Daring Do and the Throne of Ouroboros

by Tolerance

12: Harm's Way

The Amulet clattered to the floor, skidding only a short distance from the pair.

"Daring Do, Sir?" Sunny simply asked.

"What were you doing Sunny? You were supposed to get the Stars and get the hay out of here!"

"Yes, Sir. I was getting out of here as ordered."

"By walking through the portal? We don't even know where this thing goes."

"I wasn't going through the portal? I was- I was-..." The canis hesitated. "I-I'm sorry, Sir. I don't seem to know why I-"

Before she could finish, they were interrupted by a startling screech coming from the veil of dust. A few of the changelings had broken through Aaron's geomancy, Queen Copiphorinae leading the charge.

On instinct, Daring shoved the dazed canine out of their path while simultaneously diving towards the Amulet in the same motion. Time seemed to slow as she approached it, but the queen had gained too much momentum. Even if Daring reached the artifact first, she'd never escape the queen's advance as well.

Mere inches away from the Amulet of the Stars, time stopped.

~~~~~

[Pause Command confirmed. Local area run-time temporarily frozen.]

Aaron sighed. "Cutting it a little close there weren't we?" He said to no-one in particular as he settled the dust. Several changelings were still airborne, fighting the restrictive dust that no longer obstructed their advance.

"You know, in hindsight, I probably should have just summoned a wall instead of flinging everyone across the room." Aaron nodded in hindsight. "Yeah. That was probably the better way to go."

There were far too many things hanging in the air, literally, for him to waste any more time criticizing his own strategy, so Aaron got to work. His console already summoned from his earlier command, Aaron wrote a quick script to force a sleep state on everyone present. "Let’s see, one daring pegasus; one loyal canis; nearly three hundred changelings, including the queen; fourteen various ponies, one Ahuizotle, I guess; and one, oh, that is interesting..."

Just as he finished getting everything in order so that no-one would be injured when he restarted things, Aaron moved to recover the Amulet of the Stars. Stooping down to the artifact, Aaron froze, a sudden chill raising the fur on his neck. He'd missed something.

The portal was still active, the whorls and vortices of the event horizon's surface still churned with motion. In front of it stood a figure that defied the laws of physics, simulated as they may be.

A cloud of misshapen blots filled out a general, nondescript form, as if the light-absorbing shapes were swarming over an invisible surface.

In one swift motion, Aaron summoned his staff and swept the artifact off the platform before placing the staff between himself and the intruder.

"Another user?" Aaron asked as he browsed the logs from his console. The only entry was his own. "No. It can't be... What are you!?"

"What are we, is us?
Was there once a time we knew?
A time it mattered?
No.
This one your kind sought,
whom humans almost destroyed,
without second thought."

"Great, riddles. If this ends in a song and a dance, can we please just get to point?"

"One asks for the point?
Such an interesting thought,
that a man would care.
No.
We exist here, now,
to rid the universes,
of those who wear thin.
Yes.
We have many names.
Humans only know of one.
We exist as Harm."

"Well, I have to give it to you, whatever you are, you've got the evil monologue thing down, but-"

The shadow called Harm struck first, but only long enough to grasp Aaron's staff. Then it stopped.

"What's the matter? Not what you were expecting?"

"No magic? No plan?
Just a poor execution,
wherever you stand."

The next attack was aimed at Aaron's head, but this time without the earlier element of surprise. Breaking his own staff into two at the midsection, Aaron used one of the pieces to deflect the next attack as it passed just short of his ears. Even so, the mass that Harm was wielding seemed to defy physics as well, sending the seemingly larger dog sliding back a few feet.

Aaron jumped back on reflex before the next hit could land. He couldn't afford to take too many more of those, simulated avatar or no. Wherever Harm struck, a viscous black substance stained the surface. Harm's origins and make-up aside, Aaron did not want to find out what coming into contact with the residue would do to him.

Harm seemed to realize this too, as it switched from powerful blows to faster, whip-like strikes. Aaron did the best he could to fend Harm off, but the consecutive hits quickly began to prove too much, one of the blows even managing to knock the weapon from his left paw.

Distancing himself once more, Aaron was slowing down considerably, the black substance seeming to do more than just slow down his avatar. Even during the focused fight, Aaron could feel his mind being pulled elsewhere, apart even. While he could resist to a degree, it became quite obvious that Harm would win this battle of attrition. Disconnection would save him, but all of the others left behind were still vulnerable, all because of his own actions. He couldn't even entertain the thought of abandoning his friends.

"You seem to be one for talking, how about we do that?" Aaron stalled.

"What have you to say?
Readying your dying breath.
We hear, but care not."

Harm gloated as it gathered itself up for the final blow.

"Yes!"

"No!" Aaron shouted back. "I pity you, honestly. You think you've won." Harm froze in place, "Ha, you do want to know what you've missed, don’t you?. Well that is really funny, honestly. Even if I believed that you've been on a mission to exterminate humans for however long, you still can't see it can you? Why you'll never win? Well here it is: Humans, as a species, will never surrender." Aaron willed up the last of his strength and hurled the last part of his spear at what appeared to be Harm's center of mass.

The steelstone baton passed cleanly through the creature, who offered no resistance as dark particulate simply flowed around the projectile.

"A futile effort.
Now we can end t-"

Harm vanished as though he was being ripped towards the gateway, Aaron's weapon having shattered the control pedestal into numerous pieces.

"Yeah, I thought you might say that." Aaron said as he caught his breath. "I can't believed that worked!"

It also seemed that, with Harm's connection severed, the black sludge's effects were also greatly diminished. Upon closer examination, the sludge looked more like some sort of random code that was trying to force its surroundings to behave in a more uniform fashion. The code itself, however, was the exact opposite. It didn’t even appear to be the same between puddles, almost as if each portion was different from the rest, but was also acting in concert to accomplish a single task. It would simply be a curious conglomeration of computer code if wasn't for the fact that that task seemed to be influencing his avatar's movements.

With the immediate threat gone, Aaron started purging his avatar of the gunk before he started seeing it everywhere. An idea struck him, and he made his way back to where the Amulet had fallen. Gently picking it up by the chain, Aaron could see that the three Stars that had recently been added were filled with the errant programming, likely embedded during whatever ritual the changelings and Ahuizotle were doing to them prior to Sunny acquiring them. If it was able to influence actions, then it might even explain Sunny's recent behavior.

Who knows, maybe some of the others' behaviors were also under it infections influence.

Either way, now that he knew what he was looking for, Aaron had a lot of work ahead of him. This entire area, and all of the entities in it, would have to be scrubbed of the errant code before the Sandbox could resume operations.

Comments

[Cracked Egg]

Do what you will.

[Shadowshame]

7278854
Well that comment isn't ominous nope not at all