Godclads

Chapter 8-19 The Second Cycle (II)

"What the fuck is she doing? She's supposed to take the Frame! She's not suppose to… to play with it? Whatever the Hell that thing is. That doesn't look like a godsdamned Hunger to me."

"I think it's a bioform."

"A bioform with a Liminal Frame? Come the fuck on, Valerie. That's like giving a nu-dog the mem-keys to a golem."

"Voidwatch has its uplifts."

"Yeah. Uplifts. No bioforms. One's a sophont; the other's got enough ghosts haunting their mind that they have to listen when you cast at them or they have a mental breakdown. Besides, no voiders going to be putting thaum-shit into themselves. They can barely stay zero with all the grounders doing it."

-Cas eld'Canduir to Valerie Denton, Ninth Column

8-19

The Second Cycle (II)​

Both Zein and the Heaven froze, caught off guard by his request for permission.

He grunted. “Will make you more potent. Me, more potent.”

Zein looked between them and inched closer. “You know, the old god has no choice in this matter.” She suddenly frowned, realizing something. “Wait. She has been talking this entire time. How is that possible. I broke her.”

Avo turned his attention to Zein. “Just noticed?”

“I was distracted. By other things. Like the future and your Soul and… ah…” She threw up her hands. “Bah. What’s a talking god, I’ve seen it before. But… but it doesn’t have control over you or…”

“No.”

“Then why not just change it?”

A hint of annoyance entered Avo’s tone. “Not my flavor. Not a Low Master. Want it to choose.”

The elder Godclad stared at him for a moment before she nodded. “Ah. Don't we all dedicate ourselves to strange obsessions.”

In this, she reminded him a bit of Walton. For one who enjoyed combat so much, there was little actual harshness from her in things unrelated to direct violence. She was well-natured. Too well-natured. The discord she presented twisted at him.

“Build me,” the Woundshaper spoke with a sigh. “For the million deaths we will come to taste. Build me.”

Zein held up a victorious fist. Avo gave a single command.

The flames did the rest.

The burn did not come as a forge would melt an ingot this time, not like when it was inverting a Heaven down to a Hell. Instead, Avo found himself watching as his resplendence broke into flaming needles, threading at both the Woundshaper and the shrouded Heaven, binding them with searing bridges that drew them closer with each rippling flicker.

Before the shine of his Soul, the Woundshaper changed again, the unknown Heaven melting into the threads–now seeming more like veins–into the Heaven of Blood.

Before his eyes, the Woundshaper evolved, its ontology mutating.

No noise of pain or agony came from the former god, but he could feel its shock as it rose, expanded in both mass and shape.

From the tower's back burst insect-like wings grown from the armored spine of the Woundshaper. Veins expanded and spilled through his Heaven like bleeding briar patches, while the alchemized patterns of tungsten and matter within the tower-top jaws of the Woundshaper sprouted shimmering horns of upward raining particulates; the shape of the luminosity befitted a deer or a moose.

Then, the first of the paradoxes appeared. Space fractured in three parts around the Heaven, causing it to part into three fractals.

“This… displeases me,” his Woundshaper said, voice thick with confusion, watching as its midsection folded over its spire.

Zein sighed, lament written clear on her face. “Bah. The Domain of Space is absolutely ruined. A shame. A spatially separated entity is an amusing blade to wield: Have you ever cut someone in three places with a single strike cut three hours ahead of time?”

The thought of performing such an act appealed to Avo, if for naught but novelty.

“Pain?” Avo asked the Woundshaper. He was connected to its being, but the way it suffered might be different than what he understood. He wanted to hear its words. Comprehend its hurt from a god’s perspective.

“Fragmentary. And also… slick.”

As its changes stabilized, Avo waited for a beat to see if Woundshaper would see any other alterations. None came.

RESURRECTION - 64%

HEAVEN - [WOUNDSHAPER]

  DOMAIN: (BLOOD/MATTER)

  THAUMIC REQUIREMENTS - 781 THAUM/c

Other than a few reverberations sloshing through its blood, the Heaven seemed mostly stable. It had more than doubled in mass and size. Parts of it continued to jump and fracture twisting fractals in space. Studying the canon, Avo immediately noticed the problem.

