Chapter 268 – Chaos
When I walked into the room, there was an aura of controlled chaos in the Tactical and Strategic Information Center, which everyone else called the War Room here on Ceres. Understandable, since a System Notice went out, proclaiming that the bearer of the Mantle of Al-Masih had died in a way that wasn’t in line with his Mantle, or in open conflict, giving everyone within two thousand kilometers a buff that the System called Flames of Vengeance, which definitely wouldn’t be a ‘peace and love’ kind of buff. This was going to be a problem.
General Raid ibn Walid, the leader of the Ceres Royal Army, and General Lina Kohring, leader of the Ceres Royal Marines, were there, conferring with each other as data came in. General ibn Walid looked up as I came in, and nodded respectfully. Salutes weren’t required in these areas, or in crisis situations. “Your Majesty, it is good that you are here. It has only been eight hours, but things are deteriorating rapidly.”
I nodded. “Yes, I imagine it would be, if the Flames of Vengeance buff is as nasty as it sounds. No one outside the radius should have gotten a description of the buff, but I can make some guesses. If it draws up and empowers old grudges? Well, there’s enough bad blood in the Middle East to cause all kinds of problems, But with that radius? That would cover an area from Libya to Pakistan, meaning large parts of the Balkans, North Africa, and parts of Russia would be involved, too.”
General Kohring bit back a curse. “I can only say that it is a good thing Israel is already off the board. I’m sure there will be fighting, since it isn’t like everyone suddenly became friends, but we don’t have to worry about them nuking everyone they can reach. It is lucky that they thought you were bluffing, since they hadn’t given orders to arm or ready their missiles.”
I nodded grimly. “That is why I only gave them a few hours to make a decision, and had all the attacks happen simultaneously once the deadline passed. They did not have enough time to get past ‘it was not a bluff’ and into activating their doomsday plans. Though I was surprised by that secret organization they had, which later tried to assassinate me.”
General ibn Walid nodded slowly as he brought up a tablet, and showed an image on the screen. “I’ve just gotten word from one of my contacts in Reformed Palestine. They sent me an image of what the Flames of Vengeance buff entails.”
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,” I said, frowning. “That is worse than I was expecting. The boost to all attributes and abilities is bad enough, but the 80% damage reduction, along with eliminating the penalties for taking on someone above your Tier? That’s going to be nasty. Probably the only person who could be truly safe in that area is me.”
Kohring raised an eyebrow. “But, if they ignore the Attack and Defense penalties for attacking someone above their Tier…”
“Those are separate from the ability I have to ignore weapon attacks below my Tier, or my ability to ignore the weapons and armor of those who are lower Tier than I am. Any mages they have might be an issue, but my defenses are high enough that the worst they might do is scratch me a little. And none of them are likely powerful enough to overcome my defenses, even without the penalties. There is a reason why the System gives you bonuses, and even Titles, for killing creatures above your Tier.”
I turned to ibn Walid, and asked, “I didn’t see an Al-Masih mantle before. From the name, I’m assuming that it has Islamic roots. Can you tell me anything about the name it must have sprung out of?”
The general took a breath, and said, “You know how, in Islam, the one called Jesus is considered another prophet, one of the greatest, save only Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him. In Islam, we give the title Al-Masih to him, as it translates to ‘Messiah’ or ‘anointed one’. It signifies his role as a messenger and healer of the sick.”
“Ah, now things are starting to click into place. A mantle with ties to religion, with the Mantle bearer likely dying due to assassination? That has the makings of a martyr, and martyrs often inspire calls for vengeance. Which is what sparked this version of the Mantle’s passing.”
Soon, the reports were coming in from all over. Twelve hours in, and religious extremists were starting to fight in Libya. Civil wars had broken out in Sudan, Ethiopia, and Afghanistan. Pakistan was on the verge of war with India. The former Yugoslavian states were about to declare war on each other. Poland and Belarus were a breath away from war. Russia was massing troops on Ukraine’s borders. Things were falling apart, and they were doing so very rapidly.
One of the officers looked up from their screen. “New report from Saudi Arabia! There are spontaneous attacks happening against members of the royal family all across the country. More than two hundred and fifty are already confirmed dead, and the attacks are rising! Anyone who has ever had a problem with the royal family is turning on them. The Saudi king is among the dead!”
I took a breath to steady myself. This was the kind of panicked chaos that had spelled the doom of the different governments in the first timeline. People got too focused on settling old scores and bringing up old grudges, so they didn’t realize that there were problems with monster spawns and alien invasions and the like, and people needed to work together. This was going to be a fucking problem.
The only good part of this whole thing was that the Ceresan Empire was mostly out of the line of fire. At least for the moment. If the chaos spread too far, then we would get dragged in, just like all the other powers. It would be great if everyone simply found a way to just get along, but I somehow doubted that would happen. Which meant that something needed to happen in order to break this cycle, before it could become self-reinforcing.
Of course, I couldn’t insert himself in the middle of all that without becoming the focal point. I needed to find a way to make the problems stall out, at least for thirty days, until the Flames of Vengeance faded. Acting too forcefully would unite everyone under the influence of the Flames against me, and the Empire, and that was not something I wanted at this time.
