Seams began to spread apart and light poured in. Gus hit the floor hard. He had slowed as the construct bowed and deformed, so he wasn’t at terminal velocity, but it did hurt like hell. He enjoyed the feel of the cold tile floor underneath him. He stayed there until his ears registered that he had stopped his constant fall and the strange sensation he was still falling ebbed.
Gus moaned, feeling a little dizzy and nauseated as he sat up to his knees. Gus rested his hands on the cool ivory colored floor, the chill helping him to combat the lingering sense of vertigo.
Opening his eyes, he saw that he was in the far corridor of the brig. He crawled forward, seeing that all the cells were opened and abandoned. His muscles ached and protested as he crawled, especially his knees. Gus didn’t care. He was free! An eternity later, he knelt and pushed the elevator summon button, half expecting a merc to step out.
Fortunately none did and he again pushed the button to his suite. He felt so tired. He curled up and rubbed the soft carpet in the elevator.
“Gus!” Nick yelled in Gus’ mind.
Gus started awake, looking around with confusion.
“You have been gone for over a week! I could not communicate with you, and that awful limbo sensation again. It was the worst—”
“A week?”
“Yes, a week!”
“They put me in some kind of dimensional pit trap in the brig. I could barely access my powers.” Gus checked his minimap and saw that all the supers were still in the manor, but none were close to his current position. Standing, he stretched, legs stiff from inactivity for a week. He stood and his back cracked. Gus sighed in satisfaction while he stretched. With the blood pumping more, his thoughts became a bit clearer. “Wait, how did I access powers at all in the brig?”
“Talk later. You need to get going—I’m just seeing everything updating now from the manor and it’s not good.”
Gus nodded and shuffled to his suite. The door had been forced open and the room ransacked. Otherwise, it appeared empty. Gus locked the door behind him, not sure if it even would hold.
“What has changed since I’ve been out of commission, Nick?” Gus inquired.
“They had command codes; my admin privileges were revoked. I’m just glad I wasn’t kicked. They have been searching for something floor by floor,” Nick warned.
Gus began to notice his display solidify and his MP bar charging again. Gus felt energized to have things just a bit back to normal.
“Where are they now?”
“Hmm, this is suspicious. They have been all over the manor in the past week, but now they are all gathered in the same place—floor twenty-three. I think they may have found what they’re looking for.”
He used his minimap to check and they did seem to be clustered together. The minimap only showed a top-down view, but with the multiple levels in the manor, things could overlap, so he rotated the minimap and saw that they all were on the same level. Gus felt a chill tingle down his back. He may already be too late.
Chapter Forty-Two
King of Yesterday
Following his minimap, Gus came to a nondescript gray door on level twenty-three. The supers were all congregating here. Taking a furtive glance, Gus opened the door and slid inside. A walkway with terraces encircled the large room, with a staircase leading down to a large, raised platform in the center. Before he could be seen, he moved away from the doorway onto one of the terraces and got to where he could see what was happening. Everyone was so entranced that he probably didn’t need to take any precautions.
One by one, the supers Gus had previously drained filed forward and touched a large orangish-pink crystal in the center of the room. Some shouted in triumph, others had a visible expression of relief.
“My powers, they’re back!” one exulted. Another flew up, reveling in the feeling of flight, and Gus had to cower down to avoid being seen.
“After all who have had their powers taken are restored, we will begin the next phase. You who have helped secure this facility will be the first to benefit from the wealth of power that will emanate forth from Manticorps. Only those who swear allegiance will be found worthy, so choose now! Will you follow me and Manticorps into the future? Will you be my generals as we take this world back from the archaic Factions and their tyranny?”
Shouts began to swell from the mercs, who had long-standing grudges against the Factions. Most of the Factionless were either those who had washed out of an academy or who could not maintain the discipline necessary to be accepted to one in the first place. Some were simply poor or not in the right place at the right time and had figured out how to use their abilities on their own to survive.
“Then swear by your powers that you will remain loyal to me and to Manticorps to the end!”
“Why does he think these guys will not backstab him the first chance they get? Is he that stupid?” Gus asked Nick mentally.
“It has fallen out of practice, but if one takes a certain oath, their Nth will become non-functional if they break it. The wording must be exact, but I have a feeling Basileus knows what it is.”
In a similar fashion as before, the supers lined up again and swore fealty, repeating the words after he spoke them.
“Yep, he knew them.”
“Why would Nth even allow that? Isn’t that like condoning slavery?”
“Gus, you look at things from your Earth point of view. The cultures and mores that have evolved on countless worlds encompass more interactions that are considered normal that would outrage even the most lenient hedonists of the planet. A pact of loyalty is nothing compared to what exists in the universe. Those supers were not coerced,
