Death of the Ideal: A Progression Fantasy Epic (Godclads Book 2) by OstensibleMammal

Author:OstensibleMammal [OstensibleMammal]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Timeless Wind Publishing
Published: 2024-05-30T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 46

THE SECOND CYCLE (I)

The subject’s entire concept of self has been… split. In two.

No. They aren’t dead, I think death might be preferable at this point, though. We can still hear him screaming. His mind’s in two places, but it’s not an even split.

Alright. Yeah. We’ll shut it down. We’ll have the next subject usurp them when he settles down. It didn’t have any Ontologics attached so… yes. Yes, I know.

The Agnosi were right. We can’t use it to create an omnipresent ego.

-HIGHFLAME RESEARCH CELL, PROJECT DICHOTOMY

Avo’s new Soul was crippled.

Not in the sense of being inherently broken, but from a comparative lack. Without a Meta-Fac, a self-managing system or seemingly any of the smart-admin functions running within his Stillborn Frame’s root, the Soul that once fueled the Fallen Heaven of Burner’s Way was a rather lacking construct in every sense.

Unwilling to commit to any transfer of consciousness or even risk such an outcome, Avo ejected the second Soul outside his current Frame’s subreality before infusing it with a single thaum.

He wasn’t sure how that would look back in the garden, if a spark of eldritch fire would spill out from his corpse or whatnot, but for now, it seemed like a small rift of nothingness separated him from linking with the other Heaven.

THAUMIC OUTPUT - 970 THAUM/c

Ghosts: [412]

Almost immediately, a second presence pulsed into being just beyond the veil of his control. Curiously, Avo reached over to interface with the other Heaven.

It flashed and a new subreality came online.

LIMINAL FRAME DETECTED: “STORMTREE” SPIRE PATTERN

THAUMIC LIMIT: SPHERE III

CURRENT THAUMIC CLASS: SPHERE I

The Soul Frame’s mem-data listed it as a Sphere Three thaumic construct bearing the designation of “Stormtree Spire Pattern.”

A bridge of light interfaced between the Frames. He filtered through various diagnostics to find that this new Soul was only rated for a single Heaven and Hell.

Apparently, judging from the way it only projected a flume of eldritch fire outward from the top and the bottom, the structure of the Frame was incapable of storing more Heavens—slots for two ontologics at most.

More than just being fixed, however, there was a deadness to it, the flames opaque compared to the rippling currents cast out by Avo’s Soul. It was as Kae had stated: His Soul was special. The Spire Pattern felt like a raw hunk of chrome—it had fixed functions, but it could not shift and adapt like nanosuites or smart-fog could; like Avo’s Stillborn Frame could.

“Ah, there’s the lightbulb,” Zein said, “I’m still curious to see if it would have ruptured this plane if you opened it up as a subreality in a subreality. When you’ve been around as long as I have, seeing something new… Perhaps it might rupture your Frame and kill you, but it’s just so tempting.”

The flares of Avo’s spectral fires twisted toward Zein. It was the best approximation his Soul could muster in place of an actual glare. “Might’ve killed you too.”

Zein gave a blasé shrug. “Wouldn’t that be a novel experience for the both of us? Truth be told, pitiable as these gods are, I expect nothing from them.

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