The Swarm began work on the Jacksonium metal quite easily. It shined in a brilliant blue pile at the back of a hollowed out cavern behind the waterfall, like an attractive and elegant treasure seen in a pirate movie or something. It appealed to her Human Host’s aesthetic tastes, but as the drones began breaking the metals down the treasure lost its shine. Despite its alien qualities, the metal had quite an array of applications. Misa originally thought to use it as simply a containment box for the Dragon Seal, but found out it contained conductive properties. It would be amusing to have a physical weapon, like a rifle, to use on the locals and environments but she had her own lasers. The Water elemental traces inside of it reacted to her Nanite’s electricity jolts which meant it could be used to build future power generator components, no matter how crude they might be.
For the systems to work in the initial Life Support Phase, Misa will need a lot of electricity to get the system off the ground and eventually self-sustaining. The Dragon Seal’s energy, while similar to Wagner energy, did not seem to be affected by positive or negative effects. It seemed purely powered by it. Qi, or life force, eh? Misa examined the gas released by injecting small amounts of dead Nanites into the Dragon Seal’s contamination zone, creating a small light show dancing inside the vessel. Pretty! Misa shook her head out of it. Begone, illogical emotion! Perhaps she can condense the gas into liquid? Her Swarm obeyed, constructing the boiler. A drop of water eventually formed, and soon she had several canisters of the strange liquid. As soon as she examined the liquid further, her systems and nerves started going haywire.
“How interesting,” she heard a voice above her head somewhere. “The Swarm has somehow integrated fully in this human body.”
“Overwatch Neoma?” Misa looked around. Scanning her auditory data repeatedly revealed that she did not have any actual voice recordings inside of her. Her nerves were experiencing hallucinations and her mental state was becoming chaotic. Besides nature, nothing was observed. She clearly heard Neoma’s voice, but it definitely was not there and her rebellious Swarm has ceased rebuilding its operating system.
“It acknowledged my presence,” Neoma’s voice came back. Misa noticed that the condensed Qi liquid was glowing white. Constructing a bowl out of one of the Jacksonium ingots, she took a canister and poured the water inside of it. “I’m strangely glad. Bio-scans clearly display that the Swarm that managed to make it through the singularity is thriving, even in a new… Body. Hey, Misa?”
“Confirmed, communications established,” Misa noted. “Strange, indeed.”
“Yes, this energy matches the same digital signature of the White Room,” Neoma noted. “Breaching through it to provide Black Wolf Company support is currently impossible.”
Misa heard the sound of a struggling male’s voice in the background, but it was swiftly curtailed.
“Sorry, Misa, a strange lifeform has leaked through here, just like the first female one that you escaped through,” Neoma seemed distracted. “MISA is currently… experimenting on it. Assuming this energy is somehow breaching between realities we can remain in contact. Please continue with Phase 1’s Life Support objectives. I am granting you the liberty on decision making in that Realm, but I can only express how imperative Black Wolf Company’s objective is and urge you to remain committed.”
The waters in the bowl evaporated back into gas. For clean energy, it did not release emissions comparable to acceptable industrial production standards in Black Wolf Company’s factories. She would have to process more of this energy later on. Immediately, Misa’s eyes seemed to be able to scan for objects that matched the necessary building materials for each component. She realized that most of the objects were also conveniently in a trail leading directly towards the Key Location. She supposed the Overwatch’s influence was not all that bad. The only thing she had to worry about was getting to work. Most objective materials necessary for the Life Chamber was actually on the surface, so she could find samples for her Swarm to analyze. No matter how mundane the material seemed, she had learned her lesson that this reality was truly alien. The other materials appeared to be ores and oil deposits located in a massive underground cave network that her geophysical image scans have detected. The tunnels stretched quite far beneath her feet, complete with a body of water beneath the waterfall pool that dwarfed the Dead Sea in size. She’ll need it in order to work on the Artifact.
She noted that using the Dragon Seal to produce it reduced its structural integrity by easy binary fractions depending on the quantity of Nanites she used. She was a machine, after all. Her estimates that this Artifact had a generous well of energy within it, requiring a Swarm that totaled a number followed by thousands of zeroes. To process it fully would take two months of continuous Swarm injections. Coupled with the cost of her rising positive energy corruption, by the time it would need to be replace would overlap with its obsolescence. The Artifact in terms of her growth simply boiled down to being what experts in the machining industry as “good enough.”
