Path of the Deathless 238 (I) Cancer [I]

“…and though I hate to admit this, I must profess a certain level of respect for the so-called Morbomancy Skill Fusion that the humans of Integrated Earth have discovered. Morbomancy is a Biomancy Skill Fusion combining Practical tabiology and Biomancy that allows one who is dedicated to the study of diseases and viral pathology specifically to rge with or transform into an affliction they are familiar with. The most common form this takes is the flu. Humans often get the flu, and as such, their bodies build up a sort of immunity. With all the ti they spend treating it, Morbomancers learn to beco the very symptoms that power it. They can dissipate into the viral vectors and settle within your bodies. There, they can reside inside of you for as long as they can sustain the strain and their focus. Now, it will not last long for most Low-Tier Biomancers, but there are experts and true warriors among the humans, and they cannot be underestimated.

Most Biomancers are not warriors, but even a non-warrior can pose a significant threat if they have a good understanding of your organic architecture. After all, though there is quite a gap between Orc and Human physiologies, we can both suffer acute symptoms of the flu. Fevers for one can be used to boil us from within. Our temperature regulation, though quite perfected as a species ant for war, will eventually cause us to boil our brains because we don't have that many restrictions or safeguards within our flesh. We were made to be replaceable. We were made to be expendable. The Challenger has no use for a weak orc that cannot preserve himself, and so he will be taken advantage of.

On top of this, there are other Morbomancers who have even more insight into very specific diseases: the oncologists, for example, are masters of cancer, and there is another Skill Evolution after morbomancy that allows them to beco Oncomancers: people who wield tumors as weapons. This is more commonly seen among the vermin of the First Blood, but do not underestimate the Biomancers of the Yellowstone Republic, for they have delved into a great many things that I assud to be beyond them once.

Now, with all that said, you are still facing a human, an elf, or a vampire. And so they are nothing but flawed. They will make emotional mistakes, they will get tired sooner than you will, and they will inevitably slip up. Furthermore, if your Magical Resistance or Disease Resistance Skills are strong enough, the diseases they magically simulate themselves to be will either find you impenetrable or treacherous.

Such is why being a Morbomancer is such a double-edged thing. To be a Morbomancer ans that you dance the edge between being the disease and suffering the disease. The best way to collapse a Morbomancer is by altering the conditions of the ailnt you suffer from. If they do not keep track of it or if you manage to affect their physical make-up directly, then they will find themselves undone. And soon they will be forced to eject themselves from your body, or they will learn the cost of erging within another's flesh.

It is a tool best used to treat rather than sicken.”

-To Hunt a Biomancer by Helix (Rated most pretentious manual ever written by Tutorial-wide literature polling)

238 (I)

Cancer [I]

Sage of the Enkindled Heart: Shiv. Do not launch yourself into the hospital and detonate your inertial sheath. I know how much you want to, but that will likely kill a great many innocent people, and it won’t really hurt the disease-shifting Heroic Biomancers that are currently turning the insides of Last Chance into a hellscape.

Shiv's anger was a bomb that was constantly going off. And it wasn't the only thing he struggled against right now. There were other emotions inside him, other emotions he couldn't control as well as anger: exhaustion, disbelief, frustration, and… more than a little sadness.

Adam ranted on inside Shiv, accusing him of provoking the System, but there was only a dull ringing in the back of Shiv's head. This wasn't amusing like the initial shock of the Faebread situation, and he couldn't bring himself to curse the System either. People were going to die no matter what he did here, and that certainty settled heavily in his mind.

Nearby, Maxi Van Stormhalt was giving him information, gesturing wildly as even more white-beret wearing Biomancers filtered onto the scene. Apparently, everyone had been in the middle of punching in for class or work when a series of alarms went off. At first, the Biomancers assud that an Awakened Virus had manifested from one of the patients—and that necessitated a containnt and withdrawal procedure due to the absence of Hero-Biomancer Javelina Van Erren, who specialized in handling intelligent and mobile diseases.

However, after one of Javelina’s senior residents went to the oncology ward to secure the residents, he uncovered the truth and proceeded to catch a bad case of rapid, terminal eye-to-everything cancer right after.

Now, most of the wings were warded on the inside, the building was warded on the outside, and the academy militia and Biomancers were calling in reinforcents and massing their forces to begin a push to retake Last Chance Sanatorium from the two fighting Hero-Biomancers that once swore to uphold the sanctity of life and preserve the health of all patients they treated.

The front lawn before Last Chance Sanatorium was a well-manicured and erald-green expanse. Now it was a staging point, with hundreds of Biomancers and dical teams supported by martial Pathbearers. The trench lines were filling with even more students, and Shiv felt like he was a mber of an army preparing to storm an enemy stronghold, rather than a student dic volunteering for his first shift.

“Marcus? Marcus? Are you all right?” Maxi's words finally got through to Shiv. “Did you get all that?”

Shiv nodded absentmindedly. “Yeah, I… I've just had a long day. And it seems like it's getting even longer now.”

