IV-20 Terrify (II)

I've always been interested in borders, even as a child. Borders are fascinating things. A powerful Pathbearer can ignore the borders drawn by a weaker nation, for they are beyond consequence. Yet, the same Pathbearer must recognize the border of a changing biome. If they go north, they will realize snow falling from the sky. They will notice the temperature dropping, how the sun hides itself behind a blanket of dense clouds. They will also regard the threshold between dimensions and worlds to be true, especially when the ambient mana threshold changes.

There are borders in which we imagine into existence, and then there are borders that simply are. Borders are places that denote change, and I think the truest border in existence is that separation between ourselves and the world outside. Many might argue this is purely psychological, that consciousness is more function, and that these are patterns that we choose to see rather than absolute concepts that can be shaped into skills.

I argue differently. I'd argue that every single skill is a border, that they are lined by borders, that they are defined as places unto themselves. Think of your Delves when you descend into a skill to advance to legendary. Are you not in a place, a place shaped from other moments of your past, perhaps, still a place?

And this is why I decided to begin the Thresholder Project, because I wish to discover just how much one person can contain. If nothing else, having the soul infused with the different mana threshold compared to an outer reality will make this individual the most potent bomb.

Or perhaps… Something that chokes the flow of magic entirely…

More research is required.

-Notes recovered from Udraal Thann’s laboratory

IV-20

Terrify (II)

Shiv looked on in surprise, as the once transparent Pathbearer turned visible. For a moment, he thought he was looking through a gap. The once transparent elf thing didn't have any distinct features, for there were none there. Instead, there was simply an absence, an opening. Their body was defined by contours, but now that he studied them, they resembled more of a keyhole than a person. Through that keyhole, which embodied their existence, Shiv saw faint colors oscillating within. 

The undeniable feeling of mana radiated free from the insides of the strange Pathbearer's body, and Shiv fought to process how they functioned at all. They didn't seem to have any organs, they didn't have eyes, ears, or even lips. He had no idea how they were talking to him at all.

Even telepathy required a mind for the composition of thought, so his mouth hung slightly agape until he arrived at his first question. Despite the tenseness of the situation, he didn't really want to offend this most unusual Pathbearer. He didn’t know what they could do, and starting a fight right now wasn’t the best idea. "Were you always like this, or did he make you into this?"

"Udraal. Father-Maker. Before he imagined my creation. There was nothing like me, no one like me, and now there are only a few others." The strange Pathbearer ran a hand across their body, and the only way Shiv knew their arm was moving was due to the different kinds of mana that left their limbs and body, separated by varying gradients. "I am a Thresholder, a thing of boundaries and borders, and my purpose was never a purpose at all. Inside me, there is mana. Of all lores and varieties, of a different ambient threshold."

"Different threshold? Why, though? What's the point of..." Shiv paused. He thought about everything he knew regarding Ambient Mana Thresholds, and quickly came to an uncomfortable guess. "You meant to destabilize worlds somehow? Create mana storms where you go by connecting whatever thresholds inside you with the world outside?"

"That is a cornerstone of my existence," the Thresholder said, sounding miserable, "but is not the only one. The Father-Maker left me in the laboratory for many years, until its spells finally decayed enough to collapse, and I was set free. I did not have a name, I still do not have a name, I am simply Vault Northeast. That is all the distinction he gave me in his documents, but it seems he offered you more. You have a name. A life.”

A faint growl entered the Thresholder's voice then, and Shiv’s Psycho-Cartography picked up. A hint of danger.

Psycho-Cartography: This one's jealous of you. You can hear it in their voice, you can read it in their posture. They're angry that you are more of a person than they are. It's also likely that they're not entirely stable. Not mentally, not magically, not physically. Be very careful what you say or do around them.

"Yeah, well, that wasn't up to me either," Shiv said, holding up a hand in the defense of Jester. "Look, I didn't ask to be, no more than you did. But that probably doesn't matter right now, considering we're both in this shithole prison. But that's where I might be able to offer you the first good turn of your life. You want to get out? You want to go find Udraal once you're out? Because I do. I got plenty of questions to ask him, and you probably do too."

The Thresholder said nothing. For a few seconds thereafter, they simply faced Shiv. He got the distinct impression that they were staring at him, and a faint sense of unease crawled up his spine. The fear chain connecting him to the Thresholder still existed, and grew stronger with every passing second.

It's kind of hard judging someone's mental state by their voice alone, Shiv thought to himself. The posture's there, but it's kind of hard to read, and the man inside them is too chaotic for me to observe any patterns.

"No," the Thresholder suddenly said.

Shiv was taken aback by their disagreement. "No? You don't want to go find Udraal?"

"I wish to never lay my senses upon the Father-Maker. I wish to exist far apart from him in eternal perpetuity. I have seen what he has done to those of my like, and I have survived what they tried to do to me."

Shiv took a slight step backward as his danger intuition screamed at him. "You think I'm a threat?" Shiv asked.

"I do not think," the Thresholder replied. “You are his creation. We are all threats. We are all mistakes.” The mana within them grew brighter, and the first tendrils of magic seeped out from the Thresholder, bleeding into the world itself. As it did, a notification appeared before Shiv's eyes. 

Warning: Mana instability detected. Clashing mana thresholds might result in magical friction.

Shiv's thoughts were cut off as he felt his Biomancy field get frayed. He barely held back a wince as spiritual pain pulsed through his mind. His Biomancy field felt as if it had been dragged across a jagged carpet of gravel. And that was how Shiv learned about mana friction. It also revealed to him the true function of Vault Northeast. They weren't just a bomb, they were likely a magical inhibitor. Something that negatively affected every bit of mana in their surroundings.

His suspicions were proven correct as Bonk, Five, and Rebis all let out mutual gasps. The many spell patterns raining down from the Orichalcum walls nearby were also dissolving, turning to powder with every centimeter they traveled. Shiv kept his Biomancy and other magical fields still. But even so, the grind continued, burrowing through his mana field, then filling him with growing strain. But it wasn't just Shiv and his companions who were affected. 

