The Prodigies: The Return of Equinox

Chapter Sixty-Six : Testing Antechamber

When they passed that threshold into the section dedicated to testing they found themselves in an antechamber that expanded endlessly upwards with what seemed like ten doors on each floor like the one they were on right now. The only way to get up was the ladder that stretched from the middle of the room.

"Race you to the top." Joked Jasper.

"If there is one." Svetra looked up and tried to see if there was any sort of indicator that the antechamber ended.

"I can send one and see." Where Voleria's mouth would be a tear formed and countless legs wriggled and reached around the edge. Out of between the legs a single dragonfly came out. "This one is the fastest."

"Great idea." Core made his way to a door on the first floor. "Let's start the search."

"Wait." Svetra quickly made her way to rear Core. "We don't know what's behind these doors."

"Exactly. Until we see inside one, they would assuredly have infinite possibilities. It isn't until you observe something that it is then concrete." Core saw that they had lost their understanding of what was said. "At least, that's what my elders say."

"Sure, let's just go room by room then." Jasper sighed. "Great idea."

"Any better ideas?" Svetra shot him a nasty glare as questioned him.

"I'd be lying if I said I had any."

Core opened the first door to find an enormous figure made of various woods, metals, and more that he couldn't distinguish. The hunk of combined organic and man-made material the thing was constructed by spit on Core's beliefs. Never once had he seen something so opposed to the natural laws that he had taken such care to study and learn. After gazing upon the structure for a while he finally spoke.

"We need to destroy this." He turned to the rest of the group. "Help me destroy this thing."

"What is it?" asked Svetra.

"That, I don't know. But, what I do know is that this thing is an affront to all things natural and shouldn't exist. They are betraying the order of the world by making something such as this."

"Fair enough." Jasper stepped closer to the thing to check out if it had weak spots

HOSTILES. ENGAGING.

"What?" Jasper looked up and saw an arm come down on him. Once he spotted the incoming danger time slowed down for him and he was able to dodge it with minimal effort. The one thing he didn't see was another arm coming for him in his blind spot. It crashed into Jasper and knocked the wind out of him.

"Jasper!" Svetra drew her sword and ran towards the machine. Once she got into range of the machination she came upon the realization that a sword would do no good against a thing that wasn't flesh. While she dodged attack after attack she was able to study the thing and identify some opportune openings in its attack pattern and structural weaknesses.

"I've got a plan!" She yelled as she dodged every attack coming her way. This wild, but predictable, pattern wasn't something particularly difficult to avoid. "Jasper, I'm going to need you to get some arrows into the joints of this thing. Voleria! Get inside and whittle down the beams. Core! Cover me. We'll make this thing break itself."

Their efforts just before the raid to work together had ended up paying off in a magnitude none could have expected. Their movements complemented each other and covered for anything that resembled a opening or flaw.

After just a minute of the machine struggling to hit Svetra between her dodging and Core parrying and redirecting the swings the machine slowed and groaned to a halt. There was so much wrong with it that it stopped moving and eventually broke some of its own joints and bearings through the sheer effort of trying to continue the attack. It broke itself to pieces in just a few short moments.

They continued room after room this way. Most rooms held nothing living or anything that resembled life. They held weird instruments that took and recorded measurements so abstract that one couldn't have the slightest idea of their importance. The occasional shows of hostility were swiftly suppressed and destroyed, yet there were no people to speak of. Finally, after having quickly checked fifty rooms Alegna had something to say.

"I've not reached the top yet, but there is a very big door."

"This door isn't that big, it's just like the others." Jasper's face contorted into an expression of extreme confusion."

"No, the door my scout is with. It's many stories up."

"How many?" asked Core.

"237 floors."

"That's one hell of a climb. Any way that we could do that faster?" Jasper already felt tired after hearing how much they would have to climb.

"I might have a way." Core touched the wall that was closest to him and the walls rumbled a bit before steps shot out of the walls and created a winding staircase to the top.

"Good idea, mate!" Jasper was the first to go on the stairs. The rest of the group quickly followed. After about seventeen stories all the doors slammed open. The group stopped in their tracks to see what had happened.

Out of the doors all of the various autonomous machinations shambled out to meet the Prodigies. Some of them though, were not machinations of any kind. They were pained bastardizations of alchemists' playing themselves as gods. They were crude living things with contradictory function to form.

"Look's like we have a fight ahead of us." Core half-regretted making stairs.

"Doesn't seem like a fight we can't win. Just a little effort here and there will get us through cleaner than a royal mirror." Jasper took a hesitation of a moment to ready himself for the coming struggle. 

"I'd say this would be the first time I agree with something you've said." remarked Svetra

"Can I eat them?"

"To your hearts' content." chuckled Jasper.

"If I were a human, you could say that I would be drooling."

"Huh. I didn't know that you could make comparisons like that."

"Humans aren't the only ones that can learn new things.