Shirtaloon
patreon
Chapter 961: The Scary Demigod Side
🕑 Added 2024-10-30 22:00:05 +0000 UTCAsano Village had an auditorium for large meetings. Jason sat quietly at the back, watching a presentation by Clive, Audrey and a pair of biologists from the Cabal and the Network. With them were officers from the CIA and their Australian counterpart, ASIS. They were outlining everything that had been discovered about the blood oaks, from the name to confirmation that there were more of them. The results were a combination of experimental records, recovered communications and working with samples. Along with samples from the lab, they had been working with what Colin had left of the blood oak they had killed.
Jason’s instincts were to stick to people he knew and trusted when dealing with the vampires, but he knew that wasn’t practical. He simply didn’t have the bodies for simultaneous strikes, coordinated across the globe. When the main concern had been vampire lords, he would have considered splitting up the visitors from Pallimustus, putting each in charge of a team from the Asano Clan’s impressive roster of silver-rankers. They even had a gold-ranker, although that was staying tightly under wraps for the moment.
The addition of the blood oaks changed the equation considerably. Splitting up teams became much more dangerous, and they would need to rely on the people of Earth a lot more. They lacked the power and experience of Pallimustus adventurers, so making sure they understood the threat was critical. To that end, the auditorium was filled with essence users and operation coordinators. They came from every government and magical faction that could field a gold ranker, or at least a contingent of capable silvers. The training programs initiated by Farrah and refined by Rufus had been taken up around the world. The old guard of monster core users were slowly but surely being superseded.
The initial plan, to alpha-strike the vampire strongholds and seize as many nuclear devices as possible, was no longer viable. There was no doubt that the vampires would have caught wind of it to some degree, but after the Melbourne event, there was no more surprise to be had. The Australian Prime Minister was nailing that coffin shut as he ran a media blitz talking about terrorist vampires. He was desperately attempting to spin the narrative in the face of domestic political pressure and international condemnation.
The new plan was still being talked about as a variant of the old one, still based on coordinated raids across the planet, but with less stealth and more overwhelming force. The reality was, however, that there would be no mass-rush against the vampires while their nuclear arsenal remained an active threat.
An ASIS agent, Natalie Park, has been assigned to Jason as liaison from the Australian security services. A silver-ranker, she had been a young girl at the time of Jason’s last visit. Trained up using on Farrah and Rufus’ methods, she was a silver-ranker with no trace of cores in her system. She entered through the rear of the auditorium and crouched behind Jason’s seat.
“They’re almost ready for you, Mr Asano.”
“Thank you, Natalie.”
Jason got up and left the building for another, nearby. Originally it had been the mayoral residence, combined with some administrative space. It was currently occupied by Lenora Coleman, and served as communication hub for the international forces present. The Americans had installed a magitech conferencing device in, appropriately, the conference room. Jason had been told that it was as secure as remote communication could be, at least for now. Inevitably, the technology would be leaked, copied and cracked, but until then, the largest vulnerability was the human element.
Although it was far from his field of expertise, Jason’s mind had been on magitech since planning his return to Earth. There was no way for his home planet to catch up to the magic of Pallimustus. Even disregarding the millennia of magical history, Earth’s average magic levels were a step or two lower, across the board. Those levels had risen, but high-magic zones were fewer and smaller than on the other world. There were even a handful of magical deserts where gold-rankers had trouble visiting without gulping down spirit coins.
Jason’s hope was that magitech would level the playing field. Pallimustus was starting to adopt more technological principles, but it was slow going, and mostly the work of Travis Noble. He had used the traits of technology to do something magic didn’t excel at: cheap, long-distance communication. On Earth, technology has many bottlenecks, and a planet full of people now turning to magic to overcome them.
Much of the last few decades had been spent using magic to circumvent key chokepoints in technological advancement, such as a lack of efficient superconductors. That research had leapt ahead in the last decade, once the world had gotten used to magic and begun recovering from the monster waves. As a result, technology in multiple fields had rocketed ahead of what Jason had known. Things had advanced so fast that the world was still catching up, socially and politically. The Middle east, always a hotbed, had become more volatile as most of the world abandoned fossil fuels.
