Path of the Slayer B3 57. Outsiders & Toys

Every Demigod pulled back their power, Douglas especially.

“There is no Covenant Prince,” Pyra growled, but with less heat, her molten eyes twitching with wariness.

“And there is no war in Ba Sing Se.” The so-called Covenant Prince laughed as he bounced in his seat. “But seriously, you guys should be careful with whom you try to bully. There are certain crazy powers that’ll boost me against higher Grades. I could’ve flattened you Demigods into paste and put the Goddess over here through the wall.”

The Goddess Dealer hesitated.

Douglas and the other Demigods sweated.

The Covenant Prince laughed further. “No worries! There are drawbacks! Can’t use it for cheesing my way up the Levels. Your System wouldn’t allow me to do that.”

“Our System,” said the Dealer, concluding the latest round.

“Yeah, sure, whatever! Also, woo-hoo! That’s a big payout, yeah?!” Another immensely expensive black-gold chip landed on the table. The Covenant Prince stacked it on the one he’d already placed down, doubling his next bet.

Douglas exchanged looks with Corvin and Pyra. They made small hedge bets. The other players exchanged looks as well before excusing themselves. The moment their chairs were emptied, other players arrived, but of a higher Grade.

Douglas assumed four Gods, and each one represented a major camp for the Grand Generational Passing, the Dragon Supremacy, the Gigantomachy, the Elven Family, and the Crusaders. Then one of the new players threw down the same black-gold chip that the Covenant Prince had. The sweat sliding down Douglas’s back increased.

“High God Lionheart! What’s a Crusader doing here?!” Adrian called out cheerily.

“I find it that the enemies of humanity like to gather in certain locations that are fluid in the exchange of credits.” The High God looked across the table with sharpened golden eyes and a scarred face. His glare should’ve been crushing, but the darkened gaze of the Covenant Prince matched it easily. “What are you here to tell us, wicked one?”

Douglas, Corvin, and Pyra played smaller bets while the Veteran, the three Gods, and the High God played larger bets. At this point, Douglas was a mere fly on the wall as the wild variations in power and status crushed him into submission.

“Arden the Nomad isn’t a plant,” Adrian declared, his smile growing sickeningly wide across his dark face. “He’s the most unexpected thing the Realm Verse can face. One determined rando who happens to be a nomad. That’s it. The Dragon Princess didn’t know about him until he popped up. I didn’t know about him until he popped up. And that’s fun, honestly.”

Adrian set his cards down and rested one chin in his palm. “He’s the definition of a badass who came from the ground up. Like a wandering ronin with friends. And he’s fairly favored because he might shake things up. That’s it, really. I hope that helps clear up misconceptions!”

“Or seed in lies to hide the truth. We don’t even know who you truly are,” growled High God Lionheart. “There has never been a Covenant Prince.”

“And now there is one. Ain’t that right, System? I’m the Covenant Prince, aren’t I?” Adrian asked, directing the question upward.

To everyone’s surprise, a public notification appeared.

[Indeed. You are the Covenant Prince.]

Adrian chuckled. The only person who held their bearing better was the High God.

“System, what game are you playing now?!” Lionheart roared. After receiving no response, he shouted the same question again.

“Please, Elder High God, I must assist you lower your volume in our establishment,” the Goddess Dealer requested demurely.

Lionheart growled before shaking his head, his mane of gold-white hair tossing about. He glowered across the table at the Veteran. Both of them had won multiple rounds and had stacks of black-gold chips on the table.

“An entire Embassy of Defilement was ruined because of Arden the Nomad,” Douglas said, putting himself back into the pivotal conversation. He boldly looked into the madman’s eyes and was relieved to find that his Demigod Grade protected him from his defilement. Whatever power that allowed him to exceed the Grades wouldn’t work in nonhostile situations, thankfully. So, he pressed his question. “How do you stand to gain, Covenant Prince?”

He shrugged one shoulder as he lost a round along with all of his chips. Corvin watched the obscenely enormous loss with flickering eyes. Pyra gulped audibly as the sweat on her face steamed up.

Adrian chuckled as he placed down a different chip. The exchange value exceeded the black-gold one. The three Gods at the table froze. High God Lionheart shivered a little and lost his lionized front.

“That’s far beyond me, sir,” the Goddess Dealer said, cheeks flushed, her calm broken.

Adrian laughed again. “Now, now, it’s okay. There’s a rarely used slot under the table that contains these chips. You probably hadn’t accessed it before because the enchantments on the table wouldn’t allow it unless I put this chip down.”

The Goddess Dealer checked below the table. Her face paled further as a lock could be heard clicking open. Then, with a small tremble in her hand, a stack of chips Douglas had never seen before entered the game.

Purple-white-gold.

It didn’t escape Douglas’s notice that High God Lionheart was shrinking into himself a little.

The game continued. Douglas, Corvin, and Pyra remained as the tiniest players. The three Gods at the table were practically as tiny as the Demigods. High God Lionheart was closer to the Demigods and the Gods than he was to their one Veteran.

The Covenant Prince played like it was no bother whether he won or lost. “What if I told you … it’s more to the benefit of the Defiled Covenant that Arden the Nomad continues to win? Losing an embassy is nothing compared to the biggest game there is, the Grand Generational Passing. So … I think I’m going to hedge some bets on him. He’s got a little over a month to make it there, right? And we’re all fairly certain that’s his next course. It’ll be quite an exciting gamble.”

