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[>>Now replaying: Log 1.35.III - Powerwolf]
Date: 8.9.175 AA / 4404 LTC
Location: The Bunker at Haven-Of-Progress // Zephyro’s Domain
//In nomine Veritas, in Nomine Filii et Patris…//
//Amen and attack//
[>>DATA CORRUPTED]
E3 %Pina’s right. I mean, I was just hoping it’s a weapon or something.%
E1 %Maybe. Or maybe this is the Torch. You know, the weapon of the Salvatrix.%
E2 %Hahahahahaha, yeah sure, Voni. And by trying to shackle it, we committed a graaaaaaaave sin.%
E1 %No, think about it. It’s sitting on an altar, deep in one of her temples, guarded by hundreds of machines. It has to be important.%
E2 %It’s not the Torch.%
E1 %How would you know?%
E2 %For the love of the Lords, it looks nothing like a torch! If anything, it’s a book!%
The Wolf, with its voice booming like the bass of a dozen faulty speakers, landed with an effortless, almost languid motion that made the rooftop shake under our feet. His fur was black wires and warning tape and patches in the dried-blood color of rust. His eyes glowed red with thousands of lines of code writing and deleting themselves as he stalked toward Zephyro.
I couldn’t stop the memories.
> A campfire. Confidence blown away like lies written in ash. A Torch. Hubris making way for fear. The endless, eternal, omnipotent fear.
> Dark fur.
> The howl is so loud and I can’t hear anything else. Breath, hot and wet against my exposed skin where the robe has been ripped to shreds. I raise my hand. I scream. I hear the bells. Feel the pressure escaping my core. My wish shoots out of me and into the wolf. All the blood drains from my face and limbs when it grows. And grows. And grows. It screams, tortured. It is a hideous thing now, mouths uncountable.
> Branches snap against my face, leave a scar on my chin as skin ruptures and blood flows.
> The wolves don’t follow, but relief and shame do. They settle into me, wearing deep grooves into my psyche.
> Guilt grabs me by the throat when I return to see the village burning. The endless grief on Chris’ face as he (still a he, then) comes stumbling out, bleeding.
> “They are all dead, Sam. It was a wolf, it—. So large! Gods, so large. And the teeth, I— Gods, why are you punishing us so?”
> And then, that look on his face that I will never forget, switching from grief to sympathy in the time it takes a butterfly to flap its wings.
> “Don’t blame yourself, Sam. It was massive. No one could have killed that. Shhh, Sam. Shh… We should have believed the tales. Ethar should never have sent you after it. Shhh, Samantha. You’re good. There was nothing you could have done. You’re good. You’re good. Don’t cry. You’re good.”
> I weep, mourning the fantasy of power that kept me from facing the facts.
> I am no longer on Earth, and of the few people I know, everyone but Chris thinks I am crazy, a witch, or both. I’d thought I’d at least receive some awesome power in return for the Life I had been forced to leave behind, but all I got was uncontrollable pressure in my soul that corrupts things into insane abominations. Worse, no matter what I do, I can’t stop it.
> The wolf howls again, and its countless throats form a choir that chills me to the bone, dark and crazed and undulating.
> Chris holds me tighter. I can never tell him what I have done in my hubris.
> It is dark, and I am almost alone, I am so endlessly scared and have never felt more powerless.
The world was a blur, and I heard nothing but my pulse roaring in my ears and the faint sound of a bell tolling in my soul. The memory faded. I was moving, dashing toward the wolf, pushing Zephyro aside, jumping in a leaping strike towards the wolf’s snarling face, Torch gripped firmly in both hands, all before I could form another thought.
With the press of a button, the Torch came alive, a split second before it hit the wolf’s face. The beast snarled, widened its stance, and howled, piercing through the sanguine haze that echoed in my head. I stumbled backward, my teeth crashing against each other as I hit the ground. I did not stay down long, rolled, and narrowly dodged dark claws. They sank into the solid brick like hot butter.
I got to my feet and brought up the Torch just in time to ram it into something soft and wet. Only after the Wolf had already howled again and pulled back did I realize I had thrust the Torch deep into the roof of its mouth.
