Resonance//Dissonance [BOOK 2 in progress]

The time it took 'Theru to cross the apparently many kilometers Luke's body shot above, in a casual stroll was a perfect oppurtunity to hone his healing skill. Body being coddled by a protective embrace, and part of his mind recording all the info she was spewing at him, most of his focus was once again on the rejuvenation matrix. Whithout the Gaze he felt as if he was working through a fog, but that still allowed him some insight, and a place to improve.

Strand, by strand, the Rejuvenation Matrix was improved, the flow of it perfected, expanded on, creating more issues that needed to be fixed. An endless cycle of improvement brought forth by new failures.

His flesh knitted, blood cells multiplied and bones hardened. He could feel the tendons snap back into place and adapt to the damage, more flexible, more resistant. Truly magnificent.

That feeling was interrupted by 'Theru dropping him onto the remains of the glassed parkinglot Beyond the Veil. As Luke's head bounced off the surface, releasing an unwilling „OW!" he used his senses to take in the damage his Launch caused.

And, oh boy, what damage it was. If the place was ruined before, now it was simply a wasteland. The buildings that stood behind the place Luke launched off from were turned to molten slag, a cone of destruction drilled through the landscape. Power untamed still settling onto the damaged terrain.

The remnenants of the place where he trained Beyond the Veil were unrecognizable to how they looked in The Real. The first thing that blared to his attention was the gathering construct that he build for his Tool of Slaughter, but with a quick pulse of his awarness he found it just at the edge of destruction he caused, slightly damaged but still functional. Luke was quite suprised and happy to see that all of the biomass he left for it to feed on was almost finished. He would have to take a closer look later.

What he did notice more during this quick pulse was the scope of devastation his Ignition caused.

„Oh fuck" he thought to himself. The launching poing was clearly visible, as everything a step behind him turned into a molten teardrop that dug deeper and deeper into the earth. If he thought the ditch his body dug upon his landing was bad, this, this was much, much worse. If filled by water, it was enough to call it a really big pond, or a really, really small lake.

Instead of being happy with the effect, he was almost angered.

„So much wasted power, so much vented energy that could be turned into propulsion, I need to work on my goddamn control." chastising himself he sampled the terrain to gather where he went wrong.

Something smacked him in the face, a petite palm with slender fingers started slaping him quicker and quicker untill he looked directly into 'Theru's eyes.

„Did you even listen to a word I said?"

„Partially, but yes, to all of them."

„...Wrr, what a headache you are, and what even was that that you attempted? What madness took over you?" she asked with as much annoyence as curiosity in her voice. Luke guessed he must have made an impression though his suicidal charge.

„What? That is a good question, it's still far from complete, too faulty, not polished enough, But...I think...for now... The name of …THE SUNBORN DOCTRINE, IGNITION OF WILL"

„...Gods, what a pretentious prick you are, what even is that name?"

„Oi, fuck off, it's a heart given name, I shall not be shamed for it."

„Cringe..." her comment deflated most of the pride out of him, barely leaving a tiny ember spreading light in the dark. That ember persisted against the winds. It held strong.

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„Whatever, why did you decide to come back?"

She seemed almost offended at that question, it seemed to direct, an acknowlegment of her escape, it angered her.

„I came back to get your ass back to work. We got a job, Baldie has a lead for you."

That perked him up. Lost in his madness, he forgot about his Deal. A smidge of shame tainted his excitement now.

„Bummer..." he wheezed as his lungs reinflated between short, ragged breaths, and ribs cracked into place. The sensation of swimming ribs between the folds of his flesh, them realigining and clicking with a muffled thump of bone hitting against bone sent spasms of pain across his body, pain that while still hurt, in contrast to what he expierienced became barely noticable, singular drop during a rainfall.

The moment it splashed in his eyes still made him wince, but where once he would drown in it, now it simply slid off him barely noticed.

He enjoyed this progress too. It was neccessary, it was what was needed.

'Theru eyed him with consternation on her face, she could skim his thoughts more freely now, he was still a tightly kept voult when it came to his real self, but the surface thoughts were more in tune with her, it was clear to her that their time spent together, and her previous attempt showed progress.

Even though he was an oaf, and a big one at that.

