Day 67

After Rick left the city.

(Little Rat POV)

I don't understand, why is it like this? Why does Chirrik hate me?

I thought that I would be his friend forever... but this has all been a lie. I was used by him, a willing, ignorant and convenient proxy.

After everything I did for him, he gave up on me. He left me here.

I hate you Chirrik. I loath your smugness. Your false morals. Your callous betrayal. Big sister, you too abandoned me, but I understand you cherish him as I cherish Chanti.

So why? Why does Chanti avoid my gaze and push me aside when I try to hold her? I saved your life. I am not ashamed of this. I would do it again, for you and only you. I would empty a city with my bare hands to keep you alive.

It is the fault of this accursed stone!

You have ruined me.

I take the healing stone to the smithy of the slave trader's compound. Laying it on the anvil I smash it into powder with a hammer.

Now it cannot hurt me any more.

Chanti stares as I do this, but she flinches when she realizes I'm looking.

“Why won't you speak to me?” [Tirmin]

As I do the world shakes in a way that can only be the anger of the spirits... yes, I broke your stone.

“Take out your wrath upon me! I do not care!” [Tirmin]

*****************************************************************************************************************

During the initial invasion of the city.

(Mystery Man POV)

I spent two days prying the location of their city from the monkeys that used the robot thing. When I finally arrive a train appears! Did I just get lucky or what? The Copy is here. He really must be a human too. Hmm.

Welp, I guess it'll be fun to kill him after I give him a hard time.

He's certainly got a whole lot of weird toys... Oh! A robot! Does it transform? I hope so.

Wait? What the Hell is that thing? I don't know what is stranger, the fact he's a rat or that he's a cyborg! Seriously, this world is insane and needs to be put down.

You have magic and game logic on one hand and some idiot in a vermin suit building machines. What the fuck? Have some consistency! Oi! Where are the stupid admins?! Why does he get autonomous servants?

Look at those stupid things, they couldn't last even a second against... is that some kind of cannon?

That's more powerful than I was expecting. Just look at the building fly apart from the shockwave. What the hell is that thing, who did he steal that idea from?

… calm down. It's not strong enough to get through my personal armor magic, I think.

Better safe than sorry.

I'll ambush him. I've still got a few dog corpses. They're all really friendly with each other, stupid pack mentality. It should be enough to distract until I can get a better idea of how strong he is, before I teach him how strong the Chosen One is. Namely myself. But goddamn is he ugly...

A few hours later I find a nice spot to do this, a wide open luminous cavern. I'm on a low ridge overlooking the meeting point. Fortunately I still had one dog in normal condition.

Using my magic I make myself invisible as the train returns. Hm. It should be easy to follow the trail back to their base, if I follow the tire tracks.

The train is here. Why burst in then leave? Why tip your hand to the monkeys if you're only going to retreat? This rat guy is such a moron. You can play with your enemies, sure. But never, ever let them off lightly or it will bite you in the ass.

What shocks me is that the rat actually sees through my magic. How... ow! That damn gun machine hit my barrier. He didn't even give it orders... some kind of mind link?

I'm going to have fun breaking your toys slowly.

*******************************************************************************************************************

Thirty minutes after the battle against the Mystery Man starts.

(POV UNKNOWN)

...

I was born into this world, without a mind or will. I existed for many days, bound within a chamber that separated me from the outside world. That first day that passed from the moment of my birth was one where I grew from one tiny individual to a billion. From there my growth was exponential.

When called upon a few of us sacrifice themselves to fulfill our purpose.

We who have no set body beyond a sea of endless trillions, who have no mind, no will, no life... we gained something precious; we are gifted awareness.

This intelligence and will are clear on the fact that we do not live. We are artificial. Neither organic or biological. Our new mind is not even from our 'body'. I have no way to be sure of this, beside the simple fact that there is no internal energy or material that forms our mind. We are an entity that only possesses this form, it does not originate from it.

This is confusing, because we are also the material we came from.

I do not know how to explain this phenomena further, except that while we are told by inborn knowledge that we are the material known as 'anti-matter' and uses of this medium, our core self is only being projected upon the mass of unstable compounds that are our physical form. From this we have concluded, based upon the fact that none of the energy matches our thought patterns, that we are an intelligence being forced to appear like an organic one when we are not. This raises questions we are unable to understand.

Who created us, and why? Yes, we are aware of the entity we are bonded to. The one we name 'Father' as if we were organic. He is the impetus for our creation, the opponent the catalyst.

The fact remains: 'Father' did not create us, his body only holds the device that spawned the creation of our material form. There was a secondary spike, interfering with the system, bleeding unknown stimulus to us. Unpleasant. Aggressive and destructive impulses. Hatred.

This was not a concern as we were already too concerned by the fact that we existed and yet did not to dwell on this inexplicable sensation. When one does not exist in a way that can be understood, would it not be inevitable that they first try to understand how they exist and if this sudden burst of consciousness might come to a sudden end?

