Chapter 392

  Almost Broken Chances

  (Raygunnr)

  Secrets.

  We all have them, and it is odd to think that the flashiest, most blaringly obviously magically attuned creature to ever be allowed to walk on the planet was also the one tasked with finding out every secret. It was no real secret that Dr. Spiritlight was the Thieves Guild leader, well to those that saw her from the outside world. Which is what Raygunnr had done, before he came here. It was that prior knowledge that made it so, his remembering that fact was not means for his completing the outing of a master spy quest, a hidden quest that everyone tentatively received when they were not themselves part of any established spy guild.

  That said, his knowing that Dr. Spiritlight was in fact the Thieves Guild’s Master for the World’s end branch should have been easy to identify, but that was anything but the case. In fact, the closest that Raygunnr ever got to proving that Dr. Spiritlight was the Spy Master was that she had a Simulacrum devoted to Espionage; however, even that seemed to be a distraction as Espy-Ulacrum rarely if ever stayed on World’s End territory. That or if she did, she did so blatantly, out in the open, for fixed events, and then seemed to disappear just as quickly as she appeared.

  Though it was seeing Espy-Ulacrum in action that proved to Raygunnr that he was not in fact crazy, that he had not misremembered events from his past. Yet, despite all his prior memories and knowledge, he had been unable to prove anything based on her actions or clues found. By the time he got close enough to her, he realized that he wouldn’t want her to lose her position anyways. There was just something fun and life affirming about being with her that made him finally forgo the idea of somehow catching the master of all Spy Masters in the act.

  That was when he decided to ultimately give up on the hidden quest and join the Thieves’ Guild, so that he could help Dr. Spiritlight remain at World’s End, knowing that he could help cover up any slip ups on her part. But even then he never saw anything other than her being a basic member.

  Even when she had lured him out to be a magic tree in the heart of the Legrand empire, no one caught on. Looking back, it had been some of the best moments of his life, in either life, the sheer absurdity of it all still made him chuckle slightly, as he realized in this world anything was possible, so long as you went about it logically.

  In fact, as any good spy master would likely tell you, the best way to get information is to act like you don’t want information. To act like finding out your dark secrets is nothing major. But Raymond Gunner, former corporate worker, and break-dancing enthusiast did have a dark secret, one that he was afraid would bring shame and embarrassment to his family should his secret ever come out. See the world saw him as a corporate drone by day, but by night he had a darker side. He had gotten deep into the world of erotic fantasy, as a joke mostly, but surprisingly his works took off. Before he knew it, there was disposable income coming in from external sources. He had money to replace the washer and dryer the first year, then the fridge the next year, the dishwasher the year after that. Even earned enough to take his daughter on a vacation and even help fix her car’s transmission.

  Soon he found himself hooked, not only was it surprisingly fun, but he was beginning to make a substantial sums that were too much to be ignored. That’s when he started his new series that would finally take off and make his penname a household name, but only in secret. A penname that would only be spoken about in hushed conversations once spouses had gone to bed and the real book clubs could come out and discuss true gems.

  Raygunnr remembered the look on his daughter’s face once he revealed his true inheritance for her. The fact that she would be able to receive royalties from the works that she had secretly read and coveted. Then there was of course that moment of twinged regret, once she realized she had truly enjoyed some of the racier parts that she would never discuss with her parents, especially not her father. That final image alone was enough for him to finish uploading his essence with a clear consciousness as he ended on one final punchline. A punchline that was so good, that he couldn’t have written it better if he had tried.

  All of this is to say that he almost expected Dr. Spiritlight to find out about his past. Honestly, it was almost inevitable, given how observant she was, and how they were for all intents and purposes joined at the hip for the foreseeable future. Him living out a childhood dream of being reincarnated as a Steampunk murder bot, the best of all punk types, in his opinion. However, looking back on it, Ray couldn’t help but feel slightly lacking. For he and the Doctor both had secrets, he with his writing, and her with her being a Spy Master, yet she won the race for who could find out the other’s secrets faster. Despite his having prior knowledge from his past life, and his being an active member of her Thieves Guild. Despite all of that, she found out his secret first.

  Rather than scorn or derision as he had expected, or maybe even faux outrage at having to be stuck with him for so long, she truly surprised him. By being a blatant fangirl.

  If anything, Raygunnr would have to say that her finding out the fact that he was the noted Minosmut king for five years in a row, only made her want to spend more time with him. Before that, she was ready and willing to dissolve their partnership, that was something he was certain of thanks to their connection. Honestly, he couldn’t blame her, as he would personally hate having to be stuck inside someone else for months on end. Yet she took it all like a champ, knowing that she wasn’t doing it just for herself, but for something greater. She was working so that everyone on Biprism could remain and live out their days in peace.

