novelzi [317] 4.38 Base Infiltration IV
[317] 4.38 Base Infiltration IV
“So, do we wait out here, or do we go ahead inside and try our luck with whatever awaits us inside?” I ask Clara after we’ve had a few moments to rest and reorient ourselves. “I have to assume that the rest of them aren’t just going to come out of their own volition. Not after this.”“We head in,” Clara says. “Legion presence is high in this area, and sympathies are even higher. If there are reinforcements, they won’t be on our side. We’ll take five minutes to scout the dungeon entrance and give everyone a chance to recover, and then we shall strike.”
Chloe closes her eyes. Her features soften and her posture slumps. To anyone else, she just looks like a warrior at rest, taking a well-deserved respite before her next battle begins in earnest. But I can feel the inner turbulence permeating her mind. I guide her off to the side and envelop her in a hug, a gentle gesture to ease her tense spirit before what is to come.
“I’m sorry, Sera,” she says.
“You have nothing to apologize for.” “I’m just glad I was able to stop you from doing something that I knew you would regret later.”
“Thank you, love. But I don’t know why… Why did everything feel so visceral in that moment?”
“It’s always harder to stick to our best ideals when the consequences bear upon us and those we care about, and much easier when the consequences fall upon others. And with us both being so tired, so worried, so on edge these past several days, I doubt either of us is thinking as clearly as we’d like.”
“And yet you’re thinking so clearly through it all, Sera.”
“No. I feel it too. I just… I think I have a little more experience handling my battle-junkie side and restraining those impulses. You have a new class and it’s taking you some time to adjust to the class’s effects on your psyche.”
“You mean how you’re always so damn reckless all the time?”
“Yeah. Exactly that.”
“I guess I owe you an apology, then, Seraphina.”
“Again, you don’t need to apologize. We’re a couple, and that means we support each other. Even— especially— when times are tough.”
Chloe leans a bit deeper into the hug, squeezing me with that new strength she’s developed over the challenges of the past couple of weeks. It feels absolutely incredible, as any opportunity for physical connection with her invariably does.
“Miss Mortensen, Miss Jacobs,” Clara says. “Not to interrupt your moment, but it’s about time for us to head out.”
She hands each of us an [Ether Canister], both of a size and density I’d not before seen. A single nod and I’m opening my own. A colossal, dense cloud of Ether surrounds me, thick enough to be seen even with the unaided eye. A moment later, it all begins suffusing through my muscles and flesh and pouring into my [Ether Core] at a rate I’d not imagined possible. All without so much as straining the channels thrumming alongside my blood vessels, let alone risking a rupture.
And three thousand points for that? Damn. I definitely wanted to know how to get more of those. Or better still, finally learn how to craft them for myself. Shore up one of the biggest weaknesses I still have.
A day ago, I would have said ‘the only weakness’. But today’s events have shown me the limitations of stats, levels, and the tremendous potential of [Glyphcasting]. My superior equipment should have only augmented those advantages, and yet, I’m still finding weaknesses.
I had thought I was a one-woman army. Two-woman army for sure with Chloe by my side. And yet, I was still vulnerable. I cannot be everywhere at once. My ability to analyze situations and gather information is limited. And I’m stuck with the limitations of being one person, needing to sleep and eat, and yet somehow thinking I’m in any way able to stand on equal terms against entire organizations.
We were undoubtedly right to not try to do everything ourselves; despite my misgivings about these agents with the so-called ‘System Crimes Division’, our chances of rescuing Alicia have been increased manifold with their expertise, intelligence and resources. I’m not discounting the possibility that we’ll be enemies after the operation concludes, but for now, I’ll make use of all my assets, even those I find distasteful.
“So, I’m guessing we'll stay back for now?” I ask Clara.
“I ask for your patience for a little while longer, Miss Mortensen. There will be a time to march in, weapons drawn, but not until the battle lines have been drawn.”
“So what aren’t you telling us?” Chloe asks. “And why were there a bunch of robots that look exactly like Sera?
“I too wish to know that,” I say.
“I don’t know all the details. What I can intuit is that Miss Mortensen was somehow involved with a secret government project to develop some sort of… bioweapon.”
“That doesn’t make sense,” I say. “Not unless…”
“They knew,” Chloe says telepathically. “My father must’ve known something about you, the System, everything.”
“Even if he did know something about me in the past few months… How could he have known this twenty-one years ago? The only way–”
There are a few possibilities that I can think of, and each of them is less reassuring than the last. I just hope that Chloe’s father isn’t behind all this carnage and death and war and– I shake my head. For Chloe’s sake, I hope my worst fears aren’t realized.
As the first team of agents makes their way past the dungeon threshold, I notice a glint of something on the ground in the corner of my eye. I approach cautiously; just because we’ve defeated this wave of Legion fighters doesn’t mean there isn’t danger still lurking. Chloe follows just behind, though she doesn’t seem to be aware of whatever it is that is drawing me in.
It’s a piece of one of the Seraphina bots. An intact torso, no limbs, no signs of life. An affront to my name and likeness. Half of me just wants to crush the whole thing underfoot, but there’s something else here. Something calling to me, beckoning me in.
It doesn’t seem imminently dangerous, but I first inform Chloe and send a quick mental ping to Clara beforehand. After both of them are notified, I pick the abomination up off the ground and peer into it. A bunch of wiring, metal plates, small rivets, wires, some leaky sludge of oil and liquified Ether. Doesn’t smell good and doesn’t feel any better on my hands. I shudder.
