127 (II)
Infusion
Mortar shook his massive head. “What the mouth here intends to say is that we shouldn’t be idle, yeah? If we’re idle, we’ll find things to do. Things you may not like doing. But if you point us at a proper enemy…”
Adam let out a breath as he eyed Shiv. “Well. You’re just the bloody orc whisperer, aren’t you?”
“What? It’s not hard to understand. And if we get an army of orcs, maybe the best thing to do is have them maraud or sothing instead of using them defensively at all.”
Mortar laughed. “Isn’t it adorable when they learn fast?”
“Fine,” Adam said. “Let’s…” He looked toward the obsidian tower and thought to himself for a beat.
“Okay. Here’s what we will do,” he said to Shiv telepathically. “First, You all finish doing whatever it is that needs doing with those vampires. Then, you drain so of them for vitality and nd Can Hu’s skills.”
“Shit, the cooking made forget about that,” Shiv hissed.
His thoughts prodded at Uva, and hers halted for a mont as well. “Well… Your cooking made forget too.”
“As for you…” Adam said to the orcs, not bothering to pretend they weren't talking privately, “let get you up to speed about our problems. Our many, terrible, and miserable bloody problems.”
The orcs shared a look, then a collective grin of excitent.
“You sound miserable, Gate Lord,” Whisper hissed. “Tell us more.”
***
While Adam and Uva led the orcs off to explain the problems and adversaries on the horizon, Shiv dealt with his vampiric prisoners and t up with Can Hu and Valor again to continue what they started earlier.
“Alright, Can Hu, are you ready for another dose?” Shiv asked. Twenty streams of Vitaemancy surged out from the Deathless, connecting him to the vampires interred within the detention center. The vampires themselves were catatonic—rendered so by Uva to ensure none of them could attempt an escape.
And it wouldn’t be an easy escape, either. The detention center was only a temporary structure, but it was established near the obsidian tower where most of the gate’s current active forces were, and it was also designed to be an oubliette. This ant that it was built straight down into the ground, and the only way out was up.
Up through a series of magical barriers, dinsionals, and Umbral guards. And that was if they could overco Uva’s Psychomancy in the first place.
Within the concrete cells of the prison were the recently captured vampires—aside from a certain Lucian, who was placed sowhere else at special request of Whisper. The Aviary owl was stored here as well, but on a deeper level compared to the vampires. He was constantly sedated and watched. Soon, he would be moved to Elaboration along with the vampires for further processing.
For now, they would serve another aningful purpose—restoring the broken skills of Can Hu.
“I am ready, Pathbearer,” Can Hu said, standing across from Shiv in the central hall of the prison. The way the Penitent moved was more effortless than before. Its joints scread less, and its chassis had fewer cracks as well. Even so, there was sothing about the Penitent’s posture that scread with discomfort.
“Sothing wrong?” Shiv asked Can Hu.
Can Hu stared at the streams of Vitaemancy connecting Shiv to so prisoners. “I have done things like this before.”
“Fixing your skills?”
“No,” Can Hu replied. “Blacksites. Securing prisoners. Making use of them. I rember implanting them with bombs. Bombs so small that few could sense their presence within the prisoner’s bloodstream. I rember using people as resources. Spending their lives. I rember their faces.”
Nearby, Valor regarded Can Hu and Shiv, but he offered no comnt. Instead, the Legendary Pathbearer was deep in a trance, his eyes burning with mana as he observed the process.
“Oh,” Shiv said, understanding why Can Hu seed so awkward. “Yeah. I get it. But these are vampires, so fuck them. They have it coming.”
“Dehumanization has its own cost, Pathbearer,” Can Hu said, voice low.
Shiv nodded. “Can Hu. A few days back, I went to a village near the gate. Village, town, I can’t rember which. You can ask Angelo. He’s the only one I brought back. Angelo and the Court Leviathan. Everyone else was gone. The things they did to the people there—n, won, children… I’m not going to forget that. And I’m never going to forgive it. So. My opinion on vampires is that, unless they’re running from the First Blood, fighting the First Blood, or not associated with the First Blood, it’s on sight for . So, again, fuck them.”
Can Hu stared at Shiv and let out a chanical sigh. “This hatred will shape you too, Pathbearer. I previously assud you were going to use animals.”
“Yeah. And that’s what I’m doing right now. Now. Are you ready?”
The Penitent deliberated for a mont longer and straightened itself. “I request that you do not hollow them entirely.”
“Oh, don’t worry.” Shiv chuckled grimly. “I need to leave enough of them for Elaboration to have their piece.”
Rationally, Shiv knew why Can Hu felt uncomfortable. But after all he'd experienced fighting the First Blood, and what he saw in the silo, he was spent on any kind of sympathy for the most of them.
