Chapter 27: The Infiltration
Perspective: Fire
The hill was deserted, ever since the Prophet relocated to the shelter nobody came here anymore. Fire stood on top of the hill, next to him stood Shadow. She had teleported him here, closer to the Tower. Fire was wearing the enchanted camouflage cloak he'd worn for a while after arriving in Nexus, his wither dagger attached to his belt next to several potion flasks.
"Are you sure about this?" Shadow asked.
"I am." Fire simply replied.
Fire didn't turn to leave yet, it was clear that his sister still had something on her mind.
"I just wanted to say… for the case that you really don't make it back. You are the best brother I could ever wish for, I don't think anyone else would have gone the lengths you did to set me free." Shadow laughed bitterly. "No, I don't think anyone else would have created a whole world for his sister, and we really did stick it to those laws of physics with my ascension."
Fire knelt down and took Shadow in his arms, holding her close. It was hard to tell due to her inability to produce tears, but Shadow was crying. After a few minutes she reluctantly let go.
She said: "Don't get yourself killed Peter." Then teleported away. Fire stood on the hill alone.
Fire took a deep breath, he still was not entirely sure if this was a good idea, but he had thought about it enough to know that it was the best thing he had. No perfect plans, only good enough plans, that mantra always came back to him.
He had roughly three hours left before the first sheet of paper would disappear back to the shelter, after that each would disappear ten minutes after the previous one until all twelve of them were gone. Two hours were what he'd given himself for getting to the machine, not an impossible task. He'd only need the notes on the way in after all. Ideally, he'd have entangled an ender pearl to himself, but the distance was too large, even if he placed it on the very outskirts of the Tower. A pearl teleportation of that distance would kill him, despite the fact that he was more attuned to teleporting than a human.
Fire took a potion from his belt and drank it, it was a speed potion. Within a few moments he could already feel his feet becoming lighter. He started sprinting down the hill and through the forest, it'd take him roughly an hour to the village, then another to the Tower itself if he took the road. Fire would instead run through the forest to minimize his chances of being spotted, he was officially affiliated with the escapees now and patrols would attack him on sight once they recognized him.
Fire rushed through the trees, always mindful of brambles and low-hanging branches. The forest got progressively lighter as he approached the village. It looked different to when he had last seen it, there was now a wall around it and guards had been posted at the gates, that was a forward base if Fire had ever seen one. It was odd that they decided to place it this close to the Tower, but it still had strategic merits like acting as a troop rallying point. Fire paid it no further mind and rushed past, always taking care to leave as few open sight lines as possible.
Yet another hour later the Tower was well in sight, a hulking building that defied both architectural conventions and structural engineering, and most likely the laws of conventional physics too. It branched out further and further as it stretched towards the sky. Fire had reason to believe that its underground layout was similar, which could prove problematic if he took a wrong turn.
He was now at the edge of the forest, the Tower's outer fortifications now only a few hundred meters ahead of him. It was time for the other potions. One invisibility potion, several others that would enhance him in different ways. One after another, Fire drank from the flasks. After he was done, a shiver went through him as the potions were absorbed, for a few seconds everything was unnaturally bright and loud before he got used to the sharper senses. Fire's body became fully transparent and after a few seconds his clothes followed, a very useful quirk of this particular potion recipe.
"Alright." Fire said to himself. "Time to infiltrate."
The gate in the outer wall was guarded but open. Fire slowly approached it, his shoeless feet not making a single sound. He often heard it said that he was sneakier than someone of his size should be, it was true. Mencur-Besh were suited for many situations that didn't involve swimming or getting silver stabbed into you. The human mercenaries guarding the gate didn't even look up from their posts as Fire snuck by.
Inside the walls were various buildings, big in their own right but still dwarfed by the Tower itself. From the way they emitted energy, Fire could reasonably say that these were largely used to generate power or store materials used to run the generators. Each of the buildings had a slightly different signature, hinting at different kinds of generators being at work. It was only natural for the Entity to collect those too.
