Greed God chapter 147

March 23rd 2016 Gemworld 10:00 AM EDT

It  was time. We'd been keeping a weather eye on The Empty Door for days,  and starting yesterday they'd begun making 'subtle' preparations for a  conflict. Buying up supplies, reinforcing structures, clearing out  dependents. All really obvious shit that anyone would read into, and  which everyone naturally ignored because people are stupid and don't pay  attention to anything that isn't right in their face. Still, it had  been plenty of time to get prepared, and I'd even converted a few other  gang members Sindara and Gioto had managed to isolate for me with the  chalice, after I'd vetted them of course.

I'd gained a few  thousand points, then spent even more, and I was sitting at pretty much  exactly two million now. I wasn't worried, given the valuable shit we  were going to be stealing I'd be more than topped up soon, even given  the absurd amount of points I would have to spend for my big move once I  got back to Gotham. In the meantime, I'd at least put together a few  necessary and versatile G-rank tools for upcoming heist.

[Appraisal  function activated. Treasure detected. Relentless rope- G rank. An  extremely tough length of rope that can extend of contract as the user  sees fit. A perfect tool for a thief on the move when face with entering  or exiting from a great height.]

[Appraisal  function activated. Treasure detected. False flag decoy- G rank. A  small doll that takes on the image of its owner and escapes in the  opposite direction, drawing away pursuers. Lasts approximately an hour  and will be reduced to scraps if damaged, but otherwise  indistinguishable from a real person through most means of magical  detection.]

[Appraisal function  activated. Treasure detected. Ignorance draught- G rank. A bottle of  spray perfume that creates an overwhelming impression of boredom or  dismissal in anyone who smells it, causing them to ignore the wearer  barring any legitimate reason to pay attention. Loses effectiveness if  the wearer makes direct contact either physically or through  interaction.]

[Appraisal function  activated. Treasure detected. Boots of springheel Jack- G rank. A pair  of boots that absorb falling impact perfectly. Useful for escapes and  evasion, side effect of muffling footsteps absorbed while walking.]

[Appraisal  function activated. Treasure detected. Portable window- G rank. A  window frame that can be set against a wall and opened, creating a  temporary opening that till vanish once the window is closed and  removed. Does not function properly on warded barriers.]

There  were a few more situational objects, but for the most part that was my  entire kit. It was a series of the most diverse and useful items I could  put together, and with all of that gear and Cherry's Hand of Glory I  was pretty sure we were as prepared as we could be. I'd even considered  upgrading my blonde thief, but I decided against it in the end. In case  anything went wrong I wanted that nest egg as a backup to get us out of  trouble.

Getting everything together and slipping it into  the pouch was easy. Once we did I waited for our last two team members.  They'd been commanded to come find me around this time, because I wanted  them out of the way when the fighting started. Once we got outside it  only took a few minutes for the two of them to show up. I was easily  able to perceive them, but I decided not to interrupt Sindara as she did  a flying tackle from my blindspot so she could wrap her legs around me  and lean down to kiss me senseless.

I laughed against her  mouth and flipped her over my shoulder, making sure she landed on her  feet, giggling the entire time at being manhandled so easily. Zee looked  annoyed at the attention I was giving her, and I made a note to  introduce them. Zee was pretty amenable to other girls, and I was pretty  sure fucking the vibrating sex doll and the magical soul pussy at the  same time would be the best three some of my life. That was definitely  on my bucket list, not that I planned to die anytime soon.

Gioto  stepped from the shadows quietly, giving me a low bow, and I nodded my  approval. Little guy knew his place. I reached into a pocket and pulled  out a pair of small packages, handing them over to the two newcomers.  "Put these on. You'll need them for what comes next." They took the  packages, opening them up to reveal a pair of thin plastic masks that  looked more like skin than any sort of disguise. At my urging they  placed them against their faces.

There was a slight shift  in the masks as they clung to their faces and began to reshape, altering  their appearance the same way ours had been altered. The masks were  both H-rank, so they weren't as advanced as ours, but they weren't  coming with us to the palace anyway. Once they had the masks on I looked  them over critically and nodded. "Good." I said approvingly. "That  should be good enough. Now I want you both to get the hell out of the  city before shit goes down." I passed them each a map. "I marked a  location for you each to wait for pickup. They aren't the same location,  in case one of you decides to try to figure out some way to screw me  over. Which, by the way, DON'T."

That last bit was an  order, and I saw them notice it, but despite a small pout from Sindy,  neither of them bitched. They knew I didn't trust them yet. Why would I?  Setting up separate meeting points had the dual benefits of separating  them so if one of them went rogue I didn't lose the other, and making  sure that whoever DID try to turn on me would be obvious because of  which meeting place was compromised. I'd even taken the liberty of  merging in some cipher texts and a blood drop for each map, so only the  owner could read it, not that I'd tell them that.

