34. The Deal
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"I’m not going to let you defile the girl’s body for your personal ambitions." L's hand instinctively hovered near the hilt of her sword. T laughed "I might be the Champion of Evil, but what sort of things do you think I do on a daily basis? No no, actually the two of you should like this quite a bit. We are going to get The Champion of Life to use her blessing to revive the girl!" T gestured dramatically and paused for a moment. "Nothing? No reaction at all?" V shrugged "I am yet unsure if you are telling the truth or not. Also, if we intend to kill the Champion of Life, I’m forced to wonder if her blessing will keep Eika alive after we kill her." T nodded "Ah yes, well you don't need to worry about that part. Her ability is not... exactly bringing things back to life. You think it would be, given uh, you know. However, from my understanding it sort of... sets things backward to a point where they were alive." V considered his words, and waited pointedly, hoping for more elaboration. "Well, you see, I’ve seen her use her blessing before. She took a cart of hewn lumber and used her blessing to turn the entire cart back into trees. She did not make the pieces of wood alive again, but rather set them back to when they were alive. I’ve been looking into her blessing for quite a while, as I said before, I need it for certain reasons." L narrowed her eyes. "So, in exchange for helping us revive the girl, you want us to help you kill the one who is going to revive her?" T enthusiastically nodded. V spoke up "You said we needed Eika to kill the Champion of Life, why?" T smiled in a way that V understood, it was the smile of someone who was about to achieve something they had worked toward for a long time. A smile of satisfaction, and one of pride. "Well, you see, The Champion of Life's blessing also "revives" herself if she is slain. However, I have discovered that she can only use her blessing three times in an hour. Do not ask me how I discovered that information, I have no intention of sharing."

"That still leaves two more uses of her blessing, unless she is otherwise extremely weak, killing her three more times might be difficult." T shook his head "She is certainly not weak; her divine class is Druid. I have yet to find a way to resist her abilities. In-fact, once she realizes you are there to kill her, I suspect you will become paralyzed nearly instantly. Luckily, we will only need to kill her two times. And if you surprise her right after she revives your dead slave girl, I will be able to handle the rest." V looked at Eika before responding, "Does that mean then that you have some sort of plan for removing another use of her ability before you attack her?" T laughed as he gestured aimlessly "Oh don't you worry about that. I have more than one ally in the city. You see, the Champion of Life is... unhinged. She cannot stand to let anything die. If she could use her blessing constantly, she would! No more wooden houses, no more clothes made from flax, no more meat or really anything. She is a lunatic. One of my associates has arranged for quite an... upsetting spectacle to befall the Champion of Life at noon tomorrow, she will feel compelled to... "fix" the problem with her blessing. Shortly after, we will visit her with the girl. She may feel concerned that she had already used her blessing once that hour, but she owes me a favor. I will tell her that the girl’s speedy recovery is important, and she will no longer owe me once she revives the girl. Which is not a lie! After the girl is revived, I’m sure the two of you can surprise her quickly enough to kill her. And then her last life, I will take on my own. I’ve been preparing for this for months."

V had to admit, the plan did seem rather well thought out. Also, if there really was the opportunity to revive Eika, he had to take it. It was his... responsibility after all. He also had to admit that the girl's charm was nice to have around in the otherwise grim scenario he had been placed it. However, he was unsure how L felt about Eika, and even if she liked the small girl, he doubted she would respond well to this plan. It was after-all, basically one giant betrayal-based murder. V looked at L as he considered his response to T's offer. She met his eyes for a moment, before looking away. "This is your decision. The fate of your followers is ultimately your responsibility. If you agree to this plan, it will be by duty to follow." V blinked in surprise and gave a sidelong glance to T, even if L was willing, she would normally threaten him significantly more than not at all. Perhaps T was using his blessing to push his agenda? Actually, that raised an interesting question. "I felt your blessing activate a few minutes ago when you uh... fixed me, I guess is the word. However, I am not sure if I’ve ever felt L's blessing activate, and I know it must be activating quite often, for...reasons." V was not entirely sure how much T knew about them, or what exactly transpired between them when he was... busy. T shrugged "Actually I do not have a good explanation on that one. Everyone in the city probably felt your blessing activate when you went wild, what decides if the blessing is... shall we say "visibly activated" or not seems to be random. For example, I’ve never felt the Life Champion's blessing activate, Nor the Champion of Time. I can say with absolute certainty that I have seen both of them activate their blessings near me before." V nodded, just another inconsistency in the God's Game.

"There is one more concern I have before I agree to your plan, how likely do you think it will be that we are interrupted by other champions? There seem to be quite a few in the city." T nodded "There is always that chance, however, I have it on good authority that our meeting with the Champion of Life will be the least of tomorrows worries for the Champions inside the city. There is a reason my timetable is set for tomorrow. A few champions intend on jumping the Champion of The Hearth." T said that as if they should know what he was talking about, but neither of them did. "Oh uh, the Crafting Champion. Or whatever the people call him. He has the Blessing of The Hearth. Don't know what it does." L furrowed her brow, "Are you quite sure that he is going to be attacked tomorrow? When I went to retrieve the girl’s body, the square he was in was on... a type of fire and there was clearly a fight." T smiled, "Oh that, that was just the preamble. A fun brawl if you will. Tomorrow things are really going to go wild. To be honest, I'm a little sad that I will not be able to watch the start, since we will be busy. I assume?" He looked at V, who looked at L before slowly nodding. "We will assist you. However, if you betray us in this deal, I will be very very upset." T laughed and gestured dismissively "No, no thanks. Don't want any blessings activating and you tearing me in half. I’ll stick to the deal; don't you worry about that... As for the rest of today. You should rest, you have been though a-lot and I need you to be bright eyed for tomorrow!" V could not argue with that. He felt his mental and physical state was certainly one of exhaustion, but he was plain wiped out when it came to his emotional state. Without much ceremony, V laid back down on the bed and closed his eyes.

