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Chapter 399: Central Chamber

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[Multiple High Energy Readings up ahead.]

In the map Cortana showed, a cluster of red dots appeared and the further he went deeper, the more their numbers increased.

They were all coming from the walls but not on the main hallway towards the main entrance of the Central Chamber region where he was currently located.

[And Sir, there are events in the real world that you might want to know about regarding this invasion.]

This news caught Siva off guard.

Although Cortana always scans both in game and the world news simultaneously, there rarely is any news worthy of him being concerned about in the real world.

To be precise, 75% of what Cortana ‘scanned’ in the news in the real world are rarely connected to him and his goals so he discarded them almost all the time. For her to report about a few changes in the real world are definitely going to be connected to him and his actions.

Siva began to worry about it.

—have I missed important news before?

‘Send them to me.’

Cortana used [Focus] to deliver all the news direct to his brain and as it finished, Siva felt the 30sec headache —the cooldown— before he was able to think straight again.

But by then, he had already processed the news.

‘A bounty? Are they monitoring this event live?’

[Most definitely not.]

‘How do you know?’

[In my memory archives, there was a detail there regarding a «Project Eagle Eye» by the UNICORN, which supposedly is an independent component and a cluster program of the Janus Console. My records say that the World Government took away this part of the Janus Console for a redevelopment plan to be used as a monitoring software for the Android Program a few years back, but was destroyed by Master recently because of the danger of it developing its own violent AI-algorithms considering its exposure to the “Neural Tests” the UNICORN conducted to the men and women who took part in the said project. This file information has just only been recently unlocked in my database so no wonder we are only able to know of its existence today.]

—recently unlocked…

—meaning, when I remembered everything so that also means…

—Panorama Corp’s ability to monitor the game live has been stolen ever since...!!

‘Cortana, reiterate to me what is the Janus Console and when was the Eagle Eye taken from it?’

[Janus Console, sir, is the main operating console panel of the entire world of Terroa. It controls all aspects of it starting from the weather to the very thoughts of its citizens. It was designed by Alfred Pegasus to interfere with all normal operations of this world as an independent universe. It is, in its very essence, the shackles that bind Terroa as a manmade Virtual Universe.]

‘The component that defies Terroa as a game and as an alternate reality…’

[Yes sir. But according to my initial archives, a large event took place in the company at the same time of your first log into the game. And it was then that the rest of the core programs of the Eagle Eye are taken away from the console’s core data frame.]

‘How did you know all this?’

[According to my reference files… it’s because I was supposedly one of the stolen items when the event took place. But during the process, it was Master who pulled me back in and used that chance to completely remove me from the Janus Console as a complete and independent program, yet is still a huge integral part of the core program assembly of the RPG: Terroa mainframe. But there were a lot of people who managed to steal a few things from the hole in the defensive matrix when that event took place. That’s why the other Janus was forced to lock away all operations of the Janus Console —all of this information had date stamps on them pertaining to the first day of your login into the game.]

Cortana had long since hacked into Rex’s NLD main console and there was a date stamp there that pertained to information regarding his game logs.

She wore an expression of not knowing how she was aware of how she knew all that. It’s as if her own mouth had a brain of its own as it answers all of Siva’s inquiries.

And yet, this was also the ‘informant’ face she’s always worn this entire time when talking to him. It was part of her ‘humor’ factor that seemed to be in a new height from the last time it was checked.

Still, there was a question remaining unanswered in between the facts she told him.

How did the “Defensive Matrix” get a hole in it?

Considering his impressions of Janus’s overly over protective tendencies… it was hard to imagine just how the world he loved so much and paid a large price to protect and ensured to be safe from all the outside harm for, would get a hole in its defenses.

If his [memories] serves him right, Janus’s wasn’t the sort to let this kind of mistake pass by.

No, he was a perfectionist. It was part of his core programming. The [God of Destinies] have to be exact to all his calculations or there would be utter chaos in the entire universe……. of Terra.

Given this trait to Janus’s personality algorithm, it’s indeed unlike him to let a hole like that exist in his supposedly tight defenses.

He would never allow himself to make this kind of mistake. As such… there are only two possibilities:

—it’s either something or someone outside of the game deliberately made that hole, which is likely;

—or there was something from within Terroa at the time of the event that caused all this mess to take place.

