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[MENOCHT] Chapter 370. First Contact
🕑 Added 2024-11-05 23:52:46 +0000 UTC[ took a red eye to europe on sunday, was in recovery ]
Euryphel propped his glosspad up on his legs as he reclined on the divan in the sun room. Nothing was on the display; just a blank background.
His mind was still fried hours after the marathon coordination session beneath the palace. It had been him, Urstes, Diana, and General Var’dun’a poring over the extensive maps and notes they’d compiled on all the different facilities the Darkseers would strike. It wasn’t just double-checking and refining the planned courses of action–they were actively communicating with every cell of the Darkseers as they deployed.
Two facilities in particular were of most concern–the subterranean labs in Saispar within Sere’s Kaspari province, and Iastra’s high-security state research compound in the ruins of the old Adrillon Empire at the bottom of Lake Adrian. That was by far the most secure. Not just because of the Infinity Loop, but because it was where Iastra developed much of its most advanced tech and armaments.
Iastra was arguably the most powerful state in the world for a reason, and it defended its edge with extreme prejudice.
Thankfully, all of the other facilities they had identified had significantly less defenses. Probably because they didn’t expect to be singled out for any attacks. And technically, they were right. They weren’t being singled out.
Aside from Euryphel, who was required to stay behind and facilitate, the others had proceeded to their own destinations. Urstes was en route to Saispar, while Diana and the general had already taken covert transport arrays to the east. They were assigned to smaller facilities.
Kaiwen had also been sent away as planned, so Zilverna had taken a transport array to Zukal’iss. The teen was somewhere in the palace; at this point, Euryphel didn’t have the mental bandwidth to keep tabs on his many-times-removed younger cousin. He trusted the Guard to ensure Zilverna’s safety–at least, those who weren’t Darkseers members dispatched elsewhere in the world.
The waiting was killing him. It took every ounce of self control to keep himself from running recursive loops to keep exhaustive tabs on everyone. As it was, his role was to send messages over quantum channel to everyone who had agreed to the procedure. To everyone else–notably the sovereigns they’d recruited, like the Night Queen; Soolemar, who couldn’t undergo the procedure since he was a lich; and their only ascendant ally aside from Ian, who was simply unwilling–he would attempt to contact their secured glossY. In Regret scenarios, Euryphel would ping them periodically.
Based on the contents of Euryphel’s messages, the Darkseers would know whether it was real life or a scenario. Most of the messages Eury sent would be in scenarios, of course, and they would be much less brief, inquiring about mission progress and whether there were any concerns.
When an individual got into position, if Euryphel sent them the go-ahead and nothing else, they’d know it was real life and that they were to proceed immediately. If Euryphel instead sent the command to hold, they’d do just that until told otherwise. And if he told them to abort... Well, they’d get the hell out.
The same went for communications over quantum channel. Those were easier because they went at the speed of thought, though.
Eury, we’re in position, Guardian Druni said. Me and Kaiwen are together in the ruins.
Euryphel nodded to himself and entered a scenario. He waited thirty seconds, then recursed.
He sent a message to Orion Iucorsu’s secured glossY. The man was inside the facility now. The glossY would normally have connectivity anywhere, but there were parts of the compound that blocked communications as surely as entering a rift. If Iucorsu didn’t answer immediately, Eury would just need to wait.
Seer: The water elementalists are in position. How much longer on your end?
Breaker: Less than fifteen minutes. Everything proceeding smoothly inside.
Euryphel snapped back to the recursion checkpoint, then recursed again, this time reaching out to Ascendant Deathflame. It was an obvious and uninspired pseudonym, though it did match their affinities, Sun and Death. As far as Euryphel knew, though, they primarily used their fire elementalism.
Seer: Are you in position?
Deathflame: No.
Euryphel groaned internally.
Seer: Where are you currently?
Deathflame: I’m not sure. I was swimming with the wetsuit on, but it’s hard to navigate when everything looks the same.
Seer: Should I send one of the water elementalists to grab you?
Deathflame: I’ll figure it out. Why, is everyone else ready and waiting for me?
Seer: Yes.
Deathflame: Oh.
Deathflame: Tell one of them to grab me. I’ll send you my current location.
Retrieving the coordinates, Euryphel killed the scenario, snapping back to the present. While he reached out to Druni, his mind was consumed by all the other missions that needed attention. He thought he deserved to unlock a Beginning affinity at this point, not that it worked that way.
Finally, Ascendant Deathflame was practically towed into position beneath the facility. By then, nearly everyone else across all the missions was ready for action. As the minutes went on, the last stragglers fell into place.
Everyone was ready for Euryphel to give the orders to move. There was just one person he was waiting for.
Ian, are you–
We’re ready, he replied, cutting Eury off. Just arrived. All the mannequins are in position. How are things on your end?
Ready, Euryphel replied. This is it. Am I the only one shuddering with anticipation?
I would be, if I weren’t controlling my body. Maria too, if she wasn’t a lich. I can feel her excitement and nerves in equal measure.
So I am the only one.
I wish sarcasm could come through over quantum channel, Ian replied. And laughter.
Y’jeni, Ian. I’m going to kick things off if you’re really ready, Euryphel continued. His hands were shaking. He pressed them together, the scarred digits holding each other in place.
Do it. Now or never, Eury. Good luck.