But then I see that glint again; a large ruby buried deep within my robotic clone’s chest. The crystalline heart of these monsters, I have to presume. Disgusted as I am, a ruby the size of a clenched fist is bound to be valuable, especially given that it contains more than a few glyphs inscribed upon it, including some I’ve never seen or even heard about to this point.
I reach out to grab the core, with the intention of storing it in my [Inventory] for later analysis. But the second I do, the damnable thing moves of its own volition, striking me directly in the chest. It phases right through my armor, then, without slowing down, it burrows its way directly through my skin and lodges itself into my chest.
It takes all of my effort and concentration not to start screaming in utter agony. Every throb of my heart sends more and more molten heat through my veins. By instinct, I reach my hand on my chest and try to yank the crystalline torture device out of me, but it’s futile. I can barely move. I struggle to breathe. I want to curl up in a ball and pray for the sweet embrace of death as all of my nerves start flooding my brain with the sensation of overwhelming pain, but all I can do is crumple into the fetal position as I fight back on pure instinct.
Amidst the battle raging within my mind, a voice that I don’t recognize echoes in my mind. “Kill! Destroy the invaders! Destroy all those who stand before us! Carry out your mission! Your programming demands it!”
“Sera!” Chloe mentally screams. “Are you okay? What happened? What’s wrong? What can I do to help?”
“Don’t know!” It’s a struggle even to think coherently. “Voice screaming at me, trying to take control of me. Body resisting, but… very powerful.”
“Fight it!” Chloe says.
Clara runs up toward me, talking with Chloe, but I can’t make out their words. I feel like my chest is about to burst open and it’s taking everything I have not to literally explode into my own pile of shrapnel. Is this some sort of sick, cosmic joke? One last ‘up yours’ as a reward for dealing with all these damn impostors who wear my face? Well, fuck you all too!
Chloe’s magic seeps through me. It fails to address the thousand carat elephant in my chest, but at least it makes the goddess-forsaken pain a bit less painful to deal with. For a brief moment, I even feel the pain starting to subside, but no.. The second I get my hopes up, the torture comes back with a flaming vengeance. I start to sweat, my skin feels hot, and the sticky early evening air of a midwestern summer is not helping matters.
“Water,” I struggle to think to Chloe. “So hot. So–”
“It’s okay, Sera. I’m here for you and I always will be” Chloe summons forth a full water bottle and starts dripping it down my throat. So cool and relaxing and… This actually helps? The pain drops significantly as cool lifeblood percolates down into my stomach.
“Kill, Kill, destroy them!” the voice screams. “That is why you were created, and that is your reason for living! By every wire and module in your body, I command you to–”
“Fuck off!” I scream mentally. “My body, my palace, and you are not welcome here!”
I grab the bottle and guzzle it down in the span of two seconds. I grab another bottle out of my [Inventory] and down it as well. My rage and sheer indignance channels even more energy into [Defiant Spirit] and I can feel the voice and bindings starting to fracture.
It still hurts like hell, though. Minutes pass with only minimal abatement. I don’t know if the pain is lessening or if I’m just dealing with receptors that have been fatigued from firing full blast all this time. My vision remains blurred and I don’t even want to try and use my magic right now, but at least I don’t feel like I’m teetering on the gates of hell anymore.
More time passes; it’s not as long as it feels based on the movement of the twilight below the western horizon. Again I do battle with that controlling force from before, the one behind these bindings. But now, I have the clear advantage. The heat within my veins retract back toward the ruby now wedged between my lungs.
“What are you?” the voice asks
“I am my own person, not one of your goddess-forsaken puppets to be enslaved. And I will be controlled by no one but myself! So fuck off and never come back!” With one final push, I confine the malevolent energy that was trying to control me and seal those pathways shut. Something around me shatters. Then, completely drained, I pass out.
“Are you… feeling any better, Sera?” It’s always nice to be awakened from a nice nap in the thighs of my beloved.
“I think so.” I try to sit up, only to be stopped by Chloe.
“Not too quickly, love. We still don’t know what happened, or if it’s still dangerous.”
“Normally I would agree,” Clara says. “However, I’m not sure if we have the benefit of running a full diagnostic and ensuring that there is absolutely nothing–”
Clara remains alive only by the providence that Chloe’s look cannot, in fact, literally kill. The face my girlfriend gives me is far softer. “Ignore her. Do you feel any symptoms right now?”
“Other than a warmth in my chest, no. And it’s not hurting either. Not anymore.”
I check my Status and am briefly confused by what I see. Relief follows, knowing that this probably isn’t dangerous in the short term, and definitely is going to be to my benefit.
[[Defiant Spirit] has activated, negating the effect of [Binding Chains] and destroying them.]
[[Reconfiguration (Rank VIII)] has upgraded to [Reconfiguration (Rank XII)].]
[[Valkyrion’s Body] has assimilated the effects of [Crimson Heart] and gained the following additional properties:
Your [Ether] regeneration rate is increased by one-third (33.3%)You gain a passive 50% resistance against all damage with the [Fire]-elemental property.All damage you deal with the [Fire]-elemental property is increased by one-third (33.3%).]
A new understanding wells up from my chest, only inflaming my desire to see this mission through to its inevitable conclusion. I may not be capable of freeing these mechanical slaves from their own bindings, but at least I can grant them the release and freedom that I know they all seek.