DOMAIN OF SPACE

CANON: ORAVIN’S UMBRELLA - ALL GASEOUS AND LIQUID MATTER CAN BE PULLED UPWARD INTO A UNSEEN PLANE OF SPACE; MASS LIMIT: 100 TONS

HUBRIS: NO PHYSICAL MATTER MAY BE STORED IN EACH PLANE

Zein tilted her head at that. “Hm. Well, there’s a contradiction.”

“Was constantly pulling hydrapedes into demiplanes,” Avo said. “Ever seen something like this?”

“A few times,” Zein said. “Thaumic sabotage, I believe. Deliberate sacrifices meant to taint a Heaven. Usually impossible without an Agnos’ aid.”

“Or someone like you,” Avo asked.

She didn’t deny it. “You will soon come to find that breaking things is far easier than mending them. And more fun. This Domain is clearly not designed for combat, and therefore useless. Do away with it.”

“Yes,” the Woundshaper said, grunting as its base was suddenly sliding over where its tip was, “remove this. The sensations are growing most displeasing.”

Upon ordering the inversion of the Domain, the waves of his Soul sliced into his Heaven and this time, the Woundshaper did shudder. It sounded like a gasp, the sound someone makes when a limb is lost or the air pulled from their lungs. Clutched by a fistful of light, broken fractals of space formed a shape of an umbrella as it was drawn into his Soul’s embrace.

The mem-data updated.

HEAVEN - [WOUNDSHAPER]

  DOMAIN: (BLOOD/MATTER/LUMINOSITY/BIOLOGy)

  THAUMIC REQUIREMENTS - 672 THAUM/c

“A good leaning,” Zein said. “Look at the other canons. What are these canons?” She made a disgusted noise. “This isn’t shaped to benefit violence at all! What’s the point.”

“Think it was for something ecological,” Avo said. “Was connected to a hydroponic chamber. Had gardens.”

Zein scoffed. “Did these gardens grow weapons?”

“Don’t think so.”

“Then I despise these gardens,” Zein declared. “Foul. Invert this Heaven too. Better used as a supplement to your Hell than this.” She shook her head. “My beloved was a fool, do you know that?”

Avo didn’t.

“He had a yearning. A dream. To see all uplifted under a common Heaven.” Zein sighed. “The fool. The absolute, gold-hearted fool. He even wanted to restore the gods afterward. With new safeguards, of course.”

“Restore?” The question came from Avo and the Woundshaper both, their surprise bringing them to a synchronous union.

“Indeed,” Zein said. “For despite the Godsfall, he always viewed them more as… misguided administrators than tyrants to destroy. I suppose he was right, if we regard them ontologically.”

Her knowledge came as accountings of the past. “Whatever the Guilds claim the gods to be, the Agnosi, know they are all wrong. Only Voidwatch holds the true key to the past, and yet they hide much from us. I think they are afraid we might finish what came before.”

“Finish what?” Avo asked.

Zein looked upon his Heaven and licked her lips. “The apocalypse. The rebirth of all reality.” She shook her head. “Now, I need to fix the matter of his demise. My half-strand of a husband will pay for making me suffer his death. Him, and Vey-vey. I will see our family flourish again. And then–” She held up her fist. “The true liberation of humanity.”

Avo wanted to ask who Vey-vey was, but he recalled that Veylis Avandaer, the High Seraph of Highflame, might be the only contender for such a strange pet name.

A beat passed. Zein frowned at him. “Why aren’t you studying the other Domains? Hurry. I wish to see what else we might remove.”

“Seem to know a lot about my Frame,” Avo said. “Learning about it using your Heaven?”

“Yes. Also, I was the one who stole it. With Walton's help. Whereupon he stole it from me. I regret I didn’t get to decapitate your father. The corpse left by his last remaining fork was quite mutilated by the time I found him. Another slight delivered upon me by the Low Masters. This, too, must be avenged.”

