Chapter 102: Bitterness
Subject: Caim Location: Riventread - Outskirts
Controlling the Shard of Legion, Caim tumbled to and fro. After catching a jagged foot on a jumble of rocks and other Shards, he angled the construct's spiked arms toward the wall of the breachworm's stomach.
He jabbed with all the force the construct could muster, ordering the Shard to hold tight. Then, he repeated the process with the others. Together, they clung on with all their might.
The experience was tremendously disturbing. Though he couldn't see all that much in the throbbing innards of the beast, the ability for the Shards to pick up sounds as visual data was enough to give him some idea of what was around him.
This would have been worse if he could actually see with human eyes. He imagined it would be more frightening, that is, if he could see at all under such conditions.
"Detonate," he ordered them all, releasing control and jumping back to his real body.
Taking a moment to get his bearings, Caim then took off at a run to join Gire. Before he could make it even halfway back to Gire's last known hiding place, a massive explosion echoed through the festerfont. The sound was muted, but it was terrifyingly loud for something that originated so far away, and from inside the thick membrane of the breachworm.
Caim spun around, a hopeful and triumphant grin creeping onto his face as he searched for a sign of victory.
Scion Destroyed
Shards of Legion [ Self-Destruct Activated ]
"Please," he silently begged. "Just fucking die."
In abject terror, Caim saw a battered breachworm, throat oozing bile, but very much alive and searching for him. It wasn't dead.
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Subject: Maliscade Blightbane Guild - Security Division, Arch Commander - Everett Row Location: Riventread - Border
The first volleys of arrows launched from Everett's squad had been disciplined. Now, archers were firing as fast as they could without sacrificing power and accuracy, in an unending stream of specialized "Dirge" penetrating arrows.
Only the Vanquisher Squads could use these arrows, as the bows were too heavy for the average archer to wield. Even with the arrows, however, they weren't making any progress. The fear of attacking a thing that could shrug off dozens of Dirge arrows had stuck in the hearts of the archers as some of them missed their marks on the second volley.
Discipline had met an unmovable, devastatingly reality-defying object, and discipline had lost. Everett knew most of these soldiers had never taken foot beyond the cradle of the valley of their birth. They were trained in the harsh crucible of the inner cities, they were Bastion City bred. They could be forgiven for losing their nerve.
Everett was no archer, and he stood with the melee specialists in a line behind the ranged attackers. The lot of them would charge in when all hope was lost. Against such a foe, they would die pointless deaths.
With every squad firing as they were, at least three hundred arrows had already inflicted penetrating wounds on the surface of the creature. The wounds were too shallow, and the Blight-formed breachworm was ignoring them.
Enough of these arrows and its gotta feel something, right? Right?
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Subject: Caim Location: Riventread - Outskirts
"That’s what I’m telling you," Caim emphasized. "I'm not betting on some kind of miracle. It is guaranteed to help in some capacity. Now, do you have any or not?"
He could hear the fervor in his own voice, but he was helpless to stop it.
Why?!
The breachworm was going to find them. It was only a matter of time. They were both desperate, but they'd played every card and it hadn't been enough.
Why didn't it die?!
"Yes, I happen to have some potent blightseeds on me, but it will take a lot longer than we have for them to start working. Even if your accumulation profile is one in a thousand, it wouldn't be enough."
From the context, this "accumulation profile" must be a metric defining how fast a person could absorb the seeds. Caim was a special case, so it didn't matter.
Is there no hope?
Caim didn't back down. He knew his body wasn't the same as a native of this world. The seeds somehow interacted with the sourcetech ability Vera had given him, and it would do so almost instantaneously. Caim wondered if the others Vera had sent off knew this about their powers. Or, maybe the growth facet of Caim's power made it unique in some way? Would more typical, pre-matured sourcetech react differently?
This is Vera's fault!
"I'll pay you back for them when this is all over," he insisted.
Gire just sighed, defeated.
"I suppose I suppose worrying about a corpse owing me is a small matter when I too will be a corpse," Gire muttered.
The Tracer tossed a blue-grey pouch to Caim and took off at a sprint to the next hiding place, packing a new bolt into his crossbow. Caim poured the contents of the pouch into his palm, confirmed that they were indeed blightseeds, and downed the lot.
Intense!
Spellweaving Event Triggered [ Accessing Default Priorities ]
Determination
[ Catalyst Enhancement ]
Incubating
This is what the seeds in Riventread’s core were like? Swallowing back down a gush of noxious bile, he took an exhilarated breath. Even the putrid stench of the bile couldn't stop the excitement building up inside.
