We are not certain what the paths are or how they are functionally expressed. All we know is this: of the 62,384,556 attempts that we, Stormtree, Sanctus, and Ashthrone have made on the High Seraph’s life, every operation has ended in abject failure with no survivors among the operatives deployed.

  Despite the Sleepers we have seeded across Highflame’s choirs and the personnel we have turned, we remain unable to procure any useful intelligence regarding Veylis Avadaer’s Heaven. This, in part, is likely because no one within the Chorus knows either. Neither has any Agnos interfaced with Veylis Avadaer’s Frame for the past four hundred years.

  A possibility could be that she has gone without any adjustments all that time, but with the creation of new Heavens and Domains and from what we can judge from simulations of her personality, it is highly unlikely she would foreswear growth in exchange for secrecy.

  The greater likelihood is that she herself is trained in the ways of thaumaturgy by virtue of being blood to Jaus Avandaer.

  Constructing a simulation from the mem-data we managed to obtain from our fallen assets, the nature of the path seems to mimic the natural world in some fashion, with visual feeds perceiving a “rebuilding” of space, matter, or place around them. Considering the lack of resonance with any of those Domains, however, it is likely she is tapping a concept into far more esoteric.

  Though no operatives have ever managed to return from the paths alive, the High Seraph sometimes sends the bodies of the fallen back to their families or parent Guild. We deduce that this honor is afforded only to those she finds interesting in feat or spirit.

  Our… attempts at seizing mem-data related to her from Chief Paladin Naeko have also proven to be… less than fruitful. The assets we used against him remain metaphysically impotent–unable to inflict violence of any kind upon themselves, objects, or other people.

  Whatever the case, my summation is thus.

  If the council demands it of me, I will do my utmost to prepare, orchestrate, and execute the operation to assassinate Veylis Avanadaer. But my personal recommendation, formed from years of active experience, hard data, and lack of intelligence, is that this is a waste.

  A waste of effort. A waste of lives. A waste of materials. A waste of time.

  Veylis Avandaer is not a problem we can solve simply by ghosts or blades.

  -Mirror-Concave Izu M’Grin

  19-12

  The Roads Untrod

  The breeze brushing across the filth-coated stones of the hall whistled at Uthred, the noise shrill like laughter, mocking him for his deed.

  It was all he could to avert his eyes. If he looked, something in him knew the High Seraph would have judged him. Failed him for weakness.

  He fixed the point of his vision toward the horizon, gaze climbing as building light poured down. Blood was pooling at his feet now. Blood, a shade darker than her hair. Her body was a falsehood, but the hollowness panged inside him, true and deep.

  As the unnatural brightness coiled across reality, Uthred Greatling straightened his posture and reviewed the state of his combat-skin. His equipment was ready. His Rend was almost nonexistent. The only question was his spirit, and so he was to show his will once more.

  For himself.

  For the High Seraph.

  A demonstration of worthiness.

  “My resolve stands,” he said, pushing the words out from his lungs. He had no urge to speak, but speak he did, if only to burden his mind with a new focus. He needed to get the High Seraph to respond. Needed to–

  “Why do you assume that I care about your resolve?”

  The hairs on Uthred’s neck stood. Her voice came from below where her body lay, and for the pan of a heartbeat, he thought his mind was betraying him. Then, she rose, rising tall and staring down at him. His body was trapped between two thoughts and lurched as if pulled by conflicting movements; he wished to turn away, but also to strike her down once more.

  Her face remained a blank canvas. Her skin, wan like paper, regarded him without any discernable features. No eyes. No nose. No ears. No lips. Not even true complexion. Only her hair spilled out from the skull in threads of color, alternating between red and auburn while bathed in the caress of the light.

  A dryness filled Uthred throat as he took a step back.

  The thing bearing his wife’s contours titled its head at him. “Why do you retreat now, Uthred? Have you not cut me down once? Did you not state your resolve remains?”

  Mustering his strength, he planted his feet and refused to move. The monoblade remained extended, his fingers gripping the hilt tight. “I… do.”

