As it turned out, I was right on the money with my guess; Aurum was apparently the Goddess of Alqand. Things took a turn for the weird when I asked about queens though.
“So, you’re telling me Nymphs are all born from a Queen, which is like a tree that bosses you around somehow?” I asked. I didn’t like where this line of questioning was going; the word seedling came to mind when thinking about the tree-like form of queens.
Hati ughed. “Well, in most colonies, yes. But in Alqand the church is in charge, not the queens. Seedlings are also an exception.”
I frowned. “And colonies are?”
“Colonies are generally made up of the offspring of a single Queen, with the exception of Alqand of course. They all follow the commands of their Queen; some would even self-terminate if their Queen died.” Well, that was grim.
She stood up. “Are you back to full charge?”
“Yeah, I’m ready. I still have more questions though.” I got up from the ground.
“Next break, it’s my turn for questions actually.” She corrected me.
I sighed, fair was fair. Not like she’d believe me anyway.
We’d been travelling for what I guessed to be half a day. It would have taken much less time to go straight to the ‘elevator’, but Hati insisted the other seedling might not have cleared everything. I tended to agree, the st thing I wanted is to risk another fight with those robots and be caught with an empty gun, even with the help of my shields and newfound mobility.
After another 30 minutes of hovering about, we came to a halt. In front of us was a shabby looking metal bridge with a rge destroyed section in the middle with around 10 meters torn out of it; a dark abyss stretching far below it.
Hati sighed. “It wasn’t destroyed when I came through here st…” She tore her eyes from the bridge and looked at me. “I’m not even sure your frame is in good enough condition to fly, but we don’t have much choice.”
I frowned. I absolutely did not want to risk my life on this shoddy metal rubble pnk of a bridge. “You want me to just YOLO it over the gap? Seriously?”
She ughed at that. “We’re going to test you first, silly. And what does YOLO mean?”
I shook my head. “Nevermind that, I still don’t feel comfortable doing it.” To which she rolled her eyes.
“We have to wait for you to recharge anyway. Do you remember how I said it would be my turn for questions? Well, it’s your turn to answer them.”
My shoulders slouched. “I’m not sure you’ll understand or believe anything I tell you… but fine.”
We moved behind a colpsed section of wall, hidden from most angles.
“So, where did you want to start?” I asked.
“How about from the beginning? You said you remember life as a carbon based life for - humans you called them - what’s that about?” She opened one of the supplement bars I’d had by the spire, and passed it to me as she ate her own.
“Humans I suspect are the race that created this massive structure, and maybe even us, considering how much we look like robots on the inside.” I expined.
Hati holds up a hand to stop me. “You do realize that it was Aurum who created us, right? You’re treading dangerously with that line of thought…” Her face was cut in a stern expression.
I pcated her with an excuse. “Perhaps Aurum is a human then?”
She considered that and gave a hesitant nod. “I suppose it could make sense, only a god could create a pce like this… And the false sky… Clearly Hod is Aurum’s domain. Perhaps Aurum made both humans and nymphs in their image.”
“Hod? False sky?” She silenced me again with a raised hand.
“My turn for questions, remember?” I sighed in frustration. Normally conversations would be a back and forth, right? Plus, there’s no way I’m going to remember everything I want to ask whenever we next stop.
She gestured for me to keep going with my story. “Right… As I was saying, I was a human in my prior life, I lived to the age of 25, though I’m not sure how I died. I was an electrical engineer and had no real social life outside of my job…” I thought for a moment what important parts I should mention.
“I was actually male in my past life, but I think I prefer it this way; I guess you couldn’t really consider this body female though.” I said sadly, looking down at my hand as I flexed it in the dim light of Hati’s equipment.
Hati murmured some nonsense under her breath I only caught a snippet of. “Mail… Messenger of Aurum..?”
I cleared my throat. “Continuing on, I think that I lived in the distant past, because humanity was nowhere near being able to build everything I’ve seen so far at the time… Maybe the structure since it’s just concrete and metal, but even then I don’t think we had the resources to build something this massive.”
She nodded sagely to my expnation, and compared it to Nymphs. “Just like before we came up with frames, Nymphs were once helpless.”
