Godclads

In the case where victory is impossible, your duty is to make killing you very, very costly. Highflame devoted a lot of imps to seeing you all made good soldiers, so you’re not allowed to die until you inflict ten-times your loss in market value.

Is what a glassjaw would say. Orphans, I’ll put it plainly: If your death doesn’t cost the complete collapse of an enemy company, I will posthumously strike you from the record. The same applies to me as well.

-Guard-Captain Winston Nicoma

32-7

Retaliation

—[Avo, The Hidden Flame]—

Even within the Substance, Avo could feel reality shudder beneath the crushing wrath of Naeko’s palm. The patterns of the tapestry were drawn taut, seeming pinned somewhere, by something. Just a shame Avo couldn’t be there in person. Watching the Chief Paladin brutalize the Guilds would have been a delicious reward for his success.

Alas, the Hidden Flame had his own duties. Someone needed to ensure Veylis couldn’t muster her forces within the Substance to seize the Arks, and that the final resurrection that resulted from the merging of the dyad wasn’t dominated by her.

The Highflamer remnants were snuffed after a “brief engagement.” Since they were already infected by Avo’s flame, their fates were sealed. He had them put up a token fight—even sacrificed a golem or two to give them a better showing in the aftermath, but between the massive rupture that now stretched a good fifty kilometers through the district of Tallstrings and the massive amount of Stormtree forces at Avo’s disposal, there really wasn’t any other way this could go.

That being said, he did make sure to drain them of thaums, though. About 22,000 deaths. The rest he couldn’t quite salvage between the Rend-inflicted true deaths. Couple that with him devoting the bulk of the thaums he stole out from Uthred’s Soulscarred, that meant that Avo was technically a Sphere 1 Godclad. A Sphere One that was infesting a whole Stormtree Great Hunt with their metaphysical force-projection registered at an estimated 163,000 thaums/c.

So. More of a decentralized Sixth Sphere gestalt. Workable. Still dangerous. This allowed him to remain subtle, which was the main point. His true power would come from reclaiming more subminds and Definements, which would facilitate his control over armies and entire populations.

He’d rebuild his Strix when he had the time. It would be harder without Kae to guide him, but he retained some knowledge from their time together.

Kae. A sudden absence formed inside Avo. A vicarious flood of grief and bitterness washed through his Stormtree units. Bloodthanes went still, whimpering as if pups in cages. Some threw tantrums—destroyed in an expression of impotent rage. A few simply wept—and collapsed under the weight of their sobs.

Avo was… devastated. Or would be if he felt emotions as a human did. Instead, it was a metamaterial concept to him. Something he could break apart using his cognition—even reconstruct as a weapon for his own means. But it was also more than a feeling. It was an understanding. It was a truth.

Things were happening so fast—so many problems he needed to face, so many threats he needed to resolve. But already, he had taken losses. True losses. All he did to try and save Kae; fighting Zein to preserve Kare. Only to lose them now. The former he failed—the latter he had no chance to save.

Such failures shamed him as an Ascended Ark of Conceptualization. He should have been…

What should he have been? What should he have done?

Tied to a network of intellects, Avo began running simulations in the background, devoting two percent of his cognitive capacity to the task. Rationally, he knew there were things beyond his accounting, that though he was a pole of power on Idheim and the unrivaled shaper of consciousness with the collapse of the Hungers, he faced Great Powers of equal or greater presence than he.

To imagine he could have won without taking any wounds was a hope beyond hope. But still he did.

It was as he said to Naeko: Perfect rationality did not exist. Not even for the minds of Voidwatch. Perception and information could be deceiving; culture left one’s thought-paths mutilated even from the start. Not even being able to wield the Concept of Ignorance could protect one from treading a wrongful path.

And here, Avo found himself missing Draus. He could have attached her template to his—internalized, accepted, adapted without active resequencing. Took her for granted. Took a lot of them for granted.

Veylis was correct about one thing: He was a self god. Much like her. He cared for his cadre. Cared in inhuman was, but ultimately, it was his apotheosis that slaked the lust-fires of his mind, it was his ascension that truly enthused him. Perhaps he should have devoted more time to empowering his companions more…

But what could that have done against Veylis? Ignorance answered. She had been waiting. Was waiting for centuries—watching and lurking within Scale. Only Naeko’s company then preserved us. Would have been taken too if we stayed outside with Kae. Couldn’t stop her. Not then. Not even with the Strix. Only managed a stalemate against her even as she was dying. Cut by Zein. Warring within against Naeko. Empowered by the Stormsparrow.

“Should I have been more like the beast?” Avo asked. “Take choice. Kill. Consume. Empty places of life—see myself her equal in Spherage.”

