Wake of the Ravager

*Author’s note* This one’s got a decent amount of cussing...mild NTR threats and light cannibalism.. You’ve been warned.

Okay, eight of us immediately available, we’ve got six Bent each. In another eight to seventeen hours we’ll have another…several hundred of us.

Yeah. Let’s find this fucker.

The eight Calvins stepped out into the warm jungle air, raised their hands and burst into wasps, heading in eight different directions.

5/6 Chained Bent remaining.

The plan: Create a massive octagon surrounding Stone-Diver territory and place all eight bodies around it. Create swarms of land-scouring scout-Nadias to cover all the ground in between.

That way, either the scout Nadias would find something, and even if they didn’t, Calvin could use his marriage tattoo to triangulate Kala’s position, and therefore, the position of the man he was going to eat.

Oh yes, we’re eating this guy.

Chained spirit can be passed down by eating it’s owner.

And Calvin had been considering the best way to do it, too.

He was going to pin the bastard to a wall like an insect, use dupdomancy to copy his blood with Gradual Split, then start eating him alive over the course of a month, slicing off piece after piece, until there was nothing left but a head. A still living, still suffering head.

You’re gonna wanna take out his eyes and ears first. Don’t wanna upset Kala. She’ll be watching after all. Freaking out the girlfriend through reveal of violent character flaws is a common trope. To be avoided.

What would I do without you? Calvin thought.

Get killed maybe? Hah!

Calvin settled into his positions around the jungle and unleashed a tremendous swarm of Nadias, who began scouring the jungle proper.

4/6 Chained Bent

So let me see if I understand the math on this. You can cast six spells for each Bent that Ella spends summoning you?

Yep.

No wonder those spear chuckers like chained spirit so much. Can you still cast Chained Spirit?

***In Calvin’s Lab***

One of the Calvin’s at the lab raised a hand and summoned a Chained Spirit Nadia.

Yep.

Hax…. I call hax. How is this not an infinite dupe glitch, System? Wait, does this mean one kid with one Bent could summon an army with a Chained spirit with enough links?

Looks that way. There had to be a reason the royal family didn’t just wipe them out, after all.

I guess so.

“Nadia, you’re on Bent detail. Go find some people to drain.”

“Yay!” Nadia flew away at high speeds.

Chained Spirit,

Chained Spirit

Chained Spirit.

Calvin created three Kurawe.

“Re-establish my presence in my territory, Gadvera and Uleis. Tell them I was on some ridiculous training exercise. They’d probably buy it.”

“Yes, Ravager,” The giant said, bowing before he too flew away, albeit less quickly than Nadia.

Now, let’s start experimenting. The method we need to consider is replacing every part of my body with real matter. This might happen if I were able to keep myself alive for a decade, and slowly replace every aspect of my body with actual matter, but I need to do this much faster than that.

For that…

Would undifferentiated matter work?

If he could find a way to treat his body as the blueprint, then force undifferentiated matter to create the blueprint…it would become real.

He would be operating at a net loss in undifferentiated matter, but that was totally acceptable, he’d have to make provisions for taking the blueprint of a bent construct, and he’d have to take some measures to make sure the Bent fluctuations caused by a popping chained spirit body didn’t destabilize the enchantment or corrupt the data, but…

It might just be possible.

Does this mean I could make as many of me as I want!?

Nah… One of Calvin’s long-held rules was not to pointlessly duplicate himself. Calvin didn’t know how long he’d get along with himself, after all.

Calvin held out his hand and unleashed a flurry of Knick-Knacks.

3/6 Chained Bent remaining.

Fetch a pallet of Nem and bring it to the third floor. Bring an industrial quantity of all the enchanting supplies as well, and a vial of undifferentiated matter from The Vat. We’re going to be printing people, and they’ve gotta be perfect.

The Knick-knacks gave him a salute with a – clang! –  before going about their business.

Calvin felt a mad wizard laugh rising from his stomach, tinged with equal parts glee and inconsolable rage.

