Chương 24: Book 8 - Chapter 22 - Passenger

Good news, the last mite challenge was all about outthinking an opponent that had cheated the system. This time around, there wasn't any thinking involved, just flat out agility. Bad news, even with Drakonis's occult lashes and all the time in the world doing nothing but trying to outspeed the challenge, he hadn't been able to make it work.

"Center console here, right above the sealed chest. That's where the glyph image shows up." He pointed, right above the center of the tower. The insides were about the same as the outsides for this tower. Large platforms were outside, and on the inside those were there too, all up and down. There were stairs and different paths, sure, but those were more of a bad suggestion. One of them was a single metal chain that looked like it would snap if I even tried to tiptoe my way over it with Journey.

Probably the closest the mites get to a joke. Superior sent. Whatever colony built this tower knew human agility wouldn't be enough. It's all about preplanning for this one. I sent back, agreeing with his findings. The setup was as simple as making ice. Image shows up in the center of the tower, and a matching image appears somewhere on one of these platforms. Get to it fast enough to press down a raised pedestal, and the challenge would repeat. Drakonis's high score had been three, and that was by pure luck.

Half the challenge wasn't agility, just immediate information. Knowing where the matching image had been generated, either inside the tower or outside, and which platform. If we could figure that out fast, then a simple occult lash would get us the rest of the way. The winning ticket for this obstacle race was just flat out getting information fast. Hence why Drakonis said we needed five people here.

Two runners waiting outside and inside, one spotter for the main image generated waiting by the center sitting at the very top of the inside looking down at all the different platforms to tell where the image might show up, and the last two doing the same thing but for the outside, on the north and south side respectively. Good plan all in all, and with armored up relic knights sharing instant visual information and assistance from their armors, this would be a cakewalk.

What I had to work with were four birds in an evo-suit, a Deathless in a makeshift toga without the philosophy lessons, and me.

"Wrath, how much power do you and To'Orda have on yourself to work with?" I sent out, walking back out of the tower.

"I need some toys to play with."

"To'Orda and I can have enough to craft some items, if that is what you are requesting for? How complex is the task?" I looked at the Deathless tagging behind. He'd seen better days, messy short black hair and sharp brawny features like I remember them, but the angry creases by his eyes and mouth seemed to have gone a little. Maybe a vacation out here playing tag with the mite tower had been good for his mental health.

"I need one set of Drakonis sized clothing, a spare cape for myself since I don't want my old one back, and cameras. Probably five or six, just so long as they can communicate with each other and Journey can connect to them. Also Drakonis needs a comms unit. Pretty please? I'll cook you an actual editable plate as thanks, whenever we get some free time. I think chocolate can be shaped into just about anything, and the Logi have a chocolate coffee dessert shaped like a mug and plate."

"I recall. I have tried that one twice thus far, I would be interested in seeing your attempt at it. I assume the other requests are for the tower itself?"

"And that's why you're the smart one between the two of us." I said, giving her some finger guns to match. I knew she could see me even this far, Feathers have very good vision, the little cheats.

"Don't forget to give yourself credit, human," The rock added.

"You also make her look extra pretty standing next to her. And everyone else too."

"Cathida, attack the rock for me please." I said, loosening my attack dog off her leash.

"What a lovely string of words deary, you should say those more often." She said and went on to do exactly what I'd asked. While the two started barking at each other, I waved at Drakonis to follow.

"I'm asking for the crew to make some items for us, including some clothing for you. We'll hike over there, get the goods and then come back here to get the tower done." Drakonis narrowed his eyes.

"What do they want in return?"

"Compliments mostly, they're ninety five percent ego, and five percent spite. Flattery gets you everywhere with Feathers I've found. At least the ones that don't want to indiscriminately murder everyone though."

"Winterscar." I waved him off, "Fine, fine. I said please, and that I'd cook her a dessert. She was very happy with that trade off." I had told Drakonis she was a glutton. He hadn't believed me much back then, but maybe he would this time around.

"Anyhow, by the time we make it down there, they should have it setup for us." This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there. He looked out and seemed almost hesitant. But that lasted all of a second as he took a breath and started walking again.

"Reckon I'll finally meet the warlord of Capra'Nor personally to make my own judgements this time." We made our way each time the terrain changed, with me mostly catching Drakonis up on anything he needed to know. About Wrath, events after he died, what the Icon and the Odin were up to. Things were fine up until the Odin in question came down for a landing on his shoulder. Drakonis freaked the hell out. Out right dove out of the way, even used an occult shockwave to push away the Odin approaching.

The poor bird gave a very upset squawk and flew back up.

"... uh, what was that?" I asked, giving him my full attention.

"Did your paranoia about Feathers turn into something more literal here or something?" He straightened out, looking supremely uncomfortable.

"I… fuck. Don't even know how to say this, but I'm not alone out here."

"You were gone only a day and some change, and most of that was probably waiting to respawn or something. How did you get crazy within just a few hours? A little ahead of schedule there, don't you think?"

"No dipshit, I mean I really am not alone. Didn't know how to say this, but it knows you at least, so might be easier."

"Really not helping with the insanity charges here, you do know that right?"

"I know!" He waved me off, fuming.

