Chapter 6 : Frenzy in the world of whales (Part-II)

------ The Hall of the Royal Physician ------

Corvo and the two servants were getting their treatment done from the royal physician. Corvo was given a Sokolov's elixir and his wounds were bandaged after applying antiseptic on them and cotton was attached between the bandage and wound to prevent blood-flow when he moves. The newbie servants were given a moderate dosage of a low powered anaesthetic to keep them in an out-of-conscious state and stitch their gashes which they suffered from the swords a few bullet wounds which were not exactly lethal, they were very lucky for that.

While this was happening, Empress Jessamine was talking to Emily about what had actually happened. She felt that it was a bit too much for someone of her age to handle, but she had no other option. She knew that even with Corvo here, her life was not guaranteed. The enemies would leave no stone unturned to take her out of the way and quickly come into power. She didn't want her daughter to be kept in the unknown about her possible death and be used as a political tool by the others. If Emily hadn't witnessed this, she would have found it very difficult to accept. The people who were close to her and had taken care of her were suddenly planning to backstab her.

Alex was near them, planning about what else he had to do and what other dangers might come knocking at their doors, while still keeping an eye out against possible enemies.

'There shouldn't be much trouble, at least for today. About half of the lesser guards should still be on our side. Only the officials and higher-post guards should have gone against us. With Daud killed, the problem of assassins is solved as well. Delilah wouldn't trouble them because her plans of world dominance were too big to risk it being known dues to a battle between 2 factions. So the only trouble that could come their way was from the corrupted officials and local gangsters. The outsider is a fundamentally neutral being, he wouldn't take any sides.'

After a while, when Corvo had his treatment done, Alex spoke to him. He informed him about the UZI of the scar faced veteran, telling him that it was something they had stolen from the black market of another country. It had been magically altered to have a very large number of bullets and didn't need reloading. Though it could end up damaging itself if kept going for too long. Corvo was alarmed that some other country had already developed such mind-boggling magical technology and believed that when everything was over, they needed to reverse engineer it for their own empire. Alex gave him the Uzi and then informed him about the plan he had cooked for dealing with the troubles tonight which including a strategy that was famously known for dealing with hordes of monsters when you don't have the numerical advantage.

"First, we will be spending the night in empress Jessamine's room. We need to check for any hidden traps beforehand. We will block all entry and exit routes except two and we must prepare a huge amount of traps consisting of grenades with shrapnel and incendiary bolts which can be triggered from the inside. The enemies will be coming from the two routes we have left open, with grenades coming at the start. It will be duty of the two servants to quickly spot the grenades and use a cooking pan to send them back. You need to train them to do that quickly.

The inside will be under your care, while I will be dealing with them from the outside, from their backs. Don't worry, we will get this done, for the empress. Praise the Lady !!! "

After explaining the plan to Corvo , Alex went outside and quickly cut the part of skin with the outsider's tattoo from Daud. Within a few minutes , he was back to the hall and saw that the newbies had been woken up. He then asked Corvo to get the ammunition and grenades that they will be requiring today and to tell all the guards that they were expecting an outside attack tonight, so they need to be prepared and must be concentrated on the gates of the tower.

Corvo did all this in 30 minutes and returned with the materials. By this time, Alex had explained all this to the empress and the newbies. He was waiting for Corvo to arrive before he could ask the royal physician to take the bullets out of his legs as well. He could shrug off the pain and the chances of infection, but it would disallow him from using his full potential and might lead to future complications. It would also cost him more points when he arrived in god's world to get a full body heal, so it was better to get it done for free here. There was Sokolov's elixir for better effects anyway.

------------------ Meanwhile, in the home of the royal spymaster --------------

"No, I can't believe this. Jessamine is no stupid lady. She would not believe this to be the work of an outside empire this quickly. If I explained it to her and made her fall for this reasoning, it would have been a different matter. But this, this seems like a plan she has made to verify her doubts and to lure me in. No, I must not get exposed, if I loose the public trust, I will not be able to rule the empire and would be dead instead.

Guards, get the music box overseers here, I need to talk to them. Quick !! " The royal spymaster Hiram Burrows screamed. He decide to not let anyone attack the empress right now, but instead do it in the middle of the night, when they would have dropped their guards. He kept 3 music box overseers with him for extra protection and allocated 5 to the mission. He also increased the number of guards around himself.

He wanted to once again send the unloyal guards out of the tower, using some excuse like he had done when he sent the assassins and the whalers, but as he was expecting, it did not work. They were specifically asked to be vigilant and remain in high numbers at the gates, so they were not going anywhere. And if he tried to force the command in, then he would be instantly identified as a traitor. The corrupt high officials were of no use to him in this case.

Thus, in a way, Alex's attempt at manipulation worked and he gained himself enough time to get the traps prepared. Though it also meant that the incoming attack would be harder as well.

