Chapter 46: Out Of Patience

  Excerpts from Brief History of Xoth

  Necromancy

  Necromancy is one of the most forbidden magical trades someone can have on Xoth. The ability to create Soul Axes falls under this category of magic. This magic type is banned in most countries on Xoth except for the Demon countries, the Eikoryu Empire and many parts of the Misakeh continent.

  Necromancy is a category that covers a wide variety of magical skills. The most basic skill is the ability to reanimate the dead. This can be corpses or skeletons of animals or people. Other abilities include the ability to absorb souls, the creation of flesh golems, life absorption, the ability to cause rot, and undead control.

  Excerpts from Thunder's Recommendations Report

  ->Mandatory Cremation

  Reason: As mentioned in the Brief History of Xoth, Necromancy is a problem on Xoth. The book does not mentioned this but grave robbery is somewhat common on Xoth. Due to the criminality of Necromancy, many practitioners take it upon themselves to find or, in some cases, create corpses to use in experiments. It is because of this why most bodies are cremated as soon as possible after death on Xoth.

  It isn't just Necromancy that is a threat to our remains. Some creatures have a craving for dead bodies. None of these creatures are friendly and are likely to attack anyone who tries to stop them from feeding. There is also the risk of some magic seeping into remains and magically reanimating them as zombies or skeletons.

  Earth History

  Unification of Korea

  In January 2018, the Supreme Leader of North Korea suffered from a massive heart attack. Foul play was quickly ruled out as the leader was grossly obese and sustained himself on a diet of high fat and sodium foods. With the death of their leader, and no other living relatives, North Korea devolved into a civil war as the highest ranking generals fought over which of them were worthy of leading the nation. There were four factions, with three of them being led by generals and the fourth one consisting of civilians who were against the regime.

  Due to the political situation of the country, the world was paralyzed in their ability to act. Any action in the country could be seen as an act of war and could invite nuclear retaliation. This was further complicated from the Chinese and Russian support North Korea received. No one wanted to invite a third world war.

  That paralysis ended early March 2018. Even today no one knows who was responsible. A barrage of artillery strikes came from North Korea and bombarded Seoul. Tens of thousands died before any one realized there was an attack.

  With that attack, South Korea and its allies were well within their rights to intervene in the conflict. Thankfully, China and Russia remained out of the conflict when South Korea, Japan, America and several other nations entered the conflict. China guarded its border against refugees and forced them back into their war-torn country through threats of violence. Russia cut all financial ties and pretended they never had a relationship with the country's leader.

  The conflict took half a year, but many of the soldiers in the Generals' armies were quick to quit their positions when the conflict escalated to include more countries. In the aftermath, allied forces were quick to secure the nuclear arms that North Korea had in its possession and dismantled them.

  With the war over, many in the North found themselves able to visits friends and family in South Korea and vice versa. The allied forces went to work to clear minefields, weapon collection and work towards integration of the North into the South. Within months, the countries formally united to form Korea.

  Currently, there are many theories as to who launched the artillery strike against Seoul. Officially, it is accepted that it was an accident on part of one of the three Generals. Unofficially, many believe that the civilian faction were responsible as they felt it would be the only way to get outside help.

  VVVVVV

  The next day...

  Tom entered the comm room of the UNDF headquarters. The room detected Tom's presence and a dozen panels came down. In the middle of the room was a chair and a command console next to it. Tom sat down in the chair and tapped in a few commands in the console. The image of the UN Secretary-General, Li Jia, appeared on the far right screen. On the screen to her left was UNDF Supreme Commander Steele.

  "Are you ready?" Steele asked.

  Tom sighed. "Yes, sir."

  Tom pressed a few more commands on his terminal and the images of the nations that were confirmed to be in possession of nuclear weapons appeared. The countries included the United States of America, the United Kingdom, France, China, Russia, Pakistan and India. It was widely believed that Israel was a nation in possession of nuclear arms, but due to a recent Intel leak, it was found that their policy of nuclear ambiguity was a clever ruse to make its enemies think twice before attacking. The countries' leaders on the screens were in the middle of a heated argument.

  "You knew for a month that Phoenix had access to your files and you didn't give anyone any warning!" the British Prime Minister roared.

  "It was Russian business," the Russian Prime Minister calmly explained.

  "It was nearly everyone's business today!"

