Chapter 65: A Single Step Stopped
🕑 Added 2024-02-17 20:08:28 +0000 UTCAs one they rushed out of the building, quickly breaking away from a mortal's speed. Buildings, Founders and Primigenials alike were a blur as Walker moved to keep up, extending his strides and controlling his breathing as they crossed the grass fields of Sonata. After only a few minutes at the rate they were moving, the group began to slow down as they approached a small stone and metal building. Unlike most others, which were raised near each other for ease of travel, Sonata's jail was sitting in the middle of an empty plain. Standing close to a thick stone frame holding a dull metal door were Apollo and Artemis, looking in confusion at all of the recently arrived council members.
"What's going on?" Apollo asked when they stopped in front of the two guards.
Ares spoke up, "Is Poseidon still within his cage?"
Apollo tilted his head, a confused look on his face, "Why wouldn't he be? There's nowhere to go."
"Show me." Walker said, pushing out from behind everyone. Artemis nodded as she affected a serious expression on her face, and pulled a key out of the pocket of her vest. Quickly unlocking the door, they opened it and looked inside.
The old god of the sea sat on a small cot, its blankets threadbare and with the noticeable lack of a pillow. He currently held his face in his hands rather than look at anybody, although he assuredly heard their conversation.
"That's what he's been doing since we put him in here," Apollo noted, "It's almost kind of sad."
"Uh-huh," Walker replied, not believing it. "Virgil, please take a look."
"Certainly." The large black squirrel said. He gently moved people out of the way and ducked his head under the relatively short entrance. After only a few seconds, he pulled his head back out, "Bottom right corner in the back of the cell."
As he moved his large bulk out of the way, Walker stepped in. In the spot Virgil mentioned, he could see it was quite damp, condensation coating the walls. Walker quickly stepped out himself and went around to the other side of the wall, circling the building. Looking around, he quickly spotted water seeping through the walls at a slow rate, the droplets dewing the grass underneath. Sighing, he turned around and went back to the council members.
"He's trying to corrode the wall."
He noticed Poseidon lift his head. The Primigenial's face gave an expression of dearly wished for murder. Which, if he was honest with himself, made Walker want to punch his face in. His hands gripped unconsciously at the thought.
Athena looked at him for a moment, before saying something strange, "How does that make you feel?"
Walker tilted his head, "Not happy? He planned to screw up everything we're trying to do here." Thinking about it made him a big angry, sure. Here he was, trying to create a series of worlds and build a lasting civilization, and this prick showed up to tell him what to do. The old man wasn't there for the destruction of the original Symphony. He wasn't there for the second battle and the heroic actions of Chipper. He didn't design the systems that now ran the world, or get everyone on board with creating a world of majesty and growth. Walker began to grind his teeth, his sore chest heating up a little.
Unconsciously tightening his fists further, he said, "They would ruin any ideas of Symphony being harmonic. Of who we are as a people, just so they can spread their bloodline loosely across a new world." His chest grew a little more sore, like a quickly lit match in the middle of his body, "Fucker and his piece of shit son," The air around him felt turbid as if it was having difficulty entering his lungs while he continued to speak.
Looking at Poseidon, he found images cascading behind him as he had with Athena. Scenes from the old god's history were flying quickly. His beautiful wife and the awful things he'd done to her. Mortals he betrayed and deals with the other gods broken. A city being wiped out for building a statue of him that he felt didn't capture his grandeur correctly.
Walker's soul heated up even further. He also felt something else, something almost like hunger, "they...they were trying to." He began to shake, placing both hands against the frame of the stone door, holding himself back from entering the building through shaky willpower. A small crack rang out, the stone in his hands unable to bear the pressure he was applying.
The look on Poseidon's changed from rage to terror, as the Primigenial moved over to his attempt at corroding the wall. He began to punch at it, small claps sounding out as he tried to escape, even with the onlookers watching his every move.
Athena and Virgil spoke one after another.
"Ketchup Pop-"
"Ketchup Popsicle...."
Walker continued to stare at Poseidon, his hands gripping and un-gripping his skin hard enough that those around him slowly backed away as his hands continued to make a grinding sound from trapped air. He was unaware that he was currently surrounded by an aura projected from his soul, flickering on and off like a mirage. He took one step forward, his hands pushing through the door frame, stone pieces showering around him. Poseidon looked back, gasped, then began punching at the wall faster even though he knew there wasn't anywhere to go and not enough time to escape.
Another step.
It was Virgil who ended up stopping him. Walker heard a noise and his neck twitched. He looked to the left and found a small ping-pong ball lightly bouncing around the room. The tapping sound felt like thunderstrikes in his combat-ready mind. It was just distracting enough that his less animalistic side began to return, removing the cloud of potential violence that was building from within. He looked down at his still-gripped hands and noticed they were covered in the darkness of his soul. Lifting his eyes, he found Poseidon had given up on the wall, and instead awaited his fate on his small cot with eyes still downcast to the floor, chest moving up and down quickly.
