“Why are you moving like you’ve been run over?” Selia asked when Nil met her later in the day. It was earlier in the day than they had planned, but they bumped into each other when he was returning from picking up the steaks.
“Noah had me join him for an impromptu training session,” Nil answered, and we went at it without Absorb or Expend. “I’m much better than I was this morning, but my muscles are still tight.”
“Have you visited the bathhouse?” Selia’s wavy hair cascaded over her shoulders, looking freshly done. In fact, her brows appeared recently groomed and her skin far more pristine than someone of their realm. It was apparent that she had not long left a beauty parlor. “The Nexus folk seem to mix something special into the water. I don’t have any healing abilities, but cuts and bruises fade faster than they did at my old ludus.”
“Absorb keeps me from noticing such things, but I’m sure that’ll swiftly change given Noah’s preferred training methods.”
Nil felt bad since Selia appeared to have put far more effort into the date than him. He had just tidied his room and cleaned. His phone call with Katherine had eaten up a big chunk of his afternoon, and Nil didn’t have time to shave afterward. Selia hadn’t told him about her relationship history, but given her past, it wouldn’t surprise him if she hadn’t been on many dates. Her approach was strange, but the evening clearly meant far more to her than it did him. Nil hoped his cooking and hosting skills would make up for his more casual approach.
Selia chuckled. “I think that’s just for you. Isabella also has me working with Noah. We haven’t yet figured out what fighting style best suits me, but he insists that I use phaseshift frequently.”
“Is there much skill involved in using your ability?” Nil asked. “Isn’t it just an on-and-off switch?”
“Heavens, no. It's not like I float when phase-shifted. Gravity is still an issue. My ability helps me push in a set direction when I’m in a solid object, but that’s it. Layla claims that my base power is far more potent than anything of its rank and lacks safety limiters. She believes it's because of Symbiotech’s tinkering. As I’ve said before, if I were to phaseshift my whole body, I’d fall through the ground and keep sinking towards the earth’s core.”
“To be fair, there was a lot going on back then. Mission. Ticking clock. Collapsing building.” Nil shrugged. “So you have to keep the soles of your feet solid?”
“It’s more complicated than that,” Selia explained. “Think of it as a flicker and a constant downward push. When I’m passing through something, I try my best to keep an unphased part of my body—generally a limb—in contact with a solid object. It helps me stay orientated and in control. It's challenging, hard to explain, and pretty all over the place.”
“That sounds a lot more complicated than Brutal Battery, to be honest,” Nil stated after taking a moment to think about the dangers of phase-shifting. “I imagine you suffer a serious risk of suffocating if you fall through the ground or get stuck in a wall.”
“Fortunately, the phase-shifting ends if I get knocked out, and my Iron Realm ascension gave me the ability to push on solid objects. I’m hopeful that it will evolve to grant me more force to shoot out of things after passing through them.” Selia chuckled. “Adam and Shawn think I’m being ridiculous, but I’m almost sure that the Schema pities me. Every feat, ability, and upgrade I’ve been offered seems designed to reduce the chances of me killing myself while phase shifting.”
Nil failed to think of an appropriate response. Selia didn’t come across as someone who appreciated sympathy, so he kept the discussion on the topic of abilities. “I used to think that I had it rough with Brutal Battery’s burns. It sounds tame compared to whatever Symbiotech made of your powerseed. Do you rely much on Spark?”
“Not much,” Selia replied. “Spark dictates how long I can phaseshift in a day. In my opinion, I can do it enough already. With my ability, it's more about how well instead of how much. I mostly focus on Mind and Finesse. The first affects my control. And you understand the value of Finesse.”
“I do.”
The woman didn’t seem too keen to talk about her childhood or time with Symbiotech. So Nil asked her about her time as a Summoned and old ludus instead. Just over a year had passed since she ascended. Her early quests had been rough due to her ailing health and weak body, and it was only connections that she made during them that got her into a ludus.
Nil still had ingredients to buy for dinner, and Selia appeared happy to walk and chat. They ended up discussing their early quests and matches. Shawn had told her about Nil’s time in the Pits, and the prospect excited Selia. He told her about his two matches, and she listened with her eyes wide, almost showing the same excitement as a civilian would. Nil found himself enjoying their time together, and it became apparent how little of the world his date had experienced.
