4 The Tale Darkens
His world was shattered. AI can't betray them; it goes against their programming. Johnson slammed his body against a wall feeling the cold stone on his back. Doll said something but he couldn't hear her. Holding out his hands they were covered in a blood like red fluid. "Its to discourage idiots from harming our gynoids when they're in the field." A solemn voice said over the intercom. He looked up to see a single red eye on him. One of the many cameras belonging to Leroy the house AI. Leroy was the eye of father and the house manager. He looked after all the house robots and ensured that they were repaired often.
"Hey Leroy, is there a message from father?" Johnson asked asked snapping out of his reverie. There was no time to be soft not now not here. He could spill his guts to Doll or Caleb when this mess was over.
"No, your father is far too busy deactivating and reprogramming the battle droids to worry about inner house affairs. That job has been left to me." Leroy said. The eye flashed in pride.
"When I tried to hack the gynoid earlier there was another qi within it keeping me out. It was," Johnson closed his eyes. He remembered the animalistic hunger and madness within the qi. A fingerprint of whoever the qi belonged to. "Not human. I don't know what this creature is but the effect it has on the androids isn't its intention."
He had to look at the clues to find out how this new enemy's technique worked. There is always a point of infiltration. Doll wasn't infected. But was that because of their isolation or because of their closed system. She didn't absorb vital energy directly or qi for that matter. How was the qi not destroying the artificial pathways instead of altering programming? Think damn it.
"Leroy do you absorb vital energy or does father refill your battery?"
"Sir, I've been powered by what you could call a nuclear power cell for nearly 300 years. Those who function with qi can be accessed easily. The only way to control me is to access my terminal in your father's office. Unfortunately, this also makes me incapable of taking control of the androids who gave into rampancy." That crushed what evidence he had supporting his theory. Now he had only Doll to go by. She had a powerful battery. One filled with his qi.
"Does that mean there's a nuclear powerplant somewhere in the mansion!" The thought of a nuclear explosion tearing through the village leaving behind a glassed hole wouldn't leave him.
"Sir, we've gone off topic. I contacted you because the reinforced door protecting the survivors in natal care won't last long." Johnson's eyes widened. It had slipped his mind. How could he have been so stupid? The future of their house was in danger. If they died, then a whole generation of Farron would vanish.
"What can I do? I have no battle programs and Doll is only one assassin droid." That wasn't all his problems either. He wasn't a combat specialist in the least.
"You are stage 5 in cyber cultivation, stage 1 in body cultivation, and stage 6 in pathway cultivation. I'm certain that you can quickly grow used to a mystic art of the energy type. Though you will always be an energy type after you acquire it. Your neutral typing will vanish." That was one of the problems with cultivation. You eventually had to pick a side if you wanted power. Energy was weak against Stone, Wind, and could be redirected with metal. While a pure or neutral was equally deadly against everything. His father was neutral and the strongest in his generation.
"Turn a corner and you will find your brother Samson dead, but his Auto Compiler is still logged in. You can gain the AI he was working on and with it a mystic technique." Johnson looked back at the broken sex bot. The gynoid was twitching with what power was left in her circuits. If she still had a battery, she would have reattached her head. The nanites within her would have slowly repaired the damage.
He took a step around the corner to his brother's workshop. The fingerprint scanner on the door was red. Johnson placed his hand against it, but it read denied. Going back, he grabbed the sex bot and dragged her hand to the scanner. The light flashed green and the door opened.
Samson was in bed his cock out and a look of utter shock on his face. His body was bound to the bed and the purple handprints from a gynoid model sex bot were around his throat. Johnson pulled the covers over his brother's body. Taking a pair of keys on the bed table he unlocked his brother's arms and feet.
"How many more of brothers will I find like this?" Johnson asked. He picked up the compiler. It was a portable model but still powerful. The only part that came from the Saxon's was the screen. The rest his brother had made himself. Using his qi, he connected himself to the open access of the compiler and downloaded the mystic technique Energy Beam.
With the download, he felt the AI join with his programming and adjust his code to house it better. Some lines were reworked while others were tossed aside in favor of better code. "Hello there, I'm designated quickQi you have copied me into your system are you perhaps my creator." quickQi the AI said. The message popped up in the corner of his eye was annoying but the freed of SOCs were a god send. He had nearly 2000 at his disposal now.
He felt qi dragged from his pathways without his permission and forced into his cells. Johnson froze as the process completed in moments. "I'm not your creator but you knew that didn't you. He gave a copy of you to me for testing. We have a lot to do."
