This is not a real child. This is not a real child.
My left hand remained attached to the vein as I sat next to Gulch, leaving my legs dangling over the edge. I put my right hand on his shoulder.
“I’m sorry. Your mom is too.” I paused. “Sometimes parents have to lie to their kids.”
“Why?” he asked.
Take me to him, Mary had said. The two officers from the state police had looked at each other. That look. It spoke volumes.
Ma’am. That is not a good idea, one of them said.
I don’t care. We’re going to see him right now. I won’t believe that it’s him until I see my boy. I’d reached out to touch her, to stop this madness. I couldn’t even feel my own hand.
Hours later, we stood over the table. The medical examiner held back, looking down at the floor. Mary clutched onto me, her arms crushing as she sobbed. Everything was numb. Yet raw. Light was painful. Dark unbearable.
No, no, no, Mary had said. She’d looked up at me, her eyes angry, accusing. This is your fault, those eyes said. They’re just as much your fault as your addict daughter.
“Why?” Gulch asked again, this time even more desperate.
I paused. “Because the world is big, and it is scary, and it is filled with monsters,” I said. “We don’t want it to be, but it is. We love you, and we want you to be safe. We do our best to protect you. But sometimes, despite our best efforts, it’s not enough. So we lie, and we tell you it’s going to be all right. But we’re not just lying to you. We’re lying to ourselves. We do it so we can sleep at night.”
Gulch stared. I didn’t know how well he could see me, but his round eyes seemed to pierce right through me, accusing.
“I want to go home,” Gulch said.
Mary had said the exact same thing, word for word. I want to go home.
My virtual pointer hovered over the Antiparasitic talent. I sighed and moved it away.
“That’s the problem, kid,” I said. “I want to go home, too.”
I pulled Gulch tight to me. I jumped. I controlled my descent with my left hand, and we landed neatly on the bridge with 90 seconds left. The boy did not struggle. He held tightly onto me. Whether trusting, or resigned, I did not know.
I retracted my hand, and I ran back into the chamber.
I stepped into the room, back into the mist that seemed to be coming from everywhere, back into the screams of the children. Back into hell. I looked about, expecting to be attacked immediately by Jazz, or to find her dead, or attached to one of the worms. Instead, I found her in the center of the room, struggling in the grip of Madame Throb’s mech. The worm had detached itself from Throb and was waiting for us.
At first I thought Madame Throb had returned to herself, no worse for wear after being attached to the heartworm. But that was not the case. She remained dead in her mech, her eyes still burned away. The parasite had grasped onto Jazz, holding her into place and then abandoned the mech, leaving Jazz trapped. It was as if it knew my plan ahead of time.
“No,” Jazz screamed, her voice frantic. “No, please. Worm surgeon. Please, he is my child.”
“Mom?” Gulch said, looking up from my shoulder.
Her face crumbled. “Baby, baby, it’s going to be okay. I’m here.”
“See,” I said. I held the boy up in the air, facing me. His eyes flickered from his mom to me. “She’s not lying to hurt you. She loves you.” We locked eyes as a parasite clamped down onto the boy’s head. He went instantly stiff, his arms reaching out in the cross position.
Life remained in the boy’s eyes.
He opened his mouth, and he began to scream.
Chapter 27
I had about twenty seconds before the boiler would blow. I pulled the knife of amplification from my waist, leaped forward, and I decapitated Jazz. Our eyes met as I slid the knife across her throat. She was afraid. I didn’t have time to think about the morality of my actions. A wall of text obscured my vision, but I ignored it as I worked. I had to cut several times to separate the screaming and gurgling head from the body. I shoved the head in my pack. I had to get it in there before we all blew to hell.
I slammed the head into my bigger-on-the-inside pack, adding it to my inventory. I cringed, waiting for the explosion.
Thump.
The world shook with an obvious detonation, but it was small, especially compared to the beating of the heart.
That’s it? I looked back, peering out the door. I felt an odd sense of disappointment I hadn’t died.