  "Everyone!" the Indian Prime Minister tried to calm everyone. "Please!"

  "They're here," President Forest of the United States said.

  Tom was quiet at first. He looked at them with an intense gaze. Tom gave off an aura that made the world leaders feel anxious, even behind the screens.

  "Specialist Everett, I know you might be upset..." the Russian tried to reason.

  Tom couldn't help but let out a chuckle at the understatement.

  "Upset?" he repeated. "Oh, no, no, no, no, no... Upset is the absolute mildest description you could possibly give me." Tom took in a deep breath to keep himself calm. "I have a lot to say so please do not interrupt me." he pushed himself up from the chair and stood up. "I don't actually have to be here."

  The statement confused the leaders but they remained quiet to see where Tom was going with the statement.

  "You all know everything about my life. I'm sure you've seen my financial records and know exactly what I have in terms of personal wealth. Before now I could have easily just hid myself away and waited for the world to end. Even now, I can use my abilities to hide away and never be found again, especially since I know how I was found the first time." Noticing the look on the world leader's face, Tom continued. "The point I'm making is that I'm here of my own free will. Even after working tirelessly every day to help train UNDF soldiers. Going on every mission to deal with monsters. To even having most of the items I have earned from my missions and Lottery skill confiscated because our scientists wanted to examine them. Despite all of that, I stayed because I wanted to help save lives. When I saw the proposal for the UNDF, I had hope that Humanity was getting its shit together for the greater good. Then this happens. I specified in my report of recommendations that nuclear weapons should be dismantled because of an exact situation like this. This was my nightmare scenario. Had we not gotten that anonymous tip, our world would have ended."

  "It takes time, especially when it comes to a complex situation like this," the French President said. "There are thousands of nukes in the world."

  "And you have done nothing!" Tom roared. "We are running out of time! When our worlds merge we are going to face all of the problems of natural disasters and the problems of war. We created these nukes to act as a deterrent against major wars, but now they are nothing but a threat to our species. We cannot handle the world of Xoth at the same time as safeguarding our nukes! Rika was able to break into one of the most secure Russian bases with relative ease thanks to her access to the SYSTEM. Imagine what Hastur's forces could do? They've had access to the SYSTEM for hundreds of years. As I said before, we are running out of time. I was just contacted by the Sage. We lost a day."

  "What do you mean we lost a day?" the Pakistani Prime Minister asked.

  "Somehow the magic has accelerated. Now our merger date is May 2nd. We may lose more days in the future. We need to work faster. At this point I have lost my patience and now this situation has forced our hands. We cannot sweep this incident under the rug, according to the Unity Accord, the UNDF must notify all UN members of our activities. What we can do is make a decision of what we learned from this incident and where we go from here. You all can do nothing and we will in turn notify the member nations of what happened and that you are not going to give up your nukes despite what happened. I doubt they will be very happy about that. I doubt the public will be happy."

  "I will then put forward proposals of economic sanctions against each of your nations for putting the world's security at risk," the Secretary-General added. "You may withdraw your support of the UNDF, but we have seen larger contributions from all the other nations. We will make due in the future."

  "Or we can make the pledge right here," Tom said. "An end to nuclear weapons. With the oversight of the UNDF, we work towards dismantling every single nuke."

  "Isn't it possible to use these weapons against Hastur?" the Pakistani Prime Minister asked. "If Hastur is as powerful as you say, it might be our best option to ending the war instantly."

  Tom rubbed the ridge of his nose in annoyance. "Barring the fact that Hastur's palace is in the center of Almawt which is surrounded by the capital of Karan, so setting off a nuke there would constitute genocide. Almawt is surrounded by a magical barrier. Any threat that tries to get close to it would be destroyed by arcane bolts long before it gets close to his palace. The barrier must be removed before any action can be taken against Hastur. I have some ideas to addressing that issue, but that is a discussion for another time. So tell me. What is your decision? Because we plan to let the member nations know this afternoon."

  The leaders were quiet for a few moments before the British Prime Minister muttered, "You leave us with little choice in the matter."

  "The feeling is mutual," Tom replied.

  "Your answers," Steele said.

  "Let's put it to a vote," the Secretary-General said.

  "We're putting it to a vote now?" the Chinese President asked in a panic.

