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[>>Now replaying: Log 1.36 - Visionary.jpg]

Date: 8.9.175 AA / 4404 LTC

Location: The Bunker at Haven-Of-Progress // Zephyro’s Domain

//Vision is the ability to see into the future what others cannot see. Vision is the ability to talk about the future with such clarity, it is as if we are talking about the past.//

//A vision is a way to answer your own “why” in life. It gives you the reason for your actions, choices, hopes, and desires.//

[>>DATA CORRUPTED]

E1 %I mean, sure, but perhaps it’s a machine made to destroy shackles…% E99 %Collective groans.%

E2 %Maybe it’s just a broken Witchlamp. Might of Magic, but that light was bright.%

E1 %Can you stop being so glib about it? Our fate is in the hands of the Salvatrix now! Has been ever since we set foot in this place.

E2 %Then we’re hexed, anyway.%

E1 %I’m sure she wants to help us, but your heresy isn’t helping.%

E3 %And if she doesn’t? Want to help us, I mean.%

Frantically, with all the focus my agonized brain could muster, I tried to go over my options again, but my mind kept trying to escape the pain. I thought about work, and Chris and all our friends and how very much I missed them.

> To lead others, you need to lead yourself first.

Urgh. Not another memory. Shut up, you died.

> Who is the wielder, and who is the tool?

“I said shut up!”

Zephyro cringed. “Sultana?”

“Not you…” I hissed.

“FEAST,” the wolf said in its broken-bass-speaker voice. It hurt my ears, rattled in my head, shook my bones.

I couldn’t make Zephyro see the Feral, and I couldn’t run, so I only had one final recourse. With a monumental effort of anger-fueled will, I grabbed my Torch, trying to get ready to fight.

“Ah, Sultana, while your bravery is worthy of being sung by the bards, perhaps getting slammed into one wall is enough for the day?” Zephyro said, and this time I could definitely make out a hint of snark. He was growing tired of my bullshit, and I couldn’t really blame him. “If I may be so bold as to suggest a plan, perhaps you should use your Blessing to repair the damage you sustained, so we can try and escape?”

“That is possible?!” I asked through gritted teeth.

“Of course, Sultana. We rarely do so, of course, because we do not want to waste the Essence, but—“ he grunted as another attack made his shield crack and shudder. “—it is better than to lose one of our own!”

“Why didn’t you—Fuck. Well?! How?!” I snarled. I was beginning to see stars.

“Focus on your injuries and will the Essence to wo—“

“I’m not going to use my Wish on my own body!” Never that.

> So many eyes they are all around us and see everything you have to come and see see see see see see Torchbearer join us, WITNESS!

I exhaled sharply, burying that memory as fast and deep as I could. For a second, I felt cold despite the heat and pain. My vision swam, the world glitched… Then everything snapped back into focus.

I couldn’t use my Wish on humans. We were too complex. Too many concepts, too much flesh, even more organs and systems I didn’t even know existed, let alone understand, and that was before you took into account that souls existed.

“While you are wise to be careful, you are not made of Flesh anymore, Sultana,” the Vizier said, gritting his teeth as the Wolf attacked his shield another time. The world distorted around us, buzzing with the broken sounds of a failing alarm system. Zephyro cursed, then briefly burned with blue light, and everything went back to normal.

Despite the pain, I hesitated. He was right. My body was gone. Was I even still operating under the same rules as before? I was still human, but stuck on a piece of hardware, so…

“Are you sure?” I asked, unable to hide the slight tremor in my voice. The memories haunted me, whispering from their burial depths.

“Of course, Sultana. I have done it many times. I do not mean to question your decisions, of course, but I just witnessed you use the Blessing to reshape the very fabric of reality. To fix a few broken bones and knit a couple of organs should not be beyond you. But if I may be so brazen as to ask we make haste,—” the Wolf howled over his next few words. I felt it vibrating deep in my solar plexus “—time anymore. We need to leave, and soon!”

I looked at the wolf through the thin white-and-blue of Zephyro’s shield.

The Feral leered back, lips pulled into a hideous, toothy grin.

I closed my eyes and searched for the eternal bell inside me.

{AVAILABLE LOGIC - 77 LB}

Grimacing, I willed a tiny bit of it into my digital avatar, focusing on the concept of stability, presence, and strength.

Come on, let this work, let this work…

{CONSUMED LOGIC - 2 LB}

This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.

{AVAILABLE LOGIC - 75 LB}

A jet of blue rushed down my arm, and my mangled fingers reset themselves with a wet crunching sound that nearly made me throw up. I winced, closing my eyes, and…

{memOS - currently consuming: 3 LKB Memory, 72% CPU}

{Current task: Restoring: Samantha_v1//personality_matrix.mp25 - 45%}

As if it had been freezing and I stuck it into pleasantly warm water, the pain in my hand receded.

It worked! Oh god, it actually worked!

Okay, think about the how and why later, focus on the now…

Projecting confidence I didn’t fully feel, I breathed more Logic into my body, directing it where I hurt the most: my leg, arm, ribs.

{CONSUMED LOGIC - 15 LB}

{AVAILABLE LOGIC - 60 LB}

{memOS - currently consuming: 3 LKB Memory, 75% CPU}

{Current task:

Restoring: Samantha_v1//personality_matrix.mp25 - 75%}

With relief washing through me like water through a parched desert canyon, I pushed against the wall behind me and clambered to my feet. When my arm finally began to stop hurting, and my ribs no longer felt like they were made of molten metal, I quickly bent down and grabbed the Torch.

