IV-19 Terrify (I)

You’re wrong, Shiv. Dead felling wrong. Gods, boy, it’s like you’re not paying any attention at all. The reason why the Swan-Eating Toad works isn’t fear. People don’t cook here because they’re afraid of me. I’m not dangerous. My Physicality is shite. My magic’s pathetic. I’m not a dedicated warrior and my Toughness is so low that I still get burned touching the bloody stove sometimes.

There’s nothing about me that’s terrifying to most Pathbearers. But there are plenty of things about me that make people feel uncomfortable.

Why do you listen to me? Why do you always do what I tell you to without question? Beyond the mithril. Hells, with how much you like watching people and figuring them out, you would have made a good enough thief. It’s not terror. I’m definitely not as intimidating as a Lesser Vampire. Well, stop staring at me like a dead fish. You know the answer. You do—don’t be dumb. Think about it for a second.

Disappointment. Right. But that’s only half of the answer. What else? Yes. You want to be here. You want to be in this kitchen. You want to spend time with the other chefs and make good food. It’s not rational, it’s sometimes miserable and stupid, but you love it and want it and that means the world to you.

It’s coming from inside you. I’m not making you do anything. Just like I don’t make people cry when I yell at them. If I yelled at someone who didn’t care, they wouldn’t cry at all. They would tell me to fuck off or just leave. But the chef’s here are terrified of disappointing me, because I echo how they feel. I am here determining their futures. I control what they think of themselves. And I didn’t take that from them, they gave that power to me.

Want. And then consequence.

You want to be a good chef. So you peel the potatoes. If you do well, the reward is that you’ve made a portion of a good meal. If you do poorly, I’ll ask you how many times you were dropped on your head as a child because I’ll be godsdamned pissed across every hells, yeah? Because it’s consequence for me, too, since it’s affecting everyone’s pace. But it’s consequence for you because what you want isn’t being met. What you want is taking damage. Your idea of yourself is taking damage.

And that’s what breaks many chefs. They can’t deal with the consequence. It’s bigger than the want.

Life’s complicated. Being head chef is complicated. People need to fear you—but they need to fear you because they want to fear you. Because it means something to see something done well. Leadership is someone giving you their fear, their efforts, their suffering, their all.

All to make something that’s better than shit. You get it? Good. Now. Clean this shit up and tell Lucessia she’s fucking gone. That dumb bot can’t cook worth a godsdamned shit.

-Georges Archambault to Shiv

IV-19

Terrify (I)

Shiv regarded the Ascendant in silence. Cripple wasn’t the type to lie—not to anyone but itself. Even if it was speaking the truth regarding Rebis or Five, Shiv still felt like he owed them something. And leaving them here in this prison felt crueler than just murdering them. Death was one thing, but being caged for year after year? Being made into an experiment? That was a special kind of torture.

And it’s not something I can accept, Shiv realized. What the Ascendants were doing here was basically ork-shit with extra bullshit to justify all the brutality and torture. Just because someone else was a godsdamned bastard didn’t mean that you had to be. Killing them was one thing. Protecting yourself was one thing. Butchering them and using them was like trying to insulate some of your own wretchedness.

But Shiv thought back to the vampires at Gate Piety—at the experiments he used them for and realized he might be a bit of a hypocrite right now. They were vampires that tortured and inflicted their depravity upon the world. That was true. Shiv felt nothing when he hurt or broke them, but that’s because his experiences with the First Blood were nothing but violent and foul.

The Ascendants might be the same way about these prisoners. What if they saw Rebis or Five like how Shiv saw the First Blood? What if Shiv truly learned of the sins his fellow prisoners committed to see themselves interred here. What would he think then.

My ethics might be a bit too underdeveloped, the Deathless thought to himself. I really need to think more about this. But I also kind of don’t because the world’s a felling mess.

Philosophy 16 > 17

“Cripple,” Shiv began, sticking to his instinctive candor. “I kind of feel like I owe these guys something. But now I might owe you a bit too. So. Yeah. Can I have a second.”

