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Chapter 246: Interlude 12

Assholes, that\'s who.

He lorded himself ontop his throne. He hadn\'t always had a throne, but he decided he needed one after visiting other Pantheons and seeing that they all had thrones. And because he\'s Indra, no ones allowed to out-asshole him.

"About time." Indra scowled, leg kicked over the armrest of his Throne, arm propping up his head. "You\'re probably wondering why I summoned you."

Well, it\'s either to boss me around to satiate your inflated ego, or you have a mission.

Sometimes both.

"Do you have a mission for me, Lord Indra?" I respectfully asked.

"Hmm." He looked down at me, pleased with my subservience. I spent enough time in the Celestial Bureaucracy to learn how to kiss ass. "I do." He said with a pause, not bothering to explain.

He was going to make me ask.

Fucking stupid \'power plays\'.

"I\'m at your disposal, Lord Indra. Tell me what needs to be done and I\'ll accomplish it to the best of my ability." I wasn\'t going to give him the pleasure.

He grunted with a hint of annoyance. Buddha above, why did he have to act so controlling. It\'s only me right here, he didn\'t need to flex his authority over the other gods. It\'s not like I can rebel or anything, not after the mess I made in the Jade Emperor\'s court.

Well, after the messes I should say. You rampage one too many times, then suddenly everyone wanted your head.

He sat up straighter, his demeanor shift told me of how serious the matter was. He usually didn\'t come to me with such things, but I suppose I might be specifically needed here.

"The Future has changed." Indra growled.

I blinked in confusion. "I....don\'t understand?"

"Of course you wouldn\'t." He scoffed.

Asshole.

"I\'ve been tracking the outline of the Future and everything was going according to plan, but recently, there was a large shift, and everything is wrong!" He slammed his fist on his throne, cracking it. Purple Lightning simmered around him.

Hmm, he was a powerful clairvoyant. Probably the strongest now that the Biblical God was dead, possibly only matched by Lord Shiva, but I had a feeling that Indra was a tiny bit above him in that regard while the God of Destruction was a bit stronger. However, there was a more important matter, did someone mess up his plans right under his nose?

Well, it was hard to hold back a smile.

I think I owed someone a drink.

"Lord Indra, I don\'t understand much of what you\'re saying. But couldn\'t you simply....look to see who\'s causing you problems?" Merciful Buddha...I hate talking like this.

Indra growled again, slumping in his chair. "Whatever – whoever is causing this, I can\'t see them."

Well, aint that some shit?

"And what is your command for me, Lord Indra? I assume no confidence in something that even you are uncertain of."

"I was able to pick out some.... locations. Some things I need you to investigate discreetly." He flipped his own over, revealing a piece of paper. "I don\'t know how relevant some of them are, so just investigate them all."

It slowly floated down into my hands.

"Some of these have times next to them, do I– "

"And be at those places at the specific times that are marked. I was only able to gleam very few details, but they should be important. Don\'t reveal yourself." He interrupted.

Well, a little walk around the world wouldn\'t hurt.

"I will not fail you, Lo –"

"Don\'t fail me, Monkey." Indra said dismissively.

If I was a few years younger, I would have – what did the kids say these days? Throw hands? I thought Bikou said that once or twice. Made me nostalgic for the days before my journey, before I converted. I should pay a visit to the Flowers and Fruit Mountain, maybe train the brats for a little bit, see how Bikou\'s doing too.

"By your leav –"

"Get going." He shooed me off. "Unless you want to go clean the divine stables."

....dick.

****

Lets see here...this should be the place?

It would have helped had he given me any kind of explanation instead of \'go here\' for whatever reason. At least this wasn\'t one of the time-marked ones, which were due.....in the next few days.

Using my transformation spell was quite handy for situations like this. Made infiltration missions easy. Not many people expected the Great Sage Equal to Heaven to be undercover like this.

There\'s no Former Monkey King here, just a dashing young human, looking around.

Speaking of.

What in the Nine Hells am I looking for?

I could only scratch my head as I stood infront of a partially burned down house.

"Is something wrong, Dearie?" I turned my head to see an old woman walk up to me. "You were staring at that place for awhile now. I hope you didn\'t know anyone caught up in that dreadful fire."

