'Piece of shit…' snarled Vikrum, kicking at the shield. He'd shoot it but he had no ammo. Still, with his great strength he was making good progress. Actually, the punches and kicks seemed to have more effect on the shields than he'd have expected. He'd seen Nicolai somehow using his Soul to aid the blows, and was doing his best to mimic that. Hateful as the man was, he had some good tricks.

Vikrum launched another desultory Soul Sense attack, which glanced straight off Nicolai's frustratingly seamless Soul Sense. Useless. He might as well not bother. He gave up on the attacks and focused on slamming kick after kick into the shield, the last gold one, trying his hardest to put his Soul in his foot and his foot through the shield. Cornwall estimated he'd be through it in less than a minute, and then he'd get the bastard.

That was when Nicolai looked up at him, meeting his eyes for the first time since sitting down. The suddenness of the gesture and the unexpected eye-contact gave Vikrum pause and he stiffened, ceasing his attacks.

'These shields are going to last long enough, this is almost done,' said Nicolai, smiling. 'I have to thank you for that,' he added, glancing upwards.

'What?' spluttered Vikrum, following the gaze and only seeing the dome shield and the ceiling above. Cornwall was telling him this was just a distraction, that Nicolai was merely buying time. He knew Cornwall was right but even so, he wanted to know.

'That big shield you created,' Nicolai clarified. '"No one in, and no one out," or whatever it was you said. Without ammo, and on your own, you won't be able to break through in time—especially since I have a few more shields in reserve. And to think, you created the very shield that now prevents your allies from coming to your aid.' He laughed. 'I never thought I could kill you. I just wanted this.' He tapped the pocket into which he'd placed the Symbiote of Change.

Vikrum gaped at him. No. Had he lost?

Be wary, began Cornwall, but Nicolai was still speaking.

'It was kind of you to waste time smashing my arm, too. And to stand there like an idiot, listening to me now. You wouldn't be able to get through anyway, but I appreciate you giving me even more time.'

Cornwall's voice was buried beneath the utter rage that boiled through him. Gears in his wrists ground as his fists clenched tight enough to dent metal. He had wasted a lot of time. I can change that right now. There was something Nicolai didn't know.

With no more than a thought he ordered the dome shield surrounding them to collapse. It was tied to him, as the activator. An ugly smile twisted his face. 'Fool,' he hissed to Nicolai. 'I could have de-activated it at any time. Thank you for the reminder!' He turned. 'Everyone, get here now!' he cried to the Chosen. 'Bring me a gun and—'

He finally paid attention to Cornwall who had begun to cry out the moment he de-activated the shield, as his detection software screamed a warning.

But it was too late.

Borg fell, toppling like a felled tree, his metal face managing to look surprised. Gilvine retracted the vibro-blade she'd dug into his back, seized the anti-material rifle and pouch of ammo he'd held, and levelled it at Vikrum.

'Time to die,' she grated.

The shot caught him in the shoulder and Vikrum was knocked spinning, crashing into Nicolai's shield. A chunk of his shoulder spun across the room and caught some unfortunate woman in the head, decapitating her and sending people running and screaming. He reactivated his Combat Chip frantically.

'To me!' he screamed at the Chosen, seeing people running in all directions. 'Defend me!' He was injured. He needed an Orb. She was cranking the bolt back and loading another round. This fucking bitch! I should have killed her! Why didn't I kill her!?

He needed to get to cover, but he was caught out in the open. He had his own shields, but a gold would take a moment to activate, and the silvers might not stand up to the anti-material rifle. His Combat Chip, which Cornwall had recently updated to consider the new variables of this world's strange magic, reminded him of what he was currently leaning against.

Nicolai's shield.

###

A 50.calibre round slammed into Nicolai's outermost golden shield, sending massive cracks radiating through it.

He saw Gilvine reloading, remaining at a distance. Vikrum was now behind him, taking cover behind the shields; shields that Gilvine had no compunctions about shooting through. She'd once told him that so long as he didn't get in her way, all she cared about was killing Vikrum.

Unfortunately, he was now—in the most literal of senses—in her way.

This was quite the sticky situation. He hadn't anticipated this. In battle, the variables were many and it was impossible to account for all of them.

But in even the most desperate of situations, the path to victory could be found. It was there, if you only knew to look for it.

Vikrum was right behind him, currently activating a golden shield, focused on the process.