Good luck, Euryphel echoed. The quantum channel closed and he squeezed his eyes shut. One last time, he went through a series of scenarios to ensure nothing unexpected would go awry in the next minute or so in any of the operations.
After doing that due diligence, he reached out one-by-one to everyone in reality. Since he could only have one conversation over quantum channel at a time, he sent those messages in the agreed-upon order while sending off a wave of communications to the secure glossYs.
As the final confirmation came back, he drummed his fingers on his glosspad. The display was still blank; in his scenarios, he’d pull up whatever plan he needed as he directed each team. Ideally, none of them would need guidance, but most plans unraveled at some point. When reality deviated from expectation, the plan they’d agreed upon was rather simple.
Euryphel would just use his recursion to run as many scenarios as needed to find the best path forward. They’d already done extensive planning ahead of time for anticipated situations, so hopefully he’d only need to pick a plan B or C for most teams to follow, rather than create an entirely new course of action on the fly.
At least the team in Lake Adrian had two peak Regret practitioners. That had to count for something... right?
The only other bit that Euryphel would definitely be supplying was Ian’s Regret scenario coverage. Ian would ask for scenarios on demand through quantum channel. Euryphel had considered dedicating another powerful Regret practitioner, like Kaiwen, to support Ian’s assault on Achemiss. In the end, Euryphel only felt comfortable doing the job himself. He and Ian had worked together so many times that they had an intrinsic understanding of the other. Ian had literally been inside Euryphel’s head–inside his soul.
If Euryphel didn’t personally help Ian and then the necromancer lost... it would leave him with a crushing regret.
—
Maria waited in apprehension as Ian sent his mannequins the final stretch to the rifts, his brow furrowing in concentration. Through their connection, she could see what he saw and what he wanted her to see, a skill much improved since he’d received his Remorse affinity. So it was that she tracked the final journeys of the constructs as they dove into the water, disappearing between cresting waves.
None of the rifts had constructs patrolling the surface or any other signs that would point to Achemiss’s presence. That would be too obvious. But it made following Ian’s mannequins into the depths especially nerve-wracking. The dark waters were clouded with mist-like vitality, proving an enigma to the constructs’ limited senses. Seeing more than ten or twenty feet down was impossible.
They had the rift coordinates, but even finding the rifts would be a challenge. They were all in deep bodies of water, and technically, could be anywhere–though would more likely be closer to dense material, such as that composing the seabed. Rifts like these, in the middle of nowhere and hard to access, were much less valuable than the few that appeared on land. It was obvious why they’d been given away to Achemiss when the ascendant’s only demand was rifts with no other stipulations attached.
The mannequins swam down like torpedos, their uniforms streamlined and slick over their bodies. Down, down, down... until the first mannequin hit the bottom of the Gulf of Corneria, the one off the coast of Shattradan. The one furthest from anywhere else.
It hadn’t found the rift, so Maria was surprised at Ian’s reaction.
Shit.
What is it? she asked.
Ian relayed a message he’d received from Euryphel over quantum channel. In the next minute, the mannequin that had reached the seabed would enter the rift. Within it would find an army of constructs. Eury didn’t have the specifics due to the limitations in communicating via quantum channel, but thousands of peak Death constructs couldn’t be good news. Worse, when Ian’s construct entered the rift, it set them off, causing the army to rush for the rift exit–and pour into the gulf.
It seemed like Achemiss was either prepared for them invading his rifts, or he was stocking all the rifts he had in preparation for a broader war.
We’ll need to find the rifts using Eury’s Regret, Ian said. It was a priority before, but now it’s a necessity. I’m positive Achemiss will know if one of his construct armies is set off. We already know he can control necromantic constructs across multiple planes, so getting feedback from constructs in four rifts while he orchestrates from the fifth isn’t unbelievable.
Maria just wished her End could work in the same way. If she could see Achemiss’s End arrow, all of this caution would be unnecessary. There was probably an insight hidden within Achemiss’s practice that could help, but she wouldn’t be figuring it out from him today, or ever, if they really succeeded in their task.
She was still frustrated that their original plan A–waiting for Achemiss to leave his original rift and travel to one of the new ones–hadn’t worked. While Ian had been creating his mannequins in the Cuna, Maria had waited for any sign of Achemiss’s End arrow.
And it had appeared–which is how they knew he’d relocated rifts–but confoundingly. Achemiss had seemingly used his necromancy to create a multitude of facsimile End arrows. They were necromantic constructs similar to the one she’d chased down out of the Sere compound, which had also had its own End arrow. That one, however, hadn’t felt completely like Achemiss–not like these arrows had.
Maria had informed everyone of the development, and had attempted to find the real Achemiss out of the tangle of fate, but the arrows had disappeared after only an hour. She’d only managed to chase down three of over twenty, all of which were dead ends. Whenever she’d gotten close enough to see the constructs as little more than specks on the horizon, they utterly self-destructed, leaving nothing for her to collect or bring back.
It had been maddening.
Now was their second chance, and while she felt optimistic that Achemiss would be in one of the five rifts, his slipperiness and caution continued to give her pause. This latest development–the construct army lying in wait–wasn’t surprising, but it was unnerving.
Who knew what kind of disaster lay in wait in the rift where Achemiss actually lay?
[ the maria explanation above covers something that happened between chapters 365 and 366; in the final manuscript, I may make a revision to just have a scene happen there, rather than having maria give this explanation now. ]
Comments
Orion1024
Going strong !
