Rise Of The Worthy [LitRPG System Apocalypse]

I can't see Lament's face through her mask, but my imagination does a good job of filling in the blanks between the excited little noises and energized motions. Quest sends a quick message to my Class Card that I don't respond to, and instead, I bring Lament all the way to somewhere safe-ish. She oohs and aahs at the 'immaculate paindne architecture', whatever the hell that means, until we come to somewhere that stops her dead in her tracks.

"Is that a system shop?" she asks.

"It is. Run by my friend, and if he's still here, this is the best place to start," I tell her and rap my knuckles on Gil's door. "Hey, Gil! Can you hear me from wherever you are?!"

A rumble of magic splits the air and materializes behind the counter. Gil stands as if he'd been there the entire time, dusts off his shirt, and shoots me a smile. One that dies the second he sees Lament. He hurries to the door, holds it open for us, and silently watches as I bring Lament in.

"Should I ask?" he asks.

I shrug. "Kidnapped a speaker, Call says we have a little time before anyone notices she's gone. I'm deciding if it's worth trying to bring her to our side or if we should just murder her and have someone make a duplicate to stand in her armor."

Lament squeaks. "Our father who…"

"NO–no prayers in the shop," Gil snaps his fingers, and a huge red X appears over Lament's face. "The system hates that. Wants all the worship to itself. Have you really never tried to pray in a system-sanctioned place before?"

A vigorous shake of Lament's head answers his question. He sighs and looks her up and down, then snaps his fingers at her. All of her armor shifts three feet backwards, but the person inside stays in exactly the same place.

"Uh," Lament mumbles and covers herself. "C-can I have everything but the mask back?"

Gil sighs in annoyance and snaps his fingers again. Everything but the mask zips right back onto Lament, covering her otherwise naked body in a very thin layer of metal. I can't help but notice that the only thing she was wearing was a well-loved rosary necklace.

"Should I ask why you're naked under there?"

Lament blushes hard. "Skin contact helps the armor work better. I–um–can we forget that happened?"

"Nope–sorry for doing it to you, and I'll keep it in mind if I ever disrobe any other speakers," Gil says with surprising honesty. "But you–you didn't seem like you were very bothered by it. Only by the fact that we're the ones that saw you. This a normal thing among the speakers?"

"Not–I'm–let's change the topic! Paindne! You have paindne here!" Lament blurts out. "Can I meet some of them?"

I shake my head. "That's not my call–it's theirs. Some of them might want to talk to you, though, since their ex-boss was working on a deal with the Preservation."

"Ex-boss? You mean… stonestep solutions? The horizonguard that leads them is dead?"

I nod. Lament breathes in through her nose, conflicting emotions warring on her face. Some part of her is very relieved that the horizonguard is dead. Another is very worried about something; probably the Preservation's deal with stonestep solutions. I pat her shoulder with a wolfish grin and throw a thumb towards the door.

"If you want to meet a paindne, I can call up some of them, but you have to answer a question for me first. That sound good?"

"It does," Lament agrees. "Ask away."

Gil raises his hand. "I get one, too. More than one, preferably, unless you want to send me a quick summary of everything that happened at the Preservation."

I tap the side of my head and summon my Class Card. Pearl extends some tiny tendrils of shellraiser material from under my fingernails and taps away at a message while I lock eyes with Lament.

"Why do you care so much about meeting a paindne? You've obviously met some on the other world. So why does this matter?"

Pearl puts the finishing touches on the message as Lament purses her lips. A chime from Gil's Class Card echoes a click of Lament's tongue, and the both of them lower their eyes to stare at vastly different things. For Gil–his card. For Lament–her feet. If it wasn't obvious that something's off about Lament's enthusiasm before, it sure as hell is now.

"Shelby?" Fleur asks from inside of my brooch. "Is there anything I can do for you now? Maybe fetch one of the ex-stonestep solutions employees who would want to talk with Lament?"

I look over my shoulder at Fleur–who'd followed us quietly through the halls and the teleporting doors. "You could've said that out loud, you know. Lament's not broadcasting any signals from here."

"Oh. My bad. The question still stands, though."

The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

"Yeah, go ahead and ask all the employees if anyone wants to talk to Lament. See if anyone recognizes that name first, though, and get all the info from them you can. See you in five?"

Fleur brightens as she hums. "That depends on how much they know. Be back soon."

Her form dissolves into luminescent salt and whisks away on an empty wind. Lament watches with no less awe than before, but now I can see it in her eyes. There's a kind of… first-timer's wonder in her expression. But that's impossible. Nobody could get as strong as she is without going to the other world.

"You answer?" I prod her.

"Wha? Oh, um, my answer, right–" Lament clears her throat as a slight blush colours her cheeks. "It's… kind of extremely classified information. So sorry, but I can't tell you."

I raise an eyebrow. "You're literally in a city-sized fortress that's controlled by a friend of mine. I'd say spilling classified information is the last of your worries."

