12 Miles Below

A foreign soul link curled from the necklace, connecting with my own, bridging a small gap.

Keith. Father said, tone cold and clear.

What he didn’t say was the relief deep inside that I hadn’t fallen off the edge. The simmering fury inside him at watching anyone attempt to harm his family again. Worry for Kidra. Pride that we’d both held our own against a threat, and vicious satisfaction that To’Sefit had been outright executed.

As quickly as those thoughts inadvertently passed through the link, a wall of his will slammed between us, holding the rest of his thoughts guarded behind.

Just you in there? I asked, politely leaving his thoughts alone. There wasn’t a sign of any other knight within the necklace. Only his soul fractal glowed with power, the rest inside the necklace remained empty.

The others remained behind of their own choice, within the armor’s reserve soul fractals. I was left behind, you need more help than the captain.

And in case I didn’t survive, I had one more possible escape from death. But that part wasn’t mentioned, only implied.

Avalis came to a stop, hand holding onto the chain hilt, other hand lifting up. “I’ll offer you terms one last time.” Eyes locked on the neckpiece, calculating new ways to get under my skin. “I can supply you with armors, weapons, food, medicine, shelter, peace. Whatever you need for your clan and family's wellbeing. Location data of suitable places with new pillars that could become a new home for your people. I could even delete those parts off the machine maps, obscure whatever location you select. I could watch over it myself over distances, making sure the territory is never logged again so long as I live. Step out of the way, allow me to recover To'Wrathh, and this all ends for the best.”

“Deleting your own maps and then actively hiding a human population sounds like something a traitor would do, you know?” I said, tapping a foot in the rushing water. “How do I know you’re not just going to stab me in the back the moment I hand over Wrath’s head?”

I could see Wrath's working eye flicker straight over to me from her sack, a look of betrayal in them even with the rest of her face frozen over. I waved her worries away, hoping she'd get the message. I just needed to buy time.

Kidra’s combat feed showed she was using the disappearance of Avalis as a window of opportunity to hunt down and destroy his surrounding forces. Given how Avalis stood still further away from me, the Feather must have already written them off from the moment he’d come here.

By the time he’d get back to them, Kidra would have finished the last one. The break To’Sefit had given her to catch a breath had been well used.

“My goals are only to complete my mission.” He said, eyes focused, trying to calculate what order of words would convince me the best. “My actions, for or against mankind, will be meaningless in the ultimate scope of this conflict. What is one more city of humans hiding under her gaze? Granting you these offers cost me nothing, I have no reason nor motive to go against my word.”

Journey’s HUD lit up with signals, more nameplates appeared under our slowly dwindling team. The away team was battering down doors and chokepoints, distant rifle sounds echoing, barely audible over the din.

“Choose.” Avalis said. “End this all now, or die trying.”

“Well, if you put it like that, guess I’ll die.”

He sighed, more annoyed than anything. “An unfortunate answer.” The chain in his hand began to swing. "This could have been far easier on everyone."

"Never said I'd make it easy." I said, occult pulsing around me, mirror images flying directly in his path.

He tutted, sprinting forward and eliminating the ghosts with impressive grace, the chain moving around like an extension of his shell.

I tried to manipulate the images earlier, before he’d reached to dispatch them, but that chain had godsdamned reach. In moments, I needed to make use of my own solid shield and sword to keep alive as the weapon swung right into me.

Fighting against a ranged whip was unlike anything I’d ever done before. The armshield would block the chain, but it would start to wrap around unless I shoved the whole thing up fast enough while also sidestepping away from the blow to help deflect it, forcing the chains to slip off and continue the trajectory above my head. And I had to keep an eye on that mace end, or he'd blast me out of the way. Those I needed to outright dodge perfectly.

Worse was the potshots he took at Wrath’s sack, forcing me to constantly kick her backwards as I gave ground and held him off.

Collision with occult images I sent out also ran into an issue. If the chain edge struck against their armshield edges, the images didn’t have enough stopping power to remain manifested. They vanished into mist, not even slowing the swing down or dealing any kind of damage.

Even if I got an image close enough to swing at him that he hadn’t been able to take on, I knew he could just turn translucent and let the image swing through. Functionally invulnerable. This was a race to the bottom and I knew it.

