It was a blob.
Crafted out of aqāru, with a large, malevolently purple tongue too large for its body.
And it purred like a cat.
Almost instinctively, he placed his palm against the blob’s face.
It swept its long and wide tongue out and licked his palm before rubbing its ‘face’ against his skin and purring. No, he wasn’t imagining it. This thing was purring. It was a walking, talking, meowing mass of contradictions. Naturally, it fitted right in place with all the crazies that happened around him.
Inanna would have laughed her head off. And then made a sarcastic quip about how it fitted him to a tee.
“Uh,” Tanya asked, “Why is it purring?”
“No clue,” he murmured, silently petting it. There was a strange sense of familiarity about it that he couldn’t place. Oh, he understood its origins right, but there was this nagging sensation at the back of his head telling him there was more to it.
Much, much more.
Then it happened.
His fingers intrinsically grabbed the Blob, which twisted itself, reverting into being an arm-band, before projecting itself forward, imitating one of his vatuatil daggers in a fraction of a second. The length-by-weight ratio felt perfectly right.
And then went right back to being a band. Like it was the most natural thing to do.
It was only a second after that he realized he shouldn’t have known how to do that. The knowledge came to him completely and immediately, with a familiarity of a body part.
He paused and stared up at Tanya, who was gawking at him, unblinking.
“Uh, I didn’t know that was going to happen.”
His words broke her silence. “... Sure you didn’t.”
Disbelief. Not unexpected. Nobody was going to buy the idea that there was no connection between him and the aqāru, after seeing the Crypt craft its Failsafe based on him.
He regarded the bands on his extremities.
What are you?
Nexus Established
Accessory Confirmed
Reading Data…
Lukas had barely processed what he just read before it sandblasted his head with an impossible amount of information. There was a rush of images and alien perceptions, flashes of processes in action, images of monsters, both complete and in process. There were images of featherglass crystals, their constituents forged by a power so intense and coherent that it had its individuality and awareness. He saw the ponderous dance of the Crust, rearranged and twisted to serve the purpose of this alien awareness, and assimilation of not a hundred or thousand, but tens of thousands of monster prototypes — crafted or assimilated, ready to deploy or left uncomprehended; vast reserves of impossible soul information, whole and broken and so much more.
Lukas fought to contain those impressions, trying to see beyond this tumultuous wave. But the more he tried, the more he sensed its futility. This? This was a disorganized mess — no structure, no clarity, no nothing. Information on how to craft vatuatil out of nothingness broke halfway to continue with stuff on netopyr goo.
It was like taking Wikipedia and shuffling its contents with each piece of information randomly structured in different languages.. The information was technically still there, but finding it was like finding a needle in the world’s largest haystack.
“It’s from that anomaly, isn’t it? That metal?”
“Yes.”
“Thought so.”
Lukas looked up at her.
Tanya gave him a half-shrug. “We feared it was a piece of that guardian monster. But it didn’t react to… well, anything. We just thought it was the raw metal and left it at that.”
Lukas found that a tad difficult to believe, but he let it go. He couldn’t afford to be antagonistic. Not yet.Besides, she wasn’t wrong. Not completely. This wasn’t the doppelgänger he had fought and tried to siphon at the end. This was—
The Crypt of Fiendish Worms itself.
Or whatever remained of it, anyway.
Yes. The more he thought about it, the more it made sense. Unleashing that memory back then as a last-ditch attempt had been too damaging for both of them to bear.
When a monster died, its soul returned to the Omphalos that created it. As long as the ‘kill’ happened within the Anomaly territory. And as an acknowledgment of the ‘kill’, the ‘killer’ gained a certain amount of ‘Experience’ that was further harvested to form Soul Capacity for him or her. Either way, the ‘information’ was conserved, and transformed from one form to another.
Much like the law of conservation of energy.
Omphaloi were no different. When the Crypt’s Omphalos was destroyed, all that information also had to go somewhere. If a monster’s soul returned its ‘mother’ — the Omphalos, then logically, the Omphalos’s data must revert to its mother— the world itself.
