Dark Matter Ascension-Chapter 20B3 - : Copies of what-now?

“Sudden surge of Astral Demon activity!” Josie shouted as she flew over to the monitor.

Xera frowned and began pulling up her sensor data that monitored the entire universe. “Damnit,” she muttered. “Troxanir.”

Somehow, he had pushed aside his Astral mass, allowing other entities through the singularity at the center of the universe. And they were headed right to Poltor Six using a faster-than-light travel method that she was only barely starting to understand. Thankfully, she thought, they can only use it in areas that are huge. On a planet they would not be able to turn.

It was sort of like some old media depictions of hyperspace jumping that Xera had seen in some down time, watching all manner of videos from varying civilizations to better understand their interpretation of technology. Just like how in some forms of hyperspace jumping, a ship would have to do several direct-line jumps, drop out of hyperspace, redirect course, and jump again: these Astral Demons did something similar.

But hyperspace did not exist. They were beings from another layer of reality. How, Xera thought, how are they going to manifest? They are Astral entities right now. I don’t know how they will take on a corporal form. It took billions of years for Troxanir to make himself an avatar due to no dominant species to take the form of. So they have to default to whatever the dominant species is on Poltor Six. The ones outside of The Cosmic System’s purview should be beyond their ability to mimic.

A chilling thought hit her. There was one creature on Poltor Six, currently a part of The Cosmic System, that they could mimic the form of. Jace. They could form avatars mimicking Jace. Not his Skills, no, but his form. Duplicates, inhabited by Astral Demons.

I have to seal off The Cosmic Corridor. Xera turned to a nearby monitor and began issuing commands from the console. Thankfully, Poltor Six had no real traffic to or from the location: so she could seal it off indefinitely.

“Josie, send notification to Ollie and Jace. They are going to have company.”

Jace woke up well-rested. He rolled up, stretched, and Ollie appeared with a pop. “Hey, Ollie. Anything happen while I was out?”

Ollie was hovering in place which Jace knew meant that he was distressed. “Bad news. Astral Demons on the way. They are going to be mimicking your form while they are here. None of your Skills or power sources…but they will have the same Equipment. Xera counted twenty from her sensors. Cosmic Corridor is locked down to prevent them from getting into Khrox and spreading.”

“Damn,” Jace muttered as he rolled up the bedroll, packed the tent, and put both into the TPSB. “We need to get a move on. But I lost the hypercycle.”

“You have a Rare (Equipment) Boon still!”

Jace nodded, “Yeah, that’s true.” He got down out of the second floor living quarters and exited the prison complex. “But first…I need to test something.” Aiming back at the building, he focused on a point at the top of the structure and saw the palm-print appear atop the building. “Now…how do I activa-” before he could finish his sentence, the magitech prosthetic responded to his will, and he was pulled up to the palm-print, his hand finding the spot perfectly before digging in for a hold.

“Oh, now that is awesome,” Jace said as he looked over to the wall of the prison complex, saw the glowing handprint appear where he wanted to travel to, and then jumped off the wall. Turning his body mid-air, he thought about traveling to the handprint, and saw a slight-green-hue line shoot out. It was spectral but seemed to have more ‘meat’ to it than the Ghostlight Grapnel had. It retracted and he pulled himself to the wall, hoisting himself over before sliding down to the vast, icy plain outside.

“Want to get a new vehicle?” Ollie asked as he swam around Jace’s head.

“Yes. Let’s get another one of the hypercycles since I’m fam-” Jace paused and shook his head. “No, scratch that. I’ve got Edge of Possibility. Any vehicle I get behind the controls of, I’m a master with. So…get me the fastest vehicle we can get.”

-----

[Using Boon: Rare (Equipment).]

[Manifesting.]

-----

The shimmer of stardust and starlight appeared next to Jace, and he saw a circular platform appear, hovering a few inches off the icy ground. There were two foot-sized slots, and stepping onto them, he felt them clamp down on his feet. His HUD filled with a display interface.

Ollie spoke as Jace got familiar with the movement akin to riding a board. “This is a Sliver Arc. The fastest maneuverability out of terrestrial vehicles. Since we used the Boon on this world, we had to choose whatever their fastest means of conveyance was. It will form a barrier around you to protect you from the environment once you start moving, and will work on any world since it is magitech.”

