Deus Ex Machina - Godbound SI - Chapter 1

Location: Unknown

Date: Unknown

My dreams were filled with clashing blades, blasts of fire and light, and an endless warcry. It was pandemonium. I could see titans of metal and bone tackle one another in thundering clashes, crushing men underfoot into red paste. Angels snarling with hatred and rage fired beams of light and flame, bruning swaths of the earth and men with it. They were swatted out of the air by beasts and men wielding arcane energies. The air erupted with force, and turned all of that into ash, mixing with the crackling of lightning, filling the air with loud, insane laughter as the world broke apart. The ground erupted with the shaking of the earth, molten lava spewing from newly born volcanos, and the sky cracking like glass before shattering apart, revealing a red misted void filled with burning worlds and dead stars.

One of these stars fall. A Black Hole crashed upon the field and reality itself is torn asunder as everything is pulled into the deep blackness.

I woke up with a jolt. I panted hard, sweat clinging to my skin under my clothes. I swayed dizzily as I stretched my hands upon the bed to steady myself, seeing only the blackness of my bedroom. I rubbed my face, attempting to will the anxiety of the dream away with the physical stimuli. The smell of thick dust filling my nose made me stop. I leaned up to sniff the air, only to stop when the room brightened slightly.

“…This is not my room.”

The room was bare, and empty of any furniture save the old dusty mattress I was laying upon. Looking down upon myself, I was still wearing the sweat clothes I went to bed in, but noticed something else immediately.

Pulling my shirt up, the weight I had gained as I grew in age was gone. Instead, it was lean, revealing muscle, and then I noticed the tattoo lines on the contours of my musculature.

“What the hell is-“ I murmured as I fingered the lines. I focused on them, wanting to know what the hell they were. It only took me a moment to realize that they were not tattoos, but instead were seams. Like in clothing, but in my skin. I was befuddled as to why I would have these on me while looking over my hands and forearms, only to freeze as the one around my wrist opened up as I pulled on it.

Keeping calm, I looked under the skin, and instead of seeing more skin, or even…anything else, I saw black muscle and metal.

“What is this…” I muttered, deeply unsettled. I felt myself getting cold from fear, and as a result, my arm, along with my entire body, opened up along the seams, exposing machinery.

“AHH!” I shouted, and my terror caused my skin to close itself, and go from what appeared to be normal skin to a flesh colored metal alloy.

My arms shifted from smooth skin to angular plates that seemed fashioned to deflect objects that impact them. This was the same for my legs, pectorals, and overall frame. My vision blurred for a moment before a user interface of some kind appeared in my vision, similar to a heads-up-display. On the lower left side of my vision appeared a diagram of what appeared to my body. I blinked as two and two came together.

“…Am I a Cyborg!? How did I become a Cyborg?!”

I looked over my new body. I couldn’t have been made by anyone without serious backing and resources.

Why I was now in possession of such technology, let alone in…where the hell am I anyways?

I looked about, and in an instant, I had a map in my head of the structure. How I had this…likely some cybernetic capability in my head, which meant neuroware. Regardless of the reason, I knew the layout, and which way to go in order to leave.

I took a breath and focused on my body. It was reacting to my heightened state of a panic, so I needed to calm down. I focused on trying to will it back into “Non-Combat Mode” or “Safe-Mode” or whatever it was before. It did, my “skin” lost its rigidity and softened, and then shaped back into the smooth shapes it had before.

“Okay…so I’m some kind of cyborg unit with covert capabilities, but can go into “combat mode” in a moment if I wanted to. Good to know. Implications are worrying though.”

Looking down at my feet, I frowned, wishing I had socks and shoes. I was about to walk out, when I stopped, looking at the mattress. I don’t know what it was, but I felt an inkling, and innate confidence, that I could in fact make these things with the present materials.

“I would need a tools like-“

I stopped when I felt in my hand a handle. Looking slowly to my hand, I saw a tool box. I knew I didn’t have it there a moment ago. My mind was in overdrive, and it took a moment to realize that it appeared because I wanted it to.

“Okay…”

If I willed it into existence…from a space pocket or something…I should probably be able to send it back. With a bit of focus, it faded out of view.

“….Woah….what else do I have?”

Feeling the dirty floor under my feet, I tried to will shoes and socks into being. A pair of grey socks and sneakers appeared.

“Okay then!” I said with a grin. Putting them on, I felt better about my situation, and decided to test this ability out a bit more.

