Breaking the Rules Pt. 23

"Assuming they're not disgusted by them, I suppose," Nuru said.

"To each, their own decision; some find their dedication to equality quite appealing. Let's see, who else is still around- oh, Legba is the patron of both jester and artist in golem crafting. So, now, there are twelve official choices, and a few routes to opt out- witches and warlock covens. These serve primarily to indicate the ways in which the Twelve are lacking, and if they become strong enough, their influences will be folded back into the mainstream, sometimes directly as in Eyamba's case long ago, as a rebellion against Samba, and I believe the witches of Gretland were waiting for the lich here to fail so their pacted demon could Ascend in Tumelo's place. They're going to be quite pleased with you destroying him just to die now, saving them so much trouble."

"They'd do no better," Sanaa said bitterly.

"I face a daunting task once I resolve your Rulebreaking. It has been clear to me that something has been missing for some time, and there are more and more opting out of the adventurer classes; what's more, the suicide rate has become a silent tragedy of massive proportions. You wouldn't know that, but most acolytes see it in the bodies they must attend to, and their piety is at an all-time low; Random Encounters being what they are, it's enough to simply walk out into unsafe space, and refuse to fight back. But it is real, and it is eating away at morale in the core of this society, and the next Ascension will be extremely influential in reversing or accelerating this trend. Your societies have grown stagnant, and maybe mine as well. So many things are not only possible, but have already been done - what is there left to grow into? What new Expansion can be created that isn't horrifically derivative and boring, according to the Rules as they are?"

"I can bring you something new!" Sanaa declared, clutching at Nuru's arm for support as she climbed back to her feet.

"So can the witches. They would usher in a matriarchal society, reversing the destructive trend of male domination."

"Women aren't any better," Nuru said, shaking his head. "Or worse. They just have different faults."

"They still need to demonstrate superior leadership, true. It would buy me some time, but I suspect the lifestyle of adventuring would come to an end eventually," Dev said, nodding. "This world is not meant for such a paradigm shift without a transition plan, which I doubt would be approved. But I have few options close to being prepared, and the Balance has been uneven too long already. I had to take great pains by non-invasive means to arrange for Chibuzo not to qualify and throw the Balance even further towards Neeoka's ilk, toward nihilism and despair. You met him once, you know of what I speak."

Nuru shuddered, thinking of The Guru and his gleeful delight in bloodshed, hidden under the veneer of philosophical sophistication.

"The mortals need passion," Sanaa insisted. "They need to reconnect with their primal selves, with the lustful part of them that has been denied for so many generations, to rediscover themselves and each other, and the reason anything in their lives has meaning at all. The Balance needs a sensual awakening, to put joy and wonder back into the fabric of society."

"You've wondered why certain classes of demon have never before been allowed to ascend to divinity," Dev said. "I'm afraid the rumors are true, this rule goes right to the top - over my own head, if you must know. Even I am beholden to others, and they have decreed that it must be so, and great effort has been made to prevent this very thing."

"It sounds like you must make an imperfect choice. I humbly suggest I'm the best you've got," Sanaa said, lowering her head deferentially.

Dev took a deep breath. "There remains the other qualification. Your endorsement as her sponsor must be free of any hint of coercion, and it must be sincere. I'll have to wave away the Level Eleven requirement somehow even so."

"What do you say, Nuru?" Sanaa said, standing tall and regal. "My loyalties have always been to the means of my power, and if I fail my Watch Word then I will be punished. Search your heart. Do you think me so petty that I will give up an indefinite reign for an unscrupulous fuck?"

"I say... if you can impose the injunction of requiring consent from her dealings, her followers and the people doing her business, then she will have my full support," Nuru said.

Sanaa gave him a grateful smile.

"To what archetype do you think you belong?" Dev continued, looking dubious about the idea.

"Well, I've got to take Tumelo's place, don't I? I daresay I rather am an artist," Sanaa said.

"Each Faction takes on a new constituency, even when taking on the vestigates of the one it replaces. You need only determine where success lies for your disposition, and your skills. Are you a lover, also?" Dev said.

"You know what I've always said about love?" Sanaa glared. "I could do without."

"The corollary to love is intimacy," Dev said. "I think you'd be a fine choice for that, don't you think?"