But that didn’t mean I could just sit back and do nothing. “Put all Territory Defense Forces on alert. While I don’t think that we will have any direct action against us by bearers of the Flames, that doesn’t mean we might not see someone try and make a play while people are distracted. I doubt we’ll see any real threat against our people in South America, and we definitely won’t see anything happening against Ceres or Ganymede, but it is still a good idea for everyone to be put on alert, all the same. Especially if some fool decides to play with monsters again.”
Admiral Andrei Jordan, head of the Ceres Royal Navy, walked into the War Room as I was speaking, and nodded. “A good idea, your Majesty. And I have a couple suggestions to add to it. I’ve been over at Navy Headquarters, going over the performance reviews from Home Fleet’s trials. This might be a good time to wave the flag a bit. Nothing major, but perhaps the equivalent of the US stationing a carrier group in the Mediterranean to ensure that people play nice?”
I nodded. “Not a bad idea. Have Home Fleet move to low Earth Orbit. About five hundred kilometers up, I think. We’ll have the Ceres-based fighters cover our defense here, but I think a showing of the fleet, including the Black Tear, will concentrate a few minds, without being a blatant threat display. And send a message to the Pakistani and Indian governments. I want them to understand that I do not care if they fight things out conventionally, but if they start playing with nukes, I’m going to step in and play, too, and they aren’t going to like that.”
Admiral Jordan chuckled. “Yes, and I believe that, after everything you’ve showed them before, they will be more willing to believe that than the Israelis were. Hopefully, we won’t need to do more than sortie a couple squadrons to ensure that they keep things limited to conventional weapons.”
ibn Walid cleared his throat. “What about boots on the ground, your Majesty?”
I shook my head. “Not at this time. The thing we’re looking to do is to keep this from becoming a self-reinforcing, panic-driven collapse of all the governments in the region, while also not giving all these groups a clear external target that they might unite against. Putting our ships in orbit isn’t going to be subtle in the slightest, but it is still an ‘over there’ thing. Boots on the ground is too ‘in your face’. Until the Flames die down, it would best to limit any ground personnel sent to the area be adventurers. That will be less provocative, since the Flames look to enhance existing rivalries, and adventurers are generally not seen as being ‘official’. A team of adventurers from Ceres heading to a dungeon or escorting businessmen or similar is very different from the Ceres Royal Army setting up shop.”
I paused, and then said, “Still, put the troops currently stationed on Earth on alert status, too. Same reasoning as the Territory Defense Forces. And, that way, if something happens and we actually need to deploy, they’ll already be half-way prepared.”
“As you say, your Majesty,” ibn Walid nodded.
My phone rang. The personal line, which only a few people had. Pulling out the phone, I saw that it was Lilith. One would be wise not to ignore a seer when they called in the middle of a crisis.
“Hello, Princess. What do you have for me?”
“Hey, Daddy. Just wanted to let you know that I just answered the diplomatic line, since you’re in the War Room. The President of the US just called direct.”
I frowned slightly. So, not a prophecy, but whatever the President said must have been big enough that she decided it was worth calling me now. “What did President Harris say?”
“He just got some information on what happened in the Middle East, and wanted your opinion on it, since you’re one of the few people he knows who once held a Mantle, but does no longer. Mainly, he wants confirmation of what his eyewitness told him. Apparently, the Al-Masih was attempting to summon and forcibly ‘convert’ those with Mantles. He’d managed to snare the Heroine, the Slayer, the Black Knight, and the White Queen.”
“I suppose it was too much to hope for that she wouldn’t get a boost in power. Still, the White Queen? That isn’t a very common archetype. When you do see it, it is typically some kind of mastermind, or manipulator, though sometimes just a person with overwhelming authority. The Mantle probably isn’t a combat-focused one. Which makes her both more dangerous, and less.”
“Less in a direct fight, yes, but far more dangerous if allowed to spend time preparing and recruiting others to her cause. But apparently the Fool interrupted the ritual, killing the Al-Masih in a surprise attack. The ritual broke before completion. Harris wanted to know if the Congresswoman he didn’t know had a mantle until now was still the same untrustworthy schemer, or a schemer under someone else’s control. I took the liberty of confirming that a ritual broken before the end would leave the targets unaltered, for the most part.”
“Other than that, what did Harris want?”
“He wanted to see if there was any way to cooperate, and ensure that we didn’t see things dissolve into World War III, or some other insanity. I told him I would let you know, and scheduled you a visit to the White House tomorrow at 10:00, Washington time. So, 15:00, Ceres Time. Some things are best discussed in person.”
“Good call. Get with our DC embassy, and have them arrange transport from whatever airfield they put our shuttles at. I’ll have one for me, and my delegation, and two for Marines.” My eyes met General Kohring’s as I said, “Half the Marines will play bodyguard, the other half will be guarding the shuttles, to ensure no one gets stupid ideas.”
Kohring nodded, getting my message loud and clear, as Lilith chuckled. “Of course, Daddy. And you’ll be happy to know that the Embassy already has some of the SUVs with the upgrade kits we sold the North Koreans, and others. I had a feeling they were going to be useful, so I had them sent over two months ago.”
“Good work, Princess.”