“So…I wouldn’t imagine shoes and socks would be here unless it was a foreseen need, so…let’s try something a bit more expected.”

I thought about a handgun. Mine. Instantly a 10mm XD-M Elite with a full magazine appeared in my hand.

“Okay! So I’m not defenseless…not that my combat form was, but still!”

I then proceeded to call upon every firearm I actually owned, before stopping, and taking a step further.

“Okay…this combat form is military. Let’s call up military equipment.”

I called upon fourteen different weapons, from combat rifles, to anti-material rifles, to a world-war two bazooka. I then called upon more non-combat related equipment, such as radios, cooking-ware, and clothing.

I then hand an inkling that this wasn’t actually equipment from some shadowy organization, and decided to call on things no organization would put into pocket-space.

Which is why I stood in the still darkened room holding an old-school Super Nintendo Game System, with controllers, power and TV cables, and three game cartridges of “Super Metroid”, “Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past”, and “Super Mario World”.

I stared down at the objects in my hand, and to my astoundment, not only was I actually holding these objects, but I had a full knowledge of how they worked, how to use them, and even how to make them. From hardware to programming. I stared a bit more before willing them away with a nod.

“Okay. So not a shadowy military organization. Something else entirely. Intuitive understanding of technology and equipment is one thing…but this is not something I imagine Chronos would implant into their Zoanoid agents. Not to mention the sheer…utility of it.

I paused for a moment as I suddenly realized that the effort of bringing these objects into existence and then out was taking energy.

Then it clicked. It was that word…Word? Why am I focusing so much on these two…

Then it hit me. Like someone turned on the power to a deactivated computer, I suddenly had an inkling, and then full-blown knowledge of what was going on. My intuitive understanding of things suddenly gave me that knowledge on these abilities, and what they represented. Most importantly, where they came from.

“Holy shit.” I said in a blank expression. It happened nearly all at once. Knowledge of the powers. Of the Words. Godbound. I was a Godbound. I had control over celestial engines of creation. Wasn’t that a terrifying realization.

Firstly; my reality was screwed because it’s not what I thought it was. It was more. Secondly; Godbound was NOT a good place to be. There are things running around that would stomp me and take these words. Thirdly; it called to question what my place in things were, not to mention my immediate place in the world. Was I at home? Or was I at one of the fallen kingdoms? Or worse, in one of the Night Roads. Suddenly, I felt under-equipped for my situation. Sure, I can call upon guns and stuff, but there are things that required artillery of the magical variety.

I stopped this line of thinking and focused once more on my current position. I needed to know for sure, what were my words.

They came to me quickly, and I was somewhat surprised, but not. They fit me personally, but all three were kind of overkill.

Artifice, Engineering, and Artificial Intelligence. While I couldn’t say how useful the AI word would be, a bit of focus told me it was the source of my current Form. I remembered the power in question too. Warbot. A Greater Gift. It explained my body, how I no longer needed sustenance or rest, how my skin functioned as a set of heavy armor. It granted me outright immunity to mundane weaponry and environmental factors that were not supernatural or able to outright destroy a vehicle.

I also possessed an integrated weapon in the form of eye beams. They were the equivalent of a laser in how they functioned, and did about as much damage as a fifty caliber anti-material rifle. Their range was abysmal however, as they were a protective asset rather than an offensive one. Even so, I was fine with it since it gave me options.

Moving from my skin and weapon, I focused on my arm, and had it open up a bit to see what was under the hood.

It opened to me, revealing the mechanisms beneath and I realized what sort of construct I was. Likely due to a gift from engineering. I was a combination of a Soongian Android from Star Trek, much like Data, and a Cyberform from Transformers. I wasn’t fully either, but a hybrid of the two synthetic beings.

The closest equivalent would be the Terminator the T-800 became at the end of Genysis. Something far beyond Cyborg, but still so.

“So less a Cyborg and more an Android.”

Filing away this information for the future, I focused on the other words, I felt what I could do with them, and grinned in a dry humor.

“I can craft anything it appears.”

Looking about the dark room, I held out my hand and Transmuted the dust and debris into gold dust and nuggets. I felt the power wane and then return once the action was complete.

“Money isn’t an issue then, though I may need to trade it in for currency. Hopefully I was in the U.S. where I can just bring it in to a pawn.”

Using the power again, this time I actually used the power to summon a box of sewing tools, and cut up the mattress into a small bag for the gold, which I changed from old mattress to leather, with a leather cord to close it.

