Deus Ex Machina - Godbound SI - Chapter 3

Location: Unknown Realm, Burned out City

Date: Day 2

I flew over the remains of a skyscraper as the Jaguar leapt at me, crashing face first into the building before scrambling after me, spitting flames as it snarled at me.

“Yeah, fuck you too!” I shouted as I pointed and fired a mini-missile down at its open mouth. It flew like a bullet on target, and the moment it entered its maw the missile penetrated the chest cavity and promptly exploded. The chest burst apart like a lava filled balloon, sending the head into the air while the rest of the body fell back to the ground, crashing into another pair of climbing Jaguars and sending them to the ground with it.

Despite hitting the ground with a thunk, the two monsters shook it off and redoubled their efforts to get to me again, angrier than before.

I was already moving away and transforming into cycle mode down a long and intact highway, accelerating to at speeds the beasts couldn’t keep up with. Seeing a still standing skyscraper, I pushed the thrusters and popped a wheelie, flying into the air and onto the side of the building. With the thruster pushing me against the building, I drove up its side until I reached the top, flying off the side and over the roof with a backward flip. Using what knowledge I had from my Gifts, and my own experience as a rider prior to this, I oriented myself to land on my wheels before hitting the landing thrusters. I panted, heart beating a mile per minute as I put the vehicle in neutral, put out the kickstand, and slumped against the handlebars and console.

“This is stupid. How many of these things are there?! I must have killed dozens at this point!” I yelled in frustration. I couldn’t actually search into any of the intact buildings about the city due to them being infested with beasts, or said beasts converging on the location the moment I try to actually search the places. Usually in numbers ranging from a half dozen, to two or so dozen in a single group.

The beam weapons were effective again them, but due to their mass, they didn’t burst apart as easily as the Lobster Birds. Usually, it took a burst to take a single one down, and as a result, I burned through my energy very quickly as a result of constant ambushes.

Now I was relying on missiles to fight the things off, and replaced the beam rifle with a pair of RL-1 Light Anti-Armor Weapons since I ran out of protoculture power cells for the damned thing. The RL-1 was basically an oversized recoilless rifle in the shape of a pistol that fired mini-missiles. It was among the first infantry scaled weapons that utilized advanced technology from the SDF-1.

I didn’t need to create this weapon specially for the Cyclone, as I could just summon them, dismiss, and resummon as needed. The fact it came with five mini-missiles due to the box magazine was a plus.

Missiles for my forearm launchers were easily replaced since I could just conjure up the damned things at will. No Effort required. I figured this would happen eventually, but I should have done this from the start.

I quickly stepped off my ride and began the process of reloading the missile launchers, pulling mini-missiles out of thin air before sliding them into place. By the time I was finished loading the arm mounted launchers, I could hear the distant roars from the ground below. They had caught up.

“They’re persistent. That’s for damn sure.” I groused.

Climbing back onto the cycle, I transformed back into battloid mode and peered over the edge. There were ten of them climbing up the side of the building like the cats they were. I took aim with my launchers, and in short order, sent them all to their death.

I reloaded once more, and leapt into a hover as I floated away from the roof to look at the building. Floating down, I relied on my power to give me a basic idea of what was in the building, and it was just more ruins as went. I had been about to write it off, when finally, finally, something appeared in my scan.

“An energy source?” I murmured, as my Gift gave me a brief sensation of something magical inside that was still functioning. I grabbed a hold of a window sill and pulled myself inside the building. A thick layer of dust, soot and ash coated everything, and the last thing I needed was that fine dust to get inside my machine, so I deactivated the thrusters and stepped onto the floor.

Landing on the floor with thump, the floor creaked under the weight of the battloid unit I wore. Dismissing the RL-1s, I took out the H-90 Gallant in its rifle configuration. The lights on my helmet lit up to brighten the hallways as I walked through.

I paused as more roars filled the air, and I grimaced. I stopped being stealthy and simply began kicking doors open. This sent dust all over, but it allowed me to search more quickly. I followed the sensor readings the best I could, eventually reaching a room that was fairly intact and had a working machine.

It covered the entire wall. Twenty feet long, eight feet tall, and three feet deep. It was covered with diode lights and five layers of spinning gears beneath each diode. It was just sitting there, doing nothing, having power for however long ago this was last used. My Gift told me it was a variation of a Turing Machine. It couldn’t serve me in any purpose, but the data it gave out to the users long ago is valuable.