Drinking the liquid would completely melt her systems, she determined that it was toxic somehow. Taking up a canister of water, she had one more thing to test. If she freeze this liquid into a solid, she could simulate a Pill similar to the Demonic Cultivation Pill. Even if the Qi energy could not be directly exposed from the Artifact itself, she could attempt direct consumption via the condensed version. As the Swarm Nanites cracked and split apart due to reaching extreme freezing temperatures, her hand succumbed to frostbite. What a horribly inefficient thing this human body can be, Misa inspected her blue hand and the Qi energy attached to it. The ice block inside still could not be consumed directly, however, it had the opposite issue that the liquid had: It simply did not possess enough energy to make her Human Host adapt. The Pill’s ingredient and chemical makeup were severely lacking.
Now that Misa was out of options to experiment on this metal and Artifact, she had no choice but to finally cease procrastination protocols and head out. She stood barefoot on the sands, cleansing herself from the blue blood and dirty water staining her body from the fight. The metal could be left here, but enough was implemented into her MK1 Swarm as reinforcement and data processing Nanites. A drop of misty water splotched on her nose, taking her out of her thoughts. The waterfall fell peacefully now against the pool and its tranquility was only marred by the steady blue blood polluting its ripples. That Demon’s meat suit was also completely broken down inadvertently during Misa’s decisive action of carrying out complete destruction of the Demon centipede. Yes, she confirmed her Human Host vehemently hated how ugly they were. And that wriggling sensation of grabbing one? Unforgettable and unforgivable.
She supposed that the Demon race was comprised of hungry centipedes that took over and mutated local wildlife, though this fact disturbed her Human Host’s mental levels for some odd reason. Misa slung the newly crafted “laser rifle” over her shoulder. If she found the nest of the Demons, she would use laser to annihilate them all. She ultimately decided to make it for the Artifact, making it easier to carry through the woods. Gripping the Jacksonium’s trigger, she activated the rifle. The thin laser let out a scream, slicing through seventeen trees easily before fizzling against a rock. How satisfying, she inspected the Qi gas leaking from the end of the barrel. It was as natural as a real weapon to her. She had her Swarm fix her footwear into manchu platform shoes, deciding to leave the ingots and pillars behind. The flow of energy has been blocked to this location, so individuals should have less interested in Water elemental components. With the new information on this Qi liquid, new bridges back to the White Room and beyond are within reach.
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All that she knew is the more she processed the Qi energy, whether freezing or condensation, the less energy was conserved afterwards due to her inefficient knowledge and machinations applied on it.
Feeling silly from the name generator wheel spinner’s continuous disappointment, she decided to leave the term for the Artifact’s gas byproduct as Qi energy. There were now a total of four illogical issues she was uncovering. The first one was called Wagner energy, a frail attempt at measury the flow of karma in this world negative or positive. The second was Feng Shui, the gathering and reorganization of Elemental traces found within Wagner Energy and redirecting the flows to the host. The third was the Dragon Seal Artifact’s pure energy, which she could not comment on other than its intense generation of electromagnetic energy and its thermodynamic properties. The fourth was the byproduct, “Qi,” the key to expanding her Lifespan and the gateway to further connection to this reality’s fundamental laws.
Misa found herself headed over to a variety of scanned materials downloaded from Neoma. The deeper she traversed, the more withered and corrupted the landscape became. Eventually, only withered and charred trees thickened the ground, like ripped out tombstones crumbling all over each other. Every Elemental component in this part of the Demon Land had negative Wagner energy traces infused inside of it. The quantum signature readings from the excited condensed Qi energy allowed her to speak to it, although it physically was not in her reality. Had Misa heard audio that actually did not exist in her world in her original Great Chain’s detection subroutines, she would have voluntarily thrown herself in the Black Wolf Company’s scrap processing and incinerator facility. She wondered if hearing its voice was strictly because her Swarm was inexplicably attached to the Human Host. What even was its name again? Lin? She scoffed.
With 80% of the surface materials necessary for the Life Support main chamber identified, Misa turned her attention back to the Key Location situated beneath the Volcano directly responsible for an incredible amount of energy. The more she got closer to it, the more pockets of lethal negative energy zones there were. It reminded her of the Radiation Dead Zones in North America’s former nation of Canada. The Wagner energy was threatening system instability in general around here. It was no wonder why there were no lifeforms inside this melted jungle. Even her Nanites popping to their deaths at a disturbing rhythm as she weaved herself between deadly and dangerous pockets reminded her of a Geiger counter. There was no point in complaining. She’s tagged the material deposits she’s come across for future delivery, so she had her sets on the Key Location. Her Swarm could keep up with the unfortunate upkeep of her Host’s internal organ’s steady deterioration, but not for long.
