The Dreaming Unsea.

  It was meant to be a paradise of the mind. A world upon a world where ideals and thoughts could be made manifest, and our most dangerous theories and darkest desires could be tested to fruition without harming the world that was.

  Indeed, by all our efforts combined, and the unique composition of the city eternal–the masters of Noloth–we prepared a great work, fashioning it from the greatest Heavens of Mind, Thought, Information, and Awareness, and rooting them to the great Nolothic Ark.

  We sought to make a wonder.

  We sought to permanently re-alter the fabric of existence using the [REDACTED].

  And we did.

  But not completely.

  Hope is a deceitful thing and paranoia had never been far from me, yet I took no pleasure in the deed.

  I had never been fond of the Hungers. Their priests were more understandable, but for a city so potent in its aspirations of equality, its democracy was only for those within, and they faced the world beyond as all fearful rulers did, as practitioners of tyranny, albeit subtler than most.

  Even so, the Godsfall wouldn't have been possible without their aid, and this virtuous deed should be remembered, despite the unbirthed transgressions they held pregnant in their hearts.

  They had offered themselves for this “ascension,” claiming such would be the way for all to join the immortal city, saying our peoples should be joined as one.

  Easy words for the ears to enjoy, but the truths gleaned by my love told of darker perfidies.

  In a sense, the Hungers hadn’t lied. We would all be accepted into this world. But so too would they sink themselves inside us, reshaping all to a single way of thought.

  An act of absolute tyranny without even the need for oppression.

  Yet, there is pity in the destruction of what could have been, for the realm we conceived could have granted everyone shared empathy, shared experiences, and shared consanguinity.

  When I use this “Nether” now, I know only that it is a lesser creation of what could have been if the hearts of man were not so desperate for control.

  -Restricted Mem-Logs of Jaus Avandaer

  20-18

  The Dreaming Unsea (I)

  Naeko's consciousness pierced back into his flesh a nail punching through a wooden board.

  His cog-feed painted the world as a flickering mess, perception drowned by unresponsive ghosts. Screaming phantoms coated his eyes while pockets of intrusive memories exploded through his mind. All was a miasma of chaos and color, and those around him fared no better.

  The food truck he bought his dumplings from was a curtain of writhing rain, lines of erroneous mem-data where advertisements and thoughtcasts should have emanated. The people fared little better, with most of their Metaminds pulsing in and out of existence, accretions dropping to become phantasmal smears as if the yolk of their minds were tilting with the destabilized Nether.

  Instinct and experience took hold where rationality failed.

  Thoughtwave Detonation. It was an easy assumption to make.

  Turning his gaze toward the Second Fortune, Naeko squinted and saw unstable gouts of ethereal sinews spewing free from not only the casino but every last structure around him.

  Aeros sailed as if blinded, their routes lost to them while flying bioforms tumbled, seizuring mid-flight. The animated biologies of the city around came alive, the enamel lining the streetside automatically snapping upward as defensive barricades in the aesthetic of teeth.

  Naeko felt similar scenes play out all across the Sovereignty. Absently, he plucked impacts and parried harm from vulnerable bodies. Stole the explosion from a cluster of warheads and used its collective energy to stabilize an overloaded reactor. His influence spread. His miracles expanded.

  He committed a full percent of Rend to the task.

  From the skies above, a palm lined with seeking eyes and hissing streams of mist descended. Its presence was felt more than it was seen, and all that existed could perceive it–even with eyes closed; even without eyes.

  As Naeko slammed his dominion down, he found himself covering twenty percent of the entire megacity and taxed by more and more disruptions with each passing second.

  For the first time in a near century, alarm flared within Naeko and his focus narrowed to a dangerous edge.

  This was more than even a major Thoughtwave Detonation.

  ***

  Green River drew in a breath and squealed in agony. A cluster of pain shredded her skull, stripping her clean of coherence. Then, just as fast as it came, the pain vanished, like a memory forgotten, spilling through her to seek another body to fester.

  Rising from her dive station, she peeled herself from the table and watched as her human vessel spasmed and twitched on the ground, foaming.