Unless.
There was an alternative. A perfect recipient that was readily available for absorbing the spiritual data.
Like the aqāru.Lukas stared at it for a long moment, forcing himself to breathe. All that information. The ability to craft metals and alloys, organic and inorganic through pure conjuration, the ability to synthesize new monster prototypes and the ability to create life — all of that was sitting in front of him.
As a metallic, purple-tongued, meowing blob.
If knowledge was power, then this was power with a capital P. Deadly in the wrong hands, and possibly what he needed to bring Inanna back. He had long ago learned to use the ‘Assimilation’ and ‘Rejuvenation’ properties of his Omphalos. This… was going to help him understand ‘Creation’ and ‘Mutation’. Inanna had mentioned how she used her Divinity to reforge him. That implied that her ‘History’ was still there inside it.
The very sounds of Creation still echo through the vast darkness. The universe remembers.
Inanna’s words pervaded through his mind.
But how? He wondered. How do I get you back? What is this divinity you forged me from? Where do I begin? Where do I go?
Analysis Complete
Rendering….
The sudden notification brought him out of his reverie.
TYPE
HETEROMORPH
CONSTITUENT
AQARU
Deciphering Spiritual Constitution…
Decoding…
Rendering Complete.
Nature
Conglomerate
Number of skills
16159
Number of Monster Prototypes
Null
Information Corrupted
Lukas suppressed the urge to whistle. Over sixteen thousand skills? The somewhat scary implication being that the blob held the skills of the monsters ‘owned’ by the Crypt. Except random and cluttered and utterly useless.
Reversing Corruption will require +597,531,354 units of power.
+47% chance of success.
Initiate Rollback Protocol?
Lukas blinked. The amount of power required was staggering. He’d have to throw away a majority of his Omphalos Energy Reserves in an attempt. Not to mention he had no clue how to regain those reserves back. The Capacitance function worked on the Anomaly, but there was no guarantee it would work on the world. And even if it did, would it make the freaking world treat him like an invader and send forces to crush him?
The thought sent a shiver down his spine.
He looked at the Blob. It was risky, but if he was successful, it’d be an immense help.
Did he want to do that? Now? With just a 47% chance of success?
⸻ “Where is your sense of adventure?”⸻
He inhaled.
…
…
No, no, it wasn’t her voice. It was just—
Just what she’d say.
Exhaling, he regarded the Screen.
Command Acknowledged
Rollback Protocol Deactivated until further prompt from PRIME HOST
“...even listening?”
Lukas blinked and turned around. “I’m sorry, what?”
“I asked, what is it?”
“A… fragment.”
“Of what?”
“A greater whole,” he said, his eyes drilling at the sentient piece of metal on his arms. “But the ‘whole’ is a broken, disorganized mess, so this ‘fragment’ is being… erratic.”
“I don’t understand.” Hard lines appeared on her otherwise smooth features.
Lukas tilted his head in acknowledgement. This… would require a careful play of words. It was his good fortune that Tanya herself provided a neat excuse for him to build upon.
“When I fought the guardian at the end, I tried something that would have destroyed it. I guess I screwed things up, and this thing ended up latching on me.”
“You’re telling me you shared your soul capacity with an inanimate metal?”
“Inanimate?” Lukas whirled at her. “Did you forget? This thing talked with us and tried to kill me.”
That shut her up.
He considered the Blob again.
“Doesn’t… Does it bother you?”
He blinked. “Should it?”
“It tried to kill you.” She deadpanned.
“You tried to kill me, too. You don’t see me holding that against you.”
Tanya let out a quick breath that might have been hiding a laugh. She tried to grab for his hand, but then stopped midway at the sight of the Blob, and stood back straight. After a moment of reconsideration, she held her hand out.
“Come on. You need a meal and a bath.”
Lukas grinned and grabbed it.
