IV-8 Prison

Drown in your defeat. Learn to savor the taste. Let your limitations hurt you. Let yourself rage against your failure.

Or you can turn away. It won’t fix anything, but there is a mercy to getting struck down from behind. Warriors hate to admit it, but there is a blissful ignorance in not knowing what kills you. Not knowing the reason you failed. We do it as children. We close our eyes and pretend the problem isn’t there. Because it is comforting. Because knowing that we are not enough scars us in a place that some would rather die than face.

And I suggest that you do die if you cannot face your heart with honesty. It is a mercy. Death is merely silence. Life will teach you greater depths of pain. And to sink into yourself and never rise again while challenging the Delve of a Legendary Skill is something most warriors would imagine to be a nightmare.

But most warriors are fated to feed the mud and soil. Most warriors never truly grow to become the adult that can face their problem with open eyes. They remain a child in pain. A child in the end.

You cannot be a child if you wish to be a Legend. Not in this world. Not against your sins.

You can doubt yourself. You can believe that you are weak. You can even fear. But these are just feelings. Sensations. What will save you is courage, and beyond it, understanding. Understanding, but not acceptance.

We all have limits. And we are to know and loathe them.

We all have flaws. And we are to rise above them.

Thus, if you stand on the precipice and find yourself uncertain if you might surface from the delve, ask yourself this:

“Can I face the ruins of my self? Can I face my greatest shame, and find a way to stand beyond it? Can I survive the darkness of my heart.”

I cannot give you an answer. But those of you who understand already know. And those who are uncertain should wait until they do.

You must be paradoxically merciless and kind to yourself in different ways. There is a madness in courting the system’s power, but it takes a sane mind to master the insanity needed to prevail. Be both. Be everything. Be more.

Drown. But do not die. Drown, and learn to live with the suffocation.

-Legend: Reforged from Ruin, Written by Semper Paragon Caine Hauser of the Descenders Union

IV-8
Prison

A mountain’s weight in pressure crashed down on Shiv as he was teleported. He tried to swing his left fist at the walls of Dimensionality crashing down around him, but his gauntlet was still broken, and his hand passed through the mana as if it was water. His own Portomancy was feeble and recent. If Shiv had to guess, he wouldn’t even be able of teleporting a pebble right now, and considering he was probably trapped in a Legendary spatial magic skill…

Not felling good. His insides boiled with rage and frustration. He had been busy trying to bring the Tarrasque down. The damned avatars and Ascendants had been absent for most of the fight, and even when Shiv figured out how to weaken the world-ending monster with his Drain Vitality Skill, they held back. What was the point of being a divinely empowered warrior beyond the limits of a Legendary Pathbearer if you were too scared to put your life on the line? Cowardly shi—

Psycho-Cartography: Complain less. Focus your mind. You’re drifting all over the place. We need to get back to Blackedge and finish off the Tarrasque. We can’t leave Adam, Uva, and everyone else on their own. Complaining serves no purpose. Accept. Adapt. Deal with it. This is no different from hunting lesser vampires as a Pathless. Solve the problem. Get the meal done.

Surprise crashed through Shiv as his own Psychology Skill intervened to re-center his mind. But it was what he needed. Why did he expect anything to be reasonable? Why did he expect things to be fair in any capacity? The system didn’t care, and neither did the avatars or Ascendants. But Shiv did, and so he was going to need to deal with it.

Everything is shit until you finally get it right for the first felling time, Shiv thought, thinking back to what Georges taught him. Fix all your main fucking problems Then focus on being great.

And that’s what Shiv did. He was being flung across time and space—could barely move with how much displaced pressure was crushing against him. He didn’t have any means of disrupting the magic, his Portomancy was too feeble to contend with the spell. But that didn’t mean he was out of options.

In fact, Shiv had options available to him and only him.

He knew that because he could still see a sheen of vitality lining the world around him. Immediately, he started draining lifeforce from integration itself. A warning popped up before his eyes. He ignored it with a smirk.

Warning: Ambient Mana Threshold is being destabilized. Continual destabilization will increase the chances of a Dimensional anomaly.

“Dimensional anomaly might just be what I want,” Shiv muttered. His Vitae strands tore into the flesh of existence and began to draw in surges of vitality. He was a glowing shape of white and red within a cascading sea of static darkness. That didn’t last. As he drained more, a rupture formed, and a claw of curling fire exploded against him. Shiv clenched his teeth as the hairs on his skin were singed. The temperature only climbed higher as the rupture was opened even wider. 

For the first time, Shiv took a moment to gaze into the magical wounds he was inflicting the world, and his eyes widened. Within the rupture, he could feel mana of all varieties clash and intermingle. So many fields were oscillating and clashing together, and as Shiv thinned the barriers of existence, the strongest fields broke free. Such was why the heat was getting so intense so fast. And why there were other types of mana following it.

A solid fork of crystallized lightning nearly took Shiv’s head clean off. He tilted his neck and blocked the blow with his arm. It still scored a deep scratch along his shoulder, and his wound bleed openly—

For about a second. Then, he felt that familiar sensation of cancer spreading through his cells. A faint pulse of unstable Biomancy was hidden among all the other magical fields, and Shiv just snorted as he understood his impending death. 

Magic was bullshit, but wondrous bullshit. Shiv loved every little thing it did to him or anyone else.

Dodge 21 > 22

As he took in another dose of vitality, the rupture before him burst open fully, and it was only the use of Outside Context Problem that saved Shiv’s life. The flames that came for him were alive. A winged creature made from white-hot blaze tore across the space where Shiv just existed, but cocked its head back in confusion as it realized he was gone.

