Chapter 87: Arete 100

How do you process that much carnage? How do you understand, in your bones, that millions have died? To wrap your mind around that number. To visualize it.

Ten dead, sure. A hundred dead, yeah, you can picture an intersection full of bodies. A thousand? That’s an entire subway train. A hundred thousand? That’s the Rose Bowl stadium, and already a sea of humanity, no faces, no individuals, just a smear of flesh tones.

A million?

Two million?

James just sat there, staring glassily out at nothing. Someone was calling him. His radio was buzzing. Screams were rising from the city all around him, screams of horror, of anguish, of panic.

He blinked.

He had to get his shit together. There were still demons to kill.

“James!” Serenity elbowed him in the side. “C’mon! We gotta do something!”

Do what? That guy who’d come up with the #dontlookdontdie hashtag was now the greatest murderer in the history of their species. And shit, that wasn’t just New York. How many people had signed up for his movement? Chicago, Dallas, Mexico City, Buenos Aires, Lagos, Montreal, Milan, Kiev, Moscow, Hong Kong, Beijing, Tokyo, Sydney, Mumbai, New Delhi, Cairo, Beirut, Jerusalem, Tehran, Khartoum, Nairobi, Cape Town -

“James!” The panic in Serenity’s voice awoke him. He blinked again, turned, focused on her face. The blood had drained right out of it, and there was a feverish gleam in her eyes that told him she was barely keeping it together.

All of his emotions flattened, his pain, his panic, his horror faded away. He inhaled deeply, looked past her at the others, their expressions of despair, and came back into himself.

“All right,” he said, voice without a tremor. “What’s done is done. We’ll pick up the pieces. There are still demons to kill.”

He thumbed on his radio. “Command, this is Kelly. We’re going to begin sweeping for Nem3’s, over.”

“Kelly, this… this is Command.” Star Boy sounded almost twelve years old. “Copy. Over.”

James pulled his Wing around so that he was facing the others. They oriented on him. Even Kerim and Kimmie, who’d just met him. They looked to him, and he saw their need.

“No words. What happened? No words. But the only thing we can do, the best thing we can do, is get to killing. Every Nem3 we put down is a new chalk mark on our side of the board. May not feel like much, but in reality, it’s everything. So if you’re up for it, let’s get to killing.”

Expressions hardened, and as one Crimson Hydra nodded.

James inhaled again. “Anima Sola.”

Yes, James.

I want you to help us hunt Nem3’s.

I can’t sense them with any acuity beyond the visual.

You can fly fast and tell me what you see. Go scout.

Yes, James.

The Anima withdrew from his Wing and rose up, opening to his humanoid form. For a moment he simply stared at James, then he dipped, flew out wide, looped back, then zipped away, over the rooftops, arcing out wide as he went.

“Follow me.” James led them after the Anima. It flew surprisingly fast; James was content to just tool along behind it, giving it room to scout without trying to match its every turn.

Here.

“Found one. Let’s move.” James willed the Wing to leap forth and led their flying V across three blocks to an inner courtyard, a great hollow surrounded by high brick walls.

There, amidst the wreckage of a community garden and a shattered little greenhouse, was a Nem3. Massive, arm-bladed, it raised its blind face to the sky as they appeared overhead.

Bodies of old people were strewn about it in the dirt.

James’s dull focus went red.

He grabbed his skeggox, swung his leg over the Wing, and simply dropped over the side to plummet four stories down onto the demon.

Which sensed his approach, screeched its defiance, and leaped up to meet him.

People screamed his name.

James waited till the last moment, then pushed forth his Iron Aura, coated his skeggox with Smite, and swung with all his strength at the Nemesis.

They met ten feet up. James screamed with pure rage as his axe cleaved through both bone blades and buried itself in the huge demon’s head.

Its boney visage shattered, but its mass and momentum were such that James felt like he’d hit the ground as his boots planted on the demon’s chest and his descent was violently arrested; he sank into a crouch as the demon lifted him back up into the air, its screams burbling wetly as it died, and then he pushed off it just as it reached its apex.

His skeggox tore free. He surged off the demon, which fell away, and landed a good ten yards from it, both hitting the ground at the same time.

The demon flopped, writhed, and went still.

James had fallen into a deep crouch, but either his rage or high stats made it so that he didn’t feel the impact.

For a second all was still.

His Wing descended, Serenity at the front, her eyes wide.

James grabbed a handlebar and swung himself onto the saddle as she moved back.