Cstyle++: Mind stage 5 Function qi required next 10,000,000
NStyle: Body stage 1 body cleansing qi required next 5000
EStyle: Pathways Stage 6 Redundancy qi required next 200,000,000
Vital energy units 90,000 of 5,000,000
Qi units 400,000 of 1,000,000
SOC (Streams of Consciousness) 2000 of 10,000
System requirement 50% SOC
Qi Barrier 4000 of 4000 10% SOC lv1 – uses 1% of qi as a barrier. Once barrier is completed meditation is needed to restore it.
Skill Passive Cultivation +50 VEU/s 10% SOC lv1 – Absorb a small amount of vital energy constantly.
Skill Passive qi Saturation +10% qi storage 1%SOC lv1 – Use the Polysaccharide of every cell to store a small amount of qi.
Skill Passive qi cell wall +50 Defense SOC 8% lv1 – Create a primitive cell wall out of qi to protect cells from danger.
Skill passive qi enhance +10% to physical stats 10% SOC lv1 – Enhance the mitochondria of cells with qi.
Skill Active: Energy Beam 15% SOC when active damage unknown lv1 – A beam of concentrated qi transformed into a destructive energy.
His body felt alien to him. With all these new abilities, he hoped he would fuck things up. With the elevator shut down he made his way to the stairs. Doll continued behind him as his shadow while the red eye of Leroy continued to watch. The AI went into the background focusing on his job.
He made it to the bottom of the stair to see the body of another of his brothers. He had fallen with the charred metal slag of two battle droids. The fall hadn't killed his brother. It was the bullet holes in his bodies from the droid's primary arms. HIs brother was unrecognizable.
"I didn't know him there are so many of us could you blame me for not knowing one of my brothers." He asked.
"His name was Brian. I didn't know this master either but I'm sure he would be proud his sacrifice wasn't in vain. You will save your younger brothers." Doll said. Johnson nodded and slowly opened the door.
Doll pulled one of the undamaged secondary arms from a battle droid. It was a grenade launcher of some model with four rounds left. "The grenades are still good." Doll said.
He opened the door without a sound while he tried to stay low to the ground. The door was old, but it had been oiled regularly by the servant droids. Nata droids were designed with acute hearing to better care for children and hear their cries.
Blood dripped on the floor from the ceiling and walls. Gore had repainted the room in a hideously macabre fashion. With blues, reds, and black the natal droids had repainted their domain in their madness. Skulls were stacked in neat piles while the gore had been spread to evenly cover the soft blue that the walls once had. Rib cages were lain broken and torn while organs were pulped tossed about on the floor. Leaving only a single undamaged child in the only spot free of gore.
Johnson's eyes widened at the room. Bodies were torn apart. The skulls of children were smashed against walls and torn apart. In the center of the room was a single child quietly shaking. The boy might have been eight. Tears and snot covered his face as he shook silently surrounded by the broken bodies of his siblings. This was a trap.
His brother was right there but he couldn't save him. He couldn't save him and the children safe behind one of the panic room doors. These natal droids had retained a measure of intelligence. If it was one at a time, he might be able to kill them while Doll distracted them. Their best bet would be a fighting retreat but they're faster than him.
His decision was stolen from when one of the natal droids turned a corner and charged them with a meat cleaver in hand. She moved with inhuman speed crossing the 13 meters between them in nearly an instant. Doll moved grabbing the hand with the cleaver and kicking out a leg. The natal droid looked at Doll in confusion.
Johnson moved out of his frozen shocked position and powered up energy beam between his palms. 1500 streams of consciousness went into transforming neutral qi into a volatile kind of energy. He stood over the creature and felt his qi drain as a beam of energy the size of a fist slammed into the natal droid's chest. The technique punched through silicon flesh and metal frying important equipment within the natal droid's chest.
He took a step back and felt his body convulse uncontrollably. That had been his first experience in battle. "Doll how did I do?"
"You froze don't do that next time." Doll said easily. "I'm glad you unfroze."
A door opened leading deeper in the natal floor. It just opened by itself. "What are they planning Doll?" Johnson asked his own mind going blank while his body recovered from the technique.
He continued to shake. As she opened her mouth. "They mean to let us into a trap. There are no lights in that room and natal droids are equipped with night vision. A basic but effective plan." She picked up the cleaver and cocked a grenade in the chamber of her launcher. She pointed it at the doorway and fired. Boom!
Part of the wall exploded, and Doll cocked another grenade in the launcher. "Easy with the launcher we don't want the house falling on our heads." Johnson yelled through his ringing ears. Holes in the wall helped illuminate the room as the natal droids rushed them. All Johnson could do was back peddle as a meat cleaver nearly cut through his throat. Doll was in the fight using her superior combat doctrines to maneuver the droids away from him.
