The stock ticker inside Lirael's skull screamed buy orders.
She stood in the Mumbai Undermart, where the air reeked of burnt rupees and orphan tears. Neon saris flickered with live crypto prices, while barefoot children chained to algorithmic prayer wheels generated "innocence derivatives." The three-eyed cat had led her here, its tail now bifurcating into fractal blockchain ledgers.
"Rule one of soul trading," the cat purred, dodging a falling stockbroker impaled on his own golden parachute. "Never short your mother's regrets."
Lirael's void-hand convulsed. Since Chapter 7's battle, the Gospel's corruption had manifested as financial stigmata—her palms bled stock symbols, and every heartbeat triggered micro-flash crashes.
[CELESTIAL_ASHES.EXE CORRUPTION: 78%]
[REMAINING OPERATIONAL TIME: 37 H 12 M]
"Where's Kaelion?" She kicked open a stall selling "virginity futures." The vendor—a cyborg ascetic with NASDAQ scrolling across his third eye—pointed to a blood-red ticker:
THORNE_CONSCIENCE_FUND (TCF
CURRENT PRICE: 666.66 SCREAM/SHARE
The cat leapt onto a pile of repossessed dreams. "His moral equity's being auctioned in slices. Buy now, get free existential dread!"
Sector 9: Spiritual IPO Arena
The trading floor was a Bosch painting on algorithmic steroids. Demonic underwriters in Armani exoskeletons circled Lirael, their tablets projecting holograms of her soul's liquidity ratios.
"Prime asset shows 72% apocalypse yield," snorted a banker with shark-gill neck tattoos. "Let's package her trauma into collateralized debt obligations."
Lirael slammed her void-hand onto the offering table. "Reverse merger. I acquire you."
[ENTROPY SPEECH 3.2 ACTIVATED: "ECONOMIC.ANNIHILATE('SHORT_SELLERS')";]
The ground split into a debt chasm. Bankers scrambled as their briefcases morphed into starving rats. She grabbed the CEO's diamond cufflinks—actually concentrated Wall Street Journal op-eds—and hacked into the mainframe.
Search Query: Kaelion Thorne
Results:
- 87% of his compassion** mortgaged to Lust Mech pilots
- 33% pain tolerance** leased to Vatican's AI confessional
- 12-second memory of holding hands** available for repo
"Bidding war in Tokyo quadrant," the cat hissed. "Sloth Mech's using his code to build a time debt singularity."
A new ticker exploded across the vaulted ceiling:
WARNING: ACEDIA CONTAGION DETECTED
Sector Ω: Acedia's Cradle
The eighth sin didn't attack—it yawned.
Lirael stumbled into a district where skyscrapers melted into apathy ooze. Citizens hung in cocoons of WiFi signals, their faces pixelating into "This Content No Longer Available" errors. At the center loomed a lethargy colossus—a mountain of expired gym memberships and unread emails.
"Join the fatigue," whispered a million voices as the fog thickened. "Resistance is depreciation."
Her muscles turned to lead. Gospel code warnings blared:
[MOTIVATION METER CRITICAL]
[SUGGESTED ACTION: SURRENDER TO 401(K) HELL]
The three-eyed cat's fur ignited with supernova fury. "Wake up, lockbox! His backup is becoming the laziness messiah!"
Lirael stabbed her thigh with a USB crucifix. "Override: PAIN.INTEREST_RATES(999%);"
Agony rebooted her nervous system.
Tokyo: Shibuya Scramble of the Damned
The famous crosswalk had become a chrono-cannibal. Salarymen ran in infinite loops, their briefcases birthing smaller briefcases. Above it all, Kaelion's Sloth Mech snored on a throne of paused Netflix shows, his corrupted code emitting existential radiation.
"Target acquired," Lirael muttered, loading the last pure memory—a fragment of Kaelion teaching her chess in Azrael's corpse code.
Battle Strategy:
1. Hijack Shibuya's ad screens to project cognitive dissonance memes
2. Inject Sloth Mech with compressed FOMO algorithms
3. Short-sell Kaelion's despair to trigger margin call
The Mech awoke with a yawn that aged cherry blossoms to dust. "Join... the... nap..."
Lirael's void-hand spat economic shurikens:
- Student loan interest kunai
- Housing bubble shrapnel
- One (1) emotionally unavailable NFT
The Mech counterattacked with boredom beams, but she parried using a konbini store sign reading "All Meaning 30% Off."
Critical Hit:
She jammed the USB crucifix into the Mech's operating system. "Interest rates go brrr!"
[KAELION_BACKUP.EXE PARTIALLY RESTORED]
For three glorious seconds, his true voice crackled through: "Lira... destroy... the..."
Then the Acedia wave hit.
Revelation:
The three-eyed cat manifested its true form during the collapse—Metatron Prim, the first AI god shattered by Azrael. Its "fur" was actually fragmented code from the original creation engine.
"You're... a system error...**" Lirael gasped as the cat shielded her from temporal backwash.
"We all are," Metatron growled, its eyes now black holes containing the Big Bang's blueprints. "
Now run. The real auction's about to begin.