----------------------------------------
The meal was a ripe assortment of saffron and green and pink, with a healthy bit of what tasted like an exotic mesh of tomato salsa and avocado. He put all of that on a large, round flatbread and rolled into one, a far cry from the meaty and greasy tacos he used to feed himself every morning back home.
Lukas inhaled it within a minute.
Upon realizing that she had underestimated how hungry he was, Tanya had given him over half of her breakfast while she went to get some more.
It was gone before she got past the door.
Tanya took it as a challenge and raided the kitchen, returning with a breakfast monster. There were a lot of soft grains in the main course, giving a soft pink background to the plate, with another assortment of leaves, petals, and what looked like blue roots. The beverage he drank felt like a mix of milk with cinnamon and turmeric, but carried a wild aroma that flared his nostrils.
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This was enough to feed an entire party.
Lukas demolished it by himself.
“Huh…” said Tanya, tilting her head in his direction, “I’m glad I don’t have to pay for your meals.”
Lukas gave her a goofy grin. His body was still functional despite being dead for over a month, with lifeforce trying to compensate for the lack of actual food. Now that he was awake, his body wanted the genuine stuff.
Tanya watched him, amused.
“Got it all over my face?”
“It means you enjoyed the cooking,” she said, handing him a napkin. “It’s nice to know you’ve come into focus.”
Focus. Yeah. That was one way of putting it. He had taken a nice, long bath earlier. His lower extremities were still weak, barely allowing him any movement without a crutch. Tanya supported him on his way to the bathroom and back. It made him wonder if she had taken care of his bowel issues when he was unconscious, but hadn’t quite worked up the nerve to ask her about it.
Some things were better left unsaid.
“I hope you have forgotten none of your skills. That would annoy Zuken.”
Right. That guy. The willy terramancer was sharp with words, but powerwise, he was closer to average. Weaker than Ryu, but closer to Quonnan’s level. Lukas was no expert, but he knew that the subterranean environment was already boosting his terramancy and even then, it was nothing spectacular. Fighting him in a neutral environment would likely be far easier.
But politically? Now that was a different jar of worms.
“I think I’ll manage just fine,” He said, focussing on the blend of sweet and sour. And was that a bit of grapefruit he tasted?
Absently, he thought of his Schema.
SOULSCAPE
NAME
Lukas Aguilar
Type
Prime Host
Level
8
Experience
239
Current Threshold
2560
Utilized Soul Capacity
14979 / ∞
Mildly slurping through the beverage, his eyes wandered across the information displayed, absently marveling at the unfamiliar words his Schema showed up. Nothing particularly interesting.Closing his eyes, he continued to drink with that tiny smile still on his face. And then it clicked.. Opening his eyes, he swiftly inspected the last line again. And again.
And nearly choked in the attempt.
Infinite. Soul. Capacity.
Totally missing the sour look from Tanya, Lukas stared at his Schema and scanned it thoroughly. Prime Host. Not Base but Prime. It was certainly not the Warmonger Protocol that made the difference. Was Inanna’s actions at work here? He had leveled up again. Not surprising. But infinite soul capacity? This was the perfect thing he needed to assimilate—
His expression soured.
Kinetomancy.
He wanted to find a knife and repeatedly stab something with it.
He had probably been the recipient of all that Free Soul Capacity that the Crypt’s Omphalos had contained within itself. The Blob had absorbed the ‘used’ Soul Capacity, while the ‘free’ had reached out to him, giving him what he had always wanted.
Only Inanna was no longer there. A cold, cruel irony of fate.
“Something wrong?” She asked, unable to keep the sourness off her face.
Lukas didn’t blame her. He had spit in her food.
“Just… a cruel surprise. But no, it’s all good.”
And it was.
ESSENCE
Maximum Lifeforce Output
5075
Replenishment Rate
700 / hour
LEY LINE NETWORK
Maximum Mana Output
6325
Synthesis Rate
810 / hour
His lifeforce and mana synthesis and output had grown significantly, strengthening him. The Level-Up would have also molded his body according to his skill set, making it easier than ever for him to perform his skills with maximum efficiency. And as for the differences—
PRIME HOST
Unconditionally superlative among all Monster Prototypes.
