Adamant Blood

Mark saw it happen and he was too busy to do a damned fucking thing about it.

He suspected that a lot of people felt that way.

Blackthorn said, "We got maybe 120 seconds until this thing dies, Mark. Don't go getting worried about stuff you can't do shit about! Not yet!"

Mark focused as best he could, which was all the way.

He was an adamantium node of power between the kaiju, Blackthorn, and Titanfist. The kaiju was 400 meters away, and so was Titanfist, behind Mark and Blackthorn. The kaiju was fully cocooned by Blackthorn's black thorn vines, the gold and glittering jewels of its carapace locked under millions of long, black spikes. The thing was not moving. It was dying slowly. Its astral body was still 90% of the strength it had been at the start, and if Mark let up the time-to-kill would start ticking upward.

Which made it weird when Blackthorn asked, "What are the words of power you're using for your Union, Mark? Adamant and Weakness, right? Have you tried many other words?"

Blackthorn had a storm of vectors around him, racing through him, impacting the beetle and also Mark, and Mark was pretty sure that only most of those vectors between him and the archmage were Mark's own Union. Blackthorn seemed to be actively supporting Mark's weight, flying him, keeping him where he was, so that Mark could focus fully on his Union. The fact that the guy had time to talk at all was proof he was strong. Not too surprising.

The topic broached, though, was surprising.

Mark answered, "I don't think this is something I can talk about right now."

"Have you ever tried Adamant/Ethereal? They're both Words of Power! 'Ethereal' is usually a positive word, but it has bad connotations, too, just like all Words of Power, and Adamant/Ethereal are rather opposed to each other!"

Mark hadn't recognized Blackthorn using 'Words of Power' as a specific thing the first time. He didn't think he had ever used 'Ethereal'—

"Do it, Mark," said a woman's voice. "Some of your friends and maybe all of them will die if you cannot rescue them right now."

Mark decided.

Mark's heart beat hard, solid, pulling Adamant out of the kaiju, giving it to Titanfist, Blackthorn, and himself.

His heart beat hard, solid, discharging everything Ethereal from Titanfist, Blackthorn, and Mark, into the kaiju. It was the fragility of life, the fleeting strength of one's Power used too much, the nothingness of an astral body that could not move anymore, the promise of being gone, and never coming back. It was the loss of a home, the horror of dead parents, the death of possibility, broken relationships, broken connections, broken lives, gone forever and never coming back. It was broken flesh, dissolving into nothing.

Adamantium collapsed onto Mark's flesh, forming scales and strength.

Etherealness collapsed the kaiju from the outside in, Blackthorn's thorns gaining a decisive edge and then crushing inward, like the kaiju was barely able to support itself anymore, which is exactly what Mark had done to it. The kaiju died, slowly, but a lot fucking faster than how it had been going.

Mark committed to a Full Union of Adamant/Ethereal, and the kaiju began to die quickly.

Not quick enough.

10 seconds became 30.

30 became 34, 35, 36.

The kaiju was an ember of life right now, located somewhere deep inside of the beast, inside of the cocoon of black thorns, like a flickering heart that was barely there—

It died.

Backlash hit Mark and Mark went spinning. He had no connection to anything anymore and his adamantium covered him from head to toe like a second skin made of scales.

He blinked.

Where was he? What was he doing? Someone was talking to him.

Someone was—

Quark spoke, "Propellers. Fly, Mark. Right now. Blackthorn is weakened and Grey Phantom is trying to kill him. Titanfist is down on the ground with his brain cut into pieces. He is still alive."

Mark blinked, and the world made sense again, but he was still falling. He spun out a prop of adamantium several meters wide and another counter prop and Mark suddenly whipped to the side. He had miscalculated 'up' and 'down' but he fixed it, righting himself. Mark flew up, into the air, and his Unionsense came online the very second Mark did a normal Union of Adamant/Weakness, connecting to the world with every part of his being.

Mark rapidly understood that Titanfist was almost dead and Blackthorn was running from something.

That something wasn't there.

Mark couldn't connect to it. It was too… Ethereal.

Mark beat his heart with Adamant and Ethereal again and his mind cleared in a shattering second, and he felt, ever so briefly, the thing that was attacking Blackthorn, while Blackthorn flew away, holding his broken body intact as best he could.

There was a moment, and Mark took it. Quark helped make sense of everything a lot faster than he could on his own. Quark even provided zoomed-in pictures on Mark's sight.

