3 . 6 . 14

Abnormal Surroundings ~ Chapter 41

(Katherine's P.O.V.)

Surreal. This whole experience- only the word 'surreal' would capture it fully.
Since the day we decided to 'fight fire with fire', it's been three whole months. Would I say I regret anything? Yep. Almost everything. Especially the fact I agreed to do this on my own in complete isolation- or might I say- the fact I allowed myself to be forced to. Confused? Probably.

*flashback*

"Intense training? What the hell do you mean?" I questioned, a bad feeling swirling in my body. A smirk curled up Percy's malicious face.
"This land is quite big- Aceon I mean." He begun. "Even just this place is gigantic. And guess what? It's empty. The only civilisation in this whole continent are the Weavers- the landscape here is so remote that only they, who hold ancient power, can survive here. After all, this place is Ашακεηэd Lαηd."
"And...?" The feeling of suspense and angst grew, swarming my insides with an uneasy sensation.
"We can split up, in complete isolation." He said, a sweet grin plastered on his face.
"Wait- complete isolation? What do you mean? What if the Apostles come?" Astrid interrupted, a worried tone her voice.
"Yeah. Complete isolation." Percy's eyes glinted as if he was excited. "We hunt our own food, fend for ourselves, live on our own. I can also assure you the Apostles won't come."
"How can you be so confident?" Clint joined in. "That arrogance of yours will lead to our deaths."
"The Apostles are comprised of 12 beings- 6 of them are beasts. They're uncontrollable, even by the other Apostles. It'll take some time for the others to get them to cooperate. 3 of them are humans who are loyal to the Game- they're not as rash as to charge into battle without getting info on us first. Pus, I would know. I was targeted by them many years ago. There was a six month gap between when I first met the Elders and when they finally made their first move."
"Why such a long gap period?" Magnus asked. "Even if the beasts are hard to control, and the others aren't rash, would they really take half a year if they have unstoppable power?"
"The Game is powerful. The Game is unstoppable. But it isn't unlimited. Despite all it's talk, despite its ability to learn at unprecedented rate, it's still made of my own knowledge. When I made it...I didn't intend make it impossible, just hard."
"HOLD ON." Clint attempted pounced onto to Percy but Percy stopped him with a lift of his foot. "When you made what?"

A blazing energy seemed to surround both of them.
"I made this game." Percy bounty replied. "I gave it an Artificial Intelligence more advanced than anything ever possible."
"You...you made this hellhole?" Clint continued. "You-"
"Yeah."

Clint opened his mouth to retort by Tiberius tugged on his sleeve. Reluctantly, Clint returned back to his seat, glaring at Percy.
"Normally, I'd be questioning you now but I'll save that for later." Tiberius said. "So you better make sure we won't be dead before 'later' comes. We've got no choice be to follow along with you after all."
"Good. Back to topic...the A.I. in the program is limited to the extent of my knowledge at that time and what I thought was the necessary intelligence it should have. No matter how much it developed, I ensured it had limits. After all, a game that unbeatable would be uninteresting." Percy continued. "I made sure players at least had a chance to realise the situation and earn more experience and items. Of course, in the original game, six months was about 6 days...anyways, assuming it took them 6 months before getting to me, as a sole person, I'd say the Apostles would take a year before going after us. We're excluding me because I'm already known by the system and the irrelevant three morons since...they're irrelevant."
"Okay, we get it." I said, fearing Percy would go off on a tangent. "But your little complete isolation play...what the hell do you mean."

The conversation we had stretched out for hours. Astrid had looked for paper and a quill and started jotting down incredibly impressive notes:

- The Ultimate Battle Plan for Defeating the Apostles -
  _ there will be four 'units' : (1) Percy,  (2) Kathrine, (3) Astrid, (0) The Three Idiots
(1) - will learn : Vigor Yon Divine, Chronos                       already knows : Evanescence, Troth
(2) - will learn : Virtuoso apropos Magica, Destruction, Master of Destruction, God-slay
(3) - will learn : Imperium of Bane, Creation, Dominion, Transgression of Quietus
(0) - will learn : :basic-advanced healing spells, binding spells, charms
stations - (1) Aceon Valley, (2) Berevean Sea, (3) Xenean Ruins, (0) Bottomless Canyon of Eskia
[ three months / 1 Forbidden Spells ] = [ one year / 4 Forbidden Spells ] ← according to Percy