The other legendary tier prisoners staggered away from the Thresholder, and Urri let out a growl. "Gap! Gap! You're doing it again! Stop! Urri demands it! Stop!"

And just then the Thresholder shuddered. The mana tendrils seeping out from their body were reeled back in an instant. The Thresholder shifted awkwardly. "I've lost track of my... track of myself again. He distracted me."

Psycho-Cartography: Vault Northeast’s Social Skills are likely pretty low. They avoid apologizing, even when it's obviously their mistake. This means they're going to be easy to provoke, especially by us, due to our shared connection with Udraal. They're afraid of us more than the other Legendary prisoners are. We can use that if a fight breaks out. We might not be able to grip their body, but we can still take the fear chain. And if we can hold the chain, we can transfer our shapeless tides into them. My Vitaemancy is also unaffected.

Shiv realized he kept his expression stable as he rolled his neck. "Eh, thanks, Urri," Shiv said, turning his attention to the large Vulteg. "Understand why your friend here might not like me so much. I haven't done anything to the rest of you, and frankly, I got more to offer alive than dead.”

The crystalline column rose behind the huge Vulteg, and it directed a telepathic cry at Shiv, "You're worth more dead than alive, Deathless! Ten Legendary Skills will make me equal to any avatar—more than equal!”

And here came the problem Shiv needed to resolve. Quickly, if he wanted to make use of this horde at all.

"Yeah, if you kill me. Again, if."

"There are sixteen of us," the column declared with a growl in its voice. "You are alone."

"No," Shiv shot back immediately. "There aren't sixteen of you. There's one of you. Because only one of you can get that reward. And as soon as he does, he's going to be pretty powerful. But the rest of you? You're just going to let that felling bastard have that power? Let them figure out how to use it? Pretty risky.”

Silver Tongue

Suddenly, the large Vulteg went still. And he briefly looked over his shoulder at the other legendary tier prisoners. The rest were doing the same. Shiv saw how an automaton that bore a crown composed from ever-changing ones and zeros turned to regard a man growing blade after blade out from his bare flesh. Behind them, a snarling elven woman with a golden shadow hovering a few meters behind her person glared. Her stare was locked on Shiv, then slashed out to direct her loathing at the other prisoners around her. The golden shadow behind her revealed an arm that resembled a scythe-like blade more than a human hand, and the Chronomancy mana radiating from it was beyond dense.

Great. Legendary Chronomancer. Better be careful with that one.

Shiv pressed his advantage. "You know what I'm saying is true. You can all work together and put me down, but before you kill me, the question you need to answer among yourselves is who gets to keep the reward. And the person who gets to keep the reward needs to ask themselves another question. Why won't the rest of you simply turn on them and kill them when the chance comes?"

Shiv finished and let the prisoners nurse on that question. Instead of breaking into discussion, an oppressive silence followed. And Shiv's Psycho-Cartography Shiv triggered once more.

Psycho-Cartography: These prisoners don't have very high social skills. Or if they do, their Psychology is sorely lacking. Suppose it makes sense. I guess it makes sense considering they're prisoners here. I don't know how to imagine someone with a Legendary Psychology Skill or a Legendary Social Skill. But that indicates a deeper level of long-term thinking and rationality. These people don't strike me as rational, but they are extremely self-interested.

But something didn’t fit right. It shouldn’t be the case that all the Legendary-Tier prisoners lacked good Social Skills. No. Shiv considered it for a while longer and came to a simple conclusion: the Legendary prisoners that had good intelligence or social based skills must’ve been in another cube. A place dedicated to containing them specifically.

When none of the prisoners spoke, Shiv took charge of the situation again. "Right, glad you're all as stumped by this problem as I am. But there's something else we have to worry about. See, if we stick around here any longer, an avatar might show up. Because that’s who attacked me earlier. I’m sure a few of you caught sight of the Waifs here. She’ll probably be back if we keep wasting time, so you’ll get to say hi to her in person if we wait.”

Invoking the avatars brought another desired change to the prisoners. Instead of being suspicious and paranoid of each other, they were now anxious as well. They might be Legendary, but Shiv knew that even legendary Pathbearers had limits. His Shapeless Tides Skill Evolution made him a juggernaut, both physically and magically. But he still had no answer against the Daughter's stealth. And he could still be overwhelmed if a few avatars cornered him. The same applied to the rest of these prisoners. He didn't know what Legendary Skills they had, but he was certain that they wouldn't be able to fight off an avatar in a direct confrontation. Not if all the Ascendants arrived at once.

Right. Let’s see if I can convince them to join in with me instead. I’ll work up to the fact that there’s a loop around this place, and I’m the only one that can get us out. Shiv triggered his Outside Context Problem. Then he winked out of existence as he receded into his own soul. And then he merged with a splash of Vitae. It was a calculated gambit meant to shock the prisoners. Urri flunked back. He was faster than Shiv, but not by a lot. That placed him as a high hero for reflexes, rather than a legend. 

Several other prisoners tensed and calmed in the same instant. Shiv barely noticed the changes in their posture. Their movements little more than flickers before his eyes. He grunted as something struck him from behind. Yet it wasn't a physical blow, rather it was a blow sent across time. A shallow golden scar tore pieces away from his temporal shell, and the Deathless offered a flat stare to the most likely culprit. The elf with the golden shadow glared back at him, but her lip curled in dissatisfied frustration.

"What did you just do?" Urri demanded.

"I left—”

“He left this dimension," Shiv was cut off by the Thresholder. And it was then that Shiv realized the Thresholder saw everything. The Deathless frowned. He left context once more and stayed there for a bit longer this time. While the other prisoners flinched and looked around confused, the Thresholder continued staring at Shiv.

Can he see me? A faint violet glow lit the inner gulf of the Thresholder's being, and Shiv knew that was divination mana. He wasn't sure if the Thresholder was aware of him, or if they were simply guided by the magical senses lining their insides. So he called out to them. “Can you hear me?”