  “Then why did you kill me?” The question sounded so genuine, words of lowest contralto articulated clean and clear. “You didn’t want to do it. I can feel it. See it in your posture. But you did it anyway. Cut me down. You seem to have strength confused with surrender, my love. Supplication to an outside power is not honor.”

  “Do not spit this poison at me,” Uthred growled, mind screaming for him to cleave the creature down once more and ignite the pieces with his Heaven. But his body was reluctant, and from her words grew a seed of despair.

  “It is true. She knows. Of course she knows. She has been watching you. Do you know? For three days her eyes rested on you, peering at you from the light. Learning who you are now, how you have changed. If you have changed.”

  “And so the High Seraph sends you to test me?”

  “I am not a test,” the blank-faced thing said. “I am but an echo. A reverberation of your past. A construct formed from alternative possibility. Nothing more. Never to be more. Never to be beyond the reach of her Heaven.”

  “Does she speak through you,” Uthred said, voice on the verge of cracking. “Is she using you to–”

  “Does it matter to ask questions you cannot know the answer to? What worth is it if I say yes? What matter is it if I say no? “I” am of no consequence here. I am gone. Dust. Forgotten. But you are here. Present. Being judged. Once again, my love, I am not a test. I am just a conversation.”

  A block of ice formed in Uthred’s gut. “A conversation? Someone for me to… talk to?”

  She held out her arms beneficiently. “An altar for you to confess to. Tell me about our House. Tell me about our children. Tell me of our woes.”

  Uthred swallowed as his heart pulsed for the second time in a full minute, the state of his nerves betrayed. Forcing his jaw to loosen, he spoke again, and the words climbed up his throat like shards of jagged glass.

  ***

  {Works,} Avo said, sending the message to his cadre as he wriggled free from the mangled body of his final victim.

  Riding the waves of a traveling signal, he managed to Techjump himself within the squire’s exocortex. Waveraiders, they called themselves. Named after their specially designed golem, a construct capable of traveling across spaces beneath radio waves. A prize they stole by hitting an Omnitech-associated outfit and something they now used toward the purposes of boarding and plundering Maw-barges.

  Heaven gained: [Waveraider] (Signals/Space)

  GHOSTS - [25,557,009]

  This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

  THAUMIC OUTPUT - 16,062 THAUM/c

  After finishing their session at the Lots in Fountaintale, the cadre spread their attention out across New Vultun in search of easy prey for quick kills. Connected via Draus’ reflections, they were districts apart and a step away, with Chambers jacking and scouting through various lobbies, Avo venturing down to the gutters alongside Kae to set up for the border run to come. The Regular and Dice were out on safari while Tavers and Essus monitored possible smuggling routes.

  To say their time was spent most fruitfully was an understatement. Draus and Dice moved fast and hard, covering thousands of kilometers in a day as they mem-locked vulnerable targets, marking them as harvesting spots. More reflective passages were left in place–a checkpoint allowing Avo’s Conflagration and Heavens to reach through for ghosts and thaums.

  Targets were ones of sheer opportunity, districts and Sovereignties away from each other, with their deaths masked by the severity of the harm.

  Killing ephemerals no longer required anything more than a thought. Avo envisioned himself an industrial scythe carving across a vast field paved by Draus and Dice, victims entering his awareness and dying in the next instant. The effort required was less than a squeeze, not even the stomp of a boot when one needed to crush an aratnid.

  No.

  All it took from them now was a thought. A casual decision: die.

  Of his templates, Corner and the other Fallwalkers gloried in the incremental genocide, with a few thousand lined for the butchering every half-hour or so. The rest of his cognitive population was not so enthused. Template-Draus yawned in boredom at the slaughter, and her reaction was shared by Calvino, though the EGI took to actively reminding Avo to finish his massacres quickly rather than playing with his food. The Paladins demanded to be deloaded until after the killing was done while the other templates whimpered and wailed. Elegant-Moon, meanwhile, advised that he use the opportunity to procure some additional augmentations to experiment with.

  More than a few bodies grew deformed as his Sanguinity swept through them, crimson lightning lashing entire groups as the Woundshaper stole the traits of their biomods from them, downloading the organs into its Remembrance of Flesh. Budding tumors spread within lungs. Tongues were shifted from the mouth to eye sockets, enforcers, gangers, and slavers tasting their own optical nerves as they screamed.