It became a deadly dance as a hammer, meat cleaver, and a piano wire attempted to capture the agile Doll. Johnson could feel his qi slowly grow as he cycled through the tainted qi of the gynoid he killed. After that brush with death, he wanted to avenge himself.
If he rushed in, he knew he would get in the way and possibly die. So, he studied the fight. He grew used to the flow of battle between the combatants but saw one moving in to disrupt the flow and ambush Doll from behind. Johnson quickly charged up another energy beam feeling the crackling energy flow through his body. The shaking grew worse as he pushed his hands forward and fired the beam. Blue light filled the air as the beam cut through the air and smashed into the natal droid. Johnson held it for a few seconds as it ripped through the chest of the gynoid and the lights went out of her eyes.
Doll use the distraction of the energy beam and slashed through two of her adversaries' throats spilling blue fluids all over the ground. Natal droids had no use for the expensive red dye fluids found in most gynoids. With the lack of fluids, the nanite chains within the gynoids couldn't send and receive messages at their normal rate. Given time they could stop the flow of fluid and began making more. But as it was now their movements began to slow.
Doll leapt out of the way as Johnson charged up and unleashed another energy beam. He felt his legs shake as they grew ready to give out. His body began to sweat heavily like he was rejecting this technique at his core. He held the beam until both droids were dead to the world. Doll with only one opponent used the hammer and cleaver in tandem smashing and cleaving apart her last opponent.
Energy Beam lv2 active skill 14.5% SOC 2000qi per second damage 1.5 x qi used– Your body has begun to adapt to the energy intensive technique and more information has been gathered. quickQi report: This technique is dangerous to the user your body is adapting quickly but energy type techniques are dangerous unless trained. It is recommended that the user begins practicing qi to energy transformation exercises.
New skill passive: Energy Transformation 5% SOC -5% SOC cost for energy – Your SOCs have grown better at transforming qi into energy. The more they practice the better they will get.
There is a reason why hardly anyone useed energy. Its volatile and dangerous. It can't be used to enhance the body except through a few rare rituals. Those who know of those rituals aren't likely to reveal them to an outsider from another clan. Then again it was one of the most destructive types out there. It was considered a true offensive type along with wind, fire, and destruction. The last one is just rumored to exist.
Doll glared at the blue fluid that covered her body. Her expression was alien and unreadable. The dress itself was battered and torn from a few near hits from the natal droids. "Let's get moving we have children to rescue." He looked over to Leroy's eyes and saw the damaged speaker. That's why Leroy wasn't warning them about ambushes. With no qi the house AI couldn't link up with him or send him messages. He felt it was for the best.
There was only one more room between them and the children. If this was a dungeon the next room would contain the boss. Johnson chuckled at that. He really needed to get out of here and meditate this day away.
The next doors they saw were covered in body parts stabbed into the door. Some of the wooden frame had children's teeth in them. They had been dragged through here bound and tried to hold on to the frame with their teeth. It hadn't mattered. Besides a few splattered bodies the children were dragged through here.
He turned the knob and came upon a blood splattered room. Several natal droids were stitched together with the bodies of the children with them. The children were still alive crying as blue fluids mixed with their blood traveling through multiple systems. Somehow the children hadn't died of shock or rejection.
One of the natal droids was in the center with all the others attached to it. Between her breasts was a child his body sunk into her and covered in tumorous growths. Her arms were stitching machines of some make he didn't recognize. When she saw him, she laughed? He recognized her as Gloria his own natal droid.
"Johnson you made it here, I had expected your father. Have you come to such on my breasts?" She pushed her naked swollen breasts up causing the child between them to scream in agony. Blood leaked from them instead of the artificial milk they used to. "Ah I remember when you suckled from me like many before you. I read you stories and filled you with hope. But you became a disappointment like many others. Only pain breeds strength." She slammed her hand against the child, and he squealed before going silent. "That's better. Such sniveling is unbecoming of house Farron."
"You are rampant. I'm going to put you down Gloria." Johnson choked out. This natal droid had indeed read him stories at night, and it was her breasts he suckled from. Before he was weaned and taken to the upper levels to become a man he was here. If a man of Farron had a mother, it was their Natal droid.
"Your eyes have changed. They hold the strength that a Farron should have. Maybe I will give that look to the children in that room. If they don't dishonor themselves with weakness." The child between her breast sunk into the cancerous growth and screamed as a grinding sound carried through the room. Gloria gripped her breast as gore squeezed from her nipples and she moaned. "Yesss this is what strength feels like. You have no idea what its like to become a part of me. But you will soon." Boom!
