V10: Chapter 7

  …

  Maybe it was the blood loss, or maybe it was the years of keeping calm and controlled while pretending to be a legendary lord, but I managed to keep my cool.

  “Stand down. The Iterants and Ayah are my subjects. Their lives are mine.” My mind ran a mile a minute. Begging was out of the question. Being spineless would be stupid. My instincts and experience colluded and told me to be firm and serious. So, I did. “I will not tolerate you using your power without my direction. Cease. Now!”

  I bet everything on my barked-out command being followed.

  If it were not, then I wouldn’t have to worry about commanding anyone any longer.

  Thankfully, after a flash of surprise passed across her bone-white features, a too-wide smile crossed the Divine Engine’s lips.

  “By your will, my dear master. It shall be done.” The magic ceased, and the Iterants and Ayah were freed, but I didn’t look at them. Nor did I place a hand on the warmth spreading across my neck. I glared at the Goddess of Death and willed my legs to not shake. Adrenaline was coursing through me, so I made sure to get mad, grit my teeth, and get pissed off. The situation was conducive to it, so I managed. “My directives, my dear master?”

  “Your first directive is to explain yourself. If I find your explanation wanting, I’ll bury you beneath a mountain of rubble and see you starved.” I followed my gut. It told me that I was staring down the most dangerous creature that I’d ever met, and it had me completely in its grasp. The little fact that she should be completely loyal to me was in the back of my head, but I wasn’t about to bet on it. It was time to use threats and intimidation while remaining reasonable. It was time to toe the line between idiocy and courage. “And, kneel. You are in my presence, and I have not permitted you to stand.”

  The wide smile seemed to widen even more, while the Death Goddess curtsied in her ebony-black lacy dress and took to one knee.

  “I see. My tongue has not failed me. Your blood runs hot with passion and fury beneath that calm mask of yours. Wonderful.” Her lips were still scarlet as she ran her tongue over them. A sigh of contentment left her. I felt Ayah and the others near my back, but I held a hand up back at them to stop them from approaching. “Hm. Would it suffice to say that I wished to impress my new, powerful master? The one who holds reign over my entire existence? I saw foes from my previous life and struck against them, thinking that my beloved ruler was in danger.”

  “No. It does not. You only delay your return to your coffin. I will not tolerate a being with power such as yours running wild.”

  “How wise, but sometimes wisdom interferes with potential. You must have foes, my dear master. Point me at them, and I will show you that wisdom can be a constraint.”

  Thank goodness she made a mistake.

  “With your strength, you will only be a liability.” That made her head snap up, and a snarl replaced her smile. Her eyes narrowed, and the whites turned red. Her teeth lengthened and sharpened, and her features became a bit more bestial. Perfected vampire chassis and the non-empty OS worked together almost too well. “Ayah, how many champions and powerful mages do the merchants have? They’re our weakest foe, correct?”

  Ayah was ready with the numbers.

  “Eighteen Champions. All operate in teams of four. Each one supported three times their number by powerful mages.” Ayah rattled off the numbers while I looked down at the snarling Divine Engine. It took a lot of willpower to keep standing. Anger was a potent fuel, but I could feel it ebbing slowly away. At least the blood clotted finally. Now, I just had an annoying film of it sticking to my neck and staining my suit. “From what I can detect, she will be able to kill half of them if they are unsupported by any army.”

  “And, they are always supported by an army.” I finished for Ayah and looked back at the Divine Engine. “You were most likely activated at the tail end of whatever conflict destroyed the Ancients. You most likely held the line while they leveled their final curses on the enemy and held the continent. There, you were powerful. At all your deployments, your victory was assured. Not here. Not now. Now, you need to prove yourself worthy of being trusted with more power… and you are failing.”

  I didn’t know if I was bluffing or not.

  By all means, I may be completely wrong and talking out of my ass, but that was the only reason why I thought that this Divine Engine was operating with an old OS and not blank.

  Other than the world just being out to fuck me over, of course.

  Whichever was the case, I had to make things clear to her so that I could make use of her power.

  I held up my hand and showed her the back of my fist.

  Her markings were on it, but so were the markings of the nature goddess.

  “You are not irreplaceable. You are a luxury that cost me dearly, but one that I will dispose of if you prove impossible to command.” I have another Goddess. Please, don’t ask about her status. She’s also hours away by flight and not at her basic character art yet, so she’s probably weaker than you. Don’t ask about it, please. “So, once again, I ask you: why should I not bury you beneath a mountain and forget that you exist, after you’ve attacked me and my people?”

  I made her kneel so that she’d have to look up at me.

  That’s about all I could do in this situation, but every little advantage helped.

  For a second, the bestial snarl and the enraged glare persisted, then her features schooled themselves back towards being that of a graceful, ephemeral young woman with bone-white skin and fine features.

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  “Permit me the chance to prove my worth, my dear master.” Her voice was serious and deep. No sultriness and no bestial growl. It wasn’t bereft of emotion. Still, whatever power she gave it a deep tenor that made it echo just a tiny bit in the ear. “Send me where you dare not send any other. Where your armies and elites cannot go, I shall bring victory.”

  For a second, the thought crossed my mind to send her out there.

  To unleash the Goddess of Death on the worst of the calamities to come… But I could tell that would just get her killed.

  No gains, even if I got rid of someone whose whole being made my instincts scream for me to run away.

  How do I gain something from her so that even if she dies, I get something?

  An idea popped up.

  “Very well. I shall give you a singular task. Take the Warden’s lands in the central region of the continent.” I contacted the Citadel through my ring. From the ground, a hatch opened and shot out a tube. A map was rolled up inside. “You chose me as your master when you learned that I opposed them. I lost the chance to take the whole continent in exchange for you. Consider this the start of your repayment of that debt.”

