He Who Fights with Monsters 10 (He Who Fights with Monsters, #10)

by Shirtaloon

They might be an annoying ally, but they would be a terrible enemy. They’re like you in that way.”

“I’m pretty sure you shouldn’t be trying to breed super-soldier armies. That sounds like some creepy eugenics stuff.”

“Their inability to go where I’ve been hiding is the reason they haven’t.”

“Because the easy way involves giving up all my secrets and all my control, Rick. If these people understood who and what I am, they would try to take me and control me, and that is something” I will not allow to happen.

There are things I have to do, but is that altruism or just responsibility? Survival? I’m hoping there isn’t a difference and, when all is said and done, I come out the other side as an intact person.”

Here’s the bottom line, Rick: if anyone from the Adventure Society or the diamond-rankers want to see the messengers, they can. They just have to go through the same portal.”

My rank isn’t who or what I am; it’s a deficit I need to correct before I can handle all the other things I have going on. Arrogant, I know, but there’s only so many times you can save the world before you admit to yourself that you really are special.”

“I don’t know where I’d be if you didn’t stick your head places no sane person would, but it’s somewhere very bad.”

“We’re all with you, Jason,” Humphrey said. “No regrets. But we do need to have some sense of where this is going.”

Jason took heed, not just because he valued his mentor’s opinion, but because he spoke for so long on it.

“Things will get awkward if they think they are unable to keep me in line.”

The simple fact is that diamond-rankers become accustomed to doing whatever they want. Denying them that goes badly.”

“You’ll deal with dying?” Hana asked. “It’s kind of my thing,” Jason told her. “Ask your boss.” “I am the High Priestess. I do not have a boss.” “You’re a high priestess,” Jason told her. “Your whole job is having a boss.” “You mean…? You should not speak so casually of the gods, Asano.” “So people keep telling me.

“The greatest martial arts trainer my world ever produced was asked by one of his students why he showed mercy to an enemy. He said that for a person with no forgiveness in their heart, living is a worse punishment than death.”

“Mercy can seem like foolishness, and perhaps it is. But it’s also the hope for tomorrow. Ruthlessness will never turn an enemy into a friend. It leaves only barren ground, in the world and in your soul.

Mercy is the only way to build a future worth bothering with.”

He could have made me and mine his slaves. Instead, he gave me the freedom to serve no one and nothing but my own ideals.”

“You realise that plants don’t revolt, right?” Jason asked him. “Are you just big on plant metaphors? You know, because you’re a plant?”

“Mate, you picked the wrong astral king to hitch your wagon to if you don’t want jokes. No promises on the quality of said jokes, mind you, and they may just be me talking about old episodes of Monkey Magic.”

things get heavy. It doesn’t work out. I don’t know if it’s an overdeveloped sense of melodrama, but I don’t like who it turns me into.

I’m showing you that you’re wrong about my place. You and the diamond-rankers and the Adventure Society all think you know who and what I am. All you see are the essence abilities that have barely nudged forward since I came back this world. But make no mistake, my power has grown to a level you can’t understand until you step through that portal. The one you refuse to, because of the danger.”

“My place is not what you think, Lord Pensinata, and I’m tired of playing upstart. I will bend when bending is the best choice because yes: I am, for now, a silver-ranker. But I’m not just a silver-ranker. The messengers understand that; Soramir Rimaros understands that. The gods understand that. The day is coming, Lord Pensinata, when you will need to grow a Tom Selleck moustache or get out of my way.”

“If you were anyone else, I would say you are a child shouting into the void. But you told the Builder to leave and he did.”

I have no doubt your mouth gets you in twice as much trouble as it gets you out of. But I am forced to acknowledge that your claims of power beyond your essence abilities are not without merit. If you say that you can stand up to diamond-rankers and suborn messengers, then I will accept it. Until such time as you prove you cannot.”

What do we get from keeping them alive beyond more cruelty and death?” “I’m trying to figure that out. Can you tolerate it if I forgive them?” “They don’t deserve forgiveness.” “Probably not. But what if I do it anyway?”

“When two sides hate each other,” Gary said, “there’s never going to be peace until someone lets go of that hate. There will always be reasons to hold on to it—good reasons—but then nothing changes. But it can’t be one-sided, or it won’t work. It can start with one side, but the other still has to meet them halfway.

“Imagine delicious chunks of pineapple, dusted with cinnamon and salt, and then roasted until they’re caramelised and tender before having a little bit of lime squeezed over them. Now imagine what you get instead is broccoli. That’s what messengers are.” “Please tell me that pineapple thing is what you’re making for lunch.” “No, I’m cooking broccoli.” “What?” “See? They’re the worst.”

Jason found his inability to believe in simple gratitude a little saddening.

“It has many names. Eyes of the crucible. Destiny magic. Fate senses. Way of the crossroads. Whatever it is called, the effect is the same. At least in the beginning.

It is not a controlling force but a sense of where important events could potentially take place.

You didn’t realise it in your conscious mind, but you were choosing, over and over, whether to place yourself in safety or a crucible. And I think we know which way you chose, every time.”

the first requirement of fate senses is a near-inert soul, meaning low rank. It also needs to be in an unusually malleable state.”

And the third requirement is that it needs to have an extremely close encounter with a maximally powerful force. A god or a great astral being.

The soul, being in a state of flux and coming into contact with that level of power, may develop fate senses as a reflexive defence mechanism. In your case, it manifested in the quest system.” “And it’s programmed to prompt either fight or flight,” Jason realised. “Depending on whether your instincts are to run from that power or to match it.”

“And that’s why I always treat authority figures like they don’t matter. It’s my fate senses.”

You are responsible for your own behaviour. You cannot blame fate senses for your behaviour any more than you can blame your hearing or sense of taste. Even when they seem to guide you in a certain direction, it is you who unconsciously chooses the direction. The senses them...

“I suspect that it is a natural evolution of the fate senses to move from guiding behaviour to granting access to higher-order power when the opportunity presents.

intrinsic-mandate magic.”

“I think the wider cosmos has etiquette, and that etiquette exists for a reason. I will not violate it to introduce you to things you have no power to influence.

“If you say that’s for when I’m a big boy, I trust you. I know that if ignorance will blindside me, you’ll warn me ahead of time.”

“Oh, that’s great. Remind me to tell the World-Phoenix to bog off.” “No, Mr Asano.”

“The point of being an adventurer is that the Adventure Society facilitates me helping people. If all they are going to do is make demands and get in my way, then what is the point?” “And the rest of your team?” “That is up to them.”

“Everyone has a price, Shade.” “And what is yours, Mr Asano?” “Really well-pickled capsicum, tender and sweet. I think I’m going to go make a sandwich.”

“Sometimes you have to bend to political realities, Jason.” “I’m not so sure I do. You pushed, and I didn’t budge. Now you’re telling me to move because you don’t want to push harder while threatening that you will if you have to.”

Have you ever considered that I might not want to push back, but will if I have to?”

You have a pattern, Jason Asano, and that pattern is that you’ll put everything on the line to help people for no more reason than they need you to.”

Don’t come into my house to tell me that I have to do things your way, then complain that you had to do things someone else’s.”

“You pushed me and it didn’t work, so now you want me to compromise. If you want the answers that lie on the other side of that portal, you’ll need to step through it.”

I’ve heard time and again that you’re hard to understand, but you’re not. You’re a good man, desperately scrambling to survive events you aren’t ready for. And every time you’re forced to choose between doing the right thing and staying alive, you make the sacrifice.”

“One is trust. Trust that your intentions are good and that you are capable enough to carry them out, however unlikely that might seem. No conditions, just acceptance.”