Schedule Update
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Axel turned it over in his head while Eon spoke.
Surgical instruments. Jet-black skin. Many arms. The authority to erase obstructions. Healing. Father.
A plague doctor mask. A black coat in a rubble field. Two hundred and thirteen soldiers rebuilt from the inside out. A figure who had placed a white lily at Ralph Waibel's grave and walked away before anyone could ask him anything directly.
It's Nox, Axel thought. It's definitely Nox.
Malvick had declared him dead. Axel had heard the report. But Malvick had never stood in a rubble field watching two hundred and thirteen soldiers get rebuilt from the inside out, and he had made the mistake of assuming that meant the problem was solvable.
A doctor who heals other people, Axel thought, does not go into a confrontation without a way to survive it. Whatever happened, whatever Malvick thinks he saw, Nox has more cards than anyone knows. He always had more cards.
He thought about the fear in the rubble field. Ambient, purposeful, present in the air the whole time, and not one of them had been able to locate its source. He thought about the squid incident, which he was not going to think about anymore.
He almost smiled. Horror domain, healing, and now apparently a full buddha cult. When did that happen. How long has he been building this.
He was genuinely curious. First time since the cell.
"I accept," he said. "Monk Eon. Take me out of here. I'll serve the buddha."
Eon's smile widened.
The fat on his face moved with it, folding in layers, and the smile kept going past warm. Axel kept his face still.
Then the monk opened his eyes fully for the first time.
Axel had been looking at him for several minutes, registering his eyes as half-closed, settled. Now they opened fully, and Axel understood why they had seemed that way.
There were no eyeballs. The sockets were hollow and dark, two smooth cavities with nothing in them.
What the fuck, Axel thought, very calmly.
Eon seemed to notice the reaction. "Forgive this old monk, Benefactor. Blind since birth. Without the grace of Father I would have remained so." The warmth in his voice did not shift. "Now. Let us get you out."
He reached into his own mouth with two fingers.
The gag reflex activated. His body shook once, twice, then something began to emerge. It came slowly, caught between his lips, and what Axel could see at first was small: a rounded shape suggesting a seated figure, a bodhisattva rendered in miniature.
Then more of it came.
It kept coming, the small shape growing larger as it cleared the monk's mouth, then larger still, the rules of space contributing nothing useful here. Eon's expression stayed completely calm throughout. His jaw stretched to accommodate what was passing through it without any apparent distress.
Axel watched.
The statue that stood on the cell floor was three meters tall, seated in full lotus, its surface glistening. Flesh and skin pressed into shape. Hair embedded and extending from the surface. Dozens of eyeballs clouded and unseeing throughout the body, at joints, along the arms, clustered at the chest.
The face was serene. That was the worst part of it.
Then, from his own mouth, without his instruction or consent:
"Namo Guru Mahakala."
He shut his mouth. The words kept coming.
"Om Shri Maha Kala Maha Kala, Sarva Shatru Vinashaya, Hum Hum Phat Svaha."
He pressed his hand over his mouth. The mantra continued through his palm, muffled but present, his jaw moving without his permission.
What, he thought.
Outside the cell door, faintly at first and then louder, the same mantra began from other voices. Guards. More voices down the corridor. The level above.
"Om Shri Mahākāla Mahākāla, Sarva Shatru Vināśaya Vināśaya, Sarva Vighna Nāśaya Nāśaya, Daha Daha Pachaya Pachaya, Hum Hum Phat Svāhā."
Floor by floor.
Eon pressed his hand gently over Axel's mouth.
The compulsion stopped. Axel's jaw stilled.
"You can stop now, Benefactor," Eon said. "You received it directly from seeing the statue, so the binding on you is stronger. You don't need to keep chanting."
The voices outside continued, layered and steady.
"Anyone who hears that mantra," Eon said, "will begin chanting it themselves. Each time they chant, a portion of their soul is stripped away until they die, unable to reincarnate." He tilted his head. "It spreads like a fever. S-rank and below. Mortals are spared. Father is merciful."
Axel looked at him.
"You're calling that merciful," he said. "That is a biological weapon. If the hunters can't stop the infected without catching it themselves, and the infected can't stop chanting, this entire prison becomes uninhabitable. It will spread beyond the walls. The only way it ends is when everyone who caught it dies on their own."
"Yes," Eon said pleasantly.
"You're calling that merciful."
"Mortals are spared," Eon said again, evenly.
Axel had nothing to add that would improve the situation. He filed his objection and moved on.
Eon reached into the air beside him and pulled. The space tore open along the line of his hand, the portal dark as deep water, its edges fraying where they met the air of the cell.
The mantra was still spreading outside, floor by floor, the individual voices losing their edges and becoming one continuous sound moving up through the building.
Then Eon stepped to the wall and snapped the chains off both of Axel's wrists and both ankles with his bare hands, the reinforced metal breaking cleanly. He stepped back and gestured toward the portal.
"Benefactor first," he said.
Axel moved toward it, then stopped.
The statue was still standing in the center of the cell, three meters of organic material seated in perfect lotus, its composite face serene.
"Are you leaving that here?" Axel asked.
Eon looked at the statue. Then he reached out, took hold of one of its limbs, brought it to his mouth, and bit.
He began to chew.
Axel's face did something he had not planned. His left eye twitched. A tear formed, tracked down his cheek, and dropped onto the cell floor.
It was not grief. His body had simply arrived at a point that required a response, independent of anything his mind was doing.
"Of course," Axel said.
He stepped through the portal.
Behind him, the mantra rang through the prison in a full chorus, level after level, spreading through the walls and up through the building above.
Om Shri Mahākāla Mahākāla Sarva Shatru Vināśaya Vināśaya Sarva Vighna Nāśaya Nāśaya Daha Daha Pachaya Pachaya Hum Hum Phat Svāhā
The portal closed.
The mantra continued.