"I get to make this choice, don't I?" the succubus demanded.

"You may accept my suggestions, or not, but if your mortal does not agree that the balance is right as you propose..."

"Nuru? Little help here?" she said.

"We talked about trust, more than once," Nuru mused. "This goes right along with intimacy - there can be only poor intimacy without some kind of trust. I think the world is clamoring for an intimacy artist with different kinds of powers to bestow. Sex is great as a starting point, but how far are you going to get if nobody joins your faction because they all think you don't have any moral high ground? You know what's happened to all who came before you, and your own mother. You said yourself that growth is often painful; well, I can't think of a better opportunity to grow than right this moment, as a goddess, and consent as a Watch Word will give you one hell of a moral high ground to stomp on nearly every other Faction out there from what I've seen. It all works together. Love is... well, not incompatible, at least. You can take it or leave it as you think best in each bylaw you create."

"And those bylaws I can modify as I go along," Sanaa said, tapping her chin. "Perhaps I can help with another matter as well; I want the pocket dimension I recently occupied merged with the former Chosen HQ domain. I want an exit placed right there on the property of this bard, around which I will build a Faction outpost, in the form of an inn. If that is to your approval of course, Nuru. I will compensate you the cost of the land and everything on it, and I think you'll find the uses I mean to put it to very much in line with your own interests."

"Ah, you do know that space is a loose end that needed tying up. Nyala won't be happy about you having some room in her backyard," Dev said. "That will make it more entertaining. Nuru, are we agreed?"

"Let me think about that for a minute. Can I ask one question in the meantime? And please understand, I'm not being insulting, I'm just emphasizing my point when I say: what the FUCK was up with that labyrinth, with the gates?"

"I'll tell you, but I'm going to put a cognitive block in place to prevent you ever sharing this - any of this conversation, really. We had to know that none of the existing Faction options are palatable, in certain circumstances; we're going for the broadest appeal, in one way or another. Someone that finds the current options unacceptable might have a good sense of an underserved niche, and the way to make sure it was sincere was to put a time limit, and force a choice. Only unaligned adventurers see that choice the way you did, and only the most deserving of this particular honor would be unable to make a selection and as a result, receive the Divine Invocation. As you suspected, it does confer immediate membership in the chosen Faction if a choice is made."

"I understand."

"Then, back to the topic at hand," Dev said. "What are your principles?"

"Intimacy and Artist, supporting a Faction with consent as its Watch Word."

"And will you officially sponsor her for divinity under these terms, as well as the sale of your property, without reservation?"

"I fully accept all the terms," Nuru said.

"Ah, that stunt you pulled with Afolabi on that survey gives me an idea. Here is my answer to the level requirement: you're Level Eleven once more, with your EXP held in trust. Anything you want to change?"

Nuru blinked as his skill tree hung in the air. He could only change his Level Twelve skills, but they were already selected for him.

"Uh, nope, I think I'm happy with my previous choices."

He tapped the glyph to spend the EXP and accept his Level Twelve once more, noted that his skills didn't even lose Proficiency in the process.

"Then the requirement is superficially satisfied; although I expect to be challenged on it, it will take time to gather an effective argument, by which time inertia will be in our favor. I give you this consecration, mixed with a warning. There are others above me watching us, or will be soon I should say. They mostly stopped watching, some time ago, in disinterest, and so I have decided for the moment to allow the Rules to be broken temporarily, as I write a new Amendment Request, in hopes that it will all be rewritten with my succubus-friendly hotfix permanently applied without too much modification. But I believe you will draw their eyes back to my changes before too long. This _is_ an opportunity, fear not; where once they were prudish and overbearing, I believe they are now ready to expand their horizons if they witness a compelling opportunity for success. They've had their gallant heroes. They've seen the great dragons all slain, the rise and fall of a hundred thousand generations of chivalry and codes of honor and all that romantic theater. They will not accept you, nor change, right away, but do not falter from your path for even a moment. You must tap the undercurrents, the deep impulse that sleeps in the loins of all intelligent life, sustaining the numbers of adventurers and the society that supports them. What our few remaining watchers have seen, they cannot unsee, and on reflection I believe most do not wish to, even if they hesitate to say so explicitly. All sapient beings in your world are made in our likeness, more than you know, and we too have our vices. There are enough of us now wishing to indulge them that they will not vote me out until you've had a chance to defend your virtues, whatever you demonstrate them to be. For your life, for the very multiverse's existence it depends on: create a spectacle, a visual sensation for those who observe. Seduce the other gods, and expose their hypocrisies, to lower the standard held against you. Claim a following, and thrive."

