The Horrid Reality of the Clock

John was putting on a strong front. He was content he could do that much. Inside himself, he continued to feel… tossed up.

After remaining on that bathroom floor for several minutes, he had removed the bodies of his parents. To place them into his inventory had felt horrid. To have them scanned for any traces of Lorylim matter once he was out of dodge was something he had not been able to witness. Aclysia had taken over for him. Once it was certain that his parents were not used as carriers, they had been moved to remain preserved until a funeral could be arranged.

Every step on this way left furrows in John’s psyche he found difficult to maneouvre through. He wanted to lay down, to just exist in quiet for a time, to digest what had happened, to sleep, to mourn, to breathe.

He was not afforded that luxury. He was the leader of a nation and time did not stop for him. He could enter an Illusion Barrier, slow it down to 1 to 10, but it would move all the same and he did not have the space to get there. It had been difficult enough to tear himself away from the reports that had been and still were floating in. At least he had been able to make a new Extension with a replacement sphere. That kept him in the loop of matters.

Taking one more breath, he then began reporting on what they currently knew.

“Shortly after the plane crashed, the Lorylim began their broad offensive. We cannot say precisely when, as their efforts at this stage were entirely covert. Even now, we cannot say for certain which areas of Fusion are entirely lost, which ones are compromised by spies, and which ones are actually up and running. They did a very good job at making their infection blend in with our power structure. As for what happened with me on the island: I fought a primordial Lorylim. Lucifrena appeared, saving me from using more than the Harem Party Overclock. I did not get away entirely unscathed though.”

He lifted his shirt, showing the corruption to all those that had not seen it yet. Collective hisses filled the air. A relatively muted reaction. In less turbulent times, he would have expected for Eliana to throw a massive fit. Instead, only Scarlett offered a question, “How bad is it?”

“Surprisingly, not bad at all,” John informed her. “As both Lucifrena and Nia have attested, the mycelium is harmonized to my magical circuits. It’s drawing an equal amount of mana from me as it is giving back. If I had to hazard a guess, it is trying to use me for something but isn’t sure on how to do it yet. Aclysia and Claire will monitor my mental state, making sure to notify all of you if it moves out of the ordinary.”

He stuffed his shirt back into his pants. As he did, Lee inhaled sharply. “Fuck, I am blind, Scarlett what happened to you?”

“The hardware could not keep up,” the technomancer said and shrugged her robotic shoulders. It spoke a lot to John’s own state of shock that the complete removal of Scarlett’s limbs only summoned a simmering rage. He was in an odd state of mind. He knew that he would fly off the handle at some point in the near future, given the right trigger, but for now he was calm.

“We’ll get to that,” he said. “On the day after the plane crash, about when I was picked up, the Lorylim went into sweeping action. The exact timeline is unclear, but hardly matters. There were direct attacks in every major barrier of Fusion. Of our five largest population centres, the Lake Alliance’s capital at the Niagara Falls is considered the only to have fallen. Boston was hit hard but has been able to fend off most due to the timely arrival of several high-powered Natural Barrier hunters. DC was defended by Nathalia, Aclysia, Beatrice and Nia while I… did what I had to.”

“I am sorry,” Nia muttered. “I wasn’t there when I had to be.”

“Do not blame yourself for it,” he told her. They had this exchange several times already. “Izha planned this well. Even now we cannot be certain he isn’t listening in.” John shook his head and continued his report. “Miami managed to fend off the attack by means I am not yet privy to. The fog of war is dense there. New Orleans fared fairly well, courtesy of Moira’s presence in the area. The Hudson Barrier had the largest amount of enemy forces present, but we evacuated ahead of time and thanks to Magoi’s sacrifice, basically everyone made it. We have losses in Parliament, however.”

“Fucking how?” Salamander asked. “Those fucks would have evacuated first.”

