Chapter 77: The End of the Beginning.

“I’m surprised you didn’t want to bring your grandfather with you.” Slab commented as we rode Dolce.

“I don’t know why that would be a surprise. He’s relatively new at this. A freshly minted Telepath. He’s so exhausted I didn’t even dare give him the usual boost in case his mind couldn’t take it. Besides, he’s, coming to terms with my new, uh, capabilities. I’m sure he’ll get over it, but there’s no need to rush. It’s something that can wait until tomorrow. Like my talk with Dusty.”

The change in topic made Slab quirk an eyebrow up.

“I remembered everything.” I informed him. “I want to follow up on the things I said the first time around. That and, learning these things about me has, given me a new perspective on things. I don’t think we have as many differences of opinion now as we did before.”

“Well, that’s certainly not ominous.” Monique quipped. Her voice dry as sandpaper as her eyes looked glazed.

“Hey! Nothing of that now. I’m still a good person. Its just that now I’m a bit more… open to alternative means of doing good.”

I clapped then. Not realizing that I had subconsciously grown two new arms until I heard the sound.

“For example! Look at Borislav’s sisters! I can now guarantee that the two of them are safe and sound. Sure, some, less than reputable characters ended up dying, but they were literal slavers and it was their victims who judged them. I will not apologize for that.”

“Not one is saying you should.” Borislav commented. “Also, thank you. I… I knew it was coming since we first captured those two, but it was still a tough wait. I… I really do appreciate it.”

“Anytime!” I cheerfully said. “I will not allow those kinds of evils to prosper anymore! No sir! There is a utopia right around the corner! I can feel it!”

“Is that why we’re about to find what’s left of Anezka in some ditch so we can send her to your parents as a possessed time-bomb?” Charlie asked.

“That is different.” I stated bluntly. “I gave her every opportunity to not be a terrible slaving piece of (Gnome). Up until the very end. There wasn’t a single possible future in which she changed. Don’t get me wrong, I will absolutely forgive people who genuinely want to change, but I’m done holding back against those that refuse to do so. If I left her alone, she would have come back with an army of nanobots and then she would have been everybody’s problem. Not just ours.”

I paused to catch my breath. Noting the way my new abilities had expanded my lungs without my direct input.

That, had every opportunity to be very annoying, if I didn’t get it under control, yet, it felt as natural as if I were breathing normally. My cells forming a kind of, collective. Talking to each other in ways I could somewhat decipher.

‘I guess this was what the Drake was talking about, when he said the flesh kept no secrets from him.’

Part of me wanted to take a small breather and start experimenting, but I knew better. Every second counted right now and I couldn’t afford distractions.

“Look.” I said, through a half-strangled sigh. “Think of it like, chasing after the greater good. Gina and Esmeralda were bad, bad people before the Tutorial. Mr. Park and my grandpa knew each other, which probably means both of them got up to the same kind of shady business. However, these people changed. They accepted the reality of the situation and they are genuinely trying to make the Tutorial and the places they visit through Excursions a better place. Anezka has proven to be someone who refuses to be redeemed. There’s nothing I could have done. Other than fully dominating or killing her. That would have accomplished nothing though. At least this way, she can rescue all the people on that instance from this Halkon nutter. Thereby making a positive impact on my life and the lives of all the people stuck under his rule.”

Charlie grunted, but said nothing more.

“You know, I’m not against killing bad people. I’m really not. I also think you’re doing the best you can with these, circumstances. However, I will warn you about the path you’re taking. The sisters who raised me did so with care and one of the things they always reminded us of was that the world was a complicated place, with many shades of grey. They told me I shouldn’t be so quick to judge without getting a few more years under my belt and the wisdom that comes with age. I used to laugh them off when I saw what Whitmer and his goons got up to, but I’m starting to see their point when I look at you.”

“Oh?”

“What I mean to say is, you have a lot of power right now. For some people, that in and of itself would be reason enough to distrust you or to try to kill you. So, try and keep things simple for now. Making utopias can wait until you’ve got a firmer grasp on things. Maybe a year or ten down the line.”

I shook my head.

“That might have been an option before I got all my abilities back, but not anymore. I can feel all the pain the victims are feeling. I can taste the despondent cruelty of their abusers. That, or their own twisted senses of superiority.”

I paused, tightening my fists.

