novelzi Ch 2.25: Parley
Ch 2.25: Parley
Ch 2.25: Parley
Elaina knew what she had to do to the golem, but she still wasn’t quite sure how. Temmie had done her best to explain, but standing there on top of the overturned creature, fully knowing she would be crushed if she failed, it wasn’t exactly a comforting feeling. She let those feelings fall to the side though, focusing only on the task at hand, activating [Personal Restraint] and locking herself into her fate, no matter what the outcome was. Upstodatee from
She closed her eyes, letting her aspect reach out into the golem, into the crystal core she was was kneeling on. She thought she felt something now that she touched it directly, something that wasn’t quite there before, and she honed in on that sensation, the slight familiarity that Temmie described to her.
A software lock. Elaina still didn’t really know what it was, but she’d felt it before, released this version of Temmie from one back in the first dungeon. It had been easier to feel back then once she knew what it was, but she could still feel it now, deep in the depths of the golem’s core. It was faint, merely the suggestion of a possible restraint, but it was there.
Pushing towards the center of the core was an alien feeling to her. It was like swimming through honey, a nearly futile effort, but maybe technically possible? It felt like she was getting nowhere as she waded through with her mind, but [Restraint] was calling to her, seemingly louder and louder with each movement she made, even if she felt stuck in place.
But she wasn’t alone. She could feel it, the golem itself. Not the clusters of sparkling rock that comprised its body, not even the crystal core at its heart, but the very being of the golem. It was alive, the same as Elaina, and it didn’t like someone wading around its soul.
Leave.
It wasn’t a voice, wasn’t even a sound. It was just the command, information implanted directly into her mind the same as when she received a new skill. “I can’t leave. I have to stop you.”
Not leave me. Leave this place. Do not return.
“I can’t do that either.”
Then I must stop you.
The feeling of thick honey became suffocating, walling Elaina out from the goal she was swimming towards. She was losing her connection to the core, slipping down and away from the golem’s soul. “Please, I have to do this. You’re hurting people!”
People hurt this chamber first.
Elaina saw it, a group of eleven people with pickaxes and baskets. They were in a section of the cave Elaina didn’t recognize, one that must be deeper in, hacking away at crystals off the wall, tossing them into baskets they were carrying on their backs. They were laughing and talking, but Elaina couldn’t understand their words. It was garbled speech, unintelligible.
The golem resisted, but Temmie was right. Elaina was powerful enough to overcome the creature’s resistance. It was easier and easier as she moved forward, both to move and breathe. Finally reaching the back of the monster’s soul, she could feel it, the very essence of life in its heart. Getting here was the hard part, but now that she was it would only be a trivial matter to end the golem’s entire being.
Why do you not end me. You are stronger.
“I told you... I’m not here to hurt you. I don’t want to hurt the planet.”
Yet you persist.
“It’s not that easy. I have to do this.”
I understand.
Did it? How could it? “Is this enough? If I leave you alone now, is that enough to prove to you that I’m not here to hurt anything?”
For a while there was nothing, just Elaina in the swirling void of the creature’s soul. In the silence, she could feel the pulse of the golem as if it was her own heartbeat.
I know not why you would offer such a thing, but I accept this deal.
Elaina knew she shouldn’t listen. Getting here had taken nearly all of her mana, and she wouldn’t be able to make it back if she left back into her own body. “We’re here to look, but we won’t take anything from the cave. Is that okay?”
This is acceptable. I will not harm you or your companions. I make no promises for other intruders.
Doubt in her heart, Elaina pulled back with her mind. It was instant, and she gasped as she felt herself back inside her own body, falling to the floor off of the golem’s chest as [Personal Restraint] released.
“Elaina, are you okay?” It was Tira shouting, but the sound of the golem’s deep rumbling groan drowned it out.