The expanse of light that compromised the Ascendant’s domain shifted slightly. “We do not have long.” Shiv heard a strange tension in Cripple’s voice just then, and the Ascendant let out a weary sigh. “And once more I see the depths of my actions. How… old are you?”

“Why’s that matter?”

“Because this entire time I have been treating you like you are warrior, but with your words just now, I understand you are but a child.”

“Look. I might just be eighteen—”

“It is not solely your age. It is also what you have experienced. What you have done. Do you have many regrets, Deathless?”

Shiv didn’t hesitate when it came to that question. “Yeah. My Legendary delve was made from my regrets. I hate the fact that innocent or weak people die a lot when I fight. I hate the fact that I’m not strong enough to stop them from getting caught in the crossfire when I run up against something strong.” He paused and fought through his discomfort. “I hate that I’m responsible for their ends. I hate it.”

“It is a good thing to despise,” Cripple sympathized. “But you are not unique. Collateral damage is almost impossible to avoid if the circumstances are ill and the moment is wrong. I have tried to protect many people. I remember their faces. I remember failing them. All of them. I have forgotten none.”

And that inadvertently made Shiv feel a bit worse as he only recalled a few select people from his past. Leu and the boy that 811 killed were at the top. The others were more like silhouettes to Shiv. They were more conceptual entities with faces and theoretical lives than actual victims. It didn’t make it any better.

“It’s not supposed to be this way,” Shiv muttered.

“The system care little if the weak and feeble live or die,” Cripple replied with a softer tone. “We might. But there is a limit to what can be done. This also does not apply to the people you feel honor and loyalty to. These are good virtues to have. Have no one tell you otherwise. The Republic would not exist if these values were not enforced to some degree, but there is folly in giving too much clemency to those who would not offer it in return.”

The battle-loving part of Shiv wanted to argue with the Ascendant some more just for the sake of arguing, but he refrained. It wasn’t a good use of time right now, and Shiv had another idea. “How about this: I do whatever I can to keep your wardens alive while recruiting whatever prisoners I need to get Adam back. Once I find him and make sure he’s safe, we can talk about if these guys should stay in this place or not.”

“Why then?” Cripple asked. “Are you planning to defer this choice to your friend?”

“I’m planning to ask him about it, at least,” Shiv said. “I don’t think I’m a bad guy, but sometimes I… I guess I don’t really care enough about things or people. And I haven’t thought about problems like this nearly enough. Adam probably has. And whatever he decides, it’s probably as close to proper righteousness as anyone can get.”

A mechanical rumble sounded from all sides. “You think that much of him?”

“More than you can ever know. Guy’s got the biggest heart. Even after he got dragged down into the Abyss, all he could think about was saving Blackedge and stopping another war. And anytime someone needed him, he was there.” Shiv chuckled to himself as he remembered Adam’s adventures across Weave, catching serial killers and talking automata off ledges. “He’s my favorite asshole.”

Silver Tongue 33 > 36

A somber silence filled the bright expanse, and then it suddenly began to dim. “Very well. But understand I will not put the Republic at stake. These prisoners are beyond dangerous. And unlike you, they hold few of your virtues close to heart. You will learn of their depravity firsthand soon. Take care not to expose yourself to them. They will bite down on your neck if granted the chance.”

“And if I do, I’ll deal with it and then I’ll deal with them,” Shiv said. “Can’t be worse than running with a bunch of orcs.”

The Challenger is amused by the Ascendant’s worries.

Cripple the Strongest rebuffs the Challenger’s presence from his domain.

Shiv felt himself getting displaced. Slowly, patches of color were bleeding through the bright canvas shrouding the world around him, and the weight of Cripple’s presence began to recede as well. “I am being summoned. Apparently, Adam Arrow has escaped. Under Stormhalt’s supervision, no less.”

A loud snort escaped from Shiv, and he couldn’t stop it from turning into a resounding laugh. “Well, now we’re at two people you shouldn’t have placed in this prison.”

