System Programmer Chapter 14: The Old Man And The Sea

The trapped figure hadn't said a word besides his initial warning.

"Catherine, is that guy a summoner?" Joshua asked.

"I believe so. Judging by the situation, his spirit has gone out of control. This is probably the kind of predicament the Crow had in store for me when he had my summoning circle sabotaged."

"I see, so the hydra is keeping the summoner alive to remain in this world while feeding off his energy?"

"Most likely."

"Soooo, should we kill the old man? I know this sounds extreme but considering the state he's in, he probably can't live for long after being removed from that ice block…"

As soon as he had said that, they heard the old man's voice once again.

"If… you can… please... do so…"

Hearing this cleared any doubt from their minds. Based on the old man's appearance, Joshua had the impression he had probably been trapped in there for an eternity, with the hydra somehow keeping it alive. Catherine gave the order and the group moved toward the ice coffin. Seeing this, the hydra sped up and tried to intercept them, but its large body slowed it down too much. It suddenly detached two heads and threw them toward the party, but Boris who was acting as the rear guard managed to knock them away with a powerful blow.

When they reached the coffin, Eric bombarded it with fire. The effects were immediate, the coffin started to melt. However, before the group could rejoice, the ice started to reform. Eric frowned and tried several other attacks, supported by Boris who tried to break the ice, to no avail. Joshua tried to traverse the ice, but since it was a summoned item, he couldn't pa.s.s through it either. The hydra was close, they didn't have much time.

"Now what? Anyone got a brilliant idea?" Joshua asked.

Catherine then took a step forward and said: "Sir, let me enter your soul world."

"Are...you... sure?" the voice answered.

"Yes!"

"...Fine...Be...careful."

"Joshua, go to my soul world! The rest of you, please keep the hydra busy" she ordered.

Her teammates nodded while Joshua entered Catherine's world, not sure what she was planning.

She was already there, floating above her giant lake. A waterspout had formed around her as a result of Catherine focusing her energy. Suddenly a few meters away from Catherine, a loud crack could be heard. Joshua watched agape as a fissure appeared in the soul world. Catherine maintained her calm as she waited for it to grow for a few seconds. When the fissure was about human size, she did a motion with her hand and the waterspout she was maintaining changed form and the top part bent over to reach into the fissure. The water spread over the borders of the fissure and entered it as well. When the supply Catherine had gathered was exhausted, the borders of the fissure began to freeze. Joshua took a look inside, the water that had entered froze as well, creating a bizarre tunnel.

"I had no idea you could do something like that," he said, clapping his hands.

"Really? There is a pa.s.sage linking both our souls. This one is more rudimentary but it's based around the same principle." Catherine answered. "Crossing this should lead to the old man's soul world. Entering someone's else's place is nearly impossible normally, but he's letting us in willingly."

"OK, and what's the plan exactly? We enter this old man's soul world and do what?"

"We look for what's linking the hydra and the old man and we find a way to break it."

"I thought the only way to break the link between a summoner and his Guardian was the summoner dying."

"Under normal circ.u.mstances that's the case. But I could, in theory, destroy the pa.s.sage that's linking both of our souls. It would tremendously damage my soul world though and I would never be able to summon another spirit if I did that."

She took a deep breath and said :

"We should hurry. This pa.s.sage won't last long and I believe it's our best way to defeat the hydra."

"Fine, you're the expert in spirits. I'll trust your judgment," Joshua replied as he followed her through the pa.s.sage.

The tunnel wasn't long and after a few seconds, they emerged into a large open s.p.a.ce. They appeared to be on a small island in the middle of a small sea.

"So this is the old man's soul world? Looks like he's using water, like you," Joshua observed.

"Indeed, his place is larger than mine though, he should be a fourth-ranked soul," Catherine answered. "We should move before the hydra realizes where we are," she added.

Joshua nodded and looked around. The old man was nowhere in sight. He suspected he was probably trapped somewhere in here. He used Luna's mapping function to scout the area. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary, but still no sign of the man.

Seeing Joshua frowning, Catherine tried another method. She kneeled down and plunged her hand into the sea and closed her eyes. A light blue aura surrounded her as she did so. From what he could tell, Joshua a.s.sumed she was expecting the water itself. He waited patiently until she was done, which took about thirty seconds. She stood up and pointed east.

"There is something troubling the water in that direction," she said.

He made a spoon appear in his hand. It looked like since this was still a soul world, he could materialize objects, although it costed more energy than doing so in his world or Catherine's.

Satisfied, he changed his outfit to look like a sailor, approached the sh.o.r.e and made a small motorboat appear.

"Arrrfff, come on, la.s.s! The sea is waiting!" he said, in a ridiculous sailor accent.

Catherine just sighed and hopped on. She knew it would be pointless to ask about this new silly costume. As soon as she did, the boat sprang to life, similar to his bots the boat was equipped with a Luna autopilot function. The boat was much faster than the little raft Catherine had made. Still, reaching the area Catherine had found would take them several minutes. Since they were 'visitors' in this world, they couldn't just appear anywhere they wanted.

"How is it going outside?" Joshua asked.

"We're fine, we can keep the hydra at bay by constantly moving around."

Joshua was only a soul, he couldn't be in two places at once. Catherine, however, also controlled her physical body at the same time as her soul projection. Therefore, she kept Joshua up to date with the situation.

After a few minutes, they realized the area was changing. The clear sea was ending and the water looked troubled. Even though they were still in a sea, the water was dark and muddy, it looked like it was taken from a swamp.

"We're getting close, the hydra is infecting the place," Catherine said.

"So this is a piece of the hydra's soul world that's leaking into the old man's world?"

"Correct, I fear the pa.s.sage linking their world has been damaged and the hydra is just taking this world over. Given enough time, the old man's soul world would be completely consumed."

"I see, this hydra is a real parasite. Slowly eating his host's soul to boost his own capacity… Hmm, I think Luna found something."

Indeed, Luna had just detected an unusual form in the swampy area. It was too big to be a person, but it might be a small island, like the one they had appeared on. Hopeful, they sailed toward it, but when the form became visible they both looked at the horror with their mouth agape.

What stood before them in the middle of the muddy water was a large fleshly figure covered in scales. Sticking out of it, they saw the old man's figure, half-merged with it. The man appeared to be unconscious. The fleshly body seemed to detect something was coming near and soon the head of a snake grew out of it. Laying its eyes upon the intruders it let out a loud roar.

"d.a.m.n it found us. Well, that's still within expectations." Joshua said.

"Indeed, but we also found what we were looking for. If we break the old man from that place, we win."

Meanwhile, in the real world, the group was busy evading the hydra saw it suddenly stop its movement, roar loudly and vanish.

"Lady Catherine, did you get it?" Eric asked.

"Not yet, it found us…" she answered.

Without wasting time, Catherine told Joshua the hydra had dismissed its physical form and was most likely heading back here.

What happened next was within Joshua's expectation. Materializing a body in the real world was much more costly than in the soul world. When he saw dozens of snakeheads appear in the water one after the other he couldn't help but sigh. Despite the situation, he was strangely serene.

"Seriously, is a number of infinite heads the best you can imagine? That's so… boring." he said.