Greed God chapter 196

April 7th 2016 Brightedge City, The Perigrinator's Club, 9:30 PM EDT

The  shock and fear on all their faces was kind of hilarious. Of course, the  moment was slightly undercut by one of the Talons handing me a plate of  lamb and potatoes to replace the one I'd lost. I considered being  annoyed, but found I didn't give enough of a fuck to bother, and just  picked up a lamb shank and bit into the juicy meat. It was fucking  delicous, of course, and I groaned slightly in enjoyment.

Every  other person in the place aside from Siegfried, who was asking that  same Talon to bring HIM more lamb, was stunned into silence. I finished  gnawing the lamb off my first bone and dropped it on the plate. "Well?" I  said imperiously. "We can't have a meeting without a table. Ms. St.  Cloud, if you could have this mess cleaned up so we can get back to our  discussion that would be the most expedient method of resuming  negotiations, don't you think?"

I'd slipped out of  character a bit when I was blowing up the Fright Knight, but I doubted  anyone had noticed or even remembered after I vomited a ball of green  gold fire that had turned into a still fading column of flame. I was  actually a bit concerned about that, so I turned to Siegfried. "If I  might ask, do you know why the flames are doing that? Because it wasn't  something I did on purpose."

The immortal warrior  chuckled. "It's a grave marker. They happen when particularly powerful  spirits are destroyed. It shouldn't have too much effect on the city in  the short term. The aura of destruction might draw in ghosts, but I'd  expect it to take some time to settle. Think of it as a natural  phenomena denoting the loss of a fundamental force. That spirit was most  likely the embodiment of some minor concept from which he drew his  power."

I hadn't really expected killing a summon to have  such profound effects, but thinking of it that kind of made sense. When I  merged things they became real and part of the world. Wouldn't Fear  Constructs work the same, ascending to become more and more powerful  beings with real impact on the planet? I wondered what exactly the  Fright Knight had been the ghost of.

Still, now wasn't the  time for that, I moved back, letting the Talons flip the table back  over and clean up. The fucking summoner was here somewhere, but I had  literally no method of telling who they were. Despite being  substantially more limited in scope, being completely dependent on  outside forces had the distinct advantage of being much harder to track  down. Whoever it was though, I was guessing losing something as scary as  the Fright Knight was going to hurt.

Based on my  observation the Fear System most likely slowly accumulated power into  its constructs rather than dumping it in all at once. The Fright Knight  was probably right at the cusp of advancing to C rank, which would have  been a bitch to deal with. The Hob, in comparison, had most likely just  entered D rank, and was therefore MUCH weaker than I was. The range of  power per rank widened every step I took it seemed, and the gulf between  upper and lower D rank was substantial.

Siegfried walked  over to where I was standing as the girls approached. I nodded to the  warrior, who was now also gnawing on a lamb shank. "Siegfried. These are  my women. Strega, Sindara, and Cherry." I'd left Barbie at home despite  being E rank herself, because I didn't feel like keeping track of what  she was supposed to be to me with the mask on. She'd been sulky, but not  too torn up about it since she would be spending time with Donna.

Cherry  of course had been thrilled to be brought along. She'd been mostly busy  trying to reestablish her old connections since we'd gotten back, and  had been feeling a bit ignored. I grabbed my little blonde specter  around the waist and pulled her against me, with Sindy on my other arm.  Strega staid back, content to wait for me to give her attention. She and  I weren't as close as I was with the other girls, and her deference was  more of respect and gratitude than the adoration I got from my other  two girls.

Siegfried chuckled. "You're a brave man,  brother. To entangle yourself with such powerful women, not once but  multiple times. These beauties are certainly powerful." He raised an  eyebrow at Cherry. "In fact, this one seems to be some manner of spirit  herself. A shame we destroyed the other one, she may have benefited from  the remnants of his power."

I cursed because I hadn't  thought of that. The pillar of fire was mostly faded now, and sure  enough there was absolutely jack shit left of the Fright Knight. At  least, his body and armor. "That's a good point. Cherry, come on, let's  see if we can get you some souvenirs from this." I pulled my little  ghost along with me, leaving Sindara to wait for us with on an quick  slap on the ass, enjoying the squeak from my living lich.

Surprisingly,  the Fright Knight's glowing green broadsword was thrust into the floor,  visible through the flame as it faded. Knowing my own fire wouldn't  hurt me, I walked over and reached in to grasp the blade. My hand  slipped right through the hilt. I frowned. Fucking ghost sword was  intangible. Of course. Reaching out with my connection to my Primal  Force, I dispersed the fire. The ground around the sword was warped and  cracked in a circle, but the blade itself was undamaged.

Cherry  looked excited. "I can feel the power in this thing daddy." She said  breathlessly. "I want it." Her voice was hungry as she stared at the  still glowing sword. Interested to see what could make her so excited, I  went ahead and appraised the thing. Curious what it was.

