Chapter 59: Still Contemplations

-Taizong POV-

He flicked through pages on his computer, the images barely having time to load before he went to the next. The computer Taizong called a brain flawlessly sequenced each byte of information and stored them perfectly.

The battle against the unknown entity, code name: Thanatos, had ended roughly ten minutes ago. Shortly after he had activated the emergency teleport the creator had left for this city.

It was unfortunate. Acclimating to a new environment would be difficult. There might be new rivals to contend with.

Creator forbid they end up in Africa.

…Assuming they ever reached their destination.

Taizong looked up once again, this marking the third time he had done so in the last minute.

Chenyu, his secretary, was still there. He had hired her a week following the departure of the creator. He hadn’t needed a secretary, not truly. However the position allowed him to mentor the young woman, who he had seen a glimmer of potential within.

It wasn’t every day an ordinary Chinese peasant uncovered information the C.U.I. would have preferred never uncovered by way of discarded receipts and word of mouth.

When Taizong had heard of this woman, who had operated an ad-hoc spy ring under the very nose of that tyrannical regime, he knew he had to nurture that talent.

He had been right, of course. The girl was the right mix of inquisitive and intractable in the face of pressure that made her ideal in his eyes. That same bullheadedness had also caused Chenyu to clash with him over various decisions, an acceptable whetstone for such a sharp mind.

Mostly it was about insignificant things.

Warehouse storage standards, regulations regarding farming and other such trifling concerns. The only issue she had truly seemed incensed on was the treatment of the foreign prisoners.

It was an altogether baffling line of reasoning.

They were given adequate rations of food and water. Books were provided for them when requested. They were taken out for the occasional walk. Even the prison cells they were given were decently furnished.

Taizong genuinely didn’t see the problem.

There were many, across the globe, that would beg for such standards of living.

Yet, she had shouted and railed against him. Asking, red faced, if they were even going to open negotiations with the United States to ransom them back.

Taizong, personally, saw no need and had told her as such.

The fury on her face had been a cold thing, and the resulting argument had tested his patience in a way it never had before.

His eyes lingered on her still form.

He wished she was still that furious, flame-like, monster of a woman now.

However she, much like every other human in Jinzhou, had frozen still the moment the teleportation engaged. Her open mouth was a question never delivered. Her tense shoulders refused to fall.

The sight pained him, much as the sight of other frozen did.

He had already tasked the other Paragons with investigating the phenomena, and the sciences had never been his area of expertise. Thus, he was left to pour over what had allowed this disaster to take place. How had the barrier of his creator been circumvented?

At 17:06, at 3 seconds past the minute, the Protectorate cape: Shuffle had seized up and started convulsing.

At 17:06, at 6 seconds past the minute, the subject began to expand. Unknown material began to be disgorged from her orifices and beginning to cover her body.

At 17:06, at 23 seconds past the minute, the cape exceeds the dimensions of her prison cell. Alarms are called and guards begin a staged withdrawal, as they were commanded to in the event of a parahuman threat.

At 17:06, at 54 seconds past the minute, The displacement caused by the expanding frame of Shuffle causes the underground prison to collapse. Six guards and the remaining Parahumans of Shuffle’s squad are buried alive.

At 17:06, at 56 seconds past the minute, it is presumed the six guards died of blunt force trauma and blood loss. The Parahumans remain unaccounted for.

Taizong stared at the number for a second. Six deaths. The first to have ever died under his rule.

A profound sadness washed over him, and he had to blink away the slight residue in the corner of his eyes as he continued.

At 17:07, at 5 seconds past the minute, Shuffle completes her transformation into Thanatos. The first on scene was Lu Bu.

At 17:07, at 6 seconds past the minute, a dimensional anomaly is created 50 meters away from Thanatos and Lu Bu.

Between 17:07 and 17:13 Lu Bu managed to drive the creature away from populated areas and inflict minor damage upon the entity. During the battle he was forced into using his overclocking mode.

During this time Several assets, the chrome androids and Jing Ke, arrived on scene. The latter was held back as reserve while the former was given permission to engage. The androids only served as minor distractions at best, and eventually Lu Bu was bested.

During this fight Lán sè was roused and made aware of Operation: Current.

At 17:13, at 23 seconds past the minute, Jing Ke was given orders to engage.

Taizong leaned back slightly. His plan to force Lu Bu into a weakened state had proven to be successful. Given that he hadn’t anticipated Thanatos, it had to be planned on the fly. Nevertheless, he had succeeded.

