Aetheral Space-Chapter 468 - 15.22: Potentate (Part 1)

Sting of God!

Those words echoed, those words stretched, those words shook -- until they became the howl of a lonely wind, scraping against an empty world.

Serena del Sed opened her eyes.

Everything around her had changed in an instant. Her feet crunched down on fools snow as she turned on the spot. A massive, blood-red dome loomed behind her, oddly pristine, its shadow falling over everything. The Sed. She was back at the Sed. But how?

She looked up… and the volume of that question doubled in her mind.

The sky was pitch-black -- no stars -- but that wasn't what beckoned Serena's awe and horror. What did that was what had replaced the stars. Spheres -- planets -- as far as the eye could see, neatly arranged in unnatural rows like they were being gardened.

Every planet was the same, white, covered in coldless snow. The Sed, repeated again and again, stretching on forever. Wherever one went, it would just bring them right back here.

What had happened? She honestly didn't know. One second, she'd been fighting Erica in the Thinker's Comet, and the next --

"And the next," said Erica del Sed. "You were here."

Serena leapt backwards, turning her head to look at the source of the voice.

Erica del Sed stood atop the crimson dome of the Sed facility, the tips of her toes alone making contact with the scarlet steel beneath. She spread her arms wide as if to welcome Serena home, her dark brown eyes calm and passive. A smile played across her thin lips.

"What is this?" Serena demanded, reaching her hand back to take a forcefield from Bruno --

Her eyes widened.

"It seems you've already realized you have a bigger problem," Erica said casually. "You've figured it out faster than most. A lot of people --"

"Where's Bruno?!" Serena screamed up at her.

Erica frowned.

"Physical laws don't mean that much here," she said. "So you don't need to yell so loud for me to hear you."

Serena plunged her hand into the ground, pulling free a blade of ice and stone. Seething, she pointed it up at Erica.

"Answer the question," she hissed.

With all the grace of a gymnast, Erica hopped down from her perch, dropping right in front of Serena. The landing was so smooth it didn't leave a mark in the fools snow -- or rather, this was not a place where such physical consequences were relevant.

Erica smiled.

"He's exactly where you left him."

"Where's Serena?!" Bruno demanded, holding out two forcefields defensively as Erica rose back up to her feet.

Right after she'd landed that attack, that 'Sting of God', she'd immediately jumped backwards down the hallway to retreat. Bruno would have gone after her, but inside his head… inside his head…

…he felt alone. He couldn't feel Serena's presence.

Erica cocked her head, the slightest smile playing across her lips.

"What do you mean?" she asked. "She's exactly where she was a second ago."

"Don't bullshit me!"

"No, I mean it. You see, my final ability, Sting of God --"

"-- is specialized for people like you. You know, people with resistance to my other mind-viruses."

"What did you do?" demanded Serena, slowly advancing, gripping the hilt of her sword so tightly that the ice and stone were cracking.

"All of my abilities, save Jaws of God, rely upon transmitting part of my own consciousness to others," Erica explained pleasantly, even as Serena drew closer with murder in her eyes. "I generate despair and transmit it through my finger. I generate guilt and transmit it through a shield. With Sting of God…" free𝑤ebnovel.com

She planted a hand against her own chest, as if to open up her ribs and expose her heart.

"...I generate a full copy of my own mind," she finished. "And I send it right… into… you."

Serena hesitated. "So…" she said. "This is…"

Erica nodded. "This thing you're talking to right now isn't actually me. It's just a copy of me. The real me is out there --"

"-- talking to you," said Erica.

Bruno grit his teeth as he glared at his opponent. Behind her, the bloody light of the Prince-Regent continued to pour out into the hallway, as if wrapping itself around Erica's form.

"Still," she said. "I didn't expect this kind of unique response. It seems one of you was automatically brought into the subconscious to repel my internal attack, while the other was kept in place to repel my external attack. Isn't the human mind a wondrous thing?"

She lowered her body, getting into a fighting stance, fists raised.

"Now that you understand," she said coldly. "Are you ready to --"

"-- begin?"