The third floor was a massive empty room near the base of his tower. Calvin sat at the center of the empty space, consulting a Visualized representation of the proposed Chained Spirit Realifier – better name pending – with each of their minds working in tandem, though it, was difficult to get any new insight on the problem. The all had the same basic ideas, after all.

Kurawe.

Yes, Ravager?

Send me the nearest enchanter. I need someone to proof my work.

We don’t have any of those nearby. The closest place would be Uleis.

Calvin blinked.

Then make one. We’ve got our own Siphon.

As you wish, Ravager.

A short while later, a young lad of about thirteen stepped onto the third floor, jaw dropped and gawking at everything.

“Hi there, come on over.” Calvin said, waving him over.

The kid gulped and walked over hesitantly.

“I’m Chave, I was told to come here?”

“Hi, Chave, I’m Calvin. Did you volunteer for this position?”

The kid nodded silently.

“Good, good, and you read the primer on Enchanting?”

He nodded.

“You got the Skill?”

He nodded.

“Good, then sorry to throw you into the deep end all of a sudden, but could you check my work and tell me if there’s any errors in the machine I’ve created that will sunder the veil between life and death?”

Calvin showed the kid the prototype he’d been designing for the last hour.

Come on, Forming day, work your magic.

“What are these?”

“Those are Henna lung spheres, they catch Bent backscatter.”

“If the subject is going to stand in the center,” Chave said, taking Calvin’s pencil out of his hand, “The arrangement of Henna lung spheres could cause destabilization at these points.” The kid started scribbling furiously, drawing a circle representing a person at the center of Calvin’s machine with waves emitting outward and interacting with the spheres.

Excellent…

Man, the System is easy to exploit.

I’m not exploiting the System.

How’s that?

I’m exploiting being rich. I own my own siphon, and I own my own workforce. Could I do this if I wasn’t rich?

Holy crap. I guess being rich really is the world’s oldest superpower.

…The more you know à

Calvin was about to respond to Elliot’s odd humor when his tattoo kicked on, and he felt a burst of terror radiating from the lotus Kala had inked on him.

Calvin whipped around, facing the north.

Each and every one of his bodies did the exact same maneuver, whipping around to face the direction the feeling had come from.

Every single one of Calvin’s bodies faced precisely toward Uleis, even the ones far to the east, who pointed a bit westerly. Each one of them faced precisely toward the city.

What the fuck is a Stone-diver tribesman doing in Uleis? There was nothing a genosian wanted in the desert nation. They weren’t fans of glass, nor was there much meat to go around in the sandy desert.

Uleis had sand, and it had…

The siphon?

Kala wouldn’t tell anyone about the Siphon though...which implied some kind of mind-reading…

Carem. In Uleis. It hit Calvin like a hammer. The body hopper had stayed in his juntai wife’s body, mind controlled his brain-slurped copy to think he was unique, then ambushed Kala when she was fatigued after the battle…using Abilities the Juntai had been unwittingly feeding him along with the Genosians they’d been hoping to extract information from.

The Genosians were horrible cannibals, but they weren’t the monsters he was looking for.

“Son of a BITCH!” Every single Calvin shouted at once, causing his brand-new enchanting specialist to flinch away from him.

“Not you, just realized I left something on the stove way too long,” Calvin said, writing a note. “I’m gonna go take care of it. If I’m not back in…five hours with the bloody corpse of a petite Juntai woman, give this to Ella. She’s asleep on the second floor.”

The note read:

Ella. Kala’s in Uleis, Carem’s probably got her. If you’re reading this, dismiss all my copies, because I’m probably mind-controlled. I’m off to go kill the bastard and get our wife back.

P.S. The new bookshelf in our room clashes with the arrold skin carpet. Don’t think I’ll let this travesty continue. One or the other has to go.

Always finish with a joke, Calvin thought, crumpling up the note in his fist and tossing it at Chave before he sprinted out of the building, aiming to catch up with the other Calvins, who’d gotten ahead of him while he was writing.

***later***

All twelve Calvins arrived at the Uleis at the same time, wordlessly agreeing to arrive in force.

