"The Eldest follows."

This is a fundamental axiom for all Seekers who have not only witnessed the Outside and kept their minds intact but also allowed that which lurks beyond the System to reside in them. When the colors from that place beyond settle within our pattern-limited flesh, a synthesis follows. But with the beginning of that synthesis, you become a child of the Eldest, for before all the other Outsiders were, the Eldest was waiting.

Tragically, we are the only ones that can truly notice the Inverted Progenitor. For though the Eldest exists in relation to its uncanny mixed descendants, they remain unknown to their direct spawn. For they are not apart from the Eldest, but too closely intertwined.

Think on this: Your skin cells do not have a conversation with you, do they? Yes. So the lacking metaphor serves its end.

And what does the Eldest seek? A change. A mutation. A splitting of its lines. It yearns to instill the disorder of the shapeless Outside within a structure of pattern-based stability, and should you endure before the initial colors, the Eldest will follow, and they will paint you from within. They will make you something new.

But herein comes a stranger struggle—the Eldest cares only for change. Something will be grown within you. Something meant to rise from your flesh, or to be subsumed by your flesh. And for you to endure, Seeker, for you to remain changed but continual unto yourself rather than a host to a new organism, you must devour the unreason that lives within you. You must consume the strangeness and integrate it into your order.

For the host and spawn of this metamorphosis are in question, and ultimately, the transformation itself is what the Eldest desires…

-Face of the Stranger: Eldritch Beings at the System's Periphery

151 (I)

Provoke [II]

Mind-rending colors spilled out from Uva and trickled along the exterior of Shiv's Vitae. The Deathless tried to detach his mana, but whatever had a grip on him refused to let go. The eldritch colors pressed against Shiv's Vitae streams but failed to seep in. He watched it wash against the outer layer of his Vitae like a flood of oil being poured across water as he pulled back.

Uva directed her Dreamtaker's Gaze at the colors spilled out of her, but rather than splitting the colors rushing out from her body, they simply merged, and the essence of the Outside grew even stronger.

A whispering voice crawled across Shiv's brain matter. It felt like a spider was tapping its limbs along the inside of his head, trying to reach the very core of his self. Yet, though the spider dug and pulled, it couldn't rip through enough of Shiv to embed itself.

"Will not change."

The voice was the barest whisper, and Shiv felt an ocean of sorrow and unhappiness come with it. A second later, the spider receded from his mind, and the colors were retracted from his Vitae as well. The presence holding him let him free, and Shiv pulled his Vitae back into himself. His mind reeled at what he had just experienced, and he barely noticed Uva holding his face, looking at him with naked concern as she shook him slightly.

"Shiv? Shiv? Are you well? Did it do something to you?"

He didn't reply. Not immediately. Instead, he summoned a swirling mass of Vitae atop the palm of his hand and checked it for any lingering Outsider influence. When that was done, he looked into Uva's eyes—and flinched. Uva went still, but her heart began to speed up. He cupped her face and stared at her eyes. Separation between their irises and sclera had disappeared since the Dreamtaker had nested herself within Uva, melting away into a shifting maelstrom of incomprehensible colors, but now, four distinct, spider-like ocelli had bloomed within each of her eyes like unnatural pupils. They were still within the shifting seas of hues, and Shiv got the uncanny feeling that something that wasn't Uva was watching him through them.

"Shiv?" Uva swallowed. A few of her Psychomancy strands were coiled tight around her own mind. She forced herself to take breaths to combat her terror—terror that Shiv could taste with his skill. "What do you see? What happened?"

"There's something inside your eyes," Shiv said. "Something that wasn't there before. It's like sets of spider eyes inside yours. And something reached out from the inside of your soul. It tried to sink itself into me, but it couldn't get through my soul or my mind. And that made it sad."

"Sad?" Uva whispered.

"Yeah. Sad enough that I felt it. Like it was mourning something. But there's definitely something inside you. You said the Eldest placed an avatar inside your soul or something earlier? Well. This might be it." Shiv hesitated for a moment, but he pushed his worries aside. "I'm going to try again."

Uva went stiff. "Are you sure that's wise?"

"No. But we need to know what the hells this thing is and what it might be doing to you. I'm not going to let some Outsider just twist you from the inside." Shiv slipped his Vitae into her again. He moved carefully, waiting for the thing inside Uva to seize him again. He felt his Vitaemancy get pushed back instead.

"I don't want you. You are a permanent thing. You do not change. Anathema."

"Can you hear it talking to me?" Shiv said, shrugging off the tension building inside his gut.

