Modified: Part 2
The next part of the test took time. Peter would be charming and sensitive, everything the average girl wanted in a guy. According to the internet. I still wasn't sure why Lethe fell for me and hadn't had to seduce anyone so it could be completely wrong. The more I watched my own test play out, the less I trusted the results. Regardless, he'd slowly try to pry information out of her, but he wouldn't be aggressive in any way. Not until the next part of the test started. Since I wasn't charming or sensitive, this part was left to some of my vassals that spent a lot of time up skirts. Hopefully npcs and the children of players were very similar in mindset.
I tried to ignore my distrust as I shifted my view back to the main group. I'd been prepared to put them in stasis as soon as Edge's test started, but none of them had moved. Phyx and Htaed were arguing. "We need to get out of these woods! Eventually, one of the monsters is going to sniff us out!" Htaed screamed so loud his voice cracked. Since voices didn't crack naturally, this break from the norm surprised me. Was his cowardice an act? If so, it was a good act. Annoying but competent.
"So long as you're screaming, they won't have to sniff. They'll hear your cowardice and come running, hoping for an easy snack." Phyx hissed. She didn't raise her voice, but there was heat to it. She was riled, or acting riled. "Keep screaming, moron. I dare you!"
The nameless twins activated stealth and slid into the shadows. Phyx and Htaed were too engrossed in their argument to notice. The stealthed twins slid through the forest like shadows, so talented that I almost couldn't keep track of them with my map. Time for the test game. Their game was different because I had expected them to be bound together at the hip. Unlike the other sets of twins, they were completely stuck to each other. Edge and Oblivion seemed like total opposites, and the last generation definitely didn't get along, but the nameless twins worked together constantly. And flawlessly. Their test was so complex I didn't even consider splitting my attention, I had to put Phyx and Htaed in stasis until they were at a later phase.
My first test of an ambush by two level two hundred Armored Angels was dismantled. The twins had obviously trained together, because their teamwork was flawless. They moved like a single being, never a step out of sync. The combination of two heavy blades and a bladed spear and shield was devastating. They never even had to go on the defensive despite being as outmatched as Edge had been. Their weapons were better, but the level of skill they displayed made the difference all the more apparent. Edge was a novice compared to them. They dispatched both angels with ease. I let them go ten miles before I unleashed a pack of twelve on them. They were good, but they weren't that good. I hoped. Twelve was the max I could control. Any more and my illusion keeping Edge busy would fizzle and ruin the whole experiment, even assuming I could keep twelve working at a believable level. Such powerful illusions required a huge amount of concentration. The only reason I could do it at all was because the illusion was in my keep. Beneath it, technically. I'd already pumped in all of the magic it would need, so all I was doing now was providing direction. I also had several npcs helping me control the dialogue and actions to keep them smooth. A couple of monsters too, but even that was stretching. Any more and we'd get tangled up with each other more than helping.
The Nameless Twins didn't break under the pressure of the first test. They escaped when the skeletons destroyed the angels and themselves. They didn't break under the pain of their imprisonment either, though I made sure to make each one watch as the other had an ear, a foot, and an arm removed. In fact, they did better than Edge had. There was no whimpering, no crying out, they didn't make a sound the whole time. When I rescued them with the pack of elves, they escaped together. When I had two of the elves help them away and show how stunningly beautiful they were, the twins didn't show their faces in return. They remained silent as the test progressed. After the two elves asked them a few questions, the Twins started healing each other. When they were done, they killed the elves and continued on their way. The draw of friendship didn't have any sway over them. I split them up for the last test. They didn't know it, because I made an illusionary version of the missing twin that was bound to the original so the illusion would think as the twin would. It irked me that the binding was necessary, but I just couldn't decipher the brainwaves that bound them together. Part of why this last test was necessary. While it was technically easier than the others, the necessity of it was hard to swallow.
In their illusions, they walked into a clearing. My shadow stood over my other kids. They were on their knees, their armor discarded on the ground in front of them. My shadow pulled a guild seal from each of them, removing them from my guild. "Kill them." Neither twin hesitated. Good. I would have had to change the timing if one moved faster than the other. They worked efficiently and quickly, in exactly the same pattern in both illusions. So my binding worked. My shadow reached into the illusionary version of each vision, and then into the real version in each vision, extracting the guild seals. "I need only one heir." They hesitated this time. They hesitated for a long time.
