Chapter 41
Bran Day had come and gone, and I sat at my desk while it seemed the rest of the citadel and city were still recovering from the night's festivities.
It was comfortingly quiet, as if everyone had given the celebration the last drop of their energy and had little left but time for sleep.
That was, except for some of the Mul Branova who weathered the festivities far better.
Jenny came in with a kettle of coffee, which was quite the delicacy post-Rapture. Simone followed not far behind her.
"Morning, Bran, my love, my everything," Simone chirped, as if last night had only invigorated her.
I chuckled and shook my head, putting down the reports I'd been perusing. "Simone," I greeted her. "How are things?" Though I’d only managed to extract myself from the bedroom a few hours ago.
"Lovely." Her eyes traced over the reports on my desk before she glanced at Jenny. "You should have the latest from the Amazon. You just came back from there," Simone helpfully added, and I folded my hands in front of me, doing my best to look patient for the report.
Jenny cleared her throat, stood up straight, and continued pouring the coffee.
"Well, I suppose I can multitask," she teased.
"The Amazon seems to be doing quite well.
After Merlin swept the area with William, we marked each and every one of their hideouts before doing a thorough sweep, covering as many places as we could at once.
The only general still down there is Cao, and the current schedule has us borrowing Merlin and William for another sweep every two weeks. "
"Thorough," I complimented her.
"We can't account for every way they could hide, but we can double- and triple-check our work until we've got ninety-nine-point-nine percent of them," she said.
I nodded in understanding. "We wouldn't say we could eliminate all demons. That would simply be hubris. They have a multitude of ways to hide."
"William's getting plenty of experience in this, too," Simone added, "which means his scanning is only getting more and more efficient, so hopefully, we can get all of them."
"Yes. Though I'm certain the Demon Lord's interest in the region has dropped significantly now that he's used his plans in the area and drained them of stats and levels."
Jenny nodded. "We suspect he'll at least investigate, to try to understand what's happened. The longer we can continue to clear those demons, the longer he remains in the dark."
I nodded at her logic. "Well, good. What about the rest of the world?" I asked.
"A little more difficult to say." Simone was clearly hesitating.
I crossed my arms, staring back at her.
"Communication has been disrupted with Ozzy, which means we’re blind in the Sub-Saharan region. We aren't sure what's happened, but he's not responding to any of our attempts to reach him," Simone told me.
I could only give a slow nod to that information. That was a rather large blind spot; the Heros Clan, however, didn’t extend their efforts that far south. "Do we have any leads as to why?"
"No, not yet," Simone said quickly, and I had to lean back and think about what might be happening.
As far as I could remember from my past life, Ozzy became the future leader of the Ennead Clan.
There were elders sealed deep underground, but there was no known point at which they participated in the fight with the demons—or really anything else.
They were just leeches on their clan's resources.
Internally, amongst the clan, they were the only thing I could think of that could cause Ozzy issues, unless, of course, the demons had caught him while he was out and away from the necropolis. But that was doubtful.
He was decently strong and had plenty of resources to get himself back to the fortress that was the necropolis.
"Then I suppose we owe Ozzy a visit," I said slowly. "What about Asia? Have the Wukong reported anything?"
"Positives from them," Simone answered. "They've seen a large reduction in demon activity, between their own work and Shiva’s.
Shiva appears to still be going strong. He has a great hatred for the demons, and he's earned any ego he might have.
Unlike Eve, I don't think there's a risk he'll start working with them. "
I shook my head. "And I'm sorry that happened under my watch. I was perhaps blinded by the possibilities, because I thought I knew people well enough given their former selves."
Simone shrugged, and Jenny looked at me as if I could do no wrong, of which I absolutely could. But I supposed there was no need for me to try to correct the level of devotion they had; instead, I should encourage it, lest the Demon Lord begin to tempt more allies from me in his wake.
"So it sounds like Asia is stable. Africa needs to be checked in on. And we just cleansed South America. Has Venthra gotten back from the Borrsons?" I asked.
"She has." Simone grinned. "Though I think she's taking a little time to herself."
"You mean avoiding me?" I said, squinting up at her from where I'd been drinking my coffee.
Simone chuckled, scratched her cheek, and looked away. "She might be.”
“Well, it's fine either way," I said, shrugging it off. "Almeria and I will head to Egypt."
"Anyone else?" Simone asked, with a slight, suspicious squint.
"No, just the two of us should be enough," I told her.
"Oh, that's wonderful." Simone clapped her hands together.
"Yes, just you and Almeria on a quick trip down to visit Ozzy.
I'm sure he's fine, dear," she said, almost as an afterthought, because something else had clearly captured her attention.
"And don't worry. The rest of us will be perfectly fine.
The chapter in the Amazon is coming along nicely.
Their biggest challenge is that there's a significant lack of population to pick new members from.
There's very little we can do about that particular challenge, besides making it an enticing place to bring other members to fill the void. "
I nodded slowly. "Well, I suppose that's something.
I remain concerned, however, that the foundation is too shallow.
So don't just look for Mul Branova. Look for a whole population to bring down there.
I'm sure some of the Nestor family would love the chance to start somewhere anew, as long as we can make sure they don't get too eager. "
Simone nodded in understanding. "We're working on trying to integrate with the tribes. However, they're treating us much like settlers."
"Because we are," I told her.
Simone waffled her head back and forth. "I mean, I suppose so," she said, squinting at me, and I glared at her until she sighed. "We are. But for the right reasons. Does that make it better?"
"Probably not," I said quickly, and she clicked her tongue.
