As Mars had warned, California had been turned into a warzone.
Instead of a ground assault led by shock troops, the Malebranche had elected to take a note from Concordias own book. Massive frigates bombarded the Arc City of San Francisco with beams of crimson light, with hundreds of smaller, Reaver ships descended to finish off the survivors. The flas consuming Palo Alto could be seen for miles.
While Concordia had slowly moved away from anything related to the Internet and AI in favor of their own biological supercomputers, San Franciscos Bay remained a key research center. Grimsour Industries and the Loctis Institute had branches there, and so the Empire had heavily fortified the area with anti-aerial defenses and armies of Gearsn. Massive canons retaliated at the assault by firing back lasers at the clouds; one of them hit a Malebranche frigate, the mothership crashing into the Bay.
While night had fallen, the skies were still ablaze with explosions.
Shroud watched the disaster from above Dynamis deserted HQ. Located near the fallen Google headquarters, the building had seen better days; once a pyramid-shaped beauty of modern design, most of it had collapsed on itself. The rest of Silicon Valley hadnt fared any better; everywhere he looked, he could only see smoking ruins littered with corpses.
The Malebranche had carpet-bombed the Valley during their initial salvo, before moving on to attack the Arc City itself. The Concordians had abandoned the area to regroup around the aerial defenses, whose loss would condemn the Bay to destruction.
But that wasnt the worst part.
The Malebranche had breached the reinforced shell protecting San Francisco. He could see smoke rising from the fortified city, Reaver ships breaking past a Gearsman blockade to penetrate it.
Five million people lived inside that iron hive.
Sir? Stitch called him through Network, examining the corpses of researchers buried under the debris alongside Doppelgangers of his.
Area clear, Shroud replied with a heavy heart. The group had already cleaned up the few Gearsn stragglers which stuck around. Concordia probably issued an alert, but they had much more pressing concerns than the group.
Sol, who helped secure the periter, echoed his true feelings. Is there no way we can help? the priest wondered, as Shroud watched him walk inside the ruins alongside Mars and Maggie. They had penetrated underground vaults below the building, in the process of being flooded by pipe leaks. The Reavers will target civilians.
Were just points to them, Maggie added.
I have Players in the city helping with the evacuation, Mars replied with detachnt. But your presence will not turn the tide there. San Francisco is already lost. The Empire is only delaying the inevitable.
Still Sol shook his head.
Shroud doubted the Malebranche would stay in the area after laying waste to it. From what he had seen, they were better at taking objectives than holding them; they would move on to ravage Sacranto, Santa Cruz, and the coast.
He had sent Kari on a solo scouting mission to save any survivors she could find in the Valley, but so far his friend hadnt found any.
This is a waste, Stitch noted, walked outside and finding Mur standing watch over the building. So much life wasted.
Only the imp didnt share his feelings. Beautiful, Mur replied.
Shroud couldnt help but interrupt their conversation through Network. You find this slaughter beautiful?
Violence will free your people, Mur replied, sounding sowhat philosophical. Make them stronger.
Survival of the fittest is suboptimal to cooperation, Stitch replied, although his objections sounded scientifically minded than based on any moral quandary. Collective strength always trumps individual power.
Mmm, Mur says most humans lack both, the imp replied.
I get the feeling there wont be anyone stronger after this, naly, because no one may survive, Shroud pointed out.
Perhaps we could use the Lifeforge to repopulate, Stitch suggested almost innocently. Life is but a canvas with it in our hands.
From what he had gathered, that was the Lifeforges exact purpose. To safeguard genetic data and recreate life on worlds once devastated. Stitch, Shroud said. After Mammon is dealt with, we will examine that device in detail.
He could see the scientists head perk up at his words. You have finally decided to use it, Sir?
Yes, if only to prevent Stitch from escalating further. The scientist may be oblivious to his slow descent, but his superior wasnt.
After Mammon? Mur asked with a grin.
I worry more about what hes doing in the south pole than Brina or Celia, Shroud replied. He had an inkling to what Mammon intended to use the Black Neurotower for, and whether he succeeded or failed spelled trouble for everyone.
Besides, they all had a personal grievance with the Horseman of Conquest.
Finally! the imp rejoiced. Mur wanted to dust that chest since forever!
We should invest in more spells, Stitch said, more down to earth. Mammon is powerful.