"You say that like I wasn't going to do all of those already!" Sanaa squealed happily.

"It is a road littered with the rubble of past attempts, and you will be opposed at every turn. I just hope I can encourage you not to back down, to try to pacify the others with compromise and diplomacy to allow the existing corruption to linger. They will be coming for you with a vengeance. If you show weakness, or lack conviction, the enclaves among the watchers may lose their fascination, and clamor for you to be replaced, and your power will falter as Tumelo's did even if you keep your Watch Word. Should you succeed, however, there is a chance that you and I will craft the next Expansion. But that is a subject for another time. Good luck; we will speak again soon. I am giving you some basic knowledge to begin your journey. And in case you're ever wondering how to put a show on to thank me, I want you to remember that I'm an ass man."

Dev disappeared with a wink and a flash that left a white spot on Sanaa's forehead but shrank, and once it vanished Dayo and all the others started moving again.

"We did it we did it!!" Sanaa squealed, pressing Nuru's face into her chest and spinning him around, then let him go as more adventurers rushed the room.

"Banished! Banished I say!" She wafted, quite literally lifting off the floor, out the door and down the hall towards the exit, the pull of the ground having only a tenuous grasp on her now.

"Oh, I've just realized something. I'm now inheriting all of Tumelo's pacts, and I can dissolve them on a whim. Your services as high archon are no longer required, and your honorary membership in the Living Person's Club is revoked. Goodbye!"

Sanaa waved her hand and the phylactery in the disintegrating Guardian's hand crunched as Onyekachi's headless body scooped it up. Onyekachi struck viciously at her one moment, and fell to the floor lifelessly the next, the silent snarl still pasted to his face.

"Does this mean I get my weapons back?" Dayo asked. "You owe me a Favor, don't forget."

"That's worth a Big Favor, yes. But I and your old Faction both owe you better than that. Congratulations - Blackguard." Sanaa snapped her fingers, and the staff puffed back into existence in Dayo's outstretched hand, where the Big Favor had just been sitting.

Dayo breathed a huge sigh of relief, then struck Onyekachi with the staff bearing the Soul Crystal lantern.

"!Babba Rai Magudana! Asshole."

Black vapor pouring off of him, consuming his flesh until only a distended skeleton remained. Dayo followed with their head held high as everyone still able to stand filed out behind Sanaa to the normally-empty grassland that used to be a secret entrance at the edge of the Home Town extended land area. Now, there were adventurers as far as the eye could see - more paladins than anything else, but plenty of others.

"Heretic! Abomination!" a voice called from above.

An angel swooped down and slammed Sanaa straight into the ground. When the dust cleared, Sanaa was straddling his face, and he was flopping around failing to regain the upper hand.

"How nice of you to come visit me on my glorious day of ascension, archangel! But really, you need to learn some manners. Give me this," Sanaa said, reaching over under his belt and pulling something out.

She got up and threw it to Dayo. The archangel leaped up again, bracing for another attack.

"You will not be allowed to defile our great traditions! I cast you from all existence, vice-ridden cretin!"

"Dayo, you are my appointed protector, and for today the head of my personal guard. Stomp on that for a little bit, will you?" Sanaa said, waving her hand vaguely in Dayo's direction.

The angel held his hand up, conjuring a great lance of golden holy power, and thrust it, putting all his weight behind it as well. The newly-minted blackguard stepped on the lump of flesh quizzically, while Sanaa idly deflected the lance and snuffed its energy.

"Agh! Oh gods, how? Why!?" the angel cried, doubling over as the lance failed to hold his weight as it vanished.

"Critical hit, every time!" Sanaa crowed. "Be a good boy and don't interrupt my speech, 'kay? I am beyond your power now, and every spell I cast has perfect Proficiency."

Dayo waited as the ascended succubus held up her hand, who effortlessly swatted the archangel and put him hard on his back, then the blackguard stomped harder as he got up to lunge once again at the new deity.

