#arc6

[olga-wifi]

Arc 6 chapter 39

[warlockofmelancholy]

WE'RE SO BACK! (Sorry for being late 😅)

[sanctuaryoftheodd]

Raina Memories: Homemade Goods

It was too long ago for me to remember clearly, but I think I might have been 4 or 5. I was living in a small community out in the boonies. It was a town literally built in a forest, the houses and buildings occupying the tiny clearings in the flora. The trees reached so high in the sky, that they say the canopy served as a napping place for Marduk himself. Of course, this was a myth.

I lived in my mom's bakery. I have fond memories of good ol' "Homemade Goods." I was too young to help out my mom with her work, so she was always busy during working hours.

"I can help the next in line!" My mother shouted.

A cockatrice stepped up. She scratched cobblestone below her feet as she pointed her eyes firmly into the ground so as to not turn my mother into stone. She dropped a basket that she was holding in her beak. "Cobblecrust bread with seed paste filling, please."

"One cobblecrust coming up!" She pulls out a loaf of bread literally made of rock and drops it in the cockatrice's little basket. A mechanical ting plays signifying that the payment went through.

"Thank you!" She said gleefully. She starts to stare at her meal, turning a little bit of the rock into bread which she takes a big bite out of. She pushes her basket along as she unstones more of her treat.

"Thaank yoou!" I said. This was the only way I could contribute back then.

"Next in line, please!"

A kitsune walked up on all fours. His golden coat was so beautiful. He had 5 tails, all waving rhythmically behind him. "A rat, please."

My mom was already reaching for the rat shaped bread before he even asked. This was the concession we made because he kept asking for rats. This was better than incurring his pranks. After the ting suggesting the transaction was made, the rat bread was tossed into the air where the fox leapt up and snatched it. He ran off with it in his mouth.

We could see in the distance that a faceless gangly fellow was watching us from behind a tree. Mom noticed him. "That slender person better get in line if he wants some bread." She said it loud enough for him to hear.

He took the hint and timidly slinked into the back of the line, peeking out from behind a large ogre.

After a while, we closed up for the day. Mom took my hand as we went into town. She already had to cook all day, so we ate out a lot for dinner.

The air was crisp, much more clean than it was in the big cities. The dirt below our feet crunched as we stepped on the foliage of the forest. Every breath brought an earthy smell to my nose. It was a nostalgic memory. Houses and businesses were spread pretty far apart so mom and I would get plenty of walking in.

"What would you like for dinner, Rain?"

"Bloody Mary!" I said excitedly.

She chuckled "Of course!"

"Yay!"

We approached a rundown stand that stood alone in an alcove just off from the main road. The area was surrounded by outdoor seating and bushy tall grass. There was a small path carved out from the wear and tear of foot traffic. There were about 6 families around eating, but we thankfully got there late enough to not have to deal with a line.

The sign above was so worn you couldn't even see the name anymore. There was no one running the register, nor was there even a register. All that was in front of us was a mirror that stood against the opposite wall. This was typical. No one knew what kind of monster ran this place, we may never know.

Some say an invisible woman was magically bound to this tiny shack, forever forced to cook for strangers.

Some say there is a civilization of people so small you can't see them from the naked eye, and they needed our money to pay their national debts.

Some say it was just a glitch in the universe that just really loves cooking.

If you wanted a meal, you had to follow a routine: leave ʞ1000 on the counter, close your eyes, say Bloody Mary 3 times, then look into the mirror, and you'll see that food will be in suddenly in front of you.

The food was always the same: omurice, with plenty of ketchup. Mine had a little chibi drawing of my face on it.

"Thank you, Mary!" Three knocks could be heard from the counter in response.

We sat down at a free table and I dug right in using my magic plastic fork and knife. Mom was a bit more slow and meticulous with her food, so I was done right away. My plate, fork, and knife vanished in a cloud of mana and I started people watching to kill time. I saw a family of bunnies with horns sticking out of their heads.

"Mommy, bunny deer!"

"Those are Jackalopes. They must be traveling through here."

"Do you think they'll let me pet them?"

"No, they are strangers, it would be rude to ask."

I continued watching. I saw a family of half humans and half deer walking down the main "road."

"They look like humans! But they are not!"

"Those are Fauns. They are the Darby family, they opened up that tailor trailer down the road."

