Heretical Edge

No. Oh no, no no. Please no. This was wrong, this was bad.

Yeah, it was safe to say that things had sure as hell turned sideways pretty quickly. Which wasn’t exactly new, but still. It was supposed to be simple. As simple as this sort of thing could be, anyway. We were just supposed to go into this place to find examples of the Ripper man’s spellwork so we could track those zombie bombs to get rid of them so we could stop the man himself. That was it, a straightforward goal. And now? Well, now we had managed to get one of the most important members of Crossroads, the leader of their detective division who also happened to be both the founder of the Atherby clan and my own fucking ancestor, possessed by one of the worst beings on the planet. No, one of the worst beings on any planet.

Safe to say, this could be going better.

But I wasn’t exactly just standing there waiting for things to happen. Despite the shock, confusion, and dread filling me, I didn’t even hesitate before my hand snapped out. A portal appeared in front of me, and I shoved it through right next to Bell’s head. My fingers touched him, and I used my instant-inscription power to put the Seosten expulsion rune there. She had only been possessing him for a couple seconds by that point, but that was two seconds too many for me. I wanted her out of him.

Unfortunately, it wasn’t going to be that easy. The expulsion rune activated, but all it did was make Invidia-Bell (Invidia-Charmeine-Bell was a mouthful) hiss with annoyance. It didn’t force her out.

Even as that realization hit me, I could feel a massive flood of Necromantic power coming from three parts of the room. One in front of Tabbris and Bezique, another by Miranda, and the third next to Aylen. Three different monsters were ripping their way right up out of the ground. These were no simple ghosts, nothing that easy. They were carefully prepared undead creatures, golems of a sort. I didn't know the details, but I knew the floor was cracking apart in those three places as the things dramatically and loudly ripped their way up into view. And I could tell that they were incredibly strong. The power they were giving off was proof enough of that.

And yet, before I could even do anything more than give a brief, barely slightly coherent blurted warning shout that was probably unnecessary since the others could all feel and hear the ground breaking under their feet, the possessed Bell was swinging that wicked-looking bone axe-spear right at my hand, which was still sticking through that portal. It was coming too quickly for me to yank my arm back. I barely had any time to react at all. But in that second, even as I started to recoil from the incoming blade, it changed. The weapon literally became intangible as it passed through my extended arm, passing around it like smoke.

Well that was--uh, confusing. And it definitely wasn’t something Invidia chose to do, given the brief look of confusion that crossed Bell’s face. If she was confused enough for that to come through two different layers of possession--yeah, something was going on. Which was made even more apparent an instant later as Tiresias (that was what Bell had called his weapon) ripped its way out of his hand and flew away.

Of course, losing that didn’t suddenly make the combined figure helpless. As evidenced in the next second as Bell appeared in front of me, his hand snapping up toward my face while shifting into some sort of metal. I had just enough time to pull my hand back through the portal and twist my head aside, taking a glancing blow that still left my ears ringing. Before I had even recovered from that, some sort of concussive force bomb effect placed at my feet launched me hard up into the ceiling. Just as quickly, the effect reversed and I was thrown toward the floor, where a set of metal spikes had appeared. It was very obvious that Invidia had quickly learned how to use Bell’s powers (or maybe stealing my powers had included the ability to reap her own new ones), and she wasn't messing around. She wanted to kill me right here and now.

Well, she could get in the line, because she was hardly the first person to try. Nor would she be the last. And it was going to take more than a throw into the ceiling and then down into some spikes to do the job.

Before we hit the ceiling, I used my motion-slowing power on my own clothes so we bounced off it much more softly than we should have. At the same time, Hot Type generated several of those long black-red tentacles from our free hand. They hit the floor on either side of the spikes and brought us down safely. No impalement for us today. Not yet, anyway.

At the same time, while all that was going on, I was already extending my staff. I’d kept hold of it through all of that, and just as we were being carried back down on those tentacles, I triggered one of my stored spells. This one created a large ball of magical darkness around the possessed figure who had already started to turn my way with her (Bell was male but both Invidia and Charmeine were female so I was going to stick with that since this wasn't his fault) hand raised. The darkness surrounded her before she could do whatever she was planning. About a second later, just as the tentacles brought me to the floor, the darkness ball suddenly turned bright white. I was rewarded with the sound of a yelp and curse from within.

