Witchers of Nifelheim - Part 4

Anastasia makes contact as well. Just intently wide eyed staring at the orb.

Kaylee slowly sat down and covered her face.
Tim and Ursula were faring a little better, they've likely seen the memory before, but Ursula still looked a little pale.


"...its no wonder everyone's terrified of  machine folk." Kaylee quietly said, her face hidden:
"Back at the swamps, I'm surprised Viki and Ryu didn't just k-... I wouldn't blame them if they had"

Ursula placed a hand on her shoulder: "Do you want to keep going? You can stop if you want"

Kaylee shook her head and lowered her arms, placing them on the table: "...no... I'm okay... I'm.. used to seeing death..."


"..I don't think humans should get used to something like that" Tim quietly said, looking down.


"..that's.. just.. the kind of life I had" Kaylee looked down at the table.





Brodeur sighed, then looked at Circi:
"The memories you're seeing are of the First Invasion, of the Year 141, counting from the day of the Exile.
Back then, we still didn't know the Machine Worlds intentions and didn't know about the existance of the Machina Portal. We didnt start really building fortifications until the Second Invasion, when we noticed the Machine Folk originating from the same spot."



He looked at the Orbs: "I don't understand how they figured it out, but they were right, the area where their metal carriage broke, later suffered numerous earthquakes over the millennium.
It now turned into a bottomless canyon, where the Shimmer boils below, a natural defense line around the Machina Portal."



"Hey.. that must be where we crossed that extending bridge" Ursula said.

Brodeur nodded: "If the metal carriage sat there, at one point, it has likely fallen into the Shimmer by now. But, perhaps its still stuck on the edge, somewhere, buried under the snow.
In the end, who can tell, its been almost a  thousand years."



"I.. didn't see any villages there.." Kaylee quietly said.

"Yes" Brodeur sighed: "The village you saw in the memory, doesn't exist anymore. The invaders burned it to the ground.
And the people from the neighboring settlements.. decided not to rebuild a new village, on the ashes of the old one. They believed it would be more respectful that way, to those who have fallen.."



Ursula uncomfortably shifted her weight:
"...everyone ready to go?"

"Yeah.." Kaylee nodded and touched the second orb. Ursula and Tim reluctantly did the same.
Once again, the teal mist inside the orb, started to swirl, then seemingly flowed into your fingertips and into your mind.






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A skilled rider gets used to reading the environment, over time. The constant wobbling, throwing your vision up and down, can play serious hell with your vestibular system, smearing the picture, making the details fade. You haven't had enough time to practice this skill, but none the less, the picture came through clear as day, to the most minuscule detail.



You were sitting atop a giant blue fox, galloping across the snow planes so fast, the chilling wind lashed at your face. On either side, you could see over a dozen Witcher's in your peripheral vision, you could hear their foxes grunting and panting for breath, as the unit raced across the planes, towards the smoke, rising on the horizon.

You could already see the wooden houses of the village begin to collapse under their own weight, the roofs falling through, engulfed in clouds of fire that raged through the streets, with an almost palpable consciousness. The entire village was turning into a giant burning inferno, right in front of your eyes.


"Parasites?!" one of the Witchers shouted beside you, as you galloped along.

"Doesn't make sense! They don't burn their livestock!" you barked back, scowling at the collapsing houses, being swallowed by walls of flame.

"They haven't fired a Flare!!" another Witcher called out: "How fast were they hit!?"

"Faster! Move faster!" You screamed at the top of your lungs, partly to the Witchers around you, partly to your fox.



The gallop was turning into a mad sprint with each passing second, the biting wind lashed at you face, as you raced closer and closer to the remains of the village. You already began making out individual houses, street corners and bodies. Soon, you began seeing survivors as well.

Dark figures that slowly walked through the streets, unhindered and unbothered by the fires around them. Blinded by the flames, you couldn't fully make out their features, until you were only a few meters away. Then, the dark silhouettes that were contrasted against the fire, began to take shape.


They looked human, but also machine, their entire bodies were encased in bizarre metal shapes. Your mind struggled to form associations, until you started recognizing their environment suits, the flamethrowers and heavy ordinance they held in their arms. Assault rifles with under barreled grenade launchers.
It was a strike team.


