Chapter 151 - A Machine's Deception

“That… what…?” Brock muttered. It made sense to him. Too much sense. Like… like everything until now had been planned out. Had been one elaborate destiny.

A grunt resounded behind him, “Come on, it’s not that scary. Aren’t you supposed to be the guy that killed two E Grades while only in F Grade? You sure?”

Shaking his head to dispel his thoughts, Brock glanced over his shoulder and at the woman standing behind him. Her arms were crossed, and a teasing smirk had plastered itself across her face. A strike of violet lightning tore over her head and impacted the ground behind her. She didn’t so much as flinch.

Brock clicked his tongue, “Yeah yeah, whatever. I’m moving, see?”

To punctuate the ending of his sentence, he gave her the finger over his shoulder and stepped inside the Rift. A sensation akin to static running along the entirety of his body enveloped him and his sight was consumed by violet. A crackling resounded.

For a brief moment, Brock feared everything he’d just reasoned had been wrong and that this was the ‘death’ he’d been anticipating, but as he stepped out into an entirely new environment, his fear was removed and instead replaced by awe. He… didn’t expect this.

Holy mother of fucking shit…

Laid out before him, a vast tundra seemed to stretch on endlessly, its landscape comprising of patches of ivory snow and browning grass. Creatures wandered the lands; goats, birds, hares. And they weren’t even the monsters. Bellowing calls echoed in the distance, and Brock’s enhanced eyesight could make out alien forms hiding within the snow.

Idly, as he searched the horizon for a sun that didn’t exist, he noticed the flickering field of purple lightning and shimmering space. The… edge of the pocket dimension?

“It’s pretty mind-blowing the first few times,” the ‘whoosh’ noise occurred behind him, and suddenly his redheaded companion was standing beside him. She gestured to the monstrous snowy mountains that surround them in the distance, “then it’s kind of just another thing in the world. You’ll get used to it.”

Brock gave her a sidelong glance, “…Righto fun police.”

She laughed at him.

Strangely enough, Brock noticed that while lightning still constantly sparked along the Rift, it was calmer, and no longer reached out to ravage the earth. He spared another look around the pocket dimension, and finally realised that the terrain seemed to be ever shifting, changing form but at an extremely slow pace.

Brock licked his lips. Does the dimensional instability inside here make the Rift more stable? How the fuck does that work? Where’s Fon when you need her…?

Sighing, he regarded his guide with an uninspired hand gesture, “Alright, where’s Minerva? Let’s go.”

“You in a hurry or something?” she teased. Her eyes flashed with mirth.

“I am actually,” Brock countered, “I have exactly… 43 and a half hours before I need to fuck off to another alien pocket dimension with a bunch of other aliens. So, let’s make this quick.”

The woman raised a brow at him, before quickly beginning to head toward an indeterminate location, “Sounds interesting.”

“I bet it does.”

The rest of their journey continued in silence. Together, they ventured the tundra landscape, and although many of the natural wildlife – a presence which intrigued Brock greatly – wanted nothing to do with them, more than a few wanted a fight. Picking up the animals and flinging them into the distance was effortless for Brock.

The monsters that decided to attack them, not so much. Luckily, smashing their heads to pulp with Silence was even easier than throwing those harmless animals. The puree of brains and skull had certainly been a sight to see afterwards, however.

Eventually though, as they crossed by an ocean of iced over waters and braved a cold barely intense enough for Brock to feel it, they came upon what appeared to be a cave. The remnants of charcoals told him that a fire was once lit under its mouth, and a pair of different sized footprints showed him that Minerva and her daughter had been here before.

Clearly, the older ones were Minerva’s.

“She inside?” he turned to the daughter of the woman in question. She nodded at the cave mouth but said nothing. Obviously, she just wanted him to enter.

Clicking his tongue, Brock glanced at the veil of darkness that hid the cave’s interior before looking back at Minerva’s daughter. She was smiling, but he saw no maliciousness in the action, nor did his Ascendancy warn him about any potential dangers. He was still rather disturbed about having a sentient being within his chest, but somehow, it possessed an uncanny intuition.

Mmmm. Fine. Sighing, Brock began walking forward and entered the cave. Just in case though, he created a field of opposing force around him using Silence of the Abyss. If any projectiles flew his way or if someone tried to sneak up on him, as long as the force contained in them was less than the opposing force of his own, they should be slowed and stopped.

If anything was powerful enough to get past the field, he was probably going to die regardless. I think Imma start calling it an Anti-Force Shield. Field of opposing force is too wordy.

Fortunately, as he prowled deeper into the cave and left the mouth of it behind, he was neither attacked nor hindered, and it wasn’t until he entered a small cavern that he finally detected the presence of another. Propped up against the wall of the cavern, Minerva huffed, her eyes closed, and her aura hidden.

As the sound of Brock’s footfalls echoed within, her eyes slowly opened. He gave her a little wave. It was dark, but if he could see down here, then she certainly could too. She grimaced and shot him a glare.

Leisurely, he approached.

From what he could see, one of Minerva’s arms had been chewed through to the bone, and everything below the shin of one leg had been hacked off, the rigidness of the cut speaking of a serrated edge. Her violet blood had long dried upon her torn clothing and skin, and a thick layer of it crusted the stone below and behind her.

