Apocalypse Redux - Chapter 268: War Council

“So, we got War with some kind of fallen angel transformation [Skill], durability that makes them functionally immortal on the battlefield, and the ability to affect the perceptions of those who get too close. Is that everything?” Habicht asked.

“I’m pretty sure that [Axis Mundi] is also a shared [Skill],” Isaac added.

“The gravity pillar?” Jason frowned on the other side of the round table, “Your battlefield didn’t look like it got deployed. Or … that name means something like ‘center of the world’, right? Gravity pillar, cylinder of disintegrating vibrations … those are all big announcements along the lines of ‘here I am, face me, if you dare’.”

“I see,” Habicht nodded, “So, big cylinder of whatever the current iteration of War has for an element. And that element seems to tie into either destruction or battlefield control. Element is determined by their previous [Classes], main combat abilities too, and they have a bunch of nasty bonus powers just for being Aspirants. But that doesn’t exactly help us if we don’t know what their elements are.”

“So we plan around what we do know, don’t group up in case that elemental pillar gets thrown at us, and when War does show up, throw me or Isaac at them,” Fenrir suggested.

“And if that doesn’t work, call Sun,” Arthur suggested.

“I don’t like ‘raw force’ as the primary plan. It’s a good backup, but we need a better initial approach,” Yoo-jin pointed out, “And if War does show up, I should be a better counter because my ice is a good battlefield control method. I can tie them down while you guys figure out how to win the fight.”

“Pestilence should be easy, though,” Arthur said, “The professor is immune to diseases and if he isn’t around, Dr. Loup is a solid second option.”

“Dr. Loup is a better option,” Bailey corrected, “I can keep myself safe no matter what, but I’m not able to scrub the area around the fight like he can.”

“What if that Kitsune shows up again?” Elena asked, “They were able to keep Sun at bay, and he’s supposedly able to see through most illusions.”

“That’s because Kitsune illusions have a physical component to them, they literally block line of sight even if you should be able to see through them, though anyone with anti-illusion sight will be able to identify them on sight,” Isaac explained, “Anyone with good senses and sufficient power will be able to tie the fox up. That means me, Sun, or Patrick. Raul might be able to erase the illusions as ‘unnatural’, but that depends on the exact matchup. I wouldn’t risk it.”

“I should be able to tear them apart with my [Aura] if they get too close,” Fenrir added.

“Where are we on getting a target?” Han asked, only to suddenly flicker out of the [Round Table] for a brief moment. Everyone knew that meant his dog was demanding pets. After a few seconds, he returned and Habicht answered the question.

“We have a few leads, most of their European and North African teleportation hubs, and the bodies of their portal mages, but no real target locations. Oh, and we know who death is,” he announced, using the table’s ability to manifest illusionary props to summon a wanted poster. The typical plain white sheet with a couple of pictures and a description of the wanted individual’s crimes.

“This guy is Josef Goodman, wanted for a laundry list of crimes, some predating the [System]. He vanished right around initialization and when people finally caught on to the fact that he’d fallen off the face of the world, his dorm room was emptied and it was discovered that he was planning an act of bioterrorism. He was already on plenty of ‘lists’, but given that he fell off the face of the Earth, he was rather low on the priority list.

“Nowadays, he’s got one hell of a laundry list of crimes. Terrorism, bioterrorism, basically every single conspiracy charge on the books, more financial crimes than most of the people who actually get prosecuted for them.”

“You know, it’s very tempting to just put a bounty on his head,” Isaac mused, “Too bad that’s illegal.”

“‘Dead or Alive’ style bounties are illegal,” Habicht said, “But as long as you stay within legal limits, feel free. Basically, you can offer rewards for information. I wouldn’t, though, you’ll just end up with fifty-percent crazies, fifty-percent scammers.”

“What if I send them your way?” Isaac asked, “If you have people with truth-telling [Skills] …”

“Don’t,” Habicht didn’t raise his voice, but his tone brooked no argument.

“So what are we dealing with here, overall?” Elena asked, “Scope, average Level, and [Class] rarity?”

“Based on our interrogations, we’re looking at something like fifty teleportation hubs all around the world, with between seven and nine portal mages in each. Ardouin fried thirteen of them, but the places themselves can be replaced easily. All you need is a room, a reinforced door, and walls, and that’s it,” Jason said, “As for actual bases, we don’t actually know much for certain. I don’t even think they were working hard to compartmentalize things, they just got lucky.”

“How so?” Habicht frowned, “Compartmentalization isn’t the sort of thing that happens by accident.”

“Way I heard it, they’re all connected through some kind of communication [Skill] that works just like the [Round Table], just better.”

“Better?” Arthur asked, incredulous.

