Godclads-Chapter 13Book 34: Master of Hounds (III)

+Ah. The illustrious “Seer” for hire. We meet at last.+

+Fuck off, Middler. Not looking for runs right now.+

+Middler? I am hardly such a thing. Indeed, I think we might of a similar path.+

+Not looking to join any crews either. Just want to finish my drink in peace.+

+Is that what you want? Or do you wish your grandfather dead? For what he did to your parents? Your poor murdered father? Your pitifully imprisoned mother? All for the sin of… love. What an ugly thing to be condemned for. Alas, I would have never let another dictate my fate. That was your parents’ failing. But in you, I see someone interested in making things better.+

+...Who the fuck are you?+

[Zein deactivates her holocoat]

+Good to finally meet you in the flesh.+

+What in the… No. Are you—you some kind of crazed fan? Some vic-addler who thinks she’s Thousandhand?+

+No, though I do appreciate the blessings offered by some other drugs. Now. Let us talk about your future, the impending murder of your grandfather, and what we might be able to do for each other.+

-Zein to Frederick Three-Eye, Circa 93 P.F.

34-13

Master of Hounds (III)

—[Avo, The Ashbringer]—

“Why are you being impatient?”

The Ashbringer asked this question of the Infacer while they waited amidst a stable patch in the Ruptures. It took them quite some time to close in on the Deep Ones, using warminds of Ignorance to keep themselves from detection. More than just the warminds, the Ashbringer exploited Hysteria as well, magnifying other sources of mental noise to hopefully draw away his original self’s focus.

A journey that usually took the span of minutes became hours. Hours of maneuvering, stopping, waiting, and watching. Hours of carefully studying the tapestry, trying to understand if their next step was a trap or an actual stretch of stability. They had to do this, because this was a one-opportunity ambush.

Exploiting the Ashbringer’s memetic symmetry to the Hidden Flame, a special memetic contagion was prepared by the pathborn and the Infacer to inflict a metaphysical cancer upon the Soulscape itself.

PRIMING DREAMROT.EXECUTION.MEM-SYMMETRIC CONTAGION

But Ashbringer knew better than to underestimate himself. Being a fork of Avo, he had a guess as to the Hidden Flame’s capabilities, and knew Ignorance to be a hard Definement to evade. That, and the Infacer was a fool to lose Zein. Now, there was no telling what kind of chronology the Hidden Flame was capable of.

All this resulted in a bit of a shaken EGI. Recent circumstances rattled the mind more than they cared to admit—and worse still was how human they were acting in recent memory. Like they were in a hurry to get something done.

All these things pointed to something being hidden. Something the Infacer didn’t want the Ashbringer to know either. Which was fascinating considering the Ashbringer now controlled every Seraph and major elite among what remained of the true Saintists.

Deduction: they were trying to mask a truth from Veylis’s awareness as well. Understandable, but it only made the Ashbringer more curious.

{Can you fault me for not feeling my best among these corpses,} the Infacer replied sharply. {They were molded from the ones I tried to protect before. Some of them might even be something like me. That, and we need to be in position to snatch that bastard Three-Eye when he returns.} The Infacer was speaking of the Deep Ones. There was old history here between the rival mind, but there was something more than this. The Infacer wasn’t one to rattle easily. Not even the matter of Three-Eye’s accelerated arrival in a few more minutes should shake the Neo-Creationist mind.

For eons they were at war, saw death and destruction on a scale that would shatter a moral mind a trillion times over. There had to be more than just this.

“Be honest with me,” Avo grunted. “Waste of time otherwise. Chose me now for a reason. Chose me because you wanted something reliable to handle the Hidden Flame. But also someone you can talk to. Someone you can accept as kindred.”

The EGI laughed softly in the back of the Ashbringer’s mind. They were barely more than a sliver of golden fire among the fractures that marred reality’s face. {Please. I am not so sentimental.}

“Not about sentiment. More frustration. All this effort. So many years. So close to the end. Yet in such peril. All because of me. Because Highflame’s remnants didn’t listen. Because Veylis was more of a fool than you hoped. Because all this has to be for something—”

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{Avo, please, the psychoanalysis will work on others, but spare me the long speeches. I swear, I thought you were supposed to be the more bestial one. For a moment, I thought I brought Jaus on an excursion again.}

The Ashbringer laughed. “Am bestial. I am what Veylis imagined me to be. But I still have the Conflagration. I am still a post-intellect. An assimilator. I am just molded from the conditions of her respect. And fear. The hunger burns in me. Always burns. So I need to consume. But aside from this… You finally chose well.”

