Chapter 238

Chapter 238

Quill looked around at the empty space and admitted that Hardys little smuggling operation was surprisingly well put together. The piece of empty space in front of him seemed perfectly normal, and he would have passed it by without a second thought if he hadnt personally watched one of Hardys assistants, helpers, goons, or whatever he called them, drop a train car-sized asteroid in orbit around the sun near a lagrange point.

It was far enough away from the inhabited inner system that no one would easily travel to this location, and far enough away from the military outpost in the outer system that its patrols wouldn't stumble upon it.

Not that Matt trusted the local branch of the military. He had no proof or anything even hinting that anyone on the base was complicit in either the kidnapping of Justinian Miller or the smuggling operation, but he simply couldnt write off the possibility. People would sell their morals for surprisingly little if they thought they could get away with it, or it had little risk to themselves.

After confirming the drop did have the cloaked asteroid, Matt sent off his infopacket to a mercenary company in the neighboring system, pushing enough mana into his transmitter to handle the transmission distance back to the planet.

While the Empire didnt have the robust, formalized system of mercenaries that the Corporations had cultivated, there were more than a few teams of delvers who were willing to do extra work on the side to increase their income. One such team had been hired by the neighboring baron with the express purpose of cracking down on smuggling, particularly drug running.

Theyd nearly managed to catch Hardy in the act a couple of times before, but hed burned the relevant caches before anything came of it.

The team had still found evidence of his misdeeds, but not anything close enough to prove he was connected to the smuggling operation. That hardly pleased the Baron, nor the mercenary team, as that was the first imperfection on an otherwise stellar record of service. They had caught most of the smugglers, which proved they were competent. Letting even one of the major players go, even if they weren't suspected to be in the drug trade, didnt look good.

Wanting to rectify that blemish, they put out word they would pay generously for anyone who could give them even a hint of actionable evidence on Hardy.

Quill knew the recording of one of Hardys known associates bringing a stealth asteroid into a lagrange point would bring them running.

And that meant he wouldnt have to fight the Gerble house directly, while still tying up their assets.

Returning to the Cysora, Matt changed into his delivery uniform pants and laid down on the plastic sheeting Liz had put down.

You ready?

Sighing, he answered truthfully. I said I welcome you into my heart, but I never thought it would be so literal one day.

Liz grinned as she waggled her eyebrows and knife in counterpoint. Oh, don't be a big baby. I promise, I won't wiggle too much.

Matt stopped his heart and breathing, allowing essence to compensate for each. It would be highly uncomfortable, but for a few hours, he could manage.

With a quick cut, Liz sliced into his chest, just under his bottom rib. His ribs were too strong for her to easily break, so she utilized her blood to reach past them and into his organs. He didnt resist which helped things along but it still felt incredibly uncomfortable to feel Liz controlling the blood inside his body.

The organs were still a bit of a mess at the moment, as he was still working on remaking them, but that didnt matter for this. A bit of impromptu surgery later, Liz was pulling his [Blood Storage]d organs out of his chest and feeding them into a medical stasis chest where she reformed them.

Liberal use of [Bandage] patched up Matts insides, keeping the severed tissue alive and in good shape for when his organs were returned. Sure, he could regrow them, but at their Tier, that would mean several weeks of discomfort until his heart was back in place. Far easier to just return them when they were done.

The initial idea had come from Liz wanting to hide in his veins using [Blood Body], but there were a few problems with that. The first was simply volume- Lizs entire body was larger than Matts circulatory system, so she wouldnt fit. There were ways around that, but they were inaccessible at their present Tier.

The second problem was that all skills would be stripped away in a dispelling pulse as part of standard security checks. Even if they resisted the pulse, which they weren't sure they could do, it would still set off an alarm as the spell met unexpected resistance where it shouldn't. And of course, the final problem was that two spiritual signatures in the same body would be detected almost immediately.

Thus, it was a complete non-starter. But, from that theyd eventually come up with something workable.

Kill Liz.

Shed get better.

