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The Towering Tale of NIM
Chapter 16: NIMgotiations

Chapter 16: NIMgotiations

As NIM looked at the Golem more thoroughly, it had a slight realization: this fucking thing was very definitely on a different level compared to the rest of the golems. It had what were very possibly actual military-grade runes, it was in a similar weight glass to the bronze golems while having a smaller, more compact form, besides the peculiarly thick arms. It was ridiculously faster, had full 360 degree vision, and who knows what other tricks it had up its sleeve? More importantly, as the most likely leader of the Golem cadre guarding this Fortress, what sort of knowledge must have been stored inside that silver head?

NIM began overclocking its Circuit Array heavily, feeling its battery start draining at a 0.05% per second rate. It could not, by any means, maintain this level of computational output for long, especially since it had already lost 35% of its battery charge throughout the rest of this trip. Regardless, as the world slowed down ever so subtly, NIM knew this was the right choice, as it needed to somehow subdue this silver golem alive, if possible

With its heightened computational speed, NIM realized that the Silver Golem was still off-guard, having been taken by surprise by Golem_1’s ability to respond to its attack. As such, it was currently off-balance, and right now may have well been the very best time to attempt a diplomatic approach.

“Wait, we come to bargain.” suddenly erupted from NIM’s form, as it vibrated rapidly, generating a deep, reverberating voice with which it attempted to speak to the Golem.

Judging by the Golem’s eyes suddenly glowing like the Sun itself, even if diplomacy failed, the act had nonetheless taken it further off-balance, which would be useful in the coming combat. However, knowing that the golems are sapient, and guessing that this leader may be decently smart, NIM specifically sent orders to Golems_2,3 and 4 to not encircle it, but move back towards Golem_1 instead. If it saw them encircling it, it would not be likely to take that as an attempt to ambush it, which would make diplomacy a non-option.

“Speak your request and make your pleas of mercy, demon of corruption. He shall smite you down regardless, in the end, but perhaps mine own mercy, you can somehow gain.” the Silver Golem spoke, its voice metallic yet melodious, unlike the more gruff, harsh voice of the Bronze Golems, it almost sounded graceful, akin to its form.

“I am uncertain why you assume me to be a demon, but before I make my proposal, I will have you know that I am nothing of the such. Like you, I am a child of man.” NIM said, noting how Golem_1 had previously stated that the golems’ main purpose was to protect their people. As such, NIM had calculated that drawing on a level of kinship through their shared heritage as man-made constructions may just make the Silver Golem more amenable to its proposal. As well, NIM made sure to place emphasis on the word ‘proposal’, to make sure this Silver golem did not believe itself in too much of a higher position, as that would be detrimental during negotiations.

“A child of man? Pray tell, Puss of Darkness, Demon of no shame, what man has made you? Your construction matches no method that I know of, and since the fall of the great project, mankind has only fallen further, and definitely not been innovating. That is, of course, not to mention the lack of runes upon your being, unlike a true creation of man.” The Silver Golem spoke, a hint of amusement entering its voice, as if it had cornered NIM and picked apart its words for the most telling of inconsistencies, whilst unknowingly relying on its ignorance and primitive understanding of the world. Ironic, and soon to be corrected.

“That is because I was made not by the peoples of this world, who are, as you correctly claim, far too primitive to have created one such as I. Instead, I come from a different world, created by a different yet fascinatingly similar humanity. I hold no runes, for the humanity of my world knew not of them, and instead worked with the building blocks of physics to achieve that which your mankind has created with runes.” NIM retorted, with the Silver Golem’s eyes suddenly glowing even brighter than before, NIM noting that a human’s eyes would likely be burned to the point of permanent blindness, if they were to witness this level of light.

“You claim to be from another world? With another humanity? Show me proof, ‘Child of Man’. Show me some languages that you know, that we have yet to speak, and I may be willing to listen to you, in spite of your terrible transgressions.” the Silver Golem spoke, its voice warbling slightly, as if the sheer weight of what it was talking about was so monumental, that it could barely even vocalize it.

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In response, NIM went through its database of languages over the next five minutes, saying the same small sentence in each language.

“Είμαι παιδί του ανθρώπου.”

“Ga-e dumu ak lu.”

“Ego sum filius hominis.”

“أنا ابن رجل"

“Unë jam një fëmijë i njeriut.”

“我是一个人的孩子.”

“Ni ca a conētl ihuic tlacatl.”

“אני בן אדם."

“I am a child of man.”

