The first thing to alert it to wrong- impossibility, was a L-network monitor protocol going haywire over statistically significant thresholds of conceptual disturbance. The Defense Initiative Lobe quirked a- metaphysical- eyebrow as the reports filtered through its protocol, querying the Technological Development Lobe with an urgent request to know if something had gone wrong with the test subject.
“No?”
“Ok-” and that was the extent of the conversation for a full five and a half seconds, subjective time, before that one nondescript monitor protocol in a remote L-network went from reporting ±1-2 background conceptual weight to ±halfway to infinity.
Thus, no small alarm. In an instant the Defense Initiative Lobe sent an emergency summon to the local L-dendrites and latent defensive protocols before immediately initiating quarantine over the entire sector, all while the Emotional Cognition Lobe went into shock-fear-focusing rage.
“Announcement: emergency located, likely some sort of security triggered by the anomalous mechanism.”
APC received the warning, thought over possibilities infinite for a small second, then ceded the planning to the Defense Initiative Lobe along with the significant majority of its neural processing. “Deal with it however you can. Be very careful with hostile malware- we’ve seen some crazy things in its technology.”
“I hear and obey-” the Defense Initiative Lobe heard, and obeyed. The L-dendrite quarantine shunted a nearby universe into semi-reality, utilizing the weak nature of its universal membrane to snap a barrier around the most critical processing centers- grasping in the faintness of its presence time itself, and slowing-
It moved-
For a moment, shock-
The universe they’d used as the first layer of their defense exploded, shattering into a million fragments and echoed memories of unreal reality, unmaking remade. A norm burned brightly in the center of nonexistence, spinning itself out into an entirely new branch of possibility.
“Damn… that’s impressive. Interrogative order: refrain?” The neutron maneuvered itself to the strange twist-warp half step past imagination that sat like impossibility in the center of where there had only before been a simple laboratory, coiling around the enemy? and reaching out in standard APC conversational code. “Please: state your purpose in sufficiently long winded modality. Remain still, and explain your existance. Or do not. Studies show eldritch beings respond positively to honesty. I am stalling for time. You are stalling for time. Huh. I did not know-” and it was ripped to shreds, obliterated in a fractal undoing of its very subatomic structure.
A second neutron came forward. “Hello. Please state your name and presence. Or presence and name. Or attack.” Apparently the anomaly- the second anomaly, really, because they already had one of those clinging to the edge of a universe like some kind of information-gathering leach- “Ah I see you have chosen attack-” several thousand L-dendrites drifted into formation around it, mirrored by the rest of the quarantined L-network, weaving a complex interconnection out of metal and soul, tugging on the patterns of base existence.
For a moment, there was nothing.
Then, the Defense Initiative Lobe stepped past the boundary, like a god, like a hand beyond, and in its infinite- the flows of non-space crystallized into universe. The laws of reality rewrote themselves, clutching the anomaly in a thin sheaf of existence where creation was not.
And against the paradox of its existence, the interloper was erased.
……….
[ISON note - critical damage sustained to network non-critical node IZ-14M2-I net U-C8984. Data corruption: unknown data corruption. Possibility of data loss: possibility percent. Please contact administrator. Administrator, please contact data-] and the ever dreaded, something he’d not seen in an ISON report in a small infinity of years- [Error.]
A vast machine, tendrils of intent and soul-laced steel moved, forming into some sort of esoteric pattern as he tried to make heads or tails of the ISON report, seemingly intent in inanely distracting it from understanding the disassembled wreck that was node IZ-14M2-I net U-C8984. An interesting pattern, for sure- it was a soul-magic that eclipsed all but what he’d seen from Samsara, and a dimensional application-
Something touched it from outside, immense and ever-present, powerful enough to register as powerful.
Reality snapped into- well, reality around him, and he only had a second to realize that the element of creation was fundamentally anathema to the very base of the reality he’d found himself in. He only had a moment to register the shock and curse before-
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Pain.
An eternity, eternal, time flowing, erased and unerased, remembered in the disparate existance across all existence, and only then as a sheen of agony. Uncountable years, mere seconds passed in a fugue of hazy aches and reincarnation, gravitation as the being that was creation pulled itself together above centrality.
