Chapter 22-11 First Comes Lightning…

Chapter 22-11 First Comes Lightning...

Were gonna be tested in this life, Cas. You know this. You know that we have a burden. A responsibility. A crusade. You how hard the struggle is. Know that it was going to cost us. Has cost us.

I know that its hard to have faith sometimes. Especially after what they did to your father. Your brother. What theyre going to do to me. I know this is going to break you in waysoh, Cas Im so sorry. Im so, so, sorry.

I didnt mean to get caught. I didnt mean to leave you alone in the end. I tried. I really did.

Im sorry.

Im sorrys all I can give.

Youre the only one left of us now. The only one that can still carry our fire. That bears our faith.

This world is sick. Wrong. The Fallen Ones influence seeps here, tainting not only the false angels that were but also the people that remain.

This world is sick, and it needs someone to make things right, whatever it takes. Whatever the cost.

Ive given all I had. Youve given too much. But the people are suffering. The flocks are still lostdenied the path to providence.

The knives are falling, and someone has to be bled for the lambs. Who else but us? Who else but the martyred few?

[CRACKLING GAUSSFIRE; MOMENTARY DISTORTION]

Be the herald. Be the change. Be the noise for the silenced. And someday, when the dam falls, when everything comes crashing down, the flock will hear their Shepherds cry, and His light will shine on us again.

Make it right, Cas. Take this pain. Make it right. Make it loud.

[GHOSTLINK DISCONNECTED]

-Marriet eldCanduirs last thoughtcast to her son, Cas eldCanduir

22-11

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Unleashing peace was like setting a wolf free in a daycare.

The Famine was an avatar of destruction ruin in motion. Under his touch thought ruptured and minds shattered, the damage total and delicate, striking deep to sunder egos whole. He unleashed traumas that astounded Avo, reaching into minds, grasping cracks in psyches, and delivering on optimal devastation as a conjunctive act leading to the strike.

The entire process was ingrained. Refined. But that was the purpose of the Low Master in the end: breaking people.

As splinters wove themselves into traumas, relief settled upon Avo as he realized just how fortunate he had beenthat he never suffered a direct engagement against Peace. It was more than the potency of harm inflicted but the impossible skill he directed them. Crude and vulgar though the Low Master was, the way he used the art was exquisitethe gnosis he possessed would have taken Avo lifetimes to master.

The first to shatter were the detected Necros. Highflame, long used to facing Ori-Thaum, treated the Nether more as unpredictable wilderness, deploying fast-moving assets they could pull out at a moments notice should they attract the Incubi. Their own mindscapes were fortresses layered in protective wards and separated by nodes.

Their composition in the Nether ensured their forces would only suffer partial subversions, and Omnitechs Noosphere support allowed them a secondary network in case of a total route in the realm of thought.

Unfortunately, this also made them easy to isolate and ensured they could be defeated in detail.

Traumas detonated within their minds, but Peace seized the parting detritus of their mem-data, analyzing the information and feeding it into their next attack. The pace at which the Low Master worked was gut-churning. Under the templates command, splinters shifted into Auto-Seances, bridging him from one mind to another, burrowing through them as a chain of detonations.

The ambiance of the physical world remained as it was: a steady stream of sound, patterns unbroken, violence forthcoming. But should one peer down at the Nether, take in the connected mindspaces of the district, they would see bubbles of accretion popping, and the substance of their mem-data implodingprevented from becoming shrapnel.

In the span of a heartbeat, all the field Necros were hollowed at their cores, allowing Peace to guide splinters into their open wounds, melding Avos consciousness over the missing aspects and effectively mantling the broken egos as false shells to confuse whoever the Necros were connected to.

From their commanders perspectives, it would seem nothing more than a brief disconnect. Perhaps a thing of Nether lag. When they learned the truth, it was already too late.

[You see it now,] Peace said, bitter pride swelling inside him. [Do you see what I could have done to you, little shit? What I could have fucking made you and your bastard cadre if life was just. If I was ever given the chance.]

