II-52 Fall (I)

Of all the worlds I have raided, broken, and subjugated, you humans, this Integrated Earth of yours, it is the most fascinating place I have been. For you see, I see so much of you that's alike to me, yet so much of you that runs counter. You are a little paradox, you funny little apes. You and the elves you adopted, and the goblins, and your precious machines that you consider kindred. So very confusing, but ultimately a delight, a delight to face in battle.

You are my desired whetstone. And I wish to tell you why. Because culture, culture, for the past 400 years I have been sieging your Lone Star Kingdom. Lone Star, proud people, people of range and artillery. So cold. So impersonal. But so clever, determined, and hard of spirit.  People who have adjusted their entire culture just to keeping me and mine at bay. But we quite like it here. We desire this exchange, this cultural adaption. We like your trench lines. We like raiding them. We like your artillery. We like surviving them.

We like your psychology and your governmental structure especially. Why, there is nothing I enjoy more than avoiding your rangers, slipping behind your cities and then toppling them from within. There's nothing sweeter than just killing the Gate Lord without anyone understanding how or why. Just dead one day. Their flayed pieces left on the walls of your greatest building, within the halls that you think are most defended. And then I love working down the list, finding everyone else you assume to be Gate Lord and killing them too.

Or perhaps making bargains. You see, that's another thing I love about the people of Integrated Earth. You make bargains. You're willing to betray everything for power. Or are you willing to betray power for everything else? It's always up in the air with you people.

I have seen powerful Gate Lords fall to me. Not because they were weaker, just because, well, I strapped their child under my shield. And they couldn't bring their force to bear. A child? What a laughable thing, yes. It's just four or five. That's not that long for a Pathbearer. Just cut them down, you can make another one. But no. No, the animal instinct in you is so strong, you cling so hard. But then I see some of you, some of you have the eyes of an orc, the heart of an orc. And as I stand, with children surrounding me, with their loved ones, there is just a moment of hesitation. And then you say the words that make me fall in love with you. Burn them, burn them all, bomb them, bomb them all. So much certitude, so much self-mutilation. But in the end, you choose the path of power, and you hold your gate.

I love this. The system loves this. And this makes us more of who we are. Every decision that doesn't kill us, it makes us. It shapes our history, our legend. And from legend, we rise. And the story grows evermore.

So fight hard, children of the Lone Star. Fight hard, bleed hearty. For I will be here forever and ever, so long as you have steel in your blood and hate in your veins. And I pledge never to truly collapse your kingdom. I will simply break a few of your lords, just to remind you that I'm here, just to remind you that this is an exchange and not truly an execution.

For if I wanted you dead, you would be.

-The Culturist, Legendary Orc War Maestro

II-52

Fall (I)

The elemental golem struggled to crush Shiv;s head, even with both limbs of crashing water infused with lightning. He simply reached into its chest and closed his fingers. Its mana core detonated, and Shiv briefly let out a slight grunt of pain as the left side of his body swelled with searing agony. 

He was slowly getting used to it, acclimating to how badly it hurt all the time. It still wasn't pleasant, and it affected his spellcasting without the Song of the Vigilant, but he could make do for now. In fact, getting hurt pissed him off, and getting pissed was fuel for his skills thanks to his second Feat.

In a few strange ways, he was stronger than ever.

"Where the hell are they?" Shiv asked himself. He saw the adamantine elevator leading through the third gateway to Vulketh had been severed. Its edges were corroded. Clear evidence of someone using Necromancy. He had a pretty good guess as to whom. Yet despite this, Adam was nowhere to be seen and neither was Uva. He couldn't see any of her mana strands and if she was nearby, he suspected she would have reached into his mind already.

"Can Hu, you got eyes on them?" Shiv asked.

The Penitent briefly tapped into the sensory feeds of its hidden drones. Most of them were moving in on the automata slaves, about to free them from their bondage. But a few were atop the tallest buildings within the gate. Small screens opened in the corner of Shiv's vision. Screens that showed just how devastated Gate Theborn truly was. Entire sections of the gate had collapsed. The mana bombs unleashed by the agents of aviary were potent. Potent enough to outright obliterate several buildings, including critical barracks, the gate's agricultural fields, and over 20 residences.

Something clenched inside Shiv's chest. The people in this gate were suffering. Always suffering. Every time someone fought here, the people died. But soon, that was going to come to an end.

Just then, something tore open beside Shiv. He snapped to attention. His kukri appeared in his hand, equipped to his soul as it was. He prepared to attack the incoming Jump Mage—only to see Adam fly out through the rift, emerging with burning wings and a relieved expression on his face.

"Shiv, Broken Moon! I've been checking and searching the entire gate for the last five minutes, trying to locate where you were."

