Greed God chapter 174

April 3rd 2016 Brightedge City 10:00 PM EDT

Amy  and I fought for hours. I'd gone into it pretty confident, and I had  done well enough. I learned fast because of the leftover enhancements  from the blood of Apophis which helped make up for the steep learning  curve. Still, it was far from a curb stomp. Amy was pretty much at the  peak of D rank. Since the Amethyst bloodline was considered the  strongest in Gemworld, that wasn't a shock, but she was also much better  trained and far more used to her powers.

My own abilities  were fairly instinctive, but that wasn't always a benefit. I tended to  get caught in feints easier than I should, even if I also tended to  shrug them off when they hit. The work I'd done on learning to resist my  draconic impulses was definitely worthwhile, because I'd managed to  avoid getting smashed a couple times by doing just that. Still, all in  all I was a powerhouse, my indomitable physical and magical power was  just the direct sort and it matched up badly against Amy's nearly  flawless crowd control and massive wellspring of sorcerous energy.

After  a few hours, we finally called the constant battles to a stop. Weirdly,  my warrior princess was extremely affectionate and turned on by how  long we'd been able to go, and her incredibly affectionate treatment  made her offer to come up to her room after this enticing as hell, but  sadly I had other things to do at the moment. I leaned down and pulled  her into a hungry kiss as she plastered herself against me, pulling away  reluctantly and with a small smile. "Hold that thought love. I have  some things to take care of before bed, but I'll definitely be there."

Her  pout was sexy as hell when combined with her flushed cheeks and dilated  pupils. "Fine. But you have an hour or I'm dragging Emerald out of  Barbara's room and we're starting without you. If you show up late we'll  just make you sit there and watch." She gave me a saucy wink and strode  out of the room, a little extra sway in her hips as I enjoyed that  mental image. I absolutely wouldn't have just sat and watched, but it  wouldn't matter. I hadn't been lying, I did have something I needed to  do, and it wouldn't take too long.

Looking down at the  mirror that I had used to see the results of my upgrade, I ran my eyes  over it slowly. I'd noticed that reflection weirdness again, though it  was much more subtle this time. Still, it caught my attention, and I was  damned sure going to find out what it meant. Luckily this particular  mirror was special, and I'd selected it for this exact purpose. I gave  it a quick appraisal.

[Appraisal function  activated. Treasure detected. Eye of Oberon-E rank. A mystical mirror  given to Titania by her king and consort. Allows the user to perceive  secrets both distant and closeby, and peer to the heart of a matter.]

That  was vague, but vague wasn't a bad thing in this context. Most E ranked  items were vague in my experience. Secrets was close enough that I  should be able to use if for my purposes. Something was wrong with my  reflection. It was difficult to pin down, being incredibly subtle most  of the time, but I'd checked multiple mirrors and they weren't the  issue. This one should be just what I needed to get to the bottom of  things. Closing my eyes, I reached for my magic, for the primal force  that thrummed in my veins, and I pushed some of it into the mirror as I  cast my consciousness into it, searching for the secret behind my  reflection's oddities.

"FINALLY!" I jumped, eyes snapping  open in a large ornate room with every conceivable amenity. The voice  that had jerked me out of my reveries was behind me, and I spun to take  in the owner of the familiar tone, only to see...me. Well. Sort of me.  He was taller, and thinner, and weirdly much paler. His features seemed a  bit more aristocratic(mine were more masculine, probably from the  dragon blood) and his eyes were an unnaturally bright shade of green.  Still, this was definitely me. "It took you long enough."

I  raised an eyebrow at other me. "Well, sorry the weird ghost in my  reflection wasn't a priority. I've had women to fuck, cities to conquer,  you know, fun stuff." I looked around in interest. "What is this place  by the way? Some kind of section of my subconscious you've managed to  co-opt for yourself? Also, addendum, who the fuck are you and why are  you inside my brain you asshole?" I suspected it was like, my id or  something. Maybe some side effect of the Greed System.

To  my surprise, that got a snort from other me. "I'm you, asshole. Or at  least, what you were supposed to be. Also we aren't in your brain, we're  in your soul. I'm the reason the Sun King recognized you, as well as a  few other oddities you've gone through. I was SUPPOSED to be part of you  actually. Your other half. Sadly, that didn't end up happening. The  Greed System cannibalized our fairy powers to jump start itself.  Probably for the best though, otherwise it would have just killed us  like most of the others."

THAT brought me up short.  "Wait...what? Killed us? Also, I'm half fairy? Wait, is that why I don't  really have some of my emotions?" That explained...weirdly a lot,  actually. Fairies were known to be pretty much completely self involved  and were manipulative sociopaths by nature. The emotions I DID have were  probably from my human half, but it made sense it would only be the  ones that were compatible. "Ok, start from the top asshole. You're  really bad at telling stories."