  Honestly, Raygunnr had originally been skeptical. Even now, he knew that logically it made no sense for there to be two Steampunk servers running congruently during the government cutbacks that are being discussed. That said, after being around the mad Doctor, he was now a believer. Not in the government that couldn’t pass a budget to save its life. Not in the politicians and bureaucrats who were causing this issue over issues that ultimately meant nothing to the people of Biprism. Rather, he believed in her. The very Doctor who would force the world to turn backwards if that was what was needed. How she would do that, he didn’t know. But the fact that she could do that, if absolutely necessary, that was something he believed in wholeheartedly. That was why it felt both flattering and odd to have the Doctor exposed in such a way, a way that made him inwardly cringe, as he had to divulge parts of himself that he never expected to have to share with anyone.

  “So where do you get your inspiration for writing?” She asked. Hearing the question, a very vanilla question that anyone might ask a writer they liked, Raygunnr felt compelled to answer. Especially given who was asking, yet part of him had moved on since that point. Part of him no longer wanted to be associated with that persona, which was why he answered the way he did.

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  “I figured we all had urges, then wondered what it would be like for a Minotaur, especially as they are all noted as being larger than expected. But you never hear about lady Minotaurs, thus the question. Then I just sat down to write out the process.” Raygunnr stated, and he should have left it there as the Doctor was bobbing her head slightly in that way she did, when it was clear she was taking in information. But she wasn’t done, as Raygunnr could feel the next question building up inside of her. That was when Raygunnr went for the kill to avoid this deeply personal and embarrassing topic.

  “Plus, I thought most Smut was bull-stuff, so it seemed apropos to have it conducted by a bull.” With that one comment, Raygunnr did two things. First, he managed to stop having to answer any more awkward questions, as the Doctor was visibly annoyed, a fact that was passed to him from their shared mental connection. For a moment he was almost certain that the Doctor would leave him, it was time when they could, as they had completed their joint quest together, gone through all rounds of qualifying to defend the planet, and were now just waiting for the days when they would have to square off against the elite members from the other servers. By all measures, their purpose for being forced together was done, any gains now would be negligible. A fact that Raygunnr almost instantly regretted, as he realized that losing the Doctor now would be like getting used to having an auxiliary heater during the coldest times of winter, and having it suddenly removed. Not that it was currently winter, but that was how Raygunnr mentally associated having the Doctor with him. She was that tiny mobile nuclear reactor that could warm up the coldest of environments. Fortunately for Raygunnr, it seemed that this comment was not enough for the doctor to end their partnership immediately. However, it was clear by the sudden intense focus that the Doctor had, that she was preparing to do something big.

  This led to the second event, one where Raygunnr instantly knew he would regret letting the Doctor divert her attention away from his past life hobby and let her focus on her own hobbies. Hobbies that include things like, going to the heart of enemy territory to spy on enemy movements. Hobbies that included working on new spells that could destroy part of the planet if she wasn’t careful. Even if she was careful, the spells could still do the same thing, but in a more focused manner.

  Honestly, it was the sudden shift, as if a switch had been flipped in the Doctor’s mind that frightened Raygunnr the most. One second he felt the intense pressure of a fangirl stalking him from inside his own metal shell, to feeling that intense pressure being focused inward once more, somehow doubling if not quadrupling the intense pressure that he felt prior. She was thinking, a fact that was evident by the fact that she did two things, first she stood, well floated, perfectly still within his cockpit. Second, she had her tongue out while focusing so intently. The reason this was so frightening for Raygunnr as he had never seen her do both at the same time. Like a shark, he knew that the pixie had to constantly be moving, something about letting mana flow against her skin or something, maybe. But the tongue was the other frightening prospect of this whole situation.

  While everyone often joked about her tongue out being a cause for concern, that wasn’t always the case. Yes, when her tongue was out, that was a clear sign she was about to do something both technically proficient and likely unique to the world as a whole, but that wasn’t in itself that scary. By now, Raygunnr had come to almost expect these intense moments of focus, as it was generally what happened the moment before she beheaded the mechanoid suit of an enemy, while keeping the pilot perfectly intact. Or how she would poof her way out of a particular problem, only to reappear a moment later, and steal a suits power core, or something else equally fantastical. No, her tongue sticking out was not itself a cause for concern, provided you knew what she was focused on. The times when her sticking her tongue out were of concern, was when you didn’t know what she was focusing on.

  A shiver of cold dead ran its way down Raygunnr’s now crystalized spine. Something that should have been impossible given that he was originally a sentient metallic creature, but somehow his skin oxidized just right with the Doctor’s energy running rampantly through him, so when he broke down through training, he came back stronger and more resilient than ever. Now he felt he would need every ounce of that resiliency, for he could feel the power within the Doctor beginning to swell and react the same way a reactor would before it created nuclear fusion.

