Unwilling Eldritch Horror of Fortune

We peered down from our vantage point on the easternmost tower and saw an entire army clad in gold approach from the horizon. They were marching fast toward our position and deeper into the epicenter of the catastrophe. At this point, the city we were in was completely engulfed in supernatural darkness, although the unrelenting gale-force winds had died down. The rain, however, had been drizzling nonstop and a lot of the lower elevation had been completely flooded.

The army’s position should also be completely devoid of light, yet strangely, the golden armor that each warrior wore reflected brilliantly despite there not being any sunlight. It made them look like a tide of holy crusaders who marched to restore the light to the ravaged land. The army spooked the cultists who manned the walls and other fortifications, which was rather impressive since half of them were insane and could barely form coherent thoughts.

I saw siege equipment hurling huge boulders into our position. There was some kind of divine help because there was no way that they could build anything that could send those rocks from that far out, but it did explain the rumbling from earlier. Some of the vanguard and scouts had already made contact with our cultist forces, and small skirmishes were taking place all throughout the swampy land below.

The cultists were not winning.

Honestly, this looked like the climax of a grand fantasy movie where the good guys are about to storm the base of the big bad. Normally I’d be cheering for the golden-clad paladins, especially since their foe was deranged cultists, but unfortunately, I was on the wrong side of that conflict. This also meant that the traditional good guys couldn’t be winning this particular fight.

“I apologize for the disturbance,” the Conduit said as he rushed up the stairs, “But rest assured that our forces here will be more than adequate to defend this position until the ritual is complete.”

I peered at the tide of golden warriors slowly encroaching on our position. Then at the idiots defending the town, and somehow I didn’t believe a word that the Conduit was saying.

The messenger laughed nervously. “I understand your reservations, Esteemed Guests, but we have better soldiers in reserve. The false pantheon might have gathered their Champions, but my gods have not been idle either. Reinforcements will arrive before their main army assaults our walls, and I will ensure that the city is undamaged by their crude boulders.”

I was still unconvinced. “And how long do we need to hold out for?”

“Two full days,” he said, although I could tell that he wasn’t completely sure, “Perhaps three depending on how much of a disturbance the false god’s slaves cause. No more than that.”

I heard shouts and screams now as the battle went from localized skirmishes to larger and larger confrontations. The Conduit was able to keep the worst of the siege weapons at bay with a crimson barrier, but the debris that bounced off his shield did a lot of damage to the poor cultists stationed beneath the walls. Worse yet, our forces were slowed down by the mud and waist-high water, while the golden warriors off in the distance seemed to float above the filth.

Now that they were fully in view, I could see that their numbers seemed to stretch from horizon to horizon. There were tens of thousands of them. The Order gods were clearly preparing for this inevitability, and they prepared well, although something told me that they didn’t plan for the four of us being in the city.

“Then we can assume that our help is not needed?” Molly added. She didn’t seem too keen on our prospects either, but then again, it was hard to tell with her.

Another nervous chuckle. “If that is at all possible, Esteemed Guests. Please understand that we have things under control.”

“But just in case things don’t go as planned,” I added before the Conduit could leave, “Tell us what these Champions are. I was told that there was a Chosen in there as well.”

The Conduit frowned, clearly displeased with whoever told us more than what was necessary. However, he quickly smiled again once he saw the rest of us stare at him.

“The Champions, as they are called, are individuals blessed by the false gods,” he explained. “You can think of them as beings such as myself. You can see their influence over the army from here. Innas’ blessings allow them to walk above the earth and mud, while Solat’s Champion is causing that horrible light to shine off their armor.”

I nodded. “And this Chosen?”

“I’m… I’m not 100% sure if I’m honest, Esteemed guests,” the Conduit replied, “There are rumors, of course, but the truth has been kept secret by the false gods, and our forces were unable to ascertain any information with validity.”

“Just tell us what you do know, accurate or not.”

Now the Conduit was sweating. He knew the consequences of displeasing us or his masters above. “We know for sure that this so-called Chosen is blessed by all of the false gods, a feat normally impossible, which is why there are so many theories about his origins. However, what we do know, at least in part, is that this Chosen individual has been around accumulating power for a long time.

“Records about when he first emerged are unstable, thanks in no small part to Craxon, the Lord of Time’s gifts, but his various deeds are clearly recorded. I won’t waste your time listing them all out, but know that he is called a Hero for a reason.”

Huh, this was sounding increasingly more like the plot right out of a Blockbuster film. Here was the righteous army led by some kind of Chosen Hero who was about to assault the big baddies in their evil castle. Well, there was a reason such a plotline was used so often, other than the fact that it made for great entertainment. People did need a central figure to rally toward, it was why Humans had so many celebrities and larger-than-life figures in media. Plus, it was also easier to control one individual than to spread out support and resources to a larger mass.

I frowned. “Thank you, Conduit. You’re dismissed for now, I imagine you have a lot to prepare for.”

“Thank you, my Esteemed guests,” he replied with a bow, “Please don’t be rash, I assure you that we have things under control here. You are, of course, free to observe the battle at your leisure… just…”

I understood his hesitation and gave the Conduit the friendliest smile I could muster. “Look, we won’t act unless they breach the ritual chambers. How’s that?”

I could see the relief wash over the man’s features then. “Good, thank you for understanding. Now if you will excuse me.”

