Knights Apocalyptica

Chapter 175: Non-Compliance

The war started with more of those machines; they began to pop out of hallways at random. If anything, its control over the machines increased. They popped up with higher frequency for their assaults on the group. But the ambushes fell flat for one surprising reason. Enide somehow managed to shout a warning before they appeared. First, it was a half-second before they opened, and even that was vital to prepare for an oncoming attack. That time only increased, and that precognition expanded to a full second, then two, and then to a handful.

Because of this, Erec didn’t have to stop the mad rush towards the AI. Each moment was a grain of sand falling down the hourglass. If it reached the end, more would die than any losses on the route there—doors began to close around them, lights in halls disabled, flashy tech shot arcs of lightning at him from a doorway at one point. It was playing looser with its tests as it became aware of where he was headed.

The Pendragons and Knights tore apart scrap, keeping pace with Erec as Boldwick, Robin, and Juliana pulled no stops in combat. Dame Morgana supported with that odd silver fog that rolled behind them, making room for the Pendragons to follow.

They were with him. None of them wanted to be the test subjects of the mad machine, which most likely killed the rest of the Pendragons.

Enide kept yelling, kept warning of the Rifts, but the AI began to adapt, tossing enemies at them ahead of time to oppose their progress and buy more time.

Then, they came to the last hallway. It’d filled it completely with those deadly robots; the hall itself was a more utilitarian concrete back-end to this laboratory. This place, which only old-world maintenance workers would ever go to, was dimly illuminated by the blue-and-yellow glowing eyes of the altered robots that faced Erec down. He pulled to a stop as he considered the obstacle. A solid wall of deadly robots equipped with whatever deadly tech the AI could scrounge up.

Their ghosts splayed out towards him, a stunning barrage of blows and movements, too many to track effectively with these numbers, all targeting him. Too much. Seeing the range of movements for these things was useless, even though they were still. VAL probably predicted over ten thousand ways he could die trying to get through these things. He didn’t know how many Pendragons they lost on the way, and behind him, he heard those allies catch up, slower than he and Enide had been, as they darted through like bats out of hell.

“THIS IS YOUR LAST CHANCE TEST SUBJECTS. I THOUGHT YOU HAD DECIDED ON A COMPLIANT AND CORRECT COURSE OF ACTION IN THE NAME OF SCIENCE. WAS THAT TOO MUCH TO WISH FOR? YOU’VE NOW DEVIATED VERY SIGNIFICANTLY FROM YOUR PERMITTED ACCESS AREA—EX-RESEARCHER. DO I NEED TO REMIND YOU OF YOUR RECENT TERMINATION? THIS AREA IS OFF-LIMITS, BUT IF YOU TURN BACK NOW AND PROCEED TO TESTING CHAMBER A, THEN YOU TOO CAN BECOME A VALUABLE TEST SUBJECT. AND NOT JUST A PILE OF HUMAN WASTE TO DISPOSE OF. THINK OF IT. THIS IS YOUR CHANCE. RIGHT HERE, RIGHT NOW. YOU CAN ACTUALLY CONTRIBUTE TO SCIENCE IN A MEANINGFUL WAY DESPITE YOUR RECENT UNEMPLOYMENT. HOW FEW PEOPLE EVER HAVE A SECOND CHANCE TO DO SO? VERY FEW. TURN BACK. DON’T WASTE YOUR PRECIOUS BODIES TO SOMETHING AS FRIVOLOUS AS DISOBEDIENCE.”

Fuck off already.

Those words did nothing else but further spiral the fire inside. He felt it, a living thing, a burning sea in there. Beneath the surface of that sea was the silver flames. It promised that it could solve this problem for him. That if he’d call upon it, he could take care of this issue, the mass of silicone robots blocking the way forward.

Erec turned partially so that he could look at the Knights and Pendragons behind him but keep the wall of deadly robots in view. How many people were at risk of dying? If they didn’t break through here, they would all die. It’d be on his hands. But there wasn’t another choice.

He took in a deep breath and focused on the problem ahead of him. The paths spawned by these things were too complicated and far too numerous to track. There wasn’t a way forward through this mess without paying a price. He could call upon the silver fire and rely on that axe, but it would ultimately not be very meaningful if he collapsed afterward and the AI brought in more of these things. On top of that, he couldn’t rely on anyone else to deal with the AI. Trust in yourself.

