Adamant Blood

Julie Sacredcut had extra stuff; no problem.

Greater Ring of No-Wealth, regenerating webweave in Mark's size, Greater Ring of Repair to make his normal clothes repair, too, and a new spellbreaker to wear around his neck. She had duplicates of all of the stuff he regularly wore and needed to replace every now and then.

It set Mark back a percentile of a point of his total wealth.

Mark asked, "Anything to help against assassinations?"

Julie winced. "Not… really. You got all the good stuff."

"What else could I have? Just tell me."

"It's not a matter of holding back, but more a matter of there's nothing that would really help. There are solid shield charms, both reactive and permanent, but you got adamantium and your PL's are already higher across the board than anything we can offer you. There are precog charms that let you experience up to a minute past your death, and then rewind backward, but those are… those make you go fucking crazy, Mark. You don't want those. I don't even have any of them right now, and it would take a week to get one. There are even anti-slime charms— Was it a slime? We're not actually sure but I looked at the footage, and—"

"Corruption ooze, they called it," Mark interrupted. "Not a slime."

"Holy gods of light and dark," Julie said, face going pale. "Something like that was in the city? My gods—" She snapped back to it. "Never mind. Uh… We got anti-slime charms —anti-monster charms of all kinds!— but no anti-ooze charms, and corruption… you can't protect against that specifically. You can only guard yourself stronger. More rigid. And you're… well, adamant blooded."

Mark said, "I guess I'm good. Thanks, Julie… And Julie? I'd like to talk to you about what a corruption ooze is later, okay?"

"Absolutely!" Julie bowed deeply.

… she was a bit terrified right now.

Was Mark being scary right now?

Mark might have been scary right now. Mark softly said, "Sorry if I scared you, Julie."

Julie stood right back up and she was even more scared, but she was professional, as she said, "It's just... assassins! I do not like this."

Mark found that sudden, true utterance like a small ray of sunshine in a storm. He said, "I don't like it either."

Half an hour later, Mark stood at the back end of Castle South.

Castle North and Castle South were more like 'Northwest' and 'Southwest' castle. The other 5 'castles' had been the original apartments for the settlement, housing over 10,000 people in total, until Eliot had gotten more apartments and houses installed across the land and people moved into those. Those original apartments were now mostly removed, but one of them was the official barracks where anyone could stay if they didn't have a home yet, and two others remained for temporary housing, in case of destroyed housing in the case of a kaiju incursion, or the like. Mark didn't live here anymore, but he still liked the place. It was sprawling complexes on the edges, with some nice green space in the middle, like a big lawn with some trees.

Mark stood with Yoro, Kandon, and Aurora on top of a grey stone hovercar launch zone behind Castle South, right in front of the grassy lawn. It was a nice place; meant to look good for people coming and going on official business. It had a lot of cameras and scanning equipment, and it had been swept twice for stuff before Mark even got here.

He was supposed to do this test of the ITLKR system beside the lake, at a nice overlook, but that idea had been changed at the last 10 minutes for obvious reasons. Everything that had been planned had been changed due to the assassin attempt.

Mark was completely aware of the implications of what that all meant.

A bunch of other people, including Isoko, Eliot, and Sally, were all the way down near Castle South. They looked on, and they looked worried. Mark was worried, too!

The Inquisitors were out in force, with Walter standing beside Sally, and Lola a bit closer to Mark. Lola was not allowed to approach the actual hoverpad. No one was. There were black and yellow cordoning holograms in the air, around the platform, and no one was violating those at all.

Mark wanted to walk away, right through those holograms, to be anywhere but here. But Yoro had explained why they were going through with this, and Aurora had strongly agreed, having some weird emotions about the whole thing that she didn't fully explain. Her main point had been something about 'appearing strong' that Mark didn't fully understand.

It was 10 minutes to go-time.

And so, since Mark still didn't understand, Mark asked, "Tell me again, please, why we're still doing this."

Aurora sounded and looked perfectly composed as she explained, "How To Avoid Assassins and Still Make Public Statements: If you have something you have to do, which has a schedule to follow, then, if at all possible, change up the direction of approach away from the obvious. Hence, we are here instead of at the lake with the stage Eliot set up, still doing what needs to be done, but from a different angle. If you need to make a speech, for example, then you change the position of the stage to somewhere else, even if it's not as good optics-wise. And if you need to teleport somewhere, then you have eyes-on at the main hub, and any possible connecting hubs, like Walaria is doing at the capital right now. And, mostly, you remember your allies and enemies, and if you die then it makes Walaria look bad. If Walaria looks bad, then she will go on a warpath." Aurora finished with a simple, "I'm already planning a warpath, Mark."

"Good. Hope to see it for myself."

Aurora made a little, "Haah," sound.

Yoro said, "We'll be fine. Both of you. We'll be fine."

Aurora still appeared strong.

Her vector made it seem like she was hanging on by a fingernail to the edge of a cliff.

Quentin called out from the side, "Final checks. 9 minutes and counting."