The papers that laid around the room were faded, but whatever was legible was in a language I couldn’t read. I sighed.

“Useless.”

I don’t know if it was because I had spoken out loud, or what. The moment I did though? The wall exploded violently as a damned Jaguar smashed through with a fiery roar, and bowled me over.

I cursed repeatedly in panic as I blocked a bite with my left vambrace as it clawed at my shoulder and chest plates. The claws were red with heat and leaving glowing cuts into the armor, and if it weren’t for the armor, the stone beast would be crushing me with its weight.

Combat mode turned on, and the world slowed down a bit. I was able to calm down and formulate a plan to fight off this threat. With a glance at my HUD, my thrusters kick on and push me off the floor, and the beast was lifted as a result.

My free hand was able to pull the Gallant out of its holster and jam it into the chest of the Jaguar. I didn’t set it to fire in a pulse blast, but it didn’t matter with my pulling the trigger as quickly as I could. Shots blasted straight through it, doing little actual damage, but a few blasted its back apart. It sent molten blood across the room, hissing as it met dust, and setting the bare walls alit. Paper burned due to the heat of the beast’s blood and breath, causing a small blaze to start.

A final shot under its neck caused its head to blow apart into chunks of rock, causing its body to fall and crumble.

Three more roars filled the distant air, and I was already moving.

Exiting into the hallway, I ran into two more of the beasts, and one moved to attack while the other struggled to push through the hallway.

A quick focus of my gift, and the first slammed face first into a solid wall of hardened ash. I turn and ran as it smashed and ripped the wall apart. Holstering the Galant once more, I called upon the RL-1 and knocked all the walls between me and the outside down, dismissing the weapon again once it was used up.

The Jaguars were on my heels as I leapt out with the thrusters throwing me further into the air outside of the building. The Jaguar that leapt after me with an enraged roar as it fell to its demise to the streets below. Slowly floating down, I gazed to the ground and felt my stomach drop at the sight.

The entire streets below were filled with Firestone Jaguars, and they were all converging on this building. How the hell they knew I was even here; I had no idea. Likely some life force detection bullshit. Or maybe it was a hivemind of some form. Like…magical stone drones with a drone network.

Regardless, I needed to get the hell back to the base. The ruins wasn’t safe enough to explore anymore.

While the Battloid form could hover and move at a slow clip, it was not true flight, and would not protect me when I finally reached the point where ground effect came into play. The Jaguars were powerful enough to leap through the air around fifty feet. The larger ones that were the size of a house wouldn’t even need to leap up at me once I did come down.

Dismissing the RL-1, I turned towards the nearest building to me. It was much shorter than the skyscraper standing only two hundred feet tall. It was all I needed however as I landed upon it and ran over to the air conditioning units that covered a corner of the roof.

Workers appeared and quickly took everything apart, and remade it all into Bell UH-1 Iroquois Helicopter. Best known as a “Huey”, from the Vietnam War. It was a good thing my power worked in conjunction with Ten thousand Tools, otherwise this idea would have no chance to work. I could already hear the sounds of roars and creatures climbing up the building.

Fully fueled, and ready to lift off, I exited out of my Cyclone and had it transform into its “Storage Mode” form. Basically, it folded itself into a box, so it could be stored and charged up inside of an Alpha or Beta Veritech Fighter. I placed it inside of the aircraft and closed the doors, before getting into the cockpit.

Thanks once more to Blessed Blueprints, I knew exactly how to fly this machine, and did so. I lifted off just as the first wave of Jaguars came over the side and onto the roof, and I was gone from their reach and leaping range.

The iconic ‘chooka-chooka’ of the aircraft filled my hearing and I felt like the moment would have been better if I had music. I paused and then frowned.

“Would that even work?”

I summoned a tape player, with a tape already in it, and pushed the play button.

I sat in silence, nothing played on the tape. I sighed before dismissing it before a thought occurred to me. I tried again, but this time, it was an CD player. I turned it on, and pushed play when the number “one” appeared on the track dial.

It was silence…until it wasn’t.

I grinned widely as the beat from "Fortunate Son" by Creedence Clearwater Revival began.

“Now it’s perfect.”

I turned away from the port direction to prevent them from simply rushing my place as the horde of monsters sprinted after the loud chopping in the air. Thanks to the speed, and not having to go over the rough terrain of the ground, I eventually left the horde behind. Realizing I was flying once more, I glanced over to the floating, lava pouring rock island that was a short distance from the Dragon corpse and decided to see if it was free real estate.

