Chapter 27 - Children - The Unforgettables: A ZeroYear litRPG

  Northern Valley's few remaining active cameras captured images of two humanoids falling from the sky in the middle of an empty avenue. The city lights, hastily restored by Silas, remained heroically aglow, providing sharp images for Liora's copy analysis, who knew she was seeing events from the past because she was operating from a terminal inside the ship, distant enough to cause a delay of a few hours—the time it takes for light-speed information to travel the distance the schrogae ship had already covered on its journey North.

  The two falling figures wore long cloaks that billowed like capes. They were two Bo with physiques far more muscular than the stereotype, yet both had ashen-blue skin and slender builds. Their heads were large, and their limbs were long and slender. Their muscles stretch with the fall, defining the contours of their bodies from what could be observed beneath their cloaks pressing against the tight-fitting clothes they wore underneath, of an almost black-gray lifeless and matte fabric. Their faces were rectangular, with very prominent chins and foreheads breaking the supposed round harmony of their features, making them appear brutalized. Their eyes, however, remain enormous and wholly black, with no hair covering their bodies, only their taut, homogenous skin.

  They did not attempt to hide, and they immediately began shouting at each other with great aggressiveness, needing no translators to feel the tension.

  The figure that fell first yelled without looking away from his companion, who fell right after: "We're wasting our time in this crappy place because some idiot got curious about the lights being on. Unbelievable! Now, we'll have to solve the problem here because the same idiot fell into a Tempus Shard trap that was already documented millennia ago. I should have let you solve it alone! I'm sure you'd be incompetent enough to die at this nowhere, and I would end up getting a bad evaluation as your tutor if you failed before the minimum deadline. But don't worry; if your incompetence doesn't kill you in a few months, I will!"

  The second figure fell with some difficulty maintaining his footing upon impact but, without averting his gaze from his irritated partner, responded with his head held high: "Dear master, contrary to the fabulous little picture you're trying to paint with your compliments, I read Dukliasse's latest reports, and he lived in an isolated tent because the infrastructure was deactivated. Therefore, it would be wise to understand what's going on here. Or do you happen to think that the Shard fixed things around?"

  The furious master drew a staff about three feet long. He activated his device and turned his staff into a blade of gray shadows that released black rays and flames, emitting a constant, terrifying, low-pitched static, creating a lick of intermittent light that made all the forms nearby shift with an unsettling menace. He immediately pointed the weapon at his apprentice's head, yelling, "You don't know how much I look forward to the day you challenge me for the graduation duel! Don't provoke me further; I'm getting increasingly comfortable about receiving my first bad evaluation in my curriculum. Since when was our mission to explore this place?"

  The apprentice, unafraid of the blade brushing his face, replied with a half-challenging smile: "Go ahead; as far as you're concerned, nothing really matters to me anymore. Our mission is to reach Cernutos Tower and discover something about our target; if he had passed through here, we should try to find out. And then, absolutely nothing prevents us from continuing North. You're the one who decided to waste time coming down here."

  The master responded immediately, pressing the blade against his apprentice's face: "And how are we going to return to Metropolis afterward? You imbecile! We're cursed and trapped in this shit place! It is obvious that our target is not here; we are here only to set us free!"

  To which the apprentice replied, "Interesting; where in our mission does it say how we're going to return? Isn't it you who's blaming your apprentice for wasting time here? My dear master, you are the absolute head of this mission; I only obey your orders."

  The master sheathed his weapon with a precise kata. He smiled: "If making others angry were a virtue among us, you’d have a bright future, dear apprentice, but unfortunately, your destiny will be another." The master finished the kata, showing the weapon to his apprentice; he continued speaking in a slightly less furious tone: "I've already signed a contract with my next apprentice, and this time it will be someone worthy of my person."

  The apprentice observed something in the distance with a technological device that functioned as a virtual monocular. He said: "Master, we do have company! I don't think it's our target; it must be the Shard. She's awake and looking in our direction; she's right there in the middle of the city square, in the distance!" He pointed in the direction behind his master.

  "I already said it′s not our target; a muemam cohabiting a city with one of our experiments? The Shard is trapped in the city square and can't reach us! We just need to go there and put her back to sleep with a beating!" The master replied confidently, smiling with the expectation of a combat.

  "Interesting theory; do you think the curse that binds us would be nullified by defeating the Shard in combat? Dukliasse died here; wouldn't it be better for us to prepare beforehand?" the apprentice observed.