As Natalie led Jason into the conference room, he looked to the example of magitech it contained. A conical device had been installed on the centre of the table, with control panels at each end. A man was sitting at the head of the table, with a computer tablet plugged into the panel.
“They’re calibrating it now, Mr Asano,” Natalie told Jason.
“I’m surprised you’re plugged into it,” Jason said. “Shouldn’t everything be wireless, at this point?”
“Sure, as long as you trust the wireless network you’re using,” the tech said, and pointed at the device in the centre of the table. “No one is going to tap into this thing until someone reverse engineers it. My tablet, though, is more vulnerable. A hard connection is more secure.”
“Fair enough.”
“Shouldn’t be more than a moment, Mr Asano” the tech said. “Big fan, by the way. I have a poster from back when you had the silver eyes, not those orange and blue ones you’re rocking now. They’re cool.”
“Thanks.”
The tech was dressed in the standard IT uniform of jeans and a t-shirt with some pop culture refence Jason didn’t understand.
“Damn,” Jason muttered.
“I’m sure he’ll have it set up swiftly, Mr Asano.”
“Not that,” Jason said. “I just realised that there’s fifteen years of popular culture I’m never going to catch up on. And people thought my references were outdated before. Have they rebooted Knight Rider again yet?”
“You mean that show about the car possessed by the ghost of David Hasselhoff?” Natalie asked.
“David Hasselhoff died?”
“Not that I’m aware of.”
“He hit silver rank a couple of months ago,” the technician said.
“Then why would they make a show about his ghost possessing a car?” Jason asked. “Was it his character from the old series?”
“Nope,” the technician said. “He was playing himself. They supposedly killed him off in the show, and he did the voice for the car. Then they revealed in the third season that he was alive the whole time and the car was a magitech AI synthesising his voice. The show dropped off pretty hard after that. Never got a fourth season.”
“I should check that out. Do they have a box set of the series?”
“A box set?” the tech asked. “Like one of those Japanese lunches?”
“Right. They probably don’t do those anymore.”
“No, there’s bento places all over,” the tech said. “It’s a trend right now.”
“Never mind. Shade, remind me to look up the Knight Rider reboot.”
“No.”
Jason burst out laughing as Natalie looked at him askance.
“All done,” the technician said and pointed at one of the chairs. “That one’s yours, Mr Asano.”
“Thank you, Nathan.”
The technician raised his eyebrows.
“You know my name?”
“I’m keeping a close eye on my surroundings, Mr Burnsleigh. Especially these surroundings. Good luck on your date, by the way.”
“Are you kidding? When I tell him I was talking to you about Knight Rider, he’s going to freak out.”
Jason flicked something through the air. Nathan caught it and looked at it in his hand. It was a silver coin with Jason’s face on it.
“Wow,” Nathan said. “That is a huge chin.”
“Seriously?” Jason complained.
Nathan shuffled out the door as two more people arrived. Boris nodded to Jason and took a seat as directed by Natalie. Li Chen, a Chinese gold ranker, stopped in the doorway.
“It’s been a long time,” Jason said.
“Mr Asano—”
“Since you threw a nuke into an astral space because an interdimensional alien told you it would get rid of me.”
Chen visibly swallowed.
“It’s a funny old world,” Jason said. “Shako — that was his name, if he never told you. Shako’s in this weird prison that’s also a chair. It’s all a bit metaphorical, but I actually sat on that chair, briefly. And now, here we are, talking about nuclear weapons all over again.”
“Mr Asano—”
“I’m going to let it go, Mr Li. Dwelling on the past gets us nothing, and you waiting for me to kill you in the night is counterproductive.”
“Mr Asano, Mr Li,” Natalie interjected. “You should take your seats. They’re about to begin.”
