I had to admit, I was truly and selfishly irritated.
Look, I have selfish impulses just like anyone else, and like most civilized humans, I do my best to reign them in… That’s the definition of a human instead of an animal. Humans share a lot of urges with animals, but we have the self-control to put them aside, especially if they would hurt or damage other people. Saying ‘Hey look, it’s natural because animals do it!’ to justify doing something screwed up, just means you are no better than an animal and belong in a cage like one.
But my current urge was purely selfish, and I hated having to put it aside. Not because it would hurt anyone, although the fallout potentially could, but rather because the three stooges holding me captive in this stupid van were getting on my nerves and distracting me.
I wasn’t able to truly interpret the Serenoid pamphlet, but it wasn’t really designed for linguistic transfer anyway. Once you started to realize what the symbols actually meant, the pamphlet itself started to make more sense. It was like a basic guide that advanced to later forms.
Why an alien invasion would have something like this was a true mystery, but I remembered the stories, the first gate they arrived through opened and they seemed to be peaceful at first. The moment they saw their first alpha, however, they seemed to go insane, screaming and starting to immediately throw out powerful spells, ignoring the previously peaceful humans getting caught in the crossfire.
The whole situation was confusing, because the Serenoids fought like the mad, to the death, draining their own life force to keep powering their abilities. No prisoners. Maybe they innately hated Alphas for some reason, or because they couldn’t tolerate anyone stronger than they were, or they needed to challenge anyone who was equal to them to the death, or maybe they didn’t like the colors of their costumes… the reasons why were as confusing and got more so as more and more ideas got tossed around, but the reality was an absolute mystery.
But simply contemplating the first few diagrams in my head while I waited for this ridiculous trip to end was enough to unveil some answers to my own problems, just from the pictures of energy flows alone. I had screwed up, badly.
Technically, I was at a stage called body tempering. That’s the stage where you unlock your energy points, and start running energy through your body naturally to improve your body. It wasn’t the organ-destroying and regeneration stuff I had imagined, but rather it was supposed to prepare your body and sweep out and purify your system, preparing it to handle soul and spirit energies.
There was even a picture of a six-armed male figure sweating black droplets as the symbol that meant essence was shown with arrows moving through all of his limbs.
I had utterly screwed the pooch by running things in reverse order. My body modification was useful, but I had literally contaminated my own body by doing it before I gave my body the chance to adapt naturally to my energy. I couldn’t break through those blockages, because by modifying my own nervous system and muscle structure, I had destroyed the natural pathways through which that energy was supposed to travel!
And trying to increase my energy density in hopes of ripping my way through my own energy channels appeared, to put it bluntly, utterly suicidal. It would have been like trying to use a four-inch firehouse to cut a new doorway on the fiftieth floor of a building made of tissue paper.
What this meant was that my efforts were terrible. The logical flow of the pamphlet, or perhaps guide, was unmistakable. The later energy patterns, as well as the ones that exist in the diagram, six-armed spellcasting? Were probably completely useless, but the basic steps just fit completely.
The answer? I was going to have to reset my body to an earlier blueprint before I allowed the energy to flow through me with the spiraling pattern. I would lose density, mass, strength, and reaction speed for a while, even some musculature, but it would reset me to about the same level I had been last year and hopefully a little more from the corrected flow. My energy now was MUCH higher, though, so once I did it I should be able to start rotating my energy correctly and allowing it to fill and reinforce my cells naturally.
But I couldn’t get started here, in front of these… people.
“You, behind the wheel. Do you have a name, or should I just call you Goon Three?”
“My name is Magazine. Class five Kinetic. I’ve put down a few class sixes in my day, and even a class seven. I am willing to entertain your disrespect because you are not resisting currently and Adrian wants you alive, but please be aware that any attempt to vacate the vehicle before we arrive at our destination will result in this vehicle getting squashed to the approximate size of a meatball and heated to the temperature of molten titanium in less than a second.”
“You would kill your teammates?”
“These girls are not my teammates. They are employees, just like I am. Baelfire would survive, since she can render her body into plasma and would be the source of the heat, but Deacon, obviously, would not. If you resist, you will be directly responsible for her death.”
I laughed, kind of a low, ugly sound. “No, you would be. You have already decided to murder her if something unexpected happens, and every step in the process you have to choose to take. If she dies, you are entirely responsible. Don’t try to play those hostage word games with me, I have heard them far too many times.”
