Chapter 213: Breach (1/2)

My mind raced at the sheer stupidity of Thisbey for a moment, but then I gave pause. While Thisbey was a slimy snake in the grass, he wasn't an idiot. He wore that damn leather to fuck with me, and he wholeheartedly believed he had control of this situation. The robed guards might be why.

My doubt faded. Thisbey better pray they could stop me.

I bent down, ready to launch myself like a missile. Before I leaped, Thisbey announced,

”Now I love giving a speech in someone's honor, but I must confess - I'm not here to do so. I've other matters to attend to, least of which is celebrating this here hero.”

He locked eyes with me, ”On the other hand, the most important matter involves that pretty lady of yours. You come crashing up here, and we might not be able to guarantee her safety.”

The runes over my armor glowed red inside the gray confines of my disguise. I charged a singularity in my blood, my rage palpable. I silenced my wrath, saying,

”You caught Althea? Yeah, doubtful.”

Thisbey pressed his fingertips together, ”Yet I knew when and where she was to silence me.” He brushed off his jacket, ”Yet here I am, safe and sound. The can't be said for your darling if you don't think things over very carefully.”

How he knew all this was beyond me, but I honed in and focused on his every word. Even if I wasn't some genius, I had a head between my shoulders. If I was going to step out on top of this situation, I would need to use it.

”Why should I trust you?”

”You shouldn't, though you can check your status and see if she's alive. Assuming you two are in the same party or guild that is. Based on you two's relationship, that's hardly a presumption.”

I took a moment and thought this over. Althea dying wasn't an option, but both of us dying was even worse. At the same time, I was confident Thisbey didn't have the means to adequately restrain or hold Althea back. Also if he did, I could break her out even with explosive methods if it came to that. Etorhma's tears guaranteed she'd survive even if those around her didn't.

With that in mind, I stood up straight. Instead of letting on how much I was thinking, I played the part of a big, dumb fighter,

”Show me where she is-” I grimaced, ”unless you enjoy the feeling of worms eating your corpse.”

Thisbey leaned back, his eyes widening. A bead of cold sweat went down his forehead as he grabbed his collar. He still feared me, and rightfully so. By now, the entire crowd was confused as well. The cameramen already shut down the live streams, and the power around us shut off, casting the masses in darkness. The pillar of light from the sky illuminated the two of us, each facing one another.

I leaned back down, threatening to leap as he raised a hand to me, ”Wait! I'll take you to her. That was my intention all along.”

I pulled myself up with a gravity well, ascending into the sky of Giess. I got myself into Event Horizon's range as I shouted, ”I have a magical aura that can kill you instantly if you try anything.”

Despite my pressure, Thisbey kept his cool despite some cold sweat, smiling, ”I wouldn't even think of it. Now, if you wouldn't mind, we have a date with destiny, and she's rather impatient.”

I rolled my shoulders, getting closer to the slimeball. Thisbey pointed North, ”We'll be heading over the silver's territory. Follow along now.”

I did as he said, having already sent messages to Kessiah, Althea, Torix, and my gialgathen followers about the situation. As I did, Thisbey smirked and chuckled to himself. He oozed confidence despite knowing how quickly I could kill him. There was a reason behind that. There had to be.

After floating for several minutes, Thisbey struck up a conversation,

”Do you want to know why I despise gialgathens?”

”No. I don't care either.”

He scoffed, ”Well I'll tell the story to the sky. Perhaps she'll listen.”

I rolled my eyes as the chatterbox continued.

”Despite my appearance and wealth, I came from humble beginnings. The humblest, in fact. My great grandfather was an espen slave. My father was a servant to that same family of gialgathens. If I followed their footsteps, I'd of ended up the same. I saw through the facade those beasts put up, however.”

I frowned, ”Of course you did.”

His brow furrowed, ”They look down on even you still, and you're this world's greatest bipedal fighter. If you can't earn their unanimous respect, what is a mere spokesperson supposed to do? Lay beneath their feet and rot?”

”Just go about your business. You don't have to make your life revolve around them.”

He shook his head, a grin of derision plastered onto his face,

”I beg to disagree. Without fail, those giant amphibians will make your life revolve around theirs...if you give em a chance. I happen to have a streak of defiance in me, so I oppose their subtle oppression. On the other hand, my father was different.”

Thisbey shook his head, ”My father was a great man, not in birth but in character. A man of morals, dignity, and work ethic. He served Lehesion when I was a child, and to me, there was no greater goal to aspire to. He meant the world to me, and without my mother to help guide us, he did his best.”

Thisbey pursed his lips, ”His best wasn't good enough. I watched him carry a hundred-pound bag of wet salt up a mountainside. As he fell from exhaustion, they put the bag on another man and left him to die. I defied them, but they burned my back for my outbursts.”

Thisbey pulled up his coat, revealing deep burns covering most of his back. He sighed, ”And I promised that day to make him pay for marring my skin. Through a tenacious effort, I escaped, created an empire of business, and I had that gialgathen flayed alive.”

He gestured with his suit, his eyes hard as iron, ”And I still wear that skin to this day. It reminds me that even if they look down on me for this weak body I own, they can never look down on me for my spirit. I will do anything and everything it takes to achieve my goal of equality.”

He grimaced, ”Even if that means doing some acts that are...distasteful.”

I crossed my arms, hovering above the forest-scape, ”Distasteful?”

He met my eye with a charming grin, ”Yes. Distasteful.”

He took a deep breath before cracking his knuckles. We passed into the silver's territory before I snapped, ”How much longer before we reach her?”

Thisbey glanced down at an unnecessary watch, ”Oh, it shouldn't be much longer now. You'll understand soon why I'm at ease.”

