Bog Standard Isekai-Book 5 - Hogg Interlude

Bog Standard Isekai-Book 5 - Hogg Interlude

The carriage rolled to a stop, crunching against the sandy dirt. Jeeves opened the door, and Hogg stepped down. His tendons popped as he stretched out his sore back and twisted his head around to work out the kinks. Long wagon rides were a literal pain in the neck, especially when the destination was as bleak as this one. The empty desert plains stretched for miles to end at the faint blue outlines of a mountain range in the distance. The only landmark was their destination: a half-mile away, a pile of white, weatherworn stones. It was the type of thing that he'd walk right past without noticing if it weren't marked as the location of where Fort Blansing used to be.
Odessa stepped out of the carriage, placing one delicate white-gloved hand in Jeeves' as she carefully went down the steps. She wasn't the type who would actually need anyone's assistance stepping out of a carriage even if it were balanced on a flagpole on top of a volcano, but she liked to play the part of a lady.
That extended to her dress, which would've been better suited to one of those profligate balls in Steamshield rather than an expedition to the Prinnashian wastes. It was cut with distracting windows in key areas, but the gown went to her ankles, her arms were covered with long gloves, and she wore a hat with a black lace veil over her face which only partially obscured her artfully applied makeup. It was a strange choice for clothing when she knew a fight was coming, but then again, after the third threshold in Dexterity it didn't really matter what you wore. Odessa was past the seventh. Dexterity was still Hogg's highest attribute, and he felt like a clumsy oaf next to her. That was natural when you teamed up with a high level [Assassin].
"Thank you, dear," she told Jeeves.
"Naturally, my lady," he rumbled back.
Odessa tripped on the flat ground the second that Jeeves released her hand, sending her stumbling into Hogg, something that would never happen to someone like her unless she wanted it to. She caught herself on his bicep, and that forced him to put an arm around her waist to stabilize her. This could all be some elaborate scheme or she might actually be into him, but one thing was for sure: She was always doing this type of thing around him. And she wasn't the only one. Had he finally come in to his popular era?
When she stood he let his arm drop, but she didn't move too far away and left their shoulders touching.
Bedelia exited the carriage last, another of Hogg's so-called "Shadow Elementals". Odessa had mentioned that it would be improper for an unwed lady of repute to spend so much time alone with men, so Hogg had invented another servant. Bedelia wore a [Stewardess] dress to match Jeeves, and like the other Shadow Elemental, she didn't have any color at all in her skin or clothes, just shades of black and gray. She was young and expressive in contrast to Jeeves' more experienced reserve.
Bedelia opened a traveling purse, and the entire carriage and all the horses turned to smoke and were vacuumed up into the bag. Hogg loved doing little touches like that with his "Shadow" magic. It was the small and simple details that really sold the lie and made people think they understood what they were dealing with.
"Is there anything else you require, my lady?" asked Jeeves.
"A fan, perhaps?" asked Odessa.
"Wow, Lady Odessa. You're so pretty!" swooned Bedelia, holding her hands together at her chest and looking at Odessa with melodramatic admiration.
Jeeves produced an actual folding fan from his jacket, swatted Bedelia atop the head with it. "She means one of these, silly child!"
Odessa smiled with humor and took the fan, spreading it out and beginning to fan herself. The fan was made of hard light, too, of course. It had been devilishly tricky to allow other people to manipulate his hard light, at least until he'd learned a spell at the Tower that took care of it. Despite all the strings that came attached to that place, he had to admit the benefits outweighed the cost.
Odessa began to stride towards the rubble. "It's quite hot." She still waved the fan, but Hogg couldn't detect even the hint of sweat on her skin.
"I hate the desert. The sun is too bright, and it's like the air is trying to drink the water out of my eyes," said Hogg.
"It's the dust I can't stand," Odessa agreed.
Suddenly, Bedelia was pushing forward a solid black wheelchair. "If you can't stand, then I could–"
"That’s not what she meant!" snapped Hogg.