  "Dukliasse was weak, very weak. I even feel sorry for the poor fellow; he made his first pact even younger than you, and when he came here, he wasn't right in the head," the master replied, pointing to his head with his hand in circular movements. "People who make pacts very early can't learn properly; they're destined to be useless until they die; that just fits you perfectly, my dear apprentice."

  "Master! The Shard is sending something toward us!" The apprentice said, pressing a virtual button on his monocular and taking a step back, assuming a defensive posture and preparing some power that seemed to form an almost invisible energy bubble around him. "There are two stone…" The apprentice stopped speaking, with no time to process what he was seeing before his master interrupted him.

  "I know it's difficult for you, but try not to be an even bigger idiot. If you read the reports, you know the Shard is trapped and can't do anything beyond a few meters!" the master replied confidently, turning with reluctant mockery to see what was happening. Before completing his movement, four stone pillars hit his body with enormous violence, knocking him to the ground, almost dead. They were two new Golems that the ghost had created while listening to the two figures breaking the city's silence.

  The master immediately managed to react to one of the Golems and destroyed it with a single blow from his shadow blade. Still, immediately, the other Golem delivered two precise blows to his opponent's hands, disarming him and throwing his formidable weapon into the air. While the impact of these powerful blows almost made him succumb, his body twisted toward his apprentice; he only had time to call him by name: "Adarian, you…"

  The apprentice did not doubt what to do; without hesitating upon hearing his name being called, he caught the weapon in the air. He immediately turned his gaze to his master with a smile of pleasure, with time for only one word: "Mission." He leaped in a manner similar to Frank's, opening a crater in the ground. But instead of helping his master by eliminating the other opponent with the weapon, he leaped far upward and ordered the ship to pick him up. Then, the ship snatched him and flew in a vertical trajectory toward space at high speed, leaving its master alone and disarmed.

  The Golem had no mercy; it delivered two more precise blows to the head of its betrayed victim, definitively ending the combat and dragging another decapitated body to the center of the city.

  On the command bridge, the audiovisual arriving from the city shook everyone. The image continued to be transmitted, and while Liora's copy continued to analyze the incoming data, the others looked at each other. Even Amanda was present this time. She was carrying a pile of students' exams she'd been correcting, but she dropped the papers when she saw the Golems easily defeat a veteran Alpha with such brutality.

  Liora was the first to speak: "Okay, team; their ship, I think, is Phorakine class—much faster and with more autonomy than ours, but much smaller and generally without weapons or defense. Since he ascended so high, I think he'll attempt a flight above Gate's atmosphere. That will be quite risky. If he does it, he'll reach close to where we are in a matter of weeks or less. We should double-check his ship's specs later."

  Petra, helping Amanda gather the fallen tests, commented, "We don't need more problems. How about we detour from Cernutos Tower and follow the Tempus route North? We don't know if Seneca is really there!" Amanda nodded in agreement.

  "If we do that, we'll leave Chester in the lurch, and it seems their mission also involves this Beni guy," Frank reflected.

  "Chester asked us to go into a hot hole that could be our end. Apparently, a lot of people are going to this tower. What's there, anyway?" Petra asked, looking at Amanda.

  "I don't know for sure. I know they're related to bringing people back to life, based on a legend about mages who managed to do this in a past multiverse—a legend told in the form of a poem carved in a monolith inside the first house. But in the case of these Alphas, perhaps they're just hunting knights," Amanda suggested.

  "And do we happen to have access to that poem in the original language?" Frank asked.

  Silas and Liora glanced at each other and replied, "No one has access to such things."

  "But of course we have! Why wouldn't we?" Amanda interrupted, somewhat surprised, her voice roughening to speak in the proper intonation in the ancestral language while sharing the original with everyone via comlink:

  “Ure-chire bi uree Ga

  Tò-chire mi jopeja

  Gerre Gerre wo ximênu

  Zijá gú lae-fù

  Essé (Dà) Efarre

  V?poe árraemiri

  Rrege Rrige lougoxu wo

  Dê Chire Zouze (a)

  Toko i himema e Gua”

  "No nano-translator dared to try translating this, Amanda," Silas said with some perplexity. He continued. "I've never seen anything like it!"

