“Hmm. Yes, I see. Okay, and… very well. And- oh, Gods! Noted. Moving on! And…”

I exchanged weary glances with Edward, Ed’s Doppelganger, and shook my head as the animated skull paced across the line for the third time.

“Forty-six skulls. Several fucking tons of mithral and several more tons of other metals. The meat and muscle of a unicorn as well as most of its skeleton; only missing the legs and the head. A bunch o' fuckin’ wood from a divine tree and a bunch o’ fuckin’ stone from the realm. How many times do you need to look at it, Sim?” Edward seethed.

Somehow displaying a horrified expression through a slacked jaw of gold-lined teeth, the animated skull, Simion Lumbarde, dipped and bobbed through the air to place his fiery sockets directly before Edward’s eyes as if he wished to burn the sea-green essence of his sentience into his soul.

“Why, I do not appreciate such a filthy attitude! Hmphf!” he spun away, somehow side-eying me without eyes.

“If you’re finished taking inventory, Simion, we can begin. Or, are you nervous?” I squinted at him accusingly. “You’ve been excited about this since I told you about it all those months ago.”

“Oh, I am! It’s just… I’ve grown used to my skull. I’ve had it all my life!” he pleaded, then added. “My un-life too!”

“You’ll still have it.” I shrugged. “It’ll just be… different.”

“Yes, yes. I know.” He bobbed over and placed himself in my open palm. “Very well.” He sighed. “Let’s begin.”

“Thank you.”

“So, what’s the idea here?” Edward asked in a sudden shift of tone. “I’m assuming it’s already upgraded, duplicated, and all that mess?”

“Yeah.” I nodded, then turned a smirk towards him. “So, the internet, right?”

“That digital library thing that people used to talk to each other? Cesspool of toxicity borne from anonymity? The VoidNet?”

“A crass summary, my good Sir!”

“Yeah.” I snorted in response to Simion’s two cents. “NoxNet will essentially be that mixed with undying intelligence, and more. It is first a hive mind composed of this.” I gestured to both Simion and the materials before us. “Like Zaraxus, Simeon’s skull will be upgraded. Fabricated, really, into a living Matrioska Brain that can sense Mana Rays and Dark Radiation. Then, he’ll be fused with a wise rock.”

“A highly simplified explanation!” Simion chirped.

“Okay…” Edward nodded slowly. “My question is, why?”

Simion flew from my hand. “Because, good Sir, I am a soul inside of a skull! Dark Radiation is infused with death! Thus it can be directly transmitted to souls! Mana Rays are made of mana. Mana itself is an energy of the spirit. Thus I, a soul with a physical body of flesh and machine, am the link that allows the metal and flesh to commune with the spirit and the soul! Think, boy!" He butted Edward's head roughly. "Are you daft?”

“What he means is that this fusion will allow for a sort of soul transmission that is more or less like a telepathic or empathic bond with your subordinates.”

“Wait.” Edward suddenly backpedaled, shaking his head. “So, we’ll be able to talk to each other. In our heads? Without implants?”

This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.

“Yeah.” I nodded. “Anyone whose soul is tied to mine. So, all of the Legions.”

“Without implants?”

“Yeah.” I nodded again. “And the infusion of the Void allows it to bypass the light delay, and even cross realms.”

“Ah- yes.” Simion dipped low, answering in but a whisper. “Although, some sort of device will still be necessary. An earring or some other piece of jewelry will suffice. Or, if Liege’s research continues without any hiccups, a tattoo.”

Ed’s eyes widened impossibly from that revelation, picking Simion up a bit.

“I didn’t mean to steal your thunder,” I said to him as a form of apology. “You can explain the final version of NoxNet.”

“Ah- yes!” he dipped high towards the mass of material. “The database of information the Liege has painstakingly inscribed for us will be housed within my new brain!” he emphatically shouted. “A brain made of flesh and metal! And so too will all that the Legions learn be added to this grand, living library and then made accessible through the Noctis Network!

“Haha! But that is just the first function!” He growled excitedly. “For the second is what the Liege calls a ‘streaming service.’ Monitoring devices dubbed Satellites are to be distributed across the Legions, truth be told, for the sake of accountability. But so too will they perform as your extra eyes; and mine. Any and all actions from the throes of battle to the gentle lulls of one’s sleep can be recorded and broadcast throughout Eotrom, building each of you unparalleled fame.

“To assist in that endeavor, skulls, subordinate to me, will be distributed to you first officers of the Legions and your subordinates!” he declared, making a swooping pass over the gathered skulls. "They are the Lore Skulls! Though, you are free to call them as the Liege calls them, Lore Keepers. They, with the help of the Lore Master, Sir Willard Rowe, will create dossiers for each member of the Legions. Files that detail each feat, accomplishment, battle, award, and victory. And so too, each tragedy or loss.”

“That’s only fair.” Edward shrugged, clearly eager to hear more about the project.

“Halfway through, mind you!” Simion bobbed. “Though, the third function has thus been explained. A soul-based communications network. The Liege shall have a channel linking himself to you Primes of the Legio Noctis. And each of you shall be linked to your squads and subordinate units, down to the individual.

“Paltry, I know.” He somehow smirked. “But the last function is certainly not the most boorish. Every Legion, down to every company, will have its own industry. That much is common knowledge, yes?”

“Of course.” Edward impatiently nodded.

“And in turn, such industrial facilities, be they mining outposts or city-spanning factories, will one day be spread far and wide across the realms?” He paused, waiting for Edward to nod, and nearly went into a contest of who would crack first.

Simion caved.

“And thus is the fourth function!” Simion groaned in frustration. “You, Good Sir, and the other esteemed Legionaries will have the capability to remotely supervise and operate every piece of infrastructure you own. Everything, Sir Edward, down to the doors and consoles within the vessels you create to the defensive network of an entire city two realms away.

“Instantaneously.” He grounded with absolute finality.

“Okay.” Edward slowly nodded, completely ignoring Simion’s burning intensity. “I just have one question. Why use flesh and bone as a material? You have metals and divine materials at your disposal. Are you going to be walking around in a new body or something?”

“Yes and no. Living, but stationary in his own subspace. And,” I chuckled, “it’s for an offshoot or a new branch of technology. Flesh tech.”

“I beg your pardon?” Edward blinked rapidly.

“Oh, think about it, lad!” Simion headbutted his chest. “Many undead are zombies with tattered limbs and torsos. How able are they to wield a weapon? Hardly!” Ed jumped back a bit at the shout muffled by his sternum. “But what if the standard zombie had an organic sword of, say, nacre imbued into their very rotted flesh, eh? Ah, that would be much more efficient, would it not?”

“And disturbing.” He chortled helplessly. “But yes.”

“Exactly the point my boy! Besides.” Simion brushed against him, gentler this time. “If this is to happen and I’m to become of flesh again, much less a machine, I’m going to need someone to perform maintenance on me. And to add to that, the Legions will one day reach a critical mass of undead. The choice will then be to let the Legions become oversaturated with undead or leave bodies to decay and spread negative energy across the realms.

“We would rather do neither.” Simion proudly stated after a short contemplative silence. “Thus we have decided to gather up these unwanted corpses. And with this… er, FleshTech, their biomass will be processed and used to defend, maintain, or even improve both me and the undead- and in turn, the NoxNet.”

“So, gentlemen.” I clapped loudly and shifted my eyes between them. “Shall we get started.?”