Shortly after being allowed inside, several explosions were heard from within the Fort, and William Oh was spotted retreating at great speed. It is believed that talks between William oh and the Church of Granesh did not go well.

a letter on Marksman’s desk

“So you’re level sixty-seven?” Will asked.

“Indeed.” Edward Nakos said, his expensive robe billowing around him as they walked.

“You don’t seem like a Climber.” Will said, studying The Speaker.

The only other old Climber that Will had seen had been Zodiac, and the man was made of threaded wire. This Speaker fellow…looked rather soft.

“I’m not.”

“Then how?”

“Tithes. Over my long lifetime, I’ve gotten thousands of ‘Tithe Quests’ from various devout Lords. Quests as simple as ‘raise your right hand’ for tens of thousands of XP.”

“…Huh.” Will had so many angry thoughts competing for space that he couldn’t do anything but give a dissatisfied grunt.

“You may wish to support various Priestesses of Holdna in the same way. I hear there’s quite a lot of rookies to choose from this year.”

I suppose that tracks. It’s not because he’s an asshole that took XP from everyone, it’s because he’s the racehorse that made it to the finish line.

Past Lords had bribed him over so many decades that it piled up into an outrageous level.

Will himself wouldn’t say no to bribing a few priests to get what he wanted, if he could afford it.

“Here,” Edward Nakos said, gesturing to a plain wooden door.

The Confession Room was a solid stone room that smelled faintly of blood. A fortune in Giant’s bone was hidden beneath the stone. Will could see the miasmatic structures arranged in a circle around a chair in the center of the plain room, lines of miasmatic structures rising from the floor and floating, towards the center, looking like cobwebs converging on a central point.

Will made a sketch and saved it in his legend. Truth magic could come in handy.

“Whoever sits on that chair cannot lie.” The Speaker said, gesturing.

“Humor me?” Will asked, pointing at the chair.

The speaker sat down on the chair, and Will watched as the miasmatic structures hooked into him, burying themselves in his mind.

“Who’s your first crush?”

“While the room compels truth, it does not compel a response,” Edward said with a slight scowl.

That explains the faint smell of blood. They must have to persuade people to speak from time to time.

“Switch.”

Will had just wanted to make sure there wasn’t any nasty extras built into the chair, so he made the old man sit first.

The Speaker stood and Will took his place.

My hair is green.

“My hair…is…brown.” Will said, struggling against an irresistible force in his mind.

“Good enough.” Will said, standing and running through his Memory Key. “let’s get started.”

Will dropped the corpse on the ground and Edward knelt over it, muttering a prayer to Granesh, his hand glowing brilliantly.

Ash’s Class flared to life first, a complex miasmatic structure revived by Edward’s Ability, inhabiting a corpse. Will watched as Edward’s Ability flooded the revived miasmatic structures with power, which in turn spread out in a fractal pattern, gradually turning dead flesh into living.

“It takes a moment.” Edward said, standing and turning to face Will. “Do you know what brain damage is?”

“Beyond just bashing it? Enlighten me.”

“Sometimes when a man is choked out, or drowns, or bleeds too heavily, a certain amount of his brain is damaged by the lack of blood. Sometimes this causes personality changes. Resurrection often has effects similar to this.

The resurrectee often loses pieces of themselves in the process. It can be recovered over time, but often the damage is permanent.”

“I know a girl who was resurrected.” Will mused.

“Alicia Zodiac, correct? By all accounts she was more outgoing before she was resurrected. Whether that change was from the trauma of dying, or an imperfect resurrection, we’ll never know.”

Alicia had died because she didn’t have a proper Tank, and after reviving, she had only spoken in whispers and practically glued herself to the first Tank she found, which Will attributed to the trauma of dying. But who knew?

Ash’s corpse gasped and flopped over, staring at the ceiling with bloodshot eyes.

Will crouched down in the corner of the room, his Relics rendering him invisible as he attempted to hide.

