Chapter 203 – Floor 29: Part 1
Floor 29 – Heist of the Empyrean Cache
Ages ago, the world was inhabited by the Empyreans, beings of immense scientific knowledge and dominion over a large portion of the galaxy. Their vast empire touched upon a thousand stars and they were unopposed for millennia.
Unfortunately, only the gods are eternal, and the Empyrean civilization fell into civil war. Ravaged by famine, pestilence and violence, their once great Empire retracted until only a single planet remained: Earth, their original home and the birthplace of the first Empyreans.
Knowing their end had come, they consolidated all of their knowledge into a vault for humanity to find. Jealously guarded by Humans, the god of Interred Comprehension desires this knowledge to be removed from existence.
Goal: Enter the Empyrean Cache and destroy all traces of the long-absent race from existence. Whether your entry is covert or not is up to you to decide.
Reward: Advanced Word of Power: Eclipse (Haze/Hide)
Obscure all light within sight of the Speaker, blanketing everything in impenetrable darkness. The Speaker may move through this darkness unimpeded as if the sun itself was shining only upon them.
Mathew arrived in the heart of a sprawling cityscape. It was evening, the sun had just set and the air was warm. The sky was clear and the few clouds above were tinged orange and red at the edges with the last remnant of the day’s light.
An object towered above the city’s skyline, an awe-inspiring structure of advanced architecture and cutting-edge technology.
It was the Empyrean Cache, a impenetrable structure designed to safeguard the most precious and enigmatic alien knowledge ever discovered by humans. Half vault and half fortress, no one had ever breached its defences.
The Empyrean Cache rose like a monolithic crystal, its exterior a lattice of iridescent panels that shifted colours with the changing light from the city around it. It gave Mathew the impression of a living, breathing entity.
The building's sleek design was a combination of aesthetic brilliance and defensive prowess. Constructed of interlocking, triangle sections of glass and metal, it was lit from within in such a way that it looked like it was glowing.
Mathew studied the building carefully from the street where he had appeared. Despite his clothing being out of place in such a setting, he blended in enough with the shadows that he didn’t draw too much attention.
From what Mathew could see, the Empyrean Cache was surrounded by a multiple layers of defence. There was an outer layer of mundane fences, walls and guardhouses with only a single point of entry that was protected by lines of bright, red energy.
“Wow.” Mathew muttered, impressed that he had arrived in a world where lasers were actually used to protect a gate. It was something he had thought only existed in science fiction.
Beyond the walls and fences, a combination of humanoid and robotic sentinels patrolled the grounds. The humans were easier for Mathew to find, they lined the top of walls or worked in the gate houses. Some had pistols and handguns belted to their hips, with crisp black uniforms that bore a strange, red clenched fist symbol on the front.
But amongst the uniformed guards were other guards, and Mathew knew they were the more serious threat.
They wore black armoured suits, pushing their height to well above their unarmoured companions. They moved with a unmistakable grace, the bodies enhanced in some way that Mathew had only seen achieved with Aether, but was likely some form of technology.
These guards had long rifles in their hands, sleek, shiny and deadly. Their faces were obscured by helmets and Mathew suspected they were some form of exosuit, or body enhancing armour.
Then there were the robotic sentries that walked next to them or hovered in the air above the Empyrean Cache. There was nothing humanoid about these mechanical monsters.
Multilegged, the walked like spiders across the ground. Lacking a head, they instead had large, rectangular boxes with a multitude of sensors and cameras that were constantly swivelling and turning.
Mathew didn’t know what kind of weaponry they possessed, but they looked deadly with each carrying multiple long barreled gun type attachments, as well as large pods that he thought might contain missiles or grenades.
Impressed, Mathew tucked himself closer to the wall he used to conceal himself and began thinking of a plan.
The Words of Power were incredibly powerful but wouldn’t be enough to take on an army. He had learned that lesson on the previous Floors. The Demons had overwhelmed him with their numbers until his voice was mute, and he was exhausted.
Without the Words of Power, Mathew was as weak as a normal person. He lacked the Attributes and Blessings that could allow him to be take on the kind of military force protecting the Empyrean Cache and survive.
“Covert it is.” Mathew muttered.
Taking a deep, calming breath, he summoned the magic of the Words of Power to aid him.
“Hide.”
Mathew blended in with shadows, the darkness clung to his frame like a cloak and he felt his body lose some of its ‘solidness,’ as if he had become partially ethereal like the Celestial Spirits had been. Not satisfied with just this amount, he proceeded to use his next Word.
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“Haze.” A fog began to rise from the ground, a grey mist that began in the street and soon swept forward toward the guardhouse and the sentries protecting the Empyrean Cache. But there was another effect to haze, one that complemented the concealment.
The guards felt their thoughts become muddled. They were more willing to overlook certain oddities, to not dwell on unexplainable happenings.
They would question Mathew if he suddenly popped into existence and tried to waltz into the restricted areas of the Cache, but their were less aware of his presence than they normally would. Even better, the sensors on the robotic sentries, the cameras liberally placed around the Cache and all the other means of spotting intruders would be less efficient under the effects of ‘Haze.’
But Mathew wasn’t going to walk into the Cache, even protected by two Words of Power. He couldn’t risk a guard getting off a lucky shot and killing him. His body wouldn’t protect him from bullets like ‘Alter-Self’ had allowed him to.
Mathew was going to Shift his way inside.
Carefully walking forward while keeping his body out of sight, Mathew watched the guards' movements and the items' placement. When he was sure of his chance, he spoke.
“Shift”
Mathew disappeared from sight and a coffee cup fell onto the ground where he had just been standing. The white cup smashed onto the pavement and shattered, but Mathew was already gone.
