193 (II)

Euthanasia [I]

"It might be a little bit more complicated than you think, Solzimort," Adam said. "This place isn't just made out of cages. There are other defenses keeping this place boxed in as well. There's a massive sphere around this entire place. It's a time loop. If you hit it, it will revert you back in time."

"Oh yeah, the golden thing." Solzimort's many heads lowered, and a whimpering noise came from the Legendary Hydra. "We didn't like that. We were sent back to our cage, but because no one made us sleepy anymore, we just got out again. We were wondering how to get through that thing."

"Well, the way we get through is by shutting down the mana core," Adam elaborated.

"Mana core?" Solzimort echoed, all his heads tilting at the same time. "This place has a mana core?"

"I see this Hydra neither possesses Legendary-Tier intelligence, nor is it particularly informed," Kura commented off by the side.

"No, but it is Legendarily good at absorbing matter into its body, which includes us," Whisper responded so quickly that Kura did a double-take.

Nearby, Candles began to shiver. The flames around his body flickered and curved towards Solzimort. To Shiv's surprise, Whisper leaned over to hiss at the burning Pathbearer. "Control yourself, my sweet lunatic. If you try to burn the Hydra, we won't be able to enact greater acts of mayhem."

"But there's so much Hydra, and it can burn for so long. They heal…" Candles shuddered like a drug sniffer after a hit.

Whisper held up a hand placatingly. "Do you know what else burns for a long time? An Ascendant and countless Heroic-Tier wardens. And sweet things taste sweeter if you starve yourself for a while."

The blazing Pathbearer twitched.

"Hey," Shiv whispered to the orc. Whisper frowned. "Yeah, that feeling you have right now? That's what it feels like to be me dealing with you orcs."

Whisper's frown grew even deeper. "We're not that bad."

"The fuck you aren't. You're worse. You know better and do it anyway."

"So if we turn off this mana core, we can get all the way through, huh?" Solzimort asked. He sounded a bit simple, but something about the Hydra didn't sit right with Shiv.

"Yes," Adam said. "But we're going to need your help to reach the mana core. Now, you want everyone to get free, right? You want to get out of this prison? Well, there's no way out until we get close, and if we want to get close, there are a bunch of special cages there. Cages you might be able to swim through."

Solzimort took a moment to think about what the Gate Lord was saying, and then he started nodding vigorously with all his heads. "We got it! So, you want us to fuse you into our body?"

"What? No," Adam said, then caught himself before he betrayed just how worried that made him. "I don't need you to fuse with us. I just need you to carry us through the cubes surrounding the mana core."

"But fusing you into us is the simplest way to do things."

"Solzimort," Adam said gently. "Maybe I don't want to be fused. Have you considered that?"

Solzimort's lizard-like features fell into twelve frowns. "But even if you don't want to, it's not very safe."

Adam opened his mouth, but he didn't have an immediate idea how to continue the conversation. The Gate Lord's agitation grew with every bit of dialogue exchanged.

Shiv walked beside him and wrapped a hand around his shoulder. "Maybe let me take over. I think I might be better at this."

The Gate Lord sneered. "Yes, you would know how to persuade another insane monster, wouldn't you?"

Shiv gritted his teeth and patted Adam on the shoulder twice more. "Haha, eat shit."

The Gate Lord visibly held back a snort.

"Solzimort," Shiv said, stepping past Adam, "I know that you mean to be nice and protective. From how you see things, you're trying to protect everyone, right? Everyone smaller than you." He spoke following the instincts provided to him by Psycho-Cartography.

Solzimort nodded vigorously again. "Yeah, because often the small people also have small brains, so you can't really trust them to protect themselves."

"Not like we can trust you, right?" Shiv said, agreeing with Solzimort solely to lead the Hydra on.

The twelve faces of the Legendary Pathbearer all grinned. "Right! Why, you're a lot brighter than your friend there. Probably because you're bigger."

