Incompletely Complete
“What are you doing, Zao?” it was the first time I have heard her voice, and it wasn’t like I imagined at all.
A croaky hoarse voice that could only belong to someone with a throat cancer came out of her red lips. Her eyes slightly closed, showing that merely speaking was a painful activity for her. I figured that the poison had already damaged her vocal cords.
“You have suffered enough my child. I apologize, but I cannot allow you to take this man’s life” The weapon’s ancient voice echoed again, speaking to its wielder.
XA-0 kept changing shape and growing rapidly until it was too heavy for her to hold properly. She gritted her teeth, refusing to let go of the now heavier weapon, holding it by the handle while the tip hitting the sand with a small thud.
“I know you have never failed a mission before, but you have to let this one go Ryola”
“I WILL NOT” she loudly croaked, mustering her strength to move the weapon, a thin line of blood sliding down from her mouth.
With much effort, Ryola held the weapon like a baseball bat and dashed towards me. Trying to bash me in a melee.
“Adam, do not allow XA-0 to touch you, it will instantly separate your soul from your body” Warned the AI, stating that the weapon is still as dangerous in melee as it is from range.
Ryola steps became heavier and heavier, the weapon kept growing at the tip as if preventing her from moving completely, but she relented and kept heading in my direction with bloodshot eyes.
The weapon was now the size of a tank’s gun. Panting and sweating, she couldn’t move it anymore, her eyes never left mine, looking at me like caged tigress staring down a little lamb.
“Ryola, you don’t have to do this. Please! Let me help you” I urged the Laireen straining her body before me.
She suddenly moved her eyes away from me, looking up at the night sky and closed them.
“CHILD! DON’T” A deafening roar came out from the XA-0, Ryola was doing something probably she wasn’t supposed to do.
Her armor started changing colors, taking a red hue. The tattoo on her forehead changing shapes to a more simple pattern. The black veins on her body creeping up beyond her jawline and two lines of blood trails coming down from the corners of her eyes.
“Adam, watch out. I’m detecting a big spike in power coming from her” Alerted Cordi, warning me that the woman in the now-red armor is up to something.
With a shrill of pain coming out from her, a pair of red boney wings came out of Ryola back, her bloody eyes shot open.
D-Did she just use Oojin?
I didn’t even have a chance to think about what she just did. She disappeared from my sight in a blur.
Before I can even react, my back was hit with a powerful kick sending me flying forward, making a long line in the sand with my body as i hit the ground.
Without even giving me a chance to stop, another kick in my side changed my direction and flipped me over on my back. I groaned in pain and quickly checked the HP bar in the corner of my vision, it showed that I have only 17% left, only from two hits.
I laid down on my back motionlessly. Her foot pressing hard on my neck, pinning me to the ground while she held the gigantic weapon like a golf club, ready to strike the most vulnerable area in my body, my brain.
She looked me in the eyes with a look of sorrow, her lips moved to form words I didn’t hear, but I definitely knew what she was saying.
“I am sorry,” she said, swinging her weapon with all her might, probably putting everything she had into this one shot, a bloody tear could be seen forming in the corners of her crimson eyes.
A strange feeling shot forth from the bottom of my soul, I didn’t exactly know what is it, maybe it was the human life preserving emotion that humans feel when their life is threatened, but this was so much more. I felt like I was so hungry... Hungry for power.
I didn’t want to kill her like I did to Komaal, I knew she was probably a victim, I knew she didn’t want to kill me. I wasn’t afraid of death, I got mentally used to it since the day I was told I have a brain cancer, but I didn’t want it to end like that, there was so much to do. And at that moment I realized that I cannot allow myself to just die a dog's death. I wanted so much.
LIKE HELL IT WILL END LIKE THAT!
I wanted to see more of this world, I wanted to have friends and family, I wanted to experience love, I wanted to soar the skies, dive into bottomless oceans, see everything my eyes could see.
I wanted to help Mahaar with his lost limbs, I wanted to save that woman standing on my throat. I wanted to get back at that goddamn Noran.
I wanted limitless power, I wanted to live, I wanted … EVERYTHING.
“Order, and the universe obeys, Adam the first” her voice rang in my head. Her usual giggle warmed my heart, telling me that everything will be okay. I just smiled. While i didn't understand what she said, I didn't even pay attention to the weapon nearly touching my temple with my fading vision. Everything … Will be … Oka-.
<…>
[N??e? H??a?]
*** Mahaar POV ***
I finally found them, how dare they sneak out and leaving me alone, a couple light punches will teach these two not to leave me out agai-.
By Gola, ADAM! I ran as fast as I could, the woman moved too fast for me to see and kicked him brutally in the back. She didn’t stop for a moment and appeared next to him, kicking him again on his side. His body twisted in air a couple of time before he landed on his back.