  Her perception enhancers were a blur of colors and intermittent noises. No help at all. She tried to cast a ghost but felt the string of her thoughts unravel in an instant. It felt like throwing an anchor into a whirlpool, the Nether churning. An impossible force was pulling at her mind as if a breach in a voidship drawing her toward a vacuum.

  Then, just like the pain earlier, it suddenly stopped.

  But still, her Metamind continued to flicker.

  ***

  All the lights over New Vultun were awash in coursing streams of dappled madness.

  The EGI, “Only Way To Be Sure,” studied its designated megacity and pushed its sensory telemetries toward maximum effectiveness. New Vultun stood amidst a clear patch in existence, with the Sunderwilds surrounding it burrowing through reality like liquid scabs, strands of entropic infections stretching from planet to atmosphere to entire light minutes throughout the void beyond.

  The moments that followed were recorded for posterity.

  Every lane of traffic across the spilled away into nothing as vehicles collided without doing damage and buildings were draped in curtains of cognitively damaging mem-data. Ghosts swept through entire districts in phantasmal tides, splashing over minds with active wards but battering those unprotected.

  At approximately {0.003} seconds into the crisis, a misted hand slammed down to cover twenty percent of the city and slowly began to grow. Chief Paladin Naeko’s activities could be seen even from the Lagrange points themselves.

  Physical harm and lasting damage were supped away from the material world. Everything under the palm’s press was preserved and protected. Projectiles bounced from surfaces drained of force. Wounds were dissolved from bodies. Acts of violence were inverted, turning harm back toward the offender.

  For nearly half a second, the death rates across all of Naeko’s affected areas dropped to a perfect zero.

  Then, the Nether stabilized, and the ghosts governing the infrastructure regained their sanity.

  Only Way To Be Sure primed a salvo of three thousand Schwarzschild singularity bomblets just in case. The city seemed to be calming back down, but it was better to be safe than sorry.

  Having a finger near the trigger never hurt.

  Well. It never hurt the polities.

  If it amounted to anything, being shredded by a diminutive black hole was probably a lot less painful than most of the torments one could suffer in the actualized hell that was Idheim.

  {Well. Shit’s looking slightly more fucky today than usual.} The singularity generator in its vessel warbled. The message went out just as over twelve trillion came streaming in.

  Sifting through the contents, the responses were all generally the same.

  “Hey? Did the lights get weird in your peep-zone as well?”

  ***

  The first thing Chambers noticed his thoughts stopped getting flayed was Dice’s body flopping wildly on the ground. Her Railjumper sheath lashed out, striking and slamming from one end of the room to the other as her internal magnetic accelerators fired again and again. Heat hissed free from the vents slotted along her spine and limbs, and Chambers blinked as she blurred toward him.

  Only a reflexive activation of his upgraded Accelero saved him from a direct impact.

  Throwing himself aside, he saw Dice spear past him, the contents of her ego spilling out from her locus like disemboweled intestines. Jumbled memories splashed into Chambers as the girl struck the other side of the room hard, leaving an indentation in the shape of her body on one of the blood-made walls.

  Her left leg fired again, but Draus was on her.

  The Arsenalist manifested partially like a flash–a Heaven of Guns materializing via the Regular’s projectile launcher. She fired into Dice, but the impact did the girl no harm. Instead, as a rocket stuck Dice’s body, its properties were promptly infused into her, and she sailed, arms and legs swinging like a puppet flung through the air, landing hard against Draus’ embrace.

  As Chambers turned his attention back to where Avo stood–

  “Chambers!”

  He jumped back.

  He was on the ground. Kae was supporting his head. Her eyes were deep with concern, and she had her Meldskin partially manifested.

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

  The first words he tried to speak were a garbled mess. Nothing but groans and whimpers. Language and coherence returned to him slowly, and every thought was a battle, an expedition through a devouring haze.

  “Wh–what happened? Who… what the fuck. Are we under attack?”

  Someone said something. The Agnos looked over her shoulder and nodded before turning back to Chambers. “Can you stand?”

