Chương 474: 474

The battle had gone on for 3 hours. It was almost noon. Mark gazed out at a secondary blockade over the island of D'Chiba. A central quad of ships and their dryads held open a wide, horizontal gate. About 17 ships surrounded that gate, funneling all of their warriors and dryads and personnel through that gate to make a true beachhead on Chiba. Archmages flew freely between Mark's team and the gate, serving as another main block.

Amberstone and Hotano had pursued and harried Mark and his team all the way around the north and then east side of the blockade, as they cleared up gates. The speedsters had stopped trying to kill the black bowl team after Mark stole even more highly valuable Bindings from them. Most people who would have defended those other portals had mostly escaped ahead, racing to this location, to fortify and support here, instead of becoming fodder for Mark.

The dryads remained at those portals back there that Mark had closed in the last 2 hours. They were a delay tactic so that Okuana could fortify this place, but 4 dryads were pretty easy to kill when no one was able to work in concert to keep the ship shields active and strong. Amberstone and Hotano and those two dryads on those main ships had stopped trying to truly attack, too. They just kept up the pressure, making sure Mark and them couldn't backtrack too easily.

And now the final fight of the blockade was here—" I will be taking over directly now, with major news," Timeweaver said, into Mark's comms, and into the very air itself, his voice vibrating out of the black bowl of the hoverplatform, filling the air. He must have been using some magic to do that.

Timeweaver's voice continued on the 'loudspeaker', "Every single person who is in the blockade has been either forced to be here due to their families being held hostage, or due to mind control, or due to some other shit that I don't care to investigate… ah, well no. It's just too complicated to explain—Ah fuck it. I should have practiced this more. Well whatever!

This probably isn't the last time I have to go through this, so let's continue:" There was never any hope of reconciliation, and every single person that has been spared will never stop trying to kill New Tokyo, for if they return home they face a disgrace worse than death. The vast majority of them will be turned into horrors, or into new dryads." And so I declare full lethality mode against the people of the blockade, authorization Timeweaver's Absolute Protocol: Defense of New Tokyo, Full AI Unleash…

Oh yeah, and Derek Kevins. I need you to throw yourself against the Living Kill spell in Yokosuka. It takes 40 million deaths to stop it and it's only gone through— Ah, I'm too tired. Should have sent that one privately… Oh well! You got enough— Oh! Send the nukes, now, for sure. Light it up, Aleph One!" Behind Mark, Specter said, "Oh that's not good."" May the gods have mercy on us all," Aleph One intoned.

"Countdown begins: 10, 9, 8…" Mark said, "High altitude, now." Derek pulled up fast while Isoko and Tempest pulled up and away faster. Mark stared over the edge of the black bowl, expecting the archmages to give pursuit, but they had heard everything, too, and so Mark only saw one shining streak of yellow —Amberstone; identified by Quark— shooting far away from the deck of that pursuing Dreadnought-wannabe. Amberstone was escaping.

The main ship flew forward, directly into the secondary blockade and the ships encircling it, the dryads atop reaching forward to join limbs and roots with the 21 other surviving dryads. Mark watched as people who were too slow got crushed between gripping, twisting vines and roots and branches. They screamed, Mark was sure, and then the trees grew over them— Detonation on the other side.

Mark solidified the adamantium at the bottom of the ship as high-PL nuclear warheads detonated in the center of the gate formation, high-PL nuclear fire ripping across dryads and ships alike. It was nuclear armageddon and Mark closed up the adamantium over the ship, burying them in floating darkness, lit only by the soft glow of diodes on the platform's controls and by the lightning glittering off of Tempest's body." Blast wave coming," Mark said, part of him extended through the shell, eyes still active out there.

"Three, two, one, here." Everyone was prepared for it. Tempest ended up on the floor, Isoko strained, Specter vanished through the floor, and Derek practically died, body breaking as he hit the floor and a whole bunch of himself at the same time. Derek only survived because he rapidly filled a good portion of the floor with bodies. Specter came back more ethereal than ever, zipping back into the shell of the ship.

He looked terrible; barely able to hold himself together as he coughed out pain that hit him even in full ethereality. Mark was already healing them all with Good/Bad, but there wasn't much Good outside right now. Everything was on nuclear fire. Mark stuck a few eyeballs out there, looking around as the ship started to tumble, but Mark threw out a rotor overhead, through the adamantium shell, catching them all and righting them." Is it clear yet?" Isoko asked, in astral-body pain but keeping it under control."

