Ma’Z sat in the garage, rather thankful that everyone was in a meeting right now. If any of them came down to see him talking to his Erzalis, he wasn’t sure he knew how he was going to explain what was going on.
When he thought about it, he recalled that Heaven had issued commands to her Erzalis, who responded in kind, but more like he expected of a servant AI.
Whatever was speaking to him now, seemed far too animated, and made him feel somewhat mature for how much it cussed comparatively.
He had hoped it was a servant AI, like Heaven’s but he had no idea how to go digging through the code to figure that out and Heaven wasn’t around to help him figure it out.
Having no other recourse, he decided to address it directly and see if there was any way to figure out what this thing was and if it was going to be beneficial to him in any way.
“So, what the hell are you anyway?” Ma’Z asked.
“I’m your Frame, obviously,” it answered.
“Ok, fair enough, but you never talked until just now, and I know I never installed an AI, so where’d you come from?”
“I’ve been here the whole time. You just couldn’t hear me until now.”
“Have you actually been trying to talk to me?”
“Initially, when you first came online. I thought you had heard me screaming at you, and boy was I scared we were going to get knocked out the game. Thankfully you pulled through, but then I tried to speak to you again, and you just never responded, so I stopped trying after that.”
“Huh? Well, I bet that was frustrating.”
“Oh, you have no idea. Felt like years, just sitting there in silence.”
“I can imagine. So what changed? Why can I hear you now? Do you even know?”
“I do, but I don’t really want to go into a lengthy explanation. But the short version is, I just knew. Call it… a connection if you will.”
“Ok, then why the tirade? Why the name calling? Are you offended that I’m your Rider?”
“On the contrary. I’m very thankful that you’re my Rider. But I was cranky because I thought our connection would’ve allowed us to speak to each other from the beginning.”
“Sorry?”
“You should be! Like agh! All of those wasted moves against the Shade Queen. She was a small fry. With the kind of heat we’re packing, I could’ve helped you drop her in no time flat. I demand you take me back to that dungeon so I can show you how to do it properly.”
“Denied. All I was planning to do for the time being is go explore the city and put out some feelers for anyone who might want to join my team. Not trying to fight anything today. You’re not going to shock me if I start driving now, are you?”
“So, I’m just wheels today? Lame. And no, I don’t have that function, unfortunately.”
“Wow, my Frame’s a sadist.”
Grabbing the command rings, Ma’Z started up the Erzalis, and gingerly made his way out of the fraternity.
In less than a minute they were out of the compound and on the road towards the city center. Ma’Z had marked a few locations on his map and marked the order in which he intended to visit each one.
He followed the route he and Heaven had originally taken the day before, using the time to take in more of the sight of the city as it crested into view from his hilltop vantage.
The Tower of Beginning stood sentinel in the center of the Cam. The ruby quartz shaded building seemed to shine with an inner light, even during the day.
By contrast, the Tower of the First, and Tower of the Void were no less imposing, marking themselves as easy points of reference in the densely packed city below.
It was hard to get over the sight of it all. A domed city, essentially cut off from the rest of the world, and at over fifteen square kilometers across, it felt like a physical impossibility.
He remembered Heaven mentioning the towers being a key component to getting out of the Kev, though that was the furthest thing from his mind at the moment.
> A Destroyer is coming <
The words hit Ma’Z with a jolt. He frowned as he tried to figure out how he knew that.
Destroyers weren’t a common sight in the outside world, but they were well known. They were often given a wide berth, as there were only a handful of individuals that could directly confront them on any kind of decent footing. But why did he know that?
“You spacing out there, chief?” the Frame called out.
Ma’Z looked down at his mech, suddenly keenly aware that the Erzalis had probably always been watching out for how he felt or at the very least reading his body language.
“Yeah. Just remembered that the city is supposed to be a pile of cinders in a few months,” he said.
“That’s uh, typically not a good thing.”
“Right? Especially considering this is the only place where we can respawn when we die. Bet that would put quite a damper on things if that were destroyed.”
“I’m not exactly keen on being part of that myself, if I’m being honest.”
“Oh yeah? What’cha planning to do to keep that from happening sparkplug?”
“Ideally, I’d fight my fate.”