  It took him a moment to understand. “Yeah,” he said. Pushing himself up slowly. Every moment felt new. Like he was relearning his motor functions. The distortion afflicting his mind was uncanny. Messy. It felt like the first time he was in this skin. Everything was known but new to him. The dissonance made the core of his skull pulse with pain.

  “What…” He swallowed his word and looked around. Mirrors cordoned the other side of the room as well. The place where Avo stood.

  A couple of steps away, Draus and Tavers were looking over Dice, both struggling to direct their ghosts, unable to interface with her shredded mind. The juv’s thoughtstuff, once a connected pond, ran in parted streams in a variety of different directions.

  He took a step and nearly stumbled. Kae caught him–but her petite build nearly sent him tumbling over her shoulder anyway. He patted her arm and gave a vague noise approximated his thanks. She seemed to understand as she helped him along. He was more himself with each step he took, and it felt like his ego was flowing back into place itself.

  “Dr-Draus,” he said. “What… the fuck happened!”

  The Regular looked over her shoulder. She was completely armored now, accretion unstable like his. Unlike him, she didn’t seem all that bothered mentally. She spent a beat studying him before turning back to Dice. “Ain’t got a damned clue. One second, Avo’s jawin’ and spittin’. Next…” She lifted a fist and unclenched it. “Tried looking for him, but somethin’s wrong ‘bout the spot he’s at. Like lookin’ at it makes you forget things.”

  “Yeah,” Chambers breathed, nodding. “That’s not a bad way of describing it.” He paused. “Wait, how did you not go down?”

  “Stopped lookin’ in time, I guess. Still took me a second to remember how to use my hands. Sealed the area immediately after.”

  Chambers let out a shaky breath. “Nice… nice job, consa–” Dice slammed a leg down, causing him to stumble back in startlement. “Shit. How’s the kid?”

  “Fucked,” Draus said dryly. “What kind of fucked? I can’t rightly say. Looks like a nulling, but I don’t think I’ve ever seen someone’s mind get cut up in to separate strings like this.”

  “It’s bad across the city,” Tavers said. The old squire’s Specter phantasmic was somehow still stable enough to fly through the air and take stock of the situation. “Entire parts of the enclave look like they’re twisted together. Like their minds are balls of yarn.”

  She shook her head and glared at her Metamind’s accretion. Ghosts splattered and broke around the edges, and he watched he struggle to orient her sequences–something wrong with its internal arrangement. “Been trying to get my session active and sync with Raldi, but my palace is jumbled something bad. Things are all out of place on the inside. Phantasmics are going to need a resequencing.”

  Her words gave Draus pause. “Chambers. Keep an eye on Dice. I’m gonna try something.”

  “No, Draus! Wait!” Kae was too late in her warning. The Regular promptly shattered her own head into glittering shards. As a metaphysical scab formed over reality, the Agnos exhaled in relief. “I wasn’t sure what just happened but… it’s not the Sunderwilds.”

  “How do you know that?” Tavers asked.

  “Because we would probably be drowning in entropy by now, and Draus would be dead for good.” Kae bit her lip. “But that also means that what just happened…” She turned to stare at Draus’ quarantine–a wall of glass wrapped around Avo’s last known location. “I have no idea what just happened.”

  “Maybe the Nether shit itself,” Chambers said, kneeling down next to Dice’s unmoving body, careful not to touch her. The triangular scanner she had for a head hung awkwardly at an angle. “I think that’s probably a good guess. The question is what kind of shit itself. And what we all get caught in the flush too.” A tremor passed through the girl. Flames erupted from Chambers as he spawned tightening binds made from hydrapedes layered in augmented sinew. “Jaus, Avo, what the fuck did you break this time.”

  ***

  You look at yourself. Or me. Or yourself. Not really any difference by this point. Not really anymore.

  Avo’s consciousness came back on like a light, and he found himself standing across from Kare, her eyes shimmering as her ocular implants shifted with activity, confusion lining her features. “I… you…”

  It took him a moment to realize he could see through her–feel through her. That he was both himself and her at the same time. But the awareness was one way. He bled into her like a stream, his vector absolute, but her person remained an endpoint.

