'So, what of here?' asked Maric. 'We do not know what happened above, with all of you.'
'Weeell…' began Beth. 'Let's see. Uh. At the end it was all big fights between Coalition and Chosen. Surprisingly, not that many people died. Only say one in ten. I reckon most people just found a chunk of wall to hide behind then shot over it without paying much attention to where they were shooting. Everyone had guns but there weren't a lot of actual fighters, you know? Which is why Maxine shouldn't just give nice guns to randoms who don't know how to use them,' she added pointedly
'Enough people died, plenty of them,' said Jo disapprovingly. 'Which spurred Maxine and everyone, us too, to say… why not see if they want to talk? See about peace. So she sent out a message and Vikrum came right back saying he was up for talking. Turns out the Chosen were tired of fighting and dying, too.'
'So we all met up but of course, it wasn't quite so simple…' said Beth, smirking. 'He was happy for there to be peace, but there was a sticking point.'
'Nicolai,' said Kleos knowingly, at the same time as Azure announced, 'Viper!'
''Course. He wanted Nicolai dead or gone. Which was trouble because, well, back then Nicolai was fairly important to the Coalition. Maxine certainly considered him someone she wanted to keep around.' She grinned. 'That changed pretty quick once he turned up, though.'
Jo sighed. 'I think that Demon must have gotten to him. That's what it was. He warned me about that, that it was trying to make him do things he didn't want to go, turning him bad. He showed up all covered in blood. I think, I think he killed those—'
Kleos and Maric glanced at one another, surprised. 'And this was before he teleported?' asked Kleos. 'When we saw him, it was still floating around. It hadn't gotten into him. You think it got to him, took control over him before then? Did he seem different?'
'Of course,' said Jo. 'He killed some people who were part of the Coalition. He said that everything he did was a lie, turned Maxine against him.'
'Uhh…' said Beth loudly. 'Mmm. Nah. He didn't seem that different to me. Same sneaky bastard as always.' Jo glared at her but she just laughed. 'I don't think he was changed at all.'
'Yes, but he left. He wouldn't have just left, just abandoned us. He cared about us.'
'Mmm… really? You think?' Beth's face was all screwed up, kind of pitying, kind of amused.
'No,' said Jo though less certain, now. 'He wouldn't have left me.' She raised her hand and, frowning, examining her fingernails.
Beth stared meaningfully at Kleos and Maric. Her eyes twisted to indicate Jo. The eyebrows jumped up and down again. Azure beside her was frowning at both of them, seeming confused.
Kleos, not sure what these specific human facial expressions indicated, felt equally confused. He shrugged again, because he was pretty sure that meant uncertainty but also a sort of acceptance.
'He left us stuff, didn't he?' muttered Jo, staring at a ring on her finger. Kleos recognised it as a Pegasi ring. 'These rings, and other stuff.' She nodded to the table behind them, and Kleos, peering over his shoulder realised Nicolai's old polearm was resting against the table. He also spied some books on the table, which, now he looked closer, gave off a faint spiritual glow.
'Are those the Memory Tomes?' spoke Maric suddenly, turning in his seat and staring down, flipping the books open. 'They are!' he cried, delighted.
'Yep,' said Beth. 'Don't work, though. Not sure why.'
'Oh, they just need to recharge their energies,' said Maric. 'You simply need to provide them with enough Oma, and they will be ready to impart their knowledge to someone new. If left alone they will passively recharge, but it'll take some time.'
'See?' said Jo. 'He did care. He came and gave those to us just before the big fight. I should have talked to him,' she hissed with sudden anger. 'What was I thinking? All that time in the run up. I should have just gone and talked with him.'
'Yeah, maybe, sure,' said Beth, and rolled her eyes.
'Why didn't I talk to him?' muttered Jo.
Beth looked around. 'It was because she thought he'd come talk to her,' she said conspiratorially. Kept waiting for it.'
'Then everything went down and there was no time,' said Jo sadly. 'And he just left. I don't know why he'd do that. He just left me a message and left. It must have been because he was worried. With the Demon. That he might hurt us all.'
Beth and Kleos and Azure and Maric all stared at one another.
'That could be the case,' said Kleos carefully.
'Yeah, it was probably that,' said Beth.
'Yeah,' said Azure, nodding along.
'Or, more likely, he simply—' began Maric, only to be silenced by three instant glares.
If the Demon had taken control of him, they'd all be dead, said Maric mentally, annoyed. That's what you said, and I agree. Demons feed on pain and misery and bloodshed, it would not have left such rich sources of all those things behind. And yet they live. He told you he'd be leaving, that's the other thing you said to me. So…
All correct. For now, just leave it alone. We can tell her all the truths later. I just want to know what happened up here. Agreed?
Fine.
###
Many of the times he took breaks, Nicolai would simply take out Memory Discs and dive into them, further expanding his knowledge.
Currently he was focusing on the area of the Black Gift. It was interesting information, though he didn't think he'd be making use of it until he was done with the Node Building.
