IV-10 Legend (Patreon)

There is a kind of peace one attains through self-murder. At the end of your delve, the final enemy so often is a replica of yourself. A mirror image that stands before you, capable of all your skills, and unfettered of your ethical or mental burdens.

It takes more than martial mastery to slay oneself in combat. All you know will be given unto your replica as well. Every blow you strike will be known to them. There will be no technique you can create that is beyond them. There is no knowledge you hold that can be masked from their understanding.

And so when you first face yourself, you will fail. Because the delve seeks to sharpen you. It seeks to place you at a severe disadvantage. Think of how skilled you are. Now think of facing your absolute equal while still having to protect someone else. What are your odds of victory?

Here is the finest lesson of becoming Legendary. It is the despair in facing an unburdened version of yourself. You must be flawless. You must remain unshaken, failure after failure. And you must adjust your skill until you reach a point where it is perfected for the quest, and use it to overcome your replica.

This is where most fail. The battle against the mirror. The duel against a mockery of your being. Everything before is simulated from previous triumphs or defeats. But what retrospect can one truly wield against themselves? That is something you must answer.

And in seeking that answer, your true Legendary Skill will take form. Or your mind and spirit will break. And you will forever be trapped in the delve against yourself. To suffer a purgatory worse than hell. To know that the best of you was never enough. That you couldn’t overcome your limitation. That you cannot defeat yourself.

Thus, I remind you again that death is not so severe. The deepest sleep inflicts no pain. But there is no medicine for one broken by the self.

For how will you flee from your own heart?

-Legend: Reforged from Ruin, Written by Semper Paragon Caine Hauser of the Descenders Union

IV-10

Legend

Applying Partial Skill Evolution: Leviathan of the Shapeless Tides 500 (Legendary)

Shiv listened to his insides roar with a surge of building force as he fell through cloud after cloud. The next thing he noticed was how the wind and air friction traced waves of dense, vector-shaped mana across his body. Cascading tides of kinetic energy flowed across Shiv in the opposition direction of the forces acting on him. The pointed ripples were nested below his inertial sheath, but his Physicality and Reflexes affected in each other in ways grander than the sum of their parts.

The sheath shuddered to life in seconds. It leeched off the sheer amount of power spilling out from Shiv’s core. He felt heavier than ever, and the amount of kinetic energy flowing through his marrow only grew by the second. The force waves that crashed in from the outside were nowhere to be seen. Instead of being the eye of a collapsing maelstrom, Shiv felt like he was the heart of a bomb. A bomb that just kept detonating inside him without end.

“I guess I did ask for more control,” Shiv said, observing his hands. The way his skill expressed itself was just strange. Pointed currents of force danced across him—these currents crashed against each other two. With every impact, Shiv felt another thunderclap go off inside him. Yet, the power was entirely contained. There were no waves of uncontrollable destruction overflowing from him. Nothing at all. “Alright. So you’re subtle now. But how do I use you?”

He ignored how the cobblestone path leading up to the main entrance of Starhawk’s Perch was fast approaching him. Falling wasn’t going to kill him, and he didn’t see anyone in the vicinity. Shiv was going to spend his time figuring his new ability out instead of wasting it on pointless worries. He pushed lightly on the dense bands of mana washing over his body. As soon as he did, a trickle of force manifested in the real world. Kinetic energy rushed along the pointed vector, and Shiv found himself dragged through the air at low speeds.

Okay. That’s a lot more control over my movement already, Shiv thought. His previous Skill Evolution allowed him constant build his force up, but the bone-grinding pressures that emanated out of him in a wide radius and the destructive shockwaves he left in his wake were still issues. Right now, it seemed like all the force circulating through him remained dormant until he deliberately drew upon the waves.

Shiv was going to do something else, he promptly impacted the ground. To his surprise, he felt a rush of kinetic energy spike into him at the moment of landing. He circulated that flow of force across his body—and the ground didn’t break. It didn’t even crack. Not even the dust in the air was unsettled. Shiv’s jaw dropped wide open as he just kept guiding the seized tide of kinetic energy around himself. 

But it washed through him different from the other ripples of force—the ripples that originated from his body. This foreign-origin ripple glided across him with stripped lines, while the others remained solid. What’s more, the moment he took his focus away from it, a thunderclap escaped him. The nearby grass rustled, and the ground shook beneath his feet. He regained control of the stripped ripple once more and prevented the rest from leaving his body like a bomb.

By now, his Inertial Overdrive was humming. It made the solid tides washing through him faster, with more frequency. Shiv ignored that for a beat and looked at his hands. He concentrated the force he stole from his rendezvous with the ground in his fists, at the tips of his fingers. Then, slowly, he released it. It left his hands as popping bursts that sounded like cannon fire.

Shiv blinked at his hands as his lips twitched. A smile soon spread across his face and he nodded. “Alright. I constantly generate my own kinetic ripples and circulate outside forces within my body and reuse them. Not bad. Not felling bad at all.”

Initiating Encounter (1/5)

His eyes squinted at the notification. A thicken stream of Pyromancy sliced up into the clouds once more. The elemental golem was back, and it was about to become Shiv’s first test subject for his new Skill Evolution. “Let’s see how launching myself around feels like now.” Shiv focused on the solid waves of dormant force circulating along his body. He noticed how the currents of force spread out from his chest and abdomen before they rolled along his limbs. A frown usurped his smile as he also realized the bursts of dormant force weren’t being retained indefinitely. Every time the waves got to his fingers and toes, they would cease to be.

Shiv tried holding onto them. He flexed his muscles and focused on circulating the tides of force washing over him. To his delight, the dormant forces continued flowing, and Shiv felt his kinetic tides merge and build to new levels of power. However, the moment he started circulating his internal forces, they went from solid to striped in definition.

Screams sounded from the distance, but Shiv spent a while longer examining himself. “Okay. So, it’s probably not an internal-external thing. There’s probably a standard amount of force I generate with each series of dormant tides, and everything else is listed as excess. Which makes them striped.”

That was his best guess as to his current system, and he soon found himself more mentally taxed by how many striped tides he was cycling through his body. The moment he lost track of a tide, it accelerated out of him in a spike of force along the direction it was point. That caused Shiv to be torn from his feet and speared through the walls of Starhawk’s Perch. He then promptly slammed head-first into a slave child who was just staring at the wall.

Instead of the small boy turning to a bloody smear, Shiv pulled a new overflow-tide of force into himself. He went still in an instant. The slave child remained unharmed. The Deathless let out a tense breath as he pushed himself off the ground. “Shit. Could’ve ended up restarting the whole quest right here.”

The slave boy turned and smiled at Shiv. “Thanks for saving me, Pathbearer. I love your food.”

Shiv just stared at the slave child, trying to figure out why he said those words.

Psycho-Cartography: Because they’re the ones you want to hear. You want to matter. You want to feel strong after a lifetime of being little more than vermin in the eyes of most people. And you want to feel like more than a monster, so the cooking matters to you. Everything about his praise is pretty predictable. And so are you.

“Why do I get the feeling that you’re judging me?” Shiv asked his Psychology Skill. When it didn’t reply, he just let out a scoff. A loud boom sounded outside, and Shiv ruffled the slave boy’s head. “Alright. Find someplace safe to hide, fake kid who’s actually dead. I’m gonna go and shove this elemental golem’s core up 811’s ass.”

“Thanks for saving me, Pathbearer. I love your food.” The slave boy smiled. Burped as if he was full. And then smiled again.

Shiv tried not to shudder at how creepy the reaction was. 

He left through the hole he made in the castle and used up some of his overflowing tides. He pointed their direction toward sky just as he stepped outside, and he blasted off into the air. The world zoomed. He let out a grunt of surprise and realized he could convert some of the air currents dragging against him for more overflow-tides. As he did just that, he caught sight of the elemental golem as it rampaged down a narrow alley. Behind it were dozens of unmoving bodies. Some were burned, little more than blackened lumps of meat. Others were twitching and wet—deaths by electrocution. The real unfortunates were the ones that the golem pulverized with its body. They were pasted against the walls in ugly displays of gore.

The Deathless knew they weren’t real, but something about their deaths bothered him. Probably the fact he already failed them once.

Psycho-Cartography: Maybe it is because their hands were often even uglier. The people the golem pulped still looked better than the poor kid 811 killed. Or all the unlucky slaves that the Jealousy fell on.

