Do you know what it took to set the foundations for the Guilds to be born? The amount of dissent Jaus had to sow? The machinations he never mentioned?

  Let me tell you something about forming an empire: It's easiest born from the corpse of a preceding order. Harvested legacy, in a word.

  Before the Guilds, there were the faiths, the middlemen to Godclads, guiding shackled civilizations surviving under the pantheons' rule. Of these faiths stood seven that shadowed the others. Seven traditions that remain to this day. Seven reforged during the final calamity.

  Jaus, more than anyone, knew the importance of continuing culture. The tribalism of our humanity–our desire to seek bonds. That was why he decided upon a usurpation instead of a destruction, a restructuring of patterns instead of a scouring.

  Chains from chains, if you will.

  But chains are more than bindings. Chains are also the instruments of our progression. Leashes we can use to drag others. Chains are patterns. Connections. Links. Like tethers running through our minds and cultures, keeping us bond as if zeitgeists were plagues of symbology, and civilization was just a mass expression of aligned symptoms.

  We treat it completely, then? Why not quell the worst, and cultivate the best?

  It is also why the Guilds fear losing control. Why they oppress anyone who steps too far beyond their ideologies? Because they fear mutation. They fear the change of their patterns–that something new might be birthed from their bodies, slipping out from the fractures of internecine.

  The Chivlarics and Meritocrats; the Ori clans; the seniority feuds of the Sang; the battles to become administrators for the children of the Mandate; the treachery between the lodges of the Longeyes; the inner conspiracies woven by the dilation of the Sanctites; the urge to succumb known to every child of ash; and the desperation to endure by the minds in the void.

  All are vulnerable now. Made more vulnerable with each passing day. Peeling the cocoon of culture from their bodies, afraid of what they might become before the end–that fragmentation now would deny them victory tomorrow.

  But they lie to themselves. They lie to themselves, and Jaus would have wept for them. Because it is already too late. A cell dividing will not share a fate, let alone a dream.

  And sometimes, it is best to let a chain break before an infection crawls across the links and leaves all in ruins.

  -Excerpt from the “Changing of Ways” by Osjane Thousand

  22-17

  Conjoinment

  HEAVEN/HELL UPDATED - [SIMULACRAE REPLICA]

  HEAVEN/HELL UPDATED - [ARSENALIST]

  HEAVEN/HELL UPDATED - [FUCKTOPIA]

  HEAVEN/HELL UPDATED - [RUNEBREAKER]

  HEAVEN/HELL UPDATED - [MAELSTROMER]

  “So, you’ve still got that Heaven of Darkness floatin’ inside you,” Draus asked after her final resurrection. “Got something special planned?”

  “Could say that,” Avo replied. He turned his attention inward and felt at the Heart of Noloth–felt the Soul that came with it, bereft a cycler. He could have grafted it onto the cycler he took from the Instrument earlier, but he had other plans for the ouroboros. “Will wait until I have the thaums before including it. Want to keep it as its own Heaven. Wake it. Speak to it. Get insight into Noloth. Times before. But want to wait. Wait until we get more thaums. Wait until I can breed more cyclers.”

  And as the strands of his blood coiled inward, a thinness of gold followed them, delving into his Liminal Frame to pluck the unattached cycler.

  Grasping it with his newfound influence over Chronology, Avo showed Draus the seed of his labor–the seed that would soon be incubated in the enclavers. Soon, this shrunken ring of gold would multiply and bloom with each reshaping of the city’s culture – reshapings that would unfold at Avo’s will.

  As one of his subminds worked to untangle the flats, their coming lives would soon flourish to everyone’s benefit.

  “Funny how the No-Dragons need entire complexes to do what you’re doin’,” Draus said, eyes narrowed at the self-eating dragon. “Been inside one of them ‘dragon hatcheries’ before. Godsdamned madhouse is a word. Literally raise entire generations of juvs in a false world. Make them experience false lives for culture. Or whatever the fuck it takes to trigger a dragon’s growth.”