The Thresholder shuddered. They turned their heads slightly, as if someone who heard a whisper in the woods ran it rather than a voice calling out nearby.

Okay, kind of weird, but useful to know. Still can't exactly hear me, but you can feel me nearby. Shiv wasn't sure how he felt about that. He already disliked the fact that the Ascendants could use Divination to track him when he was out of context. The last thing he needed was someone else that could counter his unique skill. And if the Thresholder could counter his Unique Skill, that probably meant that Udraal might be able to compromise Shiv's Outside Context Problem, if they ever meant that it's one goddamn problem after another.

Shiv grumbled to himself as he emerged from his soul once more. He halted time only to discover every single Legendary prisoner before him also had a Chronomancy skill. His surprise was deepened as he realized half of them had a Chronomancy skill not too different from his. Rather than forming a temporal shell over their bodies, some had strange animal-like forms made from solid gold, while others projected a small sphere that further expanded outward like a layered onion or a temporal fortress. 

All of them noticed Shiv in short time.

“So. With this skill, I can—”

Only one struck with deliberate violence.

The elf from earlier with the golden shadow came for Shiv again. He didn't know if it was her natural instincts that drove her to strike at, to default, to violence. But considering her Reflexes, she had more than ample time to decide otherwise. The golden shadow ripped free from her person, and Shiv watched as the elf's human base form remained still, a statue bound to the outpaced present. The golden shadow was anything but a statue. It was lightning across time. It was death riding from the future back to the past, seeking to reap a spoil of souls with its bladed arms. 

As it drove its wicked scythe-like limbs against Shiv's torso, he felt a chunk of his temporal shell get slashed free. The slice was so deep and true that Shiv lost three seconds immediately, and before it could cut again, he seized the bladed limb and held it tight.

Inertial Overdrive 133 > 134

His overflow vectors crashed against its plunging blade, and a splash of gold erupted out from the back of the shadow, as Shiv's Shapeless Tides repelled the offending mana. The golden shadow looked upon Shiv and flinched back in surprise. That proved to be a mistake as he drove his head into its chin. Rather than the golden shadow suffering any harm, the elf's jaw jerked aside. 

The shadow tried to rip itself free, but Shiv held on tight to its bladed arm. Just then, its other hand thinned into a rapier, and it plunged, delivering another stab toward Shiv's throat. The shadow was far too fast for the Deathless to react, yet his Shapeless Tides were circulating through his body. 

Another chip of Chronomancy was cleaved free from Shiv's person, yet the golden shadow's blade was knocked aside, wrenched off course by a surging vector of force and countermagic. It tried to attack again, but Shiv stole the momentum and threw himself against its body.

Instead of trying to overpower it entirely, Shiv went along with its force, pulling it in close before wrapping his arms under its body. His Legendary skill fusion wasn't just something born of Physicality and Magical Resistance, it included grappling as well. Grappling taught Shiv about leverage, about joints, and about centers of gravity. The golden shadow might have been a manifestation of Chronomancy, but it was still humanoid, and Shiv was good at wrestling humanoids. 

He wrenched his foe along their midriff, pulling the shadow off the ground, and as they tried to fight the momentum, he suddenly spiked them down the other way, slamming the shadow against the ground. A resounding impact shook the room, and Shiv sprawled atop the shadow's back. Its arms lashed out, but he drove tide after tide into its body, pinning it in place, while circulating other vectors of force along its limbs. He fought to control it at first. The shadow resisted him, kicking and lashing, yet it had no ability to fight off the ground. 

Its ability to resist was further worsened as Shiv drove a knee into its midsection. Once more, the shadow didn't take any damage, but the elf folded slightly, curling over her left ribs.

Shiv stole this opportunity to concentrate every single Overflow Tide he had into the shadow's right arm, and then he inverted half those tides. Fifty percent of the vectors went in one direction, fifty percent went in another. The shadow's arm didn't have joints per se, but it was still mostly solid, and solids had rules. When you bent a solid too much, it would either fold or break, and the golden shadow gave a resounding shriek before the first cracks lined the time-mana forming its body. Shiv let out a growl of effort as he circulated more tides through himself. Every time he got close to being exhausted, a new burst of force flooded his very bones and urged him to fight on.

But then a spearing pain burst from his back, and he looked down to see a golden blade protruding from his chest. He blinked, and as he turned behind, something took him across the top of his head. Death came, and only thereafter did he discover why.

Outside Context Problem 92 > 94

Inertial Overdrive 134 > 137

Strider of the Unbending Path 155 > 158

His vitae emerged from his body as he found his skull split at a 45 degree angle. But that was secondary to the fact that there were thirty other golden shadows that had manifested into existence from out of nowhere. They came right at his body. The shadow he was trying to disable rose just then as well, and they started hacking at Shiv's corpse. In a frenzied instant, there was little left of his body beside blood and giblets.

Shiv was glad that his Voidmantid armor was bound to him. If it stayed connected to his corpse, it would have been utterly mangled as well. Just then, a fourth shadow came for Shiv. Right as his temporal shell was about to break, he almost flung himself back in time, but remembered what happened back at Gate Piety in the last moment. He tried to revert time when dead before, and all it did was rip his Vitae wide open. He needed to resurrect fully and be in a stable state before he could use his temporal anchor. 

The Deathless growled. He launched himself forward and drove his Vitae against the golden shadows. Two of them, when prepared, mostly focused on body. The third parried his Vitae and slit the tendrils he unleashed upon down the middle. Shiv tried to concentrate on both his shapeless tides and his pillar of Orichalcum. But he couldn't. He decided to focus on his Legendary Skill instead.

It proved to be a good choice, as another few hundred golden shadows suddenly exploded out from the thirty. In a moment, Shiv was drowned by a hive of attackers. Blades fell from all directions, from all times. A few golden shadows simply burst into being, as if they had existed then all that time. Only the faintness of Chronomancy warned of their coming. The attacks were overwhelming. By all means, Shiv should have been cut down. But where his Reflexes were lacking, his Shapeless Tides prevailed. 

