(I) Decider

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Decider

Shiv seized a blast of Vitae before it could fully burrow into his soul. With gritted teeth, he pushed back, using his own Vitaemancy to wrestle against Udraal. The Abyssal Lord might have copied his power, but that didn't mean Shiv was going to lie down and accept his fate.

Sullain cried out. Adam bit back a scream. The orcs flinched, giving a wide berth to the unfolding chaos within the guard station. Beside Shiv, Gone shivered, a vibration of chronomantic speed running like electric volts through her body. Her eyes narrowed at Udraal, but she did nothing. Fear ruled over her, and she chose her life instead of risking it for Shiv's.

"Truly, you're going to wrestle with me right now?" Udraal asked, sounding more fascinated than offended. “Why? Why are you so determined to make this pointlessly difficult?”

"I told you before, I'm not your dog." Shiv's words ended in a growl as he left context once more. A twitching mass of Vitae erupted from his body just as Udraal's power tore through his physical shell. He felt his vitality plunge, but the space between him and Udraal was but a scant few meters. He slammed into his maker once more, but rather than targeting Udraal himself, he seized his ghostly clone and tore it apart. Vectors sliced into the ghost's body, and bursts of red and white mana sprayed free from its rupturing form. Meanwhile, the Deathless himself turned his Vitae on Udraal.

Shiv drew hard on Udraal’s vitality. A channel formed between the Deathless and Integration itself. But a counterforce dragged at Shiv’s core. A wrenching pain clawed its way out of his wounded soul as he felt Udraal wrench on his vitality as well. “Come now, boy,” Udraal said. “You’re not the only one with that skill. You cannot have my vitality. But here. Have my soul.”

The right side of Udraal's lip curved up in a faint smile, and he held out his arms. Instead of resisting Shiv, he let the Deathless pour his Vitae in deeper. Shiv unleashed a flood of red and white inside Udraal, and he began groping through the depths of the Abyssal Lord's soul. However, he found a resistance waiting for him. A flare of faint blue ignited at Udraal's core. It promptly collapsed around Shiv's Vitae, and it burned him. It burned him like nothing had burned him before.

The Deathless howled. Blackness burst behind his vision as he nearly toppled, but against all odds, he remained standing. It might have been because of his anger. It might have been out of sheer stubborn defiance, but he landed on his left knee, and he forced himself back up. He was beyond pain now. His body was practically coming apart. His skin tumbled free from his flesh in thick clumps, and it felt like his veins were flooded with molten lead as Shiv shuddered.

Udraal loomed over him, simply wagging a single finger. Spell shapes formed from Animancy danced around Shiv, becoming a constellation that left him enchained. He heard Adam cry out for him, saw three more Veilpiercers slam into Udraal's chest. Each of them dissolved as the Abyssal Lord unleashed his Animantic aura. It folded over Shiv, burning him even worse.

Shiv felt like he was being shredded apart. Entire sections of his flesh were hissing free from his bones. It was like he was being turned into gas.

Udraal’s casual smile flattened in a disbelieving stare as Shiv held on. “Does this not bother you?”

“Just pain,” Shiv growled. “Nothing more.”

The Abyssal Lord’s jaw dropped slightly. “Just… pain? Aren’t you a tough one?” A beat followed. “System, not even a scream from Animancy burns. Well. I can’t complain about your pain tolerance, for one.”

But Shiv never drew his Vitae out from Udraal. He kept it sheathed, and he continued pushing deeper. Even if this was going to burn him to death, he would find a way to tear Udraal asunder. He would leave the man with an eternal wound. Shiv shaped his Vitae into a pair of tearing claws. They cleaved out in opposing directions, but he found Udraal's soul to be harder than Orichalcum. Harder, perhaps, than even the Tarrasque's crystalline shell. All the while, Udraal continued burning him. Slowly, the faint look of amusement on Udraal's face faded, and it was replaced with an arched eyebrow.

"What is your plan, exactly?" Udraal asked. “Beyond impressing me with your staggering endurance.”

Shiv didn't reply to him. He focused every bit of his effort on leaving Udraal broken. He used his Causal Scar-Giver and his Dead-Tainted feats. He activated his Icon of the Paindrinker blessing, and as he wielded all these things in tandem against Udraal, the Abyssal Lord waited for him to offer a reply. When Shiv didn't say anything, content to use violence to speak for him instead, Udraal rolled his eyes and gently took Shiv by the arms.

"No, no. Stop. Boy, stop."

Shiv ignored him.

Udraal sighed. He placed the palm of his hand on Shiv's forehead, and he spoke aloud. A wave of Psychomancy crashed into Shiv, but it was accompanied by something else. A feeling of peace and overwhelming calm radiated out from Udraal and suffused Shiv's consciousness. Every fiber of his being demanded that he surrender, that he obey Udraal's request. Shiv's Shapeless Tides held the Psychomancy at bay, but the other aspect, the social aspect, tore straight through.