Avo fought the urge to strangle Zein with his flames. “When were you going to tell me?”

She blinked. “I thought we–oh, no. I beheaded you in that timeline before your Rend was empty. Bah. It all gets so confusing.”

He tried. The fires flailed around her but couldn’t grasp her neck. Never had he felt so disappointed in his Frame.

DOMAIN OF MATTER

CANON: TEMPLATE - ALLOWS THE SAME OF A STRUCTURE TO BE REPLICATED FROM A STANDARD TEMPLATE OF MATTER

CANON: PING - ALL MATTER OF THE SAME SHAPE BECOMES KNOWN TO THE USER AT THAT PLANE OF EXISTENCE

HUBRIS: ONLY 10 INSTANCES OF A SINGLE TEMPLATE CAN BE MADE

“Think my Woundshaper can already do this,” Avo said. “Something similar. Just can’t match the–”

Zein waved a dismissive hand. “Feed this one to your hell. You’re too top-heavy as is. Considering its limited functions, this seems to be a canon solely dedicated to manufacturing. And not even that considering the weight limit. Bulk experimentation likely. Feed your Hell, little dagger.”

Again, his Soul committed surgery on itself, its visceral flames active as structure and scalpel both, severing the excess canons free. As the radiance winnowed the flowing patterns out from the Woundshaper, it licked it back into the depths of his Soul, into the threshold of the Galeslither as two new baseline Domain sigils formed in place.

HEAVEN - [WOUNDSHAPER]

  DOMAIN: (BLOOD/MATTER/LUMINOSITY/BIOLOGY)

  THAUMIC REQUIREMENTS - 450 THAUM/c

Avo did not study them yet. Instead, he focused on the last two Domains he procured. Staring upon the horns of light emerging from his Woundshaper, Avo found himself guessing its functionality as the semi-circle-shaped particulates drifted upward, strange balloons in flight. The insectoid limbs hatching from the back of the Woundshaper presented far less confusion.

DOMAIN OF LUMINOSITY

CANON: HARMONIZE (II) - THE MASTER OF THIS CANON CAN BIND THE ACTIONS OF SIMILIAR-STRUCTURE MATTER USING LIGHTWAVES; EACH PHYSICAL STRUCTURE BOUND INCREASES REND-EXPENDITURE; INCREASING DEVIATIONS BETWEEN STRUCTURES ALSO INCREASING REND-EXPENDITURE

HUBRIS: ONLY TEN STRUCTURES OF MATTER CAN BE HARMONIZED AT ONCE

DOMAIN OF BIOLOGY

CANON: HYDRAPEDES - CREATE HYDRAPEDES FROM PHYSICAL MATTER; THEY WILL REPLICATE IN CHAINS OF THEMSELVES AND LAST FOR AN HOUR BEFORE RETURNING TO THE MATTER THAT SPAWNED IT

CANON: HIVE (II) - ALL HYDRAPEDES WILL OBEY THE MENTAL COMMANDS OF THE MASTER; HYDRAPEDES MUST BE WITHIN COMMUNICATIVE DISTANCE

HUBRIS: SHOULD ANY OF THE HYDRAPEDES BE ATOMIZED, BACKLASH WILL OCCUR

Luminosity seemed useful. Biology, however…

“Keep them,” Zein said. “Find other Heavens with these Domains. You can nurture something useful from them.”

There was little lost in heeding her advice. Ultimately, he didn’t plan on using Biology much. Not until he experimented with it a bit more. A question, however, came to mind when judging the canons. “Zein. Question: Difference between Heaven of Biology or Heaven of Insects. Do you know?”

Zein’s face turned grave. She nodded. “Not really.”

“Why do you do that?” Avo asked.

“Nod and say no?”

“Yes.”

“Because the fancy strikes me,” Zein said. “To answer your question with my best guess… something mythology. But they are close enough that I’ve seen some others of our make attempt ‘makeshift’ fusions to create ‘pseudo-towers.’ The fact you have something designed ‘Biology’ rather than ‘Insects’ or ‘Locusts’ tells me that you have subsumed a Heaven with newer make.

