In a world inhabited due to transdimensional ruptures, which also bring calamities every now and then, Thairon just wants to enjoy the possibilities only science can uncover and ensure his brothers don't get themselves killed.Meeting Tomoe was not among his plans.Through fighting monsters that sprang out of the ruptures, politics, and corruption, he feels the bond between them grow stronger with each hurdle.
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Arrival : Ruptures
- Thread starter Samael61
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Chapter 1 - On the Verge
New
Samael61
I trust you know where the happy button is?
- Joined
- Apr 6, 2025
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The Union of the Sun
Temple of the Gates
It was another ordinary day in the Temple of the Gates. Priestesses carried out their duties, mainly in the kitchens, to prepare nutritious and filling dishes to feed those in need.
Large cauldrons were pushed out of the wooden structures, each filled to the brim with food, while additional ingredients were rolled in by the cartload.
A flash of light signaled the arrival of a machine, shattering the day's monotony. The priestesses and workers ran away in fright, fearing that it could be an attack by the neighboring nations or another fracture.
Thump.
It took a step, roughly twice the size of an ordinary human. Metal plates grounded against one another, carrying its oversized, cylindrical chassis forward with a small quake.
"I wish to speak to the High Priestess." A flat and mechanical voice delivered each word with precision, as the sole optics in the machine's small, rectangular head glowed during every utterance.
"F-for?" she stuttered, throat bobbing in as her arms trembled inside the sleeves.
A blue tendril, with a three-pronged clamp at the end, dislocated itself from the clawed arm of the robot, reaching behind to bring out a metal box.
Taking it with hesitation, Nemuri almost dropped the box with her shaking hands and put it on the ground to avoid damaging whatever was inside.
Her trembling fingers managed to press the button in the middle, and the white, metallic box opened with a hiss, revealing a sentum scroll container inside.
A container engraved with a sigil, only used once in history, but carried great significance to the temple and the people of the world as a whole.
She gripped the purple crystal cap, unscrewing it to check if what she sought was inside.
Removing the scroll inside with reverent care, Nemuri was certain now.
"The Scroll of Arrival. How?"
"Irrelevant. I require translation."
"P-please wait for a second." The machine gave no indication of anything, but Nemuri quickly took the box inside, returning with an older woman.
Hair the color of ripe peaches with several gray strands blending in, tied to a ponytail, a mature, motherly woman nearing her fifties held the scroll in her hands, regarding the towering construct before her with none of the fear her subordinates exuded.
"Welcome to the Temple of the Gates. This way, we should speak in private," she invited the machine inside.
The comparably small head of the machine nodded, the move as mechanical as its steps, and followed the High Priestess Yumiko inside the auxiliary kitchen.
—
"What does your owner want with the Arrival Point?"
The single eye of the machine constricted and then expanded again before it took a step back. The thick plates over its chassis slid open, moving over each other, and then slid back one by one, revealing a glass tank inside with what she would hesitate to call the remains of a human.
Even in the dark green liquid, the living corpse with no forearms or legs beneath the knee, skin with glowing lines stuck to bone, and a look of agony in its reddened eyes could be seen.
Translucent tubes were attached to the remaining body parts, while a mask enveloped most of the head, continuously pumping a viscous green substance.
Yumiko turned her head to the side, closing her eyes and covering her mouth with the back of her miko attire.
She felt pity for the man inside and a great revulsion for whatever had turned him to this state.
Death would have been preferable in her opinion.
"Was it an accident?" she could not help but ask.
"Experiment gone awry. No solution exists on this planet. No time to traverse the stars. Require translation. Consider the scroll as goodwill."
What a remarkable display of goodwill it was, the location of the Arrival Point, regarded as holy by a part of the spiritually inclined, cursed by the rest, and sought by the governments for the potentially limitless gains that could be acquired through it.
"You believe a cure lies in finding it?" The Arrival brought many things to this world, but all were random.
The dying man inside the tank would not discover the solution he sought unless he had a means to extract it from the clutches of the multiverse.
"No other option available."
"The location has to be kept secret," and the oaths she swore to help those in need be damned; if this man proved to be untrustworthy, she would rather burn the scroll than translate it.
The eye of the machine glowed, projecting three different screens before her.
She would have been impressed by the technology, but the recordings took all her attention.
A laboratory with a half-machine human carrying the flag of the Kelmar Kingdom on its shoulder, an assassination order targeting Terena Ulves, a whistleblower who had exposed the Union's plans to weaponize Lorne, and the prime administrator of the so-called republic screaming at his ministers to proceed with the megacomplex that would leave thousands without a home.
"It will be. Current rulers are untrustworthy. Will lead to war. Undesirable."
If the man was willing to go far enough to reveal these secrets, then she could trust him to keep the contents of the scroll a secret. "Very well. I hope you find what you seek."
—
Plains of Tersus
On the continent of Asra, where the borders of the Union of the Sun, the Kelmar Kingdom, and the Republic of Netara met, lay the Plains of Tersus, the sole neutral location on the entire planet.
Meltral, once a trading post, had quickly grown into a city following the Great Betrayal, while the continent had once again split into different nations vying for control with the fall of the Virex Empire and the death of Emperor Noah Reyes.
With its neutrality guaranteed by trade and the agreement of the neighbors, it often served as a meeting ground for diplomatic issues.
He did not have the luxury to care about any of that now.
The medical suit was distorted to the indicated coordinates, far away from the city, closer to the border of the republic. A dozen drones equipped with high-intensity scanners buzzed around like a disturbed hive, seeking the entrance to the Arrival Point.
—
More drones were necessary to dig and then cut through the lead barrier, as well as to resupply his depleting nutrient tank.
Once the path was open, Thairon commanded the medical carrier down the hole, using the plasma thrusters to land safely.
The fabric of reality in this location was like a broken stained glass panel, with shards all around leaking hundreds of intertwined energy signatures from across the multiverse.
If what he needed could not be found here, then his chances were nonexistent.
That's why he had also brought an incinerator charge.
Sending drones with electromagnetic anchors for retrieval, the search for an appropriate energy type to fix his condition began.
—
Kelmar Kingdom
Glassport
Year 785 of the Imperial Calendar
In a lab complex hidden beneath the surface, a machine beeped in warning.
"Nutrients depleted. Recovery halted."
Thairon jolted awake inside the tank, as his dizzy mind tried to make sense of the words.
The nanobots permeating his body to serve an array of purposes also connected his consciousness to his computer system, and as his mind became fully aware, the scientist sought a solution.
Most of his lab was in a state of disrepair due to all the components he had to cannibalize in a bid to fix his condition, including the maintenance bots and the fabricators, which meant there was no way to repair the malfunctioning nutrient extractor.
His limbs had grown back, and the organs, while not fully recovered, would do for now.
To complete the recovery, he needed food immediately.
Activating the release protocols, the liquid inside the tank was flushed down quickly, disappearing into the drains built at the bottom, and two mechanical arms lowered him to the ground.
The mask automatically came off, and Thairon struggled to breathe on his own, something he had not been able to do for months.
Finally getting air to his lungs, he had a violent coughing fit on the ground.
His throat and larynx felt like sandpaper, dry and coarse, as his body had lost most of its volume, including the necessary bodily fluids.
The genetic modification had worked, and he was alive.
The nanobots, weighing four times as much as his remaining flesh and bone, were the only reason he could even move.
Crawling up once the fit subsided, Thairon inspected himself on the surface of the glass, too tired to use the scanners.
He looked like a starved naked mole-rat. His body has been in a state of extreme catabolic self-consumption for a year and a half now, and lasting any longer just isn't possible.
The symptoms, which started with cellular degeneration and were followed by systemic tissue necrosis, had reduced his body to a wreck.
Still, he succeeded.
Naked like the day he was born and stinking like a hospital room, Thairon crawled to the fridge. His body was in no state to consume anything, but the nanobots could break the food down to the necessary parts and repair his body, at least enough for him to start eating.
He felt like slamming his head on the fridge's door, but did not have the energy for it.
Either it was empty, or the inside was one moldy growth by now, and he quickly shut the door back once the smell hit him.
There were no canned foods or snacks, as he preferred fresh food, which meant the closest edible thing in the kitchen was the cooking oil.
—
Dressing, and every other movement in general, was torture. His body felt heavier than it was, the almost nonexistent muscles straining with even the smallest of movements, but there was no other choice.
He did consider calling Kael or Skyler to help, but he also didn't want his little brothers to see him in this sorry state. Already, he had refused to allow them in for the last year when the effects of the cellular degeneration and necrosis became evident.
Through the pain and difficulty of it, he had managed to get into clothes, which were oversized for his decrepit frame, and completely hide his body.
—
Lying down on the floor of the elevator as it rushed to the surface, a choice made entirely because he was in no shape to use the distorter to teleport himself, Thairon made his way to the Golden Telam.
It was a good idea to have it built close to the surface entrance of his lab.
One of the oversized muscleheads hired as guards called out to him, demanding that Thairon stop, as he was unrecognizable in his current attire, but the VIP door opened for him, and the man bowed with a thousand apologies.
Reacting was a waste of energy he could not afford, so he continued to walk, taking the stairs to the third floor, where he had private dinners.
An elevator would have been useful now.
"Welcome, welcome, dear sir; you have been away for so long, I had feared the worst. Your favorite dishes are already on their way. Do you desire anything else?" Lerus, the head chef of the restaurant, arrived right behind him as he stepped through the door.
"Everything," he gritted out, suppressing the urge to scratch his burning throat.
Lerus was caught off guard by the demand and even more by the coarse and dry voice, "Everything, sir?"
"Every edible thing you have. Bring them all. Now. No more questions." He could not waste any more time answering the man's questions.
"Yes, yes, of course."
—
The waiters carried a literal feast into the private floor, dishes from all corners of Asra, and he could not even salivate.
In fact, he did not have the strength to chew, nor the proper stomach acids to break down the food.
"Leave."
Lerus muttered a quick "enjoy the dinner, sir," while pushing the staff out of the private dining room and closing the door behind them.
Thairon pulled his hand out of the hoodie's pocket, laying his bony hand on the large, juicy steak, and the nanobots in his body leaped out of his skin like a hungry kezu, breaking the slab of meat into microscopic parts, and retreated back as another wave came out.
Bit by bit, the food on the table disappeared while the machines repaired his body one muscle strand at a time.
—
Consuming all the available food at the time took hours of work, but as he needed fewer nanobots to compensate for his bodily functions with each morsel, the process gradually sped up.
When the plates were spotless and the water jugs empty, he lay his head on the table, passing out with a groan.
—
Thairon woke from his food coma with a gasp.
His stomach was rolling, and he felt the urge to puke while his saliva glands worked overtime. His condition had improved marginally, but more nutrients were necessary.
At least moving without the nanobots to assist was possible now.
"System diagnostics," he muttered, and the nanobots constructed a crude holo projector.
The hive had used the waste from the food to bring the swarm to full operational capability and to refill its fuel reserves.
Internal organs and the cardiovascular system were back to 100%, but the muscular system only recovered to twenty percent of its previous state.
"Nax, tell them to bring more food," he spoke aloud rather than relaying the order through the neural bridge, since it took less out of him.
"Understood." The AI system relayed his acknowledgement through the bridge, straight into his remade mind.
The voice of his Neural Architecture Extension was glitchy, repeating the vowels while the pitch was all over the place.
He had to fix him, too, along with most of the laboratory.
—
His feasting spree had the chief worried, and while he would appreciate it any other time, now was not the time. He wanted to eat as much as possible before heading down to the lab to sleep for the rest of his recovery period.
The second course, just as lavish as the first one, was gone in the blink of an eye, and as his muscular system was being repaired one strand at a time, the nanobot swarms caused his skin to bulge and stretch, filling his sunken body with flesh.
He could feel his strength return with each passing second, and the nanobots became less necessary to keep his body from falling apart like the Lekonem.
His appetite sated and the necessary nutrients taken, Thairon pushed himself up, feeling the previously baggy clothes feel a little snug.
Ignoring the waiters and the chief, he entered the restaurant, took the hidden elevator down, trudged to his bedroom, and let himself fall on the bed.
He was asleep before his head hit the pillow, and it would take him a while to wake up.
Temple of the Gates
It was another ordinary day in the Temple of the Gates. Priestesses carried out their duties, mainly in the kitchens, to prepare nutritious and filling dishes to feed those in need.
Large cauldrons were pushed out of the wooden structures, each filled to the brim with food, while additional ingredients were rolled in by the cartload.
A flash of light signaled the arrival of a machine, shattering the day's monotony. The priestesses and workers ran away in fright, fearing that it could be an attack by the neighboring nations or another fracture.
Thump.
It took a step, roughly twice the size of an ordinary human. Metal plates grounded against one another, carrying its oversized, cylindrical chassis forward with a small quake.
"I wish to speak to the High Priestess." A flat and mechanical voice delivered each word with precision, as the sole optics in the machine's small, rectangular head glowed during every utterance.
"F-for?" she stuttered, throat bobbing in as her arms trembled inside the sleeves.
A blue tendril, with a three-pronged clamp at the end, dislocated itself from the clawed arm of the robot, reaching behind to bring out a metal box.
Taking it with hesitation, Nemuri almost dropped the box with her shaking hands and put it on the ground to avoid damaging whatever was inside.
Her trembling fingers managed to press the button in the middle, and the white, metallic box opened with a hiss, revealing a sentum scroll container inside.
A container engraved with a sigil, only used once in history, but carried great significance to the temple and the people of the world as a whole.
She gripped the purple crystal cap, unscrewing it to check if what she sought was inside.
Removing the scroll inside with reverent care, Nemuri was certain now.
"The Scroll of Arrival. How?"
"Irrelevant. I require translation."
"P-please wait for a second." The machine gave no indication of anything, but Nemuri quickly took the box inside, returning with an older woman.
Hair the color of ripe peaches with several gray strands blending in, tied to a ponytail, a mature, motherly woman nearing her fifties held the scroll in her hands, regarding the towering construct before her with none of the fear her subordinates exuded.
"Welcome to the Temple of the Gates. This way, we should speak in private," she invited the machine inside.
The comparably small head of the machine nodded, the move as mechanical as its steps, and followed the High Priestess Yumiko inside the auxiliary kitchen.
—
"What does your owner want with the Arrival Point?"
The single eye of the machine constricted and then expanded again before it took a step back. The thick plates over its chassis slid open, moving over each other, and then slid back one by one, revealing a glass tank inside with what she would hesitate to call the remains of a human.
Even in the dark green liquid, the living corpse with no forearms or legs beneath the knee, skin with glowing lines stuck to bone, and a look of agony in its reddened eyes could be seen.
Translucent tubes were attached to the remaining body parts, while a mask enveloped most of the head, continuously pumping a viscous green substance.
Yumiko turned her head to the side, closing her eyes and covering her mouth with the back of her miko attire.
She felt pity for the man inside and a great revulsion for whatever had turned him to this state.
Death would have been preferable in her opinion.
"Was it an accident?" she could not help but ask.
"Experiment gone awry. No solution exists on this planet. No time to traverse the stars. Require translation. Consider the scroll as goodwill."
What a remarkable display of goodwill it was, the location of the Arrival Point, regarded as holy by a part of the spiritually inclined, cursed by the rest, and sought by the governments for the potentially limitless gains that could be acquired through it.
"You believe a cure lies in finding it?" The Arrival brought many things to this world, but all were random.
The dying man inside the tank would not discover the solution he sought unless he had a means to extract it from the clutches of the multiverse.
"No other option available."
"The location has to be kept secret," and the oaths she swore to help those in need be damned; if this man proved to be untrustworthy, she would rather burn the scroll than translate it.
The eye of the machine glowed, projecting three different screens before her.
She would have been impressed by the technology, but the recordings took all her attention.
A laboratory with a half-machine human carrying the flag of the Kelmar Kingdom on its shoulder, an assassination order targeting Terena Ulves, a whistleblower who had exposed the Union's plans to weaponize Lorne, and the prime administrator of the so-called republic screaming at his ministers to proceed with the megacomplex that would leave thousands without a home.
"It will be. Current rulers are untrustworthy. Will lead to war. Undesirable."
If the man was willing to go far enough to reveal these secrets, then she could trust him to keep the contents of the scroll a secret. "Very well. I hope you find what you seek."
—
Plains of Tersus
On the continent of Asra, where the borders of the Union of the Sun, the Kelmar Kingdom, and the Republic of Netara met, lay the Plains of Tersus, the sole neutral location on the entire planet.
Meltral, once a trading post, had quickly grown into a city following the Great Betrayal, while the continent had once again split into different nations vying for control with the fall of the Virex Empire and the death of Emperor Noah Reyes.
With its neutrality guaranteed by trade and the agreement of the neighbors, it often served as a meeting ground for diplomatic issues.
He did not have the luxury to care about any of that now.
The medical suit was distorted to the indicated coordinates, far away from the city, closer to the border of the republic. A dozen drones equipped with high-intensity scanners buzzed around like a disturbed hive, seeking the entrance to the Arrival Point.
—
More drones were necessary to dig and then cut through the lead barrier, as well as to resupply his depleting nutrient tank.
Once the path was open, Thairon commanded the medical carrier down the hole, using the plasma thrusters to land safely.
The fabric of reality in this location was like a broken stained glass panel, with shards all around leaking hundreds of intertwined energy signatures from across the multiverse.
If what he needed could not be found here, then his chances were nonexistent.
That's why he had also brought an incinerator charge.
Sending drones with electromagnetic anchors for retrieval, the search for an appropriate energy type to fix his condition began.
—
Kelmar Kingdom
Glassport
Year 785 of the Imperial Calendar
In a lab complex hidden beneath the surface, a machine beeped in warning.
"Nutrients depleted. Recovery halted."
Thairon jolted awake inside the tank, as his dizzy mind tried to make sense of the words.
The nanobots permeating his body to serve an array of purposes also connected his consciousness to his computer system, and as his mind became fully aware, the scientist sought a solution.
Most of his lab was in a state of disrepair due to all the components he had to cannibalize in a bid to fix his condition, including the maintenance bots and the fabricators, which meant there was no way to repair the malfunctioning nutrient extractor.
His limbs had grown back, and the organs, while not fully recovered, would do for now.
To complete the recovery, he needed food immediately.
Activating the release protocols, the liquid inside the tank was flushed down quickly, disappearing into the drains built at the bottom, and two mechanical arms lowered him to the ground.
The mask automatically came off, and Thairon struggled to breathe on his own, something he had not been able to do for months.
Finally getting air to his lungs, he had a violent coughing fit on the ground.
His throat and larynx felt like sandpaper, dry and coarse, as his body had lost most of its volume, including the necessary bodily fluids.
The genetic modification had worked, and he was alive.
The nanobots, weighing four times as much as his remaining flesh and bone, were the only reason he could even move.
Crawling up once the fit subsided, Thairon inspected himself on the surface of the glass, too tired to use the scanners.
He looked like a starved naked mole-rat. His body has been in a state of extreme catabolic self-consumption for a year and a half now, and lasting any longer just isn't possible.
The symptoms, which started with cellular degeneration and were followed by systemic tissue necrosis, had reduced his body to a wreck.
Still, he succeeded.
Naked like the day he was born and stinking like a hospital room, Thairon crawled to the fridge. His body was in no state to consume anything, but the nanobots could break the food down to the necessary parts and repair his body, at least enough for him to start eating.
He felt like slamming his head on the fridge's door, but did not have the energy for it.
Either it was empty, or the inside was one moldy growth by now, and he quickly shut the door back once the smell hit him.
There were no canned foods or snacks, as he preferred fresh food, which meant the closest edible thing in the kitchen was the cooking oil.
—
Dressing, and every other movement in general, was torture. His body felt heavier than it was, the almost nonexistent muscles straining with even the smallest of movements, but there was no other choice.
He did consider calling Kael or Skyler to help, but he also didn't want his little brothers to see him in this sorry state. Already, he had refused to allow them in for the last year when the effects of the cellular degeneration and necrosis became evident.
Through the pain and difficulty of it, he had managed to get into clothes, which were oversized for his decrepit frame, and completely hide his body.
—
Lying down on the floor of the elevator as it rushed to the surface, a choice made entirely because he was in no shape to use the distorter to teleport himself, Thairon made his way to the Golden Telam.
It was a good idea to have it built close to the surface entrance of his lab.
One of the oversized muscleheads hired as guards called out to him, demanding that Thairon stop, as he was unrecognizable in his current attire, but the VIP door opened for him, and the man bowed with a thousand apologies.
Reacting was a waste of energy he could not afford, so he continued to walk, taking the stairs to the third floor, where he had private dinners.
An elevator would have been useful now.
"Welcome, welcome, dear sir; you have been away for so long, I had feared the worst. Your favorite dishes are already on their way. Do you desire anything else?" Lerus, the head chef of the restaurant, arrived right behind him as he stepped through the door.
"Everything," he gritted out, suppressing the urge to scratch his burning throat.
Lerus was caught off guard by the demand and even more by the coarse and dry voice, "Everything, sir?"
"Every edible thing you have. Bring them all. Now. No more questions." He could not waste any more time answering the man's questions.
"Yes, yes, of course."
—
The waiters carried a literal feast into the private floor, dishes from all corners of Asra, and he could not even salivate.
In fact, he did not have the strength to chew, nor the proper stomach acids to break down the food.
"Leave."
Lerus muttered a quick "enjoy the dinner, sir," while pushing the staff out of the private dining room and closing the door behind them.
Thairon pulled his hand out of the hoodie's pocket, laying his bony hand on the large, juicy steak, and the nanobots in his body leaped out of his skin like a hungry kezu, breaking the slab of meat into microscopic parts, and retreated back as another wave came out.
Bit by bit, the food on the table disappeared while the machines repaired his body one muscle strand at a time.
—
Consuming all the available food at the time took hours of work, but as he needed fewer nanobots to compensate for his bodily functions with each morsel, the process gradually sped up.
When the plates were spotless and the water jugs empty, he lay his head on the table, passing out with a groan.
—
Thairon woke from his food coma with a gasp.
His stomach was rolling, and he felt the urge to puke while his saliva glands worked overtime. His condition had improved marginally, but more nutrients were necessary.
At least moving without the nanobots to assist was possible now.
"System diagnostics," he muttered, and the nanobots constructed a crude holo projector.
The hive had used the waste from the food to bring the swarm to full operational capability and to refill its fuel reserves.
Internal organs and the cardiovascular system were back to 100%, but the muscular system only recovered to twenty percent of its previous state.
"Nax, tell them to bring more food," he spoke aloud rather than relaying the order through the neural bridge, since it took less out of him.
"Understood." The AI system relayed his acknowledgement through the bridge, straight into his remade mind.
The voice of his Neural Architecture Extension was glitchy, repeating the vowels while the pitch was all over the place.
He had to fix him, too, along with most of the laboratory.
—
His feasting spree had the chief worried, and while he would appreciate it any other time, now was not the time. He wanted to eat as much as possible before heading down to the lab to sleep for the rest of his recovery period.
The second course, just as lavish as the first one, was gone in the blink of an eye, and as his muscular system was being repaired one strand at a time, the nanobot swarms caused his skin to bulge and stretch, filling his sunken body with flesh.
He could feel his strength return with each passing second, and the nanobots became less necessary to keep his body from falling apart like the Lekonem.
His appetite sated and the necessary nutrients taken, Thairon pushed himself up, feeling the previously baggy clothes feel a little snug.
Ignoring the waiters and the chief, he entered the restaurant, took the hidden elevator down, trudged to his bedroom, and let himself fall on the bed.
He was asleep before his head hit the pillow, and it would take him a while to wake up.
Chapter 2 - Still Standing
New
Samael61
I trust you know where the happy button is?
- Joined
- Apr 6, 2025
- Messages
- 558
- Likes received
- 31,092
Subterranean Labs
Thairon lurched from his bed with a gasp. He looked around with wild eyes but laid back upon seeing where he was.
And then got up again. The bed was sticky and dark due to the sweat mixing with the particles his nanobots expelled. He smelled like a rotten egg and gagged at the smell.
Rolling out of the bed, he lost his balance and fell face down. Slowly pushing himself up, Thairon moved to look at himself in the mirror. Turning the lights on, his lips curved up.
His haggard look was mostly gone, though he was still underweight. His brows and eyelashes had grown back, but the rest of him was still bald. Color had returned to his skin as well, to a healthy cream.
Taking his clothes off and throwing them into the overfilled trash can, he entered the bathroom. Turning the water on, he cursed as the ice-cold water touched his skin. Backing off, he slipped and fell, hitting the back of his head on the tiles.
A dull feeling ran through his head.
Straightening himself up, he sat on the cold tiles, checking the back of his head for any blood. His fingers came up clear, and there wasn't even a bruise.
Getting back into the shower, he shivered under the cold water. Scrubbing himself as hard as he could, Thairon watched the dead skin cells and dirt go down the drain.
Once he was properly washed, he wrapped the bathrobe around himself, complaining. At least he didn't have to dry his hair.
Throwing on whatever clean clothing he had left, Thairon stopped at the grumbling of his stomach.
"Nax, tell the restaurant to send in food. As much as they can send."
"Placing orders for a well balanced lunch."
Thairon grimaced. His Neural Architecture Extension was overdue for maintenance, as was the lab.
He had time until the food arrived.
—
The fabricator had been broken for a while due to overuse. Non-stop working for weeks had cascaded into blown fuses, fried processors, and molten laser lenses. The remaining maintenance bots had worked to the point of breakdown, and he had to do everything himself.
Most of the replacement parts were in stock, except for the crystalline processors. The sentum molecular foundry was in good condition, but without the necessary processing power, it would not be functional.
Taking the excavator drones apart, he removed the processors. Finding a consolidator, he placed a dozen of them in the available slots. The insulated transparent panel slid over the processors, and the electromagnetic-balanced coils were powered.
Working in a predetermined pattern, the nanometric electrical arcs created a system unifying several different processors into a single, superior one.
Connecting the workaround to the foundry, he booted the system. It was slow since the consolidated processors could not match the power of a Pentium processor.
The system came to life with glitching holographic screens.
His thin fingers glided over the keyboard, and a force field snapped into existence. The vents vacuumed the air out, and six pencil-sized molecular forgers fired their particle beams.
The timer read a little over eight hours until the purple crystal processor would be built molecule by molecule.
It was an expensive project, both in time and resources, but a single sentum processor was enough to make Nax the most advanced artificial intelligence on the planet.
If he wanted, conquering the world by hacking the digital network would only take an hour.
The elevator arrived with a ding through the intercom, and he went to take his order.
—
Clearing the closest table, he gorged himself on the food. It felt even better now that he did not feel like death warmed over.
His teeth, freshly grown back days ago, tore into the Kenzu steak. His mouth was overwhelmed with the juices now that he could taste properly.
Words couldn't express just how being able to eat felt at that moment.
Over the course of two hours, he savored every bite and every sip.
A holo-screen popped next to him, showing an incoming call. For months, Nax has been imitating him to communicate with his brothers. It was time to face the music.
The blue screen gave way to a rather handsome face, with spiky brown hair, cerulean green eyes, and a scowl.
"I knew it; I knew there was something wrong," his brother shouted.
"Nothing I couldn't handle in the end," he said, swallowing the morsel in his mouth.
Kael scrunched his face. "You look like a skeleton trying to pass as a human with fake skin."
"Okay, you are just exaggerating now," he drawled.
"No, I am not. I'll be there in a couple of days; don't go anywhere," Kael said, pointing a finger at him.
"Don't," he shook his head, "I need to clean up and repair the lab. I'll come see you two soon."
"Uh-huh, I don't think so. You've been dodging us for a year. I won't let you do it again," the younger brother insisted.
He took a long sip from the bottle of water and sloshed it in his mouth.
"Go somewhere private," he said, getting up. He took one of the containers, putting some food inside.
Seeing Kael look at him with a raised eyebrow, he just sighed, "Just do it."
Cursing under his breath, his little brother left the restroom of the beach cafe, walking to his office.
"What now?" Kael asked, waiting.
He ended the call after the space distorter locked on the exact coordinates, and Thairon was gone in a flash.
Kael stared at the dark screen for a second. "Did he just?"
"Yes, I did," a voice called behind him.
"What the?!" Kael screamed, accidentally throwing his phone up. Thairon, fortunately, caught it without even looking.
"Before you ask, it's teleportation," he said, handing the phone back. His brother took it slowly, eyes wide and glued on him.
"You discovered…" Kael began to scream again, but it turned to an unintelligible muffle as a sandwich was shoved in his mouth.
"Don't announce it to the whole world. I already had to use it in the open more than I am comfortable with," he warned.
Kael bit down, quickly chewing and swallowing the sandwich.
"You discovered teleportation?!" he hissed this time, eyes flickering around. This was too big for his little office.
"Yes," he replied with a flat tone, biting into a fruit tart.
Kael raised his hands, mouth open in a silent scream, before he dropped his hands. "Why the heck didn't you tell us?"
"Because I need to perfect it. You guys can use it after that," he replied.
"Oh, okay," his brother scowled, gathering him in a hug. Thairon patted him on the back.
Kael let him go, one hand on his shoulder, and tilted his head. "Are you taller, or am I seeing things?"
Now that he said it, Thairon was looking down on his brother, rather than up. "Huh, guess I am," he said.
His eyes drifted down, and he grinned.
"Shorty," he said. Kael's lips thinned in return.
"Bro, what the heck happened to you?"
"Really long story. I'll tell you once I stop the lab from going up in flames."
"Alright, but if you ditch us again, I am camping outside your place until you come out."
"Just focus on your exams," he said, ruffling his brother's spiky hair.
—
In four hours, he managed to fix twenty maintenance bots, cannibalizing several in the process.
It was a personal record, and he could have done more, but the constant hunger he felt had to be sated.
"Alright, group one, cleaning duty. Take out the trash, sweep the floor, and replace my bed with a new one," he ordered. Five of the bots, roughly human-shaped with rectangular heads, moved as one, feet clanking on the metal floor as a choir.
Cleaning that gunk wasn't worth the trouble.
He turned to the second group. "Group two, you have the kitchen. Restock everything, and watch out for the mold in the fridge."
Five more bots were gone, three heading to the elevator for shopping and two to the kitchen.
"Group three, maintenance duty. Fix whatever you can with the materials we have, report, and leave the rest for later," he called out.
The rest of the bots dispersed across the lab, picking up the maintenance tools. Until the sentum processor was ready, he was free to take a nap.
—
The alarm woke him up five minutes before the foundry order was complete. He freshened up just in time to hear the bell.
The vents pumped the air back, and he shut down the force field. Using a silicon-covered tweezer, he took the small square crystal out carefully; it was barely the size of a knuckle.
Decoupling the consolidator from the socket, he put the new processors in and activated the coolant flood. Blue, nonconductive liquid covered the purple crystal, and the fabricator came to life.
"Damage report."
A holographic screen appeared in front of his face, showing quite the list. The fusion reactor's magnetic field had to be recalibrated, and its coolant system flushed.
The Neural Core's sentum processors had to be placed back since he had taken half of them for other projects, and the remaining three were previous models. The workload of managing the wealthiest company on the planet, the consumer goods production facilities, his ghost satellite network, and keeping the reactor stable was slowly grinding down the core.
Some of his previous experiments had to be disposed of, and the disassembler was out of order.
The list went on like that.
Six sentum processors would take thirty minutes. In the meantime, he could recalibrate the magnetic field.
—
The elevator needed service too, because it took two minutes to go down five floors. The door opened, and he could feel the difference in temperature. Approaching the console overlooking the fusion core, he put his palm over the interface. It was faster than the phase-shifted subspace relay and more secure.
His eyes widened as the flow of information to his brain was different. Smoother, the data flow did not have to be bottlenecked to prevent a sensory overload.
He could see everything now.
Recalibrating the magnetic field, which would usually require Nax to step in to save hours of work, was child's play.
Some of the coils needed replacements, though they weren't urgent.
"Core stabilized at eighty-eight percent. Awaiting coolant replacement," the fusion core interface, a distinct female voice, informed him.
The coolant was already overdue a change by several months, but he would have to get the cryofluid synthesizer working first. Modifying it as a non-stop cooling system for the molecular stasis device that would keep his body from degrading while using a bio-electricity converter to supply the necessary energy to his body was a desperate measure.
And the synthesizer was overloaded due to feedback, causing an explosion that turned the third floor into an ice cave.
—
Picking up the finished processors, he made his way to the neural core.
A dense metal cube half his size, this version of Nax was just a stepping stone to something greater. Something that he was working on ever since his first conception.
Breaching the force field, the scans of the photonic lattice conduits showed disintegrations in several parts. Seven of the ten conduits would need replacing at least.
Running his hand over the hardened transparent light, he put another order into the fabricator.
The empty processor slots opened with a mental command, and he put the new processors in. The system diagnostics showed green across the board, allowing him to replace the older models.
"Personality matrix engaged," the deep, baritone voice of Nax turned to a lively, upbeat tone.
"How are you feeling?" he asked. For all that the Nax was modeled after him, his matrix had evolved into a wildly different person.
"Like I was asleep for a couple of decades. Damn, it's good to be back," the AI replied.
"We have a lot to do. Take over the fabricator; let's start," he ordered, turning around.
"Aye aye."
—
The bots used a lever to force the frozen door open. Stepping inside, he shuddered, even though the personal force field made sure he did not feel the freezing temperatures.
He whistled. The ice was so thick he could not see the floor.
"Alright boys, melt the ice and get those pumps working." He took one of the chemical sprayers, walking in first.
Pulling the trigger of the pressure gun, he sprayed the solution on the floor, and the ice quickly melted. He created a path inside, and the bots spread off to cover more ground.
The floor was simple to clean compared to the ceiling. He would have to be careful to not get crushed under the ice.
The pumps turned on automatically, following behind. The synthesizer itself was frozen solid, and the ice over it was so dense he had to dump the entire tank over it.
It was entirely useless. The internal parts were specifically made to expand and contract with the change in heat, but it had frozen so fast, the material had shattered like glass.
He would need a new one.
Defrosting the entire floor took three hours, and he would have to rebuild almost everything from scratch. Even the metal panels needed replacing, but the synthesizer took priority. He had to replace the reactor coolant as soon as possible.
The panels were modular for ease of access, and he got the electricity back after replacing the fuse box and the wiring. Panels were eroded, but there were plenty of them in storage.
The water purifier for the synthesizer was the first part to be replaced. Without clean water, he could not make coolant.
The thermally insulated tubes were replaced, as fabricating them was relatively quick. While he secured the new tubes to carry the coolant in place, the fabricator was already working on the purifier.
He also had to fix both water and chemical pipes that were cracked due to the ice. The tanks were built deep behind the walls and shut down automatically in case of an emergency. It had saved the entire floor from turning into a deathtrap.
With both issues solved, he installed the freshly built purifier while the fabricator was already working on the synthesizer itself.
Between the constant stream of bots carrying the wrecked parts out and bringing the newly fabricated ones in, he continued to work, only stopping for short snack breaks.
The synthesizer, a massive, orb-shaped device meant to mix all those chemicals in a perfect ratio, had to be assembled piece by piece and required hover lifts brought inside.
Screwing, fusing, and otherwise connecting the parts, he had the device ready sooner than expected.
"Not to burst your bubble, but are you alright?" Nax called, appearing next to him as a square hologram with a question mark.
"Yeah, why?" he asked, conducting the final checkups on the synthesizer.
"You've been working for twenty hours, nonstop, with no sign of fatigue. I didn't want to disturb you, and your vitals are within expected ranges, but you might want to rest for a bit," his neural extension advised.
Thairon stopped, his brows creased. "Twenty hours? I don't feel tired."
"In hindsight, you probably should have had the new genetic modifications tested before moving around," Nax complained.
"You know what? Handle the synthesizer, and I'll go to sleep. We can look at the full picture tomorrow," he said, heading to the elevator.
He had done enough for the day.
"Got it, good night."
Thairon lurched from his bed with a gasp. He looked around with wild eyes but laid back upon seeing where he was.
And then got up again. The bed was sticky and dark due to the sweat mixing with the particles his nanobots expelled. He smelled like a rotten egg and gagged at the smell.
Rolling out of the bed, he lost his balance and fell face down. Slowly pushing himself up, Thairon moved to look at himself in the mirror. Turning the lights on, his lips curved up.
His haggard look was mostly gone, though he was still underweight. His brows and eyelashes had grown back, but the rest of him was still bald. Color had returned to his skin as well, to a healthy cream.
Taking his clothes off and throwing them into the overfilled trash can, he entered the bathroom. Turning the water on, he cursed as the ice-cold water touched his skin. Backing off, he slipped and fell, hitting the back of his head on the tiles.
A dull feeling ran through his head.
Straightening himself up, he sat on the cold tiles, checking the back of his head for any blood. His fingers came up clear, and there wasn't even a bruise.
Getting back into the shower, he shivered under the cold water. Scrubbing himself as hard as he could, Thairon watched the dead skin cells and dirt go down the drain.
Once he was properly washed, he wrapped the bathrobe around himself, complaining. At least he didn't have to dry his hair.
Throwing on whatever clean clothing he had left, Thairon stopped at the grumbling of his stomach.
"Nax, tell the restaurant to send in food. As much as they can send."
"Placing orders for a well balanced lunch."
Thairon grimaced. His Neural Architecture Extension was overdue for maintenance, as was the lab.
He had time until the food arrived.
—
The fabricator had been broken for a while due to overuse. Non-stop working for weeks had cascaded into blown fuses, fried processors, and molten laser lenses. The remaining maintenance bots had worked to the point of breakdown, and he had to do everything himself.
Most of the replacement parts were in stock, except for the crystalline processors. The sentum molecular foundry was in good condition, but without the necessary processing power, it would not be functional.
Taking the excavator drones apart, he removed the processors. Finding a consolidator, he placed a dozen of them in the available slots. The insulated transparent panel slid over the processors, and the electromagnetic-balanced coils were powered.
Working in a predetermined pattern, the nanometric electrical arcs created a system unifying several different processors into a single, superior one.
Connecting the workaround to the foundry, he booted the system. It was slow since the consolidated processors could not match the power of a Pentium processor.
The system came to life with glitching holographic screens.
His thin fingers glided over the keyboard, and a force field snapped into existence. The vents vacuumed the air out, and six pencil-sized molecular forgers fired their particle beams.
The timer read a little over eight hours until the purple crystal processor would be built molecule by molecule.
It was an expensive project, both in time and resources, but a single sentum processor was enough to make Nax the most advanced artificial intelligence on the planet.
If he wanted, conquering the world by hacking the digital network would only take an hour.
The elevator arrived with a ding through the intercom, and he went to take his order.
—
Clearing the closest table, he gorged himself on the food. It felt even better now that he did not feel like death warmed over.
His teeth, freshly grown back days ago, tore into the Kenzu steak. His mouth was overwhelmed with the juices now that he could taste properly.
Words couldn't express just how being able to eat felt at that moment.
Over the course of two hours, he savored every bite and every sip.
A holo-screen popped next to him, showing an incoming call. For months, Nax has been imitating him to communicate with his brothers. It was time to face the music.
The blue screen gave way to a rather handsome face, with spiky brown hair, cerulean green eyes, and a scowl.
"I knew it; I knew there was something wrong," his brother shouted.
"Nothing I couldn't handle in the end," he said, swallowing the morsel in his mouth.
Kael scrunched his face. "You look like a skeleton trying to pass as a human with fake skin."
"Okay, you are just exaggerating now," he drawled.
"No, I am not. I'll be there in a couple of days; don't go anywhere," Kael said, pointing a finger at him.
"Don't," he shook his head, "I need to clean up and repair the lab. I'll come see you two soon."
"Uh-huh, I don't think so. You've been dodging us for a year. I won't let you do it again," the younger brother insisted.
He took a long sip from the bottle of water and sloshed it in his mouth.
"Go somewhere private," he said, getting up. He took one of the containers, putting some food inside.
Seeing Kael look at him with a raised eyebrow, he just sighed, "Just do it."
Cursing under his breath, his little brother left the restroom of the beach cafe, walking to his office.
"What now?" Kael asked, waiting.
He ended the call after the space distorter locked on the exact coordinates, and Thairon was gone in a flash.
Kael stared at the dark screen for a second. "Did he just?"
"Yes, I did," a voice called behind him.
"What the?!" Kael screamed, accidentally throwing his phone up. Thairon, fortunately, caught it without even looking.
"Before you ask, it's teleportation," he said, handing the phone back. His brother took it slowly, eyes wide and glued on him.
"You discovered…" Kael began to scream again, but it turned to an unintelligible muffle as a sandwich was shoved in his mouth.
"Don't announce it to the whole world. I already had to use it in the open more than I am comfortable with," he warned.
Kael bit down, quickly chewing and swallowing the sandwich.
"You discovered teleportation?!" he hissed this time, eyes flickering around. This was too big for his little office.
"Yes," he replied with a flat tone, biting into a fruit tart.
Kael raised his hands, mouth open in a silent scream, before he dropped his hands. "Why the heck didn't you tell us?"
"Because I need to perfect it. You guys can use it after that," he replied.
"Oh, okay," his brother scowled, gathering him in a hug. Thairon patted him on the back.
Kael let him go, one hand on his shoulder, and tilted his head. "Are you taller, or am I seeing things?"
Now that he said it, Thairon was looking down on his brother, rather than up. "Huh, guess I am," he said.
His eyes drifted down, and he grinned.
"Shorty," he said. Kael's lips thinned in return.
"Bro, what the heck happened to you?"
"Really long story. I'll tell you once I stop the lab from going up in flames."
"Alright, but if you ditch us again, I am camping outside your place until you come out."
"Just focus on your exams," he said, ruffling his brother's spiky hair.
—
In four hours, he managed to fix twenty maintenance bots, cannibalizing several in the process.
It was a personal record, and he could have done more, but the constant hunger he felt had to be sated.
"Alright, group one, cleaning duty. Take out the trash, sweep the floor, and replace my bed with a new one," he ordered. Five of the bots, roughly human-shaped with rectangular heads, moved as one, feet clanking on the metal floor as a choir.
Cleaning that gunk wasn't worth the trouble.
He turned to the second group. "Group two, you have the kitchen. Restock everything, and watch out for the mold in the fridge."
Five more bots were gone, three heading to the elevator for shopping and two to the kitchen.
"Group three, maintenance duty. Fix whatever you can with the materials we have, report, and leave the rest for later," he called out.
The rest of the bots dispersed across the lab, picking up the maintenance tools. Until the sentum processor was ready, he was free to take a nap.
—
The alarm woke him up five minutes before the foundry order was complete. He freshened up just in time to hear the bell.
The vents pumped the air back, and he shut down the force field. Using a silicon-covered tweezer, he took the small square crystal out carefully; it was barely the size of a knuckle.
Decoupling the consolidator from the socket, he put the new processors in and activated the coolant flood. Blue, nonconductive liquid covered the purple crystal, and the fabricator came to life.
"Damage report."
A holographic screen appeared in front of his face, showing quite the list. The fusion reactor's magnetic field had to be recalibrated, and its coolant system flushed.
The Neural Core's sentum processors had to be placed back since he had taken half of them for other projects, and the remaining three were previous models. The workload of managing the wealthiest company on the planet, the consumer goods production facilities, his ghost satellite network, and keeping the reactor stable was slowly grinding down the core.
Some of his previous experiments had to be disposed of, and the disassembler was out of order.
The list went on like that.
Six sentum processors would take thirty minutes. In the meantime, he could recalibrate the magnetic field.
—
The elevator needed service too, because it took two minutes to go down five floors. The door opened, and he could feel the difference in temperature. Approaching the console overlooking the fusion core, he put his palm over the interface. It was faster than the phase-shifted subspace relay and more secure.
His eyes widened as the flow of information to his brain was different. Smoother, the data flow did not have to be bottlenecked to prevent a sensory overload.
He could see everything now.
Recalibrating the magnetic field, which would usually require Nax to step in to save hours of work, was child's play.
Some of the coils needed replacements, though they weren't urgent.
"Core stabilized at eighty-eight percent. Awaiting coolant replacement," the fusion core interface, a distinct female voice, informed him.
The coolant was already overdue a change by several months, but he would have to get the cryofluid synthesizer working first. Modifying it as a non-stop cooling system for the molecular stasis device that would keep his body from degrading while using a bio-electricity converter to supply the necessary energy to his body was a desperate measure.
And the synthesizer was overloaded due to feedback, causing an explosion that turned the third floor into an ice cave.
—
Picking up the finished processors, he made his way to the neural core.
A dense metal cube half his size, this version of Nax was just a stepping stone to something greater. Something that he was working on ever since his first conception.
Breaching the force field, the scans of the photonic lattice conduits showed disintegrations in several parts. Seven of the ten conduits would need replacing at least.
Running his hand over the hardened transparent light, he put another order into the fabricator.
The empty processor slots opened with a mental command, and he put the new processors in. The system diagnostics showed green across the board, allowing him to replace the older models.
"Personality matrix engaged," the deep, baritone voice of Nax turned to a lively, upbeat tone.
"How are you feeling?" he asked. For all that the Nax was modeled after him, his matrix had evolved into a wildly different person.
"Like I was asleep for a couple of decades. Damn, it's good to be back," the AI replied.
"We have a lot to do. Take over the fabricator; let's start," he ordered, turning around.
"Aye aye."
—
The bots used a lever to force the frozen door open. Stepping inside, he shuddered, even though the personal force field made sure he did not feel the freezing temperatures.
He whistled. The ice was so thick he could not see the floor.
"Alright boys, melt the ice and get those pumps working." He took one of the chemical sprayers, walking in first.
Pulling the trigger of the pressure gun, he sprayed the solution on the floor, and the ice quickly melted. He created a path inside, and the bots spread off to cover more ground.
The floor was simple to clean compared to the ceiling. He would have to be careful to not get crushed under the ice.
The pumps turned on automatically, following behind. The synthesizer itself was frozen solid, and the ice over it was so dense he had to dump the entire tank over it.
It was entirely useless. The internal parts were specifically made to expand and contract with the change in heat, but it had frozen so fast, the material had shattered like glass.
He would need a new one.
Defrosting the entire floor took three hours, and he would have to rebuild almost everything from scratch. Even the metal panels needed replacing, but the synthesizer took priority. He had to replace the reactor coolant as soon as possible.
The panels were modular for ease of access, and he got the electricity back after replacing the fuse box and the wiring. Panels were eroded, but there were plenty of them in storage.
The water purifier for the synthesizer was the first part to be replaced. Without clean water, he could not make coolant.
The thermally insulated tubes were replaced, as fabricating them was relatively quick. While he secured the new tubes to carry the coolant in place, the fabricator was already working on the purifier.
He also had to fix both water and chemical pipes that were cracked due to the ice. The tanks were built deep behind the walls and shut down automatically in case of an emergency. It had saved the entire floor from turning into a deathtrap.
With both issues solved, he installed the freshly built purifier while the fabricator was already working on the synthesizer itself.
Between the constant stream of bots carrying the wrecked parts out and bringing the newly fabricated ones in, he continued to work, only stopping for short snack breaks.
The synthesizer, a massive, orb-shaped device meant to mix all those chemicals in a perfect ratio, had to be assembled piece by piece and required hover lifts brought inside.
Screwing, fusing, and otherwise connecting the parts, he had the device ready sooner than expected.
"Not to burst your bubble, but are you alright?" Nax called, appearing next to him as a square hologram with a question mark.
"Yeah, why?" he asked, conducting the final checkups on the synthesizer.
"You've been working for twenty hours, nonstop, with no sign of fatigue. I didn't want to disturb you, and your vitals are within expected ranges, but you might want to rest for a bit," his neural extension advised.
Thairon stopped, his brows creased. "Twenty hours? I don't feel tired."
"In hindsight, you probably should have had the new genetic modifications tested before moving around," Nax complained.
"You know what? Handle the synthesizer, and I'll go to sleep. We can look at the full picture tomorrow," he said, heading to the elevator.
He had done enough for the day.
"Got it, good night."
Chapter 3 - Reborn
New
Samael61
I trust you know where the happy button is?
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"Do I look taller, or is it just me?" Thairon asked. He was inspecting himself before a mirror. He was exactly one meter seventy-five centimeters in the official records, the shortest in his family of twelve.
Now he was two meters tall, and every part of his body had grown to fit the mold.
"All that extra food had to go somewhere," Nax mentioned, appearing next to him in his usual square form.
Checking the nanobot hive revealed the reason behind the sudden growth spurt. "The health precepts. Rather than let it turn to fat, they made me taller."
The hive was programmed to keep him alive and well, with the protocols for every possible scenario embedded in it. He was never a voracious eater, but the health precepts were to use the excess nutrients to repair his body.
Without anything to repair, the nanobots instead activated the second part concerning bodily improvements. An unmodified body would not be able to handle these improvements in eight hours.
The shock of it would be fatal to anyone.
Now, the hive considered the new state of his body and implemented the improvements on a small scale as a test. Once successful, Nax had then ordered it to give him a full-body remake.
He didn't mind it, but the neural extensions would have to be educated on the concept of permission.
"Seems right. You know, consume more protein, and we can give you the physique of an Adonis." The square form grew muscled arms and legs in addition to a six-pack as one of the square eyes winked at him.
"Later," he muttered. Combing his hair was the least of his worries, but it had grown back to his neck in eight hours. The chocolate brown color hadn't settled in yet, resulting in an appearance far older than he was.
Selling that alone would be worth a fortune.
"I actually like the look of it," Thairon said.
"White? Going for that wise old man look, are we?" Now, the square form grew a balding head, a long mustache, and a beard. There was also a cane.
"No. I was thinking more like a bright silver," he replied. He waved his hand for the holographic projector. It turned his head to the color he had imagined.
It looked especially fitting with his gray eyes.
"Genetic modification for silver hair is possible if you want to spend days in the tank," Nax said.
One would think his creator had enough of lying helplessly in the tank.
"We can find a way to decrease the length of the process. For now, let's put this body to the test," he grinned.
His physical condition was always ordinary, but the modifications changed things.
—
"Test 1: speed."
One of the floors was a dedicated, fully fledged gym that he did not have the time for. His brothers, whenever they visited, made use of it, which was the reason he had it built in the first place.
Today, it would be useful to him as well.
Walking onto the treadmill, he started with a light jog and slowly sped up. Nax announced his speed at certain intervals.
Ten kilometers per hour. Fifteen, twenty, twenty-five.
"Heartbeat slightly elevated, vitals below the usual range for the current speed."
He didn't feel strained at all and kept pushing himself.
Thirty, thirty-five, forty, forty-five.
"Fifty kilometers per hour. Heart rate at seventy BPMs."
"I can do more," he thought. His legs blurred, breaking the speeds of what even the most successful athletes were capable of.
Fifty-five, sixty, sixty-five, seventy.
"Seventy-three kilometers per hour top speed, heart rate at ninety BPMs."
"Keep running; let's see how long you can last."
He continued to run. The genetic modifications had increased the ceiling of his physical limitations. It made him superhuman but still a human.
"Ten minutes at seventy-three kilometers per hour, heart rate still at ninety BPMs," Nax announced. He started to slow down gradually. Done with the run, he took a deep breath.
No burning lungs or legs, no noticeable increase in body temperature, and he didn't even sweat.
"The energy production and delivery processes of your body had to be sped up by a factor of twenty to accommodate your brand-new consciousness. In addition, muscle density increased three hundred percent due to the new, shall we say, durability the modifications gave you," Nax explained, projecting the charts of his body.
"A limitless energy source for the nanobots to work with," he grinned. His mind was half addled due to the neural inhibitors to reduce the constant pain, and he might have rushed with the modifications.
But it had worked beyond what he expected.
"All those modifications I tested on the flash-grown clones. This temporal loop can solve the energy problem," he said. The result of the modifications, which some would describe as superpowers, appeared on a separate screen.
"Yes, but the loop itself creates a steady amount of chronon radiation. In high enough amounts, it will lead to reality-shattering problems."
Another screen flashed, showing the steady amount of radiation from the loop gathering in his cells. It would take months for it to be an issue.
"A feedback mechanism, then. A DNA strain specifically created to absorb and use the chronon radiation as more energy," he theorized. That would not only be getting rid of the harmful byproduct but also increasing the energy his cells were producing.
"I'll start the simulations."
"Meanwhile, let's continue with the tests."
The maintenance bots had already prepared a barbell for him. Starting with fifty kilos, he lifted everything up to the two hundred and fifty mark without a strain. He managed up to three hundred and fifty kilos.
His limit for now.
The final test was to see how much this invulnerability extended. Cellular samples were exposed to lethal doses of radiation, heat, toxic gases, and blunt, sharp, and piercing force trauma, with no damage observed.
It was the most exciting part of the unintended side effects of modifications.
The nanobots isolated certain neurons in his biceps to cut all feeling. His arm fell slack, and he laid it on the table. He could easily regrow any missing or damaged body parts.
Not that the chances of anything going wrong were high.
The plasma cutter came down from the ceiling, warming up. A dark force field spread around the table, and the thin plasma line struck his arm with a whine.
For ten solid seconds, he kept it there. The timer reached zero with Nax shutting the plasma cutter down.
There wasn't even a single blemish on his arm.
Deactivating neural inhibitors, he flexed the arm, feeling no discomfort at all. The heat of the plasma was over ten thousand degrees Celsius, and if that did nothing, he didn't have to worry about anything short of a fission bomb going off near his face.
"Oh, this will be fabulous."
—
The fabricator was working; his maintenance bots were up to their previous numbers, and Nax had already seen to the coolant change.
He was free to dabble in genetic modifications, starting with the Neural Bypass Arc. It was a strain that allowed a person to fire bioelectricity through the fingers. It would allow him to connect to anything that worked on electricity.
Machine or organic.
Its speed would surpass the Neural Bridge, but the tests on clones indicated that it would lead to the consciousness being drained into the connected machine or person.
Not ideal.
Now, with a consciousness transformed into pure, limitless energy, the process would become viable.
—
Tens of millions of infection-strain nanobots swarmed the unconscious-looking body in the tank. They had one purpose: to modify every single cell in his body with the altered DNA strain, verify everything had worked perfectly, and cryptographically sign it.
The stasis beam stopped his body from going through any changes. His consciousness, now pure energy, would not be affected by the changes.
And it had the added bonus that he could move his mind with a neural link inside Nax' hardware and continue working.
He would create a synthetic body for any future modifications to take control of.
As there was nothing that required his immediate attention, he went through the news to see what he had missed.
Protests across the Kingdom for an increase in civil rights were raging. His little brother, Skyler, was a part of it too.
Crown Prince Meran, as always, made some empty promises that no one believed. There was only so much his charm would work on the masses.
He certainly should have smashed that fool's face the last time they encountered each other.
Second Prince Leander was preaching patience and dialogue. He knew better, however. Leander wasn't any better than Meran. That little rat was no doubt working to sow discord among the protestors.
King Octavian was in negotiations with Chairman Oda for something top secret. President Gaius Peran was celebrating his daughter's, the so-called Princess, engagement to the son of an industrial tycoon.
If that was a loving relationship, then he was the ingenious mind that built the Lekonem tower.
On brighter news, his net worth had reached seven hundred sixty-eight billion aurels, making him the richest man on the continent.
All without selling a single share in the market.
He considered shutting down the company. His debts were paid, and wealth was just a tool that he needed less each day.
But the legal, economic, and political hurdles were too much. Not because he cared what the people or the government would say, but because he would definitely kill someone for meddling in his business.
What was he supposed to do with all that wealth?
"Nax, distribute the necessary amounts each year to the charities that actually do good work."
"Sure. Better than it sitting around, gathering dust."
There were also civilians and more than one government official that wanted to see the Scroll of Arrival. The high priestess of the temple had told everyone a kind but firm no.
It did not deter the masses or the greedy politicians.
He should visit the priestess to see if he could offer assistance.
As soon as his body was ready.
He stopped reading the news for the sake of his sanity. The lab was in good condition, but there were always improvements to be made. Such as to the energy grid.
A fusion plant was excellent; however, even the most advanced power plant on this planet sometimes failed to meet his demands. He long had the idea of creating a contained singularity for near-limitless energy.
With the temporal loop, he could build a perpetual motion machine. The immense gravity itself would consume the chronon radiation that resulted from the loop.
Clean, free, limitless energy.
—
The process was cut down by two weeks. The new nanobot models that he had designed while occupying the lab's hardware had seen to that.
He was itching to be back in his body.
Even as the cyberspace seemed limitless, he slowly started to feel trapped. Working on the new energy plant, and the new design for the distorter kept his mind off it. The breaks to see what else he could do did not.
—
Noah the First
Coincidentally, the modifications were finished on the first day of the month named after the first man to unify the continent.
The neural link drew his mind back into the body. It felt as if he was being squeezed down into a bottle, yet he never felt more at ease. The stasis beam shut down, the tank drained itself, and he landed on both feet.
A quick shower later, he dressed and stood in front of the mirror to appraise himself again. His hair needed a trim, but otherwise, he looked excellent.
"You should cover your face," his neural extension suggested. A maintenance bot brought a mask, a leftover from the New Year party two years ago.
The mask of a mudman.
Brown, with a square open mouth and a grimacing expression, Thairon took a deep breath to not lash out.
"Why is that?" he narrowed his eyes. Nax was getting too cheeky these days.
Two skimpy girls in bikinis were projected, draping over him, making cooing sounds. "The girls are going to jump on you to have your babies."
"Ha, ha. How amusing," he drawled, dismissing the projections. Nax definitely needed a tuning. Or a punishment; either would work.
"I am not joking. You look like a prince straight out of a fairy tale," and now, a plate armor was projected over him.
"Whatever," he waved his hand, cutting the AI's connection to the holoprojector. Nax had enough fun for a while.
"You should head to the temple first. I am catching chatter of a forced liberation of the scroll. It seems you caused more trouble for the high priestess rather than making her dreams come true."
He agreed, but the Space Distorter needed an overhaul. The gravity generator for the shaped gravitational space-time field that altered the metric tensor was fried.
The fabricator was already working on the new, improved design for a generator that would create a more precise field for moving to the exact location he wanted.
—
The Union of the Sun
The Temple of the Gates
He teleported his half-eaten sandwich first. When the satellites showed that it did not suffer any damage, he followed it to the alleyway between the buildings across from the temple.
Teleporting to the top of the hill had already created too much exposure. Thankfully, there were no cameras around, and most assumed the robot had merely flown to the temple.
While there were no cameras, the high priestess herself had a phone for emergencies. Sending her a message so the gate guards would allow him in, Thairon pushed through the crowd.
Followers of the God of Crossroads, Ekuna, rekindled by the return of the scrolls, were holding a small ceremony outside.
He ignored the people who were insistent on adding a divine meaning to a scientifically explainable phenomenon.
Flashing the purple crystal to the guard for identification, the man moved aside.
"The high priestess awaits you," the guard said with a small bow.
"My thanks."
Climbing the three hundred steps that led to the temple was enticing, but it was best to take the small elevator on the side.
No need to draw attention.
The doors closed around him, and as the slow ascent began, he had one thought in mind. The elevator could use a replacement.
The view, especially with the sun setting behind the temple, was relaxing. Enough that he leaned back to enjoy it. At the top, a priestess waited to guide him in wordlessly. She seemed hurried, possibly busy due to all the attention the scroll had brought.
Rather than the auxiliary kitchen, he was taken to the living quarters. The High Priestess Yumiko was kneeling on a cushion with two steaming cups of tea.
She looked weary.
"So, it appears you have succeeded in your endeavor," she said, holding a hand out for him to sit down.
Heh.
Now he was two meters tall, and every part of his body had grown to fit the mold.
"All that extra food had to go somewhere," Nax mentioned, appearing next to him in his usual square form.
Checking the nanobot hive revealed the reason behind the sudden growth spurt. "The health precepts. Rather than let it turn to fat, they made me taller."
The hive was programmed to keep him alive and well, with the protocols for every possible scenario embedded in it. He was never a voracious eater, but the health precepts were to use the excess nutrients to repair his body.
Without anything to repair, the nanobots instead activated the second part concerning bodily improvements. An unmodified body would not be able to handle these improvements in eight hours.
The shock of it would be fatal to anyone.
Now, the hive considered the new state of his body and implemented the improvements on a small scale as a test. Once successful, Nax had then ordered it to give him a full-body remake.
He didn't mind it, but the neural extensions would have to be educated on the concept of permission.
"Seems right. You know, consume more protein, and we can give you the physique of an Adonis." The square form grew muscled arms and legs in addition to a six-pack as one of the square eyes winked at him.
"Later," he muttered. Combing his hair was the least of his worries, but it had grown back to his neck in eight hours. The chocolate brown color hadn't settled in yet, resulting in an appearance far older than he was.
Selling that alone would be worth a fortune.
"I actually like the look of it," Thairon said.
"White? Going for that wise old man look, are we?" Now, the square form grew a balding head, a long mustache, and a beard. There was also a cane.
"No. I was thinking more like a bright silver," he replied. He waved his hand for the holographic projector. It turned his head to the color he had imagined.
It looked especially fitting with his gray eyes.
"Genetic modification for silver hair is possible if you want to spend days in the tank," Nax said.
One would think his creator had enough of lying helplessly in the tank.
"We can find a way to decrease the length of the process. For now, let's put this body to the test," he grinned.
His physical condition was always ordinary, but the modifications changed things.
—
"Test 1: speed."
One of the floors was a dedicated, fully fledged gym that he did not have the time for. His brothers, whenever they visited, made use of it, which was the reason he had it built in the first place.
Today, it would be useful to him as well.
Walking onto the treadmill, he started with a light jog and slowly sped up. Nax announced his speed at certain intervals.
Ten kilometers per hour. Fifteen, twenty, twenty-five.
"Heartbeat slightly elevated, vitals below the usual range for the current speed."
He didn't feel strained at all and kept pushing himself.
Thirty, thirty-five, forty, forty-five.
"Fifty kilometers per hour. Heart rate at seventy BPMs."
"I can do more," he thought. His legs blurred, breaking the speeds of what even the most successful athletes were capable of.
Fifty-five, sixty, sixty-five, seventy.
"Seventy-three kilometers per hour top speed, heart rate at ninety BPMs."
"Keep running; let's see how long you can last."
He continued to run. The genetic modifications had increased the ceiling of his physical limitations. It made him superhuman but still a human.
"Ten minutes at seventy-three kilometers per hour, heart rate still at ninety BPMs," Nax announced. He started to slow down gradually. Done with the run, he took a deep breath.
No burning lungs or legs, no noticeable increase in body temperature, and he didn't even sweat.
"The energy production and delivery processes of your body had to be sped up by a factor of twenty to accommodate your brand-new consciousness. In addition, muscle density increased three hundred percent due to the new, shall we say, durability the modifications gave you," Nax explained, projecting the charts of his body.
"A limitless energy source for the nanobots to work with," he grinned. His mind was half addled due to the neural inhibitors to reduce the constant pain, and he might have rushed with the modifications.
But it had worked beyond what he expected.
"All those modifications I tested on the flash-grown clones. This temporal loop can solve the energy problem," he said. The result of the modifications, which some would describe as superpowers, appeared on a separate screen.
"Yes, but the loop itself creates a steady amount of chronon radiation. In high enough amounts, it will lead to reality-shattering problems."
Another screen flashed, showing the steady amount of radiation from the loop gathering in his cells. It would take months for it to be an issue.
"A feedback mechanism, then. A DNA strain specifically created to absorb and use the chronon radiation as more energy," he theorized. That would not only be getting rid of the harmful byproduct but also increasing the energy his cells were producing.
"I'll start the simulations."
"Meanwhile, let's continue with the tests."
The maintenance bots had already prepared a barbell for him. Starting with fifty kilos, he lifted everything up to the two hundred and fifty mark without a strain. He managed up to three hundred and fifty kilos.
His limit for now.
The final test was to see how much this invulnerability extended. Cellular samples were exposed to lethal doses of radiation, heat, toxic gases, and blunt, sharp, and piercing force trauma, with no damage observed.
It was the most exciting part of the unintended side effects of modifications.
The nanobots isolated certain neurons in his biceps to cut all feeling. His arm fell slack, and he laid it on the table. He could easily regrow any missing or damaged body parts.
Not that the chances of anything going wrong were high.
The plasma cutter came down from the ceiling, warming up. A dark force field spread around the table, and the thin plasma line struck his arm with a whine.
For ten solid seconds, he kept it there. The timer reached zero with Nax shutting the plasma cutter down.
There wasn't even a single blemish on his arm.
Deactivating neural inhibitors, he flexed the arm, feeling no discomfort at all. The heat of the plasma was over ten thousand degrees Celsius, and if that did nothing, he didn't have to worry about anything short of a fission bomb going off near his face.
"Oh, this will be fabulous."
—
The fabricator was working; his maintenance bots were up to their previous numbers, and Nax had already seen to the coolant change.
He was free to dabble in genetic modifications, starting with the Neural Bypass Arc. It was a strain that allowed a person to fire bioelectricity through the fingers. It would allow him to connect to anything that worked on electricity.
Machine or organic.
Its speed would surpass the Neural Bridge, but the tests on clones indicated that it would lead to the consciousness being drained into the connected machine or person.
Not ideal.
Now, with a consciousness transformed into pure, limitless energy, the process would become viable.
—
Tens of millions of infection-strain nanobots swarmed the unconscious-looking body in the tank. They had one purpose: to modify every single cell in his body with the altered DNA strain, verify everything had worked perfectly, and cryptographically sign it.
The stasis beam stopped his body from going through any changes. His consciousness, now pure energy, would not be affected by the changes.
And it had the added bonus that he could move his mind with a neural link inside Nax' hardware and continue working.
He would create a synthetic body for any future modifications to take control of.
As there was nothing that required his immediate attention, he went through the news to see what he had missed.
Protests across the Kingdom for an increase in civil rights were raging. His little brother, Skyler, was a part of it too.
Crown Prince Meran, as always, made some empty promises that no one believed. There was only so much his charm would work on the masses.
He certainly should have smashed that fool's face the last time they encountered each other.
Second Prince Leander was preaching patience and dialogue. He knew better, however. Leander wasn't any better than Meran. That little rat was no doubt working to sow discord among the protestors.
King Octavian was in negotiations with Chairman Oda for something top secret. President Gaius Peran was celebrating his daughter's, the so-called Princess, engagement to the son of an industrial tycoon.
If that was a loving relationship, then he was the ingenious mind that built the Lekonem tower.
On brighter news, his net worth had reached seven hundred sixty-eight billion aurels, making him the richest man on the continent.
All without selling a single share in the market.
He considered shutting down the company. His debts were paid, and wealth was just a tool that he needed less each day.
But the legal, economic, and political hurdles were too much. Not because he cared what the people or the government would say, but because he would definitely kill someone for meddling in his business.
What was he supposed to do with all that wealth?
"Nax, distribute the necessary amounts each year to the charities that actually do good work."
"Sure. Better than it sitting around, gathering dust."
There were also civilians and more than one government official that wanted to see the Scroll of Arrival. The high priestess of the temple had told everyone a kind but firm no.
It did not deter the masses or the greedy politicians.
He should visit the priestess to see if he could offer assistance.
As soon as his body was ready.
He stopped reading the news for the sake of his sanity. The lab was in good condition, but there were always improvements to be made. Such as to the energy grid.
A fusion plant was excellent; however, even the most advanced power plant on this planet sometimes failed to meet his demands. He long had the idea of creating a contained singularity for near-limitless energy.
With the temporal loop, he could build a perpetual motion machine. The immense gravity itself would consume the chronon radiation that resulted from the loop.
Clean, free, limitless energy.
—
The process was cut down by two weeks. The new nanobot models that he had designed while occupying the lab's hardware had seen to that.
He was itching to be back in his body.
Even as the cyberspace seemed limitless, he slowly started to feel trapped. Working on the new energy plant, and the new design for the distorter kept his mind off it. The breaks to see what else he could do did not.
—
Noah the First
Coincidentally, the modifications were finished on the first day of the month named after the first man to unify the continent.
The neural link drew his mind back into the body. It felt as if he was being squeezed down into a bottle, yet he never felt more at ease. The stasis beam shut down, the tank drained itself, and he landed on both feet.
A quick shower later, he dressed and stood in front of the mirror to appraise himself again. His hair needed a trim, but otherwise, he looked excellent.
"You should cover your face," his neural extension suggested. A maintenance bot brought a mask, a leftover from the New Year party two years ago.
The mask of a mudman.
Brown, with a square open mouth and a grimacing expression, Thairon took a deep breath to not lash out.
"Why is that?" he narrowed his eyes. Nax was getting too cheeky these days.
Two skimpy girls in bikinis were projected, draping over him, making cooing sounds. "The girls are going to jump on you to have your babies."
"Ha, ha. How amusing," he drawled, dismissing the projections. Nax definitely needed a tuning. Or a punishment; either would work.
"I am not joking. You look like a prince straight out of a fairy tale," and now, a plate armor was projected over him.
"Whatever," he waved his hand, cutting the AI's connection to the holoprojector. Nax had enough fun for a while.
"You should head to the temple first. I am catching chatter of a forced liberation of the scroll. It seems you caused more trouble for the high priestess rather than making her dreams come true."
He agreed, but the Space Distorter needed an overhaul. The gravity generator for the shaped gravitational space-time field that altered the metric tensor was fried.
The fabricator was already working on the new, improved design for a generator that would create a more precise field for moving to the exact location he wanted.
—
The Union of the Sun
The Temple of the Gates
He teleported his half-eaten sandwich first. When the satellites showed that it did not suffer any damage, he followed it to the alleyway between the buildings across from the temple.
Teleporting to the top of the hill had already created too much exposure. Thankfully, there were no cameras around, and most assumed the robot had merely flown to the temple.
While there were no cameras, the high priestess herself had a phone for emergencies. Sending her a message so the gate guards would allow him in, Thairon pushed through the crowd.
Followers of the God of Crossroads, Ekuna, rekindled by the return of the scrolls, were holding a small ceremony outside.
He ignored the people who were insistent on adding a divine meaning to a scientifically explainable phenomenon.
Flashing the purple crystal to the guard for identification, the man moved aside.
"The high priestess awaits you," the guard said with a small bow.
"My thanks."
Climbing the three hundred steps that led to the temple was enticing, but it was best to take the small elevator on the side.
No need to draw attention.
The doors closed around him, and as the slow ascent began, he had one thought in mind. The elevator could use a replacement.
The view, especially with the sun setting behind the temple, was relaxing. Enough that he leaned back to enjoy it. At the top, a priestess waited to guide him in wordlessly. She seemed hurried, possibly busy due to all the attention the scroll had brought.
Rather than the auxiliary kitchen, he was taken to the living quarters. The High Priestess Yumiko was kneeling on a cushion with two steaming cups of tea.
She looked weary.
"So, it appears you have succeeded in your endeavor," she said, holding a hand out for him to sit down.
Heh.
Chapter 4 - Treasure Hunt
New
Samael61
I trust you know where the happy button is?
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The Union of the Sun
The Temple of the Gates
"I couldn't have done it without your assistance. Thank you once again," he said. She was the only one who knew the language the scroll was written in. Tenra wasn't relevant enough that anyone would want to learn it, except to translate ancient texts. Since the texts other than the Scroll of Arrival did not mean much in the way of history, only the High Priestess of the Temple of the Gates learned it as a part of her duties.
"After you left, I had wondered. If you were in such a horrible condition, why come here yourself?" she asked, pouring him a cup of vibrant green tea.
"You wouldn't have agreed to translate the scroll otherwise," he answered. Watching something through a screen did not give the impression seeing it right in front of you did.
She raised a single eyebrow. "Manipulating my willingness to help people?"
"More like showing you that I actually needed help.
"It is a good thing you returned," she admitted. "I can't believe I am saying this, but it was better when the scroll was lost. A part of our history or not, having it returned is only going to cause more trouble for everyone. I must insist that you take it back."
Now it was his turn to raise an eyebrow for a different reason. He hadn't been in a state to consider the consequences of the revelation of the scroll. If she thought having the scroll wasn't worth the trouble, he would take it back.
"As you wish. Is there any other way I can pay you back?" he asked. She was one of the rare people he respected. Honest, moral, and quick to adapt. Her beliefs in helping those in need were not mere words either.
She actually had coordinated several rescue and aid missions to disaster areas struck by hazardous material and dangerous creatures through the dimensional tears.
Yumiko was what she appeared to be without any duplicity.
"The temple accepts donations for charity."
"That is easy to arrange, but I don't think any amount of wealth could compare to the scroll," he said, sending thirty billion aurels to the temple's charity accounts.
"If you are so adept at finding long-lost relics, perhaps you can help us with something else." She left the table, returning with a box containing several papers.
The Scroll of Arrival was lost during the Great Betrayal, but it wasn't the only one. The Arlex, the necklace of Kenlan, a man known for traveling the land to offer help to those in need, was stolen in the chaos that followed.
Kenlan was a selfless figure who had fought against corruption, protected the weak, and spread the goodwill of the temple across the continent.
Arlex was seen as a symbol of his selflessness, a cheap necklace of copper gifted to him by his village.
Its theft was a strange affair. The one believed to be responsible for it, Leten the Fool, had left a clue behind, but the temple never had the resources to follow it. No one wanted to chase after a necklace without a reward in return.
"The latter half is written in Tenra, but I have no idea what the first part means. Reach the edge of the world and find what is hidden inside mankind."
Thairon scanned the letters, cross-referencing them to the languages in his database. Each paper contained the same writing. A prudent measure to keep the clue intact.
It wasn't anything among the hundreds of languages that had arrived with people through the breaks in dimensional barriers.
But his databases were extensive.
It was one of the unnamed languages that a small village of fifty people used to speak before the Great Betrayal. Noah Reyes had all languages across the empire recorded, but finding them could be quite difficult.
For anyone else.
"It says, 'Reach the edge of the world and find what is hidden inside mankind," he explained. There were several locations where people who had arrived in this world described it as the end of it. The one in the Union was the Eastern Cliffs.
Rocky, desolate, and cold, it was a lifeless place.
"The edge of the world? The Eastern Cliffs," she echoed what he was thinking.
"Yes. It appears a trip there is in order," he said. He rose from the cushion, stretching.
She shook her head. "I can't ask you that. Your help is more than enough."
It would no doubt be dangerous, and she couldn't ask that of anyone.
"Honestly, I have nothing to do for now, and I want to move around now that I can do so again," he replied. Treasure hunts like these were fun because of their unexpected nature.
"Excuse me, my lady." A priestess entered the room without knocking. She walked with a hurry in her steps and whispered something to Yumiko.
She grimaced and whispered back. The priestess nodded, leaving just as quickly as she had come.
"I might need a translator, though, in case he did not just stash the necklace somewhere around the cliffs." Tenran was not kept in any digital database since only the Temple of the Gates had any need for it.
"My daughter, Tomoe, knows Tenran enough to help you," she said.
Thairon waved his hand. "It is unnecessary. I can just send you a photo."
He didn't want to drag anyone else with him.
"I have an important guest arriving. I won't be able to assist you. It is best if you take Tomoe with you," she implored.
Thairon shrugged. If her guest was someone she didn't want her daughter to see, he saw no reason to deny it.
A young woman around his age entered the room. She was a carbon copy of her mother, with the same eyes, face, and hair, though it was short, coming down to her neck.
"Mom, what is happening?" She glanced at him, and her shoulders straightened.
"I wasn't aware we had a guest," she said, giving him a nod. The worry in her voice gave way to a flat tone.
"This is …" Yumiko started to introduce him, realizing she had never asked for a name.
"Thairon," he said.
"He was able to translate the first half of the clue left behind by Leten. I need you to go with him to translate any more clues written in Tenra," she said to her daughter.
A quick glance showed that she was military, an unusual occupation for the daughter of a high priestess. She had arrived at the temple yesterday on a one-week leave.
Mother and daughter shared a glance before Tomoe agreed.
"Quick, follow me," she said, pulling both of them along.
—
Yumiko took them to the back of the temple, where a less-used path would lead them down. She handed him the container of the scroll, along with provisions and clothing for her daughter.
"What the heck is going on?" she muttered.
She was just lazing around in her room when the whole temple became abuzz with activity. Before she even could ask what was happening, she found herself out here.
"Your mother is having a guest. From the way she wanted you out of the temple, it must be someone you don't like," he explained.
Checking the security cams, he saw who the guest was.
Tomoe narrowed her eyes. "Now it makes sense. That bastard is here again."
He raised an eyebrow. To call the Chairman of the Union, her supreme commander, a bastard went beyond mere dislike of the man's handling of the military.
It almost seemed personal, something that he wouldn't pry into.
"Great, now we have to walk all the way down," she groaned.
Either she didn't see any harm in being so open due to her mother's trust in him, or she didn't care.
"Where exactly did the clue point?" she asked.
"The Eastern Cliffs."
She furrowed her brows. "We can't go there in a day. Not without a plane anyway."
It was simple to see that was the exact reason Yumiko sent Tomoe with her. They wouldn't be able to reach the cliffs in a meaningful timeframe under normal circumstances. Her daughter would be out of the temple without spending her vacation running after a missing artifact.
Unfortunately for both, he did not fit the mold of the normal circumstances.
"Can you hold this for a second?" He handed her a wristband. She took it, inspecting the silver metallic band, and opened her mouth.
In that moment, both of them disappeared.
—
The Eastern Cliffs
"What for?" she asked.
Her reflexes were quite fast. She realized the change in location and, instinctively, reached for her sidearm. Halfway to her hip, she remembered that she didn't have her pistol. She instead took a couple of steps back, throwing the wristband down.
All within three point twelve seconds.
"What the heck? What did you do?" She took a hostile stance. Her turquoise hoodie and pants weren't exactly fit for fighting, but she compensated for it.
"I teleported us here," he explained, taking the band from where it lay on the ground.
When you could travel to anywhere within the planet instantly, taking the plane sounded like torture. He could have retrieved it later, but today was the only spare time he had.
His work was on hold long enough, and he would meet his brothers at the beach on Aurum City.
"Again, what?" Seeing that he didn't mean harm, her stance relaxed, though she was still on guard.
"Do you really want to spend days chasing after this necklace?" he asked.
He most certainly did not.
She narrowed her eyes. "I don't care about that. I care about the teleporting part."
"I am a genius of unparalleled intellect, and I have a machine that can teleport me anywhere across the planet."
Tomoe looked at him as if he were an idiot. "Why would a genius like you even reveal this to a person you just met?"
She would be right, except for one thing.
"Who is going to believe you except your mother?" he asked.
The idea of a man who appeared out of nowhere with the technology to teleport himself anywhere he wanted sounded like the plot of a sci-fi TV show. No one except her mother would take Tomoe seriously.
She tilted her head, looking down for a second. "Huh, good point."
Even if she was a patriot who would inform her superiors of this discovery, they would either reprimand her for lying or retire her on grounds of deteriorating mental health.
She would never tell this to anyone and risk a war over a groundbreaking technology. It wouldn't be the first time either.
"You are quick to adapt, good. Now, what does that fool mean by finding what is hidden inside mankind?" he asked.
"I think he means the anamorphic human sculpture," she said, pointing straight ahead.
"What?" he asked. He walked next to her, and looking from a certain angle, some of the sharp, angular rocks jutting out of the ground created a rough sculpture of a human.
Thairon took a deep breath to calm his nerves. "I don't get it. Why not just destroy the necklace rather than hide it for a treasure hunt?"
"Kenlan was selfless. He would never agree with anyone chasing after his necklace, which could be fatal. Leten hid it so people would try to recover the Arlex and die in the process. The ultimate insult to his nemesis," she explained the history.
Leten was jealous of the attention Kenlan had received and made it everyone else's problem. He had never tried to kill the folk hero, but his attempts to make Kenlan look like a villain always backfired.
Hence, the Fool.
There was even a cartoon inspired by Kenlan's tales.
"If he wasn't already dead…" he muttered.
Careful to not fall down the narrow cliff top, they approached the chest of the human sculpture. It was roughly carved, and the stones were moved here.
Leten had gone to great lengths in his spitefulness.
"What now?"
"There is something inside it," he said. His scans showed that there was a small cavity inside the chest section, containing a small capsule surrounded by pebbles.
Geten had dropped the next clue inside and sealed the opening.
"We should hurry; this cliff doesn't look stable."
Squeezing his hand, he punched through solid stone. The noise and the act rattled Tomoe, but she didn't react beyond raising her guard.
Pulling his hand back, he took the capsule and walked away from the edge of the cliff. Just as they had left, the section with the chest of the statue went down.
"I hate that guy," Tomoe muttered. A couple more seconds, and they'd be dead.
"It's in Tenran, here."
"Find the entrance at the skirt of the womb of fire? I have no idea what that means," she admitted. The words were easy to translate, but there was no context to decipher the meaning behind them.
"Womb of Fire volcano in Heketh, and the skirt means base of a mountain in Re-jen."
"Leten must have picked those words while trailing Kenlan."
"Possible."
She pinched the bridge of her nose. "The only volcano close to the Union is Mount Masu, and it is filled with mud men."
"What?" That was news to him. He didn't really have a reason to snoop through military channels; that was more Nax' hobby.
"She is right. The Union tried to weaponize them, but it backfired. The entire island is one giant mud pit," his faithful assistant supplied.
Mud men were creatures of living mud. Tall, dark, and impervious to anything except explosives, the higher-dimensional fungi that controlled nutrient-rich mud through psychic waves were dangerous.
The soil of a volcano would be an ideal breeding ground for them.
"Right, how much X-57 do we have?" he asked the AI. In one of the lower levels of his laboratory, he had contingencies against the previously encountered specimens that presented a danger to the world.
Exo-organism Countermeasure Number 57 was created against the mud men. They were canisters filled with the dust of a synthetic radioactive material that blocked psychic waves. Without it, the fungi could not feed and died within minutes.
It was extremely useful against these pests.
"Enough. Drop vectors for maximum dispersal coverage were calculated. Give the order, and I'll clear the island."
"Do it."
The conversation had taken less than a second. He turned to Tomoe, who was no doubt cursing the brass of the Union Military in her head.
"The mud men won't be a problem anymore," he said. Cleaning up the mess of a country was not something he would ever do unless it presented a direct threat.
Too bad he could not bill the Union a couple billion aurel for the job without causing trouble for himself.
"More of your superior intellect at play?" she asked, a corner of her lips lifting.
"Again, who would believe you?"
The Temple of the Gates
"I couldn't have done it without your assistance. Thank you once again," he said. She was the only one who knew the language the scroll was written in. Tenra wasn't relevant enough that anyone would want to learn it, except to translate ancient texts. Since the texts other than the Scroll of Arrival did not mean much in the way of history, only the High Priestess of the Temple of the Gates learned it as a part of her duties.
"After you left, I had wondered. If you were in such a horrible condition, why come here yourself?" she asked, pouring him a cup of vibrant green tea.
"You wouldn't have agreed to translate the scroll otherwise," he answered. Watching something through a screen did not give the impression seeing it right in front of you did.
She raised a single eyebrow. "Manipulating my willingness to help people?"
"More like showing you that I actually needed help.
"It is a good thing you returned," she admitted. "I can't believe I am saying this, but it was better when the scroll was lost. A part of our history or not, having it returned is only going to cause more trouble for everyone. I must insist that you take it back."
Now it was his turn to raise an eyebrow for a different reason. He hadn't been in a state to consider the consequences of the revelation of the scroll. If she thought having the scroll wasn't worth the trouble, he would take it back.
"As you wish. Is there any other way I can pay you back?" he asked. She was one of the rare people he respected. Honest, moral, and quick to adapt. Her beliefs in helping those in need were not mere words either.
She actually had coordinated several rescue and aid missions to disaster areas struck by hazardous material and dangerous creatures through the dimensional tears.
Yumiko was what she appeared to be without any duplicity.
"The temple accepts donations for charity."
"That is easy to arrange, but I don't think any amount of wealth could compare to the scroll," he said, sending thirty billion aurels to the temple's charity accounts.
"If you are so adept at finding long-lost relics, perhaps you can help us with something else." She left the table, returning with a box containing several papers.
The Scroll of Arrival was lost during the Great Betrayal, but it wasn't the only one. The Arlex, the necklace of Kenlan, a man known for traveling the land to offer help to those in need, was stolen in the chaos that followed.
Kenlan was a selfless figure who had fought against corruption, protected the weak, and spread the goodwill of the temple across the continent.
Arlex was seen as a symbol of his selflessness, a cheap necklace of copper gifted to him by his village.
Its theft was a strange affair. The one believed to be responsible for it, Leten the Fool, had left a clue behind, but the temple never had the resources to follow it. No one wanted to chase after a necklace without a reward in return.
"The latter half is written in Tenra, but I have no idea what the first part means. Reach the edge of the world and find what is hidden inside mankind."
Thairon scanned the letters, cross-referencing them to the languages in his database. Each paper contained the same writing. A prudent measure to keep the clue intact.
It wasn't anything among the hundreds of languages that had arrived with people through the breaks in dimensional barriers.
But his databases were extensive.
It was one of the unnamed languages that a small village of fifty people used to speak before the Great Betrayal. Noah Reyes had all languages across the empire recorded, but finding them could be quite difficult.
For anyone else.
"It says, 'Reach the edge of the world and find what is hidden inside mankind," he explained. There were several locations where people who had arrived in this world described it as the end of it. The one in the Union was the Eastern Cliffs.
Rocky, desolate, and cold, it was a lifeless place.
"The edge of the world? The Eastern Cliffs," she echoed what he was thinking.
"Yes. It appears a trip there is in order," he said. He rose from the cushion, stretching.
She shook her head. "I can't ask you that. Your help is more than enough."
It would no doubt be dangerous, and she couldn't ask that of anyone.
"Honestly, I have nothing to do for now, and I want to move around now that I can do so again," he replied. Treasure hunts like these were fun because of their unexpected nature.
"Excuse me, my lady." A priestess entered the room without knocking. She walked with a hurry in her steps and whispered something to Yumiko.
She grimaced and whispered back. The priestess nodded, leaving just as quickly as she had come.
"I might need a translator, though, in case he did not just stash the necklace somewhere around the cliffs." Tenran was not kept in any digital database since only the Temple of the Gates had any need for it.
"My daughter, Tomoe, knows Tenran enough to help you," she said.
Thairon waved his hand. "It is unnecessary. I can just send you a photo."
He didn't want to drag anyone else with him.
"I have an important guest arriving. I won't be able to assist you. It is best if you take Tomoe with you," she implored.
Thairon shrugged. If her guest was someone she didn't want her daughter to see, he saw no reason to deny it.
A young woman around his age entered the room. She was a carbon copy of her mother, with the same eyes, face, and hair, though it was short, coming down to her neck.
"Mom, what is happening?" She glanced at him, and her shoulders straightened.
"I wasn't aware we had a guest," she said, giving him a nod. The worry in her voice gave way to a flat tone.
"This is …" Yumiko started to introduce him, realizing she had never asked for a name.
"Thairon," he said.
"He was able to translate the first half of the clue left behind by Leten. I need you to go with him to translate any more clues written in Tenra," she said to her daughter.
A quick glance showed that she was military, an unusual occupation for the daughter of a high priestess. She had arrived at the temple yesterday on a one-week leave.
Mother and daughter shared a glance before Tomoe agreed.
"Quick, follow me," she said, pulling both of them along.
—
Yumiko took them to the back of the temple, where a less-used path would lead them down. She handed him the container of the scroll, along with provisions and clothing for her daughter.
"What the heck is going on?" she muttered.
She was just lazing around in her room when the whole temple became abuzz with activity. Before she even could ask what was happening, she found herself out here.
"Your mother is having a guest. From the way she wanted you out of the temple, it must be someone you don't like," he explained.
Checking the security cams, he saw who the guest was.
Tomoe narrowed her eyes. "Now it makes sense. That bastard is here again."
He raised an eyebrow. To call the Chairman of the Union, her supreme commander, a bastard went beyond mere dislike of the man's handling of the military.
