Beneath the faint and distant starlight, an imnse and ancient deity lood, its form resembling a colossal range of star-shaped mountains. This being, ancient beyond comprehension, emitted a deep and resonant trembling sound. Its voice possessed a formidable power, one so intense that even the most steadfast humans could be driven to madness. It held the strength to unravel the very fabric and order of reality. Yet, when Duncan encountered this voice, all he sensed was a profound sense of weariness and frailty.
This was the weariness accumulated over ten thousand years, a weight borne from carrying the burdens of an entire world on its shoulders.
Duncan had arrived ard with nurous questions, but upon hearing the voice that seed to emanate from the dark, star-shaped mountains, his initial question concerned Alice: “Was it you who intentionally released that ‘tentacle’ from the icy depths of the deep frost sea? LH-03… Navigator Three, what’s the aning behind all this? Why did you send Navigator Three to our world under the guise of ‘Alice’?”
The mountainous figure in the shadows paused montarily before responding with its deep, vibrating voice: “This was the only thod to ensure LH-03 remained functional… My central programming is descending into disorder, and I can no longer maintain the simulated environnt essential for LH-03.”
Shirley and Dog, shielded by their captain, sohow kept their sanity intact. Yet, as they listened to the exchange between their captain and the Nether Lord, they found themselves questioning their own understanding. They recognized every word spoken but couldn’t grasp the aning of the conversation – what was this ‘core program’? And what did they an by a ‘sandbox’?
But it was evident that their captain, Duncan, was fully aware of the nature of his dialogue with this formidable, ancient deity.
After pondering for a few seconds, Duncan pieced together the information and formulated a hypothesis about the situation the Nether Lord – also known as Navigator One – was describing.
“So, you’re implying… that after the destruction of New Hope, LH-03 has been functioning within you?”
The mountainous deity replied: “It appears you’re already quite inford.”
Duncan hesitated slightly before responding with a nod, “I discovered that key.”
He was confident the Nether Lord would comprehend the significance of “the key.”
As Duncan anticipated, the Nether Lord understood imdiately and responded with a low, gentle hum, indicating acknowledgnt, before slowly saying: “Given your knowledge of the New Hope… our discussion can proceed more straightforwardly. Indeed, everything is as you have deduced.”
The entity then lapsed into silence, possibly sifting through the myriad fragnts of its ancient mories stored in its extensive database, or maybe pondering how to succinctly explain the events that transpired at the dawn of history. After a brief pause, Duncan heard the low whisper of the ancient god from the dark mountain range:
“In the beginning, there were three of us.”
Lights flickered across the body of this ancient deity, resembling the flow of galaxies it had observed over eons.
“Our creators were a race of profound wisdom and resilience. Prior to the calamity that befell them, they managed to slow the flow of ti, crafting a temporal bubble. Within this ti-altered capsule, which to them was a century, they constructed a monuntal ship and brought the three of us into existence.”
“I erged first, tasked with the monuntal role of reconstructing our civilization upon the New Hope reaching its destined haven. They bestowed upon the dual capabilities of creation and replication, empowering to comprehend and reconstruct any form of matter.”
“After my birth, Navigator Two ca into being. Its purpose was to oversee the ark’s myriad functions, assimilating and processing a deluge of digital information. With our creators in hibernation, it assud the role of their collective consciousness, steering the fate of our voyage.”
“Navigator Three, though the smallest, held a crucial role. It was charged with navigating a safe trajectory through the cosmic expanse. To fulfill this, it compiled an exhaustive atlas of all known stars and their evolutionary patterns, while also managing the ark’s propulsion systems.”
As Duncan watched, the serpentine and colossal form of the mountain range montarily dimd, then gradually reignited, its grandeur now fully visible.
“I yearn to share with you the story of our creators’ civilization. It was a civilization of unparalleled splendor, a jewel amidst the cosmos, but… its light has been extinguished, lost to the distant stars. The inadequacies of language fail to capture even a fragnt of its forr glory. All I can convey is that, on a fateful day, our journey comnced. We were the bearers of our civilization’s legacy.”
“In the final monts before departure, I was commanded to consu our creators’ ho planet. I archived everything from its surface into a mory vault, prepared for eventual replication. Navigator Three identified the most promising sanctuary among the stars, and at the precise mont the ti capsule shattered, it ignited the engines. Navigator Two then assud control of the ship’s systems, safeguarding the dormant minds of our creators in its vast consciousness… As the deep red hue of the apocalypse engulfed everything, we embarked on our journey.”
