25-18 Old Wounds (II) (Patreon)

Operative: Avo, The Knowner of Totality

THREAT CLASSIFICATION - [Sephirot]

Countermeasure Summary:

As of the present, all indications regarding Operative Avo point to increased mental stability and rapidly lessening erraticism than his prior incarnations despite the expansion of his capabilities. Additionally, we are updating our classification of the operative from being a Terrestrial Godclad/Infomorph hybrid to classification Sephirot metaphysical mass consciousness assimilator.

In simplicity, we now have an asset with the full potential of a high-end Neo-Creationist Ensouled in our employ—and they will be seeking formal recognition as an ego-polity within a near timeframe.

Expect shock and outrage.

To relieve concerns, a modified version Containment Measure Sephirot has been attached to Operative Avo in the case that he goes rogue. Due to his thauma-cognitive capabilities, attempting to contain him using memetic oubliettes or dilemma cages are restricted. It is more likely he will subsume their structure and add them to his internal Soulscape. 

Deployment of standard ego-screamers or the metaphysically-attuned Conflagrations will likely just result in a spike to his processing capabilities—but a sufficient cognitive load should delay is consumption log enough for hidden counter-cognitive structures to take effect and destabilize his ego. Afterward, we must isolate and entrap of his connected consciousnesses via singularity cells to ensure his full separation from all other minds. (Addendum: Recommend layered singularities due to operative’s temporal affecting capabilities)

Presently, we do not believe liquidation is necessary, but processes are being put in place should such an eventuality arrive.

The Gatekeeper shares a similar metaphysical structure to the agent. Being one of the few other entities with a direct thaumaturgic connection to the Nether, it is theoretically possible to retrofit them into the conceptual equivalent of a Rendbomb, though the casualty projections for such an act falls well into the parameters of Contingency: Bleak

-Aegis Threat Assessment: AVO, THE KNOWER OF TOTALITY

25-18

Old Wounds (II)

Naeko stared on at Zein for a few seconds longer, struggling to process the information. “A ghoul?”

“Yes,” Zein said. Her eyes were aglitter with bitter joy.

“Noloth’s big embarrassment? The bioforms they made for the Uprising? The flesh-fiend’s that’ll wrap their mouth around an active fusion burner because it has some blood on it?”

“Just so.”

Zein was fucking with him. He was sure of it now.

{Truth,} the Gatekeeper whispered.

Godsdammit.

The Chief Paladin struggled not to groan. Shit was getting weirder and weirder. Fucking Zein. Fucking Noloth. “How? How’s a ghoul doing all this?”

“Because just as I worked to fashion masterpieces of you, Veylis, and Osjon, so too did another have their own dreams of legacy. The Strix—the Famine of Defiance! For years he spent warring against us, a spy in our midst, walking between our thoughts, sparking conflict toward the benefit of the Hungers. But Something happened. He changed. He evolved. His dream grew. And with it was born a beast of nostalgia and liberty. A ghoul given the blessings to master not only the chains of its bestial instincts, but also reality itself.”

The gleam in her eye took on a vicious quality thereafter. Naeko remembered when Zein got this way; the thrill was only upon her when she had a foe worth killing, a city worth burning. Whatever this “Avo” was, he took enough of Zein’s respect to be liked and hated in equal measure.

And as Zein elaborated further, Naeko began to understand why.

Her tale spun away from Avo, returned to another two names he knew: Paladin Dawton; Agnos Kusanade. She told him of a certain raid on a Voidwatch vessel, of the specific cargo that was stolen, of its recovery by Highflame and Veylis’ commission. She told him about the Stillborn, about the Heaven of Love’s destabilization. She told him of how the Strix betrayed the Agnos’ operations to Ori-Thaum, and then betrayed their attack to one Jelene Draus.

Only then did she return to the monster in question. Avo. Named after a son long dead. Named because of regret or symbology. Named, and cognitively enhanced by mechanisms stolen from Noloth and the Guilds. Named, and grafted with the Stillborn.

In the end, even with the Strix’s supposed demise, no one saw the ghoul coming. Amidst the chaos, a monster was feasting its way up from the Warrens, and no one realized.

“No one but you,” Naeko muttered. He frowned at Zein, how withstood his scorn with ease. “So, you just… took the monster as a pet.”

“An amusement initially,” Zein replied. “He was really quite fascinating. Thoughtful monsters are so few and far between. The casual brutality he exuded—that inherent violence… He reminded me of you. Yet, he was not fury, but yearning. I underestimate the avarice in his heart. I underestimated the lengths he would travel. I should have never assumed him a creature I could merely leash — his like needs a cage.”

