David smiled a little, “It’s not terribly important at this stage, but as you gain power, you start to discover that the universe is balanced on a knifepoint, a razor’s tip between chaos and entropy on one axis, and utter corruption versus unadulterated tyranny in the other. The sepsis of darkness lies beneath, and the divine, and God himself, lies above, constantly trying to tug the universe out of the darkness while mortals, us poor fools, spend our lives trying to drag it in various directions.”
“Hold on a sec. Hey Dienne!”
“Yes, Gabby?”
“Ugh, don’t call me that. It makes me sound like a pet dog. Hey, you finished eating… do you think you could conclude your discussions with the ladies elsewhere?”
“Wait, is the paragon of virtuous femininity begging ME to take these ladies somewhere more private?”
I nodded, “I don’t know who that is, but I am asking. I need to have a private discussion, and I am too tired to take it to the gym.”
He smiled at one of the ladies, and stood, “You heard the most exquisite young lady. Shall we continue this discussion elsewhere?”
A few moments later, we were alone on the mess deck. “You sound more religious than I thought you were. I was thinking a divine paladin was more of a tool for smiting great evil than a thoughtful believer.”
He laughed, “When you look into the face of true evil, it’s impossible to ignore the opposition of pure good. Yeah, I am religious. Not totally convinced that the church itself is the ultimate bastion of purity, but God is pretty much incontrovertible. I am not a member, so I don’t proselytize or anything… some of the church’s laws are pretty selfish and based on maintaining power more than souls, but I forgive that… men rule the church, not God, and men are fallible.”
“Does that mean you umm… have vows?”
He nodded, “Of course. Oaths and vows are kind of what paladins DO as part of our purification and path. Most of my oaths are based around fighting the undead and corrupters instead of solely against the Chaos Lords, though. Lots of people fight against rifts, but necrotic corruption terrifies most of them, for good reason. It’s...stupidly overpowered for its rank, which is why paladins have to call upon extraordinary power to defeat it.”
I shook my head, “No, I meant like… vows about girls.”
He chuckled, “You mean like a vow of chastity or celibacy?”
I nodded.
He shrugged, “Chastity is part of it, but it’s not what you might think. Chastity means not betraying the one you love. Celibacy, though… not a chance. I am still human enough that permanently cutting off my man bits is a step way, way too far.”
“With you, though, Chastity is absolutely what is holding me back. Because if we were together, it would be permanent. I am dying… a lot more slowly since you helped me, but it’s inevitable. The necrotic essence is too powerful for anyone short of a gold core saint to eliminate. What would happen if we bonded, the right way, and I died?”
I shrugged, “I’d join you.”
“How about if I died, and then immediately returned, a necrotic creature, still me, still sentient, but undead instead of alive? What would you do? Still bound to me?”
“I… I don’t know. I would try to help you, to cure you, whatever it took.”
“Would you kill me?”
“I couldn’t.” my voice was a whisper.
“Would you turn me into a cyborg or a technomancer if you thought I could control it and not turn into a life-draining evil?”
I really thought about it. “I think… I might?”
He nodded slowly, “And that is why I wouldn’t bond you. Because it would be a betrayal. I know damned well what is going to happen to me eventually, and I am hoping we can get you powerful enough to destroy me when it happens. My soul, I don’t know if I will go to heaven or be damned when it happens, but when it does, if I live long enough, I WILL damn myself. Very few living people have a strong enough will to control necrotic essence and turn it towards good… but the undead? Nope.”
I sighed, “How powerful would I have to be?”
He shrugged, “As a newly turned? Iron, maybe steel. I will lose my class stages when it happens. Death cannot preserve a living dantian. And maybe the horse will sing.”
“The horse will sing?”
He nodded, “Old earth story. A man was accused of committing a crime, and the emperor was going to execute him, but the man claimed he could teach a horse to sing. The emperor was intrigued, so he gave him a year's stay of execution, and would forgive his crime if he could teach the emperor’s favorite stallion to sing.”
“When his friend asked him how on earth he expected to survive, he said “A lot can happen in a year. I could die, the Emperor could die, the government could change, the law could change, I may escape, and maybe the horse will sing.”
This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.
“So basically a couple of weeks.”
“Huh?”
“A couple of weeks. I went from tin to halfway through low copper in only a few weeks. If we hit a few more rifts, maybe solo a few, I can blitz through bronze, orichalcum, and Iron in no time at all. How long do you have?”
