Chapter 8-3 Venting (I)

Chapter 8-3 Venting (I)

A Rendsink is not some kind of battery. You will not touch the Rendsink when you vent into it. You will not touch the Rendsink when it is filling. You will not touch the Rendsink unless you are certain it has been safely secured beforehand.

It is entropy. It is unstable. It is literal error code ejected from the subrealities of your Liminal Frames.

You let it leak and it will unmake you if your Hell doesnt have any Domain-symmetry.

You might be able to use it to stabilize a backlashing Heaven in a pinch but thats an operation better left for the glasseyes

If it breaches, death might be the least of your concerns."

-Santanado Starsinger Mondelles, Combat Instructor to Axtraxis Academy of Highflame

8-3

Venting (I)

The Agnos interjection plucked the strings of tension away from Draus. Mind swirling with drifting thoughts and stalking anger, Avo found his focus swaying over to Kae like a pendulum.

She swallowed but kept speaking. Your mind its overstimulated, Avo. The s-sensations, especially with a-an awakened god insideoh Jaus; g-god. Reassembled god. She blinked. Her focus returned. Youre not operating at baseline. Too uh too many options. Sensations

Mind is clear, Avo said, fighting the urge to tear into her. The beast was swimming up the vessels in his brain. It wanted to hurt. It wanted to kill. The Heaven within was a mantle of destruction capable of feeding its wildest desires. It tugged at Avo, snarling, hissing, pleading. He ignored it. My mind is clear. In control. See what was missing. Dont want to just hurt. Understand? Seen new He took a moment to breathe. New colors. Just wanted to see more.

You couldve fuckin done that sight-seein shit some other time, Draus hissed.

The pendulum swung back to Draus. Avo pulled his helmet off and clicked his fangs together. I chose to do it then.

She flexed her wrist. Faintly, Avo heard a series of crackles rattling from her joints. Well Im gettin real close to chosin something of my own.

W-wait, Kae said, trying to get in a word.

REND CAPACITY: 3%

For a moment, the Regular and ghoul were lost in the past. This was their element. He was close enough to tear, to bite into her, to shred the fabric of her mind; she was close enough to grapple, to break, his death but the alignment of her palm and his skull.

A cackle of laughter sounded from above as mockeries took flight through the alleyway, their wings beating loud.

Be wary, master, the Woundshaper said, its words heavy with unspoken intent. Break her and she shall mend upon the falling of the nightly rains. Slay her and there will be no return. I jest no longer: Should she feed your flame, the act cannot be undone. Death holds no sway upon things such as we, but she is ephemeral.

Ever kill a ghoul with your hands? Avo growled.

Draus shrugged, the moment so slight he barely noticed. Plenty. Feelin nostalgic?

Not the word I would use. But I could get a new experience out of this.

Gettin hurt?

Hurting a Reg.

She ran her front teeth along her lips. A growing focus built behind her eyes. Part of her truly was mad. Mad that he hadnt done exactly what she thought they agreed on. Mad that her little operation was ruined because he found a greater purpose. More, however, was the fact she wanted this fight.

The idea of getting bloody with him was a thrill.

And past the snarling rage of his beast and the caution of his Woundshaper, Avo wasnt so against the idea of indulging in a little bout of fist on claw.

To the blood? Avo offered.

She sneered. The hells with that shit. Were squared up; we go bloody proper. Till shit breaks. Till one of us cant.

That sounded most delightful

A glint of chrome bobbed into sight. Kaes exocortex. The Agnos was reaching between them, trying to create more space by prying them apart. C-consaangs uh Kae grunted.

He blinked. Draus tilted her head. Where building bloodlust filled the air between them, Draus and Avo felt a new emotion enter the equation and its name was awkwardness.

Kae, Draus said, eyes still locked on Avo. She was trying to keep hold of the feeling. Get outta the way.

No, Kae said. B-both of you are a-acting like f-fucking children.The inaugural upload of this chapter took place via N0v3l-B1n.

That made the Regular do a double take. Im the one actin like a child? Really? Was I the one that went pissin off to play with some refugees in the middle of a snuff-job? Was I?

Kaes hand slid off Avos chest as she announced her retreat with a ragged sigh. Shielded by the body of the Agnos, Avo seized the moment to indulge in some mockery. He grinned at Draus, fangs bared and all. Child.

Draus face broke into a scoffthe rasp trailing low with a hint of building violence. He leaned forward, welcoming what was to come, already anticipating the first hit.

Then, something did hit him. Just not Draus. Like a soft raindrop, he felt a small palm clap against his neck. Below, he heard Kae grunt with effort, bouncing on her toes. I was t-trying to to hit your she trailed off, staring at her hand, unable to remember why she just hit him. I was trying to s-slap your face.

Too short, Avo grunted.

Draus chuckled. And then, she blinked. Her face collapsed into a frown. She turned her eyes to Avo, expression near apologetic as she shook her head. A breath puffed from her lungs. The mood was ruined. Moment of bloodlust passed, both Regular and ghoul were unsated. Godsdammit, Kae.

