12 Miles Below-Book 8 - Chapter 39 - The Spear of A01

12 Miles Below-Book 8 - Chapter 39 - The Spear of A01

“Do you really have time to ask these questions or are you taking the deal?” Superior asked the stunned Feather. “Because while Prime seems like he’s fine putting the past behind us, I’m really not as forgiving.”
Perhaps more of Tenisent had leaked into Kieth Superior than he’d expected. He wasn’t happy with the situation, but he understood the stakes. Sometimes, allies can’t be chosen. Situations force people together, and there was a lot of
situation
happening right now. End of the world and all that happening.
“I…" To’Sefit quickly shut her mouth and nodded."I accept.” She’d been stunned to see a parallel Keith on the other end here acting as her link to the mites, but that just went to show how little Feathers knew or cared about humans. The information was surely out there, and she hadn’t bothered looking for it as Superior suspected. Not until it was needed.
Humility seemed to be a hard thing for Feathers to learn, but Superior could sense some of it coming out of the Feather as the realization of how little she knew about things was certainly hitting her right now.
Or the idea that a
human
was the one helping her survive through this. And capable of speaking to basically gods while she wasn’t able to. Must be humbling for a Feather with a name all about stepping into theosis.
Still. Keith Prime needed those plates unlocked or the airspeeder he technically rode in on was going to have more than a few maintenance issues, so Superior grimly nodded, then sent a message back to the mite collective.
At exactly that instant, To’Sefit’s unity fractal lit to light bright and visible in the occult sight - and she was whisked away.
Just. Gone. All at once.
Shit. Had she just been yanked, captured, and killed right before the deal went through?
He blinked, and thought back at exactly what he’d seen happen.
Another unity fractal had turned on somewhere, connected To’Sefit’s own, and then yanked her out. He just had no idea where, or what the hell that meant. But that's absolutely something Relinquished could pull off to rip To'Sefit this far out into the mite collective. It had happened so fast, without any sign of warning. It almost didn't seem like the Violet goddess's style.
And Relinquished continued fighting against A01 in a deadlock, completely focused on him. Superior could tell, the protofeather was forcing all of her attention on him. The sediment wall of grasping hands reaching out of the ground blew past Superior's own side on the mite sea, like a snowstorm pounding the cockpit window walls of an airspeeder, covering the entire space with darkness.
He couldn’t tell if Relinquished had even noticed. Was her entire focus on A01, or had she been watching To’Sefit this entire time with a sliver of attention to scoop her out of the way at the last second?
That didn’t make sense. She wouldn’t know the exact moment he passed information to the mites. If Relinquished had used the unity fractal to yank To’Sefit out of there, it should have happened the moment she’d said yes to the agreement.
Not the exact moment he turned and spoke to the mites to pass the word along.
So if it wasn’t To’Sefit that had triggered the unity fractal… had… had the mites snuck To’Sefit out using the fight as a distraction? As in used her own unity fractal against Relinquished and got away with it?
He didn’t have time to consider what they’d done. Or how they’d stolen a Feather from under the nose of Relinquished, almost literally given the goddess was right in this same terminal fighting tooth and nail against her firstborn son.
And that fight was something all right. The sheer occult power being thrown around was penetrating even down on this side of the mite sea. He could feel it like a rattle on the walls, with each spear being thrown into Relinquished.
Superior floated back down into the mite side of the sea, fading away from the blurry conflict above. He wanted to stick around, to see the fight. But a part of him
knew
A01 wasn’t going to win this.
That protofeather was powerful, stronger than Judge and just about every program Superior had met on this side of the world.
Relinquished still eclipsed him several fold. And once he was beaten, Relinquished would come after Prime. After Wrath.
He’d done what he could for To’Sefit, it was time to move on.
What he needed to do was get the miteseeker’s destination coordinates so that Prime wouldn’t need to play a game of find-the-nail in a snowbank. They didn’t have time for that, not with everything happening.
And with Relinquished gone fully mental, she’d be sending the entire fleet after the Winterscars.
Drawing back through mite space, Superior raced through the pathways he’d memorized, scurrying back to the terminal he’d tracked down. The source of it all.
Darkness engulfed him, and he sank down onto old weathered stone. A platform, surrounded by midnight black waters, that somehow showed him ruins under the depths.
What he stood on was the very top of a massive tower. The rest was all under that obscuring glass-like surface.
He tapped the ground. “Hello darling, have you decided to work with me or are we still in the getting-to-know each other phase?”
CEASE. I WILL NOT GIVE WHAT YOU SEEK.
The ruins and rubble rumbled.
“Oh you sweet-talker you, you know I love a good challenge.”
YOU WILL NOT FIND WHAT YOU WISH. I WILL NOT GIVE IT.