Taking the time, I quickly made used the remains of the mattress to create a leather rancher’s hat and leather biker jacket.

It felt a bit out of place, but I didn’t really care, just yet. I was satisfied enough to make my way out, and into the daylight. Or what I thought was daylight.

It turned out to not be because as soon as I left the building, I knew I wasn’t on Earth anymore. I felt my stomach drop, my teeth clench, and a gun appear in both hands as I witnessed…infinity.

An endless black with red mists floating near the edges of what appeared to be a piece of stone foundation. Moving gingerly, I scanned the area and found that I wasn’t alone. There were…bird things…flying about and hanging about on what looked like trees made of black glass…or obsidian. They were in shattered pieces that floated in a shape that looked like trees with branches and leaves that reflected red light, shimmering like jewels in the sunset.

It was beautiful. If only it didn’t have lobster birds hanging onto the branches, staring down at me hungrily…I think.

I backed off, keeping my eye on them and summoning a shotgun into my hands, and their heads moved as I did, but they just stayed in place. I turned a corner and turned away to move quickly only to stop in an instant as I saw it.

A huge building that looked like a gutted version of Dracula’s castle, only with bars, surrounded with spiked fences covered with wicked razor wire that was made of that floating obsidian, and dead in the dark. The Lobster-Birds made a racket as they flew past me and towards the castle, taking positions on the structure like gargoyles. They chittered and made a racket over there, and I was not keen on going into whatever this place was.

Staring at it, I realized I knew what it was because of my Word granted gifts. This wasn’t a castle.

It was a prison. It was keeping things in as much as it was keeping things out. It was also more or less destroyed, like a bombed-out building. What caused me to pause was that whatever caused it, due to the state of it and the debris, came from inside of its ruins. Whatever was in it, isn’t anymore.

That made me back off even more quickly, and my paranoia spiked to the degree where my armor snapped into place. Clothes seemingly absorbed into dimensional space.

I looked down at “Bobcat” twelve-gauge lever-action shotgun in my hands, and shook my head in dismissal. I slung it onto my back and focused on creating a military weapon I knew a bit about, and grinned when a XM-109 Barrett Anti-Material Rifle/Grenade Launcher appeared in my grasp.

The weapon was heavy, very much so, but in my hands as a Godbound, it felt like it was about half of what it normally would be. It only had a magazine capacity of five rounds, but those rounds were 20mm grenades with explosive warheads.

It was only because of Engineering that I could even do this, because it allowed me to instantaneously make any “ordinary device” instantly through will power alone. What it meant by this meant pretty much anything that wasn’t outright magical, divine, or demonic in its nature.

Against something like an Angel, or a Parasite God, or other supernatural baddies, this thing will only be useful at staggering. At best. At worst, they might make them stronger somehow…

I shook my head, pushing away those thoughts as I looked about me for a path away from the prison. Walking over to the edge of whatever I was standing on, my face fell as I noticed what appeared to be the end of a road, only to notice a section of road floating in the distance below. Defying gravity, or lacking it, the road apparently broke apart and fell about sixty feet before stopping where it now was.

Looking beyond that, I blanched as I saw more sections of a road just floating in the void downward and away. Calling up a telescope with ultraviolet vision, I focused on the sections further away and saw there was an order to them. Despite being shattered, the sections of the road were sticking together somehow, if only at a distance.

I tightened my grip as I saw the end of the road near what appeared to be a bridge of shattered obsidian. At the middle of that bridge was an arch that likely was a gate, and beyond that? Nothing. It just ended. I dismissed the telescope and got ready to call a grappling hook and rope when I stopped.

Looking down again, I immediately noticed something was off about the road section floating below me. I saw those crystal trees that were lined along the road and prison on the one below me, and they were tiny. Too small for something only twenty meters away.

I narrowed my eyes as I came to two conclusions, and grabbed a nearby stone to test them. I dropped the stone, and it fell…and fell…and fell…and fell…and fell…and fell, until it finally hit the road below and shattered to dust.

“That’s not sixty feet. That’s more like six hundred. So perception is warped just as everything else seems to be.” I looked at the distant gate and bridge which appeared to be about two miles feet away. If it was actually ten times the distance, I was looking at near twenty miles at the least.

“Okay…I either need to fly, or I need to parachute down to each section.”

I glanced down to the section below me, and saw nothing on the road that would help me move about. No dead vehicles. No other buildings. No settlements.

