Godclads

There is a difference between wars and the Trials.

I cannot speak quite so much about the former, I have only glimpsed its true face from angles and moments. War is encompassing–too much for a single individual to master as we are now. Even should they be Godclad. I’m sure you have read Osjon Thousand’s treatise, “Total Domain Warfare.”

Quite excellently written, if I might applaud a former opponent.

To put it simply, there are too many aspects of reality to be struck from during warfare. Modern Heavens are built to be more encompassing in their symmetries, using such broad Domains as geometry, force, biology, time, matter, and the like, but mythologies are narrow and twisting. No two Heavens of Flame truly occupy the same grooves in a single concept; there are always separations in canon and expression.

Dueling is mastering your own canons and knowing your foes. War is never sticking to a set build and always moving, maneuvering, shaping your environment–knowing what Sovereignties to press and which to avoid; diving the Nether, and jacking minds to strip intentions bare and avoid incoming harm.

You can become champion of the Trials alone. I know. I’ve done it. It’s more reliable that way.

But there are fifty million others like me with their own Frames, and all it takes is one mistake before someone claims all that is mine.

There are only so few of us that can live up to the tale of the owl. For most, survival will come in mimicking the fashion of crows.

-Ying Yang Wei “Stormsparrow,” Fallwalker and Grand Champion of the Apex Trials

10-29

Cadre (I)

[LIMINAL FRAME] OBTAINED - GLADIUS PATTERN

->[GATE OF THE PASSING DARK] HEAVEN TEMPLATE DOWNLOADED

->THAUMIC CYCLER x2

->SOUL x1

->ONTOLOGICS x4

THAUMIC CYCLER 1: [GATE OF PASSING DARK]/[THIRD CIRCLE]

THAUMIC CYCLER 2: [GALESLITHER]/[SECOND CIRCLE]

FOREIGN NOUS DETECTED [x3]

GRAFTING INITIATED

THAUMIC OUTPUT - 5483 THAUM/c

After the end, there remained four fires for four Souls.

Three were dark embers, satellites orbiting Avo’s colossal presence. They were sparks frozen in time, starved of worship, starved of death. Each bore a slot of emptiness at its core. With one taken from a Fallen Heaven and two from recently slain Guilders, the three Souls hovered and bobbed upon tides of rippling radiance.

The Soulfire solidified around them. Their movement froze still.

Through the brightness came three fragments of humanity. Three beings bundled in properties of mind and will–parts to the alloy of sapience. Injected by instruments made from pulsing flames, the three fragments slipped into three Souls as sparks, their symbology akin to a fire opening its eyes.

Rings of self-devouring serpents coiled and tightened around each Soul, each filled with a distillation of ten echoes of Essence. The dragons locked into place around the Souls. Quieted minds gasped as dreams spilled free from inside their Frames. New boundaries flashed into shape around Avo as he parted the yolk of his Frame and formed four galaxies from one.

One after another, the first shivers of awareness quavered through each of the Souls. Yet, as he regarded them, there was something odd about their aesthetic and shape; an incongruity with his own nature.

Where he was a rippling wavelength, the fires did not dance through the others. Instead, as soon as the cyclers were locked in place, each Soul manifested a different configuration–the structure of the Liminal borders was different in width and height, bent or arching out from certain angles.

They were in a sense as Kae said: Solid matter rigs to the nanomechanical fluidity possessed by his Stillborn and exemplified by his Metafac.

He wondered if he could change their ontologies toward preference or practicality.

Considering how he managed to install each of his companions into a Soul, he didn’t see why not.

Moments passed. He felt them slowly wake, but no aspect of speech arose. Apprehension filled him as he connected to each.

The problem is revealed via the words of his Woundshaper. “There are no Heavens or Hells to them, master–They exist in a void. Take pity and offer your new kindred something of a tongue.”

He swept his awareness across the countless new Heavens floating within the wavelength of his being.

Three crucified phoenixes impaled by seeds of ever-sprouting, ever-charring green greeted his notice first. The collective ontologics stripped from Jhred Greatling occupied its own cluster of space. Not far from it, the template taken from Six-Eyes looked akin to a grand obsidian gateway leading to another gateway to another in five repetitions. Avo hadn’t had the time to review the former Godclads cannon, but he knew they functioned, and from the Frame template he took the second cycler as an attachment for Chambers earlier, uninstalling a Galeslither and a connected Hell.

Surprisingly, the Rend was also missing–the slate cleaned with Six-Eyes’ death.

Finally, two Sangeists, three eyeless snakes implanted with a cockroach’s legs and oozing watery darkness from their wounds, and truck-sized warg stitched together from constantly clashing bolts of lighting lingered formed a belt around his nucleus.

