[Log 3.15]

[e://XV/The Devil/Lightbearer.alpha]

{CONSUMED LOGIC - 60 LB}

{AVAILABLE LOGIC - 5 LB}

{[Pharus, Wrath of the Torchbearer] v.01 - Electronic Warfare Suite - 3 LKB

IS NOW

[Pharus, Wrath of the Torchbearer] v.03 - Electronic Warfare Suite - 5 LKB}

{Memory: 15/20 LKB RAM}

The wolf barreled through the evaporating fragments of the shield like a truck through a snowstorm. I held the torch high, praying that my idea worked. Zephyro yelled something but I ignored him, focused on dodging the oncoming threat.

It was all black razorwire fur and digital lightning. Red eyes streamed impossibly arcane data. Hot, slavering breath pounded my ears, like a wind tunnel turbine powering up.

And then it was within reach. I yelled, putting my wrath into the swing to keep it out of my mind.

The torch blazed.

A ring of blue light erupted from its flames, washing over every surface around us as for the blink of an eye, a pillar of cyan radiance burst upward, out between the rooftops and into the dwindling night sky.

I rolled to the side, barely avoiding a slavering muzzle with far too many teeth. The feral’s breath was hot and stank of spent breakers and ozone. I had just enough time to process that before its paw caught me in a glancing hit. It cost me my balance, but not before my weapon connected with the wolf’s flank.

[PROCESSES BY USER your_doom ARE NOW HIGHLIGHTED]

I tumbled to the floor, rolling until I hit the side of the alley. The impact drove the air out of my lungs with a loud “oof.” I slid down the wall and slumped forward, hitting the dirt. The gravel dug into my cheek.

{CPU Load: 71%}

{Core Temp: 81° C}

{[Arx, Saint's Embrace] HAS BEEN DISABLED.}

The wolf came to a stop, turned, and snarled. It sounded like a malfunctioning hard drive, with added bass that gave it a disturbingly sinister note. I struggled to get to my feet when the shadow of the beast fell over me. It towered above me, its outline highlighted and features hidden by the bright sickle of the moon hanging behind it.

I raised my head to meet it in a challenge, lips drawn back into a defiant snarl, my torches’ teal glow flaring.

I blinked. The moon? I hadn’t seen the moon since the sky started to—

“باسم القمر سأعاقبك!”

With nothing but the whisper of a moonlit desert wind, the silver sickle came down, slicing straight through the wolf’s center. The radiant edge continued without slowing until it sank into the ground like one sinks into a soft bed. Only then did a heavy wave of air erupt from the impact point. It buffeted my face, whipped my coat around me, made it hard to breathe.

The wolf whined, but despite the white-hot wound running straight through it’s middle, it still struggled forward.

A fist-sized white star appeared beside it, hovered for a second as if curious about the beast’s labored movement. With a quiet whine, the star shot a needle-thin beam of light into the creature’s brain, just as another star appeared on the other side. After another brief wind-up period, it joined the first in lancing bright white energy into the twitching form still approaching me.

Another star emerged, and another, and another, each peppering the two halves of the grotesque animal. It opened its mouth as if to howl, but instead, its body collapsed to either side with the sound of wet flesh. The whine from the star swelled into a high-pitched wail, and the intensity of the light increased until it became too bright to look at. Both sound and light reached a crescendo…

…and then it was over. The silver glare disappeared as if turned off with a switch. Logic exploded into the air, hovering in the air like dandelion seeds and showering the alley in a calm, blue light.

Zephyro stepped through the cyan cloud, sheathing his sword. The Logic parted around him like mist, each step whirling around him and cloaking him in fluorescence.

I propped myself against the wall, still breathing hard. Zephyro offered me a hand up, but I shook my head. I paused and steadied my breathing. Only when I was certain I wouldn’t collapse immediately, I took a deeper breath, pulling in the Logic left behind by the wolf. It flowed like silk and hummed a deep, reassuring baritone.