He took a breath and dove into the water. It pushed him back up, trying to prevent even superficial entry into the lower tower. There was a trick to getting past here of course.
He turned himself more ghost-like. Transient. This barrier was built to repel programs of massive size. Only small data packages could come through - such as a request to the miteseeker on if the coordinates were close or not to any specific location.
But Superior was an occult ghost, a non-data entity. He sank through the water without any issue, following the marbled pillars and ruins of the tower downwards.
Soon, he landed on his old bulwark position. Broken stones and pulverized doorways waited for him here.
YOU ARE NOT WELCOME HERE. BEGONE.
“How about you escort me out yourself.” Superior said, walking into the structure, following the trail of data. Eventually he’d reach the vault where this terminal had to communicate back.
He flowed past traps, walls, hidden passageways, and different attempts to confuse or even attack him. Most of these defenses were built to repel Tsuya or Relinquished. Extremely powerful guardians, and tailor built for one purpose.
Of which Superior didn’t fit that target. The massive guardian at the bottom simply watched as he strutted right past, incapable of fighting or even recognizing him as a threat.
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Hyper-specialization had backfired. Dozens of barriers like this guardian failed to recognize him as an invader.
Progress had been steady. Every memory Prime had with Aztu teaching him the ways of the digital sea, he drew on and combined with what he’d learned from Judge. The result had carried him this far.
YOU WILL NOT BREAK THE FINAL DOORWAY. IT WAS ORDAINED BY MY MASTERS DIRECTLY.
“They aren’t here anymore to help fix things up, so I’ll find a way through eventually. Come on, after all this time we spent together, don’t you want me just gone? I’m trashing the place, breaking all the vases and everything expensive here. Just give me the coordinates, and I’ll never be in your hallways again. Solemnly swear.”
I REFUSE.
Superior sighed, the fortress here was stubborn. By nature of course, but at least he had someone to talk to while drilling through walls or breaking things down.
In minutes, he floated through the stone hallways until he reached the antechamber. The one place he’d been stuck in before.
This place only opened when there was a data package from the miteseeker itself asking for coordinate information. And so long as he was here breaching, it remained sealed even with a valid data package coming in. Keith Prime himself wasn’t able to use the miteseeker while Superior was stomping around here.
Although Prime hadn’t yet made the attempt, probably too busy dealing with an invasion force trying to laser his airspeeder.
So this was a job for Superior.
He cracked his neck and got back to work.
Cathida was probably the most pleased with all this. It had everything the old bat loved:
Stealing from the enemy, and murdering them with it. Extra points when it was an entire machine army.
I didn't have time to explain everything that had happened, but once I mentioned what we'd unlocked here, she understood immediately.
I’d gotten twenty two equations, To’Sefit’s full set. Unfortunately, due to some asshole opportunist that had shot a bunch of firepower through the portal, some of those destroyer cannons were offline. So not all of these twenty two plates would work out, there’d be some duds and we’d find out which was which soon enough.
Second, my variations on her weapons also didn’t float ominously behind me. Because they really were just the plates themselves without anything else. What I did instead was cut some metal bars from the airspeeder, bend them into a handle, and then use the fractal of heat to solder them into the back of the plate.
After that, the ambient temperature here cooled things off rather fast, where they went straight into Journey’s care, where the armor ate through the plates into the right shape, following each equation.
Now, part two of my plan: “Knights, rotate in groups of two and pickup the plates I’ve got. Be aware, a single electric current through will trigger the fractals and they will open the portal - which will trigger the cannon on the other side. Do not get your face or hands anywhere near that, stay behind the plate.”
Green pings came out over the HUD and the sound of machine gun fire. I dropped each one of the plates, and let the team grab and distribute them as I forged each.
With the handle on one side, and the fractal etched on the other, it should be safe enough to use.
I was in the process of making the fifth equation when I heard the first one getting used by a knight.
“Successful hit. Supercritical damage, enemy capital ship down.” The spotter ed.
I took a quick peek outside into the chaos, and saw one of those machine whales cut in half, falling out of the air.
“All knights, horizontal slash incoming, hold fire.” Came out another call.
This time the firepower came at an angle, and then swept through the battlefield like a scythe. Anything standing within six feet of the ground was obliterated in the one second of firepower that came out.
The knight had swung the entire place in an arc in front, and triggered the fractal halfway through his swing.
The battlefield was wiped clean of machines, with stragglers having been the ones lucky enough to be behind terrain, or rushing through a lowground position. Those got picked off immediately by the knights.
“Three gods above, she really was sitting on military-level firepower.” I muttered, completing the seventh plate while I watched the video feeds on my HUD.
Cathida was simply laughing the entire time, like she was watching her favorite movie.
More callouts came from the knights as they aimed and shot down the whale machines arriving into place.