They were closing in on someone, who laid in the middle of the street, panting. The laying figure coughed and gargled for breath, trying to crawl away on his back, feebly raising his hand:
"Please.... please!.." he whispered, before one of the dark figures, raised his handgun and shot him twice in the head.



"What the hell ARE YOU DOIIIIING!!!!!" an inhuman shriek escaped from your lips, before the dark figures noticed your presence and unleashed a hail of bullets in your direction.


Several foxes shrieked and collapsed to the ground, sending their Witchers flying across the blood stained snow. Several of the riders were cut down and fell, leaving their foxes to run forward without them.

It wasn't enough, the foxes collided with and ripped into the dark figures at the speed of a moving truck. You've never seen how ferocious those creatures could be. The foxes were ripping the dark figures apart, tearing their metal armor like tinfoil.


You saw one of the machine folk being bitten in half, another one's head was bitten off. You jumped off your fox without loosing momentum and dashed towards the machine folk. Your green sword materialized and danced in your hand as you engaged the enemy.

Ducking, throwing your body to the left and forward, feign a dash to the left, then throwing your body to the right. The bullets whistled inches away from your head, flying over your shoulders, just next to your head, so close, you could feel the air being ripped apart by them, right next to your face.

The one shooting you ran out of ammo and began switching clips. It was enough of a pause to close the distance completely. By the time you drove your sword through his heart, your eyes were already fixed on the next opponent beside him.

Like a man possessed by the devil, you zig zagged and stormed through the battlefield, never spending more than a split second in one place, moving from one enemy to the other, using their own bodies for cover, making them shoot each other by accident, as they tried to get a clean shot at you.


With another mad spin, you planted both feet into the chest of an armored soldier, sending him flying into the snow. As he began getting up, you hurled your sword right into his face, piercing his head clean.



Still high on adrenaline, you dissipated and resummoned the sword to your hand, feverishly looking around for the enemy. There was none.
About five other Witchers mingled around the fires around you and a handful of limping foxes. You didn't see any other survivors, friendlies or enemies. The village was quiet, save for the raging fires around you.


"Ken! Snuff the flame!" you barked an order to one of the Witchers. He weakly nodded in response and limped towards a street center, some few feet away. A massive pentagram materialized there, bright teal and shining. Ken began rising over it, hovering in mid air as his body began to be engulfed in magic.


Moments later, an ice spike so large materialized just over the village, it looked like a giant iced meteor. In several moments, the entire heat was sucked out of the village, the flames fizzled and died out all over. The temperatures dropped well below zero and all the fires and smoke were almost literally sucked into the ice spike above.


With some effort, Ken directed the spike to slowly land in the middle of the street, before it loudly broke into a million shards and dissipated. All the fires were gone. What remained of the blackened village houses, were now covered by a thick layer of frost.



You slowly breathed a sigh of relief and looked around at the survivors again. They were already dispersing around, healing each other, their foxes and looking around for the villagers. Their expressions didn't portray much hope.


"Commander!" You heard the gallop of an approaching fox and turned around. Three Witchers on foxes just galloped into the village, judging by their armor, they weren't involved in the current fight. Still atop their foxes, one of them called:


"We spotted another team of Machine Folk heading north! It looks like they're retreating!"

"MOUNT YOUR HADEDASHI! WE'RE HEADING OUT!" You barked at the top of your lungs, approaching your old fox that you rode in on earlier.


"Commander, there's more!" the previous Witcher continued: "We received a report from an advanced scout team. The Machine Folk have visited.. some sort of Tomb... to the south"


"What bloody tomb!" You called impatiently, emitting a sharp yell, signaling your fox to start running. All of the surviving Witchers had mounted their foxes as well and the mad gallop resumed.


"Its not ours! We didn't built it!" The other Witcher continued: "That tomb was present on Nifelheim, before humanity has arrived here. Some sort of remnant of a Precursor Civilization."


"Why the hell are Machine Folk interested in Precursors?" you grumpily called. You left the village behind, now galloping across the snow planes of Nifelheim. The biting wind started to lash at you face again. You barely felt it, after the singeing fires that raged around you before.



