Chapter 46

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1st POV

Standing opposed to the other people; I look them over. Between me and the new group, Doll stands on guard with the bug in hand. On the far side, two figures—one a drone and the other apparently human—face us.

I recognize the drone as J, the previously killed female drone who now stands behind her human companion. The human wears a white spacesuit that completely cuts her off from the outside world. On her back, she carries an old sword, and by her waist, she wears a basic revolver.

"Who are you, Stranger?" shouting past the guarded drone, the apparent human addresses me directly. Suspicious of a human existing in this reality, I reach out with my neural link. The device begins to malfunction before exploding.

"Oops, sorry about that. I have an anti-networking device set up. I can't have the drones turning off my life support now, can I?" Overemphasizing her actions, the woman giddily explains my destroyed device.

More suspicious than before, I look back towards Doll, who remains on guard. The skittish, superpowered drone looks behind me. Seeing the approaching drones, she grows more nervous than before. Landing one by one around me, my companions join me in our standoff.

"J! Is that you? Weren't you dead? You turned into a weird centipede thing," N says, showing zero restraint. V, on the other hand, barely hesitates upon seeing Doll. She dashes forward, stabbing towards the Russian drone. Doll teleports away, millimetres from the attacking drone's blade.

Groaning, I watch as she continues to teleport until she disappears into a nearby hole. "Really, V? You couldn't have waited?" Looking back towards the other group, I spot them turning to leave. My companions rush after them.

Groaning, I rub my forehead, seriously contemplating how I ever considered these robots intelligent. Sighing, I decide to let this play out. Keeping my distance, I cloak myself and follow them into the hole.

3rd POV

Warping through the vast underground tunnels, the lone drone—Doll—follows a map left to her by her late mother. Throwing out a sigil, the intricate symbol collides with a pile of rubble. Twisting into space, the rubble atomizes and disappears.

Walking into an open chamber, she is momentarily awestruck by the sheer grandeur of the underground structure. Shaking off her shock, she steps into the cavern and toward the abandoned chapel within.

Walking further in, she teleports a few meters to speed herself up. Pushing open the large wooden door, she steps into the gore-covered chapel. Glancing around, she spots something that looks like what she's searching for.

Digging through loose papers and searching each drawer, her frustration grows with each minute. Screaming in anger, she starts kicking around church pews and skeletons. Her gaze falls on the darkened end of the church, and curiosity gets the better of her.

Approaching the dark hole, she carefully stands by the edge before looking down. Kicking a loose rock, it tumbles down into the flesh-lined pit. No noise echoes from within.

Restraining her anger, she tries to think of what to do next. The sound of people talking pulls her from her thoughts. Looking around frantically for cover, she dives behind a large pillar just as the thick wooden doors open.

"What's Earth like, Tessa? How are the humans—still murderous?" Uzi's voice echoes through the high-ceilinged chamber, reverberating into Doll's ears as she talks to some unseen person.

"Oh, Earth's amazing. It's got a massive hole through it, and all the humans are dead." Pausing after her reply, Tessa lets the silence settle, the only sound being the rhythmic tapping of feet against the floor.

Staying as still as possible, Doll waits for the perfect chance to attack. Listening to the footfalls grow closer, she begins charging an attack. Bracing for the perfect moment, she jumps from cover. Her attack flies through the air directly toward Tessa.

Seeing the incoming attack, the ever-vigilant J swoops in and blocks it. As Doll preps another attack, a colossal force pulls her hand into the air. Twisting her captured arms, the assailant raises them above her and crushes her hands.

Screaming in pain, Doll twists in every direction as she tries to free herself. Falling silent, she slowly turns to look at her assailant. Grimacing, she recognizes the same strange creature that has constantly hindered her since she first appeared two or so days ago.

1st POV

Looking at the dangling drone in my hands, my gaze drifts toward the hole at the end of the room. Contemplating dropping her in to see what happens, I'm interrupted by N's arrival.

