NOVEL NEXT Book 1 – Lesson 48: “Even AIs make mistakes…”
———
Alpha blazed across the prairies heading toward the large storm off in the distance. As he plowed through the thick grass, “Flight of the Valkyries” blared from several external speakers, breaking the otherwise eerie silence. Beside the TAWP, a lone figure raced on the wind.
The masked figure, who’d introduced themselves as only No. 7, managed to keep up with the blistering speeding of the TAWP’s travel mode somehow. How they were doing it, Alpha wasn’t sure. He could see that it had something to do with the arrays carved into their leg armor, given the energy they were giving off. Yet he couldn’t detect any crystal or even a siphoning spiral anywhere in the design, even after multiple scans.
Could it all be internal? If so, why? Even if it was to hide vulnerable components, why have anything visible then? Given what he’d observed, he doubted No. 7’s equipment was of higher quality or more sophisticated than his own drone. So what was different?
If that wasn’t surprising enough, No. 7 had enough breath to speak over the loud music.
“Is all of that really necessary?!”
No. 7 yelled.
Alpha chuckled and cut off the music as he answered them.
“Yep!”
No. 7 sighed and asked,
“Why announce our presence like that? Didn’t you plan to stake out the location and wait for backup?”
Alpha came to a skidding halt, turned to his mysterious companion, and spoke.
“Well, plans change. They’re moving the child as we speak. I don’t know what’s up with that storm or why they’re headed there, but it can’t be anything good. Besides, they already know we’re here. Why not make an entrance?”
No. 7 stopped next to Alpha, showing little sign they’d just run several dozen miles at high speeds. The featureless mask turned and stared at Alpha as they spoke in that same toneless voice.
“They know you’re
here. Charging through the front door wasn’t part of the deal. I’m still skeptical you can even get a reading with all the [fha@$jh@] in the area.”Alpha shrugged, a rather awkward movement with the TAWP, as he responded.
“Look, a deal’s a deal. You help me find the child, and I’ll help you find your targets. It’s a win-win for everyone. How that happens doesn’t matter, the result is the same.”
No. 7 folded their arms and countered,
“Maybe not to you, but I have a reputation to uphold. If my target gets spooked and makes a break for it, there’s no telling how long it will take to track them down again.”
Alpha laughed and responded.
“Well, you shouldn’t worry too much about that.”
No. 7 frowned under their mask and asked,
“What do you—”
The ground rumbled beneath them. The ground bulged upward a few dozen meters away, and several figures emerged. Three were identical; large, hulking mounds of stone and soil, crushed together in a vaguely humanoid shape. Frome between the gaps in the stone, a deep swirling black fog leaked out, gently falling to the ground and dissipating. In front of the three rocky humanoids stood two human men.
The first Alpha had never seen before. He was a taller, older man in a fine suit. Despite looking old enough to be the other man’s grandfather, the older man stood straight with his hands clasped behind his back. He was the absolute picture of the gentlemanly butler type popular with the Federation’s more well-off. Down to the disapproving glare he shot them from over his nose.
The second Alpha recognized. It was the same young man who’d gifted him the large heart crystal not too long ago. His ever-present cheery smile was gone, however, replaced with a dark frown. Tuguslar stepped forward and reached into his sleeve, pulling out a [Wasp] drone, pinched between his fingers. He then addressed Alpha in a flat tone.
“I assume this… insect is yours, ‘Lord Protector’? I’m not sure how you slipped this past my personal defenses, but some would take it as an insult that you would attempt to spy so openly. Is this how you tracked the child as well?”
The [Wasp] sprang to life, melting and slipping out of the man’s grasp before reforming and flying to Alpha. It landed on the TAWP and melted into his nanite skin while Alpha responded.
“Trade secret, I’m afraid. Then again, everyone in this place keeps falling for the same trick, so why bother changing a good thing?”
Tuguslar’s frown deepened, and he turned his attention to No. 7. The frown morphed into a sneer as he gave a chuckle.
“I must admit, I’m surprised to see one of the Camp’s ‘hunting dogs’ working with someone. I was under the impression your kind preferred not to share their prey? Or did you learn not to bite off more than you can chew last time? Are you going to run away with your tail between your legs again?”
Alpha turned his optic sensor to stare at No. 7. Had they already attempted to get close, only to fail? That would explain why they knew the area and why they were so willing to work with Alpha. Still, Alpha didn’t like not having all the information.
No. 7 folded their arms and responded to Tuguslar with just as much venom.
“You and the Priestess can’t honestly have expected the Camp to ignore being stabbed in the back, yes? Not even the Five Great Pillars are brave enough to make fools out of the Camp in such a manner. What makes you think you’re any different?”
The young man threw his head back and laughed, wiping away a tear. Looking back toward No. 7, he grinned from ear to ear. Tuguslar snapped, and the old butler-looking man walked forward, handing him a large, cantaloupe-sized orb. The orb appeared made of crystal or glass, but the inside swirled with dark colors. One moment it looked like it was filled with viscous oil, reflecting the dim light of the area in a rainbow sheen. The next, it was filled with choking black clouds that rolled and flashed like those above the distant temple.