A kilometer away, as measured by the stuff in Mark's eyes, there was Blackthorn, missing most of one leg, some of the other, and a whole entire arm.

Right behind him was the ethereal form of Grey Phantom, but with a white handprint on his face. He was in his grey suit, as normal. He was a cultist of Thrashtalon.

Mark was livid.

Titanfist was almost dead.

Mark connected to Titanfist —to Ben— and focused on stabilizing the guy with his Union as best he could. Actual healing would come later. Ben groaned on the ground, moaning in unintelligible pain, as he came half-alive again.

Mark also connected to Blackthorn and he tried to connect to Grey Phantom, but the very second Mark connected to Blackthorn, Grey Phantom vanished, dissipating into the ether. Mark had no idea where he was. He was just gone.

Blackthorn flickered to float next to Mark in the sky and Mark almost slapped adamantium through the guy, because he did not look like Blackthorn anymore. Blackthorn had lost 30% of his body, but more than that, his vector was all wrong.

And he was smiling.

"Marky!" Blackthorn said, in a woman's voice. "So nice to finally meet the one everyone is talking about! So I'm Planty, Blackthorn is dead but he will be back soon enough, and Ben over there needs some brain healing first if you want to keep one of Memphi's superheroes outside of diapers!"

This was a demon.

This was Blackthorn's demon. Planty.

Mark took it in stride. Too much to do right now. He switched his Union of Adamant/Ethereal to one of Healthy Mind/Broken Mind. It was a bit of a weird Union but Mark had done it earlier with Ben, with Grand Healer Badaira, and though it did not do anything then, it sure as shit did something now. Mark breath/blood/brain Unioned, and Ben shook like he was having a seizure, thrashing on the ground, cracking the world, and then he kinda calmed and groaned onto some trees, and Mark kept it up for 10 more seconds before he switched to a generalized Adamant/Ethereal. Ben jerked and then looked up, moving so much faster than a kaiju-sized man should be able to move. He did it anyway.

He probably still had a killer headache.

He slammed his head back on the ground and had a mini-seizure and then he stilled and breathed.

"Good enough!" Planty exclaimed, wearing Blackthorn's healing body, and suddenly taking out his phone and turning it on to hold it in front of him, at Mark. "You wanna summon Addavein, now?"

Irrational anger.

That's what Mark was feeling.

He wanted to yell, 'FUCK YOU AND FUCK HIM!'

But Mark looked over at the sky where the white rent in the world was pouring out kaiju, where his friends were, where the problem was becoming so much worse. It looked just like in the historical videos of the Reveal, when the Veil broke everywhere and kaiju poured in from Endless Daihoon and Daihoon, and Earth spilled into those places in turn.

He couldn't see the gate from this far away. It was like 120 kilometers away, the world over there was full of smoke from some fires, and the curvature of the Earth only allowed Mark to see so much. He could only see the top of the rift, where a kilometers-wide tear in reality wound up through the smoky clouds, like a jagged crack into another world.

It was a standard rift, caused by the breaking of the Veil.

Addashield had been one of the mages to seal those many rifts in the Veil, to end the Reveal. Addavein would know how to seal the rifts as well, and he'd probably do it, too, all in order to be the big damn hero that he wanted to be.

Mark wondered, in a way that didn't really matter right now, if the dragon had set this up somehow, if he had orchestrated all of this, to make Mark try to summon him, for him to arrive and be the Big Damn Hero. But if that was true, and if it ever got out, then humanity would all fight back and kill him, right? Even if it took years for him to be found out, humanity would still try to kill him, right? Not let him keep whatever power he managed to grab?

Ha!

Mark wanted to laugh but there was too much shit to do to be able to laugh. Of course if Addavein got real political and cultural power then nothing else mattered. He would gradually take over everything. That's why the empires and humanity were so dead set on never letting any dragon ever gain power over any part of humanity, at all.

'Give them a meter; they take the world.'

Mark didn't believe that Addavein would actually set something like this up. He would absolutely 100% take advantage of the situation for his own agenda, though. Was he watching right now? Waiting for a call? Probably. A lot of people had been watching the Attack the Gate program.

The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

Mark stuffed his hatred down and asked Planty, "How do I call him here?"