Aurora walked off of the stage.

It was just Mark and Yoro, and Mark did some final checks of his own.

Mostly, he just made sure Quark was okay. The little guy currently had some casting hands on an orb that was currently attached to the middle of Mark's back. Otherwise, the body was free floating. Quark could do a Protect in 10 seconds, and though he did not have time during the assassination attempt today, he should have that much time when they exited the teleport. And if he didn't have that time, the spellbreaker on Mark's neck and his own capabilities would give Quark the time he needed.

Also, they were going to exit the teleport somewhere outside of where everyone expected them to exit.

That part Aurora had said about changing venues was important, and they had already changed the departure venue from the lakeside to here, but Walaria was at Crytalis right now, to hear Aurora talk about it, and the Second Princess would be changing the destination location herself.

Even Yoro and Aurora didn't know where it was going to happen, which set off all sorts of alarm bells for Mark, but… He trusted them. He did trust them. They had never betrayed him before.

That was the thing about betrayal, though. It only came from your allies.

But Mark looked over at some big screens that showed the original, planned destination area. It was outside of an Aluathan outpost by the Shine's delta, on the north side. Some observers from Aluatha and some semi-permanently stationed guards stood around, all nice looking and ready for Mark. There was even a giant stone platform, easily 50 meters across. It was the hoverpad, but they had cleared it and freshly painted it for Mark's arrival. A sign read 'WELCOME BLACKVEIN!', so Mark was pretty sure that this wasn't a betrayal. At least not in any conventional sense.

That reception area was wrong, though.

The new location was going to be close to the old one, but not that close. Mark was going to be told where it was at 30 seconds to go-time, because that's when Walaria would tell Aurora, using whatever communications techniques she shared with the Second Prince—

'About 200 meters southwest of the destination area, Mark,' Aurora telepathically told him. 'There's grasslands there. Nothing else.'

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Yoro glanced at his phone, and then he put it back in his pocket. "50 seconds."

"This seems so stupid," Mark said, even as he pulled his adamantium inward, as he pulled his astral body inward. "So dumb."

Aurora enveloped Mark and the platform from every direction. The world seemed a little ripply with rainbows all around Mark, but she wasn't actually doing anything, and she didn't say anything either. She just waited.

The clock ticked down.

Mark prepared for an ambush by asking, "What if the plan is to drape this whole teleport test in various security measures and it's the security measures themselves which kill us all?"

'Compose yourself, Mark,' Aurora sent.

"I know you're shaken up," Yoro said, "But you're too paranoid by half."

Kandon had his phone out and he was looking at it as he said, "Here it comes. Stand still."

Aurora pulled back, just a little.

Mark pulled all the way in, like holding in his breath. It was uncomfortable. Yoro stood about 10 centimeters away. That was uncomfortable, too, but only for Mark. The thin man seemed comfortable and confident, and Mark could trust that much… he supposed. Aurora seemed secured, too. Everyone was worried, but it was going to be fine. Right?

It was going to be fine.

Mark sighed, and the world began to vibrate in a weird sort of way—

- -

—The vibration ended, and Mark stood on grasslands.

Yoro was nowhere to be seen.

Mark instantly went into a Union of Alacrity and Slowness, his range spilling out of him in every direction, the world resolving to understandability. Grasslands, mudflats, water over there, stuff in the water, and in the land. Mostly small animals. Lots of dragonfly-like bugs eating smaller bugs.

And Yoro was gone.

Fuck.

Mark couldn't see around himself at all. Time was moving too slow for him to move any part of his body. Quark couldn't move his body fast, either, but he was a machine, too, and he could think very quickly and respond faster than humans. Most of the time he had to limit himself to human speeds. Quark did not limit himself like that, right now.

Quark displayed images in Mark's sight.

Mark had gotten turned around in the teleport, as well as thrown off-center of the original destination.

Quark showed him images of the original destination.

The outpost behind Mark was a crater. Quark spotted a few bodies here and there. Dead and splattered by various forces. Quark was already categorizing them as Empire's Knight Perrol, the man that Mark and Yoro was to meet, the man in charge of this place, and also about four other people, each with tags.

Other human bodies lay everywhere. Some of them had gotten as far as 200 meters away. They did not get further than that.

There was a goblin.

It was wearing a suit and standing on the platform Mark should have appeared on, on the other side of the cratered outpost. It held a rapier in one hand, held low to the ground, preparing to strike.

This was weird for a multitude of reasons.

The major weirdness that Mark first recognized was that there were bodies at all. A goblin should have turned those people into lacunas. Everything else, from Empire shenanigans, which was a real fucking possibility right now (But the extra security measures did push Mark off-center enough to survive), to how the people who had attempted to assassinate Mark in the tram had appeared from nowhere and vanished instantly, meant that there were teleporters.

And oh yeah.

Goblins and the Empire were working together, in some capacity.

