Chapter 11: Broken Promises
When every thing was done Ashai stopped moving and fell asleep instantly, she could tell it was deep, and that she most likely wouldn't even wake up by the time she said her goodbyes to her. Lucious also stopped falling apart, luckily he planned for the possibility of something like this happening so Samira grabbed a specific tool that looked like a plain black cylinder container. Holding Ashai in one arm and the cylinder in the other she pressed the top button and placed it on Lucious body that layed face down in the dirt.
The cylinder hissed briefly before it started to crumble, each piece that fell off breaking into smaller and smaller pieces. Then as it was falling apart it started to move into Lucious body. Each piece no bigger than the width of a strand of hair. A astronomical amount of miniature machines. They drilled into Lucious's falling apart body finding where they are meant to go. Some with the goal of keeping his body functioning, others there to help heal what they can or at least temporarily replace the parts that are too far gone. As everything was falling apart they invaded most of his body.
Lucious gather just enough strength to not look like he'd die at the smallest touch. Samira seeing this helped him turn over, then gently brought him to lean against the rocks wall. "ahhzzhh... fuck that was so much worse than I thought it would be. ahhh but it's alright I could at least do my part." With a slight mechanical and robotic voice Lucious spoke. After suffering so much soul damage his mind was working slower but it was still functioning enough to hold a slow conversation.
"Pfft whattt? nah that doesn't look that bad, you'll be fine to fight a dragon in a few" Samira replied in a light tone although she still couldn't hide the quiver in her voice.
"Yeah you're right I'm really just being a complainer hahaha. Still I don't think I can join for the next part, I'll stay here to start destroying all the trails and tracks." there was a slight pause in the conversation, the melancholic and somber atmosphere spiking immediately "Can you bring her a little closer, although I can only see her through the machine constructs it's still better than nothing"
Doing as he ask, Samira brought Ashai to her father. Lucious's empty eye sockets hummed slightly as a soft light extended out of them. He controlled some of the machines to go to his face so he can look at his daughter and wife with a human expression one last time. "I love you Ashai, I'm not sure what you're future will bring you. I have done my best and your fathers a little tired now so I'll have to stay here to catch up later. I'm sorry that I couldn't do any better for you but I really do hope you don't blame me and your mother to much. Thank you for coming into our lives and I hope you don't blame yourself if you find out about us. I love you"
After that, with a strenuous effort his lift his head a little bit to look at Samira "Ahhh I feel a little silly telling her all those more complex things, but I still hope the message got across still" he paused for a moment "Samira I-" But he was cut off "Shhh don't worry, we'll say our goodbyes later so make sure you're okay when I get back, alright?"
He just kept looking at her for a few moments "a-alright", with that he stopped straining his neck and let it rest looking down once more.
They both knew it was a lie, a promise he wouldn't keep, but Samira didn't want the lie to end and Lucious couldn't bring himself to end it for her.
Samira moved and knelt down beside him, held his hands for a few seconds not even sure if he could feel it, then helped him reach out and hold Ashai one last time. "I'll get her there safe so don't you don't have to worry about that, just lay down a relax for a while. Maybe take a nap or something... okay?... just wait for me, I promise I won't take to long so just wait a little bit!" As she finished speaking she helped his hand back down into a comfortable position. She got up took one last quick look, then she turned around and followed the prepared map to the person they were going to entrust Ashai too.
Protecting Ashai with a barrier of wind she was able to sprint through the sparse trees extremely quickly, as long as she made no rapid changes in movement or speed Ashai wouldn't be bothered by any external factors. So she pushed herself, she pushed herself with everything she could. Hoping to beat the inevitable, she didn't know what specifically what he wanted to do but she knew she was going to hate it, hate it to the depths of her soul.
Luscious sat quietly for a few moments before "Phase 1:Clearance - Activate" he infused his will into the robotic voice, then most of the remaining items in the duffle bag started to move. Machines ranging from the sizes of fists to a small animal all started to hum to life. The runic script carved into each making them able to complete pre set tasks. They started to destroy the environment rapidly, nothing too big just the surface level and enough to erase any traces left by Samira. Due to this they could work rapidly, scorching everything with a controlled fire, sporadic explosions to loosen up dirt and topple trees. They continued to expand outwards for 15 minutes. After that "Phase 2: False Trails - Activate".
The machines which were destroying the environment, now a few miles away, all stopped at the same time. Switching their directives and started spreading out in every direction. They left false trails in varying levels of obviousness, some of them making the equivalent of large stomps in the dirt and others so subtle that even the most experienced trackers will have trouble finding it. They'll continue their endless march outwards until destroyed or running out of energy.
"Final Gift: Come" with that the last machine came to life and moved over slowly, it wrapped around his chest and back. A piece that looked like a button coming under his left hand with even his now thin and shriveled hand being enough to press the button down. "Final Gift: Activation condition 2" The machine hummed momentarily before becoming quiet.
Although he wanted to laugh he kept it to himself, the feeling of the machines in his body, mimicking his bodies normal functions are at best uncomfortable, while being extremely painful most of the time, with vocal cords being the latter. Internally sighing, he kept going, finishing up doing what little he could do. Using his will he made some of the little machines in his body leave and drag the scale and tubed contracts, both still had one use left and he intended to do just that.
After they were brought over they were just placed lightly on his lap. Determining himself to what was about to be a very unpleasant experience, even still he needed to do it so he will do it. He can rest after so he had his machines finally speak. He chanted the ancient language one last time, this time much much worse than the previous two. The pain was truly unrelenting, but although his mind was a mess he never broke the chant. Finally finished, the contracts primed to be written. Thus he spoke
"Hear my voice, Feel my will, Acknowledge my desire. I Lucious Nepherhai write this contract to be recognized by the world. I desire 'My daughters traces to be erased, unable to be tracked, her presence diminished' I put up to make this contract fair 'My soul, take it from the cycle, break it down for everything it is worth, use it however the world desires. The time of effect for this contract will be for what my soul is worth'"
Once more the contracts glowed, the cylinder losing it's luster now nothing more than a fancy piece of metal. The scale lighting up softly.
Good he thought. Now he just needed to do two last things, but before that he spoke out aloud once again "I'm sorry Samira, I really wish I could've kept my promise but I'm going to have to break it this time. I've never once lied or broke a promise to you since the first day we met, so just this once I'm going to be selfish. I hope you can forgive me, forgive me for not being able to go on our next adventure. Still I hope you can find happiness in your next life without me, find someone better in your next life, someone not so selfish" pausing he pushed through the pain looking up to see the sky, still grey with clouds but now with scatter strands of blue and orange morning light breaking through. They look so beautiful, they really do, but still, they just can't compare to that smile that's been stuck in my head for so many years.
"fuck... I really am going to miss your big silly smile"
Although he wanted to cry he was unable to, his failing body not granting him his final tears. So he pushed through "Life Retainment System: Mimicry state 3 - activation time 15 minutes", he knew this state was a possibility so he had put a few rune scripts to allow the machines keeping him alive the ability to pretend to be him, using his body like a falling apart puppet.
Now he finally had a few minutes to relax and do the only thing he really could, go over his memories, looking at the most important things in his life over and over. So he stopped having his false eyes send information, not letting anything distract him from seeing those moments again. His final peace.
