Seviriegnty
Not too sore, are you?
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For the fanfic, sorry if I worded it weirdly.
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Destiny: The Legendary Hunter
- Thread starter Writers-Ablood
- Start date
Writers-Ablood
All you need to know, is that I write.
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As I mentioned earlier, some things will be early, and some late. I can't exactly pinpoint it as the story will develop on its own.
Chapter 198: Ishtar Sink
Writers-Ablood
All you need to know, is that I write.
- Joined
- May 26, 2023
- Messages
- 243
- Likes received
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A/N: WE'REEEEEEEEEEEEE BACK BABY!!!!! Enjoy the chapter, took a few days off for writer's block and cuz work was getting tough.
-
Void's jumpship cut a clean line through the empty expanse of space, thrusters flaring as it steered towards the golden green planet in the distance, the moon fading away in the distance, now a mere glimmering spot in the dark.
"Obsidian," Void said, arms crossed as the stars thinned to a field. "Route us to Ishtar Sink."
"Roger that, " Obsidian replied, light pulsing. "I will take us to the edges."
Void watched the ETA tick down, thoughts moving faster than the ship. If the city was right and Ishtar was really stirring, then the Vex weren't just awake—they were already working.
«Eager,» Zamyr murmured, the word curling through his mind like smoke. «More eager than we expected.»
"Feels like it," Void said. "If they're throwing their weight around this openly without a care for being detected, they're not just routing a patrol. They're protecting something. Plus, this sudden spike in Vex activity on Venus of all places definitely means it's something they're not willing to let go of this easily."
Obsidian tapped into the City bands and skimmed narrow-beam traffic. "I'd agree to that. City's receiving crazy updates," he said. "Clustered Vex activity around Ishtar Academy....and there are even signs of Fallen arc weapons. Looks like the Vex and Fallen are really going at it."
"House of Winter," Void said, nodding to himself. "That explains the quiet on their end these last few weeks. If they're busy trying to pry open an old Vex outpost on Venus, they won't be poking Earth anytime soon."
"Speculation easily aligns with what we're seeing," Obsidian agreed. "Fallen scavengers are being sighted in the Ishtar Academy ruins. Hmmm, City's even mapping out their jammers that they set up to prevent a leak of information."
Void exhaled through his nose. "Mapping their jammers? That's a damn power move. I guess the City's new network is really not playing around. Those bastards are having way too much fun."
The Jumpship shook, and a hum resonated through it as space folded and spat the ship out to the other side.
"Setting thrusters to low, sonic engines live. We're here." Obsidian spoke up, its eye pulsed as the Jumpship gently steered through Venus's horizon and pierced through its thicket of clouds.
Void's eyes widened, and Venus filled the canopy. Its foggy bands peeled away to show jungles thick as myths and black spiralling geometry stabbing up through them. The jumpship hissed, riding down the misty gusts. The cockpit lit a warm orange, then cooled to the planet's vibrant green. Void looked down and saw the thin streams of water cutting silver lines through the maze, and then his eyes finally shifted to the ominous ruins at the centre.
"Put me down north of the Academy," Void said.
"Copy." Obsidian manoeuvred the ship, leaving it gently hovering above the northern edge of the Academy.
The next instant, Void transmatted down below.
Glimmer scattered, coagulating to give him form. Void landed on his feet and heaved a breath; the air smelled of a strange mixture of petrichor and rusted metal. Lush vines strangled the academy's plinths of white stone, forming a protective and thick layer of green around the structure.
Void moved carefully, wading through the tall grass, using his blade to cut through the sprawling flora till he could actually see the edge of the Academy grounds in the distance.
He swiftly settled down in a clearing. Void's eyes glistened with wonder as he looked at humanity's first and last colony on Venus.
'As expected, seeing it myself just feels different.' Void's eyes darted around. He could see the marbled statues that had eroded over time, the grand complex that had rusted through the ages, and the massive courtyards that were overgrown.
Ishtar Academy, the apex of humanity's knowledge collected and stored in its golden age vaults. The place truly felt like it had been forgotten, as if plucked from the timeline. Despite the centuries that the City had existed, there was no mention of the academy, and barely any attempts to access it.
Till now.
Void shifted with unease. He crouched down, eyes flickering to the side as his hand settled on the hilt of his blade. 'A presence?'
Five fallen squads scuttled between cover, frantically scampering away from the academy's entrance with low chatter. Inches across them, Vex harpies flickered into existence, lining the gates. Goblins dropped in with their shields already up, a Minotaur phased through the gate and hardened mid-stride as it raised its cannon and aimed.
The Fallen Captain felt a shiver down its spine; it looked back and screamed. But it was too late.
The Minotaur fired, crackling energy gathered at the tip of his gun and shot towards the Eliksni.
The Captain was barely grazed and vaulted. Instantly, he fired a shock rifle into a line of Harpies. The burst shredded three, sent the rest into a wild spin. From the left, the goblins stood up and returned a volley of fire; the minotaur did the same, this time, the laser rifle in its hand charged up.
It fired, drawing a white line across the grit as the laser tore toward the Captain. The Captain folded behind cover a half-second before the rock itself dissolved. A heated battle ensued with the Eliksni scavenger and the Vex guarding the academy ruins.
Void leaned back into the clearing and whispered, "Looks like they already started."
"Vex activity is ramping up; they're clashing against House Winter all across the academy. This is crazy." Obsidian answered.
"It's all going to shi* huh. I guess the City was right about it being a high spike in activity." Void frowned, observing the situation himself.
"There is one problem, though." Obsidian's eye pulsed, and it irritably spat out, "City's getting live updates here. One of our scouts is still in the academy. And...from the looks of it, they just triggered the distress signal." Obsidian flittered uneasily.
Void sighed, "Fine, ping the location, might as well help the extraction."
A small blip appeared on his radar, marking the location of the City's scout.
"Careful," Obsidian added. "Vex density is really non-trivial, and it's continuing to rise."
"Relax." Void rolled his shoulders, and a blue aura flared around his figure. "With that said, no dragon business on this one, so don't interfere."
«Hmph, how dull,» Zamyr breathed, amused. «I was sure we were getting better with my powers.»
"Not today," Void said, mouth tilting. "Like Obsidian said, I've been slacking off. For now, I'll stick to Light."
Lightning gathered at his heels. Void's figure flickered, and a blue blur shot towards the gates.
He moved.
An instant later, Void was across the courtyards, racing through fern and shattered glass, a stride that didn't waste breath. Void cut through the conflict, streaking across the skirmish between the Winter Captain and the Vex Minotaur.
Void jolted, weaving through the battle unseen, he reached the backlines. A Goblin turned, feeling the sudden movement, but before it could even understand what had happened, Void conjured a dagger and stabbed through its eye, beheading it in one clean strike.
A Harpy shrieked, its core lit up, inches away from firing a laser. Just then, lightning coiled at Void's wrist, and he flicked a finger. A bolt of thunder struck the Harpy, bursting it open.
Void didn't wait; his figure blurred again, and he darted.
He reached the first arch of the Academy, a gate of white stone wrapped with vines and Vex growth blocked his path. Void flickered forward with a swift kick and flung it open, his eyes tracking the blip on his radar. He stopped for a fraction of an instant, mapping out the route in his mind.
Void looked up and vanished.
Like a spectre, he rushed through the academy's maze, blending in with the shadows, unseen and unheard.
Just as he reached the location, his comms crackled and Void slid to a stop. He crouched down, tracking the signs of the scout.
Static crawled. The ping sharpened.
"Scout's alive," Obsidian said in his ear. "Heart rate high. But the light signature is being masked. He's trying not to be seen by both sides."
Void nodded. "Got it."
He got to his feet. Void took a step forward. Just as his foot touched the ground, he scattered into mist.
Voices flooded his senses—Fallen clicks and snarls to the right; Vex resonance to the left; and finally a faint trace of light, anxiously pulsating with life.
"There," Obsidian's voice echoed. "Under the rotunda. Behind the collapsed curator's desk."
Void shifted, silently appearing behind the presence.
An exo hunter in a ragged yellow cloak crouched under a tilted slab, one hand on a sniper rifle that scoped the outside through a broken window, and the other on his comms as he read out the events.
The hunter's eyes flicked to Void in a panic, but widened just enough to show relief as he chuckled. "Ghost sword. Never thought I'd meet someone like you this way." The hunter gave a weak salute, "It's Shiro-4."
"Pleasure's all mine." Void smiled casually, returning the salute, "But, that aside, what the hell are you doing scouting this shi*hole?"
"Honestly? I don't have a damn clue." Shiro cursed under his breath, "Wasn't like this for the first two days, but shi* hit the fan faster than I could react."
Shiro jerked his chin toward the inner quadrangle. "Overall? From what I know, the Winter bastards tried to jack some vex vaults. The Vex were naturally not too eager. And then, well, you probably know the rest."
"You've been here for two days?" Void asked.
"Ikorra assigned me to look into it briefly, but I honestly thought something deeper was at play." Shiro shrugged. "It's not like the Vex to frantically defend some old vaults. The likelihood that Winter actually ran into a main Vex stronghold isn't small."
"Agreed. If anything, the rising Vex resistance only confirms that." Void nodded, "And if it really is a Vex stronghold, that just means that the show's just getting started. Minotaurs are just the first step."
"You wouldn't think they'll bring out a Vex mind, do you?" Shiro-4 cackled wryly as he peered through his scope, still whispering his reports into the comms channel.
"At the very least, if they did, we all know that the House of Winter isn't getting off easy. And neither will we" Void shook his head. "If you're done scouting, I'd rather I help you extract."
"Extract? With all this info just lying around? I'd be crazy to leave this right now." Shiro-4 ducked into his scope once more, keenly reading the battlefield one unit at a time.
"While I appreciate your sense of duty." Void groaned. He walked forward and grabbed the rifle from its setup. "Stay any longer and you risk getting caught up in the crossfire. I am sure the Vex aren't thrilled to have us here, and I know for a fact they already know of us."
Shiro-4 frowned.
The Exo hunter slowly got to his feet, "Fine. Let's do it your way then. Lead the way."
"Good." Void handed back the rifle and crouched over to the window, peering down, "We've got plenty of room to leave. Ah, but there is one thing." Void's eyes flicked back, and a faint jolt of electricity wreathed his form.
"Hmm?" Shiro-4 stored his rifle in its engram and hung it at his belt.
"Make sure you keep up," Void smirked, and blue lightning enveloped him entirely. The next second, he flickered away.
Shiro-4's eyes widened for a split second. The Exo's light flared, coiling around his body as he darted to the window and streaked to follow Void.
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-
Void's jumpship cut a clean line through the empty expanse of space, thrusters flaring as it steered towards the golden green planet in the distance, the moon fading away in the distance, now a mere glimmering spot in the dark.
"Obsidian," Void said, arms crossed as the stars thinned to a field. "Route us to Ishtar Sink."
"Roger that, " Obsidian replied, light pulsing. "I will take us to the edges."
Void watched the ETA tick down, thoughts moving faster than the ship. If the city was right and Ishtar was really stirring, then the Vex weren't just awake—they were already working.
«Eager,» Zamyr murmured, the word curling through his mind like smoke. «More eager than we expected.»
"Feels like it," Void said. "If they're throwing their weight around this openly without a care for being detected, they're not just routing a patrol. They're protecting something. Plus, this sudden spike in Vex activity on Venus of all places definitely means it's something they're not willing to let go of this easily."
Obsidian tapped into the City bands and skimmed narrow-beam traffic. "I'd agree to that. City's receiving crazy updates," he said. "Clustered Vex activity around Ishtar Academy....and there are even signs of Fallen arc weapons. Looks like the Vex and Fallen are really going at it."
"House of Winter," Void said, nodding to himself. "That explains the quiet on their end these last few weeks. If they're busy trying to pry open an old Vex outpost on Venus, they won't be poking Earth anytime soon."
"Speculation easily aligns with what we're seeing," Obsidian agreed. "Fallen scavengers are being sighted in the Ishtar Academy ruins. Hmmm, City's even mapping out their jammers that they set up to prevent a leak of information."
Void exhaled through his nose. "Mapping their jammers? That's a damn power move. I guess the City's new network is really not playing around. Those bastards are having way too much fun."
The Jumpship shook, and a hum resonated through it as space folded and spat the ship out to the other side.
"Setting thrusters to low, sonic engines live. We're here." Obsidian spoke up, its eye pulsed as the Jumpship gently steered through Venus's horizon and pierced through its thicket of clouds.
Void's eyes widened, and Venus filled the canopy. Its foggy bands peeled away to show jungles thick as myths and black spiralling geometry stabbing up through them. The jumpship hissed, riding down the misty gusts. The cockpit lit a warm orange, then cooled to the planet's vibrant green. Void looked down and saw the thin streams of water cutting silver lines through the maze, and then his eyes finally shifted to the ominous ruins at the centre.
"Put me down north of the Academy," Void said.
"Copy." Obsidian manoeuvred the ship, leaving it gently hovering above the northern edge of the Academy.
The next instant, Void transmatted down below.
Glimmer scattered, coagulating to give him form. Void landed on his feet and heaved a breath; the air smelled of a strange mixture of petrichor and rusted metal. Lush vines strangled the academy's plinths of white stone, forming a protective and thick layer of green around the structure.
Void moved carefully, wading through the tall grass, using his blade to cut through the sprawling flora till he could actually see the edge of the Academy grounds in the distance.
He swiftly settled down in a clearing. Void's eyes glistened with wonder as he looked at humanity's first and last colony on Venus.
'As expected, seeing it myself just feels different.' Void's eyes darted around. He could see the marbled statues that had eroded over time, the grand complex that had rusted through the ages, and the massive courtyards that were overgrown.
Ishtar Academy, the apex of humanity's knowledge collected and stored in its golden age vaults. The place truly felt like it had been forgotten, as if plucked from the timeline. Despite the centuries that the City had existed, there was no mention of the academy, and barely any attempts to access it.
Till now.
Void shifted with unease. He crouched down, eyes flickering to the side as his hand settled on the hilt of his blade. 'A presence?'
Five fallen squads scuttled between cover, frantically scampering away from the academy's entrance with low chatter. Inches across them, Vex harpies flickered into existence, lining the gates. Goblins dropped in with their shields already up, a Minotaur phased through the gate and hardened mid-stride as it raised its cannon and aimed.
The Fallen Captain felt a shiver down its spine; it looked back and screamed. But it was too late.
The Minotaur fired, crackling energy gathered at the tip of his gun and shot towards the Eliksni.
The Captain was barely grazed and vaulted. Instantly, he fired a shock rifle into a line of Harpies. The burst shredded three, sent the rest into a wild spin. From the left, the goblins stood up and returned a volley of fire; the minotaur did the same, this time, the laser rifle in its hand charged up.
It fired, drawing a white line across the grit as the laser tore toward the Captain. The Captain folded behind cover a half-second before the rock itself dissolved. A heated battle ensued with the Eliksni scavenger and the Vex guarding the academy ruins.
Void leaned back into the clearing and whispered, "Looks like they already started."
"Vex activity is ramping up; they're clashing against House Winter all across the academy. This is crazy." Obsidian answered.
"It's all going to shi* huh. I guess the City was right about it being a high spike in activity." Void frowned, observing the situation himself.
"There is one problem, though." Obsidian's eye pulsed, and it irritably spat out, "City's getting live updates here. One of our scouts is still in the academy. And...from the looks of it, they just triggered the distress signal." Obsidian flittered uneasily.
Void sighed, "Fine, ping the location, might as well help the extraction."
A small blip appeared on his radar, marking the location of the City's scout.
"Careful," Obsidian added. "Vex density is really non-trivial, and it's continuing to rise."
"Relax." Void rolled his shoulders, and a blue aura flared around his figure. "With that said, no dragon business on this one, so don't interfere."
«Hmph, how dull,» Zamyr breathed, amused. «I was sure we were getting better with my powers.»
"Not today," Void said, mouth tilting. "Like Obsidian said, I've been slacking off. For now, I'll stick to Light."
Lightning gathered at his heels. Void's figure flickered, and a blue blur shot towards the gates.
He moved.
An instant later, Void was across the courtyards, racing through fern and shattered glass, a stride that didn't waste breath. Void cut through the conflict, streaking across the skirmish between the Winter Captain and the Vex Minotaur.
Void jolted, weaving through the battle unseen, he reached the backlines. A Goblin turned, feeling the sudden movement, but before it could even understand what had happened, Void conjured a dagger and stabbed through its eye, beheading it in one clean strike.
A Harpy shrieked, its core lit up, inches away from firing a laser. Just then, lightning coiled at Void's wrist, and he flicked a finger. A bolt of thunder struck the Harpy, bursting it open.
Void didn't wait; his figure blurred again, and he darted.
He reached the first arch of the Academy, a gate of white stone wrapped with vines and Vex growth blocked his path. Void flickered forward with a swift kick and flung it open, his eyes tracking the blip on his radar. He stopped for a fraction of an instant, mapping out the route in his mind.
Void looked up and vanished.
Like a spectre, he rushed through the academy's maze, blending in with the shadows, unseen and unheard.
Just as he reached the location, his comms crackled and Void slid to a stop. He crouched down, tracking the signs of the scout.
Static crawled. The ping sharpened.
"Scout's alive," Obsidian said in his ear. "Heart rate high. But the light signature is being masked. He's trying not to be seen by both sides."
Void nodded. "Got it."
He got to his feet. Void took a step forward. Just as his foot touched the ground, he scattered into mist.
Voices flooded his senses—Fallen clicks and snarls to the right; Vex resonance to the left; and finally a faint trace of light, anxiously pulsating with life.
"There," Obsidian's voice echoed. "Under the rotunda. Behind the collapsed curator's desk."
Void shifted, silently appearing behind the presence.
An exo hunter in a ragged yellow cloak crouched under a tilted slab, one hand on a sniper rifle that scoped the outside through a broken window, and the other on his comms as he read out the events.
The hunter's eyes flicked to Void in a panic, but widened just enough to show relief as he chuckled. "Ghost sword. Never thought I'd meet someone like you this way." The hunter gave a weak salute, "It's Shiro-4."
"Pleasure's all mine." Void smiled casually, returning the salute, "But, that aside, what the hell are you doing scouting this shi*hole?"
"Honestly? I don't have a damn clue." Shiro cursed under his breath, "Wasn't like this for the first two days, but shi* hit the fan faster than I could react."
Shiro jerked his chin toward the inner quadrangle. "Overall? From what I know, the Winter bastards tried to jack some vex vaults. The Vex were naturally not too eager. And then, well, you probably know the rest."
"You've been here for two days?" Void asked.
"Ikorra assigned me to look into it briefly, but I honestly thought something deeper was at play." Shiro shrugged. "It's not like the Vex to frantically defend some old vaults. The likelihood that Winter actually ran into a main Vex stronghold isn't small."
"Agreed. If anything, the rising Vex resistance only confirms that." Void nodded, "And if it really is a Vex stronghold, that just means that the show's just getting started. Minotaurs are just the first step."
"You wouldn't think they'll bring out a Vex mind, do you?" Shiro-4 cackled wryly as he peered through his scope, still whispering his reports into the comms channel.
"At the very least, if they did, we all know that the House of Winter isn't getting off easy. And neither will we" Void shook his head. "If you're done scouting, I'd rather I help you extract."
"Extract? With all this info just lying around? I'd be crazy to leave this right now." Shiro-4 ducked into his scope once more, keenly reading the battlefield one unit at a time.
"While I appreciate your sense of duty." Void groaned. He walked forward and grabbed the rifle from its setup. "Stay any longer and you risk getting caught up in the crossfire. I am sure the Vex aren't thrilled to have us here, and I know for a fact they already know of us."
Shiro-4 frowned.
The Exo hunter slowly got to his feet, "Fine. Let's do it your way then. Lead the way."
"Good." Void handed back the rifle and crouched over to the window, peering down, "We've got plenty of room to leave. Ah, but there is one thing." Void's eyes flicked back, and a faint jolt of electricity wreathed his form.
"Hmm?" Shiro-4 stored his rifle in its engram and hung it at his belt.
"Make sure you keep up," Void smirked, and blue lightning enveloped him entirely. The next second, he flickered away.
Shiro-4's eyes widened for a split second. The Exo's light flared, coiling around his body as he darted to the window and streaked to follow Void.
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Chapter 199: Ishtar Sink (2)
Writers-Ablood
All you need to know, is that I write.
- Joined
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- Messages
- 243
- Likes received
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A/N: Enjoy the chapter, check out my Patreon for more!
patreon.com/Writers_Ablood
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[Ishtar Academy]
"HOLY SHI*" Shiro-4 slid across the battlefield, ducking below a minotaur's laser as it grazed past his hood.
His eyes darted side to side. Shiro-4 waltzed through the battle following Void's trail.
The two Hunters flickered through the ruined courtyard like two lightning bolts, jolting between pillars, across broken balustrades, through the chaos of Vex and the Fallen fighting tooth and nail.
Shiro was quick on the uptake; he instantly realised that Void had carved out a path with his blue afterimages hanging in the humid air, as he streaked ahead.
"Left," Void called out and deftly flickered to the side.
The next second, Shiro-4 raced behind him and followed through.
The hunters cut under a collapsed arch, sprinting past a legion of Vex minotaurs blocking the gates. As they ran ahead, a barrage of laser shots cut through space where they'd been a heartbeat before.
Shiro-4 sped up, darting beside Void, "Where the hell are we going?" The exo grit his teeth.
"Just follow me!" Void zipped through the battlefield without looking back. He frantically zig-zagged through the conflict, flickering in and out of vision and taking turns at breakneck speeds at the fraction of a second.
Shiro-4 followed the same route because he could already see that Void had a clear way out. And as they stretched across the chaotic battlefield, his thoughts were confirmed. Void's erratic route was far too difficult to track for the Vex or the Fallen.
Neither the Minotaurs nor the Eliksni Captains could land a single shot at the two figures that shot past them.
"DUCK!" Void screamed and crouched, Shiro-4 grinded to a halt and dug his feet into the ground, pulling himself down.
The next second, a legion of Minotaurs warped ahead and unleashed a storm of bullets.
Void's eyes pulsed; the world had paused; He could already see the barrage of lasers hanging in mid-air, targeted towards them.
He moved.
Charging towards Shiro-4, Void tackled the hunter and hurled both himself and Shiro to the right.