Psycho-Cartography:

Despite all this, despite having his emotions and skill compromised, the Deathless clung on to Udraal's soul. He never stopped trying. He would never stop trying. It didn't matter what Udraal did to him. He knew that he needed to protect Adam, to protect the other prisoners, to protect himself. He wouldn't be anyone's slave, no matter what.

Udraal's mouth formed a perfect 'o' by this point, and a look of growing surprise crawled over him. "I see that the Tarrasque mind template I put in you is even more potent than expected." He let out a slight chuckle, and then he withdrew his hand from Shiv's forehead. Afterward, he cupped both hands behind his back, as if a master beholding the astonishing efforts of a disciple.

Shiv continued lashing at Udraal's soul over and over again. A building sense of futility was born within him as he realized nothing he did thus far had affected Udraal at all. And the Abyssal Lord remained passive. He simply observed Shiv. Sometimes he closed his eyes, feeling what Shiv was doing to him. At other moments, he lashed Shiv with bursts of Animancy. The Deathless cried out. The pain was incredible. But by now, pain was a neighbor, an old acquaintance. And it would take far more than pain to make Shiv stop, to turn from his chosen path. Nothing was going to stop him. Nothing—

A sound came from behind, the sound of a body hitting the ground. Shiv stopped. He turned around and saw Adam lying there, unmoving. He cast his Biomancy at the Gate Lord, wrapping him in a mana hydra. At once, Adam's many wounds, soul-deep and impossible to heal using mere Biomancy, were rendered within Shiv's mana field, and a roiling sense of horror built within the Deathless. Adam's burns were severe, and his organs were shutting down. His heart was slowing, his eyes were fluttering. He had managed to keep standing for a long while, but his Righteous Dawn had finally faded at some point. He was spent utterly, spiritually and physically.

Instead of focusing on Udraal, Shiv cast his Vitae into Adam. The Abyssal Lord did nothing still. He continued watching, as if just an observer to the unfolding scene.

"Shit, Adam, Adam, listen to me, you're gonna be fine. I'm going to..." Shiv wasn't fully sure what he planned to do, and for a brief moment, he almost panicked, but then he remembered how he mended Adam's mother, and he repeated the very same action. He began cycling Vitae between himself and Adam. Wounds shifted. The Gate Lord groaned weakly, yet Shiv continued on. He continued until he managed to filter more of the injuries over to himself, and as Shiv took on more of Adam's burns, he felt himself grow weaker. It didn't matter. He could deal with pain; he could deal with weakness.

When he drew away all of Adam's damage, he would reach out to reality or someone nearby—and for the first time, Shiv's eyes snapped to Sullain. The Vicar was huddled in a ball, and his eyes were wide with terror.

“Not many options left, it seems,” Udraal muttered.

“Fuck you,” Shiv hissed. But Udraal was right.

Immediately, the Deathless reached out, casting a net of red and white around the Vicar.

"No, please!" Sullen cried out, but Shiv had no easy options, and he was done considering the ethics of what he was about to do. It didn't matter that he might be playing into Udraal's hands. It didn't matter that he felt uncomfortable. Shiv would inflict far more than just murder on Sullain if it meant Adam's restoration.

Soon he began cycling his own wounds over into Sullain, and the vicar screamed like a dying hog. What Shiv knew to be incredible agony was utterly unbearable for Sullain, and soon Adam's torment was added on top of that. By the end, Sullivan was shaking, foaming at the mouth, and wrapped in so many burns he barely looked human. He was little more than a lump of flesh, held together by charred bone and exposed organs. He gasped violently, his heart hammered inside his chest, his lungs pulsed, but then a wheeze left his throat as they deflated.

Then Shiv caught sight of something. There was a glint of the faintest blue inside the Vicar. It was a glint that circulated between various spots inside his soul. It jumped from place to place, but as Shiv focused his Awareness, he saw that glint circulating faster, as if there was a circuit or a network it followed. And at that point, Shiv saw his Farsight level up. There were no more errors. His eyes widened as he realized he had managed to expel the poison left inside him and cast it over into Sullain’s soul.

A massive surge of levels and relief pulsed through Shiv as everything bottlenecked within him began to flow once more.

Leviathan of the Shapeless Tides 500 > 501

Pillar of Orichalcum 232 > 245

Inertial Overdrive 140 > 161

Aegis of Assimilation 114 > 116

Psycho-Cartography 68 > 75

Shape of Monstrosity 123 > 139

Vitaemancy 97 > 110

Vitality Drain 96 > 122

Golemancy 15 > 22

Farsight 64 > 71

Frictionless Vector 76 > 88

Deception 27 > 33

Multi-Tasking 30 > 38

Dodge 22 > 31

Philosophy 18 > 24

Striking Proficiency 45 > 50 (Skill Evolution Imminent)

"Well, it seems that you've achieved an instinctive understanding of vitality transference from your previous experience." Udraal clapped, and there was nothing sarcastic about his action. He seemed genuinely proud of Shiv. “Your intuition is proving to be most useful. Very good.”