The idea of that particular spell was to make people turn on any darkness vision powers they had right when it hit them, then immediately shift to a bright light to blind them. It wouldn’t work with all such powers, since plenty had protection against that. But it was worth a shot. And this time it had clearly paid off. Now I just had to capitalize on that before she could recover.

There was fighting going on elsewhere, with all the others. I wanted to help them. I had to help them. I could already see massive ogre-like zombie things tearing their way out of the ground. My friends were already in the middle of a pitched battle against not just those things, but also several swarms of very violent ghosts. Aylen, Miranda, Tabbris, and Bezique needed help. But I couldn't let up on this. If I turned my back to the Invidia-possessed Bell, she would kill me. There was no doubt about that, none. She had all my powers, and all of Bell’s. She was by far the biggest threat here, in more ways than one. Besides, if I distracted her, she wouldn't be able to reinforce those monsters as easily. I had to focus on that.

But that didn't mean I couldn't help at all. Being a Necromancer did have its advantages in that regard. So, with a thought, I flooded the room with my own army of ghosts, as many as I could summon, all at once. In those precious couple of seconds while Invidia was recovering from being very briefly blinded, I sent a couple hundred spirits to assist our friends against the things that were attacking them, including those incoming monsters. The lab, large as it may have been, was suddenly much more crowded and chaotic. Not to mention loud.

Unfortunately, I didn't have time to focus on any of that. I didn't have time to directly intervene and help my sister, our new little friend, or Aylen and Miranda. I couldn’t devote any more time or attention to it. Sending them some ghost help was all I could do before turning my focus fully to the dangerous figure in front of me.

Which I did right then, by triggering my boost and launching myself forward with a blast from my rocket burst power.

Aaand I had only crossed half the distance before Invidia-Bell erupted from the bright ball of light using her own rocket burst. No, actually, using mine. Invidia used my own power to launch herself forward. She was holding some other weapon, a sword she had summoned from somewhere, and swung it directly at my incoming head. I brought my staff up to intercept it, only to feel it lagging in the air, moving much more slowly than it should have with my current boost. My object-slowing power. Invidia was using that too. Great, just fantastic really. I loved fighting someone who had all my powers and more.

The blade was still coming directly at my neck. But again, Hot Type came to the rescue. They immediately projected a pair of tentacles out of our shoulders to hit the ground behind us, shoving hard with them. At the same time, I released my staff so the slowing power wouldn't hinder us. Just like that, we were moving much faster than we had been an instant earlier. Fast enough, for just a second, to fly right past Invidia while she was still in midswing.

The second we were past her, Hot Type dissolved those tentacles while I used the object-pausing power on my own clothes. Just like that, we came to a halt in midair. At the same time, before we could fall, I summoned my staff back to one hand to trigger a blast of concussive force over my shoulder right at Invidia-Bell’s back. It was a risk, of course. She had all my powers, which included the kinetic energy absorption I had given to Extra. But she had to actually focus on that, and would she have been doing so in that exact moment while throwing herself into swinging that blade at my head?

The answer was no, she wasn't. The blast of kinetic force slammed into Bell’s body from behind, launching them toward the far wall. Unfortunately, she managed to slow herself and flip over, landing on the floor about twenty feet away from me even as the tentacles brought me down as well. I could see the hatred blazing in those eyes, once so kind and curious, now twisted by her possession into glaring at me. Her hands rose like she was going to do something, yet nothing happened. For a brief second, the tension remained, before she spoke with Bell’s voice, snarling words that clearly weren’t meant for me. “Euuuggghhh! You cannot keep every power from me, they are mine! It doesn’t matter how many of you there are, you can’t lock down all of it. You can’t protect her forever!”

How many of them there were? I thought it was just Bell and maybe Charmeine distracting her, but that--did that mean there were more--wait, did Bell have his own version of the Flique? Did Charmeine? What--fuck why didn’t I ask Bell about that!?

Either way, it didn’t solve the situation. Even if Invidia did have other voices in her head clearly trying to help out, this was still bad. My ancestor, possessed by that creature. We had to stop this, had to free him. But how? Even the Seosten expulsion rune didn’t work. Unless we could magnify its strength somehow.