If they poisoned Liz with a toxin that drastically weakened the spirit, then had her hide in his chest cavity in bird form, they could bypass the skill dispersal. The [Bandage]s on his chest would be dispelled, but Matt could survive that, and Liz could recast it from the inside. Most importantly Lizs spiritual presence would, with just a bit of work, look like a part of Matts and trick the security scanners.

Once inside, she would find a quiet corner of the estate to drink a potion that would offset some of the symptoms and buy her about an extra twelve hours of life, while Matt walked out of the estate with nobody the wiser.

It was the best option, and he could at least say with certainty he wasnt the worse off of the two of them. He wasnt the one dying after all.

It was still damn unpleasant having his organs removed.

It was even more unpleasant when Liz transformed first into a bird in a burst of ash, then into an amorphous blob of blood, flowing between his ribs and into his chest. There she returned to bird form, and healed his chest from the inside. The flames cascading off of her body were a bit warm on his insides, but she wasnt actively trying to burn him, so they were nothing he couldnt handle.

He cleared his throat, which felt weird without his lungs, and prompted his [AI] to start mimicking his lung with [Air Manipulation]. With Liz sitting in his chest, he could smell a touch of cinnamon with every exhalation.

Testing, one, two, three, five, seven. I hate this. Test, test, test.

He also had a speaker shoved up his throat that he could activate with his [AI] in case he needed to speak while unable to cast skills. Technically, his [AI] would be dispelled as well if the security did a thorough anti-skill formation, but those were rare, specifically to avoid interfering with [AI] and oaths kept track of through it. Still, he could use the now-merged skill unless specifically countered.

He felt Liz peck at one of his ribs as he twisted to crack his back and grimaced. He could even feel her feathers touching the inside of his chest when she braced herself during his twist.

It was not pleasant.

He would most certainly be having nightmares about this part of the mission, he was sure.

Not letting any discomfort show, Matt went to work like normal, and acted surprised when he was told he was filling in for the regular to deliver a package to the Gerble estate. Mark, the normal delivery man, had won a sweepstake for a trip with his family to a resort planet for two weeks, and would be gone for the rest of the month. Matt would be filling in for the secondary, as the normal second took over the primary responsibilities and he took over theirs thanks to a few well placed suggestions to the shift manager.

Said shift manager had warned him that this was an important client, and to not fuck anything up, which reminded him of working for Benny all those years ago before he joined the Path. His younger self would have never guessed he'd be walking around with his organs removed and with a bird in their place but it all seemed so normal now.

He was loading a box when he tried to scream as what felt like a red-hot coal landed inside his pelvis, but with no lungs, he was able to pass it off as just a cough.

Torch immediately apologized. Sorry! You moved unexpectedly and my tail brushed your tailbone. Im sorry! Im sorry.

Thankfully, there were no other hiccups, and they made their rounds without any issues until the last stop of the day, which was the Gerble estate.

Together he and the primary delivery man got out of the van and were scanned while the van itself underwent a thorough inspection.

Quill made small talk with the guards, pretending to be nervous and asking all the inane questions a normal new person would ask, which put them at ease. The skill disruption worked as theyd expected, stripping away his internal [Bandage]s and prompting Liz to reapply them all.

Once they got the all-clear, Quill let out an internal sigh of relief while he felt Torch actually sigh if the puff of hot air that hit his inner chest was any indication.

After driving up to the front of the manor, they unloaded the boxes, and being the last one inside the van, Quill made a small cut below his sternum, allowing Torch to spill out of his torso in blood form, and into the grass. She was barely visible in all honesty, as she used a suite of skills to be as unobtrusive as possible.

Knowing he had done everything he could for her, and that he had his own role to play, Quill returned to the hub and checked out while joking around with the others while they swept the floor free of any debris before going home.

Instead of actually going home, Quill went to the armys hidden base, where there was a surgery room prepared and waiting for him. Once inside they quickly returned his organs to where they should be.

Feeling his heartbeat through his chest had never felt so good before, but he wasnt able to enjoy it for long. They got news that the teleporter had just activated and the mercenary team had entered the planet before immediately flying into space.

Knowing he needed to trail them, Quill also took to space and kept a few thousand miles away from the group, and well outside of their spiritual range, but close enough that he could intervene if it was necessary.

Settling in, he waited.