"Oh my felling gods," Adam practically snarled. He turned his eyes to the ground and placed his hands on his hips, the frustration radiating from him palpable. Shiv grinned openly. Sometimes, revenge came fast.

"Yeah, probably. Anyway, Solzimort, I'm not disagreeing with you, but we need to be apart from you to turn off the mana core. You know why?"

Solzimort paused. "No, not really. Why? Is it because you have a special skill?"

"Exactly! I have a special skill. And that special skill doesn't work if we're fused. It's not that we don't want to be fused with you, it's just that it's dangerous for you, and you won't be able to protect us if you're affected by one of our skills too."

"Oh," Solzimort said. The Hydra practically sounded depressed with that revelation. "We got it. So we can only carry you, and we have to let you go for you to make the core go to sleep?"

"Yeah," Shiv said. "That about sums it up. Listen, Solzimort, we'd be really, really thankful if you could do this for us. This way, we can all escape as well. Sometimes we have to do things we don't like to protect the little people." Shiv reached out and patted Adam on the back of the head.

The Gate Lord shrugged him off and kicked him in the shin.

"Yeah," Solzimort said, and Shiv felt a sympathetic bond form between them. Going from fighting for his social sanity against Veronica to talking with a particularly simple Hydra was a relaxing whiplash. "Okay, so I think I can fit some of you between my teeth."

"Between his teeth, he says." Kura's voice grew even drier than usual.

"I'm not sure about the inside of your mouth thing, Solzimort," Adam said.

"Well, don't worry." Shiv looked around, taking in his little army. "You guys don't need to be inside his mouth. I'll go inside his mouth. The rest of you can hide in my cape."

"Far more preferable," Five commented.

"Yay!" Solzimort cheered, but then all of the Hydra's heads turned on each other. "But which one of us will get to hold them?"

"Us!" All the Hydra's heads declared at the same time. A pause followed. Then they all started growling at each other. "It's gotta be our mouth!"

Psycho-Cartography: Holy shit, are you fucking kidding me right now? Shiv, whatever you say, don't say: Doesn't matter. This clearly matters a lot to this thing. Also, is he seriously using the Royal "We"?

The Deathless felt the first tickles of annoyance dance upon his nerves, but he pushed them aside. He covered his eyes as if he were humoring a child and pointed randomly at one of the heads. "There. That one."

"Why that one?" Solzimort asked, sounding confused.

"Because I chose it at random. It wouldn't be fair to the other heads if I picked a favorite, would it? It would hurt your feelings."

The Hydra shuffled uncomfortably. "That is true. Apologies, little guy."

Silver Tongue 47 > 49

"That's fine. Anyway, that head. I'll ride there. Great, good talk. Everyone, in my cape. Five, Can Hu! Stick around for a while. I got something to say." The Penitent and the Raven lingered, and Adam stayed as well.

When Shiv shot his friend a look, Adam just shrugged. "I'm not going in without my Penitent."

"Right," Shiv said. When he turned around, he found most of Solzimort's heads leering from about 5 meters away, extending all the way down from the inverted pillar he sat upon. "Solzimort," Shiv muttered, "can you give us some space?"

"Okay." Solzimort pulled his twelve twenty-meter-long necks back by a meter.

Psycho-Cartography: Just treat the Hydra like patience training. Or focus your anger and fuel some of your skills.

Uh-huh, Shiv replied to his skill internally. I'll be sure to lie to myself. "Okay, Five, Can Hu—something you two need to know. Enoch is integrating himself into Rebis. But he's more than just an Avatar. He's like a separate body the Ascended can use. He's splitting part of his soul into Rebis, and I need you to jack into his processors or whatever when the battle starts if you can."

Can Hu's glowing optics narrowed, while Five simply sighed. However, it wasn't a sigh of surprise, but one of lament.

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

"You knew this was gonna happen?" Shiv asked the wolf-man.

"I suspected something like it might. Still, it is not ideal. Poor Rebis."

"I don't know if I'd call Rebis poor considering the shit his two halves got up to before they got fused together," Shiv said, "but it seems wrong anyway."

