RD 4 Ch 28

"Who would have expected that I would be so quick to miss modern transportation?" Circe said as we walked along the now defunct train line in Spain. Merlin had gotten us as close as she could with teleportation, but we were going to have to walk the rest of the way to where the Tartarus branch had previously had their base.

"You get used to it after a time," I said, flashing both ancient women a quick smile. “Honestly the slower speed can be nice from time to time.”

Merlin just shook her head. "I can't believe the whippersnapper is trying to pretend he's older than both of us."

"On that, we can agree," Circe said, pulling out her phone and flipping through some documents she had picked up from the Heros Clan. Unfortunately, cell towers in this area weren't working, and the likelihood they'd get them back up was slim to none. Still, the ability to hold quite a bit of information in a small package was valuable.

I ignored Circe as she read, turning my focus on Merlin for the walk. "Is this going about how you expected it?" I waved my hand to encompass everything around us.

The wizard shrugged. "I don't think I'm capable of being surprised by humans anymore, if that's your question. As for how the actual apocalypse is progressing, well, I think I hadn't really put too many expectations on it, if I'm honest."

"Fair. Better to expect the unknown than be surprised by what you couldn't know." I stated.

"Was that a quote?" Merlin asked.

"I'm sure someone famous has said something like that, but no, that came from the heart just now. You know, after many, many years of living, I do have a few insightful things to say." I gave her a smile.

Merlin chuckled, and pulled her dark hair behind her ear. "I'm sure you do. But I doubt any of us are going to be writing books about philosophy anymore. Will we?"

"Not for a while. But all of this will calm down. Humanity will try and blossom," I said, "only to get knocked down again and again. We have a lot in common with weeds it seems."

She gave me a steady gaze, and I could only grin back with a helpless shrug.

"We've both lived long enough to understand that humanity and everything we do ultimately seems to be quite cyclical. I wouldn't say that changes at all for the new world order. Build and destroy, build and destroy." I offered.

My mind wandered to events of the past before I physically shook off those thoughts. That was the past, and perhaps Simone had been right, at least to some degree.

I was living a new life, and I was making a significant difference. Perhaps I could build up a force among humanity to repel future demonic waves. Though, that would mean I likely had to launch a decisive victory in the war for supremacy, or at least become big enough, strong enough that everyone else backed down for fear that we’d pick a side.

It was not quite mutually assured destruction, but at least I would have a big enough stick that when I said no fighting, people dropped their weapons and pretended to get along.

Circe began grunting as she read through her phone.

"If you're going to keep making noises, you might as well share the information with the rest of us," Merlin said, looking over.

"Just reports of demon attacks," she said, though a frown marred her otherwise beautiful face. "I'm not sure if you left these ones out, Bran, or if they're a significant deviation. Either way, Hercules and Zeus are making a category of their report, that is," she hesitated, "deviations from what you supplied them."

"I mean, I didn't give them everything, but I gave them the major brushstrokes.” I answered honestly.

“They're quite concerned with the absence of what, in your report, happened to the United Kingdom.” Circe answered.

“That was a bit of an odd one to me as well," I admitted. "Why? What else have they discovered?"

"Reports that the Demon Lord himself led the attack, and the UK isn't gone, but London and the southern coast is almost completely leveled," she replied.

I looked at her in surprise. "That is a big deviation from my past life." I frowned, trying to think about what I might have changed to cause such a problem. "Perhaps some of the people that died in the vault had repelled that attack." I frowned again, trying to think through the names and where they should have been. 

"There's another bit that is strangely interesting. The Demon Lord personally led an attack on a small town in Ukraine," she added.

I raised an eyebrow. "Was there someone strong he went after?"

"Not that we can identify. It's just very odd for him to show up there, kill a town, a population of what," she frowned and seemed to be swiping through something, "maybe 300, only to leave like he'd accomplished what he wanted."

There was a small tickle in the back of my brain, like something about a Ukraine town should have made more sense to me. "Can I see that list?"

"Sure." Circe handed me her phone and I quickly flipped through it. With my stats as they were, particularly my spirit, I had near perfect recall, at least for the information that I had learned after I’d reached a decent level. There was a limit on how much information I could actually consume. So I scrolled through the list quickly, only for a name to give me pause, and I tapped on her screen, showing it to her. 

"Is there a chance you could get me a picture of this one?" I asked, trying not to sound concerned. 

"I can get one when I’m back in communication. I'm sure Zeus has gotten his hands on more than a few federal databases," she replied.

I gave her a look.

"What? He's the kind of man that says 'knowledge is power' at least ten times a day. So it shouldn't come as any surprise that he's happily snatched up all of that data that people let float about, and also paid for the data that people don't let float about." Circe replied.

"Well, I don't know how useful all that data is going to be in this world, but I can see why there is some resistance to completely let go of it.”

Merlin glanced at the phone “It's pretty useful, especially when Simone showed us your little charging brick."

I frowned at her before my mind went back to one of those adapters with half a dozen cords hanging off of them, and Simone had made me inscribe several long-lasting low-charge lightning talismans. I closed my eyes for a second in disbelief, realizing exactly what Simone was using them for now.

"I'll have to make use of more of them.” I mumbled.

“It'll be a while until we get the information. Can you at least tell me what might be catching your interest?" Circe asked.

"It's a little silly for it to be something," I said, not wanting to answer.

“Bran, your suspicion could help us in many ways," Circe insisted.

"Well, I told you that after Shiva fought the Demon Lord and failed, that the first three people to pass the Trial of Kings then worked together to defeat the Demon Lord."

