Path of the Deathless

174 (II) Riot [III]

174 (II)Riot [III]

“That makes two of us,” Shiv muttered. Still, this was a glimpse of power beyond his. With his Legendary Skill, Shiv possessed unmatched control and power compared to his prior Skill Evolutions. Yet, he was still limited in many ways. Without evolving more supporting skills, his Legendary Skill wouldn’t reach its full potential. But more than that, a divine domain was something Shiv had no comprehension of at all. He'd never heard Valor or anyone else speak of such a thing. “What is a divine domain anyway?”

Cripple hesitated before answering.hey seemed to be on the other side of the honor spectrum. But when Cripple spoke of Kathereine, Shiv detected a hint of fear and regret in its voice. Cripple wanted to do something, but it couldn’t act. Not openly.

Hence, it came to Shiv. The Deathless was getting a faint understanding of the unseen games being played between the Ascendants even now.

And he found it a bit .

Shiv thought to himself.

“Fine, keep your secrets,” Shiv finally said. “I’ll dig them out some other way. But let’s get to the point that matters. You wanted to speak with Adam as well, right? Well, the only way we’re going to be able to do that is if I know where he is and if I can get him out.”

Cripple said.

Shiv really didn’t like the sound of White Rooms. “Alright. So can you teleport me there or something? Give a shortcut through your Domain?”

“Which is why we don’t have long to talk in the first place,” Shiv said, connecting another set of dots. “I’m going to have to go after Adam alone, then?”

Cripple said, though it sounded slightly ashamed.

Shiv clenched his fists as a rage born of worry welled up inside him. “Shit. How—wait. Adam… They must’ve reached into his mind. . Are they going to do something to his mind? Make him a mind-slave or something?”

Cripple said.

“I heard enough,” Shiv said. “Tell me where he is and let me out of this place.”

Cripple paused.

“She’s an insane child that became a god,” Shiv spat back. “And I don’t care if every last Pathbearer in Integration is preparing to ambush me alongside the Ascendants. I’m getting Adam back, and we’re getting out—”

Cripple interrupted.

“What?” Shiv asked.

Cripple continued, sounding more than a little uncomfortable with what it was telling Shiv.

Shiv updated his opinion of Cripple. The automaton was only a certain kind of honorable. When the moment called for it, Cripple was more than capable of being downright dirty. The Deathless smirked. “I understand. I’ll see what I can do with the prisoners. Don’t exactly have a Leadership Skill, but I did get a Feat from hurting Daughter. Let’s see how well fear works as a motivator.”

You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

A hum of agreement came from Cripple.

Shiv considered that for a moment. He considered lying, but his nature was direct and truthful. Cripple hadn’t bullshitted him so far, and if the Ascendant was trying to do him a good turn, Shiv didn’t want to make a mess of things even if it would make freeing Adam harder. “Not sure if I can promise that, Cripple. I got a few of them with me right now. A wolf-man called Five and Rebis. Rebis is—”

Cripple said, voice hard.

Cripple’s claim caught Shiv entirely off guard. “He’s ?”

“What’s a Washpoint Fortress?”

Cripple asked, surprised.

“Yeah, well, Roland Arrow was big on everyone’s education but mine.” Shiv sighed. “Alright. So. Rebis is made from two utter bastards. But he's just confused right now.”

Cripple echoed.

“And I’m safe?” Shiv said, slightly sarcastically.

***

Brightness.

That was the first thing Adam noticed as consciousness slowly returned to him. His mind throbbed with pulsing pain, and his body felt like it had been broken into pieces, ground beneath a giant's heel, before finally being pasted back together. The parts of him that didn't hurt were utterly numb, and worse, his bladder was screaming at him, begging him to relieve himself.

Low, droning voices pounded against his skull, like war drums going off beside his ears. The Gate Lord tried to speak, but all that came out of his throat was a hoarse whisper. He tried to move, yet felt his body bound tight. Worse, his muscle fibers were on fire. Even the slightest twitch sent waves of pain radiating through him. This time, he didn't give a hoarse cry; a loud hiss escaped him. He tried to writhe in pain, but that only made everything worse.

Adam was caught in a cycle of agony.

When he finally finished shuddering, he heard someone speak for the first time, their voice pounding through his ears, like he was breaking out from underwater. "He's waking up. Finish with him.”

Before Adam could say anything else, a burst of thunderous pain circulated through his nerves. He tried to arc his back, but he was held tight in place, and the bands that clutched him refused to budge at all. His sinews no longer felt like they were on fire. Instead, they itched as never before, and were promptly drawn taut. It was like his body was trying to stretch itself apart, and no matter how much he tried to fight it, it wouldn't stop. Adam had never had a whole-body cramp before, but now that he did, he never wanted to experience it again.

Flashing memories pulsed before his eyes. He remembered flickers of what happened just hours before. He remembered arriving too late to save Shiv from the Ascendants. He remembered the Tarrasque retaliating, driving its body deep into the underside of Blackedge. He remembered a battle that followed, flashes of impossible violence, immense devastation. And then he remembered being struck by something he couldn't quite recall. But he remembered being struck so hard that everything inside him broke, even with the protection of his Legendary armor.

Adam felt weightless, weightless in the present, and weightless in the past. He was floating, his body was light, and soon he couldn't feel his body at all. His experience became one of utter depersonalization, and soon, he found himself staring at his own form from the third person. He was over the skies of Los Angeles again, twirling, blood spilling out from his mouth, from his eyes, from his every orifice.

