Chapter 202 – Sweet dreams are made of this.

Once again, they were on their way to the cathedral. The crew was down an extra one today. In addition to Momo, Rave had decided to take care of meeting Herman. This both allowed her to avoid her mother and for John to finally get the spine-thingy back in his possession.

They were pretty late today, by Lydia’s standards, but still half an hour early. Romulus' original announcement had been ‘Two times after the bell has rung after noon’, which turned out to be a fancy way of saying 14 o’clock.

‘I should try to make some time for Herman soon, I’ve been kind of cutting him short recently,’ John thought. Part of that was because he was avoiding the person a skull-headed god had told him would die, the Gamer had to admit to himself. Until he knew how that was going to end up, he wanted to… not get more attached? Something like that. ‘That’s not exactly fair to a friend though.’

Aclysia opened the door and they stepped outside. The cathedral was packed with people. Half an hour early and people were already sitting on the benches pressed shoulder to shoulder, many more standing wherever they found room at the sides.

“Seems like the drama yesterday made for good promotion material…” John whispered to Lydia, the princess just frowned, so John continued with a more interesting topic, “You are going to announce that Nia girl today, right?”

“Yes, I already sent the necessary text to Luna,” Lydia crossed her arms and allowed herself a self-assured smirk. “She is going to be very valuable indeed.”

“You are talking about her like she is a rare gemstone,” John said. Shrugging, he added, “But I guess that is to be expected from something as uncommon as a pariah.”

“I would prefer it if you did not talk publicly about such things,” Lydia hissed. “Neither do I remember ever informing you about her nature.”

 “You did just now.” John smirked. “I took an educated guess.”

“Educated on what? If there is anything you found online that’d be highly concerning and I need to be informed,” Lydia demanded to know.

“I just thought about our talks some more, you dropped some hints by accident back when we talked about soul types,” John said.

“Hints?”

“Body language, slight smirk here, seemingly unrelated topic break there. I am getting pretty wise, you know?” John joked.

Lydia had more questions but they ceased their whispering when Alexej, the enemy’s first candidate, walked towards them. “Hrello, Hrello, Hrello!” he said in an overplayed accent that vanished as he continued speaking. “What an honour, I think we have never talked before,” he kissed Lydia’s hand in a smooth gesture. The princess just let it happen, but, just like with Maximillian, she pulled her hand back as soon as courtly acceptable. A moment later Alexej extended his hand to John.

The Gamer looked at the hand for a moment. Then he put on an unsure smile. “I guess? Honestly, you remind me of somebody,” John said as he shook his enemy’s hand. Cameras went off, people were chatting. Them simply speaking in public would probably end up in some sort of history record of varying importance, depending on what sort of scandals happened during the tournament.

John got a text at that moment. He checked, it was just Rave letting him know that she was about to meet up with Herman. “Something interesting?” Alexej asked and acted like he wanted to peek at his display. John quickly let his phone vanish.

“Nothing that concerns you,” he said, wanting to put his phone away, but getting another message from Rave before he could. ‘Itsxc vfds?’ John’s confusion settled after a moment. ‘Not the first time that round butt has sent a message of its own.’

“On the contrary, John Newman, everything about you concerns me,” Alexej shrugged while John put his phone away for good, his brown robe whispering as cloth softly rubbed on cloth. “See, I am the guy responsible for information on our side of this conflict and I have been digging on you. Despite all the material available on your daily life, your powers are largely a mystery. It is, however, nearly impossible to get this strong in such short a time, especially if you started from zero, like the information claims you have. So, let me ask this straight-out,” the secretive blond looked at Lydia. “Did you fabricate his whole backstory just to make digging harder?”

Lydia raised an eyebrow. “Maybe,” the princess stated, her hands folded behind her back, “You do not expect an actual answer, do you?”

“Well, one can always try,” Alexej laughed nonchalantly. “Call it professional interest, because if that were to be the case that would be some impressive preparation. Ah well, we will see if you are a genuine article or something crafted in advance soon, John,” the blond winked and turned, “Cya!”

“What an irritating guy,” John mumbled, looking after Alexej as he quickly vanished between the people present. Was the man really unaware of the truth or was this another ploy to make John unsure whether or not he was SecretBlonde? The answer remained hidden.

“Indeed,” Lydia agreed, “The fact that we haven’t found out a thing about him only makes this more annoying.”

At 13:59, the princess got a message on her phone. She looked at it with elegance, then angrily hissed, “Oh for heaven’s sake.”

“What now?” John asked, this did not bode well.

“Nia got lost,” Lydia started typing furiously, then her eyebrows jumped up in a mixture of anger and confusion. “She is in… Aachen?! How did she even get there? She was in town this entire week.” Lydia hissed to herself and began typing furiously. “She usually shows up when I tell her to. Damn it.”

Romulus stood up and started some introductory speech, recapping yesterday's events. John was barely listening, he was just watching Lydia typing up a storm. The giant at the high plateau stopped, that made John glance over to the front. He saw Luna whispering something to Romulus, wrinkles appearing on his forehead before making a dismissive gesture.