There was a great deal about binding spirits, and protective rituals, and linkages to the Interior, and dealing with Demons and Entities and all other alien things. This was how one mastered and controlled the Black Gift, the Memory Discs said. By going directly to the source. It seemed to Nicolai that he was expected to become some kind of… ghost hunter, almost. Or shaman. Someone you might call up if your daughter was being possessed and crawling on the ceiling with her head spinning round and around.
He was starting to imagine himself as some strange wanderer, covered in ritualistic bangles, turning up and saying "Ah, this house is afflicted by an evil energy, a Dark Spirit… we will need some peach tree powder and to dig up your grandmother's corpse." He was rather enjoying the fantasies.
Meanwhile, the cave had been taking shape. Every time he emerged from the cubby it was closer and closer to the ideal he had in mind. It was now less of a cave and more of a work room.
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The natural, jagged cave floor had become a single flat plane of concrete. Three of the walls were smooth and squared, though the ceiling still needed some work. A filtration system had been installed above the Assembler, spread over the ceiling to squeeze its exhaust, which was filtered until it was merely odourless steam, through the cracks. The bots had finished draining the water in the pool into large vats, to one side of the room, and the mining bots were making a start on digging into the Oma crystals veins there. Already a tidy pile of crystal filled a bin to the side.
As the room has grown, it had also become more crowded. His working area now had numerous workstations and there was an armoury beside it, where steel cabinets contained ammo and spares. Mounting pins set in the wall beside it were for the placement of any weapons he used regularly, where they could be easily retrieved.
Currently, none of his primary weapons were mounted there. The M99, assault rifle, and Lasrgun were all in his Big Mouth storage, as usual. The Blade tended to move around with him—wherever he went in the complex, it would either be on his back of sitting near to him. In one of his early breaks from Yin-Yang Rotating, he'd had the cubby expanded just enough that the Blade could lie on the floor before him, as leaving it outside made him uncomfortable.
He knew that he was paranoid to a possibly insane degree, but he simply couldn't stand being out of reach of any of his primary weapons. Whenever he was, a part of him would start generating imaginary scenarios.
What if Paxolnaz appeared and attacked him? What if members of the Scoundrels Guild somehow tracked him down? What if Heaven randomly teleported him somewhere? What if the floor opened up beneath him and he fell into an interesting but dangerous magical world full of giant snakes that wanted to eat him? What if all the ghosts of the many thousands of people he'd killed began marching out of the walls, sent by Satan to drag him into Hell?
He knew none of these things were likely to happen. But the chance of them happening was not 0%. It was impossible for anything to be impossible. (Thoughts like this frequently won him lectures from Psychology. He was bearing up under them surprisingly well, which he attributed to the influence of the Angelic Blade).
And so, Nicolai kept all his weapons handy. It was simpler that way—it meant he wouldn't worry unnecessarily, and could just get on with things. And in the event the floor did open up under him, and he fell into an underground world full of giant snakes, he would be ready.
Moving and carrying the Blade was also now easier than ever, as he'd reworked and refined its sheath. The simple size of the weapon meant he still didn't wear it on his back, but wherever he moved through his home, he carried it with him. It was now held in a simple, tight-fitting sheath, made from a titanium alloy frame with a synth-leather overlay. Bound tightly around the sheath was the spirit-dampening cloth. He'd first applied adhesive to the sheath then wrapped the cloth tightly around, until the whole sheath was covered. Then he'd applied more adhesive, and wrapped it again.
There were rings set into the frame which emerged from the synth-leather, and he'd attached a system of ballistic weave straps to those rings. He chose ballistic weave because it was cut and heat resistant, and he wanted to reduced the odds of the Blade being separated from him. The straps were modular and adjustable, so the Blade could be worn in a variety of manners.
He'd also guided the Assembler in creating a second, much smaller sheath, which fitted over the long handle of the Blade. It was formed of identical materials, with the same double-wrapping of spirit-dampening cloth. The handle-sheath had a connection point to the main sheath. To remove it, one simply had to twist the handle part then pull it free, and the blade could then be drawn.
Alternatively, there were tiny mechanical pistons set into the sheath, where the handle-sheath connected into it. If activated they would punch out, automatically twisting the handle and throwing it off. This process was quite powerful—in his tests the handle-sheath was flung across the room. The pistons were powered by tiny batteries, and activated via various methods.
He could connect to it via Local Link, as the main method, which as always was heavily encrypted and could even be deactivated, if he worried he might encounter some serious hackers. If that was the case, or if the Local was denied, the sheath also had a small extendable wire which would connect to his skinsuit—which his brain implants were always connected to via the wires that slotted into his neck-ports. Thus he would access to the sheath via routing through the skinsuit. Whenever out and about, he'd connect the wire up to the skinsuit.
If all else failed, it also had a hidden button which could be thumbed or pressed via Symbiotes, such as the Grasping Finger, or better yet the Floater Ant, a Symbiote he'd purchased in the final hour of the Phantom City and which gave one's Soul Sense a weak, short-ranged telekinesis. Much weaker than any of the Fingers, it was only capable of exerting a few pounds of force, but that was enough to press the button.