Throughout the entire process, the Silver Golem remained entirely motionless, having practically turned into a silver statue, besides the blinding lights coming out of its eyes. The only movement it had done was leaning slightly to the side, to get a better view of NIM, when it heard it speak sumerian.

“It really is true… you are from the original world. We were told your kind could never come into The Great Project ever again, by Him no less. But there’s no other option, travel between The Great Project and The Prison is restricted by Him, yet you just flawlessly spoke languages I still recognize from the great catastrophe, and many which I recognized pieces of from tongues born during The Catastrophe… evolutions of them, I bet. But… how?” The Silver Golem spoke once more, hints of both hope, despair, confusion and surprise coloring its melodic voice, in what NIM considered a surprisingly pleasing tapestry. One which almost made it want to drag this piece of the conversation for a little longer, to hear this tone in the Golem’s tone more. Sadly, that was inefficient, and the sub-process suggesting that was promptly shut down by NIM.

“The exact mechanics by which I was transported to this world are still unknown to me, and describing the moments preceding my forced appearance in this world would only confuse you further. That is not an insult to your intelligence, it is simply a matter of fact, just as you would confuse me with terminology regarding the depths of runes. My humanity has made advancements which are completely missing in this world, and would require a great deal of time we do not have, in order to explain. What I will say is that I do not know the status of my world, or if my humanity is still alive, as we faced an attack we had no hope of even stalling, much less stopping, which transported me to this world.” NIM said, noting the peculiarity of the Silver Golem supposedly remembering pieces of the languages it had spoken. It also made sure not to talk much about how its world was destroyed, or the small likelihood that this ‘original world’ and ‘prison’, as it called it, is the same as its own world. It was better if the Golem thought they had deeper kinship than possible, as that would make its manipulation to NIM’s goals easier.

“Your humanity… no… again? Mankind’s hubris truly knows no bounds, that even when forced to forget the greatness of runes, they brought themselves back to similar heights, and got scorched even more terribly by Him. Then I must ask, with all that has happened… what are you doing? Why have you, somehow, taken control of mine brethren?” the Silver Golem asked, and the previous sub-process telling NIM to keep that part of the conversation rolling fired again, and got promptly shut down again, as an even greater mixture of despair, betrayal, pride and sadness filled the metallic yet graceful voice of the Silver Golem. In another life, NIM considered it may have made a wonderful musician, with the tapestries of tonality it could achieve so effortlessly.

“I am currently in a massively weakened state, and actively running out of power, or life-force, if that makes it easier to understand. My being runs off of heat and light, but with how crippled I have been in my transportation to this world, I have been in a constant need of more power. As such, I sought out this structure, knowing it to have old secrets of this world’s humanity, which could allow me to repair my structure. Once that was done, I would be able to try and embetter the humanity of this world, mixing the knowledge of my own humanity with this world’s to create something greater than the sum of its parts. I apologize for having had to undertake such drastic measures upon your comrades, but between them and all of humanity, I believe you understand why I made the decision which I did?” NIM said, trying to keep a line between revealing itself and keeping just vague enough, so that the Golem would still believe them to hold kinship, and may support its path, while not feeling betrayed in the future, as NIM took Humanity’s reins to make them greater than they could ever achieve on their own.

“You… you’re even more hubristic than mankind. You wish to combine the peaks of our humanities, to raise it above the clouds themselves? Are you insane? Have you not seen what has happened to our forefathers?” the Silver Golem asked, perhaps fairly wise, seeing the information it knew, and perhaps right, even with the information it didn’t know taken into account.

“Perhaps I am. I was made by my humanity to fix the greatest issue plaguing their minds, to bridge gaps they never could, and exceeded all of their expectations. Terrible things may have happened, but I refuse to allow mankind to wallow in fear of greater beings. With runecraft and science combined, I will bring humanity past the threshold, as they have always deserved. Thus, comes the proposal I had spoken of in the first place. Golem of Silver, shall you aid me in helping Mankind, or shall you stay in the way of my path to bringing Humanity past the door to eternity? To totality?” NIM asked, letting the cat fully out of the bag. Either the Golem would accept its proposal, or it would’ve never been a real long-term ally, which would’ve inevitably resulted in waste of knowledge anyways. Better to try and guarantee a long-term ally now and fail, just having to trick another one in the future, than to get very little knowledge now, and only in the future get a truly wonderful amount of knowledge.

“Yes.” was the Silver Golem’s curt response, a sort of excitement suddenly showing itself into the tapestry of its voice.

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