204 - It Scuttled Like That One Scene in The Exorcist [Cherno] (Patreon)

The Atomica was preparing her Soul Furnace for the reshaping it would undergo during actual implantation. She was stuck like this for now. As she wondered how long it would take, a new HUD element manifested, a simple percentage bar. It readily faded out of view, but Krahe remained aware — agonizingly aware — of its wavering rise, slowly going up and down by half-percent increments, totalling out to a gradual rise.

She suppressed a groan — one of frustration, pain, but worst of all, pressure. With each percent, Atomica shone brighter with both light and power, and so did the flame of thaumaturgy within Krahe’s chest. A ceaseless deluge of power roiled inside her, flowing back and forth through the voidkey. Withstanding it was one thing, she could do that, but she was deathly certain that proper thaumaturgy was beyond her. She had the one tar tendril, and that was it, all else would be theurgy or crude energy expulsion.

As far as facts went, she could see herself just sitting here for a minute or however long the process took, hiding.

But she felt that was not possible. The Atomica burned too brightly.

Casus shouted a warning through the thunderous noise of his battle with the chief of security, but Krahe had already seen what he was warning her of through Barzai’s eyes. All the borged abominations had snapped in her direction, one already rushing towards where she was. She knew with certainty that she could not dive as she was — it would be catastrophic for what was taking place between her and Atomica. But a skim… She could afford that.

The abomination scuttled up to the door, smashing and wrenching. Soon, one of the hinges bent and broke, and the stillborn leapt in through the hole, flying perfectly towards Krahe. She adjusted her position, waiting. At the last moment, she wrenched control of the enormous flow, forcing it into her left arm. With a flash of red, she sprung upward from the ground, arm cocked back. She unleashed the punch at the last moment, sending the stillborn flying towards the vaulted ceiling. The pressure in her Soul Furnace waned — she would have to let it build up before doing something like this again. A silver lining, it appeared that the flow readily scoured away all impurity, be it entropy or isotope, meaning her dissipation was currently comparable to how it would be with the Atomica fully implanted. It was not a particularly thick or lustrous lining — in effect, it only meant that as long as the process continued, she was effectively operating on a cooldown system.

Before that thing could fall and possibly become a problem again, Krahe jumped through the half-busted door and went running. The floor under her feet shook and thunderous impacts reverberated as Casus did battle with that strongman-looking guy in a nice suit. He parried flying fists of grey force with his arm-blade, casting them towards the walls as if they didn’t carry the force of two Yellow Atropals each.

Strongman took note of her between clashes, throwing a flying fist her way. Krahe skimmed out of its path rather than risk a physical dodge, and immediately regretted her decision. As she emerged, in that instant of extreme time dilation that allowed her to reorient herself, it felt as though the Liminal Coil had been struck with a tuning fork-shaped sledgehammer. The enormous flow of energy going through her roiled and whirled about in an unstable manner, forcing her to lean against the wall as she ran across the foyer.

That one moment of distraction had sufficed for Casus to push his already obvious advantage even further, carving gashes into Strongman’s wards with a flurry of flame-wreathed slashes of his arm-blade. Krahe didn’t have the luxury of watching — two more stillborn had crawled out of the woodwork to come after her, one of which was familiar and had a gaping hole in its chest. Somehow, by some stroke of luck, that punch hadn’t hit anything important for that abomination’s functionality. She could see its ward generator peering out through the ruined flesh. It took her two shots to hit the cabling and send the creature tumbling head-over-heels — her aim just wasn’t that good using a tendril instead of her own hand.

Atop the foyer’s stairs, Strongman reared back for a desperate strike, holding both fists together as he struck out, placing his enormous body-weight behind the punch. A giant grey fist flew forth — it was a meter wide. He instantaneously began melting down when the thaumaturgy came out, and it seemed as if Casus could be hit for certain.

This was true. Casus didn’t dodge.

At the instant of impact the eyes on his chest shot open, filled by the same exact pattern as his belt.

And in a blaze of gold-silver flame, his armor devoured the thaumaturgy. Another mote of flame flickered to life above his head, and he approached his foe.

“Ah… So you are Silberblut!” Strongman wheezed, his form stiffened and rendered monochrome by his ongoing meltdown. A coughing laugh sounded from him — Strongman had already come to terms with his own impending death.

That death came to him just as he expected. Casus skewered him with an uppercut, running his blade under Strongman’s ribcage and up through his skull. The baneworm tried to burst out of his body’s eyes, but golden flame consumed his true body all the same.

As Casus wound down and spread out his focus once more, he noticed Lady Blackhand running from one of the stillborn. Just as he was about to aid her, she turned in place, and with her palm turned towards the graft-beast, a red flame exploded from her hand. It was far too violent, far too unfocused to be called thaumaturgy. Nonetheless, the discharge of raw power sent her flying through the foyer, and in turn obliterated the stillborn’s upper half.

Casus nonetheless aided Lady Blackhand — she shouted “Catch me!” as she flew, and he did. He then immediately dropped her, for his instinct screamed when he touched her. The energies coursing through Blackhand made her as though a roiling furnace to his sight.