T walked to the entrance of the hideout, he turned to L for a moment "I will be back, obviously, I’m just going to make sure everything is in order. It will be rather bothersome if my associate fails his task tomorrow. L nodded, she considered following him, to make sure he was not betraying them to someone else, after all, they were two champions who would be trapped in a basement should trouble come from the front door. However, her duty at the moment was to protect V, and it did not seem like he was waking up anytime soon. L sat and leaned against a wall, eschewing the use of a chair for the time being.

Slowly V's eyes opened. He was not entirely sure how long he had been asleep. However, when he awoke, he felt refreshed, normal. For the first time since seeing the bolt protruding from Eika's chest, his head felt clear. As he sat up, he saw something somewhat unexpected. L and T seemed to be playing cards on one of the busted tables. "Eh?" was all V could really say to express his surprise. He would not have expected L to be playing games with "The Champion of Evil." Seeing that V was awake L dropped her cards and walked over "Finally, setting in a dark basement was so boring that playing some game with little pieces of paper was more interesting." V wondered if L's world did not have cards, the way she described them would lead him to say no. He smiled at her disgust with the situation. It was nice to see L was still L. "What time is it? How long was I asleep?" T stood up and tossed V a loaf of bread. "A while. We have about two hours before we make our move. Once we meet with the Champion of Life, we will only have about ten minutes before the hour turns over and she regains her Blessing uses. So let us not be over verbose with her." T walked to the door. "Even though we have time, we should head out. We have to walk to the noble district, and maybe get something better than bread to eat on the way." V nodded and stood up. "Will...anyone care that we are walking around with the dead body of a small girl?" T shook his head "No, I will make it so no one thinks overmuch about it." T's blessing activated and he touched Eika, "No one will really feel much when looking at her now. A little curiosity perhaps, but nothing strong." L frowned however. "It would appear as if your blessing is rather versatile compared to mine." T shrugged "Perhaps you simply don't know how to use yours effectively. Also, I almost forgot, if there is anything on the girl that you don't want turning into a tree or whatever it used to be, you should get it off of her." The only thing Eika carried on her person was a small stitched animal patch, V had never asked her about it, and her sling. She kept her other belongings in the inn. 

As they moved through the streets, V could feel it in the air. It was like the city itself knew that something was going on today. Perhaps it was his imagination. However, he could have sworn that the streets were emptier, and the air was quieter. They had been trying to travel covertly, so perhaps they were just in the less populated parts... but still, V could not shake the ominous feeling. "You seem to know quite a bit more than us, I’m curious if you’re willing to answer a question." T kept his eyes facing forward, but he nodded "As long as it's not about me, there is a good chance I'll answer. After-all, I like you guys." V did not wish to look too deep into that, and continued "How many champions do you think there are? When I first arrived, I thought there would only be a handful, but as I thought about it, in my world there were religions that had pantheons with literally hundreds of millions of gods. Obviously, none of those religions were correct, but it got me thinking, are there millions of Champions?" T chuckled softly "I do not think there are millions of us. There could be I suppose. I don't really know. Sometimes I think there are only about a hundred, but then I remember how there was a Champion of the Sun, who was ironically killed by The Champion of Light. I’m evil, she's honor, does that mean there is a god for every concept? If so, there would be hundreds of us just based on concepts like good, evil, honor, dishonor, love, hate, fear, and all their variations. My God told me that every god was compelled to participate in this game." V nodded, that much he could corroborate, as The Mother Goddess expressed her disdain toward the game. He responded, adding his thoughts "However if there was a God for every concept, every particle, every idea, everything. There would be billions of us. "The Champion of Sneezing" and "The Champion of Jumping" and who knows what else." T sighed as he responded "That would be bothersome, however if there were billions of us, I feel like it would have been more effective to just throw us all down in an open field and let the slaughter begin. Because at that point, mostly every single person in this world would be a Champion..." L spoke up, holding her thoughts until now. "It is possible there was a God for every single thing, however only a certain number of them remain. They obviously do not get along, perhaps they killed one another, perhaps if there were billions of gods, there are now only millions, or thousands, or hundreds. Perhaps they use this game to make sure their numbers are not reduced further." Both V and T nodded silently, the three of them considered the matter in silence the rest of the way.

They stood before an impressive manor, even by the standards of the noble quarter, the house in front of them was grand. "Being the Champion of Life really pays huh?" In an annoyed tone of voice, T responded "Sure does, you can make a lot of money if you can just "revive" things at will. Regardless, are you ready? Once we enter there is no turning back." L nodded "As long as you are sure your associate did his job..." The three of them walked up to the door, and T knocked. Before it opened, he mentioned to V and L, "Oh, and remember, I’m fairly sure in another five or six minutes the city is going to be a war zone. So, after we are done here, you might want to try to leave, I doubt you will survive the incoming mess." V nodded, however he found it somewhat strange that T expressed interest in his wellbeing past their agreement. The door opened, a young girl in a maid outfit stood in the doorway "Oh... Another supplicant come to see my mistress. Well, she is tired right now, I’m very sorry for your friend but you have to return another day." T smirked "tell her that Evil has come to collect. She will know what it means. Me and her go way back." The maid hesitated but nodded. "I will return shortly." After a few moments, the door opened again, "My lady says to show you in, she will be along shortly." As the maid ushered them into the manor, V had to admit, he was a little jealous of the place. Fancy paintings, crystal chandeliers, the works. "It really does pay well..." he muttered to himself.

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