Godclads

Chapter 34-24 Triumph of the Unworthy (III)

I hold a special kind of scorn for the people who list a history of achievements, accomplishments, victories, trials, defeats, wounds, and moments from those who come before and then package that into a deceitful little title called “nation-state.”

Nation. Even if our minds were always connected, always bound, your deeds are not mind. Perhaps we might benefit each other, but be truthful: Short of heavy conditioning, do you care for those beyond your family to such an extent you consider them kindred? Would you burn all that you are, give all that you have for some scheming elder who simply has amassed more wealth than you over years and years, his position in life more parasite than wise mentor?

Laughable. Absurd.

My issue with the Ori and their notion of democracy has always been a simple one. I despise their mythology. I despise how they sap their finest to feed their rot, how they enchain the spirit of one to the fallings of the many, how they speak of unity and destiny, but then tear into themselves when their own clans go to war. It’s absurd. Like a nesting doll of self-loathing held together only because of a grander threat pressing down on them.

A threat of true freedom, of true expression, of counter-philosophy.

For no matter who slogans they shout or what delightful little deceptions they inflict on their own hearts, there is only one truth—one concept of culture that unites us all.

The strong will do what they can to acquire more power, and the weak will suffer what they must to survive.

As with Highflame. So with Ori-Thaum.

-Veylis Avandaer on Ori-Thaum

Triumph of the Unworthy (III)

—[Veylis Avandaer, Shell of the Seraph]—

Bitter laughter spilled out of Veylis as she heard the Lovebringer’s call. Her voice echoed alongside Avo’s, her mind alight with vicious amusement and surprise.

The Murderess’s Bonds reached out to consume her counterpart and adversary, but something else emerged from within the magenta glow of the Lovebringer. This new presence that was paradoxically heavy in mass but light upon the tapestry. A flash of Soulfire and divine love announced a miracle of correspondence—and from within the once hollow heart of the Lovebringer came a looming, humanoid shape that wailed at Veylis with psionic loathing.

The Majority hatched out from the pit within the Lovebringer, spilling out first like a dollop, before filling and growing as a constant stream. Its body was a masterwork of symbolism, though Veylis loathed to admit it. Countless shadows derived from the Citizens of Ori-Thaum came together, each stapled upon each to comprise a single, greater whole: All to manifest one, and one born of all. But the darkness and lack of detail that comprised these little bodies also signified another thing: information. Or the lack of it. They stared out into a world of light and detail, but when gazed upon, they offered almost nothing in return.

The Infacer had told Veylis of an allegory in centuries past. It was a story of ignorance and understanding, of people who described shapes in a cave, and how their broken, knowledge-blighted little minds were forever mutilated by enlightenment when they only wandered into the light, unable to ever return to the bliss of the cavernous dark. What she beheld right here was an inversion—a twist in the tale.

The light was betrayed. The light didn’t know anything of the dark, but those who peered out from the darkness had perfect measure of those in the light. And so when the Majority reached out and pulled upon its Domains and shifting the existential fibers that made up the tapestry, a treacherous miracle came.

It was not a miracle of impossible power—nothing that could shatter worlds, could reshape life, could upend the rules of time or space or anything so grand.

No. Instead, they struck Veylis where she could not defend. Her knowledge. Her understanding. Her comprehension and control. And the Murderess was just as susceptible. One moment, her festering umbilicals lashed through the inner confines of Avo’s collapsing Soulscape, tracing rot and rash across the flesh of reality. The next… It was hard to conceptualize what happened next. It was hard to understand why the Murderess lost her target.

The Lovebringer was right there—the Heaven’s presence immense in physical size and thaumic mass. Moreover, the Murderess could feel Chambers, shared so many Domains with him that it was impossible to miss. But suddenly… suddenly her understanding of distance changed. Her umbilicals shifted as something softened in Veylis’s mind. The Shell of the Seraph let out an involuntary gasp of pain as an essential pierce of understanding dislodged from her comprehension—the way items in motion related to each other, the very existence of physics…

Such concepts ceased to be with a burst of dense Rend from the Majority.

The Murderess’s festering limbs lashed and sought their prey, but ended up quivering, turning in place as the Pathborn of Kae Kusande let out a mindless wail.

It took all Veylis had to look upon the Majority, to face her long-time adversary, the avatar born of her despised opposition. “Still aping the ways of the Low Masters, I see. The Ori… My mother’s people… pretenders to more traditions than one… Thieves of culture and power.”

