Unwilling Eldritch Horror of Fortune

The journey to whatever Capital city the Order gods stationed their base at was uneventful; the only thing that I had to keep track of was the fact that I was healing a little too fast thanks to my Xollon Physiology. I had to have Noe suppress as much of that as she could, which kind of sucked because I would have been up and about already had it not been for the need to keep up appearances. Still, since I had some time to finally rest without worry for once, so I guess I can’t complain.

During that time, Noe had been busy in the background sorting through all the information that Awake-Me entrusted to her, while also reintegrating herself fully into Sleepy-Me. In fact, Noe’s been doing a lot in the background since I got back from my last trial, what with getting those extra shards, and her capabilities as a whole improved as a result. I could rely on her to sort through all the information I gathered, like that book Q wrote, and formulate all that info in a way that my stupid human brain could understand. Now all I had to do was act on that knowledge; I’d do the bullshitting while she did the analysis, it was brilliant.

And so, after about a full day’s travel - although it was hard to tell time what with the world ending in total darkness and all - Ashwin and his travel companions made it back to their city. This city itself was impossible to miss as well, it was the only stretch of land that still had sunlight shining on it, I’m guessing that’s the barrier that the girl was talking about.

“Her name is Sarka, my Host,” Noe reminded me, “and according to the notes disseminated from Q, she is someone important to the original Chosen. Please act accordingly.”

Right, what I meant to say was that it was the barrier that Sarka had mentioned when she was tending to me. Anyway, whatever that barrier was it was certainly impressive. It stretched out further than I could perceive, even when I cheated and used my Xollon senses, but what I could see was a sense of normality within the giant cylinder-shaped protection. Well, the citizens within were still tense, while the guards and soldiers looked like they’d pass out from stress at any moment, but it was a lot better than anything outside their city.

Once we were within shouting distance of the gate, I got up from my makeshift bed and started to get dressed in Ashwin’s armor (it wasn’t the filthy mess it was before, someone had cleaned it while I was sleeping).

“What are you doing?” Sarka gasped when she saw me up and about, “You shouldn’t be moving!”

I shook my head. “We’re about to make it back to-”

“It is called the Holy City of Ordas, my Host,” Noe answered before I could even ask. God, she was amazing.

“-Ordas,” I continued with just a slight pause, now for the main part. I had to gauge what kind of person this Ashwin individual was, and if this girl was as close to the Chosen as Noe indicates, then her reactions would tell me a lot, but just to be safe, I activated my Luck Skill as well. “And the citizens need to know that their Chosen is alive and well. You guys mounted that rescue mission just for me, and I can’t show weakness after everything that they have sacrificed just to ensure my safety. They need hope.”

The girl only sighed. “That’s just like you, Ash. You’ll burn yourself out at this rate.”

No change in Luck Charges, that was a good sign.

“And the world will burn if I don’t do something,” I continued in the most stereotypical good-guy line I could think of.

The reports all indicated that this Ashwin guy was the ideal hero figure, and nothing so far has contradicted those reports, so let’s just act like that. My choice of words seemed right when I saw the look of concern on Sarka’s face. She chose not to try to talk me out of it, which suggested that this was a pretty common occurrence for Ashwin, that’s good to know if even his close allies think of him as the self-sacrificing type, then that’s an easy enough archetype to slot myself into. It’s not very nuanced, but if I follow this type of script while I discern more of the smaller details about Ashwin, then I think I might just pull off this stunt.

Thankfully, I didn’t have to actually put up with pretending to be fine when I was secretly injured with Noe’s help. Aside from acting like an extra brain, she could also shut off my pain receptors at will - something that she would never normally do, I was told - since having the ability to feel pain was critical to survival. I tended to agree with her on that front, if I relied on her every time I was in discomfort, then I could imagine myself being hooked on that feeling of invincibility.

However, that wasn’t the case now. I needed to have a clear head if I wanted to survive, so let’s just accept the super Advil for now. Once the carriage was filled in the shiny bubble of normality, I gritted my teeth and prepared to step out. Showing one final look of pain and weakness in front of the girl - er, I mean in front of Sarka, I put on a brave face and stepped outside of the carriage that was carrying me to face the gathered crowd.

It went without saying that my arrival, and my escort of a few hundred surviving paladins all dressed in gold, had caught the attention of everyone in the city. The streets were packed with individuals all vying to get a better look at their hero’s triumphant return. The city guards and other officials were busy at work keeping the peace, forming a neat row that led to the picturesque castle at the center of the city. I’m guessing that’s my destination then.

Got off the wagon and started to wave and smile at the people cheering us on. It was honestly strange seeing so many hopeful faces, some were so touched that they were moved to tears. It was tiring work, but I supposed that Ashwin would be the type of person who went around to shake everyone’s hands as well, so that’s what I did, smiling as I went along the row upon rows of people. I said words of encouragement as I passed along.