Lament's lips pull into a thin line and she turns to look away. "That's not what I mean. You know that psychics have a strong hold on the Preservation. There are a lot of things I feel that I can't explain, and when you did that thing to me… I don't know how much of my mind the Preservation took from me."

"Then you shouldn't owe them any loyalty," Gil says flatly. "Even you should be able to see that the Preservation is completely worthless."

Lament bristles at Gil's comment. "The Preservation isn't worthless. We do a lot of good for the people of this planet, no matter where they're from or the crappy situations they're in. Love thy neighbor doesn't have any qualifiers after it, you know."

"Mmhm. So how about the two 'lost lambs' we rescued from your people?" Gil turns his eyes to me. "They were so happy with the Preservation that they'd rather everyone think they were dead instead of going back. Correct me if I'm wrong, but that doesn't seem like the kind of place I'd want to work for."

The gloves on Lament's hands tighten into fists. "You can't just bad-mouth everything good we've done because a few people are horrible. The Preservation's full of good people doing good things for the good of everyone–a few stained souls don't sully everything we've done to save this planet! To save everyone!"

Gil stares blankly at Lament as she fumes. It almost looks like he's about to say something else, but instead he sighs through his nose and raises his hands in surrender.

"You know what, you got me. Just because you have murderers and exploiters at the top of your food chain, doesn't mean the little rabbits that do all the hard work are equally as bad."

Lament huffs victoriously. I can see the fire in her eyes for how much she cares about her cause, mirrored by the nothing in Gil's eyes for how much he gives a shit about her excuses. He's probably personally interacted with the worst the Preservation has to offer. Lament's only seen the press conferences and public appearances, if I had to guess. She does touch one soft note, though; there are people in the Preservation who want nothing but to do good for humanity.

Those are the most dangerous ones. They'll defend the Preservation with their lives while all the higher-ups run like cowards to save their own lives. I set my jaw and rethink my plan a little with this new obvious oversight worked in; the Preservation won't fight us head-on unless we pose an existential threat. Not to the people, or their city, or even their reputation–but to their leaders' interests. Like their deal with Stonestep Solutions. Then, once we have them fighting on that front, we move in and change things in another way.

I don't know what that way is right now, but if it can end with the Preservation becoming what the world actually thinks it is, then I'll consider that a win. And if it ends with the Preservation ceasing to exist entirely… that's still a win in my books. One that'll come with a lot of complications, but a win nonetheless.

"Shelby, Ebb would like to talk to Lament. There are others that would want to as well, but I'm only letting one of them talk to her for now. In case something happens."

Fleur's voice fades from my ears as a door opens on the back wall of Gil's shop. Ebb and Fleur step through, the prior dressed in an ill-fitting graphic tee and ripped jeans. I raise an eyebrow at Ebb's newfound fashion sense. She grins and strikes a pose to model the clothes.

"Like the look?" she asks. "Some little kid gave it to me on the beach. It's about three sizes too big, but I like the stylized paindne on it."

"It's not a… wait, it is. Which kid gave that to you?"

Ebb shrugs. "She ran up to me with a big smile on her face and shoved it into my hands. Couldn't say no to the little cutie, even if her mom looked like she was going to drain all her blood from fear. Even called me 'big puppy'. Real cute."

A fond, genuine smile graces Ebb's face for a short moment before she locks eyes with Lament and turns it predatory. Lament shudders under the admittedly heavy pressure Ebb's somehow exuding.

"You, though? I have a feeling you're a threat." Ebb punctuates her sentence with a snap of her teeth. "Is she a hostage or a guest, boss?"

The word 'boss' causes the biggest reaction from Lament I've seen since I mentioned paindne. She turns to me, eyes wide with understanding, and dread encroaching from all sides. I smile wide, teeth glistening with shellraiser sparkles, laugh.

"Not 'boss' yet, Ebb. We still have to kill the board members."

Ebb waves off that small little issue. "Right, right, just that you have the entire fighting force of stonestep here with you instead of there protecting them. I wonder if they'll buy guards before we get back. Can't imagine they'll find anyone more powerful than us, especially with the rewritten contracts you're offering."

"Can't imagine it," I echo. "So, Lament, instead of asking you a question, I'm going to give you a choice."

I hold out both of my hands, then summon a coin to each of them. One pulses with relocation, and the other with a projectile. Lament stares at both of them with equal amounts of fear.

"In my left hand I hold your future; one where you help me cut the rot out from the top of the Preservation. In my right, I hold your ideals; you die standing right here, but you can say you never betrayed the Preservation even in the bitter end. You'll say this isn't the best way of convincing you, but I don't want to convince you."

I take a step towards Lament. She straightens her back and stands her ground, though she shakes as she does.

"Because you already know all the good and evil the Preservation does. You know what they want for the other world, because you're aware of the deal. Yet you still worked with them. Well, one way or another… that ends today."