“Well, sparkplug, I might not feel like fighting anything today, but I guess I may join you in this whole fighting fate shtick.
“You keep calling me that, and I don’t know why?”
“Calling you what?”
“Sparkplug.”
“Huh? I guess I just named you.”
“I am… not sure how I feel about that, to be totally honest.”
“Going to cuss me out?”
“Is that a challenge?”
“No. No I guess not,” Ma’Z laughed.
“Well, to change the topic, how about that view?”
“Yeah. It is nice, isn’t it.”
Ma’Z had entered a short switchback, leading down into the valley below, just before the downtown city limits. The ambient city noise had noticeably ramped up with intermingling sounds of commercial ads and an overly large display where an anchorwoman was reporting on recent news events.
The traffic below seemed a bit sparser than he would’ve expected, but then it was still rather early in the morning, so maybe not that unexpected.
When he entered the city proper, Ma’Z could feel a sudden tonal shift along the city streets. Instead of the general bustle of people moving to and fro to wherever they were trying to get, they were instead huddled in small groups, all along the sidewalks, engaged in hushed conversations, and if he was a betting man, probably all a part of their affiliated cliques.
Eyes would look up to meet his own, but quickly drop back to whatever conversation they were having. The few erzalis frames on the road seemed to be moving with a bit of hurried purpose as well. Once by one, a Frame would move off to park on the side of the road, followed by its Rider jumping out to join up with a small group of friends, already aware of what was being spoken of before they joined in.
“So, is it me, or is everyone acting strangely?” Ma’Z said.
“Not your imagination. Talk about a destroyer keeps getting mentioned, but mostly they seem to be talking about an altercation with the Reapers.”
“Eh? What have they got to do with anything?”
“Nothing to do with the destroyer, but something about an altercation with one of the barons.”
“Oof. Glad I don’t have anything to do with that.”
“No, but Heaven sure does.”
Ma’Z came to a stop at a red light. He was less than two blocks from his first stop, but the mention of his fiancé sent his mind reeling.
“Why would Heaven be caught up in an altercation with a baron?” he asked.
“Seems she seriously sabotaged one of his contracts, and now there’s some bad blood between them and the baron.”
“Funny. About the only thing that really gets to her is messing with old people and children. This baron can’t be so bad that he’d try to pull a stunt like that, would h-”
Ma’z cut himself off, suddenly remembering a conversation he had with Heaven the other day about an altercation she had with a group of Riders who were trying to kill a bunch of cubs.
“Ah shit,” he said. “She killed a group of Riders who were sent to kill a bunch of cubs.”
“Definitely fit the description going around.”
“Go team,” Ma’Z smirked.
“What are you planning to do?”
“Go shopping, just like I intended to. But first, a pit stop. Wait here.”
Ma’Z pulled over and disembarked with ease, landing cleanly next to his Erzalis Frame. His mechanical partner remained silent as he made his way towards a library called The Think Tank.
The five-story building stood like an enormous college campus building. Straight ahead, lay the main building, with an outstretched wing spread out on either side.
The north wing of the building read Civilian suppository, while the south wing was a suppository for Sentinels.
Ma’Z went straight for the main lobby. Even knowing what he was looking for, he still had no idea how to find it.
Upon entering the building, a Helios Child was manning the reception desk. He had on an immaculately tailored butler’s uniform with an undershirt that matched his blue skin perfectly.
His skin had a bit of a metallic sheen and reflective blue eyes, and impeccably combed over black hair. Ma’Z was aware that the Helios and Mekaloid race were an entirely synthetic species, but was never sure if their individual look came down to taste, or if they were built that way.
This novel is published on a different platform. Support the original author by finding the official source.
He wasn’t going to ask, though.
The Helios Child had a welcoming smile, but the closer Ma’Z got to the man, the more he was able to tell that the suit was, in fact, armored from top to bottom.
“Oh wow, I guess even the staff is ready for smoke at a moment’s notice. What’s with the armored suit?” he asked.
The receptionist’s smile became a little awkward as he bobbed his head for a moment and said, “Well, that would be because of your kind, sir. When the synther’s arrived, a number of your kind weren’t the most cordial individuals, to put it mildly.”
