(II) Trap
Chapter 309 of "Path of the Deathless" opens with: 149 (II)TrapPsychology 33 > 34Awareness 38 > 39Deepest Edge 66 > 67Strider of the Unbending... See what unfolds next!
149 (II)Trap
Psychology 33 > 34
Awareness 38 > 39
Deepest Edge 66 > 67
Strider of the Unbending Path 137 > 138
The Amnesiac erupted into a burst of bloodied mist. Shiv wrapped himself and his companions with his Aegis of Assimilation, but the other orc Psychomancers and Inquisitors were coated in a deep, dark red.
âGodsââ Adam shouted. He shot Shiv a terrified stare.
âYeah,â Shiv said, glaring down at the jigsaw puzzle of flesh that remained of the Amnesiac. He held his Vitae-coated blade up to the other orcs, and tried to keep his rage in checkâhe did so by spending all his anger on his Shape of Monstrosity instead. âHey. Eyes on me.â
The other Psychomancers obeyed. Fear flowed from them into Shiv. Fear he drank in and relished. Fear he earned with the murder of their compromised Maestro.
Shape of Monstrosity 106 > 107
âYou guys are done with the prisoners. I donât want you touching them anymore. What I want you all to do is prepare yourselves for the surface or the Abyss. Your Maestro hereâs got connections to an Outsider god we're not on great terms with. Or whatever the hells the Stranger is. I donât know if the Challenger cares, but if I catch any hint of Outsider that isn't the Dreamtaker, Iâm killing the orc in question and mutilating their soul. You understand me.â
The orc Psychomancers turned their eyes down again. Chunks of the Amnesiac drifted along a spreading current of blood. Giblets of flesh covered the kneeling Inquisitors and the orcs.
âDominance,â one of them breathed. âNo hesitation. How â
âGlorious aggression,â another orc said, laughing. âWe hear you, Insul. We heed you. But the prisonersââ
âWeâll handle them ourselves.â Shiv gritted his teeth. âI should have handled them myself in the first place. Godsdammit, I canât believe I let you bastards bribe meâIâm a godsdamned moron. The next orc that tries to mess with my head and gets caught doing so is going to permanently get their arms and legs cut off, and then I'm going to wear them like a felling that I can constantly dump my wounds into during a fight.â
The Deathless let out a frustrated breathâand felt even more fear rush into his body. Additional chains hardened against him, and he followed them back through the open dimensional pathway. There, on the bridge of the Court Leviathan, the orc Biomancers looked on in rapt fascination. Valor raised Helix's head toward Shiv, and the orc swallowed worriedly as he met his gaze.
âAh, Insul,â Helix coughed. âYou understand that it would be⌠exceptionally harder for me to direct your Biomancy studies if I were a quote unquote.â
Shiv stared at the orc Biomancer. âThat's part of why youâre not a pain vest yet, Helix. Or dead.â
Helix swallowed. âWhatâs the other reason?â
âThat you actually bribed me instead of doing what the Amnesiac just tried. But, Helix.â
âYes?â
âYou threaten to give any of my companions a strange and rare disease, and Iâll match that by giving you strange and rare wounds. I wonât ever kill you, though. No. I actually kind of like you. And that might not be a good thing for you.â
And then the Deathless said no more. Instead, he chose to wordlessly glare at all the orcs on the bridge as the rift slowly closed. When they were gone, Shiv saw that the orc Psychomancers were already gone, while Adam and Uva regarded him quietly.
The former looked concerned. The latter had a faint hint of lust in her gaze.
âShiv,â Adam said warily. âAre you alright?â
âI just had to kill two of these orcs because they did exactly what I was worried about. I'm pissed and paranoid. Which makes me more pissed.â
âAnd aggressive,â Uva whispered.
Shiv sighed and rubbed his face. âI shouldâve taken the Inquisitors from the orcs. Shouldâve done a lot of things. And now we have to worry about orcs being on some other godâs payroll.â He glared up at the ceiling. âYou run a loose felling ship, you know that, Challenger?â
The orc god didnât say anything, but Shiv got the feeling the Challenger saw this all as entertainment.
Shiv decided. Was it going to be exhausting? Yes. But it was probably going to level his Multi-Tasking fast too.
âUva. The Inquisitors. Whatâs wrong with them, exactly? What was the Amnesiac trying to do?â
âHe basically hollowed them of self-determination. In theory, it should make them easy to manipulate and direct.â
âBut he did something to their minds?â
âYes. Hidden memories inside memories. Very subtly done. But my control of Psychomancy allows me to feel exactly how dense certain memories are. My suspicions were aroused because of that. It seems like an effective trap for another Psychomancerâespecially with how he offered it specifically for my benefit. But how did you know he was serving the Stranger?â
âIt was a blind guess,â Shiv said. âBut him choosing to wear a coat with a giant eye on it didnât help him. Guess he might not be fully aware of what went down between us and the Recollector, maybe. Doesnât matter. Heâs going to be reincarnating in pieces from now on. I kept enough of his brain matter intact, so I think heâll get to live for a while every time he comes back.â
Adam shuddered. âGods, Shiv.â
âNo. To hells with him. And fuck the orc that went for you too. I should've shredded that one as well.â
âWhat?â Uva asked. âAn orc made an attempt on Adamâs life?â
âYeah. Cost him a head and a life. Weâre going to have to look out for each other a lot more here. Even more than before. The longer we stay here, the more some of them are just going to try something. Different orcs have different impulse controls, but theyâre all going to try and hurt us eventually.â Shiv frowned. âItâs just hard to keep that in your head when they start charming you.â
âAnd the bastards can be charming,â Adam said.
