Chapter Three
Ayax eyed the treasures piled on the altar. There was an interesting shiny tablet, which they lifted experimentally and tried to peer through. They'd heard about something like this, maybe? It could help find treasure, and it was more useful than the pretty armoring, but…
The best prize was the tool. No matter what, it would be useful to them, and it could even be a weapon. The Demon was looking down expectantly, so they hurried up and grabbed it. Maybe they were being judged? Hopefully this was the right answer.
But they still needed treasures to bargain with later. Maybe they could dig for them or search along the way, but maybe… Could they ask for something else? They could try another floor here. Something higher up, where the loot might be less useful but more impressive to a trader. They only had to ask Naoko in a polite way.
"Pleasingly, What Remains of Ito Naoko, can up floor? More shiny treasure?" Perfect.
Yeah, you don't think Ayax has had a real conversation before. Maybe they're just young and this is how they talk, but they always seem more confident when they're chittering in bug. Either way, you get the gist of what they want, and start leading them back to the elevator bank. Shiny stuff, huh? If maintenance wasn't nice enough for that, there's at least one more place you've always wanted to visit.
Stepping smoothly into the elevator, you prepare to talk to the simple control system - and suddenly there's a figure standing there. At first you think it's a person, or another shadow like you, but eventually you recognize their featureless face. This is some sort of generic mouthpiece for an automatic system. Which is definitely not normal. Did you walk into an execs elevator bank? Fuck.
Nothing for it but doing what you used to do best - blustering and arguing until they let you through. At least it wasn't a full AI, so you'd probably be fine.
Ayax was getting nervous. Whatever was going on between Naoko and the other Demon, it felt been tense and unwanted, and they got the sense of having narrowly escaped from a hunter. But, if it had gone badly, what would they have done? They had been lucky in this venture so far, and their mood was beginning to worsen.
While they waited, they played with the handle of the digging tool. The glyphs hovering around it whirled out of the way whenever their claws threatened to touch them, flowing like water. It was fun and distracting, and they wondered at the symbols as they moved. There were little groups of them, some small and evenly sized, but each group also seemed to have a larger glyph that looked more like an icon of a god. Maybe the tool had more than one demon bound, or had been made by a group of demons, and these were their names?
One of their claws flicked a symbol that looked like a triangle surrounded by sand, and suddenly the digging tool shouted and began to wiggle around! At its head, what had been a simple flat piece of metal like a spear blurred and grew, spinning gently as it did. They pulled their hand back in horror, and the tool stopped. If the tool really did have many demons, was there a form for each of them?
Naoko had looked down at the commotion, and glared at them before turning back to the other demon. They wilted and let the tool rest on the ground. Better to not risk that happening again and enraging a demon into killing them and… eating Naoko's soul, or whatever demon's did when they fought.
They fidgeted for the rest of the ride up, studiously ignoring the continued debate as much as they could. («Why do you have a kid with you anyway?» the other demon asked. Naoko sniffed. «Above your paygrade. I'll have to tell your dev how pushy you're getting. They plan for that kinda sapience, or are you hiding it?» «Fuck off, Shadow. Like you're supposed to be around without your user, either.»)
Eventually, the demon released both of them from the chamber, and with some sort of passing barb at Naoko disappeared from view. To Ayax, this new floor seemed unreal - not the solid walls and ruined surroundings of the lower floors, but a kind of glowing prism. It reminded them of a description of the heavens they'd once heard. Naoko was already smoothly advancing towards a particularly shining wall or barrier that seemed to separate the chambers from the rest of the floor.
Ayax waited behind the demon, trying not to fidget with the digging tool too much. Naoko was clearly frustrated - at first attempting to commune and pray like with the altar before, but even that seemed to fail. Were the gods more attentive here, in a place closer to them? Whatever the reason, the demon spent quite some time without making any progress that Ayax could notice.
They were still waiting, and leaning against the barrier (parts of which seemed more solid than others, in a confusing way) trying not to watch the magic too closely. The intensity of whatever was going on was getting worse and their shell was tingling from the feel of it. One of their claws slipped lower on the handle of the tool, and the head blurred into motion again, expanding right into the wall!
