Sleep came easily to Bjorn when the group finally settled down. Tanisha curled herself against his belly while Anasuya rested on his side. It felt so deliberate, so peaceful but as darkness settled in Bjorn's mind he knew what lay on the other side of sleep. His consciousness faded, the him of the present unraveled into the Isin of the past.
The memories came fast this time. No snap shot of a single event, but a crashing of moments almost too fast to comprehend. It was like living events but at the same time being separated from them.
One moment he was in the mine gathering as many people as possible to flee Nuriel's control. They were scared, but they were on a time table. Nuriel was in her cocoon as her body regenerated. A state he put her in after he stole one of her Angel Cores and with it ripped out part of her soul.
Once she healed there would be retribution. There would be death. Isin wouldn't let that happen. He would save as many as he could. Some chose to follow others believed there was only salvation in servitude and refused to go. But what hurt the most were those with the chips that controlled their actions.
For them, death was the mercy Isin granted. Better to end as a person than eternity as a machine. His heart ached but he would not leave them to be exploited at the mercy of the Angels.
When they returned to the Alpha Extraction Site it was in rags and tears. They weren't ready for that many people to migrate at once. Isin wasn't ready to tell his wife, Eliska, about Mihr and the origins of her birth. There were more tears, more questions, more things to mourn, but no time to second guess. No time for anything but duty.
"She wanted to use her as breeding stock, Eliska," Isin whispered, clutching the small child to his chest as if to shield her from the very words. "What kind of monster even thinks of something like that?"
Eliska's eyes, red from crying, softened as she touched his face. "It doesn't matter now. She's here. And so are you. We'll make it work."
Time didn't stop, it moved forward again as days became weeks, everyone expected Nuriel to attack the facility. They expected her to slaughter everyone in glowing fury but she didn't. As weeks turned to months the facility began to breathe. Almost like a collective sigh of relief as people realized they were safe.
The Alpha Extraction Site would be their new home. Safe from the Angels and safe from the enemies of man.
Then the memories narrowed, all rushing toward a single point in time.
The medical ward. Eliska's exhausted smile as she lay in bed, her hair plastered to her forehead with sweat. The doctor's hands steady as the newborn was lifted, crying, into the air. A baby girl, perfect and fierce in her helplessness.
Isin had never seen anything more beautiful than Eliska in that moment, weary yet radiant as she took the child into her arms.
"We already picked a name," Isin said softly, voice trembling with awe as he cradled the tiny bundle. "Mara."
Eliska shot him a glare despite her fatigue. "No. Don't you dare. We agreed, after my mother. We both agreed."
Isin chuckled, sheepish. "Right. Right." His eyes softened as he gazed down at the infant. He brushed her cheek with his thumb. "Listen to me, little one, even if you don't remember this moment. You have greatness in you. The world is harsh but no matter what you won't bend or break. You are strength, and you are love. You are the daughter of Isin and Eliska. One day, the world itself will know your name and tremble in triumph. Our daughter, our love, our Edita."
"Edita," the doctor said as she wrote the name down. "It is a lovely name."
Isin smiled, tears he hadn't noticed streaking down his face. In that moment, for all the blood on his hands, all the burdens he carried, he believed in a future worth fighting for.
***
Bjorn woke abruptly, his eyes shot open as the name of the newborn Isin had held in his arms rang through his mind like a war drum. He had heard that name before. He couldn't forget it. It was the last name Isin ever spoke before he became Bjorn. It was a name formerly only associated with his death.
He saw the blue eyed woman, the one with black hair, the one that in another memory he gave the very sword that would take his life. He saw the little girl that Isin held in his arms. His assassin was his daughter. The very one he just saw born. The very one that he felt was the happiest day of his life. The very one granted to him by the love of his life.
"Bjorn, Isin," Failsafe said. "I… maybe we hold off on the memory for now. We need to be in the right head space tomorrow."
"She… my own d-daughter." Isin and Bjorn both said as one. "I…I… Eliska, Edita, Mihr. What more could those Angels have taken from me?"
"Bjorn, are you okay!" Tanisha's voice cut through the silence. "Bjorn, I am here, what is wrong?"
Bjorn focused on the sound of her voice. At first it sounded almost like hearing someone talk through water. But soon it came through loud and clear. Not just the sound but the concern permeated the bond.
Bjorn felt himself and Isin slip apart. The two personalities became distinct again. He anchored himself into the present. He would have to face his discovery. But for now Failsafe was right.
He nuzzled Tanisha to show he was okay then laid his heads back down to sleep again. This time without the memories of the past. This time without the pain.
***
Bjorn was surprised at how thorough training was. Aurelius had Bjorn demonstrate all of his abilities one after the other. He of course knew most of them from their time in the Chaos Lands fighting monsters before making it to the facility. However Juggurnaut Stampede was new and offered him some versatility he didn't have before.
Bjorn didn't have a Flash step or equivalent skill before and instead would have to rely on Tanisha to use her Arcane Shift to teleport them both. But he had to be within a few feet of her for it to work on him too. This would have been dangerous against something like the S-17 which could teleport and staying mobile was the only reason they survived. Now, however, he had a quick movement skill that could double as an attack spell.
