Adamant Blood

Mark stared at the screen, feeling almost numb.

Smoke rose into the sky from a burning city.

Central Command had been destroyed, the Mayor's technorganic self splayed out like so many limp tentacles made of metal and glass, all of it hanging over the edges of some skyscraper that was only marginally taller than all the other buildings nearby. The buildings down below were on fire. There were lights among the destruction, though. Spotlights, highlighting the remains of the top floor, where the dead technorganics lay, on two specific figures so very close to the edge, because they had been nailed there.

A pair of I-beams, each with cross beams, had been smashed into the metal and glass remains, to rise up from the remains like broken pillars. Like crosses.

Alexandro Careed and Gabriel Careed were crucified on those metal beams.

They were alive, though for how much longer Mark could only guess. He had a pretty good guess, though. A big countdown display rested between Mark's uncles. It read '38:29' and then '38:28', then '38:27'. It was a countdown. 38 minutes till Kardi killed his uncles.

Kardi stood among the debris on the top floor, just standing there, looking happy, while Mark's uncles were hanging above the edge.

Below Kardi, among the debris of the Mayor's 'true self', were cultists with computers and stuff, all with plain black masks with white handprints on them. They were organizing shit. Mark wasn't sure what they were doing, exactly.

Mark glanced backward at the temporary 'central' of Memphi.

Eliot was in the center, sitting on a white stone 'pillow' with gold inlay and other such weirdness to it. It was stone. That was a reality of what Eliot was sitting on. But it was also a pillow that moved like fluff. It did some weird magical shit. Eliot sat on it, and his Power was increased 10 fold; both Man-made Manipulation and Castellan. Mark was pretty sure it was some rare artifact of Hearthswell.

Below Eliot was a glass/plastic floor that spanned the entire floor. It sounded like dull glass when walked upon, and it was strong, too.

Floor upon floor of electronics layered downward, digging deep into the sands Mark had created earlier. They were still in the sand pit from Mark's Earth/Bubbles Union, and Eliot was turning sand and metals underneath into lots of stuff. Lots and lots of other people were here doing lots of the same stuff Eliot was doing, but more intricate and personal-like.

The Mayor was here, standing off to the side. Someone had rescued her or she had rescued herself. Mark wasn't sure. She was talking with Credenza and some cousin of Sentinel that Mark did not know, only that this new guy was in charge of the basic construction of Sentinel Tower, and he had helped make a bunch of stuff that was being flown into this space, to be attached to some side buildings. Mark was pretty sure it was a secondary teleport system and a bunch of defensive tech.

Maybe if Mark wasn't so distracted he would have paid more attention to whatever was going on there, but he was distracted. There weren't any more cultists to kill; he had killed all of them that were anywhere out in the open… Or, well, him and other people. The various AIs inside all of the machines could not find any cultists anywhere near this part of Memphi.

There were certainly a lot of cultists at Central Command, though.

Mark was heading there soon.

Mark asked again, "Time?"

Quark answered, "Looking at 12 minutes to go."

"Why again?" Mark asked.

"Because you shouldn't go off on your own, and the Mayor has promised to help you get your uncles back as soon as she can organize a proper response."

It had been exactly 25 minutes since Mark had first laid eyes upon his uncles, strung up on some Old World holy symbols atop the ruins of Central Command. Kardi winked at the cameras now and then, whenever Mark actually looked at the video feed. She didn't do that when Mark wasn't looking; someone had figured out.

Mark wasn't thinking clearly right now.

He should be out there, killing and rescuing.

Why was he waiting? Why did he care about 'organizing a proper response'? What could they possibly do! The teleport system wasn't working to extricate his uncles and it probably wouldn't be working at all, because Kardi could disrupt it with her very presence.

Mark repeated what he had said earlier, "Kardi will kill anyone who isn't me. I should go, and I should go now."

But then Credenza was standing next to Mark, saying, "We need a few more minutes and I can go with you. I can lock down her Luck."

Mark tried not to scowl.

Everyone who went with him was going to die! Didn't they know that!

Mark had already had it out with Isoko and Sally, and they probably wouldn't talk to him for a month, but that was fine. They'd be alive, and that's what mattered.

Isoko and Sally were in another building, down there and away. Still within Union distance, though. Mark's distance, not Isoko's. She didn't want to be near him right now.

