Word of advice that no one ever follows: don’t fuck anyone you’re probably going to kill. Or make them your consang.

  It sounds like common sense but you’d be surprised how many half-strands think they can “double-dip” so to speak. And I’d count myself among them because I had to learn that the hard way as well.

  Listen, if there's one thing above all others you can do for yourself as a Squire or a snuffer or whatever kind of professional you want to be, it's this: give yourself only the truth.

  You can lie to the world as much as you want, but be honest with yourself.

  What destroys people is when they try to run between the lines.

  Enemy. Not enemy.

  Friend. Not friend.

  Ally. Not ally.

  Things are already complicated enough. Situations change all the time. But you need to be decisive. And you everything clearly laid out in your head. Trust isn’t for my line of work. It might be for you, but you still want to have a gun under the table, just in case you need some insurance.

  Use protection. In more ways than one, basically.

  -Quail Tavers, School of the Warrens

  20-16

  A Crack in the Storm

  ASSIGNING MINDSCAPE TO LOBBY [ZEROTH-EXTRACT]

  MEM-LOCK IN PLACE

  CONSTRUCTING

  SIMULATING ENVIRONMENTAL ARTIFACTS

  Memories splashed through the Nether as an invisible deluge, ghosts bleeding details into the ether like droplets of watery paint blossoming on canvas. Curtains of twitching mem-data tightened and fused. Light spread through the darkness of barren thoughts as the scenery began to load.

  Six columns rose from an expanse of polished onyx. They faced each other in pairs and flanked a carpeted path leading to a low seat made from bone and marble. Skittering spiders the size of buildings wove brocades of falling silk into place, curtaining the phantasmal glow of eerie flames, and dimming the ambience even further.

  Green River’s avatar loaded into place upon the pearlescent seat, a fox bearing eyes green and yellow. She checked the time and counted the seconds to midnight. Her congress with the Chief Paladin was due soon.

  It was time to play a game she knew all too well–the obfuscation of truths and the weaving of un-lies.

  Across from her, she detected another accretion slowly approaching. A shiver pulsed through the ghosts maintaining this simulation as they attuned themselves to the newcomer’s cognitive capacity.

  A bifurcation carved into a sigil of white and black rotated at the center of twin doors. As the connection was finally stabilized, the threshold swung open, and Naeko emerged, constituted by threads of flowing mem-data.

  The door closed. Green River practiced a coquettish smile on the Paladin, masking the expression using a swaying tail. “I must confess something before we begin.”

  Naeko smirked slightly. “Already? Damn. I still got it.”

  Ah. Flattery and banter would get you anywhere if only you knew who to use it on.

  “It’s about you, actually,” Green River said. “You are a storied man, Chief Paladin Samir Naeko. Peace-Breaker. Faith-Bleeder. But I have heard rumors–disproved as of this instant–that you were…” She let her final syllables draw out, waiting for him to finish.

  “Nah,” Naeko said, looking off to the side, seeming almost boyish. “I’m never late. It’s just that I don’t really show up for most things at all. There’s a difference.”

  He brushed his shoulder, and she wondered just how the fabric of his synthetic grey body glove could contain the immensity of his musculature. Even within the realm of minds, the man had looked as he did in the real, but considering his biceps were comparable to that of a Scaarthian despite the near-meter height difference, it wasn’t hard to believe that he was more than satisfied with his physical form.

  “I’m assuming you encountered a larger… windfall of evidence than expected,” she said, continuing with the hints. If this was too direct, she risked provoking his paranoia. Naeko was a creature of struggle and brutality. Discomfort on her part made this an easier sell. “It seems that the particular sheath you are looking for is a hot commodity on the market right now.”

  “Yeah. Yeah.” Naeko nodded awkwardly as he eyed her. “Our divers slipped into some pretty big leaks.”

  “That’s good,” Green River said. “I’m glad to hear that. It tells me my efforts are not in vain.”

  “Your efforts?” Naeko asked, shuffling as a response. Looking down at his feet, he realized how far away he was standing and made a sudden–and most awkward–approach.

  Green River delivered a practiced sigh, filling with the exhaustion and weariness of a woman at the end of her rope. “You have no idea how glad I was to see you earlier today. I could not show it, but your arrival at my establishment was my… second fortune.” She barked a soft laugh as he just blinked. “The truth is I have been dealing with a problem. A Low Master problem. They have been haunting me ever since my… reassignment after the war.”