  Canon: Remembrance of Flesh (V) - Allows user to memorize traits from biological organisms at a tenth of the thaumic cost; the biomass they memorized can be spliced before they are grown.

  ->Notable traits obtained: [Aqualung]; [Poly-ocelli]; [Neuro-Fiber Chitin]; [Octopid Nerve-weave]; [Echoskin]

  The most useful of the mods came from battle-morph bioforms, but even then, they weren’t anything special. If grafted into a body like Kae or Dice’s, their combat efficiency would spike, but these were deltaware at best. The cadre could and would get better on demand via Calvino. Even Tavers, to a far lesser extent.

  But collecting traits was wise. It allowed Avo to shift his and his cadres’ biologies to accommodate changing circumstances. Or maybe just atrophy the body of a foe without killing them outright.

  It was twenty minutes before dawn when Essus sensed something unseen– an unknown object passing through an invisible doorway he left as a metaphysical net between the valley of the Maw.

  Diverting the Manta to respond, Tavers fed visual confirmation of another barge slipping back into reality, flying low to hide using the fog of material-devouring motes. Their intentions were to simply trail the ship, but another surprise followed the first when a second entity was detected–its form only visible on the stealth ship’s sensors: a nail-shaped distortion swimming in the radiowaves.

  It closed on the barge before the Manta and materialized in a burst of radiation. Spatial waves splashed out from it and lapped over the barge as it loomed close, mounted guns flashing, sweeping through the misting bodies of the unprepared crew on the topside of the vessel.

  Zooming in on the hijacking, there were questions about why the group was conducting the boarding action, but any hint of it being rooted in goodness quickly vanished when a heavy kinetic projectile punched out through the guts of the vessel, resulting in a persistent spillage of cargo. Especially refugees.

  {Oh, look Avo, another chance for you to test one of your horrible reality-ripping abilities on a defenseless person who will die screaming as you flay their flesh and devour their mind,} Calvino deadpanned, surmising what was to come.

  So it came to be that Avo manifested the Techplaguer, triggering its Techjumper miracle for the first time in direct combat. Riding radio telemetry broadcast from the Manta, the Heaven of Signals splashed into the golem’s own area of effect, the metaphysical impact through the golem and Godclad alike.

  Canon: Techjumper - User inserts themselves into a signal or system capable of transmitting signals, moving as a packet of data and materializing at the endpoint of the transmission.

  From the ship’s systems, Avo followed the flow of data to arrive in the pilot’s exocortex before rematerializing his body.

  Tear back into reality through flesh, bone, and viscera, Avo hissed a light laugh as the scene dawned on him: a ghoul pushing out from a parting skull. It was like a rebirth; an abbrant ghoulification.

  {Oh, is that what the inside of my skull looks,} Kae said, disgust clear in her voice. {I… may want to consider removing my device now.}

  Draus and her template chuckled as one, and both spoke at the same time. {Reckon she’s touchin’ her exo right about now.]

  Avo set to work immediately, subsuming minds and deaths. The Waveraider sparked and buckled, unraveling as the Sanguinity spread itself. New knowledge spilled into Avo’s consciousness alongside the new templates. Lives relived and secrets unveiled. Memories of other barges intercepted and raided greeted him.

  Along with how they achieved their ambushes.

  Beyond the New Vultun border existed a sea of encampments, mobile settlements of FATELESS amassed, desperate to get into the city. Here sprouted opportunity and predation alike. Smugglers looking to stock their cargo. Scouters seeking potential circuit fighters. Swindlers working the crowds, making what profits they can. And amateur Necros plying their craft, binding secondhand Metas to those with something worth trading.

  Releasing mem-cons through the population, letting the invasive memories spread, and giving the Waveriders something to track.

  “I see,” Avo said, breathing as he grinned. Panic pulsed through his newest templates while his attention turned away from the other bodies moving inside the barge. “Using a bottleneck…”

  ***

  “I see,” the blank-faced thing said. Her voice was empty of judgment, without condemnation nor pity.