"Sorry," Shiv said. "I was briefly caught up inside the teleportation anchor.Had to recover for a bit with Can Hu. But the anchor’s not gonna be an issue anymore." Shiv let out a low chuckle as he thought back to what he did to the vampires, and to the anchor in particular. "I butchered their backline forces before they could build up and cut off their way in. I killed one of the First Blood's heroes and even bagged myself an owl."

"An owl?" Adam said, his eyes widening.

"Yeah," Shiv said. He reached into his cloak and pulled out the bound owl. The man struggled and kicked in futility. Adam flinched back in disgust and near pity.

"Did you have to bind him in those thick layers of your skin?" Adam asked, his expression souring.

Shiv shrugged. "I didn't really have anything better. It was in the heat of the moment. Besides, it's adamantine skin. He can't easily break out. He doesn't have the strength for it. And the owl here knows…" Shiv said as he held the owl up so he could speak right where the agent’s ear was. The owl's courage shuddered and cracked. "That if he tries to do anything, I'll take his limbs from him, one by one. Isn't that right?”

The owl just whimpered and licked at his teeth—at teeth that were no longer there.

Shiv just chuckled. "Yeah, that's gone too. Funny thing about Biomancy, it lets you detect some interesting things, such as hollow teeth with poison capsules inside." The owl's tongue flicked around and continue desperately searching to no avail. "Yeah, I got all of them. Bite your tongue off again if you want. I will use the Woundeater on you. Understand, you're not dying, you're giving us what we want. And afterward, well, if you still want to die, I can maybe oblige then."

Dread Aura > 76

The owl shuddered and sobbed. Adam shivered. "Shiv, have I ever told you how bloody terrifying you sometimes get?"

The Deathless smirked. "It's good for my Dread Aura."

"Yes, well, you're using it on me too."

Shiv nodded. "Yeah, I'm always leveling Dread Aura. And you scream funny when you’re scared, so that’s a bonus.”

Adam sneered. "Bastard."

"Don't worry, Adam. You're more courageous than most, even if you do shiver like a leaf sometimes."

The Young Lord scoffed. "Well, the owl is a good capture. Well done, Shiv. Uva’s going to love this. Right, the anchor. You said you eliminated it—”

"Yeah, I completely destroyed it."

"Completely?" Adam blinked, his eyes widening. “What do you mean completely.”

"Yeah," Shiv said. "I just gripped it and I twisted it until it was almost entirely crumpled, then I twisted it until the sides tore too. Like a can. Pretty good workout." Shiv laughed.

Adam just stared at him. "You crumpled the Jealousy's teleportation anchor, the one you described as being almost 400 meters long."

"It was 400 meters long," Shiv said. "It was kind of exhausting, but yeah, I did it."

For a beat, the Young Lord said nothing. He just stared at Shiv. "You understand that you could have just damaged the parts where the spells were."

"Yeah, Can Hu told me, but," Shiv shrugged. "You know, I kind of wanted to break stuff, especially after all that misery the vampires and the Aviary agents put me through. Blow off some steam and burn through my anger.”

Adam didn't know whether he wanted to laugh or cry in that moment, so he simply shook his head. "You absolute bloody monster." Shiv folded his arms and simply smirked. And after a moment, Adam cracked and started laughing in disbelief. "Insane.”

Well, he turned around as his eyes flared. Sky blue and the radiance of the sun circled in his irises as he searched for Uva, but he didn't need to wait long until her strands shot through the obsidian building and bound her thoughts to theirs.

"Uva," Shiv said, "how are things going at the Abyssal Gateway?"

"Perfectly unstable," Uva described the situation. She filtered a few of her memories directly to them and as the sheer blast of details flooded their minds. Then, she started modulating her experiences within the Shoggoth as both Shiv and Adam clutched their heads and struggled not to throw up. "Sorry, a lot happened."

"It’s fine," Shiv said, clenching his teeth. "It's just… what the hell did you take over at the end there?"

"I think, I think it's called a Shoggoth. I'm not sure what it is," Uva said. "I've never heard of anything like it, nor seen any creature do what it did."

"Perhaps we should ask Valor about it when we have time," Adam advised. 

Both the Dimensional Archer and the Deathless shared their memories with Uva and each other, and for a moment they all rendered each other speechless.

Shiv broke the silence with a guffaw. "We really tore some shit up, didn't we?"

"I suppose you can describe it that way," Uva said, and her coolness came with a vicious undercurrent of pride. "Right now, it's mainly Confriga against the dwindling remnants of the First Blood. If you ask me, I suspect he can win. But that will take some time and probably leave his forces in utter tatters, and it will leave him distracted and pinned. More, he is no longer the Gate Lord.”

"So that’s why it’s not cold anymore. Nice job," Adam said. The Young Lord's excitement was rising, and once more he cast his senses into the tower. For a moment, he just thought, and Shiv gave him the space to do so.

