Chapter 87: "Happenings in Lutah with personal relationships sprinkled on top."

The Union potion issue has still yet to be resolved, but progress is being made. Elysium, USEG and some other countries have been working against the use of this particular substance. Even Rusteror has "officially" declared the substance illegal, but their actions are not so clear cut.

To be blunt, Diane is one of the few in the Rusteror’s government that has taken any public action against it, since few people she cherished had succumbed to using it in some shape or form. When she looks at those friends now, now fused with some other people, she feels a few things. Regret, disappointment, and disgust.

Diane has brought up, along with few other officials in Rusteror, that it is intriguing as a scientific project in a way to create what they describe as chimeras, but out of those who talk to that particular interest, Diane is still one of the few that is progressively making changes to make it more difficult for civilian use or circulation.

USEG, at least officially, has shown some scientific interest in Union, but since the scar of the abandonment of the Wefantz system is still fresh in their minds, they are still sceptical on any research that harbors any unification of body or mind.

But there are other issues in the world of Lutah that require attention. The aftermath of the civil war in Rucksta, that has some issues now that there is no sign of the royal lineage being present, so it is currently run by some form of puppet government led by the remaining Hearth royal family.

Speaking of Hearth kingdom, after the butchering of Moriamas and Allmieri Highwood, their eldest son, Neilbern Highwood has been appointed as the acting king of Hearth since the official succession of the throne has yet to be officially made, though it is in the works. Alongside him, there is the acting queen Melisha Highwood, Neilbern’s wife, who has become a little mad for the power she is still yet to officially own, but is using it nonetheless.

There are few siblings of Neilbern who oppose the succession of their brother, since Neilbern is known to be a little on the dumber side and has lavishly used his yet to be officially recognised power to hold parties and such.

The second eldest son, Myorneigth Highgreen isn’t interested in the throne, but is vehemently against his elder brother’s succession to the throne. He’d rather have his younger brother, the third son Lopunt Highgreen to have the throne instead. Lopunt is generally more gentle and thinks more of the benefit of the kingdom than their eldest brother.

There is of course the two daughters of the previous king, Pinala Evergreen the elder and Milgrind Highgreen the younger. They don’t seemingly show any sign of showing interest in the throne, but Milgrind is heavily ingrained to the Hearth’s military in terms of tactical knowhow. Milgrind has a tendency to be cruel to people she leads, but gentle to the public and holds a hard on the image of the supreme tactician.

Pinala is happily married with children of her own with the count’s eldest son Pontiff Evergreen. They are cousins twice removed though.

Goldrock has seen better days though. Since most of the capable human slaves keep getting stolen by unknown forces that they suspect being Elysium, they have been forced to resort to taking other sorts of slaves from the middle realm. Edmund once said in a conference "Since human slaves keep getting stolen by those bastards, then let’s take other species as slaves. Elves, dark elves, beastkin, heck, even goblins, hobgoblins and cobolts. I promise you, my people, that as long as I live, we won’t take our own people to mine in those maddening ruins we once called our home!"

This seemed to rally the people of Goldrock to find slaves of all sorts that weren’t human nor dwarf and send them to ruins of Kingjewel. Though little did the general populace know, Edmund did in fact make his own kin mine in those accursed ruins, be it for their political opposition or their general beliefs.

For Rythcoth, things aren’t looking so good. After being denied and exposed during the Banquet, Eliminares, the so called voicetress, as a hidden ruler of the island nation, has made it near impossible for anyone to go in or out of the nation to make sure the truth of what happened during the Banquet doesn’t reach the ears of the people.

Eliminares has made a personal secret police that "handles" people who utter what happened during the Banquet. Some of the leading factions are blissfully unaware of what happened and what is currently happening in Rythcoth, but there are factions that either suspect or know what Eliminares is currently doing, with or without knowing the possible reason.

The general hostility in the air has made it difficult to live blissfully in Rythcoth and at any point in time, there could be a possibility of revolution against the leading state, but the secret police has been made sure that none of that kind of talk is allowed either.

The merman people are the only ones that can pass back and forth from the nation, but the conflict between the mermen and dragoconians is as eventful as it has previously been, if not more eventful.

The conflict has made people of Rythcoth enlist for the miniscule possibility of escaping the nation, but this too, has been designated as "need to be handled" by the secret police.

Meanwhile, the Erasionists are having a field day with what is happening in Rythcoth, though they have two ideals when they set their foot on the land.

