Chapter 40: Undercurrents Of Truth

-Alexander POV-

The beasts had been put to sleep. A specially created sedative formed straight into their bloodstream rendering them comatose until I administer the counteragent. As much as I appreciated the uncomplicated love they provided, I needed time to think.

So I dedicated a background program -my recent unconscious episode had revealed much of my own inner workings- to reviving and transporting the rest of the dog-like war forms to somewhere safe that they could rest.

I initially wanted to wait until that was finished. Yet, staring out over the vast and ruined city left me morose. I didn’t want a reminder of my failure. Of the people I had killed in a blind rage.

So instead I created a super organism to bulldoze the city, to rend the concrete and metal down into their constituent atoms – to be repurposed. The blob grew quickly, ingesting compounds inside it’s permeable form. Within the cocktail of acids worked to break down whatever they came into contact with – prevented from harming the entity itself by complex cellular walls.

The design was inspired by the technology of NanoPunk, as the creature was little more than a living Nano-Recycler. It made me wonder, briefly, just what sort of heights I might reach once I add more tech bases to my arsenal. What wonders could I build if I reached level 5 in even a single specialty.

It was a thought I hadn’t considered before, too focused on acting carefree and never planning ahead out of fear for what was on the horizon. What reason would I have to ever go past level 2, after all? That was the point where the technology was scaled up to a city level. Anything past that point didn’t matter, because I wasn’t planning on building anything that big?

But what if…

What if it could help? Right here, in this moment.

I didn’t know what problem I was hoping it would fix. Was it my absurd inability to talk, or plan ahead? Was it my current image problems, with the whole world likely wanting me dead when word spread? Was it being trapped in this absurd world?

Was it my inability to save this world from what’s to come?

Regardless, I knew staring listlessly into the middle distance wouldn’t help – and if I continued to hesitate I would never get on with it. So, with the singular spark awaiting my command, I chose to improve my first specialty.

SolarPunk Level 3- A technology based focused on sustainable energy sources and living in harmony with nature. It is a vision of a future that encourages community, independence and ingenuity. The user is now understands the interplay between climate, geology, nature and technology even further than before. The user is now capable of acting on a regional scale.

I waited. Hoping beyond hope that something fundamental would shift. But it didn’t.

As the description stated, I was now more knowledgeable when it came to the natural sciences. I could build technologies that could cleanse entire landmasses, clean transportation that could cover miles upon miles of land and arcologies that would put mountains to shame. But it was still the same technology. It didn’t become more advanced, I simply knew more about it.

I sagged atop my tower of concrete and shattered hopes. I wasn’t sure what else I was expecting, but it was still disheartening.

A background program suddenly alerted me of something I had been waiting for. There, deep in the tunnels, was a figure running at a mind boggling pace. My matter sense could feel the atoms vibrate as his feet thundered down again and again.

I sighed. It had only been a few hours, and here he was. His reliability was both heartening and unnerving. I had hoped he would arrive later, once I had had time to process, to repress. In my current state I’m…scared of what I might do should I lose control again.

Unknowing of my worries Renji eventually came to where we entered Hyderabad, and with a single bound re-entered the city.

Nervousness curdled in my gut like sour milk. For a time I considered simply letting him wander the city trying to find me. Then I felt his short breaths. The constant flicker of his eyes trying to find something. The tension in his frame.

He was panicking, in that stoic way of his – trying not to show his weakness.

Renji was snatched up into my powers grasp. Despite my misgivings, my fears, I didn’t want to scare Renji. He was the person who had been by my side the longest, he had made those lonely sojourns through the tunnels bearable.

It took a minute for Renji to arrive. The entire time my mind was twisting and looping around itself, trying to think of what to say. How would I tell him about what happened here? Renji was based off of samurai, so perhaps bluntly telling him what happened might work? Or would that only make things worse.

Oh, and he probably wasn’t happy with me adding a teleport function into his body without his consent.

I was so tense I almost didn’t notice when he finally reached the crumbling edifice I had chosen to stand upon. My nerves showed in the worst of ways, dropping Renji a few feet from the ground. He stuck the landing admirably, but it didn’t stop me from wincing internally.

Way to go Alexander.

Great job.

My eyes don’t turn to meet his. They remain on the ruined cityscape that was laid out before me, like a once beautiful painting that had been marred with the idiot brushstrokes of a novice – etching scars and ruin into something that was once whole.

The silence continued, and I was almost grateful for that. Because, truth be told, I was tired. So tired.

“My Liege?”

Renji’s words cut through my malaise. A kernel of dread sat in my stomach, a hot and leaden feeling threatening to weigh me down. I suppressed a sob sigh, and turned to face him.