  "This was in a monolith inside the Academy and is study material among knights; I can imagine few ways such things could be more forbidden in Metropolis today. But let's take it easy with interpretations. Supposedly, this refers to Cernutos Tower. What I know is very little. 'Chire' seems to designate an idea of rebirth similar to a phoenix or firebird in human mythologies; the end of the first and last lines had a ‘ga’ or ‘gua’ sound that can be interpreted as bringing back to life—the first restricted to a rebirth in the world of ideas and the second a complete rebirth. As for the format, the parentheses indicate the silent syllables that should only be thought; the capitals indicate intonation in the pronunciation of the words; each line has nine syllables; the poem has nine lines; the empty lines represent the position of five groups of lines arranged in the original monolith; and we can observe a large number of symmetries. Seneca once wrote a personal interpretation of what this means; according to him, it would be a memory of someone being brought back to life after being banished from the universe, but it doesn't refer to a particular way of doing this," Amanda said.

  "But Amanda, how exactly does this help us?" Petra asked after unsuccessfully trying to decipher something.

  Amanda responded with an uncertain voice, "Trying to discover details about this tower might not be useful right now, but it's worth knowing that the symmetries in this poem indicate that the activity at Cernutos Tower is cyclical, and from what I understand, it might open soon, and that could attract knights to the region. Therefore, you have to be very careful if you decide to approach that location."

  "On the other hand, if we go North ignoring the tower, and Seneca is waiting for some cycle to occur, we run the risk of losing everything we're looking for," Liora suggested.

  "I agree, Liora; you're right about that. I don't know if I could help with any more information," Amanda added.

  "Regarding extermination magic, it's practically the opposite of bringing someone back to life, right?" Frank asked, groping in the darkness.

  "More or less, Frank, but something caught my attention in the Alphas' speech. Simple extermination magics wouldn't easily banish someone from the universe; they could banish them to Limbo. And Cernutos Tower specifically refers to banishment from the universe; for that, advanced or superior magics would be necessary," Amanda pondered.

  Frank put his hand to his head and asked, "My God, Amanda, are the magics we're learning the simple ones?"

  Amanda sat in one of the bridge's chairs, placing her tests in a pile on another chair. She began to speak: "Of course, Frank. The vast majority of mages stick to simple magics—me included. When mages go beyond the simple ones, they receive nice names like archmages, but that takes an immense amount of time. Dukliasse received that title because his extermination magic easily banished his targets. But from what the Alphas just commented on, it seems that the so-called pact allowed Dukliasse to achieve this feat, not the normal route through study time."

  "Just to get an idea, how much time are we talking about to learn advanced magics?" Petra asked.

  "The first advanced magic in one school would take about 300 Gate years, and the superior ones 30 to 40 million years for a single initial magic, that is, considering you have a perfect source of learning," Amanda calculated.

  "So, the superior ones would be the limit?" Frank asked.

  Amanda shrugged. "I don't know. Theoretically, there should be two more cycles of magic that start in the trillions of years range; there aren't even names for those. Universes last far longer than that, potentially, but no civilization has come close to it."

  Petra looked at Amanda, remembering the conversation with her after the last meeting with Ramirez. "But then Dukliasse managed to find a shortcut? Would it have something to do with the corruption you mentioned before?"

  "I am not sure, probably yes, because they mention having difficulties learning things after that," Amanda concluded.

  Liora's copy suddenly interrupted everyone: "Team, bad news!"

  Silas immediately connected to his terminals while the copy warned: "Calm down! It's not an emergency because we can't do anything; the new Golem that remained went up after Adarian. But it happens that this Golem's speed is more than double the previous ones. But the worst isn't that; all the other Golems that are after us started flying at that same increased speed. I ended up altering the airbike's positioning further from the Golems' probable trajectory and accelerating it at the top speed, which won't help at all because, with the communication delays, we're watching the past happen. At this moment, the Golems have already passed. Even if we're lucky enough for them to ignore our improvised probe as they pass by it, we'll lose track of the Golems in a matter of days because the airbike at full speed will lag further and further behind."

  "Okay, I didn't expect the Golems to get better over time; now we'll have to plan what to do," Silas grumbled.

  "Well, we could try sending a drone from Rocatrista or maybe buy one in the City of Spirits and send it to where Mosh is by a portal," Liora reflected.

  "Is it possible to use transport magics to teleport things near where the Golems are?" Petra asked.

  "Not directly, nor without risks, but there are some ways to try something; in the same way that we managed to revive people near places we know, it's possible to send some things from the world of the dead if we know who the persons are to anchor the position; for example, the aethernet connectors that they sent you," Amanda commented.

  "So, if I transfer my copy to the airbike and order components from the world of the dead, they'll send them to her wherever she is? How does this work? Wouldn't it be possible to buy and send a new Suma engine to the airbike's position?" Liora asked.