Serena didn't answer with words.

She kicked off the ground, launching up a geyser of dust, dragging her hand across the fools snow as she moved to generate a second sword. The weapons she'd created were oddly curved, though -- and just before she entered Erica's range, she threw them with all her strength.

They were not swords at all. They were boomerangs.

The projectiles whistled as they spun through the air, zooming towards Erica again and again in a frenzied dance. Each time they came close, she repelled them with lightning-fast jabs of her fists, but that just sent them flying away -- and sure enough, they soon returned. Boomerangs were nothing if not loyal.

How many seconds would this keep Erica occupied, though, Serena wondered? In a mental landscape like this, could she even make any guesses?

All she could count on were the seconds she lived inside. All she could use was what she could hold in her hands.

She plunged her hands deep below, past the fools snow -- for this she needed stone. Violet Aether crackled around her wrists as she felt the rock changing shape beneath her, shaking the ground, and a growl of exertion trickled from her throat. One second, two seconds she didn't know if she could spare -- and she had it. Her growl became a roar, and from the earth she pulled free a sparkling trident of sparkling stone.

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The boomerangs were still dancing, and Erica was still dancing with them, but they would not survive long. One more jab would be enough to shatter each one, but that was fine. They had done their job, and they would do it one more time.

They would give Serena the opening she needed.

Smash.

Eyes widened to their utmost, she spun the trident in her hands and lunged in, aiming for the moment right after Erica destroyed the boomerangs --

"Okay. I'm bored of this now."

-- only to desperately leap backwards the second she sensed it.

Death.

One jump backwards, two, three -- no distance was enough. Even with Serena moving as quickly as she could, though, her speed seemed to reduce the further away she got from Erica. This was a world of will and memory… a world that Erica was quickly establishing dominion over. Serena could no more escape her than she could escape the sun.

And she certainly couldn't escape the weapon clutched in Erica's hand.

It was a black smear of a scimitar, so deep and so dark that it looked more like a hole in the world than a physical object. Mortal tendrils trickled up from its blade, tasting the air, hissing with barely constrained malice. Even Erica, the wielder of the weapon, seemed to hold it at a distance from herself.

"I told you," Erica said. "My Jaws of God allows me to harvest the memories and experiences of corpses. The final memory of any life… the final experience of any life… is death. I've sampled death more than anyone else. And here…"

She raised the blade.

"...I've brought it out for you to taste for yourself."

Bruno could feel it, inside the heartbeat inside his own.

Serena was in trouble -- no, more than that, Serena was in danger. Mortal danger. The kind of threat they'd usually face together, she was standing against all by herself. It was just like what had happened with the Black Blur. He'd left her to deal with everything all on her own.

Perfect Parry!

Perfect Parry!

Even with all that running through his mind, though, Bruno was able to catch both of Erica's fists in split-second forcefields, holding them in place like a pair of handcuffs. Pale, sweating, he raised his own fists and unleashed a barrage of punches at Erica. Fury drove him.

This woman was the wall keeping him and Serena apart.

This woman was the guillotine heading for Serena's neck.

And he couldn't do a thing about it.

Erica broke free of the shields with ease, catching Bruno's fists out of the air and squeezing. It was all he could to suppress a scream -- he could already feel his gnarled knuckles creaking from the pressure she was applying. Twisting his body, he slammed his foot into her stomach, breaking her hold and sending her skidding backwards.

Serena. Serena! SERENA!

He reached out for her, again and again, but she was distant. He wanted to pull her back towards him, out of their head and back into the real world, but it was all he could do to brush against her with the very ends of his mental fingertips. Grabbing her was out of the question. He could barely reach her, but he couldn't just pull her out…

The only thing…

The only thing he could do was…

"If I know myself," Erica said, brushing the dust off her stomach as she straightened back up. "I'd say I've moved in for the kill already. The 'me' inside your head, that is."

"Stop this," Bruno said tersely. "If what you want is to complete this Prince-Regent or whatever, we can figure out a way, but stop this! Let her go!"