  “You see,” Uthred replied. The casualness of her words churned frustration inside him. First, he was taken into this place. Then, he was told to bare himself and make speech of his shame. In return, all he got was this? A casual statement bereft of any substance. “No. No, you do not see. Jhred is dead. Abrel is being held by Paladins for what she did in the aftermath. The Paladins–that bastard Naeko. He refuses me. The other Houses, they spurn us. The Meritocrats, they smell our blood.”

  Turning away from the imitation of his wife, Uthred swept his surroundings and searched for any sign of the High Seraph, a hint of her person. “Is this the admission you seek? A statement of weakness? Of the embarrassment, House Greatling has brought upon you? Upon the Guild?”

  Nothing. Still nothing. His jaw clenched. He fought to keep his temper controlled.

  “She cares nothing for shame,” the shadow of Lady Greatling said. “‘Stand and deliver.’ Deeds, Uthred. Deeds above all. Merit through action. Have you forgotten–”

  “I have not!” The words escaped from Uthred as a shout, the force of his bellow startling even him. A moment of shock followed, and he stepped away from his wife’s shadow. “I have forgotten nothing. Except for you.” Shaking his head, he looked around this place–the place of his greatest triumph–before returning his gaze to his wife. “I have served. I have served beyond faithfully. I have deeds enough. Glory enough. But faded victories are as varnished gold, and so the shadows of present defeat prevail. Jhred was… he was always your boy. Your son more than mine. He could not master himself. And I could not spare him my scorn. And so he left. And so he died.

  “Abrel… she is born of us but bears my rage. She loved Jhred deep, and so, whatever happened… it must have…”

  Uthred refused to sigh. He held the exhaustion inside himself. “What do you wish of me, Great Avandaer? Take her away. I do not deserve this insult. I have given all for Highflame. Do not taunt me with my wife’s shadow.”

  “And why do you assume that I am an insult?”

  “You have hair. A voice. But I don’t know if it’s ‘yours.’ And I have no face to recall when I leave.”

  “And is that something you want? To remember me? To have my banishment unstricken from the records?”

  Uthred paused.

  “It is possible. All defeats can be atoned. All blemishes can be smoothed. All shame can be turned to glory. You are in the paths–history retold. The roads untrod. Where did you wish your life led you? And what do you wish to become of your fate now?”

  “I… I wish to wipe away our failings. Achieve redemption Redemption. To prove the worth of our bloodline once more.”

  “The failings of your son, or your daughter?”

  Uthred’s eyes hardened into a glare. “Our failings. Ours. I am their father. Their patriarch. The fault is mine to claim.”

  “So you say.” the shadow of his wife hummed a shaking laugh, the low melody of voice feeding his ire. “You know what is to come soon. The assembly. The trial. More than Highflame will judge you. More than our guild will see your shame.”

  “I know,” Uthred said. “I will face them. They cannot shake me.”

  “But your daughter can. Are you prepared to abandon her, Authority Greatling? For the greater good of the guild and the name of your house? What price are you willing to pay to show your resolve? To undo your shame?”

  Coldness rose up his throat. “I…”

  “What if I–the voice of Veylis Avandaer–High Seraph, demanded a sacrifice you are not prepared to give? What then? What will you do then, Authority Greatling.”

  Uthred closed his eyes and centered himself. “...Would my position do instead? My life?”

  Then, in an instant, the shadow of his wife went very still. “No, it will not.”

  And then the walls suddenly splashed inwards as existence itself fell like a hammer upon Uthred Greatling.

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  Ontologics

  In effect after 19-12

  Ghosts - [26,557,563]

  Liminal Frame (V) - 16,062 THAUM/c

  User: Avo

  Heaven/Hell: [Woundmother] - 10,002 THAUM/c

  Heaven

  ->Domain: (Blood)

  ->Canon: Haemokinesis (IV) - All blood in user’s area of influence can be controlled; speed and force experience exponential increases with each ton of force controlled

  ->Hubris: Central pillar of the Heaven must remain 80 tons; each ton of non-central mass controlled increases thaumic and Rend-based demands (5%)

  ->Canon: Linger - User can eject constructs shaped from their blood; each construct generated accrues Rend based on design and size