“And so here we are, then,” Naeko said, trying to piece everything together. “You decided to play another one of your games, and he disagreed.”

“Liberty,” Zein answered, spinning her glaive. “Such is his drug of choice.” She chuckled at that. “Choice. What a concept to be betrayed by.” She shook her head and sighed. “Despite his intentions, you do still owe him much, you know? Without him, everything would have unfolded in accordance to the Paths.”

“You would’ve murdered another one of my Paladins, you mean.” He thought Zein couldn’t make him feel any worse. Dawton. Kusanade. She had no respect for people. No respect at all. Not even for him, unless he was fighting her. The whole thing was just… ridiculous. “Seems we’re all more than a little lost without him, huh? Jaus.”

His question stilled Zein momentarily. “Yes. Yes.” She shook off his spell and turned the pressure back on him. “He has already taken that Kitzuhara girl and that fool boy you’re so found of. Likely far, far more by this point. I was being quite literal when I called him a plague. He is no longer of flesh, Naeko. Hewed from the stuff of thought. Who knows in how many minds he festers by now. Mighty as your Heaven has made you, it is the wrong weapon to wield against such a foe.”

The snort left Naeko with a sudden swing. Zein anticipated—wasn’t there. Was shifting to claim his sides, sending him reeling back with a stab of her own. “You want me to let you go,” Naeko said, eyeing the drifting tip of her weapon.

“It would be the wise choice.”

He didn’t hide the rage when he next spoke. “You tried to kill one of my Paladins. Mine. I don’t know what the Paths are showing you, Zein, and I don’t much give a fuck anymore. You, Veylis, this ghoul… I’m tired of this quiet-war rat-fuck shit.”

“Tired.” Zein’s nostrils flared behind her transparent faceplate. She began to circle. Naeko let her. Kept his attention on the distance between them. “And what matter if you are, tired, boy? What care do I have? Does the world have? Does your enemy have?”

She blurred. Her strikes came faster than even augmented eyes could perceive, but Naeko didn’t need to see his master’s assault to greet her. The shifts in the air whispered the trajectory of her blows. Twin glaives rang as slash pushed stab aside, as thrusts greeted open air. They fought for angles. Fought to shift the distance of his battle. He preferred things closer—wanted to grab her. She was waiting for his patience to succumb—a fatal opening to present itself.

The hafts of both weapons slammed together. Neither duelist fought the recoil. They shifted on the momentum, redirecting the force into their off-hands. Two elbows came together in a thunderous impact. For a second thereafter, the pressed each other, matching force so they were not pushed back, not giving overmuch so they could be pulled off balance.

“Every godsdammed care in the world,” Naeko replied casually. “You might be telling me the truth. You might even be right about how dangerous this Godghoul-thoughtform thing. But I’m not letting you out of your cage. You’re standing trial. You. The D’Rongos. Abrel Greatling. And every other bastard that breaks my laws in my city.”

“Your city?” Zein laughed. “Now? Now, you care? What changed Naeko? What changed? The fire in you went out. More than once I looked down upon you as you wasted day after day, year after year playing that absurd game. Do you know how many times I stood over you while you lay upon that slab? Drowning yourself in children’s reimaginings of battle while the actual war waged on?”

She came to see him? When? How many times? His stomach did flips, but he hid it well. “Why didn’t you put your blade through my skull, then? Spare yourself the shame?”

“A weapon is meant to sever the living from life, Naeko. And you were not alive.”

He slipped away from her and ducked away from a flicking cut. The attack was heard rather than seen—his missing eye not yet restored. “Almost,” he breathed. “Hells, Zein, I thought you said you were at war all this time. How are you missing a blind man.”

“Do not mock me, fool boy. I know the warrior I made of you. Even rusted, even broken, who else could face me this way? How else but you and Veylis?”

“If you’re bored, you can also go look for the Sparrow. She’ll bleed with you anytime.”

“Ah, but she is no duelist. She cares nothing for skill or triumph. She is war at its basest. There is no conversation with her.”

“And you can’t kill her.”

“And yet I can’t seem to kill her.”

Naeko shook his head. Typical. As he and Zein continued to mirror each other, his mind churned with new information, and he considered what steps to take next. Zein was trying to have him let her out. No way in hell that was happening, but if Avo was half the problem she presented, he needed to do something about them.

