Chương 48: Chapter 4 — The Return

[Azoth Trial Complete Beginning Ascension] Raine Talis cast [Clean] on her weapon as the corpse of the Elite melted away — and only the weapon, since she had outmatched the Elite so thoroughly that she hadn't dirtied herself at all. The rank-up wasn't profound like Bismuth; it didn't change anything. It was simply more power, but the sheer amount of essence and strength pouring into her dwarfed anything before.

The Azoth Trial had turned out to be a lot less complex than the Bismuth one as well, merely a dungeon that required her to use her Domain. Though merely was perhaps underselling it. It was obvious that the dungeon had been constructed with her in mind, with Alum-ranked ice bars blocking the passages between rooms, with the only option being to focus her entire Domain and her weapon Skill down to a single point in order to cut them.

Simplicity itself, given the backing of the combat algorithms, but she could imagine how much time it would take someone who hadn't taken the time to fully master their Domain. She stepped through the portal that led back to the vestibule of the Azoth Trial, an unadorned, cavernous chamber with a single exit, finding herself alone. The first one to finish the Trials.

Not a great surprise, since the Azoth Trial seemed to favor brute force over finesse, though there was no guarantee either Leese or Dyen had a similar trial. Raine wasn't actually worried about either of them, though. Anyone who was a recipient of Cato's gifts shouldn't have any trouble with what the System threw at them. Sure enough, only a few hours later Leese appeared in the center of the vestibule, radiating the potent essence of Azoth.

Raine smiled and waved at her as Leese crossed the distance with a flicker of her travel Skill, a motile blizzard that flowed through the intervening space. Leese reappeared just in front of Raine, tail fairly vibrating with excitement.

"I can't believe we actually made it. Azoth," Leese sent over their link, radiating ice and cold.

"I remember when Gold was a hard-won dream."

"And now we can probably make Alum," Raine agreed, pulling the various Skill tokens from her Estate. She could have filled in the new Skill slots earlier, but at this point it was tradition for them to do it together. Not that there was much of a decision to make, as they simply moved everything up one rank, leaving Silver slots free for additional utility Skills. But that meant that their primary offensive Skills were Azoth, as well as their cornerstone movement Skill, which was a massive step up.

"Going to be a while for that," Leese shared, settling in next to Raine to allot her own Skills. If Azoth had taken a full decade of constant fighting up-rank on a War World, Alum was at least ten times that — and more Feats of Glory, plus whatever other wrinkles were necessary for the final rank before godhood. There was no chance that such an ascension would be simple. It was also ages away. Neither she nor Leese knew much about how Azoths spent their time, but they were hardly common outside the war worlds.

There was no telling what the Core held for the higher ranks, especially since elites almost never went back to the frontier. Though Raine now understood why — there was no point to it for most. Nothing at the lower ranks would give either challenge or reward, so why bother? Of course, things were different for the two of them, but she imagined many Azoths had no special urge or incentive to wander around the System for the sake of it.

"We need to check in with Cato before we start worrying about the next rank," Raine decided. Even if most people had no real connections to the frontier, they certainly did. Their patron wasn't any of the gods of the Core, nor did they care about the factions that controlled virtually the whole of the war-world. Leese stood up and stretched, even if they didn't exactly suffer from the ailments of the flesh anymore, and suggested a spar in a brief burst of restless impatience.

Like with many things, they didn't exactly need to use words to convey what they thought — or needed very few.

"Might as well," Raine agreed, summoning her spear, which had reached Peak Bismuth some time ago and bore a roiling core of white-hot fire where the blade joined the haft, rather than any physical connection. It told her that it needed to be physically upgraded to grow any further, but that was a problem for later. Leese grinned and manifested her own, which seemed to be wrought of ice and gleamed with an edge so dark a blue that it seemed to be almost black.

Between the two of them, they absolutely wrecked the vestibule. It was just an open space with grass and a few trees anyway, but after only a few minutes it was blasted and burnt, cracked and frozen, the Alum-rank surroundings scored by deep cuts where blows had landed. [Volcanic Form], the S-rank upgrade of [Molten Scales], allowed her to take an almost full-power blow from Leese. Which was saying something, because now cutting apart a mountain was easy. Or it would be, when they left.