The Deathless turned his thoughts on Uva. "You alright?" he asked. He sensed a bit of unease from her still. More unease than she usually bore.

"Yes, the mind I took, it was simply alien, unlike anything. Even the Jealousy… The Greater Demon was practically human compared to the Shoggoth."

"Practically human." Shiv briefly mind-bounded with the jealousy. And he cringed. "If the Jealousy is practically human compared to the Shoggoth, I don't ever want to know what a Shoggoth was like."

"It's actually quite fascinating," Uva said, as her mind began to shiver with excitement. She had done something few Psychomancers ever did, and she enjoyed it. "The way it sees the world, it's like there are certain parts of its mind that are absolutely blank. There's no point of symmetry between my thoughts and its. But it does have things like hunger and hatred and an understanding of the world. But there are also things, things beyond that. Things that I had to ignore altogether, lest it damaged my sanity. I even got a skill from it, though I’m not sure what it does yet.”

"Yeah, well, I'm glad you didn't get your sanity damaged. I don't know where I'd find another  Jealousy, but I would find one and have to kill it and cook it to get your mind to regenerate.”

"Just for me?" Uva said teasingly.

"Yeah, of course, just for you." Shiv paused. "Hell, I'd fight an army of Jealousies for you. Every last Jealousy in existence, even. And I mean it.”

"Shiv, stop. We're in the middle of the battlefield."

Shiv shrugged, "And that's a problem for me?"

Uva bit back a husky laugh.

“Well, it is a bloody problem for me,” Adam said, interrupting the both of them. He glared at Shiv.

“I’m not sorry,” Shiv said. “I’ll tell it all to her again. And mean it twice as much.”

Silver Tongue > 20

“I know,” Adam groaned. “And it makes me want to kill myself. Okay. From what I can tell, we have a series of follow-up objectives now. Our initial run has been very successful. Confriga has been desynchronized from the mana core of the gate. So right now, he won't be able to respond easily. He won't be able to dispatch forces easily. And the people here will be looking for someone else to rely on in the meantime."

"Guardshead Leu," Shiv said immediately. "She's known. She's effective. And frankly, I think we can use her as the next Gate Lord."

Adam hesitated. "I'm not fully sure she's trustworthy, Shiv. After we kill Confriga, who's to say she won't turn on us?"

Shiv considered that for a moment. He didn't know Guardshead Leu that well, aside from what his Foreshadowing showed him. But he did know this: She wasn't nearly strong enough to kill Confriga on her own, and she probably couldn’t reliably even hurt Shiv. "I don't think she's going to be that much of a problem for any of us, Adam. Frankly, if she's going to betray us, she better have a really good plan, even with the mana core, because between your dimensional arrows, Uva’s Psychomancy, and me just well, charging into her and ripping her in half, what’s she going to do?"

The Young Lord considered that, and grunted. "Fine, we can try having her installed. That’ll take some work, though. The gate is in pretty dire condition, and the people are busy hiding.”

"We don't need to try," Uva said. "I simply need to find the most important people still remaining in the gate, and have them carry the message." Her strands immediately began spreading out. "It might take some time, but it's doable."

"Right! Psychomancer! Fantastic! But in the meantime…" Adam regarded Confriga’s obsidian tower. And then he looked at the third gateway. His jaw clenched. "I think a series of opportunities lay open before us. The Weaveress Egg Breeding Facility. You said that was inside this tower too, yes Shiv?"

"Yeah," Shiv said. And he looked up at the tower and understood what Adam was planning. 

"Right, we can go in and try to clear that out. Figure out what the operation is."

"Yes, but also we can eliminate what defenders remain inside the tower. It's also very lightly defended right now. And between the three of us, we can clear it out quickly. But once we get to the upper level, I want you to reach out with your Gravitic Wrestler. And I want you to break the base of the tower connected to the plaza above.”

"Break the base," Shiv thought. "Why?"

"Because I want to seal the third gateway temporarily, no matter what. Confriga hasn't called in reinforcements yet, but I don't want to risk anything. That tower, at least its head, should be able to block things. And even a Master-Tier, or someone with Master-Tier Monster Skills like you, would take some time to blast through. And we would definitely notice while they do."

Shiv paused, and he let out an approving chuckle. "That's a pretty good plan, Adam. I kinda like it."

"You’re only saying that because I’m having you break things," Adam said, deadpan. "In the meantime, I briefly looked through the tower. There seems to be several rooms of interest. And some critical personnel we should still eliminate. But aside from the breeding grounds, there are also the slaves. And what seems to be a vault?"

"A vault?" Shiv said, surprised.

"Yes, Confriga has another room near the middle of the tower. There, I think he has a personal treasure vault of some kind."

"Treasury," Shiv said, sounding excited. "Well, I do think that we deserve a bit of an extra reward for all the work we've been putting in here."

