Chapter Ashborn 371: An Unexpected Encounter


    Saunak of Garga was working steadily on his newest contraption, despite all evidence pointing to it being a dead end. Just like the previous dozen iterations of this idea.


    The issue was not one of design, but merely prana conductivity. Was there even a demon alive who could channel the prana needed?


    An rm red, causing Saunak to startle and knock over several instruments, which went tumbling all over the floor. Even after all these years, he never did get used to the tower’s warning system, and for all his knowledge, he’d never been able to understand how to deactivate or alter it.


    The Lightning Field Array did a decent job of keeping the Ash Wolves and the lesser beasts at bay, and the tower was immune to Prana Swarms, but therger, more conventional creatures always posed a threat. The tower had ample defense against even the most terrifying of their ilk, but they all required manual activation. Too risky to allow them to fire automatically. The control systems had simply degraded too far over the millennia to reliably strike those targets.


    Thest thing he wanted was a mile-wide crater next to his tower, after all. It’d ruin the scenery.


    Cursing and grumbling, Saunak entered the lift, riding it up to the thirtieth floormand center. At least, that was what Saunak called it. He’d determined long ago that this facility had been part of some sort of cosmic weapon—a device capable of rewriting the world’s weather patterns to cause untold amounts of destruction.


    That the ancients saw fit to not only think up such a contraption, but actually design and sessfully build it… Saunak’s respect for the godlike race had no bounds.


    Exiting the lift, Saunak was greeted by an alert that was all too familiar.


    “Evolved Automaton Warning. Evolved Automaton Warning.”While he hadn’t been able to make the warning any less obnoxious, he <em>had </em>been able to configure it to alert him of threats he deemed significant.


    “Interesting.” Automatons did not generally wander too close to the tower. Something in their programming dissuaded them from approaching, and only a handful had ever ventured within a hundred miles of the tower.


    Guardian Automata came in a variety of vors, ranging from basic to advanced. <em>Evolved, </em>though? Saunak didn’t know in the slightest what <em>that </em>could mean. Not even the Yaksha Guardians mentioned in the tower’s records bore that title.


    “How curious…” His interest piqued, Saunak disabled the rm and focused the magnifier to the approaching threat. The contraption was built into the windows that spanned from the floor to the ceiling of this floor, giving him a three-sixty degree vantage of his surroundings. The windows would automatically magnify anything he concentrated on, though they could also single out a particr target and track it.


    A boring feature. Saunak much preferred the thrill of discovering for himself.


    “Not a big one, then,” he muttered, not seeing anything immediately pop out. “An Aerial Guardian, perhaps?”


    Casting his gaze up at the sky provided no results. Aerials were exceedingly rare, and he’d only ever seen them referenced in the records, never in person.


    “Smaller, then. Show me the source, already!” Saunak yapped.


    One of the windows immediately shifted, showing several figures approaching from the direction Saunak hade to refer to as north. Two bipedals and a half-dozen Ash Wolves.


    “How odd…”


    The wolves seemed to be domesticated. Docile, even, loping around the bipedals, as if to protect them. “What have you demons been up to, hmm?” Saunak mused, wondering if the Aindri had finally mastered the art.


    Manipting the controls, he zoomed in on the ck-d figure. A gray demon, on the smaller side.


    And then the screen resolves the demon’s face, and Saunak grinned.


    “Soooo. You have returned, <em>Akh Nara.</em> Good. Good! This changes everything. Yes. Perfect. Perhaps, you… Perhaps… Yes. Yesssss! I will not let you escape! This time, for sure. You will be mine. You will—!?”


    Saunak’s words caught in his throat, and he nearly choked on his own words.


    For when the image magnified on the entity next to the Akh Nara… When it identified her as ‘Ashani: Apex level threat’… Saunak shuddered.


    Ashani! Ashani!?


    Saunak knew that name. The entity created by Lord Janak himself. Thepanion to Siya, his daughter.


    The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.


    This was no mere Automata. This was a living being from the Age of Gods.


    Saunak fell to his knees… And wept.<hr>


    Vir couldn’t be sure how quickly he moved through the Ash. Certainly far faster than most demons could. Fast enough to cause the wolves to struggle whenever he passed over a forest, so he’d been avoiding them recently.


    As Vir bounded, Ashani floated beside him, propelled by some mechanism Vir could spend a hundred years studying without a hope of ever understanding. If she had a top speed, Vir certainly couldn’t match it.


    Even with all of that, however, the Artifact orb had barely grown brighter, and it was already the fourth day since they’d entered the portal. Hampering his efforts was the device’sck of directional markings. As such, Vir had had to strike out in a particr direction, traveling for half a day before he could tell whether the orb dimmed or glowed more brightly. They’d lost two days simply trying to find the correct direction. It was a good thing that this particr model ran off Ash prana, or Vir would have been stuck.


    As tedious and, at times, dangerous as the search was—Vir had to detour around a Prana Swarm, a Wyrm, and two Automaton Guardians thus far—he did possess a luxury not afforded to any traveler of the Ash.