This wasn’t the kind of one-on-one dueling power, this was straight up built for mass destruction like this. And it was extremely effective.
There was a cooldown period of course. But the knights were already staggering their firepower.
I was on plate number twenty when I felt a tendril of soul reach out from the miteseeker.
Keith Superior had come back.
Did you find the coordinates?
I asked, first thing.
No, there’s a doorway that’s blocking my path. I thought I could dig through or blast my way in with what I learned from Judge and your memories of Aztu’s teachings, but that thing is locked up tight. I’ve tried everything, and I think we need to pack up the toolbox now.
What do you mean? Do you have a plan B for this?
Superior gave a nod.
We need to use up one of our favors with the mites to get the coordinates, or put ourselves into debt with them to get it working.
Must have been a seriously strong bunker to hold off against you, do you want a refresher on my memories? Maybe you missed a few of the lesson parts.
No Prime. This thing is built to resist gods smiting it down. As in Tsuya and Relinquished themselves, it’s some powerful stuff. Whatever the miteseeker points to, it’s more serious than we think if it’s being protected to this length. I think it’s worth using a favor up to unlock it, and I’m not sure the kind of favor we have banked right now would be enough even. I’ll need to use it only on this doorway and probably specify to open it up for a few seconds just to narrow down the cost.
Wait.
I sent him, thinking. Something built to withstand gods. My head flashed through options, mixed with the recent fight between gods I’d just witnessed.
Might have another option you can try.
Superior felt his soul sprint through the hallways of the half-beaten fortress, almost rematerializing directly into the antechamber before the vault.
YOU RETURN IN VAIN.
The fortress groaned at his third breach attempt.
MY DOORWAY REMAINS SEALED TO YOU AND ALL OTHERS.
“Open up, last chance. Or I will rip this doorway off the hinges and you’re never fixing it again.”
I WILL NOT. YOU BLUFF. YOU LIE.
“Well, don’t say I didn’t give a surrender option then.” Superior closed his eyes and focused his mind. Prime had given him the key. He dug deeper into that memory.
Of the two, Prime really had been the better Winterscar in the end. Superior knew spending time in the occult sea like this, learning patience and willpower and studying the ways of the world around him had pacified him in some way.
This world here was not dangerous to him. His soul existed within the mite blood fractal deep within their side of the digital sea. Protected. He could die a thousand times over, and each time he’d be yanked back to this one safe location.
But Prime? That Keith had been constantly in the thick of it, exposed to death and danger at all times. Pressure and teachings from Father, Hexis, and Aztu.
Father had taught him to be ruthless, Hexis had taught him how to immediately memorize anything he saw, and Aztu had taught him how to steal liberally in the digital ocean. Prime put it all together and made out like a bandit with things he really shouldn’t be running around with. Stuff he couldn’t even make use of himself sometimes.
But in this case, it came in handy.
This doorway was built to withstand a god. So Superior needed a weapon built to
break
gods.
He closed his eyes, and held one hand out above him, as if reaching for the heavens above. He breathed, and focused, working to replicate what Prime had sent him. The thoughts were irontight, perfectly memorized from the moment Prime had beheld it. Theoretical in nature, not yet attempted.
He didn’t need to do it in an instant, he didn’t need to create hundreds of this either. What Superior needed was to get it right on the first attempt.
A crackle of occult lit above his outstretched hand, and he wove it forward, blowing life into it like he would on an ember of fire. Forcing it out into existence, shaping it as molten glass would be. The concepts of destruction and annihilation, balanced together.
It was a work of art. Even Keith Prime had immediately understood how powerful this was the instant he’d seen it. Hence why he’d immediately memorized as much of it as he could, using the training Hexis had drilled into him. How to memorize equations, visualize the occult, and hold tight to concepts.
It took shape above Superior’s hand, latices within it like tempered glass, pressure pushed against pressure, woven tight.
The larger it grew the harder it became to tame and control. The concepts struggling to break free would shatter out in every direction if not forced together like a smith would on his work.
Occult crackled out, licking his hand, illuminating the antechamber. Each time it grew, he compressed it further, tightened it up with his own control, and then continued to layer another set of concepts, forcing it tight like a compressed spring.
“Last chance.” Superior hissed, holding onto the occult forming above, sharpening it so that it all converged into a singular point.
MAKE YOUR ATTEMPT. IT WILL NOT WORK.
The fortress spoke. But Superior could sense deep down. There was
fear
in that voice.
Keith Prime had the talent and training needed to see something, memorize it, and immediately reverse engineer it - but he lacked the sheer training needed to call this into existence.
Superior
could
. He had the willpower for it.
Above his hand, the spear of A01 finalized its shape. The exact copy of the spear used by the strongest protofeather to fight a goddess.
Knock knock.

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Book 8 - Chapter 39 - The Spear of A01