  “Is that so?” Naeko asked. The way he sounded hinted at a place between disbelief and fascination. “And why haven’t you–”

  “Because they were in my mind! Using me!” The outburst left her in an explosive snarl. She didn’t need to act here. It was just a transplanted feeling redeployed for Naeko, made to provoke a sympathetic response. “I was a puppet. A thrall. Something they could wield against my Guild. Not only did they shame me, they continued to use me, to wield me as a traitor, and I couldn’t even let anyone know. Do you know what it’s like? To feel a vile injustice. A truth burning inside you, only for your very mind to become a cage.”

  The paladin looked away from her briefly.

  Ah. There. She had him. The intelligence was accurate. It had to be. A storied life also meant a scarred one, and a warrior could not live long without amassing a history of wounds and past traumas.

  “Happens to the best of us,” Naeko breathed, replying with an earnest shrug, but no comforting words. “So. What’s happening now? Are they still…” He gestured up at his halo and mimed a crushing motion with his hand.

  “No,” Green River replied. “Thank the Godbreaker. I seized an opportunity to free myself and took it. But it came at a cost. Unable to strike at me, they turned their reprisal against my people, nulling everyone in the local Ox-Three apartment complex.” She gave a moment of silence. “You understand, it is one thing to infringe on another’s mind, it is another to strike the people they must shepherd.”

  Appeal to his sense of leadership, withered thing though it was.

  Naeko responded only with a nod. “So. The Bone Demon deal. What was up with that? How does that factor into this vendetta of yours?”

  She rose on all four legs and leaned closer to the Paladin, as if suspicious of even the ghosts that comprised this place. “They are building another army. That is why there are so many requests. That is what they were having me do. Having grafters across the city do. Their acolyte, the so-called ‘Aedon Chambers,’ was smuggled over into my district for a time in preparation for a raid. I know now it was delivered against Jhred Greatling–otherwise known as Mirrorhead among Syndicate circles.”

  Naeko slowly nodded, the information sounding believable to him.

  Then, Green River made a calculated play. One that she could potentially turn against multiple parties down the line. “The initial subjects they offered for the grafting were ghouls. I think they were trying to enhance the remains of their army, to bolster their masses with No-Dragon biomancy.”

  “Ghouls?” Naeko said, frowning.

  “Indeed,” Green River said. “But most were too unstable. Eventually, they proceeded to hire help. Creatures more possessed of impulse control. If only barely.”

  “Fallwalkers,” Naeko provided.

  “I would assume so.” Green River sighed once more. “But they were more well-equipped than the usual wilder rabble. More sophisticated too. The wards they used–they reminded me of the ones I saw during the war. Very resistant to traumas. Ori-Thaum exclusive, I think. I forget what they called it.”

  The Chief Paladin titled his head. “Quicksand.” His words were meant more for himself than Green River.

  She continued. “I am prepared to offer you all that I can recall during the period of my subjugation and cooperate to the fullest extent. But I must implore your aid, for your justice and my vengeance are one and the same.” She turned rageful eyes on him, hiding nothing in the present, for such was truly how she felt of the Strix holding her on a leash for so long. “I wish to be of continued assistance. If only to see those cultists undone.”

  There were several ways this could go. Even if he denied her, the fact she focused so much on retribution would–

  “Yeah. Alright.”

  It took her a beat to react. “Alright?” she said. “I–I see. I… my thanks.”

  If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

  “So, why don’t we start at the beginning right now,” Naeko said, turning on his heel. “Flick me the memories. But keep talking. I want to understand how this all started. And everything you know.”

  “Of course,” Green River said, feeling a pull seize her heart. It was the lurch of a caught fish, of deception sinking in. “Of course.”

  ***

  [7,052] kilometers.

  Sixteen Fallen Heavens.

  Countless hours across the Sunderwilds.

  Two cities.

  So many layers of separation undone by sheets of gleaming glass joined by continuous spatial junctions.

  The cadre’s operations now stood as three parts. The first was a voidship enshrouded in a demiplane of darkness, the next ran through a dozen mirrors–spatial conduits placed across the entropy-worn borders of the Sunderwilds. The last was back in the real, within what was once a city of light, a sheen of glass standing as little more than a doorway into a tower of blood overlooking the entire enclave.

  Risen from the very center of the city and latticed to each of the rungs, the most corporal symbol of Avo’s dominance stood a sinuous structure that towered over even the first rung’s skyline. The fingers of haemokinetic sickness had evolved beyond being a plague of blood and matter, growing beyond the nature of a parasite and usurping the role of host for itself.

  Now, scabs bearing multiple material properties concurrently lined every surface there was to see. Organic tissue shone with alloyed textures. Currents surged through thickened arterial cords like blood passed from a heartbeat, and in their wake danced ethereal flames: ghosts swimming through the vivianite.

  There were more thresholds of apotheosis to climb, but as far as it related to the people in this enclave, Avo was the only one who held absolute power.

