Endless Online: Oblivion's Blade

by M. H. Johnson

  "I need whatever vials and flasks you are carrying. Any type of container you might have on you."

  Gregor turned his furious gaze to the captain.

  "Do it," Sten said, favoring Val with a strangely appraising gaze. "If this fails, we're all dead anyway. If it works, Val might just be worth the trouble of keeping him." The captain flashed a cold smile of his own. "If I'm going to play guardian, I'd rather the lad I care for be able to think on his feet when the chips are down."

  Halvar grinned. "Kid's a natural warrior. You can see it in his eyes. If we can get him literate, I can think of a couple academies that might make something of him."

  Sten nodded. "All of you. Any flasks save our water flasks, now's the time to pull them out."

  Elise wordlessly passed four crystalline flasks and one shimmering satchel of silk-like fabric that also reminded Val of rubber. Halvar did the same, and Gregor, last of all, passed three flasks, grumbling all the while. "Madness," he said. "We'll all be sentenced for high crimes if this ever gets out."

  "Then it will never get out." Sten's voice was hard as stone. Gregor paled and swallowed, giving a jerky nod of his head.

  "I sure as hell won't tell anyone," the little man said.

  Halvar flashed a bleak smile, locking gazes with Val. "Real soldiers know that battle is a lot more visceral and ugly than politicians like to think. Sometimes you have to be ruthless in ways that could get you court-marshaled, if anyone peers too deeply into affairs that are none of their concern. Fortunately, no one ever does."

  Gregor rolled his eyes. "Yes, everyone knows that, Halvar. But exothermic catalyzations?"

  Halvar grimaced, shaking his head. "This isn't war, Gregor, and those aren't people. That's a horror that would see us all writhing in its clutches. And before you say Val's deluded, just look into Elise's eyes. She knows he spoke the truth. Hell, for all we know, she senses it too."

  Gregor shook his head and turned away. "Blasphemous waste. Best hope no one ever finds out, that's all I can say."

  Val had taken that time to slip into quiet meditation. Without having to explain it, his companions seemed willing to give him that time. Maybe it was the quick look he had sent Elise's way, but when he sat down, lowered his head, and began to breathe deeply and slowly, tuning out the world, her soothing whispers over uncertain grumbles were all he heard as he lost himself for endless minutes, knowing the threat before them was content to guard the vast cavern just beyond the curve of their little bit of tunnel, blocking the only true path forward.

  "What's he doing?"

  "Readying himself."

  "All he did was skulk, earlier. That can't take too much energy."

  "Let it go, Gregor." Elise's voice. Val, himself once more, focused on it, slipping free of his meditation.

  She flashed him a smile when he opened his eyes. "Did you know you snore when you sleep?"

  Val grinned. "Don't kid yourself. It was a deep breathing exercise."

  Her grinned widened. "You remind me of my little brother. He practiced the exact same meditation every afternoon that he should have been studying." She shrugged. "Maybe his trick actually worked. Wanting to do more with his life than just manage our estates, he became an engineer with flying colors. He always said it was from diligent study and meditative focus. Personally, I think he just had a knack for the field and could get away with being a lazy boy who slept in most days before getting into whatever mischief caught his fancy."

  Val smiled. "He sounds like a great kid."

  She nodded, eyes soft with rare warmth. "He's the lead engineer and part owner of a starbase far from here. His gifts assure that the base hires only the most honest of employees and the most talented of engineers. He has two wives, three children, and they're all very happy." Her gaze grew solemn. "Are you sure about this, Val?"

  Val swallowed, heart in throat, at that moment as human and anxious and uncertain as he had ever been. "I got a good look, a good feel for the terrain. When I was deep, I really got a sense of the place." He swallowed, forcing a more confident nod. "It's strange, how things click together in that state, almost effortlessly. Now I look back and I think, what a bit of brilliant madness." He flashed a rueful smile. "God, I hope I don't get killed doing this."

  Elise's gaze grew solemn. "It's a very real possibility, Val. What you plan does verge on madness."