I thought that would be the end of it all, just another joyous celebration of their hero coming back when I noticed an odd movement in the crowds. I wasn’t sure of it, so I double-checked with my Xollon senses, but there was definitely someone - scratch that, a group of people moving and coordinating something. By the looks of grim determination on their faces, I think it was clear that they were up to no good.

I held in a sigh. Honestly, if this was any other situation, I’d just allow the suspicious people to do their suspicious things, but not only was I most likely the target of whatever nefarious plans they’ve got up their sleeves, but Ashwin would probably not just ignore such behaviors either. Worse yet, I’d have to take care of the situation the way that the damned righteous Aspirant would.

Noe, let’s spend some Luck Charges now and get this over with. I really don’t want to spend any more time disguised as this Ashwin fellow.

“Acknowledged, my Host,” she replied, “And I concur, you do not make for a very convincing savior or hero.”

Noe was right, of course, which made things more difficult for me, because I had to act contrary to everything that I’ve ever done. Now how would someone with more morals than I ever would approach this situation? I’d just silently stab the bastards with my feelers and be done with it, or come back later and Noel them in their sleep, but I’m pretty sure that’s not how things fly with here. Do I… shout something at the bad guys? Yeah, let’s go with that.

“Halt!” I screamed.

Luck Charges: 1302/1557

And they really did halt, although it probably wasn’t of their own volition. One of the suspicious men’s coat got caught on the belt of his accomplice, while another shady individual slipped on a piece of rock and fumbled into his partner. It was rather comedic if it wasn’t for the bombs strapped to their bodies.

Luck Charges: 1182/1557

One of them recovered remarkably quickly, and even pressed what I would assume was the detonator for the explosives. It didn’t go off, but it did cost me over a hundred luck charges. I couldn’t afford to lose much more from some random terrorists, so I acted. With a leap, I slammed into coat guy and… shit, what do I do now? I obviously couldn’t kill him. I let go of his neck as fast as I could and hoped that no one saw me attempt to strangle him to death…

Luck Charges: 1022/1557

Ah, right, I also crashed head-first into someone strapped with IEDs, I’d be dead without Noe’s skill… shit, what do heroes do here? Right, subdue them. I grabbed his loose cloak and tied the man up with the other guy beside him before ordering one of the panicking guards to hold onto the two. That left only one more pair to find.

Luck Charges: 992/1557

They were running away fast, and hitting their detonator button rapidly as they went. I wanted to cry seeing all my luck charges eaten up because of some goddamn random idiots.

Luck Charges: 801/1557

Stop pressing that fucking button! My precious Charges!

Luck Charges 684/1557

Worse yet, whatever improbable event that was keeping the devices from going off was really unlikely to happen. Forget it, there was no way that I’d catch them without trampling some of the poor women and children in the way, so I decided to just grab some loose rocks and throw them as fast as I could in their general direction. Noe ensured that I didn’t miss.

Luck Charges: 679/1557

Five Luck Charges later the two would-be suicide bombers were on the ground unconscious, but from their shallow breathing, not dead. I should have just done that from the start! I need to figure out how to act like a good person fast, otherwise I’d be found floundering again in the future. I’m quickly running out of Luck Charges to play with.

“Stay away from them!” I shouted, “I’m using my divine abilities to prevent their explosives from going off, but I can’t keep it up forever!”

Well, that was obviously a lie, and I wasn’t sure if Ashwin ever had an ability like that, but how else would I explain why everyone wasn’t blown to smithereens? Plus, it wasn’t like the general populace knew much about divine magic, or at least I hoped so.

The paladins were the first to act, and they quickly subdued the four individuals and took them away somewhere out of sight and hopefully out of mind. I could tell that people wanted to cheer for this act of bravery, but the city officials and security quickly evacuated everyone present. The streets emptied in a matter of minutes, quite efficient work, I had to admit. The atmosphere was somber after that.

“Ashwin, are you okay?” the gi- er, Martha-

“It’s Sarka, my Host.”

Sarka said, her face pale with concern, “You’re injured!”

Injured? I looked down and saw that I was leaking blood everywhere. Huh, must have opened up some wounds from crashing into that guy earlier. I probably wouldn’t have chosen such a stupid action if I wasn’t high off of Noe’s painkillers, which was probably why she told me to avoid using them as much as possible. The blood soaking through my armor’s probably a good indication of that truth.

“Ah,” I answered, and now that the adrenaline was fading, my head was feeling awfully light, “Good thing there’s no one around now then.”

And like clockwork, I felt myself passing out again. I hope this didn’t start to become a habit.