Now it was up to Torch to locate and free Justinian Miller before Linda noticed something was amiss.

He sent a ping that he was in position to the headquarters of the battalion they had brought in from nearby systems, and told them that they should be ready to react to Torchs movements while he waited for the team to capture Hardy.

If everything went to plan, nothing would be complicated and they could end this without a fight.

***

Torch felt awful.

The poison theyd chosen was the least painful of all spirit-dampening, moderately fast-acting poisons, but being the least painful was only a small consolation right now. Her blood felt sluggish and slow, her inner flame was down to embers, and she had a headache as bad as any from Concept overuse. If she wasnt in her [Blood Body], she was sure it would be even worse.

She was far enough underground now, and she pulled herself together, blood flowing through permeable soil until she was all in one piece. Then, she released her [Blood Body]. The Tier 4 soil around her easily gave way as she returned first to bird form, then to human form. Her body felt even worse than shed expected, but with the secondary potion she drank, the poison wouldnt kill her for another few days yet. That meant she got to agonize for the next few hours until she completed her mission.

Oh joy.

It took her some time, as the official plans were indeed woefully outdated, but after finding a servant's bathroom that didnt seem used often, Torch burbled out of the sink and then spilled out onto the floor. Once her entire body was out of the sink, she reformed into her real body and locked the door.

Taking a deep breath, she pulled some blood through her skin and drew a number of runes in the air.

While unstructured magic was fiendishly hard, shed gotten a lot better at what she was calling Blood Seeking over the past two decades. Those improvements were mostly on the reliability and time fronts, as unstructured magic was affected by everything. What time of day it was, what the weather was, what Tier of planet she was on, when shed last eaten, the cadence her heart was beating at, even how full her mana pool was. She had to make a thousand tiny adjustments on the fly to make the magic do what she wanted it to do, and by now, she could reliably do it in less than a minute and on her first try. She could even cast a few minor skill-less-spells, but they werent useful here, which was good, as she wasnt nearly as proficient with them.

Her blood resonated, and the blood in her surroundings resonated back. The resonance wasnt strong enough yet for her to use magic through the connection, but that was fine. All Torch cared about at the moment was that shed just gotten a very firm idea as to where everyone in the compound was, and where they were moving. It could even pierce a number of basic or lower-Tier privacy wards, but it wasnt foolproof.

Shed tried a few times to get a skill version of Blood Seeking, but to no avail. [Tracking], [Farsight], and [Seek] just broke. [Earthsense] just became [Bloodsense] and let her extend tactile sensation through blood, which wasnt what she wanted. [Mark] became [Smell Blood], a strict downgrade from the original because it required her to injure someone as she cast it, and if they healed themselves, the magical scent would go away.

So, she made do. As people moved about the estate, Liz relayed the information to her AI to slowly build out a three dimensional map of the compound. After three hours, she had a few points of interest.

The first was where they suspected the vault to be. She couldnt sense anything inside of it, naturally, but she had felt some level of interference from its wards when people passed nearby, and there were as expected two guards stationed near there at all times. Or rather, she suspected there were two, as there had been what she figured was a shift change, and two connections of blood had entered the vault's disruptive range while two different ones had left.

The second was Lindas room. There was someone who hadnt moved from that general area at all in the same amount of time, despite a number of others coming and going. It could possibly be a lover, but it could also be that Linda wanted to keep Justinian close, and had boxed him somewhere nearby her person.

The third possible location was an otherwise blank location on her map; she just couldnt figure out what it was. Her magic told her there were two people there, but literally nothing else, not even foot traffic.

That was odd to say the least.

The only thing Torch could think of was that Justinian was being kept with someone for company. Maybe a fellow captive or planted lover to keep him placated? It was under one of the gardens, which would be an unusual place to keep him, but perhaps that was the idea. She would never think to look there without the resonance of her blood.

Wanting to hit the easiest to check places first, Torch cast [Water Body] once more and slithered her way through the pipes until she reached the kitchens, and then through a sprinkler and into the garden.