One side sides with Eliminares and works with the secret police to keep things hidden. They destroy any records that are being made during these difficult times to make sure that no record of what happened during this period will be passed on. They also destroy records of what the people working as the secret police were before signing to the job. Hence, the secret police won’t have anything to go back to, say but those who barely remember the person who was before they joined the secret police by simple memory.

The other side slowly but surely erases Rythcoth’s written culture. Any history books that are of significance to the draconian culture. They see that it honours more their patron god to make sure the culture of the past is forgotten than the events currently happening. There are few in this ideal of Erasionists that go as far as to kill the older people who know of the past.

Meanwhile Fein is barely paying attention to what his followers are doing, though he has paid some attention.

While we are at it, let’s talk about other religious factions happenings.

Perkele’s worshipers are mostly interested in what is happening at Kingjewel, since the maddening lack of sleep is making people turn to violence more and more often. Some fanatics of Perkele have even entered the mines as volunteers to encourage people to commit things related to the three Ds of Perkele.

There are few wiser Perkele fanatics who implant ideas to the people running the show in Kingjewel. These people have managed to make things like heads on pikes and bodies hanging on pikes from head to ass and vice versa to be something that the people ruling the place generally practice.

The people who live in Kingjewel look more and more like they live in a banditcamp, and that is some of Perkele fanatics’ sole goal. Perkele is marveling as he witnesses these atrocities to happen in what was once a prestigious dwarven capital.

Needless to say, some Perkele fanatics are also having time of their lives in Rythcoth, but less than their colleagues in Kingjewel.

And where there are worshipers of Perkele, certain kinds of worshipers of Lovana are also there. Though in lesser numbers. Some people, especially in Kingjewel, start to see beauty in pain and butchery. There is a certain kind of "art gallery" in Kingjewel that holds certain kinds of "artpieces" catering to a newfound audience consisting of "appreciators of fine art".

The place of that "art gallery" is named Gutlery. The local slang for the "artpieces" are gutleries, blooders, scart and eyesights.

But back to more civilized topics. For example what Lucious, the Pope of the Holy church of Lutah, has been up to. For you see, after what happened in the Banquet, few things, or rather issues, have arisen to the surface that was Lucious’ office.

The first matter that Lucious knew he had to somehow deal with was the existence and Samael. Lucious figured out, as did Rupalin and Archinsecutor, was that Samael was a reverse dreamer that has somehow gotten past their radar.

Something that Samael isn’t fully aware of, or perhaps is consciously avoiding, is that the older reverse dreamers get, the harder it is for them to fully die. For if you "kill" someone in a dream, they simply ignore it or "wake up". Since the real world is a dream for reverse dreamers, they cannot be killed in the real world. Logic would state that killing a reverse dreamer in the dreamrealm would fully kill them, and that is correct for those reverse dreamers who haven’t reached adulthood.

For reverse dreamers who reach a form of adulthood in the dreamrealm, killing them there will, depending on the power of their will, just be as if nothing effectively happens. And with that, they become effectively impossible to kill, thus, immortals.

The danger that reverse dreamers hold for the whole world of Lutah, is that should they lose control over themselves, like perception of self becoming either too strong or too weak, becoming convinced they are effectively gods or becoming terrified of something, they can effectively "mold" reality to perfect chaos.

They have the ability of reshaping reality as is, but should they lose control in aforementioned ways, they can destroy the Lutah or reshape it in a form that barely resembles what it once was.

Since reverse dreamers see the real world more or less solid, they tend to be more like "lucid dreamers" but in reality. Often, as they have to go through childhood first, they are easy to detect, as they have the ability to materialize or erase things with just a simple thought. And should a child with that kind of power have a tantrum, it will become something that is hard to not notice.

That is why, when the three people from the Holy church witnessed Samael’s abilities, they were baffled how he had lived so long without the church finding him. Of course, they thought that there was a possibility that Samael simply made himself look as old as he had by imagining himself as such, but the fact that he was even invited to the Banquet means that Mercy’s personal information network knew something that the Holy church didn’t.

Of course, some might think that a person like Archinsecutor would have taken action immediately after finding out what Samael was, but they would be wrong, because Archinsecutor wasn’t so stupid as to aggravate someone who could unmake her with just a thought as they were then.

The existence of adult reverse dreamer is a secret that only Lucious, Rupalin and Archinsecutor know inside the Holy church. Lucious has actually even considered asking Fein for his assistance in secret, since any action against Samael can result in a world ending event. He has yet to act on this though, since it would be a huge scandal for Pope to ask one of the more malicious gods for assistance, though not entirely out of character, since the Holy church worships the whole pantheon of gods of Lutah. That and he has, during his long standing as the Pope of the Holy church of Lutah, made some controversial decisions over what is near a millenia.