Bursting through the door, N holds a weird cross aloft triumphantly. "Uzi! Look what I found!" Waving the cross around, N runs toward Uzi. Upon seeing the cross, Tessa's head snaps toward it unnaturally, and I get a weird feeling.

Dropping Doll, I discreetly move closer to Uzi and N, waiting to see if my hunch pays off. Handing the cross to Uzi, she pulls one end off to reveal it's actually a USB. Chuckling weirdly, Uzi's optics begin to flicker yellow as the solver symbol replaces her eye.

Grabbing both the cross in her hand and the back of her head, I shove it into her face. Glitching wildly, Uzi's face sparks violently as it flashes between yellow and purple. Falling to the ground, Uzi stops moving as her optics shut off.

"Morgan, what the hell! Uzi, wake up!" Shaking the silent Uzi, N yells at me continuously. Unbeknownst to him, while he's looking at me, Uzi slowly reboots behind him. Reaching past N, I grab the cross from the sitting drone's face and turn to Tessa and J.

Behind me, Uzi quickly heals as N fawns over her, but I don't pay much attention as I'm growing incredibly bored in this universe. "So, Tessa, I noticed you're quite interested in this little doodad."

Walking toward her, I stand a few meters away in a silent standoff. Loosening her posture, Tessa reaches up toward her helmet. As she removes her helmet, her voice slowly turns more synthetic.

"Well. It was fun. You should die now." Taking off her helmet entirely reveals a head of decaying flesh stretched across a robotic skull. Yellow eyes look out from within the sagged skin pinned to her head. Drawing her sword from its sheath, the zombie robot subtly gestures toward J before stepping back.

Walking forward, I let J pass me as I move closer to the now revealed Cyn. Walking around her to the side of the chapel, we stand in a silent faceoff. To my left, the drones begin fighting, while to my right, the deep fleshy hole pulses ominously, and Doll hides far behind a pillar.

"So, Cyn, what's the big plan here? What are you after?" Addressing the frankly disgusting zombie robot, I try to learn her motives. I don't have much connection to this world, so I might just leave if she proves reasonable. She probably won't.

"Oh, silly. I will eat this planet. Then everyone on it, you included." Sighing, she proves not to be reasonable. Don't get me wrong—I don't care about this planet and the fate of any of its inhabitants, but she keeps annoying me by talking about me.

"Well, if you're going to be that way, let's fight." Drawing my scythe, I prepare for battle as Cyn dashes forward. Starting slow, she attacks with a weak slash that I easily block. Kicking her hard in the chest, she flies back into a pillar.

Dragging herself out of the crumbling pillar, she pouts briefly before looking angry. "Meany, that hurt."

"Are we fighting or not?" Not deigning to respond to me, she dashes forward far faster than before. Stabbing forward, I easily deflect the relatively slow and weak attack. Moving to follow up with a punch, she teleports behind me before my attack could make contact.

Forming a tendril from my back, I deflect her attack and pivot. Using the momentum of my spin, I slash toward her torso. Blocking with her sword, the weak metal somehow survives with barely a chip as Cyn is pushed back again.

Landing by the edge of the hole, she slashes her sword before pausing. "This is fun." Nodding at her comment, I prepare to dash in, only to be interrupted. Jumping out from behind her pillar, Doll throws an attack at the ground by Cyn's feet.

Looking between Doll and Cyn, I question how she missed such an easy stationary target when the ground begins to crack. Looking down, the crack spreads in an arc around Cyn before stopping. After a comical amount of time, the severed piece of stone slowly begins to slide into the pit with Cyn on it.

Waving at me, she makes no attempt to move as she disappears from sight. Behind me, the door bursts open violently as a little purple crab bot walks in with a pickaxe floating behind it.