"Oh no, Auntie." I smiled. "I just got back to town after visiting my....Grandparents in the country. Was wondering what happened?" My acting skills were impeccable.

"What a shame." She shook her head. "I remember a young man used to live here.....kept to himself. I don\'t remember seeing anyone else. And just one day, the house burned down and I haven\'t seen the young man since. I do hope he\'s doing okay."

Well, since that\'s literally the only noticeable thing around here, I could assume that was what I came for. I mean....there were some devils on the other side of town. But I think this was their territory or something? Yeah, now I remember, that Satan Brat\'s sister was here.

Well, staying the hell away from them. Don\'t want that freaky devil to come after me.

Oh...I really hoped the devils had something to do with it. I would give up the Peaches of Immortality I snuck a few centuries ago if it meant I could see Indra\'s face if that happened.

"Do you remember his name by chance?" I asked.

"Hmm, I think it was.....Shimoda. Shimoda Takao" She looked thoughtful. "Yes, I think that\'s it. I\'m sorry, it\'s been a long while and he was a quiet child so I didn\'t speak to him much."

That name doesn\'t sound familiar at all....not that I expected anything. I half thought that Indra just wanted to jerk me around for awhile just because he could. Wouldn\'t be the first time...

"It\'s alright, Auntie. I was just curious." I flashed her an innocent smile.

"My, aren\'t you a sweet boy." She rubbed my head.

Kind of awkward considering I\'s more than 20 times her age.....

"I have some cookies I made for my grandson, but he didn\'t come over. How about helping an old woman and take some off my hands?" She gave that authentic grandmotherly smile that even someone like me couldn\'t resist.

And I was a sucker for some cookies.

****

Well, the trip hadn\'t been a complete waste, free cookies.

But once again, why am I here?

I looked around at the large crowds walking about, the utterly mundane and normal humans – for the most part. It was easy to see through the disguises of the non-humans who were walking around. Not much could escape my Fiery Golden Eyes.

Youkai, Devil, Dryad, Vampire, ....Centaur?

Huh...why was he under an illusion and pulling a carriage.....and wearing leather.....with a gag in his mouth.....

And this was why no one wants to come to America.

Alright, lets see, I remember that some large mutant lizard attacked here last month. Which wasn\'t something worth talking about when mentioning this country.

I did have a good laugh when I saw Izanami slap it across the face. It\'s nice to see that girl getting out of Yomi every once in awhile. Last time I saw her, she was super depressed. And there had been a devil with her, the son of one of those Satan brats.

And I just came from a part of Japan that was a small part of Devil Territory.

Curious.

There were a few connections so far, maybe I should go and visit Izanami? We\'re not exactly....friends, but I didn\'t think she\'d turn me away for a small chat.

But there was also that mess that her son caused. That Susanoo raising a ruckus off the coast of Japan, fighting that...devil.

There were a few connections so far, maybe I should go and visit Izanami? We\'re not exactly....

I blinked in realization, looking back at the paper. The one which told me to investigate some coordinates off the coast of Japan.....which sounded suspiciously like the place where Susanoo fought.

That\'s three times that Devil had been involved. The first time could be hand waived, just happenstance. The second time was a direct interference, and now the third where that young brat fought Susanoo.

I\'d have to be a fool, or Indra, to not see the obvious here. Though, that arrogant God usually has his head up his own –

I took a deep breath.

Amitabha.

Peace. No need to drag myself down to his level.

Well, I read most of this stuff on Devil.net. One of the things that kept me entertained these days. I highly doubted Indra would lower himself to use it, so he\'s probably in the dark. Not to mention if he\'s this flustered about his \'future\' plans being disrupted, he\'d probably more focused on that than the real happenings of the world.

No, he probably was told that Susanoo got his butt kicked and had a good laugh at that then stopped caring. He looked down on the other Lightning-based Gods, so he wouldn\'t even bother acknowledging a Devil that fought Susanoo.

But that didn\'t explain how his...predictions had all turned to dust. Regardless of this Devil\'s strength, Indra was not a pushover. Especially when it came to looking into the future. As much as I.....disliked him, he\'s the only one of two who could have even claimed rivalry with the Christian God when it came to divining the future.

Last time I heard, this Devil was apparently living in Yasaka\'s domain.