Mass death happened when powerful Pathbearers fought each other. Shiv wanted to avoid collateral damage as much as he could, but sotis, things just went wrong. What the vampires did wasn’t collateral damage. It was cruelty by culture and choice. At least the orcs had that itch they struggled against—were literally fed by their violence and sadism. The vampires did what they did because they could.
With that thought, Shiv ripped the vitality out from the first of the vampire prisoners before drawing it into himself. Thereafter, he cast his Vitae into Can Hu’s soul, filling an absent space. Seconds passed. The emptiness filled, and the shape of sothing revealed itself. It felt like a ss of jagged fractals to Shiv’s senses. It’s like running my hand over broken glass.
As Shiv continued feeling at the pieces, Can Hu’s body ca aglow with white and red. More cracks faded across its shell. And as that skill was restored, Shiv siphoned another vampire to fill another patch of spiritual nothingness. This happened twenty tis in rapid succession. By the end, nine skills were restored, and all the vampires glowed dim with weakened vitality.
“It’s taking a lot more to fill up so of those bigger skills,” Shiv said, frowning. “The smaller ones get fed by just one or two vampires. I think they’re Adept-Tier Skills or lower. The Master-Tiers Skills? They require a whole other level of Vitae to patch up.”
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“This is expected,” Can Hu said. “Skill Evolutions increase the potency and mana contained within a skill by many magnitudes. But…” Can Hu looked at its manipulator hands. The digits opened and closed almost naturally. A fluidity was returning to his movents. The grinding screams of tal on tal were fading. “It is working. I am… nding… I did not think this was possible.”
“Valor didn’t expect it, either,” Shiv replied, drawing his Vitae streams back behind his Vitaemancy field. A faint weakness washed through him. He spent a bit more of himself than he expected, but still, it was worth it to see Can Hu coming back together. “But it’s working. Your skills are just damaged now. ans we can fix them. I hope.”
“I concur,” Can Hu replied. The Penitent took a few steps toward Shiv, and its articulations were practically human-like with how smooth they were now.
“You must’ve glided through the world back when you were whole,” Shiv said, observing the Penitent. “How fast were you?”
“Master-Tier,” Can Hu said. “Speed was not my specialty. I preferred distance and BVR combat.”
“What’s that an?”
“To fight beyond visual range.”
“Oh, so you’re an Adam.”
“That is a way of categorizing .”
“Did you have a Shiv?”
Can Hu considered the question. “No. There were so who fought in close quarters with the enemy, but no Penitent ever engaged targets in your manner. It was not conducive for a Penitent to operate in such a way.”
“You guys didn’t have any frontliners?”
“I would not classify you as a frontliner, Pathbearer Shiv.”
“What would you classify as?”
Can Hu hesitated for a mont before replying. “Effectively suicidal.”
Shiv didn’t know whether he wanted to laugh or frown. “Effectively suicidal.”
“Your willingness to harm yourself to obtain ammunition for your magic and inflict harm using your Inertial Overdrive moves you from vanguard to sothing akin to a veteran suicide bomber that has a thod of surviving said suicides.”
And it occurred to Shiv that Adam could probably hear this conversation. “Can Hu… I don’t know if I feel flattered or insulted.”
“It is the truth of the matter. But it is also very effective. I recomnd you enjoy your uniqueness, Pathbearer. That is good for your ego.”
And that got Shiv to chuckle. “Alright. Fine. How are you feeling?”
“Better than the prisoners, I suspect,” Can Hu said. Shiv regarded the vampires with his Biomancy. They were all laying motionless within their cells. “But also better than ever before. I… I missed the ease of movent. I have forgotten what it was like to walk without warring against my own machinery. What is lost and regained feels like a blessing. What is beyond your grasp remains a curse.”
“Was that a quote or sothing?” Shiv asked.
“A concept. For a poem,” Can Hu said. “It was among the first skills I developed after my crippling. It is among the reasons I survived at all.”
As Can Hu said that, Shiv noticed a part of the Penitent flickering. “Wait. Can Hu. Try using that skill again. I want to see sothing.”
Valor erged from its silent observation as it regarded the Deathless. “Shiv? What are you trying to do?”
Shiv cast another stream into Can Hu. Once more, he poured his Vitae deep within the automaton. A coldness washed into Shiv, but he ignored it. His face turned into a mask of concentration as he waited for Can Hu to use the skill. “Can Hu. Poetry. Finding the missing skills is easy, but looking for specific unbroken skills is like rooting around blind underwater.”
“Why are you trying to reach his active skills?” Valor asked. He was hovering beside Shiv now, but the Deathless barely noticed him.
“I want to see how they feel. Maybe they can give an idea about how to put the broken ones back together.”
Valor considered Shiv’s idea and humd in acceptance. “It is not a bad consideration. But be careful. Do not risk Can Hu’s spirit. If you can restore a skill from being destroyed…”
“I might be able to break an intact skill,” Shiv finished. Then, Shiv reconsidered. “Or… I don’t know, Valor. Grasping at skills inside soone doesn’t feel the sa as holding a physical object. They’re there, but they aren’t solid.”
