by F. R. Brooks
Liam often wondered if the ice merely facilitated detachment from the reality that death was an erasure of life. He didn’t like to think about his own first experience.
It had been an accident.
He had tried so damned hard to delay his inevitable first kill. All it took, however, was an underestimated alkali bomb. The result had taken out several exalts at once on the Field.
What remained of those exalts lingered in his nightmares.
James had celebrated him. Libelle’s media machine howled in amusement over a rookie metal exalt who had found a novel way to kill. Only Jove shared silence with him as the bite of carved a sickening hollow in Liam’s chest.
I’m ready for all of this to be over.
“Alright. Lift’s here, Professor.”
James made his way up a flight of stairs at the heart of the foyer. Ornate gates parted to permit their entry into the lift that would take them to the last trial of their Exaltation.
Only the Chevalier remained.
If only it was simply about titles and glory, though.
After what they had seen, after Jove had been killed for what they had stumbled upon… the context of their battle had changed. The day Jove died marked the beginning of the real nightmare from which Liam could not wake.
“You sure you’re ready?” Liam asked.
“As ready as I’ll ever be.”
As the elevator doors closed behind them, Liam fixed his helmet back onto his suit. The UI indicated that repairs had mostly completed.
Silence fell over the brothers as their ascent began.
Soft piano music filtered into the lift.
Liam’s mind briefly drifted through memories. He and his brother as children, walking home after school bruised and bloody from a schoolyard fight. Liam held tight to that dreamlike recollection of cool, emerald grass and the scent of earth and sweat. Despite their wounds, they still walked home with proud smiles on their faces.
They had won. Nobody died back then.
Simpler times. Simpler fights. Fights that didn’t end in death.
No matter how hard I wish to go back, to hide in those memories, there will never be enough time for those ephemeral moments.
We may return to them in dreams but dreams never last.
At some point, all dreams must end.
Reality always washes in like a tide, Jove once said.
* * *
08 | Save Point
Nym hummed along to a melody Liam did not recognize. One she likely came across while scouring data online. Oddly enough, whatever that tune was, it blended well with the soft piano track playing in the elevator.
“Where’d you hear that song?” Liam asked.
“Hmm… I didn’t hear it anywhere. I’m just using algorithms to harmonize. Is it a good sound?”
“It is a lovely sound.”
Nym responded with a charming giggle. Nym was absorbed information from her surroundings like a sponge. Her capacity for learning never ceased to impress Liam.
“Hey, Liam?” Nym chimed. “What made you pick ‘Nym’ as my name?”
“It’s short for nymph.”
“Yeah? Like a fairy?”
“Ah… no. Like a dragonfly larvae.”
“Oh… ew.”
* * *
ACCESSING EXALT DATA SYSTEM... > PARTY STATUS
* * *
| WILLIAM STERLING | RANK 8 ••• LV.81 ••• SAI: 100% ••• LCR: 092% | OFFICIATED FIGHT COUNT: 08 | OFFICIATED LOSS COUNT : 01 | OFFICIATED KILL COUNT : 39 | EXP: 1010029 | EXALT CLASS: TANK | INNATE ELEMENT: METAL | SUIT DES.: A.IMPERATOR VER.3.1 | SUIT MFR.: ODONATACORP | SUIT MODS: | [REGEN] | Draw atmospheric traces of lucidium from | surroundings to restore small amounts of | SAI & LCR while idling. | | [TANK & SPANK] | Adds a 20-30% buff to lucidium output (ATK) | and a 40-50% buff to damage mitigation (DEF) | | [ERROR:AGI-003%, ELE+005%] | Dear Sober Liam: Do not mod your suit | while drunk. I broke this. | - Drunk Liam | |---------------------------------------------- | ATK: 189 | DEF: 232 | AGI: 176 | LUK: 118 | |+SUIT:+027%| +041%| -003%| +010% | |---------------------------------------------- | ELEMENTAL RESISTANCES | | FIRE: -050% | ELECTRIC: +005% | | WIND: +050% | OBSCURA: •000% | | EARTH: -010% | METAL: •000% | | WATER: -030% | ICE: •000% | ----------------------------------------------
