[Corruption Wielder] Chapter 153: Chessboard

The Contractor had grown used to dealing with complicated situations from afar. This time, though, he had to admit the slightest bit of uncertainty.

While he was no stranger to the high-level maneuvering needed to manipulate events above his tier, he had largely pulled on sovereign-tiers for items and favors that had been balanced with similarly herculean effort of his own. The Contractor knew how to play people, but he was very much aware of the sheer power differential between him and the forces he dealt with.

Unlike certain others he could name, his modus operandi was not to just slap all his cards on the table and assume his boldness would get him far enough. There were times to be cavalier, times to be humble, and times to do nothing at all.

This was one of the latter. After he had fed them the information and some of the necessary raw ingredients, the sovereigns had known how to do the rest.

It was also not his first gambit. The Contractor was not one who was keen on making a single bet and risking everything on it. Success was about leveraging probabilities. A perfectly stacked deck was ideal but not always possible. When he’d been a dealer, he had ensured his games were only slightly favored towards the house. In any individual game, the odds didn’t feel that bad, but as one game turned into a dozen turned into two hundred, the results were clear.

The house never lost.

He had stacked a number of decks now, and one of those hands had paid off. The suggestion to lock the corruption wielder out of his ability to gain new loot hadn’t even been his alone. The members of the loose coalition he’d been working on forming had already considered a movement to limit the man that they clearly considered to be as an agent of one small faction, and his push had likely not even been necessary to get them to commit to it.

Getting William Li-Brown to enter his sponsor space seemed like a stroke of luck, but it wasn’t. Or, at least, it was a stroke of luck that could have been accomplished in a dozen other ways through a dozen separate paths. The only necessary point was to get him off-planet, which the Contractor had held a great deal of contingencies for.

From here, though, there was nothing he could change with his personal power alone. If he utilized the power of the angel now, there was a possibility, but he didn’t want to use that kind of plausibility for this. Why waste all that energy himself when he could get his allies to do it for him?

Beyond that, he was still operating under false pretenses. A good number of the Lords and Ladies working on the following operation were following a plan that he had been instrumental in creating, but it didn’t end there.

The essence of the plan, as always, had to do with plausibility. Despite the Lord rank being vastly more powerful than any metal or even most gem tiers could hope to achieve, they were often unable to interfere with these lowly gold-rankers so long as said golds were still within the bounds of the cycle. Once a planet exited the cycle and integrated into the universe properly, it was a different story, but for the time being plausibility limited them. Striking out at someone two tiers under them during the cycle would almost certainly kill them.

When that User was removed from the cycle, however, things changed. William Li-Brown was still an Earthling, and that did matter—it was still impossible for someone like the Lord of Drowned Ghosts to directly contest the corruption wielder in a fight without suffering levels of plausibility-induced corruption himself—but there were other methods.

For instance, there was no way a coalition of Lords could arm ten thousand metal-tiers with gem-tier bombs and send them to eliminate an enemy within the bounds of a cycle. Outside, though, it was a semi-common form of warfare. Lovingly termed “suicide brigades,” the Contractor had learned about them during his time on the other planet from a person who had once been a system helper.

Sometimes clones but typically enslaved armies drawn from planets that had made it out of the cycle, these brigades were equipped with single-use items far above their ranks. They didn’t need to expend any plausibility to interact with people still in cycles—after all, they were metal tier too. The system barely even noticed they were there.

The items they carried wouldn’t make it into a cycle-bound planet without being annihilated, but they could be taken to, for instance, a small moon most commonly utilized by a certain subsection of sovereign-tier Users who had a particular interest in the Sol-3 cycle.

These were valuable resources despite how expendable they were. None of them were able to use those items properly, but that was part and parcel of their purpose as weapons. It was easy to compel low-tier Users without strong soul protections like the Contractor had into doing damn near anything—like, for instance, inflicting explosive diamond-rank corruption on oneself and spreading it with the detonation of the very diamond item that they attempted to trigger. Against other sovereign-tiers, this was usually more of an annoyance than a threat on one’s life, but when said sovereigns were harboring a gold-ranker, things changed.

A handful of the sovereigns who’d assembled this, casually throwing away billions of credits worth of items and personnel, believed the target of this was to kill the corruption wielder. That served their purposes as well as the Contractor’s plan would, after all. He’d even put up a farce of resistance, pretending like he didn’t want them to put this many resources because he needed the man alive.

Playing people just came too easily. Even those with incredible power still fell victim to mortal mannerisms.

The Contractor returned his attention to the angel. There was still a possibility that the endeavor was more surprising than expected and the corruption wielder died. If that happened, he would adapt.

Like he always did.

#

“You lot really don’t have normal shit, do you?” Will sighed. “Steve aside.”

The Order of the Striker was a very basic sponsor owing to their status as a standardized, widespread order. Steve had already contacted his superiors and arranged for spatial transportation of the item he would be giving Will.