  Val lowered his gaze, doing his best to hide the icy fear suddenly coursing through him. To have to get so close to a living, breathing incarnation of hell. Demons locked in a horrific crystalline matrix of pain and suffering, endlessly spewing their black fury upon the souls trapped within.

  "The matrix is vast, the form is fluid. There is no way Halvar's laser could burn enough of it before it flowed over all of you. And my flame? By the time I scorched a few layers, I'd already be buried in it. Even your sword, Elise, would slice arcane strands as well as globby flesh left and right, but there are thousands of connections. It would be like trying to slice through a swarm of jellyfish stinging you to death."

  Elise shook her head. "But what you're planning is still fraught with unspeakable peril."

  He shrugged and sighed. "I know. But if the sense I had of it is right, and if shock waves work anything like they do on Earth..."

  "Which itself might be a simulation?"

  Val's shrugged. "Earth computers helped us predict a vast number of solutions, just using simulation software. Maybe what works on Earth roughly models what would work here, and for what we're planning, a rough approximation is all we need."

  Elise shrugged. "Either that, or we all die in rather spectacular fashion." She gazed meaningfully down at the jury-rigged sling Halvar had put together for him. "Are you sure that will work?"

  Val nodded. "Five rocks thrown in the right general direction, one flask filled with precious water, sacrificed to the cause. Thank god my passion for reenactment included a summer of figuring out archery, javelin throwing, and the sling. You don't need a training partner for it, and my father actually thought it was a neat hobby, getting me a good quality bow, and javelin throwing is part of track and field, not that you know what that is." He chuckled softly. "Of course, he made me stop with the sling when I managed to smash a rock through a glass window."

  "That last bit doesn't inspire confidence."

  Val grinned. "Yes, but now the object is to smash as much glass or crystal as possible."

  Elise nodded. "We're counting on you, Val."

  Val swallowed and spoke. "Too bad Gregor seems to feel anything but confidence in me, and he's the one I need to ask counsel from."

  "Let's not put it off, then. Come on."

  Val nodded, walking down the tunnel a bit to where the others were preparing themselves, Halvar flashing Val a welcoming grin, the captain giving him a nod, and Gregor favoring Val with nothing more than a suspicious scowl.

  "I hope you don't get us all killed, kid."

  "Thanks, Gregor. I'm hoping you can guide me in regards to just that topic."

  Gregor squeezed his eyes shut, shaking his head. "Do I even want to know?"

  "The ratio of Elementium to Silbium in the mixture that filled my, well, birth chamber." Val swallowed. "You did say it was highly explosive, right?"

  Gregor scowled. "Of course. That's an inane question. You already know that. Everything we are planning depends upon that. What's the point?"

  Val closed his eyes, gathering himself. "Tell me all the catalysts that can cause this exothermic reaction you so fear."

  Gregor shook his head and cursed, turning to Sten. "Are you really going to gamble our lives on this idiocy? Val clearly has no idea what he's doing."

  Sten's gaze hardened. "Answer the question, Gregor."

  "Fine." He turned to Val. "Any decent surge of energy could set it off, depending upon how much Elementium is saturating the Silbion. Concussive force, heat, electricity, laser fire, mage fire I suppose... pretty much anything that jolts it out of its very, very fragile energy state, catalyzing
the release of ever more energy til all you are left with are traces of highly depleted Silbion and a gigantic hole that will be all that remains of certain arrogant idiots who could have better spent their time learning how to clean septic tanks."

  Val nodded, taking a deep, calming breath, knowing that when he embraced his terror once more, Gregor's caustic cuts would wash over him like the dribble they were. "Okay. Good. I know you'll love this next question. The Silbion Elementium concentration of the liquid in my... crypt. Was it the least stable? Or would adding more Elementium make it even more unstable? And would that increase the power of the catalyzation?"

  Gregor's eyes widened. "You are mad. Truly mad. You know that, right?" He turned to Sten. "This idiot is not taking any of the Elementium bars we found and mixing it into his toxic brew! Even if it's mostly lead, the coating is still worth good credits. It's the only reason why we're carrying around that weight, and if this idiot's going to do what I think he's going to do, we're all dead!"

  Sten frowned, turning to Val. "How much do you need?"

  "Madness!" Gregor hissed.

