Wrath had once told about protofeather weapons.
At their level, they were rarely used as actual weapons and more as platforms to abuse the occult.
Which made so amount of sense now that I understood how much concepts were linked to the occult, in tandem with willpower and thought, and how mass-conscious ideas affected concepts in general.
The concept of a weapon and would synergize with occult spells of the destructive nature. Or so the theory goes according to so schools of occultist. Hexis would know right down to which lineage figured that out first before the others.
The point is, those weapons were more than simple weapons - they were basically legendary artifacts with power and gravity to them, steeped in history and wrapped by occult concepts over ti, while also being layered with fractals within. They've been weapons for so long that they possess a pull of their own by now.
Hence, each protofeather had a single set that ford the core of its identity. Even Avalis’s stolen chain had barely been used to its true potential, all because it had spent centuries without an owner to charge and empower it when Avalis had yanked it out of the coffin.
Fun trivia.
Anyhow, speaking of those mythical weapons, one such thing wielded by a copy of the greatest protofeather to have ever lived - gathering power and focus from said copy’s personal attention for centuries - was now flying directly at like a spear, aid right at my chest, destruction radiating around it.
And the only reason I wasn’t quite as panicked as I should be is that, at least, it had the courtesy of having the hilt side aid my way.
That wouldn't stop it from turning into tiny pieces just from sheer pressure. So I admit, there might have been a tiny bit of panic.
Far below , the vault winked out, too small to spot, as I was fired out into the sea beyond by Conviction's hand.
The only thing from the vault that I could still recognize at this point was his blade, still following behind and rapidly gaining on .
A shadow of power trailed behind it like a sonic boom, shattering through the water, destroying any program that had the misfortune of being nearby. And that thing was slowly gaining on .
Then things went south, because if I could spot a protofeather’s weapon coming my way, so could everyone else out here.
In an instant, I had passed beyond the unpopulated, deserted regions of the sea and collided with the nebulous cloud where prior streams existed, now filled with programs of all kinds fleeing one way or another. Either running from Relinquished further out there or from the larger predators taking advantage of the chaos.
They changed their direction real quick once they sensed the boom coming at them from the distance.
My soul avatar slamd into fleeing programs and other scattered panic out here, a claw of so kind accidentally hooking onto and dragging off course.
This was not a good thing. While my own trajectory was being moved around in the massive cloud of fleeing programs, the sword sent after had not changed trajectories at all. And behind it that shockwave of power remained, eradicating everything around behind it in a cone.
The blade would pass above at this rate, and then I’d very much be inside that cone of destruction.
I burst into action, summoning occult ghosts in a small army, hacking and slashing away at the surrounding programs, trying to claw my way free and get back onto the center trajectory where the blade would pass. If Conviction had thrown this my way hilt first, he’d intended for to catch it.
The problem was the sea’s current. All the programs were fleeing in one general direction, and the digital sea was responding to that movent, the water here equally flowing as the thousands of entities generated a gravity of their own - sothing a single mind couldn’t easily overco.
I could still focus hard and fight against the current, gaining ground. But it wasn’t enough. That blade would cut through like a javelin right above , and then I’d be buried way under the ice with no pick.
Options were limited and counting down.
So part of was trying to mathematically extricate myself from this situation, moving through the current with my arms and legs.
But that wasn’t how the digital sea worked. It was all concepts out here. The occult touched on everything.
So instead of trying to force my position into the blade's path, I banked on the other end - that Conviction had thrown it at because he was relinquishing it to . That ant sothing in this world. There was a gamble to be done, and I went with it by instinct.
I held a hand out and called to it. Demanded it to curve and return to its master. A pulse of occult surged from as I delved deeper into the lessons I’d learned from Aztu on thinking in terms of concepts.
That blade was now mine. I was its owner. It had been given to for a purpose, and that concept should now be buried deep within the blade.
Spinning wildly in the cloud of escaping programs, carried left, right, and up as more things passed over , occasionally slapping with a claw, fin, or hand, I focused on the occult.
I kept my hand out. Hoping.
The blade... swerved, turning my direction. The occult shadow behind it ripping apart just about every program as if it had been caught on the wrong end of an airspeeder at full power. It completed the arc, aid right at , a singular line of blue rapidly approaching.
The world cleared out fast as the rest of the programs all around noticed that thing was coming their way, and they did not want to be anywhere nearby. A wide circle was opened up around , as the swarm of programs fled away.
The blade hod in on without error and a mont later, it slamd into my hand. I had to focus hard on keeping my digital self intact, with my soul still connected. The power and disruption of this blade rippled around , eradicating all the programs in a sphere.
