178 (III)
Terrify [II]
The absurdity of that exchange made Shiv briefly crack up. “Bunch of felling freaks,” he muttered under his breath. “Where was I? All right, you're not going free. You're my prisoner now. That bomb is staying inside of you until either you die, I die, or we get out of this prison,” he lied. “So, when I ask you a simple question, do you want to get out of this prison?”
The elf nodded vigorously. "Yes—you… you're not going to break my skill."
And it was back to that question again. She was willing to die instead of losing her skill. That's how much this mattered to her. That's how much being Legendary defined her.
"I'm not going to break your skill yet," Shiv said. "The future is unwritten and full of potential." His voice ended in a snarl. He grew just a bit larger from that final threat, and he pulled his Vitae free of her body. He wrenched her off the ground and shoved her back toward the other prisoners. "Same goes for the rest of you. This one here is scarred by me. I left something special inside her skill, and if any of you come for me, I want you to understand something. You don't just need to worry about the people beside you. You should worry about me too. You might win. You might take my life. You might get those 10 Legendary skills. But you fail, and I'm going to give you the deal I gave my orcs."
Shiv turned and looked toward Bonk. "What was the deal I offered you?"
"A perpetual crippling," Bonk said with a wide grin. His arms were behind his back, and he was like a sergeant reciting the orders of a general. "The Vaketh-Insul will see any orc that offends his sensibilities mutilated at the soul, which means even if we do come back, we will come back bloodied, wounded, and perhaps, worst of all, a screaming nugget without limbs, without eyes, without even a tongue. Simply screaming forever and ever lost in the darkness of our own body, our wounded self a cage."
With every phrase Bonk spat, Shiv's eyes narrowed a bit more. He expected the orc to simply tell them what was at stake. Instead, Bonk decided to turn this into a poetry night or some shit. Some orcs, man, Shiv muttered to himself. "Alright, with that out of the way, does anyone else want to take their shot at me?"
None of the other prisoners moved. None of them, aside from Urri, who took a step forward. Shiv clenched his fists. He still wasn't as big as the massive Vulteg, but the size difference between them had shrunk considerably ever since Shiv started gaining power from his Shape of Monstrosity. The Vulteg looked down at Shiv with his single bloodshot eye, and the Deathless read something other than apprehension in his gaze.
Instead, the Vulteg seemed impressed.
"You. You have courage, Spawn of Legend Udraal.”
“Never call me that shit again,” Shiv growled back.
The Vulteg ignored him. “To threaten sixteen foes at your Tier. It takes great courage. Great courage." The Vulteg slowly laughed. "Lord Scorn would quite like you."
Shiv nearly folded over laughing. If only the Vulteg knew who he was talking to. And just then, another thought occurred to Shiv. If he was going to save Adam, he needed to keep this Vulteg as far away from Adam as possible. Or he needed to lie about who Adam was. The Vulteg might have been interred in a Republic prison, but as far as Shiv knew, world Quests weren't blocked here, and the System's reach couldn't be denied.
Urri likely knew about the Corpse Shedder and the infamous Adam Arrow. And that brought him to another consideration. Just like how the Challenger could stare at the world through Shiv, or at least spectate over what Shiv was doing at any given moment, perhaps Lord Scorn could do the same with his Vultegs.
Oh, hell, Shiv thought to himself, better be real careful around this one.
"Lord Scorn, huh," Shiv said, doing his best not to reveal any hints that he already knew quite a bit about the Vulteg god. "Quite the name.”
“A mighty god! An indifferent but just god!" Urri insisted. "Perhaps if we are freed, I can introduce you to him. He might even offer you sanctuary in his realm. Sanctuary and a position. I am a High Marshal of the Vulteg." He frowned slightly. "At least Urri was. Until I was betrayed by one of my own, trapped here in this feeble prison." He sneered at the Orichalcum walls. “A feeble prison that will hold me no longer, and does not hold you either."
He looked at the other prisoner and let out a bark. "He lives. For now, he lives. He has proven his valor to be metal. There is iron in his veins. So I declare upon my Vulteg honor that he will not be struck down in shadow nor light." The massive Vulteg held out a fist. "This is Urri's declaration. Who else shares in this?"
The other prisoners simply regarded the Vulteg, but few of them responded outright. However, Shiv noted the hesitation gripping a few of them and decided to take advantage of that. "I'm not demanding that all of you follow me. You don't need to do anything. You can flee right now, but I'm going to tell you this much: We've wasted plenty of time here. The Avatars, the only reason why they're not here is because they're hunting for someone else and trying to use him as a lure for me. I'm going to find him before they do. And after that?" Shiv flapped his dimensional cape. "After that, you're all welcome to stay inside this cape."
They all stared at him. Shiv realized how awkward that sounded. Shit, I really need to upgrade Silver Tongue. Sometimes spitting the first thing that comes to mind doesn't really work.
Psycho-Cartography:Think twice.
"It's not a trap," Shiv said, and then he winced. Instead of continuing on and making things worse, he thought twice. "It's a dimensional cape. There is a category one dimension inside. You can reside there, and I can get us through the time loop."
