Ludo’s gaze was fixated on the menu currently displayed on his interface. To be honest, he was surprised. It was simply titled as:
Miracles
. There was absolutely nothing to explain what that actually meant. Instead, there was only a single option waiting for him to select it.
Create New Miracle
Well, here goes nothing.
Miracle Creation Process Starting…
Please focus on an aspect of your domain to create your Miracle from.
What?
That was all the information the interface gave him.
Come on, don’t you have a suggestion or something? Hell, I’ll settle for multiple-choice!
However, the interface remained silent to his pleading. Ludo still stood slightly behind Teffy, even as he was contemplating his own dilemma, he remained aware of Teffania’s. She was clearly frozen with indecision. Her hand kept switching which token it hovered over. Meanwhile, Garrs watched her with that confident grin still plastered on his face.
Damn it! What does it mean? Let’s think about this. I’m meant to be the God of Games. But what does that mean?
As far as Ludo knew, games were everything involving cards and dice all the way to massive multiplayers online games. It was honestly insane the amount of genres that were involved and the different ways to play them.
However, it didn’t help when he didn’t know what his powers were
supposed
to be.
Ugh, I just need to pick something.
Perhaps he was influenced by the game of Noble going on in front of him. His mind instantly started trying to recall every strategy game it could from his fragmented memories. Now, strategy was a rather broad category. You had turn based ones, real time, war, economy, and so much more.
Ping.
New Miracle Class created: House Rule
New Miracle created: House Rule, Fog of War
Miracle: House Rule, Fog of War
Cost: 20 Faith
Description: Apply Fog of War to everyone determined to be a Player of a game.
Eh?
Ludo almost groaned when he read the description.
How does that help us?
Fog of War. A common thing in strategy games. It caused the players to have limited visibility based on what their units could see. Everything else was either shrouded in darkness or fog, hence the name. It could completely change the way a strategy game was played.
Would you like to activate House Rule, Fog of War now?
You have 21 Faith remaining.
Oh, come on! That’s going to cost me nearly everything I have! I swear, you’d better be worth it.
He grit his teeth and chose to activate it.
For a moment, Ludo wondered if something had gone wrong. There was no flash of light, or rolling clouds with thunder. Well, that’s what Ludo imagined should happen when a God takes action. However, the air did begin to feel heavy. Almost as though something was pushing down on them from the sky. Then, it happened. A voice that sounded like Ludo’s, but deeper, spoke from somewhere above.
“House Rule, Fog of War.”
“What’s happening?”
“What in the hells was that?”
The crowd erupted in panic as they began staring at the sky, searching for the source of the voice. But it didn’t take long for others to jump to a conclusion of their own.
“It’s Ludo! He’s watching us!”
“A God has descended from the heavens. We’ve been blessed.”
No matter how rowdy they became, they couldn’t see what Ludo did. Two pillars of light descended from the clouds above. The first was gold, with a deep purple layer at its outside, and an even fainter emerald green at its very edges. This one landed on Teffania. The colours seemed to latch to her, acting as a shroud that could be seen through.
The second pillar’s most distinctive colour was a crimson red. Followed by a steel grey and bright silver at its edges. Naturally, this one landed on Garrs and acted in the same way. But then, Ludo noticed something strange. Everywhere on the board that Teffy’s tokens couldn’t see was shrouded in the colours of the second pillar. Even Ludo himself couldn’t see through it.
He was obviously startled at this development.
But he didn’t have time to think about it. At that moment, Teffy’s hand stopped shaking as she stared at the board. Across from her, Garrs was leaning over doing the same. His grin had quickly disappeared as the miracle took effect.
He groaned as he rubbed the back of his neck. “Really now. Why’s a god getting involved?”
“Still, this is interesting,” Garrs hummed as he tried to peer through the golden, purple, and emerald fog that shrouded Teffy’s tokens. “There’s no way to see your positioning now unless I advance. Haha, this is more like a real war now.”
His gaze moved to Teffania, but she didn’t answer. Instead, a slight smile creeped across her face as she imagined the possibilities of playing in these conditions.
Warning: Faith depletion will result in physical manifestation destabilising.
Further loss of Faith will result in the loss of your existence.
Boom.
It was like a bomb had gone off in Ludo’s mind.
What the actual fuck? Why did you wait ‘til now to tell me that?
No wonder he couldn’t find anything regarding health, stamina, or mana. Everything was tied to how much Faith he had!