Meanwhile, within the confines of his own Vitae, Shiv observed a fast-moving flaming hawk-like creature and guessed that it was a phoenix or something. It was slightly larger than he was at his baseline state, but it radiated with such potent Pyromancy and Shiv suspected that it wouldn’t face much difficult if it wanted to set him on fire. It flapped its wings, and the Dimensionality mana combusted. Its fire was more than physical, it was something that consumed the magical as well. Holes were burned into the dense, static mana that held Shiv, and through the gap, Shiv looked beyond the veil of dimensions for the first time.

And that proved to be a mistake. Shiv tried to pull his gaze away, but it was too late. His sanity was ripped open. It felt like someone had dragged a hook blade across his consciousness. Shiv gasped as he gripped his head and looked away. The effects of looking through the gap were so bad that his Outside Context Problem Skill collapsed as well. Once more, he returned to reality—and immediately died as he was vaporized by a passive wave of force and fire that exploded out of the phoenix.

Another downside to Pillar—it needs to be focused on to reach its true effectiveness.

His wounded Pyromancy field was mutilated further, and the thick weave of Vitae that emerged from Shiv’s parting ash came out writhing.

Pyromancy 15 > 19

Gravitic Wrestler 178 > 186

Pillar of Orichalcum 225 > 226

Outside Context Problem 82 > 85

Vitality Drain 85 > 89

The additional level applied to Shiv’s pillar was the only reason he didn’t immediately turn to dust before the phoenix. That, and the sudden dimensional storm that exploded out from the rupture. A dense flood of Dimensional mana clashed with the existential magic already encompassing Shiv. Space didn’t so much tear as it did burst like a bubble. Shiv flinched, expecting chaos and madness to assail him.

Instead, he found himself crashing against the ground. A ground made from a reddish-gold substance—the very same hue as his pillar. The Deathless shook as he took in his surroundings, and he found himself in a ten-meter-long cylinder. The walls were lined with spell patterns, and Shiv offered the world a silent sigh as he realized he was in a teleportation anchor again. One that already had an occupant.

A huge, muscular wolf-man hybrid lifted its head and stared at Shiv. The lupine creature was chained to the walls by reddish gold bindings as well, and by this point, Shiv was reasonable sure the material composing this cage was Orichalcum. The wolf-man sniffed the air briefly and finally cocked its head. “Not food.”

The Deathless has been spotted. The one to extinguish his Vitae will gain the quest rewards.

The notification appeared before the wolf-man’s face and his bright-blue eyes widened. “Huh. Well, that’s something else. Wait. Are you the Deathless?”

Shiv wanted to reply, but his Psychomancy was in tatters and he didn’t have a mouth. He slowly held up two tendrils of Vitae to show he didn’t mean any harm. Before he could ask the wolf man where he was, a loud siren pulsed through the room, and there came a booming voice that shook this anchor-prison.

“ATTENTION ALL WARDENS! CELLS NADIR-00344 AND 00551 HAVE BEEN COMPROMISED! THE CAUSE IS LIKELY A DIMENSIONAL ANOMALY. REQUESTING PYROMANCER/MAGE-HUNTER CONTAINMENT TEAMS RESPOND AND HEAD TO 00551 IMMEDIATELY. RESPONSE TEAM ZERO, YOU HAVE BEEN ACTIVATED. THE THREAT IN 00344 IS LISTED AS PRIORITY ZENITH BY LEGEND-COUNCILWOMAN VERONICA CHANDLER.

“ALL NON-MARTIAL PATHBEARERS ARE TO TRIGGER MAGICAL COUNTERMEASURES AND EVACUATE FROM THE VICINITY OF 00551. A LEGENDARY-TIER PHOENIX HAS BREACHED CONTAINMENT.”

The telepathic broadcast hit Shiv like a concussive blast to the skull, and by the time it was done, his mind was ringing. It felt it taking a psionic concussion from the inside.

Well, I guess that explains where the flaming bird went, Shiv winced. He thought about the phoenix causing more damage or hurting people. He didn’t want that. But like always, unexpected shit happened when he used his skills. The system was probably mocking him deliberately by this point—escalating the collateral damage he inflicted whenever it could.

“What are you?” the wolf-man asked. Its voice was low and inquisitive, and Shiv found it just an inch away from his body. Shiv tried to reply, but quickly realized he could reliably do that without resurrecting first. He tentatively reached out and started sapping from vitality from reality—doing it to the wolf-man was too risky and hostile.

The wolf-man watched Shiv as he slow drank in lifeforce from the world. A new rupture began to form where Shiv drank, so he crawled to the other side of the cell and repeated his action. Even with him being careful, the three small ruptures began to bleed liquid-infused diamonds into the cell. The wolf-man looked on with narrowed eyes, but he did nothing to stop Shiv. There was some slack to his chains, so he could have definitely tried attacking the Deathless, but he held himself back—waited to see what might happen.

As Shiv took in a final rush of vitality, he resurrected and emerged from his Vitae a whole person once more.

The wolf-man’s eyes widened at the Deathless’s metamorphosis and let out a sniffle. “Well. The system’s ugly hand is heavy on you, my new cellmate. That, or I’m hallucinating things again from loneliness. Are you real? Are the notifications I’m getting true?”

“I hope so,” Shiv grunted. He looked up and saw a small transparent porthole lining the ceiling high above. “Been through too much shit to discover I’m just made up.”