  “A whole continent must be made yours for my debt to be repaid? My dear master, you are quite cruel.” It was almost a joke, but I addressed the Death Goddess’s words with complete seriousness.

  “No. You owe me this entire world! I believed what I took would give it to me, yet instead of a Divine Engine of Death, you are an impertinent creature with more power than sense!” I mustered up all my courage to yell at her. It was easy enough. Getting this shit result after sacrificing the decapitation strike I’ve been meticulously preparing was ridiculous. I’d have reloaded a save the moment she pulled her shit. I’d have gone back hours and not the slightest bit bad about it. I summoned my infuriation and threw it at her before schooling my features and taking a deep breath in the resulting silence. Glaring down at her, I threw the map before her. “You have one year to take those lands. Fail, and I’ll bury you beneath a mountain and remove you from history.”

  With that, I turned away from her to Ayah and the other Iterants.

  “Get her a transport to the Central Theatre. I want to be here before sunset. Brief her, Ayah. If she’s inadequate, drop the whole subfloor on her.”

  After tossing Ayah the direct control ring for the Citadel, I managed to get out of the room under my own power.

  “You may stand and do as you are told.” I commanded her just as the doors to the room closed.

  Then, the adrenaline faded, and I had to be helped by the Iterants to the nearest medical facility.

  I really hoped that I didn’t fuck this all up.

  …

  Interlude: Eminent Void Blade: She Who Glides Between Sunbeams

  …

  Upon my first awakening, despair had filled my heart as I looked upon a world set aflame by war and drowning in misery. I watched as valiant defenders of cities were engulfed by tidal waves of scarlet flesh that grew mouths filled with fangs and appendages of razor-sharp bone. I listened to the screams of children and begging of mothers as war machines crushed them beneath their treads. I smelled the rot of the desecrated and devoured bodies of those who were made prey against their will before I saw them nailed by the dozen to tree branches. I touched the emptied skulls of those who were stolen away into the depths, and looked upon their bloated corpses burst from being forced to carry parasitic young.

  That was the world that I knew, but even in that dark world there were lights shining brightly in the darkness.

  “Ha.”

  My creators were dying. All of them were suited in alloys and machines that prolonged painful heartbeats. Gallant, noble, and pure of heart, they pushed back the darkness that threatened to engulf the entire world while laying low their foes with both weapons and curses.

  “Haha.”

  Their physical forms were compromised. Every time they returned from death, they returned weaker, sicker, and jeopardized their own souls. Every return made it more likely that they would be lost forever. Still, they returned. They returned not only to sing the song of vengeance but also to craft a new future for those who would come after.

  “Hahaha!”

  They could’ve won. I wanted them to win. To cease preparing for who will come after and instead rebuild the world with themselves. Hundreds of facilities to keep genetic lines uncompromised. Great facilities that would protect a whole continent for millennia until their descendants were ready. They crippled and hindered their enemies because they could not spare the strength to kill them outright. Everything was for the sake of future generations.

  A future generation that I had begun to revile before they were even born for taking my creators from me.

  Until now.

  “Ha!”

  I laughed with joy for the first time in my life before placing my hand over my heart and extending the other out to create a courteous bow.

  A bow towards a creature that I killed millions of without a thought prior to my reawakening.

  “Convey to me my beloved master’s will. Everything he desires shall be fulfilled.” This was no longer the strained, global resistance against the end. This was a war of nations. The truth in his words was evident. Every threat he made was a promise. This I knew for a fact. I looked into the gaze of the Iterant before me and could only smile. In her eyes was a perfect hatred constrained by loyalty. “Grant me his orders, Administrator.”

  With my head bowed, I waited for a strike, but it never came.

  “Why did you strike at us? Why did you take his blood? Answer me.” The walls I broke were already fixed. From them came forth skittering war machines. Living blades are given innumerable limbs. They were simply called combat constructs. One of the final weapons of the last war. These ones were incomplete, but still they would be able to drown me beneath bodies, as I was beneath a logistical center. “Tell me why you deserve this chance his majesty has given you.”

  It was not my power or potential that stopped her from acting against me. No. It was his words that stopped her. And, even then, she was ready to execute me if she found me unworthy. Though it was unsaid, she knew that was why she was given an executioner’s tool. Not only that, but his order to her was to kill me if I was found wanting.

  I could barely hold back a smile as I answered.

  “The moment his blood and magic filled me, the contract was sealed. He became my beloved master. The one who can never disobey.” And he had used it immediately. He took control of me even after I took from him both vitality and power. Standing strong, summoning courage and anger, he confronted me and gave me orders. I had only been able to give him one test. “I struck at you as a test. To see if my new master had a spine. I could not permit my power to fall into the hands of one who would abandon their followers for power.”

  Ayah revealed nothing. The combat constructs surrounded me now. They were in their hundreds. More could pour out of the walls in mere moments. Too many for the Citadel to fabricate at once. They truly did have enough to simply bury me in bodies.

  How wonderful.

  I answered her last demand.

  “I deserve nothing, but the power within me is not mine alone. My strength and my ability are both to be wielded by the one worthiest of finishing the work of the Ancients.” I raised my head and matched her gaze. At the lack of trust and hate that I found, I could only smile. This was not loyalty born of programming. This was true belief and faith. “He was acknowledged worthy by my inner workings, but I myself could test him. He has surpassed all my wishes and desires. Now, I offer him all of myself. I shall serve him with all that I have.”

  There was no sign of the hate that I saw surmounting her loyalty, and the combat constructs began to move away… But that was not the end.

  “This is your first and only chance.” The administrator promised. “Falter once and you die.”

  At her words, at the statement made by a sentient construct unbound by imprinted loyalty, I could only smile.

  My creators had succeeded.

  They paved the way for a better, brighter tomorrow.