"Mr. Lather, you shall awaken now" a voice rang through the dream Andrew was having.
[Consciousness restored by outside influence]
Andrew opened his eyes to see Biaobel sitting in his chair, again signaling for Andrew to take the other seat. Somehow the elven god even found a way to signal urgency with just a motionless outstretched hand. Andrew hated to admit he was a little excited by Biaobels presence today, but it had been a few weeks since the last time he'd been able to annoy the elven god. The time in between that visit and today, had been taken up by a mind-numbing routine of waking up, spending the day doing some test or tests that Cebisi had come up with the night before. Only to be left bored and alone in his room for hours with nothing but the odd glowing tube device to keep him company.
“I’m honestly glad to see you. Cebisi is as thorough as he is curious, and I sure could use a day without being attacked in some novel way just to see if I can block it. “
“Why are you holding that?”
“Umm can you believe I made it fly to my hand and just never let it go?”
“No Mr. Lather I cannot. To date, I don’t believe any of your lowly species has shown aptitude for Cinetica and I doubt you would be the first.”
“SIN ET ICA?”
“Has Cebisi not educated you on our different Ikolis?”
“Nope been pretty focused on hurting me in any way he could come up with and not on my education”
“As he should be, but I will get him to give you a basic rundown of our magic and our society. Ikoli are our schools and the major factions in our society. Each Getl is the head of one of these Ikolis and each is centered around a core aspect of magic. Cinetica is focused on pure force, so Telekinesis to those bolts of force that you seem so keen to be hit by.”
“Are you the getl of that Ikolis?” Andrew pronounced the last word slowly to ensure he had it right.
“No I am the Geald, but I am the head of the Moti Ikolis. Our magic centers around death and soul attacks. In her short-sighted rage based on fear, Captain Lachs almost killed you with my teachings.”
“Thank you for stepping in on that”
Biaobel merely raised a hand as if waving off the thanks.
Andrew, realizing he was still holding the odd tube device, they called a Plasira, set it on the bench.
“You know I still have no clue what that device is. Any chance you’d be willing to tell me?”
"No, instead let us start today by asking a simple question. How does your implant differ from all other implants we've encountered? What allowed it to become fully functional when no others have even booted? Is booted the correct term?" Biaobel asked.
"Yes, it is. Honestly, I'm not sure. I meant to make some larger mods for Ziggy, my unit, but with the hustle of trying to get the Sled ready to come here I never really got around to it. The ones I did make I don't think would have enabled it to continue to work.”
Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.
“Tell me what modifications were you successful at making?”
“Increased Bluetooth range and enhanced the shielding to try to ensure I don't get cancer. It was my wife who gave me that idea."
"Interesting, though I can't imagine how you would not consider enhanced shielding as a possible vector."
"Well, if anything that should have decreased the likelihood as it covered some of the enhancement ports, so I’m not sure how exactly your control worm was able to interface with it. Also, I'd be surprised if the shielding helped at all as it didn't seem to help when yall attacked. My implant kept going down just as fast as everyone else's."
"How do you know it did?"
"I guess I don't, but its power did dwindle as the lights dimmed, so I'm pretty it was. Though you're right I don't know for certain."
"I guess there is nothing more we can do but operate and find out what exactly makes you different. Do not worry I will protect you both from death and discomfort. It might feel a bit odd. Though you already know it is within my power to piece you back together on the sub-atomic level, so please don’t be alarmed.”
With that Andrew found himself lifted into the air by an unseen force and bound by more crystalline ribbons.
"Any chance we can talk about this?" Andrew pleaded, but Biaobel seemed to not notice.
A tray of what appeared to be surgical tools appeared out of nowhere and floated next to the god's right hand moving as his hand moved. At first, Andrew was intrigued by the fact that the majority of the tools seemed to have blades made of pure blue energy, before remembering those blades were about to be used on him. As if reading his mind, Biaobel picked up the first of the energy blades and as he approached Andrew. Andrew focused his mind on the magic of the blade and was rewarded when the blade sputtered and went out.
"Mr. Lather, you will stop,"
With that he picked up the next tool in the line. This one had a wicked hook at the top of it, and Andrew was very certain he wanted nothing to do with whatever its purpose was. Though before he could shut off this blade, he saw a new magic flow from Biaobel and watched as it covered the blade. It was some sort of shielding magic as this one took a little more effort, but he was able to get this one to wink out too, just before it touched him.
"Mr. Lather if you continue like this, I will resort to more painful and less precise methods."
With that Andrew, with a smile, preemptively turned off all the other tools minus two with real blades.
“Ok I can stop now”
"Mr. Lather, this is childish. I can just turn them back on."
With a wag of Biaobel’s index finger the blades sprang back to life. Only to immediately go back out, then back on and back out. This turned into a battle of wills and the room started to feel like a 70’s discotec with the lights flashing on and off in rapid succession. The interval between on and off became less and less until it was so small it looked like the tools were just glitching. This went on as the two battled wills for a second time. When it became clear that Andrew was not going to relent. Biaobel changed tactics, the blades blinking out for the last time.
"Mr. Lather, you have forced my hand one time too many," Biaobel said as he picked up one of the two real blades. They had slightly different blade shapes, but both looked like they were made of a milky green obsidian.
"Good luck trying to turn this one off. This is a berdian blade. As I doubt you know what that is, I will explain. Berdian is a substance that negates all cosmic energies magical or otherwise. It is quite sharp, but I refrained from using it as it is known to cause immense pain by destroying nerves. This is why I only resort to its use for torture, which your recent actions have put me in the mood for. "
Instead of backing down or looking scared, Andrew instead smiled. His restraints burst off him in a cloud of shrapnel that temporarily blinded Biaobel. Andrew wasted no time; he picked up one of the other berdian blades left on the tray of tools. Moving without hesitation he attempted to stab the Elven god. As his hand entered the zone around Biaobel where the enchantments had previously killed him, a shower of sparks and a cacophony of sounds erupted as the blade rent through the methuselah's carefully laid enchantments without even the slightest resistance. The blade entered the Elven gods. throat and stuck in his spine. Biaobel's eyes went wide as he felt pain for the first time in tens of millennia. Biaobel’s horror increased as all of his healing magic meant nothing except a shower of sparks when they touched the blade which remained buried in his throat, which Andrew still clutching it tight.
Biaobel, realizing his was unable to heal himself, back handed Andrew to force him out of the way as he moved to get help. The force of the hit was astounding, and it was everything he could do to hold on to the strange dagger. This proved too much for the dagger, the blade breaking at the hilt from the strain of it all. Andrew found himself once again flying through the air. This time at least he knew the walls weren’t going to mercilessly crush him like those on the Sled. He hit the back wall with such force that Andrew disappeared into the wall. A Wile E Coyote like stretched hole was all that could be seen.
It took some time before the wall spit Andrew back out and regained its shape. Once it did, he staggered to his feet and took a deep breath before he looked for Biaobel. Relief flooding his body as he found Biaobel’s body sprawled motionless on the floor the middle of the room and coated with blood. Andrew noted that things were surprisingly quiet. He had expected claxons to be blaring, alarm bells and strobe lights to be flashing. Anything to alert everyone on the planet to come kill him.
"I told you, one day you'd wished things had gone differently. " Andrew said as he spat on the corpse.
Then all the walls disappeared, and Elves spilled in from every direction. Andrew could see every imaginable offense spell flying his way. Andrew glanced at the body on the ground with an accepting smirk and closed his eyes in acceptance of his fate.