Chapter 309

Penn Station, Manhattan, New York - 12:07 PM

I stepped off of the train with Jamie and moved out of the way from the steady stream of people following us. The fingers on my left hand flexed, and my stride was no longer stunted. Despite the magnitude of my self-inflicted injuries, it no longer showed other than my hair still being split in color.

The feeling in the left side of my body hadn’t been miraculously fixed in the time it took us to get to New York City, though this was far more preferable to how I was moving before. It was all thanks to Sara for coming through for me.

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[[Spell]]

Strings of the Puppeteer

Target one corpse or willing creature. You gain control of their body as if it were your own. If the target is alive, they can choose to end this effect at any time, and taking damage equal to or more than 25% of their maximum hit points destroys the mental strings controlling them. Strings of the Puppeteer lasts for one minute per point in your Willpower stat, but can be recast automatically to increase the duration. Once a corpse or creature is no longer affected by this spell, they are immune for 24 hours. Cost: 75 Mental Points.

<<<>>>

Ethereal strings surrounded me, invisible to the naked eye but easily seen with Absolute Awareness, and they allowed me to fully control my body. Thankfully, I was a willing creature. 

Instead of constantly spending Mental Points on Flight, or Construct, or any of my other Warmind abilities, this single cost spell kept me going for a long time. All I had to do was keep from taking a lot of damage and I would be good for as long as I needed to be.

I led Jamie to the end of the train and checked the crowd. She gained some attention since she was now covered in gold scales, but no one recognized her because she wasn’t in her signature plastic armor. The population had rarely seen her out of it, so she was just a novel player with a race other than human. I also went unrecognized despite my obnoxiously loud outfit, but that’s because I had the perfect disguise.

Reaching for my chin, I stroked the goatee that was currently on my face. Considering most of New York City thought I was dead, martyred so I wouldn’t have to kill the rest of the Leo faction fighters, I figured using my new skill would be best to keep it that way.

“That goatee makes you look stupid,” Jamie told me yet again as she scanned the crowd and crossed her arms.

“There’s a good reason why I don’t rock facial hair, yes,” I replied, shaking my head as I stretched. Superhuman body or not, public transportation was always so cramped. The Angel Express was the way to go. “The others should be done pretty soon. You remember the plan?”

“Not much of a plan,” she scoffed. “But yes, I’ll go get ready to pick them up and we’ll meet you at the train.”

“Perfect,” I said with a grin, giving her a wave before heading to the end of the platform so I could jump off onto the tracks. Jamie gave me a nod as she left for the Empire State Building.

I jumped down onto the tracks and walked towards the Subspace Depot. It was exactly where we left it because the guildhall in the Emperor’s Ascent was a recreation of the original. I examined the lock when I approached and saw that it had been tampered with, but when I dug into my menus I could tell it hadn’t been broken into. The extra security was well worth it.

Everything was quiet inside, exactly as it should be. The Dealer’s food truck wasn’t here, either, but he had a lot of things he had to take care of so I hadn’t really expected it. My footsteps echoed through the area until I made it onto the carpeted dining car.

My only stop was to my room’s bathroom. I threw my clothes into the washer and dryer combo so they’d be cleaned and fixed. A lot had happened since the last time I had been home. I took a quick shower because I sorely needed it and I was on my way to the Patron’s Car.

The door to enter it was right next to my quarters, between the luxury sleeping car and the engine. I didn’t hesitate to dial in my information and swing open the door.

Golden light filled the room, coming from seemingly everywhere and nowhere all at once. Couches and chairs were scattered throughout the space, including a large throne that my wife would normally sit at, but it was empty. Sara, the Angel of the End, was currently standing about ten feet away from the door. Her hands were on her hips and her flaming hair was bright with anger.

“Hey, honey,” I said as I closed the door behind me.

“Don’t you hey, honey me,” she replied as she flexed her wings. They seemed constrained by the small space, and I wondered if the Hall of the End was smaller than usual. It did fluctuate in size rather frequently.

“I know you’re mad,” I responded, keeping my voice neutral. “But I had a path to save him and I did what needed to be done.”

“You mutilated your soul and disconnected yourself from parts of your body,” Sara argued, crossing her arms. Her hair literally sizzled as sparks flew. “What you did was make everything a hundred times harder than it has to be.”

“But only for myself,” I said as I approached her.

The feeling of our wings interlocking came back to me and, despite Sara's anger, I couldn’t help but smile now that I was with her. As much as I could when dealing with a hologram, anyway. She narrowed her eyes.

“Don’t give me that goofy, sentimental grin, Anthony Franklin,” she told me harshly. 

“Can't help it when I'm with you,” I replied honestly.

“Don’t try to sweet talk me, either.” Her halo brightened just a bit, and she crossed her arms. “And get rid of that goatee. You really do look ridiculous. I can see why you’re so adamant about shaving.”

