234 (III)
Coping
At first, it didn't really feel any different, but then there was a tingling sensation in his mind, as if he could move it in a certain way—or stretch it. As he did, he felt a piece of him—a tiny sliver of his cognition—come apart. But it wasn't ripped away from him.
Instead, he realized he could devote it to simpler things, like scanning the room, or observing the specific corner, or potentially memorizing what he saw before him, while the bulk of his awareness remained settled on the writhing Anointed One. The Deathless narrowed his eyes and decided to test his skill. He pulled another strand of himself away, stretching it out and deciding to devote it to focusing on the contents of the kitchen.
He turned around and took in everything that was still on the Sauce Station. He saw the many different sauces, ingredients, and pastes. And when he went back to the Anointed One, he realized he could still perfectly remember everything there, because a good portion of his mind had been dedicated to that task.
Pretty useful, Shiv thought to himself. It didn't make him feel so distracted either.
As he walked away from the Anointed One, he tested another aspect of his new Skill Evolution. He decided to absorb and assimilate his two bodies and meld them together. He pulled another string free from his mind, but this time a spike of pain was driven deep into the base of his skull. It felt just like the pain that followed when he overused Adam's Commander’s Foresight.
That has probably something to do with me overworking my brain, Shiv realized. He assigned the task to his second stream of subconsciousness, and a few of his mana hydra’s beads reached out and warped. It was a broad action and didn't demand much from his cognition, but even so, he could feel a background inflammation building in the rear of his skull. He was still being stretched, but he didn't actively need to focus on that.
Instead, he could actively do something while another portion of his subconsciousness did the busy work. This might just make my life easier. The Deathless hummed. Shouldn’t ever underestimate Adept-Tier Skill Evolutions. I can have this running while I flip through pages in a book or go through Odes over and over. Hells, maybe I can use this to accelerate the growth of my Memorization Skill.
A light flickered in the corner of Shiv's vision. As he looked to his left, he saw the radiance hovering over the Anointed One's head struggle to remain lit, like a candle flame caught in a strong breeze. It was fading, and the Anointed One seemed to be flagging as well. He was beaten in more ways than one, and he clawed at his chest, constantly whimpering, releasing gasps of pain that sounded like a child hyperventilating.
"Enough," the Anointed One finally spat. "Enough. You have bested me. You have wounded and violated the dignity of an Anointed Knight. Does that please you, Undying One? Do your vile ways… make you feel proud?"
Shiv shrugged. "No. I'm still mad. Real mad. And frankly, I don't care about you. You had it coming, but ultimately, you're just shit outta luck. You were here, and I needed to hurt something. You were something. If not you, it would've been something else. It definitely helps that you don’t die, though.”
Shiv reeled the two strands of his subconscious back and decided to give his Bifurcated Processing a new task. He wanted to observe the Anointed One to see if there were any details he'd missed about the bread knight. In seconds, something blinked into Shiv’s Awareness.
Farsight 84 > 85
He spontaneously noticed how the knight was constantly clutching at something, but it wasn't his chest, as Shiv first assumed. No… As he used his Farsight to zoom in on his adversary, he realized the knight was trying to hold onto something. What was that? Shiv didn't ask the knight what he was hiding. Instead, he pulled on the fear chain, and the Anointed Knight was flung aside.
The fae crashed on the ground and gave a loud cry of surprise. Beneath him, left near the cold iron cage, was that enchained heart he'd offered Shiv earlier—and it still shone with a brilliant hue of simmering vitality. "Huh, that's interesting." Shiv reached out using his mana hydra and pulled the heart back to him. "I'm guessing this is mine now."
If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.