“A conundrum or a path, the Pathbearers do not know,” Can Hu began, reciting words slowly. Just then, Shiv felt a disturbance ripple across his Vitae. He used that to find what he assud to be Can Hu’s Poetry Skill. “And what lay at the end but… but… questions or…”
As Can Hu tested words and ideas aloud, Shiv found himself condensing his Vitaemancy around a single section within the Penitent’s soul. He traced the pulsating wavelength to its origin. But there, he didn’t find a shape waiting for him. There were no pointed edges, and the sensation wasn’t like broken glass. Instead, it felt like an opening—like running his hands along a fra for an open door and passing through.
“The hells?” Shiv muttered.
“What do you sense,” Valor asked.
“It’s like my Vitaemancy is reaching down a hole or sothing.”
Can Hu paused and zood its optics in on Shiv. “I cannot feel anything, Pathbearer.”
“Yeah, that’s good. I think.” Shiv swallowed. He carefully guided his skill deeper into Can Hu, trying not to inflict damage, uncertain about what awaited deeper. “Damn, these skills go deep as—” And then, there ca faint susurration. Words. “I… hear sothing. I think it is a voice or… sothing?”
“You do?” Can Hu asked, surprised. “What is being said?”
Shiv didn’t respond. Instead, he listened. He focused on his Vitaemancy. And as he reached deeper into the skill, sothing reached back across into him. A presence infused his Vitaemancy and filled it with a weight. The whispered noises grew louder, and they revealed themselves to be a vast chorus of voices reciting different poems; working on their prose.
Can Hu’s was only one voice among the symphony. And not nearly the loudest, either. “I’m hearing a lot of different people recite poetry,” Shiv said, brow creased. “Your voice is there.” He looked at Can Hu. “But there’s also a lot of other people. Not sure why?”
“The collective experiences imbued with the skill,” Valor breathed. The Legendary Pathbearer sounded stunned. “Shiv. Do you have any idea what you have just done?”
“No?” Shiv blinked.
“You’re tapping into Can Hu’s yet-ford Skill Delve. When you reach the Legendary Tier, your Skill Evolves once more—but it also becos a location inside of you. It is like an internal dinsion ford from every experience you had leading to its creation.”
A slight nervousness swelled inside Shiv. “Is that a good thing or a bad thing?”
“It is sothing entirely new. Animancy allows you to edit parts of a soul—reshape portions of soone’s personal legend. But what you are doing here is direct access, if your feelings are true.”
“And what does that an?” Shiv gasped, shivering. He was starting to shake. Weakness was rushing through him. Don’t have much more vitality to spend.
“I am uncertain,” Valor admitted. He noticed Shiv trembling. “Shiv. Enough. We continue when you regain your vitality. There is no point in overdoing this. Mastery is not to be rushed.”
“Yep,” Shiv grunted in agreent as he pulled his Vitaemancy back. He moved slowly, careful not to break anything, but as Shiv extracted his stream of white and red mana from the Penitent’s being, his Vitae rged with a vibrating presence, and each quiver that ran across the stream was followed by words being spoken.
“What is lost and regained feels like a blessing. What is beyond your grasp remains a curse.” Can Hu’s voice echoed from the streams of Vitae. Valor and Can Hu both turned to stare at the stream as it receded into Shiv.
“Can Hu,” Valor began. “Did you hear that?”
“Yes. Yes, I did, Legend Valor.”
Shiv did as well, and as he pulled his Vitae back behind his field, he felt sothing enter him and settle like sedint within his being. And thereafter, a notification appeared before his eyes.
Animated Skill Infusion Gained: Poetry — Lyrics Like Flowing Rivers 77 (Adept)
“Uh, Valor,” Shiv said. “Do you know what an Animated Skill Infusion is?”
The Legendary Pathbearer just stared at him. “No. I have never heard of such a thing. Why?”
“Well. I think I have so of Can Hu’s Poetry Skill inside ,” Shiv breathed. And from within his body, the muffled chorus of poetry continued. “And… it’s talking inside .”
Valor stared at Shiv for a mont and nodded. “Stay here. I’m going to call Uva to connect my mind to yours. Do nothing to yourself. Do not even move.”
“I’m… I won’t explode, will I, Valor?” Shiv asked.
“I don’t know,” Valor said. And then he imdiately shot out from the prison, leaving a stream of fla behind him. Can Hu and Shiv stared on.
“Can Hu,” Shiv said.
“Yes, Shiv?”
“I can hear my Vitae chanting poetry at .”
“As can I.”
“It’s kind of scaring the shit out of .”
“And I as well. Shiv?”
“Yeah?”
“Please do not self-destruct because you imbibed my poetry. Such a death will offend greatly.”
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