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Chapter 45: Adaptation

We left towards Torix, Kessiah bubbling with energy again. The talk cleared her mind, and that let her go back towards her usual self. That meant she woke up Althea with a bit more zeal than she needed too.

It was ok though. Althea frowned, grumpy during the mornings like usual as we headed out towards Torix’s lair. The breeze was a pleasant cool, and the overcast sky bathed the ground in gray. The empty streets stood like a silent monument to what the city used to be like.

Now the only sound you could hear was rustling trash being blown around or the whistling of wind. Normally I wouldn’t notice this kind of stuff, but the gloomy day brought out just how empty everything was now.

That was when we reached Torix’s house. Several cords were running from the ground, stretching out by an antenna on top of the house. It all looked new, like it was built since the last time I was here.

When we walked inside, I figured out it was. There was a generator built into the center of the house connected with the cords outside. They draped through across the homey hallways and roofs of rooms. Technology was tapered onto the wall, enabling an instant communication of information.

At the center of it all, Torix scribbled onto a summoned blackboard. He would carve his finger into the expanse of black with white mana, like drawing on darkness with snow. When we walked in, he turned towards us,

“Excellent. You’re all here.” He walked up beside us and summoned a slight shift in the coloration of the air. As this subtle wave past us, all sound around us cancelled. Within the distortion, Torix spread his hands,

“I’ve devised a method of safely clearing out new areas.”

Althea crossed her arms, “Really?”

“Indeed I have. The primary differences between the old plan and the new plan may be separated into three primary points. Firstly-“

He pressed his fingers together, making the floating blackboard pop into the bubble. Torix tapped it,

“I have summoned several tiny insect creatures. I’ve made them explore Yawm’s camp to gather information. Yawm is centered within the growing world tree at the center of Springfield, as I believed he would be.”

I raised an eyebrow, “The fuck? A world tree?”

Kessiah leaned over, “Basically a giant tree that sucks up a planet’s resources. It’s how Yawm and his followers got to such a high level.”

Torix pointed his finger, “Precisely. He won’t leave that world tree before finishing his infestation. That gives us time. His followers are the problem.”

Torix pointed at a miniature map of Springfield with dots all over it, “These dots represent named ones that Yawm has either brought over or summoned.” He pointed at several red dots, each of them moving slowly. “These are the followers.”

We all nodded as he continued, “This will track their movements. Depending on the day, I will assign areas they are far from, allowing you all to clear out areas with relative safety. I’ve arranged with the steel legion to allow target encirclements that will let them still make progress despite the inherent complexity of this operation.”

Torix pointed at the hanging cords, “These allow me to communicate with them. I’ll use this to communicate with each of you as well using our own talking devices.” Torix pulled out three glass spheres with gray ring lining the centers of them. He handed one to each of us.

“Do you remember what this does?”

I nodded, “Yeah. It’s one of those obelisks, right?”

“Correct. These will allow each of you to visualize the data and instructions I send to you in real time. Kessiah will explain their operation. I’ve also created a private network for only our use. The steel legion will be told nothing of any of this. Trusting them too deeply is too risky for us now.”

Torix grabbed the map of Springfield on the blackboard and pulled it out. A three dimensional hologram thing came out of the board. Underneath the map was a layout of tunnels. Torix pointed at them,

“The underlying sewer system underneath Springfield is a relatively unexplored area for Yawm. We will use it for mobilizing the steel legion and you all from here on out. This will hide our movements during the operation.”

I smiled, “Ah, then you’ll guide us away from the followers while we take out different areas. It’s like guerilla warfare essentially.”

“Exactly. That, and I’ll be giving one of my more powerful summons to Kessiah in case something…unexpected happens again. I looked at this whole issue far greater nonchalance than I should’ve. I will not underestimate Yawm or his followers again.”

Kessiah sighed, “Neither will I.”

Althea uncrossed her arms, “Sounds like a solid plan.”

Torix smiled, “That isn’t all in fact. I’ll be splitting these areas so that you may take down the named ones during each mission. They will be much like the disciples of Dakhma’s. The location of this base will also be hidden with a few more cloaking spells and some jamming technology now, for good measure.”

Kessiah grinned, “Good to see the old Torix is back.”

Torix shrugged, “I just needed to clear my head and rest for a day or two. If all of you are rested as well, I’ve already drawn up a few routes you can take when you’re ready.”

I shrugged, “I’m down if the others are.”

Kessiah clamped her fists together, “I’m ready. I’ll teach that stupid, smug, bigoted piece of shit who’s boss.”

Althea gave a curt nod. Torix snapped his fingers, making the distortion that captured the sound disappear. A rush of white noise filled my ears as Torix said,

“Then I’ll see you when you all come back. Follow the routes of your obelisks. They’ll show you the way from here.”

