Godclads

Chapter 30-6 Lovebringer

Hearts Aligned: Creates a pathway using a tether composed of feelings of love or lust. A gateway will form on both entities allowing them to swap places or immediately arrive beside their bonded one. Should both sides consent—or if this relates to an individual and an inanimate object—a superimposition of ontologies can follow, allowing both to temporarily merge in a single entity in mind and flesh.

Hubris: Should either side fall out of love while this canon is active, the Heaven will suffer moderate Backlash (25%).

-Canon of the Remembrance

30-6

Lovebringer

Slipping past the No-Dragon’s perimeter didn’t take that much effort from Cas. Overstretched as the Guilders were and severed from the bulk of their forces, they just didn’t have the assets to conduct proper surveillance. Not when they still had a war to fight in the meantime. Not when they still needed to protecting their precious citizens.

Upon crossing over into the threshold of the fold, however, Chambers also suspected this was a deliberate choice on the part of the No-Dragons and the Agnosi. After all, what kind of half-strands would be stupid enough—or fucking mad enough—to raid a Wombrash-infested megablock where the rest of existence was going to shit? And for what reason? What purpose? A rival Guild would just rupture the plane at most. But that would be something along the lines of direct action.

What Chambers and Cas were trying to do would be incomprehensible and unpredictable without context. And even in context, it was pretty close to the edge of insanity. Drawing closer to the lip of the twisted valley of flesh, Chambers only felt the want inside him grow, building higher to a desperate need. He needed to enter. He needed to see what awaited inside.

He needed to join—

+Augh. Fuck. Thanks, consang,+ Chambers croaked mentally.

+What?+ Cas asked,

+Nothing. Was talking to my Heaven of Dicks.+

Cas just chuckled about that. +Somehow, that’s becoming a normal statement to me now. What the fuck is my life?+

+Insane. Questionable. On the verge of disappearing into a giant, eldritch cunt made created from a carpet of flesh with thousands of human and who-the-fuck-knows-what bodies bulging from beneath its surface? A cunt that neither of us might be able to resist when we actually get deep enough?+

+Yeah. All that. Thanks, Chambers. I really needed more anxiety.+

+Don’t mention, consang. Listen. If I start getting weird… you do me. Then yourself, okay.+

A shivering feeling of strain leaked over from Cas’ mind as they slipped through the opening. Immediately, the presence it inflicted continued to build. +Sure. I can’t promise it won’t be the other way. I’m only human too.+

Somehow, the insides of the fold was worse than the outside. Where it was just a stretch of vaguely outlined bodies hidden beneath what looked like slick pink flesh, the space within was the very definition of fucked. Well, the long aftermath of getting fucked, Chambers supposed. Here, thousands upon thousands more people dangled down from furrowed walls, their naked bodies withered and drained. Most of their head’s and upper torsos were missing, consumed by a chain of umbilical fusing them to the walls. The bottoms of their bodies throbbed and parted. Long strings of exposed tissue continued to distend as balls of mangled bodies swung through the center of the room, coming together to form a lattice that could best be described as a fucked-up semi-stillborn-baby-plus-cancer-flesh-cake.

+For the love…+ Cas grunted. His wards shook as they sustained a blow from the traumatic sight. +I’m going to need to see a mender after this. To get my mind scrubbed.+

+Yeah,+ Chambers said, shivering slightly. He had some messed up tastes, but this was getting to a point where even he found it less thrilling and more gross and weird. +Man, why can’t the Fallen Heaven of Love give us anything nice? Like a demiplane of tits or dicks or thighs or something. Why is this shit always fucked up mutilated babies?+

+Probably because that’s what the city’s been denied,+ Cas replied grimly. +New Vultunites lost the ability to breed. Lost the ability to even hold their own children. I think that might cast a larger shadow than just sexual want and fetishes.+

+Maybe. Hey, speaking of, you think we’ll be seeing any reinforcements from the outside? You know. From the other megas, for the Guilds?+

+Probably. But not nearly enough to matter.+ Cas did his best to avoid a net of glistening sinews. A series of nubs that revealed themselves to be barely formed infant head stared blankly at nothing in particular. Their sockets were hollow and dark, eyeballs unformed. Well. That hinted Avo was present in some shape or form. The rotlick probably ontologically ate those before they could truly come to be. +The Border Wall is still up. I suspect the Guilds will be making a scramble to siege and take them when they can. When. If so, maybe. The situation in the city is pretty south of fucked, so they’ll probably get to that when the substance pushes us out or the fighting reaches a stalemate. The other megas will be warring against each other. I expect them to spend the next few years fighting it out in the Sunderwilds. Except we probably don’t have the time for that anymore.+

+But where’s the Ladder going to return if the Gatekeeper is snuffed and existence is already all jacked up?+ Chambers asked.

