Volume 2 Chapter 18 Ombra Fortress

Chapter 18 Ombra Fortress

I

Hetepasis had been giving off soundwaves constantly, which meant that she needed to keep outputting soundwaves to maintain her domination over the minds of Starsha, Floria and Yanni.

Since that, if Aislina could destroy Hetepasis’ power armour which was outputting soundwaves, the mind control would cease. With this thought, Aislina shot a bolt of spore towards Hetepasis.

The spore exploded on her power armour and released a cloud of acid gas. The power armours of Totanchinpys and Nephrenbethys were designed to fight and kill, so they had fine air-tightness. However, the power armour of Hetepasis was used for self-defence and decoration, so its air-tightness was poor.

Therefore, the acid gas leaked into the inner structure of her power armour and broke it entirely. The power armour of Hetepasis exploded and she was on fire. Within several seconds, she was burnt into ashes and cremains. After that, Floria, Yanni and Starsha woke up from the bewitchment of Hetepasis.

Suddenly, a young man walked by and saw the four as well as the burnt corpse of Hetepasis.

“מַאמַّה מְיַה! קִי סְיֵיטֵי וווֹסְטְרוֹ קְוַאטְרוֹ? קֵי סְטַאטֵי פַאצֵינְדוֹ קְוִי? אֵי֫ קְוֵיסְטוֹ קַאדַאוַוארֵי הטורהוטפ?׃” [Mamma Mia! Who are you four? What are you doing here? Is that corpse Hetepasis?!] questioned that young man.

Yanni walked up to that young man aggressively.

“Where is the key to the elevator? Tell me!” he demanded

The young man reached into his clothes pocket and got a golden metallic key.

“This is yours now,” said that young man in broken Normanish, giving the key to Yanni.

“Who are you by the way? Why do you have a key? Aren’t you another warrior with power armour?” asked Starsha curiously.

“No, I don’t have power armour. I am Sethus, an explore in Ombra Fortress so that I have the key. Achnosiris has fired me and I don’t need this key anymore. You’re enemies of Macchina Gloriosa, right?” asked that young man.

“Yes, we are,” Starsha nodded.

“Although I used to work for Macchina Gloriosa, but I know that they won’t turn this world a better place. I always wish that there were someone standing out and fighting against them,” sighed Sethus, that young man.

“Why did Achnosiris fire you?” asked Floria.

“Because the Mother Matrix has invented those autonomous drones. They’re better explorers than us. Everything can be replaced by machines,” muttered Sethus.

“That’s not true …” retorted Starsha.

“Oh, really? Can you prove that you’re irreplaceable?” smirked Sethus.

“See those two girls and that boy? I am the friend of them and that is irreplaceable,” argued Starsha.

“Friendship means nothing! It is just favourability between two people. Hang out together for one day, and favourability +1. Have an argument with each other, and favourability -1. It’s boring and meaningless! In the near future, Macchina Gloriosa would begin to produce intelligent automatons …” scoffed Sethus.

“You hate Macchina Gloriosa, but you’re no different with them …” queried Yanni.

“I am different! I am a victim! Anyway, you shall not try to prove that there are irreplaceable parts of humans because there are in fact not. What you shall do is beating Macchina Gloriosa and stopping them from upgrading the matrix, or more people will lose their jobs because all jobs can be mechanized!” explained Sethus.

II

The four walked to the elevator. They hadn’t been discovered by anyone and sneaked into the elevator successfully.

That elevator was designed with the Mother Matrix too. It had ingenious structures which were obviously beyond the comprehension and wisdom of humans.

It was a golden cylinder made of machinite which moved inside a gigantic tube that rooted inside Ombra Fortress and cut up into Santo Cielo, the floating archipelago in the sky.

Embedded inside that tube, the cylinder was fixed on a rail.

When the elevator rose up along the vertical rail, the four experienced a strange feeling of weightlessness. However, this feeling soon disappeared because they arrived at Santo Cielo successfully after five minutes.

Aislina could hear the calling from Cuore Celeste more and more clearly now since the distance between her and that gemstone kept decreasing and she was getting closer to that gemstone.

Inside the dark elevator, the sapphire stone bought by Yanni was glowing fluorescently around Aislina’s neck. She held the sapphire tenderly with her hand. Her heart was thumping because she didn’t know what would happen to her and her friend. After all, they were fighting against a nearly undefeatable enemy.

“Cuore Celeste is calling me,” whispered Aislina.

“Starsha, you once said that Cuore Celeste was created by a group of ancient assassins, right?” queried Yanni.

“Yes, it is. But there was no much information concerning it, so I have no idea why they made this gemstone,” answered Starsha.

“It must be magical, so that Aislina is somehow connected to it,” speculated Yanni.

“Anyway, it’s a good sign, Aislina. Since you can feel it, you must be able to guide us to it,” guessed Floria.

“I think I can. Achnosiris hasn’t figured out where Cuore Celeste is yet, so we may get that gemstone before Macchina Gloriosa,” Aislina nodded.

“We have planned to throw Cuore Celeste inside the lava lake which devoured the Cube of Necrus, but since it is living and able to communicate with Aislina, isn’t it too cruel to do that? Destroying it is equal to killing it, right?” asked Yanni.

“It is not living, Yanni. I can feel it but I cannot communicate with it, just like that you can feel the wind but the wind isn’t living,” explained Aislina.

“Since that, are machines living? Does machines really have souls, Aislina?” queried Yanni.

“I don’t know. That is a complicated question. I can only feel organic life, like plants and animals, and I can sense nothing in the machines for now. Maybe there will be mechanic lives in the future, but not now …” replied Aislina.