“Yeah, that tracks.” Ma’Z nodded in understanding. “Hopefully I leave a better impression. I’m looking for some books on catastrophic events and living calamities. Could you possibly point me in the right direction, so that I might go have a look?”
“Well, you wouldn’t be the first to come looking for that kind of information. But yes, I believe I know exactly where you might want to go.”
Ma’Z looked down to see a stream of light beam away from him towards the Sentinel wing. He was about to follow it when he remembered what the receptionist just said and asked, “You said there was some others. Synther’s, I’m assuming. Are they still here?”
“Right you are, and no, they left some thirty-three minutes past. I don’t know what they found, but they didn’t seem much pleased with whatever it was.”
“Yeah, that also tracks. Well thank you, uhh…”
“Bellfram Darden.”
“Bellfram. Hmph. That’s actually a pretty cool name! Well nice to meet you Bellfram, and thank you again.”
“Oh, you’re way too kind, but thank you, and I must say, you have indeed left a much better impression than your kin.”
Ma’Z smiled amicably, nodded, and made his way towards the section of the library highlighted by the path of light.
A few minutes later, he found what he was looking for. A pile of books was gathered on a table across from where the light pointed, and Ma’Z quickly gathered that they were the books in question.
He approached somewhat cautiously, sure that whoever was here last left in a hurry but couldn’t be sure that they wouldn’t be back.
When he reached the pile, he immediately recognized what he was looking at. Reorienting the book in his direction, he looked down to see a depiction of a storm titan and a wall of text describing the creature in great detail.
Before he read it though, he took the other book, and turned it, to see it was a book that seemed to be referencing a passage to something that happened years before the Goddess’ declaration. It might’ve been lore related but he couldn’t know without actually reading it.
He opted to begin with the storm titan. Something about it stood out to him, and now that he was looking at it, he wasn’t even sure why he felt such a need to come find out either. His mind was a jumble of half remembered recollections and emotions, but of the things that stood out to him, this storm titan was burned into his mind like a beacon.
Storm Titan: After the Desolation, the creatures
of Sycen were left with one of two options. Evolve.
Or die.
Magic was in flux. Many of the more ætherially
affected creatures died within seconds of the
Shattering. The ones that could handle the sudden
influx of æther were changed irrevocably.
Storm Titans were one such creature.
Even when they were giants, the storm titan was
Already pushing 15.5 to 20 meters tall, the titans
grew to well over 35 meters.
But the physical changes didn’t stop there. Their
strength, speed, and agility grew to match. The storms
that were once at their command had become their
constant compan–
Ma’Z quickly lost interest and started skimming across the page. The point was made. The things were beyond gargantuan.
Scanning the page, Ma’Z didn’t see anything else of interest and was about to close the book, when he noticed a shimmer across the page. Not sure if his eyes were playing tricks on him, he slid the book back into its original position, and quickly noted it had been in the shade.
When he slid it back into the light, however, the shimmer returned, and without really thinking about it, he injected a bit of æther onto the page, and almost immediately his third eye activated, revealing a three-dimensional image of a storm titan with long flowing robes, an equally long beard, and a ponytail that ran down the length of its back.
A moment later, a voice began speaking, and Ma’Z almost missed what it was saying, surprised as he was, when he realized the voice that was speaking was his own!
We called him Aker.
First among his brothers to ascend to the realm of the titans, Aker was originally a scholar hailing from the Repthis Triumvirate of Hallowed Kings. After the Desolation, he was separated from his friends, family, and fellow scholars, and his heart only knew despair and sadness ever since.
Displaced and afraid, Aker looked to the Goddess and begged to be spared the fate of his brothers and in a way… he was.
He was bombarded by untold amounts of æther, and before he knew it, he had grown nearly double in height.
He found his once philosophical and thoughtful mind had nearly given way to unfettered rage.
Nearly.
His mind was still his own, but the wrath that dwelled within him like an unwelcome guest begged him to set things right.
With his brothers gone, the Goddess had left the sky, but her words remained, which left Aker to conclude emphatically that her favored Tears and their ceaseless and nonsensical wars were to blame.
Now armed with a heart full of sorrow and hatred, Aker began to trek across the Shattered Lands in search of the Goddess’ creation with the singular goal of wiping us from the map.
