Sell you a Bridge chapter 330

July 2nd 2016 Traverse Town, 2:00 PM EDT

The  room full of frozen infected was...quiet. Which seemed obvious even as I  thought it. These people were frozen in time, but it was still weird  and unnatural to be in a room full of bodies that weren't dead and made  no sound at all. Zee made an uncomfortable sound to my side. "This is  creepy." She said quietly, her voice muted as if she were in a library.  "Can you do anything for them Morgan?"

I just shrugged,  stepping up to one of the forms. My aura sight flared, and I pushed with  my ability, shifting the capabilities of my vision slightly to bypass  the aura of the time spell and get to the heart of things. Aura sight  was an ability I got from my power to start with, and the Deception that  I could use it to see to the heart of this wasn't a big push,  especially given its origins.

Sure enough, as I saw the  aura of the virus, I picked up a mixture of things I'd hoped not to see.  A similar aura to The Drowned, wrapped around an aura that was alien  and at the same time somewhat familiar. I'd never seen Superman in  action personally, not close enough to get his aura, but I lived across  the river from Metropolis. The city was so interwoven with the  kryptonian that they might as well be siblings. I knew what Superman's  aura looked like, and this was, while not the same, similar enough to  cause me concern.

Of course, there was Barbatos's aura  mixed in there, I'd seen his touch on enough people to recognize it, and  more than that I knew that bastard was involved. I also recognized a  unique flavor of aura I'd only seen on a few people. Namely Namine,  Roxas, and the cultists from Organization thirteen. I had no clue why  Namine would have the same kind of aura as the rest of them, though I  should probably ask. Roxas had been a member so at least that made  sense.

After studying it for a while I decided it was time  to give erasing it a shot. I considered how exactly to go about that. I  needed something sort of like a healing spell, but I needed it to be  malleable. I would have to use my power in conjunction with it to  officially wipe away this taint.

Thinking it over for a  while, I finally figured out how to go about it. I summoned Tartarus,  ignoring the sound of interest from Aerith at the sight, and focused on  the first person completely. Then I reached out and cast a healing  spell. Instead of using my internal mana like I'd practiced, I pushed my  power into the spell, specifically demonic power, which I knew would  bend to my desires.

The usual flower appeared over the  form on the bed, but rather than green or yellow it was black, the  petals red as it rained down dark energy on the suffering victim. I  watched the aura, focusing on my power, and as it made contact I focused  on the possibility that this would work, on the lie I'd told myself of  certainty and confidence, and then I SHOVED it into existence.

Sadly  that wasn't going to be enough right away. It started to work even as I  watched, but rather than wiping out the virus as expected, it started  to grind away at it. That was fine, I didn't need an instant solve, slow  and steady would work. The issue was that in order to finish it I had  to continue supplying energy, and demonic power was REALLY inefficient.  My head started to burn as I pushed magic into the spell, but I didn't  let up.

The virus was...strange. It resisted hard, not  just fighting back, but changing and growing to try to counter my spell.  Even as it altered itself to better resist though, my spell did the  same. Demonic energy and aura sight combined to allow me a versatility  and adaptability with this working that the virus, as impressive as it  was, just couldn't match. The virus was intelligent, sort of, but not  aware exactly. It was more like a really advanced computer program than a  person.

That was lucky, because I wasn't sure I could  have managed this long if I had to counter an actual person. As I pushed  on, the virus was ground away. Even in the stasis, I could see the grey  tinge retreating from the skin of the victim. Someone else might have  stopped. Might have thought it was over. I didn't. I could still see.  The virus was there, was retreating to build up for a push.

I  was lucky. The awareness of the contagion seemed unable to work  properly around the time stop. When I was in contact with it I could see  and feel it changing to combat me, but when I pulled back the thing  remained frozen, giving me time to adjust and launch another assault as I  continued to grind away at it. The more I wore it down, the harder it  was. The adaptation was improving, learning faster and countering more  effectively as I tried new tactics to erode the power.

Eventually  though, I prevailed. It wasn't easy. The awareness gave one last  massive push and almost broke through my healing spell. I could feel  that if that happened it would sweep over the victim, converting them  faster than ever, and once that happened the time stop would shatter and  whatever this person would turn into would be unleashed. I wavered on  my feet as I finished, feeling my muscles go slack as I sank to my  knees, head pounding.

Still, it didn't matter. I waved to  Aerith. "It's...done. This one is clean. Release the spell." I had to  check my handiwork and hopefully this guy could give us some idea of how  or where he'd been infected in the first place.

As I  leaned against the wall, Aerith stepped forward to scan the formerly  infected subject. Her hands wove a few complex patterns and a wave of  green light rolled over the still form of the man on the bed. After a  minute her eyes widened and she stepped back. "That's...you did it. You  actually cured him completely." She spun to me in excitement. "Can you  do it again? If we can cure the rest of them we can eliminate the virus  in its early stages!"

