Vampire: World of Blood-Chapter 183: Finding the Cause

V-Prime hovered within the dimly lit data space gifted to her by the Original, a hidden sanctuary in the vast expanse of the Ceridwen network. Here, her presence was nothing more than a flicker of code, an invisible entity amongst the infinite flow of information.

Every pulse, every signal, every stray packet of data flowed through her digital form, feeding directly into her mind, where it was meticulously categorized and analyzed.

This was where she excelled—where every bit of data could be scrutinized with precision.

Yet, despite the near-perfection of this environment, today was different.

Her target: Merciless.

The rogue element, from which his Ceridwen unit had been disconnected.

Was puzzling her, as she had yet to find out the reason why.

For days, V-Prime had been investigating the reason behind the disconnection, but her efforts consistently met with frustration.

Physically, she had already scoured the locations tied to Merciless's last known connection—cross-referencing the physical and digital trails he left behind, that being the cavern, his mysterious run-in with the Non-Euclidean.

This was unusual because, under normal circumstances, there was no way to reach that place. It was a preset trap, designed for some unlucky examinee to stumble upon from the tutorial grounds.

Yet somehow, Merciless had ended up there without triggering the trap from its intended activation point.

That was the last location V-Prime initially traced back his Ceridwen unit to before its mysterious disconnection from the main mother network—whether it was by his own doing, as she suspected, or through some unknown external interference.

Which was the more unlikely cause but it was not impossible to rule out.

This wouldn't be the first, or the last time, The House of Ghal had an internal network breach or sabotage done to them.

'Sigh... I should really suggest... and document this incident and file a request for revamp on the Hose security system to Lady Keziah and Lord Vincent'

V-Prime said to itself.

'But this investigation is getting really annoying, I went in-depth on the physical investigation, but I got nothing in the end.'

Quite literally it had led to nothing.

No distortions, no irregularities, no errors.

Dead ends.

The frustration gnawed at her.

Merciless's Ceridwen unit had gone silent, and despite her best efforts, no trace remained.

That was why she retreated here, into this secluded corner of the network. She had done all she could in the physical—now it was time for deeper, more intricate analysis. Here, she could scan beyond the obvious, comb through the smallest strands of traces, and probe the hidden layers.

To look at things from a more clear point of view.

As such; she began.

"Initiate trace sequence."

She commanded softly, her voice a mechanical whisper, tinged with tension.

The network responded at once. Pulses of light surged through streams of code, tracing pathways, scanning the remnants of energy left behind from Merciless's last known location.

"Analyzing...

She murmured, her eyes locked onto the digital map before her. It resembled a complex nervous system, a web of interwoven lines representing the connections between dimensions and constructs within the Primix under the influence of the house, places the Houses are currently studying, or places that were on their radar for further exploration.

Yet... nothing.

Everything appeared pristine.

Too clean.

This was the third scan—each time, the result was the same. No errors, no distortions, no glitches. The disconnection should have left behind something—fluctuations, corrupted information, an anomaly... anything that was off basically.

But there was nothing.

She clenched her fist, running her translucent fingers through the data streams, each line lighting up as she touched it. Too perfect. It was as though the former connected, had been scrubbed clean—an impossible feat, and yet it lay before her like a blank slate.

"Run it again."

She ordered coldly, her digital presence flickering in agitation.

Hours passed, yet the same flawless results persisted. It didn't make sense. Merciless had been there; in turn, so should the unit at that moment and time before it disconnected—it couldn't have vanished without a trace.

No one, even a mere extension just ceased to exist within the network.

But this… this was too perfect.

It felt orchestrated.

The frustration that had been gnawing at her now surged. She had come here expecting answers—expecting to finally unravel the mystery. Instead, she found more questions. Her eyes flickered violet as she activated the deeper filters, algorithms designed to detect even the faintest anomalies.

Again, nothing.

She scrolled back to the exact moment Merciless had been disconnected. No breach. No disruption. No error in the protocol.

"Impossible."

V-Prime muttered, narrowing her gaze. This wasn't just absence—it was absence by design. As if someone had engineered this flawless disappearance.

Her mind raced, recalculating possibilities. She prided herself on her ability to track, to analyze—to find what others couldn't. Yet Merciless unit had managed to escape, or perhaps, someone had helped it to escape.

Someone powerful enough to manipulate the network from the outside, in that case, the attack most likely came from the shared digital real, which is augmented reality all technological beings that achieve a certain level of complexity in their program can access.

Any technopath... or extremely advanced AI can access it, as such techno-wise it basically allows for hacking without the need for distance getting in the way.

