“It’s only fair, Lukas,” said Tanya, “I’ve been completely upfront with you. With my past, my powers, my secrets, everything. There’s no one in this world that knows me more than you.I think I deserve to…” she paused, and turned her palms out invitingly, “I think it’s only fair that you do the same.”
Knowing that her hopeful face was probably a mask crafted out of years of practice did not make it any less effective, Lukas observed. Actually it did make it less effective, but unfortunately not ineffective. Reading about how an unconditional gift of five dollars was twice as effective as a conditional offer of fifty dollars in getting people to fill out surveys was one thing. Being on the receiving end of this psychology trick was another. It was true that he was the one that coaxed her into revealing her past, which led to her talking about her private life, an unsolicited gift of confidence, and was now inviting him to offer a confidence in return, and the thing was, he did feel pressured. Refusal, Lukas was certain, would be met with a look of sad disappointment, and maybe a look of contempt that’d make him feel worse than pond scum.
“If you still don’t trust me enough then… I suppose I understand.”
She was already looking sad and disappointed.
He held up a hand. “I didn’t say I wasn’t going to share. I’m just thinking about what I can share with you. You know, without shit hitting the fan.”
A pause to reflect could go a long way in defusing the power of a lot of compliance techniques, once you learned to recognize them for what they were. This was the first time he was about to truly reveal his deepest secrets. Inanna had invested a lot in Tanya, and this was an opportunity to beat Banksi and get out ahead. And Tanya was right. She had opened herself up to him, and if he did not reciprocate, it’d end things badly. And if he did reciprocate, and she blurted them out to Banksi, he could be in a ton of trouble.
That said, chances of the latter were pretty low. Tanya had entrusted him with a lot of private secrets. Just the knowledge of her heritage could land her in acute danger. That she wielded the hope of the Shimizu was another. Her alternate ego, and her ability to become an Asukan nightmare was yet another.
Lukas made up his mind.
“Fine,” said Tanya, “but whatever you tell me, it’s got to be the truth. No more lies.”
Simple but effective.
“All right,” he said after some time. “I’ll share my story with you, at least, some of it. But I should tell you right off the bat, that everything I say is the truth, regardless of how fantastical it might sound.”
“Oh come on,” said Tanya, rolling her eyes, “I already know you’re an Outsider, and that you were taught by a freakin’ Goddess. I also know you can manacraft, steal skills from your kills, and are, for all I know, immortal. What can you possibly say that beats that?”
“You wanna bet on that?” He grinned.
“One thousand mezals says I won’t be fazed,” she shot back.
Lukas met her eyes evenly. “As you know, my name is Lukas Aguilar and… I’m an anomaly.”
There was dead silence as Tanya processed his statement, clearly wondering if he was just crazy. After all, his oath didn’t necessarily mean what he said was true, just that his perception of the truth was.
However, he was ignoring her disbelief as he turned his attention to his Schema. More precisely, to the Omphalos attributes. Much like his skillset, there were considerable changes in the Omphalos functions.
OMPHALOS ATTRIBUTES
Energy Reservoir Capacity
∞
Current Energy Level
684,985,112 units
OMPHALOS FUNCTIONS
Scan
Level 3
Analyze
Level 3
Prophylaxis
Level 2
Soul Siphon
NA
Alpha Condition
Level 5 (MAX) Default for PRIME HOST
Evocation
Level 3
Living Anomaly
NA
Territory Creation
Level 1
Capacitance
NA
Another massive drop. This wasn’t the first time he had gained new Omphalos functions or upgraded the existing ones, so it obviously wasn’t due to that. No, this drop had to happen during the fight with the monster army. Again, he had gained Level-Ups but those too, weren’t a possible source for this drain. No, he had done something unconventional during the fight, just like he had during his flight attempt. Back then, he had channeled motion negation but this time….
The memory of Blob reforming into a copy of Inanna’s axe came to mind. He had wielded that axe with a familiarity he certainly did not possess. A familiarity that, like motion negation, could only come from a single source.
Inanna’s divinity.
Had he somehow fulfilled yet another criteria, unlocking more of her memory, her experience and skills to bleed through? Was her divinity resonating through him?
“What do you mean, an anomaly?”
Tanya had tilted her head, and was watching him with a penetrating gaze. Lukas gave her a one-armed shrug. “I told you, it’s gonna get difficult to believe. And it’s a long story.”
Tanya exhaled. “I think I really need to hear that long story now.”
Lukas watched her for a moment, his expression turning pensive as he wondered where he should start his tale. He sat back down, dismissing his Schema, and prepared himself for a lengthy discussion.
Might as well jump right on into the deep end. He thought after a moment’s reflection.
“As I said, my name is Lukas Aguilar. I was an apprenticing diplomat by profession, back in my world. The story starts when I woke up to an apocalypse, and found myself in that underground cavern, with this weird screen floating in front of my eyes, and a literal goddess’s voice inside my head.”
