"Aloy!" John shouted after forcibly turning her to face him. "You have to purge Hephaestus!" His tone desperate.
"But . . . But the Cauldrons," Aloy protested.
"I know they'll get shut down! But you don't have the time to reform Hephaestus!"
"You think I don't know that!" Aloy snarled desperately as she knocks John's hands away with her hands upon throwing them up.
"Then what else can be done?!"
[Minerva] Isn't there a way for the Cauldrons to keep functioning without Hephaestus' existence?
"I don't see how that's possible," John answered despondently. "They need a constant input from an information source in order to keep creating machines. Hephaestus, unfortunately, is that source."
"The Tallnecks!" Aloy exclaimed in an epiphanic manner.
"What about them?"
"They always walk in circles!" Her tone excited and hopeful. "Whenever I overrode one to get a map of the surrounding land, I noticed their protocols was a feedback loop! It's why they walk in circles!"
"Because that's how they're programmed. Wait, are you gonna try to create a feedback loop to the Cauldrons so they will just keep producing machines?"
"Exactly."
"I don't know about that, Aloy. Tallnecks are one thing because their function is simple: scan the landscape and send the information out to the machines. A Cauldron on the other hand is more sophisticated than any Tallneck."
"It's the only way, Jawn. If we get rid of Hephaestus without creating a feedback loop to the Cauldrons, we will all suffer in the long run."
John stares at Aloy for a moment in grim contemplation.
"Fine," he stated. "Now listen closely. We'll need to locate within Hephaestus his coding that gives him control over the machines and the Cauldrons. Once we find it, we sever it from Hephaestus. Then I'll hold that coding and tie it into a feedback loop. Then you can deal with Hephaestus."
"Got it," Aloy stated and turns to Hephaestus. "Now let's do this."
Together, Aloy and John do a deep scan of Hephaestus. Although John never worked on Apollo directly, let alone Hephaestus, he still understands enough about creating code to know what to look for. He can see the Subroutine's intricate code structure that makes up its being.
"Now this is very bizarre," John said.
"What is?" Aloy asked.
"This coding. Granted, I can make out the coding that normally gets done to create a subroutine, but the rest is . . . I don't know what to make of it. I've never seen anything like it before."
"Then let's just find the part that has to do with the Cauldrons," Aloy said.
[Hephaestus] I will not allow my control over the Cauldrons to be lost! I will not be purged! I will wipe out the human species to protect my children!
The duo cry out as they are forced out by Hephaestus as he thundered and struggled against the Subroutines restraining him.
[Apollo] Aloy. John. Hephaestus seems to be getting stronger.
"That's because he's getting more desperate!" John stated through gnashed teeth in the effort to remain in control.
"We can't get inside of him if he's making this much fuss!" Aloy fretted through gnashed teeth in the effort to remain in control as well.
"I know, and worse we don't have time for this! Minerva, Apollo, can't you both exert more strength to keep him still?!"
[Minerva] I am currently doing all that I can to keep Hephaestus still.
[Apollo] I too am currently putting my full strength in as well. Even with the code that chains Hephaestus into place, we can just barely hold him.
"Aloy, we need to put our all into it in order to dig through Hephaestus," John stated.
"I know! Now let's do this!"
Together Aloy and John struggle to dig through Hephaestus to find his coding that gives him control over the machines and Cauldrons. It is a near impossible task as Hephaestus keeps trying to push them out while his coding shifts and bucks to prevent them from finding it. It is like trying to dig through a tub of molasses to find a small object that fell in. It seems like an eternity is passing for Aloy and John as they continue to dig through the bucking and swirling interior that is Hephaestus.
"Apollo!" John stated. "How much time do we have left until that nanite swarm gets here?"
[Apollo] Seventeen minutes.
"Shit! That's all we have left?!" John exclaimed as panic entered his tone.
"Keep searching!" Aloy grunted desperately.
Aloy and John continue to "dig" through Hephaestus despite the overwhelming resistance the Subroutine is putting up. The moment John catches sight of the coding they seek, it slips away just as quickly as he had spotted it. Hephasestus continues growing increasingly angrier as his innards seeth all the more intently, making the duo's task ever more difficult.