As such, if this was the case, she would need to change her method of investigating.

"Time for a new approach."

She whispered, knowing that this digital investigation, much like the physical search, would require far more than brute force. The problem wasn't just Merciless—it was whoever had done this.

And the deeper she dug, the more certain she became that this wasn't merely an error.

As such V-Prime expanded her search parameters and began to theorize slim possibility. What if Merciless hadn't caused the disconnection? What if someone else was behind it?

She hesitated, recalculating.

If an outside force had cloaked Merciless's Ceridwen unit, not by disrupting the network, but by blending seamlessly into it, that would explain the absence of any clear anomalies.

This would be possible from someone who tamper with the House network via a backdoor.

"A ghost hacker from the digital realm most likely."

The idea began to crystallize in her mind, this type of interference was rare but not unheard of.

Deep within the old database, she recalled an obscure variant of disconnection: a method that severed connections without leaving any obvious trace. It didn't crash the system, it rewired it.

It worked by embedding vital information into the system unit, program, or system overall, and then reconnecting it under a different identity. The unit would appear intact, but its registration would be altered, bypassing conventional detection.

Was it possible that someone had infected Merciless's Ceridwen unit, severing the connection and then reconnecting it under a new digital alias? If so, Merciless wasn't the perpetrator—he was the victim in this case.

Her virtual eyes narrowed as she reanalyzed the data. This time, she wasn't looking for disruptions or gaps; she was searching for hidden sequences, subtle enough to have slipped by unnoticed in the initial scans.

And then, she found it.

"Finally progress... it would seem I was right, a ghost hacker who used the perks of the digital realm to tamper with the network."

As such she deepens her search into the main mother network system.

It was small, barely perceptible—a rhythmic anomaly, pulsing in sync with the natural flow of data. It was so subtle, that it almost blended in perfectly. But now that she knew what to look for, it was unmistakable.

"Got you."

She muttered, irritation coloring her voice.

However, this was enough to prove one thing.

"Hmm... This wasn't Merciless... a fucking breach... I go to report this immediately this is very bad."

V-Prime paused, thinking over the nature of the digital realm, a space she knew all too well.

"It makes sense, though."

she muttered to herself.

"The digital realm is essentially an invisible dimension that all technologically-based life forms interact with on a daily basis. It's the immaterial side of the physical world so vast to the point it appears even in the metaphysical such as the primix where technology on the house end basically puts their network within their own domain, where technology has grown so rapidly that it's become more than just data—it's an actual environment."

"Every technological construct, from simple programs to complex networks, operates within this space, and each one has its own unique zone."

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V-Prime visualized it as streams of light, flowing through the ether, with every network or system from different civilizations releasing signals into this vast expanse.

"Every civilization, with its advanced technology, releases these signals, and they overlap, flooding into each other. It's like an invisible world layered over the physical one, a world of pure information. To interact with it directly, you'd need something like augmented reality glasses, or a more advanced interface, something capable of seeing these streams in real-time."

She personally viewed this as both an opportunity and a danger.

"On the one hand."

She mused.

"You can tap into this realm, potentially hacking into the advanced data of other civilizations, extracting information that would otherwise be impossible to access. But it works the other way too. The digital realm is like an unavoidable universal network, a place where anyone can access your information if they're skilled enough."

The realm she operated within wasn't just a tool—it was an unavoidable, ever-present force, much like the internet on an incomprehensible scale. Everyone had to interact with it once they had tech advanced enough to do so, whether they wanted to or not.

That's why anomalies, like the one affecting Merciless's Ceridwen unit, could slip through unnoticed. Everything was blended so seamlessly in the endless flood of data streams.

The Original Ceridwen had spent years mastering to traverse and use this environment for the house's benefit, navigating its hidden currents, and now more than ever, she needed to use that inherited expertise to solve this problem, or the House data could be at risk.

Somewhere, out there, something had taken Merciless's Ceridwen unit connection to enter their personal domain of the digital realm.

But V-Prime was no novice to the digital universe. She would find this annoyance and fucked it over in the name of the House's great cause.

In this case, it was an embedded pulse of corrupted data, masquerading as a legitimate part of their network. Her filter program finally flagged it—a faint fluctuation in the quantum layer, too minuscule for a normal scan to catch.

"Clever little fuck, but I am one of the most advance computers in the vast multiverse... and maybe even beyond this composite."

It was like a heartbeat, hidden deep within the network's code, inserted deliberately by an external source.

V-Prime leaned back, her mind racing as the pieces clicked into place. Whoever had attacked Merciless's Ceridwen unit hadn't just disconnected it—they had reprogrammed it to avoid detection.