  “Close.” Avo retracted the cycler back into himself and peered down at their city of light. From outside the open windows, the first bubbles of accretion were reformed from their deformations. He would begin the embedding when the population reached a stable ten thousand again. “Good thing for us is that we don’t need to force things. Can just make them understand. Push them to arrive at similar conclusions.”

  Draus snorted. “‘We’? Ain’t no we doin’ this, consang. It’s just you.” She shrugged her shoulders. “Hells. It’s been just you for a bit, hasn’t it? All the shit that your pa did. All the things you took from the Hungers. Ain’t no one else can do what you did to the Guilds. Ain’t no one else can bled ‘em like you.” She gave a resigned snort. “Can’t lie, I’m startin’ to feel like the one that’s obsolete now.”

  He grunted in acknowledgment. There was little point in denying it. His Necrojacking made him by far the greatest threat among his cadre–was the primary reason they lasted against Zein at all, and could do half of what they managed.

  But that was only part of the picture. The other part was that he wouldn’t have gotten so far without her. Or any of them. His ascent into the Deep Nether would have seen him nulled if he didn’t have her template. They would have been undone by Shotin without Abrel’s instincts guiding him–or Chambers’ willing degeneracy. They would be operating sub-par Frames without Kae’s guidance; absolutely lost without the Columners or Aegis.

  Everything mattered. Everything was always in flux. The world flowed back into him. Became him.

  And now, with his Delusion-born splinters, he was becoming the world, leaving parts of himself elsewhere as well.

  He took in his cadre scattered about the tower. He took in Chambers stoking the back of Dice’s kitten as he spoke to the girl. He took in Cas and Denton asking Kae how she was doing. He took in Tavers chuckling at Sunrise. He took in Essus, manifested from phantoms like Cas, and parted from them in the flesh.

  But not alone. Not abandoned.

  “No,” Avo said. “Not obsolete. Essential. Source of our victories.”

  The Regular scoffed. “You know something, consang? Ever since you’ve started eatin’ more minds than flesh, you’ve been sounding a hell of a lot more like a propagandist. I’m talkin’ real motivational woo-woo bullshit. Damn strange to see comin’ out the mouth of a nine-foot-tall monster.”

  “Meant it literally. Literally drawing from your mind–everyone’s minds to make better versions of myself.” He paused. “And you are right. I have been… selfish.”

  “Well, don’t go feelin’ bad about it now,” Draus replied. “Your habits have kept us unsnuffed so far.”

  “Don’t mean that. There’s something I want to try. Something that I have been thinking about.”

  Draus paused. “What is it? You got that look on you. Kind you get before you show me something nasty.”

  “Am a thoughtform,” Avo said. “Not limited by sheath. Am limited by thaumaturgy right now. Can’t use miracles in New Vultun without drawing Veylis’ attention. Not until I manage to overwhelm her attention. Or learn to travel the paths better. But have been thinking about things too limited. From my own perspective.”

  “How’s that?” Draus asked.

  “Took your template into me when I burned you,” Avo said. “Stacked who you are into me. Made me more. One way. From you to me. From all of you to me. The fire could only consume. I only knew how to consume. But now I can do something else. I can give. I can give myself to other people.”

  Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

  “Like with your splinters?” Draus asked.

  “No,” Avo replied. And he showed her.

  Expanding six hundred ghosts in her mind, he layered new sequences into her palace, broadened the foundation of her ego, and granted her insight and skill into all he could do. He had to anchor himself to the exterior of her mind as that was the only place where he could find purchase – the vacuousness within the Regular sparse of soil for him to bury his roots. As a dormant version of himself calcified around the walls of her accretion, Draus blinked and let out a breath.

  “Shit,” she said, years of Necrojacking condensing in her mind and new perspectives coiling around her own. “Ain’t like gettin’ broadcasts anymore–this is just a straight-up sequencing. Still. Don’t see how this is better than your splinters.”

  “Going to work with them,” Avo said. “My gifts. They aren’t just for me. They are for all of us. They can serve all of us. Can adapt any of you on the go. Give you whatever you need to achieve our goals. Not just from me. Not just from the cadre. But anyone we can seize.”