Screams echoed through Avo from fifty-three different minds. A half second later, four-hundred and thirty-three were nulled, and the rear line support for the Regular squads sent to capture Cas was effectively decimated. Another heartbeat passed, and Highflames jocks, Necros, and commanding units were all little more than drooling vegetables, the sixty MPP Mortality-Pattern long-range thauma-kinetic assault drones now bound to Avos Metamind as a final reward.

Yet, through it all, Peace revealed his greatest flaw as well. His inability to do anything but destroy. His unwillingness to abide by empathy rendered him less than incompetent at stealth and absolutely worthless for subterfuge.

Avo chuckled. +Must make you feel pitiful. How Defiances shadow still hangs over you. Even though hes dead.+

What phantom joy Peace felt turned to bitter fire. [Cunt! Fucking cunt! I nulled the bastard! I shattered all his nodes! Broke him again and again and again]

+And thats all youre worth. You hurt. You destroy. But you never win. You are a good instrument. But nothing more. Called you master. Youre just a slave above other slaves. No more replacable than a ghoul. And thats all you will ever be. Unless you wish to change.+

A snap shuddered against Avos Fardrifter. Spatial existence slammed together as an unseen bowl slammed down on the area, pocketing it away from the rest of the district. Eight full kilometers around the block shimmered a translucent dome. Aeros passed into the threshold and came out off course, still on the outside.

+Pocket,+ Draus growled. +They probably set that up before startin the show. Too bad they dont know their rabbits already slipped the noose.+



Cas continued reverberating through vents and crevices too narrow for even arantids, leaving the ambush far behind. As calm began to reassert itself on his mind, the Columner bit back an internal shout of frustration as he realized another of his assets was dead.

Another.

+Keep heading down,+ Avo said, letting his drones do another pass over the pocket. He collected the remainder of splinters still left within the entrapment and reassembled them in Cas mind. +Need to get to the gutters. Tavers should have a safe house somewhere.+



Cas paused. +Im not going to one of the George Washingtons gateways.+

+Blew it up,+ Avo said, not feeling like giving another debriefing. Instead, he simply shared his recent collections with the Columner and this time the man cursed internally.

+Jaus. Fuck! Diddid you need to do that?+

+Not going back under anyones leash. Zeins handled. For now.+

The exhaustion in Cas worsened. Then, he pulled up another session in his Metamind and began moving in a new direction.

+Cas?+ Avo asked, unsure why the man was deviating from his path.

The Columner didnt respond, choosing to cast someone instead.

SESSION SEQUENCED

ACTIVATING AUTO-SEANCE

UNABLE TO REACH [NUNA VELTERS]

+Come on,+ Cas said, growling under his breath.

Velters. Avo glimpsed memories of the woman earlier when he was rebuilding Cas mind. An asset. One of Cas personal spies. This one was related. A daughter.But that was all Avos mem-data had on her.

+Probably compromised too.+ Avo said.

+Yeah, probably,+ Cas replied, clearly frustrated. +Sonnabitch, Avo, you shouldveZein was half the reason we could operate how we didYou Now were all exposed. All the cells.+

+Know why I had to do it.+

+Yeah. Well, the rest of us are paying for your freedom.+

Avo grunted. That was true. There was a cost. But even faced with the fallout, Avo remained absent of regret. Collateral damage was unavoidable in a war. Such was true between the Guilds, so was it true between Godclads.

That didnt mean they just had to accept things.

+Could be another trap for you,+ Avo said. +Highflame could be waiting for you there too.+



+Yeah? Well fuck em. Ive been waiting for them too. Waiting for a long time.+ Rage and near despair swelled in the man. Martyrdom called to the rebel in him often, but the shepherd he was loathed to abandon those he could still help. +Dont even think of twisting my memories or changing my mind. I need to do this.+



+I know. I understand. Going to help you. And yours isnt the mind I want to change. Still. Know that youre heading into danger. Know that youre walking the fire. Cant use my miracles through you. Risks exposing us to Veylis. Can only lend you my mind. No guarantee you might make it out.+



Cas gave a bitter chuckle. +Im absolutely fine with that. Someones got to make things right, huh? Who else but me? Who else?+



Avo heeded the weariness in the mans tone and his templates whispered to him a worthy reply. +Who else but us?+