The wolf-man let out a quiet laugh. “Well. You might have landed in more trouble than one can overcome. You’re in the Well, now. So if this is a teleportation mishap, you have my condolences, but I fear you won’t be leaving this place ever again.”

Shiv ignored the wolf and shot up toward the ceiling. He slammed fist-first against the glass blocking the exit and winced as the blow he delivered was reflected into his knuckles. Instead of slamming more strikes against the anchor prison, he tried to glance out from the cell to get a better understanding of just where avatars had teleported. As soon as he looked up, a mechanical fell over the porthole, covering Shiv’s line of sight. A moment later, Shiv found himself staring up at a heavily armored automaton holding a studded mace.

It looked down at Shiv with a single-glowing eye and waved at someone unseen. “He is here. I have located him.”

“But it doesn’t sound like you came here by accident,” the wolf-man continued, looking up at Shiv. “It sounds like you were sent here on purpose. So. What did you do?”

Pressed a hand against the glass and tried to rip it out of the ground using his gravitic field. The insides of the cell groaned. The wolf-man’s Orichalcum chains rattled slightly, but Shiv realized he was an insect trying to uproot a tower. This prison was Orichalcum, which meant that its Toughness could be adjusted, that it couldn’t be moved unless you were stronger than it was durable. On top of that, it had a force-reflection enchantment as well.

He wasn’t going to be breaking out of here through brute force.

I need a moment, Shiv frowned. I need to think.

With that thought, he manifested his temporal shell to buy himself some more time. The world went still. A dense layer of golden mana flared around his body. But before he could do anything, the insides of the cell flashed with Chronomancy as well, and promptly unleashed a discharge of concentrated Magical Resistance at Shiv.

It would have ripped through his temporal shell in an instant if he hadn’t gone out of context. The Magical Resistance consumed the insides of the cell in a swirl of prismatic colors, and the wolf-man let out a cry of misery as he was brutally affected. Shiv winced in shame. Right. He wasn’t the only one in here.

While the discharge died down, Shiv focused on coming up with a plan to escape. He wasn’t going to break out directly. So, that left him with a few other options. The most direct one was seeing if he could out-tough the cell with his own Pillar of Orichalcum Skill. Maybe Shiv could push through this prison with his pillar after enough time, but that came with several problems. The first was how it would leave him vulnerable to the magic infused within this chamber. He had no means of defending himself while the pillar was active. If he activated his pillar, he would also end up crushing the wolf-man too.

That wasn’t something Shiv could accept. He didn’t want to hurt anyone without a proper reason.

Direct as using his pillar to grind against the cell might be, it was simply impractical and risky.

So what else did he have? Shiv looked at his skills, trying to find a solution. He wasn’t going to cook his way out of here. His Creeping Void would just flood the cell in darkness. It wouldn’t help him get out.

But that led him down a path toward new possibilities: deception.

He had still had a few corpses left in his cape. And then there was the cape itself—it was a minor dimension; a hideout. He could use that. He just needed to get the people up top to open the cell. Then, he would go out of context and freeze time again to escape.

As the first fingers of coldness brushed against Shiv’s soul, he acted. He pulled a body out from his cape before unequipping the cape from himself and wrapping it around the body. He dove into the cape right after, and pulled himself toward the Forest of Alloy. As he tumbled into the pocket dimension, Shiv released both his Outside Context Problem and Strider Skills.

The corpse fell, and Shiv felt gravity lurch up around him. For the first time, Shiv realized just how uncomfortable it was for the people inside the cape. Everything was moving constantly, and as his decoy corpse impacted the ground, the dimension went still, causing Shiv to bounce off an iron tree.

A brief moment of silence followed, and then there came sniffling. The wolf-man let out a sight from the outside. “Well. Serves me right for wanting to have a conversation after eighty years in solitary. Of course he died immediately. Why wouldn’t that happen.”

Deception 23 > 25

The sheer sour misery in the wolf-man’s voice made Shiv a bit bad, but the deception was necessary if he wanted to escape. The Deathless waited at the edge of the pocket dimension with bated breath. He listened carefully. Soon, with luck, the Pathbearers of this place will come down to retrieve his body. The moment they descended to make sure, he would move and make his escape.

Shiv counted the seconds. He could hear the jingling of chains outside, could smell something foul seep into his nostrils. “Gods, is that the wolf-man? Do they not let him bathe?” Shiv gagged.

“No, Insul. I’m afraid that’s me.” Shiv spun on his heels and found himself surprised. Propped against a large tree made from bundled wires and branches of plastic was Bonk. Bonk’s legs were pointing in the wrong direction, and one of his arms was missing. He had a tourniquet tied over the stump, and a half-broken club lay across his lap. He grinned happily at Shiv and waved with his remaining arm.

“Bonk,” Shiv said. “How the hells did you get in my cape.”

The Deathless has been spotted. The one to extinguish his Vitae will gain the quest rewards.

Bonk looked at a notification for a beat but went back to ignoring it just a moment later. Shiv was still suspicious, but the orc was in no condition to fight. Or so he seemed.

“Well. It all started when we got swallowed by the Tarrasque. It clamped down on my legs, and then I got struck by a piece of hull. That didn’t knock me out, but slamming head-first into the roof of the Tarrasque’s mouth and then getting blasted by a psionic attack did the trick.” The orc chuckled, and wheezed in pain. “I suspect I must’ve been launched into your cape at some point while unconscious. How fortunate.”