âYeah.â Shiv sighed. âEspecially for me.â
Uva tilted her head and squinted. âI might have an idea on how to improve your Social Skills. At least, your resistance to being influenced or charmed by the orcs. But Iâll need to vet him first. Make sure he wonât compromise you himself.â
âHim?â Shiv asked. Adam looked at Uva curiously as well.
âAngelo,â Uva said. âHe has a Master-Tier Charm Skill. And ten other Master-Tier Social Skills.â
âTen?â Shiv gasped. âBroken Moon, I didnât know he was that powerful.â
âHis mental state has left him diminished. But even so, letting your gaze linger on his face for a few seconds is usually enough for you to be compromised to a substantial degree. I suspect he served the role of seducer for the Ophereus Bloodline. And if you learn to resist him, it might make things easier against the orcs as well.â
âYouâre willing to let Shiv be seduced by a vampire over and over?â Adam asked incredulously.
âIâm obviously going to stop it before anything occurs,â Uva muttered in annoyance. âBut yes: Comparatively, Angelo is far less dangerous than the orcs. Now. Another question is what we are to do with these inquisitors.â
Shiv frowned at the eight blood-coated humans. They all just stared ahead through everything. Uva wasnât lying; the orcs did a number on them mentally. âWas the Amnesiac really better than you, or were you just saying that to throw him off?â
âWhen it comes to Psycho-Surgery? Yes,â Uva admitted it without any difficulty. âI suspect things wouldnât have gone my way in a direct clash either. But his mana field was compact and more than a little unwieldy. Such was why I could feel how much he hid within a single memory, while he remained blissfully ignorant about his own mistake.â
âGreat. So. Theyâre wasted.â Adam bit his lip as he stared at the Inquisitors. âIt might be more merciful to finish them off. Bloody hells, can we even trust the orcs to do anything?â
âSure,â Shiv said. âFight. Itâs not like the Amnesiac wasnât planning to use the inquisitors against our enemies. I think I agree with the dead piece of shit: It might be a waste to just throw them at the Necrotechs. Sullainâs already antagonistic toward the inquisition. What we need is for them to show up and start a fight.â
âAnd how are we going to do that?â Adam asked. âTheir minds are traps, and theyâre basically vegetables unless Uva fixes them, or we find a reliable group of orc Psychomancers. And good luck with that.â
âOrâŚâ Shiv said, grinning to himself. âMaybe we keep them like this. Most of them.â
âWhat are you planning, Shiv? Whatâs happening in that terrible, violent head of yours?â Adam asked, dreading.
Shiv smirked, then he reached into his cape and pulled out his Mask of False Paths with a flourish.
Adam and Uva both groaned.
âShiv. Dear,â Uva muttered in discomfort, as if a mother trying to tell her child she wasnât going to be buying them a present.
âHave you forgotten that you are the worst spy in all Integrationâand likely beyond?â Adam hissed.
âSure. But if there's one role I can play, it's a brain-damaged torture victim who escaped from the Necrotechs. We can pin all this on Sullain. We just get a bunch of orcs to alter the inquisitorsâ near-term memories while Uva watches or something. Then, I go to the surface with the other inquisitors, and we get rescued by Stormhalt. Iâll get taken into camp, Iâll tell them that Sullain has the Animancy Core and is about to use it. Theyâll rush in and start a fight. We'll have the orc forces join in and get an opening to evacuate Blackedge as well, while the orcs and Titansbane and whoever else gang up on Sullain.â
Adam still looked uneasy. âBut⌠if things go wrong even slightlyâŚâ
âI can leave a time anchor in the gate. Iâll just cast myself back if things go to hell. Besides, you guys can come along with me. We can bring a few orcs over as well if we need expendable support. My cape has a dimension inside it.â
Uva considered Shivâs plan with a hum, but Adam still looked uneasy. âWhat if I take the mask in your stead?â he asked.
âNo,â Shiv said. âIâm not risking that.â
âAnd you donât have the emotional control for tradecraft either,â Uva added.
âAnd Shiv ?â Adam hissed.
âI am surprised to say this myself, but he is actually less likely to murder Stormhalt on a whim.â
âIâI just want to talk to him. I need to understandââ
âThis is a sentence often said preceding a violent murder, Hero Adam,â Uva noted. âNo. And you are the Gate Lord. You are needed for the continual development of Gate Pietyâand for someone to go over critical, strategic decisions. Such as planning the liberation of your town.â
Adam grunted uncomfortably, but nodded. âI still think this is going to turn to shit.â
âIt will,â Uva said. âBut things is a Shiv specialty. He thrives in nightmarish situations. And I mean that in a complimentary way, Dear Brute.â
âI knowâŚâ Shiv smirked slightly. âAnd maybe a bit of chaos is what we need right now.â
âRight,â Adam said. âSo. We figure out how best to return these inquisitors to Stormhalt and provoke him and his army into attacking Sullain. We mass the orcs on the surface in anticipation of the two sides clashing, then move to fully liberate and evacuate Blackedge when the battle commences.â
âWe should also let some orcs out into the Abyss in the meantime,â Shiv said. âHave them harass the vampires so we donât end up getting attacked by another army out of nowhere.â
âRight. Well. Fine. We have something of a general direction.â Adam huffed. âGods, I canât believe Iâm about to let you play at being a spy again.â
Shivâs face twitched. Then, an evil grin spread across his features. âI mean, whatâs the worst that could happen?â
âGodsdammit, Shiv, why the hells did you have to say that?â
âMore deaths. More levels.â
The Gate Lord groaned.