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Spreading Chaos
🕑 Added 2022-12-12 12:01:03 +0000 UTCSeth was traveling out of the city gates with his new escorts and carriage.
After the carriage was far out of Iris’s surveillance area, Seth walked out of his carriage and looked at the two guards with a smile.
“Anything wrong, Heriot?” asked one of the guards.
Seth shook his head, and his perception energy exploded, covering the two guards and instantly making their faces blank out.
“Stop. We’re waiting for a guest.” Said Seth before returning to his carriage and lying on the small bed inside. With his breakthrough into the fourth shell, brainwashing simple humans and even first and second shell ascended was a lot easier.
After not even 30 minutes, blood mist started gathering inside the carriage. Elise’s body took form, sitting with one leg above the other on the bench across from Seth.
“You’ve grown fat. And ugly.” She said with a serious face, looking at Seth’s bald head and fat belly.
“And you’ve grown rude.” Said Seth sitting up and returning to his everyday looks. “Good to see you, Elise.”
Elise nodded and said flatly: “You’re quite late. Finally remembered about me?”
Seth smiled wryly and asked: “Are you mad I let them roam around the continent?”
“What do you think? We had a deal, and what do you do? Ask those ambition-blinded fools to roam the lands and attract ‘you know who’s attention. If they really come, we might not get spared this time, and I don’t care about them. Even I might die.”
Seth smiled and shook his head: “Don’t worry. The Coun - “
Elise’s eyes widened, and her hand turned into a blood wave, blocking Seth’s mouth completely. With a fear-stricken expression, she said: “Don’t you know that name is taboo? Leaving me to babysit a rabid dog was not enough? Do you truly want me dead?”
Seth used his destruction energy to get rid of the blood covering his mouth and said with a frown: “You really have grown ruder. They won’t do anything to either you or me.”
“I don’t know where you know what you know or who you are, but you haven’t seen their ways.” Said Elise, her human form having trouble keeping its form because of her fear.
Seth sighed and nodded: “Fine. I won’t mention their name. As I was saying, I am sure they won’t intervene for a mere blood race.”
“Also, did you think I have the time to go around wiping that slippery race off the face of the continent by myself? This way, I can also put them to good use before they are gone.”
Elise frowned and asked: “You plan on having the kingdoms of the continent waste their forces in dealing with my people for you?”
“What do you think? The plan is already in motion. I gave the alliance information about your race, along with weaknesses, your way of communicating, your way of fighting, and even locations. It’s only a matter of time before they are gone.”
Elise’s eyebrow twitched, and she said: “I’m regretting that deal with you more and more every day….”
“This is the best and most time-effective way of dealing with them. It serves both of our purposes at the same time.”
“That it does, but having the entire continent know how I operate wasn’t part of the deal….” Elise said in frustration.
“They would have still found out eventually. You even allowed Iris to learn about your wraith ability, so what’re a few more million people….” said Seth with a chuckle.
Elise sighed and lay down on the bench before saying: “Whatever… as long as they are dead… Did you come here for that brat?”
“Yes, Molly…” said Seth, his smile slowly fading.
“Not that one. I meant Iris. I’m tired of hiding underground like a rat. Things were bad initially, but once those two came, they got even worse. I even warned Cain to avoid Iris, but they had to get themselves in trouble and make her even more unpredictable.”
“What do you think I came all the way here for? But I’m going to need your help.” Said Seth.
Elise gave Seth an incredulous look and muttered: “I think my wraith must be hearing things wrong….”
“No, you’re n - “
“Don’t even start, Seth.” Interrupted Elise.
“I’ve been keeping an underground guild running all this time and playing a game of cat and mouse with that monster. I worked my ass off cleansing spies and keeping the population from panicking while waiting for you to fulfill your end of the bargain.”
“And what did you do? You released the blood race all over the continent instead of wiping them out as you promised and allowed those two idiots to come here and make things worse. Now you want me to help in dealing with Iris? No, thank you. That’s your problem to solve.”
“But - “
“No buts.” Interrupted Elise again.
“It was annoying to get out and meet you here, but I figured you might need information and took the risk. Never in my wildest dreams would I have believed you asked me here for my help. “
“She knows the location of my true core and is always keeping an eye on it. There have also been rumors of people combusting up in flames around the capital, so while not proven, Iris is definitely behind it.”
“Holding that useless king prisoner using my blood can only go so far. I’m sure she can end me in an instant if she wants to, so good luck, but I’m not helping.”
Elise didn’t even wait for Seth to reply as her wraith dissolved into a blood mist and disappeared from the carriage.
-----
“Well, that was a big failure…” muttered Seth. “Now, how do I get those two separated?”
Unfortunately, there was no one to answer Seth’s question this time. The system has already calculated that the chances of rescuing Molly while keeping Iris alive were almost null without Elise’s help.
Walking out of the carriage, he sat down behind a tree and started thinking about his options. The two guards were sitting not far away from him, looking toward Seth with a worshiping gaze.