Shiv wasn’t sure if he believed the orc's story, but a feeling of relief radiated from him. He wasn’t alone here—even if his only ally was a badly wounded orc, it was better than being completely isolated.

“So,” Bonk said. “What is the situation?”

Shiv was about to reply when there came a sound from the outside.

“I didn’t kill him,” the wolf-man said calmly. “He was alive a moment ago, but he suddenly ended up dead right after. I think he’s a Chronomancer. The cell had to discharge its resistance into me for a reason. Unless you all are trying to torture me for fun again. I think he struck the ceiling with his head and died. That’s my best guess.”

“I’ll tell you in a minute,” Shiv said to Bonk. “Right after I get back.”

“Get back?” the orc asked.

Shiv sank into his Vitae and froze time in the same instant. He launched himself out from his cape right after and re-entered the cell.

The first thing he did after re-entering the cell was pull the cape off his decoy corpse. The next was launching himself upward, upward toward the previously sealed porthole. Shiv knew it was open now, considering the automaton Pathbearer he saw earlier had half of its body within the anchor prison. Unfortunately for Shiv, the automaton was big and thus blocked the way. Unfortunately for the automaton, Shiv wasn't going to stop. He had no intentions of rotting inside a prison cell at the whims of the Ascendants. 

He impacted the automaton's body in a rush of speed.

Even so, Shiv refrained from hitting the automaton overly hard. It was just a common guard as far as he knew, and guards didn't deserve to die. Not like orcs, not like the Inquisition. Shiv was going to pull his punches here as much as he could. Escape was still his top priority, but that didn't mean he was going to grease his way with the blood of the innocent.

He thought back to all the slaves that died at Theborn, at all the casualities in Blackedge.

Too much. It’s always too much.

Another blast of Magical Resistance churned the inside the prison cell as Shiv shot free. He flung the automaton aside and made sure the mechanical Pathbearer suffered only a dent to its midsection and nothing more. As the Deathless looked around, he found himself in a wide and what seemed to be an alloyed valley. Tall Orichalcum walls flanked him on both sides, and Shiv guessed he had no more than 20 meters of width to work with. What's more, there were dozens of cells lodged in the ground ahead and behind him. They all looked just like the one he escaped from, and when gazed down on from above, he saw shuddering layers of near-transparent force serving as lids for each of the prison-anchors.

A rush of color danced in his peripheral vision. As his head snapped to the right, he saw that there were spell patterns spilling down from the valley walls. Dense waves of mana

Just what the hell is this place, Shiv thought. His stomach tightened with anxiety, as he wondered just how far the Ascentants teleported him. He needed to get back. He needed to help Adam, help the others. The Tarrasque was still alive. He was needed back at Blackedge, not here and not in some prison. The bastards couldn't even wait for him to help finish killing the Tarrasque before doing this. Those godsdamned—

Psycho-Cartography: You can get angry, but move away from this chain of thought. This chain of thought, it will not help you. You are in whatever kind of prison this is, and now you have to get out. Put your mind to that.

Once more, Shiv’s Psycho-Cartography stopped him from spiraling. He looked upward, but hesitated before he spiked his gravity field further. The wolf-man was still down there. Shiv didn't know anything about him, didn't know how he got to this prison, or what he had done to deserve it. What he did know was that the wolf-man had apparently been here for 80 years. 

80 years in solitary. That was a special kind of torture there. Shiv had been ostracized and shunned for most of his life, but he still lived in a society. People still acknowledged his existence, if only to express their disgust, or to show him their fear. Something inside should have felt wrong and ashamed about leaving the Wolfman here, but what was he supposed to do? He wasn't even sure if he could escape himself.

Lacking a better option, he relied on instinct. He left an imprint of his temporal echo where he was, and accelerated higher. There was no other direction to go, and if he found the opportunity a day later, he might just come back. He might just see about setting the wolf-man free once he figured out why they were here.

Shiv was starting to get a feeling that this was a Republic blacksite. A far larger one compared to the torture cell the Inquisition used on Heather and Tran.

He flung himself upward and used his far sight at the same time. It seemed that this valley just kept going and going. There was at least a kilometer of distance to travel before he saw a faint sheen. Red gold. Orichalcum. This entire place seemed to be made from Orichalcum. He had no idea how the Republic had such a large supply, or even how Orichalcum itself worked. 

He just knew that he wasn't going to be breaking out of this place through raw force.

His temporal shell began to fracture, and Shiv knew he was running out of time. And just then there came a large cascading wave. It emanated from the wall to his right, and another followed from his left as well. Both were tinged in gold and also Dimensionality. There were temporal and spatial wardings set up here. Powerful ones too. Muscle memory took hold of Shiv as he prepared to parry the magic. He let out a growl of frustration as he remembered his Magebreaker was broken again. 

Unwilling to lose his Chronomancy, he dismissed his temporal shell and time resumed.

This proved to be a mistake as a deluge of offensive spells crashed into him.

The magic patterns running down the walls flared and Shiv felt waves of gravity impact him. It wasn't nearly as strong as the Tarrasque, but it was still greater than anything his gravitic wrestler could muster. He pushed back, he quivered in the air momentarily, but a spike of force slammed down on his head and the world spun. 

Shiv felt himself get dragged downward until he impacted the Orichalcum floor in a resounding crash. He gritted his teeth and tried to push his way up, but with every passing second the gravitational force building on him was only getting greater, and it was more than gravity, it was weight as well. 