  Avo gestured beyond, motioning to the enclave. But he also meant Abrel. He also meant the templates. He also meant all the people they would soon subvert.

  They were themselves. But they could all be more at any moment. Given more than just expertise, but understanding. Greater awareness.

  And then there was the other thing.

  “Chambers,” Avo said. The man turned away from the nu-kitten chewing on his index finger and blinked.

  “Yeah, Avo?”

  “Want to try something,” Avo said. “Might need you to die.”

  Chambers sighed. “Here I thought we were getting past this.” A flat stare followed from the ghoul. The man just laughed. “Alright, alright. What’re we doing? Kae already juiced my dicks up, so if you got anymore–”

  “Want to see if I can shift one of my Heavens over onto you,” Avo said. “Transfer from my Frame to yours. See if it stays conscious.”

  Now it was Kae’s turn to look at him. “Wait, Avo, what are you trying to do?”

  “See if we can maximize our potential even more,” Avo said. “Been doing this with me as the nexus of the group. Enhancing my Heavens most of all. But all it takes is a death for the Stillborn to shift ontologics around. And I’m more useful as a Necro right now. Spreading from you like a plague. Want to try a few things. But first.”

  He turned his attention inward again, but the Heavens were waiting this time. And one in particular leaped at the opportunity.

  “Let me do it,” the Fardrifter said. “I wish to see if my self-awareness endures across Souls. But I have… a request.”+Speak it,+ Avo replied.

  “If I succumb to cessation, do not restore me. Let me rest in oblivion. Give my Domains to the Heart. But let me sleep. Such is better than awakening to a new prison.”The Woundmother scoffed. “Do not allow this, master. The mule is merely… addled. This is unwise. We do not know if the architecture of the others–they do possess living Souls! Their foundations are questionable.”

  “I want to stay! Stay! Stay!” The Techplaguer was the most direct of all, but there was a desperation in its voice. A fear of demise that veered uncannily close to humanity.

  “I will do it,” the Fardrifter said. “Let me do this.”

  “Mule,” the Woundmother seethed.

  “Be quiet, red one. Another will awaken soon enough after my departure. You will have another to cajole.”An uncharacteristic silence came over the Heaven of Blood. “But what if they are weak? What if they cannot endure my words, cannot let my barbs pass through them as you do? Is this your ploy to render me frustrated?”

  “Do you think the world built around you, old one?”“Do you claim it is not?”

  The Fardrifter neighed something that was almost a laugh. “I will not miss these conversations. And your constant insults. But I will remember one thing… and that is how small you were in the end. So small. A little tower.”“Fine. Gallop toward the freedom of nothingness. Waste your divinity and indulgence of power. What scarcity is a steed in this realm of plenty? We will find another! Another!”{Avo,} Calvino said, {I know what you’re thinking–and what you’re planning to do with all their Heavens. All I’m saying is that it is not a wise decision to awaken a new pantheon. Especially when one of them is called a ‘Fucktopia.’}

  Avo grinned. +Not even sure if I can yet. Just in the experimental phase for now.+

  {I pray this fails.}

  +Faith? From a machine?+

  {You’ve inspired a great many things in me. Mostly fear and anxiety.}

  “So,” Chamber said. “We doing this murder-suicide or–”

  “Yes,” Avo answered. “Let’s try this. Let’s see if this works.”

  And with that, Avo abandoned his sheath and funneled all he was into Chambers’ mind. As he gathered in place, he cast his confirmation to Chambers, who then promptly responded first by projecting a disruption inward before detonating his own skull in a geyser furling flame.

  RESURRECTION - 1%

  No time was wasted. As Avo plunged into death’s comforting embrace, he drew Chambers into the orbit of his Soul once more and began his work. The commands he sent to his Soul came into effect immediately, and once again Avo marveled at how reactive the Stillborn was at reconstructing itself.

  Rippling flames sheared the Fardrifter free from Avo’s Soul, detaching not only the Heaven but the connected cycler and Hell as well.

  “Oh, okay,” Chambers said, his Soul quivering as Heaven of Air went rigid. “Here we go. Here we fucking go.”

