Chapter 15-12 The Lapse

Chapter 15-12 The Lapse

Anyone can be a Godclad. Any self-aware creature.

When someone asks me who deserves the mantle of apotheosis, silence is my answer. There is nothing to say to such a false question; Godclads are imbued with the immensity of influence, but none of this is truly decided by virtue.

Think of the gods from the Age of the Everwars, and know that Heavens are a function of power and control rather than ethicality and mastery. An addict with the requisite implants and weapons will slaughter even the most elite among martial peers by merit of power differential alone.

What is actually being asked is who can stay a Godclad.

The things to consider are of a multitude. Temperament. Ego. Background. Skill. Environment. Politics. All these things come together to decide who will be Ensouled, but granting divinity blindly inevitably leads to Usurpation.

Skill is a necessity. But more than skill, the foundational aspect of who makes a proper Godclad is judgment. It is the ones that live beyond the confines of their own mind and can witness the world without filters and spare themselves comforting lies.

These are the ones who will make the right choices with their canons. These are the ones who will withdraw from battles that are no longer worth fighting. These are the ones that understand the greatest boon granted by a Frame is the ability to learn from death above all other miracles.

It is no strange secret that most Ensouled survive shorter than a year before losing their Frame to another. Absolutes clash absolutely, and once most taste the privilege of ruling over a facet of reality, they will soon find themselves lusting for the pleasure of becoming a potential suzerain of their peers.

Clarity, here, decides the fate of most. Clarity in what must be done. Clarity in what they might survive. Clarity in how they are to present themselves to the world.

Absolute honesty to counter absolute power. That is my answer. That is the cure to the hubris that ails all who bear the highest powers.

--Osjon Thousand, Death Pruning, Page 588

15-12

The Lapse

[Her,] Abrel said. [Shell do.]

+Her?+ Avo replied, staring down at the young woman quietly digging through the butchered remains of her fellow FATELESS for any supplies she could use. The Warwights had gotten far before they were diverted. Her gore-caked hands moved fast and slick and there was an unnerving alertness to her brown eyes. She was always movingalways listening and scavenging to maintain an upper hand.

Of the surviving defenders within the station, she alone remained beyond the second defensive line located in the lobby. By virtue of courage or rank apathy in the face of death, she scurried about the outside from shadow to shadow, her lithe form darting like an aratnid dragging bits of trash back into its nest.

A few hundred more accretions remained deeper yet in the block, but Abrel made her vote known the moment she noticed the girl.

Hidden from sight by his Incog, Avo studied the curious creature as he manifested all the mem-data the Three-Fingers had on her.

The smugglers that sold her into the city called the waif Dice. Apparently, she was nameless before a pale-faced Fallwalker offered her over after losing a bet in a dice game. Henceforth, her captors found an easy reference for the gangly girl, though Shiv came a close second when she broke a rusty shard of metal against the skin of one of the crew.

No other details about her past were forthcoming. She weighed a feeble ninety-two pounds and stood shorter than even Kae at five feet onethough the mem-data displayed her height as one-hundred and fifty-four centimeters per her insistence. Guesswork and blind assumption listed her ancestry as Kosgan, but the silence she kept and the blank glare she gave all those around her made verification all but impossible.

Syndicate Necros made an attempt to dig through her mind but found little in the way of long-term memories.

She was, in a word, wiped clean. All she had was her facilities, an aversion to eye contact, and a casual indifference to horror and bloodshed.

[Skills, attitude, and a mystery,] Abrel said. [Pretty good eating for us today.]

Digging through intestinal ropes, the oval-faced girl moved off instinct and little else as Avo regarded the features of her sheathe. One of her arms was longer than the other. He could tell the ragged coat she wore once belonged to someone else from the scent of blood still matted on it and the flechette holes lining the back. The sunk placement of her jaw accentuated the sharpness of her nose and he realized her silence to be a result of biological mutation rather than outright choice.

[But godsdamned is she fucking ugly,] Lip groaned. Several other templates cast their surprise at the Scaarthian and she sighed. [Its true, motherfuckers. She looks like the backside of a shovel. Whatever that Fallwalker sold her for was too much.]

Shadow-2 scoffed. [Yeah, like the mesh is one to judge.]

[Which one of you half-strands said that?] Lip snarled. [Ill]

[Do nothing. Because were all figments of the ghouls consciousness. Hes just letting us talk because we feed him insight between all the hours of constant arguing and factionalism.]

His gestalt was truly a place of welcoming kindness.

Spreading his awareness deeper through the station, his consciousness spread like silent venom as his tendrils crept through the foundations of the block. He glimpsed and scouted through the profiles of the defenders first. What remained of them, anyhow.