"They are monsters? But they look like us!"

"Yes, they are monsters that are partially related to humans."

Then a family of yettis passed by. They huffed as they flapped fans to cool off in the non-arctic temperatures. I would spot many other different kinds of monsters while my mom finished her omurice.

The sun was going down when we left the food stall. We walked down the road hand and hand.

"The monster kingdom has so many monsters! It's so cool!" I exclaimed.

"That is correct! Creatures of all shapes and sizes live here. That is something so magical about this world we live in." She said with a smile. "Diversity. Many creatures living in har-" Then it caught my mother's eyes and froze. She quickly tried to shield me from the sight of it, but it was too late.

On the side of our bakery was graffiti that read "APES GO HOME!"

"I uh..." Mom was stunned silent. She quickly ushered me into the shop.

A few minutes later, she came out with a can of paint to cover it up. I watched from the upper floor window, peeking out in a way so she couldn't see me watching her. If she had noticed me, she never called me out.

Eventually she climbed up the stairs to the living area. I quickly got out of the window and plopped myself into the bed. Mom didn't say a word, she simply changed her clothes and climbed into the bed next to me.

The roof had a sky view, which allowed us to look at the stars peeking through the canopy. On more jovial nights, we would give the stars names and give them stories. However, tonight, mom just laid there, staring up in the sky, not saying a single word.

I began to fear that maybe I had done something. "Mom, I'm sorry."

"You didn't do anything, neither of us did."

"Mommy, why do they hate us?"

"We're different." She said.

"But, everyone is different."

"Yeah, but we're different, but others feel we're too different."

"Why would they feel that way?"

"I don't know Raina. It makes no sense to me either."

It would be years before I understood. The monsters hated us because they believed we were humans, and the humans hated us because of the color of our skin. Either one of those groups could have left that graffiti. Not that it mattered who because it impacted us all the same.

While people in both groups have been accepting towards us, there would always be those "otherings." Stereotypes, dog whistles, little microaggressions that make you feel like you were different, like you were the exception to the crowd. People like to pretend we are an enlightened multiverse and bigotry is entirely the result of "bad eggs," but that just made people complacent of the hatred brewing underneath. They failed to realize that it had tainted every ounce of the culture. It’s woven so tightly, that they don’t even notice it among the threads, but we do. We saw it everyday.

"Don't worry about it, Rain. I'll always be there to protect you." She rolled her head over towards me to give me a little smile, which eased my worries a bit. I smiled back at her.

We both looked back up into the sky "The Rachel star is twinkling." I said. "Maybe she's happy?"

"I wonder if that guy that liked her finally confessed?"

"Micheal star isn't THAT brave." We both laughed.

We were silent for a bit, before mom gave another suggestion. "Maybe Rachel realized she wasn't alone in space." She said as she pulled me into a hug.

I liked that answer. "Yeah, maybe that's it." I hugged her back.

She held each other as we continued to peer up to the heavens above.

However, our mother/daughter moment was interrupted by footsteps in the dirt outside. We looked at each other, and then we carefully looked out the window. We saw a man in a full suit with a briefcase. He looked up, and our eyes met. He had a stern gaze that gave me chills down my spine. It was a man I had seen many times before, a man that wasn't welcome at this bakery. I quickly retreated to our bed.

"Raina, stay up here and don't come down. I'll ward him off."

I nodded and my mom climbed down the stairs.

A minute or so later I could hear my mom and the man arguing outside. I could hear my name being shouted many times through the window. However, I wasn't courageous enough to try to listen more closely. I just stayed in my bed, hiding under the covers, hoping that it would end soon.

-----

Arc 7: More than a Month Later

[sanctuaryoftheodd]

Nameless and the Barbarian

Hello again, and thank you for joining me for yet another tale about the Nameless Hero.

Wait... ooh! We have an audience today! What a pleasant surprise! Did mother send you my direction?

Well in that case, allow me to introduce myself: my name is Hekatos and I'll be your storyteller! Please, sit down, get your favorite snack as I tell you a story about my progeny.

My son had just gotten done in the Kingdom of Knowledge, advancing his education like a good spawn and bedding their princess in the process.

