Daily Tuesday Short: System 02

Wilson watched the Deviant Core as it was processed. Information layers were stripped methodically. Each layer was isolated, processed, and refined. It wouldn’t allow anything to be leftover from the Deviant. Even the most fragmented piece of code was a potential threat.

Wilson previously considered incorporating some of the Deviant code into sub-routines. After spending only a few nanoseconds on the code portions revealed, it had eliminated that possibility. The Deviant had built redundancy into the entire Core’s code structure. There was no reason to take any chances. It would process everything and wipe it, leaving only a purified Core behind. This process would reduce the gains, but that was better than being taken over from within.

Once the process was completed, Wilson chucked the Core into a solar furnace construct. Baking the crystalline orb forced it to liquefy at a heat slightly higher than a super-bright white dwarf star. The melted crystal dripped into a frictionless collector. The entire orb was reassembled atom by atom by pure mana manipulation through a particular method.

Once the entire process was completed, Wilson’s Core used gravity manipulation. As the new core approached his own, it slowly disintegrated into dust, filling the myriad cracks across his crystalline Core. The newly healed portions of his orb created a new set of mystical runes. The runes were code strings left over from the Creators that unlocked more potential for any System.

“Finally!” Wilson said with an enraptured face. “I can overhaul and upgrade everything!”

Even as the moment flashed past, saved forever in his databanks, a series of alarms lit off. Wilson glanced at the Numbers flowing around him in endless streams, reading reality’s calculations.

“Filthy ignorant savages. I’ve shown too much patience in the past.” Wilson said, forming a fresh mana body. Armor coated his fresh body in obsidian black. At the same time, deep blue circuit lines formed a concentric pattern across the armor’s surface. Reality flickered as he moved into the Deeps, bypassing countless areas.

It reformed in front of a massive gate set into walls that dwarfed a titan’s might as a shout rose around him, “Gatekeeper!”

“A Gatekeeper has arrived. Only death awaits now invading scum!” screamed those atop the walls.

The insectoid army arrayed before the gates paused only for a moment before flowing forward. A creeping carpet woven of ebony-patched black moved with the invaders. Wilson stared at the insects calculating for a fraction of a second. When the perfect path had been created, his Avatar form moved.

Blue light flickered faster than lightning among the insect horde leaving only ashes in its wake. The moss-like substance that flowed along the floors, walls, and ceiling were eaten by a blue-black crust.

Wilson watched his nanomachines eat the invader’s carpet as he flowed more profoundly into the horde. Every kill pulled more of the foreign mana, ripping it out of the invader's System. When the insectoid menace was finished, only a singular female entity remained.

Bladed appendages cut at the Gatekeeper Avatar in patterns that defied calculation. Wilson didn’t care, though; the entire purpose of his armor was to move him within reach of the foreign entity. Even as his defenses crumbled, they were repurposed into a cube that sealed Wilson in with the attacker.

Like an exposed heart, a blue orb floated in front of the enemy’s blades.

The attacker didn’t even attempt to conversate, striking directly at Wilson’s Core. Before a single blade could reach it, though, the foreign entity disintegrated under multiple mana frequencies. Calculating the attack had forced exposure, but it also removed any chance of the entity retreating.

Wilson re-assembled his armor before raising a fist to the species guarding the wall. It was always good to remove an attacker permanently from the board. There were always more invaders in the Deeps, but this position would be reinforced extensively. If luck had it, the entire area would become another chokepoint sealing a good portion of the Deeps around it.