53 (II)

Recounting

Adam nodded and said nothing more.

To Shiv’s surprise, the Young Lord didn’t tear into him. “What, you’re not going to mock me?”

Adam shook his head. “It’s my fault as much as yours. You are raw and untrained. I said you were my monster; my hawk. You don’t send monsters or beasts to do delicate work.”

“Monster is right,” Heather added. She looked at Shiv and swallowed before she spoke her next words. “The way your skills work, the way he’s built right now… he’s a fucking freak show.”

“Hey.” Ikki directed a glare at the Jump Mage. “I don’t care if he’s built like a monster—I’m happy that he’s built like a monster. I’m glad about it. I’m happy that Shiv is a monster. I’m happy that he’s our monster. We wouldn’t be alive if he wasn’t a monster. You wouldn’t be here if he wasn’t a monster.”

There was a shift in the air, an atmosphere of slight offense that was brewing between the Umbrals and those of the Republic. The Slayers were regarded faintly with suspicion, but now, after Heather’s statement about Shiv, the Sisters of the Arachnae Order veered closer to scorn than suspicion.

“I didn’t mean it derogatorily,” Heather said, holding up her hands in defense. She eyed the six Umbrals, Uva especially. Uva was practically glaring a hole in the Jump Mage’s skull. Heather wilted. She shifted her seat and coughed. “Sorry,” she managed.

“Yeah, well, I don’t think it’s too bad being a monster.” Shiv stared at the Jealousy. “I think it takes a monster to kill another one sometimes. The fight could have gone either way. But I managed, and for whatever reason, my mind didn’t stay broken. So, here we are. That’s everything I can remember. After my mind completely heals, I think, I think I’ll try to make sure I didn’t leave anything out. But… yeah, this is what we know.”

Adam nodded, but he didn’t look at all happy. “Well, if there was one benefit, it’s you putting the gate on lockdown. That’s a small fortune for us. The Animancy Core is still there. We vaguely know where it is, but we need to deal with the Gate Lord and capture the gate, because we can’t cross if it’s on lockdown. But we also can’t let it go out of lockdown, because then we lose the core.” He frowned and looked at Shiv. “What’s your assessment?”

The Deathless was surprised the Young Lord wanted to know what he thought. “Yeah, that. And I need to kill the bastard. I need to kill all the bastards.” The Deathless briefly glanced at the slaves. “What they’re doing to people isn’t right, and I’m going to teach them how wrong it is. And by teach, I mean kill violently.”

Adam nodded. “Of this we’re in agreement, but we will do it carefully. We will do it with caution and focus. Next time, we all enter the gate. And we will do it with a proper strategy, a plan. Intelligence.” The Young Lord hummed thoughtfully. “We already have someone on the inside, a potential base of subversive operations between you, me, Uva, Valor, and whoever else we might be able to recruit from the Composer. Potentially, we just might be able to bring this operation down from within. But still, I don’t think the Composer can give us too much help, with her trying to avoid a war and all, so it will be a small group against an army either way.”

Shiv stared at him in silence. Adam shrugged. “It’s not impossible, but… it would be a feat of legend to pull this off.”

“That’s what being a Pathbearer is all about, right?” Shiv said. “Being a Legend.”

“Agreed.” Adam nodded again. “But still. A Heroic-Tier Gate Lord that can leave lasting wounds on you, his army, a gate to a demonic dimension, and the Animancy core. We got a real fight ahead of us.”

“Yeah. Good. I’m looking forward to it.” Shiv chuckled. “Well, how about you guys? What happened after I went in?”

Uva stared at Adam. “Well, before you got your mind broken by the Jealousy, this one got hit. It nearly tore him in half the moment it touched him with its field. It took the Psychomancers at Weave the better part of a day to reassemble him, even after I shrouded his mind and kept him intact on the way back.” Uva paused, and she stared at the Jealousy, her eyes fixed on it with curiosity and challenge. “It nearly broke me too. But thankfully, a well-timed distraction kept us from certain doom.”

She passed some of her memories over to Shiv, and he suddenly had context to go with her words. He blinked. “Oh, yeah, right. Well, congratulations on becoming a Hero, Adam. Of course, you couldn’t have done it without me. You bastard.”

Adam laughed. “I nearly died distracting it.”

