Chapter 604: Fake it till you make it

Mason’s people were celebrating now. They were asking him if their friends and relatives were safe, like he had some magic ball into every room in the city. Like all the trouble was over.

“I dunno,” he said, waving at Erik the Swede. “Can you take us to wherever Jeong was keeping them? Did he hurt them?”

The man said something, but it was drowned out by more cheers and jokes about ‘hail to the king’ and the chorus of some Disney song.

“What?” Mason shouted.

“He hadn’t harmed them,” Erik said again, “but I don’t know who he left in command.”

Mason nodded and tried to think. He couldn’t just leave the city in a fucking martial lockdown. They had an economy. People had to eat. You could buy a lot of things in the system-enforced market, but not food, and from what he understood they weren’t doing well in that department. He turned to Phuong.

“We need to…” he shook his head and shrugged, “there’s a whole city full of frightened, hungry, angry people. What the hell do I do now?”

“I fear we’re all in new territory, Patron,” the older man said.

“I’ve locked down a city before,” Chinua said, coming closer to them to be heard. “But then the world didn’t have magic powers. And I had ten thousand men with guns. I think we should get to the palace and the teleporters first.”

Details helped put Mason’s mind closer to action, and what Chinua was saying made sense. His head swirled with ridiculous system rules, but as far as he could tell, there wasn’t much threat. The House of Jeong couldn’t attack his people. And as the new ruler of the city, anyone who broke his rules would get marked as a target for him. That seemed…unwise.

As far as he knew, there wasn’t a single person left on the planet who’d survive long against him. Even together, dozens of the city’s best had only slowed him down. The Neutral Zone plus the brawl at the gate should have taught them. But then you could never underestimate people’s stupidity…

“No one goes solo,” he said, waving Carl over, too. “I want two players going to each teleporter on the outskirts. Just guard them, no one goes in or out. Everyone else head to the palace with Erik, he knows where to take you. I’ll meet you there.”

Carl raised an eyebrow. “You going somewhere else, or…”

“I need to find Blake.”

His chancellor nodded, and they left it there.

Blake wasn’t exactly the man’s favorite person. OK, he wasn’t really anyone’s favorite person, except possibly that orc queen. But he was still Mason’s brother, and he’d come here to help. If Jeong had him, he’d be in the palace somewhere, probably imprisoned. Though what the hell kind of prison could hold a guy who could vanish walls with his brain?

He went to Becky and Demi and gave them a smile.

“Just stick with the others. OK?” He sensed Demi’s not-at-all recovered emotions flying everywhere and squeezed her hand. All he wanted was to leave other people in charge of the city and gather his girls, but he couldn’t. Not quite yet.

“Run along, Lord Mason,” Becky said with a wink. “We got this.”

“That’s King Mason to you,” he said, turning for a superhero style, near zero-g boot leap before she had the chance to respond. He flew even higher than he remembered.

The wind whipped past him as he flew, the city sprawled out beneath him as he soared block after block towards Jeong’s palace.

My palace.

It was a strange damn thought. The idea of ruling the world sent an exhausting shiver down his spine. But he’d have help. A lot of help. In fact he intended to put as many other people in charge of things as he possibly could. Being the figurehead with the big club would be good enough. It would give him free time to explore, and with his girls…

The thought sent a different kind of shiver down his body. Killing Jeong, all that fighting, and nearly dying, had sent his appetites for life into overdrive. He didn’t want to waste a minute, despite being immortal, and having a lot of minutes.

Assuming another psychotic, north Korean, undead worshipping emperor, or a giant army of demons, doesn’t kill you.

But the army of demons was supposed to take time. Was it months? Years? If they played their cards right, humanity would spend every second getting stronger now with Jeong out of the picture.

And Mason had seen the nature gods were ‘rewarded’, his patron especially. Surely he could go get a reward or two. He still had the seed, which he was pretty glad he hadn’t had to waste reviving himself.

He still had to sort out the elves, but maybe there was another way. They lived a long time. The end of the world seemed to take priority, and considering how powerful Jeong’s ‘divine artifact’ had been, that seed would surely pack a hell of a punch.

Killing Jeong had felt like an ending, but it was far from over. The real battle was coming. Mankind had to be ready. Unified. Strong.

And more than just mankind? He struggled to see what use his goblin allies would be in a world with people like him. Even Lodie’s gadgets were more entertaining than necessary. But maybe every bit would help. They’d seemed to at least understand the demons in the mountain. Knowledge was a lot better than nothing.

He arrived at the palace in two jumps, terrifying a few people as he landed in some street before taking off again. He stood in the courtyard watching a half dozen servants and guards run for their lives. Then he reached out with One with Nature and Wayfinder, realizing he could find people now that he was Patron here.

“My…m-my king…” A short, well-dressed Asian man came up and bowed like a slave. “I welcome you to the palace of…”

“I’m looking for Blake Nimitz,” Mason cut him off. “Where did Jeong keep him?”