The events pertaining to Mefisto’s awakening…

The cause of the War of Two Powers and the goal of the war itself, the destruction of Xargoal-6…

The events that led to the damage in Dragona…

Perhaps even his existence all those years ago…

……it could all be connected.

No. It was connected. Definitely… connected.

For some reason, one or another, Siva could feel that he was the start and also the end of it.

He couldn’t even help recalling that one question that suddenly plagued him like a locust.

Who started everything and how and why was he, Siva, aware that he was to end everything?

Of course, as smart as he was, he couldn’t expect an answer to just pop up one day in front of him so he decided to move forward. Slowly. He could only take it step by step and perhaps one day, he’d be able to stumble upon that path that could lead him towards the answers that would explain the things that had happened to him.

And with regards to the fact that the Janus Console is locked down by Janus himself—

‘—it means there was no way the Panorama Corp is aware of just how many players are taking part of this so called Grand Quest. Heck… why am I even dragged into this Grand Quest thing? I ain’t even in any normal quest! That’s proof enough that they don’t know anything that’s happening in Terroa!’

All news regarding Siva has been [uploaded] to his brain directly. They were already organized and all unnecessary details were removed, retaining only the core information and all important news of him.

That included forum posts, news blogs, all media articles, and even private mail messages between [player] friends with ‘Siva’; or ‘The Destroyer’; or Jeremiah as ‘on topic’ keyword.

It was unethical but Cortana is a [private organizer] so she wasn’t part of any anti-online sniffing code or anything, created by those “legal” companies so nothing was stopping her from sniffing around.

Cortana did it all and implanted all these information directly to his brain, saving them the explanation.

‘At least we now know that Panorama Corp is lying about their reason for this bounty event.’

[Should we publicize it, sir?]

‘No. Nobody will even believe me and there is also a large possibility that Pegasus will track me here, not that I know he’s already aware I am Siva…’

Because he remembered everything, he also was able to remember what had happened in that white room —the Genesis Chamber— and the war of the Gods millions of Terran years ago.

All this time, he was just floating there 200+ meters away from the entrance of the central chamber.

Scans were active, but only the echo-sonar and the bio-signature scanners are working in proper range of their capabilities.

He can’t let the NanoField melt in here.

Since this extreme heat plus the demons’ attempts, were cancelling his attempts to spread his blue smoke domain further inside, Siva is now standing there like a floating metallic apparition; his thoughts conversing with Cortana while she herself was in the middle of compressing PSS into hand-sized friable bombs.

200 PSS-Grenades were compressed into one and now, she was on her 36th silvery metallic ball.

—all while conversing via neural signals with Siva.

[Their numbers are still increasing, sir.]

While space seem to ripple endlessly right in front of Siva as it was affected by the burning heat, the bio-signature scanner and echo-sonar continued to provide data, updating the numbers of the enemies in the central chamber in front of him.

200 meters may sound like it was close but it was actually still quite a good distance away from him. It was just he can move fast within those distances with the help of the BMA’s Absolute Domain.

[Enemy numbers had reached two thousand, sir.]

‘How’s the “Dáinsleif” going? Give me a time.’

[Dáinsleif completion period in 15min and 8sec…]

All production efforts were being focused solely to Siva’s sniper rifle, Dáinsleif. It was supposed to be done in more than 8hrs but Siva pushed it on 3hrs, which was almost 3hrs ago.

‘Maintain smoke domain, I’m going in.’

[Yes sir.]

The smoke ‘aura’ retracted from a wide range and maintained a close distance against Siva, in a 40m diameter area around him.

‘It’s time to show BMA’s full might.’

[I’ll keep up with your prompts, sir.]

Siva’s combat thinking was very fast, bordering to reactionary and almost no mental efforts, and so Cortana follows his bodily prompts and gestures, delivering best supportive functions as best she could… this way, she was also growing. She was learning Siva’s habits and mastering his thought process, learning how he thinks.

Siva had millions of years of combat experience so now that he remembered everything, only his body had to keep up with his experience. So Cortana, as a newbie in this, also had to keep up with it.

The 40m diameter domain revolved around Siva like a blue tornado; gently rotating with even his own silhouette barely noticeable in its midst.

If anyone would magnify in this domain, they would notice that the NanoField was compressed in this small domain area and acts both as a protective shield and also ‘water’ for the tiny parts of the BMA to freely move around him.

In a way, Siva can move within 20m from his last position and blink 20m away with the blue smoke domain following his movements in place.

