Respec On Death

Chapter Seventy-Eight – Tutorial – Part One

Bureaucracy is another word for slow.

- Former UWO General McCarthur –

It's been a few hours, and Sage has been going over the ins and outs of a proceeding, for once actually explaining things.

"So, if we win, they'll have to give us restitution as well?"

"Correct, meatsack."

"What happens if we lose?"

"That's the question. Normally, it would be your Divine Guardian, however, there is a major conflict of interest."

"Because the opposition is also my Divine Guardian?"

"Correct again, meatsack. Honestly, I don't know of any cases like this before. Usually, things are much simpler. Now they have to establish something called Prime Guardianship. It's a mess."

The washed-up god that tried to give me ballsack tea is standing on the other side of the room, chewing on a stalk of wheat and scratching his ass.

"Sage, I thought you hated the gods?"

"I do."

"Then…?" I ask, motioning to the man.

"There are always exceptions, as I told you before."

"Right…"

"Your question, the one you didn't want others to hear, what was it?"

My gaze slides away from the man, leveling in the blue hue of Sage's eyes.

A grin slides across my mouth.

***

Another hour later, I'm left with interesting information.

"Meatsack, something tells me that this won't be the last time you'll be needing an arbiter."

Sage sighs, but not an upset sigh, more of a feigned sigh. The grin on his mouth tells me that he liked the question, that he is curious to see what I do with the answer.

"Well, as long as you win this, I'll consider hiring you again."

He chuckles for a moment, then turns his head toward the doorway that we entered. The runic inscriptions on the spell circuits suddenly begin to glow again, and energy in the air begins to crackle.

"Well, shit," Sage grimaces, standing slowly and grabbing his suit jacket from the back of the chair.

Suddenly, the air ruptures and wind breaks from the entrance like it's depressurized, my ears ring. Molten metal drips to the floor as a woman with near-silver skin steps from the smoldering doorway.

"There you are."

Sage curses under his breath as he waits for her to approach. He looks thoroughly uncomfortable. The washed-up god stares at her intently.

"Amerys," she says dismissively as she walks right by him.

"Terra," he growls.

Guessing he's Amerys, never heard that name before. Not surprising though, I'm sure I wouldn't recognize most gods' names.

"You know, dearest Terra, it's considered rude to destroy people's spell circuits, especially ones that take millennia to shape," Sage says, notable irritation in his tone.

"It's also considered rude not to inform your supervisor of your location, dearest…," her face scrunches, like she can't say the name.

"You said we could traverse the lower Nexus ways."

"I did."

"Then why do you seem upset?"

"Do I?" she tilts her head, "What gave you that impression?"

Sage looks at the molten hole in the door and shakes his head, "What do you want?"

"Your tone," her head somehow tilts more, "I don't like it."

Sage grits his teeth for a few seconds before nodding, "Apologies, I will remedy it."

"See that you do."

"How can I help you?"

She gives a pulled-back smile as she licks the corner of her lip, "Help me? My job is to help you."

He slow blinks, and her smile deepens as she approaches, sliding a single finger across his shoulder.

"You're not thinking of trying to get me removed, are you?"

Sage swallows, letting out a measured breath, "That would be an inefficient use of compensation."

"You always were careful with your choice of words. Answer me directly."

He looks downward, "Is that an official order?"

She leans close to his ear, "It is."

"Yes, I have convinced the Anomaly to remove you."

She laughs, maniacally, and somewhat monotonously… it's clearly fake, and weird.

"Interesting." Her gaze turns to me, her eyes glowing brighter, "Are you sure you want to make me your enemy?"

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I look at Sage, he doesn't even find my gaze.

"Not particularly, however, I already made a deal."

"You're not even going to hear my offer?"

"I wouldn't mind hearing it."

Sage shoots me a worried glance. I'm kind of enjoying seeing him squirm for once.

"I'll requisition you twelve Rare Class tomes."

"What do those do?"