His mass was growing to become unbearable, his bones creaked, his flesh and skin screamed, and then came waves of subtle Biomancy that seeped into Shiv's nerves. Soon he lost control over his motor functions and found himself twitching on the ground. He would have been able to push back with ease using his own Biomancy if the Tarrasque hadn't shredded his field so thoroughly.

Just then, something hit him on the head. It was more annoying than painful, and after the third bash Shiv gritted his teeth and managed to move his eye. He saw the automaton he impacted earlier bringing a studded club down on him over and over again. They let out mechanical wails as they let rage take hold. 

Shiv decided he had been a little too nice to the automaton. That this behavior it was exhibiting was unbefitting of a guard. A pulse of translucence washed over Shiv, and he felt a subtle influence seep into his mind. It was by that, it was at that point that Shiv activated his contingency plan. He cast himself back in time and returned to where his echo was. He blinked across space and rematerialized a mere 50 meters away. 

The automaton was still swinging their club when Shiv disappeared, and so it impacted the ground with a resounding crash. The club was wrenched free from the automaton's hands. As it bounced across the ground, the mechanical Pathbearer cursed—and then shrieked as Shiv launched himself at it. He tackled the automaton to the ground and immediately drove an elbow into its head. Its optical lens cracked and sparks sprayed out, but a low groan sounding from the machine signaled it was still alive.

"Please," the automaton droned. Shiv could hear the naked fear leaking from its voice. A chain of fear flowed from the automaton to Shiv, and he felt his magic and strength surge. The automaton was a damned fool, but Shiv still didn’t have the taste for finishing them off. He wasn’t facing a warrior.

Just then a loud telepathic broadcast hammered against Shiv's mind and the speaker from earlier returned. "Attention all Pathbearers. Attention all wardens. Priority Zenith has breached containment. All emergency response teams have been activated. Orders are to secure and contain. Non-lethal only. Do not kill. I repeat do not kill. Anyone who disobeys these orders will answer to Legend Veronica Chandler the moment she returns.”

This didn’t surprise Shiv. Considering the price the system placed on his head, it was going to be hard for most greedy Pathbearers to resist the opportunity he presented. 10 Legendary Skills were enough to make anyone a monster in battle. Frankly, the only part that left Shiv astonished was the fact that the Ascendants wanted him alive.

Maybe they were deliberating on who got to kill him.

That’s probably it.

Once more a crushing swell of Dynamancy blasted out from the nearby walls, but Shiv went out of context. The coldness flowed through him. That was fine. He wouldn't stay in this state for long. Instead, he intended to cause a bit more chaos. He was out of ingenious plans, but he did know one thing: The spell patterns flowing down along the valley walls like waterfalls needed to be disrupted. Shiv couldn't break Orichalcum but he didn't need to break Orichalcum to destabilize the magic. He just needed to drain a bit of vitalityand let a mana storm do his job for him.

As soon as the Dynamancy faded he returned to the world, surfacing in a burst of red and white as he extended his vitae. His vitae strand splashed on both walls and Shiv drew in life force from the world. The left wall flashed and a tide of Biomancy crashed against Shiv. However, his field had recovered just enough that he managed to last a second. A second and no more before his field was torn asunder again.

Aegis of Assimilation 111 > 112

But that second mattered. That second mattered because by the time Shiv felt his nervous system get usurped he managed to open up a rupture. That promptly unleashed a fountain of water. The water continued to spread through the world, moving less like a fluid and more like an infection. 

And Shiv noticed the faint notes of red within the water. Literal notes. They resembled melodies. Symbols from a musical sheet. And inside the fluid, pulsing tissues emerged and faded. It crashed against the wall and the spellwork cascading down broke apart as conflicting mana swept across its surface.

A groan of laughter came from Shiv as he was released from the crushing magic keeping him pinned. His nerves didn't feel like they were on fire anymore, and the Dynamancy was lessened as well. It took a moment for him to regain control over his body, but by the time he was standing, two groups of Pathbearers teleported in ahead and behind him.

There were six Pathbearers in both teams. Each was led by a Vanguard bearing colossal halberds and mighty shields. One carried a tower shield, while the other had a round shield that covered half their body. Behind them were lancers. Pathbearers bearing spears or lances and after them mages. One Jump Mage at least for each group. And finally there was an Archer of some kind at the back of the team—they held a large, barreled weapons Shiv couldn’t identify.

Can Hu probably would know what that is. Shit. Can Hu. I hope he’s alright…

More teams teleported in. They appeared to his left and right as well, and Shiv found himself boxed in. The mana storm seeping out from the rupture was sealed by a bubble of Dimensionality. The Biomancy-Hydromancy fusion magic was cut off.

Shiv licked his lips as he eyed his new adversaries. Once more the system made him pulse, and a notification appeared before his vision. It reminded people who he was every single time. Deliberately provoked them.

The tower shield wielding Pathbearers pointed their halberds at Shiv. "Down on the ground. Hands out at your sid—”

And Shiv didn't hear the rest because he promptly discharged his inertial sheath. A blast of force expanded out from him. Two bolts cut through the air. Shiv was long gone. He started pumping out his Creeping Void right after. Everything around him faded into all-consuming blackness.

Two more shots cut past his head, slamming together. Both arrows detonated in midair as they impacted. The Pathbearers who fired those bolts were accurate, dead-on, and equal to each other. That's how their tips met in the air. That's how Shiv realized that they were unleashing payloads of concussive force. They were serious about taking him alive. Tragically, he didn't think they had enough force in those arrows to even tickle him.

