Chapter 177: Chapter 172

Whatever new monstrosity Sev caught this time, Madison was glad she had to wait until he was done studying it before it was made open to Ixian researchers. The reports from Tleilax about the harvested bits were already disturbing enough, thank you very much.

 

The idea of faith and souls were thrown around in the fledgling metaphysical community. Figuring out which wasteland religion was actually a predatory metaphysical entity became a new topic of speculation, and from what Madison gathered walking pass labs and workstations, the whole notion of faith had some of the occultists seriously considering renovations to their homes to accommodate shrines to Sev.

 

What kind of worship would work for the ruler of the Nexus anyway? Would masturbation be considered an act of consecration or desecration? The thought experiment was mildly amusing, but also highly depressing, if only because there was a real possibility that such things had to be considered in the future. After all, it was a known fact that genuine prayers to Sev produced metanatural emissions, it was just that nobody knew where all that energy went.

 

Probably soon, Sev would make a breakthrough, and in all likelihood Madison and the others would have to sit down with him to discuss building a religion. For better or worse, the faith in Sev had to be put to some use, preferably in bettering the lives of everyone within the Nexus. If Sev can make himself throw lightning bolts on all the wasteland raiders and monsters, all the better.

 

With the discovery of new levels of interaction between the natural and the metanatural realm, a lot of existing rituals and cataloged ingredients had to be reviewed. Already, certain benign, commonly used rites like eye-color changing, or disease wards, were shown to have underlying side effects that ranged from negligible to potentially ruinous.

 

Like how the warding glyph (not the ritual or runic inscriptions) actually created a decaying metaphysical belief circuit, which they now realized could drain on the essence of the glyph’s inscriber to a fatal level if not maintained properly. It’d take a few decades to actually feel the effects of that, but it’s still one example of a negative side effect. Thankfully most of the severely deleterious side effects are tied to the already forbidden rites and runes, so there wasn’t any panic to immediately undo any ongoing systems.

 

Some bright minds already built up potential theories towards implementing faith into existing loops and flows for rituals and inscriptions. For all the brilliance, Madison had warned the eager occultists to not over invest in their theories. Sunk cost fallacy was a thing even in academia. And if Sev announced that faith worked in a completely different way, it’d be a waste of their efforts. 

 

Still, the ideas were worth mulling over. Maybe they could be adapted in the future for other research.

 

*****

 

Piper was mildly concerned with how Sev was locking himself in the time dilation chamber this time. Something had clearly rattled him bad. After the encounter with the big moth thing, he had called her and the other girls over to give them each a tight hug, Nat included. 

 

The fucking (Nat excluded, of course) that followed was far more intimate, far more…emotional than anything either of them had experienced before. Piper still couldn’t feel her legs at the end of it, though the way Sev held her in his arms as he sent slow and deep thrusts into her to milk out a series of body-shaking orgasms out of Piper was a unique experience so far.

 

He had not wanted to talk about it, unsurprisingly. “Maybe next time, when I figured it all out,” he excused.

 

“You don’t have to figure it all out, you know,” Piper told him. “You don’t have to be the only one to worry about whatever it is that’s bugging you. Maybe we could at least help as sounding boards?”

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Sev gave her a smile then, but never took any of them up on that offer. The moth thing must really have either pissed him off or scared him, Piper guessed.

 

With his absence in the meantime, she and the others took over as usual in overseeing the Nexus. West Virginia was fully under Nexus control, though restoration of the place would not begin until every inch of the state was checked and double checked for further underground surprises. Cait just wanted to nuke the whole state a few times and gas the burning remains with Tiberium, but Piper and especially Curie knocked some sense into the redhead.

 

The few sane additions from the otherwise insane state were monitored closely as they took their probations. Other than that the violent tribals were chased into their holdings and surrounded until Curie could figure out whether their lunacy was a product of genetics or unnatural bullshit. Strangely enough, the latter would mean they had a chance to be saved, because whatever metaphysical hold on them could be lifted.

 

If it was genetics and the damage was truly worse than the mutated inbreds from Vault 93…well, Edward and Sarah were already preparing for a mercifully swift genocide. For their sakes, Piper hoped that the research in Tleilax came up with something to fix their raving cowardice.

 

Beyond overseeing the cleansing of West Virginia and the usual new lands claimed from the cautiously slow expansion, administrating the Nexus was mercifully uneventful. Piper and Nat had to do a few broadcasts to assuage the public about the giant moths though.

 

Didn’t stop bug zappers from being hot sellers, but at least the night life went back to normal levels. 

 

Eva and Cabal helpfully pointed out minor incidents, and Curie spent most of her time patiently helping the tribals up in Canada get used to Nexus life. It was both depressing and heartwarming to see the desperate people marveling at every minor bit of tech, nevermind the healing arches or the subways. The tribes actually had to be housed in specially produced tents to slowly wean them into modern society, so jarring did they find the Nexus-standard houses.

 

To think, the Wright sisters were only a few steps above such a desperate lifestyle a few years ago. Piper can’t even remember what dirty water tasted like anymore, before Sev came to rescue her and Nat.

 

When Sev finally came out from the time dilation lab four days later, he looked highly satisfied with himself. There was no sign of whatever it was screwing with his head, and he acted like his usual self once more. 

 

Sure his eyes could now glow like miniature stars, and sure he could suddenly float off the ground now, but it’s about par for the course for Sev. 

 

“So…how bad of an idea is it if I could make people entirely live off my cum?”

 

Yeah, the Sev of old was pretty much back. Piper had to admit though, a cum-exclusive diet wasn’t too bad now that the thick loads tasted sinfully delicious.

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