Hector could hear more rumbling from aboveground. Part of him wondered if he wouldn’t have been more useful up there with Lord Dimas.
‘The hyper-states aren’t so difficult to remember, though. Forma goes with the mass abilities; moc goes with the wave abilities; and wzrost goes with the mixture abilities. Oh, and rozum goes with them all.’
‘Uh-huh...’ And then Hector paused, squinting. ‘Hey, wait a minute.’
‘What?’
‘Mutation. You know how they develop their powers now. Back when I first asked you about mutation, you said you didn’t know any of the details.’
‘Your memory must be playing tricks on you.’
‘No, I definitely remember.’
‘Nah. That never happened. Trust me. I’m Garovel. The smart one, in other words.’
‘...You had one of the other reapers explain it to you while I was unconscious, didn’t you? Who was it? Voreese? Mehlsanz?’
‘I’ve always known, Hector. In fact, I’m actually omniscient. I just didn’t tell you before because you obviously weren’t ready for the incredible truth. But I’m glad I can finally reveal my secret to you now. Concealing my all-knowing super-coolness can be such a burden.’
‘Hmm. Wait, was it last night? Is that why you put me to sleep so suddenly when you were talking to Qorvass?’
‘I’m sure I don’t know what you’re talking about.’
Hector shook his head and smirked. ‘Then you obviously don’t know everything, do you?’
‘It’s just that one thing. Everything else, I totally know. Go on. Ask me anything.’
Hector took a second to deliberate. ‘How many raindrops are above Sair at this very moment?’
‘Sixty-one billion, three hundred and forty-nine million, two hundred and fifty-two thousand, one hundred and thirty-three,’ said Garovel. ‘Now, how do you intend to check if I’m wrong, exactly?’
‘...Shit.’
‘See? That proves it. I really am omniscient.’
‘I’m sorry I doubted you.’
That seemed to catch Garovel off guard, making the reaper laugh publicly. It drew a few strange looks, but no one said anything. Hector did notice, however, that Asad’s daughter was watching them now. Those golden eyes were easy to spot even in this relative darkness.
Despite being in their presence non-stop for the last thirty straight hours or so, Hector hadn’t been able to figure the Najirs out at all. Jada seemed slightly more outgoing than her aunt, but that wasn’t saying much. Both of their reapers seemed equally content to simply follow Qorvass in silence.
A dark serial novel. Set in a modern fantasy world called Eleg. Mature language. Updates every night at midnight PST by ~400 words.
Just put up 3 pages at once, folks. Careful not to skip any of them.
ReplyDeleteApologies for the lack of pages the past couple days. I was busy being a horrible person.
I called it on Garovel knocking Hector out
ReplyDelete<3
ReplyDeletethanks for the chapters, I quiet enjoy your story
ReplyDelete<3
ReplyDeleteYou did indeed, but I can console myself with the knowledge that you still didn't predict how immature Garovel's reason for doing it was.
ReplyDeletetouche
ReplyDeleteGeorge! This story does not deserve to be in fourth place on the top webcomics list D:<
ReplyDeleteIt deserves spot number ONE!
:3
No! Pact and Worm deserve 1 and 2! This deserves.... umm... Tied for 1!
ReplyDeleteI'm pretty sure Hector called that at some point.
ReplyDeleteWhat is this pact and worm you speak of? THE ZOMBIE KNIGHT IS THE ONE AND ONLY BEST ONE.
ReplyDeleteOh is pact that first person story with the guy Blake?
ReplyDeleteYeah. It's pretty good, if you don't particularly like your nails. The protagonists don't wield awesome power, everything has a lasting and definite price, and things ALWAYS get worse.
ReplyDeleteWhat I really want to know is why Garovel didn't know everything there is to know about the hyper states. He has had servants before, did he not think that they would survive long enough to be able to do it? Or did he just not have the ambition to raise a servant to be that powerful? Maybe Hector is the first servant he has had that he feels is decent/powerful enough to be able to change the status quo? He certainly does seem to be very secretive about Hector's age.
ReplyDeleteOr maybe he does forget facts that aren't immediately relevant, given that he took a 20 year vacation from... everything, really. Add in that he remembers a time when the mutation type was thought to be a disease, and he's got several centuries of incorrect information to sift through.
ReplyDeletePlus, you know, narrative convenience.
I think that Garovel feels that a hyper-state may not be too far off for Hector, especially heading into what may be a very big battle. Maybe not this battle, maybe not the next battle, but still pretty soon since they only seem to be able to make it a couple months between these crazy fights.
ReplyDeleteAchieving hyper-capability takes time, period, from what we've seen. Perhaps wzrost only takes a couple years to achieve for brief times, but forma and moc have to be harder.
ReplyDeleteThough there is that shield that seems to force the soul synch to ratchet up briefly... I wonder how that translates to hyper capability.
Happy Belated Thanksgiving, to anyone from Canada
ReplyDeleteYeah I tried getting into it, it's just not my cup of tea. *shrug*
ReplyDeleteAnyway
THE ZOMBIE KNIGHT IS THE BEST
I feel a need to say: Keep reading, the tone shifts drastically over the course of the story. You might start out hating it, but start liking it by the second or third arc.
ReplyDelete500 more pages before hyperstate that is when I think hector will be ready to try it in about 5 of his years afterall light guy has 50 ears as a servant and he has not fully mastered it so
ReplyDeleteZombie Knight is in 13th place for most votes ever in TopWebFiction History!
ReplyDeleteThis link will show all the votes ever made on TopWebFiction.
http://www.topwebfiction.com/?days=10000
Pact and Worm are stories by Wildbow. When worm was written, it came first in TopWebFiction with more than double the votes as second place. Today its 2-3rd, maybe even 4th because it is old (but people still vote for it.) Recently he started making Pact, a new story that is currently first place.
ReplyDelete