William Yu is a piece of shit. He’s a womanizing, amoral, greedy, fool of a motherfucker.
He’s also my best friend. I owe him my life. I owe him more than I can give back.
I can’t say he doesn’t have death or worse coming for what he’s done. But I can say this: his death won’t come from me, and I’ll see that son of a bitch suffer everything other than death if it is within my power.
The damnedest thing is, he’d do the same for me. For me and maybe only one other person in the world…
-John Bishop
II-9
Resolve (I)
Agnesia grew tired after a while, and Wei let her retire to his bed. Why she wanted to say and avoid her own room was something he didn’t ask. Loneliness was his best guess, though. Silence was an unwelcome adversary after a lifetime spent with friends and family. Wei commanded that horrid Companion to go face the door on the first floor—to warn him if anyone was about to break in, and it obliged without issue.
For the rest of the night, he set about experimenting, learning his newest Skill, and planning for what awaited ahead. He took turns manifesting each Component of his Shell, calculating how long it took for him to run out of Source.
The cost was minimal for the Common rarity components. His Chainspear Arm and Gauntlet of the Breaker could both last for almost thirty seconds before he ran out. Manifesting them in tandem reduced his functional period to only ten. His helmet and legs were likewise of a similar status, while his Chassis and Proximal Aegis could but last only twelve and eight seconds individually. Such was the cost of their potency.
Whatever part he called upon exploded into existence in bursts of monochromatic color, and they replaced corresponding sections of Wei’s body. It wasn’t so much a transformation as a usurpation—his spirit superimposing over his material form.
“You are a Skill I need to use sparingly and tactically,” Wei said to his Shell. “I can only sustain you for a scant period. Perhaps only a few seconds if all used in tandem. But they can be called and dismissed at my will. You are not only an augmentation for my strength—you are a pristine tool of surprise.”
Enlightenment Advanced > 41
[1/100] Aspect Advancements to Core Ascension
“Good,” his Shell said with a grumble that barely edged on approval. “You are thinking. You should think more. It makes a better patriarch of you.”
Wei nodded, taking his Shell’s criticisms to heart. His spirit intended to fashion him into a proper warrior, and so he would accept it. Whatever insult, whatever tribulations that might follow, he would endure, and he would come out the other side stronger.
“We need to find an opportunity to test ourselves in battle. Perhaps a sparring round against a Bishop or another Trespasser?”
“No,” his Shell said. “They are beyond you. You seek to engage the trespass without a pride and curiosity for your distance. This is not worthwhile. What is worthwhile is if you gauge the true capacity of your companions, find a time to face each of them, learn their strengths and weaknesses. Stop neglecting their needs, for their needs are your own as well.”
“Yes,” Wei agreed. It was good for him to learn, to understand and master the disciples under his sect. They were to be a true force, after all, and if they were to stand and not be consumed by another of the circles, then Wei needed to understand their nuances as if his own. No more selfishness. He had to be beyond just an individual.
“There is one component I can test, right now, however,” Wei said.
“The chassis,” the Shell said approvingly. “Yes, you should understand how fast you can regenerate your source, just as much as how much it empowers you.”
Out of all his components, the Chassis of the Self-Devouring Ruminator, perhaps, offered the greatest raw advantage in terms of aspect amplification and survivability. With an errant thought, Wei summoned the chassis, and it exploded out from his chest. It did not so much ignite in the air as it did spill out from his core. Wei felt his own size grow—one time, two times, three times—just as he witnessed when he first gained the shell.
It was not limited in terms of size but rather malleable, adjustable in combat. With a thought, he shrank it, though the Source consumed remained consistent.
“How large can you get?” Wei asked the shell.
“How great does your Omniscience stretch?” the shell replied.
Wei’s eyes widened. That was a considerable area in size. If this skill could allow that, he could be the size of a mountain—more!
“You would be a fool to think this,” his Shell said. “Fortification is what determins our integrity. If you wish to break yourself by offering a larger target, then do so, and die with shame.’
The scornful rebuke was taken to heart by Wei, who nodded. At once, he also felt the dormant power within his chassis. It was like a catalyst waiting to be used. Without another moment, Wei flared his source and immediately felt an inebriating drain overtake him.
His very spirit was sapped, but the sapping did not lead to waste. Rather, his source flared like a supernova, and conceptual amplification spread through his body, reaching out to each of his aspects, amplifying them, magnifying them beyond their potential. They climbed as fast as his source drained, and his Source drained fast.
In a scant three seconds, he went from having four hundred Source left to merely fifty. It was a staggering skill, one that left Wei overwhelmed. He cut off the flow, blinked himself out of existence, and when he finally dismissed his shell, the source emanated from his being as faint, barely more than a few dim wisps.
