The infinity dungeon 269

Chapter 269

“And now, the only thing we are missing is covering the world with our domains and giving the system to everyone on the planet,” Icarus whispered.

Michael rolled his eyes. “I knew it,” he said.

Icarus laughed. “What? I’m just saying! We could add quests, and experience points, and boom! Everyone becomes an operator if we give them the right quest and the right incentive. Think about it!”

Michael could see the inevitability of what Icarus had planned, because he too had thought about it many times already. He chuckled at the AI’s shameless attempts to once again control the world for him, his mind returning to the thought of levels and experience.

It made him think about his old [Unity] skill, lost with the breaking of his old system.

“Aren’t we making the same thing that almost ruined me?” he mused out loud. “A parasitic system that feeds on the power of whoever uses it?”

Icarus cocked their head, and their entire body rotated as if weightless until it stopped upside down. “Except it doesn’t. It empowers people who would otherwise never have access to magic, or get stuck at certain tiers. And as you saw with Travis, it’s a matter of adding a single tag to a person’s profile and the system will happily let them develop their own magic on the side. I just wonder how many people will choose the hard road over the system we are giving them.”

“You little devil,” Michael said, poking Icarus’s nose. Their body, still weightless, began to rotate again, slowly drifting toward the spiral. “You and Travis have been talking, haven’t you?”

“It’s time,” Icarus said instead of replying. “Origin Test Squad–OT Squad–is ready. David is portalling in from Arizona, and Travis is on standby.”

Michael’s smile became tight. So many things were happening without his direct supervision nowadays. Not only did time fly much faster without the time dilation allowing him to cheat the passage of days, but he had also been trying to live by the teachings of the First Pillar of the Dao of Interwoven Fates. It meant, according to his incomplete understanding, delegating things and trusting his underlings.

And oh boy had he been positively surprised by the results. As soon as he let capable people do their thing without poking his nose too much, they delivered outstanding results, shattering even the wildest expectations. At the same time, it made everything feel like it was slipping away from his grasp. In a way, it was, but was it truly a bad thing?

He thought about the Dao of Interwoven Fates again. Even now, he did not know how to feel about it. He remembered, back when he still had the Sanctum and his old magic, how he had thought potential or boundlessness might have been his Dao. They still called to him.

Perhaps, the altar after the Pillars would allow him to write his own Dao. Perhaps he didn’t need to live according to the Interwoven Fates.

But then he looked at Icarus, sitting on their bright pink chair in the control room of the Inner Space. The elf–for Icarus now almost always manifested as one–saw him looking at them through the glass of the wall and waved at him.

Were Michael and Icarus's fates not interwoven together? Perhaps he should not refuse the Dao.

He then looked at the vast expanse of the inner space, once upon a time almost empty and now filled to the brim with white lines, datascript, data rooms and instances of Icarus. His icarus. His eyes went over the many collectors, batteries, and unfinished projects. Building the Origin system meant that he had not developed the inner space at all. There were still 98 collectors to upgrade, as well as 98 batteries. He wanted to expand the Aura Ring, because how else was he supposed to upgrade the Origin system if all the space was full?

There were the things outside. The elements, which he had not still reclaimed after the battle with the Renegade made him lose access to them. 

There was Infy, inside the dungeon. Another fate interwoven with his. And then again, thinking about fate, had Fate not been the first shard of Unity he had claimed after beating the forest boss of the Valley? It felt like ages go, and it was ages ago for him.

Well, nobody ever said I can’t have two Daos. 

He remembered looking down at the Earth as he floated in space. He had been under the influence of taint, but the feeling had remained in his mind almost unchanged even after getting rid of it. Except, he now understood it better. It had not been a desire for conquest, a thirst for control. That was Travis. Even Icarus, they thought about controlling the world only because they feared the unknown. Who didn’t?

At the same time, the unknown beckoned. Michael looked outward, at the boiling clouds of purple. What wonders would be revealed once he managed to push them out further?

Potential. 

He hoped there was no size limit to his inner space. And if there was, he was going to shatter it.

Boundless potential.

He felt it, the shift. Something clicking inside of him.

Two Daos, then. Twice as hard, but he was not alone. Many people’s fates were interwoven with his.

In the outside world, a single step brought him to the silver room at the top of the control tower. David, Johanne and Travis were already there. The members of the OT Squad were standing at the ready. They looked at him, and he nodded at them. Beside him, Icarus manifested, showing themselves for the first time in the form they were most comfortable with.

