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The Gamer Chapter 1770 – Cousins, Little Sisters and Demigoddesses
🕑 Added 2024-10-26 12:50:00 +0000 UTC
“So… what’s the family situation?” The question had been at the tip of John’s tongue since he had heard Vinh call Lu Zhi her cousin. That Lu Zhi had then responded with little sister made it all the more confusing, especially since Vinh was probably 4 years the senior.
“It can scarcely be called a family situation. We can use it to show you imperial harem politics, however.” The Heavenly Jade Empress squatted down by a patch of garden dirt and manifested a jade pebble between her fingers. “The venerable ancestor Xiao Min…” She placed the pebble down in the dirt. “…founded the imperial house of Min and married the eldest and most beautiful sister of Zhen Phuong.” She drew a line off to the side, placed another stone, then drew an even longer line towards herself.
“And that is the ancestry of Vinh,” John followed.
“Barely a drop remains, since her family has married local Vietnamese people from the moment they had been installed there.” The dark-skinned look did fit the South East Asian genetics more than the northern Chinese that would have been most commonly found in the imperial court. “Emperor Min’s house proceeded to be as influential as the house of the current emperor usually was. He was a conqueror, you see, and that meant that he could intermarry with the old imperial houses without worry of defects.”
“Consanguinity must be a pretty big issue,” John commented.
“We keep detailed family histories for a reason,” the Heavenly Jade Empress said. “It is unusual for the imperial houses to intermarry. Usually, accomplished people from the aristocracy are picked. Anyhowzels…”
“…Jane is a terrible influence on you.”
“I can hear ya,” Rave said and poked him in the back. After chatting for some time with Moira, Rave had rejoined him as soon as the transfer of the people off the ships was completed. Currently it was all administrative work of handing out papers and explaining what they were for. It had not been easy to teach a bunch of bureaucrats the necessary Nahuatl in time. Thankfully, there were more supernaturally smart people other than John around.
“Okay, you have been a terrible influence on her,” the Gamer told his first fiancée directly.
“We ought to be worried about eyes and ears,” the Heavenly Jade Empress chastised. They had distanced themselves from everyone else, yet they remained in the middle of the new city. A shared stroll had been their excuse for stepping away. Anyone could have heard them – in theory.
“The patriarch has noticed my presence.” Stepping out of the shadow of an empty building, Nightingale revealed herself. “A splendid day, your majesty.”
“You should have told me!” Lulu pouted most adorably, before waving off. “Finishing the explanation then. I am a descendant of the Zhi family, which was founded by Zhi Min. As the name says, his lineage can be traced back to the brother of the wife of the founder of house Phuong. My lineage then traces back to Zhi Min.” At the end of it all, the Heavenly Jade Empress had drawn two parallel lines in the dirt. “By technicality, this makes us cousins. Vinh uses this to advertise a claim to the throne. She wishes to dislodge the traditions of the Mandate of Heaven.”
“Seems like a foolish endeavour,” John thought out loud. “Systems are perpetuated on the basis of power and you are not weak.”
“The foolish girl believes herself more competent than I. It is that simple. You do, however, see my issue, do you not?” Lu Zhi stood up and dusted off her white, Chinese dress where the skirt had lingered on the ground. The jade dragon flying through the landscape did not appreciate the shaking. “The Vermillion Phoenix is a radical force among the Cardinal Beasts – turbulent and yet predictable. It would certainly choose a wielder that would put the realm in upheaval so that a stronger nation may rise from the ashes.” She grinned at him. “If I hadn’t bagged you already, it may have chosen you.”
“But as it stands, it will almost certainly choose her and then all that bravado of hers isn’t so empty anymore,” John summarized the situation.
“And that covers just one of the four. Best not to use powers that are wild and uncontrollable without good reason.” The imperial tomboy patted the last bit of dust off her dress, then straightened up fully. “As for why I call her ‘little sister’, it is a response and a properly demeaning title for someone stepping out of line.”
“Makes sense to me,” John agreed. “Have you seen enough of the city?”
“Hmm, I don’t know…” Lu Zhi suddenly grabbed John’s shirt and yanked it upwards. A pleased and smug hum accompanied a backhanded, soft smack against the Gamer’s exposed abs. “Now I have seen enough!”
“Casual objectification is usually what I do to women.”