But he got what he came here for. Information. Knowledge about the so-called benefactor. Gods. A ghoul. The person shadowing and protecting Kare was an enhanced ghoul. What next? Where the Sang going to make a full Godclad out of a dog? Or a cat? Were they all going to become weird degenerates like the Voiders?

Letting out a sigh, Naeko dispersed his glaive and stomped away. He caught a series of surprised blinks coming from the Godslayer as he reached into his pocket, preparing to leave. “You are fleeing?” She asked.

“I’ll be back,” Naeko growled. Maybe. He wasn’t sure. This was… being here with Zein broke something in him. Gave him other things back. “I need to… to talk with my ‘junior brother.’” She squinted at him in annoyance. “Don’t give me that, I didn’t take a ghoul as a disciple.” Even the words he spoke sounded ridiculous. “But I do need to talk to them. Get a figure on… just whatever the hell I'm dealing with.”

Zein’s posture turned rigid. For a moment, Naeko just watched her, preparing himself for an attack across time or whatever other scheme his master might attempt. Instead, her grip on her weapon slackened and she gave an unsatisfied sigh. “Do not underestimate him, Samir. Learn from me. He is ruled solely by his own hunger; his own dreams. He will do anything to see his will made manifest.”

“Except murder a Paladin,” Naeko shot back, baring his teeth.

The Godslayer sighed. “Especially to protect one. He is unleashed from his nature. Do not chain yourself to assumption. Know that you cannot be allies in eventuality. Not unless you wish to acquiesce to his manifestation of utopia.”

“Maybe not,” Naeko said. “But you know he did that you did?”

“What?”

“He chose to speak with me. And he told me only truths.”

Zein frowned at that. “Heed my words, Naeko. I accept your loathing, but do not damn yourself to a bitter fate. If you let him spread beyond control, then there will be no power on this world that can halt his final ascent to victory.”

***

–[Avo]–

The Infacer made being a half-strand an art form.

After chasing him across the map, into the tunnels below where they melded with a swarm queen, flooded the trenches of both factions with a critical mass of feral bioforms, released the queen, and triggered multiple battalion-sized slaughters, secured several hostile bases in the chaos, stopped the Infacer from detonating a chain of Rendbombs across no man’s land, all Avo could say was that the Infacer truly loved what he did.

[Being a fucking prick,] Chambers muttered, in awe of the Infacer’s unceasing attempts at ruining everyone’s day.

Thoughtcasts choked the Nether with whines, complaints, and rageful screams. Most anchors were severely overrun by swarming bioforms, with incoming Stormjumpers slain mere seconds after impact. The battle between the two factions ceased to be against each other and instead turned into a unified struggle — one against the Infacer’s machinations.

And the worst thing of all was he wasn’t done. Avo captured the critical loci of every FOB he could while chasing the Infacer, but the EGI was planning something. Something devious. They spent more time jumping between secured locations through a rapidly teleporting golem. Avo had used an in-game Galeslither to pursue them, but he was operating a step behind, and had to pull away more than once when pursued by other players.

Now, though, he was upon the Infacer again—found him squatting on the edge of an external bunker. Drifting in beside them, Avo put his golem into Rend Cooldown and landed next to his erstwhile adversary.

There, writ upon his avatar’s face was building satisfaction. Fires, warheads, and Rendbomb detonations splashed across the landscape. Columns of devastation rose from the sprawling trenches. Still, lightning bolts fell from the sky, feeding players into pre-made slaughterhouses.

{Look at them,} The Infacer chuckled. {It was supposed to be a war between armies. But look at them now? A death spiral for both sides. Can you hear them whimpering? Can you see the players quitting out? Hilarious.}

+You are amused by strange things.+

The Infacer turned to regard him. {Am I? It is not funny to watch rules and supposed guidelines collapse? It is not funny to watch people playing soldier reduced to childish frustration? That the structure of his playground crumble beneath the ineptitude of its enjoyers?}

+Maybe.+ Frankly, it was the Infacer that fascinated Avo more. +All this just to ruin another’s day. You are dedicated.+

{And so are you. Chasing me from one end of this place to another. Did you get the insights you wanted from me?}

Avo grunted something almost comparable to a laugh. +Might need a few centuries more. But we don’t have that time.+

{Oh, contrarily, we might have all the time in the world. Really depends on which of us win. And what winning looks like. Veylis… she quite wants to keep you around. You are going in her garden of “esteemed enemies.”}

+And you?+

{Well. A million years back, and I would just try to kill you. Or feeble your mind. Now? Now, I do not believe it will matter once my Thirdborn is made whole.}

+Because it will govern the rules. Make sense of things? Because it is existence becoming self-aware? Realizing its own absurdity?+

{Because something will notice us for the parasites that we are, and stop us from ruining this existential canvas further.}

The Infacer held up a hand, reached for the banished face of that baleful dawn veiled by ash-coated clouds. They gestured toward the four Tumorous Chains coiling around the writhing branches of the stormtree, with pustules bursting in eruptions of forking electricity. Slowly, they made a fist—and over a hundred bases vanished with spreading ruptures and tides of nuclear fire.

