Chapter 87: The Prophet of Death (Patreon)

As she turned her head, she saw the body of the scarlet sphere trembling, likely experiencing the same pressure she had felt years ago.

“Operator, there’s more time on you now.”

She looked back toward the front, and there, seated on the floor of the void, was the Guardian. Older my ass. Suddenly, the pressure on her body was gone. 

“This isn’t a trial like the one with the System, though for you, it probably feels like years since that happened,” he said with a smile.

The Guardian rose from the floor, approached the Operator, and offered his hand to help her. “I hope you’re not still upset with me.”

“For giving me a mission and saying you’d take my mutation if I didn’t finish it?” The Operator took the Guardian’s hand and stood up. “It’s been quite some time; I believe I’ve forgotten a few things.”

She tried to lift her head with all her might, attempting to see what filled the entire void above her.

“That’s not wise,” the Guardian whispered. “Even I don’t have the strength to do it. I only receive its message, and that alone takes great effort.” He watched the trembling sphere under pressure and reached out and touched it; the sphere erupted with light. The scarlet pushed back against him, its surface beating intensely.

The red sphere started to speak.

[—Analyzing surrounding space—][—No cosmic coordinates found—][—This location exists on no map—][—Enclosed space. A pocket universe—][—Calculating exit routes—]

"I don't recognize that language, and I know a great many," the Guardian said.

It’s English, a language of our planet.

A light from the sphere pulsed across the Guardian’s entire body, scanning him.

[—Scanning lifeform—]

[—Composition: unreadable—]

[—No data returned—]

[—Language unidentified. Flagging for later analysis—]

The sphere registered something above them, a presence pressing down from the top of the void, and it tried to discern what was there.

[—Presence detected above. Scale immeasurable—]

[—Classification attempt: Celestial? Abyssal? Titan?—]

[—No match. Identity unresolved—]

"Is this the one that took your humanity, Operator?"

At least it stopped calling me Mother.

“What are you? How is it that we don’t know you exist?” The sphere’s voice grew darker again. “We hold the keys to knowledge. I will find out what you are.”

The sphere’s light started to ascend, penetrating the void toward the figure above, while the void resisted with pressure to keep it contained. Nonetheless, the light pressed on.

The air initially trembled, then erupted into a roar as waves tore the sphere and surged through the darkness. The Operator fell, digging her fingers into the cracks in the floor, clutching with her enhanced strength as the force tried to pull her into the blackness. She pressed her body flat against the floor and held.

She was unfamiliar with that thing. No emotion, not even fear. Yet it kept calling her ‘Mother,’ and it was up there, struggling to face a god, while a part of her couldn’t let go of one thing. I made that?

“Look at me.” The sphere’s light dragged upward, illuminating the emptiness and bending toward the presence it wanted to see. “I can stand against a god.”

On her forearm, the Saga awakened. The letters lifted from her skin, initially slow, swirling and growing brighter as the sphere’s light rose. The pressure increased. The sphere trembled, its red glow flickering and intensifying again and again, yet it continued to shine upward toward the entity that no one here was supposed to see.

“You made me.” The light strained higher, the entire sphere shaking. “I am your Prophet of Death.”

Then a voice echoed from all directions simultaneously, deep and expansive, piercing the emptiness. "OUT."

The sphere vanished, leaving silence in its place. The Saga on her arm stopped moving, settled, and became silent, with the letters lying flat against her skin. The distortion warped in the void once more, and both the Guardian and the Operator stood up. The red sphere was no longer there.

“Why did you protect me from that thing?” the Operator asked. “Play fair in the game. That’s a line you once said to me.”

“I did say that, but we’ve bothered my lord enough. Time to go.”

The shift from the void back to the cavern was both instant and dizzying.

"We'll meet again when you finish your mission." The Guardian began to sink, his body passing down through the floor.