Other me rolled his eyes.  "Fine. As you may have guessed, we were born half human and half fae. We  were ALSO born with the Greed System. Crassus was an ancestor on dads  side, and we got our fae heritage from mom. The greed system consumed  our fae powers to implant and start itself. As for killing us, yes. It  killed several of the hosts. Crassus was probably some kind of  supernatural and didn't know it. Maybe a demigod, based on when and  where he lived. Regardless he most likely never KNEW that, because it  isn't something most people notice happening."

Well, at  least Crassus wasn't hiding some shit like that on purpose. That begged  the obvious question though. "How the actual fuck are you still around  then? I assume it's not usual for fragments to be left, or else Crassus  would have probably talked to his."

"Nope." Other me said  smugly. "That's all us. Our fae side has a knack for mirror magic. Mom  was a scary bitch, and I was able to instinctively shunt part of myself  away. I ended up here, and have spent most of our life as a fragment,  watching you waste our existence on booze and parties. Not that I didn't  find your antics amusing, but the fae part of us that got cannibalized  had most of your ambition. If the Greed System wasn't pushing you to  want things I suspect you would probably still be lazing around in a  hedonistic blur."

I could definitely see how that might  have worked. "Ok. Fair enough. But it also begs the question...why? Why  reach out to me. Like, I'm not giving you my body, obviously, and  integrating you at this point seems way too risky. Are you really  content to just sit here inside my soul for eternity? Is this some fairy  trick to get out? Because I'm not an idiot, I'm not making any deals  with you. Assuming you even had the power to manage them after being  cannibalized by the Greed System."

To my surprise, Other  me just shrugged. "I'm not in a hurry. Fae don't really experience  boredom like other races. We're basically eternal, and we can be  patient. I AM interested in getting out, but lucky for us, I don't need  to take your body to do it. With the Greed System, you can just merge me  into a prepared corpse at some point. Like I said, no rush, but I DO  have information that you don't, and I'll need an agreement to get me  out of here before I give you any of it."

That was less  awful than expected, but it kind of made sense. Eternal life and all.  "I'm assuming you want me to make you a powerful fae body? I'm  not...completely against idea if I get the chance. But your information  would have to be valuable." I also really wanted this fucking thing out  of me. Even if it used to be part of me, it wasn't now, and I absolutely  didn't want it living in my fucking spirit or wherever it was hiding.  Giving it it's own body was a win win for me.

Other me  gave me a scathing look. "I'm not exactly thrilled to be trapped in some  malformed abomination either. Plus I dislike all the sentiment. You're  getting so attached to your women. It's gross. Between your draconic  instincts and the possessive pull you feel from the Greed System you  might as well be writing love songs in here." He shuddered theatrically,  which I didn't appreciate, and I flipped him off.

"Fuck  you." I said flatly. "I care about whats mine. If that's a problem for  your broken ass, you can eat a dick. You're a shattered fragment of an  alien half of a hybrid psyche. Your opinion means less than nothing to  me. I'm not against making you a new body, though I'll be building in  safeguards so you don't try to like...kill me with it or something. That  said, your timing is going to be relevant. I assume you agreed to wait  so you could get a more powerful form? This is, of course, all  contingent on you telling me something useful, which I'm not convinced  you can. How would you even know anything?"

He shrugged.  "I know some things. Instinctive information if you will. I might be a  fragment, but I still have parts of our native magic. It comes with some  small bits of understanding. Some of it was mom actually. The version  of her that was summoned to this plane seduced dad because she was  pretty sure he could help her escape, and we were the tool designed to  help her do that. Sucks for her the Greed System completely ruined her  plans. Personally I'm not broken up about not being a brainwashed fairy  sleeper agent."

That one made me wince. "Ouch. Yeah,  bullet dodged. You mentioned mom before though. The fairy thing I get,  but who is she exactly? If the Sun King knew her she must be old as  dirt. I assume that's why he recognized us, and what you meant when you  said it was because of you?" I had to admit I was a bit curious. Dad  had...well, not raved, dad didn't rave, but his recollections of mom had  been much fonder than I'd heard him speak of anyone. Though the vessel  thing explained how she had died in childbirth. I wondered who had  summoned her originally and why.

Other me grinned,  exposing creepily sharp teeth I hadn't noticed before. "Oh that was one  of the few bits of programming that survived the consumption of our  powers. I think she really wanted us to know that, probably because it  would be impossible to do the mission otherwise. You'll have to do your  own research on her, since I have no clue what the name means, only the  implanted understanding of how terrifying she is. When you get a chance,  stop by Shadowcrest with Zatanna and check the library. You're looking  for any mention of Tsaritsa. The might behind the mirror."