I knelt next to the chained Sire, letting my distaste for his request show clearly on my face. “Now, why would I do that, progenitor?” But, seeing as how he was conveniently chained up and wasn’t going anywhere, and considering that I’d been drowning in the agency of others since I’d arrived in this world, I figured I was finally due some answers.
“It is my duty to perish for the creation of a Soul Weaver progenitor. The System demands it,” he answered, his black eyes filled with fanatic excitement, but there was also a distinctly exhausted note in his words. “I am so very tired, Soul Weaver. My existence has been a long one. Too long. I am the last of my kind. The last Angellic.”
“An Angellic? I’ve never heard of them before.”
Orpheus nodded with a sullen expression, though the fervent gleam in his eyes hadn’t wavered. “My progeny. I am a Sire to nothing now, extinguished by the progeny of the Dragon and Demon Sires. Allow me to fulfill my destiny, Awakened. I yearn to return to the Nothingness.”
“What is this Soul Weaver?” I asked, still frowning. There was something extremely unnerving about the progenitor chained in front of me. While I’d encountered and even killed a Progenitor before, none had ever spoken to me, much less entertained an entire conversation. Perhaps this Progenitor, the Angellic Progenitor, was truly simply exhausted from his eternity of life.
“A Soul Weaver,” Orpheus said with a grim smile, “is how the System refers to the progenitor of a race called the Marzana. The System chose you for that purpose. That is what it seeks for you to become.”
“To what end?” I pressed, feeling that there was some piece of information being omitted. Why was it so important to create these Marzana?
“I do not know. But devour me, oh Queen of Rot. Devour me and it will tell you itself.”
I raised an eyebrow in feigned ignorance, though in real surprise, at the nearly begging plea to be eaten. “I am but a baron’s daughter. Why do you call me Queen of Rot?”
Orpheus gave a grunt of irritation. “Do not play games with me, Queen of Aedronir. Even without access to the System, you cannot fool me with a soul transference, no matter how rare such an occurrence may be.”
I leaned in closer so our noses practically touched, his fervent expression a stark contrast to my building impatience. “The System knows who I am then? Who I really am? And so do these Sires that have access to the System?”
Orpheus sighed, letting his head droop a bit. His bindings clanked and danced with the motion. His mouth moved to say something but then suddenly snapped shut as a blue glint appeared in the corner of his eye. A screen.
“You do not control the System,” I realized, grabbing back his wandering attention.
Orpheus shook his head and sighed. “I may be one of its creators, but even I find myself bound to its authority. Only a few Sires can resist its claim.” He paused, a thoughtful look crossing his features as he debated his next words. “Beware the Demon Sire, or the Demon progenitor as you call him. He is not the same being you previously defeated. He is much more … devious.”
“Then who are the administrators?” I asked, ignoring the warning. The Demon Progenitor had already allowed me to escape once. Even if he was a threat, it wasn’t an immediate one. In any case, he wasn’t my problem unless he got in my way.
Orpheus sneered at the question and spat in the direction of Darmond. “Some fortunate mortals figured out blood directly from my heart provides a higher level of authority within the System than normal. Administrator is what they called themselves and I suppose the System approved of the title. It means nothing to a Progenitor, guardians of the System. Once you join our ranks, you will be able to squash them like an insect.”
I snorted. “Unless they bind me like you.”
Orpheus just smiled as if it was no big deal. And, perhaps, to him, it really wasn’t. I wanted to ask how they’d captured him, but I doubted he’d put up much of a fight judging by how desperately he was asking me for death.
“What is the System? Is it alive?” I asked instead.
Orpheus smiled but said nothing. He simply gazed at me with expectation and anticipation, as if he was reading the very lines of my destiny. Eventually, he said, “I do not know, Soul Weaver. It was once simply an amalgamation of our Authorities. But it has been many millennia that the System has ruled over the Progenitors. It is what it decides to be.”