He channeled vectors across his entire body, Overflow Tides gliding across his Vitae. His Innate Tides were directed outward. Blows that should have cleaved clean through his vitae-forged form were driven back. Chronoromantic blades bounced off of him after leaving shallow gaps like axe heads recoiling from plate armor. Other strikes were dragged off course. His frictionless vector skill activated over and over, causing golden blades to crash against one another. A few times, the golden scab shadows skewered their other selves as well, and through the messy tangle of limbs and shifting bodies, Shiv noticed that the elf was bleeding, her body dotted with small wounds and shallow cuts.

The shadows halted their onslaught, trying to figure out why they were the ones hurt instead of Shiv, and that was their final mistake. He reached out using his Vitae and curled a branching limb around one of the golden shadows, and he pulled, tearing at the life force inside of them. Then Shiv linked his being with integration itself. 

A sudden rush of brilliant red life force exploded through the valley of the prison. All the other Legendary-Tier prisoners turned into fading shadows under that awesome display of light. The Deathless resurrected in an instant. He merged from his pulsating mass of Vitae as he continued ripping the essence free from the golden shadow. It arched its back and writhed. As did all the other shadows.

Then, without warning, they all vanished at once.

He looked toward the elf as she collapsed to her knees, gasping. Her eyes were sunken. Her features were gone. It looked like she'd aged approximately 20 years in an instant. Shiv knew that elves didn't quite grow old like humans did. Before any of the other legendary prisoners could act, he went out of context and rushed through them. Shiv wrapped his hand around the elf's neck, and as they lay, and as their head sagged forward, as they fell, as she fell to her knees, he wrenched her neck off at an angle. He wrenched her neck at an angle, and a satisfying crack filled the room, filled the chamber. The elf gave a vicious cry. 

Despite Shiv's Legendary-Tier Physicality, her head wasn't torn free from her body, rather a few tendons snapped first, then a bone shattered. He tried to fight back, but Shiv ripped some more of her vitality out from her, a burst of red expanded free from his form, briefly shrouding him once more, and the other Legendary-Tier Physicality didn't know how to respond, or were more than willing to let Shiv finish this brawl.

Suspect it’s probably the latter…

He drove the elf against the wall, and a loud crash sounded. She kicked and clawed at him. She was strong, a High Hero at the very least. Her fingers felt like metal hooks as they dug bloody furrows into his skin, yet she couldn't tear fully through his flesh as every vector. He channeled slam into her, sawing against her magical resistance while cracking her bones. A series of Overflow Tides glided across his arm, and they slammed into her fingers at an angle. The fingers broke, the elf screamed. 

Shiv drove his elbow into her throat and lifted her high up along the wall. As he did this, his powers grew, his body got larger, his bones lengthened, his muscles grew dense, and his mana fields thundered with growing power. Shape of Monstrosity took hold, and Shiv saw the elf's eyes widen. He tried to crush her skull. Over a dozen tides collapsed inward, painted vectors lined with mana, crashed against her face and pressed hard upon her flesh. The Magical Resistance lining her body gave first, bursting as if an armored egg beneath a stubborn heel, finally revealing the tantalizing yolk within.

Before he could fully take her life, a burst of gold came, and a golden shadow replaced her. A blade was driven through Shiv’s throat instead. He gagged on his own blood. But before it could sever his vertebrae, he seized it with both hands, and he slammed his palm up along the underside of that golden arm. Shiv directed his anger into his Legendary Skill, and then the activated Icon of the Paindrinker to magnify the damage.

The arm cracked and shattered.

A resounding shriek followed. 

Shiv ripped the blade free from his gored throat and wrenched the golden shadow to the ground. He held its broken arm with all his might, keeping it close to his chest, and he used his tides to snap it further, wrenching it in a circle until it dangled limp and useless. The golden shadow tried to rise. Shiv gripped it by the back of its head and drove it down against the ground in a brutal pile driver. 

Once more a loud impact followed. The sound of a nose cracking popped in the air. Shiv tasted the sweet iron of bitter blood, but he didn't heal himself. The battle haze was on him, and he needed to break his foe. There was going to be a lesson to learn about trying to kill the Deathless.

He got the golden shadow by the other arm, and just then it vanished as well. It vanished and was replaced by two others. Their arms were broken as well, but they drove their working limbs through Shiv's torso. The first passed, cleaning through his pelvis, and he lost all feeling below his right knee. Another went for his test, but Shiv saw that coming. He swatted his side and threw himself against both golden shadows. 

They tried shred him apart, but he knew where they were now, and every sloppy blow they delivered on his back or neck was converted into overflow vectors. Overflow Tides that he did nothing to maintain. They exploded out from him, launching him at odd angles as the vectors activated, turning him into tides of rushing kinetic force. 

As he crashed into the Orichalcum walls, the golden shadows went with him. Rather than continuing with the wrestling match, Shiv drained their vitality once more, and they disappeared predictably.

As they vanished, Shiv tried to stand, yet nearly slipped in his own blood. A small river was leaking out from his gouged throat. He absorbed those injuries using his agency of assimilation and turned to face the other prisoners. The moment he saw their expressions, he gained an intuitive understanding of what was happening.

Psycho-Cartography: Look at them. Look at the light in their eyes. They're enjoying this, but they're also using this opportunity to study how you work, how you fight. None of the others joined in, probably because of what you said earlier. If someone tried to strike you down from behind, someone else needed to beat them to you, or to stop them. Because if anyone killed you for good, they'd be the single strongest creature here, maybe even in the prison, including all the avatars as well. And for a group of legends, and for a group of legendary tier prisoners, that's just not an acceptable risk.

Psycho-Cartography 63 > 66

Shiv stared the prisoners down. He spat thick clumps of blood out of his throat and shook his head in disgust as he saw chunks of flesh resting in the glistening viscera. The golden shadows would had got him good if his tides had flowed just a little bit slower; if he was just a bit unluckier, his head would have been taken again.

