An occult lash launched out, silently struck the glass crystal slab far up ahead, and yanked me forward. Close to the arrival point, I twisted myself around, launched an occult mirror the other direction, and fired off another lash, connecting with an occult half-dome shield off my mirror image, helping me slow down.

I had a lot of practice with this move now since the days of trying to frantically survive crashing through a forest. I’m happy to announce I only messed up this kind of maneuver three times thus far in the hour of steady travel through the biome.

With Wrath and Superior to cover my mistakes, it was flawless otherwise. But this biome was the absolute strangest thing to go through. Within a few minutes into the floating maze of crystal and metal slabs floating around, I instantly lost any idea of where I was. Every slab had its own gravity, meaning even trying to orient what was up or down was near impossible.

How did the mites expect anyone to travel through this? I sent over text, through my HUD.

Complaining the whole way probably. An image of a rock with googly eyes showed up next to that reply text.

I have noticed a pattern. Wrath typed back, her avatar image looking quite stately. The landmasses are all moving in orbits, around the centerpoint of the biome.

I stopped, landing on another landmass, then started looking up to see if I could spot the pattern. It was just pure chaos from here, but thinking of it as orbits… Oh, it did vaguely look to be. Some of them looked to be curving around instead of floating off in straight lines.

To’Orda landed next to me, dragging his hammer behind him. So long as all the sound came from the glass or involved the glass, it was all fine. Hence, when he slammed his hammer down with an occult pulse to kick himself up and off into the next slab, it somehow didn’t break the landmass behind him at all.

But if I so much as coughed in my helmet too close to the ground - boom. Everything breaks apart. This far into the biome, sound was now a premium currency.

Despite such fragile rules, the glass crystal ground was oddly resistant to any other damage. Even landing hard against it saw no real cracks or anything at all on the glass. There’d be a loud ringing noise when my boots connected against it, but since the sound was coming from the crystal itself, it didn’t cause any of the world-breaking shatter. Similarly, tapping it or trying to punch it equally did no damage, even from a relic armor hit. One point we ran into a fused mass of crystal slabs that had collided against one another, and had to go through. Only occult blades could slice through the glass. To’Orda’s hammer blows, or Wrath’s kicks, did nothing. But get close and whisper sweet nothings and the glass all breaks apart into a thousand shards.

Navigation here was a little easier for myself and the Feathers, since we had internal sensors that could accurately tell where we were direction wise. So if we needed to go to the centerpoint of this biome, there was always a nav point blinking on my HUD, pointing in the right direction. And armor/Feather skin made us all impervious to sharp glass.

The Odin on the other hand were less enthusiastic about flying into the maze, from experience. Many in their past expeditions would make the attempt and get completely lost. After that they either ran out of water, or ran into machines. Both of which would be fatal. Even knowing about the orbit patterns wouldn’t help them navigate any better, it just helped them find the centerpoint or the outer points of the biome.

Since the danger here was to get into the center fortress, the Odin weren’t needed to help guide the way, so they would take paths they were far more comfortable within. Closer to the outside wall of this biome, where they could follow prior guideposts. They’d meet us on the other end, the path that led to the next biome, the darklands. Which was both easier and harder to deal with than this current mess.

It was for the best, Kres and the others couldn’t talk over texts, and they couldn’t understand human body language either. So communicating with them in a biome that prevented basic speech was going to be like pulling teeth. Better that they meet us on the exit.

It also gave us a time limit. We had half a day to get to the fortress, plunder it, and get to the other side of the biome as well to keep going with the plan.

With Wrath flying, To’Orda leapfrogging from mass to mass, and my occult lashes, we actually made really good time into the deeper reaches of this biome. As for the machines… they weren’t exactly difficult to spot from a mile away.