He laughed, “Uhh… no one advances that fast.”
“How long?”
He looked thoughtful, “Maybe, five years now, with proper care and occasional life rejuvs.”
“So you have five years to teach the horse to sing. Now it’s time for my secret.”
“Your secret?”
I held up my bracelet. “This isn’t true.”
he nodded, “I know.”
“You know?”
He smiled, “Paladin. I can still detect falsehood. I don’t know what the truth is, but I am pretty sure you aren’t a common support pilot.”
I sighed, “Wanna know the worst part?”
“What’s that?”
“When we were in the raid, I started getting pretty arrogant myself, I started thinking, “Hey, I don’t need these guys, I could handle it myself.”
“What happened?”
“The boss.”
He nodded, “That would do it.”
I sighed. “I don’t get it. In simulations, I could create drone fleets that could take out tyrants, overlords, or other world-destroying threats. Heck, if we find a Sargasso, I could create one right now… but that itty bitty boss ripped through my drones like tissue. All of the marines had to activate their special abilities, and all I could do was toss combat drones at it as decoys.”
He smiled, “It’s called economies of scale. If you had a week to plan and could tear apart both of your landers for ingredients, as well as strip the bat cave bare, could you have created a drone that most likely would have soloed and smashed the boss?”
I thought about that. “No. I mean, I could design one, but there just weren’t enough advanced resources. That thing could snip apart solid steel, let alone the precious metals that filled that cave. Dienne-Lar probably could, though... Drones are the best for space work, but golems are way better for true fighting on a surface, and my Golemancy isn't that advanced.”
“But if you had an entire wrecked starship?”
I shrugged, “Fight it? I would have just dropped a junk pile on its head that would have smashed it flat. With enough relay nodes, I could have created a swarm that would have stripped it to just an exoskeleton in seconds. But I didn’t have them.”
He nodded, “That’s the secret of scale. It’s all about resources. You might be able to create a cannon that could destroy a sun, but that’s not very useful for catching a pickpocket. So you were telling me about your little reprogramming falsehood?”
I nodded, “Yes. I am something called a force sage. It’s a rare class.”
“A rare class at copper?”
I nodded slowly and tried to recall the exact description. “It said it’s the first step on the path to force mastery. The first step, on a rare class. It allows me to treat forces, essence, like spiritual entities.”
He looked worried. “That sounds terrifying. If that’s the first step, what’s the end goal? Epic? Legendary? Mythic?”
I shook my head, “I don’t know, but it’s also exciting. Just choosing the class gained energy expansion, which with my current seven forces affinity, jacked my energy pool up to over two fifty. My next step is very close, I am already rank 2 at 91%, and at rank 3 I get stasis.”
“Like, the arch-healer?”
I shrugged, “It’s the same name, so I think so.”
He looked very thoughtful, and the expression looked wonderful on him, like some kind of a damaged demigod that is contemplating the wonders of creation. I shook my head, dispelling the image.
“The idea of treating essence threads like spirits is fairly dangerous, since essence really does have a very basic consciousness, but you have already dealt with spirits in the past.”
I nodded, “I got an extra point of spiritualism from the boss fight, along with two points of physical. My biggest worry right now is improving my affinities without simply relying on the level bonuses. That, and I think once I get to Iron, I will have enough power to strip that necrotic essence out of you or convert it to something you can use, like physical or life essence, without getting contaminated. I don’t have natural life essence, so contamination would kill me in moments.”
He looked hopeful for a moment, and then his head sank. “I can’t let you do that. The risk is too high.”
I reached over and took his hand, folding my own over top of it. “It’s too late.”
“Huh?”
I smiled at him a little, “You already started to create a true bond. Probably because you are a silver, with an incredibly powerful aura. You started a true bond the moment your aura interfaced with mine while we were in training camp.”
“What?” he stood up startled.
I nodded slowly, “I’m sorry. It’s not something I can control. It felt… amazing. Every other aura feels like they are repelling me. It took me a while to realize it, but a true bond started. It’s what we were designed to do.”
“But what if I die? Or go away?”
I sighed. “If you don’t want it, and reject me, or die, well, I doubt a forced bond would be possible now. I won’t hold you back if you don’t want me, but the only thing I can do now is either work for a true bond or become unbonded, permanently.”
He glared at me for a moment, and then his expression softened for another moment, and then suddenly he turned his head. “The benchmark!” and suddenly dashed out of the mess hall.
Oh scrot, what had I done?