Chapter 34

Prototypes

The crystal was not a trap, merely a data archive, albeit crammed with an absurd number of entries for its size and many unknown words of power to its spell.

A quick read shows its content is probably log entries from the creators themselves. Upon realizing this I want to drop everything else to read it but quickly resist the urge; there are too many entries and I came here looking for a way to awaken her remaining siblings, not to satisfy my curiosity... it will have to wait.

Since there is no immediate danger, I see no reason to keep the knights around. “Captain, take the key and see if you can open the displays. Gather the children’s bodies and cores, along with any documentation you can find, then prepare them from transportation. If the workers are still around, ask them to lend you some anti-gravity platforms or some crates.”

The last part was probably too obvious, but the captain answers politely. “Yes, my lord, it will be done.”

Back in the archive room, I take a quick flight around the shelves but there is no marking, magic or otherwise… No marking? No catalog? How is anyone supposed to find anything in this mess?

I fly to the platform overlooking the place. If there is something, then it will be there! As soon as I set foot near the edge, a chair raises seamlessly from the ground behind me as to prove me right and when I sit in, a floating interface appears.

Good thing there was nobody around: I can pretend I never spent the last half-hour flying around like a fool.

The interface is a marvel of ergonomics, nothing like our half-baked attempts. It is riddled with discreet help notes, and there is even has a detailed guide to all of its functions. Apparently, by inputting one or more keywords, it will display the corresponding archives, along with summaries and then a simple touch will bring the corresponding crystal to the user.

I obviously enter ‘Children‘ for my first attempt.

“Three hundred and eighty-two responses?!”

I cannot be bothered to read through so many summaries, I have to narrow it down a little. I try adding ‘organic’ but it makes very little difference. Next, is... 13055?

“Yes,” Now we are talking.” there are only two answers!”

One is a reference book written by the 13055th, detailing her methods, spells and thankfully the schematics for all of her creations. The other is a manual on artificial souls and spirits, from an unknown author, but it has an incredibly long list of commentaries by others, including the Queen’s mother herself.

Artificial soul? I try using it as a keyword but there is only one result, the very manual from earlier. With enough commentaries to fill three or four books, how come no one took the pain to compile one?

I reenter my previous search, validate the results and Half-a-dozen of seconds later, a tray comes out of the ground with the two crystals. That was fast... maybe too fast.

I read the one by the 13055th first, but it does not go well: it lacks explanations, and when there are some, they are mostly referencing the soul and spirit book, or the commentaries.

Since I do not seem to have much choice, I read that one instead and it quickly becomes clear why no one bothered writing another one: it is insanely detailed, although very deliberately incomplete. The commentaries help somewhat, but whoever wrote this manual was even more soulless than I am.

I have never seen work this devoid of personality, another thing that stands out, is the lack of experimental data. Her Majesty mother’s work is the complete opposite, it is filled with the writer’s quirks and passion for the subject – she was truly very unlike the rest of our kind, as I suspected – as well as the backing experimental data.

There is no mistaking it, this manual is a hand-me-down from the creators and that they purposely left some parts out.

Nevertheless, it is enough to serve my purpose and more. Using some newly learned words, I quickly devise a spell to look at myself and... the term soulless was right on the money, I do not have one of those anymore. More importantly, my spirit is gravely damaged, as I thought all the perks from undeath come at a cost.

There is not much I can do about that for now, what I am searching for... there they are: the traces of my programming! It seems to have taken the most damage, but I can still read parts of the directive which include: a directive to protect the vault and the city over it, a ban against study necromancy, resurrection and research on souls.

It will take me some time before I can digest this information. I heard from the dragon that we were artificial beings, but I did not expect to find so many restrictions. A part of me complains that it is unfair, the Queen was only able to do what she did because she was not restricted in her development, but I dismiss it: this part of me is biased and does not give justice to her... to our people’s accomplishments.

Coming back to the ‘Children museum’, I find a group of children and knights attacking the displays. Unbothered by the fruitlessness of their efforts, they keep on hurting themselves against the immovable glassey panels.

Confused by the situation, I call to the nearest knight, but not only does he not rescind in his effort, he makes no effort to look in my direction. This behavior could not be more unknightly, and it gets me so worried that I hurriedly set out to find the others.

Sadly, teleport is somehow blocked inside the Vault which means I will have to make my way among the insane children and knights. Thankfully, they do not seem to register my existence at all, and after passing them and I soon find myself at the entrance, where the rest of my guards are fighting against their insane brethren.

I have to help them, but who is who? “How can I find the enemy?!”

“Don’t bother, put everyone down!” Screams a lieutenant.

I do as he asks and put everyone else down.

“Thank you, my lord. They are worse than any undead I have ever seen. No matter how much you hurt them and break them, they get back up after only a short while… and to make things worse, anyone who dies instantly joins their ranks.”

“What do we do?” Whatever those abominations are, I know I am the one who set them free by opening the room downstairs.

“Let’s start by assuming that anyone who does not answer is one of them.”

