I saw the tiny red mote leap free from the monster's mouth. A micron-sized cry of joy tumbled into my ears.
“Free! I'm free!” The tiny voice shouted into the atoms all around it. “Stell! Stell! Wait for me! I'm coming!”
“No!” The Umbra said in a muffled wail. “My tongue! My light! My little food-slave!”
“I told you to stop talking!” I shouted. “And leave my friend alone! Just... just leave her alone!”
The handle had remained in my hand the whole time, and when I focused it began to form a blade, until it resembled the short sword I had taken off of the Horde wretch during my first Challenge. My hands smoldered and sparked again, and though I couldn't fire another blast at the monster yet, I saw both forms of heat travel up my blade.
At my second or third shout, the monster rolled its way back to its feet. It's maimed head turned in my direction.
“You,” it garbled, and for the first time the light in its eyes changed from white to bright red. Smog reformed over its body, and I saw more clawed hands dance inside of it.
But it wasn't scaring me right now.
“Yes!” I shouted back. “Me! Back for a rematch!” I tightened my grip on my weapon and brandished it. “I bring great tidings and several hundred amps' worth of ass-kicking! Come over and partake, you bastard child of cheap horror movies and cheaper children’s programs!”
Something inside me felt spent and I couldn't create another gray bolt yet. Why I didn't know. So I just braced for the thing to charge me again. But to my latest surprise it fell backwards and scuttled away from me.
“You!” It shrieked, and for the first time it sounded truly frightened. “You! You're you!”
“Already noted!” I growled, stepping forward. “Not new information at all!”
“I killed you!” It screamed madly. “I already killed you!”
“I was there for that too!” I growled. “Try the most recent episode of this season!”
“But they buried you!” The creature screamed. “They already buried you! They said you were already cold and dead and full of worms! They promised me! Long before I came!”
Wait, what?
“Who promised?” I growled. “Who buried me?”
“Rhodes!” The Umbra screamed. “Liar Rhodes! Get over here!”
“We have not left, Master Cavis,” a voice said some distance behind me. I saw Warren Rhodes step out of the mist with his two warlocks in tow. “And we kept that promise. Your old foe is dead.”
“Liar Rhodes! Liar Rhodes!” The massive Umbra was backing away from me, the smog still covering it. “He lives! He comes back from the dead! He has the light that burns me! He even looks like him!”
Looks like him…
My head spun.
Save for my youth and my lighter muscle mass, I was the spitting image of my father. Everyone had told me that growing up, at least until his death. Then everyone wouldn't say it but would give me suspicious looks.
“Rhodes,” I growled, turning from facing the monster from beyond to the monster from my home. “Why does he think he's killed me?”
“Shut up Wes,” Warren hissed, and for the first time I felt the tension in his words. Then he cleared his throat and re-addressed the cowering monster before us. “Honored ambassador, the Earth-bound body of the foe you slew in honorable combat was also slain and buried on Earth nearly three years ago. I confirmed his body was lowered into the grave. Also this individual cannot be him, because aside from the hair and a few other features his body is different.
“He burns with the old light!” The monster screeched. “He comes back from the dead! He denies me of my prey! He even took one of my little food-slaves! No deal! No deal!”
A drop of sweat fell from Rhodes' temple. “Honored Ambassador, you took an oath before Malus, just as we did.”
“And you broke it! Kill the Malcolm or no deal! Kill him for good!”
The Umbra scuttled away from me, legs and tails rapidly forming to help it keep distant from me.
At that moment I had no idea who to try and attack, but my mind latched onto the one name the monster had said.
“Malcolm?” I roared. This was the final piece of confirmation I needed. “Rhodes?” I turned on him. My fists and weapons suddenly flared with their two forms of heat and light. I saw the three humans in front of me rear back. “Did you kill and frame my dad, Rhodes? Did you help that thing kill my father? Did you murder my Dad?”
“Dalfrey!” Warren hissed. “The code! Now!”
“But if it works at all it will fry him completely!” the blonde witch hissed back. “I thought we needed him!”
“We need our lives even more!” Rhodes hissed. “Use the main code now! Barnes, reinforce it!”
“Oh honored Aegrim,” the preacher-turned cultist intoned. “Hear our supplication...”
“Kill switch!” Dalfrey screamed as I stomped forward. “Kill switch execute!”