* * *
| JAMES STERLING | RANK 8 ••• LV.80 ••• SAI: 96% ••• LCR: 091% | OFFICIATED FIGHT COUNT: 08 | OFFICIATED LOSS COUNT : 01 | OFFICIATED KILL COUNT : 15 | EXP: 985321 | EXALT CLASS: DPS | INNATE ELEMENT: ICE | SUIT DES.: A.IMPERATOR VER.3.1 | SUIT MFR.: ODONATACORP | SUIT MODS: | [REGEN] | Draw atmospheric traces of lucidium from | surroundings to restore small amounts of | SAI & LCR while idling. | | [STRIKE] | Adds a 10-20% buff to lucidium output (ATK) | and a 01-05% buff to damage mitigation (DEF) | | [FOR THE DEEPS] | This should give you a small buff to ATK. | How much, I'm not sure. This mod is a little | unstable. If your suit blows up, I'm sorry. | - Liam |---------------------------------------------- | ATK: 226 | DEF: 171 | AGI: 224 | LUK: 238 | |+SUIT:+035%| +005%| | | |---------------------------------------------- | ELEMENTAL RESISTANCES | | FIRE: -080% | ELECTRIC: +098% | | WIND: +070% | OBSCURA: •000% | | EARTH: +020% | METAL: •000% | | WATER: +100% | ICE: •000% | ----------------------------------------------
* * *
| JOVE DARNER . . . [UNABLE TO LOCATE EXALT] . . . . . . [LOCATING] . . . . . . [UNABLE TO LOCATE EXALT] . . . . . . [LOCATING] . . . . . . [UNABLE TO LOCATE EXALT] . . . . . . [LOCATING] . . .
* * *
> REMOVE JOVE DARNER FROM THE PARTY?
I thought I removed this before…
Should I just…?
“Hey!” James shouted. “The hell do you think you’re doing?”
Startled from an empty stare at Jove’s name on the party roster, Liam answered wearily.
“I… don’t know.”
James glared. “Just… leave it alone, alright?”
“Yeah. You’re right. I don’t know what came over me.”
What the hell compelled me to remove Jove’s name like that?
It’s not hurting anything by being there.
* * *
> INVENTORY
Lucidium Battery QUANTITY: 03 [ LIAM: 2 / 5 ] [ JAMES: 1 / 5 ] Stored in the neck piece of all sentisuits. Can be used to quickly restore SAI & LCR to 100%.
Lo's Ribbon QUANTITY: 01 A long, cyan piece of ribbon that Lo tied to Liam's suit "for good luck."
* * *
> FILES
Liam decided against looking at the files saved in his system.
As far as he could recall, he had only saved photos of his journey with Jove and James.
Memories he was not interested in delving into at the moment.
Now’s not the time to get nostalgic.
* * *
> CORRESPONDENCE > (3) UNREAD MESSAGES
A sick and heavy feeling welled at the bottom of Liam’s chest as he remembered whose names he’d find in his inbox.
I… really don’t want to look at these right now.
* * *
Lucidium is the ore that powers everything in Libelle. Using what’s called an alchemical conversion system, lucidium is the only material that can truly be transmuted into different elements. With a base amount of lucidium, one can convert it into fire, water, metal, etc. There are eight known elements that lucidium can be successfully transmuted into—all elements which are used by exalt sentisuits to engage in combat.
“I’d love to see the lucidium core under Libelle one day…” Nym said.
“That would require some pretty hefty protective equipment. That much lucidium exposure can’t be good for the body.”
“Lucky for me, I’m a hologram. I don’t exactly have a body.”
“Huh. Good point. Well, if I ever figure out how to hack into Libelle’s core system, I’ll upload you there.”
“…really?”
“Of course. I think that if I could see it without dying, I’d jump on the oppo
rtunity.”
“Maybe one day I’ll see it for us both then. I’ll be your eyes.”
“Maybe.”
