175 (II) Escape

175 (II)

Escape

Adam's jaw dropped. He managed to guess what she was implying in an instant. The capital of the Yellowstone Republic was built around the Yellowstone Supervolcano. The ever-erupting volcano was also the seat of the Ascendants' combined power. It was said that they brought peace and prosperity to the land from here, drawing upon its endless energy and boundless fire to serve as a forge in the construction of an egalitarian empire. If what the Raven said was true, then he might just be at the very bottom of said volcano.

Going to need my armor back if I want to take a dip in this place, Adam thought to himself. He remembered how he and Shiv had to repel the Vulteg invasion. And then Adam realized Shiv was probably here as well. Where else would they bring the most valuable enemy on Integrated Earth if they wanted to contain him, after all?

"Now, give me a moment." She turned her attention to the Psychomancer and placed her hands around his head. Adam wanted to keep asking her for more details, but he fell silent as sickening sounds of ripping flesh and cracking bone filled the room. The Gate Lord's eyes widened as the Psychomancer had his flesh sculpted.

The first thing Adam noticed was the fat being drained out of the man's face. He was thin, but his cheeks were still fuller than Adam's in several ways. The fat then shifted, traveling along the edges of his cheekbones until they were deposited in his ear. It took a few moments of manipulation, but his ears finally widened slightly, resembling Adam's. Then the man's nose broke.

A splash of blood sprayed free from his nostrils, and it was reconstructed several times. Its bridge was elongated, tearing the skin. Then the Biomancer managed to heal what she destroyed. And soon the man had a nose that looked like Adam’s. She continued on. The rest of the face was mutilated and remolded in intimate detail.

By the end, Adam thought he was looking at another version of himself, a clone. Yet, as he concentrated his Awareness, he still noticed a few discrepancies, faint outlines of scarring, ridges of hardened tissue resting just beneath the exterior. The Raven's work wasn't perfect, but for the amount of time she spent on it and the overall accuracy achieved, it was staggering.

"Help me place him on the bed,” she said.

Adam didn't hesitate. He picked the Psychomancer up and laid him where Adam used to be. Once more, the Biomancer struck the button beneath the bed, and the clamps slammed around the man once more.

Adam noticed the adamantine texture of the restraints. No wonder he couldn't break out. But she'd said something about Orichalcum. Orichalcum was a godly metal, something so rare that many went their entire lives without ever laying eyes on it. Adam had seen it a few times now, mainly thanks to Shiv's Skill Evolution.

"Just," Adam paused, "how long have I been incapacitated?"

"At this point, approximately a day," she said. "And took most of that to keep you alive. Now, I must tell you something about your Psychomancy enchantment. Don't use it. Your mind is not cleared for the local network. If you try to use the enchantment, you will likely compromise us both. Let me do the interfacing."

Adam made an open-handed gesture, acquiescing, and then he waited. The Biomancer did nothing obvious, but he saw how her eyes twitched. She was having a mental conversation with someone, and, approximately a second later, several pockets of Dimensionality opened in the room. But that wasn't all Adam noticed. He saw how certain spell patterns along the walls flared ablaze, leaking mana all throughout the chamber.

As soon as the reinforcements arrived, Adam realized they were other Biomancers as well, judging from the white gowns and glass faceplates they wore. They channeled their magic into the now-dead Psychomancer who had been sculpted to resemble Adam.

The Raven put on a performance. Her voice rose to a shrill pitch as she cried out, "He's flat-lined! Severe damage, I don't know—I don't know what happened to him, I was called back by venison, and when I got here, he was gone!"

She suddenly turned to Adam and reached out with a hand. She seized him by the neck and throttled him slightly. He was taken aback by her sudden violence but managed to piece her plan together. He was the Psychomancer. The aforementioned Venison.

Adam winced beneath his new helmet.

What a terrible name.

And now she was blaming him for “Adam Arrow's” supposed death. This was how they were going to get out. She was going to bring him to a brig.

"I've been trying to keep his blood pumping," the Raven said. "No response, no brain activity!"

Another one of the Biomancers, a heavyset goblin, began channeling waves of red mana out from his small, four-fingered hands. The bulk of that mana swirled around Adam's head, and the body began to twitch violently.

"I need… I need… I need—" The Raven began to hyperventilate.

The other Biomancer reached out briefly, patting the Raven on the shoulder. "Get out of here and take him with you." Adam caught sight of the other Biomancer for the first time and noted them to be a tall, human male. "We'll do what we can to keep him alive. You're spent, Bethany. It's not your fault. We'll review the feeds later, but right now, you need to take him and get out. Stormhalt is gonna wanna hear this. We might need Enoch to come in and help intervene on our behalf."

"Of course." Once more, the Raven looked ahead, and her eyes widened. She shot Adam a look, and he understood what was coming, even without any verbalizations. They were about to be teleported. Her plan had worked.

A sudden clench of pressure washed over Adam, and he nearly fell over. He was wrong. He was still not in the best shape, but he could move. And if I can move… I can fight…

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He clung to that mantra as the teleportation ended.

They found themselves in an anchor. The room around them was cylindrical, and the doorway was wide open. New Biomancers rushed in. A few of them asked the Raven what was happening. She repeated the story she'd come up with earlier, and Adam caught several ugly looks pointed in his direction.

"This is not good," a tall elven woman snarled. "Avatar Stormhalt just left. He told us that we couldn't make any mistakes with this, that we need to see the process finished."

"I'm going to get Enoch right now," the Raven continued, "and I'm bringing him with me. Whatever he's done, he will answer to the Ascendant, and we'll make sure of it. It wasn't my fault."

But once she reached out and took Adam by the shoulder, she pulled him out of the room, dodging an influx of additional Biomancers.

