The Path to Loss (Approaching Infinity Book 4) (36 page)
Read The Path to Loss (Approaching Infinity Book 4) Online
Authors: Chris Eisenlauer
“Yes, Lord Emperor,” the man said.
“Cov Merasec. Your training roster is rather limited these days.”
“Lord Emperor?”
“I have a proposition for you. And perhaps a new trainee as well.”
General, 19th Generation, Retired
Category:
F-Gene Fighter
The Longsword Knife, Secret Sword
165 cm
70 kg
25
1,750
100
9,794.356
Suicide Knife
20
35,000
2,000
9,850-10,350
1026
While Dark with the Suicide Knife, Stoakes is sheathed in shadow and seems to possess little substance; he is more like a dark, animate mist, though he is in fact solid at his core. In this state he weighs a single kilogram and can float given strong enough winds or thermals.
Though Stoakes is an accomplished, self-taught fighter, the Suicide Knife has the ability to capture the image of up to 20,000 individuals in the Midnight Mirror, the reflective surface of the dark blade, and subject them to mass suicide. When an image is recorded upon the Midnight Mirror, Stoakes stabs himself to have the effects dealt to the reflections’ owners.
The Knife provides other powers that, combined with Stoakes’s skill, have made him quite useful to the Emperor as a covert operator, even in his retirement.
First General, 21st Generation
Category:
F-Gene Fighter, Superior Grade
18 Heavenly Claws
172 cm
73 kg
30
2,190
500
??,???.???
Kaiser Bones
20
43,800
10,000
10,682.031-Current (replaced Karlan Farsal)
Root Palace
Jav was the Block 2 champion at the 10,688 Artifact Competition. He won the Kaiser Bones, and thus replaced the ailing Ritual Mask and removed the imminent death sentence that came along with it.
While Dark with the Kaiser Bones, Jav looks like a stylized skeleton, with the actual bones providing excellent protection. The space between the bones is inky black that seems like animate “nothing” and offers somewhat less protection. Besides the standard augmentation, the Bones enable Jav to animate and control up to 20,000 skeletons, making them rise from their graves and fight on his behalf. He can sense bone matter, “feeling” it as well as “seeing” it through earth or flesh and blood. The Bones also make Jav exceptionally resilient in that they respond quickly to physical damage, rebuilding and restoring tissue at a fantastic rate.
Though Jav’s original Artifact, the Ritual Mask, remains intact, it has not been accessible to him since the events on Planet 1406 involving Garlin Braams.
General, 21st Generation
Category:
Psychic
Electrokinesis
246 cm
230 kg
10
2,300
2,900
10,533.124
Resurrection Bolts
20
46,000
58,000
10,689-Current
Root Palace
On receipt of the Resurrection Bolts, Raus Kapler’s skin color underwent a permanent change. His skin is now pale and seemingly translucent, revealing a gray or even greenish hue beneath. The Resurrection Bolts are visible as smooth metal circles on either side of his neck until he goes Dark, when the Bolts extend out beyond his skin. When Dark, his skin darkens further and more metal bolts rise up along the lengths of his arms and along his spine.
The Bolts enhance Raus physically, as is the case with all Artifacts, but they significantly increase his ability to produce electricity to both heal and destroy. His ability to stimulate regeneration of lost tissue makes him one of the most resilient Shades ever produced, though his power is not on par with that of Lor Kalkin. The Bolts also enable him to infuse the dead with a portion of his power, bringing up to 20,000
corpses back to a semblance of life, and which he alone can control.
While not as focused or well-developed as Jav Holson’s ability to sense bone, Kapler is able to “feel” the presence of likely raw materials for his power, if only vaguely.
General, 21st Generation
Category:
NA
NA
190 cm
140 kg
50
7,000
7,000
Unknown
Relic Cords
20
140,000
140,000
10,690-Current
Root Palace
Icsain does not undergo a physical change when he goes Dark. While not technically a psychic himself, his intellect and ability to simultaneously calculate multiple probabilities give him an exceptional defense against psychic assault. They also enable him to exploit the Relic Cords in a way that Karlan Farsal never could. With the Cords, Icsain can control up to 140,000 individuals and need not focus on any single one or group after a set of instructions has been given. With instructions, any being under the control of the Cords will complete assigned tasks, using limited critical thinking skills to accomplish the required goal or die in the attempt. Once the goal has been accomplished, the being under control will wait idle for further instructions.