A flutter of his robes and the Conduit merged into the stone beneath our feet as if he had sunk into the masonry. What a weird way of exiting, but it did fit the evil cultist theme going on here. That’s when I saw this Chosen individual.

The person in question wasn’t hard to make out as well as a lone rider wearing a flowing robe of sparkling stardust came rushing ahead of the golden army. He held a banner high while everyone rallied to his side. If I had to guess, I would say that this individual was the chosen. Well, the other clue was that he, well, wasn’t the same species as the rest of the aliens here.

“Hey, guys…” I muttered as I pointed at the charging figure riding on the weird horse-looking thing. “That’s a human, right? Or am I going crazy after losing most of my mind from falling asleep again?”

Q frowned as he squinted his eyes to look at the fash approaching man. “No… you’re not losing your senses, Walter. That’s not just a human, but that’s an Aspirant, one of my own from the looks of it. It’s one of the ones we lost during the messed up second Trial; you weren’t the only group sent to that strange place, but you were the only party that made it out again. We had thought all the others to have been killed, but evidently, that wasn’t the case.”

And with the blessings from the time god here, and how strange time flows between dimensions, it’s conceivable that he’s been here for much longer than the few Earth months that’s passed for us.”

“Huh.” That was all I could manage to say.

But if he really was an Aspirant, then I should be able to peer at him with my Arbiter title, right? It’d been useless here so far since nothing was under Central, and now that most of the stuff I knew was sealed, I was almost desperate to get more information on my own.

I activated the skill, and lo and behold, I could see the most important aspect of his

Ashwin Thiru (God’s Chosen One EX Rank Frontline)

Description: You have been summoned by the gods of a foreign realm with the task of bringing salvation to an entire civilization. Your devotion to the people and the faith will see you victorious against the worst evils of the Foul gods and the invaders that inhabit the Spaces-Between, and you will bring in an era of faith and prosperity.

Hot damn, that’s only the second EX rank job I’ve ever seen, but what was strange was how this Ashwin person acquired it. The job system should be completely under the control of the Trash Matrix, but from the description, it almost seemed like the gods here gave that class to the Aspirant. Or maybe the Trash Matrix allowed him to earn this title since one of the heads of the Central Collective was interested in this backwater dimension for some reason?

Q saw me shake my head in thought and added, “It’s strange no matter how I think about it. That Aspirant had been spirited away from Site 1102, and although the Second Trial was corrupted, achieving such a feat would still be close to impossible, especially given the nature of this fragile dimension. There’s something odd about the gods here. Something more going on in the background.”

The more I thought about things, the more I tended to agree with Q. Timelines weren’t adding up, even given the strange nature of time and space, not to mention that these people somehow knew of our arrival. I’m starting to think that the gods knew of us even earlier than what the mortals let on. I didn’t know much about multiversal mechanisms anymore, but even I knew that none of this made a whole lot of sense. There was something that the four of us were missing, and I hated incomplete information.

“Well, Stanton wouldn’t be investigating this place if there wasn’t something unique about it,” Xalla stated, “But at least we know that he’s not here for no reason.”

“But we don’t know what that unique thing is,” Molly, who had been silently observing, said, “That’s generally never a good thing, even if I’m not privy to the entire picture here.”

“Agreed,” Q said, “Let’s review what we do know about our current situation. We know that Stanton’s here-”

“Wait a second,” I interrupted, everyone stopped and looked over. “Awake me’s given me enough info to go on, but Stanton’s one of the most important individuals in all of Central, right?”

Q nodded.

“So wouldn’t there be meticulous documentation about his going ons? Like where he’d be and what he’s doing at all times?”

Q frowned, still not quite sure what I was hinting at, but nodded again. “That should be the case for all of upper management.”

“But Xalla took a really long time finding where he is,” I continued, glancing over at the Xollon girl. “She even had to collaborate her findings with Rogue’s sources. Doesn’t that seem strange?”

“Well, sure,” Xalla answered, “But it’s not like just anyone could access the activity logs of the people running all of Central. I can imagine that most of Stanton’s files are classified in any case.”

“Right, but you did get access to those files, the complete version as well, right?”

“I did. Wait, hold on a second…” she muttered before frowning, “No, Walter’s right. Things don’t add up. The files I had just indicate that he’s here, and a rough timeline of when he left. There’s no detail about what he’s here for, or even how he got here.”

Q swore, “I should have noticed that earlier! I apologize, I wasn’t in the best state of mind when we first met, but that is definitely not how things should be documented, and we all know that Stanton’s a sticker for regulations.”

I nodded and continued, “Coupled with the fact that he hasn’t chosen to reveal himself for so long, I think there’s definitely something fishy going on in this dimension.”

Xalla frowned again. “The more I look back on the things that happened here, the more I agree with Walter. This dimension’s almost purposefully left to be undiscoverable, it took us almost two days just to get here even with Bob’s resources, and the plane is strangely fragile. Yet the gods, from everything that we’ve observed so far, seem much more capable than your regular lesser deities.”

“So we have kidnapped Aspirants, strange inconsistencies with time, and the ability to hide an entire dimension from the Multiverse at large. So what do all of these things have in common? What entity could do all of this?”

Q sighed. “The Origin Matrix. Damn.”

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