264 (II)

  Beyond [I]

  And that might have meant more to Shiv than anything. He smirked at his friend and folded his arms. "Alright, Merrielmel, what were you trying to say?"

  The elven Enchanter gave him a genuine and grateful look. He was surprised that Shiv came to his defense. "Concelhaunt will go into the gate. I will stay on the other side. Someone needs to control the mechanics and operate the slipgate once it returns. You said there will be a delay for anyone emerging from the gate. Correct, Legend Hawgrave?"

  "That's right," Jessica said. She was gentler now, and she held her blade against her shoulder, keeping it away from the elf's body.

  "Well, then it is essential that one of us remains on the outside. We decided that it is best that I remain out. So—so I can operate—so I can make sure there is nothing wrong with the slipgate."

  "No problem, then," Shiv said.

  "But there's also something else," Merrielmel continued. "I wish to cross the slipgate with you when you venture into the Outside. There is... I need to ask all of you a favor."

  Shiv understood what was coming. "Merrielmel, we need to evacuate Blackedge first. I know that your brother is out there somewhere. And once we have the time, we’ll go out and save him."

  "No, no, you don't understand. I can locate him!" Merrielmel gestured hurriedly. "I know where he is. The moment we go across, I should be able to find his unique mana signature. You see, the Outside, the mana there is very different. It's…"

  Shiv didn't say anything. Instead, he held up a hand and slowly lowered it. The elf stuttered to a halt, and the Deathless reached out to squeeze his shoulder. "I get it. I get that you don't want to leave your brother out there. I get that you're desperate to save him. And I will do what I can."

  "But we must attend to your needs first," Merrielmel said, his voice quiet.

  "We must save the people we can save the quickest first," Shiv corrected. "If we go off on an expedition into the Outside, and we don't manage to come back, your brother doesn't get saved. He'll still be trapped out there. Maybe you will find him. Maybe that'll help you solve some of your guilt. But he won't be brought back—and that’s not acceptable. Right now, we didn't come this far for a half measure. You said you got something that can find him in the Outside? Fine. I believe you. But we do it right. We bring him back, whatever form he's in."

  "Okay, okay…" Merrielmel's mouth moved, and a strange squeak came out rather than any words thereafter. "But just remember what you promised, yes?"

  "I do promise," Shiv said. "Now, you keep yourself together. If you have anything that can help you in a fight, armor, or other equipment, I suggest you go and get it now. If you're willing to cross over to the Outside with us, you need to be able to protect yourself. The thing I can't promise is your safety."

  Merrielmel's drones went still, and their configuration shifted. Their spherical forms opened and unlatched, and small barrels extended out from the inside. "Do not worry, I have means of self-defense." The elf adjusted his tassels and dabbed at the sweat using his sleeve. "But I, yes, thank you, thank you."

  "Well, now that that's settled, you guys ready to see what's waiting for you inside this gate?" Jessica asked.

  Everyone hesitated, but Shiv took a step back. "You're going to plant the sword inside this room and just expand it, right?"

  "Yep, that means all of us who aren't staying are going out. If you guys have anything left you need to do, do it now. I'm going to keep Rusty expanded for a day. I'll also have Rusty connect his Dimensionality to Gate Infernius right on top of us. That should let you continue doing whatever it is you're doing with those… what did you call them?"

  "Mana diffusers," Concelhaunt grunted. "After you shrink the sword, the mechanisms will still appear, right? It's just us who will be stuck on the other side of the gate unless we try to come out. Then we'll only be able to pop out after seven days."

  "Yes, seven for one," Jessica said. "If the gate stays stable, you could not come out at all."

  "Ah, fuck me, of course that might happen," the goblin Smith complained.

  "Concelhaunt," Merrielmel said, slowly approaching. "Should… should you… maybe we should…”

  "No, forget about it. It's best that you stay on the outside with the others. You’re the genius here. But we don’t need a genius to finish the little bit left we have to do to get this thing ready. Just needs more calibration. Besides, that one there," Concelhaunt gestured toward Kura, "should be able to carry some messages between inside the gate and outside the gate, right? You said mana passes through."

  "That's supposed to be how it works," Jessica said again, slowly losing patience.

  "There's a lot of 'supposed to be's' here," Concelhaunt mumbled, scratching at one of his long ears.

  "Yeah, well, I'm not the one who made the gate. I'm just the one using it. I told you the risks, you're the ones who have to decide."

  "Okay, fuck me," Concelhaunt sighed.