Over the next hour, Tanya listened with surreal fascination as Lukas outlined for her in broad terms what had happened with him. He talked briefly about the earthquake and how he had found himself suddenly capable of using lifeforce, how he had grown from surviving on moss to fighting small monsters for food. He very briefly touched on his encounter with the yokai, limiting himself to his unfortunate battle with the yurei, the possession and his activation of Soul Siphon. Quonnan became just another ‘yokai monster’ that was unfortunate enough to fall in his way. Lukas kept his stories broad, beyond himself and his journey, careful not to spill any specific information about Inanna. Not that he felt threatened by Tanya, but he had gotten in the habit of being careful with information.
One could not stay in Inanna’s presence, and be unaware of the value of information. Giving out broad details while holding back relevant points was a key skill, and he had first-hand experience against a master at work.
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“And then I woke up at Banksi’s mansion, and found you nursing me. You know the rest.”
Tanya was regarding him in a state of shock as she tried to process what he had just told her. It was obvious she believed what he was saying, and it was equally as obvious that it shook her to the very core. She had gasped audibly when he had talked about being possessed by the yurei, and then again, when describing how she had pinned him down with her frost, and proceeded to lobotomize his head. The look on her face was one of shock and revulsion, though she hadn’t interrupted, letting him finish. When he had, she merely stared in his direction without really seeing him.
“Err… you’re kinda scaring me now,” he teased.
“I’m just wondering if you can terraform yourself. Can you expand outwards? Grow branches out of yourself?”
Technically, he could do that. Anomalous Energy was the purest form of Creation, and he had an entire reservoir of that. Already he had some ideas involving Blob and his monster prototypes, but that was neither here nor there. It was why he was so insistent on getting the wardstone built for him as part of the contract. The potential of aqāru, with hundreds and thousands of monster prototypes within it, channeled through Anomalous energy was limitless.
“I’m an anomaly, not a tree.”
“Anomalies give birth to trees.”
“Well this one doesn’t,” he pointed his thumb at his chest, “this one only grabs souls of its prey and adds them to its collection.”
“...collection,” Tanya murmured. “So does that mean those muspels we fought—”
“Yep.”
“And the bylestyr we killed—”
“Yep.”
“And Hreidmar and that sludge—”
“All stored up in here,” he pointed at his head. “Or well, I can access them anyway. I don’t exactly have a physical core powering me from within. I think.”
“You think?”
“I didn’t plan on becoming one, remember?” He threw back, “ Half of the time I’ve spent in this weird world has been discovering what I can or cannot do.”
“Says a guy that carries a world within him.”
“I did tell you earlier,” he grinned, “I carry a bit of my world around with me.”
“Excuse me for not taking you literally,” said Tanya.
She wasn’t exactly angry with him, or at least, so it seemed. It was more like she was trying to get to grips with the curve ball he had sent his way. Her anger was simply her easiest method to deal with it.
She ran her fingers through her hair. “This is blowing my mind.”
“I appreciate that.”
“Shut up!” She glowered again. “A guy with a world inside him, and a freaking goddess training him. With a semi-sentient piece of metal that turns into whatever he wants it to be. And purrs.”
Lukas wondered if he should tell her that Blob was in fact, a broken culmination of everything the Crypt of Fiendish Worms was, or that he planned to get it up to snuff soon.
“I’m just thinking back on our talks. The assumptions we made about you, and your responses. All of that was just… a complete waste of time.”
“Are you gonna tell Zuken that?”
“I should,” she admitted, “but I won’t. I trusted you with my secrets, and you can trust me with yours. It’s just… how much of you are you and how much…”
“The anomaly? I doubt there’s a difference. I’m… me, at least in most cases. There are moments when I feel these impulses, prompting me to act in ways I normally wouldn’t.”
“Oh?” She asked, “do tell.”
Lukas wondered how she’d react if he told her that the anomaly considered her a predator and constantly prompted him to kill her.
“Take Elena for example. You’ve no idea how many times I had to turn down the option of not siphoning her. There was this time the Screen suggested I was making stupid decisions and needed to revert back to some training-wheels protocol or some such shit.”
Babysitter Protocol
“Right. Babysitter Protocol. Sorry.”
Tanya arched an eyebrow. “Another prompt?”
He groaned. “It’s like dealing with a baby. Granted, it’s voluntary most of the time, except…”
“Except?”
“Except when outside stimuli trigger a reaction from the Anomaly system. Like the svartalfar pillar. The Screen kept pinging me about it, but you told me it was safe. So when I tried to cross it, the pillar treated me like the world around it, and tried to drain me.”
She blinked. “And you damaged it?”
“Drained, not damaged. I have a function, an ability, called Capacitance, that allows me to drain raw energy out of… well, I’m not really sure what triggers it. I only used it once in the Crypt because we were connected, and then with the pillar, but I haven’t had anything similar when I was walking around in Haviskali or here.”