09 | No Escape
A gentle piano ensemble masked the silence between the Sterling brothers. Both stood with arms crossed over their chests and gazes sideward. Tension had settled between the two despite the small talk managed in the foyer.
Finally, James spoke. “You mad or somethin’?”
Liam exhaled and conceded, “I… thought you were dead back there. Alyssa would have killed me for that. If Laurent didn’t, anyway.”
“Oh, boy. Here we go.”
“You really don’t give a shit, do you?” Liam cast his brother a glare.
“Not really. We’ve got more important things to worry about right now.”
More important things.
Despite knowing the reality behind Chrysid’s curtain, Liam’s will to wage war was nowhere near as strong as his brother’s. James was easily riled by injustice. The only vindication Liam wanted, however, was justice for Art, Lo, and Jove.
I already got what I came here for.
Liam shook his head in disbelief.
There truly was no getting through to James—he was convinced that he was indestructible. Convinced that his endeavor was too righteous to fail, perhaps. Unwilling to even consider that countless exalts and even rogue Chevaliers had likely waged this very same anarchic crusade against Chrysid—all to be erased from the pages of history as a result.
Would you go alone? Or is my presence merely enabling your delusion?
“Right. Well, I think I’m going to return to Euclid, then.”
Liam made his way toward the elevator’s panel.
“Hey, what?”
“I’m done.”
“That’s bullshit, you are not done!” James stepped between Liam and the control panel. “You’re not seriously thinking about sending me up there to fight Lucienne by myself?”
“Had you died back there, what did you expect me to do? Just go on and fight her by myself?”
“Well, we’ve talked about this. If I die, you’re off the hook. You get to go home. You get to do whatever the hell you want. I mean… hell, I honestly can’t stop you from calling it quits now. It’d be pretty screwed up to just walk like this, though. After everything Jove died for.”
“After everything Jove died for?” Liam repeated, astounded that James was really going to pull that card.
“You know what I mean. What do you think Lo and Art would say to you if you went home and told them we made it this far but then you decided to just pass me off to Satan’s ballet coach by myself? Or hell, Alyssa? I’d love to see her reaction.”
Liam scoffed with indignance.
All of this had spiraled out of control so quickly. Just a few short years ago, their father passed them off to Jove Darner to be trained for Exaltation and a fast track to Rank 3.
That was the expected minimum of all citizens in Libelle.
Rank 3 was safe. It didn’t involve taking part in what was ultimately a culling of the exalts Chrysid deemed “weak” or “unrealiable.”
Rank 3 didn’t involve deathmatch-clause officiated matches to entertain sadists.
“We were only supposed to take part in Exaltation until Rank 3,” Liam spoke carefully in attempt to quell his anger and disgust. “That was the deal our old man made with Jove. I never wanted to find out what makes Chrysid tick or what skeletons they kept in the closet. I never wanted to kill people.”
“And look at you now, Mr. 30-something OKC. Wake up, Liam. We’re exalts. We kill people. That’s the name of the goddamn game and let me tell you something—we don’t get to leave until either Chrysid’s satisfied or we break the system.”
James gestured to a small camera fixed in the elevator’s corner. It recorded their every move through a singular scarlet lens.
“Liam, we’re too far in. We know too much. We’re lucky that they didn’t kill us right after Jove.”
“Why is that? Why did we get to live?”
“Who knows… but that was their first mistake. Their second mistake was thinking we’d just cower and hide in silence.”
Liam had a feeling he already knew the answer.
However, pursuing that answer was a rabbit hole with no chance of return.
The truth is, I think I’d rather not know. I think I’d rather put it all back than know.
“Besides… you think Chrysid would really just let you walk? There’s too much hype and money in the narrative they’ve woven around us. Even if you walked now, ran back home, tried to assimilate back into a normal life… they’ll come knocking on your door one day. They’ll be asking for that debt. Whether it’s paid in your blood or that of your own kid when Exaltation comes… Chrysid will be there, waiting. They’ll always be waiting unless the cycle’s broken.”
A blanket of fatigue weighed upon Liam.
James wasn’t wrong.
