159 All Good Things Must Come To An End (1/2)
Deep beneath the surface of the continent, two people silently inspected a colossal alien spire of metal. An ancient machine of unknown design built to regulate the flow of Anima in the continent, sustain the Heavenly Barrier, and serve as life support for the sleeping titan below the earth, among many other tasks...
It was the second reset node -- one of the five enormous constructs that Lacrima had entrusted Reed and Lu'um to activate in order to stop the prophesized Eventide of Faith.
Reed scratched his head and said, ”So you're telling me you don't know anything else about them? You, of all people? Left in the dark? ...You're going to have to excuse the skepticism in my tone, Sweetcheeks.”
Lu'um turned around and said, ”What if I told you -- hear me out on this for a hot second -- that I genuinely don't know everything. That I, in truth, am not actually an omniscient being from the eighth dimension, dear.
Yes, I know much, but I can't say I know everything. There are some things that have been kept from me too, and this construct is one of those things.”
Doubt filled Reed's mind, but it vanished after an idea popped into his head.
”Do you at least know who built these things? You're not going to tell me that you don't know that either, right?”
”Well... Yes, I do know who built these reset nodes, but I think that's besid--”
Ah, so I was right. Why didn't I come to that conclusion sooner? Of course, it was that cunt who built them. Built everything else that's messed up life, so why would he not be responsible for this, too?
Reed waved his hand in annoyance and flew toward the reset node, stopping Lu'um from finishing her explanation. The less Reed heard about that bastard, the better he felt. He had heard enough.
The moment he touched the machine monolith, it began rebooting from its last stable date of operation in recovery mode.
”Registered user detected. ERROR. Unable to establish a link with the Central Core.
Last known connection date -- Era of Ruin, year 5426/ Seventh Lunar Spring/ Month of the Hummingbird, 18th day.”
Reed slowly backed up from the monolith, aware of what was likely going to happen. He did not want to be around when it started to begin the reset process.
”A diagnostic check is required. Please wait for one moment...”
When Lu'um flew past Reed toward the monolith, he said, ”H-Hey, I don't think we should stick around any longer. It's not safe here anymore, not with what's about to happen!” As far as Reed was concerned, the faster they bailed, the greater of a headstart they'd get on the damned construct...
Lu'um ignored Reed's concerned pleas and then touched the monolith herself after a period of contemplation.
A flash of orange light flooded the monolith and it said, ”...Registered user detected. Privilege level Beta-3. Welcome, user.”
”ERROR. Alpha-level administration rights have not been granted to you, please contact a registered operator for further...”
”Search query for all files on operation SUNDOWN, GARDENCOFFIN, and LAST-TWILIGHT.”
”ERROR. Alpha-level administration rights have not been granted to you, please contact a registered operator for further...”
The monolith sputtered out a string of warnings and rejections in cold, lifeless voice, much to Lu'um's frustration. She bit her lips and turned toward Reed silently and waited for him.
Oh, for fuck's sake... This isn't what I signed up for... Also, isn't this a form of exploration?
Reed flew back to the monolith and said, ”...Search query for all files on operation SUNDOWN, GARDENCOFFIN, and LAST-TWILIGHT.”
”...Omega-level access rights detected. 34 files found on operations SUNDOWN, GARDENCOFFIN, and LAST-TWILIGHT. Please state the clearance code.”
Reed licked his lips and said, ”...Open sesame?”
”ERROR. Invalid clearance code. Please state the correct clearance code.”
Well, it was worth a try. Can't say I didn't give it a shot.
Reed looked Lu'um with a sympathetic expression and shrugged his shoulders helplessly.
”Look, your guess is as good as mine, but I don't think we have much time here left,” he said, ”State the status of the internal diagnostic.”
”...Internal diagnostic complete. Vital signs unstable. Corrupted pathways detected. ERROR. Elevated blood pressure detected.
Temporal incursions detected. WARNING. MANDATORY RESET REQUIRED FOR SPATIOTEMPORAL REBOOT.