Chương 57: Book 8 - Chapter 53 - Relics within Relics

"Feeling accomplished?" A22 asked, walking side by side with him now as they reached the massive elevator lift shaft.

"Your greatest enemy, the very heart of their empire, we're finally walking close to their most treasured vault. Tell me how you feel A01." There was no rush of victory. Only… loss? He didn't know how to process these emotions, the logic simply was not there. They'd won. And he felt defeated instead. Worse than defeat. He felt as if his own soul was fragmenting at the core. A01 took one step off into the void, letting gravity take command of his shell as he fell directly down the shaft to the bottom.

The metal and human workings here had been so warped and twisted, he could already tell his entire lift was offline without bothering to double check with his sensors. In seconds, he slammed at the base level, using a pulse of occult to force the material under him into stability. Everything here had been so weakened by the caustic agents, this amount of force would have shattered under his feet. That he had to use some of his power to keep the defeated human fortress together was an odd thought to his mind.

But if there was a deeper metaphor behind such an act, he had a gut feeling exploring in this direction would lead him nowhere good. Instead, his eyes adjusted to the dim lighting here. Mite lights, still functional despite the rest of this vault being filled with brittle warped metal. Almost organic in shape now that the acid had burned away any precise human measurements. A22 landed behind him, far more silently and with elegance, her six wings once more folded behind her.

She stepped out of the shaft and walked with him. At the very center of this vault, was a mite terminal. Unmelted and untouched by all the caustic agents in the air. Human remains were scattered all over, including ruined tents and signs of survival. A dedicated few had chosen to remain behind, trying to hold this vault against the inevitable. Waiting for one last battle. To die fighting. To give their final days in life meaning. Instead, they'd waited, and slowly died, here.

Against a merciless enemy that couldn't be fought or held back. He put them out of his mind, trying to focus on his center task. The terminal. One that Tsuya had often used to communicate directly with the empire. If the humans returned and retook this location, they would equally return to this terminal. Where Tsuya might return to speak to them once more. A57 had the right idea: Leave a strong enough trap to hold down a goddess, while the rest of the protofeathers mobilized in the digital sea to catch her.

She was the last guardian humanity had against complete extinction. A57 had layered hundreds of traps, all for different timelines and timeframes far beyond their operation. And he always won in the end. One way or another, Tsuya would be caught in one and killed. A01 took the final few steps to the terminal, and hoped her eventual defeat would not feel as hollow as this one did.

"I have heard of the fabled digital sea." The Chaptermaster spoke as he noticed my vitals went from coma patient back to normal panicking human.

"The technique was once widely spread among the imperial church, the old empire in its glory days. We have since only kept records of how it was done, in theory. Tsuya warned us not to meddle with the forbidden fractal, nor step into the domain of machines. Something we have followed with great care, and that our others in the Warlock guilds seem to have equally learned over time. The danger on the other side was overwhelming."

"She was correct in that assessment." Urs said, having stayed on my back the entire time. He was getting comfortable there, since he'd rejected being moved around or given better seat, despite the Chaptermaster hovering over us both.

"The digital sea's true danger is the direct access to a human soul. Relinquished was developing weapons to destroy memories, or rip apart souls, it was no longer safe to exist there."

"Well, it's not safe for anyone right now anymore." I said, rolling my shoulder and preparing for round three. It had been a good stretch of time since we'd first uncovered Relinquished had plotted stuff in the background, and I'd been slamming my head at this terminal ever since, with nothing to show for it. Not even because of something specifically from Relinquished, but rather the byproduct of her going on a rampage: "It's not just the surface or the world out here she's after.

She's launched a massive campaign across the other side of the sea, basically expanding her domain in every direction, consuming everything in her path. It's mass panic." And the machine empire out there wasn't only eating everything; she was also terraforming the very land. The digital sea was all about ecosystems within ecosystems - a tentative balance that was both hyperlethal and yet somehow stable. She was destroying everything, breaking the balance and tipping entire ecosystems into self-destruction.

It was causing some kind of catastrophic knock-on effect, where neighboring ecosystems were disrupting others. The entire sea's currents were all broken down, no organization or structure anymore. I wasn't sure why she was making these moves, but it was more than just searching for something out here. She wanted to make sure nothing could hide from her again. At her rate, I'd give it maybe a few years before she managed to consume the entire digital sea that wasn't controlled by mites.

Everything was going into a frenzy in an attempt to evacuate from machine territory. They were used to the law of the wastes: if something was hungry and larger, run the other way and run faster than one other. Which meant complete chaos, since everyone was trying to throw others behind them, and so forth down the chain of panic. Waves of programs would slam into me, and inevitably something bigger would seize the opportunity to snap its mouth shut with me inside while I was too busy with the wall of distractions.