“Why would it benefit you?” High God Lionheart glared across the table as the round concluded, with the Covenant Prince coming out the winner. It was hard to ignore the shake in the Goddess Dealer’s hand as she paid out the never-before-seen chips, but the High God’s question was at the heart of everything.

Covenant Prince Adrian smirked. “Who else represents the power of corruption better than Arden the Nomad? He’s literally the leading Pathwalker with a talent for infernal curses and hell magic. If he’s in the game, then defilement is in the game, and I’ll gladly let a few embassies go to get our foot in the door.”

“Path of the Hell King,” Corvin muttered. “It must be that!”

“Path of the Hell Ninja,” Pyra insisted. “Holy crap! How messed up would that be?!”

“Hahaha! Sure! Go with that! Anyway, I think I’ve played enough. I gotta get ready to make my official reveal at the Grand Generational Passing. But I’m glad y’all are here. Especially you, Douglas.”

Everyone looked from the Covenant Prince to the Demigod Mercenary. The sweat flowing down Douglas’s spine felt like a river.

Adrian smiled as he stood and slinked close to the Mercenary.

“You might want to get in contact with your High God. We’re aware of what he’s doing, and none of it matters. It’ll be best if you all learn to stick with your roles and be the good toys you are.”

After he left, Douglas played a few more rounds.

Nobody spoke much after that. They all knew what had happened here would reverberate across the entire Realm Verse, up and down, and it made Douglas feel smaller than he’d ever felt in a long time.

It was late in the evening when Douglas prepared to return to the Crossroads Citadel Realm. A sudden thought struck him during the transition.

Wait … isn’t it the Defiled Covenant who’s keeping the Slayer contained?

***

High God Baldwin was looking out his panoramic window view from his office. He was on his feet for once, his hands folded behind the small of his back, as he watched a majestic griffin fly by his window.

Once he felt that dastardly thirst, he removed a hand from behind him, grabbed a rock glass filled with aged scotch from a near table, and took a sip.

He hadn’t drunk alcohol for over a thousand years.

The taste was still as smooth as the day before he’d gone sober.

“What do you think of Douglas’s report, Elder High God?” asked Cassia, standing dutifully next to him, her hands folded in front of her hips.

After another sip, Baldwin hummed. “There are two of them now. A Dragon Princess and a Covenant Prince. How many more special princesses and princes are there? Is the God-Queen cultivating them specifically for a purpose at the Grand Generational Passing? How are they connected? And are the other forerunners the same?”

“How did the Defiled Covenant hide this from us for so long?” the Young Goddess wondered aloud.

“It could’ve been a sudden development,” Baldwin mused. The scotch was hitting decently well. It was Pathwalker made. The Level and Quality were high enough that one whiff would drop Young Goddess Cassia to the floor. “I haven’t heard from the Defiled Covenant’s High God. He stopped taking my calls.”

“Sir?”

“Yess, Cassia?”

“Could it be possible … that the Slayer isn’t contained any further?” There was a shake in her voice. She rarely allowed herself to show such weakness. “Could it be possible that the Defiled Covenant has been lying?”

“My dear, to suggest such a thing would bring about pandemonium. It would mean that the Slayer is free. That there’s another Pathwalker on the Path of the Slayer. If that’s the case, we would have to search for him or her. And the search might be a short one. The search might lead every concerned High God and Primordial to my Realm, forcing me to make concessions I wouldn’t want to make.”

The Young Goddess gulped audibly.

Baldwin took another sip of his scotch and let out a pleasant sigh.

“What do we do?” she asked. “Will you insist he pays us a visit? With the Assassins in the way, we might have to go down in person.”

Every God, High God, and Primordial knew it wasn’t wise to let those weaker than them act above reproach. It would invite questions. It would invite others to test their power.

For Baldwin, having unquestionable power in his own Realm was a must. Even while on Path of the Trader, he’d bloodied his hands and his slippers plenty of times to put those beneath him in their proper place when they took on too uppity of an attitude.

Ruling absolutely required absolute measures most of the time.

“High Goddess on Path of the Nemesis, Nova, is dead,” he said simply, redirecting the conversation while staying on topic.

Cassia gasped. “No, it can’t be.”

“It is. She challenged the Dragon Princess directly. And she was obliterated in an instant. This news is being kept at my Grade. Yet, I can’t help but share this with you, Cassia, for you have been nothing but a valuable aid.”

“It pleases me to hear of your trust in me. But this news is horrifying. What purpose are our Grades if they can be broken?”

“The Dragon Princess and the Covenant Prince are above those rules. They are Realm Verse Outsiders. Then there is the God-Queen herself, the omega mistress, the ruler of us all, the one who dictates everything and is deemed the Realm Verse System. All three of these powerful monsters have interests in Arden the Nomad … who is still within our rules and clearly of the Realm Verse. But he’s shown to do things no Pathwalker at his low Level should be able to do.”

“He’s him … isn’t he? He’s the one.”

“Perhaps so. Either way, my dear, there’s only two things we can do with our roles in all of this.”

“What is that?”

Baldwin finished the glass, reached over to the bottle, and poured himself another. There was a slight shake in his hand – the same one with the scar. He forced himself to smile. He’d only spilled one drop. That was certainly good of him.

“We have ourselves some drinks and get out of the way.”