"They.. took something from the tomb!" the other Witcher replied: "It got the parasites riled up! We've spotted a horde of them running this way, 1000 strong, they'll be here in 24 hours! We think... they're chasing after that object as well!"


"I'll be god damned, we have a dozen settlements in the area!!!" You screamed in outrage, pressing on your fox to run faster:
"Those machine pricks will drive the horde right to our doorstep!!! MOVE! MOVE FASTER!!!" You yelled at the top of your lungs, to your fox and to the Witchers around you.



You could already see them on the horizon. Maybe a dozen dark silhouettes, clumsily running across the snowdrifts, their bulky, heavy armor slowing them down. Some of them tried to half heartedly return small arms fire in your direction.

Their shots were wild, poorly aimed and the bullets whizzed very far from your body. You didn't even had to dodge too much, as you neared them.


The Witchers descended on the machine folk like a wave of fire, releasing fireballs and slashing their armor with burning hot steel. The fight was over in under a minute. None of the machine folk survived.

Their high tech equipment left strewn around in the snow, you began quickly moving from object to object, trying to discern its possible function.


The Witcher who's memory you were seeing, clearly did not understand the significance of the objects he held, before carelessly tossing them aside, but you did. You saw military grade, armored laptops, strange, bulky radios, satellite phones, seismographic equipment, gear intended for bio-chemical analysis.

And a sturdy, armored, metal case. The Witchers kind of hovered around it, for longer than usual. You spotted it as well and after some deliberation, nodded to one of your followers. With a few swings of the sword, he melted the locks on the case.

You knelt down and opened it.




The Dark Machine immediately illuminated the area, with a dim, red, piercing glow. A red sphere, peacefully sitting inside the metal case, shining its light on the area. It was like a red firestorm was raging inside it. Perhaps, somewhat responding to the physical contact the Witchers were making with it, perhaps not, just a coincidence.


"...what is that..." you slowly whispered.

"I don't know" one of your followers grimaced, then lifted his hand, touching the sphere again:
"...I can't Scan it. The spell is bouncing clean off... some sort of shielding around it?"


"Doesn't matter!" You impatiently barked: "Its attracting the parasites! We can't have them moving this way! There's too many settlements in the area!
Destroy it! Now!"


Several Witchers stood up in unison and discharged a dozen fireballs, ice spikes and lighting into the Dark Machine. The spells didn't just bounce off, they violently ricocheted off of the sphere, some of them flying just inches away from your face.


"GOD DAMN IT!" You angrily screamed at the sphere, summoned your sword and brought it down on the object as hard as you could. The force you felt pushing back, was so hard, your sword didn't just bounce off, but sent you flying upwards into the air, landing a good meter back, into the snowdrift.


"What the hell is this thing!? Its indestructible??" You heard one of the Witchers call, as you climbed out of the snowdrift, cursing under your breath.


"...fuck it. We don't have time for this" you dismissively waved your hand, then snapped the metal case shut, hiding the Dark Machine inside it again.
You looked at your Witchers:
"There's another tomb, a week East of here. Its underground tunnels are flooded with Shimmer. Go to the tomb, get down there and drop this, god damn thing, into the Shimmer, until it dissolves! It will divert the parasites away from our settlements!"


"..what if the Shimmer rivers dried up there?" one of the Witchers called: "They were kinda drying up the last time we were down there"


"Then just bury the sphere there and run!" you called back: "We have to divert the horde away from our settlements! Nothing else matters! Now go!!"

About three Witchers had jumped back on their foxes again. You firmly closed the case and handed it to one of them, who tied it up to his back.
As the three Witchers galloped away, you remained standing in place, looking south, together with the other Witchers around you.


Looking at the distant snowdrifts in the south, you frowned. You couldn't see them exactly, not at this distance, but the clouds of dust and snow they were rising in their wake, were clearly visible on the horizon.

The parasite horde was charging this way, maybe a whole day away. But they were charging in this direction with a fervor than you haven't seen from them, in a very long time.


You blinked and you were back in the library.




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Brodeur was hovering next to Kaylee this time, convinced she might actually pass out and stood on standby to catch her. Kaylee didn't pass out however and just heavily sighed.