So that's how I've been killed three times over trying to cross through the digital sea up till now. The furthest I'd managed to move would be halfway to the address point I had in memory for the Icon's little shelter external terminal. If the current situation didn't already feel like the end of the world despite the outright army of Feathers I'd just fought, seeing the digital sea on metaphorical fire was the tipping point. It was serious. Relinquished was going all in and using everything she had planned out.

Tsuya's infrastructure might be impervious and resistant to Relinquished, but the rest of the sea sure as hell wasn't. Wherever the final edict was, it was completely entrenched from all sides by Relinquished, expanding outwards. Even if she hadn't already fortified the entire place, I doubt any communications request could be sent that far without getting caught and eaten by something equally running the opposite direction. Opportunists were everywhere during the complete chaos. But we had to keep trying.

Once I got to the Icon, she'd be powerful enough to slip like a knife through all of this noise and get through past the encryption and defenses Relinquished was layering on her territory. The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation. She's basically our only hope at this point.

"We try again, maybe we can tunnel under the loose silt at the bottom? Use the dirt to keep us invisible from the migration above?" I was throwing out ideas of all kinds.

"Or we try to create some kind of wedge to slam into things for us and clear a way?" Snowplowers would do that for hangers when airspeeders launched into a blizzard. There'd be too much stuff flying into the hangar that after the doorways closed, the entire place would be covered in snow.

"We need more power and strength." Father said to my side. He'd been the frontliner for us, Wrath and I fighting off the sides, and all together we'd still only managed to get halfway.

"Might is the limiting factor." His eyes turned to Urs. The old emperor of man looked back.

"I cannot step into the digital sea. Not without exposing the fractal of resolve to Relinquished."

"If you do not step through and assist us, there will not be a chance to make use of that fractal." Father shot back.

"It is not needed for success. I can handle the firing myself. Getting the imperials to protect the surface long enough to force Relinquished out into the open is the only true objective that matters." Urs's eyes flickered, and he looked away from Father.

"I fear Relinquished will find me and immediately turn the sea into a battleground. I do not believe I could defeat her myself, otherwise I would have already suggested doing so. If she defeats me, we cannot trigger the Edict." Father frowned, because Urs had a point. He was our king piece. If he died or was captured, the game was over. Even with the Icon guiding the way and exposing the path for us to the Final Edict's position, we wouldn't be able to trigger it. Not without Urs.

"You require raw power to break through?" The Chaptermaster asked.

"We have imperial warlocks at the ready, if you believe you could teach them, I can call them all here."

"How strong of occultists are they?" I asked, looking back at the man. If they had anyone near Hexis's power level, we'd probably have a good shot at punching through.

"Compared to the guilds, we are unfortunately lacking. We only collect those who are expelled or otherwise turn against the guilds, which is usually the lower to middle ranks. Higher ranks have little reason to rebel against their own order. And Tsuya has barred certain directions for fear of discovery, which limits us further compared to the guilds. However, I assure you, they are among the best of the best otherwise. All capable occultists."

"It might take too long to teach an entire army how to move and function in the digital sea. Time we really don't have. Maybe we modify A57's viral program a bit more?" I suggested.

"I can't do that, but Wrath's very good with digital viruses."

"It... might be possible." Wrath said, thinking it through.

"Although it would require testing, and I fear Relinquished may notice the disturbance of a strong program moving through the digital sea."

"There… might be another option." The Chaptermaster said from the side, watching as our group brainstormed ideas.

"You require a strong program, you say?"

"Yeah, basically." I said, figuring any source of additional ideas might help.

"The digital sea is more a massive amount of smaller programs, so while I can crush a few individually, tons more are going to take bites at my flank."

"Humans are stronger programs capable of handling one on one fights with far more ease, given their connection to the occult." Wrath said.

"Actual programs are able to multitask and handle higher loads. Theoretically, my own system paired with some of my viral defense software should handle a huge sum."

"There's just a hell of a lot more than a 'huge sum.' That's the problem." I said.

"Everything on the other side of the digital sea is in complete panic." The Chaptermaster held an armored hand out instead.

"This terminal contains something. It functions as a containment cell of some kind."

"Wait, there's something else in there?" I asked.

"I didn't see a single thing when I went through." In fact, the entire terminal had been the most barren thing to exist. A single straight staircase leading up, like a massive hallway, surrounded by statues. There'd been doorways on both sides, but we hadn't had time to check anything. We'd simply rushed straight up and ahead, since the exit portal was right in sight the moment we walked into the terminal.