Uva let out a slight huff. "The Arachnae Order thinks very lowly of robbers and scoundrels." She paused. "Thankfully, the Arachnae Order is nowhere near here, and we're robbing Compact. So. That makes this a repossession operation. I think I'm looking forward to this."

By this point, practically all three of them were grinning.

"And then there's the matter of the slaves," Adam said. A little growl entering his voice.

"Shiv," Can Hu interjected. "I have freed the automata slaves. They are beginning the uprising. I've transmitted my messages to them. They understand what is about to happen and what is at stake. Adam. Eliminate the most essential and dangerous slaver overseers, and the uprising should be able to handle itself. I will see to it through my drones in the meantime."

Shiv conveyed the information to Adam, and the Young Lord let out a breath. "Ah, Can Hu, I didn't realize how busy you were."

"I will take that as a compliment," Can Hu replied. "The local slavers didn't notice either."

"And when all that's done," Shiv said, he stared at his own skull-helmed reflection in his stellarite kukri, and found a surge of excitement rushing through him. "I think we're going to pay Confriga a collective visit."

"Yes, but all of us, at once. And when he's weakened," Uva stressed, "his sword has something wrong with it. Deeply wrong. He summoned the Shoggoth using, and I think that’s only the tip of its capabilities. If I had to guess, it must be Heroic-Tier in terms of potential. At least."

"At least," Shiv muttered. He'd fought Master-Tier adversaries with Master-Tier weapons. But a Heroic-Tier weapon, or item... His Mask of False Paths was one such thing. But it wasn't meant for war and would have been a miracle item in the hands of a proper spy. He wondered just what Absence could do.

"Fine then," Shiv said. "We'll all have a piece of him together. And remember, we promised to bring Valor along. So we gotta save something for the old man."

Adam stared at Shiv. "I'm going to tell him you called him that."

"And tell him whatever you want. He still likes me more than you."

Adam gritted his teeth. "Oh, that might change sometime."

"Sure it will, Adam.”

“That might change," Adam repeated, narrowing his eyes. The both snorted at each other. And then the moment of levity broke, and all three assumed a mental state of battle readiness.

"All right," Adam said. "I'm going airborne, as far and high up as I can go, while staying in range of Uva's strands."

"For your arrows?" Shiv asked.

"Yes," Adam said. "Distance is damage, and I’ve had enough of this close-quarters bullshit for a day.”

Shiv nodded. "All right. I'm gonna go inside and, I think, rip some stuff up. I'll move through the tower as fast as I can."

"I'll step through my rift and assist you if necessary," Adam said. "Well, maybe," Adam flashed his saber, and his clones began to appear. "Maybe I'll just send one of my peons." The other Adams looked at the original, annoyed.

"Yeah, he makes me feel that way sometimes too," Shiv said.

The bulk of Uva’s mind drifted away from them. "I will plant thoughts marking Guard Head Liu the new Gate Lord. I will try to work fast, and I will assist you all in the meantime. I will also keep an eye on the situation at the gateway. Be prepared to respond summarily. We cannot let Confriga emerge unscathed, and we cannot let the First Blood overrun this place." And then she paused. "Ah, another thing. I will try to hunt down the remaining aviary and First Blood assets within the gate. There are some still lurking about. I'm pretty sure I quelled a lesser vampire uprising a district away."

And with their new tasks assigned, the group went forth, each of them focusing on another section while staying connected to each other through Uva's mind.

With Confriga distracted and his army in shambles, Shiv moved with the subtlety of a wrecking ball, he blasted against the underside of the obsidian tower and carved his way through. This time, he didn't bother plugging the gap behind him. He simply left it open. He didn't intend for the obsidian tower to remain standing by the end anyway. Once inside, he began smashing his way from the bottom up. He still kept his Silhouette active, just to make himself hard to track. Walls, floors, and rooms were left in ruins as he passed through. The guards of the obsidian tower were slaughtered with prejudice. And ease. Confriga had only left a skeleton crew behind, taking the rest of his elites out into battle. 

The main enemies he had faced now were usually just elemental dimensionals. And they rarely lasted that long.

As he climbed the tower, however, he began seeing Adam's handiwork as well. He would get to a new floor and find most of the enemies there already dead. The weaker ones were little more than a smear of blood against the ground. The stronger ones had holes through their body. Holes the size of a Veilpiercer.

"Adam, are you killing my victims?" Shiv sent.

"They're not yours if I'm killing them first, are they?" Adam shot back, tauntingly.

"Oh, so it's like that now," Shiv replied.

"Has it ever been another way?" Adam asked.

The Deathless gritted his teeth. The asshole needed a lesson. "Fine then, let's make it a competition."

"Ha! Let's not, I already shot everyone worth shooting in the building."

Shiv paused. "What do you mean you shot everyone else in the building?"

