Star Warden Book 2. RQ Prologue

Star Warden Book 2: Ringquest

By

Donavan F. Walker

Copyright©2021 by Donavan F. Walker

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the publisher, except by a reviewer who may quote brief passages in a review.

Prologue

Deep in the Steel Acropolis, a facsimile of life flowed into a new body. Black and red plating with bits of gold. A black crown with red gems sat upon a red helmet and mirrored faceplate. A black and gold sash went across its metal chest. Underneath those plates, an artificial heart thrummed to life and a black cape was attached by remote manipulators as the body fully activated. The Dark Lord Daimos had taken physical form once again.

This body was long in development due to a combination of various ideas. He wanted a more openly mechanical look combined with the flare of his military uniform and the crown that designated him as Tyrant of Aetherium and Lord of the Stygian Domain. But more importantly, he wanted a worthy body for his quasar generator. The power of a superluminous black hole flowed through the artificial muscle. All systems were green and stable on his heads up display.

“Master. I love the new look.” Nightshade flew in and landed on Daimos's shoulder. The she-dragon gingerly touched the metal.

“Naturally. It is a body fit for a king.” He scratched her chin with a clawed hand. Nightshade was part of a species of dragons with butterfly wings. Hers were yellow with black spots which matched nicely with her purple and black scales. Nightshade was the result of Daimos's bioweapon experiments. While he preferred machines, organics had their uses and he wanted to ensure he could take advantage of their strengths.

While Nightshade was no weapon she was sapient thanks to his efforts. She also amused him with her thirst for blood and pain so he kept her around.

“What's the plan today. Going into battle?”

“Not as of yet. But today is a special occasion. A project that has been in the works since I conquered the Summer Empire has successfully passed all tests. Now I can use it on a special prisoner. Sonia. Status Report.”

“The Soul Extractor is prepared and fully charged, Master.”

“Send in the prisoner. I will be there shortly.”

Daimos entered a room whose walls shared the dark metals as the corridors he passed through. This room was spartan save for a slab, a ceiling-mounted projector, and a console. Two SWAT-bots walked through a sliding door as they brought in a faerie dressed in ruined blue robes. He was a priest of Mira and his body was bruised and emaciated from months of torture.

During Daimos's conquest of the world his forces raided various monasteries, convents, and cathedrals. The Celestial Faith had collected much information on the ancient Tuatha magic, and technology. That knowledge was under heavy encryption by the Priests of Mira in various digital, physical, and magical ways. Daimos had so far managed to crack through the information under digital encryption. But the other two methods ensured the rest of it remained beyond his reach.

He had interrogated many Priests to get his hands on the cipher needed to decrypt the information. But many of them either died or refused to give up the information despite the torture. Using the conversion process on them and downloading their memory was also not an option. Due to the brute force nature of the procedure, it could corrupt the memory files after completion. But now he had a more efficient means of conversion which would finally allow him to acquire the cipher.

The machines placed the priest on the slab and restraints appeared on his arms and legs. He looked up at Daimos eyes blazing with defiance.

“What iniquities do you seek to inflict upon me this day, evil one?”

“One you will sadly not recover from. I can however be generous and spare you this fate. In exchange, well you know exactly what I want in exchange.”

“My answer has not and will not change.” His voice was deep and strong showing no signs of the horrors inflicted upon him.

“Oh, I am fully aware. But formalities must be observed. You are about to be denied the afterlife in a few short moments. You are also, out of all the people I've tortured, are my favorite. Never once did you break or despair, or cease your prayers. So, Father Bruno, I grant you the honor of having your soul extracted by the Dark Lord himself.”

“Mira shall protect me and take me to the Golden World.”

“I assure you none of the Powers will protect you from this. Sonia, activate manual controls.” Daimos walked over to the computer console near the wall. A section of it opened up and a lever rose out of it.

“Any final words before sentence is carried out?”

“Get on with it.”

Daimos sighed. “What a disappointing choice of last words.” He then fell into a sinister chuckle as he put his clawed hand on the lever. “But as you wish.” He pulled it down causing the projector to light up.