Bedelia flushed a dark gray and kicked the wheelchair away where it exploded into black flame. Then she bowed in apology.
Odessa smiled prettily, "Oh no, dear, don't be embarrassed. It's quite alright!"
Hogg sighed. He only had himself to blame. Literally. Both of his Shadow Elementals were piloted by his own Split Minds. He mostly kept them walled off from his main consciousness in order to keep up the pretense that they were distinct personalities, but whenever he did that he ran into the problem that he couldn't resist screwing with himself.
They walked towards the old ruin with the desert sun beating down on them. It seemed like the longer they walked, the further away the castle got, as if they weren't getting any closer at all. That could just be the way it felt to walk in the desert; things were always further away they looked out here. But even after ten minutes of walking, the ruin didn't look any closer.
Jeeves produced a shadow parasol for Odessa, holding it over her head while she walked. Hogg wanted one. He eyed Bedelia, wondering how she would misunderstand his request if he asked her for one until he remembered he could just summon one for himself. He didn’t, though. That would ruin his air of masculine stoicism.
They kept walking, and Hogg started to notice a few other little things. The clouds were moving the wrong direction and the sun wasn't where it should be in the sky. Tiny details, but not something either he or Odessa could miss.
"So this is really the place. How did you know?" asked Odessa.
"We always assumed Keetes the [Ringleader] was operating from Prinnash. It was the only explanation for why Arcaena seemed to be able to project illusions freely into Frenaria, Olland, and Prinnash. But most assumed that he was holed up in the residence of a traitorous High Lord. This isn't a one man operation; he has to have a team of [Illusionists] and a large staff. He'd need food. Resources. It wasn't until we learned that Arcaena could freely move supplies underground to most anywhere on the continent that we got serious about the idea of a secret base."
"But how did you know it was here?" asked Odessa.
That had actually been thanks in part to Brin. He'd told Hogg that there was a speed of light, and Hogg still hadn't been able to devise an experiment to verify that. If there was a speed of light then it took less than a hundredth of a second to cross a continent. But he'd started to wonder if there was also a speed of magic. He'd taken the idea to a group of [Analysts] in the Tower and they'd used a source of data they hadn't been allowed to share with him to triangulate the location of Arcaena's [Illusionists]. It led them to this approximate area, give or take thirty miles. Since that fort was the only thing around these parts, it hadn't been a difficult deduction at that point.
That was all Tower secrets, so he said, "There's an excellent [Illusionist] who can see Invisible Eyes. He found Invisible Eyes that he knew had to be Arcaenean and they were coming from this direction."
"How interesting. But wouldn't following their trail back only give him one long line across the whole country?" asked Odessa.
"He had to find them at two locations. Then the trails made an 'X', with this at the center."
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Odessa nodded. "Clever. And how long are we meant to walk like this? My legs are on fire!"
"Eep!" Bedelia jumped in shock and then materialized a bucket. She scooped up sandy soil from the ground and made to throw it onto Odessa's dress to douse the so-called fire, but Jeeves stopped her just in time. "She’s not really on fire, you dunce!"
"Woops!" said Bedelia. "My mistake!"
"Just a little bit further, I think. Let's let them think they really have us before we let loose," said Hogg. He didn't move his mouth when he spoke, and he dampened all his words by second nature.
"You're the boss," said Odessa with a shrug.
The further they went, the more obvious the illusionary tampering became. Now their footprints were erased behind them, and the road they followed to get here was nowhere in sight. There seemed to be nothing in everything but desert, real sandy desert now. The brush and small trees had disappeared and the ruin they were marching towards seemed further away than ever.
Hogg felt blind without his Invisible Eyes. He had Visible Eyes waiting up in the sky, and those told him that the spell they were under only extended about a hundred yards in a circle around them. But he couldn't push them into other illusions to dispel them, and he didn't have any way to tell if invisible attackers were closing in on him. He assumed Odessa would say something if that were the case.
