The Fusionist Book 5 -- Chapter 8

Chapter 8

Who is this monster?

Obeying the indirect order, Vanders gestured toward two of the other Martials that were part of the “welcoming committee” to pick up the heavily damaged body of the Supreme Provider, a title that Borex had adopted only the month before. Unfortunately for the Berserker, even his great Strength stat wasn’t enough to break free from whatever this frightening person did to him.

Which brought him to the worst part of the entire situation. Vanders, in all his years in the SIC, had absolutely no idea what it was that the man carrying the unconscious Provider had done. While he wasn’t a Mage, he’d worked with them enough over the last decade to know that what he saw was unlike anything he’d seen before; it was possible that it was the result of some sort of new spell, but what disabused him of that notion was how quickly it was cast. The glowing blue plate of what felt like pure power appeared so fast that there was absolutely no way that even the most powerful Mages could’ve cast it, as it was basically instant – which was impossible, as far as he knew. He’d seen some of the greatest Mages in the SIC cast something in a half-second or slightly faster, especially spells that they had cast thousands of times before, but he couldn’t see any sign of preparation or casting from the monster who had a stare that frightened him more than he wanted to admit.

It had even frightened the Supreme Provider, though Borex had ensured that not many saw him flinch when that gaze was turned his way. As soon as Vanders saw that, he immediately knew that this person wasn’t someone he wanted to mess with. The fact that the stranger had also mentioned the starving people who were watching the entire confrontation, as well as calling Borex a pitiful excuse for a leader, only served to strengthen that conviction. Still, when his commander ordered him to attack and kill this person, his duty took over and he nearly followed through with the order – and was glad that he hadn’t.

He just wished that the stubborn hotheadedness of the Supreme Commander had been toned down just a little, because then he might not have ended up being looking like a hunk of meat that had been chewed on by a dragon.

“If I may ask, who exactly are you?”  Catching up to the man who boldly walked through the open gates of the city of Tarvada, Vanders cautiously tried to strike up a conversation. Despite the fact that he was obviously powerful in a way that the former SIC member didn’t exactly understand, he wasn’t exactly keen on allowing him the freedom to do whatever he wanted. His bold words notwithstanding, the monster had practically killed the Supreme Provider in a matter of seconds – a feat he never thought he would witness, as the Berserker was a force of nature all by himself. He’d seen him injured when fighting some of the powerful monsters the nearby Apertures endlessly spawned, but he’d never seen the man so utterly dominated without seemingly any effort on the part of this stranger.

It was that same strength that led him to follow the Supreme Provider in the first place. With the Kingdom of Androthe fractured and practically nonexistent due to the presence of the Five Calamities, a series of five Apertures so large that they could no longer be closed, only contained so that they didn’t grow any larger, the SIC had essentially been disbanded. The fact that anyone was surviving throughout the broken Kingdom was due to the heroic efforts of the Mages and Martials that banded together to protect thousands of pockets of uncontested land, which held the majority of towns and cities – and their people, of course.

Communication had broken down months ago, so it was up to these groups of powerful people to take charge and protect their own, utilizing their abilities to maintain the nearby Apertures so that they didn’t get any larger, as well as defending those that sought them out for safety. When Borex announced that he was stationing himself as the leader of the defense of Tarvada, Vanders had jumped at the chance to join his idol in protecting the people.

Protecting the weak and innocent was the core reason he loved the SIC, and joining with Borex and dozens of other like-minded Mages and Martials had seemed to be the best choice in a situation that continued to get worse and worse. At first, approximately a month and a half ago, their actions to protect the citizens of Tarvada had been exactly what Borex promised, as they went out and killed monsters while temporarily closing the nearby Apertures, while bringing back monster corpses to help feed the population. The few farms around the city were more than enough to feed the people with the supplemental monster meat, and everything seemed as if it was looking up.

At least, everything was going well until the fall of their sister city of Harvana to the north due to an Aperture expanding too close to the city, which caused them all to flee. Without another prospect near enough for most of those who fled to make the journey, they ended up flooding the city of Tarvada with their numbers, even expanding out in front of the walls with whatever shelter they could set up.

