Forty-eight ghostly occult chains raced forward, unavoidable, flailing around and clashing against each other in the race for the Feathers throat. One image had even leaped above, the ghost chains lashing out in anticipation of the Feather jumping up to escape.
In any other situation, that would have been the end of ToAacar. Body slashed away, only a head left behind to yell at us, if he were lucky. But the Feather didnt need luck. He had the occult.
ToAacar didnt bother with theatrics, not when his life was on the line. Occult pulsed around him and he vanished, reappearing further away. The mirror images all struck, clashing against each other at the center-point, dissipating into fading clouds.
Clan Lord Atius walked through the fading mist, taking his helt off and tossing it aside. A demi-god had little need for a helt.
I see youve been holding out on your abilities. He said. How unfortunate to find out now.
I see youre not as dead as you should be. The Feather snarled back, damage sparking through the ribcage from the dagger blows, still multiplying his voice at odd sections. Fortunately, I will rectify that shortly, believe .
Drass had always stressed that she was only a temporary clan lord each ti I t her. In addition to her iron conviction that the Feather would be dealt with. Atius must have been in contact with her this whole ti, assuming he really had faked his own death, working in the background free of any eyes.
In hindsight, Im not sure why I hadnt questioned the odd death, considering how in depth the clan lord went when it ca to counter-intelligence. Even against two assassins, hed have them both killed within minutes using occult powers. And then hed have all the ti in the world to set up the rest. He must have seen it like a gift from above, falling on his lap.
Around us, the fighting was still at a fever pitch. The Winterscar knights were occupied with ToAacars controlled knights. The only advantage the Chosen had was their unnatural coordination with one another. Sothing my own knights were slowly adapting and overcoming. The result of that war was almost inevitable. Captain Sagrius was leading, organizing the knights into chipping away at the Chosen. It was only a matter of ti until the Chosen knights made a mistake, wiping them out.
Atius, I said, hobbling to regroup by his side. Plan?
He gave a cautious glance, keeping his eyes fixed on ToAacar. Never seen him this broken down before, lad. Well done indeed. Never seen him use a teleport ability either. Youve rattled extra snow out of him.
ToAacar scoffed. Minor battle damage.
The Deathless raised an eyebrow at that. Youre out of shields. Far more than costic now.
It changes nothing! Insects cannot defeat a god! He scread back, growing unhinged.
Atius ignored his jab, turning slightly to , almost as if scheming in the open. I suspect well both be seeing things hes kept up his sleeve for more desperate tis like these. Cornered animals fight the hardest. Play it safe, well grind him down instead. Maybe working together well get his other arm cut. He lifted his head, a malicious grin pointed at the Feather. Wouldnt that be sothing, old friend?
The Feather growled, Challenge all you wish. Your life is still asured in hours. He crouched, occult pulsing around before he leaped forward, ripping the pillar he stood on into parts. Halfway in his leap, he vanished.
Atiuss eyes flashed occult blue. He twisted and delivered a kick directly into my chest, throwing back. Not a mont too soon. ToAacar erged from an occult portal, slashing through where Id been a mont ago. The spear twirled, and he struck out against the Deathless in a seamless movent.
No images ca from Atius, instead he fought with both the wild knightbreaker round in tandem with the machine sword. The entire ti his eyes glowed blue, I recognized the spell he was using as one hed listed in the data hed left behind. At this mont, Atius was seeing hundreds of futures, showing him the optimal path to victory.
And more importantly - the knightbreaker chains seed to almost move according to his will, with the Deathless being able to handpick the best way to swing the wild weapon. They slashed and snapped with each strike, lashing out at the Feather.
ToAacar did not remain in place. Instead, he leaped around using the occult every few seconds, keeping himself on the run to maintain speed. It seed to travel with him, jump after jump, his speed staying constant despite the dozens of directions he struck out.
At a distance, hed launch his spear out like a javelin, sending it through an occult portal to strike out at the Deathless from unexpected angles, to which hed appear at the ending path to recover the weapon, either leaping away again, or continuing the assault if the occult chains werent in the way.
Keith! Atius called out, Sprint forward, left side, attack the air now!
I followed orders without hesitation. Dutifully sprinting forward and striking out blindly into the air using the borrowed blade on my left.
ToAacar erged from the occult at the sa mont, hand reaching out to grab his incoming spear, only to completely abort the movent the instant he spotted my blade swinging straight at his unshielded throat. His occult spear flew wide past him, as he was forced into a duck, low to the ground. My blade cut right through the tal halo and the tip of his shoulder tower, slicing them both, breaking the halo and damaging the shield.