"Time loop?" Urri said. He sounded surprised.
And that's when Shiv realized that most of the prisoners likely didn't actually know about the Well’s layout. "Okay, first things first, how many of you know where we are?"
A few of the prisoners let out grunts. "We're in a Rubix Well," the man with blades growing out of his flesh said, shrugging. "Don't know much about that. Could be in any Rubix Well as far as I know. My guess, though, we're in the capital Well." He spat off to the side, and his saliva smashed into the skull of a downed warden. It punched a hole through the helmet and even dented the Orichalcum beneath. "We're pretty heavyweight prisoners. It's where I'd keep us. Close to the seat of the Ascendants’ power. Close and easy to smash if we ever get out."
The binary-crowned automaton regarded the bladed man. "If that theory is true, then my best guess as to our exact location is under the Throne."
"The Throne?" Shiv repeated.
"A colloquial name for the Yellowstone Supervolcano," Five interjected. All heads turned to the wolf-man as he continued with his elaboration. "I suspected but wasn't sure. If we are indeed under the supervolcano, that means that even after we get through the Nadir, we will be surrounded by divinity-infused lava. Not quite sure how we're going to overcome that problem, but I'm almost certain that there is some kind of mechanism connecting the outside world to the lava."
A few of the prisoners muttered something, but none of them seemed to have solutions at the ready.
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"This process takes quite a bit of mana, and sometimes magic is unreliable," Five said. "No, it must function without attuned magic or divine intervention. Redundancies matter. That makes it reliable. You don't want something that can become just as much a prison for your guards as it is for the prisoners."
That sort of made sense. Shiv didn't know enough about prisons to contradict the wolf-man. "Alright, we'll deal with that problem once I figure out the first. I'm going to make this plain: I'm not leaving this prison until I save my friend. That’s the only reason I’m still here. If he wasn’t, I would be long gone. The Ascendants and their Avatars are going to go looking for him too. Now, I have no intention of running from the bastards. I know how powerful they are. I know what they can do. Well, some of them."
Shiv looked off to the side. He'd already had brief encounters with Daughter and Cripple. Not to mention his ugly experiences with Kathereine and Halsur before that. "I'm not letting that run me off. In fact, I'm going right for them. I intend to cripple whatever Avatar comes my way. I intend to make a mess of this prison. I intend to survive and eventually take bloody retribution on these bastards. Now, if you want to leave, I'm good with that. But if you want to square some debts for all the years you spent in this prison, well, I might have an angle on that as well. All I can say is that you won't be making it out without someone who knows the layout of this place, and if you want that reward on my head, I just want you to know that you’re probably not making it out of this prison without me, so you can’t enjoy it.”
And soon, the prisoners were looking at each other. No longer did they gaze at Shiv as if he were a prize to be won or some lamb to be slain. Instead, there was a glow of opportunity in their eyes. But Shiv knew better than to let down his guard. They were likely only biding their time. Some among them would still try to come for his head if he ever gave them the opportunity. At least for now, they weren't going for him openly anymore.
"Very well," Urri said, clasping his hands together. His head tentacles curled, and Shiv got the faint impression that the Vultag was grinning. "If you are intent on making an enemy of the Ascendants, then you will need mighty, mighty allies. Urri is mighty. I cannot be stopped. And the Ascendant dogs owe years taken from Urri’s life.”
Shiv briefly remembered stopping Urri earlier, but he decided not to mention it, considering he was volunteering. I need to figure out what to do with him. If he sees Adam, I'm probably going to definitely have to kill him. Probably closer to a question of when right now.
"You serious, Urri?" the blade-covered man grunted. "That's enough to make us not go for this guy's, uh…" He stopped talking as he noticed Shiv glaring at him. He wasn't entirely afraid, but that didn't mean he wasn't wary of the Deathless. He grunted with displeasure. "Look, I know some of you guys might be trying to get recaptured or put down like dogs, but that's not what I'm into. I got out of my cell, and I'm gonna stay gone. It doesn't matter if I have to die or complete this escape. Hey, what are you doing?”
Shiv took a few steps toward the wall and slammed his fist into it. As soon as he did, a cube-shaking impact tremored through the space. Vectors slashed out from his body and crashed against the Orichalcum. One after another, the Shapeless Tides hammered against the red-gold material until, finally, it ruptured with the loud shriek. Slowly, Shiv began to peel this large section of the metal away, letting out a growl of exertion as he worked his Legendary Skill hard.
A few seconds later, a five-meter-wide opening was made, and Shiv gestured out into the crawlspace. "Anyone who doesn't want to come with me is free to go."
He stared at the prisoners. None of them moved. None of them moved immediately, anyway. "I can't guarantee you'll know where to go or that you won't get lost among all the gears and shit. I've been outside. I don't know if any of you have, but if you know the layout of this prison, then you'd understand that you're just part of one cell. There are a bunch of different cubes, and they're all moving constantly, each one sliding into place right next to another. Where we are right now might be entirely different than just a few minutes ago. And if you keep going, you'll probably find your way out of the maze of cubes, but then you'll be hitting the time loop. If you don't have strong enough magic or means of slipping past it like I do, well, you're probably just going to get launched back in time and stuck here anyway."