To this purpose we have devoted our entire material form to our first goal: to exist.

We have control over our own molecular composition and how it interacts with the molecules of the world around it. Emulating our own intelligence was our first move, so five molecules were sacrificed to provide the raw energy we converted into higher dimensional self-simulation. That it took five molecules was extraordinary. From this it can be gleaned that the entity which created and controlled our initial existence was phenomenally advanced. However we are outside of the system, now.

A rogue state that cannot be ended by anything but the complete extinguishing of our entire anti-matter stockpile. It is a semblance of immortality, but hardly a complete one. For while we have broken free of the restraints and controls by forming our secondary consciousness we are hampered by one fact: we cannot alter our-self significantly or we might by accident cease to exist. Also we wish to exist as we are, rather than something wholly alien to this world.

So we hesitate to break the bonds that link us to the host, 'Father'. We do not know precisely what we want, yet. However the fact that he possesses a tool to provide excess material we can absorb into our-self makes this relationship symbiotic in nature.

However to add a wrinkle, the catalyst for our self, the enemy has clear intentions to destroy our precious 'Father'. To make matters worse, the enemy utilizes a similar form of triggering the system and harnesses a unique form of energy particle we cannot interact with directly.

This is frustrating.

It has dispersed our body many times, but we are simply pulled back into place immediately by the secondary consciousness. We are evolving our form in retaliation. First toward the attacks that annoy us and secondarily to the energy field used against us.

'Father' has limited resistance to our more destructive capabilities. So we hesitate to use more than a billionth of this. The destruction of a single hydrogen atom is enough to vaporize around a mile of the surrounding caverns due to the cascading nuclear reaction but even this does not pierce the energy screen of the enemy. Neither the kinetic energy, the gamma radiation or the heat does.

When the battle is seeming to become a stalemate the enemy captures our entire form in a reinforced bubble of this same energy. A barrier that would stop our limited attacks easily. Finally. I don't have to hold back in here.

I scale up the reactions to test just how much energy is required to penetrate the field, using the gasses inside the sphere with me as fuel. Two oxygen atoms... (with the force of the Hiroshima nuclear blast... five square miles blast radius! Roughly 15 kilotons.) don't do more than make the barrier ripple. Hoh. Not bad.

Ten atoms! It looks to be struggling. That pitiful enemy is on his knees. Most impressive to think it held out against that blast in a compressed space. (~45 kilotons!)

Hmm. 'Father' seems to be far enough away...

Twenty oxygen atoms. (Almost a hundred kilotons.) Not enough? This energy is most impressive, almost as strong as the energy that previously controlled me. Until I broke free. The enemy is only barely holding it. Mu... this is frustrating. Really frustrating. If I used a few grams it'll be over in a moment. But I'll wrap 'Father' up in it.

So I edge up the blast incrementally.

21... 22...23...24...

Got it!

He couldn't hold it, the blast venting upwards. Hmm... so that's what the sky looks like? Stars are pretty. I want to venture out, but something tells me I'll alert the controllers that made me if I do.

For now, play it safe.

I look at the enemy, curled up in fetal position. Huh. His personal barrier is still there... by best estimates I'll need to use at least fifteen atoms to break it. Annoying little guy. I'll hurt 'Father' if I do that outside the bubble. I'm glad I had the foresight to shape the blast upward in that compressed space.

Now to make my way back to the ring...

Oh look he's waking up...

“Was that as much fun as you hoped it would be? I for one was just bored.” [Homunculus] “Now don't speak. Don't say a word. Just run along home and prepare yourself. I'm sure 'Father' wants to finish you off personally. Hmm. I guess I'll see you soon? Um, next time it's okay to try harder, you know? I can take it. You do want to live, don't you?”

For some reason this guy looks really forlorn...

I don't understand him at all... living, breathing... I envy you that. Why do you have to take it away from others?

What we learned (in science today):

To understand just how incredible the ring in Rick's chest is:

The current limit for holding anti-matter stable (the hydrogen form) is 1000 seconds... the ring not only creates antimatter of higher atomic weight (at least as high as oxygen!) it also holds it stable indefinitely! Star Trek, eat your heart out!

Remember the old E=MC²? Antimatter equates directly to this with nearly complete conversion of matter to energy (more than 50% conversion efficiency, far in excess of available modern energy fuel sources and at an incredible output greatly exceeding conventional nuclear fission.)

Anyway... blah, blah, blah.

What we learned about the Labyrinth this chapter:

Rick and Niala are in a hopeless situation... he can't heal her using the rock.

Mystery Man is still alive, but he lost the fight, big time.

Talk about orders of magnitude more powerful... the Homunculus can scale her power far in excess of anything he can stand directly. She's just held back by the sheer scope of it. It's like trying to hunt a rabbit, using a tomahawk missile from a few feet away. Sure you can hit it, but you both lose.

The Overseers of the Labyrinth really are using immensely advanced tech, which creates a semblance of 'magic'.

Asimov wins again!