It was another full day before Dyen made his own appearance in the vestibule, his Azoth rank essence vanishing into itself as he activated his stealth Skills just after his arrival. Even with Cato's perceptual boosters, amplified by their rank and multiplier equipment, it was nearly impossible to notice him. It was only by pooling their senses through the link that they could trace his movements, the combat brains dissecting subtle details to paint a picture of where he was."

Now we can leave," he said, before vanishing into his own shadow. Raine and Leese shared a glance, then headed for the pylon at the middle of the vestibule. It had remained unmarked throughout the sparring, though they had been careful not to focus anything too potent its way. They didn't want to be trapped in the middle of some pocket dungeon or out-of-the-way chamber somewhere in the Core Worlds.

The pylon returned them to the outpost, but only the outpost — another oddity of higher levels, that the teleports were connected directly to the war-world faction system instead of just being an open list like the frontier. However, they had never expected to keep ownership when it was only the three of them, so they had anticipated landing inside a retaken outpost and were ready to deal with instant action — or to teleport to a city and try to force their way out.

Or even to flee overland, and try again somewhere else. The moment they appeared, they could sense over a dozen Azoth-rank signatures. Even for them that was a little much, but when Raine went to slap the teleportation pylon, she found that nothing happened. It was shut down, or protected, or inactive, but regardless she couldn't use it.

"I'll take care of it," Dyen muttered from behind them, not emerging from his stealth.

"You take care of them." The four Azoths in the Nexus itself were clearly surprised at their appearance, although it was obvious that they should have been expecting Raine and Leese to return. The little bit of surprise gave Raine and Leese enough time to act first, Domains locking together, growth weapons altering to one-handed spear and buckler for close quarters combat. Together, they lunged forward, a burning point of fire and ice.

That first, empowered thrust punched through two of the observers at once, cracking open the Alum-ranked Nexus wall behind it and continuing onward to shatter the fortress wall, leaving behind it a massive trail of frozen fire. The remaining Azoths exploded into action, movement and defensive Skills flaring to life, Domains hammering against Raine and Leese's combined presence — and failing the contest.

Raine and Leese flashed out through the hole they'd made in the side of the Nexus, to keep the collateral away from Dyen and let him work. They congealed out of the frostfire blizzard, each engaging one of the watchers, both of whom had heavy armor and divine aura about them. Sword and buckler, spear and shield scraped against each other in a rapid-fire exchange, the opposing Azoth's own growth weapons shifting from small shield to large, sabers to longwords, in an attempt to contest the extra spear-length.

Perhaps the Azoths technically had more experience, but Raine and Leese had advanced, adaptive combat algorithms predicting movements and extending reaction time beyond anything that should have been possible. The moment of vulnerability where growth weapons shifted and changed was something they punished mercilessly, Raine knocking her opponent's blade hand aside, pinning his arm for a moment with her own body as she drove a white-hot spearpoint into the joint between limb and armor.

Her opponent dissipated into white light and flowed backward, reforming behind another armored figure radiating a divine Domain. A moment later, Leese's opponent followed suit, and the sisters confronted the paladin. One that, after a blink, Raine recognized.

"Muar?" She and Leese asked in perfect harmony, disbelieving the sight before them.

"It's been some time," Muar said, his back straight, his words stiff, mace and shield radiating light as he glanced back at the Azoths the two of them had injured. He was only slightly higher in rank than they were, but of everyone there he had the strongest Domain. While he didn't have Cato's support, he clearly had the System's. The gods themselves were on Muar's side — but Raine and Leese could still match him.

"It's a big war world," Raine said, and while it didn't look like they were doing much, there was a struggle of Domains, trying to dominate each other and suppress the ability to control the surroundings. Here, the cold, hard precision of the combat brains showed their superiority as they ruthlessly crushed any attempt by the remaining Azoths to take control of the battlefield. Combined, she and Leese absolutely dominated their terrain, making approaching them a dangerous proposition. Except for Muar.

Raine didn't know if it was natural talent, some remnant of the body Cato had given him, or just an absolute single-minded determination, but Muar's Domain was just as unyielding as theirs. He made a gesture with one hand and the two lowest-rank Azoths retreated — the very ones they had devastated with their first strike upon arrival.