"It may or may not exist in the first place, although I personally believe it does. We've seen stranger relics." The Chaptermaster said, giving the terminal a somber look.

"This is far into myth and legends, we have no means of verifying the authenticity of it. And Tsuya has never entered this terminal personally. Although that may be more proof that this terminal is potentially dangerous, hence why she only communicated sporadically and in simple one-way text messages."

"Explain further." Father demanded, frowning. He didn't like the sound of this already.

"It has to do with the history of this citadel. Seven hundred years prior, it was sieged and taken by the protofeathers of old. We know this from the scrolls and relics we've found. But they later rebelled. All of them, including the greatest of their kind. He was here before, in this very room. And we believe he's been here twice."

"Why twice?" I could see A01 coming here to beat down the defenders all the way to the heart of the citadel, but why would he come ba - oh. Containment cell. Inside the terminal.

"He left a trap and later came back to disarm it."

"Indeed. All that we recovered however was an emergency decree, detailing steps to cut all power to this terminal. In case of a 'containment breach'. Scholars have come up with many theories, however the decree only has the schematics for where the power cables are located, and how to shut them all off manually. It was clearly built in the event of a catastrophe centering the terminal, and containment breach implied something was being contained within the terminal.

The only reason this has ever seen the light of day in our Order, is that we discovered this decree was signed by A01 himself. This is where the legends and myths originate from."

"You should have warned us at the start, before we crossed into the terminal the first time." Father was now outright glaring at the Chaptermaster.

"The problem is that we cannot be certain of its authenticity. It was recovered in a defunct imperial bunker that was entombed by the mites until we recovered it at the surface. Four of the five power cables shown on the schematic were located where they were claimed they would be. However, there were seven power cables in total when we discovered and cleaned the citadel, thus the schematics are not accurate.

We cannot be certain it was a true decree written by A01, or if it was something artificially crafted to fool future humans. Or a potential… mistranslation. Done by an older imperial scholar who had been attempting to duplicate the schematic so that if the original was destroyed, we would have copies. To date, we have only found a single scroll, thus there is no other data to corroborate. History can be muddled, despite our dedication, many of us are unfortunately still human."

"You hesitate." Urs said, eyes flickering.

"Why?"

"There... was some oddities and conflicting instructions on the decree. It claimed in case of a catastrophic containment breach, we are to manually disconnect the terminal. However, it also claimed that we are to unseal the containment directly instead, on certain conditions."

"And those conditions would be?"

"Lost to time, unfortunately." The Chaptermaster said.

"The few that made sense trace a set of ports, and a few other technical items. Our most conservative theory is that it is a test to see if the program has been neutralized over time, however the majority of these flags no longer exist within the terminal or never have. Or the original copy was mistranslated and the directions did not see enough care and detail."

"How do you mess up one of the most important edicts in your entire order?" I asked, feeling a little frustrated.

"This would be signed by a protofeather, and not just any, it's the greatest one ever built." The Chaptermaster shook his head sadly.

"We are not everywhere. Our Order is a small part of the greater empire. An imperial squire would not see the importance of an edict signed by A01, they would not know who that was, and likely even believe it was a misprint. That and the decree describes a terminal that very few people in the imperial church even know exist. We are fortunate the scouts that discovered the bunker decided to input the scroll into the database without attempting to 'fix' anything."

"It is unfortunate. However, we will need to work with what we have." Urs said.

"What do you expect to find within this containment cell? You seem to believe it will assist us in some way. What are your conclusions, as an order?" The Chaptermaster straightened, now delivering a professional verdict.

"There are enough details on the decree and schematics provided that specify things no other Order would know exist, thus we are fairly certain this decree is accurate. A01 would not have left instructions to physically destroy the terminal if he had been able to successfully disarm the trap. Which means whatever it was, he was unable to purge it himself. Whatever was left behind in the terminal must have been powerful. Likely on a level ready to combat Tsuya herself.

We believe if this scroll was indeed accurate, then the trap remains sealed within the terminal. And given it has not breached containment, it is possible that what it contains has been neutralized over time, as the original schematic described. With your skills and the old occult techniques that allow one to travel the digital sea, you might find this containment cell, and possibly repurpose the power within for yourself if it is no longer active." I looked over to the terminal, with more critical eyes.

Lurking somewhere inside, was a sealed section we had been passing by without notice three times over now. Where the greatest protofeather in all of history had left behind a trap or a viral payload with enough power to capture or kill Tsuya. And when he'd come back to fix his mistake, he hadn't been able to purge it. Instead, he needed to seal it away deep inside the terminal. And we needed to go break into that vault, and find a way to repurpose it. Easy enough.