Lurona city [southern shores of Fuminao Legacy Kingdom], local time [1793.12.28]

========Theron Nalani PoV========

He grabbed the limp body by the collar and heaved it into the air, roaring madly. He pivoted and brought it down with power. His hand seared through everything in its wake, leaving a deep, incinerated gash right under the neck as the body was finally released and smashed into the cracked tiles with a loud crash and crack of bones.

Shards of broken stone shot into the air. The amulets, previously hidden under the leather, flew in all directions, freed from the bonding chains.

The silver ring on the man’s finger was smacked away by a lightning-fast swipe, even before the limb started to bend alongside the rest of the crumbling body.

The sounds of fighting intensified, the struggle becoming more desperate. Loud shouts echoed through the whole hall.

But Nalani didn’t heed anything that was happening around.

Time seemed to slow down as he concentrated, glaring down vengefully as the body slowly folded on itself before his eye. The amulets, the Soul-linked ring, the stone shards – everything seemed to hover in place as if gravity was denied its authority over matter.

He started to slowly—subjectively speaking—kneel on one knee while reaching for an item, hidden under the folds of his robes.

His Mana was cascading downwards, flooding the fissures in the stone floor.

A burst of air tried, and failed, to wrench him away. It crashed violently with his protective Mana construct; snuffed out in assured mutual destruction.

He leaned forward, raising his arm.

Someone was shouting. He didn’t care.

His clenched fist, armed with a knuckle duster, shoot downwards.

A veritable explosion of Mana erupted from under the floor, piercing upwards, through the body, to reach his weapon. The unseen, overloaded, one-use enchantment—if it could even be called that—raptured the very foundations of the building, breaking the floor in a wide radius.

The surface imploded slightly, as if hit by a giant sphere of force. For a moment, he floated; dust and debris were rushing up all around in the wake of the destruction.

The fragile metal spikes of his weapon touched, and then pierced the burned flesh of his target, releasing their foul contents that immediately met the upcoming wave of Mana, activating all at once.

Nalani smiled, even as the world around started to fade away…

-------------------------------------------------

…and his perception shifted.

His consciousness touched upon his Soul. He was no longer merely a thought, a construct shaped by a physical organ.

With the help of the residues Magicules and his mental Skills, the transition was smooth and painless. Now, his mind had all the time he would need.

Because time couldn’t touch the Soulscape, except directly through him.

The all-encompassing emptiness was pressing his psyche with the weight reserved only for an inanimate infinity. The void, the plane of Souls – no matter how filled it was, it never allowed him to see more than what he knew existed. It never allowed him to perceive itself in any meaningful way; isolating him, and scraping on his sanity with each ‘moment’ he spent there, with each ‘movement’ he made, despite seeing only an endless nothingness.

If it was, in any measure, a reflection of death, he dreaded the moment they would meet. An unavoidable outcome, yet the more terrifying the more he understood it.

But right now, he wasn’t gazing into the infinite. No, he had one goal, and one goal only. The Soul of a man he almost killed was right before him, shining brightly like a solitary star on the firmament. Its shape was morphing fluidly with each passing moment, sometimes even resembling a humanoid figure, but mostly taking on geometrical and plant-like shapes. The constant changes were headache-inducing, but also fascinating – it was clear that this Soul was somehow different from others he saw before.

It was close to him, figuratively speaking, because he was touching the body directly right now. Close enough to interact with. The distances here were another puzzle he had no hope of solving.

He could already see the specks of his Soul-bond entity reshaping all around. The fluid he injected, the myco-bacterial hive colony, started to adapt to the host’s body.

He used his Bond to strengthen its adaptability, temporarily compromising his own Regeneration and Memory. The maggots, forming in the endless space, inside and outside of the man’s Soul all at the same time, wiggled ominously while trying to find a purchase, searching for fertile soil to grow in.

His ethereal avatar started to smile.

But the smile didn’t last long.

He was sure enough time has passed, yet none of the maggots managed to plant themselves.

It was only the first stage and it already posed a problem. His visage frowned, folding on itself a few times. The Soul-representation of his Bonded colony scraped helplessly on the ‘surfaces’ of the man’s Soul, not advancing even a part of a finger, which was saying much more in this space than in reality.