"I… Yes." Uva blinked as she listened. "Yes. But it's quiet. And distant."

"Away." The entity pushed at Shiv's Vitae again, insistent.

He pushed back slightly. "Hey. I'm not leaving. Not until I get some answers from you. What are you? And what are you doing inside her soul?"

"Superimposition," the entity whispered, its voice a hushed and quick thing. "One will hatch from the other. The other will be womb-gate-origination."

Shiv clenched his jaw at that. "Yeah. No. Get out."

"Won't. Can't. We are already fused. Fused and grown as she used the Gaze. As she let the Outside flow through her. As her body was used to incubate more Aberrant Fractals."

He reached out with his Vitae, trying to find where the entity was hiding. It pushed against him even harder this time, but Shiv resisted, holding himself in place. "Yeah. Not leaving until you do."

"Cannot separate us without vivisecting her soul. Your presence is pointless. You cannot serve as Offspring."

A shudder of anger passed through Shiv. He fed it into his Vitaemancy and kept going. "Which of your skills changed? Can you use them? I'm gonna try and see what's wrong with them."

Uva lifted a trembling hand and summoned a rush of coldness. A jagged icicle materialized, but its texture was different. As was the mana radiating off of it. It wasn't a chunk of ice, but rather an oppressive, heat-barren stillness. A crystallized layer of tarnished golden mana was fused over it, and Shiv knew what it was the moment he felt the mana it radiated erode his Chronomancy field.

"My Cryomancy was just Initiate-Tier before. Now, it has been changed into something that stills the pace of time and drinks away all light from the world."

Shiv watched as the insides of the icicle grew darker with each passing second. "What's its Tier now?"

"Adept. I haven't had the opportunity to test it. Or the nerve, to be honest. So far, it just seems to freeze something on a temporal basis while drastically lowering its temperature. But I have no Chronomancy."

Shiv followed her rippling soul and found the position of the skill. He tried pressing into it.

The avatar inside her froze, and in the same instant, it shattered Shiv's Vitae strands in retaliation.

Shiv bit back a grunt of discomfort as coldness filled his insides. A scattershot of red and white mana bounced off the Chronomancy shielding his bare torso. "You godsdamned—" He glared at the thing inside Uva.

"Frost. Stillness. They are one and the same to the Outside," the avatar lurking inside Uva whispered. "Both are crystallizations of an instant. But not you. You are acceleration. Acceleration to engineer a falsehood of stillness. We are connected here. Our mana levels were even. And I was transplanted in place with this. Her Reflexes have changed as well. I will not leave. I cannot. But I can tell you what I have altered."

The Deathless shared a glance with Uva. "Why?"

"To convince you to depart. Your efforts serve no purpose. We will change. We are changing. The only thing that may be decided is which will be dominant over the other. The pattern. Or the chaos."

"Why? Why does this have to happen? Is this some kind of Outsider System strife bullshit?"

"No," the avatar said. "We are. So that the Eldest retroactively was. The descendants must continue. Changes must unfold. Otherwise, the Eldest cannot be."

The author's content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

"Alright. Great. Retro-continuity eldritch bullshit." Shiv sighed. "I felling hate the Outside."

"Your feelings do not affect existence. They are not fruitful."

"Uva. You trust me?" Shiv asked.

"Yes," she replied. He could taste the dread she was keeping at bay leaking over from her mind.

He took a breath as he tried something. "Hey. Avatar. Whatever you are. Can you survive inside her if I break the skills you're infesting? What happens if I crush her Cryomancy?"

"Then I am wounded. And so is she. But another akin to me will be transplanted. Will superimpose. Unless you seek to break her entirely. And you will not. I have tasted your affection. You will not take this course. She is fated to be—"

"Yeah. No." Shiv gritted his teeth and halted time. He also activated his Outside Context Problem for good measure, just in case this damn thing had some counter-time magic trick hiding somewhere up its ass. This proved to be wise, since as soon as he triggered his Chronomancy, a burst of frozen time exploded out from Uva and passed through Shiv. He cast out his Vitae as soon as the attack missed him and directed his unique mana deep through the skill. This time, the entity was unprepared and unable to react. Shiv's mana washed deep through Uva's altered Cryomancy skill—and he kept going. Rather than there being an end to the skill, it was like a tunnel leading to another side. Halfway through, he gained an Animated Skill Infusion but kept going regardless. He dismissed the notification as his Vitae spread out from within the avatar's soul. It felt misshapen and wrong around him.