Walker put his foot down, having stopped it in the middle of the air, and tried to calm his breathing. His chest didn't feel like fire anymore, but as if a quickly burning log had been used up and cast aside, with small embers floating in the wind remaining. Even when he withdrew his soul, it still burned and he could taste something like ashes in his mouth. Coughing, he stumbled out of the room and fell to his knees.
"Walker!" Athena yelled out, standing back and waiting until the last of his soul receded, before wrapping him in a hug from behind as it felt like one of his lungs had burst in his chest.
"Okay...you were...right." He said, still coughing. He felt something in his mouth and spat to the side. Looking at it, there was a bit of red in the formerly green grass.
"Huh."
"That is not good." Virgil pointed out.
He felt Athena shift her head, her eyes finding the blood on the grass, "No it is not."
Walker coughed a few more times before he felt like it was calming down. He heard Ares and Heph arguing nearby.
"Again, I told you the cells had to be made of metal! What if he'd already corrupted a Founder and convinced them to set him free?" Ares yelled out.
"How? We've been rotating guards for over a month and nobody is allowed near the blasted thing! Besides, only a fool would betray the Creator and let him out." Heph said back to him, "When I built the damned thing it was only temporary. I didn't have the right tools to put it all together like that, now I do. Just you wait! I'll show you what a jail looks like! Tartarus will be a dream compared to what I'll raise." He yelled, walking away to presumably get started.
"Fine! But make multiple rooms this time!" Ares said to his back, running around the building to look at the corrosion Poseidon was attempting when everyone had been unaware.
Walker looked at the sky, the dark twinkle of planets staring down at him as if mocking his recent loss of control, before patting Athena's arm wrapped around his neck. He stood up on slightly shaky legs, "Well that sucked."
"That is greatly downplaying what just occurred," Virgil replied.
"Walker, you need to take better care of yourself and not get so worked up. I knew there were going to be issues when you said it was called the Godeater program." Athena said in a soft voice, moving around to look him in the eyes. "What if I said something you didn't like and you had a similar reaction? Were you even conscious just then?"
"I doubt that would set it off." He said, absentmindedly rubbing his chest, "I think it started to hit the moment I saw him violating the orders I gave." That wasn't it of course, but he didn't want the Primigenials to yet know that he could see flashes of their memories. That was a secret better kept in the dark for now, although he didn't like hiding it from those closest to him.
The clanging of a bell rang out from the center of Sonata, the sound reaching far and wide across the central area.
"What's that?" Walker asked, happy to be distracted from what had just occurred.
"The beginning of the day," Virgil said simply, already stepping away as he found Walker to be recovering. He called back in a loud voice while he continued to move, never breaking his stride, "I will begin seeding Crescendo immediately with the help of Elder Rimi. Please allow for two days and attempt to not interrupt me."
Walker took an unsteady step forward before his legs gave out, "What the fuck."
Athena dropped to a knee next to him, "You really do need to take it easy, at least physically. No more using your Alma for a while."
"It's not Alma."
"Oh." She said, then put a hand to her mouth in a light laugh, "Do we call it Walker? Don't use your Walker for a while?"
He grumbled at that, "Just call it, I don't know," He mussed up his hair, "Soul is fine. Just use that."
She chewed on that for a moment, "Fine, it's just not very grand is all." She stood up, looking down at him, "Are you going to be alright?"
He nodded, "Sure. Just give me a few minutes. By the way, why did you guys use a bell? It's a little TOO reminiscent of my time as a teacher."
She put her hands on her hips, "Well, it has been hard to tell the time while in this dilation, so Cagna had the idea of using a noise of some kind to notify the people of Sonata when it's time to start, and when it's time to stop for the day. A simple solution that we all agreed to." She bent over and kissed the top of his head, "Feel better dearest, I need to go look after my charges." Giving him a last wink, she quickly walked away, the slits in her dress allowing her to take long strides.
"How does she run in that shit." He said quietly to himself, looking around. That was when he noticed that he was all alone in the middle of a small grass field. Sure, the jail was behind him, Apollo and Artemis back at their station and quietly arguing about something, but still, he was alone. Since he first started in the protocol, he was the focus of everyone no matter where he went on Sonata. Time and pressure consistently forced him to move from one project to another, always moving in bounds to keep ahead of what was needed next. Now, everyone had their own projects. In the half a year he'd been doing this, for once, nobody needed him.
Even with how well he knew himself now, Walker still didn't know how he felt about this situation.
His chest hurt.