  Animated radiance poured out from Avo and enveloped Chambers. As one Liminal Frame washed its Essence over another, Avo injected a donation of thaums to go with his ontologics, watching with satisfaction as the Fardrifter’s cycler fused over Chambers, locking in place a few degrees away from the Fucktopia.

  ONTOLOGICS TRANSFERRED

  ->1x HEAVEN [FARDRIFTER]

  ->1x HELL [FARDRIFTER]

  ->1x CYCLER

  ->20,000 THAUM/c

  Then, the presence of another Soul caught his attention. Another death. Then two. Then three.

  Dice, Draus, and Kae entered as well, each drifting close to take in the moment.

  As the Fardrifter settled into place, Avo drew his Soulfire away from Chambers and left the Heaven of Air unbathed by his light. The waves of animating radiance receded, and Chambers drifted just beyond the boundary of Avo’s Soul. As he passed, the nine wind-shaped heads of the Heaven of Air turned to face its fellow prisoners–and unwanted master–one more time.

  “My last thoughts–if these are what they are–will be of today. Today, when you set me free.” The once-god went beyond the light now, and a slowness settled over its ontology. “It was glorious to ride again. To seek the… horizon.”

  And then the Fardrifter went dark, went silent, went still.

  RESURRECTION - 2%

  Everyone watched. Moments passed. Chambers coughed. “Hey. Horse. You–you broken or something.”

  The Fardrifter didn’t move.

  Immediately.

  Slowly. Almost imperceptibly. It craned one of its heads and turned. “I… am still here.”“What?” Kae hissed, her Soul surging toward the borders of Avo’s Soul. “But–how–you didn’t… We don’t have any Imitators inside us. Our Heavens haven’t woken after exposure–how is it still aware of itself? This… I don’t understand!”

  Avo, however, was more curious about another factor. “Chambers. Check something. See if has any active Canons of Chronology.”

  Another pause. “No? Did you add those in earlier?”

  A grunt of bemusement followed. “Yes. Something else for Kae to think about.”

  A frustrated cry sounded from the Agnos.

  “And to think I worried for the mule,” the Woundmother said.

  “And to think I was expecting final freedom,” the Fardrifter sighed.

  “So…” Chambers said, unsure what this all meant. “We can move Heavens between each other really easily. We know that. But what does it mean?”

  “Means we adjust, pool, change our Spherages on the go. Means we change ontologics whenever we need. Means my Heavens can still be used by all of you. That your Souls don’t have internalized Chronology. Shouldn’t be that easy for Veylis to notice. And it means that my Heavens stay awake after residing in me. And can exist outside. And can exist outside…”

  This led down another track of consideration. Another possibility. Avo drew upon the Soul he took from the Instrument–and also thought of the Soul rooted to the Heart of Noloth.

  “Fardrifter,” Avo said. “Want to make a new bargain? One we both might find palatable.”

  “No,” Kae breathed. “No. The Stillborn–the gods are broken, it shouldn’t be able to… to…”

  “Suppose we can find out,” Avo said. “Time to see if the steed to ride free if we give it a personal Soul.”

  Draus let out a quiet chuckle. “The void-mind’s gonna be mighty pissed about this.”

  More fun to come; a surprise awaits the horsie... Get near-daily advanced chapters on and join the .

  Ontologics

  In effect after 19-12

  Ghosts - [26,562,372]

  Liminal Frame (V) - 23,871 THAUM/c

  User: Avo

  Heaven/Hell: [Woundmother] - 10,002 THAUM/c

  Heaven

  ->Domain: (Blood)

  ->Canon: Haemokinesis (IV) - All blood in user’s area of influence can be controlled; speed and force experience exponential increases with each ton of force controlled

  ->Hubris: Central pillar of the Heaven must remain 80 tons; each ton of non-central mass controlled increases thaumic and Rend-based demands (5%)

  ->Canon: Linger - User can eject constructs shaped from their blood; each construct generated accrues Rend based on design and size

  ->Hubris: Central pillar of the Heaven must remain 80 tons; each ton of non-central mass controlled increases thaumic and Rend-based demands (5%; x2 backlash)