Nicolai paused the Lotus Flower activation. Doing so was difficult and risky. All could be lost here; the activation might fail, which would require him to restart the process. If he was very unlucky, the flower itself might be destroyed.

With the aid of the Modules he managed to split his attention. He felt his Soul straining and whining as it was cut in half, part in the Flower, part out, and he had to feed even more Oma into it to keep it stable. The petals of the Flower began to wilt, and one of them fell away.

He activating the Grasping Finger and raised his hand over his shoulder while launching a savage Soul Sense attack that, coming in surprise, pierced Vikrum's Soul Sense. In the same instant he wrenched the golden feather Vikrum held from the Cyborg's fingers, which had held gentle around the fragile item, dragging it through his shields and into his hand. He focused on activating it, managing it far quicker than Vikrum had due to his significant control over Oma and Soul Sense.

The new shield sprung to life, in position behind what had been his final gold.

Vikrum was snarling furiously and activating a silver shield. The next heavy round slammed into Nicolai's own, breaking the outermost gold and presenting the first of four silvers—behind which there were now not one, but two more golds.

The Flower had lost two more petals, but he needed to get Vikrum away from him before he could return to it and save the activation. He used the Repulsive and Grasping fingers to aid his single hand as he slotted a magazine into his assault rifle. He held it steady as he twisted his body around. The thump of it firing full-auto boomed out. Vikrum cried out as the 7.62 rounds chewed into his silver shield. On the other side, two of Nicolai's silver shields disappeared in one as Gilvine's next heavy round cracked home.

The bullets from the assault rifle kept going, popping Vikrum's silver shield then getting to work on his Skin Shield. The Cyborg fled, knowing that hunkering beside Nicolai was no longer an option, moving while Gilvine was reloading. The 7.62 bullets would take longer, but they would break him apart just the same as the anti-material rifle if he sat there. Vikrum dashed to the nearest cover, a thick stone column some distance away, and there focused on activating a gold feather.

Gilvine followed, anti-material rifle levelled at Vikrum, and Nicolai turned his attention away from them. Before refocusing on the Locum Flower, he took one more quick action. His Soul Sense strained a few metres ahead of him, just managing to catch at someone on the ground as he activated the Grasping Finger.

His severed hand, and more importantly, the Sheltering Glove Imbued, was dragged through the air to land on his lap.

Then he leapt into action, teeth gritting and Soul straining as he worked to stabilise the Locum Flower. It was working, settling. Only a couple minutes to go, and with the golden shield he'd stolen from Vikrum he now had two golds and two silvers around him.

He winced upon noting one unfortunate development within. While he was doing all of this, busy trying to activate the flower, not to mention to the loss of a portion of his Soul along with his arm, the Soul Rot was advancing. Its progress was significant. It was making use of his distraction and inability to properly combat it, with all his focus on activating the flower. Nothing to be done about it.

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After stabilising the process of the Locum Flower activation, he observed the desperate battle through lidded eyes. Gilvine and Vikrum moved further away, and none dared to get involved—even the Chosen stayed out of it, and they didn't shoot at him, either. Borg wasn't quite dead—the Cyborg was struggling some distance from him, returning gradually to his feet.

Nicolai was ignored by all where he sat. However, when the battle between Gilvine and Vikrum moved even more distant, some people came wandering over to him.

It was Jo and Beth, followed by Maxine, Perro and Azure, and then the whole bundle of coalition members, pieces of the group, even some Chosen.

'Was all that true?' began Maxine, staring, glaring at him. 'You… stole all those points? And that about those groups, who we all thought the Chosen had killed. Who you said the Chosen had killed! The Chosen I was talking to said none of them had anything to do with it!'

Nicolai kept to his silence. His mind was largely empty, but he was aware of one thing. These shields were only so strong and there were a lot of armed people around him. If they all turned guns on him, they might burst through before he could complete the activation. Massed fire was a strength all of its own. Jo and Beth would be bound to help him; their Contract was still in place. But then they'd probably die and…

He didn't want that.

All of this, the Chosen, the Coalition. It seemed entirely pointless to Nicolai. He'd only ever worked to ensure there was war between them for the points, and it had worked out. But now, it was done. His Mask, and the quiet thoughts in the artificial parts of him, would like to leave on good terms.

But that did not seem likely to be possible. He had taken on the role of a villain, had played his part unhesitatingly. It was no longer a role, it was simply who he was. In spite of the writhing of his Mask, it was who he'd always been.