    Ashani could create Ash Gates back to their camp, no matter where they were. As such, instead of resting exposed, deep in the Ashen wilds, Vir sleptfortably in a cot at camp. Doing so not only removed the need for either him or Ashani to be on watch as he slept—Bgra and other, stronger troops handled that—his continued presence also reassured Cirayus and the rest of the camp that nothing untoward had happened.


    And, if he did fail to check in, his troops could at least mount search operations from thest Gate he used.


    Each new day brought with it a new, stable Gate that the demons in his base could use to venture deeper into the Ash. They led to locations of questionable utility, but Vir figured he could always copse the Gates they never usedter.


    For now, he wanted as many new Gates as possible, and since Ashani could ce them anywhere she’d visited, and since her memory was near perfect, Vir had her build the gates in arge circle just outside of the camp. This way, his troops only had one area to guard, and an expansion to the camp to encircle and fortify this Gate ring was already underway.


    While he’d debated on the location of this ‘nexus’, as he called it, Vir decided that the heart of camp was ultimately the safest ce should an Ash Beast find its way through. It would meet with the full might of the entire camp, rather than just a few defenders, and eventually, his troops would build fortifications on the other side of each Gate they ended up keeping.


    As such, the week he spent deep within the Ash felt nowhere near as long as it ought to have, and when Vir did finally arrive at Saunak’s tower, it was fresh and well-rested. As he’d need to be, if he wanted to wrangle this Mad Thaumaturge’s help.


    The tower was no less impressive than Vir remembered it. A ck spire, standing proud in defiance of andscape that wanted nothing more than to raze it. Though, as Vir stared at the structure, he came to realize something was off.


    The ever-present lightning that ravaged the surroundings was entirely absent, and though dark, the sky was calm, with only the delicate rumble of thunder in the distance.


    Yet instead of cating Vir, it only made him worry more.


    “It would seem we are expected,” he said darkly. The thought of Saunak taking the upper hand in their encounter before they’d even met left a bitter taste in Vir’s mouth.


    “Is that so?” Ashani asked. “Then I mustmend this Saunak over his master of the observatory’s systems. From what I have seen of your world… Such knowledge does not seem normal.”


    “No, Ashani,” Virughed. “Not normal at all. So, the tower’s an observatory, then? Saunak has turned the ce into some sort of mad Thaumaturgyb. ”


    “Yes, it was used mostly for observation and monitoring of the weather control system my people operated. We long ago tired of the rain and the snow, and so we created a utopian climate. Sensitive enough to not harm the local ecosystem, but powerful enough to cease unwanted weather over our cities. Itswork spanned the globe, and so stations like these were amon sight. I never thought I would see one again. To think it is still operational…”


    Vir had nearly forgotten that the Prime Imperium had attained mastery over even the weather. For a race that continuously made mind-bending feats lookmonce, Vir supposed he shouldn’t have been surprised.


    “Curious,” Ashani suddenly said. “The tower is broadcasting a signal, receivable by all Imperium Automata,” Ashani said with a wry smile.


    “What does it say?”


    “Stay away. Stay away…”


    “Saunak might have set that. As a defensive measure.”


    “Impressive indeed!” Ashani said. Vir could swear he saw a twinkle in her brilliant azure eyes.


    “Be careful with Saunak,” he advised as they approached the tower. It sat on top of a spire that rose from a deep chasm. A sort of ind separating it from the surroundingnd, over which four bridges spanned. “I can’t say for sure how he will react to your presence. I assume he will be respectful, though guarded. He will find any way he can to exploit you, so be on your guard. And be ready to defend yourself at the first sign of violence.”


    Shan bared his teeth and howled. He might not have understood Vir, but he did recall this ce. The ce where he’d been captured.


    “Don’t attack him unless he attacks first, alright?” Vir told Shan in a stern voice. The wolf grumbled, but didn’t bark or howl back.


    The other wolves, while they couldn’t understand Vir’s speech, were keenly aware they were about to step in their of an enemy. Vir trusted Shan to keep them in line.


    Even before they’d finished crossing the bridge leading to the tower, its enormous metal gate opened, revealing the Automaton Garage, where the enormous guardians sat inactive on either side. The one Vir hadmandeered was off somewhere at the edge of the Ash, and so he’d expected to see one missing, but all the garage bays were full.


    Saunak had somehow managed to rece the one he’d lent to Vir. A disturbing thought. Or an incredibly useful ability, should Saunak be convinced to join them.


    “Where’s my Automaton?” came a cranky voice from somewhere deep within. It took Vir a moment to ce him, given Saunak’s small stature in this enormous space.


    “I don’t recall ever promising to return it,” Vir said as Saunak approached. As always, his stark white hair was unkempt, as though he hadn’t washed in ages, and his matching coat was covered in what seemed to be scorch marks.


    Saunak did not reply, though he strode with purpose right at them. Vir’s senses immediately went into high alert, and his hand instinctively reached for the katar at his hip.


    What Saunak did next, however, was something no one could have predicted.


    He walked right up to them… And took a knee.


    “Goddess Automaton of the Imperium. I wee you to my humble abode, and should you wish it, relinquish this tower back to its rightful owner. I hereby pledge my body and soul to your service. Do with me as you see fit.”


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