254 (II)

  Extraction [I]

  Shadows danced in the corners of the room—shadows that resembled Weaveresses sporting a certain unsmiling Umbral’s head.

  The Headmaster did so without hesitation. "I know how it sounds, but it is the only reason why I am still alive. There cannot be two eldritch metamorphoses unfolding at once. They are too different from each other. Their conceptual realities clash and disagree."

  A growing sense of uncertainty bloomed inside Uva. This had all the makings of an unwitting sacrifice on her part. Hymn was tied to the Stranger, though he claimed to be self-interested above all.

  The Starhawk was mutually dubious about this and issued his response summarily. "No. I don't know what scheme you're concocting, Hymn, but she will not be partaking in it. She is already at risk of being consumed by one eldritch entity."

  "Correct, she is at risk of being overtaken by one. The only way to stop the first one from overtaking her is to have another metamorphosis at the same time. Of course, she could try and face the Eldest's offspring in a direct struggle. It's not like Seekers haven't emerged from metamorphosis intact and stronger than they were before, overcoming that which was meant to usurp them instead."

  "And how rare is that?" she asked.

  "Seekers are rare to begin with," he explained. "Powerful, competent, sane Seekers are even fewer. However, even then, the odds are not very much in your favor. You will effectively have to bend the will and spirit of something that has already corrupted much of your soul.”

  "Wondrous," Uva sighed. “Should I start practicing some mental self-mutilation techniques to deprive the Eldest of a proper host as a final act of spite?”

  "Oh, don't be dour," Hymn continued. "Now, you might prove to be different. You are..." His glowing eye of violet flared bright, brighter than the sun, and he took a step back. "I see now. That's why it wants you. It wants to tap into the System's favor. And gods, are you favored. You're like a nova, constantly burning. It's getting hotter every passing second. Strife is flowing towards you. No wonder this entire realm is being dragged into you. You're like a vortex. What even happened to you, girl? Wait a minute. I've seen that same fire before… I've felt that same pull before…."

  "From Shiv," she guessed.

  Hymn didn't respond immediately, and then he narrowed his eyes at her. "So, Udraal. He finally made it, didn't he? A creature of undying might. Something that feeds off strife without being cut short by it. He’s finally found a cancer to poison the System with." Hymn laughed. Loudly. There was no joy in it. Simply a hysterical acceptance.

  "Wait," Hymn suddenly said, and this time a terrifying smile spread across his face. "I have another idea. This one might see you saved, but it requires the use of your Shiv. I have a sneaking suspicion that Udraal has planned for the Eldritch's influence as well. And what he plans for, he has installed countermeasures against.”

  "What do you mean?" Uva asked. "Hymn? What are you implying?" Suddenly, her concern spread beyond herself. Her fate was already in question, but to damn Shiv as well… that was unacceptable.

  "I'm saying that we might have another strategy to free you, and that might require us to do a little bit of a transplantation. I need to speak with your Valor Thann. I understand that he's quite the Animancer."

  Uva didn't tell him about how diminished Valor was. But there was Shiv’s Vitaemancy—and she remembered how he extracted Eldest’s seed the first time.

  "First order of business, let's see you survive long enough for me to get in touch with you. And after that, let's see a rescue mission mounted for your town and yourself to be extracted from this miserable place." Hymn chuckled again, and he sounded like a boy getting presents on the night of his name’s day. "Oh, you are a blessing, Sister Mettabon. Through you, I get to spite both the Eldest and the Stranger. What happy days, what delightful days. Sometimes, the System is kind to us."

  Unsurprisingly, Uva didn't quite feel the same way.

  "However, before that, there are two more skills I think you should alter using the Eldest's power. Since they're already here, you might as well take advantage of them."

  "What skills?" Uva asked, uncertain.

  "Oh, your Dreamtaker's Gaze. Since you're already in the Outside, simply ripping open a veil and pouring the Dreamtaker's essence into the Stranger doesn't do much. They're used to fighting each other. You need a new edge. Something that applies a bit of stasis to the situation. Something that causes the realm of dreams and mind to linger in place of the realm of dissociation and deviation. Basically, you're a Psychomancer, and being able to directly manipulate an imprint of dreams overlaid upon reality will be most beneficial to you. And it will let you keep the creatures you capture stable for longer. It confuses the Stranger too. He’s very bad with unchanging things.”

  "Do you have a similar skill?" Uva replied.