However, eventually they drew their weapons and started circling. I wondered how this battle would go. It was mirrored in each version, but with the illusion slowed down a tiny bit. The battles would progress differently. The real twin would have the advantage in both battles, regardless of the actual skill difference. The speed they utilized in both battles…it was breathtaking. Together, they would have proved a difficult battle for me. When their levels were equal to mine…they would be able to match me, if not surpass me. Definitely a dangerous combination. As the battles progressed, I sensed something was wrong. The real versions should have the upper hand, but they weren't winning the battles. They were fighting as if they were exactly matched. Both of them. That wasn't possible. If one was stronger than the other, that one would be winning easily. Neither wanted to win.
Perhaps I needed to alter the test. I put Phyx, Htaed, and Edge in stasis so I could focus my whole mind on the Nameless Twins. I built a dragon into their scenarios. It attacked as they fought, but my shadow fought back. My shadow wasn't winning, though. The red dragon blasted the field with its fiery breath, and my shadow dropped to one knee, staff shattering and sword tumbling from numb fingers. Defeated. Both Twins attacked the dragon. It fled, something a real dragon would never do but the Twins were no match for it. Even in an illusion. I'd based it on the most powerful being I'd met so far, apart from Ryne. My shadow was still weak, though. Helpless. "Continue." He gestured with one hand, barely moving it. The twins looked at each other for a long time before they all dropped their weapons and sank to their knees.
"We can't do it. We won't do it. We were born together, and will die together." My shadow stood up, grabbing the heavy sword, slowly dragging it to the illusion in each vision.
My shadow shook his head. "I had such high hopes for you. I guess I will live without an heir. Or maybe, I'll have to drag that disgrace from his cell in hopes for a true heir. What was his name? Oblivious, I think. Yes." My shadow drove the blade through the illusion's heart, the blade of the Dark Elf Crown digging through the mythic armor the Nameless Twins had made like butter. The real twin cried out, pain in their voices. "Perhaps Oblivitous has had a change of heart since being locked up." My shadow gestured, and the illusion shifted into the prison where Oblivion was crying over his slave human. "Obli, my son. Perhaps you have had a change of heart." My shadow stood up straight. If I was to enter my keep, my power would be restored almost instantly. "All you need to do is kill your elder." I opened the door and the illusions of Oblivion stepped out tenuously. My shadow handed him a common blade and grabbed the helm of the real twin, wrenching it off to break the protective barrier that would outlast the blade I'd given Oblivion.
Oblivion was crying and snorting, tears running down his face along with snot and saliva like some sort of disgusting fountain. He pressed the blade to the twins' throat. "I can't do it! I can't, Father. I can't kill anyone!"
The kneeling twins turned to look at me, incredulity on their faces. "Do it, or you shall die. More painfully than what I showed her." I gestured to his pathetic slave. Oblivion cried some more, and shoved on the blades. Both twins snapped the blade out of his hand and cut his throat before he could sniffle again before turning to my shadow.
"You would allow this…disgrace to be your heir while discarding me!" they spoke in unison, their voices with identical tone and emotion. I would have thought they were one person if not for the slight variation in their pitch. They were uncanny.
My shadow shrugged. "He will obey me. You failed to end your twin at my command. You have proven yourself unworthy of my birthright. A broken but obedient slave is better than a skilled rebel." The problem was…they had failed my test. They'd shown compassion that overrode my will. I could never trust them as I did Lethe.
"That disgrace is ended! I killed him, just now!" their synchronization was seriously starting to weird me out. Were they really one mind with two bodies?
"He's in my guild. He will be reborn. Openly. I cannot rescind my ownership of him now. His name is Oblivion of Void." Not technically true. You had to delve into the deepest part of the cursor to see my name. The Nameless Twins still dropped to their knees. They didn't even have the will left to attack me.
They'd failed my test. I teleported them to my throne room as I occupied my throne. They jumped in surprise when they realized they were sitting next to their twin, who they thought was dead. As they looked at each other, doing that wordless communication thing they had going, their faces fell. They replaced their helms, trying to hide their shame. It wasn't working. "It was a test. It was all a test. And we failed. We underestimated your test. We underestimated you, Father." It was the male that spoke. Now that they didn't believe themselves alone, he'd returned to the position of mouthpiece. Then he looked confused. "If we failed…why are we not dead?"