Biology is a concept so broad that only after our uplifting by the voiders could we form enough basis to worship it. The primitives that we were, a Godsfall Heaven would have something narrow and elemental.”

Mythology. In a sense, appealed to Avo like memory, like how he saw himself in shape and design. Probably also how he returned clothed and healed after cycling out of death. The same thing might be at play with the Heavens. Except on a far larger historical or even chronological scale.

His attention pulled back to his new sigils, he frowned as he studied what he would do with them. The Woundshaper was going to need a major upgrade to his Hell. A thought came to him. A theory. With how he could grow his Heaven with new and more powerful canons, then why not could he do the same with his Hells; create miracles so overwhelming he would never run out of Rend again?

Bringing up build simulations of the Woundshaper’s Hell, Avo excitedly looked upon the First Circle of the Woundshaper.

And immediately found his plate filled with disappointment.

No matter how he commanded it, the potential builds displayed never seemed to expand more than a reflection matching the size and mass of his Heaven.

“Ah,” Zein said. “I see your intent. But it doesn’t work.”

“Why?” Avo asked.

“Something about not actually being a Heaven. Just counterbalance. Imagine the ramblings of an Agnosi here.” Zein promptly made a gibbering noise between a child being fed to a woodchipper and a nu-dog getting kneecapped.

“What a dreadful noise,” the Woundshaper said.

Feeding the Domain of Matter over into his Hell first, Avo considered his options. Though the Hell was the mirror the Heaven, new structures appeared that deviated from the design of the Woundshaper, offering new opportunities.

“Ease of venting should be your primary concern,” Zein said. “Or lethality. A Hell that can leave something to drain Rend away on its own or produce something unstable to serve as the problem of another is usually my favorite.”

Avo considered his options but found himself still leaning toward the raw destructive ability presented by his current canon. But he also found himself inspired by the efficiency of his Galeslither’s Second Circle. “Have a shroud right now. Eats through matter. All matter.

Zein’s left eyebrow shot up, cutting into the wrinkles of her forehead. “Like a… sword?”

“Ye–”

“Evolve that canon! There is no other choice!”

“Yes, master,” the Woundshaper agreed, betraying no sense of shame in its alignment with a butcher of gods, “it is a highly efficient tool for slaughter. This is most wise.”

Some, narrow spark of rationality found itself aghast that all three individuals within his Soul were so bloodthirsty. The greater mass that was Avo felt like he was in good company.

Scanning through the various choices to increase the entropy shroud’s size and mass, he realized that boosting the canon to the third stage also offered him an alteration to its nature, twisting the design of the cloud into something far more directed.

CANON - WITHERED CONSTRUCT - ALLOWS THE MASTER TO MANIFEST AN INSTRUMENT MADE TO DISSOLVE SIMILIAR VARIATIONS–

Avo skipped that build, and two more after, the four lines of mem-data down pulling his attention entirely.

HELL - (THIRD CIRCLE)

CANON: THE BARRAGE OF THE WITHERED - LAUNCHES A ENTROPIC CONSTRUCT FROM THE MASTER COMPRISED OF ENTROPY WHICH CAN THEN BE CONTROLLED AND GUIDED; ALL PHYSICAL MATTER WILL BE AFFECTED ASIDE FROM THE MASTER - THIS CANON IS ABSOLUTE

DAEMON: SHOULD THE CONSTRUCT NOT STRIKE AND DISSOLVE MATTER FOR THE TIME IT TAKES THE HEAVEN TO FILL WITH REND, THE MISSILE WILL BIRTH AN ANATHEMA OF RUIN TO SERVE AS THE MASTER’S ANATHEMA; THE ANATHEMA CANNOT BE SLAIN AND MUST BE STARVED

The new canon appealed to Avo. To be able to fire his Rend-waste as missiles and ignore them afterward provided needed economical effectiveness to his design. What’s more, if he could use both his Woundshaper and Galeslither at the same time, he could commit to aero-spatial bombing runs.