The others shielded the pair as they used their movement Skills to vanish from sight or sense, then Muar bared his teeth in something that was absolutely not a smile and barreled forward with a divine movement Skill that turned him into a streak of golden light. That was the signal for combat to resume, and ten-on-two, Raine and Leese were vastly outnumbered. Yet not quite outmatched.

It seemed that somehow, Cato's brains had improved along with their rank, running overtime to provide Raine more and better predictions and suggestions. He had warned them it might happened, but hadn't been able to make any guarantees. Clearly he had been correct. Muar might have the backing of the System's gods, but Cato's divine gifts let them match ten Azoths at once. She dodged a bolt of ravening shadow by a fraction of an inch, then flexed her Domain to burn a reaching tendril of dense wood.

At the same time she deflected a radiant blow from Muar's mace with her buckler, bracing herself and driving her spear in to puncture his armor — but skittering off it instead. Leese's own Domain and Skills dragged at every action their enemies took, making their opponents ever so slightly slower, more sluggish, less able to act and react. A metal spike punched upward from the ground, and Raine melted it. A tremendous tidal wave swept in from nowhere, and Leese froze it.

A cyclone tried to sweep through, and their Domains stilled it, dispersing the screaming wind into nothing. Despite their prowess, the simple numerical advantage put Raine and Leese on the defensive. Muar was at the forefront, his shield and armor apparently invulnerable to their blows — well-chosen Skills, incredible equipment, and personal prowess combined into something obscenely dangerous.

If he'd been by himself, overpowering him would have been easy, and without him, they could have probably torn through the other Azoths, but as it was their struggles simply shattered buildings and broke walls, missed blows carving into the cavern walls. Raine deflected a massive, lighting-laced slash from one of the Azoths up into the ceiling, and several hundred tons of rock roared down on the battle.

Before it ever landed it was turned into so much vapor from the stray bolts of fire and electricity, rent apart by of divine might and dissolved by shadowy destruction. None of the other Azoths could work together in quite the same way as Raine and Leese, and the moment one of them – the shadow user – came too near the pair tore into him with pinpoint attacks. He vanished suddenly in a twist of essence, and there was a pause as the two sides eyed each other.

Neither Raine nor Leese were particularly spent, since they were cheating. It didn't take nearly as much will and mental effort to hold their Domains or track the combat when they had extra brains that refused to tire or be distracted just for that task. That Raine and Leese managed to take out one of their attackers meant that, if nothing changed, they would slowly and eventually win solely by attrition. But it wasn't likely the Azoths had been pushing as hard as they could have, either.

"You can't win, you know," Muar said, as the remaining forces took advantage of the lull to reposition and reassess.

"Even if you manage to go scampering back to Cato, the gods have their eyes on you now. No matter where you go, we'll track you down eventually." Raine didn't reply, but she did hide a grimace. Powerful as Cato was, there wasn't anything he could do if a god spotted them and decided to smite them on the spot. Clearly it wasn't as simple as all that, since smiting had yet to occur, but it was a reminder that they were running on limited time.

More reinforcements could arrive and, as an Azoth-rank divine user, Muar definitely had preferential access to any nearby [World Deities]. Suddenly it was clear that time favored their opponents, not them. Unauthorized usage: this narrative is on Amazon without the author's consent. Report any sightings.

"Got it," Dyen's voice came from behind them, and as one Raine and Leese dove back through the hole in the wall to touch the teleportation pylon. This time, the list of destinations showed, and Raine selected the one labeled as a city. In the moments before the teleporter took them, Raine caught Muar bursting into divine light to follow them, and so she wasted no time diving through the portal leading off the war-world the moment they appeared within the city's Nexus.

The two of them flew through the Inner Worlds in streaks of frost and fire, pushing their movement Skills to the limit as they flickered through the portal network. In moments they were back at the world where the trap had been sprung initially, the one that had pushed them to the war-world. Once again wards came down, blocking off the portals — but this time they were Azoths, not mere fresh Bismuths, and what had seemed insurmountable back then was barely an inconvenience.

She linked her Domain with Leese's, and the two of them shattered the powerful protections preventing them from escaping into the wider System. Through the portal was another world, and then another, letting Dyen ride in her shadow and moving at speed to keep ahead of Muar and their other pursuers — and reach a point where Cato could have their backs. Assuming he was still there, spread throughout the System. After ten years, anything could have happened. Fortunately, they didn't have to wait long.