“What just happened?” John wanted to know, smelling Lydia’s involvement in this. “I turned in a favour with Luna to have her get me some time. I doubt she can give me more than 10 minutes.”

“That’s not enough to get somebody here from Aachen, is it?” His voice was quiet, Aachen wasn’t far away, given modern transportation, but that didn’t make it close.

“No, of course not,” Lydia had stopped typing and was reading notes. “I am looking for a precedent I can use to argue for having her in the tournament despite her not physically being here. I need her against Maximillian… maybe I can just announce Aclysia instead?”

John heard the people talking everywhere, wondering what this delay was about. Maximillian was already in position, Lydia was standing still where she was. People were likely starting to make the connection, but it didn’t matter as long as Luna covered for her.

“If I was an Apothecary, maybe I could meld our minds so I could help you look,” John joked.

 “What are you talking about?” Lydia whispered, absent-mindedly even as she worked.

“You know, merge our perceptions and such so I can read through your eyes and help you think.”

Lydia raised her eyes from the display for a split second, then was pulled back down. “That’s not a skill typical among Apothecaries, that sounds like the mind melding that the Nazis used to gather intel through summoners.”

John stood there for a second, completely still. His mind was wiped by shock, as the last puzzle piece snapped into place on its own. One picture completed and a friendship shattered. John turned on his heels.

It was Herman. It had always been Herman. Where they met, when they met, what Herman learned by being nice to him, and the investment he had in Thana at the same time as SecretBlonde left his life. His convenient mannerisms. His investments. The unfitting disregard for the life of the ‘comrades’ he brought to the extraction mission. Everything snapped into a chain of events that made so much sense in hindsight that John felt like beating himself over the head for not realizing it sooner.

‘Naïve idiot!’ John shouted at himself. Outwardly, he managed to keep a modicum of control. “I have to go.”

“What?” Lydia asked, dumbfounded. She raised her head but he was already heading to the exit in a sprint, Aclysia right behind him.

His feet flew over the streets, even when he broke from the Illusion Barrier he didn’t stop running. Whether it was lucky or not that he was still moving in the human limits of Agility was debatable. On one hand, it made him slower than he preferred to be, on the other, he probably would have invoked a burdensome amount of Gaia’s ire for the speed at which he sprinted through the streets.

Being at the peak of human performance would have to be enough. He maneuvered through the crowds of the inner city as quickly as he could, invoking more than one curse in the process. His target, whether by coincidence or some perverse plan, was close enough.

John stormed into the building and almost ran over the ‘Veteran Meeting, 13:30-17 o’clock’-sign at the entrance. It was one of those rentable buildings. John hadn’t even paid any attention to the outside, neither did he care about any of the inside. Any people who would have tried to stop him, he would have ignored.

There was nobody. Even as he burst through the last door and got inside a room filled with rows of chairs in front of a makeshift podium, there was no one in the building. Breathing heavily, hoping for the best and fearing for the worst, the Gamer looked around for his girlfriend. He barely noticed the heavy stench of iron in the air.

Rave was quick to be found, standing between two rows of chairs. Cat ears turned his direction before her eyes did. That she manifested her powers outside an Illusion Barrier was careless and it also told John all he had to know about the situation. “John! Herman is…”

“SecretBlonde, yes, I figured that out moments ago!” John completed her sentence and changed into his full battle regalia. He handed Aclysia her weapon and then joined Rave in being ready. “Where is he?” he asked, carefully approaching her.

“Somewhere! Be quiet! He keeps vanishing and I have difficulty tracking him by anything but sound… fucker destroyed my phone too!”

John nodded along, then roused his elementals to action. If anyone mundane came across this scene they would be screwed, but that was a risk he was willing to take. Gnome and Sylph manifested with a simple mental order: ‘Find him.’

‘I w-will do my best,’ Gnome said in his mind.

Sylph did not have that tactical presence of mind. “Yes, yes… ehm… what am I supposed to be tracking?”

An echoing voice laughed. “Oh come on now, Sylph, it’s easy, just track the vibrations of my voice… good luck finding the original source, though,” Herman said from everywhere.

“So, you ARE here,” John growled at the walls.

“Did ya doubt me?” Rave questioned and allowed herself a quick glance at her boyfriend. ““Not really, but confirmation is nice,”” John answered and so did Herman, their voices overlapping perfectly. The Gamer froze. “”How did you do that?”” “”Are you in my head?”” “The best character in LoL is Teemo! HOW WOULD YOU KNOW I WOULD SAY SOMETHING SO ABSURD?!””

Herman giggled and something pushed John a few steps forwards. Rapidly, John spun around. The liar stood there, waving with his gloved hand, in the complete outfit of SecretBlonde, from the leather trench-coat, to the swastika around his neck, to the gas mask, currently pulled over the side of his head. Of course, there was a rather notable change, in that his brown hair had turned platinum blond.