That filled the Deathless with nothing but fury.

He turned on Udraal now. His body was mostly healed, his soul restored and stable. His period of vulnerability was over, and Shiv was tired, pissed, and done with all this bullshit. He was done with the Ascendants, done with Udraal, done with being dragged from one place to another, running into one problem after another. His rage boiled at a breaking point. It had been so long since he had snapped that his hands were shaking. He was long since past his threshold for violence and struggle. And here Udraal was, goading him on, looking at him as if he were a prized pupil.

And as Shiv snarled at Udraal like a ravenous mastiff about to tear into someone's thigh, Udraal himself seemed pleased. "Now, now, enough of that. It’s meaningless. You've done what I wanted you to, albeit in a very roundabout, very pointlessly violent way. Was all that you did earlier necessary? You know you cannot hurt me, Deathless. Not as you are now.”

"Don’t give a shit," Shiv hissed. "You don't touch me. You don't touch Adam. Not unless I tell you to. Not ever."

"And you think that's up to you? That you can demand this of me?" There was no threat in Udraal's voice. It was a sincere question, and it just made Shiv want to beat the Abyssal Lord to death even more.

"I don't care who you are. I don't care how powerful you are. I will find a way to hurt you. I will tear into your soul. And if I can't do that... If I can't do that..." For the first time, Shiv stopped for a moment and thought, thinking about how he might be able to wound Udraal, or at least threaten him.

The Abyssal Lord was powerful. He intervened on Shiv's behalf and stalled the Ascendants. Even a Legend was helpless against the combined might of the Avatars. Shiv and a small army of prisoners were overwhelmed, cornered, and would have been recaptured if not for Udraal's sudden intervention and the Composer's delay. But Udraal had made several things known. First, he was here for Shiv. Not only for Shiv, but mainly for Shiv. That meant the Deathless had value to Udraal. That meant he mattered.

And that gave Shiv an advantage.

"No other Deathless but me, huh?" Shiv suddenly muttered.

Udraal's eyes narrowed. He quickly realized where Shiv was going. "Boy," he said, and for the first time, hints of apprehension leaked into his voice. “You wouldn’t…” And then he stared into Shiv’s eyes and let out a grunt of disbelief. “Oh… You actually would. System, you’re actually fearless. How… disconcerting.”

Shiv simply chuckled humorlessly. "Yeah. Some of us learn to handle our problems with death quietly. But I'll tell you this again right now. You don't touch me. You don't touch Adam. You don't do anything unless we let you. And if you do, I'm gonna let myself fade out of existence. I'll let my vitality fizzle out until there's nothing left."

The Challenger is watching intently.

Udraal blinked, utterly flabbergasted. "You would to spite me. You don't even know what I'm about to say. You don't even know me. You don't know what I want."

"I don't give a godsdamn what you want!" Shiv snapped. "I don't give a shit what anyone wants! I have a World Quest that has practically everyone I meet hunting my ass! I got thrown into a prison by the people who were supposed to be my gods, my government! One of my orcs just died! I barely escaped capture from said felonious gods! I have people I care about that are still missing, that I don't know where they are, that I don't know what their condition is, and I need to get them back! And here you are, out of nowhere!"

By now, redness was crawling across Shiv's vision. So much anger burned inside of him that he nearly lost control, that he nearly went berserk again, but Shiv held himself together. Swinging blindly like a flailing child would not protect him against Udraal. He was learning that lesson over and over again. His anger needed to be spent wisely, with focus and precision. The first hint of worry on Udraal's face was Shiv's threat to end himself, and he would continue exploiting that threat if need be. He would go through with it without hesitation if need be. But only as a means of controlling Udraal.

Psycho-Cartography 75 > 76

"And here you are," Shiv continued, "all these years later, after whatever fucked-up deal you made with my parents to make me, after everything you did, for whatever reason you did it. You're here, taunting us, playing with us."

"I saved you," Udraal said, sounding almost offended. “Where would you be without me?”

Shiv scoffed in disgust. "Is that what you did? Yeah, I guess you distracted the Ascendants and helped us get away, but this doesn't feel like a rescue, Udraal. This feels like we are trading one captor for another."

The Abyssal Lord frowned and shook his head. "What an absurd notion. I have no intention of taking you as a slave. I just want you to continue the experiment."

"I'm than a slave, then," Shiv said, his voice falling lower, the menace inside of him growing. "Just a thing for you to use, to learn about the System so you can strike it down from the inside?"

"We are all just things to the System," Udraal replied. It sounded like he repeated this line a lot. "And we are all used by someone else in one way or another, used by ourselves as well. But fine, I'll accept your demand for agency, at least for now. I don't need to forcibly control you for you to do what I want. In fact, I expect you to do what I want because our interests are quite aligned."

"Yeah, somehow I doubt that," Shiv replied.

"You doubt that I want you to grow stronger?" Udraal said. "You doubt that I want you to trigger the largest Incursion Earth has seen yet? Say otherwise right now, and I will bow down and offer my sincerest apologies.”