Greed God chapter 211

April 9th 2016 Brightedge City, The Narrows, 8:00 PM EDT

I  admit, I was a bit annoyed the method to kill Lilith was some special  object. I'd really been hoping there would be a spell or a convenient  weakness I could exploit instead being forced to spend probably a  million points to make something that would only work on one fucking  person. Still, I'd done more than just find out a direction for my new  weapon design, more importantly I'd confirmed the information I had  about Lilith (sparse as it was) and even gotten some more.

Now  that I knew what had killed her I could give Zee a starting point for  her research. The events in the journal had either been way before most  recorded history, absurdly vague, or done by secretive underground  societies, who, incidentally, kept really shitty records or didn't tent  to share the ones they did keep.

With a tangible century,  hell, a decade, we could begin searching for information with more  parameters than "that vampire bitch who was old and existed at some  point". I'd also set the Van Helsings on the trail of their fated  nemesis, and therefore not me, and most likely on a crash course with  the Court, who I suspected had never been planning to actually look for  or try to stop them unless they got in the way of Mary's sacrifice.

Making  a mental note to have Silver smuggle a bomb into their headquarters  when I had a chance, I considered the Court from all angles, trying to  guess what game they might be playing from context. Tamlin might know,  but he was clearly scared to talk about it. It had something to do with  Lilith, and somehow the Fear host, the last of which I knew of had been  Frankenstein of all people. I didn't have enough information yet.

I  called Zee, and once she picked up I filled her in on what I'd learned.  She seemed interested in the Templar stuff, so I assumed it would help,  and surprisingly had good news. "Actually the map turned up several  necromantic hotspots. Cross referencing with area helped narrow it down  slightly, though not by much, since at least half of those spots  originated in Metropolis and had no connection to the undead. Still,  five or ten spots is better than 'any part of the city' as a heading."

Couldn't  argue that. "Alright. Hit me with the list. I have a few ideas for how I  can get in and poke around." I wanted to make an item to disguise me as  a vampire, and I'd be bringing Sindara with me. Between us we should be  impressive enough as 'undead' not to get fucked with too much. I wanted  to use Magnus, but since Mary hadn't found Lilith yet there wouldn't be  a familiar scent to follow. He'd definitely help out later when we  dealt with the redhead but for the moment investigation was the best  move.

Since Lilith wasn't actually awake yet (I'd been  assured that we would fucking notice if she was) nothing down there  should be a threat, but I'd be packing some of my vampire killing gear  just in case. With Sindara in tow, I drove to the first of the locations  Zee had ferreted out that was most likely related to old Gotham. Aside  from the considerations stated before, I also needed to find a place  with an underground component, which narrowed it down a bit more, but  not as much as I'd have liked. Necromancers loved underground spaces  sadly.

My living lich cuddled  against me as we got out of the car, her face excited. Since her  transformation to an E ranker Sindara wasn't striped anymore, so she  could easily walk around town without drawing too much attention. I said  too much because she was still hot as fuck, even as a chalk white goth  girl. Her aristocratic features and pitch black hair complemented her  startlingly blue eyes (and lips) perfectly. "Oh, master. I'm so excited.  I've been cooped up at the hall since we got here, except for that  stuffy meeting." She pouted at me, and I just smiled.

Sindy  was a spoiled princess, but she was also extremely fascinated with  everything outside her old home. I'd been forced to keep her confined  except a few outings since we got here, since I was too busy to escort  her around and even with her power her literal ZERO familiarity with  this world was likely to get her accidentally murdered or kidnapped.  Since I was here though, I'd let her enjoy her night out and get excited  about seeing new things. I'd probably fuck her later too. That  vibrating cunt was like crack to me.

As  we approached a massive dilapidated looking mausoleum, Sindy was  staring excitedly at it like she was looking at a beach in Bora Bora. I  gave her an affectionate smack on the ass. "Alright, I'm here and we  aren't going to make the mistake of going down there without scouting  the area. Go explore for a bit while I look around, but stay close and  call if you need me."

"Oh  thank you master." She squealed, kissing me roughly and darting off. I  was expecting her to look inside a crypt or something, since there were a  bunch, but instead she darted out, leaping up onto a headstone and spun  gleefully like a dancer. She leapt across to another tombstone, her  body whirling as she flipped in the air, and as her hands dragged the  space lower the the ground I saw her PULL, and the spectral blue form of  a ghost manifested under her fingers.

She  danced there, among the tombstones, calling spirits back from their  graves. Ten, twenty, a hundred, before long ghosts filled the graveyard.  The dance she'd been doing across the tombstones, had taken to the air,  and she whirled and flung herself across the ghosts themselves, dancing  on the surface of a sea of ectoplasm. The ghosts strobed and warped in  one big mass, and as I watched, they began to change. Not in shape, but  color. The hundred ghosts became an almost solid mass of ectoplasm, and  memories began to play across the surface, showing scenes from their  lives.