To Jace, it felt natural. Second nature, as his Edge of Possibility (Rank 3) made him a master of the conveyance. Pulling up the map in his HUD, he tilted the edge of the disc forward ever-so-slightly. A canopy of energy sprung up around him, and he gained speed; accelerating extremely quickly as he blazed across the landscape. “What is the power source?” Jace asked.

“It functions off of a magitech generator that is flat inside the center, but you can charge it up with your energy if necessary or connect it to an electricity source if on a technology-based world.”

Jace poured energy into the device and saw the canopy harden further: still see-through, but not as wavy surrounding him: as he accelerated even faster. Hundreds of miles per hour. And yet he felt fully in control. Unlike learning to ride the hypercycle a few months ago on Velenar Prime where he was not quite sure how to handle the speed, this felt right.

And he arrived at the next Complex in practically no time. Slowing down was easy, too, since he could push down with his back leg to cause it to stop on a dime. His sturdy frame was able to easily handle the rapid deceleration, and he reached down, tapped the releases for his feet with his fingers, and then pushed down on the back edge with his foot. Flipping the thing up to chest height, he touched it with his forearm, storing it in the TPSB, and drawing his sword in the same fluid motion.

Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.

“Void Blade (Rank 5) [Rending], Void Shield (Rank 6).” As his Skills activated, he walked towards the ice-covered entrance of another Complex, and the System notification scrawled across his vision.

-----

[Warning! You are about to enter a Complex!]

[This location has been marked by The Cosmic System as Tier 6.]

[Number of foes to clear out: 6.]

-----

[Quest: Clear the research depot.]

[Time Limit: N/A.]

[Reward: Epic (Augmentation) Boon.]

[Sender: The Cosmic System.]

-----

Cutting through the ice and snow, Jace used his offhand to pull the chunks out of the way until he could reach the metal door. Cutting through that, he kicked it in and descended into the Complex.

Priam went back to the apartment complex with his allies, completely exhausted. They did not even get past the lobby before they all sunk into the various couches and just sat there. They had just stopped their eighth Astral Incursion, but they were getting far, far weaker and less numerous. Soon enough, he thought as he scanned Greg and Dee’s condition with practiced eyes of a healer, we can take a well-deserved break, and maybe even help Jace out.

Quinn had been keeping them in the loop with Jace’s antics, and Priam was a bit jealous of Jace’s rapid advancement compared to his own…but Quinn was more than helping compensate for that. At Xera’s insistence, she was doing the equivalent of stock-market trading, as she called it. Priam didn’t understand, but it was investing Stardust to get more Stardust if ventures panned out.

Dee walked over to Priam and snuggled up next to him. He was going to protest, but she just put one of her chitinous fingers to his lips. “Don’t,” she said. “Who cares if people know?”

Greg looked over at the duo and chuckled, “Figures. I saw the romantic tension. But…if I may…how do you…” he made a lascivious gesture with his hands, and both Dee and Priam recoiled in disgust.

“Gross!” Dee stated.

“Agreed,” Priam added.

Greg raised his hands, “Right, who am I to question how a jelly-person and a rabbit get it on?” He stood up and headed to the elevator, “I’ll be around if another Incursion happens.” Stepping inside, he vanished.

Dee looked at Priam, “Want to relax down here, or go up to the recreation floor and sit in the sauna.

Priam shook his head, “Just here for a bit. We don’t know whe-”

-----

[Warning! Astral Incursion Detected.]

[See Wayfinder for coordinates.]

-----

Both Signers groaned, and Greg came out of the elevator a few moments later, muttering something under his breath. “Come on, you two,” he said as he activated his armor to equip his helmet. “Another one we have to deal with.”

Priam stood up and offered Dee a hand up, but she shook her head and got off the couch on her own. “Well,” she said with a smirk on her chitinous face, “At least I get to blow more stuff up!”

Jace found a terminal that was active and was able to get into it easily enough: it was not even locked. It’s a directory, he thought. This facility looks like it was dedicated to studying the psychological effects of long-duration interment. Probably to see if building…ah, yes, vaults to keep the populace alive. He heard a rustling noise, and a few seconds later his Edge’s Intuition (Rank 5) [Danger-Sense] picked up movement down the hallway.