They each had about two Bent remaining, which might not be enough to do what they needed to do, but they could at least scout it out.

One of the Guys.

Each of the Calvin’s dropped out of Heart of the Swarm and fell silently to the ground, disguising themselves as fellow Uleisans. Nearly identical ones, but nobody said the Mutation was perfect.

They prowled the street, creeping toward the Siphon in the cool night air of the desert city, glass buildings looming over them.

It was strangely quiet. Normally, there’d be a few shouting children, maybe some animals, and the occasional heated argument between lovers. It was only to be expected in a densely populated city.

But it was quiet.

Here, I’ll keep score. Red flag Number one.

Calvin approached the warehouse he’d built above the siphon, hanging back with most of his bodies, and choosing one to move forward with, dismissing the effects of One of the Guys.

These people were under his authority.

Calvin entered the code to open the door and walked in like he owned the place.

Because he owned the place.

There were seven man stationed around the hole, manning ballista, while another ten or so were seated around a table, more relaxed, playing cards and drinking, their weapons resting beside them.

They were the graveyard shift of the Siphon.

Calvin walked out of the darkness, into the light of the lamps.

“I’ve got questions,” Calvin said.

“Holy-“ The man facing toward him launched to his feet, grabbing for his weapon, his expression alarmed and angry. It flickered for a moment before fading away, behind a mask of subservience.

“B-boss. You scared the crap outta me. I thought you…I thought you were out of state.”

The other men turned to face him, their expressions similarly alarmed or amazed.

“Did anyone new come here a month ago? A woman missing a hand?” Calvin asked, scanning his audience.

“No sir, it’s been quiet. ‘cept for when Phil lost his foot, but accidents happen on this job. Is there anything we can help you with? You gonna take the tour see how well we’ve been keeping the place?”

The man’s words sounded confident, but his gaze radiated smug superiority and the urge to toy with a plaything.

All their gazes did.

If there was one thing Calvin had never experienced before, it was uniformity of emotion between many different people.

Calvin’s eyes narrowed.

“I’m just gonna assume all of you were mind controlled by Carem…”

Calvin cocked his head, feeling their emotions turn more alarmed, but they were still missing that trill of fear that someone got when you nailed their secret.

“No…you all are Carem?”

Their fear spiked up a notch.

“That’s on the money.”

Calvin clapped his hands together.

“Alright. I propose a deal. You tell me where to find the one that’s got Kala’s Chained spirit, and I’ll just kill you instead of forcing you to watch yourself get eaten alive.”

“Motherfucker!” one of them shouted – in Juntai, by the way – before breathing in and exhaling a glowing purple jet of air.

Nice bluff.

Calvin shrugged, unconcerned with the oncoming wave of miasma.

It rolled over him and destroyed his body in a fraction of a second.

***Outside the building***

Calvin pressed his multiple ears to the thin wall of the rolling gate, his high Body allowing to pick out their conversation.

“Was that really him!?” Calvin head one of the men shout at another in Juntai. “He’s supposed to be dead!”

“The Abyss should I know? He didn’t use any Abilities, so it might as well have been a damned shapeshifter. You, you, and I are going to report this to God, the rest of you keep watch on the hole.”

“Sir.”

He calls himself God? Calvin thought, raising a brow. Of course he does. An interesting note was that they didn’t seem to have any means of instantly contacting their originator, having to run the message out to him manually.

I wonder if there’s a reason for that. Perhaps to prevent his minions from networking with each other and overpowering him? This guy trusted himself even less than Calvin did, and yet still made copies of his personality.

Asshole.

Calvin’s eleven bodies ghosted behind the three men running down the streets…aiming straight for the palace.

The second place I was going to check. The guy’s fairly predictable.

Calvin was sneaking over the wall of the palace when his muscles locked in place. each and every one of his copies froze in place, their bodies unresponsive.

Calvin! So good to see you again! A familiar voice entered his mind, a greasy, gloating voice.

Your Stability is not strong enough to shrug off the effects. Your Will has begun digesting the foreign Bent, ETA 2 hours.

Motherfucker!

