RD 4 Ch 21

Merlin didn't make us wait long, teleporting back to Vein City as if she was in a hurry. Perhaps she really did need a little downtime.

"All right, what do we do now?" Nyx said, glancing around, her serpents were up like they were ready for a fight.

I put a gentle hand on her shoulder. "You, my dear, are going to do precious little. If you'd like, you can help out at the tower or man the fortress walls, but if I'm honest, what I need most from you is to relax enough that you are ready for the next round." 

Nyx tilted her head strangely at me, and even her serpents were looking between each other and back at me with confusion. “What?”

"I know it might seem strange, Nyx, given all of the disasters around us, but this will not be resolved in a day, week or even months. We all have to learn to relax when we can, so we can be ready for the next disaster." I gave her a meaningful look, and her mouth opened wide in surprise.

"You're benching me?" Her serpents hissed a bit as they swirled around.

I winced at her tone. "Not at all. You’re one of our stars. I'm simply looking out for your well-being, and that means making sure you do get some rest. I'll be doing rounds around the fortress and the city, trying to understand where everyone is going, where everyone is needed most. When I finish up with that, I'm most likely going to work all of you to the bone. So, take a break while you can." I flashed her a winning smile. 

Simone moved over, wrapping her arm around Nyx. "If you'd like, you can join me in getting a quick survey from the Mul Branova. Otherwise, I'm getting ready to take a really long, steamy bath." Simone groaned almost sexually at the thought, and I noticed all of the women around me perked up.

"Perhaps you should all do that first, and I'll find something else to do in the meantime." I offered

"Oh no, you should come with us," Simone said, trying to grab my arm and drag me away. Even as her arms strained, she frowned and pulled again. "Bran, you're heavy. I didn't quite realize how heavy you'd gotten." 

I could only shrug helplessly at the fact. "Is it a problem?" 

"No, I like being on top," she said mischievously, earning an eye roll from Merlin.

I put a hand on her shoulder, easing her off my arm. "You guys go relax. I'm not going to be able to relax until I check in and make sure everything is okay. But I won’t be far behind you." 

Simone pouted, but she slipped off my arm. "Fine, be that way. I'm going to take a nice long bath though, and you are welcome to join me at any time." Her eyes promised me I would enjoy joining her.

"I won't be long," I said before turning and moving through the fortress at a quick pace. If I stayed any longer, she was probably going to successfully drag me into the bath. 

Moving around the fortress was odd. Everyone looked up from what they were doing, spotting me only for their face to split with a giant smile and wave excitedly at me. I hadn't seen people so content in a long time. And perhaps I had taken it for granted before The Rapture, but now that it had come, it was odd to see people not be in constant stress and anguish. In this short walk, I truly felt as if I had made a difference to many people with the beginning of the rapture. 

"Bran." Bobby waved a big mitt while Candy poked out from behind his large frame. 

"Bobby, Candy, pleasure," I said, walking up to them and clasping Bobby's forearm before he pulled me into a firm hug where he patted my back.

"I didn't know you were back. The men on the wall were supposed to tell me that." Bobby frowned, glancing at Candy.

"We teleported in, so it's no one's fault that they missed it." I offered, glad to know that Bobby was active in managing things. He might be a giant teddy bear at times, but he was pretty much raised to lead a large organization.

Bobby made a noise of understanding. "Makes sense. We'll just have to put a bell on you or something. Also…” he squinted at me. "Have you gotten bigger?" 

I gauged Bobby's height, realizing I was perhaps a hair taller than him now. "It would seem so. Come on. I wanted to check on the tower. And then on my father. I heard he was injured." 

"Nothing too bad," Bobby waved a hand. "He's made of tough stuff, but he got injured enough that your mother is forbidding him from going after the other gate guardian. Something about an irresponsible son running off." A smile tugged at his lips as he turned and tried to hide it.

I rolled my eyes. "Even when you grow to be 500 years, become a king, and come back in time, you're still subjected to your mother's judgment." I chuckled and earned a good laugh from Candy.