In his unconscious state Taizong had snuck more than a few goodies into Lu Bu’s body. Should the known back stabber ever manage to harm them, he wouldn’t live to regret it.

The thought brought a small, content, smile to his face. He understood his creator’s choice. Jinzhou was a single city state against a sizeable nation and Lu Bu, despite his flaws, was very powerful.

Yet, despite the restraint placed upon the man, Taizong was not content to allow the man to run amuck. Contingencies were needed.

Shaking his head, he banished the thought of the brute and continued.

Between 17:13 and 17:17 Jing Ke led a running retreat against Thanatos, bringing it closer to the borders of Jinzhou. The first minute of the fight was characterised by a complete inability for Thanatos to adapt to Jing Ke’s homing bullets. However, in the second minute, Thanatos formulated a method to nullify Jing Ke’s advantages and proceeded to hunt the asset down. The last two minutes are a desperate chase towards the borders of Jinzhou.

At 17:17, at 10 second past the minute, Operation Current begins with Lán sè dragging Thanatos beyond the borders of Jinzhou.

At 17:18, 2 seconds past the hour, Lu Bu’s body is recovered. Initial difficulties were met by the temperature of the man’s body, requiring specialty equipment.

At 17:23, 26 seconds past the hour, Lán sè is forced back into reality. Thanatos proceeds to maul the Paragon over the next twenty minutes.

At 17:24, 45 seconds past the hour, a preliminary study is made on the dimensional anomaly within Jinzhou. Study would remain incomplete due to Jinzhou’s relocation

At 17:45, 48 seconds past the minute, Thanatos -presumably realising the futility of attacking Lán sè- begins to instead strike at the barrier itself.

At 17:46 exactly, the barrier falls. Lán sè and Thanatos are deposited near a contingent of C.U.I. observers.

Upon realising the scope of the disaster Taizong prepares to initiate the emergency teleport, only waiting to allow Lán sè to retreat back to Jinzhou.

At 17:47, at 30 seconds past the minute, Jinzhou’s emergency teleport activates.

Taizong rubbed his eyes, a purely human reaction that he had no need of – yet still found comfort in.

It had been an hour since the activation. Yet, they had not reached their destination. Instead they had been dragged into some odd liminal space. At first glance it might not even appear that they had moved at all.

The landscape beyond Jinzhou was the same as it had been, the same trees and rocky hills that surrounded their walls. Yet the colour had been ripped from the land, the sky swelled and bulged in odd patterns and the humans -as previously mentioned- seemed to be frozen in place.

Those weren’t the only oddities either.

Taizong was no expert when it came to magic, but simply by having a beating heart of the phenomenon allowed him to pick up bits and pieces.

This place, whatever it was, was positively soaked in magic. Taizong wasn’t sure if this…place had atoms, or anything tangible at all despite its appearance, instead of pure magic acting as them.

Then there were the things inhabiting this land. Taizong had not personally seen them, but the Paragons had spared no detail on the things they had encountered beyond the borders of Jinzhou.

Anomalous entities roamed the hills beyond the city. Metal, silent, things that marched in orderly rows, the only sound they made being the clinking of vast chains that stretched far and away from them – never entangling despite the impossibility of that.

Thankfully these beings weren’t hostile. In fact they seemed to show no regard to anything besides their mindless marching.

Perhaps if they continued exploring they would find other entities, more malicious things than these hollowed out automata. In fact, following the chains that stretched to the horizon, Taizong was very sure he knew where one such entity was.

But that wasn’t his concern.

Not yet, at least.

Because the pieces still didn’t line up.

The dimensional anomaly that might have allowed for the continued use of Parahuman abilities had only appeared after Shuffle’s transformation into Thanatos.

It couldn’t be the catalyst for all of this.

He thought back to the creator’s words on the barrier, and what it was meant to hold back.

“Parahumans are funny, y’know? They have all sorts of inbuilt corrections to them. The Manton Limit is only the most obvious. Another is the fact that Parahumans can’t go past the orbit of the local moon without losing their abilities. That’s why this barrier, that distorts space to create an impossible distance, works. It takes advantage of the rules of the game.”

Taizong had always believed that words held multitudes within them. Hidden secrets you could dig out if you observed them for long enough. These were no different.

For example ‘inbuilt corrections’ was an interesting choice of words. As if parahumans were designed somehow. Then there was the mention of a ‘game’ going on.

Before this Taizong had not taken too much interest in Parahumans, beyond the basics. He was meant to lead a nation incapable of creating them after all.