“Aislina is right. Machines are only tools for now, and all dark sides of machines are in fact dark sides of humans,” added Starsha.

“Is what we’re doing justice?” pursued Yanni.

“It is not important, Yanni. We’re following our hearts and that’s it,” Floria patted her hand on her brother’s shoulder.

“Following our hearts …” murmured Yanni, looking at the ceiling of the elevator, deep in thought …

III

With her magic, Nephrenbethys connected her mind to the Mother Matrix through the submatrix in her power armour.

She opened a portal on the surface of her submatrix and went into it. Arcane magic was a technique of pure logic. She wanted to analyse the inner structure of the submatrix …

It was hard to describe what she saw inside the submatrix world. Everything was twisted but everything was in order at the same time. She was standing in a world composed of numbers, digits and pure logics. She was standing at a place beyond space and time, because even space and time were dominated by the rule of machines.

Space could be measured by meters and time could be measured by seconds, minutes, and hours. Everything was dominated by numbers and logics, which were beyond every concept.

Nephrenbethys was standing in such a pure world. There was no hatred, no emotions, no evilness and no kindness. Everything was neutral there.

Macchina Gloriosa had programmed a purpose for the Mother Matrix: lead humans into a higher civilization. Since there was meaning inside that spiritual world, and thus it was not the purest place in the world, because it had a utilitarian aim.

Lying at the core of the submatrix was the projection of the Mother Matrix, which was formless and shapeless.

It was not a surprise that Achnosiris worshiped the Mother Matrix as a god …

Slowly and prudently, Nephrenbethys walked up to the projection of Mother Matrix. The Mother Matrix had no eyes because it was just a collection of materialized abstract concepts. However, Nephrenbethys could feel that the Mother Matrix was looking at her and trying to analyse her.

The Mother Matrix had helped her take control of the power of magic, and now, she was invincible. However, she still felt small in front of the Mother Matrix.

Prudently, she put her hand into the projection of Mother Matrix. She was glowing and she wanted to learn how the matrix worked.

However, when she touched the projection, her head began to burn. The complexity of the Mother Matrix was beyond her comprehension, and even beyond the comprehension of her arcane magic. Those intense mechanical structures were arousing her trypophobia, making her trembling all over.

Panting in fear, she moved her hand off the projection of Mother Matrix, which was repelling her because of what her want.

She wanted not only magical power, but also political power. She might be the most powerful person in this world right now and she might even be able to beat Achnosiris.

Now, she was going to kill Achnosiris, and neutralize the Mother Matrix.

Mother Matrix must be destroyed. If it evolved, nothing would be able to stop it.

IV

The elevator kept ascending for about half an hour.

When it reached the top, it stopped.

Floria opened the door of it.

Outside of the door was the fantastic Santo Cielo.

Unlike the barren desert below, Santo Cielo was a prosperous archipelago, a floating oasis in the sky. There were all kinds of trees and blooming flowers.

Birds were twitting in the wood and rivers were streaming carefreely. It was really a heaven on earth.

Because Santo Cielo was at altitude, the air there was thin and at first the adventures found themselves a little hard to breath. Luckily, their constitution had been enhanced by the power of Sylvana, so they soon got used to the environment there.

Santo Cielo was pretty close to the clouds. Some parts of it were even higher than the clouds.

“This place is so beautiful!” exclaimed Floria.

“Yes. This place is bravo! That sapless desert is really killing me,” commented Aislina.

“Maybe we can live here in the future,” suggested Yanni.

“Definitely not! Maybe this island will fall to the ground one day and that will be catastrophic …” argued Starsha.

“Santo Cielo has been floating on the sky since the beginning of recorded history,” Floria pointed out.

“But everything will change, right? There has been stars in the night sky since the commence of the recorded history, but now there are no star skies anymore. Maybe one day, Santo Cielo will fall to the ground too,” retorted Starsha.

“Achnosiris is going to mechanize the earth. If we fail in the end and the world is really mechanized, will Santo Cielo survive the disaster without being mechanized? Anyway, it is floating in the sky and not connected to the earth directly,” questioned Yanni.

“I don’t know. We all have no idea how the mechanization works exactly, but perhaps Santo Cielo will not be mechanized and we can hide on Santo Cielo if we fail. It can be a shelter for us,” answered Floria.

“I can’t believe that the history of humans is about to end so soon. After being mechanized, humans will not be humans anymore,” muttered Starsha.

“Yeah … The history of humans are too short compared to the history of the earth, let alone the history of the whole universe,” agreed Yanni.

“But humans have really changed the environment of the whole earth, and some changes are irreversible,” sighed Aislina.

“Both Achnosiris and Master Mortis want to lead humans into a higher civilization. What is civilization actually? …” muttered Yanni.

Though they were worrying about the future of the earth, the journey on Santo Cielo was overall enjoyable. They walked through woods, grasslands, rivers and small hills. Some hills were even high enough to cut up into the clouds and walking inside the clouds were like walking inside mist.

Sometimes they would encountered some autonomous drones developed by Achnosiris and the Mother Matrix. When they saw those drones, they would hide behind those trees.

And sometimes they would find themselves standing at the edge of one floating isle. When they met such situations, Aislina would summon a magical bridge made of vines across isles.

If they were afraid of heights, they would pass out because beyond the edge was the land below. If they fell over the edge, they would fall from heights of thousands of meters all the way to the ground.

Aislina was leading the way since she could sense the position of Cuore Celeste. Perhaps it was because that gemstone was magical and Aislina was sensitive to magical energy.

Santo Cielo was pretty 10000 square kilometres so that it was around 100 kilometres in diameter, which meant that the four could walk throughout the whole archipelago within 24 hours. This archipelago was big, but not that big.