Page 149 of Godslayer
But this is exactly how I need it to happen.
Because while Tyse Saarinen lies on the table, writhing in pain, I get up. Sit right up. And when I look down at myself, I’m empty again. Just an outline of blue glow.
A traveler. One who slips between worlds.
I see them all, all at once. Layers upon layers of worlds.
We’re underground, so again, there are limits here. Some worlds are just rock. But there are plenty that aren’t. That have trains or underground facilities. No monks, not like last time. No Spark Source. But there are men. Groups of them running some kind of heavy machinery in some unknown world.
I float down to one, and settle beside him inside the cab of the excavator. And then, with one touch, he unspools. All his little threads of spark float into me. Filling me back up.
I do this many times. Dozens. I take everyone’s spark I can find.
And then, I float up, and up, and up.
Until I am back in Epsilon’s Factory city, inside the lab where Clara is strapped to a wall with a harvesting cage pressed against her body, and I kiss her. Unspooling myself.
I give it all back.
Then I pull away, looking at her sweet face as the color comes back. Her glow returns. Her spark lights up inside her. And I give her my vow. “I will kill everything in this universe to save you Clara Birch. God or human, it won’t matter. They will not take you from me.”
And then, spent from the unspooling that happened here as well as the threading going on in the next room, I simply… disappear.
When I wake up,I’m still on the table, but the threads have been taken out and the cage is hovering above me.
A slow clapping fills the space. “Well done, Mr. Saarinen. Well, done.”
I sit up, find Epsilon leaning against the far wall, and look down at myself. “What did you do to me?”
“Well, we need to find out, don’t we?”
“No. Where’s Clara?”
“She’s fine. Filled herself right back up, just like she said. I’ve given her the day off. It’s a fight day, after all. I figured she’d want to watch.”
“What?”
Epsilon snaps his fingers and suddenly, a group of mutant augments have me by the arms and legs. They lift me up, high above their heads, and carry me out of the lab.
That’s when I hear it.
Epsilon!Epsilon!Epsilon!
The chanting.
“It’s fight time!” Epsilon’s words boom through the arena as I’m carried in and the crowd of mutant men goes wild, making the whole place shake.
We are on some kind of platform now. It ascends, taking us up, up, up. It stops with a jolt and all the hands release me, so my back slams hard onto the cold metal surface.
I’m naked, save for a pair of military-issue boxer shorts. And Epsilon’s voice is once again booming through the speakers. But from this high up, it’s distorted, so I can’t actually understand what he’s saying.
What I do hear is the screaming from above. And when I look up, here they come. A horde—dozens of mutant augments spill out of the ceiling. Clambering down ropes. Sliding off scaffolding. Dropping from poles.
And all of them are after me.
“Finish him!” Epsilon booms.
Filled with spark, though—and not just any spark, but Clara’s spark—I am… much,muchmore than just another one of Epsilon’s experiments.