The first few days had been ones of shared supplies and mutual partnership, all designed to help the displaced refugees survive the abrupt move to a city that couldn’t even hold them all. After it quickly became obvious that they would quickly run out of food if they continued to feed everyone, Borex took charge and completely abandoned any type of structure that the SIC had instilled in them all by calling all the Mages and Martials under him “Providers”, with himself as the Supreme Provider. He also designated Vanders and another, a Mage named Fendra, as Grand Providers, working as his right and left hands, with the control and power that those positions granted them.

Which turned out to be quite substantial. With trade and communication completely cut off from every other town and city in the fractured Kingdom, the Providers had absolute control over the city – and its people. Being the only ones that could reliably hunt monsters for meat and rapidly grow food out in the farm fields, they held a position – and a personal power – that none of the citizens could refute. Being a Noble, if only a Baron’s son, this only felt natural and right, as it should be those with the power to rule over those that didn’t.

He felt that way all the way up to the point where the Supreme Provider made the decision to cut food rations to the refugees from Harvana to only a tenth of what they had received when they first arrived, with the justification that in order for more to survive, some would have to suffer. But that didn’t make sense when he saw how the original residents of Tarvada, especially those with Noble blood, always had the choicest picks of their available food and weren’t required to ration even the slightest. As for himself and the rest of the Providers, they were also well taken care of, since it was necessary for them to be at full strength to continue providing the food that the city needed to survive.

He had soon grown numb to the entreaties of the refugees wanting an equal share of the rations, not because he didn’t care, but because he had no power to change it. Even when at least half of the citizens of Tarvada had volunteered to go on half-rations so that the people outside the city could eat, Borex stubbornly refused to change his mind. Vanders had even gone so far as to propose some minor changes that would at least give some of the bounty they brought back to the city every day to the refugees, or even to allow some teams of prospective hunters leave the city and kill monsters on their own, but he still denied any leniency. “Do you want their deaths on your conscience when they don’t return from the vicinity of an Aperture, Vanders?” he had said. “Because I sure don’t; they must leave the killing of monsters to the Providers, as that is our job.”

It was an extremely short-sighted view of the situation, but Vanders couldn’t do anything but back down. He could only hope that something would change the Supreme Provider’s mind soon so that they wouldn’t have to witness the entirety of another city perish on their veritable doorstep.

The so-called Grand Provider had never thought that change of mind might come in the form of a powerful stranger who showed up out of nowhere one day.

“Oh? I apologize; where are my manners? The name’s Larek.” Larek slowed down a little bit, his long legs allowing him to stride further than Vanders, who only stood five feet tall – but he’d never felt so small next to someone before, not even Borex. There was just something about the powerful stranger that made him feel inherently dangerous, while there was also a sense of something familiar. If he wasn’t mistaken, Larek had the feeling that Vanders associated with being a Martial; with the displays of power he’d seen earlier, however, that seemed impossible. “So, tell me a little bit about the situation here in… what was the name of this city again?”

“Uh, it’s Tarvana,” Vanders responded, confused. He doesn’t know the name of this city? But I thought he said he was coming here to help us?

“Tarvana, huh? Alright, tell me about what has been happening here that led to thousands of people potentially starving to death out there.”

Still confused about what was going on, he hesitated for a few seconds before answering, but Larek didn’t hurry him. After he decided that it was generally common knowledge, he told the stranger about the events of the last month and a half, which was essentially when he and the Mages and Martials took over complete control of the city. He was just mentioning that they hadn’t had any recent contact with any other members of the now-defunct SIC when he was interrupted.

“Wait, what was that about the SIC? And you’ve had no communication with other towns or cities?”

Vanders gave the man a questioning glance before answering. “While I’m sure there might be pockets of the SIC that have managed to maintain their structure, with the Kingdom so fractured and basically nonexistent at this point, it’s all everyone can do just to survive. How do you not know this?”

Larek had a grim expression on his face, and the Grand Provider thought that he was fortunate that it wasn’t directed toward him. “I’ve been gone for a while. But now I’m back, and I have to help you all.” His tone didn’t seem to be happy about that last part for some reason.

“Why?”

