Chapter 447: The Prophesied Place

The God of Alchemy's description of Thanos might have been somewhat embellished, but Ambrose trusted that his master wouldn't deliberately mislead him.

After all, epics were not exactly in short supply.

Walk into any tavern, drop a gold coin in front of a bard, and ask for a heroic ballad. If you heard any repetition over a three-day period, that surely meant he was a fraud, a barbarian in disguise.

There were simply that many epics that just about every plot that could be told had been told.

A purely conventional epic would struggle to generate anything genuinely new.

Even if Aiolos had managed to accomplish great things in the way Thanos imagined, the epic conclusion and the triumphant union with the princess probably still wouldn't have satisfied him.

That would also explain why Thanos had been deliberately presenting Aiolos with obstacles from the start. He wasn't particularly bright to begin with, was unfamiliar with Ariel, had no hints, and was forbidden from revealing his divine heritage. The constraints piled up until Aiolos buckled under them.

But where was Ambrose supposed to find a tale of star-crossed suffering to deliver to a divine audience? He was a lich. Worldly desires were not something he possessed in any abundance. Demanding an epic romance from an undead was a strange commission.

The God of Alchemy spread his hands. "I can't help you with that side of things, but at least I'm not leaving you with nothing."

He passed Ambrose a bracelet that glowed with a soft amber light, and told him to slip it on.

"When Thanos's gaze lands on you, the light will go out. Pay attention. This deity is not known for his patience."

With that, the God of Alchemy returned to his experiment.

Ambrose stared at the bracelet with mild resignation. In a crisis, the gods were still ultimately unreliable.

"Looks like I'm on my own again." He checked that the amber glow was lit, opened the Necromantic Codex, and wrote, [Megaman Tiga: Friends, Thanos has me in his sights. He wants me to put on a show for him. I haven't the faintest idea where to start. Help!]

The response from the Elegiac Society's resident idle vampire came quickly. [Human-Hater: Haha, look who's finally getting what's coming to him! How did you end up on this deity's bad side?]

[Megaman Tiga: That ugly fool we ran into, Aiolos, is an actual son of Thanos. And yes, your thrall orc was the one who took his head off, and is apparently the first enemy Aiolos ever made in this world.]

[Human-Hater: *******! You scheming lich, you think I'm going to fall for this?!]

[Megaman Tiga: Suit yourself.]

Heki Stone stared at that response for a long moment and found himself wavering.

The lich never lied about something this easy to verify. He thought back carefully to the details of that encounter on the beach and the stumbling young idiot riding on the surf. Him, the son of Thanos?

Before he could ask anything more, Gareth's response appeared.

[Dullahan's Crown: Thanos? Whatever he wants from you, if there's anything I can do, say the word.]

Since Ambrose had helped Gareth deal with the dragon situation so thoroughly, Gareth's standing at home had risen considerably. He possessed genuine, lasting gratitude toward Ambrose.

[Megaman Tiga: I appreciate it, Gareth. But this isn't something you can solve with your blade. You can't very well break into Thanos's divine realm and take his head.]

Even Gareth's combat dominance in the mortal realm had a ceiling. The gap between that and divine power could not be bridged by individual strength.

[Dullahan's Crown: Don't undersell me like that! Don't let my reputation with a blade make you forget everything else I bring to the table.]

Ambrose paused. He had been about to dismiss that out of hand, but he stopped himself.

Gareth wasn't only a fighter. This man seemed to have received some kind of legendary boon for charisma, or something adjacent to it. He had an extraordinary effect on women, and not through any deliberate effort.

Simply by being present, he had a tendency to draw a certain kind of attention.

And Thanos wanted a spectacular "wedding." Gareth might actually be the ideal candidate here.

He sent him a private message. [Megaman Tiga: Bro, any interest in taking on another wife? You're still in contact with that female orc from before, right?]

[Dullahan's Crown: Do you want to die? I'm reading this right from his side!]

That tone could only be Alabastra's.

Ambrose winced. Encouraging Gareth to have an affair and getting caught by his wife in real time was an embarrassing mistake.

Though it was also absurd that the two of them apparently shared a chat account.

[Black Rose: What exactly does Thanos want? I couldn't make sense of what you said.]

Ambrose gave a brief explanation in the group. In essence: Aiolos had made a mess of things on his own, and was preparing to retreat from the world entirely with his lobster-girl.

Thanos was displeased. He had intended to stir the ocean into chaos, to watch a wedding unfold with grandeur and consequence—and what he had gotten was barely a ripple before Aiolos gave up entirely.

The burden of providing entertainment had now apparently fallen to Ambrose, under the threat of having his business arrangements disrupted.

Black Rose read through everything in silence for a long while. Then: [Black Rose: Is Thanos's intention for you to marry Ariel?]

[Megaman Tiga: Who can say? He was deliberately vague, likely because he wants to watch me flounder. Fair enough, since I did technically ruin his plans. Deities taking revenge on mortals is hardly an unusual story.]

After another long pause, Black Rose replied: [Black Rose: And what do you think? You could actually marry Ariel, you know. Given everything you've already set in motion. It wouldn't be that difficult to manage.]

