Chapter 202 - Broken Frame (Patreon)

Herman nodded, apparently the look in John’s eyes after that was enough to convince him that the Gamer would no longer obstruct his plans. Or maybe he was just confident that he could spare another Illusion. “Quite sorry, Jane, I won’t necessarily need that bit of your blood, but I’d much rather be safe than sorry when my life’s work is at stake,” Herman said and healed the small cut while passing her.

The betrayer of all positioned himself underneath the heart and stretched his hand upwards. “The incubation phase is complete. It’s just a bit of a push now,” he announced and magic flared from his hand upwards in a beam. 

It hovered down, taking the shape of a torso, four long limbs, slowly refining into arms and legs, hand and feet and a head. The beam of light became a crackling of smaller energy lines that weaved in and out of the head. All of it was blood red and smooth, but slowly a person’s skeleton formed inside, starting with a spine but quickly constructing all around. 

“Well, last chance I get to fix that abhorrent mistake,” Herman said and stopped channelling the spell, ramming a hand right into the still forming skull instead and ripping something out.

The something squealed in a high-pitch that rung in John’s ears and made him seal them shut with his hands as it caused a violent headache.  A noise of pure panic, a machine screeching in a purpose lost. It was a long thing, with rib like legs and a metallic stinger. John saw it as what it was, the metal spine that had rested in Thana’s head and had been to blame for her curse, only to feel while in pain, but animated into a nightmarish mixture of a centipede and scorpion. 

“Erlösungsgestattung,” upon hearing that word from Herman the thing stopped moving completely, freezing in a twisted state. “Catch,” the betrayer of all said and threw it towards John, who consequently disobeyed that order and side-stepped it instead. “Wow, dude, that’s an Metracana, treat it with some respect, I even blanked it for you,” Herman clicked with his tongue, “the youth these days.” 

He turned back to the body in front of him. She was pale, sickly so, skin that had never seen a single sun ray, a slightly blue tinge to it. Her hair was similar, white at the top, it shifted into blue at shoulder length and had a deep azure once it reached the end at her hips. She had a fine nose and her violet eyes were fascinating. John vividly remembered them, like shattered glass or brilliantly cut gemstones they had been. Within them there had been two rings, one complete and thin at the outer layer, the other made from six golden dots around the black of her iris. Her naked figure was still as he remembered her, quite attractive, for a girl her size she had big breasts, a C-Cup, with curved hips and smooth skin.

“Seven dots now,” Herman said, hold her chin as he inspected her like a laboratory rat, “I still do not understand what she is, what I wouldn’t give to conduct more research…apparently there was some excess in raw material, to cause her hair to grow beyond its original state…Ah, well, I gave her back to this world, so I got what I wanted.” He let her chin go and the body slumped over like wet sack of potatos. “Well, it seems her body is back, but her spirit might need a while longer to recover,” Herman clicked her tongue, “I wonder if she will have her memories? It is really saddening that I won’t get to see it.” 

He turned to John, “Ask your questions now. I get the feeling that Gaia is waiting for you to get that over with before she will remove me.” “Why would Gaia smite you down?” John asked and gestured around, “there is nobody around to have witnessed this.” “Oh come on, the answer is pretty obvious, isn’t it?” Herman giggled and coughed. For a moment the liar was aging rapidly, then he pulled the mask over his face and took a deep breath. A green cloud left the arcane systems of the contraption and once he put it aside, the aging process had stopped, even though it didn’t revert.

John closed his eyes. “I just hoped that there is a way you weren’t a complete piece of shit. How many veterans did you sacrifice?” “Well, a lot of it were the blood reserves the Bloodfallen still had, which I stole while you were busy being bored. To answer your question though: 129, I had to cut them one by one. Also had to kill the people that work here, because, you know, no witnesses, also I made use of their blood too, I had to construct a brain that would actually function normally,” Herman admitted. “Do you know how hard it was to track all the normal people Mengele gave Thana’s blood to? Not all that hard actually, I still had the official documents memorized. Took me like an evening. Scheduling the event however was a bit more annoying, I had to gather them all in one place, you know. My thanks to you, Jane, by the way.”

“Why that?” Rave hissed, her cat ears were flat on her head. “Mhm, let me reveal it slowly to you. You know, I used to be an assistant for Mengele and…” “I know that part already,” John cut him off, “Thana told me, get to the point.” “Party-pooper, but whatever. After I saw my goal, to create the perfect human, snatched away from me by some lowly communist deserters, I was devastated. I needed Thana, recreating something like her, no matter how often I tried within the UDSSR, was impossible. 

She was a unique item, the genuine article, the perfect prototype for humanities advancement. And she was lost. I had betrayed the Nazi’s to secure her, like I had betrayed so many others before. Then I betrayed the Blood, sold their secrets to the Sons of Odyn. Then I betrayed them to get an ally on Brittain, then I betrayed some more. Always in the search of the knowledge that would allow me to repeat that experiment. Maybe Mengele had held something from me? That youngster was just so much more talented than I was, and he didn’t stop to let me know. Bastard called me Golden Grandpa, because there is Aurum in my last name. Not the best pun I ever heard.

I was at the end of my life. Rejuvenating became harder and harder, eventually the treatment would stop working and I would die. Then, as if the hand of fate really existed, I found you, John. Through you I found her. At the very end of my life, finally, I would be able to study her, maybe decode her secrets. Her decay was stoppable and she had been young for all this time, all I needed was to understand her and then I could save myself. I would create the perfect human in the shape of me. I needed to confirm that I was dealing with the real sample, however, and not some cheap copy of her bloods effects. I had plenty of those myself. So, I sold the formula to unlock the bloods true potential to your old friend Travolta.” 