The Aegis program had been assembled in a hurry to deal with the Shattering, and all of the mobile cities were all given the same instructions; if you see a Destroyer, you run.
And if you can’t run, you fight.
Aker hadn’t began that way, but after he had nearly destroyed the ninth Caomhnóir, it didn’t take long for the Diviners to label him a living Destroyer.
For Aker, running isn’t an option.
If you see him, you fight him.
You do not talk to him, for he cannot be reasoned with.
You do not try to deter him, for he will only take it as an insult and come at you that much harder.
Aker has long since lost his mind to rage, and if you don’t fight to kill him, you will inevitably be his next victim.
I’m sorry for relaying such terrible news, but I hope that you can forgive us. We tried to fix his mind.
We tried to make him better.
Instead, we took away the only thing that was holding back the hatred, and now that hatred won’t stop until he’s killed us all.
The only solace I can really give you is that he is slow. Until he engages, he conserves as much energy as he can, but it’s this conservation that makes him so dangerous.
Aker. I am sorry. I wanted to save you, and it’s with a heavy heart that now we have to kill you.
The image faded away, and Ma’Z had to blink several times, gritting his teeth as he tried to pry his white-knuckled grip from the table.
That’s bullshit. There’s no way that was me. This is just a fucking game for crying out loud. he thought.
Looking at the other book, it was detailing the Desolation and the lead-up to the Shattering. He opted not to read it. Instead he got up from his seat, closed the books and returned them to the shelf.
Leaving the library, he was absently aware of the irony that Bellfram had just told him that the last person who left had done so looking none too pleased, and now he was too.
Ma’Z wondered if that person had seen what he did, or if it was something else.
As he left the building and made his way back to his Frame, Ma’Z was still lost in thought, replaying the words he had just heard when he heard Sparkplug yell, “Lookout!”
Ma’Z hadn’t even had time to register the words, but instinctively shifted slightly sideways before he found a sword sticking out of his shoulder.
“You have got to be–”
“Blame your dol’Gurr bautra. She RD’d our brother, and now we’re getting even,” a male voice said.
The sword was wrenched from his shoulder, and not wasting the opportunity, Ma’Z dove forward, rolling around to face his attacker, who had leapt towards him, sword held high, aiming right for his face.
At the last second, he remembered his ability, burst momentum, and shot himself closer to his Erzalis Frame.
The attacker landed a mere second later, where Ma’Z quickly cast footloose, causing him to fall.
Stumbling backwards, Ma’Z kept making his way towards Sparkplug, who yelled, “Ma’Z, get down!”
Ma’Z did as he was told, throwing another footloose behind him.
Another attacker fell out of his cloaking, sliding forward into his companion as Ma’Z slid towards his Frame.
He still had another thirty meters before he could escape, but the two had spells of their own and began firing bolts of fire in his direction.
The sky was overcast, and he was in an open courtyard in front of the library. The only shadows in sight came from scattered trees, and a few benches along the path leading to the main building.
Ducking to the side, Ma’Z started calling his Dark Servant, the seconds feeling like an eternity. He didn’t have any weapons in his StoCar, and he gave Heaven all of his shade cores.
The two assassins were firing at him with impunity, and the only thing saving him were the constant applications of Protection and Evasive Tank.
After two and half agonizing seconds, his Dark Servant came into view, and immediately took up a shielding position, eating all of the magic projectiles and redirecting them into the shadows of the two attackers. Each shot ate away at his æther, but his Æther Conservation was doing a great job at mitigating the loss.
With his servant in place, Obscured Presence procc’d adding to his ability to avoid damage, and with twenty meters left to get to his Frame, Ma’Z desperately wished he had a gun to deal with his attackers.
Ten meters. He was so close. He just had to keep moving.
Ma’Z chanced a look behind him, and the moment he did, he locked eyes with one of his attackers, and quickly realized that was a mistake.
In the moment he was just a few feet from reaching his Frame, he found himself instantly moved right back in front of his attackers, where a vicious kick to the ribs sent him flying further away, and across the field.
They made their way towards him in a flash, but his servant was there just as fast. The servant smothered Ma’Z’s gasping body, and with a shadow step, found himself under a distant tree, retching as he finally got air back into his lungs.