His movement range was limited, yes, but at least the BMA wasn’t melted in the process.

FLASH!!

He popped in two blue vials in his lips but didn’t break or open them yet.

Next, he activated [Overdrive Mode] and a very large image of a slender man slumped down at him (since the ceiling is low) as it appeared.

BAM! BAM!!!

Its writhing skin made up of roiling BlackTech was scary to behold. And unlike the imposing image of a death reaper that [Erebus] had, [Black Master] is a slender man that brought a very unique kind of frightening presence with it.

Supposedly, it was all black…

But Siva’s humanoid-shaped [BlackTech Overdrive] had eyes the color of blood ruby. It was a seething red the color of hot magma, or boiling blood, or the red of a red moon; it was all eerie and tyrannical.

It was summoned into existence in all its fours —or on its front two and lower one— and it looked up to the area up front where its enemies lay, eyes dead still with no pupil to use to focus but still have that savageness as if it was the representation of Siva’s desire to slaughter.

Siva was feeling excited at the prospective of this one against thousands situation.

He recalled his days as an Immortal, the days that he spent attacking the Demon Armada alone and with only his fists and his courage to rely on.

Retreating when he was tired and outnumbered, or hide within their ship and conduct sneaky bombing runs… those were the old days.

He recalled the days where he fought to survive as a mortal, a Mitran of poor descent, in a place that even all existences cower upon... a place where no man was allowed to live, what more is survive.

And yet he did. And he ruled over that place, being the only one to have won every fight against every large creature that ruled an entire region.

Back then, he fought against an entire forest of the most powerful beasts one could imagine.

He did it and he became very strong while bathed in the blood of his enemies.

This, here, right now, was making him feel that same kind of feeling… the feeling of being alive, a feeling he had forgotten.

A 40m large black monster loomed over his head and it looked at the area in front of it like a human who had just come out of a TV screen. It had long hair dangling in front of it and it roared like a real monster —supported by speakers, courtesy of the ever reliable DJ Cortana.

The roar that came out of its mouth sounded like a combination of many creatures. They were all the sounds of animals made when they are warning a predator, an invader, a prey, or a threat, that they will fight to the death for survival, or die trying.

But in this case, it carried a different message.

A lion’s roar, a tiger’s growl, a hippo’s snarl, even an eagle’s scream along with many others… they were all mixed in on that resounding thunder of the call of the descent of the Black Master.

—thanks to technology; thanks to loud speakers.

The blue smoke aura blended with the creature as it surrounded Siva, and it gave him a more sinister kind of air; something devilish, something scary, a knight that ruled the true army of darkness.

He was the heart of the monster and the monster was skin and bones.

If one would look at it in another angle, it would be like the monster is a hen and Siva was its chick.

“Let’s go.”

Siva let his feet touch the ground, the weight of his armor making heavy sounds on every step he took in the hallway —he was making a show for the cat.

BAM! BAM!! BAM!!!

The monster above him continued to roar and it was slowly but surely scaring the aliens in front of him by stomping its heavy arms as it crawled.

*****

BAM! BAM!! BAM!!!

It was a large circular space, 400m wide.

In the middle of it was a 100m wide chamber, the throne room of the ship, the Central Chamber.

Around it was thousands of aliens, both pawns and Commander-level existences were gathered here in a defensive formation, facing the only entrance that no one dared to go to.

BAM! BAM!! BAM!!!

Then, above them was the giant face of the female Universe Spirit. An angry scowl on its visage could be seen and it was a sight to see such a beautiful face actually twisted in vehemence.

…BAM!

……..BAM!!

ROOOOOOOOOOAAAARRRRR!!!

The minutes ticked by and the roar of the monster could be heard. While it was so, the aliens’ number kept increasing as the sound coming from that one entrance crept closer and closer.

BANG!

…BANG!!

………BANG!!!

Some of the aliens began to cower while some held their weapons or their own breaths.

And then… the noise disappeared.

“What happened?” a few of the aliens wondered.

In the silence that echoed they silently waited. All they knew is that there was a great enemy closing in on them and they knew that he was as savage as the rumours amongst their ranks said.

And then, along the silence, they heard the tapping of metallic soles along the metallic floor of the ship.

An elegant casual cadence, resounding like a wave of thunder in their hearts as the sound grew louder as the seconds ticked by.

{He’s here!} the giant face roared.

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