Chapter 22-11 First Comes Lightning…

Chapter 22-11 First Comes Lightning...

We’re gonna be tested in this life, Cas. You know this. You know that we have a burden. A responsibility. A crusade. You how hard the struggle is. Know that it was going to cost us. Has cost us.

I know... that it’s hard to have faith sometimes. Especially after what they did to your father. Your brother. What they’re going to do to me. I know this is going to break you in ways–oh, Cas I’m so sorry. I’m so, so, sorry.

I didn’t mean to get caught. I didn’t mean to leave you alone in the end. I tried. I really did.

I’m sorry.

I’m sorry’s all I can give.

You’re the only one left of us now. The only one that can still carry our fire. That bears our faith.

This world is sick. Wrong. The Fallen One’s influence seeps here, tainting not only the false angels that were but also the people that remain.

This world is sick, and it needs someone to make things right, whatever it takes. Whatever the cost.

I’ve given all I had. You’ve given too much. But the people are suffering. The flocks are still lost–denied the path to providence.

The knives are falling, and someone has to be bled for the lambs. Who else but us? Who else but the martyred few?

[CRACKLING GAUSSFIRE; MOMENTARY DISTORTION]

Be the herald. Be the change. Be the noise for the silenced. And someday, when the dam falls, when everything comes crashing down, the flock will hear their Shepherd’s cry, and His light will shine on us again.

Make it right, Cas. Take this pain. Make it right. Make it loud.

[GHOSTLINK DISCONNECTED]

-Marriet eld’Canduir’s last thoughtcast to her son, Cas eld’Canduir

22-11

First Comes Lightning...

Unleashing peace was like setting a wolf free in a daycare.

The Famine was an avatar of destruction – ruin in motion. Under his touch thought ruptured and minds shattered, the damage total and delicate, striking deep to sunder egos whole. He unleashed traumas that astounded Avo, reaching into minds, grasping cracks in psyches, and delivering on optimal devastation as a conjunctive act leading to the strike.

The entire process was ingrained. Refined. But that was the purpose of the Low Master in the end: breaking people.

As splinters wove themselves into traumas, relief settled upon Avo as he realized just how fortunate he had been–that he never suffered a direct engagement against Peace. It was more than the potency of harm inflicted but the impossible skill he directed them. Crude and vulgar though the Low Master was, the way he used the art was exquisite–the gnosis he possessed would have taken Avo lifetimes to master.Visitt novelbin(.)co/m for the latest updates

The first to shatter were the detected Necros. Highflame, long used to facing Ori-Thaum, treated the Nether more as unpredictable wilderness, deploying fast-moving assets they could pull out at a moment’s notice should they attract the Incubi. Their own mindscapes were fortresses layered in protective wards and separated by nodes.

Their composition in the Nether ensured their forces would only suffer partial subversions, and Omnitech’s Noosphere support allowed them a secondary network in case of a total route in the realm of thought.

Unfortunately, this also made them easy to isolate and ensured they could be defeated in detail.

Traumas detonated within their minds, but Peace seized the parting detritus of their mem-data, analyzing the information and feeding it into their next attack. The pace at which the Low Master worked was gut-churning. Under the template’s command, splinters shifted into Auto-Seances, bridging him from one mind to another, burrowing through them as a chain of detonations.

The ambiance of the physical world remained as it was: a steady stream of sound, patterns unbroken, violence forthcoming. But should one peer down at the Nether, take in the connected mindspaces of the district, they would see bubbles of accretion popping, and the substance of their mem-data imploding–prevented from becoming shrapnel.

In the span of a heartbeat, all the field Necros were hollowed at their cores, allowing Peace to guide splinters into their open wounds, melding Avo’s consciousness over the missing aspects and effectively mantling the broken egos as false shells to confuse whoever the Necros were connected to.

From their commanders’ perspectives, it would seem nothing more than a brief disconnect. Perhaps a thing of Nether lag. When they learned the truth, it was already too late.

[You see it now,] Peace said, bitter pride swelling inside him. [Do you see what I could have done to you, little shit? What I could have fucking made you and your bastard cadre if life was just. If I was ever given the chance.]