He hadn’t changed. I wasn’t sure why I expected him to look different, it had only been a few hours. But after the battle, the slaughter, I had almost expected even him to be affected by it. The only visible differences I could see was the new sword and the fact that his attire was dustier than I remember. No doubt from running through those tunnels like a maniac.

Because while he didn’t look different, my senses could sniff out the damage like a shark sensing blood. Renji was not in a good state. His frame was full of cracks, some even edging towards what passed for a spinal column. The magical power source I had bequeathed to him was still running hot, the heat caused by it had warped sections surrounding his chest cavity. The carbon nanofibers that made up his muscles were frayed, and some had even snapped.

The lack of difference was only skin deep then, just like me he had been pushed to his limits.

I felt the urge to smile at that. It was horrible, but the idea that my friend was sharing in my suffering -even if only slightly- made things seem a little more manageable.

The guilt immediately followed that realisation. God, what was I thinking? Your friend is nearly in pieces and you feel happy about it?

“Hi Renji,” masking the disgust I feel towards myself.

“You don’t look so good,” I attempt to quirk my lips into something that resembles a smile, “let me help you with that.”

With those words my will rushed forth and began to mend Renji’s wounds. Metal flowed together, the nanomaterials forcibly realigned and made stronger. The carbon nanofibers were rewoven, this time in patterns inspired by my BioPunk specialty. The warped metal flowed back into its proper state and the magical reactor was coaxed to rest.

It was the work of a couple of seconds, most of that time spent ensuring Renji could still function while I was operating on the very thing that allowed him to operate in the first place.

The difference was almost immediately obvious. Renji’s shoulders relaxed, and his spine straightened out from the slight hunch it was forced into.

Despite that I could still see worry in his eyes.

“My Liege, if I may ask…what happened after I was forced to leave.” Came the question from Renji. The venom in the word forced made me wince inwardly. Yeah, he clearly wasn’t happy with that.

On the outside my face was a mask of practiced blankness, as I considered what to say.

-Renji POV-

The question lingered in the air, like a taboo that had just been uttered. Renji could tell, even with his creator’s lack of emoting, that it wasn’t a question Alexander was pleased to have to answer. But Renji had to know.

“The capes landed a blow upon me after you were transported to safety. I responded by forming an army to aid me in fighting them. With their aid I killed the vast majority of the forces that initially assailed us. Reinforcements arrived, but it didn’t help them. From what I can tell only a handful escaped with their lives.”

The answer was given as if his creator had been forced to remember a particularly bland meal. No anger and no guilt, just a chilling matter of fact statement. If anyone else had been present they may have been appalled at his creator’s seeming lack of empathy. However Renji knew better.

That lack of inflection -that utterly neutral manner- was itself a flaw. Because Renji knew his creator, in a way few could ever hope to understand. He had been made for them in a very real way, he had been constructed to be their companion.

So Renji knew that this was merely a falsehood. Oh, the events themselves were likely true, but Alexander wasn’t telling the full story.

“You made an army, my lord? I’m guessing it was an army of those creatures I saw down there?”

Indeed, even now he could see the bodies of those chitinous beasts being lifted into the air -their bodies rippling and healing- before being deposited somewhere off in the distance.

“Indeed.”

“How strong were they? How did you use them?”

There was a flicker of surprise in his Liege’s eyes. Clearly that wasn’t a question they were expecting.

“Decently strong, they could each match a cape. Theoretically, at least. As for how I used them…they were just cannon fodder.”

His creator waved it off, as if professing it was unimportant.

Their answer was telling however.

His Liege was more than capable of creating beings stronger than those hounds, yet he had created weaker beings. For all the time Renji has known them, his creator has always preferred less numerous but elite creations. The Paragons in Jinzhou were proof enough for that. And even when he did use swarms of drones, such things weren’t living breathing creatures who could feel pain.

It wasn’t like them.

Then there was the other part. ‘Cannon fodder.’ Given how many had been killed it wasn’t inaccurate, but Renji got the sense his Liege had used that specific word because of its harshness. It felt self-flagellating.

So his creator had done something completely uncharacteristic and felt ashamed over it.

“And you killed those people? No doubt your creations gave them quite brutal deaths.”

Renji stared long and hard at his creator as he asked this question. There was a flash of pain, and then remorse, before the curtain of nothing washed back over their features.

“Now or in a few years, what difference does it make?”

Definitely deflecting. Also…

“Why would they be dead in a few years?”

Alexander froze. Their body language, already inhuman in it’s stillness, stopped. Humanity bled away like the lie it was, leaving only a silent watching thing.

Then that humanity returned, taken upon their form like an old coat. Their shoulders rolled and their body tilted forwards to match his posture. Their blank face was now a sheepish expression of warmth. But it was too much. Too forced to be natural.

