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Time got moving again.

Warning! Newest Pact will cause Scale Decay!

"Shit," I said out loud.

Angelica looked at me, and after hearing from Celeste that time had stopped, looked around for a coming threat, "What happened."

"I just got a prompt saying that the Pact I made is going to cause Scale Decay," I said.

Toad's eyes bugged. "I made the same pact with others." His eyes unfocused as he sent a message through the army prompts. "Merde! I have the pact. This could kill me. No. Focus on the others. Contain this."

"What do we need to do to contain this?" I asked.

"I have things under control," Toad declared. He then stood up and ran out of the tent.

"I have an idea," I said standing. I walked out of the tent.

You have activated Voice of the Titan

"Everyone stop making pacts! They cause Scale Decay!" My voice thunderED out.

"Wait what?" a goblin next to me asked. "Well damn." He started walking away.

Voice of the Titan deactivated.

"Uh where are you going?" I asked.

"If I am dying I am going to shoot my shot with someone. A pitty fuck is still sex. That means it counts," he said as he kept walking.

"That was probably for the best, better than panic" Philip said. He was quiet for a moment, "Do you think it is a good idea if I were to…"

"Talk to Spine? That depends what are you going to say to him?" I asked.

"I don't know," he admitted.

"Then I would let Nanny Shank handle it for now." I said. Good intentions and the wrong words may as well be picking a fight.

"I just wish I knew what was wrong," Philip sighed.

"He feels trapped in your shadow, like nothing he can do will ever be good enough. You taking out Grond really hammer that idea into him, and he took not being included as a soldier the wrong way," I explained.

"That's just not true," Philip sighed.

"I know, the trick is getting Spine to feel that way," I said, turning to go back into the tent.

"How?' Philip asked.

I stopped, "Other than listen to him, that doesn't have an easy answer." I ducked back into the tent. I was going to need to sit down and dig into prompts. The others were clearing out.

It was just me and Angelica in the tent now. Oh good, the silence was awkward. God dammit how did that happen? Oh right, she literally just got done talking about the horrific deaths of her brother and closest friends. It's too easy to get distracted by Narrator nonsense. There wasn't anything immediate I could do to address the Scale Decay issue.

The answer was to become the god of everyone affected by the pacts. Which I wasn't really sure how to pitch.

I sat down next to Angelica, "Are you alright?"

"I'm invincible," Angelica told me. She tapped the table.

I took a stab in the dark, "Is there something else you want to say?"

After a long moment she answered. "After Faust, I was the only one with Ten years on the clock. Everyone else had twenty. The others initially wanted to just… use the time they had."

"How did you end up with half the time?" I asked. Having fought alongside her, I doubted she would lag behind on the kill count.

"I burn through two days every day," Angelica said. Celeste and I count as two people, except when we don't." She muttered that last part. After another long time she said, "I freaked out. I was sixteen and going to be dead by twenty six. I-I begged them to help me…" She didn't say it, but I could hear her thinking it was her fault. It probably was on her mind more now. She was thirty-six.

I've dealt with terminal situations in the past. Time becomes everything. A moment lost is never coming back. "If the roles were reversed and any of them asked you to go hunting demons, would you hesitate to go into any dark, terrible place to help them?"

Angelica sighed before answering, "Not for a second. That doesn't change the fact, If I had just died with dignity, they would still be alive and with their families."

Survivors' guilt, it's only irrational if you aren't the one feeling it. Angelica's situation was more acute. The source was violent, and she could draw a direct line between her and the death of others. It was still a lie she was telling herself, but I doubted I could make her see that. Hell, I felt guilty over Marnie, a woman I never meant who died of cancer. Her death still haunted me. It probably would forever.

I put my hand on hers, "You are not the worst things that happened to you."

Angelica leaned against me, "I am Heroic Scale, and have a Divine Scale angel in me. I happen to others. Things don't happen to me, at least not like that."

"I'm Titanic Scale, shit happens to me all the time," I said gently.