The two men moved to their indicated positions and, around thirty seconds later, the device on the table hummed to life. It fell silent after a moment and holographic representations of people started filling the empty seats around the table, one after another.
Jason took a slow, calming breath as high-level government officials, directors of intelligence agencies and heads of magical factions appeared. It was a tight circle, formed to address the vampire threat, and it included Jason and his grandmother. Boris was one of several Cabal representatives. Natalie did not stay, ASIS being represented remotely by her head of agency, Director-General Macmillan.
The meeting began with the CIA director Barstow summarising the altered situation since the group had decided on the previous plan.
“In short, Director-General Macmillan, your Prime Minister has bent us over the table,” she said. “It was already too large an operation to expect information containment, but we at least had a shot at taking most of the nuclear devices off the table. Since the Melbourne incident, your head of government has screamed the words ‘vampire’ and ‘nuclear bomb’ into every microphone that hove into view. That is not what I would describe as an ideal approach to operational security.”
“I would point out,” Macmillan said, “that if the incident in Melbourne had not taken place, we wouldn’t know about the blood creatures at all.”
“And that excuses your being blindsided by an extrajudicial operation your Prime Minister staged by working around you and your organisation, to your apparent obliviousness? How exactly did he manage to bypass his own security service, Director General?”
“If I may,” said Chief Collier of the United Kingdom Secret Intelligence Service.
“Go ahead, Sir Christopher,” Director Barstow told him, to the visible relief of the Australian.
“We are all aware of the unfortunate situation with the Australian Prime Minister,” Chief Collier said. “We have all also been briefed, I assume, on the steps being taken to remedy the local political turmoil. Given the difficulty in assembling this particular group, perhaps we should undertake the discussion of the next steps, for which we have gathered, rather than rehash recriminations. However well-earned they may be.”
Jason watched the hologram of Barstow reach for her glasses, only to find them not there. Essence users didn’t need corrective lenses, but those who had worn them for years still found themselves moving to adjust them out of lifelong habit.
“You’re right, of course, Sir Christopher,” Barstow said. “The question is, what is our next move? We have our people getting ready for heavier strikes, but pulling the trigger on the operation, as it stands, would be a disaster. Nuclear detonations, tree monsters turning people into puppets. My analysts have been gaming out scenarios and everything turns out very ugly.”
“Our people drew the same conclusions,” Barstow said. “Mr Ketland, Mr Asano. I’m hoping that your outside perspectives can offer us options that we fail to see.”
“Regretfully, no,” Jason said. “What we have is essentially the same problem as before, where our best option is negotiation with the vampire lord, Elizabeth. Unfortunately, she now occupies a significantly better position to negotiate from, depending on her ability to negate the blood oaks.”
“Do we have a sense of how much control she has over them?” Li Chen asked.
“Not as of yet,” Macmillan said. “My people and the CIA have been going over every record of communication we retrieved from the Melbourne location. We know that Elizabeth was in control of the program to create the blood oaks, but not how much control she has over the monsters themselves.”
“I can tell you that the vampires on site weren’t able to control it,” Jason said. “It killed and used them, just like it did the humans down there. If Elizabeth claims she can control these things, she’ll need to prove it.”
“I would point out,” Boris said, “that Director General Macmillan did make a valid point earlier. If not for the Melbourne incident, we would be oblivious to the danger posed by the blood oaks. Having that revealed is bad for the vampires as a whole, but good for Elizabeth’s negotiating position. Is there a possibility that the Prime Minister was prodded, perhaps even facilitated in his actions? I have nothing but conjecture on this, but I believe it warrants consideration and, perhaps, investigation.”
Talks continued, but no new conclusions were reached. The various organisations resolved to coordinate further information gathering in hope of improving their outlook, but the events in Melbourne had been a disaster. In the end, the hologram device was shut down, leaving Jason, Li Chen and Boris in a room. Chen looked at Jason, saw the expression that was returned and made himself scarce, after politely excusing himself.
“You did well,” Boris said. “Keep this up and they may actually look at you like a statesman and not the guy who’s at the table because he’s a scary demigod who’ll kill them all if they make him angry.”
