it could, here in this final hour. One way or another, your suffering ends soon.
So it turns out that Ring-telepathy was an option, it just cost 25 Arete! The elephant is the room is Hunger's intense devotion to this Ring he's never met. Out of character it's because we didn't choose to heal Verschengorge and book it, and it's certainly a blessing that the character doesn't have to be the one responsible for all of our bad decisions, but I'm
still not entirely convinced that Hunger's mind is his own.
Even if it's manufactured, it's moving. Spending effort and emotion on this attempt, even though it seems unlikely, just to comfort a stranger even a little. I believe in you. Rage against the dying of the light, Ring-chan! Literally!
He hadn't expect an answer of any kind, so Hunger startled when the Imprisoned Ring replied: first a trickle, then a steady stream, and finally a torrent of numinous power, transgressing space and time, raw potential like a livid thunderbolt flowing into the blood-red jewel of his own Ring. Crimson flared and blazed, a star risen from earth, such fearsome majesty that he staggered to contain it, the power of the jewel threatening to overcome and unbalance the Ring as a whole.
The Ring is more touched than I was. Just as Hunger believes in the Ring to endure, it believes in him to save him. This is not quite what I expected when I voted for Crimson Flare; with "attainment beyond power" and its dire straights, I figured it'd have wisdom to share more than strength. But, of course, I frequently find myself surprised by the options that open up when you consider what truly is necessary, and if some of those lines might be worth crossing after all. Very energetic scene, was Hunger screaming DBZ style?
I'm interested in the implications of the jewel almost unbalancing the Ring. It feels like a thing in itself, rather than something material with
pieces. But apparently the fact that it's invincible doesn't mean it can't be conflicted? The Crimson Flare and the (yet to be) Ruling Ring. If the jewel on each ring is different, the parts that compete, the band is the same, the part that connects? And only one can have Primacy. I feel like this update gave us a few pieces about that mystery, but I can't yet put them together.
Unfortunately, while our Potential is still ethically sourced, maybe, we can't call it free-range anymore. Luckily we were already working on that.
Gisena sheltered the girls as he forced down its catastrophic might, compressing its all-piercing radiance until it could be safely contained. Now the jewel glittered with translucent fire: final remnant of the Imprisoned Ring's defiance, all its hope and joy of life, all its remaining will to resist, given over to him.
The Call of the False Moon faded from his mind, and he knew instinctively that it had faded from every other. This was the final sally of the Imprisoned Ring, one last desperate act of trust when all else had failed.
Hunger closed his eyes.
It's nice to have competent friends to take care of things when you spontaneously erupt with crimson power, sometimes when I do that my IRL friends just stand there and get blown up. Should've learned by now.
I sincerely hope that the Imprisoned Ring can get that hope and will (hey, lanterns!)
back, because it would be too sad to be rescued only to be a shell of the past. And I hope that it's gratitude rather than apathy responsible for the Azure Ring's submission in the next contest. Where did I hear about how giving away love only makes it grow? Hopefully hope is like that, too- and it is, I just proved it!
Was this transfer of power possible because Hunger is the ring of passion, transmitted in the form of passion? At the least, that colored how it happened, I'd bet.
Way to go all in, the Forebear approves of this determination. Even if it can not be gone all in on? That's garbage, gave me brainfreeze, delete that. It's even more impressive than any of Hunger's displays, because he all-too-frequently risks his life, but the Azure Ring isn't capable of that. If this fails, the Ring won't die. It'll just be tortured, as endlessly as before, but this time without any hope. A moment of silence for the possibility of Hunger having any chill.
"You're our only hope."
How many times had they told him that in the campaign against the Tyrant? That he was it, that there was no other, that if he shirked his duty, or faltered, or failed, then it simply would not be done - only misery everlasting for the peoples of the world, clawing feebly at the yoke as it tightened and tightened.
It seemed he was not free of such duties. Perhaps would never be free. People fell into the patterns of their lives because of what they were good at. This was what he'd done all his life; was it such a surprise to have duty thrust upon him once more? Moreover, for something he intended to do anyway.
Help us, Hungry One Hero B. I couldn't have phrased it in such a way to emphasize the similarities, but a population under eternal bootstamping is basically the same thing as this. After that first year or so of his Isekai, Hunger was no longer the destined chosen one, so why should he have to bear everyone's hopes and dreams more than any other? All of the responsibilities with none of the benefits, this job sucks. At least with the Azure Ring he was chosen not by a population with their own free will and power, but a single, helpless entity, so there's a lot less to resent about it.
More than fate or humanity or Rings, Hunger's the one choosing this. He'll never be free, because in fact he's the Imprisoner. At the second-deepest level, the meaning is that he imprisions himself. (The deepest, like vali said, is that he has a BDSM fetish).