The bridge was gone. A black mess of withered and dying worms disappeared down into the darkness. It seemed they’d swarmed the mech, effectively jumping on top of the bomb, blunting the explosion.
I stood to my full height, and I read the wall of text.
Quest complete.
Satisfied with the sacrifice, the dirofilaria have agreed to loosen their hold on the guardians. From this moment forward, all guardians under your control with receive a +20% strength bonus. Furthermore, all dirofilariasis-type infections will cease to cause strength reductions in any guardians. However, your victory comes with a price. Your standing with all groundlings is forever damaged. You will no longer be welcome in any groundling-controlled settlements or neighborhoods.
Experience earned!
Level up! Level up!
You are now level 19.
Heart area has been healed!
Experienced earned!
Scanning…
Warning: Guardian Moritasgus remains in poor health!
Warning: Guardian Moritasgus’s total strength reduction due to infections, injuries, and parasites: 55%
Warning: Guardian Moritasgus is bound in a trap. Moritasgus needs to be at 60% strength to break free.
Recommended treatment:
Seek out areas of needed healing for specific treatment plans. Vaccines recommended. Warning! You are out of stock on vaccines.
Gulch remained just above me, screaming. His voice was louder than the others. I tried to ignore it. I wondered what would happen if I killed him now that the quest was done. It wasn’t worth the risk, I decided.
Besides, you can’t kill children in this world, remember? You can only damn them to a fate worse than death.
I pulled up a menu. The debt was gone. I’d done it. I could die now, and I’d end up back in Charnel.
I’d gone up two levels, and I’d increased the guardian’s strength by 30%. This quest had only stopped one specific kind of parasitic infection. I wondered if there was a quest like this inside of all the kaiju. It made sense. Like I could stop the heartworms in this one, and I could go to another kaiju and stop fleas or something, eventually making it so all the kaiju would be relatively healthy.
A heartworm slithered into the chamber from below. It snaked up the body of Madame Throb’s mech, and it reattached itself to the head of the dead templar warrior. The mech hissed, coming to life. The arms relaxed, dropping the headless corpse of Jazz to the floor of the room. The whole chamber shook, the floor heaving. For a moment, I thought it was another explosion. But then I realized what was happening.
There’s nobody keeping the kaiju calm anymore. Moritasgus was waking up. However, his head was still encased in a trap. That’s what the metal shell of the temple really was. A kaiju trap. The guardian’s current strength was at 45%. Once his strength got up to 60%, he would be able to break free. In the meantime, without anyone controlling him, he was now waking up. He wouldn’t be able to wander around, but I suspect that wasn’t going to stop him from trying. Which meant things were about to get bumpy. I had to work fast.
“The conditions of our deal have been met,” the corpse of Madame Throb said through her mech’s loudspeakers. Baby worms oozed out of her nose and ears. “You are welcome to use this place as long as you do not disturb the others.”
A full-sized worm appeared, coming up from a hole in the ground in front of me. It regurgitated a hunk of iron. It dropped, landing at my feet with a clang. I picke
d it up.
Branding Iron
Guardian Moritasgus – Oblation Chamber.
It went into my pack, which was getting pretty full.
I looked uneasily at the worms with the screaming children. I had to get out of here as soon as possible. I wouldn’t be able to leave via the bridge anymore. I reached up and once again left the chamber through the hole in the roof.
I’m sorry, kid, I thought as I passed the screaming form of Gulch.
I pulled myself onto the relatively smooth roof, nestled amongst the massive veins and arteries. The moment I pulled myself through the hole, the screaming ceased, replaced with the heartbeat. I remained there for several moments, trying to catch my breath. The rounded platform was relatively steady compared to the worsening conditions of the rest of the body.
The first thing I did was spend my two attribute points. I put them both into durability. I was going to need it with what came next. That left me at:
Strength: 19
Acumen: 12
Durability: 17
Deftness: 11
Charm: 8
That low charm still bothered me. If it had been higher, all of this crap with the groundlings could have been avoided. But I only received one skill point a level, and I was committed to a strength/durability build. Hopefully once we regained access to Medina we’d be able to find some equipment that enhanced all the stats.
