Chapter 33
For the next several days, we spent our time rebuilding homes by day and resting together at night. Stella had become determined, and I wasn’t holding back, as she often rode me into the wee hours of the morning with a giddy smile.
Most of the city had come back together, and Cerby was still asleep. The Fenris Wolf had yet to reappear.
I was currently digging out Skel’s lab, which had sunk into the ground, likely a collapsed tunnel underneath.
“Don’t worry. That monster fruit facility was over-engineered,” Skel commented as I dug out her lab and lifted it up. Meanwhile, Daeva held a giant clod of dirt aloft for us to use to fill in and rebuild it.
My fated, Beatrix, has updated me. Pratt’s expedition has covered more ground than expected. They will get to the dragon cranes tonight. She suspects they’ll attack while they sleep, tonight or early tomorrow.
My mind went to work. Tomorrow late morning would be the most likely time for Roach to appear and claim his spoils.
Exactly Beatrix’s thoughts, Mona agreed.
I nodded my understanding. We needed to head out that night if we were to get there for the grand show.
Skel’s lab came up without any cords causing issues, but that was because they were all severed.
She clicked her jaws. “Dig up the underground lab. Let’s see how the projects are. The trees don’t need power for anything except electrical stimulation and carbon dioxide injections every week.”
She seemed relatively unconcerned about the monster fruit trees, and that was a relief to me. I knew she likely had lots of important research, but helping fix the gender imbalance was crucial.
Stella clung to my side. “It’s okay. If something happened to the monster fruit, then you’ll just have to impregnate the world.” She smiled sweetly and batted her lashes.
I sighed. That would be too much work.
“Or you could just stay in New Haven. It would flourish while the cities collapsed and eventually we could seed ourselves into the cities.” Daeva had other ideas. “Your children would become the future.” She looked at Stella during the last comment.
Stars blossomed in Stella’s eyes.
Great, now Daeva was putting nonsense into Stella’s head. As if she didn’t have enough.
Carefully, I pushed aside the soil, looking for the subterranean lab, but after I pushed fairly far down, it wasn’t there.
“Stella, can you hold the lab?”
“No problem.” She jumped into place, grabbing the building and holding it aloft with ease.
I pushed the soil aside and held it in a tube shape before expanding a ring of power out from it, trying to find the lab.
“Huh. It shifted like fifty feet.” I felt the hard structure and expanded my power over the firm surface, being careful not to push too hard and collapse it.
After a few more minutes of wrapping it in a thin layer of kinetic energy, I pulled. The soil under us buckled and cracked as I lifted the lab up from the ground.
I already knew, before everyone else saw it, that it had been damaged, but the extent remained to be seen. One side of the square lab had been pinched.
“Oh, no.” Skel was distraught, but there was no emotion behind her voice or facial expressions. “What bent that?”
“Maybe it was the really big worm?” Stella suggested.
“It was a centipede,” Skel corrected her. “That is the most likely cause of the collapse.”
I whipped up a little wind and dusted off the remaining dirt before setting it down. “Shall we go take a look at it?”
Daeva grunted and stuffed her huge clod of dirt into the hole under the lab and the new one I’d made. “Let’s.” She flew in through the opening at the top.
I lifted Skel up and over as Stella made the jump herself. Cerby I left floating above. Until we dealt with the Fenris Wolf, I couldn’t be sure that it wouldn’t come.
As I dropped in, I didn’t like how quiet and frozen in place the others were. Of the three tubes, two were smashed and the trees inside of them looked like dried husks, not that they had looked particularly healthy before.
“They are dead,” Skel stated, her voice sounding hollow. “They didn’t have roots, so the nutrient-rich bath was what kept the cells alive.” She looked up at the last tube with the remaining tree.
If my memory served, which was a pretty good bet given that it had been enhanced with monster fruit, the third tree had monster fruit designed to get around the resistance of the first batch.
“Well, one survived. We can remake the monster fruit variant that helped me, correct?” I asked as Skel went up to the middle of the trees and plucked off the last few fruits.
“Not exactly. We made the second from a graft from the first. The same technique won’t work from the third one to the second one. Part of the reason we were able to do it so quickly is that we had years of research on the first tree.”
“So, we can do it, but it’ll just take a lot more time,” I simplified.
“Pretty much.” Skel shook her head. “Roach has done more damage than he knows, but we have several fruits from the second tree left and a large stockpile of fruits from the first tree.”
“You can’t use those to recreate either tree?” Stella asked, actually sounding a little disappointed.
Daeva was the one to answer, though. “Despite fruit in the name, they don’t have anything like a seed. They are just a byproduct of the trees.”