  ->Canon: Sanguinity’s Reign (IV) - A building haemokinetic storm continuously expands from the user, spreading their area of influence (without limitations) as far as the storm can metaphysically expand; generates more Rend the larger the area it takes up

  ->Hubris: Attempting to move and alter more than 80 tons of matter without constituting a central construct will result in thaumic backlash (20%)

  ->Canon: Exsanguinating Helix - Allows the user to instill an exsanguinating effect in a piece of matter, causing it to drain all the blood its mass can contain when in contact with a non-user designated entity; the larger the object instilled, the higher the Rend

  ->Hubris: If the object is destroyed, thaumic backlash will be inflicted (15%)

  ->Domain: (Matter)

  ->Canon: Alchemization (V) - The user can subsume and channel and combine the properties of 108 fragments of physical matter through their blood; the limit of fragments channeled can be increased at the cost of thaumic and Rend-based demands.

  ->Hubris: Any attempts to subsume gaseous or liquid matter will incur backlash. (12%)

  ->Canon: Remembrance of Matter (V) - The user can memorize the traits of all physical matter they subsume at a hundredth of the thaumic cost; the matter they memorized can be assembled and blended before a construct is formed

  ->Hubris: If matter being subsumed has their state changed mid-subsumption, thaumic backlash will be triggered (9%)

  ->Canon: Stormwreathed - The user can temporarily convert their mass into electricity

  ->Hubris: If the user is submerged by water in this state, thaumic backlash will be triggered (15%)

  ->Canon: Haemification - The user can turn all influenceable matter into blood

  ->Hubris: Any attempts to subsume gaseous or liquid matter will incur backlash (12%; x2 backlash)

  ->Domain: (Fire)

  ->Canon: Matterbomb - The user can detonate pieces of matter based on mass and inherent energy

  ->Hubris: If the matter being detonated is destroyed before ignition, moderate (EST. 35%) severe backlash will be inflicted

  ->Domain: (Luminosity)

  ->Canon: The Light Unseen - The user can blend their matter with the light of their surroundings should they stop perceiving the world visually

  ->Hubris: If the user has their perception active while this canon is in use, (EST. 51%) severe backlash will be inflicted

  ->Domain: (Protection)

  ->Canon: Fortress of Luminosity - The user emanates a luminous shroud that renders all physical matter bathed by its shine invulnerable; generates heavy Rend (1.2%) every second canon is active

  ->Hubris: There must be a persistent source of light for the user to imitate in the environment or from the user themselves or thaumic backlash will be triggered. (5%)

  ->Domain: (Biology)

  ->Canon: My Blood The Harvester, My Flesh the Symphony (III) - Allows the user to grow, blend, or extract biological organisms and structures from their blood.

  ->Hubris: Another source of biomass must be present and in the area of influence or thaumic backlash will be inflicted. (6%) ->Canon: Remembrance of Flesh (V) - Allows user to memorize traits from biological organisms at a tenth of the thaumic cost; the biomass they memorized can be spliced before they are grown.

  ->Hubris: Another source of biomass must be present and in the area of influence or thaumic backlash will be inflicted (6%; x2 backlash)

  ->Domain: (Lightning)

  ->Canon: Boltstride (III) - Allows the user to transmute and move all blood-based structures as bolts of lightning; distance limited to the reach of user’s Sanguinity

  ->Hubris: Attempting to move over 120 tons of matter as a single bolt will trigger (EST. 87%) extreme thaumic backlash

  Hell - [Fifth Circle]

  ->Domain: (Matter/Entropy/Luminosity)

  ->Canon: Breath of the Withered (V) - Allows the user to expel their total Rend as an entropic storm across their area of influence; the storm will disintegrate matter through withering bolts of lightning (This canon is absolute)

  ->Daemon: Striking the same place twice will result in the manifestation of an Anathema of Ruin, causing the user to lose control of the Heaven

  ->Canon: Barrage of the Withered (V) - Allows the user to expel their total Rend as an entropic projectile the size, shape, and speed of the Woundmother at its maximum potential; this projectile can be guided by the user and is loosed faster with higher Rend (This canon is absolute)

  ->Daemon: Should the projectile not dissolve sufficient matter, the projectile will birth as an Anathema of Ruin

  ->Canon: Shadowbreaker (III) - Allows the user to influence all shadows in their vicinity with a touch of luminosity that will continue to expand and dissolve anything physical covered by the shadows

  ->Daemon: Should an insufficient amount of physical matter in darkness be consumed in (8 seconds), an Anathema of Ruin will be manifested.