It almost seemed personal, something that he wouldn't pry into.
"Great, now we have to walk all the way down," she groaned.
Either she didn't see any harm in being so open due to her mother's trust in him, or she didn't care.
"Where exactly did the clue point?" she asked.
"The Eastern Cliffs."
She furrowed her brows. "We can't go there in a day. Not without a plane anyway."
It was simple to see that was the exact reason Yumiko sent Tomoe with her. They wouldn't be able to reach the cliffs in a meaningful timeframe under normal circumstances. Her daughter would be out of the temple without spending her vacation running after a missing artifact.
Unfortunately for both, he did not fit the mold of the normal circumstances.
"Can you hold this for a second?" He handed her a wristband. She took it, inspecting the silver metallic band, and opened her mouth.
In that moment, both of them disappeared.
—
The Eastern Cliffs
"What for?" she asked.
Her reflexes were quite fast. She realized the change in location and, instinctively, reached for her sidearm. Halfway to her hip, she remembered that she didn't have her pistol. She instead took a couple of steps back, throwing the wristband down.
All within three point twelve seconds.
"What the heck? What did you do?" She took a hostile stance. Her turquoise hoodie and pants weren't exactly fit for fighting, but she compensated for it.
"I teleported us here," he explained, taking the band from where it lay on the ground.
When you could travel to anywhere within the planet instantly, taking the plane sounded like torture. He could have retrieved it later, but today was the only spare time he had.
His work was on hold long enough, and he would meet his brothers at the beach on Aurum City.
"Again, what?" Seeing that he didn't mean harm, her stance relaxed, though she was still on guard.
"Do you really want to spend days chasing after this necklace?" he asked.
He most certainly did not.
She narrowed her eyes. "I don't care about that. I care about the teleporting part."
"I am a genius of unparalleled intellect, and I have a machine that can teleport me anywhere across the planet."
Tomoe looked at him as if he were an idiot. "Why would a genius like you even reveal this to a person you just met?"
She would be right, except for one thing.
"Who is going to believe you except your mother?" he asked.
The idea of a man who appeared out of nowhere with the technology to teleport himself anywhere he wanted sounded like the plot of a sci-fi TV show. No one except her mother would take Tomoe seriously.
She tilted her head, looking down for a second. "Huh, good point."
Even if she was a patriot who would inform her superiors of this discovery, they would either reprimand her for lying or retire her on grounds of deteriorating mental health.
She would never tell this to anyone and risk a war over a groundbreaking technology. It wouldn't be the first time either.
"You are quick to adapt, good. Now, what does that fool mean by finding what is hidden inside mankind?" he asked.
"I think he means the anamorphic human sculpture," she said, pointing straight ahead.
"What?" he asked. He walked next to her, and looking from a certain angle, some of the sharp, angular rocks jutting out of the ground created a rough sculpture of a human.
Thairon took a deep breath to calm his nerves. "I don't get it. Why not just destroy the necklace rather than hide it for a treasure hunt?"
"Kenlan was selfless. He would never agree with anyone chasing after his necklace, which could be fatal. Leten hid it so people would try to recover the Arlex and die in the process. The ultimate insult to his nemesis," she explained the history.
Leten was jealous of the attention Kenlan had received and made it everyone else's problem. He had never tried to kill the folk hero, but his attempts to make Kenlan look like a villain always backfired.
Hence, the Fool.
There was even a cartoon inspired by Kenlan's tales.
"If he wasn't already dead…" he muttered.
Careful to not fall down the narrow cliff top, they approached the chest of the human sculpture. It was roughly carved, and the stones were moved here.
Leten had gone to great lengths in his spitefulness.
"What now?"
"There is something inside it," he said. His scans showed that there was a small cavity inside the chest section, containing a small capsule surrounded by pebbles.
Geten had dropped the next clue inside and sealed the opening.
"We should hurry; this cliff doesn't look stable."
Squeezing his hand, he punched through solid stone. The noise and the act rattled Tomoe, but she didn't react beyond raising her guard.
Pulling his hand back, he took the capsule and walked away from the edge of the cliff. Just as they had left, the section with the chest of the statue went down.
"I hate that guy," Tomoe muttered. A couple more seconds, and they'd be dead.
"It's in Tenran, here."
"Find the entrance at the skirt of the womb of fire? I have no idea what that means," she admitted. The words were easy to translate, but there was no context to decipher the meaning behind them.
"Womb of Fire volcano in Heketh, and the skirt means base of a mountain in Re-jen."
"Leten must have picked those words while trailing Kenlan."
"Possible."
She pinched the bridge of her nose. "The only volcano close to the Union is Mount Masu, and it is filled with mud men."
"What?" That was news to him. He didn't really have a reason to snoop through military channels; that was more Nax' hobby.
"She is right. The Union tried to weaponize them, but it backfired. The entire island is one giant mud pit," his faithful assistant supplied.
Mud men were creatures of living mud. Tall, dark, and impervious to anything except explosives, the higher-dimensional fungi that controlled nutrient-rich mud through psychic waves were dangerous.
The soil of a volcano would be an ideal breeding ground for them.
"Right, how much X-57 do we have?" he asked the AI. In one of the lower levels of his laboratory, he had contingencies against the previously encountered specimens that presented a danger to the world.
Exo-organism Countermeasure Number 57 was created against the mud men. They were canisters filled with the dust of a synthetic radioactive material that blocked psychic waves. Without it, the fungi could not feed and died within minutes.
It was extremely useful against these pests.
"Enough. Drop vectors for maximum dispersal coverage were calculated. Give the order, and I'll clear the island."
"Do it."
The conversation had taken less than a second. He turned to Tomoe, who was no doubt cursing the brass of the Union Military in her head.
"The mud men won't be a problem anymore," he said. Cleaning up the mess of a country was not something he would ever do unless it presented a direct threat.
Too bad he could not bill the Union a couple billion aurel for the job without causing trouble for himself.
"More of your superior intellect at play?" she asked, a corner of her lips lifting.
"Again, who would believe you?"
Chapter 5 - First Date
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Samael61
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Mount Masu
"Why go to all this length?" she asked her companion as they walked to the volcano. It had taken around twenty minutes for whatever he did to work, and the island was clear of the mud men.
"Length?" he turned to her, stopping. The scans of the island indicated an entrance hidden by an inconspicuous rock.
"Yes. I mean, you used your teleporter to recover a necklace that means nothing to you," she said.
"It is a matter of relativity," he explained, pushing the rock aside. "What is a great length to you is just a short adventure for me."
She tilted her head, watching him move a boulder that would take a heavy-duty vehicle to remove. "Fair, I suppose." Traversing hundreds of kilometers in the blink of an eye must put things in a different perspective.
"What does it say?" he asked, dusting over the half-faded letters.
She leaned close. "Welcome, the pilgrims who seek Kenlan's necklace."
Thairon took a deep breath. "I hate that guy."
He walked in first in case there was a trap. She followed him, more cautious.
"How did the Union military manage to fill this island with mud men?" he asked. Nax had already brought the relevant files in his vision.
"Asking for military secrets?" she teased. At his blank look, Tomoe shrugged.
"It was an attempt to control them through some top-secret tech. Since I work for the Rupture Intervention Corps, I don't know much."
One of her classmates from the academy had confided in her, going against all military regulation. The Union had almost succeeded in controlling the mud men and considered releasing them on the border for a trial.
Something had caused the control units to fry, and the mudmen had ravaged the military researchers on site. The project was dropped after that.
"You really hate the Chairman, don't you?" She must have, to be able to enter the sole neutral military unit with the harshest standards on the planet.
How amusing that they were based really close to the arrival point without even knowing it.
She said nothing in response.
He didn't pry further. Scanning the area, he found that the path was clear of any toxic fumes. It explained how Leten could have entered here without proper protection.
"You have to be kidding me," she muttered. The tunnel led to an opening with a chasm below. The only way through was a rotting wooden bridge.
"Can you teleport us across?"
"The volcano weakens the connection. I'd rather not risk it." The volcanic lightning and other energized particles caused interference. The risk was low enough that he would take it any other time.
Tomoe rolled her eyes. Of course such a convenient tool would fail in a time like this. "How do we get across?"
Thairon looked at the ground. It was sturdy enough. The distance was just ten meters. Carrying Tomoe bridal style without even giving her time to be surprised, he leaped across.
"I am not even going to ask," she grumbled. Pretty sure that's a record.
"You are really quick to adapt," he said, putting her down. Even Kael had reacted much more openly. And he had visited the lab many times.
"When you have to fight the things we have to, you either adapt or die." She had seen enough brothers and sisters at arms die to know that.
The next section of the tunnel led to another opening. A box stood firmly embedded on a stalagmite. Which was in the middle of a lava river.
"I can't believe such a resourceful person chose to do this rather than anything else." Had Leten spent his time for much more constructive purposes, he would definitely be more famous than Kenlan.
"Told you, he was like a Saturday morning cartoon villain."
"Wait, something's wrong with the lava," he said. The river ceased flowing after a certain point and continued towards the end. He kicked a pebble inside, waiting.
The lava began to rise. It took a shape roughly similar to mud men but larger and more dangerous.
"I didn't know they could do that," she muttered. She moved to pull her companion back, but he stopped her.
Thairon took a spare comm link and threw it inside the lava man's mouth. It would resist the heat long enough for a transportation lock. He wouldn't risk him or his companion in these conditions, but a canister was free game.
He gave the mental order. Nax transported an X-57 canister right inside the creature. It bloated up first. He thought it might explode, but just as quickly, it deflated.
The fungi must have evolved to the point of manipulating lava of all things. It could be natural or a part of the Union's fuck-up.
"Rather quick on your feet," she said.
"Let's just get the necklace and leave. I had enough of Leten."
He jumped on the stalagmite. His enhanced muscles gave him the necessary strength to latch onto the stone. He ripped the rectangular box off and leaped back on solid ground.
Opening the box, he pulled out the simple copper necklace. He put it back, and the room began to shake. The stalagmite was splitting in half. Tiny holes opened on the wall at the back of the room.
Darts were racing at him.
He felt legs wrap around his midsection and pull him to the floor. The darts flew over, missing both of them. Though he was grateful, the poison, if the darts were poisoned, would have degraded into less harmful substances.
The darts seemed to be the first step.
A wall slowly rose to cover the entrance. Flipping forward, he lifted Tomoe and dashed through the door.
Which is when the tunnel started to shake as well. Leten was serious about killing anyone that retrieved the necklace, it seemed. He kept running, leaping over the chasm again. The first part of the tunnel was safe from the collapse.
It did not make him any more willing to stay there.
"That was quick," she muttered once they were out. They had just retrieved Arlex in less than an hour. If it wasn't for the near-death experience, she would even count this as fun.
"Can't believe that guy went into all this trouble over a necklace," Thairon said. It was so illogical his mind refused to believe it, even with all the present evidence.
Tomoe lay on the ground, gazing at the black clouds. "I was supposed to rest today."
"First this little artifact hunt, and of course," her lips twitched, "our illuminated leader had to visit the temple."
"Because of the scroll."
"Which you brought to my mother."
"Seems I ruined your vacation."
"Seems so."
"How about I buy lunch? I know this really fancy place that serves great food."
—
Glassport
Golden Telam
Rather than immediately question where they were, she just took a seat. She was supposed to be on vacation, yet this short little adventure had tired her more than military life.
Mostly mentally.
"Where are we?"
"Glassport."
"Almost the other side of the continent," she said, gazing at the restaurant. The floor was empty. Her date seemed to more than just know this place.
He chuckled and took his seat. The variety of food offered in Golden Telam could not be found anywhere else.
Tomoe was bound to find something for tastes.
The conversation was light. She wanted to know how he found the scroll in the first place. He saw no reason to hide it.
A black market tech dealer had come across the containment unit of a dark matter cannon from the Glaive. Thairon, upon catching wind of it, wanted to buy the part.
"A component from the Glaive? And you wanted to buy it?" She pointed her fork at him, narrowing her eyes. Possessing illegal rupture tech was a felony with a lifetime prison sentence, sometimes even execution in special cases.
"That containment unit could have helped in the creation of a fusion reactor for clean, cheap energy."
Which would be legal under specific circumstances. "Alright. Go on."
The dealer had cancelled the arrangement unilaterally and sold it to another person. He responded by ambushing both sides during the handoff. He had killed one of the nobles of the Republic, in addition to the black market dealer. The component, however, was damaged during the battle. He still made use of it in developing containment harmonics.
Tomoe cupped her own face. "Can't believe a part of that thing was out there. I thought we had destroyed them all."
"It was a two-kilometer ship that crashed in a sparsely inhabited area. You were unlikely to secure all of it," he said. He knew it was cold comfort. Several incidents had occurred due to stolen parts. There were over a thousand citizens dead in Union and Republic territory.
"At least it wasn't a full-on weapon."
"It wouldn't have mattered. The weapon requires more energy than a nuclear reactor could produce. Reverse engineering is just as impossible," he said. If someone had managed to fire a weapon, even accidentally, the loss of life could have ranged anywhere from a hundred thousand to millions.
"Anyway, forget the component. You were speaking about the scroll?"
The noble in question, Jared Hazimen, had made it a hobby to collect advanced technological objects and arts that arrived through the dimensional ruptures. He couldn't leave all that treasure gathering dust in the collection of a noble.
"You were the one who burned the Hazimen mansion to the ground," she exclaimed. The incident had appeared on the news. The official statement was a party gone wrong, but no one had bought it. To think it would be such a scandal.
"It was an accident. His automated security shot at me, so I fried the whole system. It blew a fuse. The rest is history."
Burning the mansion down had drawn too much attention. Something he preferred to avoid.
"Is that where you found the scroll?"
"Yes. Seems he took great joy in holding something so valuable that the Union had lost."
"Bastard," she scowled.
"Since your mother gave the scroll to me, I'll keep it locked up unless she wants it back."
He had already locked it in his room, a place only three people knew existed.
Tomoe nodded. It was for the best. If the Union military acquired and translated the scroll, who knew what they would do with the arrival point?
She continued to eat in silence. The memories of the race against time to recover all the parts of the Glaive soured the taste of the fish.
"Say, Mr. Genius of Unparalleled Intellect," she began. "Do you think you'd be able to repair the fabric of space and put an end to these ruptures?"
The Union, the Republic, and the Kingdom all had similar levels of technology. It meant none of them were anywhere close to putting an end to the ruptures. This man before her might be the only choice for the foreseeable future.
Thairon leaned back on his chair. "I am working on it, but the issue is more complex."
"How so?" she asked, pulling her chair closer to the table.
Thairon created a holographic wall that represented the barrier between dimensions. Narrow holes, as if ants had dug tunnels, kept tearing through different parts of the barrier before retracting and doing the same again.
"The ruptures open to thousands of different dimensions in a subatomic form. Each second, they are repaired, but the energy rebounds and creates new ruptures. The incursions occur because high-intensity energy pulses force the subatomic ruptures to expand."
A pulse appeared on the other end of one of the ruptures. The subatomic tunnel expanded, and a holographic representation of the Glavie came through.
"Fixing the fabric of space would be akin to taking a wall with a giant hole in the middle and covering the hole with plaster. I need to fix the tears in such a way that each existing rupture will be closed at once, and the energy must be drained. The fabric of space will naturally repair itself."
The holographic interface showed a machine that drained the excess energy in all the subatomic ruptures at once. The tear in the fabric of space disappeared, leaving a seamless barrier behind.
"I don't know anything about the science behind this to help you. But, if you can prove that this works, I might be able to help you in other ways." She was a first lieutenant and had access to the technology acquired from the ruptures. Her job, in tandem with several other lieutenants, was to ensure the samples were destroyed.
It would be extremely risky to steal samples. Observers from all three nations were on site to ensure there was no leak. None trusted the others enough for cooperation.
But teleportation could change everything. She could sneak the bracelets inside. Once they were thrown into either the incinerator or the chasm—depending on the component—no one would realize anything if it suddenly was teleported out.
That is, if he could actually present a solution.
"I'll let you know if I need anything."
"Huh, look at the hour," she muttered. They had left the temple before noon, and the sun was about to set in Hatsuzumi. She hadn't even realized how the time had flown.
"I'll take you back home," he offered.
—
Hatsuzumi
Nax, having heard it, teleported both to the entrance at the back of the temple. The sun was setting, and the warm colors seeping through the clouds cast a majestic view on the temple.
He watched fitfully for a while, just as she did.
"I have to meet my brothers tomorrow, but after that, I am pretty much free," he said. It was the first time he was asking someone out.
Usually, the girls either bored him to death or were political matches, which he detested. Tomoe seemed to live beyond the nationalistic urges that most of the populace did. She was willing to do what was necessary for the betterment of the planet.
Yet, there was something else to her selfless attitude.
"That works for me. I need to catch up on my sleep. Though, maybe we should do something less adventurous?" she asked. Military life was tiring enough. She didn't need to be running after long-lost relics in her spare time.
Romance was not something she had considered. The military, especially as a part of RIC, did not give anyone time for it, unless they served in the same unit.
Which had regulatory problems, so no one attempted it.
This guy had made one hell of a first impression to not try. Even if nothing came out of it, she had no doubt it would be fun.
"We can get ice cream," he offered.
Tomoe pursed her lips and nodded. "Alright. Pick me up at ten."
—
Yumiko watched her daughter converse with the most interesting guest the temple had in recent years.
Her eyes were as wide as the pans the charity workers cooked food on.
Her daughter was going on a date for the first time in her life.
"Why go to all this length?" she asked her companion as they walked to the volcano. It had taken around twenty minutes for whatever he did to work, and the island was clear of the mud men.
"Length?" he turned to her, stopping. The scans of the island indicated an entrance hidden by an inconspicuous rock.
"Yes. I mean, you used your teleporter to recover a necklace that means nothing to you," she said.
"It is a matter of relativity," he explained, pushing the rock aside. "What is a great length to you is just a short adventure for me."
She tilted her head, watching him move a boulder that would take a heavy-duty vehicle to remove. "Fair, I suppose." Traversing hundreds of kilometers in the blink of an eye must put things in a different perspective.
"What does it say?" he asked, dusting over the half-faded letters.
She leaned close. "Welcome, the pilgrims who seek Kenlan's necklace."
Thairon took a deep breath. "I hate that guy."
He walked in first in case there was a trap. She followed him, more cautious.
"How did the Union military manage to fill this island with mud men?" he asked. Nax had already brought the relevant files in his vision.
"Asking for military secrets?" she teased. At his blank look, Tomoe shrugged.
"It was an attempt to control them through some top-secret tech. Since I work for the Rupture Intervention Corps, I don't know much."
One of her classmates from the academy had confided in her, going against all military regulation. The Union had almost succeeded in controlling the mud men and considered releasing them on the border for a trial.
Something had caused the control units to fry, and the mudmen had ravaged the military researchers on site. The project was dropped after that.
"You really hate the Chairman, don't you?" She must have, to be able to enter the sole neutral military unit with the harshest standards on the planet.
How amusing that they were based really close to the arrival point without even knowing it.
She said nothing in response.
He didn't pry further. Scanning the area, he found that the path was clear of any toxic fumes. It explained how Leten could have entered here without proper protection.
"You have to be kidding me," she muttered. The tunnel led to an opening with a chasm below. The only way through was a rotting wooden bridge.
"Can you teleport us across?"
"The volcano weakens the connection. I'd rather not risk it." The volcanic lightning and other energized particles caused interference. The risk was low enough that he would take it any other time.
Tomoe rolled her eyes. Of course such a convenient tool would fail in a time like this. "How do we get across?"
Thairon looked at the ground. It was sturdy enough. The distance was just ten meters. Carrying Tomoe bridal style without even giving her time to be surprised, he leaped across.
"I am not even going to ask," she grumbled. Pretty sure that's a record.
"You are really quick to adapt," he said, putting her down. Even Kael had reacted much more openly. And he had visited the lab many times.
"When you have to fight the things we have to, you either adapt or die." She had seen enough brothers and sisters at arms die to know that.
The next section of the tunnel led to another opening. A box stood firmly embedded on a stalagmite. Which was in the middle of a lava river.
"I can't believe such a resourceful person chose to do this rather than anything else." Had Leten spent his time for much more constructive purposes, he would definitely be more famous than Kenlan.
"Told you, he was like a Saturday morning cartoon villain."
"Wait, something's wrong with the lava," he said. The river ceased flowing after a certain point and continued towards the end. He kicked a pebble inside, waiting.
The lava began to rise. It took a shape roughly similar to mud men but larger and more dangerous.
"I didn't know they could do that," she muttered. She moved to pull her companion back, but he stopped her.
Thairon took a spare comm link and threw it inside the lava man's mouth. It would resist the heat long enough for a transportation lock. He wouldn't risk him or his companion in these conditions, but a canister was free game.
He gave the mental order. Nax transported an X-57 canister right inside the creature. It bloated up first. He thought it might explode, but just as quickly, it deflated.
The fungi must have evolved to the point of manipulating lava of all things. It could be natural or a part of the Union's fuck-up.
"Rather quick on your feet," she said.
"Let's just get the necklace and leave. I had enough of Leten."
He jumped on the stalagmite. His enhanced muscles gave him the necessary strength to latch onto the stone. He ripped the rectangular box off and leaped back on solid ground.
Opening the box, he pulled out the simple copper necklace. He put it back, and the room began to shake. The stalagmite was splitting in half. Tiny holes opened on the wall at the back of the room.
Darts were racing at him.
He felt legs wrap around his midsection and pull him to the floor. The darts flew over, missing both of them. Though he was grateful, the poison, if the darts were poisoned, would have degraded into less harmful substances.
The darts seemed to be the first step.
A wall slowly rose to cover the entrance. Flipping forward, he lifted Tomoe and dashed through the door.
Which is when the tunnel started to shake as well. Leten was serious about killing anyone that retrieved the necklace, it seemed. He kept running, leaping over the chasm again. The first part of the tunnel was safe from the collapse.
It did not make him any more willing to stay there.
"That was quick," she muttered once they were out. They had just retrieved Arlex in less than an hour. If it wasn't for the near-death experience, she would even count this as fun.
"Can't believe that guy went into all this trouble over a necklace," Thairon said. It was so illogical his mind refused to believe it, even with all the present evidence.
Tomoe lay on the ground, gazing at the black clouds. "I was supposed to rest today."
"First this little artifact hunt, and of course," her lips twitched, "our illuminated leader had to visit the temple."
"Because of the scroll."
"Which you brought to my mother."
"Seems I ruined your vacation."
"Seems so."
"How about I buy lunch? I know this really fancy place that serves great food."
—
Glassport
Golden Telam
Rather than immediately question where they were, she just took a seat. She was supposed to be on vacation, yet this short little adventure had tired her more than military life.
Mostly mentally.
"Where are we?"
"Glassport."
"Almost the other side of the continent," she said, gazing at the restaurant. The floor was empty. Her date seemed to more than just know this place.
He chuckled and took his seat. The variety of food offered in Golden Telam could not be found anywhere else.
Tomoe was bound to find something for tastes.
The conversation was light. She wanted to know how he found the scroll in the first place. He saw no reason to hide it.
A black market tech dealer had come across the containment unit of a dark matter cannon from the Glaive. Thairon, upon catching wind of it, wanted to buy the part.
"A component from the Glaive? And you wanted to buy it?" She pointed her fork at him, narrowing her eyes. Possessing illegal rupture tech was a felony with a lifetime prison sentence, sometimes even execution in special cases.
"That containment unit could have helped in the creation of a fusion reactor for clean, cheap energy."
Which would be legal under specific circumstances. "Alright. Go on."
The dealer had cancelled the arrangement unilaterally and sold it to another person. He responded by ambushing both sides during the handoff. He had killed one of the nobles of the Republic, in addition to the black market dealer. The component, however, was damaged during the battle. He still made use of it in developing containment harmonics.
Tomoe cupped her own face. "Can't believe a part of that thing was out there. I thought we had destroyed them all."
"It was a two-kilometer ship that crashed in a sparsely inhabited area. You were unlikely to secure all of it," he said. He knew it was cold comfort. Several incidents had occurred due to stolen parts. There were over a thousand citizens dead in Union and Republic territory.
"At least it wasn't a full-on weapon."
"It wouldn't have mattered. The weapon requires more energy than a nuclear reactor could produce. Reverse engineering is just as impossible," he said. If someone had managed to fire a weapon, even accidentally, the loss of life could have ranged anywhere from a hundred thousand to millions.
"Anyway, forget the component. You were speaking about the scroll?"
The noble in question, Jared Hazimen, had made it a hobby to collect advanced technological objects and arts that arrived through the dimensional ruptures. He couldn't leave all that treasure gathering dust in the collection of a noble.
"You were the one who burned the Hazimen mansion to the ground," she exclaimed. The incident had appeared on the news. The official statement was a party gone wrong, but no one had bought it. To think it would be such a scandal.
"It was an accident. His automated security shot at me, so I fried the whole system. It blew a fuse. The rest is history."
Burning the mansion down had drawn too much attention. Something he preferred to avoid.
"Is that where you found the scroll?"
"Yes. Seems he took great joy in holding something so valuable that the Union had lost."
"Bastard," she scowled.
"Since your mother gave the scroll to me, I'll keep it locked up unless she wants it back."
He had already locked it in his room, a place only three people knew existed.
Tomoe nodded. It was for the best. If the Union military acquired and translated the scroll, who knew what they would do with the arrival point?
She continued to eat in silence. The memories of the race against time to recover all the parts of the Glaive soured the taste of the fish.
"Say, Mr. Genius of Unparalleled Intellect," she began. "Do you think you'd be able to repair the fabric of space and put an end to these ruptures?"
The Union, the Republic, and the Kingdom all had similar levels of technology. It meant none of them were anywhere close to putting an end to the ruptures. This man before her might be the only choice for the foreseeable future.
Thairon leaned back on his chair. "I am working on it, but the issue is more complex."
"How so?" she asked, pulling her chair closer to the table.
Thairon created a holographic wall that represented the barrier between dimensions. Narrow holes, as if ants had dug tunnels, kept tearing through different parts of the barrier before retracting and doing the same again.
"The ruptures open to thousands of different dimensions in a subatomic form. Each second, they are repaired, but the energy rebounds and creates new ruptures. The incursions occur because high-intensity energy pulses force the subatomic ruptures to expand."
A pulse appeared on the other end of one of the ruptures. The subatomic tunnel expanded, and a holographic representation of the Glavie came through.
"Fixing the fabric of space would be akin to taking a wall with a giant hole in the middle and covering the hole with plaster. I need to fix the tears in such a way that each existing rupture will be closed at once, and the energy must be drained. The fabric of space will naturally repair itself."
The holographic interface showed a machine that drained the excess energy in all the subatomic ruptures at once. The tear in the fabric of space disappeared, leaving a seamless barrier behind.
"I don't know anything about the science behind this to help you. But, if you can prove that this works, I might be able to help you in other ways." She was a first lieutenant and had access to the technology acquired from the ruptures. Her job, in tandem with several other lieutenants, was to ensure the samples were destroyed.
It would be extremely risky to steal samples. Observers from all three nations were on site to ensure there was no leak. None trusted the others enough for cooperation.
But teleportation could change everything. She could sneak the bracelets inside. Once they were thrown into either the incinerator or the chasm—depending on the component—no one would realize anything if it suddenly was teleported out.
That is, if he could actually present a solution.
"I'll let you know if I need anything."
"Huh, look at the hour," she muttered. They had left the temple before noon, and the sun was about to set in Hatsuzumi. She hadn't even realized how the time had flown.
"I'll take you back home," he offered.
—
Hatsuzumi
Nax, having heard it, teleported both to the entrance at the back of the temple. The sun was setting, and the warm colors seeping through the clouds cast a majestic view on the temple.
He watched fitfully for a while, just as she did.
"I have to meet my brothers tomorrow, but after that, I am pretty much free," he said. It was the first time he was asking someone out.
Usually, the girls either bored him to death or were political matches, which he detested. Tomoe seemed to live beyond the nationalistic urges that most of the populace did. She was willing to do what was necessary for the betterment of the planet.
Yet, there was something else to her selfless attitude.
"That works for me. I need to catch up on my sleep. Though, maybe we should do something less adventurous?" she asked. Military life was tiring enough. She didn't need to be running after long-lost relics in her spare time.
Romance was not something she had considered. The military, especially as a part of RIC, did not give anyone time for it, unless they served in the same unit.
Which had regulatory problems, so no one attempted it.
This guy had made one hell of a first impression to not try. Even if nothing came out of it, she had no doubt it would be fun.
"We can get ice cream," he offered.
Tomoe pursed her lips and nodded. "Alright. Pick me up at ten."
—
Yumiko watched her daughter converse with the most interesting guest the temple had in recent years.
Her eyes were as wide as the pans the charity workers cooked food on.
Her daughter was going on a date for the first time in her life.
Chapter 6 - Under the Stars
New
Samael61
I trust you know where the happy button is?
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Aurum City
Golden Finch Beach
"Are you sure he isn't going to ditch us again?" Skyler asked.
"He won't," Kael said, putting down two cups of slurry next to the cakes. "You should worry about him seeing that arm. Someone's going to die for it."
Now that Kael mentioned it, his arm was itching once more. He couldn't scratch it through the cast. He began to massage his scalp through his brown locks, creating a distraction.
"Which is why you won't tell him anything," he muttered. Thairon's policy of responding to violence with even greater violence tended to create a mess.
Kael took his seat, gathering the scattered papers together. "My lips are sealed."
Someone opened the door without knocking. A silver-haired man who looked rather young to have that hair walked in.
"Sir, you can't enter here without permission," Kael warned. Some beachgoers tended to just barge in to complain about an ultimately inconsequential woe.
The silver-haired man ignored his words and sat down. He snatched the cup reserved for their older brother and kept glancing at both with a smirk. There was something familiar about him, but neither could say.
"Go on, take your time," he finally spoke. The familiar voice filled the blank.
"Wait, wait, wait." Sky got up from his chair, leaning forward across the table. "Bro? Is that you?"
"Duh," he drawled.
"What the heck happened to you?!" Kael exclaimed. "You look like a different person." The one hundred seventy-five centimeters tall man with brown hair and eyes had left his place to a two-meter-tall hunk with silver hair.
He swirled the half-empty slurry cup. "Just some genetic modifications. I thought the silver looked rather fitting on me."
"And your height? You are taller than me now," Kael said. Between the three, he was always the tallest.
"Again, some genetic modifications along with other sciency stuff."
"Now," Thairon narrowed his eyes, "what happened to your arm?" he asked. Nax was already combing through the hospital records. Sky's latest visit was right after the protest in Belkan.
"I just fell, nothing important." Sky dismissed his concerns.
Thairon's left eye glowed, projecting a recording on the table. A member of the Swift Response Unit was pushing the protesters back and wasn't hesitant in using his baton to do so.
His brother was at the front of the crowd.
"Fell? Really?" Was that the best excuse he could come up with?
Sky sank in his chair. "Please don't do something rash."
"Like breaking every bone in that bastard's body?" he asked. It was nothing less than what that bastard deserved.
"Exactly something like that," Kael muttered.
"Don't worry, no one will know it was me." That cop would definitely pay for this.
"That's not the point," Skyler said, holding his itching arm.
He took a deep breath. "Here, at least let me heal it." He reached across the table. The nanobots could repair that fracture in minutes.
Sky raised his hand halfway.
"I'd love to, but then everyone will call me a liar if I suddenly remove the cast. It's just a fracture anyway."
His wound had small media coverage that the officials were all too willing to discredit. If he removed the cast, it would give them more ammunition against the protests.
"So you are just fine with this?" He waved a hand over the sorry state his brother was in.
"What am I supposed to do?" Sky shrugged with his one good arm. "I would love nothing more than to just go full vigilante on the government, but I am just an ordinary guy."
He reached across the table for the unused fork. He raised it high and brought it down on his hand.
Sky and Kael flinched but did not shout. Two of the tines broke off and launched away from the table. He flexed his hand, showing that there wasn't a wound.
"What the hell?" Kael broke out of the shock first. He took the hand, inspecting it. There wasn't even a scratch. It could have only one meaning.
"You have superpowers?" he asked. This was huge, and it brought a long-dead feeling back to life in his heart.
"Yes."
"Man, unfair," Sky complained. "He had powers, and now you have powers. I am the only ordinary one."
Kael frowned. He did not exactly wish to remember the days he carried a module.
Thairon rolled his eyes. "I can give you two superpowers too."
He could not and would not protect his brothers forever. Teaching them how to do so and giving them the necessary tools was another matter.
"Like what?" he asked, voice wavering. If he could have powers, he could do more than just protest. He could take action.
"The catalog is rather small, but the ones that I can give will blow your minds." Considering the alternative was no powers at all, they had no choice.
"Do you just have durability then?" Kael asked. He knew when it came to Thairon, the extent of that durability would be more than just against cutlery.
"Durability is a side effect of the modifications my body needs to create enough energy for my new form of existence," he explained.
"Which is?"
His bracelet created a small x-ray screen, showing the inside of his skull. A maelstrom of crimson energy danced where his brain should be.
"I am pure energy now; I don't have a brain or a nervous system." He glared at Kael. "I'll make you eat sand if you make a stupid joke."
"Fucking hell," Kael finally swore. What the hell had his brother done? He understood now that they couldn't have comprehended the scope of his work until now.
He chuckled. "What do you guys say? The process will take a couple of weeks, and a couple more for you to get a feeling on how to handle your powers."
A training course would have to be prepared depending on the powers his brothers choose. Otherwise, he might as well give them weapons of mass destruction and set them loose.
"Uh, summer break is in a month. I'll come as soon as it is over," Kael said.
Skyler shifted in his seat. "I'll come with him."
"Before I forget, here." He pulled out two bracelets. Designed to act as wearable devices, they contained everything necessary for daily life and more.
Kael almost knocked his empty cup over while snatching the silver bracelet. "Is this for teleportation?"
Sky took the other one, his brows reaching to his hairline. His little brother had told him about the teleportation, but having it in his hand made it real.
"Yes, just choose a location; Nax will drop you off in the nearest discrete place. It won't work in public places unless there is an emergency." He didn't want public exposure yet, if ever.
Kael grinned, caressing the bracelet. "You are the greatest brother one could ever ask for."
"I know."
There was a knock on the door.
He cleared his throat and allowed the person in. "Come in."
A mature woman with tan skin in a bikini entered the room. She walked to Kael and held her fist out.
"Kael, how is my favorite beach manager doing?" she asked with a light voice.
He leaned forward and bumped fists. "Athel, welcome. Great as always. You?"
"Wonderful, dear," she said. Her eyes fell on Thairon. "And who is this gentleman?"
"My older brother, Thairon," he introduced. The said man did not even glance at the woman.
"You didn't tell me he was so handsome."
Thairon turned his head away. This horny woman sounded troublesome.
His brother was no help either. "Well, he is rather shy."
"I hope he'll be around," she licked her lips.
"Anyway, I just wanted to say hi. I'll leave you three alone now." With those words, she left the room.
Sky began to howl after he was sure the mature lady was out of earshot. Kael was no better.
"First time a woman shows interest in you, and she is a bona fide milf," Kael said between laughing like a madman.
"You have to admit though, she doesn't look a day over thirty," Sky said, inflaming the laughter.
Thairon finished his slurry and cake in silence.
"If you want, I can arrange something. She is a rather hot catch around here."
"I have a date tomorrow," he said, turning to his other brother. Skyler was still laughing, though it had subsided a bit now.
His finger crackled red with bioelectricity, and his brother's left arm rose out of his control. Skyler stopped laughing, confused, before the renegade hand slapped him across the face. The laughter disappeared, leaving its place to furrowed brows.
"What the?" he said, shaking his hand. "What did you do?"
"I controlled the bioelectricity in your body."
"Cool," he replied, nonplussed by losing control of his limb.
"Bro, I hate to be the one to tell you this, but science experiments don't count as dates."
Kael was not spared the slap either.
Once the catching-up phase was over, he had to explain why he was dodging them for over a year. The parts concerning his slowly decaying body were glossed over. Revealing that he had discovered the Arrival Point and had crossed over into a dying universe had his brothers on the edge of their seats.
It had also helped to distract them.
He gave them the rundown on what genetic modifications he had available. Both had chosen after carefully considering the options. Kael had, unsurprisingly, selected the powers that were the closest to the module he once carried.
Skyler had quickly settled on becoming a vigilante and took the option that offered him the best path.
They had lunch, enjoyed the beach, teased him over his date—they still didn't believe he had one, and he was in no hurry to correct the assumptions—and had dinner.
Athel, the woman with too much free time on her hands, made several appearances. As she was good friends with Kael, he merely said he already had a girlfriend rather than something more blunt.
He went home after that.
—
Glassport
Instead of returning to the lab, he decided to take a break.
A meteor shower would be visible in several spots across the continent. Starfall Hill would not be one of the locations due to the pollution. However, past a certain altitude, he would have the best view.
He laid down on the hoverboard, enjoying the ride. Once it stopped, he sucked in a breath. The multitude of colors set his usually churning mind at ease.
The vastness of the cosmos appeared so clear to him now. Living in one world without the chance to travel among the stars felt almost stifling. One day, a day that was approaching quickly, he would be there to see what existed beyond this star system.
Aliens, most likely, new worlds, faunas, anomalies to examine, and supernovas to witness. The possibilities were endless.
He just had to reach for it.
Purple meteors, composed of sodium, were the first. Blue ones were magnesium, red ones consisted of oxygen and nitrogen, iron-based meteors left yellow streaks, and the glaring orange was created by sodium.
He felt his mind drift off under the clear night sky.
—
Temple of the Gates
"Teleportation, huh? I got the impression that he was beyond a genius, but I did not expect that," Yumiko said, caressing her daughter's hair.
She looked at her daughter's eyes, a mirror of her own. "And you are going on another date with him."
"He did take me to a rather fancy place," Tomoe muttered.
"Uh huh." Yumiko waited in silence for her daughter to speak up.
She pushed herself up, turning to face her mother. "Mom, I don't know him enough to be sure, but that guy might actually be able to close the ruptures permanently."
Yumiko raised the tip of her fingers to her lips to silence the gasp that left her. "That is…"
"Yes. He is also actually a good date." It has been years since she talked about nothing in particular with an individual other than her mother. Military life did not have time for idle chatter.
"As long as you are enjoying yourself." For that was all she wanted for her children: to enjoy the blessing that was life.
Unfortunately, not everyone shared that opinion.
"We are getting ice cream tomorrow," she said. Compared to the excitement of their first date—if it could be called that—eating ice cream was a welcome change.
"While you are there, please tell him that thirty billion aurel is not an amount that anyone would give, not even to charity. They almost summoned me for a statement over whether I am laundering money," she said.
Half the reason the Chairman had stayed as long as he had was the sudden donation, which triggered alarms all over the government.
"Thirty billion?" she whistled. That was an amount ninety-nine percent of the population would never ever see in their lives. Yet, he gave it up like nothing.
"What are you going to do with it?" Her mother did not have sole control over the charity due to security reasons, but her voice was always heard.
"The board agreed that we could construct apartment complexes to house tens of thousands of families in need," she said. Thirty billion aurel was more money than the charity had ever handled in its history.
She would make sure it was put to good use.
"I would hope the rest of the rich elite would follow his lead, but I know better than that." Thankfully, her work had no place for the usual rich bastards her mother had to deal with.
"Yes, a pity."
Her mother had to sleep in early, but she was too restless. She climbed to the roof of the main building. From this high up, the meteor shower would be visible.
She lay down, pulling over the blanket, and gazed at the stars. Down here, the space looked so carefree. A place where neither politics, blood ties, nor war could reach her.
The first round of meteors started passing. Streaks of purple, blue, red, orange, and yellow created blurs that blocked her sight of the stars momentarily. They offered a different kind of beauty, the fleeting kind.
There one second, gone the next.
Like her childhood. Mitsuki used to drag her around, so restless, always seeking the next grand adventure. She had found it not long after she attended the military academy.
Fourteen years old, and her relationship with Mitsuki had started to wane faster than the meteors.
Missed birthdays that she could not make up over the phone, unattended holidays that broke her sister's heart, and, of course, house visits that were too short.
Now that she had left to follow her own path and refused to contact her, Tomoe could not even explain the reason behind it all.
Though, it was worth it if she was kept away from the nest of rats that was the capital.
Golden Finch Beach
"Are you sure he isn't going to ditch us again?" Skyler asked.
"He won't," Kael said, putting down two cups of slurry next to the cakes. "You should worry about him seeing that arm. Someone's going to die for it."
Now that Kael mentioned it, his arm was itching once more. He couldn't scratch it through the cast. He began to massage his scalp through his brown locks, creating a distraction.
"Which is why you won't tell him anything," he muttered. Thairon's policy of responding to violence with even greater violence tended to create a mess.
Kael took his seat, gathering the scattered papers together. "My lips are sealed."
Someone opened the door without knocking. A silver-haired man who looked rather young to have that hair walked in.
"Sir, you can't enter here without permission," Kael warned. Some beachgoers tended to just barge in to complain about an ultimately inconsequential woe.
The silver-haired man ignored his words and sat down. He snatched the cup reserved for their older brother and kept glancing at both with a smirk. There was something familiar about him, but neither could say.
"Go on, take your time," he finally spoke. The familiar voice filled the blank.
"Wait, wait, wait." Sky got up from his chair, leaning forward across the table. "Bro? Is that you?"
"Duh," he drawled.
"What the heck happened to you?!" Kael exclaimed. "You look like a different person." The one hundred seventy-five centimeters tall man with brown hair and eyes had left his place to a two-meter-tall hunk with silver hair.
He swirled the half-empty slurry cup. "Just some genetic modifications. I thought the silver looked rather fitting on me."
"And your height? You are taller than me now," Kael said. Between the three, he was always the tallest.
"Again, some genetic modifications along with other sciency stuff."
"Now," Thairon narrowed his eyes, "what happened to your arm?" he asked. Nax was already combing through the hospital records. Sky's latest visit was right after the protest in Belkan.
"I just fell, nothing important." Sky dismissed his concerns.
Thairon's left eye glowed, projecting a recording on the table. A member of the Swift Response Unit was pushing the protesters back and wasn't hesitant in using his baton to do so.
His brother was at the front of the crowd.
"Fell? Really?" Was that the best excuse he could come up with?
Sky sank in his chair. "Please don't do something rash."
"Like breaking every bone in that bastard's body?" he asked. It was nothing less than what that bastard deserved.
"Exactly something like that," Kael muttered.
"Don't worry, no one will know it was me." That cop would definitely pay for this.
"That's not the point," Skyler said, holding his itching arm.
He took a deep breath. "Here, at least let me heal it." He reached across the table. The nanobots could repair that fracture in minutes.
Sky raised his hand halfway.
"I'd love to, but then everyone will call me a liar if I suddenly remove the cast. It's just a fracture anyway."
His wound had small media coverage that the officials were all too willing to discredit. If he removed the cast, it would give them more ammunition against the protests.
"So you are just fine with this?" He waved a hand over the sorry state his brother was in.
"What am I supposed to do?" Sky shrugged with his one good arm. "I would love nothing more than to just go full vigilante on the government, but I am just an ordinary guy."
He reached across the table for the unused fork. He raised it high and brought it down on his hand.
Sky and Kael flinched but did not shout. Two of the tines broke off and launched away from the table. He flexed his hand, showing that there wasn't a wound.
"What the hell?" Kael broke out of the shock first. He took the hand, inspecting it. There wasn't even a scratch. It could have only one meaning.
"You have superpowers?" he asked. This was huge, and it brought a long-dead feeling back to life in his heart.
"Yes."
"Man, unfair," Sky complained. "He had powers, and now you have powers. I am the only ordinary one."
Kael frowned. He did not exactly wish to remember the days he carried a module.
Thairon rolled his eyes. "I can give you two superpowers too."
He could not and would not protect his brothers forever. Teaching them how to do so and giving them the necessary tools was another matter.
"Like what?" he asked, voice wavering. If he could have powers, he could do more than just protest. He could take action.
"The catalog is rather small, but the ones that I can give will blow your minds." Considering the alternative was no powers at all, they had no choice.
"Do you just have durability then?" Kael asked. He knew when it came to Thairon, the extent of that durability would be more than just against cutlery.
"Durability is a side effect of the modifications my body needs to create enough energy for my new form of existence," he explained.
"Which is?"
His bracelet created a small x-ray screen, showing the inside of his skull. A maelstrom of crimson energy danced where his brain should be.
"I am pure energy now; I don't have a brain or a nervous system." He glared at Kael. "I'll make you eat sand if you make a stupid joke."
"Fucking hell," Kael finally swore. What the hell had his brother done? He understood now that they couldn't have comprehended the scope of his work until now.
He chuckled. "What do you guys say? The process will take a couple of weeks, and a couple more for you to get a feeling on how to handle your powers."
A training course would have to be prepared depending on the powers his brothers choose. Otherwise, he might as well give them weapons of mass destruction and set them loose.
"Uh, summer break is in a month. I'll come as soon as it is over," Kael said.
Skyler shifted in his seat. "I'll come with him."
"Before I forget, here." He pulled out two bracelets. Designed to act as wearable devices, they contained everything necessary for daily life and more.
Kael almost knocked his empty cup over while snatching the silver bracelet. "Is this for teleportation?"
Sky took the other one, his brows reaching to his hairline. His little brother had told him about the teleportation, but having it in his hand made it real.
"Yes, just choose a location; Nax will drop you off in the nearest discrete place. It won't work in public places unless there is an emergency." He didn't want public exposure yet, if ever.
Kael grinned, caressing the bracelet. "You are the greatest brother one could ever ask for."
"I know."
There was a knock on the door.
He cleared his throat and allowed the person in. "Come in."
A mature woman with tan skin in a bikini entered the room. She walked to Kael and held her fist out.
"Kael, how is my favorite beach manager doing?" she asked with a light voice.
He leaned forward and bumped fists. "Athel, welcome. Great as always. You?"
"Wonderful, dear," she said. Her eyes fell on Thairon. "And who is this gentleman?"
"My older brother, Thairon," he introduced. The said man did not even glance at the woman.
"You didn't tell me he was so handsome."
Thairon turned his head away. This horny woman sounded troublesome.
His brother was no help either. "Well, he is rather shy."
"I hope he'll be around," she licked her lips.
"Anyway, I just wanted to say hi. I'll leave you three alone now." With those words, she left the room.
Sky began to howl after he was sure the mature lady was out of earshot. Kael was no better.
"First time a woman shows interest in you, and she is a bona fide milf," Kael said between laughing like a madman.
"You have to admit though, she doesn't look a day over thirty," Sky said, inflaming the laughter.
Thairon finished his slurry and cake in silence.
"If you want, I can arrange something. She is a rather hot catch around here."
"I have a date tomorrow," he said, turning to his other brother. Skyler was still laughing, though it had subsided a bit now.
His finger crackled red with bioelectricity, and his brother's left arm rose out of his control. Skyler stopped laughing, confused, before the renegade hand slapped him across the face. The laughter disappeared, leaving its place to furrowed brows.
"What the?" he said, shaking his hand. "What did you do?"
"I controlled the bioelectricity in your body."
"Cool," he replied, nonplussed by losing control of his limb.
"Bro, I hate to be the one to tell you this, but science experiments don't count as dates."
Kael was not spared the slap either.
Once the catching-up phase was over, he had to explain why he was dodging them for over a year. The parts concerning his slowly decaying body were glossed over. Revealing that he had discovered the Arrival Point and had crossed over into a dying universe had his brothers on the edge of their seats.
It had also helped to distract them.
He gave them the rundown on what genetic modifications he had available. Both had chosen after carefully considering the options. Kael had, unsurprisingly, selected the powers that were the closest to the module he once carried.
Skyler had quickly settled on becoming a vigilante and took the option that offered him the best path.
They had lunch, enjoyed the beach, teased him over his date—they still didn't believe he had one, and he was in no hurry to correct the assumptions—and had dinner.
Athel, the woman with too much free time on her hands, made several appearances. As she was good friends with Kael, he merely said he already had a girlfriend rather than something more blunt.
He went home after that.
—
Glassport
Instead of returning to the lab, he decided to take a break.
A meteor shower would be visible in several spots across the continent. Starfall Hill would not be one of the locations due to the pollution. However, past a certain altitude, he would have the best view.
He laid down on the hoverboard, enjoying the ride. Once it stopped, he sucked in a breath. The multitude of colors set his usually churning mind at ease.
The vastness of the cosmos appeared so clear to him now. Living in one world without the chance to travel among the stars felt almost stifling. One day, a day that was approaching quickly, he would be there to see what existed beyond this star system.
Aliens, most likely, new worlds, faunas, anomalies to examine, and supernovas to witness. The possibilities were endless.
He just had to reach for it.
Purple meteors, composed of sodium, were the first. Blue ones were magnesium, red ones consisted of oxygen and nitrogen, iron-based meteors left yellow streaks, and the glaring orange was created by sodium.
He felt his mind drift off under the clear night sky.
—
Temple of the Gates
"Teleportation, huh? I got the impression that he was beyond a genius, but I did not expect that," Yumiko said, caressing her daughter's hair.
She looked at her daughter's eyes, a mirror of her own. "And you are going on another date with him."
"He did take me to a rather fancy place," Tomoe muttered.
"Uh huh." Yumiko waited in silence for her daughter to speak up.
She pushed herself up, turning to face her mother. "Mom, I don't know him enough to be sure, but that guy might actually be able to close the ruptures permanently."
Yumiko raised the tip of her fingers to her lips to silence the gasp that left her. "That is…"
"Yes. He is also actually a good date." It has been years since she talked about nothing in particular with an individual other than her mother. Military life did not have time for idle chatter.
"As long as you are enjoying yourself." For that was all she wanted for her children: to enjoy the blessing that was life.
Unfortunately, not everyone shared that opinion.
"We are getting ice cream tomorrow," she said. Compared to the excitement of their first date—if it could be called that—eating ice cream was a welcome change.
"While you are there, please tell him that thirty billion aurel is not an amount that anyone would give, not even to charity. They almost summoned me for a statement over whether I am laundering money," she said.
Half the reason the Chairman had stayed as long as he had was the sudden donation, which triggered alarms all over the government.
"Thirty billion?" she whistled. That was an amount ninety-nine percent of the population would never ever see in their lives. Yet, he gave it up like nothing.
"What are you going to do with it?" Her mother did not have sole control over the charity due to security reasons, but her voice was always heard.
"The board agreed that we could construct apartment complexes to house tens of thousands of families in need," she said. Thirty billion aurel was more money than the charity had ever handled in its history.
She would make sure it was put to good use.
"I would hope the rest of the rich elite would follow his lead, but I know better than that." Thankfully, her work had no place for the usual rich bastards her mother had to deal with.
"Yes, a pity."
Her mother had to sleep in early, but she was too restless. She climbed to the roof of the main building. From this high up, the meteor shower would be visible.
She lay down, pulling over the blanket, and gazed at the stars. Down here, the space looked so carefree. A place where neither politics, blood ties, nor war could reach her.
The first round of meteors started passing. Streaks of purple, blue, red, orange, and yellow created blurs that blocked her sight of the stars momentarily. They offered a different kind of beauty, the fleeting kind.
There one second, gone the next.
Like her childhood. Mitsuki used to drag her around, so restless, always seeking the next grand adventure. She had found it not long after she attended the military academy.
Fourteen years old, and her relationship with Mitsuki had started to wane faster than the meteors.
Missed birthdays that she could not make up over the phone, unattended holidays that broke her sister's heart, and, of course, house visits that were too short.
Now that she had left to follow her own path and refused to contact her, Tomoe could not even explain the reason behind it all.
Though, it was worth it if she was kept away from the nest of rats that was the capital.
Chapter 7 - Balloon Tour
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Samael61
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Hatsuzumi
Temple of the Gates
Tomoe was waiting at the backside of the temple. Her date should be here any minute now. He would pick her up at ten, but she had come to wait five minutes early, a habit of military life.
It appeared he shared a similar habit, because he arrived right as she passed through the gate.
"You are early," she said.
Thairon tilted his head down. "Good morning to you too, and better than late."
"Good morning, and true."
"Where are we going for ice cream?" Either it was an obscure place no one even knew, or a really famous one.
"A small, out-of-the-way village I know. It's on the skirts of Mount Kiran," he said.
Tomoe chuckled. Traveling to the other side of the continent for ice cream did not seem so ridiculous with a teleporter. "Isn't it cold there?"
"You'll be fine," he said, handing her the bracelet. She did have a black coat on, and the village was rather warm.
—
Mount Kiran
Volmer Village
Tomoe shivered instinctively. The mountain was covered in snow, yet the village was covered in green vegetation. The atmosphere was warm and pleasant, more fitting for a seaside village than the base of a mountain covered in snow.
"Your work?" she asked. She couldn't think of any other explanation. In fact, now that she thought about it, there was a documentary about it.
"Just an atmospheric regulator to keep the village warm and cozy. Long story short, I found this place by accident. It is a part of the Republic but mostly cut off due to how remote it is."
He was chasing an anomalous energy signature caught on his satellite network. Whatever it was, had dissipated before he could find it. The village was close to his location, and he took a small break there.
The villagers were surprised to see a visitor. It did not stop them from being extremely hospitable. Life was harsh, but they were resourceful individuals. The ice cream was treated as a remedy. Made from goat milk and several root plants, it combined rich creaminess with a smooth and chewy texture.
He had visited the village several times since then. In the end, he had invested in the settlement, setting up a power plant, an atmospheric regulator, and more. It had turned into a little slice of heaven with the breathtaking view of the mountain.
Fruit trees, new livestock, and the promise to sell their produce as payment. Hospitable as they were, the villagers would not accept everything he offered without giving something in return.
It was a fruitful transaction.
"Seems you can invest millions into a village over ice cream when you are rich enough," she said dryly.
"Money is a tool that was no longer useful to me for much of my life."
"True. Anyone intelligent enough to create a teleportation machine would not have much use for money." She most certainly wouldn't.
A man with the thickest mustache she had ever seen approached. He treated Thairon like a foreigner at first, which confused her. Once her date introduced himself, everything changed.
Once the situation was cleared, the man's demeanor changed. He hugged Thairon like one would greet a son. Her date patted the man on the back. More people crowded him, asking questions or just welcoming him to the village.
"I almost didn't recognize you. Welcome again, and I see you brought a lady with you." The creases around the man's eyes stretched with his wide smile.
She bowed shallow enough to keep eye contact. "A pleasure to meet you."
"Hah, so respectful," he said with a booming voice.
"We are here for some ice cream," Thairon said. If he didn't get to the point, Osman would hold him up with a conversation forever.
"Come in, come in, we'll get you two the freshest batch we have."
"They really love you."
"They are good people."
The ice cream was delicious, though not worth the time it would take to travel without teleportation. Enjoying the cold dessert in the warmth of summer at the base of a mountain covered in snow was certainly a treat.
"By the way, my mother thanks you for that ridiculous amount you gave to charity, but don't do that again. You know, too much scrutiny over possible money laundering," she said, breaking the comfortable silence over the view.
He snorted. "Anyone who believes giving thirty billion aurels to charity is a scheme for money laundering is a fool."
She raised her spoon. "Never said it wasn't."
"Any idea when your next break is?" he asked. She had agreed to meet up for the rest of her vacation. The RIC always had to be ready for possible ruptures. There was no early warning system, leaving the corps to be a reactionary force.
It made regular breaks difficult.
She put down the empty cup, reaching for the hot tea. "Already planning to ask me out again, huh?"
"Possibly," he said.
"Not before three months, but most likely four months later," she explained. The individuals in groups that would leave for vacations were chosen at random. She was lucky this rotation, having been in one of the first groups.
"You said you had brothers."
"Two of them, Skyler and Kael." He told her about his brothers, Skyler's attempts to make the world a better place, and Kael's love for pranks that he had to grow out of.
"Do they have, you know, powers like you?" she asked. He seemed to love his brothers. Would it mean more superpowered individuals on the planet?
"Not yet."
"And you have a sister, right?" He did not know her name but had learned enough about the high priestess to know she had two daughters.
"Yes," her head dropped, "though, once I attended the academy, we drifted apart. I still try to catch up whenever I have the chance, but we are both busy with life."
There was another moment of silence. Both absorbed what they had learned, waiting.
"What now?" she asked. The ice cream and the tea were excellent. It would be a shame if it ended here.
"Any place you wanted to visit but didn't have the time for?" he asked. It was a bit past noon in Volmer; they still had plenty of time.
"Letting me choose? A true gentleman," she teased.
He rolled his shoulders. "Honestly, this is the first time I am going out with someone. Unless you want something classic like a cinema or an amusement park, I thought we could make use of the teleporter."
Skyler and Kael, but mostly Kael, had tried to set up blind dates. He had not gone to any, and they dropped the matter eventually.
"Your first time dating? You are kidding, right?" She found it hard to believe he had not been snatched yet, much less gone on a date before. He was tall, handsome, intelligent, and dare she say, buffier than he was yesterday.
"I didn't always look like this, nor did I socialize much," he said. The females in his circle tended to be too politically minded for him to consider any interactions.
That explained the treatment of the villagers. "My first time out on a date too, actually." She did receive offers but just never had the time for them.
"I know," she raised her head, standing straight, "the balloon tours over the Solmara ruins." As the ruined capital of the empire was on the lands of the Kingdom, she could not visit due to lack of time and military regulations. Part of the RIC or not, she could not travel outside the Union unless on business.
"It's nighttime there. Are you up for breaking a few laws?" he asked. The night tours had been cancelled a few years back due to security reasons.
"Inviting me to commit a crime in the Kingdom?" she grinned like a mean cat. "Why, of course I am."
—
Solmara Ruins
"Should we worry about cameras?" she asked, lockpicking the gate.
"No, I have that covered. Where did you learn how to lockpick?"
"Our lockers are old. Sometimes the key doesn't work, and you have to get creative."
He checked the area. The balloons were separated into parts, and the baskets, burners, tanks, and the nylon part were kept in storage.
"You get the propane tanks; I'll handle the basket and the nylon." The tanks were kept in a separate, ventilated storage shed for security. Everything else was in the same building.
"Any idea where they are?"
"Here," he said, ordering Nax to teleport a visor in his hand. She took the light-orange-colored device, putting it on.
The screen came to life, showing her the path with arrows, just like in a video game.
"That's very convenient," she muttered, leaving to get the tanks.
The storage door for the nylon envelopes had a simple lock. He didn't know how to pick it open, unlike his companion, but jamming the keyhole with nanobots did the job. The cameras were already hacked, leaving him to move with impunity.
He picked an envelope for a small-sized balloon. Even then, it was heavy, around a hundred kilos. The basket was a bit heavier, especially with the burner, but nothing he couldn't carry out.
—
Tomoe picked the door into propane tank storage. The inside was colder than the outside. Given the smallest accident could cause a devastating explosion, the organization was taking safety seriously.
"Why is that damn door open? Did the maintenance guys forget to lock it again?" A voice muttered from the door. Cursing her luck, she looked for a place to hide. The top of the racks was empty. Making her way up with a ladder, she lay down, waiting.
"I don't know. Let's just check inside and go."
She closed her eyes, listening for the footsteps. The muttering guards went past her, did their rounds, and left. She climbed down, checking the door. The guards had locked it up, and this side did not have a keyhole.
Tomoe huffed, checking for an alternative exit. Securing the tanks in her bag, she climbed up to the top of the rack. There was a maintenance hatch leading to the roof. It did not have a lock, just a simple lever. She forced it down, climbing up the open hatch.
Opening the entrance hatch, she surveyed the roof for a way down.
"What are you doing up there?" Her date's face popped up in the visor, startling her.
"Guards locked the door. I am looking for a way down," she said. She held on to the ledge, letting herself slide down before jumping to the wall of the main storage building and back.
"You could have just teleported out," he commented as she landed on the ground.
She leaped to her feet, dusting her hands. "I could have, but it wouldn't have been fun."
"Fair. I triggered a security alarm on the other side of the facility. It'll give us enough time to inflate the balloon and take off," he said.
"Never thought I'd be committing a crime on my first date."
His fingers combed through his hair. "As long as there aren't any damages, it will be fine."
"You are really strong, aren't you?" Those parts needed transport carts to carry. She didn't see one anywhere.
"Imagine that, I have a better physique than you without working a single day for it," he grinned, gesturing at her with his finger moving up and down.
Military PT had given her a toned body. A necessary part of being in the middle of often lethal battles. And it had taken him days to attain a superhuman body.
"Don't say that in a gym," she winked. "They'll lynch you." She knew more than one colleague who was obsessed with physical training.
"I do have a private one in my lab," he muttered, without even knowing why.
"You work out then?" She was sure now. He was buffier than yesterday. Whatever science it was, she wanted a piece as well.
"Not really. It's for my brothers whenever they visit."
"Now I wonder what your lab is like."
He winked. "It'll blow your mind."
The cold inflation took fifteen minutes. The guards were investigating why the security alarm was triggered. By the time they saw a balloon take off, it was too late.
Once in the air, he snapped his fingers. The light system for the night tours was still in place. All he had to do was to hack the digital controls.
"Now this is a great view," she said. The capital of the Virex Empire had been ruined during the Great Betrayal. Its citizens, depending on who they chose to follow, had abandoned it. These days, it was just another tourist spot in the Kelmar Kingdom.
Ruins they might be, but Emperor Noah had the city constructed to last for centuries. The districts that surrounded the palace were in good condition. The palace itself had suffered the greatest damage. Its large dome had come crashing down due to the explosions. The interior had been scorched by the flames. Its gardens had regrown, overtaking the entire building.
"Attention intruders, please come down for your safety. It is dangerous up there," a crackling sound called from below.
The security had finally realized there was an unauthorized balloon.
Thairon threw a device to the ground. A flimsy, transparent screen covered the basket, creating screens that blocked the view from the other side.
"What does that do?" she asked, touching the field. Her finger went through, and the knuckle was slightly distorted.
"Reflects light to keep us invisible to them. No need for our faces to be plastered on tomorrow's news," he explained. It was something he had created to ambush the black market dealer selling the component from the Glaive to the Hanzimens.
"Ever considered unifying the continent again? With this kind of tech, it would be easy for you," she said, leaning on the edge of the basket.
The guards were still trying to get them down.
He snorted. "I would never willingly take a position that requires me to rule anywhere, much less the whole world."
At most, he'd install democracy and call it a day.
"Not a fan of politics then."
"Yes. I would most likely go off the rails and kill the first person that got on my nerves over something inconsequential."
"So," she said, dragging the vowel out, "most of the nobility?"
He chortled. "Yes." Out of the thirty-eight nobles in the Kingdom, he knew only two that were just humans. He put the rest into categories.
The fools, the arrogant bastards, the cunning bastards, and the arrogant bastards who thought themselves cunning.
She nudged him with her elbow. "Take it from me, you won't find many people crying over them."
He landed the balloon on the far end of the city. Leaving behind a sizable amount of aurels as an apology, he teleported out with his date for lunch.
Temple of the Gates
Tomoe was waiting at the backside of the temple. Her date should be here any minute now. He would pick her up at ten, but she had come to wait five minutes early, a habit of military life.
It appeared he shared a similar habit, because he arrived right as she passed through the gate.
"You are early," she said.
Thairon tilted his head down. "Good morning to you too, and better than late."
"Good morning, and true."
"Where are we going for ice cream?" Either it was an obscure place no one even knew, or a really famous one.
"A small, out-of-the-way village I know. It's on the skirts of Mount Kiran," he said.
Tomoe chuckled. Traveling to the other side of the continent for ice cream did not seem so ridiculous with a teleporter. "Isn't it cold there?"
"You'll be fine," he said, handing her the bracelet. She did have a black coat on, and the village was rather warm.
—
Mount Kiran
Volmer Village
Tomoe shivered instinctively. The mountain was covered in snow, yet the village was covered in green vegetation. The atmosphere was warm and pleasant, more fitting for a seaside village than the base of a mountain covered in snow.
"Your work?" she asked. She couldn't think of any other explanation. In fact, now that she thought about it, there was a documentary about it.
"Just an atmospheric regulator to keep the village warm and cozy. Long story short, I found this place by accident. It is a part of the Republic but mostly cut off due to how remote it is."
He was chasing an anomalous energy signature caught on his satellite network. Whatever it was, had dissipated before he could find it. The village was close to his location, and he took a small break there.
The villagers were surprised to see a visitor. It did not stop them from being extremely hospitable. Life was harsh, but they were resourceful individuals. The ice cream was treated as a remedy. Made from goat milk and several root plants, it combined rich creaminess with a smooth and chewy texture.
He had visited the village several times since then. In the end, he had invested in the settlement, setting up a power plant, an atmospheric regulator, and more. It had turned into a little slice of heaven with the breathtaking view of the mountain.
Fruit trees, new livestock, and the promise to sell their produce as payment. Hospitable as they were, the villagers would not accept everything he offered without giving something in return.
It was a fruitful transaction.
"Seems you can invest millions into a village over ice cream when you are rich enough," she said dryly.
"Money is a tool that was no longer useful to me for much of my life."
"True. Anyone intelligent enough to create a teleportation machine would not have much use for money." She most certainly wouldn't.
A man with the thickest mustache she had ever seen approached. He treated Thairon like a foreigner at first, which confused her. Once her date introduced himself, everything changed.
Once the situation was cleared, the man's demeanor changed. He hugged Thairon like one would greet a son. Her date patted the man on the back. More people crowded him, asking questions or just welcoming him to the village.
"I almost didn't recognize you. Welcome again, and I see you brought a lady with you." The creases around the man's eyes stretched with his wide smile.
She bowed shallow enough to keep eye contact. "A pleasure to meet you."
"Hah, so respectful," he said with a booming voice.
"We are here for some ice cream," Thairon said. If he didn't get to the point, Osman would hold him up with a conversation forever.
"Come in, come in, we'll get you two the freshest batch we have."
"They really love you."
"They are good people."
The ice cream was delicious, though not worth the time it would take to travel without teleportation. Enjoying the cold dessert in the warmth of summer at the base of a mountain covered in snow was certainly a treat.
"By the way, my mother thanks you for that ridiculous amount you gave to charity, but don't do that again. You know, too much scrutiny over possible money laundering," she said, breaking the comfortable silence over the view.
He snorted. "Anyone who believes giving thirty billion aurels to charity is a scheme for money laundering is a fool."
She raised her spoon. "Never said it wasn't."
"Any idea when your next break is?" he asked. She had agreed to meet up for the rest of her vacation. The RIC always had to be ready for possible ruptures. There was no early warning system, leaving the corps to be a reactionary force.
It made regular breaks difficult.
She put down the empty cup, reaching for the hot tea. "Already planning to ask me out again, huh?"
"Possibly," he said.
"Not before three months, but most likely four months later," she explained. The individuals in groups that would leave for vacations were chosen at random. She was lucky this rotation, having been in one of the first groups.
"You said you had brothers."
"Two of them, Skyler and Kael." He told her about his brothers, Skyler's attempts to make the world a better place, and Kael's love for pranks that he had to grow out of.
"Do they have, you know, powers like you?" she asked. He seemed to love his brothers. Would it mean more superpowered individuals on the planet?
"Not yet."
"And you have a sister, right?" He did not know her name but had learned enough about the high priestess to know she had two daughters.
"Yes," her head dropped, "though, once I attended the academy, we drifted apart. I still try to catch up whenever I have the chance, but we are both busy with life."
There was another moment of silence. Both absorbed what they had learned, waiting.
"What now?" she asked. The ice cream and the tea were excellent. It would be a shame if it ended here.
"Any place you wanted to visit but didn't have the time for?" he asked. It was a bit past noon in Volmer; they still had plenty of time.
"Letting me choose? A true gentleman," she teased.
He rolled his shoulders. "Honestly, this is the first time I am going out with someone. Unless you want something classic like a cinema or an amusement park, I thought we could make use of the teleporter."
Skyler and Kael, but mostly Kael, had tried to set up blind dates. He had not gone to any, and they dropped the matter eventually.
"Your first time dating? You are kidding, right?" She found it hard to believe he had not been snatched yet, much less gone on a date before. He was tall, handsome, intelligent, and dare she say, buffier than he was yesterday.
"I didn't always look like this, nor did I socialize much," he said. The females in his circle tended to be too politically minded for him to consider any interactions.
That explained the treatment of the villagers. "My first time out on a date too, actually." She did receive offers but just never had the time for them.
"I know," she raised her head, standing straight, "the balloon tours over the Solmara ruins." As the ruined capital of the empire was on the lands of the Kingdom, she could not visit due to lack of time and military regulations. Part of the RIC or not, she could not travel outside the Union unless on business.
"It's nighttime there. Are you up for breaking a few laws?" he asked. The night tours had been cancelled a few years back due to security reasons.
"Inviting me to commit a crime in the Kingdom?" she grinned like a mean cat. "Why, of course I am."
—
Solmara Ruins
"Should we worry about cameras?" she asked, lockpicking the gate.
"No, I have that covered. Where did you learn how to lockpick?"
"Our lockers are old. Sometimes the key doesn't work, and you have to get creative."
He checked the area. The balloons were separated into parts, and the baskets, burners, tanks, and the nylon part were kept in storage.
"You get the propane tanks; I'll handle the basket and the nylon." The tanks were kept in a separate, ventilated storage shed for security. Everything else was in the same building.
"Any idea where they are?"
"Here," he said, ordering Nax to teleport a visor in his hand. She took the light-orange-colored device, putting it on.
The screen came to life, showing her the path with arrows, just like in a video game.
"That's very convenient," she muttered, leaving to get the tanks.
The storage door for the nylon envelopes had a simple lock. He didn't know how to pick it open, unlike his companion, but jamming the keyhole with nanobots did the job. The cameras were already hacked, leaving him to move with impunity.
He picked an envelope for a small-sized balloon. Even then, it was heavy, around a hundred kilos. The basket was a bit heavier, especially with the burner, but nothing he couldn't carry out.
—
Tomoe picked the door into propane tank storage. The inside was colder than the outside. Given the smallest accident could cause a devastating explosion, the organization was taking safety seriously.
"Why is that damn door open? Did the maintenance guys forget to lock it again?" A voice muttered from the door. Cursing her luck, she looked for a place to hide. The top of the racks was empty. Making her way up with a ladder, she lay down, waiting.
"I don't know. Let's just check inside and go."
She closed her eyes, listening for the footsteps. The muttering guards went past her, did their rounds, and left. She climbed down, checking the door. The guards had locked it up, and this side did not have a keyhole.
Tomoe huffed, checking for an alternative exit. Securing the tanks in her bag, she climbed up to the top of the rack. There was a maintenance hatch leading to the roof. It did not have a lock, just a simple lever. She forced it down, climbing up the open hatch.
Opening the entrance hatch, she surveyed the roof for a way down.
"What are you doing up there?" Her date's face popped up in the visor, startling her.
"Guards locked the door. I am looking for a way down," she said. She held on to the ledge, letting herself slide down before jumping to the wall of the main storage building and back.
"You could have just teleported out," he commented as she landed on the ground.
She leaped to her feet, dusting her hands. "I could have, but it wouldn't have been fun."
"Fair. I triggered a security alarm on the other side of the facility. It'll give us enough time to inflate the balloon and take off," he said.
"Never thought I'd be committing a crime on my first date."
His fingers combed through his hair. "As long as there aren't any damages, it will be fine."
"You are really strong, aren't you?" Those parts needed transport carts to carry. She didn't see one anywhere.
"Imagine that, I have a better physique than you without working a single day for it," he grinned, gesturing at her with his finger moving up and down.
Military PT had given her a toned body. A necessary part of being in the middle of often lethal battles. And it had taken him days to attain a superhuman body.
"Don't say that in a gym," she winked. "They'll lynch you." She knew more than one colleague who was obsessed with physical training.
"I do have a private one in my lab," he muttered, without even knowing why.
"You work out then?" She was sure now. He was buffier than yesterday. Whatever science it was, she wanted a piece as well.
"Not really. It's for my brothers whenever they visit."
"Now I wonder what your lab is like."
He winked. "It'll blow your mind."
The cold inflation took fifteen minutes. The guards were investigating why the security alarm was triggered. By the time they saw a balloon take off, it was too late.
Once in the air, he snapped his fingers. The light system for the night tours was still in place. All he had to do was to hack the digital controls.
"Now this is a great view," she said. The capital of the Virex Empire had been ruined during the Great Betrayal. Its citizens, depending on who they chose to follow, had abandoned it. These days, it was just another tourist spot in the Kelmar Kingdom.
Ruins they might be, but Emperor Noah had the city constructed to last for centuries. The districts that surrounded the palace were in good condition. The palace itself had suffered the greatest damage. Its large dome had come crashing down due to the explosions. The interior had been scorched by the flames. Its gardens had regrown, overtaking the entire building.
"Attention intruders, please come down for your safety. It is dangerous up there," a crackling sound called from below.
The security had finally realized there was an unauthorized balloon.
Thairon threw a device to the ground. A flimsy, transparent screen covered the basket, creating screens that blocked the view from the other side.
"What does that do?" she asked, touching the field. Her finger went through, and the knuckle was slightly distorted.
"Reflects light to keep us invisible to them. No need for our faces to be plastered on tomorrow's news," he explained. It was something he had created to ambush the black market dealer selling the component from the Glaive to the Hanzimens.
"Ever considered unifying the continent again? With this kind of tech, it would be easy for you," she said, leaning on the edge of the basket.
The guards were still trying to get them down.
He snorted. "I would never willingly take a position that requires me to rule anywhere, much less the whole world."
At most, he'd install democracy and call it a day.
"Not a fan of politics then."
"Yes. I would most likely go off the rails and kill the first person that got on my nerves over something inconsequential."
"So," she said, dragging the vowel out, "most of the nobility?"
He chortled. "Yes." Out of the thirty-eight nobles in the Kingdom, he knew only two that were just humans. He put the rest into categories.
The fools, the arrogant bastards, the cunning bastards, and the arrogant bastards who thought themselves cunning.
She nudged him with her elbow. "Take it from me, you won't find many people crying over them."
He landed the balloon on the far end of the city. Leaving behind a sizable amount of aurels as an apology, he teleported out with his date for lunch.
Chapter 8 - Dragon Attack
New
Samael61
I trust you know where the happy button is?
- Joined
- Apr 6, 2025
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- 558
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- 31,092
Hatsuzumi
"That was fun," she said as she stretched her arms.
"I am surprised a soldier girl like you finds breaking the law fun." Not that he didn't find the act fun—far from it.
She looped her arm around his, pulling him out of the alley. "The military is all rules and regulations. It feels great to let loose like this."
"Why did you even join the army then?" he asked. It certainly couldn't be because she was selfless.
She smiled at him with her eyes closed. "That's personal."
"Alright. What now?" Her private life was hers unless she wanted to share.
"Well, why don't I take you somewhere nice this time?"
"Lead the way."
The destination was a cozy food stand. A delightful aroma of spices and herbs wafted out. An elderly couple was in the middle of cooking. Upon seeing Tomoe, both stopped, welcoming her inside with smiles.
Then came the questions regarding him. The couple thought him to be an old man at first, but Tomoe was quick to claim he was an albino. It was a convenient excuse, and he did not bother correcting it.
The color would take a couple more days before settling in fully.
She ordered for him. The bowl of noodles in beef broth was just as good as the smell radiating from the stand indicated, if not better.
He ate six bowls.
The stand owners had laughed heartily, praising his healthy appetite. Tomoe had already seen him demolish a small feast.
"Do you just enjoy eating, or is it related to your condition?" she asked, waving her empty glass towards him.
"Both, I suppose," he shrugged. "Your mother must have told you my state when I arrived at the temple."
"She did." She knew of his little stunt to convince her mother to translate the scroll.
"Let's just say when it came to a certain line of research, I succeeded more than I aspired to. Not being able to eat anything for months certainly makes you appreciate it."
"Now, I am getting my body back in shape, and I get to eat all I want without worrying about the consequences," he winked.
The nanobots turned the surplus nutrition to muscle, improved his bodily functions, and replicated through the hive. Once he attained a good enough physique, his body would just process the excess to fuel his new consciousness.
He could eat forever and not gain a single gram of fat more than necessary for his fat-to-muscle ratio.
"You lucky bastard," she swore. She always missed the food of her homeland in Tersus Base. Unfortunately, she could not eat everything she wanted. Picking what craving to satisfy was always tough.
And he could just eat all of it without a worry.
He laughed at her expression.
Leaving the food stand with farewells, she took him on a trip until dinner. He saw the less known parts of the city. A small enclosure to feed birds, more carts for food, especially dessert, and finally the Emerald Plaza to rent kites.
It was peaceful and soothing.
When they said farewell at the end of the day, it was with the promise to meet tomorrow.
She had two more days of vacation. The last day would be spent preparing and traveling back to Meltral.
—
Kenzoku
At her behest, the destination was Kenzoku.
The lack of CCTV made it easy to teleport inside. They had quickly blended in with the tourists. The town was silent compared to most places he had been. The stone roads were surrounded by trees, creating a cover against the wind and the sun.
He spotted a cafe around the corner. Under the shade of two lions, they ordered hot chocolate. The purple leaves allowed tiny rays of sunlight, enough to keep it pleasantly warm.
"You know, I could actually make regular trips here to relax."
"Well," she raised her mug at him, "when travelling isn't an issue, you can do a lot of things."
He leaned back, smiling. The town, with its entirely wooden construction, looked out of place among the cities of skyscrapers and metal monstrosities.
Its simplicity made it the perfect location to take a step back from the overwhelming chaos of modern life.
The day was spent exploring Kenzoku before they returned home.
—
Hatsuzumi
"I usually prefer to sleep as much as I can, but hanging with you like this was really relaxing," she said. The light turned red for pedestrians, and she stopped.
"Glad to hear that." He said. They had bought two cakes to go. She knew a park with a serene atmosphere to eat the desserts.
"Keep the bracelet. You never know if you might need it. I can contact you through it too."
"That's great." She turned her wrist over, inspecting the silver bracelet. "I wouldn't agree to a long-distance relationship, but with you, we can meet up in Montreal every weekend."
It wouldn't be fair to have anyone make the trip to Meltral just for a couple of hours during her leave.
"I'll bring your mother too if you want…." Thairon said, falling strangely silent.
"Thank you, I appreciate that," Tomoe said, noticing the strange look in his eyes. "What?"
Thairon raised his arm, index finger extended. The fabric of reality was breaking before their eyes.
"Damn it."
The civilians started running away. Cars were abandoned due to the traffic, and the workers on the mall construction across the street were trying to make their way down.
Tomoe dragged him to take cover near the bakery.
She cursed under her breath once the rupture materialized fully. It reached over three stories high and was wide enough to consume parts of the buildings on both sides. A massive reptilian head came through first, followed by a body twice the width of an airliner. It had to tuck its wings and push through to get out.
The dark-scaled monster stood on all fours, surveying the new, foreign environment. It roared out a word over and over again. It reared its head, and the flames darkened the sky with black clouds.
What was more dangerous than a monster was one that could speak.
The situation got worse when it took off. The flames came down on the buildings. Glass exploded due to thermal shock, sending half-molten shrapnel everywhere.
"If that thing isn't stopped, there is no telling what kind of damage it will cause. Please tell me you have weapons."
"Only for anti-personnel shock guns. Nothing that will harm it."
"Really?!" He had teleporters but no highly advanced weapons?
"Calm down, let's think this through."
More often than not, he had to improvise weapons. He could do the same here. Both examined the area for anything that could be used to stop the dragon.
"Can you ride that propane gas truck?" He asked at the same time as she said, "Can you teleport up to that crane?"
A truck carrying propane gas tanks for household usage was abandoned near the cafe, and the construction site had a crane.
He shared a look with her, and both nodded.
"You knock the dragon down, and I drive that truck right into it. I'll need an explosive though." Jury rigging something would take too long, and the dragon did not seem interested in staying in the same area.
With a mental command, Nax teleported a plasma energy cell right above him. He caught it, ordering the nanites to seep in. When the signal was given, they would destabilize the containment field. The leaking plasma would eat through the gas tank.
"Here, secure it on a gas tank."
"Got it." She sprinted out of cover, running for the truck.
"Nax, let's go," he muttered. The teleportation wasn't precise enough to land him right inside the crane cabin.
It took a second for the gravity to take hold of him above the crane cabin. He held his hands out, catching the yellow metal bars, and slipped inside. He kicked the glass, breaking it open.
The key wasn't inside. He quickly searched for an alternative and jabbed a finger into the keyhole. The nanites took the shape of the key. He twisted it, and the machine came to life.
Figuring out the controls was simple.
The dragon was busy burning down the streets, in between screaming out a string of words in challenge. Whatever or whoever it was seeking must have made it furious.
Though it was all assumptions at this point.
He redirected the crane at full speed. The heavy metal arm struck the left wing, crumpling the finger struts like paper. Unable to maintain altitude with a broken wing, the dragon slammed on the ground, flattening cars and causing more damage.
The heavy truck pushed the abandoned vehicles aside, racing at the downed monster.
It rose to all fours, tucking both wings to avoid any more wounds. The arm could not reach it on the ground. He lowered the hook, swinging it like a wrecking ball. It scraped the walls but found the target.
The sharp end broke through the scales, forcing the dragon to back into a two-story building.
Right as the truck crashed into its abdomen.
He slipped out of the window, leaping down to a roof, and Nax teleported him away from the explosion that would follow in seconds.
—
Fortunately, the driver had left the keys inside when abandoning the truck. Using her coat to tie the improvised explosive between two tanks, she sat on the driver's seat. Hitting the gas, the wheels spun for a second before the truck moved.
She held on tightly as the truck jolted with each vehicle pushed aside.
Her date had brought the dragon down just in time.
Pressing the accelerator down for maximum possible speed, she threw herself out of the truck. The teleporter took her away, but the initial momentum stayed. Tucking herself with arms around her head, she rolled, stopping when her back hit a tree.
Even from here, she could feel the shockwave of the explosion. Orange flames rose above the buildings, quickly followed by a second one that sent smoke to the sky with fried guts raining down.
Tomoe cursed her luck. Everything had been going so great too.
—
He reached down, holding the bracelet out. The silver-gray ray scanned Tomoe from head to toe. Except for some bruises, mostly the one on her back, she was not wounded.
He helped her up. Neural connection to satellites showed that the dragon was dead. The initial explosion ignited its gas bladder, causing a secondary explosion. The torso and the wings were gone entirely, leaving behind charred limbs and the head.
And a ton of soft flesh from the internal organs.
—
Temple of the Gates
"That's definitely going to stay for a while," she grumbled. The bruise on her back was burning now. She was lucky to not break anything with how hard she hit the tree.
Thairon held his hand out, palm facing upwards. A white injector with a glass capsule containing a mint green liquid inside dropped down.
"Here, hold out your arm."
"More of your genius at play?"
"It is a regenerative compound. Your bruises will be gone in an hour, unless you want to keep them." He had created it to slow down his cellular degeneration, and it worked excellently for most wounds one would suffer.
She glanced at the injector, mind racing. There were a million logical reasons in her mind to refuse. They knew each other for a week, and taking whatever was in that container could have unforeseen repercussions.
She held her arm out, rolling the sleeve back.
He put the tip of the injector on her shoulder. Clamps locked in place, and he pushed the trigger slowly.
The burning feeling on her back left its place to a cool, pleasant feeling, as if she were swimming in a pool on a particularly hot summer day.
"Quick thinking back there. This was one of the shortest fights I had, and most importantly, no casualties," she said, doing a double take.
"There are no casualties, right?" she asked. With how quickly they abandoned the place to avoid the spotlight, she could not be sure.
"Give me a second," he said. The clamps retracted, and he teleported the empty injector away.
He accessed the satellite again, seeing everything it detected on the ground. There were wounded civilians, but the dragon did not have the time to cause any serious damage. The emergency response teams were already on site, containing the situation.
"No casualties."
She sighed, slow and loud, letting all her frustration bleed out. "Great."
"I only wish every battle was like this."
"Take what victories you can get."
"Sure. Seeing as the city is going to be on alert, why don't we eat inside?" The date had ended with a bang, but she wasn't complaining.
"Works for me." Nax had already scrubbed their images from all public channels, and there were no witnesses in the area of the rupture. They could just enjoy the rest of the day.
—
Yumiko had cupped her daughter's face the second she saw her, checking for wounds.
"Tomoe, are you alright? I heard there was a rupture downtown."
She gently pried her mother's hands off. "I am fine, Mom; we dealt with it."
"You two? How?"
She scratched her head, explaining what had transpired with a strained smile.
Yumiko was not amused with her daughter driving a gas tank truck to the belly of a dragon and jumping out of it.
While the vehicle was at full speed.
"And you are not wounded?"
"Just some bruises." She pulled him closer by the arm. "The genius boy here had medicine to heal it all in the blink of an eye."
"An hour, as I said, but yes."
"I see." She brought her hands together, bowing slightly in gratitude. "It appears I owe you greatly now, not only for my daughter, but also for your assistance in stopping that creature."
He bowed back. "You are welcome."
"And we lost our desserts, wonderful."
The left corner of his lips curled upwards as the abandoned dessert boxes were teleported on the ground.
Yumiko's eyes widened, while her daughter just chuckled.
She was accommodating enough to give them a private room and drinks to accompany the cakes. The rest of the day was spent lazing around the temple. She showed him parts of her childhood, volunteered to help with food distribution—which he joined as well—and finally, cooked a simple dinner for both.
At night, he left with the promise to return tomorrow and take her to the airport.
He could have teleported her to Tersus, but the ticket was already bought. The RIC also required proof that she had travelled by plane to pay for the ticket. Overall, it would not be worth the trouble.
—
"It will be fine. I'll catch up on my sleep."
"Alright. Take care over there, and give me a call when you are free."
She waved at him, going through the gate to board her plane.
He waved back and, once she was out of sight, returned to Glassport.
"That was fun," she said as she stretched her arms.
"I am surprised a soldier girl like you finds breaking the law fun." Not that he didn't find the act fun—far from it.
She looped her arm around his, pulling him out of the alley. "The military is all rules and regulations. It feels great to let loose like this."
"Why did you even join the army then?" he asked. It certainly couldn't be because she was selfless.
She smiled at him with her eyes closed. "That's personal."
"Alright. What now?" Her private life was hers unless she wanted to share.
"Well, why don't I take you somewhere nice this time?"
"Lead the way."
The destination was a cozy food stand. A delightful aroma of spices and herbs wafted out. An elderly couple was in the middle of cooking. Upon seeing Tomoe, both stopped, welcoming her inside with smiles.
Then came the questions regarding him. The couple thought him to be an old man at first, but Tomoe was quick to claim he was an albino. It was a convenient excuse, and he did not bother correcting it.
The color would take a couple more days before settling in fully.
She ordered for him. The bowl of noodles in beef broth was just as good as the smell radiating from the stand indicated, if not better.
He ate six bowls.
The stand owners had laughed heartily, praising his healthy appetite. Tomoe had already seen him demolish a small feast.
"Do you just enjoy eating, or is it related to your condition?" she asked, waving her empty glass towards him.
"Both, I suppose," he shrugged. "Your mother must have told you my state when I arrived at the temple."
"She did." She knew of his little stunt to convince her mother to translate the scroll.
"Let's just say when it came to a certain line of research, I succeeded more than I aspired to. Not being able to eat anything for months certainly makes you appreciate it."
"Now, I am getting my body back in shape, and I get to eat all I want without worrying about the consequences," he winked.
The nanobots turned the surplus nutrition to muscle, improved his bodily functions, and replicated through the hive. Once he attained a good enough physique, his body would just process the excess to fuel his new consciousness.
He could eat forever and not gain a single gram of fat more than necessary for his fat-to-muscle ratio.
"You lucky bastard," she swore. She always missed the food of her homeland in Tersus Base. Unfortunately, she could not eat everything she wanted. Picking what craving to satisfy was always tough.