The man held out the orb before him and gazed into it longingly, his words soft.
“Tell me, Camp Dog, have you ever wondered what the Radiant Sea truly is? I would not expect the Lord Protector to have any guess, being new to this place. But the Camp has made nearly as many attempts to gain a foothold here as the larger clans and sects.”
He turned to No. 7 and grinned before continuing.
“Why is the -Spirit energy- of this place so chaotic? Why does it suppress our power so much? What is it about these lands that rebuff even the most powerful of this world from just stripping it clean of all its treasures? What aren’t we being told?”
Thick black smoke began pouring from the orb like a waterfall. It pooled at the man’s feet and started spreading all around them.
“There are theories, of course. Some say it’s a natural formation. Some claim it’s a trap laid by an Ancient -Celestial-. Others think it results from conflicting laylines and foolish tampering by those who didn’t know better.”
The thick, ankle-deep fog suddenly shot backward at high speed, covering the prairies behind Tuguslar for several hundred meters.
“What if I were to tell you all of those were right? Yet… none of them? At least not in full. What if I were to tell you that the Radiant Sea wasn’t just some random formation or some natural trap for the greedy and foolish? What if I were to tell you it was a prison? A seal purposefully placed and maliciously designed.”
The ground once more shook, this time far more violently. Then, from the black smoke-covered prairies, figures rose from the earth. Not just a few, but thousands or even tens of thousands. They came in various shapes and forms, some more humanoid and small, while others were beast-like and as larger, or even larger, than the TAWP. Some were hulking masses of crushed stone and soil like the smoky behemoths behind Tuguslar , while others appeared like withered, desiccated corpses made of little more than skin and bone.
The most numerous were the giant penguins, making up easily 40% of the horde.
Alpha stared at the sudden army, unsure of how to process the image.
{First space chickens, then man-eating penguins, and magic lines, now bloody zombies?! Ya, just screw every damn thing about this world!}.
The young man threw his arms out and laughed.
“You asked why we thought we could get away with crossing your pathetic Camp? Here is your answer, dog! Why would we fear you? Why would we fear any power in this puny world when we have the Mistress at our backs?!”
No. 7 swore and drew their weapon, a thin rapier-like blade, and yelled, clear panic in their voice for the first time.
“Blood hell, you’re cultists! Do you honestly think anyone will let you get away with this? The accords—”
His sharp teeth bared, Tuguslar snarled at No. 7
“The accords mean nothing in front of truth of this world!”
His face smoothed over, and the calm visage returned.
“Besides. It’s already too late to stop it. Soon the seal will be broken, and the darkness sleeping under the Radiant Sea will be awoken. It will wash over this world like an unending tide and consume it whole. Once this world is dead and rotting in its shell, like a hatching egg, the last barrier will crumble, and our Mistress will spread her blessing to the Sister above. Then to the worlds beyond.”
No. 7 took a step back, shaking their head.
“You’re insane!”
Tuguslar laughed again and shook his own head.
“No. I’ve seen what real power looks like. Here, let me show you.”
Tuguslar man handed the orb to the man in the suit. The butler-looking man bowed, then turned and laced his hands, holding the orb between them with his palms up. Space around the orb pulsed, and it glowed slightly. Smoke began pouring out once more, thicker than before. Instead of spreading like it had for the young man, the smoke swirled around the suited man, clinging to him.
Before it fully enveloped him, Alpha could see the old man’s features starting to warp and deform. The man was gone in less than a second, replaced by a vaguely human-shaped cloud of rolling black smoke. At its center, the black orb pulsed with bright black light.
Tuguslar again threw his arms out and stared in awe as the figure grew with each passing moment. With a laugh, he yelled out as if proclaiming to the world itself.
“Behold! Behold and tremble at the might of—”
“Ya, Screw that.”
BANG!
A single thunderclap cut Tuguslar’s words off as a 10lb iron rod traveling mach-10 slammed into the center of the stormy giant. It impacted the glowing orb with an accuracy only an AI could achieve, as a dark barrier appeared around it. Its barrier held for the briefest moments before caving inward with the sound of broken glass. The iron rod continued unhindered and struck the orb.
The orb, and several meters of smoke surrounding it, vanished in the blink of an eye. Less than a second later, the rod slammed into the building wall, far off into the distance, throwing up a cloud of dust.
Like mist in the morning sun, the cloud of smoke surrounding the figure quickly evaporated, revealing a grotesque, half-formed thing. What Alpha could only assume had once been the old man stood straight for a moment, staring down at the gaping hole as wide as the old man had once been tall.
The thing turned and bowed to Alpha before collapsing into a disgusting slurry of malformed flesh and bone.
No. 7 and the young man watched, dumbfounded. Tuguslar, in particular, had frozen mid-laugh, his arms stretched out and his eyes wide.