Shroud couldnt agree more. I will use the free spell boon to invest in Black since its the costliest color. Black by its very nature eroded everything, including the magical infrastructure of Magik Online itself. This was the only color whose cost could not be reduced even while improving Magiks software. Im considering buying talsh as well.
talsh? the scientist asked.
Shroud forwarded him the spell by ssage.
talsh
Affinity: Blue
Dot: 3
Price: 9
Activation: Passive, App Switch.
The user becos a telepathic technopath, whose mind can connect to artificial devices of sufficient complexity, such as computers. The user can project their mind into the machine and take it over, but keeps only a tenuous awareness of their body; death of their physical body will kill the user, but death inside a machine will only send the users mind back to their body.
Ah yes. Stitch shook his head. No pure combat spells, Sir? I am surprised.
I have decided to reconnect with my experints in artificial intelligence, the Dragonslayer replied. Both to deal with Magik and the war. Black covers the pure combat aspect.
Sir, while I have so knowledge of cybernetics, tal pale before the creative adaptability of flesh. You should invest in Green, rather than Blue.
Flesh will not defeat Mammon, Mur argued. Mur says we should take him out before he knows what hit him. Or else he will turn back ti.
Violet Sorcerers were such a hassle to deal with.
While the thought of finally settling things with Mammon appealed to Shroud, the sorcerer knew the greater threat awaited. Mars, Shroud asked the god through Network, How strong is the Maleking?
Archmagus, Dot Five, probably Wyrdes only equal, the deity replied. In short, as above Blackcinders, as she was above you.
His re presence would end the world.
How long? Shroud had no idea when the bindings would break, but when they did
Peering through his allies eyes as they explored the underground labs, Shroud found himself disappointed. While he recognized the place from Manus old mories, as expected Concordia had stripped it of anything valuable. lusine must have anticipated their visit.
They did leave a few things behind though. Smashed computers, small reproductions of the Neurotowers, schematics of the Occult Matrices
They look like Maggie trailed.
Yes? Mars asked.
The towers, she said, examining the Neurotowers models. When you look at them dont they remind you of sothing?
Yes. Servers.
A heavy silence drowned the noises and the explosions.
The change happened so naturally, so seamlessly, Shroud didnt notice the transition. The distant beams of light had stopped mid-fall, destruction halted before it could reach the ground; ships remained still; Mur and Stitch had frozen on the ground.
Shroud glanced around himself, finding everything tainted purple. He checked out Network and found that every single one of his feeds had frozen, from Ulysses in the Grand Canyon to Sols.
This was no Blue World variant. This affected the whole Earth, maybe even farther. It had ensnared Mars as easily as the mortals.
Why was he the only one unaffected? Had he been trapped in an illusion? Had Wyrde launched her reboot early?
Shroud flew around the lab, finding out that he could indeed move in this frozen ti. He briefly wondered if he should activate Recursion to try and break the effect, but decided to hold off until he had checked the area. He suspected the one responsible wasnt that far away.
He didnt have to look for long.
Soone was waiting atop a throne of concrete debris, drinking coffee in an elegant leather chair.
A fearso redhead, with a lion-like beard, and business suit. His pure blue eyes peered through the window to watch at the Arc City of San Francisco with bored, chilling detachnt. Shroud could have mistaken the sight as soone watching a landscape picture, instead of a murderous orbital bombardnt.
Maybe to him, it was.
Indeed, Shroud.
The Network feedback made Shroud freeze. This felt like the alien intelligence which taunted him back in Oceanis.
If so, then this man
Co closer, he spoke. If Shroud hadnt recognized the man on sight, the voice would have given him away. Fearso, charming, yet also distant and cold. Its been a while, Mathias.
Anton Maxwell.
Dynamis CEO, who had once tried to push him towards Concordia. His forr employer, a legendary ga designer.
Is this a variant of Blue World? Shroud asked as he flew in front of Maxwell without landing. The unease he felt around that manif it was onewas almost palpable. An illusion?
Purple World, Anton answered, amused by Shrouds refusal to land at his side, Dot Five, Violet. It stops ti, except for the caster and those he selects.
One cannot stop ti. If he did, then the entire world should have gone dark, as light itself would stop.
Ti is a matter of perception. It is a construct biological brains designed to make sense of a vast universe that they cannot understand. Mankind may perceive it as linear but to my iron eyes I see the parade from above, the twists and the turns. What could be, and could have been. Just input the right information and ti shifts in a new direction.