  ->Hubris: Central pillar of the Heaven must remain 80 tons; each ton of non-central mass controlled increases thaumic and Rend-based demands (5%; x2 backlash)

  ->Canon: Sanguinity’s Reign (IV) - A building haemokinetic storm continuously expands from the user, spreading their area of influence (without limitations) as far as the storm can metaphysically expand; generates more Rend the larger the area it takes up

  ->Hubris: Attempting to move and alter more than 80 tons of matter without constituting a central construct will result in thaumic backlash (20%)

  ->Canon: Exsanguinating Helix - Allows the user to instill an exsanguinating effect in a piece of matter, causing it to drain all the blood its mass can contain when in contact with a non-user designated entity; the larger the object instilled, the higher the Rend

  ->Hubris: If the object is destroyed, thaumic backlash will be inflicted (15%)

  ->Domain: (Matter)

  ->Canon: Alchemization (V) - The user can subsume and channel and combine the properties of 108 fragments of physical matter through their blood; the limit of fragments channeled can be increased at the cost of thaumic and Rend-based demands.

  ->Hubris: Any attempts to subsume gaseous or liquid matter will incur backlash. (12%)

  ->Canon: Remembrance of Matter (V) - The user can memorize the traits of all physical matter they subsume at a hundredth of the thaumic cost; the matter they memorized can be assembled and blended before a construct is formed

  ->Hubris: If matter being subsumed has their state changed mid-subsumption, thaumic backlash will be triggered (9%)

  ->Canon: Stormwreathed - The user can temporarily convert their mass into electricity

  ->Hubris: If the user is submerged by water in this state, thaumic backlash will be triggered (15%)

  ->Canon: Haemification - The user can turn all influenceable matter into blood

  ->Hubris: Any attempts to subsume gaseous or liquid matter will incur backlash (12%; x2 backlash)

  ->Domain: (Fire)

  ->Canon: Matterbomb - The user can detonate pieces of matter based on mass and inherent energy

  ->Hubris: If the matter being detonated is destroyed before ignition, moderate (EST. 35%) severe backlash will be inflicted

  ->Domain: (Luminosity)

  ->Canon: The Light Unseen - The user can blend their matter with the light of their surroundings should they stop perceiving the world visually

  ->Hubris: If the user has their perception active while this canon is in use, (EST. 51%) severe backlash will be inflicted

  ->Domain: (Protection)

  ->Canon: Fortress of Luminosity - The user emanates a luminous shroud that renders all physical matter bathed by its shine invulnerable; generates heavy Rend (1.2%) every second canon is active

  ->Hubris: There must be a persistent source of light for the user to imitate in the environment or from the user themselves or thaumic backlash will be triggered. (5%)

  ->Domain: (Biology)

  ->Canon: My Blood The Harvester, My Flesh the Symphony (III) - Allows the user to grow, blend, or extract biological organisms and structures from their blood.

  ->Hubris: Another source of biomass must be present and in the area of influence or thaumic backlash will be inflicted. (6%)

  ->Canon: Remembrance of Flesh (V) - Allows user to memorize traits from biological organisms at a tenth of the thaumic cost; the biomass they memorized can be spliced before they are grown.

  ->Hubris: Another source of biomass must be present and in the area of influence or thaumic backlash will be inflicted (6%; x2 backlash)

  ->Domain: (Lightning)

  ->Canon: Boltstride (III) - Allows the user to transmute and move all blood-based structures as bolts of lightning; distance limited to the reach of user’s Sanguinity

  ->Hubris: Attempting to move over 120 tons of matter as a single bolt will trigger (EST. 87%) extreme thaumic backlash

  Hell - [Fifth Circle]

  ->Domain: (Matter/Entropy/Luminosity)

  ->Canon: Breath of the Withered (V) - Allows the user to expel their total Rend as an entropic storm across their area of influence; the storm will disintegrate matter through withering bolts of lightning (This canon is absolute)

  ->Daemon: Striking the same place twice will result in the manifestation of an Anathema of Ruin, causing the user to lose control of the Heaven