He got rid of every amulet, artifact, and enchanted weaponry the man had before engaging. There was no reason to believe he missed something. Yet, the ritual wasn’t proceeding as it should.

He would shrug if his ethereal avatar had shoulders. It was strange, for sure, but he wasn’t here to solve the mysteries of that man’s abilities. Feeling no danger emanating from the connection to his body, he decided to sacrifice his Flexibility and Intuition to bolster the colony.

It was something not possible in normal circumstances, but he was the wielder of true knowledge and a trained Soul arts practitioner. Such restrictions didn’t apply to him. Though, he had to keep his Power and Willpower intact for fear of losing control and becoming unable to return to his own body. He would also have no means to direct the colony.

The maggots ‘changed’ their color, becoming more orange in this monochromatic world.

Just as he was taking a step ahead in his mission, the Soul flexed.

He almost lost concentration when the wave of… immaterial force pushed on his Soul and everything around. He knew then, that the ritual enchantment was shattered, that his skin enchantment was overwhelmed, that nothing was going as planned.

That explains some things, the thought hit him as his consciousness was pushed back to his body in the chaos that ensued, he meddles with Soul interactions. That’s why he needs the Generalist!

The thoughts became illegible once again as he re-established his focus and mental connection.

The maggots suffered from the strike, but there were still enough of them to work with. The Soul was pulsing in wild waves now, though. This meant the man managed to notice his machinations, unconscious as he was, and his Will was flooding the zone.

This would limit his time.

Instead of trying to force multiple intrusions, knowing the Soul was strong enough to fight them, he guided the existing maggots to combine. That would pull a lot out of his own Soul, but he didn’t have a choice.

But, again, his actions were interrupted. And this time, his whole being shook in revulsion and disbelief at what was seeing.

Before the maggots finished combining into a larva, an alien shape started forming in the ‘center’ of the man’s Soul.

The thing was easily distinguishable as its perfectly geometrical shapes started to suffuse the space, overtaking his senses, obscuring everything else around.

Then they showed up. A cold shiver run through his entire being, through every aspect of his existence, as hundreds… no, thousands of tentacles… malformed, piliferous, improbable tentacles started to emerge from the alien seed or its vicinity.

His instincts, deeply engraved in his Soul, screamed in horror as the being started touching everything around, hunting for prey, tasting the ethereal surroundings, searching for him!

Nether! his mind screamed with enough force to reach his living brain and form the thought. He started to evacuate immediately in panic. The terror propelled him to abandon everything and just make distance from that abomination.

The last thing he registered, was the larva being shredded to pieces and absorbed greedily…

===============================

Zeph’s eyes opened wide as he gasped for air with a wheeze.

The pain hit him almost instantly, forcing his lungs to spasm.

He forced himself to look up at his assailant, fearful of receiving even more physical punishment.

But the man was already stumbling back, panic visible in his one good eye. Then, suddenly, he glanced up, his eye widening even more.

Zeph’s body was unresponsive and in pain all over, but he reflexively followed his gaze by tilting his head. Miraculously, this action didn’t cause more pain for him. But what he saw, made him panic even more.

A line of black-clad warriors was keeping his allies at bay, barely managing it going by their wounds. But right now, despite the fact that the fight was a lost one, three warriors separated themselves from the group and started running right at him.

In his peripheral vision, he noticed that the gray-robe started running in the opposite direction.

Fuck me! he screamed internally, trying to move his Veil. There was none, though. He tried to raise his hand, but it was similar to moving through mud. His legs were unresponsive entirely, and the pain almost made him black out again.

He could feel the beads scattered on the floor, beyond the small crater he was laying in. He had to activate the explosives somehow if he was to survive, but he didn’t have the means!

I refuse to give up! Explode, you stupid things! His already blurred sight started to darken as he started abusing his Will. His body was already in a critical state, trying to keep him alive, but his Soul was intact. He could feel, almost physically, as something was taken from it to power his already ‘Diminished Will’ – the courtesy of the Willforce Morphon.

The forced Will regeneration was the strangest of sensations he ever felt. As was using the Soul’s ‘energy resources’. At the same time, he felt more in line with himself, more firm in his convictions and the taken course of actions. But, at the same time, more vulnerable, as if his life was on the brink of extinguishing.