Now he was visiting a random planet, another stop in his adventures as a very dangerous vagabond. He was sitting over the edge of the highest cliff face, looking over the land, brooding about how unfair life was. How people he saved and slept with hundreds of years ago were already dead by now. It was super angst-inducing that people I kinda sort of cared about kept dying on him. This was one of the rare caveats of being perfect in every way. (A perfection I played a big hand in, by the way.)

However, his thoughts of death and loss were interrupted by cries in the distance. He could see a wagon under siege of bandits.

"I better go do my thing." He said as he dramatically leapt from the cliff face. He had no fear of gravity. Right now, it was in his way of being a badass hero. "I need to be as fast as light!"

His body transforms into light particles, instantly appearing just outside the bandit encirclement. He pulls out his two guns: Bam Bam and Whip, and prepares to do some killing.

However, I was interrupted by a sudden charge of a barbarian in a leather loincloth. He leapt into the fray, killing several bandits with a single swing of his blade. His RIPPED muscles bulged with every single death blow. I could probably cut meat off those rock hard abs and he wouldn't even feel it. Hell, that meat would probably turn into vegetables when paired up against his pure testosterone. It was the sexiest thing I've ever seen.

I'm straight by the way. And so is my son. He's indifferent in seeing this. He likes girls, right? He nods. See! He nodded!

Speaking of my son, he joins in, covering the slab of meat of a man, taking out any bandits that happened to escape his swings. Eventually between the two of them, they kill every single bandit. The people in the wagon come out and celebrate, hugging, crying, and cheering for their two heroes.

"You're pretty damn good with that gun, stranger." Said the barbarian.

"You're pretty damn good with those muscles." My son said back.

"Name's Beefcake." He said.

I couldn't help but smirk. He couldn't have had a better name. My son introduces himself. "I don't have a name."

"Name or not, you helped rescue these people. That makes you a good person in my book!"

The pair shake hands in an awesome kind of way, a way that makes all those watching quiver at the pure manliness on display. I'm even experiencing a shiver down my spine. A very heterosexual shiver!

The pair escort the family to a village. It was a humble little town in the middle of a mud pit. I wouldn't exactly build a summer home here but... actually yeah, there is no "but" I seriously won't build a summer home here.

"This is my home." Said Beefcake. "You are always welcome here, my friend."

"Much obliged." Life may be pointless, but my son at least knew when to be polite.

He introduced him to the whole town, and they were quite eager to have another hero with them.

Later that night, there was a feast to welcome the Nameless Hero. Beefcake walks up to him as he's chowing down on some fire roast meat like an apex predator. He had a scrawny boy by his side.

"I'd like you to meet my son, Toothpick."

"H-hi! I-it's a pleasure to meet you!" He said, meekly shaking my son's hand. He was a far cry from his father in strength and courage.

"I'm quite proud of my son. The village leader is training to take his position someday."

"He's not following in your footsteps?"

"No, and I don't want him to. A true warrior fights so the ones he loves don't have to."

"Aint that the truth." Says the village leader. "This planet is lawless and dangerous, but as long as we have Beefcake protecting us, we'll always be safe."

The villagers eat, drink, and celebrate late into the night.

Hours later as everyone was heading to bed, my son saw his new barbarian friend standing alone. He was on top of a hill overlooking the valley. He joined him by his side.

He looks startled at first, but quickly calms down. "Oh, it's just you stranger."

"Do you come here to think?" My boy asked.

"Oh yes. I like it up here. It helps clear my head."

"I can understand that. High up places are so peaceful."

"You really get me, stranger." He said. "All the carnage, all the bloodshed, all the fighting, it's all worth it for peaceful nights like this. If only it could last."

He looked longingly into the night. At that moment, he wasn't the violent sexy killing machine that was seen earlier in the day, but a concerned father and community man that just wanted the best for his people. I can definitely respect that.

Nameless pulls out his gun and shoots Beefcake in the back of the head. He falls lifelessly to the ground, his blood pooling in the dirt below. Then my son turned on the spot and went back to the guest hut without a word. It was a shame to deprive the multiverse of a hunk like that, but it had to be done.

The next morning, the villagers find the body of their hero. They carry his corpse into the middle of town as everyone weeps at a fallen hero.

"The bandits must have sniped him in the middle of the night." Said the village leader.

"How are we going to survive?"

"We're doomed!"

The people start to panic, but that's when Nameless calls out. "Don't worry, you have a hero, and his name is Toothpick!"

