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Priam was following closely behind Greg. He had received the update when the Quest completed and knew that Jace had killed the returned Conclave member.
“Can you believe that?” Greg asked as he cleared the hallway with his rifle before moving deeper into the server room. “An Ascendant came back to life just to fight Jace again? And we almost got sucked into a black hole!”
Priam nodded and felt tightness in his chest. He had heard of the Black Hole Conclave, their sales pitch about ‘paradise’ beyond the singularity, and how they just wanted to bring oblivion to everyone…but he had just witnessed something he never thought he would see. The dead coming back to life. And not the way he had seen with undead a handful of times, which was just the body or mind coming back.
He had no clue what happened when someone died. The traditional learning he had received told him that the souls would be judged before being sent to the appropriate afterlife, which some people called a ‘paradise’. But they never came back.
That brought up another question in his mind. If I can really bring Dad and Williard back to life when I hit Tier 10 Ascendant…how would that work? Am I pulling their soul from its place of final rest? Would I need a body just like that Conclave soul that came back in that corpse? Questions raced through his head, and Priam realized once more how little he knew about souls. I need to find an archive, or library, and find out. I need to know what happens to a soul.
He felt a nudge on his shoulder and looked up as Greg had tapped him. “You good?” The burly man asked.
Priam nodded, “Yeah.”
Quinn’s voice came over the comms, “Jace is guarding the stairwell so you both aren’t trapped. The cameras show a small squadron of combatants down there, two rooms away, just outside the main server access.”
Priam shook his head free of the thought of souls. I can focus on that later. He re-inspected the barriers surrounding him and Greg. They look a little cracked. Pulsar Ward (Rank 30) [Multi-Target]. The honeycomb structure strengthened around the both of them, and Greg led the way down the corridor.
As soon as Priam saw the muzzle of a rifle, he raised his hand and repeated what he’d done so far to clear this place out. “Wrath of the Gods (Rank 1).” The pulse of electric energy would only affect the combatants, and he heard the satisfying thud of people falling over. Following Greg, he winced slightly as the larger man put a bullet into each of the downed soldiers’ heads. “A bit overkill, don’t you think?” Priam asked.
“Better safe than sorry and dead,” Greg replied as he went into the main server room, removed the flash drive that Jace had given him, and inserted it into the machine. “Quinn? We good?”
Xera’s voice came over the comms instead, “Yes, the tech-plague has uploaded. Get out and back to The Cosmic Corridor portal.”
Greg nodded and turned to Priam, “Let’s go. Don’t forget to dust the guys we beat.”
Priam nodded, “And put aside Quinn and Jace’s split.”
Bloopa moved around under his hat, and her symbols and emblems tapping onto his skull translated in his mind. I’ll handle the split automatically.
Greg led Priam out of the downstairs server area, and by the end they had accumulated a large amount of Stardust from the numerous corpses of the corpo guards and troops they had killed.
//////////////////////////
[Stardust Acquired: 12000]
[Stardust Split: 3000]
//////////////////////////
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Jace spotted his two allies come up the stairs. Priam looked frazzled. “You good?” he asked the bunny-boy.
Priam shook his head, “I have questions I need answered. Bloopa has no clue. I need an archive or library to figure it out.”
“Let’s get out of here,” Greg said. “I bet Cybronics has a whole group on their way here.” Almost as if predicting the future, the whole hallway in front of the trio was filled with the clamor of armored, metal feet. “Shit.”
Jace chuckled, “Dark Matter Cloak (Rank 3) [Group].” He winced as the lethargy kicked in once more, but the trio were completely rendered invisible and headed past the group of soldiers without issue. They got to the portal leading back to The Cosmic Corridor with ease, and Jace let the Cloak drop once they got back to the apartment.
“One day to deal with a megacorp,” Jace said with a grin. “Much faster. Why didn’t we just assault Pheracorp like that?”
Quinn’s voice came over the comms, “Because we did not know the capabilities of the megacorps on Earth. Blitz attacking seems like the best bet. It’s only been three hours – why are you guys back?”
Jace yawned, “I am tired. I fought off four Aspirants, an Ascendent, and another Ascendant. Let me take a power nap, then we can head right out to the next one.”
“Right. Three hours,” Quinn replied. “Take some time, but we can’t take too long. I am suppressing as much as I can on the Webnet, but soon enough video of your combat will be out there. We need to deal with the other megacorporations before they figure out viable tactics to counter you three.”
Jace nodded, “Right. Well, I’m going to get some shuteye. Hey, Ollie, my tent functions here in Khrox, right?”
“Yup!”
“Okay.” Jace began setting up the tent on the ground floor of the apartment complex. “I’ll see you both later.” He crawled inside and fell asleep as soon as he shut his eyes.
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Greg glanced over at Priam, “I’ll see you in a bit,” he said as he sat down on one of the couches in the central room and began taking apart the firearms and reloading magazines. Running low on ammunition, he thought as Priam left the building.
There was a blur in the air in front of him, and Sera appeared. Oh, right. Not Sera. It’s Xera. “Hey there,” Greg said as he leaned back to focus on the conversation he was sure was about to happen.