  “Um, Doctor, are you okay?” Raygunnr asked, a slight note of hesitation in his delivery as he could feel that she was angry but seemed to mostly be directing her anger in a healthy way, that is away from him. However, his concerns grew ten-fold once he heard her two-word response.

  “I’m fine.”

  Raygunnr, physically trembled at the response as he had lived long enough to know the truth. When anyone said those two words, they were anything but fine. For a moment, Raygunnr felt his jaw opening as if trying to prepare a response. The most obvious thing would be an apology, but for what? He had answered her, and by now he knew she should be mostly used to his personality, right? Still, he couldn’t shake this growing sense of dread.

  Being a Teleiotís came with a number of benefits, some that don’t immediately seem too important. Unlike other creatures, like squishy humans who could see outside their body. Teleiotís had the ability to view inside their body, in particular they could view internally and see the pilot of their body and see any reactions that were happening in real time. This was how he could tell that the Doctor had paused her movement entirely, she was now moving, especially after she replied, twitching and swimming in that odd way that only pixies can do. It was also how he noted that she had essentially glitched herself, staying perfectly still with her tongue up in the locked and ready position. This same internal view was how Raygunnr could see Cass’s eyes visibly changing, going from a normal lavender color to a deep dark purple that screamed of active and barely constrained power.

  Worse, Raygunnr could feel power growing and intensifying from within his own mechanical body. Pressure so intense that he could feel the same effects of hull crystallization that had occurred on the outside of his shell, happening on the insides. A sign that he was being broken down, bleeding, well what he mentally associated with bleeding, then having that mechanical blood serves as the solution needed to create crystals. Crystals that began growing on the inside of his cockpit.

  Still, this wasn’t the end of it, for just when he felt his entire body would split in two from the pain, that is when there was a pause. A moment of release, as all of the power that had been building up within and swirling around in a chaotic mess within the pixie stopped.

  The moment the pressure stopped, Raygunnr let out a reflexive sigh of relief. A sigh that was short lived, as he could that second, was just the calm before the torrential storm of power that would be released from the mad pixie within him. One second, he was finally allowed to gasp for air, like a person drowning in a flood, only to be sucked back in the next second, by a focused Doctor.

  Opening her bright glowing eyes, Raygunnr felt fear. Not just from the massive power being released from the tiny pixie, but the fact that the pixie seemed to have gone too far this time, for her face began to molt and melt, as strips of skin began to peel off and be instantly dissolved into his own body. Skin that melded with the internally forming crystals, causing them to go into full on stalactites and stalagmites within his body. Crystals that jutted up, but never got near the Doctor, as if her own aura was enough to repel any possible attacks from the crystals. Instead, the spikes all stopped inches away from her. She was growing in power, that much was certain, despite her visibly shrinking again in stature, if only by an inch or two. Still, that much of a change was evident.

  For a moment, Raygunnr wondered what happened, he was about to ask. But before he could say or do anything, the still shedding pixie took control over Raygunnr’s body and forced him to burst through a giant portal that was stronger and stranger than anything he had ever experienced in his life.

  They flew at warp speed, distant lights flickered in the darkness of space that surrounded them and the odd magical tunnel they were in. Logically, Raygunnr knew he should be frightened, even without any real reference points, it was clear that he was now moving at the speed of light, or close to it. Any pause or break in concentration by the mad Doctor, who was still molting off her previous layer of skin could and would end catastrophically. He knew this, but he also knew the Doctor. He knew that she was in control. Even now, despite the clear pain she was in by her body growing and shrinking before her eyes, she was clam clear and collected. That was how he knew to relax, and appreciate the moment, knowing that the Doctor was at the wheel, allowing him to just enjoy the moment and the ride.

  Stretching out his hands, trying to touch the close, but seemingly impossible to reach outer ring of the tunnel they were in, Raygunnr stretched out, and let out a roar of excitement. For the first time in years, Raygunnr felt truly alive.

  A fact that he now declared to the world and everyone, everyone being the Doctor, with a mad deafening roar.

  “WAHHOOOOOO!” Raygunnr cried out.

  Only after a second did he realize that he was still a Teleiotís, meaning his vocal cords were non-existent, but still he managed to let out as much pent up excitement as possible, knowing that if he survived this, this would be one of those moments he would remember forever.

  His excitement was short lived, as he was given a quick reality check.

  “Calm down, and stop shaking me so much, you’re making it hard to direct us,” the Doctor replied.

  With those sobering words, Raygunnr brought in his arms and legs, and stopped screaming in Mana Language, though he still couldn’t control his true excitement.

  This was the only way to truly live.