“Ah, sorry Renji. I simply meant that with the careers they have they’re very likely to die in a year or two. If it wasn’t me it would have been another Endbringer, right?” The words flowed naturally out of his creator’s mouth, the honeyed, sensible, lie passing through their lips with ease.

“You’re a terrible liar, my liege.” Renji plainly stated.

Alexander frowned. “Hey now, I’m not-“

“Yes. You are. And more importantly, I think you’ve been lying about a great many things.”

His creator’s shoulders sagged. His face once more a wearied blankness. As much as Renji hated to see that look on their face, it was better than a lie. In order to actually help the one most important to him Renji needed to know what’s going on.

“You left out a lot regarding your battle here. I can intuit a good amount of what happened, but there’s something you’re hiding about it.” Renji looked pointedly at his liege as he said this. Alexander stubbornly met his gaze, unwilling to admit anything.

“But that’s not all…”

“Renji…” Alexander warned, their voice lessened to a low exhalation. A whisper that could barely be considered a spoken word.

“I know you. So I know that your current way of doing things isn’t what you’d prefer. Sure, you may not like speaking to people but if you wanted to help the world there were a dozen better ways you could have done it.”

“Renji.” The voice was clearer now, colder too.

“You’ve been throwing yourself into travelling the world, seeing the sights, and enjoying your hobbies. Despite knowing of the dilapidated state of the world, something you’ve complained to me about at length! Creating cities was never about helping people, it was for your own satisfaction.”

“Renji!” The voice was more insistent now, at the edge of turning into a shout.

“You’re empathetic and want to help save the world, but don’t. You don’t believe in creating others to die for you, but you did just that. You talk so fondly about humanity and their potential, yet you see the people of this world like ghosts.”

Renji was gaining in volume, in understanding. The pieces were starting to come together. Parts were missing, but for the first time Renji was starting to see the bigger picture.

He could-

“RENJI!” The shout was accompanied by the ground beneath his feet roiling and bubbling from his creators anger, their wrath. The calm face had been replaced by a desperate anger. Yet, beneath that fear, there was also…fear?

Not for themselves. No, his creator had always been frustratingly blasé regarding themselves. This was a fear for Renji’s sake.

And like that the pieces clicked together.

Some might have looked upon the pieces of the puzzle and simply though that his creator was indecisive, hypocritical or even malicious. Such thoughts didn’t even enter Renji’s mind. He had seen his creator acting decisively at Jinzhou, once injustice was seen his creator had acted swiftly to see it expunged. Hypocrisy may have a hint of truth, but not at this scale. Finally, Renji’s creator was not malicious.

So, that only left…

“What are you so afraid of? What has scared you so badly that you don’t believe victory is even possible?” Renji asked quietly. The thought seemed almost impossible to Renji. His creator? Scared? His liege could walk through countries unopposed, could topple dynasties in hours and reshape the world itself.

Yet, it was clearly true from the expression he saw on his progenitor’s face.

“Renji,” The rage was gone now and in its place was a desperate plea, “please don’t. You don’t want to know. Can’t we just live out our lives as we have done these last few weeks?”

One of their many hands was outstretched, begging for Renji to grasp a hold of it and agree. A part of Renji wanted to. Wanted to badly. Going against the wishes of his creator was something that pained him, and learning of a foe that horrified even them wasn’t a thought Renji relished.

But Renji knew he had to. Otherwise this shadow, this spectre, would hover over their lives forever. It would haunt every interaction. It would poison every moment of joy. It had, Renji realised, likely already been doing that – Renji simply hadn’t seen it.

The sadness that had always been present in his liege, was this thing to blame for it?!

“My- No, Alexander. Please tell me what troubles you. Whatever it is, we can fight it together.”

For a moment silence lingered between them, and Renji worried if he had only widened the gap between them. Then the face of his friend wavered, and collapsed into an expression of defeat.

“Ha. So I can’t even protect this one thing?” Bitterness filled their words as they looked up at the sky. Then they lowered their head once more, staring at Renji with the air of a man sentenced to be hanged.

“Alright Renji. But don’t say I didn’t warn you.”

AN: Okay, this one’s a doozy. So Renji finally broke through Alexander’s delusion of pretending everything was okay. The current situation making Alexander more fragile was actually helpful in that regard, so silver linings regarding the whole ‘I killed a shit ton of people’. I actually finished all of this in 3 days, but decided to cut it early so I would have more time to focus on the coming talk between Renji and Alexander.

Renji is soon going to learn everything in regards to the entities and how thoroughly screwed mankind is. How screwed the multiverse is. I’m honestly expecting that chapter to be long, but it’s very important I get it right. So if it takes more than four days don’t be surprised. I’ll tell you guys via Patreon if I need more time though.

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