"Where is she?" Shiv growled. His eyes jumped from prisoner to prisoner. He watched as the Thresholder stiffened and slowly backed away from him. He watched as fear chains solidified, but only slightly. These were legends, and they did not shake easily. But the fear chains allowed him to do something else. Find the elf without anyone telling him, for only one chain was near entirely solid, and only one chain was moving. Shiv seized that chain with his hand. Immediately, a Shapeless Tide surged along its length, and he followed it upward.

Farsight 56 > 57

The elf was bleeding. She was about a hundred meters in the air, clawing her way along the Orichaclum walls, slashing the red-gold alloy over and over again, trying to cut her way out. Blood spilled out from one of her arms. It was broken. He could see the bone jutting free from parted skin. He also saw her face. It was a mess. She didn't have much of a nose anymore. Instead, it was more like a red crater buried at the center of her face.

"Bback down you come!" Shiv pulled hard on the fear chain, just as the first vector splashed against the elf's body. Shiv let out a cry as she suddenly spiked downward. Her reflexes were fast, but before she could do anything, before she could change places with one of her golden shadows or summon more time constructs, her Magical Resistance broke entirely, and she gave a pained howl. That pain howl turned into a loud groan as she slid face-first along the sides of the wall. A long smear of red painted her trajectory. 

As she was about to land, Shiv stuck his knee out, causing the left to land forehead-first against his protruding limb. Blood erupted from her already compromised face. Pieces of teeth flew out from her mouth like shrapnel. The elf bounced off, groaning in pain, but Shiv seized her by the throat and held up her as if showed the other prisoners his prize.

"You could have stopped," Shiv said calmly, even though that wasn't what he felt. Inside, he was screaming with steaming hot rage. "You could have just let it go. The first time you cut me, I ignored it. Guess that was you being jumpy. Second time, fine. Test the waters. But you kept going, though. You got greedy."

The elf all tried to say something, but all that came out of her was a wet cough. Shiv held her up with a single arm and looked to the other legendary prisoners. "I'm happy that the rest of you were wise enough to stay out of this. Let’s see if we can get this lesson through her thick skull, huh?”" As he studied them, he realized his joke didn't land. “Because I’ve been beating on her?”

Psycho-Cartography: Don't do that again. Also, don't speak without thinking. Your adrenaline is too high. Observe. Think once, think twice, and then speak. If you rush, you will betray yourself.

The prisoners were silent. They watched as he considered what to do with the elf. His first instinct was to kill her, to put her down as an example for the others. It seemed like the logical thing, and it would be a statement of strength. But he took his Psycho-Cartography’s advice for decision-making as well. He thought once about killing the elf, then he thought again, and by the third thought, he guessed. He suspected that there might be something else he could do with her. 

Offering mercy to someone who just tried to kill you didn't seem wise to Shiv. Just because she failed this time didn't mean she would fail the next. She was a Legendary-Tier prisoner. Legendary Chronomancer, that was Shiv's guess. Maybe Legendary in terms of cutting too, though he doubted it. Something about her cuts hinted she was a low Hero or a High Master instead.

"Why, why, why?" the elf muttered, the word whistling out from her mangled face, with wet rasps. "Why can't I heal?" He saw a shudder of gold pass across over her body. "Why am I not healing?"

He realized she was trying to cast herself back in time, or use Chronomancy to avert her wounds somehow. Shiv just chuckled. "Causal Scargiver," he said. She turned slowly, and the fear chain between them became almost adamantine-hard. "It's a Unique Feat, something you get after you hurt someone from the Outside."

“No. You… You couldn’t have.”

“Oh, but I could. And I do hate eldritch bullshit. Your gimmick is pretty simple in comparison.”

Slowly, Shiv's expression turned calculated. The anger remained there, but instead of being hot inflamed anger, it turned cold and patient. His first instinct was wrong. Just killing her wouldn't be punishment. It would simply be the status quo between Pathbearers. Shiv didn't need to adhere to the status quo. He could go beyond it. He could defy it. Shiv could teach them just what they had to lose.

Tendrils of Vitae crawled out from Shiv's hands and burrowed under the elf's flesh. She kicked and writhed, her swollen eyes trying to widen. "No, no, what did you put in me? What did you put in me?" she cried aloud.

Shiv ignored her. He groped through the depths of her soul as he found her chromomancy, and he pressed against it. "I'm considering cracking your skill," Shiv said. The elf went entirely rigid. The fear chain between them was so hard that it felt unbreakable. And then, for the first time, Shiv began using his new Dread-Tainted Feat. He infused fear with every action, and watched as the expressions of the prisoners changed. 

It was subtle at first, nothing more than slight frowns or half steps, but his Shape of Monstrosity was growing at an alarming pace. The dread taint radiated out from him like a festering rot. Images of the daughter flickered over each of the prisoners, especially the elf Shiv was in the process of breaking, and the terror they offered him as tribute gradually began to build. In the case of the elf, it soared.

Shape of Monstrosity 119 > 121

"No, stop, don't, don't." Her pleas went unanswered as Shiv pressed his vitae against her chronomancy skill. As soon as he dipped into its core and infused himself with a new animated skill, he considered shattering her right then and there, but something halted him.

Psycho-Cartography: There are a few paths ahead of us. If we break her, and we cripple her for good, we will give her back to the other Legendary-Tier prisoners, but she will be a liability then, and judging from how they act, it's likely she will be killed. Her life isn't what matters here, though. It's her use. She's a dangerous Pathbearer, and with what her golden shadows can do, she would be an immense help scouting through hostile zones.

"Please, please don't, please," the elf, whimpered. "Don't break the skill. I'm sorry. Great, great legend. Great legend! Deathless! Do not break my skill. Do not unmake me."

Her cries were hysterical, unbefitting of a Legend, yet entirely understandable. Shiv remembered Valor, how depressed the former legend seemed now that he was but a shadow of himself. He remembered Can Hu who yearned nothing more than to return to what he was at his apex. 

