Darkness.

Then my boots hit metal flooring, sliding over it without any purchase, before I fell down into nothing. And landed directly into snow a second later, sinking a good few inches. Soulsight had shown me what was around, so the fall didn’t take me by surprise.

My body automatically leaned to the right to hold balance, against a strong gust. Sound surrounded me. Like thousands of small sand grains pinging off the metal plating.

Journey’s helmet automatically triggered flashlights in the darkness, and I saw nothing but snow and sleet ahead of me, blowing hard. Wireframe topology booted up, superimposing around the world.

Rocks mostly, outlined. Although behind me, it looked to be a crashed airspeeder. Tilted downwards, nose smushed up against the ground. The cargo bay doorway under it was opened up, to reveal my origin location. A mite portal of some kind. Stored inside, pointing outwards.

It flashed blue and my HUD showed reconnection with one of the knights. I saw something slip through the portal, sliding down the same metal ramp I had a moment ago, before falling onto the ground with a thud.

Followed by several more flashes of blue from the portal in rapid succession as the rest of the knights all appeared in blown away mists of blue, each sliding down the open ramp, before landing hard against the ice and snow ground.

All except for Wrath who simply floated down, the gust and wind doing nothing compared to the power of her inner systems.

The portal turned off, as if going back to eternal sleep within the dead airspeeder.

The darkness around us was quickly punctured through as the rest of the knights around all triggered headlights, weapons snapping into formation. They all quickly sent green pings, no enemies or targets nearby detected.

“Are we on the surface?” I asked, double checking the coordinates. Because what was behind us felt like an expedition site location, shoved upwards over a small mountain.

We shouldn’t be? Superior sent back. Also, looks like it’s not that cold either.

The temperature meter showed negatives, far below freezing but I could theoretically take my helmet off here and be fine for a while.

“We are not.” Father said, taking heavy steps next to me. His helmet looked upwards, where we couldn’t see anything beyond a few dozen feet into the snow.

Wireframes showed large bridge-like structures ahead and over us. A giant pillar should be up ahead, holding one of those megastructures. “Coordinates are accurate. We are twelve miles below the surface.”

“The last strata?” I looked downwards, then reached a hand to brush the snow and ice.

Journey’s systems lit to life and identified a roadway under us. And under that was just dirt, and earth. In fact, it remained earth for several hundred feet from what Journey was claiming.

“As far as the machines know, there is nothing more under our feet as of now.” Father said. “This is the surface of the original earth. Before the mites began to construct above us.”

I’ve walked through the biomes of dozens of areas, but something about this location felt… like hallowed ground?

Was this road built by mites? Or… old humanity?

“Is the division stone within the ship behind us?” Wrath asked. “Coordinates seem to be indicating it further ahead.”

“Yeah, this was just the closest I could portal us.” I said, looking back at our ride. The airspeeder looked ancient, but… more updated? The frigate class was a warfrigate without a doubt, though it looked to have updated armor platings and weapon systems. Those guns were silent now, frozen over aiming at the last target.

There was an odd feeling that I was looking at a tomb instead of a ship.

The engines behind had exploded due to an external attack, given how the metal warped. It had been enough to knock this out of commission, possibly causing an internal pressure wave that would kill anyone without relic armor, but I didn’t know why there was a mite portal within the cargo bay. Had it been built inside there long after the crash, or was it in the process of being ferried out somewhere?

This didn’t feel like scenery made by mites. They wouldn’t have made all the damage to the ship so lifelike. I had this odd feeling we’d reused someone else’s final failed mission.

My headlights looked over the hull for a moment more, trying to see if I could find a name for it, but if the wreck had a name, it was long eroded away. Along with all the paint and everything that could be sandblasted away.

I turned my head up the roadway, which would be leading us in the right direction forward. The mission must continue.

“Coordinates show four miles of travel, keep weapons up and at the ready.” I said, setting a nav point ping to the rest of the knights. “Not sure if this biome is hidden from Relinquished, or guarded from her. We’ll find out soon.”

The biome was eerie. Snow continued to blast through obscuring vision, but the gusts died down after we made it past the massive bridges, revealing what looked to be the ruins of a city. Unlike mite cities far above us, this one looked real. There was a clear organization to it that felt familiar to the old media I’d seen.

Cars with broken windows littered the roadways further in, many looked abandoned. Others still had occupants within. The cold had preserved them, but whenever the mites had built this strata, it must have been decades after they’d died. Only snow-buried skeletons remained, just traces of the skulls and bones still visible. The ones without broken windows were far more visible, the car keeping the external snow outside where it belonged, while the rest remained a coffin for it's driver.

Everything in this world was dead. Bones, broken glass and metal, all covered and preserved in the snow.

The city continued onwards for miles in every direction. Giant buildings loomed above us, some tilted over, crashed long ago into others. Almost all these buildings had their windows blasted into fragments. Signs of a distant explosion, like a shockwave had passed through. Not enough to break everything, but certainly enough to pulverize fragile things.

Through all this our team jogged forward, following the roadway, helmet lights and rifle lights keeping the way illuminated in the pale half-light.