Brodeur sighed as well, more in relief.

Twilight blinked a few times, to get her senses back. Seeing a massacre from her own point of view seemed to have helped to keep her senses okay.

"... Guys, we got a lead on where that machine is. And what the machine folk were doing here. They know of the time difference. All we need now is a motivation..."

She rubs her chin in thought.

"You said you had more orbs from this event.?" She looks at Brodeur with an expectant look. "I want to see everything about this. I need every scrap of the story."
.
.

Disgruntled purple wrote:"... Guys, we got a lead on where that machine is. And what the machine folk were doing here. They know of the time difference. All we need now is a motivation..."

"We still don't know if they buried it or dropped it in the Shimmer though" Rogue summises, "If they dumped it in the drink, then it could be gone forever. If they buried it, its shielding could hide it..."

"Please wait a moment while I fetch the catalogue" Brodeur said, drifting away.

Kaylee heavily sighed, rubbing her face: "...a motivation, huh.. what could the Chairman want with the Dark Machine? And why keep it a secret? He was willing to massacre a whole village, just to make sure there were no witnesses, who saw him snatch the artifact."


"You know, I've been thinking" Ursula bit her lip: "What if the Dark Machine isn't just a super weapon against parasites? What if its a super weapon against Kaznachey? Something that can actually harm him, maybe even kill him."



Before she could finish her though, Brodeur returned and heavily placed a massive book on the table. Opening it and beginning to flip through the pages, he squinted and placed his index finger on one:


"Lets see... we have 56 Memory Orbs, belonging to the surviving villagers and the Witcher unit that saved them. We also have 2 written tomes containing first witness accounts, historical interpretations and analysis of the events."


Ursula grimaced: "That's going to take days to seep through"

"Do you have a specific inquiry, perhaps? Something to narrow the search?" Brodeur asked.

Kaylee Brown wrote:Before she could finish her though, Brodeur returned and heavily placed a massive book on the table. Opening it and beginning to flip through the pages, he squinted and placed his index finger on one:

"Lets see... we have 56 Memory Orbs, belonging to the surviving villagers and the Witcher unit that saved them. We also have 2 written tomes containing first witness accounts, historical interpretations and analysis of the events."

Ursula grimaced: "That's going to take days to seep through"

"Do you have a specific inquiry, perhaps? Something to narrow the search?" Brodeur asked.

"Are there any memory orbs created by that Witcher team that took the Machinefolk item to that tomb, we need to see what they did with it" Rogue asks.

"I'm interested in it all, but if we only have time for a few then let's go with what he suggested," she points to Rogue, "and also any orbs from non combative Witchers. Scholars like T here"

She gestures with her head to Tim then steps over to try and get a look at the pages of the book Brodeur has open.

"Lets see..." Brodeur began flipping the pages and rapidly scanning through them. Each page was filled with tables of index numbers and a written description next to them. After a few moments you began to deduce that it listed the Memory Orbs in a numerical order and a short description of what was stored inside. The same was done with the names of several books that were held in the library.


"Mmm... it seems the Witcher team sent to dispose of the artifact, never kept any Memory Orbs of that event. But there are some written accounts.. stored in our library." Brodeur squinted at the pages:
"..it seems our predecessors didn't believe the artifact was significant, its only mentioned briefly in  the mission reports, one moment while I fetch the relevant tome"


Brodeur drifted away again and disappeared behind one of the doors in library. Ursula started to stretch her arms to kill time. The library was mostly empty at this hour. Only a half dozen scholars slowly drifted around the endless shelves of Memory Orbs, further into the room. A few birds were chirping outside.

An especially ugly looking crow, was sitting on the outside of a round window, close to the ceiling. It looked so ugly and dirty, it almost looked like its skin was falling off. The crow fixed you with its beady eyes, emitted a low, nasty caw and flew away.

Brodeur returned a few moments later and heavily placed a giant book on the table, then sat down and began looking through it:

"Mmm... yes, there it is, the mission report of the Witcher scout unit, tasked with transporting the orb:

'...-we have reached the ruins of a tomb, not built by man. Its massive front gates, caved in, by forces unknown, long ago. The architecture inside speaks much of the culture, of those who came before us. Even the simplest of objects were intricately decorated by a patient hand.

