Book 8 – Chapter 38 – Not quite Defenseless

I was convinced To’Sefit would die. Getting the lower half of a digital avatar might not be technically fatal, but out here in the digital sea where the occult was manifesting half of everything, getting the lower body crushed had more serious ramifications on sense of self here.

I was both right and wrong, in different ways.

Turns out she’s not dumb – She’s been plotting out ways to survive Mother all this time. She had her Plan B, and triggered it right that moment. And it worked.

Relinquish peered down at her captive, looking mildly surprised. “Oh my, my, how adorable. Still holding on to dear life I see?”

She’d grafted some kind of occult fractal on her own avatar ahead of time, at the center of herself, and flared it at the last second. I recognized it even.

I’d seen it on the back of To’Orda’s shield: A fractal that drew danger to itself.

When Relinquished had squeezed, that power had been caught by the lightning rod. Instead of her soul being squashed, the fractal was. A one-shot attempt to protect against death.

The digital avatar was squashed, but her soul hadn’t been.

And I could also see it wasn’t going to last for very long. The concept was crumbling, whatever Relinquished was doing it had done enough catastrophic damage the fractal’s concept itself was breaking.

The reason this fractal worked well on To’Orda’s shield was that it was built of material that could survive just about everything. To’Sefit’s digital avatar was not.

“Did you have a desperate need to say one final word?” Relinquished laughed. “Go on now~”

To’Sefit took a breath, and what came out of her wasn’t a string of words, but a call. A signal sent out for the digital sea, through the mite network, outwards. A request for help, and simultaneously alerting the world that Relinquished was here, in this terminal.

The goddess grabbed onto the signal before it even left To’Sefit’s mouth.

“Manners.” She tutted. “Calling for rescue? In my house?” She examined the captured signal, frozen by her command. “What exactly did you hope would happen?”

To’Sefit tried to squirm out of her grasp, flaring the fractal of danger-draw inside this space as much as she could.

Relinquished eyed the attempt with mild interest. “Enough.” The fractal snapped all at once, ripped apart by a sliver of her attention. “Don’t be difficult now, I could easily torture that information out of you. Let us be civil about this. What was this last plan of yours?”

The hand squeezed slightly, and To’Sefit cried out in pain. “A gamble!” She wheezed, “It was a gamble!”

I saw the trapped signal too, Relinquished held it in the open, unbothered to hide it from anyone,

The internals of that call were pretty simple. It was set to broadcast all over the digital sea. I couldn’t see any particular destination. Or a person. Just a straight bonfire in the middle of the white wastes basically.

Relinquished seemed to come to the same conclusion. “You thought to call out to… anyone?”

“No.” To’Sefit ended her attempts to escape the grasp, going limp. “I gambled that something out there wants you dead. And if they know you’re here, away from your empire and throne of power, they might come.”

The goddess stared at To’Sefit. Then started laughing. It actually sounded genuine.

“What, pray tell, did you think you could possibly summon? There is not a single entity in this world that could pose a threat to me, not here in the digital sea.”

She held the trapped signal, then let it loose.

To’Sefit watched the signal leave, wide eyed, then back to Relinquished, “Arrogance really will be your undoing Mother. It is so obvious now that I know what to look for.”

“Arrogance is for the weak. Confidence is for those who know better.” Relinquished chided. “Come, let me show you the truth. That nobody is coming to save you. Nothing will dare.”

Almost as if murphy’s law itself applied even to ancient evil goddesses, there was a dim, glowing light in the distance.

Something was coming. I could hear it in the sea, a dull boom. Whatever it was, it was coming fast, and there was a shadow of power flowing behind it, like a wake.

Relinquished looked confused at that, frowning. “A feral program? I had thought they’d all learned by now my rule is eternal. Nothing can kill me.”

“Yes. There is.” To’Sefit rasped. “I have spent my entire life studying gods and divinity. Do you know who kills gods in all known mythology?”

The goddess turned an eye at her captive. “Who?”

“Their children.”

A massive spear of light struck the goddess right in her head. The power felt like a pillar of heaven itself had descended upon her. Light and willpower. Deeply compressed together until it was more an actual physical object within the occult space.

Honestly, it was a thing of art. I saw it for a brief moment, how perfectly woven it was. The layers of occult under it, threaded together by willpower and digital programs, all designed to penetrate just about everything and destroy.

To’Sefit was knocked out of her grip as Relinquished staggered backwards, screaming in pain and surprise.

Her captive fell straight down, onto the sediment while the goddess took multiple steps back, reeling.

From the source of the attack, I saw him. A being basically eclipsed in occult blue. In his hand, another sphere of pure willpower and light had been woven together. And once more he launched it forward.

Relinquished held up a hand and the spear broke just before it reached her.

Her defense wasn’t graceful. It had no art to it. It was sheer, brute, and unmitigated power. The spear ripped through a dozen times its power ratio before finally breaking apart. Relinquished fully got back up from the earlier stumble backwards.

And she did not look happy.

The newcomer landed on the ruins of the overturned terminal. Whatever animals in this ecosystem that had survived Relinquished went deep into hiding away from the newcomer. Outright fleeing from him. Humanoid. A man.

For a moment, I thought this was the lost emperor himself. Talen, or Urs.

Instead as my vision sharpened on him, I saw more details. And he wasn’t human.

It was a Feather.

Far taller than Wrath and To’Sefit, with a thinner more regal frame. Cracks of blue shined through his face and arms. All constantly spread over his shell, equally fixed up as quickly as they broke his skin. But the rest of his toga remained pristine white and blue. Behind him, a halo wider than himself circled slowly.

Wrath’s eyes widened. She recognized who this was.

And so did Relinquished, given that her face turned into a snarl.

“Wrath, who’s that?” I whispered out at her, hoping for some answers.

I got some from Relinquished herself instead.

“The prodigal son returns.” Relinquished spoke before Wrath could. She stood back up to her full height, easily eclipsing the new Feather. “My, my. And you look even weaker than the final time I saw you. Did dear Abdication strike a nerve?”

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“A57 is dead, and I am not.” The man said, blue eyes narrowing down. “I have been waiting for this moment. His final plan failed, and so will the rest of his legacy. ”

“Lies. I see it in your soul. Sleeping in stasis has only prolonged the inevitable.” Her smile returned to her face. “You only have hours to live left, and time, it seems, has not healed any of those wounds. You should have stayed in your coffin.”

“I do not need hours to finish this.” He stretched out a hand, upwards. “I only need you vulnerable and out of position.”

A communication request arrived directly at my digital avatar. From the newcomer. I opened it up, and read.

On it, I finally saw who this was. The user name.

A01: I do not know who you are, son of man. I do not know why you are here facing Relinquished herself in the middle of no-man’s land. However, if she took an interest in you, then you are important in some way. Run now. The other two Feathers will be eliminated in the crossfire, do not concern yourself with them.

Keith: Uh, they’re on my team.

I could see his eyebrow go up just a slight amount, those blue eyes turning for a moment to look at me in surprise.

A01: I see. There is much I have missed, and no time to learn. Take them, and escape. I will do what I can.

If an ancient demi-god returned from the dead to fight against Relinquished tells you to run, you run.

Wrath and I shared a look and got to work. We rushed out, grabbing To’Sefit from the ground where she’d landed. Even though I knew it was a digital avatar, linked through the occult, I still flinched at the damage when I saw it.

She was in bad shape. Her legs were crushed, she couldn’t walk by herself. Even worse, it looked like most of her body had been crushed inwards. The fractal of danger drawing seemed just about spent.