It was one thing to die, to be cast from this mortal existence into the great uncertainty that lie beyond, but it was another to be broken while you were still alive, to be rendered less than you could, less than you were, and less than you could ever be, to see your future cut down before your eyes and be forced to live it regardless. There was a great trove of fear down that path, but that was also a path where Shiv lost out on other opportunities. 

He hesitated, and then he leaned down.

"Why shouldn't I break your skill?" Shiv asked.

The elf drew in a ragged breath, and she gripped his arm with her working hand. "Because, because, I'll give you anything, anything, if you would simply spare me." She let out her ragged hiss. “Or just kill me! Kill me! Don't do this! Anything but this! Anything at all."

Shiv wondered how he might react if someone threatened one of his skills. He'd like to think he would have more dignity, but he wasn't sure. It had taken a lot for him. It had taken death and sacrifice for him to become a legend. And if someone else threatened to take it away, to reduce him back to being nothing more than a pathless, very thought-inspired dread inside Shiv himself. And he developed an unwanted burst of sympathy toward the elf.

Ugh, I really don't like this thinking twice thing. It makes me feel shit I don't like, Shiv thought.

Psycho-Cartography: That's part of being alive. That's part of being mature. You want to be more than a brute, deal with it. Deal with the discomfort. The ones who do make the best choices.

Shiv gritted his teeth as he considered the elf once more. He was two steps away from his initial choice now. Originally he was just planning on killing her. Now he wanted to make her a crippled example. But slowly he was moving toward a new thought. A thought that he wasn't entirely sure about.

"Listen," Shiv began licking his lips. "I have planted a magical bomb inside your skill." He lied. The elf shuddered and let out a pained moan. Shiv kept talking. "The bomb will only go off when I want it to. So I'm going to ask you to do a few things for me."

Deception 25 > 27

"I'll do anything," the elf repeated. Her head was bowed. She refused to look him in the face. Shiv wiped her wounds away using his ages and as her crystallized energy injuries glistened around him, she shuddered and lifted her head. "How did you?"

"Causal Scargiver’s a fun Feat," Shiv said. "It wounds things that don't adhere to the natural flow of time or the natural patterns of the world. Or at least that's how I think it works. Doesn't stop me from healing you the conventional way. I want you to understand something right now. This isn't mercy. I'm not giving you mercy. I'm not letting you go with a slap on your wrist. I have you. I have you by the fucking ball, uh..." Shiv cut himself off as he realized he was talking to a female elf. "I have you by the… then…”

“Cunt!” One of the prisoners shouted aloud.

"Thanks, random asshole who'll probably try to kill me later," Shiv replied.

"You're welcome, Deathless. Keep going. I'm kind of enjoying this. Uppity bitch stole my grub once.”

The absurdity of that exchange made Shiv briefly crack up. “Bunch of felling freaks,” he muttered under his breath, "where was I? All right, you're not going free. Your my prisoner now. That bomb is staying inside of you until either you die, I die, or we get out of this prison. So, when I ask you a simple question, do you want to get out of this prison?"

The elf nodded vigorously. "Yes—you… you're not going to break my skill."

And it was back to that question again. She was willing to die instead of losing her skill. That's how much this mattered to her. That's how much being Legendary defined her.

"I'm not going to break your skill yet," Shiv said. "But the future is unwritten and full of potential." His voice ended in a snarl. He grew just a bit larger from that final threat, and he pulled his Vitae free of her body. He wrenched her off the ground and shoved her back toward the other prisoners. "Same goes for the rest of you. This one here is scarred by me. I left something special inside her skill, and if any of you come for me, I want you to understand something. You don't just need to worry about the people beside you. You should worry about me too. You might win. You might take my life. You might get those 10 legendary skills. You fail. And I'm going to give you the deal I gave my orcs."

Shiv turned and looked toward Bonk. "What was the deal I offered you?"

"A perpetual crippling," Bonk said with a wide grin. His arms were behind his back and he was as if a sergeant reciting the orders of a general. "The Vaketh-Insul will see any orc that fends his sensibilities mutilated at the soul, which means even if we do come back, we will come back bloodied, wounded, and perhaps, worst of all, a screaming nugget without limbs, without eyes, without even a tongue. Simply screaming forever and ever lost in the darkness of our own body, our wounded self a cage."

With every lyrical phrase, Bonk spat, Shiv's eyes narrowed a bit more. He expected the orc to simply tell them what was at stake. Instead, Bonk decided to turn this into poetry night or some shit. Some orcs, man, Shiv muttered to himself. "All right, with that out of the way, does anyone else want to take their shot at me?"

None of the other prisoners moved, none of them aside from Urri, who took a step forward. Shiv clenched his fists. He still wasn't as big as the massive Vulteg, but the size difference between them had shrunk considerably ever since Shiv started gaining power from his Shape of Monstrosity. The Vulteg looked down at Shiv with his single bloodshot eye, and the Deathless read something other than apprehension in his gaze. 

Instead, the Vulteg seemed impressed.

"You. You have courage, Spawn of Legend Udraal.”

“Never call me that shit again,” Shiv growled back.

The Vulteg ignored him. “To threaten sixteen foes. Sixteen foes at your tier level or greater. It takes great courage. Great courage." The Vulteg slowly laughed. "Lord Scorn would quite like you."

Shiv nearly folded over laughing, if only the Vulteg knew who he was talking to. And just then, another thought occurred to Shiv. If he was going to save Adam, he needed to keep this Vulteg as far away from Adam as possible. Or he needed to lie about who Adam was. The Vulteg might have been interred in a Republic prison, but as far as Shiv knew, world quests weren't blocked here, and the system's reach couldn't be denied. 

Urri likely knew about the corpse shatter and the infamous atom arrow. And that brought him to another consideration. Just like how the challenger could stare at the world through Shiv, or at least spectate over what Shiv was doing at any given moment, perhaps Lord Scorn could do the same with his Vultegs.