Going to the hallway, he faced it with his body turned to a bladed stance like what a fencer would use, and he held Nethaldrim out at full length. He kept his eyes on the T-section of the corridor and saw a series of the Guatch: frog-like humanoids: rush out towards him. They were all wearing some type of powered armor or exoskeleton, as the operators were long since dead. Propped up skeletons inside a suit that seemed to be set to a survival mode.

Jace sighed as he cut through the frames with ease, chopping them in half before finishing with a stab through the power source if he missed it on the first slash. Less than three seconds, and he had destroyed all six of the suits carrying their dead passengers.

-----

[Quest Complete: Clear the research depot.]

[Time Limit: N/A.]

[Reward: Epic (Augmentation) Boon.]

[Sender: The Cosmic System.]

-----

He felt something behind him, just in range of his Edge’s Intuition, and only not able to be heard because of the blistering wind blowing across the opening, creating a howl. An armored figure stood in the doorway, and Jace felt himself frozen in place.

Ollie growled, “Astral Demon! Verge Protocol is a-go!” he flew into Jace’s head, and he felt the odd, ‘too full’ feeling of another occupant in his brain as Ollie’s voice echoed in his thoughts. It’s got your Equipment and whatever Astral System Skill-equivalents it brought along. Be careful!

The figure advanced towards Jace, holding an exact copy of Nethaldrim, wearing the same armor, with the same purple, draconic eyes behind the visor. Jace could move once more and took up a ready stance. I’ve got Swordmage Stance, he thought, this thing doesn’t. I should be more skilled with a weapon.

The armored figure ran forward and brought the sword down in a large, overhand chop that Jace easily deflected before riposting, stabbing forward and through the armor. The Astral Demon in his form pushed itself forward along the blade, and Jace could see a rippling cascade of phantom-blue shapes seeping out of the wound before being sucked in: almost as if trying to escape their confines. He knew those were Souls this thing had within it. The Void Blade’s damage over time effect, combined with [Rending], was continuing to eat away at the thing.

But it brought itself up next to Jace, impaling itself further on the sword, grabbing at his hand. Jace let the sword go and jumped back, summoning his sword to his grip as he was forced further down the hallway.

To his shock, he heard his voice speaking to him. “That hurt,” it stated bluntly. “And you don’t have a soul worth consuming.”

Ollie’s voice echoed in Jace’s head; he’s referencing your low soul energy coefficient thanks to all the artificial parts. Ignore it. He’s just trying to get in your head: literally! I’m pushing him out.

Jace held up his hand, “Dark Matter Dart (Rank 4),” he stated. The bolts of purple-black energy shot out, pierced through the figure at each joint: only to be healed up.

“Heh,” the thing barked out a laugh. “I will say, this form was not what I was expecting. A swarm of machines keeping you healthy? Keeping me healthy? I could persist for a long time, despite this wound that eats away at me.” The figure threw his sword at Jace, and Jace deflected the blade before the thing summoned the copied weapon back to its hand.

“Void Beam (Rank 1) [Limited Range],” Jace whispered. The beam fired out, destroying the Astral Demon utterly as it vanished into nothingness, save for the ankles down which he could not affect with the current radius of the Skill. A rapid re-use of the Skill fixed that issue, though, and he knew it was no more as the ghostly, blue specters flew up into the sky from where the feet once were. “How many did Xera say were coming?”

Twenty she picked up, Ollie stated. And all of them are copies of you with your Equipment. The longer they spend in their new skin, the better they will get.

“It’s a race, then,” Jace said as he walked outside and pulled the Sliver Arc out of the TPSB, slotting his feet into the disc as it booted up. “Can Xera add their locations to my map?”

On it now! I’m going to stay merged so none of them get the jump on you.

Jace nodded as more dots showed up on his HUD. They were spread out all over the world of Poltor Six. They are too distant and far spread to hunt down piece by piece. But there’s one that is not too far off, and a Complex is nearby. Jace sped off, headed towards the next duplicate on the map.