The entirety of the inner area was paved over with what looked to be concrete or some variant on it, this was good. No grass that would betray his footsteps. Fire continued on, on the side of the main path. His invisibility potion wouldn't last him forever, only enough to get into the Tower proper and a bit further in. He wished he could have made more but his ingredients had been barely enough for the one flask.
Fire was not alone here, there were soldiers and engineers walking the premises, though with enough distance between them that Fire could slip past or avoid them entirely, getting ever closer to the Tower's main gate, which was currently closed. Fire caught fragments of conversations, most of it was irrelevant but he was able to glean some useful things, namely that there would be some kind of meeting in half an hour and more importantly that the machine was real, it seemed that most people here were aware of its existence. If they knew what it did was another question.
Just as Fire got close to the gate, it swung open. Out came a group of humans pulling a wagon filled with what looked to be some sort of salt. That was Fire's chance to slip into the Tower. He moved quickly, the faint steps drowned out by the grinding of the wagon's wheels. Fire slowed down quickly as soon as he was through the gate, there were guards on the other side, endermen specifically, so he had double the reason to be quiet.
He took a right, recognizing the chair room. Fire took a few seconds to examine it, it looked like some of the chair stacks had grown slightly. From here he knew the route to the resource storage, the Ender had taken him there after their implicit information exchange. After that he had to find his own way, presumably further down, probably past security checkpoints, into the sanctum of science that Fristad had described.
Fire did regret Fristad's death severely, he knew that part of the blame fell on him, not only because he was a leader. If he hadn't tried to take Glibby alive things would have gone differently, if he had known about the machine earlier, he'd have killed Glibby without a second thought. His line of thinking in the battle had been wrong, but only in hindsight. He hadn't thought that they were so close to losing. If Fristad was still alive he could possibly have delivered a more detailed description of the way, Fire probably should have asked the Book too, but he still was not sure whether it could be trusted.
He pushed the thoughts away, he was further down the hallway now and people were coming. More workers, quite a lot of them. Fire pressed into the wall next to a pillar, in hopes that none of them would graze against him. After a few tense seconds the workers had passed him without noticing. Fire quietly hurried down the hallway until he arrived at an intersection. He knew the way here but even if he hadn't, there were signs indicating where each path went. It was easy to forget that this was a workplace first and an infiltration site seventh or so.
After a few more intersections Fire reached the material storage, which was as far as he knew the way, now he'd have to follow signs. When Fire looked down, he noticed he was slowly fading back into visibility again, he'd have to move more slowly now and use cover or hiding spots to prevent others from seeing him. Now one question remained: Did the camouflage enchantment still work? There certainly were enough lanterns around to prove or disprove its functionality.
Another big room was ahead of Fire, this one filled with taxidermized bears of all variants. Fire moved his arm in front of a huge brown bear that was positioned in a way as if it were attacking. His sleeve adopted the bear's color and texture, more slowly than normally but it still did. That was a relief. He still wouldn't stand up to direct scrutiny, but it was enough to hide in peripheral vision and from passing glances.
Fire waited and listened for a few seconds, there seemed to be nobody around. Probably due to this meeting that was currently going on. Fire used the opportunity to move more quickly and make more progress towards the science sections of the Tower. When the first ender pearl was about to drop back in the shelter, Fire ducked into a side room filled with janitorial supplies to write a quick message.
Still alive. Path unchanged. Reached material storage. Now following signs. Invisibility ran out. Camo enchantment intact but slow.
A few minutes afterwards the sheet disappeared. Ten minutes to the next one.
The next intersection had a staircase leading downwards labelled with "Science" and another labelled with "Magic", obviously the two main research departments. Fire suspected that the signs wouldn't be there to help for much longer, as he got into more secure and restricted zones there would be fewer signs since people were expected to know their way around.
Fire went down the staircase quickly until he heard voices from below. Returning back up was not a possibility, it would make too much noise. There were no good hiding opportunities, the walls were made from smooth marble with no indentations to hide in. Fire's eyes darted around, looking for any irregularities he could exploit. Then he saw it. There was a stabilizing beam overhead, roughly six meters up. That was a jump he could make, especially with the potions enhancing his strength.