"It's exactly what it sounds like," Adam said nonchalantly. "As it turns out, when you have a great many clones, and they can all use Veilpiercer, clearing buildings becomes extraordinarily easy. You should try it sometime. If you ever develop those skills.”

Shiv's mind went blank for a while. "I… I was…”

“You were kind of looking forward to ripping through people and smashing your way up through every floor.”

"Yeah, kinda."

"You can still smash the building, Shiv.”

But no people to kill means it doesn't feel completely right."

"You'll just have to be faster next time. Or maybe, I don't know, develop a skill with more precision and finesse."

And for a first time in a while, Adam was truly managing to annoy Shiv. The Deathless would be impressed if he wasn't so, well, annoyed.

"Well, come on, Shiv, get a move on," Adam said. The moment of back and forth between them over. "We have objectives to secure and a quest to finish. Stay on target, monster.”

"All right, Archer, let's get this thing done." He shot straight up through every floor, keeping his eyes open. But true to Adam's words, everyone worth killing was already dead. Shiv's annoyance turned into envy and slight admiration. Adam wasn't wrong about the precision and focus comment. A skill like that could help Shiv go a long way. 

Frankly, if Shiv had been in Adam's situation, he would have needed to rush every single building at once, unless he kept the rapier. But frankly, the rapier was better with Adam anyway. All the clones were susceptible to damage and shared all the damage at that, and they didn't last very long either. Someone had to keep triggering them. 

The rapier was good for an archer, good for someone who could move and use spatial magic. With the rapier, Adam became practically a minor artillery corps onto himself. Maybe not so minor anymore, now that he had Veilpiercer, the vambrace, and Spellstring.

And then Shiv considered how he might have handled Uva's situation. Not particularly well, actually. What she managed to do to both armies was far beyond Shiv's capabilities. He probably could have torn through a good number of them. Maybe even smash through Konfriga's vanguard. But he was, at his core, a brutal instrument. 

And there were a good amount of brutal instruments within Confriga's armies, along with the former Gate Lord himself. Shiv could have forced a fight and butchered a good portion of Confriga’s army. Maybe dealt some attritional damage, but never engineered a collapse like Uva did. 

Then again, considering how the other two would have operated within the confines of the teleportation anchor… Yeah, not very good, Shiv surmised. 

Uva might do better than Adam if she keeps jumping between bodies. But that's just the thing, she needs enemies with low or nonexistent Magical Resistance to perform to her fullest capabilities. To be able to infiltrate and use the enemies against themselves. 

Adam needed distance. I just need to be there and keep going. And it was then that he appreciated being a part of a team again. For a while, he thought he could have done everything himself, if he got strong enough. But that was just the thing, Valor told him once, that you needed to devote time, focus, and effort to every skill. And even if he had 10 Master-Tier Skills, he suspected there would still be numerous areas he needed to rely on Adam and Uva. 

None of them could have brought this gate down alone. And that filled Shiv with a feeling of true camaraderie. A feeling the other two had as well.

As Shiv exploded out through the ground of the Weaver Breeding Facility, he found the conveyor belts stilled, but there were hundreds of people still suspended. They continued along the belt until they passed through a gap into an adjacent room. 

Shiv called out to them, most of them moaned. A great many were unresponsive, but a few looked down. "I'm going to try to get you guys out and fix you up, all right?" Shiv called out.

"Please," an older man said. "Help us, help us."

Just then, a thought came through from Adam. "Shiv, follow the conveyor belts. There are several people in the next room. They’re hostiles.”

"You didn't shoot them?" Shiv asked.

"No, they're not actually combatants, and more importantly… You best see for yourself. I think they have important information they can offer us. Uva. We will need you.”

"Give me one second," Uva said, sounding slightly strained. "I will need some time to finish what I can, then I will devote another portion of my mind to this."

“Another portion of, oh yeah, that's right, Parallel Thinking.” Adam reacted with naked envy. "I wish I could have Parallel Thinking."

"Try doing multiple things at once very well," Uva replied absentmindedly.

"I can do multiple bloody things at once, very well, it's not one of them," Adam said, under his breath.

Shiv did as he was asked. And though the Young Lord hadn't shot the people in the next room, he did put a few holes around them, leaving them huddled in the corner, boxed in. Shiv did a double take as he entered the room. 

It wasn't nearly as large a space as the room with the conveyor belts, but it had plenty of what looked like industrial-level equipment. And more importantly, there were open slots on the walls and even more slots running all the way up to the ceiling and across the walls. These slots were filled with people sealed in some kind of magical stasis pod. They all had eggs inside them too, and he sensed a little over a thousand people packed deep into the walls…

“What the hells,” Shiv muttered.

