Chương 89: Book 8 - Chapter 85 - It was never pretend

"No, no-no-no, absolutely not. I've come too far to just let you die at the end of the finish line Wrath!" I half hissed, half whispered, trying to think of ways to convince her otherwise.

"I've seen you lead people with an ease that not even my sister could match. You would be a better fit for all the scrapshit that comes after we win. I need you at my side to help with being the emperor. Do you think I know even the first thing about being an emperor? Me?"

"A lie. How peculiar." Wrath tilted her head, infuriating me that Feathers could still detect lies even after I've turned into half a god.

"You are aware you have the Icon to default to. She would be a far better candidate for a logistics officer. Powerful enough to handle the affairs of machine kind and those of humanity. Why is it that you remain stubborn about finding a replacement for my role?" I swallowed hard, thinking how to tell this idiot not to run off and die on me. My mouth opened up and started running without even my head thinking about it.

"I have, perhaps, on occasion, learned to enjoy your company and I'd be a little lost without you around to harass."

"A little?" She seemed offended. And probably knew I was lying as well, because of course she would.

"A lot." She seemed a lot more satisfied with that answer.

"Better."

"Yrob just isn't the same, your choice in minions is real questionable." She raised an eyebrow up at me, and I knew I'd been caught.

"You are deflecting emotion with humor. I will not be dissuaded this time. Explain your reasons why you wish to prevent me from taking this path?"

"You know me so well, it's honestly annoying."

"A truth followed by another lie." She reached a hand to my cheek, and held it there.

"Keith, you truly are a silly human. Emperor or otherwise, I am glad to see you remain the human I know so well." I stared at her and felt a hollow pit in my stomach of a hundred emotions I couldn't name. My vision tunneled down until only darkness was around me and her. Adrenaline made things grow cold around me.

"No, I'm not done yet. I've spent month after month fighting to bring about a world that's worth living in. Months watching you get baited into eating plate after plate, sneak into my room to indulge my stupid engineering ideas, eat fish in three bites and hand me the raw leftovers. I can't go back to bickering with anyone else Wrath, there is nobody that can replace you. And just when I finally get all the power in the world I'd need to make that happen…"

"I have to go off and die." She whispered back, her thumb gently rubbing the side of my temple. It felt as light as a feather's touch.

"Yes, I can see how that would be bothersome." I half choked a laugh, "Try soulcrushing."

"Not factually true, and yet not a lie this time. How curious your human idioms are."

"Wrath, please. It's not fair that you won't get to see the world you helped make. Give me some time to come up with something else."

"The Icon informs us we are out of that. A launch location has already been calculated, and equipment is arriving soon. My human, we have been through much together." Wrath hummed, "And you have been there with me step after step. You would know most why this must be done. You were with me for almost all of it."

"She'll overpower you, you can't hold her down in the first place! Stay on that station Wrath, please."

"You are factually correct, she can overpower me. And yet, once again, you continue to speak untruths." Wrath shook her head slowly, still holding my cheek.

"You already realize I do not need to be stronger than her. I am her prodigal daughter, her own nature will force her to remain chained by me, and only me. I have a prison that can hold any soul. My own is divided from Unity. Tsuya sacrificed herself to grant me that one freedom as her last act in this world. Relinquished bound me once, and now I come to bind her in return. Keith, it has to be me." Fighting her where she was at her strongest had been tried, and it hadn't worked.

Not even A01 had managed to beat her in his prime, or even with a surprise attack when she was finally drawn away from her own terrain. Wrath and I saw that fight personally ourselves, and the old protofeather fought and clearly failed. There was only us left to take her down. And the only way to chain her was inevitably going to be by abusing her nature and behavior. Same as I had to beat one angry spider too angry to die. Same as all the other machines out there. Father had it right all this time.

Half remembered words from a different life. All automatons have patterns, only not always obvious. Remember this if you ever get caught. There's always a weakness to leverage, Keith. Even Relinquished had weaknesses she couldn't escape. I have spent my entire life studying gods and divinity. To'Sefit's own words floated through my mind. Do you know who kills gods in all known mythology? Their children. The prodigal daughter.

And I just couldn't think of anything to say to get this suicidal toaster away from throwing herself off a cliff. She was right. There was nobody else. I knew and hated it. The Icon's portal opened behind her. Beyond was the frozen wastes. Air was suddenly sucked outwards, pulling us both into it. The Deathless nearby all cheered, watching as their emperor was setting off to confront the final battle.