+I… Don’t know. One problem at a time.+

As they lapsed back to silence, Chambers turned his thoughts to enduring the discomfort. He tried thinking about things that weren’t love related or sexual. The latter was the bigger problem for him. Now that he thought about it, Chambers almost never went too long without thinking about something deviant or messed up. It was practically how he was defined—his coping mechanism for so long. He liked some other stuff too. Making imps. Money. Guns. Standard street-scum shit, but like, those were just because he was in the life. Tangible hobbies and all.

That made Chambers consider who he might’ve been if he had been born a Color. Now there was a weird thought. Him, a Color like…

Well, Marlowe wasn’t like other Colors, was she? Sure, they all looked pretty nice, but she had her own thing going—and a special attitude too! Her lips also looked really nice. Why couldn’t he stop thinking about her lips? Those were the first pair of nicely moisturized Guilder lips he saw. Shit, Kae had—

Ah.

Aw, fuck.

Well, feeling like shit was a good counter against Love. Kae. Was part of her in this mess? Was she trapped somewhere in this nightmare, one body among the many, dying over and over? She might’ve been the first person to call him Aedon—to treat him like an actual person among the cadre. Sure, Avo and Draus kept him alive, but they weren’t exactly people. Much as he liked being included in a group, he was still different from them. He was still human. And so was Kae, despite the being a Guilder and an Agnos. The way she hurt and cried was something he understood, and he remembered the anger he felt when Zein went for her—he hoped Thousand hand was fucking lost for good.

Probably not likely, though. That old sow would still be here even after the world ceased to be. She’d find a way. She was just that kind of piece of shit—the roach that wouldn’t die.

Minutes passed, and the distant shimmer of a Soulfire drew closer. The nightmarish environment didn’t change even after a full hour of traveling. +Hey, Cas,+ Chambers asked, a strange though occurring to him. +How far have we gone since the start of the fold.+

+Ninety kilometers.+

+Ninety?+

Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.

+Yeah. We’re well passed a million people merged into the walls here, too. A lot of this is anomalous. It has to be—+

Just then, a hollow expanded beside them. The sound of tearing tissue and sticky flesh peeling apart filled the air, feeding Cas’ Heaven. Suddenly, there was a new tunnel leading diagonally away from them. There are countless bodies there too. Same nightmarish aesthetic. But at the end was a vertical exit that led…

+You think that leads somewhere else in the city?+ Chambers asked. +Another point in the rash? Maybe it’s working like one of Draus’ reflections now.+

+That’s a question for an Agnos, man. And that isn’t either of us. We’re just here to… capture the Soul somehow. However that works.+

+Right. Listen. Cas. Since there’s part of Avo in this shard—you let me do this first, yeah?+ A silence came from the Columner. Chambers continued. +I’m serious. There’s a bunch of my copies out there. Some of you, too, but they’re mostly doing cult shit and probably hard to find. And I know what it’s like to burn. Maybe the Stillborn fragment might, I don’t know, remember me or something. Just think it would be for the best. Figure you might have better odds of getting out of this if everything goes to shit too.+

+Yeah? You’re more optimistic than I am about that,+ Cas chuckled grimly. +I’ve done plenty of things in my time. Plenty against the Guilds in the dark. But this… this is a first for me. Think our odds are about even in terms of survival. But I hear you. I’ll let you do whatever it is you think needs doing… Hey, Chambers?+

+Yeah?+

+Does it feel like the influence of this place is getting… weaker to you?+

Chambers paused. Yeah. It’s actually been a while since he thought of anything lustful or felt that crushing, consuming need. +Yeah. Yeah, it has.+ He didn’t like that. Fallen Heavens didn’t just stop affecting you for no reason. Either they were about to experience some more random eldritch bullshit or something more calculated was going on. Chambers hoped it was the former.

