9999 Titan-forged

"Nicely said. Very nicely said." Lanlos was indeed spellbound, murmuring to himself, but a strange smile spread across his face. He seemed to agree, yet there was a hint of mockery in it. "I can't even find a reason to argue."

"Because what I said is the very truth you seek."

Lanlos seemed not to hear him. He merely reached out and slowly traced the words on the gravestone—the inscription he had nearly exhausted himself carving: I would rather die than yield.

"But Sores gave me a reason."

"Weakness and evasion can never solve a problem. The means are the seed, and the end is the tree. Fear and evasion, disaster and destruction, can never bear the fruit of justice. I'm no different. And how was Sargeras any different?"

The great Dark Titan, Sargeras. It was said that he had once served the Pantheon and devoted himself to his kin until the very end. But after witnessing the Void irreversibly corrupt his sleeping brethren, he had turned to destruction in the extreme. In his previous life, Lanlos had struggled to defy fate, only to ultimately succumb to illness. In this life, he had arrived in the Shattered Abyss and become entangled with demons. When brute force failed, he had tried a gentler approach—but in the end, he had only been running away because he feared failure.

In his daze, Lanlos seemed to find himself face-to-face with that supreme being. There was none of the terror or power the rumors spoke of, no oppression or humility. Quite the opposite: an inexplicable sense of déjà vu drew him to kneel before the undying flame in this dark void.

But the moment he lowered his head, a flash of red stabbed painfully at his eyes.

I would rather die than yield. I would rather die than yield!

Sores's voice echoed incessantly in his ears, like a resounding slap. It tore away the cloak of self-righteousness he had wrapped around himself, laying his weakness, fear, and evasion bare in the light of day.

"I don't know what's right or wrong, let alone a vague, intangible concept like fate. I don't understand it. I don't understand it at all." Lanlos clutched the gravestone tightly. Against his weak fingers, its hard surface felt like an endless mountain, mocking his insignificance and humility.

"But I don't believe my fate is in your hands."

The owner of the voice seemed a little surprised. The hand that had almost "touched" Lanlos stopped a hair's breadth away.

"I don't know what fate is, but I know my choices lead to different fates. I don't think I've mastered fate, but since I can't accept this outcome, then at the very least, I have to make a choice I won't regret."

"What do you mean?"

"Haha." Lanlos laughed, loudly enough to make his motionless body tremble. His stiff face broke into a defiant, wild grin. "Even if I die! I'll claw my way up to fate, flip it the bird, spit a mouthful of phlegm at it, and then shout..."

Lanlos suddenly lifted his head. His azure eyes stared at the palm reaching out of the void, and he laughed as he raised his middle finger.

"Fuck you!"

Crack!

A deafening boom suddenly sounded deep within his soul. Green flames blazed to life in his eyes, and a powerful force surged through his body like lightning, pure and boundless.

Perhaps because of the force's impact, the gravestone cracked under his grip. But Lanlos didn't care. His attention had already been caught by something else that had suddenly appeared in his mind.

Buzz...

Lifeform morphology pattern identification complete...

Safety protocol disengaged...

Main control system coming online...

Error. Process terminated...

Auxiliary management system coming online...

Warning: Unidentified intrusion detected. Activating defense protocol...

What was that?

"Unit identification: Sargerite Keystone. Hello, Lanlos. Would you like to view the unit's operating protocol?"

Unlike the earlier flood of messages that sounded like system feedback, this synthetic, mechanical voice rang leisurely through his mind, giving him a moment to process it. More importantly, the instant that defense protocol had activated, Lanlos had been startled to feel something like an ice pack against his forehead. The hand that had been waving in front of him vanished, and the eerie, spellbinding voice disappeared without a trace.

"Would you like to view the unit's operating protocol?"

A unit? Operating protocol?

After a brief moment of bewilderment, Lanlos finally came around and tentatively asked, "Show me?"

"Warning: Database lost. Search failed. Process terminated..."

Apart from the startling fact that the voice was coming from inside his head, the technical jargon made Lanlos think of the programs and computers from his previous life. If he remembered correctly, Azeroth was one of the Titan laboratories, and quite a few Titan-forged creations had indeed been left behind.

But judging by that feedback, was this a defective product?

"Uh, so... Sargerite?"

Buzz...

The Keystone glimmered faintly, its weak resonant hum echoing in his mind and proclaiming its singular, unmistakable presence.

