Godclads

Chapter 32-22 Mantle

and thus it comes,

the leviathan of time.

a beast crafted to mend time through sin.

for the work is undone.

for the cursed blood is ripe.

to be plucked.

to be formed.

to reach into that which is no longer—

and reforge what wasn’t from what now is.

-stormsparrow’s chorus

32-22

mantle

—[zein thousandhand]—

zein woke, and found herself falling.

flames tickled at her skin, but they did not sting. noise screamed at her ears, yet they did not deafen. sensation filled her mind and a thundering force filled her chest, yet she was not disturbed. zein was as if comet descending, blessed with purpose as soon as her consciousness ignited.

she had been taken from unworthy sculptors. unworthy hands. now, she was free. no... set free in a walled purgatory shaped from flame and memory and soulstuff.

ah. so, here she was. within the burning dreamer himself, this version of her consumed at last.

oh, the ignobility of defeat, and the bitter tang of betrayal. zein sighed as she turned mid-fall, her eyes greeting the approaching horizon for the first time. a cityscape embroiled in nigh-constant violence greeted her. it resembled the district of tallstrings before the infacer decided to render it into a vacant lot. bodies were thrown from skyscrapers while aeros crashed into drones.

people died and returned, and died again. oddly, some seemed to be sitting inside the buildings. zein caught sight of a few just sitting on the edge of megablocks with drinks in hand with a fire at their feet. there were spectators here too. so people were forced to violence.

how curious.

the ground came at her faster. a sound screamed to her right—aero approaching at violent speed.

zein didn’t think. she simply reacted. the cut she painted as honed into her very being, and as she brought her hand down, a glaive simply came to being in her hand—for she wasn’t quite herself without one.

nearly five tons of fast-moving metal, plastic, and glass came split into two. the driver let out a choked cry that ended in a gurgle as zein twirled her blade through their neck before the vehicle could fully pass. part of the aero scrapped off the side of a nearby building, sending sparks flying through the air. zein responded by jamming her glaive into the structure itself, using it to stall her descent.

a lurch of pressure pulled at her augmented limbs, but her joints held and her muscles barely strained. after a few more moments, zein found herself mere meters above the ground. meters from a mob of scaarthians and kosgans laying in a pile, so many of them sobbing, others staring blankly at the sky, a few chuckling, their laughter the tone of mind-broken madness.

zein crashed down and followed their gazes up to the sky. there, far above, she saw the firmament and breathed.

the sky was ablaze, rippling with soulfire and ethereal lightning. ghosts wove the shape of existence together, creating more sections of the city—new places to see and explore. they circulated through everything, through zein herself. no, it was more like they simulated her very existence.

consumed. there was no doubt to her final fate now.

another meteor passed through the clouds, this one bearing a girlish shriek. a shriek she vaguely recognized. osjane thousand. the poor, lost child shot over the point where zein landed, and slammed back first against the edge of a distant building. zein snorted, amused at the lack of skill.

“what an interesting way to land,” she muttered to herself. truly, highflame produces the finest recruits. looking up again, zein held out her hand. “i must admit, i did not expect you to keep me. i never thought you cared for me, plague. you have my precious disciple, after all. what need you from an old woman.”

the fires above roiled and twisted, moving more like a stirred film of oil laying upon steaming soup. “don’t take things personally. not that much anymore. can’t afford to give up any advantage either. and naeko would be lonely. already terrorized most the other citizens here. no one can fight him properly.”

naeko. yes. he was burned too. there was another thing to look forward to here: a long reunion. a proper reunion.

a loud crack sounded behind her. zein went still, and turned slowly, cocking her head at the one she most expected. there, standing in his mortal sheathe and with a gore-splattered spinal column wrapped around his fist was samir naeko. her disciple. her dear boy. he stared at her, face a storm cloud of suppressed emotions. his lip quivered something between a sneer, a frown, and a smile.

“master,” he greeted.

“naeko,” zein breathed. “come to see me again so soon.”

“hm. wasn’t ignoring you. was just distracted. lot to process. not enough processing power. should have all the time in the world now. just you and me. can talk.”

