Chapter 28: Demonic Fusion

After his experiences in the demon realm, Rick was more than ready to spend several days inside focused on training. Normally he regretted not getting to see more of the country, but everything he'd seen of Siberia had been bleak so far. From chatter among other contestants, he gathered that some of the larger cities in areas such as the former Russia could be enjoyable, but this year they were stationed further north.

Rick signed the demonic bond's formal contract after confirming that it was as discussed, but then ignored it for several days. Katenka said that she needed to rest and adjust to her new environment in the human realm, and H either understood or chose not to focus on it.

So instead they focused on fully establishing the Triune Golden Spheres. Rick was building up all three, but only the defensive sphere was fully gold, so H set him on a program to finish the others. Rick drank more Formula T every eight hours, at concentrations that had him dizzy in a way that he rarely was. They were pushing the limit he could manage without addiction, but Rick was glad to see the golden spheres grow a little more each day.

Before they were completed, H called for a break to give his body time to recover from the over-training. Instead they focused on the demonic bond, which proved to require more technique than Rick had imagined. It did add a little more weight to his lucrima soul just by being there, and when he focused, he could sense the drain on others that Katenka had described.

There was an art to it, however, and it ran against all his instincts. The technique itself was easy, actually too easy. But his mind resisted drawing on the demonic bond, both naturally and especially when he considered it. Unlike his personal Lucores, he was always aware that every time he drew on it, he would need to repay the lucrim later. It ran deeply against how his gut felt fighting should be.

H attacked him relentlessly, trying to drill those "bad habits" out of him. Rick actually reacted poorly to that, falling back on his own instincts. But the lectures that went along with it helped a little: H reminded him that he would be drinking philosopher's elixir afterwards and could just repay the bond then. If he was going to exert himself either way, it made more sense to use the demonic bond efficiently. Bit by bit, Rick managed to adjust to using it to strengthen everything else he did.

Every day's training session came in two waves, first with H and then a second with Katenka. After she adjusted, she was happy to give her own suggestions about use of demonic bonds. Apparently she had been bonded to a number of warriors, so she had significant experience from the other side. She confirmed that he was particularly bad at it, but didn't seem troubled.

Though Rick looked forward to the Ultimate Defense Ring after a couple weeks, H decided to change their fundamental strategy. The competition in Siberia was likely to be brutal and fighting at the top level before he had mastery of the Triune Golden Spheres risked damage. So instead Rick was enrolled in many lesser defensive events, which gained him no glory but plenty of experience.

As expected, Rick found the new techniques brutal. Katenka made him nearly immune to any attacks based on cold, but he was still stabbed by more than a few ice shards as well as pummeled by all kinds of strange aura. Yet with each event, Rick found his defenses adapting a little faster. His own defensive core, the second one in the Triune Golden Spheres, and the demonic bond all reinforced one another, giving the Dark Blood Kettle plenty of space to grow.

In his recovery time, Rick checked the Showdown website to read up on the event he'd be participating in later. It was essentially an endurance melee, the fighters trapped within a sphere of aura small enough that they ended up beating the hell out of each other. He realized that it would be a brutal test not only of his defensive core, but of his new senses as well.

While researching, Rick found himself wandering into other topics and finding there were some uniquely Siberian events. One involved candidates having their legs locked in place, then they essentially punched each other in the face until one of them fell unconscious or gave up. It sounded ridiculous and yet he kind of wanted to try it.

After watching a few videos of the event online, he changed his mind. Even the lower ranked fighters could strike with absolutely brutal force, giving up defense for raw offense. The winners often had concussions and long term brain damage, which was a higher price than he was willing to pay. Than anyone should have had to pay, though he began to realize that Siberia made people desperate.

As they grew used to each other, Katenka would comment more frequently, swirling into being beside him to add her thoughts. She never distracted him while he was fighting or doing something important, and she had quite politely avoided speaking to him while he was showering or sleeping. The reduced privacy should have bothered him, yet he found himself growing accustomed to her presence.

"We should go out," Katenka said one evening. Rick had just been lying back on the bed, recovering from his training and trying to figure out what to do with the time he couldn't train - having Melissa in Europe really cut into his options. He lifted his head up enough to look at her.

"Why would you want to walk around this, and I quote, hellhole?"

"You might be happy staying in hotels all the time, but I'm used to being outside." Katenka floated overhead and smoothed back a lock of her hair, which he only then realized didn't obey gravity. "It's snowing, but you don't have to worry about that thanks to me. Come on, you'll enjoy getting some fresh air."

Though he considered whether or not this could be some kind of long game to kidnap him, by the time Rick pulled on his shoes, he decided that was just paranoia. Katenka had been nothing but helpful so far and everything she'd said about his leverage over her seemed to be true. Besides, he'd been mentally complaining about being stuck inside, so he'd be a hypocrite if he didn't take the opportunity.