And he could just eat all of it without a worry.
He laughed at her expression.
Leaving the food stand with farewells, she took him on a trip until dinner. He saw the less known parts of the city. A small enclosure to feed birds, more carts for food, especially dessert, and finally the Emerald Plaza to rent kites.
It was peaceful and soothing.
When they said farewell at the end of the day, it was with the promise to meet tomorrow.
She had two more days of vacation. The last day would be spent preparing and traveling back to Meltral.
—
Kenzoku
At her behest, the destination was Kenzoku.
The lack of CCTV made it easy to teleport inside. They had quickly blended in with the tourists. The town was silent compared to most places he had been. The stone roads were surrounded by trees, creating a cover against the wind and the sun.
He spotted a cafe around the corner. Under the shade of two lions, they ordered hot chocolate. The purple leaves allowed tiny rays of sunlight, enough to keep it pleasantly warm.
"You know, I could actually make regular trips here to relax."
"Well," she raised her mug at him, "when travelling isn't an issue, you can do a lot of things."
He leaned back, smiling. The town, with its entirely wooden construction, looked out of place among the cities of skyscrapers and metal monstrosities.
Its simplicity made it the perfect location to take a step back from the overwhelming chaos of modern life.
The day was spent exploring Kenzoku before they returned home.
—
Hatsuzumi
"I usually prefer to sleep as much as I can, but hanging with you like this was really relaxing," she said. The light turned red for pedestrians, and she stopped.
"Glad to hear that." He said. They had bought two cakes to go. She knew a park with a serene atmosphere to eat the desserts.
"Keep the bracelet. You never know if you might need it. I can contact you through it too."
"That's great." She turned her wrist over, inspecting the silver bracelet. "I wouldn't agree to a long-distance relationship, but with you, we can meet up in Montreal every weekend."
It wouldn't be fair to have anyone make the trip to Meltral just for a couple of hours during her leave.
"I'll bring your mother too if you want…." Thairon said, falling strangely silent.
"Thank you, I appreciate that," Tomoe said, noticing the strange look in his eyes. "What?"
Thairon raised his arm, index finger extended. The fabric of reality was breaking before their eyes.
"Damn it."
The civilians started running away. Cars were abandoned due to the traffic, and the workers on the mall construction across the street were trying to make their way down.
Tomoe dragged him to take cover near the bakery.
She cursed under her breath once the rupture materialized fully. It reached over three stories high and was wide enough to consume parts of the buildings on both sides. A massive reptilian head came through first, followed by a body twice the width of an airliner. It had to tuck its wings and push through to get out.
The dark-scaled monster stood on all fours, surveying the new, foreign environment. It roared out a word over and over again. It reared its head, and the flames darkened the sky with black clouds.
What was more dangerous than a monster was one that could speak.
The situation got worse when it took off. The flames came down on the buildings. Glass exploded due to thermal shock, sending half-molten shrapnel everywhere.
"If that thing isn't stopped, there is no telling what kind of damage it will cause. Please tell me you have weapons."
"Only for anti-personnel shock guns. Nothing that will harm it."
"Really?!" He had teleporters but no highly advanced weapons?
"Calm down, let's think this through."
More often than not, he had to improvise weapons. He could do the same here. Both examined the area for anything that could be used to stop the dragon.
"Can you ride that propane gas truck?" He asked at the same time as she said, "Can you teleport up to that crane?"
A truck carrying propane gas tanks for household usage was abandoned near the cafe, and the construction site had a crane.
He shared a look with her, and both nodded.
"You knock the dragon down, and I drive that truck right into it. I'll need an explosive though." Jury rigging something would take too long, and the dragon did not seem interested in staying in the same area.
With a mental command, Nax teleported a plasma energy cell right above him. He caught it, ordering the nanites to seep in. When the signal was given, they would destabilize the containment field. The leaking plasma would eat through the gas tank.
"Here, secure it on a gas tank."
"Got it." She sprinted out of cover, running for the truck.
"Nax, let's go," he muttered. The teleportation wasn't precise enough to land him right inside the crane cabin.
It took a second for the gravity to take hold of him above the crane cabin. He held his hands out, catching the yellow metal bars, and slipped inside. He kicked the glass, breaking it open.
The key wasn't inside. He quickly searched for an alternative and jabbed a finger into the keyhole. The nanites took the shape of the key. He twisted it, and the machine came to life.
Figuring out the controls was simple.
The dragon was busy burning down the streets, in between screaming out a string of words in challenge. Whatever or whoever it was seeking must have made it furious.
Though it was all assumptions at this point.
He redirected the crane at full speed. The heavy metal arm struck the left wing, crumpling the finger struts like paper. Unable to maintain altitude with a broken wing, the dragon slammed on the ground, flattening cars and causing more damage.
The heavy truck pushed the abandoned vehicles aside, racing at the downed monster.
It rose to all fours, tucking both wings to avoid any more wounds. The arm could not reach it on the ground. He lowered the hook, swinging it like a wrecking ball. It scraped the walls but found the target.
The sharp end broke through the scales, forcing the dragon to back into a two-story building.
Right as the truck crashed into its abdomen.
He slipped out of the window, leaping down to a roof, and Nax teleported him away from the explosion that would follow in seconds.
—
Fortunately, the driver had left the keys inside when abandoning the truck. Using her coat to tie the improvised explosive between two tanks, she sat on the driver's seat. Hitting the gas, the wheels spun for a second before the truck moved.
She held on tightly as the truck jolted with each vehicle pushed aside.
Her date had brought the dragon down just in time.
Pressing the accelerator down for maximum possible speed, she threw herself out of the truck. The teleporter took her away, but the initial momentum stayed. Tucking herself with arms around her head, she rolled, stopping when her back hit a tree.
Even from here, she could feel the shockwave of the explosion. Orange flames rose above the buildings, quickly followed by a second one that sent smoke to the sky with fried guts raining down.
Tomoe cursed her luck. Everything had been going so great too.
—
He reached down, holding the bracelet out. The silver-gray ray scanned Tomoe from head to toe. Except for some bruises, mostly the one on her back, she was not wounded.
He helped her up. Neural connection to satellites showed that the dragon was dead. The initial explosion ignited its gas bladder, causing a secondary explosion. The torso and the wings were gone entirely, leaving behind charred limbs and the head.
And a ton of soft flesh from the internal organs.
—
Temple of the Gates
"That's definitely going to stay for a while," she grumbled. The bruise on her back was burning now. She was lucky to not break anything with how hard she hit the tree.
Thairon held his hand out, palm facing upwards. A white injector with a glass capsule containing a mint green liquid inside dropped down.
"Here, hold out your arm."
"More of your genius at play?"
"It is a regenerative compound. Your bruises will be gone in an hour, unless you want to keep them." He had created it to slow down his cellular degeneration, and it worked excellently for most wounds one would suffer.
She glanced at the injector, mind racing. There were a million logical reasons in her mind to refuse. They knew each other for a week, and taking whatever was in that container could have unforeseen repercussions.
She held her arm out, rolling the sleeve back.
He put the tip of the injector on her shoulder. Clamps locked in place, and he pushed the trigger slowly.
The burning feeling on her back left its place to a cool, pleasant feeling, as if she were swimming in a pool on a particularly hot summer day.
"Quick thinking back there. This was one of the shortest fights I had, and most importantly, no casualties," she said, doing a double take.
"There are no casualties, right?" she asked. With how quickly they abandoned the place to avoid the spotlight, she could not be sure.
"Give me a second," he said. The clamps retracted, and he teleported the empty injector away.
He accessed the satellite again, seeing everything it detected on the ground. There were wounded civilians, but the dragon did not have the time to cause any serious damage. The emergency response teams were already on site, containing the situation.
"No casualties."
She sighed, slow and loud, letting all her frustration bleed out. "Great."
"I only wish every battle was like this."
"Take what victories you can get."
"Sure. Seeing as the city is going to be on alert, why don't we eat inside?" The date had ended with a bang, but she wasn't complaining.
"Works for me." Nax had already scrubbed their images from all public channels, and there were no witnesses in the area of the rupture. They could just enjoy the rest of the day.
—
Yumiko had cupped her daughter's face the second she saw her, checking for wounds.
"Tomoe, are you alright? I heard there was a rupture downtown."
She gently pried her mother's hands off. "I am fine, Mom; we dealt with it."
"You two? How?"
She scratched her head, explaining what had transpired with a strained smile.
Yumiko was not amused with her daughter driving a gas tank truck to the belly of a dragon and jumping out of it.
While the vehicle was at full speed.
"And you are not wounded?"
"Just some bruises." She pulled him closer by the arm. "The genius boy here had medicine to heal it all in the blink of an eye."
"An hour, as I said, but yes."
"I see." She brought her hands together, bowing slightly in gratitude. "It appears I owe you greatly now, not only for my daughter, but also for your assistance in stopping that creature."
He bowed back. "You are welcome."
"And we lost our desserts, wonderful."
The left corner of his lips curled upwards as the abandoned dessert boxes were teleported on the ground.
Yumiko's eyes widened, while her daughter just chuckled.
She was accommodating enough to give them a private room and drinks to accompany the cakes. The rest of the day was spent lazing around the temple. She showed him parts of her childhood, volunteered to help with food distribution—which he joined as well—and finally, cooked a simple dinner for both.
At night, he left with the promise to return tomorrow and take her to the airport.
He could have teleported her to Tersus, but the ticket was already bought. The RIC also required proof that she had travelled by plane to pay for the ticket. Overall, it would not be worth the trouble.
—
"It will be fine. I'll catch up on my sleep."
"Alright. Take care over there, and give me a call when you are free."
She waved at him, going through the gate to board her plane.
He waved back and, once she was out of sight, returned to Glassport.
Chapter 9 - Deliberations
New
Samael61
I trust you know where the happy button is?
- Joined
- Apr 6, 2025
- Messages
- 558
- Likes received
- 31,092
She sank into the seat.
The rupture, and the dragon that had come out of it, would have led to a disaster. An agitated, living, breathing, flying flame thrower could burn down entire blocks. Could the nearest RIC base, or the local military garrison, react before her home was in danger?
Her head dropped forward, forehead resting on the seat in front. She wrapped her arms around herself.
That creature wasn't something she could repel alone. Even if, by some miracle, she did, would she have survived?
Countless questions of what ifs plagued her mind.
She knew they were all pointless, all because of one man. A man that was centuries, even millennia, beyond this world's technological level.
She didn't know what to think about him. Gratitude was there, but the rest of her opinions needed time before crystallizing.
Sleep did not find her easily, nor was it a pleasant one when it did. The visions of the dragon appeared whenever she closed her eyes.
—
Glassport
"What are we working on now?" Nax asked. The fabricator was already warming up.
"Weapons."
"Ooh, nice." His holographic avatar suddenly had a general's uniform covered in medals and pins. "It was bound to get more difficult for you to improvise weapons on the spot to kill someone."
"I can still improvise plenty. However, the conclusions are starting to become increasingly messy."
He willed the satellite image of the aftermath of the rupture on Hatsuzumi onto a screen. The area surrounding the rupture had been spared much of the damage. Two of the buildings where the explosions took place were ruined, and the massive corpse of the dragon littered the street.
Compared to what could have happened, he knew this was nothing.
"Can't argue with that."
He entered the design room. The sterile-white, scale-like plates covering the floor, walls, and ceiling flexed like a contorting muscle. His palm faced the floor and fingers curled into a claw.
The red bio-electricity flowed out, a byproduct of the imperfect attempt to transcend the boundaries of flesh. He accessed the projectors, and everything he had imagined in the short time following the dragon attack flowed out.
Infantry weapons, explosives, aircraft, energy shielding, and, most importantly, an early rupture detection system.
He started small.
Everything except the most basic rifle was shelved into the database. Rectangular and silver-white, carrying the same scaled pattern, the plasma inside the electromagnetic containment chamber would be ejected in different patterns by the magnetic guidance chamber.
Semi-automatic mode for precision, range, and ammo efficiency, like a sniper, and a fully automatic mode for suppression of large crowds and close quarters.
The weapon was nothing new; rather, it was several existing components brought together. The plasma power cell was from his maintenance bots, the electromagnetic containment and guidance from the reactor, and the nanolaminate alloy was from everywhere since he had replaced most of the interior with the same material.
He chuckled with a shake of his head. How easy it was to build these weapons when even Calidex Arms could only dream of directed energy weapons.
He followed with a rocket launcher. The aesthetics stayed the same, but he moved the power cell to the rear. No backblast meant he could use the extra space for a larger power source. Three shots per cell meant three times the firepower. The finishing touch was a highly advanced and small targeting screen. It painted the target with a specific magnetic signature for the guidance system.
Shaped blast for armor, scattering mode to act as rain plasma down on crowds.
A six-barreled rotary gun for a ridiculous fire rate, grenades that violently expelled jet-like plasma in a twenty-meter radius, a shotgun firing plasma pellets, and a long-range precision rifle for fire support.
He could invade any military base in the world with these and win.
"Boss, why don't you take a break? You've been at this for twelve hours already."
He stopped, eyes sliding to the bracelet to check the time. "The lack of physical indicators for exhaustion makes me lose track of time."
"I'll work on the power armor and have a prototype ready for testing. You go and rest."
"Alright. Have enough weapons manufactured to arm a company."
"Got it."
Dinner was already waiting for him. He ate, took a shower, and hit the bed.
—
He was freshening up when Nax popped up without the usual dramatics.
"I have three pieces of news for you."
He glanced at the hologram for a beat, then continued to wash his face.
"First, someone recorded a video regarding the condition of the workers in the manufacturing centers," he said. A screen appeared next to him, showing tired workers without any safety equipment. One collapsed, only to be dragged away by the security and replaced.
Crowded sleeping quarters with dim lights and no air conditioner, plenty of sick workers coughing and falling.
He could see that it wasn't some digital mishap. Someone had actually hired actors to paint a gritty picture for his company.
"Workers that we don't have? That ought to be fun." He chuckled. Whoever did this probably wanted to either blackmail him or gain access to his manufacturing centers.
"Yes, the next one is tied to it. Since you registered yourself as the company's founder and sole owner, you are being summoned to testify before the Grand Council."
"Yay, I love nothing more than answering to those old men."
"Since you grew too much, too quickly, and without letting anyone else take a piece of the pie, some parties are miffed." Nax brought forward all the messages and letters sent to the company for investment, shares, and collaborations. Every single one was left unanswered.
"Uh huh."
"And this is subjectively the worst, but your father is summoning you to the palace."
He stopped, towel halfway to his face. "For what?" He had not spoken to them in around three years now. There were invitations to dinners, galas, and receptions, but he had not answered any.
They should have gotten the message by now.
"He didn't say. Apparently it is urgent."
"And?"
"Well, the meeting room is devoid of everything working with electricity, but you remember Edward Coline?" he asked, reflecting the image of the tall blonde man in question.
"The Graf of Lasline." How could he forget the man from whom he had obtained the funds for his research?
"He called you after meeting with him and his daughter."
"Could be about how I fixed her," he thought. "Tell him I am dead or something. Not like they will recognize me." Except for the shape of his face and voice, he was completely unrecognizable.
They only knew of an official resident in Glassport, not the labs. He could safely ignore them.
"And the summon to the Grand Council?" The digital scan of the official summons letter glared at him. He had half the mind to just tear it up and send the remains back to the Grand Council.
"Just tell them they are free to inspect whichever facility they want."
"It's a good thing we have a small arsenal of weapons now. You are going to need them when this blows in your face."
"What are they going to do, send me a message on how disappointed they are?"
"No, simply seize your assets, and the tech inside," he replied, bringing forward another screen. A cursor glimpse showed that it was an action plan by the council to seize his assets should he fail to arrive to testify.
"Should I start shutting the company down, damage the planetary economy, and ruin tens of thousands of lives?"
The question was rhetorical. He knew his creator would never choose to cause so much chaos because he did not want to deal with politics. He'd just find a way to humiliate them instead.
"You know, I might just do that out of spite."
"Your breakfast is ready. I already prepared teleportation locations for both occasions."
"Whatever," he said with a low, growling voice.
The breakfast was a dull affair. His mind was occupied with his parents. He couldn't even enjoy the mushroom and chicken wrap. He left the table, food half finished.
—
Thermion
Moonrise Palace
He stood before the first security checkpoint. Sliding his ID card into the slot, the glass doors opened.
"What brings you to the palace today?"
He glanced at the security. "I have an appointment with my parents." He laid his palm on the scanner. Much had changed regarding his physique, but the handprint would pass the scan.
"Prince Thairon? You look… different," the guard behind the glass window said.
"I hit a growth spurt." He laid his hand on the monitor. His old photos in the database disappeared, leaving their place for his current look. "You should refresh the page; it is not updated."
The man looked at the armed guards. He pressed the refresh button. The brown-haired, brown-eyed man had left its place for a sharp, silver look.
He walked out of the checkpoint without looking back.
"My prince, please wait."
He turned around. The colonel responsible for the security of the palace was approaching him with, "What is it?"
"Prince Thairon, is it really you?"
"I can knock out another one of your men if you want."
"We will escort you inside, this way."
—
The colonel whispered something to the royal guards at the door. The royal guard appraised him before whispering back. It looked like the back and forth would continue longer than he was willing to wait.
The soldiers on either side immediately stiffened when he took a step forward. Index fingers rested on the trigger guard. They would not fire without an order or unless they believed he was a threat.
Both royal guards protested as he tried to pass. He pushed them aside. His enhanced strength sent them to the ground with the barest effort. The colonel tried to reach for him, but he had already nudged the door open.
"What is this commotion?" His father rose from his seat, luscious brown locks waving.
"The guards were being idiots. I don't have the whole day to wait for your leisure," he said.
"Who are you?" Octavian asked. He was just about to order the guards to take the intruder away when his wife huffed.
"There is only one person so impetuous enough to barge inside the Royal Office."
"You know me so well, Mother," he replied with a lopsided grin.
His father tilted his head, dismissing the guards. Without waiting for permission, he took the only available seat. He first glanced at his parents, sitting on the right side of the refreshment table, and then at Graf Edward Coline with his daughter on the left.
"So, what is this about?"
His father looked at him, waiting. When he said nothing else, Octavian just pinched the bridge of his nose. "What happened to you?"
"I don't know. I woke up one day like this." Revealing the genetic modifications would be just asking for trouble.
"Oh really?" she said, one eyebrow rising. "You don't know how you ended up in this state? Perhaps I overestimated your intelligence for science."
He gave her a flat look. "The point, if you would."
"Are you really the one who saved me?"
"Saved you?" he asked, squinting his left eye. "I healed you for a sizable amount of money, not out of charity." The shine in her eyes and the desire in her glance painted a small picture.
"So it was you," she thought, glancing at the young lady. She had seen her once, long ago, bedridden, with the intelligence of an infant due to her developmental disorder.
Now, she was the pride and joy of Edward Coline.
Loretta preened, fixing her blond hair and straightening her long, emerald green dress.
"The point is, my prince," Edward began. "Lasline has never been into capital politics. We never took sides or supported anyone. But now, we came to his grace with an offer. If you agree to marry my daughter and become her consort as the future Lady of Graf, we will break our neutrality. The full might of House Coline will support the crown."
"I," he cracked his neck, and continued after a pause, "don't care for any of the points you mentioned."
The politics, the power struggle, and the alliances were not subjects he ever dabbled in. Nor did he ever intend to.
His blunt tone wiped the expectant look on the faces of the Coline family. His mother closed her green eyes, lips thinning. His father took a deep breath, a slight tremble going up his neck.
"But…"
"But what? Whether you are allied with my parents or not doesn't concern me. I am not interested in ruling, or even taking administrative duties. In addition, I find these political marriages primitive."
They were at the edge of reaching space yet wanted to arrange a marriage between two people just for an alliance? It served to remind him why he hated the capital.
"I see," Edward said, turning to his daughter. She lowered her head, avoiding eye contact, still as a statue.
"Great," he rose from the chair. "Since we are done here, I have actually important matters to see to."
He left just as quickly as he had come.
—
Once his rebellious son was out, Octavian sighed deeply. "As you can see, he is headstrong, stubborn, and would not make a good husband for your daughter."
"I was aware of his blunt nature, but this was unexpected. Yet he is the one who my daughter wants," he said.
Loretta raised her head. She was not sad as expected, but resolute.
"Young lady, I have six more sons. Any one of them would make a better husband than Thairon," she said. Meran would be the king and already had a fiancée. But Leander did not and, as the second prince, was the perfect choice.
If she could convince this man, who was a total fool for his daughter.
"I understand Your Grace. However, he is the one I owe everything to."
She just smiled at the young lady. She could try to approach her third son all she wanted; in fact, she would encourage it. After all, Thairon was a master of driving people off.
Octavian cleared his throat. "Returning to the matter of your daughter's miraculous recovery. You never mentioned that Thairon was responsible for it."
It had created an uproar in the medical and political scenes. He had gone as far as to order a non-official investigation to see if Edward Coline had dabbled in illegal activities.
"He wanted fifty billion aurels to heal my daughter and wanted me to keep it quiet. I respected his wishes, as long as he succeeded." Now that the cat was out of the bag, there was no reason to keep it a secret.
Leonora let out a short, humorless laugh. "Now everything makes sense."
How she had raged when Thairon abandoned the academy without graduating. The pride of the Arlex Royal Academy, there one day, gone the next. He had not answered their calls to return, not even when funding for his work was cut off.
He had acquired all the funding he would ever need.
The rupture, and the dragon that had come out of it, would have led to a disaster. An agitated, living, breathing, flying flame thrower could burn down entire blocks. Could the nearest RIC base, or the local military garrison, react before her home was in danger?
Her head dropped forward, forehead resting on the seat in front. She wrapped her arms around herself.
That creature wasn't something she could repel alone. Even if, by some miracle, she did, would she have survived?
Countless questions of what ifs plagued her mind.
She knew they were all pointless, all because of one man. A man that was centuries, even millennia, beyond this world's technological level.
She didn't know what to think about him. Gratitude was there, but the rest of her opinions needed time before crystallizing.
Sleep did not find her easily, nor was it a pleasant one when it did. The visions of the dragon appeared whenever she closed her eyes.
—
Glassport
"What are we working on now?" Nax asked. The fabricator was already warming up.
"Weapons."
"Ooh, nice." His holographic avatar suddenly had a general's uniform covered in medals and pins. "It was bound to get more difficult for you to improvise weapons on the spot to kill someone."
"I can still improvise plenty. However, the conclusions are starting to become increasingly messy."
He willed the satellite image of the aftermath of the rupture on Hatsuzumi onto a screen. The area surrounding the rupture had been spared much of the damage. Two of the buildings where the explosions took place were ruined, and the massive corpse of the dragon littered the street.
Compared to what could have happened, he knew this was nothing.
"Can't argue with that."
He entered the design room. The sterile-white, scale-like plates covering the floor, walls, and ceiling flexed like a contorting muscle. His palm faced the floor and fingers curled into a claw.
The red bio-electricity flowed out, a byproduct of the imperfect attempt to transcend the boundaries of flesh. He accessed the projectors, and everything he had imagined in the short time following the dragon attack flowed out.
Infantry weapons, explosives, aircraft, energy shielding, and, most importantly, an early rupture detection system.
He started small.
Everything except the most basic rifle was shelved into the database. Rectangular and silver-white, carrying the same scaled pattern, the plasma inside the electromagnetic containment chamber would be ejected in different patterns by the magnetic guidance chamber.
Semi-automatic mode for precision, range, and ammo efficiency, like a sniper, and a fully automatic mode for suppression of large crowds and close quarters.
The weapon was nothing new; rather, it was several existing components brought together. The plasma power cell was from his maintenance bots, the electromagnetic containment and guidance from the reactor, and the nanolaminate alloy was from everywhere since he had replaced most of the interior with the same material.
He chuckled with a shake of his head. How easy it was to build these weapons when even Calidex Arms could only dream of directed energy weapons.
He followed with a rocket launcher. The aesthetics stayed the same, but he moved the power cell to the rear. No backblast meant he could use the extra space for a larger power source. Three shots per cell meant three times the firepower. The finishing touch was a highly advanced and small targeting screen. It painted the target with a specific magnetic signature for the guidance system.
Shaped blast for armor, scattering mode to act as rain plasma down on crowds.
A six-barreled rotary gun for a ridiculous fire rate, grenades that violently expelled jet-like plasma in a twenty-meter radius, a shotgun firing plasma pellets, and a long-range precision rifle for fire support.
He could invade any military base in the world with these and win.
"Boss, why don't you take a break? You've been at this for twelve hours already."
He stopped, eyes sliding to the bracelet to check the time. "The lack of physical indicators for exhaustion makes me lose track of time."
"I'll work on the power armor and have a prototype ready for testing. You go and rest."
"Alright. Have enough weapons manufactured to arm a company."
"Got it."
Dinner was already waiting for him. He ate, took a shower, and hit the bed.
—
He was freshening up when Nax popped up without the usual dramatics.
"I have three pieces of news for you."
He glanced at the hologram for a beat, then continued to wash his face.
"First, someone recorded a video regarding the condition of the workers in the manufacturing centers," he said. A screen appeared next to him, showing tired workers without any safety equipment. One collapsed, only to be dragged away by the security and replaced.
Crowded sleeping quarters with dim lights and no air conditioner, plenty of sick workers coughing and falling.
He could see that it wasn't some digital mishap. Someone had actually hired actors to paint a gritty picture for his company.
"Workers that we don't have? That ought to be fun." He chuckled. Whoever did this probably wanted to either blackmail him or gain access to his manufacturing centers.
"Yes, the next one is tied to it. Since you registered yourself as the company's founder and sole owner, you are being summoned to testify before the Grand Council."
"Yay, I love nothing more than answering to those old men."
"Since you grew too much, too quickly, and without letting anyone else take a piece of the pie, some parties are miffed." Nax brought forward all the messages and letters sent to the company for investment, shares, and collaborations. Every single one was left unanswered.
"Uh huh."
"And this is subjectively the worst, but your father is summoning you to the palace."
He stopped, towel halfway to his face. "For what?" He had not spoken to them in around three years now. There were invitations to dinners, galas, and receptions, but he had not answered any.
They should have gotten the message by now.
"He didn't say. Apparently it is urgent."
"And?"
"Well, the meeting room is devoid of everything working with electricity, but you remember Edward Coline?" he asked, reflecting the image of the tall blonde man in question.
"The Graf of Lasline." How could he forget the man from whom he had obtained the funds for his research?
"He called you after meeting with him and his daughter."
"Could be about how I fixed her," he thought. "Tell him I am dead or something. Not like they will recognize me." Except for the shape of his face and voice, he was completely unrecognizable.
They only knew of an official resident in Glassport, not the labs. He could safely ignore them.
"And the summon to the Grand Council?" The digital scan of the official summons letter glared at him. He had half the mind to just tear it up and send the remains back to the Grand Council.
"Just tell them they are free to inspect whichever facility they want."
"It's a good thing we have a small arsenal of weapons now. You are going to need them when this blows in your face."
"What are they going to do, send me a message on how disappointed they are?"
"No, simply seize your assets, and the tech inside," he replied, bringing forward another screen. A cursor glimpse showed that it was an action plan by the council to seize his assets should he fail to arrive to testify.
"Should I start shutting the company down, damage the planetary economy, and ruin tens of thousands of lives?"
The question was rhetorical. He knew his creator would never choose to cause so much chaos because he did not want to deal with politics. He'd just find a way to humiliate them instead.
"You know, I might just do that out of spite."
"Your breakfast is ready. I already prepared teleportation locations for both occasions."
"Whatever," he said with a low, growling voice.
The breakfast was a dull affair. His mind was occupied with his parents. He couldn't even enjoy the mushroom and chicken wrap. He left the table, food half finished.
—
Thermion
Moonrise Palace
He stood before the first security checkpoint. Sliding his ID card into the slot, the glass doors opened.
"What brings you to the palace today?"
He glanced at the security. "I have an appointment with my parents." He laid his palm on the scanner. Much had changed regarding his physique, but the handprint would pass the scan.
"Prince Thairon? You look… different," the guard behind the glass window said.
"I hit a growth spurt." He laid his hand on the monitor. His old photos in the database disappeared, leaving their place for his current look. "You should refresh the page; it is not updated."
The man looked at the armed guards. He pressed the refresh button. The brown-haired, brown-eyed man had left its place for a sharp, silver look.
He walked out of the checkpoint without looking back.
"My prince, please wait."
He turned around. The colonel responsible for the security of the palace was approaching him with, "What is it?"
"Prince Thairon, is it really you?"
"I can knock out another one of your men if you want."
"We will escort you inside, this way."
—
The colonel whispered something to the royal guards at the door. The royal guard appraised him before whispering back. It looked like the back and forth would continue longer than he was willing to wait.
The soldiers on either side immediately stiffened when he took a step forward. Index fingers rested on the trigger guard. They would not fire without an order or unless they believed he was a threat.
Both royal guards protested as he tried to pass. He pushed them aside. His enhanced strength sent them to the ground with the barest effort. The colonel tried to reach for him, but he had already nudged the door open.
"What is this commotion?" His father rose from his seat, luscious brown locks waving.
"The guards were being idiots. I don't have the whole day to wait for your leisure," he said.
"Who are you?" Octavian asked. He was just about to order the guards to take the intruder away when his wife huffed.
"There is only one person so impetuous enough to barge inside the Royal Office."
"You know me so well, Mother," he replied with a lopsided grin.
His father tilted his head, dismissing the guards. Without waiting for permission, he took the only available seat. He first glanced at his parents, sitting on the right side of the refreshment table, and then at Graf Edward Coline with his daughter on the left.
"So, what is this about?"
His father looked at him, waiting. When he said nothing else, Octavian just pinched the bridge of his nose. "What happened to you?"
"I don't know. I woke up one day like this." Revealing the genetic modifications would be just asking for trouble.
"Oh really?" she said, one eyebrow rising. "You don't know how you ended up in this state? Perhaps I overestimated your intelligence for science."
He gave her a flat look. "The point, if you would."
"Are you really the one who saved me?"
"Saved you?" he asked, squinting his left eye. "I healed you for a sizable amount of money, not out of charity." The shine in her eyes and the desire in her glance painted a small picture.
"So it was you," she thought, glancing at the young lady. She had seen her once, long ago, bedridden, with the intelligence of an infant due to her developmental disorder.
Now, she was the pride and joy of Edward Coline.
Loretta preened, fixing her blond hair and straightening her long, emerald green dress.
"The point is, my prince," Edward began. "Lasline has never been into capital politics. We never took sides or supported anyone. But now, we came to his grace with an offer. If you agree to marry my daughter and become her consort as the future Lady of Graf, we will break our neutrality. The full might of House Coline will support the crown."
"I," he cracked his neck, and continued after a pause, "don't care for any of the points you mentioned."
The politics, the power struggle, and the alliances were not subjects he ever dabbled in. Nor did he ever intend to.
His blunt tone wiped the expectant look on the faces of the Coline family. His mother closed her green eyes, lips thinning. His father took a deep breath, a slight tremble going up his neck.
"But…"
"But what? Whether you are allied with my parents or not doesn't concern me. I am not interested in ruling, or even taking administrative duties. In addition, I find these political marriages primitive."
They were at the edge of reaching space yet wanted to arrange a marriage between two people just for an alliance? It served to remind him why he hated the capital.
"I see," Edward said, turning to his daughter. She lowered her head, avoiding eye contact, still as a statue.
"Great," he rose from the chair. "Since we are done here, I have actually important matters to see to."
He left just as quickly as he had come.
—
Once his rebellious son was out, Octavian sighed deeply. "As you can see, he is headstrong, stubborn, and would not make a good husband for your daughter."
"I was aware of his blunt nature, but this was unexpected. Yet he is the one who my daughter wants," he said.
Loretta raised her head. She was not sad as expected, but resolute.
"Young lady, I have six more sons. Any one of them would make a better husband than Thairon," she said. Meran would be the king and already had a fiancée. But Leander did not and, as the second prince, was the perfect choice.
If she could convince this man, who was a total fool for his daughter.
"I understand Your Grace. However, he is the one I owe everything to."
She just smiled at the young lady. She could try to approach her third son all she wanted; in fact, she would encourage it. After all, Thairon was a master of driving people off.
Octavian cleared his throat. "Returning to the matter of your daughter's miraculous recovery. You never mentioned that Thairon was responsible for it."
It had created an uproar in the medical and political scenes. He had gone as far as to order a non-official investigation to see if Edward Coline had dabbled in illegal activities.
"He wanted fifty billion aurels to heal my daughter and wanted me to keep it quiet. I respected his wishes, as long as he succeeded." Now that the cat was out of the bag, there was no reason to keep it a secret.
Leonora let out a short, humorless laugh. "Now everything makes sense."
How she had raged when Thairon abandoned the academy without graduating. The pride of the Arlex Royal Academy, there one day, gone the next. He had not answered their calls to return, not even when funding for his work was cut off.
He had acquired all the funding he would ever need.
Chapter 10 - Dragon Slayer
New
Samael61
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Thermion
Grand Council
He leaned back on the seat provided to him.
Right in front of the elevated platform where the council members looked down on him. It was tempting to bring in a small anti-gravity generator to take off and to look down on them instead. It was just too much trouble.
"Majority attendance is provided. We may begin this emergency session. Today's subject is the alleged human rights violations taking place in the manufacturing centers of Alteran Holdings Limited, under the sole proprietorship of the Third Prince Thairon Kessler," High Arbiter Neuman announced, fixing his glass.
He snorted.
The old man stopped, raising his head from the screen before him. "Is there something amusing, my prince?"
"The claim that you care about human rights is laughable, but continue." He waved his hand dismissively.
His parents were glaring down at him, which only made the left corner of his lips rise.
"Arrogant as always. We will start with the evidence provided to the public." Neuman turned to the technician who played the video on the large screen. He spun the chair around, ready for what was about to follow.
The same video recording Nax had shown him played.
"Your holding's logo is plastered everywhere. In addition, your manufacturing centers are under tight lock and key. Nothing except delivery vehicles enter or leave. How do you plead to the accusation that you have enforced labor, depriving citizens of their freedom and rights?"
He smiled, eyes sweeping over the council from left to right. He lowered his head, lips parting with a curve. Slowly raising his hand, he snapped his fingers after a beat.
Holographic screens popped into existence with a sharp, high-pitched noise.
His father almost rose from his chair, but his mother pulled him back down.
The council members were startled, eyes darting around wildly. Each and every person on the video was identified through social media. Posts with clear images of the workers, shared recently, displayed that they were not locked up in dreary factories, forced to work to death.
"As you can see," he waved his hand at the screens, "that recording is a fake. A certain member of this council," his eyes swept over the platform, lingering on a certain marquee longer than the others, "in cahoots with certain businessmen who are displeased with how successful I am, forged this little show by hiring actors."
The High Arbiter hit his gavel on the block, silencing the rising murmurs.
"You know, it is rather well made. Perhaps they should consider branching into the entertainment industry." He glanced at Belford again, who averted his eyes.
"If you are not satisfied, you are free to inspect any one of my manufacturing centers. In fact, inspect them all at once if you want," he said.
"Not like you have any hope of replicating the technology."
"So there are no concerns over human rights in any of your holdings?" Graf Eldmire asked.
His thoughts flowed through the neural bridge. The screens fused into one. A live stream of a factory producing smart phones appeared on it. Robotic arms moved with millimetric precision, producing every single component.
The processors were fitted into the motherboard; the screens were fused to the metal case. The operating system was uploaded, and the phone was packed with earbuds, a charger, and a cable.
Without a single human hand touching any part until the user turned the phone on.
He wanted to laugh at how easy it was to create all this, while his competitors struggled.
"My entire operation is automated. I am the sole organic worker in Alteran Holdings Limited."
While he was the CEO, Nax handled everything from logistics and contracts to accounting. A mere background operation that had made him the richest man on the planet.
The council chambers fell silent.
"That explains why your profit margins are off the charts." Graf Edward Coline spoke, sitting on the row beneath the royalty.
"Are we done now?"
"There will be inspections on your manufacturing plants, but yes. Under the current circumstances, you are free to leave. However, you might be summoned once more to testify as we launch an investigation into the origins of this forged recording."
"This," he rose from the seat, palms hitting the desk before him, "has been a monumental waste of my time."
—
The second he left the council chambers, he found an out-of-the-way spot to teleport out. The press was outside the gates, waiting like vultures to descend on him. They would continue to wait.
—
Meltral
RIC Central Base
She typed away on the keyboard, registering entries of the latest samples of destroyed rupture tech. The process was so monotonous she did not even hear her commander approach.
Write the report, time stamp the photos and the videos, add them to the folder, e-sign it, and send it up the chain of command.
"Lieutenant," she rose from her seat at the sound, turning around with arms glued to her sides, heels meeting to create that perfect V shape between her boots, "the general wants to see you."
Her comrades in the shared office were all watching her. Not every day was one of them summoned to the general's room.
"Yes, sir." She tilted her head down quickly and followed the major along.
"Sir, permission to ask about the subject?" What the hell would General Mardon want to see her for? She wasn't high enough in the chain of command to earn his attention.
"You'll see when you meet him," Major Aldrin said with a blank tone.
A sharp feeling arose in her gut. It could be politics. The attempts to pull her out of the RIC had never ceased, only lost their intensity. If the general were calling for her….
She stood before a bronze-leafed oak door, straightening her camouflage uniform. The major knocked on the door. General Mardon's booming voice allowed them in.
Aldrin pushed the door open, walking in. She followed exactly three steps behind on his left. He stood at attention exactly three steps away from the desk, tilting his head down swiftly. "Sir, Lieutenant Nishimura is here."
"Thank you, Major; you are dismissed." Aldrin saluted again, turning on his left heel to leave.
Once the major was out of the room, she took his place, waiting to be addressed.
"Lieutenant, at ease, take a seat," he said, rolling his hand towards the seat with a pen between his fingers.
She did as instructed, taking the seat on the left.
"How did your vacation go?" he asked, arms crossed over his broad chest.
"It went fine, sir." Was he doing an informal inspection of the states of his troops?
"That business with the rupture could have gotten out of control. Luckily, something killed it," the general said.
She didn't like the soft, brightening look in his eyes. "True, sir. It would have been a nightmare."
The six-foot-tall man smiled, the corners of his eyes crinkling. He held the monitor before him, turning it around to face her.
He pressed a button, playing a recording. A high-quality camera inside a house had caught the dragon's immense bulk quite clearly.
Along with the gas tank, the car diving into it, and the sight of her jumping out.
"Turns out there was a professional freelancer testing his new camera. He managed to evacuate but dropped the device. It kept recording," he explained. It was very clear who the female on the recording was.
There were five people who had the same hair color as her in Hatsuzumi. Three were males, unrelated, and the fourth was the high priestess of the Temple of the Gates. Deducing her identity was simple for the Union intelligence and the local RIC base.
As the one at the top of her chain of command, he was immediately informed.
She hung her head down. "Oh." Thairon had cleaned everything from the net, but this was not something he could have anticipated.
The general guffawed, his chest rolling in great waves, his eyes closed.
"Girl, why didn't you report this?" he asked. He did not seem displeased, far from it.
"I… did not want the publicity, sir," she said. If she got famous, it would only play into his hands.
"Good instincts," Mardon nodded, "because someone already leaked it." I wager you will be on the evening news everywhere, especially the Union."
She blinked twice. She squeezed her knees, forcing her face to stay still.
If Mardon noticed it, he did not point it out. "The RIC Committee is truly inspired by your act of bravery. They have offered you a golden ticket. And," he raised his open palm, "you can't refuse since it will be bad publicity. We can't let the people think we don't reward our heroes."
She blinked again, her fingers slowly straightening. "I could use regular breaks." She declined rewards before due to publicity. "No need now that everyone will learn it."
"I thought so. You can have the last week of every second month, or just an entire month off in one year."
"I'll take the former, sir."
"Alright then. You will receive the paperwork later."
"And, Lieutenant? You did one hell of a thing there. If only we had more people like you."
"No, you don't want that," she thought. "Thank you, sir."
"Dismissed, lieutenant."
—
When she returned to the shared office, it was to the sight of her comrades holding a cake for her.
A cake decorated with a cross-eyed black dragon.
"Three cheers for our resident dragon slayer," they said as one.
How they had already learned it, she didn't know. However, why they all seemed so silent and secretive yesterday made sense.
"Thanks guys," she said, hanging her head down.
"Here, a small gift from all of us," Kaelan said, quickly cutting her a slice that included the dragon's head, while Silene held a glass of soda.
She huffed but took it with the drink.
They were quick to usher her to a seat and gather in a semi-circle. "Tell us, o mighty dragon slayer, how did you force the dragon to land?" Ledale looked so earnest when she asked, leaving her to quickly make up the story without including Thairon.
"There was a construction site nearby. The dragon destabilized the crane and broke its wing." It was plausible enough. The camera thankfully didn't have any shot of her partner in heroics.
"How did you survive the explosion without a scratch? You didn't jump out of the vehicle far enough," the newest addition to their post, Argyle, asked.
"I took cover behind a car. You know how sturdy everything Alteran makes is."
"True enough," Silene muttered.
"Alright, alright, enough questions. This is a celebration, not an interrogation," Ledale said, pushing everyone away.
"How did you guys know anyway?"
Ledale pointed to the door on the other side of the room. "Major Aldrin showed us the video. The general thought it would boost morale to have a small gathering like this."
"And you guys prepared all this in a day?" She had just returned to duty yesterday and had returned to her apartment the day before.
Silene winked at her, enjoying the luscious cake more than the person it was made for. "I know the owner of the pastry in the Volan Square. She agreed on a rush order."
—
She lay on her bed, camos still on. She took out her ringing phone, answering with her head on the cushion.
"Hey," she said.
He put down whatever he was working on, fully facing the camera from his seat. "Hey. Why do you look so down?"
"Guess you didn't see it yet." At his confused look, a holographic screen popped up, showing the news regarding her.
"Oh," he said, seeing her identity stated very clearly. "I can try to take it all down, but at this point, it will just give you more publicity."
"I know, thank you anyway. But it's not all bad. I got a week off every two months thanks to it." It was cold comfort to the calls she received.
"Nice. A couple more heroics like this, you can retire."
She exhaled in a humorless laugh. "Good thing you weren't caught in the video. That would be hard to explain."
"I have a Photoreflector Array," he said, pointing at his bracelet. "I don't appear on cameras."
She blinked. "That's convenient." It would have been even more convenient if she had one too.
"Ah," he brightened up, rising from his chair. The camera kept following him into another room. "I had something I wanted to show you. Thought you might be interested in this as a soldier gal."
He pulled up a rifle, silver, sharp, and glowing. He aimed it down, locking on the target with the holographic sight, and pulled the trigger. A single, white beam left the muzzle, and the results were terrifying.
The white beam bloomed on the ballistic target, meant to be the replica of a human body, leaving behind a charred, expanded cavity. Even a glancing blow from that weapon would be lethal.
"I thought you didn't have weapons?" She pushed herself up, eyes wide. "Did you build that in two days?"
"Told you I work fast."
"Are you going to sell them?" The RIC could use his weapons, but she didn't know if the political disaster that would follow would be worth it.
"Start a new arms race with directed energy weapons at the center? I might as well destroy the planet myself."
She lay down again, tugging at her camouflage. "This planet would have been screwed if you were a profit-obsessed richboy."
"Honestly, I even considered shutting the company down, but it's too troublesome," he said.
Tomoe didn't need to be an economist to know there would be economic problems if a company like Alteran shut down overnight.
"You know, there was news about a closed session in the Kingdom concerning Alteran. What was that about?" She hated the security measures sometimes. It was one thing for military-issue computers to be cut off from the rest of the world, but the phone ban for anyone below the rank of a major sucked.
Thairon's face moved to the side of the screen, and excerpts from a video played. "Some idiots hired actors to film a fake video regarding the condition of the workers in my manufacturing centers. Workers, I might add, that I don't have."
"Naturally, I humiliated the council."
"I would have paid to see that." If only she could do the same to the Dragon's Court.
Once the weapon demonstration was over, there were more mundane matters to speak of. She spoke of her day, of how she had learned her involvement in defeating the dragon turned her into a local celebrity. He told her about his work on an early rupture detection system, which was the best news she had heard in months.
She had to end the call eventually, having to keep up with her sleep schedule.
Even with how emotionally draining most of the day was, she slept with a smile tugging on her lips.
Grand Council
He leaned back on the seat provided to him.
Right in front of the elevated platform where the council members looked down on him. It was tempting to bring in a small anti-gravity generator to take off and to look down on them instead. It was just too much trouble.
"Majority attendance is provided. We may begin this emergency session. Today's subject is the alleged human rights violations taking place in the manufacturing centers of Alteran Holdings Limited, under the sole proprietorship of the Third Prince Thairon Kessler," High Arbiter Neuman announced, fixing his glass.
He snorted.
The old man stopped, raising his head from the screen before him. "Is there something amusing, my prince?"
"The claim that you care about human rights is laughable, but continue." He waved his hand dismissively.
His parents were glaring down at him, which only made the left corner of his lips rise.
"Arrogant as always. We will start with the evidence provided to the public." Neuman turned to the technician who played the video on the large screen. He spun the chair around, ready for what was about to follow.
The same video recording Nax had shown him played.
"Your holding's logo is plastered everywhere. In addition, your manufacturing centers are under tight lock and key. Nothing except delivery vehicles enter or leave. How do you plead to the accusation that you have enforced labor, depriving citizens of their freedom and rights?"
He smiled, eyes sweeping over the council from left to right. He lowered his head, lips parting with a curve. Slowly raising his hand, he snapped his fingers after a beat.
Holographic screens popped into existence with a sharp, high-pitched noise.
His father almost rose from his chair, but his mother pulled him back down.
The council members were startled, eyes darting around wildly. Each and every person on the video was identified through social media. Posts with clear images of the workers, shared recently, displayed that they were not locked up in dreary factories, forced to work to death.
"As you can see," he waved his hand at the screens, "that recording is a fake. A certain member of this council," his eyes swept over the platform, lingering on a certain marquee longer than the others, "in cahoots with certain businessmen who are displeased with how successful I am, forged this little show by hiring actors."
The High Arbiter hit his gavel on the block, silencing the rising murmurs.
"You know, it is rather well made. Perhaps they should consider branching into the entertainment industry." He glanced at Belford again, who averted his eyes.
"If you are not satisfied, you are free to inspect any one of my manufacturing centers. In fact, inspect them all at once if you want," he said.
"Not like you have any hope of replicating the technology."
"So there are no concerns over human rights in any of your holdings?" Graf Eldmire asked.
His thoughts flowed through the neural bridge. The screens fused into one. A live stream of a factory producing smart phones appeared on it. Robotic arms moved with millimetric precision, producing every single component.
The processors were fitted into the motherboard; the screens were fused to the metal case. The operating system was uploaded, and the phone was packed with earbuds, a charger, and a cable.
Without a single human hand touching any part until the user turned the phone on.
He wanted to laugh at how easy it was to create all this, while his competitors struggled.
"My entire operation is automated. I am the sole organic worker in Alteran Holdings Limited."
While he was the CEO, Nax handled everything from logistics and contracts to accounting. A mere background operation that had made him the richest man on the planet.
The council chambers fell silent.
"That explains why your profit margins are off the charts." Graf Edward Coline spoke, sitting on the row beneath the royalty.
"Are we done now?"
"There will be inspections on your manufacturing plants, but yes. Under the current circumstances, you are free to leave. However, you might be summoned once more to testify as we launch an investigation into the origins of this forged recording."
"This," he rose from the seat, palms hitting the desk before him, "has been a monumental waste of my time."
—
The second he left the council chambers, he found an out-of-the-way spot to teleport out. The press was outside the gates, waiting like vultures to descend on him. They would continue to wait.
—
Meltral
RIC Central Base
She typed away on the keyboard, registering entries of the latest samples of destroyed rupture tech. The process was so monotonous she did not even hear her commander approach.
Write the report, time stamp the photos and the videos, add them to the folder, e-sign it, and send it up the chain of command.
"Lieutenant," she rose from her seat at the sound, turning around with arms glued to her sides, heels meeting to create that perfect V shape between her boots, "the general wants to see you."
Her comrades in the shared office were all watching her. Not every day was one of them summoned to the general's room.
"Yes, sir." She tilted her head down quickly and followed the major along.
"Sir, permission to ask about the subject?" What the hell would General Mardon want to see her for? She wasn't high enough in the chain of command to earn his attention.
"You'll see when you meet him," Major Aldrin said with a blank tone.
A sharp feeling arose in her gut. It could be politics. The attempts to pull her out of the RIC had never ceased, only lost their intensity. If the general were calling for her….
She stood before a bronze-leafed oak door, straightening her camouflage uniform. The major knocked on the door. General Mardon's booming voice allowed them in.
Aldrin pushed the door open, walking in. She followed exactly three steps behind on his left. He stood at attention exactly three steps away from the desk, tilting his head down swiftly. "Sir, Lieutenant Nishimura is here."
"Thank you, Major; you are dismissed." Aldrin saluted again, turning on his left heel to leave.
Once the major was out of the room, she took his place, waiting to be addressed.
"Lieutenant, at ease, take a seat," he said, rolling his hand towards the seat with a pen between his fingers.
She did as instructed, taking the seat on the left.
"How did your vacation go?" he asked, arms crossed over his broad chest.
"It went fine, sir." Was he doing an informal inspection of the states of his troops?
"That business with the rupture could have gotten out of control. Luckily, something killed it," the general said.
She didn't like the soft, brightening look in his eyes. "True, sir. It would have been a nightmare."
The six-foot-tall man smiled, the corners of his eyes crinkling. He held the monitor before him, turning it around to face her.
He pressed a button, playing a recording. A high-quality camera inside a house had caught the dragon's immense bulk quite clearly.
Along with the gas tank, the car diving into it, and the sight of her jumping out.
"Turns out there was a professional freelancer testing his new camera. He managed to evacuate but dropped the device. It kept recording," he explained. It was very clear who the female on the recording was.
There were five people who had the same hair color as her in Hatsuzumi. Three were males, unrelated, and the fourth was the high priestess of the Temple of the Gates. Deducing her identity was simple for the Union intelligence and the local RIC base.
As the one at the top of her chain of command, he was immediately informed.
She hung her head down. "Oh." Thairon had cleaned everything from the net, but this was not something he could have anticipated.
The general guffawed, his chest rolling in great waves, his eyes closed.
"Girl, why didn't you report this?" he asked. He did not seem displeased, far from it.
"I… did not want the publicity, sir," she said. If she got famous, it would only play into his hands.
"Good instincts," Mardon nodded, "because someone already leaked it." I wager you will be on the evening news everywhere, especially the Union."
She blinked twice. She squeezed her knees, forcing her face to stay still.
If Mardon noticed it, he did not point it out. "The RIC Committee is truly inspired by your act of bravery. They have offered you a golden ticket. And," he raised his open palm, "you can't refuse since it will be bad publicity. We can't let the people think we don't reward our heroes."
She blinked again, her fingers slowly straightening. "I could use regular breaks." She declined rewards before due to publicity. "No need now that everyone will learn it."
"I thought so. You can have the last week of every second month, or just an entire month off in one year."
"I'll take the former, sir."
"Alright then. You will receive the paperwork later."
"And, Lieutenant? You did one hell of a thing there. If only we had more people like you."
"No, you don't want that," she thought. "Thank you, sir."
"Dismissed, lieutenant."
—
When she returned to the shared office, it was to the sight of her comrades holding a cake for her.
A cake decorated with a cross-eyed black dragon.
"Three cheers for our resident dragon slayer," they said as one.
How they had already learned it, she didn't know. However, why they all seemed so silent and secretive yesterday made sense.
"Thanks guys," she said, hanging her head down.
"Here, a small gift from all of us," Kaelan said, quickly cutting her a slice that included the dragon's head, while Silene held a glass of soda.
She huffed but took it with the drink.
They were quick to usher her to a seat and gather in a semi-circle. "Tell us, o mighty dragon slayer, how did you force the dragon to land?" Ledale looked so earnest when she asked, leaving her to quickly make up the story without including Thairon.
"There was a construction site nearby. The dragon destabilized the crane and broke its wing." It was plausible enough. The camera thankfully didn't have any shot of her partner in heroics.
"How did you survive the explosion without a scratch? You didn't jump out of the vehicle far enough," the newest addition to their post, Argyle, asked.
"I took cover behind a car. You know how sturdy everything Alteran makes is."
"True enough," Silene muttered.
"Alright, alright, enough questions. This is a celebration, not an interrogation," Ledale said, pushing everyone away.
"How did you guys know anyway?"
Ledale pointed to the door on the other side of the room. "Major Aldrin showed us the video. The general thought it would boost morale to have a small gathering like this."
"And you guys prepared all this in a day?" She had just returned to duty yesterday and had returned to her apartment the day before.
Silene winked at her, enjoying the luscious cake more than the person it was made for. "I know the owner of the pastry in the Volan Square. She agreed on a rush order."
—
She lay on her bed, camos still on. She took out her ringing phone, answering with her head on the cushion.
"Hey," she said.
He put down whatever he was working on, fully facing the camera from his seat. "Hey. Why do you look so down?"
"Guess you didn't see it yet." At his confused look, a holographic screen popped up, showing the news regarding her.
"Oh," he said, seeing her identity stated very clearly. "I can try to take it all down, but at this point, it will just give you more publicity."
"I know, thank you anyway. But it's not all bad. I got a week off every two months thanks to it." It was cold comfort to the calls she received.
"Nice. A couple more heroics like this, you can retire."
She exhaled in a humorless laugh. "Good thing you weren't caught in the video. That would be hard to explain."
"I have a Photoreflector Array," he said, pointing at his bracelet. "I don't appear on cameras."
She blinked. "That's convenient." It would have been even more convenient if she had one too.
"Ah," he brightened up, rising from his chair. The camera kept following him into another room. "I had something I wanted to show you. Thought you might be interested in this as a soldier gal."
He pulled up a rifle, silver, sharp, and glowing. He aimed it down, locking on the target with the holographic sight, and pulled the trigger. A single, white beam left the muzzle, and the results were terrifying.
The white beam bloomed on the ballistic target, meant to be the replica of a human body, leaving behind a charred, expanded cavity. Even a glancing blow from that weapon would be lethal.
"I thought you didn't have weapons?" She pushed herself up, eyes wide. "Did you build that in two days?"
"Told you I work fast."
"Are you going to sell them?" The RIC could use his weapons, but she didn't know if the political disaster that would follow would be worth it.
"Start a new arms race with directed energy weapons at the center? I might as well destroy the planet myself."
She lay down again, tugging at her camouflage. "This planet would have been screwed if you were a profit-obsessed richboy."
"Honestly, I even considered shutting the company down, but it's too troublesome," he said.
Tomoe didn't need to be an economist to know there would be economic problems if a company like Alteran shut down overnight.
"You know, there was news about a closed session in the Kingdom concerning Alteran. What was that about?" She hated the security measures sometimes. It was one thing for military-issue computers to be cut off from the rest of the world, but the phone ban for anyone below the rank of a major sucked.
Thairon's face moved to the side of the screen, and excerpts from a video played. "Some idiots hired actors to film a fake video regarding the condition of the workers in my manufacturing centers. Workers, I might add, that I don't have."
"Naturally, I humiliated the council."
"I would have paid to see that." If only she could do the same to the Dragon's Court.
Once the weapon demonstration was over, there were more mundane matters to speak of. She spoke of her day, of how she had learned her involvement in defeating the dragon turned her into a local celebrity. He told her about his work on an early rupture detection system, which was the best news she had heard in months.
She had to end the call eventually, having to keep up with her sleep schedule.
Even with how emotionally draining most of the day was, she slept with a smile tugging on her lips.
Chapter 11 - Genocidal Machines
New
Samael61
I trust you know where the happy button is?
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Republic of Netara
Plains of Tersus Border Area
"This is a clusterfuck," Kaelan shouted, throwing his half-molten rifle away to pull his sidearm.
"You don't say?!" Tomoe shouted back, trying to keep her body behind the rock. Another crimson beam struck the cover, sending half-molten shards over her head.
"Central, we need fire support. A single robotic unit survived; we don't have the gear to take it out," she said, raising her voice over the enemy fire.
"Artillery is spent. Directing the nearest air unit to you, ETA, thirty seconds. You are too close to the target area; retreat to the minimum safe distance immediately."
"We can't. This thing doesn't miss. We move out of cover, and we are dead."
A pause.
"Then take cover and pray."
She threw her last hand grenade for distraction, to keep the robot from advancing any closer. It would only scratch the dark metallic plates, but she had no other choice.
Kaelan followed her lead.
She stuck close to the boulder, making herself as small as possible, and covered her ears. The whistle of the bomb from above drowned out the sound of the robot's weapon. The explosion sent tremors through the ground.
Even from fifteen meters, her ears rang, and the pressure from the blast found its way to her. Waiting for the dust to settle, she tried to regulate her breathing due to the pain on her ribs.
"Spearhead-1, report," the operator called out. She shook her head, trying to dispel the ringing.
"We are bruised but alive, central," Kaelan said, coughing. "The remaining enemy is neutralized, rupture closed, requesting evac."
"Gunship is on the way; ETA five minutes."
She pressed her earpiece. "Spearhead-2, how are things on your end?" The tank they destroyed had the last unit inside, waiting for the opportune moment. There was no reason why the rest of the squad wouldn't face the same situation.
"Spearhead-2, respond," she called again, her fingers closing into a fist.
"Shit, you don't think?" Kaelan left the sentence unfinished.
"Damn it, Silene, say something." Her voice rose unintentionally, yet all that greeted her was silence once more.
"We are fine, Tomoe; just had a comms issue," her coequal said. Her shoulders dropped, and she released the breath she didn't know she was holding.
"Are the others with you?" Sending the rest of the squad to assist Silene had almost cost them dearly. She hoped they had arrived alive.
"They are," she replied, the static in her voice finally gone. "You won't believe this, but we just got saved by a man in high-tech armor carrying an energy weapon." Her tone was too excited for their situation.
"Did you hit your head, Silene?" she asked, brows furrowed.
"No. He just appeared out of nowhere, blasted the robots to pieces, and disappeared."
"This is Bulwark-1; she is right. We saw him too. Had a directed energy weapon, something like a rocket launcher. It carved the hostile tank in half."
"Does anyone have a visual?" Kaelan asked, removing his helmet to let his hair breathe. At Tomoe's flat look, his eyes softened, his lips trembling.
When she didn't budge, he put his helmet back on with a pout. She did not like how tight the helmets were either, but it was the only defense his head had.
"Negative. I don't know how he moves so fast," Bulwark-3 reported.
Her right eye twitched. "You've gotta be kidding me."
High-tech armor, energy weapons, moving fast enough to cover kilometers in unbelievably short times? That brought a person to her mind.
"This is First Lieutenant M'Base. All ruptures closed. Start evacs ASAP. Do we have any casualties?" The low, even voice of the field commander came.
She sighed. Now they could retreat and let the main force handle everything else. Which meant they had survived another day.
Though not everyone had.
"This is Bulwark-2; we lost Sergeant Mete. The enemy tank unit would have destroyed the artillery without him."
Tomoe closed her eyes. Without the artillery, their position would have been overrun by now.
Losses were inevitable, but it did not make it any easier.
—
RIC Central Base
"What is this I am hearing about an unknown in white armor and advanced weaponry?" Mardon asked, eyes gliding over the reports at speeds that would leave lesser men in awe.
"Bulwark-1, Spearhead-2, and several other units saw an unknown friendly carrying advanced gear. He assisted in neutralizing the enemy and disappeared afterwards," Aldrin reported. He played the edited recording on the projector, displaying several parts from the helmet cams pieced together.
Mardon narrowed his eyes, stroking his mustache. White energy beams struck the robots, doing damage only comparable to the artillery units supporting the QRF. Yet, he could not see the source of the fire.
"Either all the helm cams malfunctioned, or the unknown did something. While we have a recording of the moments the enemy was destroyed, he does not appear on any part of the footage."
The upper corner of his upper lip twitched for a moment. "Wonderful. An unknown with energy weapons, and we have no visual of him. The Committee will absolutely love this."
"Sir, we have bigger problems than politics. This was the third time these synthetics came through a rupture. "First time is a fluke," he said, displaying the first lone bipedal robot to arrive, along with the second wave of a dozen air units. "Second time is an issue, third time is…"
"The enemy action," Mardon finished. A rupture opening to the same dimension twice was exceedingly rare, with a probability so low it had only happened three times in five centuries, among countless ruptures.
The probability of a third time was so low, he'd sooner grow wings.
"Whatever is on the other side, it is sending recon units, probing our defenses." Mardon glanced at his aide. He could not refute the truth, no matter how much he wanted to.
"Sir, this has never happened before. The enemy's superiority in technology is quite clear. If they return in greater numbers, we might have a problem."
Mardon chuckled, dry and short. Thirty artillery shells to take out a single enemy tank meant more than just a problem.
He pushed his chair back. "I need to inform the committee now and prepare an action plan. How are the troops?"
"Sergeant Mete fell in line of duty while stopping the enemy armored unit from destroying the field artillery. Other than that, only bruises," Aldrin said, gently laying his fist over his heart.
Mardon repeated the gesture. "May his soul find peace in the Heart."
—
"Hey there, savior in white armor," she said, wincing as her ribs throbbed. She would have to return to the infirmary soon.
"Hey," he greeted, working on a robot, the exact blocky ones they had only been able to repel with artillery.
"Are you playing the vigilante savior now?"
"No. The situation is more complex than you guys think."
"We think there is an impending invasion."
"No," he shook his head; "it already started. The second time the machines came, they infiltrated the global network and started to gather information. This was just a simple test to verify the accuracy of the data."
Tomoe closed her eyes, tilting her head back. "Damn it."
"Please tell me you have a plan. If those tin cans come in force, we are done for." Had they actually bothered to assault before artillery was settled, she knew there would be more deaths.
The walking garbage cans were most likely aware of everything, tracking their operational movements. The opsec was out the window now.
"The AI they left behind has a trove of information I am extracting right now."
With each word of what he had found, her eyes widened more. A world full of red-skinned aliens, eradicated by the very machines they created. Now, that machine had discovered a way to force open ruptures and wanted to condemn humanity to the same fate.
"And your plan is?"
"I have been working on a singularity reactor for infinite energy. I tweaked the design a bit, and now I have a planet destroyer WMD. We just need to deliver it to the other side and detonate it."
Well, that was more of a plan than anything the RIC could hope to bring forth. "If that AI opens a rupture, it will be heavily guarded."
"Which is why I am going to do the same. I already have the quantum wavelength of the universe the machines come from. When it concentrates its forces for an assault, I will open a new rupture behind the enemy lines."
She sucked in a breath, which caused her ribs to throb once more. "You can open ruptures?" That was big. Half the reason her mother had kept the arrival point a secret was so it would not be weaponized.
"It's simple, really. Just have to dump enough energy into a micro rupture. The quantum wavelength will make sure it is the one I want rather than a random one."
"How did you even find this AI?"
He sighed, dropping the tools on his hands. "It started three days ago…"
—
"Boss, there is a problem. Something is lurking on the net; it just brushed at the edge of my firewall," Nax said, his holographic image, a twin of his old appearance, popping next to him.
He raised his head from the prototype of the energy shielding harness, brows creased. "How did it even retreat?"
"It is advanced, not as much as me, but still pretty advanced. It managed to flee by the time I detected it."
His lips pressed thin, nose scrunching. "I want it found now." There wasn't a single system on this Haven as advanced as Nax.
"Already on its trail. But the architecture is foreign. It's not from around here."
"An AI from a rupture? For fuck's sake," he slammed his hand on the table. "Find if anyone has been meddling with rupture tech."
"I do that all the time actually. I would know if there was."
"Infiltration then."
"Got it," Nax said, pumping his holographic arm. "It reached the supercomputer at the University of Zitron and severed the outside connection. Since it is night there, how about a little infiltration of our own?"
Thairon took a deep breath, massaging his scalp.
—
Republic of Netara
Being in the capital of the republic reminded him why he hated this place. The self-proclaimed democratic nation, which in truth was an elected dynasty, always managed to get on his nerves with their out-of-control capitalism.
He cursed Noah while opening the gates of the main research wing.
The cameras were already on a loop, and his light distortion field made infiltration child's play. He snorted at the banners welcoming the students to the university. At least Arlex Royal Academy had the grace to name it after a person of importance, rather than just the capital city.
The dark corridors reminded him of his days at the academy, filled with great minds ignored by the upper management and fools riding on the glory of their noble house.
The layout was identical to Arlex's, the same long halls with one large classroom in each section. At least Noah knew what he was doing when it came to the design of the educational centers.
He approached the first security measure, a simple electronic door lock. He laid his fingers over the casing. Bioelectricity flowed out, immediately connecting him to the standalone system.
The thick doors slid open to the sides, and the ID scanner faced the same treatment.
The invasive AI must have assumed it would be able to leave once the researchers restored the connection. He stood before the massive device and rolled his eyes again. All those claims of being the prominent center of R&D on the planet, and this was the best they could do.
He slid the portable AI matrix into the socket. The adaptive connector head twitched like a hive of angry moles, reconfiguring its shape to fit into the specialized socket.
Nax broke through the firewalls and quickly forced the invasive AI into the matrix.
"Extraction ready; two guards are heading this way for a routine checkup."
He nodded to himself. The guards opened the door while he was halfway there, checking the area with flashlights. He simply walked past them.
—
"The AI had knowledge of history to prevent any deviance. Based on it, the AI, Helix, wants to destroy us for simply being organic lifeforms."
"A genocidal AI with planet-spanning capabilities?" she asked, snorting, though her downcast eyes told another story. "If this plan of yours doesn't work, we are all dead."
"Keep yourself together," his stern voice snapped her out of. "It will work."
She looked at his eyes, trying to find the same strength in herself. Clearing her head with simple breathing exercises, she analyzed the situation, going through the highlights.
"I need a plausible reason to tell this to the general. We need to be ready for an all-out assault while you handle your part."
Thairon rested his thumb against his chin, his index finger grazing his lips. "I believe our best bet is an anonymous tip. He will most likely understand it is from the mystery savior, and Mardon is intelligent enough to realize something is amiss with the synthetics."
"Alright."
"Thank you for everything. I won't be able to get the weekend off this week, but I should be able to see you next week."
"I'll see you then; stay strong."
"See you," she said, leaving the supply closet to return to the infirmary. The nurse was going to be very cross with her.
—
Mardon held the cold bottle to his head, searching through his drawer for a pill. He pulled the pill pack out, only to scowl and throw it to the trash.
He would have to do with some ice.
The computer before him opened by itself. He had not even touched the keyboard yet. It got weirder when his password was entered and he looked at the desktop, blinking.
Had he just gotten hacked?
Reaching down to pull the plug, he stopped. A video, one that he most certainly did not have on his computer, began to play. He squinted his eyes, lowering the bottle to the side.
Red-skinned, insectoid aliens of all ages and sizes were being slaughtered. WMDs, executions, gasses, bombing, even incineration while alive. Each horrifying act was committed by the same black robots that had come out of ruptures three times.
He laid his elbow on the desk, rubbing his face.
"What the hell do you want?"
"Cooperation," it said on the screen.
"Then come talk to me face to face."
"Not possible. There is an AI on the other side who just discovered a planet full of organic lifeforms through the rupture. It wants to kill us all, but I have a plan. I am devising an early rupture detection system. You need to hold the enemy off while I handle my part and destroy the other side."
He stood still for a second, processing the information that had just been dumped on him. "You do realize how suspicious this is, right? Unless you can give me an assurance, I won't say anything you believe."
"I will contact you later, general. You will have your assurance."
The computer shut down, and once he turned it back on, there was no evidence he had been hacked.
Stretching the collar of his uniform, he started on the reports, mind occupied by what he had just learned.
And more importantly, whether this person could be trusted.
Plains of Tersus Border Area
"This is a clusterfuck," Kaelan shouted, throwing his half-molten rifle away to pull his sidearm.
"You don't say?!" Tomoe shouted back, trying to keep her body behind the rock. Another crimson beam struck the cover, sending half-molten shards over her head.
"Central, we need fire support. A single robotic unit survived; we don't have the gear to take it out," she said, raising her voice over the enemy fire.
"Artillery is spent. Directing the nearest air unit to you, ETA, thirty seconds. You are too close to the target area; retreat to the minimum safe distance immediately."
"We can't. This thing doesn't miss. We move out of cover, and we are dead."
A pause.
"Then take cover and pray."
She threw her last hand grenade for distraction, to keep the robot from advancing any closer. It would only scratch the dark metallic plates, but she had no other choice.
Kaelan followed her lead.
She stuck close to the boulder, making herself as small as possible, and covered her ears. The whistle of the bomb from above drowned out the sound of the robot's weapon. The explosion sent tremors through the ground.
Even from fifteen meters, her ears rang, and the pressure from the blast found its way to her. Waiting for the dust to settle, she tried to regulate her breathing due to the pain on her ribs.
"Spearhead-1, report," the operator called out. She shook her head, trying to dispel the ringing.
"We are bruised but alive, central," Kaelan said, coughing. "The remaining enemy is neutralized, rupture closed, requesting evac."
"Gunship is on the way; ETA five minutes."
She pressed her earpiece. "Spearhead-2, how are things on your end?" The tank they destroyed had the last unit inside, waiting for the opportune moment. There was no reason why the rest of the squad wouldn't face the same situation.
"Spearhead-2, respond," she called again, her fingers closing into a fist.
"Shit, you don't think?" Kaelan left the sentence unfinished.
"Damn it, Silene, say something." Her voice rose unintentionally, yet all that greeted her was silence once more.
"We are fine, Tomoe; just had a comms issue," her coequal said. Her shoulders dropped, and she released the breath she didn't know she was holding.
"Are the others with you?" Sending the rest of the squad to assist Silene had almost cost them dearly. She hoped they had arrived alive.
"They are," she replied, the static in her voice finally gone. "You won't believe this, but we just got saved by a man in high-tech armor carrying an energy weapon." Her tone was too excited for their situation.
"Did you hit your head, Silene?" she asked, brows furrowed.
"No. He just appeared out of nowhere, blasted the robots to pieces, and disappeared."
"This is Bulwark-1; she is right. We saw him too. Had a directed energy weapon, something like a rocket launcher. It carved the hostile tank in half."
"Does anyone have a visual?" Kaelan asked, removing his helmet to let his hair breathe. At Tomoe's flat look, his eyes softened, his lips trembling.
When she didn't budge, he put his helmet back on with a pout. She did not like how tight the helmets were either, but it was the only defense his head had.
"Negative. I don't know how he moves so fast," Bulwark-3 reported.
Her right eye twitched. "You've gotta be kidding me."
High-tech armor, energy weapons, moving fast enough to cover kilometers in unbelievably short times? That brought a person to her mind.
"This is First Lieutenant M'Base. All ruptures closed. Start evacs ASAP. Do we have any casualties?" The low, even voice of the field commander came.
She sighed. Now they could retreat and let the main force handle everything else. Which meant they had survived another day.
Though not everyone had.
"This is Bulwark-2; we lost Sergeant Mete. The enemy tank unit would have destroyed the artillery without him."
Tomoe closed her eyes. Without the artillery, their position would have been overrun by now.
Losses were inevitable, but it did not make it any easier.
—
RIC Central Base
"What is this I am hearing about an unknown in white armor and advanced weaponry?" Mardon asked, eyes gliding over the reports at speeds that would leave lesser men in awe.
"Bulwark-1, Spearhead-2, and several other units saw an unknown friendly carrying advanced gear. He assisted in neutralizing the enemy and disappeared afterwards," Aldrin reported. He played the edited recording on the projector, displaying several parts from the helmet cams pieced together.
Mardon narrowed his eyes, stroking his mustache. White energy beams struck the robots, doing damage only comparable to the artillery units supporting the QRF. Yet, he could not see the source of the fire.
"Either all the helm cams malfunctioned, or the unknown did something. While we have a recording of the moments the enemy was destroyed, he does not appear on any part of the footage."
The upper corner of his upper lip twitched for a moment. "Wonderful. An unknown with energy weapons, and we have no visual of him. The Committee will absolutely love this."
"Sir, we have bigger problems than politics. This was the third time these synthetics came through a rupture. "First time is a fluke," he said, displaying the first lone bipedal robot to arrive, along with the second wave of a dozen air units. "Second time is an issue, third time is…"
"The enemy action," Mardon finished. A rupture opening to the same dimension twice was exceedingly rare, with a probability so low it had only happened three times in five centuries, among countless ruptures.
The probability of a third time was so low, he'd sooner grow wings.
"Whatever is on the other side, it is sending recon units, probing our defenses." Mardon glanced at his aide. He could not refute the truth, no matter how much he wanted to.
"Sir, this has never happened before. The enemy's superiority in technology is quite clear. If they return in greater numbers, we might have a problem."
Mardon chuckled, dry and short. Thirty artillery shells to take out a single enemy tank meant more than just a problem.
He pushed his chair back. "I need to inform the committee now and prepare an action plan. How are the troops?"
"Sergeant Mete fell in line of duty while stopping the enemy armored unit from destroying the field artillery. Other than that, only bruises," Aldrin said, gently laying his fist over his heart.
Mardon repeated the gesture. "May his soul find peace in the Heart."
—
"Hey there, savior in white armor," she said, wincing as her ribs throbbed. She would have to return to the infirmary soon.
"Hey," he greeted, working on a robot, the exact blocky ones they had only been able to repel with artillery.
"Are you playing the vigilante savior now?"
"No. The situation is more complex than you guys think."
"We think there is an impending invasion."
"No," he shook his head; "it already started. The second time the machines came, they infiltrated the global network and started to gather information. This was just a simple test to verify the accuracy of the data."
Tomoe closed her eyes, tilting her head back. "Damn it."
"Please tell me you have a plan. If those tin cans come in force, we are done for." Had they actually bothered to assault before artillery was settled, she knew there would be more deaths.
The walking garbage cans were most likely aware of everything, tracking their operational movements. The opsec was out the window now.
"The AI they left behind has a trove of information I am extracting right now."
With each word of what he had found, her eyes widened more. A world full of red-skinned aliens, eradicated by the very machines they created. Now, that machine had discovered a way to force open ruptures and wanted to condemn humanity to the same fate.
"And your plan is?"
"I have been working on a singularity reactor for infinite energy. I tweaked the design a bit, and now I have a planet destroyer WMD. We just need to deliver it to the other side and detonate it."
Well, that was more of a plan than anything the RIC could hope to bring forth. "If that AI opens a rupture, it will be heavily guarded."
"Which is why I am going to do the same. I already have the quantum wavelength of the universe the machines come from. When it concentrates its forces for an assault, I will open a new rupture behind the enemy lines."
She sucked in a breath, which caused her ribs to throb once more. "You can open ruptures?" That was big. Half the reason her mother had kept the arrival point a secret was so it would not be weaponized.
"It's simple, really. Just have to dump enough energy into a micro rupture. The quantum wavelength will make sure it is the one I want rather than a random one."
"How did you even find this AI?"
He sighed, dropping the tools on his hands. "It started three days ago…"
—
"Boss, there is a problem. Something is lurking on the net; it just brushed at the edge of my firewall," Nax said, his holographic image, a twin of his old appearance, popping next to him.
He raised his head from the prototype of the energy shielding harness, brows creased. "How did it even retreat?"
"It is advanced, not as much as me, but still pretty advanced. It managed to flee by the time I detected it."
His lips pressed thin, nose scrunching. "I want it found now." There wasn't a single system on this Haven as advanced as Nax.
"Already on its trail. But the architecture is foreign. It's not from around here."
"An AI from a rupture? For fuck's sake," he slammed his hand on the table. "Find if anyone has been meddling with rupture tech."
"I do that all the time actually. I would know if there was."
"Infiltration then."
"Got it," Nax said, pumping his holographic arm. "It reached the supercomputer at the University of Zitron and severed the outside connection. Since it is night there, how about a little infiltration of our own?"
Thairon took a deep breath, massaging his scalp.
—
Republic of Netara
Being in the capital of the republic reminded him why he hated this place. The self-proclaimed democratic nation, which in truth was an elected dynasty, always managed to get on his nerves with their out-of-control capitalism.
He cursed Noah while opening the gates of the main research wing.
The cameras were already on a loop, and his light distortion field made infiltration child's play. He snorted at the banners welcoming the students to the university. At least Arlex Royal Academy had the grace to name it after a person of importance, rather than just the capital city.
The dark corridors reminded him of his days at the academy, filled with great minds ignored by the upper management and fools riding on the glory of their noble house.
The layout was identical to Arlex's, the same long halls with one large classroom in each section. At least Noah knew what he was doing when it came to the design of the educational centers.
He approached the first security measure, a simple electronic door lock. He laid his fingers over the casing. Bioelectricity flowed out, immediately connecting him to the standalone system.
The thick doors slid open to the sides, and the ID scanner faced the same treatment.
The invasive AI must have assumed it would be able to leave once the researchers restored the connection. He stood before the massive device and rolled his eyes again. All those claims of being the prominent center of R&D on the planet, and this was the best they could do.
He slid the portable AI matrix into the socket. The adaptive connector head twitched like a hive of angry moles, reconfiguring its shape to fit into the specialized socket.
Nax broke through the firewalls and quickly forced the invasive AI into the matrix.
"Extraction ready; two guards are heading this way for a routine checkup."
He nodded to himself. The guards opened the door while he was halfway there, checking the area with flashlights. He simply walked past them.
—
"The AI had knowledge of history to prevent any deviance. Based on it, the AI, Helix, wants to destroy us for simply being organic lifeforms."
"A genocidal AI with planet-spanning capabilities?" she asked, snorting, though her downcast eyes told another story. "If this plan of yours doesn't work, we are all dead."
"Keep yourself together," his stern voice snapped her out of. "It will work."
She looked at his eyes, trying to find the same strength in herself. Clearing her head with simple breathing exercises, she analyzed the situation, going through the highlights.
"I need a plausible reason to tell this to the general. We need to be ready for an all-out assault while you handle your part."
Thairon rested his thumb against his chin, his index finger grazing his lips. "I believe our best bet is an anonymous tip. He will most likely understand it is from the mystery savior, and Mardon is intelligent enough to realize something is amiss with the synthetics."
"Alright."
"Thank you for everything. I won't be able to get the weekend off this week, but I should be able to see you next week."
"I'll see you then; stay strong."
"See you," she said, leaving the supply closet to return to the infirmary. The nurse was going to be very cross with her.
—
Mardon held the cold bottle to his head, searching through his drawer for a pill. He pulled the pill pack out, only to scowl and throw it to the trash.
He would have to do with some ice.
The computer before him opened by itself. He had not even touched the keyboard yet. It got weirder when his password was entered and he looked at the desktop, blinking.
Had he just gotten hacked?
Reaching down to pull the plug, he stopped. A video, one that he most certainly did not have on his computer, began to play. He squinted his eyes, lowering the bottle to the side.
Red-skinned, insectoid aliens of all ages and sizes were being slaughtered. WMDs, executions, gasses, bombing, even incineration while alive. Each horrifying act was committed by the same black robots that had come out of ruptures three times.
He laid his elbow on the desk, rubbing his face.
"What the hell do you want?"
"Cooperation," it said on the screen.
"Then come talk to me face to face."
"Not possible. There is an AI on the other side who just discovered a planet full of organic lifeforms through the rupture. It wants to kill us all, but I have a plan. I am devising an early rupture detection system. You need to hold the enemy off while I handle my part and destroy the other side."
He stood still for a second, processing the information that had just been dumped on him. "You do realize how suspicious this is, right? Unless you can give me an assurance, I won't say anything you believe."
"I will contact you later, general. You will have your assurance."
The computer shut down, and once he turned it back on, there was no evidence he had been hacked.
Stretching the collar of his uniform, he started on the reports, mind occupied by what he had just learned.
And more importantly, whether this person could be trusted.
Chapter 12 - Brand New World
New
Samael61
I trust you know where the happy button is?
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Meltral
The Committee of Rupture Intervention Corps
"General, your report paints a grim picture. How certain are you that this is not merely a once-in-a-lifetime freak accident?" The director asked, rubbing his bleary eyes.
"Director, just like you, I don't want to believe this either."
"The first time an S-12 arrived through a rupture, it was a lone unit." He pressed the button, displaying the recording of the blocky, black-colored robot with red visors on the projector. In the video, its long, rectangular arms with sharp ends swiveled around, searching for targets.
"When we responded, it immediately opened fire." He fast-forwarded the video, moving to the section taken from helmet cameras. The machine appeared docile at first, even attempting to initiate contact.
Only to open fire in an opportune moment. They had lost eight troops before the heavy guns tore the synthesis apart after sustained fire.
"The second time, a dozen infantry units appeared in different parts of sector twelve," he said, playing the next recording. Twelve different engagements, where his troopers had to keep the enemy around the arrival point. Each engagement recording was disrupted by explosions shaking the area.
"We took immediate action. Intense air and artillery fire neutralized the enemy."
"The third time, infantry units were supported by tank and helicopter equivalents."
"I must remind this committee that the volume of fire the synthetics could absorb is out of our league. The tank units alone shrugged off our artillery like they were rocks from slings. Only rupture-class munitions worked, and you know how expensive they are."
"What do you suggest, general?" the vice director asked, nursing a headache.
"Inform Chairman Oda, King Octavian, and President Gaius on what is happening and urge them to prepare for a possible war."
The political relations manager let out a dry chuckle, shaking her head. "If the public is kept in the dark, it will increase worries over a possible conflict between the three. If they are informed of a possible synthetic invasion of our world, it will cause mass panic."
"I cannot offer any advice on that front."
"We are not asking you to, general. It is our problem to deal with. In the meantime, keep your forces on high alert."
"What of this unknown ally of ours?" The committee chief of intelligence asked, waving his hand at the images, drawn based on the testimony of the troops.
"Several units were assisted by a person in power armor and highly advanced weaponry. He did not appear on cameras, something we believe was caused by his technology. Our current hypothesis is that he is from the other side of the rupture, possibly an enemy of this synthetic force. We are trying to bring him in."
"Thank you, general. Keep us informed on how the situation develops."
He dipped his head at the director. "Understood."
—
RIC Central Base
The time given to him by the unknown was approaching. He waited, eyes locked on the screen for any sign of the hacker. The screen glitched for a brief moment.
He leaned forward. The map application opened, showing a location right near a cafe.
"How about a small trip to another dimension?"
Mardon sunk into his chair, swiveling around. He gazed at the portraits of his predecessors. From the inception of the RIC to this day, thirteen generals had served close to two centuries. None had done what had been offered to him.
It smelled of a trap.
Yet, the potential benefits, to see the enemy with his own eyes, would be worth the risk. One that he could not ask anyone else to take. He turned around. Ripping a page of his notebook, he wrote down a message and put it in the locked drawer of his desk.
He left the key on the desk.
"Aldrin, I have an urgent appointment. I don't know when I will be back."
"Yes sir."
He dressed in civilian clothing, took his sidearm, and left.
—
Cafe Monrel
The taxi came to a stop, but he did not open the door. Inspecting the cafe, he found only one person sitting by himself, a chocolate-brown-haired young man in a lab coat. As if he had felt being watched, the young man's eyes locked on him and then slowly turned to the empty chair before him.
Paying the fare, he stepped out.
"General, pleasure to meet you." The man held out his hand. Mardon took it, applying pressure. He felt the heat of the hand, the skin, and the flesh, trying to ascertain whether this man was a human or an infiltrator.
"We'll see if I can say the same, mister?"
"Just Thairon, please."
"A trip to another dimension, huh? How do you propose to do it?" Just as humans and other species had arrived in Haven through the ruptures, there were those lost to them. He just never considered the idea of willingly walking through one.
"Opening a rupture is simple if you know how. You just find a micro-rupture, release enough energy, and it opens by itself."
"And you can do this?"
"Anyone with half a brain could."
He took a deep breath. That wasn't exactly comforting.
"What now?"
"If you are willing, I can take us to where the machines came from. You can see the situation for yourself."
"Before that, I would like to know what you are proposing if these machines actually come." Preliminary projections of an invasion by the S12s presented two outcomes. Eventual defeat if they could open ruptures to wherever they wanted, or an entire sector turned into a radioactive wasteland to prevent the enemy from spreading.
"Well," Thairon put his elbow on the table, resting his chin on his half-closed fist, "you are certainly sensible enough to keep this a secret."
A hologram appeared over the table. It was a circular machine with six claw-like apparatuses. Each claw fired a white beam at the center. Within seconds, an artificial singularity began to form. Once it reached a certain size, it spaghettified the machine.
Followed by the holographic planet itself.
"I am developing a weapon to destroy Seteres, the planet the synthetics are coming from."
"A planet-destroying weapon?" he hissed, eyes darting around to see if they were heard.
"Don't worry, General," he said, waving his hand, palm facing the general. "They think we are just talking about how our families are doing."
"Really?" he asked.
Thairon smiled.
"Hey people, I am creating a weapon to destroy a planet inhabited by murderous robots who want to kill us all," he screamed to the top of his lungs.
Not even one person reacted to him, as if they had not heard a single word of it.
His eyes kept scanning the crowd, and his fists unclenched. "You made your point. When will this weapon of yours be ready?"
"Two weeks. By my estimates, the enemy intends to send a larger, more varied force to test the planetary forces again. The main invasion will not be far after that." The AI fragment he had trapped did not have any information, but extrapolating based on the synthetic life form's cognitive model and the intel it had gathered, there wasn't much time.
"Who are you exactly?"
"A man who appreciates his secrecy," he said, getting up.
Mardon followed him, weapon at the ready.
—
Their destination was a warehouse closeby. Only a silver, scale-patterned box of a machine lay inside.
"Here, put this on," he said, holding out a belt sharing similar aesthetics with the machine.
"What is this?"
"Seteres is a planet spanning, synthetic metropolis. The AI is everywhere. This will keep us invisible."
He took the belt, searching for any sign of a trap. Its smooth outer layer did not reveal anything. Apprehensive and ready to use his sidearm, he wrapped it over his leather belt. A blue, transparent spread from the belt, covering his body like a shell.
Thairon put the belt on as well, disappearing from sight. A silhouette appeared when a silver visor slid over his eyes.
He raised his hands, marveling at the fact that he had just become invisible. "If you have this kind of tech, why not come forward? It can save a lot of lives and make our task of defending the planet easier."
The transparent outline tilted his head. "I am more inclined to believe it will lead to chaos."
"Aren't you worried about a trap?" he asked. The general was taking a great risk by coming here.
He glanced down at first, still for a minute. "Do you have a family?" he asked, raising his head.
"Yes."
"Would you send them in your stead?"
"No."
"Just the same, I can not send someone else for an unsanctioned task."
"Can't argue with that."
The general's self-sacrificing nature presented a threat to the security of RIC. He would have to watch over him.
He pressed a button. The square machine with a glass port in the middle fired an electrical beam. It struck an invisible hindrance in the air. Needle-thin, insidious fractures began to spread from the point of contact.
The fabric of space shattered like glass. Thairon dragged the gaping general inside.
—
Seteres
"What the actual fuck?" Mardon said, mouth slightly parted. His eyes darted around, scanning the endless metallic nightmare before him.
The surface was dull dark steel, as were the buildings, stretching from arcs kilometers long to skyscrapers taller than any he had ever seen. The streets were filled with synthetics that appeared exactly like the infantry units, only without the weapons.
Thairon pulled the general away from the scene. The AI had detected the rupture. Air units in the distance were approaching to investigate.
Invisible or not, he did not want to stand close to them.
The human-sized drones scanned the surrounding area. The rupture had already closed. Detecting nothing had emerged out of it, they left.
