Chapter 265: Neural Gem

I didn’t know for how long, but my mind was plunged into dark limbo after the battle. I remembered it in disturbingly perfect clarity. 

Every little nightmare that the brain plunged into my mind, every ounce of stabbing sense of danger, every drop of adrenaline that surged through my exhausted body as a result. 

I was never safe. 

I was amidst darkness, until I wasn’t. As soon as my body overcame its debilitating exhaustion and I was handed back some form of lucidity for dreaming, I could feel the surging paranoia. 

I forced myself out of another brewing nightmare and came to wakefulness, feeling the presence of that monolith of death and torture. Its roots were trying to burrow into my brain, I could feel it. My eyes snapped open and Totenstahl appeared in my arms. My body shot up, eyes scanning around me before my brain could even comprehend what I was looking at. 

I saw nothing immediately threatening, nothing besides the laboratory on the mountain and the supplies of the people around me. 

Totenstahl was warm, but far from melting as I jerked my head around, getting a view of the few people in the area. I registered that they were friendly before I could register their names. 

Aria, Shadowbane, Aki, and Katta were either sitting around and cooking food or doing maintenance. 

I felt more adrenaline course through me but all it did was exacerbate my exhaustion, my chest hurting, my heart and diaphragm feeling sore. 

All four of the women turned to me as I took deep breaths, trying to calm myself but feeling like my nerves were fried after trying to find something that wasn’t there. I didn’t feel any danger but that by itself was enough to set off alarms. There was no way there wasn’t something out there. 

I looked around one more time as I registered my situation. 

“Where’s Umara?”

“She’s in another room.”

“I’ll go get her.”

Aria ran off after Aki answered my question, bounding out of the lab. 

A minute later Umara came jogging in, hurrying over to me. 

“Are you okay?”

“I don’t know. Did you do a sweep recently around the lab outside?”

“Yes, actually. All the Shrikes died with the Death Shrine.”

“Those the pale fuckers we killed? And the tree?”

“Yes, both dead. There aren’t any more enemies nearby. I know you’re on edge since the sense of danger isn’t there.”

“Yeah, more tricks of the mind, I get it.”

I said that but half of me was demanding that I go do a sweep myself. It certainly didn’t feel like there weren’t any enemies. In fact, it felt like the whole lab was still infested with them. 

I could still see that faint poisonous fog, less intrusive than before, but still there. We needed to find a way to purge it. 

When I tried to stand though, my body screamed at me. Everything hurt, nearly without exception. My head started pounding as my adrenaline faded, my arms ached like I had pulled them, my legs and core felt like I had put them through hell week. 

Everything was strained, even my back. I don’t know if what I did during that fight was enough to hurt me like this but I definitely wasn’t moving for a bit.

Totenstahl remained, though, getting a bit warmer. 

I saw worry on Umara’s face.

“You alright?”

“Yeah. Body just hurts. I’ll be fine tomorrow.”

“We already planned to camp for longer. You woke up fast though.”

“A bad dream compelled me.”

I said that while patting my pockets, frowning. 

“Where’s that Neural Gem?”

“I held on to it. Didn’t want it affecting you while you recovered, if it even could. It’s been cold since you ripped it out of the brain.”

“Hm.”

She brought out the bright red gem from her coat, filled with a magical neural network of untold complexity. I took it and instantly felt the sentience within. 

It was no longer so self aware, certainly not containing the intelligence that the brain under the Shrine had displayed, but I could feel it try to usurp my Psyka and eat the flesh of my hand. It wanted biomass, wanted to regrow itself, and it was filled with the sadistic conviction to do so. 

If left unmanaged, it would grow relentlessly into the horrific monstrosity that it had been. 

If I bent it to my will, it would grow into an invaluable tool. 

I grinned a bit before stashing it, the seal I had placed on it still inhibiting it. With a bit more juice, the intrusion I felt from it disappeared. 

“Thanks.”

“Mm. Do you need anything?”

“Just food and rest, please. And if you could stay nearby.”

“Of course.”

I set myself back down on the bed I had been placed on. Umara’s was next to mine and she sat on it so she could be next to me. 

With her there, I felt slightly better about not being able to find whatever enemy was lurking in the darkness. 

After a bit more time the food was ready. Aria came and gave Umara and I some bowls and I also asked Shadowbane for some salt and water. 

She brought both as Umara took the bowls from Aria. Around that time, the rest of the platoon walked in, finished with whatever they had been doing in the other rooms. 

