Chapter 42: Back On Track

-Alexander POV-

Things calmed down significantly after that bit of yelling. Oh, I was still fucking miserable but I was no longer lashing out at someone who didn’t deserve my ire. I had eventually apologised to Renji, something he looked slightly bemused about, and continued informing him about the current state of the world.

Which was-

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“-And then it’s all revealed to be a massive experiment! Cauldron was withholding support from the Bay in order to test out what Parahuman Feudalism looks like!”

“Wait, but didn’t you tell me that Africa is currently controlled by warlord states?”

“That I did!”

“So then why didn’t they observe that?”

“Look Renji, I don’t pretend to understand what goes through Cauldron’s heads, if the ambush they attempted on me proved anything it’s that they aren’t the brightest bunch!”

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“So then Parian and Flechette get together and-“

“My liege, why have you been going on about this couple for the last ten minutes?! From what you’ve told me their relationship isn’t even that great! It seems wildly unhealthy on both sides!”

“Renji! Shut up and let me have my toxic yuri!”

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“Then Alexandria tried to be clever, and choked on bugs because of it. The moral lesson being: Alexandria isn’t the brightest!”

“My liege that’s not a moral lesson! …Though it does seem to be a running theme.”

“It feels like it should be a moral lesson.”

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“Anyway, then Taylor goes to…Chicago? Or was it Los Angeles?”

“I thought you said you saw a possible timeline, how do you not know where she went?”

“Oh, I wasn’t paying attention. It wasn’t the most exciting part.”

“…What?”

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“So then Taylor shoots a baby.”

“…Are you not going to add context to that?”

“Right in the forehead. Little sucker didn’t stand a chance. I guess Taylor must have wanted to see what punching down felt like.”

“My liege, you know that’s not what I meant! Why did she shoot the baby?!”

“But I guess that baby murder doesn’t do much for her, so she decided to fight God next!”

“…I feel like you’re finding too much enjoyment in making me confused.”

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“So this Eidolon is in charge of the Endbringers? Does that include you?”

“Ha! No! As if!”

Well that’s relieving .”

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“And then Scion dies from bullying. Kind of poetic in a way. The story starts with bullying and ends with bullying. Feels like there’s supposed to be some deeper meaning, or some shit. Unfortunately, I was never the best with literature.”

“…My liege if it’s that easy to kill Scion then-“

“So then Taylor gets shot in the head and fucking dies.”

“Ah.”

“Yeah, it was that walking plot device I told you about.”

“…So are you ever going to tell me their name or…?”

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“Ah yes, and the war against Scion -what would come to be known as Golden Morning- was finally over. Peace and happiness was spread across the land and everyone lived happily ever after!”

“…So-”

“Or so you’d think!”

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“So Parian and Flechette broke up during all of this. It was some spicy drama.”

“…Well at least there’s that. It seems they finally realised that their relationship wasn’t built upon the best-“

“And then March came along! She’s a yandere who’s massively into Flechette! She wants to kill her so they can be together for all time within Shardspace!”

“…I think I know too much about this person’s dating life.”

“Gotta say, great plot twist. 10/10 romance sub-plot!”

“…”

“Eh? Renji? Why are you crying?!”

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“So, to the surprise of nobody, the Simurgh was planning shit. The plan was just more of the same really. Death, destruction, chaos, suffering, blah blah blah.”

“This sibling of yours sounds exhausting, my liege.”

“Ew, don’t call it that!”

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“So, yeah. All the shards were lining up to fill the vacuum left by their pops pussing out and dying like a bitch.”

“Is this why you don’t think killing the Golden Man will fix anything?”

“Pretty much. It’s kind of depressing just how many claimants to being the head honcho there are.”

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“Then the Simurgh is pushed into the Sleeper’s storm somehow, and then they somehow also stop the Shards temporarily.”

“…Were you not paying attention again, Alexander?”

“Look, in my defence, It’s a really depressing timeline.”

“You giggled like a schoolgirl when you got to Alexandria’s death.”

“Mostly! It’s mostly a depressing timeline!

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“Finally, Parian and Flechette got back together. That was pretty POG.”