Calvin’s body finished the climb regardless of his will, and his eleven copies joined him, dragged along by the overwhelming power puppeting their every move. Together, the eleven of them entered the palace through the front door, men and women bowing as they passed, treating them like guests of honor, but Calvin could feel the derision in their gaze. They were also Carem.

***the Black Room***

I’m beginning to see a pattern here, Calvin thought, squeezing the stress toy in the Black Room as he experienced the eleven body’s anger and frustration simultaneously.

“Why didn’t you leave a couple behind?” Elliot asked curiously.

“Because I wasn’t sure if he could follow the mental link between Chained Spirits or not.” Calvin said, scowling. “Didn’t want a possible controlled body within a thousand miles of Ella. If she dies, we’re basically fucked.”

“Ah, that makes sense,” Elliot said, nodding.

****

Calvin struggled against the control every step of the way, but eventually, his body walked him through the scintillating glass halls, all the way to the gaudy throne room, where a familiar one-armed woman was reclining, watching him with a sardonic grin as several dusky skinned girls fanned her with blank expressions.

Kala.

Calvin tried to speak, but his jaw clenched instead, so hard that his teeth creaked against each other.

“It’s good to see you again!” The woman said, her voice filling the large hall.

“I never really got to thank you for knocking me out of my rut. I was a big fish in a small pond. I never really knew how much the world had to offer until I took that sweet treat’s first time. Nadia was it?”

The restrictions on Calvin’s body eased, and he found himself able to speak.

“Why are you being such a bitch? You on the rag?”

Calvin’s fist swept up and punched his own face, sending stars across his vision and causing his nose to bleed green smoke.

Of course a Juntai-raised serial killer would have objections to being in a woman’s body…and that was a great way to rattle him. Make him make a mistake.

Calvin’s jaw cramped up again, preventing him from speaking.

“You listen here, you little shit. This city is mine. I’ve copied myself into every single Uleisan. Every one of them is a Legend with every one of my abilities, and I have complete control over them. I own this city.”

“I own this girl.”  Carem reached out and roughly grabbed Kala’s hip.

“Your stupid ass got yourself killed and turned into a Chained Spirit. Who ate you, that big Genosian girl that was always hanging around? Yeah, I thought so. I’ll be adding both of you to my collection soon enough. Two for one.”

Carem grinned. “It won’t be long until I’m everywhere, so just wait for it. In the meantime, you can be sure I’m taking taking full advantage of everything the princess has to offer.”

Calvin’s jaw unclenched, the hold over him loosening. Calvin stretched his cramped jaw, and flexed his hands experimentally, finally in control of them again. A cold rage swept through him.

“It seems like you’re trying to provoke me.” He said, eyeing the twat on the throne. “I just want to point out that you’ve never actually seen me mad.”

“Maybe you’ve got some goal, or master plan that hinges on me getting angry, or maybe it’s just your winning personality shining through. In either case…Consider me provoked,” Calvin said, sliding a blade out of his palm using blade body before driving it through his own skull.

“I was not expecting that,” Carem muttered to himself as Calvin poofed into green smoke.

***

Historians called this the day of Fire and Ecstasy, The first official account of the Demoness Nadia, as well as the loss of the city of Uleis.

It is theorized she visited Marconen before the day she terrorized people across the world, as there have been accounts of a dark-haired girl matching her description beforehand, in places such as Gadvera and Juntai, but these are unconfirmed.

Some scholars even suggest her origin might actually be the third princess of Iletha, a girl of the same name.

But that’s hogwash. No human being can become a demon. It’s just not possible.

***Calvin****

One Bent makes one me.

One me makes six Nadia.

Six Nadia spread out through Calvin’s March, dragging people into alleyways and draining them, netting Ella one hundred and fifty Bent in the first ten minutes

One hundred and fifty Bent makes one hundred and fifty me.

One hundred and fifty me makes nine hundred Nadia.

Nine hundred Nadia spread across the country at speeds defying logic, while the original six Nadia bring in an extra one hundred Bent, indicating a diminishing rate of return. Eighty Bent, forty Bent, ten, and finally, the citizens of Calvin’s march have nothing left to offer her.