“Ouch, really going for the throat here,” I chuckled. The facial hair disappeared when I deactivated the Evil Disguise skill. “Better?”

“Much,” Sara answered glumly. The hard look in her eyes relented as she sighed, and I could see the concern etched on her face. “Let me take a look at you.”

I was wearing pajamas, but she started circling me and checking out my body. The Angel probably wasn’t looking at me directly, but the concepts and metaphorical bits that made me what I was. Whenever I tried to move, she’d click her tongue and I’d become still again. 

“It’s bad, but not as bad as I feared,” Sara finally said after almost three whole minutes of scrutiny. Her hair dimmed and it no longer sparked, but she still had a sour look on her face. “That was reckless, Ant.”

“It was, but I knew what I was doing,” I replied gently. My wife gave me a look, and I held up my hands. “I did, honest! It was a calculated risk, and it paid off.”

“You have to literally puppet your own body around,” she said flatly, gesturing towards the invisible strings binding me.

“And Coe Valen is alive,” I returned as I moved to the nearest couch. She didn’t follow right away, but I sat down and patted the cushion beside me. I watched as Sara warred with herself, but eventually she joined me. “Call the old man a weakness of mine if you have to, but I’m not going to let him die if I can help it. He has done nothing but good for this world, and I have relied on him time and time and time again. You should know, because he was also your favorite before I came along.”

“I can neither confirm nor deny,” she stated, disgruntled. Her rules didn’t let her talk about other Angels, even those of the Half- or Fallen variety, and that made these conversations difficult.

“You don’t have to, because I know you,” I said. “Look. We’re in uncharted waters. The administrators are gunning for me and there’s every possibility that things are going to get worse. Having Coe alive, and now probably super confused because Aaron tried to kill him and I ended up saving him, is a net positive no matter how deranged the Memory Orbs made him. At his core, he’s the best man I’ve ever met. He was one of my first mentors, and he’s the one who turned me away from the path of the Broken Tyrant. In my book, Coe always gets a pass. Now that he has his memories? He's the second most powerful person on the planet by a wide margin. I can't give that opportunity up.”

“I just don’t think you can afford to give out passes, Anthony,” she replied, and her voice lost some of its heat. 

“You’re right, and I really am going to stop being so reckless, but I’m confident that a second bout against him will end much the same as the first. If needs must, then I’ll do what I’ll have to do. I just couldn’t let it happen the way Aaron wanted it to. He picked really good bait. I promise not to be so reckless in the future, if that’ll help ease your mind.”

The Angel sighed. “I didn’t say anything at the time, but I agreed with Jamie. You shouldn’t have given up your Spare Body for Leo’s fighters. Still, I accepted your reasoning and decided to trust you. I see the logic here, too, but this is… much harder to fix.”

“But it is fixable,” I pointed out.

Sara gave me a look that made it clear that she wasn't having any of my optimism right now. “I’ve been asking around in order to find an alternate solution to this problem,” she started, her eyes drilling into mine. “Not just making queries of the system, but reaching out to Angelic Patrons, treasure hunters, and even some researchers of ill repute.”

I arched an eyebrow. “You’ve been busy.”

“Yes, but they haven’t been helpful,” the Angel grumbled. She crossed her arms again as her wings twitched. “I spent a lot of time digging and asking around, but those who were willing to give me the information I needed all said the same thing, and it doesn’t look good.”

Leaning into the couch, I pulled a leg up and made myself comfortable. “How not good are we talking?”

“Well, getting your body to work is going to be the easy part,” she started, looking down at my leg that was now partially inside of hers. It took her a moment, but she shifted as well to match my pose. “Every method you told Jeremiah about? Those should work for you.”

I nodded. “I figured that would be the case. So either through a Genie's wish, getting eaten by a monster hag, or fixed up by a Yokai.”

“And it needs to be done before you go to Chernobyl,” Sara warned.

“Because it might become permanent?” I asked, frowning.

“No, because you’re not going into that meat grinder with a band-aid covering the wounds of your amputation,” she shot back, nodding towards my left side. “The Strings of the Puppeteer isn’t a long-term solution. It’s meant to get you where you need to go while giving you some of your old mobility back. You already know the radiation damage alone is going to eat right through it.”

“Yeah, yeah,” I sighed, running my fingers through my hair. “I shouldn’t use the lamp because those wishes are already accounted for.”

“You don’t have to give Jeremiah the last one,” she stated firmly. “There are other options.”

“I know, and it’s the only option that’s not really far out of the way,” I said, waving her worries away. “Getting swallowed and spat back out by Zhalmauyz Kempir means overshooting Chernobyl by a couple of days both ways, and going to Japan has the same problem since I need to drop off the Mills in Europe so they can get class items.”