Fire tensed up and knelt down, then pushed himself off the ground like a spring, taking hold of the beam and wrapping his arms and legs around it to secure himself. His cloak took on the same color as the surrounding marble just in time for the two talking humans to come around a bend. Two women in lab coats.
One said: "Veronica really ought to get some sleep, she looks terrible."
The other one replied: "Yeah, but I'm sure she's got her reasons with the completion date coming closer and all that."
These two seemed to know something.
The first scientist said: "Not exactly that."
The second asked, interest piqued: "You wouldn't happen to know more, would you Laura?"
The scientist named Laura stopped and replied: "Oh, I do happen to know. Word is that she saw something out at that village, something related to the Void somehow. She's been quite obsessed with it and there are rumors that the Entity itself ordered her to look into it, with priority above the machine."
The second scientist seemed skeptical. "Oh really? And where would one get such rumors from?"
Laura sighed. "I suppose I said it and now I have to tell you that too or you won't believe me?"
"Yup."
"Alright, I cut a… deal of sorts with Freak, we both know he's more in it for his own entertainment than anything else."
"And he just feeds you juicy bits of happenings?"
There was an audible shudder in Laura's voice. "Not exactly, in return he gets to do his scary thing and 'eat my fear'. He's a creep but the rumors are worth it. For instance, I now know who keeps taking the snacks in Dimensions."
"Who?"
"Clark freaking Belmont! That's the last one I'd have suspected. Not really relevant to us because we're in different departments but still."
Fire endured their tale swapping until they realized they had somewhere to go. They never once looked up. Once they were out of earshot, he hurried down the remainder of the stairs and hid behind a generic hero statue that was standing in an alcove. Another sheet had vanished in the meantime, he'd just noted the usual still alive at the top, getting an empty sheet could be interpreted as him dying. On the next sheet he had a bit more to note down.
Dr. Veronica Mercury (science head) apparently sleep deprived. Looking into whatever Shadow did to distract her and the Ender during the raid. Apparently obsessed. Orders from the Entity to prioritize over the machine. Freak telling employees rumors/secrets in exchange for fear. Someone named Clark Belmont is stealing snacks (probably not relevant but written for completeness).
Fire came out of hiding and kept following signs, having to find more places to hide along the way. There had been a couple of close calls, someone had brushed against his cloak once while he was blending with another pillar but was in too much of a hurry to look back. He sent several sheets back to the shelter, each with small snippets of information about the route he had been taken and potential dangers along the way. He'd passed some sort of temporary security checkpoint by slipping by while the guards were busy searching someone. It hadn't been much of a checkpoint really, just two human guards in a hallway, anything more would have forced him to find a different route.
He was quite deep underground when a unique opportunity presented itself. Fire was just hiding in yet another janitorial closet when a lone enderman in full armor came from the same direction he'd come from. Ambushing a guard was risky but this particular enderman was not just a guard, he was carrying a small crate filled with the crystals the Entity was after. If Fire played his cards right this was his ticket into the inner sanctum.
Fire had to act quickly, pulling the enderman into the closet with him, taking care not to drop the crystals to the floor. Before the enderman knew what was happening he had Fire's wither dagger pressed against its throat.
Fire quietly said in ender: "Give me the crate, your armor and don't make noise and you'll live through this."
Sadly, the enderman was not very cooperative, forcing Fire to quickly jab him in an exposed spot with the dagger, the pain the wither magic caused was apparently enough to stop any attempt at teleportation, screams suppressed by the sleeve of Fire's cloak.
Fire spoke again: "I'll say it again, you have a chance of surviving if you cooperate with me."
The still pained enderman replied: "You speak our tongue but are not one of us, what are you?"
He apparently hadn't recognized him so that either meant his involvement was classified for some reason or this particular enderman hadn't gotten the memo yet. These endermen seemed to lack true military drill. They had discipline and obedience, sure, but apparently the Ender ran things very differently than whoever had been in charge in their home world, and they were only slowly adapting to her style of leadership. Fire could exploit this, without proper training it was difficult to lie under interrogation and get away with it.