I heard something pop inside, and it suddenly became very hard to think. The magic in my hands started to sputter out.
Warning, my mind-screen said. Primary body taking damage from internal source.
But I had far too much practice with putting one foot painfully in front of the other the past few years. I kept stomping forward, slowly but surely.
“It's not working!” Dalfrey screamed again. “Kill switch execute! Kill switch execute! Kill switch execute for Christ's sake!”
“Mighty Aegrim tame your blood, mighty Aegrim tame your blood,” I heard Barnes chant, over and over.
My pain was increasing and my vision was getting blurrier. But I didn't need twenty/twenty vision to keep walking forward, and I could still see enough of the three blurry shapes in front of me to target them. I struggled to re-ignite my burning lightning, and felt the flare on my hands sputtering back on.
“Send a message!” Rhodes said to someone I couldn't see. “Beat him until I say to stop!”
“Kill switch execute!” Dalfrey kept screaming. “Kill switch execute!”
“Mighty Aegrim tame your blood,” the false preacher still intoned. “Mighty Aegrim tame your blood...”
The painful buzzing in my head increased. I stubbornly took another step forward, tried to reach for my magic again, and then I felt something whumph into my stomach.
Warning, my mind-screen said. Primary body is taking damage from external sources.
Another sharp pain cracked into my right knee, followed by a boot-like impact against my back. I staggered down to my unhurt knee, then caught myself with my free hand when that gave out as well.
I growled and crawled forward.
“Kill switch execute! Kill switch execute!”
“Honored Aegrim tame your blood...”
“Bloody hell, Malcolm,” Rhodes swore. “Do you have to make everything so expensive?” He snarled and took a step near me, raising a hand that suddenly blazed with purple-black and blood-red flames.
“I call upon Malus himself to power my hands. I speak hate over his foes. I accept the cost to wield his blessing directly.” And he hurled the sputtering fireball into my face.
Then it grew cold and dark once more.
I was numb, blind, deaf and dead. But I still somehow heard it.
Hold fast.
I know you.
I know what is coming and I grieve.
But when you are ready,
Trust your rage.
Chapter 29: Last Handhold
Internal scan complete. Sufficient data collected from experiment. Please read final log.
Conclusion Report Concerning Subject Anonymous.
As stated in the subject line, we have completed all possible tests regarding Subject Anonymous. We are pleased to announce total success concerning our goals. Had we chosen to present our findings to the rest of the organization we would have no doubt achieved legendary fame and prestige before our inevitably ordered executions.
First Item: Subject Anonymous' direct study. As noted bef
ore we were able to examine the subjects bizarre ability to enter planet Avalon on his own power, and with the help of Rhodes'
Second Item: Assimilation into Avalon's systems: Though an abject failure at first glance, our goals concerning this matter have been completed via indirect means. Avalon has categorically rejected all attempts to assimilate with its systems, and we have been unable to shake its designation as 'foreign contaminants.' The entity bases this designation on the supposed nature of our 'Deeds' (capitalized by the entity, not us). The entity initially demanded the release of Subject Anonymous but has now completely rejected all attempts of communication. We further believe it to be indirectly resisting our operatives whenever we enter its planet, but if so this resistance has failed to make any meaningful impact on our goals. This still would have resulted in a failure concerning the second phase of our operations had we not gained alternatives from Rhodes'
The first tool gave us the ability to 'link' to a system that provided information in almost exactly the same way Avalon did for Subject Anonymous. The only difference noted is the fact that operatives all report hearing a level of incoherent, and uncomfortable, whispering from an unknown source. As of yet no other side effect has been reported, nor has the current side effect caused any visible harm.
