Vengeance

-Excerpt from Udraal Thann’s Journal241

Vengeance

The vision broke, and Shiv found himself hyperventilating, gripping the edge of a bed so tight the metal was bending between his fingers.

The children of the ward shuddered and twitched in their beds. All of them were crying out, coughing, calling for their parents. Sobs erupted, and it was like the entirety of the ward woke up at once.

A child nearly flung herself out of her bed, clawing for Maxime. The Biomancer stumbled backward, startled by the sudden explosive motion of her patient.

"Mama!" the little girl cried. "I want my mama!"

Nearby, a boy fell out of his bed, bouncing off the ground with nary a grunt. The medics that had come along with Shiv were frozen. The twins held on to each other, their fight or flight instincts coming to an impasse, deciding on inaction.

All around Shiv, children were sobbing, crying, but their grief wasn't their own. Instead, it radiated out from the spores nested within them. They were agitated, threatening to detonate out from their flesh.

Tulveg said, his silken voice now ice-cold. Shiv realized with startlement that the vampire had somehow seen what the System had shown Shiv. Tulveg screamed, and his rage nearly drowned the room.

Shiv didn't panic. Instead, he responded to the vampire's ire with a single statement of honesty, guided by the Sage of the Enkindled Heart:

Sage of the Enkindled Heart 108 > 110

His words doused the vampire's building rage like a cold downpour. Tulveg fell silent, and the children did so with him, all calming in the same uncanny instant. “Tulveg whispered. “

Shiv said.

Tulveg let out a surprised breath.

For a few seconds thereafter, Tulveg said nothing at all.

Shiv found himself dealing with some emotional recoil. The dagger Uva kept in her apartment, the one that had been revealed to him in a vision, and which had later given him a second vision when Uva let him touch it. It had shown him the perspective of the killer, a soldier, one who answered to the Auroral Council directly. Shiv had never found any direct leads to the killer’s identity. Now, out of nowhere, he didn't just find a clue; he was .

The one who'd murdered Uva's mom was right here, in this very building. Shiv would be excited, if not for one detail: the man's name.

Samuel Hawgrave.

Shiv hissed internally, not even having a sliver of hope that this was a coincidence. The man was a relative of Jessica Hawgrave, the Giantsbane.

Tulveg said to Shiv after a long moment of silence.

Adam asked for confirmation.

Tulveg spat.

"Huh," was all Shiv could say. The situation at Last Chance Sanitarium had undergone two twists. First, he expected to be facing two Morbomancers fighting over the death of their child. Then he was dealing with a Legendary vampire, a disciple of Ekkihurst the Sculptor, no less. , the vampire revealed himself to not have malicious intentions for the children in the hospital, and Shiv found out he'd been in a relationship with Uva's mother, and that he was here to take revenge for her murder.

It seemed that the System heard him when he begged for no horror shows. But instead, he was now embroiled in something infinitely more complex. Shiv took a moment to gather his thoughts.

the vampire replied, his voice raw. A feeling of self-loathing came from the vampire.

"Kill him! Kill him! KILL HIM!" the children all around began to chant in unison.

Maxime was backing away, and the utter terror radiating out from her was overwhelming. "M-marcus! Marcus!" she called out. Her breath hitched. "Stay close!"

Malcolm stuck his head back into the room. "Alright, is anyone else creeped out? 'Cause I'm totally creeped out."

Vice-8 appeared behind the fan-headed automaton, and the boar looked at everyone and the children. His eyes were wide, and even he reeked of terror.

None of them knew what was happening. None of them but Shiv.

Shiv called out.

His words landed. Slowly, the children began dying down. Their cries of rage and their sobs turned silent, and as one, they yawned. They laid their heads back on their pillows. The ones who fell from their cots crawled back in, pulled the blankets over themselves, and at once, in sync, in perfect harmony, went back to sleep.

"Okay," Malcolm said, its voice a mechanical crackle. "What the fucking fuck?"

Helix said. There was an edge of tension to his voice.

Shiv deliberated about what he was going to do briefly. There were too many things happening. There were too many variables.

Adam reached out to Shiv using his Commander’s Foresight, and time was held still for their perception.

Adam declared. Adam shuddered.

Shiv said.

Adam replied.

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Adam shot back.

Shiv asked, partially flattered, also amused.

Adam snapped.

And as always, Adam was thinking ahead, thinking about the bigger picture. Shiv said.

Adam asked.

Adam said.

Shiv clicked his tongue.

