ROD - Chapter 113

Chapter One-Hundred-Thirteen – Favors – Part Three

Well, this is… fucked.

-UWO Specialist Barlow-

Panic is setting in quickly as I try to move but can’t. Only my eyes can wander. They move upwards to look at Vella standing over me.

“Enjoying the view?” she asks, making no effort to close her legs, she leans down slowly until she’s right next to my ear, “Let’s have a talk.”

My eyes trace over to Clayton, I can’t move my hand to put a rune of healing on him, and I’m not sure it would even help. My mind is racing though, he might still be alive if the ice didn’t penetrate. The body slows when it gets cold, people trapped under ice have lived after extended periods of time… he’s over level thirty, he should be able to hold his breath for longer too… there’s hope still.

“Aww, are you worried about your friend?” Vella asks with a grin, “Let’s play a game, you answer all of my questions, and I’ll thaw him. If you don’t or I find you’re lying, I’ll completely turn him into ice and shatter him.”

A tingle rolls down my throat and my jaw spasms, I can move it again.

“Let him go.”

“Ah ah, don’t get ahead of yourself. First question, what did you do to block my system interface?”

Block her system interface? What the fuck is she talking about?

“Hmm, you don’t seem to know. Must be Clayton or…”

“Let him go or I will fucking end you right now.”

She pauses, shifting uneasily for a moment, then she relaxes, “No… see, I don’t think you can. If you could, you already would have the moment I sunk my claws into you. I think everything you’ve said, all the god slaying nonsense was a lie to make you seem more powerful. So that the UWO could make the WHA think you were worth poaching, how better to draw them out? I read your real file, not the bullshit one they accidentally gave to the WHA to lure them out. The real file says they didn’t believe you’d done it. They didn’t believe that Abyss was even special anymore. It’s why your security was so shit. In fact, they were more concerned about experimenting with that woman you brought back than with you. They were going to build an army of clones with her. Didn’t really work out though.”

My teeth grind, they gave my fucking file to them? What the fuck is actually going on? Mira said they’d been taking samples of her hair and such, but building an army… what the fuck.  

“Am I on target about you? Shame really, if you had killed a god, that would be pretty awesome.”

“Ask your fucking questions.”

“Ohhh, angry are we? Don’t be angry, sweetums, be depressed, it’s more fitting for your current situation.”

I glare at her, it’s not the only thing that I can do, but it’s something. There are a few skills in my Well of Souls that don’t require anything except a spoken incantation, the problem is, I’m pretty sure that anything that would help me here, would also kill me.

“Can Abyss still evolve?”

“No.”

“What can it do?”

“Store things.”

She looks at me, almost like I’m pitiful, “That’s all?”

“Yes, that’s all, now fucking free him.”

“Almost there, relax. What’s your current level?”

My eyes lower, “Seven.”

“Seven? Are you serious?”

“Yes.”

“Well… that’s kind of useless.”

A black text box glitches heavily in my vision like something is trying to stop it from existing but can’t, I feel a strange tremor in the mana of the air as it hangs there.

[ Error Notice: Refining Complete… 100 Souls Refined ]

[ 33 Chaos Charges Obtained ]

The notice flickers away, I wonder if I can summon any of the Chaos Emporium items. I’d wager that that gun probably uses Chaos Charges. Question is, did Abyss actually eat them? And if it did, do I have to pull some kind of trigger to use it? I’m not even sure I can summon an item… my hand tingles and a candlestick holder spits out from Abyss and clangs on the floor. The retrieval mechanic feels different than it used to be, I was trying to grab a keychain. I’ll need to work on that.

“Was that supposed to be an attack?” Vella asks, leaning down, she winces at the knife in her leg and the slow ooze of blood from her abdomen.

Does she not have any healing skills?

“Sorry, it’s prone to accidental item drops.”

“Mmhm, well if it happens again, he becomes a popsicle.”

“Do you want me to heal you?” I ask.

She laughs, then winces again, “I’m not that daft, but nice try. I’ll mend.”

So, she does have a skill, but it’s not reliable? Or maybe the cost is high and she wants to save it. Either that or she expects backup soon. No, she said something about her system interface not working. I mentally try to open mine, thankful for all the practice I had without my hands before… nothing, there’s no response to the ping to open it. That doesn’t make sense though, there isn’t anything that can stop the system interface. No class, no skill can interrupt it.

It's why they have specialized interrogation chambers. So, what the fuck is going on? My Runic Paladin skill worked, it healed Starman, and Vella’s debuff clearly was effective… so skills still work. Clayton’s skill worked too… so why isn’t my system interface opening?

A puff of smoke wafts from Carl’s mouth as the embers burn brighter. Vella’s head turns slowly to look at him, he shifts his arm and the break action shotgun clicks closed.

The shotgun glows instantly and mana whips toward it in a fury as the inscriptions on it begin to glow brightly.

“Boomshakalaka,” he breathes.

An explosion of light and a myriad of colors blooms across the room, slamming into Vella, sending her into the stone wall twenty paces behind her.