Screams echoed through Avo from fifty-three different minds. A half second later, four-hundred and thirty-three were nulled, and the rear line support for the Regular squads sent to capture Cas was effectively decimated. Another heartbeat passed, and Highflame’s jocks, Necros, and commanding units were all little more than drooling vegetables, the sixty MPP “Mortality-Pattern” long-range thauma-kinetic assault drones now bound to Avo’s Metamind as a final reward.

Yet, through it all, Peace revealed his greatest flaw as well. His inability to do anything but destroy. His unwillingness to abide by empathy rendered him less than incompetent at stealth and absolutely worthless for subterfuge.

Avo chuckled. +Must make you feel pitiful. How Defiance’s shadow still hangs over you. Even though he’s dead.+

What phantom joy Peace felt turned to bitter fire. [Cunt! Fucking cunt! I nulled the bastard! I shattered all his nodes! Broke him again and again and again–]

+And that’s all you’re worth. You hurt. You destroy. But you never win. You are a good instrument. But nothing more. Called you master. You’re just a slave above other slaves. No more replacable than a ghoul. And that’s all you will ever be. Unless you wish to change.+

The hint Avo dangled made the Famine flinch, and he turned from the conversion, giving himself fully to wiping the Regulars that remained.

A snap shuddered against Avo’s Fardrifter. Spatial existence slammed together as an unseen bowl slammed down on the area, pocketing it away from the rest of the district. Eight full kilometers around the block shimmered a translucent dome. Aeros passed into the threshold and came out off course, still on the outside.

+Pocket,+ Draus growled. +They probably set that up before startin’ the show. Too bad they don’t know their rabbit’s already slipped the noose.+

Cas continued reverberating through vents and crevices too narrow for even arantids, leaving the ambush far behind. As calm began to reassert itself on his mind, the Columner bit back an internal shout of frustration as he realized another of his assets was dead.

Another.

+Keep heading down,+ Avo said, letting his drones do another pass over the pocket. He collected the remainder of splinters still left within the entrapment and reassembled them in Cas’ mind. +Need to get to the gutters. Tavers should have a safe house somewhere.+

Cas paused. +I’m not going to one of the George Washington’s gateways.+

+Blew it up,+ Avo said, not feeling like giving another debriefing. Instead, he simply shared his recent collections with the Columner and this time the man cursed internally.

+Jaus. Fuck! Did–did you need to do that?+

+Not going back under anyone’s leash. Zein’s handled. For now.+

The exhaustion in Cas worsened. Then, he pulled up another session in his Metamind and began moving in a new direction.

+Cas?+ Avo asked, unsure why the man was deviating from his path.

The Columner didn’t respond, choosing to cast someone instead.

SESSION SEQUENCED

ACTIVATING AUTO-SEANCE...

UNABLE TO REACH [NUNA VELTERS]

+Come on,+ Cas said, growling under his breath.

Velters. Avo glimpsed memories of the woman earlier when he was rebuilding Cas’ mind. An asset. One of Cas’ personal spies. This one was related. A daughter.But that was all Avo’s mem-data had on her.

+Probably compromised too.+ Avo said.

+Yeah, probably,+ Cas replied, clearly frustrated. +Sonnabitch, Avo, you should’ve–Zein was half the reason we could operate how we did–You... Now we’re all exposed. All the cells.+

+Know why I had to do it.+

+Yeah. Well, the rest of us are paying for your “freedom.”+

Avo grunted. That was true. There was a cost. But even faced with the fallout, Avo remained absent of regret. Collateral damage was unavoidable in a war. Such was true between the Guilds, so was it true between Godclads.

That didn’t mean they just had to accept things.

+Could be another trap for you,+ Avo said. +Highflame could be waiting for you there too.+

+Yeah? Well fuck ‘em. I’ve been waiting for them too. Waiting for a long time.+ Rage and near despair swelled in the man. Martyrdom called to the rebel in him often, but the shepherd he was loathed to abandon those he could still help. +Don’t even think of twisting my memories or changing my mind. I need to do this.+

+I know. I understand. Going to help you. And yours isn’t the mind I want to change. Still. Know that you’re heading into danger. Know that you’re walking the fire. Can’t use my miracles through you. Risks exposing us to Veylis. Can only lend you my mind. No guarantee you might make it out.+

Cas gave a bitter chuckle. +I’m absolutely fine with that. Someone’s got to make things right, huh? Who else but me? Who else?+

Avo heeded the weariness in the man’s tone and his templates whispered to him a worthy reply. +Who else but us?+