Chapter 16: Chapter 16: Scheming

“What the fuck?!” Exclaims one of the technicians who helps run the Hunger Games the very second that the 74th cornucopia bloodbath results in the death of the pair of tributes from the 12th District. She is a red-headed woman garbed in the uniform of those in her highly respected career. This outburst causes several of her colleagues to look at her curiously. 

The woman is seated inside of the command center from which the Hunger Games are executed on a purely technical level. Her current location is deep beneath the arena, so far beneath it that even a nuclear bomb dropped on the surface of the arena would not cause any damage to the command center itself.

She is watching a screen showing her wide-angle shots of the violence in the cornucopia but that is not what caused her to cry out in shock. Instead of being stunned and appalled by the brutal violence she had just seen the woman is actually shocked by the raw weirdness of the fact that one of the contestants in this bizarre death game is fully glowing. 

The murderer of Katniss Everdeen and Peeta Mellark is emitting a strange sort of light as he and his allies head towards the forest where most of their remaining prey went. The light that emits off of him is powerful enough to be seen even though he is broad daylight and paints the air around the killer a golden hue. 

“Sir should we-” The woman utters even as she turns to face Granius Cottonmouth, who silences her with a dismissive wave of his hand. Her question dies on her tongue as she sees the dismissive game maker brush her off. The figure sits in front of a grand console that controls the arena and is dressed in the same white uniform as the woman he had just dismissed. 

The slim man is creepy and dismissive of not only the complaint that was about to vocalized by the novice game maker but several other semi-articulated questions and concerns that only get to be somewhat heard before he silences those who’d utter them. He silences his subordinates with scathing looks and dismissive gestures and silently keeps the games going without interruption. 

As he does all of this, he mentally mutters a beginner’s attempt at a prayer dedicated to his patron. He is determined to see the task she assigned him through to completion. He will not let anything disrupt this year’s competition, not even the strange nature of the tribute who has begun to undergo a potent apotheosis right in front of the very people he came here to kill. 

As the eerie figure, secrelty aligned with chaotic and nefarious forces, silences any sort of dissenting opinion the other game makers silently wonder what the fuck is going on with Cossus Braun. Internally some speculate that perhaps he is somehow a victim of experiments done by District 13, or the secret offspring of such figures, and that the glow he is emitting is some sort of radiation. Other game makers hurriedly do their work, wanting to stop seeing such a weird figure, all while hoping that one of Cossus’s peers will put him down. 

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The very instant that my hand penetrated Katniss’s neck I felt a strange new power well up within me. From the very depths of my soul I felt potent energy surging through my body, as my mind’s eye began to flood with text boxes. 

Dozens upon dozens of text boxes surge into the corner of my vision where all such text boxes went when they appeared. Tucked away in the bottom left corner of my vision were dozens of notifications stacked on top of each other so they didn’t spill out all over my vision and incapacitate me in a rather weird way. 

The very first one is a notification informing me of a new alt form that I have just unlocked!

[Alert: New Alt Form “Ether Zombie” unlocked.

Perks Granted: “Armed in Ink”, “And the Dead will Outnumber the Living”, “Friends on the Other Side”, and “Speaker for the Dead”.

“Ether Zombie” information: These nightmarish zombies are more creatures of spirit than flesh and they wield eerie powers that allow them to animate minions of their own, fortify their own bodies, and even replicate the powers of a cleric of undeath and potent emotions.]

As I follow up my slaying of Katniss by effortlessly murdering Peeta Mellark I began to sort through the notifications I receive in the wake of the murders I had just performed. The second I mentally will away the text boxes in my mind’s eye the various perks they inform me of began to take effect, causing me to swell and fill with all manner of inhuman powers. 

By the time I am leading my small alliance into the forest I have grown in power considerably. And I am even more sensitive to the mighty powers that still lurk, unawakened, within me. 

The initial text boxes inform me of my various alt forms, potent transformations into other bodies that I can initiate and perform with but a moment’s thought. Several of these forms hail from something that my out-of-context-knowledge tells me is called “Mythology”, such as my werewolf form, and my dragon form, while others hail from something called “The Elder Scrolls”, which a quiet voice in the back of my mind that is not my voice, or even Ghriza’s voice whispers is a “Setting” or universe of its own. 

Each of these “alt forms” brings with it an array of powers that are all terrifying and unique. In my dragon form I can do things like eat anything that can fit in my maw, or even fly at speeds that allow me to travel hundreds of miles per hour. 

At the same time it is not only my alt forms that gain some of these powers and perks. My “base” or “human” form is also growing in potency and strength as I gain access to powers that were hidden away from me while I grew in potency and adapted so that I could withstand the supernatural. 

My decision to kill Katniss first unintentionally results in me stealing her plot armor and thus gaining her own resiliency to the supernatural. That is why I am visibly glowing at this very moment. 