Looking at me she pauses before asking another question, this one I have no answer for. “It’s strange to meet two newly born seedlings in these depths; do you know if she might have the same goal as you?”
“I’m not even sure what my goal is…” Though even as I said that I knew it was a lie; I had a clear goal in my mind to find humanity again; perhaps then I could live a more peaceful life. Hell, they might even know what happened with me to end up like this.
She gave me a look of disbelief. “Perhaps you can’t tell me until the time is right, but every seedling has a goal. Either way my question had two parts…” she trailed off signaling me to continue.
“I don’t know anything about her - only that she’s much more capable than I, and ignored me when I tried to get her attention.” I expined.
“So you did meet her then?”
I shook my head. “She was far off in the distance, so I shot my gun into the ground once to try and get her to look over.”
Hati ughed at that. “You do realize that gunshots are a constant background noise in these levels right? Unless you had shot at her, loud bangs weren’t going to get her attention.”
I shrugged. “No other options at the time.”
By now I felt recharged so I stood up.
“So, care to expin how we’re going to test this?” I asked her.
She stood up too, leading me to a nearby clearing, far enough away from the chasm that I wouldn’t stumble in like an idiot.
“It’s basically the same as hovering, but I want you to jump as high as you can before you try to hover, instincts should take care of the rest.”
I did as she asked, gasping in surprise as I easily jumped 12 meters into the air before moving slightly forward. It was much slower and more tiring than hovering normally, but it seemed I could do it.
I looked down at Hati with a massive grin. “I’m flying!” I shouted.
She gave me a thumbs up, but motioned for me to come back down.
Landing with a relieved exhale, I looked back towards the broken bridge I was just remembering I would have to cross. It almost made me wish I couldn’t fly and that we’d have to find another way… But well… Flying was pretty awesome I had to admit.
“You should still have enough energy left to cross, right? I’d prefer not to be stuck on the lower levels another day if I’m being honest.” She said.
I nervously nodded; judging by the test, I probably had enough to cross the whole chasm even without the bridge; although that made it no less nerve-racking.
I slowed my breathing, and quietly counted to three as I prepared myself. I had to avert my eyes as the dark concrete walls of the chasm seemed as though they might stretch down for infinity; the sight of it made me nauseous.
Hati went first, gracefully gliding across, though at a much lower height than I had managed; maybe her frame was less specialized for flight I guessed.
I hesitantly jumped into the air, and closed my eyes. I was sure I was aligned, but I didn’t want to risk my fright throwing me off bance. After a couple seconds of flying forward, Hati shouted at me from behind. “You’re good! You can drop down now!”
I opened my eyes, and sure enough, I was hovering over solid ground once again - this time on the other side. I plopped onto the ground and sat down as I managed to rex myself.
Hati gave me a pat on the back as she walked past. “Worn out again?”
My thruster it seemed was once again out of energy, so I gave her a nod.
She sighed, resting her chin on her hand. “We’re going to have to get you a better frame when we get to Alqand. Probably something mobility and energy based given your ck of BP function. Last I checked, my home settlement had a good Takemikazuchi frame in our stockpile; a little outdated but I think it’d suit you.”
I excitedly nodded. Getting a new frame like Hati’s sounded awesome. I wondered what this Take-something frame would look like.
We move to our final destination, a cargo elevator that takes us from the ‘central cavern’ as Hati calls this area, up to the ‘The Accumution Zone’. Only a few minutes away we were hearing louder and louder gunshots and cannonfire until it all suddenly stopped.
Entering the rge cargo room, a massive tank with twin barrels on its turret sits destroyed, a smoking wreckage.
Hati whistles in awe, “That’s a bit disconcerting.”
“Why? What is it?” I ask, not sure what this destroyed tank has to do with anything, I figured the tank was just like the other automatons we saw, but rger.
“Well, this was meant to be protecting the elevator.” She commented dryly.
Hearing the gentle hum of Nymph thrusters, we both look past the tank to the rge hole broken through the opposite wall. The demon nymph is gently gliding toward another one of those white trees, paying us no attention at all.