“So, what tipped you off?” he asked and rummaged in an inside pocket of his coat. Everyone was ready to attack him, but no one was willing to make the first step. “I found out that the thing you did when you looked through Aclysia’s eyes with me was a skill used by the Nazis, not the Apothecaries,” John explained, a mental battle took place in the meanwhile.

‘Attack him, Siena!’ he commanded.

‘Mhm, but what if I don’t want to?’ the nightmare elemental moaned back, ‘You two big boys seem like you have a lot of catching up to do.’

‘For fucks sake, he wants to kill me!’

‘No, he doesn’t,’ Siena moaned back, ‘if he wanted to, he would have deeply penetrated you… with a knife.’

John grit his teeth, he had no patience for her backtalk. ‘You either obey me on this or I am changing the rules so that you have to!’ he threatened.

‘Do what you must,’ Siena said nonchalantly, but he felt her tension building up. Forcing her hand here would damage their relationship into something that would be even less healthy than the murderboner she currently had for him. He could have dealt with that, but at the same time she seemed to be right that Herman was not out for his life immediately.

‘A deal then,’ he suggested in a deeply annoyed tone, ‘you get a 5-minute window to kill me tomorrow.’

Siena went silent. ‘Ten,’ she demanded, ‘and you don’t get to wear that glove.’

John’s teeth started hurting, ‘Fine, just go!’

“Ah, the princess right? Other people wouldn’t have that knowledge. They just go ‘Oh, I am stupid, and I don’t know anything about the schools of magic apothecaries learn, hurr durr, look at me, I can punch stuff and I have cat ears’.” Herman laughed and Rave hissed. “Not that it matters now, I already got all I wanted,” the Betrayer of All fished a firecracker from his pocket and ignited it with an off-handed motion, using a lighter that he pulled from his sleeve.

A tower of shadows erected behind Herman, careful not to enter his field of vision. Siena didn’t want her prey to slip away, enjoyed the sight of a victim unaware of their imminent and swift demise. Well, her summoner only allowed her to cripple this one, but there were ways to cut the throat that didn’t lead to imminent death. Best concentrate on that, it would make her master furious if he lost the chance to talk to this one after all. That would be worth any amount of time in maid service.

Herman dropped the firecracker and it exploded at his feet the moment Siena wanted to strike. The sudden light banished her from his shadow and she fell down, having lost her standing. She landed elegantly on all fours, claws ripping into the red carpet. Hissing, her hair standing upwards, her eyes burning like yellow fire, she dropped into another shadow to wait for her next chance.

“You know, I tracked that little trickle of mana that your early Possessions were,” Herman said in an amused tone, “what makes you think I cannot see that giant mana flow between you and your elementals? To me, her being in your shadow is as plain as having her stay next to you.”

“Eat fire, traitor!” Salamander shouted and lobbed a ball of flame. It went right through Herman and hit a chair instead, turning it into molten plastic.

John’s eyes widened, “Undine, put that out!” He hurriedly commanded, sending her his mana. Quickly, she obeyed and a wave of water extinguished the flame before it could cause any more damage. “Salamander, we are not inside an Illusion Barrier!” he reminded her, “The moment the authorities are here, Gaia will fuck us up the ass!”

“Oh, don’t worry.” Another Herman appeared on a seat, hands and head on the backrest, legs dangling over the sides. “Gaia will push all of the blame here squarely on me.” Rave’s foot crashed through that seat and into the floor. In the settling chaos there was no body. It had just been another illusion.

“Why would she do that?” John asked.

“Look above for your answer,” Herman, now standing next to Rave, said. John didn’t even try to attack that one. Slowly he raised his head.

“What the fuck?” John whispered, then swallowed hard to keep his breakfast inside.

It was as if somebody had taken the heart of a giant and smashed it against the ceiling. The thing was several metres in diameter and branched out like a spider’s net towards the edges. John wanted to deny that it was made from blood, but between the crimson colour and the iron stench in the room, there was no denying it.

It pulsed with a steady beat, the edges slowly crystallizing and pulling together. The structure was shrinking. “Ow!” Rave, who had been staring just as John, suddenly cried out. His neck whirled to look at her and found Herman having made a small cut to her shoulder. John threw an Arcane Explosion, but by the time it went off, he had already vanished again.

“What is that? Why aren’t you fighting? Why do you betray everyone?”

“My final -and greatest- work, because that shove I gave you earlier is literally the peak of my physical strength, my magic is not really harmful and because I have a purpose,” Herman appeared again, this time directly in front of him. “I will tell you everything, just don’t interfere,” his eyes were an earnest plea. “I know you will take this deal, after all bringing her back is in your interest as well, goody two shoes that you are.”

John saw the impossible as Rave’s blood started flying towards the ceiling. It only lasted for a moment, before stopping and transitioning into normal bleeding. There was one more lie that Herman had told them, one that explained both that odd phenomenon and the entirety of this scene. “You can’t mean… Thana?”

Herman smiled.