I wasn’t kidding. When planning to play PR pirate, I had listened to the real thing far too many times. That old ‘you are responsible for forcing my actions’ crap has been a feature of humans dodging responsibility for being murderous assholes since before history was written. Most commonly popularized by beaten women who blame themselves for their husband’s abuse, it is also a fairly popular gaslighting technique for normal people.
It’s like survivor’s guilt, and it’s often preyed upon by the unscrupulous. “If Only I had been there five minutes earlier!” is bullshit. You weren’t there, you had no idea something was wrong, and the only way you’d have done anything different was if you had knowledge of the future… and even then it probably wouldn’t have worked, a lot of foreseers say that the worst thing about knowing the future is being unable to change it.
He nodded, looking back at the road with a slight smile. “Very well, You understand the score. Deacon is a class three alchemist, one of the many realm travelers that the Maxwell consortium has secured. She apparently understands what is going on with your cultivation and is willing and able to help.”
Deacon was sitting back in the farthest corner of the truck now away from Baelfire and me. Her masked face nodded quickly, and she looked worried.
Magazine continued, still watching the road. “Baelfire and I both have orders to restrain you if you resist or kill you if we cannot restrain you. We have determined that your abilities are too dangerous to attempt to restrain you without crippling you, and as a healer, crippling you might not be effective. The most effective way to contain you, then, involves killing both you and Deacon. We are both aware of this and have plans to do so.”
“If you wish to rescue her, then cooperation is key.”
“Shit, do I sound like that?”
Baelfire looked at me and coughed, “Do you sound like what?”
“When I monologue. Do I sound like that?” I lifted one arm and started gesticulating in the air and stated in a deep voice, “Crippling might not be effective and so we must effectively neutralize your superciliousness by effetely vaporizing the entire Eastern manifestation of the former territories held by the English until the American revolution in 1776!” I hammered out dramatically.
Baelfire let out the most human noise I have heard out of her yet, a very definite snort, and then clearly tried to cover it with a short cough.
“That sounds a lot like Magazine. The more upset he gets, the more he starts using the biggest words he can think of,” Deacon sighed, “And he knows that if he kills me, he’d better not survive it himself. An accident of fate is one thing, but carelessly murdering a Wings of Jade sect member would be… disrespectful, no matter what layer of the sect I am at.”
She glared at the back of Magazine’s head. “Remember, even an inner disciple can stick your soul back into your rotting corpse until they think you’ve learned your lesson about respect and humility.”
I looked at her nervously, “Seriously? Sects? Respect and humility? Dear lord, please don’t shout ‘You dare’ or that someone’s courting death. Or even worse, someone failing to notice Mount Tai because they are a frog in a well.”
Deacon looked at me in confusion, “Am I supposed to know what that means?”
I shook my head, “Probably not. You are not from this world?”
She shook her head, “Of course not. You called it an invasion. We called it a retreat. I am from Earth 3152, this is Earth 3362.”
I thought about that… “Wait, the soulburners? I thought all of you were dead after the necromancer was executed. And how many Earths are there? Over three thousand?”
Deacon shook her head, “No. The survivors cut a deal with the families. We have to restrain our powers, despite living in a death world. There are a lot more than three thousand Earths, but most of them are unsuitable for sustaining life. No one knows how many there are, but since experimenting with portals to new Earths is generally a one-way or suicide trip, few know of more than a half dozen.”
This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it
“What does that mean?”
Magazine coughed, “It is meaningless to you, Mister Doyle. Her sort of human has nothing valuable to offer you.”
I glared at the back of his head, “If that’s true, why do you think holding her hostage for my good behavior will have even the slightest effect?”
Baelfire snorted again, “Mag’s been dealing with heroic types for far too long. He does not realize you are surrounded by beautiful women throwing themselves at you every day, so a pretty alien face in distress who is likely to also be a monster is not going to immediately attract your attention.”
I shrugged, “Oh, she attracts my attention, you said she was an alchemist and I might have something she could help, but it’s not worth risking my life over. Especially not for an undead vampire that poisoned me and possibly my roommates. Right now I just want to know what this Andrea wants, what he’s willing to offer in exchange, and when I can grab breakfast. Your poison sucked, Deacon.”
Deacon shrugged, “That version of Catharatic Tranquilizer was designed for dropping and making placid large canines. I had to keep the dosage low, or it would have permanently damaged your liver, lungs, and kidneys, and possibly stopped your heart if you were a normal class three non-combat alpha. I assume you have already checked yourself out for side effects?”