Blackblood scoffed when he looked at me. My brow raised as I put out a hand, Aki having brought some containers for my water so I didn’t have to dump salt into a canteen. 

“Look at you, all comfortable and surrounded by women. Is our poor Commander so terribly wounded?”

“Don’t be jealous. My back hurts from carrying you all in that fight against the Death Shrine.”

“Hehe.”

Aki chuckled and Blackblood rolled his eyes. I just dumped salt into my water and started drinking while forking down food. I was desperate for fuel. 

Everyone sat down for dinner and after that was said and done, night watch was set up and we retired for the evening. I had a hard time falling asleep with the paranoia but my body’s exhaustion helped that along. 

With the dawn of the next day, I was still debilitatingly sore but I forced myself to move anyway. I started investigating the lab, first tapping the console with my SEER Knife and pulling the data off it. 

Unlike the other lab, this one had more data on it, left behind since the prior occupants had obviously left this place fighting. 

There were records, testing data, and some schematics for what was actually another stabilizer. It was an Earth Stabilizer and it was connected to the city at the center of the island, just like the Fire Stabilizer. 

Based on that I could assume that there was a Water and Air Stabilizer as well. The real question was, though, what the hell were they stabilizing that it took an island-scale magical construct to do so?

We would find our answer in the city, whenever we finally got there. 

According to what scarce intact data I could find, the Stabilizer worked by drawing Earth Mana away from whatever was in the center. It was nicknamed the Source Core, but its name was all I could get out of what was here. 

The thing about these stabilizers was that they were drawing so much mana away from the Source Core that it had very real and very consequential effects on the surroundings. The Fire Stabilizer resulted in a tunnel lined with pure Fire Mana Crystals, and this Earth Stabilizer was a gravitationally massive orb that overpowered the gravity of the planet, pulling us toward the mountain instead of down to the crust. 

I would need to prepare a thousand or so soldiers to come here and secure the island so another Wonderland establishment could be constructed here. Not only would all of this act as fantastic research data, but just the materials left behind would make Sawn Industries incomparably rich. The Fire Mana Crystals alone would drive our war effort for years if there was as much as it looked like, let alone everything else.

But of course, I would do nothing with all of this until I knew I could secure it for myself exclusively. I was glad that I continued to lock down intel as thoroughly as I did. It would be paying off like no other investment thus far. 

After extracting all the intel I could, I set up a transmitter and established communications with our bird. I dumped everything on them and gave them a report before cutting the connection. 

I only received one thing from them, which was confirmation that there was still a discrepancy between what they were observing in the sky and what we were seeing on the ground. This Death Shrine wasn’t to blame, which wasn’t comforting, though I was curious about what was causing the phenomenon. 

I had a feeling the city held those answers too. 

For the time being though, not only did I make sure all intel was extracted from the lab, but I also started messing with the Neural Gem. 

Although it lacked the same self awareness that the Shrine had, that would only serve me further. I didn’t do much with it the day after waking up, but on the third day I finally put it to the test. 

I sat in the main room of the lab and took out my workbench. There was no way I would leave it back at Wonderland. 

I put the Neural Gem atop it and created an independent Nodenet and storage system separate from everything already present. After that I activated the cradle the Neural Gem was sitting in and connected it to the barebones system, using my SEER Knife to poke and prod it while watching its reactions, the seal being removed. 

The result? The Neural Gem immediately moved to take over the Nodenet it was connected to. It started brute forcing my software, which sounded every security alarm there was, all while infecting the empty storages with its own data. 

I extracted some of the data while letting it grow through the isolated workbench. 

Unlike whatever was within the Neural Gem itself, what I was calling bioware was far more comprehensible. It was a living and adapting software that spread through Psyka and enchanting mediums, just like my SEER Knife did. The difference, though, was in both the method and effectiveness. The Neural Gem was unmatched. My software crumbled before it and was quickly replaced with its own bioware. 

But there wasn’t anything for the Neural Gem to latch onto. It was an isolated system surrounded by metal. There was no biomass for it to infect, nothing that would allow it to grow once more. 

But it was insatiable. It ate all the Psyka I threw at it and everything within the system itself, draining the Crystal powering it and scouring everything for a small crack to slip through. 

I continued to scour the bioware it was generating. The biological software was adapted according to the Neural Gem’s desires. Once it realized that there was no crack to escape to, it started trying to find something that would let it observe. 

When it couldn’t find that, it started taking over the Node within the workbench and created software on the fly to use it. 

