The Will to Live Is My Strongest Skill

[WARNING: Critical synchronization. Neuroplasticity level: 89%]

[Access to the "Zeno" archive layer granted...]

​Weeks earlier. The Lower Horizon.

​The air here smelled of ozone and arrogance. I—or rather, Zeno—glided effortlessly along the shadowed galleries of the upper levels. A small vial containing an iridescent mercurial liquid was clutched in my hands.

​"Come on, boys, is that really all you can field against an old man?" Zeno's voice whispered in my head.

​The heavy thud of hobnailed boots echoed from behind. Third Circle officers, clad in heavy armor, burst into the corridor. I felt Zeno summon a current of air with a short gesture. The officers slipped on flat ground, colliding with each other like bowling pins. He uncorked the vial and took a sip. Light began to bend around his body, turning Zeno into a barely visible haze, a shimmering of the air. He walked past the guard post, narrowly avoiding brushing the captain's shoulder, and even managed to subtly swipe a keyring from his belt.

​The Dead Marshes. Dusk.

​Zeno was breathing heavily. The invisibility potion had drained almost all his reserves.

​And then, right in front of him, a figure materialized from the gloom. Kane. Valt's elite punisher.

​"Zeno," Kane's voice was devoid of emotion. "You know no one leaves here alive."

​"You again, Kane?" Zeno straightened up, and I felt his relaxed demeanor shift into steel concentration.

​The battle was lightning-fast. Kane moved like a blurred smudge. Zeno, meanwhile, conjured air shields and immediately transitioned into counterattacks. The air around them turned into a storm, tearing trees out by the roots. Zeno used healing on the fly, patching up the deep cuts left by Kane, but Kane was tireless.

​"Enough," Zeno wheezed, as another of Kane's strikes nearly took his head off. "Listen, kid..." Zeno whispered, and I realized he was talking to me.

​He brought his hands together in a complex, finger-breaking seal. "Forbidden Covenant: Crystallization of the Soul."

​The world around him began to turn white. I felt Zeno's soul being sucked out of his body, turning into pure, concentrated mana.

​"Sorry, Iron..." that was his last conscious thought. "It seems I didn't keep my promise."

​A blinding flash wiped out Kane, the fog, and the earth within a hundred-meter radius. When the dust settled, only a small emerald crystal lay on the wasteland scorched completely black.

​And then I saw him. Ephraim.

​He stepped out from the shadow of the trees that had remained standing on the edge of the crater. His face was gray. He slowly walked over to the crystal, picked it up with trembling hands, and pressed it to his chest.

​"Forgive me. I was too late. Too late again."

​I snapped my eyes open in the dark sewer. My cheeks were wet with tears.

​"Iron?" Ephraim's voice pulled me out of the trance. "You... saw it, didn't you?"

​"He is dead, Ephraim," my voice sounded broken.

​"I couldn't intervene!" the old man slammed his good fist onto his knee. "Against Kane, I didn't stand a chance. All I could do was save what was left of Zeno."

​"But your help could have saved me," Zeno's voice rang out in my head. He sounded clearer now, although digital static could still be heard in his voice. "You were always late in important situations. Remember how in the Citadel you 'accidentally' got stuck in the archive while I fought off a platoon of Overseers all by myself?"

​I flinched. The voice was so real it was as if Zeno was standing right behind me.

​"He's speaking," I looked at Ephraim.

​Ephraim froze. His face contorted into a pained grimace, half-smirk, half-cry.

​"Why did he say that you aren't an option?" I asked, recalling Zeno's words. "And why is he so angry with you?"

​"Because this idiot is my former partner, Iron," Zeno sighed in my mind. "The best of the best. 'Steel Wind and Mountain Oppression'—that's what they called us in the Order, even though Ephraim's status was higher. We trusted each other with our lives for over ten years. And then this moron dropped everything. And, what hurts the most, he didn't even tell me where he was heading! I looked for him for years, using all the laboratory resources, and in the end couldn't find him until that moment."

​Ephraim lowered his head.

​"I couldn't tell you, Zeno. You were too devoted to the cause. I knew: if I asked you to come with me, you would refuse. And if you knew where I was, they would force you to track me down."

​"But that's not all," I said. "He says that you wanted me to take his place."

​Ephraim flinched, but didn't look away.

​"It's true," he confessed quietly. "When I saw you, kid... I saw a chance for Zeno and me to be together again."

​"That's why I was driving you away from him. I need you to get to the Node of Three Forces. Only there, at the intersection point of the ley lines, will I be able to stabilize. Right now I am losing memory fragments every ten minutes. If we don't reach the Node..."

​"You're both two old fools," I said, getting to my feet. The pain in my ribs was still sharp, but [Will to Live] had already begun patching up the tissues. "One decided to become a hero, the other a recluse. And now I have to clean up this crap."

​If I had lived to old age in my past life, would I really have been the same, the thought flashed through my mind.