Shiv rolled his eyes. “Yeah, well, I wouldn’t have died. I actually beat the Greater Demon. So who’s the better Pathbearer now?”

Adam gritted his teeth. “How many times did you die fighting it?”

“Once,” Shiv lied. “One that counted. Most of the others were cheap shots.”

“Oh, really?” Adam said, sneering.

“Yeah. I’m not a soft, vulnerable, sensitive Young Lord, so I had a Toughness advantage going into the fight.”

“And I’m not a blind oaf who gets discovered by a bloody demon because he’s so bad at pretending to be someone else. Even with a Perfect Semblance! And who made sure you didn’t die buried under a mountain just now? Or guided you through that mess of an escape? Or kept picking problems off of your back every time they got close? Do you know how many times someone was going to ram a mana-powered blade into the back of your head before I shot them?”

Shiv rolled his eyes. “Yeah, yeah, thanks.”

“I’m serious,” Adam said.

“I’m serious, too,” Shiv said. “Thanks for not letting me get killed.”

The Young Lord blinked, and then he adjusted his posture, taking on a regal bearing. “Well, of course, it is my duty, after all, as Pathbearer, to protect one who is my lesser.”

Both of them looked at each other, and somehow they shared a mutual snort of amusement.

Tran and Heather looked between the Deathless and the Young Lord, absolutely confused as to what was going on. Shiv understood them. A mere two weeks prior, Adam despised Shiv, and Shiv didn’t want anything to do with Adam.

Now… Well, now things were a little different, at least.

As they continued catching up with each other, talking, relaxing, dealing with their wounds, Shiv tested his Woundeater again. Then, he began devouring the remaining injuries sustained by his allies, the smaller ones they’d all agreed to disregard until his field had recovered more. All of them regarded his Master-Tier Biomancy with lingering surprise and naked curiosity. Some of them even asked to touch his wyrm, but he denied them. The crystallized wounds within were more like mana bombs, things that would detonate against Magical Resistance or transfer the wounds on to another willing or unwilling recipient. After he explained that, no one wanted to go anywhere near his wyrms.

“Five bloody Master Skills,” Adam whispered. “Absolutely madness. And a felling Feat.”

Shiv smirked with pride. “Well, if you get another Heroic-Tier Skill, you’ll get a Feat Slot too. After that it’s just a matter of effort. I’m sure you’ll manage in a year or two.”

Adam ignored the last part and nodded. “Yes. But still, your growth is… It is not just incredibly impressive, it is strange. Your casual willingness to die—” Adam eyed Uva as she approached the Jealousy. He leaned in closer to Shiv. “Shiv, do you realize how unnatural you are?”

Shiv paused, frowning. “I mean, yeah, you guys spend a lot of time saying, ‘I’m a monster this,’ and ‘I’m a monster that.’”

“No, no,” Adam interrupted. “Do you know how strange it is, how ridiculous it is that your mind is coming back together? Do you know who Cassayla, the Siren that Turns the Seas, is?”

“Not really,” Svhiv said.

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“She was… is a Legendary Pathbearer. A Legendary Pathbearer of absurd power, capable of sinking islands. But her life ended in tragedy when her mind was broken by an adversary: an enemy Psychomancer. A Legendary-Tier Jealousy. She slew the Greater Demon, but even now, to this day, she wanders the seas, lost to insanity.”

Shiv blinked. “Ah, that sounds pretty horrible.”

“Yes, and she never got better. For the past 400 years, the island nations have treated her as both a figure of great mourning, but also a natural disaster. She still thinks she’s fighting her adversary, and she strikes at anyone who possesses Psychomancy. Anyone. She has destroyed hundreds of small kingdoms, obliterated entire land masses, and no one, no one has dealt with her. No one dares. And here you are, mere hours after having your ego ripped in half. Practically fine.”

“It’s remarkable what good food can do to you,” Shiv muttered.

Adam shook his head. “The food is good. Beyond good. Master-Tier there as well…” The Young Lord gagged in mock disgust. “But it’s more than the benefits of the food. It has to be. You have always been mentally and physically durable. More than durable. You seem to just recover. Recover from trauma. Shake off death. There’s something more to you, Shiv. And I think it’s part of the ritual as well.”