Sothing in Maxi's gaze softened for a mont, but only for a mont. A second thereafter, it hardened, and a flare of resolve ca from her. “Well, that's what being a resident is like. I can't say this is a usual day, but…” She shrugged and looked toward the hospital. “It is a day, and we are called to service, even if it is against one of our own.”

The Biomancy mana being projected up into the skies by the apex of the Sanatorium's tower grew even brighter, and it bathed those around her in dancing shadows. Maxi's skin complexion turned almost marble-like in the light, but her eyes flared with the deep red of Biomancy.

Here was a Pathbearer—perhaps not a martial, but one ready to do battle all the sa.

Shiv looked around him, taking in the grim expressions of the hundreds of massing Pathbearers.

Sothing’s wrong here, but I just can’t tell what. There’s sothing we’re not seeing…

In his exhausted state, he was tired of seeing people die pointlessly for whatever reason. He was ntally exhausted and dealing with threat after threat, problem after problem, weird enemy after weird enemy, and he wasn't going to take it anymore. No, he was going to strangle the problem to death before it could crawl out of its cradle and experience childhood. The System was determined to make him fight? Fine, but he would resolve every fight he could as soon as he could.

Adam, do you have eyes on the rogue Biomancers? Shiv asked, his voice cold. I need you to find them. I need you to track them down.

A note of discomfort bled over from Adam. Shiv, you don't sound like you're in control right now.

Oh, I'm very much in control, Shiv replied with a growl. I'm going to deal with it. I'm going to deal with this before anyone else can get hurt. I'm going to go Non-Sequitur the mont you tell where the problem is. I'm going to stop ti, I'm going to track them down, and then I'm either going to rip them out of whatever body they're infesting, or I'm going to make them infect with whatever bullshit magic they have, and then I'll boil them to death with Plaguefueled. See how Heroic their Biomancy really is.

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I don't know about this plan, Shiv, Adam rebutted. If you go in like this, and if anyone sees you, or if you assu the guise of the Deathless, people might be able to connect a few dots if you get surprised by sothing or get your Non-Sequitur Skill disrupted. Why is Marcus missing while the Deathless is present? Why is Marcus erging from the inside of the hospital unhard and undamaged, while you haven't even told what you intend to do with the Biomancers?

I intend to resolve them, Shiv said flatly. I know that they're fighting over their kid, and this might be because of grief, but just because you're sad doesn't an you get to turn a hospital into a battleground. Against the one you're supposed to love, no less.

Shiv let out an exhausted breath. More importantly, I just don't want to see anyone else die for so bullshit. Fucking had enough of that at the dorm and Monster Mystery at today.

He swept the crowd. He looked at Maxi.

“I'm not going to let the System dictate terms with us, Adam. Not anymore. It's going to keep throwing shit at us. But now, I'm going to settle it as fast as I can. As soon as I can. I'm going to resolve every problem I can. And I'm gonna keep the damage contained. I don't think there's a way out of this. We'll never get a chance to breathe, we'll never get a chance to be people unless we get stronger, unless we get more aggressive. Everything, everything must beco an attack. Everything must feed aggression against the system. It wants to break us, it wants to break us.”

Shiv's Sage of the Enkindled Heart was fueled by a new and existential rage. Rage and hatred against the very world that spawned him, against the very thing that nourished the skills that made him so powerful, against that formless, shapeless thing that seed confused about what it wanted from him: to empower him or to see him dead, to create an apex predator across all worlds, or simply the most subli prey any Pathbearer within its grasp could ever hunt.

Adam let out a frustrated breath, and Shiv felt the remainder of his resolve succumb. It wasn't that Adam didn't want to protect the students of the Academy. It was simply his anxiety. They were still being hunted, and if they were discovered, that ant that every good deed they could do, every well-intentioned act might collapse in on itself.

For if Harlock truly found out where they were, there would be nothing that Veronica could do to protect them. And Shiv sincerely doubted that the Ascendants cared much about their own population, at least not more than recapturing a Unique Pathbearer and the Deathless.

Adam breathed in. “First, we don't rush. We survey the scene, and we get a grasp on what's actually happening. Only then do we move. Don't just fling yourself out with Non-Sequitur and then stop ti before charging in. We don't know what we're walking into, or if you might bring whatever strange disease magic they're wielding back out with you.”

Sage of the Enkindled Heart: Listen to his words. He has a better tactical and strategic grasp of the situation, and you are impatient right now. Just because I have one emotion chained does not an the others cannot overco you. Rember, you are more than a brute. And part of the answer to being well-regulated is doing the right thing before you end up emotionally overwhelming yourself.

Just then, one of the militia mbers landed. It was an automaton with six flaring wings jutting out from its arms and legs. Each of the wings emitted a pale green fla, and Shiv soon realized they were thrusters. The automaton held a spear with a cannon barrel at the end, and its head had a strange bladed design, one that made it more aerodynamic.

“Attention all militia mbers! Our Scouts have a report: the pediatric ward has been breached! Attention! And I repeat: the pediatric ward has been breached! The spells protecting that section of the hospital have collapsed!”

