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“You mean like what the Black Hole Conclave has at the center of the universe?” Priam asked.
Idiot, Quinn thought as she shook her head. “No. It’s a term for when Artificial Intelligence like our Wayfinders get smarter than its creator’s intelligence and can improve itself faster than we could improve either it or ourselves.”
Priam nodded, “Oh, they want to make a god-puppet. Those are really hard to control. Normally they go mad. Hence the term a ‘mad god’.”
Greg frowned, “Wait, so you’re telling me that Pheracorp just bought something that they can…make into a god?”
Darrin shook his little spider head, “A god? No. A new Artificial Intelligence. The Cosmic System could easily handle the integration of another AI. But depending on how Pheracorp activates this Godheart, and how they implement its personality matrix and protocols, it could lead to them having a significant advantage over the rest of the megacorps and the world governments. It would disrupt the Star Council’s takeover plans drastically, requiring – at the worst-case scenario – an entire ‘tech purge’ of the whole world. Being vaulted back to a pre-electricity stage of civilization, just to be sure it was erased.”
Quinn felt her heart seize up in fear at the idea that her faction would decimate humanity’s technology just to stop a single AI that was under the control of a single megacorp. “It’s that dangerous?” she asked Darrin.
“Yes,” the spider replied. “A Godheart turned into an AI will feel all the hatred and rage of that deity who died forgotten and unworshipped. It will take control of the megacorp within a few days, if not hours. The good news is that it will take them a good while – six days at the minimum – to put it in your terms, ‘hack’ the Godheart.”
Priam almost shouted, “I need to rescue it!” This drew Greg and Darrin’s attention, but Quinn had to refocus on the road as a plan began to percolate in her thoughts. Priam continued, “I…I can use it. I can get a divine-magic spell that turns into a Skill. And doing that, I can put the Godheart to rest…it’s what the Westerfold clan was meant to do. Put dead gods to rest. It’s why my soul energy coefficient is so high!”
Soul energy coefficient, Quinn thought. How much magic is affected by your technology. Effectively, Class Skills were a combination of magic, technology, or a blend called magitech. But technology could give an equivalent to a Skill, as could magic spells from worlds that operated on those weird rules of reality. The higher a person’s soul energy coefficient, the more powerful those spell-based Skills would be.
Priam pointed at Quinn, “Yours is around 85%.” He then pointed at Greg, “Yours is at 100%.” He pointed to himself, “I’m at 190%.”
“What’s Jace at?” Greg asked.
“25%,” Priam replied. “I can raise it by 5% once per day; but only once a week for any one person.” He crossed his arms with a smug expression. “But I started at 150% thanks to my clan and bloodline. I’m naturally blessed by the gods.”
Quinn rolled her eyes. Fucking golden child who got given everything, she assumed. Not from the streets like her and Jace. Not self-made. Just carried along by other people. Literally, as she re-watched the recent encounter from Greg’s point of view thanks to the small camera she had put on his helmet. I mean, the barriers were helpful, but Greg carried him to safety.
“I have an idea,” she said, pushing aside the thoughts. “We need to slow down their operations and get to their server core.” She opened a communication line to Ollie with her System messages, so her words would be translated to text for him to read. “Jace will keep fucking things up in Campinas. We’re heading to Rio de Janeiro. We’ll slow down their energy production. If we cripple the distribution grid enough, then they can’t hack this Godheart.”
“A war on multiple fronts,” Greg said as he nodded. “Can you do your Webwalking from the APC?”
Quinn nodded, “It’ll just take me a few hours of setting up my equipment in the back there. It’ll make things cramped though.”
“It’ll be worth it for a mobile command station,” Greg replied as he began moving items under the various benches. “Shame the whole Streetrunner crew angle didn’t play out.”
Quinn didn’t hear Priam, and glanced back, seeing him in deep thought. “What’s wrong?”
Priam kept his face looking at the floor of the APC, and he had a look of concentration on it. “The guy in the suit mentioned something about archives…what if there’s multiple Godhearts? How many gods were worshipped in Earth’s history?”
Greg let out an exhalation, “Whoo boy, I mean, easily over a thousand.”
Priam’s eyes almost bulged out of his head. “What?! How?!”
Greg shrugged, “Beats me.”
Priam frowned, “That means there could be a thousand Godhearts out there.”
“Nope,” Darrin replied. “Only certain deities had enough worshippers. Some of these ‘gods’ in Earth’s mytho-history were not divine beings; just…foolish people’s explanation for natural phenomena.”
“How many we talking?” Quinn asked as she toggled holographic shroud on the outside of the APC to swap over to a different Pheracorp branch.
“No more than ten,” Darrin stated confidently. “I am curious why they suddenly awakened though. I’ll query the System.” The spider dangled in the air in front of Greg, and then snapped back to move through the air. “It appears that Earth’s had enough Ascendants and Aspirants throwing around spell-based Skills that the latent energy has caused the Godhearts to…resurge.”
Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
Great, just great, Quinn thought as she kept Ollie filled in via the messaging system. Thankfully, her new bionic brain implant enabled multiple tasks with incredible ease. At the same time, she was also sending off a message to Star Father, her faction leader. You need to get these Godhearts off of Earth, ASAP. Uploading video and information.
Send.
She was not waiting long for a response.
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[I will get our Signers and Ascendants who are boots-on-the-ground on Earth moving towards them immediately.]
[You must keep Pheracorp from using the one in their possession. I’m sending you a Quest to demonstrate the importance of this endeavor. A full tech-wipe on Earth will cripple it for decades and require many resources for us to build back up to a tech-uplift even when we take over the world.]
