The white light of the transition did not end with a bang because it ended with a whisper. I stepped out of the shaft and my golden claws clicked against a floor made of polished white marble that felt uncomfortably warm. I was no longer in the Forge. The air here did not taste like ozone and soot because it tasted like expensive perfume and sterile plastic.
[LOCATION: THE SECOND FLOOR - THE CROWN SECTOR]
[STABILITY: 21.5% - LEVELING]
[IDENTITY INTEGRITY: 30.1%]
I looked up and my horizontal visor struggled to process the scale of the architecture. The ceiling was a dome of artificial night sky where galaxies of blue data points swirled in slow elegant circles. Towering spires rose from the floor like jagged white needles reaching for the stars. They were not built from steel because they were grown from calcified biomass and reinforced with glowing violet circuitry.
This was the City that the Analyst had promised. It was beautiful and it was absolutely terrifying.
"Welcome to the High Ground Izou," a voice chirped from a small floating drone that hovered near my shoulder. The drone was shaped like a silver eye and it moved with a liquid grace that made the Sentinels of the Forge look like rusted toys. "You are the first Prime to ascend in over a thousand cycles. The other residents are very curious to meet the man who burned the Nostalgia Archive."
I did not answer the drone because I was busy watching the shadows between the spires. My Void Hunger was buzzing at the base of my skull. It was a low warning hum that told me I was being watched by things that were much stronger than a Suture Maiden.
[WARNING: HIGH LEVEL SOVEREIGN SIGNATURES DETECTED]
I walked toward the center of the sector while my black spurs remained locked in a defensive position. I passed a fountain that was not pouring water because it was pouring liquid silver that hummed with a magnetic frequency. Sitting on the edge of the fountain was a figure that looked almost human.
He was wearing a suit made of shifting gray shadows and his skin was a flawless matte black. He did not have armor because his body was the weapon. He looked at my cracked porcelain plates and my bloodstained claws with a look of pure disgust.
"The Forge really is a messy place," the man said. His voice was smooth like silk but it had an edge that felt like a razor blade. "They sent us a barbarian. You smell like recycled data and cheap biomass 9045."
"My name is Izou," I growled while I stepped into his personal space. I let my stability drop by 1% just to flare my violet visor to its maximum brightness. I wanted him to see the monster beneath the porcelain.
The man did not flinch. He simply flicked a finger and a wall of solid gravity slammed into my chest. I was thrown back ten feet while my boots left deep gouges in the marble floor.
[STABILITY: 20.5%]
[KINETIC IMPACT DETECTED: 4500 NEWTONS]
"Names are for pets," the man said as he stood up. His shadow suit expanded until he looked like a giant crow made of smoke. "On the Second Floor we use Authority. I am the Glass Architect. I own the light in this sector. If you want to keep your name you are going to have to pay the tax."
I stood up and wiped a smear of black oil from my visor. My core was screaming for me to run but my Apex subroutines were already calculating the distance to his throat. I realized then that the Second Floor was not a reward. It was a different kind of Forge.
In the basement they tried to break your body. Up here they were going to try to break your will.
"I don't pay taxes," I said while I flexed my golden claws. "I only take what I need."
The Glass Architect smiled and the air around us began to crystallize into thousands of floating shards. "Then I hope you are faster than you look barbarian. Because the Analyst wants a show and I am happy to provide the opening act."
[CURRENT STATUS: THE ARCHITECT PRIME]
[STABILITY: 20.5%]
[IDENTITY INTEGRITY: 30.2%]
[ENEMY ENCOUNTERED: THE GLASS ARCHITECT]