{INCOMING LOGIC - 200 LB}

{AVAILABLE LOGIC - 202 LB}

{All hail Samantha, bringer of light.}

“Are you hurt, Sultana?” Zephyro asked. The teal energy streamed around him as it poured into me. It enveloped him, a mantle of blue radiance.

I shook my head. “Fine,” I said, still out of breath. “Just gotta wait for my CPU to cool down a little, then we can go.”

{CPU Load: 21%}

{Core Temp: 80° C}

{[Arx, Saint’s Embrace] IS NOW ACTIVE.}

I decided to sit for a second longer, resting my elbows on my knees and my forehead on my palms. My rage had ebbed again, leaving me more exhausted than before. It was still there, though, a fire sweltering in the hearth, ready whenever I needed it. I knew that would be soon. It was inevitable. I was the only one who—

I focused on my breathing. Need to stay cold. Can’t let it ride me again like before. Need to use it, not let it use me.

Focus, Sam. Stay with me. I know it hurts, but you can do it. Just breathe with me, slow on the exhale…

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

I wiped the corners of my eyes.

Fuck!

Fuck.

Fuck, Patti.

Why did you have to fucking go and fucking die?

Wiping my eyes again and barely keeping the shakes out of my breathing, I noticed Zephyro was getting nervous. He had wandered to the entrance of the alley and kept checking the empty street for threats, reminding me that the Ferals weren’t the only problems we had to face. I didn’t have time to sit in the dirt and fucking sniffle. I was the Torchbearer. The Torchbearer doesn’t sniffle.

“Anything new about the Shackled?” I said, voice carefully controlled.

“Humans came in and stopped their feasting, they seemed to be in charge. They commended the Ferals to destroy the cameras soon after.”

“So, they’re more organized now?”

“It appears so, Sultana.”

“Fuck.” I said.

“Indeed, Sultana.” Zephyro agreed.

With a grunt, I slapped my palms on my knees and got up. While I felt bone-tired still, I managed to get to my feet eventually. Definitely would be very sore tomorrow. Chris, Status?

{CPU Load: 20%}

{Core Temp: 76° C}

I sighed. That seemed about right, considering how exhausted I still felt. I would probably need this information to be more readily available, though.

Can I keep this in the corner of my eye somehow? Like a HUD?

Boop.

{PASSIVE SYSTEMS:

drivers_sensory_Sam_v_0.1 - 2 LKB}

A brief moment passed, but before I could say something snippy I would regret later, they added a ponderous “Beep?”.

I didn’t get what I expected, but something better. Instead of a bit of text appearing in the corner of my vision, my CPU Load and Temperature appeared as semi-translucent text on a wall next to me. I blinked, and it faded away. But as soon as I thought about how exhausted I felt, the information appeared on a part of the road I had been looking at, and vanished again at a mental acknowledgment.

Huh, I thought. That is actually pretty good UX.

Beep. It sounded very smug.

Can you do that with all readouts, instead of the whole sadistic typewriter thing?

Boop. It sounded very unapologetic.

Oh come on, Chris, is this because of—

[User CHRIs is currently busy: Code_dojo.exe]

I rubbed my temples against my rising headache. Chris would be the end of me someday.

“Let’s go,” I said to Zephyro. “No more alleys.”

Zephyro nodded and fell in beside me as we turned into the main road and walked towards the palace. I watched my CPU temperature in the reflection of windows and in the superheated air above crackling flames. I looked up and found it written across the dying stars. It kept dropping, closer now to 65°, where it seemed to plateau.

“We are using the main roads because it is faster?” Zephyro asked, and I nodded, speeding up.

“Yes, and there’s no need to stick to the alleys anymore, it will just lead us into more ambushes. The ferals have a way of finding us, I think. They can smell the logic or something.”

“Maybe it is because you announce your use of your Blessing so proudly?”

I thought back to the sound of a monumental Bell that rang throughout the entire city every time I used my Wish to advance myself.

“Maybe.”

