Chapter 1751 – Advantage State

“What do I do now…?”

The choked question almost broke John’s heart. It was not his to answer. In fact, the only thing he could do in this situation was watch through Gnome’s eyes as a daughter and father shared their final moments.

Huitzilopochtli had paid the price for denying Xipe-Totec what was his. The already greatly diminished body of the god of sacrifice was now nothing more than a gelatinous head barely rising above a running mound of flesh. The demigoddess cradled the head, not caring for the stains she put on herself in the process.

“I don’t know… Nahua…” Huitzilopochtli answered. “I never knew… what to do…” Inhaling deeply through his liquifying orifice, the god of sacrifice summoned all the emotion he still could. “I… was never strong enough… to resist him but… I knew that I couldn’t let them win here. I can’t let him do to you what… he did to me…” Something like a hand rose from the gelatinous mass, placing melted fingers on Nahua’s cheek. “He is your progenitor… but I always loved you as my daughter.”

“…Father, I…” Nahua swallowed and tilted forwards. Forehead to forehead, they sat there, both sobbing. John could only begin to understand the depths of the trauma Nahua was suffering today. It had barely been an hour since the revelation had occurred.

“Do what I could not… do… what is right.”

Those were the final words of the god of sacrifice. A sigh escaped his lips, before the last bit of tension keeping his body together relaxed. The head in Nahua’s arms fully liquified. The body of the god seeped into the sand and soil, fusing with the greater Sanctum that was, in part, of his Faith. The only thing he left his daughter was the remains of his spine – an elongated piece of smooth vertebrae fused together, as crimson as the stakes that made up the roads.

Sitting there in silence, Nahua held the red bone in her hand. “DO NOT.-“ she suddenly shouted. “Do not dare ask me… if I will join you…” The demigoddess glared at Gnome and through her at the Gamer. “I will kill the god of gluttony. I will bury my father’s spine in his entrails, for his glory in the after world! Only tell me… what is next…”

It was visibly difficult for Nahua to maintain any one level of energy. She could not be faulted for it. The fact that she managed to get onto her feet was proof of willpower enough.

“Lee, can you bring us across?” the Gamer asked.

Since the Grim Reaper had been devoured, she had been needed to stem against the tide of Macuil’s control over the Sanctum alone. In that, she had performed beyond John’s wildest imaginations. Over the past ten minutes, she had figured out how to use the connection they shared via the Lover’s Will mark to create short-lived tunnels that had allowed John to consolidate his forces. Besides the elementals, all of his harem was currently in the same place.

The process had taken a heavy toll on Lee. Breathing heavily, sweating profusely, the Fateweaver was currently coughing while taking sips from some kind of combat stimulation drug that Scarlett had carried on her. John heavily disliked the use of substances like that, but this was not the time to deny that doping worked.

“Maybe…?” The dark-haired woman wiped her forehead. “Probably just one way though.”

John nodded and adjusted his plan accordingly. With the god-warriors dead, they theoretically were in the advantage state. In video game terms, that meant that they could play the situation proactively, while their enemy had to restrain himself to either a reaction or go for a gamble that reordered the current situation.

The problem with this analogy was that it required their overall objectives to be similar. On that viewpoint, however, Macuil had the advantage. Once he had digested the Grim Reaper fully, they were done. Lee would not be able to prevent the god of gluttony to take over his entire Sanctum again. At that point, it would not matter if they theoretically had enough high-powered people to fight someone as powerful as Macuil. It would be incredibly hard outside the Sanctum. Inside, it was impossible.

The ringing sound of a coin pulled John out of his rapid thoughts. All of a sudden, Hikari, Norahnon and Malady burst out of the ground. The stone tile of the massive arena they had been in was lifted up by the arms of the Illuminati leader’s mech and put aside. The three combatants crawled up, quickly followed by much of the Illuminati’s ground forces. The abundance of ant gore scattered over their equipment made it quite obvious where they had been stuck in.

“You weren’t lying, luck is on your side,” Malady said to the samurai, who only gave a quick scan of the situation.

Norahnon positioned his giant mech in front of John. Part of the chest plate moved to the side, revealing the scientist’s face. It was paler than usual, a number of small purple spots on it betraying that he, much like Lorelei, had been infected. A fate that would befall many of them before long. Just another reason to put the pedal to the metal. “I do not need a briefing at this time. The present Illuminati forces will follow your lead.”

“Thank you,” John answered. This was not the time to explain anything in detail.

Gnome pulled at their mental connection, moving part of his attention to her view of Ares. The first of the three Horsemen to get on his feet again, he marched on over to Nahua. “Let me forge you a weapon from your father’s remains.”

To John’s sensibilities, the question was borderline insulting. To Nahua, it appeared to be a compliment. “Make me a blade that can gut gluttony itself,” she hissed.

“MEOW!” Velka made herself known. The healed birdcat was constantly roaming up and down the edge of the island. It was the most intense reaction he had seen from her yet.

“Lee, I want you to open up a way for you, the rest of the crafting crew, the Creator Puppet, and the average Illuminati forces to go through. You will join up with the elementals. The rest of us will head to confront Macuil. Hikari, Malady and Norahnon will help us in that.” John’s gaze went through a flying ego blade and onto a temple in the distance. Whether it was a perfect replica or the exact same one located in the Glory Road, transplanted in space, hardly mattered. The Eternal Sanctum was internally connected. That was the way to get back to where the god of gluttony was waiting for things to turn out in his favour. “I’ll give further orders through the Creator Puppet, when appropriate.”

