Fimbulwinter E-Book

T. B. Mare

• Herausgeber: Podium Publishing
• Kategorie: Fantasy und Science-Fiction
• Serie: Stranger Than Fiction
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 565

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2024

Beschreibung

Lukas Aguilar finds himself caught in a lethal game of battle and betrayal in which losing means death as the thrilling LitRPG/gamelit series continues.   Not too long ago, Lukas Aguilar believed only what he could see and feel for himself. Then an earthquake destroyed his home and cast him into a dangerous dungeon world. He fought to survive, gaining experience and levels but losing the goddess Inanna who inhabited his mind. And he wants her back.   But Lukas has other problems to deal with at the moment. After a calamitous skirmish, he finds himself in the "care" of Solana, his worst frenemy. And the immense powers he now commands are threatening to tear him apart unless he levels up. And that's only the tip of the literal iceberg.   Because Lukas's gorgeous companion, Tanya, has her own untapped and unique skill, which could unmake reality itself if unleashed. The question is whether she will ever use it. Or if someone will force her to . . .   The third volume of the hit LitRPG adventure series—with almost a million views on Royal Road—now available on Audible and wherever ebooks are sold!

Leseprobe

FIMBULWINTER

STRANGER THAN FICTION

— BOOK 3 —

T. B. MARE

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise without prior written permission from Podium Publishing.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either products of the author’s imagination or used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living, dead, or undead, is entirely coincidental.

Copyright © 2024 by T. B. Mare

Cover design by Barbara Ciardo

ISBN: 978-1-0394-5480-4

Published in 2024 by Podium Publishing

www.podiumaudio.com

CONTENTS

Prologue

Chapter 1: A Deadly Legacy

Chapter 2: First Contact

Chapter 3: Maude

Chapter 4: The Key

Chapter 5: Acquaintances

Chapter 6: Barter

Chapter 7: Genesis

Chapter 8: Heritage

Chapter 9: Demons in the Flesh

Chapter 10: Truth

Chapter 11: Greatest Treasure

Chapter 12: Blob

Chapter 13: Bait

Chapter 14: What We Fight For

Chapter 15: Soulcrafter

Interlude: Her Ally

Chapter 16: Aftermath

Chapter 17: Strings

Chapter 18: Prophecy Fulfilled

Chapter 19: Selfishness

Chapter 20: You and I

Chapter 21: Counteroffer

Chapter 22: Dire Tidings

Chapter 23: Frostbitten

Chapter 24: Taboo

Epilogue

About the Authors

PROLOGUE

Solana gazed down at the shard of featherglass cradled in her palms. It was what had started it all. It would also be the pivot that would end it all.

Have faith, she told herself. You have traveled this path for centuries. To hesitate now would be the height of sacrilege.

The chamber she was in was easily the size of a battle arena, with a twenty-foot-tall ceiling. The walls were covered in sculpture, with thin veins of shining metal reflecting the strangled light from the eerie floating chandeliers, bathing the room in an unholy blue shade. Polished stone floors lay beneath her, covered with elegant rugs. Two massive lupine edifices guarded the entrance to this hall. The interior was an ornate labyrinth of ritualistic chambers, halls, sealed vaults, libraries, and even a hollow wall that held the remains of the previous leaders. Only through this room could the rest be accessed, and yet this room itself welcomed but a few. Those that knew of it knew not to seek it, and those that did, were never found again.

This was the Throne Room, the seat of the Empress of the End.

Or as history called it, Nidhogg’s Lair.

You have come this far, she repeated to herself. You cannot stop now.

“I will not fail you,” she murmured, cradling the featherglass shard like it was her own child. Solana had conceived in the past, but this shard was far more precious than that. “The Outsider of legend has finally arrived. And he has brought Her with it. It is time, Queen of Ice. Finally, the yokai shall rise, and the Deadliest Mist shall be unleashed.”

She heard the sound of footsteps approaching. It could only be one person.

A small frown appeared on her face, as Solana carefully placed the shard of featherglass upon the stone floor, only to see it slowly engulf the featherglass into itself. The floor before her was morphing as well, with long, contorted stone shapes arising out of it like serpents, entwining around each other, forging, becoming more. The floor rose, forming a four-feet tall dais, like a central stage, and in its middle now stood a massive white throne that looked like it was carved of solid ice, inlaid with metals, an imposing draconian feature springing out of its back.

The Throne of Ice.

Seat of the Empress of the End.

The footsteps approached closer, and the massive doors opened. Solana stayed put, kneeling on the floor, her hands resting on the throne, eyes closed.

“Have they awoken?”

“The Outsider shows restlessness in his sleep,” said the intruder. It was the oni formed from the fusion of her dependable yurei, Malon, and the vanir girl from the Asukan adventurer group it had attempted to possess. The result, which called itself Maude, was now serving under Solana, just like Malon did before her.

Unlike Malon, Maude was an extremely flippant character that Solana just couldn’t get a proper read of. Something about her was simply unnatural.

Such as the way she disregarded the enchantments placed on the doors with impunity, as she crossed the threshold.

“None of us can get even remotely close to him. That accursed metal lies wrapped around him like a pet. It killed one of the reiki just for trying to get up close.”

“Mmmm …” said Solana, still not looking up. “That … might be a problem. His powers prior to his escape from the anomaly had been queer and dangerous. Already he feels … more. The presence of that metal might worsen situations.”

“Then why is he even here?”

Solana ignored her question for her own. “What about the girl?”

“Tanya is … sedated. The burns she suffered could have proven fatal, but nothing that I could not heal. We can awaken her now if you wish.”

Her lips twisted slightly at the mention of the girl’s name. It suggested a level of familiarity that she didn’t think would serve her well.

“No,” she said, opening her eyes and shaking her head. “Let her be.”

Her eyes regarded the majestic throne before her.

“Wake her up only after the Outsider has awoken but not before. We need his aid if we want this to come to pass.”

“Leader …” said Maude, hesitation and skepticism clear in her voice. “Are you sure that she’s the right person?”

Annoyance rose in Solana. “Have you found anything that says otherwise? I shall remind you, it was you and Mizo who witnessed her powers firsthand.”

“I … did,” agreed the oni, standing by the doors, her hands on one of them. “There is a faint trace of ice-mana lingering within her body. Not even the potent powers of the Haze could burn that off her skin. No doubt she utilized Everfrost in immense quantities before the two of them arrived here. But … are you certain it is Her?”

The annoyance spiked further. “Yes.”

“Why?” Maude challenged. “The creature was supposed to be dead close to two centuries ago.”

