177 (II)

Terrify [I]

He adjusted the spatial fabric of his cape and moved the Forest of Alloy in place. If Bonk or Five wanted to step out, they could do so with ease now. But the Deathless didn’t intend to wait. He poured his Biomancy down into the cape to figure out why the two were so quiet. He got his answer almost immediately. Bonk was mostly fine. His body was mapped by Shiv’s crimson mana, and aside from a few new cuts along his arm, he was hale and robust. He was, however, absolutely still, and something was pressing against his neck. Bonk was also holding Five up in the air by his head. His fingers were clenched rather tightly around the wolf-man’s skull, and a few cracks lined the organic parts of Five’s skeletal structure.

“Broken Moon! Guys, what the hells are you doing inside there? Bonk, couldn’t you keep your itch in check for one—”

“You heard the Ascendant, Insul! He’s a spy! We don’t leave spies alive. Especially not rats from Aviary! We can’t just let him go. He’ll do rat things and rat on us to the other rats. Why, he’s probably not even an actual lupine. He probably has some kind of Blessing meant to make him resemble a wolf-man so he can infiltrate their society and bring them down from the inside.”

“My task was to solely observe,” Five said, sounding as displeased as Shiv could recall. “I was not meant to serve as a direct action asset. It was a vacation detail. One that would have stayed as that if my damnable greed didn’t get the better of me.” The wolf-man sighed. “Deathless. I understand if this makes things a bit strained between us, but understand that I didn’t lie to you. I was trapped here for a very long time, and I did end up getting trapped here because I was performing a heist in your Republic. A heist meant to take back something they stole first from my adopted people.”

Shiv’s right eye twitched.

Psycho-Cartography: If your question is whether this spy is using some kind of social skill to influence you, the answer is yes. You can’t trust him. Not any further than you can trust a fox in a hen house. The wisest thing to do is to kill him.

But as Shiv thought about things a bit longer, he realized murdering Five wasn’t the best play.

“Something wrong?” Rebis gasped.

“Give me a second,” Shiv said, ignoring the spasming cyborg for now. “Alright. Five, if that’s your real name. Don’t use your Social Skills on me again. If you do, things get unpleasant. Bonk. Watch him, but don’t kill him yet.”

“Why not?” the orc complained. “He’s right here. I have him in my hand. All I need to do is squeeze.”

“And all I need to do is push, and your throat will have a new hole in it,” Five replied without any hint of worry. The wolf-man was cool as a cucumber, and Shiv suspected he probably had a few more tricks up his slee—eh, fur.

“Just watch him first,” Shiv said. “He probably wants to get out as much as we do. He still might be useful and…” The Deathless stared at Rebis. “Hey, Rebis. How likely are you to try and tear me and my orc apart if we end up killing Five?”

Rebis began shaking violently as he gritted his teeth. “Don’t—no—nonoNO!”

“Yeah, that’s what I thought,” Shiv muttered. He held up a hand as Rebis’s twitching got worse. “Don’t worry, we’re not going to murder him. Just wanted to know where you stood. You know he’s an Aviary agent, right?”

Rebis looked down at the ground. He went non-verbal after that. Five answered on his behalf. “He doesn’t. I didn’t tell him. And he likely won’t be able to fully understand either. The information is there, but he has a hard time processing complicated things. If you haven’t noticed so far, he’s very much impulse and emotion-driven. The mechanical processing portion of his brain hasn’t been fully refined yet.”

A low moan escaped the cyborg as he fought to control his wings. Shiv did everything he could to not visibly grimace. Every fiber of his being screamed for him to euthanize Rebis. The poor bastard was beyond tortured. But he knew the cyborg still had his uses. And he needed every edge if he wanted to find Adam and get him out of this place.

“I’ll have you know, there’s another reason why you should keep me alive,” Five said. “On top of the fact that it will break poor Rebis’s heart.”

“Yeah? What’s that?”

“Your friend. The Ascendant said he was helped by a warden during his escape? Well. I think that might be one of mine.”

Something clicked into place inside Shiv’s head. “Of fucking course they are,” the Deathless growled. “Godsdammit, Five, did you know about this shit? Was this part of Aviary’s plan?”