Savagely, Avo began to laugh, imagining the potential havoc, the flesh dissolving from his foes while accelerating his Woundshaper-self at mach speeds into his prey.

“What is this?” Zein said, her voice excited too. “Oh… oh yes. This will be ruinous. Destructive.” She chuckled. “Yes. This is what you should commit to. It will be a thrill to face in combat later.”

The brightness within Avo stopped flowing. Right, she was probably doing this so she could beat him up even more. But by this point, he was too distracted to care. Too distracted to even linger on all that the Hunger had revealed.

Vaguely.

Talking to Zein had been a comparative relief.

HELL - [THIRD CIRCLE] - WOUNDSHAPER

  DOMAIN: (MATTER/ENTROPY)

  THAUMIC REQUIREMENTS - 450 THAUM/c

  REND VENTS ONLINE

CANON: THE BREATH OF THE WITHERED - THE MASTER OF THIS DOMAIN CAN NOW EXPEL THEIR TOTAL REND INTO AN ENTROPIC GUST OF WIND THAT CAUSES THE RAPID DESTABILIZATION OF MATTER; ALL PHYSICAL MATTER WILL BE AFFECTED ASIDE FROM THE MASTER - THIS CANON IS ABSOLUTE

CANON: THE BARRAGE OF THE WITHERED - LAUNCHES A ENTROPIC CONSTRUCT FROM THE MASTER COMPRISED OF ENTROPY WHICH CAN THEN BE CONTROLLED AND GUIDED; ALL PHYSICAL MATTER WILL BE AFFECTED ASIDE FROM THE MASTER - THIS CANON IS ABSOLUTE

DAEMON: EXPELLING EXCESS ENTROPY INTO A SINGLE POINT OF MATTER WILL BIRTH AN ANATHEMA OF RUIN TO SERVE AS THE MASTER’S ANATHEMA; THE ANATHEMA CANNOT BE SLAIN AND MUST BE STARVED

DAEMON: SHOULD THE CONSTRUCT NOT STRIKE AND DISSOLVE MATTER FOR THE TIME IT TAKES THE HEAVEN TO FILL WITH REND, THE MISSILE WILL BIRTH AN ANATHEMA OF RUIN TO SERVE AS THE MASTER’S ANATHEMA; THE ANATHEMA CANNOT BE SLAIN AND MUST BE STARVED

With a surge of brightness, he felt his Hell expand, the imbalance between Heaven and Hell stabilizing. Even the eldritch flames began to flow more evenly around the Woundshaper.

“YES!” The Woundshaper bellowed. “FINALLY! A PROPER PEDESTAL FOR A GOD! WORSHIP ME! GLORY TO ME!”

With bated desire, Avo directed his focus to activate his new cycler, splitting the flow of thaums near-even between them as a test.

(WOUNDSHAPER) THAUMIC OUTPUT - 486 THAUM/c

(GALESLITHER) THAUMIC OUTPUT - 485 THAUM/c

REASSEMBLING HEAVEN

  MODIFYING WOUNDSHAPER

GRAFTING HEAVEN - 100%

  REVIEWED - MYTHOLOGY STABLE

REASSEMBLING HELL

  MODIFYING WOUNDSHAPER - [THIRD CIRCLE]

GRAFTING HELL - 100%

  REVIEWED - MYTHOLOGY STABLE

GRAFTED HEAVEN - WOUNDSHAPER

  DOMAIN: (BLOOD/MATTER/BIOLOGY/LUMINENCE)

  THAUMIC REQUIREMENTS - 450 THAUM/c

  REND VENTS ONLINE

GRAFTED HELL - [THIRD CIRCLE] - WOUNDSHAPER

  DOMAIN: (MATTER/ENTROPY)

  THAUMIC REQUIREMENTS - 450 THAUM/c

  REND VENTS ONLINE

Suddenly, Avo found himself within the Woundshaper as well, the flames of his Soul clasped firmer by a second dragon. With but a shift of an angle, he twisted from Galeslither to Woundshaper, as if an alteration of axis shifted him between flavors of reality.