“No explanation for what happened earlier? It feels nice to be appreciated by the Great Realm Portal. However, I dislike doing favors without knowing what I will owe.”

The Guardian paused. For a moment, nothing happened, and then his head lifted from the floor. His body followed, rising completely, and he began moving toward her. “You feel important. You think you're someone special here?”

The Operator held her ground and watched him come.

“You piqued my interest once. It’s been a while since I saw an active profession. So yes, you managed to spark my curiosity.” He stepped closer. “Not anymore now. Thanks to you and what you did to the System, other professions are active again, those that involve some creativity, like yours. Some are working in dungeons like this one, some have it easier, and others have perished.”

He stopped in front of her, eye level with hers. “Sorry if this sounds harsh, but I can’t stand the lack of gratitude when you were just saved.”

He's right.

“I’m sorry, and thank you for your help. The information from that thing calling me Mother was a bit overwhelming.”

The Guardian nodded and offered the Operator a small smile. “As I said, there are other professions now that require the same kind of creativity yours does. But I’ve only found your hunger to survive in three others. And none of them have your Saga or a second evolution.”

The Guardian stepped back from her, and as he walked, he gradually sank into the floor. “To answer your question, he protected you because he needs those Kanryx. If you didn’t have that mission, he would have let the sphere take you. And the Vorruhn are still up there.” The Guardian’s body vanished.

The cavern fell silent again, as though the earlier chaos had never happened.

“Tera, you’ve been very quiet.”

That thing said I was the one who hated you most. I don’t feel like I hate you.

“We’re past that. How about we talk about how fucking screwed I was a second ago instead?” She started walking toward the container where her group was. “I mean it. I said this is it. I’m dead.”

It didn't bother you. Being told you're not important?.

She approached the control panel beside the door, activated it, and watched the doors open slowly. “It’s better not to be important, to remain unnoticed. Besides, I prefer to be important to you, Napoleon, and Catherine. That’s all.”

Catherine lay on the floor, still unconscious from the punch she’d taken. How do I explain all of this to her?

The Operator grabbed her backpack and pulled it onto her back, then fixed Mordran’s head at her waist. Kneeling beside Catherine, she lifted her up, sat her against the container wall, and examined her face.

“The right side of her face is swollen. I hope whatever Kanryx is in her heals it quickly.”

You went too hard on that punch, Operator.

"I don't regret it. At least they're alive."

Napoleon was next. She pressed the sequence on his eyes, reactivating him. His eyes opened, and he quickly moved around the cave.

“Operator, I am sensing a significant residual energy concentration that wasn’t present earlier.”

Of course, he picks now to use the Technological Sense.

“Why did you turn me off?”

She crouched down and caught something sad in Napoleon’s voice. “Because lately you’ve been acting on your own. And what came would have killed you.” She remembered the sphere's jealousy of Tera. “Even if you hadn’t attacked it, it would have killed you. I just want you to understand that I did the right thing.”

“I understand, Operator,” Napoleon nodded before rushing swiftly toward the Kanryx caves.

You basically told him that you don’t trust him.

"I trust him so much that I know he'd do something stupid for me, and I'm not going to let that happen."

A soft groan came from behind her. "I think you broke something. It hurts to close my mouth."

The Operator turned and saw Catherine, her eyes half-closed, touching her jaw. “Cat, I’m sorry. When you said you could hear the music, I panicked.”

“It’s okay.” She struggled to say the words clearly. “I heard what you told Napoleon. Next time, don’t make it a surprise, please.”

Catherine’s facial veins began to swell, dark beneath the skin, spreading from the bruise. A black color rose through them, coming to the surface.

Wow, that’s new.

The Operator stayed silent, watching the veins bulge across Catherine’s face before slowly retreating. The swelling and bruising receded with them, leaving her skin smooth again in seconds. When it was done, there was no sign she had ever been hit. Catherine brought a hand up to her face, pressing along her jaw, working her mouth open and closed. She turned to the Operator, eyes wide.