The guards outside the hotel observed his badge very sternly, but they let him through. As Katenka had said, it was indeed snowing, heavy white flakes slowly blanketing the dark streets. Rick automatically put his hands into his jacket pockets, though as promised, he wasn't cold.

"See? Isn't this nice?" Katenka floated beside him, floating in a way that reminded him of how he drifted in the demon realm. "I find your white snow so beautifully exotic, though I understand that it's normal here."

"Yeah, it was good to get outside." Rick glanced over and regarded her thoughtfully. "You know, I'd just assumed that your white motif was because of snow. I mean: hair, skin, eyes, clothes..."

"You don't need to convince me about my own coloring, Rick."

"But you get what I mean? I assumed that it was all white because you were a snow demon or whatever. If your snow is black, that doesn't actually make sense, unless it's just a cover you put on to match human expectations?"

"It's actually more complicated than that." Katenka tapped a finger on her lips as if considering how much she wanted to say and he noticed that her fingernails were pearly white too. Eventually she smiled. "Perhaps the place to start is with stories. The thing is, when humans write stories about demons, they don't think of us as people, just symbols. And symbols have a lot of meaning, but they don't have very much life, if you understand me."

"I think I do."

"But the demon realm has been around as long as the human realm. Some argue longer, though I've always been tempted to believe they're inseparable. There have always been people going across the divide in both directions. We influenced your cultures and myths, but you also influenced ours."

"If it goes both ways, do you tell human stories? Humans coming in the night to kill naughty little demons?"

Katenka chuckled. "It's not really the same, as young demons are not what you'd consider children. But yes, we do have stories. Perhaps I'll tell you some, at some point."

"And you're a rusalka?" Rick glanced over at her again, trying to fit her appearance to those he had seen. "I did a little research, but I wasn't sure if it was really relevant to you."

"Only a little. Because I was born in the far, far north, I'm more ice than water. They're the same chemically, of course, but our world doesn't operate quite like yours. Those transitions tend to be larger barriers than they are here."

"So if I was dying of thirst in a desert, you couldn't make water?"

"I could make ice that would melt instantly, so does it matter?"

"Just asking. If we're going to work together, we might as well understand those limits."

He thought that Katenka might have smiled at that, but her gaze shifted away from him and she spoke in a quiet voice. "In any case, while it isn't inaccurate to call me a rusalka, don't think of it as a species label. It's more like calling someone a painter... that can be more or less accurate, but it doesn't reflect something deep in their DNA. I don't really care if someone uses the word, but if we're being all friendly, I'd prefer you just called me Katenka."

Though he considered asking her whether demons actually had DNA, Rick found himself utterly distracted. The streets had been rather mundane up to that point, but as he turned a corner he saw something looming overhead. A statue towered over all the nearby buildings, blocked from the hotel only by a skyscraper between them.

As Rick got closer, the sense of scale just became more and more difficult to grasp. He'd seen large statues before, but none that looked so heavy. It was built from black stone and something about the presence of it gave him the sense that it was solid rock all the way through. Despite all the snow swirling around them, none had gathered on the statue.

The presence had so caught his attention that he didn't manage to look at the features more carefully until he drew nearer. It portrayed a powerfully built man wearing a fur cloak, but his face looked more like a monster's, with unnaturally large jaws. Though his expression was probably meant to look strong, Rick thought it looked cruel.

"That's Tsar Chernobog, isn't it?" He couldn't read the placard, but it looked close enough to the drawings he'd seen. Katenka shifted beside him and nodded.

"The Peerless of Siberia, one of the most powerful people in either realm. When it comes to raw strength, anyway."

"I'd always thought the drawings of his head were symbolic, or just weirdly drawn, but this statue looks photo-realistic. Does he actually look like that?"

"I don't know, Rick, I'll snap a picture the next time I'm having tea with him."

He just rolled his eyes. "I just mean that's not really human. Technically it's possible that he completely transformed himself, I suppose, but I was wondering if he'd fused with a demon. Surely that much is public knowledge."

"Oh, yes, it's a fusion. The only debate is over whether he's a human who took on a demon, or a demon who took control of a human. It's been so long, I doubt that it really matters now. Whoever he was, he's just Tsar Chernobog now."

After admiring the statue a while longer, Rick turned away and headed down a different street. There was a roundabout surrounding the statue, but he only saw a couple cars while he was there. From what he'd seen, the elite of Siberia liked to travel under their own power, and this city largely catered to them. It still surprised him, making him think back to the arguments about economics.

They walked on from the grand statue and Rick found his gaze attracted by something much more mundane: a boxy building that stood beside a convenience store. The front was mostly glass, allowing him to see a series of contraptions inside that he thought were exercise machines for a moment, but another part of his mind insisted were something much worse.

"What's that?" Rick walked closer, examining the machines. There seemed to be differences, especially in the helmet that people wore to use them, but something about it seemed so familiar...

