The OP Lich is a Returnee, chapter 135

Chapter 135 – Volunteers

By the time I had delivered the recordings of my interrogation of the idiot zealot to the different people I needed them to go to, it was after dinner on Easter Island, and I had no reason to make my pilots go flying through the night, especially since we’d already paid for the hotel rooms. While I had intended to head to the Chilean mainland today, we were not so pressed for time that I needed to rush. Plus, it would give the local government more time to find and secure the site of the seal. No one wanted a repeat of the chaos that led up to the disaster in the Azores, after all.

Thankfully, no further idiots decided to try my patience. Well, I’d taken out the team from CHAD that had been on the island, and thoroughly wrecked their plans. That, plus the funds I’d taken from their off-the-books accounts, would keep them from bothering me for a while. At least, it should. While a secret organization might be able to fly under the radar, hiding in the middle of a bureaucracy, there was only so much budget that could be diverted to any one place before people started to notice. They ought to be focusing on putting out a few fires, now, since I had spread knowledge of them so far and wide.

Well, they were a problem for another day. If they showed themselves before me again, I would wipe them out, as I did all who opposed me. Hopefully, there would be someone with actual brains in that organization, who would realize that I was not someone who could be manipulated so easily.

The next morning, after the mortals had breakfast, I had a brief meeting with some of the local officials, giving them my opinion on the cause behind the ‘poltergeists’ on the island. After promising to have Phantomline design a device that could be used to track the source of the disturbances, I boarded the seaplane, which my wraiths had swept to ensure there were no nasty ‘surprises’ lying in wait, and we took off, heading towards the South American coast. It was time to see about the Seal of Earth.

Valparaíso was only two hours ahead of Easter Island, so it was early in the afternoon when we landed in the coastal waters. And, as expected, there was someone waiting for me at the dock when the plane pulled up. Three someones, actually. One woman and two men, all three were wearing dress uniforms, but all three were different.

The three individuals saluted, starting with the woman in the middle. In accented English, she said, “Welcome to Chile, your Majesty. I am Mayor Valeria Freixa, Chilean Army. With me are Capitán Jairo Venegas, of the Carabineros, and Subteniente Dante Laguna, of the Gendarmerie. They have volunteered to help in the undoing of the Seal of Earth.”

I looked the two over, appraisingly. Venegas was a taller man, and an Earth Soul, if I was reading his mana correctly. With training, he would be a literal brick wall when it came to combat. Laguna, on the other hand, was shorter, and thinner. He had the air of someone that was more suited to logistics than the battlefield. But as a Shaman, a Witch of the Earth, I could see him becoming quite potent, given time.

“I see. Forgive me, Mayor Freixa, but I am unfamiliar with your Carabineros and Gendarmerie. What branches of the military are they?”

“Ah, my apologies. The Carabineros are what you might call ‘military police’. All the different police functions were folded into one organization back in 1927, and was officially part of the Armed Forces until 2011, when they became part of the Ministry of the Interior. The Gendarmerie, on the other hand, form the national prison service military. They are under the Department of Justice, and run the prisons.”

“Interesting,” I said, with no judgement in my voice. The other world had lands where the police and military were one and the same, after all. One needed a certain amount of strength in order to bring in and control individuals who had higher cultivation levels, after all, and the military was where the strongest in the kingdom tended to be.

“Very well.” I turned to look at the two. “I assume that you have been briefed about what you are volunteering for. You have the chance to gain powers unlike anything you have ever experienced before. However, there is a price to be paid for such powers. You will experience pain beyond your comprehension, and you will be changed physically into a new and unknown form. And if you fail to keep control, then the city will be lost in an explosion to equal that in the Azores.

“I tell you this now, there is no shame in backing down, if you believe that you cannot take the pain, or do not want the weight of all the lives in this city upon your shoulders. I will not allow anyone to gainsay or disparage your decision, for if you are not completely sure in your conviction, then it is better that you do not make the attempt. There are other ways that the seal can be undone, though they have problems of their own.”

Venegas frowned, and said, “With respect, your Majesty, we understand the risks. I won’t say that I’m looking forward to the pain, but I’m not going to run from it, either. We might not be in the army, but we’ve been through training, all the same.”

Laguna nodded. “That’s right! We volunteered for this task, knowing what was in store. The possibility of gaining powers even a fraction of yours is too important not to try. For our country, and the future.”

“I see. Then I will not waste more time questioning you. Mayor, is there a hotel prepared for us? I would like to talk about specifics in a less exposed area.”