'I always knew we couldn't trust this bastard,' said one of the leaders. 'Or any of them.' He was glaring at Jo and Beth, who glared right back. 'I bet these two were in on it too. Them as well.' Now he looked to John, who bristled.

'We didn't know shit!' snarled John.

'It was just him,' added Cait. 'And maybe these two,' she peered at Jo and Beth.

Nicolai tilted his head. The Mask's writhing stilled, as it felt his decision—and agreed with the course of action.

'No.' His word silenced them instantly, as he spoke up at last. 'It was all me.' He laughed, glancing at Jo and Beth. 'I bound these two to me via a slave Contract quite early on, forced them to do my bidding.' He sneered at the rest of them. 'As to all of you? You don't have the excuse of being forced into a slave Contract—you were all simply too stupid to understand what was happening. Blind and deaf, easily led. I engineered the war with the Chosen and I did it for my own gain.'

Maxine's eyes were wide with shock and anger. 'You… you bastard! You piece of shit! So many people died! You… you!'

'Me, me.' He shrugged.

Jo, appearing confused, had opened her mouth to say something, but Beth put a hand on her arm, stopping her.

'Why would you do it?!' snarled Maxine. 'Why would you push this war? For what purpose? It makes no sense!'

He eyed her, considering whether it was worth speaking, considering whether it would bring him gains or losses. The longer they are distracted listening to me, the more time I will have to finish activating the Flower.

'I needed a lot of points. By ensuring war, I generated a need for guns and bullets. That gave me a route to make money, by the bringing together of a large group who would need to make many trades with me. It also ultimately led to the Coalition trusting me with 200,000 points.' He nodded toward Jo, and Beth, and John and Cait and all the others. 'I used those points for my own purposes while duping this group into thinking I'd bought the guns and ammo the Coalition requested. If you go and look for the bags I made them drop, you'll find they're full of construction supplies.'

'What about Eugene? Did you kill him?' she continued, desperate. Nicolai didn't answer but he didn't need to, she read it from his face. 'Why would you kill him! They were on your side!'

He had no intention of sharing anything about his personal problem. It was a weakness that could be exploited. 'I had my reasons.'

He saw Maxine's face pale, shocked and appalled like he'd stabbed her in the stomach. His Mask writhed with regret and pain that pulsed through him. Even so, it agreed with this course of action and though it was upset, ultimately he had chosen the only route that would have kept it loyal and relatively happy. It knew that with his words he ensured that neither Jo nor Beth, or any of the others, would suffer for his actions. He was burning all his bridges, but that had been inevitable anyway.

Should this moment spur any of those here seek him out in the future, to try and kill him for what he'd done…

That was fine with him.

'I lost friends in that war,' snarled one man, and he raised his SMG. 'Die!' He squeezed the trigger and a single bullet burst out and caught Nicolai's shield. The man growled, tilting the gun and scrabbling with frustration at its side as he struggled to find the fire-selector and put it into full auto.

Nicolai saw Jo and Beth reacting. They looked just as outraged and horrified as all the others, but the Contract was the Contract. They weren't slaves but they were bound to defend him. If the man shot at him again, they would shoot his attacker and then they'd be killed. He couldn't have that, not after all his work.

But his hand was required to continue the activation of the Lotus Sub-Locum piece. A second disruption in that process could be problematic.

So as the roaring man found the fire-selector, squeezed the trigger and sprayed rounds into Nicolai's shield, as Jo and Beth began to raise their guns in response, Nicolai tipped his head down and grasped a grenade with his teeth. As he connected to it over Link he saw Daksh, hovering behind Maxine with a grim look to him, suddenly raise his arm. The man attempted to block his Linking, but Cyberwarfare cut through the attempt easily.

Nicolai set the grenade's timer to ten seconds and cut its Link capabilities. He tossed it out into the crowd with a snap of his head.

They all dove and ran for cover, crying out warnings, all thoughts of shooting gone.

Once they'd finished diving into cover, Nicolai saw Jo and Beth staring at him from behind the column they sheltered behind. He gave them a nod, but seeing the sadness in Jo's eyes, he couldn't help but think he owed her more. Perhaps it was the Mask giving him these thoughts, perhaps not.

His mind spun, and he imagined what could have been. What she'd clearly wanted. He felt a pull; undeniably. And yet, he knew that this pull paled in comparison to the ultimate goal of his existence.

