A deal with the devil

“What is it that you seek?” the Horned Rat asked. “I want two things,” John answered; “One, I want you to give me as much of your energy as I can hold.” The reason for this one was quite simply power.

“Are you not afraid I will gain even more control over your life if you do that?” the Horned Rat mused. The god’s face was directly in front of John’s, the red orbs gazing closely at him. “I will just have to become stronger than you, might as well wield your power as a weapon until then,” John freely stated.

“Mhmhehehe,” Richard giggled, his teeth parting a slight bit and a white steam rising from the gap. A smell of rotting flesh and electric smog filled John’s nose; “I can agree to that request. State your second desire, and I will state what I want in return.”

John waved away the stinking breath. He now had an inkling suspicion why the Rat wanted him to know about Momo being an unwilling sleeper agent. It was to lower John’s inhibition towards accepting the Rat’s power himself, so that the god had something to make a deal with. ‘Now what would you want from me?’ John wondered. He would find out in a bit, most likely.

“Secondly, I want you to tell me what you know about this,” John pulled the Metracana from his inventory. He had already asked Nathalia about it, but aside from what its name was, the dragon goddess was helpless as well. A whistling noise escaped Richard, “Now that is something rare you have there. Which one is it?” “Its name is Metracana Metra, if that is what you are asking.”

The grin vanished and the Horned Rat took a respectful step back. “The first one,” he said, awestruck; “How did you get your hands on it? Ah, it could only be, yes, it was stuck in Thana’s head, wasn’t it? I can’t think of another explanation for her curse and you getting your hands on this.” “I already told you all you need to know,” John cut this discussion short. There was no reason to confirm what the Rat guessed, even if it happened to be correct.

“Indeed, here are my demands: First, you tell me exactly how Thana came back. Second, you, and whatever guild you will form eventually, will enter an alliance with the Illuminati starting next year,” Richard said.

There it was, what he wanted. “Next year in days or just next year?” John probed as he thought about the proposal in detail. It was December after all, so there was a massive difference here. “365 days,” the Horned Rat clarified, “a purely defensive alliance between us.” “Wait, BETWEEN us?” John asked, “Not me having to aid you?”

“No, a two-way alliance,” the Horned Rat raised his hands; “I am going to mould you, John Newman. Make you the weapon that becomes my guarantee of freedom from Romulus and his empire meddling in my affairs.” “So, you want me to be your nuclear warhead?” John asked with a raised eyebrow.

How John understood it, there was an unbalance in power in the Abyss. There was Romulus at the top and then there was a gap no one could fill. The Apex, the sole dominator, no country or organization that earned his ire could resist. It was evident that Romulus had stopped caring a great deal about the affairs of reality, but a return was always possible. When that happened, you didn’t want to be a faction that was close to him and on his naughty list. Not without having someone who could push against him, at the very least.

And that is exactly what John should become for the Horned Rat. Accepting this would put him in collision course with Romulus. It may happen in one year or in a thousand, but it was likely to happen.

However, the alliance was going to be purely defensive. In a world where Romulus was going to be the aggressor and John was strong enough to stop it, it was better to stop it early. ‘And if I become that strong I can always break that alliance,’ John thought; ‘Not the honourable thing to do, but always an option.’

“Fine, I accept,” he finally said and, after being presented with it, shook the Horned Rat’s hand on the matter. Then he told him everything about Thana’s revival. That included how he had gotten the Metracana, so he learned that after all, but he wasn’t going to break his end of the bargain.

“Disappointing,” the Rat said at the end. “Disappointing?” John wondered; “It all came as you prophesized. The hell do you mean ‘Disappointing’?” “Ah, prophecies are such a fickle thing, do you know how they work?” Richard mused. John had to shake his head.

“Do you think I am more intelligent than you?” the Horned Rat asked out of nowhere. “Currently? Yes,” John had no doubts about that being a fact. Maybe the Gamer was smart, but the Rat was a genius schemer. “I would say your intellect surpasses mine twice fold,” John took a wild guess. “Mhm, let’s say I agree to that. My Intellect that is about ten times yours, yes?” Richard continued asking.

John let out a frustrated sigh, “That’s the number you showed me, so let’s say I agree to that.” Snickering for a moment, the Rat continued, “I would say when you reach around 1000 Intellect yourself you will unlock it, the ability to guess the future.” “Guess?” John asked, “You are telling me that you GUESSED that whole prophecy?”

“Divination is nothing else but a moment of clarity,” the Horned Rat calmly explained; “The pieces fall together, all of the information you have forms a neat little picture. The problem is you will never have all the pieces and they can be put together in drastically different ways. In the case of Thana, I knew all the important players; however, it turns out I was wrong in the end,” the god turned towards the house; “She did not ascend.”

“What do you even mean by ‘ascend’ anyway?” John wanted to know. If it wasn’t her coming back to life, he was truly confused. “I just expected…more,” the Horned Rat gave a cryptic answer; “Maybe I will receive what I want another time. But enough of this matter, let’s give you a power boost.”