"Raine! Leese! You're back!" Cato sounded surprised, the radios in their head stuttering slightly as they flicked from world to world, the network scrambling to keep up with their location changes.

"Dyen's with us. Muar's following," Leese replied over the link. They didn't know if Muar could have tracked them through their headlong rush across the portal network, but he certainly had someone with the proper Skills on his side so they had to assume he was just behind them. After a moment Cato sent back a set of directions that meshed into their combat brains, and they took off again. He sent them through a certain chain of portals, to a certain world, then a teleport to a remote outpost.

There, the travel Skills sent them up to the top of an enormous mountain, far away from anyone else. The suddenly-thin essence felt strange, making it just slightly more difficult to use their Skills, and giving another reason why Azoths didn't venture out into the frontier too often. It was simply less comfortable, less comforting, as if it wasn't their home anymore. Something easily ignored, especially under the circumstances, but still a nagging oddity.

Muar appeared in the outpost, some hundred miles away, which was almost next to them in a world that seemed strangely small. Their senses could even sweep over the curve of the globe, giving Raine the odd sensation that she was balanced atop a ball, no matter where she might be on the planet. She and Leese focused on Muar, down in the outpost, but with low-rankers in the town even a minor flex of their Domains could easily be lethal — and they certainly hadn't forgotten their origins.

They weren't going to hurt any innocent bystanders if they could help it.

"I'm not stupid," Muar called over the distance, something in either his Skills or Domain amplifying his voice to carry over the miles.

"I know about Cato's weapons, so you can't lure me out. But neither can you stay on the fringes of the System. And when you return, we'll be waiting." Then he turned and vanished back into the teleportation network — likely to the Nexus, where they would have to go in order to leave the planet.

"That's going to be a problem," Raine sent, both to Leese and to Cato, glancing up at the sky. Somewhere up there was Cato and his devices, but at the same time, there might be some World Deity that only needed a word to wipe them from existence.

"Yes," Cato replied, terse even over the radio.

"Pickup in thirty seconds. Hang tight." Dyen slipped out of stealth next to them, tail twitching unhappily.

"Who's picking us up?" He asked aloud, apparently having been included in the broadcast.

"And how? To where?" Raine didn't bother answering, if for no other reason than with Muar still about, someone could be listening in. Anything could be possible. Not that they had long to wait, for in less than thirty seconds essence flowed and a metal arch raised itself from the ground, a portal forming within. They'd seen it before, from when they were merely Gold; Yaniss' work.

"Yaniss says to tamp down your auras before you head through. You'll want to stay quiet." The three of them pulled in their Domains, clamping down their essence signatures as they passed through and found themselves once again in Yaniss' Estate on Ikent. Yet it was far different, for they were all Azoth and far more powerful, rather than someone who could never hope to stand up to a Bismuth. Though of Yaniss herself, there was no sign.

"Right, should be safe for the moment, but I'm going to need a debrief," Cato said, brisk and businesslike.

"I wasn't expecting you to take over ten years to come back from a quick look."

"The inner worlds were trapped, and the portal to the war-world was one way," Raine replied, bristling at the lack of friendliness in Cato's tone.

"And the war-world is far larger than a planet. Larger than hundreds of planets. We had no idea where we were, at least until we met Dyen." There was a brief silence, and a bit of a tickle in the back of their heads as they felt Cato request some more information.

Oddly, Raine could feel it from Leese's end as well, which was certainly an odd sensation, but she didn't know what to think of that so she just shoved the combat-brain data in the direction of the tickle, up through the link, with more force than was strictly necessary. Even if it was all in her head, she still thought it made her displeasure clear.

"I am an absolute fool." Cato's voice came after a few seconds.

"I hesitate to admit it, but when everything started happening right after you left, I thought the System had gotten to you, made you turn coat somehow. Not that you were just stuck. I've been an idiot for ten years worrying over this, it seems, but I should have known better. I apologize."

"I suppose that makes sense," Leese replied grudgingly.

"Though in a way we are compromised. Muar knows we're still around, and probably has marked us in some way. There's no telling what the World Deities will do."

"That's partly why I brought you here," Cato told them.