Oh hell, Shiv thought to himself, better be real careful around this one.

"Lord Scorn, huh," Shiv said, doing his best not to reveal any hints that already knew about the Vulteg god. "Quite the name.”

“A mighty god! An indifferent but just god!" Urri insisted. "Perhaps if we are freed, I can introduce you to him. He might even offer you sanctuary in his realm. Sanctuary and the position. I am high marshal of the Vulteg." The large Vulteg frowned slightly. "At least Urri was. Until I was betrayed by one of my own, trapped here in this feeble prison." He sneered at the Orichalcum walls. “A feeble prison that will hold me no longer, and does not hold you either." 

He looked at the other prisoner and let out a bark. "He lives. For now he lives. He has proven his valor to be metal. There is iron in his veins. So I declare upon my Vulteg honor that he will not be struck down in shadow nor light." The massive Vulteg held out a fist. "This Urri's declaration. Who else shares in this?"

The other prisoner simply regarded the Vulteg, but few of them responded outright. However, Shiv noted the hesitation gripping a few of them, and decided to take advantage of that. "I'm not demanding that all of you follow me. You don't need to do anything. You can flee right now, but I'm going to tell you this much. We've wasted plenty of time here. The avatars, the only reason why they're not here is because they're hunting for someone else. They're hunting for someone else, and they're trying to use him as a lure for me. I'm going to find him before they do. And after that?" Shiv flapped his dimensional cape. "After that, you're all welcome to stay inside this cape."

They all stared at him. Shiv realized how awkward that sounded. Shit, I really need to upgrade silver tongue. Sometimes spitting the first thing that comes to mind doesn't really work.

Psycho-Cartography: Think twice.

"It's not a trap," Shiv said, and then he winced. Instead of continuing on and making things worse, he thought twice. "It's a dimensional cape. There is a category one dimension inside. You can probably reside there, and I can get us through the time loop."

"Time loop?" Urri said. He sounded surprised. 

And that's when Shiv realized that most of the legendary tier prisoners likely didn't know about the mid-years layout. "All right, how many of you know where we are?"

A few of the Legendary-Tier prisoners let out grunts. "We're in a Rubix Well." The man with blades growing out of his flesh said, he shrugged. "Don't know much about that. Beyond that, could be in any Rubix well as far as I know. My guess, though, we're in the capital Rubix Well." He spat off to the side, and his saliva smashed into the skull of a downed warden. It punched a hole through the helmet and even dented the Orichalcum beneath. "We're pretty heavyweight prisoners. It's where I'd keep us. Close to the seed of the Ascendant's power. Close and easy to smash if we ever get out."

The Binaric-Crowned automaton paused then. "If that theory is true, then my best guess as to our exact location is under the Throne."

"The Throne?" Shiv asked.

"A colloquial name for the Yellowstone Supervolcano," Five interjected. All heads turned to the Wolfman as he continued with his elaboration. "I suspected but wasn't sure. If we are in the Supervolcano, that means that even after we get through the Nadir, we will be surrounded by lava and divinely infused lava that he'll wince lightly. Not quite sure how we're going to overcome that problem, but I'm almost certain that there is some kind of mechanism connecting the outside world to the lava."

"That takes quite a bit of mana, and sometimes magic is unreliable," Five said. "No, it must function without attuned magic or divine intervention. Redundancies matter. That makes it reliable. You don't want something that can become just as much a prison for your guards as it does for the prisoners."

That sort of made sense. Shiv didn't know enough about prisons to contradict the Wolfman. "Alright, we'll deal with that problem once I figure out the first.  I'm going to make this plain. I'm not leaving this prison until I save my friend. That’s the only reason I’m still here. If he wasn’t, I would be long gone. The Ascendants and their avatars are going to go looking for him too. Now, I have no intention of running from the bastards. I know how powerful they are. I know what they can do. Well, some of them." 

Shiv looked off to the side. He'd already experienced brief encounters with Daughter and Cripple. Not to mention his ugly experiences with Kathereine and Halsur when they were infused inside Stormhalt's body. "I'm not letting that run me off. In fact, I'm going right for them. I intend to cripple whatever avatar comes my way. I intend to make a mess of this prison. I intend to survive and eventually take bloody retribution on these bastards. Now, if you want to leave, I'm good with that. But if you want to square some debts for all the years you spent in this prison, well, I might have an angle on that as well. 

“All I can say is you won't be making it out without someone who knows the layout of this place, and if you want that reward on my head, I just want you to know that you’re probably not making it out of this prison without me, so you can’t enjoy it.”

And soon the prisoners were looking at each other. No longer did they gaze at Shiv as if he was a prize to be won or some lamb to be slain. Instead, there was a glow of opportunity in their eyes. But Shiv knew better than to let down his guard. They were likely only biding their time. Some among them would still try to come for his head if he ever gave them the opportunity. At least for now, they weren't going for him openly anymore.

"Very well," Urri said, clasping his hands together. His head tentacles curled and Shiv got the faint impression that the Voltag was grinning. "If you are intent on making an enemy of the Ascendants, then you will need mighty, mighty allies. Urri am mighty. I cannot be stopped. And the Ascendant dogs owe years taken from Urri’s life.”

Shiv briefly remembered stopping Urri earlier, but he decided not to mention it considering the Voltag was volunteering. I need to figure out what to do with him. If he sees Adam, I'm probably going to definitely have to kill him. Probably closer to a question of when right now.

"You serious, Urri?" one of the other prisoners grunted. "That enough that we're not going for this guy's, uh," the blade-covered prisoner stopped talking as he noticed Shiv glaring at him. He wasn't entirely afraid, but that didn't mean he wasn't wary of the Deathless. He grunted with displeasure. "Look, I know some of you guys might be trying to get recaptured or put down like dogs, but that's not what I'm into. I got out of this cell, and I'm gonna stay gone. It doesn't matter if I have to die or complete this escape. Hey, what are you undoing?”

