The Enchanter (Project Stellar Book 2): LitRPG Series

by Roman Prokofiev

  “Evyl didn’t say anything of the kind,” I couldn’t help saying. “And she did study her too.”

  “I’m sorry,” Cherub said. “Evyl is an excellent Technomancer, but I’m an Enchanter and an Animaturgist. She may be an excellent specialist in her own field, but it’s not quite the same, is it? Where Azuric entities are concerned, you’ll do well by listening to me.”

  “Happy now?” Zac’s invisible voice butted in. “She’s fine, isn’t she? Perfectly safe. Can we talk now? I’ll be waiting for you on the bridge.”

  Once again I followed the guidance of the little blue lights lining the hexagonal corridors until finally I got to the bridge.

  The starship’s control center was huge, three of its walls entirely made up of viewing screens showing the boundless expanse of white clouds with an occasional glimpse of green far below. Avenger must have been hovering right over the cloud layer.

  My gaze slid over the rows of desks and empty chairs, the virtual screens, the control consoles blinking with colorful lights. The slowly rotating model of the globe took up the center of the room.

  Nobody here, either. The bridge was deserted too. Where was Zac, dammit? And who was flying the ship?

  “So can we talk now?” the familiar voice repeated.

  “Where are you?” I demanded, feeling on edge. I wasn’t at all comfortable talking to invisible voices. “I thought you might show up for a change!”

  A full-size hologram formed within a few feet from me: a 3D projection of a blond man in massive hi tech armor. Funnily, both his build and his facial type bore a fleeting resemblance to my own. He had a stern bearded face with a scar that ran along his forehead and a complex bionic implant styled as an eye patch.

  “Can’t do that, I’m afraid,” the man chuckled, turning to me. “The problem is, I don’t have a body anymore.”

  “What do you mean, you don’t have a body?”

  “It’s a long story. Basically, Avenger got into a right old scrape. We were under attack. The ship’s cogitor got wiped out, as were our bodies. All the onboard systems shut down. We went into free fall with a couple of minutes to spare at the most. So, well, I hooked myself up to the central nucleus. I had to do it, in order to reactivate the controls and save the ship. And as you can well imagine, they don’t make Alpha-class cogitors for Star Fleet anymore. So these days, I am Avenger.”

  “You’re the one who flies this ship?”

  “I’m her captain, her brain and her nervous system. Her wings are my arms. Her hull is my body. My mind is trapped within its central nucleus. Has been, for many long years. If I leave it, Avenger will die.”

  “But how is it possible?”

  “Well, that’s Umbra for you,” the voice replied. “Your host doesn’t need to be organic. I know, I know. You never approved of this sort of thing. But sometimes we just don’t have a choice, Angel my friend. We should be doing the right thing — isn’t that what you used to say?”

  “Why did you have to save me?”

  The voice paused. “I… I promised, didn’t I? I had to return the favor.”

  “What favor? To whom?”

  “To you. Don’t you remember? The Tanatos fault line? Your group killed the Shard’s effector. You set us free and gave us your last clones. Wolf said we’d pay you back but you said you could only accept life in exchange for another life. You said, ‘One day you’ll know what I mean’. Then you taught me light-fighter combat — Fury, remember Fury? That’s when Ariadne said that—”

  He cut himself short, peering at my face. “It’s okay. I can see you can’t remember. It was too long ago, wasn’t it? So basically, when I saw your wingsuit in the sky over Fort Angelo, I remembered you telling me how you stashed away the suit’s battery inside that crab morph. That’s when I realized that the day you’d meant must have finally come.”

  His manner was so sincere that for a brief moment, I could see the young unskilled Incarnator he’d once been behind the captain’s stern face. According to the story, Angel had rescued him from sure death and taken him under his wing. The kid must have been really attached to the legendary Enchanter. So when he’d recognized the wingsuit, he must have believed in his idol’s magical return.

  All this was an incredible coincidence, but still I’d better lay my cards on the table. Pointless trying to pull the wool over his eyes. I knew nothing about Angel’s past, so he’d catch me out before I even knew it.

  “Sorry, Zac,” I said firmly, looking him straight in the eye. “I just can’t remember any of it, man. I’m sorry to disappoint you, but I’m afraid I’m not who you think I am.”

  Chapter 12

  THE CAPTAIN GAVE ME a squinted look. “So if you’re not Angel, who are you then?”

  “I’ve no idea. I don’t remember who I am at all,” I said without lowering my gaze.

  “But you did take Angel’s wingsuit. And he was the only person who knew where he’d stashed away the battery.”

  “That was a freak bit of luck. I found it in the tunnels under Fort Angelo. Someone said something about it, that it could activate the museum wingsuit. Sorry, Zac. I’m not Angel. I might have been, in the past. But not anymore. I’m Grey now.”

  So I’d said it.

  I froze, readying myself for the worst.

  Zac didn’t move, either. A surge of interference ran over his image. He lowered his head and momentarily closed his eyelids.