False decision. Likely influenced by cogni-feedback from units attached to our mind—from their attempts to cope. Would make us more powerful individually. But weaker by far. Voidwatch would not have supported us. Naeko would have killed us. We would have killed Chambers—wouldn’t have a cadre. Acceptance of cruelty has never been our weakness. Such a thing is too simple. Path to perfect victory is complex. Beyond the encapsulation of words or semantic concepts.

“There are still instances of them in the Substance,” Avo replied. That acknowledge caused an uncanny change took effect over his forces again. The crying stopped. Rage dissipated. Bloodthanes and Stormtree elites simply rose from where they were frozen or emerged from their furious fugues with blank expressions on their faces, returning to assigned tasks. The Hidden Flame promptly constructed a filtration layer between him and his units. Would cause a slight lag in responses, but without actively controlling everyone, his every epiphany or consider slammed down on mortal minds like tidal waves.

Was how it was like for Naeko when it came to force and violence.

Being a god was an ineffable pleasure and privilege. It meant that your will superseded others even when you weren’t actively trying, that every choice he made would take away agency from countless others even if the idea sickened him. Such was when he allowed so many civilians to perish in trade for Naeko’s liberation earlier.

Yes, Ignorance muttered. Mind what we are… what we continue to become. New danger before us. Could end up misshaping everyone we greet with our predilections alone. Prresence might create a memetic contagion of conceptualized adherence, which I suspect has influenced more than a few situations in our favor.

Ignorance’s words lingered in the back of Avo’s mind as he considered what was to follow. Even before he tried breaching the Substance again to get his Great Hunt to another place, there was the matter of the Citizens here. The Citizens that Stormtree left trapped under the rubble. A normal Guilder wasn’t augmented for combat, but their sheaths were biochemically, genetically, nanomechanically, and bio-thaumically optimized on another level compared to a flat.

They would starve or dehydrate in time. Perhaps some would die from their injuries. But aside from the mortally wounded, he suspected most of them would linger in anguish beneath rubble or amidst the ruins for weeks at least before they perished.

Should he try to capture them? Gather as many as possible to use as hostages or bargaining chips? No. That would take far too long. Ancar’s Great Hunt only succeeded as they were dropped within the confines of the district, bypassing any proper Saintist forces altogether. Avo’s units could destroy this place and ensure a genocide, but holding people and keeping them as prisoners would strain his already struggling logistics beyond capacity.

So. The easy thing is to finish reforming his forces and leave. The harder option was to burn the population and drop a few Biology Rendbombs. Would allow him to preserve an instance of the population and give them a chance at restitution in his Soulscape. Would cost a few thousand Rendbombs though, and those of the biological variety were in short supply—primarily used to create breathing room against the No-Dragons. Well, he could always just make more—

A ripple spread across the Substance and reverberated through the patterns of reality. Whispers tickled the borders of Avo’s mind, and a building anticipation drew his attention like a light rising over the horizon. One eighty kilometers away from the rupture he inflicted, another section of the Substance began to twist and change. Walls curved and undulated like collapsing waves. They furled inward before parting in two, creating what looked like a crevice at first that then widened to become the opening of a valley.

With each passing second, distant emotions echoed through existence, joined with the tapestry as new patterns. Avo knew what he was feeling — pre-battle jitters; the thrill of coming bloodshed; the focus of Regulars. Many Regulars.

A faint, resonating pitch pealed out from the spreading passage in the distance, and Avo sensed a metaphysical construct surging toward him at the speed of sound, using radio frequencies to cloak itself. An avalanche of weight lingered behind it—Liminal Frames. Eight Spheres. Sevens. And more.

The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

Ignorance chuffed with interest. Interesting. Warhost coming for us.

Avo wanted to glare at his Definement. “You just realized

Yes. Why I said interesting. Only just sensed them. Was like they were—Wait.

And then Avo felt it too. Two presences masked by all the other noise, characterized by the resonating ring of perfect symmetry.

SUBMIND DETECTED

DEFINEMENT OF HYSTERIA DETECTEDWARNING: UNIDENTIFIED SOUL DETECTED [EST. 31,551,341]

An ethereal distortion colored the space between the parted Substance, but he could still see movement. A major force was coming for him. An entire warhost, maybe, with a larger thaumic mass than his Great Hunt.

And then, through the already deafening metaphysical din, a clear voice and familiar voice spoke: {Dreamer. I am not certain if you are still in the premises, but I will assume so because I do not want to feel like I am monologuing to no one. Well. I do still have a broken submind here attached to an unresponsive Definement. I can shout it. It does not feel as appropriate, however. Or satisfying. One cannot trade insults with a vegetable, after all.}

Ah. The Infacer. Not a better adversary than Veylis — in some ways probably even worse.