The Creeping Void 114 > 116

However, Shiv didn't want to be bogged down fighting these Pathbearers. He needed out. He paused. He observed his adversaries for a moment and realized he didn't even know where out was. No, what he needed was a hostage and a guide.

That way he would be able to navigate this prison and finally something caught his attention. From the corner of his eye, he saw a shadow zipping down along the walls. Shiv spiked his field to the left and barely avoided a descending kick. The blow fell like a plunging axe and as soon as it struck the ground the Orichalcum surface resonated like a bell. 

The attack reminded Shiv of Bonk's Heroic-Tier Physicality, how every time he struck something it made them resonate, made them more vulnerable for the next hit. It also reminded Shiv of Bonk because it didn't inflict a lot of collateral damage. It simply made the ground rattle and nothing more. 

Even though the attack was a blindingly fast kick, there was no shockwave, no combustion in the air. There was control and precision.

And something about this new enemy left Shiv feeling uneasy.

The enemy automaton looked at Shiv from a gleaming slit of violet light. Its head was the shape of a triangle, and Divination mana spilled free from its face. That also explained why they could see him even in this nest of darkness. Shiv studied his new enemy. They had six arms and their body was designed with the aesthetic of an extremely muscular human. In fact, their torso resembled some very stylized armor designs. Armor that had pecs and a six-pack. Its legs meanwhile were like blades. This automaton was made for running. And something told Shiv to be wary about its speed.

Then, there was the ethereal presence he saw earlier—that one-armed automaton Ascendant. Cripple the Stronger. It hovered over its six-armed avatar like an apparition, and it pointed its massive fist at Shiv in something of a salute.

Shiv hovered in the air, but his new adversary simply stood on the ground. Another arrow ripped blindly through the darkness, it impacted this adversary's shoulder. The bolt bounced off at an angle, and a pulse of kinetic energy sank into the automaton’s body.

Force-absorption? Not great.

Yet instead of attacking Shiv immediately, this new hostile looked him up and down and held up a placating hand. "Surrender. The Avatar-Councilwoman Veronica Chandler demands that you be interred here. But she said nothing of harm or use of force. I ask you again. Surrender peacefully, and we will make sure you are accommodated properly."

He didn't reply. Instead, he shot upward and froze time, trying to break contact. His odds of surviving in this prison long were poor. His chances of overcoming an Ascendant were practically non-existent.

As soon as he activated his temporal shell, the automaton's Chronomancy flared as well. However, its Chronomancy didn't work like Shiv's. Instead, a golden pathway punched through Shiv's being as time accelerated. Pieces of his temporal shell shattered. Shiv lost four seconds from the impact. But as he cast himself back in time, he avoided the remainder of the beam and began climbing once more. 

He whipped out a strand of Vitaeand snatched one of the crossbow wielding Pathbearers. As soon as he started reeling them up, another beam of gold came for him. Shiv cursed and reverted his position to where he was three seconds ago. His temporal armor was on the verge of breaking, and he dismissed his Chronomancy. Too late. A tide of gold struck him. The wardings impacted his body and he was too distracted by everything to respond. His Chronomancy shattered.

Shiv let out a grunt of frustration, which turned into a choked cry as something hit him in the back. The blow thundered through his body and he felt the air get driven out from his lungs. Before he could respond, a hand snaked around his neck and began tightening. 

A hand that was promptly turned to crushed paste as Shiv seized it. He pressed inward with his gravitic field, and a scream came from behind him as he shredded the arm that dared touch him. Yet before he could do anything else, the six-armed automaton was upon him. Shiv flung the Pathbearer that just choked him at the automaton. Rather than swatting his ally aside, the automaton caught his companion and twirled into the air, draining his momentum.

Shiv spiked his field forward, and he prepared to detonate his sheath again and then move in another direction. Then an unseen force pulled Shiv in. It felt like the world was collapsing—like left, right, up, down didn’t exist. He had to move ahead. Shiv fought his trajectory, spiking himself over and over. His inertial sheath exploded as he got within a meter of his foe.

The blast flung most of the other Pathbearers off their feet. Only the Vanguards remained standing. The avatar, meanwhile, walked through Shiv’s attack like it was strolling through a rough gale. It somersaulted over Shiv. He spiked himself backward, driving his shoulder into the automaton. 

But they were like water, and Shiv was a stone. They gave ground and sapped his might. With the sudden shift of their hip, Shiv found himself being launched off balance. He tried pulling his field back, but was forced to discharge his inertial sheath again when he realized he was going too fast. As soon as he discharged, the automaton struck. Three fists struck Shiv in the solar plexus, the throat, and the temple.

His vision darkened—but Shiv exploded forward in a second wind and tried to headbutt his enemy.

It caught him by the neck with one hand. The speed and force was ripped out of him. He went dead. Shiv hissed as he tried to pull back, but he was trapped in a force-drinking grip. And he ultimately found himself helpless. He strained with all his might, but the automaton casually drove its remaining palms into his body.

Gravitic Wrestler 187 > 190

A bomb went off inside Shiv. It was then that Shiv felt the true power of the automaton. It didn't deliver strikes to the body. It didn't even scratch his skin. No, the punch went straight to Shiv's mind. An entire section of his thoughts rendered blank. Shiv reeled. Drool escaped from his lips as he lost track of where he was, who he was. 

Three more punches hit him, followed by a kick. 