  When he spoke again, his words rang with steel. “Sorry, I don’t understand. This isn’t right! My gut feeling never fails me. Tell me all about it. Who the hell are you?”

  He may have been Possessed but he seemed to be a nice guy. I had a good feeling about him. No, I hadn’t forgotten that it was his ship that had launched the assault bot which had killed Tara, but at the moment, emotions took second place to cold calculation. Pointless trying to pull wool over his eyes as he seemed to be the only person who could shed some light on my story.

  “So you’re saying you were dropped from the Black Moon inside a Black Sarcophagus?” he interrupted me just as I’d begun telling him everything I knew. “Was there only one Sarcophagus in there?”

  “No… in fact, there were five of them,” I said, recollecting the first minutes of my new “life”.

  Five black coffin-like alien things. One of them was mine… it had been damaged by the impact. The legionnaires had prized one more open. There was Darkness inside. It poured out. That left three more, which had remained intact. What had been inside them? Also Darkness? Or the trapped souls of other Incarnators? Why hadn’t I thought about it before?

  “Five, that’s right,” Zac nodded. “An assault group. What happened to the other sarcophagi? Where are they?”

  “I don’t think they contained any bodies. Then again, I can’t really tell. I only saw one of them open.”

  “Did you see what was inside it?” the captain demanded anxiously.

  “Oh yes. It was Darkness.”

  “Are you sure?!”

  “Oh yes. It then took over two of the legionnaires. First it killed them, and then it brought them back to life. They arose from the dead and chased after me.”

  “Darkness…” Zac uttered pensively. I could see that my story had aroused extreme interest in him. “Where did that happen, do you know?”

  “That was in an A-zone to the south east from Fort Angelo. You should know; they nuked it less than twenty-four hours later. It nearly killed me, the wretched thing.”

  “That’s right! That’s what it was! The City launched an Absolute! We couldn’t work out what it was! So it was Stellar which sounded an alarm, and they were obliged to mop up the region. How did you survive?”

  “Just lucky. I was underground when it happened. The tunnels got blocked with the debris. I managed to get out through the service system. I died several times.”

  “That’s okay, that’s perfectly normal,” he muttered. “So you got out, and then what?”

  “I walked. Crossed the wastelands.
Found Fort Angelo. It got attacked. So now I’m here.”

  “This whole thing is too crazy to be a bunch of lies,” the captain muttered. “The big question is, what was in those other sarcophagi? Also Darkness? Or maybe Umbra? How did those, er, infected hosts behave?”

  “They chased after me. They tried to kill me. When they got trapped by the mutated plant, they infected it.”

  “This could have been your group,” Zac said gravely. “They probably tried to stop you! That could have been Sampson and Ariadne!”

  “Well, if they were, their intentions were definitely hostile!”

  “That’s something we’ll never find out!” Zac slammed his fist into his palm. “Astra fatida! That wretched Absolute scorched the whole place to a crisp! The sarcophagi, the Incas, the Armor, and whatever Umbra they had on them! That was a message from the Black Moon! The sarcophagi must have contained the survivors! It could have been the Roncevaux garrison – those of them who’d survived the Exterminacio! It could have been Angel, Aurora, Gloom, even Theseus, for crying out loud! It could have been Thalia Winter!

  “How many Incarnators were stranded there, a lot?”

  “Nobody bothered to count. More than there are now, that’s for sure, even if you throw the City in the mix,” he cringed. “No idea how many of them survived though. Finding a suitable host is a big problem.”

  “Why didn’t you rescue them? You could have evacuated them all on board Avenger, couldn’t you? Why didn’t the City try to bring them back?”

  Zac chuckled. “I tried, didn’t I? And I very nearly lost this ship in the process. The Star’s old installations never sleep. And the City, well… it’s a long story.”

  “Okay,” I said. I was dying to find out more about the Black Moon, but first I needed to know where I was standing. “So what’s gonna happen now? Are you gonna give me back to Gnarl?”

  Zac frowned. “Why should I? You might not be Angel, but still you’re one of us. It’s very possible that we used to fight together back on the Black Moon. You’re not the City spy, this I can see. And you know why? You might not believe me but I’ve been following you…”

  “From Pilgrim?”

  “That’s right. You spotted it, well done,” he nodded a respectful approval. “So if you think about it, no City Inca in his right mind would have ever donned Angel’s wingsuit in order to defend a bunch of savages. No City Inca would have ever befriended a red-listed Renegade nutcase. No City Inca would have told me what he knew about the Black Sarcophagi…”

  “That’s not what your friends think,” I said, unable to contain myself. “They didn’t pussyfoot around. Gnarl very nearly left me a cripple, and Evyl seems to love taking her time chopping up people.”

  “We’re at war! That’s something you need to understand. No one’s gonna pussyfoot around us, either. All they did, they applied enhanced interrogation techniques. They needed information, and they needed it pronto. Both Ice and Evyl are very angry with you. No wonder, considering all the resources and manpower they lost because of you.”