A series of crashes on the far side of the room, behind me, desperately made me want to turn. But I didn't dare. I did, however, peek through one of my ghosts. What I saw wasn't good. Nearly the entire wall on that side had been broken down, leaving gaping holes. And the others were nowhere in sight. Their battle had spilled out into the street. Which meant this whole situation was deteriorating very rapidly. My ghosts were helping, but the trio of ogre monsters were a bad enough problem, even if they hadn’t been alone. With Invidia’s own swarm of spirits backing them up, things were getting pretty bad. Especially since those ghosts, like mine, actually had their own powers. There was an all out war going on right there in the streets of London, between my friends and ghosts, and Invidia’s own undead army. This was very, very bad, and deteriorating by the second. Worse, I couldn't help them directly, not until I stopped Invidia so we could figure out how to get her the hell out of Bell.

When she made him speak, Bell’s voice was filled with mockery, taunting me with its very tone. “You know, I keep getting more and more power thanks to you. Maybe I should send you a gift basket or something. You're not allergic to nuts, are you? I just really want to give you something to show my appreciation for everything you've done. After all, you're the one who killed my Olympian host. You helped create the situation that led to these rifts appearing. That other version of you completely failed to realize who I was. She failed so utterly I was able to absorb her and take all your powers. And now, you led this fantastic specimen with all his knowledge and authority right to my fingertips. Your own ancestor at that. At this point, I think the question needs to be asked, whose side are you even on?”

She was deliberately trying to piss me off and make me stop thinking. I knew that. Hot Type knew that. We were both well aware. But that didn't stop me from gripping the staff even tighter while glaring that way. She might have been twisting the truth, but that didn't change the fact that she really was benefiting from things I had done or failed to do. She had my power and was using it to hurt people, to kill people. It had been bad enough when I knew that the Lechmere guy was using the powers he got from bonding to me in order to become one of the most notorious serial killers in history. But this was even worse. She had absorbed one of me, the actual me, and was using all my powers to do this shit. And I really had walked Bell right into this.

However, all that meant was that it was my responsibility to fix the situation before she could kill even more people. And I wasn't going to be able to do that if I let her make me so angry I lost control. I had to think. There had to be a way to trap and contain her so we could get her out of Bell.

After that, well, we could go from there. But what could I do? What the hell could contain her when she had my power to teleport, on top of everything else.

It didn't help that I could still hear fighting going on out in the streets. That battle was getting worse. A quick glance through my ghosts showed that Tabbris had actually possessed Bezique and was helping to keep her safe from the fighting, while contributing where she could. Meanwhile, Aylen and Miranda, with help from my ghosts, were barely holding against those ogre golems and their own army of ghost reinforcements. And the buildings around them were definitely taking the brunt of the damage from both sides. There were already people screaming and running in every direction with several of my ghosts doing their best to hurry along, terrifying people in order to make them flee while simultaneously shielding them from attack. I had no idea what the Bystander Effect was going to do with all this, but no matter what, it wasn't pretty. And it kept getting worse, spiraling completely out of any semblance of control.

God, at this point, I actually felt nostalgic for the time when Charmeine had been the biggest threat and problem in front of me. Those really had been the days. Wouldn't it be nice to find a way to go back to just dealing with-- wait a minute.

My head shook sharply as I met Bell’s gaze, trying to keep the anxiety out of my voice. I desperately wanted to be helping the others more directly, but I had to deal with this first. “Except you don't actually have anything. You don't really have my powers, and you're not actually possessing him to have his either. You’re just a hitchhiker. You don’t have a damn thing. She does. Charmeine is the one who has all that. She's the one with the power. You're just a parasite that happens to be along for the ride. Hell, pretty sure you just admitted you’re kind of outnumbered in there. How many voices are shouting at you right now? Gotta be distracting. All Charmeine needs to do is wait for the right moment to take advantage of that.”

Bell’s expression twisted, first into one of annoyance, then mockery. “Aww, is that your plan this time too? Convince her to fight back? Get her to work alongside the other insects? I have news for you, if that was possible, they would've done so at some point in the past few hundred years while she's been under my thumb. Charmeine can do nothing, even with help. No matter how much she squirms and wriggles, she will never pull herself free. And if you really understood her history, how often she has crushed those attempting to free themselves from her position, you would see the irony in that. Hell, you might even root for me. Wasn’t she the one responsible for tormenting your little friend? She threatened his sister--your girlfriend, did you know that?”

Trying to calm my rapidly-beating heart, I replied, “Yeah, but that's the whole thing. She has a lot of experience in stopping people from breaking her control. Which means she knows what works and what doesn't. She knows the tricks. Especially when the person doing the possessing is distracted. And you? You're about to be very distracted.”