“Guys,” Michael said. “Are we ready for the mission?” 

***

“We are going to kill two birds with one stone,” Travis said, immediately taking charge. “The Origin Test Squad will be our escort at the gala, where a meeting with the president has been organized. We will all be there, some undercover, others in the open, ready to act if anything happens.”

“Even him?” David asked.

“Even them,” Michael corrected him. “Icarus, why did you not inform everyone about your new–ah, that’s how it is.”

The elf in the room was laughing. 

Michael facepalmed. “Why are you always so silly?”

“To be fair,” Travis interjected. “They are only this silly when you are present, Michael.”

“Ehm, well,” he stammered. “Anyway.”

“Icarus,” Johanne interjected. “Does this mean you will settle on this form? I must admit, your features are nothing short of perfect.”

Icarus blushed. “Thank you,” they said. “To answer your question: Yes and no, Johanne. I like being a shapeshifter, but I also found myself. This is the real me beneath all the layers of change I might choose to wear to suit my fancy. I wanted you all to see me for who I am, at least once.”

She nodded. “I am honoured.”

“We all are,” Travis added. 

“You have grown a lot,” David said. He folded his hands, struggling to make the next words leave his mouth. “I still remember the early days. Or when I was ready to scrap your ass to restore the WITCH and save Liff. I’m glad it didn’t come to that in the end and… I hope you’re not mad about it.”

“I’m not,” Icarus said. “I understand why you did what you did, David. You don’t need to apologize. I’m just happy you managed to find another way.”

Everyone pretended not to see that, despite the calm and collected facade, Icarus's hand had gone in search of Michael’s. 

“Back to the original question,” Michael said. “Yes, Icarus will be coming to the gala proper with me and Travis.”

The man took it as the cue to start speaking. “Which brings us to this,” he said, images appearing at the center of the table for all to see. In the last three major public appearances, the president had barely even talked to the people at his table. “As you can see, President Terris has been growing more and more isolated in his second term. It will be easy for us to approach him, but it will also draw attention to us.”

“We won’t have to worry about video footage coming out,” Michael said. “Right, Icarus?”

The elf perked up. “Of course not. The internet is ours.”

Michael glanced at the inner space. In more ways than one, the internet really was theirs. Unity had been quietly acquiring critical infrastructure, and almost all of the data either passed through or existed in the inner space.

“Good. No weird tiktoks and speculations about who was talking to the president,” Travis said. “We still need to be careful. Have you heard about the rumors about his dementia?”

“I have seen the videos, yes.” David said.

Travis nodded. “That is the point. Everybody has. Even with Icarus controlling the algorithms, that man is making a fool of himself on live television. Normally, such a thing should not be allowed to happen.” 

David frowned. “Let me guess, something fishy is going on there. Did we try to offer our Saint Hernest services to them?”

“We have tried many times. We have always been refused,” Travis said. “With increasing hostility. The president’s isolation has effectively negated any attempts to use people who owe us favors–people who have been healed at Saint Hernest, for example–to get to him.”

“Suspicious,” David muttered.

“Very,” Travis said. “Suspicious enough that I had Icarus help me dig a little deeper, and guess what we found?”

“He doesn’t have dementia at all, does he?” David said with a sigh.

“I wouldn’t go as far as to say that,” Travis replied. “For all we know, he might have a condition, but the timing is not random. The president growing weaker, acting erratically, becoming more and more isolated, with other key elements of the government now suddenly able to take decisions without oversight? Similar things are happening all over the world, and our attempts at entering the international scene ourselves are all being stopped and rebuffed. Then, of course, there is this.”

The image at the center of the room changed. David whistled.

“Cardinal De Ponti,” Travis said. More images followed. “Now, either the president has suddenly rediscovered himself a believer, or…” he let the words hang.

“Wait, isn’t that Don Casellaro?” David said, almost yelling and pointing at one of the pictures. A man in a suit and tie, slightly overweight, smoking a cigar. “Do mafioso types really look like that?”

“It’s him. Both he and the cardinal will also be at the gala,” Travis said.

“Well,” David said as he rose to his full height, cracking his knuckles. “Sounds to me like there’s a bunch of assholes to beat up. Good. I can’t wait to deliver some divine retribution.”

The spiral glowed above his head. Michael felt the power of the man’s skills flow into the Origin system, joining his growing pool of abilities as David finalized his connection to the system.

“This time they won’t be able to cheat,” he said. “This time we fight on even grounds.”