Kessiah draped her arms over my and Althea’s shoulders. She grinned between us, “Let’s go give this shit another shot.” She walked out the front door before turning back towards us, “Come on. I’ll show you guys how to use the obelisks.”

We walked outside the house, Althea’s steps light and mine heavy. Once we reached outside, Kessiah lifted her obelisk, shooting a bit of mana into it. The sphere expanded around her. I’d never seen the energy from outside. It was a ball of pure white sitting in the middle of open space, like a ball of textureless paper.

The ball returned back to the sphere as Kessiah raised it up,

“So here’s what you do. Put your mana into the thing. The obelisk will then use your unique signature of mana from there on out. You can customize them later if you’re into that.”

I lifted the sphere out in front of me. Charging my runes, an orange light poured into the ball before the wall of white wrapped around me. No noise was let inside of it, just like before. All around me was a lush, green forest. I was standing on a small island in the middle of a creek. Cicadas hummed in my ears, and the rustling of the stream calmed me.

A map appeared then integrated into Schema’s interface. With a thought, the orb shrunk back into my palm. The two dimensional square took up a little bit of my peripheral vision, but it didn’t get in the way. I pursed my lips,

“So you can change Schema’s interface?”

Kessiah turned, “What? Of course you can. On the open market, you can find all kinds of adjustments for it.”

I put my hands on my hips, “Well shit. Alright, I’m ready to go do stuff if you guys want to.”

Althea still surrounded herself in the white of the obelisk. Kessiah shrugged, “She’s probably adjusting a few settings. You may want to do that yourself before we leave.”

“Eh, alright. I’ll give it a shot.”

I opened my obelisk, the creek surrounding me again. With the relaxing background, I fiddled with a few options. Changing the backgrounds, the opacity of my stats, even the color was simple as thinking. I didn’t have to fiddle with a menu screen or something arduous like a list of a trillion backgrounds.

It was a dynamic display, something really nice to have. It reminded me of phones from before the apocalypse. People dug their faces into those pieces of metal for hours on end, ignoring everything around them. I could just imagine how addicted and dependent some people may be on the obelisk.

Still, it organized and let met glance at all my perks, skill trees, and everything else with a sublime ease. No more scrolling through screens and screens of data. The obelisk visualized it into graphs, showing bar graphs tracking my exp gain per hour or levels per day. It made managing all this shit way easier.

In the middle of my piddling, I received a message from Torix,

Torix Worm, of Darkhill(2:08am 4/12/00) – I uploaded a variety of libraries towards your obelisk. Carrying around an entire library of books is impossible any other way. Progressing without the right book at the right time can be difficult after all.

Just think of accessing the data store and it will show up. I recommend Finding Your Inner Resolve by Artemus Korgah. It details a few of the more advanced tricks behind augmentation.

Following his advice, I visualized a library. The imagery of a creek blended into bookshelves, creating rows and rows of them. The title of the book flashed before my mind, shooting me through the library without ever having to move. Rows upon rows of books flashed through my mind before I appeared in front of a shelf full of old, leather bound books.

Right in front of my eyes was the book. Reaching out a hand, the book floated out of the book before landing in my other hand. It had no weight, but when I flipped the pages, the sound was the same as in real life. That nice smell of old books was here too, along with the nice quiet drum of conversations in the background.

I wanted to read right then and there, but I put the book back before closing my obelisk. Wind brushed against my skin. Uh, or armor. I guess it was my skin and bones now though. Hmmm, weird to think about it.

Regardless, Althea and Kessiah waited on me ahead, Kessiah tapping her foot as I paced up to them. She slapped my shoulder, “Let’s go then. It’s about time we leave.”

Within a few minutes, we left from the camp. Of course we ran, using our speed instead of wasting it. We entered through a manhole cover before sprinting through the sewers. The disgusting horror I expected wasn’t there. Instead, there was beauty.

Flowers sprouted from the walls, fighting for the few patches of light. Phosphorescent plants lit the hallways in rainbows of light. The sheer variety of scents amazed me, each of them wonderful. It was like walking through a light festival and a candle shop all at once.

As we passed, the plants would creep towards us. They were harmless however. Even when you let them crawl up your hand, they would at most tickle. A soft grass grew at the center of the sewer, covering what had once been shit. It gave way to a vibrant, emerald green. It was stunning.

We ooh-ed and ahhh-ed while racing through the tunnels. It was an adventure for once instead of this awful, terrifying task we had to accomplish at all costs. It was great for Althea’s moral in particular. She grinned at the flowers, her eyes dancing in the low lit light. It was one of the few times she seemed happy since I’d seen her.