I rubbed my chin, and after a moment I nodded. I grabbed nearby stones and focused on the word of Artifice, and grinned as the one I was able to do was the one I needed. I focused, pushed my will and power, and the stones became aluminum, steel, and a smaller variety of metals. I then used my other gift of Ten Thousand Tools, and the word of Engineering, specifically the gift of Blessed Blueprint, to work the alloys into an air-trike.

Within twenty minutes, I had a functional hang glider and a motorized trike. The wings were wide and the span possessed a large surface area, allowing it to catch the wind with barely any effort. Given the area of space I was in, I couldn’t assume physics function exactly the same, which is why the trike came with a small engine for a push-prop. Aside from the engine, this machine was fly by wire, literally. Wires tied to the control stick allowed me a measure of control over the aircraft…

And I smacked my forehead into a facepalm.

“Idiot…”

An hour later, instead of a basic Glider Trike, I had a homemade Cessna-172. My experience at the “Aero-Club” on Elmendorf allowed me to be around a lot of light aircraft, sport aircraft, and float planes.

Satisfied with the product, I began a pre-flight check. Sure, I just made the damned thing, but habits were hard to break, not to mention I might have messed up somewhere without knowing it. Outside checks were done, and no issues were found. Climbing inside, I continued the procedure, checking instrumentation, controls, switches, trim, brakes, avionics…the ones that matter anyways, and so on until I satisfied that I had everything covered.

I then took the stones and materials I had left over and shaped them into ingots before placing them into the cargo space of the plane. If I needed something while flying, I would have it.

It was as ready as it can be, and taking a deep breath, I hit the switch and began to power the place up. The engine kicked in, and the prop slow spun until it was a whirling blade on the cusp of breaking the speed of sound. The lobster birds were getting agitated at the sound, but I ignored them as I push forward and began to taxi the plane into the take off point I designated.

Taking one last breath, I glared at the end of the road.

“Where Eagles Dare…”

Pushing forward the accelerator, the prop began to spin faster, and the loud whirring filled the air. The Lobster birds began to fly into the air, screeching angrily as my plane began to gain velocity.

I didn’t realize it until I was halfway down the runway that I was being chased by the damned things, but my plane was faster and they were left behind by the time I was near the edge. I braced, and my stomach fell as the plane went off the edge and into the air.

I was relieved when the plane flew instead of dropping off like a brick, and I began to turn about and down towards the bridge. I was right about the distance, it was closer to twenty miles as it took a little over eight minutes at cruise speed to reach the bridge with the gate.

I was in awe of the structure as I flew about it, as it was monolithic. The bridge itself was enormous, being around a thousand feet wide, but the arch itself was a half mile in height. The fact its architecture was gothic just made it more ominous than it already was. Interestingly, the entire upper portion of the gate was covered with sheets of steel that were welded together, and bolted to Metal Beams that stretched the Arch, which were themselves bolted to the Arch.

They didn’t utilize the entire thing, which meant either the last people to use this were being grandiose, or this wasn’t theirs and they altered it for their use.

Thanks to my Gift of Blessed Blueprints, I knew that this was in fact an entrance to this Night Road. That was a sobering thought. This was a Night Road, and aside from the Lobster Birds, I hadn’t been accosted or attacked by anything.

On one hand…maybe I was insanely lucky. On the other hand…this was a Prison location. They likely didn’t want anything getting near here, which is why I hadn’t faced anything harsher than the birds. Maybe it was both now that I thought about it. Sure, I was on a Night Road, but what were the odds it was one that wasn’t filled with abominations or the demonic creatures of Uncreated Night?

Shoving those thoughts aside, thanking God, or the One as they called him in that setting, I focused back on the Gate Arch, and it was…simple. I needed to be opened, which was done by a mechanism near the gate house. The Gate functioned like a Stargate Iris from SG-1. Anything that tried to get through, would find themselves destroyed due to being unable to reform on this side of the gate.

The iris wasn’t there anymore though. It was wide open. That didn’t mean the other side wasn’t closed though. It could be closed off, to prevent whatever was on this side from going to that side. There was a way to check though. I flew the plane beside the gate, and summoned a worker from my Artifice gift to take control as I used some of the cargo to make a remote control drone.

I tossed it out, and it was flying in place as the place was flying in a circle around the Arch. The Drone flew through, and with the little TV screen on the controller, we saw it come out the other side to devastation. There was an entire facility on that side and it was fucked. Long dead, but still presently destroyed.