Shiv paused, taking in Adam’s words. He had a feeling that the Young Lord was right. With everything that was broken inside him earlier, and how he could barely stand, how mangled his soul, his mana, and his mind were? That shouldn’t have been a few hours of recovery. Part of him knew that this should have been crippling for good, eternally, unless some Legendary Healer of the mind and the body came to put it back together. But a few deaths, a few hours, and some food later, Shiv was quickly returning to a place of stability, if not normalcy.

And at that moment, Shiv noticed Uva reaching out into the Jealousy, pouring her mind-mana into the dormant, broken, Greater Demon.

“What is she doing?” Adam asked.

Shiv shook his head. “Don’t really know.” He rose, walking over to Uva, maintaining his silence so he didn’t distract her. He didn’t want to disturb whatever she was doing.

There were consequences for breaking a spell. Shiv’s consequence for breaking a Woundeater spell was receiving the wounds he was trying to cast. He didn’t want to discover what might happen if Uva was distracted from whatever she was doing with the Greater Demon. He couldn’t tell what she was doing, even with a Psychomancy skill of his own; he had no idea where to begin. It wasn’t just how weak his Psychomancy was comparatively, but rather, he was missing a lot of practical knowledge that went with it.

His Biomancy’s counterpart, Practical Metabiology, was drastically behind as well. He had learned a few things, but without time to rest properly and truly dive into his Odes of Blood and Flesh, he didn’t develop his understanding of theory as much as he did his magical muscle. Shiv realized that that was ultimately a wonderful encapsulation of his problem. He was a monster growing stronger and stronger at an alarming rate, but not truly more skilled, not more sophisticated. And the thing about monsters was, when they fought, other people paid for it.

Mastery is what I need, he thought. Mastery, more experience, more understanding and focus. I don’t need to break things anymore. At least I don’t feel like that’s the most important thing. Power. Power comes with death. But the other stuff, the stuff that Adam can do, the stuff that everyone else is good at, that they spent years building, I need to get really good at that too. Otherwise, people will just keep dying around me.

Shiv’s thoughts were interrupted as a series of translucent sigils began to spiral around Uva’s mind. They revolved around her for a moment, circulating as if asteroids orbiting a planet. And then they twirled, spiraling through the air as they streamed from her as a pattern into the Greater Demon. For a few moments she did nothing, nothing but shape more spells, nothing but concentrate. Her face was a mask of immense focus. She looked like she was wrestling with a mountain of her own—a mental mountain in the form of the Greater Demon. Uva coughed and staggered. Shiv caught her, but she kept casting. He held her with his gravitic field until she was done. He could practically feel the exhaustion radiating off of her mind.

“I have no idea how you beat that thing. It’s not even a Low Hero. It’s in the middle. I took a glance at its status when I had the chance. You have no idea how high its Psychomancy level was.”

“I got something of an idea,” Shiv said, “the asshole practically tore my mind in half.”

“Yes. It’s a good thing you had that mask. A good thing.” Uva paled as she stared into the demon’s baleful eye.

Shiv paused. “Or the System wanted this fight.” He considered that a little bit more. “I think the System wanted this fight. The system wanted all of this.”

Uva fell silent for a moment, and she turned to stare at him. “I am inclined to agree. It is too fortunate a gift, and too useful a boon. Regardless, regardless, I’m glad I taught you how to link with someone’s mind.” Her expression turned mockingly offended. “Even if you used it in ways I cannot properly condone.”

He coughed awkwardly. “Yeah, about that. I, uh, can try making it up to you later.”

Uva’s expression turned to one of pretend-innocence. “Oh? And what will you do?”

“I don’t know. I guess we’re going to find out, won’t we?”

“I hope you won’t do to me what you did to that monster, though,” she muttered. “Still, its ego might be shattered. Its sense of self is ruined, but it’s not truly dead. Its memories are there. All its techniques. The way it shaped its intent into spells. All of it.”

Shiv paused. “So what does that mean?”

“It means that me and the Psychomancers of Weave are about to experience an incredible windfall. Once again, thanks to you,” she said to him. “You are willing to surrender this piece of loot to us, are you not?”

She batted her eyelashes. It was then that Shiv realized she was trying to seduce him for her nation. But also mostly for herself. That was fine. Shiv liked it when Uva seduced him.