{Wow. Incredible. All those words, only to end up wrapping your metaphorical fangs around your nonexistent testicles. Truly, it is no wonder why you imagine yourself to be a “he.” Such ego.}

“You’re one to talk. We are here because of you. You lost Zein. Lost more than just Zein.”

{You took Zein,} the Infacer said with a sigh. However, there was little offense in their tone. {Perhaps there was a slight underestimation on my part. But that is all. You were a good foe. You remind me of better times. Better wars.

{Of course, that is why I am the one who is mocking you instead of the other way around.}

“But am I wrong?” The Ruptures shifted suddenly, violently. The Ashbringer moved, a golden flame diving between shifting branches of entropy—barely avoiding a massive column of info-death gliding just nearby. The Deep Ones were moving. The Ashbringer laughed. “He’s doing something. Sending something back. Told you. Patience.”

{Yes, yes. Now, can you tell what your original is doing?}

The Ashbringer observed the tapestry and tried to read the patterns. Things weren’t entirely clear, but depending on what strings were plucked or altered, a guess could be formed. Simulations could be run. However, the most obvious change were the movements performed by the Deep Ones. Each of them were sunken into reality, and even the slightest pivot—

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“Wait,” the Ashbringer said. “You said there were four. Four Deep Ones.”

{Correct. Why?}

“I can only detect three on the tapestry.”

A long moment of silence followed.

{Hm. Fuck. Fuck. Shit. Fuck. He is extracting them. Moving them from one place to another? Why? For what reason? Why would you do such a thing.}

“Many guesses,” Avo said, twisting between another two crashing branches of Rend. “But don’t wish to assume. He might be trading them. Or trying to build something new. Know he is likely buried within their modules. Need to hit them with a distortion. Might need to accelerate time table now.”

{No. Slow down. Watch. I would prefer knowledge over seizing one of the Deep Ones. Every time you achieve a great victory, it is because I have no idea what you are doing. He—}

WARNING: TEMPORAL ANOMALY DETECTED

And then the second surprise followed. A construct that twisted and warped time itself entered Avo’s awareness. Time. Not chronology or some lesser form of metaphysical expression. Time. Past, present, and future. For a moment, the Ashbringer was at a loss for words. Then the entity came fully into his senses, and the pathborn chuffed. At first, it was a bolt of lightning dashing at odd angles. A sense of familiarity roused within the Ashbringer as he prepared himself to face his first Heaven. The Woundmother. This either meant the Hidden Flame had rediscovered a lost Heaven, or rebuilt what was taken through collecting ontologics.

Then, as the lightning peeled away, the true shape of the intruder was revealed—and of all the things the Ashbringer expected, this wasn’t one of them.

“A ghoul?” the Ashbringer said, reeling slightly with disbelief. “No. Only partially… Something more. Bits of Regular inside them. Looks like… like Draus?”

{What?} the Infacer said. The Infacer peered through the Ashbringer’s mind and was equally flabbergasted. From within this… nu-ghoul emanated a radiance that could only be described as a cycle of time pouring out from the present to… somewhere else entirely. {Where are those miracles flowing?}

“...Not sure. Not certain at all. Can’t follow it in the tapestry. Isn’t even actually emitting any Rend.”

{That is…} A beat followed. {There is a dragon in that creature. A dragon or another natural temporal entity.}

“No. Can’t be. Dragons are chronology. Patterns are close but not the same.”

{Time is not a functional pattern, Avo,} the Infacer said. A distortion followed their words. Outright denial from a being that has seen so much was a powerful thing. {At least it should not be… The past is lost…}

As the entity came closer, the Ashbringer considered his options. This wasn’t bait. It couldn’t be. If his original self knew he was present, he would have used the Deep Ones to eliminate him directly. He knew better than to underestimate the Infacer. So, what was this? What was the Hidden Flame trying to do here?

Even with over a billion ghosts and the Infacer’s full processing power, the Ashbringer didn’t have a good assumption to follow. Simulations for weapons, schemes, and other matters played within his consciousness, but there major context missing right now.

Why was a Deep One missing? Why was an anomaly of time itself present?

“We need to secure it,” the Ashbringer declared.

{No. Our mission is to claim a Deep One–}

“Could be to our advantage. I don’t think this is a trap. The temporal entity is approaching one of the Deep Ones. Trinary Melody… Could be something used to affect Three-Eye as well. Cannot be passive. We must force a mistake soon. See how much this is worth to the Hidden Flame.”