He absently rubbed at it, and quietly sat in the grass, enjoying the sun on his face. Since the dilation had started, there was no night on Sonata as he'd started things in the middle of the day. Silently he wondered what the Founders would think when the day finally turned, and the great ball of fire was no longer in the sky. Would they panic? Would they suddenly find that life, as they knew it, was a lie?
Normally about now, an Assistant or Founder would swing by and grab him for a project, but he knew nobody was coming. Which in itself wasn't a bad thing, as he had some work to do.
Walker was about to click on the System Designer when he had a better idea. He waited a few more minutes, making sure his body and soul were in recovery, before standing up on slightly less shaky legs. Stretching them out, he took loping but sure-footed steps toward the Evolution Chambers, or at least where he remembered them to be before he had disappeared for another month. The walk took more time than he thought it would, but then again, Sonata was a much larger place than its original couple hundred feet.
He turned a corner, moving around a series of small construction sites. Based on the number of tools left in orderly places as well as the chewed-up wood that wasn't hewed correctly, Walker figured it was focused on training Founders in building rather than in any hope of completing the work. Just beyond a series of off-angle beams stood his four Evolution Chambers, as well as Virgil, Rimi, and Luna. Rimi's size was still much greater than his orientation-focused subsystem assistant, Luna, but Virgil put them both to shame. It was interesting to note the size differences between each.
Luna turned when he grew closer, "Ah, Creator! Everything is well?"
Walker gave a slight wave as Rimi turned to him too, "Yep, everything's good for now. I don't think Poseidon is going to try escaping again. Plus, Heph is already working on a better jail."
Rimi snorted, "You should have just killed him."
Walker sighed and shook his head, "I think that myself sometimes, but Athena doesn't like it. If he truly can't be turned around, we'll find a better way. How's the Monster making going?"
Rimi gave a thumbs up while Virgil was tinkering with what looked like a fruit tree in the chamber, "Really good. While you were gone I was already messing around with some of the mythological monsters. We've still got the mini-manticores, but I've also made several versions of Harpies, Sirens, full-sized Cyclopes, and I'm almost done with Centaurs."
"Centaurs? Like the half-man half-horse things?"
"Yep! But," He raised a finger before Walker could ask another question, "They're not as smart as you think they are. I'd put them at about the intelligence of an eight-year-old based upon what the chambers are telling me. The Cyclopes are only a little better."
"You've really been training, huh?"
Virgil turned from his work, "He is an excellent student. Since his upgrade to full assistant, we have shaved down the training time from my original estimate to only a few months. I believe he will be done in the next two weeks."
"Heyy!" Walker said, coming over on careful steps to gently pack Rimi on the back, "Good job, dude."
Rimi smiled, "Thank you."
"How may we help you, Walker? I believe there is a purpose to you being here," Virgil asked
"Yeah, I need to make some subsystem assistants and I worried about just doing it in the middle of you working on something. Plus, Luna is already here which saves me some time."
Virgil nodded with a sigh, "I see."
"Yeah bud," Walker said, inwardly grinning, "I...um, am sorry about this."
Virgil waved a hand, "It is my duty. I am ready when you are, Walker."
Walker, still grinning on the inside, clicked the subsystem assistant button three times.
Virgil, even with his size, began coughing as three small balls of fur materialized in the back of his throat. With a quick glare at Walker, he reached in one massive hand and grabbed them all at once.
"Gently," Walker said with his hands in the air, remembering that not only had Virgil grown in size, but somehow he had been affected by Walker's awakening as well. He was worried that if Virgil threw the creatures, they may end up in space or go straight through Sonata's core.
The huge black squirrel understood and placed them on the ground by his feet. Three different balls of fur uncoiled and looked around.
"Are you-"
"Are you-"
"I was speaking first and-"
"Excuse me, but I believe I was created first."
They immediately began arguing, making Walker smile a little while Luna looked at them with a sick look on her face. He felt a little bad for her.
Looking at his first friend here, he continued with a joke he had begun long ago, "Congratulations Virgil! It's triplets!"
The huge black squirrel snorted at Walker with a grimace and turned back to his work. Walker waved to get Luna's attention off of her three new charges, "Train them up in what we're doing here. Each will have a specific job that will interconnect with other assistants as well as each other. Try to work on your efficiency as we're going to have many more in the coming days."
Luna gave him a salute, then walked over, clapping her hands to get their attention and marching them away. Walker could still hear them arguing as they passed the construction site.
"I was born first!"
"Clearly not, as your fur is grey. A grey subsystem assistant? Please. Like you-"
They turned the corner, causing Walker to shake his head as these ones were likely to be a little more difficult than those who came before.
Rimi was already back to working on a small man-horse in his evolution chamber, but Walker wasn't done speaking to them yet. "Hey Virgil, what happened when you got a piece of my origin?"
"What do you mean?" He asked, not turning away from his chamber as he stared at a screen.