Glass made for interesting reflections. As soon as we started seeing images of swarms out in the distance, all we did was hide among a crack or cranny and we’d vanish completely. The fish swarm would fly on by, moving from place to place randomly. Thus far we hadn’t even run into a single serpent either. Knock on metal that it wasn’t going to get worse.

The orbits looked more and more circular the closer we got to the centerpoint, until I found what looked to be a giant seed: A hollow sphere of landmasses that had collided against one another, forming a loose ball. As I sailed into it, our group of three landed on the surface.

The center fortress is under this protective barrier. Wrath sent over text. Keep alert. It is likely the machines in this strata have followed prior orders to keep this fortress replica protected.

We slipped through the dome, now close enough to just jump from slab to slab. The feeling of gravity shifting under me would have probably made me hurl at some point, but the soul trance kept me well insulated from all that nonsense.

This mite treasure box better be worth it. I sent privately to Superior.

They say it’s always worth it. They’re very proud of their treasures. Superior sent back.

Any hint on what it would be or look like?

Not a bit. Superior laughed, They’re upset I even asked.

One minute into the inner maze, we reached the other side of the ball. That’s when I got the first sight of the fortress.

A spherical looking thing following the theme of this entire biome, except the fortress was filled with jagged metal edges, and what looked to be gun turrets. Dozens upon dozens of them all over the place. The entire structure looked completely dead, floating in the void with a clear space between all the floating landmasses and itself. With a good jump upwards, I’d float through this mini-abyss for about two minutes before I hit the fortress itself.

Journey’s HUD zoomed in on my request. A few areas of the fortress actually were powered up, light shining from airlock doorways. Large numbers in yellow were painted down by each airlock, scratched up but readable enough.

It was all frozen over too, with a thin sheet of ice forming around where water had condensed over time. Not enough to completely encase it, but enough to obscure some parts. A lot of the gun turrets were outright entombed inside some of those ice blocks.

Journey ran a material composition scan of the fortress: Nothing special. Metal that was reinforced and several inches deep or at least deeper than its sensors could punch through. But nothing that would resist damages or anything like that.

And machines haven’t tried to get inside this at all? I asked over text.

Nnnn… no. To’Orda texted back, actually typing out his initial grunt.

Why? It’s just high density layered tungsten and steel. Enough time and anyone can blow a hole in this.

Nnnn… mites.

And quit asking questions too, you’re pissing us both off. The rock added. Just get in there already and get the goods. Faster you wrap this up, faster we get out of this dump.

What the scrap would the mites do that was so terrifying even the machines here didn’t even try to crack this open?

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That said, if they couldn’t get inside themselves, they could make sure nobody else did. Because they’d made their entire base of operations on top of the fortress.

A massive coiled up machine snake wrapped around the entire thing, as if hugging a body pillow. It looked either dead or fast asleep given it wasn’t moving at all. Everything else about it was not however: Thousands of angry looking fish-machines were flying around it in large schools. I zoomed in the vision now that I had one in actual sight, and they really did look like giant mouths with tiny fins.

Relinquished and her odd machine designs never failed to amaze in how impractical and yet deadly they looked. I could see why the Odin feared this biome, any of these enemies would chomp them whole in one bite, regardless of the occult blade teeth additions.

For me, the numbers would be the difficult part. I could slice a few easily. A few hundred, a little harder but doable without enough solid attempts. A few thousand was too large to bite down on.

I turned back and jumped my way from slab to slab back outside the protective shell around the center fortress, until I was once more looking out into the general maze of glass outside.

All right, I sent to the group in general. Guess it’s time for the distraction plan. We might have to add more to it than expected given the crowd here.

Just start blowing things up already, Boss and I got our part handled.

I unhooked an explosive, took out my knightbreaker launcher and loaded the shell in. I went very slowly, trying to keep the noise as silent as possible. I could still feel a few cracks start to spread out from the ground just on the metallic clicks of the launcher.

