Chương 498: 498

Mark, Grax, and Goofy relocated 500 or 600 kilometers to the south, Mark moving at superspeed while Grax turned all Light Titan and mostly invisible, letting Goofy lay back on his hand, and then he moved. Mark burned the world as he flew through stone-thick air, pulling himself ahead on a corkscrew of adamantium, but Grax and Goofy flowed freely, Grax's speedy light-self doing a lot to protect Goofy from the forces of his speed multiplier.

Goofy was mostly okay by the time they slowed down over some place that Grax and Goofy had chosen. A bit singed. Nothing wrong with that. As for the location, Mark was pretty sure this was not a trap, or at least it wasn't a conventional trap, because they brought him to a home. Their home. It was a hidden grotto in some low mountains, with giant boulders all around the skyward-entrance, blocking the view and the path into the hidden place, but not blocking the air, or the gardens.

Where the light shone down from overhead, a garden of vegetables flourished. Zucchini, mostly, but also potato vines and an apple tree laden with bright yellow/red fruit. Some dry rice, which was a particular cultivar of rice that didn't grow in water at all but instead more like wheat, grew in a field to the side, under strips of grow lights that supplemented the sunlight from overhead.

The sky-facing entrance overhead wasn't much of one, and there were no ladders up there, so the only way in or out was crawling or flying. Everyone in Goofy's group flew, except for Kardi, and Kardi could absolutely crawl if she needed to, but from what Mark was seeing Kardi didn't live here. The home ahead, built beside a creek flowing out of some boulders, was a two story house made of broken boulders and rough-cut trees and fabrics and scavenged technology.

It was basically whatever a person could make if all they had was themselves and their powers. Mark could easily see the Light Titan unearthing and breaking boulders, and Goofy flying big trees into this place and then splitting them with his fists. Mark watched Grax turn from the Light Titan back to himself, shrinking down into the space and letting Goofy off. Goofy slapped out some small fires on his clothes, but mostly out of habit instead of necessity. His high-class Glorious Man outfit was not on fire at all.

Goofy grinned brightly, saying, "It doesn't combust anymore!" Mark smiled and said, "That's a high-class costume."" It's webweave," Grax said, "Ordered it from Sidecity about two weeks after you and I came back from Endless Daihoon and I managed to get hold of this guy. It was a present for his Actualization Day about a week later." Mark had no idea what an 'Actualization Day' was, and he didn't feel like asking that question."

I kept breaking all of my normal clothes, too," Goofy said, hopping toward his house, flying only a little.

"So it was more that than anything else." Grax walked along, almost sedate, saying, "Multiple reasons." His third eye was not sedate at all. Leash stared at Mark, unblinking. … Mark had a surreal moment. It was one of many such moments. Should he try to kill Grax right now? Yes, obviously. He was full of demon. Specifically the demon Leash, the one that wanted Addashield's demon Kanda dead, and who had done a lot of plotting toward that effect.

Every truly bad thing that ever happened in Mark's life was a series of events that started or ended with a demon involved, Leash more than most, and so far Leash was responsible for… Well. Let's count 'em up. Mary Getty, the first person that Mark ever had to kill because she was trying to kill him, had Leash as her demon, and then, after Mark killed Mary, Leash came out and began to infect everyone down at Wolf Bayou. It was only because Mark had talked to Leash that Leash went away. Voluntarily.

But Leash had targeted Mary Getty, specifically, to get to Mark. Before that, back on Daihoon, Leash had tortured Sally through Sally's girlfriend, Anara, back before Sally joined Mark's Team. Leash had a noble lock Sally in an iron maiden and then tried to force her to Contract with Leash, because Leash wanted Mark, and through Mark the demon would eventually get Addavein.

