Nightmare Realm Summoner

Mercifully, Absolution was indeed able to take them to the river during their next teleportation toward the Empty Court.

Less mercifully… that teleportation did not come until the next morning. And that meant Alex got to enjoy spending far too many hours consistently smelling like about a dozen dead skunks stacked on top of each other. It was not his proudest moment, but the Soul Gem sitting in his Spatial Ring made it completely worth it.

All his troubles were completely forgotten after about an hour in the river. Even after its death, the Belcherbeing’s stench stuck to him in spite of the very thorough scrubbing that Alex gave himself. He half expected a giant fish to pop up from the river and try to eat him the whole time he was bathing.

Fortunately, he was spared that particular fate. Alex managed to scrub the top layer of his skin off, finally banishing the horrid scent and making it some poor river-living creature’s problem to deal with it. Maybe that had been spared an attack.

Either way, he didn’t push his chances. Alex got back out of the river to rejoin Claire and Absolution. His clothes were already dry even though he wasn’t — one of the many benefits of them being magical. He adjusted his tie, then gave them a grin.

“See? As good as new.”

Absolution didn’t even bother gracing him with a response. The Outworlder just planted his scythe in the ground — a safe distance from the river — and sat down wordlessly. It seemed they were going to be setting up camp here again until his power returned.

“How much longer until we arrive?” Claire asked. “Are we close at this point?”

“Yes,” Absolution said in his usual, flat tone. “Not much longer, now. The next step should take us there. Just be certain that you are prepared.”

“Prepared?” Alex asked. “For what? You think we’re going to get jumped the moment we show up to the Empty Court? We got invites, you know.”

“It is the Empty Court,” Absolution said. He pierced Alex with an expression that made it very clear exactly what he thought of the question. “It will be more surprising if you are not tested. I will be most displeased if I spend all the time and energy ferrying you two over to them just for you to die the moment you step foot on their land.”

“I knew we were building some camaraderie,” Alex said. “Fighting rancid fart monsters does that.”

Absolution didn’t even crack a smile. “I will have my payment. That is the only thing I care about. I do not enjoy entrusting things to the hands of anyone else. Especially those of a fool.”

“And we were doing so well, too,” Alex said with a small sigh. “We’re really going to need to get a relationship counselor or something at this rate. I’m starting to get the feeling you don’t like me. Was it something I said?”

Absolution laid back on the ground, crossing his arms behind his back and staring up at the sky. He did not reply to Alex. That was, somehow, not much of a surprise.

Alex glanced at Claire. She shrugged.

“He’s not trying to kill us. That’s probably about as close to an ‘I love you’ as he’s possible of saying.”

“Actions do speak louder than words,” Alex said with a sage nod.

“Don’t push your luck,” Absolution said. “Your presence alone is displeasing enough. I do not need your nattering added to it. The faster I can relax and rest, the quicker I will be able to take us the rest of the way to the Empty Court and be done with the lot of you.”

“Maybe we’ll just go on a quick little walk,” Alex said.

“We’re going to have intercourse. Vigorously,” Claire said, her face completely straight. She jerked her chin toward a sloping orange-brown hill of clay a short ways behind them. “Just over the hill, there.”

“I do not care what you do,” Absolution said. “I have no interest in knowing. Just stay out of my way. And if you start a fight with something, finish it. I have no interest in wasting my energy.”

“Great,” Claire said. “I’ll make sure to have Alex cover my mouth.”

The two of them headed toward the hill. Alex waited until they’d put a fair bit of distance between themselves and Absolution before he said anything else.

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“Is there a reason you’re riling him up?” he asked. Then he cleared his throat. “I mean, I know I was doing it. But I was bored. Why are you doing it?”

“I wanted to see if he would crack,” Claire replied with a shrug. “You can see how he is. Stiff. Rigid. That’s the kind of person that snaps when something pushes too hard. True resilience isn’t being metal. It’s being a tree that bends in the wind.”

“And you thought sex jokes were the way?”

“You’d be surprised what can get to people. Some of the most powerful warriors would crumble like sand from one seductive touch. And against an opponent like Absolution, you’d better be willing to do whatever the hell is necessary to win. He definitely will,” Claire said as they crested the hill.

Alex threw a glance over his shoulder back at Absolution. The man was facing away from them. They were definitely out of earshot. “You’re not wrong there. So? He crack? I couldn’t see any change, but maybe I missed a micro expression or something like that.”

“No,” Claire said. She let out a small sigh. “He did not. Not even slightly.”

“Huh,” Alex said. “Well, that sucks. At least you don’t have to care what he thinks of us too much. No harm done by screwing with him.”