The gears of time creaked till they eased back into motion.
Lasers blasted overhead, Void and Shiro-4 tumbled across the courtyard, the hunters jolted mid-air, just as their feet grazed the ground, the two flickered away in a blinding flash.
Two thunderbolts struck the lush jungle surrounding the academy. The light arced and spat out two figures. Shiro slumped to the ground, elbows on knees, helm tilted back as he heaved a breath.
"That was f*cking crazy", he chuckled and looked down at his arms that still faintly shook, as if in disbelief.
Void braced his hands on his thighs and let a laugh out, short and raw. "You should've seen the Moon," he said. "This was a cakewalk."
Shiro huffed, then nodded. "I can agree to that." He eased back into a tree and looked up, "Still, I never thought you'd be this fast. You move like you're on fire. Zipping from one step to the next."
"Appreciate the compliment. But I am not there yet." Void dusted his hands, "Besides, as an arc hunter, I am sure you've seen better. Weren't you under Sai Mota during the war?"
Shiro-4 shivered slightly at the name; memories of the lunar war flashed in his eyes, "Well, compared to the Captain herself, we're all so-so. I don't think anyone's that good."
Void nodded, "What makes her that good anyway?" He walked to a tree and leaned, glancing back at the academy.
"Hmm?" Shiro-4 hummed in thought till an answer crossed his mind. "It's hard to explain, but think of it like this. You're a bullet, fast, erratic and lethal. But the Captain? She's a storm. Barely anything survives her wake."
"A storm huh?" Void straightened, rolled his shoulders. "I kinda get what you're saying," he said and walked towards the academy's courtyard once more.
Shiro turned his head. "Where are you going?"
Void lifted a brow. "Where else?" He tapped two fingers on the sheath of his blade. "Back inside."
Shiro pushed to his feet, stumbling once. "You're joking."
"I'll be fine," Void said, steady. "Besides, the only reason I came out was to help you extract. I've still got business to handle inside."
Shiro stared at him in awe, then at the academy's courtyard. "So you're really going back there?" he muttered.
"That I am." Void grinned and stepped towards the academy, "Tell the Vanguard I'll take care of the spiking activity." The Arc was already gathered under his boots. A flicker later, he was gone.
Shiro watched the space where he'd been for a heartbeat, then shook himself and brought a hand to his comms. "Scout Shiro-4," he said. "Extracted successfully."
Static followed, and then Ikorra's voice echoed on the channel. "Copy. You did well."
"Ghostword helped me extract," Shiro said, already unslinging his long rifle. He set up a new spot observing the academy's courtyard from the outside. "He did say he's going back in to take care of the activity. For now, I am observing the situation from the sidelines."
Silence gripped the channel. Moments later, she replied. "Acknowledged," Ikorra said, softer. "Keep your eyes on him in case he needs help."
"Already on it." Shiro sighted along the scope, tracking a bolt of light that seemed to jolt towards the centre.
—
[Ishtar Academy, Courtyard]
The standoff had worsened. Hundreds of House of Winter squads had flooded the area. Fallen Captains roared orders as more Vex Minotaurs and Hydras appeared through ruptures in space. Goblins and Hobgoblins crawled out of the summoning lattices in stacks.
House of Winter and Ishtar's Vex legions continued their clash, neither side willing to give even an inch.
Void flickered and slipped back into the middle of the chaos, "These f*ckers are way too riled up." He stood at the centre of the courtyard as the Vex and Fallen traded thousands of shots a second.
"Let's see, Minotaurs, Goblins, Hobgoblins. Even got the Harpies, they're fully stacked." Void sucked in a breath, and his eyes flicked towards the Fallen forces, "Hmm. Four, no, there's five Captains. Forty vandals and three servitors? They're going all out."
As he contemplated, bullets, lasers, and arc missiles shot towards him.
Void jerked to the right and took a half step back, "Oi! You dogs! I am strategising here, give me a second."
The next instant, two Fallen Captains locked their arc cannons onto him and fired.
"Son of a-" Void's eyes widened, he darted forwards and slid between a pair of Harpies, kicked off a pillar as the Captain's arc cannons ripped through where he'd been, taking down two Harpies with the shots.
Void twirled towards the ground and slid back into a stance. "If that's how you want to play it, fine by me." A jolt arc through his eyes, he unsheathed his blade. Blue jolts coursed around his body; his light pushed his senses to the limit.
A memory flashed in his mind.
Dust was everywhere, and the next instant, a lone gunman shot out from the centre. Shin Malphur flicked his wrist and drew his gun, fire coiling at its barrel. Right at that instant, Sai Mota cut through the cloud with sheer speed. A blue spectre that fearlessly blitzed the threat in front of her.
'Ruthless and relentless.' Void smiled to himself, and a vast amount of energy poured out from him, running rampant around the courtyard.
The sudden influx of light had triggered both the Vex and the Fallen, but neither side had attention to spare for a third problem. That was the point.
He shifted forward with an unsheathed blade. The world narrowed in front of him. Void's feet pressed into the floor, and he squeezed everything he had into the first step.
-Clink-
He hit the House of Winter first.
Void jolted, his trajectory colliding with a Fallen Captain. With a deft slice, he cleaved off the arm that held the arc cannon. Void raised his blade and instantly reposted the Captain's strike. He stabbed and dug his blade into the Captain's throat.
A blink of an eye later, Ether plumed.
The sight of the Ether spreading through the air was enough to trigger the Fallen to fire wildly. Void flickered backwards, hiding behind the marching Vex legions.
He turned right then, pivoting towards the goblins. Void beheaded several with one strike, chucking their heads towards the Harpies to disrupt their beams.
The air pulsed as the Harpies stuttered, unable to aim. Their focus immediately shifted to their own backlines; they spotted Void.
But Void was already flowing—hit, step, vanish, return. Blinking from one strike to the next, never standing for more than a fraction of a second. Void struck in short bursts of lightning, like an imperceivable spectre.
The moment the Vex locked on, it was already too late, and he would already be gone.
A Minotaur lumbered in, warping towards his location with a herculean slam.
Void rolled under the charge, palmed the ground, scuttling up its back with precision. He raised his sword and drove it into the Minotaur's core. It spasmed, sputtering out in sparks and stalling.
Void slid back, coiling inwards, his gaze flicked towards the Fallen scavenger party ahead, and his eyes gleamed. He sprang forth at breakneck speeds and struck the minotaur with a crushing kick, sending it hurling towards the Fallen.
As the Minotaur came crashing down, its core sparked once more.
Boom!
The Vex Minotaur erupted in a riveting explosion that wiped out tens of Fallen.
But Void didn't stop there.
He sprinted straight, charging towards the Vex. A Harpy dive-bombed, crushing towards him, but he zipped past it with finesse and batted it with the back of his hand, chucking it down. A Hobgoblin raised its shield, making itself invulnerable. Void raced towards it and leapt over, leaving blue lightning coursing in his wake wherever he stepped.
Void ran through the battlefield. Faster than he ever had, squeezing every ounce of light through his system. He ran, and ran until he could run no further. Until he'd spent the last of his light and slowed to a stop.
He panted for breaths as the lightning still jittered in his system, but as Void looked around, he found himself standing in ruin. Vex legions and Fallen squads were left torn around him. As if swept by a storm, unable to even react to what had hit them.
Void wheezed, recovering his light.
And as the seconds passed, the Vex and the Fallen seemed to cautiously replenish their numbers. This time, their eyes were peeled for the strange presence that threatened them
Seeing their hesitation, Void smiled.
'Like a storm.' He muttered to himself.
He rolled his shoulders, and slowly the light returned to him. Void raised his hand, and a jolt ran between his fingers. He was slowly starting to realise the essence of an arc hunter.
Void grit his teeth and riled up his light. 'If this is the way to learn, so be it.'
'I will become the storm'
His eyes flicked towards the battle that continued, and lightning enveloped his figure. Void channelled his light with fervour and shot forward.
-
Shiro-4 watched through his scope with bated breaths. His eyes widened in awe, and he flicked the rifle around like a crazed fanatic, following the blue blur that darted around the battlefield.
Each step, each strike, Shiro-4 saw it all.
He watched as Void poured more and more out of himself, fighting tooth and nail with each passing second. Just as Void's figure thundered across the courtyard and slid to a stop, Shiro's grip around his rifle tightened.
'Is this the calibre of a Hero?' The thought crossed his mind. He couldn't look away for even a second, afraid that he'd miss the next move. Shiro-4 was mesmerised by Void's relentless style.
Unbeknownst to the scout, another presence keenly watched Void's mad frenzy against the Vex and the Fallen.
Her eyes narrowed. Elsie stood at the outskirts of the Ishtar Sink, observing the chaotic return of the Vex from the sidelines. She'd been determined to step in if things went south. But just as she thought she'd have to.
He appeared.
Elsie heaved a sigh; no matter where she went, he was always there. Almost as if he knew what would happen. For a shiver ran down her spine, but then she shook her head.
'That's impossible'
There was only one way to slip back into the timestream. She looked down at her rifle and at the strange clock at her wrist. A moment later, her eyes drifted back towards the academy, silently watching Void push back the Vex.
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[Ishtar Academy]
"HOLY SHI*" Shiro-4 slid across the battlefield, ducking below a minotaur's laser as it grazed past his hood.
His eyes darted side to side. Shiro-4 waltzed through the battle following Void's trail.
The two Hunters flickered through the ruined courtyard like two lightning bolts, jolting between pillars, across broken balustrades, through the chaos of Vex and the Fallen fighting tooth and nail.
Shiro was quick on the uptake; he instantly realised that Void had carved out a path with his blue afterimages hanging in the humid air, as he streaked ahead.
"Left," Void called out and deftly flickered to the side.
The next second, Shiro-4 raced behind him and followed through.
The hunters cut under a collapsed arch, sprinting past a legion of Vex minotaurs blocking the gates. As they ran ahead, a barrage of laser shots cut through space where they'd been a heartbeat before.
Shiro-4 sped up, darting beside Void, "Where the hell are we going?" The exo grit his teeth.
"Just follow me!" Void zipped through the battlefield without looking back. He frantically zig-zagged through the conflict, flickering in and out of vision and taking turns at breakneck speeds at the fraction of a second.
Shiro-4 followed the same route because he could already see that Void had a clear way out. And as they stretched across the chaotic battlefield, his thoughts were confirmed. Void's erratic route was far too difficult to track for the Vex or the Fallen.
Neither the Minotaurs nor the Eliksni Captains could land a single shot at the two figures that shot past them.
"DUCK!" Void screamed and crouched, Shiro-4 grinded to a halt and dug his feet into the ground, pulling himself down.
The next second, a legion of Minotaurs warped ahead and unleashed a storm of bullets.
Void's eyes pulsed; the world had paused; He could already see the barrage of lasers hanging in mid-air, targeted towards them.
He moved.
Charging towards Shiro-4, Void tackled the hunter and hurled both himself and Shiro to the right.
The gears of time creaked till they eased back into motion.
Lasers blasted overhead, Void and Shiro-4 tumbled across the courtyard, the hunters jolted mid-air, just as their feet grazed the ground, the two flickered away in a blinding flash.
Two thunderbolts struck the lush jungle surrounding the academy. The light arced and spat out two figures. Shiro slumped to the ground, elbows on knees, helm tilted back as he heaved a breath.
"That was f*cking crazy", he chuckled and looked down at his arms that still faintly shook, as if in disbelief.
Void braced his hands on his thighs and let a laugh out, short and raw. "You should've seen the Moon," he said. "This was a cakewalk."
Shiro huffed, then nodded. "I can agree to that." He eased back into a tree and looked up, "Still, I never thought you'd be this fast. You move like you're on fire. Zipping from one step to the next."
"Appreciate the compliment. But I am not there yet." Void dusted his hands, "Besides, as an arc hunter, I am sure you've seen better. Weren't you under Sai Mota during the war?"
Shiro-4 shivered slightly at the name; memories of the lunar war flashed in his eyes, "Well, compared to the Captain herself, we're all so-so. I don't think anyone's that good."
Void nodded, "What makes her that good anyway?" He walked to a tree and leaned, glancing back at the academy.
"Hmm?" Shiro-4 hummed in thought till an answer crossed his mind. "It's hard to explain, but think of it like this. You're a bullet, fast, erratic and lethal. But the Captain? She's a storm. Barely anything survives her wake."
"A storm huh?" Void straightened, rolled his shoulders. "I kinda get what you're saying," he said and walked towards the academy's courtyard once more.
Shiro turned his head. "Where are you going?"
Void lifted a brow. "Where else?" He tapped two fingers on the sheath of his blade. "Back inside."
Shiro pushed to his feet, stumbling once. "You're joking."
"I'll be fine," Void said, steady. "Besides, the only reason I came out was to help you extract. I've still got business to handle inside."
Shiro stared at him in awe, then at the academy's courtyard. "So you're really going back there?" he muttered.
"That I am." Void grinned and stepped towards the academy, "Tell the Vanguard I'll take care of the spiking activity." The Arc was already gathered under his boots. A flicker later, he was gone.
Shiro watched the space where he'd been for a heartbeat, then shook himself and brought a hand to his comms. "Scout Shiro-4," he said. "Extracted successfully."
Static followed, and then Ikorra's voice echoed on the channel. "Copy. You did well."
"Ghostword helped me extract," Shiro said, already unslinging his long rifle. He set up a new spot observing the academy's courtyard from the outside. "He did say he's going back in to take care of the activity. For now, I am observing the situation from the sidelines."
Silence gripped the channel. Moments later, she replied. "Acknowledged," Ikorra said, softer. "Keep your eyes on him in case he needs help."
"Already on it." Shiro sighted along the scope, tracking a bolt of light that seemed to jolt towards the centre.
—
[Ishtar Academy, Courtyard]
The standoff had worsened. Hundreds of House of Winter squads had flooded the area. Fallen Captains roared orders as more Vex Minotaurs and Hydras appeared through ruptures in space. Goblins and Hobgoblins crawled out of the summoning lattices in stacks.
House of Winter and Ishtar's Vex legions continued their clash, neither side willing to give even an inch.
Void flickered and slipped back into the middle of the chaos, "These f*ckers are way too riled up." He stood at the centre of the courtyard as the Vex and Fallen traded thousands of shots a second.
"Let's see, Minotaurs, Goblins, Hobgoblins. Even got the Harpies, they're fully stacked." Void sucked in a breath, and his eyes flicked towards the Fallen forces, "Hmm. Four, no, there's five Captains. Forty vandals and three servitors? They're going all out."
As he contemplated, bullets, lasers, and arc missiles shot towards him.
Void jerked to the right and took a half step back, "Oi! You dogs! I am strategising here, give me a second."
The next instant, two Fallen Captains locked their arc cannons onto him and fired.
"Son of a-" Void's eyes widened, he darted forwards and slid between a pair of Harpies, kicked off a pillar as the Captain's arc cannons ripped through where he'd been, taking down two Harpies with the shots.
Void twirled towards the ground and slid back into a stance. "If that's how you want to play it, fine by me." A jolt arc through his eyes, he unsheathed his blade. Blue jolts coursed around his body; his light pushed his senses to the limit.
A memory flashed in his mind.
Dust was everywhere, and the next instant, a lone gunman shot out from the centre. Shin Malphur flicked his wrist and drew his gun, fire coiling at its barrel. Right at that instant, Sai Mota cut through the cloud with sheer speed. A blue spectre that fearlessly blitzed the threat in front of her.
'Ruthless and relentless.' Void smiled to himself, and a vast amount of energy poured out from him, running rampant around the courtyard.
The sudden influx of light had triggered both the Vex and the Fallen, but neither side had attention to spare for a third problem. That was the point.
He shifted forward with an unsheathed blade. The world narrowed in front of him. Void's feet pressed into the floor, and he squeezed everything he had into the first step.
-Clink-
He hit the House of Winter first.
Void jolted, his trajectory colliding with a Fallen Captain. With a deft slice, he cleaved off the arm that held the arc cannon. Void raised his blade and instantly reposted the Captain's strike. He stabbed and dug his blade into the Captain's throat.
A blink of an eye later, Ether plumed.
The sight of the Ether spreading through the air was enough to trigger the Fallen to fire wildly. Void flickered backwards, hiding behind the marching Vex legions.
He turned right then, pivoting towards the goblins. Void beheaded several with one strike, chucking their heads towards the Harpies to disrupt their beams.
The air pulsed as the Harpies stuttered, unable to aim. Their focus immediately shifted to their own backlines; they spotted Void.
But Void was already flowing—hit, step, vanish, return. Blinking from one strike to the next, never standing for more than a fraction of a second. Void struck in short bursts of lightning, like an imperceivable spectre.
The moment the Vex locked on, it was already too late, and he would already be gone.
A Minotaur lumbered in, warping towards his location with a herculean slam.
Void rolled under the charge, palmed the ground, scuttling up its back with precision. He raised his sword and drove it into the Minotaur's core. It spasmed, sputtering out in sparks and stalling.
Void slid back, coiling inwards, his gaze flicked towards the Fallen scavenger party ahead, and his eyes gleamed. He sprang forth at breakneck speeds and struck the minotaur with a crushing kick, sending it hurling towards the Fallen.
As the Minotaur came crashing down, its core sparked once more.
Boom!
The Vex Minotaur erupted in a riveting explosion that wiped out tens of Fallen.
But Void didn't stop there.
He sprinted straight, charging towards the Vex. A Harpy dive-bombed, crushing towards him, but he zipped past it with finesse and batted it with the back of his hand, chucking it down. A Hobgoblin raised its shield, making itself invulnerable. Void raced towards it and leapt over, leaving blue lightning coursing in his wake wherever he stepped.
Void ran through the battlefield. Faster than he ever had, squeezing every ounce of light through his system. He ran, and ran until he could run no further. Until he'd spent the last of his light and slowed to a stop.
He panted for breaths as the lightning still jittered in his system, but as Void looked around, he found himself standing in ruin. Vex legions and Fallen squads were left torn around him. As if swept by a storm, unable to even react to what had hit them.
Void wheezed, recovering his light.
And as the seconds passed, the Vex and the Fallen seemed to cautiously replenish their numbers. This time, their eyes were peeled for the strange presence that threatened them
Seeing their hesitation, Void smiled.
'Like a storm.' He muttered to himself.
He rolled his shoulders, and slowly the light returned to him. Void raised his hand, and a jolt ran between his fingers. He was slowly starting to realise the essence of an arc hunter.
Void grit his teeth and riled up his light. 'If this is the way to learn, so be it.'
'I will become the storm'
His eyes flicked towards the battle that continued, and lightning enveloped his figure. Void channelled his light with fervour and shot forward.
-
Shiro-4 watched through his scope with bated breaths. His eyes widened in awe, and he flicked the rifle around like a crazed fanatic, following the blue blur that darted around the battlefield.
Each step, each strike, Shiro-4 saw it all.
He watched as Void poured more and more out of himself, fighting tooth and nail with each passing second. Just as Void's figure thundered across the courtyard and slid to a stop, Shiro's grip around his rifle tightened.
'Is this the calibre of a Hero?' The thought crossed his mind. He couldn't look away for even a second, afraid that he'd miss the next move. Shiro-4 was mesmerised by Void's relentless style.
Unbeknownst to the scout, another presence keenly watched Void's mad frenzy against the Vex and the Fallen.
Her eyes narrowed. Elsie stood at the outskirts of the Ishtar Sink, observing the chaotic return of the Vex from the sidelines. She'd been determined to step in if things went south. But just as she thought she'd have to.
He appeared.
Elsie heaved a sigh; no matter where she went, he was always there. Almost as if he knew what would happen. For a shiver ran down her spine, but then she shook her head.
'That's impossible'
There was only one way to slip back into the timestream. She looked down at her rifle and at the strange clock at her wrist. A moment later, her eyes drifted back towards the academy, silently watching Void push back the Vex.
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Chapter 200: A Stranger's Call
New
Writers-Ablood
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[Ishtar Academy, Venus — Inner Grounds]
Void kept moving.
He tore through the battlefield, akin to a thunderbolt, looking for a place to land, jolts flickering underfoot. He circled the Vex at breakneck speeds, conjuring a ball of lightning that coiled around his hand.
A Fallen Captain felt a shiver down its spine. He lunged at the blue comet with a shock blade. But Void's speed was simply imperceivable. He brazenly slid under the blade, its edge kissing the hem of his cloak. Void's eyes flicked back, and he quickly lined up his next step.
Sweeping in with his foot, Void angled his body behind the Fallen captain. He pulled back his fist, and lightning roared. Void's lips curved into a smirk.
He leapt, and light erupted.
Void punched.
A blue star flashed, its light engulfing every inch of the courtyard for a fraction of a second. Void's fist jittered, sparks crawled between his knuckles, and smoke rose from his armour.
As the dust settled, a gaping maw was all that was left.
Akin to a ferocious tiger that had taken a clean bite out of the world.
Vex Minotaurs, Fallen Captains, Harpies, Hobgoblins, anything within the line had been drilled through and hollowed out.
The air went metallic as the charge dispersed. The jungle's damp air had turned conductive. Lightning scattered around Void, scorching the air itself. Finally, a wet plume of steam bubbled and rolled out across the courtyard.
For a heartbeat, the jungles of Venus held its moist breath.
Void dropped to the ground and heaved a breath. "That....Took more than I expected," He rolled his shoulder and curled his fingers.
The battlefield was gripped by a silence. Only the faintest cries of the Fallen and the dying shrieks of the Vex could be heard.
Void walked forward, glaring at both sides, gauging for reactions. But the damage he'd inflicted was severe. Neither the Vex nor the Fallen could afford to attack him, let alone each other.
Obsidian urgently spoke up, " I'm getting rapid scans by the City's orbital sensors! Looks like the Fallen are slowly withdrawing."
"Damn right they are, if I got rocked like that I'd leave too." Void chuckled, watching the House of Winter squads scurrying to carry their injured as they scampered out to the exit.
"About that." Obsidian cleared his throat, "I don't think they're running from you."
Void paused and raised a brow, "Huh? Well, who the hell else are they running from?" He turned back, but just then.
The ground shook.
A ripple ran through the space around the academy's courtyard. A wide data matrix appeared, forming into a three-dimensional lattice that crumpled the very fabric of time.
Something shrieked. The wails sent tremors across the courtyard, as if announcing its arrival.