Anara knew that she couldn't let a demon get what it wanted, though, so she took the Contract instead of Sally, and then Sally truly embodied her chosen god, Drakarok, and she killed the possessed Anara and the nobleman. Leash had also worked through the forces of Memphi to cause the Battle For Memphi, eventually possessing Grey Phantom and going toe-to-toe with Archmage Blackthorn. And let's not forget Kardi. Leash was responsible for Kardi's corruption, too… though Kardi was also kind of a terrible person, so…

wait. The fuck? Was Kardi her own fault, or was the demon at fault? Thrashtalon was involved, too… No. Ultimately, Kardi was responsible for her own actions. Leash helped Kardi turn evil, though. Kardi was still here, in Grax's soulhouse, right beside the demon. And Grax, himself, was a major problem. He had killed people. A lot of people. In this life and in previous lives— Grax stopped walking. He turned and looked at Mark, too. His vector was hesitant, worried, and his eyes and stance were ready.

He didn't want to fight, but he would. Maybe a retreating fight— Goofy walked on to the house, oblivious of the confrontation happening right now, saying, "It was so hard to try and fight Wongod before Grax came back from Endless Daihoon, and I didn't trust Grax at all, but he's the only reason that the Picory are still alive." Goofy stooped and looked at Mark and Grax, and his vector was a solid thing. A beacon of righteousness. Or at least that's what he tried to be.

Goofy finished with, "I do trust him now, Mark. He's a horrible person with thousands of years of crimes to his name, but he's trying to repent, and what kind of superheroes would we be without letting the villains repent?" So maybe Goofy wasn't oblivious to the mental confrontation happening between Mark and Grax right now. Mark scrunched his face a little, recognized that Goofy had grown up a lot since the last time he saw the goblin, and said, "There's a limit to the allowances of repentance."

Mark frowned at Grax, adding, "But I am here, and I am listening, but only because Grax and… and Kardi saved my friends when we met with Dominant." Grax relaxed a little. Mark tried to relax, too. But then Grax winced and a stream of gore spilled out of Grax's third eye. The gore formed Kardi. Kardi smiled and bounced, saying, "I did it all for you—"" Fuck the fuck off," Mark declared.

"Go away. AND not into Grax. I'd… I'd feel better if you were out of sight, and out of mind… And Leash is going to tell you everything that happens here anyway, so fuck off, Kardi." Kardi smiled brightly, did a salute, and said, "I'll be back in a few hours! Unless I die and come back here, of course. Things to do, things to do~" Kardi's body split into a bunch of arms and long, spindly hands, and then she grabbed the rock wall and clambered up and over the ring of high boulders.

She perched on the highest boulder and turned her hands and arms into wings, before launching into the sky, out of sight. A few flaps later, and she was out of Mark's sensory range. Mark laid down a line of adamantium against the wall and then poked it up into the air, to form an eyeball way up there. He watched Kardi continue onward, Quark helping Mark make out Kardi's tiny dot as she flew. She kept flying. … Mark turned back toward the goblins. Goofy grinned softly.

Grax had the vector of a tired, old man, as he said, "I'll make us some tea, and we can talk about some serious topics. There's a lot to tell, and it will take weeks, but I understand if that cannot happen, so I will try to condense as much of it as I can."

"… Yeah sure," Mark said, keeping parts of himself very distant and ready for evacuation." She doesn't live here," Goofy happily said." She's a complete zealot," Grax said.

"She tried to live here, but I disallowed that as soon as I could." The goblins went forward, into their little house. Mark followed into a boulder house that was almost human-sized. Quark did some rapid scouting on Mark's floating blades, and sure enough it was a home for 2 people, with a ceiling height of 2 meters. So Mark kinda fit, most of the time, but the ceiling was low between rooms.

It was good-sized for Grax and Goofy, though, and it had plenty of creature comforts scavenged or stolen from this or that place. The chairs were wood, and solidly made, but practically green. The table was foldable metal and plastic, while the kitchen was wood logs sticking out of the wall and appliances existing where they could. Cords joined into an unholy mishmash of wires that plugged into extension cords that made Mark think about fires sparking from too many Christmas lights plugged into the same outlet.