“FEAST,” said the wolf with gluttonous fury, ramming its head against the increasingly fragmented shield. There was a loud snap as more cracks appeared, but the dome held. Barely.

“Sultana, I can not keep this barrier up indefinitely,” the Vizier panted. “You must flee!”

I’d run before. I’d tried submission and peace before. And what had it gotten me, besides dead friends and shattered dreams?

Again the Wolf rammed his barrier, and more cracks ran through the dome. With a low curse, the Vizier flashed with Logic, and the shield repaired itself a fraction, buying us a little more time.

{memOS - idle: 3 LKB Memory, 10% CPU}

{Last task: Restoring: Samantha_v1//personality_matrix.mp25 - 100%}

{CPU Load: 21%}

{Core Temp: 79° C}

{[Arx, Saint's Embrace] IS NOW ACTIVE.}

“No,” I said, with a calm that surprised even myself.

“What?” Zephyro asked, all honorifics forgotten.

The wolf howled again, the boom of its broken bass shaking me to the core.

“We can’t flee from this thing,” I said. “It’s too fast, and will just catch up. If not to you, then at the very least to me.”

I raised my Torch and flicked it on. It sputtered a few times, but as the last of my pain receded, the flames dancing in the golden brazier became more stable. I glanced at the Feral. It didn’t look any worse for wear. No blood or wound, or even a bruise remained where I had hit it in the face.

That just meant I hadn’t hit it hard enough.

I could fight back now.

Just give in to that fire…

I closed my eyes, willed my breath into a steady rhythm. My thoughts set on that cool, dark path that would get me where I needed to go. Towards revenge. Towards retribution.

“…but mostly, I am just so tired of running,” I said and opened my eyes.

The sensor array still listened to my commands. It would obey.

A part of me wished it didn’t, and that I could just be blind, to not see my end coming.

But that part was weak, and my anger would not suffer its presence.

As long as I could see, I could fight. It was just a monster. I had killed thousands of them before.

I held the Torch up high, framing it with dying stars consumed by an endless void. Blue flames danced before the stygian backdrop, and for a brief moment, lost in the magnificent radiance of their fire, I almost believed they could hold back the darkness all by itself.

As if accepting my challenge, the wolf backed off, getting ready to charge. Crimson lightning arced all over its fur, intensifying by the second.

The Torch flickered, flames wafting toward the beast as it gathered its power.

I focused on the concepts of light, direction, guidance, and seeing.

The Feral’s claws ripped into the cracks.

I exhaled.

The shield shattered.

A bell tolled.

{CONSUMED LOGIC - 60 LB}

{AVAILABLE LOGIC - 0 LB}

{[Pharus, Temper of the Torchbearer] v.01 - Electronic Warfare Suite - 3 LKB

IS NOW

[Pharus, Temper of the Torchbearer] v.03 - Electronic Warfare Suite - 5 LKB}

{Memory: 15/20 LKB RAM}

In an endless moment, several things happened at once:

A golden note burst from a bell struck by an angry titan.

The wolf barreled through the evaporating fragments of the shield like a truck through a snowstorm.

Zephyro yelled something but I ignored him, focused on dodging the oncoming threat.

A hectic flash, and for a second everything I could see was black razorwire fur and digital lightning. Red eyes streamed impossibly arcane data. I felt its hot, slavering breath. It pounded in my ears, like the roar of a wind tunnel turbine.

And then, the Feral was within reach. I yelled, put all the wrath roaring in my heart into the swing.

The Torch blazed.

In a split second, a ring of blue light erupted from its flames. It washed over every surface around me, deliberately slow and furiously fast all at once. A blue light engulfed me, and a pillar of cyan radiance burst upward, out between the rooftops and into the dwindling night sky.

It pierced the clouds and rejected the darkness.

Then the moment was over and fire and Feral reigned over my attention once more.

I dodged to the side in a roll, barely avoiding a slavering muzzle bustling with far too many teeth. The Feral’s breath was hot and stank of spent breakers and ozone. I had just enough time to process that before its paw caught me in a glancing hit. It cost me my balance, but not before my weapon connected with the wolf’s flank in return.

[>>PROCESSES BY USER your_doom are now highlighted]

I tumbled to the floor, rolling until I hit the side of the alley. My back slammed against a wall and the impact drove the air out of my lungs with a loud oof. I slid down the wall sideways, hitting the dirt. The gravel dug into my cheek. Zephyro had been right. Once was definitely enough for a day.

{CPU Load: 71%}

{Core Temp: 81° C}

{[Arx, Saint's Embrace] HAS BEEN DISABLED.}

The wolf came to a stop, turned, and snarled. It sounded like a malfunctioning hard drive, with added bass that gave it a disturbingly sinister note. I struggled to get to my feet when the shadow of the beast fell over me. It towered above, its outline highlighted by fire and features hidden by the bright sickle of the moon hanging over its back.

I raised my head to meet the Feral in a challenge, lips drawn back into a defiant snarl. I mustered all the strength I could, lifting my weapon to ward off the beast. I didn’t have the breath to yell for Zephyro. At least the moon, growing large and bright above the beast, was as pretty to look at as anything in my final moments.

I blinked. Wait, the moon? I hadn’t seen the moon since the sky started to—

“باسم القمر سأعاقبك!”