  "I, Concel," Merrielmel whimpered. "It, perhaps, no—"

  The goblin reached up from the automaton contraption he was seated in and grabbed the elf by his shoulders. "No, fuck off, Merri, seriously! We don't need this. We don't need this right now. You stay here. We're doing this for your brother and to make up for my mistake back when we first did this test. If this goes well, then, you know, just—It goes well, and I don't need to have any more sleepless nights. It doesn't go well," the goblin grimaced, "well, it won't be my problem anyway. You don't blame yourself, no matter what happens, Merri. You did everything you could. We all did everything we could."

  With those words exchanged, Merrielmel begrudgingly pulled himself away from his friend and slowly moved to leave the slipgate chamber. Everyone else started clearing out as well.

  Shiv gave Kura a final nod. "Be waiting on the other side. See if your Chronomantic shadow comes out."

  "If something goes wrong, I can handle myself," the elf said. She wrinkled her nose in distaste. "However, do understand that I will not forgive if this is an ambush."

  "Yeah, I know, you made that pretty clear the past few times."

  She made an incoherent noise but remained rooted in place.

  She then chose to start glaring at Concelhaunt. The goblin struggled not to wilt before her gaze. He made his machine take a step back. "Um, can you stare at someone else, Lady?"

  "There is to be no one else soon," she said coolly. "It is only going to be you and me. And I hope you make for good company for your sake more than mine."

  Shiv frowned as he felt a sense of pity for the now shivering goblin. Kura didn't seem like the most socially apt in the best of times. "Hey, Kura," Shiv said, "Don't kill him. Do not.”

  Kura scoffed. "I will not, so long as he does not give me just cause to," she declared with her head held high.

  As everyone departed, Shiv saw Jessica whisper something to her sword before planting it right in front of the central obelisk that extended a hundred meters high, touching the very ceiling connected to the bottom of the academy's main gate.

  "You say something to your sword? Something we gotta know?"

  "Hmm?" Jessica hummed. "Oh, nothing. Just telling Rusty goodbye in case something goes wrong. I tell him how much he matters to me, and he tells me how much I matter to him. We do this every time we think something might go south."

  Shiv was still suspicious of the Giantsbane, but his features softened. "Ah, probably a good idea. No regrets and all that other shit. You two do that a lot? The preemptive goodbye?"

  "We haven't done it in maybe, I don't know, a year?"

  "A year?" Shiv repeated, incredulous. "You didn't do it when you went out for Blackedge?"

  Jessica threw her head back and laughed once. "No, not even a little. Roland's a pretty dangerous foe, but I don't think he'd kill me. Not the way I'd kill him. And as for the Tarrasque, well, didn't see that coming until I was right on top of it."

  "But you're telling Rusty goodbye now. Why?"

  You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

  "Because we're about to step into the Tutorial, in maybe a day or two. Because we're going to be fighting some Legendary-Tier orc that I've heard about before, which is bad godsdamn news. And because we're going to make a run on the Outside, which I don't know if you understand this, kid, but people don't usually go to the Outside. And the ones that do usually don't make it back."

  "We'll make it back," Shiv said casually. "It's not the Outside I'm worried about."

  Jessica eyed him curiously. "What are you worried about, then? Me?"

  "A little bit," Shiv admitted. "You, the Educator, the Culturist. But more than all of you, I'm worried about Udraal. No idea what he's planning, but he has the Tarrasque. And then there's Veronica too."

  "Overconfidence is a brutal killer," Jessica noted.

  "Not overconfident. I'm just saving my fear for the things that actually matter. And I've got a feeling… that things might end up getting harder for all of us from here on out. I need to go get ready too. I need to touch base with Adam, and someone else as well. I've got an idea—well, maybe a concept of an idea—to make things easier for us."

  "What?” Jessica asked. “You got some strange skill hiding up your ass? One that I didn't find while I was cutting through you?”

  "Hahaha, fuck you,” Shiv snarled under his breath. Jessica had the audacity to laugh. “But yeah, something like that. It is a skill I want to learn how to use better. Actually, you got any experience dealing with the fae?"

  "Ew!" Jessica grimaced and made a spitting noise. "Eugh, gods, eugh, fairies! Gross!”

  Shiv frowned. “What, you don't like them?"

  "No! I don't like the fact that I can't split them in half. Anything that doesn't die because you have to treat them like special characters from a storybook is unnatural and wrong in my book. I prefer the people I deal with to be stabbable."