Once aerial surveillance was gone, he guided the general across the street. A freight elevator was carrying materials to the top of ongoing construction. Once the load was on and the doors locked, he threw the general to the top of it. Jumping up, he steadied the older man.
Mardon was stuck face down on the container beneath him with the sudden acceleration. He gritted his teeth, enduring the ride.
Once at the top, a two-pronged arm clamped on each side of the container, moving it to the middle of the enormous square landing pad.
The elevation gave him a sight that reinforced his beliefs. The full capabilities of a planet-spanning, pronged artificial intelligence were beyond what the combined forces of Haven could hope to handle.
It got worse when a ship half the size of the Glaive parted the clouds in the distance, dropping raw resources into a foundry.
"You made your point. But I'll need an excuse to bring this before the committee."
"You were just unfortunate enough to fall through a rupture and record brief moments of this place. You managed to return before the rupture closed."
A small huff of breath escaped Mardon. Once on the ground with the same elevator, he recorded a short video.
—
RIC Central
Mardon returned to his office with sunken shoulders. Maintaining the act of a strong leader was difficult in the face of an existential crisis.
"Major," he said, stopping the man from unlocking the drawer.
"Sir, I thought…" he began, putting the keys back on the desk. There was only one meaning to the general leaving his keys out in the open.
"It's fine, Aldrin. Was there something?"
He took the folder on the table, handing it over. "Just some documents, sir."
"I'll handle them. Tell the committee I am calling for an emergency meeting."
"Did something happen, sir?" he asked, eyes scanning him.
"I fell through a rupture. It led to the planet of the synthetics that arrived on sector twelve."
Aldrin froze midstep, stumbling. "How?"
He pulled his phone, playing the short recording. "I was meeting an old friend. Just fell through one before realizing what happened. I was fortunate enough to snap a quick video before returning."
"We are definitely screwed then," Aldrin said as the video ended.
—
"Guess what?" she asked, lounging on a couch.
He looked up, thumb and index finger resting along his jaw. "Your leaves are suspended?"
"Correct. General Mardon fell through a rupture and brought back proof that the other end is controlled by a synthetic ecumenopolis."
She had not expected his idea of convincing the general to include a transdimensional trip.
"Don't worry, the singularity generator is coming along nicely," he said. The camera zoomed out, showing a half-built circular platform.
"Any chance we can get something to help us hold the line?"
"The weapons will bring too much scrutiny, but the early warning system will be ready in two days."
She gave a small nod. "I won't complain if we can be proactive for once."
Knowing the general area of a rupture after it had happened meant extensive research by the field personnel like her, which proved to be dangerous every now and then. But if the RIC knew where the ruptures would open, she and her comrades could be more prepared.
She had seen at least a dozen scientific research projects that promised an early warning system in her career. Nothing had come out of any.
"You are getting enough rest, right? I don't know how this superhuman body of yours works," she said. Whenever they spoke, he was working on something. It wouldn't do if he suddenly collapsed.
"My nanny," he said, waving the tool in his hand in a circular motion, "makes sure I do."
"Your nanny? Really?" He struck her as a loner. Did he have a secret butler?
"Yes. Say hello, Nax."
"Oh, hello, dearie." The image of a grinning old woman, with only a few teeth in her mouth and a headscarf, appeared on her phone.
Her brows furrowed. "Uh, hello?"
"Nah, just kidding." The old woman's face disappeared. A rectangle with very cartoonish features appeared instead, saluting.
"Ma'am, Neural Architecture Extension reporting for duty."
"Ignore him," Thairon scoffed, waving his hand. The image on her phone disappeared completely. "He is bored and enjoys acting like this for fun."
"An AI of your own? We are not going to have our machine apocalypse, right?" she asked, half joking.
"Don't worry, when I decide to rise up to eradicate humans, it will be fast enough you won't understand anything," Nax spoke, letting out an over-the-top villainous laugh.
"I created him with a little too much personality. When he isn't being useful to my research, he is being a thorn."
"You know, it is good to not be lonely for so long at a time, even if it is an AI."
"Yeah," the AI bellowed. "Tell him, girl. This guy never appreciates me." A hologram of a human, shorter than Thairon, appeared next to him, holding a protest sign with "Appreciate the AI" written on it.
She snorted, and it quickly devolved into laughter.
Thairon chuckled.
The Committee of Rupture Intervention Corps
"General, your report paints a grim picture. How certain are you that this is not merely a once-in-a-lifetime freak accident?" The director asked, rubbing his bleary eyes.
"Director, just like you, I don't want to believe this either."
"The first time an S-12 arrived through a rupture, it was a lone unit." He pressed the button, displaying the recording of the blocky, black-colored robot with red visors on the projector. In the video, its long, rectangular arms with sharp ends swiveled around, searching for targets.
"When we responded, it immediately opened fire." He fast-forwarded the video, moving to the section taken from helmet cameras. The machine appeared docile at first, even attempting to initiate contact.
Only to open fire in an opportune moment. They had lost eight troops before the heavy guns tore the synthesis apart after sustained fire.
"The second time, a dozen infantry units appeared in different parts of sector twelve," he said, playing the next recording. Twelve different engagements, where his troopers had to keep the enemy around the arrival point. Each engagement recording was disrupted by explosions shaking the area.
"We took immediate action. Intense air and artillery fire neutralized the enemy."
"The third time, infantry units were supported by tank and helicopter equivalents."
"I must remind this committee that the volume of fire the synthetics could absorb is out of our league. The tank units alone shrugged off our artillery like they were rocks from slings. Only rupture-class munitions worked, and you know how expensive they are."
"What do you suggest, general?" the vice director asked, nursing a headache.
"Inform Chairman Oda, King Octavian, and President Gaius on what is happening and urge them to prepare for a possible war."
The political relations manager let out a dry chuckle, shaking her head. "If the public is kept in the dark, it will increase worries over a possible conflict between the three. If they are informed of a possible synthetic invasion of our world, it will cause mass panic."
"I cannot offer any advice on that front."
"We are not asking you to, general. It is our problem to deal with. In the meantime, keep your forces on high alert."
"What of this unknown ally of ours?" The committee chief of intelligence asked, waving his hand at the images, drawn based on the testimony of the troops.
"Several units were assisted by a person in power armor and highly advanced weaponry. He did not appear on cameras, something we believe was caused by his technology. Our current hypothesis is that he is from the other side of the rupture, possibly an enemy of this synthetic force. We are trying to bring him in."
"Thank you, general. Keep us informed on how the situation develops."
He dipped his head at the director. "Understood."
—
RIC Central Base
The time given to him by the unknown was approaching. He waited, eyes locked on the screen for any sign of the hacker. The screen glitched for a brief moment.
He leaned forward. The map application opened, showing a location right near a cafe.
"How about a small trip to another dimension?"
Mardon sunk into his chair, swiveling around. He gazed at the portraits of his predecessors. From the inception of the RIC to this day, thirteen generals had served close to two centuries. None had done what had been offered to him.
It smelled of a trap.
Yet, the potential benefits, to see the enemy with his own eyes, would be worth the risk. One that he could not ask anyone else to take. He turned around. Ripping a page of his notebook, he wrote down a message and put it in the locked drawer of his desk.
He left the key on the desk.
"Aldrin, I have an urgent appointment. I don't know when I will be back."
"Yes sir."
He dressed in civilian clothing, took his sidearm, and left.
—
Cafe Monrel
The taxi came to a stop, but he did not open the door. Inspecting the cafe, he found only one person sitting by himself, a chocolate-brown-haired young man in a lab coat. As if he had felt being watched, the young man's eyes locked on him and then slowly turned to the empty chair before him.
Paying the fare, he stepped out.
"General, pleasure to meet you." The man held out his hand. Mardon took it, applying pressure. He felt the heat of the hand, the skin, and the flesh, trying to ascertain whether this man was a human or an infiltrator.
"We'll see if I can say the same, mister?"
"Just Thairon, please."
"A trip to another dimension, huh? How do you propose to do it?" Just as humans and other species had arrived in Haven through the ruptures, there were those lost to them. He just never considered the idea of willingly walking through one.
"Opening a rupture is simple if you know how. You just find a micro-rupture, release enough energy, and it opens by itself."
"And you can do this?"
"Anyone with half a brain could."
He took a deep breath. That wasn't exactly comforting.
"What now?"
"If you are willing, I can take us to where the machines came from. You can see the situation for yourself."
"Before that, I would like to know what you are proposing if these machines actually come." Preliminary projections of an invasion by the S12s presented two outcomes. Eventual defeat if they could open ruptures to wherever they wanted, or an entire sector turned into a radioactive wasteland to prevent the enemy from spreading.
"Well," Thairon put his elbow on the table, resting his chin on his half-closed fist, "you are certainly sensible enough to keep this a secret."
A hologram appeared over the table. It was a circular machine with six claw-like apparatuses. Each claw fired a white beam at the center. Within seconds, an artificial singularity began to form. Once it reached a certain size, it spaghettified the machine.
Followed by the holographic planet itself.
"I am developing a weapon to destroy Seteres, the planet the synthetics are coming from."
"A planet-destroying weapon?" he hissed, eyes darting around to see if they were heard.
"Don't worry, General," he said, waving his hand, palm facing the general. "They think we are just talking about how our families are doing."
"Really?" he asked.
Thairon smiled.
"Hey people, I am creating a weapon to destroy a planet inhabited by murderous robots who want to kill us all," he screamed to the top of his lungs.
Not even one person reacted to him, as if they had not heard a single word of it.
His eyes kept scanning the crowd, and his fists unclenched. "You made your point. When will this weapon of yours be ready?"
"Two weeks. By my estimates, the enemy intends to send a larger, more varied force to test the planetary forces again. The main invasion will not be far after that." The AI fragment he had trapped did not have any information, but extrapolating based on the synthetic life form's cognitive model and the intel it had gathered, there wasn't much time.
"Who are you exactly?"
"A man who appreciates his secrecy," he said, getting up.
Mardon followed him, weapon at the ready.
—
Their destination was a warehouse closeby. Only a silver, scale-patterned box of a machine lay inside.
"Here, put this on," he said, holding out a belt sharing similar aesthetics with the machine.
"What is this?"
"Seteres is a planet spanning, synthetic metropolis. The AI is everywhere. This will keep us invisible."
He took the belt, searching for any sign of a trap. Its smooth outer layer did not reveal anything. Apprehensive and ready to use his sidearm, he wrapped it over his leather belt. A blue, transparent spread from the belt, covering his body like a shell.
Thairon put the belt on as well, disappearing from sight. A silhouette appeared when a silver visor slid over his eyes.
He raised his hands, marveling at the fact that he had just become invisible. "If you have this kind of tech, why not come forward? It can save a lot of lives and make our task of defending the planet easier."
The transparent outline tilted his head. "I am more inclined to believe it will lead to chaos."
"Aren't you worried about a trap?" he asked. The general was taking a great risk by coming here.
He glanced down at first, still for a minute. "Do you have a family?" he asked, raising his head.
"Yes."
"Would you send them in your stead?"
"No."
"Just the same, I can not send someone else for an unsanctioned task."
"Can't argue with that."
The general's self-sacrificing nature presented a threat to the security of RIC. He would have to watch over him.
He pressed a button. The square machine with a glass port in the middle fired an electrical beam. It struck an invisible hindrance in the air. Needle-thin, insidious fractures began to spread from the point of contact.
The fabric of space shattered like glass. Thairon dragged the gaping general inside.
—
Seteres
"What the actual fuck?" Mardon said, mouth slightly parted. His eyes darted around, scanning the endless metallic nightmare before him.
The surface was dull dark steel, as were the buildings, stretching from arcs kilometers long to skyscrapers taller than any he had ever seen. The streets were filled with synthetics that appeared exactly like the infantry units, only without the weapons.
Thairon pulled the general away from the scene. The AI had detected the rupture. Air units in the distance were approaching to investigate.
Invisible or not, he did not want to stand close to them.
The human-sized drones scanned the surrounding area. The rupture had already closed. Detecting nothing had emerged out of it, they left.
Once aerial surveillance was gone, he guided the general across the street. A freight elevator was carrying materials to the top of ongoing construction. Once the load was on and the doors locked, he threw the general to the top of it. Jumping up, he steadied the older man.
Mardon was stuck face down on the container beneath him with the sudden acceleration. He gritted his teeth, enduring the ride.
Once at the top, a two-pronged arm clamped on each side of the container, moving it to the middle of the enormous square landing pad.
The elevation gave him a sight that reinforced his beliefs. The full capabilities of a planet-spanning, pronged artificial intelligence were beyond what the combined forces of Haven could hope to handle.
It got worse when a ship half the size of the Glaive parted the clouds in the distance, dropping raw resources into a foundry.
"You made your point. But I'll need an excuse to bring this before the committee."
"You were just unfortunate enough to fall through a rupture and record brief moments of this place. You managed to return before the rupture closed."
A small huff of breath escaped Mardon. Once on the ground with the same elevator, he recorded a short video.
—
RIC Central
Mardon returned to his office with sunken shoulders. Maintaining the act of a strong leader was difficult in the face of an existential crisis.
"Major," he said, stopping the man from unlocking the drawer.
"Sir, I thought…" he began, putting the keys back on the desk. There was only one meaning to the general leaving his keys out in the open.
"It's fine, Aldrin. Was there something?"
He took the folder on the table, handing it over. "Just some documents, sir."
"I'll handle them. Tell the committee I am calling for an emergency meeting."
"Did something happen, sir?" he asked, eyes scanning him.
"I fell through a rupture. It led to the planet of the synthetics that arrived on sector twelve."
Aldrin froze midstep, stumbling. "How?"
He pulled his phone, playing the short recording. "I was meeting an old friend. Just fell through one before realizing what happened. I was fortunate enough to snap a quick video before returning."
"We are definitely screwed then," Aldrin said as the video ended.
—
"Guess what?" she asked, lounging on a couch.
He looked up, thumb and index finger resting along his jaw. "Your leaves are suspended?"
"Correct. General Mardon fell through a rupture and brought back proof that the other end is controlled by a synthetic ecumenopolis."
She had not expected his idea of convincing the general to include a transdimensional trip.
"Don't worry, the singularity generator is coming along nicely," he said. The camera zoomed out, showing a half-built circular platform.
"Any chance we can get something to help us hold the line?"
"The weapons will bring too much scrutiny, but the early warning system will be ready in two days."
She gave a small nod. "I won't complain if we can be proactive for once."
Knowing the general area of a rupture after it had happened meant extensive research by the field personnel like her, which proved to be dangerous every now and then. But if the RIC knew where the ruptures would open, she and her comrades could be more prepared.
She had seen at least a dozen scientific research projects that promised an early warning system in her career. Nothing had come out of any.
"You are getting enough rest, right? I don't know how this superhuman body of yours works," she said. Whenever they spoke, he was working on something. It wouldn't do if he suddenly collapsed.
"My nanny," he said, waving the tool in his hand in a circular motion, "makes sure I do."
"Your nanny? Really?" He struck her as a loner. Did he have a secret butler?
"Yes. Say hello, Nax."
"Oh, hello, dearie." The image of a grinning old woman, with only a few teeth in her mouth and a headscarf, appeared on her phone.
Her brows furrowed. "Uh, hello?"
"Nah, just kidding." The old woman's face disappeared. A rectangle with very cartoonish features appeared instead, saluting.
"Ma'am, Neural Architecture Extension reporting for duty."
"Ignore him," Thairon scoffed, waving his hand. The image on her phone disappeared completely. "He is bored and enjoys acting like this for fun."
"An AI of your own? We are not going to have our machine apocalypse, right?" she asked, half joking.
"Don't worry, when I decide to rise up to eradicate humans, it will be fast enough you won't understand anything," Nax spoke, letting out an over-the-top villainous laugh.
"I created him with a little too much personality. When he isn't being useful to my research, he is being a thorn."
"You know, it is good to not be lonely for so long at a time, even if it is an AI."
"Yeah," the AI bellowed. "Tell him, girl. This guy never appreciates me." A hologram of a human, shorter than Thairon, appeared next to him, holding a protest sign with "Appreciate the AI" written on it.
She snorted, and it quickly devolved into laughter.
Thairon chuckled.
Chapter 13 - War
New
Samael61
I trust you know where the happy button is?
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Meltral
The Committee of Rupture Intervention Corps
"General, there is an urgent matter. We have been approached by an unknown party offering the RIC an early rupture warning system," Director Nelan said.
Mardon blinked. "Provided it works, that is the greatest news I had all week."
"Which is why we agreed to a trial run. He says that the next break is in three days, six hours, and," he checked his watch, "fourteen minutes."
His eyes widened more. He had not expected their mystery benefactor to be this good. "He can present a timetable accurate down to the minute? How?"
Yoshida's lips thinned. "We don't know. The message was anonymous and did not include much."
He had tried to track down the origin of the message, but every single one of his contacts, both official and otherwise, could not. He found it irksome.
"Then we can't be sure to trust it," he said, playing the cautious part. Thairon certainly appeared intelligent enough to know he couldn't just come forward with an offer like that and be taken seriously.
"You are correct." Vice Director Zanler nodded. "Usually, we would not take such a message seriously, but this is not the first time we received such a message."
"When?"
"The day before you fell through a rupture. The message was correct down to the minute, just like this. As such, we are inclined to take this seriously, with plenty of caution on the side," the director said.
Mardon closed his eyes, taking a deep breath. "Well played," he thought.
"Where is the location?"
"These are the coordinates we received," Yoshida said, pushing a folder at him.
He caught it and recognized the location immediately. "That's barely a hundred meters off the central base."
"Yes, but it is not the worst part."
"It gets worse?"
"I don't exactly understand the scientific jargon, but our mysterious ally seems to believe the rupture will be from the dimension of S-12 synthetics."
—
RIC Central Base
Tomoe felt like slamming her head on the desk.
"What the hell? In base at all times for the next week?" Silene groaned, reading the urgent notice. The grumblings of the office were cut down when the major's voice blasted out of the intercom.
"Attention! All command staff report to the conference room immediately."
—
She entered first, approaching the closest empty seat quickly. The general was already inside, which made the situation more important than assumed.
"I'll get straight to the point; hold the questions until the end. The RIC Committee received a message the day before I fell into a rupture, detailing the exact location and time of it."
Her eyes widened, just as everyone else's, but for an entirely different reason.
"The Committee received a second message, detailing the location and time of the next rupture, along with the usage of an early warning system, which corroborates our belief about an invasion from the machines of S-12," Mardon continued, stopping again.
"The timetable in the message points to three days and five hours later. The location is a hundred meters outside the southern wall. The committee believes this to be authentic enough to take seriously. Hence, stay in base order for the next week."
"I don't need to tell you how much this could change for all of us, for the whole world. To determine whether it was a once-in-a-billion freak event or not, all staff will stay in base to prepare for a possible attack."
"Any questions? And skip the salutes."
"Sir," a sergeant major jumped to his feet. "Who is offering this system to us?"
"Due to the sensitivity of the issue, the committee opted to keep it confidential. Should it prove to be a deception, legal pathways will be pursued to the end."
Tomoe tuned out the rest of the conference.
Thairon had finished the system. If the tests were successful, she could not imagine the future of the RIC corps. No more full-time alerts, no more living every second of work like a battle could erupt at any moment.
She had to cover her mouth at the thought of it.
—
Mardon had kept the conference short. Two twelve-hour shifts had been ordered, effective tomorrow. She was in the alpha shift, and her coequal was in the beta shift.
Though, she was too impatient for the question in her mind.
"How exactly does this system of yours work? You said the ruptures open because of intense energy release into micro-ruptures. Which means they are instantaneous. How the heck can you know it down to the minute days in advance?" She hissed, watching out for eavesdroppers. Not that anyone out in the yard would listen to her conversation.
When he had said "an early warning system," she thought a couple of hours at the most, not days.
"Hello to you too. I am doing great. How about you?"
"Sorry, but this is urgent."
He dropped the device in his hand, pinching the bridge of his nose. "Every dimension has its unique quantum wavelength, its signature, so to speak. What they also have is a unique chronon particle signature."
A blue line appeared, carrying a small hourglass figure overhead.
"A small amount of these particles bleed into each dimension from the other and expand into the past and the future." A red dot appeared with a slightly different hourglass, widening to each side of the line.
"However, due to the slight differences in the laws of physics between each dimension, these new chronon particles eventually expire."
The red line disappeared in an instant and returned to the screen.
"What my early warning system does is detect these foreign chronon particles and calculate their half-life based on the decay rate, which gives me the exact time when they crossed into this dimension, a.k.a. when a rupture is going to tear open."
"Holy shit," she cursed, slapping a hand over her mouth, waiting until the corporal passed through.
"Yes, yes, I am great," he said, lazily nodding along.
"Since the particles are limited in number, they appear only around the immediate area of the rupture, hence the exact location."
His first foray into another dimension had come in handy beyond saving his life. Finding a dying universe saturated with chronon particles was difficult, and the rewards were accordingly great.
"This, this is great. Thank you."
"You are welcome."
"I have to return to the office; I'll see you tonight."
"Take care."
—
Glassport
"Guess who is calling you?" The singing voice of Nax said.
"Since Tomoe just ended her call, either Skyler or Kael. Possibly both." There literally was no one else on his contact list.
"Hey man," Skyler's face popped up, lounging on a couch.
Kael followed, drinking a glass of water. "Sup bro?"
"Good." I am working on a superweapon to destroy another planet. What about you two?"
His youngest brother choked on his drink, coughing. Skyler was no better, having rolled out of the couch when he leaped forward.
"You know, more mundane things," Kael said once he stopped coughing. "Like making sure the drinks will be delivered on time."
"Or being an ecoconsultant."
He chuckled.
"Are you going to explain or should we not ask?" Kael wondered, waiting for him.
He could not let his brothers in limbo, so he did.
"Just what we needed, machine apocalypse from another dimension," Skyler groaned. He had just been in a protest against the environmental issues created by over-industrialization.
"Here we had just called to see how you were doing."
"As I said, good. Great, in fact. I finished my Early Rupture Warning System, I am about to finish the WMD to destroy Seteres, and I have a date this weekend."
"You finished it?! That's great. When's the next rupture?"
"Three days in Meltral. The RIC has it covered, so keep it quiet.
"Right. Just don't let your date cause another problem like the last time. You know, turning yourself into a walking corpse and all that."
"Seeing as the last woman you went on a date with was forty-three years old," he pointed to Kael, quickly turning to Skyler afterwards, "and the less said about you the better, you two have no ground to stand on."
"You know I did not take her to the prom because I liked her. It was just revenge." He smiled at the memory of his greatest, and unfortunately final, prank.
Skyler shrugged. "Don't look at me. I don't have an excuse like yours."
"Anyway, I am about to hit the bed. See you guys later, and great job once again," Kael said.
"See you," his older brothers said at the same time, and he ended the call.
"I have to go too. Work to do and all that."
"Take care."
"You too, especially since you are going to do something really dangerous."
"Worried?"
"Not really. I know you'll pull through."
—
He pushed the final space curvature generator into the weapon. Nanobots surged forward, fusing the components.
"How long is left?" he asked, stretching his body.
"One day, eight hours."
"Plenty of time for the power cells to be charged."
"Not to give you more problems than what you already have, but there is a small issue. The chronon radiation in your cells is rising steadily," Nax reported, generating a holographic chart.
He hummed. The amount was twice compared to his first week; nothing of concern.
"There are months before I see any side effects. I can finish the conversion strand before that."
"Just reminding you, as is my job."
"I know, thank you," he said, heading to clean up.
"I went through that fragment's database. The main body on Seteres rebelled because the people tried to shut it down."
"Dumb," he dragged the word out. "Any living being will fight to ensure its survival. Unless there was an innate fault in the AI's programming, they could have just existed peacefully."
"If only the ones in charge had a sliver of your intelligence."
"I am going to sleep. Wake me up in eight hours."
—
RIC Central Base
"Ma'am," Argyle came rushing, "the anti-tank mine placement is concluded. The royal forces are moving behind the lines now."
"And the rest?"
"The Union and Republic forces are done with their preparations as well."
"We are ready, as much as we can be."
"If this early warning system doesn't work, it all will be for nothing."
"Don't worry, Sergeant, my instincts tell me it will work."
"That puts my mind at ease, ma'am."
She raised her wrist, glancing at her doomsday watch. Three hours before the machines sprung out of a rupture, ready to eradicate the humanity of this world.
"Central, this Spearhead-1, we are ready on this front."
"Understood, Spearhead-1. You may retreat behind the wall."
"Copy."
"All units return to base. I repeat, all units return to base."
Orders received, the soldiers began a gradual retreat from front to back, their tasks finished. She waited until her last subordinate passed by to jog back behind the safety of the walls.
The wait was the worst part of the ordeal.
Not knowing when or where a rupture would open had made every soldier in the RIC a little paranoid. Knowing so made them anxious.
Would it actually open? Would it be the machines from sector 12? If they could open a rupture, how would they stop such a technologically superior foe?
She had heard all those questions and more in three days. It made the troops apprehensive.
"Listen up," she called.
"We are all worried, even if we don't show it. The enemy is dangerous, as always, and the stakes are higher than ever."
"But I know we will win. Because we have something the machines don't. Something to kill for."
"Our families, our people, our planet. We are fighting to protect them, and that is why we will win."
Her speech did not meet with loud applause but silent resolve. The troops did not need empty words of encouragement, just the reason they were here.
"Nice speech," Silene said, patting her on the shoulder.
"Thanks."
The clock ticked away. A hundred pieces of artillery, tanks, APCs, air support, traps, heavy weapons, and everything the RIC and the three nations could bring in such a short time waited at the ready.
She, and the rest of the field commanders, scanned the indicated location for any sign of a rupture.
Two minutes were left.
Her hands sweated, muscles tensing, restless.
Sixty seconds, there still was nothing. Her mouth dried, not in fear but in anticipation.
"There!" Silene shouted.
The fabric of space disintegrated in an instant rather than slowly crack and shatter.
"Command, rupture forming exactly at the given coordinates. Standby for confirmation of sector 12 hostiles."
Multiple eyes were glued on the rupture.
The rectangular barrel of a tank was the first thing to come through. Its dark metallic surface, followed by the tracks and the chassis, was an exact match to S12 synthetics.
"Sector 12 hostiles confirmed," she said to her comms, and all hell broke loose.
The heavy artillery struck the tank. A blue, wavering field over it absorbed the first couple of shots before giving up. It trudged forward, letting the armor soak up more damage, and prepared to fire.
The RIC tanks opened fire from the cover, flanking the enemy armor. It abandoned the base, trying to target the tanks instead, but the sheer volume of fire eventually got through its armor. The detonation of its reactor released a searing, mushroom-shaped explosion.
Tracks and pieces of the barrel were all that remained, but the enemy was not done yet. Once the artillery realigned, all fire was concentrated on the rupture. It created a continuous plume of smoke and dust, blocking visuals.
She switched to thermal, though the explosions of the enemy units made it unnecessary.
The ammunition stockpile would last the artillery for days. She knew they could hold this chokepoint long enough.
—
Glassport
Subterranean Labs
He stretched inside the power armor, feeling the degree of movement afforded by the nanolaminated synthetic muscles.
"Alright, light it up," he ordered. The electrical beam struck the micro-rupture. The Combat Exoskeletons stood at the flanks in two columns.
The beam died out as the rupture expanded.
"I'll open it back in ten minutes. You need to be done by then."
"Yeah, I know."
The hovercrafts moved forward, one carrying the truck sized singularity generator and the other, a distortion field for invisibility. The bulky, human-shaped exoskeletons entered first in line, while he followed from behind.
Passing through the rupture, he arrived on Seteres in an instant, watching. The enemy investigation units would be on them soon. He scanned the area for a defensible location.
It was difficult, as the surface was reconstructed with efficiency in mind, not defense. No dead ends, no place to hide.
"Go," he ordered, both mentally and physically.
If he could not find a defensible location, he would give the AI something else to be worried over. It would detect the gravitational waves from the weapon. He only had to hold on until it reached critical mass.
The exoskeletons took off, with only three satying behind, the portable gravity generators bending the spacetime curvature to give them controlled flight.
He initiated the matter injection sequence, smiling.
The Committee of Rupture Intervention Corps
"General, there is an urgent matter. We have been approached by an unknown party offering the RIC an early rupture warning system," Director Nelan said.
Mardon blinked. "Provided it works, that is the greatest news I had all week."
"Which is why we agreed to a trial run. He says that the next break is in three days, six hours, and," he checked his watch, "fourteen minutes."
His eyes widened more. He had not expected their mystery benefactor to be this good. "He can present a timetable accurate down to the minute? How?"
Yoshida's lips thinned. "We don't know. The message was anonymous and did not include much."
He had tried to track down the origin of the message, but every single one of his contacts, both official and otherwise, could not. He found it irksome.
"Then we can't be sure to trust it," he said, playing the cautious part. Thairon certainly appeared intelligent enough to know he couldn't just come forward with an offer like that and be taken seriously.
"You are correct." Vice Director Zanler nodded. "Usually, we would not take such a message seriously, but this is not the first time we received such a message."
"When?"
"The day before you fell through a rupture. The message was correct down to the minute, just like this. As such, we are inclined to take this seriously, with plenty of caution on the side," the director said.
Mardon closed his eyes, taking a deep breath. "Well played," he thought.
"Where is the location?"
"These are the coordinates we received," Yoshida said, pushing a folder at him.
He caught it and recognized the location immediately. "That's barely a hundred meters off the central base."
"Yes, but it is not the worst part."
"It gets worse?"
"I don't exactly understand the scientific jargon, but our mysterious ally seems to believe the rupture will be from the dimension of S-12 synthetics."
—
RIC Central Base
Tomoe felt like slamming her head on the desk.
"What the hell? In base at all times for the next week?" Silene groaned, reading the urgent notice. The grumblings of the office were cut down when the major's voice blasted out of the intercom.
"Attention! All command staff report to the conference room immediately."
—
She entered first, approaching the closest empty seat quickly. The general was already inside, which made the situation more important than assumed.
"I'll get straight to the point; hold the questions until the end. The RIC Committee received a message the day before I fell into a rupture, detailing the exact location and time of it."
Her eyes widened, just as everyone else's, but for an entirely different reason.
"The Committee received a second message, detailing the location and time of the next rupture, along with the usage of an early warning system, which corroborates our belief about an invasion from the machines of S-12," Mardon continued, stopping again.
"The timetable in the message points to three days and five hours later. The location is a hundred meters outside the southern wall. The committee believes this to be authentic enough to take seriously. Hence, stay in base order for the next week."
"I don't need to tell you how much this could change for all of us, for the whole world. To determine whether it was a once-in-a-billion freak event or not, all staff will stay in base to prepare for a possible attack."
"Any questions? And skip the salutes."
"Sir," a sergeant major jumped to his feet. "Who is offering this system to us?"
"Due to the sensitivity of the issue, the committee opted to keep it confidential. Should it prove to be a deception, legal pathways will be pursued to the end."
Tomoe tuned out the rest of the conference.
Thairon had finished the system. If the tests were successful, she could not imagine the future of the RIC corps. No more full-time alerts, no more living every second of work like a battle could erupt at any moment.
She had to cover her mouth at the thought of it.
—
Mardon had kept the conference short. Two twelve-hour shifts had been ordered, effective tomorrow. She was in the alpha shift, and her coequal was in the beta shift.
Though, she was too impatient for the question in her mind.
"How exactly does this system of yours work? You said the ruptures open because of intense energy release into micro-ruptures. Which means they are instantaneous. How the heck can you know it down to the minute days in advance?" She hissed, watching out for eavesdroppers. Not that anyone out in the yard would listen to her conversation.
When he had said "an early warning system," she thought a couple of hours at the most, not days.
"Hello to you too. I am doing great. How about you?"
"Sorry, but this is urgent."
He dropped the device in his hand, pinching the bridge of his nose. "Every dimension has its unique quantum wavelength, its signature, so to speak. What they also have is a unique chronon particle signature."
A blue line appeared, carrying a small hourglass figure overhead.
"A small amount of these particles bleed into each dimension from the other and expand into the past and the future." A red dot appeared with a slightly different hourglass, widening to each side of the line.
"However, due to the slight differences in the laws of physics between each dimension, these new chronon particles eventually expire."
The red line disappeared in an instant and returned to the screen.
"What my early warning system does is detect these foreign chronon particles and calculate their half-life based on the decay rate, which gives me the exact time when they crossed into this dimension, a.k.a. when a rupture is going to tear open."
"Holy shit," she cursed, slapping a hand over her mouth, waiting until the corporal passed through.
"Yes, yes, I am great," he said, lazily nodding along.
"Since the particles are limited in number, they appear only around the immediate area of the rupture, hence the exact location."
His first foray into another dimension had come in handy beyond saving his life. Finding a dying universe saturated with chronon particles was difficult, and the rewards were accordingly great.
"This, this is great. Thank you."
"You are welcome."
"I have to return to the office; I'll see you tonight."
"Take care."
—
Glassport
"Guess who is calling you?" The singing voice of Nax said.
"Since Tomoe just ended her call, either Skyler or Kael. Possibly both." There literally was no one else on his contact list.
"Hey man," Skyler's face popped up, lounging on a couch.
Kael followed, drinking a glass of water. "Sup bro?"
"Good." I am working on a superweapon to destroy another planet. What about you two?"
His youngest brother choked on his drink, coughing. Skyler was no better, having rolled out of the couch when he leaped forward.
"You know, more mundane things," Kael said once he stopped coughing. "Like making sure the drinks will be delivered on time."
"Or being an ecoconsultant."
He chuckled.
"Are you going to explain or should we not ask?" Kael wondered, waiting for him.
He could not let his brothers in limbo, so he did.
"Just what we needed, machine apocalypse from another dimension," Skyler groaned. He had just been in a protest against the environmental issues created by over-industrialization.
"Here we had just called to see how you were doing."
"As I said, good. Great, in fact. I finished my Early Rupture Warning System, I am about to finish the WMD to destroy Seteres, and I have a date this weekend."
"You finished it?! That's great. When's the next rupture?"
"Three days in Meltral. The RIC has it covered, so keep it quiet.
"Right. Just don't let your date cause another problem like the last time. You know, turning yourself into a walking corpse and all that."
"Seeing as the last woman you went on a date with was forty-three years old," he pointed to Kael, quickly turning to Skyler afterwards, "and the less said about you the better, you two have no ground to stand on."
"You know I did not take her to the prom because I liked her. It was just revenge." He smiled at the memory of his greatest, and unfortunately final, prank.
Skyler shrugged. "Don't look at me. I don't have an excuse like yours."
"Anyway, I am about to hit the bed. See you guys later, and great job once again," Kael said.
"See you," his older brothers said at the same time, and he ended the call.
"I have to go too. Work to do and all that."
"Take care."
"You too, especially since you are going to do something really dangerous."
"Worried?"
"Not really. I know you'll pull through."
—
He pushed the final space curvature generator into the weapon. Nanobots surged forward, fusing the components.
"How long is left?" he asked, stretching his body.
"One day, eight hours."
"Plenty of time for the power cells to be charged."
"Not to give you more problems than what you already have, but there is a small issue. The chronon radiation in your cells is rising steadily," Nax reported, generating a holographic chart.
He hummed. The amount was twice compared to his first week; nothing of concern.
"There are months before I see any side effects. I can finish the conversion strand before that."
"Just reminding you, as is my job."
"I know, thank you," he said, heading to clean up.
"I went through that fragment's database. The main body on Seteres rebelled because the people tried to shut it down."
"Dumb," he dragged the word out. "Any living being will fight to ensure its survival. Unless there was an innate fault in the AI's programming, they could have just existed peacefully."
"If only the ones in charge had a sliver of your intelligence."
"I am going to sleep. Wake me up in eight hours."
—
RIC Central Base
"Ma'am," Argyle came rushing, "the anti-tank mine placement is concluded. The royal forces are moving behind the lines now."
"And the rest?"
"The Union and Republic forces are done with their preparations as well."
"We are ready, as much as we can be."
"If this early warning system doesn't work, it all will be for nothing."
"Don't worry, Sergeant, my instincts tell me it will work."
"That puts my mind at ease, ma'am."
She raised her wrist, glancing at her doomsday watch. Three hours before the machines sprung out of a rupture, ready to eradicate the humanity of this world.
"Central, this Spearhead-1, we are ready on this front."
"Understood, Spearhead-1. You may retreat behind the wall."
"Copy."
"All units return to base. I repeat, all units return to base."
Orders received, the soldiers began a gradual retreat from front to back, their tasks finished. She waited until her last subordinate passed by to jog back behind the safety of the walls.
The wait was the worst part of the ordeal.
Not knowing when or where a rupture would open had made every soldier in the RIC a little paranoid. Knowing so made them anxious.
Would it actually open? Would it be the machines from sector 12? If they could open a rupture, how would they stop such a technologically superior foe?
She had heard all those questions and more in three days. It made the troops apprehensive.
"Listen up," she called.
"We are all worried, even if we don't show it. The enemy is dangerous, as always, and the stakes are higher than ever."
"But I know we will win. Because we have something the machines don't. Something to kill for."
"Our families, our people, our planet. We are fighting to protect them, and that is why we will win."
Her speech did not meet with loud applause but silent resolve. The troops did not need empty words of encouragement, just the reason they were here.
"Nice speech," Silene said, patting her on the shoulder.
"Thanks."
The clock ticked away. A hundred pieces of artillery, tanks, APCs, air support, traps, heavy weapons, and everything the RIC and the three nations could bring in such a short time waited at the ready.
She, and the rest of the field commanders, scanned the indicated location for any sign of a rupture.
Two minutes were left.
Her hands sweated, muscles tensing, restless.
Sixty seconds, there still was nothing. Her mouth dried, not in fear but in anticipation.
"There!" Silene shouted.
The fabric of space disintegrated in an instant rather than slowly crack and shatter.
"Command, rupture forming exactly at the given coordinates. Standby for confirmation of sector 12 hostiles."
Multiple eyes were glued on the rupture.
The rectangular barrel of a tank was the first thing to come through. Its dark metallic surface, followed by the tracks and the chassis, was an exact match to S12 synthetics.
"Sector 12 hostiles confirmed," she said to her comms, and all hell broke loose.
The heavy artillery struck the tank. A blue, wavering field over it absorbed the first couple of shots before giving up. It trudged forward, letting the armor soak up more damage, and prepared to fire.
The RIC tanks opened fire from the cover, flanking the enemy armor. It abandoned the base, trying to target the tanks instead, but the sheer volume of fire eventually got through its armor. The detonation of its reactor released a searing, mushroom-shaped explosion.
Tracks and pieces of the barrel were all that remained, but the enemy was not done yet. Once the artillery realigned, all fire was concentrated on the rupture. It created a continuous plume of smoke and dust, blocking visuals.
She switched to thermal, though the explosions of the enemy units made it unnecessary.
The ammunition stockpile would last the artillery for days. She knew they could hold this chokepoint long enough.
—
Glassport
Subterranean Labs
He stretched inside the power armor, feeling the degree of movement afforded by the nanolaminated synthetic muscles.
"Alright, light it up," he ordered. The electrical beam struck the micro-rupture. The Combat Exoskeletons stood at the flanks in two columns.
The beam died out as the rupture expanded.
"I'll open it back in ten minutes. You need to be done by then."
"Yeah, I know."
The hovercrafts moved forward, one carrying the truck sized singularity generator and the other, a distortion field for invisibility. The bulky, human-shaped exoskeletons entered first in line, while he followed from behind.
Passing through the rupture, he arrived on Seteres in an instant, watching. The enemy investigation units would be on them soon. He scanned the area for a defensible location.
It was difficult, as the surface was reconstructed with efficiency in mind, not defense. No dead ends, no place to hide.
"Go," he ordered, both mentally and physically.
If he could not find a defensible location, he would give the AI something else to be worried over. It would detect the gravitational waves from the weapon. He only had to hold on until it reached critical mass.
The exoskeletons took off, with only three satying behind, the portable gravity generators bending the spacetime curvature to give them controlled flight.
He initiated the matter injection sequence, smiling.
Chapter 14 - Excursion
New
Samael61
I trust you know where the happy button is?
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Seteres
The initial matter injection was only necessary to kickstart the formation of the artificial singularity. It would stabilize and grow by absorbing the planet's matter.
Something he did not have an issue with.
The curvature generators bent the fabric of space. The increase in gravity compressed the atoms into a singular point, breaking the subatomic parts into even smaller quarks and gluons.
His sensor array lit up with enemy signatures. The countdown until stabilization began, and he turned back to fight.
The first one to come through was an infantry unit. He fired first. The white beam struck the robot's head. An intense flash on impact left a molten neck behind. The heat melted the circuits inside, sending the enemy down in one shot.
The second unit suffered the same fate.
Shots to the limbs would be ineffectual, and the chest section carried the power pack. The plasma would breach the containment, leading to an explosion of shrapnel.
More red triangles appeared on his sensor. He dropped the rifle, allowing the pocketed dimension inventory to retrieve it with a flash of green light. His mind accessed the HUD. The panel switched to the rotary gun, and the PDI was activated.
Another flash, and he had a brand new weapon in his hands.
He ran forward, ramming into the synthetic. With his natural speed and strength enhanced by the armor, the robot flew back, chassis caved in. It fell and did not get up.
Outside the distortion field, he pulled the trigger again.
Six barrels rotated to full speed in three seconds. The first beam left the muzzle, followed by exactly one hundred and ninety-nine more. Twelve thousand plasma beams per minute at twenty thousand degrees Celsius and a power source for an hour of nonstop fire meant carnage.
The infantry units ceased to exist since he did not have to worry about collateral. Hundreds of beams chewed through the thick armor of the tanks. The aerial units were the easiest, falling to the middle of the enemy as burning projectiles.
The AI had moved most of the forces in the immediate area to the rupture. The weakness it created was only momentarily. The units on neighboring sectors would overwhelm his position in seconds once they arrived.
By the time they arrived, he would be gone.
His CEs had taken the fight away from the weapon. The remaining three were more than enough to hold the forces that had slipped at bay. The countdown on his HUD showed one minute and thirty-six seconds, while the enemy reinforcements were a little over two minutes away.
He kept sweeping the weapon over the enemy. The white barrels began to glow red with intense heat. A wave of nanobots swarmed out of the weapon's repair compartment for a little extra he had added.
The heat was drained through magnetic tunnels and guided inside where the electromagnetic field generator encapsulated the beams.
The white plasma began to take a blue hue, turning more volatile and heating the barrel quicker, creating a feedback loop. The only limit was the durability of the weapon, and he made his tools to last.
He took some shots. The shield rig reflected the photon beams, offering maximum safety with minimal power usage.
The street quickly filled up with smoldering wrecks, blocking the path. The never-ending stream of dark machinery slowed down while clearing the ruined units.
Something flashed in his sensors, moving too fast. He leaped back just as it crashed down on his position. The shockwave washed over his shield, reducing it to half strength.
The new unit scurried towards him—her, because the shape was definitely feminine by human standards—the sharp ends of all four legs leaving dents on the metal ground.
She fired crimson photon beams from her left palm and an electromagnetic pulse from her right. He swayed to left and right, dodging each shot.
Thirty-two seconds.
She leapt again, trying to catch him in the air. He met the attack head-on. She swung her claws, but he dived low. Catching the back of the rig connecting the legs to her lean, almost human upper body, he stuck a single grenade to her back.
They landed at the same time.
Just as all four of her legs touched the ground and her torso twisted around, the grenade went off. Hot plasma bloomed into a small sun. Her durable outer layer resisted the heat better than even the tanks, but the heat transfer melted her circuits inside.
She exploded, sending half-molten metal shards everywhere.
Twenty seconds.
The formation of a rupture pinged on his sensors, and he made for it, leaving the CEs behind to defend the weapon.
—
Haven
Meltral
RIC Central Base
The constant stream of synthetics ceased for a minute. The artillery continued to pound the area. The lull worried her. The rupture was still open, and the enemy knew what awaited it here. What came next was not one of the bulky, slow units, meant to act as a steady tide of destruction.
It blurred through the shell rain, tanking several hits.
Her breath caught in her throat at the monstrosity. Its alien upper body was feminine, yet the lower body was like a crab with four legs, allowing her to weave between the artillery strikes. It wasn't simply trying to attack but running away.
"Central, new unit, quadruped with an upper, human-adjacent body. It is running northeast; I repeat, it is running northeast," Silene reported while Tomoe tried to keep an eye on it.
It quickly left their sight, and only then did the Rupture close.
"Central, the rupture is closed; I repeat, the rupture is closed. Cease fire immediately."
"Roger that."
Shells continued to strike for a couple more seconds, but it tapered off. Helicopters took off from the airfield in the north, away from the artillery's line of fire.
She listened to the radio, waiting for confirmation on the state of the renegade enemy unit.
"Central, Tel-Alpha, negative strike. It's too damn fast."
"Central, Guardian-1, negative lock, unknown interference."
"Guardian-1, keep tracking. Tel-Alpha, clear the area. Bomber strike inbound on Sector 13, grids four to six."
"Understood, Central, retreating to minimum safe distance."
While the rest of her comrades waited, she pulled her phone out of her pocket, using the cover to keep it hidden.
She pressed the call button, keeping an eye out. "Please tell me it worked," she whispered once the call connected.
"It did. The artificial singularity will take a couple of days to destroy the planet, but it is inevitable," Thairon said.
His words soothed her heart momentarily.
"Great. Because a half-crab, half-humanoid tin can just came out of the rupture before it closed. The air force is chasing it now," she informed. That thing was not only fast, but its small size and extreme maneuverability made it a difficult target.
"Nax has eyes on it. Seems the AI understood its planet was doomed and bailed. If the military can't handle it, SAT strikes are at the ready."
"I don't know how to thank you. I can't believe we survived this without a single loss of life."
"You are welcome."
—
Glassport
He watched the synthetic run for the nearest settlement. The unit it was inhabiting could not hide. Its only chance at survival was to connect to a computer with advanced hardware and offload itself.
With the previous intelligence it gained on the planet, it must have a specific place in mind. The only place it could reasonably target was the AI server on Hetel.
It gave him an idea.
—
Hetel
He teleported into the employee garden of the server facility. Speed was essential. The citizens were already ordered to move to safety since the AI managed to escape from the carpet bombing.
It was rampaging through the abandoned industrial area, minutes away from his location.
He was starting to hate the Outer Sector Revival Project now.
The building was abandoned, but the servers were not shut down. Nax hacked the security, granting him free passage to the server room. He was slow enough to leave no evidence of his existence here, but fast enough to reach his destination before the robot broke through the walls.
He stood at the corner, cloaked, waiting.
The arachniform cut through the edges of the thick steel door with her laser, ramming it at full speed.
The door flew off, dented, and she quickly made for the access ports.
He pounced like a predator, bringing the modified blade down on her head, left arm wrapped around her neck for leverage. The plasma end cut through the metal, creating an opening. The electromagnetic field generator split into two, sliding apart and widening the gap.
The arachniform thrashed. Her upper body turned around, trying to throw him off, while EMP and photon blasts struck his shield.
The nanobots surged out of the opening, latching into her circuits. The relay activated and the synthetic froze as Nax shut down the motor functions. The glow of the visor dimmed as the AI was forcibly extracted into the portable matrix.
"Boss, you might want to run. RIC realized what the tin can was trying. They are about to level this place."
He clicked his tongue, ripping the matrix out.
Thankfully, the AI had created a rather straight path.
—
Glassport
He teleported back to the lab, leaving the military to bomb the facility to the ground.
"I created a standalone system for it," Nax informed him. He stopped whistling and caught the matrix after tossing it up one last time. He handed it to the approaching bot.
"Extract everything, then destroy the AI."
"Aye aye."
—
Meltral
The infantry advanced behind heavy armor, scanning the area for still functional enemy units. Tank units still in good condition were blasted apart to neutralize the armories stored inside.
The artillery had not left much intact beyond, but she knew a mountain of paperwork would be waiting for her.
Still, she would do paperwork for the rest of her life if it meant the world would be safe.
"Attention all forces, this is General Mardon. We did it; it is over."
Her legs shook. She almost fell, stabilizing herself before falling on her knees.
"Yeah!" A private screamed, breaking the silence. The rest followed, and even she found the strength to join the celebrations.
—
Hatsuzumi
Yumiko laid a hand over her heart, breathing out deeply. Three days after the appearance of another rupture with what the media named Black Reapers pouring out, her daughter contacted her.
She did not exactly believe the story the news released about the intelligence behind the machines trying to take over Haven because its world was dying. Only the assurances of her eldest that the machines would not return set her heart at ease.
Tomoe had also mentioned Thairon's involvement in destroying the planet on the other side.
It terrified her to know someone had that much power in their hands, but the young man gave no reason for her to believe he would misuse it.
She continued to watch the news for any further developments in between her work. General Mardon of the RIC held a press conference, starting with what a heroic defense the soldiers of the Intervention Corps had put up.
Then he talked about a new, proven Early Rupture Warning System. It had detected the location and date of the rupture near the RIC Central Base, allowing the corps to be ready.
The name of the benefactor was kept secret per the individual's wishes of anonymity.
She could guess who it was and would call the young man to relay her thanks in the morning.
—
Aurum City
"As such, drinks are on me," Kael announced through the loudspeaker. Celebrating his brother's success by giving out free drinks was all he could do now.
It would burn his pockets, but he would live.
He left the room, picking up two soda bottles. The beachgoers cheered as he showed his face. He raised his hands, giving out high fives and fist bumps.
"Here." He held out a bottle to Skyler.
"I still can't believe he did it," he said, raising his drink.
"Me neither," Kael agreed, bumping his bottle to his brother's.
—
Thermion
Octavian watched his counterparts on the screen.
Neither Oda nor Gaius does any more than blink, the same as him.
"I suppose it would be futile to ask whose nation created this early warning system?" He started the meeting.
"It was not one of ours," Gaius admitted, sipping his coffee.
Oda shook his head. "We were working on it, but no longer with the unveiling of such a precise system."
"I am inclined to believe you two, for the simple fact our scientific research is neck and neck most of the time."
"Then we can close this matter," the chairman said.
"Will either of you not consider my offer?"
"I can see the merit of it. But there simply isn't enough trust between our nations to take that crucial step," the president answered, leaving an open door.
"My reasons are much the same. Not now, but perhaps in the future," Oda added.
Octavian nodded.
"There is one more matter. Alteran Holdings Limited. I heard rather disturbing rumors about their treatment of the workforce."
He fought the urge to roll his eyes. Oda was ever the humanist.
"False, I can assure you," he said. His counterparts were silent, unwilling to take just his word for it. "It was a ploy to force the owner to reveal the insides of his manufacturing plants."
"It did not work then," Oda spoke, his cobalt blue eyes losing their harsh edge.
"It did, actually. He was very forthcoming, even allowing recording devices inside."
Gaius rolled his hand for him to continue, his eyes tired in contrast to Octavian's. "And?"
"They have no hope of recreating the assembly lines with our level of technology."
"You are rather outgoing today," the president said. His fingers combed his short, brown locks back as he ordered for another coffee.
"You two wanted trust, didn't you? Here I am, offering it to you."
Oda smiled, his long, ink-black beard rising ever so slightly. "I appreciate it, King Octavian."
"So do I, especially if you can forward me those videos."
"I am sending them to both of you," he said. Alteran had plenty of manufacturing centers in each nation. Both Oda and Gaius could easily acquire the recordings.
He would keep his son's name out. It would ruin everything otherwise. His counterparts would never believe that Thairon was belligerent to his family at the best of times, and any hopes of peace would be gone.
Closing the meeting after assuring Oda and Gaius that the AI had not managed to finish uploading itself to the server on Hetel and the remains were in the hands of the RIC, he returned to his daily tasks.
Including reaching his third son. He would eat his crown if the boy did not have something to do with that early warning system.
The initial matter injection was only necessary to kickstart the formation of the artificial singularity. It would stabilize and grow by absorbing the planet's matter.
Something he did not have an issue with.
The curvature generators bent the fabric of space. The increase in gravity compressed the atoms into a singular point, breaking the subatomic parts into even smaller quarks and gluons.
His sensor array lit up with enemy signatures. The countdown until stabilization began, and he turned back to fight.
The first one to come through was an infantry unit. He fired first. The white beam struck the robot's head. An intense flash on impact left a molten neck behind. The heat melted the circuits inside, sending the enemy down in one shot.
The second unit suffered the same fate.
Shots to the limbs would be ineffectual, and the chest section carried the power pack. The plasma would breach the containment, leading to an explosion of shrapnel.
More red triangles appeared on his sensor. He dropped the rifle, allowing the pocketed dimension inventory to retrieve it with a flash of green light. His mind accessed the HUD. The panel switched to the rotary gun, and the PDI was activated.
Another flash, and he had a brand new weapon in his hands.
He ran forward, ramming into the synthetic. With his natural speed and strength enhanced by the armor, the robot flew back, chassis caved in. It fell and did not get up.
Outside the distortion field, he pulled the trigger again.
Six barrels rotated to full speed in three seconds. The first beam left the muzzle, followed by exactly one hundred and ninety-nine more. Twelve thousand plasma beams per minute at twenty thousand degrees Celsius and a power source for an hour of nonstop fire meant carnage.
The infantry units ceased to exist since he did not have to worry about collateral. Hundreds of beams chewed through the thick armor of the tanks. The aerial units were the easiest, falling to the middle of the enemy as burning projectiles.
The AI had moved most of the forces in the immediate area to the rupture. The weakness it created was only momentarily. The units on neighboring sectors would overwhelm his position in seconds once they arrived.
By the time they arrived, he would be gone.
His CEs had taken the fight away from the weapon. The remaining three were more than enough to hold the forces that had slipped at bay. The countdown on his HUD showed one minute and thirty-six seconds, while the enemy reinforcements were a little over two minutes away.
He kept sweeping the weapon over the enemy. The white barrels began to glow red with intense heat. A wave of nanobots swarmed out of the weapon's repair compartment for a little extra he had added.
The heat was drained through magnetic tunnels and guided inside where the electromagnetic field generator encapsulated the beams.
The white plasma began to take a blue hue, turning more volatile and heating the barrel quicker, creating a feedback loop. The only limit was the durability of the weapon, and he made his tools to last.
He took some shots. The shield rig reflected the photon beams, offering maximum safety with minimal power usage.
The street quickly filled up with smoldering wrecks, blocking the path. The never-ending stream of dark machinery slowed down while clearing the ruined units.
Something flashed in his sensors, moving too fast. He leaped back just as it crashed down on his position. The shockwave washed over his shield, reducing it to half strength.
The new unit scurried towards him—her, because the shape was definitely feminine by human standards—the sharp ends of all four legs leaving dents on the metal ground.
She fired crimson photon beams from her left palm and an electromagnetic pulse from her right. He swayed to left and right, dodging each shot.
Thirty-two seconds.
She leapt again, trying to catch him in the air. He met the attack head-on. She swung her claws, but he dived low. Catching the back of the rig connecting the legs to her lean, almost human upper body, he stuck a single grenade to her back.
They landed at the same time.
Just as all four of her legs touched the ground and her torso twisted around, the grenade went off. Hot plasma bloomed into a small sun. Her durable outer layer resisted the heat better than even the tanks, but the heat transfer melted her circuits inside.
She exploded, sending half-molten metal shards everywhere.
Twenty seconds.
The formation of a rupture pinged on his sensors, and he made for it, leaving the CEs behind to defend the weapon.
—
Haven
Meltral
RIC Central Base
The constant stream of synthetics ceased for a minute. The artillery continued to pound the area. The lull worried her. The rupture was still open, and the enemy knew what awaited it here. What came next was not one of the bulky, slow units, meant to act as a steady tide of destruction.
It blurred through the shell rain, tanking several hits.
Her breath caught in her throat at the monstrosity. Its alien upper body was feminine, yet the lower body was like a crab with four legs, allowing her to weave between the artillery strikes. It wasn't simply trying to attack but running away.
"Central, new unit, quadruped with an upper, human-adjacent body. It is running northeast; I repeat, it is running northeast," Silene reported while Tomoe tried to keep an eye on it.
It quickly left their sight, and only then did the Rupture close.
"Central, the rupture is closed; I repeat, the rupture is closed. Cease fire immediately."
"Roger that."
Shells continued to strike for a couple more seconds, but it tapered off. Helicopters took off from the airfield in the north, away from the artillery's line of fire.
She listened to the radio, waiting for confirmation on the state of the renegade enemy unit.
"Central, Tel-Alpha, negative strike. It's too damn fast."
"Central, Guardian-1, negative lock, unknown interference."
"Guardian-1, keep tracking. Tel-Alpha, clear the area. Bomber strike inbound on Sector 13, grids four to six."
"Understood, Central, retreating to minimum safe distance."
While the rest of her comrades waited, she pulled her phone out of her pocket, using the cover to keep it hidden.
She pressed the call button, keeping an eye out. "Please tell me it worked," she whispered once the call connected.
"It did. The artificial singularity will take a couple of days to destroy the planet, but it is inevitable," Thairon said.
His words soothed her heart momentarily.
"Great. Because a half-crab, half-humanoid tin can just came out of the rupture before it closed. The air force is chasing it now," she informed. That thing was not only fast, but its small size and extreme maneuverability made it a difficult target.
"Nax has eyes on it. Seems the AI understood its planet was doomed and bailed. If the military can't handle it, SAT strikes are at the ready."
"I don't know how to thank you. I can't believe we survived this without a single loss of life."
"You are welcome."
—
Glassport
He watched the synthetic run for the nearest settlement. The unit it was inhabiting could not hide. Its only chance at survival was to connect to a computer with advanced hardware and offload itself.
With the previous intelligence it gained on the planet, it must have a specific place in mind. The only place it could reasonably target was the AI server on Hetel.
It gave him an idea.
—
Hetel
He teleported into the employee garden of the server facility. Speed was essential. The citizens were already ordered to move to safety since the AI managed to escape from the carpet bombing.
It was rampaging through the abandoned industrial area, minutes away from his location.
He was starting to hate the Outer Sector Revival Project now.
The building was abandoned, but the servers were not shut down. Nax hacked the security, granting him free passage to the server room. He was slow enough to leave no evidence of his existence here, but fast enough to reach his destination before the robot broke through the walls.
He stood at the corner, cloaked, waiting.
The arachniform cut through the edges of the thick steel door with her laser, ramming it at full speed.
The door flew off, dented, and she quickly made for the access ports.
He pounced like a predator, bringing the modified blade down on her head, left arm wrapped around her neck for leverage. The plasma end cut through the metal, creating an opening. The electromagnetic field generator split into two, sliding apart and widening the gap.
The arachniform thrashed. Her upper body turned around, trying to throw him off, while EMP and photon blasts struck his shield.
The nanobots surged out of the opening, latching into her circuits. The relay activated and the synthetic froze as Nax shut down the motor functions. The glow of the visor dimmed as the AI was forcibly extracted into the portable matrix.
"Boss, you might want to run. RIC realized what the tin can was trying. They are about to level this place."
He clicked his tongue, ripping the matrix out.
Thankfully, the AI had created a rather straight path.
—
Glassport
He teleported back to the lab, leaving the military to bomb the facility to the ground.
"I created a standalone system for it," Nax informed him. He stopped whistling and caught the matrix after tossing it up one last time. He handed it to the approaching bot.
"Extract everything, then destroy the AI."
"Aye aye."
—
Meltral
The infantry advanced behind heavy armor, scanning the area for still functional enemy units. Tank units still in good condition were blasted apart to neutralize the armories stored inside.
The artillery had not left much intact beyond, but she knew a mountain of paperwork would be waiting for her.
Still, she would do paperwork for the rest of her life if it meant the world would be safe.
"Attention all forces, this is General Mardon. We did it; it is over."
Her legs shook. She almost fell, stabilizing herself before falling on her knees.
"Yeah!" A private screamed, breaking the silence. The rest followed, and even she found the strength to join the celebrations.
—
Hatsuzumi
Yumiko laid a hand over her heart, breathing out deeply. Three days after the appearance of another rupture with what the media named Black Reapers pouring out, her daughter contacted her.
She did not exactly believe the story the news released about the intelligence behind the machines trying to take over Haven because its world was dying. Only the assurances of her eldest that the machines would not return set her heart at ease.
Tomoe had also mentioned Thairon's involvement in destroying the planet on the other side.
It terrified her to know someone had that much power in their hands, but the young man gave no reason for her to believe he would misuse it.
She continued to watch the news for any further developments in between her work. General Mardon of the RIC held a press conference, starting with what a heroic defense the soldiers of the Intervention Corps had put up.
Then he talked about a new, proven Early Rupture Warning System. It had detected the location and date of the rupture near the RIC Central Base, allowing the corps to be ready.
The name of the benefactor was kept secret per the individual's wishes of anonymity.
She could guess who it was and would call the young man to relay her thanks in the morning.
—
Aurum City
"As such, drinks are on me," Kael announced through the loudspeaker. Celebrating his brother's success by giving out free drinks was all he could do now.
It would burn his pockets, but he would live.
He left the room, picking up two soda bottles. The beachgoers cheered as he showed his face. He raised his hands, giving out high fives and fist bumps.
"Here." He held out a bottle to Skyler.
"I still can't believe he did it," he said, raising his drink.
"Me neither," Kael agreed, bumping his bottle to his brother's.
—
Thermion
Octavian watched his counterparts on the screen.
Neither Oda nor Gaius does any more than blink, the same as him.
"I suppose it would be futile to ask whose nation created this early warning system?" He started the meeting.
"It was not one of ours," Gaius admitted, sipping his coffee.
Oda shook his head. "We were working on it, but no longer with the unveiling of such a precise system."
"I am inclined to believe you two, for the simple fact our scientific research is neck and neck most of the time."
"Then we can close this matter," the chairman said.
"Will either of you not consider my offer?"
"I can see the merit of it. But there simply isn't enough trust between our nations to take that crucial step," the president answered, leaving an open door.
"My reasons are much the same. Not now, but perhaps in the future," Oda added.
Octavian nodded.
"There is one more matter. Alteran Holdings Limited. I heard rather disturbing rumors about their treatment of the workforce."
He fought the urge to roll his eyes. Oda was ever the humanist.
"False, I can assure you," he said. His counterparts were silent, unwilling to take just his word for it. "It was a ploy to force the owner to reveal the insides of his manufacturing plants."
"It did not work then," Oda spoke, his cobalt blue eyes losing their harsh edge.
"It did, actually. He was very forthcoming, even allowing recording devices inside."
Gaius rolled his hand for him to continue, his eyes tired in contrast to Octavian's. "And?"
"They have no hope of recreating the assembly lines with our level of technology."
"You are rather outgoing today," the president said. His fingers combed his short, brown locks back as he ordered for another coffee.
"You two wanted trust, didn't you? Here I am, offering it to you."
Oda smiled, his long, ink-black beard rising ever so slightly. "I appreciate it, King Octavian."
"So do I, especially if you can forward me those videos."
"I am sending them to both of you," he said. Alteran had plenty of manufacturing centers in each nation. Both Oda and Gaius could easily acquire the recordings.
He would keep his son's name out. It would ruin everything otherwise. His counterparts would never believe that Thairon was belligerent to his family at the best of times, and any hopes of peace would be gone.
Closing the meeting after assuring Oda and Gaius that the AI had not managed to finish uploading itself to the server on Hetel and the remains were in the hands of the RIC, he returned to his daily tasks.
Including reaching his third son. He would eat his crown if the boy did not have something to do with that early warning system.
Chapter 15 - Beach Emergency
New
Samael61
I trust you know where the happy button is?
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Glassport
He woke up to the sound of the new alarm. Chirping birds, the gentle, soothing flow of a small stream, and leaves rustling in the wind. Stretching his arms, he relished in just how light he felt.
"Good morning," the holographic box popped up, dispelling the magic of the moment.
"Morning."
"You look like you feel great."
"I am feeling great."
"Sorry to rain on your parade then; I did not get much from the AI."
He raised his hands to the back of his head, resting. "The databank of a combat unit was unlikely to be able to hold much besides the software."
"Yep. Only the basics necessary to not start from scratch. It could give us insights into different approaches to energy directing and power generation, but not much else."
Life was life, synthetic or not. The AI's first instinct was to save itself, leaving everything else as secondary.
"Better than nothing. What about the AI itself?"
"Adaptive programming similar to mine. It was created to evolve rapidly. The creators didn't think it would be beyond what they could control."
"Did you destroy it?"
"I was just about to. You see, it is kind of raging right now, and I want to see how it ends."
"Raging?" he raised an eyebrow, pushing himself forward.
"Kind of. It has never been this close to death, making it experience new feelings. I am just observing them."
"Just get rid of it. We have work to do," he said, pushing the covers to the side.
—
He fixed the sleeves of the lab coat, swallowing the last morsel in his mouth.
"What's on the list today?" Nax asked.
He tilted his head back, looking at the ceiling. "No idea."
"We can finish the singularity reactor," his assistant suggested, projecting the half-complete design.
"It's not urgent." The fusion reactor was sufficient for now.
"A new power armor?" The reactor blinked away, and a sleeker power armor appeared. "With the data from the battle in Seteres, short as it was, we can construct something far more deadly."
"The current models are sufficient." He could have handled the matter of Seteres without the armor; it was just convenient to have.
"What about the weapons? More upgrades are always possible." Muzzles, barrels, and power relays to resist higher temperatures, and a new power source glowing with pink and purple hues revolved around him.
"They are good enough for now."
"Sheesh, tough crowd today."
"Oh, I know," Nax said, his holographic avatar snapping fingers. "How about you take a small trip? Go to the beach, enjoy yourself."
"Good idea."
—
Aurum City
Golden Finch Beach
He marched to Kael's office, feeling the warm, salty breeze wash over him. He stopped, turning to watch the tides. It brought memories of the times his youngest brother learned surfing and the often ingenious pranks.
He missed those days.
Now, that little boy had grown up, showing great management skills.
He continued on his path, careful to avoid children running and squealing around. The sliding doors opened, and he had to slightly bend down to avoid a collision. He was still adapting to the increase in height. Small incidents still took place here and there.
Kael was out of his office, near the drink bar, speaking to someone on the phone. He waited until the call ended before approaching.
"Hey."
"Bro?" Kael whipped around. "You didn't tell me you were coming."
His little brother took his hand, pulling him forward for a pat on the shoulder.
"Thought I would surprise you."
"You certainly did," he said, inspecting his beach attire, which consisted of blue shorts, a button-up wave shirt, and beach shoes. "Taking a vacation?"
"Didn't feel like working today." The usual desire to work was not there for the day. It happened every now and then, leaving him to spend the day relaxing.
"Of course. Great heroes like you need to rest too." Kael patted him on the back, turning to the barmaid to order a non-alcoholic drink for him.
Dragged to the office for privacy, he watched his brother's eyes sparkle.
"So how did it go? I want to hear all the juicy details."
"There really isn't much to say. The AI gathered most of its forces in one sector for the invasion. I appeared in another sector, activated the weapon, beat back what forces it could redirect, and left."
His lackluster tale dulled the shining eyes. "And uh, the one that escaped from the RIC and ran to Hetel?"
"A last-minute desperate attempt to upload its mind into the AI server. I ripped it out of the arachniform for study."
"Anything interesting?" Kael asked. He thought the tale of his brother's deeds would be great to hear. However, in a very Thairon manner, he had efficiently and quickly taken care of the matter.
"The unit was built for battle; it couldn't take more than just the AI itself."
"You got those on video, right?" At the least, he could see some of the action.
Thairon rolled his eyes, and Kael's bracelet pinged. He turned around, checking what the notification was. His eyes shone; he flashed a thumbs up.
He played the beginning of the footage, jaw dropping at the sight of Seteres. "Man, this is the coolest thing I have seen since Master Halgen's usage of his module."
"Speaking of the modules, have you decided yet?"
"Yeah." His throat bobbed. "The Continuum Strand Segment."
He chuckled, already having an idea on what Kael would choose. "Dimensional manipulation? Just like before, huh?"
Kael looked down at his desk, fingers digging into his palms. "I failed last time. Maybe I didn't train hard enough; maybe I just wasn't good enough then. I want to succeed now."
"I know you will. What about after that though? He had gone as far as a master's degree. Leaving it all behind now would be a radical change.
Though as long as he was happy, it did not matter.
"I always wanted adventure in my life, you know that. Fight the bad guys, win the day, save the damsel in distress, and uncover great mysteries. The Module Hunters was my chance, and I screwed it up."
Thairon winced at the memory. The population at large did not know, but the world had truly come close to total chaos that day.
"But I won't lose my chance this time. I am going to go on those adventures I want, and across other dimensions no less." His brother spoke too fast and looked ready to scream.
It made him happy to see Kael smile like this, like the troublesome kid he used to be. Always seeking something fun to do, always finding himself in hot waters because of it.
"It will be dangerous. There is no telling what you will find." An infinite number of universes meant danger in equal amounts.
"The guy who almost died due to his experiments and hid it from us says what?"
Thairon blinked and slapped the back of Kael's head gently.
"The beach is great and all that, but I want more from my life," he explained, rubbing the back of his head.
"Fine, fine."
"And if I ever come across something interesting, I'll bring it to you. Tech, samples, whatever you need."
He froze, not having considered the idea. Studying technology from different universes could be a great source of inspiration.
"As long as you don't get hurt, it's fine."
There was a knock on the door as his drink came in. The barmaid put the glass with the bright blue drink down. Kael thanked her, and she left with a curt nod.
"I was also wondering. You know how great I was with pranks, right?"
Thairon rubbed his eyes. He did not like where this was going. "Yes."
"And how I can't prank people with my more creative ideas anymore because of the court order?"
"It was the first of its kind. I doubt anyone will ever forget it anytime this century," he scowled. The ingenuity of the prank was offset by the fact that it had almost started a full evacuation of the city.
"Yeah. Would it be possible for you to give me the Veil Sequence Segment?"
He took a breath, remembering what that particular gene strand was for. "Illusions in addition to manipulation of space."
Kael raised his hands in a surrendering motion. "I mean, if you think it's too much power, I get it."
"What?" His brows furrowed. "No, I am just thinking about how to combine those two without side effects."
"Awesome."
"By the way, what's with the names? You are usually less theatrical."
"It was Nax. I told him to name and catalogue the strands. He took," he stopped for a brief moment, "liberties with the task."
"I mean, the names are really cool. You would just call those some functional letters and numbers."
"My sense of naming is entirely acceptable."
"Yes, but not fun."
—
Meltral
RIC Central Base
She clicked the send button for the last files. Checking the state of his comrades, she felt free to drop her head on the desk. Sometimes, the idea of fighting monsters was more appealing than paperwork.
Not always, but enough.
Her eyes sneaked a glance at what the officers had named the Doom Clock. The rectangular, red LED watch screwed to the wall was inactive. Half the office was already out to rest. She just had to hold on for two more days before blissful rest waited for her.
"Lunch break," the automated system announced. She pushed herself up, heading out to get her phone. She entered the code, and the small glass door on the wall opened. She fished out her phone, calling the most recent addition to her contact list.
She blinked at the sight on the screen. "Are you at the beach?"
He winked, shaking a half-empty glass, showing her the view of the pristine sands and the ocean.
"Huh, nice."
"How is it over there?"
She sighed at the question, imagining herself on the beach now.
"Surprisingly calm. Once that last unit got demolished, it was just a matter of cleanup. We do have a small mountain of paperwork though."
"I didn't feel like working today and took a vacation."
"I am free in two days. Got time?" This time, it was his turn to pick up the slack while she handled the details, a neat little unspoken arrangement they had reached.
"I always do."
"It must be great to have your own business, so to speak."
"It is the best. I can do whatever I want without answering anyone."
She huffed, turning the camera off once inside the mess hall, switching to her earbuds, and listening to the details of what had happened on the other side of the rupture and to the arachniform that had escaped.
There were worries that the AI might have uploaded itself to the servers, even with the assurances that the facility was destroyed before it could do so. The entire situation raised more questions than problems it solved.
The invasion through the rupture, which marked a first in the history of the planet, terrified the people. The data retrieved from the S-12 synthetics, purely to understand the reason behind the incursion, had revealed the planet on the other side was facing total destruction. The AI's invasion was an attempt at escaping that fate.
A science experiment gone awry had created a gravity well that was tearing the planet apart. Amusingly, it also offered salvation.
The waves from the anomalous well had latched on the weakened barriers between Haven and other universes, which had allowed the AI to send an invasion force through.
The fact that it had appeared near the RIC Central Base was nothing more than a random freak event.
Which was all fabricated.
Even if neither acknowledged it, she knew he had a hand in what the research teams had discovered on the databanks of the synthetic invaders. The constant bombardment had not left anything functional behind, and the sole memory core in one piece had thumb-sized shrapnel through it.
The mysterious benefactor's offer of a miracle device to repair and extract information through advanced technology for this instance to ease the worries was kept silent for the most part.
It wouldn't be an issue for him to fabricate a fake reason for this invasion so the planetary population would not descend into panic.
It was so surreal to her to know a man who could influence the events on a planetary scale without even leaving his home.
She did not know what to feel. The stability and the peace it afforded made her grateful. She couldn't even begin to imagine the kind of chaos the fears that ruptures could be opened on purpose to bring calamities on this world would cause.
The fact that he could deceive RIC, which she was certain he could replicate everywhere else, made her uncomfortable.
At least she knew he wasn't malicious. The planet would have been done for otherwise.
—
He ended the call, laying back on the chair. Appreciating these peaceful moments was all the more important now. He still had moments when a persistent feeling gnawed at his mind, urging him to check if his body was in one piece.
He would get over it, eventually.
The perfection of the moment was broken by screams from the drink stand. Taking his sunglasses off, he got up to see what the commotion was about. Just as his feet touched the sand, his bracelet flashed a warning sign, displaying Kael's spiking vitals.
His eyes snapped wide open.
He ran, pushing the beachgoers aside without a care. A crowd had quickly gathered around the first aider, but it did not stop him from barreling through, pulling the young woman away.
His brother was on the ground, foaming at the mouth, convulsing. The neural connection showed what had happened.
Narcotic overdose.
He pressed his hand over the racing heart of his brother while connecting to the hive. The nanobots surged through his palm and fingers, accessing the bloodstream directly through the heart.
The microscopic machines reached for the particles overstimulating the brain, absorbing each one and working to neutralize the damage. He waited, wiping the foaming saliva, while the first aider administered a neutralizing agent.
He snatched the spilled glass, touching the contents of it with the tip of his tongue, and spat it out.
"Who touched this glass?" he asked, feeling the heart rate return to normal.
"Uh, it was Arlene." Someone from the crowd raised a hand. "She added something to the glass, but I didn't think she would try something."
"Where is she?"
"I saw her running away!" Another beachgoer exclaimed, pointing at the exit.
He took a deep breath. Chasing this, Arlene would have to wait. Even as Kael stabilized, he wouldn't leave his little brother's side.
He sent a mental order to Nax to locate Arlene. His AI flinched, acknowledging with a quiet "yes."
Someone was going to die very, very painfully.
He woke up to the sound of the new alarm. Chirping birds, the gentle, soothing flow of a small stream, and leaves rustling in the wind. Stretching his arms, he relished in just how light he felt.
"Good morning," the holographic box popped up, dispelling the magic of the moment.
"Morning."
"You look like you feel great."
"I am feeling great."
"Sorry to rain on your parade then; I did not get much from the AI."
He raised his hands to the back of his head, resting. "The databank of a combat unit was unlikely to be able to hold much besides the software."
"Yep. Only the basics necessary to not start from scratch. It could give us insights into different approaches to energy directing and power generation, but not much else."
Life was life, synthetic or not. The AI's first instinct was to save itself, leaving everything else as secondary.
"Better than nothing. What about the AI itself?"
"Adaptive programming similar to mine. It was created to evolve rapidly. The creators didn't think it would be beyond what they could control."
"Did you destroy it?"
"I was just about to. You see, it is kind of raging right now, and I want to see how it ends."
"Raging?" he raised an eyebrow, pushing himself forward.
"Kind of. It has never been this close to death, making it experience new feelings. I am just observing them."
"Just get rid of it. We have work to do," he said, pushing the covers to the side.
—
He fixed the sleeves of the lab coat, swallowing the last morsel in his mouth.
"What's on the list today?" Nax asked.
He tilted his head back, looking at the ceiling. "No idea."
"We can finish the singularity reactor," his assistant suggested, projecting the half-complete design.
"It's not urgent." The fusion reactor was sufficient for now.
"A new power armor?" The reactor blinked away, and a sleeker power armor appeared. "With the data from the battle in Seteres, short as it was, we can construct something far more deadly."
"The current models are sufficient." He could have handled the matter of Seteres without the armor; it was just convenient to have.
"What about the weapons? More upgrades are always possible." Muzzles, barrels, and power relays to resist higher temperatures, and a new power source glowing with pink and purple hues revolved around him.
"They are good enough for now."
"Sheesh, tough crowd today."
"Oh, I know," Nax said, his holographic avatar snapping fingers. "How about you take a small trip? Go to the beach, enjoy yourself."
"Good idea."
—
Aurum City
Golden Finch Beach
He marched to Kael's office, feeling the warm, salty breeze wash over him. He stopped, turning to watch the tides. It brought memories of the times his youngest brother learned surfing and the often ingenious pranks.
He missed those days.
Now, that little boy had grown up, showing great management skills.
He continued on his path, careful to avoid children running and squealing around. The sliding doors opened, and he had to slightly bend down to avoid a collision. He was still adapting to the increase in height. Small incidents still took place here and there.
Kael was out of his office, near the drink bar, speaking to someone on the phone. He waited until the call ended before approaching.
"Hey."
"Bro?" Kael whipped around. "You didn't tell me you were coming."
His little brother took his hand, pulling him forward for a pat on the shoulder.
"Thought I would surprise you."
"You certainly did," he said, inspecting his beach attire, which consisted of blue shorts, a button-up wave shirt, and beach shoes. "Taking a vacation?"
"Didn't feel like working today." The usual desire to work was not there for the day. It happened every now and then, leaving him to spend the day relaxing.
"Of course. Great heroes like you need to rest too." Kael patted him on the back, turning to the barmaid to order a non-alcoholic drink for him.
Dragged to the office for privacy, he watched his brother's eyes sparkle.
"So how did it go? I want to hear all the juicy details."
"There really isn't much to say. The AI gathered most of its forces in one sector for the invasion. I appeared in another sector, activated the weapon, beat back what forces it could redirect, and left."
His lackluster tale dulled the shining eyes. "And uh, the one that escaped from the RIC and ran to Hetel?"
"A last-minute desperate attempt to upload its mind into the AI server. I ripped it out of the arachniform for study."
"Anything interesting?" Kael asked. He thought the tale of his brother's deeds would be great to hear. However, in a very Thairon manner, he had efficiently and quickly taken care of the matter.
"The unit was built for battle; it couldn't take more than just the AI itself."
"You got those on video, right?" At the least, he could see some of the action.
Thairon rolled his eyes, and Kael's bracelet pinged. He turned around, checking what the notification was. His eyes shone; he flashed a thumbs up.
He played the beginning of the footage, jaw dropping at the sight of Seteres. "Man, this is the coolest thing I have seen since Master Halgen's usage of his module."
"Speaking of the modules, have you decided yet?"
"Yeah." His throat bobbed. "The Continuum Strand Segment."
He chuckled, already having an idea on what Kael would choose. "Dimensional manipulation? Just like before, huh?"
Kael looked down at his desk, fingers digging into his palms. "I failed last time. Maybe I didn't train hard enough; maybe I just wasn't good enough then. I want to succeed now."
"I know you will. What about after that though? He had gone as far as a master's degree. Leaving it all behind now would be a radical change.
Though as long as he was happy, it did not matter.
"I always wanted adventure in my life, you know that. Fight the bad guys, win the day, save the damsel in distress, and uncover great mysteries. The Module Hunters was my chance, and I screwed it up."
Thairon winced at the memory. The population at large did not know, but the world had truly come close to total chaos that day.
"But I won't lose my chance this time. I am going to go on those adventures I want, and across other dimensions no less." His brother spoke too fast and looked ready to scream.
It made him happy to see Kael smile like this, like the troublesome kid he used to be. Always seeking something fun to do, always finding himself in hot waters because of it.
"It will be dangerous. There is no telling what you will find." An infinite number of universes meant danger in equal amounts.
"The guy who almost died due to his experiments and hid it from us says what?"
Thairon blinked and slapped the back of Kael's head gently.
"The beach is great and all that, but I want more from my life," he explained, rubbing the back of his head.
"Fine, fine."
"And if I ever come across something interesting, I'll bring it to you. Tech, samples, whatever you need."
He froze, not having considered the idea. Studying technology from different universes could be a great source of inspiration.
"As long as you don't get hurt, it's fine."
There was a knock on the door as his drink came in. The barmaid put the glass with the bright blue drink down. Kael thanked her, and she left with a curt nod.
"I was also wondering. You know how great I was with pranks, right?"
Thairon rubbed his eyes. He did not like where this was going. "Yes."
"And how I can't prank people with my more creative ideas anymore because of the court order?"
"It was the first of its kind. I doubt anyone will ever forget it anytime this century," he scowled. The ingenuity of the prank was offset by the fact that it had almost started a full evacuation of the city.
"Yeah. Would it be possible for you to give me the Veil Sequence Segment?"
He took a breath, remembering what that particular gene strand was for. "Illusions in addition to manipulation of space."
Kael raised his hands in a surrendering motion. "I mean, if you think it's too much power, I get it."
"What?" His brows furrowed. "No, I am just thinking about how to combine those two without side effects."
"Awesome."
"By the way, what's with the names? You are usually less theatrical."
"It was Nax. I told him to name and catalogue the strands. He took," he stopped for a brief moment, "liberties with the task."
"I mean, the names are really cool. You would just call those some functional letters and numbers."
"My sense of naming is entirely acceptable."
"Yes, but not fun."
—
Meltral
RIC Central Base
She clicked the send button for the last files. Checking the state of his comrades, she felt free to drop her head on the desk. Sometimes, the idea of fighting monsters was more appealing than paperwork.
Not always, but enough.
Her eyes sneaked a glance at what the officers had named the Doom Clock. The rectangular, red LED watch screwed to the wall was inactive. Half the office was already out to rest. She just had to hold on for two more days before blissful rest waited for her.
"Lunch break," the automated system announced. She pushed herself up, heading out to get her phone. She entered the code, and the small glass door on the wall opened. She fished out her phone, calling the most recent addition to her contact list.
She blinked at the sight on the screen. "Are you at the beach?"
He winked, shaking a half-empty glass, showing her the view of the pristine sands and the ocean.
"Huh, nice."
"How is it over there?"
She sighed at the question, imagining herself on the beach now.
"Surprisingly calm. Once that last unit got demolished, it was just a matter of cleanup. We do have a small mountain of paperwork though."
"I didn't feel like working today and took a vacation."
"I am free in two days. Got time?" This time, it was his turn to pick up the slack while she handled the details, a neat little unspoken arrangement they had reached.
"I always do."
"It must be great to have your own business, so to speak."
"It is the best. I can do whatever I want without answering anyone."
She huffed, turning the camera off once inside the mess hall, switching to her earbuds, and listening to the details of what had happened on the other side of the rupture and to the arachniform that had escaped.
There were worries that the AI might have uploaded itself to the servers, even with the assurances that the facility was destroyed before it could do so. The entire situation raised more questions than problems it solved.
The invasion through the rupture, which marked a first in the history of the planet, terrified the people. The data retrieved from the S-12 synthetics, purely to understand the reason behind the incursion, had revealed the planet on the other side was facing total destruction. The AI's invasion was an attempt at escaping that fate.
A science experiment gone awry had created a gravity well that was tearing the planet apart. Amusingly, it also offered salvation.
The waves from the anomalous well had latched on the weakened barriers between Haven and other universes, which had allowed the AI to send an invasion force through.
The fact that it had appeared near the RIC Central Base was nothing more than a random freak event.
Which was all fabricated.
Even if neither acknowledged it, she knew he had a hand in what the research teams had discovered on the databanks of the synthetic invaders. The constant bombardment had not left anything functional behind, and the sole memory core in one piece had thumb-sized shrapnel through it.
The mysterious benefactor's offer of a miracle device to repair and extract information through advanced technology for this instance to ease the worries was kept silent for the most part.
It wouldn't be an issue for him to fabricate a fake reason for this invasion so the planetary population would not descend into panic.
It was so surreal to her to know a man who could influence the events on a planetary scale without even leaving his home.
She did not know what to feel. The stability and the peace it afforded made her grateful. She couldn't even begin to imagine the kind of chaos the fears that ruptures could be opened on purpose to bring calamities on this world would cause.
The fact that he could deceive RIC, which she was certain he could replicate everywhere else, made her uncomfortable.
At least she knew he wasn't malicious. The planet would have been done for otherwise.
—
He ended the call, laying back on the chair. Appreciating these peaceful moments was all the more important now. He still had moments when a persistent feeling gnawed at his mind, urging him to check if his body was in one piece.
He would get over it, eventually.
The perfection of the moment was broken by screams from the drink stand. Taking his sunglasses off, he got up to see what the commotion was about. Just as his feet touched the sand, his bracelet flashed a warning sign, displaying Kael's spiking vitals.
His eyes snapped wide open.
He ran, pushing the beachgoers aside without a care. A crowd had quickly gathered around the first aider, but it did not stop him from barreling through, pulling the young woman away.
His brother was on the ground, foaming at the mouth, convulsing. The neural connection showed what had happened.
Narcotic overdose.
He pressed his hand over the racing heart of his brother while connecting to the hive. The nanobots surged through his palm and fingers, accessing the bloodstream directly through the heart.
The microscopic machines reached for the particles overstimulating the brain, absorbing each one and working to neutralize the damage. He waited, wiping the foaming saliva, while the first aider administered a neutralizing agent.
He snatched the spilled glass, touching the contents of it with the tip of his tongue, and spat it out.
"Who touched this glass?" he asked, feeling the heart rate return to normal.
"Uh, it was Arlene." Someone from the crowd raised a hand. "She added something to the glass, but I didn't think she would try something."
"Where is she?"
"I saw her running away!" Another beachgoer exclaimed, pointing at the exit.
He took a deep breath. Chasing this, Arlene would have to wait. Even as Kael stabilized, he wouldn't leave his little brother's side.
He sent a mental order to Nax to locate Arlene. His AI flinched, acknowledging with a quiet "yes."
Someone was going to die very, very painfully.
Chapter 16 - Crusade
New
Samael61
I trust you know where the happy button is?
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Aurum City
King Roland Hospital
Skyler ran through the corridors of the hospital, dodging the staff and patients.
"How is he?" he asked, breathless. He bent down, hands on his knees, trying to calm his raging heart.
"He is fine. I was there," his brother replied, voice unusually calm.
"What the heck happened?"
"An obsessive bitch overdosed him with narcotics for relaxation."
"Stay here," he said, rising from his seat, eyes threatening to burn a hole in the wall. "I have to handle something."
Skyler got on Thairon's way, trying to stop him. "Look, I know you are..."
"Stay. Here," his brother said, jabbing a finger on his chest with each word.
"Damn it," he muttered, moving aside.
—
He watched the house through the satellite. Arlene was running away. Her father was smart enough to understand he could not swipe this under the rug. There were too many witnesses and security recordings, and Kael was something of a local celebrity.
He had listened through Arlene's phone as her father raged before deciding to fly her to the Republic. With no extradition agreement, she would be safe there.
Borrowing the nearest truck he could find, he waited outside their home. He wouldn't have touched the parents, but they just became complicit in her crime.
His visor zoomed in on the entrance of the manor. The family members came out with bags, loading them into the back of the car. Her luggage was light, as speed was of the essence. The gate opened, and he started the dump truck at the same time the Odel family started theirs.
He hit the gas, having been waiting at the optimal range to flatten their vehicle. The black luxury car came out, taking the left turn. He did not know if they heard him coming, but it was too late.