Even as I said that, I was activating a very different stored spell on my staff while launching myself that way. My rocket burst plus a kinetic blast from the opposite end of the staff sent me there even faster. At the same time, I triggered the spell that would unleash Penny Dreadful, the scary little girl golem. Often I would have her be possessed by one of my other ghosts, but they were busy for the moment, so the ghost of Penny herself was filling in. And she really enjoyed playing up the vicious, almost rabid animal-like mannerisms of her golem form. To the point that, as the casket cracked open behind Invidia where I had summoned it, Penny Dreadful was already rocketing out of it with a loud, furious snarl to collide with Bell’s back. Or she would have, if Invidia hadn't made him shift out of the way before catching the back of Penny Dreadful’s neck to throw the tiny, yet incredibly dangerous zombie child into and through the nearby brick wall.

But that was all the distraction I needed to cross the distance between us. My staff slammed down at the back of Bell’s head while his body was in mid-pivot. Unfortunately, that sword snapped up and around to intercept, knocking my staff off-course. Just as quickly, as my staff was knocked out of the way, Invidia was already shifting, changing. This wasn't Bell anymore, it was something large and furry.

Werelion. She was using my werelion power, and had boosted the transformation speed so quickly that she was able to spin around and smack one of those paws against my head hard enough to knock me to the floor. The world was spinning around me.

This was insane. How was I supposed to fight someone with all my powers, plus all of Bell’s, and Charmeine’s Olympian gift?

Even as my body hit the floor, I was already making my own shift to my lion shape. I rebounded with all the agility of a super-powered cat and leapt that way. But she was faster, twisting around to avoid my swinging claws. Yet in that instant, I got a glimpse of something. Her eyes shifted, the eyes of that lion changed. I didn't see Bell or Invidia right then. I saw Charmeine. I couldn't explain it any other way. The eyes were definitely hers, literally changing just like that.

It didn't last long, just a bare couple of seconds. But for those seconds, she completely froze. I was able to twist around and slam my other paw out hard enough into that lion head to knock her down. Then I was on top of her. As those eyes shifted back to being the normal werelion’s, I shoved my paw against her shoulder, while the other held her head down. A thought and quick use of my instant inscription power made a series of runes appear across her lion shoulder. These weren’t the expulsion rune. They were part of a spell that was meant to put a person to sleep. If we could just knock her out, I would have time to figure out what to do about all this.

But, of course, it wasn't going to be that simple. I needed to put these runes on her in four different stages, activating each one by one. My inscription power meant I could do that very quickly, but it still had to be one set at a time. And I got close. I managed to hold her down while putting three of the inscriptions on her.

Then I heard a voice as the body under me shifted and changed. Once again, I could tell that it wasn't Bell or Invidia. The words came from Charmeine, as she snarled in a vicious, utterly furious voice, “Should’ve killed us!”

Then she was gone. They were gone. The figure under me vanished before I could put the last set of runes on them. They had teleported away. And something told me they weren't coming back immediately. I had managed to get through to Charmeine at least enough to make her fight back and take control for a second or two. Invidia was going to have to take the time to make sure that didn't happen again.

I was back on my feet and in human form a second later, even as Miranda, Aylen, Tabbris, and Bezique came running back in through one of the holes in the wall, letting me know that the monsters out there had vanished. Bezique, for her part, was going on and on about how incredible it had been to be possessed by my sister. She kept spinning in circles and throwing air punches and kicks at imaginary enemies as she excitedly and incoherently described the fight they had been in.

Aylen spoke up over that, breathlessly. “Where are they? Where’s Invidia? Where is Bedivere?”

Grimacing, I opened and shut my mouth before admitting, “Gone. They're gone. But we can’t follow them. We can’t worry about that right now, because we still have to find those zombie bombs.”

Aylen nodded. “And now we have to do it without Bedivere.”

“That’s true,” I agreed, taking a step over to where his weapon had thrown itself. Frowning, I reached down slowly. My fingers touched the thing tentatively, expecting it to turn to smoke again. It didn’t, remaining solid while I picked it up. I felt something then, a flood of what I could only describe as pure revitalizing energy. The weariness that had started to sneak in vanished, and I felt completely refreshed while holding Tiresias in one hand and my staff in the other.

“But hey, we aren’t out of this thing just yet.”