  "We are giving the member nations an explanation today no matter what happens in this meeting," Tom explained. "The three of us are giving you all a chance to mitigate the blowback of yesterday's attack. So, yes. We are doing the vote now. All those in favour of the proposal, say 'aye'."

  "Aye," they all reluctantly replied.

  "We'll make the announcement," the Secretary-General said. "Thank you, everyone."

  Each of the screens went out leaving Tom with the Secretary-General and Commander.

  "That went better than expected," Steele said.

  "I have a way with words," Tom said with some levity. "Hopefully this incident is the kick in the ass this world needs to really understand the gravity of our situation."

  "You should be proud," Secretary-General Jia said. "You did within minutes what most politicians couldn't get done in decades. A world without nukes."

  "Well, there's still a ways to go on that."

  "Which reminds me," the Secretary-General said. "We have decided on an interviewer for your companions."

  "That was fast."

  "As you said, we don't have the luxury of time. Getting the location and proper security in place will take time, but we expect the interview to occur within a couple weeks."

  "For the time being, you are dismissed," Commander Steel said. "Take some time off. You deserve it."

  "Thank you, sir," Tom said before their images vanished from the screens.

  Tom sighed in relief and got up from his chair. He tiredly shuffled towards the door and opened it to find Garza standing there with a neutral expression on her face.

  "Oh, Garza, hey," Tom muttered. "Need something?"

  "We need to talk," she said. "Please come with me."

  "What's this abou-"

  "Just come with me," she said insistently.

  Tom followed behind Garza down the hallway and eventually to a meeting room. She opened the door and ushered Tom inside. In there he saw his companions sitting on some chairs and every soldier with access to the SYSTEM. Tom walked over and sat down by his girlfriends.

  "Do you know what this is about?" Sylmae whispered.

  "No clue," Tom whispered back. "She just told me to come here."

  Garza grabbed a chair and dragged it across the floor and placed it in front of the soldiers. She sat down and clasped her hands together.

  "Now Tom, I called you here in private to discuss something I believe you wouldn't want the public to know."

  "Okay..."

  "We have been through a lot together so we are willing to forgive a lot. We just want your complete honesty when we ask you this question. What is the deal with your Agent of Kara title?"

  'Shit!' Tom screamed in his head. 'They can see it!'

  "Uhh... Okay. Look. Look... What I have said about our worlds merging is completely true. Sadly it seems like the magic has accelerated and we have lost a day."

  "Wait, we lost a day?"

  "Apparently. As I said before, the merger is true. The only thing I have actually lied about is who told me about all of these events. This is coming from someone who didn't give religion a second thought. There are gods. I knew that when the day came that I came forward with all the information I had, that I had to omit the part about an other-worldly god, if I wanted any sort of credibility."

  "And this is when you came up with the Sage?" Chris asked.

  "Yes. I am able to show off magical abilities. It wasn't a stretch to say that someone else on another world was even stronger and they wanted to stop Hastur's schemes."

  "We played along because we understood his reasoning," Vivian said. "Kara talks to our people but it seems like the god of your universe chooses not to."

  "So the test was created by Kara to give us a chance in the new world," Tom continued. "Since I was the only one to survive the test, I was given some additional benefits. Two of these benefits was the ability to speak to Kara and the other was a title that granted me a buff that doubled my experience gain."

  "So when you insisted that we formed our own teams..." Sam said.

  "It was in part to avoid levelling fatigued that you faced yesterday, but yes, it was to avoid anyone from seeing the Agent of Kara title. I am sorry for the lie, but I needed the world to act fast in order to avoid the complete extinction of Humanity. I can't do that if everyone questions my sanity."

  "Is that the whole truth?" Garza asked.

  "As much as we know," Tom said. "So...? Are any of you going to report this?"

  "Could you all step out of the room for a bit?" David said.

  "Okay." Tom waved to his companions. "Come on."

  The five walked out of the room and as soon as the door closed behind them, they heard the soldiers talking. Due to the thickness of the walls, they couldn't make out any words.

  "What's going to happen?" Tala asked. Her voice shuddered in nervousness.

  Tom sighed from the anxiety and answered, "I honestly don't know. We just need to trust that they'll come to the right decision."

  "I mean, come on," Vivian said in a laugh. "After everything we've been through, we've more than earn the benefit of a doubt."

  "We also lied to them for weeks," Sylmae reminded.