Not yet. I think they're detonating more bombs, too—" Another shockwave passed through and Mark spun the rotor overhead, catching them a bit and riding the wave as much as he could. It wasn't much. Tempest groaned as she held against the wall, holding on to handles.

"Fuck. That's… that really fucking hurts. It's losing all of my limbs, all over again."" High PL nuclear bombs do that," a Derek said." What does full release do?" Mark asked Tempest and Specter, trying to get their mind off of the impotence all of them were feeling right now.

"Or whatever it was Timeweaver said." Tempest groaned. Specter said, "Full AI release is… The city has restrictions on AI, on where they can go and what they can do. They mostly respect those restrictions. They're not real restrictions. You can't really contain True AIs. They're people, you know, but… There are understandings on what they cannot and will not do. Timeweaver essentially told them it was a free-for-all to defend the entire city."

Tempest gathered herself a bit, and so she was able to say, "They're building turrets and shooting shit, no doubt. You did something to Aleph Two, right? Before we left?" Mark nodded.

"I did. Do you know Aleph Two? I didn't know about him at all."" He's a good kid. Been around for a few years," Specter said, holding on to the wall." I bet he's leading the charge into Chiba," Tempest said, looking at Specter.

"He wanted a land of his own, right?"" Maybe so," Specter said—" Another shockwave," Mark said, right before it hit them again. Everyone grunted. Tempest chuckled nervously, holding on to the wall, saying, "I would have expected a metal box to be hotter considering all the nuclear fire!" She groaned a little.

"Ouch." Mark said, "Adamantium doesn't get hot unless it's specifically Shaped to be hot. Otherwise it resists everything. Doesn't even feel cold, right? Just feels like touching a physical mirror." Tempest paused, mind going around a few times as she gripped the railing on the wall.

"Huh. I guess that's right?"" It's hard as fuck to get through, though," Specter said.

"Kinda hurts, actually."" I'm holding on to most of it right now," Mark said.

"Sorry." Specter shook his head.

"It's okay." Isoko said, "I can kinda feel the sky again?" Mark said, "The radiation cloud is mostly vanishing— Oh shit." The speakers crackled with Timeweaver's voice, "He—hello? Hello? Can you hear me— Oh! There we go," the guy said, voice appearing in Mark's ears.

"Connection reestablished with Quark. Hello, Mark. It's time for phase 3. Only 1 necrodragon! So that's good. I knew the nukes were the right call. Shame about Chiba, but whatever. It's also 3 normal dragons, and 7 Living Kill Spells. Almost over. Figure out how to kill the 1 Living Kill Spell that's still on your side, and then all of you come through Small Torii, back to Earth. Time to finish this."" How bad is the Living Kill?" Tempest asked. Timeweaver did not answer; he had already moved on to his next task.

Specter said, "He told us enough. I imagine we stay far away from the Living Kill spell, anyway." Derek said, "That's about right. It's fucking… people are just dying, touching it, or having it touch them." Isoko said, "I can work Union outside of myself, so I should be fine."" Thousands already died, Isoko," Derek said, warning her. Mark told Isoko, "Heat sink strat first. Ready?" Isoko agreed, Union extending past the edges of the adamantium shell, into the flaming sky.

It hurt her to do that, to touch that corruptive flame. But Mark was there with her, and he stared Unioning with Agitation and Homeostasis, pulling in all of the heat he could while giving back all of the normalcy that was possible in this nuclear sky. Mark's skin started turning black as he soaked in the heat, skin bubbling and then softening back to normalcy. Mark said, "Don't anyone try to touch me. This is going to get very hot for me." Specter stepped a little bit away from Mark.

Tempest asked, "What's the heat sink strat?" Mark and Isoko concentrated, with Mark partitioning off droplets of his fingers, taking all of the heat with them that he soaked up with Isoko. He rolled those drops of adamantium to the sides, to pile up like superheated marbles. They did not burn the floor where they touched. Instead, they kinda vibrated through the floor. So Mark made a big bowl of adamantium and then dumped the balls into the bowl. They rang with dull movement inside the bowl as Mark filled it up.

10 seconds so far, and now Isoko's Union rushed out into the hot air, no longer singed by its very existence. Tempest asked, "What's the strat?" Derek answered, "Adamantium's heat sink index is so high that it starts to vibrate rather than melt things, unless Mark lets the heat out, which is specifically what he is not doing. So he and Isoko are clearing the sky of nuclear fire, and also shifting us out of the main heat column—"" Full range achieved," Isoko said.

