Unwilling Eldritch Horror of Fortune

“That was a splendid fight, Bakren,” I projected from my seat up in the rafters, “You have learned from your prior mistake and have become a warrior worthy of respect. It was not a mistake to give you a second chance.”

Bakren bowed even lower, his snouted nose practically digging into the dirt, “Thank you, Hierarch!”

Hierarch? Well, that’s a new term, but I guess it beats being called Lord this and that all the time.

I addressed the rest of the gathered crowd, “You have all witnessed the potential that Warrior Bakren has just demonstrated, and I am sure that many of you know that he came from the lowest amongst you!”

I saw the equivalent of a nod of the head from the majority of the Restus in attendance. It was abundantly clear, even just from my earlier observations, that Bakren was already a well-known individual amongst this crowd. However, I had a sneaking suspicion that it was for all the wrong reasons. He did have a predisposition for fighting against foes a lot stronger than him.

Speaking of which, whatever happened to that dude he swore revenge on? A quick scan of the people here told me that he wasn’t amongst the spectators present and given how badly Bakren wanted revenge… well, best not think about how that played out. I still remembered what he did to the poor sods who first fought him, and they weren’t even the people he was mad with.

I addressed the crowd once more, “Do you wish to process the might displayed by my champion?”

I didn’t hear an immediate response like I had hoped, but felt the crowd’s hesitation. They were… hmm, what a strange mix of emotions I was tasting. They were clearly afraid of the strange tentacled being before them, and quite a few were downright dubious about my claims, but the larger majority were optimistically hopeful.

A small tweak of the emotions here and there, minimizing the fear and unease, maximizing intrigue and excitement while pumping up the jealousy levels was all it took to finally get these brain dead lizards on my side. I had forgotten how useful the Emotion Shard could be in situations like this since it was close to worthless against higher lifeforms and their constantly guarded state of mind. The best I could do there was get a vague sense of what they were feeling, although it was pretty damn obvious what they thought and felt most of the time.

Another wave of my feeler and I calmed down the ruckus so that I could talk again. The rapid changes in emotions were already starting to disorient and exhaust the Restus before me; I had to remember that even these relatively hardy creatures were rather fragile when you look at the broader picture. Best not to manipulate them too much before I get them to rebel, can’t have my soldiers kneeling over before they could even fight.

“Are you not angry at your oppressors?” I shouted again, hoping to rile up the crowd further, “Do you not wish to fight back against the monsters who forced you here against your will?”

However, what I was met with was confusion. I frowned and dug deeper into the feelings of the crowd and saw that they genuinely didn’t understand what I was talking about. Their thoughts, when directed to their current situation, showed nothing but a stable contentment. There was no rage or anger about their current situation. Huh, what a strange race. Guess I’ll have to change my tactics then.

“Never mind,” I said quickly, “What I meant to say is, do you not wish to test your martial prowess against a truly worthy foe?”

Now that got them interested. Waves of excitement assaulted me from all sides as they awaited my next words.

“Fighting amongst yourselves is great as practice, but it is no way for a true warrior to hone their skills!” I continued, making sure to amplify their existing emotions every so slightly, “Do you want to know where the true fight is? Do you want to where you can truly test your abilities as fighters?”

A huge roar of approval sent a visible wave of sound reverberating all around us. I didn’t need to manipulate their emotions any further now. They were completely hooked on my promises.

“Good!” I shouted, “But you are not strong enough in your current form. I cannot promise you power like my Champion Bakren, but if you accept my guidance, then I will unlock all the hidden potential in your body. I will make your abilities truly shine! Those of you who do not wish such an honor can leave the arena now.”

To the surprise of no one, not a single Restus chose to leave. I could tell that a few of them were hesitating but a quick shift of emotions quickly shut down the dissenters and fence-sitters. No need to break the illusion of total unity here and it wasn’t like I would just allow a few precious peons to go away due to a silly thing like a perceived choice.

Alright Noe, you think you have enough Authority over the Trash Matrix to do what’s next?

“With certainty, my Hierarch,” she replied with a snarky chuckle. Seemed like she had heard my little inner monologue before.

Ha ha, Noe, really funny. Please just call me like normal.

“I will do as you will, my Host.”

I sighed. It seemed like her new unique take on humor’s here to stay.

That works. And do it, let’s give these Aspirants a taste of the Sponsorship program. I’ll bet the Overseer never thought his own functions would be used to undermine his facilities!

“Acknowledged.”

I felt a warmth course over my body and a tiny, tiny bit of my essence left my body and entered the psyches of the Restus around me. My connection to them deepened to the point where I could practically hear each Aspirant’s individual thoughts, and with a little more effort on my part, I forced their bodies to go into overdrive. Each Restus felt their bodies explode in strength, although not a single soul questioned what the cost of such immediate power would be.