Even now, as I run through the dark lit corridors of this structure, a soldier with only one mission in mind, I cannot help but feel wonder at what I am seeing.

This tomb was abandoned long ago. Not even the parasites nest here. Its underbelly was filled with a maze of tunnels. Without having the map of the area, we simply kept going down, with the nearest staircase we found, until we reached, what we believed, was the bottom most chamber.

The Shimmer down here has dried up long ago, so we left the metal box here, together with the strange sphere inside. Then sprinted back to civilization, desperate to reach our settlements, in preparation for a possible attack from the parasites.

The attack never came however. The parasite horde has dispersed and spread throughout the country side, within a 2 day span. They left our settlements alone, for now. Was it because we diverted their gaze, or they simply didn't want to burn through their 'livestock' too quickly, I cannot tell.

But our remaining settlements remain secure. Mission Success.'








Brodeur paused: "..looks like there's more...
There were no scholars living in the village, at the time of the first invasion. Their population consisted of farmer and carpenters... 6 of them survived the attack... we have... 22 Orbs of their memories.. most of those are about the direct attack on their village.

But we have the writings of a scholar, who analyzed the events, surrounding the aftermath of the invasion. It reads:


'...in the 141 years of our recorded history, we have never seen any evidence to suggest that the parasites have any form of ruling government. Each one is individualistic, a world of his own. Most, by far, do not suffer commands from their brethren and each one lives to pursue goals of his own. Internal squabbles, territory disputes and even cannibalism among them is common place.


As such, they never displayed signs of having an organized military, or any form of coordination in their advance across Nifelheim. As such, the events surrounding the First Machine World Invasion, warrant some note.


While the exact purpose of the invasion and the nature of the artifact, remain up for debate, there is no debate regarding the initial response from the parasites. Perhaps for the first time in our recorded history, they moved with one goal.

They were coordinating and moved as one. Weather they accepted some sort of chain of command, from a higher parasite, or simply all of their individual objectives aligned, they all moved together in unison, attempting a feverish pursuit of the artifact.

We have never witnessed such restless fervor from them before. The horde of parasites, 1000 strong, had stampeded across the land, for days without rest, mowing down everything in their path, in an apparent attempt to reach the artifact, as if their life depended on it.


After the liquidation of the Machine World Invasion Force and the subsequent disposal of the artifact, the horde had halted its advance, somewhere around the area where the Machine Folk had fallen.
The parasites didn't continue on to the East Tomb, but rather mingled in place and days later, slowly dispersed across the country side.

This might suggest that the parasites have no means of remotely tracking the artifacts whereabouts and thus, must rely on the usual means of word of mouth, footprints, and other such means, in order to pursue their goals.


A lot of the long history of Nifelheim, still remains unknown to us. The purpose of this artifact, as well as the parasites odd behavior, is up for debate. But if the Machine Folk are so interested in the artifacts of old, that still sleep beneath the Nifelheim snow, this begs the question:

What was the purpose of our initial Exile? And why did our grandfathers deemed it appropriate to call it so?

- This text reflects the personal speculations and subjective interpretations of Omar Halil, Scholar of the First City of Rakshata, reflecting on the factual events that transpired that day and thus, should be viewed as such.

- Text by Omar Halil.

Kaylee Brown wrote:The Shimmer down here has dried up long ago, so we left the metal box here, together with the strange sphere inside. Then sprinted back to civilization, desperate to reach our settlements, in preparation for a possible attack from the parasites.

"So it could still be there..." Rogue nods, "Are there any records of other expeditions to the East Tomb, or has it been left alone?"

"Mmm.. one moment" Brodeur drifted away again, returning with 10 different books, stashed on a wooden trolley. Setting them on the table, he began quickly flipping through the pages of each one:

"...expeditions.. expeditions... Precursor research... archeological research... Tim Lemeshev's doctorate on Precursor culture.. mm.. nice touch" Brodeur briefly lifted his gaze towards Tim, who began puffing his chest forward and self lovingly grinning.

