213 (II)

Troubleshoot

“Such as these,” Shiv said dully. His head throbbed with a building headache, and that existential exhaustion inside him overtook all other emotions. The easy thing to do would just be to finish Andra off. She couldn’t stop him. Cullywier didn’t seem to want to stop him. He was only advising Shiv, and the winds he cast over the Deathless’s body were half-hearted impediments at most. No more than a soft breeze could serve as a bulwark against a falling avalanche.

“Valor Thann has recruited many disciples, trained many Pathbearers,” Cullywier said. “I have even encountered He Who Halts Eternity on several occasions, and he slew me thrice and worked with me approximately twelve times otherwise, though he was only aware of me on two of those occasions. As such, I have some insight into his character and personality.”

Just then, Adam entered the fray. He erupted from one of his dimensional pathways and came to a halt right next to Shiv. The Gate Lord was a tempest of activity. His vector wings flared bright, and his hand reached out, snatching the dagger heart out of Cullywier’s hand and clutching it tight with his Necromantic vambrace. The fairy tried to say something, but Adam held up a finger.

“Don’t know what you are. Don’t want to ask. Shiv! Conference, now!”

Adam Lord promptly blasted Shiv with his Unique Skill, and Shiv felt himself obtain Adam’s Commander’s Foresight. The cognitive endurance shared by the two of them was more than doubled when Shiv projected his Psychomancy into Adam’s mind.

“How’d you know it would do that?” Shiv asked.

“I didn’t. I guessed,” Adam replied. Then a growl of frustration escaped him. “Did I hear that right earlier? Did that stick-elf thing say that the giantess is a disciple of Valor’s?”

“He did,” Shiv said dully. “I’d like to say it’s bullshit, but look at the damn dagger. Look at her Necromancy.”

“Could still be a ruse,” Adam said.

“Could be,” Shiv replied. “But I don’t think so. My gut tells me that Valor probably trained her at some point in the past few centuries. Now that he’s broken and his mind is as scattered as his soul is, he doesn’t remember at all. So he can’t tell us about everyone he trained before us specifically.”

“Right. Great. Wonderful. But we don’t know exactly. So what do you think we should do?”

Shiv didn’t respond for a few seconds.

“Shiv? Shiv? Are you alright?”

A tired noise escaped the Deathless. He tried to find the words. “My pan’s all bloody, Adam. I’ve got bits of brain matter inside my pan. It’s all crusted on the sides. Using it like a knife is… I… I don’t…”

And then Adam understood. “Oh. I’m sorry.”

“Yeah. Thanks. I, uh… I can keep fighting. I’m… I’m not done, Adam. I’m not…”

“You don’t need to justify yourself to me, Shiv. I understand.”

“I’m not done,” Shiv continued. “It’s just… I don’t want to be just a murderer. I don’t want to be just bashing and murdering and ripping things apart over and over again. I’ll do it. It won’t stop me. I’ll do it, and I’ll even enjoy it on some level. But I haven’t gotten to cook, Adam. I haven’t even gotten to play at being a student yet. I just fucking got here. I haven’t been a chef in… I don’t know how long. And now the System’s making me use a kitchen instrument as a weapon.”

“I know,” Adam said again, and Shiv could taste his discomfort, his misery as well. However much Shiv hated this, Adam was suffocating under his own weight too. He had to contend with the rulers of his republic proving to be some of the worst people Integration had to offer. He had to contend with his missing family, with his current situation.

“It’s trying to drive us insane,”

Shiv uttered.

“What is?”

“The system,” Shiv said. “The System. It just wants us to kill, kill, kill. We just don’t die, and so there’s just more things coming our way, and soon that’s all we’ll be doing, just killing, killing, killing for just a few seconds of quiet, a few seconds of peace. We can’t. There’s not gonna be a life this way. I just don’t see it. I can see war. I can see myself giving in at some point, just turning into a monster.”

“No,” Adam said, and this time he was filled with resolve. “You’re not going to turn into a monster.”