"I fucking know it sounds insane, and I'm halfway convinced it is. Fuck, I really was only out for a few hours here and I've got a voice in my head. Do you know anything named Bob? Specifically something you named Bob." I watched him for a moment, my head short circuiting.

"Bob? What's it doing here with you?" He seemed to relax all of a sudden, as if he'd been holding some pent up energy this entire time.

"I crossed the infected zones without an armor when I tried to catch up to To'Orda. Didn't have a choice. Got infected."

"And dying didn't wipe it out?" He shook his head.

"Means it's part of my body now. So it was regenerated as if a nail or hair. I have no fucking idea if it's still infectious, or if just being close to me is lethal to someone. You're fine, you got an armor. But the birds? I don't trust that."

"What's Bob say?"

"It doesn't know either. The thing's trying to figure it out with me at least, but I have no idea if I can trust it or if it's just pretending to be friendly." I thought about Bob. And all I'd learned about that fungus.

"Just assume you're talking to an amoral psychopath who's completely logical and has no ego. It wants to live, and it wants to do that in the most direct and straightforward path. Find genuine ways to help it live longer and it'll be perfectly happy doing you a return favor." I gave the Deathless a rundown on everything I'd learned about Bob, and how I'd come to name it. Apparently Bob had also told Drakonis the same story, so having both match up one to one at least helped with his paranoia.

From what Drakonis said, Bob's spores were in a state of balance within the Deathless. The healing factor was outpacing Bob's destructive tendencies, and the body wasn't actively rejecting or fighting back the spores either. Bob could continue to infest Drakonis indefinitely from the looks of things.

"If anything, I'm more surprised you can speak to it. It's several biomes away, we're talking miles." Drakonis shrugged.

"It's a main part of its function. It controls animals and has them routinely leave its spore territory to rove out and die in wastes. It was bioengineered for this."

"Yeah, but we're talking miles away here. With entire mountains in between us. There's no network or wireless signals here other than what's being sent by the two down the hill here."

"Occult?" Drakonis asked.

"Has to be." I confirmed. Only the occult could warp basic rules of reality like that. And Bob was made by Relinquished in an attempt to kill humans off, that evil chatbot did have access to all the fractals known in the world. Most of them at least.

"That or there's something Bob can't tell us as it would threaten its existence to do so." The only thing that motivated that fungus was continued existence in the long term after all.

"Wait, this could be a good thing." I said, suddenly having a great idea.

"If it can talk to you, it could talk to others."

"What are you implying?" Drakonis asked.

"Maybe instead of seeing Bob as an invader and curse here, you could turn it into a benefit? Main advantage Machines have over the Deathless is that machines can network and organize on a global scale. Deathless can't. Unless you have a middleman like Bob, who can speak to everyone at any distance, and can't be interrupted or jammed." Drakonis stayed quiet for a moment, gears turning in his head.

"You know what Winterscar, that actually makes sense… but how'd we convince Bob to even work with us like that?" I patted his shoulder with a quick shake.

"That's the easy part. Remember, Bob's only goal in life is to stay alive. Ask that fungus this, what would it do for an infested small army of immortal humans with occult powers and relic armor? With said army in charge of feeding, guarding and generally tending to its well being and survival? Lets say making an entire fortress around its home?"

"Anything. It says it would do anything for that kind of option. Shit Winterscar, this could be big. Its telling me acting as a network agent for the Deathless would be a perfectly fine tradeoff."

"Not just perfectly fine, optimal too. Not just does it give back in tik for tat, but it quite literally solidifies itself as irreplaceable and becomes the core of the Deathless army itself. The better of a job it does as the core of the Deathless network, the more indispensable it becomes to the Deathless as a whole. Nobody would want it to die off, so at every second all of them will want to keep it alive." Drakonis laughed, "It really likes that thought. Greedy little thing.

Turning a bioweapon built to eradicate humanity into one of humanity's greatest assets has a sort of irony to it even I can fucking appreciate." Knowing Bob was riding in Drakonis's head also made me curious about something more. I dove through the soul sight and looked over my frenemy. I found the standard concept of a human, like I would when looking at Atius. But Deathless don't have souls, more like a connecting bridge off to somewhere deeper. Which, on hindsight, was exactly what I'd seen from Keith Superior.

I had a few realizations all at once. The souls of the Deathless didn't inhabit their bodies. It was out in mite space. Somewhere beyond. And their bodies were more a mite lantern of it's own. Holy scrapshit raining from above. This changed everything I knew about Deathless. The reason they couldn't work with soul fractals, why they couldn't fumble around outside their bodies. They could move their souls. But they were moving around somewhere else.

No wonder they couldn't sense anything close to what I saw in the soul sight. For all I knew, there was just nothingness where the Deathless souls resided. But that paled in the second revelation. Because I saw something else within Drakonis.

"Drakonis. I think I might be able to make you, and all the other Deathless out there, occult casters."

"The fuck does that mean?" He asked, "I already can cast the occult."

"Not like Warlocks you can't. Limited to just a small set of spells right?"

"... You think you could have us cast more?"

"Well, you? No. But I happen to see a friend in there that could." Specifically, Bob's soul. Because it was right there living in his body, and it could move.