“You slimy piece of shit,” John growled and clenched his scaled fist. “See, I knew that would make you angry,” Herman mused. “Although I wouldn’t have needed complete understanding to predict that part. Well, after I had confirmed that it was indeed the true thing, I needed a way to get her out and I needed to know what state she was in.” The betrayer of all pointed at Aclysia. “First, I cozied up to Jimmie, but the guy left after Travolta’s death, really annoying dent in my plans. I needed a new anchor in your group, so I waited for one of you to show an emotional opening. Guess what easy prey the newly born golem was, going through the typical motions of awakening to free will.”

He giggled as Aclysia’s eyes became wet. “I trusted you, Herman,” she cried out. “OF COURSE, YOU DID!” Herman laughed, “You had no other choice but to, what do you think I did when I was inside John’s head? Simply looked around through your eyes? I only needed to know if she was in that tank or not, the rest of the time I spent sniffing through your heads, learning every single sordid detail about you two.” Mockingly he raised his hand to the back of his head and scratched in awkward fashion, “Creating a role you couldn’t help but like afterwards was an easy task. The only time my plan was even a bit in jeopardy at that point was when that stupid receptionist didn’t know me. Must have missed her when I loudly proclaimed my ‘internship’.” 

“But why did you need us to carry Thana out?” Rave asked. “Do I need to spell it out over and over again?” Herman returned his own question. “I am not a fighter. I could have sneaked in and out of the base without a problem, but moving that container? Impossible. I needed a force strong enough to break through there, and some random mercenaries wouldn’t do. I mean, you saw the ones I got my hands on, right? Prime garbage. The only other option, Moira and the Golden Rose, was not even an option, righteous bunch. So, I just made it presentable to you guys that, maybe, you could have saved her. I was certain you would succeed too, then I would tell you that we had to take her to the hospital, proclaim her dead after all and have her body vanish into some backroom where I would continue my experiments, a few days later I would, at a bar or something, tell you that I was going to be moved into a different hospital. I would vanish from your life without another sound.

But then you IDIOTS had to smash the tank. She got out and even the second attempt, to subdue her and try to save her with considerably less time failed. Then she was dead. I had nothing to live for. My goal, the perfect human, was now out of reach. Out of pure desperation I took a look at your blood, Jane, and that’s how I found it. Here blood was still dormant inside you, with the right solution I could activate it again and the best part: It was self-restoring. I just needed to provide the direction, it would take of the rest. 

But how much would I need? The answer: As much as I could get. I stole the reserves still in the Bloodefallen’s Headquarters. What I could take on of the guilds that Bloodfallen had vassalized, I bled dry. The lion share would have to come from live subjects though. Luckily Mengele had, unknowingly, left me that little present. A shiny, golden, but poisoned apple. Sacrificing normal humans, it would mean that I would be eradicated, completely removed from existence. Nothing of my soul would remain. Isn’t that right, Gaia?” 

The frame of reality broke apart when muttered that question. The three-dimension drifted away from each other, sparks of physical energies unloading between them as John’s eyes tried to conceive what was happening but only answered with incomprehensible pain. Every sound was muffled but the tearing sound, like thousand layers of cloth suddenly being ripped apart, that accompanied Gaia’s appearance between him and Herman from a portal that was behind the betrayer of all. Physics collapsed and restructured in the time it takes a human to understand what he was seeing.

“And despite that knowledge you did it, you hurt the children,” Gaia spoke with such terrible rage that all thoughts John had about whether or not fate existed were drowned in it. There was no way a being this angry about the needless loss of life would have let it happen if she was in control. ‘Is she, after all, just another player with other rules?’ John asked himself as the green haired deity stretched out her hand.

Herman looked at her with a baffled look. Then he laughed freely. “Now I understand where Thana gets her immortality from. Ah, at least I won’t die unknowing. I fall with my convictions fulfilled,” he said. Then the supreme goddess finger connected to his chest and he vanished. Where he just stood his outline left a dark spot, as if someone had cut a human shaped hole into reality. Gaia had eradicated every last bit of him without a trace, even the light that had touched him. With a thunderous roar the vacuum was filled as air collapsed on the spot. 

John was suddenly breathing very fast, the sight caused some deep-seated panic inside him. It wasn’t death that scared him, he himself had killed before, it was that the death of Herman was beyond absolute. The absolute eradication of his existence, removed so cleanly not even his feelings would enter an Illusion Barrier to form something. 

“Let this be my warning to you as well, John Newman,” Gaia said and peeked over her shoulder. Her eyes flashing, a black light shining inside them. Despite all of the physical improbabilities of the last seconds, this one was the most terrifying in a way. “Never break my taboo’s. Do not interfere with the normal humans’ life.” 

She didn’t wait for his response. Simply vanished as abruptly as she came, physics snapping back into place. Leaving John and his group stunned. They hadn’t fought, they hadn’t saved anyone, but they were safe and left with a chance. The elementals vanished before the unlikely happened and a random person stumbled in here. Siena alone stayed behind, but hid in his shadow. Through some major concentration Rave managed to deactivate her cat-mode.

The two of them stood over the body of Thana. Her eyes were now closed and her chest was slowly, but steadily, raising and falling. “You wouldn’t object if we took her with us, would you?” John asked, just to be sure. Rave widely shook her head, “How could I? Ya told me her story. She’ll still have to apologize to me once she waked up though.” “If she even remembers,” John said and picked the pale girl, who was sleeping for the first time in her life, up from the carpet. 

“Explaining all of this to Lydia will be a whole different beast, tho,” Rave joked. John repressed the urge to awkwardly scratch his head. He would quit that gesture for good now. 

“Indeed.”