Chapter 267 – Flames
System Notice
Zain el-Rasul, bearer of the Mantle of Al-Masih, has been slain outside of open combat! The Mantle has returned to the System, available to be taken by another who proves worthy!
All residents of Earth within 2000 kilometers of Al-Masih’s demise are infused with the Flames of Vengeance!
Flames of Vengeance
The death of Zain el-Rasul, bearer of the Mantle of Al-Masih, infuses your soul with the Flames of Vengeance! While avenging any slight or wrong done to you, or any group you are a part of, all attributes and abilities are increased by 500%, and all damage taken is reduced by 80%. Attack and Defense penalties for facing creatures beyond your Tier are ignored while the Flames burn within you. The Flames of Vengeance will fade in 30 days.
“Shit!” The White Queen cursed, as she looked about, seeing spectral flames coating everyone around them. Her voice was filled with a self-assured power that made following her lead seem like the obvious choice. “We have to get out of here, now!”
The Fool clapped his hands, and a wave of power passed over the five Mantle-bearers. The world suddenly took on a strange hue, as though some of the color had been drained out of it. “There,” the Fool said, in his mirthful voice. “I have extended my [Erase Presence] skill temporarily, so the five of us can relocate. I am sure everyone has things they’d like to talk about.”
The Heroine looked around, dazed. When she spoke, it was in heavily accented English, betraying her Israeli roots, and her tone was far too jaded for one with her Mantle. “Who are you people? What happened here? Where are we? The last thing I knew, I was in the remains of Haifa, helping with the rebuilding project, with the new Palestinian Republic, part of my penance for what my people did.”
“Later,” the White Queen said, dragging the Black Knight by his armor, and clearly expecting the rest of them to follow. “We need to be away from this crowd as quickly as possible, or we’re going to be caught up in the madness, even with the Fool’s skill. Because that damn Al-Masih was targeting us with his ritual, our faces will stick out to the masses there, and they’ll target us automatically with their grudges, if they see us.”
Soon, they were on the field of the nearby Sinaa Stadium. Obviously, no football games were being played, now, at this time of night, and the lights were off. The White Queen raised her staff, and cast [Friendly Light], a spell which offered light like a torch, but only for those the caster designated. The spell was from the middle to higher levels of Tier 1 light magic, but was very useful for allowing allies to see in dungeons while not advertising a party’s position to enemies.
The Fool, seeing this, nodded. “Let me add a bit more magic, since I seem to have made a mess of the prophet. [Mass Cleaning].” The spell, cast with his Master Arcanist powers, was a simple thing, cleaning the targets (in this case, the other four Mantle bearers) and their gear of any blood, sweat, or other nastiness. It would not repair worn or broken items, however. It would make even a rusty blade shine like new again, but it would not restore any pitted or weakened sections of the blade, or sharpen a dull edge. Still, for all that the spell was merely cosmetic, it was much appreciated.
The Slayer looked around at them, and when he spoke, his voice was the practiced practicality of someone who had grown far too used to getting thrown into the deep end. “Last I remember, I was hunting an ambush of Helltigers in Myanmar. There was some concern that a Tier 3 version of a tiger had arisen, and was now leading the group. But I was still tracking them. Now, I’m here, and this definitely doesn’t feel like Southeast Asia.”
“That’s because you’re not in Southeast Asia, anymore,” the White Queen said, flatly. “The Al-Masih was conducting ritual magic, which summoned us to Baghdad. I am not a Mind Sorceress, but my CHA and the [Mettle] skill allowed me to shake off the mental component of the compulsion. However, the ritual he was using targeted our Mantles, not our minds directly, which is why he was able to bypass the defenses I know all of you have.”
“Yes,” the Fool nodded. “I noticed the divinations, but they could not grasp me, since the Fool’s nature is to slip all shackles and bindings. However, I was curious, and so I flew to Baghdad, to see what was going on. And it is well that I did so, or you would all have been converted into whatever scheme the man had planned.”
“Probably some religious holy war bullshit,” growled the Black Knight. “That kind of thing is useful for sweeping people up into a cause, but I’ve come to learn that it is unwise for people to believe their own hype. It blinds them to other possibilities.”
The Slayer looked at the two Americans. “You are the Black Knight and his White Queen, right? The ones who led all those people fighting the lizards when they hit Manhattan? But something is strange about you two. All four of you, really. [Slayer’s Instinct] is telling me the Black Knight would be a better fight, but the White Queen’s a bigger threat. Meanwhile, the Heroine isn’t giving worthy prey vibes right now, no offense. And I can’t read anything from the Fool at all.”
The Heroine laughed. “I’m not worthy, right now. That much is true. A Hero without a cause is nothing, after all. And after my belief in my old cause died, I have yet to find a new one.”
The Fool nodded. “And the nature of the Fool means that few divinations or extra senses can get a clean read on me, unless I allow it.”