“That creature has a name!” Solana snapped, turning to Maude, who didn’t look the least perturbed at her explosion. “Do not challenge my knowledge, Oni. I have been on this plain before either of your forebears even existed.”

“And that’s supposed to be a good-enough reason?” challenged Maude. “Do not mock me, Leader. I might not be Malon, but I have taken the stringent oaths. Upon my honor as a naturopath, upon my belief in Eir, I have sworn to be with the yokai, uninfluenced by unworthy motives, and voluntarily consented to do my best to further your goals. Yet you keep secrets from me. You think that Tsurara, your contemporary and descendant of the Empress, lives within the girl, but I’ve yet to know how.”

“It isn’t important.”

“It isn’t important to you,” Maude shot back.

Annoyance surged within Solana. The desire to tear this … creature into parts was overwhelming. Even better, she could just kill her and wear her skin as her own. Vanir had notoriously high lifeforce-production capacities. Their attunement with natural energy wasn’t a drawback either.

But killing an oni—the only one of her kind—would attract the wrong kind of attention among the yokai populace. Not something she could afford right now.

“I smell anxiety in your tone, Oni,” warned Solana. “Perhaps you’re having second thoughts upon seeing your old friend?”

“Tanya was never my friend,” said Maude. “She was just an acquaintance who I have worked with. And I recognize a diversion when I see one, Leader.”

A frown formed on Solana’s face.

“What is truly going on?” asked Maude. “Tanya, Tsurara … whoever she is, what does it even matter now? And why are we even dealing with an Outsider we cannot kill or possibly hope to control?”

Solana bristled. “You are being unduly antagonistic over this situation.”

“Which part? The truth about the Outsider, or my skepticism about Tanya being the host of a two-century-old ghost? Or perhaps it’s about why you keep coming to this room, whispering to yourself, and making plans about a man that we cannot even possibly control. What is going on, Leader?”

Solana wanted to attack her. Instead, she closed her eyes and stood up, as if beaten down by her words. Finally, she opened them and faced Maude, whose brown eyes looked strangely distraught.

“Everyone knows that we yokai lost everything in the Great War. The World Shaper vanished into the Mists, the empress perished, and our Ikai Realm was shattered until all that was left was an infinite deadland spanning across worlds. But oni, our ancestors—my ancestors—knew differently. They told me things happened, and then they happened again, only differently. I do not know what kind of divine or demonic power could’ve done it, but all we have is a legend to hold on to, and the hope that someday, it will be true.”

“And the Outsider plays a role in that?”

“Yes.”

“I thought you did not put much value in the legend.”

She was right. Or rather, half right.

“I did not. But meeting the Outsider forced me to reconsider my beliefs. Yes, he is strange and his powers, even stranger. He is unlike anything we have ever encountered, and, if that accursed metal clinging to his body is any clue, he could prove to be one of the greatest threats to our existence we ever face. But he is also the only person who can single-handedly accomplish something that no one else has before.”

Maude narrowed her eyes.

“I am committed to spending every waking moment of my life to hold the yokai together—a daunting, seemingly impossible task, with the Asukans encroaching everywhere. Not even the Desert’s curse is enough to halt their greed,” said Solana. “But those difficulties are nothing compared to the task that the Outsider can perform for us. Has been performing for us. He has the ability to make something true that I hadn’t dared to dream about in all my centuries of existence.”

“Which is what?”

A small smile formed on her lips this time. “Bringing Her, for starters.”

Maude frowned. “I do not understand.”

“I will have you swear a vow. A special one.”

“… What?” asked Maude, confused by the non sequitur.

“You asked me a question. I’ll say this for now. My reasons for keeping the Outsider on our side are not on a mere whim. My assertion about the girl is not senseless. It is purposeful. If you want me to tell you what that purpose is, I’ll need you to swear a vow to never reveal or break it.”

Maude stared at her for a long time. Finally, she asked, “Why?”

Solana cocked her head.

“Why are you so willing to hand over this information? I know you, Leader. You have a reason for bringing me into this. What is it?”

Not for the first time, Solana hated how perceptive she was. “I shall need your aid in this … venture. Your utter and unequivocal support. Nothing less shall suffice.”

“So,” said Solana, standing as tall as she could in front of the oni. “Do we have an accord?”

CHAPTER 1

A Deadly Legacy

He was standing inside a massive, subterranean chamber. Surprisingly well lit, with glimmering crystals adorning the walls, inundating the room with an intense, dazzling green-white light. Hundreds of creatures, humanoid and bestial, physical and ethereal, all of them raising their voices and hooting as the prisoner in the center was dragged across the floor in chains. And on top of a raised pedestal, forming a throne of basalt, sat a regal woman with snow-white hair. Somehow, even from a hundred yards away, he could see the loveliness of her features clearly, too magnetic to ignore. She was a creature of coldness, turned to such rage that her beauty had become a knife that stabbed at the eyes of the beholder.

“The Supreme Queen cannot die,” she said, her voice like a glacier. “But she can suffer.”

And just like that, the spell was broken.

Instantly, Lukas knew who the prisoner was.

He tore his eyes away from the white-haired woman and looked at the prisoner, his feet moving of their own accord. Breathing hard and fast, Lukas made his way through the masses, yet none of them paid him any attention. Like he didn’t even exist.

And then he saw it.

Saw Her.

Bound in chains, the metal entwined her waist, tearing into her flesh. They clawed at her back and held her upright while the collar around her neck constantly pulled it down. Several other pairs of chains pulled her ahead, forcing her to drag her bloodied feet across the cold stone floor.

“Ina—” Lukas tried, but words failed him. Instead, he just watched. The sheer surreality of it all threw a spark of comprehension into his mind. This—this was a memory. Inanna’s memory. Her fate at the hands of her sister …

Lukas whirled back and looked at the white-haired woman.

Ereshkigal.

Empress of the Dead.

“Welcome, Sister,” Ereshkigal’s voice boomed, “to the Seven Gates of the Underworld!”

As she spoke those words, the cavern changed, her will altering the matter inside her realm to reforge, not unlike how the Crypt had altered itself at the Guardian’s will. Where there had been nothing but dreary darkness now stood seven gates. Seven archways.

He knew what this was.

He had read about it.

The Seven Gates of the Underworld. The barriers that drew the line between the living and the dead. Each gate held authority over one of the seven fundamental tenets of existence itself. Passing through them would mean an absolute suppression of each one.

At least, that was how Babylonian myths painted them.

“You, who have always taken, shall feel what it means to be deprived.”