  The five stood outside the door in awkward silence. This anxious wait lasted for ten minutes before the voices died down. The door quickly opened and Sam leaned out. "Alright, come back in."

  They walked back inside the room and sat down.

  "So..." Garza said. "We talked it out. None of us are not happy about the lies, but revealing this information to Command or the world would tear down everything the UNDF has accomplished. We will not reveal this information to Command. In return, we prefer that you don't keep anymore secrets from us. Are there anymore you are keeping from us?"

  Tom thought on the question for a moment before he answered, "Nothing that seems relevant."

  "Wait, Tom," Sylmae interrupted. "You don't need to protect us. They deserve to know."

  "To know what?" Chris asked in renewed interest.

  "We- We all have an unknown title," Reia admitted.

  "An unknown title?" Sam said.

  "It's a title we all have that just says 'Unknown'," Tala explained. "We've had it for as long as we remembered. As far as we know, the only ones who can see the title are each other..."

  "And Tom," Vivian added. "According to Tom, in a discussion he had with Kara, we were purposefully brought to this world but that forgetful god doesn't know why."

  Sam looked to Tom in anger. "You were seriously about to lie to us, again? How the hell are we supposed to trust you?"

  "Are you fucking kidding me right now?" Tom roared. "The girls and I are in an extremely precarious position. Ever since this whole situation started, we have been targeted by some of the most powerful people to have ever existed. We had to take steps to ensure our safety, but even that doesn't seem enough. You want to know how we found out about the Phoenix attack on the nuclear facility? Someone directly called me at my house by hacking my countertop tablet. There is someone out there who not only knows who I am but also has better Intel than the most powerful Intelligence agencies in the world. We have done everything to prove ourselves to the world. Forgive us if we have taken steps to protect ourselves!"

  "Sam... he has a point," Garza calmly said. She stood up and turned to her fellow soldiers. "I think saving the world from nuclear destruction has allowed them some secrets. So long as those secrets don't put any of us or the world at risk."

  "Thank you," Sylmae said. "I swear, we aren't trying to hurt anyone. We want to help people."

  "I know. Everyone is just very tense after the mission. I think we all need some leave. You all can go home now."

  "Thank you, Lieutenant," Tom said. "Come on, girls."

  They left the room and breathed a sigh of relief.

  "That could have gone better," Vivian said.

  "That could have gone way worse," Tom said. "Let's go home. I just want to vegetate on the couch."

  "I second that."

  Tom teleported everyone back home.

  "Tom, isn't your Lottery skill ready again?" Tala mentioned.

  "Oh, right!" Tom exclaimed. "Thank you for reminding me. Activate Lottery."

  "I actually got a jackpot!"

  "What the hell is an infrastructure kit?" Tom muttered. "Any of you ever heard of one?"

  "Never in my studies," Tala replied. Check your Inventory and Identify it.

  "Alright, let's see. Inventory. Identify Infrastructure Kit."

  A large smile came to Tom's face.

  VVVVVV

  A bright screen displayed a middle-aged white male news reporter.

  "...dismantlement of all nuclear arms is expected to take at least several months," the news reporter on TV announced. "In related news, a UN spokesman has announced that the Xothicans will be providing an interview to talk about their lives, their world, their roles in the UNDF, and Thunder."

  The TV was switched to a different source that displayed the words "Locating Signal".

  "Events have unfolded exactly as you said," Tep said to Artorius.

  Artorious sat at his office desk with Tep standing to his side.

  "People are predictable," Artorius said. "We now have our opportunity. I want preparations made to take them in next week."

  "Understood."

  Artorius made some swipes on his desk and the screen in front of the two changed to security footage from the Russian nuclear facility. The footage was of the Xothicans fighting against Rika Darma.

  "They are far more powerful than we anticipated," Artorius said in awe. "With them under our control, Humanity's future will be ensured."

  "What about Thomas Everett?" Tep asked. "He could prove useful as a slave."

  "We don't know what kind of abilities Kara has provided him. It is safer to just eliminate him. At this point, the Nephilim has served his purpose."

  ---------------------------------------------------

  Character Stats:

  Tom Everett

  Spoiler: Spoiler

  Reia Zyer

  The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

  Spoiler: Spoiler

  Sylmae Lyvan

  Spoiler: Spoiler

  Tala Mau

  Spoiler: Spoiler

  Vivian Terrabane

  Spoiler: Spoiler