S2-11
Corruption overridden

Treading through mountainous terrain on Strider-back, Aloy was closing in on the Rockwreath dig site. While she may have encountered some cultists, it was clear that something else beat her here.

It didn't take long for Aloy to find out what had cleared her path. A Shell-Walker stood nearby, using its large claw to pull arrows out of its body.

"Another supply drop?" Aloy wondered.

"[{A_New_Invention.}]" This piqued her curiosity as the Shell-Walker opened its container, allowing Aloy to pull out a single teched out arrow. "[{Aerial_Observations_Reveal_Inert_Corruptors.}]"

Aloy understood the plan. "Fire this at one of them before they activate it and you'll gain control. Seems like you finally figured them out."

Now knowing what to do, the Seeker made her way to a spot where she could look over the excavation site. Within the area were quite a few cultists, along with two freshly unearthed Corruptors, still inactive. She readied the modded arrow and took aim.

Releasing the string, Aloy stuck the projectile to one of the Corruptors, watching as some sort of purple matter exited the device and entered the ancient machine.

"OK. That did something." Aloy then noted the lack of response from the cultists. "And nobody saw that."

Down in the dig site, Olin was cautious of the machine he was gazing upon. "This is what you intend? To bring these ancient things… back to life?"

"Their power serves us." A cultist leader replied.

Olin couldn't accept it. "Machine demons from beneath the ground? It's a nightmare…!"

"Nightmares, yes! The worst dreams of our enemies come true!" The leader proclaimed as the Corruptors began to activate. "Yes! Rise!"

Now up and active, one of the Corruptors wandered for a bit, then turned in Aloy's general direction. She hid behind a small boulder just before it could see her. "So much for catching him alone."

"These things will destroy us all!" Olin protested, hoping to stir some sense into the man on the platform. Unfortunately, his warning fell on deaf ears.

"They will only destroy our enemies, and bring us back the lands that were ta-" Suddenly, calamity struck. "...What?!"

The second Corruptor looked up with a purple light in its eye, then made its move: immediately firing rockets at several cultists and decimating them as its tail gripped that of its counterpart, keeping it behind the hostile machine.

"That works." Aloy remarked. "HEPHAESTUS?"

"[{Corruptor:_Overridden.}]"

"Search the area! We may have intruders!" The cultist ordered.

Without warning, there was interference. All around the site, Focuses were letting out screeches of static.

"My Focus. It stopped working." Olin stated in confusion.

Aloy's Focus, however, was largely spared… and she had a new caller. "Forgive this intrusion, Aloy. You left me no choice."

"Who is this?" Aloy questioned.

"An interested party." The unknown caller replied. "Now their Focuses are disabled, but I don't know for how long. That was a remarkable strategy, by the way. Turning their own tech against them. The rest is up to you."

"Who is this?" Before Aloy could get an answer, the mystery caller hung up. "And now we've got another question that needs answering." She then called up some other contacts. "Teersa, Varl, Sona, are you all seeing this?"

"A demon, controlled by the Son!" The Matriarch exclaimed in astonishment.

Sona could be heard laughing. "Now this is ironic! They have been given a taste of their own medicine!"

"An equal advantage. Clever." Varl commended.

As Aloy got ready to join the fight, HEPHAESTUS had his new unit target the hostile Corruptor. Purple spikes shot out from the machine's launcher, forcefully hacking into their target. "[{Directive:_Purge.}]"

"Don't have to tell me twice!" Aloy replied as she dispatched a distracted cultist.

The leader of this group looked on in great horror as all their work had been turned against them. "How can this be?!"

He was so caught up in the confusion that he didn't even notice Olin approaching him before the back of a shovelhead hit him in the face, breaking his mask and knocking him off the platform.

Olin smiled as the Corruptors fought the killers. "Looks like the Artisan's outdone himself."

Aloy pulled her bowstring to fire another arrow at a cultist sniper, only to see a large rock fly through the air and crush her target. "I guess you're enjoying the new machines?"

"[{Immensely.}]"

It wasn't long before the area was cleared out, so while HEPHAESTUS willed his new Corruptors to someplace unknown to the Seeker, Aloy went to interrogate the delver. "Alright, Olin. Talk. I want answers."

"I promise! I'll tell you everything!" Olin pleaded.

"We know you will." Aloy replied as the Shell-Walker from earlier scuttled into the area, Lightning Gun trained on Olin. "The killers who came for me at the Proving. Who are they?"

"The Eclipse. Some kind of holy warriors, a cult, of the Shadow Carja." Olin explained.

This confused Aloy. "Shadow Carja?"

"Except they're not like any Carja I've known. They don't pray to the Sun. They worship some kind of devil."

"I'm not interested in their superstitions." Aloy retorted.

"Oh, it's not a superstition. Their devil is real. It has a name, a voice; the most terrible voice, and they do its bidding."

The huntress raised a brow. "You say this 'devil' the Eclipse worship has a name?"

"HADES. That's what they call it."

Aloy thought it a fitting name for a demon worshiped by loyalists of a murderous king. "HADES. And you've heard it speak?"

Olin looked more afraid of this 'HADES' than of Aloy, and she was the one who had him at the tip of her electric spear. "Steel to my soul, I heard! Just once, when it saw you! Such a voice… A cold, awful jangle that scrapes your bones, and hollows your guts. A metal sound, but like nothing dug from the earth or smelted in a forge."