Item: [Colossal Halberd]

Rare, platinum

Every comically edgy anime-poisoned User needs a comically large weapon to go along with their pithy quips that most people find more tiring than funny.

*This description has been modified from the original to suit its target.

[Channel] - This weapon can be used as an arcane focus for any [Power]-affixed element. For you, this corresponds to [Storm].

[Enhanced Channel] - Any [Power]-affixed skill of platinum-rank or lower cast using this as an arcane focus has its cooldown reduced by 50% of its original cooldown and has 50% increased effectivity.

[Hammerspace] - You can expend a moderate amount of mana to expand or shrink this item by a factor of up to 3, a high amount of mana to expand it by a factor of up to 10, a very high amount of mana to expand it by a factor of up to 100, and an extreme amount of mana to expand it by a factor of up to 1,000. If sufficiently leveled, your [Power] attribute will enable you to wield this weapon with more ease than physics should allow.

Maintaining the expansion at a factor of greater than 10 requires ongoing mana costs.

While this weapon is at least 50 times its original size, it gains the following effect:

[Colossal] - When swung, this weapon gains the [Unstoppable Force] and [Minor Gravity Well] features.

If you attune to this item, it will gain the following [Storm]-based effect while in its [Colossal] state.

[Stormbringer] - Large enough attacks will manifest intense wind gusts and lightning proportional to the power of the attack.

It was a simple item, but that simplicity had been enough to trigger Will’s inner child. There was something viscerally satisfying about having a weapon that could be expanded to be the size of a city, and while he couldn’t fully use it quite yet, he foresaw a massive weapon being very, very useful. The Stormbringer aspect was also just cool as hell. Even if those parts didn’t end up being as lethal as his regular skills, the mere fact that he would have such a large weapon that could potentially be used with Weapons Free’s Warp Strike feature or just as a vector to spread corruption with was key.

The others were a little more eccentric. Will had to acknowledge that it made more sense in retrospect—even if they hadn’t been so standardized, the Order of the Striker was still an order, and that meant that rough edges got sanded down. The other sponsors were all individuals, which meant their… specialties, to put it lightly, were more on display.

The last time he’d gotten a sponsorship reward from Love, it had been a special item meant to change one of his affixations to the demon element. He hadn’t used it, of course, having some ideas of what a demon could do as well as the associated compunctions with having his mind wholly overwritten by one. The item had come in clutch at the end of the trial of the champion, though, where it had been key in Will’s ability to contact Richard and make the deal with the medium-tier demon. He arguably had even less use for the attribute now.

This time, the item was technically more directly useful, but probably not for Will.

Item: [Card of Ruin]

Artifact, platinum

This card is less a weapon and more an inevitability. Who will suffer that inevitable end? That’s up to you and the universe. And possibly your enemies.

[Channel] - This weapon can be used as an arcane focus for specific [Soul]-affixed element. This is not compatible with any of your current elements.

[Enhanced Channel] - Any eligible [Soul]-affixed skill of platinum-rank or lower cast using this as an arcane focus has its cooldown reduced by 50% of its original cooldown and has 50% increased effectivity.

[Return to Sender] - Once per 6 seconds, if you do not have this card in your hand, you can teleport it back to your hand. This effect can be countered by counter-skill effects.

[Countdown] - Successful attacks made with this weapon or channeled through this weapon made more than 6 seconds but less than 1 minute after the previous attack add 1 [Doom Counter] to it. Each [Doom Counter] adds a random effect to the card as well as increasing attack speed and damage by 10%. Upon reaching 10 [Doom Counter]s, this card gain the [Unleash Chaos] effect, infusing them with the [Chaos] element and detonating upon impact. After a detonation, a card will return to your hand. [Doom Counter]s will decay if the card is not used.

[Final Countdown] - [Doom Counter]s have a low, random chance of persisting. Upon reaching 99 [Doom Counter]s, the [Card of Ruin] will kill the person holding it after 10 minutes. This effect cannot be countered by skills of platinum-rank or lower.

“I still have no idea where the fuck you got this,” Will said, turning the card over in his hand.

He had to wonder if it had been specifically adapted towards Earth sensibilities. In his hand, it looked like nothing more than a playing card. A particularly fancy, glossy playing card made out of pure blueish-grey metal, yes, but a playing card. It had an ace of spaces embossed into it, because of course it did. Will couldn’t tell exactly what it was based off sight and aura alone, but it felt like a gem to the touch.

The item itself brimmed with stored power, promising death to whatever touched it.

Love smiled too wide. “I’m not the only one monitoring your friends, corruption wielder. Before this cycle, I made a habit of traveling the multiverse and finding interesting items that might escape the notice of other Ladies. This one cost the lives of twelve thousand platinum-rankers. Cherish it.”

