I have a proposition for you.
Oh, good. Another one of these conversations. What do you want with , priest? You got professional problems or complaints? Talk to Zein—
I want to talk about you. And the Stillborn. I wish to make you an offer.
Listen, I don’t— [TRANSFERRING AUTO-SEANCE SEQUENCE] What the fuck is this?
A connection. To your grandfather’s mind. He is waiting for you.
...
This is no trap. I will have him delivered to a place of your choosing, if that is your wish. This will be given freely, but the location and the nding of your mother’s mind—
What do you want?
For you to help . There is sothing I need you to carry. And sothing else I need you to do…
-Exchange Between Defiance and Frederick Three-Eye
34-15
Master of Hounds (V)
—[Avo, The Hidden Fla]—
WARNING: HOSTILE–SY-YSSY
Embers sputtered from Avo’s Soulscape. Flas that once constituted the fires of his soul flickered and spasd, as if uncertain which way to dance. There was sothing wrong here. There was soone else here. For the first ti in many months, Avo faced an enemy that struck not through matter or force or any other domain of thaumaturgy. Instead, they engaged him directly where he was strongest—within his own mind.
His surprise was only surpassed by his growing anxiety as he felt a strange influence creep deeper into him. A tinge of his tamind glitched; it tried to boot several tis but failed to load completely.
S-SHOSTL-SYMTRY - 99.999999%
There was sothing else inside him. It felt as if sothing with his bones was growing within his structure. It wasn’t trying to hatch inside him. It wasn’t trying to usurp him. No, it was trying to match him perfectly, sequence to sequence, and so far, it was doing an impossibly good job.
Avo, The Hidden Fla, the Burning Drear, was getting Necrojacked, and by this point, there was only one other entity in existence that could manage that.
Himself.
“Avo!,” Draus cried, but he ejected her—just as he had ejected every other mber of his cadre. He couldn’t risk them getting infected now, either. He sent them back to his temporal dinsion, the Omnipresent Operating Base christened by Draus. They’d be fine there, and frankly, now was as good a ti as any to test his amnesia tech. The implant should let them run localized sessions of his Soulscape, and he left nodes of himself and other essential templates for them to use.
They would be fine.
He hoped.
But there was still another he couldn’t remove. A Bond still tethered him to Chambers—a Bond he couldn’t make the Lovebringer relinquish.
“Chambers let go.”
“Fuck no,” Chambers replied, his voice conveying a strength that wasn’t there before, and sohow, through that declaration alone, the bond between them grew even stronger. For once, Avo was at an absolute loss as to what to do with Chambers. He couldn’t force him. He didn’t want to reach into the man’s mind to twist their consciousness for fear of infecting them. And Avo couldn’t devote that much energy to worrying about his comrades anymore.
Sothing was trying to infect him. Sothing was already infiltrating the Trinary lody’s governance module. Faintly, the EGI—still dissolving within him—responded, {They have been planning this. For every entity, there is an anathema. For every action and reaction, even sothing as ever-changing as you—one who is alike—can often predict or change into your worst enem-w-yeye…}
“Infacer!” Avo called out. He scrambled his templates and used every bit of his cognitive capacity to isolate the parts of him that were compromised. Right now, he was guessing, but his considerable consciousness was being fully utilized to identify which points were intruded upon and which remained his own.
“Infacer?” he repeated, crawling and tying his scattered mories together. More of his recollections began to distort. Ash started raining down, spilling through the m-data and leaking from his ghosts. He wasn’t sure what kind of m-com he was infected with, but even as he altered his own structure—cycling through his many templates and re-sequencing his mind—he realized one thing: whoever was inside him could mimic him perfectly.
Veylis’ pathborn must have matched him to a fine detail. And that was the thing with the High Seraph — For every single person she treated like Chambers, making him less than who he was, there was another she rewarded as worthy—and when she did, she pursued their recreation in the finest detail.
Avo didn’t face a lesser replica; he faced sothing so close to himself that, in every functional capacity, beyond different choices and different experiences, they might as well have been the sa person.
“He sends his regards,” a voice echoed in the back of his mind. “But he isn’t here. Tell … what becos of the original… if a spawn consus them?” And from a place within himself, symtrical but foreign, Avo felt a hunger he scattered using his mind—an ancient urge leftover from the ti he was rely a ghoul.
A second later, it was gone—and then a massive blast erupted through Avo’s sequences. An entire portion of the being was wiped clean. It was like the necro equivalent of a warhead detonating inside a mundane structure. Avo cried out a note of genuine pain and loss as a good portion of himself dissolved into nothingness. He hadn’t been hit by trauma that hard in ages—even though he had delivered blows like this before, capable of nullifying entire districts. The Definent of Hysteria… His enemy had it. His enemy was using it against him.
WARNING: CRITICAL TRAUMA DAMAGE INFLICTED
COG CAP - [78%]
The governance module connected to the Trinary lody began to malfunction as well, and a ssage from an unknown ansible followed.