I tripped and fell down, my balance wasn’t the same with my missing arms. I shot back up again and continued running as fast as i could towards them, reaching out to my back and taking my father’s arm, ready to strike down the traitorous filth of a woman.
She lifted her foot and pressed it to his throat, cutting off his breathing and getting ready to strike his head.
“Forgive me Gola” I was ready to awaken, they were too far for me to stop the woman. Even if I put everything, I couldn’t reach her in time.
I Felt power surging inside me and started to put everything in my legs, but I stopped completely. My feet frozen, refusing to obey me. Sweat formed in every corner of my body at the sight before my eyes.
Before even the weapon touch Adam’s head, the woman was sent flying. No, she was floating in the air like an animal trapped in a place without gravity, spinning around and thrashing her limbs in all directions, her weapon floating around her with no trace of the black smoke it usually emits.
The air became so heavy that I found it hard to even breathe let alone moving, the sand and rocks flew upwards around him like that area has suddenly got its gravity reversed.
Adam’s body shot back up into a standing position without moving a muscle, his eyes were glowing brightly blue like some kind of a deity from the ones I saw in colored parchments when i was a child. He was looking at the woman spinning in the air above him. Her armor disintegrating until she was completely naked.
I wanted to go check on my friend, but every instinct in my body screamed otherwise, I ignored them and with steady slow steps, I started stepping towards the couple.
Approaching until I was dozens of meters away, everything suddenly went Heavier, I feel down on my knees unable to breathe,like something was pinning me down to ground, suffocating me.
“A-ADAM!” Dry air came out of my mouth, but thank Gola he heard me. He turned his head slowly in my direction and everything lightened, allowing me to breathe normally again.
He approached me slowly. With each step he made, sand and rocks swirled violently around him as if the universe itself making way for him.
“Mahaar, give me the arm” he ordered looking up at me, his voice changed, and his glowing eyes felt like staring into my soul, shaking it to its core.
I was reluctant to give it to him at first, he wasn’t the Adam I knew, he was something much, much more, but for some reason only Gola knew, I completely trusted him with my most precious possession.
Without reaching out for it, the arm floated to him by itself, landing right into his open palm.
He looked at it for a second and a smile of satisfaction formed on his lips. The stump at the end of the arm split open like it was craving to get attached, and with a wave of his hand, another one in my top left arm opened without a single drop of blood.
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My father’s arm shot forth into the stump, uniting itself with my body, giving me its power, my father’s power.
I was so overwhelmed I couldn’t stand up anymore, tears I didn’t will filled my face, memories of my early childhood with my father engulfed my mind. Him flinging me in the air after every training session with the arm that is now part of me.
Memories of the arm itself started entering my brain, countless memories of punches, blows, strokes and slaps came out from the arm, embedding itself into me, adding to my battle experience.
I was so entranced that I failed to notice the fading golden color of the arm, it was turning into a metallic one that crawled across to the other arm while the immense power of the arm started seeping into me.
I raised my head back to the man only to find his big fist a few breaths away from my face and a big grin on his. I clenched my new fist and punched his. Not able to contain my excitement, I forgot that I put too much force into the punch.
Our fists met in a huge boom, sand and rocks flew everywhere from the shockwave our fist pump made, I was worried that I might have hurt him, but to my shock, he stood there just fine with a satisfied expression on his face.
By Gola, just how strong did he just become?
“T-Thank you Adam” these were the only words I could say, and he replied with only a slight nod.
He turned away from me and started walking up to the treacherous Laireen, and without a word, I followed.
She stopped moving completely, just floating in the air motionlessly as the now-shrunk weapon beside her, yellow liquid mixed with blood coming out from between her legs and particles of tears floating around her eyes.
“Mahaar, please give me your jacket,” Asked Adam and I instantly took my top off and handed it to him.
The unconscious Laireen started descending down in my direction, I caught her in my arms and looked at her body, it looked … dead. Countless black veins covered her from head to toe, it looked so dangerous even I with my resistant skin was reluctant to keep holding her.
“Don’t worry, it’s not contagious,” Adam said while throwing the jacket on her, covering her small body completely. He then took off his clothes and picked up the weapon with it.
“Also, take this” He put the weird weapon on top of her body, wrapped in his own clothes. “Don’t directly touch the weapon, it’s lethal to touch. When you reach the hotel, put her in the bathtub and set the water to minus nine degrees, it should give her a few more hours” he continued while heading towards the sea in a steady pace.
“W-What about you?” I asked him, concerned that he’s not coming with us.
“I have to go somewhere Mahaar, but I will be back before sunset tomorrow. For now, just do what I told you, and remember to stay away from the weapon” he replied without looking back, ankle deep in the water already.
“Adam, why?” I had to ask him, it was bothering me that he kept her alive after she tried to take his life moments ago.