Bodies around Shiv tensed, and he clenched his teeth. Pediatric ward. Shiv barely knew that word a few days ago; now he understood it was where the sick children were. If the fight had spread there, it seed neither of the two Hero-Biomancers cared much about their patients anymore. Everything to feed their hatred, everything to kill each other over the death of their child, everyone else be damned.

Sage of the Enkindled Heart: Uncontrolled hate is like a fla. It will swallow you, and it will swallow more than yourself, and taint your deeds and those around you. Be glad you now possess as a skill. Be glad, for there is more than a good chance that both of those Biomancers might have recently gained a Berserk Skill from the loss they suffered.

The winged automaton looked over the amassed responders. "For those of you who do not know, I am Master-Captain Calcifer," it declared. "I am a Captain in the Academy Militia. I do not have the authority to demand that you enter the facility with . I have no leadership experience, nor do my levels offer any kind of confidence that I can direct you. However, if we wait, if we hesitate and hold in place for more reinforcents to arrive, for Hero-Director Javelina, then the deaths may spiral. I cannot endure this. It is ti to make a decision. I will bear the burden of responsibility, and—"

“That will not be necessary, Captain. You have done your job and done it admirably."

A new voice ca from above. Shiv looked up and saw a woman riding upon what looked to be a… hog—one the size of a damned bear. The hog’s ears doubled as wings, and they flapped hard, casting massive whirlwinds down on the crowd. Several students were thrown off their feet, and Maxi lifted her arms in front of her head as blades of grass flew through the air.

Shiv's eyes widened for a mont as he thought he saw Rose Van Erren sitting upon the back of the hog.

But there were subtle differences to her facial structure and to the dress she wore. Instead of standard Biomancer robes and a red beret, she wore a curved helt with several gems embedded down the noseguard splitting her face into halves. The rest of her body was lined in a dress of silvery chain that glowed bright, making it seem like she was ablaze with pristine majesty.

Her cheeks were fuller, and her jaw was rounder than Rose's, but there was little doubt that she was related to Adam's mother. In her right hand was a scepter, and it burned with Biomantic mana. The crimson glow it emitted also painted the faint contours of what looked to be even more flying hogs. In the aura she cast in her left hand was a massive gauntlet, and from there he felt a different kind of magic—a familiar one with a golden glow.

The gauntlet was pure gold, and along its center ran three bars of gleaming ti magic that pressed against him. It was like one of Kura's ti clones contained within a single piece of equipnt.

“Alright, students,” she declared with a voice not unlike Rose’s and ran a hand through her crimson hair. “Welco to an early and special class of dic-301. Today’s problem: a massive, expanding outbreak that has occurred because two residents failed in their basic due diligence to themselves and their fellows.” A sigh of pure exhaustion escaped her; Shiv felt that in his bones. “As a forewarning, any Pathbearer that does not take care of their own emotional well-being is not a proper Pathbearer. And now, we learn from their mistakes and the sicknesses they spread.”

Her winged hog then gestured with its right hoof and ford a Biomancy spell over its mouth. Shiv was surprised that the pig was a Biomancer as well. A second later, all the beret-wearing Biomancers began casting the sa spell. It looked like a simple pattern, sothing that was a helix in design. Shiv thought of the orc that bore the spell’s nasake.

“Hold still,” Maxi said, and then Shiv realized she was about to cast a spell on him as well. He barely cut his Shapeless Tides in ti to stop her spell from recoiling off his being. It spread across his mouth, but then coated his eyes, ears, nose, and skin as well. After it flashed once, it sank into him. It remained there like an additional layer to his flesh, a mbrane protecting him from external Biomancy or other biological pathogens.

She ended up applying the sa spell to another elf boy to her right, but spared the automaton they were with the magic.

“Wait, I know you,” the automaton said, looking in Shiv’s direction. “Volunteer? Dragon dorm?”

“Yeah?” Shiv said. Strangely, he couldn’t rember the bot. “You were there?”

The bot chuckled darkly. “I’m Malcom. You caught my mistake.” It reached over and gave Shiv a quick shake. “Thanks for embarrassing , new guy. Let’s hope you don’t need to do it again tonight.”

As Shiv shook with the automaton, he realized he was dealing with an Adept Biomancer. The Deathless’s mind turned back to Dven, and he found himself wondering how she was doing right now. Automata specializing in Biomancy were a rare thing.

“Standard protocol applied,” Javelina declared. “For those of you who've worked with for so ti, you know what's about to happen. Arrange yourselves into residency crews. Every senior resident should have three juniors working with them, and every junior should have at least three assistant dics. If you can't find a proper party composition, attach yourself to another group. Make yourself useful, dependable, but never a liability.”

The crowd gave a collective nod. She returned it. “If you get infected by anything, you let the rest of us know, and you put yourself in quarantine. Those of you who don't understand how this works, ask one of your fellow Biomancers. I don't have ti to brief or teach you anything right now. We're going to clear this building level by level, room by room, ward by ward. You’ll get your proper assignnts when I get in and assess the situation. Then we're going to pin the threat at the source. If you encounter Hero-Biomancer Huelle or Morgana, do not engage. Notify your senior resident or a section resident, and they’ll let know. Just make sure to secure the patients first. That's who we need to protect. Now, are there any questions?”