Shawn and Tartu were off elsewhere, recovering mentally as much as they could.

'New Central Command' was bustling with people and Mark was supporting all of them, while the worm kaiju continued to surge and flop outside, into the crater that Mark had made.

The actual hivemind of the worms was inside a depression to the south, in a large cistern the size of several city blocks, but parts of it were still here, because there were goblins here, too, fighting, dying, being eaten by, eating in turn, and reproducing with the worm kaiju. All of that battle still raged outside and monsters were dying en masse, but Eliot was burning those bodies with Castellan fire for even more power, to protect this place and to grow it even stronger. The various living and now-dead superheroes of Memphi had managed to turn the impossible ice and river kaiju into other things, mostly steam, so the only kaiju that remained was the worm kaiju, and it was proving to be useful as a power source. Being in the center of a constant war between two forces that seemed incapable of dying properly was very good for Castellan fires.

New Central still needed actual defenders, though, against weird shit that might come this way.

Goblins were still goblins, after all.

Mark said, "You should stay here, Credenza. You're needed here. Kardi will kill whoever comes with me, but she won't kill me."

"She's not that strong. She's just lucky, and I can counter that luck."

Mark looked at Credenza straight in the eyes. She was a little shorter than him. Mark asked, "And what happens when she offers to free my uncles and kill all of her people and then herself if I only kill you?"

"… Would you do that?"

"No! But holy fuck, I don't want to hear her speak of shit like this ever again!"

Credenza frowned a little, saying, "You're worried about a ridiculous set of circumstances that I won't let happen if I am there to stop it from happening."

And then Mayor Emilia Ramirez was there with a small glass-covered electronic octopus-like thing sitting on her shoulder. She said, "You're staying here, Jessica, and please don't make a scene about it. You're needed here, and Kardi has already lined up all of her Luck in that area anyway."

"Mayor—" Credenza began.

"Not hearing it," the Mayor said as she walked away, to another issue happening elsewhere. She was only partially here in the flesh. Most of her self was in that 'octopus' on her shoulder, her vector stretched out into the entire city… or at least the parts that she was able to reach.

A lot of people were still out there, still fighting monsters or the environment.

The cultists had all begun to pull back to Central for some reason, though… Probably to help Kardi accomplish whatever it was Leash wanted to do next; to do to Mark. This whole War for Life was not about him at all, but this small part of it was. According to the prognosticators who survived Grey Phantom's attacks —that's what Grey Phantom was doing most of the time, all of this battle; killing prognosticators— of which there were not many left, Kardi was probably going to ask Mark to summon Addavein directly into an attack of some sort.

Because this wasn't really about him.

It was about the entire arc of the War for Life.

The demons, or at least Leash, saw the birth of Addavein as a major turning point in the war, and they wanted to kill him, if they could… Or maybe it was something else. Who the fuck knew anymore!

… Mark was going to ask questions and get answers and then… Then he would refuse to summon Addavein, and Kardi would kill his uncles, and… Or maybe something else would happen. Leash could corrupt with just the right words, after all. He had probably done as much to… to a lot of people. To Kardi, at least. Like, sure, Mark could accept that Kardi was truly as evil as she appeared to be, but if Leash wasn't there, if Kardi didn't have the option to be evil to get what she wanted, then this wouldn't have happened… Kardi was still to blame, though. Absolutely.

And so were everyone else who worked with the demons.

Mark asked, "How many cultists do we have on record now? Still 2,500-ish?"

Quark said, "The number of cultists identified with 90% accuracy is currently up to 3,119 people. The suspected total is more like 4,500."

Credenza frowned. "You're not even aware I'm here right now, are you."

"Why do you think Timeweaver told us not to try and get Aurora over here?" Mark asked Credenza, including her in at least that much. "In your professional opinion."

Credenza's frown remained, but she was less unhappy now that Mark was actually engaging her. "I can make guesses, but I don't know the real answer. Timeweaver doesn't like to be relied upon because the empires and many other nations and demons have gone after him many times over. They set traps for him all the time. So he doesn't do as much as he can because then he dies, and then he resets himself so he doesn't die." Credenza added, "And I know a lot about this business, Mark. It is baffling to me that you are treating me like I'm some chump."