A swarm of radiolaria tentacles punctured through space and tore open the lattice. The tentacles pulled, tugging along a gargantuan Vex Wyern. The bipedal Vex Wyern coiled the tentacles, like pseudo wings, at the peaks of its frame. Its eye glowed, embedded with a single crimson core.
It hunkered through the lattice.
The ground shook again.
"It's right behind me." Void facepalmed and groaned. "It is, isn't it? For f*cks sake, I can even feel its weird breath." He heaved another sigh and sneakily glanced over his shoulder. "A goddamn Wyvern." Void cursed under his breath.
The Wyvern unfurled its wings.
"Don't do it. Please, don't do it." Void tapped his foot on the ground and rubbed his forehead with clenched teeth.
As if sensing his fear, the Wyvern leapt and hung in the air. Its core trembled with energy as it angled its hull into the ground, and the tentacles coiled back, ready to slam.
"Son of a-"
Void didn't hesitate and bolted. The Wyvern's entire figure shook as it crashed down. The impact rippled across the academy, fissures cracked open the ground.
The tremors erupted outwards, and a crater of debris spread, biting at Void's heels. But he was already past the eruption's reach, akin to a blur that had raced to the impact's edge.
A shriek echoed again.
The Wyvern shook its hull and clawed out of its own crater, its crimson frantically scouring the surroundings.
"See, this is why I was never a big fan of you guys." Void flickered back in, his hand came up, fingers sparking. Arc gathered round his fist—clean, sharp, eager—bolts crawling from wrist to knuckles, braiding themselves tight.
"Not then, and certainly not now."
The Wyvern stomped and trudged out to face Void, its eye locking onto the target had already turned a bloody red. Seeing Void's charged fist, the Wyvern was already on the move.
It leapt again. Coiling the air around itself, like a catapult ready to be fired. The Wyvern coiled back its tentacles and compressed its energy to the limit.
Void deftly sauntered forward, looking up at the gargantuan Wyvern. He unsheathed his blade with his left hand and took a sharp stance.
The air snapped. A crushing shockwave reverberated.
The Wyvern had shot forward, and so had Void.
Strands of lightning and radiolaria clashed, Void swung his blade, but the Wyvern shifted, angling its hull to deflect its edge, ensuring the two would collide head-on.
"As expected," Void muttered.
His grip on the blade loosened, and it flung out of his hands. Void jerked and twisted in the air. The Wyvern came crashing down at him, facing its unstoppable momentum, Void had decided to use it against his enemy.
Void drove his fist forward, and it drilled through the glowing heart of the Wyvern.
Lightning didn't flash; rather, it bit.
Void shifted all his weight through the shoulder, drove his fist deeper into the core and at the last second, he let go and flickered.
The Wyvern shook erratically. Its core cracked open, and a terrifying burst of energy swept the courtyard. An azure ball of fire began to eat away at its centre till it destabilised. As the core fractured, the world turned bleak, and a pulse of white flashed, pushing away everything in its path.
An expanding eruption consumed the courtyard, collapsing into a bright, quivering pillar of energy that pierced the clouds above.
A figure blurred at the stem of the pillar. Void raised his hand to shield his eyes. He straightened, breathing hard. "Status?"
Obsidian popped into the air beside him, shell dimmed to a low amber. "Fallen have withdrawn beyond the outer boundary of the academy. And with that Wyvern gone, Vex numbers are plummeting. I guess they don't have more stationed here."
"Good." He rolled his neck and watched the pillar slowly fade away. "We're done."
"Are we?" Obsidian whispered back, eye gleaming with suspicion. He pinged Void's radar with an energy signature.
Void glanced at his radar, and his gaze immediately snagged on a prickle at the edge of his awareness—deliberate, neat. A set of eyes was watching him. But this sensation felt strange.
He let his eyes go thin. Blue curled at the iris, pupils pinning the thread. It ran like a hairline crack through reality to the edge of the ruins, past the jungles and above the ivory cliffs that wrapped around the edges of the Jungle. He followed it with a thought, and then saw a figure looking back at him.
She stood on a ridge overlooking the chasm opposite the academy.
The Stranger.
When Elsie confirmed Void had seen her, she gave back a simple nod and then vanished.
Void exhaled through his teeth. "You seeing this?"
"I detected her presence and matched it to the signature we got last time. She's been watching us for a while." Obsidian frowned. "But, there's still no way to track it. I know it doesn't make sense, but it's like she's not even there."
"Someone we can barely track has decided to show themselves so openly," Void said. He stepped to the edge of the courtyard, past a discarded House of Winter banner.
Obsidian flittered beside him, "She's inviting us."
Void watched the traces of her strange energy form a path that led towards the outskirts of the jungle.
«How curious,» Zamyr murmured in Void's mind. «She, like us, is treading through the twisted timelines of fate. Except she's not like us. No, her power is far more subtle.»
Void didn't answer. He stepped into the green and flickered away.
—
[ Ishtar Sink ]
Shiro-4 finally coughed and dusted his cloak. "Vanguard, this is Shiro. Spiking activity resolved—Ghostsword cleaned the board. Vex are pulling back; House of Winter is out."
"Copy," Ikorra said, crisp and lighter by a degree. "Status on Void?"
Shiro-4 shook off the rest of the dirt and scoped back into the courtyard. "He disappeared after taking out the Elite combatants," he said. "No sign of him."
A tiny pause. "Understood. Leave trackers near the combat site." Ikorra replied. "I'll be expecting a full brief from you soon."
"Roger." Shiro-4 cut the call. He searched through his belt and took out three intricate discs. A portable tracker that the city had provided him. Shiro-4 set the trackers around the perimeter of the academy and then promptly transmatted back to his Jumpship to return to Earth.
—
[Ishtar Sink — Verdant Edge]
Elsie waited at the furthest edges of the jungle where the wilderness merged into the ivory hills that cupped the Academy's plateau. Beyond the cliffs was a chasm that seemed to cut a long black seam into Venus; no light could penetrate this abyss, the only thing that signalled it wasn't endless was a gentle and cold breeze that crawled up to the tip of the cliffs.
She felt him arrive before she heard him. A twist in space, or rather a twist in fate. Her eyes narrowed. Elsie's grip on her rifle tightened, and a faint shiver ran down her spine. One she quickly masked.
The tall grass rustled.
Void took a step forward with his head level and his hands empty, boots digging into the moist, gravelly cliff rock. He stopped a step back from her shoulder line and then glanced across, as if watching her gaze.
"Didn't think I'd see you after what happened last time," he said.
Elsie shot him a look over her shoulder, then turned her face back to the cut in the world. "I didn't think so either."
Cold gusts of wind whistled past the cliff face, fluttering the trees around the cliff's perimeter. A brittle silence gripped the two. Void pursed his lips, unsure of what to say. He walked closer to the edge and peered down at the abyss.
"So what changed?" He uttered and looked ahead, "Why show yourself now?"
"I'd ask you the same thing, but neither of us has the answer." Elsie wryly chuckled under her breath. She heaved a sigh, her eyes slowly flicked to Void, analysing him from top to bottom. "I saw you. Trapped in Hellmouth, drowning in the dark."
Void raised a brow as he heard her and slowly crossed his arms as he sucked in a breath. "In that case, I'd have appreciated some help."
"How did you execute a plan to get out so fast?" Elsie cut in.
"Me?" Void shook his head, "You're mistaken there. Heck, it wasn't me at all. A couple of my guys knew I didn't make it back. From there? The City got involved, and that's all there is to it. If anything, I got lucky."
Void laughed; he knew that the whole situation was risky. And frankly, the fact that he had made it out that fast was entirely thanks to everyone contributing.
"Luck."
Elsie mouthed, she tilted her head and shot Void a curious glance. Then she muttered it again, as if it didn't sit right with her. "You believe in that?"
"Doesn't everybody?" Void replied casually.
"No." Elsie turned back to the chasm, "I know someone like that. Or rather, knew. Did everything with a plan, down to the letter. Luck, chance, none of that stuff ever mattered. There was always a contingency, always a plan."
Void listened with intent, "He sounds quite meticulous. But the way you're saying it, I am guessing you weren't a big fan?"
"When a plan supersedes chance itself, that just means there's no room for error. No risk too fatal, no fight too grave."
Elsie paused as if a memory flickered before her eyes.
"No cost too great."
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[Ishtar Academy, Venus — Inner Grounds]
Void kept moving.
He tore through the battlefield, akin to a thunderbolt, looking for a place to land, jolts flickering underfoot. He circled the Vex at breakneck speeds, conjuring a ball of lightning that coiled around his hand.
A Fallen Captain felt a shiver down its spine. He lunged at the blue comet with a shock blade. But Void's speed was simply imperceivable. He brazenly slid under the blade, its edge kissing the hem of his cloak. Void's eyes flicked back, and he quickly lined up his next step.
Sweeping in with his foot, Void angled his body behind the Fallen captain. He pulled back his fist, and lightning roared. Void's lips curved into a smirk.
He leapt, and light erupted.
Void punched.
A blue star flashed, its light engulfing every inch of the courtyard for a fraction of a second. Void's fist jittered, sparks crawled between his knuckles, and smoke rose from his armour.
As the dust settled, a gaping maw was all that was left.
Akin to a ferocious tiger that had taken a clean bite out of the world.
Vex Minotaurs, Fallen Captains, Harpies, Hobgoblins, anything within the line had been drilled through and hollowed out.
The air went metallic as the charge dispersed. The jungle's damp air had turned conductive. Lightning scattered around Void, scorching the air itself. Finally, a wet plume of steam bubbled and rolled out across the courtyard.
For a heartbeat, the jungles of Venus held its moist breath.
Void dropped to the ground and heaved a breath. "That....Took more than I expected," He rolled his shoulder and curled his fingers.
The battlefield was gripped by a silence. Only the faintest cries of the Fallen and the dying shrieks of the Vex could be heard.
Void walked forward, glaring at both sides, gauging for reactions. But the damage he'd inflicted was severe. Neither the Vex nor the Fallen could afford to attack him, let alone each other.
Obsidian urgently spoke up, " I'm getting rapid scans by the City's orbital sensors! Looks like the Fallen are slowly withdrawing."
"Damn right they are, if I got rocked like that I'd leave too." Void chuckled, watching the House of Winter squads scurrying to carry their injured as they scampered out to the exit.
"About that." Obsidian cleared his throat, "I don't think they're running from you."
Void paused and raised a brow, "Huh? Well, who the hell else are they running from?" He turned back, but just then.
The ground shook.
A ripple ran through the space around the academy's courtyard. A wide data matrix appeared, forming into a three-dimensional lattice that crumpled the very fabric of time.
Something shrieked. The wails sent tremors across the courtyard, as if announcing its arrival.
A swarm of radiolaria tentacles punctured through space and tore open the lattice. The tentacles pulled, tugging along a gargantuan Vex Wyern. The bipedal Vex Wyern coiled the tentacles, like pseudo wings, at the peaks of its frame. Its eye glowed, embedded with a single crimson core.
It hunkered through the lattice.
The ground shook again.
"It's right behind me." Void facepalmed and groaned. "It is, isn't it? For f*cks sake, I can even feel its weird breath." He heaved another sigh and sneakily glanced over his shoulder. "A goddamn Wyvern." Void cursed under his breath.
The Wyvern unfurled its wings.
"Don't do it. Please, don't do it." Void tapped his foot on the ground and rubbed his forehead with clenched teeth.
As if sensing his fear, the Wyvern leapt and hung in the air. Its core trembled with energy as it angled its hull into the ground, and the tentacles coiled back, ready to slam.
"Son of a-"
Void didn't hesitate and bolted. The Wyvern's entire figure shook as it crashed down. The impact rippled across the academy, fissures cracked open the ground.
The tremors erupted outwards, and a crater of debris spread, biting at Void's heels. But he was already past the eruption's reach, akin to a blur that had raced to the impact's edge.
A shriek echoed again.
The Wyvern shook its hull and clawed out of its own crater, its crimson frantically scouring the surroundings.
"See, this is why I was never a big fan of you guys." Void flickered back in, his hand came up, fingers sparking. Arc gathered round his fist—clean, sharp, eager—bolts crawling from wrist to knuckles, braiding themselves tight.
"Not then, and certainly not now."
The Wyvern stomped and trudged out to face Void, its eye locking onto the target had already turned a bloody red. Seeing Void's charged fist, the Wyvern was already on the move.
It leapt again. Coiling the air around itself, like a catapult ready to be fired. The Wyvern coiled back its tentacles and compressed its energy to the limit.
Void deftly sauntered forward, looking up at the gargantuan Wyvern. He unsheathed his blade with his left hand and took a sharp stance.
The air snapped. A crushing shockwave reverberated.
The Wyvern had shot forward, and so had Void.
Strands of lightning and radiolaria clashed, Void swung his blade, but the Wyvern shifted, angling its hull to deflect its edge, ensuring the two would collide head-on.
"As expected," Void muttered.
His grip on the blade loosened, and it flung out of his hands. Void jerked and twisted in the air. The Wyvern came crashing down at him, facing its unstoppable momentum, Void had decided to use it against his enemy.
Void drove his fist forward, and it drilled through the glowing heart of the Wyvern.
Lightning didn't flash; rather, it bit.
Void shifted all his weight through the shoulder, drove his fist deeper into the core and at the last second, he let go and flickered.
The Wyvern shook erratically. Its core cracked open, and a terrifying burst of energy swept the courtyard. An azure ball of fire began to eat away at its centre till it destabilised. As the core fractured, the world turned bleak, and a pulse of white flashed, pushing away everything in its path.
An expanding eruption consumed the courtyard, collapsing into a bright, quivering pillar of energy that pierced the clouds above.
A figure blurred at the stem of the pillar. Void raised his hand to shield his eyes. He straightened, breathing hard. "Status?"
Obsidian popped into the air beside him, shell dimmed to a low amber. "Fallen have withdrawn beyond the outer boundary of the academy. And with that Wyvern gone, Vex numbers are plummeting. I guess they don't have more stationed here."
"Good." He rolled his neck and watched the pillar slowly fade away. "We're done."
"Are we?" Obsidian whispered back, eye gleaming with suspicion. He pinged Void's radar with an energy signature.
Void glanced at his radar, and his gaze immediately snagged on a prickle at the edge of his awareness—deliberate, neat. A set of eyes was watching him. But this sensation felt strange.
He let his eyes go thin. Blue curled at the iris, pupils pinning the thread. It ran like a hairline crack through reality to the edge of the ruins, past the jungles and above the ivory cliffs that wrapped around the edges of the Jungle. He followed it with a thought, and then saw a figure looking back at him.
She stood on a ridge overlooking the chasm opposite the academy.
The Stranger.
When Elsie confirmed Void had seen her, she gave back a simple nod and then vanished.
Void exhaled through his teeth. "You seeing this?"
"I detected her presence and matched it to the signature we got last time. She's been watching us for a while." Obsidian frowned. "But, there's still no way to track it. I know it doesn't make sense, but it's like she's not even there."
"Someone we can barely track has decided to show themselves so openly," Void said. He stepped to the edge of the courtyard, past a discarded House of Winter banner.
Obsidian flittered beside him, "She's inviting us."
Void watched the traces of her strange energy form a path that led towards the outskirts of the jungle.
«How curious,» Zamyr murmured in Void's mind. «She, like us, is treading through the twisted timelines of fate. Except she's not like us. No, her power is far more subtle.»
Void didn't answer. He stepped into the green and flickered away.
—
[ Ishtar Sink ]
Shiro-4 finally coughed and dusted his cloak. "Vanguard, this is Shiro. Spiking activity resolved—Ghostsword cleaned the board. Vex are pulling back; House of Winter is out."
"Copy," Ikorra said, crisp and lighter by a degree. "Status on Void?"
Shiro-4 shook off the rest of the dirt and scoped back into the courtyard. "He disappeared after taking out the Elite combatants," he said. "No sign of him."
A tiny pause. "Understood. Leave trackers near the combat site." Ikorra replied. "I'll be expecting a full brief from you soon."
"Roger." Shiro-4 cut the call. He searched through his belt and took out three intricate discs. A portable tracker that the city had provided him. Shiro-4 set the trackers around the perimeter of the academy and then promptly transmatted back to his Jumpship to return to Earth.
—
[Ishtar Sink — Verdant Edge]
Elsie waited at the furthest edges of the jungle where the wilderness merged into the ivory hills that cupped the Academy's plateau. Beyond the cliffs was a chasm that seemed to cut a long black seam into Venus; no light could penetrate this abyss, the only thing that signalled it wasn't endless was a gentle and cold breeze that crawled up to the tip of the cliffs.
She felt him arrive before she heard him. A twist in space, or rather a twist in fate. Her eyes narrowed. Elsie's grip on her rifle tightened, and a faint shiver ran down her spine. One she quickly masked.
The tall grass rustled.
Void took a step forward with his head level and his hands empty, boots digging into the moist, gravelly cliff rock. He stopped a step back from her shoulder line and then glanced across, as if watching her gaze.
"Didn't think I'd see you after what happened last time," he said.
Elsie shot him a look over her shoulder, then turned her face back to the cut in the world. "I didn't think so either."
Cold gusts of wind whistled past the cliff face, fluttering the trees around the cliff's perimeter. A brittle silence gripped the two. Void pursed his lips, unsure of what to say. He walked closer to the edge and peered down at the abyss.
"So what changed?" He uttered and looked ahead, "Why show yourself now?"
"I'd ask you the same thing, but neither of us has the answer." Elsie wryly chuckled under her breath. She heaved a sigh, her eyes slowly flicked to Void, analysing him from top to bottom. "I saw you. Trapped in Hellmouth, drowning in the dark."
Void raised a brow as he heard her and slowly crossed his arms as he sucked in a breath. "In that case, I'd have appreciated some help."
"How did you execute a plan to get out so fast?" Elsie cut in.
"Me?" Void shook his head, "You're mistaken there. Heck, it wasn't me at all. A couple of my guys knew I didn't make it back. From there? The City got involved, and that's all there is to it. If anything, I got lucky."
Void laughed; he knew that the whole situation was risky. And frankly, the fact that he had made it out that fast was entirely thanks to everyone contributing.
"Luck."
Elsie mouthed, she tilted her head and shot Void a curious glance. Then she muttered it again, as if it didn't sit right with her. "You believe in that?"
"Doesn't everybody?" Void replied casually.
"No." Elsie turned back to the chasm, "I know someone like that. Or rather, knew. Did everything with a plan, down to the letter. Luck, chance, none of that stuff ever mattered. There was always a contingency, always a plan."
Void listened with intent, "He sounds quite meticulous. But the way you're saying it, I am guessing you weren't a big fan?"
"When a plan supersedes chance itself, that just means there's no room for error. No risk too fatal, no fight too grave."
Elsie paused as if a memory flickered before her eyes.
"No cost too great."
=
Odd1todd89
The Odd one
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Amazing job with this chapter. Your work as always brightens my day and alleviates my boardum. Thank you for choosing to write.
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As always, thanks for reading.
Chapter 201: The One who wanders through time
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Writers-Ablood
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A/N: Enjoy the Chapter, CHECK OUT MY PATREON !
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Void felt the weight of the world flash through her eyes. Sorrow, anger, regret and acceptance. Every single emotion bloomed and faded in her bionic irises, as if she'd weathered the same storm a thousand times. Except Void knew that she had probably gone through more than that. Perhaps more than he could ever imagine.
"He was a guardian. Wrestling against the world to protect everything he could. But, eventually, it all caught up to him. " Elsie shifted back to the chasm, silently watching the winds brush against the ivory cliffs.
"Did he fail?" Void uttered, watching the grim expression fade from Elsie's face as it slowly turned into a subtle frown.
"No." Her eyes slowly drifted towards him, and her voice turned heavy. "He changed."
Elsie blinked softly and let out a sigh, "Or maybe he had just switched to the next plan. I don't know, and frankly, I don't care." She snapped out of her remorse.
"What I'm more interested in is how you know me," she said, finally facing him. "Not just where I was, but who I am. And where I came from.."
Void slowly raised a brow. He parted his lips, but then chose not to speak. There was no way to answer the question. What could he do? Confess that he knew what she went through?
Impossible. As if sensing his thoughts, the system window flared to life.
[Warning! Player cannot reveal or discuss restricted knowledge with others!]
Seeing his hesitation, Elsie's jaw tightened. She waited. A moment, a second and even a minute had passed, but Void still had no answer.
Finally, she snapped.
"I am from the future," she said, like pulling a trigger, her eyes instantly watched him for the recoil.
He was a heartbeat late. "What?" Void blurted out in confusion, using the best impression he could to simulate the shock.
But it was enough. Elsie had already seen through him.
"Don't pretend, you weren't even fazed when I said that," she said. " But why would you be? You already knew. You knew who I was. You knew where I would be. You knew where I was from. How?"
She waited. Void held her gaze and weighed silence. The moment stretched thin.
[Warning!]
[Warning!]
The system screamed to life.
'Of course it's listening in now,' Void cursed under his breath. He wanted to say something, anything, but the moment the words came to mind, he'd see the ominous warning incessantly appearing in front of him. However, he knew this was the perfect chance.
Perhaps the only chance to get her on his side. Void's thoughts raced as he studied Elsie's reaction. There had to be a way to express it. A way to give her the answer she needs.
Elsie scoffed, slung her rifle, and turned away. "If you're not going to answer, consider this meeting done."
She took one step. Void's thoughts snapped to a point.
"Wait."
Elsie froze.
He made his choice. He set his palm to the hilt and drew. The blade came up slowly. Pale bled off the edge and curled around his wrist like a cold breath.
Elsie's head tipped, attention hard on the steel. "What are you doing?"
"I will show you," Void said.
She frowned. "Your sword?"
"It's not just a blade." The pale deepened, seeping into the air around it. The world seemed to grey around him.
Her eyes narrowed. "What exactly are you showing me?"
"Truth."
The pale aura uncoiled, soft at first, then cruel in a way that felt old. The world thinned. The jungle quieted as if it had been told to listen. Wind from the chasm slowed and then stopped. The lush green all around them dimmed toward a lifeless, phantasmal grey.
A wisp came up out of the line of the sword. It coiled around Void, sinuous and serpentine. Its claws rested on Void's shoulder like a claim. A long, draconic head bent downwards as if it whispered in Void's ears.