"I ask the questions here. Why are you carrying those crystals?"
The enderman relented. "I am this shift's crystal courier."
That much was obvious. Fire continued prying: "What security measures are between here and the inner sections?"
The enderman remained quiet, Fire delivered a cut with the dagger and pressed his arm against the enderman's mouth again.
The enderman slowly said: "A… big gate with ender guards, they are instructed to let the courier through, then another gate. Need to wait for them to open, crystals don't like being teleported. They ask for my name at the second gate."
Fire asked: "What is your name?"
The enderman visibly contemplated. "Chorusflower."
Fire applied pressure with the dagger. "That is not your name."
Flinching, caught in the lie the enderman quickly said: "Obsidianclaw, my name is Obsidianclaw!"
That was more believable, quick too. Fire continued: "Alright Obsidianclaw, I'll need you to give me your armor and that crate."
Obsidianclaw spat back: "And have them exile me as a traitor, over my dead body!"
"As you wish."
Obsidianclaw realized his poor choice of words the moment Fire's dagger sank into his throat. It took a few seconds for him to lose consciousness from the rapid blood loss. Fire quickly got to work taking the armor off of Obsidianclaw, wiping away the blood with his cloak, he wasn't going to use that for anything after this. A few minutes later, Obsidianclaw was dead and without armor.
Fire took a pair of blue-tinted glasses from his inventory and put them on, followed by the helmet and the rest of the armor. His cloak disappeared into his inventory. Fire picked up the crate and stepped out of the closet. He now looked almost exactly like one of the Tower's endermen, this would help greatly going forward. Before leaving he wrote another note.
Killed a guard who had crystals, assuming his identity to get into the inner sections. Probably won't be able to write until I find a safe space. This might be a trap, it's very convenient to have him walk through the hallway alone but unlikely that they know my exact timing. Wish me luck.
Fire had thought about the possibility of false information, and about the possibility of true information being leaked as a trap. Even if he was running headfirst into a trap right now, it was hard to imagine that the Tower was expecting exactly him and him alone to infiltrate, they had no way of knowing his skillset and it was very possible that Obsidianclaw was meant to be followed, not impersonated. No matter the situation, Fire still had to take any and all bait because it was the only way forward. Such was the nature of the situation.
Fire walked down the hallway, in the open with a crate of crystals held in front of him. When humans passed him, he flat-out ignored them, when endermen passed him he mirrored their greetings where applicable. So far it seemed to be working.
After another few turns, hallways and stairs, Fire arrived in front of a positively huge gate, the interlocking spiral segments of which made it look like it was taken straight out of a science fiction movie. Two sets of three endermen stood guard. When he approached, one of them teleported through and the gate began opening very, very slowly. Fire just stood there for some awkward minutes, none of the guards talked to him so he did the same. Once the gate was open, he walked through and continued on, the gate closing behind him very slowly again.
Fire took some time to write another note while walking, the next sheet was due in a few minutes.
Suddenly someone asked in human language: "What you writing there?"
The asker was just a random engineer that had come out from one of the doors. Fire stopped and looked at him with a piercing gaze.
Putting on his best broken human speech, Fire said: "Shipping manifest."
That had been that, the engineer was too intimidated to ask further questions. A few seconds after the engineer was out of sight the sheet vanished, now they knew about the gate, its slow opening time and its opening mechanism on the inside.
Fire continued on. It couldn't be far from here. There was an increased density of humans walking the halls, but Fire paid them no mind. Just after another sheet vanished, Fire arrived at the second gate, which looked like the first one except smaller. The complement of guards was the same. This was where he'd be asked questions.
One of the guards walked up to him and asked: "Name?"
Fire replied without hesitation: "Obsidianclaw."
"The crystals seem in order. Were you followed?"
Fire's speculation from earlier seemed to have been correct. He replied: "I was vigilant, nobody was there."