I nodded, “Yes I have. And I am currently fit as a fiddle, and I am not going to tell you exactly what systems I had to repair, because I don’t want to encourage you to try and poison me again with a better version. Suffice to say, if I hadn’t been asleep when you caught me, you wouldn’t have caught me.”
Baelfire shrugged. Too bad I couldn’t see her facial expressions with the full mask. “We would have killed you instead.”
I smiled slightly, “No, you would have found an empty room, or you might have found yourself locked down by any of a number of alphas that work at the academy that you only avoided because you were exceptionally quick. I am not going to brag about my powers, I am not going to tell you anything about them, but it might be best for both you and your employer if you pull over to the side of the track, let me out, apologize for the inconvenience, and we never see each other again.”
“He can reach me at my un-monitored line, or by sending messages through Vilnet to Strategic Special Simulations if he wants to set up a meeting, although admittedly he will not be my highest priority considering the impolite way he chose to begin negotiations.”
Magazine sighed, “You are surprisingly polite despite having no leverage in this negotiation.”
I shrugged, “You are surprisingly polite despite assuming that you have leverage that you don’t actually possess. Deacon, are you capable of reading my chemical state? I am not that familiar with your toxin, and would like to make sure none of it is still poisoning me.”
Deacon nodded and leaned forward, “May I touch your skin?”
I chuckled and nodded. “Even more polite. I wonder why you are tied up with cold-blooded killers like these?”
She smiled slightly, “I am a cold-blooded killer as well. If I were not, I’d be eliminated instantly. I am not going to try and make excuses, and I am not a drainer like most of my sect, but my alchemical talents are just as deadly and vile by most people’s estimations as any demonic cultivator’s power drain.” I held out my wrist as she wrapped her fingers around it.
“You are… clean. Very odd. Healers, curse-breakers, and even alchemists creating antitoxins should have left behind at least some traces of the toxin, its neutralizers, or even its essence energy. How did you do that? It’s like you were never even… Ulp!”
Her sudden indrawn breath was because I had yanked her toward me. Unlike a lot of alphas, I had no need to directly look at what I was doing or even to have any visible effects like smoke trails, sizzling, or any of that. I had simply weakened the molecular bonds in a broad circle beneath me, as well as spiking the hoverfan, so when I yanked her additional weight on top of me, we both dropped through the floor of the hovertruck.
This part was...hard. I had taken things with me before, some of which were much heavier than this 90-something-pound girl, but nothing that was alive, or capable of mentally resisting. That’s usually why I couldn’t just reach into someone’s chest and stop their heart because something about their mental integrity stopped it.
However, after a moment’s panic, I noticed that she seemed to willingly allow me to draw her into the atomic vortex of my weird form of teleportation. It might have been recognizing that she was safe now that I had her blueprint and could actually SEE the soul space containing whisps of her spirit energy, and I made sure to keep that entirely intact… apparently THAT was the part of me that stayed alive when the rest of me was impossible, and the part I coalesced around when I reset after the port.
Man, I was moving FAST. I could feel the free path we were hovering on, and a flash of heat or something as something terrible happened to the van we had just vacated rapidly, and I could detect we were shooting back towards the city walls.
No, I wasn’t trying to pretend I was a speedster, I wasn’t intentionally leaving waves in the air, heat, cold, or any real sign we were moving kinetically. Why? Because the truck had both a heat controller and a kinetic controller, assuming that they couldn’t detect molecular motion variation that fell directly within their bailiwick would be stupid.
But I had something more important to do. I was traveling at some sort of sick speed, faster than I had ever gone before, and I was shedding old resets at the same time… That was my plan, to try and eliminate the contamination while I was porting, in hopes that it would be easier to get rid of the blockages while I didn’t have any physical restrictions in place.
And it was working! It was working FAR too well.
Like, I was probably doing three hundred miles an hour down the passway and I realized something… I wasn’t able to force my energy through my channels at the moment because technically my channels didn’t exist, and I hadn’t reshaped my soul container yet to match those channels, but the excess formed and unformed ‘alien’ spirit energy that I couldn’t use? Not only were they getting stripped away by the pressure I was using, but the soul-blob girl that was with me seemed to be eagerly consuming the energy, forcing it to orbit her soul and spinning her spirit so that the stripped essence was getting twisted into her own native essence, the essence of change.