{Sorry, Avo,} the Infacer said, {but I cannot risk you getting in the way of things, and I cannot have you staying in possession of these toys—I’m sure you understand.}
Avo tried to command his Trinary lody to strike his enemy down using the fallen titan, but it spasd. Rival commands issued from within his consciousness flooded into the governance module, and like all things that suffer a paradox, it malfunctioned. Its ruptures flayed out everywhere, expanding in all directions. Whipping tendrils traced wounds along the surface of reality. The tapestry flayed and broke. Patterns ceased to be.
Across the vaulted expanse, new wounds were left—kiloter-length gouges carving through countless sovereignties and the tiers’ domains. Avo didn’t know how many perished at that mont, but the casualties must have been imnse. The Beak One’s disorder and chaotic movents lashed the crown of the city, and it was all Avo could do to keep it calm and steady.
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He shifted his focus, returning swiftly to his internal environnt. He began running a new simulation: What would it be like to jack against himself? How would he bring himself down? He applied that scenario to his own consciousness and, like a layered entity, started playing wars—predicting his enemy’s next movents. His foe might have possessed Hysteria, but he, Avo, possessed ignorance. And so they struck at each other—a hidden dagger against a falling hamr.
Instead of waiting for his enemy to strike again, Avo began flaying parts of himself away with distortions. “Will find you. Will remove you. Know this.”
A beat followed. More of his sequences shattered. Entire mories—and the cityscapes and districts connected to them collapsed into nothingness. Spreading ash and debris carried an echoed retort. “Maybe. Not fast enough. Not enough to let you keep the Deep Ones. Not enough for you to save father’s node. Or Three-Eye.”
***
—[Draus, Field Marshall of the Coming Fla]—
Draus was no longer within Avo’s Soulscape. The Conflagration were nowhere to be seen. Instead, she found herself surrounded by discrete, blood-created constructs. Rows of haemokinetic structurers stood tall, serried bulwarks overshadowing a distant Sang cityscape. Gasps sounded near Draus. She found herself standing within a bazaar of so kind. Old Noloth by the look of it. Here, she saw the locals—the forr elites of the City Eternal—scatter around her, their eyes wide with shock and surprise. At the sa ti, the Woundmother extended a tendril, massive structures of crimson veins twisted and searching, as if it, too, had been cast out.
“Master?” the Woundmother cried, its voice trembling with confusion.
“Don’t think he’s here no more,” Draus muttered.
For a mont, god and Regular paused, but then, a flash of light sparked at the base of Draus’ neck, and she got an unexpected response.
“Still here,” Avo said. “Enough of is. Can… still guide…”
“Avo?” Draus said. Suddenly, her cog-feed pulsed, and new options loaded into her tamind.
“Not the original, not the one you were talking about—but I’ve been backed up.”
AMNESI-TECH ONLINE
INITIALIZE RESERVE SOULSCAPE
ACCESSING TEMPLATES
CREATING MIND FORTRESS
Her halo flashed as a pillar of fla expanded from its edges. The Conflagration splashed over, painting reality around her as Draus took a step back. Her startlent only grew as she found her mind auto-syncing with other mbers of the cadre. A pathway of fire extended out from her, and she felt herself sudden enter a deep dive as her body collapsed in the Omnipresent Operating Base.
As a new mind fortress ford, she felt her ego and ontology connect with another individual… one that was cast out from Avo’s Soulscape alongside her.
LINKING TO [SHOTIN KAZAHARA]
The Seeker loaded into place right next to her. He looked frazzled. His suit jacket was barely clinging to his bare torso. It looked like he fell over at so point. “The fuck?” Shotin looked at her, his expression resembling a Joyfiend sobering up in the middle of traffic. “The hells just happened.”
Draus shook her head. “Fucked if I know. I think Avo just got jacked—threw us out before we could be compromised, too.”
“Fuck. All right. So what do we do now?”
Draus considered the situation. “All right. Let’s see here..” she said. With a thought, she reflexively connected to the Chief Paladin, and suddenly he was brought into the eting as well. Naeko blinked awkwardly at the both of them, his head shifting from one to another, before he stared down at his hands. Bits of fla flecked away from his ntal avatar as he sighed.
“Let guess, everything’s gone to shit sohow again?”
“Yeah. Welco to our lives.” Draus grinned.
“Where’s Avo?”
“Got jacked,” Draus replied. “I think we got a hostile Pathborn specifically designed to bring him down. They’re going after the Deep Ones too.”
“Shit,” Naeko muttered. “We need to—”
“Not worried about Avo. The rotlick will be fine. But we need to get into Scale. Place where Scale used to be, anyway. That fucking Three-Eye guy’s coming back with a node of Defiance. We don’t need the Infacer taking that from us—and we especially don’t need the half-strand stealing one of our superweapons.”
“Alright, but how are we going to get over into reality without Avo?” Shotin asked.