Mona pushed herself into my mind. I’m in a room with Kim, and the Mountain City Director is talking as if you are in the room. Does she know?
No. She has a sort of future predictive power. I explained to Mona.
She wants one of the remaining monster fruits in exchange for telling you how to save some of your ladies.
No, tell her she’ll die within— Mona interrupted me.
Threats are not necessary. She will give you the information in hopes that you give a monster fruit for Angel. Mona parroted her words.
I remember the premiere super from Mountain City when we went to help with The Roc and killed it. He stole the kill from Stella and she still hasn’t forgiven him. But the three directors, the fates, traded answers for my help in setting something into motion that would supposedly change Angel.
Not that I was convinced he’d changed. Assholes rarely did.
Sure, give me the information. He’s an asshole; I’d rather go kill him than give him monster fruit. I thought.
She’s promising you he’s changed. I’ll spare you the details. Knowing you, my fated, you’ll not believe it until you see it. Mona laughed in my mind at something. Yes, I am right.
Then there was a long pause of silence from Mona, and I had to dig into her mind to see what was happening from her perspective.
They were in Kim’s office. The same director from Mountain City with the creepy gold eyes was talking, with Angel in the background, leaning on her hospital bed. But the director was currently lying in the hospital bed with a bandage around her head.
“That’s right, Director. The Fenris Wolf will bypass all of your titan alarms and hit the city in about ten minutes. By telling you this, I save at least part of your city. The amount is highly variable.” The mountain city director turned to look at Mona through the camera, almost like she could tell I was seeing this through Mona’s eyes.
“Why the fuck are you only telling me now?” Kim was up in arms, glaring at the desk.
“I was incapacitated.” She paused, a blank stare crossing her face before she was back. “Okay, talking further just gets me killed. Hello, very scary Assistant Director.” She smiled as if she could see me.
Angel behind her was warping the frame of the bed with his clenched fist, and it made me smirk. But I liked that he wanted to protect her. I couldn’t imagine that from the Angel that I had met back during the Roc attack.
Pushing to speak from Mona’s mouth, I took control of her body and said, “You’ll have to tell me your story sometime.” Just because Mona could enter my mind didn’t mean I couldn’t enter hers. The psychic connection we had went both ways, I just didn’t use it nearly as often.
“He’ll write you a book.” The gold-eyed woman smirked and turned off her side of the video call.
“Miles?” Kim asked.
“Not now. I have things to do. Get the city ready, but focus on distracting the Fenris Wolf.” I told Kim before I pulled away from Mona’s mind. She instinctively grabbed at me, but let go after an instant.
My mind raced back to my body.
“Miles?” Daeva was waving in front of my face.
“Sorry. Had a weird chat. The Fenris Wolf is going to attack Point City soon.” I didn’t have time to talk. “Skel, do you need anything else from me? I need to go.”
“You can’t make it in time,” Skel pointed out.
“Maybe not, but I’m pretty sure I can. I just need to figure something out, and quickly.” They weren’t asking anything of me right now, so I grabbed Stella and Cerby, flying back to the temple as fast as I could.
Every second was more time for Point City to get crushed and those I cared about to get caught up in it.
“Master, what’s happening?” Stella sounded scared. “Are the rest of them going to be okay?”
Rather than answer her worries, I focused on what needed to be done. “I’m going to try to go to sleep. I need you to watch my body.” After a moment, I added. “If I can get there, they’ll be okay.”
Stella nodded seriously. “Understood. But you said your body is another part of you going somewhere?”
“Yeah, I’m going to see if I can’t throw my mind across the space between cities.”
Stella just blinked at me, not understanding.
“Something like astral projection,” I tried to explain.
“You are going to be a ghost?” Stella’s eyes went wide. “Don’t die.”
Chuckling, I shook my head. “No. I’ll be alive. Come on.” Blowing past any of the temple maidens, I brought us to the bed and laid down.
“Mona, I think I’m going to need your help to disconnect here.” I said it aloud, trying to get her attention.
Roger, ignoring Kim. Okay, you’ve thought a lot about this. Are you ready?
Go already.
Stella leaned over the side of the bed with worry painted on her face.
It felt like someone hit me with a sledgehammer, but without the pain. I was overcome by the sudden disorientation of being in a position slightly different from the one from before.
My mind was disconnected from my body, and that meant all the inputs that came with the sensors across it. It was like suddenly being dunked into a sensory deprivation tank.
The feeling was unlike anything I’d felt before, and panic crept in at an alarming rate. I wasn’t certain I could find my way back, or find my way to Point City.
