11 – The Staff of Destruction
"I'd like to offer you a trade. I can tell you how to use the so-called Staff of Destruction. In exchange, I'd like some information in return. You are Fouquet the Crumbling Dirt, the most feared thief in all of Tristain, are you not? You must be an expert on rare and powerful artifacts, like the one you're holding," I said, still smirking. "If your information is good, I might have more lucrative trades to offer. I might even hire you. So, are you interested?"
My suggestion seemed to stun her.
"…information on powerful artifacts? Well, you're talking to the right person. Are you looking for anything in particular?" She asked, still in a half-disbelieving tone.
I shrugged. "Why don't you tell me what other items you know of that might be of similar value to the Staff of Destruction? Tell me at least three and I'll tell you the secret to using the Staff of Destruction. If any of them interest me, then tell me where to find it, and I will tell you the Staff of Destruction's weakness."
She considered the offer before nodding. "Three items, right? First, a dagger rumored to be able to talk just like your sword, which can allow its wielder to use all the standard elements regardless of their affinity and cast higher rank spells than they normally could."
If it could let me cast magic, that could be very useful. The problem with talking artifacts though, was that they had a will of their own. Derflinger was easily persuaded to work with me, but the dagger might not be so easy. It'd be on my list of things to check out, but I wouldn't prioritize something that could be useless in the end.
"Second, the Element rings. It is said that the Founder passed down an Element ring to each of the inheritors of his will, who established the three royal families and the line of St. Forsythe. Nobody knows what the rings do, but as something left behind by the Founder, they are definitely valuable. Well, there are four rings, so that's already five items."
"I already knew about the rings." From metaknowledge. I didn't know what they did either, but I remembered it was important for the Void users. "Still, I didn't say that you had to tell me about an item I didn't know, so I'll count it, but only as one item. You'll have to tell me one more."
Fouquet's lips pursed, whether in annoyance or pressure I couldn't tell.
"There is the Founder's Holy Chalice. It is said that water poured in its cup is blessed with the power to break any curse or enchantment."
"A holy chalice? What an interesting coincidence," I said, thinking of the Holy Chalice of another messianic figure.
"Well then, a deal's a deal."
I proceeded to describe how to prepare the staff for firing as she followed the instructions to open the rear cover and pull out the extended inner tube and the telescope sight.
"Careful, there will be a back blast. Very loud too. You need to place it on your shoulders so it doesn't hit you," I warned. "Though if I were you, I wouldn't use it here…"
She followed the instructions and took aim at a nearby tree. "I've got to know if you told me the truth, don't I? I don't care if it attracts attention, I'll be gone soon. Let's see if this works." And she fired, just as I expected. I resisted the temptation to laugh.
A loud thunder came from the staff and a projectile flew out. A terrific explosion ensued as the projectile hit the tree, obliterating it.
When the smoke cleared, the tree had fallen, its bottom half gone, and there was a small crater in the dirt at the base where the broken roots remained.
Smiling in satisfaction, she said, "The Staff of Destruction is indeed powerful."
"Too bad it has a glaring weakness," I said. "If you want to know what it is, tell me where the Holy Chalice is."
With hardly a pause, she answered. It seemed that she was quite eager to learn all about this 'Staff of Destruction'.
"Like many other religious artifacts, it's in Romalia in the possession of the Church. The Holy Chalice, in particular, should be held within the Pope's Palace," she said.
"Hm...thank you, though I really could have found that out quite easily myself, huh? I suppose I'll have to tell you that the Staff of Destruction isn't a magical staff. It has only a single shot, which you just fired. To fire it again, you have to reload and do some maintenance work on it, but I doubt you can find the ammunition it uses anywhere. That weapon wasn't made in Halkegenia, after all. Now it's just a useless piece of junk."
"A single shot…?" Her face went slack. "That…can't be!" She cried desperately with a searching look at me.
"I warned you, if I were you, I wouldn't use it here. You wasted the shot," I said, shrugging.
"No!" She made another strangled cry. She tried to aim it again and pull the trigger, but nothing happened.
She fell to her knees as the Staff clattered to the ground. "No…no…"
At this behavior, I raised an eyebrow that she couldn't see under my visor.
"For the most famous thief in Tristain, you're sure taking this harder than I thought. It's just an item, Fouquet. If you could steal this, you could steal other things just as easily. What's the big deal?"
"You…don't understand! I need the Staff of Destruction! This time was different! It wasn't about the money!"