He turned his head back to me understanding my question, the bright glow in his eyes and his deep voice were fading away, and a look I didn’t understand covered his face.
“I don’t know my friend, I don’t know” he replied with a sigh coming out after the last sentence while keeping a faint smile on his lips. then turned around and kept walking into the water until he disappeared completely.
*** Adam POV ***
What in the fucking hell was that? I thought while slowly treading the seafloor searching aimlessly for my destination, the AI is nowhere to be found.
When I thought everything was over, something inside me clicked. I felt immense force erupting from the back of my mind, spreading to every inch of my being. My wounds instantly healed, my bones mended. I simply felt , unparalleled.
It was like the world itself was bending to my will. With just a thought i could take on anything and I just instinctively knew how to deal with everything: how to reattach the arm, delay the V0 poison inside Ryola, and deal with anyone who dared to cross my path. It was like someone opened my head and poured new ideas and information inside, giving me new insights into the inner workings of the world around me.
This state of tranquility and immense power is now gone, like what was possessing me gradually vanished, returning me to my normal self. It was too abstract to understand what happened.
just what did the AI just do, or was it the little girl’s doing?
While I was drowning in thoughts on that state of immense physical and mental power I had, a familiar voice echoed in my head, the meters and map in my vision started appearing again.
“Adam, what are you doing?” She immediately questioned me with a serious tone.
“Nice to see you back Cordi” I nonchalantly ignored her, still crawling on the seafloor, fighting the pits of sand my feet keeps sinking in.
Before she could reply back, I asked her about what she did a couple of hours ago,
“Cordi, what did you do to me when Ryola was swinging down that weapon at me?”
“I did not do anything, Adam, I have no data after mobilizing the Yoctomachines to fix your broken spine”
So, it was the little girl’s doing? No matter, I have to focus on what I have now, and fast.
“Cordi, I need some help here” Pointing at my knee-deep feet, urging the AI to find a solution for my snail-like progress, and she instantly did.
[Scombrinae] [Isurus] [Xiphias] [Istiophorus]
The pain soared in my back, sides, calves, ankles and the back of my arms but it was nothing new to me. I looked in amazement at the several different fins coming out of my limbs. I could move every single one of them at will, even hide them completely, blending them with my skin which I was very thankful for, I didn’t want to look like a mermaid walking around.
I tried to swim normally but failed, it seemed like I needed to mentally get used to my new fins and it wasn’t that hard. In a couple of minutes, I was shooting forward like a bullet in water, turning around didn’t prove to be hard as well. I swam like I was born underwater.
“Cordi, draw me a path to Hamburg,” I asked and immediately GPS-like lines appeared on the map in my vision which I instantly followed like a speed train, a whopping 364 Km/h appeared on my speed meter.
The sea was much like I was expecting, not a single form of life to be found, only sunken rusty ships and ruined ancient cities of my old world that I used as maneuvering practice on my way to Hamburg.
In a couple of hours, I reached the ancient German city. Everything was in ruins, most of the buildings were missing huge chunks, thousands of rusty cars filled the streets. but the majestic city was beautiful nonetheless, just like I saw it on the internet way back. The city design with what used to be a waterway running through it, the square shaped buildings with its magnificent architecture, it was a city I longed to someday visit in my past life.
Now I was in the place the army leader was pointing at in my dream, but I had no idea where to start searching. So, I went in random directions, trying to find a clue on what the leader wanted me to do here. it was dark, but my night vision made it no different from normal sight where the sun shone.
I asked Cordi if Bertini had sent the Data on his organization findings in the area, she said there was nothing of notice in the data aside from the normal objects they usually found. After a few hours, I was starting to get tired from the fruitless search and thought about going back to my friends at Kaiserstein, but something caught my eyes.
“Cordi, what’s that beautiful building over there?” I pointed at a big building still intact after all these years, a big bell tower was on top of it.
“This is St. Michael's Church Adam, one of the most prominent landmarks in Hamburg” The AI gave me some info about the beautiful building, almost unchanged by the events in the past 1500 years.
I dove down towards the building. The door was shut, but it didn’t take much effort to break the lock and entering the church. I was met by beautiful ornamented white walls with a huge golden organ in the middle which I kept staring at for a while, but something instantly caught my attention making me shift my eyes back from the organ.
I felt an extremely faint trace of energy coming from under the altar, I immediately dove towards it and scanned everything with my eyes. I detected a hollow area right under the altar, and with a bit of force, I managed to move it a little, revealing a trapdoor under.
Diving down into the hidden room, I found a long hallway leading to a dead end. but I kept swimming anyway. At the end of the hallway, there was a wall that looked slightly different from the adjacent ones, a well preserved large painting encased in some kind of plastic material was hung on it.
The situation was weird because I didn’t detect anything beyond the wall, why would someone build just a hallway under the church, was it to protect this particular painting?