“Who said I was screwing with him?” Claire asked with a sly smile. “Something can simultaneously be true and useful.”

Alex reddened. “I — what—”

Claire smirked. Then she flicked him in the head. “Unlike Absolution, it seems you’re quite susceptible to this kind of thing.”

“Hey. That’s not fair,” Alex protested. “You’re my girlfriend. Technically. I mean, we haven’t really done much in the way of that at all. I don’t really know what one is meant to do when dating in the apocalypse. God, that sounds like the premise of a really shitty reality show. But still—”

“You’ll figure it out eventually,” Claire said. She patted him on the shoulder. “I am patient. Incredibly so.”

Alex grimaced. Then he sighed. “Thank you. But for what it’s worth, I only reacted like that because it was you.”

“So you don’t think you’d get taken off guard if someone about to attack you said something incredibly raunchy?” Claire tilted her head to the side. “Even if they were a very attractive individual?”

“I’m not trying to cheat—”

“That is not what I meant. It does not matter what you are trying to do,” Claire said. She slid up alongside him, letting her arm wind around his side as she leaned in close enough for their lips to brush. “Would someone coming onto you get you off balance? Could they get a surprise attack because you were flustered?”

“I—”

Claire’s finger jabbed into his side.

Alex cursed. “Ow!”

“Evidently, yes.” Claire took a step back and shook her head in mock disappointment. “You’re dead.”

“I wouldn’t let someone that wasn’t you that close to me,” Alex protested.

“What, are you going to attack every attractive individual when they get within a foot or two?” Claire arched an eyebrow. “I’m not telling you to go around murdering random women because they winked in your direction. You are just operating under the belief that someone would not attempt to seduce you to get a moment of advantage. Confusion, attraction, it’s all the same.”

Alex paused for a moment. Then he winced. Claire was right. “Damn. I didn’t think about it that way. Yeah. I’d probably get taken aback if someone tried that.”

“Don’t,” Claire advised. She gave him a wide smile. “But if someone does try to flirt with you, I’m going to rip their throat out. Patience does not mean willingness to share. You learn to protect what is yours very religiously in Court. If you don’t, someone’s liable to take it.”

That was… surprisingly more attractive than Alex had expected it to be. He didn’t get the feeling that Claire’s viewpoint was necessarily one that most normal relationships could be built off. Then again, this was the apocalypse. Everything had gone to shit in the best way. A little possessiveness never hurt, and Alex wasn’t too keen on sharing either.

“Noted,” Alex said. “And as much as I would like to continue this line of conversation and take you up on seeing if what you said to Absolution was fake or not—”

“Oh, it was,” Claire said. “I prefer a bed. And blood. I’m not an animal.”

“Right,” Alex said. “Also noted. But I was going to mention Absolution.”

“In bed?” Claire asked. “I hope not. I doubt he’d be interested in joining.”

“That’s not what I meant and you know it,” Alex said. “Are you still testing me?”

Claire just grinned. “Always. Keep going. What was it? There was something I noticed as well. I’m wondering if it was the same thing.”

“His Soul Manifestation,” Alex said.

Claire nodded. Her smile fell away. “Yes. That was it for me as well. I’m glad you noticed.”

“Why couldn’t he use it?” Alex asked. He crossed his arms in front of his chest and frowned. “Do you have any ideas? Because things aren’t lining up for me. He didn’t have the magical energy to teleport around. Sure. But he used that attack that cut the monster into mincemeat. So he clearly had magical energy.”

“Right,” Claire said. She matched his expression. “And the ability he’s using to teleport us around clearly isn’t his Soul Manifestation. They’re separate. Even if the teleportation uses Qi…”

“Opening your gate to use a Soul Manifestation doesn’t,” Alex finished. “So he can’t claim that he just ran out or something like that.”

“Which means something else prevented him from using his Soul Manifestation,” Claire said. She pursed her lips. “And I don’t think it was Absolution trying to avoid revealing his abilities. We’ve seen it already. He’s used it on us. I think he was incapable of using it.”

“But the question is why,” Alex said. He fought the urge to poke his head back over the hill to look at Absolution. They didn’t need to let the Outworlder know that they were talking about him. “You think the System is repressing it for some reason?”

“Probably not,” Claire said. “Somehow, I feel like powers that you earn while you’re here aren’t something you can lose. And he already got his Soul Manifestation. No, I think we found one of Absolution’s weaknesses. A huge one.”

“Wait, really?” Alex blinked. “What?”

“The Belcherbeing didn’t have any eyes,” Claire said with a grin. “His Soul Manifestation is limited to things that can see him.”