Circe nodded along, and Merlin was paying rapt attention.

"Well, of the three, one was from a small town in Ukraine. I don't remember exactly where. I didn't quite have the stats I had now when I heard the old stories of him, but I do remember he was from a small town in Ukraine, and I'll never forget his name."

Circe glanced down at her phone. "Kevin Boyko."

I nodded. “Kevin Boyko was the King of War.”

Circe's eyebrows nearly jumped into her hairline.

"Powerful title for a powerful man," I agreed. “I fought with him on more than one occasion. He was good, at least at leading his men. I never knew him personally, but his people seemed happy. That's usually a sign of a good leader in my book. He was the second to pass the trials.”

"Who was first?" Merlin asked the most obvious question.

"Don't know. Not even sure that the first is a he." I answered.

"You don't know?" Circe asked, sounding confused.

"Nope. That would be the King of Shadows. Always wore a heavy cloak. And gloves. You could never see the person inside. They had complete control of the shadows and hid themselves in them their entire life. As far as I know, no one knew the King of Shadows’ true identity. They had a small kingdom underground that lasted onto the Third Demon War. Fought like hell to the end. If you ever meet them, give them your respect."

Both ladies were frowning next to me.

"Look, it was a crazy world after all of this. There was a lot of backstabbing. A lot of killing. The seven kings started dividing up the land eventually, as did the sects and the clans. Most of the kings came from the common people. Those are the first two. So obviously, there's a third. And that's where it gets a little funny."

They frowned, clearly waiting for me to continue.

"All I know is that he lived in the United Kingdom before this all started. Perhaps it was London. I never knew him well. And honestly, he died fairly early on in the War for Supremacy. He might have gone into direct confrontation with the Borrsons, a little too cocky after he killed the Demon Lord.”

“So there have been two obvious deviations from your plans, both of which include destruction of areas that might hold the first two of the three humans that banded together to kill the Demon Lord.” Merlin put it all together, giving me a strange look. "Is it possible anyone else came back from your past life?"

I chewed my lip. “Yeah, I considered that. And that starts to feel much more scary. I've been operating under the sense that I'm the only one who essentially has the playbook for what's supposed to happen. Obviously I've made changes to try to alter the outcome. If there's another or multiple people that came back with me, then everything could change much more rapidly.”

“If the Demon Lord, or someone advising him, has events of the past, what do you think would be their first move?" Merlin prompted as if to look for proof of the idea.

"Well, killing the three people that defeated the Demon Lord sounds like a good first move, as well as targeting heroes from the first Demon War that stopped powerful advances of his army." I offered.

Both ladies' looks were growing harder by the second.

"And if you wanted to capture all of the heroes and, say, possess them," Circe offered, "then perhaps you'd give the group trying to open a vault full of demon souls a few hints on how to open it."

I winced at her logic and looked up at the blue sky. It was so bright and cheery, I wanted to focus on that, and not the potential disastrous reality that was staring me right in the face.

"Bran, this is a significant concern," Circe said, trying to get me to focus back on the present.

"Oh, I am well aware. The question remains, though, if that is the case, and I'm not saying it is, what do we do about it? And how do we prove it?" I looked at both ladies.

Merlin frowned pensively, looking at the ground as we continued to walk. Meanwhile, Circe rubbed her temples.

"Bran, this is a massive problem," Circe grumbled.

I stayed quiet for just a moment before letting out an explosive sigh. "Yeah. Yeah, it is," I admitted. 

"Is this why you wanted to go check out Tartarus?" Merlin asked. 

"Sort of. There were a few other oddities around Tartarus and I would very much like to put some enchantments down here so I can monitor the entrance." I told them. Perhaps I should have done it before, but the Tartarus branch still needed to move out and I thought I’d have more time.

"Oddities like what, Bran?" Merlin pressed. "I don't think now is the time to be holding back."

I held my hands up defensively. "Not holding back. It's just that for all the people that went through the trials, including those that were among the first, there are eight statues. But there are only seven kings," I explained.

Merlin tilted her head, intrigued.

"There's always been a little bit of a rumor or a wives' tale that someone beat the original three. But we have no idea who it could have been." I told them honestly. "It would be nice if I put some enchantments to keep an eye on the place and perhaps get a read on who it might be. Who knows, maybe it happened a thousand years ago and that person lived a full life and died. Or maybe they died in some SSS rank instance between now and then. But on the off chance that someone else takes the trial of kings, I'd be very curious to know who the 8th king was in my past life.

Circe spoke up. “Given how important all of this is, perhaps we can know when the first Shadow King goes through his trial, and we can recruit them for a battle against the Demon Lord."

"Exactly," I agreed.

"Right now, humanity is cutting its teeth and getting its first few levels and skills. And while we might be able to help some, helping all of them is impossible. Instead, we need to let the strong survive, grow, and flourish. Perhaps then we can start recruiting more broadly, and then eventually we're going to have the numbers where we can take the fight to the demon armies themselves.” I spoke with a confidence I did not entirely feel. 

Behind my back where neither of them could see my hands, both of my fists were clenched so tightly it felt like my knuckles might snap.

Once again, like the trickery at the vault, it felt like someone was robbing my plans from me. And if someone else on the Demon Lord's side had knowledge similar to mine, then I would have to accelerate my plans and gobble up every resource that I could before I came face to face with an enemy I thought I had more time to prepare to defeat.

AN - Been cooking towards this for a while.