To achieve great things, one must be willing to sacrifice. How could he ever become the greatest fighter if he instead focused on settling down and spending his life with some person in some place?

A quiet life was not for him. His road would be a long and difficult one, a bloody road carving through enemy after enemy.

The hunger and eagerness that stirred within him in response to this thought told him his decision was true. At the heart of his being, he craved a life spent on the edge of a knife.

And yet, perhaps he could afford a small moment of indulgence. A Better Man would try and do something. He could afford that, couldn't he?

He made no attempts to stop it as the Mask bonded tighter with Cyberwarfare, requesting aid. He gave Cyberwarfare the go ahead when it checked with him. He joined with them, him and the Mask crafting a message, then they reached, spiritually, for the sisters. A fleeting spiritual touch that left something with them, the pair blinking in confusion.

It was a technique Cyberwarfare had learned from Paxolnaz, one it had been practising. A method of leaving spiritual worms containing information. It hoped to raise this technique to the level of creating spiritual spies to embed in another's Soul without the other noticing, just as Paxolnaz had once done to him, but it had yet to reach that level of mastery. Currently, the spirit worms it gave were easily noticeable by another, and Jo and Beth both frowned as they examined what had been given to them.

Whereas any communication he attempted over Local would have been easily spotted by many of the people here, this went unnoticed. There were few Cultivators, and of the Cultivators present, he, Jo, and Beth, were the most experienced.

A further human impulse caused Nicolai to raise a hand in farewell toward his group and the Coalition. Maxine—and all of the other Coalition worthies—scowled. She probably assumed the wave was sarcastic. John shook his head with disappointment. Perro raised a hesitant hand of his own. Azure grinned and waved. Beth shrugged and smirked. Jo simply gazed at him intently, her expression unsure.

The grenade exploded, tearing through the outer shield. When the dust faded the remaining shield was revealed to be empty.

Nicolai was gone.

###

Vikrum and Borg stood over Gilvine's mangled form. His own was nearly as bad. He was fortunate Borg had recovered and come to aid him at the last moment. He looked over to where Nicolai had been.

A ragged golden shield was visible, but Nicolai was not. He knew he wouldn't have another chance at the man. He could feel it. Not today, not here.

But I'll be on the lookout. There's a big world out there and he'll be in it, somewhere. One day…

You need to put this behind you, spoke Cornwall.

Vikrum snorted. What? How can you ask that?

He felt a strange stirring from the AI. A type of emotion, one he'd never seen from it. It was… fear?

I don't think he is human.

What are you talking about?

In this latest fight I was matched with his Cyberwarfare capabilities, or more specifically, his Cyberwarfare Module. It didn't fight like human software, like me. It fought like a killbot. The only reason I stood a chance is because your hardware significantly overpowers his. Considering everything… how he fights, his reactions, the cyberwarfare Module I encountered… I'm not sure what he is, but he's definitely not entirely human. He achieved all of his goals in this encounter. It is clear now that he never cared about killing you, he simply wanted the Symbiote.

Vikrum felt an odd itching at the back of his neck. Where if he'd had hairs, they might've been prickling. He'd always thought it strange that Nicolai had clearly been a Raw at the start of all this, and yet so competent. Even more competent as he gained augments and tech—items that should have been dazzling and confusing to any actual Raw.

You think he's an AI? An AI in human form? he asked. The thought was horrifying. Ever since humanity had created AI, the focus had been on making sure that AI's served humans, and not the other way around.

It shouldn't be possible. An AI wouldn't be able to move a human body… except in the case of a construct-type, a human brain combined with AI Modules. Those went out of fashion in more recent years but there could still be some around.

Vikrum shook his head. Bots like that all have a Governor Module, they're bound to follow the directives of their owner. A bot like that couldn't operate on its own.

If he is some kind of bot in human form, then how do we know he isn't following the directives of a hidden owner? Cornwall replied. Regardless, if we encounter him again, we should run in the opposite direction rather than attempt to kill him. Presumably if we meet him in the future, he will have grown stronger. If he had been even a Level 2 Cyborg, you would be dead.

Why didn't you mention any of this earlier?! he snarled, suddenly frustrated.

I didn't want to destabilise your mental state while you were fighting. But now the fight is over and we must consider what we have learned and move forwards.

Vikrum stared at nothing, feeling deeply unsure.

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