Chapter 10-19 Daemon (I)

Chapter 10-19 Daemon (I)

Reva, did you know your uncle could do that?

What? Talk with a bunch of loci-infested golems and stop them from glassing the entire district? No. No, I did not know the piece of shit was a golem whisperer, Tig.

Good thing too. The Shatterflames snuffed Ullens pretty quick. Heh. Poor half-strandll be pissed when he resurrects. First of Revas Bloodthanes to die to a golem. Agh. Modern Highflame design will lessen the sting though. Shame.

Dont tease the juv about it. Hes young. Hell learn. And hell fight you.

[Sigh] Longeyes shouldve never made a Wargskin a Clad.

[Chuckle] You and I arent exactly ideal Godclad material ourselves. Root manage to figure out how to collapse the containment yet?

Last I heard him crackle from that uh radio-gizmo, he said its atrophying by itself. Whoever put it up didnt intend for this to be a lasting thing.

...

What?

Nothing makes sense about this, Tig. Mirrorhead somehow knows were here all of a sudden, somehow has four knots of bleeding-edge golems straight out of Highflames armories, but then throws all his assets away in a pointless assault And then Uncle Vince manages to talk the golems down somehow. Some-fucking-how. [Sighs] The Longeyes are going to be howling at us from out our wounds for this. No way this slips by the Watch. Voiders are going to call a Moot. You mark my words about that.

Fuuuuuuuccccckk Youre right. Were gonna spend half a month being questioned by one of their Full-Chromes. Streamed live to the entire godsdamned city. Shit.

Yeah. Well. Us and Jhred Greatlingthe shadows are coming down. Get readywhat [Discordant sounds; the shattering of glass] RUPTURE! RUPTURE! DAEMON! GET DOWN! STAY AWAY FROM

-Conversation between Tigertail and Reva Javvers, Bloodthanes of Stormtree

10-19The initial posting of this chapter occurred via N0v3l.B11n.

Daemon (I)

Blade-edged brambles of blood sprouted from the sheen puddling above the linoleum. Gore and debris overflowed from the moat around the food court, the fluid heterogeneous and thickporridge made from a massacre. Oscillating light spilled free from the virus-stricken aerolanes behind the collapsed walls of glass, the running red offered glinting reciprocations.

Above the red, two minds rocked on waves of haemokinetic Nether: The first was a sinking vessel capsized by regret and sorrow; the latter rose a lighthouse made from the blood sea itself, its shine a beacon of savage triumph.

What was it always you? Jhred croaked. It took a supreme effort of will on the Guilders part to produce those words. An effort of will Avo thought the man long hollow of.

A final staccato of gauss fire thundered from behind. Avo kept his attention on his prize. His sweet, delicious, broken prize.

No, Avo said, knowing the truth would fissure Jhreds ego further. There were many. Incubi were here. That wasnt a lie.

Heeding the command of its sovereign, the blood obliged. Spear-like threads shot free of the brambles and sank into Jhreds flesh. To Avos disappointment, the Guilder gave no hint of pain or discomfort. The only thing that consumed the latter was the shame of a shattered desire and the bitterness of vengeance unsated.

The ghoul played at torture a few moments longer; this was to be a sampling of private pleasure before the main course heralded by the arrival of the others. Just a moment between him and his prey. The Woundshaper subsumed the blood coursing through Jhreds veins, its presence like virus and boundary both, shaping new implants of torment from within the Guilder. Still, no screams or cries followed.

The man simply did not feel pain as a flat did.

Dismay filled the ghoul, and in its place disgust roiled. He should have known that the sensation of pain would be another thing the Guilders modified within themselves.

Jacking into the mind of his victim, Avo siphoned understanding anew from the exhaust of thoughts hissing free from Jhreds cracked Metamind. A feeling of dull static ebbed from the mans already healing wounds. There was only blandness; no true taste to this pain.

Avo growled. Take. Take. Take. All you do. Take from me. Cant even suffer right. The pounding splashes approached from behind. Willing his Echoheads to rattle, Avo found the Blockcrawler sliding down from the slope of gushing blood behind him, emerging from a vast rent opened diagonally across the blockdamage inflicted during the slaughter moments prior. Avo hissed in disappointment.

His annoyance was a fleeting thing.

Drawing weight from the lake of blood around him, Avo accelerated his reflexes and dove into Jhreds mind.

As he descended this time, the simulation of the mans inner palace flickered and glitched, missing mem-data and frayed sequences unrooting the entire structure from stability. Chasms bearing blocks rose and drifted, the place seemingly held together only by the tightness of wards. Activating his Ghostjack, Avo set to work, salvaging what phantasmics, sequences, ghosts, and traumas he could.

GHOSTS: [11566]

Essus gazed at Avo. Beneath him, Chambers moaned as he spat clinging strands of stomach fluid. You told me once of Artads absence. You told me, and I lied to myself, invoking my god as philosophy; as a virtuous idol. His burning eyes shone as he gazed upon the glorious atrocity spread out before him. You were right. You were rightthe city was right. Artad is dead. Dead in his entirety. Dead like all the other gods.

Essus looked down, focusing on his own reflection in the gore-mixed puddle. Suddenly, he rose, his face mask a mask of anger as he dropped Chambers into the crimson and strode across the bridge toward Jhreds kneeling form. Is this how things are to be now? Is this all that we could conceive as as free people? That you could conceive as master of this city?

Avo clicked his fangs together, desiring to impede Essus before the fool could claim the kill for himself. New flavors though Essus retribution might offer, this was a pound of flesh Avo wanted to indulge personally. It was not ever that a ghoul got to taste the meat of a Guilder. They could all share in the mutilation and harm of the Greatling, but the ghoul would not abide by all the pleasure granted to only one individual. Before he could halt Essus, a hand caught him by the crook of his elbow.