He narrowed his eyes. All along her body he could see white scars, as though she’d been struck by lightning. The Error could use my Augments, so I dunno why another can’t use Augments as well… but does that mean they can gain them on their own? Surely the System would do something if it hates them so much?

Brock paused. Well, it didn’t for me… hmmm… maybe… maybe it doesn’t control who gains Augments?

“Are you going to just stand there?” Minerva’s voice echoed within the cavern, tinted with clear mockery. Brock had thought she’d be a bit more amicable due to her injuries, but since she was an E Grade High Human, she’d be good as new in a week or two. Same thing happened with his arm.

He raised a brow at her and moved forward, “Your daughter said you wanted to talk to me? About… about an Error?”

Minerva tensed, and Brock heard her breathing accelerate. Whatever she had seen, it had done a number on her mental state. Slowly, her eyes rose to meet his. She licked her lips, “I did. You… unlike the Dojo, I can trust you.”

“You can trust me?” Brock’s voice dripped sarcasm. He somehow doubted that.

The woman frowned, “You might not believe it, but at least you’ll believe what I say. The people from my faction are already converting in my,” she gestured toward the state of her body, “absence. I… made a mistake standing up to Hiroto.”

“And because I do so, no one under him would trust what comes out of my mouth. Meaning everyone is going to die in the upcoming Trial.”

Brock furrowed his brows, “What? What about the Trial?”

“The Error…” Minerva shuddered and sucked in a breath, “was sentient. It disguised itself as human. It spoke. It thought. Its intelligence was above the common monsters around. And it ambushed me. I have no idea if it was trying to take my appearance or if it was just bloodthirsty – the System told me nothing – but I ran.”

A brief wave of her hand left the rest unsaid as she gestured to the cavern they found themselves.

Brock licked his lips. If the Error was sentient… that posed several issues with simply disposing of it. There was nothing more dangerous than a monster with intelligence, especially one that wielded immense power in tandem, “what did the System tell you?”

Without responded, Minerva twirled her finger in the air, and suddenly, a screen flickered to life in Brock’s vision.

[System alert. An Error has been detected by User: Minerva Madeline. Vacate the area immediately if you value your life. Entering a Rift to escape is recommended.]

[Optional Quest Issued.]

Harbinger of Stability: Slay the nearby Error infesting this dimensional plane and rid the Multiverse of yet another unstable element. Rewards: Unique Title, 15 race levels, 15 Ascendancy levels, 10% energy density boost to home planet.

- This quest is recommended for beings of E Grade and above.

“…Holy shit…” Brock muttered, idly remember the System’s activity log that he’d never deigned to use. His eyes skimmed over the quest prompt three times before he finally believed what his eyes were showing him, “the rewards on that…”

“Perfectly explain the danger it poses.” Minerva finished. Brock was inclined to agree.

But there was one thing still on his mind, “You didn’t tell me why everyone in the Trial is going to die.”

Minerva’s eyes shook and abruptly, she began to convulse. Quickly, Brock moved and knelt down beside her. As she spasmed, her lowered her to the floor gently, positioning her body on the side just in case she vomited. Fortunately, it ended after a minute, and her eyes flashed with a violet light.

It… reminded him of a computer crashing, for some strange reason, “Hey… Minerva? You good?”

“…What?” she glanced around before her eyes finally settled onto Brock and she snarled, pushing him away. She reached for her dagger and Brock easily plucked it from the sheath on her thigh with Silence, before throwing it away. She grimaced, “what the hell were you doing? When did Sasha bring you here?”

Huh? We were just… Brock stepped back and gave her some space. His eyebrows furrowed deeply, “We… we were just talking. About the Error, and why people were going to die in the Trial.”

For a moment, Minerva opened her mouth to speak. The barest beginnings of a sound came out before she began spasming and her eyes rolled back. She frothed at the mouth and collapsed onto her side once more. Brock’s eyes widened as her eyes flashed violet once more. The System’s… restarting her memory of me arriving every time I… oh you’ve got to be fucking joking.

He resisted the urge to swear profusely. The System wasn’t letting him know why the Trial goers were in danger for one simple reason. It needs me to enter it and thinks that whatever Minerva was going to tell me would dissuade me from doing so.

From the context, he could at least infer that the Error had some way to enter the Trial, which he knew was bound to result in one catastrophe or another. You sneaky fuck…

In the end, Brock went a round with Minerva again, letting her tell him almost everything he already knew from her, and avoiding the topic of why people were in danger. Fortunately, he did learn that the Error had come not by itself, but in part of a group of people, meaning it was fully capable of blending in with others.

And as none of those people seemed to afraid of that particular member in disguise, it meant the System must have used its detection system through Minerva’s vision. Which, in turn, meant unless it openly revealed itself, he’d have literally zero way to identify the Error. Unless of course, his strange predicament allowed him to sense it somehow.

As he left the cavern and Minerva behind, and gave ‘Sasha’, her daughter, a brief ‘see ya champ’, he tallied the time he had left in his head and came up with abundance. Fortunately, all around him lay one of those very Rifts he had intended to enter.

He didn’t have his weapons with him, as he’d feared the Sasha would see it as a sign of aggression, but his aura and Augments were more than enough to deal with some simple beasts.

I wonder if I’ve still got it?