«Greetings, to the one who wanders through time,» Zamyr's voice seeped into the world, like a loud whisper or an eerie hiss.
Elsie's eyes were set on the dragon. Her eyes traced its form, as if she'd never seen one before. "An Ahamkara," she said, soft and flat.
Void nodded. "Zamyr."
She paused, but Void felt the change in her demeanour as if a knot had become undone in her mind. He had succeeded in planting possibility in her thoughts.
"Why would one of them help you?"
"Because I wished for it," Void said. "During the Ahamkara hunt, before all this. I fought it, tooth and nail. I had killed many of its kind already. Knowing what was next it gave me a chance. One simple wish to spare its life." He glanced past her at the far horizon, then back.
"I asked for it then." Void continued, "For a way to survive, a way to keep everything around me safe. To win whatever long game of light and dark I was in."
"That doesn't just happen," Elsie cut in, disbelief crept into her mind.
"It didn't," Void replied, "I realised too late that I had asked for a wish so grand that perhaps none could help me. Perhaps the Ahamkara realised it too. But there's always a twist. Always a way."
"What it gave me instead was a fickle hope, an illusion of power. A way to know what would happen, but I'd still be powerless to stop it. "
Void spoke slowly, ensuring each word dug into Elsie's mind.
"What it gave me was knowledge."
Elsie stared at the phantom's claw on his shoulder, then at the sword. "It told you about me?"
"It told me many things. Whispered them to me when I fashioned a sword out of the ones I had killed. At first, I thought it was useful. However, I soon realised that I could no longer escape the whispers. " Void said, trying his best to put on an aggrieved expression.
"I was given knowledge I couldn't act on or share with anyone. So I felt trapped. But then." Void looked at her with conviction, "It told me about you. It said that someone could help me. Someone who had travelled through time to undo all that was lost." He allowed himself a breath. "When I first saw you in the Cosmodrome, I instantly knew you were the one it mentioned. That's why I asked for your help."
Void pressed his lips into a line.
He'd painted the picture as best he could. Woven small lies, just to slightly offset the truth. Seeing as the system hadn't reacted, he had done it successfully. Void had made sure to pin everything on Zamyr; there was simply nothing that couldn't be explained once one brought in a wish dragon.
The pale aura eased, and Zamyr's phantom coiled itself back along the blade, fading as if it had simply been an illusion. Slowly, colour seeped back into the leaves and the winds remembered to move.
Elsie watched the phantom vanish. Her fingers flexed on the rifle once, then stilled. "It's...hard to believe," she replied in a low voice.
"Maybe," Void said. "But it's true. Then again, isn't it harder to believe that you really are from the future?"
His words seemed to strike her. Void knew he had succeeded.
Elsie went quiet. A moment later, she retorted.
"So the dragon whispers in your ear, and you believe it?"
"I don't, not always," Void replied with a smile. "But seeing your reaction, seems like it was right. "
She sighed and released the grip on the rifle. "Fine. I believe you, but do you really trust me?"
"I don't have a choice, Void immediately replied. "If you're from the future, you know things I haven't seen yet, perhaps things that I'll never see."
Void's voice turned low, "Judging from your aversion, you've definitely met me before." His words echoed as his voice cascaded down the chasm. Void frowned as the gears in his head turned. "It was me, wasn't it? The one who changed."
"What if I said yes?" Elsie spoke up, her eyes looked to him for an answer, any answer.
"I'd believe you." Void pursed his lips, "But then, I'd tell you you're making a mistake."
Void turned away from the cavern to face her fully, "I'd tell you that I am not him. I don't know what he did, I don't know what he sacrificed, but at the end of the day, I haven't made those decisions yet."
"I would only ask you for a chance. Whether I trust you or not doesn't matter. It's not a choice I can make. Because, regardless, I'll end up needing your help."
As his words settled in her ears, Elsie's shoulders eased a fraction. "I understand," she said.
She looked back over the chasm. The breeze caught her cloak and tugged. "If I help," she said, "I won't be able to tell you everything. There might be times you doubt my judgment. Are you fine with that?"
"I am burdened with enough knowledge," Void tapped the sheath of his blade, "Knowing less wouldn't be a problem."
"Good." She stepped back from the edge and looked down at her watch. Time was ticking. "Come find me again. I'll be waiting for you there in a few hours." Elsie pointed towards a small outpost across the chasm.
A bunker in the distance.
"For now, I am on borrowed time," she said, counting the seconds as the small hand of the clock wound to the top. "As for how to help, I think I'll know the way."
"Wait, I still have more questions-" Void blurted out, his instincts flaring. He could feel time itself tense up.
But before he could say another word, Elsie looked down at her watch; the hand ticked, and like clockwork, she vanished.
No trace of her remained, as if she'd never stood here in the first place.
Void sighed and slowly turned his gaze towards the outpost. He walked towards the edge of the chasm, his figure blurring into the wind with a jolt, and he leapt across.
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Void felt the weight of the world flash through her eyes. Sorrow, anger, regret and acceptance. Every single emotion bloomed and faded in her bionic irises, as if she'd weathered the same storm a thousand times. Except Void knew that she had probably gone through more than that. Perhaps more than he could ever imagine.
"He was a guardian. Wrestling against the world to protect everything he could. But, eventually, it all caught up to him. " Elsie shifted back to the chasm, silently watching the winds brush against the ivory cliffs.
"Did he fail?" Void uttered, watching the grim expression fade from Elsie's face as it slowly turned into a subtle frown.
"No." Her eyes slowly drifted towards him, and her voice turned heavy. "He changed."
Elsie blinked softly and let out a sigh, "Or maybe he had just switched to the next plan. I don't know, and frankly, I don't care." She snapped out of her remorse.
"What I'm more interested in is how you know me," she said, finally facing him. "Not just where I was, but who I am. And where I came from.."
Void slowly raised a brow. He parted his lips, but then chose not to speak. There was no way to answer the question. What could he do? Confess that he knew what she went through?
Impossible. As if sensing his thoughts, the system window flared to life.
[Warning! Player cannot reveal or discuss restricted knowledge with others!]
Seeing his hesitation, Elsie's jaw tightened. She waited. A moment, a second and even a minute had passed, but Void still had no answer.
Finally, she snapped.
"I am from the future," she said, like pulling a trigger, her eyes instantly watched him for the recoil.
He was a heartbeat late. "What?" Void blurted out in confusion, using the best impression he could to simulate the shock.
But it was enough. Elsie had already seen through him.
"Don't pretend, you weren't even fazed when I said that," she said. " But why would you be? You already knew. You knew who I was. You knew where I would be. You knew where I was from. How?"
She waited. Void held her gaze and weighed silence. The moment stretched thin.
[Warning!]
[Warning!]
The system screamed to life.
'Of course it's listening in now,' Void cursed under his breath. He wanted to say something, anything, but the moment the words came to mind, he'd see the ominous warning incessantly appearing in front of him. However, he knew this was the perfect chance.
Perhaps the only chance to get her on his side. Void's thoughts raced as he studied Elsie's reaction. There had to be a way to express it. A way to give her the answer she needs.
Elsie scoffed, slung her rifle, and turned away. "If you're not going to answer, consider this meeting done."
She took one step. Void's thoughts snapped to a point.
"Wait."
Elsie froze.
He made his choice. He set his palm to the hilt and drew. The blade came up slowly. Pale bled off the edge and curled around his wrist like a cold breath.
Elsie's head tipped, attention hard on the steel. "What are you doing?"
"I will show you," Void said.
She frowned. "Your sword?"
"It's not just a blade." The pale deepened, seeping into the air around it. The world seemed to grey around him.
Her eyes narrowed. "What exactly are you showing me?"
"Truth."
The pale aura uncoiled, soft at first, then cruel in a way that felt old. The world thinned. The jungle quieted as if it had been told to listen. Wind from the chasm slowed and then stopped. The lush green all around them dimmed toward a lifeless, phantasmal grey.
A wisp came up out of the line of the sword. It coiled around Void, sinuous and serpentine. Its claws rested on Void's shoulder like a claim. A long, draconic head bent downwards as if it whispered in Void's ears.
«Greetings, to the one who wanders through time,» Zamyr's voice seeped into the world, like a loud whisper or an eerie hiss.
Elsie's eyes were set on the dragon. Her eyes traced its form, as if she'd never seen one before. "An Ahamkara," she said, soft and flat.
Void nodded. "Zamyr."
She paused, but Void felt the change in her demeanour as if a knot had become undone in her mind. He had succeeded in planting possibility in her thoughts.
"Why would one of them help you?"
"Because I wished for it," Void said. "During the Ahamkara hunt, before all this. I fought it, tooth and nail. I had killed many of its kind already. Knowing what was next it gave me a chance. One simple wish to spare its life." He glanced past her at the far horizon, then back.
"I asked for it then." Void continued, "For a way to survive, a way to keep everything around me safe. To win whatever long game of light and dark I was in."
"That doesn't just happen," Elsie cut in, disbelief crept into her mind.
"It didn't," Void replied, "I realised too late that I had asked for a wish so grand that perhaps none could help me. Perhaps the Ahamkara realised it too. But there's always a twist. Always a way."
"What it gave me instead was a fickle hope, an illusion of power. A way to know what would happen, but I'd still be powerless to stop it. "
Void spoke slowly, ensuring each word dug into Elsie's mind.
"What it gave me was knowledge."
Elsie stared at the phantom's claw on his shoulder, then at the sword. "It told you about me?"
"It told me many things. Whispered them to me when I fashioned a sword out of the ones I had killed. At first, I thought it was useful. However, I soon realised that I could no longer escape the whispers. " Void said, trying his best to put on an aggrieved expression.
"I was given knowledge I couldn't act on or share with anyone. So I felt trapped. But then." Void looked at her with conviction, "It told me about you. It said that someone could help me. Someone who had travelled through time to undo all that was lost." He allowed himself a breath. "When I first saw you in the Cosmodrome, I instantly knew you were the one it mentioned. That's why I asked for your help."
Void pressed his lips into a line.
He'd painted the picture as best he could. Woven small lies, just to slightly offset the truth. Seeing as the system hadn't reacted, he had done it successfully. Void had made sure to pin everything on Zamyr; there was simply nothing that couldn't be explained once one brought in a wish dragon.
The pale aura eased, and Zamyr's phantom coiled itself back along the blade, fading as if it had simply been an illusion. Slowly, colour seeped back into the leaves and the winds remembered to move.
Elsie watched the phantom vanish. Her fingers flexed on the rifle once, then stilled. "It's...hard to believe," she replied in a low voice.
"Maybe," Void said. "But it's true. Then again, isn't it harder to believe that you really are from the future?"
His words seemed to strike her. Void knew he had succeeded.
Elsie went quiet. A moment later, she retorted.
"So the dragon whispers in your ear, and you believe it?"
"I don't, not always," Void replied with a smile. "But seeing your reaction, seems like it was right. "
She sighed and released the grip on the rifle. "Fine. I believe you, but do you really trust me?"
"I don't have a choice, Void immediately replied. "If you're from the future, you know things I haven't seen yet, perhaps things that I'll never see."
Void's voice turned low, "Judging from your aversion, you've definitely met me before." His words echoed as his voice cascaded down the chasm. Void frowned as the gears in his head turned. "It was me, wasn't it? The one who changed."
"What if I said yes?" Elsie spoke up, her eyes looked to him for an answer, any answer.
"I'd believe you." Void pursed his lips, "But then, I'd tell you you're making a mistake."
Void turned away from the cavern to face her fully, "I'd tell you that I am not him. I don't know what he did, I don't know what he sacrificed, but at the end of the day, I haven't made those decisions yet."
"I would only ask you for a chance. Whether I trust you or not doesn't matter. It's not a choice I can make. Because, regardless, I'll end up needing your help."
As his words settled in her ears, Elsie's shoulders eased a fraction. "I understand," she said.
She looked back over the chasm. The breeze caught her cloak and tugged. "If I help," she said, "I won't be able to tell you everything. There might be times you doubt my judgment. Are you fine with that?"
"I am burdened with enough knowledge," Void tapped the sheath of his blade, "Knowing less wouldn't be a problem."
"Good." She stepped back from the edge and looked down at her watch. Time was ticking. "Come find me again. I'll be waiting for you there in a few hours." Elsie pointed towards a small outpost across the chasm.
A bunker in the distance.
"For now, I am on borrowed time," she said, counting the seconds as the small hand of the clock wound to the top. "As for how to help, I think I'll know the way."
"Wait, I still have more questions-" Void blurted out, his instincts flaring. He could feel time itself tense up.
But before he could say another word, Elsie looked down at her watch; the hand ticked, and like clockwork, she vanished.
No trace of her remained, as if she'd never stood here in the first place.
Void sighed and slowly turned his gaze towards the outpost. He walked towards the edge of the chasm, his figure blurring into the wind with a jolt, and he leapt across.
GaZe_Zero
Getting sticky.
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Good stuff, I have a feeling Voids words here will somehow come back and bite him— be it from the system or from the real destiny world. I have a feeling the system loves this new lore that it could give players. Good work as always, it's fun seeing Void act more Ahamkara like
Chapter 202: The One who wanders through time (2)
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Writers-Ablood
All you need to know, is that I write.
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A/N: Enjoy the chapter! Check out my Patreon for more!!
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=
[Ishtar Sink, West Vault]
Void landed on the far side of the chasm, boots skidding onto the wet clay as he slid to a stop. His eyes flicked towards the bunker Elsie had marked. A dirt path cut straight through to it. He tipped forward.
Lightning gathered at his heels. His form jolted to blue, and he vanished, racing away from the ivory cliffs till the rugged rock gave way to a barren marsh.
Void braked and walked to the entrance of the old golden age bunker, half-buried in clay. The hatch had rusted into the frame. Void gently set his palms on it, and a faint light trickled down his fingertips.
He pushed, and the metal creaked. Feeling the hatch cave in, Void gripped the handle and yanked it back, and it fell open.
Stale air breathed out, thick with dust and the flat smell of old circuits. The room beyond was a box of dead terminals on one wall, and a cracked map of the Ishtar Sink plastered over the other. A round desk with some chairs sat at the centre of the room.
"Power," Void said, fanning the dust out of his face.
Obsidian flared in his palm and slipped into a corroded panel by the door. For a moment, nothing answered.
A relay sparked. A thin hum crept along the wires. A small lamp flickered to life over the desk and held, throwing a hazy cone of light over the scuffed metal.
"She asked for some time, but there's no exact info when she'll be here. Plus, there's no real way to track her right now," Obsidian chimed in, "We might just have to wait."
"Fine." Void dragged a chair out with his boot. The legs scraped a layer of fine dust off the floor, and a screech reverberated in the old bunker, echoing in its hollow walls.
He leaned forward, elbows on his thighs, as he rested his chin on his hand.
"But that isn't the problem," he said at last. Void's brows furled, and his jaw tightened.
Zamyr whispered back, «You're worried about what she said, O brother mine?»
"I am the one who changed Zamyr." Void paused for a brief second, "That explains everything. It fits the way she reacted to me."
«Yet, that's not why your thoughts are jumbled. There is another reason, I can feel it.»
"The other me. What is he?" Void breathed out.
"Is he the same as me? Or just a twisted reflection?"
Obsidian hummed, a soft balance tone. "What do you mean?"
"Does he have the same goals? Does he know what I know? Or is it just the world creating a replica of me?"
«An interesting question», Zamyr murmured, his words seeping in slowly. «The stranger. Though she wanders through time. Each journey takes her back to a different branch of the world. One she has never seen. And if she has met you at all, it means-»
"It means there's a me out there. In every timeline." Void's frown knit tighter, "I had thought my existence was a bit unique. But I was wrong."
«I do not know. The branches of fate I see only correspond to you. If there are other versions of you, be they twisted reflections, just like you, their future is also uncharted,» Zamyr said. «There is more to consider. The stranger did not recognise me. Which means that the other versions of you did not bind an Ahamkara. Or if they did, it was not me, and it is hiding them.»
Void nodded.
The bunker lamp buzzed a little, arc fizzing through its filament. A soft gust of dust drifted in through the cracked hatch, blowing across the room. A moment later, dark clouds rumbled, and the pitter-patter of rain hit the barren marsh.
"Her description of him was sharp," Obsidian spoke through the slow rain. "Always had a plan. Gave whatever it cost to complete it. That kinda of meticulousness and foresight is not like you."
"Really? Thanks," Void snorted, "That's really reassuring."
Obsidian cleared his throat, " Er...you're quite the spontaneous guy. You always think outside the box. I just meant you're not tied down by plans."
"Save it." Void sighed and shook his head.
The clouds rumbled again, and the rain intensified from a drizzle to a downpour.
Void's thoughts raced. Another him. Judging from what he'd heard, this other version was focused. Did completing the missions of the system drive him? Or was it some other reason? he did not know. Slowly, his thoughts twisted. How had the 'other' him tackled the dark? Had he succeeded against Crota? Versus Oryx? What if he'd failed?
And if he had, did that mean he would fail again?
The anxiety bled into Zamyr.
«Futile,» Zamyr said. «Timelines knot. They do not reconcile. Somewhere you won. Somewhere you broke. Somewhere, you died before even trying. Everything might be true, but none is yours. Do not measure yourself against what you do not know. All you can do is grit your teeth and grow.»
Void breathed out through his nose. "Right. At the end of the day, we're back to square one. Just gotta get stronger."
His eyes flicked to the buzzing lamp as he watched it tremble. The filament glowed a tired yellow. Slowly, his gaze drifted outside. The downpour was strong, and a mist of water blew inside. The cold rain sprayed across him and scattered around the bunker.
Obsidian broke the silence, "Ikorra just messaged," he said. "It's a conclusive report on the Vex and Fallen. They think the House of Winter is withdrawing fast."
Void raised his brows, "That's odd. Maybe the Vex ended up spooking them."
"Can't be sure, the rainstorm's turning up, we'll slowly lose contact with most of our satellites surveying Venus."
"That's fine." Void drummed his fingers on the table, "Let Ikorra know that I'll keep an eye on it when I can." He pursed his lips, watching the rain flood the marsh, the water slowly pooling in the bunker.
The hours also seemed to pool, and Void let them.
He sat in the chair, contemplating, elbows to knees, a soft gaze settled on the lamp, and he wordlessly watched it flicker on and off.
That was when the light shifted.
It was a strange pattern. As if light itself had become hazy. The air in the centre of the bunker tightened like a muscle and then let go. The lamp dimmed a fraction without flickering. The rain paused. The temperature dropped half a degree.
A pale shape traced itself into the room and slowly walked towards the table.
Elsie stood in the centre, as still as if she had always been there. The rain continued, and the lamp flickered back on.
Watching her appear, Void straightened in the chair. His legs creaked in protest as he set the chair straight, put his boots square on the floor, and met her gaze.
"You waited," Her voice had that ground-glass calm again, only the edges a touch rougher from a run through the Sink.
"I did."
She glanced at the pouring rain, walked towards the entrance, and looked down at the broken hatch. A faint hint of emotion flickered in her eyes, but it quickly faded away.
"Good," she said. "Let's continue."
-
Void and Elsie sat across from each other at the table. Both sides eyed the other while struggling with their jumbled thoughts.
"You said you wanted to help humanity." Elsie spoke first, "And that the knowledge you got pointed to me."
Void nodded quietly.
"What's the extent of your knowledge?" Elsie leaned forward.
"The knowledge granted to me covers a lot. More than I could understand. However, it comes with many restrictions." Void locked eyes with Elsie, "Sorry, but I cannot answer that question."
"You said last time you can't share any of it." Elsie bundled her fist, "I suppose the shrewd Ahamkara wouldn't allow a wish like that without such a restriction anyway."
"Since your knowledge led you to me. There is only one thing I can think of that will help you." Elsie's expression turned grim.
She took in a breath.
"It was a major event. One that toppled the scales in the dark's favour. It started small, undetectable, untraceable. It's probably already begun; in a year or two, its effects will become apparent. The Traveler's light will weaken, and slowly the guardians will too."
Void's brows tensed. He already knew what event she was talking about.
'The Black Heart.' He thought to himself.
A strange Vex ritual that managed to not only counteract the Traveler but also suppress its blessings. He knew what it was. He even knew where it would show up, hidden deep inside the birthplace of the Vex.
A place beyond space and time. 'The Black Garden'
If Elsie was mentioning something like this, then it truly meant it had started.
Seeing Void's reaction, Elsie knew that his 'Knowledge' had probably informed him of what it was.
"No one knows exactly where it ended up. All I found out was that a stranded fireteam fighting the Vex had chanced upon it on Mars. A black heart, they called it. But at that point, it was too late. They were unable to destroy it; the Vex were too prepared. In the end, this black heart continued to sap away the Traveller's light."
She finally set her hands on the table, "I do not doubt that if such a thing is found and destroyed, our chances of victory against the dark will double."
"If. You say." Void played along.
"Could you not search for it using your powers?" He questioned, "I'd think being able to cross time was a significant advantage in such a search."
"It's not that simple. For now, I have many events to take care of. To record and to understand. If I miss even a single one, it'd make things difficult." She frowned.
Void clicked his tongue, "What I understand is that you want me to find something that was hinted to be near Mars. With only that information, I'd be hard pressed to locate anything."
He already knew that trying to find the Black Garden alone was futile. It was in a place that could only be accessed by a Vex Gate lord's eye. But finding a Vex Gate lord? That was impossible. Void knew from experience, this wasn't like the game. The Vex wouldn't be stupid enough to send out someone with that kind of vulnerability.
There was no "mission" he could do to just unlock the place. No, he had to claw his way there.
"I thought you said you were fine with not knowing things?" Elsie chuckled, "I can't help but think you're going back on your words."
"I can't help but think you're just dumping useless info on me." Void shrugged, "Besides, surely you're not that busy."
"Unfortunately, I am." Elsie cut in. "I am also monitoring and responding to Vex activity on Venus."
"You're the one responding?" Void's eyes widened, and he chortled. "I just spent a good few hours cleaning them up."
"That was a welcome change of pace." Elsie couldn't help but nod.
"Fine. Since you don't know more, I'll take care of it myself." Void waved her off. If she truly didn't have a way to find the Black Garden, he was just an unfortunate bastard.
"But what after it? What exactly happens?" He probed further, trying to discern how the timelines had changed with his appearance.