“I’d have thought you’d have kept experimenting,” she mused.
“It’s not as easy as it looks,” he admitted. “Testing out my anomaly powers always seems to attract undue attention.”
“I can’t believe I have a walking, breathing world as a partner.”
“You’ll get used to it. I know I did.”
----------------------------------------
The days following their mutual revelations were far less frustrating. With both of them getting to know about each other’s pasts and powers, their relationship had progressed. Lukas did not have to wonder if she was constantly angling for something, and just how much influence Zuken Banksi was exerting on him through her. Tanya, for herself, seemed more free and uninhibited. The feeling of someone accepting her, despite knowing her bloodstained history, was probably a novelty she had never experienced. Yes, the world was still as ugly as ever, and they still had no idea about how to get out of this borderland, but at least, she had found someone that knew her and yet did not judge her.
Her words, not his.
They had traveled across the borderland. With no need to downplay his abilities, Lukas used kinetomancy and Gravity Control to simply glide through the air, racing with his aeromancer partner. The borderland was large, easily twice the size of Haviskali, though the lack of topological variety made it difficult to distinguish between regions. After what was probably a week of exploration, they still had absolutely nothing on their hands except the occasional unique creature that they fought and he siphoned away, with Tanya grinning at him knowingly.
And then, this happened.
Lukas stared at the thing before him, a thin, dented bruise, floating in mid-air. He had seen something identical back at the Keep, only back then, there were bluish energies seeping out of it. Here, it was the reverse, a sliver of pitch dark that seemed to suck out everything, even light itself, should it enter its reach. Unlike the one that all but repelled him, this one pulled at his gaze, a gravity that made it impossible to look anywhere but at its swirling, inky blackness.
“Is that…” Tanya asked.
“Yep.”
“Do you think…” She tried again.
“Yep.”
It was a Well, or what could it be a Well so long it could be opened. He had seen the amount of power the svartalfars used to drag the bruise open, even for a moment. But they were employing raw energy from the world to do it. Why? Perhaps the world itself rejected these bruises, and hence, they used the world’s energy to counter itself, albeit temporarily? It seemed like a logical idea as good as any.
“Do you think…” Tanya began again.
“Can it be opened?” Lukas finished for her, and found her scowling at him. That brought out a chuckle from his lips. “Maybe. At least, it’s an idea. It’s a door. The svartalfars opened it to cross to this borderland, and the thing about doors are, they tend to open on both sides.”
He regarded the bruise again.
“I’m just wondering how much energy it’d require to push through.”
“Can you do that?”
Good question.
“I think I have a fair chance. The svartalfars use world energy. I am a world, and I have a ton of energy.”
He paused.
“What’s stopping you?”
“I’m… not sure how,” he admitted, studying the bruise. “When the svartalfars do it, they’re opening it from the world’s side to the borderland, which is… I suppose, less than the world we’ve come from.”
“Less?”
“On a world-level. So I’d think that when we come in, this borderland resists us. Or maybe, it doesn’t. Maybe the world itself just resists us, and the svartalfars use the world’s energy against itself. But if I try to open it here, I won’t be pitting my reserves against this borderland…”
“You’d be pitting them against the real world.”
Lukas flinched, an unfamiliar irritation filling him at the very concept that the so called outside world was more real and he was less.
Tanya noticed his expression and automatically stepped back. The girl had good instincts.
“...Lukas?” she prodded.
“...sorry,” he apologized. “I guess this was one of the triggers again. You implied that the world back there is more real and I’m… less. Honestly, I consider your world an abominable fake, especially with that phony Eternal Light.”
Even to this date, he found sudden bouts of anger everytime he noticed the lack of shadows. Compared to that, this borderland was closer to how things worked on Earth and hence far more palatable.
Tanya looked at him for a couple of seconds before snorting. “Well… that’s a first. You probably shouldn’t say that in front of Olfric.”
“Yeah,” Lukas chuckled. “That’d go really well.”
“Are you going to try?”
“Huh, yes, I think,” He said, gazing at the black bruise. “The svartalfars could open it with a couple of pillars, and I think my reserves hold more than enough to match that amount. I’m hoping it should be enough to open a small tear, but where the tear might lead to, I have no idea.”
“You wouldn’t know until you try,” she advised. “If it helps, even if we enter a different nation, I’ll know how to deal with things. And it isn’t like you’d have problems communicating either, given your bullshit language translation powers.”
He rolled his eyes. Tanya had been practically incensed upon hearing that he had the ability to understand and communicate in every language ever.
A lop-sided grin formed on his face, and he raised both arms.
“Here goes nothing.”
He pushed both of them into the bruise.
It expanded by a single foot in every direction.
And then the Screen blared out a prompt in blazing red.
Energy Drain Detected
Omphalos Reserves Draining
73%