Doll shot a grenade from the launcher and it exploded in the center of mass of all the natal droids. A hole opened in their flesh and Johnson knew this was his chance he thrust his hands forward and unleashed his energy beam. The blue beam tore into the monster but then the monster tore away from the beam and charged against one of the nearby walls. It tore through it as another two children screamed and that horrible grinding noise echoed out.
"We have to chase it down and finish the job." Johnson said and doll nodded. She had only two grenades left, and she would have to make them count.
"There were no more children left for it to absorb, so we should be able to wear it down. Don't get close to it." Doll said as she charged after it with her grenade launcher at the ready. Johnson followed her determined to end it.
They went to the next room to see monstrous metal spider legs burst from the monster's body. The natal droids moaned in ecstasy while the children attached to the monster screamed. Johnson realized what it was doing. It was racing towards the stairs. It was going to climb them up and attack his brothers. His fully-grown brothers and absorb them. With their cultivation added to its own it would grow ever stronger. The mutated flesh around its body was beginning to form a spider's exoskeleton. It looked metallic. The natal droids within it began to crawl out connected by worm like bodies. One launched itself at Johnson arms outstretched and mouth opening obscenely wide. He could see its throat, down its esophagus, and the meat grinder within.
Doll pushed him out of the way pushed her launcher forward. Before she could pull the trigger the natal droid bit down severing Doll's arm. They heard the gun and doll's arm enter the meat grinder. Only for that gynoid to be ejected from the main body before the grenade went off. They were all thrown back. Doll was losing a lot of fluids applying pressure to her stump to keep from losing all her fluids.
There was no choice now. Johnson knew he had to either buck up and end this or die. He had plenty of power and that metallic exoskeleton was missing a chunk inside it. An energy beam charged up and fired from between his hands. Johnson doubled it hitting the inside of the monster. It was about to move when Doll took her arm off her stump and threw the last grenade with such force that it went off when it hit the ceiling. Rubble fell from the ceiling on top of the monster.
Johnson approached Gloria as she struggled. When he approached, she grabbed ahold of her chest and opened it up revealing a vagina like entrance. From the urethra a green jet of liquid shot out. He dodged barely and it melted the nearby floor evaporating in seconds. Three inches of stone was gone with the acid.
"Jump in me and be reborn as something stronger. You know you are weak and unwelcome among your family. That mark on your face is proof of it. Let me be a mother to you like you've always wanted." Gloria pleaded.
"I became a man a long time ago Mother Gloria. Men don't need their mothers. That's why we are men. For my brothers my real family die." She shrieked and leapt at him to force him inside her. The rubble stopped her from getting too far. He showed her his palm and blue energy crackled as he prepared to finish it. From his hand a beam blue like the tail of a comet shot forth impacting her beautiful face.
Though the blue beam he watched her face melt away revealing a metal face plate, her eyes turned red before cracking and shattering, and then the metal melted away. So complete was the destruction of her head only a stump oozing a purple mix of blue fluids and blood remained. Still the monster struggled. Nanites moved slowly extending from the stump searching for the dearly departed head.
With the head gone the neck made a perfect tunnel to the monster's inner workings. If he left it alone surely it would regenerate in some way. He pushed the last of his qi from the forefront of his reserves and unleashed an energy beam through the tunnel leading deeper in the monster.
There he remained standing tall like a heroic statue; his knees bent to counter the force of his own attack. Blood fell from his lips, his ears, and slowly from his eyes. As a stage 5 cyber cultivator his control over his qi had been stretched to their absolute limits. Energy was a volatile transformation and it didn't play well with the body.
From the spider like shell in the rubble a stream of blue light began to erupt. His energy had finally ripped through the monster and built up pressure. It wanted release and there was none where he drove the energy into the stump tunnel. Something had to give.
An explosion knocked him off his feet. The monster burst apart like a over filled balloon. Most of its inner workings were fried. Johnson let himself collapse to his knees and looked at his hands. They were blackened. 2nd and 3rd degree burns littered his fingers from stray bolts of energy. It would be weeks before he could summon another energy beam.
Slowly, he stood back to his feet and walked over to Doll. Every step was a struggle, he was qi starved and the light was fading fast.
His body was shaking, he was out of qi, and making more was too slow. Ripping off a piece of his shirt, he tied it tight around Doll's stump. Bleary eyed, he saw it on her face. She was thankful. Many of her functions weren't working. "Is it dead?" Johnson nodded. "Good." He fell to her side on the cold comforting ground and greeted the darkness like a friend.
