Chapter 3: Ice, Monsters, and Xana's Discovery

"Virtualization!"

Ulrich, Yumi, and Odd dropped onto the icy landscape in Lyoko's Ice Region, and a moment later, Aelita joined them. It had not been too hard to get to the factory, unless you count the fact that every sharp object in town was on their tail, and they were only saved when they thudded into the elevator door and got stuck there.

But although they hadn't much experience with fighting floating pickaxes and knives, the two Krabes that blocked their way were much easier to understand.
"Yumi! Watch out!" Ulrich shouted, as a stream of rapid fire lasers erupted from the laser on one of the Krabe's belly. Yumi back flipped away from the lasers thwacking into the ground in front of her.

The lasers stopped abruptly. When Yumi got up to see why, the Krabe was no longer there, since Ulrich had leaped onto its back and stabbed its symbol, making it explode. Odd was running circles around the other one, which kept turning around and around, trying to get him in its line of fire, and failing miserably. Odd leaped up onto its back and shot an arrow into the target, and jumped back off again before it could explode.

"Let's go!" Ulrich shouted, and they were off, running down the narrow icy path.
"Any monsters ahead, Jeremie?" Yumi asked.
"Well," Jeremie replied, "first there were the two Krabes, then it looks like there are two Megatanks ahead, and then, a ways behind them, there are two tarantulas. The tower is guarded by a platoon of Kankrelats."
Yumi winced. The last time they had faced a "platoon," as Jeremie put it, there had been at least 18 of them, and she and Aelita had only gotten through by scattering them with a rolling boulder.
"Xana seems pretty determined this time. It isn't even a pretty good attack." Jeremie continued.
"Speak for yourself, Einstein!" Odd jeered. You weren't the one getting chased by pickaxes and butcher's knives on the way here!"

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"Okay. This time I am going to do it." Xana thought to himself. He eased the specter into the Grail once more. He could sense the Grail's artificial consciousness, waiting for him, knowing that he would try again. It wasn't quite aware of him yet, and Xana was pleased at that. He sprung.

It was a virtual battle, but quite unlike the one his minions were fighting on Lyoko with the kids. This was a battle of pure, virtual will, and Xana's was stronger. He could feel it gradually giving ground, bending to his will. The Grail's computer gave one last push, much stronger than the others, and the specter flew out again.

"Oh no you don't." Xana thought angrily. He flew back in again, ready to thrash at the technology within once more.

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Two walls of fire shot out, just narrowly missing the four kids running towards the Megatanks that had fired them. Odd responded by firing several arrows, which clanked off the Megatanks' armor when their shells closed. As soon as the danger was over, they opened again, charged, and fired. The four of them dodged again, and kept running, only this time, when Odd fired the arrows from a much shorted range, they couldn't close in time. The two tanks exploded.

They were immediately confronted by the two Tarantulas, which had been clambering their way along the path to aid the Megatanks. As soon as they saw their comrades destroyed, the two monsters opened fire. Ulrich deflected the shots away from himself and his friends, and from behind him, Yumi launched her fans into the air, which arced downward and slammed into the monsters' heads.
"The path's clear, Jeremie!" Aelita shouted. "We can see the tower!"

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The battle had changed. The Grail's computer seemed to have created a miniature virtual world inside the Grail. All around was total blackness, only interrupted by the glowing grid that crisscrossed the "floor." On one side was himself, a swirling mass of malevolent darkness. On the other side was a tall, faceless being seemingly made entirely of gold, with a locked door behind it. One arm had no hand; instead it ended in something similar to the end of the Grail that had the red jewels. It seemed to be looking at a slot in its arm disappointedly, as though missing something that went in the slot. Xana didn't know why, but he suddenly felt very glad that the Grail's computer didn't have whatever went in that slot.

He had good reason to. If the Sword that was the key had been in the slot in the Grail in reality, then it would have appeared in virtual reality too, and then the guardian computer would have been able to take real defensive action and fire the weapon on its arm, cleanly deleting every speck of Xana's being. Xana didn't have any idea of the danger he had avoided, and concentrated on the golden figure rushing toward him.

The Grail's AI tried to grab at Xana's billowing form, without success. Xana gathered himself into a dark ball which lashed out and knocked the gold figure over. It got up and pulled a small gun out of its side, and fired at the black cloud.
"You won't beat me that easily." the Grail's AI hissed.
"Easy or hard, it matters not. I will defeat you." Xana said. The two virtual beings charged one another again.

But Xana was quicker to attack. The cloud whirled around the figure's throat, then solidified, starting to strangle him. The gold AI struggled at the bonds ineffectually. A face appeared in the whirling smoke.
"I have caused chaos for two years, weaving destruction." Xana's face said.
"I brought death to my masters' enemies for two hundred millennia before being locked away." The gold AI said in a whisper, enjoying the momentary look of surprise on Xana's face. "Know that defeating me will accomplish nothing for you. You will be let through the locked door. You will see the Grail's power. But none of your vast power will let you use it. The key, the sword that goes in the slot, is lost to you."

That did nothing but make Xana even angrier than he was already. He twisted the the AI's neck, and snapped it. It gave one last struggle. "I capitulate to you." It said.

The Grail's intelligence vanished. The door opened, and Xana swept through.

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"Anyone got any bright ideas?" Ulrich said, peering around from behind an ice block to look at the enemies. 18 Kankrelats stood in a phalanx of three by six, standing in front of the tower.
"Yumi, can you drop this ice block on them?" Odd asked.
"You did it before." Aelita politely pointed out.
Yumi nodded and concentrated. The large ice block rose off the ground, and hovered in midair. It flew over the monsters, which fired up at it, breaking off small chunks.

She let it go, and it fell, crushing half the Kankrelats and leaving the other half scattered and confused. Ulrich and Odd rushed forward to finish them off. The small monsters fell quickly to the blade and the arrows, except for a single kankrelat which took cover behind a small ice formation. With the path clear, Aelita rushed forward to deactivate the tower.

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Xana looked around with amazement. The space he was in now seemed infinite. He quickly saw that it wasn't, though. The space he was in swirled with data, and Xana could see that it was full of digital recordings. there were two solid, implacable walls on either side. Xana could see instantly that there was absolutely no way to get through them, despite all his hacking power and having defeated the Grail's computer. He could sense the power that lurked behind them, and it was immense, although he couldn't see just what kind of power it was.

His examinations were cut short by a report that popped into his head, sent by the surviving Kankrelat. The battle was lost.
"Oh well. What did I expect?" Xana sighed to himself. "One thing has led to another, though. I had no idea that this day was going to be so interesting."

He quickly downloaded all the information in the Grail's databanks. He would have time to look over them later, and see what kind of power the Grail really held. Already, he could feel himself being pulled out of the Grail, relinquishing control to the Grail's AI. Xana had been foiled again. But as he returned to the supercomputer, he felt sure that this was going to be the last time.