World Boss: Break the Narrative

We had to walk through six hours of blizzard. When we reached the safe zone, it was simply a shed with two cots. We both just collapsed one on each. I just lay there face down on the dusty canvass. I was weary. Between the bite of the cold, the mental exhaustion from the pain of literally being torn apart again and again, and the adrenaline crashes from the fighting. I needed to sleep. Figuring out a way to get the blood out of my everything could wait until tomorrow.

“Doug, next time, let’s just fuck.” Angelica said.

“Is that an invitation?” I quipped.

“If you want, go ahead. I am just gonna sleep though,” she said. She then immediately conked out. She then began to snore loudly.

Go to sleep? Yes/No

I was actually too exhausted to select the button. It took me about seven minutes but eventually, I did manage to hit the button.

I awoke less than an hour later to someone poking my face, “Wake up little brother, we need to talk.”

I swatted an arm vaguely in no particular direction. I then rolled over. Having defeated my foe, I brought up the prompt to go back to sleep.

A split second before I hit yes the cot I was on, tipped vertical. I face-planted on the hardwood floor. The sudden shock of pain brought me from asleep too tired and mad about it. I flipped over, sat up, and with great umbrage I opened my eyes.

A massive shadow stood in front of me. He looked to be a stout man of average height. Due to the umbral nature of his appearance, it was hard to be certain but he looked to be wearing heavy-plated armor. He definitely had a massive sword slung across his back. He was leaning against the wall watching me impassively.

“I’m awake, what do you want?” I demanded.

“I am Cole Dragonsworn, I have come to recruit you in deposing Zach,” he said.

“Pass,” I immediately said.

“You don’t understand…” Cole started.

I held up both hands to silence him, “I don’t think you understand. I am not here to help any of you. None of you need it. I am going to do what I can to help everyone else. So, if you are here to try and get me to kill Zach, pass.”

Cole considered me for a moment. He stepped away from the wall and sat down in front of me. “I am sorry I came on too strong. Let’s step outside, “He opened the door for me.

Begrudgingly I stepped out into the storm. “You’re lucky you didn’t wake Angelica.”

“I have stealth skills. I could shout in your face and she wouldn’t hear a peep.” Cole followed and closed the door. “That’s not important. Please listen. The short story is I am getting desperate between Nadia and Zach the world is beginning to break.”

“What do you mean?”

“I had hoped Aella would actually tell you something useful.” He shook his head. He sat in the snow and gestured for us to sit. When I did he pulled two large mugs from his storage and set them between us. He then produced a bottle and poured two generous helpings, “We never were political people, but our condition forces that to be a necessity. At some point, you will be forced onto the world stage.” He took a drink, “Do you even know what is going on in the world?”

“There is a kingdom in the gulf, there is something called the Technacoast, and gods and demons are walking the world,” I said, ticking things off on my fingers. I picked up the mug and examined it.

Analyze check Successful

Titanic Brew

This is THE drink of the titans. This potent drink will achieve either the Energized or the Buzzed condition. It also tastes great. Warning any being below heroic Scale will face a 50% chance of dying should they ingest this beverage. That said those who have drank this concoction and lived have said “it’s worth it”

This drink in not poisonous… to you

I shrugged and took a drink

You now have the energized condition. All exhaustion related conditions are removed.

This was like the best coffee ever. I was always a bit of a caffeine fiend before, but my love for this drink was both instant and soul-deep. If the description was correct, it could also be used to get drunk. Now that was an odd realization. The wine hadn’t triggered any fixation, but it also hadn’t allowed me to get drunk, probably due to my body stat, or Scale. This did have the capacity to… No. Nope, I wasn’t going to do that. Not again, the Willpower skill seemed to be an option of last resort but not again..

“Did you hear me?” Cole asked. After seeing that he had my attention he repeated, “the narrative is broken into continents. Each is having its own somewhat isolated conflicts. South America is a scifi crucible. Asia is full of every fantasy creature imaginable. Europe is a perpetual warzone. Africa is a land of nature run amok, dinosaurs included. Australia is lousy with vampires and werewolves. Antarctica is full of ruins and horrors that kill everyone, just don’t go there, ever.”

“What about North America?” I asked.

“We are in the biggest clusterfuck of them all. North America was supposed to be a Zombie apocalypse. A land of terror and gnashing teeth. That said Nadia, Zach, Aella, and I canceled that whole plot. In the end, Nadia annihilated the entire west coast. The stupid plague zombies are gone, but undead are still a thing. Crush the head of anything you kill. North America became a massive mixing pot. Fantasy running roughshod over bleeding edge tech, soldiers gunning down dread deities, and the titan spawn wandering around.”

“Okay, and I should pal around with you to kill Zach because?” I asked. Before taking another drink.

“The elder Titan Spawn are losing their way. Nadia has become a nihilist, Zach a tyrant, and Aella a narcissist.”

“And you a rebel?” I asked.

“A realist,” Cole admitted. “The five Dragons have contracted me to contain them, the titan spawn. The reward would be tremendous. I can cut you in on the deal as well.”

I put the glass down and stood up. “Pass.” I stood up to walk away.

“You don’t even know what the offer is,” Cole prompted.

“No offense, but never deal with dragons is a phrase for a reason,” I said. I turned my back to him.

“You are either with me or against me,” Cole warned.

“Wrong,” I yawned. “We are all family. We just need to grow up and get along. We should do it for the progenitor.”

“You cannot deny me,” Cole said, in the blink of an eye he was standing and lifting me into the air by my neck. “I am the head of the dragons. The world and everything in it will be mine.” As his fingers closed around my neck, the memory of the lion biting down and downing in blood shocked through my mind.