He attached the Twice-Walker template to the Soul he thought was Draus and the Endogate to Essus. He eyed the last Soul that was Chambers and considered grafting a Sangeist onto it but felt the awareness of his Woundshaper glaring inward upon him.

Awkwardly, he withdrew the Sangeist and attached one of the phoenixes–its Heaven called a Lushburner–to Chambers instead.

HEAVENS DETECTED: SANGEIST X2; FULGERHUND X1; SHADOWCRAWLER X3; LUSHBURNER X2; GALESLITHER X1

HELLS DETECTED: GALESLITHER [SECOND CIRCLE] X1

DOMAIN FRAGMENTS DETECTED: DOMAIN OF (SPACE) X1

A series of Heavens twitched to life. Light washed over the reflective form of the Twice-Walker. The midnight doors to each gateway slammed, rippling the geometry surrounding it. The phoenix screeched–and the noise broke off to become Chambers’ incoherent screaming. Avo couldn’t tell if something had gone wrong, resulting in madness and insanity for the man, or if this was how he always was.

“Avo?” Draus said, her voice produced by the dissonance of glass shattering and mending. “Are we snuffed?” Relief and satisfaction sprang loose within him. The weight of impulse and physiological feedback ran scant here, even so, this was a sign of his success.

They were dead. They would be resurrecting alongside him.

The full weight of realization pressed down in that instant. He could make almost anyone a Godclad, so long as he had the components. Souls and cyclers were the hardest to claim, but if he hunted the right prey…

“Yes,” he said, finally responding to her question. “For now.”

RESURRECTION - 8%

Silenced by the dialogue, confusion came from Essus while Chambers stopped screaming. Ebbed in their own Heavens, the Souls expressed themselves with better animation.

“It wasn’t my fault,” Chambers spat out. Fire crackled and branches burned with each word he said. “I held onto the locus with my life–you saw, consangs. Tell ‘em, Essus. Didn’t you see me protect that shit with my li–Essus… why the fuck are you a door?”

The man once named Lingerer felt at the joints of his own ontology. He opened his first doorway again and the flow of spaces loosed. “I… do not know. The last thing I remember is… I killed a man. I killed someone.” A low sigh came from him. “Oh, Artad. What have I become?”

“A… door,” Chambers answered. Suddenly, the phoenix looked down at itself and squawked in surprise. “Avo… what the fuck. You get to be blood-tower-wolf-jaw antler castle; Draus here’s got Mirrorhead’s old shit; Essus is a door; why the hells did you make me a chicken.”

“Phoenix,” Draus corrected. “You got a Lushburner grafted on you.” She sighed and directed a glare at Avo. “Well, suppose Zein might still got her eye on us–we’re all ‘Clads now, ain’t we.”

Neither Draus nor Essus seemed overly enthused. The rare bitterness of regret came over Avo at the outcome–they hadn’t managed to choose. He was forced to deliver upon them a decision to preserve their life. He did not regret it, but he did wish it to be different. Quieted by these thoughts, Avo found himself hesitant to respond.

Chambers didn’t. “... I’m a ‘Clad?”

The Twice-Walker stepped through its own reflective surface to stare at Chambers. She turned back to Avo. “Did you have to graft him too? Couldn’t you’ve just… I don’t know… lost your grip on him.”

Chambers’ voice rose an octave. The phoenix seemed to smile. He didn’t seem to register Draus’ words. “I’m a ‘Clad.”

“I… I did not want this.” Essus said, his despondence mixing with Chambers’ rising glee.

“Was more focused more on keeping you all alive,” Avo said, answering Draus. She just regarded him in silence. “Resurrected.” He corrected.

“Sure.”

“I’m a MOTHERFUCKING ‘CLAD!” Chambers began to spin his Heaven as flames and vines erupted out from him. “I’M MOTHERFUCKING IMMORTAL.”

That statement wasn’t technically wrong, but it disquieted Avo to hear it spoken by Chambers nonetheless.

“So,” Draus said, her voice thin. Glass chipped and fissured as she crashed her borders against his. “You see what did us in?”

A beat passed. Avo considered his answer. “Train broke.”

“Well, damn, that reveals everythin’, don’t it? What made the train break, rotlick.”

Another beat. “Couldn’t tell. Was a lot happening? Think there was… a flash of light. Maybe Abrel used her Heaven again?”

“Did she now? ‘Cause I remember taking her head off.”

“Still had a piece of skin attached to her. Maybe implant. You didn’t kill her clean—it happens.”

All three other Souls judged Avo in silence.

