Because the reactions to my previous omake seemed overly optimistic
Probably completely incomprehensible if you haven't read Pact. Hopefully slightly less so if you have.
Omake: Sibling Spirits 2
The grate shatters with a disappointing tinkle. You let your helmet thunk against the uneven wall, leaving your gauntlet embedded in the twisted mass of metal. Your breath hisses in your ears, strangely loud in the absence of...
There is a loud clank in the distance and the droning roar of falling water, so blessedly absent these last few minutes, fills the air once more. You grit your teeth, refusing to groan. You wouldn't give
her the satisfaction.
Yes,
her. It has not even been a day according to your suit, even if it feels so much longer, and you have already started anthropomorphizing this place. You refuse to call it the 'Drains'. That might fit the aesthetics, but by that logic people should be calling the Simurgh 'Angel'. 'Drains' as a name completely misses the point. It glosses over the sheer, sinister viciousness your current surroundings exhibit. The way she grinds down the people, always pushing, never letting up. Every moment of relief a feint, every glimmer of hope a trap. The ever growing pressure eroding body and soul alike, until you snap. She divides the world into monsters and victims and
makes you choose which one to be.
No, 'Drains' is far too nice a name. 'Hell', on the other hand, seems too impersonal.
So you've taken to calling her 'Sophia'.
You feel yourself calming down. The tight knot at the base of your neck loosens, fading along with with your anger and despair. They weren't helping, after all. Better to just let them go and focus on-
You slam your other fist into the wall, snarling. You fight, wrestling the rising Clarity back into the back of your head before it can take root. The effort leaves you exhausted. But it is worth it. You cannot afford to go mechanical right now. The risk is simply too great. You remember your attitude towards emotions after the fight with Behemoth and there is no way you are are going to trust Robo-You to not trade away your ability to feel. You shudder to think what you might get in its stead.
There is a flicker in the corner of your eye. For a moment you almost think you see someone. A figure, dark in dress and skin. Holding something. A gun? No, a crossbow. Definitely a crossbow. And you would recognise that smug air anywhere.
Your fists clench so hard that it hurts. Still, you refuse to turn around. This isn't the first time she has taunted you. Always barely in your field of view. Always gone so quickly you can't be sure you've really seen her. Always pushing. Trying to make you different, make you less. But the joke's on her this time! Because you already are different. You are more. No more squishy, whiny Taylor. You are an Alchemical. You are Enduring Order Administrator! And your Industrial Survival Frame won't let her change that. Change you.
Even if the buzzing is hard to take. The constant, incessant, continous, never-ending bloody
buzzing in your bones. You want it to go away and you don't. You know you can make it end but you can't. Because that would give her an opening. She would take your body and twist it. Like that man with the insect legs and the glowing red eyes, the one that waved at you and twitched and screamed and twitched and begged and twitched and you didn't know what to do and he twitched and you fled until your Shard could no longer crush him.
She would take your mind and twist it more. Like the man with the skewer, the one that met you and told you where you are and how it works and who doesn't know his name or where he's from and who stopped talking in the middle of a sentence and just stared at the wall and wouldn't move or talk even when you shook him and shouted.
And once she takes you, twists you, you can't make her stop, you can't stop her changing you because the Maker is gone, your connection is gone and there is no more Essence filling you from inside until it spills out and fills the world because the connection is gone and he has abandoned you. No more Essence, no more making people smarter, better, no more using your Omnitool Implants to make dolls for little girls with only one arm and horribly misshapen teeth, no more extruding med-kits to patch up pudgy little boys with wriggling, gnawing not-worms in his gut, no more storing you armor elsewhere, to repair and recharge, unless you want to lose it forever.
Though you could, if you wanted. You could do all that. Because there is something at the edge of your peripheral pool, creeping closer, seeping into your pool, coming closer to you, to your core, something that is not quite Essence but you could use it like Essence, you know you could use it, and you could make all your problems go away.
Except you tried and it hurt. It hurt so much. Your ISF shook and it
screamed and your bones burned and your flesh was dripping, melting, turning into sludge and you screamed and-
A spike of fire is jammed through your brain. You stagger backwards, your increasingly incoherent thoughts grinding to a halt at the unexpected pain. What the...?
Ah. A large swarm of centipedes just dropped into your range of influence, who knows from where. Annoying as it is otherwise, the headache-inducing wrongness of the local insects might just have saved you. Because, honestly, you're not quite certain you could have pulled yourself out of your... episode on your own. You are just glad that you have already dismissed your Incomparable Efficiency Upgrade. Going insane is unpleasant enough when you are doing it one mind at a time.
Gritting your teeth, you focus on the pain. Because pain is familiar, straightforward. Pain you can deal with. And concentrating on it might just allow you to keep it together long enough to escape.
It stings, to have to flee. To give way to this
bully. But your armor is running out of power. If you want to use it, you have to use it now.
You can't help but notice that it seems quite similar to your mind in that regard.
Still, there is no doubt in your soul. You will return here. Prepared, armed with knowledge and an arsenal to make an Endbringer flinch. Then she will pay. You will take this place apart, rescue the people and make them whole, make everything she tried to do meaningless, every effort in vain.
Yes. Sophia will pay.