He reappeared in the empty Guard House near the front gate. The guard was currently standing in the open doorway, speaking quietly with his companion, and Mathew was in the clear.
‘Shift’ allowed Mathew to take the place of an object or person within sight, regardless of size or mass. There were a lot of downsides to the Word of Power, namely the time it took to look for a suitable object or person and shift with them.
Useless in combat for the moment, it demonstrated its worth during this covert operation.
Mathew huddled down behind a chair and desk in the small Guard House while the mist curled around the ground outside. The guards were oblivious to his presence, but Mathew didn’t want to wait around to get caught.
The lights were bright in the small room, and he wasn’t sure how effective ‘Hide’ would be if they turned and caught a good look at him.
‘Can’t risk switching with a person; they’ll immediately know something is up. So what do I…perfect.’ Mathew thought as he peeked out the window and saw a perfect target on top of the wall above him.
In a moment, he was gone, and a small box marked ‘supplies’ fell to the floor of the Guard House.
On top of the wall and concealed in darkness once again, Mathew quickly searched the grounds and switched places again. After three uses of the Word ‘Shift,’ Mathew arrived at a locked door. A quick ‘Break’ on the lock had him inside the Empyrean Cache.
Page Break
Mathew stepped inside the Cache and was greeted by an expansive Atrium, a circular room with a high ceiling that was translucent. Natural light filtered down from above despite the fact that the sun had already set.
The air was filled with holographic projections and quirks of light of various colours that flitted through the room and formed numerous creatures that Mathew didn’t recognize and could only assume were native to the Empyrean worlds and were now long extinct.
The floors were made of a smooth, reflective material that subtly shifted colours in response to Mathew’s footsteps, making a mosaic beneath his feet that would stretch out for a few feet before fading.
Cautiously stepping into the Atrium, Mathew was relieved to see that it was currently empty. But that could change at any moment, and he began to hurriedly search for the Empyrean knowledge.
‘I don’t even know what I’m looking for! I doubt they left behind a bunch of books for millions of years.’ Mathew thought as he looked around. The walls were artfully done with frescos, and Mathew paused to study them briefly.
They depicted images of the Empyreans; at least, he thought that was who they were. Strangely, they reminded Mathew of the Celestials with their long limbs. But the Empyreans were more alien, with four legs and two arms.
In one fresco, a group of Empyreans gathered together, reaching toward the sun or a star. Their hands had three fingers, and they cupped them together in supplication to the distant object.
Shaking off his curiosity, Mathew ignored the other frescos and made his way to an elevator. Pressing the button, he waited for a moment for the lift to arrive. Inside, there were a number of different floors available, but thankfully they were marked.
Running his finger down the list, Mathew pressed the button marked ‘Archives’ at the bottom.
When he arrived at the bottom floor and left the elevator, he was greeted by a large room filled with people in white lab coats. The rooms were filled with equipment and machines, but there were other objects that caught Mathew’s attention.
Crystal cubes were being carefully handled by the scientists here, and more were in protective cases in the back of the room.
Unbidden, burning words appeared from Mathew’s wristband, and he quickly read the message.
Date Cubes Discovered!
These cubes contain all the accumulated knowledge of the Empyreans. Each Cube is a single copy of the whole, meaning as long as one survived the tribulations affecting the Empyrean Empire, their culture and knowledge would be passed on.
Goal Updated: Steal a Cube before destroying the Empyrean Cache.
Mathew closed the message and studied the cubes carefully. There were hundreds, if not thousands of them, but the message made it clear that only one was required to hold all the essential information.
The cubes were small, perhaps as large as a laptop computer from Mathew’s world. They were formed of crystal and glowed with a faint, inner light that would pulse softly in response to each other. Their surfaces were covered in glyphs, ruins and sigils.
They also appeared to be heavy, and Mathew saw several of the scientists struggle to lift them. Entering a room, Mathew carefully avoided the gaze of any of the white-coated men and women and arrived at an unmonitored Cube.
Picking it up and groaning slightly under the weight, Mathew shoved it into his inventory. He heard a faint ‘Ding’ as he did so.
‘That’s one goal down.’ Mathew thought to himself as he planned the next part. He didn’t want to hurt anyone but needed to destroy this place.
“Better scare them off.” Mathew whispered as he raised his hand and pointed at a cluster of cubes that were being stored near the back of the room.
“Combust!” Mathew shouted, his voice ripping through the silence of the room. An explosion rocked the entire building before anyone could react to the strange noise.
The effects of Combust exceeded Mathew’s expectations by a large margin. He had thought that he would simply coat the cubes and some of the room in fire, similar to Burn but with a larger area of effect.
Instead, every piece of glass in the room shattered outward from the shockwave and the burst of air. A searing heat erupted in the back of the room and vaporized the cubes, the objects and equipment near them, and half the wall and most of the ceiling.
Men and women ran screaming as the fire continued to burn, and they were pelted with glass shards and pieces of lab equipment. Thankfully, few of them were seriously injured as they were quite far away from the source of the explosion.
Shocked at the power of the Word, Mathew backed away before using it again.
The building shook, and Mathew heard a loud groan before the ceiling near the back of the room collapsed.
“Oh, shit!” Mathew cursed. Turning, he began to run as fast as his bad leg would carry him. Seeing that it still wasn’t fast enough, Mathew used shift on various objects in his path to give him an edge on the collapsing room.
He was just about to reach the elevator when he saw it was closed. Before he could look for an alternate route, he was covered in white light and spirited away.
Congratulations! You have completed the 29th Floor!