The two searched for a brief second before they noticed him and started making their way over, firing at him, once again.
His servant continued to get in their way, and one of the assassins conjured a bright light in an attempt to disperse the magic shadow.
The light managed to make his servant dim slightly, which did little to stop it from redirecting their attacks back at their own shadows once again.
Ma’Z felt somewhat relieved that they didn’t have real guns either, which didn’t stop them from firing that fiery red bullshit at him, but if he didn’t think of something soon, he was literally toast.
Gun!
He heard the words, but he couldn’t make sense of it.
Idiot. You have a gun. Use it!
Ma’Z looked at Sparkplug, bewildered. Was his Frame speaking to him telepathically? That didn’t matter. Yeah, he had a gun, but there was no way he could lift that thing.
You’re an I’Lu, you dumbass. All of you have the same ability, and you’re Void aspected on top of that. Now use your goddess given right!
“Telekinesis!” he said.
Getting to his feet, Ma’Z started to run away from his attackers, just as a blade of wind ripped right through the tree he was hiding under. Several more followed right behind it, forcing Ma’Z to use burst momentum several more times to avoid losing something important. At the same time, he called his servant to jump him once more towards a tree out of their line of sight.
The two assassins fanned out in a search pattern, blades ready in case of an ambush.
Ma’Z used his servant as a lure in an effort to draw them as close as they dared. As fortune would have it, they stepped within the range of his spell, where he threw another footloose, causing them to stumble, but they seemed better prepared this time, crouching into a controlled slide, spotting him in the process.
Distraction set, he jumped across the campus, once again, forcing his would be assassins to switch course, and finally with some distance between them he shouted, “Sparkplug! GIVE ME MY MOTHERFUCKING GUN!”
Storm Shatter appeared in the air immediately, and the assassins stared in disbelief when, instead of falling uselessly to the ground, it quickly floated to just above a waiting Ma’Z, who had crawled out of cover and taken a firing stance.
For the first time, the two assassins looked afraid for their lives, and with a shout of defiance Ma’Z called out, “Now I have no clue why you’re trying to kill me, but since you were stupid enough to insult my fiancé, and dumb enough to piss me the fuck off, don’t you even think of begging for forgiveness now, because my name is not mercy, and all of my fucks have been spent!”
Ma’Z pulled an imaginary trigger, and the courtyard became a soundscape of giant bullets meeting stone and dirt.
Ma’Z made damned sure to enchant his gun with Ion Trails, and with each bullet that fell, came the sharp thunderclap of a Violent Discharge.
Once Ma’Z emptied the clip, he jumped back to a nearby tree, telekinetically reloading the clip, and fired again.
He saw small bits of bone and flesh here and there, and absently wondered if all the blood had been burning up the lightning. Not that he really cared since their only job now was to die.
He soon emptied the second clip and waited impatiently for the dust to settle. He couldn’t believe his luck when he found the upper torso of one of the assassins still alive.
A grin spread across Ma’Z’s face, then.
The assassin was hyperventilating, knowing he wasn’t going to make it.
With a flick of the wrist, Ma’Z dismissed Storm Shatter, then said, “Now, give me Durandal.”
Durandal appeared over his head, and the assassin understood immediately what was about to happen.
“Yeah, don’t worry buddy. I’m not about to ask any stupid questions and I’m sure there’s ways to figure that out, anyway. Now say ahh.”
Ma’Z dropped his hand, and with it, Durandal plummeted into the assassin’s screaming mouth.
Dismissing the sword, Ma’Z made to go throw what was left of the carcass into Sparkplug when he heard Bellfram scream, “Oh. Oh Goddess. Do you have any idea what you’ve done?”
Without skipping a beat, Ma’Z held the dead assassin up, shaking it and said, “I know about the taboo, but this little piece of shit started it. I’m not going to apologize for defending myself.”
“You call destroying my beautifully cultivated courtyard defending yourself?”
Dejectedly Ma’Z said, “Well shit. There went all my good will with this guy.”
Turning his attention to Sparkplug, he stumbled towards the Erzalis wheezing and said, “Ok buddy, change of plans. I need... potions. Don’t suppose you can- Ok, I think I’m kind of fucked up.”