"You could have at least warned you were going to try it," Ahkelios complains.
He's been justifiably upset for a while now. We're taking our ti and walking back toward Isthanok, although it's a long way away; the Knight covered quite a lot of distance while he was out of control. I'm almost back to the Cliffside Crows. My mories of traveling are sowhat fragnted, probably because I spent so of that ti fighting the Knight for control over our shared body—I have a vague recollection of passing through the gates to the Great Cities, but I don't really rember landing on anything that wasn't a tree.
I glance at Ahkelios, who's still looking at , affronted. "I know, I know," I say with a little sigh, reaching up to nudge him with a finger. At least it's easy enough to follow the trail of destroyed trees, grass, and cratered dirt back to Isthanok. I can't imagine what the guards at the wall are going to think. "In my defense, I don't think I was entirely in control when that happened."
"You weren't in control at all." Ahkelios looks away, grumbling.
"I an when I used the Inspiration," I say. I can't really be mad at his grumbling. A lot of his annoyance just cos from genuine worry, and every little gesture he makes reflects that worry. "It wanted to be used. I... don't know how else to explain it."
Ahkelios makes a noise in his throat. "And it won't happen again?"
I hesitate. "I don't think so," I say carefully. "But I'm not ruling anything out. You get to manifest yourself whenever you want, but the Knight and I... we have to share a body. It's not so simple for us."
The little mantis looks away. That point hits ho. The truth is, the situation with the Knight is more complicated than I'm ready to think about. For one thing, it's both aware and strong enough to influence . That's sothing I'm going to have to keep in mind—even now, what we have is tentative.
Trust takes ti to build, and the Knight might be willing to put a little faith in , but it doesn't yet trust . Not entirely.
And even when it does, I'm going to be influenced by its thoughts and feelings. It's a little like Ahkelios and , in a way, though the way the partnership manifests is different.
Even now, the Knight feels like it's... sulking?
It's sulking. At least a little. It knows it can't take over again without risking damage to , and it doesn't like feeling trapped.
Honestly, I can kind of sympathize.
"Are you sure you can trust this Kauku guy?" Ahkelios asks, changing the subject. I frown a little, thinking about it. I hadn't actually considered how much I should trust the guy—not in depth, anyway.
"I an... I don't see any reason not to trust him," I hedge. "But I want to find out what he is anyway. You know. Just in case."
"Any ideas on where to start?"
"Just a few," I say. "There might be sothing in the Empty City. He says there's a mory important to him in there. That implies that he was there, doesn't it?"
Ahkelios hums thoughtfully. "Or that he really wants to find out what happened in there," he points out.
"Or that." I sigh. I do have a second thought—I'm pretty sure the Knight is related to Kauku in so way, the sa way the Void and Accelerate Inspirations are supposedly his children. It's possible the Knight knows sothing. The only problem is... well, I don't think it consciously knows whatever that sothing might be.
Inspirations as lifeforms are, as far as I can tlel, fundantally different from most other creatures in the universe. They're more based in concept than they are in reality—in so way, they're always shifting and changing based on their host's perception of the concept they embody.
Which ans they necessarily lose a part of themselves whenever they're bound to a new partner. The Knight has its mories, but most of those mories are locked away, buried within a psyche it hasn't managed to align itself with yet.
It'll unlock those mories eventually, but there's a long road ahead of us before that. A long road where we figure out how to work with one another and fight together.
In a way, it's nice to have another mber of the team, even if I wish Kauku had given a little more of a warning about all this.
Almost on cue, I hear the sound of Guard's thrusters. I look up, startled—he's absolutely speeding through the sky, the crack of a sonic boom reaching long seconds after I spot him. He changes angle when he sees , aiming for the ground at my feet, and I take a few quick steps back.
The automaton lands in front of with a thundering crash that sends a cloud of dirt into the sky. Even as far away as I am, I find myself coughing to clear away the dust. anwhile, Guard's singular eye is scanning with a kind of desperate concern, and before I can say anything he picks up and starts rattling around as if he's worried sothing inside was knocked loose.
"Ethan," he says after a solid three seconds of this. Ahkelios has relocated himself to the top of Guard's head and is watching with amusent. "You seem... well?"
"I was better before you started shaking ," I grumble, sowhere between irritated and amused. There's a trail of smoke in the sky that implies he chased after pretty much as fast as he could. It's a little endearing, if I'm being honest, but... "Just so you know, shaking humans around like that isn't how you perform a diagnosis. You're going to give a brain injury."
This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.
"Oh." There's an undercurrent of embarrassnt in Guard's voice. "I apologize. I am... unfamiliar with diagnostic thodology for humans. And it's uncommon for soone under my charge to transform and vanish."
"Yeah, I wasn't expecting that either," I say dryly. It's convenient that he's here, though—I'm almost ready, and it won't take long to roll for the rest of the skills I need. "And I'm not your charge. We're a team."
"Right," Guard agrees, although with the way he looks at , I suspect he's saying that more to placate . I shake my head, sighing, although it's more out of amusent than exasperation. Clearly, it's going to take so ti before we're on the sa page.
So I decide to change the subject. "How are things in Isthanok? Are we good to head for the Empty City?"
"As soon as you are," Guard confirms. Apparently he isn't all too worried about the destruction either of us have left behind—fair enough, I suppose, considering the loop is going to repair all of it. It's mostly Isthanok itself that needs to be stabilized, and anyone with damaged Firmant helped before the loop resets.
