Benjamin Vryce

Benjamin fought the demon as it struggled to reassert control over Nyx. He had messed up when he cut so much of the pattern away. He hadn’t realized it had been keeping the demon at bay. He had known only that she was being driven insane by the added memories, and had wanted to help her regain some stability.

The problem was; now that he cut the memories away, he couldn’t bring them back. He was working with; the loyalty of Honor, the stalwart defender that was the red queen, the killing machine of the blue king, and the loyalty and love that came from the goblin’s clan-oriented natures. He could adjust what was left to an extent; but trying to put back what he had removed, was like trying to put a sawed-off branch back onto a tree.

At least he was working with both hands again. The poor girl was clinging to him like her life depended on it, but at least she wasn’t trying to kill him anymore. He worked as fast as he could; his core was holding up well, but he wasn’t. The strain of keeping so many threads going at the same time was wearing at his mind.

He increased the aspects of Stomper that made him such a solid companion. Bumping up the red queens desire to protect as well, hoping it would translate to him. He worked to balance out the cold cruel nature of the demon, preferably without driving her insane again.

He needed her functional, she was extremely valuable to the war effort. Benjamin knew it was more than that though, she represented all that was left of his companions. He could see the best aspects of them all, in three-dimensional lettering. Their loyalty, their stalwartness, their love. Sure, they were important for her self-control, but those qualities were what had defined his now dead friends.

He could see the balance begin to shift in the right direction. It wasn’t as simply as balancing out the chaos and creation essence, but that was the best way he could describe it. The chaos had taken over as he trimmed away at the creation aspects of the pattern, and now he had to tip the scales back. Benjamin had gone as far as he could with the others, with a sigh he turned to Grace’s remnants.

What he found was a combination of his impressions of her, mixed with what had been left when he had unraveled her pattern so quickly. What had been left on his soul had contained a lot of love for him, he wondered sometimes if that was why she had fallen for Stomper so quickly in his forest world. Was it because she had left her love with him?

He didn’t have the time for this, as his mind had wandered, so had his essence threads. Sharpening his focus he steadied them back out, he had to use what was here but the idea of it saddened him. Not knowing how to choose, he just increased every aspect of hers simultaneously.

He didn’t pick any part of her or discard any others, just pushed them up together. As he pushed, he felt Nyx slowly relaxing her grip on him. The unstable chaos and creation essence was finding an equilibrium. Once it steadied out again, he looked it over for defects.

Not finding anything obvious, Benjamin ran his dual essence threads into the pattern. He stitched everything into place, running the light and dark thread into the pattern like he was sewing. He used a large quantity of his core in doing so, but he couldn’t risk her mind unraveling again. The demon / goblin warrior might not be perfect but it was too late to change anything else now.

Finally finished, and drastically low on essence, Benjamin slowly lowered his arms. Wrapping them around the now still woman who straddled his torso, he held her to himself. As much to comfort her, as to regain his own balance. That had been an ordeal; not only the stress of the working, but the emotions he had been forced to relive after months of healing. They had taken their toll on him, coupled with the kobold battle he was truly exhausted now.

* * *

He didn’t know how much time had passed; and he couldn’t tell if he had slept, but eventually Benjamin had to get up. His core was refilling, slowly, and he would need a good battle or a lot of time to top it off completely. Sadly, he was sure he was more likely to get one of those things than the other. Moving his hands from Nyx’s back up to her shoulders, he gently pushed her up.

She looked as exhausted as he felt, and he realized for the first time that he had been technically operating on her soul. Or, as close to a soul as a pattern could come, from what he had been taught. It amazed him, how a male and a female could be brought into existence and spawn an entire people. The longevity of a pattern would, and did, allow such a thing to happen. Not wanting to think about the implications that might lead him to, he shoved the thought aside. It joined the other thoughts that confused him but he couldn’t change by worrying at them.

“Nyx?” he asked, seeing that her eyes weren’t in focus. At his words she snapped back to herself and scrambled to her feet.

“Master,” she said with a deep bow. “I am so, so incredibly sorry. I don’t know what came…” her words trailed away as she bowed her head again.

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“Nyx,” he said rising to his feet. “I already told you, that was an experiment. I learned a lot from it, I’m just sorry it caused you so much pain in the process.” He was having trouble looking at her like the demon she had been partially based on, now that he had seen every part of her being laid out before him in three dimensions.

She still seemed dazed, but that was to be expected he supposed. He had rewritten huge chunks of her personality while she was awake for it. That had to be unsettling, and while he could see the changes he was making, she had actually felt them. He looked at her pattern again, just to be sure. Everything was holding.

“I…I saw it, Master.” She started to say, stopping a few times as she flicked her eyes up to his and down again. “I saw the memories. They’re fading now, but I know what it was like to follow you the way they did.” She looked at his face as she said the next part. Her ice blue eyes burning into his own.