[Do not fail me.]
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[Quest: Obtain, destroy, or otherwise make unusable the Godheart from Pheracorp.]
[Time Limit: 6 days.]
[Reward: Epic (Variable) Boon.]
[Sender: Star Council]
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The sign-off sent shivers down Quinn’s spine. What is he going to do if I fail?
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All of the helos and the military forces had seemingly dispersed over the course of his hour-long break. But, to be safe, Jace had run across to the North side of the city to begin his trail of destruction. He had been waiting out of line of sight of cameras to let his energy refill before he put his plan into action. Thankfully, due to the [Innervating] Evolution of Cosmic Infusion, he had increased energy regeneration.
His tiredness from expending his stamina rapidly returned, and Jace dashed up to the enormous factory walls. He could her the k-thunk of machinery pounding away inside, and the high-pitched whirr of the belts going at top speed. “Here we go,” he muttered.
Ollie nodded and pulled up the map along with the planned route Jace was going to take. “By my estimates,” he began, “You should be able to get through the entire route and arrive at another factory that was decommissioned, so you can recover.”
Jace nodded. He didn’t care if he was tracked by cameras until the last facility he planned to tackle. Wrath’s Embrace (Rank 10) [Focused]. Ruination Razor. He felt that core of hatred in his gut roar to life in a violent torrent. The heat radiated up his torso and into his neck and head. The anger and hatred felt good, and the crackling, red nebula sparked around him. His sword – held in two hands thanks to the long hilt – crackled with the same energy. Not light, dripping crimson. But a violent, crackling, bright red.
Swinging the sword horizontally, it sliced into the concrete wall. As the blade finished its arc, the crackling, bright red shockwave traveled through the structure surrounding the slice. It spiderwebbed across the building, sparking with the bright, red light. “Back up!” Ollie shouted.
Jace complied and jumped back before retreating further away. To his satisfaction and delight, the building’s entire wall – and much of the roof – collapsed inward; crushing the machinery. The drain he felt on his energy was miniscule, but it was being siphoned away to fuel Wrath’s Embrace. No time to sit back and watch, Jace thought as he dashed down the alleyway. But if works like that against buildings…He grinned with a manic, enraged joy as he ran up to the back wall of another building marked on his map by Ollie.
Taking another slash, he saw the crackling energy fade from his weapon. Two strikes at this Rank, he thought as he watched the building go through the same destructive display. The red light arced and spiraled around the structure in beautiful fractals that Jace only slightly appreciated due to his enraged state. The building collapsed inward, and Jace let out a laugh. “I finally get to fuck you up!” he shouted out with glee.
Facing down the alley, he saw the percentage tracker in the corner of his vision. 24%, he thought. Time to speed this up. Sprinting down the alleyway, he reactivated Ruination Razor, over and over again at (Rank 2). Two slashes, two buildings destroyed, and then a reactivation. He was a force of destruction akin to the worst earthquake one could possibly experience.
And that brought him to a stop after he had run to the end of the street. He let the Wrath’s Embrace fade, and held his face with his right hand. “I’m an idiot,” he muttered. “Ollie, show me the closest open area on the map.”
“Sure.” Ollie did so, and Jace ran over to that location. It was a small employee park – maybe where people would take their breaks in between shifts – with a few artificial trees and some fake grass. “What is the plan?” Ollie asked.
“Magic,” Jace replied as he sheathed the blade and took a deep breath. “The map shows the area is about 100 square miles. With my 25% soul energy thingy, back on Nihilethelea-”
“You said it right this time!”
“-Right. That was able to affect a whole cave tile. 50 square miles.”
Ollie nodded as the realization dawned on him as well. “Oh, earthquake. Smart.”
“Right,” Jace replied. He knelt and placed his palms on the ground. “I want the earth to shake so violently that every building in the maximum range possible collapses into debris. Geomancy – activate.”
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Commander Victoria was in a vehicle on the way to the central headquarters for the Pheracorp security branch. She was watching this alien with the red and purple Skills pouring off of them run down an alleyway, decimating buildings with single strikes. He’s a monster, whatever he is.
But then the individual put away the sword they were swinging and ran to an open area. She flicked through the cameras to follow him, and saw his mask moving. He’s talking to someone, she thought.
He put his hands on the ground, tilted his head away from the camera…and then stood back up. What was he doi-
Victoria’s car bucked wildly. The driver immediately slammed the brakes. “Earthquake!” he shouted. “Get down!”
She did not, instead looking at the earthquake sensor data from their geo-stabilization rigs that were built into the dirt below the city specifically to prevent an event like this from happening. But they were untouched. “This isn’t an earthquake!” she replied at the top of her lungs. “That…alien thing caused it!”
The commander wasn’t 100% sure…but she was pretty damned positive that this alien was the cause. Especially since the little patch of ground he was on – from the camera in the still-standing tree – was untouched. An island in an ocean of churned and collapsed ground, as if the earth itself cracked apart and fissured below every building.
The mortality reports alone are going to be a fucking mess.
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Jace stood up and scanned his surroundings. “Ollie…how far did that go?”
“Approximately 25 miles from you in each direction. Nihilethelea was split into squares of terrain that limited the area you could affect with that Archmage Geomancy spell-turned-Skill. Here? The earth is all interconnected, so it became a circle. A higher soul energy coefficient would mean a bigger radius.”
As Jace looked around, he saw naught but rubble, broken bits of machinery, and in small patches, streaks of red. He felt a pit in his stomach. “…How many people did I just kill?”