Planty grinned with Blackthorn's face and continued to hold up his phone. Her mannerisms were all feminine, which looked weird on Blackthorn's body and her voice was way too sultry as she said, "I don't know! I kept Christopher from killing Ben, and that's all Steve asked of me, and now I'm gonna have some fun! Oh, oh! Try: 'I summon you, Brother Addavein! My talzarki to me!' and spin around a little bit while you say it. Maybe shake your ass?"

She wanted him to SHAKE his fucking ASS?!

Mark was about to tell her off—

But Planty paused, her vector turning weirdly mad as she checked Blackthorn's phone, tapping at it a few times. And then she made a face and shook her head. "Nuh uh uh! You do not want me involved, Leash. Fuck off." And then she smiled back at Mark, eyes all happy, voice and vector all joyful as she said, "Summon Addavein! I'm recording for posterity! Do~ it do~ it do~ it! Woo woo woo!"

'Leash'?

Demon Leash?

Yes.

Demon Leash. The one who had killed Sally's girlfriend to get information on Mark. The one who had taken over that Mind Controller Mark had killed, Mary Getty, and then turned her corpse into a mimic infection in the city of Wolf Bayou. The one who had told Mark that he wanted to split Addavein apart into Addashield and Kanda, to then attack and kill the demon Kanda, to end her demonic line.

So he was here again?

Yeah.

He was here again, doing things—

Quark said, "Mayor Ramirez says for you to ask for Planty to kill one of the 4 impossibles and that you shake your ass for her. Alternatives include asking for her help clearing the cardinal command building from infiltrators. All 4 cardinal commands are infiltrated at once. There are 3 other kaiju that just came through the gate, and our people are locked down on the impossibles."

Quark had spoken quickly and solidly.

Planty continued to chant 'Do~ it!' as she floated around Mark a little, her vector looking at all of him in rather uncomfortable ways.

Titanfist was still groaning on the ground, and Mark was still healing him this entire time, because he needed to get back on the field, and Mark was pretty sure that if he was going to be able to do anything at all, it would have been through Ben getting back up and kicking some ass with a sword made of Mark's adamantium.

But he could also summon Addavein.

Mark spun his adamantium overhead, supporting himself on a very wide propeller, the air thrumming a little with turbulence. He counter-propelled himself with a smaller rotor, to keep himself stable in the air.

Mark said to Planty, "I will gladly shake my ass if you want to help kill an impossible. Or clear out the problems at the compromised command centers?"

Planty giggled, then said, "Oh sure! Shake that money maker!"

Mark shook his ass—

"Oh no. Oh honey," Planty said, waving Blackthorn's free hand. "Stop stop."

Mark… stopped.

"You're embarrassing yourself, but I suppose you are only 18 and not born with it at all, which is not your fault. Dance lessons. Ordered by me. Find a good teacher! Steve has some and he'll be back soon. I'll go… kill an impossible; Steve will like that, too. See you later!"

Her vector began to ripple toward the southwest—

She paused.

Planty turned and said to Mark, "Okay. So. I don't want to be involved in this shit, but I do want to make Leash owe me, so:" She sighed. She rolled her eyes and droned in a voice only partially her own, saying, "Dear Mark: I'll kill your friends if you summon Addavein." Then she went, "Blegh!" as though it was disgusting to speak someone else's words.

And then Planty's vector rippled toward the southwest. The spell completed. Planty, in Blackthorn's Body, rippled and then she was gone, shooting off like a speedster moving fast.

Mark was still healing Titanfist. Ben had stopped seizing and now he was laying there, making little (very large) groaning noises—

"Mark," Quark said, "The Mayor has requested that you attempt to summon Addavein because your friends are likely already dead along with ten thousand others if you do not do it right now. I agree with that assessment, since she has allowed me to view the footage coming out of the gate district."

Mark felt suddenly, horribly tired. He kept on keeping on, though, asking, "What's happening up there?"

"It's bad."

Mark said, "Requesting teleport to the gate battlefield."

"Instant response: I prefer you healing Titanfist than dying to kaiju we are still categorizing. Teleport will be ready when Titanfist is healed. Summon Addavein if you want action now—"

"Then teleport my people away!" Mark yelled.

"The system does 1 teleport a minute, Mark. Total. Your friends are not more important than the whole of Memphi, which is currently being attacked from literally every direction."

Quark said, "Your friends are holding up, but the wash of worms has killed—"

"Don't," Mark said, not wanting to hear a name. Not wanting to know.

Mark hovered closer to Titanfist trying to heal him faster. It was going slow.