“I know what it feels like to be desperate enough to rob people and what it feels like to steal out of simple greed or hatred towards the system at large. I know what those actions do to the victims. How it hardens their hearts to the plights of others. How the feelings of helplessness twist in their bellies like a knife. I know thieves that lay awake at night due to their guilt and thieves that revel in their actions. Laughing to themselves as they enjoy their short-term gains. I know how each person in that loop affects society as a whole, how the criminals and victims both will suffer down the line as the repercussions trickle down a neighbourhood, then a city, then a province.”

I paused to catch my breath. Despite not really needing to.

“I also know that all of it can be averted if I choose to act. To stop it at the source. If I stood by and did nothing, then I would be just as guilty as the criminals. No, in fact, I think I would be more guilty, because I am aware of all the consequences. I have to act because I can act.”

“He’s right you know.” Slab butt in. “Think back to that Whitmer man. How many lives could have been improved if he never managed to get his criminal empire off the ground? How many people would have avoided the vices of gambling or drinking or using vile powders imported from abroad? How many families would still have their fathers? Their sons? Their mothers and daughters? How many youths would have gotten normal, productive jobs instead of joining him?”

Slab spat off to the side.

“I understand your concern, Charlie. Someone with less scruples could put themselves in a position to do some absolutely horrific things with this kind of power. Yet, we both know Sully isn’t that kind of Tyrant. If he was, he wouldn’t have supressed the memory of his powers and he would have gotten them all back the second he entered the Tutorial. That hypothetical Sully could have done whatever he wished. A lesser man would have indulged in the power. Revelled in it. Used it to fulfill their most twisted fantasies.”

His voice grew louder. More confident.

“But Sully is not a lesser man. He has proven time and time again that, of all the people stuck down here, he is the one who should be trusted to not abuse this kind of power. He has the self-control and the sense of responsibility to lead us without dominating us. To find the best way forward without forcing everyone else to toe the line. The fact that he is genuinely struggling with these ideas is proof of that.”

I nodded, but said no more.

My brain was thrumming with newfound might as it was. Covering the entirety of the Tutorial instance and all the creatures therein. Their sensations flooding back to me like waves crashing upon rocky shores.

I had done a pretty good job of holding out so far, yet I could feel sleep calling out to me with greater and greater intensity. The previous few days having taken a heavy toll.

‘Yet, the tiredness isn’t normal.’ I thought to myself. ‘Its almost as if the new Shifter abilities are, I don’t know, counteracting the biological need for sleep, while doing nothing about the accumulating stress.’

I wondered if the Drake had felt this way as well. Thinking back to how it always seemed to be on the edge of his seat with barely contained energy.

‘I guess its just one more thing to get used to. I’m sure it’ll all sort itself out in time.’

Our group passed through a colossal aperture on one of the side walls of the gorge. Near the spot where I’d first glimpsed the seahorses blasting at Slab and Dusty.

Funny, that. It had only been a little over seven weeks since then, but it felt like several lifetimes ago. I hadn’t met Buddy yet. Hadn’t gotten [Meditation]. Hadn’t truly understood what I was capable of.

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Back then, I fell asleep to dreams of home. Of being able to reunite with my friends in a timely manner.

Back then, heights had been a serious fear I had to grapple with.

Back then, I’d actually been stupid enough to feel sympathy for a gnome. Well, it was actually Helga’s lure, rather than a real gnome, but the point still stood.

Speaking of which, I never appreciated how right both her and Clover were about gnomes. I wish I’d listened.

The heat was reaching me even through Buddy’s protective layer now. Sweltering and oppressive like a desert sun.

Fish monster swam far below us, with levels ranging from the early 40’s to the late 70’s. Funnily enough, they also had names like:

Lava Bass.

Lava Spear Fish.

Volcanic Barracuda.

Love that.

All of them had been dominated long ago, so there was nothing to worry about there. Instead, we kept flying over the chasm and out onto the great hollowed-out pillar in the center of the space.

The boss was still floating about it. Its beady eyes looking without seeing. Its mind utterly supressed by my will.

It, like its lesser brethren, was a seahorse. With four lizard-like claws and scorpion’s stinger at the end of its tail. Three pairs of translucent fins floated behind it. Moving up and down in slow, relaxed motions that nonetheless defied gravity.

The tube it had for a mouth was leaking a steady stream of molten lava as we approached. Its body unable to act in accordance with its destructive instincts.

“Right then. It won’t kill any of you guys. So, ride Dolce over to it and beat it to death. You might get into the second Tier if you do.”

“We might?” Monique asked quizzically. “You saw it happen?”

I shrugged.

“The likelihood is low, but not zero. Its up to you to feel around your inner selves and connect your abilities together.”

“Easier said than done.” Charlie complained bitterly.

