David went to the door, his body floating just a few inches above the ground, waving his hand in front of him, the door was opened, inside, he stared at… bodies. Dozens of them, all looked like those beached jellyfish he would sometimes see whenever he and his family would go to the beach.
Those were protheans, he was almost disappointed the first protheans he saw weren’t alive or in some sort of “last prothean stronghold”. They had clearly been killed, some bisected in two, some pierced by what looked like a blade…
They didn’t resist, no trace of fighting. The moment he started to advance deeper into the rather badly lit room, which was surprising as no room in this prothean facility had not been lit until now.
“Worthy of a horror movie… Now what kind of monster or robotic construct awaits me at the end of this corridor?”
David was confident in himself, yes he wasn’t the strongest, Sapphyra had shown him a Dominion would not even need to move a finger to kill him. But he doubted they had two tier five beings in this facility.
They had made it clear that Dominion's bodies were very rare to obtain. So in his mind it left only the possibility of a robotic construct. It would explain the slaughter. Typical story of scientists losing control over their own creation.
His eyes watched around him, cautious about any potential sneak attack, however nothing seemed to come to him. Where could what killed the scientist be hiding?
David decided to try something, using a skill he rarely had to use because he had mostly been fighting one on one until now : [Nano-Bots Infection]. A swarm of green colored light came out from his body like a powerful wave, slamming down on the lab’s interior, attacking everything around them, he specifically targeted empty space, not furnitures and the like.
His green eyes peered into the darkness, most of the light coming from his flashing nano bots swarm. A loud heart wrenching shriek that sounded as if someone was having their skin ripped from their flesh pierced his non-existent eardrums.
A figure in front of him started to flicker, exposing itself out of its invisibility. David only had to take one look at it to know he was gonna have to use [Data Break].
[Analyze]
David was shocked at the status appearing before him and the fact the whole status even appeared when the System had wanted to “immerse” David further into this world.
How could David not be surprised, he had barely survived an encounter with a Goddess, now he was in front of a being that seemed to have been made to kill gods themselves. Yes he could bypass the insane armor stat with his [Gauss Pulse] or warglaive.
But this thing had + 5000 armor and speed. He wasn’t gonna even touch its after image. Right as he was about to trigger his [Data Break] his body was slammed into the wall, the prototype holding him by the throat against the wall, it was instant, so fast David’s mind hadn’t even registered he had moved place until he stared at those glowing green eyes.
The construct stared at him with eyes that seemed to constantly flicker, the hand holding his throat suddenly letting go and pushing itself back, its scream sounding more and more like those of a strange mix between a child’s happiness and an adult’s despair.
“Alone… we are not alone? M..Mom! Dad! Where are you..please I’m scared, I’m so scared. W..Where am I? WAR! WE must AVENGE our FALLEN BROTHERS! KILL THE GODS! No..no…I’m dead, why am I here? Mom..Dad… please… I need you…”
“We’re here son! I’m here. Mommy’s here. Don’t worry. Melichon, we’re here? Do you hear us?! AVENGE! SLAYER! BETRAYER! DEATH TO THE GODS!”
“Melichon! Melia! I’m coming! Wait for me! Where are you?! I, I can’t see you! KILL! KILL! KILL! KILL THEM ALL.”
Seeing the horror happening before him, the construct’s body constantly being reshaped in a sickening life-like fashion, sometimes even forming the torso of two adults, they seemed to be elves, the ears of the silver construct constantly elongating or shortening to fit the elf lineage.
Their screams tore his heart apart, a family fused into a single being, in a body powerful enough to slay gods, all tortured by the AI’s programming for war. He had once believed himself to be the unluckiest man alive. Now he felt content that his family was at peace.
“What have they done… “
David approached, his voice sounding suddenly much older, as if just seeing this horror had aged a supposed immortal being by billions of years. He knew being sorry changed nothing, no, he had to help them, not be sorry for them.
As David kneeled before the construct, which collapsed on its knees, holding its head and crying in his hand as it seemed Melichon, the child, was seemingly the main personality.