Two thousand three hundred and eighty six Nadia settle in villages and towns dotting the continent, earning Sixty-nine thousand three hundred Bent over the next half hour.

Ella is holding it together, but just barely, we’ve been forced to reduce our input to match her casting speed of twelve Chained Spirit per second.

I’ve gained six levels in Chained Spirit, and Ella has gained three.

Ella learned the slanted Negotiations Ability, and I am able to cast using her Bent at a 2-for-one cost.

The time value outweighs the extra cost, and we are able to increase our output speed by several hundred times.

Once I have enough Nadia, I switch tracks.

Calvin had been red angry before, but this fury was unlike anything he’d ever experienced. It actually made him calm, and precise.

Switching to Knick-knacks and mass converters….

Calvinian summoning has reached level 32!

Calvinian summoning has reached level 33!

Calvinian summoning has reached level 34!

The mountains sheltering Calvin’s march were reduced to a couple giant vats of undifferentiated matter, leaving Calvin’s tower the only thing dominating the skyline, a sharp black spire reaching into the sky.

Now Nadia with Atom Ant.

Calvin created several hundred giant Nadia instructing them to carry the platform carrying the vats and thousands more Knick-knacks into the sky until there was no more air.

Then keep going.

Her physical form should be tough enough to resist a vacuum, Elliot said. Plus they don’t breathe.

Good.

Bring me tongues!

Yessir.

Tongues from across the world began reaching him, Carried by Nadia.

Some were bloody, obviously being taken from someone still alive.

They were rude.

Calvin wasn’t being picky at the moment. He Consumed them all.

Thank the gods, his mutation seemed to work despite still being a Chained Spirit.

Languages from dozens of countries, obscure natives hidden deep in hard-to-reach places, and exotic islands, poured through him.

Only three hours passed before he went back to Uleis, his army a cloud that swallowed the horizon.

When he arrived at the glittering city, he directed his army to surround it, closing off any chance of escape.

In the distance, a little speck of black rose above Uleis, followed by thousands more. Calvin went forward to meet them, leaving the rest of his copies and tens of thousands of Nadia behind.

Outside the splash zone.

Gotta keep Carem in one place, after all.

“Look at you,” Carem said with a grin. “Come to play at war? I’m game if you are. We’ve got plenty of pawns.”

He held out a hand and a gust of green smoke resolved itself into Kala, standing in front of him with a blank expression.

“Sic’ em.”

“Gods, you’re predictable,” Calvin sighed, waving a hand as Kala lunged toward him.

Multi Splitting

1/7 Chained Bent remaining

Calvin created a charge of dynamite and Abyssal steel shrapnel in front of Kala, blowing her to tiny bits.

She turned to green smoke before fading away, revealing Carem’s stunned expression.

“Yes, yes, how could you do that to your wife, I know. You were probably expecting me to try to talk her out of it, or gnash my teeth in impotent rage.”

Calvin tapped his head. “But all those second-hand accounts you’ve stolen from other people have been messing with your head, making you think you know me. But you had no idea who you were fucking with. Drop it!”

***Fifty miles above Uleis***

And that’s the signal.

A hundred Nadia’s, each weighing a thousand pounds, put their shoulders up against the first Abyssal Steel rod, the Knick-knacks taking care of the finer points of aiming the mountain sized piece of steel as they began putting their backs into it.

It’s really neat to know for sure the world is round.

*******

“Drop what?” Carem asked, glancing up.

Why do so few people look up?

In the sky was a glint of light, smaller than Calvin’s pinky nail.

But it was getting bigger.

Carem looked back down and snarled. Calvin could tell from the look in the guy’s eye that he knew diving underground wouldn’t be a solution

The underground for a few miles in every direction was going to get a little hot.

A sudden pressure and white noise surrounded Calvin’s mind as Carem tried to take control of him again, but it didn’t impair him. Not until Carem figured out how to decipher every language on the continent.