"How are the Nesters?" I asked.

"Good," Bobby said without hesitation. "Pops gained quite a bit of levels from the tower, and then he even took to the city, helping some of our crews mop up the demons that came through. Given everyone is getting stronger, he felt the need to remind them that he was just a capable. We even had an instance pop. No one caught it in the city’s waste treatment facility," he grimaced, "and now there's no waste treatment facility.”

“But we're doing what we can to see if we can get it back online," Candy added chipperly. 

"That's good, but ultimately the city will cease functioning. Do we still have power?" I asked.

He waffled a hand. "We're down to about 40% of the city still having power. In other good news, transformers are a great way to watch a low-level demon get fried." 

I gave a soft chuckle, just imagining the demon not understanding what it was, and one metal object later becoming quite charred.

"And the fortress is remaining operational, everything's working. That's our saving grace." I looked around as we passed rooms with people drinking water and having plates of food.

Bobby nodded along. "We're handing out food to people in the cities, but they're not quite desperate yet. Shipments have slowed, but I figure it'll be another two weeks before grocery stores and pantries begin to run empty. We're setting aside a big plot of land, and we've already got some people farming, but not enough. You’d be surprised how reluctant people are to do anything while they still have food." 

"Favor those that join early," I said, "that's the best you can do." 

I reached the tower inside the fortress that was filled with people firing arrows down into the open hell gate. I wanted to make sure that the inscriptions I had put initially remained intact.

There was an olive-skinned man at the bottom, vines growing out of his hands as they slashed and stabbed through the demons. He was likely one of Circe's elites. 

As for the tower itself, there was minimal damage, however any damage was concerning considering how many enchantments I had placed into the concrete walls.

There were three spots where claws had clearly gouged out rows of the concrete. Sadly, we didn't have enough materials from the instances to get the concrete higher ranked than E. There was just too much of it and too little from the instances. Even with my enchantments it wouldn’t hold up to S ranked attacked, not with considerable strength behind them.

"As you can see, not too bad.” Bobby said. “Your father basically threw himself at it. The second it spawned, he got real big and real shiny. While he smashed it, I think he just threw everything at it at once rather than take a risk.”

I nodded and turned away from the tower. 

"And the Mul Branova? I know you aren't in charge of them, but you are surrounded by them all day.” I offered.

“Good. Jenny and Amanda have been leading teams into the city. They've stayed out of the instances and let a lot of the other girls take the new recruits in. We've done some joint instances with the Nester clan, but at the same time, many of them like to keep their operations separate. And if I'm honest, a good number of the Nesters are terrified of them." Bobby answered.

Candy chuckled by his side. "That's a polite way of putting it. Old men need to keep their hands to themselves. Her smile turned into a vicious grin that was unusual for the bubbly blonde. Bobby put a hand on her shoulder and squeezed it gently. 

"I think the big question now, Bran, is how long are you going to stick around?" Bobby asked.

I waffled my hand back and forth. "I'll take care of the gate guardian closest to us. Apparently, it seems that if I don't, my mother will think I'm irresponsible. And I can't have that. Otherwise, I think we'll stick around long enough to get people confident and excited about what's happening. Then we'll move on to the next big opportunity. We can't stand still long. We can’t get complacent with our current strength." 

Bobby nodded along. "Standing still is the same thing as falling behind. Perhaps worse. We've already had a little trouble with some people that got strong classes out of the gates. Some weirdo got a necromancer class and with all of the dead created a small army and called himself some sort of lord." Bobby shook his head. "You should have seen him cackling and trying to get one of the Mul Branova to bend the knee and become his wench of some sort."

Bobby rolled his eyes while Candy giggled before clarifying. "Needless to say, Amanda showed up and there's no longer a necromancer in the city.”

I shook my head. There were probably a dozen such interesting stories, but there would be time for them later. “Good catching up with you, Bobby. But I've got to keep moving. We should have some meals together the next couple days," I said, breaking away now that I saw my mother and father's room. 

