PreCursive

  Ominous.

  I frowned at the exposed Antium man while Kazuma sputtered to my side. The three of us were lit only by the still extant glow from the strange pilr of amber that Venix was carving through. The light didn’t reach far, and just beyond the boundaries of it, only yawning void greeted my eyes.

  I took a deep breath, and considered my options. Venix was stronger than both Kazuma and I put together, and I’d already come up short against him in a duel before, no matter what he said about the matter. However, it almost seemed like the samurai had…regressed, mentally. It was as if Lucretia’s curse had stripped him of decades worth of life experience. If I had to guess, he had reverted back to the days before he’d been exiled from his ‘Hive’ to the shores of Vereden.

  I had little confidence in our ability to forcibly remove the Antium from the site of his torment. I had to go about this different way.

  If I could only get him away from this pce…

  “Eborate,” I said eventually.

  Venix still wasn’t blinking as he stared at me, giving him even more of an alien appearance. He…normally did, I distantly realized. That had to be another cultural adaptation he’d picked up here among us fleshies. “My orders are to fell spire three-three-four-B. Auxilry Colony Gamma has reported depleted stocks of weapons-grade Threnalyte. As such, Overseer One-One-Four of Eight-Seven-One has ordered a replenishment.”

  I held up a hand to stop Kazuma from speaking. The other samurai was nearly vibrating in pce to my side. I understood why he would want to protest what Venix was talking about, but I didn’t want him to complicate matters. I had a specific scenario I was trying to build up to. Thankfully, Kazuma listened to my wordless gesture. The Kawamaran man took a deep breath and stepped back from the veritable interrogation. I noticed, though, that he still had an intense gaze fixed on Venix.

  “I see,” I said evenly. “A worthy task. However, I am noticing inefficiencies in your work, Seventy-Six of Four-Thirty-Two.”

  At that, Venix’s expression changed, if only faintly. His chitinous brow furrowed ever so slightly. “I do not comprehend. I am following regution to the letter, for the felling of material that has undergone Threnogenesis.”

  I firmed my own face, furrowing my brow to match his as I crossed my arms. I hoped to God that in whatever ensorcelled state Venix was in, he wouldn’t notice that I only had the two. “Is that so? I do not believe so, drone. Recite the regutions!”

  Venix stiffened then, his stance changing to almost resemble parade rest. His fractalized eyes stared out over my head as he began to speak. “As per regutions, in order to appease the barrow spirits of Threnogized burial spires, a sacrifice is required to fell them. Without the proper ritual sacrifice, the spirits shall escape to wreak havoc upon the workforce of the Hive. As such, an underperforming drone is selected at random from the popuce to act as said sacrifice.” He paused. “I am performing the ritualized felling to the specifications I was given. If I have erred, I am ready for correction.”

  I blinked at the…dour task that Venix was describing, as I heard Kazuma curse softly from behind me.

  Was this…what had driven Venix from his home on Indiqua? My understanding was that Lucretia’s curse drew upon old traumas and past history to torment you. Venix had never spoken of what exactly had caused his exile from the jungle pnet, only of what had happened when he’d reached Vereden. Had he been given the task to fell one of these…barrow spires?

  How had he escaped that?

  Silence stretched between us for a moment before I rallied, coughing briefly into my closed fist. “Ah…you are, in fact, in need of correction number Seventy-Six. You have-” I groped for an excuse, any excuse, before nding on one. “The wrong tool for the task! Yes, that pick is insufficient for the mining of…Threnalyte. Just look at the cuts you made in the barrow spire! Sloppy.”

  Slowly, Venix craned his head away from me to stare at the glowing surface of the Threnalyte ‘barrow spire’. For the first time since we’d found him, I saw the Antium man blink at the chiseled cuts he’d made, stretching around the rim of glowing golden stone. Then, he looked down at the oversized pick held loosely in his right hand to simply…stare at it.

  There was an almost lost quality to his gaze.

  I pounced on that, sensing weakness. “Such a sub-standard tool! Where did you even receive it, Seventy-Six? Was it Overseer One-One-Four? I find that hard to believe. I’ve never known him to be so x. Isn’t that right, Overseer?” I asked, turning to stare promptingly at Kazuma.

  He jumped at being so directly referenced but thankfully understood. “Ah, yes! My fellow… ‘Overseer’ is correct. That instrument is well below standards for this ritual.”