It was my turn to grin.

”You shouldn't be.”

”I'll let you decide that after I've revealed my hand. I've already seen yours after all.”

Huh. Strange.

We passed over a set of hills before moving into the spire forest. After diving beneath a cove of spires, we dashed into a dark cavern with nothing illuminating its bottom. A lone pillar of light leaked in from the entrance, revealing us.

My senses were not so dull that I didn't understand what was in this cavern, however. When I entered it, my hair stood on end. Deep within me, a primal fear surged forth. A haunting, ragged breath emanated throughout the entire expanse, the deep voice mangled beyond repair. It gasped, unable to restrain itself from struggling. It gave the same deformed growl as Emagrotha had.

It was bad news, no two ways about it. My guess was that Thisbey grafted a hybrid to a gialgathen from the sounds of it. If it increased its power even more, then I wasn't able to beat it in 1v1 combat. I opened my status, sending a message to Helios to call in the favor for saving Caprika. It came with coordinates as well, letting him know where I was at.

Thisbey opened his own status, staring at an invisible notification. His eyes opened wide before he tugged at his collar, ”Let's hurry now. I wouldn't want to keep your miss waiting.”

My eyes narrowed. That was twice now that the asshole reacted oddly as I sent a message. That would make sense if I were interacting with the screen, but I wasn't. I was doing all my commands mentally. I distracted Thisbey with banter, preparing to send another message to test my theory,

”What's that breathing in the distance?”

He grinned at me, ”Well, he's how we pinned down your lady. She's quite difficult to restraint otherwise. But enough of that. It comes later.”

Mentioning his puppet calmed him down, his nonchalance unnerving me. Whatever waited in the dark, it was enormous beyond measure. Trying to see it, I channeled mana into my armor, making it glow. A portion of Thisbey's coat caught on fire. He slapped it out while cursing, ”What in the hell are you doing? Have you lost your mind?”

I shrugged, ”It was entirely accidental. I forgot you were like paper mache compared to me. My mistake.”

It was anything but a mishap. It had the intended effect as Thisbey brushed off some imaginary dust from his shoulders, ”I don't mind defiance boy, but I do mind stupidity. Another stunt like that and Althea is dead.”

”Then you will die right after, along with everyone else here. Your puppet can't save you.” I snapped my fingers, ”From a death happening faster than a snap of my fingers.”

Thisbey froze up for a second, but he composed himself, ”Now, now, I told you all that comes later. Calm yourself and allow me to show you to her prison.”

The orange glow from my armor illuminated a tiny portion of the cave, enough for us to navigate. Deep in its depths, we reached a broad platform of stone. We stood at opposite ends, the heat off my armor making the three of them uncomfortable. Thisbey channeled a bit of black mana into it a podium of rock, and the platform sunk down with all of us on it.

I chided, ”Of course you'd have dominion mana.”

Thisbey only nodded in return. As we sunk down into the miles of metal and stone, I prepared a message to send all of my guildsmen. It was a message for springing a trap against Thisbey at this location. It was a completely bullshit message, but I wasn't about to send it. I had other goals in mind.

With Thisbey thrown off from my earlier stunt, he opened his status, glancing at something. As he did, he coughed into his hand. He turned to his guards,

”Be ready for some undue surprises.”

They nodded silently. I kept my face frozen, but underneath my calm, I realized something pivotal - Thisbey was reading my status. I didn't know when or how, but he could see it and react in real time. I burrowed through my memories, trying to figure out when he did it, but I didn't know enough to pinpoint the breach. After peeling Thisbey's face off and shoving it down his throat, I'd be hiring a hacker or the like to discuss security options.

As I delved further into the implications, my heart sank as the repercussions rippled over me. These events all began making sense. My status was how the Skyburner bases had next to no information present. Even more important, this was how he caught Althea. He understood when and where the assassination would take place, then he would counter it.

That meant I sabotaged the attempt each time I sent her a message about it. It was my fault.

My blood ran colder as we continued to sink, but I held the guilt inside. I couldn't give Thisbey any more tools to work with. I had walked into traps before, and I needed every advantage I could get. My mind raced with possibilities as we reached a narrow corridor. Thisbey led the way, pacing further still before entering a dimensional shift.

I raised my eyebrows, ”We're in a rift. That's a surprise. You cozy up to eldritch now?”

Thisbey raised a hand and grinned at me, ”Mighty keen of you to sense that. There's a good reason we're here.”

No matter the reason, being in a rift improved my chances of succeeding by an order of magnitudes. One of my trees, Obliterator II, doubled my damage while in an opened rift. They wouldn't know that since I hadn't checked that tree in well over a year. The data connection for my status opened up as well, a sort of wifi connection appearing as it had before in other rifts.

I blinked, thinking about the remnant's hidden language and exile from the system. Maybe these guys hid in a rift to prevent that, slowing down Schema's updates. There were more obvious reasons for him being here though.

”You need eldritch for your experiments with the Hybrid.”

The guards turned to me then Thisbey, their eyes showing from their slitted hoods. They widened in shock. I smiled under my helmet. Heh, I could use this to my advantage.

I continued, ”You're using Harvesters to graft silvers onto espens and gialgathens alike. I'm surprised you haven't used these guards for experimental material yet in fact. Perhaps you will after this.”

At this point, the guards stared at each other with a remarkable intensity. Thisbey turned to them, ”I assure you, we've done nothing of the sort here. Besides, neither of you have anything to lose anyway. Schema's already thrown you out. That's why we've paid you so well in the first place.”

Thisbey's words calmed the guards down somewhat, letting them regather their composure to an extent. Unfortunately for him, it gave me something to work with. I wasn't about to let my chance slip.