"Hmm." Elsie brooded.
But before any words came out, the pouring rain lulled, the clouds above rumbled and split. The next instant, a horrifying shockwave erupted from the academy and tore towards the marshlands, releasing tremors that cracked open fissures in the ground and flung both Elsie and Void out of their chairs to slam into the wall.
It all happened in the blink of an eye. An intense and bright flash bloomed in the distance, and a blast radiated outwards as Void's ears ruptured.
"What the hell..." His vision still felt hazy. Void shook off the nausea and groaned as he got to his feet. Void coughed and grabbed the broken hatch to push himself out. But as he looked up, his eyes widened.
Half of the academy had been blown apart, and a deep crater now filled its place. One that seemed to stretch down into the dark.
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[Ishtar Sink, West Vault]
Void landed on the far side of the chasm, boots skidding onto the wet clay as he slid to a stop. His eyes flicked towards the bunker Elsie had marked. A dirt path cut straight through to it. He tipped forward.
Lightning gathered at his heels. His form jolted to blue, and he vanished, racing away from the ivory cliffs till the rugged rock gave way to a barren marsh.
Void braked and walked to the entrance of the old golden age bunker, half-buried in clay. The hatch had rusted into the frame. Void gently set his palms on it, and a faint light trickled down his fingertips.
He pushed, and the metal creaked. Feeling the hatch cave in, Void gripped the handle and yanked it back, and it fell open.
Stale air breathed out, thick with dust and the flat smell of old circuits. The room beyond was a box of dead terminals on one wall, and a cracked map of the Ishtar Sink plastered over the other. A round desk with some chairs sat at the centre of the room.
"Power," Void said, fanning the dust out of his face.
Obsidian flared in his palm and slipped into a corroded panel by the door. For a moment, nothing answered.
A relay sparked. A thin hum crept along the wires. A small lamp flickered to life over the desk and held, throwing a hazy cone of light over the scuffed metal.
"She asked for some time, but there's no exact info when she'll be here. Plus, there's no real way to track her right now," Obsidian chimed in, "We might just have to wait."
"Fine." Void dragged a chair out with his boot. The legs scraped a layer of fine dust off the floor, and a screech reverberated in the old bunker, echoing in its hollow walls.
He leaned forward, elbows on his thighs, as he rested his chin on his hand.
"But that isn't the problem," he said at last. Void's brows furled, and his jaw tightened.
Zamyr whispered back, «You're worried about what she said, O brother mine?»
"I am the one who changed Zamyr." Void paused for a brief second, "That explains everything. It fits the way she reacted to me."
«Yet, that's not why your thoughts are jumbled. There is another reason, I can feel it.»
"The other me. What is he?" Void breathed out.
"Is he the same as me? Or just a twisted reflection?"
Obsidian hummed, a soft balance tone. "What do you mean?"
"Does he have the same goals? Does he know what I know? Or is it just the world creating a replica of me?"
«An interesting question», Zamyr murmured, his words seeping in slowly. «The stranger. Though she wanders through time. Each journey takes her back to a different branch of the world. One she has never seen. And if she has met you at all, it means-»
"It means there's a me out there. In every timeline." Void's frown knit tighter, "I had thought my existence was a bit unique. But I was wrong."
«I do not know. The branches of fate I see only correspond to you. If there are other versions of you, be they twisted reflections, just like you, their future is also uncharted,» Zamyr said. «There is more to consider. The stranger did not recognise me. Which means that the other versions of you did not bind an Ahamkara. Or if they did, it was not me, and it is hiding them.»
Void nodded.
The bunker lamp buzzed a little, arc fizzing through its filament. A soft gust of dust drifted in through the cracked hatch, blowing across the room. A moment later, dark clouds rumbled, and the pitter-patter of rain hit the barren marsh.
"Her description of him was sharp," Obsidian spoke through the slow rain. "Always had a plan. Gave whatever it cost to complete it. That kinda of meticulousness and foresight is not like you."
"Really? Thanks," Void snorted, "That's really reassuring."
Obsidian cleared his throat, " Er...you're quite the spontaneous guy. You always think outside the box. I just meant you're not tied down by plans."
"Save it." Void sighed and shook his head.
The clouds rumbled again, and the rain intensified from a drizzle to a downpour.
Void's thoughts raced. Another him. Judging from what he'd heard, this other version was focused. Did completing the missions of the system drive him? Or was it some other reason? he did not know. Slowly, his thoughts twisted. How had the 'other' him tackled the dark? Had he succeeded against Crota? Versus Oryx? What if he'd failed?
And if he had, did that mean he would fail again?
The anxiety bled into Zamyr.
«Futile,» Zamyr said. «Timelines knot. They do not reconcile. Somewhere you won. Somewhere you broke. Somewhere, you died before even trying. Everything might be true, but none is yours. Do not measure yourself against what you do not know. All you can do is grit your teeth and grow.»
Void breathed out through his nose. "Right. At the end of the day, we're back to square one. Just gotta get stronger."
His eyes flicked to the buzzing lamp as he watched it tremble. The filament glowed a tired yellow. Slowly, his gaze drifted outside. The downpour was strong, and a mist of water blew inside. The cold rain sprayed across him and scattered around the bunker.
Obsidian broke the silence, "Ikorra just messaged," he said. "It's a conclusive report on the Vex and Fallen. They think the House of Winter is withdrawing fast."
Void raised his brows, "That's odd. Maybe the Vex ended up spooking them."
"Can't be sure, the rainstorm's turning up, we'll slowly lose contact with most of our satellites surveying Venus."
"That's fine." Void drummed his fingers on the table, "Let Ikorra know that I'll keep an eye on it when I can." He pursed his lips, watching the rain flood the marsh, the water slowly pooling in the bunker.
The hours also seemed to pool, and Void let them.
He sat in the chair, contemplating, elbows to knees, a soft gaze settled on the lamp, and he wordlessly watched it flicker on and off.
That was when the light shifted.
It was a strange pattern. As if light itself had become hazy. The air in the centre of the bunker tightened like a muscle and then let go. The lamp dimmed a fraction without flickering. The rain paused. The temperature dropped half a degree.
A pale shape traced itself into the room and slowly walked towards the table.
Elsie stood in the centre, as still as if she had always been there. The rain continued, and the lamp flickered back on.
Watching her appear, Void straightened in the chair. His legs creaked in protest as he set the chair straight, put his boots square on the floor, and met her gaze.
"You waited," Her voice had that ground-glass calm again, only the edges a touch rougher from a run through the Sink.
"I did."
She glanced at the pouring rain, walked towards the entrance, and looked down at the broken hatch. A faint hint of emotion flickered in her eyes, but it quickly faded away.
"Good," she said. "Let's continue."
-
Void and Elsie sat across from each other at the table. Both sides eyed the other while struggling with their jumbled thoughts.
"You said you wanted to help humanity." Elsie spoke first, "And that the knowledge you got pointed to me."
Void nodded quietly.
"What's the extent of your knowledge?" Elsie leaned forward.
"The knowledge granted to me covers a lot. More than I could understand. However, it comes with many restrictions." Void locked eyes with Elsie, "Sorry, but I cannot answer that question."
"You said last time you can't share any of it." Elsie bundled her fist, "I suppose the shrewd Ahamkara wouldn't allow a wish like that without such a restriction anyway."
"Since your knowledge led you to me. There is only one thing I can think of that will help you." Elsie's expression turned grim.
She took in a breath.
"It was a major event. One that toppled the scales in the dark's favour. It started small, undetectable, untraceable. It's probably already begun; in a year or two, its effects will become apparent. The Traveler's light will weaken, and slowly the guardians will too."
Void's brows tensed. He already knew what event she was talking about.
'The Black Heart.' He thought to himself.
A strange Vex ritual that managed to not only counteract the Traveler but also suppress its blessings. He knew what it was. He even knew where it would show up, hidden deep inside the birthplace of the Vex.
A place beyond space and time. 'The Black Garden'
If Elsie was mentioning something like this, then it truly meant it had started.
Seeing Void's reaction, Elsie knew that his 'Knowledge' had probably informed him of what it was.
"No one knows exactly where it ended up. All I found out was that a stranded fireteam fighting the Vex had chanced upon it on Mars. A black heart, they called it. But at that point, it was too late. They were unable to destroy it; the Vex were too prepared. In the end, this black heart continued to sap away the Traveller's light."
She finally set her hands on the table, "I do not doubt that if such a thing is found and destroyed, our chances of victory against the dark will double."
"If. You say." Void played along.
"Could you not search for it using your powers?" He questioned, "I'd think being able to cross time was a significant advantage in such a search."
"It's not that simple. For now, I have many events to take care of. To record and to understand. If I miss even a single one, it'd make things difficult." She frowned.
Void clicked his tongue, "What I understand is that you want me to find something that was hinted to be near Mars. With only that information, I'd be hard pressed to locate anything."
He already knew that trying to find the Black Garden alone was futile. It was in a place that could only be accessed by a Vex Gate lord's eye. But finding a Vex Gate lord? That was impossible. Void knew from experience, this wasn't like the game. The Vex wouldn't be stupid enough to send out someone with that kind of vulnerability.
There was no "mission" he could do to just unlock the place. No, he had to claw his way there.
"I thought you said you were fine with not knowing things?" Elsie chuckled, "I can't help but think you're going back on your words."
"I can't help but think you're just dumping useless info on me." Void shrugged, "Besides, surely you're not that busy."
"Unfortunately, I am." Elsie cut in. "I am also monitoring and responding to Vex activity on Venus."
"You're the one responding?" Void's eyes widened, and he chortled. "I just spent a good few hours cleaning them up."
"That was a welcome change of pace." Elsie couldn't help but nod.
"Fine. Since you don't know more, I'll take care of it myself." Void waved her off. If she truly didn't have a way to find the Black Garden, he was just an unfortunate bastard.
"But what after it? What exactly happens?" He probed further, trying to discern how the timelines had changed with his appearance.
"Hmm." Elsie brooded.
But before any words came out, the pouring rain lulled, the clouds above rumbled and split. The next instant, a horrifying shockwave erupted from the academy and tore towards the marshlands, releasing tremors that cracked open fissures in the ground and flung both Elsie and Void out of their chairs to slam into the wall.
It all happened in the blink of an eye. An intense and bright flash bloomed in the distance, and a blast radiated outwards as Void's ears ruptured.
"What the hell..." His vision still felt hazy. Void shook off the nausea and groaned as he got to his feet. Void coughed and grabbed the broken hatch to push himself out. But as he looked up, his eyes widened.
Half of the academy had been blown apart, and a deep crater now filled its place. One that seemed to stretch down into the dark.
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Chapter 203: Archive
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[Ishtar Academy]
The crater coughed a white plume. It bubbled up, burst, and slid over the ground in a low sheet, boiling whatever it touched.
Void saw it coming and pulled his aura tight. But heat still leaked through. His forearms hissed and split in hairline cracks. A rustic taste sat sharp on his tongue, and the air in his lungs sizzled.
Inside, rubble shifted. Elsie pushed to a crouch and yanked her rifle closer. As steam rolled through the doorway, she pulled her cloak, shielding herself from the stream of vapour till it passed over her.
Elsie stepped out and glanced at Void.
His aura still wrapped around his figure as haze rolled off his body.
Elsie slid in beside him, "You good?"
"Just....so so." Void's armour hissed as the heat scattered. His light flared, Obsidian flittered beside him, and his body began to heal. Void's eyes snapped to the distance, "Any idea what that was?"
"No." Elsie carefully tinkered with her watch, "This was never supposed to happen."
"Not the first time things go awry if I'm involved." Void shook off the damage, and the two locked eyes. Void gave her a slow nod. He looked towards the ivory hills and flickered away like a blur, streaking across the distance.
Elsie tapped her rifle and vanished.
The crater was akin to a black bowl rimmed by molten stone. Heat still bled off the edges as it singed anything that dared to come close.
Void appeared.
He carefully stepped to the lip. Rocks softly churning under his boots. He looked down into the crater and let his eyes adjust. A sudden prompt appeared in front of him.
[Optional side mission unlocked!]
-
Mission: The Grand Ishtar Archive
Objective: Help fend off the Vex and the Fallen from destroying the last Golden Age archive on Venus.
Rewards: +Golden Age Blueprints, ++ Golden Age Weapon Schematics
Remarks: Knowledge is power, guardian!
-
Void glanced over the system prompt.
"Obsidian," he said. "Analyse the blast, we need info, now."
Obsidian flickered to life at his shoulder. "Checking the City's records, Shiro reported the all clear hours ago." Its eye pulsed then steadied.
"What? Status on Shiro-4, now!" Void frantically spun around, his eyes darting towards the forest as he let out a breath he did not realise he'd been holding.
Space rippled, and a strange pulse thrummed as Elsie appeared beside him. She wordlessly walked to the edge and peered down.
"City records say he's en route to the Tower, left Venus after reporting," Obsidian replied.
Elsie's eyes narrowed, "Wait." She pointed over the edge towards the darkness. "Look."
At the very bottom of the crater, crimson lights flickered, hundreds of them. Steadily, moving like a stream from one point to the other.
"Vex," she said.
"Vex," he agreed.
Obsidian drifted forward a hand's span, hovering over the crater. Its eye pulsed again rapidly, then dimmed. "Ether," he cut in sharply. "High concentration. Near-lethal if you breathe it for long. It's practically everywhere in the crater. "
Void's jaw set. "House of Winter. I knew those rat bastards weren't scurrying away without a fight."
"Yeah. Looks like they used the hours that followed to set this all up." Obsidian quipped.
Elsie nodded once. "An ether bomb. Not the first time I've seen that." She kept her eyes on the pit. "I know why they were here. There is a vault under the academy. An old Vex vault. I saw it when it was discovered. Most likely, the Vex gathered what the Golden Age left at the academy and studied it. This archive could jump-start the City by a century." Her voice thinned a fraction. "Except it never appears this early."
Void looked at her. "An anomaly?"
"Likely," she said, glancing up.
He did not argue. "That's not news to me. Things don't often go as expected."
Elsie chuckled. "That said, I have no intention of watching the academy crumble while they fight a war at its foundations. We'll need to put an end to this."
"Awful lot of sentiment for an ancient, abandoned academy," Void remarked as Elsie reloaded her rifle.
"Well, it wasn't always ancient and abandoned." She shrugged and looked toward the towers that still stood. "When I was a student, even these wretched buildings brought me comfort."
Void raised a brow. "Wait, you studied here?"
"No time to explain." Elsie pulled back the bolt and stepped forward.
They stood another heartbeat, watching the flicker-patterns below sort themselves into a moving grid.
"You in?"
"I'm in," Void said.
He checked his grip, felt the weight of the sword at his back, then looked across at Elsie. No words. She nodded.
They stepped off together.
Gravity took them. Void slid the first metres, boots scraping through gravel and chalk. He hit a slanted slab and cut speed with a hand on rough stone. Elsie glided the whole way. Ether crawled up from the depths as they descended, staining the air a toxic blue.
Halfway down, Void looked across, "Any sign of Fallen ?" He asked.
"None yet," Obsidian said. "They didn't show up anywhere near after the blast."
"So it's just the Vex," Void said.
"And us," Elsie said.
The flickering lights at the bottom moved like a swarm and continued to descend into the dark.
Elsi and Void hit the ground hard, denting two small craters into its soft soil.
"Watch your step," Void whispered as he gestured towards the side.
Liquid ether pooled all around them, vaporising at a speed visible to the naked eye. Its fumes spiralled upwards, but the liquid was strong enough to leave an effect on them; a mellow acidic taste clung to their tongue.
"Lemon", Void clicked his tongue, "And...peach?"
"Best not get used to it. That stuff will kill you in an hour." Elsie surveyed their surroundings with keen eyes.
Obsidian threw a faint pulse of light into the dark. "It's a network of tunnels. Leads downwards towards a gallery."
Void set his balance.
"Ready," she said.
"Ready," he said.
They moved.
-
Red Vex eyes drifted like fireflies in the dark clearing ahead. Void kept his aura dim, and Elsie crouched beside him as the two crawled through Vex tunnels, creeping towards the Vex one step at a time.
Void felt a sour taste glisten on his tongue. He glanced at Elsie and got a nod. She had felt it too. The deeper they went, the higher the concentration of ether. At a point, Void could even feel under his skin. A strange pressure had built up in his lungs, and every breath he took was heavier. Denser. Difficult.
Elsie and Void crept deeper and deeper into the tunnels. Til they were mere inches away from an army of Vex that seemed to gather and halt.
"Conflux ahead," Obsidian whispered. "Looks like that might be the entrance to the Vex Vault."
"Scan it, find out what we need," Void murmured.
Obsidian nooded, its shell scattering into glimmer as it faded away.
Elsie put down her rifle and took a position, aiming down sights as she scoped the conflux. "They're shuffling into the Vault little by little." She raised her head, "It's impossible to break it; we'll need a matrix code."
"She's right." Obsidian reappeared, "I scanned the conflux from afar. The Vex are using it as a gate, but without a key, we can't do anything."
"Right, and why do I feel like this is all just going towards a fight?" Void glanced at Elsie.
"You'd be right." Elsie picked up her rifle and slung it over her shoulder, "That key's probably stored by one of the Vex units here. Until we dig it out, we can't go inside."
"Haah..." Void sighed. He got up and slowly walked towards the legion of Vex goblins waiting for the conflux.
He moved first.
Void flickered with a step, landing inches away from the goblins.
-Clink-
The Vex goblins reacted, whipping back to face him with their blasters raised. A spark ran through them.
Their legion fell apart. Beheaded with a single cleave.
"There. Can we get this key now?" Void groaned.
Just then, the space behind him fractured, and a lattice appeared. Void turned to look back.
A Vex Minotaur walked through and blasted right at him.
The blast left a crater where his head had been as Void flickered back.
He hit the open floor at breakneck speeds. Void slid just below the Minotaur's cannon and unsheathed his sword. He swiped, and the blade clashed with the Minoaturs' energy shield, pushing him back with a rebound. Pain bit his wrists.
Void quickly transitioned, sweeping at the Minotaur's legs, and he cut into the joint of the knee. The Minotaur staggered.
Elsie pulled the trigger.
-Bang!-
The Minotaur's blaster hand was picked off with a clean shot. The second shot rang out and pierced straight through its eye as the hunkering machine lost its vision.
In the midst of the chaos, its shield flickered, and Void drove his blade into its core. Letting his light surge just enough to crack the Minotaur open. Radiolarian fluid spilt out, steaming on the floor on contact.
Void dashed back, ensuring no part of it touched him. He looked back at Elsie. "Save your ammo, we'll be needing it later."
"I've got enough to play around with," she said and flicked back the bolt on her rifle. The bullet lodged in the floor squirmed as they shot up and spun back into the rifle's chamber.
Something in the chamber changed. Not light, not temperature. Rather, it felt akin to a tilt in attention. The Vex had decided to act against them. The Conflux glitched and pulsed a bright flash, enough to illuminate the dark tunnels for a brief second.
The next instant, hundreds of lattices sprang up in the room.
"I take it back. Shoot everything you got."
=
patreon.com/Writers_Ablood
=
[Ishtar Academy]
The crater coughed a white plume. It bubbled up, burst, and slid over the ground in a low sheet, boiling whatever it touched.
Void saw it coming and pulled his aura tight. But heat still leaked through. His forearms hissed and split in hairline cracks. A rustic taste sat sharp on his tongue, and the air in his lungs sizzled.
Inside, rubble shifted. Elsie pushed to a crouch and yanked her rifle closer. As steam rolled through the doorway, she pulled her cloak, shielding herself from the stream of vapour till it passed over her.
Elsie stepped out and glanced at Void.
His aura still wrapped around his figure as haze rolled off his body.
Elsie slid in beside him, "You good?"
"Just....so so." Void's armour hissed as the heat scattered. His light flared, Obsidian flittered beside him, and his body began to heal. Void's eyes snapped to the distance, "Any idea what that was?"
"No." Elsie carefully tinkered with her watch, "This was never supposed to happen."
"Not the first time things go awry if I'm involved." Void shook off the damage, and the two locked eyes. Void gave her a slow nod. He looked towards the ivory hills and flickered away like a blur, streaking across the distance.
Elsie tapped her rifle and vanished.
The crater was akin to a black bowl rimmed by molten stone. Heat still bled off the edges as it singed anything that dared to come close.
Void appeared.
He carefully stepped to the lip. Rocks softly churning under his boots. He looked down into the crater and let his eyes adjust. A sudden prompt appeared in front of him.
[Optional side mission unlocked!]
-
Mission: The Grand Ishtar Archive
Objective: Help fend off the Vex and the Fallen from destroying the last Golden Age archive on Venus.
Rewards: +Golden Age Blueprints, ++ Golden Age Weapon Schematics
Remarks: Knowledge is power, guardian!
-
Void glanced over the system prompt.
"Obsidian," he said. "Analyse the blast, we need info, now."
Obsidian flickered to life at his shoulder. "Checking the City's records, Shiro reported the all clear hours ago." Its eye pulsed then steadied.
"What? Status on Shiro-4, now!" Void frantically spun around, his eyes darting towards the forest as he let out a breath he did not realise he'd been holding.
Space rippled, and a strange pulse thrummed as Elsie appeared beside him. She wordlessly walked to the edge and peered down.
"City records say he's en route to the Tower, left Venus after reporting," Obsidian replied.
Elsie's eyes narrowed, "Wait." She pointed over the edge towards the darkness. "Look."
At the very bottom of the crater, crimson lights flickered, hundreds of them. Steadily, moving like a stream from one point to the other.
"Vex," she said.
"Vex," he agreed.
Obsidian drifted forward a hand's span, hovering over the crater. Its eye pulsed again rapidly, then dimmed. "Ether," he cut in sharply. "High concentration. Near-lethal if you breathe it for long. It's practically everywhere in the crater. "
Void's jaw set. "House of Winter. I knew those rat bastards weren't scurrying away without a fight."
"Yeah. Looks like they used the hours that followed to set this all up." Obsidian quipped.
Elsie nodded once. "An ether bomb. Not the first time I've seen that." She kept her eyes on the pit. "I know why they were here. There is a vault under the academy. An old Vex vault. I saw it when it was discovered. Most likely, the Vex gathered what the Golden Age left at the academy and studied it. This archive could jump-start the City by a century." Her voice thinned a fraction. "Except it never appears this early."
