POV Legibot

I hid John at some green area. After, I went to squat in War-Saw. Some people knew me there. I told them story, that we, people in squat I was working with, were attacked by some sect. I was kidnapped by these sect and held prisoner for few weeks, before I ran away. Rest of my friends must have run earlier, because I didn’t seen them during imprisonment. This sect left me there, because I had some papers on this building. It was so terrible.

Some sympathized with me, others organized group for fight against this sect. They drove there after few days with about twenty people, who wanted react with violence. I was left alone, because I said, that I had PTSD, posttraumatic stress disorder.

At place, they found Beria. He said, that he took building after it was vacant. Things I told them about, burned room and broken doors, agreed with my story.

They concluded, that sect left after I ran away. Beria promised them, that if some leftist people would need accommodation, he would provide it there. He said, that he was surprised by my story. People didn’t trust him much, as he was known as Russian socks, but didn’t have anything more, than suspicions. During action I talked with them through phone and so I recovered some of my and mine late friends stuff.

Later I contacted Beria. He said, that few more left Order and Diana herself left without word. He didn’t know, where she go or what she was trying to achieve. I was afraid for few days, that she would hunt me. Then I understood, that she just ran. She didn’t care about me.

I stayed with people from squat. I had huge problem with feeding John. One of rule of squat, almost all squats I heard of had it, was, no animal meat rule. Worms and bugs were treated, as they were no real animals.

I needed money and time. I could be expelled from squat, if they saw me with meat. John needed meat and I couldn’t do much about it. I fed him in secrecy.

Somehow I couldn’t understand vegans and vegetarians anymore. Especially vegans. They were moved by no harm principle. It didn’t work though. Only way, not to harm anyone in any way is to die. Only dead didn’t took. To be alive means to use outside energy. This energy has its origin in the sun. What was the difference then? That plants were silent and couldn’t scream when they were killed. In the end it seemed like preying on the weakest principle, because you must have preyed on something.

Then, one day John got to level three. When I found out, what he wanted in menu, I felt faintly and fuzzily.

POV Main

We heard about fight between Vivaldi and Diana and later collapse of Ahriman’s Order.

Mario joined Associated Devas. Also Mirror joined Associated Devas. We had unhealthy situation, where level three and level two were sharing the same farm. We were short on money and short of hands to work. We needed at least week to balance out economy. We spent money on different projects and nobody wanted to stop his advances.

There was also case of host Arthur, who would like to risk his sanity, to feel free. We got his story of freezing.

It came to me, that there was solution. We convinced Mario to help us with freezing experiments on bio-stone. That way we stalled his advancement to level three. Possibly we could gather important data. I was involved in that project personally, because others had problems with thinking about things, that could be considerate as harm to bio-stone.

We also were looking for somebody, that could replace Arthur as host. We wanted to find person, that could be grateful to us later and was accepting to that bloody way of living. I was managing that too, checking candidates. I got time for it, because Mirror was hired as second assistant of Huntress and I was less needed there. Girls overtook PR activities and supporter’s society building.

We talked about another important matter on our meetings. After fall of Ahriman’s Order, there were many bio-stone owners, that was trying to live on their own. We could only hope, that they wouldn’t do anything stupid. But hope wasn’t enough. Me, Coal, Lily, Hail and Mario were trying to monitor, what was happening with them. We didn’t have any info about Diana. At the beginning we thought, that she would left chain of mutilated bodies as traces. But she disappeared completely.

We excluded Ghost from search.

Beria had some contact with other former cultists. He overtook old headquarter of cult and didn’t want to cooperate with Devas. He told us, that Legibot, some new guy, I didn’t know were close by.

Adam wasn’t responding, but we were sure, that he went back to second base, where there was also his uncle. Uncle Carol was also new host, I didn’t know personally.

Whereabouts of Kirk were unknown.

When we were creating intelligence network, we also asked Bear to help. He refused saying, that he was managing his own businesses, and we provided him with nothing, so he didn’t have any responsibility to help us. It created further distance between him and rest of Devas.

We had data on last girl from former Mirror group, as Ahriman’s Order came across her place, when they were looking for spare bio-stone. There was no info about big tragedies or bloody murders coming from her region, so we didn’t act.

Vivaldi wasn’t someone we wanted antagonize. We knew, that when he contacted others, he didn’t talk about himself. He only contacted others, when he needed something.

You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

There was also Paladin somewhere there. Sometimes he talked to Lily online, but rarely. Lily was sure, that he was level three.

Maybe we were overthinking things, but we wanted all of them under surveillance, before they would got to level four. Maybe in case of Vivaldi or Diana that was rather unlikely, but for others it was doable. We were afraid, that level four would change feeding process for even worse.

I believed, that there was some silver lining, because otherwise history of humanity would be full of bloody, brutal massacres. And it wasn’t full. It was from one third to half full. It is said, that from eighteenth century to now, there was not even one year free of war. There was war somewhere on the globe all time. Sometimes closer, sometimes more distant. Oh, and if you count uprisings and big riots and unrests, it was said, that warlike violence was present constantly over the globe from middle ages. I can’t say, that middle ages were better, there was just not enough data from that times and earlier.

Even with historical knowledge of violence, there were cases that fit more and cases that didn’t seem to fit at all. French revolution had pattern that fitted well, also national socialist revolution in Russia at first world war, called by historians communist revolution to differentiate from German national socialist revolution. Even great hunger on Ukraine after that revolution fitted, as it was created artificially by Russians. But big wars, world wars didn’t fit. They seemed to be created by humans themselves. Humans seemed lot worse, than bio-stones, if you would think about killing and hurting.

