Chương 107: 106: The Commander

The floor trembled. A tremor rolled through the fortress. It didn't come from the chamber. It rose from somewhere immeasurably deeper, from the oldest foundations, from the place where the galaxy-thing had slept longer than memory. Korhess' ears slowly rose.

"She hath done it…" Her voice barely existed. Butter felt it too. The shift. The awakening. Something impossibly vast unfurled beneath the facility, as though an entire galaxy had remembered it possessed the right to breathe. Katherine had succeeded. Korhess didn't smile. Instead, her hand drifted to her chest. Her ears lowered again, and an unease Butter hadn't seen before settled across the deer-woman's face. Butter glanced sideways.

"Korhess?" The First Antler remained silent for a long moment before speaking softly.

"I fear for Ouro." Butter blinked.

"Who?"

"An Experiment." Korhess's mismatched eyes remained fixed on the trembling floor beneath them.

"My friend." The word escaped her so quietly it almost sounded accidental.

"I felt not her passing beneath Clock's hand. She yet liveth... somewhere within these cursed halls." Her fingers tightened around Harmony.

"But I know not where." A faint tremor touched her voice.

"And mine heart findeth little peace whilst her roots remain hidden from mine sight." Butter studied her for a moment. She hadn't expected that. Korhess had spoken of trees, forests, spirits, even monsters... Never a friend. Butter offered a small smile.

"She'll be alright." Korhess looked at her.

"If she's tough enough to be your friend, she's probably tougher than she looks." A faint breath escaped the deer-woman, somewhere between a sigh and a laugh.

"… May thy words find fertile soil." The floor trembled again. For a heartbeat, nobody moved. Butter glanced back toward Thornburgh. He was gone. She barely noticed. Korhess did. The deer-woman's posture changed. Every muscle locked. Every breath ceased. Her ears stood rigid. She looked less like a warrior and more like a doe that had wandered into the path of something far too vast to comprehend. Butter frowned. The music came. A lone violin drew its bow across the inside of her mind. Slow. Heavy.

Every note stretched until it became unbearable. The warning swelled. Louder. Louder. Her instincts screamed. Her heart suddenly hammered against her ribs. Fast. Too fast. There was no reason for it. No fear she could name. Just a frantic rhythm pounding through her chest as though some part of her had already seen what was coming. The violin string snapped. The Gloom had stopped composing altogether. Its warning had become meaningless. Danger no longer came from one direction. It was simply...... everywhere.

Butter's breathing slowed despite her racing heart. Even Feet stopped swaying. Its enormous black eyes drifted toward the far end of the chamber. A door opened. Polished black stone veined with gold, its patterns resembling the rings of an ancient tree. It opened without a sound. No footsteps followed. No grand entrance announced itself. Someone simply...... walked through. — The Commander entered the chamber.

He was enormous, nearly seven feet tall, broad enough that the doorway itself seemed too small to contain him. His grey armored jacket shimmered with patterns that hurt to follow, its raised collar framing an avian mask of polished alloy. White lenses burned beneath feather-like plates of crimson and grey cascading across immense shoulders layered in overlapping Apis armour. Silver gauntlets rested at his sides. Silent boots crossed the stone.

A seamless utility belt circled his waist, though every tool it carried was stored elsewhere, summonable in an instant. Butter raised her fists.

"What the... actual frost? That's the Commander?"

"Aye." Melody coiled around her hands, black and furious. Beside her, Korhess lowered into a guarded stance, her spear of solidified absence gleaming like a star swallowed by darkness. Neither spoke. The beast was waking below. The Commander stood before them. Everything would be decided between his first movement and their last breath.

"So..." His voice rolled through the vox-grille, deep, measured, almost amused.

"You are Butter. I must confess, I expected someone far smaller... and considerably more fragile, given your name. Instead, I find someone quite large. Quite strong." A faint chuckle crackled beneath the mask. Butter instinctively glanced down at herself. Melody clung to her like a second skin, every black bandage stretched taut across the lean muscle beneath.

Redirecting the Big Bang had left her body swollen with strain, her lats flaring beneath her arms, her trapezius rising along her neck, her abdomen sharply defined beneath the wrappings. Even the outlines of her nipples showed through the tension.

"..." She frowned and absentmindedly tugged the bandages, shifting them back into place before looking up at him again. He inclined his head ever so slightly.

"I'm looking forward to this." He regarded her for a long moment.

"I've heard quite a great deal about you. The little nuisance turning my fortress upside down. Breaking my toys. Embarrassing my Steppers." This novel's true home is a different platform. Support the author by finding it there. A faint tilt of his head.

"I thought I should determine for myself whether the stories had been exaggerated... or whether you truly merit my attention." Moth-step. Butter blinked out of sight. She reappeared above him, twisting into a vicious bicycle kick aimed squarely at the side of his head. The kick landed. Korhess saw it. Her future sight had already shown the impact, the Commander's head snapping sideways beneath Butter's heel. Then reality...... corrected itself. He slipped beneath perception.