He was also given new armor as he had outgrown the one he started with during his excursion in the Chaos Lands. The new armor interfaced with his angel core and unlike the first had some features that would interface with his new found spells. He realized that as he continued to grow beyond animal magic, this kind of armor would only become more valuable.
Aurelius rubbed his chin, "His venom abilities wont work but I have a feeling… Bjorn use your Poison Cloud breath."
Bjorn complied and in moments a cloud of venomous gas flowed from his mouth. It crackled with poisonous energies and floated harmlessly above the group like a thundercloud. Bjorn could control the poisonous cloud before but now that he had the Angel Core he had mastery over it. He could shape it, move it around, condense or dissipate it. It was almost like a new spell.
"Can you make it as thick as possible then bring it down over us?" Aurelius questioned.
Bjorn complied and lowered the cloud.
"Fuyumi, push your aura out as much as possible." Aurelius called out. "Can you sense my location?"
Bjorn could tell where they were easily but it was because they were surrounded by his magic. He felt Fuyumi's cold aura push against the cloud but, Bjorn in turn pushed back with the strength of his own magic. He couldn't suppress her for long. But before he had the Angel Core he didn't know he could suppress people with the fog at all.
After a few seconds of aura battle, the cold won out and the cloud around her dispersed from the sheer weight of her magic.
"It took effort but I can sense you now." Fuyumi said.
"What about you, Tanisha." Aurelius asked.
"I can but my suit can't." Tanisha said. "It is saying too much, Aetheric Interference."
"Bjorn. You can disperse it now." Aurelius said.
"How is it going to help?" Tanisha asked.
"It might only work once but if this thing teleports around like the Siegebreaker did we might be able to blind it. Even if it only lasts a second that could be a game changer in a battle." Aurelius said. "We'll run some drills then we'll go probe the Sentinel. Like we did with the others. Let's assume it has some kind of barrier like the siegebreaker so we strike and leave. After we see some of its offensive and defensive capabilities, we'll retreat and come up with a plan to take it down."
***
The underground was quiet aside from footfalls of the team. They were on alert as they approached the powerplant district. Fuyumi held the vanguard, Aurelius and Tanisha in the middle and Bjorn watched their rear. The district should have been cleared of enemies but Aurelius was meticulous about always moving as if they were about to walk into an ambush.
Bjorn wanted Anasuya to stay in the upper facility with Laxy while they attacked the S-16. The little girl refused to stay put and and instead latched herself to his back so she would not come off. Bjorn didn't fight her too much, in terms of level she was higher than both himself and Tanisha. While he had never seen her fight, she had survived with him on his return journey through the Chaos Land and the many fights he had to endure in that time. She could also camouflage herself so both of them could vanish into the shadows if needed.
Shadow Concealment
Primana Cost: Variable
(I) Cloak yourself in shadow magic, blending into dim or dark environments to hide your presence. Movement is undetectable to non-magical senses. (II) Deepen the shadow cloak, concealing even magical traces of your presence and blending with shadows in moderate light. Shadows will also muffle the sound around you making you harder to detect. (III) Unknown.
"Why is her level so high? We are both True." Bjorn asked mentally.
"I was wondering the same." Isin said.
"Oh that's simple. Her egg was brought here as she was hatching. All of that abyssal maya must have been around her egg on the other side and some of it leaked through. When the pathway closed she had already absorbed much of her native land's energies. We were born here and our egg was likely here for a while before hatching. We don't even have the hydra's native energy."
"Pneuma is what our dad called it," Bjorn said.
"Right, pneuma. If we were born in…wait, did we ever find out what the hydra home plane was called?" Failsafe paused to scrunch up his face in contemplation. "Whatever, if we were born in the Higher Planes we would have been level two hundred when we hatched."
"I remember you saying that once before." Bjorn said.
"Yep, Anasuya just confirmed my theory." Failsafe nodded.
The destroyed entrance of the powerplant loomed ahead of them. Bjorn turned his attention back to the job at hand. There was a palpable tension in the teams formation as they crossed the threshold. The facility buzzed with both magical and electrical energy. The actual core, what they were there for, was even further inside built like a bunker into the flat plane of metal wall that encased the city. Before that they saw the Guardian but, it was not what they expected.
It was heavily damaged metal armor in the shape of a man that stood twenty feet tall. The being was the corpse of what was once a wonder to behold. It looked almost skeletal. Components and internals exposed and rust claiming what remained.
There was no glow, no surge of aether or show of power. One moment this decrepit titan was there, standing silently. Then in the next moment there was blood, a yell to get down and the sound of metal against metal. Only after the fact did Bjorn taste the aether against mana. Burning hot against a stinging cold.
Fuyumi had reacted as the vanguard in the group, her sword raised to catch the glowing blade of the Guardian. But her sword failed, it was cut through and the smell of blood filled the air. Bjorn couldn't see clearly what happened but Aurelius jumped forward with his shield. He saved her from being bisected. The Guardian continued to push down until even the shield began to crack.
Tanisha held her angel core staff and from its end a torrent of rose gold electricity burst forward. It danced around her teammates striking true into the monstrosity. Bjorn didn't wait; he launched himself forward with Juggernaut Stampede. His armored body shot forward faster than an arrow as he collided with the behemoth. Staggering it backwards as his aether infused claws dug gashes anywhere his limbs could strike.
Then the world went white.