  "You know what? I kind of get that," Shiv agreed. "But right now, I think we're going to need all the help we can get, orthodox or unorthodox. I don't really know much about this Culturist, but I've got a bad feeling about him, so I think I want to rig up a surprise, a nasty one, one that I got to experience first-hand."

  "What kind of nasty surprise?" Jessica asked. She sounded genuinely intrigued.

  Shiv pressed his lips together tightly, saying nothing. A beat followed. A beat became a second, and it dragged, until the short Legend began to stomp her feet like a teenager throwing a tantrum. "Come on, come on, we're already working together. Tell me, tell me, tell me, tell me!"

  "Alright, alright." Shiv chuckled, "but it's going to seem a little weird."

  ***

  "Damnable, accursed Deathless! Have you come to gloat? Have you come to harass me in my diminished state? I have already offered you my Skill. What more can you demand, cruel captor?"

  "Actually, that's why I'm here," Shiv said, grinning down at his captive. "I want you to show me how you use this skill to animate breadcrumbs and other stuff inside someone, so I can pop them."

  Nearby, Jessica stood, trying not to shake. Her cheeks were ballooned outwards as her face turned another, deeper hue of red. "It's actually a genuine guy made out of bread. You weren't shitting me. He's straight up made out of bread. Oh my gods, this is so weird. Ah, I love this! Can we eat him? Can we?"

  Shiv eyed his captive and made a show of considering her request. “You could, but I’d ask you not to. It’s how we got our fae problem to begin with.”

  "Do not mock me!" the Summer Court fairy demanded, taking a step forward and waving a finger at Jessica. After losing his skill, he barely stood taller than the petite Legend, and his high voice and smooth, green face did little to help his now unimposing form. "Cease your leering, woman. Cease!"

  Jessica finally broke and guffawed loudly. She bent down and slapped her knees, appearing to almost collapse entirely. She pointed at the fairy, who balled his fists in anger, and just kept laughing and laughing, the sound like bells chiming. Shiv found her joy to be contagious and sported a wide, feral smile of his own, barely keeping down laughter.

  “Listen, Toasty—”

  “What!” the fairy sputtered. “How dare you give me such a contemptuous title! I may no longer be Anointed, but I am still a proud Knight in service to Princess Plum—”

  “—believe it or not, we didn't come here to mock you. I'm actually here genuinely to learn how to use the skill."

  Toasty was shaking from sheer offense, but ultimately managed to push through his own humiliation. "Do you have the heart with you then? Has it tasted someone's vitality and stolen a fragment from their mind?"

  Shiv paused. He pulled out the Enchained Heart, and fae stepped closer to the edge of his cage, examining the beating organ.

  "Pah! It's empty, dry of life force. How can you use it to infuse it? Take an ingredient with purpose. You need to drain someone. You need to see your item filled first. Come back to me when you have substance. There is no point in doing this unless we have something to offer it."

  And now the amusement fled Jessica, and she blinked at the chained heart. "What in the fuck is that?"

  Shiv hummed. "It's a special artifact that lets you rip the life out of someone, take a sliver from their mind, and then pump it back into yourself or into some kind of food ingredient, thanks to the Fae Skill I got from this one."

  "You have a skill that lets you animate food? Like some kind of food golemancy?"

  Shiv paused. "Yeah, you can think of it that way."

  "No, no, you cannot!" Toasty protested. "It is a glorious, vaunted skill that gives agency and subservience to that which is meant to be fed to Princess Plum Blossom! It is not some meager Patternist Golemancy Skill!"

  "Alright, alright, calm down," Shiv said. He looked at the heart and grunted. "Needs a life, huh?

  “Well, where oh where are we gonna find someone to drain right now?" Jessica said. "It'll take a while to find a proper victim. And we are only going for proper criminals. Like you and your friends.” She smiled sweetly and batted her eyelashes at him. “You know, escaped prisoners.”

  Shiv snorted in annoyance. “Adam? Gonna need your help now.”

  "Where are you going?" the Gate Lord cried from his corner of the room.

  "We're just gonna find someone to kill. Someone proper. Someone who has it coming. I got a heart to feed.”

  "Alright. Just give me a—What? You're going to do what?"

  "No wait," Toasty cried out. "Bring them back here, bring them back alive. There are other enchantments I must instruct you on. The heart possesses a great many powers, powers that you must now learn to wield if you wish to do honor to my skill."

  "Got it," Shiv said. "Change of plans, Adam. We're gonna be kidnapping someone to experiment on using this here heart."