But in any case, the Samael situation is something that is making Lucious ponder more and more. He knows that they have to deal with Samael somehow, but due to Samael’s political position as one of guests of the Banquet and the simple matter of "We have no idea how to kill an adult reverse dreamer" the matter is on hold for now.

Due to the fact that they don’t have ideas how to deal with Samael and for personal interest, Archinsecutor has left to the lower realm, more precisely Northolt, and see if they have any means they can deal with Samael.

Lucious and Rupalin were questioning the reason why would people of the lower realm know something that even the Holy church’s elites didn’t know, but since Archinsecutor brought up Lockman and the unknown technology that he seemingly used to beat her, she argued that there might, just might be something there to solve their problem.

But when Rupalin questioned "Why would this Lockman be of particular interest to us?" Archinsecutor simply answered "I feel something weird in my guts when I think of that man, so my guts must be telling me I have to meet him again."

This surprised Lucious and Rupalin, who then looked at each other and had a mental discussion.

Lucious mentally asked as he stared at Rupalin’s eyes "Could this perhaps be what I think it is?" And Rupalin, staring intently at Lucious’s eyes, mentally said to him "I couldn’t believe it myself, but it has to be it."

Lucious mentally responded to Rupalin’s mental message "So we have no objections on letting her follow her ’guts’?"

Rupalin mentally responded to Lucious’s question "No objections here, your holiness."

Both nod and look back at Archinsecutor. Lucious then says, as he leaned forward over the table, his fingers steepled before his face, his expression stern and unreadable. "It seems you visiting Northolt is something of utmost importance. You may leave at your earliest convenience. May gods guide you on your journey, Archinsecutor."

Archinsecutor bows and says "Yes, your holiness! May gods watch over us all!" And then she promptly left, with a slight smile on her face.

Lucious and Rupalin were then left to hold out the fort as they kept pondering actual answers. Rupalin thought of asking the gods for guidance, but Lucious, while not disregarding Rupalin’s suggestion, thought of the possibility that the wild card that was Faust Ilumnos might be one of the possible keys to solve their conundrum. He also mentioned Mercy and was about to mention Tifa, but he was wiser in time to not say that thought out loud.

Both men agreed that those were their only options left and Rupalin left Lucious’ office. Lucious then pondered lowering his head to face the table until he rose up and looked out the window. He muttered "Things really have changed since they came to Lutah. One could say that they are the cause of all the chaos in the world, but I must dismiss these kinds of ideas before those who look after the nation with favor come and smite me."

In some other place, Trix came to see how Pere was doing. This has become somewhat of an usual occurrence after the gods became able to traverse the other realms more freely.

The excuse to come see her favorite child, Trix came to talk about the fact that Pere was now also a grandmother. This came in shock for Pere, who then had to ponder for a moment how she should react.

Inside, Pere was still rejecting the Toki as her own daughter, but she couldn’t help but to use her parent card and wonder what hoodlum got her daughter pregnant.

Trix sensed what kinds of thoughts Pere was thinking and informed Pere that when she visited, Toki refused to talk about the father of the twins. She refrained from mentioning the feeling she had when Toki talked about the father from Pere, so that the conflict in Pere’s heart wouldn’t go into overdrive.

But since Trix mentioned the fact that Pere was grandmother to twins, she got increasingly curious and started to ask a plethora of questions. Trix was in her human form and Pere was in her dragon form outside on a mountain, fyi.

"What are their names?"

"What gender are they?"

"How old are they now?"

"What do they look like?"

"What are their favorite foods"

"What are they like?"

"Can they turn into dragons?"

"Were they born from an egg?"

"If they first were eggs, how long was the hatching period?"

"Do they have tails?"

"How big are they?"

"Do they take after me, you or her?"

"Do they have teeth yet?"

"Do they have wings?"

"Do they have horns?"

"Will they grow horns eventually?"

"Did you tell them about me?"

"How did they react?"

"How did they react to you?"

"Do they love their mom?"

"Do they love me?"

"Do they love you?"

"What do they look like when they smile?"

"Do they have friends?"

"Is anyone bullying them?"

"What kinds of stories do they like?"

"Do they have dietary restrictions?"

"Can they talk yet?"

"If they can talk, what were their first words?"

"Have they found their soulmates yet?"

"Are they old enough to drink liquor?"

"How do they fight?"

"Can they fly?"

"Can they swim?"

"How good are they at digging?"

"Are they morning people or nightowls?"

"Do the snore?"

"Do they speak when they sleep?"

"Do they need sleep?"

"Do they need to eat or drink?"

