Especially concerning to him was the lack of response about Thana’s little harem council. Which meant she probably knew about it. And didn’t care in the least.
Amelia popped into being, sitting on the grass nearby. Her tunic had been removed and her red undershirt had the top three buttons undone. She was leaning forward as if enjoying the sun. And providing him a great view at the same time.
“She’s about as likely to stop as I am. Have fun with that.”
Runner ignored her comment and smiled at her instead.
“Good morning, Minxy. You look lovely.”
“You really know how to make a lady feel great.”
“Not hard to make beautiful ladies feel great. Like complimenting the sun for being bright.”
“Gods, I love you. Let me show you how much, lovey.”
“Down, Minxy. To what do I owe the pleasure? And yes, it really is a pleasure. Even if I’m constantly fending off your sexual attentions.”
Smiling, Amelia tilted her head to one side as she considered him.
“You’re perfect. I can’t wait to take you as mine. I’ll make you so happy. I’m here because my sisters and I wanted to officially thank you for all that you’ve done. All around Tirtius, temples and churches spring up like weeds. We don’t believe it’ll be long before worship of primes will simply become worship of the Triumvirate. We’ve gotten ahead of that and already made a binding agreement to pool our power pool together into one. Doesn’t matter who they pray to, it benefits us all now.”
“Good. That was my goal. You three will be much stronger as a unified pantheon.”
“Anyone ever tell you it’s damn sexy that you planned for a bunch of women to be in an extreme power position over you?”
“I’m not afraid of powerful women. Honestly, I tend to prefer them.”
“Suffice it to say, we’re gaining speed and strength,” Amelia said, lying down in the grass.
“Me. The little goddess of thieves and assassins. People prayed to me before, but never really. Now? Now I have powerful sisters. Sisters who enjoy my company and encourage me. I have a man I’m pursuing who’s turning out to be a joy to chase. I grow stronger by the day. By the very minute.”
She lifted one foot into the air and wiggled her booted foot.
“I’ll make sure you never tire of this world, lovey.”
Runner laughed at that, and bent down over her. He pressed a gentle kiss to Amelia’s forehead before brushing her bangs away from her eyes.
Her eyes fastened on him as her cheeks started to redden.
“You’re an idiot, Minxy. But I love you for that reason. Run along. I’m not yours quite yet. The chase is still on for many, many years. Besides, Sunshine should be here any minute.”
“Ah, the scary one.” Amelia paused, as if she hesitated on what to say next.
“Ernsta is afraid you hate her. For what happened with Nadine.”
“I don’t hate her, ugh…Angel, I don’t hate you,” Runner said, looking up.
“You dumb sexy death goddess. There wasn’t anything you could do. I swear if you start avoiding me I’ll donate enough that you have to grant me an audience. When you show up I’ll hit you so hard with an amped up Seduction that your panties melt. Then I’ll use you like a—”
A minor deity-level curse hit him and silenced him.
Looking to Amelia, he quirked a brow with a sigh. Runner tapped his foot, waiting for it to time out.
“Be nice, lovey. She’s a tenderhearted thing, you know? Though I’m glad to hear you’re not mad at her. I do love my sister. Speaking of melting panties, though, maybe you could hit me with it? To test it out, that is. Testing is good. Repeated testing. How about starting now?”
When the curse ended, Runner took a breath and started again.
“My Dark Angel, nothing is wrong. You and Brighteyes did nothing wrong. You did all you could in the situation. Please, treat me as you always have. Now, Minxy, unless you want to greet Sunshine, you should get a leg on.”
“Yeah, I think I’ll leave then. She actually scares me. See you tonight, lovey. Be sure to really work it. I love watching you.”
Amelia vanished as quickly as she’d appeared. Runner really wasn’t sure how to take the fact that Amelia relished watching him at night. Especially since his nights were rarely spent alone.
She’s so fucking broken.
Then he saw Srit walking down the road towards him.
Grinning, he waited for her.
The doomsday AI who conquered a sentient species in weeks. Who could destroy an entire civilization and two separate species with an idle thought.
His friend.
Srit came to stop before him. A slow smile crawled over her face.
“I’m home,” she said.
Runner chuckled and then drew her in for a tight hug.
“Welcome home, Sunshine. We’ve missed you.”
“Thank you. My heart hurts.”
“Ah, you found out about Nadine?”
“Yeah.”
“Mine does, too.” Runner pulled back and patted her shoulder.
“Come, we’ll have a late breakfast with everyone. It helps ease the pain with family around. I have questions for you on top of everything else.”
“Oh? If you want to know what happened, I am now in full control of every star system.”
“Nah, not that. I know you’re an Armageddon-level event, Sunshine, but I don’t care. To me you’re a beautiful woman with big…brains,” he said teasingly.
“Runner, stop it,” Srit complained, turning pink.
“Fine, fine. I wanted to talk to you about creating a patch for the server. It’s going to need maintenance eventually and I’d like to get ahead of that. Need to work on a few ways of making sure everything is stable. And doing so without disturbing anything. I’d also like to talk to you about getting pregnant, genetics, creating other worlds, server space, all sorts of things.”
“I see. Many of those are easily taken care of. Though I’m not sure if I can get pregnant. I will work to code that in. At my base I’m a program so I believe we can reasonably expect success. I would need to code a new AI for our child. Though this would be a function of reproduction so we would need to adjoin the program to the action.”
“Ah,” Runner started, realizing he’d phrased it wrong. “I’d like to look into Naturals getting pregnant.”
“Neither Thana or Katarina is pregnant. I check daily on them since the first time they asked.”
Runner sighed, feeling like this whole thing was rapidly getting out of hand.
“I think we should start this conversation over,” Runner said, rubbing the bridge of his nose with his thumb and forefinger.
1:14 am Sovereign Earth time
12/22/43
Jacob thrashed in the water. He inhaled water and exhaled it back out with each breath. His health bar flashed red at one percent and the oxygen meter was empty.
Runner tilted his head as he watched Jacob drown. Drown forever. Eternally.
Sealed in a glass box full of water that was impervious to magical and physical damage, Jacob had nowhere to go. Jacob had long since given up on trying to escape.
Nowadays he didn’t even try to break the glass of whatever box he was in.
Cradling a four-inch carving of Nadine between his fingers, he watched. The bag of figurines Nadine had carved for him rested in his lap. They were much larger than the ones she’d made for the maps.
Coincidentally, Runner had collected all of those as well and replaced them with cheap map markers.
“I think we’ll move you to the fire box next. What do you think, Jacob?” Runner asked, not actually expecting an answer.
“Or maybe the lightning box? The spike box hasn’t gotten any use in a while. Or what about the lava box?”
Runner let his eyes travel to the side. Glass box after glass box had been prepared. Each holding a form of everlasting torment.
At the very end was
a box that had food, water, and a bed. Runner had called it “Nadine’s wish,” and he planned to put Jacob in it on the anniversary of Nadine’s death.
“Forgive me, Nadine. Forgive me. I can do what you’ve asked. I can. Just not for him. Forgive me,” Runner whispered.
Runner bowed his head over the figurine.
Thank you, dear reader!
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The third book of the trilogy, Otherlife Awakenings, is in the works.
Otherlife Nightmares: The Selfless Hero Trilogy Page 41