“Agreed.”
“The Daily Task System is meant to make us strong enough to take down Apophis. At the rate we’ve been going, that’ll take too long. So, let’s assign our roles now.”
Sunny stretched out his hand, and I took it, standing from the toilet. “Roles?”
“Leave the dirty work to me. The grinding. The power-leveling. The loophole exploiting. The fighting. I’ll make us stronger. That leaves you to focus on the more important stuff. Information gathering. Socializing and networking. Use trickery, flattery, or deception and learn, learn, learn. We’re fighting a war and we don’t have any information who our enemy is or what they can do or what they want. We’re fucked if we can’t figure it out.”
That sounded actually… “Fair enough.”
“Also, we shouldn’t trust Erzili.”
I crossed my arms. “Any particular reasons?”
“The she-tentacle monster is playing us like a fiddle. A nightmare that old having a dream that naïve is bullshit. It’s more likely that she’s simply telling us whatever we want to hear than it is that she’s telling us the truth.”
I sighed, scratching the back of my head. “Fine, fine. Get more information, and beware of Erzili. Got it.” I stared around at the bathroom. “So how exactly do we wake up?”
“We go to sleep.”
“That makes no sense.”
“We’re not the ones who picked the rules. We sleep to enter our mind, and we sleep to leave it.” Sunny shrugged. “Or I could just knock you out. That’s faster. Yeah, let’s go with that. Brace yourself.”
“W-wai –”
The fist flew at my skull faster than I could blink, and the world turned white.
Chapter 14: Sovereignty
My head spun as I woke up, clutching my skull.
Damn you, Sunny.
There was no response. My eyes blinked, twice, and my heart stilled. It… it was all a dream?
‘As if you have the imagination to dream up all that.’ Sunny’s voice came, making me exhale a breath I didn’t know I was holding. It wasn’t a dream. I wasn’t going crazy. I did have a second voice in my head.
I glanced around the room and realized that Erzili was gone. The Slithercreep was no longer at my bedside, nor was there any sign to indicate where Erzili had gone to.
‘She.’
My nose rumpled. What?
‘Erzili doesn’t have a gender, but chooses female forms more than half the time and has a female voice she can’t change. Her Epithet Skill is a word meaning womanhood. Call a spade a spade.’
“Thanks...?”
‘We’re in this together. Anyway, Fort Zyvar is ours. Try using it to eavesdrop – see what’s going on around. Let the walls have ears.’
Following Sunny’s instructions, I tinkered with the Domain. Fort Zyvar was ours to control, and the first thing we did was to make it so the walls literally had ears. Picking up every conversation within earshot was necessary because at the end of the day, I needed to make sure that there were no dissenting voices.
It was through this method, that I overheard a conversion of Erzili, talking with her lieutenants.
“It has been decided darlings. We will be moving on Krvavi Lagoon.”
“Leader Erzili,” the voice was Onna’s.
“Erzili is no longer the leader of Fort Zyvar, Onna. The title of Leader belongs to Lord Janus now.”
“I do not accept that. Forgive me, but I cannot accept it.” She said. “To reduce yourself to becoming the servant of that… I don’t even know what he is. What is he supposed to be?”
“He is a Demiurge,” came Slim’s rasping voice. “That is all that matters.”
“I thought he’d be… scarier.” The voice was Arol’s. “I remember the stories of Demiurges I was told. I grew up scared of what’d happen if I ever met one. Scared he’d rip me to shreds. Turn me inside out. Gouge out my eyes and screw the bloody holes for pleasure.” She lowered her voice. “I thought all Demiurges were monstrously insane.”
“They are,” came Erzili’s harsh voice. “To be able to read the words of existence and decipher the language of the universe would drive anyone to utter insanity. Erzili has met two others. They were terrifying darlings, terrifying. They claimed that the universe is nothing but some sort of game. An entertainment medium devised by higher beings. They were utterly convinced, that all beings in Alamir are nothing more than puppets and pieces whose lives and turmoil exist only for the satisfaction of those ‘beyond the fourth world.’”
“That sounds like a Demiurge alright.” the gruff voice was Wunder’s.
Erzili sighed. “Do you know how lucky, Erzili is, how lucky we all are, to have encountered a Demiurge who is sane? No, more than just sane… he’s almost a krvavi. We have a one-in-a-billion find.”
“This one has not yet rambled about transmigration from another world and how he’s from Ierth?”
“So far darling, Lord Janus has not provided any such stories. Although,” Erzili hesitated. “He seems to believe he needs to kill the Night Emperors or he’ll lose his memories.”
There was silence.
“I thought you said he was sane.” Wunder hissed. “He wants to kill the Night Emperors? What next? Suffocating the sea? Torturing the clouds?”
“Erzili convinced him it would be better instead recruit the memory-thief to back-up his memory,” Erzili said. “He agreed to the method. In terms of insanity, he appears to be, at the very least, affable. Wunder, Slim – you darlings will be leading an assault on Masakh Mountain to find the memory-thief.”
“Lea – Erzili… you have to be joking.”
“Does Erzili appear to be in a jesting mood, Wunder?”
“Masakh Mountain is... troubling. Upon entry, we will not remember who we are, much less what task we are to accomplish. We will be at the whims of whatever lies or deception the memory-thief concocts as the truth.”
“Erzili will brew a potion. The ingredients are not something Erzili has on hand, so you darlings will need to gather it. With the potion,