Mark thought about Timeweaver. He asked, "So Timeweaver is... not an asshole? He's just… too busy, with too many problems?"

"He's absolutely an asshole. That's a defensive measure too, though. Everyone knows he can alter time however he wants, and years ago he got into a lot of heat when he romanced his wife and it turned out he played her to 'true love'. Apparently she wanted it that way, but he got into a lot of heat for it anyway. So these days he's an asshole on purpose so you know he doesn't try to work you over with charisma. Also, sometimes he appears and he's so rude that people do the opposite of whatever he says, but in the end that is exactly what they wanted him to do..." Credenza paused, then said, "The Redo Hero is probably the strongest superhero in the world when it comes to social engineering, and he's probably been murdered for that about a million times."

That was… a lot.

At least Mark got out of his own head for a little bit, as Credenza talked about 'life control', which is something that Timeweaver was apparently capable of doing…

Mark got back into his own head and prepared to ask the big question; the one that was on everyone's minds, and which had been asked several times prior.

Mark asked, "Is this the real timeline? The final one? Would Timeweaver really want this timeline to be the final timeline?"

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"... I don't know, Mark, but—" Credenza's phone beeped in her pocket. "Hold on."

Credenza breathed deep, her vector going everywhere, Luck doing a lot of work in the background for everyone present. Mark didn't know what was happening, exactly, but he saw a lot of AIs in the servers downstairs, and the workers in the office space over there working on various things, and the Mayor perk up a little as she turned left suddenly and saw something that needed doing which probably had far-reaching, positive consequences.

Credenza had been doing that on the minute, every minute, and Mark had been funneling Adamant and Ethereal into everyone, but now he funneled power into Credenza, to bring her back up to full.

Credenza breathed a bit easier, and then she went off on a tangent, "You wouldn't know this, but I was once offered a place at Central Command because I can do a lot for a lot of other people. This scheduled Luck discharge is something I hated years ago. I never wanted to do this. I always wanted to be in the spotlight… A lot of shit is going to change in Memphi when we finally win this, Mark. A lot. I'll probably take a shift at Central Command starting now, instead of never doing that ever. They'll just park me in the center of some building like they're doing to Eliot right now, and I'll… I'll help smooth things out."

Mark had a sudden thought. He openly wondered, "Is that why you picked the name 'Credenza'? Because everyone was seeing you as something to set somewhere and not do much besides bring a room together?"

Credenza smiled. "Something like that." And then she lost her smile. "You really don't want to take me along, do you."

"No. I'm going solo. I promised the Mayor I would wait till 30 minutes left, and I will, but…" Mark looked at the time on his uncles' countdown. It was at 31 minutes. Mark asked, "Quark? Time?"

Quark spoke aloud, "Supplies will be ready in 3 minutes."

"She'll hit you with a Wand of Destruction again," Credenza said.

Mark wasn't sure why he did it, but he pulled off a scale and made it into a blade for Credenza, saying, "Here."

Credenza frowned, but she took the offering. "I guess that's extravagantly useful."

"I have 7.3 liters of the stuff. Over 160 kilos. I'll probably have more by the time the night is over."

Credenza asked, "Addavein got you on a drip feed, huh?"

Mark was too exhausted and angry and emotional to smirk, or anything like that. He hadn't told anyone his secret yet, not publicly, anyway. Credenza was a good first person to tell, though.

Mark said, "I'm adamantium blooded. That's my metal, from me. Not from him at all."

Credenza's eyes went wide and she looked at the blade, then she looked at Mark's black scale armor, and then her eyes went even wider. She whispered, "Oh."

Mark nodded.

"That's why the empires were after you?!" Credenza asked, incredulous. "For a breeding program? Honestly, why not just do it?"

Mark blanked.

Credenza went a little still. "Uhh… Do I, uh, have that wrong?"

Mark found himself saying, "There are adamantium farms where they keep 'beasts' that are adamantium blooded that they've caught and are using as adamantium farms… Like. I'm not even sure those 'beasts' are really beasts anymore. They might just be people who they've turned into monsters. Not a breeding program. Shit. Like… they'd Wild me into a docile beast. That's the threat, Credenza."

Credenza scoffed. "No way. I don't believe that for a second. What they probably want is for you to spread your seed among several noble daughters. Union? Adamantiumkinesis? And Adamantium Blooded? Holy shit, dude. You heard about the Wilding shit from Kardi, right? I wouldn't believe her about that at all."