It made me wonder if all she really wanted was to live out her life as peacefully as possible. I could understand. My reasons for fighting were similar. I wanted choice. I wanted to be able to decide what I would do. If I wanted to kill monsters, then I would kill monsters. Being forced into something was like being forced to swallow. You can’t even help but fight it, even if it’s the rational choice.

With a gentle smile on her face, Althea seemed like a shy, soft person being made into the monster she was. In a different world and a different time, it might have been heartbreaking. In this one though, it was a necessity.

When we finally left the sewer and came back to the surface, that point was made all the more clear. Deeper than we’d been before, the fauna around us had developed into a jungle. I couldn’t see the sky, outside of a few cracks of light leaking onto the forest floor. Roots crawled across the ground, mushrooms budding in the darkest, dankest places.

Vines crawled up the trees now, blood red and covered in spines. A few insects were around us, some buzzing and others tapping. Birds flew above us, each of them odd and reformed. Beaks of wood with feathers like leaves, they camouflaged into the surrounding area to perfection. No matter how closely I looked, I couldn’t distinguish them.

Ants crawled along the ground, red with a black stripe along their abdomen. With white talons at the front of their eyeless faces, they looked fierce and imposing. That is until they walked beside a nearby red mushroom with yellow dots. A crab’s claw snapped out, catching an ant by surprise.

Before the ants could swarm it, the mushroom cap was pushed into the ground. The ants crawled over the mushroom, searching for the crab. They found none while a few crunches could be heard just under the mushroom cap. In all honesty, the clever way of avoiding the ants wrath was captivating. It was like watching a nature documentary.

Kessiah snapped me from my concentration,

“What the fuck are you doing?”

“Uh, watching this crab thing.”

“We’re on a mission. Focus.”

I nodded my head, “Yeah, of course. I won’t let it happen again.”

I walked out in front of the others, following the obelisk’s instructions. Once ahead of them, I cut on oppression. The vast forest around me withered over the next few seconds. I almost regretted killing off so much life. That was until I saw several of the red mushrooms growing from the eye socket of a decapitated head. That snapped me out of my sudden empathetic mood.

Back on track, a panther with thorns jutting from its back leapt towards me from behind. A spear sliced through its chest before I surged my mana into my runes. A rush of power filled me as I grabbed the panther’s skull. I crushed it into the ground beneath me, the bone popping under my armor.

It wasn’t hard anymore. It was more like a balloon than squishy rock like before. The panther didn’t even pretend like it was giving up a fight though. It turned out to be an good old unnamed one of Yawm’s. The perks made the sudden spike in strength apparent. I was a killing machine now.

A little cluster of crabs crawled towards me, squealing in pain. When they reached me, I began stomping and crushing them underfoot. Crazily enough, they were level 200 apiece. So small, but their claws could clip through steel apparently.

The roots crawled towards me as well, but they withered before being able to wrap around me. The blood red vines, on the other hand, slammed with a vicious power. They even dented my armor. The thing was, that was all they had.

I would grab them and uproot them from the tree they gathered around. That killed them right there. I guess my build was the bane of suicide bombers. No way they’d do enough damage to threaten me. It was funny, because right after I thought that, one of them hit Althea.

She didn’t make it out unscathed. The red vine smashed straight through her arm, leaving a dent in her chest. She screamed in pain before Kessiah crushed the vine in a split second. Kessiah flicked Althea’s forehead,

“I didn’t think I’d need to help you out of that. Keep your guard up, missy.”

Althea nodded, grimacing. She couldn’t even reply. Her enhanced regeneration got her back up to her feet soon though. Killing her was deceptively difficult after all. This passed for a few minutes, killing the unnamed and the swarms of wildlife.

Oppression aided our efforts to a tremendous effect. Without it, we’d need fire or something similar. After three hours, a giant blot of brown plastered itself in this city of horror. That’s when we reached the yellow dot on our map.

We entered an empty parking deck. Cars littered the concrete spiral, no streaks of blood here. There wasn’t a reason for people to return here, so only the spare branch leaked in from outside. When we reached the roof of the eight story building, there was a humanoid thing perched on the ledge.

With a knights deformed armor on it and a sword draped on its back, it was a knight. Unlike most knights, the armor was made of bone as was the sword. Between the joints in the armor, a blue skin creased as it moved. As we walked near it, the thing’s head turned to us.

A pair of downtrodden, blue eyes looked back. Beside him, three decapitated heads stared out into the distance. Turning to us, the knight said in a deep voice,

“Tell me. Has the reaper come?”

I frowned, “For real though, is everyone related to Yawm melodramatic?”

Althea shrugged, “Who cares.” Her biotic rifle hissed as she loaded another bolt into it,

“It’s just a dead man talking.”