This thing was powerful, just about as tall as I was, and held like a rapier would be from a hand larger than my own. Filled with multiple interlocking occult fractals within that I couldn't even begin to guess at, and all empowered by Conviction’s own willpower, layered over centuries.
I had no idea how one even began to do that kind of occult weaving, although I strongly suspected Hexis would have rolled in his grave to see and study this.
It wasn’t alive. Not sentient or sapient. It was more like a ghost. Sothing charged over ti by being. And I could tell out here in the digital sea, where everything was touched by the occult, that a weapon like this was even more powerful than it could be in reality.
I took a mont to settle the hilt of this weapon in my hand, to feel its weight. The concept of it being mine now.
Programs all around were funneling into the empty space that had opened, no longer seeing the incoming danger anywhere. Returning to their prior panic.
I swung the blade before . The attack reverberated through the sea like a pressure wave, outright eradicating everything ahead. The few things large enough to survive quickly turned and swam away as fast as they could.
You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.
More programs fled from behind , and I focused on the blade again, recalling the sphere of occult power that had surged when my hand first wrapped around the hilt. It pulsed out in a sphere as I intended, ripping apart the programs that had been passing by the free space.
After that, the sea took on a very different shape. Smarter programs were now avoiding like the plague. Larger ones prowled around , looking to use my influence as an anvil while smaller programs rushed into their jaws to avoid being caught in mine.
Conviction had said he’d put all his power inside this blade and that it would take to the Icon, all I needed was to set the course again. I reached a soul tendril to Journey and asked for the Icon’s address.
The path opened forward, and I held the blade in that direction.
It was like a tunnel had ford around . Occult ignited around the blade, burning a path a mile ahead. Likely bright enough for anyone from a distance to see the spectacle, but that'd be a problem for future .
What it did do right now was grant an easy path forward, which I took, swinging Conviction’s blade behind , using the shockwave it sent as fuel to propel forward. Then I turned and held the blade once more ahead, making it more into a drill against the ocean ahead.
Speed rapidly picked up, despite the chaos. The pillar of light crushed through anything in my way, sedint from destroyed programs sprinkling over my armor like sand as I powered through the chaos.
Conviction hadn’t fought us with anywhere near the power he could have wielded. And now that I held his sword in hand, I understood just how insane the league I had stepped into was.
Nothing in this part of the sea could take on. I had beco the one they feared and raced away from. I proved that when a massive program that failed to get out of my way. The beam of occult sliced through, carrying across the entire body of the server-sized program before we exited the other side.
I was a railgun shell fired out into the open sea, crossing over boundaries and zone restrictions without a shred of resistance.
And eventually I reached my destination: the massive crevices where the Icon hid her terminal servers and hardware echo in the digital sea.
It seed she imdiately decided my appearance and direction ant I knew where she was, so there was no reason to act coy or hide anymore.
The entire region lit up in defense, and for a mont, I was worried she would be the one to end my journey all the way here in so twist of irony.
But the Icon had more non-lethal defenses. A digital net wrapped around , layered over a hundred tis. The first dozen were easily sliced through, except I could feel how each net was being updated, modified, and applied to the rest of the nets to counter what had broken the prior net. The occult was the deciding factor here, I had all of it, while the Icon was using pure digital defenses.
What should have been impossible for was easily possible as the occult didn't play with any sense of logic. So despite being up against the defenses of a golden age AI, it still took her all of ten seconds to fully put a stop to my reign of terror. One of these nets finally held off Conviction’s blade for a mont, and the rest instantly rolled over in lockstep, binding into a cocoon.
Which was equally yanked back into the dark crevice where the Icon hid.
I saw only darkness for a mont. Then the net was cut, and I found myself in a rather familiar location. Or rather, office space.
“Greetings, Mr. Winterscar!" The Icon said, standing behind her office desk as usual, looking genuinely happy to see , not in that fake, strained smile she’d worn quite often. Mostly around Aztu. Which, to be fair, was understandable. "I am pleased to see you remain in good health. Although your approach vector could use so more open communication and prior notice of arrival."
“Good to see you too, Icon,” I answered back, giving her a nod. “The problem with good communication here is that just getting a ssage to you was the hard part. You’re going to have to excuse my entrance. I was a little short on ti, and there have been so hangar-bay delays out there.”
She looked outside the window, which offered a full view of the digital sea and the absolute chaos happening over there. A little more than a minor Logi mishap in scheduling was happening. “Given the circumstances, I understand," she said. "Are you and the others still safe?”
“We are, mostly.” Last I saw, Conviction and Urs had a lot to discuss, while the rest of the Winterscar knights, Superior, Father, and Wrath, were in the sa audience room. I’m hoping that when I return, we might have another potential ally in all this. Gods know we need anything we can get. “How about on your side? Are you still out of her sight?”