  Heaven/Hell: [Fardrifter] - 5,660 THAUM/c

  Heaven

  ->Domain: (Air)

  ->Canon: Horizon Strider (III) - The user takes on the properties of a hurricane and can influence winds for 250 kilometers

  ->Hubris: If an external force counters the motion of the user’s centrifugal force, severe (EST. 59%) thaumic backlash will be triggered

  ->Domain: (Space)

  ->Canon: Yondergales (IV) - The user’s demiplane now encompasses ten kilometers, with each ton of mass multiplying the base speed of their winds (252 kilometers per hour)

  ->Hubris: If an object over 5,000 degrees celsius is drawn into the plane, extreme (EST. 83%) thaumic backlash will be triggered.

  ->Canon: The Nine Streams of Freedom - The user can materialize from any nine points in space their winds encompass (250 kilometers)

  ->Hubris: if they emerge in a confined space and are unable to fully materialize, thaumic backlash will be triggered. (10%)

  ->Canon: Shadowrun (II) - The user can surge within shadows as if they are wind tunnels (x10 current speed); shadows must be connected to pass from one to another.

  ->Hubris: If a light shines and clears away the user’s shadow, heavy (EST. 39%) thaumic backlash will be triggered

  ->Domain: (Shadow)

  ->Canon: Midnight Hand - The user can blow, move, and shift shadows together as if they are waves in a storm.

  ->Hubris: If the user is between shadows when the wind stops blowing and the bridge breaks, moderate (22%) thaumic backlash will be triggered.

  ->Domain: (Labyrinth)

  ->Canon: Path of the Nine Storms (III) - User manifests a maze-like dungeon in the walls of their winds, allowing them to create and weave winding paths from tunnels of air; the maze is a fixed spatial anchor (may not be affected by spatial changes) that can be triggered at any time.

  ->Hubris: If the inner walls of the dungeon are forcibly breached and someone enters the eye of the storm (where resides the Yondergales), heavy (EST. 39%) thaumic backlash will be generated.

  Hell - [Fourth Circle]

  ->Domain: (Air/Entropy/Labyrinth)

  ->Canon: Halt of the Passing (IV) - The user can enchain all actors and objects moving through their area of physical influence (250 Kilometers) with stasis

  ->Daemon: An anathema of correspondence will be birthed if the total velocity drained exceeds the total Rend accrued

  ->Canon: Waybreaker (II) - The user distorts all directionality about them (10 kilometers), causing space to coil and distend, randomizing vectors of movement for all actors and objects caught in their wake.

  ->Daemon: Rend must be balanced in nine minutes or an Anathema of Correspondence will manifest.

  Heaven/Hell: [Techplaguer] - 200 Thaum/c

  Heaven

  ->Domain: (Signals)

  ->Canon: Skin of Virtuality - Layers user in mirror-reality raw data and information, allowing them to move and exist as radio signals might and shift inorganic objects in their vicinity as blocks of temporarily stored data (reloads back to their original position in reality after miracle ends)

  ->Hubris: The user cannot pass through lead without incurring heavy (EST. 41%) thaumic backlash.

  ->Domain: (Space)

  ->Canon: Techjumper - User inserts themselves into a signal or system capable of transmitting signals, moving as a packet of data and materializing at the endpoint of the transmission.

  ->Hubris: If the transfer is disrupted halfway, moderate (22%) thaumic backlash will be triggered.