Bobby understood immediately where I was going and gave me a quick wave, moving like he was escaping. He and Candy were already turning down the home when I knocked on my mother's door. 

"Who is it?" Elle called out. 

"Your irresponsible son," I chuckled from the other side, only for the door to fly open. 

My mother stood arms folded on the other side. Even mad at me, she looked a lot better than she often appeared in my memories, barely waking and dying in a hospital bed. "And where have you been?" She asked.

"Copenhagen. Dealing with a SS instance that almost popped."

Her glower only wavered briefly before it redoubled. "Do you realize how injured your father got?" She asked me.

"He's alive, isn't he?" I said, glancing as the big man came up behind her. I gestured at him, "He looks fine to me." 

"I am fine. She worries too much. It was a tough battle and I've grown stronger for it," Thorin said.

I gave him a sharp nod. "See? He's fine." The two of us shared a look as we stood like two mountains on either side of her.

My mother rolled her eyes in exasperation. "You two."

I reached over and pulled my mother close to give her a squeeze. "It's okay. I'm happy you're worried about me." I patted her on the back, and realized based on the way she jolted that perhaps it had been too hard. “But I'm back now, and I will go deal with the other gate guardian.” I turn to focus on my father. "As for you, I do think we need to have a conversation."

He frowned, tilting his head.

"I met Vidar and realized one of his subordinates was the woman who poisoned my mother." I could almost feel the anger rippling off of Thorin, and I had to stifle any response I had from my past life when Thorin ‘clan killer’ Aegir, ripped my heart out. 

"That bastard of a whelp," Thorin ground out. "I'll fucking go kill him with my bare hands."

I gestured for him to calm down. "Not necessary. I'll likely do it myself. It seems, father, that he has a problem with me. And after a quick conversation with Circe and Hercules, they think perhaps I still have some succession rights to the Borrson clan."

My father frowned, rubbing his chin and glancing off into the distance for a short moment.

My mother too was staring at him curiously.

"Under most circumstances, I would say that you simply don't stand a chance against a Borrson-raised peer. However, you are a bit of an anomaly, and you did awaken a powerful titan bloodline." He continued to rub his chin. "There's probably an argument that could be made to bring you back into the fold. And then once that was made, you could of course compete against him for anything." He gestured vaguely. 

I knew the Borrson clan largely fought and competed over positions like the one that my father lost and caused his exile. There was likely also no contract for his exile, just a matter of the clan. So, much of it was just decisions that those in charge would make.

"It's not a no. But not a yes?" I asked.

Thorin nodded. "If you announced your bloodline to them and let them inspect you, I would say you had a 9 in 10 chance to be re-accepted into the clan. Of course, they would argue that you were born with the hero's bloodline rather than simply some unawakened one. But I think that's close to a moot point if you could produce a generation of potent bloodlines. That fact would make the clan over the moon and likely ignore most dissidents. After all, it is the bloodlines that have promoted the Borrson clan to the state it's at today. My question to you, son, is do you intend to join the Borrson clan?"

I frowned and glanced to the side. "I have a feeling Vidar is going to come after me one way or another. If he tried so hard to harm my mother, then I can only assume he's not going to stop."

"Don't we have bigger problems to worry about?" My mother asked, gesturing vaguely around us. “Like, for example, the whole swarms of demons suddenly invading the world, instances appearing by the dozen, several of which were already ready to pop right inside a city?"

I shrugged. "There's only so much I can do in regards to the global problem. However, someone who wants to come attack me and my family, that's personal. And I will ensure that any fist he throws ends up shattered." My eyes became hard.

My mother shook her head.

However, my father clasped me on the shoulders with a giant smile. "As it should be. Crushing your enemies bones to dust is one of the finest pastimes available."

My mother let out an exasperated sigh. "Why couldn't I have had a nice, polite daughter?"

I shrugged and smiled at both of them. "But that's days or weeks away for now. I'm going to go back to my ladies, and we're going to rest before planning on taking out the next gate guardian."