“Another,” he commanded the Anima which hovered high overhead.

It zipped away.

He urged the Wing to rise, and when he’d cleared the four stories he sensed the others watching him.

“Hell yeah,” said Yadriel.

“Next one’s mine,” said Jason.

The screams and cries were a background tapestry, coming from open windows everywhere, from street corners and playgrounds. James inhaled deeply, turned this Wing around, and urged it to follow the Anima.

Here.

“Let’s go.”

* * *

They hunted through the afternoon. Through the evening. Through the night. The streetlights flickered on, revealing scenes of horror in their arc sodium illumination. The moon rose, half-filled, shedding silvery light wherever the orange glow failed to reach.

Nobody asked to stop.

On and on they hunted, ranging over Brooklyn, sweeping over its neighborhoods, occasionally rushing to provide back-up to other teams who’d call for help when they ran into larger concentrations.

They all leveled. James dumped his points into Arete, bringing it to 95.

They fought on, buildings blurring, fights merging into each other, hunting and killing, hunting and killing.

It was almost two in the morning when James leveled again.

Your rank is now Novitiate 7

You have 5 unspent points.

James paused. Summoned his sheet and studied the numbers. He’d no doubt as to what he was going to do. More Aeviternum would be nice, more Power, but whatever.

He wanted Arete 100.

He allocated the points.

Aura: Bronze

Aura Strength: 1

Your Arete has reached 100

You may select a new Benediction:

Shield of Faith | Bless

Dark Vision | Deadeye

Empowering Light | Fortuna Aeviternum

Your new choice of Benediction will not affect your class.

“Hold up,” he called out. The others were picking over the battlefield, the inside of a Macy’s, the fluorescent lighting flickering, the clothing racks knocked all over the place by their fight with three Nemeses. “Got an update for you all.”

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Crimson Hydra picked its way over. When they’d gathered he dismissed the notification. “I just hit Arete 100. It’s allowing me to pick a new Benediction.”

Jason gave him an up-nod. “Tier four?”

“No. Shield of Faith and Bless are options. As are Dark Vision and Deadeye. Along with the other two powers I didn’t pick when I chose Heavenly Assault.”

Eyes widened.

“You can select different branches?” asked Kerim. “But not the sub-tiers for each?”

“Right. Looks like I can start fresh from the top or work my way off different branches from Benedictions I’ve already chosen.”

“Oh man, that’s wicked,” said Yadriel. “Whatcha gonna pick?”

For a moment he felt a heady rush. Every Benediction was now open to him, in time. The sheer variety of options was overwhelming. From transforming himself into a creature of living night to summoning angelic armor, anything and everything was on the table.

But there was really only one choice.

“Bless.”

“Bless?” Serenity sounded surprised. “Huh. I’d of thought you’d want more firepower, more Aeviternum, maybe.”

“Nah, James is right,” said Jason. “What’d Arete 100 do to your aura?”

“Gone Bronze. Level 1.”

“Bronze?” Kimmie clapped her hands, regaining for the first time that night some of her natural joy. “That should be enough to toast the Nem3’s, right?”

“One way to find out. But yeah, Jason’s got it. Arete 100, Bronze aura. I want Aura Mastery.” James felt savage satisfaction in those words. “Then once that’s mine, I’m going to go Seraphic Web.”

“Oh man!” Yadriel pressed his hand to his brow. “Imagine that shit! Bronze spirit web all over the damn place!”

Olaf grinned. “You will not need us if you keep going so fast, James.”

“I’ll always need you guys.” James said those words with fierce intensity. “Don’t ever think that.”

Olaf’s teasing grin slipped from his face, and he nodded soberly.

“How are the rest of you doing?” James asked.

They sounded off. Serenity, Denzel, Jason, Yadriel, and Joanna were Novitiate 6. Olaf was Novitiate 5. Kerim and Kimmie had made the most progress and were both Novitiate 5.

James nodded, taking it all in. A shower of sparks fell from the ceiling over the Tony Bahamas clothing section, and they all spun, raising weapons and summoning powers. False alarm. They relaxed.

“Command, this is Kelly. Just hit Arete 100. Aura has gone Bronze 1 and I’ve been giving my choice of a new Benediction. Not Tier 4, but rather any of my previous choices, ranging from Shield and Bless on down. Over.”

“What?” The radio gave loose a shower of fuzzy loud sounds as Star Boy seemed to knock over a bunch of stuff. “You motherfuckin’ what!?”

In the background Duffy said something censoring.