Whatever Grey Phantom had done to the man had really fucked him up in the brain, and probably in the eyes and sinuses and spine, too, based on how Titanfist was sprawled out and not moving his left leg at all. Mark hadn't noticed that until now. His left leg was motionless while the rest of him moved. His right foot might also have been cut from some nerves, or something. Titanfist's main focus was on himself and his scattered thoughts, though. Not really on his body. His brain was still fucked up.

Mark switched back to brain healing.

Was Ben getting better faster? Who the fuck knew anything—

Quark spoke, "Categorization of new kaiju has been made.

"Cat-4 Hivemind worms. They are eating everything including the kaiju goblins and remaining cuttlefish and the burning kaiju flesh. Mark can likely kill this one on his own, as soon as he gets there. This is technically an impossible-to-kill because it can spawn from more of itself at a fast rate. It is eating flaming kaiju flesh and multiplying fast.

"Cat-4 Cloud-fire phoenix. Impossible-to-kill while there is fire. It is eating the Castellan fire, which it should not be able to do, so this one could be bad. The worms and the phoenix are thus all feeding off of the dead kaiju flesh. Frozenfire will be able to handle the phoenix when he is done slagging the impossible-to-kill crystal kaiju with the Fire Brigade.

"Cat-4 Skyscraper bear. Standard tough kaiju with land disruption capability. It's eating the worms. Titanfist can kill it when he is healed.

"Mark," Quark said, "The team is holed up far, far underground. They are alive for now. Their stability is failing. Kardi is suspected of being a demonic tool. She has saved their lives many times by acting with Luck, to keep the team alive. That is what is happening right now. All attempts to inform the team of Kardi's deception have failed due to her and her Luck."

Mark saw the stretch of Leash's plot.

Mark could try to summon Addavein and the dragon would maybe show, and then Kardi would kill the people he cared about.

Or he could keep healing Titanfist and eventually get teleported to the north with Titanfist.

But Titanfist groaned on the ground, and Mark had no idea how long it would take to actually heal the man, and if he even could. Brain injuries were horrific and they usually required a specialist healer. Mark had just gone through a full healing suite with Badaira and the nervous system part had taken something like 25 minutes alone.

"Quark," Mark asked, trying to be calm, "Estimate how long to go through the nervous system part of the healing suite again."

"I have queried COFR on your behalf. COFR estimates healing Titanfist will take between 2 days to 45 days for full healing and between 30 minutes to 3 hours long for short healing. You should be able to stabilize him with 30 minutes of concentrated action, provided you are not attacked in the meantime. Such stabilization should allow him to return to small size and be out of commission for the rest of the battle. He will need further healing to be able to be something other than a quadriplegic."

"A quadri-fucking-plegic?!" Mark exclaimed, not believing these numbers at all. "But he's twitching! The muscle-brain connection is there!"

"And Grey Phantom turned his brain to mush with a magical grenade of some sort. You can tell by the pink goo leaking from his ears, the grey sheen to the veins under his skin, and various other factors of which do not need to be explained right now."

"What sort of grenade?! Can I heal it?!"

Mark was pulling at threads and he knew it.

"I do not know. I am asking COFR right now for help, and she is unable to give exact answers. A lot of people are conferring with COFR right now, all across Memphi, but we are among her top priorities." Quark continued, "In the meantime, you should know that Grey Phantom has planned his takedown of Memphi for at least 20 years, or perhaps as many as 77 years, back to the ascension of Thrashtalon to the Pantheon and the Betrayal. He had been a contemporary of the Wilding God when he was still a human, and he had no known ties to Thrashtalon afterward, but this was obviously a lie. His son, Jeff Powell, Memphi's #1 superhero Sentinel, is still fighting the kaiju, and whatever systems he used to track down his father for various reasons are not able to find Grey Phantom—

"Planty has just now erased the Impossible Devourer and retired to Blackthorn's tower, but the tower has been exploded. She is livid, but she is growing some other drugs so she is projected to be out of it for the rest of the battle. She is talking to Blackthorn's soul, trying to console him about his loss of partners.

"3 impossibles remain. Ice, crystal, and river.

"Another kaiju has appeared out of the rift. It is a fire type, which will feed the phoenix type—"

Quark was just talking, filling time while stuff got sorted.

Mark interrupted, "What's Memphi's current battle capacity?"

"18 to 22% of normal. Projected failure of Memphi as a state in 10 hours, or less."

Mark breathed.

He made a decision.