Calvin rushed forward on a pillar of air and tackled Carem across the midsection, forcing him closer to the city.

“Let’s take a closer look!” Calvin said, feeling a manic grin overtaking his face.

“Fuck you!” Carem shouted, beating on Calvin’s head and neck with surprising force before trying to inhale and blow the death fog on him.

Calvin filled Carem’s mouth with his fist, and kept pushing.

The fog ate his fist, but the rest was diverted off course, and Calvin kept pushing.

Everything went white, then that particular body’s point of view winked out.

***Calvin several miles away****

A streak of white-hot steel that dwarfed the largest buildings of Uleis descended from the sky, impacting the center of the city in a massive explosion of unbridled force.

The surface of Marconen became liquid, creating a rolling wave of destruction that rippled outward from the city, annihilating everything in the path of the molten earth.

The army braced themselves against the wave, and even drastically reduced by distance, they still struggled to stand against its power.

Finally it was over, leaving nothing but glass in every direction for miles, and a tremendous crater in the desert where the city of Uleis used to be.

Ah, there he is, Calvin thought to himself as he spotted a petite, ragged body tumbling through the sky, aiming for the ground.

The closest Calvins and Nadias shot forward to intercept him.

“Not so fast!” Calvin shouted, grabbing the body hoppers ankle and he began sinking into the glass below them, before heaving him back out.

“We’ve got so much to talk abou-“

The body hopper’s purple breath caught Calvin in the face, disintegrating his head.

Calvin simply stepped in with his next body, grabbing her by the same ankle.

“About! I didn’t even get to tell you what’s going to happen next!”

Carem swung a blood sword, and Calvin stepped forward, allowing it to sink partway through his body before he caught the guy’s wrist, pinning it place.

“Heyo!” another Calvin said, front-kicking the pinned arm, breaking it easily, eliciting a scream of pain.

The Calvin pinning the arm vanished on account of lethal damage, giving another one a chance to step in.

“How much Bent have you got, Carem? Calvin asked, grinning as he grabbed the man’s tattered shirt and hauled him in close. “Because I guarantee it won’t be enough.”

Calvin wrenched the man’s broken arm back with one hand, forcing his head away with his other.

“Now, we come to our finest moment together.”

Calvin’s body froze. Every Calvin across the entire army froze in their tracks.

Your Stability is not strong enough to shrug off the effects. Your Will has begun digesting the foreign Bent, ETA 35 minutes.

“Hah! HAHAHAH!” Carem crowed, shoving Calvin’s hand away from his face. “I’m a fucking GOD you stupid-

Foreign Bent has removed the effects.

Floating above them, several dozen Nadia’s were holding hands in a wide circle around the two of them.

“He won’t be able to use Bent again,” Nadia said with a nod.

“Good,” Calvin said, grabbing Carem’s remaining hand and dragging it toward his mouth.

“No! NOO!” Carem bucked and kicked with everything he had, but there were at least six Calvin’s holding him down at this point, and for some reason, his mind-magic wasn’t working.

I would rather give Nadia her Bent back than see you take another breath.

Uh, Calvin? Elliot asked.

What!?

On your right.

Calvin glanced over to the right, and spotted something in the distance. The crater of Uleis was rapidly filling with the white mist that hovered over top of the Siphon. It looked like the gash between realities was growing uncontrollably, spreading several feet per second, lapping at the edges of the crater before spilling out.

“I’m busy. Close it.”

I don’t think it works like that.

“Close it.” Calvin said, his anger boiling up into his voice.

Anger, and something else.

Command confirmed. Closing Siphon 3₾64942₴812ᾆ8272531:

The reality warping mist began to recede.

Uuuh, what the fuck was that?

Crunch!

Calvin bit off Carem’s index finger, coating his mouth and chin with fresh blood.

“You probably don’t get this very often,” Calvin said, chewing his way through the bone. “But you taste soo much better than I thought you would.”

A shrill scream started deep in Carem’s chest and rose until it felt like it could shatter glass, echoing across the desolate landscape.

Macronomicon

See you guys next week! (waves)