A stream of energy flowed from it and onto Father Bruno, at least to the naked eye this was all that could be seen. But the Dark Lord's vision allowed him to witness the nanites inside the stream enter the priest's body. Bruno's face started to twist and contort in pain as his body began to break down. His organs liquefied into grey goo and were slowly rebuilt, blood became electricity, nerves became wires. Slowly everything that was once organic became a machine even the grey matter of the brain transmuted into motherboards and circuitry.

Bruno screamed in pain but his voice began to distort like a broken soundcard. The last thing before he witnessed before passing out was his vision pixelating. When he felt himself wake up he saw only darkness before him. He could not feel his body and had the sense that he was floating somewhere.

“Have I finally expired?”

“Your body yes,” said Daimos. “But your soul remains here. To be accurate your body has been re-purposed.”

An imaged flashed in Bruno's thoughts showing him the room with the slab. A robot now laid where he once did.

“It is designed for mining and demolition. Your body has become the first of my Servitors; fully mechanical labor units with none of the drawbacks of my earlier conversion process. While the body is transformed your soul remains here. Thanks to my Soul Extractor technology everything you were, are, and would become has been digitized and downloaded into my databanks.”

"You can't put a soul into a computer. This must be a test by Mira or some fabrication by the Abyss.” His voice started to shake as if he was trying to convince himself and avoid acknowledging an awful truth. He thought of a prayer to steady himself but he could not feel the warmth of the Celestial Realm. Just a cold empty void that caused his heart to panic in despair.

An evil electronic laugh filled the space as a bright red light burst forth in front of Bruno. A figure emerged as the light faded away. It had six wings in the form of black flickering tendrils which surrounded a red eye made from code and wires. A twisted broken halo made from strange shapes and odd angles formed above it. Surrounding the space around this image and Bruno were uncountable lines of red code moving up and down, back and forth.

“Neither the Powers or the Abyss have any authority here.” Daimos's voice echoed with each word he spoke. There was both a demonic and divine pitch to it and the voice shifted between them randomly. Various smaller indistinct voices continued to speak in tandem with random bursts of electronic noises while Daimos was silent.

“No,” he said in disbelief. “Is this?.” An idea popped up in the priest's head. All the imagery behind him had reminded him of something from his past studies. If he took Daimos at his word, something he loathed doing, then he was not in the Abyss to be tortured or in the Celestial Realm for his rest.

“Indeed. We are in the Codex. My own plane of existence. No magic will be of use to you here. No prayers shall be heard. You have nothing now, not even your body unless I command it. You are not even Father Bruno anymore. You are nothing more than whatever my whims wish you to be. But you do have the honor of being the first mortal to gaze upon my true form with all of its magnificence, glory, and majesty. Rejoice! For you are in the presence of power incarnate!”

“What have you done to me!” Bruno clearly sounded panicked and Daimos laughed even louder. This moment was made even sweeter to Daimos as Bruno made sobbing sounds as he started to realize the truth of Daimos's words. For years and months, he had been the one to keep the faith and bring hope and resolve to his fellow prisoners. Now he wished someone could do the same for him at this moment.

“Is it finally dawning upon you, insect? Are your eyes at last opened to the truth!? Can you see now that there is no afterlife for you! The peace and eternal life you worked for is denied! You are mine! Body and Soul!”

Bruno did not respond to his words. The evil AI had found a way to trap his soul in the Codex. Something that was considered a myth to even the eldest of clerics. But the fact he could no longer feel his spiritual connection to the Celestial Realm was more proof than words could convey. His soul was screaming for that familiar presence, that warmth, that motherly comfort his gods could provide.

Dark hands reached inside him and dragged away the cipher needed to decrypt the tomes. Daimos assimilated the knowledge of the cipher and with a simple digital impulse ordered remote manipulators to begin opening the tomes. He wrote an algorithm with the cipher data and pushed it forward into the physical plane. Appearing as a bolt of lightning from a computer monitor and striking the tomes causing their magical seals to evaporate from their pages.

The Dark Lord was now free to plunder all of the physical tomes and scrolls for their knowledge which would soon be digitized as well for safekeeping. As for the priest, he was assimilated into the manifestation of Daimos. He joined all the other souls that Daimos had taken, the earlier test subjects for the extractor. Each soul still aware but could not express their dismay through words or wails.

For they had no mouth and could not scream.

Chapter 1

Book 1: Chapter 18