Godfather's System

The wait didn't last long, but I managed to check enough empty rooms to find a discarded set of armor in one of the rooms. It was damaged and waiting for repair, but it was still enough.

Then, in about a minute, an alarm started to ring, and the gates leading to the lower parts of the castle slammed down, blocking access while the guards started to shout in alarm.

I stayed in the room, waiting, wondering how my last-minute recruit would perform. It hadn't been the most prudent choice. Particularly, things could get heated if someone discovered a Hero was poking around in Somaton territory.

However, things being heated was not necessarily against me. After all, back when I was 'lost', there had been a significant amount of force transferred to the region. There were only three forces that really made an effort to search for me. Ralum military, the cultists…

And the mysterious organization that Bertnam was working for.

Therefore, I expected that revealing the presence of a 'new' hero would trigger a similar reaction. It was guaranteed to get a significant reaction from Somaton, at least enough to weaken the defenses of the breach, allowing us to capture it.

While we didn't desperately need the extra experience a large dungeon would provide, it would effectively gather a fortune and train our army. Waiting until a desperate need or hoping that there would be no need was the domain of the idiots.

Though, admittedly, the reverse was true as well. I had seen many desperate fools trying to do the opposite, desperately powering up for an eventual confrontation, only to trigger one with a bigger force in the process. I had seen more than one cartel being destroyed by the feds because they got too reckless in their powering.

In a way, I was doing the same thing, which was why my instincts were shouting me to go back, move everyone back to the guild and move to an obscure dungeon. Unfortunately, the Calamity was not something we could avoid that way … and even if we could, millions of peasants would not.

And, while I had lived too long to care about a few innocent deaths that was unconnected to me at a personal level, I couldn't do the same when the potential losses were so high that the only question was whether we should call it a genocide…

Or extinction.

I sighed, distracting myself from the philosophical aspects. It was the fault of the guards. They were still in the process of gathering, far slower than I expected, which gave me enough time to ponder over the driving force behind my motivations over more practical aspects.

They were making a mistake. Had they reacted faster, they would have probably suppressed the sudden prison uprising by now. Vitality was useful to recover from wounds and neglect, but it took a while to digest properly, and healing took some time as well.

Not to mention, only a few prisoners had received health pellets from my limited stock. They were giving a chance for the others to find some recovery material, compounding their strategic mistake.

A mistake. I waited for the guards to react, while thinking how the sudden appearance of a Hero would affect the region if it was known, other than the inevitable Somaton reaction. Cultists might react as well, depending on whether their presence in the military was unique to Ralum, or if it were more of a staple across every kingdom.

I felt that the Ralum-only case was much more likely. Otherwise, they would have just acted out openly.

Then, there was the most important issue: Bertnam's mysterious organization. I still didn't know anything other than they wanted at least one Hero for their private gains. However, I was strongly hoping that they would be searching for the sudden appearance of another hero as well, because the only clue I had about them was a weapon, which was not exactly easy to track considering Skill-reliant production generated similar products.

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Well, only clue other than the identity of Bertnam, but that clue I refused to explore unless every other choice failed. Exploration of his background, sooner or later, would be noticed … and from there, we would be the only suspects. Not exactly ideal.

No, I needed them to react to something that was unrelated to us, at least on the surface. I had some other plans to draw their operations out once I dealt with the Somaton issue, but the cursed prisoner had been too much of an opportunity to pass up.

Gods didn't bother cursing insignificant people, and I was happy to deal with it. I was hoping that he was someone like Zolast, but I wouldn't mind working with someone with a … flexible moral fiber as long as it was not too flexible.

Admittedly, the biggest risk was that he was a mass murderer, which, unfortunately, seemed to be really common in this new world. Not that they defined it like that. A knight massacring a whole village could easily be explained as long as those villagers somehow insulted their pride.

I was willing to risk it. And, if that gamble didn't pay off, I would be willing to take the responsibility and deal with it.

Permanently, if the situation required.

Of course, it all depended on whether he could survive in the first place. While waiting, I contacted Zolast, asking him to make sure the body doubles for Euon, Holy Steward, and Holy Crusader to be seen around for the next two days, preferably doing something to get the attention of the minor spies.

The last thing we needed was anyone to get suspicious about the absence of Euon. Luckily, my regional travel method, while uncomfortable and laborious, left absolutely no trace.

It took ten minutes for the commander to finally reach the guards, which, as far as emergency responses went, was quite terrible. As the guards prepared to move down, I climbed the stairs. It was the ideal time. Their active forces were assigned to a task, but they were not yet alert enough to check the identity of the guards.

I walked up the stairs, ready to use Charisma or Speed as needed as I climbed the stairs.

Then, I was at the top. It was similar to any other flying castle. Four towers at the corners to maintain the ward to keep the constant beast presence out, and a central tower with its individual wards.

However, this time I had a different perspective. I could feel that, through the central tower, the flying castle was connected to something. No, someone. I wanted to examine it better, but through my connection, I felt a strong sense of victory from downstairs.

My most recent addition to my party had just been victorious. Realizing that before a second alarm rang had been useful, as it alerted me in time to walk to a corner. People looking around in realization that the first guard force failed was the perfect chance for me to activate my Concealment once more and slip into the nearest outer tower.

The door was locked with a magical seal. However, Intelligence, Agility, and Attunement was a devastating combination, particularly when said lock was a utilitarian one, designed to be unlocked regularly, more of a padlock than a bank vault.

For this particular mistake, I didn't blame them. Even with magic, there were limits to securing access to commonly accessible locations … of course, that wouldn't be necessary if they hadn't used the center as a garden as well, but that was a whole different problem.

And, once inside, I found the wards being centered around a magical crystal, running automated. That was a bigger mistake. I reached out and touched it, adding a few new rules. Wards might resist incredible damage from outside, but from inside, they were easy to sabotage.

There was no warning. One moment, there was a ward around the castle, the other, many flying beasts were rushing in. They weren't enough to be trouble, but the distraction was all I needed with my Concealment. I rushed toward the center tower, and entered it without alerting anyone.

The center tower didn't have much. A large, glowing orb with a radius of thirty feet that for some reason felt familiar, and a complicated structure whose only function was to somehow interact with the glowing orb. I was almost certain that it wasn't a mana core or anything similar. It had another function than providing power, or I would have felt mana fluctuations.

There was no fluctuation, just an astral connection that felt too much like the connection between gods and their worshippers to be a coincidence … but the connection was weaker. It was even weaker than the connection between the cursed and the divine. A rope, instead of a chain…

Meaning, it could be cut even easier.

As much as I loathed to do anything that directly interacted with the gods, the opportunity to create total chaos was too much to ignore. A flare of mana, and it was cut.

Three things happened in an instant. The orb collapsed into a more portable state, about the size of a basketball . The castle suddenly started to fall down. Not crashing, as something was still trying to hold it up, but still descending hard.

Yet, I found the last thing the most intriguing.

[System Beacon Detected

Activate?]