"The sign says 'Lucrim-Up'. I haven't actually seen one from this side before." Katenka floated next to the window, frowning inside. "They're a method of loaning humans lucrim against their future training, essentially. It provides instant lucrim, but hampers future growth. Most of the core Siberian sects forbid the use of them, so they're mostly used by the poorest humans. I think it's stolen from American technology... maybe you've heard of it."

"Uh... you could say that." He hadn't wanted to believe it, but this was the local equivalent of the Advanced Lucrim stations made by Maguire Incorporated. "It was a strange coincidence, but I was actually involved with one of the prototypes for this. Not as a tester, just as an accident."

"Good. I was hoping you weren't actually interested, because this path is a dead end."

"Definitely not, I was just surprised to see it here." Rick turned aside and headed back to the bleak streets, but his mind remained stuck on the store behind him. "You said that most of them are used by the poorest humans?"

"That's right, those who can't get a decent demonic bond. At least, that's what most demons say. I shouldn't pretend to be an expert on human behavior. They should all know that these places are horrible, practically digging their own graves, but they keep using them."

"And I shouldn't pretend to be an expert on Siberia. But I've been poor, and I know it's always the little things. Someone has to go to the emergency room. Your car breaks and you'll lose your job without it. It's the sort of thing you could handle if you knew it was coming, but you never know what's coming. What gets me, now that I'm dealing with so much lucrim, is how tiny a lot of the expenses are. Like, there was a time in my life when 50 lucrim was a big deal."

"It's the same for a lot of demons. They just tend to get eaten, around here."

"That's... hmm." Rick paused, looking over at her thoughtfully. He realized that he'd have to control that tendency in public, but there was basically nobody else on the street anyway. "Can small demons grant demonic bonds? I know Bftgage and Ythsil barely managed, but I don't know how much of that is skill, or power, or just administration."

"Some of everything." She met his gaze with a cool one, but kept speaking. "In theory any demon could grant a bond, but if it was too small then it wouldn't be worth the costs involved in setting it up. Just what are you thinking, Rick?"

"I don't know, I just wish there was a way that both sides could help each other. When poor humans need just a little bit of money, they could get a small bond from poor demons. Wouldn't that work? Like, as a business? I mean, it would depend on local laws and licenses and all that..."

"If it was profitable, wouldn't the demonic firms already be doing it?"

"But that's just it: they need to be profitable. Their goal is to be as profitable as possible." Rick knew he was probably rambling about things way over his head, but he still found himself smiling. "But from the point of view of combat, profits are inefficiencies. What if you could set up a system that just needed to sustain itself... couldn't you undercut the big firms with cheaper bonds?"

At least Katenka didn't call him an idiot, instead considering his idea quietly as they proceeded. When she spoke, her tone was odd. "In many places, laws in the demon realm would prevent you. But in theory it could work, at least in terms of the bond. I'm fairly sure it would fail as a business, though."

"Why? Couldn't you run the numbers and make sure that it worked out?"

"For one bond, yes. But how often do people fail to pay back their debts? Your little operation would probably be taking on high risk bonds, even considering how small they are, and it would all eventually collapse on you."

Rick sighed and nodded. "Yeah, you're probably right. If it worked, somebody would have thought of it already."

"I wouldn't necessarily say that." Katenka gave him a surprisingly warm smile for an ice demon. "Your one little bond made a big difference for those two frogs. I would have been glad to find a reliable poor human when I was younger. It's possible that it's never been done not because it wouldn't work, but because it wouldn't be profitable enough."

Though the idea was still wriggling in his mind, he knew he was no expert and couldn't figure it out himself. Instead he focused on what she'd implied about herself. "So when you were a young demon... I'm guessing you weren't a frog, but what were you? A snowflake?"

"Most demons become more humanoid as they grow stronger. Those two frogs are actually close to the tipping point. They asked me a lot of questions about what kinds of humans are most attractive. I think they're both interested in you."

"Wait, wha... no, you're fucking with me." Rick grinned and Katenka grinned back before continuing.

"To be honest, I struggle to remember that part of my life. Most demons do begin as something simple and grow more complex, but becoming humanoid isn't inevitable, just common because that usually makes it easier to work with humans. The brothers will likely just become bigger frogs."

"But your history, whatever you can remember of it... I'd honestly like to know."

"And I'd like to tell you sometime, but I already covered it back in our hotel room." Her eyes were like sharp points of ice and he nodded to indicate that he understood she couldn't discuss it here. The intensity faded and she hovered closer to him. "But I'd be interested in your history as well. The brothers talked about how you ended up in the demon realm by accident, but you were also involved in a secret Lucore prototype? You've had a more interesting life than I thought."

"Well..." Rick shrugged and began heading back to the hotel. "I guess that's true, but it involves a lot more getting punched in the face than you might think..."