Gudsriki Read Online Free PDF Page B

up. The weight was inconceivable. He didn’t know how he was holding it at all, let alone injured.
    â€œYou’re in Valhalla. What’s left of it.”
    â€œBut Valhalla was nuked!” he tried to belch out. It hurt to speak, cut through his tongue.
    â€œYeah, your plan didn’t go so well. Nukes flew all right; wave bombs too. A s, H s, N s, a whole alphabet of missiles and bombs, but nothing hit here. Here’s fine. The Ares is alive and well and active.”
    â€œNo!”
    â€œYes, actually. Very yes.”
    â€œPelamus?”
    â€œI watched the detector logs. Looks like Varg killed him for you right before he died himself.”
    â€œVarg’s dead?”
    She looked over at the comm tower. “Unless he could survive a neurotoxic dart and a really nasty fall without Niide.”
    Veikko found himself hurt by the news. Varg had just killed him, but he couldn’t hold a grudge for it. He’d wanted Varg on his side more than anything. He should have just explained it all better, more slowly. He hadn’t thought Varg would be back from Mars so fast. He must have never even gone. He should be on Mars, he thought. He never should have died.
    But there was hope in that sentence. Niide, she’d said.
    â€œGet me to Niide.”
    â€œOh, Niide already patched you up on Orkney. This is you fixed.”
    â€œI’m broken.”
    â€œNo, you’re just half-assembled. See, Niide put you in his latest body, that big experiment he’s been wanting to try on us all. You’re actually in the most advanced fighting body ever created; you should be honored.”
    â€œI can’t—”
    â€œNo, you can’t do much of anything. I made sure he left you immortal but immobile. And made sure he didn’t give you a new face. I didn’t want to see your face, ever again.”
    â€œSkadi—”
    â€œDon’t say my name either.”
    She sat in silence, looking over Veikko’s horrific form. All the parts were there but in a puddle. A Gigeresque mass of organs and muscle and mechanics strewn about the rocks, and down into the hole she’d cut earlier.
    â€œW team?” asked the horror.
    â€œVarg killed ’em. He just came back and killed everyone, everyone you didn’t. Good thing too, for you. I had to use their spare viscera to keep you alive till Dr. Niide. Bound your wounds with your own kids’ intestines.”
    â€œVarg killed them all?”
    â€œYeah. You still win for mass murder. You know you got Balder and Alf. You missed Cato, he left with Wulfgar. But you killed Sigvald and Snot real good. You killed my brothers with that shot. You killed Vibs and Violet, that’s for sure. I assume they started this war on your orders, so you have another fifteen billion on your conscience. Your intel plant didn’t work, your plan didn’t work, you really failed in every way you possibly could. You fucked shit up, Veikko. You fucked up bad.”
    â€œBut you saved me.”
    â€œDeath is far too good for you. Far, far too good. A thousand deaths aren’t enough. So you’re not gonna die. That ‘body’ of yours is gonna keep you alive forever. Forever in pain. Breathing dead walrus with dead friends as your company.”
    Veikko didn’t try to speak. The ravine shook, a deep rumble echoed through the caves. He felt something stinging from under his skin, from his open face. The pain grew and grew until he couldn’t help but shout. Then suddenly the shaking ended, and the pain ceased.
    â€œWhat was that?” Veikko choked.
    â€œThe Sigyn System. See, the Ares drips. Downright rains when there’s a breeze. The drops never stray too far from the tree. They always get collected by the Sigyn System. Apparently that’s what that big ring around the base was: Valfar’s recycling system for the water. Fun bonus, since you’re stuck under the thing, every time it drips