“I…” the man paled. “I’m afraid…I don’t know. That isn’t the sort of thing the emp…that is, that I would…”

“I might have some idea,” Blake said as if amused, strolling out a nearby door. He was surrounded by the weirdest constructs imaginable, including a walking eye-ball and a floating…pocket knife. He was also flanked by orcs and goblins.

“And Carl says I’m a drama queen.” Mason shook his head as he felt himself relax. “I thought you’d be tortured half to death.”

Blake’s smiled looked a little forced, his clothes dirty and ripped, his eyes bruised. But otherwise he seemed fine as he came forward.

“Only a few scratches,” he said. “My goblin allies saved the day.”

The creepy little, goggled goblin beamed. There was a cloaked greenblood assassin, which wasn’t very comforting. And a giant orc in red armor, who’s head looked a little…off. Mason sniffed and made a face.

“Your orc is rotting. Why is he rotting?”

“Oh.” Blake turned. “Along with his other unfortunate traits, Jeong was a terrible chiropractor. Lord Earthsoul here is dead as a doorknob. Which leaves me in a bit of an awkward position when I get back to the towers. He was quite important, I’m afraid. I’ve lost another orc lord in the city somewhere, too. Alive, hopefully. We were about to go track him down. I don’t suppose you could assist?”

“I’ll get Streak,” he said. The brothers stood in a previously rare, awkward silence. It felt like things had changed so much. And Mason wasn’t sure how to say what he really wanted to say.

‘Did you fuck with Jeong?’ maybe to start. ‘Is there any other betrayals or insanity I need to know about? Can you stop living with orcs and help me prepare for the end of the world now, you stupid prick?’

“So, uh. Anything else we need to talk about?” he said. “Anything I should know?”

He could tell Blake felt it, that he knew. The old Blake would have been the one to apologize or smooth things over, wiping away the past with a wave of his hand and a promise of a better future. Mason had always believed him, always played along. But they both knew now it wouldn’t work. Blake pursed his lips.

“I know you don’t have an identify power, but…I’m afraid I’m going to glow like a Christmas tree to some of your people. Jeong had civilians boosting his power. There was…only one way to stop it.”

Mason took that in without speaking. He’d felt it. Jeong’s strength wasn’t like it was before. Maybe it wouldn’t have mattered. But to question a decision like that, made in combat, to weaken the enemy…he knew he’d be a hypocrite. That he’d have been tempted to do the exact same thing. And he knew Blake had done it to help him. To help them all.

“Thank you,” he said eventually. “For doing what you could.”

Blake looked authentically relieved. He took a few steps forward then stopped again with a wince.

“Seul-ki…”

“Was a traitor,” Mason said, feeling a wave of anger he pushed back down. “You really know how to pick ‘em.”

“She did it for me,” Blake said carefully, raising a hand for calm. “She thought you’d lose. Or maybe she thought, even if you won, you’d forgive her, so it was a win win to help Jeong. He was her brother. I expect it was…complicated.”

“Well she was wrong,” Mason said, not even flinching. “She poisoned Haley. She helped Jeong get our people’s friends, their family. She must have given details, names. She doesn’t get a pass.”

Blake tapped his fingers on his floating little sphere.

“Poisoned is a strong word. And you don’t know it was her who gave him the names. She’s also very useful. She could be a prisoner until she’s needed, if it makes you feel better, but we can’t just…”

“Just stop. I’m not…”

“She’s also pregnant. It’s mine.”

Mason slowly put a hand to his face. It could have been a lie. No one knew exactly what to say to get Mason to dance to his God damn tune quite like Blake. But he was right about the last part. Wasting resources before the doom was a big mistake. And Seul-ki’s power ‘scaled’. It worked even better on someone like him, and could make him even more of a holy terror in a critical moment.

“Take her to the orc towers. I don’t want to see her. And I’ll find out if it was her who told Jeong. If it was…” he shook his head.

“I understand completely.” Blake gave his infuriating, smarmy, ‘I knew how this would go’ smile. “For all I know, she’s run off already.” He took another few steps forward, like he was approaching a wild animal. “You did it, brother. You won. It’s over. You can relax.”

Mason snorted. Relax. Sure. All he had to do was stop a synthetic god’s dramatic climax, probably getting fucked over along the way by reverse deus ex machina horseshit.

“The demons are coming,” he said. “The doom. The end of the game, whatever the fuck you want to call it. We have to be ready, or we all die.”

“As you say.” Blake flicked a soft hand like the end of the world was no big deal. “Goblins are good demon fighters. And my new orc friends are, too. Did I ever tell you how we closed a portal? They have these fancy new ‘soulguards’. My lost friend is one of them. Shall we can go find him now?”

Mason looked at the many sniveling servants and terrified players all staring from around the palace courtyard. He mentally commanded Streak to follow and help his brother, then shook his head.

“Go find your pet. I have to do what you were supposed to be doing—pretending to be king.”

Blake’s stupid, know-it-all smile only widened, which made Mason really want to wipe it off.

“I have news for you, brother of mine,” he said, putting a hand on his shoulder, but looking ready to spring away. “You’re not really pretending anymore.”