"Because you impressed me with every test but the last one. The two of you are lethal. Born to kill. Except for your twin, you have no sense of mercy or compassion whatsoever. I don't…want to kill you." I wanted to be proud of them. At their level, with their abilities…I was already proud of them. Wasting so much potential…it was a serious breach of ethics. If they weren't my children, I'd promote them. Maybe force them to sign a contract of some sort or have a permanent watcher, but they'd get promoted. I slammed my blade into the stone at my feet. I did it so often that there was a slot in the stone that fit the tip of the blade perfectly. I didn't want to use this option. I was starting to think that the only people that were truly loyal were those that were bound. I really wanted someone to genuinely follow me because they wanted to. Sometimes the doubts even hinted at Lethe or Hell, but if I turned them into familiars I may as well do it to everyone on the continent. "Bleed on the blade and swear fealty to me."
They looked confused, but they obeyed. Such a strange ritual had to mean that they would live, and that was something they wanted very much. They entered my familiar menu and I considered crushing their bond and returning them to my family, but that die had been cast. They'd failed my test. I wasn't one to forgive. Since I'd already removed them from my guild, they were no longer in it despite being my familiars.
What happened next surprised even me. As if by instinct, I delved into their cursors and ripped my name out of them. I hadn't even known I could do that. I could feel the connection, though. Like a hair being tugged just short of being ripped out. I didn't know how, but I knew I could give it back to them whenever I wanted. And that it would come with a real name. Now there was no evidence besides their faces that they were connected to me.
Both cried in agony at the loss when they hadn't reacted at all to their bodies being mutilated. He had screamed, but she wasn't done with just that. Her sobbing didn't sound like it would stop shortly. "Go. Leave my empire. Any offspring you produce will be killed before they reach adulthood. You will not set foot on this continent again after you have left it. Do what you will. You are banished from my sight."
The female was crying audibly. The male's shoulders were still shaking, but she was actually gasping and whimpering. Apparently, she was out of sync with her brother for the first time in their existence. "Father…please. Is there no way for us to return to you? Please give us some way to return to your favor. Any way to reclaim our birthright. Please! Something! Anything!" there was hope for them after all. Perhaps…no. There was no hope. They were too devoted to each other. Should someone capture the twin, unlikely but possible, the other would betray me.
"If you get one of every uber-monster species in the central continent and underground, species as opposed to unique monsters, as a pet and give them all to me as a gift, then and only then will you be welcomed back as my children." If they could do that…I'd give them almost anything. Such a powerful menagerie…it would be unstoppable. Uber-monsters were designed to be cataclysmic weapons by themselves. Multiple species working in tandem…the thought had me shivering in ecstasy. I would have added the unique uber-monsters, but those were designed to end empires. Nothing short of an army of respawning players could overwhelm one of them, let alone all of them. They could also be impossible to make pets. Actually impossible, as opposed to merely insanely difficult. "Keep in mind that you need one of each species. That includes every color of dragon, every variation and type. Everything. Do that and you will get more than your heritage back, I will bestow you with proper names." Though, I'd bet against it. They were good, but I very much doubted that any two players, no matter their skill, could bring every species of uber-monster to heel. I planned on doing it myself, but I had a head start. And better gear. And keeps. Besides, should they build an empire strong enough to power the war machine required to bring uber-monsters to heel, I would be forced to destroy them myself. Having them join me would make that prospect so much more fun. The male finally succeeded in dragging the female toward the door.
He had fully wilted, silent sobs shaking his body. She was a different story. Her sobbing had ceased.She was letting herself be dragged, but her eyes were firmly on me. "We'll do it, Father. We will do it for you. I swear it on my soul." Interesting. I already owned her soul. I already owned both of their souls. With that, they left the keep. I returned to my test. I removed the stasis spells and watched the two that were still arguing where they'd landed. Were they ever going to split up? Or move? At all? Were they both cowards?
I turned my attention to Edge. She was kissing Peter deeply. So they'd progressed to the breaking point. I needed to stop them before she figured out that he wouldn't get her pregnant, thus affirming that he wasn't real. My shadow rose from a corner of the little house they'd bought together. Edge bounded to her feet and drew a dagger before she realized it was me standing in front of her. "Father. What're you doing here?"