For the moments it was active, though Wei felt like he could tear this very room asunder with a wrong step, that he could wrestle a continent. His mind felt crisper, the world was almost still—the flowing waters of his garden unmoving, and his Omniscience capable of sifting through every grain of dust in the air.
More than all that, Wei felt absolutely divine.
“That is because your ambition has plummeted as well,” his Shell interrupted. “Your will is drained to fuel my power, to fuel your very force of personality against existence. And so, your strength of spirit is diminished, giving way to delusion.”
Wei examined his aspect of ambition and found himself shocked. It climbed far slower after being drained than his Source did.
Ambition — 12
“Twelve,” Wei muttered. It slowly began to climb, but at a far slower rate than he appreciated. Wei shuddered. The greatest weakness of his body, more than the Source’s consumption, was the greater vulnerability.
At once, a flash of his mother’s headless corpse skimmed the surface of his memories, and Wei doubled over, clenching his head. “No… out! Get out!”
“There is cost to using anything, especially my power,” the shell declared. “Put her out of your mind through labor. It is time for you to restore the Source you lost.”
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Wei did so with considerable effort. For all this time, his intent, his willpower, had been his greatest asset, allowing him to endure in the face of all tribulation. Now, when he felt fragility of a brutal kind, a single insult might have sent him into tears or hysterics. He felt small. He was small.
Cobbling the ruins of his focus, Wei began meditating and as he did, the black and ivory plates constituting his armor lifted outward as if open vents preparing to spew waste. Yet, instead of expelling anything, they allowed the world to flow through him. Tendrils of Source extended and mixed with the slurry that was existence, melding Wei into all the concepts and Essences that was reality’s mixture.
Without a better description, Wei felt himself melt—melt into the backdrop of reality; melt and become one with all, drawing forth the quintessence of his recomposition through the flowing waters of unification.
“To be is to remain, to understand the Source of all things.”
Just as fast as his Source was consumed, so too did it recover—and what a staggering rate that was. In three seconds, shadow and light swirled around Wei, and he was strong again. His Ambition, however, was still only rising past 100. That would take a while longer.
“It seems I would need this armor for recovery more than I would need it for defense.”
“You are foolish to think so,” the Shell rebuked. “You are vulnerable when you recover, like a warrior lifting their helm to draw breath, exposing their face to arrows. You best use this power only when you are certain of safety, lest you see us both shattered.”
Wei took that to heart as well. For the rest of his time, he spent hours experimenting with his Shell. Afterward, he took to sparring against it as well, their battles mental, and Wei’s experience bordering on self-torture. Sourcespears rended his body. The gauntlet shattered his insides over and over. As the Shell strode upon his spear-like legs, Wei cut only at afterimages and air—before he was cut down from behind.
He boiled the weariness and weakness out of his body through practice and labor. The fragility of human would be lost to him; he would give himself no more to softness or sorrow. He was at war now. War with the heavens, war with the hells, war against everyone and everything greater than him right now, and at war against the Inheritors, the Dying Queen, the Unfallen, and whoever else stood in his way.
Time dissolved around him as Wei lost himself in the trance of action. He knew not how many hours he trained, only that as he did, new System notifications loaded into place, showing his progress.
Reviewing encounter…
Masteries Demonstrated
>Meditation (III) — 94%
>Unarmed Combat (III) — 74%
>Spearmanship (III) — 78%
>Evasion (III) — 100%
>Thrown Weapons (II) — 66%
>Tactics (II) — 100%
>Rapier — 0%
New Mastery Nodes Available
>Blindside (Evasion/Omniscience) — Allows the host to immediately shift behind their enemy upon achieving a successful dodge.
>Seer of Habits (Tactic/Enlightenment) — The highlights repetitive ticks and habits performed by your adversaries.
Mastery Nodes [2/20]
>Blindside
>Seer of Habits
Concept Core of (Augmentation)
Attention: New Mastery Node > Armor Component Upgrades and Alterations Available!
Seer of Habits + Helmet of Invasive Sight = Helmet of the Invasive Seer (Common)
>Requirements>>3.5 Days to Generate Upgrade in Core
>>Mastery Node (Seer of Habits)
>>Corresponding Experiences (0%)
>Blindside + Spearstriders = Ambushing Spearstriders (Rare) - Grants the Shell to perform [Echo Dashes] based on their (Relativity). Allows the Shell to [Echo Dash] through enemy attacks with perfect timing.