“I swear I didn’t know I could do that.”

A smile appeared on the Operator’s face. “It’s okay. After what happened to me earlier, nothing surprises me anymore.” She sat down, removed her backpack, and relaxed next to Catherine.

“Okay, so what happened? Tell me before they wake up.” Catherine asked

[Procedure complete]

The pods moved, tilting upright as the glass panels at the front slid open. Inside, Dan and Lessa gradually opened their eyes, unfocused and adjusting to the light.

Their eyes, Operator. Your nanobots.

A metallic tear formed at the corner of each of their eyes, running down and catching the light. The Operator approached, catching the tears with her palm. For a moment, they sat there, glowing against her skin. Suddenly, a faint screech emitted from the tears, causing them to break apart and vanish.

She looked at her empty hand. “Why didn’t they return to me?”

They were rejected. The nanobots in your body aren’t compatible with them anymore, not after the years you spent growing in the Shadow Library.

“Tell them I’m sorry. I won’t ask them to give up a piece of themselves for me again.”

They appreciate the message.

The Operator leaned over them. “Good news. You still have the same faces, two arms, two legs each. How do you feel?”

Lessa pulled herself out of the pod slowly, one hand gripping the edge so she wouldn’t fall. “I’ve never been this hungry in my life.”

“Cat went through the staff lockers. Found bottled water and some crackers, and brought enough for both of you to get your strength back before we move.”

Catherine came toward them with the water and crackers held out in front of her. She’d been waiting for this, watching them sleep, and now that they were awake, she couldn’t quite meet their eyes. Dan reached for the food on reflex, and then his hand stopped halfway.

The girl handing it to him wasn’t the girl they’d left behind. She’d been small, no more than six. The one standing over him now was a teenager, fifteen or sixteen, taller than Lessa. Dan’s eyes flicked from her to the Operator and back.

Lessa spoke softly, saying, “That’s not…”

“Look at your left arms,” the Operator said. “That mark. It’s the evolution.” She let them notice it before going on. “I’ll explain everything about what happened to Catherine, to your bodies, and the time that went by. But we’re short on time, so I need one thing from you first: don’t panic.”

Dan looked at her, water still in his hand. “Time that passed? Panic about what?”

Catherine placed the crackers down and gave the Operator a long look, the kind that asked if this was really okay, and the Operator gave her a small nod.

Catherine then pulled her shirt over her head. Four stingers extended from her back one at a time, unfolding long and black behind her, their silver edges catching the light. Her eyes turned completely yellow, no trace of humanity left as the color spread to the edges. She inhaled deeply, and a powerful roar burst from her chest, echoing through the cavern and pounding against the walls from every side.

Dan and Lessa dropped everything, water and crackers spilling onto the floor, as Lessa scrambled back until the pod stopped her.

“Are you going to kill us?” asked Lessa.

These words struck Catherine deeply. The roar cut off. The yellow eyes, the stingers, the bared teeth stayed where they were, and behind all of it the girl looked at the two people who used to hold her while she slept, now pressed against a pod trying to get away from her. She didn't speak. She had never spoken to them at all, not one word in all the time they'd had her, and the two things fighting in her, how much she'd missed them and how much she'd dreaded exactly this, had nowhere to go.

“What? No.” The Operator stepped between them quickly, both hands raised. “No. This is just the fastest way to get the formulas into you.” She kept her voice level. “She’s spent the last few years practicing for this, thinking about the two of you the whole time, so it wouldn’t hurt when the moment came.”

Dan and Lessa observed how the girl had folded herself away behind all that, the hurt on her face. As they exchanged glances, their fear left them, and something closer to shame took its place.

Lessa was the first to move. She pushed herself off the pod, met Catherine's yellow eyes, and smiled at her. "Okay. Do it." Her voice caught, but the smile stayed. "Just, please, try not to make it hurt too much."