{So what are you suggesting?}

“Deploy warminds of Ignorance. And then…” As much as the Ashbringer didn’t think this was a trap, he still had no urge to get closer. Inside, the beast shuffled and lashed, outraged that it wouldn’t get a taste of this morsel. The Ashbringer bit back a growl of annoyance. No. Not this one. We will drink ourselves in later. Learn what becomes of a copy when it eats the original. But not this. Can’t understand. Learned enough about hubris. “Deploy Draus. Risk the mass spike. Use the Deliverer. Have her destroy the construct.”

{Destroy? Not capture?}

“We don’t know what it is. Ignorance is not our ally in this battle. We have power. But what we don’t know will be fatal.”

The Infacer considered the Ashbringer’s words for a moment and gave a peal of approval. {Fine. That can be arranged. You know this might risk—}

“Another instance of her can be drawn out from the paths. She is expendable. I am expendable. Bring her forth. I will burn her and proceed. And call a lesser version of me to chart the remaining Ruptures. Go for the Trinary Melody and deploy Kae. I will see to the Hidden Flame’s incapacitation. Use the Deep One to—”

{Yes. Contain, capture, and extract Three-Eye. Please. You do not need to go over every detail with me like I am a child.}

“Just worried you might lose another critical template to him.”

{Avo.}

“Hm.”

{I just want to say… If I do not get the chance with this version of you… Fuck you.}

The Ashbringer laughed.

Without any further hesitation, the pathborn launched two war minds of Ignorance. They resembled loops of string—sequences that bundled and twisted around each other, revealing gaps in between. Symbology mattered a lot when it came to metaphysics, as it did with matters of the mind. The gaps were represented by missing substance, things that should have been known but weren’t. Ignorance, in a word. They detonated, spreading outward and clawing across unfathomable distances. As the strings burrowed under the flesh of reality, everyone lost track of their thoughts.

In the same instant, a wound opened in existence, and out from the cleft of fire and ruin came a humanoid figure composed of corpses, debris, and spilling ash. The Ashbringer ignited cracks and leaks that outlined the Deliverer’s body, and once more, Avo and Draus were a team again.

“One way trip, huh?” Draus asked.

“For both of us. Looks like you’re going to get your wish.” The Ashbringer drew himself deeper into her being. He didn’t intend to survive this. There were more than enough thaums to constitute another iteration of him.

“Yeah. And then some.” A feeling of… deep satisfaction came from Draus. Or this echo of her. It mattered little to the Ashbringer. He was a being dead on arrival. Untrue in every respect, merely a sophisticated construct born at Veylis’s hands. “Don’t reckon things turned out the way we want. But that’s the way things go sometimes. Least the company’s okay.”

“Okay?”

“Fuck you. That’s the best you’re getting. Want tears or ass kissing? Should’ve called up Chambers.”

“No. Need a good gun. Steady hand. Iron will.”

“Alright. Let’s ride this bullet to the end.”

The Deliverer dragged a bladed limb across the surface of existence and carved a path open. Two points of destruction were joined, and the Deliverer stepped through them, as if they were the same point in space. As the warminds began to wind down, Draus burst out from another point in space, intercepting the oncoming anomaly. A firing trajectory loaded flickering, green, then orange… orange, and finally red. A lane connected her gun-head with the oncoming target. “Locked.”

The Ashbringer readied himself for the counterattack to come. The Deliverer needed to be destroyed. He needed to prey on his original self’s confidence for what came after. Only then would he strike back. “Fire.”

Draus didn’t hesitate. Not even when it sealed her fate.

A massive spike of decay and destruction left a scar across reality. Between branching veins of entropy, the shot sailed, crossing kilometers by the millisecond. So close, the Ashbringer sensed his other self—felt a Conflagration so similar to his own, but unchained by the Veylis’s path.

And the Ashbringer envied. And the Ashbringer loathed. And the Ashbringer hungered.

The Deliverer’s bullet—a thing of pure destruction, pure decay—impacted the anomaly. The temporal entity shuddered for a moment, and Avo felt its full promise—the power it contained. He felt it reach past, present, and future; it extended forward into the future, rooted to the present, and for a moment—just a moment—his disbelief grew as he sensed it dig into the past.

Then the entropic bullet won. Destruction claimed the body. The temporal entity shattered into motes of ash, soot, and rotting flesh. A few seconds later, Avo glimpsed what hid at the core of the being. It was a child. No, not even a child—a Sang infant. Its blood was coiled with time itself, the patterns interweaving biology and history—time awakened.

The Ashbringer’s mind reeled. The paths composing him quivered for a moment, but he steadied himself. Crimson lightning flashed in the distance, and through an immense wound, he sensed a building violence dancing across the patterns.

“Our real selves are comin’,” the Deliverer said.

“So they are,” the Ashbringer answered. “Make them struggle. Force him to close.”

“You know me.”