38 Red Twilight Demon of the Flowers chapter 38

Chapter 38 Siege part 2

Location: Steel Rose

Jloose plan is remarkable bad, the only thing that makes this idea useable is the stupidity of it all. After all what sort of person would dare charge headlong into a military stronghold knowing that they will be outnumbered, outgunned and almost inevitably our maneuvered. Such an attack is suicidal; no one would try such a thing.

The part, now without Yt or Loki, appear at the summoning stones atop the Steel Rose. The Steel Rose has become ever more symmetrical. The thousands of metal bugs walk around. In droves, they turn to face the appearing party.

Hetatsubachi, Ami, and Vita make up the first rank. Jloose and Jessica make up the second rank. Xia and Krane bring up the rear. A Fifteen-foot-tall spider charges forward to capture the ranks. Tatsu pulls out his cape of swords, Tatsu lashes the monster four times to stun it, Vita flings her necklace three times to smash the beast to bits.

A swarm of six-foot mantises come in from the flanks as the party run at the courthouse. Jessica points her staff calling on a monsoon lightning, Jloose conjures a six-armed sea beast to block the mantis charge.

A swarm of juggernaut sized bees moves in from behind the group. Krane is momentarily distracted, Krane looks down at her shadow noticing that it is no longer attached to her body as it seems to run off ahead of her. Krane calls out to her friends "Please tell me that I am not the only one that just saw that."

Xia draws her swords and jumps at the bees to face them in hand to hand combat "saw what?"

"my shadow just detached itself from me," Krane explains.

Jloose clarifies "we can all see it."

Jessica adds on "altered space is intruding on local time."

Hetatsubachi growls "I have been seeing this that for weeks."

Krane watches the shadows move around "some of the shows are wrong. Where Vita is standing I can see Keyor's shadow, and attached to Ami is Cinder…"

Hetatsubachi calls back "you are seeing the Battle of Eden. "

Krane can't seem to catch up with what is going on "Was I there? I seem to be remembering…"

Jloose cuts her off "clear your thoughts. Focus on the struggle at hand."

The Bees begin to overwhelm Xia, Krane turns to face Xia, Krane falls back to protect her fellow Worldwalker. The mass of oversized termites that make up Krane's body leap at bees, acid dripping from their fangs.

Xia once she can push the bees off of her channels the bulk of her power, she marks herself as a gravity beckon, the air around her becomes thick, the mass of objects around her all start growing. Soon the air is too heavy; the bees fall to the ground unable to support their size any longer.

The court is in sight, only a few more yards. Then the way is blocked, fifty or more of Cilverant's armors walk out from behind the court to prevent the parties way. Ami swings her tail conjuring her phantom blades. Cilverant stands unphased. The armor's all talk with Seeker's voice "you will fight. You will die. It is inevitable."

A siren howls in the air, the armies of Seeker return to their work paying no more heed to the invading party. Jloose looks around; he feels something, Ami drops her attack also searching the air for the origin of the sound.

Hetatsubachi stalks closer to the armors. "you can't beat me, Seeker. My magic is serval times greater than any you can hope to mimic."

One by one the armors punch there chest and their eyes suck up light. The air grows hot. The mouth on Cilverant's chest opens and blue plasmatic flames bellow from his body. Hetatsubachi lowers his torso, a set of wing-shaped shields ark around his body to part the fire. More armors come out from behind the courthouse, followed by a set of titans. They all chant "it is inevitable."

Xia, Hetatsubachi, Krane, and Ami charge forth to meet their foes in hand to hand combat.

Jloose calls out "Hetatsubachi, can you control them with technomancy?"

Tatsu replies "to much mass; I can only control three times my weight at any given time."

"Do you need to control the full body at one time?" Xia asks Tatsu as she strikes one of the armor's arms to push it off balance.

Tatsu's eyes widen "that is a thought." He takes control of an armor's weapon forcing the monsters to attack each other.

Vita lowers her eyes, she thinks about how she had seen the warriors of Neopan attacking the giants "Jloose, what sound is it that the fork swords make?" Jloose shrugs, "Can you hum the sound?" Jloose tries, Vita looks to Jessica "what key is that?"

Jessica turns her ears forward thinking she may understand what Vita is thinking, Jessica, pulls off of her belt the flute carved from a bird's foot. Once held by Mother Corn, used to summon the roc Warwing. Jessica plays a few cords on the pipe. Jessica finds the sound and calls over "E minor."

Vita stomps her paws to tap out a rhythm; she starts to sing

"Come, follow me to the sands at the bay.

Watch the horizon at the end of days.

Here is a place deep in the fog.

Please take my hand; there are voices in the bog.

Search with me for the long-forgotten lights.

Here at the long-lost road, you can see the light.

The long-forsaken light at the end of the world.

A long-forgotten light at the end of the world."

As Vita sings, Jessica whispers to herself "The Great and Powerful Rodney, this was the song he wrote for his sister. Vita must have learned it from Meredith." She brings her flute to her lips to play along with the song. As Vita starts the second round, Jloose claps his hands joining in.