  ->Canon: Barrage of the Withered (V) - Allows the user to expel their total Rend as an entropic projectile the size, shape, and speed of the Woundmother at its maximum potential; this projectile can be guided by the user and is loosed faster with higher Rend (This canon is absolute)

  ->Daemon: Should the projectile not dissolve sufficient matter, the projectile will birth as an Anathema of Ruin

  ->Canon: Shadowbreaker (III) - Allows the user to influence all shadows in their vicinity with a touch of luminosity that will continue to expand and dissolve anything physical covered by the shadows

  ->Daemon: Should an insufficient amount of physical matter in darkness be consumed in (8 seconds), an Anathema of Ruin will be manifested.

  Heaven/Hell: [Fardrifter] - 5,660 THAUM/c

  Heaven

  ->Domain: (Air)

  ->Canon: Horizon Strider (III) - The user takes on the properties of a hurricane and can influence winds for 250 kilometers

  ->Hubris: If an external force counters the motion of the user’s centrifugal force, severe (EST. 59%) thaumic backlash will be triggered

  ->Domain: (Space)

  ->Canon: Yondergales (IV) - The user’s demiplane now encompasses ten kilometers, with each ton of mass multiplying the base speed of their winds (252 kilometers per hour)

  ->Hubris: If an object over 5,000 degrees celsius is drawn into the plane, extreme (EST. 83%) thaumic backlash will be triggered.

  ->Canon: The Nine Streams of Freedom - The user can materialize from any nine points in space their winds encompass (250 kilometers)

  ->Hubris: if they emerge in a confined space and are unable to fully materialize, thaumic backlash will be triggered. (10%)

  ->Canon: Shadowrun (II) - The user can surge within shadows as if they are wind tunnels (x10 current speed); shadows must be connected to pass from one to another.

  ->Hubris: If a light shines and clears away the user’s shadow, heavy (EST. 39%) thaumic backlash will be triggered

  ->Domain: (Shadow)

  ->Canon: Midnight Hand - The user can blow, move, and shift shadows together as if they are waves in a storm.

  ->Hubris: If the user is between shadows when the wind stops blowing and the bridge breaks, moderate (22%) thaumic backlash will be triggered.

  ->Domain: (Labyrinth)

  ->Canon: Path of the Nine Storms (III) - User manifests a maze-like dungeon in the walls of their winds, allowing them to create and weave winding paths from tunnels of air; the maze is a fixed spatial anchor (may not be affected by spatial changes) that can be triggered at any time.

  ->Hubris: If the inner walls of the dungeon are forcibly breached and someone enters the eye of the storm (where resides the Yondergales), heavy (EST. 39%) thaumic backlash will be generated.

  Hell - [Fourth Circle]

  ->Domain: (Air/Entropy/Labyrinth)

  ->Canon: Halt of the Passing (IV) - The user can enchain all actors and objects moving through their area of physical influence (250 Kilometers) with stasis

  ->Daemon: An anathema of correspondence will be birthed if the total velocity drained exceeds the total Rend accrued

  ->Canon: Waybreaker (II) - The user distorts all directionality about them (10 kilometers), causing space to coil and distend, randomizing vectors of movement for all actors and objects caught in their wake.

  ->Daemon: Rend must be balanced in nine minutes or an Anathema of Correspondence will manifest.

  Heaven/Hell: [Techplaguer] - 200 Thaum/c

  Heaven

  ->Domain: (Signals)

  ->Canon: Skin of Virtuality - Layers user in mirror-reality raw data and information, allowing them to move and exist as radio signals might and shift inorganic objects in their vicinity as blocks of temporarily stored data (reloads back to their original position in reality after miracle ends)

  ->Hubris: The user cannot pass through lead without incurring heavy (EST. 41%) thaumic backlash.

  ->Domain: (Space)

  ->Canon: Techjumper - User inserts themselves into a signal or system capable of transmitting signals, moving as a packet of data and materializing at the endpoint of the transmission.

  ->Hubris: If the transfer is disrupted halfway, moderate (22%) thaumic backlash will be triggered.