"I feel the fire column. I feel the Living Kill spell, too. Backing off so it can't hit m—" Something Deadly invaded Isoko's vector and she became a filter. It happened too fast. Purple Death clung to her left arm, up her neck, around her face, and down her left side in a single half-beat of her heart. And then her heartbeat completed, and all of her life had been replaced with Death. Whatever a Living Kill Spell was, it should not have been able to do that to Isoko.

Not with her able to work vectors outside of herself. But. No. Mark knew, after the fact, that he was bargaining with the world, telling himself this wasn't real, that he didn't already know what had happened in the back of his mind, lingering lessons on Necromancy not quite surfacing in the heat of battle. Mark acted on instinct. He Unioned with Death, trying to pull out what was inside of her, but Death was the only thing supporting Isoko. Mark realized, after the fact, that he should have tried giving back life.

He could have done something besides just pulling out Death, for doing that was like pulling out a knife from a beating heart and now the heart beat and all the blood went outside. Isoko dropped dead. One moment, she was alive. And then she was dead. Mark stared at her corpse as her platinum skin turned pale, as her hair flexed to black, as she collapsed into his arms, because Mark had moved to touch her, to hold her. Someone was crying. It was Mark. Something was burning.

It was Isoko's skin, as Mark's skin vibrated against hers— No. No. No no no. She was dead. She shouldn't be dead. No. Mark focused. Mark had a plan for this. For the deaths of his teammates. He had a cohort of 2 possible people open on his Status. He did not have Capture, which would have made this easy, but he felt Isoko's corpse with Necromancer, like it was dim with possibility.

That possibility rapidly grew as her cells fully died, one right after the other, the Living Kill spell having targeted her deeply and— No. Mark said to everyone there, "I'll be moving the ship fast for a minute. Please keep up." And then he whipped the ship through the sky, over to the north, to the ground. It took 20 seconds he didn't have, and then he opened the top of the ship. Fire licked in but Derek was already getting Tempest and Specter out of there—" I'm sorry, Mark," Specter said.

Mark didn't look away from Isoko as he laid her on the floor, saying, "She's not dead yet." Mark closed the black dome back up. Isoko was dead, but she wouldn't be dead for long. He knew the theories. He knew what needed to happen.

Resurrection magic, in the soulhouse's perspective, was done with books of life, which were sympathetic-based magics of like-to-like, allowing the drifting, dead soul, to come back together into the soulhouse, to be refitted together like a tabletop puzzle sifted out of an ocean one piece at a time. Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings. Isoko's body was perhaps the most connected object to Isoko that Mark could possibly possess. And so… The first step was to..."

I need some help, Quark." Quark flickered into the air, to stand like a miniature person on the other side of Isoko's body.

"I am here, sir. What should I do?"" I am going to attempt to bring Isoko's corpse into my soulhouse, as though it was an enchanted object."" You have never done that before, sir?"" Correct. But I can move adamantium into my house and out of my house, and she would be reborn from myself if I had her book of life, so, in theory, if she can come out, she can go in, just like my adamantium.

And you, too, can come in and out of my soulhome, and that elf, Eria of the Central Spire, said I should be able to put enchanted objects into my soul, and I already know I can bring Bindings in, so it's all possible. I just need to make it happen. What I want from you is to construct a full narrative of Isoko's life, as known to both public and private. I will be recreating that narrative in my soul, and… and maybe she'll take a while to come back, but I'm not losing her.

I am not losing her—" Mark suddenly laughed through the tears, adding, "And Timeweaver isn't doing anything for us right now, so this is part of the plan, right? Right!"

"… Okay, sir. I am compiling the requested history now." Mark concentrated on Isoko's body, trying to figure out where to start. Mark needed to get something physical into something metaphysical. Reality into the dream. The dream and reality were a lot closer than one imagined they were. Dream, reality, mana; it was all connected— Mana.

Mana was the connection between dream and reality, so Mark needed to draw Isoko's body into his soul, using his mana, and put it underground like he would have done with some statues of his parents, and then Isoko would come back to life eventually. Sure. Okay. So… Using mana… Mark couldn't touch her with adamantium... but with Union? Yes. Mark tried to touch the corpse with Union, but it was just… part of the world, now.