“Let’s see, after their reps all get here for the private universe tour.”
“That might get them back on the scary demigod side,” Boris acknowledged.
Comments
Cordell Patrick
I think it's more they have a gold ranker that made it on Earth. Remember Taika made Gold on Pali so they view him similar to Rufus and Jason where it was the other world that did it. I'm guessing they don't want the world knowing they're making Golds because of their small size
Tierza Hitch
So, Taika is both gold rank and part of clan Asano. Why would they be keeping a second gold ranker "tightly under wraps"? This also said they have "a" gold ranker, but clearly that is incorrect, because they have Taika and he is well known, so it has to be a second one...
Nea
I completely believe that with magic revealed, tv shows got bad for a while
Joshua Little
Thanks for the chapter.
Kconraw
Thx for the chapter
Joshua Marsh
Apparently, he's quitting like stat blocks but will keep dropping hints like Humphreys's power can now summon 100 warriors or Jason's eyes can cast shadows.
Arieh Sochaczevski
Feeding off the vampires that used reality core blood very specifically advanced his rank - it was compared to core use, but without the drawbacks. As far as the more esoteric/philosophical aspects of advancement go, for the entirety of the story so far he’s been dealing with that in ways that were reserved for the later ranks. It’s been specifically stated that he’s completed the aspects of ascension that Dawn is working on now. What he lacks is the brute power. Seems like this is the exact missing piece.
Jason Ebersberg
I know the feeling :)
Anthony Sebastian
Not necessarily. Iirc we last saw his limit back in silver rank; he's now gold rank, and half-transcendent as an Astral nexus. He could potentially do it, the only question whether he has enough Authority to do it.
ABTelford
No, he’s already really, Reeeaaallly exceeded the max size of spirit realm he should have. Plus, the whole darned planet would need to be turned into an ulcer in the side of the universe - no way he could conquer that much territory spread out flat before it all sublimated into the astral. So…no
John Durrett
The only titles worth having are those that can actually be defended
John Durrett
Emi is still a silver but she will get there
mean on the internet
Australian Security Service :)
Levi Reed
I’ve been wondering the same thing, I want to see what there new synergies are
StarkRG
Yeah, Jason knows that's an option, but it's the option he doesn't want to take.
Nathan Roberson
I know it's silly, but seeing my name used in a chapter made me all giddy! TYFTC
Qumi
Is there a place to check their abilities in gold rank? Haven't noticed them in chapters. Or is that something added later for books?
Bert Bertinelli
I think that Jason's knowingly letting the "earthlings" learn and lift themselves up, if there's any hope for them to be ready for what's coming.
Mathew Chasan Calmer
I was surprised to see so much time devoted to secure communications. I would think that Jason’s being system administrator would give him access to voice chat over very wide distances, possibly even out of world. There is no question this technology is better for a meeting but if security was an issue, voice chat sounds pretty good… and one would think, secure.
mainiak
Question is, if Elisabeth was behind the Blood Oaks, to get better negotiation position (as was said in this chapter), or if she is running just damage control (with side benefits). I was wondering if other Gordon is maybe blood servant - originally made by some pact due fear, and now he's amped because withdrawal or something. Also Vamps having their own agents would explain avoiding Australia's security agency. And last - I'm pretty sure, Elisabeth intendes to hand over Gerling's soul to Jason. As was said in previous chapters (maybe in not such words, but) Elisabeth's faction has only one goal - survive Jason's wrath and avoiding him going murderhobo on them to wipe them clean.
Liesmith
I like Boris planting that "don't you think he looks tired" about Other Gordon. Because Other Gordon is a shit.
Daniel is ŁØNE
isn't the moniker of scary demigod low balling it? If anything he is only a scary-demigod on the outside, while on the inside he is a true immortal God-adjacent and an administrator of what is now a fundamental aspect of the universe.
Andromeda Adams
Tyftc! Poor Jason, those meetings have to be rough.
