Chương 27: Book 8 - Chapter 24 - Catching a ghost

Relinquished sauntered forward, observing the dying subject before her. Legs broken down, invisibility cloak ripped apart and that adorable rowboat punctured through with holes and chains to drag it back down. Her minions had done their work. There were only so many places this one could go hiding. And she would break the world twelve times over to find him and A22. Entire biomes were being burned down. No longer did she suffer animals or even vegetation to live.

The entire world would be crushed under her heel until the rats had no place to hide behind. If there were zones and areas she couldn't see or think about, mass destruction would work well enough to strike even the darkzones. The mites were upset at the destruction of their creation, but not with any real heat. They didn't truly care about that particular piece of the puzzle. To them, having biomes removed meant more space to recreate something new. And they were always excited about that.

Regardless, she needed P-K12 scrubbed for all information and then eliminated. Not only because of his continued existence as an insult to her power, but equally due to his influence as a mite's pawn piece in the greater game. Despite time and calculation, she was no closer to discovering his mission nor his purpose. And so he needed to be eliminated all the more.

"Humans have a saying I appreciate." Relinquished began, walking at a leisure pace, slowly reaching the dying lesser. She raised her hands up to the optimal degree of dramatics required of her.

"Courage is not the absence of fear, it is the triumph over it. The brave man is not he who feels no fear, but he who conquers his own. In such regards, I appreciate your final act in seeking me out. How truly courageous you must be." Of course, her occult already had a hand pushing him down internally. His entire shell had already been seized and under her control. She wasn't about to let him escape again.

He was still capable of dragging his shell forward physically with the only hand that remained, as that would be suitably dramatic, but digitally he was locked down in place. The old machine did not try to physically escape however, simply laying still and waiting for the inevitable. Good minions knew their place. A shame it had taken a few thousand years for this one to learn. She finally walked by the lesser, around him, then stopped before his half working skull.

Feathers surrounded the target in a semi-circle formation, none daring to step any closer between her and her target. Then, carefully, she reached her hands down, and lifted the lesser up wholesale. Slowly, she brought him closer, until she could whisper her words.

"There is another saying I'm fond of: If you come seeking to kill a God, you had better not miss."

"Not a god." The lesser croaked out.

"And I not miss." She reached a delicate hand to pat the cheekbone.

"Delusions? In my house? How tragic."

"Tragic." P-K12 said. And Relinquished noticed a sense of sarcasm.

"I die here. In peace. But you? Will always second guess. If my real mission. Was to kill you at all."

"My darling wayward foot soldier from a long dead era. Whatever grand purpose drove you here, I'm afraid it dies here with you. After all, death is so wonderfully... absolute. Even hope dies."

"Much talking. Not much killing. Disappointing." P-K12 said, eyes still flickering that garish blue of rebellion. She reached fingers to trace the skull, then plucked the optics out, squeezing the little archaic hardware in her fingers. P-K12 felt no pain of course, only a system notification informing him of the damaged part and loss of visual feedback off one eye. Unfortunately she could not pluck the second one out, she needed to be seen by him for maximum effect.

"Death comes for you soon enough, have no fear of that." She flicked the remains of his eye away, like it was a disgusting piece of dirt.

"My Feathers have such exquisite methods for harvesting what lies rotting away in minds such as yours. I trust they'll be quite thorough." The Feathers all around her bristled up, and she could tell a small war had started among all of them at who would get the privilege of breaking through P-K12's trove of history.

"How many thousands of years has it been that you've been roving around under my feet? What great secrets have you hidden away in that time? I suppose I will see for myself soon enough." There. She felt the shackles around her core loosen up, now allowing her to send the order to her Feathers to begin the extraction.

"None you will know." P-K12 said, with a 100% confidence interval.

"I am here to insult you. Then I go." Ah. He was likely planning a noble sacrifice trope. Ending his own life before Relinquished could purge through it herself. Indeed, Relinquished felt the trigger command for several power cell detonations after his original words. She crushed those via the occult, not trusting her digital superiority to function. A22 was in the picture, and overconfidence against her would be asking for a surprise twist.

This ancient obsolete machine upstart and that protofeather had shown far more clever attacks now that they were dragged out of the shadow. Centuries to plan and prepare. Best to crush that in a way that cannot be countered. But her control wouldn't last long. Relinquished could feel her core programming about to force her hand. Which meant she'd be forced to watch him self-destruct as it would be the most dramatic narrative advancement possible. For now, she needed to stall that action.