Seeping through the soil, she eventually found a cellar packed with foodstuffs and a pair of workers using the out-of-the-way location to take a nap from a long day's work. Silently commending them on their ability to vanish for over three hours without being noticed, she left them to their devices and noted that she could alert the staff to their presence if she needed to create a distraction, as neither seemed like they would be awake any time soon.

She resolidified on the far end of the gardens, making herself a tiny cavern to hole up in, and recast her tracking magic, following the routine for another hour to see if anything had changed.

The couple had finally finished their nap, but she could only guess based on the fact that they had been joined by a third and fourth person, having presumably caught them snoozing.

Now, all that was left was for Hardy to be captured by the mercenaries, and Linda to be called out to space. She needed to move three more times between various locations to ensure she stayed well out of range of any of the guards, but in time, Hardy left with a few of his men.

Pulling out his talisman robe, Quill noticed the moment Linda realized she was dealing with someone prepared for her every move, and not just someone ready to fight a normal melee fighter. If he wasnt hiding his Quill mask, he was sure she would have already cut her losses and tried to escape to another region of the Empire, where she could take a new name and pretend to be someone else. She just hadnt realized how deep the conspiracy went yet which was what they were counting on.

It was something he had already predicted and planned for, which was why they had brought the army in to surround this world. There were already three platoons surrounding the world in chaotic space, and the moment Linda left her estate, they had secured the teleporters to prevent anyone from escaping using that method.

Linda closed the gap, and Quill used two talismans on his cloak to cast [Earth Armor], hoping to block the next blow. Wanting to be extra careful, he also cast [Bulwark] while triggering a false talisman from his cloak.

[Bulwark] shattered under the strike, but absorbed enough of her attack to allow for [Earth Armor] to block the rest of the blow, and he slipped out from melee range with only a shallow cut on his hip.

Linda on the other hand was sent careening backwards from the momentum of her own strike, and Quill snapped his fingers to activate his prepared talisman field.

The section of space he had just been transformed into a ball of pale blue light as upwards of a million mana detonated in unison.

He still cast a set of [Cracked Mana Trap]s, disguising them as talisman byproducts just in case she came out of that trap in fighting condition.

Linda ran right through them, ignoring the resulting explosions of various mana types to close the distance once more. He wanted to curse the woman but saw she wasnt nearly as damaged by the double traps as he had hoped.

Quill readied a counter, knowing he wasnt going to be able to slip through the gaps once more, and the moment she struck out at him with her [Light Blade], he punched forward, activating two talismans to respond with [Piercing Punch]. The attack wasnt his strongest option, but it was fast enough and carried enough armor penetration that even Linda would at least need to be wary of it.

His own years of experience told him what she was trying to do and his [AI] model backed his assumptions up with the raw data. Her initial blow aimed for his chest, very nearly a feint, just one that would still do damage, but it set her up to decapitate him on the backswing which would catch someone less versed in melee fights unaware. He avoided it with a small sidewards teleport and flying towards her, pushing her to retreat.

He didnt stop his attack like he was sure she would have predicted and hoped that would be enough to force her to change the trajectory of her attack. If she didnt dodge he would most certainly hit her head directly which could very well be lethal without some additional mitigation.

Instead of dodging, Linda just took the attack on her helmeted head and cut through his lower waist in one clean blow. He could feel her Concept as it sheared through his armor, and while not the most sophisticated Domain she had the raw power to compensate. That his magical and physical armor had both been devastated didnt matter, it was an expected loss.

His [Piercing Punch] had landed, and even through her helmet, carved a furrow through her skin, exposing her skull. But sadly, he wasnt able to expose her brain to the vacuum of space like he had intended. A sudden drop in pressure like that would render most people unconscious, if they werent prepared.

Growling, Quill reached out, flared [Mages Retreat] and anchored both of them in space with his Concept as he grabbed her shield and twisted. Bone cracked, and he saw her good eye go wide at his surprising strength. Even with nearly 30,000 mana fueling the spell, it wasnt enough for him to directly match a Tier 19 warrior in strength. But it was certainly enough to catch her by surprise, for an apparent Tier 15 mage to even be a fraction of his current strength.

She seemed to realize something was wrong right as half a dozen talismans on his cloak flared to life, trapping her in melee range for a [Bolt] array.

