5th May
03:09 GMT -5
…
No, the logic is sound. If he got hold of a New God corpse and dosed it with Sheeda blood… Or Columbian blood, that's how grundies exist in the first place. I didn't realise it could be introduced post-mortem and it didn't occur to me to find out how long grundies had to ripen for-.
The room above wasn't created in the day since we gained Melmoth's attention. Someone built this a while ago. And the Columbians have been under low-intensity attack by Sheeda creatures for their entire history. Melmoth's thralls could have taken the occasional citizen or their blood, without it seeming remarkable. They could have introduced blood little by little for decades. Centuries. More than enough time, I'm sure.
Still. Undead New God isn't exactly outside of my weight class, and that's assuming-.
I send filaments everywhere in the room except the stirring spider web cocoon.
No, nothing here I can feel. Grundies are controlled by sigils, binding them to the caster. There's no one here to brand this one. Melmoth might be able to predict its behaviour, but unless a sophont magic user appears here he can't control it.
A thin and pallid hand shoves itself free of the covering.
Unbound grundies I did ask about, and Cyrus Gold's behaviour is apparently atypical. Usually they either lie in their graves or stagger towards light or magic. When confronted, they're not usually violent unless attacked, and then they usually only flail around and try to get away.
I run a quick check on my armour and confirm that the Columbians have evacuated. Then I form construct blades and cut through what's left of the webbing.
The figure within has clearly seen better days. Their flesh hangs loose on their muscles-. Her flesh hangs loose on her muscles. Her armoured cuirass is curious: steel plate and chain with New God style tron lines as part of the tabard and helmet. Her gaze is vacant, her skin the classic blue-white and what hair I can see is snow white in colour.
"In case you're wondering, I carved the control sigil into her skull."
Oh.
"gnHHHHHHHH!" I Wake!
Skin tightens, flesh swells back into something approaching full vitality as she pulls herself free. Her armour likewise starts to take on the shimmering, vital appearance of the version that Canis and his family wear.
"I particularly enjoyed working on this one. Her father was the one who brought the Castle Revolving to my era. Whatever his Gods did to enhance him made him immune to my techniques, but his misery when I worked on the rest of his crew … That has kept me warm on many a cold evening. Aurakos? K-."
I deaden the air, preventing the verbal command from reaching her, or anyone else he might have tucked away.
"Ma'am?"
I run a construct cable backwards towards the stairs-. Still being jammed. I fabricate a material cable and begin playing it up the stairs.
"Ma'am? Can you understand me?"
She grabs a sword with the same 'New God meets Iron Age' design as her armour from the webbing next to her, and the tron lines become active as soon as it's in her hand.
Cable up, get me Canis.
Compliance.
"Orange Lantern to Canis, what happens when a New God is resurrected from the dead?"
"That cannot happen. If a New God has a God-Name, then their soul would be unified with the Source upon their death. There would be nothing to resurrect."
"How about if they were only mostly dead? Or if their body was reanimated? I ask, because-."
"Because you are looking at some fresh horror of human ingenuity. I will come to you."
"Get the Columbians out first." I turn my attention back to the-. To Aurakos. Daughter of Aurakles, presumably. "Ma'am, can you understand-"
There's a dim yellow glow under her helmet.
"-me?"
She makes eye contact with me, and seems considerably more focused than the other grundies I've encountered.
"You will die." Even the Odds.
Construct shield.
…
Construct shield.
My environmental shield goes out and… I'm fully aware of my aches and my armour switches back to 'manual'.
I deploy my right forearm's x-ionised blade as the Dead God lunges forward, turning aside her two-handed swing. In this armour I'm nothing like agile enough to dodge-. But I can be fast. Before she can recover I lunge, ramming my armour's bulk into her chest. She's knocked back slightly, and her sword is out of position as I punch with my left gauntlet. She's not any shorter than me but my head isn't particularly mobile like this-.
She sidesteps, proximity sensors guiding me as I blind parry and then trigger the armour's flight system, flying back-. Not flying back because that's not working either.
Oh this is bullshit!
How to win a flipping sword duel? Firstly, given that while I have done some primitive weapon practice I don't have the drilled reactions of people who focus on it, ensure that I'm as accelerated as I can meaningfully be.
I throw myself into a forward vault as Aurakos gets behind me and slashes at my back.
Oh, she's just this fast. Not Flash-fast or even Kid Flash-fast, but far faster than physical power can explain. Fast enough that I can't just out speed her. Upside down in mid air I can see her reacting, moving, stepping forwards to keep the distance between us as small as possible.
Taser? No, that's offline. Or rather, it registers as online but isn't actually doing anything when I trigger it. Blade in the other forearm? Doesn't deploy. I'm sure that if I had time and freedom I could hunt down whatever the core of this… Spell? Was bound to and shoot it.
Behind her I see Canis coming down the stairs behind her. And then stop.
"Lllllllll-"
I land on the wall and push off, catching and turning aside her sword again and hitting her full in the chest with my extremely heavy power armour. This time she goes flying and I switch back to normal speed.
"-antern, she is challenging you!"
"Yes?"
"You are bound together by the will of the Source!" Aurakos lands in a crouch, slides, and then locks her eyes on Canis. "You are balanced in power, by the Source's will!"
"Literally or metaphorically?"
"Yes!"
"That's not funny, C-!"
"We are the manifestations of the Source! It has granted her this power! You cannot use powers or equipment she does not have, save to balance her! And the same applies to her!"
…
And my rings are in my chest and my skull and my armour's systems are integrated.
Damn it.