Interesting. The Dao of change, while not seemingly particularly powerful, seemed to be extremely friendly with other sorts of energy. At first I was worried that I was just… dumping the contaminants into her, but it wasn’t like the essence was made of actual physical poisons or anything, it was just mostly solidified spirit potential, and she seemed to be spinning that energy as rapidly as she could, and feeding it back to me, which allowed my dao of momentum to shoot us along even faster.
Wait, did she WANT to get away from her teammates? She said she was ‘bound’ somehow… was she wanting to get unbound? Maintaining our energetic state was not that hard as long as I had a decent energy pool, and she was feeding energy into my pool as fast as I could possibly handle it, so I checked out her blueprint while we traveled.
Huh. She varied from human default in minor ways but so did a lot of sub-breeds of humanity, and she was a lot more ‘normal’ human biologically than most class three physical enhancement alphas. Hell, she might even be closer to a normal human than me, but I was stripping back those enhancements from my blueprint since it looked like they were one of the things directly responsible for my blockages.
Interesting… Non-biological components. Wireless trackers and radio bugs were a thing of the past, pre-faafo tech that simply didn’t work anymore, but she had an infrared crypto radiator, telltale radiation implant, and even an alpha-particle dispenser set right into the base of her neck… a nasty piece of work with voice-recognition that would instantly flood her brain with heavy Helium-3 isotopes and kill her due to biocellular degradation in minutes.
Then again, if she was some kind of alchemist, she might be incredibly resistant to traditional poisons or even some heavy metal toxins. Something like a deadly radioisotope was not only easy to track even with atmospheric radio jamming but also wasn’t technically a poison that could be cured or hit with an antidote. So, I just decided to leave that shit behind.
None of it was necessary for her body’s continued functioning, she didn’t seem to have any odd conditions that required mechanical monitoring, and it was mentioned that she might be able to help me, so off with the monitoring gear. Off also was the interesting dispenser bracelet that contained complex organic and inorganic substances that I didn’t understand, although there was a VERY strange ring tied into her soul space that I didn’t want to touch. It seemed to have its own soul boundaries, and was laced with spirit energy types that were utterly fascinating, but included momentum on a different axis from what I used.
Here we were! The last time I was here, I had been fighting Glacier Girl right over… there, where her pressurized cold bomb smashed its way into my body. And there was the little storage closet and sink. I quickly reset my own body and then dumped Deacon’s ‘extras’ into the sink.
After a moment, her own body reset, sans special mechanical oddities, and she was grinning at me like an idiot.
“Huh? Are you okay?” I asked. I had expected her to be writhing in pain. Hell, only the fact that I had been through my own resets dozens of times kept me from screaming in pain. This reset had been MUCH better than usual, but rebuilding your own nervous system from a blueprint, and restarting its electromagnetic charge so you don’t like… suddenly not have a pulse or a working brain, ALWAYS hurt.
She nodded, “Yes I am. That was… amazing. Can we do it again?”
I looked at her in bafflement, “What? Aren’t you upset? Didn’t that hurt?”
“No, should it? I mean, I am not a body cultivator, but I imagine a mortal might have found it painful, but it was far less than the pain of increasing a single realm, and the amount of energy you fed me was… invigorating.”
“I don’t understand what That was. I was trying to rid myself of excess energy that I couldn’t use… it was blocking me from expanding my channels. I thought I might have been dumping out all of my corruption on you, but here you are, looking all excited.”
She nodded, “You don’t know how to purify your essence yet. Frankly, your development is weird, you haven’t even opened your dantians yet, yet you are already halfway into the energy condensation stage. Your body is also… fluctuating. It’s not the same as it was before, in the truck. Temporary ability?”
I winced a little, “It wasn’t supposed to be.”
“So wait, you really ARE a mortal? Not even the body tempering stage?”
I shrugged and tested my channels. They were… tender, a little, but basically alright. I’d need time to start moving the energy through the channels, and preferably quality time in the tunnel. “That depends. Are you going to try and kidnap or kill me?” I chuckled. “You don’t look particularly upset.”
She shook her head, “No. The suicide device is gone. Which means I am gone. But I will owe you!”
I shrugged, “Yeah, I hear that a lot, but don’t think you owe me that much… you were an emergency attempt and an investment. When you get settled, send me a note through Vilnet. I could use your help, but at the moment we are both a little too hot to handle. Can you make it from here?”
She nodded, “Yes. The few remaining members of my family are prepared for escape opportunities. We have been for a long time.”
I nodded and started contemplating, I needed more energy for the jump back to the academy. Chock up another victory to paranoia.