“You are naught but the funding for our ambitions.” Lu Zhi winked, taking any level of seriousness out of the words.
“Personally, he acts as a never-ending source of sexual pleasure,” Nightingale joined the joke.
“You’re hanging too much with Nathy,” Rave bantered. “Ya sound just like her.”
“Harpies are a lusty race, you insist.”
“I’m just saying it ain’t normal for every woman to have three dildos in her dorm room. I like women that do that, but it ain’t the human norm.”
“Of course you like women that do that,” John drawled sarcastically.
“Like ya don’t, tiger. Matter of fact, ya chase them until they get glued onto you.”
“I don’t just like them, I love them!” The proud declaration echoed away and faded with the smirk that had been on John’s face. “I’m going ahead to the stage,” he announced, not giving himself the time to explain. They would have to ask after catching up.
John burned through his Magus Step stacks. Each teleportation brought him to a better position, leaving him standing on one of the tilted roofs at the end. Squatting down, the Gamer then leapt with all the superhuman strength he could muster. The power had him sail across the divide. Rave, Lu Zhi and Nightingale would catch up in no time.
John landed in the back of the central plaza. A massive temple had been erected there, an echo of Huitzilopochtli’s influence. To most people, the god of sacrifice remained as a venerated figure, even if that faith had been shaken. If nothing else, the layered pyramid was a proper sign of structure to the Aztec mind.
In front of the lowest step, a stage had been built. Unlike the temporary one by the harbour, this one was made for the purpose of speeches. One such speech had been held by Nahua. A simple affair, a little bit of motivation for the downtrodden followed by legitimizing the Order of the Golden Rose and the Fusion military as their figures of authority. John had deliberately left her alone for this – a first attempt to let her be on her own.
Now, the Gamer was leaping up to the stage.
William Brighton stood next to the demigoddess, his face reflecting a worry he did not yet know how justified it was. Moira, further back, already had taken two steps of her own. John, warned of what was about to happen through the mental connection, arrived first. He still was not fast enough.
To the Aztec crowd, things must have been confusing. The demigoddess was relaying a simple speech. She stopped in the middle of it. Then, John swept onto the stage just as Nahua collapsed where she stood.
The Gamer could not pay them any mind. “Hold onto me,” he whispered to the collapsed axolotl woman, who grabbed his sleeve with eyes that were wide with… what, exactly? John could not place it.
“Be not alarmed!” William addressed the crowd in accented but fluid Nahuatl. It surprised John somewhat. More than that, he was thankful for what the Lord-Protector of the Order was saying. “The demigoddess is suffering an aftereffect of the poison she swallowed when she slew the embodiment of evil! She requires some rest!” The aged knight lowered his voice, “I can cover ten minutes with a simple sermon, Gamer. If she’s not back by then, I will proceed with the agreed schedule as best I can.”
“Thank you,” John whispered back and guided Nahua off the stage. Past getting up, she could move on her own wobbly feet.
They only made it to the back of the stage. Once they were out of sight, the demigoddess separated from John and fell against the nearest wall. Elbow against the knee of an angled leg, she sat on the floor, forehead resting on her knuckles.
“I can’t do it,” she whispered. “I can’t do it, John!”
Moira landed next to them with the loud clattering of her armour. Nightingale, Lu Zhi and Rave followed in swift measure, the first of which weaved her usual magic around them to ensure none of this would be heard by any stray member of the public.
“Nahua…” John started gently, only to be met by an angry glare. The complicated web of emotions inside the demigoddess was consolidated by her wrath. He swallowed what he had wanted to say next, waiting instead for the purple mist that rose from her skin to ebb away.
When it did, she sounded so very tired. “I can’t do it…” she muttered, cleared her throat and spoke in desperate calm, “I’m not a leader, John. I’ve been a living idol, saviour, demigoddess, and… daughter. I’m not who they need… I’m… I never wanted to be…” Green eyes lowered to the floor. “I tried to be who they need, but I am not.” She clutched the fabric that covered her chest. “The lie is eating me from inside. I can’t do it. I won’t pick at this corpse like the vulture did.”
John wished this had just been any old panic attack. If this had been a manifestation of her grief or a fear for leadership, then he could have tried to build her up. What he was dealing with here was none of that. From her words to the depths of her soul, the demigoddess believed that she was not what her people needed.
