Nicolai's waking experience was consumed by the creation of Orbs and Nodes. He slept when he was tired, and never for very long. As the process continued it gained momentum, and he increasingly obsessed. Each time trying to make the next Node better than the last. Completing them all so quickly gave him a kind of constant high that pushed him on to the next.

However, increasingly his body began to protest after long hours spent sitting cross-legged in the same position, stuck in the cramped cubby.

He'd completed almost a dozen minor Nodes in the blur the past couple days had become. Following on from his right arm, now his stomach area was finished, as was his brain and spine. Next he'd make a start on his legs Major Nodes, then the bionic arm's Major Node.

Now and then, he'd found his concentration and focus lagging.

While making yet another Rotation Orb, Nicolai's mind wandered. He'd made many of these Orbs now. The Rotation-Orb-making process was always the same and his least favourite part of the whole thing. It took concentration and the full strength of his Soul, but not his whole focus and was, effectively, simply an intensive but rote task. Once he'd got the trick down, his mind had become free to think on other things. This particular time, he was reminiscing about his modifications of the M99. He was considering what else he could do.

Already he had drafted detailed plans for the combat bots he would make, though those would have to wait until he had a few more Miners and Constructors. He'd thought on the lasrgun, on whether it could be modified, but alas the Assembler wasn't much good with laser weaponry. It could make some basic ones but it wouldn't be able to make anything comparable to the lasrgun he'd purchased.

It was good for mechanical weapons and combustibles, however, like homemade assault rifles, anti-materiel rifles, ammo, and even explosives.

What he'd really like to do, was improve the M99 even further. Semi-auto was good, very good. Fully automatic? Not much of an improvement, to be honest. It would have a similar fire rate as just hammering the trigger. Now, a heavy machine gun firing .50 cal rounds was an idea. However even with his increasing strength, he knew he would struggle to use that on the move. Best mounted on something. For example, on a combat bot… yes, the idea was very pleasing. He'd like to improve the M99 he carried, though, but he couldn't see what else could be done.

That was when the thought hit him, like a bolt from the blue.

What if I made the M99 into an Artifact?

It was so simple. And yet, it made him feel as though he'd dug idly through a wall only to find a gigantic underground complex, a world of exciting and interesting weapon designs like he'd never have considered, the impossible made possible.

He thought on the Silver Net. It had worked on kinetic energy in some manner. It had redirected bullets, changing their trajectory so they curved through the air. What if there was a Symbiote that might allow him to form some kind of connection… to the bullets… that left the gun… and thus fire the bullets and send perhaps some piece of his will with it? Direct the bullets to curve through the air?

He envisioned a .50 cal round fired from the M99, slicing through the air for miles and miles and miles as it slid around obstacles, dove through open windows, between gaps and holes and eventually found the target and passed straight through their head…

A sharp crack startled him out of his thoughts. Staring down he saw the Rotation Orb he'd been working on was dissipating. He'd lost concentration and it had broken apart. He raised the ball of broken Oma to his mouth and absently breathed in, recovering the energy.

What did he know of making Artifacts? One of the Memory Discs he'd read recently had mentioned something about the process in passing, but he hadn't purchased any discs specifically about making them. He also had the impression that proper Artifacts couldn't be made at Tier 1, he'd heard people refer to things resembling Artifacts at that Tier as "quasi-Artifacts."

Still, he wanted to investigate, and quickly left his cubby.

Settling in on the simple metal chair he'd had constructed by his workstation area, he set a simple knife before him—one of many he'd picked up. The most obvious starting point he could see was to simply build a Node within it, or at least try to. In some of his Imbued, he felt something similar to a Node. He assumed that first he'd make a Node, then he'd put the chosen Symbiote in that Node, and then do… something.

Though he didn't know the entire process, he was eager to practise. He wanted to have some practical experience for when he returned from his next trip to the Phantom City—where he intended to purchase Memory Discs devoted to the subject, and then, with luck, he'd be able to make some modifications to the M99.

After infusing the knife with his Soul, he was able to start on the Node. It was difficult and took quite a bit of Oma, but he quickly found that it was far from impossible. The Node didn't make a space within the metal, it simply formed over the metal, changing it in some manner.

It didn't take him too long, as he just made a Minor Node. It finalised without trouble, and he carefully, warily, retracted his Soul.

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No change. The Node was stable. So, he put a Symbiote in it. He chose the Repulsive Finger, since he was very familiar with it and, more importantly, he had two after gaining a duplicate from the Spectral Claw's Symbiote setup. If something went wrong and he lost it, it wasn't much of a problem.

After putting his Soul Sense and some Oma into the Node, he activated the Repulsive Finger. An empty AA-12 magazine he'd left on the workstation skidded a short distance away from him.

He retrieved the Repulsive Finger, returning it to his heart Node, and considered. This thing he'd made was definitely not an Imbued. None of them worked exactly like what he'd just done. He had a feeling it wouldn't work for someone who wasn't him, and no Imbued had an actual Symbiote stored within—the Symbiotes Art was instead somehow woven into it, thus one of the main benefits of any Symbiotes or Imbued, that they didn't need to be fed.

Still, it was a good starting point. Nicolai left the knife where it was, deciding to check on it every few hours. He wanted to see whether the Node would start to degrade over time, or if it would remain stable.

