Chapter 10-18 Then Came the Killing

Chapter 10-18 Then Came the Killing

Abrel, look. The glass



Its Jhred. Hes doing



[Sounds of shattering; collapsing; wetness]

Is is that blood?



Im going. Zenna, hold to a six-mile range and run overwatch. Alphim, I need a loop-style demiplane layered in place a half mile behind Zenna; keep whatevers happening inside sealed. Melt, were going Breaker. Youre with me.



-Abrel Greatling to her Cadre, Instruments of Highflame

10-18

Then Came the Killing

THAUMIC OUTPUT - 987 THAUM/c

GHOSTS: [1046]

As locus-laced blood struck the threshold of Mirrorheads skull, lashing tentacles of blood erupted free from the liquefying glass. The Twice-Walker wailed in sudden surprise as the surface it swam beneath became swallowed, crystalline crimson usurping the domain of reflectivity.

From metaphor to truth, the state of the decks changed and a waterfall of red rushed down, showering the Confluxers below. Shouts and cries of alarm rose. A spurt of Soulfire burst out from Mirrorheads core as all things belonging to the Domain of Reflection in the surrounding vicinity pulsed and fissured. Skulls within visors shifted places. People fell through random points as the structure of reality rattled.

Backlash tore free from the Guilderhis Canon of Hyalokinesis driven into hubris by Avos dissolution of his glass. His mind, however, was occupied by other things.

As Draus' gauss fire tore out from the inside of the block, cutting down from a vantage point above, Mirrorheads Metamind resurfaced, its ripple vast and wide, the weight of over ten thousand ghosts groping for the yet-parted Nether.

All these things collapsing together exposed the Syndicate boss to the true assault.

In truth, the battle was lost for him before the Heavens clashed. Jaws of blood bit into the flesh of his thoughtstuff and Avo drew upon the fullness of his Haemokinesis, reflexes screaming as time halted to a near stop. He activated his session thereafter, jumping his ghosts without the need to engage Mirrorheads wards, injecting them directly into the innermost layer of the Guilders palace.

Trauma descended like a thunderstorm, lashing at the structures of Mirrorheads mind. But Avo didnt want his foe nulled, just broken, just devoid of strength, incapable of resisting. The first sequences Avo lanced were the foundations of Mirrorheads strength, the pillars of his confidence.

Moments greeted the ghoul as he shredded into the brittle substance of memory like a nu-dog tearing into supple flesh. Mirrorheads past triumphs unmade, dissolving like dust to the ethereal winds. Every moment of victory, when he overcame his peers; at Axtraxis Academy when he claimed the approval of his betters; in the Trials where he met Godclads from rival families in challenges of mind and might; in each act of defiance he levied against his father, who forbade him from revenge.This chapter was first shared on the Ñøv€lß1n platform.

The greatest of these memories was the night he left the Tiers. He had challenged his own father to the Trials mere days prior, seeking to pry a confession free from the man for why he abandoned his wife to an undeserved fate. But where Mirrorhead sought a reckoning, Uhtred Greatling desired only to discipline his son.

The subsequent brutalization had been wiped clean from Mirrorheads remembrances, but in its place was a recollection of kneeling before the shattered statue of his mother and swearing the redemption of her name.

From there, Jhred Greatling abandoned his duties and cadre behind him, casting his Heaven down from the Tiers and into the Warrens, into months and years of frenzied but foolhardy plotting, eyeing the stormtree in Nu-Scarrowbur while waiting for the perfect moment to strike.

This too, Avo broke, withering its structure apart with a touch of Lucilles Regret, and forcing trauma shrapnel deeper into the wounds that remained via the installation of other memoriesnamely those from the Incubi and Avo himself.

In an instant, the bones that held up the Guilders self-perception and ego shattered like glass, and in its place the festering plague of truth spread, rotting his sanity further from within. A scream of absolute horror and violation rushed out from within the Guilders mind, and in the real, he let out the beginnings of a roar, the pain in his voice betraying how close he was to madness.

As things within the Godclad broke, and Avo felt the numbness overtake his quarry, when the last sinews of fortitude snapped within his foe, he withdrew his invading constructs and turned his attention to the remainder of the Syndicate.