Lukas watched with unfolding horror as Inanna was dragged through the first gate. The Trap of Opulence, it was called. How he knew it, he didn’t know. He just did. Everything that was her and hers would stay. Everything that was not, ceased to be hers. A large, golden axe materialized at her feet, unmoving.

The Axe of Marduk.

Her opal ring, the symbol of her victory over the Goddess of the Night, slid down her finger. Her necklace and her divine bracelets, slivers of Truth that once belonged to Gula, now dropped onto the floor.

Inanna did not react. She just trudged through.

“My husband was lost to your unabated lusts. Live an eternity bereft of them.”

The Second Gate, the Trap of Passion, tore at her sacral knot. Once the Goddess of Desire, Inanna would no longer feel pleasure. Her body shriveled like a prune and her breasts sagged. Her cheeks wrinkled as every bit of her sensuality and charm faded away, leaving a twisted, ugly caricature of herself behind. One that would forever be unable to feel another’s touch.

Every single bone in Lukas’s body wanted to run after her, but he was rooted where he stood. He couldn’t move, couldn’t speak, couldn’t do anything but watch.

Why? He did not know.

“Wars have followed your footsteps. Civilizations burned and lives torn apart, all for your pride. Forever lose your dominance and conviction.”

The Trap of Self-Esteem revoked Inanna’s authority as the Monarch of the Heavens. Her golden crown appeared in an earthen heap on the floor as she was flung through the Third Gate. No longer would she hold the title of queen.

“You who have commanded legions to bring forth destruction shall be cursed with eternal silence.”

Her lips were sealed together, not allowing even the slightest murmur to escape as the chains dragged her through the Fourth Gate, the Trap of Expression.

“Your might rises with fear. Be isolated from all existence. Your throne, your relics, your temples, your worshippers. May your faith be entirely lost.”

The Fifth Gate, the Trap of Connectivity, untethered the memories of her temples and the collective faith of her worshippers. Once aware of everything on Heaven and Earth, Inanna could no longer see past the archway that stood before her.

Isolated. That’s what she had said. Inanna had always claimed the pendant as her abode. A relic, much like the axe. Did that mean that the real Inanna—the true Supreme Queen—was still trapped there, amidst the Seven Gates? But then, surely Inanna should have known that? Surely she’d know that the scrying spell would have failed …

“Queen. Conqueror. Plunderer. You who consider yourself above all else shall breed no thought. Live as a pebble would.”

Inanna turned around, her dry, parched lips wanting to speak to her sister. Lukas wished she’d look at him. But she didn’t. Instead, her eyes took on a glazed expression. Tears slowly ran down his cheeks, but not a word left his lips. The disoriented, nearly unconscious queen was dragged through the last gate.

The Trap of the Weeping Souls.

“Let the memories of the ruthless goddess fade away. Let her domain be buried in time. No longer shall you be one of us. I cast you … out!”

Inanna’s body spasmed and she fell upon the cold stone floor, like a marionette whose strings had been severed. Naked and unmoving, she stared lifelessly ahead at her sister, a single tear trickling from her glassy eyes down her cheek.

I will find a way, Lukas vowed. I will find a way. I will get you out. I swear …

“Always remember, dear sister,” Ereshkigal murmured fondly. “Whatever I do, I do for love.”

She flicked her hand, and Inanna’s limp body flew against the wall just as a rocky spike erupted from it, impaling her through the chest.

Straight through her heart.

“INAAAA—”

“—AAANNNA!” Lukas yelled, opening his eyes to the world of white that lay before him. His right hand was outstretched, trying in vain to grab something beyond his grasp. His throat felt parched, like someone had poured sand down it.

Next came the terror. The pain. The realization of what he had just witnessed. What had happened to Inanna. A cry arose from the deepest trenches of his heart, screaming out in defiance to save the goddess.

Then his vision came into focus and stabbed him in the eyes like a knife.

Lukas shut them and screamed. The pain was impossible. His chest was in agony. He tried to hold off breathing for as long as he could, but eventually, he couldn’t put it off any longer, and again, fire spread across his chest. His skull hurt like it was being crushed by the arms of a metal crusher. That—what was it that he had seen? What were those lines?

Lukas winced.

Even the sheer memory made the pain return. For the next several moments, his entire reality was consumed by the simple struggle of trying to breathe and keep his eyes closed. And yet he could not forget that image that he had seen.

Lines.

Spanning in all directions—straight, curved, bent, twisted, drawn in every possible configuration. A meshwork of threads that spread across his entire line of vision. Like a kaleidoscope, the pattern of threads sprung out from objects, around their periphery, diverging and converging. Hundreds of them. Thousands of them.

Instinctively, he knew what they were.

They were trajectories.

Motion trajectories.

In its simplest form, motion was a result of push or pull. Then came magnitudes, directions, and angles. His eyes were showing him the motion trajectories associated with every single object within his range of vision.

And what he was seeing weren’t just motion trajectories, but all possible motion trajectories. And the knowledge of those trajectories, associated with every single object within his range of vision, both in isolated and combined context, had flooded his mind the moment he had opened his eyes. Tachypsychia be damned, that much data would’ve fried a supercomputer’s circuits. Lukas was lucky he only got off with five blood vessels rupturing.

His ears, eyes, and nose were wet. Sticky and wet. Whimpering, Lukas stayed like that, waiting for Prophylaxis to save his sorry ass.

I warn you, Mortal. This power is a deadly legacy. My personal belief is that it will destroy you.

“Shut up, Inanna!” he growled.

She wasn’t there. She wouldn’t return. All he had was the knowledge granted by the Inanna he had manifested back then. That specter—that reflection of a reflection—had thrashed around that monstrosity like it was nothing. It didn’t matter if his opponents were using lifeforce or mana, fire or water, nor if they were physical or ethereal. If they moved, they used motion. And Kinetomancy ruled over all forms of motion. This was a power that could fight literal gods.

And it was a complete hindrance to Lukas, rendering him all but blind.

What to do? He couldn’t just keep his eyes shut forever. He needed to shut this off. Somehow. After several nerve-wracking seconds of deep breathing, Lukas managed to finesse his brain into working again. His grandfather often said that one of the ways of tackling a difficult problem was to focus on everything but the problem. Focusing on the lines would get him nowhere. He needed to look somewhere else.

These trajectories weren’t obstructing his vision, but adding to it. Like an extra function. Or a skill.

“STOP!” he screamed, willing the trajectories to vanish.

He gasped in elation as the Screen flickered before his mind. Unfortunately, the message did nothing to lift his spirits.