  A pause followed, and it was promptly broken by a loud and long sigh as Adam stopped going through his own equipment nearby. A clatter sounded as the Gate Lord put down the massive greatbow he was restringing. "I'm going with you. System knows what kind of hell and savagery you’ll end up in without me.”

  ***

  "Please, Ascendants, please! I won't do it again! I know I did wrong! I won't do it again, please! Just spare me! Spare me! I'll do anything you ask! Spare me! Oh, sweet lords!"

  The heavily tattooed goblin cried and wailed, spewing blood and bits of broken teeth with every word uttered. His arms and legs were bound in twisted coils of metal, courtesy of Shiv. Nearby, three other goblins and two heavily built humans lay. They whimpered and writhed, too badly beaten to even beg.

  This group of unfortunate misfits called themselves the Toad Hounds. They were what Adam called a squatter gang. Effectively, they took over a poor or run-down housing cluster within the capital's poorest districts, and whoever tried to live there needed to pay them protection fees—mostly to remain protected from them.

  There were a near-uncountable number of squatter gangs across the capital. So wide and vast was the outer cityscape that it was inevitable some people had to suffer as the have-nots. However, this group drew Adam's attention due to the desperate wailing; they had been in the middle of trying to sever a toddler's finger as part of an initiation ritual for one of their new members, and also to teach a lesson to a desperate wailing mother about missing her due payments.

  They then partook in some desperate wailing of their own as Shiv, Adam, and Jessica appeared out of nowhere. Said desperate wailing became choke-sobs and prayers for mercy, and thereafter whimpers for a swift death as Shiv and Jessica inflicted unspeakable brutality upon them. They were only kept alive thanks to Shiv's Aegis of Assimilation, but that wasn't going to last.

  Back in their base of operations, the Deathless held his Enchained Heart in his right hand and glared down at the pathetic creature still capable of speech.

  Here, in a sequestered crevice of the Colosseum's maze, Shiv stood amidst several boxes filled with dusty drugs and other contraband. He shushed the goblin, growing tired of his screaming.

  "It doesn't matter. That's what you told that lady, no? That's what you told her when you tried to cut the kid's finger off. Well, I'm gonna tell you the same thing. It doesn't matter. System doesn't care about any of us. And right now, I'm gonna need you to get real quiet, because I want to figure out how this thing works."

  Shiv held up the heart, and the goblin promptly pissed himself. "Oh, fuck me, man. Longinus, save me."

  "Shiv?" Adam whispered. "How did we go from you defending the helpless, hapless elf to doing whatever dark deeds we're about to do here?"

  "No idea, Adam," Shiv replied. "All I can tell you is sometimes it ain't just the System that's looking to exact a little strife. Sometimes I want to do a little bit of hurting too. Especially if the bastards have it coming.”

  Adam grimaced again but said no more.

  “That here enough?" Shiv called out, looking over his shoulder. Toasty’s cold iron cage had been placed right in front of the dimensional crevice, making sure no one could interrupt them, and also giving the fae full view of what was about to happen.

  He gave a nod of confirmation. "Yes, four is more than enough. Now, when you take hold of the heart, feel the vitality ebbing inside of it. Concentrate your power upon it. Do you feel the heat? The flame?"

  "Yeah, what about it?" Shiv asked.

  "You need to shape it, sculpt it. Do not simply try to drain the pathetic creature of its life force. You wish to set them ablaze, to feed their essence to the heart."

  Shiv did as Toasty instructed. As soon as he allowed his vitality to flow through his body, the heart came ablaze. The mithril and crystalline material lining it as a cage flared bright, and a roaring flame erupted outward. A thread extended out from Shiv, connecting to everything within the chamber that possessed a vast quantity of vitality. Dense fibers ran toward Jessica, toward Adam, toward himself, even toward those beyond this chamber. But most importantly, it connected him to the thugs he'd captured.

  And he felt them. He felt their paltry life essence slowly bleed into him. He felt himself grow stronger. Bits of them were nourishing his being, making him more than what he was, though not significantly so. Still, Shiv came ablaze, and a rush of power crawled through his very marrow.

  Shiv concentrated on the thugs, and the threads connecting them to the heart grew brighter. A trickle of fire crawled across the captives, and they each came aflame.

  At first, it was like they were shrouded in a dense veil of embers, and the smoke rising from them was paired with the smell of cooking flesh.

  Time to see what this Chained Heart can do, Shiv thought.