Voice of the Titan activated

“Cole, you were meant to stop the annihilation of the Dragons not betray the world to them,” that voice of cosmic will spoke through me. “The wyrms have bought and sold you as a weapon against the world. Your greed will kill Cinder and Ember. Who is watching them while you plot against your siblings? Do you honestly trust them with your children’s lives after what happened with Tia?”

Cole froze. Despite his shadowy form, I could see a look of terror distort his face.

“You never could tell the difference between cost and worth.” The titan said. “I hope my words provide clarity.”

Cole let me go, “Progenitor?”

Voice of the Titan Deactivated

“I am sorry, but he is gone.” I managed. It was weird having my throat uncrushed.

Cole shook slightly slowly, painfully slowly, he let go of my throat, “I have to go. My daughters need me.”

“Wait, do you mean Kate?” I started, but Cole was gone.

Willpower check… failed

Memories not suppressed

I fell to my knees, “daughters? As in more than one?” No, the titan had said Cinder and Ember. 280 years had passed. Kate had to be as dead as Marnie. Some dark part of me thought that was good, as images of my torn body flashed before my eyes. That dark part of my mind didn’t want her to have to fight in such a cruel world. Then the dad part of my brain kicked in. It beat that depressive bullshit to the side.

New Quest:

What any father would do: Learn the fate of Kate.

I had to know. Even if the news was terrible, I had to know.

My mind was sort of looping in some unhelpful circles. Basically, it kept cycling between the worst parts of being with Marnie and berating myself. What sort of father doesn’t immediately think about his child? Was I Kate’s dad? 280 years had passed. She was gone. What sort of father forgets his daughter? Was I Kate’s dad? 280 fucking years!

It took almost everything I had but managed to stop the spiral. Focus. Approach this like everything else. Establish priorities: I needed to find Kate. Plan 1 try and talk to the titan. It was me. It had fathered Kate. It had been there. If that doesn’t work approach the next person down the line, Nadia. She was the oldest titan and had the highest chance of knowing Kate’s whereabouts. At every level, a titan spawn has appeared to talk with me. If that happened every time, and the pattern held I would have a chance to talk to Nadia at level six. I would also ask Spawn number 5 when I got to level five. How much experience did I need?

7827 experience to next level

Well damn. That was a lot. Like a lot, a lot. That was a full-on grind. Killing snow lions would not cut it. Okay, priority two was to get experience. Option one is to help Angelica and Celeste kill this demon guy. Option two, ask for sex. Aella said that would get me an achievement that would earn somewhere in the ballpark of fifty thousand experience. I shelved that one. I didn’t trust Aella or Adora and if they were telling the truth I may overshoot and be stuck hopping straight to Zach or Aella again.

Wait, I leveled. While it didn’t directly help me find Kate, I needed to keep myself alive in the short term to find her in the long term.

Please select level 4 perk

a) Improved pact

b) Fist of the titan

Improved pact

Those that deal with you in good faith will be rewarded. Grant [Magic Attribute] beings [Attribute/3] bonus to all Attributes of pact companions. Also grant a lesser version of any perk excluding “empowered critical” you possess to pact companions. Note: this requires a pact to be formed with the titan spawn and another being. The titan spawn receives no direct benefit from this perk. Should the lesser being break the pact they will be afflicted by the effects of a smite.

Fist of the Titan

Unarmed attack ignore Mind attribute points of defense. Increase damage of unarmed attacks by +10 points. Those struck by a titan often do not live to regret it.

Well, now that was a tough choice. On the one hand, that pact thing sounded great. Assuming it rounded down like most games that meant I could add plus five to every attribute to someone that made a pact with me. From what I could tell that was a massive amount, and it would just get larger with time. I could use that to basically put together an ad hoc army out of just about anyone. On the other hand, my damage output in the Wendigo fight was not impressive. With the exception of the critical hit, my damage had topped out at roughly 20 at best. While the plus ten damage would put my damage to 30 in that situation, my suspicion was ignoring a portion of defense would put the damage per hit to 42 in that fight. This would be useless fighting mooks that I was one-shotting but could be literally lifesaving against bosses.

In the end, I went with the pact. It seemed the better option long term. While it would tip my hand, helping power up Celeste and Angelica would probably also pay dividends. I don’t know why but part of me didn’t want to tell Angelica I was a titan spawn. A non-stupid part of me also knew that the time of her thinking I was just some random guy was drawing quickly to a close.

Then I saw that I still had to select a trait

Please select trait

A) Titanic Might

B) Mental Resistance

Titanic Might

Increase Power attribute by +20. Reduce the Scale of any object or structure you wish to lift or break by three levels.

Mental Resistance

Gain ten levels of Scale to resist all mental attacks or manipulation. Thoughts cannot be read without consent. You will be able to easily resist the effects of pain, or discomfort from altering mental state.

That one was a no-brainer. I suspected but could not prove that Wilson could read my thoughts. Here’s hoping this was a ‘fuck you’ to him personally. Okay leveling over. I have become OP.

Standing outside in the snow I felt like an asshole. After a few minutes, I said, “Hey…Titan. Can you hear me?” I waited a moment. When no reply came, I tried again, “I know you have some sense of what is going on.” I took a deep breath, “I just need an answer. After I get it, I will go right back to trying to get the others back on the rails. What happened to Kate?” I just stood there in the swirling snow. Some small part of me was convinced that if I moved it would break whatever spell activated Voice of the Titan. No matter how long I waited, nothing happened. After what felt like hours, I shook my head, “I guess we haven’t changed that much after all.”

Eventually, Angelica stepped out of the shed, and we moved on.