The Tarrasque hung high in the sky, usurping the position of the sun, and its form was bathed in incandescent fire. Divine mana clawed at the beast's magnificent body, but it wouldn't come asunder. It refused to die.

Without Shiv present, no one could rip the vitality free from the Tarrasque, and it fought on. Yet the Ascendants kept it controlled, wreathed in nets of awesome flame. With a blast of world-shaking force, they flung it skyward.

At some point, Adam struck the ground, and he found himself blasting through debris. A curtain of dust rose high into the air and settled over his broken body as a blanket, and through the haze, he saw Blackedge, damaged, crumbling, on the verge of falling apart. But then there came a flash, a flash of color, a flash of incandescence, a flash guided by thick streams of translucence.

Some part of Adam's mind, what little of him still remained in that moment, recognized Uva's power for what it was. Her Psychomancy threads were now as large as buildings, and from them leaked both the impossible colors of the outside and the Starhawk's blessing.

A twitch of jealousy passed through Adam. He would have loved to serve in his father's stead. He would have done anything the Starhawk demanded if it meant saving his town, if it meant protecting his friends. But it wasn't to be. He wasn't to be. In that very moment, he knew he was dying, knew there were things inside him broken, almost certainly beyond repair.

And unlike when he fought the Recollector, he wasn't scared. Not scared at all. Instead, he felt a sense of peace, as if he were an empty vessel. He had done everything he could, strained himself beyond what anyone could ask for, and now he'd fallen—fallen, but not been beaten.

Blackedge was swallowed by brighter and brighter colors as a massive fissure opened over it. The town rose, and just as it did, Adam noticed a massive shape descending from on high. The Tarrasque returned, and trails of frayed incandescence clung to its body. It screamed out, bellowing the Starhawk's name, bellowing vengeance against Roland Arrow. But just as it was about to tear through the town, just as a tidal wave of devastation was dragged in its wake, Blackedge vanished entirely, passing into that eldritch outside that bordered reality.

Adam laughed weakly. Laughed as, even though the fate of his town was uncertain, for even though he didn't know what was going to happen to his friends, to his family, Blackedge would not fall at the hands of the Tarrasque, nor would it be destroyed by the Ascendants. No, for a little while longer, his home would endure.

And then the Tarrasque struck the ground, and Adam exhaled. The world shook. The surface upon which he lay was sundered utterly and completely. Adam found himself flung away, and once more he was weightless. He surrendered himself to the sensations. Yet, a moment before a massive piece of debris descended to greet him, a cloud of static shadow clashed over his form and clenched him tight, drawing him across space itself.

And somewhere during the teleportation process, the darkness of Dimensionality became the darkness of unconsciousness.

Now he was back, still alive, but wishing he wasn't. The pain was bad. “Broken Felling Moon!” Adam cried out as a rush of fire seared through his every nerve. His eyes snapped open fully, and he found himself staring up at a brightly lit ceiling. The Gate Lord blinked a few times, trying to clear the blurriness from his vision. His ears were ringing as well, and his heart hammered inside his chest, threatening to burst from his ribcage.

He was still severely disoriented, but he saw spell patterns dancing around him. He was inside a teleportation anchor of some kind. Adam shook his head. No, not a teleportation anchor.

This resembled a medical chamber. He saw a strange, twirling mechanism hanging over him, and it had dangling blades and small fingers twitching on its underside. As it drew back, a cube-like face looked down at Adam, and the many eyes that dotted it flickered.

Adam thought. His mind felt sluggish, but he recognized the mechanical entity for what it was.

"A pair of clusters reconnected," the mechanical Pathbearer declared, and it leaned back. A whirling, whirring sound followed, and Adam tried to turn his head. It was a considerable struggle for him to do even that. To his right, he saw a tall, elven woman clad in a white coat.

She wore a transparent face shield made from glass, and specks of Adam’s blood dotted its oblong surface. She regarded him without expression, and a faint hint of red mana seeped out from her fingers. That was the color of Biomancy, and if he could see it right now…

Adam took a look at his notifications, and his eyes widened. He hadn't gained Biomancy, but most of his skills had taken a massive leap.

Skybearer’s Strength 100 (Skill Evolution Imminent)

Hydromancy 50 (Skill Evolution Imminent)

Repulsion Shroud 100 (Skill Evolution Imminent)

Tactical Overseer 100 (Skill Evolution Imminent)

Adam thought to himself.

"Is he stabilized?"

The elven Biomancer looked away from Adam and gave the unseen speaker a nod. "He is, Master-Avatar."

"Good. Leave us."

"Master-Avatar," Adam muttered. The room around him darkened momentarily, and Adam thought they were turning off the lights. But then he realized he was on the verge of blacking out again. He shook his head, forced himself to stay awake. Though fatigue and agony gripped his body, he wanted to face whoever held him prisoner and tell them to sit on a knife.

Three thumping steps sounded in the now-empty room. Three thumping steps that made Adam's pulse climb and his anxiety worsen as he looked up at his captor for the first time.

Adam let out a miserable sigh—which turned into a vicious sneer.

"City Lord Stormhalt," Adam slurred. He tried not to, but part of his mouth wasn't working right. "I should have called you father-in-law by now, but alas, some unforeseen problems interrupted my wedding. You wouldn't happen to know who caused them, would you?"