“So… you will use the last wish for yourself and send Jeremiah to Kazakhstan to find the hag?” she asked, arching an eyebrow.

“Seems like the best option,” I sighed, rubbing my temples. “If the world wasn’t such a big place then this wouldn’t be such an issue.”

“Worlds are always big, Ant,” Sara stated, a tiny smile on her face. Apparently, my willingness to follow her lead had cooled her temper somewhat.

“She’s not going to be able to fix my actual soul though, will she?” I asked.

“No,” she answered. “You're too damaged for a mere Genie to fix you.”

“Didn't think so.” I pursed my lips. Of course things could never be that easy. “And if it’s not fixed, then what happens if I use Break Free or enter Hell and the ring you gave me automatically turns me into that form?”

Sara’s smile disappeared as she gave me a flat look. “Have you ever tried to heat up a raw egg in a microwave?” she asked seriously.

The image of one exploding popped into my head, making me grimace. “I’m the egg in that scenario, right?”

“Your unfortunately broken body and soul is the egg, yes,” she confirmed, not mincing words. “Luckily, there’s some good news and some bad news.”

I leaned forward slightly. “Okay, hit me.”

“The good news is that we can fix you with a large enough infusion of holy energy,” Sara said, sitting up so that she could lean as well. “If you’re hit with enough of it all at once, it should fill in the gaps in your soul long enough for the ring to heal it the rest of the way while you’re in Jeremiah’s little slice of Hell.”

“Alright. I can see the logic there.”

My wife gave me a sympathetic look. “The bad news is that this is the only way, and the method of achieving this result is already in our grasp.”

“Oh, cool. You're talking about the…”

My voice trailed off as I realized what the bad news was. Jeremiah’s job was to conduct a ritual that turned Washington D.C. into an actual piece of Hell. The reason being was so that I could kill all of the Demons there permanently. That had been the plan before I received the Angel of Death perk, which allowed me to slay anything with life.

So if she was saying that I needed to be shocked with an ungodly amount of holy energy followed by a forced transformation into my Angelic form, then that could only mean one thing.

“When you said I would be torn asunder, you meant that literally,” I whispered.

“Yes.”

“You need me to be in the blast zone of the Hellbreaker,” I said slowly.

“In the blast zone?” Sara repeated, arching an eyebrow. She shook her head and my heart dropped. “No, that’s not going to cut it. You need to be as close to the center of the explosion as possible. That will ensure you'll absorb the required amount. The Angel half of you is based on me, Anthony, and I'm not sure you appreciate how much energy we're going to need to fix this.”

There were few things that gave me pause in life. I wouldn’t bat an eye at monsters, even if I was against something with stats much higher than my own. Dealing with people? That’s fine, too. I had plenty of practice socializing with and fighting other humans.

This took me a few seconds to comprehend.

“Holy energy or not, this is going to vaporize me, love,” I stated with concern in my voice.

“Then it’s a good thing you have Heavenly Hero,” she replied.

“And then I’m going to have to fight the Demon Lord of Potential, who we know is going to survive the bomb because that’s what he does, without it,” I continued.

“That’s true. You are going to have to fight him without one of your failsafes. You no longer have your Spare Body, but you do still have your bowling ball,” she said. “Unfortunately, this is necessary because you need your Angelic form for my plans that are already in motion, so you’re going to have to come to terms with this plan real fast.”

“For the record,” I started, licking my lips. They were still dry, and I did it again. “I do apologize for disregarding your warnings.”

“Apology accepted, so please don’t do it again,” Sara replied with a gentle smile.

I took a breath. “You wouldn’t happen to have another, slightly less crazy way of fixing what I’ve done to myself? Maybe someone you haven't asked for advice yet?”

“I do not, and I spent a lot of time, effort, and resources trying to find another way only to come up empty,” she answered, shaking her head. “You made your bed, and now you’ve got to lie in it.”

“Cool,” I sighed. “Very, very cool. Love getting vaporized. By far one of my favorite things.”

“I don’t know about you, but I’m feeling better now that we're on the same page,” Sara said, reaching out to pat me on my shoulder. Her hand went right through me on account of being a hologram, but it was the thought that counted. “Shall I try to take your mind off of it?”

“I’d like that, thank you,” I replied as I slumped deeper into the couch.

I decided that wasn’t enough and laid down completely, closing my eyes. At least my wife was getting some measure of schadenfreude for disregarding her, which was a small consolation when faced with the consequences of my actions.

“Marishiten has been catching me up, so let me tell you how the guild’s been doing…”

With my eyes closed, I listened to Sara tell me all about how Sol Ligatus had been doing without me and Jamie. This was something I could be proud of. At the very least, it took my thoughts off of my imminent doom.