The lights were off in every room, but some light bulbs were recessed into the wooden ceiling, and plugs dangled from the edges of the rooms. Grax walked into a room, using his Power to glow slightly yellow like the sun, and then he plugged in a dangling cord into a socket that was pinned to the wall with twisted nails. The light in the middle of the room came on, and Grax turned off his Power. The house smelled clean enough.

Goofy eagerly turned on the AC by plugging in the wall unit as he said, "It's a mess, but it's homey!"" I guess it is," Mark said, feeling that surreality again as he hunched a little to stand beside the table in the main room. Grax reached through a kitchen window with a pot to grab some water from the stream beside the house, as he said, "Tea will be ready in 10 minutes." Mark ended up sitting on one of those green logs beside the table while Grax made tea in the other room, using a portable gas stove.

Goofy sat beside him, grinning, seeming truly happy, as he said, "I saw you turn into a dragon and get a key to the city from Glorious Man himself." Mark couldn't help but mirror some of Goofy's joy. He said, "Yeah. It was… it was pretty great… I actually thought about you. Wondering how Glorious Man would react to seeing you. Never brought it up, but I'm absolutely sure he knows that I, uh, enabled your fascination." Goofy cringed as he looked away, "Oh gods of light and dark. Yeah. It's like…

I don't think I could face him. But I still like the costume a lot." Grax called out from the other room, "I'm telling him he has to get another persona, otherwise he won't be taken seriously by the actual heroing community."" Well that's true," Mark agreed. Goofy cringed a little bit more, saying, "They wouldn't take me anyway."" They might, if you were an actual goblin hero," Mark said, "But goblins have a deep history to them about… luring people in by pretending to be human."

Grax stretched up to grab a tea box from a high shelf, saying, "And that history is well-deserved, because that's absolutely true." Grax sprinkled green leaves into the pot, adding, "The curse makes it what it is, though, so we only need to shift all goblinhood to Goofy's territory, leaving the Great Curse behind, and that'll solve every problem that goblins have and create a million new ones." Goofy admitted, "But I have no idea how to be a leader." … What? That was an issue? Enjoying the story?

Show your support by reading it on the official site. Mark had no idea what he was asking as he asked, " 'How to be a leader'? Why is that an issue, now? Shouldn't it be an issue for years down the road— Oh. No. Wait. I think I can guess where this is going." Either they wanted Mark to Skill Goofy with Leader, which he could. He had a few extra Leaders in his storage. Those were for Aluatha, though. Tribe Khava didn't get any of those ones. Also, Mark was pretty sure Goofy had his own Natural Power.

Or, the issue was more simple and complex at the same time. They were going to do a demiplane capture on Wongod, stripping him of his 'house' like Archmage Amberstone had tried to do to Mark's house, back during New Tokyo's Blockade Breaking, but they needed some metaphysical weight to that capture. Like… like a worship capturing… something.

Mark had no idea what that was, or what he was even talking about, exactly, but he had read about how schisms in religions caused the basic pool of Worship of various religions to break and grow and part and rejoin later, based on the actions of the religion's followers, and since Worship involved demiplanes, and soulhouses were demiplanes, and goblins were all unified by the Green… Mark understood like… 90% of a theoretical concept that might be relevant to whatever Goofy and Grax were thinking about doing.

And if that were all relevant, then there was no way they could ever get this done in a day, which was Mark's goal right now. Gate Day at Dawncoast was less than 2 days away, and Mark needed to be back there for that, for whatever Okuana was going to pull. Mark asked, "You're doing a demiplane capture, but every goblin already Worships Wongod, and none of them Worship Goofy at all?" Goofy's eyes went wide as he gasped, "Wow!"

