//------------------------------// // Chapter 4 // Story: A Technological Displacement // by Tenebris Lucifer //------------------------------// “Sir you know the apocalypse level threat will be descending in approximately 3.8 hours correct?” My assistant said, slightly annoyed. “Yes, yes I know Arbiter but I need to finish the final details on my ultramarine armor or else I shall be considered a heretic!” I yelled back slightly angry “*sigh* Very well sir, I shall alert you when we have an hour left before its arrival.” Arbiter said before leaving. I had been working on this armor for years and I needed it to be perfect in every regard, I had already made the bolter and chainsword, and all the augmentations in a new body. But the armor was by far the hardest to complete as it required many different components that took a good bit of time to perfect and it would finally be done in 2 hours and 30 minutes. So it is reasonably understandable as to why I was angry about the interruptions but enough idle thought back to work. 2 hours and 31 minutes later “Sir we have approximately  1 hour and 17 minutes before the event starts.” Arbiter notified me of this over the intercom. Getting up I look over my handiwork making sure it was perfect, satisfied I go ahead and send it to storage where it will be kept until needed. Going to the nearby bathroom I cleaned myself before heading up to the workshop where Arbiter was waiting for me. “Ok you remember the plan right?” Arbiter asked me. “Nope.” I told him with an innocent smile. *sigh* “Do you want me to explain to you the plan that you made several weeks ago?” He said exasperated. I shrug, “Sure.” “Very well, I will be going to observe the landing and subsequent fight between the apocalypse level threats, while i’m doing this  you are going to go to the mountain city and find the powerful magical signatures I felt within the city, should they be of any use to our cause you will cleanse them of any tracking spells/substances and take them to storage sight A where they will be left for 1 week should no one find them they will be taken back here and safely stored for research, I on the other hand will be observing and analyzing the apocalypse level threat, should it get out of hand I will contact you and you will drop everything and come and neutralize it permanently and we shall instead transport its remains to the lab where you shall study it, but should the threat be neutralized by an outside force we will not interfere instead you will focus on the magical signatures and I will keep you updated on their proximity to you. Do you understand?” “Mayhaps,” I told him. “Do you want me to explain it again?” “Yes.” *sigh* 10 minutes later “Are you in position Arbiter?” I asked over my comms.          “Yes sir.” He replied          In order to save time we had teleported via magic, I went to the mountain city while he went to the old castle ruins though from now on we would only be relying on pure tech to minimize the chances of them tracking us.          “Is everything decent on your end?” I asked.          “Affirmative you are clear to go sir.” He replied          Nodding I hang up and start making my way through the castle, for this specific plan I had transferred my consciousness into a small robotic body with Cham tech, as it would allow me to blend in better with my surroundings especially in dark areas, it was also equipped with enough tranquilizers to but an elephant to sleep, and a set of Nanosteel senbons, a type of Japanese throwing needle,the nanosteel was a material which incorporates Nano-bots that inject a powerful paralysis toxin to whomever the weapon stabs it can also be modified to create armor, this specific toxin causes the creatures muscles to seize so they don’t fall down they simply stand in place unmoving and it lasts about 3 hours so I should have plenty of time for this specific job. Following the powerful signature as I slowly go through the halls I notice that the castle was adorned with whites and golds so many that you would probably be blinded during the daytime hours though as I moved It was like I crossed into a new world as the halls went from whites and golds to deep blues and blacks it was in all honesty quite beautiful though I noticed that it had been hastily done as I could see small shimmers of gold here and there, I had to dodge a few roaming guards but nothing to serious, but that did bring up the question of why aren’t there more guards? Like come on I wanted a challenge! But I digress, I eventually come upon a large metal vault with intricate runes inscribed upon it though unfortunately it wasn’t unguarded but it did only have two guards so that was fortunate.          