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Chapter 823: Strategy

“He sounds like a biological weapons cultivator.” Chel said with a vaguely disgusted expression. “Likely has a plague or poison for any situation.”

Talon nodded her head in agreement. “That’s what I believe, as well. My first thought was that anyone who deals with their own diseases to such a degree must first possess an immunity to them. So I wondered if it was possible to train a God of Immunity, and have them set a divine law to remove people’s immunity to infection.”

Chel actually looked somewhat interested at that, but Talon shook her head. “However, divine laws can be undone by those with either similar or opposing domains. Even if I sent such a god, he surely has countless individuals capable of countering such an obvious law. Otherwise, he would have been slain ages ago.”

“You’re not wrong.” Chel agreed, thinking it over. “The next most obvious step would be to send robotic troops after him, equipped with weapons capable of slaying gods. Maybe a few fleets capable of shattering worlds.”

Talon smiled, nodding towards Chel. “That was my first thought as well. In fact, I suggested this strategy to a friend roughly a year ago when I found that he had been paired against BloodBrother. I helped him pick out a robotic race that could be mass produced, and weapons powerful enough to invalidate the need to fight planetside.”

“Even so, their battle ended in failure. According to him, the entire conflict lasted roughly four weeks, meaning that they hadn’t been immediately countered, but had also not been able to weaken him enough to shake his standing.”

“In other words.” I added on, stroking my chin. “He either has some form of disease capable of affecting robotic life, or has another source of combat power able to overcome the forces you arranged for.”

“That’s right.” Talon agreed, letting out a faint sigh. “The two primary strategies to deal with biological warfare have been rendered invalid. This made me think about the situation from an alternate angle. What else could possibly attack BloodBrother as a Rank Three Keeper that he might not have a perfect defense planned for?”

Chel furrowed her brows. “A perfect defense is as impossible as a perfect attack. If he was able to counter everything that a Keeper of the same rank could throw at him, he would have been boosted to the next rank long ago. Either his combat power isn’t as weak as expected, or he has a weakness that is stopping his advance.”

“That’s what I believe, as well.” Talon nodded. “So, I did some investigation. I have found one type of technique that could potentially bring an end to BloodBrother. It’s a rather lesser known aspect among Keepers of this rank, though those from higher ranks typically know about it. However, as a monster Keeper, I expect he doesn’t have much direct contact with the higher ranks.”

“What’s the technique?” I couldn’t help but ask that, looking at Talon in anticipation.

“I assume that you’re familiar with the void at this point.” She said with a small, expectant smile. “However, few people at our rank realize that the raw power of the void can be manipulated to attack anything within the physical world. It can brainwash people, reshape structures, or even entirely transform creatures all with the power of information.”

I simply blinked at her, looking awkwardly at Leowynn, then Scarlet, Aurivy, and finally Chel. Chel cleared her throat, doing her best to speak calmly. “You mean using void scripts?”

This time, it was Talon’s turn to be taken aback. “That’s… right? You know about them already?”

“Chel here is something of an expert on the subject.” I said with a small smirk, shaking my head. “However, are you sure that he doesn’t have a defense against that, as well?”

Talon shrugged her shoulders, shaking her head. “Everyone I’ve talked to that has tried to attack him, I paid handsomely to ask the general strategy that they used. Most of them went with the first two ideas, either robotics or a god meant to counter him. Some sent in armies or grand monsters. One guy threw a suicide squad in with full hazmat gear and a world-shattering bomb set to detonate ten minutes after arrival. That invasion lasted all of ten minutes, as expected. However, none of them seemed to shake his position.”

“That’s why I came up with the concept of a Death Star.” Talon beamed at the name, though I was just glad I wasn’t drinking anything at the time. “If he’s a monster Keeper, I can’t count on there being a mass media culture to quickly spread information. So I need an image that can be seen across an entire planet.”

“The idea is to infect a star with the power of a void, twisting it into something malicious. Those who see the star will be struck with hopelessness, and seek out ways to end their own existence. Additionally, the star is able to infect other stars, and the script used makes it so that the void power travels far beyond the speed of light. I purchased a realm to test this on, disconnected from my other worlds. After one week, the script had infected every star in the galaxy.”

Chel’s eyes went wide as she listened to the concept of the attack. “What was the mutation rate?” She asked hurriedly, leaning forward. “And do you have the proper anti-meme prepared already, or will we need to make it ourselves?”

“Mutation rate? Anti-meme?” Talon asked in confusion, causing Chel to let out a sigh.

“Void powers that have an infectious nature like that have a risk of mutation, just like any plague. Were any of the infected stars different from the rest on a fundamental level? For instance, turning trees into fleshy pillars, vaporizing anything within their system, or the star itself turning into a monster?”

Talon blinked, seeming caught off guard by the question. “I can ask my System Companion when I return, but I didn’t investigate each star closely enough to determine whether or not there was any kind of mutation like that. And… what is the anti-meme you mentioned?”

“Yeah, you’ll need to know this if you’ve been tampering with memes without realizing…” Chel groaned, shaking her head. “An anti-meme is the counter for an effect like this. It’s a separate void script designed to negate the effects of the original. Each void script like what you’re using would have its own, unique anti-meme. Though, if the script mutates, the anti-meme would likely become useless before too long.”

Talon’s eyes went wide when she heard Chel’s explanation. “Even void powers can be countered so easily?” She asked in astonishment, causing Chel to shake her head.

“It’s anything but easy. The highest ranking Keepers might have universal anti-memes, but typically memetic warfare is considered infinitely more destructive than biological weapons. You can only develop an anti-meme to counter something after observing its effects and understanding what you are dealing with. However, most malicious scripts are capable of infecting observers, and even those who simply share information about the script itself. Thus, the would-be defender has only the time between the moment of contact and the moment of activation to devise a counter.”

