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[>>Now replaying: Log 3.16.18 - Reclaiming Your Personal Power.pdf]

Date: Error

Location: The Bunker at Progress’ Head // Zephyro’s Domain

//Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate.//

//Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.//

[>>DATA CORRUPTED]

E0 %-Silence-%

I pushed myself to my feet, fighting off my panic. I was so focused on the fight, I nearly missed it when the sky shifted. The endless void shimmered blue and red and black, inviolate by the bright light of the moon.

I backpedaled, dodging a lazy swipe from the scorpion’s crackling claw, but I couldn’t keep my eyes off of the sky. There was something wrong with it, with the way it shimmered and seemed to grow, someh—

The insane magnitude of what I saw wormed its way through my mind. Even when the dots connected, it took me a second to compute that I was not looking at the sky, but at formless, indecipherable terror.

Before, even with all its horrible mouths and eldritch, impossible angles, it still somewhat resembled a snake.

Now it was just a dark, writhing mass of gnashing teeth, crazed machinery, and toothy hunger.

[Do not question.]

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[>>Submit?]

Despite my better judgment, I slowed. And that was just what the scorpion needed to surprise me yet again. My attention whipped down as the glowing red pyramid atop its stinger hummed. A split second later, it unleashed a bright red beam of energy without any further warning. It sheared through the ground between us in the blink of an eye, leaving an angry red weld sizzling in the mosaic. Only a panicked lunge to the side saved my life.

As it was, the beam didn’t scorch my face, but it traveled over my ankle. Suddenly, I felt nothing but a serene warmth where my foot should have been. Then the red weld in the ground exploded, blasting me to the side. In a surreal, stomach-churning moment, I watched my foot (still spraying blood) sailing through the sky. It tumbled end over end, landing deep within the dark network of the backstreets.

The same moment I thought 'I just lost my foot,’ the pain hit me.

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My eyes fixed on the blood gushing from my stump leg, I screamed. It was a bestial sound that sounded utterly wrong, even to me.

“Sultana! Your blessing! Use it!” Zephyro yelled. His voice had a desperate quality that sent my own fear to stratospheres unknown. I had no idea where he had come from, where he was, or what was happening around me. My universe narrowed around the empty space where my foot had been. Lost in the deep haze of my pain, it took an agonizing infinity for Zephyro’s words to reach me.

When his meaning finally clicked, I pumped as much logic into my leg as I could, frantic like a drowning person reaching for a piece of driftwood.

{CONSUMED LOGIC - 200 LB}

{AVAILABLE LOGIC - 250 LB}

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{CPU Load: ▲ 85%}

{Core Temp: ▲ 84° C}

The pain vanished almost immediately; the panic merely subsided. The struggle for control over my own mind was hard and took far too long. Long enough for the scorpion to come into melee range. Long enough for it to raise its right pincer, crackling with insane energy. Long enough for it to initiate a piston-powered strike that would end me. I rolled, and the chainsaw-claw struck the hard dirt where I had lain. The screeching sawblades sprayed dirt and stones and drying blood everywhere.

The scorpion chittered in annoyance, and it sounded like collapsing highrises crashing into each other. It pulled back its other pincer, promising electrocution.

I got to my feet. Plural. My first two steps were cautious, but my foot felt as good as new. Without Pharus, however, I had no way of making it count.

“Sultana!”

One moment, Zephyro was far off, the next he was beside me. He thrust his blade at the scorpion in a series of strikes so fast, they blurred in my vision.

I had come to expect the Vizier to come and save my hide.

But I did not expect most of his attacks to uselessly bounce off the Scorpion's shell. The beast roared and retaliated with a gear-wrenching strike. Zephyro did not bat an eye, glitched a step to the side, and resumed his assault. The claw hit nothing but air, but even though it was unbalanced, Zephyro couldn’t make the opening count.

“laenat allah ealayk! Flee, Sultana! You must get away! To the fortress!”

The same moment he said that, the gargantuan mass that had been the snake shuddered, opened its many horrible mouths, and howled.