The ten tonnes of metal rammed the smaller car to the mansion's wall, sending rubble flying away, but did not stop there. He continued to drive, jolting as the truck flattened the family vehicle to the adjacent wall.
He scanned for any signs of life and was teleported out of the scene.
—
"He will wake up soon; you should go to the hospital."
"Skyler is there; he is fine. Find me where she bought the drugs," he ordered, looking over the city from their favorite hill.
Nax's sigh echoed inside his mind. "This is not over, is it?"
"It will be over when I kill everyone down to the bastard who supplied basic materials to the manufacturers," he growled. If the Kingdom could not be bothered to solve this situation, he would.
"Oh boy."
—
Glassport
He teleported back into the lab, drafting a mental list for gear. "Did you finish T-9?"
"You mean the Neuroveil Emitter? Here," Nax said.
"You can call it whatever you want."
"Do you have a target?"
Images of a club appeared before him, along with a face. "She bought the pills from this rat in a club, Axiom First."
"And where is this rat?"
"Still in the club."
"Excellent."
—
He marched to the door of the club. The ocular scanners checked the guards to see if they had a part in the drug trade. Once they were flagged as clear, he merely pushed them aside.
Kicking the door open, he already knew where the dealer was, his networked connection highlighting him beyond the walls.
The clubbers did not even hear the ruckus at the door. He navigated through the dense crowd, reaching the bar before the guards could catch up.
He held the dealer by his blonde locks and slammed him face down to the counter, breaking the glass and sending shards into his face. The screams of the man, as well as the barman and patrons, finally broke through the blaring music.
The clubbers began to run for the exit, leaving the dealer alone.
"You sold drugs to a young girl yesterday. Where do you get them from?"
The man kept screaming, struggling to break free.
In hindsight, perhaps he should not have caused so much pain when he wanted answers.
"Watch out for the barman," Nax's voice echoed in his head.
The barman, who had not escaped, pulled a shotgun from beneath the counter and aimed at him. His left hand caught the barrel, squeezing. The metal groaned and crumpled like paper, becoming unusable.
The man pulled the rifle back, eyes bulging at the condition his weapon has been rendered to. Thairon backhanded the barman, sending him crashing into the bottle racks behind.
"I won't ask again. Where did you get those drugs?"
"Pilgrim Street, number 36. Ethan sells them," the small-time dealer screamed out. Thairon's nose wrinkled as the sharp stench of ammonia assaulted his nose.
"Good." He pulled his arm back and punched the dealer on the back of his neck. The spine broke, jutting out of the front with blood and pieces of flesh. He let the corpse go, and the man lay there, slumped on the counter.
The terrified guards made a hasty retreat upon seeing the brutal murder.
—
"You know, I can just find the guy at the top in seconds."
"I need to work my aggression out."
"Can't argue with that."
"Also, if we leave the rest of the organization intact, someone else will just take over."
"Ethan Vercal. Suspected of being a part of the Table's drug trade at street level. The law enforcement couldn't go beyond catching him as a user."
"Is he home right now?"
"Yep. I am blanketing the entire city's comm network to keep them unaware. He won't see you coming."
—
Pilgrim Street was just another neighborhood from the outside. Inside, it was much the same, except for number 36.
It was a bleary, dark spot on the otherwise light atmosphere of the street. Its curtains were always closed, the neighbors never approached it unless they had to, and cops were regular visitors.
Ethan was in the main living room with two girls, while his goons were situated on the porch, playing cards.
He approached the house, throwing the grenade in his hand up and catching it again. He pressed the button and threw it on an arc. It landed near the table, rolling forward to the door while Ethan's men watched. It bumped the door with a metallic clink, rolling slightly back.
It went off, blooming into a miniature sun. The heat would have scorched his skin and cooked his flesh from this distance, but he only felt a mild breeze.
He waved his hand, clearing the ash from the men and the wooden parts of the front half of the house. The building was large enough; the living room was left relatively untouched except for the spreading fires.
"You two, out," he ordered the half-naked girls. They fled without even taking their clothes.
"Ethan Vercal. Where do you get your goods from?"
Rather than answer, Ethan sprung from his couch, running to the large flower pot, trying to dig something out.
He was faster.
His hand wrapped around Ethan's wrist, twisting it. The drug dealer cried out as a sharp snapping sound emanated from his arm. His screams were cut short when Thairon's other hand wrapped around his throat, pushing him to the wall.
"Speak, or I am going to make sure you can never speak again."
"They'll kill me."
He tilted his head, teeth showing in a grin. His bioelectricity moved like connecting to the nerves in Ethan's neck. Following the nervous system to the brain, he saw himself through the drug dealer's eyes, felt his fear, and finally saw his memories.
Zaver the Lonely, as he was called, operated out of a recycling plant, which served as a front for the Table's drug distribution network in Aurum City.
"What did you do?" Nathan choked out, but his gasps were silenced with a crack.
He tossed the corpse aside, rolling his neck, purging the foreign emotions and memories, except for Zaver.
—
Dawn Recycling Plant
The Kingdom's recycling policies were behind the Republic and the Union. Rather than a centralized, government-backed recycling operation on a national scale, it was left to the private sector.
Young men and women who gathered plastics, cardboard, glass, and other recyclable materials for the plant all served as Zaver's drug mules and informants.
The bastard himself was sitting in the office, going through some documents.
He walked through the open door and stopped to scan the area with his own eyes. Spying a sledgehammer on the right side of the entrance, he took it, checking to see if it was in good condition.
"Hey, what do you think you are doing here?"
"I am going to kill Zaver. Where is he?"
"You bastard!" the young man screamed, reaching for a knife. He was painfully slow and paid for it with his head. The blow crushed his skull with such a force, people meters away were covered in viscera.
The rest were better armed, pulling guns and machetes from the hand-pulled recycling carts.
He launched himself at the nearest man, and the ground cracked beneath his feet. He held the hammer out, crushing the forehead in, sending him slamming to the ground.
These bastards weren't even worthy of his weapons.
He picked up the gun on the ground, ignoring the bullets shattering on his skin. He pulled the trigger nine times, emptying the clip. Each shot found its mark on lethal spots, putting Zaver's dogs down.
He dropped the gun and shouldered the hammer.
Zaver had taken cover in his office, close to the secondary door leading further inside the plant. He opened fire with an automatic rifle, bellowing like a madman.
He walked closer, letting bullets hit him. The fear in Zaver's heart grew with each bullet that shattered on his skin, while Thairon's grin, with the blood covering him, grew wider.
He tore the empty gun out of the man's hands and slammed it to his face, sending him down. He crushed the barrel, throwing the weapon away.
His left hand wrapped around Zaver's throat, while the nerve endings on his right hand glowed red. He laid his fingers on the bald head, tearing anything of importance out.
He was not gentle in the least.
—
Thermion
Moonrise Palace
"What is this I am hearing about Aurum City?" Octavian asked, his voice steady and face blank despite his irritation.
Just as he was having a relatively serene afternoon, news blared with exaggerated headlines concerning Aurum City. At least he hoped they were exaggerated.
"Your Grace," the director of the Royal Intelligence Agency gave a shallow nod over the screen, "someone is on a warpath. We believe it is Prince Thairon."
"Why?" he asked, hands grabbing the sides of his desk. His fingers went white with the force, and the only reason he did not throw it was to keep the decorum.
"Your youngest son, Kael, was overdosed with narcotics by a female who had romantic interests in him. An hour later, a truck was stolen and crushed the family to death as they attempted to fly the girl to the Republic."
Octavian felt like pulling his hair off. That was definitely Thairon's work.
"What else?"
"It appears he is hunting down everyone who had a hand in the narcotics trade. He has already killed close to a hundred people, each suspected to be grunts or middle men of an organization known as the Table, as well as an executive member. Twelve safe houses have been incinerated, depots across the city have gone up in flames, and every location we were watching is coming under assault one by one."
He knew that if this was not stopped, Aurum City would actually burn.
"All this, and you merely believe it is Thairon?"
The director averted his eyes. "Your Grace, every single camera, even those not connected to a network, are somehow being hacked. Witnesses remember the events, but when asked to describe the perpetrator, they cannot remember anything. Their memories are tampered with, but we don't know how."
"So the only proof of his involvement that you possess is circumstantial." If his son had created a device to erase himself from sight, Octavian would not be shocked.
"Agents are on the way to the hospital where young master Kael is to ascertain Prince Thairon's location. He is unlikely to leave his younger brother's side."
"Unless," he raised a hand, "it is to hunt down everyone who was tied to the situation, even if indirectly."
"Yes. Every location the local law enforcement responds to is already cleared by the time they reach there. If it is Prince Thairon, he is moving extremely fast."
"Find him, Director. Immediately."
"Yes, Your Grace." The man nodded, and he ended the call.
"What is happening?" his wife asked as she entered.
"Thairon."
She stopped, eyes locking on him. "What did he do again?"
"That boy never had a middle ground when it comes to responding to hostility. Too peaceful as a child that he avoided all confrontation, and now as an adult, he is butchering his way across Aurum because a dumb girl gave Kael drugs," he scowled.
Taking deep breaths to calm down, he explained the situation to his wife.
"Is he well?" She kept tabs on all her sons, even if they were not granted the title of prince. Last time she checked the reports, Kael had done well for himself, getting a master in economics while working as the manager of a beach on Aurum.
"Of course he is," he said.
"It is good there is no proof incriminating Thairon, only circumstantial ties. This would have been a nightmare otherwise." A prince going on a rampage against a criminal organization would make the royalty look incapable of controlling one of their own and the Kingdom weak that a prince had to clean up this mess.
It would still be a nightmare for her to solve the situation, but not as much.
"What the RIA knows does not matter; what they can prove does. Otherwise, he is innocent," she grumbled. How the boy had managed to keep himself invisible while waging a war was a mystery.
One that she begrudgingly applauded.
"You don't think he is responsible?" Octavian asked, calling the cause of his headache, waiting as the phone rang.
She rolled her eyes. "I know he is."
She could not forget that day in the palace, when a noble child older than Kael had pushed the boy around. Word reached quickly to Thairon, who, in the middle of the dinner thrown in honor of their guests, laid a knife on the throat of the heir to House Kellar and threatened to skin the boy alive.
He had gone as far as to draw blood, only standing down once the boy apologized in tears.
In full view of the upper echelon of the kingdom.
It had cemented his reputation as a sleeping dragon not to be trifled with.
He had not cared about the chaos he left behind in the days to come. Since he responded to violence with a disproportionate amount in return, and any attempts to restrict his freedom would end with him lashing at anyone who tried to stop him, they had merely revoked the funding for his research.
Which had backfired, of course.
King Roland Hospital
Skyler ran through the corridors of the hospital, dodging the staff and patients.
"How is he?" he asked, breathless. He bent down, hands on his knees, trying to calm his raging heart.
"He is fine. I was there," his brother replied, voice unusually calm.
"What the heck happened?"
"An obsessive bitch overdosed him with narcotics for relaxation."
"Stay here," he said, rising from his seat, eyes threatening to burn a hole in the wall. "I have to handle something."
Skyler got on Thairon's way, trying to stop him. "Look, I know you are..."
"Stay. Here," his brother said, jabbing a finger on his chest with each word.
"Damn it," he muttered, moving aside.
—
He watched the house through the satellite. Arlene was running away. Her father was smart enough to understand he could not swipe this under the rug. There were too many witnesses and security recordings, and Kael was something of a local celebrity.
He had listened through Arlene's phone as her father raged before deciding to fly her to the Republic. With no extradition agreement, she would be safe there.
Borrowing the nearest truck he could find, he waited outside their home. He wouldn't have touched the parents, but they just became complicit in her crime.
His visor zoomed in on the entrance of the manor. The family members came out with bags, loading them into the back of the car. Her luggage was light, as speed was of the essence. The gate opened, and he started the dump truck at the same time the Odel family started theirs.
He hit the gas, having been waiting at the optimal range to flatten their vehicle. The black luxury car came out, taking the left turn. He did not know if they heard him coming, but it was too late.
The ten tonnes of metal rammed the smaller car to the mansion's wall, sending rubble flying away, but did not stop there. He continued to drive, jolting as the truck flattened the family vehicle to the adjacent wall.
He scanned for any signs of life and was teleported out of the scene.
—
"He will wake up soon; you should go to the hospital."
"Skyler is there; he is fine. Find me where she bought the drugs," he ordered, looking over the city from their favorite hill.
Nax's sigh echoed inside his mind. "This is not over, is it?"
"It will be over when I kill everyone down to the bastard who supplied basic materials to the manufacturers," he growled. If the Kingdom could not be bothered to solve this situation, he would.
"Oh boy."
—
Glassport
He teleported back into the lab, drafting a mental list for gear. "Did you finish T-9?"
"You mean the Neuroveil Emitter? Here," Nax said.
"You can call it whatever you want."
"Do you have a target?"
Images of a club appeared before him, along with a face. "She bought the pills from this rat in a club, Axiom First."
"And where is this rat?"
"Still in the club."
"Excellent."
—
He marched to the door of the club. The ocular scanners checked the guards to see if they had a part in the drug trade. Once they were flagged as clear, he merely pushed them aside.
Kicking the door open, he already knew where the dealer was, his networked connection highlighting him beyond the walls.
The clubbers did not even hear the ruckus at the door. He navigated through the dense crowd, reaching the bar before the guards could catch up.
He held the dealer by his blonde locks and slammed him face down to the counter, breaking the glass and sending shards into his face. The screams of the man, as well as the barman and patrons, finally broke through the blaring music.
The clubbers began to run for the exit, leaving the dealer alone.
"You sold drugs to a young girl yesterday. Where do you get them from?"
The man kept screaming, struggling to break free.
In hindsight, perhaps he should not have caused so much pain when he wanted answers.
"Watch out for the barman," Nax's voice echoed in his head.
The barman, who had not escaped, pulled a shotgun from beneath the counter and aimed at him. His left hand caught the barrel, squeezing. The metal groaned and crumpled like paper, becoming unusable.
The man pulled the rifle back, eyes bulging at the condition his weapon has been rendered to. Thairon backhanded the barman, sending him crashing into the bottle racks behind.
"I won't ask again. Where did you get those drugs?"
"Pilgrim Street, number 36. Ethan sells them," the small-time dealer screamed out. Thairon's nose wrinkled as the sharp stench of ammonia assaulted his nose.
"Good." He pulled his arm back and punched the dealer on the back of his neck. The spine broke, jutting out of the front with blood and pieces of flesh. He let the corpse go, and the man lay there, slumped on the counter.
The terrified guards made a hasty retreat upon seeing the brutal murder.
—
"You know, I can just find the guy at the top in seconds."
"I need to work my aggression out."
"Can't argue with that."
"Also, if we leave the rest of the organization intact, someone else will just take over."
"Ethan Vercal. Suspected of being a part of the Table's drug trade at street level. The law enforcement couldn't go beyond catching him as a user."
"Is he home right now?"
"Yep. I am blanketing the entire city's comm network to keep them unaware. He won't see you coming."
—
Pilgrim Street was just another neighborhood from the outside. Inside, it was much the same, except for number 36.
It was a bleary, dark spot on the otherwise light atmosphere of the street. Its curtains were always closed, the neighbors never approached it unless they had to, and cops were regular visitors.
Ethan was in the main living room with two girls, while his goons were situated on the porch, playing cards.
He approached the house, throwing the grenade in his hand up and catching it again. He pressed the button and threw it on an arc. It landed near the table, rolling forward to the door while Ethan's men watched. It bumped the door with a metallic clink, rolling slightly back.
It went off, blooming into a miniature sun. The heat would have scorched his skin and cooked his flesh from this distance, but he only felt a mild breeze.
He waved his hand, clearing the ash from the men and the wooden parts of the front half of the house. The building was large enough; the living room was left relatively untouched except for the spreading fires.
"You two, out," he ordered the half-naked girls. They fled without even taking their clothes.
"Ethan Vercal. Where do you get your goods from?"
Rather than answer, Ethan sprung from his couch, running to the large flower pot, trying to dig something out.
He was faster.
His hand wrapped around Ethan's wrist, twisting it. The drug dealer cried out as a sharp snapping sound emanated from his arm. His screams were cut short when Thairon's other hand wrapped around his throat, pushing him to the wall.
"Speak, or I am going to make sure you can never speak again."
"They'll kill me."
He tilted his head, teeth showing in a grin. His bioelectricity moved like connecting to the nerves in Ethan's neck. Following the nervous system to the brain, he saw himself through the drug dealer's eyes, felt his fear, and finally saw his memories.
Zaver the Lonely, as he was called, operated out of a recycling plant, which served as a front for the Table's drug distribution network in Aurum City.
"What did you do?" Nathan choked out, but his gasps were silenced with a crack.
He tossed the corpse aside, rolling his neck, purging the foreign emotions and memories, except for Zaver.
—
Dawn Recycling Plant
The Kingdom's recycling policies were behind the Republic and the Union. Rather than a centralized, government-backed recycling operation on a national scale, it was left to the private sector.
Young men and women who gathered plastics, cardboard, glass, and other recyclable materials for the plant all served as Zaver's drug mules and informants.
The bastard himself was sitting in the office, going through some documents.
He walked through the open door and stopped to scan the area with his own eyes. Spying a sledgehammer on the right side of the entrance, he took it, checking to see if it was in good condition.
"Hey, what do you think you are doing here?"
"I am going to kill Zaver. Where is he?"
"You bastard!" the young man screamed, reaching for a knife. He was painfully slow and paid for it with his head. The blow crushed his skull with such a force, people meters away were covered in viscera.
The rest were better armed, pulling guns and machetes from the hand-pulled recycling carts.
He launched himself at the nearest man, and the ground cracked beneath his feet. He held the hammer out, crushing the forehead in, sending him slamming to the ground.
These bastards weren't even worthy of his weapons.
He picked up the gun on the ground, ignoring the bullets shattering on his skin. He pulled the trigger nine times, emptying the clip. Each shot found its mark on lethal spots, putting Zaver's dogs down.
He dropped the gun and shouldered the hammer.
Zaver had taken cover in his office, close to the secondary door leading further inside the plant. He opened fire with an automatic rifle, bellowing like a madman.
He walked closer, letting bullets hit him. The fear in Zaver's heart grew with each bullet that shattered on his skin, while Thairon's grin, with the blood covering him, grew wider.
He tore the empty gun out of the man's hands and slammed it to his face, sending him down. He crushed the barrel, throwing the weapon away.
His left hand wrapped around Zaver's throat, while the nerve endings on his right hand glowed red. He laid his fingers on the bald head, tearing anything of importance out.
He was not gentle in the least.
—
Thermion
Moonrise Palace
"What is this I am hearing about Aurum City?" Octavian asked, his voice steady and face blank despite his irritation.
Just as he was having a relatively serene afternoon, news blared with exaggerated headlines concerning Aurum City. At least he hoped they were exaggerated.
"Your Grace," the director of the Royal Intelligence Agency gave a shallow nod over the screen, "someone is on a warpath. We believe it is Prince Thairon."
"Why?" he asked, hands grabbing the sides of his desk. His fingers went white with the force, and the only reason he did not throw it was to keep the decorum.
"Your youngest son, Kael, was overdosed with narcotics by a female who had romantic interests in him. An hour later, a truck was stolen and crushed the family to death as they attempted to fly the girl to the Republic."
Octavian felt like pulling his hair off. That was definitely Thairon's work.
"What else?"
"It appears he is hunting down everyone who had a hand in the narcotics trade. He has already killed close to a hundred people, each suspected to be grunts or middle men of an organization known as the Table, as well as an executive member. Twelve safe houses have been incinerated, depots across the city have gone up in flames, and every location we were watching is coming under assault one by one."
He knew that if this was not stopped, Aurum City would actually burn.
"All this, and you merely believe it is Thairon?"
The director averted his eyes. "Your Grace, every single camera, even those not connected to a network, are somehow being hacked. Witnesses remember the events, but when asked to describe the perpetrator, they cannot remember anything. Their memories are tampered with, but we don't know how."
"So the only proof of his involvement that you possess is circumstantial." If his son had created a device to erase himself from sight, Octavian would not be shocked.
"Agents are on the way to the hospital where young master Kael is to ascertain Prince Thairon's location. He is unlikely to leave his younger brother's side."
"Unless," he raised a hand, "it is to hunt down everyone who was tied to the situation, even if indirectly."
"Yes. Every location the local law enforcement responds to is already cleared by the time they reach there. If it is Prince Thairon, he is moving extremely fast."
"Find him, Director. Immediately."
"Yes, Your Grace." The man nodded, and he ended the call.
"What is happening?" his wife asked as she entered.
"Thairon."
She stopped, eyes locking on him. "What did he do again?"
"That boy never had a middle ground when it comes to responding to hostility. Too peaceful as a child that he avoided all confrontation, and now as an adult, he is butchering his way across Aurum because a dumb girl gave Kael drugs," he scowled.
Taking deep breaths to calm down, he explained the situation to his wife.
"Is he well?" She kept tabs on all her sons, even if they were not granted the title of prince. Last time she checked the reports, Kael had done well for himself, getting a master in economics while working as the manager of a beach on Aurum.
"Of course he is," he said.
"It is good there is no proof incriminating Thairon, only circumstantial ties. This would have been a nightmare otherwise." A prince going on a rampage against a criminal organization would make the royalty look incapable of controlling one of their own and the Kingdom weak that a prince had to clean up this mess.
It would still be a nightmare for her to solve the situation, but not as much.
"What the RIA knows does not matter; what they can prove does. Otherwise, he is innocent," she grumbled. How the boy had managed to keep himself invisible while waging a war was a mystery.
One that she begrudgingly applauded.
"You don't think he is responsible?" Octavian asked, calling the cause of his headache, waiting as the phone rang.
She rolled her eyes. "I know he is."
She could not forget that day in the palace, when a noble child older than Kael had pushed the boy around. Word reached quickly to Thairon, who, in the middle of the dinner thrown in honor of their guests, laid a knife on the throat of the heir to House Kellar and threatened to skin the boy alive.
He had gone as far as to draw blood, only standing down once the boy apologized in tears.
In full view of the upper echelon of the kingdom.
It had cemented his reputation as a sleeping dragon not to be trifled with.
He had not cared about the chaos he left behind in the days to come. Since he responded to violence with a disproportionate amount in return, and any attempts to restrict his freedom would end with him lashing at anyone who tried to stop him, they had merely revoked the funding for his research.
Which had backfired, of course.
Chapter 17 - Cleansing
New
Samael61
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Aurum City
He brought his fist down on the guard's head. He felt everything in slow motion. The cheekbone, already caved in from his previous strike, gave away. His fist tore through the head, covering him in blood and cerebral fluid, and stopped upon hitting the floor, imprinting his knuckles on the floor.
His head snapped up with a snarl. He launched himself at his primary target, Soval Legon, the only son of the head of the Table. His blood-soaked hands wrapped around the man's throat, pushing him up the wall.
Behind the largest warehouse the Legons owned, it burned with corpses blocking the path out.
He considered squeezing until his fingers tore through Soval's neck, but a far more deserving punishment came to his mind.
He grinned at the black-haired man, around his age, his dark suit covered in soot and blood, blue eyes rolling back into his head.
Easing up on the pressure, he took a bag from the table, full of white powder, and left the warehouse.
—
"Where are we?" he asked Nax, dragging the unconscious boy from his leg.
"Legon mansion. This is where the meetings are held, and they are in an emergency session now."
"Session," he scowled. "You make it sound like they are a legitimate organization and not filth."
"That's what they call it."
"Are they all inside?"
"Yep."
The satellite imagery connected to his visor once more, painting the separate ballroom where the table had gathered. The mansion was crawling with guards, but he wanted to reach the serpent's head immediately.
He dropped Soval, raising his bracelet. The rocket launcher appeared in a flash of light, the side effect of opening and closing the pocket dimension.
Between the trees, he was invisible to them, but they did not share the same advantage. He raised the weapon to his shoulder, feeling the weight of the smooth metal. Next, he switched to the scatter-rain mode and pulled the trigger.
Three shots left the barrel in quick succession, each one reaching a certain altitude before the electromagnetic field collapsed inwards. It expanded violently in a rhythmic pulse, expelling the plasma to cover a wide area as the globes traveled the predetermined path.
It rained death.
Each droplet could go through Siamese, a metal formed by exposure to specific ruptures that was nigh indestructible to most modern methods, as if it wasn't here. The guards had nowhere to hide. Those smart enough to take cover found no protection but only delayed deaths.
The building had quickly caught on fire. The staff were quick to abandon the mansion, rushing out of the door as he dragged Soval once more.
Circling the mansion, he shot any stragglers that had survived. They all had suffered horrific plasma burns, and death was a mercy now.
The stench of charred flesh was becoming too familiar now.
He stood before the oak doors, seeing the holographic outlines of the members of the Table. They all had drawn guns, waiting for anyone to enter through the door.
His bracelet flashed again, dropping a circular device with three rectangular protrusions branching out from a singular point, forming a rough Y.
He threw it through the window. The quick mental calculations proved to be correct as always, and it landed near the round table. The sonic pulse caused everyone inside to seize. Some fell like frozen popsicles; others just stood motionless.
He kicked the door, which woke Soval up, and he walked, scanning each of the bastards.
Drugs, weapons smuggling, counterfeiting, prostitution, protection rackets, and more. Each of the ten members, nine since Zaver's death, was responsible for a different market.
He pulled the frozen man of the hour, laying him on the table. He sat down on the nearest chair, sighing.
He was tired.
Soval's father, Hazar, was exactly an older version of his son. The same suit, the same diamond-shaped face, hair, and eyes, only older. He threw a small device the size of a grape at the man. It stuck to his head, allowing him to finally do more than just wildly dart his eyes around.
"My brother almost died because of the drugs your table sells. Not because he used them, no. He is too smart for that. But because a girl thought he might be interested in her if he just relaxed," he ranted.
"If only my father had a spine and wiped filth like you off the face of this planet." He might have even respected the old man because of it.
"You don't know who you are messing with," Hazar threatened, but there was no bite to it. He and his cohorts were at his mercy now.
"Words of a dead man mean nothing to me. But before you die, I want you to feel the pain of all the people who had to watch someone dear to them perish because of your drugs."
Hazar's eyes widened. His struggles became frantic but were useless. He resorted to screaming, begging him to stop.
He ignored every word.
Laying the bag on his face so Soval would inhale every powder particle, he waited.
"Please, don't! I am begging you. I'll give you whatever you want. I won't sell any more drugs; please stop!" Hazar kept begging, but Thairon was deaf to the pleas.
He slapped another device on Soval, neutralizing the effects of the neural inhibitor. He immediately started to convulse, foaming at the mouth, just like Kael. Only, Soval had no Thairon to save him.
Hazar stopped begging him and instead screamed at his son to wake up and run. Soval was unresponsive. As his movements became slower, so did his father's pleas start to gradually fall silent.
He was frozen when Soval's head rolled to the side and all movement ceased. Hazar looked into his son's empty eyes, a silent plea for him to wake up.
"Imagine how many times this scene, even if not exactly as it started, repeated across the planet because of people like you."
"How does it feel to get a taste of what your actions caused?"
Hazar let out an unintelligible scream, shouting profanities, trying to bite Thairon.
"Don't worry, I won't keep you from your son," he responded. All his fury was spent, and he didn't feel the urge to kill Hazar in the gruesome manner he deserved.
He left a single grenade on the table next to the sole corpse in the room and walked away.
Once he was outside, the bloom of plasma blinded the cops arrayed before him. When they regained their senses, he was gone.
—
Glassport
He threw his bloody clothes in the trash can. Combined with the stench of soot and charred flesh, they weren't worth the trouble to save.
Water, perfectly mild, rained down on him. He sat in the shower, resting his eyes for a couple of seconds.
"You have a call from Tomoe. Do you want me to relay it?"
"Sure."
"Hey. Why can't I see you?" Her voice echoed through the blank screen.
"I am in the shower. You can speak though, don't worry."
"I just saw the news. You don't seem like the type to go on random massacres, unless I am grossly mistaken. Care to tell me what happened?"
He raised an eyebrow at her tone. It was neither accusatory nor judgemental, something you would expect considering what he had just done. Not that he felt bad about it.
"That is an awful lot of trust."
"We fought together. In my opinion, it warrants at least that much."
"My brother, Kael," he said, leaning his head back on the wall. "A girl gave him drugs to get him in bed. I was only at the beach because I didn't feel like working today."
"Ah." She fell silent after that. He knew she had a sister, but she did not speak of their relationship much.
"I started from her," he decided to continue in greater detail, "and took everyone out right up to the top of the organization responsible for the production and distribution of narcotics in Aurum City."
"The results are everywhere. Is it over?"
"I killed the leadership and made the head of the table regret ever living."
"And?" she asked, waiting.
"Yes. It is over."
She hummed. "What did you do to him?"
"Sure you want to know?"
"I," she stopped for a second, "understand where you come from. If it had been my sister, I would have raised hell."
Which meant she understood his motivations to a degree.
"I overdosed his son with the same narcotics his organization sold, right in front of his eyes."
Another moment of silence. "Brutal."
"Are we still on this weekend?" she asked, as if the previous part of the conversation had not taken place.
He blinked once. His lips stretched, and as tired as his mind was, the laughter that ripped out of him was loud and long.
"I just admitted to brutally murdering the criminal son of a criminal father after carving through an entire organization, and you are asking if we are still going on a date?" he chuckled. Either she was as crazy as him or too optimistic for her own good.
"Is that a no?" she asked.
"It's a why?"
"As I said, I understand where you are coming from. Though, you should definitely consider anger management."
He chuckled at the advice. "I'll see you on Saturday."
—
Aurum City
King Roland Hospital
"He is getting food from the cafeteria outside," Skyler said, cursing in his mind. He had thought the RIA wouldn't visit Kael. He just never considered they might come because Thairon had just massacred over two hundred people.
"Are you sure, young master? You know you are not protected as the princes are," the agent asked.
His lips twitched, and he imagined himself punching the agent for that comment. "You don't have to remind me."
"Look, there he is," he said, sighing internally. To his luck, he had also brought food.
"My prince," the agent bowed, suddenly meek. They knew Thairon was behind this but couldn't prove it. The prospect of getting on his nerves must have scared the man.
"What do you want?" he grumbled, combing a hand through his hair.
The other agent spoke since his partner seemed to have lost his ability to speak. "Where have you been during the last two hours?"
"Here. I just left to get food. Didn't Skyler tell you?" he asked, shaking the bag in his hand.
"He has."
"Then what?" Thairon took a step forward, glaring down at the agent.
The best of the Kingdom or not, they flinched. "Nothing. Good day to you, my prince."
The agents made a hasty retreat, leaving the brothers alone once more.
"What the heck did you do?!" Skyler hissed once the corridor was clear.
Thairon glanced at the cameras. "Did they enter the room?"
"No."
He started to scan the area for any bugs but came up empty.
"Done?"
He nodded, and Skyler scowled. "Great. What the heck did you do?!"
"What had to be done," he answered.
"That is not an answer."
"I killed criminals who deserved it. I don't see what answer you want from me." If they were willing to engage in crimes that would threaten the lives of ordinary citizens, they should be prepared to forfeit their lives.
"You didn't have to dirty your hands. You could have just gathered proof and handed it to the law enforcement."
"When you want something done, do it yourself." If the government wanted to, they could have handled this before.
"For the love of—", Skyler clenched his fists, forcing himself to not scream. "You know what, forget it. He is awake; come in."
He opened the door without a delay, seeing his brother lay on the bed with an IV on his arm.
"Hey," they said at the same time, approaching the side of the bed.
"Sup," he waved, reaching for the food as soon as he was in range.
He was dressed in a hospital gown, but if neither knew what had happened, they would think he was just here to chill.
"How are you feeling?" Skyler asked, taking his own food.
Kael pulled himself up, leaning on the headboard. "Surprisingly good."
Skyler smiled and nudged Thairon with his elbow. "Tell him."
"Tell me what?" Kael asked. He had an idea as to what had Sky so angry but didn't want to assume anything.
"We can at least wait for him to leave the hospital," Thairon grumbled, putting his paper plate down.
Skyler nudged him again. "Just tell him."
"He is right, tell me."
"Fine. "Arlene is dead," he blurted out.
Kael slowly put the plate aside and closed his eyes, rubbing his temples.
"As are her parents and everyone beginning with the one who sold her the drug to the heads of the organization that were responsible for the trade," Skyler added.
"Please tell me you didn't burn my city to the ground," Kael whimpered. He might have been born in Thermion, but Aurum was his home.
Thairon raised his shoulders and dropped them. "Only a couple of buildings with drugs stored inside."
"I'll take what I can get," he muttered, reaching for the plate again.
His appetite was raging, and he managed to finish the wrap too quickly. "The doctor said I was in surprisingly good condition for someone who just overdosed," he said, cleaning his fingers.
"Nanobots," Thairon said as a black mass, a wiggling mass, covered his left hand. "I injected you with a batch to neutralize the drug."
"Creepy, but thank you."
"You are welcome."
Skyler rolled his eyes. Of course Kael would joke even in this situation. "I spoke to the doctor. They want to keep you for the night, and you can leave tomorrow morning."
"So, how many did you kill exactly?" the youngest child of House Kessler asked.
"I didn't count."
"The final tally is two hundred sixteen, but they suspect the number could be higher due to the bodies turned to ashes," Skyler explained, having nothing to do but watch the news.
"Right. Plasma weapons," Kael said, remembering the footage of the devastating weapons used against the Seteres synthetics.
They stayed next to Kael until night, upon which he shooed them out of the room to go and sleep.
Skyler was quick to leave, but not before thanking Thairon. Over-the-top retaliation or not, he was a great brother. Ten siblings were born to the same parents, yet only two would he ever call brother. Having brothers who would go to such lengths for one another felt great.
If only it did not require so much blood.
Tomorrow, they would get him out and celebrate.
—
Thermion
Moonrise Palace
Octavian let his head drop on the desk before him.
No definitive proof Thairon was involved in this massacre. He was found in the hospital, which was three hours away from the final location of the rampage, the Legon mansion.
Unless he teleported, Thairon had not taken any direct action.
Though he had bigger problems now. He watched the live footage of the protestors, stopping the firefighters from doing their jobs.
Which was merely the beginning.
He brought his fist down on the guard's head. He felt everything in slow motion. The cheekbone, already caved in from his previous strike, gave away. His fist tore through the head, covering him in blood and cerebral fluid, and stopped upon hitting the floor, imprinting his knuckles on the floor.
His head snapped up with a snarl. He launched himself at his primary target, Soval Legon, the only son of the head of the Table. His blood-soaked hands wrapped around the man's throat, pushing him up the wall.
Behind the largest warehouse the Legons owned, it burned with corpses blocking the path out.
He considered squeezing until his fingers tore through Soval's neck, but a far more deserving punishment came to his mind.
He grinned at the black-haired man, around his age, his dark suit covered in soot and blood, blue eyes rolling back into his head.
Easing up on the pressure, he took a bag from the table, full of white powder, and left the warehouse.
—
"Where are we?" he asked Nax, dragging the unconscious boy from his leg.
"Legon mansion. This is where the meetings are held, and they are in an emergency session now."
"Session," he scowled. "You make it sound like they are a legitimate organization and not filth."
"That's what they call it."
"Are they all inside?"
"Yep."
The satellite imagery connected to his visor once more, painting the separate ballroom where the table had gathered. The mansion was crawling with guards, but he wanted to reach the serpent's head immediately.
He dropped Soval, raising his bracelet. The rocket launcher appeared in a flash of light, the side effect of opening and closing the pocket dimension.
Between the trees, he was invisible to them, but they did not share the same advantage. He raised the weapon to his shoulder, feeling the weight of the smooth metal. Next, he switched to the scatter-rain mode and pulled the trigger.
Three shots left the barrel in quick succession, each one reaching a certain altitude before the electromagnetic field collapsed inwards. It expanded violently in a rhythmic pulse, expelling the plasma to cover a wide area as the globes traveled the predetermined path.
It rained death.
Each droplet could go through Siamese, a metal formed by exposure to specific ruptures that was nigh indestructible to most modern methods, as if it wasn't here. The guards had nowhere to hide. Those smart enough to take cover found no protection but only delayed deaths.
The building had quickly caught on fire. The staff were quick to abandon the mansion, rushing out of the door as he dragged Soval once more.
Circling the mansion, he shot any stragglers that had survived. They all had suffered horrific plasma burns, and death was a mercy now.
The stench of charred flesh was becoming too familiar now.
He stood before the oak doors, seeing the holographic outlines of the members of the Table. They all had drawn guns, waiting for anyone to enter through the door.
His bracelet flashed again, dropping a circular device with three rectangular protrusions branching out from a singular point, forming a rough Y.
He threw it through the window. The quick mental calculations proved to be correct as always, and it landed near the round table. The sonic pulse caused everyone inside to seize. Some fell like frozen popsicles; others just stood motionless.
He kicked the door, which woke Soval up, and he walked, scanning each of the bastards.
Drugs, weapons smuggling, counterfeiting, prostitution, protection rackets, and more. Each of the ten members, nine since Zaver's death, was responsible for a different market.
He pulled the frozen man of the hour, laying him on the table. He sat down on the nearest chair, sighing.
He was tired.
Soval's father, Hazar, was exactly an older version of his son. The same suit, the same diamond-shaped face, hair, and eyes, only older. He threw a small device the size of a grape at the man. It stuck to his head, allowing him to finally do more than just wildly dart his eyes around.
"My brother almost died because of the drugs your table sells. Not because he used them, no. He is too smart for that. But because a girl thought he might be interested in her if he just relaxed," he ranted.
"If only my father had a spine and wiped filth like you off the face of this planet." He might have even respected the old man because of it.
"You don't know who you are messing with," Hazar threatened, but there was no bite to it. He and his cohorts were at his mercy now.
"Words of a dead man mean nothing to me. But before you die, I want you to feel the pain of all the people who had to watch someone dear to them perish because of your drugs."
Hazar's eyes widened. His struggles became frantic but were useless. He resorted to screaming, begging him to stop.
He ignored every word.
Laying the bag on his face so Soval would inhale every powder particle, he waited.
"Please, don't! I am begging you. I'll give you whatever you want. I won't sell any more drugs; please stop!" Hazar kept begging, but Thairon was deaf to the pleas.
He slapped another device on Soval, neutralizing the effects of the neural inhibitor. He immediately started to convulse, foaming at the mouth, just like Kael. Only, Soval had no Thairon to save him.
Hazar stopped begging him and instead screamed at his son to wake up and run. Soval was unresponsive. As his movements became slower, so did his father's pleas start to gradually fall silent.
He was frozen when Soval's head rolled to the side and all movement ceased. Hazar looked into his son's empty eyes, a silent plea for him to wake up.
"Imagine how many times this scene, even if not exactly as it started, repeated across the planet because of people like you."
"How does it feel to get a taste of what your actions caused?"
Hazar let out an unintelligible scream, shouting profanities, trying to bite Thairon.
"Don't worry, I won't keep you from your son," he responded. All his fury was spent, and he didn't feel the urge to kill Hazar in the gruesome manner he deserved.
He left a single grenade on the table next to the sole corpse in the room and walked away.
Once he was outside, the bloom of plasma blinded the cops arrayed before him. When they regained their senses, he was gone.
—
Glassport
He threw his bloody clothes in the trash can. Combined with the stench of soot and charred flesh, they weren't worth the trouble to save.
Water, perfectly mild, rained down on him. He sat in the shower, resting his eyes for a couple of seconds.
"You have a call from Tomoe. Do you want me to relay it?"
"Sure."
"Hey. Why can't I see you?" Her voice echoed through the blank screen.
"I am in the shower. You can speak though, don't worry."
"I just saw the news. You don't seem like the type to go on random massacres, unless I am grossly mistaken. Care to tell me what happened?"
He raised an eyebrow at her tone. It was neither accusatory nor judgemental, something you would expect considering what he had just done. Not that he felt bad about it.
"That is an awful lot of trust."
"We fought together. In my opinion, it warrants at least that much."
"My brother, Kael," he said, leaning his head back on the wall. "A girl gave him drugs to get him in bed. I was only at the beach because I didn't feel like working today."
"Ah." She fell silent after that. He knew she had a sister, but she did not speak of their relationship much.
"I started from her," he decided to continue in greater detail, "and took everyone out right up to the top of the organization responsible for the production and distribution of narcotics in Aurum City."
"The results are everywhere. Is it over?"
"I killed the leadership and made the head of the table regret ever living."
"And?" she asked, waiting.
"Yes. It is over."
She hummed. "What did you do to him?"
"Sure you want to know?"
"I," she stopped for a second, "understand where you come from. If it had been my sister, I would have raised hell."
Which meant she understood his motivations to a degree.
"I overdosed his son with the same narcotics his organization sold, right in front of his eyes."
Another moment of silence. "Brutal."
"Are we still on this weekend?" she asked, as if the previous part of the conversation had not taken place.
He blinked once. His lips stretched, and as tired as his mind was, the laughter that ripped out of him was loud and long.
"I just admitted to brutally murdering the criminal son of a criminal father after carving through an entire organization, and you are asking if we are still going on a date?" he chuckled. Either she was as crazy as him or too optimistic for her own good.
"Is that a no?" she asked.
"It's a why?"
"As I said, I understand where you are coming from. Though, you should definitely consider anger management."
He chuckled at the advice. "I'll see you on Saturday."
—
Aurum City
King Roland Hospital
"He is getting food from the cafeteria outside," Skyler said, cursing in his mind. He had thought the RIA wouldn't visit Kael. He just never considered they might come because Thairon had just massacred over two hundred people.
"Are you sure, young master? You know you are not protected as the princes are," the agent asked.
His lips twitched, and he imagined himself punching the agent for that comment. "You don't have to remind me."
"Look, there he is," he said, sighing internally. To his luck, he had also brought food.
"My prince," the agent bowed, suddenly meek. They knew Thairon was behind this but couldn't prove it. The prospect of getting on his nerves must have scared the man.
"What do you want?" he grumbled, combing a hand through his hair.
The other agent spoke since his partner seemed to have lost his ability to speak. "Where have you been during the last two hours?"
"Here. I just left to get food. Didn't Skyler tell you?" he asked, shaking the bag in his hand.
"He has."
"Then what?" Thairon took a step forward, glaring down at the agent.
The best of the Kingdom or not, they flinched. "Nothing. Good day to you, my prince."
The agents made a hasty retreat, leaving the brothers alone once more.
"What the heck did you do?!" Skyler hissed once the corridor was clear.
Thairon glanced at the cameras. "Did they enter the room?"
"No."
He started to scan the area for any bugs but came up empty.
"Done?"
He nodded, and Skyler scowled. "Great. What the heck did you do?!"
"What had to be done," he answered.
"That is not an answer."
"I killed criminals who deserved it. I don't see what answer you want from me." If they were willing to engage in crimes that would threaten the lives of ordinary citizens, they should be prepared to forfeit their lives.
"You didn't have to dirty your hands. You could have just gathered proof and handed it to the law enforcement."
"When you want something done, do it yourself." If the government wanted to, they could have handled this before.
"For the love of—", Skyler clenched his fists, forcing himself to not scream. "You know what, forget it. He is awake; come in."
He opened the door without a delay, seeing his brother lay on the bed with an IV on his arm.
"Hey," they said at the same time, approaching the side of the bed.
"Sup," he waved, reaching for the food as soon as he was in range.
He was dressed in a hospital gown, but if neither knew what had happened, they would think he was just here to chill.
"How are you feeling?" Skyler asked, taking his own food.
Kael pulled himself up, leaning on the headboard. "Surprisingly good."
Skyler smiled and nudged Thairon with his elbow. "Tell him."
"Tell me what?" Kael asked. He had an idea as to what had Sky so angry but didn't want to assume anything.
"We can at least wait for him to leave the hospital," Thairon grumbled, putting his paper plate down.
Skyler nudged him again. "Just tell him."
"He is right, tell me."
"Fine. "Arlene is dead," he blurted out.
Kael slowly put the plate aside and closed his eyes, rubbing his temples.
"As are her parents and everyone beginning with the one who sold her the drug to the heads of the organization that were responsible for the trade," Skyler added.
"Please tell me you didn't burn my city to the ground," Kael whimpered. He might have been born in Thermion, but Aurum was his home.
Thairon raised his shoulders and dropped them. "Only a couple of buildings with drugs stored inside."
"I'll take what I can get," he muttered, reaching for the plate again.
His appetite was raging, and he managed to finish the wrap too quickly. "The doctor said I was in surprisingly good condition for someone who just overdosed," he said, cleaning his fingers.
"Nanobots," Thairon said as a black mass, a wiggling mass, covered his left hand. "I injected you with a batch to neutralize the drug."
"Creepy, but thank you."
"You are welcome."
Skyler rolled his eyes. Of course Kael would joke even in this situation. "I spoke to the doctor. They want to keep you for the night, and you can leave tomorrow morning."
"So, how many did you kill exactly?" the youngest child of House Kessler asked.
"I didn't count."
"The final tally is two hundred sixteen, but they suspect the number could be higher due to the bodies turned to ashes," Skyler explained, having nothing to do but watch the news.
"Right. Plasma weapons," Kael said, remembering the footage of the devastating weapons used against the Seteres synthetics.
They stayed next to Kael until night, upon which he shooed them out of the room to go and sleep.
Skyler was quick to leave, but not before thanking Thairon. Over-the-top retaliation or not, he was a great brother. Ten siblings were born to the same parents, yet only two would he ever call brother. Having brothers who would go to such lengths for one another felt great.
If only it did not require so much blood.
Tomorrow, they would get him out and celebrate.
—
Thermion
Moonrise Palace
Octavian let his head drop on the desk before him.
No definitive proof Thairon was involved in this massacre. He was found in the hospital, which was three hours away from the final location of the rampage, the Legon mansion.
Unless he teleported, Thairon had not taken any direct action.
Though he had bigger problems now. He watched the live footage of the protestors, stopping the firefighters from doing their jobs.
Which was merely the beginning.
Chapter 18 - Celebration and a Date
New
Samael61
I trust you know where the happy button is?
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Thermion
Moonrise Palace
"No definitive proof at all, Director?" Octavian asked, though he already had the answer from the man's face.
"Unfortunately not, Your Grace. Every piece of evidence we could gather points to the fact that he never left the hospital."
"What are your orders concerning the protests?" the prime minister asked.
The vigilante's destruction of the table was followed by a massive evidence file released to the network. The illegal dealings of the organization were laid before the public: assassinations, bribes, smuggling, and the protection rackets.
The citizens of Aurum City were quick to march to the mayor's palace and the locations the vigilante had not touched. The city guards did not have a chance against the furious crowds. To avoid any incidents, they were ordered to only act to provide protection to the emergency service units.
"Let them run their course. Make a press conference but avoid any overly hostile remarks against the vigilante," he ordered. That vigilante had just become a hero in the people's eyes. Promises of arresting the perpetrator would be laughable without any idea who they were targeting.
Swearing to resolve this event within the boundaries of law would be a preferable commitment.
"Understood."
"Dismissed, unless there is anything else."
The Prime Minister gave a small bow and left. He ended the call with the director of RIA and was left alone in the room with his wife and eldest sons.
"A ghost of a vigilante left a trail of corpses and burned buildings in his wake, and we don't even know where to point fingers."
"We are going to look like fools."
"If you two are sure it is Thairon, then isn't there anything you can do at all?"
"We know he is the one responsible. We just can't prove it. If we go and accuse a member of the royalty, it will only serve to damage our prestige."
"What about Skyler and Kael? Maybe the RIA can learn something from them."
"They tried." Octavian knew it would be futile. These two would never sell Thairon for any reason and were too quick-witted to deceive. They had stuck to the same rhetoric to the end.
"Then we should focus on damage control. Redirect the public attention to the Table and their crimes, away from the fact that our law enforcement failed," Meran said. Public opinion was ever so malleable after all.
Octavian smiled at his eldest. A mirror copy of him in both looks and mind, he truly was proud.
Leander was not to be outdone, quickly adding his piece. "Have all the news channels and social media pages release the same news. Saturate public perception while sneaking in bits about the illegality of the vigilante's actions."
"Good suggestions, both of you," Leonora said, her voice lighter than it used to be minutes ago.
Octavian turned his attention to the report the RIA had received from the RIC Committee.
—
Aurum City
King Roland Hospital
"Get in," he said, opening the doors.
"Holy… What the heck is this car? Never saw anything like this before," Skyler said with a breathy voice, laying his hands on the sleek, silver vehicle. It reminded him of a large cat ready to strike at a prey. Larger than its contemporaries to make space for Thairon's size, it was a spacious vehicle.
Kael was in the same state, walking around the car to examine every single part. Smooth edges, with a low chassis that looked as if it were gliding. The neon blue lights sliced the panels apart along the hood and the sides.
"Custom-made." It was a gift for Skyler, left rotting in the labs while he was trying to repair the damage to his body.
"I want one," Skyler said, unaware it was technically his.
"Me too." Kael jumped in.
"Fine. Just get in."
Kael had strategically positioned himself to take the front seat, while Sky glared from the back seat.
"One would think this wouldn't be anything impressive considering what you have on your wrists," he grumbled. He never saw the appeal of cars, though; it could be because he always had personal
"This is different. The purr of an engine, feeling the machine push past the limits of what a human is capable of, cutting through the wind. The magic is in the journey, not in reaching your destination with a snap of your fingers."
"Very poetic, but he is correct."
"Where to first?"
"I am starving. How about lunch first?"
"Sure," he said. It was Kael's day after all.
The car drove silent and smooth. With real-time satellite connection and Nax' access to the traffic systems, he charted the fastest paths.
His little brother knew the city inside out. The best spots for each of the most popular foods, the locations worth seeing where it wouldn't be crowded by tourists, and the famous attractions.
Nothing amused his younger brothers more than the attention he received from females. He resorted to buying a cheap cap and sunglasses after the fifth time a woman tried to give him her number.
"You know, I think it was better when I was the chick magnet," he said after swallowing the spoon full of ice cream.
Sykler pointed at Thairon with his utensil. "You enjoyed it. He doesn't."
"Good thing his girlfriend doesn't know about this." Kael nudged Skyler with his elbow. "He'd be in trouble otherwise."
"Maybe we should take him to a doctor. Get him checked out."
Thairon growled, though there was no bite to it. "How about I check you two into that ice cream machine?"
"I'll pass. Zero-calorie nuts and I don't get along well," Skyler said. An allergy that was passed on to him from his mother, Thairon had already treated it. He still didn't like eating it due to almost dying last time.
"I," Kael raised a finger, "could be persuaded if it came with chocolate."
"It will come with a lot of pain."
Kael scrunched his face. "Maybe later."
"Changing the subject before you kill us. I finally made up my mind on what to take," Skyler said. He had taken his time choosing. Unlike Kael, he did not have prior experience to help him reach a decision.
"Go on."
"Gravity plus hyper speed," he said. Or Graviton and Velocity Segments, as Nax had named them.
"Sure."
"I can't help but wonder. How did you even create these powers?" Skyler had a better grasp on science than Kael, but he could not wrap his head around these upgrades.
He thought he should be over the moon, knowing he was about to receive post-human powers. Yet, he was too calm about it.
Perhaps he didn't feel anything due to the unreality of the situation.
"I was searching for a way to supply enough energy to my body. DNA strands to draw energy from higher, untouched dimensions led to the Continuum and Graviton Helix strands. I tried to rewrite reality to increase the energy my cells could produce; I ended up with the Veil Sequence. None would work without a fusion reactor the size of a car," he explained. He considered
"Damn."
"How did you fix your condition then?"
"I found the arrival point and managed to chart a path to a dying universe rich with time particles gathered in clusters for easy harvesting. Some subatomic sculpting on my DNA, and I can now produce chronon particles that keep my body in a temporally locked state," he said.
There was only so much he could shrink a reactor and put enough fuel in it. Living with a mechanical part that would be an easy target did not fill him with joy either.
"Which bypasses the need for continuous energy production entirely," Skyler said, forgetting to breathe.
"You're a brilliant, brilliant man." Kael reached across the table, trying to hug Thairon. His face met the older man's palm, and he was pushed back to his seat.
"The rest is a matter of gathering enough energy to use your powers. The temporal segment is coded to always lock on a higher state of energy."
"We have to eat a lot then," Sykler reasoned, but he couldn't get something else out of his mind. "Can we store enough with chemical energy alone?"
"No." Thairon shook his head. "Since I just extend my consciousness through electrical arcs, I don't need much energy; food in great quantities makes up for it."
"I am simply going to charge you two with the fusion reactor after the gene modifications are over."
"Huh. Nice," Kael said. He didn't know about being electrocuted with a fusion reactor, but if his brother said it was safe, then it was.
"Are there no drawbacks, though? You just create unlimited energy like that?"
"There is. Chronon radiation builds up due to the temporal lock. In small quantities, it does nothing. In large amounts, it causes time to break down. Localized loops, rewinding, forwarding, speeding up, or slowing. Anything could happen."
He took a breath. "I am working on something to use that radiation as more energy."
"You just said fuck you to the laws of physics," Skyler said as their drinks arrived.
"It wasn't easy. I almost died for it."
Kael raised his glass towards Thairon. "To you, the greatest mind, and more importantly, the greatest brother on this planet."
"To you," Skyler joined.
He raised his drink as well.
—
"Here," he said, uploading the cyber key to Skyler's bracelet while gesturing to him to take the wheel.
"You are giving it to me?"
"It was yours anyway. I just forgot to hand it to you."
He pointed a finger at Kael, who looked ready to make love to the car. "I'll send you one soon."
"Are you in a hurry for something?" Skyler asked, suddenly worried.
"I have a date tomorrow."
Kael clamped a hand over his mouth, a strangled laugh escaping. Skyler averted his eyes, whistling a merry tune.
Then both broke into laughter.
He cuffed them behind the ears before teleporting away.
—
Kael parked his new car in the field reserved for the beach manager. Before his brother handed him the means to teleport like it was not a big deal, he used to take public transport.
The morning after their celebratory trip in the city, he was ready to go back to work. Just as he left the door, he saw a brand-new car, the same one Thairon had handed to Skyler, sitting outside his apartment.
Naturally, he took the car to work.
Taking the back door to his office, he froze. They were removing his name tag from the wall, and his office supplies were being moved out.
"Hey, what is going on?" he asked, seeing the local director of the Lusar Management Services.
"Kael? You are back?" Maylan turned to him, shooing the workers away.
"I am. Again, what is going on? Why are they moving my things out?"
Maylan winced. "Come in; the best I can do is explain it in private." He gestured at Kael to follow, taking him inside the drink storage.
"Listen." Maylan laid a hand on his shoulder. "It's nothing against you, but Arlene and her family dying right after she almost killed you, and not to mention this whole vigilante business, got the upper management spooked. I don't know what exactly happened, but apparently, someone heard something, and they want you out."
"You can't be serious," he said, staring at the older man, expecting it to be a joke.
"I am. I tried to tell them that this was unnecessary, but RIA agents came to take the recordings we have, citing royal business with a court order. My hands were tied after that."
Of course the fucking RIA would come. "That's it? I am fired like that?"
"You are getting your severance pay and everything promised in the contract in case of a termination without probable cause," Maylan said. It was cold comfort to Kael. He had spent three years making the beach into a place for everyone, only to be fired like that.
"Take care, Maylan." He turned around with those words.
"I know it doesn't mean much, but I am sorry I couldn't do more."
He left without looking back, taking the boxes he cared about.
At least he didn't have to consider how he was going to juggle the beach business with his future adventures.
It still hurt.
—
Back in his car, he drove away without waiting; boxes moved to the back seats. He waited, hands on the steering wheel, gazing at the blank screens inside the vehicle.
He drove away.
He tried to distract himself, looking at the date of his thesis defense. Now that he was unemployed, he could fully focus on it.
He was about to embark on a different kind of life where it wouldn't be useful. Perhaps he should consider just leaving it all together. He scowled and drove home. Just three more days wouldn't hurt anyone.
—
Glassport
He checked himself on the holomirror, ready to go out. There were no ruptures in sight, and he didn't have anything urgent to deal with.
With a thought, he was gone.
—
Meltral
They would be meeting at a mall. Since she was the one taking him out this time, she had chosen something more mundane. After the events of the last date, he agreed it was a nice change.
Appearing between trees with cameras in sight out of action, he strolled toward the building. She was waiting at the entrance. He noticed her unique, vibrant hair coloring among the sea of people swarming the mall in an instant.
"Hey," she waved, a smile blooming on her face. Unconsciously, he felt his lips rise in return.
"Morning," he said, taking a page from Kael's book and landing a light kiss on her knuckles.
"You too. Come on, let's get breakfast." She wrapped her arm around his and dragged him forward.
"Lead the way."
"How is your brother doing?"
"He is fine. I cleaned up his system. The doctors released him yesterday; we even went to have a small celebration."
"That's good to hear," she said, her steps slowing down. She seemed to be far away but shook her head to return to the moment.
"Got a special place for breakfast?" He tried to distract her, and she smiled, welcoming it.
"Special for me, at least. I always have breakfast there whenever I get the chance. It's like a slice of home here."
He took a seat, letting her order for him. Conversation flowed as they waited, starting with the censer in the room.
"How did you do it? I get the cameras, but to erase memories? Lots of people are freaking out." It did not take long for the RIC to realize their mysterious savior was the vigilante who had carved a bloody path in Aurum City.
"The device releases a photonic energy wave from me. People don't see it, but it disrupts their memories so anyone who sees me can't remember what I look like."
"You are one scary genius," she muttered.
Just in time, the first part of their breakfast arrived.
Moonrise Palace
"No definitive proof at all, Director?" Octavian asked, though he already had the answer from the man's face.
"Unfortunately not, Your Grace. Every piece of evidence we could gather points to the fact that he never left the hospital."
"What are your orders concerning the protests?" the prime minister asked.
The vigilante's destruction of the table was followed by a massive evidence file released to the network. The illegal dealings of the organization were laid before the public: assassinations, bribes, smuggling, and the protection rackets.
The citizens of Aurum City were quick to march to the mayor's palace and the locations the vigilante had not touched. The city guards did not have a chance against the furious crowds. To avoid any incidents, they were ordered to only act to provide protection to the emergency service units.
"Let them run their course. Make a press conference but avoid any overly hostile remarks against the vigilante," he ordered. That vigilante had just become a hero in the people's eyes. Promises of arresting the perpetrator would be laughable without any idea who they were targeting.
Swearing to resolve this event within the boundaries of law would be a preferable commitment.
"Understood."
"Dismissed, unless there is anything else."
The Prime Minister gave a small bow and left. He ended the call with the director of RIA and was left alone in the room with his wife and eldest sons.
"A ghost of a vigilante left a trail of corpses and burned buildings in his wake, and we don't even know where to point fingers."
"We are going to look like fools."
"If you two are sure it is Thairon, then isn't there anything you can do at all?"
"We know he is the one responsible. We just can't prove it. If we go and accuse a member of the royalty, it will only serve to damage our prestige."
"What about Skyler and Kael? Maybe the RIA can learn something from them."
"They tried." Octavian knew it would be futile. These two would never sell Thairon for any reason and were too quick-witted to deceive. They had stuck to the same rhetoric to the end.
"Then we should focus on damage control. Redirect the public attention to the Table and their crimes, away from the fact that our law enforcement failed," Meran said. Public opinion was ever so malleable after all.
Octavian smiled at his eldest. A mirror copy of him in both looks and mind, he truly was proud.
Leander was not to be outdone, quickly adding his piece. "Have all the news channels and social media pages release the same news. Saturate public perception while sneaking in bits about the illegality of the vigilante's actions."
"Good suggestions, both of you," Leonora said, her voice lighter than it used to be minutes ago.
Octavian turned his attention to the report the RIA had received from the RIC Committee.
—
Aurum City
King Roland Hospital
"Get in," he said, opening the doors.
"Holy… What the heck is this car? Never saw anything like this before," Skyler said with a breathy voice, laying his hands on the sleek, silver vehicle. It reminded him of a large cat ready to strike at a prey. Larger than its contemporaries to make space for Thairon's size, it was a spacious vehicle.
Kael was in the same state, walking around the car to examine every single part. Smooth edges, with a low chassis that looked as if it were gliding. The neon blue lights sliced the panels apart along the hood and the sides.
"Custom-made." It was a gift for Skyler, left rotting in the labs while he was trying to repair the damage to his body.
"I want one," Skyler said, unaware it was technically his.
"Me too." Kael jumped in.
"Fine. Just get in."
Kael had strategically positioned himself to take the front seat, while Sky glared from the back seat.
"One would think this wouldn't be anything impressive considering what you have on your wrists," he grumbled. He never saw the appeal of cars, though; it could be because he always had personal
"This is different. The purr of an engine, feeling the machine push past the limits of what a human is capable of, cutting through the wind. The magic is in the journey, not in reaching your destination with a snap of your fingers."
"Very poetic, but he is correct."
"Where to first?"
"I am starving. How about lunch first?"
"Sure," he said. It was Kael's day after all.
The car drove silent and smooth. With real-time satellite connection and Nax' access to the traffic systems, he charted the fastest paths.
His little brother knew the city inside out. The best spots for each of the most popular foods, the locations worth seeing where it wouldn't be crowded by tourists, and the famous attractions.
Nothing amused his younger brothers more than the attention he received from females. He resorted to buying a cheap cap and sunglasses after the fifth time a woman tried to give him her number.
"You know, I think it was better when I was the chick magnet," he said after swallowing the spoon full of ice cream.
Sykler pointed at Thairon with his utensil. "You enjoyed it. He doesn't."
"Good thing his girlfriend doesn't know about this." Kael nudged Skyler with his elbow. "He'd be in trouble otherwise."
"Maybe we should take him to a doctor. Get him checked out."
Thairon growled, though there was no bite to it. "How about I check you two into that ice cream machine?"
"I'll pass. Zero-calorie nuts and I don't get along well," Skyler said. An allergy that was passed on to him from his mother, Thairon had already treated it. He still didn't like eating it due to almost dying last time.
"I," Kael raised a finger, "could be persuaded if it came with chocolate."
"It will come with a lot of pain."
Kael scrunched his face. "Maybe later."
"Changing the subject before you kill us. I finally made up my mind on what to take," Skyler said. He had taken his time choosing. Unlike Kael, he did not have prior experience to help him reach a decision.
"Go on."
"Gravity plus hyper speed," he said. Or Graviton and Velocity Segments, as Nax had named them.
"Sure."
"I can't help but wonder. How did you even create these powers?" Skyler had a better grasp on science than Kael, but he could not wrap his head around these upgrades.
He thought he should be over the moon, knowing he was about to receive post-human powers. Yet, he was too calm about it.
Perhaps he didn't feel anything due to the unreality of the situation.
"I was searching for a way to supply enough energy to my body. DNA strands to draw energy from higher, untouched dimensions led to the Continuum and Graviton Helix strands. I tried to rewrite reality to increase the energy my cells could produce; I ended up with the Veil Sequence. None would work without a fusion reactor the size of a car," he explained. He considered
"Damn."
"How did you fix your condition then?"
"I found the arrival point and managed to chart a path to a dying universe rich with time particles gathered in clusters for easy harvesting. Some subatomic sculpting on my DNA, and I can now produce chronon particles that keep my body in a temporally locked state," he said.
There was only so much he could shrink a reactor and put enough fuel in it. Living with a mechanical part that would be an easy target did not fill him with joy either.
"Which bypasses the need for continuous energy production entirely," Skyler said, forgetting to breathe.
"You're a brilliant, brilliant man." Kael reached across the table, trying to hug Thairon. His face met the older man's palm, and he was pushed back to his seat.
"The rest is a matter of gathering enough energy to use your powers. The temporal segment is coded to always lock on a higher state of energy."
"We have to eat a lot then," Sykler reasoned, but he couldn't get something else out of his mind. "Can we store enough with chemical energy alone?"
"No." Thairon shook his head. "Since I just extend my consciousness through electrical arcs, I don't need much energy; food in great quantities makes up for it."
"I am simply going to charge you two with the fusion reactor after the gene modifications are over."
"Huh. Nice," Kael said. He didn't know about being electrocuted with a fusion reactor, but if his brother said it was safe, then it was.
"Are there no drawbacks, though? You just create unlimited energy like that?"
"There is. Chronon radiation builds up due to the temporal lock. In small quantities, it does nothing. In large amounts, it causes time to break down. Localized loops, rewinding, forwarding, speeding up, or slowing. Anything could happen."
He took a breath. "I am working on something to use that radiation as more energy."
"You just said fuck you to the laws of physics," Skyler said as their drinks arrived.
"It wasn't easy. I almost died for it."
Kael raised his glass towards Thairon. "To you, the greatest mind, and more importantly, the greatest brother on this planet."
"To you," Skyler joined.
He raised his drink as well.
—
"Here," he said, uploading the cyber key to Skyler's bracelet while gesturing to him to take the wheel.
"You are giving it to me?"
"It was yours anyway. I just forgot to hand it to you."
He pointed a finger at Kael, who looked ready to make love to the car. "I'll send you one soon."
"Are you in a hurry for something?" Skyler asked, suddenly worried.
"I have a date tomorrow."
Kael clamped a hand over his mouth, a strangled laugh escaping. Skyler averted his eyes, whistling a merry tune.
Then both broke into laughter.
He cuffed them behind the ears before teleporting away.
—
Kael parked his new car in the field reserved for the beach manager. Before his brother handed him the means to teleport like it was not a big deal, he used to take public transport.
The morning after their celebratory trip in the city, he was ready to go back to work. Just as he left the door, he saw a brand-new car, the same one Thairon had handed to Skyler, sitting outside his apartment.
Naturally, he took the car to work.
Taking the back door to his office, he froze. They were removing his name tag from the wall, and his office supplies were being moved out.
"Hey, what is going on?" he asked, seeing the local director of the Lusar Management Services.
"Kael? You are back?" Maylan turned to him, shooing the workers away.
"I am. Again, what is going on? Why are they moving my things out?"
Maylan winced. "Come in; the best I can do is explain it in private." He gestured at Kael to follow, taking him inside the drink storage.
"Listen." Maylan laid a hand on his shoulder. "It's nothing against you, but Arlene and her family dying right after she almost killed you, and not to mention this whole vigilante business, got the upper management spooked. I don't know what exactly happened, but apparently, someone heard something, and they want you out."
"You can't be serious," he said, staring at the older man, expecting it to be a joke.
"I am. I tried to tell them that this was unnecessary, but RIA agents came to take the recordings we have, citing royal business with a court order. My hands were tied after that."
Of course the fucking RIA would come. "That's it? I am fired like that?"
"You are getting your severance pay and everything promised in the contract in case of a termination without probable cause," Maylan said. It was cold comfort to Kael. He had spent three years making the beach into a place for everyone, only to be fired like that.
"Take care, Maylan." He turned around with those words.
"I know it doesn't mean much, but I am sorry I couldn't do more."
He left without looking back, taking the boxes he cared about.
At least he didn't have to consider how he was going to juggle the beach business with his future adventures.
It still hurt.
—
Back in his car, he drove away without waiting; boxes moved to the back seats. He waited, hands on the steering wheel, gazing at the blank screens inside the vehicle.
He drove away.
He tried to distract himself, looking at the date of his thesis defense. Now that he was unemployed, he could fully focus on it.
He was about to embark on a different kind of life where it wouldn't be useful. Perhaps he should consider just leaving it all together. He scowled and drove home. Just three more days wouldn't hurt anyone.
—
Glassport
He checked himself on the holomirror, ready to go out. There were no ruptures in sight, and he didn't have anything urgent to deal with.
With a thought, he was gone.
—
Meltral
They would be meeting at a mall. Since she was the one taking him out this time, she had chosen something more mundane. After the events of the last date, he agreed it was a nice change.
Appearing between trees with cameras in sight out of action, he strolled toward the building. She was waiting at the entrance. He noticed her unique, vibrant hair coloring among the sea of people swarming the mall in an instant.
"Hey," she waved, a smile blooming on her face. Unconsciously, he felt his lips rise in return.
"Morning," he said, taking a page from Kael's book and landing a light kiss on her knuckles.
"You too. Come on, let's get breakfast." She wrapped her arm around his and dragged him forward.
"Lead the way."
"How is your brother doing?"
"He is fine. I cleaned up his system. The doctors released him yesterday; we even went to have a small celebration."
"That's good to hear," she said, her steps slowing down. She seemed to be far away but shook her head to return to the moment.
"Got a special place for breakfast?" He tried to distract her, and she smiled, welcoming it.
"Special for me, at least. I always have breakfast there whenever I get the chance. It's like a slice of home here."
He took a seat, letting her order for him. Conversation flowed as they waited, starting with the censer in the room.
"How did you do it? I get the cameras, but to erase memories? Lots of people are freaking out." It did not take long for the RIC to realize their mysterious savior was the vigilante who had carved a bloody path in Aurum City.
"The device releases a photonic energy wave from me. People don't see it, but it disrupts their memories so anyone who sees me can't remember what I look like."
"You are one scary genius," she muttered.
Just in time, the first part of their breakfast arrived.
Chapter 19 - Bug Invasio
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Samael61
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Meltral
"Have you always been so harsh when you retaliate?"
Thairon took a napkin, wiping his lips, and leaned back. "What do you know about Arlex Royal Academy?"
"What everyone else knows. The top educational institution in the Kingdom, home of many inventions and so on." She parroted what she had seen through various sources.
"It is also a small-scale replica of the Kingdom's political scene. The student council president is the king, the council members are the high-ranking nobles, and other positions are filled accordingly," he explained. Naturally, his oldest brother was the king, while their cousin, his mother's nephew, was the vice-president.
He laid his elbows on the table, remembering the bad old days. "Everything is decided through negotiations, compromises, threats, and bullying."
"I always found it dumb, still do, and never participated."
"I have a feeling they did not just let you be," she said, her smile becoming strained.
"I was the best in academics. It all came so easy to me, the science part at least. When you are that good, you inevitably gain followers, so to speak. Mostly other people interested in science like me."
He did not accept any kind of following. They did not get the
"Whenever I faced a problem with other students, I went to the teachers. Much later, I learned they had standing orders to let the students deal with their own problems. If you were getting bullied, you had to deal with that on your own."
"I was working on a new computer chip. One of the student council members had my lab thrashed, and when the teachers did nothing, I acted."
She leaned forward, standing close enough that he could smell her perfume. "This is going to be bloody, isn't it?"
"I didn't kill anyone," he shrugged, "but there were plenty of broken bones and blood, yes."
"When the student council was in session, I gassed the room with an odorless anesthetic. I gathered all the members, tied them up, and beat them black and blue. The one that had my lab destroyed, the vice president, had this really rare guitar that I broke to splinters on his skull."
"How old were you?" He had carved a bloody path through the number one tourism city of the Kingdom without leaving any evidence behind. She wondered if there were similar events kept silent.
"Fourteen."
She whistled.
"No one ever bothered me again while I was in the academy. I began to understand that some problems required more than diplomacy to solve."
"You are right," she agreed. Reaching into her purse, she rummaged through, pulling out a worn-out business card.
"Here."
He raised an eyebrow at the card.
Madame Lena's Self-Control Classes. Master Yourself for a Better Future.
"My sister had anger problems too. We sent her to these classes. They really helped. Just in case you consider it," she said, holding her hands up.
"Thanks," he said, pocketing the card. Maybe he would give it a chance.
"How is military life going now?" He had seen the news but wanted to hear it from her.
She smiled, leaning back to stretch, slouching in the chair comfortably. "The best it ever was. Without having to worry that a rupture might pop out any second, life has been great."
"You are welcome."
"So, the royal academy. Are you a noble or something?" She knew only the nobles and the royalty were allowed to join the academy. Unless you had rich parents willing to buy a place for you.
"Or something. I never cared about my status and never brought it up." The number of people who knew he was a prince was low. Those who could recognize him now, even less.
"You must have graduated at the top of your class," she said. School should be easy for the man who had created technological wonders only found in fiction.
Provided he didn't quit because it was a waste of time for him.
"I left the academy before my final year. It was a waste of time, and I managed to secure funds for my research. I would have left earlier but my parents threatened to cut my funding if I did not graduate."
She chuckled, shaking her head when Thairon raised an eyebrow.
"I noticed you never really talk about your parents." He had already met her mother, but she didn't even hear the names of his parents.
His lips tightened, his nose wrinkling faintly. "My mother had grand designs. Each of her sons would play a part. I was never interested in her games, and we had a falling out. It was a mess."
"The irreparable kind?" Rather, sometimes repairing a relationship wasn't worth the cost.
"They held the research funding over my head for years. I am not going to forgive or forget that. They are unlikely to give up their ambitions, and I will never play ball with them."
"Boy, that's tough. I had my mother at least."
Both fell silent, turning their attention to the food. Her idea of a breakfast was lavish. Puffy pan breads, cheeses, jams, two different kinds of eggs, and even a light broth.
He was about to comment on her tastes when his bracelet and her phone rang at the same time. They read the notifications, heads snapping up to gaze at each other. They turned to the tree in the middle of the ten-floor mall, rising from the ground to the top.
A rupture was about to open in two minutes, right in front of the all-golden tree.
Tomoe sprang to her feet. She slammed a fist on the fire alert. All the movement in the mall ceased for a moment before the people ran for the exits.
"I thought your system was supposed to warn us days in advance," she whispered, standing at a corner, away from the flood of civilians.
"This rupture isn't opening from the other side, but from our own," he explained.
She blinked twice, remembering his words on how ruptures were formed. "There is no energy burst."
"There is. The fractures broke into a higher dimension. It's bleeding a constant stream of zero-point energy into the rupture."
"How the heck did that happen?"
"No idea," he said, going through the readings his satellites took. It was impossible for a fracture to reach into higher dimensions without an outside influence.
"Damn it. I don't even have a weapon on me."
"I do, but we have greater problems. If that fracture isn't closed, the rupture won't close either. It will keep growing forever."
Her eyes widened. Even with their rudimentary understanding of the ruptures, one staying open and growing forever was the end-of-the-world kind of an event. "Can you close it?"
"Yes," he said. Nax was already blanketing the cameras. Once everyone was out, he would bring in the Gravity Lance to force shut the fracture into the higher dimension.
"Here it comes," she muttered, seeing the fabric of space begin to shatter. Thairon's bracelet flashed. Two silver bands, one with a blue line and the other with a red line going along its length, appeared. He wrapped them around his other wrist. His body shimmered, and she felt her mind go hazy.
Then, he slapped a bracelet on her wrist, and it passed.
"Your little memory scrambler?"
He nodded. There were still civilians evacuating the mall, and the RIC would be here soon. He did not want to be caught.
His bracelet flashed again, dropping a rotary gun on his hand that he was quick to hand over to her. She wrapped her hand around the trigger handle on the top of the weapon, marveling at how light it was.
The fracture came, forming faster than the last time she had witnessed it in Hatsuzumi. What would arrive through, if something ever would? She had no choice but to wait to see. She raised the weapon, fingers on the trigger, left hand reaching for the forward grip.
She drowned out the panicking civilians, waiting for any sign of a hostile arrival. Her heart hammered in her chest. The anticipation kept building. She thought the other side might be empty but did not drop her guard.
It proved to be the correct choice.
An APC-sized bug strolled out. She raised the rotary gun, inspecting each part of the creature in quick order. Small, column-like legs covered by thick, green carapace connected to a smooth body layered with more carapace.
Its head was relatively small, making it a difficult target. Two antennas, two red, bleary eyes, and two holes where a human's nose would be. She waited to see if it would attack. Not every non-human was some mindless monster that would attack on sight.
This one was, apparently. It reared up with an ear-scratching screech and charged at her.
She pulled the trigger without hesitation. The barrels whirled to a blur, and the monster's body ceased to exist. The bright, white-blue bolts incinerated the carapace, cooking the flesh until it burst like a bubble. Green, steaming viscera splattered over a wide area, leaving behind only the legs.
She blinked, blindsided by the ease with which the weapon destroyed the monster.
A swarm followed.
Bugs with sizes ranging from critters to the APC-sized behemoths surged out of the rupture. She had not taken her hand off from the trigger. The firepower pushed the tide back hard. The initial part of the swarm had only managed to leave the rupture due to the sheer number of bodies.
Alarmed by the rupture and the monsters, the citizens evacuated the mall in record time. She was glad for all those emergency exits.
The dome overhead, which allowed sunlight to reach the golden tree, was broken. Robots flew down, carrying a device that matched the largest bugs to crawl out of the rupture. They landed on her flank, away but still in full view of the rupture.
Thairon stood before the machine, fingers dancing on the holographic screen. The square machine, which had two prongs at the top pointing at the gate, whirled to life.
She kept firing, locked on the rupture. The human-sized robots pulled the weapons strapped to their backs and joined her.
"Hey, the weapon fire is turning purple." Purple hues began to snap into existence inside the power source. Just the same, the stream of bolts that looked like a single beam exuded a slight purple color.
"The plasma is getting hotter. It's just extra firepower; nothing to worry about."
"Great," she muttered, waiting for the device to do its job.
The rupture suddenly bent inwards at the edges. As Thairon had predicted, the rupture widened to three times its size in an instant. The concentrated fire split into three lines to cover the increase in enemy numbers.
"How long?"
"Two minutes."
"The rupture will widen again in that time," she warned. She had counted less than two minutes into the incursion when it expanded. If the rupture grew three times once more, they could be overrun before the machine was ready. The bugs were already pushing further ahead.
They needed more firepower.
Her worries were answered with three more robots dropping from the ceiling, each carrying two rotary guns.
She wished it were this simple all the time.
The whining sound from the machine became more high-pitched each second until she could not hear it anymore. Only the sound of the rotating barrels and the dying grunts of the bugs were heard.
One minute fifty-two seconds later, the rupture increased in size again. The firepower split once more to cover the widening front line. However, the rupture did not stabilize momentarily like it had before. The edges kept growing, forcing the robots to cover more area. It gave the bugs the chance to move the front line closer to them.
Seconds later, the prongs fired a transparent beam at the rupture. The crumbling fabric of space froze and began to shrink at a slow but steady pace.
Done with the machine, Thairon pulled a shotgun. The wide, square barrel fired a plasma screen that grew in size, turning waves of bugs to ash with a flash.
"Having fun?" he shouted over the sound of the weapon fire.
"Having fun?!" she repeated back with more fire than what she was hitting the bugs with.
"Yes."
She took a deep breath, realizing she was actually enjoying the moment. "I am."
"I could marry you for these weapons, you know," she shouted back, smiling for the first time as she faced a rupture.
His snort could barely be heard through all the noise. "That is incredibly shallow."
"I don't know. I think it is a pretty good reason. You can give me an arsenal of these as a dowry." She might not have chosen military life out of duty, but it had grown on her. It excited her once the action and the danger were over and she realized she had survived.
Except when it was too much and she had a nervous breakdown.
"You guys still practice dowry in Hatsuzumi?"
"Not really." It was an outdated tradition that no one took seriously anymore. Even the nobles had all but abandoned the idea.
Her weapon died out suddenly, the blue, cylindrical part in the middle running empty. Thairon threw the shotgun to her and brought out another weapon from who knows where. It was larger, built like a rocket launcher. He fired three globes back to back. It created kill zones on the ground, melting the bugs as they walked over the white, liquid hazard.
"When is it going to shut down?" she asked. The RIC would be here any minute. Explaining the situation with Thairon here would be all the more difficult.
"It is about to. Just keep firing."
True to his words, once the rupture had shrunk to its first size, it snapped shut. The fabric of reality bisected the bugs mid-transit, leaving half the corpses in the middle of the mall, and the rear half on whatever hellish planet they crawled out of.
She turned to Thairon. "Quick, you have to leave. RIC Quick Response Force will be here any second. I'll handle the mess, just go," she said, not even giving him the time to answer.
Thairon nodded after a second, retrieving his weapons. Two robots held the device from the sides, taking off, followed by the rest. One of them wrapped around him, flying him out of the dome.
He was gone in seconds, only leaving behind corpses.
She heard the footsteps before Silene's voice called to her. "Tomoe?"
The QRF spread, surrounding the corpses lying over steaming green sludge.
"Did you do all of this?" she asked, trailing off at the end. The smell of rotten eggs assaulted her nostrils, and she was quick to tighten her mask.
"I had help," she admitted, thinking about how to get out of this situation.
"From who?"
"Would you believe me if I said I can't remember?"
Silene blinked repeatedly.
"Have you always been so harsh when you retaliate?"
Thairon took a napkin, wiping his lips, and leaned back. "What do you know about Arlex Royal Academy?"
"What everyone else knows. The top educational institution in the Kingdom, home of many inventions and so on." She parroted what she had seen through various sources.
"It is also a small-scale replica of the Kingdom's political scene. The student council president is the king, the council members are the high-ranking nobles, and other positions are filled accordingly," he explained. Naturally, his oldest brother was the king, while their cousin, his mother's nephew, was the vice-president.
He laid his elbows on the table, remembering the bad old days. "Everything is decided through negotiations, compromises, threats, and bullying."
"I always found it dumb, still do, and never participated."
"I have a feeling they did not just let you be," she said, her smile becoming strained.
"I was the best in academics. It all came so easy to me, the science part at least. When you are that good, you inevitably gain followers, so to speak. Mostly other people interested in science like me."
He did not accept any kind of following. They did not get the
"Whenever I faced a problem with other students, I went to the teachers. Much later, I learned they had standing orders to let the students deal with their own problems. If you were getting bullied, you had to deal with that on your own."
"I was working on a new computer chip. One of the student council members had my lab thrashed, and when the teachers did nothing, I acted."
She leaned forward, standing close enough that he could smell her perfume. "This is going to be bloody, isn't it?"
"I didn't kill anyone," he shrugged, "but there were plenty of broken bones and blood, yes."
"When the student council was in session, I gassed the room with an odorless anesthetic. I gathered all the members, tied them up, and beat them black and blue. The one that had my lab destroyed, the vice president, had this really rare guitar that I broke to splinters on his skull."
"How old were you?" He had carved a bloody path through the number one tourism city of the Kingdom without leaving any evidence behind. She wondered if there were similar events kept silent.
"Fourteen."
She whistled.
"No one ever bothered me again while I was in the academy. I began to understand that some problems required more than diplomacy to solve."
"You are right," she agreed. Reaching into her purse, she rummaged through, pulling out a worn-out business card.
"Here."
He raised an eyebrow at the card.
Madame Lena's Self-Control Classes. Master Yourself for a Better Future.
"My sister had anger problems too. We sent her to these classes. They really helped. Just in case you consider it," she said, holding her hands up.
"Thanks," he said, pocketing the card. Maybe he would give it a chance.
"How is military life going now?" He had seen the news but wanted to hear it from her.
She smiled, leaning back to stretch, slouching in the chair comfortably. "The best it ever was. Without having to worry that a rupture might pop out any second, life has been great."
"You are welcome."
"So, the royal academy. Are you a noble or something?" She knew only the nobles and the royalty were allowed to join the academy. Unless you had rich parents willing to buy a place for you.
"Or something. I never cared about my status and never brought it up." The number of people who knew he was a prince was low. Those who could recognize him now, even less.
"You must have graduated at the top of your class," she said. School should be easy for the man who had created technological wonders only found in fiction.
Provided he didn't quit because it was a waste of time for him.
"I left the academy before my final year. It was a waste of time, and I managed to secure funds for my research. I would have left earlier but my parents threatened to cut my funding if I did not graduate."
She chuckled, shaking her head when Thairon raised an eyebrow.
"I noticed you never really talk about your parents." He had already met her mother, but she didn't even hear the names of his parents.
His lips tightened, his nose wrinkling faintly. "My mother had grand designs. Each of her sons would play a part. I was never interested in her games, and we had a falling out. It was a mess."
"The irreparable kind?" Rather, sometimes repairing a relationship wasn't worth the cost.
"They held the research funding over my head for years. I am not going to forgive or forget that. They are unlikely to give up their ambitions, and I will never play ball with them."
"Boy, that's tough. I had my mother at least."
Both fell silent, turning their attention to the food. Her idea of a breakfast was lavish. Puffy pan breads, cheeses, jams, two different kinds of eggs, and even a light broth.
He was about to comment on her tastes when his bracelet and her phone rang at the same time. They read the notifications, heads snapping up to gaze at each other. They turned to the tree in the middle of the ten-floor mall, rising from the ground to the top.
A rupture was about to open in two minutes, right in front of the all-golden tree.
Tomoe sprang to her feet. She slammed a fist on the fire alert. All the movement in the mall ceased for a moment before the people ran for the exits.
"I thought your system was supposed to warn us days in advance," she whispered, standing at a corner, away from the flood of civilians.
"This rupture isn't opening from the other side, but from our own," he explained.
She blinked twice, remembering his words on how ruptures were formed. "There is no energy burst."
"There is. The fractures broke into a higher dimension. It's bleeding a constant stream of zero-point energy into the rupture."
"How the heck did that happen?"
"No idea," he said, going through the readings his satellites took. It was impossible for a fracture to reach into higher dimensions without an outside influence.
"Damn it. I don't even have a weapon on me."
"I do, but we have greater problems. If that fracture isn't closed, the rupture won't close either. It will keep growing forever."
Her eyes widened. Even with their rudimentary understanding of the ruptures, one staying open and growing forever was the end-of-the-world kind of an event. "Can you close it?"
"Yes," he said. Nax was already blanketing the cameras. Once everyone was out, he would bring in the Gravity Lance to force shut the fracture into the higher dimension.
"Here it comes," she muttered, seeing the fabric of space begin to shatter. Thairon's bracelet flashed. Two silver bands, one with a blue line and the other with a red line going along its length, appeared. He wrapped them around his other wrist. His body shimmered, and she felt her mind go hazy.
Then, he slapped a bracelet on her wrist, and it passed.
"Your little memory scrambler?"
He nodded. There were still civilians evacuating the mall, and the RIC would be here soon. He did not want to be caught.
His bracelet flashed again, dropping a rotary gun on his hand that he was quick to hand over to her. She wrapped her hand around the trigger handle on the top of the weapon, marveling at how light it was.
The fracture came, forming faster than the last time she had witnessed it in Hatsuzumi. What would arrive through, if something ever would? She had no choice but to wait to see. She raised the weapon, fingers on the trigger, left hand reaching for the forward grip.
She drowned out the panicking civilians, waiting for any sign of a hostile arrival. Her heart hammered in her chest. The anticipation kept building. She thought the other side might be empty but did not drop her guard.
It proved to be the correct choice.
An APC-sized bug strolled out. She raised the rotary gun, inspecting each part of the creature in quick order. Small, column-like legs covered by thick, green carapace connected to a smooth body layered with more carapace.
Its head was relatively small, making it a difficult target. Two antennas, two red, bleary eyes, and two holes where a human's nose would be. She waited to see if it would attack. Not every non-human was some mindless monster that would attack on sight.
This one was, apparently. It reared up with an ear-scratching screech and charged at her.
She pulled the trigger without hesitation. The barrels whirled to a blur, and the monster's body ceased to exist. The bright, white-blue bolts incinerated the carapace, cooking the flesh until it burst like a bubble. Green, steaming viscera splattered over a wide area, leaving behind only the legs.
She blinked, blindsided by the ease with which the weapon destroyed the monster.
A swarm followed.
Bugs with sizes ranging from critters to the APC-sized behemoths surged out of the rupture. She had not taken her hand off from the trigger. The firepower pushed the tide back hard. The initial part of the swarm had only managed to leave the rupture due to the sheer number of bodies.
Alarmed by the rupture and the monsters, the citizens evacuated the mall in record time. She was glad for all those emergency exits.
The dome overhead, which allowed sunlight to reach the golden tree, was broken. Robots flew down, carrying a device that matched the largest bugs to crawl out of the rupture. They landed on her flank, away but still in full view of the rupture.