  Him, his cadre, and no one else.

  The population was essentially pacified by this point. A few more pockets still needed to be enfeebled, and a few more specimens were made meals when they refused to stray from the undesired path. More effectively, the memory contagion was beginning to spread from mind to mind. Patches of thoughtstuff were lined with the wrinkles of unwatched truth. Traumas flashed and popped as if distant warheads in constant detonation.

  The truth was sweeping through the people. Finally, were they going to see the light.

  It fell on them like fever dreams–modified memories and moments from other lives packaged and fed into theirs. Avo had made the delivery more palatable using sequences and artifacts from the templates he collected of the locals, but it would still be a stressful process.

  Facing the truth usually was.

  They would learn of the outside world, how to speak Standard, the fate of their master, and the falsity of their segregation and castes. To their unprotected, unaugmented minds, the ghosts might have been a metacognitive panacea raising them from a world of ignorance. To Avo, they were as if unlit candles, so easy to burn, so useless otherwise.

  But still, he kept them as they were, and only intervened when someone tried to deny the will of another.

  {Do you have any idea how impressive the feat you just achieved was?} Calvino said. The EGI uploaded bits of information into his Neurodeck. Details about past operations–uplifts and liberations, primarily–filled his awareness. Most were conducted over months. His changes would probably settle into effect before the end of the day. {Without using q-tech and neuro-memetics, we would effectively be running deprogramming and reconditioning broadcasts throughout the city. And even then, that would be a gradual process–limited by the neuroplasticity of the baseline human mind. What you effectively did was change their knowledge on a fundamental level. All from memetic viruses you bred in the span of seconds.}

  Staring out at the softly weeping family using a cluster of eyes, Avo considered the EGI’s response. +Expected you to be more outraged.+

  {A more ethical mind might, perhaps. But my parameters are built to desire such luxuries. This is likely one of the better fates these people can encounter. And it will free them to make their own decisions for when their minds are clear.}

  Avo grunted.

  As new footsteps tread closer from behind him, he reeled the bulk of his awareness back into his body and found himself staring out three translucent windows overlooking the entire city. Behind, technical drones were already buzzing about, installation workstations and consoles into place.

  He found Tavers on approach, the ground pulsing out with each footstep. Behind, Kae was closely following Chambers, complaining about her research being interrupted. Draus emerged not long after they did, a legion of drones ferrying her various guns. Finally, two of Sunrise’s bodies settled on Avo’s shoulder.

  The only ones missing were Essus, Denton, Cas, and Dice. Chambers remembered making contact with the first, though, and the man was merely caught in a bad processing jam, waiting along the endless train of people to be filtered into the sanctuaries.

  Dice, for her part, was walking away from the aunt she left alone in her garden. The woman was sobbing with relief, her arms wrapped around her midsection, unaware of the tendrils draining the stress and harmful hormones out from her body.

  Judging from her diet and the composition of her nutrition, Avo estimated she had a [31.533%] chance of miscarriage, thanks to Elegant Moon and Calvino.

  Denton and Cas were Incog-silent. Seemingly vanished off the face of Idheim. Somehow, Avo wasn’t too worried about them. They had been at this long before the rest of them, and considering the chaos of recent days, Avo thought the waters of treachery likely easier to navigate.

  Both were entangled in their own operations, one to further the development of the Cult of the Unborn while the other moved among the power players of Ori-Thaum’s highest echelons.

  Still, it would have been useful to have the Glaive. Whatever arrangement she made with the Paladin would come in handy by this point. As would knowing what she had planned for the trial.

  “The information center shouldn’t take long to set up,” Tavers said, coming to a halt just beside him. Peeking out the window at the haemokinetic sprawl he created, the squire simply shook her head. “Jaus, Avo, couldn’t you have marked your turf some other way? Coating everything in your blood is a bit extreme. Even for you.”

  The Woundmother scoffed. “Hardly. It is the first touch of artistry these benighted savages have likely seen in their lifetimes. To grant them such a sight was generosity beyond questioning, master. Let no one say otherwise.”

  “I agree with the squire,” the Fardrifter said, immediately saying otherwise. “There were means we could have used that would have been less startling. Less constraining.” The Heaven of Air’s primary point of contention was how claustrophobic some of the streets looked. “It would have exacted little miracle-sickness from me to patrol the air.”

  The Techplaguer for its part was content to count. As it felt Avo’s attention settle on it, it chimed a note of attention. “I am cataloging our newest children. They are feeble. Be gentle with them. OR THEY WILL DIE!”

  Avo simply grunted in agreement to the sudden scream.

  “Consider it a change of scenery,” Avo said. “Also good for spreading mem-cons. People are getting a crash course on Standard right now. As well as the outside world. Their master’s death.”

