「 Vybek'ya, 11th of Zataghum, 1257 AL 」
Kian's eyes fluttered a few times, adjusting his sight. The display date returned to showing today's. He almost retched reexperiencing that gory memory—his stomach acid stung bitter at the back of his throat—and his head was throbbing harder in ache.
Enduring the Mind-something spell again was as excruciating as it had been the first time; it really did destroyed his mind back then, and it felt like it would have again if it was not simply just a piece of memory. And if it was not for the Contract-bound Cerebrata repairing and reconstructing his mind these two days while he was in a coma, he did not know whether he could ever wake up.
Kian closed his eyes briefly and opened them again, this time his right eye now glowing faintly golden. The same familiar but unfamiliar etherical symbols and shapes glowing in metallic-yellow sheen began forming in his sight, pulsing and undulating, gradually forming lines of legitimate—yet cryptic—letters and words, sparsed with numbers throughout.
Kian immediately noticed the striking, first-coalesced line of information.
< Artifact...arquitectura, Mechanicus Eye. 'Arquitectura' as in 'blueprint'? So, the Eye is both a blueprint and a part to construct it... >
Quickly, he scanned through the rest of the presented items.
————————————————————
Artifact: Arquitectura - Mechanicus Eye
Ascendancy: Mechanicus
Ascendancy Rank: 0
_____
Host: Kian Cervan Vilheim von Haas
Lifeform Designation: Matter
Lifeform Hierarchy: Protodevanus
Race: Homo humanus weissmerus
Vocation: Mechanicus Novitiate
Title: Legatus ex Machina, The Blind Lord
Spirituality Count: 61,859,300 ether units
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Artifact Talent:
[Lifeform Ascension] Talent: [ grow, etheric signature. spirituality saturation, accelerates physiological healing. host spirituality count: + 60,000,000 ether units. host spirituality regeneration: + 0.0005% maximum host spirituality count, seconds. ]
[Spirituality Upload] Talent: [ contract. upload, spirituality, machina. gain, authorized access, content, thought nodes. upload speed: 600 ether units, second. ]
_____
Artifact Abilities, Skills:
[Etherize] Ability: [ impermanent etheric functions, etherical targets, vector. etheric function, 1, channelling, 1: output, true. variable: ethericity, weight, function computation speed. prospective access, [Basic Etheric Programming] Skill. etheric function: 1. range: 2, feet. computation duration: 50 ~ 450, seconds. etheric cost: 3,000 ether units, second. etherized duration: 2 ~ 5, seconds. ]
[Ethereal Vision] Ability: [ perception, etheric waves, ether particles, manifestation. etheric signature: output, true. true sight: output, false. ]
_____
Traits:
[Legatus Ex Machina] Trait: [ contract. synchronize, 「 cerebrata ex machina 」. access, thought nodes, stasis log. access, machina: forge, arsenals, archives. ]
[Hochweissan Ancestry] Trait: [ exclusive ancestry, detected, culturally prominent. social convention: noble's right. priority: high. political asset: marquessate of haas. access, [Astra Pavilium's Etheric SIgnature] Trait. ]
[Astra Pavilium's Etheric Signature] Trait: [ etheric signature, astra pavilium, detected. allows etheric synchronization, host, astra pavilium. accelerates physiological recovery, exposure, etheric irradiation, mandate, astra pavilium. ]
_____
Status:
[Blindness] Status: [ left optical sensory organ, damaged, higher order ethereal injury. impaired depth-of-field perception. biological recovery improbable, requires higher order etheric irradiation, retrofunction entropy. duration left: no value. ]
[Weakened Constitution] Status: [ multiple superficial lacerations, mental exhaustion. incapable, rigorous activity. duration left: 387,081, seconds. ]
————————————————————
< Ascendancy, Mechanicus. Ascendancy rank, zero, huh? Wait—what's a 'Protodevanus'? >
"Cerebrata, if you may?"
「 protodevanus: embryonic empyrean. apex, matter-based lifeform. thirteenth configuration, evolutionary ascendancy 」
Kian realised his wit was begrudgingly disdainful.
< Alright. Consider it as my blunder for asking. >
Then, he carried on reading as his attention caught the thing he was most curious of; the Eye's abilities!
< Lifeform ascension talent grows my etheric signature by sixty million...ether units? Etheric signature should refer to the soul, alright. So, I've grown the size of my soul?? The soul is measured in ether units, I see. Oh, which means that without the Eye, I would only have around a million and eight hundred thousands ether units! Would that be the average size of the human soul, huh? >
< Spirituality upload talent would be the one Cerebrata required of me in the Contract, I guess. >
< Etherize ability, oh that's the one I, no, Cerebrata used that day. Hmm? By the Goddess' Dawn, it actually consumes bits of the soul to function?!! Ah, but on the other hand, the lifeform ascension talent regenerates...ah, alright. >
< Hochweissan ancestry trait??? Ah, yes I remember reading a book on the Haas ancestry—my great maternal grandmother should be an Austeirweiss—hmm? Access the Astra Pavilium's etheric signature trait? >
He paused; a quaint term appeared.
