Inquisitor's Promise (Act Three, Chapter Three)

The Holy League had been united, but the Grey Globe continued to move towards Earth. Aeneas and the members of his inner circle knew they had much to do and little time to prepare.

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Chapter Three: Darkest Meridian

Aeneas woke up in his personal quarters located in his airship. Six in the morning, as always. He looked out through the window and saw the metallic walls of the pyramid’s sky port. He had decided to stay the night in the Pyramid, but he knew that he must soon leave for Meridian. But before that, he went to see Galatea for their morning training.

But to his surprise, he found her quarters to be empty. After learning from one of Jaya’s posse members that she was outside already training with Antonio, Aeneas left the airship himself.

As soon as he stepped outside, Aeneas was shown a sight of two wyverns clashing at one another up above. Galatea’s silver wyvern Sancho Panza was significantly larger than the red-colored wyvern of Antonio’s. The Inquisitor was in awe.

Aeneas caught sight of Galatea’s weapon. A lance, just like Antonio’s slimmer. The lady knight tried to hit Antonio with her lance, but his wyvern blocked it. Antonio countered with his own lunge, causing Galatea to stumble out of Sancho Panza.

“Galatea!” Aeneas cried as he jumped into action. He was able to catch his beloved as she fell.

Having expected to hit the ground, Galatea was surprised that she was caught. And who caught her.

“Lord Aeneas!” she cried. “My thanks.”

“You have to be careful,” Aeneas chastised. “Not the first time you fell out of your wyvern.”

Galatea looked embarrassed as she remembered how the two had reunited. “I’m sorry, I’m not really up to par.”

“You’ll get there,” Aeneas said gently.

“And that’s where you’re wrong, cousin-in-law,” Antonio interjected.

Aeneas saw that Don Quixote was towering over him and Galatea. By the wyvern’s pose, he looked to be showing his dominance over the two. In response, Sancho Panza flew closer as if ready for another fight.

“Peace, you two!” Antonio said. He then stepped down from his wyvern and turned his attention towards Galatea. “Little cousin, how can you protect your lord if you can’t even protect yourself?”

“But Antonio, I’m trying,” Galatea pleaded.

Aeneas wondered if he should intervene but chose to stay silent. He knew that this was something that the two cousins needed to discuss.

Antonio shook his head. “That’s your problem. You’re trying to be a conventional wyvern knight.”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean look at you, little cousin,” Antonio said. He pointed towards Galatea who was cradled comfortably by her beloved. “You’re a small woman. If you try to match me in lance combat, you’ll lose. Simple as that.”

Believing that this was his time to get involved, Aeneas interjected. “But there is something that you have in your favor, Galatea. Or rather, someone.”

Being a smart girl, Galatea quickly realized what the Inquisitor was implying. “Sancho Panza!”

Antonio nodded. “That wyvern’s not only bigger than mine, but also more dedicated. The two of you are so in sync with one another, it’s scary.”

“I get it,” Galatea said. “You’re saying I should rely on Sancho Panza in battle.”

“And only use your lance either to get your enemy off balance or if you absolutely have to,” Antonio added.

“Ah, I see,” Galatea said.

“And never, I mean never get dismounted,” Antonio said with such a heavy emphasis.

Afterwards, Antonio dismissed his cousin and returned to the airship with Don Quixote. This left Aeneas and Galatea alone together, the latter back on her feet.

“Sorry you had to see that, Lord Aeneas,” Galatea said sheepishly.

“As long as you keep learning,” Aeneas encouraged.

At this point, Aeneas saw Galatea’s lance on the ground. He went over and picked it up. Having trained with lances as an Inquisitor-in-training, he knew that this was definitely lighter than the average ones. He was about to give it back to her when he saw two flags on it.

The first bore the wyvern, the logo of San Felipe. Meanwhile, the other had the swooping eagle of House Aquilanus.

“My lance!” Galatea cried. “Thanks, Lord Aeneas.”

And thus, Aeneas handed over the lance to Galatea. And with that, Aeneas prepared for his own training.

Later that day…

The airship left the Great Pyramid for Meridian at noon of that day, after lunch. The trip took a few hours. Located at the central part of the Afrique region, the airship flew in the direction of southwest.

Aeneas knew that he was close to his destination when he saw a large black structure jutting out of the ground. The Meridian Monolith, despite its name had a square-like structure. The Inquisitor couldn’t help but feel that the whole thing felt out of place, especially considering its surroundings.

To the north of the Meridian Monolith were groups of sprawling cities; a couple of hive cities towered over them. Not too different to what Aeneas had witnessed in Texarkana. They were the Guino-Nigerien city-states.

To the east were a mix of jungles and cities. Some of these jungles had giant mushrooms. Upon those mushrooms were houses which formed villages. These were the Congo Jungles.

To the south and the west were the blue waters underneath which one could find underwater cities not to dissimilar to that of the Pacifica Duchy. This was the Atlantic Sea.

With those things in mind, the Monolith looked like it was simply slapped in the middle of all that.

On the base of the Monolith itself was a floor of metal. Nothing but metal. A reminder of the technological prowess of the Dark Age Civilization.

But there was one reminder of the Church’s influence upon Meridian. Close to the Monolith was a monastery complex with a large cathedral, known officially as the Meridian Monastery of the Incarnation.

Comforting yet disconcerting at the same time. In most places in 74^th century Christendom, church buildings were always one of, if not the, highest man-made structure in any given city, town, or village. But the Monolith towered over the Monastery like Goliath over David.

“How do we get into the Monolith, Sir Halpful?” Galatea asked.