It snarled, blood oozing from its snout. When it set its feet, its electronic fur bristled with red lighting.
I stopped screaming and panted. I had been screaming? When had I started? My pulse pounded in my throat, making it hard to breathe. I flicked my free hand over my eyes, clearing them of tears. My ears popped.
“—ere is it, Sultana? By Allah, let me help!”
It’s right there! I tried to say, but my throat was too dry and the words didn’t come out. The wolf rushed forward, I wheezed a rasping breath that should have been a scream, and then something dark and stinking of machine oil hit me in the stomach.
{CPU Load: 99%}
{Core Temp: 88° C}
{[Arx, Saint's Embrace] HAS BEEN DISABLED.}
The world halted for a second. Red lightning crackled over massive fur. Then the paw shrunk away and the floor moved underneath me until something flat and hard hit my back and the world tilted and I faced the street down below and the empty air between me and the cobblestones.
I spun as I fell, idly noticing a spiderweb of cracks in a wall growing farther and farther each time I caught a glimpse, and then the floor hit my side and my head met the pavement and stars exploded in my vision.
Everything hurt.
Breathing hurt, moving hurt, thinking hurt, everything was so hot and so exhausting…
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The ground shook. I weakly moved my head and saw the wolf approaching at an almost leisurely pace. It either climbed down incredibly fast or just jumped, falling two stories without taking any damage at all.
“FEAST.” It was a statement, inevitable as the wolf stared me down along its wickedly wire-covered snout.
I whimpered. I actually whimpered. I couldn’t do anything. I was hopeless. There was nothing I could do. There was nothing— Nothing but rage.
Like a lighthouse rushing in from the distance, it burned, heating my skin and singing my thoughts of weakness. I offered it no resistance, just accepted the power it promised without a second thought.
I pushed my hand against the ground to get up and screamed in pain and anger because the damn hand was broken and the pain held me back.
With tears of agony blurring my vision, I rolled to my other, hale side and pushed myself up against a wall.
The wolf didn’t seem to mind my struggles.
The wolf was in no hurry.
The wolf was inevitable.
It was my end and my doom, its languid movements spoke of saddened exasperation, like a disappointed parent coming to save a child from itself. A mocking suggestion wrote itself in the sizzling red lightning coursing over its fur.
I should run. Make it fun at least.
No...
NO!
I would not run again.
When I finally got to my feet, I took a stumbling step forward, facing the beast. My Torch blazed. A voice deep within me asked if the anger was still helping, if it still gave good advice.
Yes.
The anger held me together, it pushed me forward, just like it had for so very, very long. It would give me strength. It was the only thing that protected me, the only thing I could always rely on. Why had I ever stopped accepting it? I’d never let it go again. Never again succumb to fear and helplessness.
I took another step and my leg just gave in. It was broken. How could a digital leg be broken? The Feral hadn’t pulled any essence from me as far as I could tell. I should be fine. Sure, my CPU ran a bit hot, but why would that make everything hurt? It hurt so much. Oh god, it hurt so much. I just wanted it to stop. To curl up and just let it be over.
No!
No…
No weakness, only fury.
Something landed behind me, and a blue shield sprung up between myself and the monster. It snarled, frustrated that its toy had been taken away, and with a terrifying burst of speed that sent tremors through what little remained of my hate-fueled confidence, it rammed into the barrier. The shield flashed brightly at the impact. When the light faded, a few cracks showed in its swirling surface.
“Sultana!” Zephyro screamed. He looked terrible, all scared and weak and panicked. He should— No, no, I needed to save the anger for the Wolf… The vizier was by my side. When had that happened?
“…hurts…” I said.
“Your Core has been breached! You can’t keep your Essence stable anymore, and you are too exhausted to fix it!”
“…how…?”
MemOS Task Manager 0.1
{memOS - currently consuming: 3 LKB Memory, 90% CPU}
{Current task: Restoring: Samantha_v1//personality_matrix.mp25 - 15%}
{SAINTECH DPM v0.1 - WAITING - currently consuming: 2 LKB Memory, 8% CPU (-12%!)}
{drivers_sensory_Sam_v_0.1 - WAITING - currently consuming: 2 LKB, 2% CPU (-8%!)}
“…what…?”