It sounded like the warbled, blasphemous recording of a muezzin played in reverse. Its nauseating sound haunted through the city. The horrible melody bounced off shattered walls, ruined garden rooftops, empty streets with cracked cobbles, and indomitable fortress gates. It permeated the endless void that had devoured the night sky.

Help support creative writers by finding and reading their stories on the original site.

For a second, there was nothing but silence. Then, from the darkness that engulfed the city, the answer came. It came in howls and hisses and screeches and doom.

The Salvation I had fought for came in the rattle of a typewriter and headaches.

[>>compiling… 99%]

[>>Done.]

[>>compiled remote_access_array_alpha_001.exe]

{NEW PROGRAM INSTALLED: remote_access_array_alpha_001.exe}

[//run remote_access_array_alpha_001.exe]

[>>Now running remote_access_array_alpha_001.exe]

{Memory: 50/40 LKB RAM ⚠}

[//exit remote_access_array_alpha_001.exe]

[>>terminated.]

{Memory: 100 LKB RAM: REQUIRES 300 LB}

{AVAILABLE LOGIC - 250 LB}

“FUCK!” I yelled, and got up as fast as I could. Seemed like I had to work for my own salvation.

“Zephyro, buy me time!” Faintly, I understood that the hooked of promises of my rage were a large part of what pushed me forward, but I had no time to worry about ifs and buts. I needed fifty more LB for that upgrade, and for that, I’d need to get Pharus back.

“No, you must— oof!” Zephyro began, but in that moment of distraction, the scorpion had slammed its electric claw into the Viziers side. Its strength sent him flying with enough force to send him crashing straight through the wall of a nearby house.

I couldn’t even open my mouth to yell a worried “Zephyro!” before a beam of pure moonlight shot from the hole, accompanied by an angry “Ayreh feek!”

The lance of magic singed a plate of the beasts’ armor, turning it into so much red-hot slab. Shuddering with pain, the monster roared like a street-illegal motorcycle, and rushed after the vizier immediately. The second it arrived at the the opening, it rammed its claw inside like a cat fishing for a mouse.

It was distracted…

… which left Pharus unguarded, laying lightless atop a heap of debris…

…behind three whiteboard-sized spiders, that eyed me hungrily.

I cursed. Where had they even come from? Didn’t we destroy all the spider-minds?

{Memory: 100 LKB RAM: REQUIRES 300 LB}

{AVAILABLE LOGIC - 250 LB}

“I got it!” I grunted at Chris, grimacing at both the headache and the thought of running straight past a bunch of monsters with wickedly sharp leg-blades. Unfortunately, there was no alternative. I needed the Logic, and for that, these fuckers needed to die. For that, I needed Pharus, which meant there was no way forward but through.

My anger told me it would give me the strength to reclaim my power.

I almost gave in.

It was the right tool for the job, after all.

But giving in would have meant giving away my mind, and I needed that more than I needed brute strength.

I actually growled as I dashed forward, shielding my face with my arms. Thankfully, with Arx’ upgrade my entire body was protected, including my forearms. It saved my life. The beasts launched themselves toward me, and despite dodging their initial assault with maneuvers that would have made Stax proud, their legs still stabbed me in their backswing. Finally, my exertions caught up with me, and Arx collapsed. Now every cut, every stab left a gash in my armor that wouldn’t reseal.

{CPU Load: ▲ 92%}

{Core Temp: ▲ 85° C}

{[Arx, A Saint’s Terrified Embrace] HAS BEEN DISABLED.}

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Breathing heavily and bleeding from several gashes, I manage to leave the spiders behind in my dash towards Pharus. I risked a glance sideways towards Zephyro, hoping he was doing better than I.

The scorpion roared as another beam hit it below the tail, searing through a pustule growing out of the holes on its back. With another screech of anger, the beast shook itself, and more pustules grew in the span of seconds. Then, with a repulsive, wet pop, several spiders popped out of the growths, like parasites out of a zit.