The White Queen lightly tapped her staff to the ground. Somehow, despite hitting soft grass, it made a rapping sound, which drew their attention. “That is an issue for another time. The larger concern is what has now been unleashed, thanks to the way that the Fool rescued us from the Al-Masih. Unfortunately, the System dislikes when people slay the bearer of a Mantle outside of open battle, or a declared duel. Assassination or even accidental death of a Mantle-bearer causes the System to unleash a wide-area effect, with the exact nature determined by the Mantle.”
The Slayer frowned. “But from what I heard, you tried to kill the Black Knight in a previous timeline, before he became the Demon Lord of Ceres.”
The White Queen grimaced. “Yes, and it would have worked, if he hadn’t blown himself up, and ruined everything. By that point, we knew about the effects of a Mantle-bearer dying, thanks to what happened when the first Hero of that timeline was killed by orbital bombardment during the opening stages of the main invasion, when the Ouran blasted large parts of Tokyo to clear ground for their primary base. Everyone on Earth got the message that the Hero had been killed, and those within 2000 kilometers gained the temporary bonus of [Hero’s Resolve], allowing them to ignore all fear or negative morale effects for thirty days.”
The Heroine shook her head. “So, you knew about the effects of killing a Mantle-bearer, and tried it anyways?”
The White Queen shrugged. “I used a cursed dagger, designed to drain away the power of the mantle, and the bearer’s life force. It was working, too. Once it was done, I would have been able to use the mantle’s powers, adding them to my own, without losing any of my own abilities, or suffering the mantle’s restrictions. And it would have worked, as I said, if the annoying man hadn’t blown himself up to spite me.”
The Slayer looked at the White Queen, and said, “So, what happens if you kill a Mantle in open combat?”
“Assuming it is a combat Mantle, like yours, or the Hero, and not a social or support Mantle, like mine? We found that out when the second Slayer died in combat, since one of the people near us had got the Mantle. The killer gained a title, giving them damage resistance against Mantle-bearers, and they also absorbed two of the Slayer’s skills, and got a boost to one of their attributes. Both a fixed boost, and a per-level boost.”
The Fool nodded. “That makes sense, then. The System dislikes being cheated, as evidenced by these Flames of Vengeance, but it rewards those who strive, and put effort into a task that is no doubt difficult. That could be a very devastating power increase. And makes it a good reason for us to not get complacent. There are always those who would do terrible things for an increase in their power.”
The Black Knight just shook his head, before speaking for the first time. His voice was gruff, and growling, and sounded short-tempered, though the black armor deadened his body language, and his helmet not only helped shield his mind against mental attacks, but also allowed him to hide his expression completely. “Enough about that. We need a way out of the city. Preferably out of the country. Since, other than our Fool, here, we were all teleported to this city and drawn to the ritual site, and everyone is likely going to try and kill us on sight, we should focus on getting away from the zealots looking for revenge.”
The White Queen simply nodded. “Yes, you bring up a good point, oh Knight of mine. I’ll have to see about giving you a suitable reward, when we get home. But first, we need to get home. I can talk my way out of and around most things, when someone isn’t targeting my Mantle directly, but my mantle is focused solely on social matters, and even though I’m a Light sorceress, I have no idea how to turn a living person into light, to allow them to move anywhere the light touches, but if they get too far from me, the light constructs break down and suffer have a high chance of releasing all their energy at once.”
The Heroine edged back a step. “That… sounds bad. And explosive. How much energy are we talking about, here?”
The White Queen laughed at that. It was not a happy laugh. “Explosive is one way to describe it. And how much energy will be released depends on how much Mana and Mass they have. Bare minimum is Einsteinian math. E=mc2. The blast which leveled Hiroshima converted about 0.5 grams of material to energy, with a result of roughly 63 terajoules of energy. An average adult, with clothes and gear and all, might be about 70 kilograms. In other words, one hundred and forty times the yield. Maybe the higher-levels of Radiance magic will have something for teleporting groups, but I’m not there, yet.”
The Fool laughed, and his laugh was genuinely pleased, like someone watching a sequence of events they set up fall out exactly as they wished. It was one of the Mantle’s more annoying qualities. “Then it is good that, in addition to being a Fool and a Harlequin, I am also a Master Arcanist. And I do know a [Mass Teleportation] spell, as well as a [Teleport Other] ritual. But the first can only take us somewhere I have gone before, and the second can send someone to a place they know, but it takes half an hour per casting.”
The White Queen nodded. “If you can take us to anywhere on the American East Coast, my Knight and I can handle things from there. And that would also leave the rest of you safely out of the radius of the Flames. Any of us that are seen by someone with the Flames of Vengeance, even on TV, will probably spark a regional war, at best. Which means, miss Heroine, that you probably want to wait before heading back home.”
“That’s fine,” the Heroine said. “I have nothing waiting for me back there, anyways. Perhaps, in traveling, I will find a new cause to rally behind.”