[Jīshí] - "......."

[Alpha] - "......."

[Jīshí] - "HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"

[Alpha] - "HAHAHAHAHA-GAK!"

Once more, Alpha was flattened into the ground, though the Elemental didn't use as much force as before.

[Jīshí] - "Hahahah, you are quite amusing, little Puppet. But you'll find that not everyone appreciates your sense of humor as much as I. You may be powerful when compared to the rabble. But if you are not careful with your words around the true Powerhouses of the world, you may soon find yourself in deeper caves than you can dig yourself out of."

Alpha struggled to his feet, his internal sensors registering a few more micro-cracks in his frame.

[Alpha] - "Bah! I've met your type before, Lady. They think they're Top Dog till they take a Federation brand Planet-Cracker® or two to the face."

Jīshí's laughter slowly died and she gave the AI a stern look;

[Jīshí] - "Quite Curious. Yet more words that I am unable to understand. None the less, I speak in your best interest, Child. I know not what methods your maker used to pry such power from Mortal metals, or how you hold a Soul, yet have not an ounce of Spirituality.

But as you are now, even a Lesser Earth Elemental could toy with you as a child toys with ants. Even a Mortal Cultivator of sufficient strength and affinity for the Earth would find you only slightly difficult to deal with.

Alpha chucked and shot back;

[Alpha] - "You're not the only one finding this conversation hard to follow. Can you stop with all the Spiritual mumbo-jumbo and tell me what the hell is going on around here?"

In the next instance, an enormous mental pressure exploded from the woman. Alpha could feel his mind being crushed into an infinitesimal point throughout what seemed like an eternity. Ironically, it reminded him of the Black Hole. That single moment stretched out into infinity. And then, just as quickly as it started, the pressure vanished.

When Alpha could think again, a string of notifications from his Sub-AIs bombarded him.

[WARNING! HIGH LEVELS OF UNKNOWN RADIATION DETECTED.]

[BEGINNING ENERGY PURGE, STANDBY.....]

[ENERGY PURGE INEFFECTIVE. ACTIVATING CLASS-X ENERGY SHUTDOWN.]

[CORE AI AUTHORIZATION REQUESTED. ATTEMPTING TO RECONNECT.]

[STANDBY......]

[CONNECTION FAILED]

[STANDBY......]

[CONNECTION FAILED]

[STANDBY......]

[CONNECTION FAILED]

[WARNING! CORE AI UNRESPONSIVENESS. ACTIVATING EMERGENCY ESCAPE PROTOCOL IN ACCORDANCE WITH FEDERATION FIELD GUILD CODE A-323-1.2 OMEGA.]

Mind still reeling from... whatever that had been, Alpha formed a basic optical sensor from his nanobots and took in his current situation. Several dozen meters away from his current position, lay the bare Skeleton of his TAWP, the strange figure of Jīshí circling with curiosity and poking it.

It seemed that whatever had happened, had shut down his greater mental processes. In response, his Sub-AI and Nanobots had enacted an escape protocol, ejecting his main AI Core from the TAWP frame and attempting to escape with it. Once he left the range of whatever was affecting his consciousness, he had regained awareness, leaving his AI Core suspended in the Semi-liquid mass of Nanobots.

Having woken from that strange "half-dream" state, only to find Jīshí poking at his body like a child who found a two-headed snail, Alpha was more than a little ticked. He quickly constructed a simple voice synthesizer and shouted;

[Alpha] - "Where do you get off playing with a man's body like that, Lady! At least buy him dinner first!"

Jīshí stood straight as if caught doing something shameful, and turned wide-eyed towards the flowing mass of Nanobots, as it covered the distances and quickly swarmed back over the TAWP's frame. Alpha's AI core was reinserted with a click, and the War Machine's systems came back online as the nanobots once more rebuilt its Hardware.

Jīshí could only stare in wide-eyed fascination before speaking.

[Jīshí] - "Fascinating. A Mortal facsimile of a {Earthly Transcendent: Divine Awakening}. At the very least, that explains your power. Oh, how I would very much like to meet your creator. I feel as if I could spend eons picking their brain. I must say, I am quite pleased that you are alive, little Alpha. I was worried for a moment that I had misjudged your... frailty."

Alpha pointed one of his legs at the woman and yelled,

[Alpha] - "Frailty, my Ace! What the hell was that? What did you do to me?!"

Jīshí smirked and looked down her nose at the flustered AI.