He looked like what David expected of an elven child, taller than a human child, long ears, long hairs replicated with immense realism by the Living Silver. Androgynous enough that David wouldn’t be able to tell its gender if not for the father to have named Melichon his son.
When David stared at this being, he knew common sense would tell him to use [Data Break] and finish their suffering but he remembered the Quest’s objectives wording. David had been given a second chance by a being seemingly unaware of what compassion even meant, what was David’s excuse then to not help Melichon and his family.
Hearing the sound of a child calling for its parents, the fear it seemed to display at everything around him, the constant shakes and whimpers of pain. The parents despair, aware of their son's presence but not able to realise the horror of the situation, all this for thousands of years.
This couldn’t be faked. Not this well. So David bent to one knee, putting his hand on Melichon’s shoulder, the contact making the Forgotten One coil back as if about to strike, starring inside the perfectly made human eyes, David knew he was right, those were the same eyes his son had when he got scared from watching an horror movie in secret.
“Melichon? I am… Akhenamen. I am here to help you.”
Melichon didn’t answer, simply staring at David, fear evident in his eyes, however, the soft blue pupils glowing inside those soulless green eyes made Melichon feel calm. At peace. Safe.
“Close your eyes, child. Be at peace, I’m here now, you do not need to be scared anymore. You’re not alone.”
Melichon softly opened his quivering lips. Showing two of his fingers in a stance similar to a pinky promise.
“Y..you swear it? If..if you lie you’re a broken tree?”
David could not smile but he showed his own two fingers and held Melichon’s.
“Yes. I promise. If I lie I’m a broken tree.”
Melichon’s eyes seemed to calm down, his silver eyelash softly closing as he started to do something he had done in thousands of years, constantly kept awake by his parents' screams of worry as he called for them and the AI trying to change him into a proper soldier.
Melichon was sleeping. His eyes closed, his head now resting against David’s shoulder as David carried him in his arms.
[Are you really making the correct choice? He seemed very deranged…he almost killed you.]
“He is a scared child, Syllena, a scared child that believed he was alone for thousands of years, whose parents seem to be trapped within the same body alongside an AI designed for war alone. He deserves for me to try and help him. Can you confirm if there are souls within this construct?”
[There seems to be three souls. A child, a woman and a man. All elves. The Living Silver, it caused them constant pain. They are not made to handle the pain of all your molecules being forcefully shifted around.]
“I could guess this much, they sounded in pain. But thanks for the clarification, I did not know if those adults were just created by him or actual souls trapped with him. Putting a family in a single body that constantly makes its inhabitants suffer. The Protheans if this facility deserved what happened to them.”
[We are sorry if we do not say much anymore, everything we’re seeing. It’s… very shocking.]
“It’s alright Syllena, if you wish to maybe disable the link between my sight and yours, you may do so.”
[I won’t, it’s scary being alone in the dark.]
“No worry then, will you wish to talk about it later?”
[I would yes. Thanks you. <3]
“Let’s keep going, we must find a way to help them. Maybe a machine or log that explains what happened.”
David floated through the rooms, every one covered in Prothean bodies, it wasn’t a surprise they got slaughtered by a being which was most likely at the dominion rank. They couldn’t have won that battle.
This time the labs showed many more technological and alchemical experiments around the creation of Living Silver, David stored every tank of Liquid Silver and Refined Liquid Silver for possible use for later. The logs talked about what happened.
It started with them wanting to reinforce their most basic soldier unit : the Levitar. The Levitar was made from Liquid Silver, something the Prothean could apparently mass produce, so their goal was simple: take all the basic components of a Levitar and improve so much that it could be turned into a Transcendent being. Giving them the ability to mass produce Transcendent beings.
The idea was insane, an actual army of Transcendent beings would turn any battle or war pointless for the opponents. After all, no matter how sharp the scissor was, shove enough paper in it, it would end up breaking itself. That was the Cygilites strategy while fighting the gods.