OJCOPACABANA
Be cool if it was Emi
Soli116
Unlikely it's Akari. She's a core user.
Soli116
Thank you for the Li Mei talking to a China official, and it made it funnier that it was Chen.
Adrian Cheung
I wonder if 1 option to fix things is to turn the entire planet into an Asano realm. Jason then has full power. All nukes inert and taken away ( or turned into something that amuses him), all vamps turned good or disappeared, Aussie PM made a eunuch.
CritHappens
My will power is at iron rank 0 0% … for everything.
Laura Hemly
Jason also met with a big group of ambassadors after they took care of the blood oak. Again, probably not the same people, but people who represent governments in a global capacity should all know their country's party line.
Laura Hemly
That reboot sounded AWFUL, too!
Laura Hemly
Nigel was a known gold ranker but not a known Asano Clan member.
Laura Hemly
The vampires didn't have many, if any, reality cores left by the time Jason was dealing with the transformation zones on Earth. And as far as Jason getting to diamond, the most useful thing the core-infused blood will do for Jason is provide him with a bank of energy to rebuild his prime avatar if it gets destroyed. If he had to start from scratch, it would take him 27 years, and at least while his family is alive he doesn't want to miss another big chunk of time.
usa1ph
Shade has very strong feelings about the trapping of souls.
MacMahon Wenzl
He's an inter-dimesional warlock assassin demi god-king cook. Or in short, he's just a cook. A really, really good cook.
MacMahon Wenzl
"No"
Trevor Counceller
On the one hand I agree, on the other pushing 3 months off a year makes this a more expensive series. I’m inclined to continue supporting through the occasional month for convenience’s sake and the blind hope there’s some recognition for multi-year silvers who have not paused … …but I’d probably try upskilling willpower and unsub + wait for Audible versions to launch.
Chloe
No bad would be the Voltron reboot and it not being the lions.
Chloe
Tyftc
3rdImpact
It's a very good thought but gold to diamond does not seem to be only a power thing ... From what I understand it is a lot more about essence revelation and self actualization
3rdImpact
Tales one to know one hmh? Another fellow enjoying a guilty pleasure?
Blake N.
Can’t be him since they said it was still a secret. Nigel was a known gold ranker before he joined up with Asano clan. I think the secret is a home grown one
Emiya
Im pretty sure magic's stabalized enough for the core's to no longer be nessecary for the gold rank vamps to exist
Brave Badger
It would be cool to meet a new “talking “ familiar, now that his has had presumably ranked up, maybe he knows Gordon’s family
Stephanie Washburn
That's a good description from Boris there
Arieh Sochaczevski
So… how many reality cores were the vampires left with? Are they still using them to infuse blood? When the time comes to settle them for good, with this be a very rapid path to Jason hitting Diamond?
Paul Boros
Good world building as expected but Shade expressing a hard no on reminding Jason about the latest KR abomination made me laugh for several minutes
Sean C Jackson
It should be reworked to use the System as the interface
BloodStorm
Maybe the Tawari clan son. Him and Taika both got their essences at the same time and went through training training together.
Brave Badger
Craig Vermilion?
Brave Badger
The gold ranker being Nigel Thornberry? Or someone in addition
Alex
I wonder if the whole thing will blow up into a big wet mess when Jason finds out that Elizabeth has Jack Gerling's soul imprisoned as a slave.
Timothy
I was thinking sort of like the Blade type familiar. Not turned per se but under the influence.
Hayden Leech
I would love it if Jason simply went to Venice to talk to Elizabeth. She would definitely talk to him and I think they are both civilized enough to have a conversation.
Stuart Thwaites
You were totally typing that on your phone under the dinner table and hope your spouse didn't notice.
Stuart Thwaites
I thought Shirtaloon was takind Dec off? I do agree with the idea of going on semi-break for Nov too. Don't post and write leisurely and then full break for Dec.
Seth J.B.