Shiv was beginning to wonder if the Psychology Skill was faulty. It was pretty useful earlier when he needed to figure out how someone was thinking and what to say if he wanted to provoke them. Now, it seemed the skill was doing its best to turn all the discomfort on Shiv. “I need to find another target for you to focus on.”

Psycho-Cartography: Evading discomfort doesn’t solve it. It just makes you a pussy. This world hates pussies. You know that.

As Shiv descended on the elemental golem, he tried not to be annoyed by his Psychology Skill. “Are you deliberately trying to provoke me?”

Psycho-Cartography: You are, dumbshit. I am you. I am a part of you. Stop getting offended by yourself and realize that I am the closest thing to a semi-rational mind you have. If I didn’t bother you would probably just ignore what I said and keep making the same mistakes.

“I—” Shiv wanted to reject that claim, but he couldn’t. He knew the skill was right, but it was hard not to be bothered by it in some ways.

Psycho-Cartography: Yes. Being imperfect in an extremely hostile that wants to felling kill you all the time should make you feel that way. You more than anyone else. The system hates us, and with every weakness I uncover in you, we knew that our odds of survival are worse than we assumed. Ignorance is a tasty nipple, but we’ve always been a motherless godsdamned monster. Deal with it. Or don’t. And suffer. Remember you’re still going to need to fight yourself later. We can’t affords weaknesses with evil you. Not even one.

A bitter taste crawled up the back of Shiv’s throat as he spiked himself down. He used up all his overflow-tides and discovered another wonderful thing about his current skill: the force leaving his body would only flow in the direction he moved them. That meant no uncontrolled shockwaves exploding out from his person unless he allowed it. It also meant perfect force economy. Not a single bit of energy wasted.

Unfortunately, Shiv underestimated just how much kinetic energy he was cycling through himself. He struck the golem just as it prepared to unleash its Pyromancy at a group of Pathbearers cornered at the end of the all. The golem wasn’t just crushed by Shiv’s stomp—it was outright disintegrated. But then Shiv kept going. He tunneled through the ground and ripped through a few kilometers of stone and mana conducting crystal that constituted Blackedge’s foundations.

“Shitshitshit!” Shiv snarled himself. Crashing waves of overflowing force rushed up toward his head as he continued burrowing through Blackedge. He seized these overflow-tides and went still in an instant. By this point, the lower half of his body was sticking out from the bottom of Blackedge. Looking up, Shiv’s eyes widened as he realized he left a clean tunnel in his wake. “Broken Felling Moon… That was a bit more kick than I was expecting.”

And so he discovered the first downside of his Legendary Skill. He needed to get good at judging how much force he was unleashing. The overflow-tides still thundered like the innate pulses of force Shiv generated, but he needed to focus on them for a moment to guess just how much dormant kinetic energy each ripple possessed.

But still, no shockwaves. No unstable explosions or fireballs destroying everything around him. Blackedge remained relatively unharmed.

“Legendary Skills are pretty godsdamned awesome,” Shiv commented to himself.

Encounter Complete (1/5)

Adjusting Legendary Skill…

When he launched himself back up the tunnel, he let out a hiss of pain. A few muscle tears radiated with searing heat from his lower back and hamstrings. Shiv fed those injuries to his Aegis of Assimilation, and tried to figure out how he hurt himself. It didn’t take long.

It’s the sudden stopping. All that force is being converted into me, but I still have Inertial Overdrive active. Any bit of momentum that I don’t manage to cycle through my body will end up hurting me. Shiv shook his head in disbelief. This damned skill is going to be straining my Awareness and Multi-Tasking, too. That, or I need to start moving with the pillar active all the time. That should blunt some damage.

Shiv erupted out of the tunnel just in time for the next encounter. He grimaced as he realized his mistake: He didn’t rip the golem’s mana core out. Now what was he going to shove up 811’s ass?

“His own weapon will do,” Shiv grunted in resignation.

But that didn’t go well either. The following “battle” between Shiv and 811 happened in three parts. The orc took a swing at him. Shiv converted 811’s attack into an overflow-tide before ripping the orc’s mace out of his hand. Then, Shiv tried to position mace-to-ass and missed. The resulting hit turned the orc into a faint cloud of red. One that painted Shiv’s body.

He glared blankly at the sky as he resolved to work more on his dexterity.

Then, it came time to face the Jealousy again, and Shiv did so with renewed vigor. Of all his foes, the Jealousy was the one Shiv looked forward to the most. It wasn’t because it was fun or easy to fight the Greater Demon, but more that he wished to find out just how his current Legendary Skill would handle magic. So far, this skill was more Physicality than resistance, but considering how the force-tides expressed itself as unattuned mana, Shiv knew his Magical Resistance was still there in some form.

The Jealousy materialized atop the spire, and Shiv rose through the air to greet it.

“Daring morsel!” the Jealousy cackled with glee. “Come. Offer mind. Easy feed. Good day!” 

It pointed its large, purple eye at him. He could feel its mana field twisted around him, and to his astonishment, feel it dragging against his body. Shiv’s vectors flared brighter. The unattuned mana turned translucent. Oh, fuck yeah! He tried to reach out and grab the field itself, but found it kind of like pinching firm skin. There wasn’t much he could find purchase on.

But I can touch it! Shiv thought. I can feel the Psychomancy field.

A hundred-meter-long psionic spear burst free from the Jealousy’s eye. It tore through the air and struck Shiv dead on. He didn’t pause time. He didn’t try to dodge. The innate tides of force washing over his body remained unattuned until he caught the spell with his bare hands. Then his tides all went translucent once more.

The shapes and spell patterns that constituted the spell felt concrete; something Shiv could hold on to and manipulate. Yet, he also felt no overflowing tide of force spill into him from the spell. Instead, it crashed against his innate tides in a cataclysmic clash. Shiv growled with exertion as he was physically pushed back through the air. He directed all the innate tides rippling out from his body toward the spell. With the first ripple, he stalemated the spell; after the second, he overpowered it entirely.

“What is this?” the Jealousy hissed in surprise. Just as the spells lack of convertible force caught Shiv off guard, his ability to wrestle with its mana like it was a physical object left the Jealousy reeling.

But Shiv didn’t let go of the spell or swat it aside. Instead, he growled as another series of waves swept through his body. He infused his tides into his arms and pulled them in opposite directions. Shiv’s body was consumed by Psychomancy mana as he ripped the Jealousy’s spell in half.

The Greater Demon wailed a note of deafening agony as its mana field was lacerated. “HURTS! PAIN! NO! NO! RUN! LET ME GO! PAIN—” Its thoughts turned to screams as Shiv flung himself into its eye.

Blood splattered around him. He didn’t care. Whips of lashing Hydromanacy mana crashed against him. Shiv caught and snapped them with his hands as well. It took a bit less effort to break the Jealousy’s Hydromancy compared to its Psychomancy, but it was still much more of a struggle than dealing with physical force.

But Shiv realized something—both his Magical Resistance and Physicality were intertwined. He could use the overflow-tides he cycled to overcome any kind of mana. Right now, he was operating at a baseline state, and that left him limited. He wasn’t actually weaker in terms of Magical Resistance, he just didn’t understand his skill well enough yet. 

In fact, this was much better than having an adaptive mana field that absorbed mana damage but could do nothing else.

“PLEASE! NO! NOT PREY! VOID LEVIATHAN! KNOW YOUR SKILL! KNOW THIS POWER! VOID LEVIATHAN! MERCY!”

“Void Leviathan?” Shiv asked. But then his attention was stolen by another detail. As he sank his fingers into the Jealousy’s mangled eye, his tides of force spilled out from him into the Jealousy as well, reminding him that this wasn’t just a mix between his Physicality and Magical Resistance—it was a Legendary Grappling Skill too.

And that made him realize that he was still a bit too messy in terms of combat. He needed to stop hitting things all the time. With this skill, he could hold them, control them, and break them without smashing through anything or risking any collateral damage at all.

Shiv tested his new grappling by pressing his hands together and compressing the Jealousy. The Greater Demon cried out. Shiv gritted his teeth as he found a cracking barrier he needed to break through before he finally started squeezing the Jealousy into pulp. He blinked as he guessed the barrier to be the Jealousy’s Magical Resistance.

Right. That’s something else I have to deal with now. My strength affects both matter and magic now.