Atius was already leaping onto the Feather, knightbreaker round held in his hand far away to his side, eyes fading away as the occult spell ended. But that left him free to use the rest of his powers. Another dozen mirror images appeared, each swinging the replica knightbreaker chains at the Feather, all crashing down on him.
ToAacar scrambled away, kicking hard at the ground in order to rocket backwards, leaving a crater behind him where the rest of Atiuss image crashed down on, slicing the ground into chunks before fading.
The Feather didnt stop, retreating all the way to the back, yanking his impaled spear from a pillar it had sunk deep into and jumping high up on top. Heat wave rippled around his fra. That single eye glaring down at us with unmistakable hatred. Then it widened, Ive just realized sothing, Winterscar. He said, sounding almost gleeful for so reason.
Thats not sothing I like to hear. But the longer we keep him occupied, the more ti we buy for my knights to wrap up the chosen and for Atiuss own group to arrive. With that many knights, all wielding the winterblossom technique and ard to the teeth, even ToAacar wouldnt be able to escape us.
Ive wasted my ti trying to break into these armors of yours before I gave up and took control of the human users inside. Ive just realized that my ti wasnt wasted. He outright seed to leer at now. Theres a reason he made the default settings as they are. And theres a reason he didnt allow random users to ss with the administration settings. Allow to demonstrate exactly why.
My HUD flickered, and then fuzzed for a mont, almost freezing. A dozen error ssages began to appear all over the interface. Before I could even ask what was going on, my movent locked up, the armor taking command.
My stance was forced to relax, as the armor made to stand straight. Hes got control of my suit! I yelled out as loudly as I could.
Atius got the ssage, instantly delivering another relic powered kick into my stomach and sending flying away, far outside of any range I could do damage from. ToAacar shrugged from his perch. As if I need help in killing you, Atius.
The Feather turned to , waving his spear in a vague order. As for you, why dont you go walk off and die alone sowhere, if you would be so kind?
The armor stood up, brushed imaginary dirt off, and sheathed my sword with a cheeky pat on the hilt. Then, it turned, and marched off with trapped inside it, helpless. The only reason I hadnt gone into complete panic was the soul fractal. It was still active, as were all my other fractals. Whatever ToAacar had done, hed only taken over the remote override. I reached out to Journeys soul fractal and tried to get to the bottom of this.
Panic. Despair. They crashed into like a wave, overwhelming for a mont until I snapped back to focus.
Unable to override administrator commands. It said to my probing.
Administrator commands? Cant I order a counter command?
Middleware attack detected. All commands from the user are being intercepted. Unable to purge virus.
Journey walked us out of the battlefield, step by step. Hexagonal pillars on all sides began to obscure the world, but the armor pressed on, following deeper into the path. Behind , I could hear the crashing of occult blades again, the fight between Deathless and Feather resuming, ToAacar not giving Atius any ti.
Eventually we reached a cliff of so kind, and Journey ca to a stop. Its working arm slowly rose up, and then unhooked my helt and lifted it off before casually tossing it down into the abyss. The soul fractal Id been inhabiting inside the helt faded away, and my spirit snapped back into my body. Vision and color returned to my eyes, as the occult sight vanished.
The soul sight had a long range, but everything beyond that range was simply chaos that I couldnt understand. Id seen the edge of the cliff wed walked to, and nothing under it. Up until my eyes were opened and I saw the true sight of where we were.
Under was a mile long drop. And before , was a massive ecosystem. A forest of red trees, stretching across the land before , broken up by larger granite blocks with glowing blue machinery inside. Above, there were three sources of sunlight, each fading into a red glow of sunset. From here, I could see the underground world with such clarity.
It all knocked breathless, making forget for a mont my predicant.
And then my working arm reached up and an armored gauntlet wrapped around my throat, rendering truly breathless as is squeezed.
These fucking calculators and their obsession with suffocating people to death.
I didnt panic. Yet. Instead, my mind flashed through options I had while I was still lucid enough to think. First, I needed to buy myself ti. I had a reserve soul fractal by my ribcage, and into that I dove, seeking the calm that ca with it. Inside the soul fractal, my body seed to be going catatonic which greatly increased the ti I had to work out a plan. My own mounting horror and panic faded away, as did my heart rate. Now I needed to figure a way out of here.