Immediately, Avo began assigning orders to his existing forces, wearing the mind of his Advisor to create an initial battle formation to buy time for the bulk of his Great Hunt to assemble. At once, he expanded the protective hurricane shielding his FOB to encompass sixty percent of the district. He also directed threads of invisible flame down into the ruins of the city via his drones.

A lot more Citizens were going to die. The choice to preserve them was out of his hands.

From within his hurricane, emerged a curving frontline formed by two Hunts with a core of 4000 golems each. It would take time for him to get any of his heavier heavy ground platforms in place, and of his twenty million light assault aircraft and ten million heavy assault aircraft, only twenty percent could be scrambled immediately.

The others needed some immediate maintenance or repairs.

Avo directed a million lighter drones to tickle behind the golems. The faster of his craft would be dispatched as sacrificial scouts. With his mind bound to the entire Great Hunt, he saw everything his units did like a form of secondhand “omniscience.” All he needed was a glimpse to get a gauge on what he was facing.

Ancar hadn’t led a particularly clean victory—what he had was a partially mauled army that smashed its way through a lightly Highflame district through attrition and brutality than any particular skill.

Now, the debt she incurred carried over to him.

Unpleasant. A brief glimpse inward showed her temporarily dead, with her skull and spine used as a “dread-cudgel” by Naeko. The battle royale had lulled to something with rules and regulations under Naeko. So brutal and nonpartisan was his entrance into the slaughter that both Stormtree and Highflame Citizens found themselves overwhelmed, dying side by side.

There was also something inherently wrong about a man that size moving in the same manner as Zein—fighting like Zein. Both Thousandhand and the Chief Paladin shared a preternatural instinct in battle. He didn’t react so much as he anticipated, intercepting, killing, and creating the conditions of continued slaughter.

No one single opponent lasted longer than three seconds against him, and even in all that chaos, he hadn’t died once.

His capabilities were, in a word, inhuman. And now, also part of Avo’s unseen arsenal…

INFUSING COMBAT TEMPLATES WOUNDGUARD (STANDARD INFANTRY)/HOUNDS (SKIRMISHER BIOFORM)/GRENADIERS (HEAVY BIOFORMS) WITH COMBAT EXPERIENCE FROM GENERAL EGO TEMPLATE [SAMIR NAEKO]

At the same time, he also poured a good portion of Naeko into his Advisor as well. Immediately, the enshadowed form began to change, twisting from something strongly resembling a Scaarthian Bloodthane with slight Highflame characteristics to a figure far shorter—but immensely wider and more muscular.

The Advisor shuddered and coughed. Their sub-cognition cycled and reloaded within Avo. When they spoke again, it was predominately with Naeko’s voice, with the Scaarthians and Highflamer serving as a lingering chorus.

[J-Jaus,] the Advisor said, looking at their hands in surprise. [The hells am—oh. Oh.] Realization and exhaustion passed through the Advisor. [My mind feels… all kinds of blended.]

“Normal,” Avo replied. “Can make adjustments after this. If we survive.”

The Advisor actually chuckled at that. [If? Zein would have had you crawl up and down a mountain using your hands for expressing that much doubt in your skill. What are we facing.]

“Trying to figure that out. Led by the Infacer. A portion of them.”

[Infacer? Good. Always thought they were a fucking half-strand. Never got the chance to—shit, feels weird not to have the Sage with me.]

“Developed a reliance,” Avo mocked.n/ô/vel/b//in dot c//om

[Donno. How about you spin up an interation of you and put it against me. See how much I need the Sage.]

The suggestion amused Avo and so he did. He loaded an instance of himself as the Pale Spider just behind Naeko, Echoheads primed to shoot forth, sporelings pouring over the Chief Paladin, with bioelectric—

Avo’s generated self came apart in two pieces—split from the groin upward by Naeko somehow. Ignorance flinched back in surprise and disbelief. How? When…

It took a slowed replay of the scene for Avo to realize what happened. Even before his own template finished loading, Naeko turned. He shifted low—created a mirage of himself using his utility fog before whipping Ancar’s spine up and though Avo’s crouch. The bluntness of the spinal columns and the cordysceramite alongside the smart-fluid composing Avo’s former sheath should have made what happened impossible, but by skill, speed, and raw, monstrous strength, Naeko managed to get the spine clean through the enhanced ghoul’s skull.

