Chapter 133: 133. First of the Homo Invictum
<How does it feel, Akwey? Any discomfort, lightheadedness, or holes in memories?> Liam asked, one of his many ethereal bodies hovering down to be face to face with the oval-shaped screen of a humongous humanoid of silvery metal.
<No All-Father, none of it. Words fail to express how sensational it feels; my every thought and sense are beyond all they ever were, and my body… My body is powerful above what I knew possible, my mind a fortress, and my very being incomparable to what it once was.> Akwey answered, shifting his new body of metal, Tek, and Element.
<Excellent, but you know, it's unnecessary to use such honorifics for me? You're one of the first people I met; you helped me when I needed the most. We are friends, blood brothers. There is no reason for you to need to grovel in my presence.> Liam said with a smile, floating around the Homo Invictum while forming tendrils of the Argent Sea to scan the creature of immense power and work in the finer details.
Akwey was now a creature that was under the appellation of Homo Invictum, a new species or, more accurately, a class of citizens outside of the regular Alpha, Beta, and Gamma for Humans and the other classification for Na'vi and Tulkun.
He was part of a nascent elite group of warriors in all forms of wars, eternal bodyguards, expert combatants, masters of all martial arts, and undying gladiators, for they would always come back stronger and serve beyond the realm of death forever more.
Each was carved and grown with intent, purpose, and meaning from being that once were Human, Na'vi, and even Tulkun, the latter most rare but possible. Anyone starting from adulthood can volunteer to become one. Still, it comes with the price of heavy responsibilities, and everything in someone's existence until now will be changed in ways none but the All-Mother and All-Father could predict.
In addition, it is a step without going back—the ultimate sacrifice for the greater whole.
And to become one, tests of extreme harshness were on the way, though all exclusively of the minds. Skills and experience could be gained, but other characteristics could never be obtained after the ascension. Those were empathy, understanding of mortality, and normality. Seemingly unimportant notions, but that couldn't be further from the truth, and failing to understand this basis will mean failure as a whole.
The Homo Invictum were not to become mindless machines of destruction with no connection or understanding of their very reason for existence. If that were the case, Liam would not have created them.
Akwey was one of the first to have taken that step, the old Olo'eyktan of the Olangi, having chosen this path over rotting away by the hand of time or becoming obsolete and not protecting his people forever more when the option was given by what amounted to the God and Goddess themselves.
Becoming a Homo Invictum was a choice that was most logical and did not interfere with the sacred tradition of joining the ancestors from the long distant past at the moment of death. One of the most important for all Na'vi, if not the most important, as through it, they learned and kept knowledge and experience living.
He was still one with the Great Mother; his Soul was under her protection, but his Mind was in the hand of the All-Father, and through this, with a new body, his demise and its consequences did not exist anymore. He had become an undying creature with the primary purpose of granting and stopping the death of friends and foes.
He had become a tool, their tool, a tool for their sacred will to spread and prosper within the cosmos, and this he understood better than anyone but his sires, <I know, but I cannot do so All-Father for it will be disrespectful; we are not of the same realm and acting as if this did not exist is inadequate. But if you truly desire it, then I will obey, Liam.>
<There is no reason to force you. Call me as you see fit.> the All-Father said with an audible sigh before a blinding smile grew upon his face of light, <Now, onto practical examinations. I can see and feel you are eager, and I follow suit; you're the first to become one fully, and I never did test one of those bodies in such circumstances.>
<How couldn't I be? Who wouldn't be? This is the greatest of honor and a moment that I awaited for the moment I volunteered. I may be old, but I luckily did not go senile.> Akwey said, jabbing at the Tsahik of the Olangi, who was still alive and well close to reaching half of her second century. She was well over a Na'vi regular lifespan, but that didn't matter to her, and he was sure she had decades more to live.
He stood up to his full massive height of four meters and twenty centimeters (~14ft), taller than Liam by more than a third of the latter size. The screen was his face; he shifted it to mimic the facial expression according to the emotion he was feeling, and from the shape and size of the grin, it was one of pure excitement.
<That is quite correct.> The Homo Deus agreed, chuckling slightly at this, and with a nonchalant wave of his hand, both vanished in a flash of light.
They reappeared in what seemed to be an infinitely flat plain that dipped down at some point into an ocean; on the horizon, three Obelisks hovered and shot their respective color into a cloudless blue sky.
<Where are we? Is that one of the Ark?> Akwey asked curiously, his voice similar to once he was Na'vi but more elegant, smooth, and flowing, for there was no defect left that was the product of aging and a harsh life of survival with limited medical care.
<That is the case, one of the Ark Prototypes and one where I, my mate, and my son train and test various tools.> Liam answered as he turned and hovered above his interlocutor, his arms spreading as he disappeared in a swarm of tiny silvery hexagon scales.
Then, the world shook like an earthquake was happening, and everything changed within the next few moments. From the ground, dark grey pillars erupted and reached the sky in short seconds, where other structures appeared and began to glow green while the ground morphed.