No one was coming. ToAacar was already a monster to fight alone, and Atius would need every bit of effort he had in just surviving until the rest of the soldiers could tag in. I had to save myself.
I could feel Journeys own soul begin to panic. The armor could tell how much ti I had left before my body truly began to suffocate. A tendril of my own soul reached out to the armor, trying to reassure it. Ive got a plan. Dont worry.
One of my arms was broken, which the armor couldnt move - but armor was still moveable by my own power, only heavy to do so. I struggled to lift the tal, my own muscles straining against the weight. The effort was forcing my bodys heart rate, and decreasing the ti I had to live. I had a single target: Atiuss sword, sheathed on my belt. My hand missed the hilt a few tis before I finally got it right and wrapped my fingers around it.
The other hand continued to choke , single-minded. Completely ruthless.
I drew out the sword, turned it on, and slowly brought it up with an excruciating effort. My plan was simple: Hack away at my rebellious hand holding my throat. If I did it right, Id cut only the machinery that powered the gauntlet without cutting into my actual hand. If I couldnt manage that, Id just cut the entire hand off and consider it a small price to pay for surviving.
A spark of hope flared inside Journey as the armor watched.
ToAacar seed to be watching too, because the broken armored hand flickered back to life and began to buckle, the few ligants that were still working contracted, seizing up and locking my hand in an awkward but unmoveable position. That prick. It was hard enough to move the tal alone, now with parts of the armor functioning against , there was no hope in moving the blade.
I dove back into the soul fractal and reached out to Journey. The poor armor was beyond traumatized now. Not only was its single and only directive to protect the user, it was being used to directly kill in the slowest possible way, all while it watched on helpless to do anything. This was the worst imaginable torture an armor could go through.
I wrapped my soul around the spirit, reassuring it Id find a way out. That everything would be okay.
Can you detach the broken arm plates? I asked.
Negative. Ergency systems in arm damaged. It answered back. Alternate solution required.
Plan B it is. I reached for the fractal of mirrors, powering it on. I might not control my hand, but my hand still held an occult blade that was powered on. Thats all the fractal of mirrors needed to work.
An image of the frozen hand holding Atiuss blade manifested and slowly lowered to cut into my traitorous hand. It worked for a second, Journeys shields staying dormant and allowing the mirror blade to cut into the tal. A lot easier to control, too, so I might just save my hand.
And then the image vanished from sight.
I thought Id ssed up my focus. I hadnt. Instead, the mirror fractal itself had vanished from my occult sight.
Where did it go? I asked.
Administrator commands received. Shutdown request was acknowledged and carried out.
It had been turned off. ToAacar was watching sohow, getting feedback on what I was doing.
Shit.
Shit, shit, shit. Worse than scrapshit. I should have just sliced straight through my hand and not let him get a chance at realizing my plan.
I needed another plan. He hadnt turned off any of the other fractals inside my armor, so the attack felt more like a passing backhand while he continued his fight with the clan lord. A distraction. Which ant if I knocked my traitorous hand out all at once, hed be too late to stop .
Could I lt the hand off outright in one large blade of occult heat? No. Not possible.
Maybe the do fractal could shove his hand away from my throat, buy a few more minutes. The do fractal had been etched just about everywhere on my armor, including by my neckline. But it needed to have been right between the offending hand and my own fleshy neck to be useful in prying the hand off, so that was equally off the books.
I ran through the rest of the fractals I had access to, coming up empty. Stuck frozen in a coffin, strangling myself to death, with all the occult around - and none of it could help.
For the first ti, Journeys own soul reached out to . A small, feeble tendril. Ive known the armor for so ti now, and it had never done this before.
Blood oxygen levels are critical. Imdiate solution required. User fatality imminent.
I felt panic for the first ti, even deep in my soul fractal. I could see my own body was starting to shake by itself, trying to suck down air and failing. Held completely still by the frozen armor. I had no working plan left, no cheat, no trick, nothing up my sleeve that I could pull off except to eject.
What happens if my body dies, while I remain inside a soul fractal? Father had survived before as a spirit, but while I wasnt thrilled at the idea of dying and living like this, Id take that over oblivion.
Journey recognized the thoughts in my head, the understanding that I had hit the bottom of the well and death was all but certain for . It went through a list of emotions, fear, despair, and finally, resolution.
Alternate solution identified. Executing ergency shutdown.
Next chapter - Like Father, like Son
User Comments
0 comments from readers