[Appraisal  function activated. Treasure detected. Soulshredder- D rank. A blade of  nightmare crystallized from fear upon the death of its wielder and  forged in the primal fires of creation to attain true existence.]

My  eyes widened. That was...wow. That was new. The sword had been a  construct, had been a creation of the Fear System. When the Fright  Knight had died, something about the powers unleashed and that grave  marker thing had reforged the sword. I suspected the Fright Knight  himself burning up in the flames had helped, given the nature of the  sword as a fear focus, but regardless of the reason, this thing wasn't a  construct anymore. It was real.

That was a huge deal.  Don't look at someone like me and assume D rankers were easy to create.  To put it in context you could create a whole city at C rank. Making a D  rank weapon with no points by accident was crazy. I made a mental note  not to randomly spit powerful alchemical concoctions at dangerous ghosts  without any preparations in the future. I was pretty lucky the sword  was the only thing to come out of it.

Still, I nodded to  Cherry, allowing her to reach out and pick the thing up. When she  grasped the hilt, her eyes flashed green. My Wraithborne Brigand was  still F ranked actually, rather than the E of the other girls, but I  hadn't found the right item to merge her with. The sword  was...interesting. I might consider merging her with the weapon if she  wanted. As a D ranked artifact it would even her out to E, but I  suspected she'd rather wait and merge with it at D rank to make the most  of the thing.

Still, she was extremely happy with the  blade, holding it against herself and cooing happily. Sindy stepped up  next to us, pouting. "Not fair she gets presents." Said my living lich. I  grinned at her, pulling her against me for a hard kiss. She purred,  wriggling against me. I hadn't had a chance to try out that high rank  opal pussy yet, and considered doing it now, but sadly we were in the  middle of something.

I swatted her on the ass. "Be good,  and I'll give you a different kind of sword later tonight. From what  I've seen you'll enjoy that more anyway." She smirked at me, and backed  off as expected. Siegfried looked amused at the byplay. "Sorry about  that Sieg. Gotta keep my ladies happy, you know?"

He  snickered. "My Gudrun has long since moved on from this world, but well  do I remember such necessities. Think nothing of it brother." He took  another bote of lamb. "I must say, I am certainly glad I was sent on  this outing. It has been most entertaining. I trust we will be able to  secure a strong foothold for Checkmate in the city, and your payment of  depleted promethium will be well earned."

"Of course." I  said smugly. "I always live up to my bargains. As is the way of our  people. I admit to being excited about the delivery of the promethium.  It will be most useful." It would give me a ton of points most likely,  plus the material itself would be a good base for merges. I could outfit  my people with some nice gear. More than my people really, I could  probably outfit all of PENGUIN'S people with gear, given the sheer  volume of the stuff I'd be getting my hands on.

Once the  Talons finished setting everything up, we all sat down again, and  discussions on how to distribute the city were open again. Naturally,  people began lobbying for their old territories, or at least the  equivalent of them in Brightedge. However, the possible ramifications of  what I could do had clearly been on everyone's mind. Sal Maroney was  the first to directly address it, as he turned to me. "Mr. Mammon. I was  hoping to discuss an alliance of sorts. You seem incredibly strong,  perhaps we could hire you to act as gaurantor for some of our  businesses?"

Trust the mobster to try to rope me in with a  protection racket. But I didn't mind, it was a solid idea actually. It  would essentially put the Maroney family under my control, but without  forcing them to lose their reputation or damaging their interests. Of  course, who knew what the Maroney's were even able to hold onto in the  next city, but they had manpower, and I was sure that could be some kind  of benefit.

I smiled widely. "I think that would be  acceptable, yes. Perhaps we can discuss the terms of service at a later  time. But I am more than willing to make an appearance at your  businesses should someone attempt to make trouble. I already have such  an arrangement with Mr. Cobblepot, after all. " No sooner had I said  that then I was inundated with excited offers from the other crime  families.

Penguin was a power in the city, but I knew that  his rapid expansion during the first night of the merge had been a bit  of a mystery to everyone. With the girls and I helping, he'd made a  powerful impression. Not everyone would have the sources to hear about  my involvement, and even if Rampage had been mentioned that didn't mean  they knew the circumstances of our battle.

I smiled widely  as the numerous powerful people attempted to lobby me for protection  and slowly began to converge under my banner. Granted, I still had a  long way to go to take the whole city, but this was a hell of a first  step. Regardless, I had to continue at this pace. With the arrival of  the Fear System host, I was officially starting to worry something was  brewing. I'd had a bad feeling for a while now, and this only confirmed  that worry. My thumbs were pricking, and if I didn't figure out why I  wasn't sure I'd survive the next few months.