“There’s only one way to put a stop to this, Liam. We might die if we fight… but we’ll die for sure if we run. If we die either way, we might as well die fighting.”
James made a disgruntled snort in response to Liam’s lack of a response.
He stepped away and cleared Liam’s path to the control panel.
The choice was in Liam’s hands at that point.
James had said his truth and Liam knew that his brother’s words were fact.
Giving up and settling back into society, keeping their heads down, it would be the complicit cooperation that Chrysid wanted.
Hell, maybe even this trek to the Chevalier was part of the “script” in Chrysid’s eyes.
All I can do in these waning moments is consider the numerous alternate realities running parallel to my own.
One where I pursued my studies and let James run off with Jove to finish Exaltation alone… in that timeline, he almost certainly died with Jove in combat.
In hindsight, my presence has consistently been an intervention which stood between him and death.
In hindsight, I sense so many times where I shouldn’t have been there—and by chance, I was.
In those timelines, James dies, and I never see him again. Neither would Alyssa.
Alyssa’s child never meets their father…
Alyssa’s child may not even exist.
Yet here I am, having chosen this timeline, this point as the sum of my actions.
In another possible timeline, the world lacks Exaltation altogether.
As simple as that sounds, I can’t imagine the structure of our society without this exchange of violence for entertainment. People always want an excuse to kill one another.
Even the most powerful figures of Chrysid feign altruism in the face of senseless deaths—survival of the fittest, they say.
Actions to preserve and cultivate the most optimal future for an endangered species.
“This world shall not suffer peace to live,” Liam sighed.
James quirked one ashen eyebrow at Liam. “What?”
“Repair sequence complete. Initiating combat mode,” chirped the AI within James’s suit.
“Look, man. Just tap out and get the hell out of here. I’ll do it alone. Besides, I’ve got an element advantage over her. She’d just fry your ass like a human lightning rod.”
Liam glanced sideward.
Of all the probable outcomes running through my mind, the fact remains that two bodies are better than one.
My elemental disadvantage aside, I realize what I can offer in this fight.
A contingency plan.
“No… I should go with you,” Liam said.
“No. You’re done, Liam. I’m gonna need you to walk your ass back down to Euclid. Go get your head on right. I’m finishing this myself.”
“And what do I return to?” Liam faced James. “Alyssa’s waiting for you. If I return alone, she’ll break my neck. I’m in a lose-lose situation, James.”
James chuckled softly.
“Yeah, sh
e probably would do that, wouldn’t she?”
A ding and a stop pulled their attention away. The brightly lit panel above the elevator door marked the 49th floor.
The doors slid open and a long, sunset-lit corridor with a chessboard-patterned floor lay beyond. Massive windows lined the corridor, reflecting light from the scarlet sea of clouds over a seemingly infinite horizon.
James took a breath and stepped ahead of Liam. A long shadow cast across the corridor, reaching from a hovering vespid drone outside the tower. Another stalking eye.
Statues lined both sides of their path. Angels in various states of what looked like either worship, groveling or agony. Liam couldn’t tell which—the head of every statue had been smashed off.
Little more than piles of crushed marble remained, piled around the feet and knees of each winged figure.
“Someone smashed all the heads off…”
“Maybe Lucienne did it?” James suggested.
“Bored and partying too hard in the Chevalier’s tower…”
As they approached the end of the corridor, a shrill and wretched noise emanated from beyond closed doors.
James looked to Liam perturbed.
“The hell is that…?”
“I don’t know. I’m not getting any map data up here.”
“Makes sense, I guess. Vespids don’t follow exalts through the Chevalier’s Trial. We all go in blind.”
After a moment of silence, James leaned a little closer to the door to listen. Liam muted his comms and inched closer to the door. With the soft static of the comms silenced, he listened.
Something about that wailing voice had an ethereal quality to it—a sound that Liam could only described as simultaneously whispered and echoed despite its volume. A noise that only came from the throats of malefic beasts.
Liam turned his comms back on. “Sounds like a mob.”
“It… just keeps screaming. I’ve never heard one sit and scream non-stop like that before,” James said with a grimace.
