Chapter 2 - Memory

So, what will happen if we level it up.. ? Fowliang inquired.

What else it'll gain more will power and be more human like but still a loyal soldier... isn't it great ? I've made sure of it, while I was building it, its completely bound to me.

Yeah, but doesn't this thing have organic parts ? Here and there..

It does indeed, but its all in the places that has no control over the overall structure.. you can't control the body from an arm muscle..

So let's do it properly.. since it has potential as you said...

Fine...Larchen said.

We've to.. push this army out so the city can breath.. That is our purpose here.. Flow of trade to region must not be harmed.. Civilians shouldn't panic... So, if you used the other constructs, would it help us ? If someone else did the operating...

Larchen shifted in his place.. it was uncomfortable... she was too playful... as if her toe was going in front of his face every once in a while.. It'd not go well... its better if I do that, with much more high adaptation and efficiency rate.

Shit.. Fowling said.. But you said you'd fight in this manner, and we've made our planning accordingly.. You didn't say that you'd be guarded..

Oh Fowliang, are you flirting with me right now ? Perhaps i'm mistaken..

Bring those things to this battlefield, and we'll talk.. i'll "perform" for you, experimentally...

Oh ? Meaning trying new things.. Larchen was in thought for a while... his libido fighting with his trade sense..
Fine, but let me get on top.. so they can follow this one around... you've had your fun, anyway..

Fowliang didn't object, they shifted around in the construct, Larchen taking the reins to it.

You like that huh ? my energy all over you.. Larchen joked.. Fowliang didn't answer as if to say, let's go..

Their energies switched places also, Larchen was a like a tiny virus that penetrated into her massive psyche, Fowliang didn't fight it, since she trusted him.

Alright, let's reinforce the main wing with a column of constructs first, about 30 or so.. The machines started flying over from the city warehouse landing near Larchen and Fowliang on the battlefield, they started fighting enemy army.

The robots fought differently each, so their tricks weren't obvious, Larchen has configured them in that purpose. Soon enough, their presence made a difference in the struggle, the town's army started pushing on.

Keep going, Fowliang said, let them walk onward, use their capabilities, don't hold back.. I'll take a nap...

You what..

I like your... energy, its so warm, cozy... it makes me so sleepy..

Say what..

Don't contradict me, Larchen, okay ?

I guess.. he agreed. If she wanted to be uncharacteristically romantic suddenly in the middle of the battle, who was he to disagree ? But he was no fool, this was a clear invitation from her to dive deep into her inner energy, her psyche, and her memories... She absolutely knew how Larchen would
immediately do exactly that and take advantage..

Larchen took a deep breath..

...

Larchen looked around the place, it reminded him of a library with various floors and sections. The setting indicated she was used to going around the place in a certain way, and the section he was in, there was a thin flow of energy, reserved for them. He saw a curious cabinet, as he approached to it, it said, Hey its you, Larchen.. Came to take your prize ?

I wouldn't know how to be perfectly honest with you, Larchen sighed..

How nice of you, you dirty gangster..

Larchen didn't say anything, he looked around, there were a section or rather a contraption for everyone she killed... he realized he was also in this section of the library for the same reason. She had killed him as a baby after all, in another life.. Everyone she betrayed and wronged in some way, were flowing in a stream as spirits. This was a quite a large section indeed. Larchen grinned, she was almost as worse as him... she just didn't profess it..

He was easily bored.. when there were noble concepts to abide by.. But he admitted, the place looked super beautiful, it was immense and intensely epic and pretty and strong and all that, a character he could only dream of to have. So he tried to adapt to her flow.. caring more..about things, instead of harsh apathy..

The spirits or books were numbered like an army.. Two plus centuries of memories made a lot of material indeed. But the place was kept strict.. you could tell she has such an organized mind ever since she was a wee teenager. As a disciple, she fought with her teachers day and night, in tremendous almost violent arguments, and only calmed her spirit and anger barely with praying and chanting afterwards. She was talented so she eventually found work as an enforcer instead of an academic path, due to her disagreements with her environment.

She was known as a .. mercenary, or rather she killed quite easily, and was a magnificent beauty with a serious following.. She clearly had her first time with a southerner man, whom she possessed. He was a short man, just their affair.. Larchen flinched, he should have been more careful looking around, he felt like dying with all the concentration. He decided to completely skip over these types of memories from now on.