It was in one of these giant buildings we found what we were looking for. A mall of some sort? We could access it from the ceilings downwards, as the entrance had been piled up by snow.

Here’s where things changed. Journey’s HUD pinged dozens of metallic figures, buried inside the snow that’d blown in. But in the soul sight, I saw no signs of life or movement. Just dead machines.

The forms were grotesque, clearly built by Relinquished for maximum effect. But I don’t doubt those claws and teeth had certainly killed people already. At least, until they met their end.

Sliced in half. Almost all of them had some kind of damage like that. Including the walls behind them. It was like a wild blender had passed through here.

Further into the mall, the dead machines were more visible, now that snow was piled up all over. It did get darker here, snow having covered the roof windows, making this entire place look more like a pale halflight. Underwater even.

That’s where we found the Division Stone.

Waiting on a snow covered rock, slightly leaned over to the side. As if the whole thing here hadn’t been part of this mall. All around was a circular portal of some kind flat on the ground. Wiring connected it all together, with powerlines leaving past the escalators here, out into the outside.

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The face of the Division Stone was smooth, up until it hit the upper edges, where it became far more rock-like. And just like the forge that had fixed up Wrath, it held a single circular hole on the center. Wing-like designs were etched outwards, built into the stone. A giant mess of mechanical arms remained dormant on the left side, so this time they weren’t hidden inside the stone itself.

The entire thing had a soft glow on the edge of that inner circle. As if waiting in the gloom, still powered.

“Whoever moved the stone, they did it by setting this up first, and then summoning the stone wholesale into it.” I said, taking my guess from the look of everything here. And it had been done centuries ago given how dead the entire location here felt.

Father immediately held a hand out and called for a full stop, a ping signalling possible danger.

I had my blade and armguard out, as the rest of the knights equally had their blades lit up in the dark space.

“A dead body up ahead.” Father said. “Not one of the machines. The snow pile next to the stone.”

A few of the Winterscar knights held a hand out, and a shockwave came from each, pushing the snow clear off.

I zoomed in my sight on the stone, getting a closer look at the tiny figure off to the side. And I did see a humanoid shape. Sitting at the base of the stone, hands limp at the side, head resting on the back of the Division Stone.

It looked intact, but when flashlights illuminated the figure, I could see it was anything but. Skeletal, holes ripped into it, skin looked torn off, melted metal, and multiple massive slices all across the chassis. I couldn’t even tell if it was a woman or a man, the clothing had been ripped apart.

“I do not recognize the template model.” Wrath said. “The structure looks unique.”

“It is unique.” Father said. “I saw in Avalis’s memories something similar. This is a proto-feather. A dead demi-god, and even in death it nearly killed Avalis. Do not go near it.”

Whatever could be used to identify which protofeather this body belonged to, that was long gone.

But I had a hunch. This biome wasn’t part of the locations Relinquished knew about, hidden by the mites. Or perhaps at one point she did know where it was, and traded her memory of it for something else. Which means anything within these grounds was outside her scope.

There were only two protofeathers Relinquished had marked as missing, rather than confirmed killed. A22.

And A01.

He died here. Dragging the Division Stone to safety. Finding a way to eradicate it from Relinquished’s mind.

The face looked melted, twisted downwards. Just a slight bit of the original face could be seen on the right side. An eye was intact there, staring outwards without any mind to process the information returned. He looked more peaceful than upset, or at least I had a feeling he’d simply sat down and knew he wouldn’t ever get back up again.

There wasn’t any damage to his soul fractal that I could see. No sword left embedded into the body. He looked mangled, but no killing blow could be identified.

“The last known location of A01 had been in singular combat against A57.” Wrath said. “The latter was killed, but it was recorded that A01 was mortally wounded in a way that he could not repair or heal from.”

Which meant he hadn’t succumbed to a physical wound, but a spiritual one. It made sense why there wasn't a killing blow. I could imagine his last moments here, likely alone surrounded by the dead. Nobody else, not even Tsuya seemed to have known where the Stone was.

“Regardless, Tenisent is correct.” She said, keeping a distance. “This body is still possibly lethal. It should be treated as an undetonated active mine.”

Father gave a grunt, and a head nod. The knights around us snapped to action.

They filtered ahead through the gloom, searching for final traps and attempts to prevent incursions. We found nothing.

If anything, the room had been left with everything prepared to reuse the stone itself. Even a terminal was connected to the power cables leaving the stone, and I could tell there was still life in that thing. One small green blip of a light flickered for a moment. Repeating every thirty seconds. Probably eternally.

No amount of traps would have protected the stone if Relinquished knew where it was. Superior whispered in my ears. He probably didn’t bother to use what time he had left in some warped attempt to kill the next user of this stone. Probably the opposite. He might have even shut down his entire system and defenses before he expired so that his body doesn’t attack us post-death.

I had a feeling that was the case.

We walked over to stand before the dead body. I gave it a small nod, a moment of silence. I didn't know what I could say to this old hero. But a simple moment of silence seemed to say it all.