"I would insist on Rebis being pitiable," Five said, taking a stand for his friend. "Whoever Rebis was, well, were, he isn't anymore. They're just torturing a confused child by this point."

Shiv considered the wolf-man's argument and struggled with the discomfort that followed. It was easier to blunt the ugliness by reminding himself of what the two Pathbearers who became Rebis did beforehand. Telling yourself that someone deserved their fate was a way of coping with how ugly their fate often was. And that might be part of the problem too.

Shiv was coping with too much these days.

"Well, I'm gonna need you two to try to hijack his mind as much as you can. Rebis is going to be guarding the mana core, so get ready for a fight."

"It's not just going to be Rebis, though, is it?" Adam said, sounding slightly worried. "It's going to be an Ascendant as well."

"Yeah, Enoch. But I have something against him. I know a psychological weakness the Ascendant has. Or some shit like that."

Adam blinked. "How did you figure that out?"

"Veronica. She told me a few things."

"Yes, speaking of, how did that meeting go?" Shiv didn't respond immediately, and Adam read something behind his friend's eyes. "Shiv, are you alright?"

The Deathless just grunted. He shook his head. "No. Not even a little. But we don't deal with that shit right now. I'll be fine, at least until we get out of this place. After that, there's quite a bit of stuff I need to tell you. You're not going to like a lot of it."

"I already don't." The Gate Lord bit his lip. "Listen, if you need a moment..."

"We don't have a moment, Adam," Shiv replied. "We need to move, and we need to move right now. I don't want to stay in this place any longer than I have to. Cripple will be sending an Avatar to us soon, and Veronica... First off, fuck Veronica, but also, she's going to be helping us. She wants to counter Udraal. She also wants to use Udraal to protect me somehow, like I'm some kind of investment or pawn she desperately doesn't want to lose."

Adam tried to digest Shiv's chess analogy. "Shiv, if you're a pawn she doesn't want to lose, then you're not a pawn."

"Well, whatever I am, we're in bed between two devils, and we're trying to make them fuck each other more than they fuck us."

"Is this really wise?" the Gate Lord muttered, skipping right over that analogy entirely.

"Hells no. Not even a little. But it's what we got." Shiv did his best not to think about his parentage, about Udraal. That ball of disgust was still there, boiling in the pit of his stomach.

Adam gripped Shiv by his upper shoulder. "Listen, if you need to talk about this right now, I will listen. I'm here for you." And just then, the disgust abated a bit.

"Thanks, Adam. But I think we should do this if we manage to survive whatever the hells comes next." But despite his words, Shiv just didn't want to hold it in anymore. "Look, my mom... What she did, it wasn't really her."

"What do you mean?" Adam asked, leaning back as he saw the sheer intensity on Shiv's face.

And just like that, the words started tumbling out from Shiv's mouth in a messy flood. "I mean... Fuck, Adam. Veronica told me about what Udraal was trying to do, what the Ascendants were trying to do, what all of them were trying to do. But I don't have time to explain how messed up everything is. My mom wasn't my mom by the time—You and your sister, you were... There were bigger plans for you, and like—Udraal... He hollowed out my mom's soul."

The Gate Lord's expression became horrified. "I—gods. Shiv, I'm sorry."

"I'm not done," Shiv continued. "He hollowed her out, and then he wore her body like a suit. And this was before I was conceived. Before, you know..."

As the seconds crawled on, Adam's look of confusion turned to one of utter horror. "Oh...." he whispered, his complexion turning ashen.

"Yeah," the Deathless breathed. "I, uh, I might, uh. Have two dads. Technically." The joke didn't land. Shiv grimaced as he tried not to have a complete meltdown.

An awkward moment passed between them. Five shuddered slightly and fled from the scene, diving into Shiv's cape.

