Book 8 – Chapter 14 – Nemesis

“There’s no way this works.” The rock said. “Absolutely no way in hell.”

“You’d know a thing or two about hell.” Cathida hissed back. “How about you go back there?”

“Way ahead of ya cupcake. I’m already stuck here with you.”

I waved the two of them off, “Children, please, settle down. It’ll work. Probably. Maybe.” My hand knocked on my legplate, three times for luck.

“Let the record show I’m already expecting this to explode.” The rock said.

This time Wrath came to my defence, “This would be highly unlikely. There are no explosive materials within the schematic.”

“We are talking about the same asshole here, right?” The rock doodled up a large accusing finger, aimed at me. As if I were all the proof he needed. “Even Avalis expects the worst from this guy. Five minutes without eyes on what he’s doing and boom – enemy territory, do not step foot nearby. Trust me, I know. Boss made me read the entire SOP manual for him.”

“I have an SOP manual dedicated to dealing with me?” I asked. I don’t think I’ve ever felt as flattered as I did now.

“It’s fifty three goddamn pages long, at least the last iteration I got. Probably bigger now after To’Naviris made such a perfect case study of what happens when folks don’t take you seriously enough. They die, if you haven’t noticed yet.”

To’Orda looked down at the rock. Then back up at where I was fiddling with the lantern. And took a few steps backwards to the bridge.

We’d done our typical sprint down one bridge, and were currently waiting to restore souls back to full before the next sprint. In the downtime here, I had Wrath use some of her nanoswarms to cook me up something interesting.

Sure, I couldn’t move them, or cut them. Or loot them. But what about the opposite of looting – adding onto them?

Wrath handed me one last set of completed goods and I hooked it all together, then held the completed project up so everyone could admire it: A convex mirror that would focus light.

Designed to hook right on top of these lanterns. Like a cone of shame, except instead of putting it on a rooster or weasel, it was for some misbehaving mite lights.

“All right, get into position and let’s do some science.” I said, getting the mirror ready to slide onto the lantern.

“It’s wording like that, that makes us worry.” The peanut gallery said, but the two Feathers and small pack of Odin did shuffle into position.

It was difficult to see with the soul sight that far off, I could see their concepts but focusing on how whole or complete their soul was… a little blurry at this distance.

Fortunately, I had volunteers to help me out. The Odin. They’d hang on To’Orda’s arm, and when he took a step too far, started loudly making that clear.

They’d reached the furthest possible edge, to which one more step would expose them to the concept of Death and soul entropy floating out beyond.

I put the mirror on top of the lantern like a hat. Blue light around me and the area here immediately obscured, cut from its source. On the other hand, the bridge now had a full on spotlight illuminating all the way down the path. I turned a few knobs on the device, forcing the mirrors to start moving inwards, further constricting the light until it was a narrow beam.

A chill ran through me as I worked, and I executed my normal defense against the outside, equally wrapping a shield around Journey to keep my armor safe. The other two Feathers took the cue and took a step down the bridge again.

The Odin were clearly expecting something to happen, but all of them remained calm on To’Orda, one pecking down in a nervous tick. “We remain unaffected now.” Kres said, “There is no feeling of dread or chill any longer.”

“This is still dumb, and you just got lucky.” The rock hissed.

I shot the group a thumbs up, that they probably couldn’t see since the light was shining right into them.

“No, no, your thanks and gratitude are all that I need, my loyal admirers.” I said, “And yes, I am a genius, thank you for noticing.”

To’Orda immediately cupped the rock into both his hands, lumbering down the bridge to the other side. I could hear muffling sounds from the rock, clearly upset, even at this distance.

With both of them clear, I took the cone of shame off the lantern, and then made my own way through the bridge with my greatest invention held delicately in my hands. Reuse, reduce.

With that, we really kicked up the overall speed, capable of going from bridge to bridge without pause. I was more resistant to the outside, so I held the rear.

We passed by five more bridges, mostly in dead sprints without needing any more rest other than the time it took for me to hook the lantern hood on and focus it correctly with the knobs, or for me to take a breather.

The lantern posts weren’t always perfectly aligned with the bridges, which meant as the group ran across them, I would be moving the hood spotlight to track their motions, and keep them lit up like criminals.

And when we ran, we ran. Odin were holding onto To’Orda for dear life each time he lumbed down a bridge, like they’d been caught on the sides of an airspeeder going too fast.

People always underestimated relic armor’s speed, but here I felt the weakest link.

To’Orda was oddly the best at this, having some kind of fractal ability or a set of fractals working to modify his inertia. When he slammed into the sides of the rock face after a full sprint down the bridge, it was like a snowball hitting at full speed instead of a two ton block of steel. The Odin would detach earlier on, letting their wings slow them down, where they’d once more catch back up to him and land without fanfare, after he’d rightened himself back up.

Wrath cheated of course, because she also had wings, so that wasn’t a fair comparison.

The little bird-brain was now taking the opportunity to show off, doing dramatic pirouettes, and flared wings each time in different ways. The Odin gave her tips and new techniques, and she adjusted quite quickly. I think they were starting to grow on her, especially with idle chatter over time about how they decorate their wings among their different cultures, and Wrath was clearly taking notes.

And I landed into it with the same grace a brick flying through a window would. Good thing both my relic armor and the mirror I’d made were sturdy. So long as I didn’t hold the mirror out to be the first thing connecting with the rock of course.

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“She’s adapted her trajectory.” Wrath said after our latest cross. “She’ll attempt to ambush us much further ahead. At this rate, it will happen within two hours. Her pathway choices are optimal, despite her being forced to remain on each platform longer.”

“Keep an eye on her, if she starts aiming, we’ll have to figure out a way to obscure her sight.”

There were dead ends. Platforms that led to no bridges besides the one just took, and no stairs leading anywhere good. On those, we simply flew straight up to a platform further above us, or downwards. Usually those had new directions. Being able to move the spotlight anywhere I wanted it pointed at was working wonders for those detours.

But what we were really doing was playing a game of cat and mouse. To’Sefit didn’t have magical wings or portals to help her move around. She was on foot, and stuck in the same airspeeder as the rest of us. Only difference is she had an effective range of fuck-everyone, while we needed to be within stabbing distance to do anything serious to her.

So we adjusted. Anytime we made plans, and then changed them up, she’d need to react and readjust.

It was a threaded needle. Just enough to seem random so that she didn’t suspect we had means of tracking her. She was too proud to admit Avalis was right about anything, and had already dug her heels into the ground about that. But the moment we made movements that happened directly as a result of her own, she’d be forced to reassess. So everything had to appear randomized.

Basically we were royally pissing her off, acting like we were constantly changing our minds. I don’t know what emotions she was going through, but rage and annoyance were probably number one.

That all changed when she started being able to cross bridges without rest. The Feathers had figured out something to cheat their way past this biome. Worse, we couldn’t immediately react to match her movements without making her realize she was being watched. Which meant we were forced to react slower.