(II) Allies

46 (II)Allies

“Right.” Shiv nodded. Some of that was new, but most of it seemed to make sense. “But do you have any hobbies?”

“What?” Leu said, her eye dilating in confusion.

“It was a joke. Because you told me all that other stuff and didn’t say anything about hobbies.”

“I… breed Slugs? I have a few living in a garden. It’s very calming.”

“Nice. I don’t know what that is."

Leu looked at the other Pathbearers. “And these… are your associates?”

Shiv looked at his sorry company, and something inside him broke. He threw his head back and laughed loudly. It didn't sound any more real this time. Both Heather and Tran flinched. “Ha! No. Those two assholes are Tran and Heather. They’re Slayers from Blackedge. I saved them from the Inquisition, and they’re stuck in this mess, trying to get out. Siggy is a hostage. I still haven’t decided if I’m going to kill her after all this is over yet.”

The goblin whimpered.

“So, they are with you purely by circumstance?” Leu asked, incredulous.

“Yeah?”

“And you had them participate in your, eh, attempt at deceiving the Lesser Marshal, when none of you are trained in subterfuge?”

“I took a class on that at the academy,” Heather mumbled.

“Do they also teach classes on being an asshole and abandoning the people that saved your life while they’re struggling against an Orcish Skill? Because I think you might have gotten a higher grade in that class,” Shiv said, pretending to be as upbeat as he could.

Heather cringed away in shame again.

Leu looked at Heather, then at the blood-drenched carpet and the scattered pieces of Shiv's spare body, then considered Shiv again. “Master Pathbearer… What was your plan, exactly? Was the corpse… Was there something more? Anything?”

“I just kinda thought that if I showed up with one of my old bodies—”

“Old bodies?” Leu asked, confused again.

Shiv continued, ignoring the interruption. “—that Confriga would think I’m dead and open the gate again. After that… I guess I would try to steal the core and then kill Confriga and all the big threats here and then take the gate.”

Leu made a stressed noise. “But… did you have ideain mind if your deception failed?”

“Yeah? I’d just attempt to kill Confriga immediately. Move that up my list. Not the most ideal conditions for a fight, but I’d probably get past him and try to kill all you other Masters first before duking it out with the Gate Lord.”

“That… that was your plan."

“Yeah? I mean, I guess it’s not the most well-thought-out, but I’m working with what I got here. Can’t just do nothing.”

“I… see…” Leu seemed at a complete loss with how to treat Shiv. He got the impression she was starting to think he was mentally challenged in some way, but he shrugged it off. “If… you do not trust them,” she said, looking at the others. “I might have a reliable means to ensure their removal. My Hulag Slugs can digest up to Adept-Tier materials.”

Shiv felt Heather, Tran, and Siggy’s terror spike.

“Yeah, maybe not right now,” Shiv said. That only made their reaction worse. It was kind of mean of him to say, but he was still sour over the whole “escaping without him” thing. And it amused him. “But I would still be interested in seeing these slugs. And also talking about how might be able to kill Confriga and get the other stuff done. I think our goals are aligned enough that we can help each other get some stuff done. Stuff we can’t do alone.”

“This is acceptable,” Leu muttered. “But I will need you all to pose as prisoners to suit appearances. Lesser Marshal Confriga has eyes everywhere. I hope this doesn’t offend you.”

“I’m fine with it,” Shiv said. He looked at the others and scoffed. “They’re fine with it too.”

Tran stared at Shiv. “We are?”

“You got another brilliant escape plan hiding up your ass, Tran?”

“I… No."

“Yeah. So you’re fine with it.” Shiv grinned at Leu. He wasn’t sure how much he trusted her, but for now, when it came to Confriga, it seemed like he just made a new friend. “Congratulations, Leu. For not being a slave-running drug dealer and not leaving me to my fate while I suffered from an orc’s love, you’re now my favorite person in this gate.”

Leu stared awkwardly. “I… It is an honor?”

“Yep. Sure is. Now. Let’s go see some slugs.”

Silver Tongue > 9

“Holy shit,” Shiv breathed as he watched ten-meter long slugs eat their way through several small mountains of bodies, waste, and other dropped from above through three different chutes.

When Leu said slugs and garden earlier, he expected something small. Like a bunch of small and slimy creatures gliding over glistening grass and supping water from dewdrops. What he got was a few hundred grunting, massive, aggressive, corpse and literal shit eating monsters that took up the space of a Blackedge residential cluster—.

And the garden part was kind of weird too. Most of the plants were a mix between plantmass and meat. Their branches spread through the space in branching arterial limbs, and they seemed to be competing with the slugs for sustenance, breaking down the waste.