Landing on the rock was an easy affair but not necessarily safe given how uneven the terrain was. Not to mention the rock itself was rather round-ish. Using Artifice to anchor it down with local rock, the fear was dealt away with as it wouldn’t fall off or roll unless it broke the stone.

Pulling out the Gallant, I began my exploration of the floating piece of land. It was surprisingly large, as it looked smaller from afar. With some work, I will be able to flatten it out to something useful. Reaching the peak of the rock gave me an overview of the other portions I couldn’t see.

I was about to make my way back down then without warning a flock of lobster birds rushed at me. I didn’t notice them at all as they didn’t cry out or anything. I only noticed at the last second, but it didn’t prevent three of the eleven from body slamming me off the summit and down the rock. I lost a grip on my Gallant and kept rolling and sliding down the rock.

I came to a stop near the lava flow that seemed to be coming from within the center of this island, the rock beneath me hissed with heat and smoke and clambered to my feet. The Lobster Birds were circling above, not quite ready to dive due to the lava I think. With their hesitation, I focused on a Rifts Earth plasma weapon, and had trouble thinking of which one I had wanted. As a result, I guess my power grabbed the best one it could get.

Into my hands appeared an NEMA PR-470 Plasma Rifle with an E-Canister. I was momentarily surprised by the unknowing choice, before shrugging and activating it. It warmed up within a moment, and with twenty-one shots available, I had more than enough shots.

I popped off a shot that flash fried the air as the energy blazed towards the monster, and it missed. It replied with a screech as it dove at me and grazed my armor with its stone talons.

Another dove at me, and I managed to hit this one. It hit it directly in the face, and melted its face and body until the two halves flew away from each other, and past me.

The flock was really agitated now, and dove at me enmass. Instead of trying to shoot at the group like a moron, I sprinted out of the way, dropping a grenade back where I was. It exploded and only got two of them, but it was two less than before.

This repeated for several minutes of them diving, and me running and shooting. Most of the time missing. I felt like a Helldiver fighting of Shriekers, and this just as much a pain in the ass. I did manage to kill five more before the remaining three decided to live for another day and fly off somewhere that wasn’t the island.

Glancing about, I dismissed the plasma rifle and worked my way back up to the Gallant, and then back up to the summit. Once more glancing about to the land around me, I gave it a moment of thought before nodding.

“This is safer than the ground, though I’ll need some air defenses. I claim this here floating rock.”

I returned to the Huey, and sat as a thousand copies of myself began the work of minecrafting the hell out of this place. Just as in that game, take a location and make it a flat space to work and live upon. Store the gained materials away or use it as needed.

Within an hour the rounded upper half of the rock was flattened down to level plane. Rock was transmuted into steel, wood, and other materials to create a newer, better base than the first one. I noted that I will have to go back to either break it down, or at the least retrieve the Cessna.

I paused as I suddenly as one of my parallel selves called out to me over the radio.

“You better get to the center. I’ve found something. An engine of some sort, and it’s where the lava is coming from.”

I frowned. “Copy.”

Mounting the Cyclone, it was a short drive over to where a small group of m other selves were standing over and looking down.

They parted for me as I came to a hole that dipped down into the rock, and gazed upon…

“Oh…” I said in mute shock. The knowledge I gained in turn passed through to the rest, and they all had more or less the same reaction.

“How the hell did a celestial engine…no, it’s not a celestial engine. It’s something like one though.” I uttered out loud. I possessed no full understanding of this machine, despite Blessed Blueprints, as a result of its magical and divine construction. I understood enough to know what it was for and what it could do. Otherwise, I simply didn’t know the aspect of my words well enough to know and do more than that.

“Look there!” One of my selves pointed, and we all turned as one and saw, just above where the lava was coming from, more of my selves had dug away the rock and stone to have a closer look.

It revealed a chamber, and within were broken shards of power.

Godbound instinctively could sense shards of celestial engines. I didn’t sense these because they no longer functioned. I also knew the moment I saw them that they weren’t all from a single celestial engine, but four separate ones. All functionally working together to empower this small…man-made celestial engine.

Fire, Earth, Beasts, and Sky. That was what these four shards were for. Despite being broken, I could feel them as one would feel the element they control. One gave off a heat, another a hardness that shifted to a softness that smelled of fresh sod, one of a wind that smelled of Ozone, and the last of woods and moss with a sense of wild freedom.

