Chương 217: LOG-208.

The journey to the scorched city took time, and though the initial trek across the desert initially passed in silence, it had seemed inevitable that conversation would eventually break out, despite the fiery ocean's worth of endless muffled screams surrounding us all, the phantoms they originated from beating themselves against the invisible wall that kept them from swarming our little party.

"They've gone silent." Well, former muffled screams, as Horn had so eloquently pointed out, the large Pearl seeming surprised at the sound of her own voice for an instant, before smiling as her two counterparts responded with their own affirmatives. And she was right. If I cared to actually look, I could see each individual echo up to a certain point.

They had since stopped pressing up against the barrier my Baroques had formed, instead apparently settling for hovering just beyond the tunnel, eyes tracking our party with an eerie synchronicity to them.

"The source of the Burning has noticed our tread. It will seek to obtain us, living or dead." Inclining my head slightly in quiet acknowledgement of Atoll's latest rhyme, I continued to put one foot in front of the other, observing the way the rare patch of soil crumbled beneath even my exceedingly light weight.

"I'd imagine that might be playing a part in the swarm's current passive attitude, considering we're clearly moving to confront it directly." In comparison, the mech's far greater bulk was leaving fairly distinctive tracks in the ground, each footprint significantly deeper than those left behind by everyone else.

As elegant as her frame outwardly appeared, I knew for a fact that the variety of components stuffed inside of all that armour added up in terms of how heavy she was, which only made her relatively smooth, nimble movements all the more impressive.

"Indeed. Our goals align, even if they are not quite benign." Regardless, the dirt underneath us was dead. Long dead. Any available nutrients had no doubt been harvested by some distant Kindergarten beyond the horizon. I could imagine the subterranean infrastructure crisscrossing through the mantle beneath the crust, underground siphon lines serving to drain the planet of anything and everything of worth, to be redirected as needed. An outdated method, from what I knew.

My time beneath Yellow Diamond had shown that modern colonies preferred simply building additional Gem production centers in material hotspots scanned by advanced recon frigates, but the oldest worlds of the Empire still occasionally bore the scars of more traditional mine shaft patterns, back when colonial administrators had still somewhat cared about the original landscape.

Of course, they tended to be more obvious than this, particularly when the planet they were hidden within had been properly hollowed out as per modern standards. A grand achievement for our race, to be certain-"Viridian?" Casting the stray thought aside, I turned at the uncertain tone and expression of my second creation.

In comparison to Violet, who had taken to practically lounging atop my head while directly glaring at our millions of stalkers, Patina had practically acted as my shadow throughout most of the trip so far.

"Yes?" Now she stepped forward, walking alongside me while sparing the occasional glance towards our distant objective, lips pressing against one another and brows knitting together in the way I had come to realise was a sign that she was pondering her words. Content with giving her time to sort out what she wanted to say, I found myself once more staring up at the manifestations of the Burning.

There were enough filling the air now that it was proving exceedingly difficult to see anything except more ghostly Pearls waiting behind them, each specimen proving just a little varied in some small way. From a hair out of place, to melted or unnatural features, all the way up to one that barely even had a head, bearing what looked more like an overgrown stump than anything else. If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it. …

Disturbing things, though part of me couldn't help but wonder at the potential applications-"I know this may not be the time but… I was wondering about something, back at the Reef." Repressing the small bout of annoyance that sought to spring up at the interruption of my thoughts, I looked back down at Patina with a smile, gesturing to her with a hand as I did so.

"And what would this something be?" The green Gem briefly glanced upwards, and it wasn't hard (with a measure of enhanced perception) to see the reflection of a smaller pair staring into her own as she exchanged some kind of significant look with Violet, before her eyes met mine once more.

"Back before…well before we were confronted by the majority of the fighting, I had briefly expected you to…well that is to say, you were clearly a superior fighter in all regards, and it very much felt like I and Violet were slowing you down to a fairly significant degree, and with storages being so readily available-" I blinked as a tiny hand gently smacked my forehead, its owner ducked down into my view with a bemused expression.