Some were hard enough. Former warriors of feral tribes that managed to eke out a tortured living in the Sunderwilds somehow. Members of a now true-deathed Fallwalkers retinue before being captured. Augment-stripped enforcers from rival Syndicates set to be humiliated one last time.

He skipped past the details and ignored her screaming mind while he worked in haste.

When finished with her Frame, he accelerated his resurrection cycle and ascended back into the real first to anticipate her return.

Twitching into existence, Avo did another sweep of his own mind and found nothing amiss.

Nothing he could detect, anyhow.

Whatever was wrong with him was either beyond Necrotheurgy or his expertise. Neither boded well. He needed a means of enforcing control in the meantime. A secondary structure to monitor himself without risk to others if possible.

His considerations were interrupted as Dice flickered back into reality right next to him, and though her flesh was fully mended, her mind still screamed with questions and confusion, her thoughtstuff churning like a typhoon from all the unexplained phenomena she experienced in a short span of time.

Avo wasted no more time and speared his flames into her mind. Drinking away her ego as a template, he mimicked her cognitive structure and began to tweak what she could recall. Forging ingots of knowledge behind what she was now and what her powers could do, he built in a session in the back of her mind as he had with Abrel as he scrubbed himself clean from her thoughts.

All she would know now was thatby mysterious meansshe was a Godclad with an enemy to face, and that she now had the tools to hunt and butcher the Three-Fingers that sought to snuff her like cattle.

She would recall nothing of him though. He would be able to access her mind when he chose, but her purpose was not to be his associate or slave.

Her purpose was to live and wreak havoc through the Warrens as he once did and part the attention of the Paladins should she fail to be circumspect. If she fell to true death after all her ensouling, then such was life in New Vultun. But if she performed, he still had an avenue to imbue her with greater and more expansive ontologics.

For now, however, he simply broke her neck a second time and let her corpse topple down upon offal-soaked plascrete.

Casting a final sweep using his Whisper, Avo made sure the other FATELESS remained ignorant of his presence as coated himself in haemokinesis and stepped into a bolt of surging lightning.

Within the microsecond of his traversal, he realized the protective dome he built around the Crucible had splashed down with his death. Little matter. They were done here. It was time to return to the demiplane.

Like a whipcrack he crashed down next to Draus and the others as lightning stitched him back into shape from still sparking blood. Kae stumbled backward. Chambers toppled over himself. The Regular fixed him with a bored stare and pulled burning hifflass out from between her lips.

Didnt kill any of em, did you? Draus asked. She was asking if he butchered any of the FATELESS. It would be remiss of him to lie.

Only one, Avo replied, considering if he wanted to tell her about his control slippingas well. Gave her a Soul. Burned her clean of memories.

Whoa, Chambers said, holding up a hand. You werent shitting us about that? Youre actually giving these flats Frames?

A stench wafted from the half-strand and it was thick with jealousy. Yes. Going to distribute more power soon. See if the victims can invert their positions. See if the abusers can still fight when theyre on the bottom.

And build a false trail for the Paladins and Exorcists to follow considering all the weird shit we get up to, yeah? Draus finished.

Avo grunted. Something like that. Should open us a passage. Ill liquefy the aero. We need to get back to the demiplane. Ill distribute our haul there. New ontologics for everyone.

Fuck yes, Chambers said, pumping his fist as all envy evaporated from his mind.

Draus, however, was not so easily distracted. You aint been in a hurry like this before. Somethins up.

The thought to resequence his own mind to adapt and convince her of his stability greeted Avo as an appealing option, but the longer he held Draus flat stare, the less he found himself wanting to lie. Ill tell you later. Want to leave now. Please. Three sets of eyes blinked at him. What?

Please is rare coming from you, Avo, Kae said. Mostly youre just like: Draus. Going to do a thing. Hm. Considering implications of thing. Im thinking about castrating a prepubescent and getting hungry. Not going to do it. Im a good ghoul. And then youd torture someone terribly.

Draus snorted. Chambers guffawed. Avo glared.

Mocking me, Avo said.

Yes, but that is how youre like. Draus is right. You seem worried.

He shook his head and hissed. Talk where its safe. Open passage. Ill deal with our leftovers.

The Regular swept her gaze across him and offered a quick nod. Denton casted us earlier. Said Aegis was ready to meet and was acceleratin the timetable per your preference. You good for talkin to the voider bosses?

Avo didnt know. But he couldnt abandon such an opportunity. Not when there was more for him to understand. Not when he could enhance his mind into a new spectrum.

Maybe the Sprites would be a new means to salve these lapses.

Yes, Avo said, unsure if he was lying. Ill be ready. Ill be fine.