-----
Three days passed in silence, with Seth not moving a single step from that tree. He kept having the system show him Iris, Molly, the king, and Elise, trying to devise a new plan. Still, in the end, no matter what idea he came up with, the system was there to crush his hopes.
While fully immersed in surveying the city, the non-ascended guard he had completely brainwashed fell from his feet with a thud and started seizing on the ground.
The noise quickly attracted his attention, and Seth finally returned to the real world. Seth looked at the seizing guard and asked the system: ‘What’s wrong with him?’
<Dehydration, exhaustion, hunger.>
‘Are you saying they’ve been staring at me for the past few days?’
<Affirmative. Due to the complete brainwashing, their survival instincts are gone.>
Seth frowned and covered the seizing body with his destruction energy. After his energy retracted, the man’s body was gone entirely.
“I didn’t expect it to overwrite even basic survival instincts completely.” Muttered Seth, and, after seeing that the fire ascended was still holding on, Seth returned to figure out a plan, only for his system to intervene.
<Whatever options host is considering, I’ve included them in my simulations. If nothing unexpected happens, the chances of success will stay the same.>
“Something unexpected, huh…” muttered Seth as his perception source started rotating inside his body. “You might not be wrong. A chance might show itself if there’s enough chaos going on.”
<?>
Seth smiled at the system’s reaction and said: “Let’s experiment with my perception source.”
After his words ended, Seth disappeared from the place he was at and appeared on a hill overlooking the capital, just outside of Iris’s detection range.
Cracking his knuckles, he extended his hands forward dramatically and closed his eyes as his perception energy rushed out of his source.
<What is host’s purpose?>
‘I don’t know.’, replied Seth before sending all that gathered energy inside the city, having it cover the human population as it traveled deeper toward the inner ring.
“I need your help right now, so it’s time for you to show your worth.” Seth muttered as he activated his perception energy. He had managed to only cover about half of the city, but he could only hope it was enough.
The energy was spread so thin that it couldn’t even brainwash a fly, but Seth had other plans for his experiment.
“I need you to go wild perception. Bring a change. Something. Anything.”
Seth kept his energy activated for an entire day, not moving a single inch from that hill. The system kept informing him that there was no change. Still, Seth ignored the notifications as he continued to have faith in his decision.
The system was right, there was no significant change, but Seth’s efforts were not entirely fruitless. The heated atmosphere inside the city due to the incoming war and all their hidden feelings were slowly being brought to the surface by Seth’s energy.
The people whispering about the Kingdom’s downfall started to speak a bit louder. The gangs that were spending their days terrorizing the slums started beating one more person per day. The fights around bars and marketplace ended up with more than a few broken bones.
The general population was quicker to temper and angrier, as their decisions became a bit more impulsive.
Seth kept using his perception source for three days until the system finally noticed a change, and a different notification appeared in his vision.
<A guard killed a drunk nobleman because he was trying to get his way with a young woman against her will.>
It didn’t seem like something major, but the guards will never dare raise their hands against the nobles, at least the normal ones, and it brought just a tiny bit of hope to Seth.
The system stopped sending notifications to dissuade Seth and started monitoring the general population closer. Without access to former records, giving an accurate report on the changes was quite tricky. Still, it had finally understood there was a chance to Seth’s plan.
<A noble’s house was set on fire.>
<A protest against the royal family was held inside the marketplace.>
...
Two more days passed and random acts of violence started spreading throughout the capital, enough even to attract the king’s attention. The shadow guards of the royal family were working full time, trying to silence even voices of treason that had started spreading around the population.
----
Iris, who had her energy listening throughout the city, also noticed something strange. Still, no matter how she looked into the sudden incidents, there didn’t appear to be anyone behind it.
“What is going on?…” she asked herself while sitting up from her desk and walking towards the window.
An uneasy feeling spread throughout her body as she listened to the city’s voice. Even Molly, who she carried around with her every day, had started being much more vulgar in her protests.
“The last time strange things like this started happening… it was him. Is he back?” muttered Iris. “And if so, how is he doing this? What is he planning?”
-----
King Lian was sitting on his throne with a dark countenance, already tired of the reports he was receiving.
“Have the people gone mad? Did they forget who is keeping them all safe?” he roared, punching the armrest of his throne.
The officials in the throne room shuddered and lowered their heads, not daring to look their king in the eyes right now.
Everyone in the throne room has barely had any sleep these days, with meetings over meetings being called and reports of bad news coming from all over the city on repeat.
“It is those bastards. Spies have infiltrated our city again. Shadows.” Yelled the king, two shadow guards appearing right in front of him.
“Go to the registration hall and get the records of every person that entered the city in the last week. No, make it two weeks. I want them all dead.”
“Your Majesty, please - “
“Shut up.” Yelled the king with bloodshot eyes, turning towards the official that dared to speak against him. “Guards. Throw him into the dungeon.”
The guards quickly picked up the poor official, and the shadows went to fulfill their order.
----
The chaos Seth was hoping for slowly started spreading throughout the Capital of Oath. Soon, the chance he was waiting for showed itself with a notification.
<A mob of people had killed an academy student.>