{i fear things are not as op-optimistic as you imagine.} the smiling mountain twitched before avo. the rivers that circulated around it stuttered in place. {i will not be able to maintain my functionality for long. my architecture was not designed to survive such deleterious conditions.}

that gave avo pause. “interesting. voidwatch deployed you as an expendable asset? can sense pieces of calvino in you. only as well.”

{they provided the base data. b-but when you consume my structure, you will see i was not designed for longevity. nor do i house any useful m-memories for you to exploit.}

the hidden flame hissed in annoyance. “of course not. why would they provide me with useful knowledge. just the only one fighting the actual war here.”

{you already p-possess all the means to conduct a new front. we gave them to you. one of the many c-c-contingencies.}

avo regarded kill-team innsmouth again. “gave them?”

{we were meant to support you in battle.}

“trinary melody nearly killed me. several times.”

{your survival was gauged at over 69.133% based on prior data.}

“flattered. glad it’s so high. still don’t appreciate being nearly unmade.” his conflagration branched out, reaching for the egi. before he burrowed into the heaven they piloted, he felt an impact crash against the sage. someone was trying to strike naeko down. using physical blows. hard matter. lightning.

poor fools.

at least the sage was out. in some other part of the substance. through him, avo would be able to spread again. contaminate. rebuild. just like he did so many times before.

{you should s-s-subsume me now. my processing will provide you with v-valuable insights and heightened processing. you are already a metaphysical i-intelligence. this should just accelerate your developmental t-trajectory. make you more capable of u-u-understanding the infacer. should shorten the timespan you’ll need to consume the other m-minds as well. other minds f-f-for the kill team.}

avo’s flames slipped closer. “appreciate this. won’t be going away. will see you in another place. more experiences for you to sample.”

{i’m not human, avo. there isn’t the need for comfort. we do not die as they do. they cannot choose to accept; chose who they want to be.}

that gave avo a moment’s pause. “correct. and it... saddens me. but...” his attention went to the deep ones, of the consciousness that were screaming inside them. “you came to me wearing screaming victims. slaves. didn’t appreciate that. not at all.”

the egi paused and shifted the topic slightly. {that is also part of the reason we brought them to you: would you be interested in fixing them?}

avo’s mind started turning. “yes. quite the plan. outsourcing your atrocity to me.”

{that is what we minds do to each other, i fear.}

“we minds.”

{you are practically more like us than you are them.} them being humanity. {but you are also different. a non-adversarial assimilator. one of near-reason. a dream. perhaps together we can make right an ancient wrong.}

“perhaps. but—” once more, avo felt his attention parted by another impact crashing against naeko. a tide of lancing lightning and channeled trauma crashed into his palm. it folded around him like a cone as he descended, and avo sensed a familiar pattern there—one he used so much before. “hold on for a moment.”

{not really anywhere for me to go.}

—[naeko, the sage of the sundered mind]—

seconds after naeko slipped out for a crack in the substance, the first bolt of crimson lightning lashed him. the projectile shattered, but rather than break into pieces of solid matter, it smeared his mist with blood.

naeko thought nothing of it as he brought his hand down. pacifying a lesser district should be easy. but as he passed through the clouds, he saw an expansive citadel absolutely consumed by a growing city of sprawling crimson. a city that was now fused as part of the fallen hungers with a sang district.

there, at the heart of it all, weaving lightning and matter using a massive aura of crimson, was a towering spire that loomed over all others. a towering spire that screamed at naeko impetously as he approached.

“foul intruder! who dares step in the realm of the forge of all lifeblood, the mistress of huntresses, she who was named sathwu, sathwuld, and now christened woundmother by the burning dreamer, god of gods? be thee away before you are unmade! this realm is mine now! mine! minnnnnnneeee!”

naeko’s descent slowed to turn a thought inward. “hey, avo—”

“i know. i felt them. this pleases me.” the ghoul let out a laugh. not a creepy one for once, but something with actual affection. as much affection as a fucked up mind-eating monster could muster. “go. pat them on the spire for me. i wish to greet my first heaven anew. hm. loss and gains. everything moves in cycles.”

“so it does,” akusande said, ringing within the blood. “and so it shall be.”

and against the woundmother’s incessant stream of insults, naeko slowly descended, making landfall.