142 Purging the Infection (1/2)
Reed had reached the very bottom of the fissure, an alien world far removed from anything he had ever seen before. Not even the Infestation had created something as bizarre as what lay in front of him.
He had expected the bottom to have been metal-like in nature, given how she had described the mechanism that ran the Heavenly Barrier. For it to have been some kind of advanced machine construct of tremendous size.
W-What in the hell is... THIS?! Where have I ended up this time?!
It was alive..... the surface, that is. This was no machine entity as Reed had been told. At the very least, not the kind he had been expected. Reed was genuinely horrified. In fact, he almost couldn't even believe what he was seeing. Not because he was relying on his mind's eye, but because of the implications that it'd cause were too frightening to contemplate.
When Reed saw five peaks — strange, oddly-shaped mountains — in the distance and the peculiar terrain under his feet, it all came together for him. The pulsating, repetitive thrum, and warmth under him were oddly comforting, as if he'd experienced it before somewhere else...
T-this isn't a... machine. Oh, GOD. Is this... Is this a HAND?! T-There's no way... right?!
Reed tried his damndest to come with another conclusion, but he couldn't. Not with those five mountains in the distance begging the question. The more he observed, the more obvious it became. He saw the terrain for what it was; deep fault lines and cracks in the ground were wrinkles on the palm of an unknown hand. The warmth and pulse in the ground were assuredly from the blood underneath the surface.
H-Heh, of course, of course...! What more could you have expected from the Ancient Mulians, Reed?! An actual machine, like a normal person?
You've already seen what they're capable of, so why is this any... different? ...Right?
Still, he couldn't help but feel unnerved by the idea that something like this existed beneath the continent. That this was where Anima originated from on Mulia. It was something beyond his capacity for understanding.
But still... if this is just a hand, then how big is the entire body? This hand alone was large enough that I actually mistook it for a landmass in the beginning.
This is so beyond my paygrade... Well, everything about this is out of my league, but then again, that's the usual case for me...
Reed gazed around as he tried to make sense of where he was supposed to go and noticed strange markings across the surface. Darkened lines of decay and rot beneath the palm that looked absolutely disgusting.
Some of the dark lines had burst open, exhuming fresh miasma out into the open as it floated upwards like smog...
He'd found the source of the miasma that had been troubling him for the longest; it was the hand itself. And it made sense, given everything that she had told Reed before he departed.
The time he'd ever heard the word 'infection' was when it was concerning a living thing. People and animals got sick and had developed infections, not goddamned continents.
Reed wanted to cry. Had he been sent to play a doctor or a mechanic? Was it a machine or a living thing? He no longer cared anymore and pushed the thought aside.
She had explained to him that he'd find a 'node' to rest the machine, but he had not been given a specific description. He thought that'd it was going to be a problematic issue, but quickly figured out what she had meant by a reset node.
It'd just been behind him the entire time. He'd been so focused on the giant fingers in the distance that he had completely forgotten about the other half of the palm.
When Reed turned around, he finally understood why she had said that ”it'll be very easy to find.”
Holy shit, she wasn't lying...
An immense spike lay behind Reed taller than the 'mountains' themselves. An enormous, metallic spike loomed over him as it pierced into the storm above.
He suddenly felt like a massive idiot. How had he missed something this large? The damn thing was more than a thousand meters tall and somehow he had not even noticed its existence until he turned around.
Reed chuckled bitterly in self-derision.
This is probably what she was referring to as a machine. I mean, what else could even remotely explain it better than this?!
How could I have been so blin—
Goddamnit... Sometimes I really do feel like an irredeemable idiot. Thank god Lu'um isn't here to watch me piece this shit out...
He hurriedly made his way toward the monolithic construct in the distance and touched it as he had been thankfully instructed to do. That was the extent of Reed's interaction with the highly advanced machine, thanks in part to the ingenious planning of the original creator.