{Loading…}

{Loaded.}

[>>Now replaying: Log 1.43.16.2 - Recursive Function]

Date: 8.9.175 AA / 4404 LTC

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

//The stiff Heart questions ‘was it He, that bore,’//

//I don’t know why I even bother. Every time I quit, some sort of bullshit happens, and all of a sudden, there’s a bottle in my hand.//

//A time-loop, then, constructed by someone with a perverse obsession of watching Iggy grow.//

[>>DATA CORRUPTED]

E1 %We don’t know what happened while she was away. You can’t honestly believe that the Tradeweaver didn’t try to kill her first, so she had to retaliate.

E2 %By pillaging his city?%

E1 %What would you do if you were being hunted by a Mage Lord?%

E2 %I certainly wouldn’t burn down their palace with their entire family inside!%

After my strike, the rat stumbled backward, but I didn’t have enough stamina to go after it.

Fuck me, I needed a better CPU, and soon.

Luckily Zephyro was there in a flash. With one stroke of his blade, he dispatched the Feral I had managed to mark. As the vermin dissolved into motes of cyan light, it left me exchanging glares with its former brother… or sister. It didn’t matter.

“Come and get me, fucker,” I panted. It sounded way less threatening than I wanted it to. The rat chittered threateningly, but then it froze as if it just had a thought and then, ever so slowly, it looked at the cyan cloud right beside it.

Oh no you fucking won’t! I thought.

But all I could do was stumble forward as the exhaustion clung to my flesh, chaining me down.

The beast turned its head to back me, and I could have sworn it grinned as it started to absorb the Logic into itself, rapidly mutating in the process.

In a manner of seconds, it healed itself, fur growing back over splotchy skin, metal devices reshaping themselves in its flesh. But it was far from done. Cyan light shone from its shifting, spasming body as it grew leaner, more muscular, and taller at the same time. The result looked more like a ferret on steroids than a rat, if that ferret was sporting oily black skin with a disturbing green sheen.

When it stopped, it eyed me hungrily and unafraid, and when it opened its mouth in challenge, its call sounded like a broken needle raking over a hard drive. The noise went straight into my head, and my vision started swimming as a blinding headache erupted between my eyes.

I could barely make out the Feral as it dashed in my direction. I shook my head and barely managed to refocus just in time to see jagged claws trailing black-green smoke, heading straight for my chest. They dug in deep, shredding cloth and raking through flesh.

[DPM integrity]

▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▱▱▱▱▱▱▱▱ 62% ▼▼▼

{CPU Load: ▼ 39%}

{Core Temp: ▼ 83° C}

For a brief moment, before the pain started, I wondered why my core temperature hadn’t gone up. Then I remembered my armor was still offline. Blood spilled from the gash and I cried out, clutching at my breast. I had vented enough heat to be able to use Pharus’ marking ability again, but between the ringing headache and the pain from the gash on my torso, my breath had started to come faster, and my thoughts kept slipping through my mind. My heartbeat throbbed in my temples and my vision narrowed.

No! I needed to stay focused. The damn beast wouldn’t get me. Not like this, not today, not ever.

In my exhaustion, all of my instincts urged me to stoke my anger. I remembered the consequences, I remembered the mistakes I made, but I couldn’t die here. Not so close to the goal. Just one last time, I needed the anger to keep going, I told myself, but at the same time, I doubted.

The Feral moved, and to my senses, it was little more than a blur as it approached again. I put what little fury I could muster into a scream and let my Torch blaze.

The mace trailed teal flames through the acrid smoke as I swung.

And missed.

The Feral flowed around my weapon like water, barreled into me, and sunk its teeth into my neck. My breath stopped in my throat. My entire body seized.

{CONNECTION ATTEMPT BY USER ToZs$er_24 }

{CONNECTING…}

Pure terror gripped me and caressed my thoughts lovingly as it swallowed them whole. The Torch clattered to the ground. I thrashed, spasmed, shook, and tried to get it off but it just kept hanging on and my neck hurt so bad and I beat it with my fists and kneed it and every time it moved it hurt so, so bad and

{CONNECTING…}

[DPM integrity]

▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▱▱▱▱▱▱▱▱▱▱▱▱▱ 38% ▼▼▼

yelling for help and for it to stop I threw my weight around trying to squish it and something bumped and it scratched my thighs and rolled back on top of me

This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

{CONNECTING.}

[>>PROCESSES BY USER ToZs$er_24 are now highlighted]

{CONNECTED.}

{INITIALIZING DATA TRANSFER}

…

{DATA TRANSFER ABORTED}

The rat suddenly went limp and I pushed it off of me with a scream that barely sounded human to my ears. It was all primal fear mixed with remnants of rage, and very little thought.

[DPM integrity]

▰▰▱▱▱▱▱▱▱▱▱▱▱▱▱▱▱▱▱▱ 12% ⚠ ▼▼▼

The rat hit the ground with a wet “thwop”, and instantly melted like butter in a hot pan. Cyan motes rose from its liquefied remains, and I scrambled towards them, pulling them into me with all the desperate intent I could muster.

{INCOMING LOGIC - 175 LB}

{AVAILABLE LOGIC - 267 LB}

I twisted, trying to get my bearings, and only when I saw Zephyro did my frantic breathing start to relax. He stood over me like a guardian of old, a silhouette drawn in red and silver by the light of his moon. He was facing the square where the cyan fog that had been left behind by the acid rat started to vanish.