The Hidden Flame played the scene once more just to be sure. He had fought Draus using the Bone Demon. She had a Sang bio-rig at the time, but there was still a fight. This… Avo even hesitated to internalize Naeko’s knowledge. A mere human shouldn’t be that skilled at inflicting death. But Zein found a way to impart her special brand of madness on Naeko.

[So,] the Advisor yawned. [How’s it going?]

“Not too bad,” Avo lied. He might be a self-shaping mind, but the pride Naeko wounded was more than emotional as well.It wasn’t normal for a template to blindside him in any fashion. Well, templates that weren’t Aedon Chambers.

[Uh-huh,] the Advisor replied. [You know, I’m pretty good at feeling bullshit. Like to think its own of my personal canons.]

Avo refrained from hissing at the smug boulder of a man inside him. This was… good. He could use him against the enemies. An army of Naekos. The very thought gave him pause. An army of Samir Naekos!

If he could force a break through and make this a direct engagement—

[You know Zein trained me to be good at war as a whole, right?] Naeko said. [I know how to pilot golems and drones too.]

“Not as good as killing in person,” Avo replied. Of this, he was sure. Additional simulations showed Naeko at least getting shot down as a drone pilot when faced with overwhelming odds. The golems were a different story. Naeko was one of the oldest Godclads in existence. Probably among the best as well. He had faced enemies of all Domains, fought thousands of battles, torn literal gods from the Age of Pantheons in half before their despairing believers.

We need a new template, Ignorance said.

Avo concurred.

GENERATING ELITE COMBAT TEMPLATE

NAEKO!GODCLAD (GOLEM/GODCLADS)

Immediately, Avo’s cog-cap spiked to 89% as he began flooding his Bloodthanes and surviving Instruments with copies of Naeko. Oh, the Infacer thought he had overwhelming force. Well, Avo had someone who knew to break force itself.

[So how well did you do against me, anyway,] the Advisor asked.

“Didn’t,” Avo admitted, not even bothered anymore. Yes. Having Samir Naeko was worth any personal indignity. He let out a chuffing laugh. “Died instantly. Got torn in half.”

[That happens. Did you try to jump me from behind? Zein did that for eight years. Would stalk me at random and beat me with this giant brush she had. It would always been dipped in white or some kind of color. If I didn’t get any ink on me, I got to have a day off, and she would rub my feet and let me pretend to be the master for the day. Order her to do anything.] The Advisor laughed. [Never managed to keep myself unpainted until I finally realized I had to stalk her back first. Learn her sneaky ways.]

These memories were Avo’s as well. But when he shared them with the other templates, they reacted with abject horror from Zein’s training. Most went null outright—including Ancar. Avo winced and kept most of his Naeko copies pure. He might require someone like Draus to accept these teachings. Most egos didn’t have the proper architecture for this.

{Attention: Stormtree apes of the onto-femme-multilated variety, if any among you are still actually yourselves, could you please do me the favor of committing suicide? If not, I will assume you have been consumed by the Dreamer, and are now effective an army of psychological zombies guided by an unseen puppet master.}

Avo’s scout drones drew zoomed in on the valley from which the Infacer’s forces were to approach. Suddenly, a shrill noise passed through them and he immediately lost contact with those units. Felt from afar, the attack used radiation, frequency, and spatial patterns. Problematic. He drew the rest of his air wings closer behind the golems and had his Porters expand their coverage.

[Might be a Frequency Skipper,] Ancar whispered in the back of Avo’s mind. [Experimental Omnitech air-to-air platform. Ori-Thaum ran into a few during the last Guild War.]

The wailing frequencies began to oscillate and circle Avo’s forces. The pinged over his two active hunts, passing over the hurricane’s spatial miracles like an intersecting current slamming into an already raging stream.

Instead of Avo doing any scouting, it was the other way around.

The Hidden Flame hissed in annoyance. The Infacer was always an annoyance.

{Alright. No response. And the deployed formations are also too perfectly organized. Not even proper drift between the drones like actual pilots. A word of advice from an older mind, Dreamer: Humans are fucking embarrassments at everything. You need to do worse to emulate them, especially when it comes to organization or planning.}

“So much for hiding,” Avo said.

Can still mask our presence, Ignorance replied. They suspect. They are not completely sure. But the other submind.

“Bait. I know. Hysteria too. Still going to take it back from him.”

{Ah. The Bleaks are starting to try hard again. Apologies. I need to focus on them for a while. Might join in using one of my new Railjumper bodies if I get the chance though. I suppose we can think of this as a live Stormjumpers session. Anyway, taking my place: Osjane! Have fun, girl. And do use your disruptions liberally. He’s not likely to stay dead otherwise.}

And with that broadcast, a flashing blade of glistening silver cleaved out from the valley and split the tapestry of existence asunder.