"Sir, while I was fighting, I was hit by 2 bullets in my leg, and even though I can mostly ignore the pain for now, it would lead to an infection and might require ampitation if left as it is. Please remove the bullets and heal my legs with the elixir." Alex informed his situation to the royal physician to get treated. He didn't believe what he had told at first, but after checking for himself, he felt that it was a miracle that Alex was able to last the battle.

He give a big dose of the moderately powered anaesthesia to Alex. He wanted to give a stronger anaesthetic to him, but felt that it would be a huge problem if it resulted in him being unable to fight while the enemies attacked his place. He would be able to freely participate in tonight's battle, but what if the enemies decided to attack now?

But here came the problem, Alex had trained his cell immunization to such a level, that the anaesthetic would simply not work for him. He didn't have any problem with the bullets being released from him even when he was awake, but he wouldn't be able to bullshit his way out of this and would have to explain matters that are not of this world. Then that would be a serious issue because it would lead to two things, god deducting his points and increasing the overall difficulty of this mission. He was okay with the first one, but the second one was totally unacceptable to the current him. This world was full of asspulls and hax-like powers, and he truly didn't want to take uncertain chances.

He decided to self hypnotize himself to prevent his body from acting on instinct and creating trouble. His idea was to make his physical body enter a state of short-term deep sleep or hibernation, while his spirit would be inside his sea of subconsciousness, like it used to do. Alex did this on himself and carefully lied down on the bed, asking the doctor to prepare the anaesthesia.

But here came the problem, instead of opening his eyes in a dark mysterious place like he used to, where his instincts would scream at him to not go anywhere and stay within a radius of 5 metres. He woke up to a floating island-like place with broken stairs everywhere. The colour pallette was bleak and flushed out, with debris floating here and there.

---------- The Void (dishonored) ----------

He had successfully arrived in the void, the dwelling grounds of the outsider. The outsider, who he, and the whole of humanity considered to be a true neutral being, had decided to subvert his opinions and fuck him over.

Upon seeing the scenery, Alex soul body trembled and felt a chill crawling up from his very being. Though he also felt an unusual sense of convergence from the void, as if something was telling him to just merge with the void and become its master." 𝐇⃥⃒̸𝐞⃥⃒ was the void, and the void was ዛĬᙏ ". He felt strange madness creep up inside him, his nature seemed to be on the verge of changing to a fundamentally different one. It seemed like he was stuck between 2 stages of life, that belonged to different dimensions of existence. He could evolve but the cost would be something that made him 'him'. He felt like his sanity would be lost, and that he could see himself turning cold and terrifying, being replaced by a stranger bit-by-bit.

' As a wise person once said, "I don't have any chance of survival if I don't gamble. There'll be that sliver of hope if I gamble on it. I won't sit back and wait for death." ' Alex decided to engage in a spiritual fight with himself to escape from the possibility of convergance. He eventually managed to suppress his desires and his 'other side', but that was only because it was relatively weaker and had no time to develop. If he had been in a state of denial and confusion, then this 'other side' of him would have grown stronger and the future would end up taking strange turns.

" HOLY SHIT !!! What the hell was that?"

------------------- A/N ------------------

I accidentally deleted the chapter I had published today, instead of its draft, and hence had to rewrite it while changing a few things in between. As a result I have gotten sleep deprived and thus the quality of writing might have dropped, but bear with it for now, it will rise up again soon. I will try my best to go beyond plus ultra (in Terror infinity and Lovecraftian horror, LOTM completed fanfics)

Yeah, I know I can't beat "Plague Doctor" in lovecraftian horror fic, but it is not completed and hence I am not comparing my fic against that, for I believe I will see this to completion.

This is a small questionnaire for readers who felt the MC didn't do some things an intelligent MC would have done, and that I had left some plot-holes.

Q. Why India, USA would have been a better option?

A. India has weak inheritance laws and the people are stupidly superstitious (this one can be considerd a little hint for the future that is a little far away. The weak laws resulted in him keeping most of his money instead of giving about 50 - 60 % in taxes. You don't think the MC would like to work a hellish job while also undergo that training he did, right?

Q. Why did Alex not take the veterans' gear?

A. Bruh ! They had only survived 2 movies and one had healing and defensive magic(weak AF) while the other had Qi and a compatible sword. The girl wouldn't have any extra good equipment, while Alex neither had Qi, nor knew how to use a sword. But he will be learning it after he returns to dishonored.

The scae-face guy had invested nearly all his points on his stats and hence wouldn't have had anything better than his Uzi with infinite ammo, and Alex gave that to corvo for additional help.

Q. Why did Jessamine and corvo not suspect him?

A. He risked his life fighting for them. The others also died, and his background setting was that of a loyal warrior of the empress. Hence the reaction.

Q. Why did the other loyal guards and the royal physician not come to rescue the empress?

A. The guards were sent far away by the spymaster while the royal physician thought the guards were fighting against the enemies, hence so many bullets were being fired.

I hope this clears your doubts a little.

Author out.

------------------ End of A/N --------------------