"Aurnnnnnnggggh!" the angel groaned, curling up into a ball on the ground, wings twitching gracelessly.

"I could get used to this," Dayo said quietly to Nuru.

"Don't say that," Nuru said, wincing as the blackguard ground their heel into it.

"I won't ask you to hate him. But you gotta admit he was kinda asking for it."

"You... you will pay..." the archangel groaned, pointing at Dayo.

"Don't tempt me to make it even more worth my while," they warned, conjuring the metal-studded staff and raising it menacingly.

Behind Dayo, red ethereal wings shaped just like Sanaa's sprang tall and proud, ready to push against the air.

"Ooh. So that's what that does," Dayo said. "Pretty hefty soul burn, but I'll absolutely spend all of Onyekachi's spirit to add a little more sting into my downswing."

"You are so beautiful right now, you don't even know," Nuru said.

The corner of their mouth twitched up a little bit.

"By all the gods, stop this madness!" a paladin said, stepping forward. "How dare you!"

Sanaa held up her hands and walked deliberately towards him, stripping off all her meager clothing.

"Have you no shame! We outnumber you, I will end you this-!"

"Stay your weapons, all of you!" another paladin said, grabbing the first paladin's sword arm and forcing the weapon back into its sheath, even as hundreds of others around them continued to draw.

"But General-!"

"Stay them! Ignore the tits, you idiots. Look atop her head. See the circle of fire! This is no longer any ordinary demon, nor even an arch demon. You stand in the presence of a goddess, devil though she be. Swords are of no further use here, as Rule One has been invoked. I know not how this is possible, but if an archangel could not stand, then for you to attack her will be to rush headlong to your needless deaths."

"General Chidike, we meet again," Sanaa said. "Acknowledging my femininity, finally?"

The man paled. "What- when...?"

"Months ago, you thought you had killed me by proxy. I was pacted to this young man," she pointed at Nuru, "and you came to see me after my untimely demise, to poke and prod at my corpse. You called me an 'it'. I found that quite rude."

He stared at Nuru.

"I hardly recall..."

"Just another day of questing for you, I suppose; I remember it quite well. I went by another name then: Adana Devi," she said. "I gave up that shell and grew another. Not the most pleasant experience, so thanks for that. It was in Home Town right up the way, if that helps. You put the bard on trial afterwards."

Surprise flashed across his face, then fear. "This- this is neutral ground, I- you cannot strike me down here! It's the Rules!"

"I daresay I could, you're on my doorstep. But relax, old man, I'm not holding a grudge. The one you saw killed was actually a rival of mine. You did me a favor, letting the world think I was dead. I could kiss you in thanks, if you like."

"Don't touch me," he growled.

The crowd gasped.

"As you wish," she sighed. "I have an announcement. No, a decree- my first decree! Yes, I love it!" She clapped her hands excitedly. "Ahem. You may address me as Most Exalted Sex Goddess, or 'Most Exalted' for semi-formal in my presence. Friends of the faction may informally refer to me as Goddess Sanaa. Tumelo's Chosen has been reborn into a new faction. I'm thinking 'Sluts of Sanaa', but I have't decided yet. Those of you who are Chosen members may appeal to me directly over the next week, and I will either retain your current status, apply a new status in the heirarchy and refresh your faction skills accordingly, or release you to join a new faction. As you might guess, we're going to be less focused on dead bodies, and more on live ones going forward - so all you paladins, turn your animosity to Jabu and Neeoka. It's going to be fantastic! Concerning the rest of you, be warned that I will *not*-" she pointed at Dayo, who kicked the angel's nutsack for emphasis, prompting a rather colorful ejection of fluids from his mouth, "take any slut-shaming, misogyny, gender or identity discrimination of any kind, full details of which will be provided at a later date. We're going to be having some lovely parties, and you're welcome to come join us in the pubic areas - oops! I mean public areas, but perhaps those too, haha! There will be some fabulous events in the VIP rooms on an invite-only basis; I'll leave it to your imaginations and the rumor mill as to what that might entail. Speaking of that, I have a few orders of business which I will address in one week at the Faction Headquarters right here. You're all free to remain, so long as you do not harass anyone coming into my headquarters, but if you do - Dayo, toss me that back."