Misbegotten Memories

Chapter 295

Dealing with Piercing on the patrols proved easy enough.  Just as Fred had suggested, Hector placed the man in the vanguard after he demonstrated his abilities by skewering a monster with the point of his sword from twenty meters away.  As predicted, Piercing uncritically welcomed anything that could be interpreted as approval of his skills.

It was during downtime that their new member became difficult.  Hector briefly considered uninviting him from their social time at meals.  That seemed more like punishment than reaction, though.  And to some extent, he felt like he’d accepted a project to rehabilitate someone else.  Fortunately, most of their downtime was spent apart.

Hector rapidly progressed with the Shuttle Technique taught to him by Isabel.  It was a challenge keeping the proper geometry of his domain and aura apertures, but when he managed to get the energy to bounce around the right way it would always give him gains.

They were sneaky gains that didn’t show up until hours after he was done.  It made him wonder how the hell someone had ever figured out the method.  Every step of the complicated process seemed like it was going in the wrong direction.  Then when it worked, the delay made it hard to associate cause and effect.

His domain hit the peak of his current level after just a week.  As ever, his aura lagged behind in its development.  No matter.  Hector had gone from training four apertures to just one.  That let him dedicate all of his energy reserves to the cause.  He alternated between the Shuttle Technique and the Bursting Dam Technique.

Though it might be slower than he wanted, progress happened.

And soon he reached the cusp.  Isabel helped him cross over it to reach the peak by forcing him to block strikes from her spear.  She smacked with the flat of the blade instead of stabbing, which was the only reason it helped instead of killed him.  The intensity required to stop attacks from an externality squeezed cosmic energy deeper into his aura than ever before.  Three days of nightly beatings finally brought the much-desired success.

For the first time ever, all of Hector’s apertures were at the peak of his level.  The experience of gathering the energy for his advancement felt profoundly sacred to him.  Volithur was level eight at his death.  Though soul level was not the ultimate metric his dream counterpart believed, it was a major milestone – especially at the higher levels.

He gathered the energy, then broke through in an evening.  The shock dropped him unconscious for the rest of the night.  Hector only came awake when the barracks grew loud.  Then he had to scramble to restore some of his reserves before going on duty.

Congratulations were thrown his way from all directions.  Hector grew tired of waving in acceptance of the well-wishes.  He had gained a degree of fame due to his role but knew few names outside his small circle of friends.  It was a natural consequence of his lifestyle.  The practice of cultivation was far from social in nature.

When their patrol headed out that day, Piercing jumped onto Fred to stand directly beside Hector.  He let it slide for a while before finally questioning his placement.  “Don’t you want to be in the vanguard?”

“Not while you’re recovering.”

Hector’s brows shot up.  “You’re staying close to protect me?”

Piercing shrugged.  “Ain’t no shame being empty after an advancement.  I know you’re strong but right now you need some guarding.  My whole job on this team is to get you home safe every time we go out.  I sure as hell can’t take your spot and detoxify miasma.  I just poke shit with a blade.”

It was the closest the two of them had ever come to having a private conversation.  Fred could hear everything, of course, but chose to remain silent.  The rest of the patrol was far enough away that they couldn’t hear them.  Hector never did find a proper response to prevent the annoying behaviors of Piercing.  The best that could be said was that everyone knew what to expect from the guy and rarely grew upset with him.

“I never asked how you were assigned to Miracle Squad.”

Piercing shrugged.  “Obvious, ain’t it?  I requested the transfer.”

“I suppose you wanted to be part of an elite unit.”

“No, man.  If I wanted elite status, I wouldn’t be with the Reconquest.  This is amateur hour.”

Hector frowned.  “Then why are you here?”

“You probably got enough connections to know the deal, but humans are fucked.  We’re going down fast.  The cascade event they always talked about is going to happen.  Monsters corrupt the souls of worlds, make them collapse into more miasma, then the nearby worlds get an invasion.  Keeps going until the numbers don’t work out anymore.

“We’re fucked, man.  Mistakes were made fifty or a hundred years ago that we can’t take back.  So what I’m doing out here is what I call ‘not going gently’.  Ain’t trying to impress nobody or get social points for being with a specific unit.  I’m killing monsters.  I’m with Miracle Squad cause no one else goes out past the rune wall every day.”

Hector pondered on the answer he’d received for a time.  It had the ring of honesty.  “I suppose you’re taking care of me because I’m the guy who lets you fight every day without facing an untimely death from miasma poisoning.”

Piercing spat onto the ground.  “Suppose that would make sense.”

“You say that like it’s not your reason.”

“An asshole like me can’t afford to lose someone fool enough to have his back.”

“You know,” Hector said, “if you were more agreeable, you’d find a lot more fools.”

“Why would I spend my last days compromising?  I’m going out authentic, man.”

Hector chuckled.  “I guess I can respect that.  You just run around making your sword extend into your enemies.”

“What?  No, man.  My sword doesn’t get longer.  I shrink space along the path of my blade.  And I’m better at it than the original Sage of Piercing.  I can step through the spatial contraction.  That was impossible for him.  He had to anchor one end with his presence so it was strictly for stabbing.”

They were both silent until Hector decided to share.  “You’re the only other person I know who has improved upon an insight from the dreams.”

“I been questing for most of my life.  Don’t do me much good.  All I get are these tiny epiphanies that don’t lead anywhere useful.  You had the better version, man.  One big glimpse and be done with it.”

That night at dinner Piercing was almost tolerable.  The two of them rode atop Fred for several more days before the Sage decided Hector could once more defend his own life.  Hector spent most of his downtime cultivating so that his hungry soul would get past the initial rush of saturation.  He didn’t get very far towards that goal before an interruption arrived in the form of a Jinn war barge that lowered from space to hang ominously above Stronghold Gamma.

The entire population of the base moved outside to stare at the ultimate Jinn weapon casting its shadow upon them.  It remained poised there for many hours before Colonel Quinn summoned Miracle Squad to the command center.  The Stronghold’s leader avoided looking them in the eye as he explained the situation to Hector's team.

“A major military operation is about to commence upon Terra.  War Barge Maria has been tasked with recruiting soldiers.  After much negotiation, we reached an agreement.  Miracle Squad is being transferred to Terra.  We’ve secured a guarantee that you won’t be deployed recklessly.  Your role should be limited to transforming miasma.  That said… this is not a voluntary recruitment.  Miracle Squad has been drafted by Terra.  If you fail to comply, that would cause problems for the Reconquest.”

Several Jinn soldiers watched them with blank expressions.  Their leader stepped forward to draw their attention.  “There is no need to pack bags.  We don’t have any room for them.  You may record a final message for relay to loved ones on Union Central.  We depart in fifteen minutes.”

The members of the team turned to Hector as if he had some sway over events.  He looked around the command center.  “Is Fred coming with us?”

The Jinn officer frowned.  “Is this Fred not present?”

“He is a rover,” the sergeant major explained.

The officer shook his head.  “We have no need of inferior mechanized units.”

Esther recorded a couple of messages for the people of Tian Tower.  Restoration, Isabel, Purification, and Ajax debated the situation among themselves.  And Hector found himself too stunned to do anything.

He’d just advanced.  His life was arranged to his liking, more or less.  Not long past, the System had assured him that the situation on Terra was being handled.  Apparently part of assembling the most powerful military force in history involved scraping up dregs from anywhere they could.

They rode a small vessel up to War Barge Maria and were instructed to get comfortable in the shuttle bay.  Everyone was too shocked to object to anything on the first day.  After that, it was too late to bother.