chapter eight: Down time
It was what one would expect from an idyllic beach resort.
All around people were having fun, people sunbathing, kids running around or building beach castles, people out swimming or surfing.
And then there was me, riding a motorcycle.
Why, you ask?.
Well, the answer is chasing me right now.
"MARRY ME!!.".
"NOOO!!.".
Yep, getting chased by a salamander...
Thought I'd have some fun, y'know, load up a monster girl. One that i wouldn't need to constantly get rid of and instead could just punch repeatedly, Purley for fun definitely not to vent or anything...
Sand was shot up into the air by our chase, she was practically an inferno at this point leaving a trail of glass behind her. I went faster, air rushing past and messing up my hair, this is actually pretty great. Faster, faster, faster, faster.
Then i was flying through the air.
Stupid sand.
Wait. Where's my?, oh... that's flipping really fast...wonder how far it can-wow, that is A lot of sand.
...why can't i move...
Oh yeah, monster girl...
Crap...
"Now then... About our marriage." she started as her hand hovered over my shorts.
This is gonna be hilarious.
"Hey, senpai!".
"Holy crap!?".
She came out of nowhere and with one punch sent the salamander flying.
"Eh?, getting chased around by a girl like that, i didn't know you were into that kind of stuff".
Wow, even a twinkle.
"Not really. I just wanted something to punch and one thing lead to another, what's this about?".
"Zero's finished analysing that sword you found. No chaos corruption what so ever, but there was something strange about it".
"And that is?".
"It seems to have something similar to a soul. Zero's theorised that it's the type of weapon that was used enough to were it started fueling itself with souls".
That sounds ominously badass.
"Right. say, you wouldn't happen to know where he is right no-!?".
What the hell are you wearing!?.
Too much skin, that's way too much skin!.
"Oh?, your eyes seem to be wandering a bit" she sighed "honestly, your so helpless sometimes".
Where the hell did you even get that swimsuit!?, dear god why is there so much cleavage!?.
...why did she look so smug?.
"Good!, looks like your still your degenerate weirdo self senpai".
"...and why is that good?".
"Well, people in your situation don't adjust properly. It should be obvious to you, the human mind doesn't adjust instantly to a new non human body. The hell engine developed an A.I, me, specifically to maintain your mental health to avoid rendering your symbiotic relationship mutually non beneficial".
"Even though I'm an hyper evolved A.I that doesn't mean I've moved on from such a limiting purpose, it's become...i think 'instinctual' is the best way to describe it now. Anyways, the fact that you use so many physical form's is definitely a good sign. Still...go and throw away your humanity and this impish kohai will beat it back into you!, got it senpai?".
... alright...i think.
I got up from the sand and dusted myself off.
"As i was saying, you know where zero is?".
"He's in the same place where he always is, it's honestly depressing how much he's like you".
"What was that!?."
"Nothing~see you later hades!" she was already running to the water.
The space next to me opened into a black slit, as i approached it expanded into a rectangular 'hole'. Passed through i turned around, it was jarring. Both the simulation and the hallway contrasted exponentially in my vision, the beach with it's colour, life and peacefulness contrasted greatly with the hallway's black wall's, even though it was made of nanomachines it seemed to betray a sense of life as the wall's each had a perfectly mirrored 'rib' structure at it's centre. Jutting out from floor to ceiling, the hallway had a sense of... normalcy, of it just feeling right to be in.
The 'exit' closed behind me as i walked down the hallway, eventually arcane runes soon began to glow across the walls as i went further down eventually ending in a circular entrance.
It was something else, holograms of simulated planets floated around the place one after another like bubbles in a bath. The centre piece of the circular room was the simulated universe, curating it all was zero.
He stood at the centre shifting through who knew how many simulation's at a time. "I thought you'd take a little more time enjoying your...'time off' as you called it" didn't even bother to turn around.
"Well, it was that or dealing with BB for more than a few minutes and i cannot deal with that nightmare...So!, about that sword".
"Ah yes, that" he seemed to stop with whatever he was doing and moved or rather glided to where the sword was kept. It was hard looking at this without feeling like I'm about to be monologued at, the appearance he decided to go with didn't help either.
Tanned skin along with white hair that reached the floor, clad in black, red and white robes, two intricate piece's of metal that kina looked like sleeves and a braid of his hair over his shoulder.
Zero, or rather alternative zero was originally designed as a means to counter the eldar if i ever found myself against them, the idea was to create a world engine to simulate an endless number of potential future's to muddle with their ability to see the future. While i never figured out how to implement the interfering with clairvoyance part, i did however create the first A.I in the forty first millennium that didn't try to kill anything in fact as soon as i activated zero he gained self awareness in the span of a femptosecond.
After that i gained both a method of developing new technology through observing simulated universe's and adding the respective variable and someone to talk to who wouldn't mess with me...i think i have a problem... probably nothing.
Then there was the sword.
The weapons formation was oddly organic in appearance, the handle helixed from the spike like pommel to the twisting hand guard where the blade extended from. The blade itself was two pieces, both blades poking out from the sides and then curving inward to then go upwards into a straight line ending in a respective point both curving in opposite to the other.
"So you said it was soul fuelled".
"That was my initial hypothesis, while it is soul fuelled this is more along the lines of soul's acting less as fuel for the sword itself but more for in use".
Well, that was something.
"It seems to operate on system that allows it to reinforce it's structure through the gathering of soul's along with enhancing it's function as a weapon. Looking at it all together i am suspicious of this system...as though we're only seeing half of it".
Wait...
Using soul's to reinforce and as fuel for attacks?, i feel like I've heard about something like that...i definitely know I've seen something similar...so why can't i remember?.
No point in thinking about that, still...i wonder.
"Zero. Do you think this is... compatible with the hell engine?".
"Compatible?...hmm" his eyes closed for a moment "perhaps. risky but possible...why?" his eyes opening as he responded.
Risky...but possible, huh. Yeah, i like those odds.
"What if the other half of this system involves having... let's say a 'user', so considering how durable the hell engine is we don't need to worry about 'me' getting too damaged. If this succeeds though... then we could be a step closer to what's going on".
"I see. Well, if you somehow die at least whoever has to deal with you will have something to laugh their ass off about."
Heh, i guess so.
My avater dispersed into the trillions of nanites that formed it as zero took hold of the sword.
"Master~ i thought maybe because of hades telling us to do as we wished on his day off, i thought perhaps you could spend some quality time with your dear tammamo chan?".
He didn't even look as he pushed her out of the way.
"Quite woman, i need to stab hades with this magic sword for science".
Zero walked out of his workshop, going down corridor after twisting corridor he soon arrived at where my core was kept.
Said core was held within the massive new form of my commander chassis that I've ALMOST finished. Godamn arms.
Stairs formed as he moved up to the massive mecha's chest, the machines torso opened to reveal black musculature that receded uncovering the metal ribcage of the commander's torso that parted.
There it sat, a large metal sphere with a red circle in the middle, said circle had three plates in a 'Y' formation covering it slightly.
Zero reversed his grip to hold the blade underhand and readied to plung it into my brain/heart/consciousness container...i should come up with a better description for this thing.
"If i die I'm gonna haunt the hell outta your ass".
"If you die in the first place".
With that he brought the sword do-.