“There, son, you’re safe now,” The Speaker said, stooping down and putting a shoulder under Ash’s arm before helping him to the Confessional Chair.

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

“Who are you?” Ash asked, blinking against grogginess that never seemed to clear up. “Where am I?”

“I’m the Speaker of the High Saints Council of Granesh, Edward Nakos.” Edward said, his hand on his chest.

“The Deceiver nearly killed you, but we managed to save you.”

“Granesh…I was supposed to…Is my family safe?”

“Why wouldn’t they be?” Edward asked.

“Lord Marksman said that they would die if I failed…to…” Ash’s eyes gradually widened.

“Fail to start a war between William Oh and the Church of Granesh?” Edward asked.

Ash’s lips locked tight, but they’d already heard enough.

Will stood and approached, the invisibility from his rogue Kit wearing off.

“Well, that was fast.”

“We got lucky.” The Speaker said. “Sometimes they figure it out before they spill anything. Sometimes when you bring them back they can’t remember their own name.”

“I…died?” Ash asked.

“Yeah. Sorry.” Will said with a shrug.

Ash’s eyes widened. “Then I’ve failed. They’re dead.”

“Well…” Will glanced at the Speaker. “Is there any part of the Fort you’d be okay with me blowing up?”

“You wanna pretend that we’re at war?” the Speaker asked. “For him? You realize his family is most likely dead already, and you can’t sell us weapons while we fake a war? Marksman’s aim in this subterfuge wasn’t you, it was the church of Granesh. We had a strong presence on the second Floor before Caddock ruined us, and Marksman is trying to use you to prevent us from recovering. He considers you a malleable child.”

“I am a malleable child. But maybe not in the way Marksman thinks,” Will said. “I could sell you the routes of poorly guarded shipments of weapons, and you could take them yourself.”

The Speaker rubbed his chin.

“I suppose that could work.”

“Just until I figure out if his family is alive or dead.” Will said, pointing at Ash.

“You want to rescue civilians you’ve never even met?” The Speaker asked.

“The guy committed suicide to keep his family safe. His mettle has been proven.”

“I suppose so…” The Speaker mused, casting a critical eye towards Ash. “Let’s move this conversation elsewhere. Our guest has already overheard too much.”

Will nodded and they left. A swarm of soldiers flooded into the room behind them and carried Marksman’s scapegoat off.

“Before I’ll be willing to play along with this charade, I need to know what this weapon of yours can do. To the training yard.” The speaker said, pointing a gnarled finger.

Once they arrived, Will pulled out the automatic crossbow and went over the details.

“It shoots pieces of anchorite about the size of a man’s thumb. Anchorite doesn’t like to move, and when it’s moving, it doesn’t like to stop.

Based on my observations during the Establishing Quest, my inventor has made improvements. There are anchorite pieces in the handle that stabilized the entire gun when the trigger is pulled, so the aim on firing no longer shakes. In the frame is a piece of giant’s bone with miasmatic structures that can hold excess Charge from the bearer, up to three additional shots.”

“The biggest problem is the shots per day are limited,” Will said. “What I mean is that a civilian with say, eight Focus can only use eight shots, plus the three stored in the frame, in rapid succession before they can no longer fire the weapon, or any of the other weapons, save the ones that have stored a bit of charge. It’s limited by their own Focus. We’re working on increasing the ability to store shots, but at the moment, sustained battles are the weapon’s biggest weakness.”

“I think we can eventually allow the weapon to store up to a dozen or so shots, but they still won’t be able to keep firing after their user’s Charge runs dry.

“You’re not exactly selling me on this.” Edward said, squinting up at Will.

“I’m explaining the problems in good faith because everything else about this weapon is amazing.” Will said.

“Well, prove it.” The Speaker said, nodding towards a suit of Blessed Steel armor strapped onto a thick wooden pole buried deep in the courtyard.

Without ceremony, Will pulled the crossbow out of its holster and fired.

BOOOM!