He was ready for it, using [Barbarians Hide] and [Lightning Manipulation] to blunt the worst of it for himself, but Linda seized as the mana ripped through her armor and into her body.

Quill's left hand was blown off, which destroyed a few dummy rings and cracked his teleport ring. Unfortunate, as he would be out of teleports for the rest of the fight, but easily recoverable in the near future when he got his hand back.

Lindas mangled shield arm glowed with magical healing, and Quill retreated to begin casting more spells. He couldn't get far enough to escape the Tier 19, and endured a few more blows before Lindas head snapped to the side.

She fled planetward, with Torch clearly having succeeded in the first part of her mission. Of course, Quill couldnt just let her leave. Some optimizations had gone through with his [AI]s model of Linda and he used that to his advantage as he activated a three talisman force array that was aimed for her neck and would cover her three most likely places to dodge.

The blow would have cut right through her if she didnt turn and block it with her shield which was good enough.

Another volley of spells forced her back into the fight properly.

He didnt need to kill her. Just keep her from returning to the planet.

She couldnt fly away at maximum speed without opening herself up to attack. She couldnt fight someone who nearly matched her while also trying to flee.

He knew it.

She knew it.

Now backed into a corner, she turned towards him with determination, and murder in her eyes.

Quill was sure he was about to find out what other spells she had been keeping in reserve the hard way.

He just hoped Torch would finish her part quickly.

***

Torch counted down the seconds as the vault door, oh so slowly, deformed. Their preferred method of getting into a vault was to blast or melt through a door, but that idea was impossible when they needed to rescue someone who would have no skills to protect themselves from the blast. They didnt know how close Justinian would be to the vault door, and they couldn't risk killing him but that cost her time.

So, they needed to rip the door apart in a way with as little damage to the inside as possible, which was where Quill's talismans came into play. They were designed after [Filter] and [Ore Separator], which could, in their own ways, separate items at a minute level. And nearly all vault doors were metallic mixtures meant to give the door strength and keep spiritual perception out, which meant at least two metals.

The talisman just separated those metals.

In theory a very easy task.

In practice a very, very hard one.

Most vault makers included specific countermeasures for metal-separation attacks, but the nice thing was that they couldnt completely block it so long as the door was actually made of metal. It just meant the attack needed to be that much more powerful and mana was never something they lacked.

Seymour, the head of security, rushed at her back with his mace raised high and glowing a sickly green. Torch barely even needed to turn, blocking the attack with her shield and attacking his thigh in turn with her spear.

Her blade didnt pierce the armor, but the Tier 18 was forced backward, and Torch used that opportunity to activate her strength boosting potions and spells, throwing her spear at him hard enough to tear some of her muscles. He threw his glowing mace with [Crescent Sweep], but Torch flared her shields mana shield into a full bubble, blocking Seymours attack before he was expecting it and enabling her to land her throw on his chest that dented his armor and pushed him back.

From there, she swept out his legs from underneath him, utilizing her Concept to reinforce the action. Once he was falling, she locked some [Gravity Manacle] talismans onto his limbs, pinning him to the ground.

She only needed to delay him for a few seconds longer, with the hole in the door nearly large enough for her to pass through, and it seemed as though Seymour wouldnt free himself in time. She did activate a set of fire talismans to flood the hallway with flames helped along with her bloodline to blast back the onrushing guards. At only Tier 15 and 16, she barely even needed to pay them any mind but she didnt want to kill them if she didnt have to.

And then, a hole in the vault opened. It was only a finger's width wide but that was all she needed. Torch instantly turned into water and flooded through the gap, rematerializing on the other side.

Once inside, she ignored all the precious items and instead spread her spiritual perception out, looking for anywhere that might hold a captive and, to her horror, found nothing immediately obvious.

Dragging her focus back on track, Torch analyzed what she felt and noticed one wall was significantly shorter than the other. Seeing that and hoping it was what she thought it was she immediately ran to the wall and drove her spear into it.

Thankfully, the metal was chosen and reinforced to block spiritual perceptions, not for structural strength, so after only a few moments of work, she had created a crack in the wall. Digging her fingers inside, she pulled with a burst of potion-enhanced strength and sighed, seeing a thin, dirty, scared man in one corner of a room too small for him.