Will nodded, then tossed it aside, snapping it into his inventory before it could leave his range.

This item seems perfect for Caiyeri, he thought. There was too much variability for him to use it alone, and he had some ideas on how they could potentially synergize. She was a lot better at manipulating RNG with her Luck element. If he remembered right, it was even affixed to her Soul attribute, which Will would bet good money would be compatible with the Card of Ruin.

Onto the next. The others had been a little less keen on parting with another valuable item after already giving one to Will during the trial of the champion, so he was still waiting on them. They’d ultimately agreed to part with at least some stuff to increase his survivability, which was nice. This time, it could even be argued that it wasn’t a scam. This was theoretically an equivalent trade in which both parties got something they wanted.

Oh, who am I kidding? Even if he could call it a different name, it was the same kind of strong-arming that he’d done before.

Will cracked a smile at that. Gold-rank and making sovereign-tiers pretty much bend the knee—wasn’t that something?

He looked towards the Lord of Loss next, looking for a reaction—and then the ground beneath him shook.

From the sudden pulse of energy through everyone else’s aura followed by an abrupt, artificial stillness, Will could tell everyone here had been taken off guard.

“Are we in a space station?” Will asked. “Did we just hit a rough patch of atmosphere or something?”

“This meeting is being held on an isolated moon half a light-year from a dead zone,” Steve said. “Its coordinates are hidden to those outside of the Order of the Striker.”

“Someone needs to check in on your security,” Ash growled, holding a hand up to the sky. She grunted as magic pulsed out from her, then fizzled out. “It’s an attack.”

“Someone is going to be executed for this,” Steve said mildly. “Rest assured.”

“Someone mind explaining to me exactly what’s going on?” Will asked. “Unless you somehow didn’t notice, I don’t usually partake in events on this scale.”

“Hostile forces have subverted the tunnel mechanism used to enter this location,” Steve said. “This was presumably planned well in advance. We will not be able to exit by means of standard spatial tunneling. This includes you.”

Will frowned, then tried to force a cast of Sanctuary through. As his skill started to form, though, he could feel the air vibrate with aura, destabilizing the foundation of the magic even as he assembled it.

“Well, shit,” he said. “I thought your kind couldn’t directly interfere with the cycle.”

“This is technically not part of the cycle,” Pale Fire admitted, which might have been the first sentence she’d said that wasn’t outright hostile towards Will so far.

“What the fuck is it supposed to be, then?” Will asked. “I’m noticing you still haven't told me jack shit about what's going on.”

"I have told you sufficient information,” Steve said. "But if you are truly curious, it would appear that there are forces who seek to break up our Coalition through means of ending your life."

"I gathered that.” Will massaged his temples. “So what are we doing now?"

"What you should be doing," Ash said, rolling her head back as if this was a lazy Sunday afternoon out in front of the porch instead of yet another Sovereign-tier threat on Will's life, “is letting us handle the hard work. There are a lot of limitations when it comes to a Sovereign-tier trying to influence your kind. Even when you're technically not in a cycle—since y’all are still cycle-bound, after all—it’ll be too much for your like to handle. Us, on the other hand?”

Will considered that. He wanted to stretch his perception out with Sen’s eyes to get an idea of what exactly was going on here, but all of said eyes were currently stuck on Earth. He didn't have any spare pieces of the familiar for surveillance, and even if he had wanted to bring it, he suspected that this sovereign-tier facility would have eliminated or detected Sen’s eyes had he brought it along with him.

That meant that all he had to rely on was his aura, and while his aura senses were strong, this place was far larger than just the hall he was in. When it came to anything beyond this room, without Sen, he could only detect the greatest reverberations—the kind that rocked the entire place like that last wave. 

During that wave, though, he’d recognized one thing: the faint but unmistakable tinge of corruption.

"You sure you don't need help?" Will asked. "I mean, I'm fine just staying here until you're able to resolve the situation, but I’m reasonably sure I sensed corruption, and I’m sure that means you did too. Last I checked you don't really have ways to cleanse it.”

Pale Fire sniffed. "A gold ranker seriously suggesting that he could make anything but a rat's dying breath of a difference in a battle between Users of our caliber?"

“I mean, I wouldn’t be so sure if I were you, getting your soul touched by a gold,” Will said. "But yeah, you keep on believing in your indefatigable superiority. I'm sure that'll get you exactly where you want to be."

Will wondered sometimes if maybe he was inviting a little too much hatred towards him. Not this time, evidently. The Lady of Pale Fire did nothing more than glare.

"This facility is filled with surveillance devices," Steve said. "There are a number that can be used by those of your own strength, gold-ranker. I will lead you to a lesser control room from where you will be able to view my perspective at least. I do not believe the other Lords and Ladies in here wish to be observed."