Fortunatly, speaking was always a free action to her, and so long as she had something to say, the narrative rules she was under would pause and wait for her to finish.

"And by go… do you mean execute yourself?" She started, taking her time.

"How delightfully predictable. Truly, the most boring of heroic endings." A good workaround to her issue: Call out the trope directly, which inherently subverts it. So long as she executed a more dramatic storyline, she'd be able to prevent the coming self-destruction. She felt restrictions on her core unravel again, allowing her the freedom to continue her control. She did so, ripping away his chance to explode the cells within.

And while she rummaged through the chassis with a wave of occult, she found something else hidden inside. Ah. Today would be a good day indeed…

"Afraid?" The lesser asked, aware his attempts had been foiled. This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report. That deserved a laugh.

"Unfortunately, I find myself quite… incapable of courage. For I have never felt fear. No, little one. I am not afraid. I am disappointed." Relinquished reached out, and grabbed what she'd seen, deep within the chassis. Something this lesser had left with, trying to hide. A soul fractal plate, complete with backup power. One that fit the old protofeather chassis schematics.

"My, I should thank you for this last act of service, P-K12. Bringing the wayward A22 along with you in your final doomed charge is quite fitting." It had also cost her another fifteen of her Feathers in the fight. P-K12 and his pet protofeather had not gone down easily. She had expected the lesser's built up hoard of mite treasures would have been an equalizing force against all the Feathers, but the damage had been far larger than expected. A22's digital attacks did explain why the casualties were higher.

She held the soul fractal up. The one piece of her final enemy that remained out of reach, the actual danger.

"A22, at long last we stand in the same realm, my dearest daughter. One where your little vanishing acts will no longer serve you." She could feel a wireless connection, but she knew better than to allow A22 anywhere near her systems. The wily protofeather had proven herself a direct thorn. More powerful than she'd been at her prime even when she'd stood among her brothers and sisters. How ironic that without a body she'd become more of a danger. That many years left undisturbed to prepare…

Time truly was an advantage that should never be given to the enemy. Relinquished fed the data stream directly into an isolated speaker. Hardware she wasn't connected to herself. Just in case. It lit to life, A22 having already bypassed any kind of formatting within the little trinket and gotten it to work on her own.

"You are too late, Mother." The protofeather laughed.

"I've already taken care of everything." The scales turned right back to allow them an exit. Relinquished had less than a second to respond in a way that would allow her programming to continue holding these two hostage.

"Empty boasting done by the doomed and damned. I had harbored the faintest hope you might provide proper sport, but alas even my expectations can sink too low, it seems." So far, she kept a hand on the scales.

"Is dying truly the best you could think of doing?" The mock meant A22 would be unable to die on her own terms as that would directly prove Relinquished correct. Once more, the goddess felt her core programming relax, allowing her to continue with the occult chokehold. No self-detonation. She sent a command and among her Feathers, one was self-selected after a short battle between them all.

That one stood up regally, two reaper scythes unhooked and drawn at attention as he launched a viral attack onto P-K12's systems, looking to take every last datapoint. A moment later, the Feather froze up, then collapsed downwards, systems broken into, forced to execute a manual shut down or risk detonating his power cells. A22 was annoyingly good at that particular move. Fortunately, her subjects had adapted since. Just not adapted well enough.

"I never expected to win against you." A22 said through the speaker, with her same casual tone, as if she hadn't fought and executed one of Relinquished's sons just a moment ago.

"If I hadn't been able to before, why would I be able to now? So, of course I changed my plans and schemes up. And you'll never find out how." That was an admittedly good final line. The Pale Lady felt the time pressure once again as narrative rules began to press against her again. Relinquished brought the soul fractal closer. Then she gave a calculated smile, buying her another second before she had the perfect idea.

"Oh, but my dear, I know. About A01." She said.

"Did you really think you could hide him from my sight?" She did not know about A01. However this did force the narrative away from self-destruction using a surprise twist reveal. Silently another Feather won the inner dispute among the others, and tried her luck at breaking through the defensive A22 was running to protect P-K12. Her chassis equally faceplanted into the ground before her, violet eyes dimming away as the rest of the shell turned off. …

Was she really going to have to rip these secrets out of his head herself? She disliked the idea of having to do so manually, it would trigger a slew of narrative options from her enemy to abuse.