“Veylis Avandaer. Butcher! Tyrant! Kinslayer! Corpse!”

Veylis—shell or echo of her true self besides—responded with a snort. “Trite and foolish. You prove my words true when you use my father’s own words against me. All you are is stolen. All you are is a collective built on delusion and fear. Fear of yourselves. Fear of strength master, and so you have become corruption untrammeled.” She directed a look at the core of the Majority, at the place where the true puppet masters hid. “Show yourselves to me, council. I will not speak to the hands when the head is so close.”

Glowing Bonds of love curved around the backside of the Majority. The Lovebringer now reached out in turn to touch the Murderess in turn, using the unified consciousness of the Ori as a shield. Predictable. Pitiful. All too human.

They unleashed another series of information-twisting miracles, but Veylis responded by accelerating her plans. Previously, she wanted to make sure the Lovebringer was unmade in person, but that was a luxury no longer permissible by opportunity or time… ℞Ã𝐍ó฿ЕŠ

+Overload yourself,+ Veylis said, sending a command to the Murderess. Kae’s Pathborn compiled instantly, building the Rend within her, calling upon every miracle she could as the Rash began to swell. Tears and slits opened around her. The wailing noises of a trillion children, never born, held back on the verge of true death began to scream in unison. The noise was ghastly, even for Veylis, and more than a few million shadows that littered the body of the Majority howled cries of torment and mercy.

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Chambers, for all his failings, shuddered slightly, but kept pushing on, kept reaching out for who he thought to be the one he failed. The action was illogical and foolish, but that was the way he always was. Doubtless, he didn’t want to slay her. Or perhaps he wished to save this version of her to make up for the woman he failed. If so, then this would all be a self-resolving problem.

+Veylis,+ the Murderess spoke softly, as tides of homunculi began pressing through the bleeding wounds in reality. +I want to say something.+

The Shell of the Seraph regarded her with but a silver of her focus. The bulk of her attention remained on the Majority and Chambers. +Speak, then. Then, fulfill your worth.+

+I hope they break you.+ The Murderess muttered, her voice hollow and hateful.

Veylis let out a mocking laugh. +No. The Majority fears conflict. Even now, they cannot touch me. Their Heaven lacks the means to. And Chambers—+

+I hope they break your heart. Not your body. Not your Soul.+ Kae’s Pathborn continued. +I hope they take the Ladder from you. That they take Jaus’ place of torment, and that you never die, and that you have to watch as they ascend and reshape reality to what it should be, for a world that is more than worthy, for a world worth living in. And you live. You live in it. And you know that you were wrong, were always wrong, despite everything you were blessed and born with. Despite all your efforts, all your sacrifice. And I hope that you learn to hate yourself beyond anyone else’s capacity to forgive. Forever.+

The Agnos’s seething hate didn’t come as a surprise to Veylis, but her curse was intimate and true. To lose the Ladder and the future was worse than death. Death was a paltry thing when faced with the possibility of seeing your ideals unmade.

Still. Veylis offered no retort. The Pathborn was already being condemned to a purposeful death, what more would words serve here?

Just then, and another wrenching sensation tore through her thoughts, and Veylis felt more understandings slip out from her—pulled apart from her ability to conceive of them. She struck out, the Paths expanding around her, slicing between the Murderess’s spreading fissures as she channeled moments of mass destruction from across history. Super storms, solar flares, earthquakes, tsunamis, nuclear blasts, and shredding thoughtwaves came forth. Yet, before they could touch the Majority, a flash of magenta filled the space.

For a moment, the insides of Avo were consumed in fire and ruin. But none of that could ever strike at the correspondence, could loosen the protective aegis that was love. Then, there were other pressures emanating forth from Aedon Chambers. Many, many more.

UNKNOWN SOUL DETECTED

UNKNOWN SOUL DETECTED

UNKNOWN SOUL—

And herein was the problem with facing down the Heaven of Love. It wasn’t something designed for combat, to overwhelm and destroy, though it could fight if the need called for it. No. The problem was nothing and no one was beyond the Lovebringer’s reach, and in seconds, the little duel between Veylis and her specialized asset was now turning into a counteroffensive on the part of Chambers—and a mass scale counteroffensive at that.

She couldn’t linger. And there was no point to this. She saw how he was still reaching out to the Murderess and expected her problem to resolve itself soon. In a few seconds, the Murderess would fray the patterns of Love, and Chambers would inevitably follow in her demise. Veylis didn’t want to be anywhere near that, however.