An all-loud cough interrupted them. Then, a series of magenta chains grew brighter, threading through each and every mber of the cadre. Chambers stitched himself into existence—the Lovebringer folding with each string and sinew created by love.
In seconds, the large entity with its folded skull, hollow heart, and knitted body materialized before everyone. “Still connected to Avo. I’m not letting go, but whatever he’s fighting, it’s in him deep. The good news is, your good buddy Chambers might be able to fling you across where you need to be. I’ve still got my tendrils latched on to the Beloveds. I’ve still got the tour here. What’s more, I think I can bring the Stormsparrow and Vator into this as well, fuck, pretty much everyone I’m touching. My only question is… uh what’s our strategy? Like, evil Draus is out there ripping shit up, we need to—”
“No, we ignore her.” Draus scoffed, “She’s just a distraction. A lure. She don’t give a shit if she dies. That’s why she’s being loud—she wants us to go for her. This kind of a balls out assault is for soone trying to leave a last and lasting impression. No. Chambers, find out if you can get a few of the Beloved into the place where the Scale used to be. I’ll use them as drop points. Spread of shards out. Set up.”
There were a lot of unknowns. Missing data. Going blindly into sothing like this might just see her dead. But dying wasn’t that much of an issue if she considered it. Maybe this continuation of her would be gone, but they all had templates of each other. They were replaceable. Reusable. She could afford to be a bit aggressive.
“Naeko. You and the Sparrow are on standby. I want to see their cards before we use you. Better if I get backlashed or paradoxed first.”
“Alright, that sounds—” Naeko frowned. “Actually, why the hells are you calling the shots?”
“Because you’re too passive,” Draus snapped. “And frankly, you just wanna hit stuff and step on people. You ain’t a soldier, Naeko. Maybe a warrior or an icon, but you’ve never been into this. And frankly, it’s a bad deal risking you first.”
The Chief Paladin thought for a mont and just sighed. “Shit. They have so kind of rhetoric school for you Regulars or sothing? That was pretty convincing.”
Avo laughed. No one but Draus knew why. The Regular snorted. “Cheeky fuck. Anyway. You and Sparrow both stay in reserve…. Shotin!” She cried. “You’re with .” She pulled out a shard of glass, expanded it until it was the size of a doorway, and motioned for him to get in.
The Seeker just stared at her for a long mont.
Draus narrowed her eyes. “You aren’t in or out of this fight? I don’t need you to be my bitch, but I do want another ans of changing the battlefield. The Deliverer might know how I operate, but she sure as shit isn’t ready for you.”
Shotin’s countenance hardened. “Yeah. Yeah, fine. I’ll play the second. But don’t fuck this up for us, Reg. It’s both our lives.”
“Yeah. Both our lives, but it’s no big deal. Avo can bring us back. Sa as your niece.”
He was about to argue, but simply threw up his hands and crossed through the reflection.
Draus respected that. He wasn’t a Regular like her, but Shotin was ready to die for this without complaint. That was all a good weapon needed to do. “Chambers, stay connected to us, but be ready to let go. If I get compromised, you cut us and load up our templates. Work with Naeko and the others to finish the fight and secure the sector.
“But,” Chambers started.
“No. We are all expendable. And we can all be brought back by Avo now. We need to win this war, and that ans being willing to give up when we need to. That ans being willing to eat so bosses. Our enemies are clearly willing to do the sa.
“Now, from what we got, the Infacer has a Heaven called the Deepness Beyond. It creates a false vacuum or so shit, so we don’t want to get caught up in that. It’s part of the reason why Shotin’s coming with . We need to fight quick and evasive—Chambers, I need a steady supply of Beloveds going because I’m going to need you to shuffle us quickly. I don’t think we’re going to be able to use the Temporal Bridge without Avo. But your Bonds—they should still suffice.”
“Got it. I can try reaching out for the Infucker if I get the chance. See if I can make a mind bust.”
“Only if you got an opening. Don’t fuck yourself. You’re the most important person here after Avo.”
“Really?”
“I an that functionally and logistically. Practically, you’re still a dumbshit rash-addict.”
“I love you too Draus.”
She gave a disgusted snort. “We’ll be adapting on the fly for the rest.” A thought occurred to her, and she spun up a template of herself. A spectral version of Jelene Draus hovered over her like a shadow, and she looked to the others. “I created a backup that will keep giving dispatches about what to do if I go down. Rest of you should do the sa. Redundancies, consangs. Stay flexible too. Don’t know what’s gonna be coming our way.”
“Wait.” Avo’s voice interrupted all of them. “Sothing you should do before you go down, Draus. Sothing I wanted to do personally earlier. Didn’t have the ti. Got interrupted.”
“Don’t think we have the ti.”
“Don’t worry. A fork of Kae’s already been working on it for a while.”
Draus paused. “What are you talking about?”
“Think you’re going to need a new Heaven to go with your role.”
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