[Jīshí] - "I merely allowed you to see the totality of what I am. You, child, without any Spirituality to shield yourself with, had to bear the Fullness of the Lord of Stone. Like a foolish man staring into the heart of the Sun with his bare eyes, it was too much for you to handle. I do hope you let this be a lesson, and next time not be quite so quick in dismissing things you do not fully understand."

[Alpha] - "... Fine, let's say I humor you and say I'm not so skeptical of this spiritual mumbo-jumbo. What does it matter to you, Lady? If you're so big and important, what do you have against little ol'Me?"

Jīshí grinned, placed her hands behind her back, and bent over to stare into Alpha's optical sensor.

[Jīshí] - "Now you're asking the right questions. What DO I find so interesting about you? Other than your... quaint charm? For one, you are unlike anything else I have seen in this world. And I have existed here for longer than you can conceive. What are you? Where did you come from? And for what purpose are you here now? When you have lived as long as I have, finding something new, is often its own reward."

Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

[Alpha] - "I don't know, Aunty, I can imagine a pretty long time."

When Alpha finally rebooted a few minutes later and finished some minor repairs, Jīshí continued.

[Jīshí] - "As I was saying. I have quite a few questions for you, little Puppet."

Alpha, a little more agreeable all of the sudden for no particular reason, spoke up. It totally had nothing to do with the scary old lady in front of him though, not at all.

[Alpha] - "We'll I'm not surprised. I'm Grade-SS (third S sold separately) Federation Manufacturing. Forged in the Orion's Cradle Munitions and Shipyard, I'm 32 tons of Soliarium-Titanium Alloy and Class-V Nanoparticles. You ain't going to find all this beautiful War-Machine anywhere else on this backwater planet.

[Jīshí] - "Do you still feel the need to toy with me, little Alpha? I have no knowledge of this 'Federation', or any land call 'Orion's Cradle'. And my reach extends far beyond this Continent. I am the manifestation of Stone and Soil. There is no place in this World that my hand does not touch."

Alpha simply chuckled and said with a grin in his voice;

[Alpha] - "Who said anything about this World?"

Jīshí raised an eyebrow and squinted down at the AI.

[Jīshí] - "... Are you claiming to have come from beyond this world?"

[Alpha] - "ALPHA-555-12-4412 is a lot of things, a Prankster, a lady's man, a great singer, a Murderer, a War Hero, Wanted in at least three star systems for the improper use of a Duck (don't ask). But a Liar, he is not."

Jīshí stared down at him with a blank face, then burst into laughter.

[Jīshí] - "Hahahahahaha! come now, you don't expect me to truly believe that, do you? Even for one such are yourself, that is a stretch... Wait, you're serious, aren't you? You honestly don't know?"

[Alpha] - "What part of 'not from this planet' don't you get, Lady?"

Jīshí looked at Alpha in both shock and bewilderment, before simply waving her hand outward. Alpha's sensors blared out a warning, and the tensed up for what he thought was another attack. Instead, the thick clouds handing over them were pushed back for several kilometers to reveal the vast blue sky, and a gargantuan Main Sequence, White Star. At first, Alpha didn't know what he was supposed to be seeing. But the more he looked, the more something felt... off.

His metaphorical heart racing, Alpha suddenly shifted a large number of his Nanobots into a large array of Dishes, Telescopes, and Communication devices, pointing them towards the Sky. After several long moments of running through the numbers, again and again, Alpha shifted back and visibly sank.

[Alpha] - "W-what the hell IS that?!"

[Jīshí] - "That, is the Firmament. Our Protector... and our Prison."

Alpha stared up in amazement and confusion. How could something like that even exist?! There, several thousand Kilometers above the surface floated a nearly crystal clear layer of... something, several kilometers thick. Nothing he threw at it, Translight, Radio, Microwave, etc, seemed able to penetrate more than a few meters into the barrier, let alone its full thickness. The only thing that seemed able to pass through it was the light of the massive star hanging in the sky.

[Jīshí] - "Now do you understand why I find your claim so preposterous? Do you honestly expect me to believe that you, with no Spirituality at all, managed to do something that even a True Celestial struggles to do? Even my own imagination has its limits, little Puppet."

Alpha shook off his shock and stood up, bringing the TAWP to its full height as he spoke.

[Alpha] - "Hey, I might not be the smartest AI. I might not even know how I got here. But I DO know what I know, Lady. And I ain't going to let some literal glass ceiling in the sky tell me any different."

Jīshí raised a brow, folded her arms, and gave Alpha a doubting look.

