Parallel Vol. 5

Chapter 38: God of War

"Impossible!" From a distance away, Sayen softly exclaimed in disbelief as she gazed at the distant Belrug hovering in the skies.

"Time's up. I see we failed to bring Razznik here by midnight." Next to her, Cathek clapped his hands as he chuckled in frustration. "Refresh my memory please, Sayen-san, how long has it been since someone altered a future you proclaimed?"

Sayen chewed her lips, brows furrowed in apparent frustration. "Not since a thousand years, I believe. Not since Razznik twisted fate."

"Mm." Cathek rubbed his chin as he muttered thoughtfully, "I would have been inclined to believe that this is due to the unpredictability of the Summoned, but you have given a few prophecies since their appearance, and none of them have gone wrong."

Cathek had a point. Sayen's prophecies were not based on some magical phenomenon, but rather a manifestation of billions of calculations rendered by the Live No Evil's system. These calculations took into account, player behaviors, developer and system interventions amongst many other variables.

Sayen's prophecies came as a result of conclusions with a higher than 95% probability occurrence chance. Normally, Sayen's prophecies occurred within a few weeks, so there might have been an argument that a six-month long prophecy had many more chances for failure. However, the system only deemed it fit to grant Sayen this prophecy because every calculation stated that this was the only logical conclusion, taking every variable into account.

"It's Kashi's decision that threw it off." Bert, who had been dozing off, suddenly spoke, drawing everyone's attention. "If I had to surmise a guess, no being in the universe could have predicted that he would hold off on summoning that griffin."

"True." Cathek mumbled in reluctant admiration. "He got captured soon after his interference in the mines. I did not think he would risk death just for the chance of keeping that trump card a secret."

Rider shook his head. "No. From what I've seen of the daeben, you all are missing the point. It's not that Kashi 'risked his life' to hide a trump card. It's that Kashi decided to employ the griffin's aid in battling Skyrm after Sayen's prophecy. Once he made that decision, he erased any concept of the griffin's aid from his mind. Nothing, and I do mean nothing would have made him summon the griffin before this moment – his death included."

"That... is the determination of a mad man." Cathek could not help but chuckle to himself. To think that all of their well-made plans would be undone by a mad man's stubbornness.

"You're all forgetting one other fact." Fladnag suddenly chimed in. His eyes shone with a mischievous glint as he said, "I'm not certain if Kashi knows the rules of the Netherrealm or not, but what do you think would have happened if he Summoned the griffin earlier?"

"Ah! That is true!" Zeing's eyes lit up. Finally, there was something even he knew the answer to. "'He' would never permit a Netherrealm monster to constantly interfere in the realm of mortals. It would upend the balance of the worlds. If I recall, Netherrealm monster are only allowed a certain number of entries into our world dependent on their rank. Normal monsters can come in as many as ten times, and Divine monsters are only allowed entries once."

Fladnag nodded. "The griffin, like Skyrm, was trapped in the sun like Skyrm for so long. A being like Skyrm degraded to this extent, can you imagine how much other monsters would have degraded while being in that 'sun'?"

"I see what you mean." Rider, the most experienced of the Seven quickly saw the big picture. "When the griffin first emerged, his rank would have dropped sharply - perhaps even reaching common or lower. If Kashi made a contract with him then, he would have been under the impression he could summon the griffin as many times as he wanted, or at least, quite a few times."