"And what did it say?"

"'System threat detected.' Just three words… but in the voice of a devil."

"And I've heard a metallic voice myself." Aloy smirked as the Shell-Walker's optics shone a vibrant purple. "A calculative voice, like ringing from metal expertly shaped by a master smith. The force behind the machines. The one who makes them. HEPHAESTUS."

"That is the Artisan's true name?" This revelation confounded Olin.

Aloy demanded more answers. "Now, what are these Eclipse cultists after, besides me?"

"They never said! But given the Carja civil war, they must want to overthrow Sun-King Avad and take Meridian back!"

Aloy didn't see how that information helped her. "What do I have to do with that?"

"I don't know!"

Aloy figured she'd find some use for that information later on, but now had another question. "When they attacked the Proving, a man came for me. Tall, strong, dead eyes. Then a Thunderjaw sent him tumbling off the mountain."

"Wait." Olin suddenly burst out laughing. "You mean to tell me that Helis got blasted off the mountain by a Thunderjaw!? Helis, the Terror of the Sun, Stacker of Corpses, the mad Sun-King's champion, the true leader of the Eclipse, and the most dangerous man alive, swatted away like some inconsequential nat?!"

Aloy couldn't help but snicker at the thought. "I guess being the most dangerous man alive means next to nothing to HEPHAESTUS."

"I guess not. That would definitely explain the sprained leg when he returned."

Aloy then resumed her interrogation. "How did the Eclipse recruit you? I know they took your family hostage, but why you?"

Olin sighed as he came clean. "I was a scrounger: a rummager of dark places, good at what I do. I suppose they knew I would serve them well as a scout. I had taken a delve near Maker's End. When I surfaced, they were waiting. I laughed when I saw the priest… but then he showed me Helis's 'encouragement'. I didn't laugh after that. They gave me a Focus to watch my every move. I had to follow their orders."

"I see." Another thought came to Aloy's mind. "You had access to Meridian. Why didn't they get to Avad through you?"

"Too much dirt under my nails for an audience with the One True Sun-King, but whatever Ersa or Erend told me, the Eclipse heard every word through my Focus. That's why I couldn't warn you; if I tried, they would have killed my family!"

Olin's words stirred sympathy in Aloy, but her thoughts turned to the Corruptors. "Why are the Eclipse digging up ancient machines, and how did they get them to work?"

"I thought they wanted them for scrap, but they brought them back to life!" Olin exclaimed. "Plugged some kind of device into the corpses, so that HADES could whisper to them and call them from their grave."

"I've fought that kind of machine before. Are there others?"

"Yes! The ones you fought today, they call Corruptors. The Artisan now has two of them, but there are others, much bigger, bristling with ancient weapons. Those they call Deathbringers. I've only seen them buried in the ground, but after today, anything is possible."

"Sounds to me like they're raising an army."

Olin hung his head in shame. "If so… the world will fall… and I helped dig the pit."

"One more question, Olin. The Eclipse were sent to kill me because I look like another woman; older, maybe twice my age, short hair. Who is she?"

The delver shrugged. "I don't know! My Focus found her image once, in the ruins at Maker's End. Maybe you can find her there."

"You found her image in the ruins? How?"

"There was a door, and beside it, a kind of ancient device that contained the woman's image. My Focus recorded the location." Olin then got a better look at Aloy. "You do look like her. Is she your mother?"

"That's what I hope to find out." Aloy then decided she'd gotten all the answers Olin could give her. "I've heard enough. It's time to finish this."

Olin seemed ready to pay for what he's done and accept his fate. "I won't beg for my life. But if there's any mercy in you, free my family. Please."

"Where would I find them?" Aloy wondered.

"My Focus recorded the location. There are always guards there. You look like you can handle yourself, with or without the Artisan."

With Olin's fate still hers to decide at this moment, Aloy had a difficult time making the choice. "All this time I tracked you down, I thought this decision would be simple. It's not. Your… your role in events was coerced. Perhaps you're not an evil man. Just a weak one."

"I am. The only strength I ever found in this life was my family."

"Death is what you've earned, and yet…" Aloy paused, knowing full well that Olin didn't choose any of this willingly.

"I know what I deserve, Aloy. You shouldn't hesitate."

After a good while, Aloy had made her decision. "It will take many good deeds to make up for the crimes you've committed."

At this, Olin expressed shock and relief. "You're sparing me? After all I've done?"

"Yes." Aloy then helped Olin up on his feet. "Forge a new life, Olin. One of better make."

"Then the rest of my life will be lived in your debt."

"Go to the place where your family is being held and wait for me. We'll make their lives the first ones you save."

"I didn't earn this mercy, but I will die to make myself worthy of it." Olin said with gratitude. "I will be waiting for you."

Override Arrows. Overridden Corruptors. This is getting interesting.

Corruptors can't be Overridden in-game, so this new creation by HEPHAESTUS is like an upgrade. I am having new ideas through the Sub-Function's ingenuity and creativity.

Also...

PokeKing Charizard: "It definitely fits Hephaestus. And I'm very curious about how you write this with HEPH being good. Hopefully Aloy doesn't come to follow or rely on him too much as it would detract from her character's trademark independence."

I actually respect her independence, but I also have it in mind that she and HEPHAESTUS have teamed up against a common enemy, while also trying to emphasize Aloy's leadership skills.