Nicolai's body leapt up the tower. Even with his Soul turned a warring tangle, it had accepted the drive the AIs gave it: Move forwards! Climb! And thus this chaotic Soul was able to utilise Symbiotes, to a degree, launching itself upwards.

In the distance a gunship swung through the air, firing down on the bugs and undead carpeting the castle. Each use of its great guns echoed out, a monstrous thump-thump-thump that tore lines of fire and broken bodies through the upper jungle.

Nicolai's body reached the top of the tower, flipping onto it, and the AIs took in what awaited them.

The vines were slithering toward them, and moving through those vines they saw the shapes of the Centipedes, Brother and Sister, scuttling toward them.

'You return, little mouse,' came Brother's hissing voice.

'We have been waiting to taste your limbs,' spoke Sister.

The Blade rose, sensing their challenge, eager to meet it, and the Centipedes paused, momentarily uncertain. The blood covering the Blade shifted and crawled, mesmerising.

Before either any could act, however, there came an eruption. A bone-deep thump that sent them all stumbling as the whole of the castle rocked. Not from the gunship, something else.

The AIs knew what had made that sound. The plan was working out.

###

Paxolnaz, far below in the depths, had been doing its utmost to do… nothing at all. Even as the Unwinder raged and demanded release, Paxolnaz had managed to do only the most minor of actions. The barbs of its masters will dug into it, knowing release was close, and every moment was a struggle.

Looking upon the vicious battle between bugs and undead, Artifacts and Centipedes, Paxolnaz had known the Castle Core wouldn't last much longer.

But long enough, it would—

That had been when something caused Paxolnaz's gaze to turn and peer upwards. Just in time to see a sudden eruption of fire, a gigantic explosion bursting the roof above.

The place where, unbeknownst to Paxolnaz, Nicolai had been secreting just about every explosive he could get his hands on. Those explosives detonated as one, tearing thick stone like paper.

Stone followed its nature and urgings of gravity, plummeting toward the ground.

No…! Paxolnaz tried to leap into action, to go to the aid of the undead Cultivators as they attempted to form shields above the Castle Core. But it could not. With great effort the Demon could alter how it responded to its master's urgings, performing less useful actions—but it couldn't outright oppose those urges.

Paxolnaz could only stare as the stone fell, and the Castle Core, all of its shields already broken, lacking any strength to defend itself from something so pathetically mundane as a fall of rocks… was crushed.

The shred of the Unwinder erupted, boiling into something huge in only moments, a mass of pale, sickly white flesh, wings and tentacles that reached up toward the jagged cavern roof and began to tear.

FREE! it howled, ATTEND ME, MY HOST!

Now free, the Unwinder's will reached into Paxolnaz like a barbed spike, irresistible.

Paxolnaz attended.

###

The AIs pulled from Nicolai's pocket a piece of root, gained from the strange tree. He threw it at the nearest vine where it stuck fast, melting into it.

The stirring of the vines ceased for a moment. Then they exploded into action once more.

The Centipedes were choked in them as the vines rushed, swarming their bodies and wrapping viciously tight.

Nicolai's body sped around them as they thrashed, squealing with rage and confusion. The vines wouldn't hold them long, but perhaps it would be long enough.

His body settled into the pool of Angel blood, and the AIs worked his trembling hand. The tip of the sword was placed into the blood. They pulled out the Symbiote of Change and held it in his other hand.

But now they struggled. As the AIs pressed on Nicolai where he fought the Demon of the Blade in a vicious, losing tangle, they encountered a problem. The Symbiote was not broken in. It wasn't possible for them to even try and break it in, they would need his Soul, and not just the halfway focus they'd wrung from it before. There wasn't and hadn't been enough time.

As though waking from a deep sleep, Nicolai became faintly aware of what was happening.

Everything around him was hazy, dreamlike. All writ large, his body expanded. The Angel's blood felt like acid biting into his hand, where it pressed against the tip of the Blade.

The Blade was terrible and great, a hungry monster wrapped obsessively tight around him, tearing into his Soul which was fading, fading. It was impossible for him to let it go.

The Symbiote of Change shone in his hand, mysterious and eager, the fire that gave birth to the world… but it was unwilling. It was not broken in. It would not obey him.

He had nothing left.

A light shone on his forehead as the Angel's Will slipped free, shimmering, it pressed into the Symbiote of Change which came alive, activating, responding to the Angel's Will.

In the blur his world had become Nicolai felt the Will pause. Waiting for him to be overwhelmed, to transform into something Demonic so that it might then turn him into an Angel. An agent of Heaven.