Shiv realized they should have probably done this over a private Psychomancy connection, but he really couldn't bring himself to care about that right now. A long sigh came from Can Hu, meanwhile. "I'm sorry, Pathbearer. Sometimes, the world seeks to scar us before we even truly exist. We are not only the fruits of love, but the fruits of intention, the fruits of illness, the fruits of violence, the fruits of consequence."

Adam didn't say anything. Instead, he walked over and embraced Shiv tightly. The Deathless let out a breath as he wrapped his arms around Adam too. The disgust was still deep inside him. It felt like it stained his very bones, like he didn't really belong to himself anymore. But it was easier to face now. It felt a little better spitting it out. Just then, something bumped into his back, and Shiv found one of Solzimort's giant heads pressed up against him.

"Are we all hugging now?" Solzimort asked, voice low. Shiv was speechless, but then he found himself too tired to be annoyed.

"Some of us are," Shiv said.

"Can we join in?" Solzimort whispered, ignoring how he was already a part of this impromptu group hug either way.

"Yeah, sure," Shiv responded dryly. "The more, the merrier."

After they detached after a few seconds, Adam gave a report. "I have eyes on Cripple again. It's moving inside a special cube, coming right at us." Shiv saw Cripple's reactor glowing on Adam's hip. The Gate Lord fired his shot, and a few moments later, Cripple's Avatar appeared through the rift.

But it didn't come alone.

Cripple's current Avatar marched out, still missing its left arm, still eroded by entropy damage, but standing upon its right shoulder was a small, suitcase-sized automaton. It had two antennae sticking out of the top, and its body was practically a head as well. Its torso had a glass screen, and projected upon it was a simplistic face locked in a perpetual frown.

"Really?" the little automaton snarled. "I'm going with these clowns? Seriously, boss-man?"

"These are the conditions of your release," Cripple's words radiated from its present Avatar, and Shiv did a double-take.

"Wait, that's a prisoner?"

Cripple's Avatar turned a glare upon Shiv. "I'm not going to spend an actual Avatar for this matter. This is more of a reserve. More suitable for our needs."

"Alright, sure," Shiv said. He considered that for a moment and then accepted it. "Yeah, you know what? That's fine. That makes sense."

"I'm glad you could accept my pragmatism," Cripple replied.

"Do I get any say in this?" the suitcase-sized automaton complained. "That one's the Deathless. I think the big bot over there is glaring at me, pulling out my systems using... What is that, a Binaric Sovereign Skill? God, shit. I don't want to be a brain-slave. Don't! Stop it! Stop it!"

"Radio," Cripple said. The Ascendant's voice fell heavily upon the small automaton. "I will brook no defiance on this matter. The terms of your release have been made clear."

"The terms of my extended death, more like," Radio muttered. "Fine." It hopped off the larger automaton and skipped over to Shiv. It was barely up to his knees and held up a hand that was barely more than a few wires. Shiv winced as he wondered how fragile this Avatar was. "Well, I guess we're gonna be going together. You're the Deathless that everyone's trying to kill, and I'm Radio, Former Chief Secretary to City Lord Hanson of District Columbianus."

"Sounds like you had a pretty important position. How'd you end up here?"

"Yeah, so, maybe I might have stolen someone's identity to get my position," Radio began, "and then maybe I might have shifted a good amount of mithril out of my accounts to do a couple of favors for my friends."

"You flatter yourself if you think any of them consider you anything more than a piece on the board," Cripple spat scornfully.

"Come on, boss-man. You already got me under your shiny boot. You don't need to spit on me as well."

The moment Shiv realized he was dealing with someone corrupt rather than outright vile, he let out a breath of relief. "Hey, Radio," Shiv asked. "What's your Toughness? What's your Magical Resistance?"

Radio paused. "Um, Adept?"

"For which one?" Shiv asked, feeling his disappointment start to grow.

"Uh, yeah."

He scowled at Radio first and then turned his scowl on Cripple. "Really?"

"I promised you an Avatar. I did not have much time to prepare one. Its safety is now your concern. Should you let it be destroyed, the onus is on you, not me. Besides, it is meant to be a conduit between us, not an enduring combatant."