+Relax. He aint gonna kill em,+ Draus said, looking at the father. +He aint got it in him. Hell break. Itll be us again.+

Shooting a look at the father again, Avo let the Regular pull him along. +Certain?+

+Beyond certain. He aint got it.+

Standing over the downed Guilder, the FATELESS faced his tormentorthe sponsor behind his ascent into the city via Crucible and master to the girl who butchered his son. No longer did Jhred Greatling look Tier-perfect. No longer was he a being of impossible superiority compared to the former flat.

An open gorge of ropey sinew bounced from the mans left eye. If not for the scabs and rapidly crawling pinkish-sheath trying to reconstitute the missing eye, it would have seemed the Guilder was going be down an eye forever.

Even so, the question of who was more fragile between the two remained. For an instant, Avo thought Essus would shatter there and then, his face twitching between uncontrollable anger and inconsolable sadness.

The man known as Mirrorhead portrayed himself only between moments of regret and confusion, a thought-cleaved haze guttering his thoughts. LingeLingerer? My Lingerer?

No. Not yours! Never yours again! Reaching down, Essus seized the Jhred by his collar. Tell me, Essus cried, voice rising to a desperate howl. You have the power endless power! Endless! Lifting the Guilder up, he made him turn and face the slaughter. But was this the most you desired? This? To drive thousands to their death.

I I had to avenge I needed to kill

No! Essus roared, taking the object of his hatred by the shoulders. You did not need to kill! You wanted to kill! You chose to kill! You chose to hurt peoplemen, women, children! Everyone you touch you hurt! Never once did you do something goodnever once!

Jhred choked back a sob. My my mother. I had to to avenge

What about my son, Essus seethed. My son. He did not kill anyone. He did not start any war. Why him?

Faced with such a question, all Jhred Greatling could offer was a tilt of the head as he struggled to string together an answer. Youre FATELESS. I needed you to do greater things I I never thought of him as

As a person. As my equal. As worth regarding as anything more than fuel for the cityfuel for a Soul.

Looking over the carnage, Avo felt the fire of his own Frame roaring, its radiance like a nuclear warhead explodingconstantly exploding. Disquietingly, he understood how Jhred felt. More than merely for the joy of killing, for the taste of flesh and the hit of cruelty, he liked the growing bulk building within. Liked the deepening hum of his thaumic resonance. Liked the flare and reach of his Souls growing borders.

He liked being a god. And in the depths of his being, the Woundshaper crackled with laughter.

So the truth was revealed. Jhred Greatlings open admission. A thing Avo understood.

And the words that shattered Essus entirely.

Draus was right. The father didnt have it. He never had it. Not even for the boy. All that time, Jhred Greatling never regarded the childs holographic form once.

Releasing the Guilder, father-no-longer took two steps back, his titanium legs pounding and cracking linoleum, throwing up sprays of blood. Looking up at Layer Twoa blockade of alloy and glass and screaming error codes, the man screamed too, howling a note of anguish and despair toward the skies unseen.

And with all the miles of city above, Avo knew the father would go unheard all the same.

Is this all there is, Essus moaned. This city the best thing in it. You? Both of you? Essus dropped a glance at Avo and Draus, conveying the fullness of his despair. A monster that dreams of flesh. A huntress that chases death. This is the best the best of us? Essus sank to his knees. Why were the chains ever broken then? What was Artad shattered for? What did Jaus even free us from?

The splash of bare feet wading through blood heralded Chambers as he faced the maltreated form he knew as Mirrorhead. The ex-enforcer stopped, face pale from spewing. Shit, he chuckled. His heart wasnt in the noise. Chambers swallowed. He was fighting the urge to throw up again. Looks looks like you fucagh! He failed. Only fluid rushed free from his mouth this time. He emptied himself again, gagging as he tried to stop himself from getting anything on Avos talons.

The ghoul frowned. Was it something the man ate? Why was he

+Its the blood and the death,+ Draus asked.

Avo didnt get it. Looking around, he breathed in the clashing aromas born from the slaughter. All the different flavors of blood types and organs and the tang of metal and the redolence of offal. All of it was a joy to inhale.

+For you, consang,+ Draus added, a note of wry amusement. +Some folk aint made for the killin.+

Wiping the bile away with his arm, Chambers was unable to meet Avo eye to eye. Instead, he looked again at Mirrorhead and winced. So uh. What what are we gonna do now? You you want me tolets find some aratnids. The enforcer brightened, a new thought capturing his focus. The type that bit me. Lets pull down his pants and have two of them bite the shit out of his sack. Then, when the eggs from the sides start hatching inside his balls, we can watch the clusters fight and bet imps on

WARNING: FOREIGN SOULS DETECTED

UNIDENTIFIED GODCLADS DETECTED

The warning wailed loud in Avos mind just as the first spear of light flashed over the blood. From his experiences facing golems, Mirrorhead, and Zein, only direct exposure of a Heaven in use revealed the presence of a Frame and the Soul that burned within it.

Rising on his Echoheads, Avo spun back a second behind Draus as a tide of blinding light enveloped them.

Then came the voice. The voice of a screaming star. The voice of a dawn exploding with ire and hatred, lifted by a chorus of screaming falcons.

UNDER THE DECREE OF HIGHFLAME! UNDER THE WILL OF THE SERAPHS, THE RULE OF THE AUTHORITIES, AND THE MIGHT OF THE INSTRUMENT, I COMMAND YOU ALL TO STEP AWAY FROM THE WOUNDED, AND FACE DELIVERANCE.

The weight of two new Godclads pressed down on Avo.

And the thrill and hunger ignited within him anew.