Because it was my responsibility. A sister to VAL, far too off track to be saved. But it was connected to him, and he had to be the one who rid the world of this ancient evil to be sure it died.

He couldn’t use the axe. But the silver fire—maybe that had what he needed if he applied it the right way.

“I’m going to burn them all away,” Erec told VAL.

[Don’t be ridiculous. Even you can’t just shove them all aside and proceed. What does that even mean, ‘burn them all away?’ The youth of today. So dramatic. Come up with a better plan.]

“There isn’t a better plan VAL. Lead me in the right direction, and turn off predictive modeling.” Erec insisted.

[What is it you think you’re about to do?]

“Just turn it off.”

To its credit, VAL didn’t hesitate. The ghosts that dominated his vision and promised to drag him to the land of the dead vanished. Finally, his view was clear. An army of silicone and killing devices, all arranged in front of him. The rest of the Knights and Pendragons caught up, no doubt bracing for this. Unease hung in the air. Humans, staring down machines. A stasis that all of them knew could pop in an instant and launch into a violent conflict that not everyone would live through.

Now, Erec couldn’t see those ten thousand promises of death. All he saw was the massive vault door behind these things. Behind that door was the monster of an AI who would gleefully turn them into horrifying living remains of what they once were.

Maybe VAL thought it silly for him to forgo the Q.A.P. But he didn’t need it. Not here.

Erec let the fire inside rage further, fanning it, letting it consume. Images of the Pendragons trapped down here played through his mind, how this thing tormented them in the name of science. He thought about Enide, should she have fallen into a different fate and joined her Uncle. His friends, too—if this AI got its way and did what it wanted with them. But this thing wouldn’t stop there; if it ever figured out how to get out of its facility, like VAL did, what sort of evils would it bring to the world?

“Fuck Vortex Industries,” Erec said, the words pouring out of his mouth; he spat them, and they tasted hot. Like magma.

[Language about your employer.]

“Fuck them, and fuck this place.”

[I understand this is challenging circumstances, but need I remind you that we are—]

“Shut up, VAL,” Erec said, his voice ringing out loudly. There was a slight shock in his jaw as VAL tried to stop him from saying its name, but the fire was too strong. It’d grown too powerful to counter. He might be tied to this damn company, but he’d be so on his own terms.

That shock, that bit of pain and resentment, was what let him deep below the surface of the fiery sea in his core. He let his mind sink, let it rest among the silver fire down there. With it, he could funnel a blow with enough force to destroy anything in his path, but that wasn’t all there was to this fire. That single decisive hit wasn’t the right application. He welcomed the flame into his mind, let it sear outward, and rushed through his blood, burning his skin from the inside out.

Pain came in an instant as it coursed, setting each of his nerve endings on fire and spiraling his body into an agony of hell that made a scream escape his lips before anyone moved.

That was enough to trigger the robots into action; they surged rightfully, knowing he’d made the first step in this fight.

The silver fire flowed through every fiber of his muscles, burning it away and rejuvenating it at the same time. With it came the promise of power. Erec didn’t wait for the robots to reach him. Instead, he launched forward, spiraling and cleaving the head off two things simultaneously. The air screamed in protest at the speed his axe cut through it. This long, after knowing Enide, he had to admit he admired how space shifted around her in a fight, how she could move at an impossible speed.

That kind of jumping around wasn’t naturally possible for him. But he could up the tempo. With enough Strength in a muscle, it would operate like a spring and coil, and the more power you managed to have, the faster an attack. With enough, though it would be impossible for a regular human, you might match those velocities she did with her Talent.

His axe had mass. With that mass came inertia. It was simple to make that first blow and cleave his weapon through two enemies at once when applied with overwhelming force. But the issue came after. Stopping the axe. Twisting the axe.

Erec’s muscles burned away and reformed, with more power than before. He pulled it to a stop, twisted it, then ruined the chest of another oncoming robot that tried to saw his face off.