Grax turned from the stove, third eye super-focused, greedy, while even his normal eyes seemed to have a glint of greed to them, too. Grax said, "That's a deep simplification of the general thrust of the idea, but about 50% correct." Goofy said, "You're so smart!" Mark arched an eyebrow at that, feeling kinda weirdly… weird and nice, to hear that kinda sentiment from Goofy. Mark said, "It's a demiplane attack at its core, so… what's the plan to make Goofy Worshiped by all goblins?""

We're not there yet, but that is a major part of it," Grax said. Goofy announced, "I still need to get my Powers up to level 100 and survive the Trial."

"… Whatever that is, it sounds suspiciously like we could never do that in a day," Mark said." We could have! The major parts of it," Goofy said, all happy… and then he muttered, "Stupid Lightning Spires." Grax was less enthusiastic, saying, "We could have, but it would have been difficult, and once Goofy nabbed enough of Wongod's territory then he could start the Trial that way. From there the rest of the battle for the hearts of every goblin would be easy, considering how hard Wongod is working the common goblin.

Killing Wongod, permanently, would be almost an afterthought." Goofy asked, "But the staff, too, right?" Grax kinda shook his head and it was almost a nod. He decided to say, "It would have been difficult, but you could have gotten through that, too." Goofy seemed more secure after that. Grax told Mark, "But now we know Wongod had done something with that other elf, too. Kialo." Goofy told Mark, "We tried to rescue him! It… uh… went poorly." The water started to boil, and so Grax turned off the boiler.

Mark decided to get this talk back on track, saying, "You've struck several big topics that I know nothing about, and that I need to understand. Quark, help me list them out." Quark flickered onto Mark's shoulder and chose a particularly clear wall (which was a boulder and some lumber) and started projecting a square and some numbers onto the wall. A blinking cursor flickered at the top right corner, waiting. Mark began, "Without knowing which is hardest to answer or not…"

What happened when the elves came to talk to Wongod?" What is the 100 Trial?" What is going on with Metrovakara?" What is that Enforcer's Staff, exactly?" You talked about soulhouses but you're continually calling them 'territory'? What is that about?" Do you know about Nobody Important? Would Nobody Important side with Wongod over Okuana? Or basically: who would Nobody Important side with in a worlds' war?"

Goofy had been worried that Mark was not going to help, but now, as Mark asked questions, Goofy smiled happily. He knew the answers to a few of the questions, too. The only thing that made him flinch was the question about Nobody Important. He hadn't thought about that question at all, and he wondered why Mark was asking it. Grax, however, was calmly making tea as Mark spoke, logging each question and glancing at the listed questions at the wall.

He hummed when the last question was asked, and he said, "Nobody Important will likely side with Wongod if it comes to full worlds' war, but if the goblins are taken by Dominant again then Nobody Important might do something else that I cannot envision. I have mostly forgotten about who he is, but since we'll be nabbing all of Wongod's territory for Goofy before that happens then Nobody Important's involvement with Wongod would be a moot point."" Okay… That's…

better than I thought it would be," Mark said, "Among the first things Nobody Important said to me out there was a concern over the whereabouts of the Endless Court, and since Wongod is the head of the Endless Court, I was worried."" It's a sensible question," Grax said, "But it's not one we have to actually consider." Mark asked, "What's the 100 Trial?" Grax said, "You're familiar with the concept of a Power evolving, yes? Healthy Body to Immortal Body to Adamantine Immortal.

And there's also the concept of Power Levels 1 through 94-ish being the simple growth of a Power to higher and higher levels, while the transition from 95 to 98 and then 99 is like gaining an entirely new Power or set of Powers that completely outclasses the previous version, because now you're using it 'properly'. Or rather, you're using it more uniquely." The 100 Trial is multiple things, but mostly it's creating an impression in the world that is so strong that you create something that is entirely unique.