“…”

“They were holding hands, and everything!”

“…”

“…You’re not gonna start crying again are you?”

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…Well it went mostly alright. I did eventually go over the less memey explanation. Thankfully Renji let me have my fun first, even if he did look like he was sucking on a lemon the entire time.

It was fun.

But eventually we ran out of things to talk about, and an awkward silence fell upon us as we realised we would once again have to face the outside world. Well, awkward on my part perhaps. Renji still looked as zen as ever now that he had recovered from me introducing him to my favourite ship.

Obviously I didn’t want to leave my dark and safe dome. The world outside was scary.

With great minor reluctance I began dispelling the protections one by one until we were once again bathed in the now cool air of the outside world.

I had to withhold the urge to whistle loudly. My blob creation had been a bus boy, it would seem. For several kilometres around us there was nothing but flat rock. Even the topsoil hadn’t been spared. In the distance I could see it using the enormous amount of mass it had gained to start the construction of the walls that would keep my creations in.

…Judging from the available material it has to work with it would only be able to finish a sixth of the wall before running out of mass. With the benefit of hindsight I could see I had gone a bit overboard in how much ground I wanted the walls to cover, as well as how thick the walls themselves would be.

Well, whatever. It wasn’t like I couldn’t give my blobby creation more mass once it needed it.

I turned my gaze south, now choosing to observe the sleeping doggies. There were a little over two thousand of them, the rest I hadn’t been able to save on account of them being…ash.

Directing my thoughts away from self-blame, I chose to softly coo over the cuddle pile they had unconsciously made.

I studiously ignored Renji’s puzzled glance, likely wondering why I was gazing into the middle distance and making baby noises.

Okay, let’s see. Approach from land would be blocked via the walls, and whatever international response aids in the quarantine of this city. I’ll likely create stationary defences to protect from aerial assaults. I had already reshaped the local geology to be as unpassable as I could, so arriving or leaving through tunnels was unlikely.

…Wait.

“Renji, remind me to seal and fill the tunnel behind us once we leave.” Renji offers an affirmative answer in response.

Okay, that was sorted. Which just leaves…

My gaze shifts into a glare as I look towards the river cutting through the cleared area.

That was going to be a problem.

Despite being genetically perfect organisms, they did still require water. It was too useful of a molecule for life for me to willingly come up with an alternative. Which meant that this river would be one of their main water sources, much like the lake.

Unlike the lake, this river was far more prone to sabotage. Both from outside elements and from the hounds within.

Those upstream the river could attempt to introduce poisons or harmful pathogens into the water, in an attempt to harm my creations. Given their nature, it was unlikely to work – but the presence of Tinkers made it a distinct possibility.

Then there were the hounds, whose mouths were full of caustic elements, bacteria designed to cause necrosis or worse, neurotoxins, and microscopic parasites. Needless to say, anyone trying to drink water from downstream would quickly die.

Then it would get into the ocean, and things would start to get incredibly dicey.

Thankfully, there was a solution.

With a quick use of my powers I replaced many of those biological weapons with safer, and shorter lived, equivalents. Parasites that would quickly die outside of a very specific temperature range, Bacteria that would quickly fall apart without a specific enzyme found only in the hound’s mouths, etc.

Now it would still be bad for those downstream, but it wouldn’t lead to any ecological collapses.

Some might wonder why I wasn’t completely doing away with those horrible weapons against common decency. The answer was pretty simple, I didn’t want them to lose something that may save their lives in the future.

In canon, after Golden Morning. Many S-Class Threats broke containment once the majority of Earth Bet evacuated to another Earth. The most notable of which was the Machine Army. In other words, if things still go to shit, my little puppers may have to survive in a world full of monsters. It wouldn’t do to leave them without advantages.

Therefore I would have to build filters, on both sides of the river.

‘It’s going to have to be multi-stage filter,’ I muse to myself. ‘A nanite weave filter would be a good start, but I could design thousands of pathogens capable of slipping past such a defence’.

Instead I planned to have the water brought to an isolated container, filled to the brim with a specially designed bacteria. It would be designed to ingest, and break down, anything that wasn’t pure water. This would then be filtered again, to ensure that bacteria doesn’t leave the container, and the purified water would be free to flow through the city. Only to then be filtered once again once it leaves the city.