The Agnos blinked in confusion.

Avo understood. Can still fight, he said, trying to keep the hope out of his voice. Have more insults.

Not you master. We are not in competition, how could we? I am merely being honest: I exist your most useful Heaven.

Theres a lot lot happening to you we dont know. Kae shuffled up to him. Frankly, I r-recommend that that we wait before-before we try to stabilize this Fallen Heaven. Wewe dont know the effects

No, Avo said.

But

No. Need better Hell.

Youre actin like a child, Draus, the Regular simpered, mimicking Kae as poorly as she could.

Avo glared. I tell you both what I think. I think my Rend is empty. I think Im going to get the Rendsinks and fix my Heaven. After

After were pullin out of the Second Fortune, Draus finished. Aint no way Rivers gonna let us stay after we bring this kind of heat. Ill check with my contact. Pick up that command-aero. She flicked her eyes over to him again. Maybe well have our talk then, you and I.

He clicked his fangs together. Say when. Going to pick up Rendsinks. Kae. Will need your help plugging the Rupture. Stay with Draus. Will speak to you through her later. Tired of talking. Want to grow instead.

Wait, Kae cried, We still need to talk about

And Avo was wind, soaring up through the crevices of air into skies unladen. Using his Whisper as a periscope, he dove toward the docks in Xin Yunsha, the Rendsinks marked on his DeepNav.

The trip usually would have taken hours, impediments of distance and traffic.

As wind, and with the lanes purged by the passing presence of the Paladins, Avo collected his necessary instruments in a fourth of the time.

***

Shuttling the Rendsinks from their storage in the docks was the easy part. Carrying the Rendsinks along in his Yondergale, he kept them drifting slow and far apart to avoid any collisions.

Alone, each sink shouldnt possess the capability of matching the output of Rend overflowing from the Fallen Heaven, but together, along with his Hell to adjust, his odds of stabilizing this Rupture stood somewhere north of likely.

Kae guided him with a mixture of reluctance and burgeoning anticipation. For all her fears regarding the state of his mind and the nature of the Woundshaper, she wanted to be a part of this, to operate beyond her damage as an Agnos once more.

Connecting them as intermediary, Draus session buzzed in the back of his mind as he drifted inward toward the building where he last faced the Scalpers. The dish at its top was half-collapsed now, and the damage he inflicted with his entropic shroud lined the exterior of the structure with open rents.

Entering was a thing of ease.

It was staying unaffected by the anomalous pulses given off from the thaumic reactor that worried Avo.

+Alright, hang on there,+ A tinge of animosity still lingered in Draus mind. She kept a good leash on it, but it existed all the same. Strangely, it was a bifurcating thing, mostly directed at him, but also pointed inward, at herself. +Kae wants you to look around for a moment. You said this place +

An unseen pulse washed past him, bathing the world around him with the flash of a peculiar pulse. Unpursued by the Scalpers, Avo found that the broken Soul powering this former block had a signature. A specific luminosity. It tugged at his awareness in one manner ineffable, and another, thaumaturgic.

WARNING: REND CAPACITY SPIKING

REND CAPACITY: 66%

EXTERNAL RESONANCE BLEEDING OVER

DOMAINS DETECTED

- [MATTER]

- [SPACE]

- [BIOLOGY]

- [LUMINOSITY]

As the information flowed through his Metamind, a lightness built in his stomach. With so many Domains

+Kaes sayin you shouldnt get excited,+ Draus interrupted. Across the way, Avo watched as the Agnos studied holograms formed by projected phantoms. She was digging through his mem-data with a look of enraptured curiosity. +Fallen Heavens dont give working Domains. Canons are cracked one way or another. If it had a cycler, thats probably bricked too.+

Kae said something then. Correcting Draus. It was hard to hear her through Draus mind. Maybe he could build more externality functions into her Auto-Seance in the future. If she ever trusted enough to look into her mind, that was.

+Shes sayin that its probably fine. It spiked your Hell because you got a shared Domain. Says you should hurry before the next major flare-up because if it backlashes you again+

Avo redoubled his speed, gliding down through the hydroponic gardenentirely regrown in the time he had been gone and reinfested with a forest of eight-headed hydrapedes latching to each other in chains and rings from branches.

The patchwork of scars and grooves he carved into the room during his battle against the Scalpers remained. He brushed his mind over the shape of the chamber and reminisced.

Far had he come. Far from prior weakness and limitation. To think of how vulnerable he was back then laced his mind with bitterness.

Snapping back to focus, he lurched at an angle, diving down through an open gulf that spread wide from the corner. In the corner, away from the staggering trees grown atop pedestals in ten feet increments, a vast gorge of inwardly rent metal ran some thirty feet wide, exposing the guts of the structure.

An eldritch brightness licked past the lip of the wound. The signature of the Fallen Heaven was growing stronger. Heavier.

Avo approached.

This was where the spearships punched through; this was where the Galeslither vacuumed him up; this was where the turbine that was the Fallen Heaven spun.

With Rendsinks in grasp, he descended and made to forge for himself a new Hell.