"....I can't seem to find anything in the archeological or military reports" Brodeur finally said: "It seems the Nifel folk haven't been down there since. Partly because of the tombs proximity to the Blast Lands."


"..blast lands?" Kaylee quietly whispered to Ursula.

"The territory under full control of the parasites." Ursula replied: "Nothing lives there anymore, except them. Hordes of them. Approaching the Blast Lands is considered a gamble with life. I can understand why scholars were reluctant to visit the East Tomb. Look-"

She hastily unfolded her map again:

Kaylee Brown wrote:"....I can't seem to find anything in the archeological or military reports" Brodeur finally said: "It seems the Nifel folk haven't been down there since. Partly because of the tombs proximity to the Blast Lands."

"How up to date is that map?" Rogue asks Ursula, "And what's its scale, can we expect to have parasites on our doorstep there?"

"Oh you right!" Ursula exclaimed, looking at the map: "We updated it last, when we got to the mainland, that was over a month ago. The borders with the parasite blast lands could have changed.. I don't suppose Mr. Brodeur has.. fresh intel on the state of the parasite war, by chance?" Ursula slightly smiled to him.


"But of course" Brodeur gave a low bow and pulled out a pencil. With a quick but precise hand, he began editing the maps Ursula had laid on the table. A few strokes of the pencil later and he was done.


















"My god.." Kaylee squinted: "Look how far they advanced! In a little over a month?!"

"The Witchers across the globe are starting to retreat from their old battle lines and pulling back to the continents' center" Brodeur solemnly said: "Their efforts are now focused on reinforcing the areas around Castle Towns, as part of the Great Migration initiative.

With battle strongholds left unmanned, the parasites quickly smelled opportunity and sprinted across the land, capturing as much territory as the Witchers allowed it. It seems they are still intent on surrounding and isolating each Castle Town, from the rest.

Its all.. a bit of a grim situation really" Brodeur sighed: "At least, we can count on the Castle Towns to always be safe. The Parasite Suppression Obelisks were a real game changer"



Ursula squinted at one of the maps: "The map scale is... lets see...
The distance between Aldris and the East Tomb is 700 kilometers. Which means, the East Tomb is something like.. 50 kilometers away from the Blast Lands, maybe?

Its pretty close honestly. There are Witcher strongholds in the area to protect the border, but they don't have enough men to cover the whole area and parasite groups often sneak by, into the mainland.

We should expect to run into parasites if we venture there"

"And those parasites there won't be pushovers. We really should get stronger before we venture there. At least we have some hope now."

Her brow furrows. "It's curious, is it not? Despite the fact that the blast lands have grown across the world, that set of ruins is untouched, the horde has not moved closer to this nearby set of ruins." She points to the ruins closest to the machine portal. "If that's the case, it might still be in place there, I doubt it's a coincide-"

She voice stop as her eyes widen. She's looks at the map, specifically the machine portal.
"... Is this for real? The parasites are that close to entering the machine portal?"

"They can enter it, if they want, but they can't activate it" Ursula slightly adjusted her ponytail: "The portal can only be opened from the Machine World. And the Chairman came off as an overly clean person, obsessed with preventing any contamination to Earth.

I doubt he'll be starting any more invasions, if the parasites take control of the portal grounds. He's definitely not gonna risk teleporting anything back to Earth, if that happens. His men were executing each other, just because their environment suits were breached."


"Mmm" Kaylee looked at the map: "Zoy did order a full retreat from the portal grounds. And we saw the kings engaging a parasite horde when we left. I guess now that the portal grounds were left unattended, the parasites had finally moved in."

She breathed a sigh of relief: "..thank god Zoy decided to leave... I don't want to think about what would have happened, if she stayed behind at the portal, when the horde fully moved in"



Tim slightly leaned over the map: "..mmm... curious indeed.. the parasites haven't moved any closer to the East Tomb, you are right... what an odd coincidence..
In fact.. I believe that particular border line with the Blast Lands, remained unchanged for several hundred years"

"Hey... yeah!.." Ursula squinted at it as well: "I remember studying about it in school... the parasites first appeared on Nifelheim, far to the East. East from the 'Site of the Exile'. They started to spread in every direction, but then stopped, somewhere around this borderline. Maybe they did advance a few dozen kilometers, but it took them millennia... they started to spread in other directions instead"

Circi glares at the map, silent in thought, "Corruption at its most quintessential, the parasite horde continues its push." She looks to the mechanica portals defense lines, "There still might be danger yet. With the abandonment of the portal its likely they already know whats going on. As proven in the orbs they have means of communication and they seem to know the future for Nifelhime. Whos to say they haven't already taken advantage of the witcher evacuation of the portal?"