In hindsight, that was the first clue. Why would the creator set up such an all encompassing barrier instead of giving them the means of dealing with individual parahumans that pop up, unless Parahumans themselves were part of the problem?

He had begun to study them after that, and everything he learned only served to unnerve him further. The ‘Manton Limits’ the creator spoke of were a well-documented phenomena first observed by Doctor William Manton. In-built controls to stop the power from hurting the parahuman.

Parahumans, he had decided then, were most definitely artificial.

Which implied the existence of creators.

Beings with technology, or magic, far beyond this world’s understanding.

Alternate humans? Aliens? Magical beings? Too little data to tell, but whatever they are Yà lì shān dà views them as a clear and present danger.

Was Yà lì shān dà one of those beings then? They were clearly not human and held the capability of creating empowered individuals, he himself was an example. It would explain the knowledge they had, the impossible technology and magical techniques.

Were they the one’s behind the sudden disaster.

No, unlikely.

If they were so capable, enough to construct every ability currently on Earh Bet, then they likely could have taken the barrier down as soon as it first appeared.

So who?

Taizong amused himself with these hypotheticals as he searched the city’s CCTV network. Typically not something he liked to do. Governments that relied on surveillance were sloppy, in his opinion. They took the easy way out instead of using their brains, attempted -in vain- to grasp at absolute control.

Yet, there appeared to be few options left. He knew Sanzang held some skill in reading the past with magic, but until they were done investigating the strange realm they currently occupied he would have to make due.

He stopped, finger hovering an inch above the interactive holograms that made up his interface.

The recording before him showed an empty street, one of the ones yet to be occupied by residents. Yà lì shān dà had built this place with room for population growth, so there were plenty of areas just like it.

His cursor hit the rewind button, his eyes peeled for what he had seen – what had attracted his attention.

He allowed the recording to play, before rewinding again to repeat the process.

There, from an origin just beyond the sight of the camera, luminosity had suddenly increased by 3.1%. Hardly noticeable, unless you were as augmented as him.

He tapped away at his interface, fingers a blur as he typed in his request.

A copy of the city’s maps was pulled up, and cross referenced with the location provided by the CCTV network.

Taizong frowned. Where the location of the luminosity was, according to his calculations, was nothing – simply an empty street. No neon lighting, no bioluminescent vegetation, nothing.

Could it have been a citizen of Jinzhou exploring an unoccupied section of the city, armed with a flashlight?

Possible, but then the luminosity would be higher. Not to mention most of his citizens were still traumatised by what they had gone through at the hands of outsiders. As much as he wished to believe that one of the people he was responsible for had that bravery, it was unlikely.

Most of those people had signed up for what passed for a military, dedicated to striking back at the C.U.I. and freeing their prisoners.

And all of them were accounted for.

So an outsider was most likely, but who?

Well, Taizong could immediately point out one likely suspect. The Americans had already proven their ability to enter Jinzhou once already. Perhaps they had managed it again, with less incompetence this time?

They would have sufficient motive too. They had operatives captured within the city, and that was before it was acknowledged that Jinzhou was a city crafted by an Endbringer. The same Endbringer that killed so many of their capes in Hyderabad.

Which had been a surprise, actually. Taizong hadn’t pegged his creator as the violent type. But then, he didn’t have the full picture – so speculation was rather pointless.

Then there was the C.U.I. They made for another likely suspect. As sworn enemies to Jinzhou they had more than a motive, destroying Jinzhou would have been necessary if they wished to ever regain their image of untouchability.

The only reason Taizong believed them to be less likely was that their attention was currently occupied by the invading forces and rebels ravaging their country. Because of that the Yangbang had contented themselves with observers and the occasional subversion of Jinzhou military. The latter thankfully being countered by Sanzang.

Beyond those two countries the likelihood of others being responsible dropped significantly, and somehow he doubted any minor country would have the means or inclination to carry out an operation of this scale right in China’s backyard.

There were even those like Russia, who outright benefitted from their presence. Their strikes against Yangbang bases and their theft of assets weakening the rival nation that shared Russia’s borders.

So no, Taizong was reasonably certain it was either America or China who had allowed Shuffle the opportunity to regain her powers.

To which he could only reluctantly applaud. With a single act they had planted a potent force of destruction within Jinzhou’s very own walls and brought down the barrier that had kept the city free of reprisal.

If it weren’t for Yà lì shān dà’s forward thinking the city would be in truly dire straits.