Void looked at her. "An anomaly?"
"Likely," she said, glancing up.
He did not argue. "That's not news to me. Things don't often go as expected."
Elsie chuckled. "That said, I have no intention of watching the academy crumble while they fight a war at its foundations. We'll need to put an end to this."
"Awful lot of sentiment for an ancient, abandoned academy," Void remarked as Elsie reloaded her rifle.
"Well, it wasn't always ancient and abandoned." She shrugged and looked toward the towers that still stood. "When I was a student, even these wretched buildings brought me comfort."
Void raised a brow. "Wait, you studied here?"
"No time to explain." Elsie pulled back the bolt and stepped forward.
They stood another heartbeat, watching the flicker-patterns below sort themselves into a moving grid.
"You in?"
"I'm in," Void said.
He checked his grip, felt the weight of the sword at his back, then looked across at Elsie. No words. She nodded.
They stepped off together.
Gravity took them. Void slid the first metres, boots scraping through gravel and chalk. He hit a slanted slab and cut speed with a hand on rough stone. Elsie glided the whole way. Ether crawled up from the depths as they descended, staining the air a toxic blue.
Halfway down, Void looked across, "Any sign of Fallen ?" He asked.
"None yet," Obsidian said. "They didn't show up anywhere near after the blast."
"So it's just the Vex," Void said.
"And us," Elsie said.
The flickering lights at the bottom moved like a swarm and continued to descend into the dark.
Elsi and Void hit the ground hard, denting two small craters into its soft soil.
"Watch your step," Void whispered as he gestured towards the side.
Liquid ether pooled all around them, vaporising at a speed visible to the naked eye. Its fumes spiralled upwards, but the liquid was strong enough to leave an effect on them; a mellow acidic taste clung to their tongue.
"Lemon", Void clicked his tongue, "And...peach?"
"Best not get used to it. That stuff will kill you in an hour." Elsie surveyed their surroundings with keen eyes.
Obsidian threw a faint pulse of light into the dark. "It's a network of tunnels. Leads downwards towards a gallery."
Void set his balance.
"Ready," she said.
"Ready," he said.
They moved.
-
Red Vex eyes drifted like fireflies in the dark clearing ahead. Void kept his aura dim, and Elsie crouched beside him as the two crawled through Vex tunnels, creeping towards the Vex one step at a time.
Void felt a sour taste glisten on his tongue. He glanced at Elsie and got a nod. She had felt it too. The deeper they went, the higher the concentration of ether. At a point, Void could even feel under his skin. A strange pressure had built up in his lungs, and every breath he took was heavier. Denser. Difficult.
Elsie and Void crept deeper and deeper into the tunnels. Til they were mere inches away from an army of Vex that seemed to gather and halt.
"Conflux ahead," Obsidian whispered. "Looks like that might be the entrance to the Vex Vault."
"Scan it, find out what we need," Void murmured.
Obsidian nooded, its shell scattering into glimmer as it faded away.
Elsie put down her rifle and took a position, aiming down sights as she scoped the conflux. "They're shuffling into the Vault little by little." She raised her head, "It's impossible to break it; we'll need a matrix code."
"She's right." Obsidian reappeared, "I scanned the conflux from afar. The Vex are using it as a gate, but without a key, we can't do anything."
"Right, and why do I feel like this is all just going towards a fight?" Void glanced at Elsie.
"You'd be right." Elsie picked up her rifle and slung it over her shoulder, "That key's probably stored by one of the Vex units here. Until we dig it out, we can't go inside."
"Haah..." Void sighed. He got up and slowly walked towards the legion of Vex goblins waiting for the conflux.
He moved first.
Void flickered with a step, landing inches away from the goblins.
-Clink-
The Vex goblins reacted, whipping back to face him with their blasters raised. A spark ran through them.
Their legion fell apart. Beheaded with a single cleave.
"There. Can we get this key now?" Void groaned.
Just then, the space behind him fractured, and a lattice appeared. Void turned to look back.
A Vex Minotaur walked through and blasted right at him.
The blast left a crater where his head had been as Void flickered back.
He hit the open floor at breakneck speeds. Void slid just below the Minotaur's cannon and unsheathed his sword. He swiped, and the blade clashed with the Minoaturs' energy shield, pushing him back with a rebound. Pain bit his wrists.
Void quickly transitioned, sweeping at the Minotaur's legs, and he cut into the joint of the knee. The Minotaur staggered.
Elsie pulled the trigger.
-Bang!-
The Minotaur's blaster hand was picked off with a clean shot. The second shot rang out and pierced straight through its eye as the hunkering machine lost its vision.
In the midst of the chaos, its shield flickered, and Void drove his blade into its core. Letting his light surge just enough to crack the Minotaur open. Radiolarian fluid spilt out, steaming on the floor on contact.
Void dashed back, ensuring no part of it touched him. He looked back at Elsie. "Save your ammo, we'll be needing it later."
"I've got enough to play around with," she said and flicked back the bolt on her rifle. The bullet lodged in the floor squirmed as they shot up and spun back into the rifle's chamber.
Something in the chamber changed. Not light, not temperature. Rather, it felt akin to a tilt in attention. The Vex had decided to act against them. The Conflux glitched and pulsed a bright flash, enough to illuminate the dark tunnels for a brief second.
The next instant, hundreds of lattices sprang up in the room.
"I take it back. Shoot everything you got."
=
Odd1todd89
The Odd one
- Joined
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Thank you for writing. happy new year.
Chapter 204: Archive (2)
New
Writers-Ablood
All you need to know, is that I write.
- Joined
- May 26, 2023
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A/N: Enjoy the chap! Faster release rates to follow for sure! I also released an original on WN called "Last Hero of the Academy" If you're into my action scenes and world-building, with a pseudo-system, you might find it interesting, so check it out!!! Or don't, your choice. (I am holding you at gunpoint).
Also check out my Patreon for more! patreon.com/Writers_Ablood
=
The ground shook.
A ring of light shimmered above the conflux, its glow radiating outwards. Space warped and frayed like a poorly knit scarf. Hundreds of lattices gleamed like molten glass, shearing open the fabric of reality.
One by one, Minotaurs stepped through the grids and thudded onto the stone till hundreds of them filled the tunnels in front of the conflux.
Void and Elsie found themselves surrounded.
Obsidian's eye flared hard. "City just issued a planetwide evac order. Spatial distortion off the charts." He paused. "Priority. Immediate."
Void drew his blade the rest of the way, and lightning climbed his arms. "I guess there are still others on Venus aside from us," he said.
Elsie stood at his shoulder and watched the army arrange itself. "Which means we hold the line here," she said. "Anyone close will probably respond within a few minutes. We'll need to hold them back."
"We don't have enough space to move around. Fight smart." He set his feet.
The Minotaurs came.
Ten Minotaurs ran straight for Void, shoulders down, frames shuddering with weight. The rest encircled them both and held their position with raised cannons. The cannons pulsed and gathered energy for a shot as Void stared them down.
Lightning arced in his eyes.
Void rushed forward, and all the cannons fired.
Facing a squall of lasers and ten hunkering Minotaurs, Void raced and slid to dodge their tackles, lightning hissing underfoot, his cloak snapping as he flickered like a bullet, the sheer speed of his movement allowing him to slide on the rugged cavern floor.
Two smoke bombs slipped from his fingers and rolled to the floor. Void danced around the lasers, his figure weaving around the beams with lethal precision.
A beam struck his chest and knocked him back a step. His armour singed, another hit across his shoulder, Void faltered. He was hit once more, again and again and again, till his armour was riddled with burns. The cannons fired at him relentlessly as he struggled to dodge. Void jerked back, spotting a charging Minotaur. He dropped to his knee, ducking under a wild punch as he leaned in. His blade dragged a thin scoring across its ribs.
The line sparked, splitting it into two halves.
Elsie glanced at her watch as she saw the hailstorm of lasers blasting at them from every angle. She took a sharp breath and turned the dial.
Time grit its teeth.
The lasers froze, pulsing as they hung around them in mid-air.
Elsie turned the crown back with two fingers, and the air snapped. Every shot slinging back the way it had come, akin to a spring uncoiling.
The Minotaurs staggered as their own attacks struck them; their shields thumped through the endless barrage that kept being reflected.
Void's eyes gleamed.
[Time's Tempo activated!]
He saw it all happen. The lasers, inches away from him, reeled back towards the cannons. As the ripple in time faded away, Void heaved a breath, and it all seemed to resume.
"Couldn't you have done that earlier!" He barked and dusted off the laser marks. Void grabbed his sword and took a stance.
A Minaotur sauntered, warping forward with a punch that aimed at his head. Void ducked under the fist and came up inside the guard, punching a palmful of Arc into its chest. He flickered and slid back, raising his sword. The shock rattled the Minotaur. But a second Minotaur had already warped in on his blind side.
«Behind you!»
Void spun and barely slid under its shot, as he cut off its leg with one swipe.
«Stop training and kill,» Zamyr cut in, voice cold and close. «This is not the time to play with limits. Use me.»
"Can't you see I'm busy right now? Shut up and watch!" Void said with a smirk. He turned his sword and used the reflections to spot the other Minotaurs. Void kept his eyes on the enemy. With the distance Elsie had created using her rewind, he had enough ground to finally move.
Lightning roared.
Void ran along the walls like a speeding blue bolt, circling behind the Minotaurs with ease. He jumped. Lunging towards their formation with an overhead strike, Void slammed down his sword, channelling his light to create an electric charge that spread through the machines, locking them in place.
Elsie had already caught on.
She pulled the trigger. A barrage of bullets rained on the formation. She pulled again, her shots curved out and then came back again, endlessly ricocheting. Elsie dialled her watch one tick, then another. The bullets that had missed earlier spun back and hit the Minotaurs they had only grazed a second ago.
Minotaurs began warping from one spot to the next, making them impossible to target while they used every chance they got to strike. The battle was utter chaos.
All Void could do was run, darting around looking for a single opening. The moment a Minotaur appeared, he would cut low at the ankles and stab through their joints to disable them.
"Need some help here!" Void called out, frantically blocking three Minotaurs at once.
"I know." She clicked her tongue and shifted stance. Her cloak snapped flat around her legs. The watch on her wrist dialled back once more. The world paused, chains slithered in from tears in the fabric of reality and wrapped around the limbs of the Vex, slowing them down.
Void darted, sliding into a stance. With a quick step forward, he deftly cleaved the torsos of five Minotaurs with a clean cut. Void rolled over as a Minotaur hunkered with a slow punch to catch him off guard. As it missed, it immediately used its cannon.
Facing its cannon, Void felt the heat of the charging laser radiate across his face. He slid left and let the shot drill through the air, barely grazing his hood.
Elsie stepped up and fired past his ear. The round struck the Minotaur's shield, rebounded off the walls, and tore through the same Minotaur's core. It lurched and slumped down.
Void pivoted. His legs burned as he flickered back, barely taking a punch on armour that seemed to hurl him to the side.
Then his senses snapped.
A deep violet light bloomed in a tunnel mouth to their right. It was fast and heavy. The air pulled toward it like a tide, and the stones shook.
"Brace!" Void pulled his arms over his head.
Elsie's eyes widened, she grabbed her rifle and jumped into a corner. Minotaurs tracked the same light and raised their shields to the max.
The violet light drilled through the tunnels like a burning comet, unstoppable and unescapable.
Void set his feet.
Even the Vex in sight braced as if that would matter.
-
A Novabomb hit the tunnels and erupted.
A seismic ripple tore through the ground, splitting ledges and throwing the Minotaurs back into each other. Shields flared and screamed. Void and Elsie skidded, boots carving white arcs through clay before they steadied. Dust rose in a single wide sheet and hung there with nowhere to escape.
A breath passed.
Void's arms lowered, sizzling with a decaying light. His stance loosened, a chill ran down his spine, his eyes instantly snapped to the tunnel entrance, and he hastily raised his arms again.
"Son of a-"
A second nova bomb hit the tunnels.
The blast punched the first shockwave flat and then layered another on top. The floor pitched. Ribs of rock cracked. Minotaurs went heel over heads, as they slammed into the wall.
Through the chaos, two warlocks flew into the tunnel, robes fluttering in the hot air.
The human warlock whooped, voice bright and uncut. "Look at them. Look at that conflux." She laughed, breathless and a little wild. "We found a goddamn nest. We really did."
The exo flicked her wrist, and the dust funnelled back out of the mouth.
She dropped to her feet and glanced around, spotting Void and Elsie bracing their backs against the wall. Her helm angled once, sharp. "Apologies for the fireworks, thought you guys were in trouble."
Void nodded and slowly dusted himself off, "All good, appreciate the help." He glanced at the two warlocks, his eyes turned a pale blue.
[Taeko-3]
[Gallida Tuyet]
Their names flashed over their status, and Void took note, but he couldn't recall where he'd seen those names before.
He walked towards the centre and yanked his sword out of the ground to unsheathe it.
"You." Taeko-3 looked at the sword and paused.
"You're, Ghost sword!" She exclaimed.
"That I am." Void smiled, "You?"
"Taeko-3," She announced, "We were just poking our nose through the Vex forces here on the surface."
"This Conflux is ANCIENT!" Gallida roared while examining the conflux "Like super ancient. This must be no, this has to be, the core vault on Venus."
"And that's Gallida." Taeko-3 sighed. Her gaze slipped to Elsie. "You?"
"She's...a friend, a bit shy though." Void chimed in.
Elsie gave the smallest of nods and turned her rifle to the lanes.
"Huh. Well, nice meeting you." Taeko's hands lifted. Light pooled in her palms and rolled down her forearms like ink that had decided to burn. Her eyes snapped to Gallida, "Can you stop drooling over that and actually help out?"
The Minotaurs that were toppled were immediately bound by tendrils of light.
Gallida laughed again, not unkind. "Fine. Relax."
She traced a circle in the air and speared it with a finger. Lances of light fell through it like rain called by a drum. Shields buckled under the rhythm. With the Minotaurs bound, there was no way for them to dodge.
Gallida snapped her fingers; the lances stopped. Instead, the circlet of light slammed down and pulled everything towards itself. With a flick of her hand, spikes of light pierced upwards from the circlet and drilled through the Minotaur cores.
A spark broke out, and the cores pulsed, ready to erupt.
Taeko clasped her hands, and a well of light bloomed underneath the quivering mess of radiolaria. Everything slowed to a halt as the light began to eat away at it, breaking it down one piece at a time.
"You guys have got some real skill doing all that." Void nodded, impressed.
"Us?" Gallida laughed with a sigh, "Nah, you deal with Vex your whole life, you kinda get around knowing the best way to put them down."
"She's right. Don't think anyone's hunted more of these than us." Taeko cut in.
"With that said, I didn't know you were into Vex." Gallida shot Void a perplexed look. "I thought you were all about the Hive and their weird spells. But I guess you've got taste." She gave him a nod of approval.
Void raised a brow and looked to Taeko, but the Exo's slow blink and sigh told him it was best to ignore whatever he had just heard.
Also check out my Patreon for more! patreon.com/Writers_Ablood
=
The ground shook.
A ring of light shimmered above the conflux, its glow radiating outwards. Space warped and frayed like a poorly knit scarf. Hundreds of lattices gleamed like molten glass, shearing open the fabric of reality.
One by one, Minotaurs stepped through the grids and thudded onto the stone till hundreds of them filled the tunnels in front of the conflux.
Void and Elsie found themselves surrounded.
Obsidian's eye flared hard. "City just issued a planetwide evac order. Spatial distortion off the charts." He paused. "Priority. Immediate."
Void drew his blade the rest of the way, and lightning climbed his arms. "I guess there are still others on Venus aside from us," he said.
Elsie stood at his shoulder and watched the army arrange itself. "Which means we hold the line here," she said. "Anyone close will probably respond within a few minutes. We'll need to hold them back."
"We don't have enough space to move around. Fight smart." He set his feet.
The Minotaurs came.
Ten Minotaurs ran straight for Void, shoulders down, frames shuddering with weight. The rest encircled them both and held their position with raised cannons. The cannons pulsed and gathered energy for a shot as Void stared them down.
Lightning arced in his eyes.
Void rushed forward, and all the cannons fired.
Facing a squall of lasers and ten hunkering Minotaurs, Void raced and slid to dodge their tackles, lightning hissing underfoot, his cloak snapping as he flickered like a bullet, the sheer speed of his movement allowing him to slide on the rugged cavern floor.
Two smoke bombs slipped from his fingers and rolled to the floor. Void danced around the lasers, his figure weaving around the beams with lethal precision.
A beam struck his chest and knocked him back a step. His armour singed, another hit across his shoulder, Void faltered. He was hit once more, again and again and again, till his armour was riddled with burns. The cannons fired at him relentlessly as he struggled to dodge. Void jerked back, spotting a charging Minotaur. He dropped to his knee, ducking under a wild punch as he leaned in. His blade dragged a thin scoring across its ribs.
The line sparked, splitting it into two halves.
Elsie glanced at her watch as she saw the hailstorm of lasers blasting at them from every angle. She took a sharp breath and turned the dial.
Time grit its teeth.
The lasers froze, pulsing as they hung around them in mid-air.
Elsie turned the crown back with two fingers, and the air snapped. Every shot slinging back the way it had come, akin to a spring uncoiling.
The Minotaurs staggered as their own attacks struck them; their shields thumped through the endless barrage that kept being reflected.
Void's eyes gleamed.
[Time's Tempo activated!]
He saw it all happen. The lasers, inches away from him, reeled back towards the cannons. As the ripple in time faded away, Void heaved a breath, and it all seemed to resume.
"Couldn't you have done that earlier!" He barked and dusted off the laser marks. Void grabbed his sword and took a stance.
A Minaotur sauntered, warping forward with a punch that aimed at his head. Void ducked under the fist and came up inside the guard, punching a palmful of Arc into its chest. He flickered and slid back, raising his sword. The shock rattled the Minotaur. But a second Minotaur had already warped in on his blind side.
«Behind you!»
Void spun and barely slid under its shot, as he cut off its leg with one swipe.
«Stop training and kill,» Zamyr cut in, voice cold and close. «This is not the time to play with limits. Use me.»
"Can't you see I'm busy right now? Shut up and watch!" Void said with a smirk. He turned his sword and used the reflections to spot the other Minotaurs. Void kept his eyes on the enemy. With the distance Elsie had created using her rewind, he had enough ground to finally move.
Lightning roared.
Void ran along the walls like a speeding blue bolt, circling behind the Minotaurs with ease. He jumped. Lunging towards their formation with an overhead strike, Void slammed down his sword, channelling his light to create an electric charge that spread through the machines, locking them in place.
Elsie had already caught on.
She pulled the trigger. A barrage of bullets rained on the formation. She pulled again, her shots curved out and then came back again, endlessly ricocheting. Elsie dialled her watch one tick, then another. The bullets that had missed earlier spun back and hit the Minotaurs they had only grazed a second ago.
Minotaurs began warping from one spot to the next, making them impossible to target while they used every chance they got to strike. The battle was utter chaos.
All Void could do was run, darting around looking for a single opening. The moment a Minotaur appeared, he would cut low at the ankles and stab through their joints to disable them.
"Need some help here!" Void called out, frantically blocking three Minotaurs at once.
"I know." She clicked her tongue and shifted stance. Her cloak snapped flat around her legs. The watch on her wrist dialled back once more. The world paused, chains slithered in from tears in the fabric of reality and wrapped around the limbs of the Vex, slowing them down.
Void darted, sliding into a stance. With a quick step forward, he deftly cleaved the torsos of five Minotaurs with a clean cut. Void rolled over as a Minotaur hunkered with a slow punch to catch him off guard. As it missed, it immediately used its cannon.
Facing its cannon, Void felt the heat of the charging laser radiate across his face. He slid left and let the shot drill through the air, barely grazing his hood.
Elsie stepped up and fired past his ear. The round struck the Minotaur's shield, rebounded off the walls, and tore through the same Minotaur's core. It lurched and slumped down.
Void pivoted. His legs burned as he flickered back, barely taking a punch on armour that seemed to hurl him to the side.
Then his senses snapped.
A deep violet light bloomed in a tunnel mouth to their right. It was fast and heavy. The air pulled toward it like a tide, and the stones shook.
"Brace!" Void pulled his arms over his head.
Elsie's eyes widened, she grabbed her rifle and jumped into a corner. Minotaurs tracked the same light and raised their shields to the max.
The violet light drilled through the tunnels like a burning comet, unstoppable and unescapable.
Void set his feet.
Even the Vex in sight braced as if that would matter.
-
A Novabomb hit the tunnels and erupted.
A seismic ripple tore through the ground, splitting ledges and throwing the Minotaurs back into each other. Shields flared and screamed. Void and Elsie skidded, boots carving white arcs through clay before they steadied. Dust rose in a single wide sheet and hung there with nowhere to escape.
A breath passed.
Void's arms lowered, sizzling with a decaying light. His stance loosened, a chill ran down his spine, his eyes instantly snapped to the tunnel entrance, and he hastily raised his arms again.
"Son of a-"
A second nova bomb hit the tunnels.
The blast punched the first shockwave flat and then layered another on top. The floor pitched. Ribs of rock cracked. Minotaurs went heel over heads, as they slammed into the wall.
Through the chaos, two warlocks flew into the tunnel, robes fluttering in the hot air.
The human warlock whooped, voice bright and uncut. "Look at them. Look at that conflux." She laughed, breathless and a little wild. "We found a goddamn nest. We really did."
The exo flicked her wrist, and the dust funnelled back out of the mouth.
She dropped to her feet and glanced around, spotting Void and Elsie bracing their backs against the wall. Her helm angled once, sharp. "Apologies for the fireworks, thought you guys were in trouble."
Void nodded and slowly dusted himself off, "All good, appreciate the help." He glanced at the two warlocks, his eyes turned a pale blue.
[Taeko-3]
[Gallida Tuyet]
Their names flashed over their status, and Void took note, but he couldn't recall where he'd seen those names before.
He walked towards the centre and yanked his sword out of the ground to unsheathe it.
"You." Taeko-3 looked at the sword and paused.
"You're, Ghost sword!" She exclaimed.
"That I am." Void smiled, "You?"
"Taeko-3," She announced, "We were just poking our nose through the Vex forces here on the surface."