Shiv replied, and with that, their brief communion came to an end.

Shiv called out as time resumed its floor for his mind.

Tulveg whispered, his voice hoarse with anticipation.

Shiv said,

The vampire's mind tensed up.

Sage of the Enkindled Heart:

Shiv said,

The vampire hesitated, then said,

Shiv shot back.

Shiv asked.

Shiv winced. From what Tulveg described as “dogs of the Republic” earlier, he would have likely killed Maxime as well. Anyone who wasn't a child or a patient.

A note of complex emotions suddenly bled over from Tulveg.

the vampire replied.

Shiv noticed something just above him. His awareness pulled his senses to an alert state, and he realized a gathering of spores was congealing on the floor overhead. Shiv briefly found himself confused as to what was about to happen before the ceiling suddenly burst open. A mess of cancerous limbs wrapped around Shiv like a fallen net and began drawing him upward.

Maxime cried out. Her hand flared. A pyramid-shaped Biomancy spell manifested, but then he was being reeled upward. Blades of wind slashed through the air just above where he'd been a moment ago as Vice 8's wind clone missed its attack on the limbs.

Shiv estimated.

As soon as Shiv was pulled through the floor, he was released from the cancerous net. The first thing the Deathless did afterward was rip off his Mask of Stolen Paths. A wall of tumors fused over the way he was pulled through, and from below, he heard a series of echoing thuds. His allies were trying to save Marcus. He could still hear Maxime screaming his name.

He winced internally. The poor girl was probably going to blame herself. Well, the good news was that Marcus wasn't dead. Bad news was Shiv needed to figure out a good reason why Marcus wasn't dead, but that was a problem he put in the "something-to-think-up-later" category.

Shiv's body flashed white as he returned to his original form, and he heard a chuckle of surprise from Tulveg.

Shiv didn't waste time replying. He knew his destination was upward, and he didn't have any time for subtlety. He tuned his Bifurcated Processing and began cultivating Overflow Tides once more. This time, however, they were going to be used in service of a vampire rather than to overcome him.

He crouched, and then Shiv exploded upward like a bullet. Layers of concrete and reinforced metal shredded in his wake, like a spearhead being driven through layers of tissue. To be a Legend of Physicality meant the world felt like glass. Everything was brittle. Everything was too soft. Everything demanded that you keep yourself controlled. Once more, Shiv found himself glad that he'd chosen this Legendary Skill Evolution rather than Nexus of Implacable Destruction for the cataclysmic power that it offered.

Leviathan of the Shapeless Tides allowed him to move smoothly, to keep the damage he inflicted restrained. More importantly, it allowed him to hold back the rippling devastation that trembled from his inertial sheath. If he only had Gravitic Wrestler, there would be no way he could do this. The interior of the building would crumble entirely, and unspeakable amounts of casualties would soon follow.

Once more, Shiv thought back to his experiences at Gate Theborn, and he struggled not to cringe. So many people who died every time he used Momentum Core, so much unneeded destruction…

Sage of the Enkindled Heart whispered to him.

The Deathless accelerated, but along the way, his awareness skill drew his attention once more. His subconsciousness constantly lashed at him, shocking him from within. He noticed something in particular: a single life signature moving at the same pace he was going, up the center of the tower. With its brightness, he guessed that it was probably a Heroic-Tier Pathbearer, and they were accompanied by someone else, someone who held the same degree of mana. Shiv guessed.

He accelerated but kept the devastation contained near his body. Just then, he felt some of his bones begin to rattle. A flare of pain danced down his body, and he drew upon his Bifurcated Processing Skill once more. This time, he used it to build up his Pillar of Orichalcum. Finally, he was capable of doing all three at once. The pillar exploded out from his being. It speared upward, and Shiv made sure it wouldn't crush any patients above or below him.

A gleaming, red-gold tower rose up, and it grew stronger with every passing second. Shiv accelerated. He burrowed through the interior of Last Chance, and in a matter of moments, he arrived at the apex of its center tower.

As soon as he blasted out of the ground, he began moving toward the strongest life sign in the area. Adam was there as well. The architecture at the top of the tower was cold, stale. Something had stripped the air clean of taste, and there was a particular stinging sensation every time Shiv drew breath. He suspected that the Biomancy here was actively cleansing the air, stripping it bare of all kinds of bacteria and pathogens.