The fact the Soulflame was near blinding by this point didn’t help his anxiety either. They were close to the shard. He could feel it. And maybe it could feel them too. Maybe that was what brought about these—

Aedon. Come… Take…

Chambers felt both his Heavens flinch as if struck within his Liminal Frame. His being rattled. And Cas didn’t fare any better. The Columner cried out as a rippling veil of static burst apart, sending them tumbling through the air, falling…

Falling forward instead of downward. Drawn by a very tangible force that had been reaching for them all this time. They weren’t snatched through there so much as they were carried, pulled by unseen strings attached to their hearts. Both Chambers and Cas clutched their chests at the same time. The sensation was less painful and more uncomfortable. It was like getting everything you liked and desired pried out from your chest—some kind of fucked up ontological dissociation.

While Chambers bobbed in the air, Cas struggled. Cas tried pulling back. “No! No! Let go! Don’t touch—stay away! Let go of my faith! Let—let go!”

“Cas!” Chambers called out. The Columner didn’t hear him—or wasn’t listening. “Cas! Stop. I don’t think it’s trying to… to…”

They accelerated. The force carried them through the complex maze of umbilical and caked flesh until they were through the nest and facing a roaring flame. But rather than a manifested Heaven hammering against their wards, Chambers found a ruptured heart at the center of the mess. It was still beating, pumping weakly though it was, and through chunks of missing flesh and hissing Soulfire, Chambers saw the shape of a person clenched inside.

He recognized her. Even from so far away. “Kae!“

This close to the shard—the heart… whatever the fuck he was looking at, Chambers could see over a dozen other tunnels around them. Where they went he didn’t know, but he felt more confident about his interconnected rash theory. There were also the bodies of Sang bioforms dangling from below the heart. A golem half-sunken beneath a mass of writhing tissue far below as well.

Seemed like the No-Dragons did send in a survey team. They didn’t make it out, though. Chambers swallowed, hoping he wasn’t heading toward a similar fate.

As they sailed over the heart, he and Cas were released into a gaping wound. Chambers hit the ground running, nearly tripping over a ridge of furrowed meat, while Cas called out behind him. The fact the heart was still beating made it hard to keep his footing. So it was that he got to Kae, stumbling, rolling, and crawling. Her upper shoulder, right arm, and part of her face was bared to him, while the rest of her remained deep in the mesh. Chambers reached out using his Heaven—and felt his stomach empty out.

Parts of Kae were missing. Fuck, most of her was gone. That couldn’t be—she had to have more of herself left.

“Aedon,” the Fucktopia began.

“No!” Chambers snarled. He climbed an uneven slope until he was finally before her—punching the pulsing flesh beneath him with his Bioigniter in frustration to stop its constant beating. “No!” He got her finally and took her by the arm. Without hesitation, he pulled.

“Chambers—wait!” Cas cried.

Kae slipped free from the crevice where she was lodged. And she was too light. And the Heaven was right. This was all that was left of her. Part of her upper shoulder connected to her arm. Half her right face, no further than a single eye.

He placed her down on the heart—tried to regrow her using his Bioigniter. But there was nothing he could touch. Her pattern was wrong. Ruined. Too much of her was just… ontologically fucked. Like they didn’t exist conceptually anymore either.

“Can’t grow. Not flesh. Flesh forgotten. Can’t grow.” The Bioigniter cracked with dissatisfaction. The burning Heaven shifted, and the flesh and wood inside it swam like drifting debris.

Chambers tried a few more times, straining against impossible before Cas gripped the back of his arm.

“Chambers—come on,” Cas said, gently. “Come on. She’s…”

Chambers looked at Kae’s remains for the first time. Genuinely looked.

Despair consumed him. Here was the truth he felt, the truth he knew, and the truth he hoped against.

Where Kae Kusanade was, irreparably broken.