"What I mean is, I saw you," Walker replied, unconsciously placing his hands on his hips, "Something happened there, something unusual."
Virgil still didn't turn to look at him, "I am sure I do not know what you are speaking of, Walker."
But Walker wasn't buying it. He squinted, thinking maybe images would appear behind Virgil like they consistently did with others. Rimi gave him a bit of side-eye, likely wondering what exactly he was doing, but Walker didn't care. He tried moving around him, quickly placing his feet and bounding from spot to spot, hoping a glimpse would appear. However, after moving like that for several minutes, nothing popped up.
Growing frustrated with his lack of results, Walker threw his hands in the air, "Fine, be that way. But don't think I'll forget."
With those dire words, he turned and walked toward his office, needing a place where he could work on his systems and not be disturbed. In hindsight, he considered that perhaps he needed to move the Evolution Chambers as well, so Rimi and Virgil could do their own work without being bothered. But in the end, he decided to be a little petty and not do it, giving himself a small smile and shucking that idea from his shoulders.
Walker opened the door and stepped into his plain office. Clicking on his overlay, he checked how many resources he had after two months. Mentally prepping himself for the amount to still be rather small, he was shocked to find he had tens, even hundreds of thousands of strand resources. Entropy hadn't gone up at all, but everything else had risen by quite a lot. It made him wonder about how much he would receive when the dilation ended and time reasserted itself over his worlds. At this rate, he didn't think he'd ever run out of resources. That gave him many different options moving forward.
Nodding to himself, he stepped into the contained Item System and produced fifty more bags, then began the process of creating a series of fifty vaults for his Founders. It only took a few minutes for each, which still came out to almost two full hours, but when he was done he smiled to himself. The Founders didn't know how lucky they would be to receive them. His smile faded when he realized that two hundred more Founders were going to drop in a month. Deciding that he needed to give them just a little bit more help, he also placed some of his consciousness strands as well. This allowed the holder to identify items as they were placed within, so they could easily tell it later which items they wanted back. On three of them, he added five consciousness strands, rather than his more standard and small amount.
A couple of changes occurred when he did this. When he first started adding space strands, the opening of the bag would effectively change colors from the standard black to a deeper blue. However, as he added extra consciousness strands, the blue turned a slight tinge of brown as well, and he began to feel a pull on his mind. The bag looked almost the same, only he could tell it wanted something from him. Thinking about it, he realized what it was.
"I am not your owner." He said to the three bags in his hands. When he said so, each of them lost their brown effect and went back to looking just like the other bags. Walker nodded, placed them slightly separate from the others as he could barely feel the difference between them, and then stepped into the Item System again. When he exited, two upgraded chests sat in front of him.
He smiled, "It's nice that they already had these ready to go."
Both chests were identical, like everything from the Item System, and had clean edges with a unique sliver of metal running through them in a veined fashion. He picked one up, placing it on the desk, and noted just how light it felt.
"Heph, you really went all out on these."
Walker opened the top and found seamless joints and a felt bottom. Clicking on his overlay, he activated his pocket dimension ability. While it wasn't dark before, the moment he used the ability, dark-blue coloring took over the space, creating a murky and disjointed view of what could potentially be inside without offering any hints. Walker began adding space strands, creating a fifty vault with the first one, then a hundred with the second. Pulling out his measuring stick, it didn't even come close to the bottom of just the fifty vault, let alone the one-hundred. He couldn't find an end even when he stretched the measuring stick as deep as he could while barely holding onto the end.
Scratching his head, he tried leaning in further. That's when, as he was straining as hard as he could while bracing against the table, his foot slipped and his arm fell inside of the dark, space-upgraded opening. Walker dropped the meter stick within as he began to panic at the idea of losing an arm to one of his own creations. It felt neither warm nor cold, just an odd nothingness wherein he still had control of his extremities. Wiggling his fingers, he still felt no end to what the chest could hold. The problem came when he tried to pull his arm out.
It wouldn't move.
Thinking quickly, he added a few consciousness resources to the chest.
"Let me go."
Nothing happened.
Walker added even more.
"Please let me go?"
Still nothing.
Adding even more produced the same results. Then he had an idea.
Walker added a life strand, the bright green glow mixing into the brown and blue seamlessly. The fifty-vault chest seemed to buckle for a moment, shaking with a strange cadence. Slowly, it began to calm down. Walker looked at it, raising a single eyebrow, waiting for something to happen.
"Let me go."
Gently, he felt the nothingness push back, and inch by inch his arm was released.
"Thank you." Walker said, patting the chest slightly. He felt a shiver under his hand.
Walker nodded, looking at the chest for another moment, when another idea struck.
"I wonder if Heph has a warehouse."
Comments
Wanderer
That was ... interesting.
Jeremy Young
"Mimic Achieved" TFTC
Jonas
Thanks for the great chapter