The Jealousy tried to swing its massive tentacles at Shiv in a last-ditch effort at staying alive. He slammed his palms together inside its collapsing eye. The Jealousy gave a keening wail as wave after wave of force swirled through its body before they all rushed to its epicenter. The four-hundred-meter Greater Demon turned to red paste as it molded down to a fifty-meter sphere of thicken viscera and powdered bone. 

Shiv let out a euphoric laugh at this overwhelming display of power and decided to celebrate by punting the Jealousy into the distance. That didn’t go quite as expected, though, as Shiv found his foot buried inside the Jealousy flesh-ball instead.

The Deathless winced as the mangled remains slipped from his right foot and impaled itself atop the tip of Starhawk’s Perch. “Yeah, alright. I’m kind of just bending force unnaturally now, instead of directing gravity or something. I probably should’ve channeled a wave of force through the Jealousy instead of my foot if I wanted to kick it like that.”

Physics 1 > 2

Encounter Complete (3/5)

Adjusting Legendary Skill…

Initiating Encounter (4/5)

And then it was time to face the Recollector again. Unlike the last few times, Shiv was looking forward to this showdown quite a bit. He knew he could reliably beat the Recollector now, thanks to his improved skills and vitality drain.

But the eldritch being was a dangerous foe, one that he couldn't let his guard down against even now. If he gave it a single opening, one of its past selves could slam into Blackedge and cause enough damage for the delve to be reset. So Shiv's strategy remained the same, he was going to intercept it, he was going to hold it in place, and he was going to drain it. But on top of that, he was going to find out just how much external force he could convert. He didn't suffer any strain cycling forces that acted upon him prior, so he wondered if there was truly a limit. And if not, well, that would really make things interesting.

As the Recollector spawned in at the edge of town, Shiv met it head on before the eldritch being could spew any nonsense statements or unleash that annoying scream. Shiv smashed his palm against one of its eyes and directed a wave of force through its body. A tide of kinetic energy slashed across the Recollector and suddenly twisted downward at an angle as Shiv unleashed its full might. The middle finger extending from the Recollector's hand-shaped head snapped backward at the joint. The eldritch being let out a cry of alarm more than pain. That cry made Shiv's vision spin.

"Hate your goddamn noises," he snarled under his breath. He recovered just in time to see every last one of the Recollector's eyes glaring at him.

Beams of magic smashed against his person. Concurrently, the Recollector launched itself forward, slashing channels of Chronomancy impacting Shiv. But he wrestled them aside with brute force. His muscles strained as he struggled to hold the golden mana back. But then the strain vanished altogether as the Recollector drove itself against him. Overflowing tides of striped force flooded Shiv. They turned gold as Shiv converted them for his own use. Instead of being a danger, the Recollector’s own physical attacks became an additional resource Shiv could use to counter its magic, to deliver brutal blows against its body.

But Shiv did have a limit. The limit was his focus. Shiv was a generator and conduit for forces now. But that meant he needed to circulate every bit of kinetic energy and momentum that greeted him. And for the first time, his mind failed his body. A blast of force swept out across Shiv's torso and three ribs snapped as a chorus, and throbbing spots of pain tightened into knots within his abdomen.

Shiv ignored his injuries and retaliated against the Recollector before it could continue pressing its advantage. It was unleashing too much force against him, too much for his mind to accommodate all at once, so he decided to deliver everything it gifted him right back. All his overflowing force, along with a pulse of innate energy, was unleashed in the form of a closing hand. 

Shiv's tides washed down from him, splashed over the Recollector. Its past selves tried to break apart, tried to flee, but Shiv's grip clutched its magic in a vice. The past selves of the Recollector screamed as the golden mana lining their form cracked underneath the pressure. Its present self writhed and struggled. More magic was unleashed through its eyes. Magic then hammered against Shiv, briefly driving him back. 

He almost felt himself get launched forward into the future, but then another flood of innate force was generated, and he parried the Chronomancy spell, swatting it aside with the palm of his hand. Frictionless Vector triggered. It diffracted off at an angle, cleaving up into the sky, and then Shiv was on the Recollector again. It tried to escape. He wouldn't allow it. 

He tore its flesh wide open, tore its magical fields open too. One after another, its past selves screamed as a wailing symphony, and though Shiv felt his mind suffer damage, he fought on using instinct alone.

He nested himself inside the Recollector, and materialized his Pillar of Orichalcum. Afterward, he discharged his inertial sheath that had been building all this time. When the blast left him, Shiv felt an overwhelming series of force ripples crash against his body. Theoretically, he might be able to absorb his own inertial discharge as well, using that as more fuel for his strength. 

The insides of the Recollector splattered apart, but the inertial discharge was not enough to deal fatal damage. It was a brutal wound, but one that the eldritch creature could survive. What it couldn't survive was the vitality drain that followed thereafter. The vitality drain coupled with Shiv's unseen tides. He held it in a vice-like grip, but it struggled against him, and as it did, he turned its strength back in on itself.

Shiv was beginning to notice something about Legendary Skills now. It was more than just the baseline application of the skill. At the start, his Physicality gave him more mass, because that's what he needed to survive the golems, and then allowed him tactile control over gravity, because he needed that to wrestle and dominate beasts far larger than him. 

The Heroic-Tier Physicality and Grappling Fusion Skill he would have gotten thereafter was about cultivating more strength and making it punishing for anyone to advance near him. It would have given him greater control against nearby enemies, and eventually, it would allow him to contend with threats he wouldn't be able to overpower with Gravitic Wrestler alone. 

Now, at Legendary, it seemed that he wasn't manipulating force, but rather the very idea of force itself. Force became a resource for him, a resource that he could generate, a resource that he could reuse. With every skill evolution, he wasn't just getting more powerful, he was getting closer to the root of the skill, gaining more control over the fundamental idea of the skill itself. And now, he spent and wielded his strength in ways he couldn't imagine even a few minutes prior.

"This was something else," Shiv muttered to himself as the Recollector dissolved into faint streams of life force that gave a final cry, but died during its feeble lamentations as it settled inside Shiv, like swamp inhaled steam. This time, Blackedge remained totally undamaged, not even the ground was cracked, not even the clouds were disturbed. The Recollector was an overwhelmingly strong force. It destroyed Gate Theborn in a short period during its battle against Shiv.

And despite everything, despite the agitation nested deep in his heart, despite his anxiety, his worry for Adam, for Uva, for everyone he was supposed to save, despite being trapped in a cage built specifically to hold something like him, and despite the ascendance, the problem of the ascendance looming on the horizon, Shiv felt joy, true joy, true pleasure, at reaching Legendary. But it wasn't enough. He wasn't satisfied, and it wasn't enough. He'd come a long way. He'd learned a great many things, and he still had so much left to learn. He still had so much left to experience.

I need to evolve further, Shiv thought, but it wasn't a desperate want anymore. It wasn't a blind gluttonous desire. There was a sublime beauty to be gained in overcoming struggles that once left you broken, and overcoming them with casual ease. Shiv looked toward the sky and clenched his jaw. He felt ready this time. Maybe he wouldn't win immediately. Maybe he would need a few more tries until he figured out how to overcome his own clone. But he had a plan, a fairly direct one at that. 

Previously, his clone had too many options. They would attack him using a golem, distract him using a golem. They would assault Blackedge from numerous different directions. Directions that Shiv simply couldn't prepare for. The space was too wide, too large for him to cover, and his clone was just as fast, just as strong, just as destructive. Shiv knew his clone probably also had this legendary skill, but that just made this fight entirely even. 

He needed to get his hands on his clone and just grapple with them. Force this into a duel Grapple and kill them by breaking their neck or something.

Before his clone arrived, he began making his own Vitae Golem. This time, Shiv added something special to the Golem. He infused it with the Animancy skills he took from his most recent real-life victims. After that, he sent a simple command, "Disable the other Golem with whatever means you can." He didn't know how to use Animancy, and he didn't know what his Golem was going to do, but that was fine. 

The skill infusion used the feats and stories stored within the skill itself, and so the golem would do as the Animancy might while they were alive. Shiv granted his golem Unseen Tide, Inertial Overdrive, Chronomancy, and Pillar as well. Putting this all together took a considerable amount of vitality out of Shiv. He found himself weakened, but if his golem could prevail against his clones, then it wouldn't be just a one-on-one brawl, it would be a two-on-one. And Shiv really liked his odds, two-on-one.