"This Conflux is ANCIENT!" Gallida roared while examining the conflux "Like super ancient. This must be no, this has to be, the core vault on Venus."
"And that's Gallida." Taeko-3 sighed. Her gaze slipped to Elsie. "You?"
"She's...a friend, a bit shy though." Void chimed in.
Elsie gave the smallest of nods and turned her rifle to the lanes.
"Huh. Well, nice meeting you." Taeko's hands lifted. Light pooled in her palms and rolled down her forearms like ink that had decided to burn. Her eyes snapped to Gallida, "Can you stop drooling over that and actually help out?"
The Minotaurs that were toppled were immediately bound by tendrils of light.
Gallida laughed again, not unkind. "Fine. Relax."
She traced a circle in the air and speared it with a finger. Lances of light fell through it like rain called by a drum. Shields buckled under the rhythm. With the Minotaurs bound, there was no way for them to dodge.
Gallida snapped her fingers; the lances stopped. Instead, the circlet of light slammed down and pulled everything towards itself. With a flick of her hand, spikes of light pierced upwards from the circlet and drilled through the Minotaur cores.
A spark broke out, and the cores pulsed, ready to erupt.
Taeko clasped her hands, and a well of light bloomed underneath the quivering mess of radiolaria. Everything slowed to a halt as the light began to eat away at it, breaking it down one piece at a time.
"You guys have got some real skill doing all that." Void nodded, impressed.
"Us?" Gallida laughed with a sigh, "Nah, you deal with Vex your whole life, you kinda get around knowing the best way to put them down."
"She's right. Don't think anyone's hunted more of these than us." Taeko cut in.
"With that said, I didn't know you were into Vex." Gallida shot Void a perplexed look. "I thought you were all about the Hive and their weird spells. But I guess you've got taste." She gave him a nod of approval.
Void raised a brow and looked to Taeko, but the Exo's slow blink and sigh told him it was best to ignore whatever he had just heard.
Seviriegnty
Not too sore, are you?
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Hahaha 
!! Void got labelled hive sexual.
!! Void got labelled hive sexual.
Writers-Ablood
All you need to know, is that I write.
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Hahaha
He freaky like that.
Chapter 205: Scholars of the Vex
New
Writers-Ablood
All you need to know, is that I write.
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Void's HUD blinked.
-
MISSION COMPLETE: The Grand Ishtar Archive
[REWARD: +GOLDEN AGE BLUEPRINT (Subspace Ring) , + GOLDEN AGE BLUEPRINT (Energized Coil Cannon)]
-
Void's eyes glistened as he read through his two rewards.
'Subspace ring?'
He knew that while the guardians did have spatial storage, it was in the form of engrams or an ancient space matrix cube that served as a portable vault. However, neither was fast and required hours of crucial setup even to get functioning. The City had invested thousands of hours in painstakingly creating the vault network that connected every planet where they held an outpost.
But a subspace ring? This was beyond his expectations. Was it an invention similar to his system inventory? The thought of it ran shivers down Void's spine. The Golden Age of humanity was truly a terrifying and brilliant era.
As for the energised coil cannon? He'd only ever heard of the Wardcliff cannon. If the former was anything similar, it was another great reward.
"Ahm." Gallida cleared her throat. She examined the conflux again, this time peering over its details with keen intent, "So, you guys wanna go in or not?"
"What?" Void raised his brow; he snapped out of his trance and gave the conflux a good look. The conflux sat like a vibrant radiolaria heart set into stone. A circular module had been sunk flush into the masonry, and inside it a sphere of milky radiolaria turned on itself in slow layers. White light pulsed out from the core and reverberated like a breath.
Void stepped closer and looked at Taeko-3 with confusion.
"What she meant is that we can decode the conflux to let us enter the Vex network." Taeko-3 gently raised her palm, "Comet, show them."
A ghost with a strikingly orange shell shot out from her palm and flittered around her. It paused for a heartbeat and then its eye pulsed, projecting the internal structure of the Vex conflux with great detail.
"The Vex conflux is like a node. A small door that allows us entry into the Vex network. Though frankly it's all a bit more complicated than that." Taeko-3 explained.
"What about the door, the one that led to their vault underneath?" Elsie cut in.
"If there were any entrances here, they are long gone." Gallida shook her head, "I suppose the moment the bomb went off, the Vex restructured the entire place." She paused and then slapped the conflux's shell, "But lucky for you, I can make this baby work to let us in regardless."
Void hummed in thought. There were plenty of chances in the game to enter a Vex network. But they were always approached with great caution. Plus, multiple spatial splicers were helping to stabilise the network.
However, even then, that was a game. If he were to enter the Vex network now, who knew what would happen?
Gallida leaned in, grin audible. "Relax, it's really not that bad. Sure, there will be a few bumps here and there, but it's a smooth ride in and out."
Void glanced across. "You have been through one."
Taeko-3's helm cocked. "We've been on Venus since the Hunt," she said. "Venus is littered with smaller nodes. We mapped them out and started going through them one by one. All of our fireteam got out alive, "A thin smile touched her voice. "Well, on most days. Some had to be revived afterwards."
Gallida nodded. "Yup. But there's a big difference. All those other nodes? None were as old as this."
Elsie's eyes narrowed. She trudged up beside Gallida and looked right at the centre of the conflux. She studied the module's ring, scanning its structure and peering at the strange fluctuations of radiolaria.
"The conflux seems stable, for now," she said. "If it is possible to enter with a stable way to get out. It'll be worthwhile. Otherwise, we risk getting lost in the Vex network."
Void nodded. "Alright, we'll consider going in with you both."
Gallida clapped once, briskly. "Great, we'll need the extra hands. I'll make it super safe, don't you worry about that."
She slid a kit from her belt and knelt by the module. Her Ghost unfolded a thin lattice of light and fed it into the rim. The radiolaria brightened, then dimmed, like it was listening.
Taeko stood guard around her and watched the work, palms loose at her sides. "Once she manages to crack the initial matrix", she said, "the gate will open to a pocket. That spatial pocket will hold for an hour at best. But, the moment the Vex realise the pocket exists, they'll work to patch it out. Then the pocket collapses."
Elsie's gaze stayed on the sphere. "An hour is plenty of time to find out what's inside."
"Plenty," Taeko said.
"That is, as long as the Vex don't find out." Void quipped
"Please, you'd be surprised how careless those machines get." Gallida worked fast. She murmured a pattern to her Ghost and spiked three taps into the module's lip. Tiny arcs jumped. The radiolaria rolled and then steadied.
Something in the wall groaned.
"Almost," she said.
Gallida keyed the last line. The sphere flared white and went clear. Space around the module wrinkled, then settled. The sphere expanded, its edges folding inwards as it folded to create a wormhole.
"Path open," Gallida said, delighted. "Welcome to their living room."
Void rolled his shoulders. "One hour."
Taeko-3 nodded. "Less if we make noise."
Gallida glanced at her. "But...we always make noise."
"I guess.." Taeko-3 sighed.
"Fine." Void cut in, "Just focus on getting out in time."
"Got it." Gallida went first, boots finding a surface that wasn't there. She leaned forward and disappeared with a soft distortion that made the air behind her ring. Taeko followed, passing through as if she were stepping behind a thin waterfall. Elsie dipped her head and walked into the light.
Void set his hand on the module's rim and stepped in.
The last thing he saw was the sphere closing like a pupil.
Then the room forgot it had walls. The light around him stretched until it became a tunnel and then a sky and then a floor. Time stuttered once, like a heartbeat tripping, and smoothed into a steady run.
They were gone.
-
They arrived one after another, feet landing on nothing that still held. The world formed around them in quiet clicks. Lines drew themselves into a grid. Squares stacked into towers. A blank horizon unrolled and met a sky with no colour. Everything looked half-made, like a canvas without paint.
Void steadied. Elsie took a slow turn. Far ahead, jagged spires rose in clumps and leaned toward a point they could not see.
Ahead, Taeko-3 lifted a hand and waved them on. "Follow here," she said. "Keep moving. The good stuff is deeper."
Gallida's laugh skipped ahead of her.
They walked. The space expanded with each step. Lattices peeled open and revealed a white space that formed into an endlessly stretching flat cubic plane.
As the four walked around, they found many Crates with Golden Age stencils scorched faintly on their sides. Half-built Vex frames that lay in columns, limbs unjoined, optics dark.
Taeko brushed a gloved knuckle against a deconstructed Vex frame. "They stage it here," she said. "An in-between. Objects wait for transfer. Manual, not automatic. Vex on the other end will take it when they're ready."
"Which means they are busy elsewhere," Elsie said.
"Good for us," Gallida answered. She had already dropped to a knee beside a deconstructed Vex Mind and slotted tools from her belt. Her Ghost cast a thin pattern over it. Numbers flowed. Gallida's grin sharpened. "Better for me."
Void knelt by a crate stamped with the Golden Age Logo. He ran a hand over the letters, then touched his Ghost.
"Scan," he said.
Obsidian drifted close and opened its eye. The cone of light passed through the crate and made a soft, satisfied chime. "Golden Age firmware." He moved from crate to crate, each scan stacking into a list that grew heavy in the corner of his HUD.
Meanwhile, Elsie peeled away towards a pile of Vex frames. She grabbed the frame and pulled it apart piece by piece. A moment later, the entire Vex frame was dismantled, and she took one look at its core and slipped it into her pocket.
Elsie kept moving and took to working on the discarded Vex Minds within the place. She quietly tinkered with its grey matter shield that prevented any physical touch. Through the use of her extensive knowledge and research, Elsie had already figured out how to disable the shields manually. A technique that had not yet been discovered.
Just as the grey matter shield flickered and disappeared, Taeko-3 and Gallida were stunned to silence.
Gallida scooted closer, looked up, then again, and stopped pretending she wasn't watching. "How did you do that?" she asked.
Elsie did not answer right away. She broke open the Vex Mind's chassis, taking out its central core for examination. "I have dismantled many Vex Minds. It wasn't hard to figure that out."
Taeko joined them and leaned to see. "Not like this," she said under her breath. "We would have taken forever to do that." Taeko glanced at Elsie, and slowly the look in her eyes shifted, leaning towards acknowledgement.
"I've never met a Vex scholar like you. You must've spent decades ripping Minds apart to know them this well." She gave Elsie a polite nod.
Elsie's eyes flickered ever so slightly; she only replied with a tiny nod, neither proud nor shy. "I did. It was a horrid experience."
At the other end of the subspace, Void was surveying his surroundings till he reached a seemingly 'dead end'. The walls of the space seemed to turn and furl inwards, as if a spiral. As he observed the strange phenomenon, Void instinctively knew this was the "Exit".
He eased toward it curiously, and Obsidian hovered at his cheek, scanning the fluctuation of space. But just as Void crept closer, his wrist buzzed.
He stopped and turned his hand. The locator chip lit up, then stuttered, then went full bright. It washed his palm in frantic light. The signal climbed past normal, then climbed again.
"Pahanin? Is everything okay?" he said, glancing at Obsidian.
"No contact," Obsidian answered at once. "Nothing on City bands. No Nightstalker ping. You are not receiving anything from them. This...seems to be entirely something else. It's like, the Vex network is connecting to that chip."
The space quivered. A ripple ran through the lattice like wind through tall grass. Far spires leaned the wrong way, as if the horizon had shifted. Shapes sparked into place across the floor.
The chip buzzed harder. The light pulsed in a rhythm that felt ominous. Finally, space shifted, and slowly hundreds of radiolaria lattices appeared one by one.
Obsidian and Void shared a glance; one look was enough to say the words unspoken.
'Run.'
-
A/N: Checkout my original (Last Hero of the Academy) on WN!
As always patreon for more juicy stuff.
patreon.com/Writers_Ablood
-
MISSION COMPLETE: The Grand Ishtar Archive
[REWARD: +GOLDEN AGE BLUEPRINT (Subspace Ring) , + GOLDEN AGE BLUEPRINT (Energized Coil Cannon)]
-
Void's eyes glistened as he read through his two rewards.
'Subspace ring?'
He knew that while the guardians did have spatial storage, it was in the form of engrams or an ancient space matrix cube that served as a portable vault. However, neither was fast and required hours of crucial setup even to get functioning. The City had invested thousands of hours in painstakingly creating the vault network that connected every planet where they held an outpost.
But a subspace ring? This was beyond his expectations. Was it an invention similar to his system inventory? The thought of it ran shivers down Void's spine. The Golden Age of humanity was truly a terrifying and brilliant era.
As for the energised coil cannon? He'd only ever heard of the Wardcliff cannon. If the former was anything similar, it was another great reward.
"Ahm." Gallida cleared her throat. She examined the conflux again, this time peering over its details with keen intent, "So, you guys wanna go in or not?"
"What?" Void raised his brow; he snapped out of his trance and gave the conflux a good look. The conflux sat like a vibrant radiolaria heart set into stone. A circular module had been sunk flush into the masonry, and inside it a sphere of milky radiolaria turned on itself in slow layers. White light pulsed out from the core and reverberated like a breath.
Void stepped closer and looked at Taeko-3 with confusion.
"What she meant is that we can decode the conflux to let us enter the Vex network." Taeko-3 gently raised her palm, "Comet, show them."
A ghost with a strikingly orange shell shot out from her palm and flittered around her. It paused for a heartbeat and then its eye pulsed, projecting the internal structure of the Vex conflux with great detail.
"The Vex conflux is like a node. A small door that allows us entry into the Vex network. Though frankly it's all a bit more complicated than that." Taeko-3 explained.
"What about the door, the one that led to their vault underneath?" Elsie cut in.
"If there were any entrances here, they are long gone." Gallida shook her head, "I suppose the moment the bomb went off, the Vex restructured the entire place." She paused and then slapped the conflux's shell, "But lucky for you, I can make this baby work to let us in regardless."
Void hummed in thought. There were plenty of chances in the game to enter a Vex network. But they were always approached with great caution. Plus, multiple spatial splicers were helping to stabilise the network.
However, even then, that was a game. If he were to enter the Vex network now, who knew what would happen?
Gallida leaned in, grin audible. "Relax, it's really not that bad. Sure, there will be a few bumps here and there, but it's a smooth ride in and out."
Void glanced across. "You have been through one."
Taeko-3's helm cocked. "We've been on Venus since the Hunt," she said. "Venus is littered with smaller nodes. We mapped them out and started going through them one by one. All of our fireteam got out alive, "A thin smile touched her voice. "Well, on most days. Some had to be revived afterwards."
Gallida nodded. "Yup. But there's a big difference. All those other nodes? None were as old as this."
Elsie's eyes narrowed. She trudged up beside Gallida and looked right at the centre of the conflux. She studied the module's ring, scanning its structure and peering at the strange fluctuations of radiolaria.
"The conflux seems stable, for now," she said. "If it is possible to enter with a stable way to get out. It'll be worthwhile. Otherwise, we risk getting lost in the Vex network."
Void nodded. "Alright, we'll consider going in with you both."
Gallida clapped once, briskly. "Great, we'll need the extra hands. I'll make it super safe, don't you worry about that."
She slid a kit from her belt and knelt by the module. Her Ghost unfolded a thin lattice of light and fed it into the rim. The radiolaria brightened, then dimmed, like it was listening.
Taeko stood guard around her and watched the work, palms loose at her sides. "Once she manages to crack the initial matrix", she said, "the gate will open to a pocket. That spatial pocket will hold for an hour at best. But, the moment the Vex realise the pocket exists, they'll work to patch it out. Then the pocket collapses."
Elsie's gaze stayed on the sphere. "An hour is plenty of time to find out what's inside."
"Plenty," Taeko said.
"That is, as long as the Vex don't find out." Void quipped
"Please, you'd be surprised how careless those machines get." Gallida worked fast. She murmured a pattern to her Ghost and spiked three taps into the module's lip. Tiny arcs jumped. The radiolaria rolled and then steadied.
Something in the wall groaned.
"Almost," she said.
Gallida keyed the last line. The sphere flared white and went clear. Space around the module wrinkled, then settled. The sphere expanded, its edges folding inwards as it folded to create a wormhole.
"Path open," Gallida said, delighted. "Welcome to their living room."
Void rolled his shoulders. "One hour."
Taeko-3 nodded. "Less if we make noise."
Gallida glanced at her. "But...we always make noise."
"I guess.." Taeko-3 sighed.
"Fine." Void cut in, "Just focus on getting out in time."
"Got it." Gallida went first, boots finding a surface that wasn't there. She leaned forward and disappeared with a soft distortion that made the air behind her ring. Taeko followed, passing through as if she were stepping behind a thin waterfall. Elsie dipped her head and walked into the light.
Void set his hand on the module's rim and stepped in.
The last thing he saw was the sphere closing like a pupil.
Then the room forgot it had walls. The light around him stretched until it became a tunnel and then a sky and then a floor. Time stuttered once, like a heartbeat tripping, and smoothed into a steady run.
They were gone.
-
They arrived one after another, feet landing on nothing that still held. The world formed around them in quiet clicks. Lines drew themselves into a grid. Squares stacked into towers. A blank horizon unrolled and met a sky with no colour. Everything looked half-made, like a canvas without paint.
Void steadied. Elsie took a slow turn. Far ahead, jagged spires rose in clumps and leaned toward a point they could not see.
Ahead, Taeko-3 lifted a hand and waved them on. "Follow here," she said. "Keep moving. The good stuff is deeper."
Gallida's laugh skipped ahead of her.
They walked. The space expanded with each step. Lattices peeled open and revealed a white space that formed into an endlessly stretching flat cubic plane.
As the four walked around, they found many Crates with Golden Age stencils scorched faintly on their sides. Half-built Vex frames that lay in columns, limbs unjoined, optics dark.
Taeko brushed a gloved knuckle against a deconstructed Vex frame. "They stage it here," she said. "An in-between. Objects wait for transfer. Manual, not automatic. Vex on the other end will take it when they're ready."
"Which means they are busy elsewhere," Elsie said.
"Good for us," Gallida answered. She had already dropped to a knee beside a deconstructed Vex Mind and slotted tools from her belt. Her Ghost cast a thin pattern over it. Numbers flowed. Gallida's grin sharpened. "Better for me."
Void knelt by a crate stamped with the Golden Age Logo. He ran a hand over the letters, then touched his Ghost.
"Scan," he said.
Obsidian drifted close and opened its eye. The cone of light passed through the crate and made a soft, satisfied chime. "Golden Age firmware." He moved from crate to crate, each scan stacking into a list that grew heavy in the corner of his HUD.
Meanwhile, Elsie peeled away towards a pile of Vex frames. She grabbed the frame and pulled it apart piece by piece. A moment later, the entire Vex frame was dismantled, and she took one look at its core and slipped it into her pocket.
Elsie kept moving and took to working on the discarded Vex Minds within the place. She quietly tinkered with its grey matter shield that prevented any physical touch. Through the use of her extensive knowledge and research, Elsie had already figured out how to disable the shields manually. A technique that had not yet been discovered.
Just as the grey matter shield flickered and disappeared, Taeko-3 and Gallida were stunned to silence.
Gallida scooted closer, looked up, then again, and stopped pretending she wasn't watching. "How did you do that?" she asked.
Elsie did not answer right away. She broke open the Vex Mind's chassis, taking out its central core for examination. "I have dismantled many Vex Minds. It wasn't hard to figure that out."
Taeko joined them and leaned to see. "Not like this," she said under her breath. "We would have taken forever to do that." Taeko glanced at Elsie, and slowly the look in her eyes shifted, leaning towards acknowledgement.
"I've never met a Vex scholar like you. You must've spent decades ripping Minds apart to know them this well." She gave Elsie a polite nod.
Elsie's eyes flickered ever so slightly; she only replied with a tiny nod, neither proud nor shy. "I did. It was a horrid experience."
At the other end of the subspace, Void was surveying his surroundings till he reached a seemingly 'dead end'. The walls of the space seemed to turn and furl inwards, as if a spiral. As he observed the strange phenomenon, Void instinctively knew this was the "Exit".
He eased toward it curiously, and Obsidian hovered at his cheek, scanning the fluctuation of space. But just as Void crept closer, his wrist buzzed.
He stopped and turned his hand. The locator chip lit up, then stuttered, then went full bright. It washed his palm in frantic light. The signal climbed past normal, then climbed again.
"Pahanin? Is everything okay?" he said, glancing at Obsidian.
"No contact," Obsidian answered at once. "Nothing on City bands. No Nightstalker ping. You are not receiving anything from them. This...seems to be entirely something else. It's like, the Vex network is connecting to that chip."
The space quivered. A ripple ran through the lattice like wind through tall grass. Far spires leaned the wrong way, as if the horizon had shifted. Shapes sparked into place across the floor.
The chip buzzed harder. The light pulsed in a rhythm that felt ominous. Finally, space shifted, and slowly hundreds of radiolaria lattices appeared one by one.
Obsidian and Void shared a glance; one look was enough to say the words unspoken.
'Run.'
-
A/N: Checkout my original (Last Hero of the Academy) on WN!
As always patreon for more juicy stuff.
patreon.com/Writers_Ablood
Odd1todd89
The Odd one
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Thank you for writing.
GaZe_Zero
Getting sticky.
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sheeeee Okay the Vex are very scary. I think they're the scariest in the Destiny verse as they're architects. Instead of destroying they build and manipulate reality for whatever reason they have. I wonder if Void will ever see Saint or get the "Infinite Vex Arena" treatment.
Writers-Ablood
All you need to know, is that I write.
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An interesting thought, I personally would explore that, so keep reading for sure!
Chapter 206: Scholars of the Vex (2)
New
Writers-Ablood
All you need to know, is that I write.
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A/N:. Do check my Patreon for more. Also if you like my writing, try out my original on WN (Last Hero of The Academy)
patreon.com/Writers_Ablood
-
Void ran.
Above, a pale ceiling with no clouds gave a single ripple.
He raced around the last corner and found them where he had left them. Elsie had a Vex mind opened like a steel flower. Petals of armour hung on invisible hinges. Elsie held one seam apart with the flat of a knife and eased a thin probe into the glow. Her movements were measured. Gallida watched from her shoulder, recording the process and murmuring under her breath.
"Run", Void said, sliding into view, "Now!"
Before they could even question him, the space flinched. A tremor ran through the lattice and kept going, a wave that moved without sound and left a rustic taste on their tongues.
