The Main Engine of the Gear City was a cathedral of turning iron.
Massive pistons the size of skyscrapers pounded into the earth with a rhythmic boom that felt like a heartbeat in a fever dream.
Every gear was lubricated with the black oil of forgotten memories and every steam pipe hissed with the whispers of three million years of stolen lives.
But in the center of this mechanical storm there was a pocket of absolute silence.
The girl in the white dress sat atop the central flywheel.
Her porcelain skin was so pale it looked translucent against the rusted iron of the engine.
She clutched a teddy bear that was slowly losing its stuffing as if time itself was rotting the fabric.
Hi Kaelen the girl said again.
Her voice did not travel through the air.
It appeared directly in his thoughts like a line of cold code.
My name is The Interest.
Are you here to pay the bill?
Kaelen Thorne stood at the edge of the catwalk his charcoal suit stained with the brass dust of the city.
Beside him Silas Vesper was a tense coil of shadow his eyes fixed on the girl with a dread that surpassed anything he had felt for the gods.
Lia Sinclair stood on Kaelen's other side her violet aura fluctuating wildly as she struggled to maintain her shape in the presence of the girl.
Mr. Thorne Lia whispered her voice thin and metallic.
I can't... I can't eat her.
It's like trying to eat a hole that is already eating me.
Kaelen adjusted his glasses and looked at the girl.
He didn't see a child.
He saw a mathematical monstrosity.
[EYE OF THE DEBTOR: DEEP SCAN]
[TARGET: THE INTEREST (ENTROPIC ENTITY)]
[CLASSIFICATION: UNCOLLATERALIZED DEBT]
[VALUE: NEGATIVE INFINITY]
[WARNING: SHE IS THE COST OF CONTINUED EXISTENCE]
You're not a clerk Kaelen said his voice echoing through the iron cathedral.
You are the byproduct of the Abyss's lending practices.
You are the accumulated decay that occurs when a world stays alive past its expiration date.
The girl smiled and a single tooth fell out of her mouth turning into dust before it hit the floor.
Very good Kaelen.
The Architect used to call me the 'Residual Waste'.
The Gods called me the 'Sacrifice'.
But in the end I am just the price you pay for every second you steal from the void.
She tilted her head and the teddy bear's arm fell off.
You just added a thousand years to Earth 01 Kaelen.
Do you know how much I'm going to weigh when I move into your world?
Kaelen felt a cold sweat break across his brow.
He realized the trap Saturn had set.
Every year of time he reclaimed for Earth was a debt that had to be paid in entropy.
The more time he bought the more 'Interest' he invited into his home.
The red pillars outside the city began to vibrate with a new intensity.
The Foreclosure Drills were no longer just digging.
They were acting as beacons for the girl.
The Abyss doesn't want the world Kaelen said his eyes glowing with a sharp gold light.
The Abyss wants to dump you onto a new host.
Earth 01 is the only world in the sector with a positive credit rating right now.
They are trying to merge you into my ledger.
The Interest giggled and the sound made the massive iron pistons of the engine begin to rust.
I'm a very expensive guest Kaelen.
I ate Timeline Gamma in three days.
The Kaelen there tried to pay me with his soul.
It wasn't enough.
Silas lunged forward his daggers a blur of silver light but the moment he entered the girl's ten foot radius his mist began to solidify into lead.
He fell to the catwalk with a heavy clang his body too heavy to move.
Lia! Kaelen barked.
Lia Sinclair didn't wait for a command.
She unleashed her void aura in a tidal wave of violet darkness.
She didn't try to consume the girl.
She tried to wrap the girl in a containment field of nothingness.
The two conceptual powers collided.
The Void which is the absence of everything met Entropy which is the decay of everything.
The iron cathedral began to groan as the walls warped and the massive gears began to liquefy.
Kaelen ignored the chaos.
He pulled out the [KEY TO THE ABYSSAL VAULT] he had taken from Mammon's Clerk.
It was a heavy iron key that pulsed with a dark red light.
I am the Master Liquidator Kaelen shouted over the roar of the collapsing engine.
And I am declaring a Strategic Default.