They  both made their way out of the city, and I turned to the girls.  "Alright. That's that handled, seems like its time to take up position  at our stakeout point." I'd identified the best spot to wait for things  to break out. Finding a specific location near enough to the palace to  make reaching it without running into trouble easy, but without being in  anyones territory or in the path of any guard deployments, had been  challenging, but I had some time to kill.

We posted up on  the veranda of a house about three blocks from the palace, and  overhanging balcony that gave us a solid view of everything nearby. I  pulled out a bottle of wine as we relaxed on the chairs and poured a few  glasses, dripping a single drop of blood into the two I poured for the  girls to make sure they were topped up. The surge of riotous green  energy that pulsed through the wine as the blood was subsumed was easy  to miss unless you were looking for it, but I could see trails of the  color flashing through it when I was paying attention, even seconds  later. It was an interesting sight.

The girls of course  had zero compunction about draining the glasses, though given the lack  of hurry they took their time. We all stared out into the sunshine  peacefully as we waited. Based on the speed and urgency of the  preparations I was fairly certain that the attack would be coming early  in the day rather than at night, which I was fine with, despite being  more comfortable with nighttime shenanigans on the whole.

The  upside to a daytime heist was pretty simple. It was the same as the  downside. People. We could run around all over the place and as long as  we seemed like we belonged no one would question it. Especially with an  attack imminent, no one would have time to try to question a few  servants as the city was being assaulted. I had even managed to procure  us a few uniforms to really sell it, though we had covered them in  cloaks at the moment so we didn't draw too much attention sitting out  here not doing anything.

Finally, staring out into the  streets, I started to see signs of motion. Shadowy figures darting this  way and that, and I smiled. I stood up, looking at the girls. "Time to  go to work ladies." We dropped our cloaks and slipped down from the  veranda via the built in staircase and headed for the palace. Since the  attack hadn't commenced yet no one even noticed us walking by. We  weren't in a restricted or classified area so even the basic distraction  of the assault wasn't needed to keep them from bothering with us,  though I was confident it would be available by the time it was.

As  we approached the entrance to the palace proper, I had to fight back a  grimace. The building was a massive dark stone edifice, boxy and  utilitarian as the rest of the capital, albeit more edgy and imposing.  Seeing it from a distance hadn't done it justice really, as up close I  could see the rough hewn blocks and sharp angles. Realistically, that  was a case of aesthetic dominating function, because smooth walls would  have been much harder to scale. It just went to show how much of an  edgelord Dark Opal was. Aside from having big fat mommy milkers, my  future mother-in-law was also obviously superior in terms of maintaining  morale, though I doubted Dark Opal would see that as a benefit. More  fool him.

The  entryway was made up of a winding path constructed of fairly uniform  gravel, strung between a pair of expansive lawns with unusually dark  grass that basically hummed with magic. I imagine stepping on them would  do something unpleasant, though I was hardly anxious to find out. At  the junction of the relatively tall wall separating the lawns from the  rest of the streets and the path, there sat a single squat guardhouse,  with a pair of large intimidating men standing on either side of it.

When  we approached, one of the guards stepped forward to stop us. "Halt!" We  did. "What are you lot doing out of the palace at this time of morning?  Breakfast just finished, and the servants should be helping clear the  table settings." He asked it more like he was hoping for some hot gossip  than like he was actually suspicious, a bit of malice in the tone, but  only enough to spice up his hum-drum day.

Most  people try their best to be boring to guards, and we would do the same  with the Ignorance Draught once we got inside, but walking past the  guards without anyone noticing would in itself have been a pretty  suspicious thing to do, especially before a big ruckus. In this  particular instance the better play was to give the man an interesting  story to chew on. Being a guard was boring most of the time, and hearing  about some sordid affair was bound to put him in a decent mood.

I  pulled Zee against me by the waist, affecting a proud smirk. "Just  stepping out to the market to get some herbs for my woman. I put a baby  in her nigh on a week ago, and she's already feeling the sickness." I  lowered my voice. "Trying to avoid notice though, she's got one of the  nobles turning his head with those fat tits of hers, and we're worried  he'd make some trouble if he finds out about the baby before we can get  one of us transferred to another wing of the palace." I shot them a wink  before nodding at Cherry. "Don't worry though, the steward sent a  minder along with us, apparently breeding my girl means I can't be  trusted not to hike up her skirt as soon as we're out of sight." I shot a  meaningful glance at Zee's plunging neckline, very exposed in the  servant's dress. "Though maybe he had the right of it."

The  guard laughed at that, his eyes gleaming at the salacious details.  Bored people love drama. He opened his mouth to either rib me about it  or allow us to pass when there was a loud boom in the distance. The  ground shook as a column of blood red flame rose up over a building not  four streets over, stealing all the attention from us with perfect  timing. The guards both turned to stare and my girls and I slipped past  as one of them ran for a mirror hanging in the guardhouse to call it in.  As we receded into the distance I produced a bottle full of dull grey  liquid and spritzed us all, appling the Ignorance Draught. The heist had  begun.