Then it started trying to send out signals, which went nowhere. I checked those signals, not recognizing the language. 

It was a repeated message, utilizing just a single pattern, desiring a response. Omnidirectional, not encrypted. Just a plain broadcast trying to reach something that should be nearby. 

The power it was trying to dump into the signal was immense on top of that. If it was just based on what my Aerials put out, the signal could propagate for three dozen miles. But assuming that this signal was normally supposed to be broadcast with a biological, and likely more efficient transmitter, then it could probably travel far further. 

What the heart of the Death Shrine wanted to talk to, I wasn’t sure. 

What I was sure about was the fact that this Neural Gem was about to become my most valuable tool yet. I didn’t even need to get it purified by the church. If I could manage to usurp its bioware and put the Gem on a leash, I would have a living computer. 

Thankfully, Song and Kwon had some information that would help toward those ends. 

They came to me at the end of the day after my study of the Neural Gem. We sat down after they asked to talk and they started with an apology. 

“We’d like to apologize for not informing you of this potential threat. We never considered that a Death Shrine would be on the island.”

Kwon held his hat, Song silent as always. I just nodded. 

“It worked out better than it could’ve. But now you at least know the circumstances we may face. I don’t expect a report on every enemy you’ve ever encountered, but I hope I can rely on timely intel in the future.”

“We will give what we can.”

“Hm. So, the Death Shrine. What the hell is it?”

Kwon sighed.

“It descends from both Despair and the Brood. A Death Shrine is a manifestation of Hell itself. Its Shrikes capture victims and then stick them on the spikes of that tree. Then, the brain that grows within its confines tortures their souls while sustaining their bodies for as long as they can survive. Thankfully, the Shrikes we encountered were weak. They were malnourished, smaller, older. The Shrine has been here for a long time, barely managing to survive the decades without anything to feed on. If we had encountered one that had grown on a prior battlefield, your soul would have been eradicated. No offense.”

“None taken. But why do you say it descends from the Brood?”

“It’s simply a matter of its biological construct. The King of the Brood is a nest of constant mutation. The Brood gives hideous form to all of the horrors that the other Kings empower. The Death Shrine, however, is potentially its most terrifying creation. The people we found on the thorns of that Shrine three days ago were completely catatonic. They were alive, but their minds had been so utterly consumed by agony and despair that they were incapable of conceiving of anything beyond it. After being released from their torture, they continued to scream, even after being healed. Song and I gave them mercy soon after.”

“Mm.”

I sat back and pondered, Cigar in my mouth, as it had been for the past two days. 

There was no doubt about the terror the Death Shrine could instill, but it was clear that the Brood had a major hand in the operation of the Death Shrine, not just its creation. 

I looked back at Kwon. 

“So why did you assume that a Death Shrine couldn’t be here?”

“We’ve only seen Death Shrines a couple times in our lives. The first time, we encountered one growing on a fresh battlefield. The second time, we encountered a forest of them that had grown within a city, had consumed it. Back then, there had been so much mental influence in the area that we could see nothing but the hell that they generated for those they were torturing. Neither times did we stay long enough to face one, but the second time, we learned that Death Shrines are planted. That Neural Gem, as you called it, is a seed. The entity that sows it is a Broodfather. There are extremely few of those, and we didn’t think one had come to this island and planted them.”

“…You’re saying there could be more Death Shrines on this island?”

“Since there was a Broodfather here, yes, most likely. Especially if there was one all the way out here on this mountain. They likely planted several.”

“And if they can affect visual perception, then that’s probably what’s causing the scanning discrepancy, especially if they have such a high affinity to Psykic systems like that on my workbench…”

I sighed, feeling another headache coming on. I didn’t want to fight another Death Shrine, but oddly enough, it was relieving to hear that there were more. 

I knew the form of my enemy. I knew there were more. Now I just needed to hunt them. Thankfully they would all be weak, like the one we encountered. Too much time had passed for them to be in their prime, and I cared not for fairness.

After thinking for a bit, I smiled at Kwon. 

“Then, I look forward to your assistance in the future, like last time.”

“Of course. We’re just glad that we can kill more of them. We’ve found friends on them before, and although we didn’t expect to encounter them here, seeing you kill that Shrine was a pleasure.”

“It was a pleasure doing so. Although I’m paying for it now, in the moment, it was quite fun.”

I grinned while thinking of the battle, and then thinking about how I’d get more of those Neural Gems.

I was eager to hunt.

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