With one last practice flourish, I stepped free of the mite cape, entering the light side. I’d done a few minutes of testing boundaries, and had a rough feeling of how to best use this little thing. With good enough planning, this cape could be even better than my knightbreakers. Used in tandem, with the rest of my gear and goodies, I’d be near unstoppable.

Knock on metal of course. Avalis would absolutely figure some scrapshit out, but so long as I ambushed him with the sum total of all my gear and kit out of nowhere, there is no shot that asshole could ever prepare enough for what I’ve got packing. I’ll give him even more white hair than he already has.

Time for the second problem in the area: I had my loot, I needed to escape out of this place with it. Which meant dealing with a giant snake machine coiled all around this fortress.

The screen monitors all over the area showed me the battle progress, and unlike the Dark Side, nothing was superimposed over one another. So I could see the status of the fight. Answer: Okay-ish.

Wrath and To’Orda had both handled a good amount of the fish swarm after them, but the larger snake machine was nearly impervious to damage. Wrath’s blades were like toothpicks, unable to cut deep enough through the metal armor to do much of anything. And those exposed rib cages were all moveable: In that they attacked back. The ribs would move around like the legs of a millipede, and more fish would constantly flow out of it. It was incredibly creepy to watch.

To’Orda was having even less of an impact on the snake. His hammer blows would pulse out occult, easily ripping apart swarms after him, but on the snake it would dent the metal down a few inches otherwise. The big guy gave up trying after the first swing, saving his effort for handling the swarms after Wrath.

This wouldn’t be a problem if we could outrun the thing. Slip through the giant floating chunks of land around here and get the heck out of the snow. But bigger size did not mean it moved slowly. The thing could move like an airspeeder, and if left in a straight line would outspeed even Wrath within a few seconds. Forcing the pair to keep moving erratically.

I looked past my trusty set of tools and gear on my belt and back, debating what I could make use of.

Ironically enough, the shotgun pellets of occult bullets on my hand cannons would work pretty well against the thing, since those would travel through just about everything that wasn’t shielded.

Knightbreaker shells wouldn't do more than a heater left outside against something this big, a flaw I was starting to be well aware of. I needed more anti-giant in my arsenal. The armguard would also get caught, but wielded by occult mirrors it could potentially start slicing up the insides. Assuming I could get mirror images past the exposed rib cage filled with sharp pseudo-bones that could move and stab. And the mass of angry fish with occult teeth.

I debated how we’d get out of this biome safely. Speaker and Judge were gone, the challenge complete. The fortress coughed with power, some screens flickering, but most intact and working. All showed the outside. And those gun controls.

“What are the chances the gun turrets here work?” I asked.

“Depends on the mites and how lucid the colony that made this set piece were.” Cathida hummed. “Not going to know for sure until you try one.”

So I walked over to the nearest controls that had a targeting HUD, sat down and pulled the joysticks. The screen lit up as more details woke to life. Ammunition counts appeared, shell loading animations ran through as the cannons auto-loaded into position, safeties switched off. Everything was in a weird font and language, though there were enough icons I could somewhat guess what was going on.

The entire seat turned with me as I pulled on the levers, including the screen, which was the most convoluted thing I’d seen so far. But it certainly made me feel like I was in the turret itself. I know some of the older models of airspeeders had turrets like those, or they were grafted onto slower warfrigates. Felt a little like home. “Looks good so far. Aiming speed is a little slow, but I think I can work with this.” I flicked a few of the toggles above me, checking to see what icons turned red or green, and generally following the same command sequence airspeeder turrets used.

“So long as it can shoot deary. Blowing things up is the important part of big guns.”

If I had a hat, I’d give it a tip here. “Every now and then you actually do say profound words of wisdom I can get behind.”

I waited for a flyby from Wrath, then when I had a clear shot, I pressed the buttons down. A few things happened in quick succession.

First: The fortress was dense enough I didn’t feel anything move from the command bridge here, but I did hear the vibration and sound come through.

Second, on the screen the muzzles flashed as both cannons began to alternate fire into the giant snake. “Oh, it’s not enjoying that at all.” I grinned, keeping the fire going.

And third, everything in the biome here went crazy. Because shooting giant cannons at targets was not a silent thing at all. And none of the sound was related to the floating slabs that entombed this fortress. Each hit landed on the snake had vibration follow behind it, shattering the glass sphere. Shards started to fly all over, slicing up fish that happened to fly by it. No wonder the Odin found this place insane to fly, they’d been downplaying how dangerous that cut glass actually was.

I was watching it slice machines as if it were occult blades. And that damage was clearly dealt to the snake too, as it was forced to flee out of the collapsing environment.

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“It’s also still in one piece.” Cathida said. “Despite the damages.”

“Just a little dense is all. Give me a few minutes to pound it flat.” Ammunition count showed me I had enough for that to go around in one turret. And given the glass was doing an equally great job, I was confident in this plan.

Unfortunately, my enemy wasn’t dumb. It couldn’t dodge, so it assembled swarms of fish to tank the shots for it. They flew down the sides, clumped up and swarmed over it like a discount occult shield. The other side also had the same treatment, as fish flew into the way of the shards, tanking their hits and nudging them out of the way otherwise.

The cannons were doing damage. Unfortunately, just not enough. And then the swarms descended down at the cannons themselves, and all the icons on my HUD rapidly turned from green to red as the little scrap assholes bit and chewed through the weapons platform.

There were plenty more to go to, I could stand up and get to the next one and repeat the process.

