II-129 Shared Grudge (TTF)

There is a slight benefit to living in a low-trust society. The thing about living in a low-trust society is that the people there also hate each other, so you can always rely on them to betray each other. And if you have something everyone wants, if you have something to offer that everyone needs, well, one of them might just come to you.

And another thing: consider a bastard, consider a terrible person, consider an individual who is wretched above all, yet they are self-interested in their wretchedness. And so what will they do other than betray their fellows, betray themselves, betray all to give you what you want, so they may get a taste of what they desire?

And that is the most important thing: desire, desire, desire. When people are controlled by their desires rather than their sense of self, rather than what they want and what is good for them, oh no, oh no, that means their ass belongs to someone else.

Remember, you go first. You before everyone else, you above everyone else, always and forever. And if you can't figure that out, then the only desire you're going to be filling is someone else's in the end, because it's not going to be up to you. You have to choose, you have to decide things, you have to be the one acting.

Reactors die.

-Greatest, Prince of Pride

II-129
Shared Grudge

Slowly, Wei narrowed his eyes. "You think I'm doing all of this just to take over the Claimed Hells?"

"Why wouldn't you be?" Greatest looked at his fingernails and breathed on them. His bronze skin was immaculate. The radiance emanating from his being simply magnified everything he did, but Wei's ambition resisted the effect. The man had something of a Lust Skill, something that was meant to make other people like him, to adore him. Wei didn't much appreciate that. But, judging from how passive the skill was, Wei suspected that the Prince of Pride wasn't even particularly using the skill at all. It was just a passive effect.

"Now, my reasons for wishing to take Earth are their own," Greatest paused as he eyed Wei, "your own. So, all this struggle, all this violence and pain and death, all the things you went through, just for some kind of mysterious cause?" Greatest leaned over, and with a sudden shift, the Old Man groaned beneath him as his spinal column gave a series of pops. "You know what? I find that kind of hard to believe, kid. I find that really hard to believe, Wei. I really do. Everyone in the Claimed Hells, they want something. They're here for something. There's something that has them by the throat. What are you? Your main thing is pride. So, what are you so proud about? What are you so sinful about? Hmm?"

"I am sinful," Wei said through clenched teeth. "I am sinful about retribution. I am sinful about despising those who took my world from me. I am sinful in my hatred, and I am sinful in the way that I do not wish to admit that the world has hurt me, that the world has scarred me deeply. That is my sin. And now that I recognize that more and more, I think that is my strength."

Greatest regarded him for a moment, and Wei anticipated some kind of mocking, cynical statement. Instead, the prince simply angled his head, nodded, and accepted it. "Alright, so you're not our usual sinner. Not our usual junkie, murderer, psychopath, rapist. Or even a proper racist. Perfect. Wonderful. Do you want to know what that makes you?"

Wei waited for the Prince to tell him.

"That makes you absolutely fucking nothing. Except for your System. That makes you more than everything. And that's why I'm asking you. You're the Concept Breaker. You can kill anyone. You can break anything. You can convert essence to something that strengthens yourself or someone else." The greatest trailed off. He stared at Wei. "So you're using that to empower your little..." 

He looked around at Wei’s companions and disciples. "...your little arrangement here. The Harbinger seems to favor you for some reason. But the Harbinger favors a lot of people for strange and twisted reasons. Even people who tried to kill him before. So I'm trying to figure out what your deal is. Your exact angle. And I think, if I'm guessing right, we can actually help each other. And believe you me, my help goes a long way. Especially with the bastards you're about to start dealing with. You're trying to get in bed with the princes and princesses and kings and queens of all the circles, huh? Well, good news. You can definitely do it. Bad news, every single one of them is going to make you want to kill yourself."

"I heard from one of my sources..." Greatest waved his fingers around, and the world trembled a little bit. As soon as he stopped, though, the world stilled. Wei wondered what that was, and then he realized none of the others were moving. None of the others were reacting. They were all frozen in place.

Wei blinked.

"Oh, no, they're fine. Don't worry, I didn't hurt them," Greatest said. "I did, however, pump enough essence out from their assholes to stop time in a small sphere. Outside of your little mansion, things are running just the way they were before. But other than you and me right here, time isn't moving."

Wei stared at the man. There wasn't even a warning to how Greatest could do that. More importantly, Wei wondered if he could counter that somehow. If he could break frozen time using his ambition. On a whim, he infused it with the Aspect, and he found the space around him staining black and white—the colors of Source.

"Ooh," Greatest breathed. The Prince of Pride didn't seem overly scared, merely interested. "Huh, I guess you can damage time stop. It's useful. It's pretty neat. I guess that's the other fun thing about being the Concept Breaker. Breaking everything. Distance, other people's spirits, their aspects, their skills. Of course, it'll take you some time to crack me down. And in that time," Greatest paused, "well, in that time I might be able to crawl up your ass and pull you in half from the inside."