I sat cross-legged, pulling my pack into my lap. The world continued to rumble, but the roof held steady. I removed Jazz’s head from my pack and held it between my legs. The thing was as big and as heavy as a medicine ball. Detached from her body, it made the short creature look much bigger.
I reactivated Wicked Meat and examined the head. There were three upgrades possible. Her left ear, her right eye, and a part of the brain. I examined each section in turn:
Compatible Left Inner Ear
+Steady
Rejection Chance: 65%
Compatible Right Eye
+50% Darkness Vision
-Frame Vision
Rejection Chance: 73%
And finally
BA 45 (Pars triangularis)
+Neural Link to Guardian Moritasgus
Rejection Chance: 0%
I wanted to add both the ear and the BA 45 thing, whatever that meant. I assumed it was a part of the brain. But I also wanted to know what would happen when something was rejected. I was afraid if I used my Upcycle, and something was rejected, I’d forever lose the use of that body part. I suspected there would be a warning. I needed to find out. So using my amplification blade, I stuck the small knife into the side of the head, coring out the ear area. The moment I did, a menu popped up:
Upcycle Compatible Left Inner Ear?
I held my breath and clicked Yes.
Sure enough, I received an ominous message:
Warning! This item has a 65% chance of being rejected by your body. If rejected, you will forever lose the use of your existing left inner ear until another replacement can be found. Upgrading Upcycle or harvesting from a specimen closer to your own kind will increase success rates. Do you wish to continue?
I clicked No, but I threw the gooey ear core into my bag. I didn’t know how long it would keep, but maybe sometime in the future I could be in a place where I had an inner ear backup in case it failed. I wanted that Steady ability. My character seemed a little too prone to falling into Unsteady, which that skill would counteract. But for now, a 65% chance of becoming permanently half-deaf was not worth the risk.
The eye upgrade was useless. My Frame Vision skill was vital to deep-dive medicine, and it was far superior to just being able to see in the dark. At least inside of the kaiju. If I could find an eye that’d allow me to see in the dark without losing that skill, it’d be much better.
The real prize, and the sole reason why I’d decapitated Jazz was for that third upgrade.
I held my breath, and I started to cut around the top of her head, making a bowl out of her skull. I needed to get the brain out without damaging it. The knife made the work easy. It cut through flesh and bone with absolute ease.
I had a quick memory as I cut, of making a jack-o-lantern with three-year-old Chris and 17-year-old Ruth. Ruth had wandered off before I’d finished, bored. Little Chris had jumped up and down as I cut, so excited he couldn’t contain himself. He’d kept screaming “Great Pumpkin! Great Pumpkin! It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown!”
Fucking hell. Years later, and I was still ambushed by memories like this. It took a full minute for me to recover. I set my jaw and went back to my grim work.
The top of the skull peeled away easily. I tossed it aside. I grasped onto the brain with both hands. Using my metallic grabbers was awkward. I felt in constant danger of crushing anything I touched. I readjusted, using that hand to hold the head down while I wrapped my right hand around the brain and started to pull. Gentle, Gentle.
It didn’t want to come out, but after a moment, the brain started to slurp free from the skull. The menu popped up:
Upcycle Compatible BA 45 (Pars triangularis)?
I clicked Yes, bracing myself for a warning.
Warning! This game is currently in co-op mode. This particular item is owned by the groundling class. The groundling character has not yet been claimed by a player. Per the current assigned rules, if a new player joins and chooses the groundling race, you will immediately lose one of the abilities associated with this upgrade. (+Neural Link to Guardian Moritasgus.)
Do you wish to continue?
I read the warning several times, my initial panic easing. It made sense. In the single-player version of the game, I suspected you could take control of any of the kaiju you wanted, though you were probably at an advantage using the one associated with your race. In the co-op mode you were only supposed to use your associated guardian.