“You know,” Chambers said, “I do recall seeing some weird missile coming out of you there, Moonblood.”

No longer Avo or boss or anything placating. Moonblood again. How quickly did Chambers promote himself back to associate from prisoner? Avo would need to see this misunderstanding corrected.

“Saw wrong. Saw you using the locus to shield yourself.”

The phoenix chirped with indignation. “What? That’s bullshit, Avo. Bullshit. You tell him, Essus. You tell him how brave I was. I died protecting that locus.”

Again, Chambers was technically correct. Avo despised him for it.

The obsidian doorway that Essus embodied creaked with dismay, silent at his current predicament. Maybe he wanted to die. Maybe. Avo would give him that choice afterward. He could give a Frame; he probably could take one as well.

Draus offered a joyless chuckle. “You know what? I’ll second that–I’ll back you up, Chambers. I think we did see the very same thing.”

Avo tried to sneer at the Regular. His Woundshaper bubbled with blood. His Galeslither neighed. And then spoke.

“Where… where is the rest…”

Everyone went still. The Woundshaper prodded at its neighboring Heaven with concern. “Mule. Be you awake as well? Do your eyes open fully?” The Galeslither didn’t respond. “Master… perhaps it is best that you don’t infuse it with more potential. There is much danger in uncertainty, but in me there is reliability. Better a lived-in hovel than an untested castle.”

Draus hummed. “Yeah. Weird shit. Anyway, you fuckin’ got us killed, rotlick. What happened to ‘don’t damage the train.’ I thought we were all clear about not breakin’ our ride?”

“We were,” Chambers said, adding the fuel of annoyance to the ghoul’s simmering ire.

“Was trying to save your life,” Avo growled.

The Twice-Walker shook as Draus snorted. “Well. Didn’t quite light the wick there, did we, Avo?”

He let out a quiet ripple of fire. “Suppose not.”

“Ah, come on, Reg,” Chambers said. “We all fuck shit up sometimes. And Avo did it to keep you alive.” A strange wistfulness filled his next words. “You especially, I think. But he kept all of us. Shit… you kept me alive too. I never thought… I figured…” The former enforcer uncharacteristically lapsed into speechlessness. “I was kinda expecting you to throw me away.”

“Still need your mind if I can keep it. Might be useful. For Kae.”

Chambers hummed. “Well. Cheers to Kae, then.”

RESURRECTION - 18%

“What happens now?” Essus asked.

“Resurrection,” Avo answered. “See the percentage rising. Should be tied to a thaumic cycle. I think. Brings us back when it's done. Reinserts us into reality.” Speaking those words made him realize another factor: Abrel died before them, but her death was neither permanent nor true.

“Need to finish grafting you all. Make modifications. Prepare for return. Enemy could be waiting with Heaven.”

“Start with Chambers, then,” Draus said. “Essus and I look like we got a least a Heaven and Hell between us.”

Scanning through his root-data, the build of the Spire-pattern Liminal Frame he subsumed from the Fallen Heaven at Burner’s Way flashed into his mind. Unfortunately, it was missing too many domains and integral components to grant Chambers an automatic install.

Instead, Avo was going to need to invert another of the Lushburners to serve as Chambers’ Second Circle.

HEAVEN - [LUSHBURNER]

DOMAIN: (FIRE/BIOLOGY/FORCE)

THAUMIC REQUIREMENTS - 68 THAUM/c

DOMAIN OF (FIRE)

CANON: CONFLAGRATION OF BIRTHING - THE FLAMES OF THIS HEAVEN CAN ENGENDER THE DEVELOPMENT OF RECORDED BIOLOGICAL STRUCTURES AND WEAVE ORGANISMS FROM THE HEAT OF ITS FLAMES; THE FLAMES MUST SURPASS 800 DEGREES CELCIUS TO BEGIN MANIFESTATION

HUBRIS: THE FLAMES CANNOT SURPASS 1000 DEGREES CELCIUS

DOMAIN OF (BIOLOGY)

CANON: CATALOGUE OF THE CHARRED SEED - FLORA AND FAUNA BURNED BY THE MASTER OF THIS CANON WILL BE ADDED TO THE HEAVEN’S EXPRESSIONS

CANON: FLAMEWEAVER - THE MASTER WILL BE ABLE TO MUTATE ALL FLESH CAUGHT IN ITS HEAT RADIUS INTO A SPECIFIC LIFEFORM STORED WITHIN ITS SEED

HUBRIS: ONLY TWELVE LIFEFORMS CAN BE STORED WITHIN A SEED AT A TIME

DOMAIN OF (FORCE)

CANON: GRASP OF THE BURNING - THE MASTER CAN CONVERT HEAT INTO KINETIC ENERGY AND DIRECT IT WITHIN A ONE-THOUSAND FEET RADIUS

HUBRIS: IF THE HEAT IN THE AIR DROPS BELOW 400 DEGREES CELCIUS, IT WILL RESULT IN THAUMIC BACKLASH

With a single command sent to his Meta-Fac, Avo twisted the Heaven and broke it into its component domains. The progress of resurrection was rising fast and he didn’t have much time–he needed to finish with Chambers and review the others.