Oh no, no, no… I reached for it, and it obeyed. While most of the Logic dissolved like morning mist before it could flow into my palm, what remained still left me with an impressive bounty.

{INCOMING LOGIC - 133 LB}

{AVAILABLE LOGIC - 400 LB}

I fell on my back. We’d done it. We’d killed the fuckers. I even managed to defeat one myself.

But it had been too damn close.

“Fuck!” I yelled hoarsely. It echoed over the square, and some of the citizens fleeing from the fighting even paused to stare at me. I grimaced as I got to my knees. Still feeling bone-tired, I willed Logic into my body, healing my wounds.

{CONSUMED LOGIC - 45 LB}

{AVAILABLE LOGIC - 355 LB}

[DPM integrity]

▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰ 100%

{CPU Load: ▼ 41%}

{Core Temp: ▼ 84° C}

I forced myself to think about what had just happened, even if I wanted to do literally anything but that. Thinking about what could have been was how the void got in. Still, I needed to learn. That fight had been too damn close to just brush off.

As if on cue, my thoughts started spiraling down to that deep, dark place where angels fear to tread.

I had fucked up. Again. When would I finally learn? Not only had I overextended myself at the beginning of the fight, but when a chance to act presented itself, I’d just stood there like an idiot instead of doing what I was supposed to do.

I needed to mark enemies for Zephyro, and he would kill them. It was as easy as that. There was absolutely no need for dumb heroics.

My eyes wandered, and found the Torch lying close by, where the rat had tackled me to the ground. I walked over with dragging feet, my breath heavy. The flame inside Pharus’ cage still glowed, and when I bent down to grab it, I noticed one of the spikes was wet with oily blood. It must have pierced the rat’s hide as we tumbled, activating the marking skill.

I’d been lucky. Way too lucky. The realization shot through me like liquid ice. Zephyro must have noticed me tense up. For a second, as he came closer, he looked like he wanted to reach out and touch my shoulder, but he didn’t. He was covered in dirt, sticky inert acid, and blood. I didn’t know how much was his own. He had started to sporadically glitch again.

Despite that, however, he looked at me, so damn concerned, as if I was a sickly little bird. Perhaps I was. Without his help, the Feral would have connected to my soul and scraped my mind off of it like scales off a fish. Then it would have devoured the meat, and leave me a broken, empty husk.

With the last of my presence of mind, I barely noticed my thoughts spinning out of control. My mind was fraying like a rope pulled far too taut for far too long. The thought that that rope was the last thing that held my sanity as it dangled over that dark abyss terrified me. I could never fall back into that void.

And so, with Zephyro beside me, watching his beautiful city crumble, I coaxed my anger back to life. When it came, it came like that boyfriend that you dumped and vowed to never talk to again. I twined its sneering spark into my mind as it berated me for not calling on it sooner. But, it said, it would keep me safe and sane like it always did, and of course, I was in control. Why would I think otherwise? So silly.

“Are you alright, Sultana?” the Vizier asked.

Squaring my shoulders and forcing myself to look Zephyro in the eyes, I shook my head. “I’m fine.”

He nodded, clearly unconvinced. I squinted. Why didn’t he believe me? It was the truth. It had to be the truth. It wouldn’t happen again. Maybe I should wipe that frown off his fa— I pulled back, throttling the anger. I needed to save it for what really mattered.

…The rope in my mind frayed a little more.

“What is your plan then, Sultana?” Zephyro asked, pulling me out of my thoughts. “My people will need some time still before they are all safe in the palace, and…” he trailed off, clearly uncomfortable.

“You want us to stay out here, shield them while they funnel inside?” I asked.

Zephyro nodded hesitantly. “Yes, Sultana. I promised you that once we reached the palace, you would be safe, and you are still free to join my people, of course. However, it humbles me most greatly to ask you this, but without my help, my people out here would surely perish, or get enslaved by the Shackled and their masters.”

He left the actual question unspoken, but it was obvious. He wanted to protect his people, but without someone to mark enemies for him, he was as blind as a mole. All he would be able to do was stand by and watch as they got ripped to pieces.

I looked over the crowd, scanned their frightened faces as they looked to me for salvation. It was such a heavy burden to bear, crushing me under its indomitable weight. I was the only one who could grant Zephyro the sight he needed. But If I failed, all of these people would end up in chains, or worse.

My anger ignited inside my growing fear, a pilot light banishing the dark.

“Those fuckers won’t touch them,” I said, fingers flexing around Pharus as I flicked the blood off its cage. “But I need a better CPU, first. My firewall keeps crashing because the load gets too high.”

I checked the surrounding rooftops and found them empty. “Any Shackled or Ferals around?” I asked, just to be sure.

“Not to my knowledge, Sultana. The Shackled at least I am sure enough I would notice.”

“Good, then I’ll just do it,” I said in a voice that brooked no argument.

Again Zephyro nodded, eyes unfocused. “It is a sound plan, Sultana. I had hoped it would not be necessary for you to defend yourself this much, but… the beasts are clever, and will only get smarter as time passes and they gorge themselves on the Essence of my people. I might not be able to render unto you the protection I promised.”

He looked up, towards the crowd still trying to flee into the palace. About two-thirds of the group had made it in, but that nevertheless meant several thousands of refugees still huddled outside. Zephyro’s moon bathed the scene in silver and red, horrifying and serene at once.