At some point, Shiv was twirling through the air. His head bounced off the ground, but instead of feeling any pain, he was just utterly confused. Pure instinct spared him from a low kick that was scything through the air, coming straight for his head. 

However, he was tackled back to the ground before he could fully get back to his feet. A blade was rammed into his ribs, and the blade broke against his ribs as Shiv triggered his Pillar of Orichalcum. He swung blindly, and his elbow connected with something. It was a sloppy hit, but he was strong enough now that the target let out a loud cry of pain. Shiv dragged his field and began to slide across the ground. Blood sprayed as Shiv dragged the Pathbearer trying to assassinate him along the floor like a whetstone.

When he got tired of her howls of pain, he flung her at another adversary and tried to rise—

Only for a crossbow bolt to punch through his chest. Shiv realized he underestimated those bolt because they detonated with more than kinetic force. A gravitic chain shot out from the bolt and connected him to the ground. Shiv stopped time—the wardings shattered his shell. The avatar flicked its leg up. Shiv moved to back—but its kick went from being a roundhouse to something more akin to a question mark. A blow meant for his body curved and struck his head instead.

Whiteness filled Shiv’s vision. When he returned to himself, he was gasping on the ground.

The automaton stood over him. Its fists were clenched, and it repeated its command. “Surrender. It is never too late.” Its voice was serene. Like the rustling of leaves. Like shaking grass.

Shiv was almost lured into a false-sense of tranquility when his Psycho-Cartography Skill screamed at him.

More bolts struck his body. New gravity chains kept him pinned to the ground. He tried to struggle and break these chains, but they were too dense, and he was surrounded. His body was—

Wait, the hells with this body. I got enough vitality left to make a play at this.

The automaton said something else—but its peaceful demeanor broke into a shriek of alarm as Shiv disemboweled himself with a burst of gravity. “What are you doing!”

Shiv flung his viscera and intestines over the automaton’s body. It swatted his gore aside—but was too late to stop him from killing himself. The rest of Shiv’s body imploded into a wet mess of splattered red. His Vitae slipped free from his corpse, unchained from the crossbow bolts. At the same time, the avatar was distracted by Shiv’s brutal death and didn’t see a slithering strand of Vitae gliding through the blood and burrowing into its foot.

Pyromancy 15 > 18

Hydromancy 12 > 15

Psychomancy 19 > 26

Aegis of Assimilation 112 > 114

Pillar of Orichalcum 225 > 229

Gravitic Wrestler 190 > 195

Outside Context Problem 82 > 87

Vitaemancy 89 > 93

Vitality drain 89 > 96

As soon as Shiv made contact with the automaton’s body, he drained its vitality. He used the very same technique that weakened the Tarrasque against his divinely powered foe. The Orichalcum valley was bathed in a vortex of lifeforce. For the first time, the avatar cried out in agony. Shiv resurrected in a near instant as an ocean of vitality surged through him.

The avatar crashed down to its knees, and Shiv felt its inner flame flicker. In another few seconds, it would be nothing more than just ash—

Its hand shot out and seized Shiv’s. Its body came aglow with divine incandescence. The Deathless’s eyes widened as Cripple infused itself into the lesser automaton. Five of the avatar’s arms shattered into shrapnel. One remained. One absorbed the broken pieces that composed the other limbs to create a colossal slab of fractured alloy.

“Fine, then,” the avatar said, Cripple’s voice echoing through it. “You wish to seek another end? I will oblige.”

Shiv tried to go out of context—but by the time he reacted, he was dead again.

His Vitae burst free from his body, and he was staggered to see the automaton’s fist driven through his chest. His corpse was also charred and melting. But there was no damage anywhere else. None of the other Pathbearers present were even stunned. Every hit the avatar and Ascendant inflicted was unleashed on Shiv and nothing else.

He envied its control. He envied its power. And he hated the fact that he was so overmatched.

Inertial Overdrive 126 > 130

Gravitic Wrestler 195 > 200 (Skill Evolution Imminent)

Pillar of Orichalcum 229 > 231

Shiv’s corpse dissolved around the avatar’s fist. But as it drew its arm back, pieces of its body fell away. Cracks spread along its carapace, and it staggered toward Shiv’s Vitae. Apparently, this power was too much for it as well. Channeling Cripple the Strongest seemed to come at a brutal personal cost.

“I see you now,” Cripple said. The avatar’s voice was altogether absence. “I see your life-fused spirit. Your ways will not work on me again—”

And then Shiv halted time and went out of context. Everything went still for an instant. Then Shiv speared into the chest of the already brutalized automaton and began sapping what little bit of lifeforce it had left.

Or so he tried. He shot through the air—but the automaton shuddered and vanished with a flash of Divination mana from its eyes. Shiv felt his insides tighten as he cursed the skill. Diviners might not be able to notice his exact existence, but the system still warns them of his proximity—or they have some other way of sensing danger.

Shiv went for one of the Vanguards instead. As soon as he touched one, he drained the man—but had to stop after a half-second as a Vanguard’s body shriveled and dropped. Shiv resurfaced. He managed to touch a lancer and drink in a trickle of lifeforce. That was enough to bring him back.

And that proved to be his mistake.

Rather than striking him as a mess of Vitae, the avatar burst back into existence and slammed and twisting fist against the center of Shiv’s forehead.

The world went silent. A ringing noise became the totality of his existence. Fragmented edges of pain lined the insides of his skull, and Shiv felt entirely at peace.

Until his ego snapped back together in a tortuous instant.