Butter landed exactly where she'd started. Silence. Her eyes swept the chamber. Left. Right. Above. Empty. Her pulse quickened. Where... A silver gauntlet settled gently upon her shoulder. Butter froze. He was behind her. She hadn't heard footsteps. She hadn't felt displaced air. She hadn't sensed the slightest ripple in the Gloom. He had simply... been there. Her body reacted before her mind could. She twisted instinctively, trying to wrench herself free. Nothing happened. His hand never tightened.

It didn't have to. It rested there with effortless ease, yet her shoulder may as well have been fused into the fortress itself. Every muscle strained. Her boots scraped across the marble. Melody constricted around her arms. The hand did not move. She couldn't move it. She couldn't even move herself. It didn't feel like someone was holding her. It felt as though reality had quietly decided she was no longer permitted to leave.

"So disappointing." His tone carried genuine regret.

"Butter... please don't tell me that's the extent of your repertoire." A soft sigh escaped the mask.

"I would be rather disappointed to have left my chambers for... this." Butter's heart lurched. Cold sweat gathered along her brow and slowly traced her temple. She hadn't seen him move. She hadn't even seen him begin to move. Tracking Moth-step bordered on impossible. Whatever he had just done...... was something else entirely. Beside her, Korhess said nothing. She stood perfectly still, ears rigid, spear lowered by a fraction. Future sight had shown Butter's kick landing. She had watched that future unfold.

She had watched it be denied. The ancient doe realised there was an opponent before whom prophecy itself held no authority. The silence that followed was far more frightening than any explosion. She looked again. He was standing exactly where he'd begun. As though he'd never moved at all. She couldn't understand it. Her eyes tracked nothing. Her instincts caught nothing. Reality itself seemed unwilling to admit he had ever moved. The Commander folded his hands behind his back.

"You truly are invigorating, Butter." A faint chuckle rumbled through the vox-grille.

"You have no idea how much you've helped me." Butter frowned.

"Helped you?"

"Indeed." His glowing lenses remained fixed upon her.

"My Talons learned an extraordinary lesson from fighting you. They discovered how to compress enough energy to tear apart dozens of solar systems into a single strike while suffering nothing worse than the permanent loss of an arm." Butter's eyes widened.

"The Shroud Punch?"

"The Hexagon variant." His tone held unmistakable satisfaction.

"Magnificent work, really. Once the Hexagon became involved, the output increased even further. Multiple galaxies, condensed into one blow." He tilted his head ever so slightly.

"It does make one wonder…"

"…what a Nonagon implementation would achieve." Butter's eyebrows shot upward.

"Oh my." Hexagon… Shroud Punch… Her thoughts raced. Who did they use it on? Clock? Katherine? Her breathing caught. The Commander laughed, low and warm beneath the mask.

"Relax." Butter stared.

"She survived." The tension drained from her shoulders all at once.

"She killed the Talon responsible." His voice carried the strange calm of a man discussing yesterday's weather.

"In fact, I'm uncertain I have any Talons remaining." Another amused pause.

"Your rather flamboyant brother also saw to Warpfluff." Butter let out a long, shaky breath.

"Oh my." Beside her, Korhess lowered her gaze and murmured beneath her breath,"Sweet saplings… what harvest hath this child reaped…" The Commander folded his hands behind his back.

"I am, by nature, a generous man." He inclined his head ever so slightly.

"So I'll extend to you a professional courtesy. One more attempt." Butter folded her arms.

"... I'm listening." A faint hum escaped the vox-grille.

"My grandfather was rather fond of saying, Horangi saekkineun horangida... 호랑이 새끼는 호랑이다." He paused.

"A tiger's cub is a tiger. He told me that often." His burning lenses remained fixed upon Butter.

"I knew your father. I knew your mother."

"Both were exceptionally skilled." Another pause.

"Naturally... I was curious to see what their daughter could offer." Butter shifted uncomfortably. She hated hearing things like that. Every mention of her parents carried expectations she had never asked for, as though merely sharing their blood obliged her to become someone worthy of their names. Korhess glanced sideways at her. Butter's shoulders had tensed almost imperceptibly. The deer-woman said nothing. She simply watched, quietly committing the reaction to memory. His voice remained perfectly calm.

"Impress me..."

"... or die." His glowing lenses shifted toward Korhess.

"As for you... Lady of the Groves... your audience shall come presently. You will be dealt with later." Korhess answered with ancient fire. Emerald-gold flames surged across the chamber, swallowing everything between them. FWOOM! He flickered.

"I said-" He crossed the room in an instant. His hand reached for her face. Korhess dissolved into mist. She emerged high above him.

"... you will-" Silver fingers closed around her ankle. She stared. Impossible. Sidewind erupted. Rather than moving under her own strength, the technique translated her exactly five feet in a perfectly straight line. The distance never changed. The path never curved. Apis condensed infinite momentum into that fixed displacement, turning the shift itself into the impact. FWSSH! She shot through the space, spearing straight for his skull. It passed cleanly through him. She saw the impact. Reality disagreed.