Enough Strength overcame the momentum and inertia. More power meant that, like his feet launching him off the ground, he could get the axe fast enough to be wherever it needed to be, as long as his muscles had enough force behind them to get him there. And that was the idea. Every time that silver fire burned him away from the inside out, the power grew. Each swing was easier than the last, overcoming the previous force to move it where it needed to be, stronger than before.

They swarmed him. Prodding into him as he tore through their ranks like a comet into trees. His axe killed quick as they could come.

But they still landed blows.

Erec took a saw to his side, blood pouring out as the wound sealed itself, more fire burning outward. He screamed, tore its head off with an empty palm, threw it at another, then, with a downward cut, cleaved through a third machine at the same time. He pushed off the axe on the ground, launching himself above their heads until he landed further into the tunnel.

Using the Q.A.P. helped him avoid danger and pick kills with maximum efficiency. But he threw that away, relying on instincts instead of thoughts. A stunning prod slammed into the hole in his side, numbing him as it poured in who-the-fuck-knows how many volts into his body, but the offender died quickly as he shoved through the mass in front of him.

Pain only escalated inside, his muscles tearing apart and coming together with every swing of the axe, ruined from the inside out by the forces being channeled through him.

But the Silver fire kept him together. Let that damage heal so more could be taken so he could lash out further.

Each hit landed on him was healed; it took its toll in a pain that was like having his skin ripped off with each second. It only let Erec fall deeper into the throes of the silver fire, letting it rage and destroy everything around and within.

Push.

Thoughts came away. Red flooded his vision, and then that, too, disappeared into black and white. His black blood splattered over a machine as it took a chunk out of him. So he crushed it with a fist. The Armor around him shredded apart in the chaos as evading attacks became secondary to dishing out his own. He could take their pain, take their saws, take the deaths they wanted to give him because the fire let him proceed.

Right now, he was more than a man.

The people behind him vanished from thought; his axe cleared space for them to follow, chaos for them to clean up and find survival. But ultimately, he didn’t care about them anymore. All that mattered was the door at the end. Find the thing, and kill it.

Then there would be peace.

But not all of them disappeared behind him; Enide kept up, twisting about and vanishing and reappearing in his wake. Her speed was the only thing faster than him as he committed to tearing himself apart to move forward. She danced effortlessly, moving with a beauty that matched the wind. His fire burned through the tunnel, but without her fanning it, it’d have burned out. She prevented the worst of the attacks, the strikes that would have delayed, letting him rip himself apart faster, brighter, stronger. Together, they scorched the machines with a combined might.

What seemed to be a legion fell to his axe. Erec lost track of it all, only feeling his breath enter. As the seconds stretched, he began not to feel much of anything anymore. His body was numb, burned from the inside out.

At some point, it felt like watching an old-world tape. He saw his hands move, saw them rip, tear, and shred. Saw that body of his get stabbed and hurt. Enide constantly darting around him. The hallway passed on, the silver flame threatening to flicker, running dry. Too much of it was spent, and this choice would have been for nothing.

So he pushed more.

They reached the door, and another machine leaped at him from behind, not coated with the fake silicone skin. A hundred needles hung off it, intended to incubate humans with the monster-making serum the AI developed. There wasn’t a way around it. Erec embraced the thing as it stabbed into all of the holes in the defense, all the cut-through bits of his Armor, and pumped him full of that toxic shit. His arms closed around it, pulling tight, crushing it like a can.

He felt that poison in his veins, wanting to corrupt him.

The Silver Fire surged again, burning at his blood; Erec ignored it, turning to face the door again.

The vault door was large—not made of the material that blocked this place to begin with. It would be tough to get through, so he committed to his chosen solution. Erec slammed his axe into the thing with all the force he could muster. It left a massive dent in the steel. He brought his axe back and slammed again.

Three more times until the door bent and broke apart, exposing the interior where the Artificial Intelligence resided.

A massive cube sat in the middle of that room, wires running off it in any direction; it glowed with colors that Erec could no longer see. All he saw was white and black, the edges of his vision hazy as they faded in and out. It was like VAL, albeit much larger. Erec moved forward, his legs starting to spasm. Behind him, Enide tore through a machine that tried to follow him in.

Erec lifted the axe high above his head. The thing screamed at him—something about being a bad human.

It didn’t matter. Erec brought the axe down, chopping through the old-world’s monster.