"Father? As in the bastard that ditched you?" so she'd divulged her identity. Not a failure, that was her own secret to keep or divulge as she saw fit. I shuffled through the illusion's history and figured out that it hadn't been successful in getting anything else. And the illusion progressed faster than real time, filling in the gaps with nonsense that let her mind think time had actually passed. Once she was out of the illusion, it would seem like a dream. A dream that lasted for almost four years. Damn, she had an iron chastity belt. I'd spent longer with Lethe before promoting her to Empress, but the situation was different. We'd been busy taking over the world. She'd just been acting like an adventurer. Peter had been trying to get into her pants the whole time. Kidnapping her with peer pressure and "emergencies" to keep her from trying to get back to my continent, but still. "Let's kill this douche!"
"Kill him." My shadow pointed to Peter. Edge didn't even hesitate. Her blade rammed into Peter's throat as he rushed at my shadow. My shadow grabbed her shoulder and teleported back to the forest.
"Father. I knew you'd find me eventually. I knew you wouldn't abandon me." She wasn't wearing her mythic gear, so I could see the open worship on her face. Even Lethe wasn't as openly infatuated with me. "Did I pass your test? Did any of the others?"
"You haven't finished yet. And the others all failed. Your last test is killing your siblings." She giggled. Hadn't been expecting that. "What's funny about this situation? You are the last hope I have of producing viable offspring. And you've been…domesticated."
Her giggle stopped short and her form tensed. She'd been too at-home in that cottage. "Believe me, Father, I'm far from domesticated. I was just happy that I'd get you all to myself. The others were cowardly, obnoxious, and…just plain weird." I didn't have to think too hard about who each of the descriptors applied to. We reached the bound forms of her siblings and she began dismembering them with glee. What had happened to her silence? She'd been as reserved as Lethe before. "Now I'm your only kid! You're all mine!" she started giggling hysterically.
"Not yet. There's one left." My shadow pulled Oblivion from a portal, haggard and wasted almost to nothing. I didn't think this pair of twins would have a problem like the last, but it was possible. I had to make sure. I didn't have to worry. Edge bolted into the wasted body of her twin and started hacking it to pieces with a savagery that was more than I expected. She must really hate Oblivion.
"You betrayed Father! Scum of the deepest pits of Hell!" she snarled as she hacked pieces of him off one at a time. She started with the hands, then the elbows, shoulders, ankles, knees, and hips before she stopped for breath. She glared at him with pure hatred in her face. The illusion of Oblivion was still alive, as a player couldn't die without that last point of fatal damage to torso or head. She held her blade over one of his eyes with one hand and used the other to hold his face still. "Watch your death coming, heathen, and tremble!" She slowly brought the knife toward his eye. He screamed and cursed, thrashed and tried to worm out of the way, but she had a good grip on his face. And his limbs were gone. His screech went up a few octaves when her knife met his eye. Her back arched like she was in the throes of ecstasy and she moaned. The motion drove her blade into Oblivion's brain. She rolled her head back to look at me upside down. "See, Father, I'm the best. I love you more than anybody else ever will!"
"Questionable conjecture, but you have passed my test." I teleported her to my throne room. She looked around in confusion, glancing down at her attire in surprise. She was back in her mythic gear, but her mask and hood were in her inventory. Two skeletons flanked her. "They'll make eight weapons for you. They'll need more handholding than your siblings would have, but you just need to clarify. Choose carefully, as I won't be providing you with another set." I was grateful I'd maxed out my crafting skill before I banished my first batch. "And one more thing, you didn't actually kill your siblings. They're still alive. Some of them, anyway." We'd see if the other two passed the test. If they ever got out of the landing zone. Edge's face fell as she realized that I wasn't "all hers" in the least.
I checked in on them. Sure enough, they were still arguing. Phyx was pacing, but that's as close as they'd ever come to leaving. "This is ridiculous! We've been sitting here for months! I'm leaving." Phyx growled as she stomped into the woods. Finally! I initiated the test for Phyx and Htaed. The same test that Edge had just finished, the only difference would be that Htaed's savior was female. Phyx surprised me by being able to defeat the first angel opponent. She was more agile than she looked, and her ability to combine spells was equal to mine. Maybe even better.
I had to put Htaed in stasis to concentrate on her to make the test effective. She only lost to the second angel I sent at her because it got a hold of one of the antlers, branches, or whatever was sticking out of her overly ornate helm. She cursed and screamed, but didn't break under the pressure of the first tests. The only meaning her words had, apart from gratuitous cursing, was an admission that her helmet was not effective in a battle situation. Even as she lost a leg piece by piece, all she did was curse. She didn't turn on me, she didn't reveal secrets, or anything that I should be suspicious of. She merely grew to hate angels even more.