“From what can be gathered, the Speaker of Commons called a meeting… or, rather, his wife did.” John looked at the floor. “She had been corrupted and proceeded to attack the parliamentarians. The good news is that a present, lower powered pariah managed to save her before any true damage could be done. The bad news is that the attack still scared the political elite. I’m being petitioned in 3 different directions at the moment… I’ll meet Emrik in a few hours to work out how we tackle this.”

“During the Hudson Barrier attack, we were still in my workshop. We were trying to find countermeasures. I failed to notice Thresta creeping in until she revealed herself by destroying the teleporter,” Scarlett gave her side of the report. “She had 2 more Metracanas with her, Xerxes and Kerelex by my analysis. I decided to augment myself to grant us the necessary firepower to escape. We still would have been killed had it not been for a pivotal miss by the Lorylim.”

“What about my people?” Nahoa asked the question before the conversation could shift elsewhere.

“I don’t know,” John told her. “No contact at this time.”

“I-“ Nahoa started, clenched her teeth, and stared at the ground. She wanted to demand that he prioritize them. From her perspective, the only reasonable request at this time. She was smart enough to know that he did have multiple priorities and empathetic enough not to make demands of him right after losing his parents. She, too, knew that pain. “-hope you will find space to send me there.”

John gave her a solemn nod. “We should have that space soon enough. The war is in our favour.”

“Why is that?”

“Three reasons,” John said, his voice getting a bit more upbeat now that he was in the analytical mindset. “First, horrid as it is to say this, we have not lost any truly vital infrastructure. Basically all of Fusion’s power centres are along the east coast and the cities have held. We have the military and government still intact and all of us are home, the Harem Comms are back online as well. In other words, we have everything we need to start the counteroffensive. Second, our allies have been alerted and are on their way. I have received confirmation that Romulus has mobilized and is crossing the ocean as we speak. Lydia has told me she will join us via teleporter as soon as she is able. Third, the Lorylim have gained Gaia’s Ire.”

“Are you certain?” Nightingale asked.

John nodded strongly. “Izha has skirted the line of outright obliteration so far, but what he is doing has earned him drawbacks. Scarlett survived because of a lucky miss. In Boston, reinforcements arrived just in time. Miami had enough of the Floridians present to repel the attack. Moira was visiting New Orleans alongside several other potent fighters. A pariah powerful enough to cleanse Lorylim just so happened to be near Parliament. We are getting lucky too consistently – or to put it another way, the Lorylim are too unlucky for an operation of this scale by a well-informed hivemind.”

“As I can attest,” Siena raised her voice. “Gaia may be forgiving if you manipulate mundanes in ways that hide the supernatural, but she is not blind to it.”

Rave’s eyebrows were in a deep knit. “Seems like a poor idea to do something that will make your entire hivemind unlucky right as you launch your conquest against someone allied with most of the world?”

“It is a poor idea,” John said. “It fits with another theme though – in all the time that we have fought Izha, has he ever tried to actually win?” A short pause, then the Gamer shook his head. “No. His goal is to drag the world into the same nihilistic pit he is in. I cannot say what methods he is employing to that end but I do not think he actually cares to be the victor in the violent conflict that is going on. He might be doing this to deliberately sabotage Tiamat.”

“Maybe,” Momo agreed. “Little use speculating on that. Even if we agree that we are destined to win this, given the resources at play, we have a set of goals to achieve, right?”

“Indeed… we have a number of fires to put out and goals to achieve.”

“Like going to my people?” Nahoa insisted on reminding him and he could not blame her in the slightest.

“Indeed,” he was quick to assure her. “I have promised them my protection and they shall have it. Putting aside honour, it is also purely strategical to assure that collection of biomass does not fall into the Lorylim’s hands.” He looked straight into the eyes of the axolotl maid. “You want to go immediately?”

“I must go immediately,” the demigoddess insisted. “I have given you a day to aid in assuring our realm is stable, future husband of mine, now I must go and see that my tribe survives.”

