Second Genesis

Grey coughed up a mouthful of blood and groaned, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand as the last remnants of The Relentless’ Dominion finally disappeared. Across from him, Brad lay sprawled over the broken courtyard with one hand still wrapped around the massive hammer, completely unconscious and wearing the faintest stupid grin on his face.

’Look at that bastard sleeping like a fucking baby while I’m dying over here.’ Grey planted a hand on his knee, pushed himself upright, then leaned back until several cracks ran up his spine. "Fuck. That’s better."

Petri watched him with wide eyes. His gaze moved from Grey to Brad, then toward the hammer, and Grey could practically see the gears grinding as the bald bastard slowly pieced together what he had just witnessed.

Petri’s lip twitched. "You... are you in the Dominion Class?"

Grey looked himself up and down, chains and all. "Do I look like I’m in the Dominion Class?"

"But just now—"

Grey grinned and left him to suffer. The others gathered around the courtyard weren’t doing much better, several monks and disciples staring at Grey like he’d grown another head, because they knew the same thing Petri did.

If Grey had actually entered the Dominion Class, there was no hiding something like that from people this strong, and more importantly, he wouldn’t even qualify to enter the Instance everyone had dragged him back here to clear. Yet for those few moments, when Grey’s Quasi Dominion had collided with what The Relentless left behind, it had felt unmistakably like two Dominions grinding against one another.

"Alright." Grey walked over to Brad, bent down, and hauled the giant bastard over one shoulder.

The hammer came with him. Brad was holding it tightly and despite his lack of strength at the moment, he showed no signs of letting it go at all.

Grey paused for a moment when the weapon lifted cleanly from the ground, but he wasn’t surprised for long. It had acknowledged Brad just like it had acknowledged The Relentless, and although Brad couldn’t consciously use it in his current state, Grey could feel energy pouring from the weapon into his body.

The Relentless had still needed to feed the hammer power to make it function at its full level, but right now the flow had reversed, everything inside the weapon rushing into Brad instead and changing something deep within him.

What that something was, Grey had no fucking clue.

Brad’s Linear Frame certainly didn’t feel the same as it had a few minutes ago, but Grey wasn’t about to start digging around in his friend’s Neural Frame while the bastard was half dead and unconscious.

Whatever the hammer was doing seemed stable enough for now, and that meant the rest could wait until Brad woke up. More importantly, there was no fucking chance Grey was leaving him here with a Dominion Class weapon hanging from his hand, because the second he walked away some idiot would decide centuries of Church history meant the hammer actually belonged to them.

He’d read enough books and established a long time ago that the Genesis System wasn’t about copyright infringement.

Grey adjusted Brad’s weight. "When is this Instance supposed to open?"

Petri blinked, still apparently trying to recover from everything else. "As soon as possible. The others are already being gathered."

"Good. Let’s go now, then."

Petri stared at him.

Grey looked like shit and knew it. Blood still stained his mouth, his Holy Energy had taken a beating, he had an unconscious mountain of a man slung over one shoulder, and said mountain didn’t look like he was going to be waking up anytime soon.

Apparently, Petri had also noticed that Grey seemed fully intent on bringing Brad into the Instance exactly like this.

"You intend to take him with you?"

Grey gave him a look. "You think I trust you fuckers with my boy?"

Petri opened his mouth.

Grey scoffed and started walking before he could answer.

Honestly, bringing Brad made perfect sense. This Instance could go one of two ways, and Grey wasn’t seeing much room between them. Either it was going to be really fucking easy considering how much stronger Grey had gotten lately, in which case Brad would be safer lying unconscious somewhere Grey could personally keep an eye on him, or it was going to be really fucking hard.

If it was the second option, things got worse fast.

Grey had already seen what happened when Instances went wrong. If this one suffered some sort of Instance Break beneath the Church, the catacombs could collapse, the formation could get torn apart, and this entire part of the Holy City could turn into one giant clusterfuck before anyone above Command Class had time to fix it.

At that point, leaving Brad unconscious up here wasn’t protecting him, it would just be giving him a different place to die.

So, they might as well die together.

Grey patted the back of Brad’s leg hanging over his shoulder. "Don’t say I never do anything for you, buddy."

Brad shuddered in his sleep.

Grey frowned. "Ungrateful bastard."

By the time they reached the entrance to the Instance, Grey expected a crowd. Instead, there were only two guards stationed outside a broad opening descending into the catacombs, both clearly there to stop random people from wandering inside before preparations were complete.

There were three women as well, though Grey barely registered the third because she was an old hag and therefore immediately became environmental scenery. Though, Grey was sure she was a lovely rock.

The last time Grey had seen an old hag in this place she was hooked up to a million wires and completely naked. He shuddered at the horror of the memory. It was a good thing she had ended up picking such a beautiful disciple.

The other two were considerably more important.

Grey’s eyes brightened.

Mauve stood near the entrance, her caramel skin looking particularly pleasant after Grey had spent the last several days surrounded by aliens, monsters, clergy, and Petri’s bald fucking head. Beside her was Elowen, her amber hair burning beneath the underground lights like someone had taken a piece of sunset and decided to give it legs. Long, sexy legs.

How long could they possibly be when Elowen was so short? Well, proportions, my friend. Proportions.

Now that was a sight for sore eyes.

Both women turned when they heard the chains.

Grey immediately smiled and raised his bound hands as much as the restraints allowed. "Ladies, ladies, it’s been so long. Don’t mind the new fashion." He rattled the chains around his wrists, then kicked one ankle forward enough to make the rest jingle. "I’m just testing out a new style. What do you think? I’ve heard women love convicts and felons."

His grin widened.

"Is it working?"

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