Overall he was extremely happy with the sheath. He'd become quite obsessive when creating it, and it was entirely his own design—none of the Modules had been interested, which was fine with him. Towards the end of the process he'd started thinking about some kind of system that would not only shoot the handle-sheath off, but also have the main sheath blast apart into two halves, so he wouldn't even have to perform the drawing motion.
Alas, he'd already made the sheath and wrapped it in the cloth by then, so decided to call it quits. The next sheath he made, however…
###
'What happened exactly, when he showed up?' asked Kleos.
Beth answered as Jo was still frowning at her nails. 'Well, lessee. Mmm. Vikrum was all, Nicolai's gotta go, I hate Nicolai.'
'Viper,' said Azure, grinning.
'Viper. Hate him, et-cetera. Then he showed up all covered in blood and he went, ha, I'm right here, let's fight.' She smirked. 'And they did! It was very dramatic.'
'I saved the whole thing!' burst out Azure. 'I can…! Oh, neither of you have a Link…'
'I saved it too,' said Beth. 'When you guys get one we'll share. Me and Azure rewatch it sometimes when we're bored. In the meantime…' She was bouncing slightly in her seat, grinning with excitement, and Azure was the same beside her. 'Let's do this, okay, let me set the scene… So Maxine was asking, "Where is he? Where… is… Nicolai?" and he walked in! He walked in and people saw him, and I said, "He's over there!" And everyone was like ooooh shiiiit, and he came over and he was covered in blood and he went—' She stalled, frowning. 'Uhhh, I don't remember exactly, shit…'
Azure jumped in. 'He said, "I heard you want me dead," (Azure spoke her impression of Nicolai in a deep growling voice) to Vikrum who was all, "Yeah that's right, me and everyone else, you killed my dudes, you scammed these losers—you're just out for yourself!" (This in an equally deep and growly voice) and Nicolai did this evil crazy laugh and went, "Hahaha, that's right!" and he said, "Think you can kill me? Huh?!" and Vikrum was all, "Oh yeah bitch, I know your tricks now, I'd love to put you down."'
Azure paused, sucked in some rapid breaths then winked madly around and whispered, 'If you know what I mean,' which caused Beth to burst out laughing but only served to confuse Kleos further.
Jo was shaking her head and looked moments from speaking out, probably to cut this short, but Azure caught sight of her and the girls eyes widened and she launched, loudly and with gusto, back into it. 'So Vikrum was like "If you just stop running like a pussy I'll totally fuck you up, bro," and Nicolai went "I only ran 'cuz you tried to gang up on me, loser! You afraid of fighting on your own? Come at me!" and Vikrum was all, "I ain't afraid of nothing!" and Nicolai went, "Well come on bitch, I'm right here, let's tango!" and Vikrum was like, "Grrrr Viper, I'm gonna totally fuck you up now!"
'Wow,' said Maric, shaking his head. 'It seems that all the things going on with Nicolai toward the end must have caused more changes than I'd realised,' he said musingly. 'I don't think I ever heard him talk in such a manner.'
'Oh he was always talking like that,' said Azure, adding in a quieter voice, 'If you read between the lines. Anyway then there was some boring stuff but then Vikrum pulled out this thing that looked like a points-tag, and he said, "Check this out, know what it does? It makes a big shield!" And he had this crazy grin, almost as crazy as Nicolai's but actually nah nowhere near as crazy as he was all, "None can pass! In, or out!!" and then, aha, then, ehehe—'
Azure erupted into giggles and took a moment in which Kleos—increasingly stunned by the barrage of words—could only stare at her, while Beth nodded along and Jo gazed down with one eyebrow raised, before finally Azure resumed with:
'And then Nicolai said, "You think I'm stuck in here with you? No, you're stuck in here with… me!!"' She sat back proudly, grinned widely, and adopted the air of waiting for an applause. She blinked, puzzled, when there was only silence before shrugging and saying: 'And then they fought. One sec, let me spin up my highlight reel and I can give you the blow-by-blow—'
'Vikrum ripped Nicolai's arm off and smashed it,' broke in Jo. 'But Nicolai stole something from him. Nicolai hid behind a bunch of shields, Vikrum couldn't get to him, and ultimately Nicolai teleported—'
'Hey, hey! What?!' erupted Beth. 'Don't tell it like that, what the fuck? Go back to staring at your nails! Azure's version was way better!'
'Oh my god Jo, you missed out all the best parts, they had a bunch more dope lines at the end,' moaned Azure.
'It's fine,' said Kleos, holding up a hand defensively. 'Jo's, uh, short version is fine. I'm sure Maric would enjoy hearing the longer story later,' he added appeasingly when they gave him aggrieved looks, and immediately felt Maric's dismay at being volunteered as the gazes switched to him.
'Uhm, yes, well, perhaps,' said Maric unhappily. 'We shall see. Haha.'
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