That was when Teffy finally made her move. Her hand darted out like a snake to one of her scout tokens, moving it three squares. Then, she quickly started to reposition most of her frontline troops, drawing them back into the fog where Garrs couldn’t see them. Teffania seemed to be having the time of her life as she abandoned the thought of trying to hold her position. Instead, she eagerly pursued positions that would cause as much trouble for Garrs as possible.
Garrs responded to her new playstyle by consolidating his visible pieces. He gathered them around his supply tokens to defend them. It was a good move for a commander who’d lost sight of their enemy. But it was a slow process, which served to buy Teffania time to reposition.
She hit his left flank once she felt ready. A few of her scout tokens worked together with a siege one to cause havoc among Garrs’ troops. Of course, he saw the scout tokens coming, but not the siege unit behind them. By the time he realised what was happening, his eastern supply line had been cut off.
“Clever,” he muttered as he glanced at the situation. For a moment, his hand hovered over all of the remaining tokens there, but eventually only moved a single piece forward to block Teffy’s advance. Ludo could see that it was merely a delaying tactic.
Teffania pressed her advantage. She quickly moved her much smaller force through the fog and hit Garrs’ supply network in three different places. However, her assault didn’t give her the results she wanted. Garrs’ experience shone through with the way he repositioned his troops, conceded ground, and forced her to commit tokens into areas she couldn’t easily retreat from.
Twice he nearly managed to wipe her out. Once with a counterattack that caught her siege weapon out of position. The second time, one of his scouts managed to slip around her forces and threaten her last supply token.
But Teffania adapted admirably to each of these attempts. She pulled back, regrouped, and struck somewhere entirely different. Slowly whittling down Garrs’ forces. Luckily, the fog allowed her to choose her engagements, while Garrs could only react.
Unfortunately, it wasn’t enough. The game developed to the point where Teffy had three tokens left and Garrs had seven. Not only that, but he managed to trap her remaining tokens with cliffs surrounding them. Garrs’ own tokens blocked the only exit. At that moment, Garrs leaned back in his chair, a broad grin on his face.
“I concede.”
The crowd went silent and Teffania almost dropped the token she was moving as she looked at him. “What?”
“I said I concede,” Garrs chuckled as her confused expression. “Wasn’t ever here to win. Baron Lihft sent me to make sure only someone worthy moves on to the next round held at his manor. Someone who considered the bigger picture of what they can realistically do in their situation. And you’ve done that.”
Teffania withdrew her hand from the board as she sat in a daze.
“The game might’ve gone differently if your god interfered sooner,” Garrs said as he rubbed his stubble. Tell me, is he here with us now?”
Teffy turned to look for him, and frowned when she didn’t find him. “No, he’s not here anymore.”
Garrs gave her a long, hard look. Then, he nodded. “Shame. I’ll look forward to seeing you play again. Here, this is a letter of invitation to the Baron’s manor for the next round. I’ll see you in two weeks.”
Just as Teffania thought he was finished, he turned to say something else as he stood up to leave. “Playing Noble without being able to see my opponent’s pieces. That’s something I’d like to try again.”
Garrs fumbled as he pulled a small leather pouch from somewhere inside his coat and tossed it on the table in front of Teffania. “Your winnings.”
Teffania picked up the pouch and weighed it carefully in her hand. However, when she looked back up, Garrs was already gone. It was then that the realisation that she’d actually won sunk in. She couldn’t help herself from squealing in excitement!
“I can finally pay back that loan!”
Meanwhile, the crowd had a lot to talk about. They had their winner, and many rushed to claim their winnings. However, more than one argument started because of the way she’d won. That it should invalidate the bets. Every now and then there was also an odd conversation to be heard. About how a god had interfered with mortal matters.
But none of that was Teffy’s concern. She was just happy that her life was finally looking up. Though, she was a bit upset that Ludo didn’t hang around for her to thank him. She tucked the small pouch safely into her belt as she stood up. Her ass ached from sitting in that seat for most of the day.
“When did it get dark? Maybe I should buy dinner for us, to celebrate.” Teffania mumbled as she pushed her way through the crowd.
She was completely unaware of Ludo trying to raise a hand to get her attention. His human body had already dissolved, and he was back to being a pathetic wisp of an orb floating alongside her.
Can’t I catch a break?
It was hard to give up having a normal again after so long. But it wasn’t like he had a choice in the matter.
He sighed, but after a moment, he grinned to himself. Ludo felt good about helping Teffy with her struggles. Not only that, but he finally learned a little bit about what he was capable of. Life in the future for him wasn’t looking too shabby either. For now, he’d just have to look forward to what the future would bring.