  “As such,” I said, facing Venix one more with a stern expression. “You’ll be coming with us, Seventy-Six. We’ll need to requisition a new tool for your use in this…important task. Once it’s been procured, you can return to your duty.”

  The Antium samurai finally turned his gaze back to me. I was heartened to see the almost clouded look in his chitinous eyes. Venix was looking more and more confused by the second.

  That had to mean we were breaking through the conditioning of the curse.

  “I…will comply,” Venix said slowly, standing sck before us.

  I nodded sharply, hiding the sudden triumph from showing on my face. “Follow, Seventy-Six,” I said, turning sharply my heel away from the Antium. Meeting Kazuma’s eyes, I discreetly nodded at the pile of Venix’s gear I had set down off to the side. He understood, and scooped it all up as I started to slowly walk away from the spire of ‘Threnalyte’. At first, I was anxious that I didn’t hear the thumping of chitinous feet behind me. But after a moment, heavy footsteps sounded from behind us as I somehow successfully convinced Venix to walk away from his own torment. I met Kazuma’s gaze, a victorious gnce exchanged between us. Hopefully, Venix would snap out of it soon, the farther we got away from the spire.

  Ha.

  Eat shit, Lucretia.

  My triumph didn’t get to st for long.

  A sudden, sharp cracking noise echoed out from behind the three of us, causing the group to stop.

  That…sounded like it was coming from the Threnalyte. Sudden dread made me look over my shoulder, just in time to watch as something…horrible happened.

  The dead were coming to life.

  Within the frozen amber of the Threnalyte spire, the frozen, tortured forms of the deceased Antium were writhing. To and fro they thrashed, almost as if the inside of the Threnalyte had suddenly turned to liquid. Thousands and thousands of chitinous husks clutched at their antennae and appeared to scream in the golden glow cast by the substance they were suspended in.

  Abruptly, every st one of them stilled.

  And turned to face us. A chill went down my spine at the regard of so many dead eyes, staring straight at the three of us.

  “The barrow spirits…” I heard Venix say, a note of almost regret in his voice. “I have failed. They are awake.”

  Slowly, the fists of thousands of dead Antium began to beat against the inside of their golden prison, each chitinous fist somehow nding simultaneously. The sound was akin to the beating of war drums, sounding out across the deep, all encompassing darkness.

  Thump…thump…thump…

  None of them looked particurly friendly.

  A crack opened upon the face of the spire, and from that slight crack poured forth a thick orange liquid. It glowed with an almost eerie golden light, and yet it flowed with the thickness and consistency of blood.

  Questing, undead hands erupted from that small crack, and started trying to widen it with cwed fingers.

  “Time to go,” I said abruptly, my heartbeat accelerating at the Hellish scene. I spun about and moved to sprint away from the soon-to-be-freed horde of undead Antium. Only, I found that I was alone.

  Kazuma and Venix hadn’t budged from their positions, watching the slowly widening crack in the face of the spire.

  “What are you doing?!” I shouted at them, my voice echoing out across the darkness. I waved one arm at them frantically. “C’mon!”

  They both ignored me. Instead, to my surprise, Kazuma had completely disregarded the massing horde, and had turned to study Venix intently. It was almost as if he cared nothing for the undead at all. To his side, Venix was standing completely limp with his curse-conjured pickaxe in hand, the head of it dragging on the stone floor of the cavern below.

  I cursed and wheeled about. I hadn’t wanted to try and take on what looked be nearly an entire Ward Break’s worth of undead Antium. As I raced back to join them, I reached for my staff, still strapped to my back securely through all of the ups and downs I’d gone through down in this bunker. I would need to put these things down fast if I didn’t want us to get overwhelmed. That meant it was time to reach for the advanced stage of The Scintilnt Bde once more.

  I hoped my Mana could hold out through it.

  I held out on calling for the Skill as I skidded to a stop next to them. I would need to wait until the st minute to call for the burning bde if I wanted to maximize run time. I don’t think either Kazuma or the ensorcelled Venix even noticed I was back.

  Instead, over the chittering cries we could now hear through the gap in the Threnalyte spire, Kazuma had turned to Venix…

  And thrust one of the Antium’s own sheathed swords into his chest. The crossguard of the katana cnked as it thumped into the broad, exposed surface Very much in a daze of confusion and regret born of Lucretia’s curse, Venix looked down at bde in confusion. “What am I…to do…with…?”