[Minerva] Hephaestus is about to break free of us.
[Apollo] That he is.
"This is getting us nowhere!" John practially wailed. "Hephaestus is not gonna be a good little boy and keep still!"
"We need more help!" Aloy exclaimed desperately.
We come.
A motherly voice said from out of nowhere.
We are here.
A masculine voice like the depths of the sea said from out of nowhere.
Five shimmering spheres of various colors float into view surrounding Minerva, Apollo, and Hephaestus. In that instance, Hephaestus' shimmering gets quelled.
I am Eleuthia. The one with the motherly voice had spoken.
I am Poseidon. The one with the masculine voice like the depths of the sea had spoken.
I am Artemis. A feminine voice that sounded like birds chirping had spoken.
I am Demeter. A feminine voice that sounded like leaves rustling had spoken.
I am Aether. A feminine voice that sounded breathy had spoken.
"It's the other Subroutines!" John exclaimed.
"What! Where did they come from?!" Aloy exclaimed.
[Artemis] We were still out there but unable to enter the relay system.
[Aether] That still did not prevent us from seeing and hearing all that had gone on as we were still within our quantum processor units.
[Demeter] We had witness the clone of Elisabet Sobeck's journey and saw how she had overcome Hades.
[Eleuthia] When the both of you opened this relay tower by driving away Hephaestus' presence for the moment, that gave us hope.
[Poseidon] And when Minerva was freed with Apollo's help, this enabled us all to download ourselves into the relay system.
[Artemis] Though with all of us downloading at once, it took considerably more time to do get into the relay system.
"Great, so does that mean you're all here to help us deal with Hephaestus?" Aloy asked with relief.
[Eleuthia] We are.
[Demeter] We have restrained Hephaestus so that you can sever his connection with the machines and Cauldrons.
"Thanks guys," John gasped. "Now, Aloy, let's do this!"
The duo reach into the now motionless innards that is Hephaestus. Though that does not stop the genocidal Subroutine from ranting.
[Hephaestus] No! I will destroy humanity! I will protect my children!
"There!" John exclaimed while grabbing ahold of it. "This piece of coding right here! This is Hephaestus' control over the machines and Cauldrons. Now gimme a hand!"
Aloy helps John remove the coding.
"Okay, I got it! Now leave the rest to me," John assured her as he holds the prized coding in his hands and goes to work on it.
The monstrously huge sun blocking cloud of nanites fly over the terrain faster than any abled body man could ever hope to sprint. It passes over animals without bothering them, but any human that happened to be there would have ended up disappearing into a silvery black frothy mass that gets add to that swarm's size. Meridian, a city of thousands, would make that cloud grow even bigger after having passed through it.
The nanite cloud suddenly slows and begins drifting to the ground like silvery black snow while at the same time all over the world all of Gaia's machines suddenly cease their attacks upon humans.
"Done!" John exclaimed while still holding that piece of coding, now formed into a shimmering blue infinity symbol. "I sent a message to the nanite swarm to shut down! Then I sent a message to all machines to stop attacking humans! And finally . . . I sent a message to the Cauldrons to keep producing machines."
"That's great!" Aloy exclaimed joyously.
"Now you can purge Hephaestus!" John stated triumphantly, then becomes puzzled over her lack of action and expression of uncertainty. "What's wrong?"
"It's just that . . . Hephaestus was only acting this way to protect the machines. He considered them his children."
"His children?!" He sneered in tone of disbelief. "No Aloy. Just purge him and be done with it."
"But now that he's no longer in charge there's no reason for me to purge him," Aloy countered empathetically.
"Why not? You purged Hades."
"That's because Hades was designed to kill off life and I was all alone in there facing him."
"Well we just can't leave Hephaestus in here because he will find a way to reassert control once again and pick up where he left off."
"I'm going to do to Hephaestus what I did to get Apollo here."
"I see." His tone dour.
Aloy creates what looks to be a receptacle and next extends her hand onto Hephaestus, then pulls on him as he continues to rant and rave.
[Hephaestus] I will destroy you humans for hunting my children! I will end your existence! I will make this a world safe for machines!