"What exactly are you?"

"Keystone. Main control plug-in for space-time jumps. Functions: teleportation, mass teleportation, lifeform identification, star chart data management..." The Keystone's voice emerged from deep within his soul almost as soon as Lanlos finished speaking, without the slightest pause.

"Wait, that's too much. We'll go over it later." Seeing no sign that the thing was going to stop, Lanlos hurriedly cut off its emotionless introduction. "First, explain that whole string of messages from beginning to end."

As he focused his thoughts, the sequence of feedback appeared in his mind like a pop-up window. Lanlos was about to read through it one message at a time, but the Keystone seemed far more intelligent than he had expected and gave him an answer before he could begin.

"The Keystone was originally Mardum's auxiliary management system. After the Titans and Keepers in various regions activated their beacons, it opened spatial jumps to retrieve and imprison demons within the beacons' range. Mardum was destroyed. To prevent Sargeras and the Burning Legion from using my star chart database, the main control system revoked my permissions and ejected me at the cost of all available energy."

"But Sargeras discovered the Keystone's departure. When the Keystone initiated a spatial jump, he shattered my body, preventing the auxiliary system from functioning properly. One of the fragments seems to have used your consciousness as a vessel, eventually bringing you to the Shattered Abyss. After it was repaired, the Keystone regained its normal functions, but it couldn't identify your lifeform morphology pattern and therefore couldn't connect with you without violating the safety protocol."

The other party had glossed over the part where it had forcibly dragged him to Mardum, which left Lanlos feeling rather put out. But then again, this thing had inadvertently given him the chance to live again. Hadn't he come out ahead?

Rather than dwell on right and wrong, he shook his head and focused on what mattered more. "So you just connected with me? Why now?"

"The Keystone constantly monitors the state of its primary entity. It determined that the primary entity's various indicators had met the requirements."

"Ahem. The primary entity means me, right?" Lanlos furrowed his brow, forcing himself to ignore the strange label. "You say you're constantly checking my physical condition, but just now, only my mental state changed, didn't it? How did you do that? Why couldn't I feel it at all?"

This wasn't Lanlos being conceited. After all that he had been through in Mardum with his soul, the resilience, strength, and sensitivity of his mental power had changed dramatically. Based on the research and experience Vihana had left behind on souls and the mind, even if he couldn't match someone like Vihana under normal circumstances, he certainly wouldn't miss an examination that closely scrutinized his entire body.

Being constantly monitored by a plug-in whose primary function was opening portals without noticing? That made no sense. An intelligent program shouldn't lie, but Lanlos instinctively refused to believe anything that dealt such a serious blow to his confidence.

"Due to the risks involved in retrieving beacons, all data at the target location must be acquired rapidly before a spatial jump is initiated. With the main control system's computing power, the Keystone's fastest recorded scan collected sample data on 1,093,522 animal and plant species on a planet in 4.14 seconds."

Maybe it was his imagination, but Lanlos had the feeling that, as the other party said this, a pair of disdainful eyes were looking down at him from somewhere high above, impossibly far away.

As a human, how could he let a program mock him?

"Wasn't your database broken? How do you still remember that?"

"The Keystone's cache stores necessary operational data."

Cache? This was sounding more and more like a computer. No—something this unbelievable couldn't be explained by the scientific worldview Lanlos had held in his previous life. Sampling every living thing on a planet in four seconds, from a distance of countless light-years away? Even as a self-proclaimed modern man, Lanlos couldn't have dreamed up anything like that.

Unbelievable. Incomprehensible. Ridiculous!

Just as Lanlos was racking his brains over the unreasonable functions and logic of Titan technology, the Keystone's faint hum grew slightly louder. Just as it had said, it was constantly checking his condition, even his mental state.

"If the primary entity wishes to fully understand the Keystone's functions, it is recommended that a database be created and organized based on the primary entity's mental framework."

"Sure, let's give it a try." He had only understood a fraction of what he'd heard, but he was eager to learn everything he could about a Titan-forged creation. Between his fascination with the mysterious and his stubborn streak, Lanlos agreed without a second thought. But the next moment, he cursed out loud.

Primary entity permissions granted. Uploading driver program...

The instant that message appeared in his mind, Lanlos felt as though most of the blood in his body had suddenly vanished. He nearly collapsed on the spot, and his mind grew so heavy and foggy he could barely control himself.

Driver program upload complete...