Without further words the guard signaled the opening of the gate. This one was faster than the previous one. On the other side was a circular laboratory room. The walls were lined with all kinds of equipment from various disciplines. Further in stood tables with what looked to be magitech computers on them, other tables had chemistry setups. In the middle of the room stood what was very definitely the machine. A hulking contraption made from a similar brass-like material that the Entity's armor was made from, power cables and pipes connecting to it from all sides. A large, open hatch faced the entrance of the room, the inside of the machine was lined with thousands of crystals, each in its own little fixture. At the center was a glass orb that contained a gray mass that didn't quite seem material.
The gate closed behind Fire after he had walked through. From behind the machine emerged a very tired looking Dr. Mercury. Her face told tales of days without sleep, spent looking at screens and evaluating data. It was a face Fire was familiar with, the scientists that had helped create his world had worn it on occasion as well. She was wearing her full combat armor, four additional arms.
She said without putting much effort into speaking clearly: "Just puttem down somewhere."
Fire did as she said, then took another look at the room. One of Dr. Mercury's arms moved in his general direction. He knew what she was going to say before she said it.
"Wait, you're no enderman!"
The tiredness from her voice was gone, pushed away by the last bits of adrenaline her glands could muster. Her other arms sprung to action, one that looked dangerously like an energy cannon pointing directly at Fire. An alarm started sounding.
He had to act quickly, sprinting past Dr. Mercury and behind the machine, the safest piece of cover in the room. With quick motions he scribbled down what would probably be his final note.
Caught. Second door same as first but small. Machine in lab. Has crystals and grey stuff inside.
He tossed the remaining sheets into a corner where they probably wouldn't be found until it was too late. Dr. Mercury came darting around the corner, shooting a blast from her energy cannon that missed, probably because she shot wide intentionally in order to not damage the machine.
Fire concentrated and summoned the elemental energy inside of him into his palm. There were no crystal lanterns in the lab. A bolt of flames shot from Fire's hand, not at Dr. Mercury but at one of the cables that were hooked into the machine at the top. The rubber insulation caught fire almost immediately, quickly creating large amounts of smoke. Within seconds the sprinklers on the ceiling turned on, soaking the entire room with a mixture of water and what seemed to be fire foam.
Another blast from the energy cannon that missed. Fire knew that all he could do was delay the inevitable, that door was not going to open before he was dead. If he managed to kill or incapacitate Dr. Mercury, he could probably do some more extensive sabotage on the machine so that was his immediate goal.
Fire launched himself at her after her next shot, there was no time for tricks or finesse like with Glibby, he had far too little time and preparation for that. Her armor absorbed the slashes from his claws, although he noticed that he left some marks. Before he could think about his next move, he felt something jab him in the side. One of the arms had some sort of injector at the tip, probably a toxin of some sort. Most likely would have killed anything else but it only spread a paralysis through Fire's body, if that could be described as "only".
He dropped on his side, only able to move very slowly. Dr. Mercury acted quickly and tossed some sort of net onto him that bound him further. Then she took off Fire's helmet and glasses using her grasping arms. She looked at him with mild surprise.
As if on cue, three figures appeared in the laboratory. The first was obviously the Entity, then there were the Ender and Freak, the latter probably just wanted to point and laugh.
Fire still seemed to be mostly in control of his voice. He said: "Hello again, Ender."
Fire hadn't said Ender in the human tongue, but he'd said her actual name that he had learned from Silver, which translated to "the Ender" because that's what her name meant, someone who finishes things. The translation had been lucky or unlucky, depending on how you looked at it.
The Ender seemed taken aback and responded with a very unprofessional "Hey."
Freak was the next to talk: "So it seems the trap has been sprung, the mouse is in."
Fire dryly said: "Not really an accomplishment, baiting the mouse with cheese if the alternative was starvation, if you want me to continue the metaphor."
"Enough!" The Entity exclaimed. "You will be… absorbed."
Whatever it meant by this, it was not a favorable outcome. Both death and capture were states Fire knew, absorption less so.