Rain shakes her head, "No. I dont think so, that flipup thing they had seemed to give a better idea on what the landscape would look like in however many years."

Rain pauses, "I have a possible motive. Perhaps this is just one sick experiment. The discovery of a diffrent universe is a massive and entirely gamechanging endevor for any civilization, apon discovery of this world and how its time works they can easily watch and manipulate whatever experiment they wish to conduct here. By somehow removing a large amount of the population and adding it to your new world, you're throw an already intelligent lifeform into what is basically the stone age." She shakes her head, "Im willing to believe this is one twisted experiment. One that is going to go very wrong very soon."

C̷O̴N̴S̶U̸M̵E̵ wrote:Rain pauses, "I have a possible motive. Perhaps this is just one sick experiment. The discovery of a diffrent universe is a massive and entirely gamechanging endevor for any civilization, apon discovery of this world and how its time works they can easily watch and manipulate whatever experiment they wish to conduct here. By somehow removing a large amount of the population and adding it to your new world, you're throw an already intelligent lifeform into what is basically the stone age." She shakes her head, "Im willing to believe this is one twisted experiment. One that is going to go very wrong very soon."

"Maybe, but we have computer models back home that can analyse and predict outcomes at much faster rates than even this" Rogue points out,

"And using one of those'd almost certainly be cheaper than sending an entire city's-worth of people to another universe entirely."

"Mm" Kaylee looked at the map again, absentmindedly scratching the back of her head in thought:

"...the first time, in the first 141 years, that the parasites moved with a single purpose, huh... Kaznachey could have reined them in, or perhaps they were all scared of dying by the Dark Machine... but why did they so easily disperse, when they couldn't find it?

Why didn't they continue a feverish search for the artifact?"


Ursula shrugged: "Maybe they did.. Kaznachey definitely seemed spooked by it. Last time we saw him. he leveled that entire tomb, just to be safe."


"Mmm.. something doesn't quite fit" Kaylee squinted, still scratching the back of her neck:
"Just can't quite put my finger on it.." her hand casually passed around the area of her head, where her Neurochip was still implanted.
She froze, her eyes slowly widened.

Rain tilts her head, "Something wrong Kaylee? You look a little pale?" She leans back in her chair, tapping her fingers on the table.

Circi glances to the window where the crow was and gives a small scowl, "Watch your tongue. I fear we have very keen and very undesired ears on us." She scowls, "Bloody parasites, blow up my house and eavesdropping on conversations they have no buisness listening to."

"It could still be an expriment." Twilight mutters. "But who says it was set up by a human?"

Her brow raises slightly.

Rain raises her brow back, "Thats a very intresting point you bring up but if thats the case and if your talking about who I think you are... how does one proceed with communicating through an interdimentonal portal? If he even did at all." She lowers her gaze, "That appears to be another question for lucretia."

Circi seems to be swiveling her gaze from window to window in the library.

Rain suddenly smiles in Twilight direction, her gaze quickly shoots up to the librarian, "Excuse me sir. Do you happen to own a copy of the cult classic book... "The Journal of Friendship" by Twilight Sparkle?"

The mornings warm sun appears to be shining through the libraries windows. The crow you spotted earlier, seems nowhere in sight.

"Mm?" Brodeur seems a bit surprised by Rains question: "Uh.. yes. We don't have many books that predate our exile, but we have some. They had to be copied by hand you see, several times. The originals have slowly disintegrated over the millennia you see, we sort of had to pick and choose, which ones to replicate.
..why do you ask? Is it related to this.. artifact?"


Kaylee released a subtle smile, then became serious again. Watching the windows, she kinda hunched over the table, leaning closer to you and whispered:
"I think its mind control"


"..what?" Ursula whispered.