"Holy shit! What the fuck did you do to me..."

The sudden weakness felt like he'd been working late every night for an entire month. Lanlos's vision went black, and he nearly said goodbye to the world right then and there. Once he finally came around, the first thing he did was bluntly question the culprit hiding in a corner of his soul. But the other party gave no explanation. Instead, when he focused his attention on the Keystone, an indescribable, strange sensation surfaced in his mind.

Lanlos

Race: High Elf

Languages: Thalassian, Common, Demonic

Health: 100%

Mana: 9%

Spirit: 61%

Strength: 12

Agility: 13

Intelligence: 16

Constitution: 10

Perception: 15

Charisma: 8

What was this?

Lanlos "looked" at the list of data floating before his eyes, completely bewildered.

"By uploading a mental framework assimilation program, the primary entity can use its own mental awareness to understand the Keystone's functions. The database is stored in the primary entity's memory and can be added to or edited at any time."

Lanlos had no mind to make sense of what the other party was saying. His attention was entirely captured by the strange sensation that had suddenly arisen. It was like someone who had lived with severe nearsightedness for decades suddenly putting on glasses. His senses hadn't changed, but the feeling in his mind made it seem as though he had, in that moment, gained a crystal-clear, bone-chilling understanding of everything in the world.

Yes, understanding. He suddenly understood the way the Sargerite Keystone viewed lifeforms, including himself.

"Lanlos, are you all right?"

The sound—something he perceived through hearing—was normally the most ordinary thing in the world. But to Lanlos now, it felt strangely out of place.

He opened his eyes, which he had shut from discomfort, and stared blankly at the owner of the voice.

At his side, Alleria was watching him with concern.

"I'm fi—uh..." The elf shook his head and tried to stand, but an overpowering wave of weakness caught him off guard. He lost his balance and crumpled toward the ground, limp as a rag doll.

Luckily, Alleria reacted quickly and caught him. "You can't exactly say you're fine when you look like this."

Lying in the ranger's arms, Lanlos had no romantic thoughts at all. His vision sparkled, cold sweat poured down him, his hands and feet had almost gone numb, and even breathing had become terribly difficult. His lungs felt as if they were filled with lead. Every breath took all the strength he had. What romantic thoughts could he have? He felt as though his soul were about to leave his body.

And no wonder. He had forgotten that the Keystone was only a plug-in. To upload what it called a program, it had drained all his mana while leaving him just enough to stay alive.

Most lifeforms in this multiverse had been created by the Titans. In this world, mana wasn't just energy for casting spells; it existed in the flesh and souls of every living thing. Thanks to this miraculous energy, life in this plane included not only carbon-based organisms but also elementals, demons, Ethereals, souls, and more. Mana could be thought of as another kind of blood oxygen. It created and strengthened lifeforms, allowing them to survive without oxygen. Without it, a lifeform couldn't stay alive on biological resources like oxygen and blood cells alone.

Mana was the foundation of this world and the basic sustenance of life in this plane.

That damned Sargerite had nearly sucked the life right out of him without so much as a word.

Although Lanlos was thoroughly annoyed, he couldn't even lift a finger. "Sorry, I think my blood sugar's acting up. I'll be fine after I rest a bit. Could you get me something to eat?"

Alleria didn't quite understand what he meant by "my blood sugar's acting up," but she didn't dwell on it, assuming he was talking nonsense. But thinking of how long he had been unconscious and how he had worked tirelessly to lay Sores to rest, she quickly arranged for someone to give him food and water.

"In your current condition, you probably won't make the ship on your own." Once he had finished eating and drinking and some color had returned to his pale face, the ranger continued, "I'll arrange for someone to escort you aboard, just in case."

"Sorry for the trouble." Lanlos gave an unsteady bow of apology and didn't try to tough it out. As the saying went, practice made perfect; he knew all too well that pushing himself when he was this weak could end with him dead before he even knew what had happened.

There was one thing he truly didn't know, though.

After the elf was helped away by a Farstrider to rest, Alleria withdrew her gaze. Her bright, sapphire-blue eyes settled gently on the gravestone where the elf had knelt. On the corner he had held, an irregular handprint remained, with countless fine cracks spreading through it. It quietly testified to the force's domineering strength.

That guy...

Alleria looked again at the elf, who staggered with every step, then gave Sarell, walking close beside him, a stern look. Sarell understood and quietly nodded.