Equipment Obtained: [Chained Heart of Lifegiving]
Tier: Heroic
Condition: Perfect
Composition: Narrativium; Mithril; Focus Crystal; Faeblood; Fulcavium; Elderflesh; Human Flesh; Elf Flesh; Raptor Flesh
Enchantments > Nourish the Heartblood; The Story Thus Far; Enchain the Transgressors; Life for Loreflame; Binding; Fusing; Regenerating; Counter-Scrying
"No!" the Anointed Knight snarled. He tried to rise, but the rage inside him made it seem like he was suffering from internal wounds. Shiv didn't let the Faebread do anything. He swung his victim using the fear chain. Once more, the knight crashed against the cage. It carved a deep gouge into his face, and a shriek erupted from the knight's throat as he crashed down.
Shiv tugged the knight back, then swung him around before launching the knight into the cage’s opening. The Anointed One struck the rear bars with a loud crash, and he slid down, his back covered in smoking wounds. Shiv walked forward, and then he took the bars of the cage into his hands. He twisted and bent the bars over each other, compressing the cold iron with raw strength alone. It sapped at his mana—but it was not nearly enough. He was a Legend, and he wasn’t a fae.
Soon, the Anointed knight and the Pastry Station were contained within a nest of twisted metal. As the knight finally managed to rise once more, he looked out from the mangled bars of his cage, and Shiv read his body language. The Deathless sensed his victim’s sorrow, his despair.
The Anointed One had escaped from his confinement; he had taken hold of this kitchen, molded it to suit his designs. He had done so much, and now he was back in his cage. He was broken, he was beaten, and the one who did all this to him stood on the other side, and there was nothing the knight could do to avenge his honor.
Shiv took a step closer to the knight; the Anointed One stumbled back—but shouted in agony as his back struck the rear of the cage once more.
Ignoring his cries, Shiv focused on the enchained heart in his hand. Rivers of warmth flowed through it, and it fueled him with heat and power. “Release us…” Velly’s voice called.
He stared at his prize and let out a breath. “Alright. Now that you’re back inside in your box, let’s talk terms.”
“Terms?” the Anointed One whispered. “You brutalize me, you destroy my pawns, and you demand terms?”
“Yeah. Like what you’re going to give me to make me stop hurting you.”
“Give you?” the Anointed Knight spat. “I still have—”
“You got hostages. Yeah. But I got this chain you can’t quite infect. And I got my anger. And I got you. I can’t kill you, but between my Enkindled Heart and the cold iron, I think I can get you pretty close to begging for death. So. For a start, you’re going to let the remaining chefs go. Or I’m going to compress this cage until it turns into a felling corset.”
The Anointed Knight shivered at the threat. “You… you…”
Shiv wrapped a massive hand around one of the bars and pushed. It folded inward with a scream.
“I—I yield!” the Anointed One cried. “I will release them! Stay away! NO MORE!”
Shiv stopped pushing the metal bar, and he watched as the bread knight collapsed backward. As the Faebread lay there, shivering on the ground, Shiv noticed Adam was standing beside him.
“Are you… feeling better?” the Gate Lord asked.
Shiv looked down at the ground and shook his head. “I’m going to rip my soul open later. I need to break this Curse.”
“Maiden’s?”
“Yeah. My cooking’s… It’s touched by rot and blood. My art’s fucked. I can’t…” He shrugged and gritted his teeth. “I’m dealing with it.”
Adam offered a look of sympathy. “I’m sorry.”
“Thanks, Adam. Now. You wanna see what we might be able to squeeze out of this sack of shit?”
“He doesn’t look like he has much left,” Adam said, unable to hide an expression of near-sympathy for the brutalized fairy.
“Maybe. But he needs to come up with something. Because I’m pretty upset. And I’m getting really good at pretending he’s Maiden right now, thanks to my new skill.”
“Right. And that skill evolution… Is that why you’re so calm right now?” Adam asked.
Shiv smiled and shook his head. Adam shuddered. “I’m not felling calm, Adam. I’m just holding my own leash. So it’s not my problem.” He looked through the deformed bars of the cage and gathered blackened flames of hatred in his eyes. “It’s everyone else’s.”
Once more, the Anointed Knight began to sob.
A fear chain manifested between Adam and Shiv as well. His friend swallowed. “Shiv. I think maybe I should do the talking for a bit. You should… You should go check up on the surviving chefs.”