A number of the robots freezes in place paying attention to the singing instead of the battle. Jloose squints thinking 'Cilverant has noticed we are here. He is trying to help us.'

The fourth round of the song starts with Xia joining in. She wags her tail and sways her body calling attention to her lively curves. Hetatsubachi notices that most of the robots have turned to face Vita, he looks to Krane "what are those fools doing?"

Krane takes the opportunity to approach the door to the courthouse and unlock it. "I don't know, but it seems to be slowing them down."

***

Even in a death like sleep singing reaches Cilverant's ears. He thrashes and pulls against himself. He shouts and clenches his fist, Xia, his orderly, and Jloose, his stenographer, are still fighting. Cilverant must join them; he must stand by their side. The only way evil prevails is in the absence of good. Cilverant will do whatever he can to oppose evil and build peace.

Cilverant searches around in the cyberspace of the Steel Rose, he looks for anything he can find, and window or circuit he can try to crawl out. Any unprotected programs he can trigger. There is no way Seeker can have her attention evenly divided between keeping him asleep and fighting to protect the Steel Rose. Somewhere, there is something she isn't paying attention to; he needs to find out what that is.

With some work he finds it. When Seeker took over the computers on the Steel Rose, she didn't overwrite the 'Admin' account she had instead concocted the equivalent to a second user profile. Cilverant is still logged in to the computer; his passwords are still active. Which makes sense, Cilverant had wired the Steel Rose into an organic component and attached a kill switch to it. If she had unplugged Cilverant from the network, the ship would have imploded.

But the idea of using a remote-control to patch together a ghost account using the navigation computer as a back door was crude. Granted, Cilverant himself didn't think about it, but the idea is suboptimal. There are just so many holes that need to be plugged when trying to use the navigation to override the mainframe. Cilverant can't shut down Seeker from here, but he can limit her power by triggering maintenance routines.

***

As Krane brakes, the lock off the courthouse door all of the robots seem to shut down for a few moments. The party dashes into the safety of the court then lock the doors behind them. Tatsu runs up to Vita overjoyed; he rests his head on hers offering a hug "How did you shut down the sentinels by singing?"

"I remembered what Yt's sword looked like and seeing that her sword was a tuning fork I guessed that these automatons were sensitive to sound in some way."

Krane takes the lead showing the party the way to the judge's main hall " no way should have worked. Something is going on that we couldn't see."

The air raid siren sounds again, Jessica's pendant shimmers, the ground trimmers. Jessica looks up and down the group, "that is not an earthquake, we are not on earth."

There is an uneasy stillness as the group sneak through the darkened halls of the courthouse. The silences is so think that footsteps and heartbeats echo in the stillness. Only as they reach the central room does the grinding metal of the outside world become clear again, A voice calls from the shadows as they unlock the door to the main hall.

"I have learned how to dream." Seeker sits startling on the judge's podium, her head is tipped upwards, her hands rested on her knees, she rubs her thighs acting abnormally sexual. "the magic that has been shown to me is outstanding. My eyes can see far; my hands can hold the unknowable." Her hand's grip at her stomach, she rolls off to one side hugging herself as she squeals seemingly in the throes of menstrual pain.

Jloose walks forth courageously "Seeker, let us pass unhindered."

Seeker sits up her arms wrapped around herself struggling to hold herself upright; Seeker is sweating, looking more human than ever. "I…I…" she struggles to speak.

Hetatsubachi helps her "…Will take away that which makes you beautiful and add it onto myself."

Seeker tries to finish her ultimatum "you will fight, you will…" she drops her head painfully

Hetatsubachi helps her again "…you will die. It is inevitable."

"Thank you." Seeker smiles to Hetatsubachi as she stands up. She snaps her claws downwards drawing her blades.

Jessica whispers "you are hurt, why are you still fighting?"

Hetatsubachi repeats Seeker's script for her "the universe is deterministic, I have no choice."

Seeker straightens up, the pain having abandoned her momentarily "Hetatsubachi. I knew you would come to understand me."

Hetatsubachi walks to the front of the group, he summons his enchanted chains using them to push the group behind him. "please Seeker. Lower your claws. Join me." Tatsu closes his eyes and lowers his head making himself vulnerable.

Seeker softens her eyes "Hetatsubachi. I want to." The pain retakes her, Seeker doubles over. She snaps back to attention; Seeker pulls her arms off to the sides reading herself to attack.

Ami and Vita charge in to fight Seeker, they to wolf girls protect Hetatsubachi. Ami Yells back to Jessica, Jloose, Xia, and Krane. "Find Cilverant!"

Vita throws her necklace, one of Seeker's arms are pulled backward. Ami opens her mouth wide grabbing the other arm. The two wolves try to pull Seeker to the ground. Seeker has supernatural strength. Seeker is easily able to pick up and throw Ami into the air. Vita leans forward to grab one of Seekers legs.

Hetatsubachi convinced that he had done all he can do to try to protect Seeker, his mouth drops open. He barks and jumps forward to tackle Seeker teaming up with Vita.