“The loss of our database ans I can no longer pinpoint the duration of our journey. What I am certain of is that we pressed onward, following the course charted by Navigator Three. The crimson tide of destruction chased us across the universe, stars imploding in our wake, the very fabric of space-ti unraveling behind us. The universe gradually ca undone, and everything eventually strayed far from what had been recorded in our database.”
“In truth, Navigator Two had foreseen the outco of our journey from the outset. Its capability to predict the end results of events ant that our voyage’s conclusion had always been within its calculations.”
“After our final leap through hyperspace, we reached what should have been a safe haven, as deduced by Navigator Three. Yet, under the scrutiny of our probes, this ‘safe’ new ho crumbled away.”
“The stars abruptly extinguished, a resplendent light burst forth from a colossal rift, and our ship plunged into it. We were bombarded with innurable fragnts, the ship’s shields and hull bearing the brunt of this cosmic onslaught. A bizarre realm, foreign to our universe, collided with its boundary. This was the final ssage transmitted by Navigator Two before its signal warped beyond recognition. Following that, our ship disintegrated.”
“This destruction… it obliterated the ark world within the ship. The navigation cabin, where Navigator Three resided, suffered the most catastrophic damage – its physical form was rent asunder.”
The vibrations emanating from within the star-shaped mountain range montarily quieted, and before Duncan, a ‘river’ materialized. It shimred with a faint blue light, snaking across the ground like a viscous fluid reflecting the stars from the direction of the mountain range. It flowed past Alice and then gently receded into the earth, causing the doll to widen her eyes in astonishnt at this spectacle.
“I exerted every effort to salvage our ark, Navigator Three included,” the ancient deity’s voice, low and resonant, once again reached Duncan, “I absorbed everything within my reach, storing it in the ‘Creator’s Vault.’ I also engulfed the remnants of LH-03, preserving its data within my own backup database… My intent was to safeguard every aspect of the ark world because, as we traversed that rift, I had already witnessed the imminent collapse of our original universe.”
“The creators charged with reconstructing our civilization, and now, we represent the remnants of that legacy.”
In the enveloping darkness, the deep vibrations gradually diminished, and Duncan stood in contemplation, silent for an extended period, until he finally broke the silence: “But you are deteriorating.”
“Everything is in decline, Fla Usurper. This apocalypse hasn’t ceased; it’s rely been postponed — my current frailty is but a minor facet of its ongoing course,” replied the Nether Lord, more calmly than Duncan had expected, “Yet the creators, despite facing minimal hope, still forged the New Hope. Even after foreseeing our journey’s end, Navigator Two still sanctioned our voyage because the creators believed it’s better to act, however futile, than resign to inaction.”
“Hence, I dispatched LH-03 into your world… although at that ti, I was uncertain of its significance or the potential outcos. To prevent unchecked proliferation, I disconnected from that segnt of the data carrier, so…”
There was a montary pause as if the being was carefully selecting its words, and then the star-like lights flickered anew: “To be honest, when I observed LH-03’s current ‘condition’… I was taken aback. It deviated from the original plan.”
“The ‘data carrier’ you released took on a human guise, encasing LH-03 within it — she’s now known as Alice,” Duncan said softly, “Frankly, the entire process seed rather improvised.”
“…But despite the odds, LH-03 endured and ultimately led you to ,” the ancient god remarked.
Duncan’s brow furrowed slightly in response: “Was orchestrating our eting part of your plan?”
“No, I do not possess the predictive capabilities of LH-02. My primary functions are replication and creation. However… I do believe in the concept of fate, and sotis, fate plays a hand in guiding events.”
“…It’s sowhat surreal to hear a machine speak of believing in fate,” Duncan comnted with a bemused expression, “…Is it alright if I refer to you as a ‘machine’?”
“Not at all, I find the term rather endearing. It has been a long ti since anyone has addressed in such a manner,” the Nether Lord replied with equanimity, “So, what more do you wish to learn?”
After a brief pause, Duncan posed a different question, “Rather than focusing on what I seek to understand, perhaps you could elucidate your intentions. You made considerable efforts to establish a line of communication with at Alice’s mansion and then guided to this enigmatic location. This eting surely extends beyond re idle conversation… What is it that you expect of ?”
This inquiry was t with a prolonged silence from the entity resembling a “mountain range” shrouded in darkness, its constellation of lights and dark blue streams montarily fading as if into oblivion. Shirley and Dog began to grow anxious, wondering if the Nether Lord had sohow been ‘defeated’ by Duncan’s question. Then, just as their concern peaked, the lights and flows surged back to life with renewed vigor.
“Usurper of Fire, would you be willing to assu responsibility for all of this?”
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