Next page on the 7th

Thanks for reading. And for not seething. Or bleeding. Or pleading. And for meeting. And eating. But yeah, mainly for reading.

Page 3998

‘Oh god,’ said Garovel. ‘Yeah. You might be right about that. Aberrations are always difficult to notice, which would explain why I wasn’t sure what it was. Have you had many encounters with aberrations, Rezolo?’

‘You could say that,’ said the reaper. ‘And if I could help it, I’d sooner never encounter another one.’

Loren knew he wasn’t lying. They’d been a pair for almost four years now, but even in that relatively short time, they’d met several of those humanoid abominations, up close and personal.

It was never an enjoyable experience, especially with the more powerful ones. And if these reapers were already able to discern the presence of an aberration at such a seemingly large distance, then Loren was getting the feeling that this was not going to be some fledgling that they were dealing with.

On top of all that, Loren had the distinct impression that Rezolo had met many more aberrations prior to the two of them teaming up. The reaper’s mood was typically difficult to gauge, but in the presence of aberrations, there was a noticeable shift. He clearly didn’t like them very much.

‘Hold on,’ came Voreese’s voice. ‘This doesn’t make sense. How could there be an aberration--especially one that seems pretty damn powerful--right in the heart of Vanguardian territory? They would’ve hunted it down, for sure.’

‘So one would think,’ said Garovel. ‘But maybe it’s a developing situation, and they’re in the middle of hunting it down right now.’

‘Hmm.’ Voreese floated further ahead, coming up right behind Darksteel. ‘Ooh, y’know, if that’s the case, then maybe we’ll get to meet some of the Vanguard’s famous aberration hunters. Ever since I first heard about them, I thought they sounded pretty cool.’

‘Sure,’ said Garovel, ‘but they also kinda sound like a bunch of hardasses. Somehow, I feel you wouldn’t get along with them very well.’

‘Oh, c’mon. I can appreciate a hardass, every now and again. Hell, I can BE one, every now and again. The context is what matters, Garovel.’

‘Uh-huh.’

‘But yeah, if they’re a gaggle of assholes, then I’ll probably talk mad shit on them. Can’t help it.’

“You absolutely can,” said Roman.

‘Shut up.’

Soon, the group pushed onward and upward, and the first glimpses of light began to arrive near the top of the staircase. It wasn’t much, though. They still needed their flashlights for a while longer--up until they finally arrived at a large pair of double stone doors.

Page 3997

He’d tried to ignore it, of course, knowing that dwelling on it was pointless. All that would accomplish was making him even more miserable than he already was. Better to concentrate on things that he could actually change. Or on things that could at least provide some sort of escape for him mentally, however fleeting.

But this situation was suddenly bringing it up again. Stronger than ever. Because it was accompanied by an actual sense of hope, for once.

Agh.

Very dangerous thinking, that. He needed get a hold of himself. At the end of the day, Rezolo was right. He shouldn’t put too much stock in that idea.

Really. When had hope ever worked for him?

Another set of winding stairs lay ahead, but Darksteel stopped, which brought the rest of them to a halt, too.

“I think we’ve passed beyond the dark fog that was blanketing everything,” said Hector, his voice tinged in metal. “Can you reapers sense the city above us, now?”

Voreese spoke up first. ‘Yep. That’s a lot of souls up there. Looks like we’re in the right place, after all.’

“Anything else?” the lord pushed. “Any... weirdness? Vito reported some sort of mass hysteria up there.”

‘Hmm, let’s see. Eh. Seems normal enough to me. What about you two chuckleheads? Sense anything strange?’

Rezolo and Garovel remained quiet a moment, perhaps concentrating, before Rezolo spoke up next. ‘Not I.’

But Garovel had a different response. ‘Actually, I do... feel something off. I can’t quite tell what it is, though.’

‘Well, think harder, then,’ said Voreese. ‘Figure it out! Right now, dammit!’

‘Very helpful, thank you.’

‘Okay, fine, where is it? Tell me the direction of this “offness” that you sense.’

‘Agh. Um. Northwest of here, I think.’

‘Great. Cool. Which way is northwest?’

‘Are you kidding me?’ And Garovel pointed with his ethereal gecko’s tail.

‘Oh, don’t give me a hard time! We’ve been wandering around in the dark after teleporting across the continent! My internal compass is busted as hell, so how can yours still be working after all that?!’

‘What can I say? I’m just the greatest.’

‘Greatest bullshitter, maybe.’

‘Ha, well, that’s definitely not true. Anyway, just help me out, will ya? What do you sense over there?’

Voreese grumbled wordlessly but seemed to start concentrating. Rezolo, too, from the look of it.

‘...Okay, yeah, you’re right. There’s definitely something fucked going on over there. Can’t tell how fucked, though. It’s weird.’

‘...I believe that may be the work of an aberration,’ said Rezolo.

Page 3996

That was certainly one thing that he knew about Rezolo. How stubborn he could be.

‘We can enter pan-wzrost any time you like,’ said Loren. ‘Then you can read my memories and emotions directly.’

‘You always try to bring that up when we talk about this. Don’t act like you can’t still hide things from in there. I know you’ve figured it out already.’

‘I truly have not.’ They’d argued about this enough times by now that he felt neither defensive nor surprised by the reaper’s response. He just held back a sigh as he knew that there was no helping the situation.

It was genuinely baffling to him, the more he’d thought about it. The only explanation he’d been able to concoct for Rezolo’s paranoia on this particular matter was that the reaper must’ve had a bad experience with a previous servant.

That might also be the reason why Loren had never been able to learn much about the reaper via the hyper-state, either. Because Rezolo had figured out how to do it, he assumed that Loren must have also.

The reaper was projecting, in other words.

And for a while, Loren had felt like he was missing out on something quite wondrous. The way other people talked about it, their merged minds were supposed to let them look through each other’s entire lives with little difficulty, but for him, at least, that had never been the case.

In fact, pan-wzrost honestly didn’t feel that different from their normal, separated connection. The telepathic communication was the same. No closer, no deeper, no more intuitive. The world around them just felt a little more intense. Heightened in sensory input.

But oh well. Loren was long past the point of agonizing over it.

He tried to get the conversation back on track. ‘Anyway, I just want you to pay attention to Darksteel,’ he told the reaper. ‘If his power and influence really do rival that of Caster, then...’

‘Then, what?’ said Rezolo.

Still being difficult, of course. ‘Then, it complicates things,’ Loren chose to say.

The reaper made no response.

Loren wanted to keep pushing, but he didn’t know how, so he decided to just let the matter drop. Perhaps it was too soon to be broaching this subject at all.

It was just that...

Agh.

That idea of actually leaving Abolish...

He couldn’t deny fantasizing about it for years now. Feeling utterly trapped.