She analyzed the room and shook her head even as she kept ripping the wall apart. The section he was locked in was cramped enough to prevent him from laying down properly but beyond the glass partition which made his room so small was a luxurious room that put to shame her room she had growing up.

Not caring about being noticed, she commanded her AI to call in the army, but then noticed that the entire estate was locked down and blocking AI signals both in and out.

Using her spiritual sense to look out to the guards now rushing down the hall, she mentally shrugged.

If that was how they wanted to play it, she would oblige them.

Im here to save you, Mr. Miller.

She saw him sob at the confirmation and unsuccessfully tried to help her widen the hole so he could scrabble out just a little faster. He cut himself a few times, but even as a Tier 14 mage, he wouldnt be in danger from those wounds, so she ignored them in favor of watching the guards get closer.

Stay behind me, and I'll get you out of here.

He stared at her in bewilderment, and Torch repeated her statement at a speed even a Tier 5 could follow.

This time he responded with fervor. Ok, ok, ok, ok, ok.

Hearing that Justinian was babbling, she ignored him and summoned her spear back to her hands and created a dense wall of fire like an umbrella in front of her.

If anyone survives breaching these flames I will kill them without hesitation. House Gerble has been found to be holding captive a civilian against their will to exploit their Talent. Surrender to Imperial investigators or suffer the consequences of trying to stop me.

Seymour immediately called out, Shes lying and planting evidence! Kill her!

Torch considered that acceptance.

Still boosted by her skills and potions, Torch ran forward and let her flames unkindly scorch Seymour, but made sure not to actually kill the wounded man. After that little comment, she was sure he knew what was going on, and wanted him to stand trial for his crimes.

It was the average security shed rather not kill, but from the way they were throwing spells at her, she was rather limited in her options. She wasnt worried about her safety, but if a stray spell hit Justinian

She unleashed her full spiritual perception, assessing the area, and promptly flooded the area with fire to obscure her next actions.

There were almost twenty feet of reinforced concrete above her, but she had dealt with worse. Her Tier 3 talent still reduced the cost of her blood skills, even if they ended up controlling stone, and great chunks of stone began crumbling from the ceiling above as she bored a hole large enough for the two of them to fit through.

A tendril of water formed a harness around Justinian, and Liz rode her spear up through the still-widening hole until they burst into the main floor of the estate. As the majority of the structure was only Tier 4, she didnt even slow down as she crashed through floors and walls on her way to the sky.

Target acquired.

Her message had barely left her AI when a spaceship thudded into existence smashing through the defensive barriers around the estate like they were made of wet tissue paper. The in-atmosphere change from chaotic space into realspace displacing enough air to let her feel it like a punch to the gut, and Tier 15 soldiers swarmed out to secure the estate.

She was about to take Justinian away when Luna appeared next to her. Well done, but this isn't over yet. Lets g

Torch was about to say something else when Lunas eyes narrowed. The next moment, the cat vanished with only an angry hiss marking her passage.

***

Quill was missing his entire lower half, the remainder of his left arm along with his growth ring which was floating around somewhere in the debris of their fight, his chest was trailing his cut-up organs, but he had managed to keep away from Linda for the last five minutes, and even inflicted a few more wounds on her. Some were even serious enough to hamper her in the fight which was how he had been able to keep his cover so long.

Biologically, he was dying, but one of the perks of immortality was that he could replace the need for biology with fury and determination. It worked nearly as well for a short time. Still, he was wondering if he was going to need to use [Cracked Mana Spear] or [Cracked Phantom Armor] to protect his life when warships arrived on the scene, disgorging two dozen Tier 15s and a single Tier 19 soldier.

Torch had succeeded.

Quill began applying [Bandage]s to himself, running [Lesser Regeneration] with most of his mana, when three figures suddenly appeared. The first was an unfamiliar man with one hand locked in place inches from the back of Lindas head and the other hand already dissolved into purple motes of void mana. The second was Luna, holding back the man from his attack.

The third figure was Frederic, floating next to Luna with a scowl writ large on his face.

It seemed things had become complicated.