A young woman whimpered beside him, hanging from the end of a conveyor belt. A line of other people pressed against her, all of them miserable, all of them clearly suspended there for a while. He could feel the eggs inside of them, writhing, twitching. And beneath the woman were those containers, the containers that held the other people currently slotted into the wall. There was no magic active yet. And the egg-bearers were clearly meant to be loaded into these things. 

So why, and then he finally noticed them, the people operating in this room. Shiv did another take. They weren't Voltegs, or Umbrals, or any race. They were Weaveresses.

"Please," the Weaveresses said, their palps moving across their faces, their eight eyes wide with fear. They held all eight of their limbs out, the human fingers at the end of their digits, splayed wide in a gesture of supplication. "Do not kill us, capture us, we, we know, we know many things. We can do many things for you, yes. We can lay eggs, eggs, yes, can continue the process for you. Don't need to work for the Gate Lord anymore. Don't like the Gate Lord."

"You're Weaveresses," Shiv breathed. It was a simple, stupid statement, but he was still taken aback.

And at his shock, Uva briefly stopped what she was doing and filled his mind. Her astonishment eclipsed his by far. "What?" she cried.

The amount of times Shiv had seen Uva enter a state of shock was few and far between. But when the Umbral Psychomancer was stunned, she was really, truly stunned. For a moment, she didn't do anything. Her mana strands quivered as she tried to process what she was seeing. 

Then they shot out and took all four of the rogue Weaveresses. Uva bound herself to them. Her mana strands turned away from the rest of the city, and for a single moment, she committed to a single, absolute task. 

"Start freeing the people," Uva said with urgent growl. "Get them down. Get the eggs out of them and the others." She paused. "Composer, there's so many. We will need to figure that out later, but save who you can now. I will figure out the exact details of this operation and this conspiracy." She practically snarled those last words, and Shiv got to work.

"I'll stay on overwatch," Adam said. "Work fast, Shiv. Something’s happening at the Abyssal Gateway.”

"Don't worry, I got it," Shiv replied. He stared at the conveyor belt and the people, and he flared his Biomancy. He gave his magic some time to recover earlier, and his mana field still felt sore, but plucking the weaver's eggs out from them wasn't that much effort. 

When he was done, he gathered some curtains and a few skin decoys for the people he just rescued to use as blankets. Most of them seemed traumatized. All of them were slaves of some kind, and slaves who were near the end of their use at that. Beyond broken for some reason or another, Shiv clenched his teeth as disgust and hatred boiled inside of him.

Not only was Confriga feeding slaves to the Jealousy, he was doing this sick shit here. "You're all going to be…" Shiv's word trailed off. He nearly said all right, but he could tell from their gazes and the scars marring their bodies that all right was definitely not in their near future. A cluster of weaver's eggs also filled his dimensional cloak. A muffled groan came from the owl, and Shiv jostled them momentarily, warning the man not to bite his own tongue again. Shiv decided then to take all the owl's teeth, just in case.

"Adam, how's the coast looking?" Shiv asked briefly.

"Still clear, but I think the last bits of Confriga's front line have collapsed. It's mainly his elites and what mages remain now. The forces of the First Blood are also thinning, but they're still coming forward. It might not be a flood, but it's still a river. I took a peek outside and, well, it doesn't look good. It looks like an entire bloody invading arm smashed into this place. The gate’s guards have been flayed and their organs are impaled on pikes. No wonder Ikki and the others couldn't inform us. It looks like the entire horizon is infested. They likely had to pull out in a hurry.”

"Infested?" Shiv asked.

"Yes, the damned vampires spilled blood over everything. There's a cloud raining gore and viscera. Disgusting."

Shiv sighed at that. "Everything they do is disgusting. You would have hated the teleportation anchor, Adam," Shiv said. "Just the smell of fighting them alone in an enclosed space..."

Young Lord nearly gagged. "I will not lie. I can practically smell some of them from up here. I'm glad we all chose to focus on the tasks we chose."

A series of agreements were exchanged between the three, and Uva extracted herself from the Weaveresses. One of them was entirely unresponsive, viciously spasming. “I broke her during interrogation," Uva said, her voice filled with quiet fury. "They were… they were part of Elaboration. They are supposed to be dead—ambushed while doing a field study. They defected. To the Compact.”

"What?" Shiv said.

“And there are more of them.. Allies inside Weave. Traitors. Adam, I need you to bring them to the teleportation anchor—our teleportation anchor, and store them there."

"Oh, right," Shiv said. "While you do that, there's someone else you gotta interrogate later." He pulled out the owl, and Uva stared at the writhing body coated in skin decoys. "It's an owl," Shiv said, "an Aviary agent, taken alive."

And suddenly Shiv felt a lightness break the storm clouds inside Uva. A slight heat swell inside her chest. "Shiv," she sighed, "that writhing body is practically a bundle of roses in your hands."

Shiv grinned. "I'll endeavor to kidnap more people for you."