The only point I doubted her was how close she grew to her savior. She didn't accept the relationship as readily as Edge had, but she ended with a more intense relationship. I could believe Edge was just leading her savior on until she knew where she was and how to get home. He had been a powerful shield for her, but nothing more. Phyx gave herself over to the relationship completely, though she kept the secrets I wanted her to so she didn't fail. I thought it was only a matter of time. If she'd had long enough, she would have told him everything. I couldn't test that because she was intensely into the relationship. The male wasn't the only one wanting to consummate. When my shadow ordered her to kill him, she hesitated. He attacked my shadow, and she killed him, but her posture was defeated. The final test, however, proved to be a cinch. She killed all of her siblings with ease, including Htaed, and her total lack of emotional investment was so complete that it impressed me. She was as surprised that the whole thing was a test as Edge had been. It was possible that the results were flawed because they knew it was a test, but I did the best I could with what I had. I'd come to trust them implicitly eventually, but I had enough confidence in their loyalty to allow them to openly participate in the ruling of my empire now.
When I told the skeletons to make her weapons she didn't follow them. "Father, I would request a whole new suit. This helm is…not what I want to end up with. As sets build off of each other, I need a whole new combination." If I wasn't perfect at salvaging that would have cost me a pretty penny. I nodded and the skeletons understood. Phyx bowed slightly as she left. I'd have to make sure she didn't have a relationship with anyone I didn't want in my council, but that was true for anyone. Even Edge would probably have a real relationship at one point in the future. It was a hard weakness to combat, seeing as how it could function exactly the same as the weakness I'd banished the Nameless twins for. I'd designed my test to weed out cowardice, weak wills, and compassion, but it was revealing so much more. And more reasons to question even the answers I thought I'd gotten.
I returned to Htaed, releasing him from stasis. I expected him to be cowering in a corner, as per his usual manner, but he actually straightened up and marched into the woods in the opposite direction from Phyx. The coward was completely gone. And he proved that during his battle and the subsequent capture. He pretended to revert to a coward for the capture, but he didn't reveal anything or betray me in any way. It was an act. A very good one, but an act nonetheless. The friendship test didn't work on him at all because he was trying to rape her as soon as his limbs were intact. He passed the final test with relish, delighting in the opportunity to gloat as he killed his siblings. Overall the impression I got of him was a bloodthirsty marauder. Like Hell with less control and more sexual desire. I added a final test to his sequence, just because I was curious. My shadow asked him, "Why do you pretend to be a coward."
"Something Vyktor told me. If you pretend to be a coward, your captors will take your word as truth when they torture you a little bit. It makes your life easier if you get taken than if you have a reputation for ruthlessness and power. People expect a coward to break, so when it doesn't they believe what they hear." A fairly good plan. If one was expecting to get captured on a regular basis. If I had a general that based his life around the expectation of being captured and interrogated…that would be a fairly large weakness. Spymaster, sure. General? No. Reality gave you what you'd prepared for, usually. If you expected to be captured, chances were high that you would be.
I ported him to my throne. "Keep in mind that each reputation comes with perks and demerits. If you constantly act the coward, you'll give yourself a reputation of cowardice. People don't listen to cowards. In the torture chamber it is easy to make them believe your reputation was mostly bravado, pretend to break easily and then do your coward act if you must, but don't make it a rule of your life. Keep up an act for long enough and it will become your reality." I leaned forward to give emphasis. "And I will not have a coward for a son." I made sure he understood that point before I sent him to get his weapons. He'd only lost his battle because his weapons broke during the battle. Mostly because his armor was too good in comparison, but it was a common problem with fighting over your level as a brawler. As with Edge, he didn't have an understanding of magic to fall back on, like Phyx, so the failure of gear was the end of the battle. That would need to change in both cases.
However, the fact that my illusionary angels had been beaten by the Unnamed Twins and Phyx made me realize that they weren't perfect. I hadn't actually fought a level two hundred monster except in the massive battle, so I wasn't sure how they worked. I needed a working knowledge of my enemy. If I hadn't explained that everything was a test afterwards, they could have believe they were actually capable of fighting level two hundred angels.