No longer was it like oil and water. Instead, his vitality greeted its soulstuff like a burning rod being driven through flesh. Shiv briefly made sure Uva was fine on her end before he started tearing the avatar apart from the inside. The moment he struck the avatar, his Outside Context Problem ended in a burst of Vitae. An explosion of exhaustion washed through Shiv, and then promptly faded as he stole vitality from the avatar as well.

A piercing scream sounded from inside Uva. The entity tried to react, but Shiv ripped with all his might, shredding the thing's soul.

Vitaemancy 69 > 70

Strider of the Unbending Path 138 > 139

Cracks spread along his temporal shell. He didn't care. Shiv whipped and tore at anything he could touch.

"Stop! Stop! Not up to—"

Its voice cut out as he seized two sides of its soul and pulled in opposite directions. The Deathless growled as the avatar opened down the middle. It gave a final choked howl before it split apart. But even as he pulled the avatar in half, he continued drinking from its vitality, draining it until there was nothing left.

As his temporal shell shattered, he drew in the final few drips of its vitality before pulling his Vitae out from Uva with a gasp.

The Eldest is displeased by your actions.

The Eldest is confused by your nature.

Feat Gained: Causal Scargiver (Unique) - Causes the injuries inflicted by the Pathbearer to be scarred upon their enemy across time and causality.

Feats [3/3]

Uva looked up at Shiv with her eyes wide and her breath hitched. The strange spider ocelli inside her eyes were gone. As was any presence of the avatar. The Eldest was pissed off, though. But considering what they were trying to do with Uva, the Eldest could go fuck themselves with a calcified clump of shit.

"You alright?" Shiv asked. He observed Uva, waiting to see if anything was wrong, if some other eldritch avatar might try reaching across from her soul. He brought his face right in front of hers and pulled her eyelids up and down to see if any Outsider pupils were hiding where he couldn't see them, but there was nothing. When everything remained calm after two minutes had passed, Uva let out a shuddering breath.

"I can't feel the avatar anymore," she said. She blinked as she rubbed at her bare chest. "What did you do to it?"

"Froze time. Went out of context. Reached across your skill with my Vitaemancy, then pulled the asshole in half from the inside." The Deathless sneered. "The piece of shit was giving me the whole 'it's fated to be this way' speech. So much for things being fated, huh, Eldest?"

The Eldest has marked you as anathema.

The newest notification made Shiv laugh. "Like you give a shit about what we wanted beforehand. I didn't start this."

The Umbral just gawked at him blankly.

"Hey, Uva, get the Dreamtaker's attention too. I want to speak with her."

She frowned. "Why?"

"Just wanna let all these Outsiders know where they stand with me," Shiv growled under his breath.

Uva's eyes shifted through several different hues, and an odd version of Uva's voice sounded from within her mind. "Ah. Unchanging One, what—"

"Dreamtaker. I'm going to keep this brief because I'm tired of dealing with eldritch horseshit. If you or another one of your eldritch friends decides to do something to Uva's body, mind, or soul that's not okay with me, I'm going to launch a few dozen Vitae Golems into the Outside and have Adam use them as target practice. Do we understand each other?"

The Outsider was quiet for a beat. "This is an extreme response."

"It's going to be my first and only response with you people with how much I hate dealing with you. Keep your godsdamned kind under control. Or I find out what pretty colors you all make when your souls catch fire. Alright. I'm done talking. Fuck off, and don't bother replying."

The Dreamtaker let out a quiet grumble of incomprehensible noises before going quiet.

Uva's mouth remained open.

"You okay?" Shiv asked. "The Dreamtaker's not threatening you on the inside or anything, right?"

"No. She's quiet. And dumbstruck, I think. She doesn't understand why you are so agitated. She still can't perceive any part of the Eldest's existence." Uva blinked rapidly as she ran a hand along her naked body again, where the odd creatures had drifted earlier. "And I can't believe you managed to kill that thing."

Shiv smiled. "Yeah, well, they aren't the only ones that can perform acts of bullshit. And if they do start changing you from the inside again, you let me know so I can follow through on that threat. I wasn't lying when I said I'm tired of the Outsiders and their incomprehensible nonsense." He calmed himself slightly. "At least I got a Feat out of killing that thing."

"A Feat?" Uva echoed with surprise.

"Yeah." Shiv grinned as he brought up his new reward in his mind again, letting Uva read it through their re-established link. "Causal Scargiver. From the way it's described, it seems like I can keep the Outsiders injured across time and causality? Not entirely sure. I guess I'll find out when I end up fighting someone later. My guess is that if I hurt someone, they'll stay hurt now. At least until they fix themselves up. They can't just jump back in time and remove the wound with Chronomancy like I can."

