Chapter 360 - Final Paradigm

Note : Chapter 361 has been written and added to the queue !

Some on discord have called my words into question, but this is in my opinion one of (if not the most) evil cliffhanger in all of The Fallen World. Feel free to skip to tomorrow to avoid it, but if you do, please still leave a comment here on what you thought about it.

Otherwise, I'll be not so much cackling as doing my best evil genius laugh in the corner.

Chapter 360

Red Sands Desert, Archduchy of Rebirth

Dungeon Factory, Workshop

"Alex! You wanted to see me?" Emilia came to a halt as she looked at her girlfriend, before immediately hurrying to her side. "Alex! What's wrong?"

Her voice softened as she sat by the dungeon core's side, her concern plain on her face.

Alexandra opened her mouth, closed it, and looked down, unable to meet the vampire's gaze. The advisor reached out, and the dungeon core clasped her girlfriend's hand in both of hers, bowing her head over it, almost in prayer.

She received a ping from Ghost.

Countermeasures live. Go go go.

The dungeon core took in a deep, shaky breath.

"Emi, I...I have to tell you about something. About...everything, actually."

"What? Alex, you're scaring me! Everything? What does that even mean?"

Alexandra raised her face, and opened her eyes, finally gathering the courage to meet the vampire's gaze.

"It means everything. I need...to tell you about the Gods. About what I've done. And what I have discovered."

*****

The sensor tech frowned as he looked at the error message.

Strange and garbled data from the dungeon core. Or at least it seemed to be from her, it was so screwed it might as well be junk code.

The sensor tech hesitated for a second. He could report it, but he remembered the Adjudicator's words.

They had more important things to do. But the dungeon had been at the core of everything, and sometimes even the smallest of details...

He picked up the communicator, pressed the button to transmit-

"Priority alert! This is inquisitor Markeith, we're under att-"

The sensor tech jumped as the voice sounded through the command center's loudspeakers, overlaid with the sound of energy weapons fire, before cutting off suddenly, and he jumped to his station, his previous concerns forgotten as the communicator clattered to the ground. Normally a dedicated officer would have handled pinpointing calls from the surface, but with everyone busy trying to bring the fortress to something approaching battle readiness...

"What's happening?" Called out Jeremiah as he stormed into the command center. Even he could not be on duty at all times, though his room was literally adjacent, to allow him to get in command immediately in case of an emergency.

"We have a priority alert from an inquisitorial unit. One we gave a direct uplink. It's..." The icon appeared on the map, and the sensor tech swallowed. "...The one shadowing the makers of the slave brands."

The commander stopped as he looked at the hologram of the world, floating in the middle of the command center.

"The Order is making their move." He nodded towards the sensor tech, as other Seraphim belatedly came rushing in. "Contact the Adjudicator, looks like she's getting back into fight earlier than expected."

"Yes sir! Right away."

*****

Allya sighed as she set down her mug on her desk.

"I thought Alexandra would be more helpful for this. It is her baby after all." She nudged the endless diplomatic communiqués that cluttered her desk. Turns out, organizing a summit with basically every major power on the continent, save the Sapphire Kingdom and depending on how you defined it now, the Republic, was a massive headache. "I thought I was finally done with mountains of paper when I hired Camille."

Pyn snickered.

"Well, it seems that for politics as well as city planning, the old adage holds true: endless paperwork is inevitable."

Allya rolled her eyes, but she still smiled at the elf perched on her desk.

"Right, how could I forget?" She pushed her mug aside. "Still though, I'm concerned, you'd think she would go into a flurry of actions after a victory like this, but she's gone almost radio silent. I barely see her. I think I've mostly talked to her AIs these last few days. It's concerning, and...I think I'm not the only one noticing."

The elf grimaced.

"I'm definitely getting some questions. But we both know whenever she just disappears it's because she's working on something good. Or Emilia tied her up somewhere and is having her wicked way with her."

"One doesn't necessarily preclude the other." Allya shook her head. "Anyway, I'm getting messages day and night from...well, everybody really. From the Hegemon to Amelia and that gathering of reprobates Anders and his countrymen call clan leaders."

"Well, you're popular!"

Allya snickered.

"As if. I got strong armed into inviting a plenipotentiary representative from Gorromar, since something leaked and they realized they might suddenly get encircled by a new power. Everyone is gunning for an edge before the summit starts and people lay down their cards. And since I'm hosting it, and the 'primary driver' behind it, they all seem to believe getting into my good graces is a good way of doing it."

"We're going to redraw the maps on a scale that hasn't happened in, what, a thousand years on this continent? Can you blame them?"

Allya chuckled.

"I guess I can't. Still an annoyance." She sighed. "I've also been told that our current Imperial envoy would also be delighted to be admitted as an observer to the summit. She even acted like there was some warmth, and not absolute cold between us! Fake warmth, but still. Wonder of wonders."

"The Empress trying to butter you up?"

The archduchess snorted and smiled.

"As if. That ranky old bitch is simply trying to avoid burning bridges. Plus, the Empire's gotta be shitting itself. Next to last thing they can afford right now is a major power forming on Arkhan."

"And the last one?"

Allya's smile turned downright predatory.

"Pissing off that major power and making Eris its enemy. If the UDC has failed to take us down quietly, she sure as shit won't. Plus, it would give the interventionist cores she currently has penned up all the casus belli they need to start kicking her military's ass. No, she's a scheming bitch who will hang us all if she can, but she isn't stupid. She'll be smart about taking us down. And if she can't take us out, she'll try to keep us at arms' length and extort whatever benefits she can out of us until she's able to go for the kill."

"That's...concerning."