"That does make it quite hard to feel like we're doing the right thing. But I know we are, because without our help, they would simply have been possessed and turned into demons. I am fairly certain no one wants that sort of life." Simone started babbling and digging the hole deeper.
"Just do what we can while we can," I said with a smile.
***
"You know, one of these days, I hope the rideshare apps resurface. I would make a killing," Merlin said, before shadows consumed her and warped her out of the desert, leaving Almeria and me staring at the massive necropolis structure in the distance.
I knew that was only a small portion of the structure above the sand. There was far more beneath it. In fact, it went on for miles below the surface with a staggering quantity of corpses buried underneath that the Ennead could call on, should they ever come under great danger.
"So dry," Almeria complained, picking at her shirt.
I smirked. "I suppose you're not exactly used to this particular weather."
"No, mine is far more wet." She chuckled.
"Are there weather patterns underneath the sea?" I asked her.
She waffled her hand. "In a way, but they're different.
There are plenty of natural currents carrying warm or cold water that can make a large change in temperature.
We have abyssal storms, and the churn from, say, a hurricane still reaches us.
I'd say it's more stable than the weather you have on the surface by a fair margin, though. " She strode forward.
The last time we'd come here, two sand golems had come out to meet us. This time, something was a little different, as two corpses rose from the sand, arms hanging forward, weaving back and forth in the few steps they took to greet us.
"Trespassers will be removed," the skeletons said.
I smiled, staring into those lifeless eyes, hoping there was someone on the other end. "We're friends of Ozzy and are just looking to catch up. We haven't heard anything since the tournament and wanted to check in on him and the agreement we had established."
There was a long pause. "Please come in. Ozzy isn't here at present, but if you had an agreement with him, I'm certain it can be discussed with the current leadership."
I did everything I could to suppress my reaction. What I wanted to say aloud was ‘What the fuck happened to Ozzy?’, but I managed to keep that inside.
"That would be appreciated," I said instead. I didn't think the other option would be taken nearly as well.
"Of course. And you must understand, with Ozzy's departure from leadership, I can't promise that negotiations he made are all going to be upheld," the voice said.
"That's a shoddy exchange of leadership," I commented. "If I can't trust you to keep your word through a leadership change, how can I trust anything? All you have to do is make a change to get out of literally any deal. At that point, it's not worth making any."
Rather than respond to that statement, the skeleton simply collapsed back into the sand.
"Somehow, I gather that's not the welcome you were expecting," Almeria said, turning to me.
"Rather unfortunate response, if I'm honest," I said and shook my head. "I expected Ozzy to be in charge of the Ennead for some time.”
I continued, walking toward the massive necropolis, giving Almeria a look I hoped said, ‘We are being listened to.’ It was difficult to communicate all of that so easily, but Almeria nodded at my expression.
"Also, their breaking of deals," she said, shaking her head. "This is simply poor leadership, to burn bridges like that."
"Yeah, something's happened here," I agreed.
As we drew close, several men in more traditional clothes than I'd seen before from the Ennead stepped out to greet us, pressing their hands together in salute as they bowed.
"Welcome, Bran Hero. And the other… I apologize; I am uncertain of your name.
But regardless, we will give you the best hospitality you can find anywhere.
" He gestured for us to enter the necropolis.
The first opening had changed from what I remembered.
It was now far more open, immediately leading to an open-air atrium where older members of the clan basked in the sun while a number of younger and quite frankly attractive members of both genders doted on them with wine and fruit, some even holding leaves over them for shade.
"Ah, you must be Bran Hero." A massive man with onyx skin stood, though the most striking feature was his inhuman head, which I couldn’t quite place.
It had an almost canine snout, but it curved down in a way I'd never seen on a dog or wolf.
He was bare-chested, wearing a kilt of gold plates and a necklace in a much smaller fashion to the skirt but still with gold plates stuck together by hinges to give it at least some flexibility.
"I understand that you knew my brother. I am Set." He gave a sad shake of his head. "Ozzy was terribly good to me, and it's an absolute shame what happened to him."
Set waved a hand and stepped up to a pool as everyone simply made way for him.
There was something to their movements. It wasn’t quite fear, too many of the initiated had gone through too much to fear someone so easily, but there was still an obedience baked into all of their faces as they sidestepped and made way for his every motion.
"Were you the one I had a chance to talk to?" I asked, taking a drink that a nearby serving woman handed me.
"Yes, and no." He waved a hand. "I don't personally control all the watchers in the sand, but when need be, I can make sure what I want to say gets across. So, what did Ozzy owe you?"
"Ozzy was participating in an alliance with me, and we were sharing information so we'd have a better view of the world despite the loss of communication throughout," I told him.
"Valuable, valuable, yes." Set nodded along.
"And I hope this won't be too hard a conversation.
But as you can see, my people are perfectly fine.
The necropolis is an oasis amidst a harsh world.
Those who wish to go out and seek fame and fortune are welcome to go out from our clan.
However, at the same time, I think many of our senior members have long earned the chance to enjoy the fruits of their labor. "
"I don't disagree. Rewarding hard work must be done," I said, sticking as close to his perceptions as possible. "However, there is a time for hard work, and then there is a time for preparation," I insisted.
"Nonsense. Even if the entire demon army, and this Demon Lord himself, marched up to the necropolis, it would be but a simple task to push them away,” he told me.
“Using the many strong initiates who have been stored up through your forebears' efforts, revived, and put to use," I said, only for Set to narrow his eyes.
"Seems Ozzy was a little too free with the information he provided," Set told me.
"No, that is my own knowledge. I wouldn't be so crass as to use something Ozzy said in confidence." I could already tell Set didn't believe a word of what I was saying.
"What happened to Ozzy?" I asked.