  Tavers nodded. “How are they taking it?”

  “Hadn’t need to commit any massacres yet.”

  “Oh. Well, so they’re in the acceptable range of ‘fucked up,’” she snorted. “Listen. White-Rab cast me a quick something-something while I was passing over. Been a murder up in the Elysiums. Lots of Nether traffic from the usual Ori-Thaum haunts and lobbies. He thinks there might be some inter-clan conflict brewing, but he’s not sure. Clan Sendagawa is also getting into the fray.”

  Avo considered that for a moment. Considering the false trail they’ve been laying to the D’Rongos, the turn of events didn’t surprise him. More than that, it pleased him and would be helpful in the near future.

  “Good,” Avo replied. “More unbalanced the Guilds are the better. Gives us a bigger opening for what comes next.”

  “And exactly what is coming next?” Tavers asked.

  Avo spread his fangs wide in a satisfied smile. “That’s what we’re all going to talk about.”

  Chambers had already provided him with a glut of knowledge regarding Naeko–who was probably already beginning his talk with Green River by this point. What mattered more where the other players on the scene.

  Highflame and Stormtree were squaring up, lining the skies over Nu-Scarrowbur–and everywhere they had neighboring borders, with Knots and massed forces. The more militaristic experienced templates told him this was mostly saber rattling. The Fourth Guild War had left everyone mauled. No one was ready for another brawl this soon after, but sometimes, you had to be prepared to fight even when you were spent.

  To do otherwise was to accept death.

  Three knocks drew his attention. Dice was striking one of his structures.

  Sending out his Fardrifter, he swallowed Dice with one head and passed her out another, injecting her directly next to him just as the rest of the cadre gathered around.

  “So,” Draus asked, handing an oblong-tubed missile launcher, “you snuff the sow or what?”

  Dice didn’t speak. Not immediately. Her machine body offered her an unnatural stillness, but her thoughtstuff couldn’t hide the damage. Coldness seeped out from her accretion as if she were a cracked cauldron holding the heart of winter. Learning who she was and facing her kin had seared into her a disconnect.

  She returned wondering who she was. Presently, she felt less than who she had been.

  Poor child. Avo understood. Not all experiences lifted. Not all growth was toward apotheosis.

  For some, the fullness of personhood would always be denied.

  “No,” Dice finally said, her body’s speakers projecting the whisper clearly. “I thought about taking the baby out from her. Away from her. I think that would have hurt her.”

  A quiet settled over the group. Chambers bit his lip. “Yeah, well, Dice, that shit might just kill the bitch. She doesn’t have a nanosurgeon or anything. She’s just baseliner meat. Also, kinda fucked up.”

  Kae narrowed her eyes at Chambers. “Yes. We are a group of people who absolutely never weaponize infants in combat.”

  The half-strand bit back a wince. “For fuck’s sake–”

  “Avo,” Dice said, cutting the conversation off. “It doesn’t feel good.”

  He grunted. “Want me to take the hurt away?”

  Her mechanical digits opened and closed. Air hissed from from the slats lining her chassis. “No. Not yet. I'd want to go find orange.”

  “Orange?” Avo asked.

  “The cat,” she said. And then she walked off toward the reflection.

  “Is she… alright?” Chambers said, swallowing slightly as his eyes remained locked on the girl’s fading form.

  “No,” Avo said. “She is surviving. Will see how she emerges after. Have something else for us to focus on right now. New opportunity. New target. For the trial. And Kae.”

  At the mention of her name, the Agnos locked eyes with Avo. “It’s time?”

  “Time to start,” Avo said. “Time to build our way in. We can navigate the Warrens. We can flee into the Sunderwilds. Now. Only one threshold remains.”

  “The Tiers,” Kae breathed.

  But she was thinking too broadly. Not specific enough.

  No. Ever since he burned Chambers' memories into himself, since he fed the mem-data into his Conflagration and had his templates review them, quiet treachery began to well in both Kassamon and Kare.

  The next step, ultimately, was obvious by this point.

  Where was everything going to lead? What bridged countless districts in the Tiers? What institution did they have two subverted Godclads operating in?

  “Scale,” Avo said. Phantoms erupted from his mind as they began manifesting the layout of their next target. “We’re going to break into Scale.”

  Not enough Godclads? Get near-daily advanced chapters on (20 CHAPTERS AHEAD) and join the .

  Ontologics

  In effect after 19-12

  Ghosts - [26,562,372]

  Liminal Frame (V) - 23,871 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

  Enclavers

  I hope you enjoyed today's installment of Godclads!

  Next up: A new plot is hatched, and Avo triggers the worst random encounter possible...

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