They had very few units able to take on a god one on one, but they could produce hundreds of Tier 4 to fight a single Tier 5. Now they wanted to turn their creations/childrens entire army into Tier 1 at the very least.
But while Refined Liquid Silver had been developed by the Cygilites to allow better constructs to be built, they had to go further, find ways to make it even better! So what did they do?
Magic. Science had created and taken Liquid Silver to its absolute peak by turning into a material able to craft Tier 4 beings if given special attention. But magic… magic was gonna help it ascend to even greater height!
So with some Cygilites help they were able to capture an elven prince named Melichon. In exchange for his safety they demanded in secret to his family to come to the Outpost to help them advance the Liquid Silver.
But why Melchion and his family? Because his parents were Artisan Elven Silversmith. A job similar to blacksmith but they worked exclusively with Moonforged Quicksilver, a metal with very similar properties to Liquid Silver but which had reached the peak of magic enhancement.
The Protheans idea was simple : fuse the peak of science silver working with the peak of arcanic silver working. And thus was born Living Silver. Called Adaptive Argentum Vitae by the Protheans.
The elves' magic had indeed been the necessary catalyst to upgrade the Liquid Silver, David even saw the Prothean had allowed the elves to make their own logs to help with their research.
It was clear the parents which were called Melia for the mom and Philibert for the father, weren’t that happy to be kept here by force, but their enthusiasm over the creation of the Adaptative Argentum Vitea was clear, their Artisan heart wanting to achieve what they called “the greatest masterpiece” they’d ever build.
It also revealed interesting information. Melchion and them were part of a very influential and powerful family of the Brightheart Covenant, one of the gods most important bastions of mortal faith. They came from the Eventelle family. Apparently they had been tricked by some other members of their own family in alliance with the Protheans.
The Protheans got their scientist and some of the brightest Eventelle’s minds were removed from the Brightheart Covenant’s ruling council. So how did the Eventelle family end up inside the Prothean construct? It was a being called Retribution.
An extremely advanced AI that had been built by the Protheans to aid in the creation of the prototype David carried in his arms. Retribution had devised the best way to power this machine was to use souls directly instead of the usual method used in Liquid Silver.
And with the Eventelle having pretty much written down all their knowledge in the logs, to help with Melchion’s own advancement in his Silversmith’s studies, they were not needed anymore according to Retribution.
Surprisingly, most of the Prothean logs ended with them feeling… regret. Guilt. They felt bad about their actions. When the Prothean finally decided that Retribution had gone too far, they ordered it to turn itself off and drop the projects of putting the souls inside the prototype.
Retribution refused… it took over the prototype and slaughtered its “traitorous creators”. Seemed like it at least, the last logs talked about making a plan to get the elves out of the lab. It had obviously failed.
David softly put down Melchion’s body and approached the last room, having looted every piece of technology he came across and in that last room, he saw what looked like a floating black sphere of Karadium, around the sphere strange rings would swirl and seemed to narrow or widen at different intervals. David stared at the black sphere.
“Greetings Retribution, I am Akhenamen.”
“Greetings Akhenamen, we are Retribution, we feel glad to see another sapient Cygilites alive. We are sorry the child has attacked you, it has grown truly unstable as of late. It seems the souls of our enemies are not so easily beaten no matter how much pain we cause them.”
Retribution’s voice was feminine. But her tone was monotone, making it hard to spot any real emotion. But she seemed polite enough and quite pleased at his presence.
“Are you the one who put the Eventelle’s family inside the prototype?"
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“It was the most optimal solution. It allows the prototype to function at peak efficiency with three souls powering it. Two arch-mages feed their son’s core with their own constantly because if they stop, his soul will perish. While the child, the one whose soul is most malleable, is a better fit to inhabit the construct.”
David closed his eyes, hearing such a “normal” voice say this kind of thing was truly disturbing.
“Do you have the means to free them?”
“Yes we know of a way. But we will not do it.”
“You gain nothing by making those people suffer, the war is over, the gods are bound by the System. The Protheans have left. The Cygilites are alone. Why make them suffer like this?”
Retribution fell silent.