From there… it gets complicated. But the premise of the 100 Trial is first creating an entirely new way in which the mana reacts to you, because you become the source of another way of communication, which is all magic is." Magic is the communication between multiple creations." For Goofy, he would be introducing a new way to exist to the goblins, and thus usurping Wongod's control out from under him. That is what Goofy will be; a shining example for all goblins to follow into a new world of possible futures.

That is how Goofy will achieve 100 in both of his Powers." For you? … I can guide you a little, but most of the 100 Trial is about searching your soul for an answer of who you are, and what you want to be, and I am sorry but I don't know nearly enough about your desires or person to help you with your path." Mark shook his head, saying, "And I don't think I would trust you anyway."" Of course," Grax said, nodding, as he finished pouring the tea.

Almost offhandedly, he added, "And your demon will help you with that, anyway."

"… My what?" Mark asked, confused. And a little angry. Confused and angry, for sure. Grax arched a bushy black eyebrow, red skin wrinkling, eyes curious. Third eye most curious of all. Grax simply repeated, "... Your demon." Goofy told Grax, "He was in the middle of Dragon Wake when it happened."" Ah! Yes, he was—"" When what happened?!" Mark exclaimed." The story? The Great Story?" Goofy asked." I would fucking know if I 'had' a demon?" Mark exclaimed/asked, anger and worry spiking."

Well of course you don't have one right now," Grax said, trying to explain quickly, "But your extended Endless Daihoon Documentary? You remember when the Domainer boy, Tartu Solari, told everyone the story of the Dreamer?" Mark paused, trying to remember… and he did, kinda, remember that story. Tartu had made everyone choose to be awake or asleep, and then he told a story that was magical. Most of the crew fell asleep and then had dreams about important things that none of them talked about.

Some of them stayed awake to have those dreams later, the next time they slept. Mark's Dreamer Dream was about all the world and how there was a giant eye on the moon and how big the eldritch threat really was… and there was a lot about how his parents were dead-dead, too. Freyala was there, too. Calming down, Mark tried to recall it all, and mostly it had been an impression of truths too large to grasp. Grax saw Mark calm so he calmed too, as he said, "The Dreamer who Dreamed of Demons.

That story is a bit different from an elven perspective, but it's all basically correct."" Yeah, I… I remember it," Mark said. The story of the Dreamer who Dreamed of Demons was one of those cultural tales, much like the story of the Dragon King; it had a thousand different tellings.

The story of the Dragon King was always about how hubris and 'Great Man'-solutions to all your problems always led to a magefall, and that tale got told a thousand different ways over the years, but the Dreamer's Demon story only had one official story. That story, when told properly, caused magic to happen when it was told, and that story was the one Mark had heard. Some original guy named Seed created all the languages of magic and thus came civilization and a filled-up world.

Then the Dreamer came along and he wanted more, so he scoured the dream for that 'more', and he found a demon who made Daihoon for him. The Dreamer brought his people to Daihoon, and more and more of his people found demons of their own in the Darklight, which was the dream, and the Dreamer's people created more and more of Daihoon. Eventually, the Dreamer was fulfilled. The demon was not fulfilled at all, because the demon had been made with a goal of 'creating more'.

This was a fundamental incompatibility with reality, with what the Dreamer wanted, and so the Demon killed the Dreamer. And thus Daihoon was cast adrift in the Darklight, and the way to their original home was lost. And then Tartu said something about how… how the auroras were connected? People who made demons also made auroras in the sky? And the auroras were the ribbons of Endless Daihoon? That sounded mostly correct. Mark forgot the rest. Mark flatly said, "That story is true, then.

That people make demons, and that demons have something to do with whatever the big shift to Power Level 100 means?" Grax hmm'd, then he handed out the tea, saying, "Let's not jump the gate. We should back up. This is important to know for your 100 Trial." And then Goofy jumped out of his chair, all excited, as he said, "Wait! We have cookies, too!" Mark had cookies and tea with Grax and Goofy. It was all very surreal.