I don't know if they knew the full story or not, the Icon could speak to them all individually and had for the past nine hours. Maybe they all knew already. Wrath held a hand out to me.

"The Icon informs me we need to hurry now, there is a timing window I must follow through on." We stepped through together, leaving the celebrations and cheering behind. I was in a daze, my head trying to think of all the ways I could get her not to go and put herself in the one location that would see enough firepower to kill an actual goddess. And I had no other ideas. The mites had already prepared her in every way that mattered.

She had a fractal built to contain the soul of anything, and the Mite's own fractal built to force a goddess to be moved. She was the daughter, once chained and used to kill her greatest foe. The twist of her becoming the prophesized hero that would bring her down all along would be too powerful for that chatbot's logic to escape. Given how panicked Relinquished had been, I knew it would work. This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

I took a step into the final war. The ice and snow crunched under my boots, like an old friend. The white wastes stretched before me. And beyond I could see war and smoke. The subfreezing wind didn't hurt me at all, I felt only a light chill in the air. The same resilience that kept Deathless alive on the surface here was now deep within me.

The feel of the sun far beyond, shining down on this white world should have been the most alien and strange sensation in my life, and yet I couldn't think about anything other than the one person taking a few steps ahead into the snow herself.

"How are you going to even survive long enough to make it?" I asked, grasping at rattling screws on the very bottom of the toolbox.

"That fortress has automated defenses, it's going to knock you out of the sky like an invader." Something about equipment being sent right here, a timing window for the Icon. I didn't know the full plan yet.

"Behind you human." The golden portal behind us faded away, and much further off, a trail of white clouds being dusted upwards from the ground. The usual signs of an airspeeder approaching us at full speed. It soon arrived, slowing down into a side spin, landing right before us both. A massive thing compared to us. The hanger doorway opened, and clan knights from a land I didn't recognize jumped out. He carried a crate in his hands, filled with power cells. Fully restored and ready.

The knight raced straight at us, coming to a stop, the crate set down into the ground before Wrath, and he finished the motion kneeling before me.

"Knight Retainer Everstorm, First Blade of clan O'karin my Lord Emperor." He spoke.

"The Icon has sent us to deliver you this package." Behind, I could see a good amount of Retainers in environmental suits lugging something I would have never thought I'd see. At least separated from the rightful owner. I turned to Wrath, "You have got to be kidding." It hovered in the air as well, moving along weightless. The soul sight showed me that was exactly what was going on. The gravity fractal had been stamped and prepared.

With Urs and Talen's understanding, I could see what that fractal truly was, and the limits it had. Tiny in scope, all in all. Large enough for a person. And certainly large enough for this.

"The Icon calculates this is the safest defensive equipment I can bring." Wrath said, already unhooking her first power cell to replace it with what the clan knight had brought. The climb into orbit was going to cost energy.

"It protects the owner from almost all damage after all, even a power cell detonation cannot harm it."

"How did you even get him to let go of that thing?" I asked.

"Isn't it his most prized possession?" She puffed up, looking smug.

"I am highly convincing."

"When?" Wrath turned to the knight standing at attention. She probably sent him a comms request, as the knight gave her a short nod, and turned in my general direction.

"We recovered this artifact near the first strata, where the great Icon guided us to seek it, sire." He spoke, helmet looking down at all times, as if trying not to meet my eyes.

"On recovering it, we were to airlift it here at full haste. We set off an hour prior." The Icon was already preparing for this long before even Talen had come. I knew then nothing I could tell Wrath would get her to stay here. She had to depart from here. Too much was calculated. Wrath looked up into the sky above.

"The Icon can only spawn portals with a geographic anchor, generally a snapshot of the topography. She has no true way to accurately calculate the true topography of the fortress, and no eyesight within the interior. Our portal taken here is as high as she can make it on the surface." At that distance up into orbit, I knew Tsuya's fortress was evading shots left and right.

It was moving at massive speeds; landing a shot on it would require aiming far ahead to where it would be, to which even a single vector thruster could make the shot miss by entire miles. Only missiles with self-guiding software could correct for that motion and remain a threat. And those would be shot down by the station's point defense systems. The same systems that would lock onto Wrath as an enemy and shoot her down. Unless she had a shield to protect herself from all danger.

Something that couldn't be destroyed by conventional weapons like what the station would use. It looked so absurd, I couldn't help but start laughing.