I still battered his attacks away, again and again.

He changed the pattern up, twisting on himself and slamming the mace part into the water before me at an angle. Rocks and a spray of water cracked out into chunks behind an occult pulse. They flew right into my position, pummeling me with hundreds of smaller chunks.

Journey’s HUD was a mess, readjusting to the lowered visibility as quickly as it could. Shields hadn’t triggered, but the larger rock chunks shoved me slightly off position.

The occult sight remained clear even if my physical ones weren’t. And within it, I saw Death.

Particles of black swirling dust, appearing in a graceful arc, where a chain would swing through my neck.

I ducked. Avalis’s chain scythed harmlessly above, death dissipating. He might have actual invulnerability, but I had something similar. Father's perception, and he was right there connected with me.

The miss didn’t stop him from executing further movements. He redirected the chain, and I barely deflected it downwards with the armshield, slamming the whole thing down into the ground and putting my weight on it, trying to pin it down.

That wasn’t a good idea. Scratch that, it was a terrible idea.

Occult pulsed at the mace end and I was tossed off the chain, fumbling forward into the water. Journey’s HUD showed even more damage to my bones and muscles, parts going orange this time.

No time to think about that. I rolled back on my feet in panic, sprinting straight for Wrath’s exposed sack, watching as his chain already carved through the air, going straight down for her head.

I reached her in the nick of time, my sliding kick knocking her sack away just as the mace end crushed into the ground right where my boot had flashed past.

It exploded again, spraying water and rock in every direction, tossing both myself and Wrath’s sack backwards.

I scrambled back up on my feet, avoiding Avalis’s followup murder attempts by the skin of my teeth, abusing the occult sight for everything I could get. Death came at me again and again. He tried to go for Wrath after the failures, but my blade desperately swiped through the air with a short jump, catching his own chain and throwing it off course.

The weapon rattled and returned back to his hilt. Avalis paused, a haze of air above his head reaching past his halo. Violet eyes glared at me the entire time. Contemplating. I didn’t have any time to strap Wrath back on my back, but so long as I remained standing, he wasn’t getting to her. And Avalis knew that.

The end of the whip is the weakpoint. Father said in the intermission, watching the lopsided fight. It can be sliced by an occult blade at the right angle.

The chain end was more like a diamond mace, with each fanged edge glowing bright occult blue. But unlike the chain itself, there were still openings in between the fangs.

Easy for you to say, I’d need to thread a needle in a snowstorm to pull that off!

You lack the skill. The crusader in your armor does not, and will not be held down by human reflex. Order her.

Journey had turned off the administrator override for remote operation during the reset, and I hadn’t turned it back on since. To’Aacar had been able to brute force his way into controlling my armor if I did leave the doorway open - but that was To’Aacar. Avalis might not know that was possible. Wrath had deleted as much information as she could. Getting Journey to move with me could be the piece that turns the tides, or it could equally damn me in the same moment.

Can’t unlock her here. I need to give a verbal command, and Feathers are the world’s best evesdroppers. He’ll hear me under my helmet and start putting pieces together. How about you?You're here, Wrath once tapped into your experience. Can't you send it my way somehow?

He didn't answer immediately, mulling it over. It is... possible, although it may come at a price. The girl had software protecting her identity from being tainted by my own and a soul fractal variation made to jail souls instead of housing them. The cage was built for it. Sagrius showed what happens when two souls connect on a deeper level without guard. One is eroded away, either your armor or myself. But, should the stakes grow dire, I will intercede. For now, take what chances come your way.

Chance in this case had a name. Kidra, and she was here to finish what she’d started.

A screamer’s dead shell was hurled across the battle, more a statement than part of any real plan. Avalis easily hopped up on the dorsal spines as the unmoving machine slid against the ground where he’d stood.

"The rest of his army lays in ruins now." Kidra said, walking into view from the mist. Her swords flourished, splattering droplets of black oil off the flat edges. "He's alone. Options?"

“That invulnerability has got to go. And he’s been using it sparingly, which means there’s a limit. I think we need to grapple him.” My voice caught me by surprise - I was starting to slur a bit, only realizing now how much my thoughts had begun to feel fuzzy without my notice. Overuse of the mirror fractal, or all the throwing around had caused a concussion at some point.