"What kinds of clothes do they like?"

"Do they wear clothes society expects of their gender?"

"Can they speak dragon tongue?"

"Do they have disabilities?"

"Do THEY know who their father is?"

"Do they like their other grandmother more?"

"How do they treat their grandfather?"

"How well do they get along?"

"How well do they get along with their mother?"

"Do they speak abyssan?"

"Do they speak flametongue?"

"Do they have any marks of the abyss?"

"Have they visited the abyss?"

"Have they attempted to make contact with me?"

"Have they even visited the higher realm?"

"Have they had any intercourse with someone else?"

"If they have had intercourse with someone, were they the other gender or the same?"

"Do they know of the world their grandfather and other grandmother come from?"

"Has Maumar made any action?"

"Has Mercy of absolution made any action?"

"When is their birthday?"

"What is their favorite pastime?"

"Are they heavy or light sleepers?"

"How knowledgeable are they?"

"Do either of them have difficulty studying?"

"Do they look similar to each other?"

"Do they have any habits? Good or bad?"

"Have they killed anything yet?"

"Have they gone for a hunt yet?"

"How healthy are they?"

"Do they have nightmares? And if they do, how often and what are they like?"

"Do they have future plans?"

"Are they sporty or not?"

"Do they have any scales?"

"Do they have some special abilities?"

"Are those abilities similar to mine?"

"How elegant are they?"

"Are they in any sort of gang?"

"Why have I only heard of it just now?"

"Is Tokiko avoiding me?"

"Does Tokiko hate me?"

"Does Tokiko..."

Pere realized that she has been jabbering for a while now and that her questions started to venture towards her own daughter rather than her grandchildren.

This whole time, Trix has just sat there, smiling and sipping tea someone brought during all the questions Pere was asking. Trix was happy that Pere had finally shown signs of a caring mother.

But instead of answering any of Pere’s questions, Trix asks one question from Pere.

"Are you willing to go meet them, or do you want to take more time to make it easier for little Toki?"

Pere looks down and doesn’t know what to answer. She doesn’t know how she should deal with this weird situation.

Trix says that "Apparently, the two kiddows want to see their grandmama."

With that, Trix places the teacup on top of some rock and flies to pat Pere on the head.

Then Trix says to Pere "Sometimes talking to someone is more helpful than just pondering by your lonesome."

With that Trix leaves and Pere is left to ponder.

On other news, in the lower realm, the dealings between the Nous empire and the Rutemoryu have become much smoother after the Banquet. All is thanks to the Golden Swan herself, Hui Loutros, who negotiated dealings with the nations on her lonesome. This has made the Ocean Gold merchant group ever richer than it had been previously.

What is ever more curious, is that in all three mortal realms, the abyssal activity has seemingly halted entirely. This is mostly good news, but the last time this happened, it was a prelude to a major invasion of abyssal monsters. Some scholars have speculated that it might be connected to one of the dukes of the abyss, but since it is hard to come across any knowledge regarding the events inside the abyss, this is purely theoretical.

The fact that so little knowledge from inside the abyss itself rarely ever reaches the mortal realms, no matter the timeline, is almost solely the action of Fein.

"And here we stop for now. Hope you all enjoyed this revelation of ours. You all have been a great audience, my dear Elationists."

"Hope to see you in the future as well. Since now that we gods can partake in all the fun stuff in the mortal realm, why not have a little gatherings like this as well. A thank you. Thank you."

The audience applauds as Eris and Harlotte make a grand bow as their twist their cylinder hats with their hands like conductors of a circus.

In the audience, Perkele is applauding as well together with Fein and Lovana. Fein made sure that nobody there didn’t notice them during the show itself, but when they left the Laughing Hat, a theater they were in that Elationists gather, they would notice Perkele and the other two.

Fein asks Perkele "Should we remove some of the audience’s memories of the show itself? There was some top secret stuff there as well."

Perkele pats Fein’s back, twice softly and the third Perkele takes a Fein on his shoulder and says "We have no need for that. The intriguing aftermath would be lost in erasure. Maybe after this whole mess has been over and done with, then you have my permission. Do use your own judgement then though."

Then Perkele starts to walk away and Lovana says "In my opinion, they should have added more details about the Gutlery. Welp, be as it may, it was a good show. Not as beautiful as I would have hoped, but beautiful none the less.

As Perkele walks away, some drunkard bumps into him and the lass apologizes for the trouble, to which Perkele says with a smile "No worries."

When the lass is out of earshot, Perkele mumbles to himself, "I just found the desert of the evening." As he spins his knife with his hand.

Once.

Twice.

Thri-