“You will not tell me what to do,” Nahua spoke into the pondering silence. “Because you are just suuuuuch a good person. Like, anyone more morally concerned than this silly goober? Such a silly billy!” No sooner had the words left her mouth that the demigoddess started to laugh. It was manic, borderline hysterical, and she held her sides before it was over. “Help me up!”
A blink was the difference between the moment that a wobbling, vulnerable woman stood before him and Nahua-xoco-atl-xolotl straightened her spine. In the gold-bedecked garb of a tribal princess, still wearing that necklace she had on her when he had found her, the demigoddess stood. Axolotl gills curved gently behind her pointy, elf-like ears. She smiled, showing sharp fangs. Her hands were on her hips.
“Follow, outsiders,” she declared and climbed back onto the stage.
“What is happening?” Moira asked.
“You have to believe me when I say I do not know,” the Gamer told her. “She’s keeping me out of her thoughts and I hate it… Jane?” His first fiancée looked annoyed for some reason, but shrugged when he called her name. Before they could continue the conversation, they heard Nahua’s voice from atop the stage. With no other choice, they followed her up there.
“Nahuatls! Aztecs! People of the greatest tribe of the Mexica, listen and listen well now to the woman that is the spring water monster!”
The axolotl woman walked up to the very edge of the platform. For a short moment, it looked like she would jump down into the crowd. William, who had been in the middle of his sermon, glanced back at John. Everyone was swept up by the sudden actions of the demigoddess.
“I am the last spawn of our noble pantheon, she who was raised by the throneless god! Priestess of the diseased knives, daughter of divinity, born under the star of rejuvenation and the underworld, I am the embodiment of what has been! I am what remains! Like the wicked Purple of the Gorged God, so too shall the plague of our minds find cure in my sacrifice! Once more, my flesh shall be sacrificed to host and digest the malaise that befalls us!”
The Aztec crowd, which had been drifting along the orders so far, came alive the more the demigoddess spoke. A part of John was watching with worry, knowing what these people did when they got animated. Much as that part wanted to intervene, doing so now, when the broken people finally regained a spark of life in their eyes, was too cruel.
“I am Nahua-xoco-atl-xolotl! I have been raised by Huitzilopochtli and my blood is that of gluttony! Like all of you, I have been deceived! We were, all of us, deceived!” The revelation first created a knot in John’s stomach, then angry screams from the crowd.
‘Shit, shit, shiiiiii-…?’
“Huh?” Moira was the one to make his own thoughts audible, when there was nothing but screams. None of that anger was directed at Nahua either, instead unloading in controlled frustration.
“The vulture’s last words were that it would always live through me!” the demigoddess continued. “Then I renounce all that I am!” Dramatically, the axolotl woman extended a hand to the side and grabbed Nextloaolli. The dagger reverberated with the sounds of heavy drums and the crystal clear notes of a piano. “No riches that I have not earned with my own hands! No food that I have not earned with my own hands! No pleasures that I have not earned with my own hands! None of it! I shall be a servant and no more!”
Pointing the weapon towards herself, Nahua cut the strings of all the gold that bedecked her, letting it fall to the ground. She cut her clothes into ribbons, tearing them off herself to the continued screams of the agitated crowd. There was nothing sexual about it, not in the slightest. It was all tribal, animalistic, and heated in a way that John found both deeply uncomfortable and intriguing.
“I am no leader! I am the embodiment of what remains of the Nahuatls, the Aztec, the greatest tribe of the Mexica and I have resolved that there is only one way forward! As women do, so too shall I continue life and nourish!” Nahua turned around on her heels. Over twenty-thousand people were behind her, a writhing ocean that shouted with one voice for the acts of the demigoddess. Surrounded by the torn remnants of decorations, covered only by the many coloured necklace of simple stones, the demigoddess pointed her dagger at the Gamer. “John Newman of Fusion, my people shall be one with yours and I shall be one with you! WE SHALL WED!”
The already wild crowd went from raging to celebrating in an instant.
A certain feline Lightbearer grit her teeth.
Comments
Giovani Gonzales
It'll be ironic if circumstances make it impossible all as a result of her taking too long to even set a date let alone actually get married.
Marko
What the fuuuuck
FluffyButt Sr.
Rave still gets to marry first right?
Christian Krueger
well then....
