Outrun – Cyberpunk LitRPG

Chapter 240

Our patrol ended a few hours later. We ran into several other plant monsters, but it was otherwise quite tame. The rougher parts were when we ran into other people. Although we were all on the same side, there was a certain tension when running into groups of other affiliations. This time, it was just mercs after the bounty, but I really wasn’t looking for to running into PMCs or corporate enforcers.

I was finally given time to rest. Not back at the BC Gym though. No, it was all hands on deck for the Crusade. With the FSA military taking care of the city under martial law, we were free to engage here. Laughably, the Blue Crusade was stronger than the army detachment present in Aythryn City. At least, until reinforcements from the FSA came. That could be a matter of weeks, though.

Anyway, that all meant that none of us could leave without a valid reason. We ended up taking over a few surrounding buildings as a temporary shelter. With more and more Crusaders pouring into HQ, we were really starting to look like a private army.

The whole situation sucked. Like, seriously. I really wanted to go back to my speakeasy to refresh my supplies. Unfortunately, that wasn’t in the cards. Maybe I should try and make a micro printer to create stuff in the field next time? Or carry around a small Crystallization Array to make my Aether-imbued bullets?

Regardless, as soon as I found a corner to collapse in, I passed out. It’d been a long, tiring day, and I was more than ready for some sleep.

— — —

‘Meet me at the top of Tryton Tower.’ I eyed the message as I rode the elevator up to the top floor. The Inquisitor called for me as soon as I awoke, leaving me no time for anything else, unfortunately.

The elevator dinged as it opened into a penthouse. On either side of the door, several Blue Wolves flanked it. Lord Lykos’s knights were seriously intimidating with their engraved armor. They stood out as unique and different compared to the rest of the Knights.

Of course, scattered around the penthouse, likewise guarding the place, large wolf sprites idled. My entry drew some reactions—a few tail wags here and there—though for the most part, they left me alone. For the most part. One wolf, looking far younger than the others, bounded over to me and slobbered all over my hand.

In the center of the penthouse, next to a massive window that looked out onto the entire Aythryn Exclusion Zone, a table had been set up. A large, holographic map seemingly updated live with troop locations and major events, projected onto the table. Oddly enough, a dartboard of all things also sat on the table.

Inquisitor Ligh stood on one side of the table, and Lord Lykos on the other. The Inquisitor looked up, nodding to me. “Morning, Zuku.”

My back straightened automatically as I felt the High Lord's attention flick to me. “Sir.”

”Hmm… Zuku, right? We met in the Supercarrier briefly.” The High Lord’s voice was subdued, though it still had boisterous undertones. He sounded as though he was barely awake. “Tyrone spoke highly of you.”

I didn’t know what to say, so I remained silent. Thankfully, the Inquisitor seemed to pick up on that fact. “Zuku here is my newest Shquire.”

”I’m impressed, old man. I thought you were done taking Squires? What was it you said when I was just an Aspirant looking to the future? Never again?” High Lord Lykos’s voice had a playful undertone to it.

”Ahem…” Inquisitor Ligh rubbed at the back of his head. “Well, thingsh change. Time heals all wounds, or at least hidesh them. And you were just a runt back then. It’sh a miracle you weren’t eaten alive by the Crushade.” 

“Pressure makes diamonds, eh?” Lykos laughed heartily, seeming to regain a bit of his vigor. 

I watched the two interact, silently staying to the side to avoid attention. It seemed they had a much deeper relationship than I expected. Just how old was the Inquisitor anyway? 

“I’m glad to see you’re doing better outside of Oraoyt. Villkas and Yareli miss you, though. Nearly fought the High Table when I was sent instead… What happened to coming back at some point?” High Lord Lykos asked.

”Well…” The Inquisitor went silent, shrugging his shoulders.

High Lord Lykos likewise went silent before slowly nodding his head. “Well, anyway. Zuku, Ligh here says you know this city better than anyone. Including the tunnels underneath. All of our maps are, unfortunately, incomplete.”

”W-well, yes. I know them.” It was impossible to forget thanks to Eidetic Schematic. “What do you need?”

”We’ve identified several priority targets to take down the Circle and Mother before their chaos can spread. We need to take care of it quickly. Our magic experts finally pierced the veil on the ritual circles early this morning. They generate energy for every death inside their radius, which is then fed back here.”

The High Lord manipulated the map, zooming in on the tree. “What they’re doing with that energy is unknown, but the ritual circles encompass almost all of Aythryn City. The more time passes…”

The more energy is sent to Mother. I got the picture. And in a city like this, where death is rampant even on the best of days? Not to mention the spreading disasters and chaos kicked up by groups supported by the Circle. They were snowballing the death count.

”Priority targets?” I asked.

The Highlord nodded. “The factories, for one. They're cranking out infested robots. Taking them out will cut down their forces. Their location is unknown, though we have a plan for that.”

The map zoomed in on the tree, highlighting several batches of forest in red. “Then there are the groweries that are creating monsters. They’re visible from the sky around the base of the tree, but are protected against air strikes. We need to get squads up and into them.”

“Finally, the tree itself.” The entire massive tree turned red. “Sentinel’s attention is on the city. With their satellites in play, we’ve scanned the tree. It’s hollow. There’s a massive space inside resembling a fourth ritual. It’s where we suspect all the death energy is being gathered. We need to get in there and break whatever they're trying to do.”

I raised a hand, interrupting the man. "Why not break the initial ritual circles?"

"The consequences of that are unknown. This is a closed circuit for now. But if we pop open that circuit, all that energy will pour out." He shrugged. "Could make a massive, city-wide explosion or spread contamination across the city. Might even make a phenomenon enough to rival the Endless Sandstorm."