“Oh, I’ll be giving you a lot more than that,” he said.

Uva blushed.

“No, I mean literally.”

He looked at Heather. “Her armor—that’s going to be going to you too. Got that off a dead Inquisitor. I can add some of my new bone armor to reinforce it. Got a Psychomancy greatsword as well. Don’t know how useful you’ll find that since you use a short sword, but maybe the people back in the city can help you make something out of that.”

Uva eyed Heather for a moment, then looked to Shiv. “So, her armor—”

“Your armor,” Shiv corrected.

“Right. Does she know about this?”

“Yeah. I told her repeatedly. She’s not going to forget.” Shiv clenched his teeth. “She better not forget.”

Uva shifted uncomfortably. “I… I’m… honored? And rather touched about how thoughtful you are, but still. This feels…”

“Oh, don’t worry. I don’t like her,” Shiv said. “And she owes me her life.”

Uva blinked. “I… see.”

A look passed between them. Uva coughed and continued. “Anyway, I think we will be able to learn a great many things from the Greater Demon’s Psychomancy. In fact, let me try something first. I should have enough control over its inner thoughts to influence it now.”

“Influence it to what?” Shiv asked.

“Everyone,” she sent out a telepathic message that swept through the group: “Do not be alarmed. I am going to start piloting the Greater Demon.” She gave Shiv a slight smile. “And I will do it in a more efficient way.”

He frowned at her. “I was trying my best,” he muttered.

“I know.” She patted him on the chest. “You are a remarkably tender brute, Shiv.”

And that was just about the sweetest thing anyone had ever told him.

And just then, the Jealousy began to move. It twitched, the eye rolled, and Shiv could have sworn it came back to life, if not for the fact that Uva was once again straining herself with concentration, pushing her mana field to the limit. As she pushed herself, however, he felt her field grow and swell rapidly. More than that, he felt a change coming to her field, a twisting, weaving change that pulsed through every wavelength of magic it took to shape her spells. Uva was growing before him, changing in real time. He had a feeling that she wasn’t far off from Skill Evolution either.

And with the Greater Demon captured, captured mind-dead but alive…

Suddenly, the Jealousy began to move its tentacles. It moved delicately, and over the course of a few minutes, it shaped a spell. It shaped a spell that Shiv recognized. First, a layer of shadows swelled through the cavern. Some shocked murmurs and terrified cries came from the slaves, but everyone else looked on, enchanted by the scene. Finally, a needle formed. A psionic needle—a needle that Shiv had seen a few times. It was the one it had used to implant itself inside the mind of a slave, escaping from him. It was also where they both met their final fate, within the mind of another slave. Except, Shiv recovered from his supposed final fate, and the Greater Demon stayed broken.

Yeah, Adam’s probably right, Shiv thought. There’s something more going on with me than just being physically immortal.

And finally, the needle splashed outward. The entire Jealousy vanished into a thin thread of magic—a thin thread of magic that Uva internalized. It swelled around her field briefly, an imprint of its colossal size, and she let out a cry of effort before she pulled it into her mind.

This close, Shiv could practically feel what she was doing. She was containing it, carrying it within her memory. She had adapted its great spell and used its magic to aid her in accomplishing this feat. Uva had effectively used the enemy’s spell to make carrying the Jealousy more convenient.

“That was quite taxing,” Uva said, leaning against him. “But we should be able to move easily now, without being noticed. Stealth is hard when you’re dragging a small mountain with you.”

Ikki was clapping.

“Stop that, Sister Ikki,” Uva breathed.

“No!” Ikki yelled out loud, “Everyone clap!” The other Umbrals clapped sarcastically, and then Ikki yelled, “Kiss too!”

“Ikki?” Uva growled.

Shiv smiled. “I mean, I wouldn’t mind.”

“Shiv, don’t encourage her.”

“Fine. But, uh,” Shiv grunted, “look, when we get close to Weave, can you let it back out again?”

She blinked. “Why?”

“I kind of want to carry it for a bit, you know, just to grow my Gravitic Wrestler skill.”

She stared at Shiv, and once again, she patted him on his cheek. “You are a very, very adorable brute. I suppose we can take turns carrying it.”

Shiv grinned. “You’re the best, Uva.”

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