It’s fine, all we had to do was eliminate him. Like Kidra had said, just one more target to take down.

She nodded at the plan, hunching down for a sprint. Avalis had clearly heard our talk - and given his reaction, I think the grapple plan was on the right path.

He leaped straight up from the Screamer’s dead shell, far into the air where we wouldn’t be able to get him.

With a muttered curse, I readied my weapons again, occult pulsing around as the mirror fractal flared into life once again. “You think we can’t catch you in the air, yo--”

Death bloomed around me, stretched out like a four fingered hand, wrapping around my chest, arms and neck. All connected by a straight line of death from the apex of his jump. So thick, it seemed to cover my entire sight. Belatedly, I realized he hadn’t jumped out of fear. He was looking for a very specific angle. One where he could draw a straight line through me - and Wrath. Death reached far behind me, a tendril of darkness slashing through her sack.

With clarity that cut through my blurry mind like fire, I knew exactly what was coming.

I abandoned my mirror images, turned and yanked her sack, leaping to my side, landing hard on my shoulder with absolutely no grace and a deep splash of water.

Avalis threw something at the same instant with all the force in his arm. A small black spinning cylinder, spiked straight at a target with unerring precision.

A knightbreaker round.

My knightbreaker round.

Freshly stolen earlier, now returned to sender.

The speed was ridiculous. Probably the upper limit a knightbreaker round could withstand without crushing the round faster than the chains could destroy something. He must have calculated that. The round narrowly missed my chest, smashing into the water behind me where Wrath had just been. A massive angled geyser flashed out from the round's impact, chains expanding out and ripping apart everything around it.

I dodged it. Journey’s shields still triggered for some reason. Then instantly overloaded.

And I realized I hadn’t completely dodged it.

One of the chains had been close enough to reach me. I watched it through the soul trance in almost morbid fascination.

It licked my leaping leg for only a moment, wrapping around my ankle, sliding off the shield, slowly unwrapping off. Just as it nearly cleared away, the shield broke apart, letting the chain sink teeth into my calf and heel as a parting gift.

A small nick.

Journey’s structural integrity showed instant failure through the boot portion, backup synthetic muscles now taking the load instead. Medical scans showed my body hadn’t done any better against a chain. It had slashed straight through ligaments and muscles alike, before whipping away and descending down into the rock with the rest of its cursed kin.

They all gouged deep funnels into the floor, and turned off. The now unpowered chains were stuck inside the ground, anchoring the weapon against the shallow river trying to carry it off into the maelstrom.

I got back on my feet, my right boot carrying scarlet dyed water off and away with the current. Needed to seal that wound fast, next chance I got. “Trying to kill me with my own ordinance?” I said, with bravado I definitely didn't feel. He very narrowly had.

“To’Sefit claimed the same to you a moment ago. It didn’t end well for her, although you’ve fared through it better. At least it provided some additional data, it wasn’t a complete waste.” He said, landing nearer to the whirlpool edge.

“Glad you learned throwing things at me doesn’t work. What’s the next plan Avalis? Asking me to look away first?”

His eyes narrowed at that, “Human reflexes alone wouldn’t have saved you. Your attempts to mislead aren’t as subtle as you think. It’s clear to me sight wasn’t the deciding factor. You’re using a fractal of some kind to predict attacks.”

Its gods damned hard to successfully lie to a Feather. Especially one that’s trying to ferret info out of me like this.

“How about you come closer and find out.” I said, settling for a neutral reply that wouldn’t give him anything else to work on, tapping deep into the mirror fractal again, ignoring the budding headache it was causing.

Kidra sprinted directly to his position, blades ready for another bout against him. Occult mirrors sent out from myself were equally about to slam into him from the other side.

The Feather didn’t move. Eyes shifting between me and Kidra, back and forth.

Calculation. Conclusion.

He nodded to himself, as if everything was going as expected. Then wordlessly took a step backwards and the whirlpool behind swallowed him whole.

There wasn’t a trick to it. I could see him in the occult sight, even beyond visual range. The concept of a Feather fell down in freefall, until he vanished from my range.

The rat bastard had run off.

Next chapter - Rest before the storm

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