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I've been wandering around the cities of the coast for a long time. I moved with caravans, got a job as a dover of selectosaurs (rough pack animals) and was rather given to my thoughts more than to the environment. I worked just to do something. The body didn't ask for food and was recovering the same way as when I had an imprint. The worm supported its host, and did not let me die.
On the border with Iria, I became addicted to the u-code, a drug distributed in the troops. The morale of the latter was low, due to the unsuccessful invasion, and all kinds of oblivion flourished on the border. Prostitution, no memory water, u-code. At night I could get so fucked up that I couldn't remember myself, and in the morning the worm restored me to my former state, stirring in its nest. All day I sat on the shore of the bay, watching the rotation of troops on its desert side, where the border lay. I was just waiting for my supplier to wake up, so I could order him to find me more drugs by the power of the worm.
Rob found me at night in one of the eateries in Conception Lane. I felt him approaching and was uneasy for a few minutes. But I didn't have the strength to escape at all, and just collapsed on the table, salivating.
“I see you've found something to your liking, brother.”
I just mumbled something angry in response and released even more saliva on the table.
“Are you planning to have fun like this for a broader time period, or is the limit already close?” my former employee smiled and sat down at the table.
Having ordered a goat-badu and no memory water, he began to sort out in his hand a rosary with images of faces distorted with horror. When he touched them, faces took on a contented look, but as soon as he let go, they froze in suffering again. Or so it seemed to me under the influence of the u-code.
“No, I'm not rushing you," Rob shrugged, tasting the tough meat from the soup and spitting it on the plate, "Yes, if the army is fed the same way, we won't win the war.”
“In the garrison they feed us shit,” the hunchback cyborg at the next table chuckled and spat on the floor.
Rob nodded and sighed heavily.
“Yes, I had to hang several generals in public so that the supply was cleared of theft,” my interlocutor continued with a voice in my head, “but even after that it will not be easy to turn the tide of the war. My control abilities are limited. I need your help, brother.”
“Fuck you,” it was all I managed to say.
“The Trade Federation of the Peoples of the Sea has already completely blocked the ports of our Khanate. A few more years and this war will suffocate. I need your help.”
I made an effort, and the worm gave me back some of my sobriety. Lifting my face from the table, I wiped the saliva off.
“Tell me, how did this happen to you?”
“What?” Rob was surprised.
“Power. Have you always thought about it?”
“No,” the interlocutor shrugged his shoulders, “I'm just taking the opportunity.”
“We had a case on the launcher. One kid from the rich brought his stoned friends there. Recorded them for the jump. He put them in a “coffin” and waited for the launch into a black hole, continuing to feed them everything that could deprive his friends of awareness of what was happening. By the time the team from the Central Computator appeared, he had already launched two.”
"And they're here with us right now."
“Yes, they are with us. But this guy is not, he was taken away and there was a big process that took several seasons of holodrama. He was charged with insufficient humanity and deprived of the imprint.”
“Interesting story.”
“Yes…I also wonder what will happen to those who sent us here. Probably no one will punish the Angel.”
“If we don't take power, then someone else will take it, please understand,” Rob hissed in my ear, “do you want to be immortal, ruled by these stupid descendants of the Outs? Renegades of progress who have deprived themselves of immortality? Ordinary people who can't stop fighting? I want to bring peace!”
“By feeding everyone to a worm?”
"I didn't feed anyone," Rob said angrily.
“I saw in the mirror how he ate the brains of these girls, the daughters of Gama.”
“He made them our assistants. They are potential, more is available to them!”
"I've never heard a better excuse for creating slaves.”
“They are not slaves!” Rob shouted to the whole room, banging his fist on the table.
All the visitors were now looking at us with indignation and disgust.
“Well, how will you get out of this?” I asked, throwing inside another batch of pills.
The veterans and recruits of the army of the Khanate of the Dial rushed at each other as if by order. A bloodbath began. The U-code took effect, and my head collapsed back onto the table. I lost consciousness.
I woke up in the morning in the alley behind the bar. Getting up, I moved to the bay, where I had a favorite place to look at the water. Remembering yesterday, I wondered if Rob was real, or if it was the u-code that created him according to my mental images.
But no, it was him. He was waiting for me on the shore, at my favorite place.
“I understand that you won't leave me alone.”
“No, brother.”
“I'm no brother to you.”
“Now you definitely are,” he smiled, looking around the bay.
I felt a worm stirring inside me.
“Come on, try it," Rob grinned.
And I couldn't stand it, I wished with all my power to imprison him in an endless void. But my effort collided with the overwhelming, pressing energy of Rob's desire. The ground cracked under my feet. The vortex rose with such force that I instantly lost my orientation in space, and soon in time. Then a flash happened.
I found myself on the other side of the bay. There was now a huge sphere hanging in the place where Rob and I were standing.
“Do not think that you will succeed…”
But I drowned out his voice in my head. From the pressure in my temples, the bay in front of me closed. The plane of the earth encircled the water and turned it into a lake. But the pressure did not go away, and several more spheres rose from the lake into the sky. I saw Rob's figure on the other side, he was holding his head, just like me. Then there was darkness.
When I received immortality, the first thing I felt was distrust. I couldn't figure out what would become a reality for me. Because of this, I had to be alone for a long time. Time has lost its meaning for me. I didn't think it would be so important. But the direction was lost in my head. The thought that it is necessary to catch up with death. Overtake a chariot with a drunken neighbor magician.
Fear has so many forms. Time is one of them.
I found myself in the hands of a woman from Iria. She picked me up during a sabotage at the shipyards. What attracted her to me is not clear, but she took me on a boat and went to her harad (nomad city).
Less than a year has passed since I led the harad. One of the many in Iria. My worm was developing. With each achievement, he took more space. He was eating himself a home in a super-dimension.
The preparation of the army turned out to be a difficult task and it took me five years to learn not to miss strategic decisions myself. With the help of the worm, it worked perfectly. But I consciously spent his energy not just on winning, but on training my brain in order to rely less on the strength of my unexpected neighbor in the future. Besides, the same opponent was playing against me. However, either Rob did not think of teaching himself, or he himself was not enough for this. He was losing the war.
We lured the Dials into the gorge and poured stones and electric arrows from both sides, when the mechanized cavalry of the Khanate appeared in the desert. The infantry had to retreat, they ran along the dunes, stopping every 100 steps and firing a volley. But our Towers appeared from the underground tunnel to save the day. Huge, on giant metal legs, they carried heavy weapons capable of crushing the Khanate's cavalry on approach. The sky was painted with red flashes and fire, bombs and shock waves mixed the sky and earth.
I felt Rob's will in battle. But my towers turned out to be faster than his cavalry, and soon it was forced to hide in the gorge along with the remnants of his infantry.
Scouts reported that there was an important commander in the ranks of the enemy. I could not believe my luck and ordered to surround the gorge and continue the onslaught.
But when I approached the burning remains of enemy vehicles on my tower, I again felt the same pressure as on the lake of spheres. Our desires collided directly with each other again. Only this time I was stronger. I have been saving the will of the worm for this particular case for a long time.
The explosion destroyed what was left of the mechanized cavalry, my towers and everything around within a radius of several kilometers.
At the site of the fight, a huge sphere remained hanging, the size of the moon I must say, containing everything that remained of the gorge.
ns 15.158.61.8da2