Now that I knew where the spiders had come from, and I wished I didn’t.

Luckily, a stray beam of moonlight caught the newly “born” spiders before they had time to get their bearing and swarm either of us. Their Logic however, poured back into the Scorpion immediately, to be recycled into bubbling pustules, growing slowly.

Pharus was close now. It gleamed in fire- and moonlight. I heard a shovel-on-asphalt-chirp, dodged and punched a spider aside as it landed where I had been but a second before. Then my weapon came into reach. Still moving, I bent down. The second I scooped up its handle, energy flowed through me, and the weapon ignited.

Using my momentum as a boost, I pulled on the hilt with all the strength I could muster, but its was head stuck in the debris. The chain pulled taut and spun my around as my wrist protested. For a second, I thought it wouldn’t be enough.

But then Pharus came free in a hail of splinters and dirt and teal flames.

{[Pharus, Fury of the Torchbearer] HAS BEEN ENABLED.}

I spun and wasted no time striking at the spider. After all, they had so nicely volunteered as tribute for my next upgrade.

But it wasn’t that easy. They dodged and danced between my attacks, coming closer with each strike that went wide. My eyes narrowed, lips curled into a snarl. When the first Feral came into range, it waited for me to overextend Pharus, tensed and jumped. I screamed in defiance, slapping it onto the ground with my gauntleted hand. The creature’s rusty metal edges cut through the leather and into my skin, but I did not hesitate, pinning it down and pulling Pharus back to me. I grabbed the censer like a rock and started bashing it into the beast, yelling formless sounds of anger with every strike. My world narrowed to a pinprick of dark viscera and bright blue flames.

When it broke, I inhaled the Logic like fresh mountain air, purified by the fire within me.

{INCOMING LOGIC - 30 LB}

{AVAILABLE LOGIC - 280 LB}

Only then did I snap out of my razor focus, and not a moment too soon. One of the remaining spiders had two bladed legs stuck in my armor, the other was in the process of thrusting a knife straight at my head.

> Focus, Sam!

I had no time to cuss myself out. I threw my head to the side and Pharus’ censer into its path. It was a clean hit that broke the arachnid’s attack. I dislodged the other with quick, savage strikes, then pulled away. By some unspoken agreement, the three of us took a second to stare at each other, as we recovered. Panting, I haphazardly wrapped Pharus’ chain around my arm, and when the last link clicked in place, the moment was over. When both spiders attacked me at once, I was ready. I thrust my arm in a wide sweep, and miraculously, it worked just as I had planned.

My punch staggered the left one, and I used the chain to deflect the blades of the other, allowing me to step back an give me enough reach for a proper attack. I didn’t waste it, immediately striking out while the dazed spider was unable to dodge. There was a sound of cracking metal plates and the familiar smell of machine oil, but it was still moving. One more strike, I judged by its sparking circuitry and jerky movement.

While the other Feral hesitated, I didn’t. I faked an overhead attack, causing the spider to jump back. But when Pharus hit the ground, I used the bouncing momentum to bring it back up and slammed it into the injured spider’s side. The Feral burst open, and when its sibling turned greedily towards the escaping logic, I dashed forward. I pulled Pharus close, attaching it as I ran. At the last second, I dove into a slide and crashed the mace into the arachnid’s abdomen.

It spasmed as it died, legs curling up. Logic leaked out of its wounds like quickly evaporating ichor.

With the fight won, I fell onto my behind, panting hard. That had been a close one. The anger had almost gotten me again, luring me into that single-minded fury. But I’d made it out.

{CPU Load: ▼ 72%}

{Core Temp: ▼ 88° C}

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More than the readouts, my entire body screamed at me to lie down and rest. But I wasn’t done yet.

Not until Zephyro and I had killed those damn monsters, and were safe behind the palace walls.

Well, it wasn’t just Zephyro and I anymore now, was it?

{INCOMING LOGIC - 70 LB}

{AVAILABLE LOGIC - 350 LB}