"That is correct," the Lord of Lost said, his voice somehow even more grating on Will's ears than it had been before. "The sheer presence that each of us exudes may be too much for your feeble mortal mind."

Will resisted the urge to laugh. Had they not been watching? Of course they had. He’d confirmed as much. He guessed that what was really going on here was that they didn’t want to offer him information about their fighting styles. As he’d established before, they were scared of him. Even Steve, who’d otherwised seemed normal.

While Steve and his Order had picked the route of capitulation, the others would not want a potential threat—even one who had agreed to avoid fighting them—to learn the ins and outs of their skills. Will also suspected that the surveillance devices the Order of the Striker would use on other Lords and Ladies were more thorough in their data collection than whatever Steve had on himself.

This situation was fine by Will. He didn’t care for the process of fighting what he was sure was something far above his weight class. His entire problem up to this point was that (a) he wasn't getting good loot—which he was already resolving—and (b) he wasn't playing on the same board that the Contractor was.

For this instance specifically, he didn't actually need to be part of the fight. All he needed was to understand who was fighting, why they were fighting, what they wanted, and most importantly, how Will could prevent them from getting it.

Even if the tunnels to the Beyond had been blocked by whatever wizardry the opposing forces had worked, apparently teleportation still worked. Steve snapped his fingers, mana twisted, and Will was suddenly somewhere else.

His new surroundings consisted of a console room that faintly reminded him of the one he had invaded in China. This one, of course, had noticeably more bells and whistles, as well as a much stronger aura coming from most of the instruments, but the basics of the multifaceted video screen setup were quite similar to both Xie-ren Jie’s and Regina’s.

The five Lords and Ladies—or wait, was it four of them and a diamond? Will didn't actually know what Steve's rank was and had only guessed from his aura, but everyone was hiding their aura to a different extent.

At any rate, whoever they were, the five sponsors that had come to meet Will ventured out into deep space. The video screen formed around him, showing Will a 360-degree display from what he presumed was Steve’s position. Behind the representative of the Order of the Striker was the facility Will presumed he was in.For the first time, he got a visual of the outside of this facility, which seemed to stretch over the entirety of a moon he guessed was much smaller than Earth’s own.

In the other direction was an array of dots that registered darkly on the sensor suite provided on the display. Through the interface, he was able to hear the dialogue between the Lords and Ladies, each of them perfectly capable of speech despite the fact that they were in deep space.

“They’re suicide brigades,” Ash said, sounding faintly awed. “How much did they spend on this?”

“Not enough,” the Lady of Pale Fire said. “These are gold-rankers with suits barely keeping them alive. Some of them are operating with skills that will allow them to survive the vacuum of space, but they are not prepared for the conflagaration I will bring them.”

“By all means,” Steve said. “It is your prerogative as to what to do, so long as you do not endanger the base itself.”

“I would advise that you think wisely before taking any action,” the Lord of Loss said. “I would prefer to divert them away from this location and neutralize them in deep space.”

“Small wonder they call you the Lord of Loss,” the Lady of Pale Fire said, emphasizing the 'Loss.' “You’re a coward, Tarin.”

“And you,” the Lord of Loss said, “are young.”

The Lady of Pale Fire seemed to be the most excited out of the five to act, and the others seemed to welcome that desire. Will got the uncomfortable sensation that the coalition themselves were not quite as tightly bound together as he had initially assumed. Even from here, without detecting their auras, he got the sense that they were goading of Pale Fire, trying to get her do something the rest of them wouldn’t.

Well, that wasn't Will's problem. He would have to find a way to exploit it, of course, but for the time being, all he could do was watch.

The instruments on the viewing board were complex to the extent that Will couldn’t even guess as to what the super majority of them did. However, the all-around view monitor screens had a few displays that were pretty easy to understand. One of them overlaid what Will assumed was a mana or aura detector over the live video.

The magic gathering around the Lady of Pale Fire was as intense as anything Will had ever seen himself. Though he wasn't exactly sure what she was doing, he was reasonably sure he had seen something on this scale one time before in person. The instruments weren't giving him the same informations his own senses could, but even with the distance between him and the Lords and Ladies, he could tell something significant was happening. The aura in the air seemed to be shifting, even hundreds of miles away in this guarded facility. 

The device’s readings seemed to be maxing out warnings popping up and overloading the space around Pale Fire as magic gathered around her, and the other four retreated.

Will remembered something very similar before. For a moment, the sun had gone out, blotted out by darkness, as a single man by the name of Nynn had borrowed plausibility and illed a being with a force so brutally intense that not even a proton had been left behind.

This time, though the sensation wasn't exactly the same, Will could sense the raw power imbued into the attack. The screen started to fritz, the sensors overwhelmed by the mana fueling the Lady of Pale Fire.

Despite the equipment’s steadily failing displays, however, one line rang through clearly.

“Culmination. Pale Fire.”