Spellweaving Event Advancing Catalyst Variant Unlocked [ Creation Catalyst ] Residual Energy Available Shunting Partial Leftover Energy to Existing Routines
Calibrating Catalyst: Safeguard Variant
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[ Maximum Targets: Increased to Ten ]
[ Resiliance: Enhanced ]
Calibrating Catalyst: Flourish Variant
[ ERROR: ADMIN OVERRIDE ]
[ Evolution: Flourish Revival ]
Hibernating
A new Catalyst variant! This was hopeful.
What’s this?
Caim accessed the details of the new routine variant, but was disappointed to find that it was useless right now. It was nothing like what he hoped for, Legion’s presence had left him, so there was no hope of that power returning and saving him like it had back at the Guild.
Has Legion ever saved me? Doesn't it feel like it's- The thought started but was immediately interrupted by other racing thoughts.
Then what about the enhancements? Safeguard seemed to have grown even more staunch, though Caim didn't think it would be enough to stop the breachworm from killing him on direct impact.
Branch: Catalyst Category: Utility Name: Flourish Evolution Name: Flourish Revival
Assign a dormant Flourish Beacon to a target. The Beacon will activate upon the target’s viradeath, consuming the Beacon to rapidly replenish said target’s vitality.
This "viradeath" is just a fancy word for death, right? I only have one Flourish Revival Beacon… who do I target?
Caim didn’t want to die. As hopeless as he felt right now, death was just a step too far. If there was a way to avoid it without fail, even once, he should use that chance on himself.
“Get moving, you stupid freshbane!” he heard Gire yell back at him. “At least help draw it off me when I fire.”
At this point, they were all out of boulder-sized hiding places. They each crouched in depressions in the ground. Caim's position was dangerously close to the edge of a steep fall into the depths of the underground festerfont.
Gire was a stranger, but he didn’t want Caim involved in all of this. It was perfectly fine to remove just a little danger, right? Sure, the second death would kill him, but Caim might be able to escape if the blightbeast thought he'd died the first time.
“I said move! You promised to obey me. Don’t get us both killed, just do what I say!”
Gire's tone proved that he didn't believe they could do anything at this point. He was fighting because he could do nothing else.
Caim maneuvered Scion to draw the breachworm’s attention once more. Looking up at it’s ravaged maw, dripping with pale grey blood, he caught a chill. Guilt-free, he finally decided.
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Subject: Caim Location: Riventread - Outskirts
Caim could barely stand with all of the breachworm’s thrashing causing cascading quakes, gradually whittling down the remaining slivers of traversable land left. Stone and gravel fell away into underground tunnels, freshly revealed in the light of the sun, like the rising of a great labyrinth.
He found his path blocked off by a falling section of land. Gire had already leapt over to the other side, but the beast seemed to think he was a more attractive target than Caim. It darted down and the Tracer barely managed to leap to one side, as the lumbering crash of a rock-laden tail pounded the space he'd been a few dozen second earlier.
The leap wasn’t nearly far enough, and his body was roughly impacted by splintered rock, utterly ravaging his light armor and breaking bones. And yet, it was enough to prevent immediate death. Flourish took action and he began to rejuvenate.
Scion, aim for that gushing wound inside the mouth. Fly inside and fire at it until it falls, Caim ordered, hastily conjuring the creature
It acknowledged his command and took off at breakneck speed for the breachworm’s mouth. Summoning Scion was getting easier, faster, more like an extension of self than ever before.
Caim jumped over to the other side of the ledge and just barely managed to pull himself up. He didn’t even waste time to look at the breachworm bearing down. Instead, he fought to push Gire’s recovering body out of the way. He couldn't take another hit.
At least I can save him.
He looked down and summoned a makeshift ledge to drop Gire on.
Plate A Conjured
Plate B Conjured
With a push, Gire was tumbling over the edge. The look on the immobilised Tracer's eyes was one of shock and sadness. The shadow of the breachworm's tail cast the area in foreboding darkness.
Too exhausted to move, and knowing he couldn't possibly make it in time, Caim saw an image of everyone on his team back at home. His real home. The founders of the ARC Collective, their smiling faces. Before the complications, before the guilt, before death, and before betrayal.
Plate C Conjured
Plate D Conjured
In the last second, he jumped down onto his own platform, unsure if it was enough to hold him up, but out of options.
High columns of red smoke rose in two directions from the edge of the festerfont. So, he hadn't imagined it. Was this a rescue?
Then, Caim saw other faces, ones he'd only recently met. Those brief moments had felt like a year, or longer, though in his homeworld's time, it was closer to a month. There was too much he wanted to do. He'd grown so much in that short time, in no small part due to the boon Vera had granted him. Even she'd been surprised. Even that unknowable god whom he abhorred.
The breachworm's tail swept low, crushing a wave of gravel down on him and the wounded Gire.
Resentment. That was the last thing Caim thought about, before his mind was scattered to oblivion by a surge of immense pain.