Calm down. I’m still here. Your mind is still active, and so is our connection. She formed a vision of herself in the total silence and darkness. “Interesting and exciting.”
“Thank you.” I breathed easier seeing and hearing something. “Okay. Breathe, well, I don’t have to breathe. But it sounds nice. Use my power and map out the surrounding space.”
A grayscale world expanded around me, and I was floating above Stella and my body. Stella was patiently awaiting something while muttering.
I had to work to get sensory inputs from my power, but soon I could make out what she was saying.
“Master will be back. He’ll be back. Master is the best and will be back.” She rocked a little on her heels, clearly stressed.
I had to focus to make my voice vibrate the air. “Stella, it worked and I’m here.”
She jumped high enough that she hit her head on the ceiling and took a few chips of stone out with her horns.
“Ghost Master!” She looked around the room, trying to find me.
“Not a ghost,” I reminded her. “Love you. Can’t wait for our marriage and one day having happy kids together. Maybe they’ll rule the world.” I wanted to give her some happier thoughts.
“Of course they will. Love you too, Ghost Master, come back soon.” She perked up and wasn’t fretting.
“Won’t be a problem. Mona’s got me,” I reassured her.
“Keep him safe and return him in one piece, Mona, or I’ll come for you,” Stella threatened.
Let’s form a hand, Mona.
Our time is limited, she reminded me, but comforting Stella was just as important to me. She was the first.
A hand formed, and I cupped Stella’s face.
She squeezed it tight to her cheeks. “I’m okay, Master. Go.”
I chuckled and then focused on the direction of Point City. I was ready to see how quickly my consciousness could move.
There was no friction in my current form, so there was no reason I couldn’t reach the speed of light. At least, that was my hypothesis as I attempted to make it happen.
Focusing, I threw my consciousness across the world.
It was just a blink, but the next moment, I felt myself in the BSH, next to Mona.
Head first. Let’s start everything with just being Void, then we can see if there is any strain on you.
On it. Mona and I had been practicing part of this, but building the head was going to be the hardest part. Eyes and ears were the important bits that I wanted, though.
Things came into focus. We were still in Kim’s office, but Angelina, Emma, and an Obsidian Clone had joined us.
“Whoa.” Emma looked at me. “You are a disembodied head. This is the power you chose?”
“Mona, let’s do a Void body to start.” I looked down. Seeing no body on myself was highly disconcerting.
It filled in, and I looked around, moving my arms.
“What is this power?” Kim asked.
“Skel has a power that allowed her consciousness to exist even after her flesh was gone. She has it attached to her bones, but I think that’s more of a coping mechanism than anything else. Technically speaking, she had nothing in those bones that are facilitating her mind,” I explained the concept to Kim as Mona shifted to making my skin real, though she kept my right arm and leg the dark of void, while adding on a toga.
“Toga, really?” I asked Mona.
She shrugged. “I like it.”
“It’s pretty handsome,” Emma agreed.
I grunted and reached into Mona’s mind to see if holding the body’s form was straining her. I knew she was unlikely to tell me. But from what I could tell, it wasn’t a strain at all, except in forming the avatar of my body.
I would have told you, my fated.
Let’s agree to disagree there.
“So, why doesn’t Skel know this?” Kim was still fixated on my power.
“She probably suspects it. How could she not, with her intelligence? But she died once and is still very human. I think she’s absolutely terrified that she could die again.” Flexing my fingers, everything seemed to be working in my power-made body.
I couldn’t imagine the horror of being stuck in that dark, soundless space for minutes or even hours. After she’d died, before she had managed to animate herself, it had to have been one of the most terrifying experiences of her existence.
I realized with a start that my body no longer had any organs. I was just a shell at the moment.
You could create as many fluids as you want, Mona snickered in my mind, thinking of fun uses for my body.
I frowned at her. “Not now. We—”
Red lights flashed in Kim’s office, and everyone’s devices blared an alarm.
Kim had her tablet in her hand in an instant, her eyes racing over whatever was on it. “We just lost a huge chunk of the east perimeter.”
“On it. Put everyone you have on collateral. Anyone else who helps will just die.” I threw my consciousness again up above the city, feeling Mona assist me as my avatar came back into being.
High above the city, I could see the familiar purple cloud swallowing the eastern edge of the city. I raised my hands, creating a wind that would blow against it. Then I drove the cloud back into the wilds.
Next, I willed my avatar to appear at the edge of the cloud. Once again, it moved faster than I could move my physical body and without less concern.
It was time to have a rematch with the Fenris Wolf. And this time, I had an edge.