He was an oaf she could not understand, a walking, talking, mystery. No Man should be capable of the Trials he chose to go through, to stand and walk further where even Monsters and Warriors of magical pedigree would fall or turn back. How? Why? These questions were repeating non stop even as she left him alone in disgust to process the miasma from his mind that clung to her.

It was disturbing, even to a being of her Kind, one that feasted on heightened emotions and trauma. This was not something natural, but the allure of it was even more because of it.

She watched him in silence as he shambled up to his feet, wobbly legs propping up bruised arms, joints popping and cracking as he barely drew enough strengh to raise from the floor.

Half bent, he started coughing, and a trail of viscous, crimson liquid sprayed from his mouth, deep, growling sounds escaped him as chunks of god knows what left his body.

Unbothered by it, he simply swiped his mouth with his forearm, blood and spit covering his chest, as he exhaled deeply.

„ugh, now what?" he asked as if nothing happened, nonchalant as ever to the grousome reality he considered norm.

„Here." she said as she raised her left arm and a curtain of shadows droppped from under it, suing her right arm she reached into it, and with a yank, 'Theru chucked a human sized piece of glistening meat at him.

Catching it almost threw him off balance enough to fall again, but he managed, fingers digging deeply into the raw flesh.

„A snack for you, I bet you again forgot to feast between those bouts of madness of yours, and I need you focused, not daydreaming with an empty stomach. Eat while we walk to your room, once inside you will put some goddamn pants on at least and listen to me with every bit of attention your empty wallnut of a skull can manage."

And to that, Luke had no response, he simply nodded and started tearing into the huge piece of meat carefree. Not even bothering to ask what it was, he could feel it was quite rich in magic, and the caustic blood didn't even hurt his tongue that much. He had hearburns that were much more painfull than this.

And so he followed her in relative silence, only his chewing and swallowing resounding in the empty building in the magic reality. Whatever spirits, sprites, or critters hid in here before were long scared away by the explosions and reality warping madness that he brought with him.

„Baldie's had to leave the city, with Sebastian in tow with him for some matter that popped up, we are doing this alone." She raised her eyebrow at him „Unless you want some mortals for support?"

He gulped loudly as a fist chunk of meat slid down his gullet and immidietly started sizzling in his magicaly enhanced stomach acid, boiling in it.

„Can you drive?" he asked.

„Why? Of course I can drive, are you asking because I'm a woman?" She asked with pretended anger.

He sigh and answered. „I'm asking because you can traverse the shadows and probably run as fast as a car, there may have been no need for you to get a drivers license, scary lady, back off."

She hmpfed at him and lead further into the building as she spoke.

„Baldie had to go, your little escape happened in the same time as the massive increase in propagation of The Blitz, without rhyme or reason, it simply flooded the streets, spread out in a wave from the White Stone into other districts, and civilians are gettins swallowed by it more and more everyday." the worry in her voice was palpable. „Baldie went out to some meeting with other bosses, he told me that if you heard that the Old Guard is having a meating, you will undestand how big this is"

At the simple mention of The Old Guard, Luke stopped in his tracks and lowered the meat from his mouth. Staring blanky at her in silence, tumulous thoughts raging in his mind, shrouded from her touch. His gaze worried her.

„Erm...Luke?Luke?!" She had to poke him to bring him out of consternation.

„That's bad. It's bad. It's really, really bad." In his lifetime,Luke only witnessed two gatherings of the Old Guard, and both were the outcome of threat big enough to slaughter thousands, a gang war that went far enough to use explosives and live ammo in civilian crowded places, tens of innocent lives exchanged for one target, and when kidnapped women were whored out in the city by Ukrainian channels, it took the combined might of all the Old Guard to murder all the pimps, close off all the delivery points and locate and eradicate the distribution and holding facilities near the border.

The organ harvesting stations were the worst, he was there. It changed him. The taste of bile never left his mouth after that.

Thousands of lives were lost.

This was bigger than he expected.

It was much more real.

„Oh fuck, fuck, fuck, what do we need to do now?" he turned to grab her with his palm still slick with blood and viscera. She tried to move away in disgust but he did not relent, his gaze heavy, he repated.

„What, do we do, now?!"

She froze under the weight of his stare, gulped her saliva and answered.

„Now? We go to the spot I scouted out, I think I found one of their distribution spots. Gear up."

And that he did, pushing her behind himself, dropping the slab of meat and heading towards the basement of the building where he hoped all of his shopping list was waiting for him, and for the action to come.