Book 8 – Chapter 46 – Into Fire

“Isn’t this some kind of blasphemy?” I asked, as we tied Urs, the God of resilience himself, to the back of my armor using spare rope and straps.

“The world is ending m’lord.” One of the knights said, carefully pulling the strap complete. “I believe the gods would forgive the slight.”

“I do forgive the slight.” Urs said, being a good sport about the end of the world and all that.

…

Three gods above, this all felt surreal in a way. And now we were deep in the snow with all three.

One died in front of my eyes, one is near dead and strapped to my back, and the last one we have to bait out and beat down.

If there is such a thing as heaven, I’m extra banned.

“I do not feel any pain from this.” Urs said. “Please focus on speed over any other concern.”

The knight helping the straps clearly heard that and still couldn’t bring themselves to do a harsher job.

“Are you slowly recovering?” I asked, a tad bit curious if Urs’s skin and body was starting to regenerate while he was strapped on my back. A very morbid picture.

“My body’s rate of restoration is greatly diminished, if not outright inaccessible for several years.” The blue eyes looked up at the broken spear far above us. And then down to the speartip that had been sliced off, now forgotten on the ground. “I believe I will need to die to reset myself fully at this point, natural methods are no longer viable.”

There was one final strap tug. “It is done.” The knight said, taking a step back before bowing quickly.

Urs was now snuggly tied up, facing behind me. He didn’t really need to see in front, given he was probably using the occult sight.

No, actually he was tapped into my camera feed and using Journey’s own display to watch. Urs was quite literally watching everything I was.

As for why he was on my back instead of anyone else’s, it’s for tactical reasons – I tended to fight from the rear, using occult ghosts to do the harassment and battles for me. Every other member on the team was far more deadly when up into the enemy’s face. Meaning the safest possible place to carry Urs, would be on my back given where I’d usually be.

“Let us be rid of this cursed place.” Father said, leading the way.

Our headlights still didn’t do much of anything in the interior of the cube here, but Sagrius and others continued to eat away at the darkness, reforming the tunnel we’d passed through on the way here.

The black mist that had held Urs captive and powerless here was rapidly retreating at least. Unable to sustain itself now that the cursed spear had been ripped apart.

Exposing more and more machines around us that had been covered by this mist the whole time. “Are they going to wake and try to stop us?” I asked, headlights illuminating the wreckage all around.

“They will not.” Urs said. “They ran out of power long ago. Many were also destroyed by my hand. Speaking of that, I would like to connect with your armor and download your full historical logs to see how you fight and what synergy I can offer. We will need every advantage possible at this stage.”

“I don’t think you need to ask for any kind of permission, you built these armors. They obey you in just about everything?”

“I would prefer to request and be polite when I can.”

“That’s considerate of you, for a god.” I said. “My track record of gods has been pretty poor.”

We reached the edge of the cube. The light from outside remained bright. “Any last words before we leave this prison?”

“None. I will process my imprisonment and mental status at a later time, when we have either beaten Relinquished, or been beaten by her.”

“I… can you actually do that?”

“It’s how I’ve managed most of my life, yes.” Urs said. His eyes looked back at the cube as the group marched out.

Outside, gathered up, were the nine Feathers we’d robbed, and the rest of the knights keeping an eye out. I saw our new additions were already well adjusted, likely from training inside Sagrius’s armor. They all knew at some point or another they would have their own relic armors to pilot like Arcbound, and Father for a few moments while fighting against To’Avalis.

They were preparing for this. Not much else to do really.

Good thing, since we really didn’t have time to be learning to walk. They had to fight entire armies and God right after, in probably an hour or two from now. And not just Talen, possibly Relinquished next.

Normal everyday events around here.

They all turned, watching us come out. As one, they all took a knee downwards, daggers and weapons the Feathers prior used brought up to swear on. Word traveled fast when they now had computers that could process information several hundred times faster than their old human bodies.

A shadow passed over me right then.

“I see this is the Feather that revolted against Relinquished. Pleased to meet you.” Urs said, and I turned around to see Wrath land right behind.

“Keith. You have a dead body on your back that speaks. Would you like to explain, or is this a Winterscar tradition involving graverobbing?”

“Less tradition, more current situation.” I said, “Meet Urs. God of resilience, and actual Resilience given the fractals he used. Urs, this is Wrath. I think you already know all about her from the data uploads.”

“I do.” His eyes flickered blue for a moment, and Wrath’s own eyes equally flickered back as they transferred information to one another.

“A cruel fate Mother bestowed on you.” She said. “My condolences. It seems particularly vicious, even for her hand.”

“It was an expected fate. I have been a thorn in her side. And, as I am now learning, I continue to be one. With hope, I may be even worse than a simple thorn very soon.”

“I do have a healing ability, perhaps the fractal may assist?”

“An attempt would be welcome.” Urs said, eyes locking back on Wrath.

“You don’t sound too confident in that.” I said as Wrath came close, and held a hand out to touch the side of the husk’s cheek.

“A57 brought weapons specifically targeting my self-healing abilities. They succeeded. My abilities have been crippled, and the effects linger.”

And, unfortunately, despite the glow of occult from Wrath’s shell down to her hands, very little seemed to be changing within Urs. It was like some kind of miasma was still within his body, eating away Wrath’s attempt.

“You should cease.” He said. “I can see you are consuming parts of your soul in order to power that spell. You will regenerate and repair that damage, however it is better to not tempt fate.”

“Damn, that would have been an easy fix to all these issues. Worth the try.”

This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

Wrath nodded, letting go.

“It is novel to have been given first aid by a Feather of all beings.” Urs said. “I am still processing the idea of the protofeathers rebelling at all. That you are willing to make the attempt would be additional proof in addition to your non-hostility.”

Behind the first of the stolen Feathers walked up, giving me a nod. “We are prepared to depart. Lady To’Wrathh and Master Winterscar have taught us enough to get by on. We will learn the rest in the fighting.”

They’d already been up to date on our new plan to martial the imperial army to protect the surface, and then summon Talen to their doorsteps where we had the best chances of beating him down.

“Right, we need to get moving. And that… might be a problem, we burned the last of our favors getting here in the first place. Might need to go into debt.”

“There is no need for that.” Urs said. “I offer an alternative: I will transfer all my owed favors for your use. I have built much goodwill over the years with the mites, enough so I could have potentially bargained my release directly, had my lantern not equally been taken from me.”

“How much do they owe you?” I asked.

“Not enough to demand Relinquished to be killed. But enough to transport several armies around the world. I will connect to your operator and discuss with them.”

I could feel a soul tendril from Urs reach out, looking around the armor until it slunk towards the miteseeker.