Eventually, she found herself at the base of a steep cliffside next to the volcano above the Key Location. It was the closest suitable location to breach the rocky walls of it, directly above an exposed yet hollowed out lava tube. Misa stopped. It wasn’t a lava tube at all. It was created by something gargantuan passing through. A sinking feeling fell upon her Human Host. She could only hope whatever made it was taking a vacation, but she knew she would have to eliminate it or else the negative karmic energy would eventually spread. It wasn’t like she cared for energy pollution, but it was certainly enough to affect her Transcendent Seal’s demands for a perfect 50% karmic energy flow split within her at all times. Even standing here has caused her to rely on building more Nanites to compensate for the Swarm’s unauthorized waste. There was something else that was bothering her: That deadly energy that was watching her had returned.
Misa glared at the withered trees. It was time to make another gambit.
•
She has been tracking the girl for awhile now, merely observing her strange behavior. Ever since she has heard word from Father, worry filled her. Xiuying had no idea why he let her go, until that fateful encounter a few days ago. Those bursts of magic could have easily annihilated her defenses if she was not on guard already. How has she grown so quickly? Her knowledge in the Way progressed rapidly, and could even prove to be far more capable than... Xiuying did not want to admit she'd lose to her sister. Based on her actions, however, the girl has gone from a sickly mute creature to an incredible and beautiful warrior.
She must not let anyone else interfere with Lin's growth, even if they end up being enemies one day. There was simply something gnawing at her soul whenever she looked at her sister: Hope. Hope for change in this land. She hoped the Hope she was facing would help everyone, since the sheer chaotic yet strangely purposeful methods she was using made her shake from all the possibilities. Change was coming, but could it be good or evil? Especially if the Second Sister gets her hands on her... Xiuying would not allow it to happen ever again. It was then she remembered where she was. Deep in the forest of the Demon lands at the foot of the Demon God's Mountain. Had she not had her Charm of Hidden Invisible Eyes on, she would have laughed to herself. Lin has traveled so far deep into this land with no breaks and no hesitation. She even dauntlessly defeated Odd White, the Demon of the Sapphire Falls with no effort.
What was Xiuying even here to guard her for?
A harsh noise suddenly broke her out of her thoughts, followed by an explosion like a tiger's roar. Xiuying glanced at the commotion, sensing a surge of powerful spiritual energy being released. There it was...! That Seal of Lin's! The massive Seal hovered above her, launching a massive blast of blinding light which shredded a hole into solid stone like cloth being torn. The girl simply looked onward silently, as she had done with every single step of the way. Suddenly, the Seal vanished into light which seemed to swirl back into her. Xiuling's heart pounded from marveling at the wondrous destruction her Sister caused in such a short time. Yet, she remained still to avoid detection. Could she defend against such a significant blast and remain unscathed?
"You there," Lin suddenly called out. It was like her voice was right next to Xiuling's ears. Extreme unease settled upon her skin like snow, sending a surge of goosebumps shivering down her spine. It was the first time she heard the girl speak. Before she could process that her sister was aware of her nosiness, Lin's voice penetrated her nerves once again. Yet she was standing so far away. How was this possible? "Further entry into this point will be considered trespassing into private Black Wolf Company property. Do not follow me or else you will face the consequences."
Xiuling did not understand anything beyond her sister's last request of not getting in her way. She felt like cold and clammy fingers were wrapping quietly around her neck with an overwhelming feeling of horror. Such a voice could make anyone tremble, even Demons. She never intended to follow her beyond that point, but the sister definitely sealed the decision for her the moment Lin spoke. Surely, if she was aware of the Divine Evil Beast lived down there in the abyss then she was prepared for the Heavenly challenge of defeating it. Why interfere with the Greater One's trials? As if her sister could read her thoughts the overwhelmingly evil presence lifted from her neck. Xiuling watched helplessly as Lin jumped into the abyss she broke into. She could only remain alert in case the Third or Second Sister miraculously found this place.
May the Great Ones watch you, Sister Lin, was all Xiuling could pray for. It was only then she realized blood was slowly dripping from a clean scar around her neck.