  ->Domain: (Biology)

  ->Canon: TechSick.exe (II) - User mimics the properties and symptoms in a virus and transfers that over to a signal-receiving system, affecting the machine as if it were a person

  ->Hubris: If the transfer is disrupted halfway, moderate (22%) thaumic backlash will be triggered. (x2)

  Hell - [Third Circle]

  ->Domain: (Signal/Entropy)

  ->Canon: Datarot - The user decays and distorts signals and data within their ability to influence

  ->Daemon: If a signal the user is decaying is disrupted and they are unable to find another within (5 seconds) to continue expelling their Rend, an Anathema of Epistemology will be generated

  Implants

  Mime-Fog: Allows Avo to produce a spore-expelled field of active camouflage

  Celerostylus: A symbiotic reflex booster laced into Avo's spine; accelerates him a bit over sixty-five miles an hour in his baseline body

  Echoheads: A chimeric bioform adapted into an implant. Can provide echolocation for eight hundred feet. Designed from a hyper-durable silicon-chitin structure that also allows each of the eight heads to piece forward from the inside like a mantis shrimp punches.

  Bone Demon: A body-sheathe--complete overhaul of Avo's physical form. made from a nest of super-tensile, hyper-synaptic nanofibrous mycelia on the interior. Beyond the threads, thick plates of cordyceramite line the outside like jagged skeletal continents emerging from a sea of webs. Bound to his biology, Avo is able to harden and shift his structural integrity, as well as shape the growth of the fungal-ceramic matter that would encase his outer skin.

  Meldskin: A smart-fluid adaptive combat skin capable of altering its composition to suit almost any environment and slowly return to full integrity. Possess holographic disguises, advanced visual sensors, omnidirectional thrusters, and a highly advanced reactor. Can also interface with other pieces of advanced voidtech.

  Metamind

  Ghosts: [17,313,887]

  SPRITES: {4.2TB/s…}

  [QUICKSAND SYNC TRAUMA] COG-CAP: 55 SEQUENCES (VARIABLE)

  ->STRUCTURE: “A LIMPID POOL FILLED WITH BODIES DRIFTING BENEATH THE WAVES; WHATEVER TRAUMA STRIKES THE SURFACE WILL IN CAUSE IT TO IGNITE AND SIMULATE A RESEQUENCING OF SAID TRAUMA”

  ->FUNCTION: GUARDS THE MIND USING A LAYER OF TRAUMATIC MEMORIES: CAPABLE OF ADAPTING TO TRAUMAS AFTER SUSTAINING AGAINST THE FIRST IMPACT

  [THOUGHTWAVE DISRUPTOR] COG-CAP: [ERROR] SEQUENCES

  ->STRUCTURE: [NULL]

  ->FUNCTION: TAPS INTO THE ENTIRETY OF THE USER’S COGNITIVE CAPACITY AND EXPELS UNSTABLE MEM-DATA OUTWARD, DISRUPTING AN AREA OF (CONTINGENT OF GHOST CAPACITY) SPACE

  [INCOG] COG-CAP: [x] SEQUENCES (VARIABLE; MUST MATCH ALL OTHER INTERNAL MEMORIES BEYOND THE WARDS)

  ->STRUCTURE: “AN OPALESCENT SUN RAINS DOWN OVER THE LANDSCAPE; LIGHT SPILLS FROM IT MORE LIKE MERCURY DOLLOPS THAN RAYS, BASKING EVERYTHING IN A REFLECTIVE SHEEN WHILE DRINKING UP MEM-DATA INTO ITS CORE”

  ->FUNCTION: ALLOWS THE USER TO CAMOUFLAGE THEMSELVES FROM NOTICE VIA THE OBFUSCATION OF THEIR MEMORIES AND THOUGHTSTUFF. NO ACCRETION WILL LEAK DURING THIS PERIOD AND ALL OUTWARD REACTING PHANTASMICS WILL BE PLACED INTO A DORMANT STATE UNTIL DELIBERATE ACTIVATION.

  [WHISPER] COG-CAP: 19 SEQUENCES (BASELINE)

  ->STRUCTURE: FIVE/SIX LEGGED DOG CHASES A FLYING LETTER WHILE A DRONE STRIKES A VILLA.

