Book 8 – Chapter 56 – Fated encounter

“Glad you could join us A01. Fight’s over already.” A12 said, hooking his chain on his belt, looking over his work. “Really, missing this moment of all times?”

A01 took a few steady steps. Only a few days ago he’d ambushed and ended Talen. A singular debilitating hit, done from darkness. Taking down the one man who’d held him off time and time again in the field of righteous battle. That final ‘fight’ between them still haunted his mind, an anathema. Again, he was confronted with the reality of how A57 fought his battles.

“I had no choice.” A01 said, looking over the battlefield. Hardly any signs of a fight here either. He had a sinking feeling in his stomach. “A57 required me elsewhere and calculated you and nine others would be enough to subdue Urs.”

“He was right.” A12 shrugged. “Urs managed to down A19 and A23, but the rest of us got him following A57’s plan to the letter. The stasis trap worked.”

A01 looked over their target.

Urs remained trapped in the sliver of frozen occult. Head slightly looking behind him in surprise. No doubt this hadn’t been any kind of fight. Another ambush.

“I got the final hit on him.” A12 said. “Was ordered to sneak behind his back and then set the trap while the rest distracted him. Easiest victory ever. And humanity’s done now. Part of me is wondering if this is it? The moment we technically win.”

The two looked on at their captive.

Talen had been the blade of humanity. Tsuya was its soul. But Urs? A01 considered this near inhuman man to be the hope of humanity. It was by his hands that humans had risen up to this point. His armors and weapons. The prometheus himself, carrying fire back to humanity.

The pale lady hated Talen with the ire given to a foe of power.

For Urs however, It was outright loathing.

This was the human who’d ruined her carefully built world, into one where humanity had a glimmer of hope.

And today, the fire had been snuffed out. Hope was captured. All in one surprise attack, and another stab in the back.

The comms pinged him. “You have arrived. Send a notification ping immediately next time. Your lack of discipline is steadily declining. Rectify this.”

“Oh, and speaking of plans, here’s our esteemed strategist in the flesh.” A12 scoffed. “Glad you could join us in person.”

“There is no reason to be there physically myself. Nor is there a reason to speak to you at all A12. You are no longer needed here.” A57 sent back. “A01. The occult capture cell will only last one week at most. You will see to the construction of a mite containment cube, and follow guidelines on how to hold Urs prisoner. He cannot be killed, or he will return to life elsewhere. The method I used to subdue Talen is singular in nature. Urs will be largely immune. He must be contained instead. Supplies and lessers are being sent your way. The other Feathers will remain in the region in order to guard for incoming threats and eliminate any human resistance still in the area. Is that understood?”

A01 confirmed the ping. He knew the plan. The moment Urs was released from this prison, his arms and legs were to be cut off before the man knew he was awake again. And then stabbed with specifically crafted occult weapons that would slowly either drive him insane, or severely sap away at his occult strength. The weapons were massive, built to a scale that would require chassis far stronger than his own.

His job was to empower those weapons with his own willpower, and weave that into something that would eventually eliminate this human for good. He had a full week to slowly build these weapons to their peak efficiency.

They would then entomb him within the cube, and hold him there for an eternity.

Left alive, but no longer a threat.

A01 looked over Urs, eyes meeting the frozen ones. The look of surprise.

The Feather took a deep breath to prepare himself for the week that would follow.

None of the other Feathers had his singular focus on the task. Only he could do it.

A week. Seven days to destroy a man who could not fight back. Who had dedicated his life to fight for others.

He would be Urs’s last sight before an eternity of damnation.

And A01 wasn’t certain he’d be able to even look this man in the eyes when the time came.

“How powerful is this shard?” Urs asked, sounding vaguely worried.

The knights were already rushing back to the terminal to join the fight again. I remained behind, hoping to get some info from Urs before diving back in.

“Strong enough to kick me out, along with everyone here.” I waved a hand around at the knights all focusing on returning to the terminal for another go. “He called himself Conviction. Has a full soul fractal and everything, which means access to the occult.”

Urs nodded. “A01 was methodical, pragmatic and driven. One against one, I could barely fend him off. My last sight in this world was of him, and it was rather unpleasant. Although, now knowing that he ultimately rebelled in the months that followed, some parts of that encounter make more sense.”

“What parts?” I asked.

“They may or may not be relevant depending on how close this shard is to a copy. Send me your combat feed, I will study the skillset and ability.”

I did exactly that, and Urs’s eyes flickered. Then he closed his eyes for a moment. “You are in trouble. He has only used his primary combat techniques. I saw no sign of any other occult usage yet. He is not fighting you at his strongest.”

“He’s toying with us? Shit.”

The idea that the absolute hangerstomp we’d gone through wasn’t even Conviction fighting us seriously. What kind of monsters were ahead of us?

Urs turned his eyes to the Imperial Chaptermaster waiting near us. “I take it this shard was left as a trap for Tsuya should she come through this terminal directly, originally before the change of allegiance?”

The chaptermaster gave a very slow nod. “Domine, it is most likely as you state.”

“Then it is no surprise the shard is capable of overwhelming anyone. It was designed to fight a goddess.”

“…How do we stop him?” I asked, “Can we stop him?”

“Conviction likely cannot be bested by your warriors.” Urs grimly said. “In my time, the citadel had not yet fallen. Which means this shard was generated sometime after, and it would have included all the combat experience A01 developed over time fighting Talen. I cannot tell if it is stronger or weaker than the original, as he has not displayed the full breadth of his skillset.”

Winterscars were now waking up periodically, then diving back into the trance. Whatever was happening inside the vault must have been insane for this many to be constantly sent back out of it.

“My crusaders send word that engineers are prepared to shut the terminal off completely.” The chaptermaster spoke softly, interrupting our discussion. “Should this threat prove too harsh, perhaps we should explore a different mite terminal? The nearest one would be about half a day at a full sprint. I can arrange a team of scouts to escort you through the biomes.”

“Half a day is too long. The world’s breaking down minute by minute.” I shook my head, then looked upwards, past the ceiling of the vault. “We need the Imperials to be marching up to the surface right now. Maybe we can seal him back up? The mites might offer some solution.”

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“There may be another option. Something unexpected.” Urs said. “Observe the soul fractal within the terminal deep within. You will find Conviction, and you will find something else missing.”

I glanced over the terminal itself, quickly spotting the soul fractal etched deep within. It was mutated, in the way machines were. The center fractal was connected to other merged fractals, letting Conviction access powers directly. “Looks like a machine soul fractal, what am I missing?”

“Correct question. Wrong target. Compare this fractal to all other soul fractals that belong to those who serve Relinquished.”

I looked it over again, with more focus.

Urs wouldn’t have mentioned this unless it was important. What could be missing from a soul fractal?

Then I realized I really was looking into the wrong places. He did specify something – all soul fractals that served Relinquished specifically.

And she had one thing that linked everyone together.

This time I saw what Urs had. “There’s no Unity fractal? It’s not there, this program isn’t connected to Relinquished in any way. Why?”

“Conviction was not generated by Relinquished.” Urs said. “He was generated by A01. This is a flaw I can abuse. We may have our solution.” The eyes turned to the chaptermaster. “Seal the connection ports on this terminal, cut it away from the world. Do not shut it off however, only contain it.”

The chaptermaster immediately bowed, then turned to signal more crusaders further off to comply with the plan.

“Sure, that’ll keep him locked in.” I said, trying to see where Urs was going with this. “But it also means we can’t use the mite terminal to reach the Icon. No golden age AI, no way to slip past Relinquished and everything she’s built.”