Back to topic, there should be some natural mechanism, that would stop growth of violence created by bio-stones. I believed in that, but my reasoning was based on clues not proofs.

POV Bear

I came to appointed meeting with Vivaldi. He wasn’t alone. Guy, earlier from Ahriman’s Order was with him. Probably one of them had poison, second heart mixture. I was hoping, that I could provide mixture, he didn’t have in exchange for some benefits. That moment, that thought crumbled.

I was selling info in exchange for protection.

-= Hello Bear.

-= Hello Vivaldi.

-= Let’s watch what you have, that you want my protection.

I opened laptop. He watched recordings from fight between team Devas and Diana. He watched it few times. Second guy acted like servant. He watched once and then was at stand by.

Vivaldi asked me few questions about magic, but I couldn’t answer him clearly, as I didn’t have one. He asked me, why I didn’t have it too. That way he recognized my conflict with Sith.

-= I would win against them. - He said. – Even if those two supports joined the fight.

I was happy hearing it.

-= So, will you attack them? – I asked.

-= Do they have anything special or worth much for us?

-= They can trade heart medicine for big money.

-= Do you know, with whom they trade?

-= No, but it is some medical company somewhere in War-Saw.

-= Ok, I think about it. These data, you provided, are not enough for exchange to get my protection. You need to provide me with something good.

I told him, that I had someone inside, who was tracking their moves. I told him almost all I knew about them.

-= It’s enough. – He said. – It will be, as we agreed. You have month of my protection and I will help you with one emergency.

-= Thank you.

-= It would be good, if you contact me, when you get some important info. Otherwise we will meet after month.

-= Mister Vivaldi?

-= Yes.

-= I also have will decreasing mixture for trade, if you were interested.

He looked at me rather strongly, then put false smile.

-= I’m not interested, but maybe you have other mixtures. Something for wound healing for normal human.

-= No, unfortunately not. I can check, if somebody have something like this among Devas.

-= Really, someone among Devas had something like this.

-= I don’t know. – I started to back off. – Just Nameless was experimenting with mixtures. It was after meeting at Mokotov field, that he gave us some anti influence mixture. Maybe it works on people too.

-= Good. Keep me informed.

He said goodbyes and went out with his servant. He wasn’t looking too much interested in this healing mixture, but I felt, that it was act. Maybe someone from his family needed it. I wanted to get healing mixture, if it existed. I would have some hook on Vivaldi then.

Overall this trade was disappointment. I hoped for some closer relation to start building up. Vivaldi didn’t need me much. He already had servant and probably trader for his shortcomings.

I decided to try Diana next.

POV Adam

I got back to my uncle, to base. Our relationship was lot colder after I went for Ahriman’s Order headquarters that last time. Fact, that Diana left me, left Order, didn’t improve anything. Since then, I and my uncle had a deal. I provided him poison, and I could stay. He helped me with feeding with bodies, but I had time limit of one month, after which I would have to provide food for my seed myself.

I felt broken. I felt misunderstood. I had days, when I didn’t have motivation to get up.

Sometimes my uncle came to me for a talk. I felt, that he wanted to put blame on Diana, so I forbade him to talk about her. He tried to move me out of stupor. We talked about life, feelings, responsibilities. One day he asked me something important.

-= Who, do you think, is responsible for destruction of Order?

-= Vivaldi. – I said.

-= I’m not sure, but let’s say, it’s true. How could he, how was he able to destroy Order, then?

-= We were too weak. I wasn’t even there, but others couldn’t help Diana at all. Vivaldi showed, that he can come and do, what he wants.

-= Don’t you think, it’s pathetic?

-= What is?

-= Your state.

-= My state? I have no will to live and you know why.

-= It’s still pathetic. If Diana came back one day and Vivaldi attacked her again, would you be able to help her in that state.

There was no answer from me. He waited few minutes, then left.

Was I really that pathetic, I asked myself. I looked around. There was some anger inside me. I needed to let it out. Second base was in the house near Kabat’s woods. I took axe and went for chopping tree, then wood. It helped. I chopped till pain overwhelmed my arms. Something unclogged inside me. I was sure, I didn’t want to be pathetic anymore. I would start with being less pathetic.

POV Paladin

I heard, that Ahriman’s Order disbanded. I also heard, that nobody died. I really wanted to went and kill those cultists. I couldn’t. Rather I shouldn’t. There was gossip in the city, that some friends of my last victim, I assassinated for Redhead Boss, paid large sum to see me dead.

I didn’t understand, all knew, who hired me. They should pay for his head instead. I did only my job, nothing more, nothing less. This criminal world was insane. Still, I needed to lie low for some time.

I wasn’t afraid of police. I was living in Gdan’sk for now. It was most mafia infiltrated big city in Poland. It lies at Baltic sea, and it’s easy to run to Scandinavia or Germany from there. It became mafia like, because it’s big port city, so there’s much different influences. What different is, that Germans invested a lot to have influence in council of city. When they created informal net of ties between important politicians and businessmen, it was partially incorporated into crime system.

There is saying among criminals, that all kings of mafia in Poland came from Gdan’sk. All types of criminals, that want to hide, come to Gdan’sk. I wasn’t different. This northwest corner would be perfect, if not for cold breeze from sea. There was breeze, there was fog, I could practice even more.