Everyone looked confused, but no one was more confused than the stick himself. "Me?"

"It's time for you to step up and be a man."

"But, father said I didn't need to fight to be a man, that being a good leader was its own battle."

Everyone around us nodded in agreement.

"Well, he's not around anymore, so the responsibility falls on you." Everyone loves a good underdog story.

"...I don't have a choice, do I?"

"No you don't." Nameless affirms as he tugs Toothpick along.

What follows is an epic training montage. He makes him run steps, lift large bags of wheat, and makes him nearly drown in the river. He was weak. It was almost like he wasn't specifically training for this job in the slightest.

After a whole day of training, he was on his back, panting heavily and sore all over. He had sprained an ankle and dislocated his arm. Somehow, training all day when you've never trained before has made him MORE weak by the end of it.

Suddenly, a man runs in. "Heroes! Bandits are coming from the west!"

"Ah, good, there is no better training than the battlefield." My son says.

"You expect me to fight like this?!?" Responded Toothpick exasperated.

"No time like the present!" Nameless dragged him along in the direction of the bandits.

He ran for a long time, dragging the kid behind him. He was bumping into large protruding rocks all the way there. They finally reach the bandits. There was a group of 20 in front of him. They notice him, shocked that a team of two people would suddenly ambush them. He lifted up toothpick and planted him on his feet.

"Alright, it's all you kid. Knock 'em dead!"

He sighed. "I'm joining you soon, father." Toothpick limped, holding a scimitar in his only free hand. Against all odds he was still brave and resolute like a hero should. This is how it should be.

The bandits, finally coming out of their stupor, immediately charge him, hacking him to bloody bits right in front of Nameless. Blood and limbs flying everywhere, painting the ground red.

"Oh, well crap." He said.

I was honestly confused. Usually his resolve would have given him the strength he needed to beat the impossible odds. That's how all the stories went, ya know?

After Toothpick had been reduced into a pile of mush, the bandits turned their attention to my son. Shaking out of his shock, he pulls out his guns and springs into action. He shot, he clubbed, until every last bandit was dead.

He reported back to the village.

"While I appreciate you killing the bandits, I still mourn the loss of Toothpick." Many of the villagers bowed their heads in solace.

"He died a hero in battle."

"Is his body still there? We would like to bury him."

"Uh... no, he's not there. The bandits took it."

"That's a shame."

There was a long silence among everyone.

"Well, I best be off!" Exclaimed Nameless.

"Uh wait!" The village leader said. "I hate to ask this of you hero, but can you stay with us for a while?"

"I'm sorry, but there are many others out there in need of my help."

"Uh, WE need your help! We are without a hero! We're one bandit attack away from being completely wiped out!"

"Don't worry, as long as you believe in yourselves truly in your hearts you will always be protected!"

He left them on that. They were clearly stunned silent from the pure wisdom of his words. He walked off into the sunset towards a new adventure.

[sanctuaryoftheodd]

Lore Dump: Immortality

Death is a part of life.

We all die, we all cease to exist. You can make yourself as unkillable as possible, but even the undying have weaknesses.

It is true that when gods ascend, the very first thing their omnipotence tells them is that even they will die one day. It doesn't tell them when, just that it's an inevitability. For those who sought godhood to avoid death, this is kind of a huge blow to the ego. The worst thing of all was that it was all true, and they all died in the end. Even my life came to an end.

Stories have been told of immortal people, beings that could survive anything. The most prevalent tale is the one of the Void Swordswoman, someone so unkillable that she could even survive the deadly cut of the Void Sword. However, that legend comes from the War of Gods, and many odd tall tales originated from that era. There's even stories about a duo of thieves that would steal entire planets and stories about a light beast that could hold a black hole like it were a basketball. A lot of it was too ridiculous to be accepted as fact.

Multiverse B was the era of the inevitable. There's no going back when you've literally seen the creators of literally everything get bodied. With the carnage of the Divine Rush, "Everything Dies" has practically become the motto of the young multiverse.

At least, this WAS a generally accepted fact. The arrival of Nameless changed all that.