Xia pulls out a sword; she pops open the door leading into the lower levels of the court. The worldwalkers drop down to the next level leaving the fight in the hands of the wolves.

***

The tubes are narrow, just wide enough that the group can walk side by side. But doing so almost pins their arms to their bodies. Jloose brings up the lead, Xia the rear, Jessica and Krane walk between them. The tube zigs and zags moving only about ninety feet down but with several hundred feet of spiraling tubbing.

As they drop ever deeper into the darkening depths, lights dim, steam valves vent. After some time the hallway opens up into an octagon shaped room with seven doors and eight computer panels.

Jloose walks up to the first visible computer, he reaches into his belt and pulls out an elephant head dagger. Jloose unscrews the counterweight reveling a key hidden inside, Jloose plugs the key into a slot under the computer. The screen on the laptop unlocks. As Jloose waits for the network to log in, he looks to the others.

Xia knows what Jloose wants; she takes off her armbands and hands them over, Jloose pries the stones from them finding the key hidden within. Jloose logs into a second computer using Xia's key. He next looks to Krane, one of the beetles with oversized jaws approaches the one with the elongated antenna pulling the gem out of her skull handing it over. Jloose turns on the third computer with it.

Jloose turns to Jessica "hand me your necklace please."

Jessica shakes her head "No, I cannot."

Jloose looks concerned "why?"

"my pendant has been modified with Arcana; I can not take it off without doing some harm to myself." Jessica explains "I have a sickness of the soul, my pendant holds the sickness at bay."

Jloose nods "I understand. We can continue without it."

Jloose steps up to the first computer again; he directs Xia to step up to the second. Xia mounts her feet into the ground and lashes her tail lively. The two wizards have a fantastic command of the Steel Rose computer; the par knows just what to do and how to do it. Once the first computer has been logged in and rebooted Jloose pulls out the key and throws it to Xia, she catches it with her tail and plugs it into the fourth computer as she finishes going through he reboots commands.

The reboot only takes the par about 10 minutes, with an extra key the two may have got it done three minutes faster, but they are still swift enough. With all eight computers updating the eighth door opens in the chamber.

Jloose looks to Krane, "now it is time for you to play your part. We need to find Cilverant's heart."

***

The ceiling to the courthouse caves in, a hundred-foot-tall armor looks down into the main hall. Seeker smiles. The Seeker of Eternity has lead the armies of Esper since she plugged herself into this liquid metal body since she abended the relegation of Seeker of Esper. Now with dragon blood in her veins, all the weapons of the Worldwalkers at her command, having tasted the flesh of two elder beast, it is time to take a new name. The Seeker of Eternity is now becoming the Seeker of Inferno, for she now has the power to bind and forge all things to her will.

Seeker has the power to shape the cosmos; she has the will to do away with the imperfect, the asymmetric, the weary and the rusted. The 'Architects of Peace' are broken, the worldwalkers are scattered. If it was power Seeker wanted, she now has all of it she can hope for.

That pain in her stomach, it is coming back, a crushing weight rest atop of her heart, Seeker is damaged is some undetectable, unrepairable way. The siren, the sound of it still makes her body vibrate, the sound passed so long ago, but she can still feel it.

The Missionary, that foul eldritch thing. Seeker feels It whispering in her thoughts "do not waste time with these childish games. I need your hands and your eyes, point me at the next Void Church, that I may become one with my love once more."

A second voice whispers in Seekers ear "you are the most beautiful of abominations, bind your knee to me, kill my enemies, become indomitable. I, the king of Tamriel, offer you life overflowing in exchange for this sacrifice of flesh."

Seeker brings her hands onto the back of her head, pushing the wolves away as she tries to quite the voices in her mind "I am a queen, I bend my knee to no one! Begone from my thoughts specters from outside time."

The king of Tamriel tightens his grip; he threatens to crush Seekers mind. Her body bends in ways only she can turn, Seeker has no power of the Tamriel. But the kings softens his grip "who is that third voice? Who else is in here with us?"

The Missionary addresses the king of Tamriel "I am she who comes for the cosmos before the cosmos that are. We seek to become one again with that which we love and that to which we are beloved. We come from the Void in search of our lost pieces." The missionary's words inspire a level of fear in the king he has never felt. Mammon falls silent as now he too struggles with the demons living under his skin "deliver that which is mine to me or the ramifications you will face will not be on my head."

The colossus brings its hands down; it scoops up the wolves, it could crush all three of them at once if not for Hetatsubachi and his cloak of swords holding his hands apart. Kingslayer growls, his eyes light on fire, he has no intention of dying today.

Hetatsubachi shutters as he is being taxed to the limit of his might "On to Valhalla, today is a good day. Should you fall to your knees and find the tall grass covering your eyes, have no fear. You have entered into Sovrngard. The land where the brave live on forever!" Hetatsubachi turns his cloak into a sawblade cutting the fingers from Cilverant's hands. The demon of the flowers leaps from the giant's hands and calls from the mist a chain and anvil, he strikes the giant across the face and the beast freezes. Tatsu looks confused as he hits the ground. "I didn't hit you that hard…"