I rubbed my currently non-existent beard in contemplation.

It had been awhile since I\'d seen that old bastard Nurarihyon, and Yasaka was someone I was on....decent terms with. I could easily get an audience if I desired without getting those Takamagahara Gods in a tizzy. The only issue there was that they\'re closer to the Jade Emperor than Indra, so it might cause a little friction.

Gah.....why were politics so annoying. I missed the days I just leisurely drank on the mountain and fought when I felt like it.

I retired, and here I am still putting up with all this nonsense.

And I knew as soon as I told Indra what I found out, he\'s going to go cause a mess. He\'s already throwing a fit when his little toy – Cao Cao died and went to a different afterlife. I didn\'t have much sympathy for that brat. He was a kid without a guiding hand so his earlier years and attitude could be excused, but he still became – somewhat – a man and still had those stupid ideas. He wanted to slaughter anything non-human to prove himself or something equally ridiculous. To prove that humans were stronger or something.

And the fact that he was using one of the Biblical God\'s toys – his strongest one in fact – didn\'t seem to register on his mind.

Well, Buddha was merciful. I hoped his next reincarnation was better.

Maybe that was why Indra was ticked off? Losing his \'toy\' was one thing, but that spear disappearing was a whole other issue. Indra had some of his own toys that could match or beat it, but it was still a prize worth having even if to keep it as nothing more than a bauble. I\'m sure he\'d love to keep it and lord it over the Angels just to get a reaction.

Well, I may as well finish up this list, otherwise he\'d throw a fit.

I got a couple days before this next one and the food here was always good. Buddha is Merciful, I\'m sure it\'d be fine to taste a bit of the local cuisine...

***

England, huh?

Been a long time since I\'d been here. Hadn\'t really had a reason to come back in about...600 years or so. Thankfully I didn\'t spread any new \'legends\' when I had a bit of.....fun at the time.

Let\'s see.....a castle in the middle of nowhere. Seems about right for how Indra\'s been sending me to places.

Hmm, I think I knew this place, something about a family here.

Oh, that Pendragon family. Descendants of that one kid a few centuries ago! I remembered him, feisty little guy, learned Touki all by himself and got pretty dang good at it. He was one of the Heaven faction\'s heavy hitters outside of their realm.

I transformed into a bird, flying over the walls undetected. I silently clicked my nonexistent tongue at their lackadaisical attitude until I noticed the destruction all around. This place had been through quite the battle, lots of damage every.

The faintest smell of fire and snake filled the air. I detected no signs of such things, yet they still persisted. Not only that.... I felt a strange sense of....peace sitting here. Like I could harmonize with this place and meditate fairly easily.

A strange thing indeed for a place that had seen such a battle recently.

Now my curiosity was piqued.

I flew around for a few minutes, looking for a good target to follow. And wouldn\'t you know it, a group of people from the Catholic Church had arrived in a burst of light.

I guess I couldn\'t talk bad about Indra\'s timing. Something was certainly going on here, whether it\'s anything noteworthy for us was a different matter entirely.

Oh well, should stave off my boredom.

Changing into a fly was as easy as breathing as I landed on a priest\'s robe. I didn\'t think he\'d notice me considering he probably couldn\'t even see his feet with that gut hanging out.

They walked with a purpose, everyone making way for them. I wasn\'t quite familiar with the relationships or factions here, being a bit out of my purview and a bit low on the totem pole for me. However, it was odd to see these....outsiders run all over this supposed Noble Family for these humans.

They pushed open doors and shuffled inside to a group of waiting men. One sat at the forefront who had a look of confidence on his face.

Oh, this should be entertaining. I could tell he wasn\'t going to take any crap from these pompous buffoons.

I scanned around the room and landed on something very interesting. There was a bug hiding in the corner, blending in with the stone. I recognized a similar method of concealment, if different in application and origin. What did they call it – a Glamour?

My Eyes pierced the veil. I saw what laid underneath, its true nature.

A Fae.

Hmm. Annoying.

No one liked dealing with them; it always ends up being more trouble than its worth.

Well, just as I saw through it, it looked at me and saw my true nature as well. Typical, hard to \'hide\' or \'cheat\' infront of one of those things. They give Devils a run for their money when it came to contracts and agreements as well.