“Ah,” the Woundshaper said, pleased that it was perpendicular to the Galeslither. “Now we are mounted upon the steed, master. Onward. Onward and away. The Galeslither can be put to proper service for the superior goddess; its rightful place has been uncovered.”

“Careful, little dagger,” Zein said. “You will wish to consider your distribution for if you wish to rise high or grow wide. Your Woundshaper’s demands are far greater. Portion your cyclers well. But do it afterward. After you finish spending your final Domain.”

(WOUNDSHAPER) THAUMIC OUTPUT - 910 THAUM/c

(GALESLITHER) THAUMIC OUTPUT - 61 THAUM/c

One dragon brightened substantially. The other dimmed. A clashing luster came from bother their scales as the brighter dragon spun faster while the other worked to a more muted pace.

Yes. He did have one more Domain of Space, didn’t he?

“Can’t use it on the Hell?” Avo asked.

“Best put it in the Heaven anyway,” Zein said. “You’re running a Galeslither at baseline. So, it’s draining from space displace or momentum vectors. With your Sangeist–”

“Woundshaper.” The Heaven of Blood bubbled with new glee, prodding at itself as if a young child gazing upon their reflection in a reflective pond. If a reflective pond was a Hell meant to balance them.

“--You probably already have the means to deal with your Rend, no?”

True as that was, Avo didn’t want to overload his Galeslither. To strip himself of enduring wings was a mistake of the highest order. Without his Yondergales, without his Heaven of Wind, his world would shrink anew, and his freedoms would be denied again.

Running the simulation, options came and changed. Mem-data danced through his mind as he studied his options. Augmentations influencing speed and space played on the strings of his avarice, while the cost demanded in weight of thaums sank into his hopes like a dagger. Smaller transparent attachments to the Galeslither teased him with improvements in utility, but in truth, his mind was made.

“Going to wait,” Avo said. “Wait until I get another Galeslither. Build the Heaven. Even the Hell.”

Zein shrugged. “You’re being too conservative, I think. You should unchain yourself more. Indulge.”

He stared at her. “You know what I am?”

“What you were,” Zein said. “From what I’ve seen, you’re quite the well-disciplined cannibal. So well-disciplined that your father gave you the keys to his kingdom. Or, at least, to his basement.”

A moment's pause parsed the void. The fires were beginning to trickle upward. The time was almost upon him.

RESURRECTION - 99%

Just before the end, she smirked, turning to “Fancy a bet, Fallwalker?”

“Fallwalker?” Avo asked.

“Are you of a Guild?”

“No.”

“Then Fallwalker is what you are.” She considered her words. “Ostensibly, at least. By your apprenticeship, I suppose this makes you a terrorist against the state powers in a more fixed sense but… who is to know?”

Avo hummed, a note of anticipation staining. “What’s the bet.”

“Do you think you can manage to kill me?” Her question came half-ask, half-taunt. “Or will you still be as you were against me–as helpless as a worm fighting an eagle? Even if I were to… forgo the full use of my chronology.”

He didn’t answer her immediately. The brightness began to build. Upward, he felt his Soul begin to ascend. He made a final adjustment to his Soul’s root functions–changing how he wanted to transition after his resurrection. “Let’s find out.”

“Yes, master,” his Woundshaper concurred, “Use your enemy’s aid to see them dead. I approve of your machinations.”

“What’s the gambit?” Avo said, wondering just how close Zein was to Bright-Wealth.

“Succeed and I will offer you a Heaven. One to protect you against time, perhaps.”

If he could salivate, he would. “Lose?”

“Then we both have fun. Godclads do not lose. That is for mortals and fools who forget to vent. But it will hurt. And I will continue killing you until I get bored, or you succeed.”

“Fun. How’s your memory in your old age? Don’t want to kill you accidentally.”

Zein threw her head back and laughed. “What hubris! Magnificent! A Godclad I will make of you yet.”

And inward, into the flames he fell, the bright consuming his mind, and reloading him into reality.