But I had technology. I got up and started sniffing around for a central control system. I tapped a few panels, ripped off another set, and found something that looked like a plug after a bit of searching around using the soul sight for the concept of a port. Journey handled the rest. “Get in there, bring all the cannons online and open fire on that thing, please.”

“Well, since you asked so nicely, dear. How could I refuse?” Cathida snickered, then got to work

Screens and numbers booted up, an outline of partitions appeared, flashing through rapidly. Each one blinked green for a bit, before turning red, then being discarded as incomplete.

“It’s connected.” Cathida said. “But nothing Journey can do can activate or control the guns. The pipes are there, just no water flowing through it. It’s all so… manual.”

Why don’t we pull a Father? Superior nudged. If he could do it with pure brute force, you could probably do something a little smarter.

That was a great point. I slapped a hand immediately on the side of the console. “Soul fractal here, if you would.” I asked, and Journey complied, nanoswarm eating a perfectly little etching. Then I slapped a second one just above.

Two soul tendrils reached out, one from Superior’s Mite Lantern, and one from myself. We each hooked onto a perfectly empty soul fractal on the console, and got to work digging a backdoor into the server.

Like the terminal of the old mite replica ships in the Odin biomes, this server looked like just empty corridors within some strange convoluted airspeeder. Father must have encountered the same thing himself when he was working with the imperial bunker all that time prior, so Superior and I traded a quick high-five, and we got to work getting the occult to bridge the gap and slave the entire system all together.

Wrath and To’Orda continued the fight against the swarms of fish, until all at once, all the turrets on the supposedly dead fortress lit to life, and started to swivel straight at the giant snake.

It noticed. And then counted the number of weapons trained at it. Instantly, all fish were recalled back to it, to protect itself from the upcoming danger.

That’s when To’Orda unleashed the largest occult hammer swing I’ve ever seen him do. Wrath swooped behind him, yanked him up and flew right at the mass of fish all gathering up as a shield, then threw him like a hangerball miracle play.

To’Orda soared through the air, occult crackling around his frame and hammer, then he swung right into the center of the fish ball still forming up. A detonation occurred deep within, pulsing out like one of Drakonis’s shockwaves only amplified a few hundred times over.

The entire formation of fish collapsed, all of it thrown in every direction. Wrath swooped right into the fading occult, yanking To’Orda out of danger.

That was our cue of course, and both Superior and I opened fire.

A metric ton of lead and ancient explosives slammed into the exposed giant snake, ripping into it with such fury the entire thing seemed to shake and twist in a death throe. More of the glass and metal slabs all around broke apart as the sound waves impacted the entire place, bits of the surrounding ball breaking so badly I could start seeing out into the rest of the biome.

At that point, there were so many shards of glass and metal zipping around, that the fish never were able to gather back up or dodge all of it. The entire air became a minefield for the machines.

That’s what did the real damage to the snake I think. The larger pieces collided into it, and stabbed deep. It seemed shortly after the break, the glass was the sharpest. And as time passed after, it would become less dangerous. Some fish who arrived late wouldn’t get sliced into pieces, but rather would find themselves hitting glass, and having it slow their progress.

Regardless, that snake was dead in the air. Or dying. Clearly in pain at least, if machines could actually feel pain. I would feel sorry for it, if it wasn’t a murderous asshole trying to kill Wrath. To’Orda too, but only begrudgingly right now.

Superior and I were having the time of our lives on the other hand. Firing several dozen airspeeder sized cannons all at once in a multi-directional stream of molten yellow trails impacting the flying snake. The entire fortress sphere was alive and happy to assist in wanton destruction.

And then Superior tapped me with a worried tendril. Something’s happening. Superior called out, then vanished. Outright vanished.

Fear instantly took me and I dove right for the mite lantern, looking for him. Soul tendrils spearing through it, looking for the connection to the other side. It wasn’t there. Nothing was there except for the mite lantern concepts I’d gotten used to. The bridge to the mite realm was missing.

Superior was gone.

Superior felt the utter command yank him out of his current project, back into the mite lantern, and then even further back into mite territory itself. He found himself still alive, within the small blood soul fractal that existed deep within the mite side of the world.

And even from there, he found something had encircled the entire fractal, consuming in into a dedicated program.

When he woke again, he was deep within the digital sea. On a rowboat even, or the virtual version of one. He got back on his feet, feeling his old armor plates move with the effort. It wasn’t really Journey, but more what he imagined himself wearing. All he’d added was a little weathered cape and hood, as he wanted to differentiate himself slightly to Prime.

The rowboat drifted forward, on calm waves of grey water. Traveling somewhere. He wasn’t certain, but whatever had yanked him here had done so through mite territory. It couldn’t be Relinquished then. Prime’s description of their encounter had been completely different from this one, although that unyielding force of power felt the same.

Whatever had pulled him into this realm, it was out here somewhere. Superior could feel it. A powerful presence that controlled this entire area. Unyielding.

Water ahead of him churned then something rose from the depths. Like a massive cathedral, with one single glowing blue halo of an eye, staring down at him. It kept climbing up, out of the water, and still more of the moving structure was revealed, water washing off of it in rivers and waterfalls.

“ESTABLISHED RULES: Teach challenger combat skills within digital echo upon successful completion of cache authorization.”

EVALUATION: Cache authorization completed successfully.

ACTION: Awaiting challenger response.”

Judge.

Keith Superior didn’t hesitate. He stood tall, and stared up at the moving cathedral sized machine beyond the white fog. “Bring it on big guy. Show me how to slap people around in this realm. I’m more than ready.”

“CHALLENGER RESPONSE: ‘More than ready’

EVALUATION: Begin training session.”