The tall, black-skinned woman with the four, piercing, purple pupils all focused on him sent a chill through his body. “You are doing very well. I saw Darrin’s perspective of your fight with that axe-wielder. Impressive.”
Greg cracked a smile, “Thanks.”
She sat down next to him, “Tell me more about your past.”
“Sure, but why?”
She adjusted her spectacles with one hand while the other three hands folded neatly on her lap. “I am considering offering you a spot as one of my Signers. But I need to know more about your history.”
Greg nodded, “Well, I grew up in the United Kingdom, which kept its independence from other governments and the megacorporations. I worked in the military for five years, and then the SAS another five, and MI-6 for two. Then I left and formed a Streetrunner crew that ran jobs for two years. Last, I went freelance as a bodyguard and escort when I met Missy and decided to be less risky with my life.”
Xera nodded, “I expected ex-military. But ex-intelligence services was unexpected…Tell me, how did you cross paths with Jace? He seems to view you as a friend. But you come from very different backgrounds.”
Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.
“I was a point-of-contact for him in his courier gigs. I would deliver the package to the docks as part of my escort duties, he’d pick them up. Over time we chatted a bit, I learned about his younger sister and how he was trying to take care of her.” He tapped his chest with his fist, “That gets me right here. Family is everything.”
“You have family still.”
Greg nodded, “Yeah, in the UK. They relocated to Khrox-”
“I know, I was making a statement, not asking.”
Greg nodded, “But, well, I haven’t visited them yet because I don’t want Jace’s and my enemies finding them.” He frowned, “I pissed off some of the megacorps before this whole Earth business over the past few days.”
“How so?”
Greg tightened his fists, “Myscape Industrial. They fucked me over. Almost got me killed. Killed my whole Streetrunner crew. I want to wreck that one most of all.”
Xera nodded in understanding, “Well, thank you for sharing. If you like, I can ensure you have private means of contact with your kin.”
Greg looked at her and smiled as he let his naturally jolly demeanor return to the surface, pushing back the anger at the loss of his crew. “I’d appreciate that.” He turned back to the magazines and began loading more rounds into them. “So…what does being your Signer give me?”
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Priam cut a course for the building Bloopa had told him about. The Star Archive. You will want to speak with Shuck Chirley, the Tier 2 Ascendant who runs the places. The largest collection of knowledge available for free.
Priam nodded, “And, I’ve got all those scrolls and books from Nihilethelea to donate.”
That will probably be appreciated.
The world warped around him, and Priam reached the building with the brass front labeling it as his destination. Opening the door, he gasped as he saw more books than he had ever seen before. The entry hall was dominated by a large, mahogany desk with sumptuous chairs. Several references screens were along one wall and looked like they catalogued the location of the information.
“Just a minute!” he heard shouted from somewhere deeper inside the building. Gazing past the front vestibule, he could see rows upon rows and floors upon floors of bookshelves. From the ground all the way up to the vaulted ceiling above and extending beyond sight further back.
Priam sat down at the table and waited patiently. A few moments passed, and an unkempt, half-shaved, frazzled man in a bathrobe emerged from the stacks of books. He sat down and rubbed his temple, “Sorry about the wait. I’m Shuck. How can I help you?”
Priam reached into his (Light) Venture Pack and pulled out the records from Nihilethelea. “I took these from the Archmage Ascendant’s old mage tower. I wanted to donate the records.”
Shuck got up, moved around the table, and sat next to Priam. The scent of cheap alcohol assailed Priam’s nostrils, and the unkempt man nodded. “Excellent! I will be happy to add these to the archive collection.” He rested his elbows on the table and looked into Priam’s eyes, “Now…how can I help you?”
“I need information on souls. What happens when we die?”
Shuck grinned, “Well, that is a hotly contested topic. It depends on the world for the prevailing belief. But,” he tapped his temple, “When you’ve read as much as I have, you start to notice patterns.” He stood up, walked to one of the panels on the wall, and began scrolling through options. Tapping one of the icons, the silver box next to the panel glimmered with light before a large, leather-bound tome appeared in the spot. He picked it up, brought it over, and set it down in front of Priam. “Here’s my personal thoughts on the matter from my gathered data.”
“Thank you,” Priam muttered as he began turning the pages.
“Oh, and if it comes off as…risqué…I apologize. I just can’t seem to not write steamy scenes in books! I have no clue what causes it. Can’t tell you how many times I’ve tried to just write a boring, informational text and had it come out as erotica.”
Priam nodded, “I’ll filter it out,” he replied softly as he began devouring the text with his eyes.
Shuck stood up and left.
Two hours passed and Priam had finished the whole tome. The consensus among scholars, he thought, is that when a person dies, the soul or consciousness retains an imprint of what the body experienced and what the mind knew. Then it goes…somewhere to be judged. There’s not a ton of information. Which is weird, since there’s easily thousands of worlds and civilizations. He leaned back as he shut the book. Even Soulcraft isn’t mentioned…
Soulcraft was a special ‘subset’ of divine-magic that Priam had heard about being practiced by priests of the living gods back on his home world. The ability to manipulate a soul. You’d think that other worlds have something similar, especially with so many worlds. Standing up, he went to the kiosk and searched up the term. It’s…not even mentioned here. That led Priam to only a single conclusion.