My curiosity was piqued. I didn't remember there being any greater reason behind the theft than money.
"What do you need it for so badly, then? If it's just a weapon capable of similar destruction, I have plenty. Even more powerful than this M72-LAW. For the right price, I could be convinced to part with them."
Her eyes widened in hope and shock. "You do?"
"Yes. I have portable weapons that can destroy a castle in a single shot, let alone puny explosions of this level," I said, gesturing disdainfully at the crater. "But, obviously, I'll need something of equal value in exchange. So if you were holding anything back earlier, now is the time to come out with it and make me an offer."
There was a long silence as Fouquet didn't move, seemingly considering my words. Slowly, she stood up.
"A magical ring with the power to heal almost any injury, even fatal ones, and revive the very recently dead if you can get to them quick enough," she said. "That's all I have to offer. Is it good enough?"
Now this…this was interesting. My regenerative powers were pretty amazing, but there was nothing wrong with getting more healing powers, especially magical ones. Regeneration did take time and energy, after all, and unlike some Brute powers I couldn't just take biomass from another dimension. If I took severe internal organ damage, I would be out-of-action for hours at the least. Plus, I couldn't heal other people very well with my own powers.
"Can it heal injuries of the brain?"
"Yes, but it wouldn't be perfect. There could be memory loss, and it can't regenerate a brain from nothing."
"I see. Yes, I would be interested in that. Does it have a limited charge?"
"It should have enough left to heal fatal injuries at least twice. It can be recharged, but only a user of spirit magic like the elves can recharge it."
"Oh? Spirit magic? How fascinating," I said. That was the magic of the elves, which was a different system than the human mages of Halkegenia. A little problematic for practical usage considering that humans and elves were religious enemies, but interesting from a research perspective. "Very well. For this ring, I can trade you a weapon comparable to the staff of destruction. Better, really, and I'll even throw in three rounds of ammunition."
It was an easy trade for me. A mere anti-tank weapon was nothing to me. Not only did I have plenty aboard the AAPV, I could also mass manufacture them back on Worm.
"Wait. Can I trade for something else instead?"
I shrugged. "Sure. Weapons, equipment, exotic substances, deadly poisons…there's plenty of possibilities. Shall I list some for you, or do you have anything specific in mind?"
"No, I'm sure you have many things that would be tempting, but what I want is protection," she said.
"Ah. I suppose you want protection from whoever's forcing you to steal the Staff of Destruction?" I had deduced as much from her behavior earlier. If not for money, this theft job must have had something else at stake. A threat of some kind would make sense.
"No, not me, I want you to protect a friend of mine. She's the one that has the ring."
"Hm…protection from who, exactly?" I asked, rubbing my chin for appearances' sake.
"Do you know about the civil war in Albion? About Reconquista?"
Reconquista was a rebel faction of religious fanatics that was the Halkegenian version of the republican faction of the English Civil War. This whole world was like a highly distorted Europe in the Renaissance/Premodern era.
"Yes. Their side is about to win, it seems. So that's your blackmailer?"
But this was quite strange. Her association with Reconquista shouldn't have started until after Wardes broke her out of prison.
"They threatened to kill her if I didn't do their dirty work."
"Aren't you afraid that I could do the same to you, and take the ring by force?"
She took off her hood and tried to look sincere. "You could. But if you were going to do that, there wouldn't be any point trading for anything else either. You could take the ring by force anyway, or renege on the deal, taking back whatever you gave me, and my friend's life is forfeit to Reconquista. At least this way, there's a chance you'll follow through, and I'm sure you'd have a better chance protecting her from them than me, no matter what item I get from you."
I was pretty confident that I was capable of providing the necessary protection, and it wouldn't be too much trouble. A little more involved than just trading away an item, maybe, but I'd buy more goodwill this way.
'I see...well, who is this person that needs protection? Anything special about them that I should know? What is their name?"
"My friend's identity doesn't matter. You don't need to know any more about her. All you have to do is protect her."
"Hm. Helping you isn't out of the question, but I can't be her bodyguard for years on end or however long Reconquista is around, you know? I have things to do, places to be."
"I'll consider it enough if you help me bring her safely out of Albion to Tristain."