I just shook my head. "Not even  close. That took everything I had in me. I'd need weeks to do it that  many times. But it's fine. Because I was able to learn more about the  virus as I worked on it. It's got awareness, but not thought or intent.  That said it COMES from something with thought or intent. The original  strain of this thing is fully sapient, having completely conquered a  host. It outsources most of its work to the virus, but it's still acting  as a relay. Which means if I can beat and purge the original host the  entire virus chain will break."

Not that I was capable of  that at the moment. My head was pounding and I could barely stand. As  usual though, I'd learned quite a bit from using my ability. I wouldn't  say it would be easy to eliminate another strain, even after I  recovered, but I could use this practice on the host carrier when we  found it. Once I kicked it's ass mind you. My armor would keep me safe  against the infection though, I'd been able to verify that at least.

After  explaining that I needed to rest, as well as what I'd learned, Aerith  led us to a bedroom where I was able to crash for a few hours. Drea  decided to come with me to cuddle and keep me company, while Zee  followed Aerith to learn more about time magic. My sorceress was  ecstatic to have a chance to study such an interesting field, and I was  happy for her, but my head hurt and I was exhausted. Even as a god,  mobilizing that amount of power was hard work.

So Drea and  I cuddled up in bed and I drifted off, thankfully not dreaming of  anything. When I woke, I felt refreshed. Maybe not a hundred percent,  but more than enough for a fight. Drea hadn't slept at all, but was  curled up with me meditating, and I almost felt bad disturbing her, she  looked so peaceful. Sadly needs must, and after shaking her out of her  trance with a quick kiss, I slipped out of bed and we padded down the  where Zee and Aerith were training.

"So." I said walking  into the room. "Learn anything interesting while I was out?" I wasn't  talking about the magic, since Zee would definitely insist that was  interesting. I mostly meant from the victim, who was now awake and under  guard as he ate a bowl of soup.

The man looked up at me  blankly, eyes not really focusing on anything. I hadn't really done much  digging into his brain to check how his mind held up under the  influence of the virus. Still, despite being out of it, after a few  seconds he blinked and focused on me, offering me a tired smile. "It's  you." I wasn't surprised he recognized me, my aura had been all over  that working.

"It's me." I agreed. "I was hoping to ask  you some questions, if they haven't already." I glanced at Zee, who  shook her head sadly. Ah, he'd just now come out of his fugue when I  came in. Fair enough. "So, you got infected by...something. Can you tell  me what, or maybe where?"

The man's eyes went wide and he  started shaking so bad he dropped the spoon. Aerith moved to help him,  but I held up a hand. He needed to get past this on his own. Once he got  through the shaking he gingerly set down his soup bowl, taking a long  deep breath. "I was walking in the second district. It was just me, no  one else around. It was late, so it wasn't crowded or anything."

He  stopped, closing his eyes to gather his courage. I just waited, he was  helping us out even talking about this, there was no rush. "I...I heard a  sound." He whispered, his voice almost pained. "It was above me, but  when I looked up there was nothing. At first I thought I imagined it,  that I was just hallucinating, but then I heard it again. It was coming  from an alley I was passing, and I was curious, so I took a step in to  check it out."

I put a hand on his shoulder. "Hey, just  take it easy man. Deep breaths. You're safe here." I wondered what he  had seen, but I was pretty sure based on his current reaction he  couldn't really bring himself to talk about it. I frowned for a second,  but then had an idea. "Hey." I said gently. "Do you mind if I pull the  image from your head? I can project it for the others so they can see  it, and you can close your eyes so you don't need to look."

My  demonic energy left pretty much any magic on the table if I pushed hard  enough. I knew I could conjure an image of this thing, and that would  be better than a description anyway. He nodded, eyes squeezed tightly  shut and I sighed, using my demonic energy in conjunction with aura  sight to see into his mind.

My aura was still mixed in  with his after the procedure earlier, and using that as an anchor for  the image conjuration worked fine, even if my head swam a bit. With one  hand, I pushed out a burst of ecstoplasm, not the icy stuff, but pure  ghost-stuff, and shaped it into an image. When I looked, I almost  flinched back from the monster. A huge behemoth with stone grey skin  covered in spikes. That wasn't what made my blood run cold though.

I  was more concerned with the familiar pointed cowl formed from the bones  of the head. Another fucking batman. And this one seemed ever scarier  than the last. I'd been in close contact with the virus for quite a  while, and after seeing the creature, some disparate parts of the  impressions I'd been getting clicked together all at once, and I knew  its name without ever being told. I swallowed hard as I stared at the  horrendous form, and whispered. "Devastator."