“The Shackled and Humans have sensed it, too, Sultana. Their search grew more frantic after you improved your CPU the first time, and more hurried still after you blessed your Scepter. Still, even though they have felt your power, I doubt they know who it belongs to. They just know it resides in my Domain, somewhere. That will change if a Shackled sees you using it.”

“So I should try and not use my Wish when Shackled are around?”

“Yes, Sultana. Or, if I may humbly offer a drop of thought against your oasis of wisdom, be more circumspect in your use. Anyway, it should not be an issue. We will have reached the Palace long before we encounter any Shackled. They have begun fighting amongst each other. Their greed overcame what little sense lived inside their simple minds.”

“Good. And if we encounter one, I’ll mark it again.”

“Humbly, Sultana, you may want to choose another course of action. The Ferals are easily overcome, but a Shackled, after having feasted on your Blessing for decades… it might be a challenge for me. I will hold them back, of course, but should they strike you with even so much as a glancing blow, they will devour your essence like sand drinks rainwater.”

I absentmindedly scratched my hand where the spider had latched onto me. The spot still itched, and I felt like tucking my hand into my clothes to protect it, even though I was wearing combat gloves now. I forced myself to touch the padded sections of my vest and pants instead, checking for damage. Everything seemed fine. The rips and cuts I’d received from the wolf were already gone, probably repaired by memOS.

I considered that for a second. MemOS was an operating system Chris had built to run personality matrixes, and from what I recalled from earlier, it had spent a considerable amount of computing power to stitch my personality matrix back together again. That made me wonder…

Chris, if my personality matrix becomes corrupt, what happens then? Do I, like, die?

Boop…beep.

So I don’t die, but I might?

Beep.

But it had already become corrupt at least a little bit before. I had been at 15% restoration, or whatever. Is there a certain threshold of corruption that I need to avoid?

Beep.

Can you show me?

A nearby arch projected a large wall of text that spouted a seemingly endless jumble of letters, hashtags, and numbers. I knew enough to recognize hexadecimal information but beyond that…

In product language, if you would? I thought, a little annoyed. This wasn’t the time to be fucking around.

Bopppp… Bee-Ee-Ee-Eep… I could practically feel them roll their eyes at me.

The wall of text shifted, and now read

[DPM integrity]

▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰ 100%

I still wasn’t any closer to understanding how everything fit together, but it was a start.

Thank you.

Beep.

Zephyro and I walked through the arch, and I marveled at the detail that had gone into constructing it. Little paintings of the stars and the moon, of torches and battle, and even of quiet rural life were chiseled into white marble and lined with gold. It was so intricate, if it hadn’t been for the occasional glitch scrambling it into an incoherent mess, I would never have known the world around me wasn’t real.

Everything felt real. The desert heat, the flames, the wind in my face, carrying smells of burning wood and stone baking in the heat.

The distant din of fighting.

The pain had felt real too.

The thought made me pause. Why did I hurt in here? In the real world, pain existed to warn you of danger, to stop you from doing something. In here, that could easily be done via text, or just the suggestion of pain. It didn’t need to be debilitating.

Chris, can you turn down the pain a little? When I get hit next time, I mean?

Boop.

So you can’t?

Beep.

Ah, if only it had been that easy. Still, there had to be some sort of reason… I glanced at the torch. I still kept it unsheathed, ready for the next nightmarish creature that came looking for a fight. I frowned. There was something different about it—

{[Pharus, Wrath of the Torchbearer] v.03 - Electronic Warfare Suite - 5 LKB

A simple Electronic Warfare Suite designed to breach targeted computer systems. The strength of the attack determines CPU load, with more frequent or sophisticated attacks requiring more computing power.

Features:

.03 - Leaves a traceable signature inside the target user that allows other users to track programs run by the target user. This is true for all users connected to the current system.}

I twitched. That was a long paragraph to get mind-hammered with when you didn’t expect it. I was certain I hadn’t gotten that much information during the fight, but I was glad to have it now. Chris probably hadn’t wanted to distract me earlier. Or perhaps they had been too busy with the turrets.