I had some plans in mind that would set me against Reconquista anyways, so it wasn't like I'd be making new enemies. Fouquet probably didn't know about it, but the leader of Reconquista, Cromwell, had an artifact of incredible power that also happened to be a ring, perhaps more useful to me than anything else I could get in this world. Cromwell's Ring of Andvari, unlike the healing ring of Fouquet, could raise the dead long past their biological death as undead creatures indistinguishable from their living form under the control of the wielder with all memories intact. It could also take control of living people to an extent.
While it seemed that canon was not entirely reliable given the change to Fouquet's backstory, the Ring of Andvari was a key item that allowed Cromwell to rise to power, I was quite sure he would still have it or something comparable.
Even without that artifact, a country racked by civil war and revolutionary ideas was the perfect place to seize political power, much better than Tristain.
In the end, it came down to a question of whether this excursion was worth the cost of potentially revealing some of my capabilities early, depending on just how much importance Reconquista attached to Fouquet's friend. The real danger was a Myozunitonirun, the Void familiar that was a master of magical artifacts, who was likely to be the one manipulating the civil war behind the scenes.
A prepared Myoz could be much more dangerous than one caught off guard by a blitz straight to her puppet Cromwell.
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[Agate]
Initializing Strategic Intelligence Services…
Retrieving Data…
WARNING: Fouquet's backstory contradicts prior metaknowledge.
NOTICE: Offensive Bias has acquired limited intelligence on Albion. Unverified metaknowledge is now underlined.
Reconquista: A faction within the Albion nobility that rebelled against the royal family for a number of grievances, most prominently the demand to reclaim the Holy Land in Elven territory. The group is led by Oliver Cromwell, a former bishop who was a simple man before Myozonitonirun offered to make him an emperor, as a greater plot by Myozonitonirun's true master.
Albion Family: There are only two known survivors, the King and Prince Wales, who is the lover of the Crown princess Henrietta de Tristain. The King is holed up in Newcastle, their last remaining fortress, surrounded by Reconquista forces led by the Lexington super dreadnought airship under the command of Cromwell. The prince disappeared a week ago, and is probably pretending to be a pirate intercepting Reconquista supply imports.
Fouquet: A famous thief feared in Tristain for being very talented in both stealing items and fighting off pursuers with massive golems. She was supposed to be captured by Louise and Saito, then rescued by a traitor in Tristain and subsequently initiated into Reconquista. Her true background is unknown.
Ring of Andvari: An artifact that represents the "Strength of Water", formerly owned by the Water Spirit of Ragdorian Lake, who is attempting to sink the entire continent to reclaim the ring. It was stolen at some point, probably by Myozonitonirun, and given to Cromwell. It can raise the dead in a 'false life' completely under the control of the wielder, with all memories intact and physically indistinguishable from their living form, in addition to forcing the living to do the wielder's bidding. It might even be capable of summoning the original soul back, because in the original story, when Prince Wales was revived with the ring and then the spell got Dispelled, his original soul seemed to be back in the body for the short moment before the body returned to death.
Myozonitonirun: The Void Familiar known as the "Mind of God", with mastery over magical artifacts. Capable of both utilizing magical artifacts and enchanting new ones, Myozonitonirun is extremely versatile and powerful, and unlike Gandalfr whose power relies on having access to strong weapons, Myozonitonirun can make their own. Their master's identity is currently unknown, but has an interest in propping up Cromwell as the leader of Reconquista, so she is acting as Cromwell's assistant for now.
Elves and Spirit Magic: In the Brimiric nations of Halkegenia, the elves are widely feared and hated as religious enemies. They are believed to possess incredible magic casting abilities, making one elf the equal of ten or even a hundred mages, according to rumor and historical battle records. There have been many failed crusades to the territory of the elves, which is considered to be the Founder's Holy Land for reasons unclear other than the Founder seemingly bent on claiming it during the later stages of his life. The elves are a long-lived species, and mostly keep to themselves despite their military superiority, but they do hate humans as much as humans hate them. Their spirit magic is entirely different from Halkegenian mages, and not much is known about it, except that it seems to be related to the nature spirits.
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A/N: I have received a general complaint that some prior chapters were difficult to get through for people unfamiliar with FoZ. But I really can't find anything that wasn't explained immediately, except for things the MC isn't sure about either. So if there's anything you are confused about, please let me know explicitly what it is.
In the meantime, I have done another "Intelligence" report by Agate, to expand on new things introduced this chapter.
EDIT: For some reason the underline formatting was lost when uploading a Word doc, but is kept during copy/pasting. So I fixed it, and the report now shows the underlined verified metaknowledge.