Since neither of us made a move, it became a silent agreement to not do anything as we both were apparently here for the same reason.

"Where\'s Uther!?" The fat priest shouted as I flew off his body and onto the nearby wall.

"Uther is no longer the head of the family." The man sitting down explained calmly. "I\'m Agravain, and you will be dealing with me for now on."

The fat priest huffed and pulled out a chair, falling into it with a creak. "Hmph. We had agreements, acknowledgements of – "

"You HAD agreements." Agravain cut him off. "As Uther\'s head had been removed from his body, those agreements too are being...reconsidered."

"That old bastard\'s dead?" The priest blinked.

"Did you think he would willingly give up his spot?" Agravain raised an eyebrow.

The priest scoffed. "So you usurped his position. A coup then?" He ran his eyes up and down on Agravain who didn\'t react. "I think he mentioned you. His decrepit and talentless brother." The priest spat out.

"Uther was executed for the crimes he committed." Agravain said calmly. "Now, Father Pierre....."

"What about the contracts we had?"

"What about them?" Agravain replied instantly.

"We were told – "

"We were told we would receive help. We would receive reinforcements and aid in the event of an attack." Agravaine\'s voice was stern. "Before you should speak of what we should be providing you in the future due to these \'arrangements\' how about we discuss your absence when our home was under siege."

"...We were preoccupied." The Priest scowled.

"Really? The entirety of the Church was preoccupied and couldn\'t answer our call for aid." Agravain snorted.

"What do you care!?" The priest slammed his hand down on the table. "Your little coup won you the head seat."

"While that\'s technically true, it\'s also very far form the truth." Agravain closed his eyes with a sigh. "I did not ask for this, but I suppose it makes little difference. Regardless, you violated the terms of our contract. Why should we honor the agreements between our two factions if you aren\'t going to do the same?"

"Y-you\'re going to rip of the agreements we\'ve had between us for the last 500 years?" The priest looked surprised. "Do you have any idea what that means?"

"It means.....we will no longer be allies after today." Agravain leaned back in his seat. "We will be closing ourselves off for a few years to.... reevaluate our purpose."

"Do you think we\'d just let you walk away with so many of our treasures in your vaults!? We let you keep them because you did what you were told!"

Agravain let out a laugh. "Feel free to check our vaults, we have no treasures to speak of."

"What!?"

"We were attacked. We were defeated. Do you think that the defeated side would get to keep anything of importance? I told you, I didn\'t ask for this, it was thrust upon me." Agravain snorted with laugher. "The sword I\'m using right now is barely better than something mundane."

"Where!? Who!?"

"That\'s none of your business." Agravain smiled. "As we\'re no longer deciding to pursue our original relationship, I will classify that as a secret not worth sharing."

"Do you think the Church will accept this!? We\'re the ones who made you what you were. Do you have any idea how many resources we spent on your \'family\' over the years to keep it going? How many times we stopped you all from dying out just because of your Ancestor!? And this is how you repay us!?" The priest stood up, slamming the table. "This is....Blasphemy. You\'re defying the will of Heaven!"

"Let\'s agree to disagree."

"Raah!" The Priest slammed the table again. "What gives you the confidence?" He growled. "Did you find help in those abominations, or maybe a false Pagan God?"

"Our family is faithful to our roots. We find no shelter in others but those of our blood." Agravain had a cocky smirk on his face.

Little brat was definitely hiding something.

"Now that we established your actual feelings. How about we talk about the real reason you\'re here. Because it certainly wasn\'t to \'help\' us. Unless the Church is that incompetent that it took several days to finally get our \'message\'." Agravain added.

Hmm, I liked his style.

The priest was red in the face. I thought he might pop if he gets any redder. "Hmph. Then listen well, brat! I\'m here on a Holy Mission from God!" He spread his arms out. "We detected a very large burst of Holy Power here, and we\'re investigating if –"

"That\'s classified." Agravain shut him down.

"Excuse me?"

"Classified. Family Secrets." Agravain leaned back. "Anything else, or shall I walk you to the door?"

"Y-you!" He held his hand up in disbelief. "Did you not hear what I said!? I\'m on a mission personally given by an Angel! A mission from God Himself! You dare deny me!?"

