Book 8 – Chapter 21 – Drakonis

Aztu showing up to collect, the Icon feeling shy talking to Wrath and apparently keeping her head down even with To’Orda despite having cleaned him for bugs, and now the machine network itself just going down?

Something was happening on the other side of the world here, and I was starting to worry. Aztu wanting to unleash a drunk Wrath on the world was in the warcrimes territory, so the situation must be three broken heaters in a dying airspeeder big.

I had my theories. The more serious ones had to do with the Icon. Aztu actually sending her contact info to Wrath meant she wasn’t worried about being caught anymore by Relinquished. Which meant Relinquished figured out Aztu was around.

And she’d probably started dismantling the entire digital ocean searching for the missing protofeather. That the Icon wasn’t outright in the war but instead trying to hide, meant Relinquished hadn’t found my favorite customer support bot.

So the digital war was between the last protofeather alive and Relinquished, battled over the net. And it had exploded to the point Aztu managed to bring down the entire machine network in the fight. She was really giving the goddess hell.

But why now? What changed? Why is Aztu on the warpath after this many years spent in hiding?

Only thing I could think of was the Icon. That’s where things changed in history. Was the Icon giving Aztu the weapons she needed to fight Relinquished, and the protofeather was taking the gamble?

No, that didn’t make sense. Not this fast, it’s hardly been any time at all. Aztu would have spent possibly years planning out a full on offensive with the Icon’s newfound force multiplier.

So that meant Relinquished had caught Aztu somehow, and dragged her out into the light. And the protofeather wasn’t going down without a fight.

That also explained why she was contacting Wrath like this, or trying to. I just had a grim feeling like the war between Aztu and Relinquished was not going the protofeather’s direction, hence why she’d reach out to Wrath.

But for now, the machine network was fully down and Relinquished couldn’t check at all on us without the unity fractal powering on.

We were aimless down here, no network to anything.

Well. They were aimless. I happened to know a friend with connections.

The occult provides. Superior sent back, smug. Full access to the mite side of the digital ocean here, at your disposal, courtesy of me.

Superior had my back on that. He’d still vanish away every now and then to go train, but I could always rely on that guy to get me out of a problem, so long as the problem was serious.

Even after a full twelve hours of traveling through the biome with a few rest points, the machine network did not come back up. Most of that time was spent chatting away, learning some odd trivia about the Odin and their preferences – like they have very specific nesting setups designed to be more hostile and unapproachable, because if it was approachable they almost always got broody and territorial for some reason.

The idea that humans went out of our way to make comfortable bedding and a nice little room for ourselves was seen in a very different light.

But I digress, most of the trip through this biome was rather tame now that we’d figured out the best way to traverse it in good time, which led us to the underpassage again, through the side of the biome walls. Food was topped off with a lot of grilled mushrooms, insects and vegetation all compressed back into ration bar wrappers I’d been saving up.

My hodge podge feeding rations were… inspired cooking, but it was edible and had calories to it, and that’s all that mattered on expeditions to mythical artifacts from ancient history.

There had been machines in the underpassage. Had, past tense. Spiders kept the upper layers cozy, but down here it was creeping hulks with guns as their dorsal spine and several legs that housed some kind of hovering tech letting them glide through the tunnels. Unfortunately for them, my only weaknesses right now were up against swarms of smaller enemies, and hyper-large structure-sized ones.

They were smaller than Murdershrimp at least, though just as agile. And just as dead real fast.

Which led us to the next biome, and the mites, as usual, had gone insane again.

This one had giant weapons, statues of hands, and just about anything majestic enough to make the cut, all jutting upwards from an ocean below. Everything looked like it had collided against one another. And a look upwards showed me the same exact thing mirrored.

Small garden sections were cupped in domes or at least protected from the crushed up formations, and among each things and vegetation actually grew. Like small terrariums, all of them with different trees and flowers.

The ceiling ocean with gravity inverted was still the thing that looked the strangest to me, but that was just my personal opinion on it.

We crossed out of the underpassage onto the stone granite here and began a hike up a few oddly well placed trails. “So, what kind of resistance can we expect in this biome?” I asked.

“There are no machines active here.” Wrath said, “As of my last communication with the machine network, at least. We should have an easy time.”

“Why’s that?” I asked, with deep suspicion. The last time there weren’t machines it was because the entire zone would kill everything.

“For the same reason you’re on your own from here on out.” The rock said, and To’Orda grunted in agreement. Then pointed a hand.

I had noticed Wrath and To’Orda had come to a stop just a few steps into the biome, and both of them were looking at something behind me.

Turning around, I magnified my view to see what the hubbub was about, and far far in the distance I saw the outline of a pillar heart. It sprouted up straight through a small bunched up set of trees and leaves that covered any sight of the base. “Oh. Right, that’s where he’d respawn at. I’m going to take a wild guess that it’s active and repelling machines?”

“You know it.” The rock confirmed with a doodled thumbs up. “Basically covering half this biome, but the place is so inhospitable to humans, it might as well be a footnote so no reason to patrol the other exposed half.”

“… You were planning on finding Drakonis with or without us, what exactly was the plan to get to a pillar heart if you’re both machines?”

“Them, duh.” The rock’s doodled hand turned into a finger pointing right at the Odin perched over his shoulders.

To’Orda looked lazily at them, then back at me. “Nnnn… minions.”

He actually sounded a little happy for once.

“Yeah, what boss here said. They’ll be able to reach the tower and guide him back out here. Assuming this is the right pillar. Thirty three percent chance, knock on metal or whatever ritual you humans do for luck.”

If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

“It also may have more treasure within it.” Wrath said, “If we do not find Drakonis, we can arm ourselves better instead.”

“No need to convince me further, you had me at free loot. Any other parting words before I go check out the absolutely-not creepy abandoned pillar heart?”

“Yes,” Wrath said. “Prior reports on preliminary scouting show this biome shifts itself on a periodic cycle.”

Journey got a data package from Wrath, and it turned out to be a superimposed video file depicting what to expect. Wireframes of the giant slaps ahead of me all broke apart, retreating down into the sea while others rose up to crash against each other, forming completely new topology. The same thing happened above, though that was a lot less relevant since gravity firmly pointed down this time. Hopefully.

“I do not see any other notes besides that.” Wrath finished, frowning at whatever she was looking through. “They were quite lax and unmotivated in their investigation.”

“It’s because of the pipe organ again.” The rock said. “Soon as it was confirmed this biome moves around a lot, parading that organ here would run the risk of having it break. Instantly disqualified this spot as something that Feather would care about, so all his subordinates also didn’t bother filing reports that won’t ever get read.”

“Bold to assume your toasters would even read reports in the first place.” Cathida said, which started another row between the two.

The Odin took wing and three landed on my shoulders, with a fourth flying above to scan. With that, I took my cue to head up into the biome, and go looking for loot. I mean Drakonis. Let’s call it ninety percent Drakonis.

Walking past the barrier point didn’t feel like anything at all. Just a slightly shimmering field that Journey’s sensors outlined. Machines couldn’t cross, but armors like Journey had clearly no issues. Odin and humans could cross, and that counted Chosen as well.

Do you have any idea how these work? I asked Superior, curious to see if he had some more knowledge on that.

Mites say it is between Tsuya and them. I’d need to pay a price of some kind to learn.

Stingy bastards.