"But what happens to communicators?" Radio said, turning to complain at the Ascendant. "They die, boss-man."

"If you die before you serve your purpose, then I will mourn you appropriately."

"So, not at all," Shiv and Radio said at the same time. They looked at each other, and a low drone came from Cripple.

"For two seconds," it corrected.

"One of the most noble Ascendants in the Republic, everybody," Radio said with a drawn-out sigh at the end of its words. "Fine. Hey, Deathless guy, how high's your Toughness?"

"Heroic," he said flatly.

"Your Magical Resistance?"

"Legendary."

"Alright, alright, so maybe not so bad for me. You know what, things might be looking up for old Radio. Tell you what, I do have a few pretty good skills. I'm a real people person, as they say, if you catch my drift. If you need anyone to do the talking—"

"I'll still do the talking," Shiv cut the press-ganged Avatar off. "I want to make one thing clear. I feel a bit bad for you, but I don't much trust you either. I'm not going to abuse you or anything if you don't give me a reason to. Do I find you talking to someone behind my back? Well, knowing your history, I'm going to come up with a few assumptions. So don't give me a reason to pull your arms off."

Radio looked down at its twig-sized arms and vigorously nodded at Shiv. "Alright, very clear guidelines, boss-man. I'll be sure to not give you any reasons. Yes, sir."

Shiv and Adam shared a look. The Deathless extended his Psychomancy over to his friend. "Yeah, so we're probably going to want to keep an eye on this one. I'm getting a slimy taste from it. Slimier than Siggy by a godsdamned mile."

"I'd be inclined to agree," Adam said. "Well, Five is a member of Aviary, isn't he? Why aren't you so worried about him?"

"Because we already know he's probably going to betray us the very moment he gets a chance. This one, the waters are murky about who it might betray us to, or what might trigger that."

The Gate Lord grunted. "We have quite the little ensemble with us, don't we?"

"Yeah. Hells, I miss Valor. Shit, I can't believe I'm saying this, but I might even miss your dad."

A pang of exhaustion came from Adam. I do too. Let's get this done and try to find them wherever they are. "I'm tired of this place. I'm tired of being here."

"Alright, Radio," Shiv said. "Get in the cape."

"The what?" Radio leaned past Shiv and stared at his billowing cape. "Ugh, that looks pretty fancy. Dimensional, is it? What do you got in there? Special pocket? Those are pretty rare, especially stable ones." Radio made it two steps before it halted and spun around. "Hey, uh, Cripple."

"Not boss man anymore?" Cripple asked, sounding more than a little indifferent.

"Yeah, I just wanted to say that I always found you a self-righteous prick who couldn't tell the difference between its charging port and its waste disposal. Since you're selling me off to a new owner and using me as a receiver, I just want you to know that I'm not looking forward to your heavy-duty soul ramming itself into my red little systems so you can talk to the free-range male here."

Shiv squinted at Radio. "What the hells do you mean, 'free-range male'?"

"I mean, do you see the size of you? You gotta be free range. What did they even let you graze on?"

"Mouthy automata, believe it or not," Shiv grunted. "Now get in the cape before I make that statement real."

"Alright, new boss-man! And goodbye, trashbag!" Radio said to Cripple. Then it bounced off behind Shiv and, with a less-than-impressive leap, dove into the billowing sheen of Dimensionality. A second later, it cried out in alarm. "Boss-man, is there something you forgot to mention? Like, why is this cape filled with orcs?"

"What's this?" Mortar bellowed. "Insul, are you giving us a new friend?"

"Don't break it," Shiv called out. "You can do anything else, just don't break it."

"Oh, we would never." Mortar laughed loudly. "It looks so adorable. Come here, little one, there's a spot for you right on my left shoulder."

"Ah, shit! Cripple! Cripple, boss-man, I'm sorry! I hate it here! This is a godsdamn vacation straight to hell! Take me back, take me back!"

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