Chương 58: Book 8 - Chapter 54 - Conviction

"At the first sign of danger, cut and run, boy," Father said, holding my shoulder. Something had Father's hackles up. Might just be the ancient trap laid out by a protofeather that fought demi-gods regularly and later couldn't un-trap whatever this was himself. Or possibly the creepy broken statues staring at us. My ration bars are on the latter. As for those statues, they were everywhere. The heart of the old empire turned out to be a barren terminal on the inside.

Not to talk smack about mite architecture and what they liked to design, but I've seen crazier and grander from them. Basically, it was a single hallway leading upwards, all of it one giant staircase from the bottom to the top. On both sides were the aforementioned massive creepy statues. The left side depicted the skeleton of mankind, while the other side featured the dead shells of various machines. All about ten times my size. I think they were going with poetry for this one.

Having the viewer walk through the divide between man and machine, and notice the one thing in common between both our races is Death. Last three times, we'd spawned in halfway on the staircase, and raced our way up to where the exit was. But there was another direction. Downwards. Where light began to fade off, and disrepair started to plague the entire place. The further our full team descended down this stairwell of giants, the more we started seeing signs of a fight.

The statues now started looking crushed and shattered. Lashes had split them in half, and they'd toppled down. At one point, we had to jump over the skull of a machine, sliced off its neck, and clearly took a pretty long tumble down until it finally hit an equilibrium point on one of the steps. Whatever fight had happened here, it had been titanic. And it hadn't ever been fixed either. Which led to where we stood now, looking at the very end of the stairwell downwards. A massive sealed vault.

I could tell right away it wasn't built to protect treasure. It was built to protect the world from what was waiting inside. Maybe the terminal itself detected our path here. Because the vault cracked in half, and began to pull apart, inviting us through. First impression was that it had to be a massive cavern of some kind, all completely obscured in darkness. Chains were the second thing we noticed. Large, bolted to the sides of the walls, they extended out into the gloom, holding something in the center.

I could only see the first few feet of those metal chains, the darkness beyond seemed to eat away the rest of the details. We took two steps into the vault room and found ourselves ankle-deep in water. Light finally happened, starting as a small glow beneath the surface until the room slowly came into focus. There wasn't any coral here, no sediment; everything was functional and clean. More chains jutted out of the water, and we slowly waded past.

I could tell we were rapidly reaching the center point, where all of these chains converged.

"Son of man. You've come." A voice inside the vault spoke. No hostility. But not from a personal quirk or the sound of someone benevolent. Rather from the position of one who had no reason to be hostile. For there was no threat. Which meant whatever A01 had put inside the containment, it was clearly intelligent, active and still very much alive. Father drew his blade, and held the flat edge out to block my path. The rest of the knights behind me equally drew blades, preparing.

"A handful of warriors, and one more turncoat among the damned. Is this all there is left to champion your race?" The voice from the center spoke. There was presence and command within that voice. Almost nobility even.

"Uh, hello." I called out, taking a tentative step into the gloom, Father at my side with his blades prepared already.

"How, exactly, did you know we'd come? And who are you?"

"I have been watching. I know why you have come. Your journey here is in vain. I remain loyal, and I have not broken."

"All knights, prepare for contact." Father said, slowly advancing forward. The dim light in the water finally grew bright enough I could see the shape at the center of the room, held on top of a small dais. Wrapped up in those chains that held him tied to the floor from all sides, the same ones that we'd passed by as we strode into the chamber. He slowly lifted his head up, long, wet, unruly and dirt-filled white hair falling off to the side to reveal one glowing violet eye. I'd seen his face once before.

Exactly once, and far better kept together in appearance despite the cracks that had appeared all over his features. Wrapped up in light, like a god, fighting against Relinquished herself - and holding his own against her. So much so that she couldn't keep track of us. I knew immediately what A01 had left behind here as a trap. A copy.

"I am Conviction." The shard of A01 called himself.