“A moment,” Hikari spoke up and grabbed a small bag hidden in the chest part of her kimono. Checking inside it, she evaluated swiftly, then pulled out a singular golden coin. It was too shiny to be regular metal and sang as if it had hit a pool of its siblings whenever it was moved even the slightest bit. “Take this with you.”

Lee caught the coin instinctively when it was flipped towards her. “Uhm, thanks?” she asked and looked to John for assurance. For his part, the Gamer was working out a lot of things on how Hikari and Kage had gotten as far as they had.

“Flip it when you feel it’s time for the tides to turn,” Hikari explained. “Let it fall where it may.”

“Keep that in mind, it’s going to help,” John said to Lee and pulled a vial from his own inventory. The Mythical Ichor weighed heavy in his hand, especially after he handed it over to the Creator Puppet. As much as he would have loved to increase the power of his equipment, upgrading any of their items right now would have led to the new item needing to be mastered. The Mythical Ichor would serve another purpose. He also handed as many of the crafting materials as they could carry to the members of the crafting crew. “Let’s get moving!”

The force split into two halves.

Staying where they currently were, in the landscape of arenas and fighting pits, were John, Rave, Aclysia, Momo, Nia, Metra, Beatrice, Claire, Ehtra, Moira, Norahnon, Malady and Hikari.

Going out were the Creator Puppet, Lee, Scarlett, Delicia, Hailey, and Lorelei, putting them together with the three Horsemen, the elementals, Nahua and Velka. With them would also be the other forces of the Illuminati that had ended up with them for whatever reason.

Lee forced the tunnel open and everyone hurried through.

Velka greeted him with an immediate urgent warble. “In a moment,” he assured her and handed over the Mythical Ichor to Hailey. “Give this to War for making that weapon, I trust he’ll know to do something with it. If he takes helping hands, help him.”

“If not, we’ll at least learn by lookin’,” Hailey finished the thought for him.

While the country gal moved over to one rider, the Gamer marched over to the remaining two. Famine had reached a point of equilibrium, sitting in the sand without much of a thought on his face. Glory was still on all fours, bowing to his fate.

“Get up,” the Creator Puppet spoke harshly. “We’re not done yet.”

“Oh, but we are done,” Glory answered in a whisper. “We’re all doomed.”

John did not comment on that, especially not since the leader of the riders did stumble to his feet. ‘Best to let him wallow for the time being,’ the Gamer thought and clutched Inkaryl a little tighter. The mace would play a key role before all of this was done. That was, if his plan was going to work out as anticipated.

Velka kept on jumping left to right, warbling at everyone to follow her already.

“Can your elementals make a forge?” Ares asked as the Creator Puppet passed him.

“We’re not making a forge, not yet,” he answered and stepped up to Velka. As soon as she realized that she was finally being obliged, she darted off the shore and into the jungle. There was something on this island that had drawn her here and something that Xipe-Totec had wanted to show Nahua. The two had to be connected. “She’s a Magryph, she’s attracted to things of great value,” he explained to the three riders while they made it deeper into the jungle. “I suspect Macuil may have held onto something of unparalleled worth here.”

“And what would that be?” War grunted, sounding unconvinced.

“His cradle.”

The jungle opened up before them again in no time. They weren’t simply walking in the first place, hastening after Velka as fast as the Magryph could guide them. In the new clearing, an odd structure poked out of the simple brown soil. With its pillars and slanted stone roof, it was akin to an ancient Greek temple just… even more ancient than that. Its forms were not as stylized yet, missing many of the hallmarks of the actual period.

John took over from Velka in leading their way into the building. On the ground level, there was only a small room with many shelves, lined with esoteric tools. A large staircase led down into a vast underground chamber complex. The main room was a workshop, containing everything from an alchemical table to a forge. Everything was simultaneously incredibly far behind current technology and yet appeared more sophisticated than much of what they had today.

“What is this place?” Ares asked, already marching towards a forge that had been cold for thousands of years.

“An old workshop of the Godmaker,” John answered, keeping a close eye on Velka as she dashed around. The building itself had not been what attracted her and it would have been foolish to think that the real treasures were kept in the accessible areas. “Remus must have created the original Aztec pantheon here – the one that Macuil proceeded to devour.”

“I can see the path,” Lorelei muttered and coughed. It sounded wet. The disease had spread to her lungs by this point. Undine provided what relief she could. It was enough for the seer to move with Velka towards one of the walls. “Lady guide me…” she prayed. Her fingers traced invisible runes on the plaster.

Suddenly, John became aware of another chamber connected to this one. He blinked a few times at the opening. There was no door, no wall, no nothing, he had just refused to acknowledge that there had been another walkway. John knew this kind of enchantment, but it had been about 700 levels since he had last been affected by it. Usually, Abyssals used it to hide certain doors from mundanes.

‘Really puts into perspective just what kind of monster Remus was in the field of enchantment,’ John thought and watched as Velka darted into the room ahead of everyone else. Following her, they found a stockpile of fuel for the forge, long dried herbs, and other resources needed for the various magical crafts of the Abyss. What Velka was after was a singular stone. After picking it up, the Magryph brought it to John. ‘So miracles do still happen,’ he joked to himself, despite the broader situation, when the thieving birdcat parted willingly with the object.

“Alright, listen up!” John raised his voice. “We’re going to make Nahua a dagger to take her rightful vengeance. War, use whatever you want. The remains of her father, this Faith made stone, the Mythical Ichor, any and all crafting materials we brought, including the parts of this body…” the Creator Puppet beat his Elementium chest, in it a core with each of the Celexiums, “…use anything.”

“You believe we can defeat one that devoured Death this way?” Glory laughed dryly and sat down against the wall. “Try… try and fail…”

He went ignored.

“Which one of you can forge?” War asked instead.

The Gamer’s plan had begun.