I stare, slightly mesmerized by the fact a being so small could cause so much havoc. Will I be able to do that? I want to be badass like that too…
To my - and actually Hati’s disbelief as well - we watch as she touches the tree before disappearing away in the wind with white petals, almost reminding me of cherry blossoms in spring.
“I suppose I shouldn’t be that surprised after everything that’s happened on my expedition, but still…” She sighs, throwing her hands up in a defeated shrug.
She looks bnkly at the ground in front of her for a moment, then nods to herself.
Looking back at me she expins. “Our outpost upstairs is going to lower the elevator, it’ll take a minute, just stay clear.”
Having my attention brought back to the elevator, I look up. A vast chamber at least the height of a dozen story tall building extended above us; in the center of the ceiling was a giant scaffold elevator shaft that ventured into the distance above, lit by solitary red emergency lights along its sides. A loud kxon arm echoed through the chamber, an obvious warning to clear the floor for the elevator.
The cargo elevator took a few minutes; I watched as it emerged from the darkness, lowered by cable from the hole in the ceiling down to the floor.
Hati motioned for me to follow her as it hit the floor with a cng - the arms killed with it.
It was empty. I had hoped a bit that there’d be someone new there to meet us after Hati mentioned an outpost, but no such luck.
The elevator came to life with a jolt, pushing me slightly off bance for a moment.
It took painfully long to raise, and it wasn’t until at least a minute into our ascent that I could see the faintest sign of sunlight above.
I sighed in relief. “The great outdoors at st.”
She chuckled at that.
“It’s a false sky, Silver; just an illusion.” She lectured.
I didn’t want to believe her since it looked like genuine sunlight, albeit sunlight smogged with blowing sand.
Sadly, on top of the sky being fake, we heard gunshots again, this time from above.
Hati cursed under her breath.
“Not the demon, I hope?” I commented wryly.
She shook her head. “Just some collectors, we should be able to handle them, but they’re trying to drag off one of our logistics nymphs. I might have to leave you with the others and lend a hand.” Like I’m a child or something… Okay, maybe a bad comparison to be indignant about now that I think about it.
“Collectors are?” I asked, curious about yet another unknown term.
She sighed, clearly tired of the questions by now, as her weapons charged up.
“Collectors are nymphs who scavenge - generally around the accumution zone and contaminated areas - for nymph and nymph variant corpses to sell for parts.” But that didn’t add up.
“I thought you said they were dragging off one of the nymphs at the outpost? They’re not dead are they?” I asked, a little more concerned for my safety now.
She wore a stern expression. “A defenseless nymph in this zone may as well be a corpse.”
I gulped.
We breached the surface into the Accumution Zone all too soon. Massive, but decrepit buildings walled around us, and what I assumed was once streets and alleyways we now stood in were covered in sand and ash.
Only two nymphs aside from Hati were standing nearby when we emerged, taking cover behind some makeshift defensive structures.
I couldn’t see much from where I stood, but what I did see was a disturbing sight.
The most normal looking nymph I’ve seen by far, y burying her face into the ground with her hands over her head. She was ducking to avoid getting caught in the crossfire above her. Unlike the rest of us, she had no frame on. She had regur pigmentation, and normal proportions as well (no stilt legs like I have).
The ‘collector’ Hati spoke of was making her way up a rge bank of debris, trying to get an angle on the outpost and shoot over our cover. Every time one of the outpost guards peaked to take potshots, the collector would y out suppressive fire, forcing them back to cover..
“HARUKA! CRAWL TO US!” The more agile looking one shouted at the non combat nymph over the barrier.
Hati approached them, and had a short conversation before backing away as she charged her massive shoulder rail.
In a bst of debris she unched a few meters into the air, only hovering still for a moment. In that short moment machinegun fire and tracer rounds flew around her, even a few near misses. She didn't flinch.
Hati releases the shot she had charged on the rail, and after a loud explosion, the gunshots cease. In their pce, a loud wailing.
She nds, and the other two give her a nod, one of them even gave her a thankful pat on the back for a job well done.
As the collector's screams of agony continued over their little celebration, I looked down at my weapon, it felt much heavier than before.
I thought to myself: What a fucked up world.
AnnouncementPlease like and comment if you enjoyed! I added more reference images to chapter one if anything confused you from the way I described things.