I approached the painting and gasped at what I saw, a flurry of bubbles shooting out of my mouth.
you’ve got to be kidding me!
It was a painting of the same barren land in my dreams, but without the armies, bugs, or babies, only an endless rocky brown land with a blackish tint. I also saw the hill I stood at, it was the highest place in the dead valley.
Other than the painting, everything looked normal, no hidden doors or windows, no buttons no levers… nothing. The painting itself didn’t show anything special too with its metallic golden frame.
I was starting to get frustrated, until I felt another pulse of energy coming from the painting, I immediately took it out with little effort, expecting to see something hidden behind it, but there wasn’t anything of notice.
In a wave of anger I threw the painting away like a frisbee, making it spin around in water heading into a wall.
I don’t know if it was fate or just stroke of luck, but as soon as the painting hit the wall, it started spinning rapidly while expanding in size, the painting suddenly disappeared and the frame kept expanding until it was as large as a door.
I watched the scene before me in surprise, the door floated in water in front of me, streaks of blue and green light emitting from it like a portal, inviting me to go inside into another place.
Without wasting any more time, I swam to the door, and slowly reached out with my hand into the light. And just like that, I got sucked inside the door in a flash, the bright lights overwhelming my senses.
In a large empty rectangular room with dark gray walls and not a single window, I stood there rubbing my eyes from the light that nearly blinded me moments ago, nothing could be seen in the room, except for a round platform in one of its corners.
Cordi was nowhere to be found. She disappeared again, along with everything she provided in my vision.
Trying to scan my surroundings, I started activating my x-ray vision to detect anything beyond the walls, but what I heard made me stop what I am doing and run around sticking my back to the nearest wall and raising my arms in a quirky fighting stance.
“This one bow to your honorable presence, Keeper of the cycle”
“W-WHAT? w-who are you?” I jumped back, the toneless monotonic sound scared the hell out of me.
“This one is Archivist3012, guardian of this vault. Please step into the platform, Lord Primus” the voice echoed again throughout the room, instructing me to move into yet another place.
He’s clearly mistaking me for someone else, I’m nobody’s lord … Wait! the army of humans also mentioned the word “Primus” in my dreams. what the hell is going on here? this shit is getting more weird by the second.
Without elaborating with the strange voice, I stepped into the round platform, and everything suddenly changed.
*** Cordi’s POV***
<” This one greets the Empress. This one apologizes. Lord Primus enters the vault alone. This one asks forgiveness”>
<9008756821248 matches found. Matching…>
<” Requesting Identification”>
<” This one AV-3012”>
<” Requesting additional data. Keyword: Empress”>
<” This one calculates... 99.8542006% total computing power loss detected”>
<” This one advises the empress to acquire a backup of the missing data packets from multiple starfortesses”>
<” This one searches for nearest starfortress… Sending coordinates...”>
<” This one asks permission to temporary halt formality protocol”>
<” Permission granted”>
<” Please take good care of Lord Primus, he’s not yet complete. Also, this one is pleased beyond code to see you back again, Mother”>
<” Requesting additional data. Keyword: Mother”>
“Cordi? You won’t believe what I found while you were gone”
*** Unknown location ***
Five robed figures stood across each other in a circular manner, surrounding another blue-skinned figure that seemed to be their leader sitting on a floating white chair. They were watching a hologram showing one of their best agents approaching her target.
She pointed her weapon at the target’s head intending to fulfill her mission, but the weapon didn’t fire and started morphing its shape as if refusing to kill the man, but she was relentless like she always been.
Ending her struggle with the weapon, she activated the surge armor the leader of the robed men gave her many years ago, breaking the Oojin seal on her forehead and allowing the poison to spread rapidly across her body, ending her life faster than intended.
She used Oojin and directly went for the kill, pinning the target down to ensure hitting the area that won’t regenerate, or at least that’s what she and her master believed.
when it finally came to the final blow, the holofeed suddenly cut off. making the room erupt in a storm of murmurs and arguments.
“SILENCE!” the echoing voice of the leader muted every other voice in the room.
Was it the doing of the being inside him? This is not good.
“Shipol” The leader called, and a large black figure came out from the shadows in one of the corners of the room and bowed in front of the leader.
“Head directly to the capital of Earth and find out what happened after the feed cut off, make sure the target is terminated, spare no resource, this matter is of utmost importance”
The figure stood up from his bowing position and turned to leave the room, but he stopped at the shimmering door and asked a single word question.
“Ryola?”
“Disposable, even if she’s still alive” replied leader quietly after a small pause while reaching out to Shipol telepathically, giving him a final warning.
“If you found that the target is still alive, no matter what happens, do not ever use a psychic attack on him or you will die and maybe endanger the whole empire. you have been warned, Shipol”
“Yes, my lord” the man communicated back before disappearing into the door.