The wolf-man let out a soft laugh. “Truthfully? I have no idea. I am a genuine prisoner, but I know of a few Ravens here among the wardens. And they have been working with me to further subvert his prison. But I highly doubt the Stolen Throne knew about Young Lord Arrow’s presence within this Rubix Well until just a few hours ago at the most. We are informed, but not prescient.”

Psycho-Cartography:I don’t know if he’s bullshitting you or not.

Shiv bit back a groan of agitation and decided to take a gamble. “Right. Bonk. Let Five go. Five. Do you have any idea how we can get in touch with these Ravens? Because I think I might have better odds of finding Adam if I find them instead of rushing after his last known location. That’s where all the Avatars and wardens are going to be soon anyway.”

“Good instincts,” Five said. A lull entered the conversation as the wolf-man stepped out from Shiv’s cape. He appeared first. Bonk followed him a second after, keeping his axe pointed at the wolf-man. “And to answer your question, yes. Yes, I might just be able to find one of my associates. But there are no guarantees that your friend will be with them.”

“I got a hunch,” Shiv said. “Adam’s no idiot. He’s not going to stick around and wait for the Ascendants to take him. He won’t like working with a Raven, but he’ll do it.”

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“Or so you hope,” Five said casually. He looked down at the dead wardens nearby and hummed. “We should move too. We need to find a subverted anchor. Aviary has its own teleportation network hidden within the existing spells. We just need to find the right interface. After that, well, it’s more a matter of hoping they respond.”

“What do you mean?” Shiv asked.

“Someone needs to be operating this hidden set of Dimensionality spells, of course. Our little tunnels won’t just trigger for anyone that uses them. Or trigger at all, should there be no active Raven on standby.” Five gave Shiv a shrug. “I just want you to know that nothing is certain here. This might not pan out, and we’ll be back to doing things the hard way.”

“That, or you’re covering your ass,” Shiv said flatly. Five offered him a sheepish grin. Shiv grunted. “Fine. Let’s get the hells out of here and find one of these anchors before someone—”

“YOU!”

A booming voice nearly made Shiv jump out of his own skin. The Deathless narrowed his eyes at the huge Vulteg approaching him alongside a small army of other prisoners. Once more, Shiv felt his body resonate as the notification marking him as the target of the Hidden World Quest activated. “Deathless! You stopped Urri earlier! And the System has put a big prize on your head.”

“Oh, dear,” Five said.

Bonk stepped forward and planted himself right beside Shiv. Rebis began babbling nonsense, but limped a few steps past Shiv as he flapped his bladed wings at the approaching horde. “Back! B-back! Away!”

Shiv counted approximately sixteen Pathbearers. They came in all kinds of weird shapes and sizes. Urri stood at the front of the group and was one of the few that were still mostly human-looking, which said a lot, considering he was a tentacle-haired, one-eyed Vulteg. Behind him was a large crystal-creature that resembled a column of mithril orbited by smaller chunks of turquoise stone. There was a near-transparent figure trailing just behind Urri. As light struck their body, Shiv watched as an outline of their contours came aglow. He thought he was looking at an elf for a moment, but realized their bodily dimensions were entirely alien. Their ears were longer and curved backward, their body was impossibly thin, with little space for organs, and their eyes took up a fourth of their face.

Yet, something about them still reminded Shiv of an elf. What is that thing?

The rest of the horde were equally eccentric. There was a figure bathed in tendril-like shadows. There was a grinning woman with a pixie haircut and a longcoat made from the flayed faces of prison wardens. There was a man who had swords growing out from his body, as if his flesh was some kind of blade-garden.

Skill Evolutions changed a person in body, mind, and soul. With each subsequent step someone took, they gradually became closer to the conceptual ideal of their evolved skill rather than a purely biological organism. Comparatively, Shiv looked relatively normal, if one chose to ignore his absurd muscle mass even at baseline, how his skin flashed red-gold sometimes, the faint turbulent membrane that was his inertial sheathe, and also the Shapeless Tides circulating across his body.