Space corrected itself. He had never been there. This wasn't speed. Time seemed to hesitate. A hand settled gently around her throat from behind. She twisted free with practiced grace, her hoof whipping toward his knee. Sidewind corrected. She was back in his grasp. What? Instinct took over. Her free hand shot to his forearm. Every muscle across her body swelled as she tried to wrench the limb clean from its socket. She could tear apart solar systems. Fold stars like paper. Rip planets in half. His arm didn't move.

She pulled harder. Nothing. She shifted her grip and tried to bend his elbow instead. It refused. Not because he resisted. Because it simply... did not move. It was like wrestling the foundation of fate itself, an immovable object wearing the shape of a man. His arm remained loose at his side. He looked almost bored. He lifted her effortlessly.

"... be dealt with later." BOOOOOOOOOM! He drove her face-first into the marble. The floor caved inward beneath the impact. Korhess rolled through the crater, coughing as dust and fractured stone rained around her. She rose immediately, her gaze locking onto him. He was already across the chamber again, as though every exchange had merely returned him to his opening position. — Butter's fingers slipped into nothing. The Aria unfolded between them with a soft flick. A cheetah stepped out.

It was lean and impossibly elegant, its coat painted in irregular patches of deep sapphire, molten gold, and pearlescent ivory that shifted whenever the eye lingered too long. Thin silver spectacles rested neatly upon its muzzle, lending scholarly dignity to a creature that carried itself with the languid confidence of someone perpetually unimpressed. Reality froze. Dust halted in the air. Broken marble stopped falling. Even the Commander stood perfectly still.

Only the cheetah continued walking, each lazy footstep echoing through a world that had forgotten how to move. Butter couldn't turn her head. Only her voice remained.

"…Thinkfast." The cheetah adjusted its spectacles.

"You called."

"How is he moving like that?" Thinkfast strolled once around the motionless Commander before settling neatly onto its haunches.

"He isn't." Butter frowned.

"Oh my."

"The suit is." Its tail swayed once.

"His armour possesses what it designates as a RESET protocol. Every second it records reality. When activated, it restores the previous second exactly as it existed." Butter's stomach tightened.

"So…"

"You attacked. You struck him." Thinkfast inclined its head.

"You were winning that exchange." A brief silence followed.

"The suit rejected that outcome." Memories crashed back into place. His hand closing around Korhess's throat. Everything snapping back to where it had begun.

"I…"

"You experienced the corrected timeline. The Commander alone remains anchored outside the correction. His suit preserves his awareness while the world is restored around him." Butter stared at the towering figure.

"So every time…"

"…he wasn't teleporting."

"No. He simply walked." The cheetah's spectacles caught the frozen light.

"Reality requires roughly one hundredth of a second to settle after each correction. During that overlap, causality remains unstable. Teleportation fails. Wormholes collapse. Spatial techniques lose their anchor."

"But physical movement still functions." Butter looked back at the Commander.

"He crossed all that distance in a hundredth of a second?"

"He did." Silence settled between them.

"He really is that fast."

"Yes." Butter swallowed.

"How fast does he think?"

"He was already an Operative before his transformation, with cognition measured in nanoseconds - one billionth of a second. Apis poisoning rewrote portions of his living brain rather than replacing them, producing what the Syndicate classifies as a Blue Brain." Thinkfast's tail flicked lazily.

"His cognition now operates within the yoctosecond range." Butter's eyes widened.

"…Yocto?"

"The Talons perceive naturally within picoseconds. Their suits accelerate them into femtoseconds during Apis Surge." A quiet pause.

"The Commander exceeds them both." Butter lowered her gaze.

"No wonder…"

"Your prosthetic's stop-motion mechanics allowed you to contend with Talons because their perception still contained measurable intervals. It will not suffice here. The RESET protocol activates as quickly as he decides." Butter frowned.

"So what do I do?"

"Remove the prosthetic." Her head jerked up.

"What?"

"It limits your body's maximum acceleration. Without it, your natural movement exceeds what its stabilisers permit." Thinkfast regarded her calmly.

"Alternatively, persuade yourself with Gloom."

"That would consume an unacceptable amount of power." Butter glanced down.

"…Neither option is ideal."

"Nope." The cheetah rose gracefully.

"You require a technique that bridges the interval between intention and consequence. One that leaves anticipation with nothing to anticipate." Butter's breathing slowed.

"…I understand." A faint smile touched Thinkfast's muzzle.

"I know." Its body dissolved into drifting notes of colour. Reality resumed. Butter understood. It wasn't merely his speed. Every attack was born in the mind before it reached the body, and somewhere within that infinitesimal gap he was already moving. Every strike she had attempted had been defeated before it truly existed. Behind her, Feet wandered lazily through the wreckage, stopping to inspect a cracked pillar before absentmindedly nudging a pebble across the floor with its enormous foot.

Butter hadn't told it to attack. She never intended to. Feet wasn't made for offence. It existed to say no. The Commander disappeared again. BOOOOOOOOOM! His fist struck empty air. Butter and Korhess were suddenly sitting atop Feet's broad, feathery back as though they'd been there all along. The ridiculous bird hadn't dodged. Reality simply decided it had always been somewhere else.