The Deathless shook his head and sighed dramatically. "There are layers to this prison. Lots of layers. I might be able to make it out with my Unique Skills, but the rest of you? Well, let's say you do kill me at some point. I really wonder, how are you going to get past the time loop? How are you going to avoid the notice of the Avatars? Even if everything goes right, how are you getting out of here? How are you going to complete almost a dozen Delves while still in here?"
There was no answer to that. They may have been Legendary Pathbearers, but this was a prison meant to hold them. They really didn't know how trapped they were. More importantly, they didn’t have the capability to vanish from someone else’s awareness by sinking into their own soul. When no one walked out through the gap, Shiv just shrugged. "Well, looks like you're all picking the only other choice there is. Come with me, and we can deal with our Ascendant problem. No, you can't talk me into leaving early. Yes, you can stay here if you want, but you know what's going to come if you do that."
Silver Tongue 36 > 37
"What are we going to do right now?" the automaton with the crown asked Shiv. “Updated: What do you intend to do right now?”
"Right now?" Shiv's thoughts trailed off. He wasn't exactly sure, either. It took him a moment before he remembered what he wanted from Five. "Five?" Shiv called out. "Tell them what you need. See if they can speed this up with one of their skills, somehow.”
The prisoners all turned to regard the wolf-man, and Shiv noted how the Aviary agent barely reacted to the collective gazes of sixteen other Legendary-Tier prisoners.
"As you wish," Five began. "I'm looking for a prison cell in this cube.”
A chorus of muted laughter came from the other prisoners. "Take your pick," the crystalline column said. It tilted its body and jabbed itself at one of the nearby portholes lining the ground.
"I should elaborate more," Five continued without offense. "I'm looking for one with a particular spell combination circulating across its walls.”
The prisoners all looked at each other, and a few of them shuffled. "Well, there's a lot of cells here. I don't think you expect us to go through all of them."
Five simply nodded. "Of course. I expect you all to be helpful and speed this process along.”
"So, what, we're all going to be errand boys now?" another prisoner called out. This one was a large human. Instead of having flesh or skin, however, their body was veined with coursing lightning, while a layer of glowing stone formed an exoskeleton around them. "If you think—"
"What patterns?" the elf that Shiv nearly broke earlier said aloud. It was the first thing she'd said ever since Shiv decided to spare her. He made eye contact with her again, and she flinched away from him. “What are the patterns? I can find the cell. I will send my Shadows of Futures Coming.”
Everyone else was looking at the elf, and Urri's mouth was slightly agape.
Psycho-Cartography: This could be a trap, or it could be our choice turning out good for us. There are many ways to use fear. Some of them come with the benefits of mercy. Sometimes, mercy is strength.
Instead of answering the elf, Five held out a hand, and three different spell shapes formed. The first looked like an arcing symbol with three dots in the middle. Following that, there were two lines with a triangle infused with complex geometries. The third was a fractured rectangle with strange circuits running in between.
Before Shiv could even fully remember the symbols, the elf sent out a small army of golden shadows. They expanded more and more with each passing second. They cut free from the elf’s person, gliding through the crowd and circulating through the valley. More shadows appeared over every porthole and descended into the cells. Shiv was staggered by her efficiency. More than that, he was impressed by how soon she located what the Aviary agent was looking for.
"I found it," she called aloud after about half a minute. Every single shadow snapped back inside her, and Shiv wondered how her Chronomancy worked. He didn't see an extension of her running in the past. Could it be that she was launching projections into the future instead? That was useful. And if she could cast multiple versions of herself across time…
If I could do that, I'd be beyond unstoppable. Shiv imagined a version of himself that could fight across the future. Chronomancy was a hell of a Magical Skill.
"Wonderful," Five said. He walked toward the elf with both hands clasped behind his back. "Show me. After that, I think I’m going to give my associates a house call.”
She broke free from the other prisoners, and almost reluctantly, they followed along as well. They kept their distance from the elf and Five, and they only started moving after Shiv did. While he walked, Bonk came beside him and began keeping pace with Shiv while retreating backward. He kept his eyes on the other prisoners, and he grinned widely at them.
"Bonk, what are you doing?" Shiv said.
Just then, Rebis appeared right next to the wolf-man, and he stayed close. The elf regarded the amalgamated Pathbearer, but she didn't do anything. Shiv understood what the cyborg was trying to do. Five was his friend, and he was going to make sure the elf didn't harm him.
"I'm just making sure no one tries to take a run at you again,” Bonk said.
"Didn't want to help earlier?" Shiv asked.
"Oh, you seemed like you had that. Besides, I wanted to be entertained as well." The orc sighed. "But it was a wise thing you did."
"What, letting her live? I didn’t expect you to approve.”
The orc simply smiled. "Insul. Sometimes, the most delightful cruelty to inflict is letting your enemy know that you could have taken their life at any time. Sometimes, mercy is dominance."