Somehow, Hekatos cracked the code, he found a way to achieve true immortality, and he unleashed it on an unsuspecting Multiverse B. Like, one day there's this random emo gunman wandering from town to town, shrugging off literally everything anyone fired at him. Bullets, magic, everything passed through him like it didn't even matter. Not even a point blank full blast from a void cannon was enough to take him out. At first people denied the stories as hoaxes, but as more and more videos made their way to the internet, it became harder and harder to deny.

This would spark the imaginations of people all over. Something that was so out of reach was now obtainable, and people would go very far to try to accomplish what Hekatos did. Sadly, this included genetic and magical experimentation on babies and the like. So many failed experiments. So many horror stories. So many mutilated babies. Those who survived never came close to achieving the ultimate goal and would find them left for dead in a cruel multiverse that feared them.

18-years-ago there was a twist of fate: the one called Nameless was found lying in a field, completely unresponsive and missing her hands and feet. She was immediately carted into a science lab where she was experimented on and analyzed. However, the deeper people looked the more nothing about the Anomaly made any sense. The magical coding was so comically complicated that not even the most talented spellwriters could make heads or tails of it. And studying her body just raised so many questions.

Many in the scientific field have given up on this case. They excuse it as one long joke Hekatos is playing on their multiverse. They believe that Nameless was dropped in this world entirely to shake up the status quo, to make things more messy than they needed to be. The growing apathy was the opportunity the Anomaly needed to escape her confinement.

While I believe that there was some truth behind Hekatos trolling the multiverse, that's only like 20% the truth. Knowing him as much as I do, I know better than anyone the real reason he made Anne immortal: he simply didn't want anything to happen to his child. I guess it's a fear all us parents share.

Well, that's all I have to say on that subject! I guess this was a short one! Thanks for joining me- huh? Oh! I have a visitor! "Hello there new... comer... oh no."

"Hello." Faceless was standing before me.

"What are you doing here?"

"Altering fate."

He suddenly popped out of existence and reappeared in front of me. He had turned his robot arm into a sword and tried to cut me with it, but I caught it with the tips of my fingers. It sent a shockwave that threw my furniture around.

"Finefeather house, battle mode!" I shouted.

"BATTLE MODE INITIATING" My cozy little home suddenly transformed into a platform floating in the middle of nothing. The multiverses serve as a backdrop to our skirmish.

"One v. One, final destination, no items?" I joked. "What do you even intend to gain from this?"

"As I said, to change my fate."

He disappeared again and reappeared a greater distance from me. His arm was now a cannon which had fully charged up while he was gone. He fired a giant burst of plasma my direction. I simply flicked my wrist and the ball of energy was cast into the nothing.

"This is pointless." I stated. "I'm literally the storyteller, the story can't exist without me."

"I have my own voice, I can tell my own story."

He turned his arm into a large spike. He made it vibrate and stabbed it into the ground. It started to shake the whole arena, creating a large earthquake. I simply floated in the air.

"You think just because you have your own voice, you're just as important as me? You have a hard lesson to learn my friend."

I raise my arms into a cross and just sat there. Seizing the opportunity, he detached his arm and launched a spike right at me. I didn't even dodge this time. It pierced my body clean through, leaving behind a giant hole in my stomach. My body began to fade, and thus reality started to unravel.

Nameless watched in horror as the multiverses disappear from view in the distance. "No! No!"

"Enjoy being alone forever." As I died.

The platform crumbled beneath our feet as I faded from existence. Nameless was alone floating in nothingness. He couldn't feel, there was nothing TO feel. There was only him and the endless nothing.

Years past. Then hundreds of years. Then thousands of years. Tens of thousands. Hundreds of thousands. Millions.

I don't know how long it took him, but eventually his mind had completely gone. His body was merely an object, floating in a place where objects never existed.

...okay, I think that's enough.

Faceless gasped for breath, he was on his hands and knees. We were back on the platform, and I was no longer dead.

"Wha-what happened? Was all that real?"

"Yes, I died, everything disappeared, and you spent forever floating in the nothing."

"But, we're back here..."

"Yes, because I brought us back here. I undid the damage you done. I had to make you understand before the end, I can't die before my time. At least not without consequences. You're far from the first person to attempt this."

"I see... I have miscalculated."

"No, you are a miscalculation. I'm going to end this." I brandish my void sword and approached him. It sizzled and burned in my hand, but I didn't care.

"You won't kill me. Berry Blitzkrieg is castrated. I'm the only one that can sufficiently challenge Anne. You need me."