He really does look at peace.

He died here so that we might continue. Superior sent back. And it worked. We're here now.

The eye of the protofeather stared ahead, no emotion. It might be the only thing that wasn't damaged on the chassis.

Not saying we should, but theoretically, could you recover and restore the shell here? If he died from a spiritual attack, the physical chassis could still be piloted.

It’s a proto-feather chassis. Not just any protofeather, the protofeather. The original himself. Supposedly the only one who could fight Talen one on one. If we could get that working again, on our side, we’d be far ahead.

No way. Superior sent. What if whatever killed him remained behind? Maybe I step into that soul fractal, and my soul gets ripped in half. Besides, the mite side fractal here is very cozy. Besides the eldritch voices screaming around as neighbors.

But there was another reason and we both knew it. This was his grave. It felt like desecration in a way to try and reuse the last thing A01 had left to his name.

There is something he might have wanted to pass on.

Superior sent. His weapons. Especially if they could be reused against Relinquished. Avalis has the chain whip, we might need more just in case. We're still at war, and once Wrath is free of the Unity fractal, we'll need to plot how to complete the prophecy.

I couldn’t see any weapons next to the body however. All I could see buried in the snow nearby was a warped metal halo, like a discarded crown.

“Wrath, what weapons did A01 use?”

Father answered that one. “A rapier in his main hand, followed by a crescent sickle in his left. Both were inscribed with fractals that would allow them to strike at a far wider range than should be possible. At their level, weapons were less material and more a platform to cast occult from.”

Similar to the occult armguard I had, inscribed with just about all kinds of fractals to keep fighting with in case Journey broke. Good to know my train of thoughts mirrored theirs.

“It is possible he lost his weapons during a skirmish. Or had no reason to carry them this far.” Wrath said, now scanning to see if she could find it inside any of the machine bodies here. They all still looked sliced in half. However the rapier had been used, it probably wasn’t like I thought those could be used for.

“Or they could have broken down during the fights.” I said, thinking it through. If I were dying and trying my best to give my inheritor the best chances forward, I would have left the weapons in an easy place to find and recover.

We might have entered the mall from the wrong direction, or part of the entrance that had been used collapsed in. The ground we walked on was old, and neglected by the mites. Or preserved maybe, given the temperature. “Let’s secure the parameter, get ourselves eyes on the outside in case something gets called in, and let’s get the stone online and ready for use.”

The knights all snapped a salute, and split the roles among each other. Father stalked behind me, followed by Wrath and Captain Sagrius. Only two other Winterscar knights remained here, while the rest moved up and out of the mall, taking positions around the broken down building.

Pings came across my HUD as the team covered all directions. None of them reported any signs of enemies or movement. The opposite, a snowstorm was once more on approach in the distance.

“I’m going to take a wild guess this is how to turn the stone on.” I said, making my way to the separated terminal. In front, away by several dozen feet, was the stone proper. The terminal seemed more connected to the ground portal around the stone itself.

The terminal itself looked more like something someone carried into here, and then setup. There were signs that the legs could be folded up inwards, and all the plugs and cables seemed flush to the metal.

Even the monitor looked to have a sliding metal window above that could close over the entire thing to protect it during transport. But it remained in the last configuration.

I tapped one of the buttons under the monitor. Nothing happened. Journey’s HUD flickered, scanning the white wordings by all the flips, switches and buttons until it highlighted in orange lines one switch.

PWR. ON/OFF.

The toggle was over OFF. “Good catch.” I said, and flipped the switch.

The terminal hummed to life. A boot screen popped up in green, then cleared off.

Father extended a hand up, then pulled a large wire from his forearm, leading it up to an exposed terminal slot.

“Are you sure you’re good to dive in there yourself?” I asked.

He grunted, then connected. The screen flickered through options rapidly. His hand shot out and flicked a few switches with clear understanding of the system.

The Stone beyond us started to glow further. Waking up. I could see the screen showing multiple subsystems spooling up. All of them showing 100% capacity.

I let a small breath out that I hadn't known I was holding. The Stone was still functional. Despite the battle around here against A01, he'd done it. He'd kept it protected to the very end.

Even power was still connected and reported fully functional.

"Did... did he leave a message behind?" I asked, looking up at the dead protofeather.

Father shook his head. "No. There is nothing in the terminal besides a connection to the teleport pad the Stone sits upon, and the Stone's systems themselves."

Screen stopped populating, and a green message remained on display.

ALL SYSTEMS ONLINE.

AWAITING OPERATOR.

"Is there a manual on how to make it work, or do we need to figure it out ourselves?" I asked.

Father shook his head. "We cannot operate it. It can only be used by it's original creator."

The operator. Ah. Journey opened up the video files from our discussion on the mountaintop with Tsuya.

Activating the stone will necessitate my direct assistance. I'll need to interface with the fractal inside it, given my involvement in its original creation. Your task is to locate the stone and then reach out to me. I will make the cuts then.

We'd done what she'd asked. We'd found the Stone.

Now all that was left was to summon Tsuya herself here.