"I just have a few more skills to pick." I would've picked them earlier, but the whole thing with the Knight distracted . I pull up the Interface and glance at my Interface again—with what Kauku's done for , it makes sense to bank strength, speed, and reflex. As for durability...
Well, after killing that Chira, I have exactly 999 durability credits. Figures. I'll bank it when I get the last credit I need.
"Just one credit, huh?" Ahkelios doesn't quite manage to hide the mirth in his voice. I roll my eyes.
"Don't rub it in."
The sheer power of the Knight ans I'm going to have to take it into consideration when picking new skills—utility might be better than raw power if the skills in question aren't enough to beat what the Knight can do on its own. Of course, combining the Knight with those skills would amplify them even more... but I don't think either my body or my Firmant can handle that kind of power just yet.
I have a long way to go.
There's also the fact that I'm not sure what kind of Inspirations I'm going to get next. If they function like the Knight does, then I'm going to have a suite of different evolutions to choose from, and it ans I'm going to have to spend a lot more ti understanding exactly how evolutions alter my skills and Firmant.
Tentatively, I feel within myself and imdiately wince, prompting a concerned, chanical whirr from Guard. Evidently that's not sothing I can test anyti soon. My entire body is still sore, and my Firmant isn't faring much better.
We'll start by going ahead and banking the rest of my credits, then. I go through the rolls and make my choices after so deliberation—unfortunately, I'm not lucky enough to get a critical roll on any of the stat categories this ti around.
But I'm not unlucky, either. I waited to roll my skills hoping that using Once More into the Fray as a ti-altering skill would impact my skill choices, and it's done exactly that.
Strength, for example.
[Causal Shattering (Rank S) obtained!]
Most of the other options I had for Strength skills were varying degrees of "punch harder," with trigger conditions that ranged from reasonable to near-impossible to replicate. Causal Shattering was the only one that did sothing different, and since I'm both looking for utility that goes beyond pure force...
It's interesting. Causal Shattering has two possible outcos. The na's a little more poetic than what it actually does—for the most part, it shatters ti in whatever I strike with it, causing various parts of the object to randomly accelerate or regress through ti. A test of the skill on a nearby already-destroyed tree causes so fragnts to heal to perfect condition, others to rot and age into nothing, and a whole fist-sized segnt of wood is reverted into a seed that looks like a cross between an acorn and a lemon.
But there's a second possible outco, according to Inspect. If I pour enough Firmant into the skill, if I understand the skill enough and manage to gain Mastery in it—and this is the first ti Inspect has given any indication of how a skill changes when I gain Mastery—then it's possible that Causal Shattering will let strike a point back in ti.
Specifically, a point in the tiline of the person I'm striking. This skill, if mastered, has the potential to alter the trajectory of soone's life. It's going to take a lot of work to get there, but the potential is almost terrifying.
Rank S skills are a whole other realm, clearly.
And then there's the Reflex skill.
[Paradox Warning (Rank SS) obtained!]
I got lucky with this one. Reflex, at almost 3,000 credits, is the closest to the next threshold—of the four options I received, Paradox Warning was the only Rank SS one. The other three were, respectively, a skill that gave faster thinking and two variants of Premonition that were a little more specific and could reach farther into the future.
All useful. All skills I wanted. I almost picked Cognitive Accelerant, in fact, because it'll make up for the loss of Compounded Mind. But Paradox Warning is...
It lets send a warning to the past.
It's by far the most flexible, even if the way it works is a little strange. Apparently, from my perspective, I'll receive a warning about a specific future event. The warning is ant to allow to prepare for the event, not necessarily to avoid it. When I encounter the event in question, I have to use Paradox Warning and send the ssage back, word-for-word, to fulfill the conditions of the skill.
Functionally, this ans I can send ssages back into the past. The downsides are that there are phrasing limits, it has to be a warning, and I can't send a ssage back to before I got the skill, which is probably the most disappointing part of it all.
"What happens if you don't?" Ahkelios asks.
I make a face. "If I don't... send a ssage back to myself, you an? After I receive the warning?"
"Yes, exactly." Ahkelios looks up at , curious.
I stare at him. "Do we really want to test what happens if we try to break ti?"
"...yes?"
"I will admit to being curious, but no. Absolutely not. Inspect doesn't tell what would happen, but it does tell it would be very bad. On a planetary scale."
Guard, who is simply standing next to and watching during all of this, shudders. "I appreciate your restraint."
I move on and roll for the final skill to add to my list.
[Distorted Crux (Rank S) obtained!]
This one's simple: as long as it's active, the closer sothing is to , the slower ti passes for it. It's sothing like a weaker version of a Tistop skill, but it's still enormously powerful.
I close my eyes. Even with all the power I've gained—even with the fact that I'm a third-layer practitioner with multiple Rank S skills and an Inspired Evolution that takes to a level beyond anything I've been able to fight at so far—sothing feels... off. Like I'm still not ready, even after everything I'm gained. I'm confident I'm a step above Whisper and Naru now, at the very least, but how would I fare against an Integrator? Or soone like Kauku?
You're being hunted. Kauku's words still echo in my head.
I'm not one to dismiss a warning. I'll just have to be prepared.
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