The stranger looked at him. “Why what?”

“Why help us at all, if you aren’t looking to rule the city? Unless you’ve changed your mind?”

Larek shook his head. “No, I haven’t changed my mind. I have no desire to be put in charge of anyone.” He was silent for a few seconds as he walked along the busy street next to Vanders, which was being cleared of people ahead of them so that they could get through the crowds without any issue. It didn’t take much to do that, either, as everyone knew to get out of the way of the Providers when they were coming through. “As for why I’m helping you, it serves my own purposes.”

Uh-oh. That doesn’t sound good. “And what purposes are those?” Vanders asked lightly, hoping that they hadn’t just let a crazy psychopath into the city. He could only imagine what type of despicable acts might end up with people being better fed. Is he proposing to kill half the people so there are less mouths to feed? They wouldn’t be any starving people, after all. Or worse, is he intending to feed the well-fed ones to the starving refugees? Or just kill everyone so that no one has to worry about starving. He wasn’t sure if the stranger in their midst was powerful enough to do something like that, but he didn’t know enough to discount the possibility.

“Honestly, I’m just trying to go home,” the powerful man said a bit wistfully – completely at odds at how he sounded earlier. Vanders was confused enough that he didn’t know what to believe anymore. “But in order to do that, I need food for the journey for my companion and I, which I was hoping to get from here. Seeing those starving people outside, however, I knew I couldn’t just take what I need from here without hurting someone else.

“Therefore, the best solution I can come up with is to help create the food we need so that I don’t have all those people’s deaths on my conscience. As for making the nearby areas safer, that’s simply smart move; I need to travel through the Kingdom to reach my destination, so finding a way to clear the way helps me accomplish that.”

Vanders was frankly flabbergasted. He’s helping us… because he needs food for when he leaves? I thought he might be one of those selfless individuals who sees a problem and wants to help solve it because of some sense of righteousness or duty, but he just wants… supplies for a journey? How does that make any sense?

At least it sounded as if he wasn’t planning on murdering a bunch of people and making the others eat them.

Before he could ask the man any more questions, he saw the old SIC Headquarters up ahead, which had been transformed into the Provider’s Palace by Borex. It was a bit of a pretentious name, but at least it wasn’t gaudily decorated or anything; it essentially looked exactly the same, though everything referencing the SIC had been removed.

“Here we are,” Vanders told the stranger. “You can put your friend in here, and she’ll be well taken care of. What is wrong with her, anyway?”

“Oh, Nedira will be fine. She just passed out from a bit of healing after my Air Skimmer exploded, but she’ll be ravenous when she wakes. Speaking of that, I’m also going to need a meal before I get started, as that healing took a bit out of me, as well.”

“We should have some leftover lunch in the kitchens. It isn’t much, given how short the city is, but Borex always made sure the Providers had more than enough to eat.” For some reason, he couldn’t find it in himself to call the powerful Berserker by his title of Supreme Provider out loud. It was probably be because when he looked back at the Martials carrying injured-but-slowly-recovering man, he certainly didn’t look “Supreme” at the moment.

Vanders personally showed Larek to a recently cleaned bedroom where he could lay his friend down gently on a bed, before leading him down to the common room. A quick word to the kitchens had some leftover food brought out to the stranger, which the man consumed quickly, barely breathing as he seemed to inhale the pieces of steak and bread made from their generous allotment of wheat.

When he was done, Vanders sat down across from the intimidating man, and unconsciously tapped on the table. His nervous tic was something he thought he’d grown out of over the years, but somehow this man brought it back.

“So, what exactly are you going to do? How can you help? What’s your plan?” Vanders finally asked.

Before Larek could answer, the front door to the Provider’s Palace opened and an entourage of robed Mages stormed in, following another Mage at the front of the pack.

“That’s exactly what I want to know. What was your plan on allowing this man in here, my fellow Grand Provider, especially after what I heard he did to the Supreme Provider? Who is he, anyway, but a peasant off the street—good lord! Your clothes! What the fu—”

Vanders cut her off before his counterpart in the Providers could make the stranger angry. “Hello, Fendra. Sit down, if you would. We have a bit to discuss.”