"I have somewhat of a dialogue with the local System-God. I'll see what favors I can cash in — and I'll go ahead and send down some resupply crates while I fill you in. I bet it's been years since you had a good meal."

"I need a favor." Mii-Es clicked her beak in delight. Thus far the negotiations about the ultimate end state of Ikent and the System in general had been essentially one-sided, and that was not a comfortable place to stand. With one hand Cato dictated terms, and with the other he offered riches and knowledge beyond imagining. If it had been any of the gods of the Core, the only question would have been what their true purpose was.

With Cato, it wasn't so certainly malevolent, but having some leverage over him would put her in a more comfortable position.

"Your stray Azoths, darling?" She asked Cato through the communications gem. Of course she had known about their arrival, as she certainly wasn't going to remain ignorant of what was happening on her own planet, especially not when the risks were so severe.

"I can't say there's much for them out here at the frontier."

"It's not about leveling up," Cato said, sounding almost impatient.

"It's about keeping them out of sight of the other System-gods. Especially the ones around the core. One thing I can't do is interface directly with the System — but you can."

"I certainly can," Mii-Es purred, eyeing the false Ikent form that Cato used and reaching out to touch her Interface.

"And I can think of a number of ways to protect your strays. But you realize that should any of that be traced back to me, I would be the one at risk, and I certainly don't have enough power to protect myself from the World Deities at the core. Especially since we're already under suspicion."

"We, who?" Cato asked, tilting his head in a gesture that was eerily appropriate for his form. She didn't know whether she found it more disturbing that he wasn't the Ikent that he seemed, or that he could act like one so well.

"Everyone knows that you started at Sydea, and that Initik drove you off," Mii-Es told him.

"It takes no great intellect to trace the path you would require from there to your other battles, around Gogri. We are, all of us, suspected by the Core. They know that you haven't gone away in these past years."

"I suppose it was too much to expect them to be stupid, or have short memories," Cato sighed.

"So what's the best way to do this? Since you don't seem too upset I assume you have a plan."

"It turns out that I am hardly the only god at odds with the Core Worlds," Mii-Es said, pressing her hands together and tapping her talons against each other.

"After the purges, a number of us clanless types got together, and it might well be possible to give your agents a few disparate blessings. Enough to render them safely anonymous, and not even directly linked to me or mine."

"But?" Cato asked, clearly recognizing that such things didn't come free.

"It's an interesting question. Any current power I grasp for will be rendered irrelevant in time, and perhaps not even a long time, so my request is less for me, as for my fellow deities. You've already said there is a way to make it so I can survive past the fall of the System, and in fact, that is true for anyone." She waved her talons airily, pulling some information from her Interface.

"I will give you a list of planets, and you will set that up for others, so that when the time comes they are not annihilated in the crossfire."

"That is possible," Cato said slowly, clearly thinking — though she was fairly certain that was a sham, as he clearly could think and move at the same scale as gods.

"Though you realize they're hardly likely to listen to me, let alone manifest somewhere that I can scan and digitize them — which is to say, bring them safely out of the System."

"Or send them over here," Mii-Es added.

"They will need some place to come, should their worlds be purged by those at the System's Core."

"That…" Cato took a long breath.

"That is more complicated. It might be possible, but it really should be up to them."

"Why would they want to stay?" Mii-Es asked frowning at Cato's projection.

"With a dead world, what would the point or purpose be?"

"I suppose there's no point in hiding these particular cards," Cato sighed.

"Since the purges happened, I've been working on my own countermeasures. There's several layers to them, and I won't bother with the details, but even in the worst case scenario, I have a good chance of rescuing the population and reconstituting the planet. So with luck, your friends wouldn't be stuck on a barren planet — how does that even work with the System-Gods anyway?"

"From what I heard, their System Spaces were forcibly detached from those worlds," Mii-Es said absently, struggling to conceive of a single person rebuilding a planet. Even a god would have trouble with something of that scale. Especially one without the System's support, and while she knew that Cato had his own power, she also fully appreciated the scale of trying to deal with an entire planet.

"But those were all clan worlds, so the gods had somewhere to go. With the independents, I'm not sure what might happen."

"That's not a blow I can stop, but if you give me some lists I can at least get more assets into a closer staging area," Cato said, and Mii-Es wasn't certain if he was aware that he was admitting he already had forces in place. Apparently everywhere, if he could make that commitment without knowing the planets and peoples ahead of time.