"Hahaha, I wouldn't mind just writing hundred of chapters of slice-of-life stuff to be honest. Plus anyways, I can just make a new villain if I need one." I explained. "Besides, you're dangerous. You'll just find another way to alter the timeline. You'll just be trouble for me going forward."

I raise my blade to strike him down. He didn't even wince, just gave a look of quiet resignation. Suddenly someone appeared in front of me and caught my wrist.

"Mother no!" It was Hekatos.

"What are you doing here?"

"I sensed you were killed, I came as quickly as I could. Look, you can't kill him!"

"Why not?"

"Only Anne is in the position to judge him."

Faceless saw his opportunity. He scrambled to his feet and ran out the door. With my opportunity lost, I sheathed my sword.

"I hope I don't regret this." I mumbled.

"I'll make sure that you don't." He smiled at me, reassuringly.

-----

[sanctuaryoftheodd]

Chapter 37: The King of Berry Blitzkrieg

I am King Irrevicus Sunshine, and today we are holding an execution.

A crowd had formed to watch. They had their phones out ready as my men stood by with void cannons at hand.

From atop my royal seat, I address the guilty parties. "Dr. Schneiden and Spellwriter Magie, you stand guilty for conspiracy to usurp the throne. I declare your lives forfeit. Do you have any final words?"

The spellwriter remained silent, her head hanging low. The doctor however, chose to speak up.

"Everything I've done was for the future of our Kingdom. We could have had an immortal Queen, one that could guide us into the future! I think you can understand that better than anyone, your highness." He said with a knowing smirk.

This caused confused murmurs across the yard from the onlookers. I didn't say a single word in response and just gave the signal. The men fired their void cannons, igniting the two with their own magic before their bodies burned away right before our eyes.

I knew all too well what he meant. I've actually known for a long time of my wife's treachery which is why I had my puppet silently kill her. I only kept Bon Bon around as a back-up in case my plans go south, but she's been nothing but a liability. We wasted so much money on her appearance, which turned out to just be a long game ploy to deceive me. She picked a fight with the dragons getting countless knights killed. Worst of all, she released the vampire from her contract, and now she's joined and strengthened our enemies. All these failures on top of the leak to the press is what sealed her fate.

I admit, I share part of the blame. If I had been more directly involved in her development growing up, things could have turned out better. Not to mention I should have sent a second team to destroy the buildings in Langweilig. Thanks to that failure, our informant tells us that they are getting closer and closer to finding out the secrets of the town, which could end badly for our plans if they manage to reach the right ears. Doesn't help that the Adelaide is right there below that thing. It was as if fate itself was working against us.

I should have listened when our informant warned us about the Adelaide. I could have prevented the deaths of Grand Mage Guldar, Sir Gunner, and that weird martial arts freak. But who would have believed that a family line that's been extinct for hundreds of years would still have descendants? Regardless, we need to be cautious how we handle things going forward. We are not out of the game yet, but we need to be careful not to cause anymore setbacks.

The crowd watching the execution cleared out. I get up to leave. However, as soon as I depart from the podium, I'm swiftly approached by one of my assistants. "Your highness! We have a problem!"

"Huh? What is it now?"

"The Handlers are cutting us off!"

"WHAT?!"

A little bit later, I got a call with my liaison in The Handlers.

"Your highness, how pleasant of you to call." He said, a hint of scorn in his voice.

"Cut the bullcrap! What's this about you cutting us off?"

"It's exactly as you've heard. We're disassociating with Berry Blitzkrieg entirely."

"We've been trading partners since we left homeworld. Do you really plan to destroy a bridge that has been standing for centuries?"

"It was you that did so. I'm sending over some files."

A bunch of notifications popped up on my royal phone. He sent me pictures. Pictures of a matter mill that was found in the former town of Langweilig. And I immediately knew what the problem was. "Listen, uh, look, it was a Chaos Rangers mill, the monster merchants, don't tell me you care about what happens with their property."

"Matter vials is a very delicate market. If the technology to make them got out, EVERYONE will have it! It could ruin all of us. You're lucky it was the Chaos Rangers that reclaimed it."

"What?!" The Chaos Rangers, in Sanctuary?!? This was bad, that would fortify their hold on the land. Wait no, I have bigger problems right now! "Hold on, we just needed some extra vials for the war effort."