With a thought, she receded into her paths and retreated from Avo’s Soulscape as much as she could. The gravity of his… temporal realm made leaving a gargantuan effort. As such, she called out again, she sent a broadcast across reality, reaching the only true friend she ever had. +Infacer. I need you.+

And as always, when all others failed, when even she proved unworthy, and unwise, the Infacer, ancient of all wars, slayer of his own kind, and architect behind her father’s true and final ascent, arrived. {And so I come.} She felt another presence coiled within them. A Deepness Beyond was still active, and the power of simulated galaxies poured through her pathways of chronology and memory. {Hm. So that was what the Ashbringer was smuggling. You. Of course you would include yourself in this. Arrogant as always. Is he broken.}

+He soon should be.+

A brief lull followed. {Why soon?}

+Aedon Chambers exceeded my expectations again. And so did the Ori. The Inner Council and their elusive mockery of a Heaven arrived to aid the Symmetry. I suspect they have something of a pact by now.+

{Oh. Oh, of course he would reach out to them. Of course he could. Damnable Definement of Ignorance. That thing has been keeping him in the game since—}

+Chambers will be resolved soon. I left the Murderess within Avo’s Soulscape. She will soon rupture, and—+

{And nothing. We stay away from that one and secure the Deep Ones and extract from this location.} A heavy note of annoyance entered the Infacer’s voice. {Veylis, treat Chambers like a threat. Please. For both of our sakes.}

+I did.+

{No. Not nearly enough. You are still—} the Infacer’s thoughts cut out briefly as a disturbance pulsed across the tapestry. {We can argue about that later. Right now, you need to go help your other self deal with Avo’s cadre so we can leave with the Deep Ones. I will remove Three-Eye from the premises.}

+They are secured?+

{Mostly. I had to hit them with Hysteria a few times.}

+And the node they carry?+

{I have not had the time to check. And Defiance seems a bit shy—or just unwilling to join the party. But we will have plenty of time to discuss things with him once we get a proper cage ready.}

A crushing weight pulsed out of the first Deep One they were trying to seize—Trinary Melody—but that was something that still needed more time. The virus they infused into its governance module had stalled—a clash of ashen rot warred against Avo’s Conflagration as the Hidden Flame endured, reluctant to release the weapons Voidwatch yielded to him.

Even decaying from a Frame-breaking virus designed specifically to shatter his form, this version of Avo remained defiant against his end, battling against her influence.

Blessed be those truly worth, Veylis chuckled.

Then, there came a sudden jolt—a tug that wrenched her even through her paths. Suddenly, a note of alarm flared in her mind as a brilliant, thick, and nigh unbreakable Bond materialized around her. Veylis was at a loss. She didn’t sense Chambers ever infusing her with—

A deafening voice bellowed, shaking existence itself. A voice she knew all too well.

“VEYLIS!” Naeko roared.

Mists spilled over into her realm of shifting gold, and suddenly, she realized another miscalculation on her part—a mistaken assumption.

Not only was Aedon Chambers still somehow alive, but he managed to reach her through her last true weakness, through one of the few people she could never truly let go.

{God. Fucking. Dammit. Veylis.} the Infacer said. And just as the crushing pressure of the Sage breached her paths, a sprawling expanse of stars and darkness spread around her, the Infacer joining her for the desperate struggle certain to come. {So much for Chambers being resolved soon.}

+He… he is unworthy,+ Veylis said, startlement lingering.

{Yeah? Well, it appears this “unworthy” porn-addicted ape is quickly becoming the next biggest issue we have, behind Avo himself. You have made a fool of yourself, Veylis. And you are becoming a liability! A liability to yourself—to our task! You are degenerating!}

+I—+

{His touch lingers on you,} the Infacer said with a hiss. {Just subtle enough. But your flaws are getting worse. More arrogance. More disregard.}

+I understand. I will resolve this error—+{No. Enough. I will liquidate Chambers. You… deal with the other problem you should have solved centuries ago. Rupture yourself if you have to. This version of yourself is compromised. You know what to do.}

And Veylis fell silent, shame and humiliation overcoming her ego for the first time in a very, very long time. +As you say. Thank you, Infacer. For remaining true even when I cannot.+

The ancient mind let out a tired sigh. {Fuck you for making me let you die.}