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He forcefully ignored those emotions and started to Will the Mana in the beads to spin faster. If powering them with more Mana was impossible, this was the only way to force them to explode.

What he didn’t take into account, though, was the price of manipulating Mana without having any physical connection to it.

He blacked out a second later, after half of the explosive beads have blown right under the feet of charging individuals, even as an implosion of air happened behind their backs.

At least, I didn’t have to fight for Veil dominance… was his last thought before he lost consciousness.

~~~

“That isn’t… Where is your… responsible!...”

“Look, we just paid, there is… see how much…”

“That is irrelevant, you… blackmail…”

Zeph slowly woke up to the sounds of an argument. He was fluctuating between a dream-like state and awareness, but the noise was impossible to ignore.

“That’s unacceptable!” the high-pitched shriek brought his consciousness back fully as he grimaced at the sound.

He groaned, trying to lift his hands to his ear, but the pain it had caused made him curse and abandon the attempt immediately. He was tucked under a heavy coat, which made it impossible to move his arms, anyway.

There was a silent pause in the annoyingly loud dispute, at least. He braved to open one of his eyelids slightly to see what was happening.

He was met with two faces looking at him from above. Entirely too close for his comfort.

“Hen yu…” he coughed, aggravating his dry throat. He swallowed the remnants of saliva in his mouth and took a deep breath – or tried to, as the pain stopped him halfway. He coughed again, weakly, before forcing himself to speak again. “Move?”

The faces backed, allowing him to finally take them in. Makani’s was one he knew, even if his disheveled appearance was even worse than before. But the girl at his side was a mystery and curiosity. She had, for all things, the cat ears. The very ones Makani and Aisha laughed about when he asked. They were kind of strange, though. Their U-shaped base was made from metallic plates and blocks, sticking out from her lush, brown locks, and clearly attached directly to her skull. Only the middle and top parts had the shape of ears and seemed to be made from biological matter. He could also see small metal plates in the cracks of her skin around the eyes and on her left cheek. The almost-silver eyes, so similar to his own, added to the cyberpunk theme that was going on with her. The most surprising, though, were her facial features. She was, obviously, a human of some sort. By Earth’s standards, she would be half-Asian, but that wasn’t what made him curious. The frame of her face was sharp, triangular almost, mostly because of the furry, brown sideburns framing it. Also, she was short, maybe one-sixty.

But that’s kind of logical… If someone has cat ears, weren’t they in that business? If that’s true, I can see her starving in the early stages of her life… he thought, remembering what Aisha had told him.

Irra frowned. “Stop gaping at me, you pervert!” She straightened up and crossed her arms. “I am well beyond that stage of life. At least I took the useful ones!” she said defiantly, twitching her left ear. “What a rude.” She harrumphed and looked at Makani. “How is he conscious even?”

“Don’t ask me,” he said, evidently as surprised as her. “He should be dying, not waking up…”

“Stop…” Zeph started, before gulping another tickle of saliva and abandoning his remark. “…water,” he pleaded instead.

“Oh, we have something much better than water,” Makani said, producing a bowl from somewhere beyond his line of sight. “You have to sit up, though. Try to bear with it.”

The process was much more painful than he expected. His broken ribs, even aligned and kept in place by Gru, were still moving around. Not to mention, the nerves in the lower parts of his spine were just regenerating, giving him a lot of feedback they normally wouldn’t.

But the broth was all the reward he needed to forget all about it. Makani had to feed him, but he didn’t care. His body reacted violently, assimilating every drop greedily. He could almost feel as the cells in his throat were returning from whatever afterlife awaited them as the miraculous liquid washed over their unliving graveyard.

When he finished, sighing slightly deeper in contentment, Gru vibrated delicately. Zeph nodded.

“Um… can you—” he coughed. Even watered, his throat still hurt. “Can you prepare something with more… iron?”

They looked at each other puzzled.

“How much iron?” the woman asked, looking at him skeptically.

“The more, the better.”