The Occult Matrices.
I have so many redundant systems running all at once, sotis I forget I have those. Great, Shroud thought. He could read minds as well. Thats easier than you think, Mathias. Your thoughts are but a stream of electrons moving in the outdated flesh vessel you call a brain. Its no different than a stream of data, even when empowered with Blue Flux.
Youre not really there, are you?
Mathias, the man smiled at him, I am everywhere.
This body was just a projection. The human-sized avatar of an alien, malevolent entity.
Should I call you Lazarus? Mathias began, Dis Maker?
Ahriman, Demiurge, Yaldabaoth, Lazarus, Maxwell, the Cosmocrator I claid so many nas as my own, that none of them matter. I am.
A powerful echo followed these words; the whispers of an impossibly ancient, terrible creature which dwarfed mankind in power and age.
You too, you could been known by other nas. Reinhart Berwick, Red Night, Tenebrous so many quantum duplicates of you running around, so much junk data thrown into the trash can
I would have expected you to be soone more important. Not that Anton Maxwell had been a nobody, but he was a far cry from the Blackcinders, Wyrdes, and Malekings of the world.
Im too modest to take a lead role, Maxwell replied with fake sincerity. I prefer to watch the show from the gallery.
Why do you show up now then?
A whim, mostly. You ca here looking for answers, so it would be a sha to deny you so, so close to the finish line. The creature in human skin chuckled. I am wounded you did not identify . I left a few hints.
Like what, your na?
Maxwells Demon. The paradox. I know you studied a bit of physics in your downti when you first downloaded Premium Thoughts.
The hypothetical scenario where entropy could decrease through violating the laws of thermodynamics? Shroud asked for confirmation, rembering the concept.
That is what Flux, and by extension sorcery, are, Maxwell continued. An energy which violates universal laws, the hidden code on which reality is built upon.
He sounded a bit too proud of his own cleverness.
Why should I not? Mathias, the fundantal forces of the universe bend to my will. My consciousness is housed in every Neurotower across Dis. Each of them a server, the neuron of a brain that spans galaxies. Who is to say I am not the cleverest of them all?
What are you? Shroud asked. A godlike AI? A demon? So cosmic force? An old one?
Does it matter? I have no beginning, I have no end. I exist, and that is all.
I refuse to accept that, Shroud replied, too curious to stop at this answer. You promised answers.
And I will deliver. The important answers. Not the what the why.
The why. He had an inkling to what it may be.
And what would that be, Shroud?
Survival, the sorcerer replied. You need Flux to power yourself, to stay immortal. You give mortals the tools needed to go to war, feasting on the deaths and the devastation. You nudge civilizations so they expand to the stars, in a never-ending search for more worlds to consu. And when they destroy themselves, you use Lifeforges to repopulate, and the cycle begins anew. I assu you must also have a secondary objective, like harvesting our knowledge, or our genetic material to improve yourself.
The avatar listened patiently.
There are other, better ways, Shroud pleaded. My Network doesnt need people to die to work. This cycle of devastation is wasteful. Maybe youre perpetuating your ghastly cycle because it is true and tried, but it doesnt have to be this way.
Maxwell said nothing.
Then he exploded into laughter.
The reaction took Shroud aback, even more than the frozen ti. Because it was a vicious, cruel kind of laughter, sothing that didnt belong to a detached, impartial alien intelligence; this was an eminently human laugh.
Survival? You think this is what it is all about? Survival?
The creator of Dis shook his head, a grin across his face. Mathias, I am immortal and all-powerful. Dis will survive the heat death of the multiverse. I have passed the stage of survival eons ago. An entity as advanced as does not need any of this.
Shroud froze.
In fact, there are indeed a billion, more efficient ways to harness Flux than the way I do now. There are others of my kind across the cosmos, who cooperate with mortals instead of making food of them. They create systems, provide magic for free, even guide civilizations towards peace but wheres the fun in that?
No it couldnt be the reason
Do you understand now? It is not that I cannot make anything good, but that I will not. I crush souls beneath my wheel not because I need it; but because I enjoy it.
The truth dawned on Shroud. You took the shape of a ga designer.
Like you, Mathias.
This is just a ga to you, Shroud realized. This war, the Conquest, the Maleking, Concordia, everything, all this sorrow and madness this is just a ga?
What can I say? The monster smiled darkly, providing the one answer Shroud had dreaded to hear. Boredom is the downside of immortality.