  Val took a deep breath. "Right now I just need to have some sense of how the concentration correlates with force and instability."

  Sten turned to Gregor who adamantly shook his head. "No one knows anything, save that dissolving Elementium into Silbion is a good way to waste a fortune! That, and even pursuing the matter is a breach of so many accords it defies belief! If anyone knew, they kept that terrible information with them to the grave. They certainly didn't codify it in any chart any of us would ever have access to." He looked pointedly at Halvar who adamantly shook his head.

  "No, Gregor. That kind of madness would have had too many people gunning for my unit's heads. Black operations can be justified if you win the right people to your way of thinking. What we're talking about never is."

  Gregor turned his hot gaze to Val. "Do you understand, boy? Even the former killer in our ranks thinks this is a terrible idea!"

  Halvar frowned. "I didn't say Val's idea was terrible."

  "But you just admitted that your company never used exothermics, even fighting for your lives.

  "True. But those were operations that could be linked back to us, however tentatively, even if only our employers knew. No one cares that much about the ebb and flow of power, victors tend to be forgiving of the catalysts that caused even violent change, so long as they can be paid to leave. But what we're discussing would raise the eyebrows of every Highlord with aspirations of megalomania in this corner of the known galaxy. And they'd all convene on that puffed up dictator in that backwater world who suddenly rose to power through exothermics, and they'd make an example of him such that people would remember his screams for centuries."

  Halvar gave a cold shake of his head. "We did not mess with exothermics. Ever. No point in surviving an engagement only to die in a Highlord's pain vat."

  Gregor's brows furrowed with confusion. "So how are we not in complete agreement that this is a bad idea?"

  Halvar sighed. "Because we are a mile underground? We are not using exothermics on humans but on hideous horrors? One could even argue, however archaic the claim, that we were using it for purposes of construction or demolition."

  Gregor swallowed. "They'd still crucify us."

  Sten shook his head. "We'd be fined, imprisoned, left destitute. But if all they see is fools who dared too much during a mining excavation, not bloodthirsty monsters using this against people, we would be spared death by pain vat."

  Elise nodded. "And if we keep our minds closed and our mouths shut, no one has to know a single thing."

  Gregor sighed. "Of course, the first Highlord we run into, we're goners."

  Elise shrugged. "I think we already knew that would be the case, Gregor. It's why we're hoping for a quick fortune to bribe off the outstanding warrants, then we live quietly below the radar in some out of the way corner, with enough credits left over that we aren't destitute."

  Halvar nodded. "I wouldn't mind a golden retirement. But since most of us have centuries left, nothing says we can't sign up for a colonizer when this little expedition is done."

  Sten frowned. "Suspended animation for centuries as we are flung out to colonizable stars beyond the warp networks we have in place?"

  Halvar grinned. "No greater adventure. All previous crimes forgiven, so long as they weren't too egregious, and the payoffs we will make should assure that's the case. Or, we can explore the possibilities at the edge worlds. Always ripe trade opportunities at the periphery of the dominion, and our gentle overlords tend to pay little heed, so long as they get their cut of the action."

  Val tuned out their words. It was obvious he'd have to figure this next part himself.

  "Val, what are you doing?"

  He turned to Elise. "This part I have to handle on my own."

  She blinked, looked about to say something, then finally just nodded, stepping back.

  Val felt the comforting cloak of darkness seep into his soul, flowing through him once more. His meditative rest had revitalized him. He was ready to embrace this state the entire night, as long as it took to see the mission through, and the wreck he might be after the fact didn't matter. All that mattered was that he embrace his true self, here and now.

  He closed his eyes, bringing up the checkerboard matrix that served as a convenient metaphor for the spacetime rift that was somehow the birthplace of his being, and would always remain linked to him for so long as he existed. He unstoppered the first crystalline flask, then accessed his Silbion reserves, releasing a splash into the beaker, not looking too closely at the weird shimmering void that seemed to appear right at the tip of his forefinger as the liquid poured in.