One of the prefixes I used is French, one Greek, and one Latin. Demi- can mean half, and when talking about numbers it does, but it also means "partly belonging to a group." Personally I like "Terti-god" because "tertiary" is a pretty common word most people with a decent vocabulary know.
Patrick
That's more work than you think. He'd have to think up whole new pop culture references and have them sound reasonable.
StarkRG
I was loling hard at description of the Knight Rider reboot. Great chapter!
Zack
Not intentionally, but he definitely is oblivious enough to be used like that.
Kasper Lynderup Jensen
I did a bit of searching and I could not find a french derived prefix for one third, like demi- is for half. But trient- is the Latin derived prefix, like semi-. But it seems that the meaning of demi in demigod is not half but lesser. A meaning it has apparently taken on in most uses.
Martin Tomsic
I wouldn't be surprised if he was. But I think it's more likely that he is just so dense and power-hungry that he is easily manipulated, as Boris suggests towards the end.
Martin Tomsic
@Alex - I think what Boris was getting at with the idea of Elizabeth prodding Other Gordon wasn't to reveal a more aggressive contingent of vampires, but to show the world that she has trump cards they never knew existed in order to have a stronger negotiating stance. Now everyone has to not only think about how many Blood Oaks might be out there, but what other mad science experiments she has had in the works since Jason left.
Robert Landers
I’m surprised he didn’t go off on a rant about how the communication device was/wasn’t secure. Isn’t that his thing?
Hayden Leech
Holy trinity is taken lol.
Martin Tomsic
I love the idea of Jason being on the receiving end of "pulling a Jason"!!! And no, this wasn't the first time that Jason met with the reps of Earth. He had to have that meeting about the refugees before he was allowed to introduce the two sides of his family to each other. Though I think this was likely a different group of reps as this seemed to be more of a tactical/intelligence meeting as opposed to a true political meeting. I think he feels far more comfortable in this group, for the moment.
C0bra$
Thank you for the story
Martin Tomsic
I fully agree that I would be onboard with Shirt taking the rest of the year off to get fully recharged, mentally and physically. I crave this series and would love to have new chapters daily, but I'd rather have peak Shirt putting out his best work less frequently than him putting out work that he feels is getting close to dropping off.
Timothy
Anyone else think that the Australian PM is a lackie for Elizabeth? Most of the shit-storm he is causing would all be for her benefit.
Crystal Donak
No just that she created the blood trees and probably collected the nukes so that when Jason came back he wouldn't kill her. ...but then again She might have.
Kevari
My bet is the gold ranker is an unknown to us readers. Taika, Rufus, Nigel and Craig are all known gold rankers by some faction or another
Alex Schellenberg
You're thinking Elizabeth tipped off the Australian PM to go extra judicial so the plans of the more aggressive contingent of Vamps would be exposed early??
CritHappens
Not meaning to be rude and I doubt this will be a popular comment but I really wish you would take the rest of the year off. Write at leisure, take Dec off completely and come back to us when you have refilled the creative tank and have some chapters in the bank. I will hate it but am happy to wait. I’m planning another full read through over Christmas anyway. Love your work Mr Loon.
PapaJohn
Shade was cold asf this chap XD He had one line and I felt it to my bones
Gotrek65
Great work Shirt
Demi
Oh i forgot about Craig. He was recruited to perma-kill a bunch of vampire lords so I think people would know he's ranked up as well.
3rdImpact
so i strongly belive right iin this moment when the prime Avatar was doing very serious stuff with very serious people Jason tried to het either one of his Avatars, Collin or Gordon to go and get him the mst Iconic underrated and most horrible popculture Items so that he may study them to keep up to date on popculture.... the next step wil ber Jason searching for Airwulf and vehicle ultron remakes... imagine the horror he will spread to vampired than... they won´t care about nukes ... they will learn to fear tzhe melodramatic tourist from another world.
Martin Tomsic
I'm not sure I'd say to keep them scared. Just never let them get too comfortable or thinking that they are his equals.
ABTelford
I totally agree! books 4-6 were Earth and I'm loving getting back to it and all the references to stuff that happened in those books.