The girl's eyes widened. A default? You can't default on Me!
I'm not defaulting on my life Kaelen said his fingers flying across his holographic ledger.
I'm defaulting on the Gear City's Debt.
Kaelen slammed the Abyssal Key into the main control console of the engine.
[SKILL ACTIVATED: DEBT RE-ROUTING]
[TARGET: THE INTEREST]
[NEW COLLATERAL: THE ABYSSAL VAULT]
I'm not taking you back to Earth 01 Kaelen hissed.
I'm sending you back to the Bank.
The red pillars outside the city suddenly changed direction.
The Foreclosure Drills didn't stop but the mana they were siphoning began to flow in reverse.
Kaelen was using the Abyssal Key to open a back door into the Abyss's own storage facility.
If you are the interest on a stolen loan Kaelen said walking toward the girl as the floor dissolved beneath him.
Then you belong to the Lender.
I am returning you to the Abyss as an Unwanted Dividend.
The girl screamed and her white dress turned into a swarm of black locusts.
She tried to grab Kaelen's heart seal but the golden light repelled her.
You fool! she shrieked. If I go back to the Abyss they will lose everything!
The Seventh Circle will collapse!
That's not my problem Kaelen said his voice cold and flat.
I'm just the Auditor.
And your account is overdrawn.
[SYSTEM MESSAGE]
[LIQUIDATION SUCCESSFUL]
[ENTITY 'THE INTEREST' HAS BEEN RETURNED TO THE ABYSSAL VAULT]
[RESULT: THE SEVENTH CIRCLE OF HELL IS NOW IN A TOTAL STATE OF DECAY]
The girl vanished in a vortex of red light.
The Foreclosure Drills exploded in the sky as the energy they were carrying became too toxic for the Abyss to handle.
The Gear City stopped shaking.
The silence returned but this time it was the silence of a world that had truly been freed.
Kaelen fell to his knees gasping for air.
His brass hand was gone but his charcoal suit was in rags.
[LEVEL UP]
[LEVEL: 50]
[INFLUENCE GAINED: +1,000,000 IP]
[EARTH 01 COUNTDOWN: +2,000 YEARS (CLEAN TIME)]
Lia Sinclair landed beside him her violet aura slowly fading.
She looked exhausted her eyes flickering between violet and black.
Mr. Thorne she said softly.
Did we just bankrupted Hell?
Only one circle of it Kaelen said standing up with Silas's help.
But it's a start.
Kaelen looked at the holographic map on his tablet.
The Seventh Circle was a dark red smudge on the multiversal map representing a total financial and physical collapse.
But as he watched a new icon appeared on the screen.
It was a black bird made of digital code.
[MESSAGE RECEIVED FROM: THE BLACK MARKET GOD]
[MESSAGE: KAELEN YOU'VE GONE TOO FAR.]
[MESSAGE: THE ABYSS HAS JUST PLACED A 'BOUNTY ON EXISTENCE' FOR YOUR HEAD.]
[MESSAGE: EVERY MERCENARY IN THE MULTIVERSE IS CURRENTLY TELEPORTING TO YOUR COORDINATES.]
Kaelen looked at the sky.
The red pillars were gone but they were being replaced by thousands of blue flashes.
These were the arrival signals of the Hunters of the Void.
Kaelen Thorne Silas said his daggers humming.
We are outnumbered ten thousand to one.
Our mana is at ten percent.
Kaelen adjusted his glasses and looked at the blue flashes.
He didn't look afraid.
He looked like a man who had just seen a massive business opportunity.
They are not coming to kill us Silas Kaelen said.
They are coming to collect a bounty.
And a bounty is just a contract.
Kaelen tapped his tablet and opened the [SYSTEM SHOP].
He had one million Influence Points.
I want to buy the Ownership Rights of the Gear City Kaelen said.
[SYSTEM MESSAGE]
[PURCHASE SUCCESSFUL]
[YOU ARE NOW THE LEGAL OWNER OF WORLD 09]
Kaelen looked at the blue flashes in the sky.
Lia. Silas.
Prepare the welcome signs Kaelen said.
We're not fighting the mercenaries.
We're going to Hire them.