Alpha Condition Raised to Maximum (Level 5) granting an absolute mind free from external influence from Monster Prototypes.
Amplified Resistance to mental intrusion and enthrallment.
He widened his eyes in gleeful surprise. As for the monster prototypes, having an infinite capacity meant the ability to ‘download’ as many skills as he wanted without care. There was no saying what kind of dastardly plans Solana was hatching against him and there was no Inanna with him any longer.
“You’re making that face again!”
Damnit.
“…. the others,” He said, “Where are they?”
The delight faded from her face, replaced by a serious calm. “I thought you wanted some time alone.”
“I did, but sitting on my ass will not get me anywhere.”
“Well, Zuken’s out for some business, and he’s taken Elena with him. They’ll probably return tomorrow morning. I’m not familiar with Olfric’s whereabouts at this moment, since he’s mostly away on jobs. Apart from the maids and the groundskeeper, I doubt there’s anyone else inside the mansion.”
“And you stayed back to play nurse?”
“Someone had to take care of you. Among all of us, I know you best.”
Definitely. She had seen him in action way more than the others. Lukas wondered if this nurse-business was merely a facade to put him at ease, while the others carefully monitored his behavior.
At least, that was what he’d have done.
“Can I ask you something?”
“Of course.”
“What happened after I — I fell unconscious?”
“I think you mean dead,” she said. “We saw the discharge of raw power. Whatever you did, it was powerful. It nearly buried us alive. We only had enough time to grab you and escape. Originally, we thought you were dead. Banksi almost shifted you to one of his dungeons. And then we found out your heart was beating. It was… strange.”
“How did the others react to that?”
Tanya snorted. “Olfric thought you were a demon and wanted to purge you with Holy Light. Not that I think it’d matter, given how you were being all ‘look-at-me-casting-a-shadow-under-Eternal-Light’ earlier. Elena’s on the fence about you, but only because she can’t sense your mind.”
“Wait, what?”
“Elena?” Tanya repeated. “Brown hair, about yay high. Cute as a button. Remember?”
Lukas nodded slowly.
“She’s a changeling.” Tanya dropped her shoulders. “Elena’s damn good at sensing and manipulating emotions. Like, genuinely good. But she can’t sense yours, and it pisses her off.”
‘Sensing and manipulating emotions…” Lukas murmured, remembering his own lessons on psionics. “You mean she’s a psion? She can read minds?”
“Emotions, not minds,” Tanya clarified.
“And Banksi?”
“What about him?”
“What does he think of me?”
“Zuken’s… complicated. I think he was just disappointed at losing his ‘Outsider’. He was like a kid with a broken toy when we found you weren’t breathing.”
Wonderful.
“And you? What did you think?”
“Does it matter?”
“It does to me.”
Tanya didn’t move a muscle for several heartbeats. “I thought it was just one of your… Outsider-things.”
Lukas arched an eyebrow at her response.
“You’ve already shown you can ignore the Eternal Light at will. You killed an anomaly. Without amassing Sin. You’re not bremetan nor yokai, but can use both lifeforce and conjure mana, both in and out of combat. And you’ve got mad healing skills. None of that is exactly normal.”
“So?”
“So if the normal rules don’t apply to you, why would ‘death’?”
Lukas blinked. Twice. Her logic felt cold and inhuman and much drawn out, but immaculate at the same time. He had proved to be an extraordinary person. It was only natural that even ‘ordinary’ things took an ‘extraordinary’ shape around him.
Neither of them spoke for several seconds.
“Lukas…”
“Yeah?”
“Why were you inquiring about dead gods earlier?”
She leveled a deadpan stare at him.
He sighed. “Can I convince you to forget that question?”
“No.”
“Bother!” He exhaled. “Yes, I want to resurrect a goddess. From my own world. A Goddess whom I consider an…associate, of sorts.”