Alex Schellenberg
They would know about Nigel, Rufus and Taika since Nigel was Gold before he joined the clan and Rufus and Taika have been clearing out Vamp camps. I suspect it's Craig who is gold and has been in hiding. Or possibly one of the Japanese ex-clan elders reached Gold from all the cores they could collect.
ABTelford
nice! I liked this chapter! makes me wish I'd gotten to see Jason's first talk with reps from the Earth governments because this totally didn't feel like a first meeting. was it? ok now I've confused myself. But also, I LOVED the realization of Jason's, that he is now out of touch with pop culture. hahaha!! now he will be the one saying "what?" all the time and it'll be great! haha!
Martin Tomsic
From the people that we already know, I'd say Itsuki is the only person that could be the core-free gold ranker. But having two Jason-type gold rankers doesn't seem likely. I'm guessing it will be somebody we never knew, or that we would never consider. And I feel like we'd have already known if it was Emi that was gold rank. So maybe Rufus found some sort of combat prodigy that would give himself and Humphrey a run for their money. And I don't think he means Nigel, since everyone has known of Nigel being a core-free gold ranker for years. Plus most everyone knows that he has been alongside Rufus for the vampire missions since Jason took back his domains.
Laura Hemly
I'm pretty sure he means Nigel. Most people don't know he's part of the Asano Clan. Yet.
Sam Williams
Shade is the best 😆
Seth J.B.
A Tiersgod, Trientigod, or Tertigod. I'm not sure which is correct, but it's probably one of them.
Martin Tomsic
Thank you for the chapter!! As always, the dialogue and interplay between characters is spectacular!!!
Demi
Who is the gold rank kept under wraps from the Asano clan? We know Taika is gold and is out and about so maybe Jason is referring to someone else? Itsuki was ranking up at record speed back when. Or it could be Akari. Or does he mean Nigel and the under wraps part is his clan membership?
Rachel Clements
TYFTC!
Christopher Ozouf
That's always the way it goes when you have a story where the characters grow in power. You really only have two routes you can go plot wise. Either the enemies and battles continually get larger and more powerful like dragonball or other battle shonen manga or the power leads to influence and the characters take a stop back from actually fighting most of the time and deal with politics instead.
ShowBizGAL 1996
But not scared enough to do stupid things just out of fear. "Play stupid games, win stupid prizes...." But it's the people of the world who would pay the price for that, not their "leaders." SadSadSad
Philipp Battenberg
And people disregard that Jason even Book 1 was quite deep in politics (the whole Sophie debacle), and the Builder thing was conspiracy/intrigue. Early on, Jason gained new abilities more often, so fights were portrayed more often to show them or point out a weakness. And the second Earth arc shows his character growth (so far). And it's the start of the book, so we will see fighting soon enough.
Flojoe
Until they piss off jason and he just does what dominion gave as an option. Rule them all with an iron fist. (Dont know what he actually said but it would fit)
Justin Butler
Gotta keep them on the scared side of things.
Crystal Donak
Ohhh Elizabeth you sneaky sneaky woman. I have to respect your resourcefulness.
Larsi
Was a nice change of pace to see Jason actually playing the role of Diplomay
Microwavey
Agreed! Ngl, my biggest issue with the Earth saga was Jason being betrayed left and right. But on reread, I think the arc itself was handled pretty well. Now that Jason has his actual friends and allies on his side, I’m looking forward to how his faction acclimates to Earth and the doors that will open once the political situation and vampire threat is stabilized… Tyftc Shirtaloon!
Philipp Battenberg
Jason is no demigod. He is a third god at best!
Joe Foreman
Great chapter
Bingus McCready
People are probably going to gripe about this arc—More Earth and more politics. I’ll be the dissenting voice and say I’m 100% here for it. Exploring how our world (or at least one like ours) would grapple with situations like this will never stop being fascinating to me. TFTC!
Bobby Baxter
yes
John
first?
John goode
Biscuits! 1st ?
Darkdragon
Biscuits