"I think this is good enough," said Hogg.
Ordinarily, this is where someone would throw down an Eveladis, but that would be the same as giving up. Instead he prepared his spell. This one had taken quite a bit of doing, but he was pleased with the result. The first breakthrough had been when he realized that hard light didn't really have a size restriction. He could make objects as big as his Mana would allow, but also incredibly small. He could make a tiny speck of hard light, smaller than a piece of dust, smaller than a particle of water in a fog. He could shoot that tiny speck out at high speed, and feel where it struck anything. He could make millions of tiny specks like that, and despite their number there was barely a noticeable draw on his Mana.
The next step was Physical Magic. There was a large branch in their tower that focused on the usage of Language for [Warriors] and the like. They used this spell to use the air touching their skin as a second sight, but Hogg had adapted it. First, he'd connected the feeling of his magic hitting something to his sense of touch. Then he connected his sense of touch to his sense of sight.
It was a complicated string of spells, and he had to cast it all manually rather than just passing it off to his Lightmind. The damn thing had started acting up ever since he evolved his Class and there weren’t any [Illusionists] he trusted enough to touch it up, not until he saw Brin again. Still, the Skills and Achievements that came with his Epic [Mage] Class made up the difference. He ran through the words of Language, manifesting them in his mind faster than his tongue would be able to follow and activated the spell.
He'd given it a name. "[Shadow Sight]."
The result was immediate. To other eyes, it would look like a faint shadow had fallen on the area, and if they felt anything at all, it would be a faint pressure. He now saw everything in a thirty yard radius around him, and everything he saw he also felt, as if he was running his fingers across every surface around him simultaneously. The rough ground, the scratchy branches on that bush and its smooth leaves, the hard shells of his Shadow Elementals, and... Odessa. He felt all of her.
"How... intimate," she breathed, looking oddly pleased. "I suppose I should ready myself as well."
She pulled down her veil so that the top part that had been under her hat now covered her face, completely obscuring her vision. Hogg figured she had something for sound as well. From here on out, neither of them would trust their eyes or ears. He expected her to bring out a weapon as well, but she didn't. She simply pulled her gloves up a bit tighter and adjusted her bodice. Then she cocked her head as if to reprimand him for watching. He snorted and turned his head, though that hardly meant he could still see her.
A large man entered his sight range first. He was seven feet tall and extremely obese but also solid and well-muscled. He [Inspected] as a level 31 [Assassin], and Hogg was impressed. He was a lot bigger than most people who took that Class, and Hogg bet that gave him some unique advantages.
Eight more [Assassins] approached behind him, and then to Hogg's surprise, they revealed themselves to real light as well. They were Mirror Images and none of them lined up with the real person's body, but still. Why give away your surprise like that?
The big one opened his mouth to speak, and Odessa shot forward, punching him in the throat before he could speak. She punched his face twice more, fast and tight, a boxer's jabs. She kicked his stomach and pushed him back. He stumbled but kept his feet, hesitated, and then slumped down to the ground, dead. Hogg hadn't even seen when she'd put that metal spike through his temple.
The other assassins bolted into action, moving like lightning-propelled shadows. Their Mirror Images swirled around as well, which would've been very disorienting if either he or Odessa were bothering with their eyes.
Hogg snapped, and Jeeves and Bedelia entered the fray. They were another benefit of his time in the Tower. He had spells now that turned them into an extension of his own body. That meant their speed was based off his Dexterity instead of just Mental Control, and benefitted from several of his Titles and Achievements. All of that while not being limited by flesh meant that they were both better than his regular body in a fight.
Bedelia summoned a huge spiky mace and began to chase a [Assassin] across the desert. The poor [Assassin] used movement Skills and underhanded attacks and Bedelia matched him step for step. He grew noticeably terrified and Bedelia began to laugh as she bouldered straight through everything he threw at her.