A Veilpiercer tore into the room. Shiv grunted with amusement.

"For the love of bloody hell," Adam muttered as he emerged the room through a rift. He eyed the Weaveresses, including the one with a mind broken, and began to channel his Dimensionality over them. A shroud of darkness and distortion collapsed inward, and they were gone, cast to where the teleportation anchor was. And for a moment, Adam stared at Shiv. 

"Right, I probably need to inform Valor about what's going on. Might be a little confusing for him. I'll be back, very soon." And then he teleported as well.

Leaving only Uva and Shiv there for a moment. "So," Shiv said, "what do you think we should do with the victims?" He looked at all few hundred people that were gathered in the room.

Uva just sighed. "We can't let them stay here. Get them across the dimensional pathway Adam left perhaps?”

"Yeah, no," Shiv said, "that leads up into the sky."

She paused. "Then we wait for Adam to come back and have him fire an arrow somewhere else. I'll inform him. You keep going up. I think there's a vault you need to hit, isn't there?"

"Thanks for reminding me." 

As Uva's strands spread out among the freed victims, Shiv shot upwards. He smashed through the ceiling and he kept going. He blasted higher and higher until he hit the midsection of the building. And there, his surroundings changed. No more corridors and hallways or elevators. It was like a wide-open lobby, but at the center was a massive cylindrical vault. There were a few dozen guards here, but now they lay with holes in their chest. Holes delivered with perfect precision.

Most of them were blade dimensionals, or Metal Fiends, as Uva called them. Dimensionals Shiv had fought several weeks back while raiding a slave caravan in the Umbral Wilderness. It looked like someone had pulverized the room with focused artillery strikes. And then there was an elemental golem. A golem that had several channels of corrosion carved through it. 

Doubtless a result of Adam's vambrace giving power to some of his arrows.

Uva considered how a fight between him and Adam might go now. Probably suicidal for the both of them, depending on how close Shiv was. Once more, Shiv considered why the system gave Adam the vambrace. Considered, and something inside him knew that it was probably going to drive them against each other at some point. The system loved strife, and they were system favored. 

What brought more strife than a team collapsing in on itself? 

As Shiv stared at the vault, he realized it was adamantine as well, and considered waiting for Adam. Considered, but decided against it. He tore a titanium-reinforced teleportation anchor apart. He might be able to do this. 

He placed his gravity field against it, and it began to twist. The vault door shuddered and groaned, and Shiv groaned with it. The door squealed—Then a series of corrosive arrows impacted the same point over and over again, just over Shiv's head. A tunnel carved into the vault, and Shiv immediately blasted backward, letting out a hiss of dissatisfaction as Uva reconnected him with Adam.

"Shiv," Adam said, "You don't really need to rip apart every bit of metal you see apart."

"What the hell was that?" Shiv said. "You're going to fire Necromantic arrows over my head? Really?”

"Oh, relax. I wasn't going to hit you."

Shiv narrowed his eyes. He knew Adam was accurate. He also knew Adam was probably doing that just to provoke him. "I'm going to get you for that, asshole," Shiv muttered under his breath.

Adam just laughed. Soon a hole was burned through the center of the vault. And Shiv stepped through. And as he did, a massive smile lined his face. There were five items held in display cases. Wands, weapons, pieces of armor, and in one case an entire armor set. One that seemed to be completely created from focus crystal. Then there were all the mithril ingots lining the walls—so many ingots, treasure chests, gold, gems, and more.

Shiv began scooping everything he saw into his cloak. Starting with the armor set, everything went into his cloak. And at the very end of the vault, there was a book. A strange book lined in dense chains and covered in strange pustules that whispered at Shiv. Too bad he couldn’t understand what it was saying.

***

Uva somehow understood what the book was saying.

CONFRIGA… IS THAT YOU… HAVE YOU COME TO CONTINUE YOUR EDUCATION? HAVE YOU COME WITH AN OFFER FOR ME? A SKILL. A PIECE OF YOUR SOUL FOR A PIECE OF MINE…

The words hammered against Uva’s consciousness. For a moment, she felt the words crawling and gnaw at her sanity, but she pushed away the damage with her mana and what remained was the voice—calling out to the Lesser Marshal. And more importantly, Shiv wasn’t looking at a book, it was a damned prison.

The book was just a facade. The longer Uva stared, the more the chains and tentacles peeled away to show a cluster of eyes staring out from within.

Eldritch Insight > 2

NOT CONFRIGA. NO. SOMEONE ELSE… HAVE YOU COME TO FREE ME? HAVE YOU COME TO TAKE ME OUT? AWAY? AWAY FROM THIS PRISON? RELEASE ME?’

Uva didn’t respond to the book. Instead, she filtered her memories over to Shiv and he grunted in surprise.

“You understand the whispering?” he asked, surprised.