“Temporary Mass Sponsorship achieved, my Creator,” Noe added, “You are free to act as you wish again.”

Excellent, how long will this last?

“A maximum period of 43 hours and 32 minutes.”

That’s more than enough. Thanks Noe!

“Now you are all complete!”

More shouts of elation and job rocked the stadium. Good.

Bakren!” I commanded, projecting my voice through the crowd, “You have become chief of the South, but we need the Restus of this city united for my cause. Can you command this army and unify the city?”

“It shall be done!” he shouted.

“You have until sunrise to do so,” I said, “Go.”

With another round of shouting, the Restus all naturally gathered into hunting groups of around 10 or so individuals. How they knew where to go or who to follow was completely lost to me, and I couldn’t be bothered to figure out their unique culture. It seemed like it was just something that was instinctively drilled into each person.

In record time, the Restus organized into marching formation and were already well on their way to unify the rest of the city. I still haven’t seen anyone from Site 1100 interfere so far, but I wasn’t sure if that was because of Xalla and Bob’s meddling, or because going to war was so common among this species that having a horde of Restus roaming around wasn’t even that unusual.

In just short minutes, I could already hear the bellows of wars and challenges echoing across the Restus town. They sure don’t waste any time doing what I need. All that noise made me more worried, surely this much commotion happening simultaneously would alert somebody, even if the Restus were normally war-like in nature.

Well, I didn’t have to wonder for too long since Xalla joined me not too long after. She informed me, much to her dismay, that the security around here was even worse than she had originally thought. Of the five full time staff, she saw that three of them were not even in the site’s vicinity - although their logs and timesheets might say otherwise. Among the three was the person in who was supposed to be in charge of this facility.

Instead, the bosses had gone to who knows where and had left the operation of this entire city to the remaining two staff, if you could even call it that. They had been working here for less than a decade, Earth time, and were practically glorified interns. Xalla took care of those two in short order. No wonder everyone was saying that Central as a whole was a sinking ship if this level of corruption was allowed to go unnoticed.

As for the “security details” left to defend this city? They were hunkered down in the Site’s HQ and playing games. At this point, I was afraid that the Restus would just steamroll through their way into this city’s center without any kind of a fight. I just hoped that they’d make a big enough commotion that Site 1100 as a whole would respond. No matter how shoddy and corrupt the people in charge of the Restus was, there’s no way that they wouldn’t have anything prepared in case of a uprising.

Now was I afraid that the Site would send overwhelming force to just destroy the entire rebellion before it could even begin? Normally, that’s exactly the standard response for a small uprising like the one I’m orchestrating now, and they’d just vaporize these rebels without a care in the world. However, I was willing to bet that this time would be different.

The Overseer needed these Restus to be in order for his plans to work. I’m sure that he’s placed contingency plans in case someone tried to destroy these Aspirants all at once, but I don’t think even he would be paranoid to imagine what Xalla had cooked up. Instead, he’ll probably send smaller forces in order to try to contain the Restus until he or another Central representative could resolve the issue themselves.

Therefore my job was simple. I had to ensure that the Aspirants here made just enough of a nuance of themselves that Site 1100 would have to send in stronger and stronger forces to contain them. Riling them up and overwhelming them all with more hormones and motions was easy enough. Then, once the opposition gets to a lethal level due to the perceived threat… well, I’m sure you can imagine what would happen if all of the Restus just mysteriously became very drowsy and lost all ability to fight at that crucial moment.

The best part is that the idiots in charge of squandering all of the money for this Site would take the blame and the discontent of the Overseer. I would have felt bad if the Site Admin was someone like Q, but no one competent would allow one of their auxiliary sites to decay to this state. I’m sure that I can inflict a lot of damage to Central as a whole if I play my cards right.

I smiled at the anticipated chaos.

Big Bob joined us a few hours later and updated us on the sorry affairs of the technical equipment here. Big Bob assured us that his precious inventions were finally released into the wider tech heaven or other such nonsense, which basically translates to a confirmation that we’d be safe from any spying recording devices. Which all in all meant that the first phase of my plan was on track.

And true to Bakren’s words, he had the entire city unified well before the break of dawn, and after another session of brainwashing and pseudo-sponsorships, I had myself an army just itching to make as much trouble as they possibly could. Here were a few thousand alien soldiers just dying to fulfill my every command, and I can already imagine the awaiting mayhem.

I turned the two friends by my side, “You two ready to see the show?”

“You don’t have to ask,” Big Bob grinned for the first time, “I want to see these assholes pay for defiling my things!”

“And I’m always up for a little bit of fun,” Xalla smiled, “Let’s get this party started!”

It’s about time to show Site 1100 what happens when they try to mess with Lord Arbiter W.

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