“Working on it, I am,” the yellow recordkeeper answered.

Before long, a large square hole appeared on the Monolith. And Aeneas’ airship proceeded to enter into it.

The interior of the Monolith reminded Aeneas and his group of that of the Great Pyramid: roomy and metallic. But as the Inquisitor looked around, he saw various rectangular boxes all around the ceiling and walls. A bluish glow appeared out of them.

“I wonder what those square things are?” Jaya wondered.

“Data centers,” Halpful said. “They hold the machine spirit chips. Take care around them. If you damage them, you might kill them. And there can be thousands of them in one center.”

“Each one of them is like a village or even a city,” Aeneas added.

“Oh no! We can’t be too careless,” Galatea said.

“It’s beautiful, though,” Aeneas said in awe. “I’ve read about them and saw the pictures. But seeing them in person is another thing entirely.”

“Let’s stay focused, cousin-in-law,” Antonio interjected. “Can’t have you gaze at the view with Bashan running around.”

“Right,” Aeneas said sheepishly.

“Guess there’s something good about the Dark Age Civilization,” Jaya muttered.

With the airship landed in the Meridian Monolith’s sky port, Aeneas proceeded to bring out his soldiers. Given their surroundings, care must be taken to ensure that they wouldn’t be misbehaving. Thankfully, Jaya was more than ready for such a task.

Halpful guided the group as they made their way to the inner parts of the Meridian Monolith. Getting through the outer parts was of no issue. Most of the machine spirits here were baptized members of the Church. They were more than happy to let the Army of Aeneas through their territory so long as the soldiers behave themselves.

Some were even welcoming as they provided Aeneas’ group with food and supplies. Aeneas had taken supply precautions given that machine spirits did not eat the same way as most races of humanity did. Nonetheless, the Inquisitor welcomed the locals’ assistance.

Another group of machine spirits also agreed to help Aeneas in the form of military assistance. These came in the form of flying probes and drones. These drones could launch laser beams at their enemies, an interesting form of weaponry.

More importantly, these drones were remotely controlled by the machine spirits from their respective data box. This meant that when these drones were destroyed, the machine spirits were not killed. Upon learning of this fact, Aeneas quickly recruited as many of these probes as he could.

The Inquisitor always liked to reduce his casualties.

Thankfully, the journey throughout the Monolith had been uneventful thus far.

“I don’t want to complain,” Jaya began. “But we haven’t seen any battles, and the men are getting restless because of it.”

“It’s good that we don’t have to fight at all, bandit lord. It means less men dying on us,” Antonio pointed out.

“I agree on that level,” Aeneas said. “On the other hand, if our presence here is unnecessary that means we could’ve help out in the Azov or on the Moon.”

“I didn’t even think about that,” Galatea chimed in.

Halpful, who had been content to listen in to the conversation decided to interject. “You will see a fight, make no mistake.”

“What do you mean, Sir Halpful?” Galatea asked.

“Some of the machine spirits here told me about a black cat trying to stir chaos,” Halpful explained. “He had been chased out by most of the data server netizens, but we have no idea on his whereabouts.”

Aeneas nodded. He knew that his group had to be careful. This was darkest Meridian, after all. The Christian machine spirits may have little tolerance for Bashan, but the non-believers could be another story.

As the group neared the Dark Age Archive, Aeneas saw a series of houses and other buildings. A strange sight, given that everything else in the Monolith had been nothing but data centers.

“What’s a regular city doing here?” Antonio wondered.

“This place used to serve as the residence of the Dark Age Civilization’s ruling class,” Halpful answered.

“You mean these humans are surrounded by machine spirits?” Jaya asked.

“Human in the loose sense of the word,” Halpful said. “They were more like cyborgs.”

“Machine spirits operating a machine body,” Aeneas stated.

“I can’t be the only one glad that these people are no longer around,” Antonio chimed in.

Halpful shook around. “No, I feel the same way. That being said, the Fall of the Dark Age Civilization led to the deaths of trillions if not quadrillions.”

“But the Dark Age Civilization had caused as many deaths by their very own existence,” Galatea responded.

“I understand, Galatea,” Aeneas interjected. “But what Halpful is trying to say is that the Three Days of Darkness was a great disaster. I wouldn’t wish it even on my worst enemy.”

That was the extent of the discussion on the Dark Age Civilization. Aeneas’ group continued their march and set up camp at the abandoned town. Several of the soldiers and machine spirit drones formed a defensive perimeter around the town.

With the perimeter now secured, Aeneas and his group looked towards his destination. The Great Archive was located about two miles from the abandoned town. There was a huge bridge separating the two, large enough to fit a traffic in a Terran hive city.

The Inquisitor saw the bridge in front of him. It looked to be holographic just like the objects shown by the Council of Ten. And yet, Aeneas was able to step on it. The whole thing was transparent, but it’s not glass either.

“This is, some sort of solid light?” Aeneas asked in confusion.

“I can explain to you the mechanics, but it would take hours. At the very least,” Halpful said.

Aeneas shook his head. “No thanks.”

Antonio chuckled heartily. “I guess some things are too much even for our bookworm lord.”

“In any case,” Jaya interjected. “We’ll just go in that library thing, get what we need, and leave the Monolith.”

Aeneas nodded in agreement. That sounded like a reasonable course of action.

“I can’t let you do that, Lord Inquisitor!”

“You!” Aeneas cried.

The Inquisitor saw the figure in front of him. There was no mistaking it. That was the Dark Lord of the Cabal himself, Bashan Voronin.

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