As Mirrorhead was pulled into the wake of the rushing tides of red, Avo manifested himself, diving into his domain fully as he coursed through the interior of the megablock.

From the blood pooling at the base of the Mall Brawl, spilling and coating the former food court under the Domain of Blood, the Woundshaper ascended, tearing out from the red and into existence proper as the barrier of sound shattered against its spire, as Avo constructed falling hammers and obliterated all the glass he could feel.

Filtering her appearance as best he could through his sequences, memories from over a month ago came back, and his Meta offered him a name.

Ved.

Ah, the person he convinced to serve as his guide, to lead him around the block and spoke to in the cafeteria after murdering Rantula. It was not a surprise she found herself among his victims too. Not that he cared over much.

It was just

She had told him about her life before. About the familial pain. About how her people thought of the ghouls. There had been a full life there, now essence nourishing his soul, another ghost component laid in his mind. It was going to be pain resequencing all their ghosts, but that would be for later.

For now, he let the fleeting sensation of sonder pass through him as he regarded Ved again.

Thank you, Avo said, unsure why he was talking to a corpse. For telling me about your life. Would have killed you all the same. But means more to kill and eat a person than a thing. The taste was indeed better, indeed deeper. Family or not, there she was a part of this choice-taking mechanism, and that made her desired prey by Waltons metric.

And Avos own.

Perhaps that was part of a persons beingthe totality of lifes story pouring the clay needed to create the fullness of a person.

Striking the blood around him with the Canon of Linger, he solidified the sweeping ichor before bringing his Echohead down on Veds skull. Her bones caved and meat oozed. He lifted his tail and continued his stride forward, her existence fading into the recesses of the past.

Arriving at the food court, Avo grunted a laugh as he noticed one final arc pylon still sparking on the opposite end of the course. There once was a wall of those things. Essus had attempted suicide using them. Some things survived no matter how hard you tried.

Where the battle between the Moonblood and Rantula took place was where Jhred Greatling scrambled. No longer was his suit a pristine monochrome. No longer did the protective shell of glass guard his visage.

Hearing the clinking sounds of the ghouls tendrils breaking linoleum, the beaten Guilder shivered as he turned, tears, snot, blood, and drool spilling free from his orifices. A low moan escaped from his throat as his eyes rolled up.

Where once he regarded Avo from the height of his desk, now kneeled below, staring up at an unfathomable being of superior make.

The perfectly sculpted angularity of his face, the sharpness of his nose, and the symmetrical divots dimpling his cheeks did nothing to alleviate his present wretchedness. Hair slickened thickly with viscera and gore, Jhred Greatling nearly slipped as the last fragments of glass broke from his skin.

Y-you? He choked. All this time. It was you?

In the distance, the sound of gauss-fire was thrumming at a second-to-second constancy. Draus was having her time now. She would be done soon. It was almost time.

And Zein had given him an hour.

With how things seemed, he would have time to spare yet.

I gave you the truth, Avo said. Reaching out, the blood below them pierced into the Greatlings tendons. And bounced off. It took deliberate liquefication to unmake the augmentations boosting Jhreds physicality. Nanosuites and gene-mods: Stuff most squires never got to see. The stuff ghouls couldnt even bite through.

It didnt protect him from Avo in the end.

Jhred swallowed, mind too wounded to muster even a glare. W-why? You could have could have left? You had you had Impossibly, a chuckle sounded from Jhred. The Frame. Huh. A ghoul with a Frame?

Incubi were here too, Avo said. They would have seen you broken regardless.

From within the block, the gunshots were trailing off, and through the exit-strewn hull of the block sounded the servos of the Blockcrawler.

Are you ready? Avo asked, curiosity drawing the question from him.

Ready? Jhred repeated. I I still need to I have to my mother.

Are you ready to see what lies beyond the reach of resurrection? To see what waits for us in the nothing after?

To this, the Guilder offered no real answer.

Unable to help himself, Avo had to sink his tongue in the wound. I dont think your mothers going to be there.

Emotional agony disfigured Jhred Greatlings face so beautifully. This moment belonged in a painting.

Or as a sculpture on an island somewhere.