“Court martial me,” Star Boy said, then his voice returned loud and focused. “James, you what? Bronze aura? Any old Benediction choice?”

“Yeah. I’m going to go Bless, work my way to Aura Mastery.”

“Oh shit.” A pause. James could practically see Star Boy’s eyes going wide as he thought it through. “Oh shit, that’s so good! I’m gonna pull up everyone with high Arete, cross-index that with their power sets, see what’s optimal, no way am I going to let folks make this choice without guidance. You tested that Bronze against a demon yet?”

“Not yet. But going to now. I’ll report back when I do.”

And then, out of the blue, James felt a weird surge of emotion, sudden and almost violent, Star Boy’s enthusiasm and - innocence? Getting past James’s walls, making him painfully glad to have Richard in his life, to have that kernel of normalcy, of - of -

He grimaced, released the radio, and palmed the tears from his eyes.

“You OK, boss?” asked Serenity.

“Yeah.” James laughed. “Getting emotional over Star Boy. I’m finally going mad.”

“It’s normal,” said Jason. “Don’t sweat it. Emotions go haywire after combat and losing folks. I remember this guy came back from a brutal patrol, back in Afghanistan. Tough as nails. Fell apart when he walked past the rec room and heard the Simpsons playing on the TV.”

“Yeah man,” said Yadriel. “Simpsons was always hella heavy.”

“No, asshole,” said Jason. “It reminded him of something. He never explained what, nobody asked, but you can only bottle shit up for so long. It’ll come out somewhere.”

“Why you bottling shit?” Yadriel kept his tone innocent. “Things were that rough in Afghanistan?”

Jason fake lunged at Yadriel, who jerked back, tripped on a fallen rack of dresses, and crashed onto his ass.

“Jesus,” said Joanna. “You guys keep this up I might actually smile tonight.”

“Enough horsing around,” said James, wiping away the last of the tears. “We’ve a long night ahead of us. I want to see what this Bronze aura can do.”

“You picked Bless yet?” asked Serenity.

“Doing it now.”

James pulled up the menu, focused on the new Benediction, and selected it.

His character sheet changed, and like that Bless was added right after Smite. Looked like there was a pecking order.

“Let’s try Bless Green,” he said.

Immediately his stats jumped by the standard +3. James frowned, focused on Bless, and willed it to activate, pouring divine power into it as he did.

A new sense manifested around him. A diffuse sense of awareness, like a cloud that he could concentrate on as he chose. The members of Crimson Hydra were prominent in its midst, and he realized he could pull this cloud, this divine aura, into any combination of them. Himself alone or everyone present.

He willed the divine aura to flow into his team, and felt the power flow into all of them, draining out of the air until it was all concentrated within their figures. Immediately he felt a maintenance cost begin to take a subtle toll on his divine power pool. It was subtle, but every moment he kept Bless active would cost him.

His own stats rose by another +1.

“Nice,” said Denzel, bouncing on the balls of his feet. “I could get used to this.”

“See?” Kimmie smiled around at them all. “Even when things get dark, we find reason to celebrate. We’re growing stronger and better. We can make a difference in this war, and we will.”

Her words washed over them all, and James found his chest unhitching as he drew in a deep breath. He hadn’t realized how shallow his breathing had become. It wasn’t optimism that filled him, but rather a renewed sense of resilient determination.

“Oh man, why didn’t Bjørn do this shit?” asked Yadriel.

“That’s because he was an asshole who didn’t know how to give,” said Serenity. “Only take. And he thought the power was Dominate, not Inspire.”

“Bjørn?” asked Kimmie. “The member I replaced?”

“Yes.” James stepped forward and put a hand on her shoulder. “When we’re done here tonight I’m going to talk to you and Kerim about him. Then, if you can square what happened with him with your desire to join our team, you’ll be a full member.”

“Oh.” Kimmie frowned. “All right. I forgot you still wanted to talk about something.”

“I have already made up my mind,” said Kerim softly. “But I will listen before committing.”

Serenity squatted, hefted her M2, then rose smoothly and propped it over her shoulder. “First we have to finish cleaning this city.”

“Agreed. Anima?”

The gold and ivory homunculus flitted into view. “Kames Jelly reporting for duty.”

Kimmie giggled.

James sighed. “We’re heading out. Find us another demon?”

“Yes sir.” It flew off toward the torn off double doors that led out to the street.

“You all ready?” James took up his skeggox from where he’d laid it on a counter. “Time to go see what Bronze can do.”

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