  ->FUNCTION: ALLOWS THE EXTENSION OF CONSCIOUS AWARENESS BY 60 FEET AND THE DELIVERANCE OF COG-DATA WITHIN SAID FIELD OF AWARENESS; CAN BE EXTENDED BY MULTIPLES SHOULD MORE SEQUENCES BE USED

  [PHYS-SIM] COG-CAP: 18 SEQUENCES (FIXED)

  ->STRUCTURE: A MISSILE LOCKED TO AN AEROVEC, EVER INCHING CLOSER, DODGING INCOMING POINT DEFENSE FIRE”

  ->FUNCTION: CALCULATES THE ACCELERATION VECTORS AND IMPACT LANES OF UP TO TWELVE DYNAMIC OBJECTS

  [OSARAI MEMGUARD] COG-CAP: 20 SEQUENCES (BASELINE) [REPLACED BY QUICKSAND IN AVO'S METAMIND]

  ->STRUCTURE: “A HURRICANE TWISTING AND HURTLING SCREAMING FIGURES AND BROKEN STRUCTURES”

  ->FUNCTION: GUARDS THE MIND USING A LAYER OF TRAUMATIC MEMORIES: CAPABLE OF WITHSTANDING AND REFORMING AGAINST HEAVY-MASS PHANTASMAL INTRUSIONS; VULNERABLE TO NARROW-BUILD INVADERS.

  [AUTO-SEANCE] COG-CAP: 2 SEQUENCES (BASELINE)

  ->STRUCTURE: “A STAR BLEEDS INTO A SPIRAL OF SPLICED MEMORY SNIPPETS [ERROR: MEMORY ARTIFACTS TOO BRIEF FOR REVIEW...]"

  ->FUNCTION: ALLOWS OMNI-SYNCHRONIC COMMUNICATIONS BETWEEN TWO OR MORE MINDS ACROSS ALL AREAS ENCOMPASSED BY THE PRESENCE OF THE NETHER

  [MORALITY INJECTOR] COG-CAP: 20 SEQUENCES (BASELINE)

  ->STRUCTURE: “A RESPLENDENT CAGE WITH A CINEMA PROJECTION OF PAST HAPPENINGS PLAYING ACROSS THE SKY"

  ->FUNCTION: ALLOWS THE USER TO NULLIFY SPECIFICALLY ENCODED IMPULSES WITH COUNTER-EMOTIONAL DOSES OF MEMORY.

  GHOSTJACK (ALLOWS FOR THE MODIFICATION AND EDITING OF MEMORIES AND SEQUENCES; SHAPES TRAUMA AND COMMANDS GHOSTS)

  [SKIMMER PERCEPTION EMANATOR]

  TRAUMA PATTERNS:

  [ASELERI'S FOLLY] - HIGH PAIN INFLICTION; PHYSICAL TORTURE BASED

  [LUCILLE’S REGRET] - HIGH EMOTIONAL TORMENT; REGRET AND ANGUISH ALIGNED

  [LUCILLE’S AGONY] - HIGH PAIN INFLICTION; PHYSICAL TORTURE BASED; BODY DYSMORPHIC AFFLICTED

  [SECONDHAND FATALITY] - EXTREME PAIN INFLICTION; EGO-KILLING TRAUMA FOR HUMANS

  [BENEFACTOR’S DREAD] - HIGH EMOTIONAL TORMENT; FEAR OF COMING DEATH

  [ARATNID’S KISS] - HIGH PHYSICAL TORMENT; CASTRATION AND PRIMAL FEAR-BASED

  THE BURNING DREAMER

  MIND-TEMPLATES

  [AVO]

  The Talons

  Abrel Greatling

  The Shadows

  Benhata Veloso

  Glitch

  Lip

  Corner

  Osjack Thenndenn

  (Ashthrone/Sanctus assault force)

  Dice

  Chambers

  Paladin Kare

  Paladin Kassamon

  I hope you enjoyed today's installment of Godclads!

  Next up: Uthred Greatling suffers the misery of life and the cadre gets lucky...

  Anyway, I hope you're having fun, and remember: reviews, follows, favorites, and comments make the word-gods happy.