"There's no point in talking to this me about it," Erica replied calmly. "The me who can decide to let her go is inside your mind. I'm just telling you what's probably happening based on my perfect knowledge of my perfect self."

Desperation twisted Bruno's face as he took a frantic step forward. "Erica! Stop this!"

"No," she said coldly. "It can't have all been for nothing. It just can't."

"ERICA!"

"I've got a pretty good idea of the timing, too. Five…"

Serena retreated across the room-temperature tundra of the Sed. As she ran from Erica's pursuit, she could feel gravity shifting, tilting, pulling her across the sea of white towards the blade of black her hunter held.

"Four…"

Erica stepped out of the way of Bruno's punch, plunging her own fist into his stomach and sending him flying up towards the ceiling instead.

As she fell horizontally towards Erica, Serena constructed a gargantuan warhammer from the ground beneath her. Flipping through the air, she brought it down towards Erica's head, but…

One slash killed the hammer, such that it had never been…

…and the second slash went right for Serena's neck.

"Three…"

Before Bruno could even hit the ground, Erica had already leapt up to meet him, seizing him by the ankle and slamming him right down. There was a hollow crunch as his nose shattered against the floor, and a white piercing light cut through his consciousness to accompany the impact. An incoherent splutter escaped from his lips, tinged with blood.

He couldn't pull her here. He couldn't pull Serena back. It was as Erica had said -- their consciousnesses were fighting back against her intrusion. He could no more control the form that took than he could dictate the movements of his blood cells.

Serena del Sed escaped primordial death by an inch.

Serena del Sed escaped primordial death by half an inch.

Serena del Sed escaped primordial death by a quarter of an inch.

Each dodge became more hopeless and more desperate -- and with each one, the concept of distance became more and more obsolete. It was no longer possible to escape from Erica. No matter what Serena did, Erica was always right in her face. The world itself revolved around her.

Sixth.

Eighth.

Tenth.

"Two…"

Erica calmly approached Bruno as he lay on the ground, groaning. He had given up on defeating her in direct combat. With his mind in such turmoil, with his heart straining to escape his chest, he didn't have the focus he'd need to even stand a chance.

For what he had to do now, he couldn't spare focus for anything else in the world.

Even as his enemy looked down at him, he kept still.

Even as his enemy raised a hand for the finishing blow, he kept still.

Even as his enemy brought that fist down like the hammer of God… he kept still.

The world was Erica del Sed.

The world was blades of black.

Distance and perspective were gone, and space itself was on its last legs. Erica del Sed was in every direction, a fractal of hostility, the black blade piercing through every available gap. The pincers of the world closed in on Serena del Sed inexorably.

It was no longer possible to block.

It was no longer possible to dodge.

It was no longer possible to --

One.

Erica del Sed went to say that word, but what actually came out of her mouth was quite different.

"Ow," she said.

She looked down. Her hand -- the hand she'd intended to use to end the life of Bruno del Sed… was gone. Her right arm terminated instead in a clean stump, blood already spraying from the wound, painting both the floor and her opponent.

Erica narrowed her eyes.

"I see."

The person crouching before her, holding a steel sword dripping red, was not Bruno del Sed. Her eyes were dripping with tears, and her jaw was clenched like anguished iron. The hand that held the blade trembled with fury and despair.

"Bruno," Serena del Sed whispered. "You idiot…"

One had to fight the enemy outside, and one had to fight the enemy inside. No matter how hard Bruno del Sed tried, that fact could not be changed. So, instead of pulling Serena out of her battle to join him, he had done the next best thing.

He had swapped places with her.

The black blade impaled the chest of Bruno del Sed.

It impaled his stomach, too, and his legs, and his arms, and his throat, and his brain. From every angle the black blade protruded, and through every part of his body the black blade took its pound of flesh. He hung suspended in a world made of his own murder.

And yet, a bitter smile still remained on his lips. This was fine. After all…

It's the little brother's job to look after his big sister, too.

Bruno del Sed closed his eyes, and scattered into nothingness.