“Right…” Talon nodded, doing her best to absorb the information. “In that case, I think that you have the best hope out of anyone I’ve met to take out BloodBrother. My personal strategy was to cultivate a Fallen God of Starlight to send against him, giving them the information for this script only moments before departure. Fallen gods will more easily be able to traverse the void, if the Keeper possesses multiple worlds, and this script is too dangerous to allow it to be practiced before the time of departure.”

Chel nodded her head in agreement, while I closed my eyes in thought. Ultimately, it was Leowynn that spoke first. “I think the fact that he didn’t attack you with a memetic virus is enough proof that he hasn’t started tampering with the full power of memes yet. Otherwise, I believe that would be his primary attack method, as you have already both pointed out how rare it is for people to have a proper defense.”

Aurivy chuckled, shaking her head. “If he really is a Monster Keeper, memes are probably too advanced for his creations to fully grasp. You said that he sent a god after you, but for you to still label him this way, was it a monster god, or a civilized one?”

Talon furrowed her brow, thinking. “It seemed monstrous in appearance, with six legs and a jet black hide. For it to have three domains, I had always just assumed that BloodBrother purchased a system for monsters to cultivate domains like that, and then it gained enough intelligence to implement that divine law after being sent over.”

“That’s not a bad line of logic.” Scarlet agreed, having seen the vast array of choices that the Keeper could use to change their world. “Some of their monsters would have to be capable of interstellar travel, given that the robots in galactic warships had been defeated. But monsters like that would be the first ones to fall to this void script you’re suggesting. The only ones who will be spared would be purely subterranean creatures, or those that are blind.”

Talon nodded her head at that. “Unfortunately, it’s the best that I can do. Like your little friend said, there’s no such thing as a perfect attack. If BloodBrother really does take the form of a subterranean creature, he’ll be trapped on the world where he descends for the invasion. If he is blind, and operates through other senses… I can only consider myself unlucky.”

Chel gave a small smirk. “That might not be the case. If the script really does mutate, there’s every likelihood that it could overcome these two restrictions. The downside here is that, if we use this, we are guaranteed to get nothing back from his worlds. We’ll be forced to reset it as soon as we get it, which means that we won’t even be able to retrieve the forces that we invest.”

Talon nodded her head. “In truth, if I ever had the chance to use this, I had no intention of keeping his world alive. BloodBrother has killed multiple Keepers over the years, and I fully intended to refund his world.”

Chel crossed her arms, chuckling a bit at that. “It wouldn’t be as profitable as you think, anyways. A true Monster Keeper won’t have civilization advancement points, nor will they usually submit anything to the market to earn royalties, due to the fact that they don’t have a culture to base things on. Their points will come entirely from three sources.”

“The first and most common method is achievements. By descending as a monster themselves, they will surpass their physical limits and become the king of monsters, using that as a method to gain points. The second, and honestly the rarest is from the annual meetings. Most Monster Keepers wouldn’t earn much in those meetings, even if they wanted to attend. A few thousand points here and there, but nothing grand.”

“The third method lies in between the first two, but offers vastly more points. By killing other Keepers and resetting their worlds, the Monster Keeper can gain vastly more points. However… most Monster Keepers wouldn’t choose to reset the world.”

“Why not?” I asked, unable to see a reason behind Chel’s logic.

“It’s simple.” She answered with a smile. “These worlds are pre-built habitats that they can use to let their monsters grow without investing any more points. A Monster Keeper that refunds the worlds they win will have less adaptability in general. Additionally, although they won’t get any advancement points from their own races, they can from the races of Keepers that they defeat. However, even if they don’t reset it, the Keeper that defeats them will still get the full points total from the worlds that they had won.”

“So Monster Keepers are like walking jackpots?” I muttered. “As long as you can secure a defeat against one, you’ll get the points from every Keeper they’ve defeated?”

“To be fair, that would apply to any evil Keeper.” Talon said, nodding her head in confirmation. “However, we try to avoid looking at them that way. If we look at other Keepers simply because of the points we could win from them, we could easily fall and become a tyrant ourselves. I don’t want to defeat BloodBrother because of the points I could get from him. I want to defeat him to avenge the pain my friends had to endure.”

“Either way.” Chel waved her hand, dismissing the topic. “We’ll need to cultivate at least two powerful beings. One has to be a Fallen God of Starlight, like she said, and the other a God or Fallen God of Immunity. The latter will be able to keep them safe long enough for them to flee their spawn point and make it out into the void, where they can go anywhere they want to start spreading the ‘Death Star’ script.”

“As long as the two of them last long enough to infect each of his realms, then even if we don’t win, the damage will be enough to force BloodBrother to reset.” Talon nodded her head at Chel’s logic, though it was clear that she would prefer a total victory over a potential reset.

“Hopefully he doesn’t have access to a defense ticket.” Chel muttered with a sullen look. “Those are really hard to get anyways, but we’ll be his first opponent of the new year. If he gets one in this meeting, we’re guaranteed to lose our invasion.”

Talon’s eyes went wide at that, before furrowing her brow in thought. “I know someone in the Gilded Branch. They have a group of people that are good at tracking others in the annual meetings. Apparently, they do so as a means of looking for suspicious meetings between evil Keepers. However, they can also be hired to track a specific Keeper, as long as that Keeper is on their blacklist.”

“I said that I’d help you, so I’ll handle the payment this time.” She said with a firm nod. I could see her determination to bring down BloodBrother, even if it did surprise me that she was willing to invest like this. Still, I gladly accepted the help.