Shiv took a few steps toward the wall and slammed his fist into it. As soon as he did, a cube-shaking impact tremored through the space. Vectors slashed out from his body and crashed against the Orichalcum. One after another, the Shapeless Tides hammered against the red-gold material until finally it ruptured with the loud shriek and slowly Shiv began to peel this large section of the metal away, letting out a growl of exertion as he worked his Legendary Skill hard. 

With that finally done, a five-meter opening was made and Shiv gestured out into the crawlspace. "All right, anyone who doesn't want to come with me is free to go."

He stared at the prisoners. None of them moved. None of them moved immediately anyway. "I can't guarantee you'll know where to go or that you won't get lost among all the gears and shit. I've been outside. I don't know if any of you have, but if you know the layout of this prison, then you'd understand that you're just part of one cell. There are a bunch of different cubes and they're all moving constantly. Each one sliding into place right next to another. 

“Where we are right now might be entirely different than just a few minutes ago. And if you keep going, you'll probably find your way out from the maze of cubes, but then you'll be hitting the time loop. If you don't have strong enough magic or means of slipping past it like I do, well, you're probably just going to get launched back in time and stuck here anyway."

The Deathless shook his head and sighed dramatically. "There are layers to this prison. Lots of layers. I might be able to make it out with my Unique Skills, but the rest of you? Well, let's say you do kill me at some point. I really wonder, how are you going to get past the time loop? How are you going to avoid the notice of the avatars? Even if everything goes right, how are you getting out of here?"

There was no answer to that. Despite being Legendary-Tier prisoners, this was a prison meant to hold them. They really didn't know how trapped they were. More importantly, they didn’t have the capability to vanish from someone else’s awareness by sinking into their own soul. When no one walked out through the gap, Shiv just shrugged. "Well, looks like you're all picking the only other choice there is. Come with me and we can deal with our Ascendant problem. No, you can't talk me into leaving early. Yes, you can stay here if you want, but you know what's going to come if you do that."

Silver Tongue 36 > 37

"What are we going to do right now?" the Binaric Crowned automaton asked Shiv. “Updated: What do you intend to do right now?”

"Right now?" Shiv trailed off. He wasn't exactly sure, either. It took him a moment before he remembered what he wanted from Five. "Five?" Shiv called out. "Tell them what you need. See if they can speed this up with one of their skills, somehow.”

The prisoners all turned to regard the wolf-man, and Shiv noted how the Aviary Agent barely reacted to the collective gazes of sixteen other Legendary-Tier prisoners.

"As you wish," Five began. "I'm looking for a prison cell in this cube.”

A chorus of muted laughter came from the other prisoners. "Take your pick," the crystalline column said. It tilted its body and jabbed itself at one of the nearby portholes lining the ground.

"I should elaborate more," Five continued without offense. "I'm looking for one with a particular spell combination circulating across its walls.”

The prisoners all looked at each other, and a few of them shuffled. "Well, there's a lot of cells here. I don't think you expect us to go through all of them."

Five simply nodded. "Of course. I expect you all to be helpful and speed this process along.”

"So what, we're all going to be errand boys now?" another prisoner called out. This one was a large human. Instead of having flesh or skin, however, their body was veined with strained coursing lightning, while a layer of glowing stone formed an exoskeleton around them. "If you think—"

"What patterns?" the elf that Shiv nearly broke earlier said aloud. It was the first thing she said ever since Shiv left her alive. He made eye contact with her again, and she flinched away from him. “What are the patterns? I can find it. I will send my Shadows of Futures Coming.”

Everyone else was looking at the elf, and Urri's mouth was slightly agape.

Psycho-Cartography: This could be a trap, or it could be our choice turning out good for us. There are many ways to use fear. Some of them come with the benefits of mercy. Sometimes, mercy is strength.

Instead of telling the elf, five held out a hand, and three different spell shapes formed. The first looked like an arcing symbol with three dots in the middle. Following that, there were two lines with a triangle infused with complex geometries. The third was a fractured rectangle with strange circuits running in between. 

Before Shiv could fully remember the symbols, the elf sent out a small army of golden shadows. They expanded more and more with each passing second. They cut free from the elf’s person, gliding through the crowd and circulating through the valley. More shadows appeared over every porthole, over and descended into every cell. Shiv was staggered by her efficiency. More than that, Shiv was impressed by how soon she located what the Aviary agent was looking for.

"I found it," she called aloud. Every single shadow snapped back inside her, and Shiv wondered how her Chronomancy worked. He didn't see an extension of her running in the past. Could it be that she was launching projections into the future instead? That was useful. And if she could cast multiple versions of herself across time…

If I could do that, I'd be beyond unstoppable. Shiv's imagined version of himself that could fight across the future. Chronomancy was a hell of a Magical Skill.

"Wonderful," Five said. He walked toward the elf with both hands clasped behind his back. "Show me. After that, I think I’m going to give my associates a house call.”

She broke free from the other prisoners, and almost reluctantly, they followed along as well. They kept their distance from the elf and Fives, and they only started moving after Shiv did. While he walked, Bonk came beside him and began keeping pace with Shiv while retreating backward. He kept his eyes on the other prisoners, and he grinned widely at them.

"Bonk, what are you doing?" Shiv said.

Just then, Rebis appeared right next to the wolf-man, and he stayed close. The elf regarded the amalgamated Pathbearer, but she didn't do anything. Shiv understood what the cyborg was trying to do. Fives was his friend, and he was going to make sure the elf didn't harm him.

"I'm just making sure no one tries to take a run at you again,” Bonk said.

"Didn't want to help her earlier?" Shiv asked.

"Oh, you seemed like you had that. Besides, I wanted to be entertained as well," the orc sighed. "But it was a wise thing you did."

"What, letting her live? I didn’t expect you to approve.”

The orc simply smiled. "Insul. Sometimes the most delightful cruelty to inflict is letting your enemy know that you could have taken their life at any time. Sometimes, mercy is dominance."