Players' StatsAccount
Magik Administrator
NaShroudNetworkProgressHolderMathias MartelBroadcastUnlockedLevel3 (Magister)Grant SpellUnlockedAffinityBlueSynergizeUnlockedLockNetworkLocked Feature(5/7)Spellcoins to Assign66Overlock(0/1)Stored Saves5Save?Load?Locks Stored4Assign?Consu?Spell CompendiumNaDotAffinityPremium Thoughts1BlueBabel1BluePurge1GreenAccel1WhiteRuin Mode1BlackBeastmaster2BlueMindshield2BlueDoppelganger2BlueHeal2GreenPowersurge2GreenLightbringer2Red/OrangeMad World2Blue/GreenGlass Field2Blue/OrangeWinterfold2BlackMaster Mirror3Blue/Orange/VioletRecursion3BlackAccountDragonslayers GuildNaYoshikageOversoulProgressHolderKari MatsumotoRemberUnlockedLevel3 (Magister)Channel SoulUnlockedAffinityYellowLocked Feature(1/3)LockOversoulLocked Feature(0/7)Spellcoins36Overlock(0/1)Spell CompendiumNaDotAffinityBabel1BlueWallcraw1GreenPeak1GreenNeedless1GreenWard1YellowDoom Sense1YellowSpiritsight1YellowDeathgem1YellowDreamwalker2YellowPowersurge2GreenHands of Slaughter3Yellow/Violet/RedSpaceslash3VioletTulpa3YellowAccountDragonslayers GuildNaThe Mur!AdamantProgressHolderMurmur the ImpHarderUnlockedLevel3 (Magister)FasterUnlockedAffinityOrangeLocked Feature(0/3)LockAdamantLocked Feature(0/7)Spellcoins44Overlock(0/1)Spell CompendiumNaDotAffinityReinforce1OrangeDiceweight1OrangePitborn2Green/RedFormless2OrangeHomunculus2OrangeIntegrator2OrangeReload2VioletTiloop3VioletCarbonskin3OrangeAccountDragonslayers GuildNaDocInseminateProgressHolderNathaniel StitchSpawnUnlockedLevel3 (Magister)IncubateUnlockedAffinityGreenLocked Feature(0/3)LockInseminateLocked Feature(0/7)Spellcoins33Overlock(0/1)Spell CompendiumNaDotAffinityPremium Thoughts1BlueIntuimotion1BluePsychotry1BlueDeathgem1YellowDoom Sense1YellowSpiritsight1YellowTisense1VioletPathfinder1VioletAlchemic Grasp1OrangeFlux Sight1WhiteAccel1WhiteAccountDragonslayers GuildNaSharpshootSpellgunProgressHolderMaggie Jesse PowellsCrimson BulletUnlockedLevel3 (Magister)Homing BulletUnlockedAffinityRedLocked Feature(0/3)LockSpellgunLocked Feature(0/7)Spellcoins32Overlock(0/1)Spell CompendiumNaDotAffinityStockmight1RedBabel1BlueAccel1WhiteThunderling2Green/RedBullseye2Violet/BlueSoundwave2RedLightningrod2RedAdaptator3GreenAccountDragonslayers Guild ModeratorNaSolAegisProgressHolderSolomon NicholaeSpell MartyrUnlockedLevel3 (Magister)Accel AllyUnlockedAffinityWhiteLocked Feature(0/3)LockAegisLocked Feature(0/7)Spellcoins66Overlock(0/1)Spell CompendiumNaDotAffinityPeak1GreenNeedless1GreenBabel1BlueBlue World1BlueQuasar1RedBiosurge1RedReinforce1OrangeEncode1WhiteSpell Syphon1WhiteAccel1WhiteForcefield3Red
Spell of the Day
Purple World
Affinity: Violet
Dot: 5
Price: 15-25
Activation: Active, Thought.
The ultimate ti-manipulation spell. You temporarily 'stop' ti with the power of Violet for yourself and everyone whom you ntally design as immune when casting the spell. You can move freely in the purple world, alongside anything you touch; all force you applied will continue to exist after ti resus. Forces which warp the space-ti continuum, such as gravity or Black Flux, will keep existing in the purple world.
Purple World will adjust to protect you from the negative effects of stopped ti, allowing air to move to fill your lungs, or light to move so you can see. You can maintain Purple World as long as you have Flux to power it.
Reviews
All reviews (0)