Host Body stuck in Skill Assimilation

Which meant … what exactly?

Apex Skill Acquisition complete

Apex Skill Assimilation in process

Host Body found partially compatible

That was all kinds of bad, he figured. Inanna had only used a tiny bit of her powers, just enough to kick the king’s ass without destroying Lukas’s body. But even that tiny bit was a bit too much for him.

It was too high-level. The omphalos had greedily grabbed it all, and now it was facing a different problem.

Apex Skill Assimilation in process

Host Body under constant reconfiguration

His body wasn’t compatible. Simple as that.

If only it were as easy to explain that to the omphalos. Lostbelt’s consciousness or not, it was like a machine. It had rules and protocols and followed them to the letter. It couldn’t go against its own programming any more than Lukas could re-create Earth around him.

And currently, it was stuck reconfiguring his body, making it a perfect fit for Inanna’s power.

At least now he knew what was wrong with him. His body was trying to adjust to whatever it had grabbed from Inanna, and these lines were a symptom. He just needed to identify what was causing it.

Show me my Soulscape.

SOULSCAPE

NAME

Lukas Aguilar

Type

Prime Host

Level

21

Experience

4,163

Current Threshold

17,640

Utilized Soul Capacity

863,500/ ∞

ESSENCE

Maximum Lifeforce Output

82,750

Replenishment Rate

4,600 / hour

LEY LINE NETWORK

Maximum Mana Output

84,000

Synthesis Rate

4,710 / hour

So far, it was exactly how he had remembered it. That meant that the change would have to be in the next section.

SKILL ATTRIBUTES

SKILL

LEVEL

CONSUMED SOUL CAP

Raw Lifeforce Manipulation

3

5,000

Kinetomancy (APEX)

4

850,000

Psychomancy

2

500

Shatterpoint Intuition

2

500

It took him a moment to register what he was seeing, and then a couple more to understand what it implied. The number—that impossible number flashing before him—was so massive, he had trouble comprehending it. He wasn’t sure whether to be more distracted by the number four written on the Level column, the sheer size of the figure written beside it, or the conspicuous absence of several of his lifeforce skills.

As his brain rebooted from the shock, he noticed that Kinetomancy was an apex skill and thus was an aggregation of multiple skills, including the ones he had boasted. Now that the BROKEN suffix had been replaced by a neat “Level 4,” and the previous number replaced by the six-digit figure sitting snugly beside it, it stood to reason that his other skills had been upgraded and combined together into Kinetomancy.

But still … Level 4.

Lukas checked it again.

Level 4.

He wasn’t seeing things. Level-3 Momentum Manipulation had allowed him to curb stomp the bylestyr squad. Level 4 was exponentially greater than that. Even then, a Level-4 skill would’ve cost him fifty-thousand Soul Capacity.

Level-4 Kinetomancy? It cost seventeen times more than that. Whether that was because Kinetomancy was an amalgamation of seventeen Level-4 skills, all of them based on the principles of motion, was anybody’s guess.

He could have done a little jig. Then he remembered that he was effectively blind and that sobered him up again.

“Can you …” he murmured in English, “can you give me an estimate of how long this … Skill Assimilation will take?”

Like always, the Screen was only too eager to respond.

Prime Host Augmentation attempted

Failed!

Host Body Synchronization incomplete

Level 39 required to achieve complete synchronization

Quick responses didn’t always translate to good news. He had the skill, but he had a long way to go before that synchronization happened. And by the looks of it, it would be quite some time until he got there.

The threshold of every level kept increasing exponentially. He still remembered how he had crossed the Experience threshold of just forty units by smacking moss. Compared to that, he had required a staggering sixteen thousand units to cross from Level 20 to Level 21. By that logic, to move to Level 39, he’d require a total of …

645,960 Experience

“Right. Thank you.”

Level 39? It would take him forever to get there, and that was if he were dropped into multiple borderlands in the foreseeable future. And if he had to go through that as a blind man, he might as well give up.

And it wasn’t just lifeforce skills that were impacted by Kinetomancy. His mana skills were far from untouched. Where previously lay multiple clusters of skills segregated by elements, there was now a simpler, more cohesive list.

Fire Creation

3

5,000

Water Creation

2

500

Terraportation

2

500

Conjuration

2

500

Disintegration

2

500

Seismic Sensing

2

500

Any and all forms of Mana Manipulation were gone. Conjuration and Disintegration were Creation skills and thus stayed. Everything else had been assimilated under one singular apex skill, and until he was able to level up, his problems were there to stay.

“You done fucked up, Lukas Aguilar!” he said to himself.

But deciding to keep his eyes shut and actually keeping them shut were two different things. He didn’t know where he was. His very last memory was tumbling his way into a familiar room, with a pair of equally familiar, jet-black eyes looking at him. He remembered drifting through that endless sea of mist and mana, and crashing into a hard table and seeing those eyes looking back at him with surprise and vindication. Eyes that could only belong to one individual.

No.

Lukas couldn’t help himself. He quickly opened his eyes, and instantly afterwards snapped them shut, hissing in acute pain.

No, he told himself. This wouldn’t do. There had to be some way. This wasn’t the first time he had seen motion trajectories. Even Shatterpoint Intuition did something similar, showing him the most direct path for a strike. He was no stranger to using Kinetomancy either, pulling and pushing objects and prey towards him or away.

Maybe if he learned to ignore it or completely stop using Kinetomancy, and instead just limit his eyes to normal vision then …

Come on, Inanna. Help me out here.

Preparing himself, he slowly opened his eyes. The meshwork of pale white tendrils slowly receded to the background, like a watermark, leaving his vision mostly clear. It still hurt, and the way those lines shifted every time his gaze flickered was incredibly distracting, and if he tried to focus on anything, the lines instantly returned, and with it, the pain.

Still, it was better than being blind.

He found himself in a familiar, spartan room. Monster hide served as his bed cushion, with cold, hard rock beneath it. An earthen jug filled with water sat beside him. There was a door across from him, and bioluminescent moss was growing on the walls, offering a dreary green illumination.

He knew this place.

He had been here before, had walked this floor.

Lukas swallowed. His fears had come true. He was in yokai territory. Those eyes—it was Solana. He had crashed into Solana’s office. And these were his old quarters. This was where he had stayed the last time.

His vision issues promptly forgotten, Lukas jumped up, looking around him with growing hysteria. He still had his shirts and pants on—tattered and charred but there nonetheless, a step up from going commando. The protective vest was still there as well, burned and complete with holes on both sides. His fractals, present. His pendant—that too, inert and cold like before. Blob was also there, acting as an undershirt.