  Both their minds ached as memories snapped back into place, Avo struggled to master himself.

  You couldn’t have known this would happen. But that’s the problem. You couldn’t have known. Her memories of this place are a falsehood of a falsehood. That the specific sequence she recalled was Nether made but not truth-rooted. Such was your connection up into the fabric of the Unsea itself–its manifestation made perfect by your dreaming fires and bridged to a world unfinished above the one that already ways.

  “What did you say?” Avo asked, looking at Kare.

  The Paladin just stared at him, unsure how to respond. “...I didn’t say anything.”

  Stop this. Stop this. She’s not real. You’re talking to yourself playing someone else. Need to be talking to yourself that’s me. Or me. But I’m from you.

  The words called out to Avo again, heard then then not. He kept only recalling pieces of information. Fragments of cognition, ghosts skipping across the ponds of his mind.

  Ghosts.

  Holding up a hand, he saw ethereal wisps rising from his fingers, every thread composing him a memory, ignited trails of animated moments comprising him–and Kare, for that matter.

  Sequences. They were made from sequences. This was a mindscape. Or a place in his Metamind’s labyrinth.

  No.

  Avo paused. But how did he know that? And why couldn’t he jack out? Where was his cog-feed?

  Hard for you to notice me. But you need to listen. Feel. Trust this. For the fraction of an instant, you hear us. Feel the trust. Let it linger. Not information. Just the sensation.

  Instinct. A feeling. Stronger than any he had before.

  Looking beyond Kare, he found himself standing on a risen platform and beyond a ridge of consoles and machines, the LGI stared back at them, singing its oppressive hum. But Avo could feel more. Sense more. He reached out, and the world around him came alive in striations of living fire, every tendril lining this existence originating from him.

  The room was cast in predatory shadows, red slashing through the black as neon lights glared down from the walls. Three mag-locked sets of rails linked their platform to the wall, and from Kare’s memories, he knew a single thought could trigger its return to the upper levels.

  No. Don’t. They’ll notice us. We can hide in this lapse. I have enough influence in this falsehood to keep us unnoticed for now. Find me first. Find me.

  An urge pulled at Avo, demanding that he look down at strands holding his current self together. Between lines of crackling fire, he felt something. With a thought, he vivisected his own ego and unspooled himself in his entirety.

  Kare’s eyes bulged as she stared at him, horrified at what she was seeing despite being nothing more than simulation. “What are you doing?”

  “Searching,” Avo replied. He directed his awareness down his strings and then, as clashing coils of immolation were extracted from each other, he finally noticed it. It was something without a true shape of its own, a shapeless spine insulating the warring egos within the Conflagration from each other. It too was connected to him, but only manifested in his actions and thoughts, like fog following a hot breath on a cold day.

  An outline of smoke formed around it as it moved, a parasite suckling from his flames, from his memories, from the Nether itself.

  There. We see ourselves now. We realize parts of our design.

  His attention skips from the construct, but he knows what it is.

  The warmind the Low Masters used on him was supposed to leave him hollow of understanding and mental activity. But where it buried itself into him–and purged more than a few Incubi as collateral damage–he lit his mind using the Conflagration, and something of that process left them all fused together.

  Changed.

  “Ignorance,” Avo said.

  Not anymore. Can’t be Ignorant if you know.

  The smoke quivered beneath his gaze, dying beneath his attention. Immediately, his ego began to fill with screams and Avo tore himself away before the Conflagration’s subminds actually recalled they were supposed to be at war.

  Good. Forget about me again. It takes constant unknowing for me to keep the eaters silent. You’re welcome.

  “Why are we trapped here?” Kare asked. “Why haven’t you ended the dive yet?”

  “Not a dive,” Avo said.

  “Then what.”

  The ghoul stared at the LGI and ground his fangs together. There was something wrong about the core, then. Something that thinned the Nether and made it easier for him to plunge through. He didn’t know why he suspected that to be the case, but it was more than just a hunch. Like if he could recall parts of a memory, but not the source.