As proposed by the lieutenant, I free anyone who can speak, then still at his demand, burn to cinders those who cannot. Knowing how much importance they attach to proper funerals, I ask. “Is this really alright?”

“Yes, my lord! Any of us would rather burn than let our bodies manipulated by those things!”

With the one still inside, it makes eleven dead… eleven out of forty, among them the captain and the other lieutenant. Once again, it was my boundless curiosity that led them to an early grave… only there will be no grave for them to remember the fallen.

“It is my fault, the warnings could not be more obvious, and I chose to ignore them. How did it happen?!”

“Unclear, sir. As soon as we opened the displays, the Children attacked us. They were very clumsy so we thought we could just push them back in then close the displays but three of us joined in the attack and things got worse from there.”

“We are lucky they can only steal the bodies and not the knowledge, or by now we’d all be dead.”

Relentless undead with insanely fast regeneration and the strength and techniques of great Korok knights… I shudder thinking about the kind of damage they could do to TheNewCity.

Bitter, another knight comments. “They won’t stay down. I cut my friends’ heads and arms and they… those bloody things were up not even ten seconds later, acting as though nothing ever happened!”

“Thank for, sir, for destroying them... I couldn’t bear mutilating my comrades’ bodies any longer.”

“Get out, close the door behind,” I order. “I will eradicate those pieces of garbage!”

“My lord,” Says the lieutenant and last surviving officer. “I cannot let you go alone.”

I refuse, but he follows me anyway.

“We must gather information first, learn what they are and how many.”

This is sensible. Destroying them here would certainly satisfy my vengeance, but I would rather not learn later that I let some go and cause a catastrophe somewhere else. Even though I understand it all, I still feel like destroying them on sight, to make them suffer… even though it is probably impossible.

I try to control myself, but as soon as we get them in sight I am overtaken by rage and blast the first two with Sha bolts.

The lieutenant shouts. “My lord, remember! We must study them first!”

“Yes, you are right… Thank you for reminding me, lieutenant.” The ones I attacked are already up… my anger really did serve no purpose.

I think it is safe to look at the room without my usual filters as there should not be so many living things inside, but I still exert caution and remove them one by one until I see... hundreds of light balls bouncing around the display and as many gathering around the children.

I try to explain. “They look like ghosts, but they do not have the feel of undeath. They are neither spirits nor elementals. Something about them feels... abnormal… incomplete, but whatever they are, there are too many to count.”

I try to speak the nearest reanimated knight. “Do you want the bodies inside?”

At first, I believe it is going to ignore me like the others but it turns to attacks the lieutenant and I have to stop it by blasting it with a Sha bolt.

The body falls down, dead as a doornail. A light comes out, only to be replaced by another one and a few seconds the burnt parts repair themselves and the corpse gets up to pound on the display.

I did not have time to properly analyze the healing, but it had nothing to do with natural regeneration… at the very least, I know it used mana, so putting them in a mana-deprived environment should bring a stop to this endless cycle of regeneration.

I kill it again, and the freshly repaired body lunges towards the lieutenant, only to suffer the same fate as its predecessor. This time though, I use gravity to hold it down to the ground.

“They are dumb beyond belief.” Comments the officer after listening to my explanations. “It’s like they are obsessed with getting a body but have no idea what to do with one.”

I finally succumb to my guilt. “I am sorry, they must have been imprisoned in the deepest chamber and seeing how have conveniently gathered here, I suspect this place was intended to stop them. This too failed because of me.

“I see, then it is a good thing we did not collect the bodies before going down.”

Is that all he has to say? In many ways, the Koroks are as foreign to me as those creatures.

Are those things even alive? They act like golems, mindlessly trying to accomplish their task, but lacking the tools and knowledge to perform it properly.

I study one of the spheres and find it similar to an artificial soul but with elements of spirit and elemental. The truly frightening thing about those chimeras is their programming: animate, and nothing else. How is that enough to move? To possess and control others?

Still, the simplicity of their function in itself tells a lot: they are early prototypes, early experiments that had to be confined due to some unforeseen incident. Looking at them now, it is all too easy to imagine what kind.

It still begs the question, why bother to keep them at all? Unless they were meant as a trap… in which case I did a magnificent job of springing it.

I ‘kill’ multiple knights and a single child, and every single light gathers around the child before spreading to the other, the opposite though, does not stand true.

“Lieutenant, they seem to have a strong preference for artificial bodies. I do not think they will target you as long as you don’t present an easier target than the children.

The light balls probably do not have the intelligence to look further away once they settled on a quarry. With that in mind, I immobilize a child and bring it along with us to the surface. As expected, the spheres orbiting the knights are quick to go for my bait.

“I am sorry but I cannot bring you home. You will have to travel with the workers or wait until I am done.

“We will wait if it’s alright with you. There is more than enough food and water to sustain everyone for weeks, we’ll just ask the worker to leave whatever they can then hunt for the rest.”

“Are you sure? It could take weeks, maybe months.”

“Absolutely, sir. Anything sounds better than explaining to the Queen why we came back without you.”

I look at him blankly. She is so kind; she would never hold it against them.