He clenched his fists. Lifeforce surged through them. His fractals were working as well. Surrounded by rock on all sides, it was terrifyingly easy to churn earth mana. He was certain he could terraport his way out with ease. Yokai territory or not, he had options this time around. His fingers found the cold metal of the pendant, the lapis lazuli feeling just as cold as always. Completely devoid of energy. There was no sign to prove that whatever had happened was real and not a dream. Inanna had appeared, arising out of the shard of divinity within him, and helped him out of an impossible situation. Inanna—a specter of the real thing, at least—had faced that demon king, and ensured Lukas’s escape, bolstering his skills in the process.

Inanna, who he had just dreamed about. Seen what she had suffered.

He’d find a way to bring her back. No matter the cost.

But first, he needed to find a way out of here. Had to save Tanya. Solana had openly claimed that she’d kill him if he sided with the Asukans. But she wouldn’t kill Tanya. No. She’d make someone possess her and then use her as a bargaining chip to force him to agree to more deals.

No. Not again. He’d find Tanya and escape. If he was strong before, he was a monster now. Unless Solana was a Level 4 in disguise, he was reasonably certain he could fight her and whatever army she threw at him, and escape.

Escape? he thought. Why? If a fight’s what they want, then a fight is what they’ll get. These yokai ambushed me and fucked with me before. And now they think they can hold Tanya as a hostage to get me to do whatever the fuck they want? I’ll show those treacherous, bloody—

And on and on it went for the next few seconds. Lukas was breathing hard and his lifeforce was already fueling his instincts with the need to defend against being possessed by an intruder. His body was already heating up, and the temperature around him was rising high.

He closed his eyes and fought the feeling. He had a lot of experience in bringing himself down from lifeforce highs. But there was a difference between then and now, especially since he had around two magnitudes more lifeforce rushing through his body, a level that was too great to be calmed down by mere breathing techniques. There was only one way that would possibly work—asserting his rational mind.

So he started counting prime numbers. And then multiples of sixteen, and seventeen, all the way up to twenty-five, and all the while trying to hammer ruthless logic against the primitive instincts flooding his system.

“One, I don’t know where they’re keeping Tanya. Two, they haven’t attacked me. Preemptive offense will damage any chances of negotiation.”

He breathed in and out.

“Three, I have no clue about the forces in this place. Four, Solana could always throw me back into the Haze if she catches me off guard.”

The lifeforce within him spat and frothed as it slowed down, and the white curtain forming all over his vision was slowly turning to normal.

“Five, I don’t actually know if they have her. Maybe she’s lost in the Haze, and in that case, I’ll need their help in finding her.”

His temperature was dropping.

“Six, killing people without reason is wrong.”

As his flaring instincts whimpered and died, Lukas huffed out a breath and opened his eyes. His Kinetomancy was fucked up, he was in yokai territory, and he was suffering from lifeforce highs. Seemed like the day just kept on giving. All he needed was for Solana to trap him into another bargain and it would be complete.

As if on cue, someone knocked at the door from outside.

Twice.

CHAPTER 2

First Contact

There were two of them.

The first was a thirty-something blonde woman, with a starved face, gaunt eyes, and hollow cheeks. She dragged a trolley covered with a cloth sheet behind her, likely his meal. The other was a lithe young woman, with thin, ginger hair, brown eyes, and a rather plump pair of lips.

Instantly, the Screen displayed the results of its analysis.

BREMETAN

Bipedal, lifeforce-producing organisms. 99.9% similarity with the HUMAN species

Soul Architecture damaged

Extreme signs of possession.

REIKI

Soul Architecture shows 100% similarity to REIKI from Monster Prototype Array

The gaunt-looking woman was a Reiki possession, reminding him of that Reiki who used to bring him meals and had followed him into the Crypt. Mozi, was it?

He considered the other.

ONI

Chimeric entity. Result of spiritual fusion of VANIR species with YUREI species

Bipedal, lifeforce-producing organism. Capable of Metamancy.

98.6% similarity with the HUMAN species.

Mutated Soul Architecture.

Lukas blinked. A vanir? From Kvasir’s treatise, he knew of them, but this was his first time encountering one. His hands instantly went down to his waist bag, only to find it missing. Had it been torn off of him during the fight?

That brought a frown to his face. His grandfather had instilled in him a healthy appreciation for taking care of his books. The most important things in life, the man used to say, were more than often, the most helpless. Hence, they needed to be treated with extreme care. He had no doubt that the treatise was a copy, but that didn’t justify losing it. Zuken had entrusted him with it, and regardless of the author’s ramblings, it contained a lot of valuable information.

“Searching for something?” asked the ginger.

Language Identified—Faecani

Replicating …

“Uh, yeah,” he said, “I had a waist bag with a book in it.”

“Ah, yes,” the young woman replied. “Kvasir’s treatise. A most unexpected gem. How did you acquire it?”

Lukas didn’t reply. At least the book wasn’t lost. Kvasir rambled too much about the Norse gods. No doubt this … vanir? … oni?—whatever—woman would find it interesting.

Hang on a second. Didn’t Tanya say that one of her own team members was a vanir? One that had been—

He froze.

—possessed?

It took him a second to train his features into an impassive look. It took him another to realize just how indifferent he was to the entire thing. Bremetans enslaved kami to do their bidding. Yokai possessed bremetans to do theirs. It was an interesting inverse relationship shared between two races on two opposite extremes of the spectrum.

“Greetings, Outsider,” the Reiki said in a familiar Felleisen accent. “Mizo be excited to see Outsider again.”

Of course. He shouldn’t have been surprised. The creature had taken a new body. Physical bodies were disposable, after all.

“Mizo,” he said, effortlessly altering his language to pure Felleisen with just a thought, “Nice to see you, too. Solana put you on waiter duty again?”

Mizo let out a high-pitched, grating laugh, like the sound of chalk on slate. “Mizo be told to give food to Outsider. Mizo not be told to wait.”

Lukas sighed. Why had he expected Mizo to know about waiters and restaurants? He turned to the other woman, the oni.

“Greetings,” said the ginger, “I’m Maude. I believe that you and I share a few acquaintances.”

So his hunch was right. This was the same vanir who had been part of Tanya’s team in the anomaly.

“Yes,” he said, keeping his voice level. “Where is she?”

“She?” Maude arched an eyebrow.

“Tanya,” Lukas said. “Where is she?”

“She’s currently … indisposed.”