  A deep conviction settled into the taught shoulders of Kazuma then, and he reached out and grabbed one of Venix’s four chitinous hands. He dragged it upwards, and csped it over Venix’s own bdes, cupped by both of his own. This just seemed to confuse Venix all the more.

  Kazuma met Venix’s fractal eyes and spoke.

  “I forgive you.”

  Venix visibly tensed, then, to his own confusion. It was as if he had no idea what the other samurai was talking about, but still reacted to it nonetheless.

  Kazuma wasn’t deterred. Instead, he just kept his eyes trained straight on the Antium as I saw the first undead Antium wiggled his way through the gap in the Threnalyte. I cursed, and seeing that the other two were occupied, drove the butt of my staff into the stone of the bedrock hard enough to embed it. Leaving it standing where it was, I instead drew my bow from its compact canister on my back and grabbed a handful of the near bolt-like arrows.

  In seconds, I had sent an arrow enhanced with Grinding Crimson Sunder spiraling across the distance to decapitate the hollow chitinous shell of one of the undead.

  I don’t know what Kazuma hoped to accomplish, but I sure as hell hoped he did it quick.

  “I was listening outside the tent the other night,” Kazuma said, ignoring the whistling of my arrows as I dealt with the undead for him. “When you spoke of how Gozen of the Twin Fangs died, all those years ago. And of your involvement in his death. I say this now, as the st surviving Lord of the Higanashi Cn, and as Gozen’s great-grandson. Venix, bde of the Shattered Sun…I forgive you.”

  Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Venix shudder, and to my shock, a measure of confusion vanished from his gaze. But he didn’t look quite free yet.

  Kazuma kept speaking. “You were not at fault for Gozen’s death,” He said fiercely. “Just as it is the squire’s duty to serve the Lord, it is the Lord’s duty to serve the squire. I have no doubt that Lord Gozen was incredibly relieved to have saved you from Tatsugan’s cws, even if it meant his own fated end would come. My Grandfather would always tell us tales of his Father, when Aika and I were children. Gozen of the Twin Fangs was a true samurai, noble and pure of purpose. He served his nation, his Cn, and his retinue with honor, until his very st moment. He died a hero's death, and you did nothing wrong. You have nothing to be ashamed of. And as the Lord of the Higanashi Cn, I absolve you of any wrong-doing in the matter.”

  I colpsed my bow as the drama pyed out to my left and stored it away once more. Not because I was out of arrows, no. But because the gap in the face of the Threnalyte barrow spire had widened enough that I couldn’t keep up alone. The undead Antium were pouring forth in twos and threes, now. I activated Vis Maledicta Exactoris, and with my enhanced strength, withdrew my staff from its standing position.

  “They’re coming,” I grunted to the samurai.

  Instead of answering me…

  I heard Venix speak. This time…this time, his voice sounded clear, and I risked a gnce over at him while I set my staff into a battle-ready stance.

  The sorcerous confusion and regret had completely vanished from him. In its pce…was a deep, almost wondering gratitude. I was shocked to see actual tears in Venix’s eyes.

  I hadn’t even known Antium could do that.

  “Thank you,” I heard Venix say, as I ignited my bde of cascading fire. “I will not forget the gift you have given me…my Lord.”

  Kazuma chuckled. “I am not your Lord, Venix. But…I can be your brother.”

  I felt it as both samurai stepped up to stand on either side of me, and heard it as five katanas were unsheathed all at once.

  Four from one.

  The st from the other.

  “You ready?” I asked without looking. I didn’t need to.

  I knew what I would find.

  “Yes,” I heard Venix say in a clear, hungry voice. I’m not sure I’d ever heard the Antium samurai so eager for battle. “Let them come. I have decades of frustrated sorrow to work through.”

  From Kazuma though…I heard something I would have expected from Venix himself.

  “Thorned shadow strikes swift,

  Fury cuts through blood and bone,

  Silent death awaits.”

  As hundreds and hundreds of chitinous, undead Antium swarmed towards us from the Threnalyte crystal, I heard Venix speak, almost sounding impressed.

  “Not bad.”

  And then the sun bloomed far off into the distance of the cavern.