Thairon stood before the machine, fingers dancing on the holographic screen. The square machine, which had two prongs at the top pointing at the gate, whirled to life.
She kept firing, locked on the rupture. The human-sized robots pulled the weapons strapped to their backs and joined her.
"Hey, the weapon fire is turning purple." Purple hues began to snap into existence inside the power source. Just the same, the stream of bolts that looked like a single beam exuded a slight purple color.
"The plasma is getting hotter. It's just extra firepower; nothing to worry about."
"Great," she muttered, waiting for the device to do its job.
The rupture suddenly bent inwards at the edges. As Thairon had predicted, the rupture widened to three times its size in an instant. The concentrated fire split into three lines to cover the increase in enemy numbers.
"How long?"
"Two minutes."
"The rupture will widen again in that time," she warned. She had counted less than two minutes into the incursion when it expanded. If the rupture grew three times once more, they could be overrun before the machine was ready. The bugs were already pushing further ahead.
They needed more firepower.
Her worries were answered with three more robots dropping from the ceiling, each carrying two rotary guns.
She wished it were this simple all the time.
The whining sound from the machine became more high-pitched each second until she could not hear it anymore. Only the sound of the rotating barrels and the dying grunts of the bugs were heard.
One minute fifty-two seconds later, the rupture increased in size again. The firepower split once more to cover the widening front line. However, the rupture did not stabilize momentarily like it had before. The edges kept growing, forcing the robots to cover more area. It gave the bugs the chance to move the front line closer to them.
Seconds later, the prongs fired a transparent beam at the rupture. The crumbling fabric of space froze and began to shrink at a slow but steady pace.
Done with the machine, Thairon pulled a shotgun. The wide, square barrel fired a plasma screen that grew in size, turning waves of bugs to ash with a flash.
"Having fun?" he shouted over the sound of the weapon fire.
"Having fun?!" she repeated back with more fire than what she was hitting the bugs with.
"Yes."
She took a deep breath, realizing she was actually enjoying the moment. "I am."
"I could marry you for these weapons, you know," she shouted back, smiling for the first time as she faced a rupture.
His snort could barely be heard through all the noise. "That is incredibly shallow."
"I don't know. I think it is a pretty good reason. You can give me an arsenal of these as a dowry." She might not have chosen military life out of duty, but it had grown on her. It excited her once the action and the danger were over and she realized she had survived.
Except when it was too much and she had a nervous breakdown.
"You guys still practice dowry in Hatsuzumi?"
"Not really." It was an outdated tradition that no one took seriously anymore. Even the nobles had all but abandoned the idea.
Her weapon died out suddenly, the blue, cylindrical part in the middle running empty. Thairon threw the shotgun to her and brought out another weapon from who knows where. It was larger, built like a rocket launcher. He fired three globes back to back. It created kill zones on the ground, melting the bugs as they walked over the white, liquid hazard.
"When is it going to shut down?" she asked. The RIC would be here any minute. Explaining the situation with Thairon here would be all the more difficult.
"It is about to. Just keep firing."
True to his words, once the rupture had shrunk to its first size, it snapped shut. The fabric of reality bisected the bugs mid-transit, leaving half the corpses in the middle of the mall, and the rear half on whatever hellish planet they crawled out of.
She turned to Thairon. "Quick, you have to leave. RIC Quick Response Force will be here any second. I'll handle the mess, just go," she said, not even giving him the time to answer.
Thairon nodded after a second, retrieving his weapons. Two robots held the device from the sides, taking off, followed by the rest. One of them wrapped around him, flying him out of the dome.
He was gone in seconds, only leaving behind corpses.
She heard the footsteps before Silene's voice called to her. "Tomoe?"
The QRF spread, surrounding the corpses lying over steaming green sludge.
"Did you do all of this?" she asked, trailing off at the end. The smell of rotten eggs assaulted her nostrils, and she was quick to tighten her mask.
"I had help," she admitted, thinking about how to get out of this situation.
"From who?"
"Would you believe me if I said I can't remember?"
Silene blinked repeatedly.
Chapter 20 - Hero or Fraud
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Samael61
I trust you know where the happy button is?
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Meltral
RIC Central Base
She laid her head on the table, waiting. Not only was her day off ruined, she was ordered to report to the Internal Security Bureau first thing in the morning.
The captain meant to question her regarding the sudden rupture in the mall that had yet to come. The dimly lit room was meant to make the person being questioned nervous.
All because of the appearance of the vigilante, who was either the mind behind the Early Rupture Warning System or worked with him.
Thairon had already sent her a summary of how he manipulated the camera recordings. It gave her a clear idea on what to say.
The door slammed open while she was in deep thoughts.
She rose from her seat, standing at attention. Interrogator or not, the man before her was her superior in rank.
"Lieutenant, I am Captain Sajyor; take a seat."
"Neat" would be the perfect word to describe him. Sunglasses, a dark beret, a uniform without so much as a wrinkle, and a cold visage.
The perfect soldier.
He sat down, removing his glasses, laying a file on the table. She waited while Sajyor went through the pages, glancing at her with pale-blue eyes every now and then. An officer like
"Yes sir."
"An excellent service record. Praised by her superiors for her work ethic, she is noted to be extremely capable in all duties assigned to her. He definitely would have read the file before coming in. Unless it was a last-second order, he already knew everything in those pages.
"Lieutenant Tomoe Nishimura. Mother is the High Priestess of the Temple of the Gates, Yumiko Nishimura; Father is not recorded. She was the top of her class at North Star Military Academy. Immediately applied for the RIC upon graduation," he recited her past, taking a moment to breathe.
"Also known as the Dragonslayer due to her heroic, or as some others would say, suicidal, assault on neutralizing the creature that appeared out of a rupture in the middle of Hatsuzumi," he continued, watching her for any reaction.
Her face was blank as the cover of her file, a talent honed in the very academy he had mentioned.
"How did you survive that battle, lieutenant? The sole recording we have puts you extremely close to the explosion," he said.
She had already explained her situation, attributing her survival to pure luck.
"The creature destabilized the crane on a nearby construction site. The hook brought it down into a building. I am not an expert, but I believe much of the explosion was absorbed and directed away from me," she said. Officially, the lack of recordings in the area was attributed to the dragon, but Internal Security likely had an inkling the vigilante was at play.
They must be suspecting that she was in cohorts with him.
"You also did not report this event to your superiors."
"Yes sir. I did not want the attention that would come from it."
"What made you choose the mall yesterday, lieutenant?"
"It is a regular place I visit on leave, sir. I was having a breakfast date."
"Yes, this person," he said, pulling out a blurry image of Thairon sitting on the table with her. "The camera resolution is horrible, but he seems far older than you."
"We are the same age, sir. He has albinism, hence the hair," she said. The captain's job was to be suspicious of everything regarding her. Her going on a date with a far older man could be seen as a cover for any illegal dealing.
Sayjor nodded, holding a hand out for her to continue. "Please recount everything following the moment you received a rupture warning."
She did as ordered.
She was in the middle of her date when the warning came. She immediately activated the fire alarm to force the civilians to evacuate. Her date had tried to help, but she sent him away as he was a civilian too.
She took position to watch the rupture, ready to report if anything came through it. That was when their mystery savior appeared. She remembered his voice and words, but not his appearance. The strange lack of selective memories identified the person as the Aurum City's vigilante.
The vigilante had claimed the rupture was formed due to an extraordinary situation and would not shut down by itself. He had brought in a device, one that she described perfectly, and robots that had fought with them.
The rupture had broken out right at the indicated time.
She described how a bug, similar in size to the Tolya APCs used by the RIC, charged out. The vigilante had weapons with him, ones that fired blue-white beams. The advanced rotary gun handed to her had torn through the bugs with frightening ease.
The vigilante had also warned her that the rupture would grow, and true to his words, it had tripled in size twice at regular intervals. His device had worked while they pushed the bugs back, closing the rupture in quick order.
"What are your thoughts on this vigilante, lieutenant? At least with what you can remember."
"I had a two-minute warning. He arrived in one. Either he has a more advanced system, or he was really quick to act. I believe it is the latter," she said.
He leaned back, smiling at her reasoning. "Why do you believe that?"
"He doesn't want to be known and only acted because this was not something we could not handle. In fact, with how fast he was, I wouldn't be surprised if he were actually from Meltral," she said. The last part was something she had just thought of.
It would lead the bureau in the wrong direction if they decided to take it.
Sajyor wrote something down in his notebook before speaking again. "What was the reasoning behind you agreeing to cooperate with him?"
"I did not have a firearm on me at that moment. As an officer in the RIC, it was my job to monitor the rupture until armed forces arrived. He offered me a weapon in case anything came through. I accepted because in my experience, hostiles appear more often than not."
"Your decision proved to be correct. The preliminary autopsy on the remains of the bugs shows their chitin is highly resistant to kinetic force."
"Once the rupture was closed, he took the weapon back and left. I did not have the means to stop or delay him." From their point of view, trying to stop Thairon would be impossible for her.
"Most of your account of the events is already confirmed through witnesses. While the video recordings are tampered with, your actions are evident. Once again, you have displayed what it means to be a member of the Intervention Corps. Thank you, lieutenant," he said, holding his open hand to her.
Tomoe shook it, her strained smile failing to hide her true feelings. She was dismissed quickly, with the reward that her leave had been extended to a full week.
She left the room after the captain, closing the door behind her, but didn't turn around. She didn't want to face the applause from her superiors and subordinates. However, she could not escape from it and eventually faced the music.
She hated this.
—
Escaping from everyone who wished to congratulate her was impossible. Not because she couldn't, but because the general specifically held a small speech praising her heroic efforts.
Claiming that it was all possible due to the vigilante's technology was seen as too modest.
Even before their mysterious savior appeared, she was willing to risk her life.
She had to shake hands with everyone and listen to their words of encouragement for an hour. Finally allowed to leave, she was quick to reach home, throwing herself on the bed. Pressing the call button, she waited.
"Hey, how did it go?" he asked. To her surprise, he too was lying down. Whenever they talked in the morning, he was always in his lab, working on something.
"I am a bloody hero again."
"You don't seem happy about it."
"This is just going to bring more attention to me." She threw her head back, groaning.
"I could have gotten you out of there."
"I knew at least a dozen people in that mall, people who saw me hit the fire alarm. I would have been seen as a coward if I left. Arguably a worse fate."
"Changing the subject, any chance you are, I don't know, a trouble magnet? One rupture is just bad luck. Two is not." She preferred not to bring her work to her personal life.
Thairon hung his head down, exhaling. "This one was my fault in a way."
"Oh?"
"Let's just say it is a side effect of my superior physiology. It caused the fracture," he said. He didn't really want to explain how the temporal radiation in his cells had caused a split-second time loop, just as a micro rupture appeared.
The result was a fracture reaching to a higher dimension and a catastrophe.
"I am working to fix it now, so I won't be available for the next week."
"They just gave me a week off for my heroic deed," she said, her voice dry.
Now it was Thairon's turn to groan.
"I might be able to pull something off, but no promises."
"Don't force yourself. I certainly wouldn't want another," she stopped, tilting her head to face the ceiling, searching for the correct word, "action-filled ending to our date."
"Neither do I. I'll let you know how it goes. By the way, I am sending you a bracelet for teleportation. You can travel as you want."
"Wow, thank you."
—
Hatsuzumi
Temple of the Gates
While her date was busy, she made full use of the teleporter. Her first destination was home. Her mother was quick to fuss over her. She assured her that everything was fine.
Of course her mother was not the type to leave it be.
"Mom, this isn't really necessary," she complained.
"Of course it is," the older woman said, stirring the pot. Her mouth watered with the aroma of the stew. It was her favorite dish but a complicated one to make. She did not want her mother to go through all the trouble.
It made her feel like a fraud.
"You know I didn't do much. I'd have no choice but to run if it weren't for Thairon."
"Good."
"What do you mean, good?"
"It means that you would have lived."
"Then what are we celebrating?"
"We are celebrating because you returned home safely."
She beamed and she threw her arms around her mother. Yumiko patted her daughter's arm with one hand, the other still stirring.
"At least let me help," she said, reaching for the ladle. Her mother disagreed, batting her hand away. "Working in a celebration prepared for you? No."
"I want to celebrate something else too."
Her mother raised a single eyebrow. "Which is?"
"Having a great mother like you."
She covered her lips with the back of her hand, bursting out in laughter. "Alright, you can help, but only this once."
"Start with the salad."
"On it."
"How is Mitsuki doing?" she asked, chopping the tomatoes and the red figs.
"You can call and ask."
Her knife stopped for a moment. "I did. She won't answer."
"I think it is high time we tell her the truth. We delayed it for so long, but now that she has been away for years and most people forgot her, it is time," Yumiko said. Her youngest deserved to know their complicated situation and the reason why she was willing to send her to the Module Hunters.
Tomoe chuckled bitterly. "She would kill him."
"You aren't giving her enough credit."
"It's not that. If she learns I left for so long because of him, she wouldn't stop at anything." The days they had spent just the two of them were the happiest moments of their lives. Even as a child, Mitsuki knew how to hold grudges.
There would be blood this time.
"All this time, and you still know your sister so well," her mother said, kissing her on the forehead.
"How did your date go before the whole matter with the rupture?"
"Good. We learned a bit more about each other. He has family issues too, on both sides no less."
—
Once the small, private feast was ready, mother and daughter sat down. Yumiko turned the TV on so they would have a background noise as they ate.
Though, the image of Tomoe on the screen erased that idea.
What You Don't See, the nighttime analysis show of Larian Jutal, the young but prodigious host, was talking about the Dragonslayer.
"Lieutenant Tomoe Nishimura, the sole daughter of perhaps the most peace-loving woman on the planet, is a proud member of the RIC," Larian began, fixing his glasses. His cold demeanor and neatly combed hair made him a favorite of many girls. His ability to convince the public of his theories made him everyone's.
He also had excellent resources because there was no other way for him to know this much.
Her service record, the sole recording of her actions against the dragon, and, of course, the bugs. The vigilante's verified involvement in Meltral and a possible involvement in Hatsuzumi, combined with a mysterious gift of an early warning system to the RIC, made Larian ask on-point questions.
"Let's say the dragon rupture was an accident. Let's accept that Lieutenant Tomoe's heroic action killed the dragon, and she survived by luck," he said, displaying the image of her jumping out of the truck.
"What are the chances she finds herself near a brand new kind of rupture, one that has the potential to destroy the world, while on a date?" he continued, bringing up the video recording of her, standing against a wave of bugs with the robots by her side.
"Suddenly, the man believed to be Aurum City's Vigilante, or as the pleased citizens call him, the Reaper, appears just a minute before the rupture breaks open while the early warning system, which detected the previous rupture more than three days in advance, only gave a two-minute warning."
A silhouette of a male appeared with a question mark on it. That at least made her smile viciously.
"Experts in surveillance and biology believe the use of a highly advanced technology managed to not only tamper with the memories of the citizens but also erase the vigilante from all cameras."
"What do you know? All cameras connected to the network within the vicinity of the dragon rupture were out of commission."
"Here is the question of the night: Is the heroic lieutenant simply unfortunate enough to encounter two highly dangerous ruptures on her days off, or is there something more going on?"
"This is what you don't see, and I am Larian Jutal. Thank you for your time, and I hope to see you all tomorrow."
"Son of a bitch," she cursed, turning the TV off. He was asking all the right questions but, thankfully, would never have the evidence to prove any of them.
"Tomoe Nishimura," her mother's stern voice broke the silence like a hammer through a glass window.
She bowed her head, hiding her slightly reddening cheeks. "Sorry."
RIC Central Base
She laid her head on the table, waiting. Not only was her day off ruined, she was ordered to report to the Internal Security Bureau first thing in the morning.
The captain meant to question her regarding the sudden rupture in the mall that had yet to come. The dimly lit room was meant to make the person being questioned nervous.
All because of the appearance of the vigilante, who was either the mind behind the Early Rupture Warning System or worked with him.
Thairon had already sent her a summary of how he manipulated the camera recordings. It gave her a clear idea on what to say.
The door slammed open while she was in deep thoughts.
She rose from her seat, standing at attention. Interrogator or not, the man before her was her superior in rank.
"Lieutenant, I am Captain Sajyor; take a seat."
"Neat" would be the perfect word to describe him. Sunglasses, a dark beret, a uniform without so much as a wrinkle, and a cold visage.
The perfect soldier.
He sat down, removing his glasses, laying a file on the table. She waited while Sajyor went through the pages, glancing at her with pale-blue eyes every now and then. An officer like
"Yes sir."
"An excellent service record. Praised by her superiors for her work ethic, she is noted to be extremely capable in all duties assigned to her. He definitely would have read the file before coming in. Unless it was a last-second order, he already knew everything in those pages.
"Lieutenant Tomoe Nishimura. Mother is the High Priestess of the Temple of the Gates, Yumiko Nishimura; Father is not recorded. She was the top of her class at North Star Military Academy. Immediately applied for the RIC upon graduation," he recited her past, taking a moment to breathe.
"Also known as the Dragonslayer due to her heroic, or as some others would say, suicidal, assault on neutralizing the creature that appeared out of a rupture in the middle of Hatsuzumi," he continued, watching her for any reaction.
Her face was blank as the cover of her file, a talent honed in the very academy he had mentioned.
"How did you survive that battle, lieutenant? The sole recording we have puts you extremely close to the explosion," he said.
She had already explained her situation, attributing her survival to pure luck.
"The creature destabilized the crane on a nearby construction site. The hook brought it down into a building. I am not an expert, but I believe much of the explosion was absorbed and directed away from me," she said. Officially, the lack of recordings in the area was attributed to the dragon, but Internal Security likely had an inkling the vigilante was at play.
They must be suspecting that she was in cohorts with him.
"You also did not report this event to your superiors."
"Yes sir. I did not want the attention that would come from it."
"What made you choose the mall yesterday, lieutenant?"
"It is a regular place I visit on leave, sir. I was having a breakfast date."
"Yes, this person," he said, pulling out a blurry image of Thairon sitting on the table with her. "The camera resolution is horrible, but he seems far older than you."
"We are the same age, sir. He has albinism, hence the hair," she said. The captain's job was to be suspicious of everything regarding her. Her going on a date with a far older man could be seen as a cover for any illegal dealing.
Sayjor nodded, holding a hand out for her to continue. "Please recount everything following the moment you received a rupture warning."
She did as ordered.
She was in the middle of her date when the warning came. She immediately activated the fire alarm to force the civilians to evacuate. Her date had tried to help, but she sent him away as he was a civilian too.
She took position to watch the rupture, ready to report if anything came through it. That was when their mystery savior appeared. She remembered his voice and words, but not his appearance. The strange lack of selective memories identified the person as the Aurum City's vigilante.
The vigilante had claimed the rupture was formed due to an extraordinary situation and would not shut down by itself. He had brought in a device, one that she described perfectly, and robots that had fought with them.
The rupture had broken out right at the indicated time.
She described how a bug, similar in size to the Tolya APCs used by the RIC, charged out. The vigilante had weapons with him, ones that fired blue-white beams. The advanced rotary gun handed to her had torn through the bugs with frightening ease.
The vigilante had also warned her that the rupture would grow, and true to his words, it had tripled in size twice at regular intervals. His device had worked while they pushed the bugs back, closing the rupture in quick order.
"What are your thoughts on this vigilante, lieutenant? At least with what you can remember."
"I had a two-minute warning. He arrived in one. Either he has a more advanced system, or he was really quick to act. I believe it is the latter," she said.
He leaned back, smiling at her reasoning. "Why do you believe that?"
"He doesn't want to be known and only acted because this was not something we could not handle. In fact, with how fast he was, I wouldn't be surprised if he were actually from Meltral," she said. The last part was something she had just thought of.
It would lead the bureau in the wrong direction if they decided to take it.
Sajyor wrote something down in his notebook before speaking again. "What was the reasoning behind you agreeing to cooperate with him?"
"I did not have a firearm on me at that moment. As an officer in the RIC, it was my job to monitor the rupture until armed forces arrived. He offered me a weapon in case anything came through. I accepted because in my experience, hostiles appear more often than not."
"Your decision proved to be correct. The preliminary autopsy on the remains of the bugs shows their chitin is highly resistant to kinetic force."
"Once the rupture was closed, he took the weapon back and left. I did not have the means to stop or delay him." From their point of view, trying to stop Thairon would be impossible for her.
"Most of your account of the events is already confirmed through witnesses. While the video recordings are tampered with, your actions are evident. Once again, you have displayed what it means to be a member of the Intervention Corps. Thank you, lieutenant," he said, holding his open hand to her.
Tomoe shook it, her strained smile failing to hide her true feelings. She was dismissed quickly, with the reward that her leave had been extended to a full week.
She left the room after the captain, closing the door behind her, but didn't turn around. She didn't want to face the applause from her superiors and subordinates. However, she could not escape from it and eventually faced the music.
She hated this.
—
Escaping from everyone who wished to congratulate her was impossible. Not because she couldn't, but because the general specifically held a small speech praising her heroic efforts.
Claiming that it was all possible due to the vigilante's technology was seen as too modest.
Even before their mysterious savior appeared, she was willing to risk her life.
She had to shake hands with everyone and listen to their words of encouragement for an hour. Finally allowed to leave, she was quick to reach home, throwing herself on the bed. Pressing the call button, she waited.
"Hey, how did it go?" he asked. To her surprise, he too was lying down. Whenever they talked in the morning, he was always in his lab, working on something.
"I am a bloody hero again."
"You don't seem happy about it."
"This is just going to bring more attention to me." She threw her head back, groaning.
"I could have gotten you out of there."
"I knew at least a dozen people in that mall, people who saw me hit the fire alarm. I would have been seen as a coward if I left. Arguably a worse fate."
"Changing the subject, any chance you are, I don't know, a trouble magnet? One rupture is just bad luck. Two is not." She preferred not to bring her work to her personal life.
Thairon hung his head down, exhaling. "This one was my fault in a way."
"Oh?"
"Let's just say it is a side effect of my superior physiology. It caused the fracture," he said. He didn't really want to explain how the temporal radiation in his cells had caused a split-second time loop, just as a micro rupture appeared.
The result was a fracture reaching to a higher dimension and a catastrophe.
"I am working to fix it now, so I won't be available for the next week."
"They just gave me a week off for my heroic deed," she said, her voice dry.
Now it was Thairon's turn to groan.
"I might be able to pull something off, but no promises."
"Don't force yourself. I certainly wouldn't want another," she stopped, tilting her head to face the ceiling, searching for the correct word, "action-filled ending to our date."
"Neither do I. I'll let you know how it goes. By the way, I am sending you a bracelet for teleportation. You can travel as you want."
"Wow, thank you."
—
Hatsuzumi
Temple of the Gates
While her date was busy, she made full use of the teleporter. Her first destination was home. Her mother was quick to fuss over her. She assured her that everything was fine.
Of course her mother was not the type to leave it be.
"Mom, this isn't really necessary," she complained.
"Of course it is," the older woman said, stirring the pot. Her mouth watered with the aroma of the stew. It was her favorite dish but a complicated one to make. She did not want her mother to go through all the trouble.
It made her feel like a fraud.
"You know I didn't do much. I'd have no choice but to run if it weren't for Thairon."
"Good."
"What do you mean, good?"
"It means that you would have lived."
"Then what are we celebrating?"
"We are celebrating because you returned home safely."
She beamed and she threw her arms around her mother. Yumiko patted her daughter's arm with one hand, the other still stirring.
"At least let me help," she said, reaching for the ladle. Her mother disagreed, batting her hand away. "Working in a celebration prepared for you? No."
"I want to celebrate something else too."
Her mother raised a single eyebrow. "Which is?"
"Having a great mother like you."
She covered her lips with the back of her hand, bursting out in laughter. "Alright, you can help, but only this once."
"Start with the salad."
"On it."
"How is Mitsuki doing?" she asked, chopping the tomatoes and the red figs.
"You can call and ask."
Her knife stopped for a moment. "I did. She won't answer."
"I think it is high time we tell her the truth. We delayed it for so long, but now that she has been away for years and most people forgot her, it is time," Yumiko said. Her youngest deserved to know their complicated situation and the reason why she was willing to send her to the Module Hunters.
Tomoe chuckled bitterly. "She would kill him."
"You aren't giving her enough credit."
"It's not that. If she learns I left for so long because of him, she wouldn't stop at anything." The days they had spent just the two of them were the happiest moments of their lives. Even as a child, Mitsuki knew how to hold grudges.
There would be blood this time.
"All this time, and you still know your sister so well," her mother said, kissing her on the forehead.
"How did your date go before the whole matter with the rupture?"
"Good. We learned a bit more about each other. He has family issues too, on both sides no less."
—
Once the small, private feast was ready, mother and daughter sat down. Yumiko turned the TV on so they would have a background noise as they ate.
Though, the image of Tomoe on the screen erased that idea.
What You Don't See, the nighttime analysis show of Larian Jutal, the young but prodigious host, was talking about the Dragonslayer.
"Lieutenant Tomoe Nishimura, the sole daughter of perhaps the most peace-loving woman on the planet, is a proud member of the RIC," Larian began, fixing his glasses. His cold demeanor and neatly combed hair made him a favorite of many girls. His ability to convince the public of his theories made him everyone's.
He also had excellent resources because there was no other way for him to know this much.
Her service record, the sole recording of her actions against the dragon, and, of course, the bugs. The vigilante's verified involvement in Meltral and a possible involvement in Hatsuzumi, combined with a mysterious gift of an early warning system to the RIC, made Larian ask on-point questions.
"Let's say the dragon rupture was an accident. Let's accept that Lieutenant Tomoe's heroic action killed the dragon, and she survived by luck," he said, displaying the image of her jumping out of the truck.
"What are the chances she finds herself near a brand new kind of rupture, one that has the potential to destroy the world, while on a date?" he continued, bringing up the video recording of her, standing against a wave of bugs with the robots by her side.
"Suddenly, the man believed to be Aurum City's Vigilante, or as the pleased citizens call him, the Reaper, appears just a minute before the rupture breaks open while the early warning system, which detected the previous rupture more than three days in advance, only gave a two-minute warning."
A silhouette of a male appeared with a question mark on it. That at least made her smile viciously.
"Experts in surveillance and biology believe the use of a highly advanced technology managed to not only tamper with the memories of the citizens but also erase the vigilante from all cameras."
"What do you know? All cameras connected to the network within the vicinity of the dragon rupture were out of commission."
"Here is the question of the night: Is the heroic lieutenant simply unfortunate enough to encounter two highly dangerous ruptures on her days off, or is there something more going on?"
"This is what you don't see, and I am Larian Jutal. Thank you for your time, and I hope to see you all tomorrow."
"Son of a bitch," she cursed, turning the TV off. He was asking all the right questions but, thankfully, would never have the evidence to prove any of them.
"Tomoe Nishimura," her mother's stern voice broke the silence like a hammer through a glass window.
She bowed her head, hiding her slightly reddening cheeks. "Sorry."
Chapter 21 - Difficulties of Parenthood
New
Samael61
I trust you know where the happy button is?
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Glassport
Thairon stretched his arms and legs, whistling a merry tune.
"What got you so happy, bro?" Kael asked, throwing a hand over his shoulder.
"The last four days were great," he said. Once his body was in the tank and Nax finished the robotic body, he was free to meet Tomoe. The days blended into desert breaks in cafes, trying new dishes, an entire day spent in an amusement park, and just talking. It was mundane but made him feel better than ever.
No ruptures and no scientific discoveries to worry about, the four days they spent together were great.
"Good for you. By the way, I have a question. Can we get cosmetic changes like yours? I was thinking about red hair, but blood red," Skyler asked, gesturing to his shiny chrome.
"Edge lord!" Kael screamed, bringing his hands near his lips.
Skyler pushed him away. "Shut up."
"Sure," he shrugged, turning to Kael. "You want something too?" Cosmetic changes were simple.
"Please. You can't improve upon perfection," he said, posing with his hands on his waist. Had he not been shaved bald, he certainly would have cut a handsome figure.
Seeing his brothers' dry looks, he dropped his arms. "But I too have a question.
"Go on." Thairon rolled his hand.
"You know I am popular with the ladies. If I accidentally get someone pregnant, not that I don't ever use protection, is there going to be a superpowered baby?"
Thairon blinked repeatedly and slapped his face. The modifications were genetically passable. If there was even the slightest of accidents, they would have to contend with a superpowered child. The second the sperm met the egg, it too would be in temporal stasis, making it nigh-indestructible.
"Shit."
Kael snorted, putting a hand on Thairon's shoulder. "Don't worry, bro, I understand."
"You do?" he asked, wondering what exactly he thought he understood.
"Yeah. I mean, your girlfriend is basically the lab. I get it that sex wouldn't be in your mind."
Thairon took a deep breath and slapped the back of Kael's head. It only caused the prankster to howl, unbothered by the pain.
"What now? Is it off until you figure out a way?" Skyler asked. Kael's popularity with the opposite sex was well known.
Thairon rubbed his temples, kicking the still-laughing Kael on the knee. "Unless you take the nanobots, yes. They'll keep your urges in check so no accidents happen. At least until I devise a solution."
It was a stopgap measure until a more internalized prevention method existed.
"Ah man. Not fair," Kael grumbled, realizing he just dug his own grave.
Skyler stuck his tongue out. "You shouldn't have opened your mouth then." Kael responded by trying to get him in a headlock. Skyler caught his younger brother's hands, and they began to push back and forth.
Thairon pulled them away by the ears, ignoring their cries.
"What will it be? Delay it or go with the nanobots?" he asked, letting go.
Kael rubbed his ear, pursing his lips. "Eh, I don't know how the ladies will survive without me, but sure, let's go."
"Me too," Skyler said, content with a resolute nod.
"Great, take off your clothes and stand in the tank. It will take a week; there is no going back, and just like me, your brain and neural system will be transformed into pure, living energy. "Any questions?" he asked as a last-minute check.
"Nope," Kael muttered, having already taken his clothes off while he was speaking. He rushed to the tank, jumping up and down. Skyler's excitement was less visible. He entered the tank as well, taking his time to steel his nerves.
"Ready?"
They nodded at the same time.
"Proceed," he thought. The top of the tanks split aside, allowing two robotic arms with masks at the end to move down. They automatically latched onto Skyler's and Kael's faces, putting them to sleep while keeping them standing.
Their eyelids dropped, shoulders slouched, knees bent, and finally, heads fell forward. The second phase started immediately. Another arm came down from the hole, carrying helmets. The arms placed the helmets on their heads.
On the inner surface, hundreds of tendrils emerged, thinner than the naked eye could see. They bore through the skull, directly connecting to the brain as he watched from the screen.
Once every tendril was in place, the robotic arm lit up. A slow flow of energy glowed through the blue, transparent lining of the arm. It reached the silver-colored headpiece and, with the tendrils, the brain.
Skyler's and Kael's eyes snapped open, and their slackened bodies went rigid. Their eyes glowed with a radiant blue energy. Each nerve on their body lit up at the same time, creating an eerie sight.
The energy flow cranked up to full power slowly.
The glowing neurons intensified, each one slowly burning away. The brain was the first one to go. The water, fats, proteins, and other particles broke down into electrons, creating a self-contained energy cluster as the tendrils guided the process.
Once the entire neurological system was replaced, the brand-new cognition signs spiked. Without flesh, the anesthetic had no way to keep his brothers numbed to the process.
The helmet retracted, allowing a third arm to extract the consciousness, transporting it to the simulated training room. It was a last-minute idea. During the week their bodies were genetically modified, Skyler and Kael would get a taste of what their new abilities could do. When they were out, they would have a place to start from.
"Man, what the heck? This is so trippy."
"Feels like I've been locked inside a box my whole life and only came out now," Skyler said, his voice quiet.
"The feeling is temporary."
"Get ready," he said. Digital replicas of their bodies covered both as a white, endless plane stretched beneath their feet.
"Nax will guide you through the training. Enjoy."
Kael shrieked with glee, and he had to turn the voice down. His attention turned to the bodies in the tank as the modification process began. The green nutrient-rich liquid flowed into the tanks first while the surge of nanobots kept the organs functioning. The stasis beams activated next, bringing all bodily functions to a full stop.
The nanobots began their work, and all he could do now was to let the process continue.
—
"How do we do this? " he asked, going through the stretching moves. Which were entirely useless here but helped him think clearer.
"I am going to simulate what your powers can do. How it works, what happens when they work, and so on. However, as it is only simulated, you won't get the feeling of what it's like to use them. This is just to give you an idea of what your capabilities are."
"Alright, got it. Can we start with speed first?"
"As you wish."
The white platform contorted first before stretching into an entire city, an exact copy of Retrol, the industrial heart of the Kingdom. The gray, lifeless skyscrapers and the smoke in the distance were impossible to miss.
On the opposite side of the street, his apartment rested on a second floor, one of the few buildings that carried color.
Before him stretched the central road that divided the city into two, bereft of all vehicles.
"What now?"
"Just run; I'll handle everything else."
He took position and, with a deep, simulated breath, ran. The buildings, the people, everything blurred together into a single, undecipherable mural. Next thing he knew, he was in the middle of a forest with a small screen to his left displaying a number.
1034 kilometers.
"How long did that take?"
"A little less than five seconds."
"Holy crap," he muttered, unblinking eyes gazing at the numbers. It was all simulated, he knew, but the reality of what he was about to be capable of slowly began to sink.
"Now, you saw the red energy around you, right? What it does is to accelerate you to hyperspeeds by partially moving you to a different dimension where the physics work differently," Nax explained.
Now that he mentioned it, Skyler did see a tint of red in the blurring landscape.
"In that dimension, the more energy you use, the faster you become. It also stops the nastier side effects from affecting our world."
"What kind of side effects?" he asked. His environment changed without a prompt, bringing him back to the starting point.
"Run again."
"Alright," he muttered, taking position before bolting forward. In five seconds that certainly didn't feel that long, he found himself even further than he was before.
"Look back," Nax said. Skyler turned around, taking a step back as his heart skipped a beat. "What the…" he said, falling silent. A line of destruction was carved, stretching from the finish point back into the city. Entire city blocks and industrial encampments were smashed into rubble. Even from this distance the raging fires could be seen.
The city looked like a warzone.
"Simple physics. Eighty kilograms moving at around two hundred kilometers per second means your each step goes off like a small tactical nuke."
"Unless your purpose is to cause destruction, don't move out of the dimension while running."
"Got it," he squeaked out, shuddering at his intrusive thoughts.
Controlling gravity was simpler. The particles his body would create would grant him the ability to manipulate the gravitational curvature. Once he mastered it, he could fly, manipulate gravity to his will, and find countless other uses.
The idea made him want to squeal like a child.
—
"Alright, Nax old chap, how do we do this?" Kael asked with a light voice, throwing random jabs.
"Aren't you just excited?" Nax asked, creating a platform beneath him.
"Heck yes."
"I assume you want to work on the whole dimensional abilities first?"
Kael nodded, his head bobbing up and down with a smile.
"Let's start with how to teleport then," Nax said. A waypoint appeared ten meters in front of Kael, a triangle moving up and down over a circle.
"Dimensional manipulation is a broad term, as will be your limits. The only restriction will be your control and imagination," he explained, simulating a standard piece of paper in front of Kael's eyes.
"Now, imagine the platform you are on as a paper. When you bend two ends of it until they touch, they actually occupy the same space."
As he explained, the paper folded in half, and a dot appeared near the edge, glowing on both sides.
"Meaning I can teleport," he summarized.
"Exactly."
Kael, pulling on his previous experiences, imagined the space that the waypoint was on folding like the paper example. The bobbing triangle moved towards him, something he knew only he would perceive in real life.
When he was inside the circle, the triangle disappeared, and he stood ten meters ahead of where he used to be.
"The real deal won't be this slow, but the visualization will make it easier for you."
He grinned, disappearing from his spot as Nax read his intent. He appeared high in the sky, starting to fall before appearing back on the ground again. It wasn't this easy with his Displacer Module and certainly wouldn't be with the even cooler-sounding Continuum Strand, but he would enjoy it as much as he could.
He had an entire week all to himself.
—
While his brothers trained, he pondered.
A foolproof, genetic solution to the issue Kael had inadvertently brought to his attention was necessary. One that didn't inhibit sexual desires but controlled them.
Any DNA sample that left the body would self-destruct to prevent it from falling into someone's hands. Sperms were an exemption to that rule. Irritating as it was to admit, he had always kept his sexual desires at the back of his mind. The idea of children or leaving his genetic material during sex had never crossed his mind.
Something Kael would never be permitted to learn.
Another issue was the development of a possible child. The mother would need to undergo genetic modification as well, at least just with the temporal stasis part. His X chromosome was modified to carry the Bioelectricity Segment, and would be ready for any future post-human capabilities he might include. The Y segment, poor in size and genes, only carried the Temporal Segment.
Boys would only have the temporal stasis, while girls would possess the powers without a proper energy source.
His eyes widened, realizing the solution.
One half of the mother's X chromosome would carry the temporal segment, while the other half would carry the powers. That way any possible children would have both pieces of the puzzle.
It also presented the solution to his original problem.
Every lock needed a key. Since the females had more genes to modify, he could give them the key without the need to remake an entire chromosome.
Now he just had to work on it.
—
Thermion
Moonrise Palace
"Nothing once more, Director?" Octavian asked, fingers interlaced under his chin.
The man shook his head, avoiding eye contact. "Unfortunately not, Your Grace. We have exhausted all possible sources. There is nothing tying Prince Thairon to the vigilante nor the mind behind the early warning system."
"Dismissed," he said, ending the call before even waiting for the man's bow.
It was so frustrating to be unable to prove what he knew to be a fact.
"Anything from Skyler and Kael?" he asked his wife.
"Kael was fired from his job. Apparently someone heard the whole mess with the table might have something to do with him."
He shrugged. "Nothing proving it was Thairon?" Their phones were being tapped for any intelligence that might prove Thairon's involvement. So far, there was nothing.
His wife shook her head, causing the stray strands poking out of her intricately braided hair to sway. "No, but there is something else. Skyler left his little protest group, claiming he had something personal to do for the next two weeks, while Kael is nowhere to be seen as well."
"You think he could be doing something?" It could be anything, even a coincidence, yet their inability to obtain even the smallest of hints grated on his nerves.
"Those two disappearing at the same time? Of course he is doing something. We just can't prove it."
"Again," Octavian muttered, groaning, something he was only allowed in private settings.
—
On the other side of the continent, a middle-aged man read the latest, comprehensive report on the rupture that had broken out in Meltral. He stroked his beard, a small smile on his face, one that reached his eyes, as the details painted a vivid picture. There was only so much he could learn from watching the battle records.
Of what the humble hero of the RIC was thinking.
He considered arranging a reward for her, one beyond the RIC's purview, but dismissed the idea quickly.
Tomoe was more likely to spit on it.
Thairon stretched his arms and legs, whistling a merry tune.
"What got you so happy, bro?" Kael asked, throwing a hand over his shoulder.
"The last four days were great," he said. Once his body was in the tank and Nax finished the robotic body, he was free to meet Tomoe. The days blended into desert breaks in cafes, trying new dishes, an entire day spent in an amusement park, and just talking. It was mundane but made him feel better than ever.
No ruptures and no scientific discoveries to worry about, the four days they spent together were great.
"Good for you. By the way, I have a question. Can we get cosmetic changes like yours? I was thinking about red hair, but blood red," Skyler asked, gesturing to his shiny chrome.
"Edge lord!" Kael screamed, bringing his hands near his lips.
Skyler pushed him away. "Shut up."
"Sure," he shrugged, turning to Kael. "You want something too?" Cosmetic changes were simple.
"Please. You can't improve upon perfection," he said, posing with his hands on his waist. Had he not been shaved bald, he certainly would have cut a handsome figure.
Seeing his brothers' dry looks, he dropped his arms. "But I too have a question.
"Go on." Thairon rolled his hand.
"You know I am popular with the ladies. If I accidentally get someone pregnant, not that I don't ever use protection, is there going to be a superpowered baby?"
Thairon blinked repeatedly and slapped his face. The modifications were genetically passable. If there was even the slightest of accidents, they would have to contend with a superpowered child. The second the sperm met the egg, it too would be in temporal stasis, making it nigh-indestructible.
"Shit."
Kael snorted, putting a hand on Thairon's shoulder. "Don't worry, bro, I understand."
"You do?" he asked, wondering what exactly he thought he understood.
"Yeah. I mean, your girlfriend is basically the lab. I get it that sex wouldn't be in your mind."
Thairon took a deep breath and slapped the back of Kael's head. It only caused the prankster to howl, unbothered by the pain.
"What now? Is it off until you figure out a way?" Skyler asked. Kael's popularity with the opposite sex was well known.
Thairon rubbed his temples, kicking the still-laughing Kael on the knee. "Unless you take the nanobots, yes. They'll keep your urges in check so no accidents happen. At least until I devise a solution."
It was a stopgap measure until a more internalized prevention method existed.
"Ah man. Not fair," Kael grumbled, realizing he just dug his own grave.
Skyler stuck his tongue out. "You shouldn't have opened your mouth then." Kael responded by trying to get him in a headlock. Skyler caught his younger brother's hands, and they began to push back and forth.
Thairon pulled them away by the ears, ignoring their cries.
"What will it be? Delay it or go with the nanobots?" he asked, letting go.
Kael rubbed his ear, pursing his lips. "Eh, I don't know how the ladies will survive without me, but sure, let's go."
"Me too," Skyler said, content with a resolute nod.
"Great, take off your clothes and stand in the tank. It will take a week; there is no going back, and just like me, your brain and neural system will be transformed into pure, living energy. "Any questions?" he asked as a last-minute check.
"Nope," Kael muttered, having already taken his clothes off while he was speaking. He rushed to the tank, jumping up and down. Skyler's excitement was less visible. He entered the tank as well, taking his time to steel his nerves.
"Ready?"
They nodded at the same time.
"Proceed," he thought. The top of the tanks split aside, allowing two robotic arms with masks at the end to move down. They automatically latched onto Skyler's and Kael's faces, putting them to sleep while keeping them standing.
Their eyelids dropped, shoulders slouched, knees bent, and finally, heads fell forward. The second phase started immediately. Another arm came down from the hole, carrying helmets. The arms placed the helmets on their heads.
On the inner surface, hundreds of tendrils emerged, thinner than the naked eye could see. They bore through the skull, directly connecting to the brain as he watched from the screen.
Once every tendril was in place, the robotic arm lit up. A slow flow of energy glowed through the blue, transparent lining of the arm. It reached the silver-colored headpiece and, with the tendrils, the brain.
Skyler's and Kael's eyes snapped open, and their slackened bodies went rigid. Their eyes glowed with a radiant blue energy. Each nerve on their body lit up at the same time, creating an eerie sight.
The energy flow cranked up to full power slowly.
The glowing neurons intensified, each one slowly burning away. The brain was the first one to go. The water, fats, proteins, and other particles broke down into electrons, creating a self-contained energy cluster as the tendrils guided the process.
Once the entire neurological system was replaced, the brand-new cognition signs spiked. Without flesh, the anesthetic had no way to keep his brothers numbed to the process.
The helmet retracted, allowing a third arm to extract the consciousness, transporting it to the simulated training room. It was a last-minute idea. During the week their bodies were genetically modified, Skyler and Kael would get a taste of what their new abilities could do. When they were out, they would have a place to start from.
"Man, what the heck? This is so trippy."
"Feels like I've been locked inside a box my whole life and only came out now," Skyler said, his voice quiet.
"The feeling is temporary."
"Get ready," he said. Digital replicas of their bodies covered both as a white, endless plane stretched beneath their feet.
"Nax will guide you through the training. Enjoy."
Kael shrieked with glee, and he had to turn the voice down. His attention turned to the bodies in the tank as the modification process began. The green nutrient-rich liquid flowed into the tanks first while the surge of nanobots kept the organs functioning. The stasis beams activated next, bringing all bodily functions to a full stop.
The nanobots began their work, and all he could do now was to let the process continue.
—
"How do we do this? " he asked, going through the stretching moves. Which were entirely useless here but helped him think clearer.
"I am going to simulate what your powers can do. How it works, what happens when they work, and so on. However, as it is only simulated, you won't get the feeling of what it's like to use them. This is just to give you an idea of what your capabilities are."
"Alright, got it. Can we start with speed first?"
"As you wish."
The white platform contorted first before stretching into an entire city, an exact copy of Retrol, the industrial heart of the Kingdom. The gray, lifeless skyscrapers and the smoke in the distance were impossible to miss.
On the opposite side of the street, his apartment rested on a second floor, one of the few buildings that carried color.
Before him stretched the central road that divided the city into two, bereft of all vehicles.
"What now?"
"Just run; I'll handle everything else."
He took position and, with a deep, simulated breath, ran. The buildings, the people, everything blurred together into a single, undecipherable mural. Next thing he knew, he was in the middle of a forest with a small screen to his left displaying a number.
1034 kilometers.
"How long did that take?"
"A little less than five seconds."
"Holy crap," he muttered, unblinking eyes gazing at the numbers. It was all simulated, he knew, but the reality of what he was about to be capable of slowly began to sink.
"Now, you saw the red energy around you, right? What it does is to accelerate you to hyperspeeds by partially moving you to a different dimension where the physics work differently," Nax explained.
Now that he mentioned it, Skyler did see a tint of red in the blurring landscape.
"In that dimension, the more energy you use, the faster you become. It also stops the nastier side effects from affecting our world."
"What kind of side effects?" he asked. His environment changed without a prompt, bringing him back to the starting point.
"Run again."
"Alright," he muttered, taking position before bolting forward. In five seconds that certainly didn't feel that long, he found himself even further than he was before.
"Look back," Nax said. Skyler turned around, taking a step back as his heart skipped a beat. "What the…" he said, falling silent. A line of destruction was carved, stretching from the finish point back into the city. Entire city blocks and industrial encampments were smashed into rubble. Even from this distance the raging fires could be seen.
The city looked like a warzone.
"Simple physics. Eighty kilograms moving at around two hundred kilometers per second means your each step goes off like a small tactical nuke."
"Unless your purpose is to cause destruction, don't move out of the dimension while running."
"Got it," he squeaked out, shuddering at his intrusive thoughts.
Controlling gravity was simpler. The particles his body would create would grant him the ability to manipulate the gravitational curvature. Once he mastered it, he could fly, manipulate gravity to his will, and find countless other uses.
The idea made him want to squeal like a child.
—
"Alright, Nax old chap, how do we do this?" Kael asked with a light voice, throwing random jabs.
"Aren't you just excited?" Nax asked, creating a platform beneath him.
"Heck yes."
"I assume you want to work on the whole dimensional abilities first?"
Kael nodded, his head bobbing up and down with a smile.
"Let's start with how to teleport then," Nax said. A waypoint appeared ten meters in front of Kael, a triangle moving up and down over a circle.
"Dimensional manipulation is a broad term, as will be your limits. The only restriction will be your control and imagination," he explained, simulating a standard piece of paper in front of Kael's eyes.
"Now, imagine the platform you are on as a paper. When you bend two ends of it until they touch, they actually occupy the same space."
As he explained, the paper folded in half, and a dot appeared near the edge, glowing on both sides.
"Meaning I can teleport," he summarized.
"Exactly."
Kael, pulling on his previous experiences, imagined the space that the waypoint was on folding like the paper example. The bobbing triangle moved towards him, something he knew only he would perceive in real life.
When he was inside the circle, the triangle disappeared, and he stood ten meters ahead of where he used to be.
"The real deal won't be this slow, but the visualization will make it easier for you."
He grinned, disappearing from his spot as Nax read his intent. He appeared high in the sky, starting to fall before appearing back on the ground again. It wasn't this easy with his Displacer Module and certainly wouldn't be with the even cooler-sounding Continuum Strand, but he would enjoy it as much as he could.
He had an entire week all to himself.
—
While his brothers trained, he pondered.
A foolproof, genetic solution to the issue Kael had inadvertently brought to his attention was necessary. One that didn't inhibit sexual desires but controlled them.
Any DNA sample that left the body would self-destruct to prevent it from falling into someone's hands. Sperms were an exemption to that rule. Irritating as it was to admit, he had always kept his sexual desires at the back of his mind. The idea of children or leaving his genetic material during sex had never crossed his mind.
Something Kael would never be permitted to learn.
Another issue was the development of a possible child. The mother would need to undergo genetic modification as well, at least just with the temporal stasis part. His X chromosome was modified to carry the Bioelectricity Segment, and would be ready for any future post-human capabilities he might include. The Y segment, poor in size and genes, only carried the Temporal Segment.
Boys would only have the temporal stasis, while girls would possess the powers without a proper energy source.
His eyes widened, realizing the solution.
One half of the mother's X chromosome would carry the temporal segment, while the other half would carry the powers. That way any possible children would have both pieces of the puzzle.
It also presented the solution to his original problem.
Every lock needed a key. Since the females had more genes to modify, he could give them the key without the need to remake an entire chromosome.
Now he just had to work on it.
—
Thermion
Moonrise Palace
"Nothing once more, Director?" Octavian asked, fingers interlaced under his chin.
The man shook his head, avoiding eye contact. "Unfortunately not, Your Grace. We have exhausted all possible sources. There is nothing tying Prince Thairon to the vigilante nor the mind behind the early warning system."
"Dismissed," he said, ending the call before even waiting for the man's bow.
It was so frustrating to be unable to prove what he knew to be a fact.
"Anything from Skyler and Kael?" he asked his wife.
"Kael was fired from his job. Apparently someone heard the whole mess with the table might have something to do with him."
He shrugged. "Nothing proving it was Thairon?" Their phones were being tapped for any intelligence that might prove Thairon's involvement. So far, there was nothing.
His wife shook her head, causing the stray strands poking out of her intricately braided hair to sway. "No, but there is something else. Skyler left his little protest group, claiming he had something personal to do for the next two weeks, while Kael is nowhere to be seen as well."
"You think he could be doing something?" It could be anything, even a coincidence, yet their inability to obtain even the smallest of hints grated on his nerves.
"Those two disappearing at the same time? Of course he is doing something. We just can't prove it."
"Again," Octavian muttered, groaning, something he was only allowed in private settings.
—
On the other side of the continent, a middle-aged man read the latest, comprehensive report on the rupture that had broken out in Meltral. He stroked his beard, a small smile on his face, one that reached his eyes, as the details painted a vivid picture. There was only so much he could learn from watching the battle records.
Of what the humble hero of the RIC was thinking.
He considered arranging a reward for her, one beyond the RIC's purview, but dismissed the idea quickly.
Tomoe was more likely to spit on it.
Chapter 22 - Rise
New
Samael61
I trust you know where the happy button is?
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Glassport
Skyler stumbled out of the tank, falling on his knees, taking deep breaths. Kael was next to him, lying on his back.
"Holy…" he breathed out. His mind was too cluttered, and he didn't have the capacity to curse.
"Yeah," Kael muttered, laying his forearm on his forehead. His chest began to roll silently. Thairon ordered a scan, rolling his eyes at the results.
Kael's laughter became clear now.
It wasn't loud, far from it. The slow, steady rumbling of his chest was almost menacing. Not in the way that he might go off the rails and leave a trail of bodies behind, but by the time he was done, people were going to question their sanity.
He was out to have fun.
Skyler looked more at peace in comparison. He knew his purpose was different, more selfless. All the same, he trusted both of them to be responsible.
"Alright you two, go and shower," he ordered.
"Don't need to tell me twice," Skyler muttered, pushing himself up with a hand. He stumbled like a child learning how to walk but continued forward, more careful with each step. Kael was the same.
Though, he chuckled the entire way.
—
Skyler shuddered as the hot water washed over him. Having his body back after a week of being inside a computer was relieving.
He snorted.
He just realized how ridiculous his life had become. Uttering that sentence didn't feel out of the ordinary, not for more than a few seconds. He raised his hand, watching the water pool on his palm. Nax had said controlling his powers would require work in the real world.
His hand glowed red.
The pooling water began to bubble, turning to steam. He focused on the glow, imagining it spreading to his whole body. He realized it had worked when the sound of the running water dulled. The droplets slowed to a crawl, hanging in the air. The steam froze, becoming a thick, permanent layer blocking his sight.
He blinked.
Tentatively, he raised a hand, poking one of the droplets. It burst apart, moving with speed exceeding everything else in his vision. He dispersed the glow, and the droplets continued to fall.
He chuckled, clenching his hand into a fist.
—
The water did not touch him.
It flowed like there was an invisible layer over his body. He raised his hand through the stream, watching the water bend away. He stopped concentrating, and the hot water finally touched his skin.
He marveled at how instinctive it felt, as if he had a limb that he wasn't aware of and suddenly could move it.
Kael turned his attention to the rack holding the shampoo, soap, and the scrubber. It was within arm's reach, but that wouldn't be fun. As Nax had drilled on his skull for the last week, imagination was the key. So he imagined.
He spread his fingers as the mental image started to come to reality. It started as a small, fluctuating distortion. It began to open, or rather, the fabric of space at two different points bent, occupying the same location. He reached through the small portal, barely squeezing his hand through. He awkwardly grabbed the bottle and pulled it.
It wasn't worth the effort. He had spent far more energy by opening the portal. Yet the electric feeling that spread through his hand to his heart was intoxicating. The difficulties that came with the Displacer Module were absent.
The capabilities that coursed through his cells?
Indescribable.
—
"Eat slowly; you are not starving," Thairon said, squinting his eyes.
Kael swallowed, feeling the food get stuck in his throat. He washed it down with a glass of water. "I want to be training, not eating," he muttered, abandoning all basic table manners. Skyler was eating fast too, just not enough to warrant a warning.
"Done," he said, slamming the empty bowl on the table. Thairon's lips curled at the display.
He gritted his teeth, taking a deep breath. "You... ugh, just go."
—
The training room was the newest addition to the complex. The bots had dug the room far away from the rest of the structure.
"Nice," Skyler said, spinning around to get a good look. The entire place was white and metallic, and unlike the rest, the walls, floor, and ceiling were smooth. The gaps that existed between the panels were absent. It created the illusion that the room was going on forever.
A section of the floor in the middle of the room parted. Two human-shaped dummies rose up. Floating cubes with holographic target rings separated from the walls and the ceiling. Finally, a transparent forcefield split the room into two.
"Go ahead," he said, patting both of his brothers on the shoulders.
Kael rushed ahead, and his improved speed had him colliding with the dummy. Skyler pointed a finger at him, laughing. He was more careful in his approach, strolling up to the dummy.
Thairon walked into the control room overlooking the area to watch their performance.
—
Training Log 02.09.785
Day 3 of Training
Skyler's control over gravity is progressing smoothly. He can cause local disturbances where gravity fluctuates. He can't exert full control over whether the gravity decreases or increases, but he will get there. His speed requires an open field to reveal its full potential. Still, he can reach thousands of kilometers per second fast within the training room, a fraction of his potential.
Kael chose to leave the illusionary part of his abilities for later. He is fully committed to perfecting his control over space first. His time with the Module Hunters, short as it was, certainly had a part in this decision. He can open small portals, enough for his limbs to go through. His work on phasing into different dimensions to become intangible is more difficult, but he is relentless.
I am searching for a desolate planet through the ruptures to use as a training ground.
—
Training Log 09.09.785
Day 10 of Training
Skyler figured out how to control which way the fluctuations tip. He can consciously increase or decrease gravity in locations he wants. He also managed to affect the gravity of objects and people. He managed to reverse the curve sharp enough to flatten a dummy on the ceiling. His speed reached six thousand kilometers per second, fast enough to travel around the planet in exactly seven minutes. I am searching for a suitable location to open a controlled rupture so he can let loose.
Kael has been traveling everywhere with portals. When he is not traveling, he is busy pranking us by popping through the walls, the ground, and the ceiling. He also figured out a nasty little offensive move, tearing several dummies to pieces. He even considered returning to Zele Island to prank the Module Hunters. He decided against it to not open old wounds. We also began to see things we should not, such as ghosts, arachnids, and reptiles. As he recently started on his illusionary abilities, I warned him to take his pranks elsewhere.
I managed to find a suitable planet at last.
—
Unknown Planet - Designation: Training Ground
"This is fucking awesome!" Kael said, screaming the last word out, throwing his hands in the air. He took a deep breath, screaming out another "yeah." There were two moons in the sky, one shattered to a dozen large pieces, clearly visible in the purple night sky.
Everything else was just a barren wasteland.
Skyler took his phone, snapping photos with the twin moons in the background.
"The atmosphere is breathable, and there is nothing alive. Feel free to let loose."
As soon as he stopped speaking, there was a red blur. Skyler went through a boulder, smashing it to dust and pebbles. He continued to accelerate, leaving his vision in the blink of an eye. Each step he took went off like a small nuclear weapon, carving a trench of craters.
He thankfully had the sense to put distance between them before causing such destruction.
He saw the grin on Kael's face and returned through the rupture.
—
The rocky landscape before him was reduced to nothing. He felt the barest moments of resistance. Then the kinetic energy he produced turned rock to dust, caused earthquakes, and burned the air.
He kept increasing his speed, setting his sights on a mountain. Gritting his teeth, his next step launched him forward even faster. He passed the mountain, eyes burning blood red. He remembered all the times he was too powerless to do anything. His protests were useless to improve anything or to make the government hear their voices.
The miners of the Shöne Coal Mine were buried because he was too weak to convince anyone to bring the safety up to standards.
He passed by the mountain again.
All those people in positions of power only cared for themselves. The people were either too numbed or tired to change anything. He would make those changes by force and blood if he had to.
His mind went into overdrive, working to adapt and absorb all he was seeing, to manage his new accelerated state.
He changed directions, going straight for the mountain. His struggles, his many failures, and limited successes flashed before his eyes. He remembered the crying families of the miners, the textile workers left without jobs and months of salary gone unpaid, and, of course, the starving slums.
If no one was willing to do anything, then he would.
He screamed his frustrations, rearing his right arm back. Mid-step, his world returned to normal, all the energy he accumulated crystallizing on his fist.
He struck, releasing the energy forward.
The rock at the point of impact turned to plasma for tens of meters. It caved into a multikilometer crater, sending violent shockwaves that caused the mountain to break along its faultlines like a beast rearing to attack. The atmosphere was lit for kilometers, creating a massive fireball. Debris weighing hundreds of tons was violently ejected to the stratosphere, creating a stunning parodical visual of a meteor shower.
The dust cloud rose so high he couldn't see the end.
Then it got worse. The mountain began to collapse, creating a continental landslide, threatening to bury him beneath it.
He screamed again, digging his spread-out fingers into the ground. An invisible wave washed over the crumbling mountain. The loose rocks, each weighing tens of thousands of tons, were forced to stop. They floated in the air for a moment.
He raised his hands, slow and deliberate.
The debris began to rise with his command. The gravitational curvature did a full reverse, pushing rather than pulling. The starry night sky, already blocked by the dust, was completely darkened by the enormous debris.
He burst out laughing, eyes wide and a bloodthirsty grin on his face.
—
Kael landed on a shattered piece of the moon.
He didn't need a suit, nor did he need to breathe.
He slammed his fist into the dead piece of rock, visualizing what exactly he wanted to happen. The rock pulsated, growing in size for a moment before it began to shrink. Phantasmal images were left behind, quickly disappearing.
He held the piece, one that was the size of a metropolitan city mere moments ago, in the palm of his hand. It looked like a triangle bent forward, and no one would ever believe its true size.
He grinned, rearing his arm back to throw it with all his strength at another piece. It flew through the void towards another piece. Once sufficiently away, he snapped his fingers, returning it to its original size.
The result was epic.
The moon itself was small, the biggest piece being the one he just threw. It smashed into a piece almost as big, both shattering into much smaller parts. The shockwave pushed the remaining debris away, sending several towards the planet.
He was sent flying back, spinning through the vacuum. He focused, folding dimensions until they were too thick for him to pass through. He came to a sudden stop, setting his eyes on the other moon. He opened a portal to its surface, pushing himself forward, using the folded dimensions as a spring board.
He landed on it, kicking up the silica dust covering the entire stellar object.
He struck again, hands outstretched, fingers together as a knife, piercing through the rock. He felt the height, width, and length, forcing them to shrink. The mass of the atoms, mostly stored as energy, was offloaded into subatomic dimensions while the shrunken three dimensions held the remaining atoms together by compressing them.
The moon, exactly three thousand nine hundred ninety-three point two kilometers in circumference by his senses, stood in his hand, shrunken to the size of a handball.
He wanted to curse and gloat, but there was no air.
He couldn't throw the moon to the planet since it still needed it. However, nothing stopped him from doing it to another planet. The distance, measured in light minutes, folded like the wings of a paper fan in his perspective. It took his entire strength to keep focusing in all directions to find the closest planet.
When he folded one part, another section would be undone, and he had no idea how long it took, lost in the euphoria of the struggle.
He finally found what he was seeking. Opening a portal to light minutes away was difficult since most he had done was planetary travel.
It was all the sweeter when he finally managed to open the portal. He threw the ball through, returning its mass and releasing the shrunken dimensions. The moon, too close to the barren world for the gravity to break it apart, hit the planet like a celestial wrecking ball.
All he saw before the flash of light blinded him was the planet trembling.
He returned back to the training ground just to let out the emotions bubbling inside him.
—
When all was said and done, they sat down, far away from the destruction.
They looked at each other with empty gazes, waiting for anything to disturb the silence. Kael cleared his throat, coughing out a globe of silica dust covered in saliva. It would have torn open microlacerations in the lungs of a normal person.
It did nothing to him.
Skyler chuckled. Once he was clear-minded enough to think, he realized how ridiculous this situation was. Two weeks ago, he was just a human. Today, he destroyed an entire mountain and wrecked the surface of a planet.
The more he thought, the more he began to lose control, and the more his soft huffs turned into high-pitched cackles.
Kael began to laugh too. He didn't know why. Perhaps it was because he had just caused destruction on a scale no module would ever be capable of or because he too found the situation too ridiculous to believe. He didn't care to think enough, doubling over and laughing in uncontrollable waves.
Skyler stumbled out of the tank, falling on his knees, taking deep breaths. Kael was next to him, lying on his back.
"Holy…" he breathed out. His mind was too cluttered, and he didn't have the capacity to curse.
"Yeah," Kael muttered, laying his forearm on his forehead. His chest began to roll silently. Thairon ordered a scan, rolling his eyes at the results.
Kael's laughter became clear now.
It wasn't loud, far from it. The slow, steady rumbling of his chest was almost menacing. Not in the way that he might go off the rails and leave a trail of bodies behind, but by the time he was done, people were going to question their sanity.
He was out to have fun.
Skyler looked more at peace in comparison. He knew his purpose was different, more selfless. All the same, he trusted both of them to be responsible.
"Alright you two, go and shower," he ordered.
"Don't need to tell me twice," Skyler muttered, pushing himself up with a hand. He stumbled like a child learning how to walk but continued forward, more careful with each step. Kael was the same.
Though, he chuckled the entire way.
—
Skyler shuddered as the hot water washed over him. Having his body back after a week of being inside a computer was relieving.
He snorted.
He just realized how ridiculous his life had become. Uttering that sentence didn't feel out of the ordinary, not for more than a few seconds. He raised his hand, watching the water pool on his palm. Nax had said controlling his powers would require work in the real world.
His hand glowed red.
The pooling water began to bubble, turning to steam. He focused on the glow, imagining it spreading to his whole body. He realized it had worked when the sound of the running water dulled. The droplets slowed to a crawl, hanging in the air. The steam froze, becoming a thick, permanent layer blocking his sight.
He blinked.
Tentatively, he raised a hand, poking one of the droplets. It burst apart, moving with speed exceeding everything else in his vision. He dispersed the glow, and the droplets continued to fall.
He chuckled, clenching his hand into a fist.
—
The water did not touch him.
It flowed like there was an invisible layer over his body. He raised his hand through the stream, watching the water bend away. He stopped concentrating, and the hot water finally touched his skin.
He marveled at how instinctive it felt, as if he had a limb that he wasn't aware of and suddenly could move it.
Kael turned his attention to the rack holding the shampoo, soap, and the scrubber. It was within arm's reach, but that wouldn't be fun. As Nax had drilled on his skull for the last week, imagination was the key. So he imagined.
He spread his fingers as the mental image started to come to reality. It started as a small, fluctuating distortion. It began to open, or rather, the fabric of space at two different points bent, occupying the same location. He reached through the small portal, barely squeezing his hand through. He awkwardly grabbed the bottle and pulled it.
It wasn't worth the effort. He had spent far more energy by opening the portal. Yet the electric feeling that spread through his hand to his heart was intoxicating. The difficulties that came with the Displacer Module were absent.
The capabilities that coursed through his cells?
Indescribable.
—
"Eat slowly; you are not starving," Thairon said, squinting his eyes.
Kael swallowed, feeling the food get stuck in his throat. He washed it down with a glass of water. "I want to be training, not eating," he muttered, abandoning all basic table manners. Skyler was eating fast too, just not enough to warrant a warning.
"Done," he said, slamming the empty bowl on the table. Thairon's lips curled at the display.
He gritted his teeth, taking a deep breath. "You... ugh, just go."
—
The training room was the newest addition to the complex. The bots had dug the room far away from the rest of the structure.
"Nice," Skyler said, spinning around to get a good look. The entire place was white and metallic, and unlike the rest, the walls, floor, and ceiling were smooth. The gaps that existed between the panels were absent. It created the illusion that the room was going on forever.
A section of the floor in the middle of the room parted. Two human-shaped dummies rose up. Floating cubes with holographic target rings separated from the walls and the ceiling. Finally, a transparent forcefield split the room into two.
"Go ahead," he said, patting both of his brothers on the shoulders.
Kael rushed ahead, and his improved speed had him colliding with the dummy. Skyler pointed a finger at him, laughing. He was more careful in his approach, strolling up to the dummy.
Thairon walked into the control room overlooking the area to watch their performance.
—
Training Log 02.09.785
Day 3 of Training
Skyler's control over gravity is progressing smoothly. He can cause local disturbances where gravity fluctuates. He can't exert full control over whether the gravity decreases or increases, but he will get there. His speed requires an open field to reveal its full potential. Still, he can reach thousands of kilometers per second fast within the training room, a fraction of his potential.
Kael chose to leave the illusionary part of his abilities for later. He is fully committed to perfecting his control over space first. His time with the Module Hunters, short as it was, certainly had a part in this decision. He can open small portals, enough for his limbs to go through. His work on phasing into different dimensions to become intangible is more difficult, but he is relentless.
I am searching for a desolate planet through the ruptures to use as a training ground.
—
Training Log 09.09.785
Day 10 of Training
Skyler figured out how to control which way the fluctuations tip. He can consciously increase or decrease gravity in locations he wants. He also managed to affect the gravity of objects and people. He managed to reverse the curve sharp enough to flatten a dummy on the ceiling. His speed reached six thousand kilometers per second, fast enough to travel around the planet in exactly seven minutes. I am searching for a suitable location to open a controlled rupture so he can let loose.
Kael has been traveling everywhere with portals. When he is not traveling, he is busy pranking us by popping through the walls, the ground, and the ceiling. He also figured out a nasty little offensive move, tearing several dummies to pieces. He even considered returning to Zele Island to prank the Module Hunters. He decided against it to not open old wounds. We also began to see things we should not, such as ghosts, arachnids, and reptiles. As he recently started on his illusionary abilities, I warned him to take his pranks elsewhere.
I managed to find a suitable planet at last.
—
Unknown Planet - Designation: Training Ground
"This is fucking awesome!" Kael said, screaming the last word out, throwing his hands in the air. He took a deep breath, screaming out another "yeah." There were two moons in the sky, one shattered to a dozen large pieces, clearly visible in the purple night sky.
Everything else was just a barren wasteland.
Skyler took his phone, snapping photos with the twin moons in the background.
"The atmosphere is breathable, and there is nothing alive. Feel free to let loose."
As soon as he stopped speaking, there was a red blur. Skyler went through a boulder, smashing it to dust and pebbles. He continued to accelerate, leaving his vision in the blink of an eye. Each step he took went off like a small nuclear weapon, carving a trench of craters.
He thankfully had the sense to put distance between them before causing such destruction.
He saw the grin on Kael's face and returned through the rupture.
—
The rocky landscape before him was reduced to nothing. He felt the barest moments of resistance. Then the kinetic energy he produced turned rock to dust, caused earthquakes, and burned the air.
He kept increasing his speed, setting his sights on a mountain. Gritting his teeth, his next step launched him forward even faster. He passed the mountain, eyes burning blood red. He remembered all the times he was too powerless to do anything. His protests were useless to improve anything or to make the government hear their voices.
The miners of the Shöne Coal Mine were buried because he was too weak to convince anyone to bring the safety up to standards.
He passed by the mountain again.
All those people in positions of power only cared for themselves. The people were either too numbed or tired to change anything. He would make those changes by force and blood if he had to.
His mind went into overdrive, working to adapt and absorb all he was seeing, to manage his new accelerated state.
He changed directions, going straight for the mountain. His struggles, his many failures, and limited successes flashed before his eyes. He remembered the crying families of the miners, the textile workers left without jobs and months of salary gone unpaid, and, of course, the starving slums.
If no one was willing to do anything, then he would.
He screamed his frustrations, rearing his right arm back. Mid-step, his world returned to normal, all the energy he accumulated crystallizing on his fist.
He struck, releasing the energy forward.
The rock at the point of impact turned to plasma for tens of meters. It caved into a multikilometer crater, sending violent shockwaves that caused the mountain to break along its faultlines like a beast rearing to attack. The atmosphere was lit for kilometers, creating a massive fireball. Debris weighing hundreds of tons was violently ejected to the stratosphere, creating a stunning parodical visual of a meteor shower.
The dust cloud rose so high he couldn't see the end.
Then it got worse. The mountain began to collapse, creating a continental landslide, threatening to bury him beneath it.
He screamed again, digging his spread-out fingers into the ground. An invisible wave washed over the crumbling mountain. The loose rocks, each weighing tens of thousands of tons, were forced to stop. They floated in the air for a moment.
He raised his hands, slow and deliberate.
The debris began to rise with his command. The gravitational curvature did a full reverse, pushing rather than pulling. The starry night sky, already blocked by the dust, was completely darkened by the enormous debris.
He burst out laughing, eyes wide and a bloodthirsty grin on his face.
—
Kael landed on a shattered piece of the moon.
He didn't need a suit, nor did he need to breathe.
He slammed his fist into the dead piece of rock, visualizing what exactly he wanted to happen. The rock pulsated, growing in size for a moment before it began to shrink. Phantasmal images were left behind, quickly disappearing.
He held the piece, one that was the size of a metropolitan city mere moments ago, in the palm of his hand. It looked like a triangle bent forward, and no one would ever believe its true size.
He grinned, rearing his arm back to throw it with all his strength at another piece. It flew through the void towards another piece. Once sufficiently away, he snapped his fingers, returning it to its original size.
The result was epic.
The moon itself was small, the biggest piece being the one he just threw. It smashed into a piece almost as big, both shattering into much smaller parts. The shockwave pushed the remaining debris away, sending several towards the planet.
He was sent flying back, spinning through the vacuum. He focused, folding dimensions until they were too thick for him to pass through. He came to a sudden stop, setting his eyes on the other moon. He opened a portal to its surface, pushing himself forward, using the folded dimensions as a spring board.
He landed on it, kicking up the silica dust covering the entire stellar object.
He struck again, hands outstretched, fingers together as a knife, piercing through the rock. He felt the height, width, and length, forcing them to shrink. The mass of the atoms, mostly stored as energy, was offloaded into subatomic dimensions while the shrunken three dimensions held the remaining atoms together by compressing them.
The moon, exactly three thousand nine hundred ninety-three point two kilometers in circumference by his senses, stood in his hand, shrunken to the size of a handball.
He wanted to curse and gloat, but there was no air.
He couldn't throw the moon to the planet since it still needed it. However, nothing stopped him from doing it to another planet. The distance, measured in light minutes, folded like the wings of a paper fan in his perspective. It took his entire strength to keep focusing in all directions to find the closest planet.
When he folded one part, another section would be undone, and he had no idea how long it took, lost in the euphoria of the struggle.
He finally found what he was seeking. Opening a portal to light minutes away was difficult since most he had done was planetary travel.
It was all the sweeter when he finally managed to open the portal. He threw the ball through, returning its mass and releasing the shrunken dimensions. The moon, too close to the barren world for the gravity to break it apart, hit the planet like a celestial wrecking ball.
All he saw before the flash of light blinded him was the planet trembling.
He returned back to the training ground just to let out the emotions bubbling inside him.
—
When all was said and done, they sat down, far away from the destruction.
They looked at each other with empty gazes, waiting for anything to disturb the silence. Kael cleared his throat, coughing out a globe of silica dust covered in saliva. It would have torn open microlacerations in the lungs of a normal person.
It did nothing to him.
Skyler chuckled. Once he was clear-minded enough to think, he realized how ridiculous this situation was. Two weeks ago, he was just a human. Today, he destroyed an entire mountain and wrecked the surface of a planet.
The more he thought, the more he began to lose control, and the more his soft huffs turned into high-pitched cackles.
Kael began to laugh too. He didn't know why. Perhaps it was because he had just caused destruction on a scale no module would ever be capable of or because he too found the situation too ridiculous to believe. He didn't care to think enough, doubling over and laughing in uncontrollable waves.
Chapter 23 - Vengeance
New
Samael61
I trust you know where the happy button is?
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Designation: Training Ground
He set foot on the planet in his power armor. His brothers would be unharmed, but the planet was likely ruined.
He blinked.
They were lying on the ground around a crystal-clear pond, surrounded by greenery, with chirping birds and nice, sunny weather. An impossibility in this arid world. A golden finch flew close. He held his index finger out, and it landed, chirping and preening itself.
"Not bad."
"Thanks," Kael said, straightening up.
"How do you two feel? Know your limits, your capabilities?" After a month, they hopefully had learned enough.
"Yep."
"Come on then."
"Yeah." Sky got up, stretching. "I got me some revenge to take," he said, suddenly beside him, patting his shoulder.
Kael followed, letting the illusion fall apart, exposing the true state of the planet. Thairon nodded slowly at the continental chunks in the orbit and the cooling seas of molten metal.
—
Subterranean Labs
His brothers were in the shower before he even crossed back into the lab seconds after them. The destruction on the planet was within the expected range. Both had a lot to work through; letting loose like this was the perfect way to vent.
If a bit over the top.
"A rupture in Taglion in four days. RIC Central and Carbedon base will respond," Nax reported, which meant one of two things. Either there was an issue or…
"Your girlfriend is going too."
He clicked his tongue. She was being sent to almost every arrival point these days. Still, they were able to meet when time permitted it. "Monitor the situation as always."
He turned his attention to the matter of the genetic lock. Since there was no female DNA to work with yet, he only worked on the male samples. The temporal stasis went into the Y chromosome, while the augmentations were in the X, while he still worked on a definitive solution.
Any female would have both the temporal stasis and the augmentations in each chromosome. Daughters would have both abilities of the parents. The extra temporal stasis gene wouldn't mean much for the boys.
His musings were cut short as his brothers came, a stupid grin plastered on their faces.
"Well, I am done with my studies, for all that they are worth now. Soon as I pack up, I am off to a grand new adventure," Kael said, giddy, eyes shining.
"What about your job?"
Kael put his elbow on Thairon's shoulder, giving him a flat look. "They fired me because someone in the upper management heard that a certain vigilante carved a bloody path through Aurum City because I got hurt."
Skyler crossed his arms, turning his head away with a whistle. "Man, that sucks."
He glared at them. "On the bright side, you can travel freely."
"What about you?" What would his older brother be doing to save the world now?
Sky's right hand curled to a fist, landing on his left palm with a meaty thwack, his teeth showing. "Some people, a lot in fact, need to pay. I am going to collect what they owe to the people," he said, punching his palm.
Kael snorted, and a wave of green washed over Skyler. Suddenly he stood in a full-body dark spandex suit, with a capital V on his chest and a blood-red cape with "vengeance" written on it.
"Ladies and gentlemen, I give you the newest vigilante of our planet, the blood-haired edgelord himself, the Protest Man," Kael announced with heavy, theatrical sarcasm, all in good spirit.
Skyler rolled his eyes. "Really? This is the best you can do?"
He waved his hand, breaking the illusion. "Hey, you are my bro; I am just going easy on you."
"Here, I prepared this for you. It has essentials, warm food, camping supplies, and everything else I could think of."
"Damn, I was trying to make an inventory for myself, but this works until I figure it out."
"As for you, these will be useful to keep your identity secret. This one makes you invisible to all digital tools, and this one makes people forget you after five seconds of no visual contact."
"Alright. I am off to rest and put some affairs in order."
—
Retrol
Skyler returned home, not even taking the teleporter. From Glassport to Retrol, it took him ten seconds to fly.
And he was going slow.
He took his phone, sending a message to his group. Tomorrow, there would be a protest in Solmar, one that he wouldn't be joining because of personal reasons. He ignored the messages, divided between well wishes and complaints. He closed his eyes, remembering the exercise his brother had taught to sleep.
—
Setum 23
The day was a somber one. One hundred and three miners had died due to an accident. The necessary security measures weren't in place. No one important was held responsible beyond a few years in prison. They all had underlings who took the fall for them.
It would end today.
Today, Humanity First would gather in front of Jason Velgrad's mansion. He wouldn't be there, having taken the entire week off to avoid the protests. Skyler wouldn't be there as well. Nax discovered the secret whereabouts of Jason, who had taken his family on a vacation in the Serral Islands.
It was time to pay him a visit.
—
Serral Islands
If paradise existed in the mortal realm, the Serral Islands would be the closest place to it. Its pristine golden beaches or the azure-colored waters in its vicinity weren't what made it unique.
It was the trees.
Supposed to have arrived with a particularly violent rupture, the rainbow trees had a proven to have a psychologically calming effect on people and animals. It even affected the predators on the island.
It was the perfect place to destress, if only for the rich. The island was full at all times, and getting a reservation not only required a lot of cash but also connections.
Jason's vacation was about to turn into a nightmare.
He strolled into the congo the man had rented. Since no one who wasn't supposed to be on the island wasn't there, no one would question why he was there. Not that anyone would remember him.
He looked at the two-story green and white wooden building, cracking his neck. His vision darkened, the birds in the air froze midair, and the single, multicolored leaf blown by the wind stopped in front of his face.
He flew to the balcony, passing by Jason's sunbathing wife. The man in question was dressing, having just come out of the shower, his blonde hair damp.
—
Jason took the new t-shirt he had bought, just about to put it on. When it went down to his head and he could see again, the confines of his room were gone. He screamed as gravity suddenly took hold. His heart dropped, his eyes widened, and he only understood one thing.
He was falling.
"What the fuck?!" he screamed, seeing the quickly approaching clouds. He began to spin, but a firm hand on his shoulder stopped it.
"Hey Jason, how is your vacation so far?" a voice called out, cutting through the deafening wind. There was another man, falling like him, though he did not seem worried, hands tucked behind his head, enjoying the moment.
"What's happening?!" How did he get here? He was just in his room?! What the fuck was happening?
The man tilted his head, eyes glancing down as they fell through the clouds. "Isn't it obvious? You are falling to your death."
Jason screamed again, begging, praying for God to save him. "No, not like this. Please, god, make it a dream. Make this a nightmare that I'll wake up from!"
"I wonder, do you think the miners that died in Shöne were praying to be saved too?" He shook his head, his short, unnaturally red hair reflecting the sun. "Silly question; of course they were. Just as there was no salvation for them, there will be none for you. Unless…"
He left the sentence unfinished, and even in his panicked state, Jason caught up. "I'll give you whatever you want; just make this stop!"
The man's smile was predatory, as if he were a tiger ready to crush his neck with a single bite. "You'll go and reveal everything about the incident. Your part, the lacking security measures, and everyone responsible for all those deaths."
He stared at him in silence as the idea of falling to his death was pushed to the back of his mind. "They'll kill my family."
"Your family will be fine, unlike you. And don't worry, I'll make sure you don't die either, not when you can rot in prison for the rest of your life."
"Hurry up, Jason; the ground is getting closer. I can always force someone else to spill the beans. You'll just end up being a bloody mess on the floor," he said, smiling, while grimacing internally. Wrecking a planet was fine, but the idea of killing a man, even if he was Jason Velgrad, made something squirm in his heart.
"I'll do it! I swear I'll do it. Please just..." he said, becoming incoherent towards the end. He slowly reversed the gravity, stopping Jason midair. "See? That wasn't so hard."
"I'll be watching Jason. One wrong move, I will forget where I dropped you from."
He nodded frantically, sweating and pale like the ghost trees of Zargon, mumbling something that did not exist in any dictionary, and fell on his face.
Sky left the vicinity, whistling. All those years of protests, trying to gather evidence so justice could be served, and yet he had succeeded in less than five minutes. His heart soared, higher than where he could rise.
This felt good, better than good in fact.
—
He wasn't going to trust Jason's words like that. When he passed out on his bed, he left a note on the pillow in case he thought it was a dream. When his wife called him for dinner and he woke up, the first thing he saw was the red sticky paper.
I am watching.
Jason felt his throat dry, and he stumbled out of the room. He washed his face, gazing at the mirror to inspect himself. He wasn't alone in the reflection, the face in his nightmare appearing behind him with a wink. He snapped around, yelping, but saw no one.
"Jason, are you alright?"
"Yeah, just slipped. I am fine."
"Be careful, dear."
—
When he was in the middle of the dinner, his nightmare appeared outside the window in his sight, winking again. He inhaled sharply, coughing as the meatball went into his windpipe.
His wife hit his back, and he coughed it out, bleary eyes locked on the window. The man was gone again.
"Here, drink some water," his wife said, rubbing his back, filling a glass.
—
When his tormentor's face flashed on his face as he opened his eyes, Jason decided it was time to face the music. He flew back to Retrol with the first available flight, leaving his family behind and calling the press for a conference.
—
Retrol
Jason Velgrad always made sure to disappear during the commemoration of the mining accident. No social media trail, no sight at work or anywhere else. Everyone knew he did it on purpose.
Which made the day even more confusing for the citizens and the media. The families of the dead miners were there, as were representatives from Humanity First.
He glanced at the crowd, meeting the eyes of his tormentor. Every time he glanced at the red eyes of his, Jason shuddered, feeling the echoes of the rushing wind on his skin.
"I called you here today," he began, pulling on the collar of his shirt. He stopped for a moment. Familiar faces from the management were there, faces that would end up in prison once he spoke. He considered leaving for a moment.
The piercing gaze numbed his feet.
His lips parted and all hell broke down.
—
Thermion
Moonrise Palace
Octavian watched the minister quiver like a rat before him. "All the responsible parties were punished," you said. "This tragedy would not be left unresolved," you said. Now, look at this mess."
The lacking security measures in Schöne were not only exposed, but the man in charge, Jason Velgrad, had named everyone who embezzled the funds for it, including himself. The prosecution scrambled to act, the people hit the streets, and the industrial production in Retrol had ground to a halt.
Humanity First, their second youngest son's little environmentalist group, was there, though Skyler was absent for some reason.
"Your Grace, I can explain," he said, his bald, shiny head reflecting the sunlight directly into Octavian's eyes.
He smirked. "You can? Excellent. I was worried for a moment."
"Melias is too critical for our energy infrastructure. I was pressured by the cabinet to make this appear as the fault of a few rotten apples in the company."
"It appears you did not take into account that someone might grow a conscience," the queen responded, her heels clicking on the floor as she paced.
The minister shook his head. "I don't know why Velgrad did what he did, but I can assure you, it wasn't out of guilt. Someone threatened him."
"Who?"
He looked down. "We don't know. He said nothing, which makes it all the more suspicious."
"And now, because this was hidden so thoroughly, the backlash is even worse. We might even have to bail Melias out. Get rid of the administration, rename it, and all that work." Leonora glared at the simpering man. As the biggest company on the energy market, both sides of her family had ties to Melias. Politically and economically, they could not let it take the fall.
Octavian dismissed the minister of justice, closing his eyes. "It appears we are having early elections as well."
He knew about the entire event, of course. He also agreed with the cabinet's decision to keep the matter contained. The incident was a tragedy, but the rising energy prices would be worse for the billions he was responsible for.
The current revamp of safety measures in all mines across the kingdom had progressed well, but this had cast a large shadow over it. A change in the cabinet would do wonders to soothe public opinion.
—
Yeleen Towers
He stood atop the monument to the Kelmar Kingdom's industrial might, looking down at the capital. The tallest building in the world, it was built at the same time as Eternal Peaks in the Union and the Star Anchor in the Republic.
Yeleen Towers was the tallest by a few meters, Eternal Peaks was finished first by a month, and the Star Anchor had the best design.
All part of a show of power.
The billions spent on this insipid project could have been put to better use elsewhere. He couldn't do anything about the towers, but at long last, he could make a difference. Just as he had done so today.
The arrests and the mass protests had doused the fire in his heart, though there were thousands more burning.
He disappeared from sight, off to the next task.
He set foot on the planet in his power armor. His brothers would be unharmed, but the planet was likely ruined.
He blinked.
They were lying on the ground around a crystal-clear pond, surrounded by greenery, with chirping birds and nice, sunny weather. An impossibility in this arid world. A golden finch flew close. He held his index finger out, and it landed, chirping and preening itself.
"Not bad."
"Thanks," Kael said, straightening up.
"How do you two feel? Know your limits, your capabilities?" After a month, they hopefully had learned enough.
"Yep."
"Come on then."
"Yeah." Sky got up, stretching. "I got me some revenge to take," he said, suddenly beside him, patting his shoulder.
Kael followed, letting the illusion fall apart, exposing the true state of the planet. Thairon nodded slowly at the continental chunks in the orbit and the cooling seas of molten metal.
—
Subterranean Labs
His brothers were in the shower before he even crossed back into the lab seconds after them. The destruction on the planet was within the expected range. Both had a lot to work through; letting loose like this was the perfect way to vent.
If a bit over the top.
"A rupture in Taglion in four days. RIC Central and Carbedon base will respond," Nax reported, which meant one of two things. Either there was an issue or…
"Your girlfriend is going too."
He clicked his tongue. She was being sent to almost every arrival point these days. Still, they were able to meet when time permitted it. "Monitor the situation as always."
He turned his attention to the matter of the genetic lock. Since there was no female DNA to work with yet, he only worked on the male samples. The temporal stasis went into the Y chromosome, while the augmentations were in the X, while he still worked on a definitive solution.
Any female would have both the temporal stasis and the augmentations in each chromosome. Daughters would have both abilities of the parents. The extra temporal stasis gene wouldn't mean much for the boys.
His musings were cut short as his brothers came, a stupid grin plastered on their faces.
"Well, I am done with my studies, for all that they are worth now. Soon as I pack up, I am off to a grand new adventure," Kael said, giddy, eyes shining.
"What about your job?"
Kael put his elbow on Thairon's shoulder, giving him a flat look. "They fired me because someone in the upper management heard that a certain vigilante carved a bloody path through Aurum City because I got hurt."
Skyler crossed his arms, turning his head away with a whistle. "Man, that sucks."
He glared at them. "On the bright side, you can travel freely."
"What about you?" What would his older brother be doing to save the world now?
Sky's right hand curled to a fist, landing on his left palm with a meaty thwack, his teeth showing. "Some people, a lot in fact, need to pay. I am going to collect what they owe to the people," he said, punching his palm.
Kael snorted, and a wave of green washed over Skyler. Suddenly he stood in a full-body dark spandex suit, with a capital V on his chest and a blood-red cape with "vengeance" written on it.
"Ladies and gentlemen, I give you the newest vigilante of our planet, the blood-haired edgelord himself, the Protest Man," Kael announced with heavy, theatrical sarcasm, all in good spirit.
Skyler rolled his eyes. "Really? This is the best you can do?"
He waved his hand, breaking the illusion. "Hey, you are my bro; I am just going easy on you."