But what happened if a player quit before the end of the season? Or if one of the races never signs up?
The AI running the game had to make some adjustments. Otherwise, playing the game was pointless if it couldn’t be won. That didn’t mean it would be easy, but it was still possible.
Anatoly was having trouble tweaking the game to his liking because every time he changed something, the hardwired AI in charge of keeping the game solvable changed some aspect of the code. I wondered if that was why I had been given access to the Upcycle spell so early. The AI saw me join and thought, if these other players aren’t coming back, and you’re joining this party so late, you still have a chance, but only if I give you this nudge. But first you gotta jump through a few hoops.
Thinking back, I’d practically been herded in this direction. I’d gone to Charnel, and they suggested I go to Kinnegad. So I did, and I’d virtually been handed this upgrade.
I held my breath, and I clicked Yes.
Upcycle commencing!
Before I could blink, a man-sized portal gulped open up next to me. Dozens of red and pink tentacles shot forth from the swirling, dripping mist. I yelped as they grasped me, impossibly strong, and dragged me within.
The world blinked, and I was on a metal table, strapped down, unable to move. This was a surgical chamber. Bigger, more well-appointed than Jazz and Stonegate’s small home. Disjointed, fast, bass-laden heavy metal blasted, pulsing, shaking the walls. Gnomish, hairy creatures filled the room, chattering excitedly, their piercing voices louder than the music. Demon-faced with bat wings, each one of the obsidian-colored things was no taller than my forearm. They buzzed back and forth. They ran amuck in the room, knocking tables over and throwing instruments about. One of them held Jazz’s brain. It jumped on my chest holding the brain in the air and screeching like a damn howler monkey.
The creature stuck his hand into the brain, ripping and tearing. He came out with a tiny, round piece of meat about the size of a peanut. It had a blinking metallic circuit attached to it. The imp squealed with delight, tossing the rest of the brain over its shoulder.
Another imp appeared, th
is one wearing a surgical mask. He brandished a power drill.
The tentacles that had dragged me into the portal remained, hanging from the swirling mist of the ceiling. They dripped with a pink goo and seemed to sway with the beat of the music.
I blinked, my eyes catching a sputtering neon sign on the wall. It read: “Necroshire Mystical Upcycle Emporium.” And underneath was, “A division of Chicken and Waffles and Upgrades, Ltd.”
The drill-wielding imp shrieked. He placed the sharp and rusty bit against my forehead.
“No, no, no,” I said. “Wait!”
The imp screeched again and pulled the trigger. Pain exploded. My health started to plummet.
The world went black. Then silent.
I awakened a moment later, back on the roof of the oblation chamber.
At least it seemed to be a moment later. I had the sense the whole episode had taken about a minute, maybe a bit less.
“What the hell was that?” I mumbled, shaking my head. My ears burned.
My health was almost to zero, my soul points were all but depleted, and I dripped with pink slime. I had maybe a half hour before I would die unless I killed something. I shook my head again, bewildered.
I looked about, trying to determine if I felt any different, other than the goo. I discovered something was stuck to my chest. It was a sticker. I peeled it off and looked at it.
“I was a good boy!” the round sticker announced, dripping with the goo. The sticker held three proud, smiley-faced gold stars underneath. And under that read “Necroshire Mystical Upcycles.” The sticker dissolved, and a felt a slight buzz on my shoulder. A woven patch appeared on the outside of my small pack, identical to the stickers. I wiped my goo-covered hand on the roof of the chamber.
A notification snapped me back to reality.
Upcycle complete!
Operation: success!
Congratulations! Your body did not reject the upcycle!
A new menu is available: Guardian Control.
I immediately pulled up my menus, scrolling until I found Guardian Control. An avatar of the badger kaiju sat there, and I clicked it.
Warning! Your controls are limited unless you are in the guardian cockpit. You may reach the cockpit via your BloodBorne talent.
Kaiju- Battlefield Surgeon Page 24