Initiating Encounter (5/5)

A final notification appeared in Shiv's eyes, and his clone descended. He sank down from the clouds, and Shiv studied his mirror self once more. Just as he thought, the clone had his legendary skill as well. Pointed ripples of unattuned mana spread out from the clone's core and circulated down the length of his limbs. The clone's Biomancy was also alive with anticipation. His twelve mana hydras were reared back, prepared to strike. Shiv cracked his neck and stretched his own Aegis out, accepting his other self's challenge.

"So, back here again," his clone called out. He didn't attack immediately this time, which made Shiv narrow his eyes. His clone had all his skills, and that meant that they had Psycho-Cartography as well.

"Yeah, I'm back again," Shiv said. "And I'll keep coming back unti—”

“You finally break me or some other bullshit," the clone said, rolling his eyes. "Holy hell, hearing myself talk makes me want to puke. You know what you sound like? You sound like one of those drunkards who used to start fights at the Swan-Eating Toad."

Shiv wanted to say he didn't, but a lot of his threats and his declarations of bravado were a bit like belligerent drunkards. "I don't really slur that much," Shiv shot back.

"You don't," his clone agreed with a slight nod, "but you're about as stupid. At least the way you act is about as stupid."

Shiv just frowned at the clone. "You know that applies to you as well, right? If you're calling me an idiot…"

"I'm an idiot too," the clone said, without any hesitation. "But whose fault is that? I'm not the one that's real here. I'm just a figment of this delve. You're the fuck up I'm based off of."

"Fuck up?" Shiv growled. Something inside his stomach tightened when his Psycho-Cartography skill warned him to focus to stay calm. The clone was obviously trying to provoke him. Unfortunately, calm wasn't something Shiv spent a lot of time being, especially not in recent days.

"Yeah, fuck up," the clone said, gesturing at Blackedge. "This place is based off of your fuck ups. Look at all the dead people down there. All those Pathbearers, those umbrils, those slaves. How many of them do you think you killed? How many of them do you think died when you let off a discharge or when you smashed through a building? Without thinking about what you were doing."

"Most," Shiv said, swallowing his discomfort. "Maybe all. I know that. That's why I'm here. That's probably why this Delve Quest exists."

"Yeah, that's why this Delve Quest exists," the clone agreed, but there was a hint of sarcasm in his voice. "It exists because you're sloppy. Collateral damage is inevitable," the clone finished, and he actually sounded disgusted by that admission.

"That's bullshit. Or at least, it could be reduced if we had just thought things through, if we had done more planning. Before you go on about not being trained, what did it cost to do a little bit more thinking? You had time. That's not an excuse. You just didn't spend any of it building out a better plan. You had to act."

Psycho-Cartography: It's best not to flinch at these accusations. The clone is not wrong. That's why he is provoking your ire. Provoking your anger. Accept it. Deal with the frustration to move on.

"Yeah, you're right," Shiv said, even though saying those words made him want to slam his head into a wall. "But again, that's why we're here, isn't it? So I can finally get that lesson through my head. So I can finally learn."

"You're here because you want more power," the clone said with a sigh. "I'm sure you'll try to learn these lessons. You try to do everything. Trying is not your problem. Your problem is that you forget. Your problem is that the system wants to kill you. And because it does, because you're going to have the whole world hunting you, you can't even afford to be yourself. Because you’re not enough. You were never enough.”

Shiv almost began arguing, but the clone's final words brought him to silence. He waited for the clone to keep talking, to hear more of what this replica of him had to say.

"Look at us. Look at us, really. We came this far because of our Path. Yeah, what other qualities do we have? We're real focused when we do things. Our attention borders on obsession when we practice our trade. That's why we're such a reliable cook. That's why Georges wanted to give us a path in the first place. I guess we're brave too, but maybe it's just reckless. After all what do we have to lose before?"

"Our lives," Shiv said.

"Our lives," the clone laughed. "What life? We were despised. We were barely more than a cockroach to people in Blackedge. Yeah, I guess we wanted to live, but how badly did we really want to live?"

And that made Shiv a bit uncomfortable. But there was something wrong with the clone's logic. "I was searching for a path because I really wanted to live," Shiv said. "I wanted to be a full person. I wanted to decide my own fate. I just thought that risking my life was a worthwhile trade."

And now the clone went silent. He acknowledged Shiv’s point and didn't fight it further.

Psycho-Cartography: Yeah, he has a version of me too. He's not going to bother fighting this. This angle of attack is dead. Nice work. 

And that might have been the first time his Psychology Skill complimented him.

"But then there are the other issues," the clone said. "We were devoted in the kitchen. We are fearless when it comes to battle. But look at the rest of us. We're untrained. We have no knowledge. I see your hands are shaking because you probably want to ram your thumbs through my eyes and rip my head off rather than talking."

Shiv directed his far sight at his clone's hands and noticed that he was doing the same thing. "Well how else is this quest supposed to end?" Shiv asked. A little bit of annoyance leaking into his voice. "I need to kill you so that I can finally get this damn skill. So I can break out of prison and…"

"And what?" the clone interrupted again. He sounded pissed now. He pointed his finger at Shiv. "And what? You're going to just break out casually? Hey, dumb shit. There are signs out there. Cripple is still watching us. Even now, he might have killed a few of his Animancers, but that probably means that he's going to be on our ass every second of every day until the rest of them come back. And then, they'll probably decide whether they want to kill us or do something else to us."

"Yeah, well, I won't make it easy on them," Shib said.

"Oh, you're not going to make it easy on them. Well, what's the plan? How are you going to escape? Let me guess, you're going to try to use your new skill to build up enough strength to finally break whatever bonds they have you in. You're going to surprise them by overpowering their magic using your new skill as well. And after that, what? Do you know the layout of the prison?"

Shiv didn't answer.

"Okay, you don't know that. So, then we're going to do the usual thing, in which we kidnap someone and try to make them tell us. Or try to force them into being a guide. Except, you remember how Theborn went, right?"

"Yeah," Shiv said, trying to keep the bitterness out of his voice.

"You only succeeded at Theborn," the clone continued, "because Leu intervened on your behalf. I'm not going to mock you for being a bad spy, and that was a clusterfuck to begin with. Frankly, your inability to spy is probably the least of your problems. But this isn't Theborn. You're not dealing with an emotional idiot like Confriga. You're not even dealing with a mentally broken legend like Selene. The Ascendants are going to break you. The Ascendants are going to keep you in your cage, like you're a good little pet."

A simmer of anger crept up from Shiv’s stomach. He kept it repressed. 

"But you know what? Maybe we won't die. Maybe they'll decide to make us an avatar." The clone laughed, "Or at least a weapon they could wield. They'll finally manage to push through our legendary skill. And after that, they'll keep their fingers buried deep within our minds." The clone licked his lips and scowled in the distance. "You know, that Kathereine woman, you remember the way she looked at us?"

Shiv did, and he didn't want to go down that train of thought. But the clone did. "You know, that's more than just professional interest. What do you think she wants from us? What do you think she's going to make us do?"

"She's not going to make me do anything," Shiv said quietly. “I won’t let her.”

"Oh, you think it's going to be up to you," the clone shot back. "Oh, she sings a fun song, messes up your mind. Remember, she's basically running a Social Skill torture session on you. And right now all you have is Psychology and Intimidation. She's not afraid of you, and her psychology is probably better than yours. You want to know what I think?" the clone asked. Shiv didn’t respond. The clone kept going. "I think she's going to sing a real pretty song. And maybe during that song you'll end up seeing her as, I don't know, Uva. And after that, wow, who knows what might happen."

Speaking of Uva, the tendons in Shiv's neck tightened. He tried not to snarl at his clone. And the clone noticed. The clone smirked. "Speaking of Uva," the clone continued. "You think she's still alive? Because I don't. I don't think Adam's alive either. Or Valor, or anyone at Blackedge. After all, we haven't gotten the rewards for that Tarrasque Quest yet."

"So, they're alive," Shiv forced out. The words escaped him like a desperate plea, more than a confident statement.

His clone lifted an eyebrow. "Oh, they're alive. How would you know? You're not there." The clone's words struck Shiv like a dagger across the abdomen.

"I'll get back," Shiv just snapped. "I need to get back."

"That's why you're going to try to rush through me. You're going to try to kill me quick. And then you're going to try to make a quick escape. And then you're going to try to quickly fly back to where Blackedge is." The clone's sneering mockery grew with every syllable. "Let's be honest with ourselves. Your friends were fried the moment you got teleported. And if the Tarrasque didn't get them, they're probably scattered across a few different Republic black sites. Now, Adam, Roland, and Rose, they might be alive for a while. The Ascendants might not be in agreement about what to do with them, neither are their avatars judging by how that Veronica woman just teleported you while Stormhawk kept trying to kill you." 