“Use your blessing, Sultana. You need more qua! More vigor! More errr—CPU!”
I tried to focus. It hurt so much. The wolf slammed into the barrier again. There were more cracks now. I felt for the hottest part inside me, somewhere between my heart and my head, maybe both at once, and exhaled.
{CONSUMED LOGIC - 60 LB}
{AVAILABLE LOGIC - 82 LB}
{Processor: SAINTECH Alpha 2 1400X 1-Core Processor
IS NOW
Processor: SAINTECH Alpha 2 1700X 1-Core Processor}
{CPU Load: 98%}
{Core Temp: 85° C}
A bell rang hot and wild, its sound slowly fading while still being struck, like a firetruck speeding away.
Immediately, my mind snapped back into focus, but I winced in pain as I tried to shift my weight. My arm and leg were still broken, unable to bear any weight.
The Wolf howled with almost desperate hunger, and then it took a step back.
“Now, Zephyro!” I yelled, and the Vizier didn’t waste a second. His entire body shone a bright cyan as he dropped the Shield and unsheathed his sword in the blink of an eye. I was sure this was it for the wolf, but when the blade lashed out, the Feral danced aside, narrowly avoiding the attack. It sunk back to its haunches and its muscles coiled underneath its dark electric fur.
“Shield!” I screamed, and again, Zephyro reacted in a flash, raising his palm and projecting another barrier.
“Fuck!” I hissed as the wolf slammed against the forcefield again. It creaked and sizzled, and the stench of ozone filled the air. When the animal landed after its attack, I could feel the earth shuddering under its paws.
Breathing was still far harder than it had any business to be. Perhaps I had suffered some internal damage, too. I blinked. Broken Bones, internal damage… How can that even be possible? Isn’t this just a simulation? Who the fuck would code something like this into a simulation?
“Chris!” I snarled through the pain. “Give Zephyro access to the sensor array!”
Beep? It sounded less than confident.
[//broadcast drivers_sensory_Sam_v_0.1; Network 1]
[>>”broadcast” is not a valid command.]
[//run X://DPM/hulm-al-sultana/has.exe -input drivers_sensory_Sam_v_0.1]
[>>has.exe has encountered a critical error: "لا تتوفر موارد كافية على الجهاز المحلي لتشغيل هذا البرنامج."]
[//run X://DPM/hulm-al-sultana/has.exe -remote -input drivers_sensory_Sam_v_0.1]
[>>has.exe has encountered a critical error: "'drivers_sensory_Sam_v_0.1' غير متوافق مع البرمجيات المحلية."]
Boop! Chris said, clearly as frustrated as me.
The wolf slammed its paw against the shield and it crackled underneath the impact. Sparks of blue light rained down around us.
[//run X://DPM/hulm-al-sultana/has.exe -remote -input HOPe_SENSOR_ARRAY]
[>>has.exe has encountered a critical error:"لا يمكن الاتصال بـ HOPe_SENSOR_ARRAY: عرض النطاق الترددي غير كافي"]
God damnit!
“Zephyro, I am going to try and advance you!” I wheezed, praying he could hear me.
The Vizier stiffened visibly, but when another attack landed on his shield, he grunted. “Do it, Sultana.”
I inhaled my insides in turmoil and my focus a mess. I forced myself to try and think past the pain, the burning rage, and the creeping fear. My mind stilled just barely enough to focus on vision and leadership, on guiding and showing.
I touched my dwindling reservoir of Logic, heard it springing to readiness, and immediately exhaled.
{ERROR!}
{>>INSUFFICIENT ERROR_VAL_NOT_FOUND! CAN NOT SUPERLOGICALLY ALTER X://DPM/hulm-al-sultana/has.exe}
{SUPERLOGICAL ALTERATION ABORTED}
{YOU HAVE LOST 5 LB}
{AVAILABLE LOGIC - 77 LB}
“Fuck!” I croaked. I would have screamed the word, but my ribs hurt if I inhaled too deeply.