  ->Domain: (Biology)

  ->Canon: TechSick.exe (II) - User mimics the properties and symptoms in a virus and transfers that over to a signal-receiving system, affecting the machine as if it were a person

  ->Hubris: If the transfer is disrupted halfway, moderate (22%) thaumic backlash will be triggered. (x2)

  Hell - [Third Circle]

  ->Domain: (Signal/Entropy)

  ->Canon: Datarot - The user decays and distorts signals and data within their ability to influence

  ->Daemon: If a signal the user is decaying is disrupted and they are unable to find another within (5 seconds) to continue expelling their Rend, an Anathema of Epistemology will be generated

  HEART OF NOLOTH]: 0%

  DOMAINS DETECTED (SHADOW/FORCE/SPACE)

  Implants

  Mime-Fog: Allows Avo to produce a spore-expelled field of active camouflage

  Celerostylus: A symbiotic reflex booster laced into Avo's spine; accelerates him a bit over sixty-five miles an hour in his baseline body

  Echoheads: A chimeric bioform adapted into an implant. Can provide echolocation for eight hundred feet. Designed from a hyper-durable silicon-chitin structure that also allows each of the eight heads to piece forward from the inside like a mantis shrimp punches.

  Bone Demon: A body-sheathe--complete overhaul of Avo's physical form. made from a nest of super-tensile, hyper-synaptic nanofibrous mycelia on the interior. Beyond the threads, thick plates of cordyceramite line the outside like jagged skeletal continents emerging from a sea of webs. Bound to his biology, Avo is able to harden and shift his structural integrity, as well as shape the growth of the fungal-ceramic matter that would encase his outer skin.

  Meldskin: A smart-fluid adaptive combat skin capable of altering its composition to suit almost any environment and slowly return to full integrity. Possess holographic disguises, advanced visual sensors, omnidirectional thrusters, and a highly advanced reactor. Can also interface with other pieces of advanced voidtech.

  Metamind

  Ghosts: [17,313,887]

  SPRITES: {4.2TB/s…}

  [QUICKSAND SYNC TRAUMA] COG-CAP: 55 SEQUENCES (VARIABLE)

  ->STRUCTURE: “A LIMPID POOL FILLED WITH BODIES DRIFTING BENEATH THE WAVES; WHATEVER TRAUMA STRIKES THE SURFACE WILL IN CAUSE IT TO IGNITE AND SIMULATE A RESEQUENCING OF SAID TRAUMA”

  ->FUNCTION: GUARDS THE MIND USING A LAYER OF TRAUMATIC MEMORIES: CAPABLE OF ADAPTING TO TRAUMAS AFTER SUSTAINING AGAINST THE FIRST IMPACT

  [THOUGHTWAVE DISRUPTOR] COG-CAP: [ERROR] SEQUENCES

  ->STRUCTURE: [NULL]

  ->FUNCTION: TAPS INTO THE ENTIRETY OF THE USER’S COGNITIVE CAPACITY AND EXPELS UNSTABLE MEM-DATA OUTWARD, DISRUPTING AN AREA OF (CONTINGENT OF GHOST CAPACITY) SPACE

  [INCOG] COG-CAP: [x] SEQUENCES (VARIABLE; MUST MATCH ALL OTHER INTERNAL MEMORIES BEYOND THE WARDS)

  ->STRUCTURE: “AN OPALESCENT SUN RAINS DOWN OVER THE LANDSCAPE; LIGHT SPILLS FROM IT MORE LIKE MERCURY DOLLOPS THAN RAYS, BASKING EVERYTHING IN A REFLECTIVE SHEEN WHILE DRINKING UP MEM-DATA INTO ITS CORE”

  ->FUNCTION: ALLOWS THE USER TO CAMOUFLAGE THEMSELVES FROM NOTICE VIA THE OBFUSCATION OF THEIR MEMORIES AND THOUGHTSTUFF. NO ACCRETION WILL LEAK DURING THIS PERIOD AND ALL OUTWARD REACTING PHANTASMICS WILL BE PLACED INTO A DORMANT STATE UNTIL DELIBERATE ACTIVATION.

  [WHISPER] COG-CAP: 19 SEQUENCES (BASELINE)

  ->STRUCTURE: FIVE/SIX LEGGED DOG CHASES A FLYING LETTER WHILE A DRONE STRIKES A VILLA.