And then Mark saw the burns on Isoko's arms, and that was terrible, so he Unioned with Good and Bad, trying to heal the wou— Isoko's body flexed as Mark erased very small parts of it, because it was all 'Bad' now. It was just a corpse. Black spots dripped onto Isoko's pale flesh, and that was wrong. She shouldn't have people crying on her. So Mark wiped off the black tears on Isoko's arms, and he thought again. Okay. How about... Dream and Reality.

Mark grabbed the nearest 5 meters, the entire inside of the black bowl but especially Isoko's corpse, and he Unioned with Dream, pushing away all Reality. The darkness mutated into a flowing rush of color and imagination. Mark saw things out there that defied explanation. Were they trees? Were they rocks? No. It was just a color in the darkness, and then, suddenly, black grasses grew from the deck of the hoverplatform. The darkness expanded into the distance, revealing purple flowers growing on black grasses.

His house was over there. Quark was a silver reflection of another kind of Mark, standing tall and scribing a thousand pages in a book every second, pages appearing and then folding onto each other, layering into a book of life that might work— No. It was going to work. And then there was Isoko, lying on the ground in front of Mark, dead— No. This was a dream. Mark made her breathe, and she breathed. Good. She could Union with herself out there, drawing herself back into herself. This was good. And now what?

Mark knew Isoko. … What did he know? Oh gods. Mark had forgotten everythi— Isoko liked fancy things, and stardom, but she was also a warrior and snarky and she told dirty jokes and she knew so much more than what she told others. She was a watcher, and a planner. She was a best friend. She was also a girly girl who liked to wear pretty things, and who looked great when she was Full Platinum and ready for a fight and the fires of battle reflected on her perfect, unmarred surface… Oh. She was wounded.

Mark brushed those wounds away. He thought." You need a room in my house that is all your own." Mark started building Isoko a private room south of his own house— You have reached maximum utilized space Mark tore out a bunch of blueprints for Powers— Sky Shaper. There was a Sky Shaper in his captured Powers. Mark took that one, saving it for Isoko.

There was no Platinum Body or Union, but Sky Shaper was good, for now, and so Mark ripped out a bunch of Powers that didn't matter at all, and now he had space for Isoko's room. Black floorboards went down, but Isoko wasn't a 'black' kinda girl except when she was trying to be goth, so Mark turned the black to nice brown wood. Then Mark crafted a perfect 4-poster bed for Isoko to wake up in.

It was pink and firm, with blackout curtains all around, and it had her phone on a wooden stand to the side, under a small reading lamp. With a little 'ting' a few good notifications appeared on the phone about how her newest video had reached a million views. She loved it when that happened. It had only happened twice, but it was sure to happen again, after today, after she came back to life. To the side, on the left side that she normally laid on, Mark put a dresser and a stand to hold her armor.

The room had no walls, but when Isoko woke up she would step off of the left side of the bed, anyway, so she'd see this stuff when she woke up, when she opened up the curtains over the bed. Her winged necklace of Freyala went on her bed, on the headboard. She put it up there every night. She didn't always get a chance to put it back on because sometimes she had to wake up fast, but it was there, waiting for her when she came back— The little wings glowed golden, and Mark did not do that.

Mark put Isoko on the bed and tucked her in, making sure she laid on her left side with her left arm up and just under the pillow, gripping it a little. Her right leg went up a bit, her left leg straight. She bunched the comforter in front of her, and Mark made sure her back and neck and some of her head was covered, along with her arm. Mark tucked the covers up under her feet, and then he slipped Sky Shaper into her existence. Mark turned, and there was Quark with a book.

Mark took the book, and he said to Isoko, "This is not all you are, Isoko, but please follow it back here, to me." He put the book into Isoko's body, praying, Calling out to the dark, "I need you, Isoko. I love you." The darkness resonated— A golden glow appeared at the edge of Mark's soulhouse. Wings spread wide and a golden hand knocked on the edge of his property. Who the— Oh! Mark suddenly stood by the edge of his property, by the golden wings, looking out at Freyala.

The goddess Freyala stood in the dream, holding two scrolls, but she did not reach out with them. She warned, "Remember the words of Eria of the Central Spire."" Wha— Oh." Mark remembered how Eria had said to never think that what he was seeing in the dream was actually out there, and if he wanted a visitor to come inside then he needed to specifically invite those people in. Inviting in something that he saw outside of his house was asking for a horror to invade his soul. It was a sobering moment.