Then this clone's face twisted in a cruel smile. "But what do you think they're going to do to Sister Uva?"

Shiv didn't think about that. He did everything he could not to think about that. An umbral Psychomancer, a loyal daughter of Weave, a seeker of the Eldritch, and now the Starhawk's temporary avatar. "I don't think they'll kill her immediately, but I can see them vivisecting her, pushing their minds into hers, having their Animancers reach into her soul to discover just how her skills function."

Veins of red crept in from the corner of Shiv's vision. He forced them back. He controlled his breathing, but he could hear his heart thundering in the backdrop. Thundering along with each ripple of force, his legendary skill generated.

"You remember how she screamed when the Recollector took her apart?" the Clone asked, and Shiv did. He would never forget her screams. He would never forget how Adam's head was forced in the wrong direction. How he gasped and struggled. "Yeah, you do," the Clone said, leaning back and grinning happily. "Well, I'll tell you what, I think she's going to scream a lot more like that. Adam too, probably, considering he has some Unique Skills. But, when they scream, I have another thought tickling my mind."

Psycho-Cartography: Do not let him goad you! Burst your ears if you have to. Do not—

"I'm thinking," the Clone hissed, "that they might be calling out for you, and you won't be there, just like you're not there now. I'm wondering how it might feel for them to die, being tortured to death by Republic Anomancers, Biomancers, and Psychomancers, with their last words being your name on their lips, your name and your absence clawing at their hearts."

A haze of red consumed Shiv's vision. Every fiber of his being screamed for violence, screamed for him to throw himself at his clone. He barely managed to restrain himself. The clone's smile died down, and he narrowed his eyes at Shiv. 

"Well, I guess you are maturing a bit, but let me give you the real clincher." The clone leaned in and sneered one more time. "I'm not going away. I'm not going down without a long and ugly fight, and I don't think you can beat me. I don't think you can ever stop me, because I'm not real, and I hate that fact. I hate the fact that I'm nothing more than a Skill Slave for you to overcome. So, I'm going to do to you what you intend to do to the Ascendants. I want to be a pain in your ass. I'm going to delay you time and time again until you are certain that your friends are dead. Until you are certain that you weren't there in time, that they've perished without you by their side. Because that's the only power I'm going to have over you. And I'm going to fucking enjoy it."

Something inside Shiv snapped.

"You motherfuck!" Shiv roared. He blasted through the air, and all semblance of calm or rationality was lost in him. Waves of force rushed out from him in uncontrolled tides. The air combusted in an instant. His Berserk Skill triggered, his muscles tightened, and the amount of force rippling through him was amplified fivefold. His Vitae Golem followed just behind, and the clone laughed with glee as he held his arms open, embracing Shiv before their inevitable clash.

Berserk 18 > 21

A second before Shiv got close, the clone's body flashed gold. Shiv stopped time as well, but as a temporal shell emerged over the Deathless, the clone cast himself back in time and vanished from Shiv's sight. And that brought the Deathless to new heights of anger. Between what the Ascendants had done, with how they kidnapped him, taking him away from those who needed him at the direst moment, and the clone's words, whatever self-control Shiv had, was broken. The noises that escaped him were more like a wild dog than a person. 

He blasted high in the air, caring nothing for destruction, caring nothing for subtlety. He followed his instincts and used his Vitamancy to track the clone down. Shiv found the enemy in seconds. A patch of blackness was spilling down through the bottom of the stratosphere, and there was a single red gleaming dot amidst the impenetrable miasma.

Shiv's Psycho-Cartography was trying to get him to stop, but he couldn't. He refused. He needed to kill his clone. He needed to find whatever satisfaction he could. Shiv screamed across the sky like a missile, and his Vitae Golem followed a moment thereafter. As he plunged into the creeping void, he zeroed in on the small presence of life force in a second, slammed an open palm against the target's head. His blow inflicted no damage. His force left him as a splash of rippling waves that outlined the clone’s arm in cascading vectors. 

A humanoid form stared back at him, taunted him with an open-armed gesture, and snarled as he tackled his clone through the air. As he pushed, his clone cycled his force and slammed it back into Shiv. So, consumed by rage, Shiv didn't even bother converting the force back. He just took it dead-on against his pillar, and his pillar cracked. The amount of energy discharged by this legendary skill was obscene. It simply didn't seem so, considering how controlled and contained it was. 

It was focused damage, focused strength, targeted on a specific entity that the user wished to break. At that moment, Shiv was that entity. His chest collapsed inward, but he responded with a feral cry. He consumed his wounds using his aegis, and he slammed his Biomancy against his adversary.

The clone expended some of the overflow tides he stole from Shiv to blunt the deathless's magic. Then he started twisting Shiv's mana hydra. He reached out and seized it by the head, began to rip. A mid-strain built within Shiv's Biomancy, he caught the clone by the wrist and drove his own force against theirs. Twin tides clashed against each other, but the clone still had a bit of overflow reserve left. 

Even with Shiv's Berserk state, that was enough to tip the balance. 

Shiv found himself swatted across the sky. His Orichalcum pillar fractured along the middle, blood filled Shiv's mouth, but he flung himself back at his enemy, back to continue the fight. He wouldn't stop until a deafening noise drew his attention downward.

The clone didn't attack him, didn't use that opportunity to finish Shiv off. Instead, it simply pointed a finger down and the creeping void parted. It parted and Shiv found himself staring, not at a clone, but at his Vitae Golem. Another thunderous sound followed, and Shiv's anger gave way to confusion. Confusion to disgrace and incredulity. 

Pulsing waves of force spread through Blackedge, pulsing waves that pulled in different directions. Sections of the town collapsed inward, buildings were flattened, and the very foundations were torn asunder. The town was broken in two pieces, ripped in half in a final burst, and it fell from the sky. It fell as a single entity remained, hovering there, dangling as if on a string. 

The clone bowed toward Shiv, knowing that the Deathless were watching him using his Farsight Skill.

And Shiv knew he failed again, knew he had lost, that he needed to repeat this entire process over once more. Lost because he had been bested emotionally and psychologically by his clone.

That sent his fury to the stratosphere. An animalistic cry left Shiv. He launched himself at the clone, determined to punish them before this whole scenario was reset. Then the bell shuddered, and Shiv fell from the air. As he fell, he screamed, he screamed with so much anger that blood vessels in his eyes burst. 

His Psycho-Cartography tried to get him to stop, but Shiv ignored it. Every thought he had was of violence and destruction. He wanted to batter the clone's defenses aside. He wanted to break them. He wanted to become force overwhelming. He wanted to become unstoppable. His Legendary Skill changed once more.

Initializing Unconfirmed Legendary Skill Evolution: Nexus of Implacable Destruction

And the following encounters turned into a haze. Rather than being able to convert external types of force as overflowing waves, Shiv simply became a battery. A battery of destruction. Things broke around him. He constantly got stronger. With every feat of strength he performed. And his strength fell when he stopped straining himself. But that was fine with him. He was mad now. Madder than the clone was. And that would be his edge. He would use his Berserk and his Master of Anger feat to overwhelm the clone, to tear them in half. Using this new skill. The last one was too complicated anyway.

His Psycho-Cartography cried out to him once more, but Shiv ignored it. He obliterated the elemental golem. Crushed its head. Tore the jealousy in half. And ripped off every single finger the Recollector had before draining it of life force. 

When the clone returned, Shiv went for them immediately. He didn't even remember to make a Vitae golem this time. He slammed against the clone and found them smirking. They didn't try. The clone didn't try any tricks this time. He simply grappled with Shiv and was pushed back. The amount of force he generated per struggle was far inferior to an enraged Shiv's. And soon the clone would die. He would wet Shiv's palms with his blood and viscera.

"I do wonder," the clone said through gritted teeth, "if any of them see you? If they could see you now, they might understand why the people of Blackedge hated you so much."

Shiv didn't have a proper reply. He tried biting the clone's nose off. But before he could ever get close, something hit him in the midsection. And then a Vitae Golem, made by the clone, grasped Shiv. And the two of them drained the Deathless at once. For the first time, Shiv was overwhelmed utterly and completely. He was stronger than the clone, but he wasn't that much stronger. Not enough to instantly win. And so, as Shiv tried to counter drain, as he tried to stay alive, he found himself fighting a hopeless battle. 

