Page 373 of Light Leech

What caused that? This game?

“No. Matters of greater importance are occurring in your outer body.”

Greater?

“Of significant worth. At this moment, your outer self is in more dire circumstances, but worry not, there is little you can do to change that.”

That’s not comforting.

“I did not mean it to be. Focus on the present.”

He turned our body to see Sha riding to our field on a wave. The Heavenly General was covered in lacerations, scratches in his armament, and various colors of blood. He stepped down to approach Chucarrier the Nihilist’s corpse. His wave dissipated into the ground.

Chucarrier the Nihilist’s rotting body dissolved into pixels before Sha could reach it.

The crowd cheered as the announcer spoke. “Congratulations competitors PetNeb and RalEsp! You have passed the Standardized Test!”

I should have celebrated with the digital audience, but I couldn’t overcome the weight in my chest.

We shouldn’t have passed. Having Zhu was not as great of an excuse as I wanted it to be. Everyone else failed except for the two people who wanted to see this fail. If the possessor of True Knowledge was running this, they knew who was pursuing them.

Chapter twenty-four

Plotweaver

What?

“Stab yourself with every spear until you collapse.”

The orca-mech continued to torment us. The other had not ceased its work on one of the other boats that had changed its direction. The race no longer mattered. This was survival and the survivors were dying.

I held a bundle of glowing spears in the crux of my left arm with one in my right hand.

“Now, bakuh! Each wasted minute is another death due to your cowardice!”

What if he was wrong? My modifications did not prevent dying from bleeding out. He was asking for self-inflicted torture under the trust that it would somehow change our circumstances.

“Have I ever deceived you?”

I’m sure you have.

“You will die if you do not change something. Here is your change. Take it.”

I looked up at Naoma. She clutched Zhou’s throne, not letting the chaos and my imminent death break her character.

“Do you want to rely on her to resolve this? She could, you know. She could stop it all now by revealing what she truly is.”

And you understand that?

“More than you, as does Zhou.”

No. I’m not letting them take her back.

“I’m sure she would reveal herself in an instant if it meant saving you. All she needs is your word. Tell her. They will take her back soon enough. You might as well capitulate now to save yourself, if that is what you desire.”

I took the spear in my hand and stabbed it into my thigh. The agony was unmatched. I had hoped that the burning light would numb the tissue, but it only aggravated it. Had the others felt such hellish pain when they died by the spear? They at least had the reprieve of death or whatever their disintegration entailed. I was left with pain. It doubled as I stabbed another into the flush just below the first.

“Just as I expected. I know you too well by now, bakuh.”