After a long time Angelica said, "I know."

Toad flung open the flap to the tent, "The disaster has been contained! With my quick thinking and natural leadership- Oh are you two… in a moment."

Angelica sat up straight, "No."

Toad looked between us, "As I was saying I have contained the issue, with your small assistance. However, three thousand eight hundred and twenty-six of our soldiers have made pacts."

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"How did that happen so fast?' Angelica asked.

"I made a pact with twelve subordinates. They did the same with ten. Then with another eight below them. It was the sergeants who thankfully dragged their feet making the final pacts with the privates." Toad explained.

"This is math isn't it?" Angelica said clearly annoyed.

"Exponents," I replied.

She almost called me a nerd.

"We need to come up with a plan for their inevitable deaths," Toad said. After a moment, he asked, "Do either of you have any advice on how I should tell my wife?"

"I think there is a way to prevent everyone from dying," I said.

"What is it?" Toad asked as he stood on his chair so he could lean forward on the table.

"I am not sure you're going to like it." I said, trying to think of a better pitch.

"I will learn to live with it, besides if I leave my children fatherless my wife will kill me," Toad pressed.

He asked so there wasn't a lot of point in beating around the bush, "If you follow me as your patron, I can provide my Scale when it comes time to make the save."

"I knew you were up to no- oh god!" Grimset started off accusing me, but he lost focus when the snow lion that had been sneaking up on me next to him pounced. The big cat shoulder-checked him as it launched itself at me.

It wasn't that hard to deal with the snow lion. The only real complication was when it got a claw up my nostril. All that did was delay the inevitable, me killing it. I hate snow lions.

Grimset wiped splatter off his face, "Is it dead?"

"Yeah," I said, pulling the mangled corpse into my inventory.

"Thank you," He said with a nod. Then after a beat he was back to full J' accuse, "You are a monster! The mask has slipped!"

I tried to deescalate, "Grimset, this isn-"

"Villain!" He shouted over me.

We stood there quietly for a moment.

Finally I asked, "Can I talk now?"

"No one is stopping you," Grimset declared. When I opened my mouth to speak he added, "False Idol."

Angelica saved me, "Do you want to know what is happening or throw abuse at Doug?"

Grimset considered. He was at it for a while.

"Well?" Angelica pressed him.

"Tell me what is happening," Grimset said, finally.

"I was trying to figure out a possible way to circumvent possession. I hoped that artificially inflating Toad's Scale through making a pact and offering the Perk Improved Pact would elevate him to a higher Scale. It did but it had a complication."

"Unforeseen I am sure," Grimset snarked.

"Yep, this is not what I wanted," I explained.

"Not even going to deny the charges?" Grimset demanded.

"You would find that suspicious," I pointed out.

"So you are just killing my fun?" Grimset asked.

"This isn't a game, I am trying to stop people from dying," I told him. I was tired of his constant accusations.

"By forming a religion?" Grimset asked. His voice sagged with suspicion as he eyed me dubiously.

"You make it sound crazy, but it should work," I pointed out.

"It will also coincidently make you even more influential and give you yet more control over my people, you cult leader" Grimset argued.

"Yeah that is a concern," I admitted

"So are thousands dying," Toad cut in, "How do I join this cult?"

"Weren't you already banking on thousands dying?" Grimset asked Toad.

"I am prepared for that, and I am actively working to minimize the loss." Toad said.

Toad Badkiss is now your follower.

Please form a religion.

Set tenetsAppoint ClergyProduce a holy text

"The system wants me to form a religion," I said, still looking at the prompt.

"You will need to set three tenets. It is probably best to just select three things to forbid people from doing," Angelica explained.

"Like don't lie?" I asked.

"That is an excellent example, but don't use that one," Grimset said.

"No murder?" I asked.

Toad cleared his throat, "We are about to go to war. Please no."

"No cannibalism?" I offered.

"Perfect," Angelica said.

"No slavery," I said thinking of another one.