"Nothing for a Respec user, but for someone who hasn't received their first subclass, they'll be guaranteed to roll a rare class within their path." She snaps her fingers, and a better-looking chair than the one I was sitting on before appears next to me, Sage blinks at it, as though she shouldn't have been able to conjure it here, "I'm sure it would be nice to ensure your friends are able to progress with you."

I look at Sage, he looks really worried. Terra snaps her fingers again, and a chair of equal quality appears behind her. She tilts her head at me.

As I sit down, I realize the chair is quite comfortable, it feels like it's giving me mana or something, like a refreshing buff of some kind.

"I'm listening."

Her smile deepens as she presses Sage to the ground in front of her and sits, using his back as a leg rest.

"I can also offer you guarantees for them to get better treasure rolls. There are a few entities that owe me favors still in that department."

"Sage, is she lying?"

"Probably not," he groans.

"What do you want in exchange?"

"Nothing in particular," she says, examining her nails.

"Right, so this would be out of the kindness of your heart?"

Her eyes flicker, "Something like that."

"I somehow doubt that."

"I just want to be above this one," she leans forward, looking down at him, "Where I belong."

Holy fucking spiteful. Whatever.

"Keep talking, I'm sure there's more you can offer."

She grins, leaning back, "I think we'll get along just fine."

***

Hours later, after hammering out some details, we've returned to the room we were in before for the proceedings.

Normally, I would have told someone like her to piss off. However, what she offered, it was compelling to say the least. Besides that, Sage hasn't always been the best to work with. Something tells me having her on my side would help more than not. If torturing Sage for whatever he did to piss her off is her price, I'm more than fine with that. In fact, I welcome it. Apparently, he was supposed to give me a tutorial for the Cosmic Exchange even if he didn't want to. There were a lot of things he was supposed to do that he didn't, including reporting the fact that I did not receive a tutorial when I got Respec On Death. Guess he lied about submitting a request too.

Terra sits next to Sage at our table for the proceedings. She's playing with her nails again, the paint on them looks like glittering starlight.

Haethur sits slowly in his chair across the room, "The consensus has not been acquired yet. May I ask why we have been called back, Terra?"

She doesn't look away from her nails, "Because the proceedings will be settled shortly."

Kodah scoffs, "I highly doubt that."

"Exhibit one," Terra says, waving her hand lazily, incredible silver spell circuits form in the blink of an eye, overlaying images. Haethur shifts uncomfortably in his chair… like she wasn't supposed to have the ability to do that.

The images coalesce, it's me. In the field of Ulana's world.

"Please notate the Anomaly's system interface feed during the exhibit," she says, still picking at her nails, like all of this is child's play to her.

A series of text displays on the side of the images, thousands of lines of code moving at impossible speeds. Red lines, intermixing with blue, and then purple. The images shift, moving forward to me being forced through a gate for my first Respec quest. On the fox world, where I found Niva, and slew the Wyvern. Where I first met Mira and stole her legendary bow, Heaven's Bane. Thoughts of Cortez and Niva fill my mind with worry again. I hope they're okay.

The scene changes again, showing me covered in blood, and Cortez half carrying me to Dorliac's place. It shifts again, thankfully past the part where Cortez and I were doing private activities. It's me standing on the balcony of the hotel we stayed at. This is where I first received Abyss.

Next, it moves to the Dragonfly quest, showing me killing Trent. Even if this body isn't my normal one, my stomach turns as I see myself smashing his skull with the Mace of the Ardent Flame. The images blur as it passes over my near-death by falling, Verantha healing me with Amaetha's blessing. There's a strange flicker in the code when it happens, but I couldn't make out what it was.

Time moves faster, the blur making me nauseous, until it slows, showing me killing the Emperor Dragonfly, and then the rebound sickness from me accepting too many attribute points from my level-ups. A flicker of red text, something about a constitution debuff curse. Then it moves to me on the Desecration quest. The tropical trees with the mango-coconuts. It shows Fisban shadow dancing Smith's team, and then killing him. I notice Sage shift as he watches her, his breath… heavy. The images move again.