An explosive noise echoed through the courtyard as the waist-thick piece of wood snapped off, allowing the suit of blessed steel armor to fly away at an odd angle, slamming partway into the wall above them and staying there.

The bullet itself carried on, trajectory unchanged, piercing through the courtyard wall and through the rooms beyond, whizzing past one particularly lucky scholar’s ear.

Edward peered up at the armor lodged in the stone wall, and pointed at the massive gouge in the breastplate, a furrow drawn as the anchorite forced its way past.

“It didn’t go through.”

“Sure didn’t.” Will said. “The weakest link in that exchange was the post holding everything up. I.E., the guy wearing the armor. How do you think he’s feeling right now?”

“Hmm…”

Will raised the crossbow and shot three more times in rapid succession.

The armor blasted through the wall and sailed into the sky, becoming nothing more than a twinkling mote of light in the distance.

“Let me try.” Edward said, holding out his gnarled hand.

“Keep in mind, you can’t kill me with this. Anybody above level 40 can probably survive it.” Will warned him against doing anything stupid as he handed the weapon over. “Let me show you how to reload it.”

He opened the cylinder and fished around in his pockets, retrieving four anchorite bullets, demonstrating to the Speaker how the bullets hung in the air when Will let go of them, refusing to surrender to gravity.

Click, the crossbow was reloaded.

“Hmm.” Edward hummed, looking over the weapon, fiddling with the cylinder with a thoughtful frown.

“Another target!” The Speaker shouted, and the nearby zealots of Granesh hopped to it.

They prepared another target in an impressively short time, and Edward leveled the crossbow at it, taking careful aim before he pulled the trigger.

The exact same thing happened. The thick wooden pole snapped off and the armor flew off to lodge itself in the wall, much to the Speaker’s surprise.

“I assumed the weapon’s power was a result of some Kit or Ability you had.” Edward said, blinking as he studied the second piece of armor halfway buried in the wall. “But it’s just that powerful, isn’t it?”

“Pretty much. So how many do you want?” Will asked.

“Have you ever heard of a magazine-fed crossbow?” The Speaker asked.

Will shook his head.

“The bolts are fed to the crossbow by a little box that sits on top,” Edwards motioned to the top of the crossbow. “Then when the box is empty, they replace that box with another one and keep firing.”

Will’s eyes widened.

“You’re saying if I take the Charge-storing effect and apply it to this ‘magazine’ with the bullets inside them, anyone can swap out to a charged magazine and keep firing. Instead of tying the charging ability to the gun itself, tie it to what we store the ammunition in.”

That’s a much better solution! That would allow anyone to charge the magazines, not just the person holding the weapon, and when its needed, they hand the magazines to the one using the weapon.

“They said you were quick.” Edward nodded in satisfaction. “Make the modifications, and we’ll buy ten thousand units. Each unit will be one weapon, three magazines, and one hundred and twenty bullets.”

One point two million bullets? Will thought. They would have to figure out a way to speed things up drastically. When Will claimed he could provide millions in a matter of months, he admittedly was being a bit optimistic.

“You’ve got a deal.” Will said, extending his hand. “My logistician will go to the temple in Akul to work out the payment details.”

Edward grasped Will’s hand with his own gnarled one.

Will leaned forward and lowered his voice.

“And if you don’t stop hunting Immortal Serpent orphans, I’ll kill every last one of you. forget martyrdom, I’m talking extinction.”

Edward paled and nodded.

“We can’t afford to continue doing so. Our priority has changed to reconsolidating and preparing for the end of the Coil. It should be easy enough to divert the resources we typically spend on it.” Edward said.

Will clapped Edward on the shoulder.

“I’m so glad we could come to an understanding. That advice about the ‘magazine’ was just the solution we needed!” Will said with a big grin. “I never thought it would come from the Speaker himself.

“When you’ve been around as long as I have, you see a lot of interesting stuff.” The Speaker said, nodding. “You also wind up making compromises with evil for the greater good.”

Will’s eyes narrowed. “Don’t I know it.”