​"Where are we going?" Ephraim asked, leaning heavily on his broken staff.

​"To the Node," I cut him off.

​From behind, out of the depths of the tunnel, came a heavy scraping sound.

Scraaaape... Thud.

​"Faster!" Ephraim pulled me by the sleeve toward the fork. "The right tunnel!"

​"Don't even think about it, Iron!" Zeno's voice in my head turned into the screech of static electricity. "That's a dead zone! The vault is holding on by a wing and a prayer and rotten supports. One wrong move—and we'll become part of the foundation!"

​"Ephraim, Zeno says everything will collapse in there!" I yelled, jumping over a stream of sewage.

​"Exactly! Richter is a tank. He can't be killed with a blade. We need to drop a mountain on him!"

​"Wait, that's Richter, but isn't he dead?"

​"I'd recognize his energy from a mile away. Most likely the Order transferred his soul into this tank."

​We dove into the right passageway. The ceiling here was terrifyingly low, and the walls were covered in deep stress fractures. The load was distributed incorrectly; the entire section was in critical condition.

​"We're here!" Ephraim stopped in a small chamber where the vault was supported by four massive wooden beams, blackened by time and dampness. "Give me the crystal! I need to overload them with mana!"

​"He's not getting it!" Zeno barked. "He'll just burn up what's left of me!"

​I looked at Ephraim, then at the dark maw of the tunnel, from which Richter's massive, iron-clad figure had already emerged. His face was hidden behind a steel grate, and his single eye burned with a crimson color.

​"I won't give you the crystal. But I'll do what you want. Only my way."

​I stepped forward, toward Richter.

​[Skill: "Will to Live" — Activation at full power.]

​The world around me slowed down. I felt the crystal's energy rush into my veins, turning my blood into liquid fire. The pain in my ribs vanished, replaced by an icy numbness.

​"Resonance," I thought. "Every structure has a breaking point."

​I pressed my palm against the central support beam.

​"Vmmmmmmmm..." a low, guttural sound tore from my chest, amplified by the crystal.

​I fed the vibration directly into the structure of the wood. The beam began to tremble slightly, entering into resonance with the stone above us. Richter swung his massive sword, but froze.

​"Fall," I ordered.

​With a final powerful impulse, I "unclasped" the cohesion of the molecules in the rotten wood. The main support splintered into pieces with the roar of a cannon shot.

​Richter slowly raised his head upwards.

​And then the ceiling collapsed.

​Millions of tons of stone, silt, and brick crashed down onto him. The shockwave knocked me off my feet, throwing me toward the exit. Dust, thick and caustic, filled the entire space.

​When the rumbling died down, behind my back there was only a wall of debris. I lay on my stomach, trying to cough it out.

​"Did we... did we bury him?" I asked, looking at the pile of stones.

​"I think so," Ephraim got up with difficulty, wincing from the pain in his broken ribs. "But Richter is tough, we need to stay alert. We have to go. The Node is close."

​I tried to stand up, but my legs buckled. Ephraim caught me.

​We dragged ourselves along the tunnel, which over time became more and more astonishing. The walls now consisted of intertwined roots and a strange stone glowing with wild amber. The air grew thick, heavy with ozone, and the hair on the back of my neck stood on end from static electricity.

​"Zeno, tell me more about the 'Node'," I said.

​"The Node of Three Forces. The point where three of the most powerful etheric currents intersect: Earth, Wind, and Static. In the Citadel, such nodes are used as servers to store massive arrays of data."

​The tunnel suddenly widened, revealing a view of an enormous cavern. In the center of it, hovering over a bottomless chasm, a complex structure of floating stones pulsed, pierced by emerald and gold lightning. It looked like a giant magical processor.

​"There it is..." Ephraim exhaled. "The drainage center of the Old Capital. The heart of the Dead Loop."

​I took a step toward the precipice, but Zeno suddenly pulled me back sharply.

​"Stop! Iron, listen to me carefully. The old man... Ephraim. He won't make it to the end. He's lost too much blood, and his internal mana channels are destroyed. If you drag him to the center of the Node, the resonance will atomize him."

​"And what do you suggest?"

​"Leave him here. At the base. We'll go to the core, I'll anchor myself, and we'll leave through the upper shafts."

​"He's telling you to leave me behind, isn't he?" Ephraim smiled weakly. "I know that old fox. He was always... rational. Go, kid."

​"You know what, Zeno?" I addressed the emptiness in my head out loud. "You said that Ephraim wanted to turn me into a copy of you. But you are doing the exact same thing. I am an engineer. I don't throw away parts that can still be fixed. If the system fails—we change the approach, we don't get rid of the components."

​I walked up to Ephraim, jerked him up, and threw his arm over my neck.

​"We will reach the Node all three of us. I will create a stabilizing field around us."

​"You're crazy..." Zeno whispered. "Alright. But if we blow up—I'll be the first to say: 'I told you so.'"

​"Deal."

​We stepped onto the floating bridge.

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