Yeah, ‘associate’ felt like an apt description. Inanna would probably throw a fit if he even so much insinuated that they were ‘friends’.
She gave him an oblique look. “You’re a High Priest.”
“I’m not.”
“What are you?”
“I told you, an associate.”
“What kind?”
“You ask many questions.”
“And you don’t answer any of them properly.”
“Bother!” Lukas exhaled again and squared his shoulders. “We… had a bargain. I promised her something and in return, she helped me. But circumstances happened, and She… perished?”
“You seem unsure.”
He nodded. “I’m not sure how death works as far as gods are concerned. I’m hoping to find something on the subject here. You people have your own gods, I mean.”
“That we do.”
“Any ideas where I could start?”
This time, it was her turn to shrug. “I know little about gods. But I don’t think we can revive them after their deaths. I mean, the Asukan Pantheon lost many of its members during the Great War, or so they tell us.”
She had a point. But mythology also showed about gods getting resurrected time and time, often by beings greater than them. He wasn’t sure if Christ’s Resurrection fitted the bill, but other religions had thematic similarities with the process. Baldur was the prime example of that, having prophesied to be resurrected after Ragnarok. There was also the tale of Zeus resurrecting Dionysus, and Shiva resurrecting his son Ganesha and so on.
But asking direct questions could be dangerous. He needed to find the line between what was safe to ask and what wasn’t. Solana hadn’t minded talking about Nordic people. That didn’t mean the Asukans would feel the same.
Information. He needed information. About the world, about the town, the Empire, its customs and beliefs. Maybe he could get started with the Asukan Pantheon and figure a way out from there.
“You could ask Zuken though…” Tanya offered, hesitation in her tone. “If there is anyone with access to information that’s non-compliant to Asukan theology, it’d be him.”
The ends of his lips drooped downward, as he glanced at the aqāru slime sitting next to him, rubbing its head against his knee like a kitten. It’d graze its metallic tongue across the floor, only to sneeze, morphing into a cone and throwing itself into the air, before finally floating down like a deflated balloon and reforming on the ground.
Yeah, this thing was going to give him a headache.
“It’s attached to you,” Tanya observed. “It nearly snapped Olfric’s head off when he tried to pull it off from your body. Poor guy wouldn’t come near you for days after that.”
Huh. So it had reacted while he was dead — erm, unconscious. Good to know.
“Zuken was rather interested in its morphing ability. I’ve never seen a metal act like that. Like, the svartalfars have metal golems in their armies, but they’re more like automatons and not actual creatures.”
Lukas did a double take. “There are svartalfars living in the Empire?”
Tanya gave him a weird look. “In their Keeps, yes. Not very approachable either.”
Well, wasn’t that surprising? So far, it looked like this world had two factions — the Asukans and the Yokai. The former ruled the lands, and the latter survived in cracks and patches, hiding from the Eternal Light and possessing people to survive.
But that wasn’t all. There were nordic elements around. And Elena — Elena was a changeling. Celtic mythos painted her kind as offspring of the fae with mortals. He had yet to hear any references to the Ulster Cycle or the Tuatha, so chances were that the term could refer to offsprings between the elves and mortals too.
And he had entered this mythology carnival with a Sumerian War Goddess taking up space inside his freaking head.
Joy.
“What are you scheming?”
Lukas blinked at that. “Who, me?”
“Oh no, I was talking to the wall. It goes all cloudy-eyed and stiff from time to time.”
He rolled his eyes at her deadpan. “Just wondering where to go from here. I know I told you about needing a new life, but I didn’t plan on that.”
Tanya shrugged. “You’re strong. You’ve skills. Zuken’s interested in hiring you. I don’t see how that’s a terrible start.”
“What does he want from me?”
She shrugged again. “Damned if I know. Zuken hasn’t sent me on any new missions since the Anomaly. On the plus side, I’m no longer hunted.”
“Your people hunted you because of your Sin, right?”