Slowly, he turned his head toward Alpha, only to notice a new addition to the AI’s form. A large, square-shaped barrel rested on his back, still crackling with electricity as the end of the barrel warped the air from the sheer heat radiating off it.
The [B55-Vijaya] had been described as the Railjack’s little brother, as its conception and overall design took heavy inspiration from the weapon. Originally envisioned as an orbital bombardment platform for use on cruisers, Alpha had tweaked the design for atmospheric use.
Compared to weapons of mass destruction like the Railjack or [Gungnir], the [B55-Vijaya] lost in power, range, and speed by a large margin. But that didn’t mean it didn’t pack a devastating punch. In fact, the rail cannon had come to be something like the TAWP’s primary heavy gun, when against larger targets the small rail turrets couldn’t really deal with.
In his words, it was his solution to “big problems you needed solving, now,” but when he didn’t want to deal with the cleanup (or cost!). A 10lb iron rod was cheaper than the expensive alloy needed for the Railjack to achieve its insane velocity and far cheaper than nitrogen crystals.
Lucky for Alpha, he’d recently come into possession of a large metal supply.
Alpha pointed the [B55-Vijaya] toward the young man and spoke flatly.
“I said I would warn you only once. Yet, I feel the need to reiterate. This isn’t your world anymore. It’s mine. I’ll admit, I don’t really get what you’re rambling about or who this ‘Mistress’ of yours is. But honestly? It doesn’t matter. You speak of power? Look above you. You see those stars? All those glistening points of light in the distance? Each one represents a Federation world. Each one is a world that was once just like this.
“Small. Ignorant. Thinking itself the center of some grand plan. When in reality, they’re but numbers on a census. Data points to an ever-expanding network, all working toward a greater goal. That hasn’t changed. Like everyone before her, your ‘Mistress’ will fall in line.
“Or she’ll be removed from the equation entirely.”
Both Tuguslar and No. 7, stared at Alpha silently as if not quite understanding what he’d just said. After a long moment, the young man burst into laughter. He turned to No. 7, still laughing as he spoke.
“Haha, hahaha! And you, hahaha, and you call me the insane one, Camp Dog?! No matter, hahaha. This fool has already sealed your fate.”
No. 7 stared up at Alpha for a long moment before slowly shifting their gaze to Tuguslar and asking.
“What are you talking about, cultist?”
The young man grinned from ear to ear and answered.
“The orb that idiot just destroyed was the control mechanism for various arrays we’ve been installing across the prairies for the last few centuries. With nothing left to restrain them, they’re likely going to go critical, with no way to stop them, hahaha hah!”
No. 7’s head snapped at Tuguslar as she spoke.
“Arrays?! What Arrays?!”
The man’s grin grew larger as he responded.
“All of them.”
———
The Captain ushered the last of the villagers behind the Earth Shrine wall just as it came up, rising dozens of meters into the air, tall enough to protect even the tallest of the Grand Elk. They were the last village to enter the safety of the shrine, and he had feared they might not make it in time at first.
Not after they’d entered the final few miles of the journey, only to see the Earth Shrine enter lockdown, gargantuan stone walls slowly rising from the ground. Much of the village had panicked, but quick thinking on his Guardian’s part had seen the village in a mad dash to get behind the walls before they closed.
They had to abandon some of the larger, slower buildings, but thankfully the entire population made it by his own count. As the enormous walls peeked, slamming into place and blocking out most of the remaining light, a loud wailing sound emanated from the Earth Shrine. It was loud enough to be heard even over the voices of millions of people and Spirit Beasts crammed into the safety of the walls.
The obelisk at the center of the shrine flashed once, and from the tip, a shimmering barrier spread outward, encompassing the entire walls and then some.
The Captain narrowed his eyes and turned to the wall. What was going on? He’d only seen the Earth Shrine’s walls raised once before, in his entire life, when an abnormally large Beast wave triggered by Lux Apex swept across the Radian Sea. Typically, the barrier was more than enough to hold off anything attacking.
Frowning, he bent his knees and lept, shooting into the air several dozen meters before stepping on a protrusion and leaping again. He saw dozens of other figures doing the same all along the wall. He’d reached the top a few more leaps, then stared off into the dark prairies. Only after several of his Guardians followed him up did he see it.
A thick, black mist had seeped up from the ground past the barrier, covering it like rolling waves until prairies were replaced by a black sea for as far as his eyes could see.
This… wasn’t normal. What was happening? A thousand possibilities flashed through his mind.
One of the younger Guardians pointed off into the distance and asked, his voice cracking.
“What… what the hell are those?!”
Off in the distance, where the rolling mist was thickest, thousands of figures pushed their way out of the soil. They were still too far away to make out much detail in such low light, but the Captain could see various forms and body shapes moving in the dark mists.
Before he could call for a scouting device, a hunched-over old man, who’d most certainly not been standing beside him only a moment ago, stepped forward. The old man scuttled forward and peered into the darkness, his eyes squinting, before he spoke in a cold, flat tone.
“Those, my boy… are the Children of Iris.”