Right, so that still wasn't an option. Damn, just breaking those would've been so much easier. If only we'd been a bit quicker, we could've stopped the rituals before they completed.

On the hologram, several other sections of the city lit up red for various reasons. Some looked like AA emplacements, while others looked like resupply points. There were even a few places in blue with survivors holding out against the swarms of monsters spreading through the AEZ.

It wasn’t hard to figure out what he wanted. If we couldn’t get through the air with the growing anti-air emplacements, and we couldn’t get through the city streets since there were so many monsters, then that just left going underneath. It was a good plan, assuming Mother hadn’t already sealed off the Underground. 

Even if she had, as long as the tunnels got somewhere remotely close, our side could use specialized Adepts and Magi to quickly tunnel bore through the rest of the way. It was foolproof… assuming the tunnels didn’t collapse onto our troops and kill everyone. Always a concern, that.

“So, can you do it?” Lord Lykos asked me.

I stared at the holographic map for a few moments as I deliberated. ”Probably… you’ll want to cross-check with the fragmented maps, though, just in case.” 

“Naturally.” Inquisitor Ligh said. “Do the besht you can, Shquire.”

”What about the factory, though?” I couldn’t exactly plan a route there without knowing where it was. 

“Ligh, if you will.” High Lord Lykos motioned to the map.

Inquisitor Ligh sighed, grabbing a handful of darts as the map zoomed out. Without much regard, he tossed them straight into the air. The darts scattered as they flew up, then gravity pulled them back down as they stabbed into various places of the city. He repeated the process a few times.

“No way it's that easy, right?” I asked as I stared at the dart-pinged map. Were we really going to just trust this? He had some bullshit luck, but to trust it with such an important matter? It was incredibly stupid... unless he had some kind of abil-

High Lord Lykos laughed, slapping me on the back. ”Of course not. We’ll have to scout out the locations to be sure, but it gives us a starting point. Hmm… most of these are in the areas destroyed by Mother.” 

I tracked through the map, cross-referencing the marked locations with my own knowledge. “Maybe they're underground. Here and here.” I pointed out two of the darts. There were several dozen misses. “There are massive caverns.”

“Hmm… Harrow!” Lykos called out. One of the Blue Wolves snapped to attention. “Go get our scouts. Bring them up.”

”Sir.” The Knight saluted and then headed for the elevator.

”Any word on the Commander?” Inquisitor Ligh asked as our conversation paused while we waited for the scouts.

High Lord Lykos shook his head. “Unfortunately, no. Still tracking that traitorous bastard. Last I heard, he was in Portside. Near the Peaks.”

“Unfortunate indeed.”

They continued to make idle talk, though I lost interest. My gaze drifted out the window for a moment, looking out onto the AEZ. Yesterday, it still looked like a normal city from afar. Now though? Smoke rose from hundreds of places across the AEZ, and the flashes of explosions were ever prevalent. It was really starting to look like a disaster zone.

It would only get worse with time. I thought through the past several weeks, rehashing my memories. My mind ultimately caught on to the newest Request of the eidolons.

Descent. They mentioned her descent. Was she trying to open the veil and cross directly into the world? Like a sprite? Hmm… I know bringing a sprite into the world takes a lot of energy. There's a reason a lot of magi are weak and can only summon the lowest-level sprites. Not just anyone could summon, say, a Greater Sprite. At least, not without special conditions.

For me, summoning Corvid wasn’t like how others summoned sprites. The interface, and by extension, the eidolons took care of that. Naturally, the only other Greater Sprite I’d seen, Fox’s, also had a special circumstance. She came through at Fox’s Shrine, where the veil was weak. 

The more powerful the creature, the more energy was needed to allow it out of the Aether. It was why the eidolons weren’t walking around the planet freely. And the rituals were for gathering energy. So… the point of all of this was to let Mother into the world? How horrifying.

I looked at the Inquisitor and High Lord, hesitating for a moment before I spoke up. “Um- we don’t know the reason for the ritual yet, right?”

”You have an idea, Shquire?” Inquisitor Ligh asked. “Zuku here was the one who found the first two ritual sites.”

”Interesting.” High Lord Lykos crossed his arms. “Continue.”

I collected my thoughts before sharing what I’d pieced together. Of course, I hid some elements, like the interface and the Request. Instead, I covered that up by saying I found some mentions on papers in the Circle’s bases I’d been into. 

High Lord Lykos rubbed at the chin of his helmet as he stared at the holographic map in thought. “It certainly would make sense… It wouldn’t be the first time either. Bear was the last Eidolon to leave the Aether about a decade ago. From my understanding, anytime an entity on the level of an Eidolon wishes to leave, they need a focus. An object or item that can contain their power, even if for a moment.”

Inquisitor Ligh nodded and tapped on the map, zooming in on the hollowed-out tree. “Then we have a new target. The highesht-priority. They can’t exactly hide it since the ritualsh are all feeding into the same place.”

“I’ll put together a strike squad. If we can just remove the focus from the ritual, we might be able to disrupt the whole thing.” Lord Lykos clapped me on the shoulder lightly. Of course, his light was not my light. I nearly fell over. “Good thinking, Squire. Your efforts will be rewarded once this is all over.”

I forced a smile to my face as I stared at the map, though I couldn't help but feel that all of this was too easy. Mother had been nothing but deceptive from the very start, hiding within the shadows. 

There still wasn’t enough information. Hopefully, that problem would solve itself soon. The elevator dinged as the ‘scouts’ finally arrived.

-- -- --

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