Dust and debris rained down upon Shiv, and his path was made clear by the many holes he'd left within the building. But now was not a time for hesitation or subtlety. Now was the time to move, to see this done. He accelerated again, blasting through walls. The room he'd just left had several containers and a series of beakers attached to water boilers, as well as magical sigils decorating the center of the room.

He erupted through the nearby wall and immediately took a hard left. Though Tulveg and Adam were waiting 15 meters away, the room before Shiv was dense with bodies, many bodies. He didn't know why they were packed in so tight, but he didn't want to risk any harm coming to them. He moved down the hall, and there was a terrible wrenching sound. Metal and concrete shattered.

The top side of the building was exposed, and his Pillar of Orichalcum became as if a blade disemboweling the very cap of the hospital. The light of the sky spilled down, and Shiv could see the reddish light of the evening sun as it plunged beyond the horizon, sunlight further veiled by Harlock's darkness. That darkness seemed like a dome of liquid shadow draped over the capital, and it appeared to suddenly drip down, coalescing toward Phoenix Academy. The time Shiv had left grew even more diminished.

The Deathless chose this moment to activate his temporal shell. Strider of the Unending Path allowed him to hold time still, but the Ascendants possessed an apparent immunity to Chronomancy. It wouldn't protect him or stave off their coming. However, Harlock wasn't Shiv's only worry. He had other adversaries to concern himself with. And as he rounded the hall, he blasted through a set of doors, smashed and turned a storage room into nothing but rubble before he finally shredded through a layer of hardened alloy.

On the other side, he found Adam and Tulveg staring at the door. The vampire himself wasn't moving, but the many spores that bled out from his body that were nested in the Morbomancers standing to his left and right were glowing brightly.

Tulveg shot him a glance. "You come, Deathless."

Shiv ignored him. He had a task to accomplish and no time to waste. Stepping past Adam and Tulveg, he slammed himself against the vaulted doorway. He drove his hands against the vast array of shifting spell patterns and gritted his teeth. Whatever was hiding in here, the Academy didn't want it getting out.

But Shiv had been cultivating Overflow Tides for quite some time. He was practically lined in striped vectors, and he used them all in a crushing instant. He overwhelmed the magic protecting the vaulted door and detonated it around him in a massive blast, a blast that he managed to catch and compress between his hands in a feat of disgusting strength.

Shiv held the magic together tight—compressed it even as it lashed at his very fingers, and then, with a final surge of effort, Shiv crushed it. Instead of exploding outward and swallowing the top of the building, it went out like a candlewick between two fingers, spewing free in beams from between his closing fingers until there was not even that. Finally, the vault ahead was exposed. Shiv pointed his innate tides forward, and he carved a brutal path in.

Strider of the Unbending Path 168 > 169

Orichalcum was an interesting metal. It responded to how much someone wished to stay unbroken. With every passing second, the pillar of red gold grew ever brighter around Shiv, and he didn't care that everyone could see. He needed to do this quickly, and quickly meant overt, meant loud, meant every bit of power he had, meant pushing his inertial overdrive to the very limit, before the temporal wards of the academy ripped through him.

Shiv blasted through the door—and he gasped as a tide of splashing gold cleaved into him, shredding his Chronomancy field away in an instant. But it wasn't the academy's wards. No, those arrived a second later. This was something else. No. else.

A blow struck Shiv. A blow that came so fast, that hit him so hard, he would have outright if his Pillar of Orichalcum hadn't been active; if his Shapeless Tides didn't absorb part of the impact.

But Shiv still grunted as he was flung back. Then, through the dust and haze came a flickering strike. It was fast. Almost too fast for him to react to. But he'd been feeding his inertial overdrive for a while. Shiv swung up instinctively. The end of his Last Morsel clashed against something that was impossibly powerful, impossibly strong. And he felt a crushing pressure, something trying to absorb him from the other side. The Deathless's newly generated Overflow Tides crashed against that pressure and severed him from the brutal pulling sensation—

Something thin blurred through the air

Shiv twisted hard to dodge out of the way, but he hissed as he was speared through his upper left pec and right neck by two more attacks he failed to perceive altogether in a startling instant.

Inertial Overdrive 188 > 190

Farsight 95 > 97

A vicious impact crashed into his chin, and Shiv’s teeth cracked and chipped as they slammed together. A snarl escaped him. He had no idea what was hitting him, and he couldn't—

Suddenly, he froze as he caught sight of something darting right by his eye—a figure so small they might as well be the size of an insect, clad in dense, vibrating armor and holding a small, static-coated blade of rusted metal.