Even so, fuck these so-called interesting times.
He understood the sorrow of the Imprisoned Ring, the depths it must have been driven to, not only to ask a rival for aid, but to beg, and to invest everything in that begging. He understood its shattered pride, the egregious disgrace of its situation, the sheer hollowing agony of its every moment.
For that reason he did not resent the Ring for casting this burden upon him. The power it had gifted him would make its salvation easier. But he would freely resent the universe, and the Apocryphal Curse that guided it, until the end of his days.
No, he shook his head. Until he overcame them both. That was the promise of Progression, after all. Live, and grow strong. So long as he took care of the former, it would ensure the latter.
Live, and rescue the Ring, and grow strong.
Hey. Hunger. The Curse is still defrayed, this is all (y)our fault. Didn't DARE teach you anything, fishing is a gateway drug. One day you want to bag a cool fish for that meat and those sweet Gisena +'s, the next you're roleplaying as a fish charging after the Wurm bait in an elaborate culty BDSM fishpail. Apocryphal isn't the only source of interesting times, bad decisions are as well.
The voters, too. Don't forget to resent us, the hidden ones above the hidden ones who have also plotted to make your life hell. Actually, we mostly want good things for you, but we make bad decisions often, so a little resentment is still okay. Spare us when you reach whatever cardinality this is? Remember all the Arete we mined for you, buddy?
Live and grow strong is a cool saying, excellent advice to live by, and that's why I'm concerned by you slipping "rescue the Ring" in there. It's appropriate now, but I worry that the mania won't fade after we're done. Unfounded paranoia, I'm sure.
He rose from his seated position. "There's no way they didn't notice that. Tomorrow morning may be too late."
Lucky that Aeira had gotten them the intelligence she had. He could only hope his present strength was enough to deal with the Immortals of the Temple. The Imprisoned Ring had given him little choice.
Gisena laid a gentle hand on his arm. "Hey. This isn't your responsibility, no matter how it may make you feel. You can still walk away. Always."
He smiled bitterly. "That may be the smart thing to do. And likely the wise thing as well. But only one of us here is a genius. Find me when your meditations are complete."
So saying, he leapt off Verschlengorge, making for the Temple directly.
The Temple may be too fortified to invade easily, tomorrow, but I'm hoping since we're already in we have enough time to Forment Rebellion and the Ring won't suddenly die on us, that would be such a letdown. Even if Hunger's current strength isn't enough, we'll just have to desperately write reactions to pump out more Arete to flashbuy stances! In addition to the... eighteen, twenty-five, what, sixty? We've mined since we went on vacation. *sob*
Like Hunger, since we aren't geniuses, we just have to solve problems by making Arete, even if it cannot be made.
Gisena is just the best. In every way. Her EFB blurb confirms it, but not as much as this! Oooor I would say that, but her 2-day meditation session is taking like a week, the slacker. It'd be really convenient to have her with us when we were fighting wizards or something, geez. Aeira is my new best friend, she actually contributed to the mission.
The gift of the Imprisoned Ring had tremendously augmented his own Chief Dominion. Blood rushed and thundered in his ears, an ocean of awareness that stretched far miles: vein and capillary, pulse and heartbeat were naked to him, from the birds in the air to the beasts of the earth, and all the humanity of the Encampment in-between. It was a deluge, too much to process, and he hurriedly tamped it down, focusing the power as it solidified, directing it into his immediate vicinity alone. A greater concentration of power was more suitable to his purposes.
He accelerated, world a watercolor blur. There was the Temple.
In through the gates, then quickly across the grasslands, up over the mountains and into the Middle Ring. Edeldross-infused, he pushed forward, faster than he'd gone before, the accumulated power of recent days like thunderheads gathering in his wake. Outriders tried feebly to intercept. Those who could not keep up were ignored, the others slaughtered. The Inner Temple loomed, dome of matte blue like still deep waters, a globe stripped bare of land.
The Encampment is like waaaay away from Verschlengorge's parking spot, so it's no wonder that Hunger was overwhelmed. I first thought that he'd be able to expand the radius of his sensing back to that level in exchange for weakening the power, but the concentration is permanent. Definitely the better choice, if we can only have the one, because even if I've betrayed the Not Dying club more than once I still appreciate them. A shame that we can't feel eVeRytTHnG anymore, because that was super cool, but we can still be creepy and count the heartbeats of people in the vicinity. And we're strong, too, which is always important, even if we're not coming here to fight. Uh.
Bird side note - there wouldn't be any mundane species of migratory bird in the Voyaging Realm, would there. They'd never find their way back. What a bizarre place.