“Relinquished remains blind to my existence. Current operations are going well in that direction, and I intend to remain out of her sight. The machine network outage has affected her harshly in this regard, although I have lost contact with To’Orda as a result.”
“He’s not dead, is he? Relinquished was absolutely ready to kill off Avalis and To’Sefit without hesitation. I worry about the big lug.”
The Icon looked a little surprised at that. "I do not know anything about To'Orda's... extended family or their position among the machine empire as of now. However, I have a signal to Mr. Drakonis's armor and his team of humans are on approach. I predict Boss is likely taking the opportunity to sleep if there are no further orders being sent to him. Which is exactly what he needs to do, as the lack of events happening around him makes him intentionally boring, and that will lower his notice priority.”
“So, first, glad to hear he's fine. Second, not to cut things too short here, but I think we should discuss the airspeeder in the room first. Are you aware of why the world’s breaking down out there? You don’t seem exactly surprised to see show up.”
And also worried about my well-being and my friends ant she knew sothing bad was going on out there. If the chaos and fire out in the digital sea weren’t enough.
“I am, unfortunately,” she sighed. “I have networked into the digital sea with more confidence recently, and discussions with multiple thousand other programs have easily confird what occurred and prior history out here. While I did not know who this Tsuya was, many others out here did, and she was a fulcrum keeping the balance. Without her, most programs that are aware of reality and events outside the sea predict the world will change within the next three days in catastrophic ways. What is your current plan for survival, and how might I assist? How will we stop her?”
Well, at least she was direct and to the point. I hadn’t co here to swap tea and gossip.
“The plan’s to get a really big laser and zap Relinquished,” I said, then stretched my hands out to asure, using the century-old legendary weapon as my personal asuring stick. I could outright hear the hum of power it held deep within just by waving it into place. “At least this big. Maybe add a few inches.”
“I see. I imagine the actual plan you have truly involves a laser of so kind, although likely on a larger scale?”
“A tiny bit larger. Orbital-sized, old platforms built to terraform planets like Mars - that kind of scale. But to get everything into place, we’ve got to be fast. Relinquished also knows about the clans on the surface. She’s going up there to eradicate everyone, and once she’s done, she’ll start to systematically kill everyone, strata by strata. I’m guessing on that part, but it seems like her plan.”
The Icon paced behind her desk, looking professionally put together. “You have co here with extrely powerful weapons, and your approach has been spotted from quite a distance away. I assu subtlety is no longer an option in exchange for speed?”
“Well… we might still need a tiny bit of subtlety. I swear, getting here like this was our only option with what we had to work with. Is there any way to cut off anything that spotted coming here, or move sowhere else?”
“I have already handled it, Mr. Winterscar. A few reporters and scout programs held by Relinquished have been caught and persuaded otherwise. Her range of influence is far from this location for now, and by the ti she reaches my servers and central systems, I believe humanity will have already been wiped from the world. Now, what is it that you needed to do exactly in order to assist with this plan?”
“Well first, let just ask the obvious question: Are you powerful enough to take on Relinquished herself? I’m guessing you’re not since you remain in hiding here.”
The Icon gave a pained expression at that. “I am not. Relinquished has the processing power of the entire planet, and a massive sphere of influence within the digital sea. I predict that going all out, I could potentially rival her power within seven years of operation. A true military AI would be able to catch up to her power in a few months. Thus, even with the best possible option, humanity will be wiped long before we could attack her directly.”
“I had a feeling. She went the distance to make sure exactly this couldn’t happen.” I held out a hand and focused on a data package, sending it her way. “Are these video logs enough to put the picture together?”
I sent her a few hundred gigabytes saved up within my armor, the full video log of my travels, and those of the other armors with .
She blinked, processing through all those logs in a few milliseconds or less. “They are enough. I am up to speed.” She turned and began to pace again, one finger counting down the plan. “You need to recover Tsuya’s old network and trigger the ergency contingency plans. The difficulty will be that Relinquished has fortified the entire location and continues to spread her influence directly in all parts of Tsuya’s prior territory. I need to bypass the defenses, encryption, and influence all without being noticed by her, and revert all permissions back to myself, which would alert Relinquished to my existence and kickstart the battle between us early. Then, likely, you will need to command the imperial forces across the world in defense on the surface while I hold her off. Are there additional items I have missed?”
And this was after the Icon told she was still seven years away from being able to actually fight off Relinquished one-on-one. “Nope, that’s about all of it. What are the odds of making it work?”
The Icon held out a hand, and a map of the world appeared, including the surface, with three smaller dots blinking above, moving in orbit around the globe. “Let us discuss modifications to maximize the chances of success.”
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