“I mean, I’m already kind of a monster, Adam.”

“Yes, but that’s, that’s powerfully literal. You have bits of a monster inside your mind and soul, but the fact that you care about all these things and that you want more than just violence, bloodshed, and a life beyond base animal desires means that you will never fully succumb, even if the System keeps pressing you.”

Shiv couldn’t bring himself to fully agree. “I tried, Adam, I really did. I wanted this to end peacefully, to make it clean. I didn’t want this to happen, but she just forced it. I don’t know if it’s because there’s something wrong with her, or if she got greedy when my notification appeared, or whatever, she just forced the fight.”

“Well, you don’t become Legendary without being favored, I suspect.” Adam sighed. “She was likely consumed long before you were. She likely took to the System’s lesson more willingly than you did. And look at her now, a splattered mess on the ground, dead at the hands of a greater monster.”

“Dead and at our mercy,” Shiv said. “We’re not giving her away. That Phylactery of hers, it’s ours now. The Dragon Brokers can make whatever demands they want, but considering who you are and what we offer, I don’t think they’re going to bid poorly when the choice comes down between the Jotun and us.”

“Hope not,” Adam said. “How badly did you cripple her?”

“Pretty badly. Didn’t get to her Legendary Skills yet, though. Hadn’t found them yet when Cullywier decided to drop that nasty bomb on me. But I’ve shattered a lot of her. She’s not going to be complete again, not unless someone like Udraal or, to a lesser extent, me, fixes her soul.”

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“Right, well, that’s one reassurance.” Adam hesitated. “Alright, so, I’m going to ask you a very simple question. Cripple or kill?”

Adam’s viciousness surprised Shiv a bit, and he felt every ounce of the Gate Lord’s malicious intent bleeding across their psionic link.

“I don’t know, I think killing her is the safest thing.”

“But if you break all of her skills,” Adam interrupted, “do you think she’ll be a useful source of information and knowledge?”

Shiv considered the implications of that. If he killed her, then, according to Cullywier, he’d be dealing with the Jotuns as well. All of them. He didn’t think Valor would turn on him over this, especially since he was justified.

But that thought led him into ugly territory.

He thought that was how Valor would respond. But who among them actually knew what Valor was like when he was whole? The Valor that Shiv knew was a shadow of the Legend that used to be, in more ways than one.

And then there was her Divination skill, and her Cryomancy. That was the deciding factor for Shiv. Previously, he’d tasted Sullain’s Omnimancy, and though it was immensely powerful, he’d spent it immediately to gain an edge against the Inquisition. Other Legendary Skills were invaluable, and with his Vitaemancy, he could use them against his enemies.

“Cripple,”

Shiv said, determinedly. “For now, we cripple her. I take away everything except her Divination for now. I think that can be real useful for us.”

“Her Divination,” Adam said slowly. “Is that how she managed to fire that javelin at me?”

“Yup. Got me in the throat the first time, nearly put me down.”

“Oh, well, I managed to dodge it.”

“You managed to dodge it,” Shiv said flatly. “How?”

“By paying attention,” Adam replied with a slight huff. “It’s quite obvious if you have the Awareness and the Reflexes.”

“Oh, I have the Reflexes,” Shiv said. “It just suddenly appeared in my throat. Not all of us have Divination.”

“Well, then you weren’t paying it any attention or trying hard enough. It’s nothing to be ashamed of. Some of us are simply untalented compared to their peers.”

A grumble of agitated laughter escaped from Shiv. “Okay, yeah, squawk that beak, little hawk. Sing your own praises. Do it. I’m going to remember this when you next eat shit.”

“Well, hopefully I die then, so there’s nothing for you to vent to.”

“Yeah, well, I’m going to bring you back somehow. And then I’m going to beat whoever killed you to death and hold it over you.”

“I think not. We’ve already established you’re a little too slow and a little too blind. I fear they may just escape and become a mystery in the night. Death might be the final insult you’ll have to endure, Deathless. You’ll be thinking with me forever and crying while cooking.”