"No one will crawl up my ass," Wei said. His voice was cold, but his mind was slightly panicked. Just what kind of degenerate was he facing? What kind of man threatens another with the opening and stretching of their rectum as an attack? Mother, if you only knew what kind of demented demonic techniques people practice here.

"But you know what? I'm not gonna do that. Not yet. I'll hold off on doing my favorite thing in the world because I think," Greatest pointed at Wei, "I think I can help you help me do it to some other people. Especially some other people I don't like."

"Like who?"

"Oh, just, you know, most of the princes and princesses of lust. The Queen of Lust. The King of Wrath." He paused as he thought. "Eh, Greed's okay. They're mostly kind of annoying. They really, really like their numbers. But, well, I guess I can't blame them. They do run most of the economy here. Let's see, who else? Right. Envy. Envy's kind of annoying. But, you know what? Let's give them a pass, shall we? Envy's fine. I kind of like them because they like seething at me in return. All of them feeling bad, glaring at me, mimicking my skills. Yeah, envy's more than fine. Frankly, they're the only circle I'd like to keep around if I could only pick two."

"And the other's Pride?" Wei asked.

"What? No. The other's lust. Pride? Why would I keep the Circle of Pride around? There's all these egomaniacs. There's already me. What's the point of the rest of you?" Greatest laughed. Wei actually found it ever so slightly amusing.

"So, now that you have something of my measure and, well, I don't fully know yours, what do you want? Do you want more shards? A few concept shards perhaps to advance yourself another way?" Greatest shook his head. "No, no, the aspect shards, they're neat. It's been a while since I got an advancement there. Feels pretty good. But, uh," he frowned, "I don't really care about climbing anymore."

"What? Wei said.

"Yeah, I don't care," Greatest said. "I'm already the greatest. I'm already in the perfect position."

"But you... what do you mean you don't care?"

"I mean I just don't care," Greatest said once more. "Again, what part of my name don't you get? Greatest. Greatest. Not strongest. Not powerful-est. Not greediest. Or grow-iest. For a while I considered calling myself girthiest." Greatest laughed. "But no. No, I'm greatest. Because I understand the game. And I understand that it's a scam. You don't want to be the guy on top. You want to be the guy near the top. You want to be the guy who's running just enough of the show, who's just enough of the pain that he can't quite be gotten rid of that easily. And you want to hold that position forever. You want to be there forever because no one can get rid of you. Just powerful enough to be a threat to everyone, but not overly dangerous enough that you have everyone gunning for you. That is what it means to be greatest."

Wei stared on for a moment. He didn't know what to say about any of that. It all seemed absurd even.

"No," Greatest continued, "what I want from you is a simple promise. One, that first you will never, and I mean never, let more of those earth-born fucks slip over to our world." He looked Wei up and down. "Understand that you are... well, half-breed isn't the right word. It wasn't up to you, but your father. I don't like Trespassers that much, I'll be honest. I hate the fact that they call us fictional. I hate the fact that they don't really have any souls and can basically slut on whatever classes they want. I hate the fact that the fathoms seem to be a playground for these bastards. That everything is treating them so gently, and I hate them most of all for thinking that they're real and I'm not. That's the only thing that bothers me. I don't want the Trespassers here. They ruin things, they unbalance things."

Greatest paused, and his rage was genuine. Wei was surprised. It was the first show of anything human from the Prince of Pride. This thing with the Trespassers, it offended his very ego.

"So you want me to exile them to Earth?"

"No," Greatest said. "I just want them especially to stay out of the Claimed Hells. This land is my land, not their land. And your Inheritor problem..." The Greatest started laughing. "We're going to remove them, too. Then I'll help you for free. God, I despise those bastards. I hated them down to the bone. Frankly, my favorite thing about you, my favorite, most beloved thing about you, kid, not this whole genuine kind of, not really a sinner's stick, not the system, it's just the fact that you hate them. You hate the inheritors more than I do. You killed their local guy. You stole his office. You stole his table. You have a vendetta going against every last one of them now. And you're trying to steal their planet from them. Isn't that right?"

Wei nodded ever so slowly.

"I love it. I genuinely do. And I think, you know what? I think I figured it out. That's why I'm so into this idea. Because a half-fictional running Earth, holding Earth, enslaving Earth," Greatest laughed. "Yeah. After all these years of these bastards talking about how they're the only real people, how they're special, and we're not, how they get to decide who they want to be, how they can switch out Classes and souls like it's clothing, and we just have to suck it up and be who we were. We're fictional. Just pieces from a story." 