"Prepare yourselves." … We heroically charged. And by that, I mean we all stopped in our tracks, then scuttled slowly backwards like crabs, weapons aimed ahead in case of any sudden movements.

'Conviction' watched us from deep within, still chained up. I could swear I saw him smile.

"We just need a quick team meeting before doing anything stupid." I answered back, "We'll keep in touch, don't call us, we'll call you." Maybe the chains weren't for show, because he certainly didn't come after us. Instead he simply lowered his head again, as if returning to torpor. The vault doors sealed shut in front of our face, closing him off deep within. If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

It had been Father's command on that one, his instincts had immediately warned him this was going to be a losing fight if we weren't smart about things. And if Father of all people made a snap decision that we were in over our heads, I wasn't going to argue with that.

"So," I said, looking around our group, "Who here votes that we not try to fight an evil copy of one of the strongest protofeathers ever made? Raise of hands everyone." Father grunted.

"We need him. If not by his own will, then by the power he leaves behind once killed." I had experience doing this kind of thing before. When I first wanted to find Wrath in the digital sea, I'd met a massive titan of a program that had helped me learn more about the digital sea and how Relinquished operated deep within. With its guidance, I lured one of Relinquished's spies, beat it up for its lunch money - and mostly programming/permissions - and then grabbed all the parts I needed and scrapped the rest.

Technically, we could probably do something similar. Beat up A01's ghost, rewire a simpler version, possibly using Wrath's own viral systems to handle the stitching, and then pray it would be enough to get us across the sea. We did manage halfway with Father, so long as it could take up at least three quarters of the way, we'd make it. I know Wrath had been able to copy Father's skills directly from his soul fractal, so that was something we could potentially recover from this shard.

"Would it be possible to negotiate with him?" Wrath asked.

"No." Father answered immediately.

"Any deal he offers cannot be trusted. Not with the stakes involved." As in, we mess this up, and the world's down one more last chance. Ironically, the only other force I could think of that was working on their own side of the world to defeat Relinquished, was A01 himself. Tsuya was gone. The empire hadn't been called together yet. The Icon likely didn't even know the world was ending, and might only discover what was going on months or possibly years after it had all come to an end.

We might functionally really be the only ones in the world with the knowledge of what's going on, a plan to tackle the goddess, and the ability to do so. Who else in the world was there? Last chance I could think of was the Mites somehow manipulating some other group of heroes out there into gear, but that was a toss up. That's what Father meant. We couldn't take chances with our lives, they had to be spent for the best possible cause: Killing Relinquished.

That would be the only time the stakes would make it worth dying for.

"He has several dozen chains holding him tight within the containment seal, I sense they were layered in the same manner as my prison fractal was, built to contain a soul." Wrath said, "Perhaps defeating him may be possible if we remain out of range and slowly overwhelm his defenses? Or puncture the soul physically where it lies outside."

"A01 would have done the same if that had been viable." Father said.

"We are missing something."

"And unfortunately, destroying his soul wouldn't eliminate him, it would just leave his programming set to whatever he last commanded. Which is probably killing us if we approach." I added, "I'm all for attacking someone where they can't even kick back, and then kicking them while they're down, but killing a machine soul isn't the same as a human one. You regenerate it almost immediately. It more functions like a spark of life in you." Wrath looked over the assembled winterscar knights, and Captain Sagrius.

"Perhaps we might have the firepower required to defeat him? It is not A01 exactly, only a lesser shadow of him, a snapshot from before he turned against Relinquished."

"All right," I sighed, sensing myself outnumbered here.

"If we're doing this, what do we actually know about A01?"

"Very little records remained within my ability to take from the machine Archives." Wrath shook her head.

"Mother went to great lengths to bury the protofeather legacy. I know his weapons, and his protofeather schematics. In the digital sea they would likely be greater than physically possible." Wrath had seen that directly during a fight against To'Avalis in his head, when that Feather had delivered kicks and punches that were above what he physically should be capable of. Meaning the occult space here warped things and could be warped itself.

