Chapter 452 (1/2)

Tziech looked down at his hands, his eyes red.

“It’s time to go,” the Thief said, softly. She was worried about him, Tziech knew, because of how much of the burden had been put on him this time. The Progenitor’s trust weighed heavily on his shoulders.

But perhaps she didn’t understand how liberating that could be at the same time, to finally have a direction, to have an escape from the Byzantine plethora of choices that had plagued him for years. To see 100 bad answers, and know that each one would have you blamed in a unique and tortuous way…

Now, that was gone.

Tziech stood, leaving his weapons on the ground. Outside, he could hear the strange, almost musical, almost mechanical call and replies of the invading army, as they marched on their position. The Thief looked at him in askance, glancing again down at his weapons.

“Some things…” Tziech said, flexing his muscles slowly, testing every muscle and tendon. “Just feel better when you do them with your hands. Let’s go.”

She nodded, drawing her cloak farther around her, taking back the Progenitor’s strange spear. Together, the two of them walked forward, heading towards the frontlines. What orders were needed were already given, and now they just had the hint given to them by Lucretia, the voice of the Progenitor here.

They needed to make it to the strange Spirit Conduit. Tziech didn’t plan to stop moving until he got there.

*****

“Whatever it is doing, to bind you here-” Randidly began, but Gemma held up a hand.

“Please, it’s much too late for that. I’ve made my decisions. I’ve thought about this moment a lot, you know.” Her eyes stayed locked on Randidly. “I could never shake the feeling of how powerful you seemed to me, all those years ago. It was like you, and only yo, were the memory that was immune to the passage of time. My friends, my life before the System, the people who helped me when I first arrived here… all those have faded to grey despair. But not you.”

She raised a hand and seemed to reach out towards him. But after a second, she let her hand drop. “And yet… now I see you are strong, but I see it as a peer. Not invulnerable at all, and so foolish, to walk here, towards a trap. Yestyx will have her way.”

Randidly pursed his lips at the unfamiliar name, but after a pause, Lucretia said slowly. ...I suspect that is the Creature’s name. The fact that they have had enough interactions that she feels comfortable calling it by name… does not bode well. If what she said about a trap is true-

But Randidly shushed her mentally, his eyes hard, because he had his own ideas about how the Creature functioned, and what he needed to do to strike at her. So he took a step forward, looking at Gemma, wondering where Rhaidon was. “So, we fight?”

Gemma laughed, a tinkling, vindictive laugh of a mature woman who was supremely confident of herself. “...well, I guard this door. Whether you will force my hand is your own decision. Yestyx awaits beyond, in the Exofact. She will not be disturbed by the likes of you. She has promised, that after this task… she will allow me to die.”

There was a deep softness that Randidly had carried for Gemma, every since she had been used by the Wild Rider as a decoy, and had suffered dearly for it, time and time again. And yet, faced with this matured version of her… feeling the very air she breathed, lightly laced with a strange bitterness, Randidly felt something inside of himself numbing towards his empathy for her. So he took another step, and then another, slowly walking towards her.

The announcer man still looked upwards, towards the sky, while the 8 carpet men remained kneeling, while Gemma talked, almost to herself, her eyes slightly unfocused. “The irony of existence… it’s almost beautiful. That this is my motivation to fight, now… and that you, the man I thought could rescue me, were the great nemesis. Must we do this? We can pass this time softly-”

Randidly continued to walk, and abruptly, Gemma’s mood switched, her face contorting into a hideous snarl. She snapped her fingers, and a giant body leapt over the short wall, crashing down between them. It, of course, was Rhaidon, every bit as big as a truck, his legs spread wide, his eyes curiously mild as he regarded Randidly. It’s fur was still metallic, steel and copper and just a little bit of gold mixed in around his ears and eyes, a beautiful life form.

Nothing, it seemed, remained of the honorable beast that Randidly had pushed towards Gemma, so the two could find support and succor in each other. Randidly tried not to dwell on how perfectly these two had been poisoned, and likely due to his interference, although it wasn’t intentional.

It was still a weight. As he took another step, Randidly closed his eyes, and accept her malignant, crazed anger into the swirl of ill will that he carried, for each life he took, or destroyed, or warped. Then he opened his eyes, and took another step, his gait steady.

Rhaidon roared, seeming liters of spittle flying forward out of his mouth towards Randidly, who just narrowed his eyes. Roots spray up out of the ground to catch it and knock it away. When Randidly took another step, three fingers shot passed him from behind, interposing themselves between him and the beast.