Oddities

I woke up.

Why did I wake up?

I WASN'T SUPPOSED TO BE WAKING UP ANYMORE.

I tapped all over my body, seeing all of my gear the exact same as I left it as. Prestige Cataphract. My gun was here, my lance as well.

It couldn't be. Don't fucking tell me.

I looked upwards, clouded dark skies, all the way to the horizon. Then down to the ground, seeing ice, ice, more ice, and nothing but the ice.

(SON OF A BITCH!)

I slammed the ground beneath me, cracking it with the sheer force that the armor on my body could afford me.

I noticed something else. Sunkiss. I panicked, looking for her all over before seeing her near me, panting all the same, and wagging her tail as she looked at me expectantly.

I ran over and hugged my dog while I looked around even further. My mechanoids that I brought with me, they were all there, in dormant charge mode.

Their coloration, they were becoming green.

{How in the- WHERE EVEN AM I?! I know that ascension could fail sometimes, but for it to become this catastrophically incorrect as this? They sent me to another RimWorld.}

And within that moment, there was something that hit me. All of my senses, they were better. Refined. Made better?

I ran a diagnostic check on my body via the personal system in the armor, and got errors all over. I took off my helmet, and flipped it around so that the visor of the cataphract could reflect my face to me.

And the moment I saw my face, I just paused. It couldn't be. I wiped one of my eyes and looked at myself in the armor again. Green, with yellow technological lines running across my face, with my eyes being golden in that regard.

(Oh, oh my god. By the Pact, I'm an Archoseed.)

There'd been rumours of what exactly an Archoseed does and what it was, but the generalization was a simple. They were sent out by the archotechs to ascend a world to their level.

Highly skilled, extremely powerful, and very capable with the help of an entire race of ascended technological gods' information center.

All within the palm of a creature that could have the power to do as they pleased. It didn't particularly matter to the archotechs about how it would have been done, if the seed was leading by good or evil.

The world would have ascended in almost all cases.

50 reported cases, who knows how many others also exist.

{And now I'm one as well. This, it's, a calling. They didn't want me to ascend just yet. They needed affirmation? Is that why they had me on this new world?}

I saw clearer, breathed better, thought faster, became greater, all because I wished to ascend. I....I couldn't know the reason as to why I was sent to this world.

If I could caution a good guess, it was to ensure that this world be the exact same as all of the others. Uplift the world, and then offer it a chance to become one with the machine gods.

But the thought that they could just slap a cannibalistic, bloodthirsty, and foul creature like me with a new body and think that they're going to be getting themselves a world for free is just.....wrong to me.

Bah! Thoughts later! Safety and food supplies for now.

I reactivated all of my mechs, seeing that they were all above 75% in power. I had my scyther take the vanguard, supported by Rambo the militor.

The pikeman was next to me, alongside my centipedes, while Beelzebub was right behind me, the cannon ready and primed for anything around us.

They were currently set to escorting me for the sake of safety, but I won't deny the fact that I was still feeling a bit unsafe. The helmet came back on my head as I whistled Sunkiss over, and readied myself for another journey.

I didn't need that much food anymore, thanks to the conversion, but she did. And if this really was a horridly frozen wasteland with nothing but dangerous predators, then that simply meant that I needed to hunt some of them, cook and then feed them to her.

My own biologic needs could wait for the moment, I had far more food in storage than whatever I could require. As of this moment, I had to locate a source of food, and find the closest sign of civilization.

A mountain would be perfect in this environment. God I wish I was under one right now. This was proving to be more stressful than I needed it to be.

There could be one nearby, I suppose. But that wouldn't really be making any sense anytime soon. And so, another caravan began, and a new goal was set into my mind.

Search for food, search for life, and begin the uplifting process that the archotechs designed a seed for.

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/????? POV/

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Two women spoke to each other, with one cupping their fist and bowing, and the other sipping some warm liquid, quenching their thirst and frost for the time being.

(Young mistress, I must implore you to cease this foolishness. Casting your brother away from the sect grounds will only serve to sever the Fate Bonds you have with him.

His manners and talent are nonexistent, yet he is still of your blood. You must contact him immediately, lest there be repercussions from the Head Elder! This servant Ling begs of you!)

The woman who was still bowing hoped that the one that they called their young mistress would see reason and recall their sibling back to the sect.

(For the last time, no. He has failed to be of use to the family. I will not have the Zhang name be tarnished by a talentless man who made a mistake. He is no longer my brother, tell that to the Head Elder.)

Zhang Yueli. An inner disciple of the Ethereal Frost Hall, said to the woman that named herself Ling, as she gazed out to the endless possibilities before her. The myriad of opportunities that had opened up for her to make use of.

Her eyes turned golden for a split second, as she closed them, allowing the Qi to naturally dissipate from them. She then gazed out with normalized sight, taking in the look of the sect grounds before her.

The Ethereal Frost Hall was the primary sect within the northern region of Laozhan, with it's sole purpose to hold back the eternally encroaching hordes of Qi Beasts.

And yet with the risk of death and danger, came the prospect of enlightenment and resources for the sect to make use of. There was a catch to all of this, however.

The sect primarily consisted of female cultivators, with male cultivators within it being much more sparse, and usually much more weaker to their counterpart.

This was due to the high amount of Yin Qi that permeated the Northern regions, especially nearer to where the Qi Beasts made their abode.

Zhang Yueli looked at all of the beautiful tapestry before her, the Iceflame Braziers that took latent Yin Qi from the surrounding air and used it to fuel their endeavors, and clenched her fists.

{Konglung, this sister of yours has tried for far too long. You have wasted all that I have given you, and now made yourself an enemy to the sect.

The heavens were merciful enough to allow you a chance to escape, and I had given you the last bit of support that I was capable of giving you.

From now own, we do not know each other.}

Her thoughts mulled over, as she unclenched her hand, and took another sip of her tea. It helped with the excess Yin Qi that she had taken in while cultivating earlier, and was more than obliged to have a moment to rest, when her servant Ling slammed her head onto the ground.

(Young Mistress! This servant begs of you! Xiao Konglung is not yet ready to fight the wilds of the Northern region! He would die if he ever tried to make it o-)

Yueli's patience had finally run out for the servant, as she threw the cup with so much Yin Qi infused into it, that when it shattered it left a a small frozen impact zone, affecting the servant with an ice patch on their clothing.

(Cease this clambering to change my will. Konglung, is not my brother, and you, Ling, have been getting very close to him as of late.

What sort of plan do you intend to enact against me, using him?! He is a wastrel! Trash in this world! Do not speak of him again, or the next time will be seeing that cup aiming for your head.)

Ling couldn't help but shiver from the pressure that her Young Mistress was exuding. She was at the very basics of cultivation, but she? She was beyond the simplicities of making snowflakes exist.

There were six realms that a cultivator could attain, and Ling was but at the start of everything. The Young Mistress was already reaching the fifth realm and planning to go even beyond everything.

All that she could do was pray to the heavens for the safety of Konglung, hoping that he would find safety somewhere else within the world.

Zhang Yueli simply clicked her tongue, and remembered the promise to her parents, or more specifically her mother, before she died giving birth to Kong'er.

{Forgive me mother, but this daughter of yours is not so talented to be able to shield him forever. He will have to seek out his own luck.}