“The slugs are an important part of Gate Theborn’s ability to sustain itself,” Leu said, her voice alight with pride and joy. “I took special care to bring them over from : my home dimension. It took the effort of many Biomancers across dimensions to modify the slugs to adapt them to your atmosphere and make them resistant to disease strains. Now, they consume most of the corpses and waste from the upper districts. Most efficient, is it not?”

“They got a chain of stomachs inside them,” Shiv murmured, studying the slugs using his Biomancy. About half of them were in the range of his mana field, and their bodily architecture was . He could tell they were modified—even identify a few transplanted organs because of how human they were compared to the rest of the slugs’ biologies. But overall, it was like studying an entirely alien creature. Shiv tried to remember every detail. Their nervous system was especially interesting considering how it was.

Practical Metabiology > 15

Another surprise was where Leu resided. Instead of being atop a building in a penthouse like Oldsmith, she and the other lived below the higher levels where the bridges and plazas were. Shiv got a good look at Gate Theborn as she led him and the others down. The place was pretty compact overall, with most of the residents living within ten kilometers of space. This recontextualized just how disruptive Shiv’s brawl with 811 was to him. Thankfully, most of the slaves lived on the lower-mid levels and in a few select buildings meant only for them.

The Vulteg lived at the very bottom, and they stayed in these hanging habitats with transparent floors that let them watch the molten rivers rush on ceaselessly below them. This wasn’t because they enjoyed the heat or had to live a certain way, but the fact that there was a out of this place Shiv didn’t know about. Right at the very bottom. That was the place where all the molten metal originated from: It was connected to another dimension entirely. Another dimension, and another System-claimed world: .

Apparently, most of the Vultegbegan life as fireproof tadpole-like creatures swimming around in molten rivers. There were thousands of them swimming through the burning streams Shiv could see. Only a small percent would make it to adolescence, however, because the main source of food for the tadpoles was .

An obsidian tower extended all the way down from the far-above ceiling and passed through the third gateway at the realm’s center. At the bottom of the tower, just above the gateway, was where Confriga spent most of his time. On the other side were his Lord Scorn, and System knew how many Vulteg. From what Leu described, they all lived in some kind of heavily hierarchical mercenary world-kingdom.

Shiv saw all that and more on the way to Leu’s personal stronghold. And now he got to watch some of the largest slugs in the world eat some of the people he killed during his earlier rampage. Shiv thought he recognized some faces and winced.

If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

As Leu and Shiv admired her slug herd, a sudden question punched past all the others. “Hey—your building—it’s, uh, not that big, but the space inside is about five hundred meters. How does that work?”

The answer didn’t come from Leu, but surprisingly from Heather. “Dimensionality,” the Jump Mage said. She gestured toward the walls lining the enclosed garden at the center of the room, and Shiv noticed the glowing spells circulating constantly.

“But that leads to another question,” Heather asked. “How do you even have the mana to power all this? I mean, you would need a substantial amount—like Master-Tier spatial magic. And, well, no offense, but I don’t think you’re a Portomancer.”

Leu simply shook her head. “Indeed. However, this is made simple by the fact that all structures within this dimension are connected to this dimension’s mana core.”

Shiv’s eyes widened, and he licked his lips. “Now you have my attention. Okay, that sounds pretty useful. Where is it? Can we get to it?”

“You saw it when you came in,” Leu replied. “It serves as the sun of this place.”

Shiv paused, several pieces clicking into place in his mind. “Is that why—no, is that what the chains are for?” He recalled the long, black-gray chains binding each of the taller buildings to the Sun.

“Yes,” Leu said. “It’s a mana-transference system. The gate is constantly growing. As a world between worlds, it absorbs mana from both dimensions it's connected to, and the clashing between dimensions creates something new during the process: the core. From there, the gate grows, becoming more than just a pathway between worlds or dimensions.”

“Wait, gates can grow larger?” Shiv asked.

Leu regarded him for a moment. “I—this is something I thought you knew, Master Pathbearer.”

“Well, as I told you before, my education has holes in it. A lot of holes. Just treat me like I don’t know anything.”

“Of course, Master Pathbearer. I mean to imply no judgment. A dimension’s core is effectively a crystallization of its soul. It is often referred to as a mana core because that is its main function: Outputting mana. But that is putting things simply. Much like a Pathbearer, a core can grow—even gain things akin to skills. As such, gates are vaunted things to possess, capture, or close. It is not uncommon for the System to create multiple clashing Quests surrounding the same gate.”

“Well, that’s something.” Shiv frowned. “So, if I can get to the sun, can I do something to it? Shut it down?”