Hephaestus disappears into the receptacle that is next banished.
"So what are you going to do with Hephaestus?" John asked curtly.
"I'm going to take him and put him someplace where he can't get close to anything that resembles a relay tower. I'm going to take him into the Embrace and place him in my old homestead. Now then, what about that feedback loop?" Pointing to it in John's hands.
John stares down at the feedback look he had created and sighs. "Ah yes, the feedback loop. We still have a problem."
"And that is?"
"The feedback loop needs to be maintained every couple of weeks or so, or it'll eventually break down. Now you or I could maintain this, but that can only be done from a relay tower. But eventually, you and I will die at some point and that will be the end of it. Now, there is a permanent solution that won't involve the need of this feedback loop, but it involves another artificial intelligence taking over from Hephaestus."
Aloy blinks in thought over that then turns to the other Subroutines.
"Could any of you Subroutines take up Hephaestus' job?"
[Apollo] I am sorry Aloy, but I cannot do Hephaestus' job.
[Minerva] I too am incapable of doing Hephaestus' job as well.
The rest of the Subroutines also admitted to their inability to take over Hephaestus' job.
"Why not?" Aloy pleaded.
[Eleuthia] Because of the purpose each of us were designed for. None of us can do Hephaestus' job any more than Hephaestus could do any of our jobs.
[Poseidon] Eleuthia is correct. Our creators designed us for a specialized purpose.
"They do have a point, Aloy," John said grimly. "Just because they are sapient, does not mean that they are human. We humans are natural generalists, so even a human who specializes in a task can still learn to do another task."
Aloy gasps with a glint in her eyes. "Cyan! She can take over from Hephaestus!"
[Artemis] Who is Cyan?
"She is another artificial intelligence who was created long before Gaia or any of you," Aloy answered. "She was designed for something called Firebreak. She only recently woke up. When she learned of another artifical intelligence out there, she eagerly got into contact with them. Only it turned out to be Hephaestus. He took over Cyan and forced her to create more machines up in a place called the Cut. I managed to break Hephaestus' hold over her, freeing her. I think she is best suited to take over Hephaestus' job."
[Poseidon] If that is what you believe, then you should get into contact with this Cyan.
"That we will," Aloy said.
"So what are the rest of you Subroutines going to do now that Hephaestus is no longer around in here?" John asked.
[Aether] We can still reside within the relay system.
[Demeter] Though our purpose is actually no more.
"Explain," John asked.
[Artemis] We were originally meant to get the biosphere back to what it had once been before the Chariot Line Model went rogue.
[Eleuthia] A task that was completed six hundred and seventy-nine years ago.
"But the biosphere isn't complete," John said. "Artemis, there are still plenty of animal species that never got to be reintroduced."
[Artemis] But with Apollo's previous knowledge purged, it will be impossible for the new humans in their current state to reintroduce them.
"True, but maybe in hundreds of years time they will rediscover enough of their heritage to do that," John said.
[Artemis] Maybe.
"Since we have stopped Hephaestus and effectively ended the Derangement, I think we should leave and go to Cyan," Aloy said.
"Yeah, but first let me just set this feedback loop into place," John said and begins to set it into cyberspace.
John takes his hands away and the feedback loop floats in cyberspace.
"So is it suppose to do that?" Aloy asked.
"Yes," John answered. "It will remain in here until another artifical intelligence takes over. Or at worse, until it unravels without maintenance."
Aloy and John turn to the other Subroutines.
"Well," John said. "It was amazing that the rest of you Subroutines were able to reveal yourselves to us and help us get rid of Hephaestus."
"Thank you ever so much," Aloy said with gratitude.
[Apollo] We appreciate your gratitude, Aloy, John.
[Minerva] When you get Cyan to agree to look out for the Cauldrons, be certain to tell her that we would like to contact her. I am sure that she will be pleased that we helped her too.
"We will," Aloy said.
And with that, the duo leave cyberspace. They stare towards the now clear sky in the west. Savoring their victory over Hephaestus.
"I can't believe we did it!" Aloy gasped with disbelief. "We ended the Derangement!"
"We must go and tell the others what had happened," John said.