"Yes." Agravain said pointedly.

"Heathen!"

"Are you done?" Agravain said with a bored tone.

"T-this isn\'t the end of anything! All our sensors went haywire! Ever since the Excalibur Swords had been stolen, we\'ve been looking for them. Then suddenly there\'s a massive build up of Holy Power that can match an Archangel at the very least!! AND our sensors are telling us the Excaliburs were used here? We graciously allowed you to keep one of them. But there\'s no way that kind of response was only from one being used. The Church demands an explanation!"

Hooh, this was getting pretty interesting. Those Excalibur toys looked fun to play with, even if they couldn\'t match the complete sword from back in the day.

"What happened! There\'s been not a peep and a battle clearly occurred. If you don\'t give us a sufficient reply –"

"You\'ll do what?" Agravain tilted his head. "I said before, we are without any treasures anymore. We\'re destitute." He punctuated. "Are you going to call a \'crusade\'?" He said mockingly. "How comical that you\'re threatening us when you couldn\'t even spare any of your people when we were in danger. I can say under an oath, under the truthful eyes of an Angel, Heaven being my witness. There were none of those Excalibur Shards present that day."

The priest growled under his breath.

"Lies, and twisted truths! After suffering such...mockery, do you think Heaven will stay silent!? Hellfire awaits you, brimstone and damnation – "

"How bold of you to speak on God\'s behalf. Tell me, Father Pierre, when did you become an Angel?" Agravain snorted.

"Insolent!"

Agravain suddenly shot up, slamming his hands on the table, shattering his end. "I should be the one saying that!" He roared. "How dare you come into my home and act like we owe you any kind of answer or explanation! You bastards didn\'t even show up when called, you get no right to demand anything of us! The Church wants an answer?! How about I publicly ask for an answer from the Church!? How many other smaller factions will look at us and think \'What if we\'re in trouble too\'!?"

"Y-you wouldn\'t dare...."

"Try me." Agravain glared.

"Fine." The Priest sniffed. "I can see I\'m not wanted here. I\'ll report back about your....lack of cooperation. Let the higher ups deal with this....vermin filled castle and its decrepit family. This isn\'t over. We\'ll find out one way or another." The Priest snorted, snapping at his guards as they quickly shuffled out of the room.

Agravain fell back to his seat. "Haaah, went better than expected." He let out a long breath.

"Was it wise to provoke them like that, my lord?" A knight standing to the side spoke up.

"I had to shift the conversation several times away from....well you know. Taunting him to lead him into a verbal trap where we could buy ourselves some more time. Threaten them with the only thing we could hold over their heads – their lack of aid as stipulated. To give the Church a public slap would do more harm than any of our swords could at the moment. Even if they would have aided Uther and doomed us even further, they still promised that aid regardless."

Hoho, what a cheeky brat he was. The Church cared too much about their reputation to not take that threat seriously.

"Even if we bought time, they could still easily destroy us." The knight said quietly.

"Maybe." Agravain sighed. "We don\'t have any of our strongest weapons anymore. The years Uther spent building up our defenses are gone – fuck him even still. We have nothing but the strength of our own arms now. So yes, we would find ourselves wanting should we fight. But....you forget who said they would be here should we call."

"But....after how Church abandoned us when it was convenient, do you think – "

"You saw the look on her face. The words she spoke with conviction as she promised aid should we stay true to our honor." Agravain sent him a glare. "You saw her Sword." He added on in but a whisper. "After seeing the real Excalibur wielded in her hands on our behalf, can you truly doubt her?"

"I\'m sorry, my Lord." The Knight bowed his head.

"It\'s alright." He stood up, patting the knight on the shoulder. "I can understand your hesitance more than anyone."

The Knight stood up straight and slammed his fist against his chest. "Long live the King." He said resolutely.

Agravain let out a laugh. "Long live the king." He echoed back.

Well, wasn\'t that certainly something.

I glanced back at the fairy who seemed just as interested in what I had learned.

I had a feeling the world was going to get a bit more fun in the coming years.

***

Wanted to do an Interlude that peeked at several other things happening while also showing some side effects of the whole Pendragon fiasco.

Anyways, if you want to read 7 chapters ahead or support me, visit my /astoryforone