Okay. Yeah. I look like a bit intimidating too. He sized Urri up and frowned. He’d managed to stop the Vulteg earlier, so weirdly, Shiv might have the edge in a straight brawl despite being the smaller party. But he didn’t know what other skills Urri had, and there was no chance he could beat almost two dozen Legendary or High Heroic-Tier prisoners. Not even with help from Rebis, Five, and Bonk.

The bodies on the ground were clad in adamantine, and their armor was absolutely deformed in ways that made them look like they were made from cheap tin.

“Way I see it, we got two choices here, and both of them are fun.” Bonk was grinning as he spoke. His eyes were locked on the large Vulteg, and he was probably itching to take a few swings if things went the wrong way. Or the right way, considering he was an orc. “First, we can run. They’ll chase us like dogs going after a juicy rat. I see it in their eyes. They’re still riding that battle high. Second, we can go right up to them and see if they want to be friends instead.”

“Both,” Shiv said, walking forward. He left a temporal anchor in his stead as he approached the incoming horde. “I’ll try two first. Then we do one if things go to shit.”

“When, Insul!” Bonk called out from behind. “It’s always a matter of when.”

Shiv hated the fact that the orc was probably right. Rebis tried to follow him. Shiv held up a hand. “No. Stay. Don’t do anything unless they attack me first. Trust me.” He turned to glare at the cyborg, and to his surprise, Rebis turned away from him. A faint cord of flesh and metal connected Shiv to Rebis, and he realized the amalgamated Pathbearer was in fear of him. Shiv wondered when, but then considered his new Feat.

Dread-Tainted. It says that I can lace my skills with the lingering terror that Daughter experienced. But I haven’t tried using it yet. Not consciously, at least. Well. Time to see how good this Legendary Feat is.

Shiv waited until Urri was within ten meters before speaking. “That’s close enough, Vulteg.”

“Close enough?” Urri replied. His single eye was bloodshot, and he was missing a few head-tentacles as well. “No. Not yet. You stopped Urri earlier. Very strong of you. Very impressive. The System has noticed your power, and it seeks to test you.”

“The System just wants us all to fight and kill each other,” Shiv replied. He shot the transparent elf-like entity beside Urri a look and watched how they just stared right back at him. The large crystal-creature rose up into the air, and it let out a trumpet-like noise. The rest of the prisoners spread out from behind Urri like an unfurling fan. Shiv stood his ground. “Alright. Let’s cut the shit. Yeah, I’m the Deathless. And if you manage to kill me for good, you’ll get ten Legendary Skills.”

Urri opened and closed his hands. Shiv studied the huge Vulteg some more. Aside from being five meters tall and made from dense slabs of muscle, Urri didn’t have any other physical oddities. There was no magic radiating from him, and Shiv couldn’t guess how tough he was at a glance. That just made the Vulteg more dangerous in Shiv’s eyes. Unknown dangers were often much more treacherous.

“If,” the transparent elf-thing hissed at Shiv. “Something is wrong with your soul-story. No separation between your life and legend. Both bleed together. Abomination. Nightmare.” It sniffed at the air. “The taint of the world-ender is in you. Man-fleshed; Tarrasque-souled.”

Okay. Extremely godsdamned creepy. If this turns into a fight, I’m halting time and killing that one first.

“Tarrasque-souled?” Urri breathed. He looked between the transparent elf-thing and Shiv. “Scorn’s Tongue. There’s such a thing?”

“You can thank Udraal Thann for that,” Shiv said. “Wasn’t up to me.”

And at once, Shiv felt the fear in the air explode around him. One moment, there were no chains binding the Legendary Pathbearers to him. But when Udraal’s name was uttered, faint lines flashed into existence, threading each of their beings into Shiv. Slowly, the Deathless began growing in size. Urri took a step back and gritted his sharp, vertically aligned teeth. “Udraal… Fatebreaker. Realm-Thief. Soul-Crafter…”

“He Who Walks Beyond,” the transparent prisoner whimpered. “F-father-Maker! You are one of his as well?”

Shiv blinked. “As well. Wait, he made you too?”

The transparent elf-thing didn’t say anything. Instead, they decloaked for the first time, and Shiv’s jaw dropped as his mind struggled to process what stood before him.

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