Jeeves summoned a black saber and set upon one of the [Assassins] with brutal efficiency. Rather than walk or run, he erased himself and reformed where he wanted to be as if he had a teleportation Skill. He badgered his opponent, always appearing at the worst place. Meanwhile, his face held nothing but mild disgust, as if he'd been tasked with moving a pile of dirty laundry.
Odessa fought the other six. The other [Assassins] weren't untalented by any means, but Odessa was a demon in the flesh. She zipped across the ground so fast he almost mistook her movement for Jeeves' teleportation, and her raw power meant that even a perfect block sent her opponent spinning through the air. Still, six against one weren't great odds, and he could tell she was fighting a defensive battle and buying time.
He stood in place, and they mostly left him alone. Now and again he felt the impact of a quick knife against his leather coat or a poisoned needle bounced off the hard light shell around his face, but otherwise they didn't approach. They clearly saw Odessa as the greater threat and were content to leave Hogg alone as long as he didn't seem to be doing anything.
He judged that he wasn't needed for this, so he wouldn't use any more. Part of that was that he didn't want to reveal all of his abilities yet, but it was also because Odessa wouldn't want that. Her primary reward for coming out here was the experience; there weren't a lot of socially-acceptable ways for an [Assassin] to gain experience.
That didn't mean he wasn't worried. Odessa seemed to be fine for now, but fights between [Assassin] could get very bad very quickly. It wasn't actually a very unusual Class evolution despite what most people thought. The reason that you didn't see many of them was because as soon as two or more [Assassins] got together, soon there would only be one again.
Bedelia hounded her opponent, not losing her grin even as a flashbang went off right against her smiling teeth.
"Back!" the [Assassin] screeched.
"Like this?" Bedelia asked, turning around and showing the man her back. He took advantage of the opening, but constructs of hard light didn't have the same limitations as a human form. For example, they could swing their arm backward with just as much strength as forward, which Bedelia demonstrated by crushing the man's chest with her mace.
Jeeves cut his man down at nearly the same time. They both shot forward into Odessa's fight and blocked two attacks coming at her from either side. This freed Odessa up to deliver a finger stab straight through an [Assassin's] heart.
With the tables turned, the rest of the fight resolved in the blink of an eye. Odessa was everywhere, a silent, shifting predator. [Assassins] fell, some of them impaled by multiple iron spikes. Hogg honestly didn't know where she got those things, but she seemed to have a lot of them.
She kicked the last [Assassin] so hard that the shockwave pushed Hogg's hard light out of the air and rendered him momentarily blind.
He recovered just in time to see the last [Assassin] land on his back. Bedelia swung down to crush his head. It was over.
The illusion shifted. A flagpole with the banner of Arcaena grew out of the ground, up and up until a castle roof appeared beneath it. The roof turned to walls and a pristine white tower grew from the ground, exactly how Fort Blansing would've looked in its prime. It rose preposterously high, erasing the sky and looming over them like the entry into another world.
The doors themselves were wide enough for four carts to move through side side by side and stood twelve sixteen feet high. Hogg moved so that they were in range of his shadow sight, and found that they were really there.
Odessa sashayed towards the door and tugged off her bloodstained glove. Despite the doors' size, there were latches at normal height and Odessa tested it with a quick tug. "I may need a hand with this."
"A hand?" Bedelia asked eagerly, and appeared at Odessa's side, offering a severed human hand. One of the [Assassins'], no doubt.
Odessa stared at Bedelia. She blinked twice. Then she burst out laughing. It was a nice laugh. Hogg couldn't help but chuckle along, relieving a bit of the built-up tension. The next fight would probably be tougher than the first, and it was no good going into it stressed out and worried.
Even Jeeves allowed a slight smile. "Allow me, my lady." He put one hand on his shoulder and pumped his other arm to loosen it up. Hogg received a request for more resources from the message queue in his Lightmind. The words were garbled a bit–his Lightmind was acting up again–but it was enough to understand what the other him wanted. He approved it.
Jeeves punched, and the castle doors came down.

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Book 5 - Hogg Interlude