"It's inevitable. The Eris Empire didn't remain the dominant nation for so long by allowing challengers to flourish."

Pyn looked vaguely ill.

"And in turn..."

Allya nodded.

"And in turn, we can't flourish without taking them down."

"Do...are you okay with that?"

The archduchess leaned into her seat, looking at the ceiling instead of her wife.

"I made my peace with the fact that I was, for all intents of purposes, no longer Imperial, a long time ago. They burned every bridge with me. This, in turn, means I have no bonds to them."

"Bullshit. Your family, your friends, your...everything you were! Besides, you kept that title of Knight-Valiant."

"Because it was useful and was the one thing they couldn't take." Allya's eyes softened. "But thank you."

"Do you really have nothing linking you with them?"

Allya hesitated.

"I do have...one thing. An old friend. And old flame."

"The one you fought that duel over?"

"Yeah. That flame is dead, but..." Allya sighed. "She's still my friend."

"You told me you sent her a letter, right?"

The archduchess nodded.

"I did. I doubt it'll ever come in useful, but...I owed her that much." She chuckled. "I suppose some habits die hard after all. Trying to protect my charge, even after all this time." The archduchess picked her mug back up, and downed almost half of it in a single go, before gesturing with it towards Pyn. "Speaking off, how's that pirate stripper doing?"

"Sylvia?" Pyn spat. "She's still being moved from one place to another, out of the way but always in reach. So we may take off her treacherous head at our leisure."

Allya winced, and decided to drop the subject. Pyn...hadn't taken well to the revelation that her old girlfriend had been an Order agent. Or at least almost certainly was in their pocket, in some way or another. Which was fair, though the affection they'd shared had probably been genuine.

Probably.

"Well, Calder will keep an eye on her. Started working with the Gorromarians for that new docking tower yet?"

It was a rather transparent way to change tack, but the elf nodded.

"Oh yes! We broke ground this morning on the foundations, actually!"

"Truly?"

"Yep! It's going to be bigger, have faster cargo handling...the works."

"Faster, better, stronger?"

"Maybe hanging out with Alex less will help you."

They both laughed.

"Yeah right." Allya finished her mug. "Really hope she's okay though."

"She'll be fine. She always ends up alright." Pyn looked around. "You know, I realize...when was the last time we went out?"

"Uh...three hours ago? We went to talk to Melia at the docks."

"I mean for fun, silly! When did we last do a bar crawl, or go out for dinner?"

"Well, we kind of have a small army of bodyguards, and we're kind of too important and respected to be seen puking our guts out in an alleyway."

"Pffft. Everyone told me that being high ranking nobles meant going to fancy restaurants and making a fool of yourself in taverns with poor disguises! What's the point if we don't do that?"

The achduchess couldn't stop herself, she burst out laughing.

"You had a...colorful view of the nobility, didn't you?"

"Is it wrong?"

Allya tilted her head.

"Well...if you replace 'tavern' with 'bordello', I think not."

"Eh, not my thing. Besides, you kind of terrorized them."

"That was the merciful option. You know that had Alex learned they were doing roleplay by disguising their...employees as CQ, she would have turned the red light district into a field of craters."

"Doesn't mean the madames are not wetting their pants whenever they see you."

"Better that than dead! But sure, I could go for a bit of an outing. Firegecko's?"

"Yeah. Haven't seen Stor in forever. Wonder how the old lizard is doing."

"We'll see. I'll rustle up a proper escort detail." Allya winced. "We're still popular with the adventurers, but with the guild leadership preparing something..."

"Yeah, we can't be too prudent."

Allya got up and stretched, trying not to smile as Pyn stared without the slightest hint of shame.

"Alright then, let's hit the town! Take the pulse of our subjects, the little people, you know the drill."

Pyn chuckled.

"And sample their drinks."

Allya smiled.

"Especially that. Onwards! To Firegecko's!"

*****

Emilia listened. Her eyes filled with tears, with horror, until even she couldn't hold it in, but she kept listening.

Finally, Alexandra stopped talking.

"They..." Emilia took a deep, shuddering breath as tears streamed down her face. "They lied to us...The Gods...lied to us."

"They did. And they lied to the Church, to...everybody, I think."

"What...what do we do?"

"We win." Emilia's head snapped up, as she met the dungeon's gaze. "Win or die. That's our only options. And I'm not letting them kill you, even if I have to rip this world apart to do it."

The vampire chuckled.

"You'd do it, wouldn't you?"

She almost recoiled as she saw Alexandra's eyes.

"Yes. I would."

The words were spoken like a sentence being delivered by a judge. And in a way, it was.

Emilia nodded, choppily, as Alexandra felt the thrill of horror and unease through her mind, echoes of Ghost's own thoughts.

"You...you have my permission. To enter my mind. If there's something that could harm you in me...remove it."

"Thank you. I-"

Another pulse of emotions. Panic, and grim determination this time.

Intercepted data packet on internal network. Jammed outbound communication pulse. Out of time.

Alexandra screwed her eyes shut.

"...It just activated, didn't it?" Said the vampire, and the dungeon core nodded. The advisor sobbed, before straightening, looking her girlfriend straight in the eyes. "Do it. I refuse to hurt you. I'd rather die than be used against you."

Alexandra hesitated. She felt Ghost pulling up programs, failsafes. Options upon options.

And she pushed them away. She pushed them all away.

Instead she leaned forward, cupping Emilia's face in her hands, and extended her mind.

Wait, no, DON'T- screamed Ghost over the link.

Too little. Too late.

CENTRAL CORE-SUBBORDINATE NODE SYNCHRONIZATION IN PROGRESS

And suddenly, she was in two bodies at the same time. Each looking at the other's face.