Shiv woke with a cry of pain. He found a cage of Dynamancy being built around him, found Pathbearers standing over him. The avatar stood over his head, supported by a few other Pathbearers. It threw itself back in surprise as Shiv snarled and ripped someone off their feet. He swung his victim back and forth, using the heavily armored elf to batter and swat at foes he couldn’t reach.

He managed to hit two people before the valley walls joined in again.

A cascade of magics crashed down and flooded over Shiv. Shiv lost control of his body first as a pool of red mana slithered under his flesh. Hostile Biomancy compromised his nervous system. And then new shackles of force were built around his arms and legs, locking him in place. Finally, a lapping tide of Psychomancy coiled around him, pulling tighter and tighter until his consciousness narrowed to a pinprick. 

It felt a little bit like getting choked out from the inside and though Shiv tried to fight he was sinking deeper into himself. He reached for a skill that he couldn't remember, but it was futile. 

His Chronomancy triggered briefly. It shattered as well as another wavelength of counter-time magic impacted him. 

"We asked you to come peacefully," the automaton-avatar wheezed. Its voice came with a crackle. “This was not necessary. We do not intend to harm—”

“Fuck you,” Shiv managed to snarl through bared teeth. “There are people who need me! Blackedge… My friends; the Tarrasque. I need to go back…. I need to go back!” Shiv thrashed. Shiv struggled. He raged against the magic pinning him in place. Some part of him knew that he was good and chained, but that part of his mind was broken for now. Broken and regenerating.

A Vanguard lifted his leg to stomp down on Shiv’s head. For a moment, Shiv saw the War Priest instead of a Vanguard—remembered the wound's life inflicted on him in his youth. “You insolent—”

“NO!” Cripple roared. The avatar’s torso burst apart from sheer volume, and the Vanguard was launched across the room with a scream. “No,” the Ascendant repeated, its voice falling to a thin of heavy metal. “No one harm him. We have done enough to him. We have…” The avatar limped over Shiv and looked down. “We had to do this. We must understand why the system is so determined to destroy you. And we needed to take you off the board so that no one would be tempted to claim your life for the reward. We are doing this to protect you. It is for your benefit.”

Psycho-Cartography: Listen to its voice. Neither the avatar nor Cripple believes a single word they’re saying. This is bullshit.

Rage exploded inside Shiv. Desperate, impotent rage. His discharged his sheathe, pushed as hard as he could with his field. The dense bands of Dynamancy flexed and bent slightly, but they did not break. And Shiv’s body wasn’t moving right. His arms and legs wouldn’t listen. His flesh was a hive of numbness. He tried to think, but there was nothing there. No plans left. Even his memories were scattered.

All he had were his emotions and skills, and they weren’t enough.

He wasn’t enough.

He was captured. Trapped. Uva and Adam were on their own.

And Shiv hated that. He hated his weakness, he hated the Ascendants for taking him as a prison, he hated the magic keeping him suppressed—

The avatar let out a mechanical sigh. “For what it is worth, I did not want this. I am dishonored by this. And I will not forgive the injustice we have inflicted on you and your allies. Before everything is over, there will be a reckoning. But not at the cost of our Republic. Right now, I need you to sleep. And when you wake, I must ensure your obedience.”

Incandescence flared around the avatar, and it reached down to touch Shiv’s mind.

“No!” He snarled. A cold, metal digit hammered against his skull and he felt the contents of his will, his consciousness, come apart. “No!”

He pushed back with his Psychomancy, but it just tore again, drowning him in pain.

There was nothing left of Shiv after that. Nothing but loathing for everything that kept him caged here, kept him—

Skill Gained: Magical Resistance 1 (Initiate)

The Deathless’s eyes snapped open once more. The avatar’s influence briefly bounced off his mind. Cripple gasped. He let out a bestial snarl, twisted and ripped his own body apart in one final attempt to get free. Shiv’s flesh snapped and tore as he squeezed an arm past the peeling meat of his torso to swing a final blow against the avatar.

He struck its leg—and inflicted no harm at all.

No harm, but enough struggle to begin a transformation.

Gravitic Wrestler 200 > 201 (Skill Evolution Reached)

Skill Evolution: Gravitic Wrestler (Master) > Maelstrom of Stars Unmoving (Heroic)

The avatar snapped down and gripped his skull. Shiv felt his fledgling Magical Resistance burst apart—

But he willed it not to. He wanted his Magical Resistance strong—impenetrable!

He wanted more strength than the Tarrasque. More durability. He needed more. More so that he could keep being the master of his fate, so he could defy the gods both true and false alike.

The Challenger smiles upon you.

The Challenger wishes for you to rage.

The Composer is composing a hymn for you.

She yearns to see your safe return.

So he could guard that which he treasured. And so he could bring ruin what he despised.

The first among which being his own weakness.

A pulse clarity came over Shiv, and he made a wish. He wished for his Magical Resistance to be Legendary.

And as he did, as his nascent skill was immediately brought to impossible heights, its evolution mingled with another, and Shiv felt himself descend into himself—fall away from his physical body into the depths of his soul.

Skill Evolution: Magical Resistance 1 (Initiate) > Magical Resistance 500 (Legendary)

Skill Fusion: Magical Resistance (Legendary) - Maelstrom of Stars Unmoving (Heroic)

The last thing Shiv heard before he lost his bodily senses entirely was Crippling calling out in astonishment. “Animancer! Get me an Animancer! He’s Delving! He’s going Legendary! Move him to Containment Cell Zenith! Now! Now!”