As every bit of him was reduced to streams of hissing red, he vanished with a final touch of cold.

And then the delve reloaded, and Shiv exploded in a haze of rage. he lost track of time then, he lost track of himself. Instead of doing the encounters, he slammed down on Blackedge and focused on breaking the town. He discharged his inertia, he killed everyone he saw, he vented his anger on everything. 

The delve reset over and over. When he calmed, he tried the encounters once more. He got to the clone, and all it took was looking at the damn clone to set him off. 

Feral with rage he went after the clone once more, and by the time he got to them, he lost the encounter. A Vitae Golem detonated itself at the center of Blackedge, before using the cracks to break the town in half. It reset and shiv, felt something in his mind give.

Shiv was shaking from sheer frustration and fury. He was so furious that he didn't even respond when he smashed the battlements, when he crushed someone underfoot. The delve reset, and Shiv continued his breakdown. He didn't know how many cycles passed thereafter before he finally regained control of himself. But when he came back to his senses, when he regained control, he was laying on his side on the lawn behind Starhawk’s Perch. He was laying there, shaking, shuddering, trying to control his breathing.

"Are you calm now?" he whispered to himself. He blinked. He didn't know why he said that. "Are you calm now?" he repeated.

Psycho-Cartography: Are you calm now? Are you finally spent of anger?

It took a moment for Shiv to respond. He had used his master of anger's feat over and over again. But with everything that happened, his rage was practically boundless right now. Every time he faced the clone, the other version of him knew just what to say to make things hurt. 

"No," Shiv admitted. "No, I'm not calm, and I'm not fine." He seethed. He wiped at his face. There was one thing more pathetic than being mad. It was being bullied until tears of anger spilled out from his eyes. 

This hadn't happened since he was five.

Stop. Stop that.

"I'm trying," Shiv snarled. A beam cut into the air. Shiv realized the first encounter had begun, but he ignored the golem. He needed a moment. He rubbed at his eyes and tried to suppress all the bitterness, all the desperation, all the fear swelling inside him.

Psycho-Cartography: Take a moment and compose yourself.

"Stop doing that. I'm trying," Shiv shouted. "I'm trying. I'm goddamn trying." He slammed his fist against the ground and a massive crater formed. Blackedge tipped slightly. Shiv was surprised about the overwhelming power, but he realized his Legendary Skill had changed, not for the better. Waves of rippling devastation pulsed out from him with every heartbeat. With each second, the soil around him was rent asunder, and he sank down, down, down.

I'm not telling you to stop being angry. I'm not telling you to stop crying. I'm saying, stop being rough with yourself. You can't do that anymore. There should be a lesson for you.

Shiv paused. "A lesson?" he choked out. "What kind of lesson?"

"The lesson is that you're mentally vulnerable and easy to provoke if your enemy knows your mind," Psycho-Cartography declared. "That's fine. Everyone's a little bit messed up. But you need to get a handle on your problems right now, because the clone is going to use it against you over and over again. Of course, he knows how to. He is you. He knows what hurts. And you have to know what hurts better than he does."

Shiv nodded as he let out a shuddering breath. "Okay. Okay, yeah. I understand."

"Do you?" Psycho-Cartography replied. "Because from how you are right now, you're just trying to get through this, and get back to fighting the clone, so that he can mentally torture you into another breakdown, and we can waste another encounter."

"And what the hell am I supposed to do?" Shiv choked out. "What do I have that I can use against them? I've got nothing. I have nothing." Shiv shouted out. He immediately regretted his final words. He'd always been his own pillar, but right now he didn't feel like any kind of pillar at all. He felt… he felt… he didn't want to say that he was broken. He wouldn't admit it, even if he was. But he felt tired. Like it was all too much. He faced too much. He was alone. He didn't know if his friends were alive or dead. The system was trying to kill him. Everything was crashing down on him at once. And he had to process it all at the same time.

"And that's a mistake," Psycho-Cartography said. "You didn't deal with some of these problems beforehand, and so you're going to need to deal with them all at once."

"I never had to deal with this before," Shiv said, trying not to hiccup.

"Because you've always avoided it before. You were probably going to be mentally tough enough forever. We're going to regenerate from this. It's not going to leave any marks. But right now, the clone knows the exact right combination of words to send you into a rage."

"What am I supposed to do about that?" Shiv said.

"Well, you can start by reverting your Legendary Skill to the original, because this one is for dumb brutes. We’re done with that." Another wave of devastation pulsed out from him. Blacked was coming apart around him. "That's not what you need.”

"It's more powerful," Shiv said. "I don't need to think about anything when I use it. It's always building in the background. When I strain myself…"

"When you strain yourself, you turn into a bomb," Psycho-Cartography interrupted him. "And it isn't more powerful. It works differently. It's easier. You don't need to think or focus on it, so it can just build up in the background. But you want to know what else it does? It detonates outside of you. It's like a discharge every other second. And it amplifies the damage you do. You're going to kill more people than the clone if you keep operating on this. And how are you going to fight near Adam or Uva?"

"I don't even know if they're alive," Shiv said.

The skill paused. "And what if they're dead?" it asked.

Shiv flinched at that. He didn't want to think about that. He never even wanted to consider that.

"But you need to consider that. You need to face the pain. You can survive it. You know you can."

"I don't want to," Shiv said through gritted teeth. "I don't want to." And something inside him ached. It hurt so bad he would rather be tortured by the Recollector again than feel this pain.

"Yeah, that's called emotional agony," Psycho-Cartography said. "No one deals with it very well. Tell yourself why it hurts."

"Because I'll be alone again," Shiv said. "Because I'll lose the only people who've ever cared about me aside from Georges." He covered his face as he let out a shuddering breath. "I don't want to go back," he admitted. "I don't want to go back to being who I was on Blackedge. Every day, every day they treated me like I was less than human. Every day I pretended I didn't care. I dealt with it. Every day for all my life."

"And they were pieces of shit for doing so," Psycho-Cartography said gently. "Fuck Roland Arrow and fuck the people on Blackedge.”

Shiv nodded and he swallowed and swallowed. He got his breathing fully under control and slowly drew his hands away from his face. The air washed against him, and he was beyond the soil now. The constant blast of force had cut so deep he found himself sitting in a trench. His ass was pressing against stone.

"You know what, you're probably right," Shiv said. "The last skill was better."

Psycho-Cartography: I know. And you would have known that too if you weren't so consumed by anger and rage.

"Well, what the hell am I going to do," Shiv asked. "Every time I run into the clone I just…" his hand shook. "Even if I get the old skill back, I'm not, it's not… it's not strength that's the problem anymore. It's not the skill, it's…"

Psycho-Cartography: You?

"Yeah," Shiv said, "it's me. It's me and all the shit I didn't deal with so far. You're right.”

A sigh come from the sigh and it began talking directly to his mind once more.

Look, knock that off. I'm going to give you this opportunity and not press you on it because you're emotionally compromised. But we're not a child. You know I'm not helping because I am, you dumbass. I want you to get better. I want you to get through this so that we can stop being trapped here and deal with our next nightmare problem, the ascendants in their prison. But this is important. This is an opportunity. Because if we can handle our weaknesses here, then we'll be better prepared for the outside.

Shiv wasn't sure if that was just his psychology coping with him being trapped in the delve for so long. But he let it go. He wanted to cope anyway. He wanted to get out.

You won't get out unless you do this well. Unless you finally figure out how to overcome jackass you, Psycho-Cartography said. And you know what I'm thinking? I think you already have the tools.

Shiv was surprised at that. But as he slowed down to think about every dialogue he exchanged with his clone, he suspected the skill was right. The clone wasn't exactly calm in the encounter, either. He was mocking. He was vicious in his sneering. He hit every single sore spot inside Shiv by the end of their earlier encounter. The clone raged. He was upset. Upset that he was just that. A clone. Upset that he was generated specifically for this delve to be used as a challenge for Shiv. Nothing more.

Psycho-Cartography: That's right. He hates that. Because we would hate that. We would hate that more than anything else in the world. You're asking why he's a jackass. Well, there's why. Imagine yourself being generated by the system to serve as nothing more than a temporary challenge for another version of you. After that, you go back to the dust, never having existed, never being real.

A faint shudder ran through Shiv as he considered that line of thought. The cold tendrils of existential horror gripped him. "You really think he's self-aware?"