… Okay, well.

There were some good points there.

Mark found himself continuing, "… I also heard about it from Freyala; That they dismantled those farms in the Reveal, which implied that they truly did exist back then. I am not willing to believe that they wouldn't make new farms if they could get away with it, especially since Okuana apparently learned something new that shot the price of adamantium to… to whatever it is now. Quark?"

Quark said, "76 million per kilo and steadily rising."

Mark added, "And that's even after Addavein pumped a whole bunch of adamantium into the market. Multiple tons of the stuff."

Credenza wasn't surprised at all, but she decided to humor Mark's worries, asking, "What are you going to do to avoid that fate?"

"Kill everyone who even hints that they might pull that shit." Mark's anger rolled off of him like black poison, black veins leaking into the very air with every beat of his heart. He was surprised at his own anger. He continued, "I am going to murder every single person who tries to control me like that, Credenza. Every single fucking person, demon, and cultist. All of them. And I'm going to try and pull Leash out of Kardi and kill him, too, permanently." He looked at Credenza. "That's why you can't come. I am under no illusions that Kardi or Leash will let my uncles live, so I'm going to kill everything and everyone the second they pull that shit. I will not be able to hold back at all."

Credenza's Lucky vectors all kinda stilled.

A lot of people in the area also kinda stilled.

Mark waited, his heartbeat calming, black veins retreating back under black scales.

Credenza and a lot of other people rapidly resumed doing whatever they were doing with their vectors and Powers. Credenza softly said, "Good luck, Mark. I think I've delayed you enough."

"Ah, that's what it was for," Mark said, looking at the timer for his uncles. 28 minutes. "I assume the Mayor's help is ready?"

Quark said, "It's being walked this way right now."

Mark was running a Union of Adamant and Ethereal with everyone in the nearest 600 meters, which mostly involved taking from worms and goblins out on the surface and giving it to the people here in turn. He was pretty busy, so Mark hadn't noticed exactly who was doing what, because there was a lot going on.

He saw the guy coming his way now, though.

It was Tartu, with a package.

Mark had no idea how he felt about that, because the guy was looking at Mark with a vector that wanted something, even though he was here to give something to Mark.

Tartu held out the package, saying, "Spellbreaker sequencer attuned against Destruction magics, like my Wand of Destruction, and a mind token. The good shit. I'm coming with you, too."

"Okay sure," Mark said, easily welcoming Tartu into his party, adding, "You know you might die?"

"Oh yeah. Probably. Still going."

Mark nodded, and he put on the spellbreaker sequencer around his neck.

It was three drops of white light inside of a pill-like cage of silver filigree. Mark wrapped it in adamantium so it wouldn't be cut by all of his own adamantium. The mind token was a blue chip of some gemstone surrounded by gold and silver stuff; probably gold and mithril, not orichalcum and mithril. There was no divinity in the mind token at all… But Mark didn't know how orichalcum worked, not really. Orichalcum was the metal of divinity, but Mark hadn't looked at many of those lessons.

Both objects slipped into his astral body and felt like little lodestones to his soul. His astral body bent around them, through them, and then they settled into him, and he knew they would do as advertised.

The spellbreaker sequencer and mind token would probably get overloaded pretty fucking fast, but that was fine. It was a fig leaf; a basic protection. They were going into a warzone. The only things that really mattered in a place like that were actual power.

Mark had actual power.

Tartu had actual power, too.

Mark told him, "If you betray me I'm murdering you first."

"Understandable."

"… I might not be able to hold back when shit goes down."

"I know. I heard you talking to your teammates and also Credenza. They're all pissed at you about that, you know. Especially Sally." Tartu added, "I don't know shit about Credenza. She's probably mad, too, or else it's her Luck telling her to fuck with you in specific ways for… you know. Outcomes. Also: Fuck you for being adamantium blooded."

Mark looked at Tartu. He felt the guy's vector. Tartu's current mannerisms were a calm sort of acceptance layered over a deep, dark ocean of hate for Kardi.

Mark asked "How is Shawn holding up?"

"Terrible."

Silence.

Mark said, "You still want to come?"

"I want to kill Kardi. Even if it costs me my life, I'm still going."

"Okay."