When Adam mentioned how much Selia’s time as a lab experiment impacted her as a person, Nil failed to comprehend the weight of the statement. From his estimates, she was in her early-to-mid twenties and hadn’t seen or experienced much of life at all. It seemed she knew little outside of Symbiotech and Summoned life. The six months between her escaping her captors and joining a ludus was likely a rough and awkward period as she struggled to survive in a world of bills, laws, and bureaucracy.
Even the simplest things in life require a form of identification and a birth certificate. Without a bank account, Selia had no means of exchanging her Schema Credit for gold or Great British Pounds.
“I stole.” Selia shrugged. “You need to do whatever it takes to survive. Fortunately, Symbiotech gave all of us captors a basic high-school-level education. It helped them get around regulatory bodies.”
“Probably makes a whole lot of sense also to educate your future assets,” Nil said.
“That too. But, yeah. When you’re starving, you don’t particularly care about what’s right and wrong. You use whatever tools you have at hand to get food in your belly. I had two options. Walk the streets and hope someone will find me pretty and vulnerable enough to give me money or food. Or use phase-shifting to steal food and sneak into poorly surveilled areas to keep warm and steal.
“I took advantage of the generosity of others at first until a creep tried to lay hands on me. Things got out of hand, and I accidentally phased his head into a wall. I didn’t pull it out of time. Risking a life of crime just felt like the safer and smarter option afterward.”
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“Smart,” Nil stated honestly. “I won’t pretend to understand what you’ve been through.”
“Tell me your story,” Selia said, playfully bumping him with her shoulder after they left the supermarket with all the necessary supplies.
The act caught Nil by surprise and almost made him lose his balance, knocking off his sunglasses. He swiftly put them back in place and fixed his hood. Nil and Bunty agreed that it was in their best interests to lay low until the next match or the Symbiotech incident reached a satisfactory conclusion in the media.
“I don’t have a story.”
“Nonsense. No sane person would risk their lives and family to fuck over a company as powerful as Symbiotech unless they screwed him over in one way or another.” Selia stopped walking and stared at him.
Again, it's the lack of boundaries.
She didn’t seem to understand his hesitance to discuss the matter. It wouldn’t surprise Nil if Selia believed that she owed him for being open and honest. The Aisha chapter of his life was behind him. The wounds were still raw and healing, but now that the visage was gone, he hoped that the chances of them reopening were low. So he opened up to the woman and told her about his past, starting with his relationship with Aisha and ending with the visage.
“Holy shit!” Selia exclaimed. “That shape the symbiote took before everything went boom—”
“Yeah. That’s the one.”
“Fuck. No wonder you’re so awkward.”
“I’m awkward?” Nil laughed. “I’d like to think I’m very much socially adjusted.”
“Nonsense!” Selia laughed, bumping Nil again. She caught him off guard again, but before he could stumble, she lopped an arm around his left bicep and caught him. The phase-shifting Summoned held on to it but softened her grip as she talked. “I’m the well-adjusted one. It's the rest of you that’s weird.” Selia paused, checking her wristwatch. “Huh. I don’t remember the last time I lost track of time while just talking and wandering with someone. It's almost time for Adam’s match. We should get back.”
The pair weren’t fast enough. By the time they returned to the ludus, Apocalypse Arena had already teleported Adam away for his match. So, instead of sitting in the cafe, the pair went up to Nil’s suite. Selia peeled potatoes while he got the chocolate-fondant mix for dessert ready while they waited for the match to begin.
When the suite’s holo screen finally announced the match and its participants, Nil’s stomach dropped. Adam’s name appeared first. His rapid progress through the Gauntlet of Ten won him the title of Starfish for his limb-regrowing abilities. The man and his friends found him amusing. Seeing it on the screen also put a smile on Nil’s face. Then came his opponent’s details.
Pietro the Frost Emperor.
The screen didn’t include his unofficial titles: The God Of The Iron Gauntlet and God of Death Gauntlet.
Both Nil and Selia ceased the at-hand tasks. It was she who had told him about Pietro and his history. The man had taunted Shawn, claiming he’d fail at the Gauntlet of Ten, and turned to the Death Gauntlet for ascension. Pietro had suggested he would be the barrier-marker’s death.
The pair watched with bated breaths.
The channel used a split-screen display, showing both fighters simultaneously. While Adam sprinted through the crumbling canal city, Pietro strolled casually. The middle-aged Eastern European man didn’t seem to have a care in the world, and unlike his opponent, he appeared to know where he was going. Pietro whistled a tune, cracking his neck, flexing his slender shoulders, and rotating his wrist. The man didn’t just dress like royalty—wearing a crimson breastplate, a white cape, and a furry silver collar—but also carried himself like someone born into it.