Carl stands, dragging on his pipe as he walks a steady pace toward her, she tries to stand, blood dripping from her face and chest, one of her eyes is leaking internal fluid and she’s wheezing.

“Boomshakalaka.”

Another explosion of color blasts her against the wall again, so hard it sends cracks up it.

He opens it and folds it over his arm again, pulling the pipe from his mouth and adding in more tobacco, he pulls a swift few drags and the embers burn brighter.

“She’s rather sturdy, isn’t she,” he remarks before turning to Clayton, “Looks like he’s forgotten nearly everything I taught him as well. Ah well. Three shakes of fire belly potion should be more than enough.”

He turns to look at me, then squints, “You’re not a witch, right?”

“No…”

“A witch would say that… I suppose Clayton did vouch for you though, damnit all,” he grumbles, he pulls out a slender and elegantly curved stick from his pocket… is that a wand? “How did that disenchantment spell go again? Ah, right,” he mutters some strange words under his breath and I feel a pulse of wild magic ricochet around my body. My arms and legs tingle like they fell asleep… but I can move them.

I slowly rise from the floor, my legs barely able to hold me with the pins and needles they’re feeling. Carl moves over to a cabinet and opens it, muttering to himself, throwing things behind him on the floor, “There it is.”

It’s a small flask with a swirling red liquid that seems almost alive. I’m so stunned by what I’m seeing that I almost forget to breathe. Carl pours a dribble of the potion on Clayton’s head and the ice melts away rapidly. He slants the bottle into Clayton’s mouth and tips it three times, then looks at the ice again and tips it a fourth time before corking it and stowing it back on the shelf.

“You should probably heal the harpy if you want to get anything useful out of her.” He moves to another cabinet and rummages for a second, throwing different things on the floor again, “Should work… here.”

He tosses me a pair of manacles that clang to the floor at my feet. Every part of them is covered in runes and inscriptions. I blink and turn to look at Vella, she’s lying in a pool of her own blood.

“Was that magic?” I find myself asking.

He looks at me strangely, “Well it wasn’t yoga, you alright boyo?”

I shake it off and move toward Vella, putting the cuffs on her before I slide my second to last healing rune on her. Her body sucks back up the blood and folds her skin back, her mangled eye reshapes and pulls back into the socket. She looks unconscious like Starman, I double check though with my healing skill. Definitely lights out. She’s snoring too, loudly.

Moving toward Jennifer, I see her jaw is definitely broken, I can’t afford to use my last rune on her though. Nor can I probably pray and get more without leaving the vicinity of Starman and Vella. I doubt Sera wants to be seen with a nose bleed in front of people with deity connections that might be active. Also, I don’t know if their gods or goddesses know who my patron is. Sage and Terra told me to never activate it in front of another Respec skill holder, it’s like a beacon to other gods. It’s the same reason Sage never talked directly in front of Verantha.

Lots of questions that need answers, like why did Sera help me? She’s not the altruistic type. It’s hardly my most pressing concern though.

Pushing the thoughts away, I manage to heal Jennifer’s jaw, it’s going to be sore for a week though probably, and my mana is nearly gone now. This and healing myself and the boys earlier has sapped me.

“You know, Clayton told me about you, didn’t realize it was you until she started yapping about god slaying,” Carl says between puffs as he watches the ice melt from Clayton, “I was expecting… more I think.”

“You’re not the first to feel that way,” I breathe, then looking at Starman, “Do you have another set for him?”

“In the cabinet, don’t touch the snake head, it’s cursed.”

There are hundreds of random trinkets and items in the cabinet, each giving a strange feeling, all of these are magic imbued items. I’m careful to avoid the snake head, it looks like it came from a massive one, definitely bigger than any natural snake I’ve seen. After manacling Starman, I bind him and Vella to separate pillars with two bundles of rope I found on the top shelf.

“Ahh, good thought,” Carl says with a nod, “Neverfray rope, lifesaver those.”

“So, magic is real then?” He looks at me like I’m an idiot, so I rephrase, “Magic without the system I meant.”

I mean, I knew this already from Sage, but I’ve never seen it personally. It’s always related to System given skills.

“You killed a god and you’re surprised that Earth had magic before that shit kicked off?”

“A little, yeah.”

He snorts a smoke ring, “Magic is as old as time itself, boyo, never doubt that.”

“Right…”

Clayton suddenly breathes, his eyes searching around as his mind catches up.

“You’ve been slacking, young man,” Carl says with a disapproving eyebrow, “Focusing too much on your blade art I’d wager.”

“Did we win?” he asks before he sees them tied up, “Good, good,” he turns to me, “All good, godslayer?”

I nod, relief pulses through me as he gives a smile and a nod. It’s replaced with curiosity as he burps a plume of fire and coughs loudly.

“How many turns did you give me, old man?”

“Three,” Carl says, puffing again, “Don’t be a baby.”

Clayton looks at me, “How many?”

“Four.”

“You little shit,” Carl chuckles.