It slows to normal speed, showing me above the altar of Jeladi with my member in hand, pissing on her fire.

My voice is amplified as I hear myself in the projection speaking.

"All of you archaic fucking whiny gods can drink this most holy nectar."

Terra smirks, flicking her wrist, replaying it three times before Haethur speaks.

"We can move on, Terra."

She looks up at the beautiful crimson-eyed woman in Red's group. She doesn't seem angry though, unlike her allies.

It moves further, passing me having Abyss eat the armory. The display doesn't show the tendrils of Abyss. They're invisible, just like Sage said. An interesting idea sweeps me for a moment, but it falls to the back of my mind as the images shift further still. Moving to me flipping Azeroc off and saying.

"Reflect."

Light rends the cosmos as I see planets destroyed in the blink of an eye, the entire solar system completely wiped out. The light travels further, burning the surface of worlds far in the distance. Holy shit, that was powerful…

Terra, still looking at her nails, says, "As you can see, the entities that interacted with quest clear conditions were not my clients' Prime Guardian, Ulana."

"Objection. There has been no decision as to their Prime Guardian," Kodah states, "We submitted a petition prior to the proceeding to obtain it."

"Good, I have a writ from Ulana which denotes she formally abstains from it in this specific scenario. Making your Pantheon the de facto Prime Guardian of the Anomaly."

Terra flicks her wrist, and a small scroll appears before Haethur, he opens it and reads for a few moments before saying, "Let the record reflect what Terra has said is accurate."

Kodah blinks, confused, then suddenly blurts, "We petition to have the Anomaly immediately disincorporated, as is our right as Prime Guardian."

"Denied," Haethur says.

"On what grounds?"

"There is a petition regarding the Anomaly and their Prime Guardian."

"We forgo the petition."

Terra chuckles. Haethur sighs before speaking.

"Ulana has already submitted an injunction to petition for Prime Guardianship. As per regulation 5767.83474-B78 an entity cannot be disincorporated while their Prime Guardianship is being contested."

"When?"

"Months ago, though it only arrived today."

"This is bullshit," Kodah seethes, glaring daggers at Haethur.

"As per the regulation 5738.9364-Z91 a Prime Guardian is responsible for administering the protocol to the entity they have selected to receive Respec On Death," Terra says, shifting ever so slightly, "That also means you were responsible for the Anomaly receiving the tutorial. Which they did not. Meaning they cannot be found liable for any actions thereafter as per…"

"Don't put that shit on us, my Goddess rode the back of whatever Ulana did to break his soul anchor's lock. We admit no wrongdoing."

Haethur sighs, "Let the record reflect that the Prime Guardian's representative has admitted to another rule break."

"I did not!" Kodah screams, spit flying from his lips, until his expression changes to one of… fear.

Terra looks up from her nails, toward the seats above, the woman with crimson eyes is moving toward the stairs.

"Let the record reflect that we accept the change in counsel for the opposition," Terra breathes, standing slowly, a grin on her face, as though she's finally getting excited.

I look up at our side of the courtroom, Ulana's face is placid, though her eyes follow the other woman closely.

The room becomes silent as the woman with crimson eyes walks toward Kodah. He's visibly shaking as he kneels before her. She looks down at him with indifference.

"Goddess, I am sorry, I did not mean to…"

Dust plumes from where he was kneeling as she walks through it and sits slowly at the table to our left. Holy shit, she killed him.

Haethur doesn't speak. He looks uncomfortable.

"We drop our claim as Prime Guardian to the Anomaly, and we offer one Covenant Token as restitutions for our…" she looks up toward Ulana, "Failings."

Her voice is soft and entrancing, like the very air in the room pays heed to it. Who is she? The other gods in her group look furious on the balcony above. A single glance from her silences the looks immediately. She's clearly in charge. Her eyes slowly trace over to me, vibrantly glowing crimson eyes that look like they can swallow stars. A small smile forms on the edge of her mouth, and then I hear it, her voice in my head.

Hello, my Marauder.