It had started with the Ethereal Death Turtle kaiju and the goblins planting death essence into that cave, to lure the turtle into a death bomb attack… But even before that, it had started with House Exatech, hadn't it? Yes. And the changelings, of course.

Mark didn't know much about all of that because other people had been investigating it and he had been busy, but right here was an information source. Right here was someone that knew something.

Mark wasn't going to let this goblin get away.

And he wasn't going to let the goblins in the grasslands get away, either.

There had to be 10 of them out there, hidden in the green grasses, their vectors low and strong. They had magics ready to go, and magics that were still playing out, out there in the grasslands. Fires and stones flowed through green hands, as grasses raised up around others, and someone was planning something very big in the air, directly overhead. Some sort of invisible-magic user was up there of some sort; Mark couldn't tell. Only that if he had landed there, on that platform, he would have tried to fly directly up and away, which would have put him into that invisible trap overhead—

Ah! Mark realized something.

The goblins had probably killed the people of the outpost in the last 30 seconds. That's why the people were just killed, instead of used as lacunas. They were obstacles to be removed while the big fish rolled in. Yes. Mark understood that, now. That video feed at the settlement, showing the destination zone, had not been faked. The people had probably been attacked the second Mark had started going through the port.

The settlement and ITLKR system probably saw the goblins and the fuckery right now, too, which meant help was probably on its way… unless the feed was being looped?

Ah.

Fuck.

Mark hoped Yoro was still alive, but could solve this himself.

Mark was currently running a Union of Alacrity/Slowness with his entire being, but since the only type of Union that worked at these speeds was brain, it was mostly a neuron-firing Union.

With a switch of speed down to something much slower, Mark's heart started pumping with a Union of Alacrity/Slowness. It hurt like a motherfucker. Mark's head felt like it was going to explode. But his Body PL was in the 80s, and though his Natural Union was 97 (according to a re-Scan today after all the corruption ooze stuff, to make sure he was okay) and 97 was a lot more than 80s and he could seriously hurt himself with this kinda Union, it wasn't that bad. Could have been worse.

If Mark had had a lower Body PL, he probably couldn't push Alacrity/Slowness as much as he was, right now.

He could have fallen right into a goblin trap, too; that would have hurt a lot worse.

With his Brain, Mark made a Union of Entropy/Energy, targeting the switch at the bottom of the soul of all creatures, targeting the goblin over there, and all of the other vectors hiding out in the grasslands. He was manually applying shavallian to every single one of them. And sure, there were a lot of thoughts about all of that, from the fact that shavallian didn't work on monsters (but these ones had all gone through the Monster Tutorial and it should work) to the fact that this was a capability that Mark should not reveal casually.

But there was nothing casual about this!

Time sped up fractionally now that Mark wasn't devoting all of his energy to Alacrity/Slowness.

Mark stabbed through the world with black lightning, into the goblin waiting by the teleport zone and into every other goblin vector out there. The suited goblin looked Mark's way, its vector going from prepared-for-violence to 'ah shit, time for violence' in a flashing second—

The suited goblin stepped to the side and started running Mark's way, as though moving at full running speed. Everything else was slow. Mark was slow. Three other goblin vectors also moved way, way too fast. Four speedsters, all of them.

This had been a big fucking attack.

Luckily, Speedsters were Body Powers, and Union was Natural, so Mark had absolutely no problem turning off a Speedster if he got the drop on them. Actually injuring a high-tier Speedster with his Union was a lot harder, because bodies were fucking strong at high Power Levels. But interacting with a Speedster at all for the purposes of Union? Easy. Mark didn't even have to use an Adamant/Ethereal wedge to get in there.

Mark's lightning touched upon the enemy at the speed of thought, and one by one, each of them slowed down. Each of them returned to normal time, and Mark's Slowness made them go even slower.

The headache was almost unbearable.

Mark endured.

One by one, each goblin got 'turned off', as Mark imparted a Union of 'shavallian' into them, right into their astral bodies, closing them up from the outside in. The invisible trap spell overhead, full of vectors and whatever, took the longest to close off. It shrank like a deflating balloon, and then it became the rubber goblin that had escaped the purge of the goblin city near the settlement. So it had ballooned itself out so much it became transparent? And then what? That would have captured Mark? Mark wasn't sure.

Mark made very, very sure his helmet fully covered his head, and his scales covered all of his body, because, while the ambush was the bigger problem, Mark did not doubt that there were others waiting out there in the wings. Mark formed a tentative plan, right then and there, to kill the goblins who he couldn't capture, and then fly fast back to the settlement quickly, and to keep his astral body wide so that he couldn't be teleported again, because even if ITLKR wasn't fully compromised, someone in the Empire was working with the goblins.

When Mark was certain every goblin-sized vector around him was turned off, and all they had were their own personal-sized vectors, Mark switched to a full Union of Adamant and Ethereal, taking in everything he needed to heal his erupting headache and to prepare for a possible Round 2, while weakening every goblin as much as he could. Energy/Entropy had turned them off, but they were still high PL's, all around.

Time resumed.