A drone came from the Ascendant. Shiv felt a faint vibration rattle forth from the reactor core he was still holding. “There is another matter related to his escape: Do you have another comrade here with you aside from the orc? A female Biomancer or someone capable of shape-changing?”

Shiv frowned. “What? No.” For a moment, he considered the possibility that Uva got back to Adam somehow, but it didn’t seem likely. Especially with her being trapped in the Outside. “Why? Wait, did someone break him out?”

“One of our wardens, it seems.” Cripple sounded half distracted. “You are unaware of anyone else assisting you in this prison?”

“The only other person I can think of vanished into the Outside along with Blackedge. Or so you claimed earlier.”

A low grunt of displeasure escaped the Ascendant. “Worrying. Master-Avatar. Stormhalt is currently broadcasting orders to all active personnel in Spine-B-12—one of the central control cubes meant to relay commands and control the settings for various Zeroth Prison Cubes.”

And Bonk probably took control of one of those cubes earlier, used whatever network they had to release a bunch of prisoners.

“Okay, so do they know where he is?”

A few seconds of silence passed. Then, Cripple continued. “Adam and his mystery left through a teleportation anchor. They were intercepted by one of our Groundskeepers—a warden specializing in returning Legendary-Tier prisoners to their cells.”

“Yeah, real cute felling name,” Shiv growled. “Alright. Give me his last known location. I’ll grab however I can and… Hm. The other avatars will be on the scene first, won’t they?”

“That is a high likelihood.”

“Okay. Rushing in is probably not the best idea. I need someone with Stealth capabilities. Legendary-Tier Stealth.”

As Shiv continued his musings, the incandescent mana surrounding him shuddered and thinned. Cripple’s presence grew ever-fainter as well. “I am being summoned by the other Ascendants. Doubtless they are recalling me to help secure Young Lord Arrow. I suspect they intend to use him as bait. But I think I will have words with them about Daughter’s gluttonous behavior and City-Lord Stormhalt’s questionable deeds.”

“Any chance you can put the bastard down?”

“It is unlikely,” Cripple answered with a growl of dissatisfaction. “I do not fear Halsur. I will face Halsur if it means punishing Stormhalt for everything he has done on top of his most recent failure. However, I cannot go against Kathereine.”

Shiv narrowed his eyes as he detected both shame and fear in the Ascendant’s voice. “Look. I know talking about her bothers you something bad and how you won’t tell me what she has on you, but can you let me know about her weaknesses or something? Anything that I can take advantage of?”

“There is nothing,” Cripple said, his voice reverberating with a terror-stained hollowness. “I cannot say. I cannot. She will know. And she will take what is left of me. She will take and she will not give it back until she is satisfied.” Shiv tasted the sheer amount of dread radiating from Cripple like it was a spike in the temperature. The air around him stank with humid fear.

Psycho-Cartography: Cripple is clearly mentally burdened. It likely has several issues related to self-loathing. There’s a bit of depression in it as well. Kathereine is a social god. This is just a nightmare match up for Cripple. And us as well. We stay away from that woman at all costs. We leave a temporal anchor anywhere we go so we can bug out and get away from her if things go to hell.

Cripple broke out of his quavering stupor. “Keep my avatar’s reactor core close to you. I will be silent for a time, but through the core, I will still be able to communicate with you when the moment allows for it. When you reach Adam, I will send a cube out to receive you. It should be able to hide your presence and allow us all to speak at length about recent happenings.”

Once more, Shiv’s paranoia reared its head. The Deathless promptly stomped on the feeling as there would be no point to capturing both him and Adam at the same time. Again, Cripple could have simply aided his fellow Ascendant earlier if he wanted Shiv captured. “Got it. You’ll be able to track me with this core, won’t you?”

“It is necessary. If you do not trust me—”

“It’s fine. I think we’re both past that point now. If the other Ascendants manage to recapture me and peek into my mind, how much trouble will you be in if they see this conversation we just had?”

“I do not wish to think of such things,” Cripple whispered. 

A beat of awkwardness slid between them, and Shiv grunted. “Alright. I’ll see if I can figure where Adam is without getting myself put back in a cage. You better get back before the other false gods start getting more weird feelings about you.”

