2.The Traitor Archon: Facinfinata

Alexys wondered why Hyphus would bring up Archon Facinfinata, but before he could speak, Archon Hyphus flicked the wrist of one of his many arms and activated a gigantic display screen. The screen flickered on, a momentary static was visible and then it began playing a video: 'The Archon Facinfinata; the sixth Archon. Facinfinata was made to be a expert in espionage. It can shapeshift and mimick anyone. It's true appearance is unknown. It's true gender is unknown. It's true behaviour is also unkown. The Archons were made to advance humanity but, they were made from pacts of darkn-..purity. They were powerful, god-like machines yet-..and..they were better than humans. They were made from Dark Aeth- Pure Aether, a union of Aether and the darkne-..purity and origin within humanity. Dar- Pure Aether was much more potent than Aether and it proved to be more efficient yet- and powerful, it was more unstabl- more stable as it contained literal darkne- purity of origin within it. And--..Yet, as civilisations progressed, violence and war was inevitable. Soon, the Archons were tainted by warfa-..Realised the weakness of humans and their violent nature.

In Era Styx, an era of war and bloodshed, the Archons betraye- Rebelled against their violent and cruel makers and waged war, their once serene selfs now determined to kil- fix hunanity.

Facinfinata, like all the other Archons fought against humanity but, then, Facinfinata betrayed the other Archons and joined forces with humanity, this betrayal almost crippled the Archons as all their plans were revealed to the humans. This prompted the Archons to initiate a plan of mutual annihilation, the Archons fought a long war of attrition and eventually defeated the humans and Facinfinata but, Facinfinata was nowhere to be seen, it had escaped and went into hiding and due to the war of attrition, the planet of Neveros was forever turned into a grave.' The video ended, the video was crudely edited and in many parts, there was a mechanical voice that 'corrected' the video's speech. The editing was done to make it seem like as though the Archons were the good ones and Humans and Facinfinata were the bad ones and the ones who doomed Neveros, the complete opposite of reality. The video was filled with graphic and realistic imagery and videos, ranging from clips of majestic buildings, cheering people, glorious cities to burning ruins, the images of the Archons, Netherforged machineries, piles of corpses, blood and gore.

Archon Hyphus and Alexys stood silent for a few moments, Alexys' eyes fixed onto the display screen, he still wonders if what the video showed is true and correct, the video seemed to be crudely edited and made but, the amount of psychological conditioning and brainwashing that Alexys underwent made it impossible for him to believe that the Archons are evil.

"You see, Alexys? Facinfinata, the traitor Archon. The one who doomed our dreams for humanity.. It betrayed us.." Archon Hyphus spoke, his mechanical voice breaking the silence.

Alexys, who seemed to be in a thoughtful trance, shook his head slightly and spoke, "Yes, my lord. I understand. I knew of Facinfinata beforehand but, i never could've thought that Facinfinata would cause this much.. suffering." Alexys' mind was so damaged from the brainwashing and psychological conditioning that at this point, he was nothing but a puppet, not a fraction of his truth seeking and younger self was in him.

Alexys removed his helmet, causing his medium length blonde hair to ruffle as he revealed his face, his face was handsome and elegant, a stark contrast to his wretched collegues whose faces and bodies appear as if they had machinery welded onto their faces and bodies, Machina Mutatio is truly a horrifying result of Netherforging. Alexys' skin was white, smooth and even pretty, not some battle hardened, wide-eyed and traumatized soldier.

Alexys looked at the mask of Archon Hyphus, his silver-grey eyes glinting in the dim light, he nodded, "My lord, what is it that you require me to do?"

Archon Hyphus moved closer, his mechanical legs, eleven of them moved in horrifying and unsettling synchrony, he lowered himself, his movements accompanied by the sounds of metal creaking and rubbing together and the sound of gears spinning.

"Facinfinata is said to be in the far, south reaches of my domain.. I require you to hunt it down and bring it to me. I will provide you with the necessary equipment, do you understand, Alexys..Huron?" Hyphus said, his mechanical voice now tinged with menace and malice.

It was clear that whatever Hyphus was planning to do with Facinfinata was no good, considering that He wanted Facinfinata to be brought to him as a prisoner and captive, torture? Slavery? Something even more degenerative like defilement? Who knows.

Alexys, being the emotionless husk he is, simply nodded and said in a calm yet, unfeeling tone, "I understand, my lord." And with that, he turned and left the throne room...