“Well, tough luck, I guess. You’ve skipped a lot of the legwork other people have to go through and now you’ve hit a wall. Whether or not you manage to climb it is up to you.”

I leapt off Dolce. Spreading my wings wide as the warm currents rose up to meet me.

I made them and my body larger. Stronger.

Enveloping myself with thicker skin wrapped in yet another layer of rubbery hide and cartilage.

All while using [Thaumaturgy] to create freezing chemicals within my bones and muscles.

I descended down into a rocky outcrop before too long.

Buddy’s boot segments sizzling as they made contact with the bedrock.

I felt his pain and winced.

“Turn back into the suit.” I ordered at once. “The one without shoes.”

‘I’m good Sully.’ Buddy protested feebly. ‘I got this. I will always look out for you. Because I’m your best friend in the entire world and because no one loves you like I do.’

“Buddy.” I said, with more force than I would have used otherwise. “I’m not asking. I am ordering you to unmake the boots. Now.”

He froze. His mind struggling to cope with the command.

Still, he relented. Releasing his grip on my feet and head as the boots and visor withdrew into the stark-white suit that I’d first seen on the Tall Man.

My feet burned. Badly. Pain lancing up my legs like sharp needles.

Yet all I did was breathe and calmy grow yet more layers of bone around the bottom of my legs. Until it appeared as though I’d put on thick plated boots made from some scavenged dinosaur fossil.

It did the trick and I kept walking forward without further incident. Moving until I’d reached the mouth of the cave on the pillar’s side.

From there, I descended further. Leaping down steep inclines with no concern or regard for my own body.

Such worries weren’t necessary at this point. I had seen the future and knew nothing down there could hurt me.

Not the increased gravity. Not the monsters I’d brainwashed so many weeks ago. Not the jagged stones waiting at the bottom, nor the rapidly increasing cold.

When I did land, it was with a loud crack. My bony soles rupturing the solid floor with a resounding impact. Leaving behind the imprint of two massive feet.

I freed myself and kept walking. Past the layers of mushroom trees that welcomed me back with soft murmurs and past the dominated lemurs bringing water and bits of food to the captives on the other side of the chamber.

There, slumped lifelessly against the wall, were two people.

Both looked filthy. Reeking of dung and urine and unwashed detritus.

Their hair oily and wild, with overgrown knots that tangled themselves around each other. Their limbs weakened and shrunken from their sedentary positions. Their eyes hollow and lifeless from the things I had done to them.

I approached them now once more. Taking note of the Tall Man surging up from Randall’s shadow.

He had two heads now.

One with my own light blue eyes and another whose eyes were tinted a deep shade of red. Like rubies under the morning dawn.

His wings seemed fuller too. With actual feathers running down their length.

Furtehrmore, his posture was straighter. More commanding and oppressive.

All while his feet released less incorporeal tar into this reality.

I nodded to it. To him. To me.

And his hands fell upon Randall and Anezka both. Bringing their minds, their very beings, back from the darkness beneath the manse.

It was, odd to watch. Like puppets coming alive without anyone touching their strings. Their spasms appearing more like the death throes of hunted beasts than anything a human could have been capable of.

The screams that followed were filled to the brim with strangled desperation. Both wasting no time in begging me for death.

I hushed them with the slightest push of my Psy and moved over to Randall.

“This is it.” I told him. “You have reached the limits of your growth in Pandemonium. Yet it is not enough. Go now and fight monsters until you drop.”

I held his crying face in my hands.

“You are already dead, Randall. There is nothing you can do about that. However, if you put up a good show and get three abilities to Tier 10, I promise you a quick, painless end when this is all over.”

My hands went into his cheek. My fingers melting into his flesh and changing his muscles and bones. I felt the warmth of his blood and the tension of his veins as my fingers dug deeper. Psy coursing through this new link to infuse Randall’s body with the Drake’s [Vicissitude].

Until he grew to proportions that rivalled my own. His limbs having lost any sign of their previous weakness or fragility.

“If you fail me, if you languish or try to kill my friends… I will hurt you. And I will keep hurting you, long, long after you’re dead. I will keep you in the bad place. And you will know nothing but darkness and suffering for the rest of time. Until the stars burn out in the night sky and all the universes in all possible realities collapse back into primordial soup. All that makes you human, all that makes you your own self, will be gone. Eroded into nothingness and forgotten forever. And through it all, I will keep hurting you. Dragging out each minuscule nanosecond until they seem like unending eternities by themselves.”

Despite the control I had over his body, Randall still managed to (Gnome) himself.

“Think about your new mission, if you understand.”