  “But why on earth did you need to attack the fort in the first place? Why would you do it if it used to belong to a friend of yours?”

  “Things change. Angel isn’t with us anymore. They’ve written him down. I can’t say I’m happy with everything, either,” Zac said through clenched teeth, “but it’s not me who’s making decisions. Everybody’s on edge. We’ve already lost one war. The City has killed everyone who used to support us. They’ve destroyed everything we held dear. Including ourselves… almost. Do you know what the City did to Evyl’s clan? Do you know what Legionnaires did to people at Iceberg’s base?”

  “What’s that got to do with Fort Angelo? It’s not their fault, is it?”

  “I don’t know all the details. The fort should have tried to settle the matters amiably. They should have paid the Rogues off. I know that Ice approached them. We’re desperate for resources, while they have a Replicator, some supplies, and lots of weapons and manpower. Last time we did spare the neutrals – but then they betrayed us and stabbed us in the back.”

  “So that’s why you sent the rats in and launched the assault bot!”

  “Wait wait wait. Let’s get it straight. There’s no ‘us’. Ice and Evyl have their own group and their own objectives. Yes, we’re on one side so we try to help each other out when we can. But that doesn’t mean I approve of them using brute force against the Angels. There’s so few ‘clean’ humans left, and most of them are within the City’s jurisdiction. So we have to work with what we have. Mutants or not, they’re still human, whoever may say otherwise.

  “The world is in a shambles,” I said slowly. “The wastelands are teeming with monsters. Humans are precious few as it is, and you have the audacity to kill whoever’s left in your turf wars!”

  “The world is what it is. Has been for many years. That’s the only one we’ve got, I’m afraid,” he said with a reserved smile. “But for somebody who says he’s not Angel,” he suddenly changed the subject, “you’re very good at making people feel guilty. You sure you’re not him?”

  “Zac, let’s drop the subject for now. I appreciate your honesty. The only thing I’m sure of at the moment is that I came back from the Black Moon. Was Angel on the missing persons list?”

  “He was. Last time he and his group were seen was at the Watchtower. They’d gone looking for Gloom who’d left to procure some Umbra. From what I heard, they’d ventured all the way to the lower levels of the Well, which are pure hell…”

  “So in theory, I could be anyone, not necessarily Angel.”

  “You could. But I still think there’re ways to find out. Firstly, you’d demoted yourself, wiped out your own memory and restored your cogitor to factory settings. That in itself suggests an unusually high Stellar rank – I dread to even think how high exactly. I used to be a Grand Tribune, and still I didn’t have this option. I don’t think I ever heard of anything like this being possible.”

  “Does that mean Angel wasn’t one of the Possessed?” I asked him point blank.

  “No, he wasn’t. The reason we chose Umbra was when Stellar….” he faltered, “never mind. What happened is irrelevant, anyway. The fact is, Angel had left before any of that. He was among those who was opposed to Gloom’s idea of using Umbra. But… had Angel returned to the City in time for the Council, I’m pretty sure he’d have been with us now!”

  “What’s Umbra? Is it Darkness?”

  “Not really. Darkness is some sort of energy virus, if you wish, capable of restructuring matter. It’s part of something bigger. Whoever it infects becomes the Shard’s effector. Like the Shea used to be. You have any idea how many guys we lost just to smoke those kinds of monsters? And then there was Gloom. He studied Darkness. He hunted it. He managed to work out what made it tick. He hacked it; he reprogrammed it and managed to force it into submission, making it serve us instead of the Shard. Gloom made Umbra out of Darkness. Then he taught us how to link our animas to Umbra, using it the same way Incarnators use Stellar’s interface.”

  “So you want to say that Umbra… Umbra is your alternative to Stellar?” I asked.

  Gradually it began to sink in. The knowledge felt unpleasant – sort of rubbery. Miko kept wincing in an almost physiological disgust.

  Zac nodded. “Exactly. That way we can still control our developments, our Sources and our genomods. All we lose is our cogitors and the access to Stellar. That’s the extent of it. Umbra will still allow us to activate Incarnation and transfer our animas to other hosts. I’ll tell you something: it offers a whole new range of opportunities…”

  Finally, it started to sink in. Broadly speaking, the Possessed Ones had hacked into the Stellar system and found an alternative for it. Stripped of their ranks and cogitors, they would normally become Renegades and lose access to their interfaces while preserving the abilities offered by the use of Azure and genetic modification. Such loss of control over their abilities would lead to spontaneous m
utations. Umbra, however, reconstituted the interface and its functions, almost restoring the rebellious Incas to their original glory.

  Still, there just had to be a catch there somewhere.

  “But why would you want to get rid of Stellar to begin with?” I asked the question which bothered me the most. “The way I see it, its system is supposed to protect humanity from the entities from over the Edge. What’s wrong with that?”

  Zac’s smile was bitter and sarcastic at the same time. “I’ll tell you. But it’s a long story. Especially if you can’t remember anything. On one condition.”

  “Which is?”