“Mind yourself, Deathless. And mind who you decide to use for this task. The prisoner’s in the Nadir are powerful and without remorse. You may think yourself a Legend, but you have only the single skill. There are many here that can slaughter the capital alone if not for our own Legends. If not for the Ascendants and the avatars. I will hold you to your words about my wardens and beg that your deeds will live up to your beliefs.”

“I’m damn sure going to try,” Shiv said in reply.

Cripple gave a distorted hum. “That is all that can be done sometimes.”

With that, the talk between them came to a close. A thunderclap of pressure shook the brilliant domain, and the divine mana crashed toward Shiv in receding waves. Rather than slamming into his body, the incandescence narrowed into streams and wormed into the reactor core Shiv now clutched in his left hand. With the final motes of brightness faded, he found himself hovering in the crawlspace, staring at a shredded Orichalcum wall. There was still a lingering stench in the air, but with Daughter missing, it wasn’t nearly as bad. He placed the reactor core into his cape and stepped forward. Shiv lined the underside of his feet with vectors and dashed through the air. He entered the prison cube again in search of Rebis—and then realized Bonk and Five probably heard the entire conversation.

I completely forgot about them. Well, might as well get this over with. “Five. Bonk. Come out. I think we got some stuff to talk about.”

Neither the orc nor the wolf-man replied immediately. Shiv frowned as he landed at the valley floor of the prison. There were bodies everywhere. Dismembered wardens littered the ground, and smears of their blood painted the walls. Most of them were crushed and mangled in strange ways. It looked as if a giant hand squeezed them until their organs were forced out from inside their body.

Shiv remembered the massive Vulteg that he halted earlier. Urri, Shiv thought his name was. Maybe this was his doing. Distant sounds of battle rang out from ahead and behind, and Shiv considered calling out for Rebis. Drawing attention himself might not be the best idea right now, but he needed—

Something crashed into Shiv. The Deathless felt his heart drop as he reacted. He seized his attacker by the neck and drove them against the Orichalcum wall. A resounding crash rang out. The attacker writhed. Shiv gathered his Shapeless Tides and repared to rip them asunder. Pointed vectors of force speared along his arms and stabbed against his adversary. Just as Shiv was about to pull his newest victim apart, he hissed and stopped himself.

“Rebis,” Shiv snapped, looking at the badly damaged cyborg. “The hells. Don’t just throw yourself at me like that.”

The amalgamated Pathbearer was not in good condition. His human side was bleeding and wounded in a dozen places. Blood seeped out from his many cuts and his skin bounced in parted flaps. Smoke rose from sparking wires protruding from his mechanical side. Despite this, Rebis was still combat-capable.

“S-sorry,” Rebis said, pointing his face away from Shiv. The cyborg’s wings twitched a few times before ultimately going slack. “I was… I moved too fast.”

Shiv let Rebis good and used his Aegis of Assimilation to drain away the wounds he could. As he turned the cuts lining Rebis into crystallized mana, the cyborg glanced down at his human half in surprise before briefly shooting Shiv a glance.

“Glad the Daughter didn’t kill you,” Shiv muttered. “She tore you up something bad, though. Damn that’s a lot of cuts.”

“No,” Rebis said, shaking his head violently.

“No?” Shiv asked, not understanding what the cyborg was referring to.

“Not a lot of cuts. They cut more when they experiment on me. They cut more when they are trying to put things inside.”

“Oh. Yeah. Sorry. Bunch of felling bastards.”

Rebis gave Shiv a twitching nod.

“Five. Bonk. You guys alright?” Shiv called out again. When they were still no response, Shiv knew something terrible had happened. He adjusted the spatial fabric of his cape and moved the Forest of Alloy in place. If Bonk or Five wanted to step out, they could do so with ease now. But the Deathless didn’t intend to wait. He poured his Biomancy down into the cape to figure out why the two were so quiet.