He tipped John on the nose, “Boop.”

Okay, overall, it wasn’t all that great. That Achievement sounded ominous as fuck, just like the last one he got from getting a god’s blessing, and it came with something awesome, again.

‘Finally,’ John thought, ‘something to counter all of that spying shit going on!’ The bonuses were okay, free Intellect and Arcane Resistance was nice, also a SEP, but THIS skill would hopefully stop the giant headache he got whenever he had to deal with information brokers.

“Onto the next part then,” Richard said, pointing at the Metracana; “I think I don’t need to explain to you what an Artificial Spirit is.” John looked up at Momo, still soaring through the skies. “That is a pretty safe assumption, yes,” he agreed.

“The Metracanas are to Artificial Spirits what the atom bomb is to the nuclear power plant. They are the first application of the creation method, an artificial sentience created from the theory of how to create a golem. The ancient Akkadian’s came up with the method, and their king, Sargon of Akkad, was the one to finally succeed in it. By combining the technique with the most valuable metal he could find, a fallen star,” the Horned Rat explained.

“Okay. So, this,” John held up the Metracana, “is an Artificial Spirit prototype made from a meteorite?” “Correct,” Richard said, “but also oversimplified. Artificial Spirits are the tamer, more publicly useful cousins of Metracanas. They are creations of war and a less civilized time when Gaia wasn’t quite as uppity about interfering with normal folk. They can be reprogrammed for pretty much all nasty stuff you can think off. Acclimate them with your mana for long enough and eventually they will have some sort of reaction to your intention based on which one of them you have.”

“That is very vague,” John pointed out. The Horned Rat made a helpless gesture, “The how to create them and all finer details about the individual Metracanas were lost in the burning of Alexandria. All I can tell you is that 12 of them are known and accounted for while another 8 are rumoured to exist. Metra is the first Metracana and is said to have the attribute of berserker rage.”

“…So if its owner wanted to use it to sedate someone, that someone would only be able to feel while in battle,” John extrapolated. “Indeed,” Richard agreed and then tapped John’s chest in a jesting manner; “If you were to awaken it, the Metracana would most likely turn into a beautiful berserker woman.”

John stayed silent, that was not unlikely. It would be kind of weird, but not unlikely. “So, wait, are these things shapeshifters?” The Horned Rat mustered him for a while. John waved off, of course they were; Aclysia could already change her exterior to a certain extent, so having things that were like her be able to do the same wasn’t unusual. It was a dumb question. “Just continue,” he urged the Rat.

“Once you formed a bond with a Metracana you agree on a word that will blank it and on who can say that word. The Metracana stays bound to you until one of three things happens: either the mission you gave it is fulfilled, in which case it will ask to get blanked or for a new one, you die, in which case it will blank itself after confirming your , or you blank it by saying that word. The Metracana will then either forget about the time or never speak of it again. My information is unclear on that.”

John nodded, that was a lot of information but largely understandable. There was one more thing he wanted to know though, “How dangerous are these things?” “You tell me; it evidently wasn’t dangerous when it came out of Thana’s head,” the Horned Rat shrugged; “Maybe your Gamer powers will warp the rules of this thing as well, maybe it will become an equipment piece or useless trash. These things are like the Japanese curses or the Mandate of Heaven, mysteries of an older time. You would need to find a truly ancient god of knowledge to inform you in detail about these things.”

“And where would I find one of those?” John probed. “You heard about Babylon?” the Horned Rat returned the question. “The attempt to kill Gaia before Pompeii? Yes…they are all dead, aren’t they?” “Pretty much,” Richard admitted and looked at the moon with worry; “There has, however, not been a single report of a Metracana being permanently destroyed. I really have to go now. Do not worry, I will be watching your progress.”

“Actually, that’s exactly what I will be worrying about,” John pointed out, and the Horned Rat cackled in response. His existence became water and was drained away. ‘So that’s what teleporting looks like from the outside,’ John wondered.

So, he had another SEP to spend while he waited for Momo to finally land. Still no reason to hold onto these. What to use it on though? Blink was an elligible new target, but he had the feeling that he would get something like teleportation next. There was no way he would have the mana to support such a skill.

‘Let’s go with Mana Ray,’ John decided on a whim. His goal wasn’t even to evolve it necessarily, but maybe he could get a new skill out of it? He could use something else in the long-range department.

Arcane Lance was easily the worst of the bunch. Enemies lining up in a row was a fringe case and most times he would be better off using Arcane Explosion instead. Mana Laser was just a more cost-effective version of Mana Ray, maybe with a higher range and damage as well. It was the smart choice.

But Mana-Orbital Strike sounded REALLY cool. He also didn’t have siege magic yet. That thing sounded like he could put it above a city, go drink coffee and come back to accept their surrender. Without any second guesses, he chose Mana-Orbital Strike. Then he called Momo down, they had to eat dinner.

John was all fidgety to test the skill tomorrow. He was almost more excited about that than the tournament starting.