Lukas felt a cold chill in his stomach. “I want to see her.”

“The Leader asked me to wait until you’ve eaten. After that, I’ll take you to her. Maybe if she agrees, you can go see Tanya.”

That rankled.

“I’m not sure if anyone told you this, Maude, but I’m not a fan of following orders.”

“Leader said you’d say that. She also asked to remind you that this is an underground territory and she’s an accomplished terramancer.”

Lukas cocked his head. “I want to see Tanya, and I’m not asking.”

Maude eyed him for a moment, before the uncertainty in her eyes altered with a gleam of devil-may-care defiance. It looked a lot more natural on her. “I liked you better when you were a paranoid survivor. Gaining strength has made you cocky.”

Lukas arched an eyebrow. “Have we met before?”

“Before I became me, I was Malon. A yurei. Leader had charged the two of us to see you through your mission to the anomaly’s core.”

Malon and Mizo. The two guards who Solana had offered him as support. He hadn’t accepted either, but Solana had sent them anyway to track his performance and report on his displays. Malon had possessed the vanir, forming the oni who was chatting him up now.

“Tanya mentioned your name, as did Olfric. Once, I think.” He paused, waiting for a reaction. Finding none, he continued, “Though it looks like you’re quite happy here after all.”

Maude gave him an impish grin. “You could say that. It’s quite a change from the Empire. The environment is a bit dreary, but it grows on you.”

“And you’re an oni now.”

Her smile widened. “You can tell right off the bat, huh? Leader said you were an interesting one.”

Lukas weighed his options. Despite his glaring handicap, he was reasonably certain he could outfight most people in here. But Solana was maintaining her veneer of hospitality. Knowing the witch, she wanted something and was playing the long game.

That was fine. He could play too.

“If any of you harm a hair on Tanya’s head, I’ll burn this place down.”

“Mizo no likes Outsider’s threats,” the Reiki growled.

“Not a threat,” said Lukas. “A promise. Solana wants to talk? Fine. I’ll play ball, but if anything happens to Tanya, you will all have to find a new place to shack up.”

Maude, or Malon, or whoever she was now, merely cocked her head, studying him. “Tanya is currently asleep. Her injuries required her to be sedated if I was to heal her.”

“Malon!”

Maude ignored the sudden snap from her fellow worker and focused on Lukas. “Don’t worry about her.”

“I’ll believe that when I see her.”

“Suit yourself.”

Lukas frowned. There was no way to determine if this woman was lying to him. But the yokai had so far been nothing but hospitable. Torturing Tanya wouldn’t make things any better for them. No, if Solana wanted something, a healthy Tanya was a better ransom than a tortured one.

Maude gestured at the food trolley.

“You should eat. Leader wishes to meet with you. I’m supposed to show you the way.”

“I know the way. I’ve been here before.”

“Not since the latest renovation, you haven’t,” said the oni. “After you killed the Core, we took over the entire anomaly. Speaking of which … why is that metal on your person?”

She said the word “metal” like it was the vilest thing imaginable.

Lukas looked at Blob, still acting as an undershirt. The living aqāru slime, which contained within it all of the spiritual information that had belonged to the Crypt of Fiendish Worms, was a horrifically overpowered tool against spiritual predators. No wonder the oni didn’t—

The rest of his thoughts died, as something else hit him.

Blob.

Fucking hell. He’d almost forgotten.

ROLLBACK PROTOCOL SUCCESSFUL!

Nexus established

Accessory confirmed

Reading data …

Ah, right. He had channeled the infinite energy from the Haze through Blob, enacting the Rollback Protocol over and over, dozens and dozens of times without care or concern. Which meant …

“That metal—” Maude barely suppressed a shudder. “—it is alive, isn’t it? Just seeing it makes me want to …”

She looked like she was about to throw up. Given how casual and composed she had been, it was weird. The expression on her face was akin to a cornered cat surrounded by dogs.

Analysis complete.

Rendering …

NAME

CRYPT OF FIENDISH WORMS

TYPE

HETEROMORPH

CONSTITUENT

AQĀRU

Deciphering Spiritualist Constitution …

Decoding …

Rendering complete.

Nature

Conglomerate

Number of Skills

16,159

Number of Monster Prototypes

5,387

Direct Access to Monster Prototypes hindered under Warmonger Protocol.

Reconfiguring …

Lukas suppressed a grin. He couldn’t wait to see what this thing was now capable of.

“Aguilar!”

“Huh? Yes, it’s alive. And it’s mine. Keeps people from being too grabby.” He paused and cocked his head. “Is that why I still have my clothes on this time?”

The expression on her face told him everything he needed to know.

“How do you have it? Why do you have it? More importantly, how is it possibly alive?”

“It’s a souvenir,” he replied, “from my battle with the Anomaly Guardian.”

It was more than a souvenir. A lot more. Especially now.

Accessory active

Configured access to Accessory Monster Prototypes through Accessory Heteromorph

Like a machine that had been switched on, Blob snapped awake, and hundreds upon thousands of prototypes flashed across Lukas’s mind in less than a second, but somehow, he understood it all. Every single prototype—most of them crafted by the anomaly, others killed by the monsters and added to the soul crypt. And then there were some that it had scraped from the fossils hidden beneath the desert sands.

Fossils that belonged to creatures of a different time and age.

Prototypes that the Crypt had been unsuccessfully trying to reproduce.

And with them had come a wealth of information. The Crypt was a terrain-based anomaly. Access to Blob’s reserves brought with it impossibly clear, precise knowledge about the composition of the terrain. What was the terrain? How was it created, molded, transformed? What was the soil? Sand? An indefinite number of ratios popped into his head, bringing exact specifications of organic matter, inorganic matter, and minerals. Granular, non-granular, thick, thin, flat, spheroid, light, dense—it had it all. Chemical compositions, structures, bonding, flexibility, viscosity, structural stability, chemical transformation of compounds—he had just gained the master key to the largest repository of knowledge on the Crypt, and it was all in Blob, ready to be used with a thought.

And he was only just getting started.

“Looks like more than a mere souvenir.”

“Oh, yes,” said Lukas. “I can teach it all kinds of tricks. Wanna see?”

Maude crossed her arms. “Only if it involves destroying it.”

“Leader is waiting,” Mizo said stubbornly. “Leader says Outsider goes to Leader’s room after meal.”

She lifted the lid off the food tray.

“I’ll be waiting outside till you’re done,” Maude said, and walked off, trailed by Mizo, who gave him a deeply distrusting look.

Lukas smiled until the door was closed, but as soon as they were gone, he dropped it, as a look of cold, calculated pragmatism crossed his face.

