Chapter 24: The Curse Takes Form

Eldon and Liz arrived back at the storehouse as Rachel opened the blockade, letting them enter. Inside, they found everything missing. Most of the vehicles were gone, and the outpost had been completely cleared out.

Eldon looked around, noticing all the crates were empty. He frowned and asked, “Rachel, where did everything go?”

Rachel smiled and replied, “I got a great new assimilation from that mimic. Watch this.” She held out her hand, and a tank appeared beside her.

Eldon was shocked. “What did you just do?”

Liz, however, was excited. She wanted to examine it. As she got closer to the mimic’s storage, she eyed it carefully and went to put her hand inside—until ittried to snap shut on her, trying to bite. Liz jerked her hand back quickly.

“Ohhh, that was a close one. Let’s not try that again. So how does this work?”

Rachel explained to them what she had learned from ZeroOne about it.

“So, 8,000 square feet—this is good. We can store all the vehicles. Once one breaks down or runs out of gas, we can just pull out another. Although not all of them should be used for travel.”

Rachel then said, “Go ahead and hand me your bags, and I’ll store them.” As they handed them over, the bags vanished inside.

Rachel then stored the rest of the vehicles.

They looked around for anything else they might have missed. When it seemed clear, they departed, working their way outside the city limits.

Rachel pulled out a military jeep, and Eldon hopped into the driver’s seat while Rachel and Liz sat in the back. They traveled down the bumpy dirt road that led toward the looming mountain range ahead.

During this, Rachel decided to equip her armor and spoke to ZeroOne. “Alright, let’s begin the deep dive test.”

Then she heard Liz’s voice: “What test?” Liz looked at her oddly. Rachel realized she had never told them about ZeroOne, so she finally explained.

“Inside my helmet I have an AI that helps me. I forgot to mention it, but I can talk to it. It helps me analyze my assimilations and answers my questions every now and then.”

Then Eldon, who was listening up front, sighed in relief. “That’s great. I thought there was something seriously wrong with your head when we were traveling. I’d catch you having half a conversation with yourself, thinking all the battles must have made you a bit crazy.”

“No,” Rachel said. “I’m perfectly fine—except for the curses and their whispers. Now, I’m going to go silent and focus on working out my new assimilations. This is the perfect time, since my curse of blindness has kicked in and my vision is gone at the moment.”

Rachel then spoke to ZeroOne. “Alright, ZeroOne, let’s start the deep dive.” She focused, and then entered into a deep dive.

Suddenly she was in a dark room. All around, she could sense Liz, Eldon, and the jeep—but only as faint impressions.

Then a glowing orb floated near Rachel.

“Is that you, ZeroOne?” she asked, holding out her hand toward the orb.

“Yes,” ZeroOne said, pulsing with light. “This is the form I’ve taken in this place. Now let’s focus on controlling the armor. You’ll need to practice to get good at it, but for now just do something simple, like moving your arms and head. We don’t want to push too much yet.”

But Rachel spoke worriedly. “You said I can fight and see using the armor’s sensors, but look at this—there’s no way I can use it like this.”

ZeroOne replied, “Yes. You are not an AI, so this is pretty hard with your slow processing. It will be useless to you until you can get some sensory assimilations that give you vision. We should start going out of our way to kill any mechas we come across.”

Rachel nodded in agreement, but then they heard a chilling voice from behind that halted their conversation.

“If you rely on me, I can control it perfectly while in this place. You would just have to give me control.”

Rachel and ZeroOne turned to see a black ooze starting to protrude from the ground like a bubbling pool of mud. It rose up, the tar-like substance dripping away, until standing before them was Rachel—but different.

This version looked like a dark elf: white hair, bright red eyes, brown skin, and her body was covered in the tar-like substance that hid her private parts. Her long white hair had streaks of black tar woven through it, dripping to the ground.

ZeroOne continued to pulse, “Who is this, Rachel? We should be the only ones able to enter this place.”

Rachel answered as the dark version of herself approached. “This… this is the curse that whispers to me.”

The cursed Whisper circled around rachel, stopping just behind to whisper in her ear.

“You are correct. I am the Curse of the Mad King—but I don’t think that name will work here. Now that I have a form all my own, you can just call me Hex.”

Rachel quickly moved away as the tar from Hex started to creep toward her. The urges within this place grew stronger, but she forced herself to focus, resisting the pull that tried to overtake her.

“Keep away.”

ZeroOne floated into motion. As this deep dive space was his domain, he formed a prison around Hex and commanded, “Keep away from Rachel.”

Hex gave ZeroOne an irritated look before dissolving back into a pile of tar, vanishing into the dark ground.

“Are you okay, Rachel?” ZeroOne pulsed.

Rachel finally stopped shaking and said, “Yes, I’m fine now. Shall we continue the test?”

But then pings echoed across the dark walls as something shifted.

Rachel felt pain as her body slammed into something, and she glimpsed the outlines of Liz and Eldon near her.

ZeroOne pulsed again. “Looks like there will be no training. Sometimes you need to learn to run before you learn to walk. Something bad has happened outside—it’s a mecha attack. Get up and follow Liz and Eldon. There’s nothing you can do until the curse of blindness goes away anyway.”

Rachel focused, forcing herself to rise using the cursed armor as her body. She followed the pulses of Eldon and Liz wherever they were going.

While Rachel was in her deep dive, the drive was quiet—until it suddenly grew unbearably hot. Liz shouted, “Watch out, we have an incoming mecha!” as she pointed ahead. Eldon’s eyes widened as he spotted a giant flaming bird hurtling toward them. The phoenix unleashed a blazing fireball. Eldon swerved the jeep, barely avoiding the blast, but the creature refused to give up the chase, showering the mountain road with flames.

A massive fireball struck, carving a crater into the road ahead. The jeep plunged into it, sending Eldon, Liz, and Rachel flying.

Liz rolled then quickly got to her feet, immediately unslinging her sniper rifle. She aimed at the phoenix’s burning body, locking onto the glowing metal core at its center, and squeezed off several shots. The bullets sizzled and melted midair, dripping into puddles of molten slag before reaching their mark.

“Useless!” Liz cursed, abandoning the attempt. She and Eldon rushed to help Rachel to her feet, and together they sprinted through the jagged terrain, dodging blasts of fire that scorched the rock around them.

Then, from a shadowed hole in the mountainside, a voice shouted for them to get inside. Without hesitation, they rushed toward it.

Liz dropped her custom shield across the entrance just as the phoenix swooped overhead, flames trailing behind it. The monstrous bird circled a few times, screeching, but eventually lost interest and soared away into the skies.

Liz and Eldon looked at their saviors and saw the cave was filled with women and children.

“Who are all of you?” Eldon asked, noticing how tired, exhausted, and hungry they all appeared.

Their reply was unsettling: “We are all from Far Sky City. We had to flee after the hero Jax lured the guardian mecha Argus from the necropolis in the wastelands straight into our city.”

Eldon and Liz glanced at each other, knowing they were not in the clear yet. Before reaching Far Sky City, they would have to deal with the phoenix above, which they could still hear screeching as it circled over the mountains.