"What the nerd-" There was a small, strangled sound from her counterpart in response to one of the many words the duo had picked up from me at some point or other "-is trying to ask is why you didn't just bubble us and handle things yourself? Would have been way easier, probably." My feet almost slowed, as memories of those very thoughts moved to the forefront of my mind, but I managed to keep pace even as a contemplative expression spread across my face.

"Well I…" A way to ensure their safety is to place them inside my spatial storage. My mobility and capacity for dodging danger is noticeably higher than theirs. Dispersing her lightform would make storing her gemstone trivial. I am in a combat situation. There is indeed the possibility that an unexplained attack from her own creator might alter the dynamic of our relationship, quite possibly irrevocably. But such things can be explained.

The more logical concern is that it would be the equivalent of putting all of my eggs into a single basket. If I fall, everyone does. Repressing a twitch, I bowed my head slightly, the brief motion almost dislodging Violet from her perch, if it weren't for the grip she had on my hair.

"... I didn't want to hurt you." That earned me a bout of uncharacteristic silence from both Pearls, Patina glancing away sharply with a hand rising to cover her mouth even as Violet blinked, tilting her head as she processed the statement.

"We…would have been fine though. If it ever happens again, you should just go for it." Pausing, my creation finally shrugged, mostly to herself as far as I could tell.

"Honestly I'm still kind of confused on why you care so much about us. Yeah we're your first Batch and all, but it's not like you can't just make more-" The miniscule thing let out a brief yelp as my hand lunged up, talons (gently) wrapping around her lightform until I had pulled her free of my locks, arm twisting about until she was right side up once more, before my fingers loosened their hold.

"Violet, you are mine and I would rather not ever have to entertain the thought of replacing you, do you understand?" While the Pearl was still slightly shocked at her abrupt relocation, my words had apparently proven earnest enough to summon up a slight blush upon her cheeks, her wings fluttering ever so slightly as she slapped a hand against my palm.

"D-Don't get all possessive with me! Yeah you're my creator, but I'm my own self actualised individual and-" Her protests were cut short as I used a single talon to muss up her hair, earning a squawk from the Gem even as Patina and the Baroques giggled from nearby.

"Yes, yes you are." Maybe it was the sheer cuteness in watching my creation shove away the probing digit with both arms, but the sensation welling up somewhere deep within my gemstone felt almost paternal in… Wait. Was I technically a parent? And if so was I a mother, or a father or- … Ugh, mother, maybe, though that was probably because of my own human biases towards femininity more than anything else.

A detail to ignore for the time being, especially considering that Atoll had just stomped ahead of the rest of the group, the Pearl possessed machine's head tilted upwards to stare at a pair of sandblasted structures that might have once been an old set of communication towers as she slowly ground to a halt.

"We have reached the stronghold of the conflagration, remain on guard, to be lax now would court our separation." Right, I could feel the smooth panelling of an artificial structure beneath my feet now as well, and the swarm that had previously been covering the telekinetic tunnel had now progressed to draping itself across the slowly expanding dome of force put into place by Eyes, Horn and Head.

Lowering my hand as Violet stepped off it to flutter her way back into place amidst my hair, I took one last glance around before settling my focus on a particularly large, yet heavily damaged pyramid that visibly dominated the center of the city, despite being surrounded by several skyscrapers. … Well, it was as best a place to start searching as any other, at least.

Hopefully- It was the embers that drew my attention first, claws reflexively twitching as innumerable little lights emerged from various structures, whether intact or currently existing as a mound of rubble. Slowly but surely, the glowing pinpricks flew upwards, some conjoining and others splitting before the shifting mass had built up a vague, almost skeletal structure.

The realisation that the patterns of a face were staring down at us hit me right as the giant floating head spoke, the air itself seeming to shudder beneath the weight of its words.

"E N T E R." And just like that, the storm of embers fell back apart into nothing more than distant motes of light, rapidly separating before disappearing back into their various hidey holes. Staring at the space the anomaly had just occupied, I slowly lowered my gaze back to the black pyramid with a sigh, shaking my head as I did so. In for a penny, in for a pound, and all that…ugh.