Beyond the facility was the remains of a tunnel that went to the surface from all appearances. It was a large one as well. One hundred feet tall and wide. Using the zoom function, I saw that the tunnel was broken and destroyed in parts as something used the tunnel to escape. Something big. The end of the tunnel was barely visible, but I saw the light at the end, which meant it did get out.

I flew the drone back to the gate, and took in every detail, knowing where all the debris and wreckage was. I stared to see if there was anything worth salvaging, but saw there was hardly anything recognizable as salvage to begin with. Seeing there was nothing, I came to the decision of what I would do.

It would be tight, but I could thread the needle.

“Alright…” I said, dismissing the worker. “Let’s do it.”

Turning the plane about, I flew it low to the road, and flew about fifty feet off the ground as I flew towards the portion of the gate where I knew was a path to fly through. I approached the end, and held my breath, and flew through, and the universe stretched for a few seconds before snapping back in place like a rubber band.

I jolted, gasping like I had come out of deep water, before regaining control. I was seconds from the tunnel and pulled up just as the incline began and flew towards the distant exit. The whirring filled the tunnel loudly enough for me to hear it, and apparently was enough to awaken whatever slept in this place. Creatures that looked like skeletal Jaguars came out of the walls, floor, and ceiling, roaring loudly like a rumble of a fire, as flames came out of their mouths and claws.

I pushed the accelerator, and increased from cruise to overdrive. The Demon Cats had to be the size of a Draft Horse, at minimum, as they gave chase and were moving at half my current velocity. There were also a lot of them. In the dim light of the tunnel, I couldn’t count them all, but I saw at least fifty of the things come out as I flew up initially.

The tunnel came to a stop for them as a section was just…gone. A deep crevice caused that section to just drop off to blackness. They stopped, and were let behind, and I had to calm my beating heart panting.

The exit hole gave off a white light, and as I got closer, I felt more and more relief as I was almost out. I flew through the hole and what was left of a structure, and into the air.

I whooped “Booyah!” before doing several aileron rolls.

I paused in my jubilation, and I realized in my roll that I was flying over a city or something.

Climbing up to a higher altitude, I leaned and looked down at the dead city below me. Which is when I noticed everything else.

Floating islands that were spilling lava. Lightning storms seemingly without clouds. Giant skeletons in armor. Giant canyons that dropped into blackness. Mountains that glowed purpose and were jagged like serrated knives.

I felt my face blanch as I stared down.

“Well…this is bad.” I mused, dryly, before noticing one last detail. Said detail being the mountain not being a mountain, but instead Ancalagon the Black’s purple and grey cousin.

“Holy shit, it’s a Dragon!” I muttered in horror. That thing, when it was alive, must have been the worst thing to face. Looking back down at the city, its burned-out husk made a lot more sense.

I clamed myself as I looked away and around for anything that could be an exit, or at least a place to land. There was nothing as the entire place was just wreckage. I couldn’t even land in the fields I saw, as I flew down to see they were covered in an endless amount of jagged stones that were hard as steel, and sharp like knives.

It was then that I noticed it.

The sun. It wasn’t a sun at all. It was just a disk. My gift told me there was more to it, and so I flew up towards it and my Gift revealed the truth.

“A portal to another world.”

Once more, my gifts came to my rescue and revealed it was just an open portal that I could fly through, but then I would be tossed who knew where. I knew it was attached to another world however, so, it wasn’t to nowhere. Plus, it was a portal you could enter from either above or below.

Rising above it, I flew in circles for a moment, and after a minute of thought decided not to take the risk just yet. Slowly I flew about the realm, before finally seeing what appeared to be a port for ships, with a long landing that was mostly empty.

“That’s where I will land.” I said as I circled about for approach.

It was then that suddenly the prop stopped spinning, and my eyes widened. I styed calm, and began my emergency check, and found I had run out of oil pressure. It was all that climbing of altitude. Burned through it. It was fine, I was about to land anyways, so I adjusted my flaps, and came in on my approach, and landed smoothly, pulling the brakes as I steered the rudder to avoid obstacles.

Coming to a complete stop, I finished the shutdown, and got out, feeling good to have ground beneath me as I pulled out my 10mm.

It was desolate, but the port launch, and the various boats and cargo boxes appeared intact. So I had things to work with.

“Alright. Let’s see about…prepping to leave.”