Silence fell over the group chat. Everyone waited. Ambrose replied without a moment's hesitation, [Megaman Tiga: What are you suggesting? I'm a lich. I can't marry a living person. Setting aside whether I'm even capable of it, why would I want to? What would I gain, apart from a great deal of trouble?]

It simply had not occurred to him to think about it that way.

If he needed to stage something, he could always adopt the Monge Greywater persona again and spend some time misleading the Ragetide princess Ariel. Manufacture some palace intrigue, set up a proper harem drama, and let the Ragetide Kingdom descend into a spectacular internal conflict... He could certainly do that.

But what would be the point?

Was he genuinely afraid of Thanos killing him with a bolt of lightning? No. What he was afraid of was Thanos issuing a divine commandment and turning the Ragetide Kingdom, his factory, into an enemy.

So even if he deceived Ariel and put on a whole production, and even if it actually pleased Thanos in the end, the result would still be a disrupted Ragetide Kingdom and compromised factory output.

At which point, why waste the time at all? Better to give Thanos a rude gesture and immediately start looking for an alternative manufacturing arrangement.

The real question wasn't whether Ambrose would sacrifice himself. The real question was how to satisfy Thanos while keeping the cost of doing so as low as possible.

But the prophecy he had seen... A wedding, inevitably, was coming.

"Wait. That wedding scene..."

Ambrose considered his notes. The blurry, unclear wedding scene: a groom embracing a bride, figures who seemed to be bridesmaids, an audience of onlookers. The blurred faces were not the point. What mattered was the setting in which the wedding was taking place.

He extracted a copy of the scene and sent it to the group without hesitation.

[Megaman Tiga: Friends, this may be the key. Does anyone recognize this location?]

[Human-Hater: It's too blurry. I can barely tell it's a meadow, and not even a nice one at that.]

The setting was lively enough in the image, but as Heki Stone observed, it was hardly beautiful.

The grass was patchy and yellow-green in alternating patches, clearly wild and unmanaged.

In the distance, indistinct shapes—buildings, or perhaps even clouds; it was impossible to tell—created a backdrop that seemed tonally incongruous with the occasion. This was not a place anyone would choose for a wedding.

[Black Rose: Look at the background. Are those bolts of lightning? Could that be Thanos's influence?]

The thin white lines she had pointed out did look vaguely like lightning. Though in context, if this prophesied wedding was indeed meant to satisfy Thanos, the lightning would almost surely be expected, either an expression of displeasure or of approval. Either would fit.

The group discussed it for some time, but no one successfully identified the location.

Ambrose's working assumption was that it had to be somewhere near this sea, either within the Ragetide Kingdom's territory or some uninhabited island offshore.

If the location could be found, it might be possible to work backward from there to identify the people involved.

After all, the wedding in the prophecy was going to happen regardless. Finding the place was a way of finding the answer.

[Black Rose: To find this place, you'll need the Ragetide Kingdom's help. I think you should come in person. Besides, the site for the factory has already been selected. You need to show up and finalize the partnership anyway.]

[Megaman Tiga: Alright. I'll come. I'm just not certain yet whether I should approach as Monge Greywater again.]

He didn't like resurrecting his discarded personas. It was a bad omen to him. Every time he had done it, something had gone wrong. In the years since, he had made it a rule to use each identity once and move on. For him to pick up an old one again was rare.

But without the Monge Greywater persona, finding a plausible reason to get Ariel's help in locating an obscure patch of land would be difficult. On the other hand, if he claimed to have died and later been resurrected by divine guidance, he could attribute almost anything to divine will, without any complicated explanation needed.

[Black Rose: Are you seriously considering continuing to deceive the Ragetide princess under that identity?]

[Megaman Tiga: I haven't decided, but it does seem like the more convenient approach.]

[Black Rose: I have a suggestion. If Thanos only wants to watch a good story, you might consider telling the truth. Is there any story more compelling than a deceived young woman who picks herself up after heartbreak and builds herself into something? Ariel is Thanos's chosen, which means Aiolos was meant to be her trial. You've taken his place. If she can overcome you, Thanos should be satisfied enough with that.]

Ambrose hadn't looked at it from that angle, but Black Rose's logic certainly had something to it.

Go to Ariel and confess, and let her take center stage in this story...

His one concern was that it didn't feel epic enough.

His thoughts drifted back to Blobdilpulp, the kouto goddess who had casually fabricated a lobster-girl as a tool of deception. It was past time to pull that deity into the drama as well. As a sacrificial offering to the entertainment value, she would be a genuine enhancement. Thanos would likely find that far more satisfying.

As for how to draw the kouto goddess in, that wasn't difficult to work out.

The reason Blobdilpulp had gone after Aiolos in the first place was because of the divine power flowing through him. The real Ariel, as Thanos's chosen, would be an equally attractive target for a goddess with ambitions in that direction.

A lure, a trap, a scheme to bait a deranged goddess into exposing herself...

This plan might be worth thinking through carefully.

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