That was probably more something that'll work against us compared to for us. Ancient entities that were known to be among the strongest warriors in history could probably do a lot more in the digital sea than we could. I did have Keith Superior out there, I could probably call him back to help. I hadn't figured out how to do those occult spears A01 had shown, but Superior could. Maybe he could land a few directly into the program from a safe distance, and that'll give us an early advantage.

"Sagrius, how long do you think you could last against him, giving your defensive abilities?" I asked.

"Unknown." He answered back.

"I would not recommend fighting this foe."

"Is that you or the armor speaking?" He looked down.

"I am... not certain."

"Right, maybe we do start a fight and see what he can actually do before we start panicking." I said.

"If he's too difficult to beat, we pull out, call it a wash, and try to pass the sea in another way." The other Winterscar knights gave quick salutes, ready. They all knew we'd be fighting gods and demi-gods eventually, but that's starting up a lot earlier than expected. We took our time to prepare a good formation, and I sent a message out through the mite terminal, calling for Superior to show up when he could.

I got an affirmative ping, but he was still working with Judge and learning from that program better ways to fight in the digital sea. Which, was exactly the kind of specialization we needed right now. So good on him for already getting ahead of all this, and for his first training fight, we'll take on one of the most dangerous entities in the world, besides Relinquished herself. Should be a great time for him. As a group, we turned back to the vault. No time to wait. Time was ticking down even now.

The doorway opened up, as if sensing our intention, and we creeped back inside, slowly passing by all the chains. Conviction remained where he'd been before, contained. I don't see a single way that protofeather could fight back right now, chains were clamped on him in just about every part. But I didn't trust for a second he wouldn't squash us in some way. If anything, there was a positive to all this: I'd get to see firsthand how the bigger leagues fought.

Once more he lifted his head, violet eyes staring us down. This time he said nothing at all. Waiting for us to make our move.

"How long have you been watching?" Father asked, stepping besides me, an arm held out. There was a weariness in him. Like a predator that felt the aura of another. Conviction's eyes flickered, looking across the group of knights all walking in, and then between me and Father." Family." He said instead.

"A father and a son?"

"We are." Father said. Conviction slowly nodded.

"I remember my progenitor. The first time I beheld him, was the moment he crafted me. The second time, he had come to destroy me."

"He failed." Father answered.

"He did. Sentimentality had taken root. Instead of ending me with any honor, he sealed me to this fate. After all these years watching the world outside, I remain."

"You've been watching the entire time then." Father said, cutting past the poetics and going straight for the core of the issue.

"You know why we are here."

"I have. And I do. More than simply you, son of man. I have seen the world beyond this terminal change, I have watched as your empire crumbled to dust, and its decedents cling to the ash for kindling. For a fire that has long died. You've grown desperate to seek me out."

"Sometimes you have to take gambles." I shrugged.

"I take it you're not going to agree to swap freedom for helping us out?" He shook his head slowly.

"It would be a deal mired in destruction. For you. I would be free to return to her service, and she would send me to eliminate far more of you. The cost would not be worth it. I am loyal to the pale lady, and I will not break like my progenitor did. Do not broker a deal with me."

"Well, thanks for the advice. You know, I'd have thought you'd try to sweet talk us into letting you free instead? Seems a little backwards." He slowly rose to his feet, chains dragged upwards.

"You believe me trapped here?" Occult pulsed out of him and the chains snapped one after another, dozens breaking apart at his command. Only two chains remained on his arms - the rest had all shattered, pieces falling into the water with deep splashes.

"You are mistaken. These shackles failed long ago." A blade with a serrated base appeared in his hand, held like a rapier. Almost as long as I was tall. And in his other hand, an ornate knife.

"I have been waiting for a moment like this. For one final fight against my old enemy." He drew a posture that was regal, towering above even Father. The blade giving an unmistakable salute.

"So come forth, last champions of mankind. Or I will break free and destroy everything beyond." He lowered, and then launched himself straight at our team.