Archive IV: About Lord Dominion's System III (Aleph and Dominion's After Talk)

'Fuck... We just crashed, and your little assistant thought it's the best time to do a fucking lecture?'

<Is the Archivist annoying you?>

'Not really. I don't want to see her gone completely, but she's getting on my nerves really, really fucking hard right now if I do say so myself.'

<Well... I could delete it. But it's not like I care! You need to learn these things, Aleph! Or else you will be an ineffective Praeceptor.>

'Ugh. Fine. It's good to see Mr. Unreasonable Dominion back in business. I do have a question, though.'

<Ask while I'm still feeling like it.>

'Can we hear what a person is talking about if we use the ZOOM command?'

<Unfortunately, we can't. Sceneries can be seen up close through the command, but sounds are complicated. It can be achieved quickly without the System, though. But it would need a specific mechanism first. Well, two of them.>

'Ah, sorta like a medium for communication? Yeah, I had seen and used one of that plenty of times in my line of work back then when I was still in Firmament. So if we would want to monitor what someone is saying, we need to plant a sort of mechanism on them that would send what they were saying to us?'

<Yes. The System, unfortunately, cannot do that on its own. You'd need the help of others.>

'How unfortunate. But I guess we can't have it all, even the gods.'

<It might pose as a weakness for us, but it is also an unfortunate weakness to others. The other gods can't hear us just as much as we can't hear them; even if they combine their powers to watch us from their castles on the clouds, they will never be able to get the full picture. Any attempts to observe and eavesdrop on our conversations are nothing but just that. Attempts.>

'That's reassuring. Ugh... My head fucking hurts. I can't believe we live through that.'

<Many factors contributed to your survival: the wind, the nature of your crash, and the material of this basket. The winds moved in your favor, so it really looked more like you were just riding on a much faster hot air balloon; that's all thanks to Times and his little sidekick! HAHAHAHA!>

'It really does look like that, eh? He has his very own ass-kisser.'

<Well, you gotta admit that the ass-kisser kinda saved your life. Whatever he did earlier really did make the hot air balloon move faster, even more with Vyur's wings. I just hope the two of them survived.>

'Fuck! You're right! Where are they anyway?'

<From the looks of it, it looks like they flew to the sky and darted near you. If you look around here, you might be able to see them. Get Miss Gertrude and walk around, see if you can find the two Vyurs. If we can't find them in an hour, we'll just have to walk.>

'Can't we just do something about this balloon? Maybe we can harvest it and fix the balloon somehow?'

<Not a bad idea at all, Aleph! We can definitely go with that. As long as we can assemble, start, and maneuver this aircraft, we're out of this place.>

'Haa... You're giving me too much credit, Dominion. I am no master of aeronautics. I barely even know how this bloody thing flies. I just know it looks funny, and it needs fire to fly.'

<Thought so. Well, we'll just have to abandon the balloon then.>

'Can't the damn thing just assemble itself once we recreate it?'

<Not possible, unless I know how to do it, then sure, but we're both dumb.>

'Ugh... Fuck... I think I just broke another bone somewhere. I don't know what's the logic there, but flying an aircraft above enemy territory is the shittiest idea I've ever seen, and no one can convince me otherwise.'

<Worse than Firmament exiling you?>

'Absolutely! You can at least make up excuses for Firmament. But that hot air balloon performance we did earlier was whack! Shit... I'm never riding a hot air balloon ever again.'

<Hey. Give the damn thing some credit. Look around you. If it weren't for the balloon, you would have been found dead somewhere in the mountains. Or worse, the kapres would have already churned your shitty human body and turned you into balete fertilizer. But you managed to pull yourself together and crash somewhere safe. Consider that your last stroke of luck because with how you pulled through today, I am more than confident that your luck has already run dry.>

'Haa... Look around me, huh? I don't even know what I'm looking at. Where the fuck are we anyway?'

<This? Hmm... I'm not sure yet, but it looks like we're in a ravine.>

'A very narrow one at that. Streets in Firmament are much wider than this one. But not too narrow that it gets suffocating.'

<So just enough.>

'Just enough. I see Skystead Keep above there; looks like this ravine goes up to the Keep if we just follow it.'

<I think I know what this place is now. The Auld Mountain Pass is the only way to head to Skystead Keep by foot. People usually get to the Keep through an aircraft, or in the case of the Vyurs, glide it till you win it.>

'Really now? How very convenient that we managed to crash in this place then.'

<Heh. I know what you mean. I don't know if you're the luckiest person I know, or this whole "clueless human" schtick you're doing is just one big overdone performance and you actually know what you're doing.>

'You're giving me too much credit again, Dominion. I'm not as smart as you think I am.'

<After talking to you for a few hours, I can definitely attest to that fact. Your luck so far just gets way too stupidly convenient sometimes.>

'Let me get this straight, Dominion. I almost died, got stuck in a bullshit eternity and a half with you, almost died AGAIN after encountering a VERY angry kapre, barely managed to live after seeing the most vicious man in the Keep. Then, our only mode of transportation to the Keep got compromised by an unknown warlord that may or may not be a spy from Throne's team. You call that lucky?'

<Well, you're still alive, right? Most people would have already died after going through their third life-threatening encounter.>

'I'm not like most people.'

<...Really now? You're a tall blonde man with blue eyes and shining white teeth. And you still have the gall to not call yourself basic?>

'Blame Gres for that.'

<No, you idiot! Gres at least has green eyes! That's like, a step above being a basic bitch. YOU, on the other hand, are the perfect Firmamentian stereotype but thinner and a whole lot more pathetic.>

'Are you done?'

<Yeah, I'm a happy boy now again. Tee-hee~>

'Right. So how should we get to the Keep from here?'

<I don't know. Never used this path much. But I heard it's only a one-way ravine, so I'm sure you wouldn't be lost. Heck, I'm still having a hard time recognizing this place.>

'If it's THE only ravine in here, how come it took you a while to realize what it was?'

<Are you really listening to me? This is a MASSIVE mountain range, you dimwit. Do you have any idea how many ravine there is in this area alone? But only one of them connects the Keep to the foot of the mountain. Most of the other ravines are more like natural roads the Vyurs cultivated to connect one city to another for people who travel by foot. Not that a lot of people walk in the Keep anyway. People mostly use an aircraft because the sharp twists and turns in these ravines make a short journey seem longer than it should be. >

'What do you mean?'

<You'll see. Last time I heard, it would take two or more days to go to the Keep through this ravine, Auld Mountain Pass. It would take only about less than an hour with an aircraft.>

'Haa... I'm starting to understand the logic behind the hot air balloon now.'

<And I'm sure Times has other reasons for making these uncharacteristic decisions. Let's listen to him later and give him an appropriate punishment depending on the severity of his mistake. I still think an appointed warlord leaving his position to go in enemy territory with little to no backup deserves some sort of punishment to remind everyone that not even a high-ranking figure like Times is safe from a nagging.>

'Well, we better start walking now. I don't know where the general and his sidekick is, but let's just hope for the best for them now. I've already injured myself enough; I can't carry two more people.'

<Get carrying then. You and the lady need immediate medical attention. I'll instruct you what you'd do when we're near. Let's just hope your luck works again, and Miss Gertrude here would wake up before the day ends so that you can explain the situation better. That way, she'd just be the one to vouch for your innocence on your behalf.>

While Dominion and I were bickering about what we would do in my mind, I suddenly heard a pained grunt on the basket.

'Looks like that luck you've been yapping about worked better than we expected, Dominion.'

<Gosh, I can't wait to see it run out soon.>