Someone purged the information about Soulcraft that was written down or otherwise recorded. It’s just known to those who have it committed to memory. The same with anything similar…but who could do that?
The only certainty Priam knew of regarding where a soul went to was that those who became Signers or members of the Black Hole Conclave, or those who struck a pact with Troxanir, the Endless Hunger, had their souls sucked into the singularity at the center of the universe, known as Oblivion’s Maw. The physical, actual black hole that was at the universe’s center. Shuck theorized that Oblivion’s Maw acted as a gateway of some type. Perhaps to an afterlife, or multiple afterlives. Shuck’s book was certain about that.
Priam shut the book and took a deep, shuddering breath. The only other person who might know something is Xera, he thought. She’s an Architect. Maybe she’s the one who removed the mention of Soulcraft. “Bloopa, can you put me in touch with her?”
Yes…She is at the apartment if you’d like to talk to her.
Priam stood up and shouted out, “Thanks for the reading!”
“No problem! Come back anytime with donations or if you just want to read!” Shuck’s voice returned.
Priam left and walked through Khrox, feeling the world warp around him as he walked into the apartment’s first floor. Jace was sitting on the couch next to Greg, chatting with him and Xera. Priam instantly spotted Greg’s fingers. They were tinged purple, his heavy gauntlets that went with the armor on the table in front of him. “You became a Signer also?”
Greg glanced over and nodded at Priam, “Yup, Xera’s officially brought me on.”
“Just leaves Quinn,” Jace replied with a slight grin.
Xera frowned, “She is avowed Star Council due to the shop they allow her to work out of. Which is fine, she and I have an arrangement.”
Priam sat down on the couch next to Xera, “You’re an Architect, right?”
She arched an eyebrow appraisingly, “Yes. Why?”
“Why can’t I find any mention of Soulcraft in the Star Archive?”
The other two Aspirants leaned in as she cleared her throat. “Well, Soulcraft is dangerous, so the knowledge is kept secure. I can grant you access to a personal database I keep, but I purge the mention in other texts or sources of data.”
Priam nodded, “Thank you. Do you…know more about souls you’re willing to share?”
Xera nodded, “Sure. A person is composed of three portions. The mind which is the most important, the body which is of least importance, and the soul. The mind is knowledge, experience, emotion – all the good stuff that makes a person a person and separates us from the animals. The body is your physical form. The soul is sort of like the ‘glue’ that holds it all together.”
She sighed, “The exception to ‘body’ being least important is for those who come from magic-heavy worlds. The more ‘whole’ their body – aka, no prosthetics like you, Jace – the more potent their magic-turned-Skills are.”
She took a deep breath, crossed her legs, and continued. “When the body dies, the mind ‘retreats’ into the soul. But we – my people – avoided dealing with that by figuring out how to upload our consciousness, our mind, to artificial constructs.”
Priam nodded, “I’ve heard of that. People who can ‘re-sleeve’ their minds into new bodies. They don’t need to worry about their soul, anymore. Right?”
“Correct. At that point, you don’t need the soul, the ‘goo’ holding things together. The same would go for a person who used magic or magitech to remove their mind, the ‘who they are’, into an item of some type.”
Priam touched his Soul Warden’s Writ and saw that Xera’s soul energy coefficient hovering above her head was a 0%. So she’s done that. This probably isn’t her original body. Just a host body for her mind. It also means that someone who did what she has done couldn’t use magic-based Skills at all.
Jace interrupted, “How’d that Yholl Archmage guy become a skeleton-man?”
“Lich,” Priam corrected. “And that’s what happens when the body is made superfluous due to magic.”
Xera cleared her throat, “Continuing with what happens to a soul…when someone dies, the mind retreats into the soul, and then it travels through the singularity at the center of our universe. Think of it like a funnel that souls get sucked into. After going through that funnel, it travels through a realm called the Astral Verge. Every universe’s souls goes through the same process.”
“Other universes exist?” Jace asked. “Like parallel dimensions?”
Xera nodded slightly, “Sort of. In order to travel to other universes, one has to have the technology, magic, or magitech to survive traveling through the singularity at the center. Then, a person could travel through the Astral Verge until they find the bottom of the ‘funnel’ leading to another universe’s singularity at the center of their universe. Then, they could go up that funnel, and emerge in that universe.”
Priam frowned, “Troxanir lives at the center of the universe, right? He’s the singularity at the center?”
Xera sighed and rubbed her temples. “Not quite…I…We shouldn’t speak about that specific topic here.” She waved her hands and the world around them warped as all three found themselves in a luxurious apartment at the top of Khrox.
Large, glass windows showed the whole of The Eternal City stretching out endlessly. “Here we won’t risk Quinn listening in and sharing what I’m about to say to the Star Council. You three must never share this information. It is so sacrosanct, only Josie and I know about it…But you’re my signers, and you deserve to be ‘in the know’ about it.”
Xera leaned forward. Her voice became deadly serious. “The Architects, my species, we brought Troxanir here.”