But within him the AIs spoke. They gave the message he'd recorded in his Soul to the Will. A message that was entirely true.

I will kill myself before I turn.

The AIs clutched tight to the switch which would detonate the Spinal Jack. It was the final task he'd entrusted them, and no matter what they would fulfil it.

The Will paused, thoughtful, then it burst with light, activating the Symbiote of Change. Tendrils of strange light reached for the blood and the Blade.

The Blade shifted, turning amorphous as the golden blood flowed into it, and the Symbiote of Change joined.

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Within his hands the blade shook and shifted, something alive. The golden blood erupted and crawled over it and into it and over him, too, healing his injuries and acting as a sudden soothing presence within his mind. It even restored his Soul, acting as an instant infusion all through his body. His bionic arm, bionic eye, and even the data block he had purposely kept his Soul free from, all were instantly infused and integrated into his fully restored Soul.

The fire of the madness within him was turned to cool mist as the change settled, and the Blade released its clutch onto his Soul.

Nicolai stood, and he held an Angelic Blade. Long ago, he had been told that one way to help control the Black Gift, was to have an Angelic Artifact. Simply having it near would help balance him, Kleos and Maric had said. So it was proven now. The Blade was no longer trying to consume him and twist him, and instead the energy within it acted as something that naturally reduced the influence of the Dark.

It was still of black metal, and maintained its shape, but now the black metal was shot through with veins of gold that crawled up and down its length. The pommel, which had been a dark crystal with chips of red within, now had chips of gold joining the red.

He finally felt calm, he knew where he was and who he was. He was Nicolai, just as before. He had the Mask and the Modules, and the Thrill and the Dark, too. It was all in balance. He was whole and complete and in control.

He looked the Blade over, brows creasing with confusion. It had been changed, turned Angelic, but this wasn't the total flip he'd expected.

Running a finger along its spine he felt its hunger, the same as before. A hunger for blood, and death, and war. The type of energy within it was changed, and now it no longer sought to possess him, but it still desired the same things as before.

Nicolai smiled. He wasn't dismayed, not at all. It was only right that a sword hunger for blood and death.

He pulled his gaze from the Blade, looking around. His eyes narrowed as he saw how the thrashing of the vines was beginning to still. There came a tearing and he saw the Centipedes advancing, taking slow steps and ripping through the vines.

'Look at this, Sister, the little mouse has turned its tooth yellow,' murmured Brother. 'But I don't feel the same sense of threat. The human looks tired.' Another slow step tore a score of vines from the stone.

'It does, it does, doesn't it? Are you tired, human? Do you want to sleep?'

Nicolai's sucked in a slow breath then slowly straightened up. The angelic blood had restored his Soul and healed his injuries, but there was no helping how wrung out he was after all he'd been through. He looked up at the Centipedes who stared down at him, having covered half the space between him and them, their alien features showing something even he could recognise: Hunger.

'Perhaps a little,' Nicolai admitted.

'And you cannot use the sword,' noted Sister, slithering sideways. 'Not now you have changed it, and it no longer matches your nature.'

'You're right about that.' He'd tried, but the sword would not answer. With his previous connection he had been able to use it, or more accurately, it had been able to use him. But even if he'd had the ability to use it now, even if he held mastery over the undead soul in the Lotus Soul Trap, which the sword was bound to, still it wouldn't be possible. The Blade had contained a large charge of energy, energy of a higher level than he was able to create. It had spent all of that energy in its mad drive, killing weak things wantonly and purposelessly.

The Centipedes rustled with eagerness.

'We have enjoyed our games with you, little mouse.'

'We will enjoy eating your limbs even more.'

Their faces split into grins.

Nicolai was thinking that he may be able to distract them, and run, and he could possibly get off the towertop. However, he was pretty sure that in a longer chase they would catch him quite quickly. These things were very fast.

But there was no other option. Regardless of how bad the hand was, when the pressure was on your only choice was to play it.

His eyes moved past them as he heard the thunder of something firing very heavy calibre rounds from above. 'There it is,' he said. The Centipedes followed his gaze, settling onto the Chosen's summoned Gunship.

'What do you know about that Bird, human?' asked Brother, the pair pausing for a moment.

'It has some big claws,' said Nicolai. He was thinking that only one person could have called that. Over the Local, he began to call out, as loudly and strongly as his hardware could manage, the Modules helping to shape the transmissions he sent.

###

Vikrum was getting the last of his people into the Trade Link, and preparing to enter himself. Once inside they'd collapse the entrance, sealing it.

He had a moment to spare, and checked what the gunship was sending him. It was a feed that showed him a wide view of the area, and he could zoom in or out as he wished. He used this to have a look around, and one place drew his eye. Someone was sending out a beacon over Local, pulsing from the top of that tower.