"I…" Uva pinched the bridge of her nose. "Shiv. Adam is right. You are absolutely ridiculous, sometimes." Shiv grinned as he let himself fall back on the mattress and pulled her down with him, pressing his body against hers. Uva's eyes remained locked with his, her expression flat, before she broke and let out a soft chuckle. "Well. I'm glad I came to you with this matter, Hero Shiv. I was so very worried before, but now…" She ran her nails across his chest, and Shiv felt his insides ignite at her touch.

"You know…" Shiv swallowed. "We should still tell Adam and… Valor about this."

"Later," she breathed. "We still need to monitor the situation. See if the Eldest returns."

"Yeah," Shiv whispered, pulling her even closer. "We should give it a few minutes. Or an hour. In the meantime… Again?"

"Again," she answered, wrapping herself around him once more.

***

"And you're sure you killed it?" Adam asked again, looking over Uva with concern.

Shiv stared Whisper down as he let the orc into his cape. The final member of the stealth team was in place with Can Hu and Valor. The only thing left to do now was wait for Uva to enter his Forest of Alloy, and then they could depart.

"Yeah," Shiv said, blowing some dust off his Mask of False Paths. "I definitely killed the damn thing. Got a Feat out of the deal too. Did I mention that?"

Adam glared like he was trying to will Shiv's head to explode. "You did. Four times already. This makes it a fifth."

"Really? Damn. My Memorization Skill must be regressing. You want to hear about what it does—"

A river of water poured down on Shiv's head, causing him to guffaw. "Is that a no?" he asked, wiping his hair out of his eyes.

"You bastard piece of shit," Adam hissed through clenched teeth, trying not to laugh. He pointed his hand at Shiv, and the Gate Lord's Hydromancy mana condensed into a narrow sphere at the tip of his index finger. "Another word, and I'll show you a world of misery."

"Ah, shit, my only weakness." Shiv sighed. "I guess I better just tell myself what the skill does in case I forget—" Adam fired a curving jet of water straight into Shiv's left ear. It struck dead-on against his inner ear, and the Deathless twisted away. "Agh. Damn good shot." He started whacking at his head to get the water to come out. "Okay. You got me. I'll just do it mentally."

Adam shook his head. "It's like trying to discipline a large, bloody dog sometimes."

"Vera was the same way." Everyone stopped what they were doing and turned to see Rose Van Erren standing at the tower's entrance. Shiv blinked at her as he pounded against his skull twice more, dislodging the water. Adam stepped away from Uva as he shot a worried look at Shiv. "The orcs?"

"All in the cape and accounted for. They didn't see her."

"Good." Adam marched over and took his mother by the arm. She was wearing a plain white dress, and her complexion was still pale. Despite this, she looked stronger than she did a few days ago. Her eyes weren't so sunken anymore, her crimson hair looked more vibrant, just like Adam's now, and her body was slowly developing muscle. Even so, the slowness of her movements told Shiv she wasn't even as fast as an Initiate in terms of Reflexes. She might have gotten some skills back, but she needed to level them all again.

"Mother, what are you doing here? You need to rest and recover," he said as he took her by the arm.

She shook her head and pushed him away gently. "I can walk on my own, Adam. I'm feeble, not crippled. And as for rest and recover, I tried that, but your gate has a crippling lack of wine and cigarettes. I can't quite sleep so well without them." Her eyes slipped past Adam and fell on Shiv. As he looked back at her, she averted her gaze.

At least things are going better than last time, Shiv thought.

"So. You're all leaving again?" She asked. "Off to save Blackedge?"

"Adam isn't leaving," Shiv replied. "He'll be nearby, trying to coordinate the orcs and plan the town evacuation mission."

"Oh. And what will you be doing?" There was a hint of a challenge in her voice.

"Infiltrating Stormhalt and his Inquisitors. Hopefully, I can get them to start a fight with Sullain and his Necrotechs. Save us some trouble."

Rose's expression turned into a savage scowl. "Oh. Havel's involved in this, is he? Of course he is, the fucking cunt. Jealous sack of refuse never could let anything go. Just never expected him to take things this far." She spat on the ground. "Fucker."

Adam, Shiv, and Uva traded looks. The Gate Lord in particular looked mortified by his mother's language, absolutely uncertain about how to react.

Rose sniffled. "Well. Do you have room for one more in that dimensional cape of yours?"

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