That would explain why the Progenitors were so powerful if their growth had been boosted by the System for millennia. I wondered just how old the Progenitors really were. They couldn’t be millennia old, or there was no way I should have been able to kill the Demon progenitor. If they’d been even close to my rate of growth under the System, they would have exceeded my prime strength long ago.
Yet I had killed him. But not from raw strength. No, I had managed to defeat the progenitor with the help of others in a combined attack on the progenitor’s Mindscape before killing it in the physical realm.
The power of Will. Perhaps…
“Why had my world never heard of the System?”
He, again, merely shrugged. “Perhaps your world did not look in the right place. Or perhaps it did and you simply were not aware. I do not know.”
“How do I rid myself of this System?”
“You don’t.”
“I do not want your System,” I hissed, feeling my impatience at Orpheus’ uncaring attitude boil over. “Nor do I care about your prophecy. Just tell me how to get your Ashwash-cursed System’s authority out of me.” I could still feel the blue blood of Orpheus squirming through my veins and it made my skin crawl.
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“You can’t,” Orpheus said, his gaze far away. “It is a part of you now. You belong to the System. You all belong to the System just as many of the other Progenitors now belong to the System.” His eyes refocused and the restrained creature gave me another pitying smile.
At that moment I decided to take the gamble I’d been debating.
“For someone who claims to know what I am, you do not seem to have any grasp of just who I am.” His confidence seemed to waver for the first time since Dralos had killed Darmond. “My power is my own. I will take what belongs to me. Always.” I leaned in even closer and lowered my voice. “Your System is not the first to challenge my sovereignty, and I doubt it will be the last. But all challenges end in the same way.” My hands snapped from where they hung to grasp either side of Orpheus’ head. “You are correct about one thing, Progenitor of the Angellic. I am the Queen of Rot. I am the Queen of Aedronir. And I am indomitable.”
I drew heart energy from my Core and directed it out through my hands. The moment it connected with Orpheus’ Core, I opened my Mindscape, forcing Orpheus within it. And, hopefully, the System as well. I expected the runes on Orpheus’ shackles to burn with its golden light, but nothing happened. He wasn’t resisting my invasion into his mind. He didn’t even try to summon his own Mindscape for dominance.
Similar to my fight against the Mindscribe, my Mindscape took on the appearance of Ordite. But that was where the similarities ended. Instead of being surrounded by the rays of Ordite’s double suns, there was solid darkness illuminated by three dim moons. Each was high in the sky at different times of its phase: one full, one waxing, and the third waning.
I found myself on a large, smooth boulder opposite Orpheus, who had been placed atop a hill of rocks and sand. A single river, perhaps a dozen meters wide, ran between where I stood and Orpheus, the rushing of water silent in the reality of my Mindscape. In fact, there was not a sound in the dead of darkness other than the beat of our breathing. The distance showed a thick curtain of trees and bushes, but there was nothing in our vicinity other than boulders of varying sizes and sand that wafted in spirals with every brush of wind.
“Interesting,” Orpheus muttered, looking around. “Why do you summon me to your Mindscape? We are outside the realm of reality here. My authority is free of those restrictions.”
I smiled at the same time Orpheus released a wave of his authority, sweeping rocks and sand into a tornado around himself before launching it outward. Although not directed at me, I let out some heart energy to deflect whatever ended up in my direction. My Core jumped and cheered in anticipation, ready to be used to its full capabilities.
“I suppose I’m not entirely free of the restrictions then.” He flexed his fingers, clearly disappointed the restrictions were still there, if lessened drastically.
“Summon your System,” I said, motioning around me. “It should be able to take a more corporeal form here.”
Orpheus stared at me, mouth almost hanging. It was a long moment before he responded. “That is not how it works.”
I closed my eyes, grasped my Mindscape with the full effort of my Will, and bore down on the Progenitor. Unlike the Mindscribe, it did little to affect him. He winced ever so slightly.
“You do not need to fight me,” he noted, not bothering to put up any defense against my mental ambush. “Like I said, I want you to kill me.”
“Summon the System,” I repeated, glaring at him. “Now.”