He got his answer almost immediately. Bonk was mostly fine. His body was mapped by Shiv’s crimson mana, and aside from a few new cuts along his arm, he was hale and robust. He, however, was absolutely still, and something was pressing up against his neck. Bonk was also holding Five up in the air by his head. His fingers were clenched rather tightly around the wolf-man’s skull, and a few cracks lined the organic parts of Five’s skeletal structure.

“Broken Moon. Guys, what the hells are you doing inside there? Bonk, couldn’t you keep your itch in check for one—”

“You heard the Ascendant, Insul! He’s a spy! We don’t leave spies alive. Especially not rats from Aviary. We can’t just let him go. He’ll do rat things and rat on us to the other rats. Why, he’s probably not even an actual lupine. He probably has some kind of blessing meant to make him resemble a wolf-man so he can infiltrate their society and bring them down from the inside.”

“My task was to solely observe,” Five said, sounding as displeased as Shiv could recall. “I was not meant to serve as a direct action asset. It was a vacation detail. One that would have stayed that if my damnable greed didn’t get the better of me.” The wolf-man sighed. “Deathless. I understand if this makes things a bit strained between us, but understand that I didn’t lie to you. I was trapped here for a very long time, and I did end up getting trapped here because I was performing a heist in your Republic. A heist meant to take back something they stole first from my adopted people.”

Shiv’s right eye twitched.

Psycho-Cartography: If your question is if this spy is using some kind of social skill to influence you, the answer is yes. You can’t trust him. Not any further than you can trust a fox in a hen house. The wisest thing to do is to kill him.

But as Shiv thought about things a bit longer, he realized murdering Five wasn’t the best play. Not when he had another lie-happy sociopath he could command.

“Something wrong?” Rebis gasped.

“Give me a second,” Shiv said, ignoring the spasming cyborg for now. “Alright. Rebis. If that’s your real name, don’t use your Social Skills on me again. If you do, things get unpleasant. Bonk. Watch him but don’t kill him yet.”

“Why not?” The orc complained. “He’s right here. I have him in my hand. All I need to do is squeeze.”

“And all I need to do is push and your throat will have a new hole in it,” Five replied without any hint of worry. The wolf-man was cool as a cucumber, and Shiv suspected he probably a few more tricks up his sle—eh, fur.

“Just watch him first,” Shiv said. “He probably wants to get out as much as we do. He still might be useful and…” The Deathless stared at Rebis. “Hey, Rebis. How likely are you to try and tear me and my orc apart if we end up killing Five?”

Rebis began shaking violently as he gritted his teeth. “Don’t—no—nonono!”

“Yeah, that’s what I thought,” Shiv said. He held up a hand as Rebis’s twitching got worse. “Don’t worry, we’re not going to murder him. Just wanted to know where you stood. You know he’s an Aviary agent, right?”

Rebis looked down at the ground. He went non-verbal after that. Five’s answered on his behalf. “He doesn’t. I didn’t tell him. And he likely won’t be able to fully understand either. The information is there, but he has a hard time processing complicated things. If you haven’t noticed so far, he’s very much impulse and emotion-driven. The mechanical processing portion of his brain hasn’t been fully refined yet.”

A low moan escaped the cyborg as he fought to control his wings. Shiv did everything he could not to visible grimace. Every fiber of his being screamed for him to euthanize Rebis. The poor bastard was beyond tortured. But he knew the cyborg still had their uses. And he needed every edge if he wanted to find Adam and get him out of this place.

“I’ll have you know, there’s another reason why you should keep me alive,” Five said again. “On top of the fact that it will break poor Rebis’s heart.”

“Yeah? What’s that?”

“Your friend. The Ascendant said he was helped by a warden during his escape? Well. I think that might be one of mine.”

Something clicked into place inside Shiv’s head. “Of fucking course they are,” the Deathless growled. “Godsdammit, Five, did you know about this shit? Was this part of Aviary’s plan?”

The wolf-man let out a soft laugh. “Truthfully? I have no idea. I am a genuine prisoner, but I know of a few ravens here among the wardens. And they have been working with me to further subvert his prison. But I highly doubt the Stolen Throne knew about Young Lord Arrow’s presence within this Rubix Well until just a few hours ago at the most. We are informed, but not prescient.”