"It won't be long now," the Raven whispered, leaning close to Adam. He appreciated her grasp because it made it easier for him to walk. Still, he stumbled and ground along the hallway walls. And it was then that he noticed they were made from a red-gold substance, the same red-gold that constituted Shiv's Toughness skill. This was Orichalcum. And as Adam looked ahead, he guessed that there were a hundred meters to this hallway, before it led into a far wider room.

He cast his Awareness skill far beyond his body, and as it arrived in the following chamber, Adam found himself staring at what seemed to be some sort of command center. There were people everywhere, several groups of Pathbearers interfacing with large focus crystals built in the form of an obelisk. They pulsated with Psychomancy, and the mind-manas effusing from these constructs spiked directly down, passing through the ground and vanishing elsewhere.

There was something else as well. Adam could feel the Hydromancy mana circulating beyond the walls under his feet in the ceiling. It didn't take him long to guess that there must have been mithril supports built through the structure. Some of the wealthier Pathbearers in Blackedge built their houses this way. It allowed for greater heat or coolness depending on the change of the seasons. It also allowed them to modify their own residences in a variety of ways. When the house itself could serve as a conduit for magic, there were a great many things one could enjoy, but it was remarkably expensive.

Roland had decided against applying such an overarching fix for all of Starhawk's Perch. It was a large structure, and they still used the old ways. His father wasn't a wasteful man, but now, Adam also suspected that it was because Starhawk's Perch was a Sacred Phylactery, and changing it in any form might have damaged the connection between his father and their patron god.

Godsdammit, father, just how much were you hiding from me? About yourself. And about the Republic. I don’t even know we are anymore. I don’t know who I am.

For a moment, Adam's mind went out to his father, to Uva, to Valor, and everyone on Blackedge. He remembered the colors of the outside, of the grand fissure that tore a gap into reality, swallowing the town whole before the Tarrasque descended. He remembered, and he grimaced. He hoped they were safe right now, wherever they were. But knowing the System, Uva was probably struggling just as much as he was, if not more. The Outside was a nightmarish place. But if there was someone capable of navigating it, it was Sister Uva Mettabon.

Better her than me, Adam thought. And that came with a slight pang of jealousy. It was ‘better her than him’ when it came to being the Starhawk's avatar as well. But he shrugged that aside. He understood the irrationality of his envy. But he also knew that he wanted to serve in his father's stead. He wanted to bear the burden of protecting his town, and it should have been him.

No, no, it really shouldn't, Adam said internally. Stop thinking that way. Stop thinking that way. You're still recovering. Your mind's drifting. Focus, Arrow. One foot in front of the other.

"We won't have long," the Raven said as they drew close to the command center. "The other Biomancers will notice several discrepancies about his body. They'll be coming for us soon. My cover will effectively be burned, and I hope to be out of here by then." A beat of silence followed. "I really hope you understand the cost of my actions."

"I understand the rewards you might gain more," Adam shot back. "You might be able to get at the Starhawk through me. Should he ever return more, you might be able to get at the Deathless. And that's the main thing, isn't it? You're after the reward on his life."

The Raven chuckled. "Let's just say the Stolen Throne is more curious about why the System wants him dead so bad, rather than greedy, about a few Legendary Skills."

"A few?" Adam hissed. "It wasn't a few, it's ten! I would be tempted to kill Shiv for ten Legendary skills." Adam blinked as he considered that statement. Hells, I was tempted to kill Shiv even when there wasn't a reward.

The Raven regarded him with a wry look. "You must really care for him.”

And Adam reminded himself once more that he was dealing with a spy. "Something like that," he said nonchalantly. "But I must warn you, trying to play these games with Shiv is a bit like sticking your hand in a fire. He will burn you eventually. And being near him is a surefire way to get killed."

"You're still alive," the Raven noted.

"Yes," Adam said, "and that's not because the System is merciful. It tried. It failed. It keeps failing. I’m still here. And I’m not done. Not nearly." A hint of iron entered Adam's voice, and the Raven fell quiet.

They staggered through the command center, and Adam used the time to survey its layout in detail. He counted approximately 200 Pathbearers here. Most of them were Psychomancers, and they were processing strands of mana that were filtered through the obelisk crystal structures he'd seen earlier. Adam also noted an odd section of the wall. There was a portion of Orichalcum that was half a centimeter off from the parts below, like it was slightly pressed inward. That told Adam it wasn't a design flaw, so he concentrated his Seer of Horizons there, and soon found himself capable of slipping through the gap. There were sounds on the other side, and as they grew louder, Adam transported his Heroic-Tier Awareness skill into a new place entirely.

He got beyond the current structure they were in and found that he was inside what seemed to be a large cube. They were traveling via a complex gear network. Massive mechanisms turned and rattled, pulling the entire chamber they were in along the insides of a complex superstructure. Adam continued casting his Awareness from place to place and soon found his cube adjacent to several others. He managed to slip into them as well, but he realized most of the surrounding cubes were a bit like his.

However, there were some cubes that were more like guard stations. They were smaller than the large cube he was in, and they didn't have so many Psychomancers. Instead, they were filled with combat-ready Pathbearers. And that's how Adam realized they were wardens. There were many of them within many cubes, and they were all in motion, each one sliding from place to place rapidly. The entire system here was like a series of bricks being slotted from position to position. When one cube moved, it made way for another, and so this large mechanism was almost constantly in motion.

He checked a few other cubes and found himself startled by scenes of brutal battle. After a few moments of observation, he realized the prison was at war with itself in places—but he kept that detail from the Raven. He wanted to see if she would mention it—if she knew at all.

Something else might be happening here. Something that smells like Shiv. Heh. The Ascendants might be the first to touch the fire.