The barrier sizzled and flickered, letting out an awful scream as it died. Ayax was already turning off the tool and was about to beg Naoko for forgiveness when the demon started laughing, and said something with a smile. («I'm already starting to forget about just reaching out and breaking things, I guess. I'll have to remember to let you help more.») Ayax caught the demonic words for assistance and breaking, and let themselves calm down a bit.
Beyond the wall, they found themselves in what had to be a Forgotten Mage's Sanctum, or the den of a cherished Priest. Seats floated off the ground, altars and various holy relics were arranged casually along the walls, and all of the spirits seemed to awaken and leer at Ayax and Naoko. Glyphs scattered around the strange images the spirits were showing, and a few chattered in soft voices.
The gods must have loved this person very much, Ayax thought, to send so many spirits to serve them. And the spirits seemed loyal indeed, to be bound here so long after the wars and the fall. Maybe it was the quality of the anchors? Ayax crept forward, and gently touched a small altar that was floating near one of the seats. It chirred and bounced in the air, slightly, like a neglected cat demanding pets.
Glyphs and images sparked from the top of it into the air, and Naoko huffed. "«Fucking Morgan and his Ten Laws. People died because of that book, but everyone still has a copy, no matter how many protests there are.»"
Ayax didn't understand most of what Naoko said, but they wondered. This demon was unusually kind, if the stories and warnings were anything to go from. What kept them here? Had they been sealed somehow, like the spirits?
Wait… how was the demon sealed? There should be a phylactery somewhere. Wouldn't they need to carry that out? They paused and thought of how to ask this in the demon tongue.
"Naoko, where's anchor? Your demon rock?"
...what. Demon? They think you're some fantasy thing? You guess your situation is kinda unique, but… This is another blow against your hopes that someone taught them to speak NorthAm, at least. They must have picked it up some other way.
What's this about a rock, though? You can't think of any story or myth that really fits. Kind of more of a genie thing, having an object they're summoned from, or sort of liches? But why would they know any of that. It's not like you were summoned from anything, either, you don't even have real hardware here, you're just using the local servers like always -
Wait. Fuck. If there's no people out there teaching the bugs, there might be less systems than you were hoping. You might actually need something to run on once you're away from the local network.
What do you use?
[ ] Well, you are in fancier offices. You might be able to scavenge a mobile projector and something to attach to it, and just find ways to keep topped up on battery? [Will lead to a very short vote for more options, since this is basically grabbing random bits of tech and hooking them all up. Might have the best computing power, but needing to charge every week or so sucks if you have to travel too far.]
[ ] There's some surveying drones back in maintenance. You don't want to waste too much time with them, but if you got two running that's enough for a swarm network, right? And they'd have some utility outside of just being computing for you. [Upsides - hyper mobile, and you don't need someone to carry them around. The drones themselves have good cameras and some other sensor tech. You could also theoretically find more in the future? Downsides - They're not exactly defense grade, and theoretically someone could knock you out of the sky. Also, they're going to be light on computing power.]
[ ] Ayax looks nervous after you got lost in thought, and keeps playing with that necklace. If it is tech, maybe it's an old wearable, or some Corp luminary's personal thing? You know the execs were more attached to personal computing than most people could afford. You could at least ask if they know what it is. [Upsides - very easy for Ayax to carry, surprisingly decent computing power, so you'll only lose a bit of overclocking headroom. Downsides - ???, You have no idea where they got this.]
You think you've spent enough time here. You've gotta find out what happened to your world.
Where?
[ ] Ayax must have come from somewhere out there, whatever's gone down. Let them lead you back there, and you'll get some quick answers. [Waystation]
[ ] You know some places in the Arcology, especially the old undercity. Old haunts, as it were. Drag the kid there and see if there's anything left at all. [Ruins]
A/N: Not my favorite chapter, but I had to move things along a bit and I didn't want to keep delaying. I hope you like some of the character notes anyway, and next update we leave the offices!