"Here, I prepared this for you. It has essentials, warm food, camping supplies, and everything else I could think of."
"Damn, I was trying to make an inventory for myself, but this works until I figure it out."
"As for you, these will be useful to keep your identity secret. This one makes you invisible to all digital tools, and this one makes people forget you after five seconds of no visual contact."
"Alright. I am off to rest and put some affairs in order."
—
Retrol
Skyler returned home, not even taking the teleporter. From Glassport to Retrol, it took him ten seconds to fly.
And he was going slow.
He took his phone, sending a message to his group. Tomorrow, there would be a protest in Solmar, one that he wouldn't be joining because of personal reasons. He ignored the messages, divided between well wishes and complaints. He closed his eyes, remembering the exercise his brother had taught to sleep.
—
Setum 23
The day was a somber one. One hundred and three miners had died due to an accident. The necessary security measures weren't in place. No one important was held responsible beyond a few years in prison. They all had underlings who took the fall for them.
It would end today.
Today, Humanity First would gather in front of Jason Velgrad's mansion. He wouldn't be there, having taken the entire week off to avoid the protests. Skyler wouldn't be there as well. Nax discovered the secret whereabouts of Jason, who had taken his family on a vacation in the Serral Islands.
It was time to pay him a visit.
—
Serral Islands
If paradise existed in the mortal realm, the Serral Islands would be the closest place to it. Its pristine golden beaches or the azure-colored waters in its vicinity weren't what made it unique.
It was the trees.
Supposed to have arrived with a particularly violent rupture, the rainbow trees had a proven to have a psychologically calming effect on people and animals. It even affected the predators on the island.
It was the perfect place to destress, if only for the rich. The island was full at all times, and getting a reservation not only required a lot of cash but also connections.
Jason's vacation was about to turn into a nightmare.
He strolled into the congo the man had rented. Since no one who wasn't supposed to be on the island wasn't there, no one would question why he was there. Not that anyone would remember him.
He looked at the two-story green and white wooden building, cracking his neck. His vision darkened, the birds in the air froze midair, and the single, multicolored leaf blown by the wind stopped in front of his face.
He flew to the balcony, passing by Jason's sunbathing wife. The man in question was dressing, having just come out of the shower, his blonde hair damp.
—
Jason took the new t-shirt he had bought, just about to put it on. When it went down to his head and he could see again, the confines of his room were gone. He screamed as gravity suddenly took hold. His heart dropped, his eyes widened, and he only understood one thing.
He was falling.
"What the fuck?!" he screamed, seeing the quickly approaching clouds. He began to spin, but a firm hand on his shoulder stopped it.
"Hey Jason, how is your vacation so far?" a voice called out, cutting through the deafening wind. There was another man, falling like him, though he did not seem worried, hands tucked behind his head, enjoying the moment.
"What's happening?!" How did he get here? He was just in his room?! What the fuck was happening?
The man tilted his head, eyes glancing down as they fell through the clouds. "Isn't it obvious? You are falling to your death."
Jason screamed again, begging, praying for God to save him. "No, not like this. Please, god, make it a dream. Make this a nightmare that I'll wake up from!"
"I wonder, do you think the miners that died in Shöne were praying to be saved too?" He shook his head, his short, unnaturally red hair reflecting the sun. "Silly question; of course they were. Just as there was no salvation for them, there will be none for you. Unless…"
He left the sentence unfinished, and even in his panicked state, Jason caught up. "I'll give you whatever you want; just make this stop!"
The man's smile was predatory, as if he were a tiger ready to crush his neck with a single bite. "You'll go and reveal everything about the incident. Your part, the lacking security measures, and everyone responsible for all those deaths."
He stared at him in silence as the idea of falling to his death was pushed to the back of his mind. "They'll kill my family."
"Your family will be fine, unlike you. And don't worry, I'll make sure you don't die either, not when you can rot in prison for the rest of your life."
"Hurry up, Jason; the ground is getting closer. I can always force someone else to spill the beans. You'll just end up being a bloody mess on the floor," he said, smiling, while grimacing internally. Wrecking a planet was fine, but the idea of killing a man, even if he was Jason Velgrad, made something squirm in his heart.
"I'll do it! I swear I'll do it. Please just..." he said, becoming incoherent towards the end. He slowly reversed the gravity, stopping Jason midair. "See? That wasn't so hard."
"I'll be watching Jason. One wrong move, I will forget where I dropped you from."
He nodded frantically, sweating and pale like the ghost trees of Zargon, mumbling something that did not exist in any dictionary, and fell on his face.
Sky left the vicinity, whistling. All those years of protests, trying to gather evidence so justice could be served, and yet he had succeeded in less than five minutes. His heart soared, higher than where he could rise.
This felt good, better than good in fact.
—
He wasn't going to trust Jason's words like that. When he passed out on his bed, he left a note on the pillow in case he thought it was a dream. When his wife called him for dinner and he woke up, the first thing he saw was the red sticky paper.
I am watching.
Jason felt his throat dry, and he stumbled out of the room. He washed his face, gazing at the mirror to inspect himself. He wasn't alone in the reflection, the face in his nightmare appearing behind him with a wink. He snapped around, yelping, but saw no one.
"Jason, are you alright?"
"Yeah, just slipped. I am fine."
"Be careful, dear."
—
When he was in the middle of the dinner, his nightmare appeared outside the window in his sight, winking again. He inhaled sharply, coughing as the meatball went into his windpipe.
His wife hit his back, and he coughed it out, bleary eyes locked on the window. The man was gone again.
"Here, drink some water," his wife said, rubbing his back, filling a glass.
—
When his tormentor's face flashed on his face as he opened his eyes, Jason decided it was time to face the music. He flew back to Retrol with the first available flight, leaving his family behind and calling the press for a conference.
—
Retrol
Jason Velgrad always made sure to disappear during the commemoration of the mining accident. No social media trail, no sight at work or anywhere else. Everyone knew he did it on purpose.
Which made the day even more confusing for the citizens and the media. The families of the dead miners were there, as were representatives from Humanity First.
He glanced at the crowd, meeting the eyes of his tormentor. Every time he glanced at the red eyes of his, Jason shuddered, feeling the echoes of the rushing wind on his skin.
"I called you here today," he began, pulling on the collar of his shirt. He stopped for a moment. Familiar faces from the management were there, faces that would end up in prison once he spoke. He considered leaving for a moment.
The piercing gaze numbed his feet.
His lips parted and all hell broke down.
—
Thermion
Moonrise Palace
Octavian watched the minister quiver like a rat before him. "All the responsible parties were punished," you said. "This tragedy would not be left unresolved," you said. Now, look at this mess."
The lacking security measures in Schöne were not only exposed, but the man in charge, Jason Velgrad, had named everyone who embezzled the funds for it, including himself. The prosecution scrambled to act, the people hit the streets, and the industrial production in Retrol had ground to a halt.
Humanity First, their second youngest son's little environmentalist group, was there, though Skyler was absent for some reason.
"Your Grace, I can explain," he said, his bald, shiny head reflecting the sunlight directly into Octavian's eyes.
He smirked. "You can? Excellent. I was worried for a moment."
"Melias is too critical for our energy infrastructure. I was pressured by the cabinet to make this appear as the fault of a few rotten apples in the company."
"It appears you did not take into account that someone might grow a conscience," the queen responded, her heels clicking on the floor as she paced.
The minister shook his head. "I don't know why Velgrad did what he did, but I can assure you, it wasn't out of guilt. Someone threatened him."
"Who?"
He looked down. "We don't know. He said nothing, which makes it all the more suspicious."
"And now, because this was hidden so thoroughly, the backlash is even worse. We might even have to bail Melias out. Get rid of the administration, rename it, and all that work." Leonora glared at the simpering man. As the biggest company on the energy market, both sides of her family had ties to Melias. Politically and economically, they could not let it take the fall.
Octavian dismissed the minister of justice, closing his eyes. "It appears we are having early elections as well."
He knew about the entire event, of course. He also agreed with the cabinet's decision to keep the matter contained. The incident was a tragedy, but the rising energy prices would be worse for the billions he was responsible for.
The current revamp of safety measures in all mines across the kingdom had progressed well, but this had cast a large shadow over it. A change in the cabinet would do wonders to soothe public opinion.
—
Yeleen Towers
He stood atop the monument to the Kelmar Kingdom's industrial might, looking down at the capital. The tallest building in the world, it was built at the same time as Eternal Peaks in the Union and the Star Anchor in the Republic.
Yeleen Towers was the tallest by a few meters, Eternal Peaks was finished first by a month, and the Star Anchor had the best design.
All part of a show of power.
The billions spent on this insipid project could have been put to better use elsewhere. He couldn't do anything about the towers, but at long last, he could make a difference. Just as he had done so today.
The arrests and the mass protests had doused the fire in his heart, though there were thousands more burning.
He disappeared from sight, off to the next task.
Chapter 24 - Adventure
New
Samael61
I trust you know where the happy button is?
- Joined
- Apr 6, 2025
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Aurum City
He looked at his apartment. It was his own, bought with the lavish bonuses he earned from the beach. Four rooms, a living room large enough to hold the wildest of parties, two balconies, and of course, the kitchen.
It had never felt so small.
He packed what he needed, starting with clothes. Returning every time he needed something was a hassle. He would depart tomorrow, right after breakfast. His dinner arrived long after he was done.
He took his seat, preparing to eat while watching something. He skipped through the multitude of channels on Perus. A travel channel with the premise of going to all the previous arrival points caught his attention. The content itself wasn't anything special, but it gave him an idea.
—
"A streaming site? What for?" Nax asked. Based on Kael's psychological file, he had an idea.
"If I am having fun, why shouldn't I share it with people?"
"Which means exposing the fact that you have powers."
"Come on, nothing stays secret forever. Especially something like this. Also, who is going to know it's me?" he asked. His green eyes flashed. An illusion of a hood grew out of the neck of his sweatshirt like a sapling, covering his head, and a shadow was cast on his face down to his upper lip.
Visible but not enough to tell who he was.
"You know what, if you can get your brother's permission, I can help you with it all."
Kael pushed the screen aside, calling Thairon. He was quick to answer, even as he was tinkering with something. "Hey man. Can I stream my travels live on the internet?"
He stopped, putting the scanner in his hand down and pinching the bridge of his nose. "What the fuck for?"
"For fun," he shrugged, a childlike innocence in his eyes. "Imagine the chaos it would cause. A citizen having the power to travel between dimensions."
Thairon crossed his arms, a single eyebrow rising sharply. "Why would I want you to cause this much chaos?"
"You butchered an entire criminal organization in a day. Sky has already started with his justice crusade. Coincidentally, this will take the heat off you both. Also, Nax can hide me on the internet, and it's not like I'll go around announcing who I am."
Thairon's look wavered at the expectant look, and he sighed.
"You know what, fine. Go give them headaches they'll never forget."
—
He jumped on the tip of his toes, shaking his arms and head. He patted himself on the cheeks twice.
It was time.
He focused on a single spot in front of him, which began to waver. The multilayered spaces tried to force his portal shut, but he didn't stop. He pushed them all aside, creating a gate to another world.
One that looked to be in ruins for some reason.
He walked through, activating the camera drone, his heart beat increasing with each step.
—
Unknown Planet
He gagged.
The air tasted like ash, smoke, and burned meat. The scorch marks on the half-melted concrete buildings showed that this place had gone through a war. Smoke rising in the distance told it wasn't over yet.
The sky was covered with dark, unnatural clouds, blocking the sun except for a few stray rays.
—
Across Haven, a strange live stream was broadcasted. At first the people thought it was just an announcement for a new game or a movie. It started with a curious gamer searching for something new. He watched the stream, sending the link to his friends, who sent it to their friends. Before long, thousands were debating whether it was real or not. Most thought it was computer-generated or actually real.
Had someone finally managed to use the ruptures to travel to other dimensions?
—
Unknown Planet
He didn't stay on the spot. Using what available covers he had, he moved through the city. His viewer count was increasing by the minute. Thousands were already watching him.
He stopped, finally hearing more than the crackling fire amid the ruins of the city.
He blinked out of his position, finding himself on the roof of the building overlooking where the noises were coming from.
"Holy crap, aliens," he muttered to himself, though the camera drone picked on it.
Several tall, lithe soldiers in full-body green armor were rounding up a group of blue-skinned aliens, mainly children and women. The soldiers pushed them into boxy hovering vehicles with the gray plating at gunpoint and took off.
He blinked right on top of the lead transport vehicle, phasing out of sight. He crossed his legs and waved at the camera that was streaming his outline. His heart was threatening to burst out of his chest. The smile that accompanied his elevated pulse was something he couldn't control.
This was everything he wanted and more.
During the slow trip, he took the chance to inspect the city. The blocks, or rather circles, of buildings with smooth domes dominated the city. Two larger buildings on opposite ends with smaller ones between created what must have been a pristine, orderly appearance.
One that was consumed by chaos and flames now.
A soldier manning the turret on the rearmost vehicle removed his helmet, revealing a human beneath it.
Kael blinked, turning to the drone, pointing at the man. The drone, phased out of sight as he was, floated close to the soldier.
"Would you look at that? Humans are the villains now. The sci-fi alien movie producers aren't going to like this one bit," he commented to the camera, flashing a thumbs-up with a grin.
"Put your helmet on, you idiot. It'll just take a sniper round to pop your head like a balloon," one of the soldiers warned with a heated tone.
The soldier's lips twitched, but he put the helmet back on. "Come on, Sarge, not like anyone's left in the city to resist."
"We are still in a combat zone. Those regulations exist because someone like you got their head blown up while being careless."
"And they are speaking English too. I think we found an evil Earth-based empire," he said, feeling as if his chest were about to burst open.
—
The trucks stopped at a prison. Several more vehicles were there, offloading civilians. They were all taken into cells while he set out to explore the place. He would help as soon as he had a full understanding of the situation.
He took a deep breath.
The child in him wanted to shriek to let the world know how much he was enjoying this. The adult in him wanted to leave it for later.
He dropped down, walking through the base. There were several buildings between the four walls. The largest one, a two-story building with a narrower top floor, had a constant stream of soldiers coming and going. The remaining single-story ones were prison cells, keeping thousands of aliens locked up.
Maybe even more.
He walked through the soldiers and the doors. Since their phase did not match, he was like a ghost. They would have no idea he was ever there unless he let them know.
The inside of the base was as depressing and dark as the skies were. Dark walls, gray doors, red lights—it all created a very dystopian setting.
He set out to find the commander of this prison.
With only two floors, he didn't have to search for long. Colonel E. Johnson was the highest-ranking officer he could find. His knowledge of ranks stemmed from what all of Haven knew from the myriad of citizens that had arrived from different Earths.
He passed through the door, blinking. The inside actually had colors. A portrait and three paintings hung on the white walls, depicting an important-looking military officer and distinct battles. The desk was a rich brown color; a colored glass table sat between two white leather sofas.
"Yes sir. We have the city pacified. The current prisoner count is over ten thousand. It is causing strains in our capacity," the colonel reported.
The older man on the screen threw a short, tired glance. "Transport ships will take them to the re-education centers in a month. Meanwhile, keep them locked up."
"Yes sir."
He turned to the drone, all previous amusement gone. "Huh, re-education," he says. Sounds very imperialistic. Time to go and screw this empire over."
"After lunch, of course," he said, patting his stomach. He didn't feel hungry, a side effect his brother was working to fix. In the meantime, the watch warned him about regular meals.
—
"Questions?" he mumbled, swallowing the bite he had taken from the sandwich. "Sure. Drony, pick one at random."
He had no intention of trying to read the tens of thousands of lines appearing on the screen each second.
The drone picked the most obvious one. Even as experts concluded it wasn't computer-generated, was this real?
"Well, no matter how unbelievable it might be, this is all real."
How came the next?
"I have abilities, which I won't tell how I got because, you know, it's a secret."
Tens of thousands wanted to know why he was even streaming this in the first place. Why expose himself like this?
"Why am I streaming?" he shrugged, his shoulders rising and falling quickly. "I always wanted to go on a grand adventure for the fun of it. I just wanted to share it with everyone else. If you guys don't want it, I can't end it now."
He reached for the drone, but a wall of nos and pleas to continue stopped him.
"Why is my face hidden? I think that's obvious. When I return home, I would like to go out without being a target."
The next question was about what he really wanted to do. "Probably bring this empire down."
"You'll see."
What if the governments find you?
Kael grinned, cleaning his hands. "Don't worry, they can't track anything."
"Lunch is over; time to go and be a hero."
—
He boarded a shuttle that was leaving the planet. Eleven gray, monotonous ships were parked over the planet. They were in an arrow formation, with a kilometer-long ship at the front, two half-sized ships on either side, and eight quarter-sized ships behind in two lines. It looked very orderly from the cockpit.
He forced his lips shut so he wouldn't squeak and jump up and down like a kid in a candy shop.
"Alright, depending on what I find there, this could get really messy. People below eighteen, you are warned."
One of the soldiers approached the shuttle, saluting. "Lieutenant Garlow, Admiral Kalson wants you at the meeting to report the situation on the ground."
"I'll head there immediately."
He flashed a grin at the camera and followed the lieutenant, rubbing his hands. The soldier made a beeline for the bridge. He waited for the correct opportunity. Just at the end of the corridor leading to the bridge, he cast an illusion. Phasing himself back into the real space, he pulled the lieutenant to his pocket dimension, knocking him out with a blow to the neck.
Another illusion, and he stood there as the perfect copy of the soldier.
By the time the illusion reached the bridge door, he took its place. The soldiers at the door stood straighter and opened the door. His eyes immediately locked on the admiral at the head of the table. He was old, his face a mass of wrinkles, yet his eyes burned with intensity.
Considering the number of stars and other decorations on their shoulders, the eight people gathered in the room must be the high command of the fleet. None looked at him, each engrossed with the tablets on their hands.
"Lieutenant, I wished to hear the situation on the ground directly from the source. Report."
He smirked, walking closer. "Man, it sucks down there. The air is all dark and gloomy. Breathing inside these helmets is hell. The men are depressed and don't get me started on food."
The commanders, so disinterested in what he had to say for the most part, suddenly raised their heads. They shared glances, thinking they must have heard him wrong.
"But…" He snapped his fingers, pointing at the admiral. "I know a brilliant solution. We bring in some pole dancers, and it will boost the men's morale straight through the atmosphere."
The admiral blinked once and rose from his seat, glaring at Garlow. "Lieutenant, have you lost your mind?"
"The stress must have gotten into him. We should send him to the medical wing," another officer, one that threatened to break the chair he was on, said.
"You know what, fatty?" he hissed like a serpent, appearing behind the officer in question, holding the back of his seat. "Why don't you get off your seat and walk to burn some of that blubber off?" he said, pushing the man off and taking his seat.
The oversized officer, who had fallen face down first, rose slowly, looking at him with lips parting slightly.
"Damn, it feels good to finally be able to rest," he said, grinning, a breath escaping through his nose.
Kalson raised his wrist to his lip level, eyes locked on the clearly distressed soldier. "Security to the bridge. Lieutenant Garlow is suffering a severe case of PTSD. Retrieve him immediately for psychiatric evaluation."
When no answer came, he looked down at his wrist.
"Looking for this?" he said, his grin stretching as he flicked Kalson's communicator up and down.
"What the?!" the admiral exclaimed, reaching for his side arm. He found it missing too, only to see Garlow juggling it along with the comms and weapons of everyone in the bridge. They went round and round in a circle.
He grasped the arms of his seat and pushed himself back, eyes wide. A gate opened on the other side of the table, with Garlow throwing everything inside.
"Ta da!" he said, arms stretched to the side, posing.
"You are not Garlow," Kalson said suddenly.
"No shit."
"I have only one question. Are you ready?"
"For what?"
"Why, retribution of course," he said, a devilish look on his face as he pulled his plastic gloves tight.
The officers burst into action, trying to reach the door. He slammed his foot on the ground, stretching the distance between the table and the door. The closer they got, the further away the door moved.
He caught Admiral Kalson first, reaching down. He pulled the old man's underwear up, bending him in half. He thrust it forward, wrapping the underwear around Kalson's head and kicking him away.
—
Haven
Thermion
Moonrise Palace
"Director, this better be a well-planned and executed prank," he said, watching the livestream. He winced as the streamer captured two officers, pulling their underwear out in the most painful wedgie. The first man's white boxer, stretched to the edge, went over the second man's head and vice versa.
"As far as we can tell, it is real. Certainly not computer-generated, and something of this magnitude can't be just practical effects," Director Velis said, loosening his tie.
"Who is streaming this? Find me a name," he demanded. This was clear proof that someone had found a way to open ruptures on purpose. It was more than simply dangerous.
This would affect the whole world.
"Something is stonewalling our efforts to track it. It's not just us either. We are hearing that the Union and the Republic are failing too."
"How?," he asked in a breathless voice. "How could this be real?" How could anyone have mastered the ruptures so quickly? Neither the Republic nor the Union was more advanced than the Kingdom.
Just how?
The director bowed deeply. "We… don't know."
"Unless…" Octavian thought, his eyes widening. "I am sending you a list. I want every expert we have on these subjects, as well as our entire intelligence pool, for a comprehensive meeting."
"Yes, Your Grace."
He looked at his apartment. It was his own, bought with the lavish bonuses he earned from the beach. Four rooms, a living room large enough to hold the wildest of parties, two balconies, and of course, the kitchen.
It had never felt so small.
He packed what he needed, starting with clothes. Returning every time he needed something was a hassle. He would depart tomorrow, right after breakfast. His dinner arrived long after he was done.
He took his seat, preparing to eat while watching something. He skipped through the multitude of channels on Perus. A travel channel with the premise of going to all the previous arrival points caught his attention. The content itself wasn't anything special, but it gave him an idea.
—
"A streaming site? What for?" Nax asked. Based on Kael's psychological file, he had an idea.
"If I am having fun, why shouldn't I share it with people?"
"Which means exposing the fact that you have powers."
"Come on, nothing stays secret forever. Especially something like this. Also, who is going to know it's me?" he asked. His green eyes flashed. An illusion of a hood grew out of the neck of his sweatshirt like a sapling, covering his head, and a shadow was cast on his face down to his upper lip.
Visible but not enough to tell who he was.
"You know what, if you can get your brother's permission, I can help you with it all."
Kael pushed the screen aside, calling Thairon. He was quick to answer, even as he was tinkering with something. "Hey man. Can I stream my travels live on the internet?"
He stopped, putting the scanner in his hand down and pinching the bridge of his nose. "What the fuck for?"
"For fun," he shrugged, a childlike innocence in his eyes. "Imagine the chaos it would cause. A citizen having the power to travel between dimensions."
Thairon crossed his arms, a single eyebrow rising sharply. "Why would I want you to cause this much chaos?"
"You butchered an entire criminal organization in a day. Sky has already started with his justice crusade. Coincidentally, this will take the heat off you both. Also, Nax can hide me on the internet, and it's not like I'll go around announcing who I am."
Thairon's look wavered at the expectant look, and he sighed.
"You know what, fine. Go give them headaches they'll never forget."
—
He jumped on the tip of his toes, shaking his arms and head. He patted himself on the cheeks twice.
It was time.
He focused on a single spot in front of him, which began to waver. The multilayered spaces tried to force his portal shut, but he didn't stop. He pushed them all aside, creating a gate to another world.
One that looked to be in ruins for some reason.
He walked through, activating the camera drone, his heart beat increasing with each step.
—
Unknown Planet
He gagged.
The air tasted like ash, smoke, and burned meat. The scorch marks on the half-melted concrete buildings showed that this place had gone through a war. Smoke rising in the distance told it wasn't over yet.
The sky was covered with dark, unnatural clouds, blocking the sun except for a few stray rays.
—
Across Haven, a strange live stream was broadcasted. At first the people thought it was just an announcement for a new game or a movie. It started with a curious gamer searching for something new. He watched the stream, sending the link to his friends, who sent it to their friends. Before long, thousands were debating whether it was real or not. Most thought it was computer-generated or actually real.
Had someone finally managed to use the ruptures to travel to other dimensions?
—
Unknown Planet
He didn't stay on the spot. Using what available covers he had, he moved through the city. His viewer count was increasing by the minute. Thousands were already watching him.
He stopped, finally hearing more than the crackling fire amid the ruins of the city.
He blinked out of his position, finding himself on the roof of the building overlooking where the noises were coming from.
"Holy crap, aliens," he muttered to himself, though the camera drone picked on it.
Several tall, lithe soldiers in full-body green armor were rounding up a group of blue-skinned aliens, mainly children and women. The soldiers pushed them into boxy hovering vehicles with the gray plating at gunpoint and took off.
He blinked right on top of the lead transport vehicle, phasing out of sight. He crossed his legs and waved at the camera that was streaming his outline. His heart was threatening to burst out of his chest. The smile that accompanied his elevated pulse was something he couldn't control.
This was everything he wanted and more.
During the slow trip, he took the chance to inspect the city. The blocks, or rather circles, of buildings with smooth domes dominated the city. Two larger buildings on opposite ends with smaller ones between created what must have been a pristine, orderly appearance.
One that was consumed by chaos and flames now.
A soldier manning the turret on the rearmost vehicle removed his helmet, revealing a human beneath it.
Kael blinked, turning to the drone, pointing at the man. The drone, phased out of sight as he was, floated close to the soldier.
"Would you look at that? Humans are the villains now. The sci-fi alien movie producers aren't going to like this one bit," he commented to the camera, flashing a thumbs-up with a grin.
"Put your helmet on, you idiot. It'll just take a sniper round to pop your head like a balloon," one of the soldiers warned with a heated tone.
The soldier's lips twitched, but he put the helmet back on. "Come on, Sarge, not like anyone's left in the city to resist."
"We are still in a combat zone. Those regulations exist because someone like you got their head blown up while being careless."
"And they are speaking English too. I think we found an evil Earth-based empire," he said, feeling as if his chest were about to burst open.
—
The trucks stopped at a prison. Several more vehicles were there, offloading civilians. They were all taken into cells while he set out to explore the place. He would help as soon as he had a full understanding of the situation.
He took a deep breath.
The child in him wanted to shriek to let the world know how much he was enjoying this. The adult in him wanted to leave it for later.
He dropped down, walking through the base. There were several buildings between the four walls. The largest one, a two-story building with a narrower top floor, had a constant stream of soldiers coming and going. The remaining single-story ones were prison cells, keeping thousands of aliens locked up.
Maybe even more.
He walked through the soldiers and the doors. Since their phase did not match, he was like a ghost. They would have no idea he was ever there unless he let them know.
The inside of the base was as depressing and dark as the skies were. Dark walls, gray doors, red lights—it all created a very dystopian setting.
He set out to find the commander of this prison.
With only two floors, he didn't have to search for long. Colonel E. Johnson was the highest-ranking officer he could find. His knowledge of ranks stemmed from what all of Haven knew from the myriad of citizens that had arrived from different Earths.
He passed through the door, blinking. The inside actually had colors. A portrait and three paintings hung on the white walls, depicting an important-looking military officer and distinct battles. The desk was a rich brown color; a colored glass table sat between two white leather sofas.
"Yes sir. We have the city pacified. The current prisoner count is over ten thousand. It is causing strains in our capacity," the colonel reported.
The older man on the screen threw a short, tired glance. "Transport ships will take them to the re-education centers in a month. Meanwhile, keep them locked up."
"Yes sir."
He turned to the drone, all previous amusement gone. "Huh, re-education," he says. Sounds very imperialistic. Time to go and screw this empire over."
"After lunch, of course," he said, patting his stomach. He didn't feel hungry, a side effect his brother was working to fix. In the meantime, the watch warned him about regular meals.
—
"Questions?" he mumbled, swallowing the bite he had taken from the sandwich. "Sure. Drony, pick one at random."
He had no intention of trying to read the tens of thousands of lines appearing on the screen each second.
The drone picked the most obvious one. Even as experts concluded it wasn't computer-generated, was this real?
"Well, no matter how unbelievable it might be, this is all real."
How came the next?
"I have abilities, which I won't tell how I got because, you know, it's a secret."
Tens of thousands wanted to know why he was even streaming this in the first place. Why expose himself like this?
"Why am I streaming?" he shrugged, his shoulders rising and falling quickly. "I always wanted to go on a grand adventure for the fun of it. I just wanted to share it with everyone else. If you guys don't want it, I can't end it now."
He reached for the drone, but a wall of nos and pleas to continue stopped him.
"Why is my face hidden? I think that's obvious. When I return home, I would like to go out without being a target."
The next question was about what he really wanted to do. "Probably bring this empire down."
"You'll see."
What if the governments find you?
Kael grinned, cleaning his hands. "Don't worry, they can't track anything."
"Lunch is over; time to go and be a hero."
—
He boarded a shuttle that was leaving the planet. Eleven gray, monotonous ships were parked over the planet. They were in an arrow formation, with a kilometer-long ship at the front, two half-sized ships on either side, and eight quarter-sized ships behind in two lines. It looked very orderly from the cockpit.
He forced his lips shut so he wouldn't squeak and jump up and down like a kid in a candy shop.
"Alright, depending on what I find there, this could get really messy. People below eighteen, you are warned."
One of the soldiers approached the shuttle, saluting. "Lieutenant Garlow, Admiral Kalson wants you at the meeting to report the situation on the ground."
"I'll head there immediately."
He flashed a grin at the camera and followed the lieutenant, rubbing his hands. The soldier made a beeline for the bridge. He waited for the correct opportunity. Just at the end of the corridor leading to the bridge, he cast an illusion. Phasing himself back into the real space, he pulled the lieutenant to his pocket dimension, knocking him out with a blow to the neck.
Another illusion, and he stood there as the perfect copy of the soldier.
By the time the illusion reached the bridge door, he took its place. The soldiers at the door stood straighter and opened the door. His eyes immediately locked on the admiral at the head of the table. He was old, his face a mass of wrinkles, yet his eyes burned with intensity.
Considering the number of stars and other decorations on their shoulders, the eight people gathered in the room must be the high command of the fleet. None looked at him, each engrossed with the tablets on their hands.
"Lieutenant, I wished to hear the situation on the ground directly from the source. Report."
He smirked, walking closer. "Man, it sucks down there. The air is all dark and gloomy. Breathing inside these helmets is hell. The men are depressed and don't get me started on food."
The commanders, so disinterested in what he had to say for the most part, suddenly raised their heads. They shared glances, thinking they must have heard him wrong.
"But…" He snapped his fingers, pointing at the admiral. "I know a brilliant solution. We bring in some pole dancers, and it will boost the men's morale straight through the atmosphere."
The admiral blinked once and rose from his seat, glaring at Garlow. "Lieutenant, have you lost your mind?"
"The stress must have gotten into him. We should send him to the medical wing," another officer, one that threatened to break the chair he was on, said.
"You know what, fatty?" he hissed like a serpent, appearing behind the officer in question, holding the back of his seat. "Why don't you get off your seat and walk to burn some of that blubber off?" he said, pushing the man off and taking his seat.
The oversized officer, who had fallen face down first, rose slowly, looking at him with lips parting slightly.
"Damn, it feels good to finally be able to rest," he said, grinning, a breath escaping through his nose.
Kalson raised his wrist to his lip level, eyes locked on the clearly distressed soldier. "Security to the bridge. Lieutenant Garlow is suffering a severe case of PTSD. Retrieve him immediately for psychiatric evaluation."
When no answer came, he looked down at his wrist.
"Looking for this?" he said, his grin stretching as he flicked Kalson's communicator up and down.
"What the?!" the admiral exclaimed, reaching for his side arm. He found it missing too, only to see Garlow juggling it along with the comms and weapons of everyone in the bridge. They went round and round in a circle.
He grasped the arms of his seat and pushed himself back, eyes wide. A gate opened on the other side of the table, with Garlow throwing everything inside.
"Ta da!" he said, arms stretched to the side, posing.
"You are not Garlow," Kalson said suddenly.
"No shit."
"I have only one question. Are you ready?"
"For what?"
"Why, retribution of course," he said, a devilish look on his face as he pulled his plastic gloves tight.
The officers burst into action, trying to reach the door. He slammed his foot on the ground, stretching the distance between the table and the door. The closer they got, the further away the door moved.
He caught Admiral Kalson first, reaching down. He pulled the old man's underwear up, bending him in half. He thrust it forward, wrapping the underwear around Kalson's head and kicking him away.
—
Haven
Thermion
Moonrise Palace
"Director, this better be a well-planned and executed prank," he said, watching the livestream. He winced as the streamer captured two officers, pulling their underwear out in the most painful wedgie. The first man's white boxer, stretched to the edge, went over the second man's head and vice versa.
"As far as we can tell, it is real. Certainly not computer-generated, and something of this magnitude can't be just practical effects," Director Velis said, loosening his tie.
"Who is streaming this? Find me a name," he demanded. This was clear proof that someone had found a way to open ruptures on purpose. It was more than simply dangerous.
This would affect the whole world.
"Something is stonewalling our efforts to track it. It's not just us either. We are hearing that the Union and the Republic are failing too."
"How?," he asked in a breathless voice. "How could this be real?" How could anyone have mastered the ruptures so quickly? Neither the Republic nor the Union was more advanced than the Kingdom.
Just how?
The director bowed deeply. "We… don't know."
"Unless…" Octavian thought, his eyes widening. "I am sending you a list. I want every expert we have on these subjects, as well as our entire intelligence pool, for a comprehensive meeting."
"Yes, Your Grace."
Chapter 25 - Terrorize the Terrorists
New
Samael61
I trust you know where the happy button is?
- Joined
- Apr 6, 2025
- Messages
- 558
- Likes received
- 31,092
Unknown Planet
While the command staff was busy getting acquainted closely with their underwear, he took the empty seat of the helm. He cracked his knuckles, letting Nax translate the holographic screens in front of him. He flashed a grin and a thumbs up to the camera. He cleared his throat as he pressed the button for the fleetwide announcement system.
"Ladies and gentlemen, this is your captain speaking. Prepare for the Pulsar Drift two point zero: the Cosmic Bogaloo," he said with a quiet chuckle. With the AI's guidance, he pressed the necessary buttons, accelerating the massive ship. He flicked the drone, sending it phasing out of the ship so everyone could watch this moment.
—
Haven
Thermion
Moonfall Palace
"He can't be serious," Meran muttered, his green eyes wide as the plate before him.
Octavian turned to his son, unfamiliar with the term. "Pulsar Drift?"
"I believe it's a drift where several vehicles spin together while avoiding one another," Leander said, scratching his head. He had witnessed it once while traveling to the Republic as part of a diplomatic mission.
"Who in their right mind would ever do that? his mother asked, lips slightly parted. Every child broke the rules. What they did was pure insanity in her books.
"It took place in the Republic. They banned it when a media tycoon's son ignored the safety measures and got himself and his girlfriend flattened like pancakes," he explained. It was not the first deadly act that particular group had done, but it was the deadliest by far.
His brother looked at him with a scrunched face.
"Their words, not mine," he said, turning away.
All four were glued to the screen, watching as the massive blocky space ship began to spin. The rest of the space fleet—and wasn't that something weird to say? —scrambled to move away. The two ships on the back couldn't get away.
It was like a scene from a silent opera.
The smaller ship on the right had a curved hole carved on its left side, which took the entire front off. The one on the left was less fortunate. The ship, with its speed increasing every second, shattered its smaller counterpart in half. The ship exploded, covering the remaining half in a blinding sphere.
Even greater explosions followed.
Whatever detonated caused the sphere to expand even further. The shockwaves traveled the gap in space too quickly. The ships were pushed apart and damaged. The flag vessel was still spinning. The Adventurer was still inside, laughing in a mix of childish wonder and something sinister. Even as the vessel he was on started to tear apart due to the various forces involved, he didn't leave.
Octavian felt something grip his heart. This was madness wrapped up in a mask of amusement. The Adventurer wanted nothing more than to cause chaos.
"Am I insane?!" he screamed, putting an end to his mad howling for a moment. "You know what they say; sanity is overrated anyway!" He began to cackle once more. The second screen turned orange with flames, but he never stopped.
The blissful silence came when the screens displayed a "Technical Difficulties" sign.
"Father, what do we do?" Meran asked, shoulders slouched, his voice quiet. If this adventurer were indeed from Haven and decided to have some fun at home, what could they do?
"I don't know," he said with a flat tone, one eye still glued to his phone. He almost dropped the phone when the call finally connected.
"What?" his third son's irritated voice came.
He sighed, stopping himself from devolving the call into an argument. "Would it hurt you to start with a hello instead?"
"Yes, it would," his son retorted with laughter in his words.
"This Adventurer. He is a danger. We need your help," he said, feeling his temperature rise. Asking Thairon to help while swallowing his pride boiled his blood.
"If he presents a danger, I'll deal with him. Otherwise, no."
He put the call on silent for a moment, cursing. "Don't tell me you weren't watching what he just did. He killed thousands for fun."
"They were fascists. While I find the method of their death inefficient, I agree with it. I mean, who doesn't hate people who think they are superior to everyone else just because?" he said.
Octavian couldn't bring himself to disagree with that assessment.
"And his abilities? How do you think he gained them?" he asked. At least that part should have Thairon's interest.
"There are a million and more ways to acquire these kinds of powers. Unknown radiation, something from a rupture, cybernetic augments, and so on. Can't say how without dissecting him."
Was it truly that easy? "You can do it then?" he asked, wincing as he realized how eager he sounded.
His rebellious son chuckled. "I'll create super soldiers for you when the universe comes to an end. If there is nothing else, I am ending this call. He is about to start again."
Octavian pressed the red button without a word.
"Of course he is no use."
—
Glassport
He rolled his eyes, returning his attention to the screen. Just as Kael appeared on the screen, in different clothing this time, he received another call. This one was more welcome, though.
"Hey, quick question, is he one of your brothers?" she asked, checking her surroundings.
"He is."
She puffed up her cheeks, eyes avoiding him for a second. "No offense, but he doesn't seem to have all his mental faculties in order," she finally said.
He chuckled, rubbing the back of his head. "He does have the habit of terrorizing who he deems are bad guys. Bullies, arrogant rich stereotypes, and, in this case, a fascist empire."
His high school prom was a particularly amusing one for that reason.
"Uh huh. Why did he feel the need to let the whole world know though?" she asked. When they first met, Thairon used his teleportation device to help her track down the amulet. If it weren't for the absurdity of the claim, she would think he was crazy to display something like that to a complete stranger.
Not only was his brother not hiding anything, he was actively streaming it to billions of people. She didn't want to judge, but it wasn't exactly something smart.
Thairon swished his right index finger once, bringing an image to her screen. "Ever watched the Adventures of Malipa?" he asked.
Her lips stretched to a subdued smile. Sitting with her sister every morning, they would watch the red-caped, white-helmeted hero traveling across the galaxy, always saving the day with his wits and companions. "Anyone who was a child in the last twenty years did."
"He loved that show. He would pester me for toys and rare collectibles and for taking him to conventions. He even has a collection worth about fifty thousand aurels," he said, shaking his head. He had gone as far as to hack the official giveaway after his brother had eaten a dozen ice cream bars for the codes on the sticks.
"So a really big fan."
"The biggest. As a child, he wanted to have adventures like that too. While he didn't show it, his desire never went away even as he grew up. I simply helped him make his dream come true. In turn, he wants to let other people enjoy these adventures on screen," he said. Kael had matured, but the little menace in his heart had never faded.
"I hope it's worth the trouble it will bring on his head," she said.
He rolled his eyes, remembering his father's request. "What are they going to do, catch him? They don't have the technology to hold him. He would just haunt them instead. Believe me, that boy can get really vicious."
Knowing Kael, he'd prank them to insanity.
She shrugged. "He just drifted a spaceship and killed thousands. You don't have to convince me."
"Enough about us. How are things over there?" he asked. Her deployment was in two days.
"The price of being a hero," she said, her back sliding down the wall she was leaning on. "I am constantly getting sent everywhere."
"I guess you didn't make a complaint?"
"It's actually in the job description. The best always gets sent to contain the rupture."
He frowned, deciding to change the subject to less stressful matters. They agreed to meet the next weekend since she would have more days off due to her heroics.
He looked forward to it.
—
Serral Islands
He was rolling in the sky, cackling, watching his brother terrorize the base on the planet. He showed a colonel's face to the toilet and hung a dozen soldiers from the flagpole by their underwear. Right now he was busy sticking the remaining soldiers onto rockets ready to fire.
All the while the remains of the ships rained down on the planet.
His fun, for this was the greatest live stream ever, was interrupted. "Seems Jason's superiors weren't happy about his little moment of regret. Four goons are approaching; they want to kidnap his family to force him to retract his statements."
"Damn it," he said, eyes still stuck on the screen. He disappeared from his spot, appearing next to the car. He didn't even give the kidnappers time to leave the car. He simply altered the vehicle's gravity, letting it shoot up to space. He appeared back in his location above the clouds, continuing to watch the show.
"Remember kids, don't try any of this at home," Kael said, thrusting his right hand to the side. It disappeared into a flickering point in space before he slowly pulled out a large, conical weapon with a clear radioactive sign on it. The soldiers that were shooting at his brother stopped, dropped their weapons, and ran.
"Aww," he cooed, "they think they can escape from a nuke. That's cute," he said, raising the device and bringing it down like a cosmic hammer. The screen went white, another sign appearing.
"Afterlife in Progress," it said, a grinning emoji in the background.
He leaned closer, waiting. As the stream returned, he wasn't disappointed. A blue monster, bulky and ugly with its shark teeth, disproportionate face, and two massive horns, sat on a throne, winking at the camera. Pools of blue lava, cauldrons boiling over blue fires, blue demons, and, of course, sinners dressed in blue rags.
A classic depiction of hell, only everything was in blue.
"Humans!" Kael, disguised as the devil, bellowed, shaking the illusionary hell with his booming voice. "You have committed the worst sin any mortal has ever had. It was so vile even I puked my lunch out," the devil grunted, gagging.
"You have gone against the natural superiority of the blue. For that, you deserve a fate worse than mine. Unfortunately, that quota is full, so we are going to do it the usual way."
"Into the pool of blue lava until they realize the superiority of the blue," the devil screamed, pointing a blue trident at the dozens of soldiers who looked ready to depart their mortal coil for real.
He threw his head back. It was fortunate he could hold his breath indefinitely, or he would have died from laughing so much.
The demons, caricaturistically short and fat, pushed the begging humans into the lava. "Now kiss the blue," Kael declared, watching the soldiers stop their struggles for a moment, looking at him with wide, moist eyes.
"I said kiss it!" he screamed, causing pools of lava to shoot up. The soldiers fell on the ground, kissing the dirt, while some went as far as to hug the flying imps with all their strength, showering them with affection.
"Hug the blue, like you would hug the woman you paid a crap ton of money to show you affection," he ordered. They scrambled to obey, gathering dirt between their arms, squeezing the imps to death. One even tried to gather lava in his arms, laughing hysterically.
He snickered, flashing a thumbs-up to the camera.
"And finally, sing a song for the glory of all that is blue," he ordered, waiting. The soldiers stopped again, looking at one another. "B-but we don't know any," one of them, a female on the verge of crying, stuttered out.
The devil stroked his chin. "That's alright, you did good enough. Your punishment has been lessened greatly. Instead of burning in lava, you are going to face the souls of every Zylam killed by the empire," he said, snapping his fingers with a low, throaty laugh.
The environment lost the eyesore, blue. Foreboding darkness grew from all sides, and in it, pairs of red dots. It was a single pair at first but quickly grew into a horde. Thousands turned into millions, and they swarmed forward. The comedy had transformed into horror in an instant.
Kael had the sense to end the illusion just as the soldiers disappeared beneath the horde of undead.
They all found themselves inside the base once more, unharmed on the outside, but their minds were on the verge of shattering. The female soldier who had the guts to speak fell on her knees first, fingers on the sides of her head, scratching bloody lines as a fit of laughter caught her. Her eyes were unblinking and wide open. She didn't respond to her fellow soldier shaking her shoulder.
"So much for superiority," Kael muttered on the screen, crossing his arms. One by one, the soldiers got down on their knees, putting their hands behind their necks. Amid the mad laughter of the soldier, they surrendered, leaving him considering what to do.
"Maybe you should take a look at that car? They will die in a couple of minutes," Nax said, displaying the totally flipped-out men inside the vehicle.
"Fine," he said, dragging the word out. He had already stopped three assassination attempts targeting Jason. The would-be killers had gone to the police, confessing their crimes and who had hired them. If those four agreed to the same offer, they would live.
—
On two different corners of Haven, two different people received an identical message. It had arrived through the Lifeline Channel, the communication line only reserved for the gravest of threats between the three nations. They had already made plans for a similar event to what was written in the message.
Meltral was about to be busy.
Of the five point eight billion people on the planet, almost everyone was watching the live stream. They didn't care about the dangers the Adventurer presented. His existence meant someone on Haven had the capability to create a superhuman. One who possessed invincibility and control over ruptures, dimensions, and illusions. The danger lay in his attitude.
He hadn't hesitated to destroy spaceships and murder thousands, driving the soldiers on the ground insane. One wrong move against him would risk similar events taking place in their world. However, letting him act as he wished was out of the question.
If only they could back that claim up.
While the command staff was busy getting acquainted closely with their underwear, he took the empty seat of the helm. He cracked his knuckles, letting Nax translate the holographic screens in front of him. He flashed a grin and a thumbs up to the camera. He cleared his throat as he pressed the button for the fleetwide announcement system.
"Ladies and gentlemen, this is your captain speaking. Prepare for the Pulsar Drift two point zero: the Cosmic Bogaloo," he said with a quiet chuckle. With the AI's guidance, he pressed the necessary buttons, accelerating the massive ship. He flicked the drone, sending it phasing out of the ship so everyone could watch this moment.
—
Haven
Thermion
Moonfall Palace
"He can't be serious," Meran muttered, his green eyes wide as the plate before him.
Octavian turned to his son, unfamiliar with the term. "Pulsar Drift?"
"I believe it's a drift where several vehicles spin together while avoiding one another," Leander said, scratching his head. He had witnessed it once while traveling to the Republic as part of a diplomatic mission.
"Who in their right mind would ever do that? his mother asked, lips slightly parted. Every child broke the rules. What they did was pure insanity in her books.
"It took place in the Republic. They banned it when a media tycoon's son ignored the safety measures and got himself and his girlfriend flattened like pancakes," he explained. It was not the first deadly act that particular group had done, but it was the deadliest by far.
His brother looked at him with a scrunched face.
"Their words, not mine," he said, turning away.
All four were glued to the screen, watching as the massive blocky space ship began to spin. The rest of the space fleet—and wasn't that something weird to say? —scrambled to move away. The two ships on the back couldn't get away.
It was like a scene from a silent opera.
The smaller ship on the right had a curved hole carved on its left side, which took the entire front off. The one on the left was less fortunate. The ship, with its speed increasing every second, shattered its smaller counterpart in half. The ship exploded, covering the remaining half in a blinding sphere.
Even greater explosions followed.
Whatever detonated caused the sphere to expand even further. The shockwaves traveled the gap in space too quickly. The ships were pushed apart and damaged. The flag vessel was still spinning. The Adventurer was still inside, laughing in a mix of childish wonder and something sinister. Even as the vessel he was on started to tear apart due to the various forces involved, he didn't leave.
Octavian felt something grip his heart. This was madness wrapped up in a mask of amusement. The Adventurer wanted nothing more than to cause chaos.
"Am I insane?!" he screamed, putting an end to his mad howling for a moment. "You know what they say; sanity is overrated anyway!" He began to cackle once more. The second screen turned orange with flames, but he never stopped.
The blissful silence came when the screens displayed a "Technical Difficulties" sign.
"Father, what do we do?" Meran asked, shoulders slouched, his voice quiet. If this adventurer were indeed from Haven and decided to have some fun at home, what could they do?
"I don't know," he said with a flat tone, one eye still glued to his phone. He almost dropped the phone when the call finally connected.
"What?" his third son's irritated voice came.
He sighed, stopping himself from devolving the call into an argument. "Would it hurt you to start with a hello instead?"
"Yes, it would," his son retorted with laughter in his words.
"This Adventurer. He is a danger. We need your help," he said, feeling his temperature rise. Asking Thairon to help while swallowing his pride boiled his blood.
"If he presents a danger, I'll deal with him. Otherwise, no."
He put the call on silent for a moment, cursing. "Don't tell me you weren't watching what he just did. He killed thousands for fun."
"They were fascists. While I find the method of their death inefficient, I agree with it. I mean, who doesn't hate people who think they are superior to everyone else just because?" he said.
Octavian couldn't bring himself to disagree with that assessment.
"And his abilities? How do you think he gained them?" he asked. At least that part should have Thairon's interest.
"There are a million and more ways to acquire these kinds of powers. Unknown radiation, something from a rupture, cybernetic augments, and so on. Can't say how without dissecting him."
Was it truly that easy? "You can do it then?" he asked, wincing as he realized how eager he sounded.
His rebellious son chuckled. "I'll create super soldiers for you when the universe comes to an end. If there is nothing else, I am ending this call. He is about to start again."
Octavian pressed the red button without a word.
"Of course he is no use."
—
Glassport
He rolled his eyes, returning his attention to the screen. Just as Kael appeared on the screen, in different clothing this time, he received another call. This one was more welcome, though.
"Hey, quick question, is he one of your brothers?" she asked, checking her surroundings.
"He is."
She puffed up her cheeks, eyes avoiding him for a second. "No offense, but he doesn't seem to have all his mental faculties in order," she finally said.
He chuckled, rubbing the back of his head. "He does have the habit of terrorizing who he deems are bad guys. Bullies, arrogant rich stereotypes, and, in this case, a fascist empire."
His high school prom was a particularly amusing one for that reason.
"Uh huh. Why did he feel the need to let the whole world know though?" she asked. When they first met, Thairon used his teleportation device to help her track down the amulet. If it weren't for the absurdity of the claim, she would think he was crazy to display something like that to a complete stranger.
Not only was his brother not hiding anything, he was actively streaming it to billions of people. She didn't want to judge, but it wasn't exactly something smart.
Thairon swished his right index finger once, bringing an image to her screen. "Ever watched the Adventures of Malipa?" he asked.
Her lips stretched to a subdued smile. Sitting with her sister every morning, they would watch the red-caped, white-helmeted hero traveling across the galaxy, always saving the day with his wits and companions. "Anyone who was a child in the last twenty years did."
"He loved that show. He would pester me for toys and rare collectibles and for taking him to conventions. He even has a collection worth about fifty thousand aurels," he said, shaking his head. He had gone as far as to hack the official giveaway after his brother had eaten a dozen ice cream bars for the codes on the sticks.
"So a really big fan."
"The biggest. As a child, he wanted to have adventures like that too. While he didn't show it, his desire never went away even as he grew up. I simply helped him make his dream come true. In turn, he wants to let other people enjoy these adventures on screen," he said. Kael had matured, but the little menace in his heart had never faded.
"I hope it's worth the trouble it will bring on his head," she said.
He rolled his eyes, remembering his father's request. "What are they going to do, catch him? They don't have the technology to hold him. He would just haunt them instead. Believe me, that boy can get really vicious."
Knowing Kael, he'd prank them to insanity.
She shrugged. "He just drifted a spaceship and killed thousands. You don't have to convince me."
"Enough about us. How are things over there?" he asked. Her deployment was in two days.
"The price of being a hero," she said, her back sliding down the wall she was leaning on. "I am constantly getting sent everywhere."
"I guess you didn't make a complaint?"
"It's actually in the job description. The best always gets sent to contain the rupture."
He frowned, deciding to change the subject to less stressful matters. They agreed to meet the next weekend since she would have more days off due to her heroics.
He looked forward to it.
—
Serral Islands
He was rolling in the sky, cackling, watching his brother terrorize the base on the planet. He showed a colonel's face to the toilet and hung a dozen soldiers from the flagpole by their underwear. Right now he was busy sticking the remaining soldiers onto rockets ready to fire.
All the while the remains of the ships rained down on the planet.
His fun, for this was the greatest live stream ever, was interrupted. "Seems Jason's superiors weren't happy about his little moment of regret. Four goons are approaching; they want to kidnap his family to force him to retract his statements."
"Damn it," he said, eyes still stuck on the screen. He disappeared from his spot, appearing next to the car. He didn't even give the kidnappers time to leave the car. He simply altered the vehicle's gravity, letting it shoot up to space. He appeared back in his location above the clouds, continuing to watch the show.
"Remember kids, don't try any of this at home," Kael said, thrusting his right hand to the side. It disappeared into a flickering point in space before he slowly pulled out a large, conical weapon with a clear radioactive sign on it. The soldiers that were shooting at his brother stopped, dropped their weapons, and ran.
"Aww," he cooed, "they think they can escape from a nuke. That's cute," he said, raising the device and bringing it down like a cosmic hammer. The screen went white, another sign appearing.
"Afterlife in Progress," it said, a grinning emoji in the background.
He leaned closer, waiting. As the stream returned, he wasn't disappointed. A blue monster, bulky and ugly with its shark teeth, disproportionate face, and two massive horns, sat on a throne, winking at the camera. Pools of blue lava, cauldrons boiling over blue fires, blue demons, and, of course, sinners dressed in blue rags.
A classic depiction of hell, only everything was in blue.
"Humans!" Kael, disguised as the devil, bellowed, shaking the illusionary hell with his booming voice. "You have committed the worst sin any mortal has ever had. It was so vile even I puked my lunch out," the devil grunted, gagging.
"You have gone against the natural superiority of the blue. For that, you deserve a fate worse than mine. Unfortunately, that quota is full, so we are going to do it the usual way."
"Into the pool of blue lava until they realize the superiority of the blue," the devil screamed, pointing a blue trident at the dozens of soldiers who looked ready to depart their mortal coil for real.
He threw his head back. It was fortunate he could hold his breath indefinitely, or he would have died from laughing so much.
The demons, caricaturistically short and fat, pushed the begging humans into the lava. "Now kiss the blue," Kael declared, watching the soldiers stop their struggles for a moment, looking at him with wide, moist eyes.
"I said kiss it!" he screamed, causing pools of lava to shoot up. The soldiers fell on the ground, kissing the dirt, while some went as far as to hug the flying imps with all their strength, showering them with affection.
"Hug the blue, like you would hug the woman you paid a crap ton of money to show you affection," he ordered. They scrambled to obey, gathering dirt between their arms, squeezing the imps to death. One even tried to gather lava in his arms, laughing hysterically.
He snickered, flashing a thumbs-up to the camera.
"And finally, sing a song for the glory of all that is blue," he ordered, waiting. The soldiers stopped again, looking at one another. "B-but we don't know any," one of them, a female on the verge of crying, stuttered out.
The devil stroked his chin. "That's alright, you did good enough. Your punishment has been lessened greatly. Instead of burning in lava, you are going to face the souls of every Zylam killed by the empire," he said, snapping his fingers with a low, throaty laugh.
The environment lost the eyesore, blue. Foreboding darkness grew from all sides, and in it, pairs of red dots. It was a single pair at first but quickly grew into a horde. Thousands turned into millions, and they swarmed forward. The comedy had transformed into horror in an instant.
Kael had the sense to end the illusion just as the soldiers disappeared beneath the horde of undead.
They all found themselves inside the base once more, unharmed on the outside, but their minds were on the verge of shattering. The female soldier who had the guts to speak fell on her knees first, fingers on the sides of her head, scratching bloody lines as a fit of laughter caught her. Her eyes were unblinking and wide open. She didn't respond to her fellow soldier shaking her shoulder.
"So much for superiority," Kael muttered on the screen, crossing his arms. One by one, the soldiers got down on their knees, putting their hands behind their necks. Amid the mad laughter of the soldier, they surrendered, leaving him considering what to do.
"Maybe you should take a look at that car? They will die in a couple of minutes," Nax said, displaying the totally flipped-out men inside the vehicle.
"Fine," he said, dragging the word out. He had already stopped three assassination attempts targeting Jason. The would-be killers had gone to the police, confessing their crimes and who had hired them. If those four agreed to the same offer, they would live.
—
On two different corners of Haven, two different people received an identical message. It had arrived through the Lifeline Channel, the communication line only reserved for the gravest of threats between the three nations. They had already made plans for a similar event to what was written in the message.
Meltral was about to be busy.
Of the five point eight billion people on the planet, almost everyone was watching the live stream. They didn't care about the dangers the Adventurer presented. His existence meant someone on Haven had the capability to create a superhuman. One who possessed invincibility and control over ruptures, dimensions, and illusions. The danger lay in his attitude.
He hadn't hesitated to destroy spaceships and murder thousands, driving the soldiers on the ground insane. One wrong move against him would risk similar events taking place in their world. However, letting him act as he wished was out of the question.
If only they could back that claim up.
Chapter 26 - A Twist
New
Samael61
I trust you know where the happy button is?
- Joined
- Apr 6, 2025
- Messages
- 558
- Likes received
- 31,092
Earth
His ancestors were from the very planet he was looking at. A version of it from one of the countless ones that existed but from Earth nonetheless.
He checked the active viewer count.
Four point six billion devices.
Destroying the fleet and driving the ground troops crazy had doubled the numbers.
He had decided his next target would be the homeworld of humanity in this dimension. Wrecking the capital of the entire empire and taking out the emperor was the best action to throw a wrench into everything.
"Admiral, the rifle is ready for testing. Your men will have to come to the lab for the security briefing first."
"Very well, Doctor. I'll send the Vermillion Team as soon as we dock," Admiral Hardass said.
He had deceived the current fleet he was riding with into believing nothing had gone wrong on that alien planet. They were kind enough to give him a ride to Earth. He was in the Admiral's personal room, listening to her conversations.
No sense of humor, a permanent frown on her face, hair grayer than the empire's future—she was a bundle of joy.
What he cared about was the weapon. The file didn't show anything about the specs, only that it was expensive and for special forces only. It wouldn't do if he didn't steal such a shiny toy. He phased through the floor, going for the hangar.
—
The Vermillion team consisted of four psychopaths.
Within the first five minutes of the shuttle leaving for Earth, it became clear why they were chosen. The four of them talked about killing like it was a sport. Each one had their preferred way of hunting the blue aliens, the Raxans.
Booby traps, wounding a civilian or a soldier to draw more out of hiding, bringing down entire building blocks with explosives, and more.
He had enough of their laughter.
He pulled a plasma grenade out of the little inventory his brother had given him. The shuttle was about to land any second now.
"Get ready, boys; we are landing," the pilot said. He primed the grenade, counting down and dropping it. Just as it hit the floor of the shuttle, it phased into real space. The sound of metal on metal alerted the soldiers.
"What the?" one of them said, but it was too late. Kael let himself fall back, going through the floor. He was barely below the shuttle when the grenade went off, expanding into a white sphere. Half molten pieces of shrapnel shot through him, covering the landing pad.
He made the superhero landing.
The flaming wreckage fell on him. He walked through the flames and only appeared in real space in the middle of the fire, emerging completely unharmed.
Firefighter crews and armed security swarmed the pad. They stopped at the sight of him, tense. "You! On the ground now!" one of them ordered, a lieutenant by the insignia on his shoulder.
He tilted his head to the side, a lopsided grin showing his teeth.
He burst into motion, charging forward, not even bothering to lower his center of gravity to be a smaller target. He was too fast for them to properly aim. The shots were close enough but still missed.
His punch slammed through the visor of the lieutenant, breaking the glass and bending the edges of the metal frame inward. Another punch lifted the armored man into the air, and a spinning kick sent him flying to another soldier.
He blinked out of his spot, appearing over a soldier, bringing both feet down on his head. The soldier's head met the ground, bouncing once before he went still. He appeared behind the third one, phasing him through the ground.
One by one, the soldiers began to sink, too powerless to do anything.
By the time more surged out to greet him, he was gone, diving deeper into the base to search for this mysterious rifle.
—
"What the hell is going on out there?!" Doctor Merdon said, turning a soldier running for the exit around.
"There is an attack. Get back in your laboratory and wait for further orders, doctor," the soldier replied, joining the remaining forces.
"Damn it," he cursed, doing as he was told. "Lock the rifle and upload all research data to offsite servers," he ordered his research team.
"Ooooh, what does this do?" a child-like voice said, startling him. Merdon yelped, causing the intruder to scream in return, his eyeballs literally popping out like a cartoon character. His yelp turned into a scream at the sudden impossibility. The intruder screamed louder in response, his head growing in size.
He turned around, running before he hit the glass door.
Kael bent over, laughing.
"Intruder in the A wing, primary research lab. Send security now," another researcher said to the intercom tied around his wrist. "Dude, why are you speaking to that snake?" he asked, watching the man look down.
The researcher let out an extremely feminine shriek, trying to swat the illusion of a small snake around his wrist, jumping around like a headless chicken as he did so.
He pointed at the man, laughing like a child as he did.
Leaving the terrified researchers aside, he tiptoed to the glass display. There were two keyholes and a keyboard for a password. Whatever the rifle was, it was important; he could see that much.
His hands went through the protective glass, wrapping around the obsidian-colored weapon. Two sets of metal prongs were interlaced, creating a vertical maw, with a handle on top of the stock and the trigger beneath.
"So, Doc, what does this do?" he asked, playing with the weapon, letting the visor scan it.
The doctor was pressing himself to the glass door, as if he too could phase through solid objects. "Do not touch it. If you fire that thing here, you'll kill yourself too."
"Don't worry. I am bulletproof," he said, knocking on his head.
"It fires a ray that creates a field to break all molecules in it into individual electrons, protons, and neutrons. Being bulletproof won't protect you," the scientist shrieked out, mashing the buttons on the keylock. He was trembling so much he kept entering the password wrong multiple times.
"Hey, hey, doc," he called out again, pointing the weapon at the man. Merdon turned to him, eyes wide, sweating bullets. "Bang!" he said, jerking the weapon forward. The scientist's eyes rolled to the back of his head, and he slid down the glass door, out cold.
He left the room with one last laugh, echoing long after he was gone.
—
The Imperial Palace
Washington, D.C.
"Holy moly," he said over the sound of the wind, riding on top of a shuttle sending reinforcements to the palace. It was large enough to have four Moonfall Palaces in a square formation. His birthplace was the largest single complex on the planet, standing at half a million square meters.
He turned to the camera. "I think we all can agree that Earth sucks if the emperor has all this place. I mean, what the heck are you supposed to do with all this land?"
He read the responses, which were compressed into single messages with a number showing how many people wrote something similar. Over a billion people wanted to know what he was going to do now.
"You know, make the emperor piss himself, maybe test this beauty on him," he said, patting the molecular disruptor.
Tens of thousands of messages offered him billions for the weapon.
"No can do, boys and girls. We have an entire treaty to ensure this kind of shit doesn't happen, and you guys want to break it? Shame on you," he admonished with a light tone, wagging a finger.
"Move, move, move!" a sergeant screamed as soon as the shuttle landed. The soldiers burst out of the ramp, following him towards the main building.
He glanced at his bracelet, waiting for Nax to locate the emperor. A 3D map flashed, invisible to the camera, displaying the building before him. A line went down several hundred meters into a small enclosed area.
An emergency bunker.
He jumped down.
—
Kaidan wiped the sweat on his forehead. The damn bunker had not been used in a long time. Full operational capacity would be slow to achieve.
"Who is attacking us?" he asked his Imperial Guards.
"Unknown. They will be dealt with," the captain of the guards responded, turning to ignore him once more.
"I don't know, Captain. Can you really deal with him?" a voice exactly like his asked.
Kaidan's head slowly turned to the right, eyes wide as saucers. A clone of him stood there, fixing his cuffs. The intruder winked at him, grinning.
He yelped, backing away. The guards were alerted, turning around with weapons raised. Kael latched on the emperor, spinning both of them in a circle, creating the illusion of a blur as he did.
"Quick, shoot him! He is the imposter," he ordered the captain, pointing at the real emperor. The emperor did the same, leaving the soldiers in a bind.
"Captain, what do we do?" one of the soldiers asked, aiming at Kael and the emperor.
The man in charge raised his weapon. "Doesn't matter; shoot them both. As long as the intruder is dead, it will be fine," he said, finger wrapping around the trigger.
Kael blinked, realizing the soldiers were actually going to shoot their emperor. He broke the illusion, phasing the emperor out of sight with a touch to his shoulder. The laser bolts converged on him from all sides.
He switched places with the captain of the guards. He backtracked, pulling his new weapon out. He pulled the trigger while bending the dimensions around the guards in a circle. They were launched forward, meeting in a heap in the middle.
The prongs slowly parted. Darkness massed inside, and he winked at the camera, turning it off for this part. Parted all the way, the prongs retracted, allowing him to pull the second section of the trigger, firing the dark mass.
It was instantaneous.
He released the folded space back to its original state. The black mass struck the soldiers, expanding into a perfect sphere. Just as quickly, it was gone, leaving nothing visible behind.
He snapped his fingers, bringing the emperor back.
"Did I come at a bad time? A coup maybe? Or are you a fake? Because they seemed awfully willing to shoot you," he said, pulling the man up to his feet. He wasn't that old, maybe in his mid thirties, dressed in a red and black uniform.
Kaidan gulped, taking a couple of steps back. "They were going to shoot me because I am not the one in charge."
"Ooooh," his eyes literally shone like stars. "Is it a mystery cabal ruling everything from behind the scenes?" Back on Haven, there were enough movies and conspiracy theories about someone pulling the strings from the shadows that even he knew about them.
He did a double take, his brows furrowed. "What? No. The corporations. They control the media, the finance, the internet, basically everything. I am just a puppet, a scapegoat in case things go south."
His predecessor had taken his own life because of a military blunder.
His visor snapped on, scanning the man. "Huh, you are telling the truth."
"Here I thought getting rid of you might throw the empire into chaos," he muttered. A dystopian corporate-run world was as bad as a fascist empire.
"They'll have a replacement before my corpse cools down."
"How the heck did it happen?" he asked. How had the people let this happen?
"It was two hundred years ago. Corporations got richer in the twenty-first century. They began to buy the politicians, the media, the internet, and every other sector they needed to control the planet. By the time anyone realized what was happening, it was too late." Kaidan shook his head, remembering the old news he had read, ones about certain people spouting nonsense about corporations taking over the world.
They were labeled as nutcases until it had become the truth.
"They fueled planetary conflicts first for profit. When FTL-capable ships were built, they created an elaborate, fake persona to unite the planet, the first emperor. After that, those bastards waged war against the galaxy. The Raxans aren't the first alien civilization they conquered. They won't be the last," he said. The Xuluzi, the Ichtaron, and the Komebi were already extinct. The Raxans wouldn't be far behind.
"What do they do with them?" he asked. Re-education camps didn't seem to fit their agenda of profit.
"The re-education camps?" he shuddered, images of those blasted places flashing in his mind. "Nothing but factories and mines for free labor. They'll make the prisoners work to death."
He rolled his neck, feeling the satisfying pops. "Seems I am going to have to destroy a lot more to stop this empire."
"Wait," Kaidan said before he could leave.
"I actually have a plan, but I am…" he swallowed. "I am too much of a coward to make it happen. If you really want to stop them, please, help me."
He scratched his chin, curious. What could he have planned to take down this empire? "What is this plan of yours?"
"The corporations have a central control system for their private robotic armies. The man that built it was deceived into doing it. If you can get him to the system, he could wipe most of them out at once."
"You seem to know awfully much for a puppet," he said. The existence of the system and its creator sounded like top-secret intelligence. Not something he should know.
"I was always a good listener and knew how to keep my mouth shut." Which was the reason he was chosen to be the emperor. A quiet, obedient boy who would do exactly as he was told.
"Where do I find this control system and its creator?" he asked. He saw no harm in at least hearing him. If it was a trap, it would be one he would enjoy springing.
"Last the corporate intelligence heard from the man, he was on the fringes of the empire, hiding on low-tech planets. The control system is deep inside the moon," he revealed.
Rare as it was, the corporate executives indulged themselves in alcohol in public gatherings. He, as the emperor, was naturally expected to be there. Being under their collective thumb made him appear unassuming.
Not that he was actually a danger in the first place.
"You are going to have to disappear. With them all dead and you left alive, they'll know something's wrong," he said, gesturing at the perfectly smooth crater left on the floor.
Kaidan shook his head. "Don't bother. Puppet or not, I am an accomplice in this. Better dead than having to live after this," he muttered, slowly sitting down, leaning on the wall.
"You can take the easy way out or you can start walking on the right path," Kael said, opening a portal to the surface.
His ancestors were from the very planet he was looking at. A version of it from one of the countless ones that existed but from Earth nonetheless.
He checked the active viewer count.
Four point six billion devices.
Destroying the fleet and driving the ground troops crazy had doubled the numbers.
He had decided his next target would be the homeworld of humanity in this dimension. Wrecking the capital of the entire empire and taking out the emperor was the best action to throw a wrench into everything.
"Admiral, the rifle is ready for testing. Your men will have to come to the lab for the security briefing first."
"Very well, Doctor. I'll send the Vermillion Team as soon as we dock," Admiral Hardass said.
He had deceived the current fleet he was riding with into believing nothing had gone wrong on that alien planet. They were kind enough to give him a ride to Earth. He was in the Admiral's personal room, listening to her conversations.
No sense of humor, a permanent frown on her face, hair grayer than the empire's future—she was a bundle of joy.
What he cared about was the weapon. The file didn't show anything about the specs, only that it was expensive and for special forces only. It wouldn't do if he didn't steal such a shiny toy. He phased through the floor, going for the hangar.
—
The Vermillion team consisted of four psychopaths.
Within the first five minutes of the shuttle leaving for Earth, it became clear why they were chosen. The four of them talked about killing like it was a sport. Each one had their preferred way of hunting the blue aliens, the Raxans.
Booby traps, wounding a civilian or a soldier to draw more out of hiding, bringing down entire building blocks with explosives, and more.
He had enough of their laughter.
He pulled a plasma grenade out of the little inventory his brother had given him. The shuttle was about to land any second now.
"Get ready, boys; we are landing," the pilot said. He primed the grenade, counting down and dropping it. Just as it hit the floor of the shuttle, it phased into real space. The sound of metal on metal alerted the soldiers.
"What the?" one of them said, but it was too late. Kael let himself fall back, going through the floor. He was barely below the shuttle when the grenade went off, expanding into a white sphere. Half molten pieces of shrapnel shot through him, covering the landing pad.
He made the superhero landing.
The flaming wreckage fell on him. He walked through the flames and only appeared in real space in the middle of the fire, emerging completely unharmed.
Firefighter crews and armed security swarmed the pad. They stopped at the sight of him, tense. "You! On the ground now!" one of them ordered, a lieutenant by the insignia on his shoulder.
He tilted his head to the side, a lopsided grin showing his teeth.
He burst into motion, charging forward, not even bothering to lower his center of gravity to be a smaller target. He was too fast for them to properly aim. The shots were close enough but still missed.
His punch slammed through the visor of the lieutenant, breaking the glass and bending the edges of the metal frame inward. Another punch lifted the armored man into the air, and a spinning kick sent him flying to another soldier.
He blinked out of his spot, appearing over a soldier, bringing both feet down on his head. The soldier's head met the ground, bouncing once before he went still. He appeared behind the third one, phasing him through the ground.
One by one, the soldiers began to sink, too powerless to do anything.
By the time more surged out to greet him, he was gone, diving deeper into the base to search for this mysterious rifle.
—
"What the hell is going on out there?!" Doctor Merdon said, turning a soldier running for the exit around.
"There is an attack. Get back in your laboratory and wait for further orders, doctor," the soldier replied, joining the remaining forces.
"Damn it," he cursed, doing as he was told. "Lock the rifle and upload all research data to offsite servers," he ordered his research team.
"Ooooh, what does this do?" a child-like voice said, startling him. Merdon yelped, causing the intruder to scream in return, his eyeballs literally popping out like a cartoon character. His yelp turned into a scream at the sudden impossibility. The intruder screamed louder in response, his head growing in size.
He turned around, running before he hit the glass door.
Kael bent over, laughing.
"Intruder in the A wing, primary research lab. Send security now," another researcher said to the intercom tied around his wrist. "Dude, why are you speaking to that snake?" he asked, watching the man look down.
The researcher let out an extremely feminine shriek, trying to swat the illusion of a small snake around his wrist, jumping around like a headless chicken as he did so.
He pointed at the man, laughing like a child as he did.
Leaving the terrified researchers aside, he tiptoed to the glass display. There were two keyholes and a keyboard for a password. Whatever the rifle was, it was important; he could see that much.
His hands went through the protective glass, wrapping around the obsidian-colored weapon. Two sets of metal prongs were interlaced, creating a vertical maw, with a handle on top of the stock and the trigger beneath.
"So, Doc, what does this do?" he asked, playing with the weapon, letting the visor scan it.
The doctor was pressing himself to the glass door, as if he too could phase through solid objects. "Do not touch it. If you fire that thing here, you'll kill yourself too."
"Don't worry. I am bulletproof," he said, knocking on his head.
"It fires a ray that creates a field to break all molecules in it into individual electrons, protons, and neutrons. Being bulletproof won't protect you," the scientist shrieked out, mashing the buttons on the keylock. He was trembling so much he kept entering the password wrong multiple times.
"Hey, hey, doc," he called out again, pointing the weapon at the man. Merdon turned to him, eyes wide, sweating bullets. "Bang!" he said, jerking the weapon forward. The scientist's eyes rolled to the back of his head, and he slid down the glass door, out cold.
He left the room with one last laugh, echoing long after he was gone.
—
The Imperial Palace
Washington, D.C.
"Holy moly," he said over the sound of the wind, riding on top of a shuttle sending reinforcements to the palace. It was large enough to have four Moonfall Palaces in a square formation. His birthplace was the largest single complex on the planet, standing at half a million square meters.
He turned to the camera. "I think we all can agree that Earth sucks if the emperor has all this place. I mean, what the heck are you supposed to do with all this land?"
He read the responses, which were compressed into single messages with a number showing how many people wrote something similar. Over a billion people wanted to know what he was going to do now.
"You know, make the emperor piss himself, maybe test this beauty on him," he said, patting the molecular disruptor.
Tens of thousands of messages offered him billions for the weapon.
"No can do, boys and girls. We have an entire treaty to ensure this kind of shit doesn't happen, and you guys want to break it? Shame on you," he admonished with a light tone, wagging a finger.
"Move, move, move!" a sergeant screamed as soon as the shuttle landed. The soldiers burst out of the ramp, following him towards the main building.
He glanced at his bracelet, waiting for Nax to locate the emperor. A 3D map flashed, invisible to the camera, displaying the building before him. A line went down several hundred meters into a small enclosed area.
An emergency bunker.
He jumped down.
—
Kaidan wiped the sweat on his forehead. The damn bunker had not been used in a long time. Full operational capacity would be slow to achieve.
"Who is attacking us?" he asked his Imperial Guards.
"Unknown. They will be dealt with," the captain of the guards responded, turning to ignore him once more.
"I don't know, Captain. Can you really deal with him?" a voice exactly like his asked.
Kaidan's head slowly turned to the right, eyes wide as saucers. A clone of him stood there, fixing his cuffs. The intruder winked at him, grinning.
He yelped, backing away. The guards were alerted, turning around with weapons raised. Kael latched on the emperor, spinning both of them in a circle, creating the illusion of a blur as he did.
"Quick, shoot him! He is the imposter," he ordered the captain, pointing at the real emperor. The emperor did the same, leaving the soldiers in a bind.
"Captain, what do we do?" one of the soldiers asked, aiming at Kael and the emperor.
The man in charge raised his weapon. "Doesn't matter; shoot them both. As long as the intruder is dead, it will be fine," he said, finger wrapping around the trigger.
Kael blinked, realizing the soldiers were actually going to shoot their emperor. He broke the illusion, phasing the emperor out of sight with a touch to his shoulder. The laser bolts converged on him from all sides.
He switched places with the captain of the guards. He backtracked, pulling his new weapon out. He pulled the trigger while bending the dimensions around the guards in a circle. They were launched forward, meeting in a heap in the middle.
The prongs slowly parted. Darkness massed inside, and he winked at the camera, turning it off for this part. Parted all the way, the prongs retracted, allowing him to pull the second section of the trigger, firing the dark mass.
It was instantaneous.
He released the folded space back to its original state. The black mass struck the soldiers, expanding into a perfect sphere. Just as quickly, it was gone, leaving nothing visible behind.
He snapped his fingers, bringing the emperor back.
"Did I come at a bad time? A coup maybe? Or are you a fake? Because they seemed awfully willing to shoot you," he said, pulling the man up to his feet. He wasn't that old, maybe in his mid thirties, dressed in a red and black uniform.
Kaidan gulped, taking a couple of steps back. "They were going to shoot me because I am not the one in charge."
"Ooooh," his eyes literally shone like stars. "Is it a mystery cabal ruling everything from behind the scenes?" Back on Haven, there were enough movies and conspiracy theories about someone pulling the strings from the shadows that even he knew about them.
He did a double take, his brows furrowed. "What? No. The corporations. They control the media, the finance, the internet, basically everything. I am just a puppet, a scapegoat in case things go south."
His predecessor had taken his own life because of a military blunder.
His visor snapped on, scanning the man. "Huh, you are telling the truth."
"Here I thought getting rid of you might throw the empire into chaos," he muttered. A dystopian corporate-run world was as bad as a fascist empire.
"They'll have a replacement before my corpse cools down."
"How the heck did it happen?" he asked. How had the people let this happen?
"It was two hundred years ago. Corporations got richer in the twenty-first century. They began to buy the politicians, the media, the internet, and every other sector they needed to control the planet. By the time anyone realized what was happening, it was too late." Kaidan shook his head, remembering the old news he had read, ones about certain people spouting nonsense about corporations taking over the world.
They were labeled as nutcases until it had become the truth.
"They fueled planetary conflicts first for profit. When FTL-capable ships were built, they created an elaborate, fake persona to unite the planet, the first emperor. After that, those bastards waged war against the galaxy. The Raxans aren't the first alien civilization they conquered. They won't be the last," he said. The Xuluzi, the Ichtaron, and the Komebi were already extinct. The Raxans wouldn't be far behind.
"What do they do with them?" he asked. Re-education camps didn't seem to fit their agenda of profit.
"The re-education camps?" he shuddered, images of those blasted places flashing in his mind. "Nothing but factories and mines for free labor. They'll make the prisoners work to death."
He rolled his neck, feeling the satisfying pops. "Seems I am going to have to destroy a lot more to stop this empire."
"Wait," Kaidan said before he could leave.
"I actually have a plan, but I am…" he swallowed. "I am too much of a coward to make it happen. If you really want to stop them, please, help me."
He scratched his chin, curious. What could he have planned to take down this empire? "What is this plan of yours?"
"The corporations have a central control system for their private robotic armies. The man that built it was deceived into doing it. If you can get him to the system, he could wipe most of them out at once."
"You seem to know awfully much for a puppet," he said. The existence of the system and its creator sounded like top-secret intelligence. Not something he should know.
"I was always a good listener and knew how to keep my mouth shut." Which was the reason he was chosen to be the emperor. A quiet, obedient boy who would do exactly as he was told.
"Where do I find this control system and its creator?" he asked. He saw no harm in at least hearing him. If it was a trap, it would be one he would enjoy springing.
"Last the corporate intelligence heard from the man, he was on the fringes of the empire, hiding on low-tech planets. The control system is deep inside the moon," he revealed.
Rare as it was, the corporate executives indulged themselves in alcohol in public gatherings. He, as the emperor, was naturally expected to be there. Being under their collective thumb made him appear unassuming.
Not that he was actually a danger in the first place.
"You are going to have to disappear. With them all dead and you left alive, they'll know something's wrong," he said, gesturing at the perfectly smooth crater left on the floor.
Kaidan shook his head. "Don't bother. Puppet or not, I am an accomplice in this. Better dead than having to live after this," he muttered, slowly sitting down, leaning on the wall.
"You can take the easy way out or you can start walking on the right path," Kael said, opening a portal to the surface.
Chapter 27 - Lost
New
Samael61
I trust you know where the happy button is?
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Glassport
He walked into the main computer terminal, taking his place with a cup of tea.
Without a prompt, screens depicting the video recordings of the last few days appeared. In Thermion, Tagen Enterprises' headquarters was on fire, and the firefighters were having a difficult time putting it out. A massive mob was gathered around the Republic's Top Hundred Plaza, two kilometers in every direction, preventing entry. The Union had tighter control over its business conglomerates, but it didn't stop mass strikes and protests.
Business life on the planet had ground to a halt.
Kael's livestream had shown to the people that the idea of companies ruling a world wasn't simply a dystopic fantasy. Politicians could be bought. Laws could be subverted. They could be screened at all times and would be unaware.
He threw his head back, barking out a sharp laugh.
"They are protesting us too, right?" he asked, smiling, stirring his tea. Given the size and wealth of Alteran, it would be unavoidable for the protests to miss it.
Another screen popped up. A crowd, far smaller than any other, was outside the headquarters of his company, waving signs. Given there was no one inside and it was built out of necessity, the location didn't serve any purpose.
"Release a statement. Include the taxes we paid, how we didn't receive any grants, etc. Don't forget our non-involvement in politics as well."
"Done."
"Great. Let's continue with the singularity reactor."
—
Taglion
Outskirts of the Dwarftree Forest
The cold, crisp morning air of the forest did wonders for her lungs. Eight hours were left for the rupture, and she was finally on-site to assume field command.
She fixed the strap of her helmet, walking towards the commanding officer of the operation. Barricades and gun encampments surrounded the arrival point. Air patrols were circling above, and she saw the
"Sir," she greeted the captain without saluting per the battlefield conditions. Silene and Argyle followed the lead, waiting.
The captain, a head shorter than her, nodded back. "Lieutenant, welcome to Taglion. How was the trip?"
"Smooth as it can be, sir," she said. A transport plane and then a helicopter ride were about as good as it got in military life.
Teleportation made it all slow.
"We already got everything set up. Artillery, mortars, and close air support. Switch your channel to ten-twelve for field command access," the captain said, getting the main business out of the way.
"Yes sir," she replied, twisting the small button on her radio to adjust the channel. She gave out her ID number and received acknowledgment of access.
"How are you holding up with all this hero business?" He asked offhandedly, eyes on the rupture that would arrive hours later.
She smiled, but it did not reach her eyes. "I am managing it."
"Don't hesitate to stand up to the higher-ups. They'll work you to the bone otherwise," he said. She wasn't the first hero to catch the Central Command's eyes. She wouldn't be the last one.
"Understood, sir."
"Then you have the field command. Sergeant Chandley will inform you of the details," he said, heading for the helicopter.
"Ma'am," the sergeant nodded, holding out a tablet for her.
"Sergeant."
—
She leaned on the tree, her helmet pushing the branches aside. The dwarf trees, barely the size of the average human, were a curiosity. They had roots, barks, and all the necessary parts to be classified as a tree. But none ever grew beyond two meters at most.
They too weren't originally from this universe.
She had already inspected the preparations. There wasn't anything out of order, and the units were as ready as they could be. Which meant five more hours of sitting and waiting. She couldn't contact anyone during the operation because of one too many reckless civilians in the past.
"Ma'am. They set up an area for sleeping bags. There are spares if you want."
"Argyle, people think I am a hero, but what I am is a trouble magnet. I'd rather not push my luck."
"True. First a dragon, then those bugs. You always came out on top though; that's why we think you are a hero."
"I got lucky both times."
"Luck is a skill too. One that I hope we'll find some of as well."
"Don't worry Argyle. I am sure you will."
—
"The rupture is forming," Scout-1 said, his voice distorted by the radio interference the dimensional instabilities caused.
"All ranged fire support be ready," she ordered, already behind the barricade. She raised her weapon, flicking the safety off, waiting. The sight she had seen dozens of times repeated once more as the rupture formed. Its size was no bigger than the miniature trees surrounding them for kilometers.
She counted to sixty three times, measuring the time.
Nothing.
"Three-minute mark, no arrivals."
"Looks like an empty one," Argyle said, sighing.
"Don't lower your guard," she warned. Until the rupture was closed and gone, it was a danger.
Though they were fortunate this time. The rupture began to close, collapsing on itself at the edges like a wound, shrinking until there was nothing left. "Command, rupture is closed. No arrivals," she said, flicking her safety on.
"Uhh, ma'am," Argyle said, pointing at where the rupture had formed and closed. She walked to his side, seeing an anomaly that wasn't visible from her angle. The space where the rupture had appeared was buckling inwards. When looked at from a certain point, the images of the trees and the sky were stretching like a painting in rain.
"Command, there is an anomaly."
"Anomaly?"
"Never seen it before. It is as if the space is being dragged into a single point."
"Standby for orders."
"Ma'am?" Chandley asked.
"Everyone keep your heads down," she ordered, watching the anomaly. Eleven tense seconds later, it erupted, plunging the entire containment area into darkness.
Next thing she knew, she was falling.
—
Unknown Planet
She came to her senses with a gasp.
Her blurry eyes saw the dark floor first. Her hands felt the cold metal next. She pushed herself up, feeling her right arm flare in pain. She rolled on her back with a curse stuck behind her lips, cradling the limb.
"Tomoe, are you alright?" Silene called. She turned her head towards the origin of the sound. Metal bars, metal walls, a dim light, and not even a place to sleep on.
She was in a cell.
"Silene? What the hell happened?" she asked, feeling her arm throb.
"The anomaly pulled everyone through. You got knocked out when you fell. The locals arrested us," she said.
"Shit."
"Yeah. I tried to explain the situation to them, but the language barrier is a problem. Also, they aren't the type to play nice," she said, licking her lips.
Tomoe narrowed her eyes. "What did they do?"
"Oh, you know, just a busted lip because I spoke gibberish to them."
"What's the headcount?" she asked. Hopefully they weren't separated. It would make escape and rescue more difficult.
"Everyone's here."
"Ma'am. What are we going to do? The anomaly closed behind us. How do we get home?" Argyle asked. She could hear him hyperventilating.
"Can we even do that?" Another trooper asked from across her cell.
Her lips tightened at the pain. "First we try to initiate peaceful contact with the locals. After that, we'll see."
She heard a whirring sound, forcing herself up. The locals were aliens, a detail Silene had forgotten to include.
They were beautiful.
Three of them, all snow white, tall and lithe, walked into the cells. Their skin was flawless, the kind humans would spend thousands of aurels to achieve and fail to. By human standards, they were androgynous. Heart-shaped faces with soft edges were warped by the sharp glares.
Their eyes, though, were the most striking part. A rainbow of colors danced in their eyeballs, with no visible pupils or irises.
The white robes they wore, covering everything beneath their heads, seemed more ceremonial than military. Then again, she was judging it by her knowledge of clothing, which could be entirely opposite to that of the aliens.
Two held rifles, gray, similar to her Z-12, but with digital screens on it. The muzzles rested on their left shoulders, while the one in the middle only had a pistol.
Compared to his ethereal look, the alien's voice was harsh and gravelly, as if he were grating rocks in his throat. He barked at her with words she did not recognize.
"I am Lieutenant Tomoe Nishimura, Rupture Intervention Corps, from planet Haven. We have arrived in this world by accident. We have no hostile intentions," she said. Her words would be just as unintelligible to them as their words were to her. What she tried to do was to convince them through her gentle, smooth tone and her stance.
Hands open with palms facing forward, one foot slightly behind the other and knees bent partially. She turned her body a bit to the side while maintaining a steady, confident eye contact.
The textbook example of a non-hostile stance to de-escalate the situation.
That is, by human standards.
The one in the middle barked at his subordinates. The said alien raised a gloved hand, pressing his earpiece, and his cell door opened. Two of them wrapped their arms around hers, dragging her away.
—
For all the racial differences that existed between her and the aliens, the interrogation room was similar to what one could find in Haven. An empty room with a chair, her hands were tied at the back with thick, metal cuffs. Given the state of her arm, tears had welled up in her eyes at the forced movements.
The same alien spoke to her again.
