Editing City Series:Volume8b Chapter12 (section)

===Suedomsa’s Sight Mode: In DT Castle===

'''<Suedomsa’s Over Reload>

After switching from Board Mode and gaining his body’s senses, Suedomsa felt someone supporting his back. The touch felt so familiar. It contained the unique strength of a martial artist’s hand.

He saw Algo’s face with the stone corridor’s ceiling behind it.

Suedomsa had fallen and Algo had caught him in a hand with Alternative and Daikatana on either side of him.

“Are you alright, Master Suedomsa? You stumbled.”

“I am fine. Just a little unsteady.”

“Maybe you should stay in Board Mode for now?”

“No, we have begun a continuation of those events from 2000 years ago. I want to see it all for myself.”

He straightened up and looked ahead.

They were in a hidden passageway in the castle’s third basement.

The stone passageway was about 2 yards wide and had a single door on its wall.

The door was labeled “Ceremonial Ground”. Despite being in the castle, the door was not made of stone or wood. It was a composite bulkhead of polished heavy metal.

The heavy bulkhead opened with a deep groan.

Its two halves slid to either side. The one behind it opened to the top and bottom. The final one a short distance past that rotated like a camera’s shutter to open all at once.

“This seems awfully strict. Perhaps because none of the doors or surrounding walls are dummy data.”

Suedomsa stepped forward, passing through the open doors.

'''<Suedomsa’s Over Zoom>

He saw two glowing panels past the bulkheads.

That was a virtual bulkhead.

When he stepped between the glowing panels, air blew down from above.

He placed his hand on the dove seated on his shoulder and let the wind wash over him.

After only a few seconds, he stepped out of the virtual bulkhead.

'''<Suedomsa’s Over Zoom>

The space known as the ceremonial ground was there.

It was 40 yards long, 20 yards wide, and 10 yards high.

The floor, walls, and ceiling were covered by the metal panels much like the bulkheads.

The light shining down came from holes punched into the panels in an orderly fashion. It came from the fluorescent lights above there.

The room’s entrance area and back area served different functions.

The entrance area contained a giant round diagram.

That was a diskette program measuring 15 yards across. The program diagram carried a laurel wreath in the center and it had at least 7 layers of colors and carvings.

The floor, ceiling, and walls around it were covered in consoles, round buffer reactors, and barrel-shaped transformers.

The most notable features were the clocks on the cardinal directions of the diskette emblem. Their large digital displays clashed with the color of the metal around them and they were counting down to the Day of the Oracle.

The countdown had reached 25:56, with the seconds field soon turning to 55 and 54.

Past the digital displays, all of the machinery was connected to the plugs on the walls and floor by thick wires and conduits. Those were wrapped in black, blue, or red and they all passed around the giant diskette program before continuing on to the ceremonial ground’s back area.

Suedomsa looked up.

'''<Suedomsa’s Over Zoom>

Excel and Myst stood partway along the path of those many wires and conduits. Myst was drawing detailed reinforcement parts and Excel was applying programs to their exteriors.

Past them was the device every will, virtual or otherwise, desired.

A large digital clock newly applied to the ceiling counted down to the Day of the Oracle, but below that was a massive composite machine.

That was the Questron.

'''<Suedomsa’s Over Zoom>

It was shaped like a flower.

A very large flower. The metal flower had blossomed with 15yd-diameter petals.

The 16 petals were large virtual connectors aligned with well-balanced symmetry.

The stem leaves were anti-resonance buffering shield panels used to support the connectors.

The fruit at the center of it all was a pillar of light.

That green light was a 1yd-diameter defense shield linking the ceiling to the floor. It was produced by the Questron.

The walls of light were formed to protect their contents and an animal stood at the point where the bottom of the wall connected to the floor.

The animal was a ferret.

The long-tailed brown creature looked nervously up inside the walls.

There was someone inside the walls of the light.

A woman. A female silhouette floated inside, separated from gravity by the small diskette emblem at the bottom.

That was Yuo.

She wasn’t wearing anything and her expression was blank.

Her eyes were closed and her mouth opened slightly as she floated in the air.



'''<Suedomsa’s Over Zoom>

Suedomsa spoke while watching Yuo from a distance.

“It’s all exactly as I remember it.”

“I thought you said the defense shield was not in place back then.”

“Akalabeth and the others likely felt guilty, so I think they left it so Yuo could leave at any time if she so chose. They had already ceased to be Minus Elites at that point.”

He shut his eyes.

“And that is why my bullet could reach her.”

He left it at that, taking a step forward.

He continued walking toward Yuo in the Questron, no one else accompanying him now.

He crossed the giant, multi-layer diskette program and passed the insulated wires and pipes.

On the way, he asked a question of Excel who had a settings window opened for maintenance purposes.

“How is Yuo?”

“No change from when she last spoke with you. She has agreed to perform the ceremony she attempted so long ago. She called it returning to her long slumber.”

Excel looked past Suedomsa to the entrance.

He saw Algo with Alternative on his shoulder.

He said nothing and Suedomsa, still walking, spoke on his behalf.

“Did Yuo make that decision after seeing Alternative? After seeing her younger sister is now older than her?”

“Yes. And she agreed to accept a program to help her concentrate.”

Excel bowed and held out his right hand. He held four program trigons between that hand’s fingers.

They were each printed with a different symbol: an eye, a musical note leaving a mouth, an ear, and lightning stabbing into a hand.

“We of the Quartet would like to keep these as a memento of Master Yuo.”

“I suppose she won’t turn around if you call her like she did for me back then. Because we aren’t as kind as Akalabeth. We perfectly trapped her in her resignation so we could seek out the proper past.”

Suedomsa nodded once and walked past Excel.

He looked to Yuo at the center of the steel flower petals spread out before him.

“This isn’t how it was 2000 years ago, Yuo. By the time I reached you then…you were already becoming a great god. You were no longer yourself.”

He nodded.

“But I have no right to criticize you for that. Still, Alternative may have been right that I managed to fire that bullet without hesitation because I was a Minus Elite.”

Yuo did not respond within the light, her eyes still shut. There were occasional subtle changes to her expression, like she was dreaming, which indicated she was in Board Mode.

But with her programs removed, she could not sense any outside sound, light, or vibrations even if she Over Reloaded. She could only read the thoughts floating in the other person’s window as part of the standard OS functions.

In Sight Mode, Suedomsa walked onto the flower. He passed between two of the petals and approached the defense shield.

He narrowed his eyes toward the ferret who turned around in front of the shield.

His dove produced a program trigon from below its wing and tossed it down to the ferret.

That was Aoe’s management program. When it rolled in front of the ferret, the Mouse immediately swallowed it.

“I don’t need it since I can use Akalabeth’s program and it belonged to you originally anyway.”

Suedomsa gave the animal no further attention as he arrived in front of Yuo with the glowing wall between them.

A window appeared over her head. She could not see or hear him, so these were her enclosed thoughts.

<This must be…for the best. I don’t know exactly what is happening, but I have a second chance at this.>

A new window appeared over her head too.

<But…I wish I could have spoken with everyone first.>

He read her feelings as text.

And he lowered his head. He looked to his feet and spoke through his clenched teeth.

“Yes, you probably do. But, Yuo, it is time to reveal the answer. Were we right? What did you want when you fell to resignation? And…will someone show up to stop your resignation?”

He put his thoughts to words without raising his head again.

“This is our way of finding all the answers…so it is time to finish what we started 2000 years ago.”

'''<Suedomsa’s Sight Mode has updated>