“I also know or knew, how you felt about your people.” She stopped talking then and bowed once more, with real respect in the move.

Benjamin didn’t know how to take that, he really didn’t. It was like something the hero of a story was told not something someone like him ever heard. Hopefully, the memories were indeed fading like she said. Then, she wouldn’t act like this for much longer.

“Yea, well. Thanks Nyx. I appreciate you saying that at least.” It was all he could think to say. She was showing so much more personality than she had before this that it threw him off step.

Before he was able to fumble out anything too embarrassing, he was saved by a sharp pain on his leg. Frowning, he realized that Ice had just bitten into his body. Without hesitation, he moved himself back to reality.

Opening his eyes, he saw that the she wolf had moved back to the door. Where she was biting at a horde of imps. How had they gotten in this far? Shouldn’t the security have been able to stop this, there were hundreds of juggernauts outside. To say nothing of the gun implements, with a groan he realized this must be what the damn chicken had cooked up to get the patterns back.

It seemed like drastic overkill to Benjamin but he wasn’t a robotic, gold plated chicken so what did he know. Without skipping a beat, he pulled Nyx into reality. It took a toll on the essence he had left, he hoped she could restrain herself this time. He wouldn’t be healing her like he did before, not without a healthy dose of his essence restored first at any rate.

When Nyx appeared, she was still wearing her tree climber clothes. One glance at the door however had her changed into her armor in a flash. Sword and shield at the ready. He didn’t even have time to worry if she would be able to battle her old kind, without so much as a second’s hesitation she moved to engage the imps.

Her body shape and her wings allowed her to fill the doorway and keep the imps at bay better than ice had been managing. This type of environment just wasn’t well suited to the poor wolf, Benjamin hoped that the next time they did battle it was against something in an open area. Where the she wolf could shine.

As she backed off, he spotted Jade, still sleeping on the soft indentation in the floor. He rushed to her side, trying to wake her up. It was to no avail however, whatever she had done to herself wasn’t going to clear up that quickly. He cursed, hoping she wouldn’t be out for a few days like he had when he made Nyx.

Picking up the leather clad blonde; Benjamin was surprised, again, at how light she was. The woman had so much attitude that he tended to forget that she couldn’t be any taller than five two, and maybe one hundred ten pounds. Not that he would ask her, she was bad enough to deal with without bringing up her weight.

Slinging her unconscious body up and onto Ice’s back, Benjamin used a combination of her armor’s straps and the straps of Ice’s armor to bind her in place. Both items were soul bound so they could be fixed later, if they survived at any rate. He was really missing her ogre and essence pistol right about now.

Moving over to the door, he looked out. The resort was flooded with imps. His newly enhanced ears also picked out the clacking sound of hellhound feet on the metal floor. They couldn’t get out the way they came in, but they hadn’t explored further into the resort and he didn’t know if there was an exit that way or not. When the trio of pony sized black bear/dogs ran into view, he decided they would have to risk it.

“Nyx, we have to go deeper in.” He shouted to the fiercely battling demoness. “Clear us a path into the hall, then Ice will lead the charge.” He continued, as he pulled the King’s Blade from his void space.

The autumn hive’s scything limb had proven itself an adequate weapon on the hive world, and the King’s Blade was worlds better. While not in his dual essence enhanced state, the scything blade was his best option against the imps.

“Go!” he yelled, rushing out behind the girls. Ice and Nyx were very powerful, but there were still only two of them. They were surrounded within seconds. The two and a half foot tall, red skinned imps flew down on nimble wings. Flicking their body length tails out, to connect with the three-inch venomous stinger that tipped them.

Ice was hit almost immediately, her huge draft horse sized frame creating an easy target. She didn’t falter however, only continued to run deeper into the resort. Jade was strapped tightly to her back, bouncing slightly as she moved but otherwise staying put. Benjamin hoped she could avoid being stung too many times while unconscious, he didn’t know if he could heal her or not, it’s never having come up before.

They ran and killed for several long seconds, Benjamin and Nyx’s natural regeneration keeping them moving. Benjamin had to heal Ice of the toxic stings several times, and he wondered idly if he could add regeneration to her pattern. Before deciding, that he had experimented enough with that for a while. The drain it caused on him was light, even less, when he considered how he was being replenished constantly by dead imp’s essence.

Entering what looked like a basketball court without hoops, Benjamin just happened to notice a viewing observatory near the top of the bleachers. He wouldn’t have seen it as they ran; if it hadn’t been for the flash of gold that caught the light, when Drumstick flapped his wings. His vision narrowed in rage at the sight of that little asshole.

“Nyx, up to the left. The observatory, see it?” he called as he slashed at imps and tried not to slip on the highly polished floor.

“Yes, Master.” She said, giving her own wings a quick flap to improve her field of view.

“Good, see the golden chicken? I want it, now. Regardless of the cost.”