Meanwhile, Hunger is infiltrating the- wait, okay, I see his strat- no wait stop killing people! Bad Hero! Okay, infiltration isn't off to a great start, we failed at step -1 which was
not setting off the loudest possible alarm in this civilization, then we charged in and started killing people, but we can still salvage this! I have faith. We have already successfully infiltrated our way to the edge of the Inner Temple, that's something.
A man strode out to meet him, a solid brick wall of muscle, his face creased and cragged, hair streaked with gray. He wore a uniform of gray and black, a marshal's baton strapped to his side, eyes like coals flecked with bronze.
Hunger flared his Ring and felt the man's blood quail before him, even as the greater portion stood strong. Even with all his newfound powers, this would not be an easy fight.
Aww yis, it's gramps! I'm thrilled, and
@Taka will be as well. I don't think we were
told before this that Avecarn was jacked, but I was absolutely assuming that he was so now I'm smug. I like his baton, very official.
Time for a productive conv- YOU FUcker I specifically told you
not to debuff people you're trying to persuade, and what do you do? Before the conversation even started. And now you're talking about how challenging the... fight will be. We did in fact vote to infiltrate, didn't we? Ah well, Hunger gonna hunger.
Taka, I don't think we'll get cool gramps scenes where we argue about whether fishing or gardening is better.
He stopped, addressing the man directly. "Care to live more than a thousand years?"
The man chortled, a low, bleak rumble. "Hah! Ask me again in seven centuries."
No urgency. Unfortunate. "You people must have known this day was coming."
"Confident, aren't you?" The man frowned, eyes darting to Hunger's finger. "Maybe that's justified, you've got a Ring all to yourself. Some might say it's greedy to go looking for more."
Not only is his body a brick wall, his mind is as well. Hunger gives the most perfunctory attempt at diplomacy I've ever seen, but at least we got a morsel of information from it. These guys seem to know more about Rings in general than we do, even those who aren't Immortals or Council members. Cocked my head at the "greedy" bit, but in a civilization that, uh, "shares" a Ring among 10 million, I can see that perspective.
It's a good sign for Forment Rebellion that the second line struck a chord in someone as strong as Avecorn, since the big idea is to present a strong front for people to rally around. We just have to not fuck up, which is as always the hardest part. For further reading on the topic of fucking up, go back to the top of this update and start again.
"Are you going to pretend ignorance of what's inflicted on your own?"
"A Ring is not a person," the man shook his head, frown deepening. "Seems you've forgotten that, or maybe never knew it in the first place. Fail to master it and it will master you."
"Perhaps," Hunger shrugged. "But that doesn't justify what your society has done. Let your Ring rest at last. Turn it over voluntarily, or help me secure it, and I can empower you and yours with my own."
Again the man shook his head. "Sorry, kid. I've got a family that depends on that thing to live. Putting everyone's lives into only your hands? That's not happening."
Avecarn's reaction to round 3 is offputting. I can see that you'd have to depersonify your victim to avoid mental conflict (the phrase I'm looking for is escaping me for some reason), but the Ring clearly is a person with thoughts and feelings and an agenda. Or at least, I hope it is, or it means that Hunger's gone insane on us. Even if it was a cow or something, the dismissal of its moral worth, and further him apparently thinking worse of Hunger for
caring, is disappointing. I mean, this guy is the jackboot, but still. Apparently they teach that to the point that he thinks it's strange for us to disagree, which gels with the insistence on "false" in the reports.
And that Rings will master you if you don't fuck them over first (sounds like an action attributed to a person rather than a thing, no?). Lord of the Rings means this is something I'm totally willing to accept as a premise, buuut I doubt these guys' experience with the Azure Ring is representative. Obviously the Ring (the person) they've been torturing is going to take revenge if they give it an opportunity to, you don't need a Ph.D in Ringlore for that one.
Hunger gives a good showing of himself with the last one; even if it was a long shot, he offered a chance for a less-violent resolution. Now, when we slaughter these guys, I'll feel less guilty, and seizing the moral high ground from your perspective is the most important part of picking the diplomatic route (half serious, brains are weird). Well-phrased, too, calling attention to the fact that they can already empower themselves with the Ring to make it seem more believable that he can do it as well.
Unfortunately, the dude who just yoinked a bunch of his civilization's power source and ran at him while tearing people apart does not come off as trustworthy. Amusing, because I think Hunger is definitely more trustworthy than the Immortals who are running this little bit of fascism, but it's hardly surprising that he'd stick with what's working for him now, and he makes a good point about an organized group being less subject to whims than a single individual. What he doesn't know is that Hunger is fully loaded with Arete and his remaining lifespan is closer to 700 seconds than 700 years, but that's our fault for not grabbing ADS and making it obvious how screwed he is.