Meanwhile, Adam sped around the narrow streets and leaped over canals. His several consecutive victories had won him a couple of sponsors. He wore designer fare in the form of a pair of pale blue ripped jeans and a black vest that clung to his muscular physique. He had no shoes and carried a chain and hook. Adam appeared surprisingly adept at catching it on ledges, posts, and other crumbling ruins to swing across gaps or scale buildings. Even though he was entertaining to watch, Selia and Nil couldn’t help but focus more on the man’s opponent.
Pietro’s casual stroll put him into the Cursed One’s path. The monster roared and raced at him. Before it could reach him, a surprisingly silent avalanche rushed out of a nearby alley and barrelled into the Cursed One, knocking it onto its side. The monster tried to rise but slipped and fell. Then snow moved like Burning Sands’s dusty conjuration and enveloped its limbs.
The man, titled Frost Emperor, casually approached the beast and extended his right arm. His sleeve seemed to come alive and rushed forth, spiraling and reforming into an elegant spear. It reminded Nil of Fatima’s blades. The spearhead ripped through the monster’s sternum and into the glowing, pulsing flesh underneath. The Cursed One roared and thrashed, but the snow flowed and enveloped it, restricting the monster’s movements. Orange light pulsed down the spearshaft and disappeared under Pietro’s cape.
“Corrupted soul weapon,” Nil whispered. He recognized Shina’s work. Pietro’s sleeve-turned spear moved a lot like a symbiote but lacked the same solidity—likely an older, less developed version.
The Cursed One’s roars had attracted Adam’s attention. He rushed Pietro, holding the chain in both hands and spinning the weighed down end. Once close enough to his opponent, he flung the hook, but a wall of snow rose, blocking its trajectory. Adam didn’t slow. He zig-zagged and threw himself at Pietro.
The erratic movements did their job. He successfully closed the distance and barreled into the skinny man, knocking off his feet. A soft, high-pitched cheer escaped Selia, but Nil still held his breath. He had faced an opponent like Pietro before and was sure the battle was far from over.
The snow moved at lightning speed, making an almost chittering sound. It caught Pietro and gently placed him on the ground. He smiled at Adam, wiping blood from his nose. Instead of adopting a combat stance or fleeing, the man bowed.
Nil couldn’t tell whether it was a casual greeting or a taunt. His heart leaped into his throat as Adam spun and threw the hook again. He charged at Pietro and leaped, knee primed to strike the face.
The snow once again blocked the hook and also stretched to stop Adam. The barrier wasn’t thick enough. Starfish Adam broke through but then received a spear to the solar plexus. He roared, grabbed it with both hands, and wrenched the spear out of Pietro’s grip. Adam landed a left hook and sent his opponent stumbling.
No snow caught Pietro. Instead, the conjuration rushed at Adam. It flowed up his legs and gathered around where the spear pierced his flesh. Adam’s eyes widened, and he grasped at the soul weapon. He stumbled backward, ripping it out of the wound. The exposed flesh and the skin around it had paled and turned grey.
Selia had moved to stand next to Nil as they watched. She gripped his hand tightly. “Please tell me the snow isn’t flowing into Adam.”
It was. The tissue around the wound rippled and bubbled but failed to weave over the damage. The grey area spread and Adam clawed at it. He left the corrupted soul weapon on the ground and retreated.
“He’s slow,” Nil whispered. He had a strong suspicion of how the match would end and hoped he was wrong. Selia appeared to know too and trembled. Nil barely knew Selia on an intimate level and her friends but was aware that she and Adam were close.
Pietro rose slowly and approached Adam. When he passed the dropped spear, it melted and flowed up his pants leg. Snow appeared out of cracks in the ground and nearby openings, rushing at Adam. The white caught up to the super regenerator and enveloped him. It all compacted and shifted violently. Sections of it blew outward, but new snow covered the holes. Then, it all dropped away, leaving Adam motionless. Every part of the man appeared grey and lifeless. Frost covered his eyes and hair and the wound in his abdomen appeared significantly larger than before.
The Frost Emperor and God of the Iron Gauntlet manifested his spear once again. The man spun it and struck his opponent with the shaft. Nil caught Selia as her knees gave out. His chest tightened as cracks spread across Adam’s body, and he crumbled into a pile of frozen gore. Pietro had frozen him solid from the inside.