“That is… unlikely.” Leu paused, and Shiv felt her body tighten with discomfort. “A core is not something you can physically destroy, because of its metaphysical nature. But there is a way. And it is even close at hand—a desperate measure that could see this entire place destroyed. The Animancy Core. Animancy damages the very fabric of concepts, of souls, of reality itself. Should we use that on the core… it would collapse the realm utterly.”

And that was an option, albeit a pretty shitty one. Shiv wasn’t even sure if he would survive that. “What happens if a realm collapses, and we’re still inside?”

“Absolute annihilation, I suspect,” Leu said.

“Well, that’s not guaranteed,” Heather interjected. “I don’t know much about Animacy, but if the core to a place is destroyed, all the space composing the gate will shift over to the next closest stable place, so we might get pushed out through the gateways and end up back on the surface.”

Leu considered that. “Perhaps. But with the immense mana powering the Animancy Core, I suspect we will not have this opportunity. I have already considered this plan. I was even overjoyed when the core first arrived. It seemed like a perfect tool—something that even a Heroic Pathbearer like Confriga cannot survive. It will also cost me my existence. And that of every living soul contained within this space. To do that is a last measure among last measures.”

“Fine. Alright. So, no bombing the core unless we’re absolutely desperate. What about Confriga? Maybe if you can get him alone, or we can catch him out of his armor and unarmed, I can put him down.”

“Lesser Marshal Confriga is never out of his armor. Absence—that foul blade—is bound to his soul. I have studied him for centuries—I despise him, but there are few others who live as he does. Wearing his own armor. Never far beyond his weapon. His psychology is deviant. Even for one of my race.”

Shiv blinked. “Then why doesn’t he smell?”

“He bathes with the armor,” Leu deadpanned. “It is something he often boasts about and encourages us to do as well.”

“That… sounds uncomfortable.” Shiv thought about washing with his exoskeleton on.

“It is. I tested it.” Leu sighed. “Regardless, an ambush is possible, but it is also unlikely to succeed, for by his recognized authority as Gate Lord, Confriga can call upon the very mana of the gate and all its resources to aid him.”

Shiv frowned. “He can? Then why did he just show up to brawl with me the first time?”

“That is because Confriga is a vile, arrogant creature who enjoys demonstrating his personal superiority over others. The fact that he couldn’t easily finish you with his fists alone hurt his pride. That you wounded him at all and destroyed his effigies… If I may ask… what did you do to him?”

Shiv shrugged. “Donno. He hit me with a Necromancy whip. It blew up my arm. It blew up everyone around us. It ignited most of the Pathbearers and burned Confriga.” Shiv’s left arm still itched and pulsed with pain at times. “My arm still doesn’t feel great even after I… . I don’t think Necromancy gets along with me.”

“It is supposed to wither one’s vitality when unleashed against a foe directly,” Leu explained. “It decays matter and kills life. I have seen him make thousands of enemy Pathbearers crumble away into dust. And then, the art lets him keep something of an imprint of their souls that he might wield for his twisted means. I do not fully understand the lore, but every time he draws on Necromancy, it burdens me with dread.”

“Well, it seems to set me off like a mana bomb,” Shiv replied. “Is there a way I can avoid having him use Necromancy?”

“Yes. But that is also difficult, as you will need to destroy his effigies again—his instruments of death-channeling. You cannot wield the powers of Necromancy without a source of death.”

Shiv blinked. “Huh, that explains the kids. Sort of. He could have used a dead dog or something. So no bones and deaths means no Necromancy.”

“That is my understanding.”

“Guess I know what to target. What’s the deal with his sword?”

“I know it is a Heroic-Tier weapon. Something that can cut perfectly no matter how far the target. A blade that never misses. But that is only the beginning of its Enchantments, and of the others, I know little. I can say that it is deadly enough as is.”

“Well, I’m looking forward to sampling its edge sometime soon. So, aside from the Necromancy, his weird shower habits, and his control over this gate—actually, what does that allow him to do, exactly?”

“It allows him to summon every single Pathbearer bound to this dimension to him. As the gate is also attuned to Pyromancy and Cryomancy, he can also use the sun to channel immense acts of mystical destruction.”

“Wait, a gate can have its mana attuned?”

“Yes. Both a Pathbearer and a gate are composed of three parts. A soul or a core. Vitality or Mind or The soul is the anchor for everything, but where a person is connected to a vessel and exists in a state of life, a dimension lives through culture and history, and its capacity to develop is determined by how expansive it is.”

Leu gestured at the space around them. “This is how the History and Legend-Building Theory of Mana Accumulation came to be. Where a Pathbearer grows as they build on their own accomplishments and accumulates more acts of triumph or exertion, a core draws on the deeds of everyone that lives in its expanse. As such, most cores output far more mana than a Pathbearer, but lack a mind to attune them to the proper magic or environments, leaving their development random and chaotic when left alone.”