"As I said, I am Lieutenant Tomoe Nishimura," she began in the same soothing tone. Only, the alien didn't seem interested in hearing it again. The back of his hand slapped her face to the side.
She blinked, feeling the sting.
"Ouch," she muttered with a roll of her eyes. It appeared she was in for that kind of an interrogation.
They were either very irrational or very xenophobic people. She assumed the aliens didn't care about the fact that they couldn't understand one another. Each time she tried to relay her peaceful intentions, it was met with violence.
She considered her options.
She was elastic enough to get out of the chair and slide between her cuffed arms to be in a fighting position. She could neutralize all three with the element of surprise. The problem was her unit. The cells were controlled through a central location. In the one minute and fifty eight seconds the soldiers took to bring her here, she counted twenty guards.
She was good but not that good.
Any attempt to escape would end in someone's death. It would have been worth trying under normal circumstances. Her unit wasn't the first one to disappear because of a rupture. None had ever returned.
Thairon, though, would send rescue.
While their relationship wasn't exactly official—not boyfriend and girlfriend yet—she didn't think he'd simply leave her here. She just had to hold on for long enough.
She grunted again as a punch landed on her chest.
—
Earth
The Deep Lunar Base
As the drones, used by the corps to ensure their security since humans were liable to betrayal, turned on everyone, he ran. He was cackling with each step, reaching speeds beyond what an ordinary human could react to.
"Hey Doc, how are you holding up?" he asked the old man, whose breathing was labored inside the pocket dimension he created. The old man, creator of the central control system, wasn't in good condition in the first place. Three decades of imprisonment had taken its toll on him.
"I'm fine," he replied, a serene smile on his face.
"You sure?"
"I fixed my greatest mistake. I can die in peace," he muttered. He expected to rot in that cell his whole life. To be rescued by a human from another universe who simply wanted to end the corporations because they were evil wasn't on his agenda.
He welcomed it, though.
Kael turned his attention ahead. A rocket was heading straight at him. It wouldn't harm him, not at all, but he couldn't let the disrespect stand. The spacetime continuum bent in an instant, causing the rocket to flip its course, heading straight back to the soldier who had fired.
The said soldier didn't panic, simply lowering the launcher and hanging his head down, shoulders slumped. The explosion was one of the many inside the base, ripping the metal walls apart, creating a small tremor.
He jumped through the smoke, opening a portal back to the puppet emperor's bunker, and disappeared. His haunting laughter was all that was left behind.
—
The Emergency Bunker
He rolled with the momentum, jumping to his feet with arms spread up.
The emperor, who was lounging on the sofa, yelped.
"You are back."
"Yep," he said, bringing the old man out of the pocket dimension, laying him on one of the empty sofas.
His breathing was so shallow he struggled to see his chest rise and fall.
"God," he breathed out, "Is that him?"
"Yeah. Turns out they had him imprisoned in an asteroid prison on the fringes of the empire," he said. Busting Jacob Turner out was easy. No one expected someone like him to appear after all.
"Does that mean?"
"That we did it? Of course." Jacob had the foresight to hide a driver with a virus specifically written to take the system down right inside the mainframe itself. He simply had to defend the old man until he assumed control.
He stumbled back, falling on his chair.
"Young man," Jacob called, barely a whisper, eyes still closed. "I don't know who you are, but thank you."
"Don't worry about it, old man. Just rest, you earned it," he said. Minute by minute, his breathing got slower and slower until he stopped. He had long turned the drone off, letting the old man take his last breaths in peace.
"What now?"
"The drones are slaughtering everyone that is a part of this system knowingly. The rest is up to the people and you," he said, opening a portal, stretching his arms, the freshly deceased body floating behind him.
—
He didn't trust anyone not to dig Jacob's grave up for one reason or the other. Instead, he boarded one of the ships. Ripping out a torpedo's warhead, he rested the body inside, sending him to the sun.
He barely knew him for a couple of hours but already knew Jacob found sunlight to be beautiful. It was extreme, of course, but not like he was alive to object.
He turned the drone on again, displaying the destruction raging over Earth and its moon.
"Huh?" he said, reading the message the drone was displaying. It was sent millions of times. A unit of RIC soldiers was swallowed by an anomalous rupture. The viewers were asking him for a rescue.
"Sure," he said, falling silent as he read another message, this one from his brother.
"Retrieve the RIC troops immediately," the message said.
He walked into the main computer terminal, taking his place with a cup of tea.
Without a prompt, screens depicting the video recordings of the last few days appeared. In Thermion, Tagen Enterprises' headquarters was on fire, and the firefighters were having a difficult time putting it out. A massive mob was gathered around the Republic's Top Hundred Plaza, two kilometers in every direction, preventing entry. The Union had tighter control over its business conglomerates, but it didn't stop mass strikes and protests.
Business life on the planet had ground to a halt.
Kael's livestream had shown to the people that the idea of companies ruling a world wasn't simply a dystopic fantasy. Politicians could be bought. Laws could be subverted. They could be screened at all times and would be unaware.
He threw his head back, barking out a sharp laugh.
"They are protesting us too, right?" he asked, smiling, stirring his tea. Given the size and wealth of Alteran, it would be unavoidable for the protests to miss it.
Another screen popped up. A crowd, far smaller than any other, was outside the headquarters of his company, waving signs. Given there was no one inside and it was built out of necessity, the location didn't serve any purpose.
"Release a statement. Include the taxes we paid, how we didn't receive any grants, etc. Don't forget our non-involvement in politics as well."
"Done."
"Great. Let's continue with the singularity reactor."
—
Taglion
Outskirts of the Dwarftree Forest
The cold, crisp morning air of the forest did wonders for her lungs. Eight hours were left for the rupture, and she was finally on-site to assume field command.
She fixed the strap of her helmet, walking towards the commanding officer of the operation. Barricades and gun encampments surrounded the arrival point. Air patrols were circling above, and she saw the
"Sir," she greeted the captain without saluting per the battlefield conditions. Silene and Argyle followed the lead, waiting.
The captain, a head shorter than her, nodded back. "Lieutenant, welcome to Taglion. How was the trip?"
"Smooth as it can be, sir," she said. A transport plane and then a helicopter ride were about as good as it got in military life.
Teleportation made it all slow.
"We already got everything set up. Artillery, mortars, and close air support. Switch your channel to ten-twelve for field command access," the captain said, getting the main business out of the way.
"Yes sir," she replied, twisting the small button on her radio to adjust the channel. She gave out her ID number and received acknowledgment of access.
"How are you holding up with all this hero business?" He asked offhandedly, eyes on the rupture that would arrive hours later.
She smiled, but it did not reach her eyes. "I am managing it."
"Don't hesitate to stand up to the higher-ups. They'll work you to the bone otherwise," he said. She wasn't the first hero to catch the Central Command's eyes. She wouldn't be the last one.
"Understood, sir."
"Then you have the field command. Sergeant Chandley will inform you of the details," he said, heading for the helicopter.
"Ma'am," the sergeant nodded, holding out a tablet for her.
"Sergeant."
—
She leaned on the tree, her helmet pushing the branches aside. The dwarf trees, barely the size of the average human, were a curiosity. They had roots, barks, and all the necessary parts to be classified as a tree. But none ever grew beyond two meters at most.
They too weren't originally from this universe.
She had already inspected the preparations. There wasn't anything out of order, and the units were as ready as they could be. Which meant five more hours of sitting and waiting. She couldn't contact anyone during the operation because of one too many reckless civilians in the past.
"Ma'am. They set up an area for sleeping bags. There are spares if you want."
"Argyle, people think I am a hero, but what I am is a trouble magnet. I'd rather not push my luck."
"True. First a dragon, then those bugs. You always came out on top though; that's why we think you are a hero."
"I got lucky both times."
"Luck is a skill too. One that I hope we'll find some of as well."
"Don't worry Argyle. I am sure you will."
—
"The rupture is forming," Scout-1 said, his voice distorted by the radio interference the dimensional instabilities caused.
"All ranged fire support be ready," she ordered, already behind the barricade. She raised her weapon, flicking the safety off, waiting. The sight she had seen dozens of times repeated once more as the rupture formed. Its size was no bigger than the miniature trees surrounding them for kilometers.
She counted to sixty three times, measuring the time.
Nothing.
"Three-minute mark, no arrivals."
"Looks like an empty one," Argyle said, sighing.
"Don't lower your guard," she warned. Until the rupture was closed and gone, it was a danger.
Though they were fortunate this time. The rupture began to close, collapsing on itself at the edges like a wound, shrinking until there was nothing left. "Command, rupture is closed. No arrivals," she said, flicking her safety on.
"Uhh, ma'am," Argyle said, pointing at where the rupture had formed and closed. She walked to his side, seeing an anomaly that wasn't visible from her angle. The space where the rupture had appeared was buckling inwards. When looked at from a certain point, the images of the trees and the sky were stretching like a painting in rain.
"Command, there is an anomaly."
"Anomaly?"
"Never seen it before. It is as if the space is being dragged into a single point."
"Standby for orders."
"Ma'am?" Chandley asked.
"Everyone keep your heads down," she ordered, watching the anomaly. Eleven tense seconds later, it erupted, plunging the entire containment area into darkness.
Next thing she knew, she was falling.
—
Unknown Planet
She came to her senses with a gasp.
Her blurry eyes saw the dark floor first. Her hands felt the cold metal next. She pushed herself up, feeling her right arm flare in pain. She rolled on her back with a curse stuck behind her lips, cradling the limb.
"Tomoe, are you alright?" Silene called. She turned her head towards the origin of the sound. Metal bars, metal walls, a dim light, and not even a place to sleep on.
She was in a cell.
"Silene? What the hell happened?" she asked, feeling her arm throb.
"The anomaly pulled everyone through. You got knocked out when you fell. The locals arrested us," she said.
"Shit."
"Yeah. I tried to explain the situation to them, but the language barrier is a problem. Also, they aren't the type to play nice," she said, licking her lips.
Tomoe narrowed her eyes. "What did they do?"
"Oh, you know, just a busted lip because I spoke gibberish to them."
"What's the headcount?" she asked. Hopefully they weren't separated. It would make escape and rescue more difficult.
"Everyone's here."
"Ma'am. What are we going to do? The anomaly closed behind us. How do we get home?" Argyle asked. She could hear him hyperventilating.
"Can we even do that?" Another trooper asked from across her cell.
Her lips tightened at the pain. "First we try to initiate peaceful contact with the locals. After that, we'll see."
She heard a whirring sound, forcing herself up. The locals were aliens, a detail Silene had forgotten to include.
They were beautiful.
Three of them, all snow white, tall and lithe, walked into the cells. Their skin was flawless, the kind humans would spend thousands of aurels to achieve and fail to. By human standards, they were androgynous. Heart-shaped faces with soft edges were warped by the sharp glares.
Their eyes, though, were the most striking part. A rainbow of colors danced in their eyeballs, with no visible pupils or irises.
The white robes they wore, covering everything beneath their heads, seemed more ceremonial than military. Then again, she was judging it by her knowledge of clothing, which could be entirely opposite to that of the aliens.
Two held rifles, gray, similar to her Z-12, but with digital screens on it. The muzzles rested on their left shoulders, while the one in the middle only had a pistol.
Compared to his ethereal look, the alien's voice was harsh and gravelly, as if he were grating rocks in his throat. He barked at her with words she did not recognize.
"I am Lieutenant Tomoe Nishimura, Rupture Intervention Corps, from planet Haven. We have arrived in this world by accident. We have no hostile intentions," she said. Her words would be just as unintelligible to them as their words were to her. What she tried to do was to convince them through her gentle, smooth tone and her stance.
Hands open with palms facing forward, one foot slightly behind the other and knees bent partially. She turned her body a bit to the side while maintaining a steady, confident eye contact.
The textbook example of a non-hostile stance to de-escalate the situation.
That is, by human standards.
The one in the middle barked at his subordinates. The said alien raised a gloved hand, pressing his earpiece, and his cell door opened. Two of them wrapped their arms around hers, dragging her away.
—
For all the racial differences that existed between her and the aliens, the interrogation room was similar to what one could find in Haven. An empty room with a chair, her hands were tied at the back with thick, metal cuffs. Given the state of her arm, tears had welled up in her eyes at the forced movements.
The same alien spoke to her again.
"As I said, I am Lieutenant Tomoe Nishimura," she began in the same soothing tone. Only, the alien didn't seem interested in hearing it again. The back of his hand slapped her face to the side.
She blinked, feeling the sting.
"Ouch," she muttered with a roll of her eyes. It appeared she was in for that kind of an interrogation.
They were either very irrational or very xenophobic people. She assumed the aliens didn't care about the fact that they couldn't understand one another. Each time she tried to relay her peaceful intentions, it was met with violence.
She considered her options.
She was elastic enough to get out of the chair and slide between her cuffed arms to be in a fighting position. She could neutralize all three with the element of surprise. The problem was her unit. The cells were controlled through a central location. In the one minute and fifty eight seconds the soldiers took to bring her here, she counted twenty guards.
She was good but not that good.
Any attempt to escape would end in someone's death. It would have been worth trying under normal circumstances. Her unit wasn't the first one to disappear because of a rupture. None had ever returned.
Thairon, though, would send rescue.
While their relationship wasn't exactly official—not boyfriend and girlfriend yet—she didn't think he'd simply leave her here. She just had to hold on for long enough.
She grunted again as a punch landed on her chest.
—
Earth
The Deep Lunar Base
As the drones, used by the corps to ensure their security since humans were liable to betrayal, turned on everyone, he ran. He was cackling with each step, reaching speeds beyond what an ordinary human could react to.
"Hey Doc, how are you holding up?" he asked the old man, whose breathing was labored inside the pocket dimension he created. The old man, creator of the central control system, wasn't in good condition in the first place. Three decades of imprisonment had taken its toll on him.
"I'm fine," he replied, a serene smile on his face.
"You sure?"
"I fixed my greatest mistake. I can die in peace," he muttered. He expected to rot in that cell his whole life. To be rescued by a human from another universe who simply wanted to end the corporations because they were evil wasn't on his agenda.
He welcomed it, though.
Kael turned his attention ahead. A rocket was heading straight at him. It wouldn't harm him, not at all, but he couldn't let the disrespect stand. The spacetime continuum bent in an instant, causing the rocket to flip its course, heading straight back to the soldier who had fired.
The said soldier didn't panic, simply lowering the launcher and hanging his head down, shoulders slumped. The explosion was one of the many inside the base, ripping the metal walls apart, creating a small tremor.
He jumped through the smoke, opening a portal back to the puppet emperor's bunker, and disappeared. His haunting laughter was all that was left behind.
—
The Emergency Bunker
He rolled with the momentum, jumping to his feet with arms spread up.
The emperor, who was lounging on the sofa, yelped.
"You are back."
"Yep," he said, bringing the old man out of the pocket dimension, laying him on one of the empty sofas.
His breathing was so shallow he struggled to see his chest rise and fall.
"God," he breathed out, "Is that him?"
"Yeah. Turns out they had him imprisoned in an asteroid prison on the fringes of the empire," he said. Busting Jacob Turner out was easy. No one expected someone like him to appear after all.
"Does that mean?"
"That we did it? Of course." Jacob had the foresight to hide a driver with a virus specifically written to take the system down right inside the mainframe itself. He simply had to defend the old man until he assumed control.
He stumbled back, falling on his chair.
"Young man," Jacob called, barely a whisper, eyes still closed. "I don't know who you are, but thank you."
"Don't worry about it, old man. Just rest, you earned it," he said. Minute by minute, his breathing got slower and slower until he stopped. He had long turned the drone off, letting the old man take his last breaths in peace.
"What now?"
"The drones are slaughtering everyone that is a part of this system knowingly. The rest is up to the people and you," he said, opening a portal, stretching his arms, the freshly deceased body floating behind him.
—
He didn't trust anyone not to dig Jacob's grave up for one reason or the other. Instead, he boarded one of the ships. Ripping out a torpedo's warhead, he rested the body inside, sending him to the sun.
He barely knew him for a couple of hours but already knew Jacob found sunlight to be beautiful. It was extreme, of course, but not like he was alive to object.
He turned the drone on again, displaying the destruction raging over Earth and its moon.
"Huh?" he said, reading the message the drone was displaying. It was sent millions of times. A unit of RIC soldiers was swallowed by an anomalous rupture. The viewers were asking him for a rescue.
"Sure," he said, falling silent as he read another message, this one from his brother.
"Retrieve the RIC troops immediately," the message said.
Chapter 28 - Found
New
Samael61
I trust you know where the happy button is?
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Union of the Sun
First Dawn City
Sunrise Court
The Chairman's eyes narrowed. "Are you certain he is going to save them?"
"Yes, Chairman. He seems to have accepted the pleas of the people," the Chairman of Insight said, averting his eyes.
The Chairman of Military slowly turned the tablet in his hand towards the desk. "Chairman, he is starting another livestream."
He stroked his long beard, leaning forward. "Let me see." His cerulean blue eyes locked on the screen. The Adventurer, having changed his green sweatshirt for a cream-colored one, was moving through a prison.
"Psst, hey," he called out to one of the humans behind metal bars.
"That is Lieutenant Silene, Lieutenant Tomoe's second in command," Zarol supplied. Oda nodded, continuing to watch.
"You?!" she hissed, looking around wildly. "What are you doing here?"
"Rescuing you guys, duh," he said.
"Listen, they took our commander for questioning. Knowing these bastards, they won't be just asking questions nicely," she said, gesturing to the left side of the prison block, towards the door.
Oda's eyes widened slightly before narrowing. He eventually settled into a frosty look, watching the livestream.
"Alright, I'll get you all out first and go find her."
"She has really vibrant orange hair; you can't miss her."
"Got it," he said, opening a portal behind her. She went through after a moment, and it quickly closed behind her. One by one, he rescued the soldiers in each cell before leaving to seek the missing commander.
—
Unknown Planet
He slid on the floor towards two soldiers, ignoring the shots going through him. He flipped forward at the last second, landing on his hands, spinning with his legs spread. His breakdance broke their helmets. Both aliens hit the metal wall with enough strength to pass out. He bent his arms, launching himself up, phasing through the door.
He slid on his knees this time, almost stopping in front of another alien. He used his left hand to spin at the last second, breaking the alien's knee with his kick. He pushed himself to his feet without losing a beat, a spinning kick to the head sending the alien away before he could fall.
He saw two aliens on the edge of his vision, switching places with one, letting him take the shot. He bent his head to the left and then to the right, dodging the stock of the alien's gun. He sidestepped the lunge, catching the snow-white-skinned alien by the arms, spinning him like a ballet dancer. He guided the disoriented alien towards the last soldier.
The alien hesitated, unable to get a clear shot.
Kael struck just as the dancer fell to the ground, ripping the weapon out of his hands. The alien didn't let it stop him, whirling for a punch, his whole body twisting for maximum force. He raised his arm, hand spread, forearm catching the alien's arm. He twisted his arm, pressing the alien's elbow forward, and slammed his palm on his throat.
He watched the snow-white gag.
Kael let the arm go and followed with three quick punches. They were humanoid in shape, so he went for where the weak points on a human body would be. One to the liver had the alien almost pass out. Another on the diaphragm and the last one to the heart had the alien fall to the ground like a puppet with its strings cut.
He dusted his hands, about to phase through the next door when it opened with more soldiers coming through. He didn't stop, launching himself towards them. He was a blur, appearing right above their heads. He wrapped his legs around the head of one, hands planted on the ground, launching him to the wall. The sound of cracking bone was accompanied by a thud as the alien fell.
He was quick to turn around, pushing two weapons away from himself while planting a kick on the chest of the third alien. He felt something give as the alien flew back. The remaining two aliens stumbled, still holding onto their weapons. He let the weapons go, pivoting on the spot. His right foot struck the alien's head, causing him to hit his head first against the wall. He continued spinning, the same foot nailing the other alien right beneath the jaw with even more force, snapping the head back.
He spun three more times, each time hitting the same places. The last strike launched one of the aliens up to the ceiling while smashing the front half of the other's helmet along with his face.
His scanners found the sole human lifeform at the end of the corridor. The sound of footsteps at his back showed more aliens rushing inside. He jerked his head to the side, ordering the camera to not stream this angle. He thrust his hand forward, breaking the fabric of space at several points. The wave hit the aliens, breaking each body to dozens of pieces. The viscera and the red blood churned his stomach for a moment before he turned away.
He sprinted to the door, seeing three more aliens inside. He leaped forward once more, catching two of the aliens by the arm, pulling them with him. They all phased through the wall on the opposite side, but only he came back out.
Right under the last alien.
He climbed up the sinking body like an undead springing from the ground, flipping one more time and using the alien's head as a springboard. The indecipherable screams of the snow white disappeared as he bent forward, one leg behind the other. His right arm was laid across his chest, and his left one was stretched to the side.
—
Across Haven, hundreds of millions of citizens watching the livestream, whether it was the dead of the night or the work hours, screamed out in cheer.
—
Kael stopped his theatrics, seeing the labored breathing of the soldier. He phased the cuffs out of her arms, gathering her up in his arms. A portal later, he was back on Taglion, right where the soldiers were lost.
—
Taglion
Outskirts of the Dwarftree Forest
The RIC members waited on sight for the last missing soldier. Minutes ago, twenty-two members of the twenty-three lost souls had arrived. Only the field commander was nowhere to be seen.
"Medic, wounded soldier here," a voice they all knew came from another portal. Weapons were snapped up and safeties were turned off in an instant. The familiar motions, engraved on their minds thousands of times, were hard to ignore. Fortunately, no one fired without an order.
"Lower your weapons," Silene ordered, pushing the medic tending to her aside.
The Adventurer came out of the portal, Tomoe in his arms. Her heart dropped, seeing her black-and-blue face. Medics acted faster than her, rolling a stretcher forward. They secured her immediately, checking her condition.
"No concussion," one reported, shining light into her blood-red eyes. Breathing labored, possible broken ribs, no obstruction in the airways. Call the helicopter down; she needs immediate med-evac."
The radio operator did as ordered, but he stopped her.
"Where exactly do you guys want to take her? Let me help; it'll be faster."
"RIC Central. Can you get us right outside the base?" he asked. They had the best facilities to treat her. As the technically highest-ranking soldier on the premises, he had the right to make the decision.
Saving a life mattered more than whatever grumblings his superiors may have.
Kael nodded as a portal opened right near the stretcher. The soldiers didn't hesitate, wheeling her forward.
—
RIC Central Base
As the medics wheeled the injured soldier forward, he disappeared out of sight. He had done all he could. There was no need to linger around anymore. Not unless he wanted to give anyone some funny ideas.
—
First Dawn City
Sunrise Court
"Chairman, Lieutenant Nishimura will live, but she will need time to recover," Takashi said, pulling on the neck of his robe. He could finally breathe with ease now that the lieutenant herself was safe.
"Good," Oda replied, leaning back on his chair. His form slacked, which gave the Chairman of Insight and Chairman of Military the sign to relax as well.
Both were surprised when they were called to the Court. Over the issue of a lieutenant swallowed by an anomalous rupture, no less. The Chairman's reaction was too much, too personal.
Both chalked it up to his past friendship with the High Priestess.
"I want reports on her health whenever something important comes up," he ordered, dismissing both with a wave of his hand. They bowed and left the chamber. Oda waited for the door to close before letting himself sink into his chair. He reached for the top drawer, pulling out two photos. His fingers caressed each one. The ghost of a smile on his face turned into a frown as he put them back.
He looked down, seeing his beard and mustache reach his navel, past the preferred length. He hung his head, calling his barber while his mind was still stuck on the event.
—
Glassport
Thairon worked, but every few seconds, he stopped. Logically, he knew she would be alright. What he didn't and couldn't do was to let his worry go. Whenever he was worried, he made the cause of it disappear one way or another.
Mostly through violence.
Kael had already killed the aliens responsible for Tomoe's state. He couldn't simply return and butcher them all in revenge. Beyond trying to put a lid on his fury, he didn't know where he would stop. The singularity generator had proven itself already. A moment of lapse in his judgment could see him do something even he might regret.
He couldn't heal her because it would bring undue attention to both of them. The three stooges had already scrambled all their available resources to find the creator of the Early Rupture Warning System. It had also extended into Kael, though discretely. They weren't stupid enough to think they could contain him.
Medical nanobots that could heal a person in Tomoe's condition to perfect health in hours would make her a target too.
So here he was, working to occupy his mind. His inability to do more than send rescue three hours after the event was irritating him. The rupture had spread to hundreds of universes in minutes. Detecting which universe the missing soldiers had disappeared to took most of that three hours.
It was akin to searching for the correct needle among a box of them, all without knowing which one to look for.
Nax popped next to him. "Boss, why don't you take the day off? You are in no state to work."
"And do what?" he asked, putting the molecular welder aside.
"Get ice cream? Take a walk? It will be a while before she is allowed to receive visitors," he said, pulling the initial report on Tomoe's state. Three broken ribs, face swollen, fractures in her cheekbones, and she has a host of bruises.
"Wait, you are receiving a call. It's the High Priestess. Audio only," Nax said, bringing a secondary smaller screen with her name on it.
"Answer it," he said.
"Good morning. It is morning there, right?" she asked after a moment of hesitation.
"It is. Good morning to you too."
"This Adventurer," she tested the word on her tongue, "he is your family, right?"
"Yes, my youngest brother."
There was a sigh, slow but light. "Then I owe you a debt I can never repay. I am about to take a plane to Meltral. They will let me see her tomorrow as soon as she is awake. I will register you as a family friend if you wish so you can visit too," she said. He could hear the relief in her every word, as well as the gratitude.
He smiled. "That would be great. I'll see you there." He ended the call, dismissing the screens with a thought.
"Pull up the data on the rupture. I want to see what made it go haywire." It was the first ever recorded instance of a rupture opening into different dimensions in quick succession like this. There had to be a reason for it.
"No vacation then?" Nax asked, creating a holoscreen. "Too much stress on the transdimensional barriers. I detected this pulse of energy spreading from the initial rupture."
To represent the different universes, Nax assigned each one a color. A log on a smaller screen showed the moment the pulse changed its frequency. The white pulse changed as it came into contact with the micro-ruptures, taking the same color.
"Adaptive harmonics? No wonder it broke the barrier into several different universes. If the energy hadn't run out, this could have been a lot worse," he said. It had seeped into different micro-ruptures, moving at the same frequency, causing them to energize and erupt.
"True," Nax said. As long as the energy stream continued, so would the ruptures open one after the other.
"Should we investigate?" Nax asked. The aliens, ones Kael had named "snow-white," were the ones responsible. Their aggressive nature could mean another event like this. Especially if they realize what they did in the first place.
"Maybe. What did the soldiers who returned report? They must have seen something in that dimension. Anything could help him find the source of this anomaly.
"Nothing has been entered into the systems yet. What I picked up on the comm traffic says the soldiers found themselves outside a complex, one different from the prison. They were all knocked out by the aliens and couldn't tell the distance."
"Call Sky and Kael."
The data screen split in half, the faces of his brothers taking over seconds later. "Hey/Sup," they greeted in their own way.
He nodded. "Are you two busy? Anything important to do?"
"No," Sky said while Kael shook his head side to side.
"Great, then I need you two to go where Kael found the missing soldiers and investigate something," he said. He was already sending what data Nax had gathered to their bracelets. He wanted to go himself, but it would just cause his fury to flare.
Kael scratched his head. "What exactly are we investigating?" The soldiers were all safe; the rupture had closed by itself. What was left back there?
"An energy pulse is what made the rupture behave so violently. I want you to find its source and possibly eliminate it," he said.
Sky crossed his arms, nodding along. "Cool. How do we find it?" He was getting bored as he had already dealt with all the assassins after Ethan's family.
"I'll give you a scanner. The energy readings are specific enough. As long as you are within twenty kilometers of the origin, you should be able to find it."
"Before I forget, no livestreaming this," he said to Kael, pointing a finger at him.
Kael deflated. "Got it." He had already had enough fun as it is. He could do without letting any secrets out.
"Then move out. The sooner this is solved the better."
Notes: Please leave a like or a comment if you enjoyed the story
First Dawn City
Sunrise Court
The Chairman's eyes narrowed. "Are you certain he is going to save them?"
"Yes, Chairman. He seems to have accepted the pleas of the people," the Chairman of Insight said, averting his eyes.
The Chairman of Military slowly turned the tablet in his hand towards the desk. "Chairman, he is starting another livestream."
He stroked his long beard, leaning forward. "Let me see." His cerulean blue eyes locked on the screen. The Adventurer, having changed his green sweatshirt for a cream-colored one, was moving through a prison.
"Psst, hey," he called out to one of the humans behind metal bars.
"That is Lieutenant Silene, Lieutenant Tomoe's second in command," Zarol supplied. Oda nodded, continuing to watch.
"You?!" she hissed, looking around wildly. "What are you doing here?"
"Rescuing you guys, duh," he said.
"Listen, they took our commander for questioning. Knowing these bastards, they won't be just asking questions nicely," she said, gesturing to the left side of the prison block, towards the door.
Oda's eyes widened slightly before narrowing. He eventually settled into a frosty look, watching the livestream.
"Alright, I'll get you all out first and go find her."
"She has really vibrant orange hair; you can't miss her."
"Got it," he said, opening a portal behind her. She went through after a moment, and it quickly closed behind her. One by one, he rescued the soldiers in each cell before leaving to seek the missing commander.
—
Unknown Planet
He slid on the floor towards two soldiers, ignoring the shots going through him. He flipped forward at the last second, landing on his hands, spinning with his legs spread. His breakdance broke their helmets. Both aliens hit the metal wall with enough strength to pass out. He bent his arms, launching himself up, phasing through the door.
He slid on his knees this time, almost stopping in front of another alien. He used his left hand to spin at the last second, breaking the alien's knee with his kick. He pushed himself to his feet without losing a beat, a spinning kick to the head sending the alien away before he could fall.
He saw two aliens on the edge of his vision, switching places with one, letting him take the shot. He bent his head to the left and then to the right, dodging the stock of the alien's gun. He sidestepped the lunge, catching the snow-white-skinned alien by the arms, spinning him like a ballet dancer. He guided the disoriented alien towards the last soldier.
The alien hesitated, unable to get a clear shot.
Kael struck just as the dancer fell to the ground, ripping the weapon out of his hands. The alien didn't let it stop him, whirling for a punch, his whole body twisting for maximum force. He raised his arm, hand spread, forearm catching the alien's arm. He twisted his arm, pressing the alien's elbow forward, and slammed his palm on his throat.
He watched the snow-white gag.
Kael let the arm go and followed with three quick punches. They were humanoid in shape, so he went for where the weak points on a human body would be. One to the liver had the alien almost pass out. Another on the diaphragm and the last one to the heart had the alien fall to the ground like a puppet with its strings cut.
He dusted his hands, about to phase through the next door when it opened with more soldiers coming through. He didn't stop, launching himself towards them. He was a blur, appearing right above their heads. He wrapped his legs around the head of one, hands planted on the ground, launching him to the wall. The sound of cracking bone was accompanied by a thud as the alien fell.
He was quick to turn around, pushing two weapons away from himself while planting a kick on the chest of the third alien. He felt something give as the alien flew back. The remaining two aliens stumbled, still holding onto their weapons. He let the weapons go, pivoting on the spot. His right foot struck the alien's head, causing him to hit his head first against the wall. He continued spinning, the same foot nailing the other alien right beneath the jaw with even more force, snapping the head back.
He spun three more times, each time hitting the same places. The last strike launched one of the aliens up to the ceiling while smashing the front half of the other's helmet along with his face.
His scanners found the sole human lifeform at the end of the corridor. The sound of footsteps at his back showed more aliens rushing inside. He jerked his head to the side, ordering the camera to not stream this angle. He thrust his hand forward, breaking the fabric of space at several points. The wave hit the aliens, breaking each body to dozens of pieces. The viscera and the red blood churned his stomach for a moment before he turned away.
He sprinted to the door, seeing three more aliens inside. He leaped forward once more, catching two of the aliens by the arm, pulling them with him. They all phased through the wall on the opposite side, but only he came back out.
Right under the last alien.
He climbed up the sinking body like an undead springing from the ground, flipping one more time and using the alien's head as a springboard. The indecipherable screams of the snow white disappeared as he bent forward, one leg behind the other. His right arm was laid across his chest, and his left one was stretched to the side.
—
Across Haven, hundreds of millions of citizens watching the livestream, whether it was the dead of the night or the work hours, screamed out in cheer.
—
Kael stopped his theatrics, seeing the labored breathing of the soldier. He phased the cuffs out of her arms, gathering her up in his arms. A portal later, he was back on Taglion, right where the soldiers were lost.
—
Taglion
Outskirts of the Dwarftree Forest
The RIC members waited on sight for the last missing soldier. Minutes ago, twenty-two members of the twenty-three lost souls had arrived. Only the field commander was nowhere to be seen.
"Medic, wounded soldier here," a voice they all knew came from another portal. Weapons were snapped up and safeties were turned off in an instant. The familiar motions, engraved on their minds thousands of times, were hard to ignore. Fortunately, no one fired without an order.
"Lower your weapons," Silene ordered, pushing the medic tending to her aside.
The Adventurer came out of the portal, Tomoe in his arms. Her heart dropped, seeing her black-and-blue face. Medics acted faster than her, rolling a stretcher forward. They secured her immediately, checking her condition.
"No concussion," one reported, shining light into her blood-red eyes. Breathing labored, possible broken ribs, no obstruction in the airways. Call the helicopter down; she needs immediate med-evac."
The radio operator did as ordered, but he stopped her.
"Where exactly do you guys want to take her? Let me help; it'll be faster."
"RIC Central. Can you get us right outside the base?" he asked. They had the best facilities to treat her. As the technically highest-ranking soldier on the premises, he had the right to make the decision.
Saving a life mattered more than whatever grumblings his superiors may have.
Kael nodded as a portal opened right near the stretcher. The soldiers didn't hesitate, wheeling her forward.
—
RIC Central Base
As the medics wheeled the injured soldier forward, he disappeared out of sight. He had done all he could. There was no need to linger around anymore. Not unless he wanted to give anyone some funny ideas.
—
First Dawn City
Sunrise Court
"Chairman, Lieutenant Nishimura will live, but she will need time to recover," Takashi said, pulling on the neck of his robe. He could finally breathe with ease now that the lieutenant herself was safe.
"Good," Oda replied, leaning back on his chair. His form slacked, which gave the Chairman of Insight and Chairman of Military the sign to relax as well.
Both were surprised when they were called to the Court. Over the issue of a lieutenant swallowed by an anomalous rupture, no less. The Chairman's reaction was too much, too personal.
Both chalked it up to his past friendship with the High Priestess.
"I want reports on her health whenever something important comes up," he ordered, dismissing both with a wave of his hand. They bowed and left the chamber. Oda waited for the door to close before letting himself sink into his chair. He reached for the top drawer, pulling out two photos. His fingers caressed each one. The ghost of a smile on his face turned into a frown as he put them back.
He looked down, seeing his beard and mustache reach his navel, past the preferred length. He hung his head, calling his barber while his mind was still stuck on the event.
—
Glassport
Thairon worked, but every few seconds, he stopped. Logically, he knew she would be alright. What he didn't and couldn't do was to let his worry go. Whenever he was worried, he made the cause of it disappear one way or another.
Mostly through violence.
Kael had already killed the aliens responsible for Tomoe's state. He couldn't simply return and butcher them all in revenge. Beyond trying to put a lid on his fury, he didn't know where he would stop. The singularity generator had proven itself already. A moment of lapse in his judgment could see him do something even he might regret.
He couldn't heal her because it would bring undue attention to both of them. The three stooges had already scrambled all their available resources to find the creator of the Early Rupture Warning System. It had also extended into Kael, though discretely. They weren't stupid enough to think they could contain him.
Medical nanobots that could heal a person in Tomoe's condition to perfect health in hours would make her a target too.
So here he was, working to occupy his mind. His inability to do more than send rescue three hours after the event was irritating him. The rupture had spread to hundreds of universes in minutes. Detecting which universe the missing soldiers had disappeared to took most of that three hours.
It was akin to searching for the correct needle among a box of them, all without knowing which one to look for.
Nax popped next to him. "Boss, why don't you take the day off? You are in no state to work."
"And do what?" he asked, putting the molecular welder aside.
"Get ice cream? Take a walk? It will be a while before she is allowed to receive visitors," he said, pulling the initial report on Tomoe's state. Three broken ribs, face swollen, fractures in her cheekbones, and she has a host of bruises.
"Wait, you are receiving a call. It's the High Priestess. Audio only," Nax said, bringing a secondary smaller screen with her name on it.
"Answer it," he said.
"Good morning. It is morning there, right?" she asked after a moment of hesitation.
"It is. Good morning to you too."
"This Adventurer," she tested the word on her tongue, "he is your family, right?"
"Yes, my youngest brother."
There was a sigh, slow but light. "Then I owe you a debt I can never repay. I am about to take a plane to Meltral. They will let me see her tomorrow as soon as she is awake. I will register you as a family friend if you wish so you can visit too," she said. He could hear the relief in her every word, as well as the gratitude.
He smiled. "That would be great. I'll see you there." He ended the call, dismissing the screens with a thought.
"Pull up the data on the rupture. I want to see what made it go haywire." It was the first ever recorded instance of a rupture opening into different dimensions in quick succession like this. There had to be a reason for it.
"No vacation then?" Nax asked, creating a holoscreen. "Too much stress on the transdimensional barriers. I detected this pulse of energy spreading from the initial rupture."
To represent the different universes, Nax assigned each one a color. A log on a smaller screen showed the moment the pulse changed its frequency. The white pulse changed as it came into contact with the micro-ruptures, taking the same color.
"Adaptive harmonics? No wonder it broke the barrier into several different universes. If the energy hadn't run out, this could have been a lot worse," he said. It had seeped into different micro-ruptures, moving at the same frequency, causing them to energize and erupt.
"True," Nax said. As long as the energy stream continued, so would the ruptures open one after the other.
"Should we investigate?" Nax asked. The aliens, ones Kael had named "snow-white," were the ones responsible. Their aggressive nature could mean another event like this. Especially if they realize what they did in the first place.
"Maybe. What did the soldiers who returned report? They must have seen something in that dimension. Anything could help him find the source of this anomaly.
"Nothing has been entered into the systems yet. What I picked up on the comm traffic says the soldiers found themselves outside a complex, one different from the prison. They were all knocked out by the aliens and couldn't tell the distance."
"Call Sky and Kael."
The data screen split in half, the faces of his brothers taking over seconds later. "Hey/Sup," they greeted in their own way.
He nodded. "Are you two busy? Anything important to do?"
"No," Sky said while Kael shook his head side to side.
"Great, then I need you two to go where Kael found the missing soldiers and investigate something," he said. He was already sending what data Nax had gathered to their bracelets. He wanted to go himself, but it would just cause his fury to flare.
Kael scratched his head. "What exactly are we investigating?" The soldiers were all safe; the rupture had closed by itself. What was left back there?
"An energy pulse is what made the rupture behave so violently. I want you to find its source and possibly eliminate it," he said.
Sky crossed his arms, nodding along. "Cool. How do we find it?" He was getting bored as he had already dealt with all the assassins after Ethan's family.
"I'll give you a scanner. The energy readings are specific enough. As long as you are within twenty kilometers of the origin, you should be able to find it."
"Before I forget, no livestreaming this," he said to Kael, pointing a finger at him.
Kael deflated. "Got it." He had already had enough fun as it is. He could do without letting any secrets out.
"Then move out. The sooner this is solved the better."
Notes: Please leave a like or a comment if you enjoyed the story
Chapter 29 - Brothers on a Mission
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Samael61
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Meltral
RIC Central
She opened her eyes with a dry groan escaping her lips.
She flinched away from the light held to her eyes. It felt like sharp needles inside her skull for a moment. "Everything looks good. How are you feeling, lieutenant?"
"Numb," she said. A permanent veil of numbness spread across her face. She was quick to remember the interrogation. Since she wasn't in pain, copious amounts of painkillers must be involved.
"We did have to give you a lot of painkillers. On the bright side, there are no complications and you will be fine," the doctor, a colonel, said, confirming her sluggish thoughts.
"Feeling ready for visitors?" the doctor asked.
She grunted, closing her eyes once. "I'll take that as a yes," he said, heading to the door. She heard a flurry of footsteps and a warm, familiar hand grasped hers. She opened her eyes, vision blurry from the tears. The warm peach-colored hair and the warm hand grasping her fingers were all she needed to know.
"Hey, Mom," she said. She couldn't see the silent tears on her face, but she knew her mother was crying.
"Come on, don't cry. I'm fine." Even though she uttered those words, she didn't feel like it.
"You can barely speak. You are not fine," her mother said, voice barely above a whisper.
"Just the hazards of the job," she tried to joke.
Her mother's tone turned to steel in an instant. "Don't downplay your injuries, young lady."
"How did I get rescued?" she asked. The doctor was out to give them privacy. She could speak freely.
As much as her face and ribs allowed it, of course.
"The Adventurer saved you and the others," she said. The doctor was already out, but it was best not to speak about these matters outside the safety of their home.
"Thairon is outside. Do you want me to let him in?" Yumiko asked. He had chosen to stay outside to give Yumiko and her daughter a moment together.
"Sure," she said.
Yumiko left her daughter's side, returning just as quickly with their guest in tow. "Sorry it took a bit to find you," he said first thing.
"Good morning to you too."
He huffed, amused. "Afternoon, actually."
"Any idea what exactly happened?" she asked. The rupture had acted anomalously; she found herself in an alien cell with a broken arm and, of course, the interrogation.
"It was something from the other side. I sent my brothers to investigate," he said. They were infiltrating the compound where the RIC troops had been stranded near.
"When can you get her out?" Thairon asked.
Yumiko, who was gently wiping her daughter's eyes, stopped. "Why?"
"I can heal her in hours. She won't have to spend an entire month bedridden." The broken arm, the ribs—none of them were wounds that would heal in a short time.
"That sounds wonderful actually," she said. Her back was itching, and speaking was a chore right now.
"I'll ask the doctors later."
Thairon raised his hand for a second, excusing himself to the corner of the room. He was talking to someone, either to that AI of his or his brothers.
—
"A portal device?" he asked, going over the scans his brothers took.
"Seems they are—to no one's surprise—at war with a coalition led by humanity. This gate is supposed to open to the heart of the coalition. Weirdly enough, it keeps getting directed elsewhere," Sky said, reading from the translated notes.
Thairon sighed. "To us."
"Yep."
The data, partly stolen from the aliens and partly acquired by scanning the portal device, flooded his brain. "The scans show that the device fractured a micro rupture into something that won't close by itself. If they turn it on again, it will be worse," he said.
"We can destroy it," Kael said, stretching his arms.
He went through the alien notes. A part stood out about the anomalous disappearance of the harmonic energy waves. "No. I need you to find me the plans for the device. Recalibrating the adaptive harmonics should cause the gate to collapse in itself while sealing the rupture."
—
Unknown Planet
"You heard him, it's all yours," Skyler said, laying down on the roof. Kael was the obvious choice to steal the plans from wherever they were held. In the meantime, he could nap.
Kael considered kicking him on the knee before running away. He turned around, jumping off the roof without doing it. The complex was a fortress of dark grey, concrete-like stone. Walls were so thick he sometimes got lost in them. The surface was just a square, single-story building with the gate inside it.
The real prize lay in the subterranean floors.
Upon arriving on the planet, they had begun to gather information. The A'xlarah had colonized this planet at the edge of their empire, right on the opposite side of the front lines. The war was over their expansionist nature. Humanity was leading a coalition against them, and by all evidence, they were winning.
The gate was a plant to change the tide of the war.
He phased through the ground, targeting the deepest part of the facility. He hadn't gone there because he thought destroying the circular, metallic gate would be the end of this.
He saw snippets of the floors as he free-fell. Security check at the top, then personnel quarters, and several floors reserved for the theoretical part—unless they had a different reason for looking at screens surrounding a smaller gate. He saw rows of materials in quick succession. Then it blurred too much, and he had to stop before going through the final floor.
The room was the largest he had seen so far. Cables as wide as his waist rose from a blocky machine, probably a computer. One researcher, with the same white skin the rest of his race carried, was standing before it, wearing a blue, form-fitting uniform.
He approached the alien from behind, tapping on his left shoulder while moving to the right. The researcher turned to his left with a guttural yelp, shoulders visibly sagging when he saw no one. He turned ahead, only to come face to face with an intruder.
The said intruder's face, entirely dark due to the hood attached to his clothing, suddenly burst into that of a monster. A green, leathery face and a maw filled with rows of sharp teeth screamed so loud his world shook.
He froze on the spot and fell like a log.
"Man, that's so fun," Kael chuckled to himself, moving towards the computer. "Nax, think you can hack this thing?"
"Not as it is. Its computational power is beyond mine. I need you to sever the highlighted data cables to cripple it," Nax said, using the nanobots in Kael's bloodstream to paint the targets.
He held his fingers like a gun, shooting at the indicated cables. Partially phased out, the cables fell down one by one. "Done," he said, blowing at his finger, which had smoke coming out of it.
"Plug me in," Nax said. A blue cable, no thicker than a lace, extended from his bracelet. The head touched the data port. White, glowing tendrils spread out from it, accessing the databases without the computer putting resistance.
Minutes passed by before Nax was done.
"Done, let's beat it."
Kael opened a portal back to the roof.
—
Skyler was still there, napping in the safety bubble Kael had created.
"Get up; I got it," he said.
Sky grumbled as he rose to his feet. "And what does our chief genius in charge suggest?"
"Give me a second; it's still in translation."
They waited inside the illusion bubble, supported by the bracelets making them invisible to the scanners.
"Right. Inside the machine, there is a circle of hollow synthetic crystals. That's what they use for the adaptive harmonics. Sky, have you felt anything weird from the gate?" Thairon asked.
He nodded. "It uses gravity, right?"
"Yes. What I need you to do is to reverse the curve the crystals create. That should be more than enough to collapse the gate in itself."
Skyler got up from where he was lying. He dusted his clothes as Kael created a portal beneath the two, dropping down right next to the gate, in the middle of a swarm of soldiers.
"Hi?" Sky said, stomping his feet. An invisible wave spread out, pushing the soldiers upwards. They floated for a moment, frozen in surprise. The gravity reversed its hold, and they found themselves stuck to the ceiling, hard.
Kael opened another portal, covering the entire ceiling, and sent the soldiers high in the sky.
"Best teamwork ever," Sky said, holding his fist out. Kael bumped it, grinning beneath his illusion.
He laid his hand on the circular device, feeling the thrum of the gravity, and got to work.
The enemy was quick to arrive, though.
They swarmed through the door in record time. Kael snapped his fingers, creating a portal and weaving an illusion over it.
"What did you do?" Sky asked, turning his head back while his focus was still on the gate.
"Put an illusion in front of the portal. They think they are surrounding us now."
"Hah!" he laughed sharply, pointing a finger at his brother. Kael did the same with a snigger, the wavelengths of their brains matching for a moment.
"You two should hurry up. They are going to bombard this place from orbit," Nax said, listening to the enemy comms through the main computer beneath. The research data and prototypes were already sent to off-planet sites. The enemy decided destroying this place was worth it so the gate wouldn't fall into enemy hands.
"I thought they needed the gate to change the course of the war?"
"This isn't the only one they have, but it is the only one that concerns us."
"I'm done here," Sky said, pulling his hand away.
"They severed the controls. You'll need to start it from here," Thairon warned. "One of you should deal with the ship in the meantime."
"This one's mine." He blasted off, shattering the roof apart.
Kael walked to the small console. The symbols blurred for a moment before they morphed into letters and words he recognized. "What do I do?"
—
He actually pitied the planet. It was a lush world with plenty of forests and foliage, the kind of place he enjoyed taking walks in. Now, he would have to destroy the ship, possibly harming the planet in the process.
The ship itself was a big one. Four hundred meters long at least, it plunged through the clouds like a pure white spear, its guns already warming up. He raised his hands slowly, gripping the ship in a well of gravity.
It swerved, engines burning brighter to compensate.
He pulled it down, trying to ground the ship before it could fire. He could maybe save the forest too. The ship was starting to lose the tug of war, craning towards the surface.
And then there was an explosion in the rear.
The ship began to fall instantly, all thrust gone. The culprit showed itself to be another ship, smaller in size but built like a bird of prey. The blue vessel ignored everything else, beelining for the complex.
"Nax?" he asked. Was the enemy of his enemy his friend or not?
"Coalition special forces. Quite a pain in the ass for the A'xlarah. Their trajectory suggests an attack run. You should stop them."
He raised his hands once more. The ship came to a full stop in an instant. As before, its engines flared. The pilot's attempt to push through the invisible force stopping the ship didn't work. He lowered it to the surface, keeping it there. He didn't want to harm them, but they wouldn't get to the complex either.
At least not by ship.
A diverse group of individuals, two humans and four aliens of varying sizes wearing blue, form-fitting armor, left the ship. They charged towards the complex, undeterred.
He pursed his lips, impressed, and stopped the hold of gravity on them. The soldiers didn't panic, further increasing his respect. It all disappeared when they shot at him. He dodged the yellow bolts for a while. When they didn't stop, he reversed the gravitational curve.
They slammed to the ground, creating small craters, unable to get up.
He pressed his bracelet, calling his brother. "How is it going over there?"
"It's initializing. We just need to wait for a minute or so."
He nodded, turning to the soldiers. "Can you translate my words to them?"
"Yes, go ahead," Nax said. As long as the gate was destroyed, he didn't care what Sky intended to do.
He floated down, standing next to the incapacitated soldiers. "Sorry about this, but the gate has to be destroyed in a specific manner."
"Who even are you?" one of the aliens asked. He was half as tall as him and was actually forcing himself off the ground. He was even more different than the discount space elves. His head was shaped like a pear with an upward crescent jaw.
"Not important. If you agree to stand down, I'll let you guys stand."
"Our task is…" he continued, but Sky interrupted him.
"Did you know they have more of these gates out there? This one's about to be toast. I'd go and search for the rest if I were you," he explained. He floated away but not before asking Nax to send what data they took to the soldiers. He didn't truly know who was good or evil in this case—history had proven war was never that cut and dry.
He just wasn't about to sympathize with the cunts who had tortured soldiers of RIC.
A whistle brought his attention back to the complex. Kael was there, waving at him with a portal open. He appeared next to him, throwing an arm around his neck. They walked through without even looking back.
Seconds later, the surface floor of the complex was launched upwards as dozens of boulders. Everything stood still for a moment before the debris was pulled down at astonishing speeds. A dark veil spread, destroying everything in its path, leaving a crater that could house the A'xlarah ship with room to spare.
—
Haven
Meltral
RIC Central Base Hospital
"What happened?" Tomoe asked as Thairon chuckled. The screens projected out of his bracelet disappeared, but a satisfied smile stayed on his face.
"Let's talk later; your friends are here," he said as Nax alerted him of several figures approaching the room.
There was a knock on the door. "Come in," said Tomoe. Four soldiers in slacks entered the room, trying to be quiet. The woman at the front was carrying a basket. A white ribbon with 'May It All Be In the Past Soon,' written on it, covered several boxes.
"Come in guys," Tomoe said, inviting them closer.
"I'm so glad to see you're awake," Silene said, placing the basket on the ground next to the bed.
Thairon tried to step out, but Tomoe shook her head.
RIC Central
She opened her eyes with a dry groan escaping her lips.
She flinched away from the light held to her eyes. It felt like sharp needles inside her skull for a moment. "Everything looks good. How are you feeling, lieutenant?"
"Numb," she said. A permanent veil of numbness spread across her face. She was quick to remember the interrogation. Since she wasn't in pain, copious amounts of painkillers must be involved.
"We did have to give you a lot of painkillers. On the bright side, there are no complications and you will be fine," the doctor, a colonel, said, confirming her sluggish thoughts.
"Feeling ready for visitors?" the doctor asked.
She grunted, closing her eyes once. "I'll take that as a yes," he said, heading to the door. She heard a flurry of footsteps and a warm, familiar hand grasped hers. She opened her eyes, vision blurry from the tears. The warm peach-colored hair and the warm hand grasping her fingers were all she needed to know.
"Hey, Mom," she said. She couldn't see the silent tears on her face, but she knew her mother was crying.
"Come on, don't cry. I'm fine." Even though she uttered those words, she didn't feel like it.
"You can barely speak. You are not fine," her mother said, voice barely above a whisper.
"Just the hazards of the job," she tried to joke.
Her mother's tone turned to steel in an instant. "Don't downplay your injuries, young lady."
"How did I get rescued?" she asked. The doctor was out to give them privacy. She could speak freely.
As much as her face and ribs allowed it, of course.
"The Adventurer saved you and the others," she said. The doctor was already out, but it was best not to speak about these matters outside the safety of their home.
"Thairon is outside. Do you want me to let him in?" Yumiko asked. He had chosen to stay outside to give Yumiko and her daughter a moment together.
"Sure," she said.
Yumiko left her daughter's side, returning just as quickly with their guest in tow. "Sorry it took a bit to find you," he said first thing.
"Good morning to you too."
He huffed, amused. "Afternoon, actually."
"Any idea what exactly happened?" she asked. The rupture had acted anomalously; she found herself in an alien cell with a broken arm and, of course, the interrogation.
"It was something from the other side. I sent my brothers to investigate," he said. They were infiltrating the compound where the RIC troops had been stranded near.
"When can you get her out?" Thairon asked.
Yumiko, who was gently wiping her daughter's eyes, stopped. "Why?"
"I can heal her in hours. She won't have to spend an entire month bedridden." The broken arm, the ribs—none of them were wounds that would heal in a short time.
"That sounds wonderful actually," she said. Her back was itching, and speaking was a chore right now.
"I'll ask the doctors later."
Thairon raised his hand for a second, excusing himself to the corner of the room. He was talking to someone, either to that AI of his or his brothers.
—
"A portal device?" he asked, going over the scans his brothers took.
"Seems they are—to no one's surprise—at war with a coalition led by humanity. This gate is supposed to open to the heart of the coalition. Weirdly enough, it keeps getting directed elsewhere," Sky said, reading from the translated notes.
Thairon sighed. "To us."
"Yep."
The data, partly stolen from the aliens and partly acquired by scanning the portal device, flooded his brain. "The scans show that the device fractured a micro rupture into something that won't close by itself. If they turn it on again, it will be worse," he said.
"We can destroy it," Kael said, stretching his arms.
He went through the alien notes. A part stood out about the anomalous disappearance of the harmonic energy waves. "No. I need you to find me the plans for the device. Recalibrating the adaptive harmonics should cause the gate to collapse in itself while sealing the rupture."
—
Unknown Planet
"You heard him, it's all yours," Skyler said, laying down on the roof. Kael was the obvious choice to steal the plans from wherever they were held. In the meantime, he could nap.
Kael considered kicking him on the knee before running away. He turned around, jumping off the roof without doing it. The complex was a fortress of dark grey, concrete-like stone. Walls were so thick he sometimes got lost in them. The surface was just a square, single-story building with the gate inside it.
The real prize lay in the subterranean floors.
Upon arriving on the planet, they had begun to gather information. The A'xlarah had colonized this planet at the edge of their empire, right on the opposite side of the front lines. The war was over their expansionist nature. Humanity was leading a coalition against them, and by all evidence, they were winning.
The gate was a plant to change the tide of the war.
He phased through the ground, targeting the deepest part of the facility. He hadn't gone there because he thought destroying the circular, metallic gate would be the end of this.
He saw snippets of the floors as he free-fell. Security check at the top, then personnel quarters, and several floors reserved for the theoretical part—unless they had a different reason for looking at screens surrounding a smaller gate. He saw rows of materials in quick succession. Then it blurred too much, and he had to stop before going through the final floor.
The room was the largest he had seen so far. Cables as wide as his waist rose from a blocky machine, probably a computer. One researcher, with the same white skin the rest of his race carried, was standing before it, wearing a blue, form-fitting uniform.
He approached the alien from behind, tapping on his left shoulder while moving to the right. The researcher turned to his left with a guttural yelp, shoulders visibly sagging when he saw no one. He turned ahead, only to come face to face with an intruder.
The said intruder's face, entirely dark due to the hood attached to his clothing, suddenly burst into that of a monster. A green, leathery face and a maw filled with rows of sharp teeth screamed so loud his world shook.
He froze on the spot and fell like a log.
"Man, that's so fun," Kael chuckled to himself, moving towards the computer. "Nax, think you can hack this thing?"
"Not as it is. Its computational power is beyond mine. I need you to sever the highlighted data cables to cripple it," Nax said, using the nanobots in Kael's bloodstream to paint the targets.
He held his fingers like a gun, shooting at the indicated cables. Partially phased out, the cables fell down one by one. "Done," he said, blowing at his finger, which had smoke coming out of it.
"Plug me in," Nax said. A blue cable, no thicker than a lace, extended from his bracelet. The head touched the data port. White, glowing tendrils spread out from it, accessing the databases without the computer putting resistance.
Minutes passed by before Nax was done.
"Done, let's beat it."
Kael opened a portal back to the roof.
—
Skyler was still there, napping in the safety bubble Kael had created.
"Get up; I got it," he said.
Sky grumbled as he rose to his feet. "And what does our chief genius in charge suggest?"
"Give me a second; it's still in translation."
They waited inside the illusion bubble, supported by the bracelets making them invisible to the scanners.
"Right. Inside the machine, there is a circle of hollow synthetic crystals. That's what they use for the adaptive harmonics. Sky, have you felt anything weird from the gate?" Thairon asked.
He nodded. "It uses gravity, right?"
"Yes. What I need you to do is to reverse the curve the crystals create. That should be more than enough to collapse the gate in itself."
Skyler got up from where he was lying. He dusted his clothes as Kael created a portal beneath the two, dropping down right next to the gate, in the middle of a swarm of soldiers.
"Hi?" Sky said, stomping his feet. An invisible wave spread out, pushing the soldiers upwards. They floated for a moment, frozen in surprise. The gravity reversed its hold, and they found themselves stuck to the ceiling, hard.
Kael opened another portal, covering the entire ceiling, and sent the soldiers high in the sky.
"Best teamwork ever," Sky said, holding his fist out. Kael bumped it, grinning beneath his illusion.
He laid his hand on the circular device, feeling the thrum of the gravity, and got to work.
The enemy was quick to arrive, though.
They swarmed through the door in record time. Kael snapped his fingers, creating a portal and weaving an illusion over it.
"What did you do?" Sky asked, turning his head back while his focus was still on the gate.
"Put an illusion in front of the portal. They think they are surrounding us now."
"Hah!" he laughed sharply, pointing a finger at his brother. Kael did the same with a snigger, the wavelengths of their brains matching for a moment.
"You two should hurry up. They are going to bombard this place from orbit," Nax said, listening to the enemy comms through the main computer beneath. The research data and prototypes were already sent to off-planet sites. The enemy decided destroying this place was worth it so the gate wouldn't fall into enemy hands.
"I thought they needed the gate to change the course of the war?"
"This isn't the only one they have, but it is the only one that concerns us."
"I'm done here," Sky said, pulling his hand away.
"They severed the controls. You'll need to start it from here," Thairon warned. "One of you should deal with the ship in the meantime."
"This one's mine." He blasted off, shattering the roof apart.
Kael walked to the small console. The symbols blurred for a moment before they morphed into letters and words he recognized. "What do I do?"
—
He actually pitied the planet. It was a lush world with plenty of forests and foliage, the kind of place he enjoyed taking walks in. Now, he would have to destroy the ship, possibly harming the planet in the process.
The ship itself was a big one. Four hundred meters long at least, it plunged through the clouds like a pure white spear, its guns already warming up. He raised his hands slowly, gripping the ship in a well of gravity.
It swerved, engines burning brighter to compensate.
He pulled it down, trying to ground the ship before it could fire. He could maybe save the forest too. The ship was starting to lose the tug of war, craning towards the surface.
And then there was an explosion in the rear.
The ship began to fall instantly, all thrust gone. The culprit showed itself to be another ship, smaller in size but built like a bird of prey. The blue vessel ignored everything else, beelining for the complex.
"Nax?" he asked. Was the enemy of his enemy his friend or not?
"Coalition special forces. Quite a pain in the ass for the A'xlarah. Their trajectory suggests an attack run. You should stop them."
He raised his hands once more. The ship came to a full stop in an instant. As before, its engines flared. The pilot's attempt to push through the invisible force stopping the ship didn't work. He lowered it to the surface, keeping it there. He didn't want to harm them, but they wouldn't get to the complex either.
At least not by ship.
A diverse group of individuals, two humans and four aliens of varying sizes wearing blue, form-fitting armor, left the ship. They charged towards the complex, undeterred.
He pursed his lips, impressed, and stopped the hold of gravity on them. The soldiers didn't panic, further increasing his respect. It all disappeared when they shot at him. He dodged the yellow bolts for a while. When they didn't stop, he reversed the gravitational curve.
They slammed to the ground, creating small craters, unable to get up.
He pressed his bracelet, calling his brother. "How is it going over there?"
"It's initializing. We just need to wait for a minute or so."
He nodded, turning to the soldiers. "Can you translate my words to them?"
"Yes, go ahead," Nax said. As long as the gate was destroyed, he didn't care what Sky intended to do.
He floated down, standing next to the incapacitated soldiers. "Sorry about this, but the gate has to be destroyed in a specific manner."
"Who even are you?" one of the aliens asked. He was half as tall as him and was actually forcing himself off the ground. He was even more different than the discount space elves. His head was shaped like a pear with an upward crescent jaw.
"Not important. If you agree to stand down, I'll let you guys stand."
"Our task is…" he continued, but Sky interrupted him.
"Did you know they have more of these gates out there? This one's about to be toast. I'd go and search for the rest if I were you," he explained. He floated away but not before asking Nax to send what data they took to the soldiers. He didn't truly know who was good or evil in this case—history had proven war was never that cut and dry.
He just wasn't about to sympathize with the cunts who had tortured soldiers of RIC.
A whistle brought his attention back to the complex. Kael was there, waving at him with a portal open. He appeared next to him, throwing an arm around his neck. They walked through without even looking back.
Seconds later, the surface floor of the complex was launched upwards as dozens of boulders. Everything stood still for a moment before the debris was pulled down at astonishing speeds. A dark veil spread, destroying everything in its path, leaving a crater that could house the A'xlarah ship with room to spare.
—
Haven
Meltral
RIC Central Base Hospital
"What happened?" Tomoe asked as Thairon chuckled. The screens projected out of his bracelet disappeared, but a satisfied smile stayed on his face.
"Let's talk later; your friends are here," he said as Nax alerted him of several figures approaching the room.
There was a knock on the door. "Come in," said Tomoe. Four soldiers in slacks entered the room, trying to be quiet. The woman at the front was carrying a basket. A white ribbon with 'May It All Be In the Past Soon,' written on it, covered several boxes.
"Come in guys," Tomoe said, inviting them closer.
"I'm so glad to see you're awake," Silene said, placing the basket on the ground next to the bed.
Thairon tried to step out, but Tomoe shook her head.
Chapter 30 - Hospital Woes
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Samael61
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Hello there,
If you enjoy my stories, you can read up to 15 chapters in advance per story on my Patreon page / patreon.com/Samael61.
Welcome to Arrival : Ruptures , the story of a world plagued by constant trans-dimensional ruptures, where your suggestions of your culture, food, traditions and ideas can take place, so can you. Simply leave a comment or send a message, describing which part of your culture you would like to see.
—
Meltral
RIC Central Base Hospital
"How are your bruises?" Silene asked. She didn't know how the aliens figured out Tomoe was their commander. Anyone else might not have been able to hold on for so long.
"They are numb. You tell me," her friend said in a teasing manner, but it came out as a grunt. Her swollen face, the constant leak of tears, and the cast made it difficult to take her words the way they were said.
She held Tomoe's hand, squeezing it to assure her. "You're tough; you'll be up on your feet before you know about it."
"As you can tell by the hair, this is my mom." Her mother, who had chosen to give them a space, smiled at her daughter's comrades. She knew them from her daughter's stories.
"Nice to meet you, ma'am," Silene said. Everyone knew the High Priestess by reputation. It was the first time they ever met the mother of their commander.
"You too."
"The guy with the silver hair is Thairon; we are dating," she said. Her words got a more lively reaction than introducing her mother did. The soldiers snapped around. Tomoe was the last person anyone in the Spearhead-1 expected to have a love life.
He raised his hand up to the side. "A pleasure." The four of them took a second to greet him back.
"What did the doctor say?" Silene asked, taking the attention away from him.
"I'll be fine," she replied, glancing at Thairon for a moment. She didn't relish the thought of being dependent on anyone to get to the toilet or eat, even if it was her mother. She could still scarcely believe the way the scientific genius had entered her life, but she was eternally glad for it.
And not only because of the benefits.
He stood aside, watching her interact with her friends. His circle of friends was non-existent. The Academy was more focused on creating connections for the future. The usual class of people he interacted with in his youth weren't the type of people one would call friendly. He had turned his focus to science and his brothers instead. He didn't regret it one bit, but he could also see Tomoe enjoyed having her friends around.
He switched his attention to other matters.
Kael and Sky had destroyed the gate in the instructed manner. Satellite scans showed that the anomalous rupture had closed. For now, there was nothing else to do except finish the Morphostasis Bed. While the nanobots worked excellently, they were slow and required great amounts of nutrition to work.
The bed was designed to reconstruct the body's original anatomy at a molecular level. It would be as if the wound never existed rather than having healed in the first place.
He worked on the design in his mind until he heard Tomoe.
"Since you guys are in uniform, didn't they give you a vacation?" she asked. Getting stranded on an alien planet because of an anomalous rupture was more than enough excuse to earn everyone a long vacation.
"They did as soon as the reports were over. We just wanted to visit you," Ledale said.
Tomoe couldn't roll her eyes, but she had a feeling her friends got the idea. "Oh get out, you lot. Go and enjoy yourselves; I'll be fine."
"Yes, ma'am," they mock saluted her, leaving one by one with wishes of get well. The door opened again before he could speak. Her doctor came in with a chart in his hand.
"Lieutenant Nishimura. We have two options regarding your discharge. Unless your caretakers can stay for a month, we can discharge you in three days. You will need a wheelchair until the ribs heal. And of course, rehabilitation to get you in shape once the cast comes off," the colonel said, waving his pen towards her arm.
"Or you can stay in the hospital for better professional care," he offered as an alternative. He knew the answer, though.
"I'd prefer to be discharged, sir," she said. She had enough of hospitals in her career.
"Understandable. A nurse will explain how your home care will proceed before you are discharged."
"Can I have something to eat?"
"Your trachea is not damaged. As long as it's soft or liquid, it is fine," the doctor said before leaving again.
"I'll get you soup," he offered. Her favorite from last time was the red leril soup. The soft, flat vegetables meeting with meat broth and spices were, in fact, the most sold soup in the restaurant.
"Thanks," she said, leaning slightly forward as her mother helped her drink more water.
—
He returned five minutes later with a large bowl of soup. He handed it to Yumiko, activating his bracelet to take a scan of her injuries.
"Mind if I take a look at your wounds?" he asked, shaking his wrist, showing the bracelet. She nodded, slowly sipping the first spoonful. A ray of blue light left the small lens, going over her body. A transparent, doll-sized image of her body appeared, projected out of the lens. The data would be necessary to fix her wounds as quickly as possible.
He enlarged the face, seeing the bruises beneath the skin. Capillaries ruptured from continuous strikes, and clouds of dark and purple, indicating the blood pooled in the tissue, were the first part of the wounds. Beneath the swollen tissue, the hairline crack on the cheekbone glowed red.
The ribs were the next. They were intact, with only two razor-thin red indicators showing the cracks. The broken forearm was set in place, but a clear line could be seen, dividing it in half.
The Morphostasis Bed would rearrange the molecules to reconstruct the ruptured capillaries and the damaged bone and tissue. She would be up on her feet in hours. With three days to discharge, he had more than enough time to finish it.
"Cool," she said. Watching such a detailed projection of her wounds was fascinating. Not the wounds themselves, of course.
"What happened to the rupture?" she asked after another spoonful of soup.
He projected the device. "The A'xlarah had a portal device. It connected to a micro-rupture, expanding it to something more permanent. It's gone now and the rupture has closed," he said. The projected device activated, letting its energy seep into the rupture, turning it into a much larger wound in the fabric of reality. Then it imploded, and the rupture was gone.
"And it just had to be on my duty too. I mean, what are the chances?"
"Infinite number of universes, infinite number of portal devices. The probability is not that low. We don't even know how many ruptures there were before the systematic records started. Even then, there are thousands that must have been missed due to lack of global surveillance," he explained. The math part was difficult to complete with the lack of data.
"This, or something similar, happened before and will probably happen in the future," Yumiko summarized for him.
"Yes. We just know about it because we have the means to," he said. Without the ERWS, the chances of anyone knowing about this particular rupture would be non-existent until it became a problem.
Yumiko put the soup aside as Tomoe started to drink it slower. "Dear, do you want me to turn on the TV?"
"Thanks, Mom."
She reached for the remote, secured to the wall beneath the TV, and turned it on.
Only to see an excerpt of Larian Jutal's show from last night.
"We covered Lieutenant Tomoe Nishimura before, but the latest trouble she got into brought her to public attention again. Public opinion is divided between considering her fortunate or cursed. She was at the site of the latest rupture to be formed. It took place in the Dwarf Tree Forest, something we wouldn't have known about without the mysterious Early Rupture Warning System," Larian began. Tomoe groaned, the vibrations making her bruises tingle.
Her image came to the screen. "Lieutenant and several of her teammates were sucked into the anomalous rupture. There were hundreds of soldiers lost through the ruptures.
Yumiko raised the remote to turn the TV off, but she stopped her. She didn't care about his words. He was just the reflection of the people. She wanted to know the public opinion.
Lieutenant Nishimura and her team were the first ones to find their way home, courtesy of the Adventurer." Now it was the Adventurer, dressed in his green hoodie and dark pants.
"Which is a subject we will cover in detail at a later time."
"The matter with the dragon could be attributed to luck, or lack thereof. Her involvement against the bugs was a coincidence. But to encounter another anomalous rupture so quickly?" All three of her valiant heroics appeared one by one.
"I was not one to believe in superpowers and fantasy tales, at least until we all watched the Adventurer bring down an empire in another universe while streaming it live to us, all the while displaying abilities that left even the most steadfast realists baffled; it changed my opinion."
"In the past, rulers who held Hatsuzumi went to great pains to ensure the High Priestess of the Temple of the Gates was the one to crown them. After all, legends say that the priestesses were the chosen ones of Ekuna, and they were the ones to bring desperate people from different universes to this planet, our haven," he said. An image of the most famous priestess appeared, a shorter version of her mother in all aspects.
"I wonder, is there perhaps a truth to these legends?" Larian asked. The video froze as the screen zoned out to the anchorwoman.
Yumiko turned the TV off.
"I'm blaming you for this," Tomoe said, raising her right arm slightly, finger pointing at Thairon.
"You are blaming me because he tells the people what they want to hear? You know what, I think I'll have that guy shot," he said with a dry tone. He was not going to do that, of course. Larian was one of thousands who said what the public wanted to hear out loud. He didn't care enough to consider violence a solution.
"I would pay to see that," she replied, joking as he was.
Logically, Kael's brazen display of his abilities, even if his identity was hidden, could give people reason to suspect foul play on Tomoe's part. People worldwide were discussing the legend pertaining to Yumezuki, an ancestor of Tomoe who was recorded by several different sources as being capable of opening a rupture to the City of the Dead.
Could it actually be true?
Most historians and rupture researchers attributed it to luck, a once-in-a-lifetime freak event. The idea of a chosen one by a higher power had long faded from consideration. All that had happened would reignite those beliefs.
—
Meltral
The only neutral place on the whole planet was in a state of flurry. The center of the increased activity was the Mural Chamber. Outside, it was a large but simple building. Pure white with a geodesic dome, it was a double-walled circular building built for one purpose.
A neutral meeting place for the leaders of the Union, the Republic, and the Kingdom.
Between the first and second walls, electronic countermeasures worked to keep the meeting secret. Only the ones inside would know what was happening and no one else.
The mural was on the interior of the dome. A single image of Emperor Noah was inscribed to the stone. Dressed in gold, with a clean-shaven, strong face, golden locks, and blue eyes, it was the most widely known image of him.
Beneath it were three separate lines of seats. Each one was meant for one side. The leaders sat at the front, their attendants behind them.
And it was dead silent.
"I see no reason to delay this any longer. If it is agreeable with everyone, we should start the meeting. There is much to say," Octavian suggested. They were going to stare at each other all day long otherwise.
Gaius and Oda agreed silently.
Octavian went first. The order of the chair, which determined who would speak first, was decided by a lottery centuries ago. After that, each leader took the turn in being the first to speak at the start of every new meeting.
One row behind Octavian, a non-descript man in a full-body suit got up, using the allocated computer and the projector. The images were the most outlandish ones of the Adventurer's actions. Drifting a monstrous spaceship to destroy a fleet, creating a blue hell to drive the soldiers to madness, and, of course, invading the asteroid prison while creating the illusion of a wooden pirate ship sailing in space.
At least he hoped they were illusions.
"The Adventurer's identity is a mystery to us. What is not is the reality of his abilities. Even if we assumed everything before his rescue of the missing troops from the Spearhead-1 to be extremely advanced computer-generated images, we cannot do that now," he said. Long-range surveillance had shown it clearly that the soldiers were swallowed by the rupture.
It was not the first time it had happened, but it was the first time anyone had ever returned.
"There is someone out there who can open portals to other universes and possesses abilities that make him the most dangerous individual on the planet. We need to act together," he said, gesturing at President Gaius. Though he failed to understand why they refused to take on a more fitting title.
His family was ruling the Republic for centuries through an illusion of democracy.
An attendant of Gaius took his place on the central seat. What he showed were charts instead of anything related to the Adventurer. "Our analysis reached the same conclusion. Even if he took no hostile actions against us, his adventures are impacting the economy. People, regardless of which nation they belong to, stop to watch his live stream. Sick calls have increased by a hundred times, and we collectively lost close to ten billion aurels in days. His viewer count will only grow, and so will the damage he inadvertently causes."
No attendant of Oda stepped forward. "The solution is simple. The Adventurer must be eliminated. However, his power set does make it impossible to arrest, detain, or harm him. The option this conundrum leaves is to compromise," Oda said. The economical damage was only one side of it. Interest in the legends of the Temple of the Gates and the High Priestess had increased significantly.
He could not let them gain any political traction.
"Compromise? Are you suggesting we reach a deal with the Adventurer, Chairman?" Octavian asked. He too had the same idea—the only available idea.
Oda stroked his beard, his eyes turning to the projection of the Adventurer. "Unless any of our nations can bring forward the technology to counter him, yes."
All three leaders agreed on contacting the adventurer, but the details of what to say were murky.
—
In the next chapter:
"We share your worries over the device, its origin and creator. But this device has already saved us from a deliberate invasion by a superior enemy and three ruptures in population centers. Unless any of our nations can create a similar device, we can't afford to dismantle it or stop its usage. A single, catastrophic rupture would have the people revolting because we turned the ERWS away," King Octavian said.
"Agreed. I propose a joint investigation task force to determine the origin of the device. We failed individually but cooperating might yield new results," the Chairman replied. She had to breathe slowly when she saw his face.
"The proposal has merit, the Republic of Netara will join this task force."
Curious about the next chapter? Please consider supporting me on Patreon.
If you enjoy my stories, you can read up to 15 chapters in advance per story on my Patreon page / patreon.com/Samael61.
Welcome to Arrival : Ruptures , the story of a world plagued by constant trans-dimensional ruptures, where your suggestions of your culture, food, traditions and ideas can take place, so can you. Simply leave a comment or send a message, describing which part of your culture you would like to see.
—
Meltral
RIC Central Base Hospital
"How are your bruises?" Silene asked. She didn't know how the aliens figured out Tomoe was their commander. Anyone else might not have been able to hold on for so long.
"They are numb. You tell me," her friend said in a teasing manner, but it came out as a grunt. Her swollen face, the constant leak of tears, and the cast made it difficult to take her words the way they were said.
She held Tomoe's hand, squeezing it to assure her. "You're tough; you'll be up on your feet before you know about it."
"As you can tell by the hair, this is my mom." Her mother, who had chosen to give them a space, smiled at her daughter's comrades. She knew them from her daughter's stories.
"Nice to meet you, ma'am," Silene said. Everyone knew the High Priestess by reputation. It was the first time they ever met the mother of their commander.
"You too."
"The guy with the silver hair is Thairon; we are dating," she said. Her words got a more lively reaction than introducing her mother did. The soldiers snapped around. Tomoe was the last person anyone in the Spearhead-1 expected to have a love life.
He raised his hand up to the side. "A pleasure." The four of them took a second to greet him back.
"What did the doctor say?" Silene asked, taking the attention away from him.
"I'll be fine," she replied, glancing at Thairon for a moment. She didn't relish the thought of being dependent on anyone to get to the toilet or eat, even if it was her mother. She could still scarcely believe the way the scientific genius had entered her life, but she was eternally glad for it.
And not only because of the benefits.
He stood aside, watching her interact with her friends. His circle of friends was non-existent. The Academy was more focused on creating connections for the future. The usual class of people he interacted with in his youth weren't the type of people one would call friendly. He had turned his focus to science and his brothers instead. He didn't regret it one bit, but he could also see Tomoe enjoyed having her friends around.
He switched his attention to other matters.
Kael and Sky had destroyed the gate in the instructed manner. Satellite scans showed that the anomalous rupture had closed. For now, there was nothing else to do except finish the Morphostasis Bed. While the nanobots worked excellently, they were slow and required great amounts of nutrition to work.
The bed was designed to reconstruct the body's original anatomy at a molecular level. It would be as if the wound never existed rather than having healed in the first place.
He worked on the design in his mind until he heard Tomoe.
"Since you guys are in uniform, didn't they give you a vacation?" she asked. Getting stranded on an alien planet because of an anomalous rupture was more than enough excuse to earn everyone a long vacation.
"They did as soon as the reports were over. We just wanted to visit you," Ledale said.
Tomoe couldn't roll her eyes, but she had a feeling her friends got the idea. "Oh get out, you lot. Go and enjoy yourselves; I'll be fine."
"Yes, ma'am," they mock saluted her, leaving one by one with wishes of get well. The door opened again before he could speak. Her doctor came in with a chart in his hand.
"Lieutenant Nishimura. We have two options regarding your discharge. Unless your caretakers can stay for a month, we can discharge you in three days. You will need a wheelchair until the ribs heal. And of course, rehabilitation to get you in shape once the cast comes off," the colonel said, waving his pen towards her arm.
"Or you can stay in the hospital for better professional care," he offered as an alternative. He knew the answer, though.
"I'd prefer to be discharged, sir," she said. She had enough of hospitals in her career.
"Understandable. A nurse will explain how your home care will proceed before you are discharged."
"Can I have something to eat?"
"Your trachea is not damaged. As long as it's soft or liquid, it is fine," the doctor said before leaving again.
"I'll get you soup," he offered. Her favorite from last time was the red leril soup. The soft, flat vegetables meeting with meat broth and spices were, in fact, the most sold soup in the restaurant.
"Thanks," she said, leaning slightly forward as her mother helped her drink more water.
—
He returned five minutes later with a large bowl of soup. He handed it to Yumiko, activating his bracelet to take a scan of her injuries.
"Mind if I take a look at your wounds?" he asked, shaking his wrist, showing the bracelet. She nodded, slowly sipping the first spoonful. A ray of blue light left the small lens, going over her body. A transparent, doll-sized image of her body appeared, projected out of the lens. The data would be necessary to fix her wounds as quickly as possible.
He enlarged the face, seeing the bruises beneath the skin. Capillaries ruptured from continuous strikes, and clouds of dark and purple, indicating the blood pooled in the tissue, were the first part of the wounds. Beneath the swollen tissue, the hairline crack on the cheekbone glowed red.
The ribs were the next. They were intact, with only two razor-thin red indicators showing the cracks. The broken forearm was set in place, but a clear line could be seen, dividing it in half.
The Morphostasis Bed would rearrange the molecules to reconstruct the ruptured capillaries and the damaged bone and tissue. She would be up on her feet in hours. With three days to discharge, he had more than enough time to finish it.
"Cool," she said. Watching such a detailed projection of her wounds was fascinating. Not the wounds themselves, of course.
"What happened to the rupture?" she asked after another spoonful of soup.
He projected the device. "The A'xlarah had a portal device. It connected to a micro-rupture, expanding it to something more permanent. It's gone now and the rupture has closed," he said. The projected device activated, letting its energy seep into the rupture, turning it into a much larger wound in the fabric of reality. Then it imploded, and the rupture was gone.
"And it just had to be on my duty too. I mean, what are the chances?"
"Infinite number of universes, infinite number of portal devices. The probability is not that low. We don't even know how many ruptures there were before the systematic records started. Even then, there are thousands that must have been missed due to lack of global surveillance," he explained. The math part was difficult to complete with the lack of data.
"This, or something similar, happened before and will probably happen in the future," Yumiko summarized for him.
"Yes. We just know about it because we have the means to," he said. Without the ERWS, the chances of anyone knowing about this particular rupture would be non-existent until it became a problem.
Yumiko put the soup aside as Tomoe started to drink it slower. "Dear, do you want me to turn on the TV?"
"Thanks, Mom."
She reached for the remote, secured to the wall beneath the TV, and turned it on.
Only to see an excerpt of Larian Jutal's show from last night.
"We covered Lieutenant Tomoe Nishimura before, but the latest trouble she got into brought her to public attention again. Public opinion is divided between considering her fortunate or cursed. She was at the site of the latest rupture to be formed. It took place in the Dwarf Tree Forest, something we wouldn't have known about without the mysterious Early Rupture Warning System," Larian began. Tomoe groaned, the vibrations making her bruises tingle.
Her image came to the screen. "Lieutenant and several of her teammates were sucked into the anomalous rupture. There were hundreds of soldiers lost through the ruptures.
Yumiko raised the remote to turn the TV off, but she stopped her. She didn't care about his words. He was just the reflection of the people. She wanted to know the public opinion.
Lieutenant Nishimura and her team were the first ones to find their way home, courtesy of the Adventurer." Now it was the Adventurer, dressed in his green hoodie and dark pants.
"Which is a subject we will cover in detail at a later time."
"The matter with the dragon could be attributed to luck, or lack thereof. Her involvement against the bugs was a coincidence. But to encounter another anomalous rupture so quickly?" All three of her valiant heroics appeared one by one.
"I was not one to believe in superpowers and fantasy tales, at least until we all watched the Adventurer bring down an empire in another universe while streaming it live to us, all the while displaying abilities that left even the most steadfast realists baffled; it changed my opinion."
"In the past, rulers who held Hatsuzumi went to great pains to ensure the High Priestess of the Temple of the Gates was the one to crown them. After all, legends say that the priestesses were the chosen ones of Ekuna, and they were the ones to bring desperate people from different universes to this planet, our haven," he said. An image of the most famous priestess appeared, a shorter version of her mother in all aspects.
"I wonder, is there perhaps a truth to these legends?" Larian asked. The video froze as the screen zoned out to the anchorwoman.
Yumiko turned the TV off.
"I'm blaming you for this," Tomoe said, raising her right arm slightly, finger pointing at Thairon.
"You are blaming me because he tells the people what they want to hear? You know what, I think I'll have that guy shot," he said with a dry tone. He was not going to do that, of course. Larian was one of thousands who said what the public wanted to hear out loud. He didn't care enough to consider violence a solution.
"I would pay to see that," she replied, joking as he was.
Logically, Kael's brazen display of his abilities, even if his identity was hidden, could give people reason to suspect foul play on Tomoe's part. People worldwide were discussing the legend pertaining to Yumezuki, an ancestor of Tomoe who was recorded by several different sources as being capable of opening a rupture to the City of the Dead.
Could it actually be true?
Most historians and rupture researchers attributed it to luck, a once-in-a-lifetime freak event. The idea of a chosen one by a higher power had long faded from consideration. All that had happened would reignite those beliefs.
—
Meltral
The only neutral place on the whole planet was in a state of flurry. The center of the increased activity was the Mural Chamber. Outside, it was a large but simple building. Pure white with a geodesic dome, it was a double-walled circular building built for one purpose.
A neutral meeting place for the leaders of the Union, the Republic, and the Kingdom.
Between the first and second walls, electronic countermeasures worked to keep the meeting secret. Only the ones inside would know what was happening and no one else.
The mural was on the interior of the dome. A single image of Emperor Noah was inscribed to the stone. Dressed in gold, with a clean-shaven, strong face, golden locks, and blue eyes, it was the most widely known image of him.
Beneath it were three separate lines of seats. Each one was meant for one side. The leaders sat at the front, their attendants behind them.
And it was dead silent.
"I see no reason to delay this any longer. If it is agreeable with everyone, we should start the meeting. There is much to say," Octavian suggested. They were going to stare at each other all day long otherwise.
Gaius and Oda agreed silently.
Octavian went first. The order of the chair, which determined who would speak first, was decided by a lottery centuries ago. After that, each leader took the turn in being the first to speak at the start of every new meeting.
One row behind Octavian, a non-descript man in a full-body suit got up, using the allocated computer and the projector. The images were the most outlandish ones of the Adventurer's actions. Drifting a monstrous spaceship to destroy a fleet, creating a blue hell to drive the soldiers to madness, and, of course, invading the asteroid prison while creating the illusion of a wooden pirate ship sailing in space.
At least he hoped they were illusions.
"The Adventurer's identity is a mystery to us. What is not is the reality of his abilities. Even if we assumed everything before his rescue of the missing troops from the Spearhead-1 to be extremely advanced computer-generated images, we cannot do that now," he said. Long-range surveillance had shown it clearly that the soldiers were swallowed by the rupture.
It was not the first time it had happened, but it was the first time anyone had ever returned.
"There is someone out there who can open portals to other universes and possesses abilities that make him the most dangerous individual on the planet. We need to act together," he said, gesturing at President Gaius. Though he failed to understand why they refused to take on a more fitting title.
His family was ruling the Republic for centuries through an illusion of democracy.
An attendant of Gaius took his place on the central seat. What he showed were charts instead of anything related to the Adventurer. "Our analysis reached the same conclusion. Even if he took no hostile actions against us, his adventures are impacting the economy. People, regardless of which nation they belong to, stop to watch his live stream. Sick calls have increased by a hundred times, and we collectively lost close to ten billion aurels in days. His viewer count will only grow, and so will the damage he inadvertently causes."
No attendant of Oda stepped forward. "The solution is simple. The Adventurer must be eliminated. However, his power set does make it impossible to arrest, detain, or harm him. The option this conundrum leaves is to compromise," Oda said. The economical damage was only one side of it. Interest in the legends of the Temple of the Gates and the High Priestess had increased significantly.
He could not let them gain any political traction.
"Compromise? Are you suggesting we reach a deal with the Adventurer, Chairman?" Octavian asked. He too had the same idea—the only available idea.
Oda stroked his beard, his eyes turning to the projection of the Adventurer. "Unless any of our nations can bring forward the technology to counter him, yes."
All three leaders agreed on contacting the adventurer, but the details of what to say were murky.
—
In the next chapter:
"We share your worries over the device, its origin and creator. But this device has already saved us from a deliberate invasion by a superior enemy and three ruptures in population centers. Unless any of our nations can create a similar device, we can't afford to dismantle it or stop its usage. A single, catastrophic rupture would have the people revolting because we turned the ERWS away," King Octavian said.
"Agreed. I propose a joint investigation task force to determine the origin of the device. We failed individually but cooperating might yield new results," the Chairman replied. She had to breathe slowly when she saw his face.
"The proposal has merit, the Republic of Netara will join this task force."
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