"The purpose of the Dark Machine. I think its mind control" Kaylee looked at you with concern: "Think about it, if we assume this to be true, everything else falls into place.

Lucretia said, the Dark Machine is a super weapon against the parasites, that it kills parasites really well. If you can mind control one and tell him to cast Dance of the Swallow, that's a pretty significant weapon.

But more than that, what if you could control hundreds of parasites? Over a great distance?"


Kaylee frowned at the map: "The records said, the parasites banded into a horde of 1000 and moved with a singular purpose, for the first time, when the Dark Machine was taken away.
What if they were mind controlled? What if the Machine Folk, unwittingly activated the Dark Machine somehow? Saw a Witcher pursuit and wished for backup? And that backup began to arrive? In the form of a parasite horde?

And when the Witchers threw the artifact away, the mind control broke and the parasites dispersed?"


Kaylee sighed and frowned at the map harder: "..but.. more importantly... that suddenly explains the Chairmans motivation completely.


...a single parasite can multiply by a factor of 20, every twenty four hours, if he has enough sustenance. And so, if you had just 1 parasite at your disposal, after a day, you'd have 20. After two days, 400. After a week, you'd have over 1 billion.

A self replenishing, exponentially growing force, completely under your control.
An army.

Can you imagine, what the Chairman can do with that, back on Earth?"



"There are no parasite's on Earth" Ursula grimly said: "The Dark Machine would be useless to him"



"There is one" Kaylee looked up at her: "Axis the Colorful String. The one parasite that escaped Nifelheim. If the Chairman gains control of the Dark Machine and transports it to Earth, he will mind control Axis and turn her into a massive army.
An invisible, massive, self replenishing army, that cannot be harmed by conventional weapons...

With that kind of potential.. his long term plans become painfully obvious.. it finally explains his motivations and the horrid extremes he's willing to go through, just to take control of the artifact."




"That's a BIG freaking assumption" Ursula crossed her arms: "The coordinated movements of the horde have other explanations. Fear of death, Kaznachey, a dozen other things.
And the Chairman doesn't seem to know that the parasites even exist. His men kept referring to the parasite infection as a pathogen or a plague.

His men using environment suits seems to indicate that he believes the parasite infection is air borne, that's seemingly why his men executed one of their own, when his suit was breached.

And if he knew the parasites were invisible and could cause such infection, I don't believe he would risk sending his men back and forth through the portal.

Preventing the infection of Earth seemed to be his highest priority. But if he wanted the Dark Machine to raise an army of parasites back on Earth, a few parasites slipping through the portal wouldn't be an issue for him. In fact, it would be beneficial for him, but he was completely obsessed with cleanliness.

It still doesn't quite fit"



"Mmm" Kaylee returned to look at the map again.

"I was just wondering. Back in my village there was a talk of a book that taught that friendship, through all things. Through all that is evil, that when we put our diffrences aside and band together to solve a problem you can overcome anything. Even throwing a half ton man bull into a mountain, or fighting a bugbear, the woman litterally walked into hell with a three headed dog." She smiles at the librarian, "Perhaps thats something we could learn from during the great migration. An inspiring tale is it not?"

Circi raises a brow, "How do you know all of this?" She looms over rain, gazing at her from above.

Rain leans back in her chair, meeting circi's gaze, "I heard the story many times as a child. It was a very sweet bedtime story. It seemed my mother knew it by heart."

"Or what if Chairboy is feigning what he knows even to his troops? If you're goal is to amass godlike powers and you're a maglomaniac, then why share the plan?" Anastasia offers "Make up a story, then toss aside the unneeded and clearly weaker force when you have what you need. Aka white armor guys for an invisible, infinite, death swarm"

"Let's forget about the fictional bedtime stories about hypothetical ponies." Twilight says with a notable frown. "We have a revelation to discuss." Her frown unfurls " Mind control... It is possible, but then we have to ask, how did Lucretia lose this battle? We know she's dead and that Kaznachey lives. The machine is also still active, so it hasn't run out of power mid-battle."

She stroke her chin. "That still leaves one question... HOW does he KNOW about it?"