>Requirements>>9 Days to Generate Upgrade in Core
>>Mastery Node (Blindside)
>>Corresponding Experiences (0%)
The upgrade to his helmet is substantial, but the transformation provided to his legs was overwhelming. Being able to dash through his enemy’s attacks to reposition himself would utterly change his approach to combat. This could allow him constant aggression via an active defense. The only limiting factor would be his Skill.
“And Source consumption,” his Shell added.
Right. Wei paused. He didn’t remember his System updating his masteries without a Core Ascension. What changed?
“Your second ascension. The chains are coming off of you. It is time for you to walk unguided.”
Right. Asaru. Asaru was dead. And the vault. And Earth. The task ahead was daunting, but already, Wei felt more than he ever was. Perhaps within a few weeks, he might even be able to—
A knock on his door pulled him out of his ruminations. His blank-faced Companion turned from where it stood. “There is someone at the door. Shall I open it?”
“No,” Wei answered. “Go back to staring at the wall.”
“Of course,” the Companion said. “Staring at the wall brings me endless joy.”
Wei positioned himself before the door to his room again. He checked on Agnesia using his Omniscience and found her peacefully snoring in his bed. Heavens was the girl loud. But at least she had a moment of quiet and respite. She deserved it. He decided against waking her.
Though he anticipated this to be one of his disciples—or more likely, the Trespassers—Wei held his Broken Crescent at the ready and transformed his right limb into the Chainspear Arms. He hid half his body behind the door, but this would allow him an easy means of counter-attack through the wood. Just in case. As he released his Broken Crescent and let it hover beside him on a dancing whirlwind, Wei pulled the door open slowly. And found himself face to face with his father.
William Yu stared at his son. Wei glared back.
A sniffle came from the Trespasser and he winced. “Wei… Why do you—you didn’t shower or bathe at all?”
“I got caught up in other things,” Wei shot back, his words laced with hate. It was strange, speaking so casually with the man who raised him—the traitor to his sect and the murder of his mother.
“We should kill him,” his Shell said. “He is alone. He is vulnerable. He is no more than Marquis and the Trespasser’s prisoner rather than their ally. Kill him. Kill him. Kill him.”
“It’s fucking morning, Wei,” his father said. “What the hell could you be doing instead of—” A loud snore sounded from the bedroom, and William narrowed his eyes. Slowly, his expression softened to something bordering on incredulous surprise. “Huh. I see.”
“No,” Wei said. “No, you do not. I have not—” He caught himself. “What do you want?”
“To talk.”
“We’re past the point of talk.” Wei growled, his anger breaking free. “After what you have done, the only reason you live now is because I have questions. Questions about your former masters. Question I will see you answer—”
“Then, what?” William asked. “You going to kill me after I tell you about the Inheritors? About the Dying Queen?”
“Yes,” Wei said, resolutely.
His father didn’t flinch at that. He just looked aside, and nodded. “Alright. Let’s do it the proper way. The way you were raised. I challenge you, son. Blood against blood. Honor against honor. Skill against skill. I challenge you, and I’ll give you everything you want and more if you win. Let’s get this over with. I’m done fucking around about this. It’s time we get this done.”
“Get–get this over with?” Red crawled across Wei’s vision. His Sourcespears curled like snakes behind the door, chains rattling. “You speak as if you are doing a favor for me—you bastard…” Wei barely had enough Ambition to control himself. Barely. Drawing a sharp breath, he dismissed his Chainspear Arms and pulled the door open fully. “I accept. I accept. I’m going to break what remains of you, father. I will see you made a cripple. I see you hurt and begging and… and…”
Words weren’t great enough to convey Wei’s hate—his rage.
William nodded. “Yeah. I hear you.”
“Where? When?”
“The Lodge,” William said. “And I mean right now.”
Wei took a step forward. He was almost of a height as his father—his Class Specialization had granted him that. The two men stared at each other, one almost blind with loathing, the other weary with resignation. “Lead the way, then, father.”
A gust of summoned wind slammed the door shut behind him.
***
Agnesia managed to force one eye open at the noise. “Wei?”
No response. Nothing. Ruin was she tired. Her mind was a forest of cobwebs, and the sheets were so silky and cool…
“It appears that my client has left to engage his father in a duel to the death,” a voice helpfully informed Agnesia from the first floor.
She replied with a quiet series of grumbles. The Companion. She had one in her room too—it was part of the reason she left. The blank face made her uncomfortable—she couldn’t sleep right with it there in the corner, and it only added to her loneliness, her pain. Here, with Wei present—
Wei.
Wei was going to duel his father.
Both of Agnesia’s eyes snapped open, and she shot up from the bed, exploding down the stairs. “Shite! Shite shite!”