He wasn’t foolish enough to think he was safe. Solana had been very clear when he had left for the mission: she’d kill him if he joined up with the Asukan crowd. But she didn’t know that his reach had progressed far beyond Asukans and yokai and their prejudices. Kvasir had rambled about the Time Before, but he had no way to prove his theories.

That wasn’t true for Lukas. He had established a nexus with the Haze. No, not the Haze. The Ikai Realm. The Cradle of Creation. A world of mist and anomalous energy entwined around other worlds. A medium through which he could travel to any of those worlds he had sensed.

Inanna was right. He had been thinking like an individual all this time. He had to start thinking like a world.

He needed answers.

Answers to questions such as how he had gotten here in the first place. Was it because of Blob? No. That couldn’t be. Blob’s reconfiguration notwithstanding, there was absolutely no reason for him to arrive in the anomaly. The only thing remotely connected to the Haze was …

Solana.

Or more specifically, the portal she had opened in the Haze the last time he had been here.

No, wait. That wasn’t it.

She hadn’t opened a portal. She had just … walked right in. Theoretically, that meant that the room was either part of the Haze or connected to it. A fantastical and outlandish possibility, but perhaps the Haze was always connected to the real world, but it took an ethereal creature to cross the borders?

Also, did that mean Solana could enter the Haze from virtually any place? Or was it limited to locations satisfying particular conditions, like there were in the Desert, where there was no Eternal Light?

Lukas wanted to believe it was the latter. Solana was scary enough as it was.

His fingers caressed the pendant again. Finally, after all this time, he had found an answer. A way forward. He could fight, kill, and siphon monsters all he wanted, but in this world of bremetans and yokai, there was only one thing that held absolute importance to him, aside from Tanya.

Lukas allowed himself to breathe slowly.

The Haze.

Yokai might be able to travel through it, but only an omphalos could connect to its awareness. He had done something similar with the Crypt of Fiendish Worms at one point, and it had shown him a path to power even back then.

He had achieved a nexus with the Haze.

Become part of its system.

If he could do that again, he’d have access to its entire structure. Its architectural framework. The paths. The routes. If every well connected to the Haze, and the Haze was all-pervading then …

That would give him the ability to travel across realms without concern for geography. Unlike the yokai, he wouldn’t have to fear the Eternal Light or try traveling across the ocean by known routes. He’d have the entire map in his head. With it, he could disregard all laws with utter impunity and avoid retribution from the Empire and the yokai alike. He could go anywhere. Escape from damned near anything. Gather information like no one could.

It was exactly the sort of thing he needed. New worlds would mean new creatures, new skills, and new information. He could have quick, easy access to stronger, superior creatures to kill and siphon. He’d become stronger, more flexible, and level up faster. Not only that, he could guarantee Tanya’s absolute safety from the Empire. He’d have absolutely no need for Zuken, Olfric, or any of the home crowd.

Not too long ago, he had fought tooth and nail to avoid the temptation of power and done his best to deny becoming Inanna’s henchman. And now, he was succumbing to it, and it wasn’t just to get Inanna back, no matter what he told himself.

Lukas looked at the food tray. A cup of juice, a small plate of roasted meat and something that looked like a pancake sprinkled with veggies. He sat back down, came to a decision, and ate the food thoughtfully.

CHAPTER 3

Maude

The last time he had been there, the yokai territory had reminded him of a mining colony—large patches of dense population, segregated by wide spaces of sparsely populated acreage. Now it was a vast underground complex, spanning over several dozen acres, for all he knew. Observing closely, he could see signs of the war. They were subtle, but if one paid attention, they were everywhere: extravagant outgrowths of shapes and sizes that made no sense; broken sigil lines, caused by the erection of new walls to replace the old; fractures along the older architecture; and so on.

Word had spread amongst the inhabitants about the return of the fabled Outsider, but everyone gave him a wide berth. Only Mizo and Maude could get up close, but even they maintained a professional distance.

Blob was the likely culprit.

The aqāru slime had transformed in more ways than one. During all the time he had known Blob, it had seemed content to stay in whatever form he wanted it to be. When left alone, it would turn into a large droplet with a sizable tongue rolling out of it, licking whatever came within its vicinity. It didn’t react to anything unless Lukas did, constantly attuned to his thoughts.

Now? It hung on his shoulder, currently transformed into a multitude of fang-worms. The yokai territory wasn’t the only thing that triggered old memories. He still remembered those days—going to sleep with his back against the wall and waking up to find himself covered with acid-secreting slime.

It was against one such fang-worm that he had used lifeforce for the first time.

Blob was imitating them, its body now a formless ghol, draping all over Lukas’s back while several protrusions—fang-worms—peered around and made weird, clicking noises. Occasionally they’d snap at his guards who’d jump several feet away out of sheer reflex.

Not the best setting for a conversation. Not that that stopped Maude.

“I’ve been wondering, what are your impressions of Zuken and the others?”

Maude, he had realized, had a habit of asking relevant questions casually while expertly batting away any questions about herself, as if there was absolutely nothing worth mentioning. She was good. Very good. But Lukas hadn’t gotten to where he had in life by playing fair.

“You tell me,” he said. “You’ve known them longer than I have.”

“I just wanted to know your thoughts,” she shrugged, as if utterly apathetic to the subject.

Lukas would’ve called her out for her ruse, but he knew better. It didn’t matter what they talked about; there was always this thin air of indifference in her tone, as if any given conversation was little more than a distraction to her. She had this knack for sounding genuinely interested whenever she approached a topic, only for it to fade into laconic indifference the moment after she asked a question about it. It was like talking to two different people in the same body, constantly switching at random.

“Zuken’s … not your standard Asukan. He’s driven. By what, I don’t know, but there are few things he wouldn’t violate to get whatever it is. Not very fond of violence, but he doesn’t shy from it, either. He’s the sort I can respect.”

“And does he?” she asked. “Have your respect?”

“We know what the other is angling for. Live and let live and all that.”

“Those fractals you wear,” Maude pointed out. “They cost a bloody fortune. Zuken must have genuine faith in your skills to have gotten you those.”

“He and I understand each other to a degree, yes. He helps me in my research, I help him in his.”

“Research,” repeated Maude, as if tasting the word.

“Research,” Lukas confirmed. “Not everyone is interested in possessing others and destroying anomalies.”

The moment he said that, he realized the stupidity of his accusations. Like Solana, Zuken had hired Tanya to destroy the anomaly core. From Maude’s smirk, he knew she had arrived at a similar conclusion.