  Amanda replied, "It's simple; the magic of reviving people works on anything in the world of the dead. When I used resurrection magic to come here, I brought some terminals, my clothes, and a shelter travel cube without problems. So, it would be possible to order a whole new vehicle, in principle. The problem is that we need to anchor the arrival point somehow since it is resurrection magic."

  "Well, we can use my copy as an anchor," Liora promptly responded.

  "I think I'm going to found a union for oioi copies; I don't have much of a vocation for serving as an anchor," the copy grumbled through the bridge terminal.

  "It depends, Liora; what exactly is your copy?" Amanda asked, curious about this for some time now. "I ask this because the oioi copies I know are only temporary parts of their personalities without any autonomy, but yours seems quite different. For a usual copy, it wouldn't be possible because the anchors of resurrection magics need to have some essence of their own."

  "Ah yes, as I myself was once a copy of my mother, I try to keep the same copy active and give it some independence so it can learn things about the world on its own, but it still doesn't have complete autonomy, and I also can't say for sure about essence. It doesn't yet have a fixed physical body and can be transferred through the information networks to any terminals or networks with sufficient capacity. On the other hand, if the idea is to transfer myself, that would also be a possibility, but there would be a high risk involved, and it would certainly take a long time. When things get less chaotic, I plan on making her completely independent and raising her as a daughter, but doing that in our current situation would be irresponsible," Liora commented, to everyone's surprise, including her copy.

  Silas suggests, "Okay, then we'll do the following: since we don't have time to create our own, I'll buy a high-speed Suma reconnaissance drone with hyper-spatial communication, and we'll get it through the portal we have with Mosh and Vaud. Then we'll send this drone along the return path; by my calculations, the best we can buy on the improved Suma market with Amanda's speed-boosting magic would take about 40 days to reach the Golems unless we buy a droid with aerospace capabilities, in which case the time would drop to 15 or 20 days at most," Silas calculated, already consulting the list of Suma autonomous vehicles.

  "There are problems with your idea, Silas," Petra observed. "I operate the ship's probes, and I'm assuming that this new drone will function more or less the same, knowing that the probe's precision drops according to the speed between the ship and the observed object and remembering that the Golems are not the easiest things to detect, we'll have to cover a large part of the route with the probes active, even knowing the trajectory precisely, because if something changes again in the meantime and the Golems escape our first attempt, we won't know they've already passed the drone until it's too late. I think we have to try to follow them if our airbike is still in working order. Also, the magic to boost the speed has a limited duration." Silas smiled back and nodded at Petra, appreciating her proficiency with the sensors.

  "Petra. The airbike is intact; the Golems completely ignored it," Liora's copy observed laconically, deeply absorbed by what Liora had said.

  "I have a theory; I think the ghost improved her abilities after taking the dead Alpha to the center of the city, and if they send more people after him and the same thing happens, she'll become even stronger," Frank reflected.

  "Amanda, can we send things to the world of the dead? Like a portal pebble, for example?" Petra asked, having ideas.

  "Not easily; if you try to revive a stone into the world of the living using resurrection magic upon anything that already is inside the World of the Dead, it will work perfectly. The problem is the other way: if you send a pebble to the world of the dead via magic, it will first pass through Limbo, and only if it has essence will it accumulate mana and hatch in the Spirits' Field as happens with everyone. But, as the stone has no essence, it will never hatch; it will remain lost in Limbo," Amanda commented naturally.

  "There's an alternative way to do this, by any chance?" Frank observed, thinking of alternatives.

  Amanda replied, "Ah yes, there are ways to remove things from Limbo with advanced magic or a colossal quantity of resources performing a magic ritual that would involve dozens of mages to have a chance of getting something out of there. These mages would have a few seconds to try to find that stone in all of Limbo, and if they don't find it, they'll bring back something else at random that somehow answers to the concept of ’pebble’ that the mages had in the calling."

  "People! I want to suggest something!" the copy interrupted.

  "Are you thinking of transferring yourself to the airbike? We already knew that it won't help at all!" Liora revolted.

  "Let me speak! I want to help, and I'm not being very useful on the ship anymore; at least listen to my idea," the copy pleaded.

  "Okay, but I won't let you destroy yourself for nothing; this story about not being useful is nonsense, and even if it were true, it doesn't matter," Liora commented, realizing her copy was in conflict.