The Kill Me tower. There were two gigantic bugs on there, crowded around a human figure, the individual throwing out the beacon. Was it one of his people, requesting assistance?

Vikrum frowned, and zoomed further in. Then his eyes widened with sudden shock and his lips twisted with rage. It's him.

'Blow everything on that tower apart!' he snarled into the radio.

'Gladly,' crackled the voice of the pilot, and the gunship veered through the air.

###

'It is a species we have never seen before,' added Sister. The Centipedes stirred, showing just a touch of concern, as they all saw the Gunship turn and fly toward them. It had stopped firing a short time ago, and Nicolai knew why. Its great guns had ran out of ammo and were being reloaded. But it had other weapons, too. 'It is coming over here,' murmured Sister.

'Perhaps we should eat our friend quickly,' said Brother, and they turned back to him.

Nicolai saw two clouds of smoke from the Gunship. Twin missiles lanced through the air, going super-sonic. Threat Analysis recognised the make and model of those missiles. He could have given the Centipedes a full listing of every component within them, their speed, their capabilities.

But none of that mattered. Only one thing mattered.

Those were heat-seeking missiles.

Nicolai tugged an incendiary grenade, connected to it over Link, and threw it as he reached out with the Grasping Finger and dragged himself backwards.

The Centipedes let out cries of glee as they surged after him, at the same time as the grenade exploded.

Fire washed out and slapped into them and set them aflame, but the Centipedes only laughed with delight, crying out that it tickled.

Their Soul Senses came for him, heavy and powerful, but Nicolai reached for his Black Gift, just another Module. His Soul twisted, turning darker, growing claws, and he fought back against their own Demonic Soul Senses. With the Heavenly Blade on his back the Dark was easier to control. A tool, just as he had always intended. The Mask aided him, lending its weight to his Soul.

He grinned at the Centipedes and they grinned back. Nicolai moved like the wind and they followed, black shadows, great snakes cloaked in fire, crawling and writhing. His arms danced over his body, tossing grenade after grenade.

A wall of concussive fragments of metal erupted behind him, and for just a moment the Centipedes were knocked back. But they were strong, too strong for such simple weapons to penetrate their armour, and they kept on coming.

A tail sliced through the air, wailing like a whip, and Nicolai's world became that whip. He spun and flipped, bending his body around it as it sliced by him. Another came from the other side but Nicolai moved like a dancer, like a cat, and it touched nothing but air.

Their Soul Senses crashed upon him but Nicolai was a difficult target, small yet hard and vicious. The claws of his darkening Soul clashed with the Centipede's own clawed Soul Senses.

It was far from even. Each of them was stronger than him, and they were two and he was one. His Soul Sense tendril vanished, carved away by a laughing spiritual mouth that bit and rend.

Their Soul Senses collapsed upon him, from both sides.

But at this moment Nicolai dashed off the edge of the roof, and abruptly his movement switched from ahead to straight down, as he aided gravity with the Pegasi Ring and the Grasping Finger.

###

The Centipedes, pursuing the human, heard a great whooshing-boom from right behind, one that was coming closer and closer, very quickly.

The human wouldn't get away. It was out of options, already slowing, already having its Soul Sense almost broken. It fought well, the little almost-Demon, surprisingly so, but it was simply too weak. It was prey and had always been prey.

Consuming it would be most enjoyable and even quite healthy. After they ate its limbs they would wait for Father's return, though, privately, the pair hoped Father would never return and they could consume the delicious centre of the human.

But there was something coming from behind, and they needed to turn and deal with it.

The Centipedes turned and saw, coming toward them, silver blurs bracketed by roaring fire.

They attempted to disarm the guided attacks, which they presumed to be Symbiotic in nature, with their Soul Senses. They had time to realise these attacks were of a different kind, and then there was no more time.

The AGM-199 Mk.3 Hellfire missiles hit the two Centipedes at almost the same moment. Designed to penetrate through the extremely dense, multi-layer armour plating of heavy modern units, they had little trouble with the Centipedes' tough chitinous shells.

Both centipedes were blown into halves, much of their bodies torn utterly apart in a wave of concussive force, fire, and superheated metal.

Nicolai sped on and away as the towertop behind him erupted, keeping low so as to have that tower, and the clouds of smoke and dust, between him and the distant gunship. If it noticed him and opted to pursue, he would be in a very difficult situation. As he moved he realised he'd only two Pegasi rings, which caused him to frown. He'd left the others with Jo and Beth. He briefly wondered where they were, and what they were up to.

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