He did so. Pushing out the thought between horrified pleas for death.

“Good.” I stepped back and released my hold on him.

He could not even summon the will to think about resisting, as he portalled out of there in a flash of collapsing air and shimmering light.

I turned to Anezka, just as the notification popped up.

Hidden Objective Completed:

Wandering Boss Sun-blessed Sea Dragon has been slain.

All Students in Tutorial Instance gain 5000 Store Tokens.

All Students involved in slaying the Sun-blessed Sea Dragon split a reward of 200 000 store tokens based on contributions.

The three highest contributors gain a choice between 1 Inferior Symbiote or 1 Equipment Upgrade Token.

I waved it away and stared down at her.

Noting the stick-like arms and legs. The way her ribs poked out of her ragged shirt. The terror in her eyes.

“Come now. Don’t think such rude things of me.” I chided. “You saw those memories. You know it was the future you doing those things. You know that you would have inflicted that on anyone else without batting an eye. So, why think that of me? Why am I the villain, if all I did was turn your own actions upon yourself?”

Someone else might have tried to deny it. To beg forgiveness and assure their captor that they were a changed person. That the future they saw would never come to pass.

Indeed, Anezka was trying to make herself appear this way. Her surface thoughts crawling with apologies.

Yet her innermost thoughts revealed a darker side.

She wasn’t at all sorry that the future her had planned this.

No.

She was beyond distraught that it hadn’t worked. That she had been the one to suffer, instead of someone else.

In her own, twisted little mind, all that mattered was that other people had interfered.

In the depths of her own brain, none of this was her fault.

I smiled sadly and caressed the sides of her face. My fingers digging into her mass as well.

“You know. I actually wonder if I should let Randall live after all. I just glimpsed the future and he is fully capable of repenting. Fully willing to do so as well. He has done terrible, terrible things. But he can change. I see it. I know it. There is a chance. A small one, but a chance nonetheless. I actually need him to die to get his powers, but it is a dilemma.”

I allowed a small chuckle to escape my lips.

Then, I started changing her. Making her taller. Stronger.

Inflating her muscles and re-enforcing her skeleton.

Adding more organs and improving the ones already there with all the graces I’d inherited from the Drake.

“But you… no. Even now, I can’t see a way in which you don’t go back to your usual tricks. Looking through your memories, you’re the classic textbook narcissist, to a degree that is quite spectacular.”

I added another heart and another pair of lungs to her chest. Solidifying her ribs into thick bone plates that were nonetheless still flexible.

“Nothing matters, so long as you get ahead. People who get in your way, people who refuse to be stepped on, are always bad. They are being annoying by wanting to live their lives. They are evil because they didn’t give you what you wanted. This is how it has always been for you. How life has always worked. And, even now, despite the terror and the pain and the desperation, you continue to blame me and my damn foresight for your troubles. Not the fact that you were fully intending to cripple and torture all the Telepaths you came across.”

I wrapped her skin with a subdermal layer of flexible cartilage. Moving on to modify her eyes and add new sockets to her skull.

“Even Randall turned inwards and despaired during his time in the bad place. But you kept snarling at the void. Not taking accountability for your actions.”

I added two new arms to her torso and began transforming her spine so that it could accommodate a tail.

“I will not even ask for your opinions. Or your cooperation. I have seen where that road leads.”

I withdrew my hand and stepped back. My eyes piercing her new, monstrous form. I sighed and grabbed a hold of one of my extra arms. Ripping it loose from its socket with a wet, pulping sound.

“This mission will involve a lot of killing. Cherub won’t like it, since it might involve harming humans. So, I’ll have to arm you with something else.”

The wound closed at once. Flesh knitting itself back together at a speed that beggared belief.

I held the now spasming limb. Caressing it gently with my other hands.

I pressed down on it, molding it with a gentleness and dexterity that surprised even me.

When I was finished, the thing had taken the shape of a slender longsword with a large grip. Its mass carved entirely of bone, with the sole exception of the two open eyes at either side of the hilt.

I doused it with [Omniscience]. Letting my Psy seep into the weapon as its insides writhed in ecstasy.

Then I threw it and the Difficulty Change Token into the air.

“You will take my weapon and my soldier. You will do my will. By doing so, you will atone for your crimes.”

A red hand reached out and caught them both. But not one of hers.

Anezka’s new and improved nose started sniffing the air. Her eyes wide as she realized the stench of sulfur had exploded all throughout the room.

She heard a small, pleased purr and the accompanying sound of skittering insectile legs on solid stone.

Then, came the voice attached to the hand.

“Mittens is here.”