“Then you can go immediately. Take the teleporter to New Orleans. You’ll find your way from there. You move with my authority.” Nahoa stood up and headed towards the door, while he directed his eyes to the rest of the harem. “Volunteers to go with her?”

Nathalia rolled her jaw. “My powers are not suited for this kind of motion,” she admitted.

“I shall go,” Nia stated. “If her people are infected, I am needed to cleanse them.”

John gave a strong nod. This was true on every front, yet there was a special consideration to be had for the Aztecs. Unfair as that may have been to others, saving the city of the Mexica tribes was a priority in terms of saving as many people as possible for the simple reason that this was the only city of the Aztecs left. If three cities of the east coast fell, there would still be enough of the general Fusion stock left to restart the civilization. If the new Aztec city fell, then that civilization was dead forever.

“I’ll go as well,” Rave announced. “I’ll concentrate on New Orleans first. Gotta help Moira out.”

“My place is at the front lines,” Ehtra stated. “I will also go.”

Nahoa, Nia, Rave and Ehtra – a suitable fighting **** for that mission. John would have preferred to send even more. It was evident that the Lorylim had forces that could threaten them, even if the haremettes had, so far, proven to be the superior combatants. Alas, the current situation only allowed the decision between risk or inaction.

The three volunteers followed Nahoa quickly. They remained in mental contact while they walked towards the teleporters. The strategy conversation continued. “We must also heavily consider sending additional relief forces to Boston, DC and Miami,” he stated. “The first attacks on these locations have been pushed back, but besieging continues and we do not have enough Fateweavers to hold it all back. Tiamat is pushing against the Protected Spaces like any invading god would.” He paused for a moment.

Scarlett made the pragmatic observation. “It is impossible for us to cover all that ground. Even if we split the remaining combatants in this room four ways, we are still constrained by how few we are. Doesn’t matter how powerful we are, we cannot be everywhere in a several kilometre radius. What is the status of Fusion’s military?”

“…Dispersed,” John pressed out.

He was feeling the first signs of that slumbering rage swelling in his throat. Even at this very moment, he was facing the demands of multiple people of how the military must be deployed. John was supreme commander of the forces, but so much of the Abyss’ military might was tied up in people who were independently powerful that this did not mean as much as it did in the mundane. The members of the House of Exceptionals were each focused in their home areas. The members of the House of Commons were subverting the power structures to pull lieutenants to their side. The generals held to John – for the most part.

Elu was obviously prioritizing the Hidden Tradition’s territories. The guild had been given privileges for the aid they had lent to the Federation when it had been at its most dire point. They had their semi-independent army, to be used only to defend their borders. That was fine in times of peace, but now that was a privilege that other heads of local guilds were using to justify their own breaking with the command chain.

“I have the army core available. The forces that fought in the Hudson Brawl, on both sides at the battle of the White House, and those that came with us to the Iron Domain, all of them are loyal to me. The others have effectively defected or are in a state of limbo due to my orders being obstructed by politicians.” He spat out that last word with a level of disdain he had rarely felt for anything in his life.

It was the worst possible scenario, in terms of a military strategy. They already had too few forces to cover all of the ground that needed covering. In a situation like that, the regular strategic thing was to consolidate into core locations, then launch small scale offensive operations like spear tips to disrupt the enemy and retake important infrastructure. This was even more true in Abyssal warfare, where 99% of land area was entirely replaceable and thus not worth fighting over.

Had he proper control of his forces, John could have arranged that. It was the cold, pragmatic calculation of proper strategy, necessary to win a war of this scale. Instead, he was contending with hundreds of politicians who were, by emotion or economy, tied to various local areas that had no value to the big picture. Forces were currently stationed in overextended positions because people were prioritizing their interests over those of the collective.

As staunch an individualist as John was, this was not the time for the privilege of selfishness. People were going to die unnecessarily, because of politicians that wanted to pretend everything was alright and because of politicians so panicked that they would only ever defend themselves.

It was impossible to fight a war this way.

“I’m going to sort it out,” John stated