Outrage of the Ancients

Temujin

At least someone was being polite about contacting him. No premature threats, no insults, just an ambassador walking up to a Mongolian Embassy and politely asking for a meeting with the lord of the house, so to speak.

Then, they’d had a conversation like reasonable men, and decided that the System was a far more pressing issue than just about everything else.

And after that, they’d worked out the basis for a reasonable deal.

Of course, immediately rolling over and offering an unconditional surrender in the event of war was the smart choice upon hearing that the indomitable force that was Genghis Khan had returned, as some Russian border towns had done.

Arguably, immediately going for aggression, puffing up to appear larger in the same a startled cat might make its fur stand on end, was also an understandable response to an “ancient enemy” returning. It was certainly how China and Russia had reacted.

But both those over- and under-reactions were just plain idiotic. He was a newcomer to this new world, and quite frankly, any knowledge they had of him was distorted by almost 800 years of historians’ interpretations, translations of likely already translated works, loss of original documents, and just generally the value shift that kind of time imposed.

He hadn’t known anything about the nations of today, and he wouldn’t have gone back on the relationships he’d had with their historical forebears anymore than he’d revived ancient Mongolian traditions once he’d ascended to Genghis Khan.

They could have had a good relationship with a resurgent Mongolian Empire.

But no, they’d reacted to him as if he were the inhuman monster their historians had turned him into. Their loss, literally. They’d lose to the System’s monsters, and then he’d take their lands. That simple.

However, this “Dietrich von Bern” character, he was smart. Or he had smart advisors. With monarchs who ascended to power purely based on their bloodline, you never knew. Though considering how high the requirements for returning seemed to be, it was likely the latter.

Plus, the information he had freely shared was invaluable. And dangerous. Making it known to everyone would have ended with people afraid to follow him, or even if they were following him, they might not be willing to come near him.

So, he couldn’t fight the second wave from his office. He’d never planned on doing so in the first place, but now, he knew there needed to be a greater distance between him and Ulaanbataar. Fifty kilometers should be enough, right?

Grinning ear to ear, Temujin reached out to the intercom to call Sarangerel so that she could arrange for things to be done. Gather horses and cars, guns and bows, bullets and arrows. Everything they’d need to be mobile and fight at range. The horde of today would be vastly different than that of 800 years ago, but it would be a horde nonetheless. A good one. Especially because almost everyone was literate nowadays.

Making orders rhyme so that they’d be easier to memorize had been a good stopgap, one that had worked solidly, but when even the lowest-ranked soldier was capable of reading, things were just easier. Now all that was needed was some more organization and preparation.

He’d be in charge overall, of course, but delegation was the only way to rule large groups.

So, he reached out to the infernal intercom-device, hoping to be able to use it properly this time around. He didn’t.

That device … how hard was it to build something that was easy to use?

He tried a couple more times, accidentally reached the kitchen one time and wound up ordering light meals and coffee for everyone he’d be making work late today, but that still wasn’t what he wanted.

Eventually, Temujin gave up and decided to sidestep the whole issue.

“Sarangerel, come in here with your phone,” he roared, pure volume meaning that she heard him from her office and came running. Ultimately, technology was just a tool. A very useful tool, but raw power could make up for lacking it.

***

Fionn

The more you knew, the more glaring any gaps in your knowledge were. And if you were occasionally nigh-omniscient, any surprises tended to be quite unpleasant. Either because they were themselves an issue, or because they highlighted something you’d completely missed, thereby highlighting a flaw in your planning, thinking, or just generally a way you’d messed up.

And right now, Fionn was feeling the consequences of having missed something quite dearly.

Fundamentally, his scrying ability had three major limitations.

Firstly, he couldn’t read minds. If a piece of information only existed in one person’s brain, it was beyond his reach, and only as it became shared would he be able to see it, though if it wasn’t written down anywhere, it’d have to spread very far.

And secondly, he needed to process what he was seeing. In theory, he could see literally everything that was occurring right in this moment, every leaf trembling, every bug dying or being born, even the tiniest gust of wind and well, everything overall. But for him to find things, they either needed to be significant enough to draw his attention, or he needed to look for them.

For the longest time, he’d thought those two were it.

But then, he’d woken up in the twenty-first century, discovering a third in the process. He couldn’t really see the System. He couldn’t see the metaphysical construct itself at all, he couldn’t predict anything was being made to happen using it or the Skills it provided, and he had a really hard time picking out the physical things it created. Monsters only showed up when he looked for them in a given situation, and people’s System-given strength was practically invisible unless was very close to them and focussing intensely to boot.

And this was a problem that had been hidden by all three limitations.

They’d noticed the monsters loved to go after the Fianna’s camp, of course they had. And they’d moved further out of the city to compensate for that.

But they hadn’t followed that idea far enough. Until a new piece of information had spread and caught his attention.

Monsters targeted ancients. They appeared near them, and moved in their direction if they were already present when an ancient entered their “range”. They might go after someone else if they were near the ancient, but the presence of someone like him determined the direction they went.

It was something he should have figured out himself, damnit. Because he could have, if he’d tried. Matching old legends with news reports to find “ancients,” simple. Find information on monster spawns and movements, tedious but possible. Then all he’d have had to do was “crunch the numbers” himself, or find someone qualified to do it for him.

But he’d never really had to do something like that, not really. A truth as vital as the nature of monster targets wasn’t something he’d have had to look for, its importance would have made it stand out, revealed it, let him pick up on it with ease.

So he’d missed it … until someone else had started stirring the pot, so to speak. Sending alarm bells ringing first in his own nation’s police force, then extending that chaos to the rest of the world mere hours later. Though it was the good kind of chaos, an upheaval that broke an old paradigm to allow for the establishment of a new one. Of course, old paradigm was one that had existed for not even three days, but that was fine.

Fionn felt he should have a talk with the young man who’d uncovered everything. And considering that he was even already heading towards the Irish embassy, it would be exceedingly easy to arrange. Call ahead, arrange for a video conference, then take the time until Tristan Vogt reached the embassy to get somewhere with a proper setup, and gather some more information.

Because while he might have missed a vital truth at first, he could add so much more information now that he had it. How far could monsters be lured, that was the big question. But also, did the radius grow if more “ancients” were in one spot? And did their presence alter monster behaviour in any other ways?