She shrugged and walked away to a small alchemy station set in the corner of the room. Zeph noticed a mechanical, silver tail as she turned but looked away to not irritate her anymore. Taking a better look at the room, he saw that it was as much a single-person apartment as a workshop. Racks and shelves were overfilled with random trash, metal parts, and reagents. An OSH inspector would have a heart attack seeing this place, as would the Human Rights Committee and any self-respecting housewife.

The amount of chaos and filth was difficult to describe. He suspected the pile of books and cloth to the side was the only reason he was able to lay on an empty bed.

“I wasn’t going to ask before we come to an understanding but…” Makani was hesitating, it was clear in his eyes as he observed Irra. “I hope you don’t have any lingering trauma from that time. Our Guild is quite… diverse, if you know what I mean.”

She snorted, already mixing a few liquids. “I wasn’t that desperate. They were more my boyfriends than anything else. I have my dignity. You are paying for this, by the way.”

“Um, what was that quarrel I heard before?” Zeph’s throat was being restored in a record time. He suspected Willforce Morphon shenanigans.

“She is being bloody stubborn, that’s what was happening,” Makani said, massaging his eyes.

“I am not your slave!” she snapped back. “You can’t just pay my debts and expect I will abandon my projects to work exclusively for you!”

“Really? You would rather continue to make some basic potions for the local scum, without a hope of ever paying them back?” Makani was truly irritated with her, something Zeph saw for the first time. “Maybe you should try using the logical part of your brain? It’s actually quite useful!”

“Bug off, Manariter!” She stepped up to them aggressively, almost shoving the conical flask in Zeph’s face while glaring at Makani. “They are giving me all the freedom I ever wanted! I won’t be constricted by the likes of you!”

The flask was filled with lightly-yellow liquid that smelled of mechanical oil. Zeph tried to raise his hand to take it, but pain shoot through his body the moment his muscles tightened slightly. A low groan escaped from his mouth as his body leaned forward, his head pushing against the flask and the hand that was holding it.

Irra turned her head to him in surprise and reacted immediately, catching him before his torso bend too much. “Ah, sorry. Here, take it slowly,” she said with worry, keeping him up with one arm and putting the flask to his lips, slowly feeding him.

For all that tongue-lashing, she sure is a softy… He thought, taking small gulps. I think I understand her, though… And also, how she was played until now…

It took a few minutes but, finally, the flask was empty and Zeph could feel Gru’s grip on his bones and internal organs tighten, becoming firmer.

“Thank you,” he nodded to the woman, fighting off the sudden wave of fatigue. “You know, I get that you are wary of us. I would be the same.” She’s living in a trash heap, but it’s her trash heap. A place she knows and owns. “But do you even know what we want to work on?” he asked, looking wearily at her.

She raised an eyebrow, indicating he should continue.

“First and foremost, we need a Mana battery. But not a typical one – I believe the existing schematics will be of no use. And we don’t want to pay for them or get into a long contract, either. What we want, is to make an implant for… a certain organism. And it has to be compatible with human physiology, too.”

That seemed to break through her distrustful shell. He was sure he saw a flicker of light in her eyes as her brows shoot up.

“We are not some half-assed institution, either. We will guarantee you a place to live, a laboratory, and as much freedom as possible. Though, no experimentation on the races, or other shady activities, are allowed. If you do drugs, then we test them in a safe manner.”

“What with my projects?” She asked, now more interested to speak with them.

“We have a department responsible for production and selling. If you agree to give a percentage of the income to them, we can not only propagate your inventions, but make sure they are tested and upgraded if you agree to make a contract over the schematic. They will belong to you, all the same.”

She took a step back, looking at him with wide eyes. “And how do I pay for my lodgings?”

“You would be under my department. It will pay for those expenses, but the equipment is all on you.”

“A lifetime contract?” she frowned.

“No. You can be either thrown away for the lack of cooperation or breaking basic rules, or you can file a resignation at any moment.”

“That’s not possible,” she shook her head, her guard returning back in full force. “No one does dealings like that. I won’t be killed over one invention, it—”

“Warrior Priestess from Leilucia Temple is a part of our group. And this guy here,” he nodded at Makani, “is from Blackwind Tower. You expect them to lock you out and force you to give away your secrets?” he asked mirthfully.

Her mouth opened and closed a few times, before she glanced at Makani, who was already holding his amulet in his hand, smiling slightly.