Like a thunderbolt, I realized it, and in turn all my other selves did as well.

“Oh fuck.” One said, face going pale as he turned towards the distant mountain range. Or rather…the dead Dragon that made up a part of it.

It clicked. As one, we all realized in horror what that Dragon actually was.

“Made-God.”

The Dragon was a Made-God. An artificial divinity using shards of celestial engines, the engines that maintain all of existence, to empower them. Storming into and destroying Heaven to do so. All for the purpose of fighting the other Fallen Empires, winning, and then taking the Throne of God as their own.

This floating rock that leaked lava, was actually its bleeding heart, and something punched it out.

I dispensed all my copies and just sat there on the edge of the chamber. The enormity of this discovery and its subsequent realizations, had forced me to take a moment to calm down.

My breathing was controlled as I focused on the sound of air going in and out of my nose. I didn’t need to breathe, but at the moment it was keeping me grounded.

The amount of power that was within those four broken shards. The resources needed to make this heart in the first place. The amount of destruction brought about by the Made-God to just this realm alone, and who knows how many other realms were destroyed by it and the forces it brought to bear.

It took some time just focusing on nothing. The “Nothing-Box” as it is called where one can just sit and think about nothing at all. A bit hard to do given the revelation I just had, but it worked nonetheless. Eventually, I stood up and looked back down at the engine.

“If the shards are broken, then why does this engine still function?”

With a frown, I climbed down the hole where the engine housing was, and touched the metal. I focused particularly hard on a gift, invoking the miracle Mark the Maker from Artifice.

In an instant, I had a vision of the engine and was overwhelmed by the sheer amount of effort and Theurgic power invested to make this device. The makers were…

“Ugh.” I grimaced in revulsion. “Swiss-brand Targaryens.”

I didn’t get the name of the nation, but they were slavers who believed in their power as Dragons in human flesh. Possessing magic and power associated with the beasts of yore and a devotion to the Celestial Engine that governed the concept of Dragon.

While they couldn’t gain the celestial shards for that word, they had plenty of others to make up for it.

The history faded from there, and moved into the function and use of the engine, and it became clear why it still functioned despite the shards being broken and the heart being removed.

“The shards are broken, but their energy is still stored within as fuel, and is slowly being drained.”

It was why the heart floated in the air. It was why the beasts still roamed the Realm. It was why the Made-God, despite no longer functioning, still has power coursing through it.

It was there the vision ended, and I felt my power gone. I could no longer place any effort into my gifts. Only the most basic of abilities were mine to use, and the most…overwhelming.

“Alright…I think I know what to do.”

I got out of the hole, and after removing the Cyclone and storing it, I took off inside of the Huey until I was overlooking the floating heart.

Feeling the spot was right and seeing no threats flying at me, I closed my eyes and focused deeply upon my control over the words I had a connection to.

Instinctively, I pulled down on my power and felt my Influence change the world. The island was now moving as the lava flow was now a great flame, and gave thrust where there was none before. I increased the amount of Influence I had over this fact, and the flame became blinding as the engine began pouring out more power than before.

I followed the island as it went over the landmass below. I could see the monsters and beast scramble after it and me until it was floating over the eternal nothing that surrounded this realm. I stayed back over the realm in case this became catastrophic.

“Alright. Let’s go.” I grunted as I gave a final push. One last influx of my power, but this time, for something permanent.

The world changed once more, only more deeply as my Dominion reached out and changed a fact. The fact the engine was still functioning. Now…it didn’t.

The Heart split in two as the energy within spilt out like a wave of light before exploding like a small nuke. I had a feeling something like this could happen, which is why I stayed back as I did, deftly moving the aircraft to ride the blast of wind as it passed.

A loud metallic clang filled the air, almost deafening, but I felt deep down that this was the death throes of the heart. I leveled out the aircraft in time to witness the heart silently fall into the void. I watched it as it floated away into the black nothingness, until the black obscured it completely.

With a nod, satisfied that the engine was now gone, I turned around the flew back into the Realm towards my base.

Looking down as I flew over the city, I grinned as I saw massive piles of stone jaguars. Flying lower to get a better look, I was happy to see them finally dead, and lacking that flame within, crumbling apart. While I wasn’t entirely certain I was safe just yet, I now had the freedom to move about without being hunted down.