“Aw, fuck,” Chambers moaned. The strength went out of him like air squeezed out of burst lung. He looked down at the one he failed—the one they all failed. She was one of them. She had done everything she could, suffered so much, only for this to be her head. Only for this to be her final fate. “Kae. Fuck. I’m so godsdammed sorry. I’m… I’m…” He knelt down and cradled her broken sheath. The parts missing from her were sharp and jagged. It was like she was a piece of broken glass than a person. Soulfire hissed out from her many wounds, and she stared on blankly at him with the half-face she still had.

It hurt to meet her eye, but he did. And Chambers didn’t have any words to say. He tried to find something, but he was empty inside. Empty because he was a vacuous person. Just porn and substance and nothing but that. Nothing to offer even now. “I’m sorry.” That was all he had. The first of his tears escaped him. They dropped onto Kae’s cheek and rested there. He closed his eyes and a few more fell thereafter.

Closing his eyes, he knelt and there and just… stewed. Chambers didn’t sob. Got that habit beat out of him before he ever even got into his teens. But he did whimper. And Cas did pat his back. And then a hand wiped the tears from his face. Chambers thought it was Cas for a moment, but remembered that the Columner’s fingers hand calluses or were made of metal. These were warm, soft, and delicate, like…

Chambers opened his eyes and found the ruin of Kae holding his face. She opened her mouth, tried to say something, but she had no lungs—most of her mind was gone as well. There wasn’t even an accretion here. But she managed to press her hand deeper into his face all the same. Finally, a small smile pulled at her expression, and she came apart into a ripple of Soulfire. The rest of the heart began collapsing along with her, and all that bright flowed in one direction: toward Aedon Chambers.

ACCESSING LIMINAL FRAME

OVERWRITING LIMINAL FRAME CONFIGURATION…

It is okay, Aedon. It is not over. We are not yet gone.

The voice was Kae. Was Avo. Was so many more.

Cas was saying something again, but Chambers couldn’t hear him.

This is unworthy time. And there is no one unworthier. No one unworthier and more suited to bear the mantle of Love. The city has forgotten. And you have never known. But learn and change. So that you can finally… become…

UPDATED TO [STILLBORN] TEMPLATE

WARNING: HEAVEN [REMEMBRANCE] HAS SUFFERED SEVERE ONTOLOGICAL DAMAGE

WARNING: HEAVEN [REMEMBRANCE] LACKS x1 CYCLER x1 HELL

ATTENTION

HEAVEN SYMMETRY DETECTED

>[FUCKTOPIA]/[REMEMBRANCE]

OPTIONS

>RESTORE MYTHOLOGY

>ALIGN HEAVENS [FUCKTOPIA]/[REMEMBRANCE]

The rippling flames swirled around Chambers. He felt a particularly large penis plop on his shoulder. Turning, he saw the Fucktopia looming over him, their mind brimming with resolve and excitement. “I’m ready, Aedon. And you’re ready too. You heard what she said. You know we gotta be more than what we used to be. We gotta be hard for ourself. For everyone we wanna help.”

“I… I don’t know,” Chambers said. “I don’t know if I’m good enough for this. I just… I don’t know anything about fucking Love. Fucking Dannis didn’t know about love—he died alone!”

“Then we change. And we learn. And we become whoever we need to be. Getting a hydrapede nest forced up your severed castration wound is easy, Chambers. So is suffering in agony while a bunch of evil henchmen stomp on the eggs to get the hydrapedes to shred your urinary tract. That’s what the world does to you. All you had to do was take it and live. But you’re not going to make things better by taking it. Staying hard in body and mind isn’t enough. We gotta be unbreakable in our Soul too. Because if we don’t choose Love, someone else will. And they’re going fuck this city, Chambers. Fuck this world like a rusted knife up the ass. So. What are we going to do? Are we going to be a piece of shit like dad? Are we going to be runner like mom? Or are we going to be Aedon Chambers? FATELESS like all the others; but still here. Still hard.”

Chambers nodded. “I… you know, I don’t even really know who I am anymore…”

“Then I think it’s time we find out.”

“Yeah. Yeah. Fuck it. This isn’t done. We got a reality to put back together. Let’s see how this Love thing fucks.”

HEAVENS UPDATING…

ALIGNMENT IN PROGRESS…