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My companions and I are wandering towards the pine trees that line the edge of the forest that surrounds the majority of the cornucopia. My peers all hold blood-soaked weapons in their hands but I do not need those tools to destroy my foes. Much like their wet blades, blood drips down my fingertips, coating the ground beneath me in the lifeblood of Katniss Everdeen.

The smell of blood that surrounds all of us makes me feel a positively unholy thirst. Nevertheless, powerful willpower augmenting perks allow me to resist the temptation I feel to lick the blood of my fallen foes off of my hands and the weapons of my comrades. 

As we reach the outer edge of the forest where most of our future victims are running and hiding from us, I mentally peer at my mini-map. In events like this my “system” is a bit unfair, but it’s questionable how much more unfair it is than any of my other supernatural abilities. 

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At the very same time that the final surviving tributes flee from the cornucopia the grass that surrounded the actual treasure trove began to dance in the wind as a number of hovercrafts appear in the skies over the cornucopia. The flying vehicles are but one example of the dark sciences possessed by the people of Panem, and they hover in the air over the corpses of 13 separate tributes. 

The vehicles lower mechanical arms that grab the corpses of the tributes and begin to slowly pull them up. As they do, the bodies they are pulling into their lightless cargo bays are supernaturally frozen by an otherworldly form of chronostasis, a power that does not belong to Cossus but to his patron. 

She is inside of the estate of President Snow at the moment, but her range and breadth of powers are so vast that even miles away from the arena she can do little things like this with no problem. No less than thirteen bodies are frozen in place, decay losing its hold over them, as they are abducted by the Capitol’s immoral military. While the military plans to make use of the bodies in very distinctive, and disturbing, ways Ghriza has different plans for them. Plans that involve her newest, and greatest, source of entertainment. 

Meanwhile, as Cossus’s crew explores the outer edge of the forest Cossus continues to grow. He continues to steadily and carefully activate the perks dwelling within him, causing him to fully evolve into something truly beyond human. 

As he trods through the forest, leading the career pack on a casual walk he allows himself a chance to catch his breath and to take in the new knowledge he possesses. This includes potent transformations such as his newfound ability to transform into a dragon, as well as more subtle things like the fact that he now possesses a potent and enormous well of magic to call upon as well as knowledge of an array of spells. 

Even as minutes turn into hours Cossus continues to lead his allies on a mostly calm walk through the forest. This is, of course, intentional on his part as he possesses the knowledge of the exact locations of every tribute in a range of about three miles from his location at all times thanks to the potent “Mini-Map” he possesses as part of his system.  

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By the time I am finished sorting through the list of notifications that stir within me, I find myself possessing far greater power than I dared to dream was possible. And I find myself watching the sunset in the distance, marking the end of the very first day of the Hunger Games. 

In the distance I can hear the loud and distinctive sounds of multiple canons firing at the same time, something done to mark the confirmed passing of tributes. I peer up at the sky and watch images begin to be projected into the facsimile of a natural sky that looms overhead. 

The images are of the fallen tributes themselves, picture showing the boys and girls that fell. As the images begin to change I allow my gaze to return to my immediate surroundings. I have led my forces back near the cornucopia. It is time that I begin to draw the games to a close, so that I can undergo my final apotheosis and evolution. 

“Hey! Head back to the cornucopia. I’ll hang back for a second and do something over here.” I shout to my peers, who turn and nod, sullenly, at me. They are all quite grumpy that we haven’t gotten to kill anything else in the wake of the bloodbath we caused earlier today. In fact, the cannons only fire thirteen times, indicating that the only deaths that occurred today were during that pitched battle. 

I grow still as my companions pass me, and when all of them are clear of the forest around me I chuckle. I peer at one of the trees in front of me and I take a deep breath as I ready myself to make use of one of the frightening powers I possess. 

Air fills my lungs as I mentally steel myself for the chaos I am about to unleash. As I do scales begin to appear across my chest and upper arms, and the instant that I exhale I utter a single frightening word of power. 

“Yol!” I shout, and as the word escapes my lips it becomes a flaming spear that impales itself on the tree in front of me. I have just utilized the Thu’um, sometimes known as “The Storm Voice” and in doing so set a tree alight with powerful, divine fire. The flames spread quickly, darting upwards to the tree’s canopy and from there almost sprinting to other trees that surround it. 

I gaze at the fire, unafraid of it thanks to my nature as an otherworldly entity fully immune to fire damage. I take a single step back, and watch the fire leap and spread faster and faster with each passing second. It casts a fierce glow on the dark forest, and after a few moments, I turn and head back to the cornucopia. I want to be there when the remaining five tributes who aren't a part of the career pack flee into the area near the cornucopia so I can end their lives myself. 

It is time to end this conflict. And for me to discover where I will be heading next. 

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