Awaken the Keepless

[Carn_Val]

Walking above the ashen floor, Keepless found himself in an encampment, tents covered with the same particles throughout the lifeform. Distinguishing himself from the grey ashfall became harder as the weather became more severe. Soon they find themselves within the cover of a larger tent. Inside, beings made of questionably unusual rockface came to meet them. These were the owners of the faceless silhouttes they have seen outside, under the rough ashfall.

The black figure, the true silhouette, addressed one of them as Goshen, Keepless taking note of each and everyone they met, making profiles inside himself as the figure started to concentrate on something. Moments later, the sound of moving elements vibrated beneath the soles of the automaton. Curious, Keepless went outside to witness some crystal material steadily growing to blanket the campgrounds. Now, the lights found their uses as the camp parted from the grey weather, thanks to the glassy dome of the very same ash that poured on them.

Going back inside the tent, Keepless resumes their current conversation.

"The Smiling One? You speak like you yourself operate at a higher standing. Whoever this is, if he truly is capable of even making one as freeform as you to come here and conform to this world's rules then, I must conclude that The Smiling One is truly...powerful," Keepless told the being his thoughts after seeing the dome form over the camp and concluding that it was the shadow's doing, assuming that who it referred to as "The Smiling One" was the same being he met before arriving to the Nexus.

Even after five years inside this realm, Keepless has made no progress on the being named Omni, probably because he is bound to an order from Seed which, unless it is proved to be relevant to his objective, is of higher priority. He may have help a few people somewhere but only because they were short and urgent, and most importantly, that he was helping humans.

"Inside...you might be held together with this as well...everything else seems to be," the machine held a glowing sphere on his hand. It starts floating and slowly went back inside Keepless' chest. Now the type of question Keepless used for insight was returned to him, he was now the one being questioned, not that he minds.

"Seed is..." Keepless trailed off, trying to dig through his memory. He never actually met Seed, he just knows he was made to help Seed.

"Well, I apologize in advance but it seems to be a long one. I'm going to rephrase the available data to make it more 'clear'. Basically, summarize it."

The machine being stands motionless in the middle of the large tent, recompiling whatever relevant data he has to cater to his new companion.

"Ok, shall we begin? Seed was and still is the very first of our kind, the sentient one at least. More than a two centuries ago, there was the creation of a kind of plastic assisted by pre-programmed molecules that allows any object made of it to assume any kind of form, like Omnillium. Quite similiar yet very different than Omnillium, the plastic was pretty much only able to change its very shape and not its composition. Somewhere in time, a very large war that spanned two generations struck between the two most dominant corporations that manufacture this technology, causing one of them to build a conscious A.I. Program with a body using this nano-polymer/resin. The A.I. helped stop the war and reconstruct the broken civilization. During this time, it gained sentience and called itself 'Seed'. I was made with the intention to personally assist the remaining humans while Seed was busy maintaining everything else."

After that little story, Keepless sits down on one side of the tent to position himself.
"As for what it is I seek, I seek infections. You see, immediately after I was given life by Seed, a great threat had been identified. I was hastily reprogrammed to defend the population and Seed's creations and it was called Infection since it infects anything made by Seed. Well, the Infection corrupts anything it touches and-..." Keepless was interrupted by a large cracking outside of the dome.

"What seems to be the problem?" Keepless asks one of the Goron people. "A beast! A child of Volvagia! It's outside, we need the prime!"

CRRRRSAAAAAAASSSSSSH

The crystal dome gave way to asssault, its shards tearing through some of the tents. A black, horned snout lined with jagged, silver teeth peers inside the crack, ash-filled winds rushing inside the newly made hole.