General, 21st Generation
Category:
NA
NA
175 cm
150 kg
15
2,250
2,000
10,624.060
Creation Cogs
20
45,000
40,000
10,691-Current
Root Palace
Among Shades, Gilf Scanlan is perhaps unique. Though he is possessed of a vast and creative intellect, he has the RPP and PPP of a normal. Because of his inherent human weakness, the Creation Cogs have permanently altered Scanlan so that he is Dark at all times and cannot revert to his human form. He sees no downside to this and has already taken steps to further augment his physical form to close the gap that remains between himself and other Shades.
From the monocle covering his right eye, Scanlan can direct a beam of sorts, which gives rise to intricate clockwork machinery which adheres to any design principle he can imagine. He can create incredible volumes of this machinery, spraying it into place with the application of the beam. Even after the immediate influence of the beam has passed, the machinery continues to exhibit startling organic properties,
growing
to completion.
First Specialist, Titan Squad
Category:
F-Gene Fighter / Psychic
Single Element Ghost Sword / 20% Physical Augmentation
180 cm
80 kg
25
2,000
1,000
10,663.015
Titan Star
22
44,000
22,000
10,688-Current
Root Palace
While Dark, Forbis Vays is clad in a gleaming suit of angular armor that will conform, to some degree, to his will to temporarily adapt to circumstances. Along with its excellent defensive properties, the Titan Star also provides a potent weapon, the Titan Saber, which is housed within the helmet, its hilt forming the distinctive horn rising up from the forehead.
When Vays invokes his psychic ability to augment his physical characteristics by an additional 20%, his armor undergoes a physical change in order to release the power.
When sufficiently enraged while Dark, Vays gains access to the Grudge Star, a devastating attack that crucifies his opponents and subjects them to six explosions, the intensity of which are determined by a combination of the degree of his indignation and his composure in the face of that indignation.
Specialist, Titan Squad
Category:
Psychic
Suggestion/Compulsion
157 cm
45 kg
5
225
4,200
10,664.304
Dharma Engine
18
4,050
75,600
10,688-Current
Root Palace
Brin’s Artifact becomes visible at her back when she goes Dark, but otherwise she doesn’t change physically. She has the innate ability to make people do what she says. In general, her victims must be able to hear her voice, but she is able to transmit her power, chaining it between minds when they are in close proximity to one another.
Of course her Artifact substantially increases this ability, but it also enables her to inflict the Dharma Clock on individual victims. This attack crucifies the victim and forces him or her submit to first psychological then physical trauma according to “guilt” they feel based on criteria—genuine, manufactured, or twisted—set by Brin.
Specialist, Titan Squad
Category:
F-Gene Fighter / Psychic
Darkness Piercing Spear Hand / Intangibility
45 kg
150 cm
30
1,350
4,500
10,676.304
Attenuated Splitter
20
27,000
90,000
10,700-Current
Root Palace
When Dark, Hilene becomes sheathed in a perfect, flexible shell of silvery steel, with an oversized helmet that completely obscures her face. Some have speculated that the the predefined design was meant to emulate the look of the Gun Golems that so plagued the Empire years prior to Hilene’s inauguration as a Shade.
Hilene’s psychic ability to become intangible highly augments her RPP, making all of her physical attacks extremely potent since they can bypass any defense while transmitting maximum damage. Besides allowing Hilene to temporarily split into 10 independent duplicates, the Attenuated Splitter further adds to her deadly strikes by identifying structural weaknesses in any and all targets.
She is an expert with the Darkness Piercing Spear Hand, winning the Artifact Competition of 10,700, in which she voluntarily and under no obligation fought without the benefit of her psychic power. The nickname
Secret Weapon
fits her perfectly.
Specialist, Titan Squad
Category:
Psychic
Juggernaut Form
175 cm
70 kg
30
2,100 (7,100)
5,000
10,675.015
Alloyed Splitter
20
42,000 (142,000)
100,000
10,700-Current
Root Palace
Nils Porta’s innate ability is to restructure his body into a single alternate form. The reconstruction, though painful, is essentially harmless to him, but results in an inhuman configuration, with bone piercing through the skin to form a dense carapace studded with sharp spurs. In this form, he gains free movement through limited telekinetic means and a kind of radar sense that allows him to sense his surroundings and navigate. The Alloyed Splitter has taken some of the horror—and all of the pain—out of the transformation and improved upon it substantially. He becomes a juggernaut of impossibly strong alloy able to break apart into smaller, identical versions of his larger self, which can swarm like insects and reform a single solid at will. Because his power is essentially physical Porta’s RMP is added to his RPP when transformed to give a more accurate reading of his actual strength and hardness.