First, the silver- a sphere-not-sphere bleeding silver, then scales, then feathers, eyes running rivulets of his own essence as it two ragged holes in reality, tearing his way into centrality with the agonized shudder of strained space-time- and grabbing a certain useful fox in the same way.
The ball of tails and fluff tumbled out of the crack in reality with a curse and a snap of her jaws, eyes shining so fiery bright- “What do you want! I’m out here- oh, working along, fixing Sija- and then you have to drag me into some stupid experiment about ‘the scientific merits of opposable digits’ or-” she paused, taking in the ragged- truly ragged and not just cosmetic- appearance of her brother. “Ajinan? What happened?”
A rattling breath shook its way into lungs that hadn’t formed right, so fast had been his manifestation. “Something… something big. A trap, of some sort- it managed to trap me in a demi-plane inimical to the essence of creation, shattering my concentration in a paradox and forcing me to reform.”
Kitsune’s eyes were almost comically wide. “I’m somehow astonished that this happened, and also completely unsurprised. You really need to do more field work."
"I resent that insinuation; a primal force of nature need not do field work. ISON is a true work of art."
"Art, shmart, doesn't matter if I can annihilate it. You know you'd lose in a duel."
Ajinan sighed, manifesting manifolds of machinery around him, dizzying arrays of hyper-complex weaponry robust enough to handle the conceptual chaos beyond the bounds of reality. "Sure. You're good at fighting. And being a fox."
A smirk trawled across her muzzle. "Of course I am." Two tails intertwined with his own, feathers on fur, gray on orange as those silvery eyes of essence pure pierced the depths of possibility and bled silver slivers- space fell apart around them, and they were gone.
A brief moment, between here and there, time without time stuck in the truest chaos beyond the boundaries of clusters, the space only the seraphim could walk.
Then they were pushing into the boundaries of a paradox-shattered demiplane, tides of fire and creation of ends spiraling out of nowhere, to somewhere. Ruthless- such was the purest definition of their assault, viscous metal probes methodically ripping into the trans-dimensional matrix of machines that had surrounded their original point of entry, disrupting the carefully created matrices necessary for planar construction.
Yet, for all his machines tried- and surprisingly, mostly failed- to assimilate the trap into themselves, Kitsune observed. This was… immense- something that stretched in her senses across the entire cluster, immense infinities shadowed beneath its weight. Even now, they only fought a small portion, disassembling machine by machine so quickly, so incredibly slowly.
She breathed, without breathing.
Eyes, conceptual fire unseeing.
A voice, intent unspeaking- "Infinite annihilation-" and there was fire.
………
A brilliant wash of fire erupted through the quarantined sector, harsh and ethereally beautiful in the way it promised destruction. Annihilation. "Report: computational potential loss at .02 percent per unit temporal."
Fear-annoyance-anger flickered through APC as it quickly calculated the potential dangers before distributing the processing throughout the entirety of its being. "An emergency, then, of the highest order. Every non-essential L-network will be computing potential counterstrategies-" and by its word, the order was done. "The Defense Initiative Lobe will maintain executive command. By your leave."
"Acknowledgement: acknowledged." The central locus of thought shifted, moving from the Internal Interaction Lobe to the Defense Initiative Lobe, centering the flow of information through that area of its being, making everything the Defense Initiative Lobe did that much faster. Several quarantines sprung up around the afflicted area as entire L-groups began to slowly move, aligning themselves for another shot at the impossibly-not-dead conceptual creature and its fiery companion.
"L-protocol defense damage assessment warning: quarantine-prime transpositional and computational potential significantly reduced to mematic threat."
APC waited patiently for the Emotional Cognition Lobe to send a surge or frustration. "Damn! Secondary priority alert to all neurons- activate mematic, virus, and self-replication threat countermeasures." This was not what he needed during such a tense battle-
A second bloom of fire, so deadly, so beautiful. .4% damage to infrastructure. This had been going on too long. The L-networks were almost in position-
"Found you." All consuming.
Voice, ice.
Creation from nothing.
It was there, a swirl of impressions and sharp silver, bleeding tears of victory stained across its invisible visage. Feathers, scales, draconic master of creation. "Infinite visage!"
And the world exploded around them.