Aside from the network of information, we have examined Subject Anonymous' “Challenger”status. We have confirmed that the subject has become augmented by overcoming what the different worlds' inhabitants all refer to as “Challenges.” We have determined that the so-called Challenges are tasks that the natives deem both difficult to accomplish, and provide some tangible benefit to the natives themselves. Our staff has been unable to duplicate Subject Anonymous' success, but we are concluding further attempts to be unnecessary based on two arguments. The first argument is that the tools provided by Rhodes'
The second argument is that, even bringing into account the random
Our current means of gaining power, ensuring that the natives do not overcome the Challenges, Trials and Tumults of their worlds, has not only proven to be a rapid and reliable source of power but also has the added benefit of restricting the growth of the natives themselves, thereby creating a dependency on their end. This solution is ideal as it leads to a far more rapid realization of all of our long-term plans. In fact, this process has resulted in correcting our initial estimate of completing all plans by a factor of ten. We expect total resistance to crumble within one or two earth generations, long before the deadline Rhodes'
Third Item: Concerning the Challenger's ability to resurrect. Our team is pleased to announce a full realization of this power, with practically no complications whatsoever. As long as we have an available portal to either Avalon or another world, projected or original bodies can resurrect. The only difference from the Challenger's resurrecting nature is that the body resurrects on Earth, not Planet Avalon. The resurrected person can still create a projected body and send it back through the portal. Alternatively, our staff can keep our original bodies in Avalon and occasionally send a projected body to Earth.
This option has been the preferred choice of all senior management. Given the footholds we are quickly establishing, this choice also seems to be safer for our leadership, especially since the existence of the projected body can allow the original body to resurrect if deceased. Note that tests concerning the limits of our resurrected powers are not yet exhaustive. Operatives have reported the experience to be extremely traumatic, but providing said operatives can deal with the trauma there is no apparent limit. However, it is likely most operatives will only recover from the trauma two or three times. In fact is is suspected that most can only handle one additional death before the trauma caused would render them useless.
It should be further noted, however, that individuals can be forced to resurrect their projected bodies by simply maneuvering them to the nearest gate. This is not advisable for all operatives, as traumatized staff are unlikely to survive long in Avalon's worlds, but in the case of our trafficking resources this item is a major windfall, and will allow us to keep our Earth-based revenue and influence for centuries to come.
We have further tested the power's limits by forcing Subject Anonymous to repeatedly resurrect. The first fact of interest is that Subject Anonymous cannot control the resurrection process. Unlike our own operatives, if SA's projected body is terminated the primary body does not become aware, effectively preventing SA from having a choice in the process. This is why we were able to test the process so thoroughly, as, given SA's meek temperament and youth, it is unlikely he would have chosen to resurrect a single time after the first death.
Furthermore, SA always resurrects at the same location, give or take a few meters. This, combining with directed blows to SA's original body, has enabled us to finally have effective parameters for restraint. This is especially fortunate due to the fact that Primary Containment proved even less effective in SA's projected body than it did in his original body.
Once new restraint parameters were established, tests were begun on SA to see if certain methods of termination yielded any useful data. The staff did their best to exhaust all possible methods, allowing us to determine that the cause of death had no bearing whatsoever on the subject's ability to resurrect. SA came back from decapitation just as fast as from being slowly bludgeoned to death, and he came back from bleeding to death just as fast as from termination by incineration or drowning. Further tests made to determine if destroying a certain part of the subject's body affected the resurrection process proved ineffective. No matter which body part was shot, dissolved or otherwise removed first, the subject resurrected in the same amount of time and in the same state.
The only difference noted was that different types of death left different types of trauma on the subject. Ironically, the traditional means of termination produced the least amount of trauma. The subject handled stabbing or slashing injuries with far less trauma than expected, probably due to the fact that said methods were done in the early stages of the termination process. The subject used some method of self-denial to avoid processing the trauma of dismemberment deaths, but both drowning and slow-burning incineration proved to be significantly traumatic for SA. Starvation and dehydration proved even more traumatic, but as these methods took the most time they had the leas
t number of attempts. The subject had the most severe reaction to termination when he was delivered to and consumed by the local 'monsters,' specifically the creatures referred to as gibber-kin.
But ironically, attempting to perform research on captured natives in SA's presence yielded the most shocking research. In every instance of SA observing harm on the native test subjects, he always chose to terminate himself. The choice was not immediate, as SA would usually (and in the beginning, successfully) attempt to free himself from restraints and assist the natives, harming the staff on one or two occasions. Damage was deemed minimal and the tests were able to resume in less than a month's time on every occasion. Whenever SA deemed himself unable to assist the natives the result was always immediate self-termination, using whatever unrestrained part of his body to administer lethal blunt trauma to himself. SA would even go as far as to asphyxiate himself by severing his tongue while attempting to communicate threatening messages to the staff using his eyes. Such actions reflect a serious dependency on aiding others and serve as one more example as to why Challenger-related power is ultimately self-destructive.
Downfall And Rise Page 51