He looked at some of the fights she had over the years. At one such a memory, she was almost half dead when she was standing on her knee, she could barely breath, and most of her life were faltering.. It was a common enough battlefield, at a common enough region.. Blood were gushing in a dark red stream down her legs as she was trying to breath, slowly turning purple.

Then suddenly joy appeared in her eyes, as she realized she didn't care anymore.. Life was a test, a breath was a force.. there was beauty in it, who could deny her this ? She exhaled, then she tried to move using last of her energy reserves... then she fainted..

....

It was a medicine tent, she was casually and cheerfully talking to a disciple, who seemed odd. You are too eager Fowliang, the disciple said, Fowliang frowned.. Who are you to give me advice you are barely half my cultivation.. The odd disciple answered back, and they kept on their friendly bickering..

Larchen thought that her character was such. She wanted.. equality for others, she wanted to act in a way that expressed this desire.. That was why she allowed and encouraged him to look in codex of memories, or perhaps she meant something else..

To Larchen, life was a stream, but it lacked a sunny sky. The river flowed bleakly, but from it, he gained a treacherous lack of evenness. He weaponized this energy reserve, and made it his philosophy. He could tell, she probably was.. hurt by his attitude..

He looked around some more, shaking his head.. He felt more alive, unusually less numb and less tired, but he didn't really felt any hope.. He didn't like... nice things that much... he was more comfortable in grand structure which hosted horrors.. He looked over some restricted sections. they gave off a warm green light. It was a library, so it's nothing unusual that there were rare, restricted reserves.. He eagerly decided to inquire further..

She was training in the Stoneyard Thundergod sect courtyard.. He was also in the field, he sort of a remembered or recognized himself. His nose started bleeding but he went along, the training was always difficult for him, but he pushed on despite the depression..life was difficult to him..

He observed, looking at himself, back then, looking at elder Fowliang in a clearly lusty manner.. he was like a stupid dwarf who'd die with one slap.. He was embarrassed in current reality. Fowliang clearly noticed it, since cultivators were attuned to killing intents.. it also meant they noticed other type of intents..

Larchen observed her reaction in slow motion... since he now could unlike back then, when he was far in the distance.. Was she going to get angry ? He almost lost his speech and started coughing, she absolutely did nothing.. she completely ignored it.. as if she was absorbing a secret.. she.. enjoyed it

This was more drastic then a critical response mockery or anything else.. She deliberately chose to ignore it completely. It was like a tiger turning its head away from a chicken's shouting, among a field of chickens.. The disciple, he back then, clearly wanted to fuck her..he let it slip.. in such an unsightly manner, he was such a bad student too.. only an idiot would be so dumb..

But Larchen remembered these training sessions, he wasn't a total idiot, its just that his mind worked differently. Fowliang then picked a student among them, not him, to show the disciple the moves of the sun season's myth art. He as a disciple then, lowered his gaze, if he kept it on, he would be murdered.. He then couldn't help but look at her once more from the distance.. She was old in age, but so perfect.. She executed the moves perfectly, and she had
perfect focus... Both Larchen's figured, he really was a psycho, his lack of care for status bordered on suicidal, this romance was something that could never be..

He felt exactly the same way he felt back then, cold sweat running over him, no escape from her sight.. these two alone among a number of disciples. It was like a wind, cutting the stone with its sharp blades on corners.. He realized, he got old. He was much softer now.. compared to back then, he eroded.. But then he realized, it was she, who was eroding, he felt only that her cultivation started to divert from back then. It sagged like a yellow tree at a strange loose gravity, and her face looked worried, the corruption went until down the roots of her tree of cultivation.

He now, thought on their correspondence since back then, trying to place the events in chronological order.. He realized, he never considered these things important events, including this one. The next day.. she was wearing a tank top... shocking the people, but Larchen didn't notice the change, at all.. She
clearly, now he noticed, was feeling.. aged, so she made over her image...

The sect operated in its regular order. The messengers ran around the place, the busy life was natural. She went on her days, within the section of her division.The orders weren't to be questioned, cultivation was to be advanced endlessly, as much as one could. Although people looked at her a bit differently, most
people wouldn't even dream about approaching her in a romantic manner.

...