Mayor Freixa nodded, and motioned to the end of the dock, where several SUVs were waiting. “Yes, we’ve arranged rooms at a nearby hotel, and have vehicles waiting to take us there.”

We rode in silence to the hotel. Once we were behind closed doors, and I’d put up a privacy ward to keep unwanted eyes and ears at bay, I looked to the locals in front of me. “Well, first, let me say again that, should you wish to step down, neither I nor anyone else will think less of you. However, if you are resolute in continuing, then there are some things you should know. You will be changed by the experience, into a new form of creature, and this form may be very different from your current bodies. The pair that became the heroes of Fire are now stuck in the form of phoenixes, birds of living flame. The lives they once knew are impossible, unless they can find some way to take human form again.”

I saw surprise in their eyes. Well, I didn’t blame them for that, since the French weren’t publicizing it until they either found a way to change, or I had time to enchant something for them to change with. “That said, if you make it through, you will gain power like my classmates and I had when we were first summoned to the other world. That will make you some of the strongest beings in this world, save for exceptional existences such as myself.

“However, such power does not come free and clear, even after you’ve gone through the pain of obtaining it. With great power comes a great number of people who will seek to use that power for their own ends. People will try and manipulate you, playing to a sense of patriotism, moral authority, greed, and whatever other levers they might be able to use against you. The more diabolic types will go to your friends and loved ones, and either try to manipulate you through them, or hold them hostage to coerce you into following their commands.

“How do I know that you will face such temptations and trials? Because there are people who have tried to do the same with me, despite the fact that I have far more power than you likely ever will have. Even now, there are people who are scheming to find ways to bend me to their will, despite the examples I’ve made of such fools in the past.”

Mayor Freixa frowned. “Is this about the explosion in your room on Easter Island? I haven’t heard all the details, but it sounded as though someone attacked you.”

“Yes,” I nodded. “I stepped out of my room for a bit, to speak with the Egyptians about my upcoming visit to deal with the Seal of Death, amongst other things. Sadly, some idiot from a clandestine American agency snuck into my room, and thought that he could threaten me with a gun, or that the explosives his team had hidden in the hotel would convince me to listen to his demands, since my disciples were in the building with me.”

I sighed, and said, “There are people who have spent too long thinking ‘this is the way things have always been, so obviously, this is how things always will be’. That kind of willful stupidity blinds them to the fact that there are beings who do not need to bow to the pressures of modern diplomacy. And even I am not the most powerful being in the world.”

“Wait, what?” Subtenient Laguna sputtered. “You mean that there is someone out there more powerful than you? How is that possible?”

I chuckled, and motioned to Chihomi, who was standing with the rest of my entourage. “This girl, here, is contracted to one such being, a primordial entity that exists beyond mortal comprehension. We are three-dimensional beings moving through a fourth, which is time. The being she contracted with is at least a four-dimensional being, if not more. The mortal mind quakes to even look upon them, and to see or hear them clearly is to go mad. They are as beyond us as we are beyond a two-dimensional creature looking upon a three-dimensional world.”

Chihomi bowed to them, and said, “As Akagawa-sama says, I am contracted to the primordial being, Lord Dagon, as his warlock. His power protected me from madness as the contract was sealed, but I could not see all of him at once, since there was more to him than what fit within our reality.”

Mayor Freixa took a breath, and then said, “I see. Well, that definitely is something that I’m going to have to inform my superiors about. If only so they can be on the lookout, and avoid offending this being, or others like it.”

“A wise precaution,” I nodded. “Now, what of the Seal of Earth? Has the entrance been found, yet?”

Freixa gladly seized upon a chance to talk about something, anything else. “Yes, in fact. Though it wasn’t so much ‘found’ as ‘made itself known’. A sinkhole opened up near the coast, leading down into the earth. Thankfully, it was in the middle of a park, instead of under someone’s house, but there were some injuries as the ground opened up underneath people’s feet.”

“And I trust that the site has been secured? No one has gone down to poke at the entrance and see what might guard it?”

“Yes. Since we had already heard from the Australians about what happened at the Seal of Life, no one wished to take any chances. The Seal has been blocked off since then, with the army guarding it while the police help keep people away.”

“Very good. Then, in the morning, we shall venture forth to the seal, and see what guardian awaits us. I cannot say for certain what form the creature will take, but I daresay that it will probably be a physical combatant, with strong defenses. Most Earth-type creatures are, as Earth is the element with the strongest defensive nature.”

“Will you be able to defeat the guardian, whatever it is?”

“Unless it is another Primordial, like Dagon? Most likely. Anything that lives can die, after all. But I won’t be so foolish as to assume victory before it is won.”