Greatest spat. And he did it so hard that his saliva punched a hole through the ground. "That tickles me. Let's see how all these guys, let's see how the trespassers call us illusions now. When a literal illusion is running them. Let's see how real they are when a literal character from one of those stories they supposedly think we're from grips their world by the throat and shov his goddamn foot all the way up their ass. And it feels like a… a foot-shaped cock. And they get pregnant with more feet-ass.”

The sheer vitriol and strange imagery Wei was getting from Greatest threw him off, but he kind of understood where this was going.

"So with all that said, I just want a few things from you. First, I want a thousand shards."

"I thought you said you didn't want any Aspect Advancements."

"Oh no, they're not for me. They're for people under me," Greatest smiled. "I'm gonna need them to do some funny things. Some of it you're gonna like. Some of it you really aren't. After that, I want to leak some information to the others."

"Why?"

"Because I want them to know that you're the concept breaker. I want it to seem like your big surprise just got spilled through. And most importantly, I want it to look like I got you by the balls."

"I don't understand," Wei said. "Is this all to what? Please your own pride?"

"Ding ding ding. He's also a little bit smart," Greatest cried out. "Yes, it's exactly that. But also, it gives you an opening. See, if everyone thinks that I already have you, and frankly, we already have each other in a certain weird kind of way, they'll come deal with me, and they won't be looking at you. And maybe I can negotiate some useful things for you. With my significance, and I'd say significance from, I don't know, about most of the other Princes and Princesses, you'll be primed for Hell's Vanguard, no problem. The only issue might be with some of my fellow Princes of Pride. They, uh, well, one in particular really doesn't appreciate the fact that you murdered Lein."

Greatest paused. "Me, I don't much like it, but then again, dukes die sometimes. It's just the way it goes. I mean, there's only so many slots, right? There's only so many openings. If you want to get to a duke from being a count, power is one thing, but a position, well, you're going to have to take that for yourself or make it for yourself. And usually people down here do more of the taking."

"And who is the Prince that would be offended by that Lein’s death?"

"Oh, that would be Hubris. Hubris, you'll see Hubris probably soon enough. Expect him to be smashing into your front door at any moment, loudly screaming at you, but not actually doing anything to get himself arrested. Frankly, Hubris really deserves to be more of a wrath sinner. But then again, the reason for his wrath has always been pride." He regarded Wei with a wry stare. "In that sense, I guess he's a little bit too much like you. He's not going to like that either. But worry not, for I have a cunning plan. I think you and I might just be able to engineer a situation where you can kill a Prince of Pride."

Wei leaned in ever so slightly. "Are you aware of my gun?"

"Once again, you have good instincts. But you're not just going to shoot him straight. No, it'll take too long, and frankly, it'll be too obvious. He'll destroy quite a few things before he goes down. You included. I can't have that. I can't have my, uh, well, what should I call you? My means of shitting all over the goddamn Trespassers. Lost. Lost for no reason. And a fine pair of ass cheeks at that."

Wei really didn't feel comfortable about being referred to as a fine pair of ass cheeks.

"But I think," Greatest tapped on the table, "I think I'm due another meeting with a certain general down on the base. MacArthur," Greatest looked off to the side. "It's time for me to jump through another asshole. Go see that Kalrus orc when you have the chance. I'll see to it that he has a special project to work on. In the meantime," Greatest stared at Wei and winked, "keep your ears to the ground and keep those cheeks puckered tight, boy. I'll be back. And we'll be running mean ass fucking free as we can on those cocksuckers from Earth."

And with that said, Greatest stared at the old man before he snapped his fingers. Time resumed. Everyone stumbled forward and they all looked towards Greatest. None of them seemed confused, however, and Wei realized they were all there, frozen, but ultimately unable to act. The old man let out a groan and that became a scream as Greatest immediately dove headfirst into the Count’s already badly wounded asshole.

The noises that followed were nightmarish. Agnesia’s eyes widened. Vendrian retched. And finally, Greatest's two legs kicked up in the air, and slowly he slid down, meter by meter, until he was gone.

As the conversation ended, Wei looked on into the space where Greatest used to be, and he let out a long, suffering sigh. "Okay," Wei said. "That was truly one of the most feverish conversations I have had."

Just then, the Trine walked in, clutching their stomach. "Was there a Prince of Pride just now?" the Trine sang.

"Yes, why?"

"It left something in us. We—” And just then a small flood of golden coins poured out from between the Trine’s legs. And then the Facetaker fell out thereafter with a grunt. Wei blinked. The Trine let out a shared shudder.

“Master…” the Facetaker sobbed. “Someone forced me inside you when time was stopped. He said the coins were payment for the meeting.”

As he talked, more and more coins continued pouring free from the Trine’s rectum.

Wei stared on. “Someone… someone get a bucket and catch some of that. It’s still money.”