I  gaped at the sight. Ok...I may have been slightly underestimating what  an E ranked necromancer was capable of in a graveyard full of death  energy. Hold shit. I said to explore but I figured she'd crawl around in  some coffins or something, I hadn't expected her to manifest a  spiritual TV and watch the greatest hits of all of the dead here. As I  watched my living lich dance across the surface of a sea of spectral  memory, I smiled widely to myself.

I'd  really picked up a treasure in Sindy. I was too blase about what my E  ranked girls could do. When I'd been E ranked I'd been a total monster,  and of course they had more to them than just strength or power. Sindy  in particular had been overlooked when I focused too much on the other  girls, but that was stupid. The beauty of the Greed system is that I had  a tool for every occasion.

Sindy  was my tool for dealing with the dead, and I'd make sure use her  thoroughly. She was watching the spectral sea of memory as she danced,  but I saw her flick her eyes to me several times. Her legs spread wide  with her leaps, her chest thrusting out. She was performing for me as  much as she was exploring, and I enjoyed it. This powerful creature  putting on a show for me.

In  the end her dance finished after twenty or so minutes. She leapt across  the distance at me and I caught her easily as the spectral sea  dissolved into brilliant light. She was breathing hard, and I realized  she DID breathe, which I supposed was what made her a LIVING lich. I  smirked down at her. "Did you enjoy yourself?"

She  purred and nuzzled into me. "Did YOU enjoy me master? I saw so much,  learned so much from the spirit convocation, but I was watching you too.  Did I please you?"

I  snickered at that. "A bit. But don't worry. You'll please me plenty  more tonight after we get home. That said, you did a more thorough  exploration than I intended. I was going to look around myself and let  you play, but that seemed like more than just a quick peek. I know my  little lich wouldn't waste such an opportunity for her master. Did you  find anything out about this place?"

While  magic itself wasn't corporeal, what Sindy did had been more of a ritual  construct than a spell. I'd appraised that sea of spirits, and I knew  it had been much deeper than catching a few images. A spirit convocation  was a means of learning, of harvesting knowledge from the dead, and I  was sure that while she had almost definitely learned some regular  everyday things that would be useful, there was no way she wouldn't have  focused on knowledge related to our task.

Sure  enough, she beamed at me happily. "Master knows me best. Of course I  did. The spirits have explored this place in the time since the cities  joined. Below is Bleakhallow depths, and within them is a large castle  populated by powerful undead. Mostly specters, but there are some  vampires as well. The depths didn't exist before the merge, they simply came about when the city became stronger, so they aren't too familiar with the inhabitants. They should be made up of things that were here before though, so Lilith might be down there. Still only the dead can enter. "

I'd  expected that at some point. I was covered. My mask had been altered to allow me to pass as a master vampire. The Plutonic Veil was a powerful  divine artifact, and while it wouldn't MAKE me a vampire, it could  easily give me the appearance of one. It wouldn't work on someone like  Mary, but the chances of running into her down here were low. Vampires  were rabid ruthless fucks, and showing up in a castle full of them while  wounded was a good way for her to get her ass eaten, and not in a fun  way.

"Well  then." I said charmingly, holding out an elbow. "Lead the way then. You  can be my guide while we're here." Her eyes lit up at that (literally,  they started glowing like three times brighter) and I could tell she was  thrilled. Sindara had an inferiority complex about being from a small  town. Seeing Brightedge, Amethyst, this world in general, had made her  even more self-conscious about not knowing more of the world.

With  her spirit convocation though, she would be the one who could show me  around and tell me about this place, and she was so enthusiastic she was  almost bouncing. She dragged me to the mausoleum and pushed the door  open, flicking a finger lazily and igniting the torches along the edges  of the walls with an eerie blue flame. There was a pulse of energy, and a  grinding sound, and the coffin in the middle of the mausoleum began to  shift aside, revealing a stone stairway leading down into the earth.

Huh,  ok that would have been annoying to find. Even with appraisal I'd have  had to waste a bunch of time looking at each part of the mausoleum  before I found it. As a treat for being useful I jerked Sindara's head  up and kissed those pretty blue lips roughly, dragging a moan out of her  before pulling back and nipping at her lip. She stared up at me in  infatuation, but I just nodded to the stairway.

She  swallowed hard, eyes clearing of the lust that had been burning in  them, and led me to the steps. As we descended, I looked out over a vast  plain of black grass. The whole place looked like some medieval  kingdom, except rather than stars above there was a series of glowing  blue crystals embedded in the ceiling near us, high above the distant  ground. Off in the distance I saw the castle that Sindy had mentioned  and I grinned. I didn't know if this was the place, but even if it  wasn't, I had a feeling this trip wouldn't be boring.