He turned, his swivel seat turning with him as he gazed out the window. Below he could see the frozen figures of his citizens standing in place. With his enhanced senses he could see a little girl frozen mid-run, eagerly chasing an equally frozen canine.

The sky above swelled, clouds shifted and breaking apart before reforming again. The grey city flecked with only the golden colour of the hanging crystals that dotted his home.

In this realm of magic, only beings or creations that were of it could prosper.

Not like…

He shook his head.

Those crystals, that had been imbued with protective magics through the tireless work of the Paragons continued to shine. The protectors of Jinzhou themselves, were the only ones capable of moving In this frozen place.

And that fact made his teeth clench, despair beginning to cloud his thoughts once more.

Taizong wasn’t a pious man. Even the one he rightfully viewed as a creator, Yà lì shān dà, he didn’t see as anything close to a deity. Still, observing this dreary dimension with all that he swore to protect trapped like flies in amber, he offered up a humble prayer and closed his eyes.

‘Please don’t let things end like this. For them to go from one form of imprisonment to another would be too cruel.’

He bowed his head slightly, allowing himself to do so in this moment of solitude. He prayed for his subjects. For clever Chenyu, who still had so much potential. For wrathful Liu Min, who still needed time to put down his anger in order to live happily. For all of them.

‘Please.’

“-and I genuinely think…sir?”

Taizong jerked. Turning around he found himself met with the puzzled and concerned face of Chenyu.

The suddenly moving and alive Chenyu!

“Sir? How did you suddenly move a foot to the left, and why are you looking at me like that?”

Taizong couldn’t help it, a mad -relieved- laugh left his throat.

He could tell that wasn’t helping her confusion, yet he couldn’t stop himself. He was just so glad!

“It’s nothing,” He waved off. “The translocation had a few unexpected side effects, but it appears those have passed.”

Chenyu’s eyes darted to his face, searching for a clue as to what he was talking about. She quickly averted her eyes however, well aware from previous attempts that trying to read him was an exercise in futility.

“Now the only question is where we’ve landed,” he said, beginning to tap against his interface before pausing.

“Are you back online, my friend?”

“This unit is online,” came the droning monotonous voice of the city’s V.I.

Just like the humans it had also entered a period of inactivity, the being’s code buffering in odd ways that even the resident scientist Paragon couldn’t understand.

“Good. Bring up the external cameras, let’s get an idea of what we’re working with,” he said, leaning back as the screen in front of him changed. The image of the CCTV recording faded and was replaced with a flat white plain, with faint impressions of hills in the distance.

More concerningly was the enormous black pillar that cut across the placid white, alien in its placement and material both.

He stared, mind racing for a conclusion.

“Movement on the eastern wall,” the voice of the V.I. interrupted his busy thoughts.

“Show me!”

The order was carried out swiftly, the image once more changing. Once again a snowy and serene landscape met his eyes. Another abyssal black spire was present. Yet, this time there was something else.

A figure, gazing upon Jinzhou with what looked to be wearied exasperation with the faint sounds of cheering in the background.

The individual in question was none other than Yà lì shān dà.

“Well,” he spoke to himself, “That’s one question answered.”

Internally his already hurried mind was now operating at lightning quick speeds. The teleport was supposed to be random, was it not? So how had this happened? The odds beggared belief.

Had it been a lie, was the teleport always going to bring them back to the creator?

Was it truly a coincidence?

Or perhaps were there other factors he simply wasn’t aware of?

He had always taken his creator to be a simple sort. Not unintelligent, but typically uninterested in schemes and planning. An honest individual, sometime brutally so – if never without kindness.

Had he been wrong? Had he always been a puppet dancing in Yà lì shān dà’s hands.

The thought should have been terrifying, but all it brought out of him was another amused chuckle. His emotions slightly deadened after the rollercoaster of events that had made up the previous few hours.

He chuckle subsided, ignoring the slight glares Chenyu shot him between looking at the image of the creator in reverence. He reached out to his interface, preparing to inform the guards and defences to let his creator in.

It would appear today was not yet over.

AN: Yeah, the teleport wasn’t perfect. Or rather, Alexander doesn’t fully understand how it works. This will be addressed in future chapters.

In other news, here’s what Taizong had been doing. Going back over what happened and trying to piece everything together. He doesn’t have all the information available to him, so his guess is a bit off, but he got surprisingly close to the truth.

Also you got a peak into some of the reasons for his past decisions. Yeah, Taizong sabotaging Lu Bu was just common sense in his eyes. May as well sabotage him before he can sabotage Jinzhou.

Thanks for reading, please leave a comment!