The Entity picked Fire up by grabbing onto the net he was bound by.
Fire attempted to stall for time. "What exactly does that mean?"
The Entity replied: "You bec-ome part of… the body… the mind. What was-yours will be mine."
It started removing one of its white gloves, beneath was the same undefinable grey that Fire had seen in the middle of the machine. It lifted its hand up to Fire's forehead.
Shortly before it made contact, Fire sighed, then uttered: "Well. Fuck."
The moment the grey mass touched the scales on Fire's head everything else started to fade. All senses: sight, sound, self seemed to drain outwards. The roar of oblivion grew louder and louder. The undefinable grey loomed from everywhere.
"Your arrival exceeds expectations." A voice hummed in his mind, booming and soothing all at once.
He felt his memories being drawn into the Entity, beginning with his recent ones of the last hours, then fragments connected to them. It wasn't exactly painful, but it was certainly not comfortable.
"I knew-word would spread somehow. A phantom… interesting."
It pulled memories associated with the topic of infiltration, memories from the heist Fire and Shadow had pulled off in the very early days of the server when they had stolen the Books of Knowledge from Rockhaven's library.
"I expected scouts, saboteurs, an attempt on my life, even."
It went on to draw more about the server, about Fire's past. It came across early memories of Claw, then followed those to the fight in the snow world on his way home...
"Now, here is the-leader… of my enemies. The last who remain. I have crushed all others."
...memories about Fire's base… constructed with help... friends from Drandin. That was where it next pulled from the… from the deep mines of Drandin where all but the most powerful magic was drowned.
"Your revolutionary flame is only... cinders. Soon-you-will be mine. They will join you. Goodbye."
Shadow's ascension.
Suddenly it stopped. Fire was aware enough to notice it stopping, then the flow reversed, first an overwhelming sense of fear flooded into Fire, just familiar enough to be recognized as such but too alien to be experienced. Something about… what was that? Shadow's ascension, that's what caused the fear? Why? A foreign memory followed, a street in the village, a part of reality missing. Then, a room Fire did not recognize, a similar but smaller piece missing. Then, he saw himself, from the Entity's point of view but not exactly. He was not flesh and blood, he was like a construct of energy like strings woven together into a doll. A singular thread going off into the distance. Fire did not know what this meant. Before he could think further his taken memories were forcibly pushed back into him, within seconds he was mostly aware again.
He heard Freak's voice: "What? Why'd you stop?"
The Entity replied: "This is the…" It seemed to be looking for words. "Connected to the-scar. Not cause. Absorption danger-ous. There is… another. He will serve."
What? Shadow caused the "scar", that much was clear, but how was he connected to her other than being family? Before Fire had the chance to contemplate further, the Entity's hand was on his forehead again, he felt another pull, this time inwards, into his own mind. It was a place he knew very well because he had built it himself. He was being drawn into Claw's prison.
No, no, no! This is not happening, you're not putting Claw in charge. Do you have any idea what he is?
The Entity replied: "Loy-al, if given… incentive."
Fire was unable to form another coherent thought as the bars slammed down around him, he was now confined to the same small brain-space Claw occupied normally. Which meant…
Claw hadn't felt this good in… Claw hadn't ever felt this good! The closest was when he hunted his prey and partook in the feast of blood but this, this was better! Claw didn't care who made him this way, but he decided that whoever they were, he owed them a whole lot and he was okay with that. Hunters had to look out for one another.
Claw opened his now-black eyes and looked around. He was standing in a room. Laboratory said his factual memory, or rather the factual memory of the other one. Yeah, it felt good to be in charge. There were several people standing here, a tall one right in front of him, the one who freed him. Another, similarly, tall next to it, wearing an expression of… shock, disappointment, that's what it was. The third one was small and odd-looking, phantom. That one was absolutely ecstatic but tried to hide it. Then there was another one who seemed to be examining him from a distance.
Claw paid no mind to her, or any of them, this was his moment, the first one he could truly call his and his alone.
He exclaimed: "It's Claw time, baby!"