"Well, you should have come to us to provide you with a mill and workers."

"No, that location was very classified. We couldn't send outsiders in."

"Well, if you're so self-sufficient to keep secrets from your closest allies, then I'm certain you can get by without us. Farewell, your highness."

"Wait!" But they were gone. I tried to recall them, but my number was officially blocked. I slumped in my chair. This was the final nail in the coffin for Berry Blitzkrieg. By the time we recover from this, Marduk, or some other monster will ascend and it'll be over.

Our kingdom was founded when we fled Sarpanit, or what we used to call it: Earth. We originally colonized it because it was a vacant alternate Earth that was ripe for the taking, but it had an unfortunate infestation of monsters. After thousands of years of war with the creatures, they won and wanted to make peace. The humans that desired peace stayed while the ones that wanted revenge fled. Some that left joined the humans from the many many different versions of Earth that survived the war of gods, but us, we formed Berry Blitzkrieg. We kept the aesthetics of our knights of armor ancestors alive to the modern day, and we planned our revenge against the monsters who thought they deserved to break bread with us all those years ago.

We spent eons, spreading hate for monsters across the stars, killing their royalty, imprisoning their kind. The monsters in turn started hating us again. This is evidence that they couldn't be trusted. All it took was us turning everyone against them for them to start hating us again. Where was their kindness now?

But despite all that effort, despite all the sacrifice, we dropped the ball at the end. I let out a heavy sigh. We only have one hope left.

"And that hope is me."

It was him. My puppet. My informant. My son. Or at least, a shadow of him. He must have appeared from the dark corner of my office.

He glared down on me, his eyes were sharp. For most people, the face you see when he looks at you is the one he wants you to see. However, as one of his three progenitors, I'm one of the few that can see his true face and hear his true voice. Seeing it again made a shiver spread across my spine.

"I assume you heard everything just now."

"Yes."

"I'm sorry, we'll have to leave everything up to you."

"As it was always meant to be."

"Yes, that is clear now." I said, a bit of weight to my voice. "It's clear destiny is on your side."

"No, my defeat was written in the stars trillions of years ago. Destiny has other plans for me."

"Then, what do you plan to do?"

He smiled at me, but it wasn't a smile that inspired ease of mind. No, that smile was an omen, a promise of something horrible to come.

"All I have to do is change fate." He said, as if it were the easiest thing in the world.

And with that he was gone. His shadow dissipated, melting into the shade that existed in the corners of the hall. He was the only one that could turn things around. He held the future of Berry Blitzkrieg, no, of humanity in his hands. The hidden invincible prince.Only Faceless can save us now.

[sanctuaryoftheodd]

Chapter 36: Bon Bon Goes to War

Today was a momentous occasion! Finally the invasion of the Veil of Dragons!

The kingdom tried to contact me a dozen times the past 2 weeks, many times leaving irate voice messages about my brain size, but even that couldn't bring me down from this high! 3 years of waiting has come to this and I couldn't wait! I’ll certainly show them all today!

All the ships have gathered in the upper atmosphere of the Odd. They have all fallen into formation with my flagship. The cannons were charged up, the soldiers were primed. I start a livestream that connects me to every ship and their crew. It was time to make my rousing speech.

"Men, this will be our finest hour! We'll finally be able to deliver the Veil of Dragons to our kingdom, to our families! The whole kingdom will feast on draconian flesh and they will be proud of us! We are the light that keeps the kingdom's flame lit! We are the knights of righteousness! The sword that will stab at the heart of wickedness! We are the last line of defense of humanity, and all that our species stands for! We will RETAKE our homeworld! We are Berry Blitzkrieg!"

I could hear my knights shouting over their cameras and I bathed in their adoration for a moment. "Now then, LET'S FIGHT!"

On my command, we fly towards the veil with my ship in back. Every one of us was practically GLOWING. We are going to win this!

It wouldn't even take an hour to reach the edge of the Veil. We could already see the magical barrier up ahead. I've been explained many times about the barrier. Whenever someone passes through it, all dragons are notified and they immediately know the newcomer's intent. I didn't care, because we have Castle Class Void Cannons!

We all know about handheld void cannons. Despite being named after the Void Sword, it's not actually made of void, but it was more named after the sword's killing power. One blast from a cannon is enough to instantly cause a normal person to max out their magic and immolate instantly. However, the dragons have thought of that and deviously increased their size to the point that a single handheld cannon isn't enough.