"Where is Cyn!" Shouting at the room full of people, the small crab bot proves to be a bit too late. Pointing at the hole, she teleports over it and looks in. "No!" Not really understanding what she's on about, I walk over to look into the hole. Curious, the drones also come over.

Looking into the darkness, I notice a steadily rising yellow light as the ground begins to shake. "Why shouldn't she be in the hole?" Asking the obvious, N turns to the little bot.

"Because it leads to the core!"

"Ohh..." Cutting off our collective sounds of acknowledgment, a huge rumble shakes the room.

Within the hole, the yellow light reaches a peak as it floods the room, temporarily blinding the drones. Almost simultaneously, a massive force rocks through the cavern, embedding me in rock and launching me out through the earth.

Easily resisting the attack, the earth opens up around me as the planet is cracked in half by a colossal explosion. Breaking through the remnants of the atmosphere, I pull myself from the rock and blast energy through my scythe to control my uncontrolled flight.

Recovering and slowing myself down, I activate my flight abilities and spin myself around to look back the way I came. Awestruck for a moment, I admire the sheer scale of the destruction Cyn caused. Looking at the destroyed planet, half of its crust floats aimlessly into space.

Back on the actual planet, a massive cut—like a bite out of an apple—reveals the exposed core. Attached to the core, a colossal yellow energy expands as tendrils reach out to grab the floating pieces.

Pondering briefly how to continue my earlier fight, I take a look through my inventory. Sorting through underpowered weapons and items, I don't find anything strong enough to destroy something the size of a small moon.

Striking a thinker pose, I watch the tendrils slowly heading my way. Thinking of a solution, I grab a few items from my inventory. Pulling apart miscellaneous items and a few ingots, I crudely manipulate them into new forms. Moulding the ingots with the sheer pressure of my grip, I quickly assemble a rudimentary device.

Channelling my psionic energy into the device, it begins to hum ominously as sparks of lightning arc off it and it begins to burn. Continuing to channel energy, the device glows more and more until it is just a ball of light in my hand.

Looking at the approaching tendrils, I reel back and, as I throw the device forward, push a metric buttload of energy into it. Disappearing at massive speeds, the device—now a grenade—vanishes from sight, the only trace being a small glowing dot that grows infinitely smaller.

Brushing off a tendril that finally reached me, I sit back and wait. A few seconds later, I'm forced to shield my eyes as a psionically powered ball of plasma expands rapidly. Engulfing the creature in the core, its screams echo through the void of space as half of it is incinerated.

Stiffening up, the tendrils freeze momentarily as they seem to glitch in and out of reality. Recovering quickly, though, the eldritch creature in the core of the planet screams as its tendrils thicken to the size of countries and its core splits open like a nightmarish Pacman.

Continuing her screeching, Cyn's tendrils begin to rapidly travel toward me. Smiling, I do a quick check on my scythe before flying toward her. Growing in size as I move, I reach a size reminiscent of the Apex Typhon from the Prey game series.

Thinking it over a bit, my form begins to shift as it becomes more defined. Polishing off my shape, I form legs, wings, tails, horns, and multiple heads. Chuckling aloud, I appreciate my creativity. Taking a form reminiscent of King Ghidorah but personalized to my preferences, I prove to be an intimidating sight.

With three heads, each with a set of horns, razor-sharp teeth, and three sets of eyes, I'm vaguely reminiscent of a hydra.

Moving down to my body, I resemble a western dragon in shape with two tails tipped in needle-like points. On my back, two sets of wings grow, easily reaching over a kilometre wide in span.

Roaring back in response to Cyn's scream, I get a random idea. Tapping into my energy reserves, I circulate them within myself and toward my mouth. Feeling no obstructions, I grin wickedly as I pump more and more energy into the glowing ball of destruction in my mouth.

Glowing in red and purple, lightning arcs around my mouth as reality attempts to quell my power. Opening my mouths, I release the energy in a devastating beam. Traveling at the speed of light, the beam collides with the surface of the planet.