“Well, it’s utterly useless when it comes to anything other than communication, but they can talk to each other without having to focus on it. Unless they’re building microchips by hand or performing brain surgery, they can work and talk,” Jason explained, “They got that ability around a year after the [System] dropped and we’ve got no fucking idea who even holds the [Skill]. Some think it might be Death, but we don’t even have a strong suspicion, let alone proof.”

“Crap,” Arthur muttered.

“Unless we manage to identify the person who connects them all and make sure they can’t use it anymore, we can’t break that organization,” Elena summarized, “But we can go after the members, I doubt the people looking to kill everyone are having much luck recruiting.”

“But how the hell did they get together in the first place?” Fenrir wondered, “Were they all recruited by the dark gods? Even if they weren’t able to act initially, that doesn’t seem right.”

“Right, did you manage to get the exact phrasing on the prohibition on direct action?” Elena asked.

Suddenly, the room darkened, and Jason’s head snapped up to lock eyes with her as he proclaimed in a dark, echoing voice “You will destroy the world in our name, and in exchange, you will want for nothing in your next life, your every whim and even unconscious desire fulfilled. You will be given comrades, and together, you must grow in power until you are able to affect global change.”

As he spoke, Amy got up from her seat and left the Round Table, though Isaac wasn’t sure why.

“However …” Jason flickered and disappeared, returning the room to normal. He returned a moment later, rubbing the back of his head. Amy came back as well. It didn’t take Sherlock Holmes to figure out what had happened there.

“However, there is a limitation that has to be imposed to enforce balance in the celestial realm. Until the [System’s] ten-year anniversary, you may only make preparations, taking no overt actions to destroy the world. However, you may defend yourselves if attacked.” Jason finished explaining in his normal voice, “And then there were all sorts of individual extra promises, and most of them were reassured about how the world would probably end anyway.”

“So that’s how it worked,” Han mused, “Overwhelming power, promises of immense rewards, and a whole lot of talking down what they’d have to do. No wonder it worked, especially if they picked people receptive to that kind of talk.”

“But that doesn’t help us much,” Elena said, “We already figured out there was a time limit, and were planning around it.”

“What about their total numbers?” Isaac asked.

Jason shrugged, “I dunno. The meeting [Skill] is basically a big amphitheater with a table in the middle, but the people in the stands can’t see much beyond the table and their immediate surroundings. There could be as few as a hundred true believers, or maybe there are tens of thousands.”

“We managed to confirm that some of the people involved were mercenaries,” Habicht stated, “We only got a rough guestimate for their number, some claimed there’re hundreds of thousands.”

Jason snorted, “There can’t be more than fifty thousand, and even that is at the extreme end.”

“So we go for the money,” Elena suggested, “We find banking info, we find their money, we freeze their accounts. Even in the worst-case scenario, we’d still cost them a good eighty percent of their forces.”

“Why don’t we just wear them down, fight a battle of attrition? We have a little over six years left,” Fenrir suggested, “Once we have enough bases dialed in, we hit them in concert, and use the information uncovered to get the names and faces of individual members. And then we hunt them. If the people sitting around this table can’t go after them directly for some reason, we throw resources at the problem. We hire mercenaries, put out bounties, frame them if necessary. We have the resources, so we use them. Even if we can’t outright beat them like that, not letting them get a single second of rest is going to make them easy targets.

“Not a single moment of peace until we find and end them. And once that’s done, we send in investigators to rip apart everything about them until we find more targets and then we go after those folks. And again, and again and again until there isn’t a single member of those fuckers still breathing. That’s how we win.”

Habicht fake-coughed. Fenrir raised an eyebrow. Habicht repeated the action.

“Ah, sorry,” Fenrir added, “Hypothetically, that’s how we win.”

Having to work around what Habicht might be asked about by his superiors was a pain in the ass, but having him here and available to help was useful beyond measure, so they put up with the limitations.

“Sounds like a plan, hypothetically,” Isaac said, “But we still need the initial targets because this won’t work unless we actually have people to track down.”

“Your guy’s working on it,” Jason said, “Last time I saw him, he was sitting in a motel room and I swear to God, there isn’t a single square centimeter not covered in notes or string.”

“We’re working on it too,” Habicht added, “Together, we should have enough targets for a proper decapitation strike in a few months.”

Isaac sighed in relief. Even if it was a little grating that there wasn’t much he could do right now to help, things had been set in motion and in due time, that would be the end of their enemy.

Until then, well, it was time to train.

“We still need to get on the same page about how we know each other,” Fenrir interrupted his train of thought, “Me and Isaac met at R’lyeh, he introduced me to Arthur and Habicht at some point. Does that work for everyone?”

So they spent another five minutes laying out a detailed backstory with enough leeway that it didn’t sound rehearsed, and made plans for actual in-person meetings so that at least some truthful statements could be made about their interactions.

But then, they went off to prepare.