Dealing with Cato could be frustrating at times solely because he didn't play the same game as every other god Mii-Es dealt with, and it was hard to know what was purposeful and what was an accident of his unique perspective.

"Before I do, I have to ensure you realize that I have yet to broach the subject with any of them." Mii-Es pointed a talon at Cato's projected form.

"Even if we are united against the depredations of the Core, that is hardly the same as committing absolute treason, and going against everything we know."

"Not a problem," Cato assured her.

"Double-blind passphrases, one-time-pads, dead drops, and all the other apparatus of spycraft ought to work just fine, gods or not. We can set things up so they know there's an ally, and how I can prove that I am that ally, without either of us giving away our identities until the event."

"I have to admit," Mii-Es said slowly.

"I am not familiar with the sort of thing you're talking about."

"You probably are, just not by those terms," Cato assured her.

"And if you aren't, you'll catch on quick. If nothing else, I'm sure you'll enjoy the wonderful world of information control."

Muar sat in the vestibule of the Temple, meditating in hopes that he would catch the attention of one of more the active gods. He had faith that he could ultimately have killed Cato's agents or at least brought in the direct attention of the gods, if they hadn't been able to somehow break the lock on the teleportation pylon. How that had happened wasn't clear, but Muar suspected that the final missing Sydean was involved.

Dyen had more or less vanished, and the Tornok Clan hadn't reported finding him, so it made sense that he was the unknown factor. As it was, Raine and Leese were loose in the System again, having been spirited away right under his nose. Even if he'd put protections on the portals out, they'd vanished from the planet in the brief time he'd been away to get additional reinforcements.

Not that he'd ever fully expected to keep the pair contained, but he could have at least harried them enough to reveal more of Cato's abilities. His pursuit hadn't been entirely without reward, however, as he'd found there had to be other collaborators — and at least one infestation. The world of Gyvestral, where he had chased them, was certainly compromised if the sisters had fled there and found available transport out.

At Azoth, tracking down lower-rank collaborators on the frontier was probably not the best use of his time – especially if it might give Cato a chance for a clear shot at him – but Muar wasn't about to let such corruption go unanswered. For a time, the communications between the Temple and the gods was the usual buzz of activity, the kind that showed there was no truly personal attention being shown, but then he felt a shift.

His [Crusade] Skill had given him ever-more insight into the higher workings of essence and the System itself, and he thought he could even recognize the distinct flavors of different gods. This flavor was something else entirely, a purity of presence that could only belong to a Deity from deep within the Core. The surroundings faded, a complex linking of essence embracing him and bringing him somewhere else. Somewhere that wasn't on the mortal plane at all.

Then, without any fanfare, without any need for ostentation or grandstanding, there stood in front of him a pair of beings that he had never seen before. [Core Elder Deity Keppel Eln] [Core Greater Deity Misse Eln]"[Crusader] Muar," the Elder Deity intoned.

"We have taken note of your efforts. Of the target of your [Crusade]. To that end, I am giving you the chance to be elevated to one of the Chosen, and to work directly with my daughter." Muar hardly had to think about it. He had always guessed there was a hierarchy among the gods, and that his prayers and communion only reached the local deities, ones with considerations only for their own world.

That only the most forward-thinking and visionary of the divine truly understood the import of Cato's threat — and finally, now, those superlative gods had come to him. Only after the heretical sisters had appeared again, but he well understood that there needed to be some proof in order to act.

"I accept," Muar said, going to one knee in front of [Core Greater Deity Misse Eln].

"Excellent," Misse said, voice rich and musical.

"Rise, [Crusader] Muar, and walk with me. We shall discuss the crises that Cato has brought — and what we must do to contest him. The worlds that must be considered, and those that might be suborned." [You have been granted the status of Chosen. You may now walk in the realms of the Deities.] Muar stood, his surroundings resolving from some vague in-between to the true divine world. A massive, rolling garden seemed to extend to the horizon, and an enormous manor building that sprawled out in the distance.

Hovering at a distance were a number of beings all [Appraising] at a rank of [Deity Servant], bearing trays of food and drink, others playing soft, chiming music. Very clearly the realm of the gods.

"I would be delighted," said Muar, glad to see that his efforts were finally being appreciated.