  "I can be transferred to the airbike. Right after, we activate an oioi identity module, and I turn it on; everything should be ready in a matter of hours. I become independent but dormant inside the airbike. Then you can use me as an anchor to send the drone and the components of an Oioi-Suma body for me to awaken from dormancy as an independent and complete person," the copy suggested. Liora became tense while Silas and Amanda couldn't hide their surprise.

  "I spent years in dormancy; I wouldn't wish that on you. If you really want independence now, we order your body calmly right here and resolve this issue. And there's another question: how do you think you would return after becoming independent, after that any transfer would be too risky?" Liora asked hesitantly.

  "I shared your dormant memories and know how bad that is, but it would be completely different; in minutes, I'd be conscious. As for returning here, I…" Liora's copy didn't continue with the thought since the internal conflict caused by the situation was so deep.

  "You don't intend to return…" Liora completed.

  The copy tried to respond via the terminal but deleted the beginning of the same message as if it were typing incorrectly two or three times until it finally wrote: "More or less… I don't think the Golems are after me, and I hope the curse doesn't work on me from the moment I become independent; I'd be a new person. But I wouldn't abandon any of you. I thought of going to Rocatrista to learn useful things and then help you from there."

  Liora tried to overcome her deep sadness with a resigned smile. "This isn't anything I had planned. In one thing, you're right; without the curse and considering what we know by now, your chances in Rocatrista are greater than here with us. However, I don't think you're ready to be abandoned in the world right now; I won't choose to sacrifice a person for convenience, not even if it means increasing our chances against Biggus."

  The copy responded with conviction: "Hey! What do you mean by sacrifice? I plan on staying alive for a long time; the airbike is in the middle of nowhere, and the Golems won't even know what's going on. If I try to go to Rocatrista, I'll do it from a safe distance and with a guaranteed contingency. Even if everything goes wrong as it did the first time, plan B is to outrun the Golems to the portal on King's Mountain, and then I'll return here. So, when you order the droid with the Suma, also order components for the airbike. I'll be gone for a while, but with an aethernet connector, communication will be real-time, and we can plan everything on the run."

  Liora responded, remembering her own past: "Sacrificing your infancy, which would be far from ideal."

  The copy retorted: "The situation will remain far from ideal for a long time, Liora. Even if you find Seneca soon and everything is resolved, I know you'll go after Biggus, and I won't stop you from doing that because I would do the same. But if I can choose, I don't want to wait; it would be better to be by your side when the time comes than wait."

  Liora responded, looking at Silas: "We still haven't decided if we're really going toward the tower or deviating, and we'll talk calmly later about Biggus. Independence means your choices and motivations won't be mine anymore, and revenge isn't something I want to leave you as a legacy."

  Amidst the chaos of events, Silas laced his fingers together, both patient and scrutinizing, as if piecing together an unexpected puzzle, saying: "Liora, you need to talk to your copy these days. I support whatever you two decide; they seem like valid options. Regarding the tower, if we're going to pass by there, I suggest we ascend with the ship and accelerate to the maximum; it's a risk, but we don't know how long Adarian will take to get there, and if he arrives before us, that would be awful."

  Amanda interrupted: "I have a bad feeling about going to that tower. Despite that, if we find Seneca, I'd be delighted to exchange a few words with him, and Silas's proposal makes sense. I was planning on leaving tomorrow, but if you decide to go to the tower, I'll go along because I can enchant this ship with my speed magic, but I'll need a hand from Frank."

  Frank responded politely, absorbed by Liora's conflict: "Of course, Amanda! Also, I agree to go to that tower immediately."

  Silas concluded, looking at Petra and Liora, who only nodded in agreement: "Okay, then it's decided about the tower. Now, the Golems are more urgent. Liora's copy idea is valid but needs to be carried out immediately, or we will lose track. On the other hand, I don't think that's a decision to be made hastily, but I maintain what I said; I support whatever the two of you decide."

  Liora and her copy looked at each other using telepathy to converse in a very accelerated timeframe. After a few seconds, Liora said: "We both still need to talk in private; tonight, we'll stay on the bridge. Silas, prepare everything for her to leave in the morning, and I'm going to start sending only a deactivated identity module to the airbike right now, but nothing is completely decided; we'll know tomorrow."

  Everyone stood up and started to leave the bridge. "Goodnight, Liora!" Frank said after the others left for Petra's universe. He stopped, turned to the terminal where the copy was, and said, "Goodnight…"

  Liora noticed the silence created by Frank; she replied: "Laetilia Gorgath." Frank waved goodbye with a smile and left the two alone on the bridge.

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