Aiming carefully I hit both guards in the arm and before they can even react they’re paralyzed and then they fall down rigid as a board, carefully I prop them up as best as I can to make it look natural but anyone who gets close enough will notice that something is wrong. Then I take out the senbon in each of their arms and patch it up so their blood doesn’t pool on the floor. Looking over the vault door I find many protective runes etched into it I needed to break into it without alerting the apocalypse level threat, taking out an etching blade I etch a Dagaz rune into the door willing it to break through the protective enchantments, The new rune shines with a pale light subsequently followed by an audible crack as a spider web of fractures run through the runic circles deactivating them. With infinite care I etched another Dagaz rune this time with the command of simply opening the door, and this time with a click the door opened wide. Cautiously I go through the door in the chamber, once I’m in I put down a portable warp gate and cleanse the items with an eldritch spell nullifying any tracking mechanisms without damaging the items, I then start bagging everything in the vault and toss it through the gate to site A, this takes about 10 minutes as there is quite a bit of stuff in here. After accomplishing this I pick the gate back up and cleanse the area of the magic I used so there was only the most minimal amount of this diseased magic. Getting out of the castle I contacted Arbiter, “Is everything alright on your end?” “Yes sir everything is going smoothly on my end.” He said after picking up.          “Good, I just finished up over here, so I’ll be warping to base to transfer then I'll warp to you.”  “Very well sir.” After Hanging up I warp back to the base and transfer into a combat ready body it was very similar to the architect Allen from that game but his hands had claws and an energy shield, using eldritch magic I was also able to reinforce my joints and armor plating. For weaponry I had chainswords for close range and for mid to long range I had an ion hand cannon. With all of this I go ahead a warp to Arbiter, after warping I find that he was hiding behind a pillar. Turning to him I ask, “Is there anything I’ve missed?” “Not much, When I got here the white one was waiting for the other one and when it finally appeared they stared at each other for a good while, then the two apocalypse level threats started talking, then yelling, and then started trading blows but after about a minute the dark one had the obvious advantage while the other had given up for some reason. Then after a bit of boasting the dark one teleported the other one somewhere below us,” He explained. “Well where’s the one that won?” I inquired. “I can sense its magic signature in a nearby town” he replied       “Then let’s go kill it.” “No.” “Why?” “Because there is obviously a reason after all why not just go to the capital and declare that you are the new ruler there?” “Because there is another threat to its rule, right?” “Alright we’ll wait.” “Affirmative.” 30 minutes later          It’s been half an hour since Arbiter convinced me to not go hunt that thing down, Using this spare time I had started making some blueprints for new augmentations for my robotic and organic bodies, because as of right now I may be able to defeat one apocalypse level threat but only with heavy damage to myself, and this was a heavily optimistic assessment as I owned multiple bodies, even my eldritch magic could possibly be useless because the more powerful spell matrix’s fueled by it came at a price and my own natural magic was powerful but I needed to practice with it more, as I feared I might do irreversible damage to my soul.          All of this was going through my head when Arbiter interrupted my thoughts, “Sir there is a rank 3 catastrophe class being and 5 mortals with slightly above average magic approaching.”          “Do you detect any hostility from them?” I asked.          “No.”          “Then leave them be.”          “Is that wise sir?”          “Maybe not but both of us on our own can easily neutralize a rank 3 catastrophe but I concede, let’s put up a cam spell to mitigate their chances of finding us.”          “They will detect the magic sir, especially the rank 3.” Arbiter said warning me          “Hmm, then we will rely upon our Cham tech.” I replied.          “Sir, that body doesn’t have Cham tech.”          “Shit, guess I’ll try and hide behind the pillar.”          Moving farther into the shadows I attempted to hide myself, watching them I saw the blue and yellow take the rocks on the altar off and put them in front of the rank 3 catastrophe. They started talking about something called The Elements of Harmony and whatnot eventually they left leaving the rank 3 alone, it then proceeded to lower its head causing a spark of pure energy, Switching my eyesight to sense magic I saw thin threads go to the five outside and another thread go to the rank 3.          Over the comms I started speaking to Arbiter. “Did you sense that?”          “Indeed I did, sir.”          “Those rocks must be some sort of inactive artifact, in fact now that I look at them closely they seem to hold a large amount of dormant holy magic or something of the like.”          “Do you want to obtain them for research sir?”          “Yes, but they have already attuned to those six so they’re useless to us as of right now.”          As we were communicating a deep blue mist started sweeping up the artifacts in some type of teleportation spell but before it could complete the rank 3 jumped into it. Tracking their mana I had Arbiter go observe as I was unable to fly in this form without being seen. I watched the other five start running towards the tower and about 5 minutes later I felt a large magical surge. Arbiter came back saying that the situation was taken care of as the artifacts had awakened, but he did get a sample of a remnant from the released entity. With this event over I open a small warp gate back to the base and we head through.