  Hymn smiled, and she took that as a yes. “I technically harvested mine from one of the Dreamtaker’s creations, but… who’s counting anymore, really? Past that, I think you should also augment your Aberrant Fractals."

  "How do you know I have that?" Uva asked.

  "Oh, that's quite simple, really. I can hear them rattling inside of you, festering in the madness. My Awareness isn’t… what you would call standard. Anyhow, they're useful geometrically, and they can cut things, but they should be made a bit more than that. After all, the power to split more than just matter can be to your substantial benefit…"

  And though Uva was on guard, part of her long-buried avarice was called to awaken. She had been a loyal servant of Weave, but she was also proud, proud of her Psychomancy, proud of her prowess as a Pathbearer. Proud to fight, proud to serve, and proud to become greater than she was. The situation at hand was dire, and her circumstances were grim, but even in grimness, one could find opportunity.

  "Very well," the Umbral breathed. "I will do this dire dance. What other choice do I have?”

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  “Whatever choice you force into existence when your skills and abilities meet opportunity and circumstance,” Hymn consoled. “You’re still here, Pathbearer. And the Eldest is greedy. So, the fight is on. Now, turn and bite down on the thing digging into your throat. Worst case, you die knowing flavors of madness no one else will ever have the privilege of experiencing.”

  “And that is enough for you?” Uva asked. “Novelty before death?”

  “It’s not about enough. It’s about whatever I can get.” Hymn’s smirk was grim. “We will all die struggling against the System. It will eat us in the end. There is no escape. No forever. But there can be a very fun and interesting ‘now.’ Take what you can. Drink deep the waters you can steal. Live. Enjoy. Or don’t. It doesn’t matter in the end. But I recommend fighting the fight. It’s more interesting than despair anyhow.”

  Uva studied her senior Seeker and hummed. “So it is.”

  ***

  Shiv and Adam looked on, agape. Their jaws were open, their eyes were wide like saucers.

  The Recollector continued to scream. The colossal eldritch entity had been dragged into the airspace of Blackedge through a widened gap in Uva's psy-cocoon. Her many threads were like a spider's nest, and the Recollector, instead of seeming like a grand monstrosity, was but a flea captured inside the grip of a greater predator. Hundreds of non-physical Weaveresses dove into its being, their shadowed forms ripping and shredding bits of thought-stuff free from its body. But that wasn't the only suffering it endured.

  A crust of gold-tinged frost lined its body, held it still. The Recollector tried to move, but with every bit it struggled, its form broke evermore. It wasn't just mutilated physically, but spiritually as well. Its temporal echoes had crashed into its present, ramming into it like jagged shrapnel, shredding its current form. Shiv didn't fully comprehend what Uva did to it, but from what he could gather, it's like she stopped its instance in the present, causing every second before to slam into the unmoving Recollector like a chain of rear-endings.

  And through it all, the Recollector screamed and screamed. "Can't move! No moving! Unable to move! Need to break apart. Need to break. Can't move still. Please, please let go still. Can't move. No past—only present! No past!”

  Even across the threshold separating him from the Outside, Shiv could feel the absolute agony coursing outward from the Recollector. It was a pain beyond his comprehension. It was an unnatural state enforced upon the eldritch monster.

  "Holy Ascendants," Adam breathed. His eyes, however, weren't meant for the Recollector. They were locked to the thing that preyed upon the Eldritch Fingerling. Uva hovered above the apex of Starhawk's Perch, looming over the Recollector. She was but a speck compared to its brutalized immensity, yet her strings were expansive and swallowed her adversary in its entirety.

  And there was something awesome about the sight of a little spider entrapping a nightmare that dwarfed it.

  "Capturing this one and keeping it stable took a considerable effort. This is my first successful attempt." Uva let out a quiet laugh of pride. "It took several skills working in tandem to achieve this. My Psychomancy wasn't fast enough, but with my Psy-Huntresses, I can dive into the creature's mind, use my many Huntresses as architects instead of predators. Ah. It’s breaking apart. Give me a moment. I need to stabilize its mind.”

  Her eyes widened, and the crown around her head flared bright. A beam of clashing colors splashed down over the Recollector, and its screams reached new heights of misery.

  "Whoa," Shiv breathed. He wasn't sure what she was doing, but it looked very colorful. And the way she made the Recollector scream and suffer was really odd. Shiv was capable of ripping a Recollector apart himself now, but with how he hated the damn things, mainly for what one of their kind did to him, this was more satisfying. It wasn't very fun having multiple eldritch creatures implanted inside his body, ripping his soul, his mind, and his body to shreds over and over again. There would be no torture too much for a Recollector to suffer.