Mentally, I adjust a few of the mental models. I add stronger alloys, to ensure they won’t break down for centuries to come. I look up hazard symbols on the internet, in order to ensure the fools running the PRT know not to touch them. I add instructions in the DNA of the bacteria to prevent them spreading out of control should the container be ruptured.

Once I’m sure I’ve thought of everything that could go wrong, I mentally shelve the schematics.

Which left one last thing before I started building: the hounds. Given that they were based of off dogs they likely had the same needs. They required safe, dry, places to relax and feel safe. They needed plenty of exercise and mental stimulation to prevent destructive behaviours.

Simply put, they were high maintenance.

Thankfully I could outsource the problem to another V.I. Boy, were those things useful!

For the first time in hours I stepped off the last remaining building and fall to the ground with a mighty thunk, Renji following alongside me. Behind, the concrete pulses as it morphs into a thick and sinuous fleshy tendril – reaching for the heavens.

The reaching peak of the flesh separates into strands, forming branches that bud off – each reaching towards the sky from a different direction. Upon those branches black leaves sprout, though in truth these are no leaves. They are massive solar panels and atmospheric collectors both. They would help to feed energy to this new dominion (should I say dominion? Sounds a bit evil?) and collect useful material that is blown in through the air.

The ’trunk’ of the tree quickly grows bleach white bone plates, each capable of taking sustained sniper fire without a scratch. Inside was the brains of the operation…literally. The design of the V.I being based off a rudimentary human brain. Theoretically the intelligence living within should be capable of accomplishing a surprising number of tasks, provided it had the right information at hand.

This brings me to my favourite part of the design, the data storage. The very base of the tree is full of neatly packaged strands of DNA, each encoded with specific information. The V.I can retrieve specific information using primer pairs that map to specific data items.

DNA data storage was a promising field of study in my own world, it had been a concept since the 1960’s. The compact nature of storage, the exceptional durability and it’s longevity were only some of the reasons it was so highly sought after.

For example, in this single tree alone I had stored all of the technological knowledge I possessed and a decent fraction of this world’s internet.

With that much information at their fingertips the V.I. should have no problem coming up with solutions for any problem that comes up.

With a flex of will a hollow area was excavated within the tree, not enough to harm the tree’s functionality but enough to house ten of the hounds if they all huddled together. This would give my creations a place to rest (and also hide from thunderstorms).

The branches of the tree were given slight touch ups, allowing them to fire off monomolecular shards of bone at high speeds – each laced with a compound similar to napalm.

Lastly I added cloning systems further up the tree, as well as the samples needed to operate them. With this the intelligence could introduce wildlife into the city at their discretion, which would give the hounds something to hunt.

The growth process took a little under a minute, the ground buckling and collapsing in places as I fed the tree additional mass from below. I took a step back to admire my creation.

The end result was like something out of an alien biosphere. Instead of mud browns and healthy greens, the tree was a mix of angry red, pale white and abyssal black. All in all it looked like a tree you would have expected to find in Mordor.

…Okay, people were definitely going to think I was evil after I made this abomination of a city. Seriously, it looks so evil!

With a grumble I slip the vial I had used to threaten Dragon within the tree. The V.I. already knew what to do with it.

Okay, so what now?

…Wait, was I already done with the design phase?

Sheesh, I knew making a playground for non-sapient lifeforms would be less complicated than building a city for humans but it was still a shock to be done this fast! All I would need to do now is wander around, planting identical copies of this tree before linking them all together and I would be done.

So, less a city and more a forest then.

Y’know what? Good! I didn’t want to stay in this awful place any longer than I had to!

With that final contemptuous thought I began to build.

AN: So Alexander is once again building, and accidentally chooses one of the most evil looking aesthetics he could. Imagine a place surrounded by meters thick walls and within is a barren and jagged land full of the evillest looking trees you’ve ever seen and creatures straight out of your nightmares. Needless to say, everybody is going to keep an eye on this place.

Eat your heart out Nilbog, you’ve been replaced.

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