Temperamental glass. It’s going to absolutely love what comes next then. A quick aim downscope, and I angled the explosive to launch far off. Past the sphere of slabs acting like a barrier. Journey’s HUD showed me the expected path, arcs and angles changing constantly as the round would fly in between different gravity wells. Once I found the firing solution that would get the payload out the furthest, I aimed and clicked the trigger.

THUNK.

The ground under me cracked as the sound waves flattened into the glass under me. Chunks started to violently crash upwards and out. Wrath flew right for me, one hand held under her. I grabbed back, and she lifted me off right as the entire slab under me cracked into pieces, shards flying off to the next gravity well nearby.

The grenade flew through the void, zipping between slabs going erratically into odd arcs and directions, following Journey’s expected trajectory until it finally deviated from sheer chaos theory. It didn’t last much longer before it collided against a distant landmass and detonated.

The result was immediate and apocalyptic. Everything around the explosion fractured almost instantly, cracks spreading between landmasses, breaking apart into several million shards of glass spinning all over the place. It was the most visually chaotic piece of destruction I’d ever witnessed.

Journey, please tell me you have this recorded. I sent soul to soul with my armor.

Affirmative. The armor answered back, and I could even sense a hint of emotion there: Understanding. Its eccentric master would likely fall asleep soundly when watching this on repeat, and thus this was worthwhile to record and store for future reuse.

Wrath circled around the protective shield around the fortress, just as I started to see the entire swarm of mechanical fish filter through the sphere, chasing after where the sound and destruction had come from. There were enough to look like sand falling through fingers, moving almost in slow motion from this far off. A locust swarm.

That’s the last I saw of them as Wrath zipping back into the protective shell of the fortress, through the different slabs until we caught sight of the inner center again. I’d stirred up an entire hive, thousands of the small mechanical fishes were still flying out of their prior homes. Leaving only the most barebones defenses around the fortress. And the sleeping giant serpent still coiled around the fortress.

Scrap, not enough of them left. Plan B, where are you?

Fuck off human, we’re still flying over.

Effectively, he was. To’Orda sailed through the abyss between the fortress and outer shell of glass, occult crackling around his hammer. He slammed down into the mechanical serpent, forcing it finally awake. It turned, silent, and lunged.

I didn’t get to see the rest of the fight, but the fish certainly focused solely on that, since all the remaining ones had instantly turned to go hunt down the rogue Feather.

Wrath zipped by the shadow of the giant lump of guns and metal, tossing me down into the gravity well of it, while she flew right back up, blades lighting up to life, all her feathers equally shining into light with occult blades on each end. Out of all of us, Wrath was the best suited to handling the mechanical fishes by the hundreds. She had more floating metal feathers on her wings than they had, and she could move them all mostly independently. Which meant where she flew, death would follow behind. And To’Orda was quickly going to get swarmed along against all of this.

I hit the sides of the doorway with impact, boots taking the shock as Journey’s knees bent to mitigate the rest of the shock. A quick flip got my boots back onto the surface of the fortress, hands reaching out to the access panel next to the airlock. A handprint was there, which I tapped.

It blinked to life. Then flashed red. “Unauthorized access.” A woman’s voice said. It didn’t have any inflection of intelligence, more something prerecorded.

What? Superior, I thought you said it would allow humans inside, you ice-cold liar. How dare you toy with my heart like this.

I said humans allowed. Armors aren’t human. Maybe try your actual hand?

I yanked Journey’s gauntlets off my hand, feeling the armor expand outwards and unhook from the inner foreplates. It was nippy out here, and the glass scanner handprint was exactly as cold as I expected it to be.

It flashed out, and began to scan through the hand. Slowly. “Dramatic little godsdamned scrapshits.” I hissed. “Of course it has to take godsdamned forever.”

Occult pulsed around me as Superior sent a set of mirrors behind me, slicing through a few of the fish that had wandered nearby and spotted me. More were starting to be aware that a human was here looking to get into the fortress, now rapidly assembling together into one giant swarm. The explosive distraction along with To’Orda and Wrath weren’t going to be enough at this rate, there was just too many fish.