So Mark Called out, "Freyala! If you are there! Please come to me and help me bring back Isoko!" Freyala took an ephemeral golden step into Mark's house, her golden sandals touching black grasses, saying, "You must put these into her and then Call out to her until she stirs, and then let her rest and wake on her own. Necromancer will protect you from the Living Spell, but no one else. The Living Kill spells are specifically targeted against Union users. Thousands of my paladins have died already."

She handed Mark the scrolls, a small rage in her voice as she said, "You will need to kill those personally." Mark took the scrolls, sobbing uncontrollably, knowing they were Union and Platinum Body, and then he was back by Isoko's sleeping body. He put the scrolls into Isoko, and then Mark roared out a Call to the universe," ISOKO KANNO! COME BACK TO ME! ISOKO!" The darkness vibrated.

Isoko stirred in her bed— She breathed, and a bit of something prismatic platinum glittered on that intake of breath, filtering into Isoko's body. Mark almost lost it again. She wasn't back yet, but she was here. Her soul had slipped into her body. Mark watched as Isoko took another breath, another flicker of prismatic platinum flowing inside of her chest— Her heart beat. Something sparked in her head. The room Mark had built for Isoko somehow flexed.

The curtains on the bed slipped shut, blocking Mark from seeing her— A notification appeared. Rebuilding cohort, Isoko Kanno. 16% Estimated rebuild 8 minutes. Mark pulled back from the dream, waking up on his knees on the tilted deck of the hoverplatform, skin pale grey and with tears streaked all down his face and chest and arms, covering the wooden floor with black. It was dark down here at the bottom of this blackness, and Mark was surely irradiated. But what about Isoko? Was Isoko in front of him?

Mark opened up the roof, letting in the horrible, red, nuclear light— Isoko wasn't here. She was inside of Mark's soulhouse. … She was coming back, right? Mark's throat hurt as he choked out, "System Call, time to cohort revival Isoko." Rebuilding cohort, Isoko Kanno. 17% Estimated rebuild 8 minutes. Mark took a deep breath of the burning air, looking up and around at the burning black sky beyond the rim of the black bowl. Lightning flickered up there. Mark asked, "Derek? Your comms working? Tempest? Specter?"

Derek answered, "They're busy. Stragglers from the destruction. You good? Isoko coming back?" Mark almost sobbed again as he said, "8 minutes, maybe. I'm, uh… I have to kill the Living Kill now. Don't get involved. It'll kill you and the guys, too. They're targeted against Union users."" Breathe in the Good, breathe out the Bad," Derek softly said.

"And that would explain why I'm dying so fast to them." Mark breathed for a good 10 seconds, black tears flaking away. He was nude again, but Isoko liked it that way, and so Mark just hung out, and said, "Can you make it back to the platform? I don't feel you out there. I'm glad you're okay."" We're far away, and we're okay. Timeweaver told us to wait by the gate. You go get that Living Kill."

"… Yeah? Yeah, I should get that Kill. You're safe… Yes." Mark lifted off into the sky, reorienting himself fast due to the column of nuclear fire still burning in the south. The Living Kill spell was like a stick of purple light on the burning mountainside, wavering in the heat mirage, long purple limbs stretched out and down. Wherever it passed its long limbs, purple light flickered across the burning ground. Mark couldn't see what it was doing from here, from 5 kilometers away, but Quark could.

He noted undead monstrosities crawling out of the ash and burning with purple light as they flowed away from the nuclear conflagration—" Hey Mark," Timeweaver said, sounding tired, "Pull back when Isoko has 20 seconds left. Pull Death from the Living Kill spell to kill it. Save the yelling-at-me for later, but know that we have had it out in alternate timelines, and you have said your pieces many, many times over. This is the best timeline right now. I promise."

"… Yeah sure, Timeweaver."" I know it's not satisfying. You can be satisfied later! And all my friends call me Zaid, so try it out sometime and see how you like it." Mark was furious, but also grateful. It was a weird mix of emotions. Mark knew he was being used right now, and heavily. And yet... Mark defaulted to politeness, saying, "Thanks, Zaid."" Again! Terribly sorry. Also we have about 65, 000 dead right now and rising fast. A few superheroes dead, too. So hurry the fuck up."" Yeah yeah," Mark said, focusing.

"Yes."