[Jīshí] - "Then I'm quite sure you have no qualms with me taking a look for myself? Now, do you?"

[Alpha] - "What? How? you going to read my mind or something?"

Jīshí tsk, looked down her nose.

[Jīshí] - "Please, Memories are easily forgotten, and even easier to be faked. No, what I am going to look at your 'History'. The True History engraved into your very soul."

[Alpha] - "Hey, whatever floats your boat, Lady. Some would argue that AIs don't have souls, but whatever. Knock yourself out."

Without another word, Jīshí raised her hand and pointed it at Alpha. There was a golden flash, and the World went white.

----------------------------------------

A few Hundred Kilometers behind in the direction Alpha had come.

Wu Song knelt beside the body of the Rochopper. The churned earth and burned bodies spoke of a recent fight, but Wu Song couldn't tell if it was the same stranger they had been following, or not. Rochoppers were one of the most common, and dangerous predators in the Grassy Sea, yes, but they weren't a threat to those who came prepared. And yet evidence pointed to whoever they had fought, having been caught off guard.

Could the mysterious strange have been distracted by something? Or were they not the only ones on the trail of the Fallen Star? Then there was the massive explosion and pillar of white fire that had appeared not too long ago. Wu Song had never seen anything like that. Just what was happening out here? Something didn't add up.

Standing once more, Wu Song returned to the large, carpet shaped Flying Artifact that carried the rest of the group. The Artifact wasn't high quality, couldn't fly high or very fast either. But considering the number of dangerous Demon Beasts that lurked below the Grassy Sea, it was by far the best way to transport large groups. There was a reason the Grassy Sea was also called the Windswept Graveyard.

Still, they had to press on.

[Wu Song] - "We're moving out. Prepa...."

Suddenly, there was a massive wave of spiritual energy from farther ahead, and a circle opened up in the Clouds in the distance.

Wu Song stared in open-mouthed wonder at the scene, his body breaking out into a cold sweat. Such a phenomenon was only possible by one who'd reached {Firmament Breaker: Sky Piercer}. Was some great Hegemon attempting to Ascend?!

Despite the group's expectations, however, a long moment passed with nothing more happening. After a while, the clouds returned and all was still. The group instantly broke into discussion and murmurs about what they had seen.

Wu Song, for his part, stared off into the distance, the direction both where they were heading, and where the phenomenon had occurred.

As he stood there, trying to stop his arms from shaking, he wondered if they might be stepping their foot into something far beyond them.

----------------------------------------

[Jīshí] - "YOU'RE A PSYCHOPATH!!!"

[Alpha] - "I'M AN ARTIST!!"

[Jīshí] - "YOU MADE A STAR EXPLODE!!

[Alpha] - "THAT WAS AN ACCIDENT!!"

Jīshí felt to her knees in shock, her hands on her head, tears in her eyes

[Jīshí] - "That poor Cosmic Beast, such a majestic and powerful creature, defiled even in death..."

[Alpha] - "Its body was starting to stink!! How else was I going to get rid of a corpse the size of a battleship?!"

[Jīshí] - "THERE'S NO AIR IN SPACE!"

[Alpha] - "I DON'T HAVE TO EXPLAIN MY REASONING TO YOU! (only a board of duly elected officials).

Jīshí sat down and hugged her knees, slowly rocking back and forth and she stared into space and murmured to herself.

[Jīshí] - "H-he's insane. I can't let him just wander around. Who the hell knows what he'll do next. Probably try throwing the Gold Mountain Emperor into a Volcano or something. I-I have to kill him... yes, stop the chaos before it starts... No, no, I can't. I-if I let him die, they'll Glass the Planet when they find out... What am I going to do? What am I going to do?!"

Alpha, unsure of how he felt about what he was hearing, spoke up,

[Alpha] - "H-hey now, I don't think I'm THAT bad, come on..."

[Jīshí] - "YOU BE SILENT, YOU CONCENTRATED BALL OF CHAOS AND DESTRUCTION!"

Jīshí's neck turned almost 180 degrees as she glared at the AI and screamed hysterically.

Alpha shrunk and backed away. The rock lady obviously had some things that she needed to work out. Best leave her alone.

After a few moments, Jīshí stood and took a deep breath. Then turning back to Alpha (who totally wasn't trying to quietly sneak away), she spoke in a much more composed manner.

[Jīshí] - "Well, Mr. Alpha. It seems you and I have quite a bit more to discuss than I previously thought...."

[Alpha] - ".... frack."