"That is a good one," Toad said. He nodded, "Logistically slaves are problematic." When he saw us all staring he added, "Do I need to say it is morally bad. That is self-evident."

"We need one more," Angelica said.

"No rape," I said. It isn't the nicest subject but I will take the bold moral stance and say no one should do that.

"I hate that we have to write things like that down," Angelica said.

"Yeah, but when you don't, some asshole will claim that makes it okay," I said, selecting the last tenet.

"Doesn't that make your religion the anything goes religion,' She asked.

"I can add one more tenet. Don't be that guy," I offered.

"Yeah, fuck that guy," Angelica, Toad, and Grimset all said at once.

That was the tenets sorted. Now to select clergy "Toad do you want to be head of the church?"

"No!" Grimset shouted, "Your stooge cannot be both general and pope."

Toad sighed, "Grimset is a loud, pompous, obnoxious, poorly dressed, blowhard, but he is right. That would be too much authority concentrated on one man."

"I am not doing it," Angelica said immediately.

We all looked at Grimset.

He looked back at me, "But I hate you."

"No you distrust me, and this would give you a chance to make sure this religion thing plays out the way you want it." I countered.

Grimset scoffed, "Like a god would listen to even the pope."

"When has a god ever overruled their church?" I asked him

Grimset stopped mid retort. It wasn't exactly a happy thought, but it was hard to argue. "Will I get to define the term: That Guy?"

"Yeah," I told him.

Grimset considered, "Add, Leaving the faith is not a sin."

I did what he said, five tenets so far. Grimset joined the religion and I made him Pope. Technically I could have picked any title, but now wasn't the time to get cheeky… also I didn't know any other names for the leader of a church… Llama. Huh… Like I said, now was not the time to be cheeky, it was not a comedy skill issue on my part.

Toad then joined the faith and ordered everyone else affected by the pact to do the same. This caused a slight morale hit, but after finding out that it was to game the system and prevent people from dying, the majority of that loss was offset. Honestly better than I hoped.

…Okay that isn't true. I really didn't want to be blackmailed by Wilson into making a bunch of godless clones of myself. They were almost certainly going to be some sort of nightmare. The knuckles in my hand popped as my hand balled into a fist.

I took a deep breath. One extremely large and terrifying problem at a time. First the war with demons. Then the emotional bullshit.

"Now as Pope I control all the church," Grimset declared.

"Yes, yes, you should be very proud. Do you want a weird hat?" Toad dismissed.

"You are part of the faith, that means I out rank you?" Grimset insisted.

Toad blinked, "Nuh-uh!"

In hindsight I really should have seen this coming.

"What are you idiots fighting about," Nanny Shank asked. The old goblin was moving slowly as she sat next to me.

"Did you find Spine?" I asked.

"No. He is in the camp but he is moving around too fast for me to keep up." She said, trying to catch her breath. She took the bottle out of her coat, and her hands were shaking observably more than before.

I opened the bottle for her, "I can go find him.

"Tell me what's going on here first," She took a swig and handed the bottle back for me to stopper up.

"Doug made, Grimset pope of his religion, and now they are arguing if the church or the military controls your society." Angelica answered Nanny Shank's question.

Nanny Shank took the bottle back from me, and an instant after she put it back in her coat, she smacked my leg with her cane. With a heavy sigh she stood back up. "I'll fix it."

"Nanny you should rest," Grimset protested watching her approach.

Toad put a hand on her shoulder to steady her, "You're not as young as you were-"

Before he could finish, Nanny Shank back handed him across the face. The slap rang out into the air. Her back hand to Toad's face shifted into a bitch slap for Grimset, "Get your shit together. You're in charge. Lead! People respect you. Deserve it. We are going to war. Don't you dare get any of my kids killed over your petty bullshit."

They both rubbed their faces and said, "Yes, Nanny."

I stood, "I am gonna go find Spine."

Nanny Shank called after me, "You do that, I am gonna take a nap."

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