“Maybe for 50 years,” Shiv said. “After that, I might get a bird of my own, call it Adam Asshole, train it to say ‘bastard’, and eventually, after I live long enough, you’ll just turn into the same people in my mind. And if that one dies, I’ll get another bird. A blue one.”

Adam snorted. “You bastard.” Both of them fell quiet for a moment and shared another laugh.

“Hey, Adam,” Shiv said. “Thanks.”

“Don’t mention it,” Adam replied. “I think I needed a moment too. But this is annoying, frustrating, and we need to expect more moments like these. More Legendary surprise disciples who used to study under Valor. That, and more likely, situations the System tries to force us into. The capital’s already in grave danger, things are already going poorly, but you will always be drawn toward conflict, so I’m thinking maybe you should just attack it directly.”

That statement threw Shiv for a loop. “Sounds like one of my plans, just throw myself at it.”

“I’m not saying just throw yourself at it blindly,” Adam scolded. “What I am saying, however, is that we need to play more offensively against the System. Not literally, obviously; it might as well be omnipotent. It’s going to try to do things to us at every angle, using every means it has, using every person it can affect. So we must prevent, and we must prevent by directly controlling as many variables as we can. It means establishing our own sphere of awareness, our own defenses.”

Adam bit back a bark of frustration. “Gate Piety was that for us. It still is that. We need to get back there. It is a reliable fortress, but everywhere we go, we need to fortify. Everywhere we go, we must be prepared for a siege. We must be building, scouting, adapting, and shaping the circumstances to our advantage.”

Shiv sort of liked what he was hearing, but he didn’t grasp it, not fully.

“I’ll explain more to you in detail. Right now, I think we should finish things out here, and we should deal with that Vulteg as well.”

“Yeah, this one, I’m definitely gonna kill,” Shiv deadpanned. “No way to use him reliably. I’ll steal his Toughness skill, though, before he slips away. That bastard is made out of harder stuff than even I am.”

“I know. He just shrugged off my Veilpiercers like they were toothpicks.”

“I tried to rip his legs off, and I think I barely sprained him. But I got something he can’t counter.”

“Oh? And what’s that?”

“Vitality Drain. Looks like I’m going to be sucking someone’s life force empty today after all.”

***

“Avatar Chandler. Avatar Chandler, confirm,” Harlock said. “You do not wish for me to move in on the massive mana fluctuation originating from Phoenix Academy?”

“No,” Veronica said, trying to keep her right eye from twitching. She’d made a mistake. She’d thought that boy was smart. Instead, he was simply audacious. What fugitive started a fight on the campus of Phoenix fucking Academy mere seconds after they arrived? Now, she needed to come up with a ridiculous excuse for Anthony’s Ascendant to spare Shiv from recapture. I’m embarrassed for you, boy.

“There’s been a bit of confusion. Those are my assets. They’re handling things.” Veronica leaned against her table and exploited her power. It was the technical truth, after all.

“Handling things?”Harlock repeated, sounding unconvinced.

“Matters that are best resolved through rhetoric; the Neath is involved.”

A loud hiss of disgust came from Harlock, and she knew Shiv was spared. For now.

“I see,” Harlock replied. She felt the Ascendant’s presence recede from her mind. Veronica clutched her head and sighed.

I wasn’t this stupid when I was… when I was younger. I was subtle. I was careful. I thought about my actions. What is it with children these days?

And with a huff of annoyance, she pulled out her sync-letter and began drafting a note of feedback for her wayward grandson.

To her surprise, there was already something there for her. The corner of her lip quirked up as she read his profane message directed toward her, and she scoffed. “System, boy, we need to do something about your Writing Skill. This is more of a tragedy than your lack of tact. Here: a demonstration of formatting.”

Dear Idiot “Grandson”:

It appears that when your father finished inside Udraal, he forgot to release the bit of seed that carries one’s brain cells across…

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