Page 4064

Heh. If the guy wasn't such a bastard, Jercash might've felt bad for him. Messing with him was always fun.

But there was no time to take it further. He gave him another moment to compose himself before blinking them both back to the Yigorosks.

That didn't seem to be quite enough time for Lozaro, though, who remained uncharacteristically silent as Jercash picked the conversation with his new squid friend up again.

"So do you have a name?" he asked. "Mine's Jercash, though you probably knew that already, right?"

'Yes, of course. I am called Bill.'

Jercash's mouth opened, then closed again as he processed that. He was beginning to wonder if these squids were fucking with him. "Bill. Huh. That short for something?"

'No,' said Bill, sipping from his hissing pod again. 'Just Bill.'

Or, wait a minute. Did these guys used to be human? Hmm. Now how could he ask that question while minimizing the risk of it coming as incredibly offensive to their alien sensibilities?

Tough one. Maybe he'd just have to roll the dice and see.

Thankfully, Bill resolved things before Jercash had to make a decision. 'I have the honor of being named by the Originator himself. A fact which sometimes summons jealousy from my brethren, I think. I would advise not broaching the subject in front of them, were I you.'

"Ohhh. The Originator. Right. Hmm. Y'know, I'd like to learn more about him, if you don't mind sharing. You mentioned he would 'return' to this realm, right? So he's been here before?"

'Not just him,' said Bill. 'We were all once children of this realm, just as you are. But we were banished. Or rather, our ancestors were. Long ago.' Another sip.

"How long ago, exactly?"

'Impossible to say for sure. But the Originator found us much later and renewed our dream of the Unity. He became a magnificent pillar. The Hope of All Idkin. We are forever in his debt.'

Jercash stroked his mustache. "Does he already know about me, too?"

'Of course. And I'm sure he is looking forward to meeting you.'

"Oh, really? Wow." Whoever this guy was, he sounded pretty damn powerful. Perhaps quite the imminent threat, too, if he was going be showing up soon. "I'm happy to hear that. Though, to be quite blunt with you, I feel a bit undeserving of such recognition. I'm not sure what I've done to be honored so much."

At that, Bill paused mid-sip and seemed to turn to look at Jercash. Was that his face? There were too many eyeballs to be sure. 'Are you joking?'

Page 4063

Judging by the man's reaction--the words, the microexpressions, and even the aura--Jercash was already quite satisfied. Lozaro wasn't planning anything against him, at the moment. He could just let the matter drop and move on.

In a minute.

First, Jercash had to take his own aura in hand, lean in close to Lozaro with wide-eyes and a smile, place a hand on his shoulder, and ask him one more question. "Is there anything else you've forgotten to tell me?"

And he allowed his domain to surge outward, just enough to envelop the two of them in their own private little world. In his private little world. Giving Lozaro a glimpse into the depths of power which Jercash maintained access to.

The depths of Chaos.

Lozaro, if he was being attentive, would be able to see that the Yigorosks were now there, too. Newly sprinkled among the hordes. Not these intelligent ones, of course. Not yet.

But in time, who knew what was possible? Lozaro would be catching a glimpse of that, too. The possibilities. Shadows of the future. Including his own mutilated husk of a corpse, if need be. His own smeared psyche. His own mind, fractured into a cascade of barely recognizable madness. All very possible. Even probable, one might say.

Jercash could see him sweating, keeping his eyes down, trying not to look around at it all. It didn't matter, of course. In this place, he would see everything that Jercash wanted him to see, even if he plucked out his own eyes to avoid it.

He seemed a bit frozen now, though. Trembling and pale. That was no good.

Jercash gave his shoulder a light jostle. "Answer me, Loz."

"N-no, sir, I-I haven't forgotten to tell you anything."

Hmm. Jercash let the domain linger as he observed the man's aura a moment longer.

Then he let go, and the domain popped like a harmless bubble. "Okay. That's all I wanted to know. By the way, great work, pal! You've really been killing it, lately! I'm proud of you!"

Lozaro, shaking, manged to return a stilted nod.

"In fact, I'd say that I gotta reward you for all your efforts. And before you say anything--I know that's not why you do it. You're just a curious fella by nature. A pure academic. I get it. But I can't let good work go unrecognized, either. So what do you want, huh? Just name it, and I'll see about makin' it happen! I've got a lot of great connections these days, you know!"

The other man merely remained silent, still trying to steady himself, apparently.

"You're too humble by a half, you know that?! Well, that's okay! I'll think of somethin' for ya!"

Page 4062

Then he disappeared into thin air, only to reappear in the bunker, right next to his Chief of Science. He didn't even wait for Lozaro to turn around, instead just wrapping his arm around the man's neck, then blinking away again, back out onto the testing ground. There was no need for the others in the bunker to hear this conversation. The point of humiliating Lozaro was personal amusement, not the destruction of his reputation among everyone else.

And for that reason, he also didn't take them immediately back to where he'd just been standing. Shielding from psychic observation was easy enough, so long as he knew it was necessary, but if the Yigorosks had ears, too, then he wanted to remain out of earshot for a little bit.

Lozaro tried to wriggle out of his grasp, probably out of pure instinct rather than any hope of actually getting away from him. Jercash held onto him for a few moments longer before letting him go, just to ensure the man knew that Jercash had done so on purpose.

"Seems you forgot to mention a few things about the Yigorosks," said Jercash quite calmly, already fully aware that Lozaro hadn't known about them before. "You wouldn't be trying to hide anything from me, now would you?"

Lozaro's normally expressionless face had begun to crack, which delighted Jercash to no end. "O-of course not, sir. I have n-never encountered this particular strain before, lest I would have most certainly mentioned them."

Strain, was it? Did he consider them a virus?

Probably. Eh, didn't matter.

Jercash poked him in the forehead, making him wince. "You sure about that? You know this whole protection gig doesn't work if you lie to me, right?"

"Y-yes, sir. I understand, sir."

He weighed the fellow's expression carefully. As much as he was just doing this to fuck with the guy, there was also an underlying opportunity at play here.

When it came to men like Lozaro--sick and twisted men who were not to be trusted--there was always a possibility that they were planning on betraying him.

Or that they were even in the middle of doing so, right now, without Jercash realizing.

So it was good to run little tests like this, every now and again. Test the waters. See if anything unexpected might be lurking in there. Lozaro was a tricky one, after all. He'd managed to not only piss off Morgunov and live, but also keep living, despite the Mad Demon's occasional attempts to hunt him down.