Psycho-Cartography: I don’t know if he’s bullshitting you or not. 

Shiv bit back a groan of agitation and decided to take a gamble. “Right. Bonk. Let Five go. Five. Do you have any idea how we can get in touch with these ravens? Because I think I might have better odds of finding Adam if I find them instead of rushing after his last known location. That’s where all the avatars and wardens are going to be soon anyway.”

“Good instincts,” Five said. A lull entered the conversation as the wolf-man stepped out from Shiv’s cape. He appeared first. Bonk followed him a second after, keeping his club pointed at the wolf-man. “And to answer your question, yes. Yes, I might just a be able to find one of my associates. But there are no guarantees that your friend will be with them.”

“I got a hunch,” Shiv said. “Adam’s no idiot. He’s not going to stick around and wait for the Ascendants to take him. He won’t like working with a raven, but he’ll do it.”

“Or so you hope,” Five said casually. He looked down at the dead wardens nearby and hummed. “We should move too. We need to find a subverted anchor. Aviary has its own teleportation network hidden within the existing spells. We just need to find the right interface. After that, well, it’s more a matter of hoping they respond.”

“What do you mean?” Shiv asked.

“Someone neesd to be operating this hidden set of Dimensionality spells, of course. Our little tunnels won’t just trigger for anyone that uses them. Or trigger at all should there be no active raven on standby.” Five gave Shiv a shrug. “I just want you to know that nothing is certain here. This might not pan out, and well be back to doing things the hard way.”

“That, or you’re covering your ass,” Shiv said flatly. Five offered him a sheepish grin. Shiv grunted. “Fine. Let’s get the hells out of here and find one of these anchors before someone—”

“YOU!” A booming voice nearly made Shiv jump out of his own skin. The Deathless narrowed his eyes at a huge Vulteg approaching him alongside a small army of other prisoners. Once more, Shiv felt his body resonate as the notification marking him as the target of the Hidden World Quest activated. “Deathless! You stopped Urri earlier! And the system has put a big prize on your head.”

“Oh, dear,” Five said.

Bonk stepped forward and planted himself right beside Shiv. Rebis began babbling nonsense, but limped a few steps past Shiv as he flapped his bladed wings at the approaching horde. “Back! B-back! Away!”

Shiv counted approximately sixteen Pathbearers. They came in all kinds of weird shapes and sizes. Urri stood at the front of the group and was one of the few that were still mostly human-looking. Behind him was a large crystal-creature that resembled a column of mithril orbited by smaller chunks of turquoise stone. There was a near-transparent figure trailing to the of Urri. As light struck their body, Shiv watched as an outline of their contours came aglow. He thought he was looking at an elf for a moment, but realized their bodily dimensions were entirely alien. Their ears were longer and curved backward, their body was impossibly thin, with little space for organs, and their eyes took up a fourth of their face.

Yet, something about them still reminded Shiv of an elf. What is that thing?

The rest of the horde were equally eccentric. There was a figure bathed in tendril-like shadows. There was a grinning woman with a pixie haircut and a longcoat she made from the flayed faces of slain wardens. There was a man who had swords growing out from his flesh, as if his flesh was some kind of blade-garden.

Skill Evolutions changed a person in body, mind, and soul. With each subsequent step someone took, they gradually became closer to the conceptual ideal of their evolved skill rather than a purely biological organism. Comparatively, Shiv looked relatively normal, if one chose to ignore his absurd muscle mass even at baseline, how his skin flashed red-gold sometimes, the faint turbulent membrane that was his inertial sheathe, and also the Shapeless Tides circulating across his body.

Okay. Yeah. I look like a bit intimidating too. He sized Urri up and frowned. He managed to stop the Vulteg earlier, so weirdly, Shiv might have the edge in a straight brawl despite being the smaller party. But he didn’t know what other skills Urri had, and there was no chance he could beat almost two dozen Legendary-Tier prisoners. Not even with help from Rebis, Five, and Bonk. And they’re definitely Legendary. Those wardens weren’t easy targets.