“Yes. I… This is part of my Eldritch Insight Skill. I think… Take the book too. Leave nothing. Nothing for Confriga. Whatever the book is, it knows about the Lesser Marshal. It’s a piece of intelligence.”

“Are you sure?” Shiv asked, sounding apprehensive. “I got a bad feeling about the book.”

“You have the Odes. It cannot be worse than that.”

“Shit. You’re right.”

Shiv walked over and picked up the book.

YES… WHAT’S THIS… STRANGE SOUL… STRANGE—WAIT… MIND INSIDE HIS. MIND OF… MIND THAT HAS ITS EYES OPEN. HELLO. SEER OF THE ELDEST MYSTERIES. I GREET YOU. COME TO FREE ME? COME TO TAKE ME AWAY? I WILL PREPARE GIFTS FOR YOU. GIFTS FOR MY FREEDOM. DEEPEN YOUR INSIGHT. REACH BEYOND THE VEIL OF THE NEARNESS. WHERE THE SYSTEM’S EYE BLURS…

The Stranger gazes intently upon you…

“Uva,” Shiv said. “This book is beyond creepy.”

She hummed. “But it will be useful. I’ll keep an eye on it. And make sure it does do anything horrible.”

“Like eat my mind?”

“Like that.”

“Hopefully it just kills me instead if it is an evil book.”

“Shiv…”

***

Equipment Obtained: [Tome of the Eldest Mysteries]

Tier: [HIDDEN]

Condition: [HIDDEN]

Composition: [HIDDEN]

Enchantments > [HIDDEN]; [HIDDEN]; [HIDDEN]; [HIDDEN]; [HIDDEN]; [HIDDEN]

“The hell is this thing,” Shiv muttered as he threw the book into his cloak.

"And once you're done," Adam said, interrupting Shiv and Uva, "get to the top and bring the tower down. I fear that, and I can't believe I'm saying this, the Gate Lord might need our assistance soon. The remaining warriors under Confriga have been torn apart and eaten by the First Blood. He's fighting alone. He's fighting alone against over fifty Master-Tier adversaries, and True Masters at that. And there are still more coming. I got the non-combatants in the building out. You’re clear to drop the tower. Rip away, monster.”

Shiv left the vault, and put the strange book out of his mind. There was one final thing to do. He shot all the way upward, blasting through every remaining floor, and inflicting as much damage as he could. He impacted the ceiling and reached out with his field. He seized the base of the obsidian tower to pull. 

Shiv roared. He exerted himself, using all his effort. And he relished in the one thing the other two couldn't do all that well. Bend things, break things, tear things asunder. The base groaned as it began to buckle. The magically enhanced obsidian cracked. Metal bolts and structural joints bent and burst apart. But it wasn’t going to fast enough. Shiv felt a surge of annoyance as he poured anger into his Gravitic Wrestler. And suddenly, his strength spiked. He triggered his Icon of the Paindrinker as well. And the effects of his damage were magnified. The base was  ripped asunder in an explosive shattering. The top of the tower broke off and the rest plunged.

Shiv hovered in place, letting out a casual huff, his muscles throbbing but otherwise fine. But he managed it. He managed to rip the base apart and bring the entire tower down. And he watched it, with a building sense of satisfaction in his chest, crash against the third gateway—crash, and lodge itself deep as the middle of the tower folded inward.

Shiv let out a breath, and for a moment the other two were speechless.

"Shiv," Adam said, with a slight hint of apprehension in his voice, "When next we spar, I'm going to do everything in my power to stay far, far away from you."

"Yeah," Shiv said, "and I'm going to do everything I can to grab you, and pull off your helmet, and maybe give you a haircut."

"You will not," Adam said.

"Maybe I will," Shiv said.

"Boys," Uva said, "focus. Confriga."

"All right. Well, it's your lucky day, young asshole. Let's go save the only asshole here bigger than you."

"Well, you first, bastard. You're the only one he really knows, after all. And keep your Silhouette up, no showboating. We approach and keep him alive, but spent. Then, we all hit him together after the First Blood is defeated, and we get our new Master-Tier Skill.”

"Sure," Shiv said, "I always keep my Silhouette up."

"You showed the bloody Heroic-Tier vampire you were fighting your face at the end."

"Yeah, but I was about to win."

"Yes, but he wasn't dead."

“He got there when I stabbed him in the heart-balls, didn’t he?” 

“Just piss off and start doing horrible things to the combatants at the gateway. I’ll go fetch Valor ready. Uva. Leu. Get that mana core Synchronized. Let’s finish this.”

“Affirmative,” Uva said.

With a pull of Shiv gravitic field, he shot towards the Abyssal Gateway, where Lesser Marshal Confriga struggled desperately against the last dregs of the First Blood.

His heart thundered with anticipation. Coming for you, Gate Lord.