Elsie recognised the ripple and immediately packed her tools, folding them into the forearm slots of her coat. Gallida and Taeko snapped into action, racing towards the entrance.
"Get to the conflux!" Gallida shouted, and her Ghost unspooled a thin white ribbon into the air. It hung there like chalk on dark slate, a line drawn through a world that had not finished deciding what it wanted to be.
As the guardians sprinted back, hundreds of Vex Goblins assembled around them from ankle to crown, armour plates snapping into place with clean little clicks that made your teeth ache. Minotaurs grew their spines, their frames laden with their characteristic black armour, and Harpies bloomed like petals flowering around a core.
A legion of Vex approached the four, certain of their success. As such, there was no rush, no attack. The Vex only observed as they crept closer.
Watching almost a thousand Vex reconstruct and stand against them, Gallida and Taeko-3 were nervous. Even Elsie paused, her hands looming around the wristwatch, unsure of what to do.
"They're confused." Void cut the tension, "They're waiting, and watching our every move." His eyes carefully traced the Vex that continued to surround them. Finally, he looked to Gallida and shot her a glance.
Gallida crept closer to the Conflux, her hands already moving as she carved strange runes into the air. The space around the conflux folded, revealing a wormhole.
The Vex snapped to attention; the wormhole's appearance was not within their expectation. Sensing that it was no longer possible to observe, their blasters charged.
Every Vex goblin, Minotaur and Harpy gathered energy, ready to shoot at a split second.
Taeko's eyes widened, and she bolted, stepping into the depths like it was air and nothing more. Gallida jumped back into the wormhole.
The blaster's fired, thousands of lasers shot towards them.
Void unsheathed his sword, a pale light spiralled at the fringes of his blade. But then he felt the familiar tug of time that yanked his senses. He looked back.
Elsie instantly slammed down on her wristwatch. Time rippled outwards, and the lasers paused.
Elsie took the opportunity and flickered away.
As the last one remaining Void took one last glance at the Vex still relentlessly firing through stagnant time, he too jumped.
-
[Ishtar Academy, Crater Bowl]
Light pulsed around the conflux as it spit out four figures onto the cracked crater floor.
A dense Ether haze clung to their ankles. Dust ran in long streamers along the ground as if the air had tides. The conflux in the wall pulsed once as if startled to see them again and then steadied.
Void found his balance, took a sharp breath and shot towards the spherical conflux. He drove his blade down into the rim and pushed. A thin pale crawled along the ring like frost finding glass. The white sphere tightened on itself, glow thinning as it cracked open like a fragile pearl.
On the other side, something heavy struck the conflux, and a spatial shockwave tore through the crater and slowly faded away.
Gallida let out a laugh that broke in the middle. "What in the Traveler's name was that?"
Void worked his fingers off the hilt and set the blade back to rest. His forearm still stung from the chip overheating. "Don't know. I went to the end of the space, and before I knew it, the Vex were already back. So I ran."
Taeko's eyes angled towards the cracked conflux. "Right call. If we really fought them inside, we'd probably be the ones kept as exhibits. But I've never seen them gather so fast."
Elsie waved towards the conflux, and a strange wave washed over it and returned to her. She frowned and looked at the two warlocks. "The Vex are growing restless. Since we just stole from them, I'd recommend you two lay off Venus for a while."
Gallida sighed, "Looks like we're taking a break."
Taeko nodded once. "Looks like it."
Elsie returned a faint smile. She truly had checked the Vex activity and given the two an earnest warning. While it was a short meeting, Elsie found their company entertaining, which is why she truly hoped they'd do as they claimed.
Finally, she turned to Void. A silent exchange passed and was held. The two merely nodded.
She faded between blinks, her figure thinning to a shimmer and then going with the wind. The dust took a second longer to move again, as if the world had held its breath while she left.
Gallida watched the empty air. "Ghostsword," she said, curiosity slipping past her guard, "who is she really. I have never seen anyone pull a Vex mind apart like that."
Taeko-3 hummed in agreement.
"As I said," Void answered, "a friend."
He stood there a heartbeat longer and let the crater settle inside his bones. An idea slid into his mind.
"That said, since Venus is off the table for a while", he said. "If you guys are still looking to work on the Vex. I've got a place."
Void used Obsidian to transfer the two coordinates to his workshop.
"The Reef?" Taeko replied.
"It's a workshop." Void nodded. "I've got all the tools we'll need. Plus, I've got quite the Vex problem on my hand right now."
Gallida cocked a brow. "What is in it for us?"
"And also if your friend is with you," Taeko added, "I don't think you'd need us. She's quite talented."
"She's not always there," Void said. "And I am not running this through a committee. Unlike the Vanguard, I don't have a lot of rules. As long as it's related to the Vex, you'll be able to do it."
They weighed it in silence. Gallida's grin thinned to thought.
"We will let you know," Taeko said at last.
"Do that." Void glanced once at the broken Conflux, and he pinged his ship.
Engines whined high and thin above the crater rim, then his figure scattered away into glimmer.
—
[Workshop, Thieves' Landing]
The outer door hissed and slid aside, and the scent of oil and old steel ran out to meet him. Void stepped in slowly, eyes up, ready to dodge instantly. The rails overhead were quiet. No drones screamed across the ceiling with scrap payloads. No test mortars rattled in their cradle.
He eased down the hall and peeked around the corner on instinct. Eyes darting with caution, Void crept closer to the hall of the workshop till he saw.
Pahanin and Kaviss sat on the black leather sofa, a low table between them and a deck fanned wide. The Eliksni's prosthetic clicked as he adjusted his grip on a card he had half stolen from Pahanin's hand. His lower pair of eyes narrowed with a look humans would have called focus. Pahanin watched him with that flat patience he wore like armour, a patience that made people confess without being asked.
"You sure?" Pahanin asked.
Kaviss frowned, the tendons in his forearm shifting under metal. He set the stolen card back where it had been and picked the one next to it. He drew it slowly, like the card could change its mind.
Pahanin's lips curled, barely there. He laid his hand down.
A full set. Clean. Unanswerable.
Kaviss's eyes widened. His mandibles tightened, then loosened in a sound like a hissed laugh cut in half.
Void cleared his throat.
Both of them snapped their heads toward the doorway, then down at the cards, then back at him. They were on their feet in the same breath. They drifted to the workbench with forced professionalism, like children pretending to be statues when the teacher walked in.
"Do not let me interrupt your research," Void said, dry.
Pahanin recovered first. "What are you doing back this early?"
"Venus was a mess," Void said. "House of Winter detonated an ether bomb and unearthed an old Vex conflux. We took care of it, well, sort of."
Kaviss eyed Void's armour, his jaws clicking as he detected the familiar scent of ether. "You're drenched in Ether, did you get hit?"
"Nope. It was quite far when it happened. But the residual ether was still crazy." Void glanced at the bench.
The work surface was crowded with half-built coil housings, a ring of fine copper laid in a spiral on a ceramic bed, a cluster of field clamps, and a hammered plate that looked like a museum of mistakes. On the wall above it, a sheet of grease pencil scrawl mapped a subspace ring with notes that only their hands could read. "What did I miss?"
"Nothing," Pahanin said too quickly. "Everything is fine."
Void looked from one to the other. He did not have to say anything.
"Mostly fine," Kaviss said, to be fair.
"Obsidian," Void said.
Obsidian propped over his shoulder, cheerfully observing the Workshop's records. "Hmm." It said, "No catastrophic explosions in the last six hours."
"See," Pahanin said, and managed to make it sound reasonable.
Void dragged a chair with his boot and sat down.
Pahanin leaned his hip against the workbench and watched him. "Strange. Something about that look....You found something, didn't you?"
Void smiled. "I found a lot. Golden Age technology. Blueprints, schematics, damn near everything we need to reproduce a subspace ring and a coil cannon."
"Sub-space ring..." Pahanin's eyes widened. "Did you actually find it?" He hurriedly leaned closer.
"Sure did. But first." Void sighed and turned his wrist to reveal the locator chip. "I've got some questions."
Pahanin's eyes dropped to the locator chip, and he frowned. His fingers slowly grazed the surface of the chip. "It's...burnt. What did you do?"
"Me? No." Void said. "It was the Vex network. Just before I saw the Vex appear, this thing went ballistic. I started receiving hundreds of pings. Thought it was you, but when I checked, there were no messages. Maybe it just malfunctioned?"
"Malfunctioned?" Pahanin watched him a second longer; his frown tightened. Pahanin paused and took a closer look, pinching out the chip from Void's gauntlets. "There's no possible way for it to malfunction. I spent decades on this."
Pahanin put the chip back onto the workbench and used a lens to magnify the chips internal circuit.
"Tell me how it happened," he said.
Void told him. Not everything. But just enough for him to diagnose the problem.
Pahanin listened without interrupting.
"The chip," Pahanin said softly. "You think it was bouncing off the Vex. Or rather, it got caught in their frequency?"
"Obsidian said I was receiving and sending messages," Void said. "Since no one actually contacted me, I am thinking the Vex probably took over the electronics."
Kaviss cut in, "That would not be possible. The Vex technology does not use waves. It cannot interfere with yours directly unless it is designed to do so."
Void raised a brow, "How would you know that?"
"Simple, our splicer EMPs do not work on the Vex. If we cannot interact, neither can they." Kaviss crossed his arms.
"So it wasn't the Vex?" Void scratched his chin.
"He's right." Pahanin nodded, using a small electric tweezer to poke and prod at the internal circuit. "But this message you received. You said it was a stream, an endlessly recurring one? How did it display?"
"Huh? Well, the chip began beeping and lighting up. A second later, all it did was blink on and off repeatedly." As Void blurted out the words, the gears in his head turned. "Like some sort of-"
"Like some sort of code, yes." Pahanin chimed in, his hands tuning the chip's circuit. "The chip was designed to store the last message it received in case of failure. I've gotten its circuit back up. We'll be able to decode the message."
Void nodded solemnly. The moment he thought the word code, possibilities ran wild in his mind.
Pahanin grabbed an interface wire and plugged in the chip to a nearby data pad. A moment later, an endless stream of messages coursed through the datapad's screen.
"Looks like the chip failed because it couldn't handle the speed of transfer." Pahanin grit his teeth, "It's nearly double its capacity." He kept analysing the message.
"And?" Void replied.
"I am decoding it right now. We'll have it soon." Pahanin read the stream and typed out an algorithm to classify its results.
Minutes later, he scribbled down one letter on a datapad.
As time passed, one letter became two, and soon two became four. But that is where Pahanin stopped and heaved a sigh, "This..this is the limit. Whoever sent this message probably didn't calibrate it right. If we want to decode the whole thing, it'll take us years."
"That's fine." Void nodded helplessly, "Just give me what we got for now."
Pahanin scratched his head, "Sure, but it's nothing conclusive. Just five random letters." He passed the data pad to Void.
But as Void's eyes read the letters, a strange heat passed through him, and a shiver ran down his spine. He slowly mouthed the letters, one by one.
'P R D T H"
patreon.com/Writers_Ablood
-
Void ran.
Above, a pale ceiling with no clouds gave a single ripple.
He raced around the last corner and found them where he had left them. Elsie had a Vex mind opened like a steel flower. Petals of armour hung on invisible hinges. Elsie held one seam apart with the flat of a knife and eased a thin probe into the glow. Her movements were measured. Gallida watched from her shoulder, recording the process and murmuring under her breath.
"Run", Void said, sliding into view, "Now!"
Before they could even question him, the space flinched. A tremor ran through the lattice and kept going, a wave that moved without sound and left a rustic taste on their tongues.
Elsie recognised the ripple and immediately packed her tools, folding them into the forearm slots of her coat. Gallida and Taeko snapped into action, racing towards the entrance.
"Get to the conflux!" Gallida shouted, and her Ghost unspooled a thin white ribbon into the air. It hung there like chalk on dark slate, a line drawn through a world that had not finished deciding what it wanted to be.
As the guardians sprinted back, hundreds of Vex Goblins assembled around them from ankle to crown, armour plates snapping into place with clean little clicks that made your teeth ache. Minotaurs grew their spines, their frames laden with their characteristic black armour, and Harpies bloomed like petals flowering around a core.
A legion of Vex approached the four, certain of their success. As such, there was no rush, no attack. The Vex only observed as they crept closer.
Watching almost a thousand Vex reconstruct and stand against them, Gallida and Taeko-3 were nervous. Even Elsie paused, her hands looming around the wristwatch, unsure of what to do.
"They're confused." Void cut the tension, "They're waiting, and watching our every move." His eyes carefully traced the Vex that continued to surround them. Finally, he looked to Gallida and shot her a glance.
Gallida crept closer to the Conflux, her hands already moving as she carved strange runes into the air. The space around the conflux folded, revealing a wormhole.
The Vex snapped to attention; the wormhole's appearance was not within their expectation. Sensing that it was no longer possible to observe, their blasters charged.
Every Vex goblin, Minotaur and Harpy gathered energy, ready to shoot at a split second.
Taeko's eyes widened, and she bolted, stepping into the depths like it was air and nothing more. Gallida jumped back into the wormhole.
The blaster's fired, thousands of lasers shot towards them.
Void unsheathed his sword, a pale light spiralled at the fringes of his blade. But then he felt the familiar tug of time that yanked his senses. He looked back.
Elsie instantly slammed down on her wristwatch. Time rippled outwards, and the lasers paused.
Elsie took the opportunity and flickered away.
As the last one remaining Void took one last glance at the Vex still relentlessly firing through stagnant time, he too jumped.
-
[Ishtar Academy, Crater Bowl]
Light pulsed around the conflux as it spit out four figures onto the cracked crater floor.
A dense Ether haze clung to their ankles. Dust ran in long streamers along the ground as if the air had tides. The conflux in the wall pulsed once as if startled to see them again and then steadied.
Void found his balance, took a sharp breath and shot towards the spherical conflux. He drove his blade down into the rim and pushed. A thin pale crawled along the ring like frost finding glass. The white sphere tightened on itself, glow thinning as it cracked open like a fragile pearl.
On the other side, something heavy struck the conflux, and a spatial shockwave tore through the crater and slowly faded away.
Gallida let out a laugh that broke in the middle. "What in the Traveler's name was that?"
Void worked his fingers off the hilt and set the blade back to rest. His forearm still stung from the chip overheating. "Don't know. I went to the end of the space, and before I knew it, the Vex were already back. So I ran."
Taeko's eyes angled towards the cracked conflux. "Right call. If we really fought them inside, we'd probably be the ones kept as exhibits. But I've never seen them gather so fast."
Elsie waved towards the conflux, and a strange wave washed over it and returned to her. She frowned and looked at the two warlocks. "The Vex are growing restless. Since we just stole from them, I'd recommend you two lay off Venus for a while."
Gallida sighed, "Looks like we're taking a break."
Taeko nodded once. "Looks like it."
Elsie returned a faint smile. She truly had checked the Vex activity and given the two an earnest warning. While it was a short meeting, Elsie found their company entertaining, which is why she truly hoped they'd do as they claimed.
Finally, she turned to Void. A silent exchange passed and was held. The two merely nodded.
She faded between blinks, her figure thinning to a shimmer and then going with the wind. The dust took a second longer to move again, as if the world had held its breath while she left.
Gallida watched the empty air. "Ghostsword," she said, curiosity slipping past her guard, "who is she really. I have never seen anyone pull a Vex mind apart like that."
Taeko-3 hummed in agreement.
"As I said," Void answered, "a friend."
He stood there a heartbeat longer and let the crater settle inside his bones. An idea slid into his mind.
"That said, since Venus is off the table for a while", he said. "If you guys are still looking to work on the Vex. I've got a place."
Void used Obsidian to transfer the two coordinates to his workshop.
"The Reef?" Taeko replied.
"It's a workshop." Void nodded. "I've got all the tools we'll need. Plus, I've got quite the Vex problem on my hand right now."
Gallida cocked a brow. "What is in it for us?"
"And also if your friend is with you," Taeko added, "I don't think you'd need us. She's quite talented."
"She's not always there," Void said. "And I am not running this through a committee. Unlike the Vanguard, I don't have a lot of rules. As long as it's related to the Vex, you'll be able to do it."
They weighed it in silence. Gallida's grin thinned to thought.
"We will let you know," Taeko said at last.
"Do that." Void glanced once at the broken Conflux, and he pinged his ship.
Engines whined high and thin above the crater rim, then his figure scattered away into glimmer.
—
[Workshop, Thieves' Landing]
The outer door hissed and slid aside, and the scent of oil and old steel ran out to meet him. Void stepped in slowly, eyes up, ready to dodge instantly. The rails overhead were quiet. No drones screamed across the ceiling with scrap payloads. No test mortars rattled in their cradle.
He eased down the hall and peeked around the corner on instinct. Eyes darting with caution, Void crept closer to the hall of the workshop till he saw.
Pahanin and Kaviss sat on the black leather sofa, a low table between them and a deck fanned wide. The Eliksni's prosthetic clicked as he adjusted his grip on a card he had half stolen from Pahanin's hand. His lower pair of eyes narrowed with a look humans would have called focus. Pahanin watched him with that flat patience he wore like armour, a patience that made people confess without being asked.
"You sure?" Pahanin asked.
Kaviss frowned, the tendons in his forearm shifting under metal. He set the stolen card back where it had been and picked the one next to it. He drew it slowly, like the card could change its mind.
Pahanin's lips curled, barely there. He laid his hand down.
A full set. Clean. Unanswerable.
Kaviss's eyes widened. His mandibles tightened, then loosened in a sound like a hissed laugh cut in half.
Void cleared his throat.
Both of them snapped their heads toward the doorway, then down at the cards, then back at him. They were on their feet in the same breath. They drifted to the workbench with forced professionalism, like children pretending to be statues when the teacher walked in.
"Do not let me interrupt your research," Void said, dry.
Pahanin recovered first. "What are you doing back this early?"
"Venus was a mess," Void said. "House of Winter detonated an ether bomb and unearthed an old Vex conflux. We took care of it, well, sort of."
Kaviss eyed Void's armour, his jaws clicking as he detected the familiar scent of ether. "You're drenched in Ether, did you get hit?"
"Nope. It was quite far when it happened. But the residual ether was still crazy." Void glanced at the bench.
The work surface was crowded with half-built coil housings, a ring of fine copper laid in a spiral on a ceramic bed, a cluster of field clamps, and a hammered plate that looked like a museum of mistakes. On the wall above it, a sheet of grease pencil scrawl mapped a subspace ring with notes that only their hands could read. "What did I miss?"
"Nothing," Pahanin said too quickly. "Everything is fine."
Void looked from one to the other. He did not have to say anything.
"Mostly fine," Kaviss said, to be fair.
"Obsidian," Void said.
Obsidian propped over his shoulder, cheerfully observing the Workshop's records. "Hmm." It said, "No catastrophic explosions in the last six hours."
"See," Pahanin said, and managed to make it sound reasonable.
Void dragged a chair with his boot and sat down.
Pahanin leaned his hip against the workbench and watched him. "Strange. Something about that look....You found something, didn't you?"
Void smiled. "I found a lot. Golden Age technology. Blueprints, schematics, damn near everything we need to reproduce a subspace ring and a coil cannon."
"Sub-space ring..." Pahanin's eyes widened. "Did you actually find it?" He hurriedly leaned closer.
"Sure did. But first." Void sighed and turned his wrist to reveal the locator chip. "I've got some questions."
Pahanin's eyes dropped to the locator chip, and he frowned. His fingers slowly grazed the surface of the chip. "It's...burnt. What did you do?"
"Me? No." Void said. "It was the Vex network. Just before I saw the Vex appear, this thing went ballistic. I started receiving hundreds of pings. Thought it was you, but when I checked, there were no messages. Maybe it just malfunctioned?"
"Malfunctioned?" Pahanin watched him a second longer; his frown tightened. Pahanin paused and took a closer look, pinching out the chip from Void's gauntlets. "There's no possible way for it to malfunction. I spent decades on this."
Pahanin put the chip back onto the workbench and used a lens to magnify the chips internal circuit.
"Tell me how it happened," he said.
Void told him. Not everything. But just enough for him to diagnose the problem.
Pahanin listened without interrupting.
"The chip," Pahanin said softly. "You think it was bouncing off the Vex. Or rather, it got caught in their frequency?"
"Obsidian said I was receiving and sending messages," Void said. "Since no one actually contacted me, I am thinking the Vex probably took over the electronics."
Kaviss cut in, "That would not be possible. The Vex technology does not use waves. It cannot interfere with yours directly unless it is designed to do so."
Void raised a brow, "How would you know that?"
"Simple, our splicer EMPs do not work on the Vex. If we cannot interact, neither can they." Kaviss crossed his arms.
"So it wasn't the Vex?" Void scratched his chin.
"He's right." Pahanin nodded, using a small electric tweezer to poke and prod at the internal circuit. "But this message you received. You said it was a stream, an endlessly recurring one? How did it display?"
"Huh? Well, the chip began beeping and lighting up. A second later, all it did was blink on and off repeatedly." As Void blurted out the words, the gears in his head turned. "Like some sort of-"
"Like some sort of code, yes." Pahanin chimed in, his hands tuning the chip's circuit. "The chip was designed to store the last message it received in case of failure. I've gotten its circuit back up. We'll be able to decode the message."
Void nodded solemnly. The moment he thought the word code, possibilities ran wild in his mind.
Pahanin grabbed an interface wire and plugged in the chip to a nearby data pad. A moment later, an endless stream of messages coursed through the datapad's screen.
"Looks like the chip failed because it couldn't handle the speed of transfer." Pahanin grit his teeth, "It's nearly double its capacity." He kept analysing the message.
"And?" Void replied.
"I am decoding it right now. We'll have it soon." Pahanin read the stream and typed out an algorithm to classify its results.
Minutes later, he scribbled down one letter on a datapad.
As time passed, one letter became two, and soon two became four. But that is where Pahanin stopped and heaved a sigh, "This..this is the limit. Whoever sent this message probably didn't calibrate it right. If we want to decode the whole thing, it'll take us years."
"That's fine." Void nodded helplessly, "Just give me what we got for now."
Pahanin scratched his head, "Sure, but it's nothing conclusive. Just five random letters." He passed the data pad to Void.
But as Void's eyes read the letters, a strange heat passed through him, and a shiver ran down his spine. He slowly mouthed the letters, one by one.
'P R D T H"