"He is not pleased, but I believe he understands." Wrath hummed.

"I have promised to bring it back to him." The Retainers scuffled over the ice between the landed airspeeder and where we both stood, like ants bringing with them food to the queen. The light of the sun glittered over the gold as it was quickly carried over: To'Orda's golden tower shield.

"While he cannot show his face directly without Relinquished remembering he exists and crushing him in a fit of fury, he could hand this through alternate means, such as leaving it behind for others to carry off outside of his sight." Wrath said, "It should keep me safe against the station's automated defenses."

"The Icon's solution is as elegant as the To'Sefit spears she made." I sighed.

"For a golden age AI, is this really the best?"

"You were quite vocal once about a less optimal idea being optimal if they proved functional. This is functional." She waved the shield up and down, and showed no signs of stress or difficulty. I could see the fractals buried inside that shield. And the concepts the Mites had somehow imbued within the metal itself, as if the atoms had been arranged in a way that would trigger it all. Urs's knowledge was helping me spot things I hadn't before. The shield would draw danger away from the one behind it.

It would protect the wielder from just about anything. Even occult blades would get caught against the concept of endurance within. I don't know how the mites had made something like this, even with Urs and Talen's knowledge. But I did know the Icon was right. It would be enough. Wrath looked up to the sky, calculating the trajectory. Eyes flickering as she thought. It would be enough against the fortress. But not against me. I could stop her.

I had all the power in the world to simply grab her with the occult and keep her grounded here. The knight off my side might be a First Blade of some clan I never knew existed, but he was only human. I could flick him away with a thought. I could lift the entire airspeeder and hurl it away. The Icon could try and open portals to send people to stop me, but I could shred those before they manifested fully. For a moment I thought about simply grabbing her and going underground. Finding a sanctuary grove like Urs had.

There were pockets everywhere in the world where we could live out life. She'd hate me at the start, but maybe over time she'd understand. We wouldn't even be alone, Deathless were Deathless. No matter how much Relinquished scoured the world of humanity, those of us who were immortal were immoral. And down to the last of them, they would hate me too. I would be the greatest betrayer in human history if I did this. Superior held a tendril of soul to me. He already knew I wouldn't.

The intrusive thoughts were only that. Intrusive. Too many had died to get us here. So that I might have the power to face Relinquished and protect Wrath long enough for her to connect with the goddess and do her part. I couldn't stop her from leaving. I couldn't even bring it to suggest that idea out loud. Somehow I think Wrath still heard me.

"I will do what I can to survive." She gave a brave face, trying to look heroic.

"By no means am I rushing to my death without due diligence. If I discover alternative means to survive, I will do so. I am rather resourceful after all." I knew this might very well be the final time I would be able to speak to her face to face. The next time I'd see her, she'd be a streak of speed, rushing to tackle Relinquished in some way. And I'd need to be there to hold the goddess off of her. Words raced all across my head in a jumble of emotions. I had to tell her, and yet I couldn't.

The idea felt ludicrous to me. I stared at her, standing there in the light of the sun, wings stretched out behind her, looking every bit like the angel Relinquished had hoped their kind would emulate. She seemed like she wanted to say one more thing herself. No words came, instead, she lowered the gold shield off to the side, took a step forward and hugged me tight. Journey's armguards jettisoned off, following emergency release procedures, leaving my hands and forearms exposed to the freezing cold around us.

And I knew one cankerous old bat was probably laughing all the way to her tomb from my helmet. As if telling me I had better hug her back. I did, running my hand through her hair as I held her close.

"If you manage to kill Relinquished before I do," She whispered in my ear.

"Then the next sunrise that comes over this world, I would be glad to see it with you."

"I'll hold you to it." My voice was hoarse, and I was failing to keep it in. I held her tightly, until I heard the chime coming from Journey's hooked helmet. She slowly unwrapped her hands, and took a step backwards. Resolute. Ready. Resolved.

"Keith." She said, picking up To'Orda's shield for the final leg in her journey. Giving it one last inspection as she spoke.

"Do you remember how we attempted to fool Relinquished into not killing you? My ploy that she played along with?"

"You pretending to have fallen head over heels for me?" Wrath looked back up from the shield, and gave me the happiest smile I'd seen.

"It was never pretend." There was a gust of snow around her and she lept into the air, far into the sky. Already becoming a small black dot among the sea of blue and white above. I blinked. And then my head finally caught up.