Psycho-Cartography: He believes it. We don't know because we can't glance into his mind without overpowering him. But I suspect that the truth is about as ugly as we guess. It's the system we're dealing with here, after all. The system is a fucker. And it never fucks halfway. But don't consider that for now. Consider what you might say to yourself. And before you're doing that, just breathe. Take a minute off. Take a few minutes off. Hell, take an hour.

"But the others…" Shiv choked out.

They're Pathbearers, too, the skill said, voice stern but gentle. Remember what Valor told you. You're going to take wounds at some point. But, at the same time, I don't think Adam's that easy to kill. And neither is Uva. Have a little faith in them. And if you're wrong, you'll have time to mourn, and you'll have people to kill. But that's a problem you have to deal with seriously as well. Right now, you are not dealing with it seriously. You're just using it to self-mutilate.

"I know," Shiv whispered. "I know. But it's hard."

Silence followed for a moment. Then, Psycho-Cartography spoke once more. I know it's hard. I am sorry that it's hard. You deserved better. We deserved better. We have to be honest with ourselves right now. Our life has mostly been a bitter horror show. It wasn't the worst life in existence. You see some of the slaves out there, you know how they were. But no one enjoys coming in second place in this shit-sucking competition. Because we are all still sucking shit.

Shiv managed a humorless laugh. "Thanks, skill."

Thank yourself and be softer with yourself. Maybe not when you're fighting, maybe not when you're training, but right now. Right now, deal with your problems. This, too, is a skill evolution. It might not feel like it, but you're dealing with something. You're building your health up. Stop breaking yourself. Start building. Treat yourself like… the skill paused. Like a meal. Like a dish. You can be your own masterpiece.

Psycho-Cartography 53 > 61

And that opened something in Shiv’s mind. Suddenly, the world wasn't so miserable anymore. Suddenly, a rush of energy filled him.

"Be my own masterpiece," Shiv said. "Because who else is going to do it, right?" 

Yes, Psycho-Cartography replied. Who else is going to do it?

Shiv nodded, and he spent a minute just waiting. Waiting for his mind to calm down. And when he was done, he reverted the simulation by walking up to a slave. They disintegrated into a bloody smear. The delve reset. And as it did, Shiv demanded his previous Legendary Skill back.

Initializing Unconfirmed Legendary Skill Evolution: Leviathan of the Shapeless Tides

When it was returned, Shiv began running the gauntlet once more. Instead of lashing out recklessly and brutally, he took his time learning more about the nuances of his legendary skill. Previously, the jealousy claimed that this was a Void Leviathan skill. Shiv didn't know much about the void, but he did know there were creatures up there. He even seen one when the Tarrasque teleported him up into space a few hours ago. 

Based on how his Legendary Skill worked, Shiv suspected that the creature wasn't just overwhelmingly powerful. It was likely very intelligent as well, and probably highly competent in the use of physics.

Right now, he could convert any physical force used upon him, and to serve his own means. Or he could continue cycling his generated pulses to build up his force reserve. Yet, that was only scratching the surface. He saw how his clone managed to tear Blackedge apart using the skill. Clearly, he built up quite a surplus of force before he did. 

But the main part there was grappling. He was a grappler. He needed to fight like a grappler using the skill. It meant less striking, less reckless blows, less violent discharges, and more channels, more control, more crushing, snapping, twisting. And that was ultimately the word, control. The skill was all about concentration and control. 

The other Legendary Skill he adjusted to was simple. It was something he didn't even need to think about. If he had to guess, it was a Tarrasqued skill, because all it did was break the world around him. But if someone with that skill fought him right now, he liked his odds. He liked his odds because he was the shaper of forces, instead of just being a hammer or a bomb that constantly set it off.

And it was pursuing this line of thought that he came up with a new plan to deal with his clone. A plan that replicated what the clone did to him earlier. I need him to be mad, Shiv thought. So mad he loses control as well and comes right at me. I can't beat him on the defensive and I can't outplot him, he has too much room to operate. And he moves too fast with this skill and with a golem of his own. He can attack Blackedge any number of ways. So I need him to focus on me and only me. 

And he would do that by attacking the only thing the clone really cared about. His sense of self.

"What do you think of many?" Shiv asked the Recollector. The eldritch entity answered by screaming as Shiv unleashed his full might. Every overflowing tide and innately generated pulse of physical power surgedout from Shiv's hand into the Recollector's body and spiked in five directions at the same time. 

The abomination didn't even get to scream as it was ripped asunder. It was strong, it was fast, it was tough. But now it was just a victim for Shiv. And when he next faced an eldritch enemy, he might fall again, but it wouldn’t be for a lack of might.

As soon as the Recollector died, Shiv let out a breath. He acknowledged that the clone made him unnerved. That he even felt a little sympathetic toward the clone now. But he also focused on the fact that the clone was just that. A clone, nothing more. He would never be real. He would never be the actual Shiv. And that bothered him. So Shiv decided to do something drastically different when he made his golem this time. 

Shiv gave the golem Psycho-Cartography.

"Time for a little psychological offensive," Shiv said to himself.

The clone descended once more. He yawned, his arms were folded. He looked down at Shiv with a hint of derision in his eyes. "Oh, so you're finally done throwing fits. Gotta say, that was pretty pathetic. In the llast few attempts, you weren't even trying. Hells, you broke Blackedge half the time. I just needed to sit by and watch."

"Yeah," Shiv admitted, swallowing the shame. "Not my best moment, but at least I'll get to live with it."

The clone went still. He cocked his head. "'You'll get to live with it.' Is that what you're telling yourself now?"

"That's what I'm telling myself," Shiv said, nodding. "Because, well, you know, there's no point in telling you. You're not real."

"You're not real," the Vitae Golem suddenly said.

Shiv's Farsight was concentrated on the clone's face. And for a moment, there was no expression. No expression until Shiv noticed the tightening of tendons in the clone's neck and the soft snarl that passed from his lips.

"Okay," the clone nodded, "I see what this is, I see what you're felling trying to do."

"It doesn't matter what you see," the Vitae Golem continued.

"It doesn't matter what you think," Shiv added. "You're not real, you're never going to be real. You think just because you have a Psycho-Cartography skill, or you have any of my skills that you're going to, what, break out of this prison?"

The clone was silent, but the way he was glaring at Shiv told the deathless his hit was working. "So, how long do you think you can make this last? Another hour? Another day? You know, I just need to win once, right?"

"You're not going to win once," the clone said with a slight hiss. “I’m gonna stop you.”

"And now who's lying to themselves," Shiv pressed. "Now who’s the drunk? I'm going to inevitably win once. You know that. You are me. Well, a pale shadow of me. Maybe just a simulated interpretation of me, but still. You are me enough to know that I won't give up. And you're going to screw up once. You're going to get unlucky once. And after that," Shiv shrugged. "Well, I guess I'll leave. And I guess you won't exist anymore. I'll try to think of you sometimes, but… I suspect there will be other versions of you and other Delves I'll have to deal with. I suspect that the Psychology Delve will be more painful for me than you are. Maybe that I should view you as a warm-up for the actual challenge. But that would probably be giving you too much weight. There's no point in getting mad at a fucking mannequin, after all."

The clone wasn't moving at all, but his mana hydras were coiling tighter and tighter around his body.

"Adam and Uva were never your friends," the Vitae Golem said. "They will never be your friends. You will never meet them. They don’t know you. And even if they die, they were always calling for us not you.”

"Your jealousy has been noticed," Shiv said. 

“And," the Vitae Golem gestured to Shiv, "he got to meet the girl. He got to have a friend. He got to be loved, be feared. You… It’s such a pity you’ll never get it.”

A loud snarl escaped from the clone as he blasted toward Shiv and the Golem. The clone's own Golem punched down from the sky, descending toward Blackedge. Focus took hold inside Shiv. He activated both his blessings as he went into battle against a darker version of himself. 

"Go get the other Golem," Shiv told his Vitae Golem. It responded by casting itself back in time. The other Golem predictably went for Shiv.

Four bodies came together in the skies above Blackedge, but there were no shockwaves. There was no destruction. Instead, Shiv greeted his clone with a massive amount of kinetic energy stored. But he didn't unleash it on the clone directly. Instead, he counter-grappled against his other self. 