And here was another thing that would have been great to know.

“And this dimension is… large?” Shiv asked.

“A Category Eight, by the measurements your peoples use,” Leu said. “It is Lesser-Medium, considering its mana output. But that’s still substantially more than almost any individual Pathbearer can unleash.”

“Shit,” Shiv said. “And I was just expecting to fight the guy.”

“In your defense, it is not an incorrect expectation. But should you press him to the brink, he will use the powers of the gate and call upon every Pathbearer and dimensional here to aid him.”

“So, what if we manage to get him out of the gate and attack him there?”

“I have considered that as well,” Leu said. “But he rarely leaves. Even to return to our home dimension. With someone he imagines being an Aviary spy lurking—someone that slighted him—I think he will not go anywhere until the enemy is found and slain.”

“But he left the gateway to his home dimension open?”

“Yes. Because any non-Vulteg who enters Vulkethwill learn the folly of setting foot into Lord Scorn’s domain uninvited.” Leu chuckled darkly. “My god cares little for his own people, but he despises intruders above all, and the Curses he bestows can shatter even a Legendary Pathbearer in seconds.”

“Right. So we’re not fighting Confriga there either.” Shiv was increasingly stumped by this conversation. His plan had been some variety of ambush, fight, possibly die, and then eventually kill. Now, with all Leu just told him, fighting Confriga was going to be even more miserable than expected. “Well, shit. This is a pain. I wish I had Valor with me now. He would have some better ideas. Adam, annoying prick that he is, would probably come up with some tactics and strategy too. And Uva.” Not that he missed Uva for that reason alone. He had many reasons why he missed her. Lots of them.

“Wait, Valor Thann and your allies… Are they nearby?” Leu asked.

“Yeah,” Shiv said. “Kind of. They’re probably not in the immediate vicinity, but I think I can find my way back to Weave if I get back into the Abyss.”

“Broken Moon, you really weren’t lying about the stuff you said before, were you?” Tran breathed.

Shiv eyed him. “Look, Tran, the Republic’s… kind of full of shit. Everything they told us about the Abyss is a lie. Even most of the Eclipse War.”

The Slayer’s expression turned pained. “I…”

“If I find a way across, you’ll see. You really should see Weave.”

But Leu was silent. And thinking. “I can help you get through the sealed gateways. To the surface. And to the Abyss.” She regarded Heather. “You are a Dimensionalist, yes? In fact, I suspect you to be the one who was detected at the surface gateway earlier.”

Heather wilted slightly before the Vulteg’s glare. “I… yeah…”

“I know the spatial resonance for both gateways. Will that help you shape a proper spell and get through?”

The Jump Mage suddenly looked stunned. “Are you serious? Yes! If you have that then I can absolutely get across!” Excitement consumed her. “We’re getting out of here, Tran! We’re—”

“We’re going to the Abyss first,” Shiv said. “This isn’t done. You can be cowards and run once you help me retrieve the people I can actually rely on. But to get to them…” He hesitated, remembering the Jealousy. “There’s a Greater Demon hovering over the gateway. That’s going to be a problem too.”

“Greater Demon?” Tran said, his face pale.

“It’s worse than you think,” Shiv muttered. “Nearly cracked my protection when I was approaching Gate Theborn.”

“Ah, yes,” Leu mused. “The Jealousy.” She thought for a moment, then chuckled. “You may be pleased to know that I have a plan to eliminate the creature. Part of my overall strategy to kill Confriga in the end.”

Now Shiv was happy he ran into Leu. “Well, don’t keep me waiting. What do we need to do?”

“Confriga has a contract with the Greater Demon. He feeds it minds every month, and in another day, it will be due for another feeding. It is… part of the reason we import so many cheap slaves.”

“That’s… You’re just letting this thing eat the minds of people?” Shiv asked. Leu’s casual admission about this reminded him that she wasn’t exactly a decent person either, mostly an ally of convenience.

“It is part of the conditions for its contract,” she explained. “All the dimensionals and demons have running transactions with us, Compact, and many others. Regardless, when the Jealousy finishes feeding, it briefly goes into a digestive state to absorb all the minds consumed. It is vulnerable, then. And it is usually left alone in a hidden sanctum within this dimension to recover.”

With each word she said, Shiv’s grin grew. “Oh, and you know where it is?”

“Indeed I do. But even so… the risks are substantial. For even a Master, I would consider this practically suicide.”

Shiv laughed. “Leu. Stop. I’m already on board. Tell me the rest, and let’s kill this Greater Demon.”