“By the way, what is that thing?” he asked, pointing at the half-melted lump of blue material.

Still slightly out of it, she looked at the indicated shelf and, after a moment, walked closer and hopped up to retrieve the item. She looked at it for a second, before turning back to them. “Just some useless trash some kid had found on the streets, why?”

“It’s plastic. His invention,” Makani nodded at Zeph. “Try saturating it with Organic Mana.”

She looked skeptical, but complied. Her eyes bulged a moment later. “What is this?! You…” she looked up, shocked. “That can’t be true… right?” Her eyes were turning back and forth between the two.

“Aisha, our Warrior Priestess, will show you the contract. There is a room for negotiation and no reason you shouldn’t look at it. It would be good to visit our headquarters, too,” Zeph explained, fighting to stay conscious. Something was siphoning every last bit of his energy, but feeling his wounds, he wasn’t even surprised.

“But… But Vuld said…”

“Ah, him. We have paid him already and it didn’t pose any problems. Also, he will work with us, too.” That information was the last straw. Irra plopped heavily on the nearby pile of cloth and trash, her gaze empty as she tried to process the information.

Makani left her to ponder on the situation and turned to Zeph. “Right, you don’t know what happened in the aftermath. Vuld requested that we guarantee him the first take on any water traffic commissions. He was pressing for a more permanent contract, but with his reputation…”

Zeph nodded slightly. “So, he was just looking for a better work environment? That’s kind of surprising… Maybe he really cares for his crew… How many of them died?” he took a more somber tone.

“Only three. But almost half will be bedridden for a few weeks. The enemy lost half their numbers, but we weren’t able to catch any alive. The retreating force killed off the disabled…”

Ugh. Yea, it was definitely a special force of some kind… “What happened after… well, after the gray-robe attacked?” he asked, unsure as to the chronology of events. “How did I survive?”

Makani grimaced. “I am not sure myself. You two were under a masking and muffling effect for the most part. It was, indeed, a trap. I only noticed after the first explosion…”

“Yes, he used some kind of explosive right under my feet…” Zeph said, looking at his unresponsive limbs.

“I have to say, your performance was beyond impressive. The guy was on the brink of level 100 and yet, you almost managed to take him down.”

Zeph laughed weakly. “Thank Gru for that. I was out of it. Without a Veil… It’s our worst weakness, isn’t it?”

Makani nodded. After a moment of silent pondering, he spoke again. “He threw you onto the floor, then used a few Skills and a backup weapon to finish you off. I was… helpless.” He gritted his teeth. “I am not sure how you survived… I am not even sure what exactly transpired. After that one punch, the one that created a small crater on the floor, our opponents just charged at you while he ran off. They were a suicide squad, that’s for sure. If not for your beads breaking their legs, you wouldn’t have made it.” He shook his head in disbelief.

“I think Gru may have an idea…” Zeph said cautiously, glancing at the still-unresponsive Irra. “But let’s leave that for later. My Interface is pinging me; I better check what’s wrong.”

Makani shrugged. “You do you. Aisha and Kwan should be here shortly, either way.”

Zeph concentrated on the pending notification that tried to worm its way into his vision for some time now. Thankfully, the new subprogram the System created wasn’t intrusive.

Warning! [Energetical Resources] at critical levels!

[Status: obsolete]

Warning! You suffer from [Mana deprivation]! Source: [Soul starvation].

Explanation: No Mana dependency detected. All [Modules] stable.

Warning! You suffer from [Diminished Will]! Current state: [Medium].

Warning! Continuous [Will] draining detected! Current state is deteriorating!

Warning! [Unknown] infection detected! [Mutagenic Bacteria B652H81] in full mobilization!

Warning! [Immune system] unstable!

Warning! [Mutagenic Pathogen] detected!

Warning! [Assimilating Pathogen] detected!

Warning! Autoimmune response detected!

Warning! [Homeostasis defense] engaged in full capacity! Destabilization imminent!

Warning! [Hypercytokinemia] forcefully suppressed by [Garuan]! Destabilization risk: HIGH!

Warning! [Immune system] corruption detected!

Warning! [Immunodeficiency] detected! Source… found: [Pathogen] mutation.

Warning! [Mutagenic Bacteria B652H81] lacks resources! [Starvation] imminent!

Warning! [Bio-ion-mercury complex] forcefully fed to [Lymph nodes] by [Garuan]! Destabilization risk: VERY HIGH! [Starvation] risk: Medium!

Oh, for Gods’ sake, now I caught a fantasy version of HIV?! What the fuck?!