Then, he needed to distribute the necessary thaums to keep each of them functional.

Taking components from the domains of Fire, Biology, and Force, he created a Second Circle using the components of force.

HELL - [SECOND CIRCLE] - LUSHBURNER

DOMAIN: (FORCE/ENTROPY)

THAUMIC REQUIREMENTS - 68 THAUM/c

Letting his Meta-Fac’s simulation run, he picked the most coherent option he could while keeping things simple. Kae wasn’t here, and Zein couldn’t foresee his future–best he avoid anything too experimental.

CANON: FLESHBOMBER - THE MASTER OF THIS DOMAIN CAN INFUSE ALL BIOLOGICAL LIFEFORMS ABOVE FREEZING WITH KINETIC ENERGY AND USE THEM TO TRIGGER AN EXPLOSION - THIS CANON IS ABSOLUTE

DAEMON: IF A BIOLOGICAL LIFEFORM IS COOL BELOW FREEZING WHILE INFUSED WITH KINETIC ENERGY, THE RESULTING RUPTURE WILL BIRTH AN ANATHEMA OF DEVASTATION TO SERVE AS THE MASTER’S ANATHEMA; THE ANATHEMA CANNOT BE SLAIN AND MUST BE STARVED

Soulfire welded the next Hell below Chambers’ form. A ripple formed below the impaled phoenix and the blazing avian looked down. “Shit, consang. I take it back: Burning chicken’s got some kick to it.”

Finishing, Avo checked the progress of his resurrection and winced. He had slowed it to the slowest pace possible, but time was still slipping away. He wouldn’t have enough time to review everyone in depth.

RESURRECTION: 56%

Interfacing with Draus and Essus, he considered what else he could do. He knew the Twice-Walker’s capabilities and considered adding additional canons to it. It would take a thousand and two thaums per cycle to fuel the Twice-Walker, and every little bit fed to it was something Avo wouldn’t have for himself.

Ghouls were selfish creatures, but this was not a moment to fixate on his share of flesh. The more important factors were in what more he could graft.

Draus stopped him. “Avo. Stop. You’re wasting time. Do what you know with what you got. Me, Essus, and Chambers are gonna be support, anyhow. None of us are properly trained for this, but you’ve been a ‘Clad the longest. Don’t burn your time on me or Essus–I know Jhred’s Heaven already and I got some ideas, so you graft yourself up first while I try to get help Essus figure out what he can do. After we get back to the real, we can link minds and see where we’re at.”

That was all the permission he needed. Digging into Essus Frame momentarily, Avo scanned the Gate of the Passing Dark and understood it to be a spatial Heaven of some kind that could warp bind points in reality and twist geometries.

Before he returned his attention to himself, he flared his Soul and distributed a surfeit of thaums to each of the other Frames - it would serve as an ample cushion against any potential dangers.

(DRAUS) TWICE-WALKER - 1002 THAUM/c

(ESSUS) GATE OF THE PASSING DARK - 880 THAUM/c

(CHAMBERS) LUSHBURNER - 100 THAUM/c

That left him with three thousand five hundred and one echoes of circling Essence. Three thousand five hundred and one deaths nourishing him. It felt more than he remembered taking from the other Godclads.

How much of this came from his foes? How much were accidental procurements from collateral damage? With how the day had gone, he could no longer be certain.

Tearing his thoughts away from such considerations, he returned his focus to his own Heavens and processed his next steps.

Again, complexity was unwise right now. He needed something to add to his effectiveness–to augment him and make him more. Considering his successes and vulnerabilities displayed from recent engagements, what he needed quickly became clear to him.

The Woundshaper was his primary instrument, excelling in close quarters against targets tied to physical matter. What it lacked was omnidirectional movement, range, and the ability to battle against more asymmetric adversaries.

He needed something that could make him faster–more unpredictable. He was at his best when he was ambushing or skirmishing. And as he was looking for something to facilitate just that, his attention fell upon the Fulgerhund, and inspiration struck like a bolt of lightning.

HEAVEN - [FULGERHUND]

DOMAIN: (LIGHTNING/MATTER)

THAUMIC REQUIREMENTS - 51 THAUM/c