The bodies on the ground were clad in adamantine, and their armor was absolutely deformed in ways that made them look like they were made from cheap tin.

“Way I see it, we got two choices here and both of them are fun.” Bonk was grinning as he spoke. His eyes were locked on the large Vulteg, and he was probably itching to take a few swings if things went the wrong way. Or the right way, considering he was an orc. “First, we can run. They’ll chase us like dogs going after a juicy rat. I see it in their eyes. They’re still riding that battle high. Second. We can go right at them and see if they want to be friends instead.”

“Both,” Shiv said, walking forward. He left a temporal anchor in his stead as he approached the incoming horde. “I’ll try two first. Then we do one if things go to shit.”

“When, Insul!” Bonk called out from behind. “It’s always a matter of when.”

Shiv hated the fact that the orc was probably right. Rebis tried to follow him. Shiv held up a hand. “No. Stay. Don’t do anything unless they attack me first. Trust me.” He turned to glare at the cyborg, and to his surprise, Rebis turned away from him. A faint cord of flesh and metal connected Shiv to Rebis, and he realized the amalgamated Pathbearer was in fear of him. Shiv wondered when, but then considered his new Feat.

Dread-Tainted. It says that I can lace my skills with the lingering terror that Daughter experienced. But I haven’t tried using it yet. Not consciously, at least. Well. Time to see how good this Legendary Feat is.

Shiv waited until Urri was within ten meters before speaking. “That’s close enough, Vulteg.”

“Close enough?” Urri replied. His single eye was bloodshot, and he was missing a few head-tentacles as well. “No. Not yet. You stopped Urri, earlier. Very strong of you. Very impressive. The system has noticed your power, and it seeks to test you.”

“The system just wants us all to fight and kill each other,” Shiv replied. He shot the transparent elf-like entity beside Urri a look and watched how they just stared right back at him. The large crystal-creature rose up into the air, and it let out a trumpet-like noise. The rest of the prisoners spread out from behind Urri like an unfurling fan. Shiv stood his ground. “Alright. Let’s cut the shit. Yeah, I’m the Deathless. And if you manage to kill me for good, you’ll get ten Legendary Skills.”

Urri opened and closed his hands. Shiv studied the huge Vulteg some more. Aside from being five-meters tall and made from dense slabs of muscle, Urri didn’t have any other physical oddities. There was no magic radiating from him, and Shiv couldn’t guess how tough he was at a glance. That just made the Vulteg more dangerous in Shiv’s eyes. Unknown dangers were often much more treacherous.

“If,” the transparent elf-thing hissed at Shiv. “Something is wrong with your soul-story. Something is wrong with you. No separation between your life and legend. Both bleed together. Abomination. Nightmare.” It sniffed at the air. “Monster. The taint of the world-ender is in you. Man-fleshed, Tarrasque-souled.”

Okay. Extremely godsdamned creepy. If this turns into a fight, I’m halting time and kill that one first.

“Tarrasque-souled?” Urri breathed. He looked between the transparent elf-thing and Shiv. “Scorn’s Tongue. There’s such a thing?”

“You can thank Udraal Thann for that,” Shiv said. “Wasn’t up to me.”

And at once, Shiv felt the fear in the air explode around him. One moment, there were no chains binding the Legendary Pathbearers to him. But when Udraal’s name was uttered, faint lines flashed into existence, threading each of their beings into Shiv. Slowly, the Deathless began growing in size. Urri took a step back and gritted his sharp teeth. “Udraal…  Fatebreaker. Realm-Thief. Soul-Crafter…”

“Udraal Thann.”

“He Who Walks Beyond,” the transparent prisoner whimpered. “F-father-maker. You are one of his as well?”

Shiv blinked. “As well. Wait, he made you too?”

The transparent elf-thing didn’t say anything. Instead, they decloaked for the first time, and Shiv’s jaw dropped as his mind struggled to process what stood before him.