  Soon, the eldritch being in Uva's grasp was painted in ethereal colors, but there was also a membrane of translucence wrapping it. Uva's threads began moving other things. They seemed like calcified chunks of transparent design, and they were shoved inside the Recollector's mind.

  "This is to keep it stable for a while longer. I can feel the Stranger trying to break it apart from the inside, to take it from my control." With a wave of her hand, a blast of coldness circulated along her mana strings—and the Divine incandescence amplifying her flared bright as well. A wave of coldness that was also accompanied by that familiar tinge of tarnished gold followed. A sphere of stasis erupted around the Recollector as her Cryomancy exploded, engulfing its form.

  The crust of ice clutching its body hardened into dense slabs, and it found itself utterly unable to move.

  "WANT TO NOT BE! WANT TO CEASE TO BE! OBLIVION! GIVE ME OBLIVION!" The Recollector wailed miserably. Adam cringed at the sheer depth of its pain.

  "Uva?" Adam said hesitantly. "I'm not sure if this—"

  "Hurt the fucker more!" Shiv shouted. "Break that piece of shit, Uva!"

  Adam shot Shiv a look of utter incredulity. “Shiv!”

  "What?" Shiv replied, "That thing tortured the hell out of me.”

  "It's not the same one," Adam pointed out.

  "They're all the same to me," Shiv said, crossing his arms. "They're born from the Stranger, and the Stranger can go eat shit and bite his own dick off."

  "But consider what this is doing to Uva," Adam muttered.

  "What is it doing to Uva?" Shiv said, confused. "She looks fine. In fact, she looks great. You look great!" Shiv called out.

  A husky laugh escaped the Umbral. "Thank you, Dear Brute. But I fear you might not have the most normal of tastes.”

  "To hells with normal tastes," Shiv replied with a wide grin. "Alright, Hades. If everything you said was true, I’ll do whatever it takes. Stick the Eldest in me or whatever—I’m game for it. See if I can get the Slipgate active faster. We’ll—”

  "Now, hold on for a moment," Hymn said, holding up a single finger. "This will not be easy. Blackedge is running out of room to flee, and there's a reason she's doing this right now. She's trying to confuse the Stranger, and her strategies have had to evolve substantially since her earlier days. Now, there is scant room left, and soon she will be holding an active defense. So, it won't simply be an extraction; it will have to be a defensive reinforcement and then a pure evacuation. You will need an army to hold back the Fingerlings."

  "An army, huh?" The Deathless chuckled. He looked over his shoulder and found his orcs staring at him. They glared at the Recollector with near lust in their eyes. The cruelty of the scene was feeding them, and they gave Uva glances of newfound appreciation. Dominance…

  "Yeah… Yeah, I think I can provide an army," Shiv said. "Just need to make a pit stop in another place first."

  "Yes, about that," Hymn said, slightly apprehensive, "if you open a gate to the Tutorial, I wish to be there.”

  “Why?” Shiv asked. “Don’t trust me?”

  “No. I don’t think you’re the kind to betray. Or possess the intellectual sophistication to perform a functional betrayal.”

  “What’s that supposed to mean?” Shiv asked, narrowing his eyes.

  Hymn ignored the Deathless. “I’m more worried about the Culturist leading a small army of orcs into my academy and starting a war with the Ascendants for fun. Because if this Slipgate works, that’s what he'll attempt. And just because you're Earth's Vaketh-Insul doesn’t mean he will let a prime opportunity to take his warfare Integration-wide go.”

  “Quite apt,” Helix muttered from beside Shiv. “But why exactly do you believe the Culturist himself is waiting on the other end? He should be trying to breach Lone Star's inner cities by now.”

  Hymn slowly shook his head. “This is an odd summer, and he has a chance to wage a greater war—and duel a most interesting human before that. Besides, I just spoke to him in the Outside. He told me all this himself.

  Shiv froze. “What?”

  “What?” Uva hissed, clearly also out of the loop.

  Helix blinked. “What?”

  “Oh, yes. Sister Mettabon, remember when I told you about how certain Seekers survive metamorphosis and all that? Well. I was thinking of one Seeker in particular. And this one is going to do all he can to break your dear Deathless before he submits and cooperates in any capacity.”

  Book 5 of Path of the Deathless is fully written and available on ! Book 6 is ongoing. (Over 400,000 Words Advanced). Current release schedule is 1-2 full chapters/5,000-10,000 words daily.

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