That's why we have the Castle Class ones! Void Cannons so big that you need a battlecruiser to transport it and fire it. With all our cannons charged up, we'll have an unpleasant surprise for the dragons that show up to defend their turf.Suddenly, there is a notification on my phone. At a time like this? I checked it. It was a message on Mutter.

Suddenly there was a crash and the entire ship was rocked. And then there was another from the other side. And then there was another.

"We're being attacked on all sides by dragons!"

"We haven't even cleared the veil yet!" I shouted.

"I guess they couldn't wait..."

"Fire the Void Cannons!" I ordered.

"But your highness! They are so close to the flagship, they'll hit us!"

Messages were coming from the other ships. "Dragons attacking us! They are too close to aim our cannons at! What do we do?"

"Princess! Marduk on our front bow!"

"What?!?!"

Low and behold, Marduk was right in front of our ship, his whole body right up against the glass. I could see every inch of his iconic sun scorched body. His glowing yellow eyes were glaring down directly at me. I could feel a chill down my spine as his judging glare pierced my soul.

Then, with one swipe of his claw, we were sent spiraling. We were all being thrown around in the chaos. That's when I lost consciousness.

I didn't know how long I had been out, but when I woke up, I wasn't alone. I was on solid ground, laying on a tarp. I look around me and find hundreds of bodies on tarps. I couldn't tell if they were alive or dead from here.

Some knights were nearby, talking with each other. They finally noticed that I was awake.

"Ah, Bon Bon, you're awake. Let me help you up."

Did he just call me by my first name? "It's disrespectful not to call me by my title."

"Sorry, Former Princess Bon Bon." He said with a sneer.

"Wha, what are you-"

He pulled me up by the shoulder, it ached under his grip. Then he dragged me in front of a bunch of other knights. Among them was a stereotypical wizard type. He opened up his wand and started to look between me and his screen.

"It's true, she has a ton of spells in place that hide her appearance." He said.

"What about eye color?" A knight asked.

"It's going to take a while to sort through them. I'll just delete a bunch of them and see if that does the trick."

"Wait... don't..." I barely let out a whimper in defense, but before my eyes, the wizard just started deleting coding at random.

A few painful seconds of that, the knight looked me directly in the eyes. "It's true, she was faking her eye color to match the king's. She's not really his daughter!"

"Wha-what?" I cried out. "Of course I am! I-I've changed my appearance over the years this is true, but I've always been-"

"No, you see, Bon Bon," started one of the knights, "A newspaper the other day revealed concrete evidence that your mother had been sleeping around. The king has disowned you. You are no longer heir to the kingdom. We are only finding out about it now because we violated your radio silence to call for help a while ago."

"What? But, this can't be..."

"He decided to let us decide your fate, because it was your stupid livestream that clued the dragons into our plans."

"What should we do with her?"

"Let's put her in the stretcher!"

"No, let's boil her alive."

"Death is too good for her. Let's exile her to the Odd." He looked at me smugly. "Let's deprive her of her precious flushing toilets. That'll be a greater torture for the likes of her than anything we could do."

The knights all yell out in agreement. I couldn't believe what I was hearing.

"But... you can't..."

The knight knelt down, his face inches from my face. The smell of his breath invaded my nostrils. "I can, and I plan to." Then he stepped back and punched me in the side of the head with a gauntlet fist. The force of it knocked me into a daze as the knights hurled insults at me. I was dropped into the dirt and I quickly crawled towards the edge of the encampment, the knights yelling at me, spitting on me and occasionally kicking me. I was so dazed from the pain that I failed to realize that the edge of the camp was the side of a steep hill. It only took one swift kick from one of the knights to send me tumbling down it, their laughter rang out into the night.

I found myself in a tiny stream only a few inches deep. I had rolled all the way down into a gully of some kind. My whole body ached, a felt gross, dazed. Shakily, I climbed to my feet, stumbling a bit. I held my head, which still ached from being punched earlier, I pull my hand back to realize that I was apparently bleeding. This was only the beginning. This was only my first day in hell.

[owcraft-blog]

Arc6 Gingerpop talks about the Overwatch League and Competitive | EP 4 of OWCraft Podcast