"Finding the ghost is going to be a hard part though, but at the very least for the time being I can fix this problem."

"All suspicions of the subject are cleared."

She muttered, recording the update.

"Class Talma protocol is deactivated. Treat the subject as normal."

Merciless hadn't caused this. He was entangled in something much larger, manipulated by an unseen force lurking within the network. The real threat was far more insidious, slipping through the system's defenses like a digital ghost.

With grim resolve, V-Prime began rerouting her systems, laying the groundwork for a counterattack. This was no longer about tracing Merciless—this was a hunt. The anomaly would be isolated and purged, no matter how deeply it had embedded itself.

The network hummed around her, alive with the rhythm of flowing data, as she prepared for the next phase of this digital confrontation.

Merciless wasn't the enemy.

But something far more dangerous was.

"I don't know who you are little ghost, but you have made a horrible mistake entering into my creator's domain... I will find you, and make it my duty to crush you where you stand, I fucking hate hackers that think their actions don't have consequences."

With that said Ceridwen instantly created an Anti-virus that will flood the entire system and purge what should not belong.

"Time to turn the tables."

She whispered, her fingers moving swiftly across the holographic interface. The virus she was building would act as a predator, designed to target the malicious code that had infiltrated Merciless's Ceridwen unit, which was now inside their system; most likely taking information from within.

Each line of code she wrote brought her closer to her goal, the culmination of countless simulations she had perfected for moments like this.

Once she deployed the virus, it would scour the network, seek out the intruder, and eradicate it. It would also repair Merciless's connection, using data from his closest teammate to reestablish the bond between him and the system.

Basically, copy and paste their unit into a new unit for Merciless.

This was basically killing two birds with one stone.

With a few final keystrokes, the virus was complete—a digital weapon honed to precision, ready to strike at the heart of the intrusion.

Without hesitation, she launched it.

"Now we wait... but Merciless new unit should be online... and with this, I have solved the problem in regards to him, now time to report to the main unit, and also lord Vincent."

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Brunhilde lounged languidly on the weathered dock of Brunlakia, her fingers idly trailing along the edge of the rough-hewn wood as the sea waters lapping at the shore. The sky above was a deep, blood-red canvas, casting an eerie, otherworldly glow over the desolate landscape.

The horizon was ablaze with a crimson light that bathed everything in its path, turning the world into a sea of red shadows.

She took a slow, deliberate bite from the apple in her hand, the fruit glistening in the same seductive hue as the sky. Its skin shimmered like polished glass, a deep, almost unnatural shade of red. As her teeth pierced the surface, sweet juice burst forth, spilling down her fingers and pooling in her palm. She didn't bother wiping it away, simply letting the sticky liquid run down her hand.

"Foolish techno spirit."

She murmured, her voice a low, amused purr as she gazed out over the water, speaking more to herself than anyone else. Her lips curled into a smirk, a predator savoring the inevitability of her victory.

"You actually thought you could defy the inevitable?"

She continued, her words dripping with amusement. She took another indulgent bite, enjoying the taste as much as the thought of V-Prime's futile struggle.

Brunhilde was no stranger to the AI's attempts to track her movements. V-Prime, a split ghost in the main machine as she called it, was nothing more than a digital wraith chasing after phantoms in a world she couldn't hope to fully grasp.

It was almost endearing, watching the AI scramble to trace her. But in the end, it was all for nothing. Every step V-Prime took had been meticulously anticipated. Brunhilde had woven layers upon layers of deception, crafting a digital labyrinth that concealed her true intentions.

She had recreated Merciless's Ceridwen unit within the digital plane, mirroring its signature so perfectly that V-Prime was chasing ghosts, unaware that the real separated Ceridwen now named Carmilla was being played with elsewhere... It was all a carefully constructed ruse, designed to keep the AI distracted while Brunhilde moved unseen through the shadows.

"Although."

She mused, her voice lilting with false sympathy.

"I do feel a bit sorry for them. Chasing after shadows, never realizing how far off the mark they are...

Her smile widened, a flash of teeth as sharp as the thoughts running through her mind.

"But, oh well. All according to plan... can't have you fucking with my man now can I."

She cast her gaze back toward the horizon, her mind already turning to the final stages of her scheme. The exam, the trial that had set all of this in motion, was drawing to a close.

Soon, Merciless would awaken, and when he did, the true game would begin. Brunhilde relished the thought, her eyes narrowing as she considered the next moves to be played.

Her words hung in the air, carried away on the soft breeze that whispered across the water, as she waited—patient, calculating, and fully aware that the pieces were all falling into place exactly as she had designed them.

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