Holy shit, the pace of this was vicious. By Rihaku standards, this is basically "Hunger stabbed him and he died." The Giant Enemy Crab fight got almost as much play as the 300-year-old 6.5 Rank tactician wizard. Apparently buying EFBs makes you stronger, why didn't I think of that?
And so Hunger struck, the power of his Ring pressing down upon his foe, blue of true reality outlining his Blade as it descended with cataclysmic force. The marshal reacted quickly, interposing his baton, but could not resist the power of Hunger's cut, and lost half his hand before he twitched out of the way. A spike of fired Edeldross adjusted the vector of his charge, stifling the marshal's evasion. The Forebear's Blade pierced through his foe's shoulder even as the man howled, plunging his free hand through Hunger's guts.
a-a-aa-a-ah Hunger struck! a-a-aa-a-ah
And he did so with everything he has, unleashing both his 25 Arete purchases at once. It's now explicit that the blue is reality, not that we weren't 99% sure. It's incredibly useful that people will expect to be able to block attacks, and in doing so they stand there perfectly for us to Cut Through them. If nobody saw this fight too closely, we should try to keep that conceptual power secret for the more difficult fights, but since I expect they will all be difficult I'm not too hopeful.
For once, Hunger is the one with the upper (amount of) hand(s) in this fight, then he goes for the whole arm! Wait, actually, no. Is that why he likes fishing so much? Ooh, Edeldross Rocket Sword was something I came up with as well, but I didn't expect it'd be so effective. He's dominating, but then-
Hunger takes a hit through the gut, but Avecarn doesn't know that Hunger has +++++++Guts, so it's useless!
Meaningless. With the elevated Ring of Blood such wounds were nearly immaterial. He clenched the muscles of his core, trapping the man's arm for an instant, and twisted his blade downwards, carving through shoulder and breast. The marshal grunted, blood seeping from his mouth as he fell to a knee. With a desperate surge of energy he exploded backwards, tearing his shoulder free of the trapped arm, extending the distance between them.
Ew. For some reason, Hunger just flexing his abs around a gigantic wound repulses me in a way none of the other descriptions of injuries have. Probably just because I've never had any limbs cut off, but muscles not working quite the way they should and being forced into use anyway is a common experience. But he regenerates, it's okay.
This specific bit of treachery works as well on the man ten times our age than it did on Seralize, but he shouldn't feel bad. He's not a fool, he was just too weak. Badass though. "My arm is caught in a trap? Better rip it off, then."
And now Hunger has an arm awkwardly dangling out his stomach. Does he slowly unflex and let it fall to the ground, the wet
plop signaling the next round of the fight? This update is good for activating the more morbid parts of my imagination, I don't often use those on purpose.
Relentlessly he pressed the attack, pouring blade-winds towards the retreating figure, sharpness like a humming shrike screaming towards him. The marshal twisted, inhaling deeply, accepting a blow to the chest in order to counterattack, a roar of pure stygian force that upturned the earth in its wake. Ripping free his foe's embedded arm, Hunger hurled it at the blast, deflecting enough of the energies that he could weather the remainder with the Evening Sky, though the cloak was torn to bits around him.
Throwing his own arm back at him is a better use, even if I can't quite figure out how it could possibly deflect enough of the force... and apparently bladewinds can't have done the same thing. Hunger proves his superior tactics yet again. Bladewind spam is always nice to see, too.
Avecarn kind of
looks like Whitebeard, but the guy who has the power of Administration shouldn't be able to roar an earthquake at us. Rank really does do everything! Evening Sky does its best, as usual.
This battle was nearing its end. A seal of blood closed around the hole in his torso, while his enemy's wounds bled liberally, a ceaseless arterial spray. Still the marshal rallied, lunging at him, a second Pressure-infused bark ripping through Hunger's remaining blade-winds, driving towards a final confrontation.
But there was no room here for honor, no spirited duel of ideals. Hunger dove to the side, focused shamelessly on evading, simply falling back and giving wide berth to the marshal's dying rampage, his magnificently pointless death-throes. The Jewel of Blood did the rest.
Mighty as the marshal was, greater than Hunger in Astral strength, he was not Vanreir whose body was as a blade. This was a champion among men, with all a mortal's failings. Liter by liter the marshal bled out until not even the iron wall of his Pressure could stand him upright any longer. He fell, eyes blank, his blood and his life expended utterly in service of his nation, and Hunger did not look back.
Shameless. But after landing so many hits, there's no need to get in range of this guy when he's already bleeding out with supernatural quickness. Isn't this a duel of ideals, though? Cynicism is also a type of ideal! : o
It is kind of a shame that all these cool enemies get done dirty by Hunger. But that's why he earned the feat, after all.