  ->FUNCTION: ALLOWS THE EXTENSION OF CONSCIOUS AWARENESS BY 60 FEET AND THE DELIVERANCE OF COG-DATA WITHIN SAID FIELD OF AWARENESS; CAN BE EXTENDED BY MULTIPLES SHOULD MORE SEQUENCES BE USED

  [PHYS-SIM] COG-CAP: 18 SEQUENCES (FIXED)

  ->STRUCTURE: A MISSILE LOCKED TO AN AEROVEC, EVER INCHING CLOSER, DODGING INCOMING POINT DEFENSE FIRE”

  ->FUNCTION: CALCULATES THE ACCELERATION VECTORS AND IMPACT LANES OF UP TO TWELVE DYNAMIC OBJECTS

  [OSARAI MEMGUARD] COG-CAP: 20 SEQUENCES (BASELINE) [REPLACED BY QUICKSAND IN AVO'S METAMIND]

  ->STRUCTURE: “A HURRICANE TWISTING AND HURTLING SCREAMING FIGURES AND BROKEN STRUCTURES”

  ->FUNCTION: GUARDS THE MIND USING A LAYER OF TRAUMATIC MEMORIES: CAPABLE OF WITHSTANDING AND REFORMING AGAINST HEAVY-MASS PHANTASMAL INTRUSIONS; VULNERABLE TO NARROW-BUILD INVADERS.

  [AUTO-SEANCE] COG-CAP: 2 SEQUENCES (BASELINE)

  ->STRUCTURE: “A STAR BLEEDS INTO A SPIRAL OF SPLICED MEMORY SNIPPETS [ERROR: MEMORY ARTIFACTS TOO BRIEF FOR REVIEW...]"

  ->FUNCTION: ALLOWS OMNI-SYNCHRONIC COMMUNICATIONS BETWEEN TWO OR MORE MINDS ACROSS ALL AREAS ENCOMPASSED BY THE PRESENCE OF THE NETHER

  [MORALITY INJECTOR] COG-CAP: 20 SEQUENCES (BASELINE)

  ->STRUCTURE: “A RESPLENDENT CAGE WITH A CINEMA PROJECTION OF PAST HAPPENINGS PLAYING ACROSS THE SKY"

  ->FUNCTION: ALLOWS THE USER TO NULLIFY SPECIFICALLY ENCODED IMPULSES WITH COUNTER-EMOTIONAL DOSES OF MEMORY.

  GHOSTJACK (ALLOWS FOR THE MODIFICATION AND EDITING OF MEMORIES AND SEQUENCES; SHAPES TRAUMA AND COMMANDS GHOSTS)

  [SKIMMER PERCEPTION EMANATOR]

  TRAUMA PATTERNS:

  [ASELERI'S FOLLY] - HIGH PAIN INFLICTION; PHYSICAL TORTURE BASED

  [LUCILLE’S REGRET] - HIGH EMOTIONAL TORMENT; REGRET AND ANGUISH ALIGNED

  [LUCILLE’S AGONY] - HIGH PAIN INFLICTION; PHYSICAL TORTURE BASED; BODY DYSMORPHIC AFFLICTED

  [SECONDHAND FATALITY] - EXTREME PAIN INFLICTION; EGO-KILLING TRAUMA FOR HUMANS

  [BENEFACTOR’S DREAD] - HIGH EMOTIONAL TORMENT; FEAR OF COMING DEATH

  [ARATNID’S KISS] - HIGH PHYSICAL TORMENT; CASTRATION AND PRIMAL FEAR-BASED

  THE BURNING DREAMER

  MIND-TEMPLATES

  [AVO]

  The Talons

  Abrel Greatling

  The Shadows

  Benhata Veloso

  Glitch

  Lip

  Corner

  Osjack Thenndenn

  (Ashthrone/Sanctus assault force)

  Dice

  Chambers

  Paladin Kare

  Paladin Kassamon

  Enclavers

  I hope you enjoyed today's installment of Godclads!

  Anyway, I hope you're having fun, and remember: reviews, follows, favorites, and comments make the word-gods happy.