I joined Superior, pushing out more fractal mirrors behind us, slicing and dicing through the hundreds of fish trying to assemble.

Wrath flew by just then, diving inside the swarm. She exited out the other side, fish streaming after to catch up to her while sliced up parts were drawn into the gravity well of the replica fortress, clattering all over the ground.

Half the ball of fish followed after her. The other half was once more trying to come after me. Kept at bay by every occult image Superior and I could generate.

The access panel flashed green. “Approved. Welcome commander.” The woman's voice said.

The door hissed open, crushing through ice that was layered over it. Opening up as a central slit at first, as both sides pull open to the side.

No time to think about what that was about, or who was the commander, I raced inside as fast as I could, then slammed my bare hand onto the panel inside the airlock, forcing the doors to start sealing back up.

The occult mirrors weren’t slicing through the enemy fast enough. More of them were starting to gather further, the swarm advancing after me in one concentrated push.

I let the armored gauntlet drop on the floor, yanked out my assault rifle, and opened fire with full auto, right down at the swarm trying to fight its way through. For a moment, it abated. The doors continued to seal slowly shut.

Then the swarm advanced inwards as more fish had gathered in with shove and my rifle clicked empty.

“Shield wall!” I called out, forming my occult mirrors into a small vertical line at the doorway, the armguard held up.

Superior followed through, his own images taking the other side. A small stream of mechanical fish flew right through the closing gap, most getting sliced up as they passed through the armguards. A handful managed to make it past the holes in my defense walls, and those I sliced through with quick efficiency, dodging one, slashing another with my actual shield, and kicking out a third into the wall, letting Journey’s relic powered strength squash it under my boot.

The doorway sealed shut a moment later, and my occult images sprang to action within the small airlock, slashing through the horde that had slipped through. Too many to cut through, they were about to overwhelm me.

I took a breath, and due on the power of lightning itself.

Soul tendrils slipped out to two different occult fractals I’d just recently added. Lightning crackled in my gauntlet and exposed hand, while the room rapidly filled with ozone.

The torrent of mechanical doom flew right at my face and I held both hands up and outwards. With one final focus of will following Master Hexis’s last instructions, I called on my worst memory and let it crackle out of me in a torrent of lighting.

It didn’t come out of my hands. Rather came out of my entire armor like a massive EMP wave. Mostly because one of the fractals I needed had been inscribed inside the gauntlets, and that one was on the ground still. But I did have some backup fractals inscribed on my outer armor. That did the trick.

Power flooded through the tunnel, striking through the nearest fish, barreling through the entire airlock. More licked the sides of the walls, the sound muffled as Journey compesnated. Ozone permeated the area, a part of the concepts I had to focus on. I couldn’t whistle or use sound to completely control this power like Hexis would, but for my first real attempt at it, it worked out. And I didn’t really need to aim anything in such a tight room.

“Gods. There really is something cooler than fire.” I whispered out as the torrent of power ended. A few sparks lit in the room, jumping from the dead machine bodies that littered the ground here. Everything else had been zapped to death.

“Don’t let it get to your head deary.” Catheter warned. “Half of that was zapping Journey, and only good shielding kept it from burning you into a crisp.”

The HUD was showing my shields down to seventy three percent. A good chunk had been eaten away from friendly fire. But none of these fish had shielding on them, so they didn’t last half as long as I could.

I could see the enemy in my occult sight, all swarming around outside angrily, looking for cracks to slip in, but finding none.

Behind, the airlock door beeped, and slid open into the fortress proper. Lights further inside started to flicker on, revealing dust and one ancient looking command bridge. Screens were turning on inside as well, all showing the battle outside.

Made it safely inside. Now to figure out where to find the mite treasure hidden here, and then get out safely.

Easier said than done of course.