This same organic metal grew, followed by a yellow soil, then waters appeared, and from it, a massive blade of grass followed, and most soon came as the temperature and humidity increased while the luminosity did the opposite. Soon, it became the ground floor of a Mothership, a life-sized replica if smaller in range.
Akwey did the equivalent of a confused blink before tens of thousands of blue light pinged in his omnidirectional sights and various radars far more precise and sensible than any in humanity's existence.
They were Harvester Drones, their fragile body protected under a shell of biological armor that was their suits and further protected by high-tech armor connected to various ranged weapons but also Attackers spaceship flying at high speed between the organic-like pillars forming swarms that reminded him of stingbats, if only far worse.
In the next instant, those drones rained green hell upon Akwey from every direction, and each hit its mark on the hologram he had left behind and exploded as he disappeared in a blur of light.
His movements were inhuman in every aspect, from precision to strength and swiftness, as he turned five dozen in his vicinity into fine green mist using his four fists and the shock waves generated from the movements and blue energy blast.
As the blood pooled on the ground in his two upper hands appeared spears of hard light as his posture changed and his lower arms and feet morphed into what almost resembled a mix of hooves and claws.
His shale was now close to that of a horse and its rider, a position he had been in for longer than most humans lived, and he became a whirlpool of destruction, charging, teleporting, jumping, and doing acrobatics that should not be possible for something his weight and size.
From then on, the massacre began, and the first Homo Invictum caused untold destruction upon his foe, cloned from biological material collected with the attack in the Sol System. The most noticeable feature of his appearance was his personal shield, reflecting incoming projectiles and blood splashing against him as he erratically moved at supersonic speed.
However, his targets numbered in the thousands, and thousands more kept arriving without sign of ending. All warped in by the All-Father from Tek Cloning Chambers. As the bloodbath went on for hours, hills of corpses grew, and rivers of green blood and crushed innards flowed, yet the tides did not stop.
The swarm grew not only in number but in many aspects; their tactics, biology, equipment, and technique changed, improved, and became progressively better and more adapted to neutralize Tek and him in particular effectively.
The hours that had passed soon turned to days that became weeks as they multiplied. The war of attrition had continued, and Akwey was beginning to lose it, the outer shield of hard light and the many more below with physical wear down little by little.
His mental and physical energy did not waver, but all that was in his personal subspace, from resources for repairing himself to equipment, trickled down until nearly nothing remained. But he continued without a sign of stopping.
"Seven hundred ninety-one thousand three hundreds and sixty-nine." Akwey thundered as he narrowly dodged an explosion of green that would have melted the outer layer of his armor while a spear of light in his hand cleaved through the alien in front of him.
However, he could not dodge the subsequent explosion, and plasma hotter than the Sun's surface, self-contained in a green bubble, hit him on his right upper shoulder, tearing it right off with the arm and weapon holding it.
'It will only get worse.' Akwey noted impassively uncaring to the lost limbs, for even if there was pain, it did not perturb him or affect his focus.
But it affected everything else, and so it became more evident losing was the only option. Then, the alien clones reached a prediction far above any and all, and his movement that, for many, would be all but divine became as predictable as a child facing a seasoned veteran.
Mistakes began to be made, and they rapidly accumulated for the Homo Invictum. There was no possibility of healing for a lack of resources, and his energy was allocated elsewhere, which seriously wore him down, leading to further damage.
The number of drones kept on increasing, and the weapons they bore reached a point where each hit was a significant threat to his bodily integrity, but he did not yield. He pressed on without fatigue until his body was no more but a shattered visage.
Then it all vanished in a drizzle of blue flakes, and the verdant plain spreading as far the eyes could see with the three Obelisks came back as if it all had become an illusion.
<That was an impressive display, old friend. You have succeeded in all tests but one.> The swarm of silvery hexagons came and formed a lozenge from which Liam's body came into existence, a warm smile on his face.
The broken face of the Homo Invictum blinked weakly in acknowledgment, and Liam chuckled before recreating the body of Akwey like a building block toy. It was done with the flick of a finger and one word that the ex-Na'vi wasn't sure of the purpose.
"Arise."
A pregnant silence occurred after this word of connection; only Liam and the people passionate about a certain centuries-old branch of fiction from the beginning of the 21st would understand.
<It was… Words fail to express my recent experiences, I fear. But I can see my mistakes, my focus. It was too polarized.> Akwey said, standing up and stretching, organic yet not muscles flexing behind the silvery exoskeleton revealing a hint of the blue veins below.
<That would be correct, but the most glaring point is the predictability of your movement. But that is normal and hardly fair with me leading them; the same applies to the lack of imagination and other minor afflictions.> Liam explained understandably, but his presence veered to the exact opposite. <Be that it may, I expect from you that it will not become a constant. For this, you will be joining my son in his training and shall become the Head of the Invictus Legion.>
<Your words are laws, All-Father.> Akwey said his body became taut, and his mind reached conclusions that were chilling with the little he knew of Miles' training. But this was pushed down to nothingness. That is what he signed for, and he will not back down.
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