“And what are you interested in?”

“Oh, you know, a bit of this, a bit of that.”

“Is that why you were holding Kvasir’s treatise, Outsider? You were studying the history of the world and the old religions?” Maude asked, proving once again that beneath her affable persona lay a sharp mind. “Perhaps you might find the Leader more useful for your research? She is, after all, a creature older than any Asukan alive.”

Lukas took note of the fact. He knew that Asukans tended to have a life span similar to humans, with only a few of them crossing their 150th birthday. The problem with lifeforce was that, while it enabled the body to go beyond the ordinary, it also accelerated their growth. It was why Tanya, despite being merely twenty-two at best, had the body of a woman in her early thirties, and why the Overseer of the Llaisy Kingdom, a man who had just celebrated his 176th birthday, looked as fit as a fiddle.

Even Lukas himself had changed significantly over the past several months that he had spent in this world, dousing himself in increasing quantities of lifeforce. If not for Prophylaxis and his nature as an anomaly, he was pretty sure he wouldn’t last his first century.

“Just how ancient is she?”

“To my knowledge, she’s been around over the last six hundred years.”

He whistled. “That long, huh?”

“You would know if you stopped being confrontational.”

“Can’t be helped. Solana’s more interested in threatening me into working for her. She always wants something. That’s why I’m walking with you and not already exhumed in pieces.”

“I cannot speak for Leader,” Maude said. “But tell me, has Olfric gotten himself a new kami yet?”

Maude—or Malon, as Mizo kept calling her—used to be Tanya’s teammate. A vanir by heritage, she had actively worked for the Empire, and used her powers at healing (Naturopathy, to be precise) to heal many a noble during her years of service to the Empire. After her possession, she had changed sides to work for Solana, and here she was, asking about Zuken and the crew with the same air as old schoolmates meeting at a bar after a decade, inquiring about their old school gang.

“He hasn’t,” Lukas said. “You could always ask Tanya about them. I’m sure she’d be glad to trade stories with her friend-turned-enemy.”

Maude threw her head back and laughed. “Me and Tanya? Friends? You tell me. Is she friends with Zuken? With Elena? Olfric, perhaps?”

Maybe he was reading too much into it, but he could swear Mizo froze slightly at Olfric’s name. The next second, she was walking ahead as usual.

Lukas paused at that. Tanya had always reminded him of a wild animal trapped in a cage. A predator that was forced to act benign while its prey watched and hooted from outside. He doubted if Zuken had the slightest idea just how volatile a person he was dealing with. If Tanya lost it, Zuken and his bloody mansion would turn to dust before he even had the chance to say “Sorry.”

His face must have revealed his thoughts, for Maude just smirked and said, “I thought as much. And yet … you care for her deeply.”

“And what of it?”

“Nothing. It’s interesting. That’s all.”

The three turned past one corridor, and phased into a wall, only to emerge in a different corridor. Before he could even register what had happened, he had already lost the path behind them.

“Tell me something,” he said, “Yokai are ethereal creatures. Unlike kami, you don’t need to possess others to grow. But then, why do you do it? All these buildings, it’s like you’ve built an underground town here. Why possess bremetans and live like them instead of …”

“Getting to go as Mizo?” asked the Reiki.

Lukas blinked.

“Spirits cannot enter the lands of Eternal Light,” Maude translated. “Not without completely weakening ourselves. But while possessing someone, we can. The effect is much less.”

Which meant that the yokai traveled into Asukan territories a lot more than the Asukans believed. And if they had been doing that for hundreds of years, just how much influence did they have over the Empire without them knowing? Was that how they knew where he had been staying all this time? Had Solana been keeping track of him from the very beginning?

“Can I ask you something for a change?” Lukas asked. “It’s a bit personal.”

“Of course.”

“I didn’t use that as a rhetorical question. I mean, I’d like you to answer, but if you’d keep it to yourself, that’s okay, too.”

Maude paused and looked back. “Why wouldn’t I want to answer your questions?”

“Because you’re very good at talking about things that don’t matter. Every single time I’ve asked about Tanya or oni, you’ve deflected it.”

Maude just walked on, making no effort to answer.

“I might not have known these people for long, but they aren’t like the typical Asukans that Solana told me about.” Maude slipped him a curious glance as he continued. “Okay, maybe Olfric is, but even that guy seems to have his heart in the right place. When you grow up with certain prejudices, you see the world through tinted lenses. You’re a vanir. Tanya’s a vagrant. A Sinner. Elena’s a changeling. Olfric’s family has denounced him. These people—they’re flawed, but they aren’t evil. So why …?”

“Why what?”

Lukas smiled. “Why are you here? You can’t tell me that your friends, associates, whatever you wish to call them, looked down on you because you are, or perhaps, were, a vanir?”

The oni went still for a moment, and then she exhaled. Out loud.

“I could tell you it’s because I’m an oni now, but I’d be lying. Eternal Light doesn’t affect me the way it does the yokai. Living in Haviskali beats living in this cavern, of course, but at least I have something that’s been denied me all my life.”

“Which is?”

“Freedom.”

There was a moment of stillness.

“I am—was a vanir. A devotee of the god Eir. In His Name, I healed countless Asukan lives. But look around. Do you see Eir anywhere? Temples? Pillars? Perhaps an inscription? The Empire torments everyone and forces them to follow their truth. Accept their history. Worship their gods. Surely you understand what that feels like? To have to follow a god not your own?”

What Maude was describing was not very different from the events on Earth. One of the most efficient ways for an invading army to destroy a nation was to destroy its culture and traditions. Demean their gods. Destroy their books. Transmogrify their rich past underneath layers of blood and fallen bodies, and construct grand architectural monuments, glorifying themselves. The Roman Church Crusades, the Viking Invasions, Cortez’s invasion of the Aztecs, and the Turkish-Mongolian invasions to the Indian subcontinent—all of them were the same. Tear a rich civilization apart and then rebuild it in your image. The Asukan Empire had done no differently. The Nordic civilization, of which Kvasir was a part, had shared the same fate. Especially after the fall of the Aesir during Ragnarok.

“Understand this—” Maude whispered, “—the yokai are not on my side. I choose to be on theirs.”

“Is that why Solana sent you to me?” Lukas asked quietly. “To see if I had anything against her or the yokai? Did Zuken Banksi put you up to something similar in Tanya’s case?”

The pleasant mask faded from her face, replaced by a wary neutrality. She switched her hands, moving the bottom one to the top, carefully, as if she worried about wrinkling her dress.