  He very carefully tilted the beaker so the liquid Silbion touched his finger, then deposited a steady flow of pure Elementium powder into the mixture, sensing the furious couplings of the particles in ways subtly different from standard chemistry, the Psion and Mana fields interacting in ways he could feel but were entirely beyond words. He could just see the faintest sparkles of light glittering through it, and perhaps it was his own willpower buffering the catalyzation taking place that kept him safe, assuring that the solution was now as stable as he could make it.

  He nodded to himself, certain that the wizards of this world never thought Greater Alchemy would be used in quite this way, at least not for centuries, but he was finding it exceedingly useful now. He frowned in sudden thought, putting down the flask and stepping back, pleased to find that his sense of the contents within, his ability to somehow regulate their reaction had not lessened since he had stepped away. He walked back a bit further, pleasantly surprised to find that his ephemeral grip on the container still held true.

  "Val, what are you doing?"

  Val gasped and spun around, Gregor abruptly raising his hands and lurching back, bushy eyebrows blinking in surprise as he stumbled to the ground. "Don't do that!" he hissed. "I just came to make sure you weren't going to blow us all to heaven!"

  Val grimaced, giving an apologetic nod, lowering a hand to help Gregor who was having none of it, brows furrowing, getting up himself. "Did you find an Elementium bar we had missed? Show me what you are doing." His words were almost imperious.

  Val shrugged. "Sure, Gregor, if you want to see me jury-rig things, you're welcome to, but I am at a delicate point, and I can only hope I don't blow myself up." He smiled. "You're welcome to join me, but can you imagine what would have happened had you startled me with a flask in hand, and I had dropped it? Thank goodness I intercepted you here!"

  Gregor paled, backing away. He swallowed once. "I will tell the captain you are making progress at... whatever the hell it is that you are doing." He then scurried away some distance back down the tunnel, the group having made the prudent decision to camp a fair distance away, hopefully beyond the range of any disaster Val might cook up. As they had encountered no trouble after the cathedral until now, and the nightmare before them was, according to Val, c
ontent to let the flies come to it, they felt somewhat safe. But everyone knew they were living on borrowed time. If they couldn't get past the horror ahead, they were as good as dead anyway.

  Val took a deep breath, realizing two important things. One, he had to master the knack for keeping a mental lock on his mixtures despite distractions, and secondly, once he lost his focus, it was hard to reestablish it. He tried for the entirety of the walk back, his mind only 'feeling' out his vial when he was a handful of yards away from it. He was relieved to see it didn't seem in danger of sudden exothermic catalyzation, as his companions put it, being at the concentration present with Val's birth. It was more stable, perhaps, than his friends realized.

  He then picked up the vial and with a deep, steadying breath, poured a steady stream of Elementium into the flask, his will clamping down on the increasingly intense couplings he sensed within the vial that was now vibrating in his hands.

  He frowned, looking deep into the mixture.

  He had doubled the Elementium saturation, and knew in his gut that if he were to lose focus for even a second, his death would be instantaneous and glorious.

  Congratulations! You have learned the meta-magic feat: Stabilization Rank 1. Mucking about with the essence of magic and psionics in liquid form as Greater Alchemy allows you to do, you have figured out not only how to separate two highly volatile elements of nature, but how to keep them from obliterating everything around you! Maybe there is something to be said about gambling with your life like a madman? Certainly, you've come far in the last couple of days, and only managed to near kill yourself on multiple occasions!

  Pushing away what he was increasingly certain was an overly cynical and snarky subconscious, he took a deep, calming breath, slipping apart the bonds between the two ridiculously unstable elements, drawing the Elementium free of the liquid Silbion once more, then introducing it again at a strength midway between stable and instant detonation.

  Val smiled, gazing into the flask, getting a sense of its stability and potential. At its present saturation, it would catalyze with direct application of any intense electromagnetic radiation, or a strong pulse of magic. Certainly his Firestream could catalyze it, but no doubt he'd die in rather glorious fashion if he triggered it at that range. He would have to throw it down with excessive force to get it to explode from impact. He frowned. It was almost unstable enough for the final step. He let a bit more Elementium flow inside til he sensed its stability slide down to a point that he thought perfect, still stable enough not to rupture from simple jostling, but only just. This he poured into the smallest set of flasks, perfect for what he intended.