The clone pushed, his tides against Shiv, and Shiv sent tides back. They fought to control wrists, to hook their arms underneath the other's armpits to maintain a dominant hold. With every passing second of struggle, the clone grew larger, his muscles grew tenser, the force he generated exceeded Shiv by fivefold. He was growing Berserk, but he didn't quite have Shiv's surplus, and that proved to be his mistake. He wasn't thinking. The clone had the same faults as Shiv. 

And so, as the Deathless began to batter him using his mana hydras, the clone was taken by surprise. He spent his strength fighting off Shiv's magical skill. As he went to rip the head off a hydra, Shiv seized him by the arm and slammed a pulse of force against him. He had to spend strength to shrug off Shiv's grasp, but then came two more mana hydras. Both collided against the clone's body. Both were flung back in desperation as the clone channeled surging vectors of force against them. The clone's body was alight with solid stripes of red mana, but the red stripes were constantly being spent to keep Shiv’s own strength and Biomancy at by.

The clone was fighting a defensive struggle. And you couldn’t defend forever. You could spent forever against a foe that had a proper surplus—and kept building on it.

Meanwhile, Shiv kept building up, kept gathering more force, while he alternated between his mana hydras and his brute force. By the time the clone responded using his own magic, he was running so much of a strength deficit that he barely kept Shiv at bay, and so he failed to protect his biomancy field. Shiv slammed one of his hydras against the clones, and as the two magical serpents wrestled with each other, he reached out, seized the clone's mana hydra, and ripped it in half.

A scream of pain came out from the clone, but as he was like Shiv, he didn't let that stop him. While the clone’s Biomancy mana bled into the world, he fought on, swinging haymakers brutal force, trying to overwhelm the Deathless. Shiv intercepted a blow and locked his foe’s shoulder. With sudden twist, Shiv dislocated their arm. The clone snarled. Shiv held him in place and kept channeling waves of force into him. 

The clone regressed, becoming feral and sloppy. He slammed awkward hooks against Shiv’s abdomen, but those punches just circulated within Shiv, and he returned the kinetic energy. But not against the clone's body. Instead, he targeted the clone’s mana fields. 

Shiv knew his weaknesses now, could think about them. While the clone was consumed with the urge to rip Shiv limb from limb, Shiv wrapped his hydras around the clone and forced the clone to waste another innately generated tide of force. While the clone struggled to push Shiv's hydras back, he drove his fingers into the clone's chest, and he tore, not at the clone’s Biomancy, but his Psychomancy. The clone screamed. Shiv twisted again—and deboned the clone’s right arm. Then, he shredded the clone’s Pyromancy went as well. Then their Hydromancy, too.

As the clone doubled over, Shiv wrapped an arm around their neck, and he suddenly plunged down. He didn't plunge down just with his Shapeless Tides. He used his Biomancy as well, and it was that coordination, that combined synergy of skills that finally overwhelmed the clone. 

The clone spent what remained of his strength to counter Shiv's to make sure his neck wasn't broken, but then the hydras were inside him, and his Biomancy was already shredded. At once, Shiv burst the clone's heart and lacerated his brain. 

The clone let out a violent gasp, and with a ragged jerk, a final exhale escaped from him.

But as the clone dangled there, Shiv didn't mutilate him further, didn't break his body or crush his skull. Instead, Shiv pulled the clone tight against him and offered a proper embrace. He whispered in the clone's left ear, not sure if they were ever real, not sure if they could hear him. If they were, however, if they were more than just a simulation...

"I'm sorry," Shiv whispered . "We deserved better. We… we deserved more than being treated like shit, being used and hurt over and over again."

The clone didn't say anything. He was dead. Dead in Shiv's grasp. This fight was over. This quest was over. But instead of feeling more relief, Shiv enjoyed a subtle triumph and a feeling of bittersweet understanding. Slowly, awkwardly, Shiv patted the clone on the side of the head. "I'll try to do right by you. I'll try to make it all worth it. I'll get better. I'll be better. I'll become a real path bearer. One that no clone will ever stop. One that you might be able to be proud of. One that’s better than all the godsdamned cowards, hypocrites, and assholes we had to deal with so far.”

He sighed. “We live in a pretty pathetic fucking world, man. But I’m not going to add to that. I’m gonna stand. I’m gonna stand.”

Maybe the clone couldn't hear, but the words felt like a balm for Shiv himself. And as he bit his lip, he felt a sense of peace replace some of the latent rage that always resided inside himself. A sense of peace that came from knowing he was his own pillar, more than a pillar, that he was his own friend. He knew he could push himself to incredible heights. He knew he could drive himself to the very limits, beyond the very limits, to the point where most would break mentally. 

And now, he knew he had kindness to offer as well. Kindness, love, decency. 

He was becoming a full person.

Imagine that, Shiv thought to himself.

Encounter Complete (5/5)

All encounters complete

Do you wish to evolve to your current Legendary Skill

After everything Shiv experienced, he had no doubt. The first choice was the right one. “Yeah.”

Skill Evolution: Leviathan of the Shapeless Tides 500 (Legendary)

Feat (3/4)

As the Delve Quest came to a close, Shiv felt the Legendary Skill cement inside him. Power flooded him. Power washed over him with every heartbeat. And power kissed his flesh as the wind brushed him, as force itself became his clay.

Shiv let out a breath of release. Psycho-Cartography, thank you. You really saved my ass.

Psycho-Cartography: You saved your own ass. Now, learn to use your Shapeless Tides Skill much better, because if the brute force version of you is such a social nightmare, then I hope you get really good at fighting, because you're probably going to need to beat your Legendary Psychology clone to death.

Shiv let out a muted laugh. "Yeah, I suspect that's the case. Well, I think we'll have a little time until then. Enough for us to get healthier. Enough for us to get better."

You know that will make the clone better too, right? Psycho-Cartography replied.

Shiv snorted. "Then he just becomes very good practice." And for the first time, Shiv thought he heard the skill laugh.

Finally, the delve collapsed. But this time it didn't restart. He got a final chance to look down at Blackedge, and a rush of pride when through him as it remained as pristine as it was at the start of the battle. Not a single blade of grass was out of place.

This was the true flavor of victory.

Shiv felt himself ascend. Felt himself ascend and felt light and color return to his senses. His vision was blurred. The sounds around him were muted. But as he tried to move, he heard the jingling of chains and felt the cold touch of metal press against his bare skin. Shiv blinked. He looked down and realized he was utterly undressed. 

And as he looked up, he found a badly damaged automaton kneeling before him. The ground was slick with blood and the automaton was knee-deep in the gore, meditating. Shiv guessed that was where the Animancers used to be. No Animancers now. Just one jacked-up avatar.

A flare of rage passed through the Deathless, but he controlled himself. He kept it contained until he needed it. 

He learned more than one lesson in his Legendary Skill Evolution.

"So," Shiv began, “where are my clothes? If you touched my ass or cock while I was out, I’m going to do things to you.”

Slowly, the automaton lifted its head. Lines of color ignited upon its triangular skull, and it offered Shiv a slight nod. “You return. You are a Legend now.”

That was Cripple’s voice. Shiv couldn’t hear the avatar.

Shiv shrugged. "Took a while. I could’ve done better.”

The Ascendant let out a low drone of discomfort. “Have you delved before?”

“Nah,” Shiv said. Part of him wanted to lie. But he didn’t see the point, and he wanted to know how good other people usually did. “First time.

Cripple looked down and nodded. “You are a martial talent, then. Most spend weeks to months trapped inside themselves struggling against their inner quest, falling to their own shadow time and time again.”

Shiv frowned. "How long was I in there?"

"A day and no more." The automaton rose and stared Shiv straight in the eye. The Deathless clenched his jaw and flexed his fingers, ripples of force splashed across his body. Shiv began to circulate the force he generated. He started building up an overflow. "You gonna ask what my Legendary Skill does now?" Shiv asked, trying to provoke a response from the automaton.

"I know what it does," Cripple breathed. “I have faced a pod of Void Leviathans and suffered defeat at their hands. As a god.” The Ascendant’s admission caught Shiv off guard. “And so, I must ask… How did you attain such an evolution? It is not for Individual Pathbearers. How is this possible?”

The Deathless leaned back and looked the Ascendant up and down. And an idea tickled his mind. “How about a question for a question. I’ll tell you something. You tell me something.”

The automaton considered his request and nodded. “Acceptable. What do you wish to know?”

Shiv clenched his fists and started letting his shapeless tides flow along the Orichalcum chains holding him in place. “Blackedge and its survivors. Where are they right now? What is their condition?”