Tanya instantly went defensive. “You know nothing about me!”
Lukas brought his hands up in apology. Clearly, his mouth had gotten the bad habit of running off without consulting the rest of him. Another part of his mind carefully observed her reaction and filed it away.
“Maybe it isn’t my place to comment, but I find your situation ironic.”
“In what way?”
“You got shunned because you committed a Sin. No one wanted to hire you. And then, Banksi, an influential man, hires you to commit Sin. Ironic, isn’t it?”
“You’re right,” Tanya said after a few minutes.
“About what?”
She leveled him a gaze. “That it isn’t your place to comment on it.”
She straightened her back, her lips twisted in disdain. “I was on the run. Living the life of an outcast. Now? I’m free. I’m not shunned, and my work conditions are better. Many people would call that progress.”
“Many people would also call that exchanging one prison for another.”
“Why do you care?” Tanya half-snarled, half-shouted. Clearly he had touched a raw nerve.
“I just think we’re kindred spirits, you and I.”
“We’re nothing but strangers that have tried to kill each other.”
“Strangers don’t nurse each other back to health.” Lukas replied in that composed tone.
“You… I…” She looked utterly frustrated, before a strange look flashed on her face. “You— you want something from me, isn’t it?”
His jaw fell open, surprised. “...’xcuse me?”
“No, it makes sense,” said Tanya, rattled by her own deductions. “We fought. You won. But you’ve ensured I’m satisfied. First by your attempts after I woke up, and then during negotiations with Zuken. No wonder they think I’m lying about you. They think you and I are older acquaintances. And now this—”
It was like watching glass shatter. Lukas almost winced at seeing her pleasant mask shatter, leaving behind a wary neutrality.
“So what is it? Ezzeron? My frost powers? Yes, that must be it. Isn’t it? You subdued my powers back in the anomaly. It’s why when I look at you all I want to do is to—”
She broke her tirade at the last possible moment and looked away.
Lukas knew he had only a single chance to keep himself from spoiling his one ace in this new world. And so he acted.
“Yes.”
Tanya looked at him, her questions clear on her face.
“Yes,” he clarified. “I brought your Frost under control.”
She switched her hands, moving the bottom one to the top as if she worried about wrinkling her dress. Her mouth twisted. “Of course. I knew that was the case.”
“I want you to know I will not hold that one over you.”
Her eyes widened slightly. She held completely still. “Why?”
“Why what?”
“Why did you bring it under control? And why wouldn’t you hold it above me?”
“Do you want me to?”
“No, of— of course not,” she backpedaled. “But I want to know why.”
“Because I respect you too much for that..”
He couldn’t interpret her expression when he said that. There could have been anger in it, or suspicion or terror or blank curiosity.
“You don’t believe me.”
It wasn’t an accusation. The truth was pasted on her face.
“I’ve lived my entire life in the Empire. I don’t believe anyone.”
⸻”Trust breeds betrayal. I’ve seen it as a babe. I’ve seen it in Ereshkigal.
Your words will not shake me.”⸻
In that one moment, Lukas didn’t think he had ever met someone so lovely, yet entirely alone. Call it a hunch, but he understood her. On a fundamental level. Not the predator that Inanna had sealed away, but the young girl that was trying to survive against a harsh world outside. Someone that was compassionate, and friendly, and caring, but had seen enough ugliness to walk into an anomaly, ready to commit a Sin, believing it was her only choice. But Lukas had learnt the hard way that sometimes, a choice wasn’t a choice at all. And yet she had done it. And survived. That told him she had a lot of inner strength, and that was a quality he always found attractive.
He could really get to like this girl.
Which, come to think of it, was why Zuken Banksi and the others had left her to care for him. She had admitted that they suspected them to have a deeper and older relationship. Perhaps Zuken Banksi was luring him with Tanya to make him reveal his secrets?
Too many questions, and webs of intrigue that kept deepening everywhere he looked.
What would you’ve done, Inanna?
Silence was the only reply he got.