Orpheus chuckled. “I am not its master.”
“It’s inside of you, isn’t it? If your heart grants authority over the System, it must be a part of you.”
He nodded. “It is also a part of you now.”
“System!” I shouted at the fake reality of our surroundings. “Speak to me! Cease hiding behind your pawn.” Still nothing. I redirected my words to Orpheus’ heart and willed a cut to manifest vertically across my forearm, red-blue blood spilling out. “I have come to make a bet with you. I may not know why you so desire the creation of the Marzana, but I know you need me alive.” I willed the cut longer and wider. Though the blood pouring from the widening cut was not true blood, injuries in a Mindscape affect the strength of one’s mind and sanity. “How far will you risk staying silent?”
I was about to cut an arm off when a blue screen of the Orpheus System popped up.
[NEW QUEST!]
[The System has acknowledged its interest in your welfare. Speak.]
[Reward: ???]
“Finally.” I snapped a thread of power and the wound sealed itself, though the life essence lost wasn’t recovered. “Orpheus tells me he is your guardian or at least one of them. I’m sure you have granted him great strength and abilities, much as you have with the others who were injected with his blood. But I have a question for you. Do you trust the strength of his mind?”
Orpheus blinked at me, clearly confused. “Soul Weaver, I have lived for thousands of years. A mortal could not withstand a battle of wills with any Progenitor, much less one as aged as myself.”
“That’s what the Demon Progenitor said to me,” I hissed back, “before I drove him insane and took off his head.”
[Alert!]
[ADDITIONAL QUEST INFORMATION]
[Quest Type: Optional. This Quest is optional.]
[The System is willing to accept the Soul Weaver’s bet of mental combat.]
[Goal: Defeat the Progenitor of the Angellic, Orpheus, within the Soul Weaver’s Mindscape.]
[Punishment: Failure to defeat the guardian Progenitor will result in the Soul Weaver becoming a progenitor under the System. The Soul Weaver will be tasked with starting a new bloodline - the Marzana.]
[Reward: ???]
“I want my own System as a reward.” My heart raced as I made my demand. “Cut off a piece of yourself and give it to me.” It was a huge risk asking for such an existence to harm itself, and an even larger risk to assume I could subdue even a piece of it.
But I had faith in the strength of my mind. That, at least, had never left me.
[ALERT!]
[ADDITIONAL QUEST INFORMATION]
[Quest Type: Optional. This Quest is optional.]
[The System accepts the Soul Weaver’s terms.]
[Reward: Upon defeating the System’s guardian, a piece of the System will be removed from the Original entity and absorbed into the Soul Weaver.]
[QUEST START!]
Orpheus shrugged, his eyes scanning something in front of him I couldn’t see, though I knew it to be likely the same messages I was being presented with. “If this is what you desire, then so be it.” I couldn’t tell if he was speaking to me or the System. Perhaps he was not truly speaking to either of us. The Sire didn’t stretch or ready himself. His smooth face had greatly aged in the Mindscape as his mind formed his true self. His face was now a mess of wrinkles, old, gray eyes staring longingly into Nothingness. His body shrunk as his hair turned gray. The once great being looked at me and all I saw was a haggard old man.
On the other hand, my body grew once again in height and musculature. The hair on my head lengthened as my eyes deepened to a blood red and hundreds of old scars littered every inch of my skin. The glow of the lunar crescent adorning my forehead morphed into existence, though it was still struck through by a thin black line I didn’t fully understand.
The scar that ran through my right eye began to throb like it always had in Ordite—a familiar, yet haunting feeling that was somehow also comforting. A new feeling I hadn’t felt in my previous Mindscape combat presented itself now; a deep, angry burning around my throat. Although I couldn’t see it, I knew instantly what it was.
The markings of a rope burn. The rope that had hung me to the very last string of my life.
The mark of my everlasting rage.
Waves of authority began to radiate from both of us simultaneously, the powers clashing and slamming into each other with promises of death and pain.
Putting forth all my Will and ramping my Core to full capacity, I surged forward.