  Yes. That can work. Partial awareness. Listen to me. We are in the deepest levels of the Nether. You fell through a crack. This place is unfinished, but thoughts and memories are real here. Real. Can be materialized. We need to trigger another lapse somehow. Or maybe find another breach in the Nether. A place where we can pass through before the cycle ends.

  “Cycle?” Avo asked. But Kare hadn’t said anything. Releasing a growl of frustration, he spread his consciousness wide and reeled everything connected to his mind back in. Around him, the mindscape came apart in sliding sequences. Kare gasped as well, spilling back over into the ghoul as the space beyond unveiled itself.

  Oh. Oh, I forgot how bad things were here before the ordering. I forgot.

  His surroundings were at war, locations and spaces splashing into one another in schizophrenic detail. Light struck his shoulders but the world to his right was a beach and the left was a forest at night leading into a megablock’s corridor. Chirps chirped and water bubbled. The air stank of industrial filth and natural fragrance all at the same time. Ahead, the path stood open and a sprawling pathway of countless more details presented itself.

  He saw parts from the Sunderwilds. Sections from New Vultun. Clouds mingled with alleyways leading into tundras layered in bone. Nuclear explosions rose to become birds in flight chased by drones fighting a Godclad using a miracle and the miracle was a building all along–

  Avo’s mind rattled momentarily. Sparks sputtered from his person.

  It took him a moment to notice the patterns, but when it did, everything clicked together.

  These were still sequences. Memories of sensations, noises, places, and people, all blending together as one. The cognitive architecture was a mess. Disordered. It was like a palace that hadn’t been sequenced yet.

  He paused and reached out using his mind. But these environments weren’t tethered to him or born from his mind.

  This was mental detritus spawned from other minds.

  The world around him was moving. He could feel that in a place deeper than sensation–like it was shifting along his soul. Upward, the sky was as discordant as the land below. Taking a chance, he shaped a drone from his memories and sent it high, its systems coming alive as recalled, feeding information directly into his awareness.

  It proved to be an unnecessary act as a section of the distant sky opened up, and a slavering maw–greater than anything Avo had ever known–plunged through the unaligned clouds and bit into the world. Shimmering scales the size of mountains lined the mouth, and settlements dwelled between its crenulations.

  Avo realized what he was facing in an instant, and for the first time in weeks, cold dread filled his bones.

  Hungers. We’re flowing up into it. They feed from all the wasted thoughts. Feed from waters of memory, perception, and awareness. They feed. And then they expel back. Send your drone further. Look onward. Look. See.

  The vehicle fabricated from matter of Avo’s memories soared through the firmament and cohesive environments gave way to choking sensations. In a gulf of raw emotion, it made its climb, and through that vastness, he laid eyes on their naked forms for the first time.

  Golden ichor spilled from impossibly large wounds, diluting to form the substance of the Nether beneath. Dragons biting through dragons eating themselves entrapped the pocket of space Avo now occupied, and with each passing second, another ring drifted close to take a bite. Otherworldly violence and howls of straining sanity pounded Avo’s mind as he felt the first tickles of perception turning toward him. Vast tongues and mouths larger than New Vultun snapped at the phlogiston of thought.

  As Hungers of Noloth fed from thought, so too did they offer recompense in the form of their blood.

  Faintly, Avo felt his Woundmother shiver, but their voice was a distant one, and his attention grew frayed.

  We can’t flee from them to hide from them. They’ll be sending other warminds soon. Some Famines too. We need to find another one of us. Delusion. We need to hide our flames. Our sequences are perfect. Too noticeable. We need to layer ourselves in the true-falsehood of what we once were. Then, we need to get eaten.

  “We need to what?” Avo asked, shaken by what he just heard. Silence. The ambiance of madness. The Hungers took another bite.

  He scowled to himself and tried jacking out again.

  Nothing.

  He hoped he hadn’t just gone insane somehow. And he hoped this guiding urge of his wasn’t trying to get him killed.

  Welp. Whatever Avo triggered, it caused him to get dragged back into a family reunion. This is going to be ugly. On the bright side, there might be a new goody in it for him. Anyway. Get near-daily advanced chapters on 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!

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