"Cerebrata, may I know what is the 'Astra Pavilium'?"
「 astra pavilium: _ 」
「 error: insufficient access authority 」
"Error, huh?"
< The Contract mentions that by sacrificing parts of my soul, I could rack up a higher access authority over the shared mental space with Machina, but it doesn't clarify anything. Another chance at life was already good enough of a deal, but perhaps I had been too hasty then that I may have made a losing deal here, hmm... >
Kian pondered for a while in bed, sitting with his brows furrowing before he let out a sigh.
< There's no use brooding over it now. The night hath sunken while the Goddess's Dawn hath risen, what has passed is past, while the present is now. I should carry out the next step right away. >
He plunged back into his consciousness plane. He appeared before the shared mental space and saw the familiar gleaming orbs, adorning the vast dark expanse like hundreds if not thousands of twinkling stars. This was, after all, part of the Contract.
< So these are the thought nodes, glowing orbs that contain bits of divine knowledge, huh. >
Kian had made up his mind ever since he negotiated the deal with the godlike consciousness. 「 cerebrata ex machina 」, that was the name it called itself. Apparently, the clay-soft, electrum-like rock that Kian's great grandfather found in the mines and fashioned into the family's heirloom locketstone a hundred years ago was the Arquitectura piece of the Mechanicus' Eye, something Cerebrata dropped aeons ago, for reasons unbeknownst.
「 objective: arquitectura - mechanicus' eye, initial execution protocol, terminal, harvest spirituality, maintenance, restoration, inhibit entropic expiration. total objectives: thirteen, high density clusters, etheric signatures, target locations, atmospheric entry, nine successful objectives, objectives acquired, optimal. 」
Cerebrata's explanation of itself and the Eye during the proposal and establishment of the Contract did not help either as Kian did not understand nonsensical and broken sentences, plus the jarring usage of jargons, and Cerebrata never bothered clarifying even when prompted many times, as if those were common knowledge. Which prompted Kian to include the particular—
"Either party f the Contract must not harm one another, nor the parties associated with them, without the prior consent of the affected party, during the course of the Contract, whether intentionally or otherwise, be it physically, mentally, spiritually, and others deemed as possible means of harming."
—just to make sure.
For all Kian could be aware of, the existence he was contracting with may have well been a 'demon' or an 'evil deity'—to quote the Solareian priests—and that he may have actually sold his soul and that would have put his little sister in harm's way. Kian could not afford the risk! May the Goddess forbids. And now, per the details of the Contract, it had made Kian its 'host terminal priority'...whatever that meant.
Kian ran through the Contract once more as recorded in the Eye; he was required to—
"...expend any available and appropriate measures into the restoration of the Machina, and in extension, into the rebuilding of the Ark..."
—and the only way to do so at Kian's current state was by offering his spirituality to the Machina, as proffered by Cerebrata.
In turn, Cerebrata would grant him higher access authority over the shared mental space and that was on top of saving him from death. Kian's right eye glazed for a second at that thought.
Confirming to himself once again, Kian then immediately looked around the twilit mental space. He saw some of those thought nodes were near, while the rest were located farther. He could feel he was being observed by Cerebrata but he disregarded its attention nonetheless.
Enlivening his will into hauling one of the nearest glowing orbs towards him, he realised that controlling and probing the glowing orbs actually exhausted his spirituality count—he could see the sixty-one millions plus of ether units count floating in the corner of his right eye just got reduced by a hundred. And not to mention that he had just pulled over only one thought node; he was actually cheated alive! Kian face contorted for a second, but then he let out a sigh.
< At least this is better than nothing. >
.....
「 error: insufficient access authority 」
< Again? Should I just concentrate on the one from before or should I look for others? >
He finally decided to settle onto the one glowing node accessible to him earlier and try the ritual protocol on it first. He saw incomprehensible symbols and shapes attached unto the orb before it changed into intelligible Weissan; 「 code: alon 」.
< Alon, as in 'nothing'? Or alon as in 'before the first'? >
"Cerebrata, uhm...," I believe the command is "...commence [Spirituality Upload] protocol?"
Kian's right eye shone bright as he ignored the tangible feeling of a familiar connection towards somewhere within the shared mental space.
「 commencing spirituality upload protocol. establishing etheric link. etheric link: established. status: stable. minimal noise. host spirituality count: 61,832,102 ether units. uploading spirituality. progress: 0 percent. please wait_ 」