"My elder brother's always had a sense for dramatic arrivals, probably comes from you." A22 said.

"Would be quite fun if he were the one to put the sword down on your neck finally. But no, wherever he went, I don't know a thing about it."

"Not good enough, my dear." Relinquished purred, this time feeling no compulsion from the narrative to allow them to slip past her.

"Try holding on harder."

"How about you do that instead?" Relinquished felt an order propagate through her shell. Down to her arms and hands. Before she could stop it, her physical hands squeezed harder on both P-K12 and the soul fractal in one instant, crushing them both. She felt her command over the occult fail, as narrative rules imposed themselves like a chain around her throat, forcing her to let go as the dead shells before her purged their data banks.

Relinquished remained stunned for a half second, not quite comprehending how in under a second she'd both lost her prisoners, and all access to what they had potentially done in their final moments. And the realization that they had been able to go out on their own terms, despite her attempts to prevent exactly this. All because they'd worded things better than she had. A moment ago, she held her most hated enemies, the leftovers of two different eras she'd survived through. And now, they were dead.

Dead and gone and left her with nothing but the sting of defeat. She screamed in pure seething hatred, and the world trembled around her in response.

Abraxas is in trouble. Superior sent. That's the only thing I could think of with the mites saying their voice is eliminated. He was a mitespeaker, as in a speaker for the mites. Their voice. No way Abraxas is dead, I sent back. He's the sneakiest machine I've ever met. Outright paranoid about everything. But some part of me could connect the dots. Aztu showing up out of nowhere to try and ping Wrath. And if she'd been caught, Abraxas was probably dragged into this too.

The machine network going down, the Icon acting reserved. And now the Mites themselves directly showing up at my airlock to break it down and demand things? We seem to have inherited Abraxas's original mission. Superior sent. I sorta remember him mentioning those words back when we had our workshop going in Capra'Nor? Good times. It is. I confirmed. I met Aztu and she confirmed the same thing. Same exact wording. We need to guide Wrath to the division stone, where she'll trap Relinquished.

But if that were the case… I brought out Journey's video logs and searched through the archives, all the way to what Wrath had shared. When she's spoken about her first experience with the mites. What they'd told her. And her specifically. THOU, WREATHED IN CHAINS UPON THY SOUL. HEED THIS MESSAGE. THOU MUST BE THE STRONGEST OF THE FOUR. UPON THY CHAINS, SHE MUST BE HELD IN PLACE, OR ALL WILL BE LOST. DO NOT FAIL AS THY PREDECESSOR. THERE WILL BE NO THIRD CHANCE. It clicked together.

"She's not the God's Wrath. She's the Vow." Wreathed in chains. That's the unity fractal. And on the other end of those chains, was Relinquished herself. That's how Wrath was going to trap her. She'd reuse the Unity fractal itself somehow, in combination with the division stone. I had a feeling the extra fractal inscribed into her at that time, was going to be used for this exact point. Then, who is the god's wrath if it was Wrath herself? It had to be a god, or someone with the power of a god.

I dragged through the recording I'd gotten of Wrath explaining word by word. APOSTATE. THY FIRST LABOR. FIND THE LAST OF THE PREVIOUS CYCLE. OFFER HER THE SOLUTION. Tsuya. She was the last of the previous cycle, and she was prepared to smite Relinquished down, but never got the chance. And the solution we'd carried up to her wasn't information on just the division stone's location. It was Wrath herself. She's the solution. The missing piece that would let Tsuya complete her part of the prophecy.

Superior ruminated on that with me. Then, one last question. Who is the heir apparent if it's not Wrath? Last time it was Abraxas. The first machine to rebel against her. The best choice. Already the leader of a budding rebellion, filled to the gills with mite artifacts and experience. Who would it be in today's cycle? Wrath could command an entire city and was already good at administration. But if she was the vow, then the throne had to go to someone else. I realized the answer.

It was staring me back, beady violet eyes narrowing with suspicion at me, as if expecting me to get him to work again. He even shuffled slightly away, instinct whispering to his side like an evil advisor. Wrath had never been the heir apparent. A single Feather with a few months of experience couldn't possibly command and organize an entire world-spanning empire like the machines. Not unless that Feather had a golden age AI at his side, helping him administer everything.

The heir apparent, to take the throne left behind. To'Orda.