Avo blinked twice as he took in the cataclysms consuming the foreground. +Did that when you were teleporting around.+

{I just forgot a few Rendsinks near the base reactors I came across.}

Avo felt the cognitive load for the mem-sim’s lobby lessen by a full fraction. +Trying to get enough people to quit out of the game now? Going to end this in a forfeit?+

{Imagine how unsatisfying that would be?}

Avo scoffed. Truly, there was no one more dedicated to being a—

+Avo.+ The mention of his name passed into his base mind and made every stream of consciousness he had halt thereafter. The mind that spoke to him was Naeko’s. Avo reverted his own memories to ensure he wasn’t mishearing when the Chief Paladin spoke for a second time. +Avo. That’s your name, right?+

Avo’s surprise was short-lived. The man must’ve spoken to Zein. Or accessed her knowledge somehow. Not unexpected; such was the risk of leaving her in Naeko’s custody. Nor was this an entirely bad thing. He was going to make himself known before the city at the trial, after all. Perhaps this could be a test-run. Something to gauge how the masses might respond to the truths he would inflict upon them.

Nonetheless, the submind next to the Infacer remained in place and continued watching the environment unravel.

{You think I get half of the apes to quit.}

+Maybe. You think I can blow out all the chains and take the stormtree before you do?+

The Infacer just grinned at him.

***

+Avo? That’s your name, right? Or do you wanna be called something else? Pale Spider. Uh, Junior Brother. Zein told me she decided to… take you in.+

Kare’s alarm spike so high that Avo sensed it even through Marlowe’s mind.

+Shit,+ Marlowe replied, unsure how to proceed. Both she and Kare just died from the same rupture. It came without forewarning or sense. One minute, they were fine. The next, they ghosts were bringing them back to respawn in front of their phylacteries aboard the dirigibles.

The Infacer was making good on their promise to be an annoyance. But that remained a sideshow to why Avo was truly here.

Naeko. They knew now. Zein told them.

Good. Then there was no need to play at these pretenses anymore.

+Avo is fine,+ he replied. There was a relief to being revealed. Like burden was finally dropped.

+So,+ Naeko continued. It took them a moment to gather their thoughts, and Hysteria stole glances behind the curtain—showed the stress and torment gnawing the Chief Paladin from within, offered Avo moments of a duel between Naeko and Zein. Their bonds remained frayed. The man was still unbalanced. Now was the time to make contact. Now was the time. +So, you’re actually a ghoul? Actually.+

The question couldn’t help but make Avo give a mirthful grunt.

+Not exactly the easiest thing to believe,+ Draus murmured as an aside. Someone was dying on her end—glass-made dagger digging deep through oozing eye socket. He left her to her work without giving a response.

Instead of trying to convince Naeko across the Nether, he projected a splinter into Kare, and from that began pouring the essence of his sheath out from her mind, back into the real, right in Naeko’s apartment.

Searing ghosts splashed together and turned solid. Avo gave himself the shape invoked by the Chief Paladin—the so-called Pale Spider. The Bone Demon without its additional Meldskin. His avatar congealed in reality much like a character would load into the mem-sim, and Avo regarded the Chief Paladin and Maru for the first time “in-person” using one of his extensions.

He towered over the man in stature but not ontological mass. Despite this, the Naeko’s jaw remained clenched; his eyes growing wider by the second. “Jaus,” he whispered.

“One of the reasons why I wanted to speak with you today,” Avo replied.

Slowly, the Chief Paladin nodded. Behind him, Maru had his hands on a gun, thoughtstuff rendered erratic by Avo’s sudden arrival.

“So,” Avo said, seeking to break the tension—noted that Kare was jacking out of the game. “How is Zein?”

Naeko considered his answer. “A sow.”

“Oh. Same as always then. Wish her the worst. Any chance I can convince you to just kill her?”

The faintest hint of a snort came from the Chief Paladin. “Yeah, well, you might not need to try very hard.”