###

'Back before,' spoke Kleos, 'there was a period where all of you were getting busy. I think there was a lot going on, the Chosen and the Coalition and all that. Nicolai, meanwhile, was making his own preparations.' Kleos stalled, and Maric picked up.

'He was almost completely mad by then, of course. I'm not sure how aware you people were of that,' said the man. The others exchanged glances. 'He was preparing for his big mad plan, whatever that was. He didn't tell us everything, alas.' Maric sighed. 'Perhaps if he had, I could have dissuaded him from whatever terrible crimes he committed. Alas!'

Kleos broke in. 'He used a Locus Sub-Locum to teleport around and do his setup. Put me and Maric in a container, took us to a room deep underground—near to the Coffin. The next time we saw him, or heard him, was when he'd teleported there after whatever he was doing above. There were some bandits there—'

'Bandits?' blurted Azure, her eyes wide and excited. 'When did bandits get there?'

'Not too long before he arrived. They were just some random group of thieves. They were going through his things when he arrived, and in quite a bad state from what we heard—missing an arm.'

The girls all nodded at that.

'Yep,' said Beth. 'Saw how he lost it.'

'Well, he killed them all anyway. Then he took us to the Coffin, and, uh…'

'It's hard to say exactly what happened,' finished Maric. 'There was a True Demon. He fought a powerful undead. He played some kind of trick, but I didn't think it had actually worked since when he opened our container, there was an Artifact lying on the ground which clearly contained another True Demon. A terribly dangerous item, powerful yes, but…'

'Artifacts have Demons in them?' burst out Azure. 'And he got one like that? And he fought the other True Demon? Was it the same one as we all saw, back in the room with the painting? Did he—' It seemed she might ramble on breathlessly for quite some time, but Jo cut her off.

'One question at a time,' she said, then looked curiously to Kleos. 'Do Artifacts have Demons in them?'

'No, not at all,' answered Maric instead. 'Most Artifacts are forged purely from collections of Symbiotes and a bit of the makers will and spirit. But sometimes, more rarely, someone makes an Artifact in which they blend Symbiotes, their will, and a different spirit. Perhaps a defeated foe, of a natural spirit of the land. Rarer still, something not of this world.' His eyes narrowed. 'An Artifact with a Demon or an Entity inside is sure to be very powerful. But it comes with a cost, as this being will possess a will of its own and seek to control the wielder, even as the wielder controls it.' He frowned, thoughtful. 'Of course, some entities or being placed in a weapon might be calmer and less desirous of manipulation. It depends on what it is.'

'Right, okay,' said Jo. 'So in this case, it had a Demon. And this is a second Demon? Not the same one as we saw before, the one that was already trying to take him over?'

'Huh? What? Was this the one in the painting room? It was trying to take him over?' gasped Azure, starting forward where she sat.

'Yeah, yeah, it was, shush, I'll give you the details later,' said Beth, grabbing her by the shoulder and tugging her back.

'It was a second Demon, yes,' said Kleos. 'But so long as Nicolai didn't touch the Demonic Artifact, he wouldn't have to deal with it,' he added.

Jo let out a sigh of relief. 'Good. So he didn't take it?'

'Hmmm,' said Kleos.

'Of course he did,' said Maric. 'He was a power hungry madman. What would you expect?'

'He wasn't mad,' Jo hissed at him. 'It wasn't his fault. It was that Demon.'

'Oh he most assuredly was—' began Maric, before Kleos managed to silence him with a lance of angry thought.

'At any rate, he put us in the Coffin and that was the last we saw of him,' said Kleos. 'The Coffin was an ancient piece of spiritual machinery, a device designed to return the dead to life.' He paused. 'It took some time to complete its work. Then it dragged itself out of the rubble and deposited us.' He shrugged, a human mannerism he'd observed and wanted to try himself. 'Now, here we are.' There wasn't much else to say. 'What of things here?'

'And where,' put in Maric quickly, 'Did Nicolai go? Did you see him again, after that?'

'He's gone,' Beth answered. 'We didn't see him at all after he teleported away. But wait a moment, you're holding back. What's that I feel between you?'

'Between us?' asked Maric carefully.

'There's definitely something up. Your Soul Senses feel identical. It's weird. And when they touch they just seem to fuse straight together.'

Azure, sitting beside her, peered at them through narrowed eyes and now her smaller Soul Sense was feeling intently at them. 'I feel it too!' she announced with clear pride, and looked to Beth—who didn't notice and Azure pouted.

Kleos frowned. We need to work on hiding that.

Obviously, said Maric. But since she's worked it out anyway…

A pulse of mutual agreement ran between them, and Kleos said, 'Something else happened. The Coffin wasn't supposed to have two in it, perhaps. Or there were other factors that influenced it when it was sealed and setup. Regardless, myself and Maric are spiritually bound together. Our Souls have been somehow merged, conjoined.'

'And if one of us dies, then probably we both die,' said Maric, to Kleos' shock.

Why would you tell them that?! They could use it against us!

We have decided they should be allies, haven't we? It is best they know. It might save us in the future… for example, if you upset them so much they wish to kill you, maybe they won't out of worry for me. Maric smirked.

The pair before them accepted the explanation without any apparent surprise or confusion, just nodding as though it was normal. Kleos supposed that from their point of view, it probably was normal.

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