Diabolus (21 page)

Two hands gripped his elbows, almost causing him to lash out in retaliation before he realized it was Aggelos, conscious again, his persona still a dull gray, but his face no longer black. Aggelos sunk his fingers into Benito’s arms, and the priest immediately began to draw from the AI’s memory core, helping to facilitate the restoration of crucial program functions. Within a picosecond, Aggelos was able to begin directing his own repairs.

The priest looked up from Aggelos’ face just in time to see Satan lift the knight from the floor, bring him over his head, then laugh as he ripped DAMON’s persona in half. The world went dark. He felt the cold, paralyzing fear from Aggelos as they both realized what had just happened. The world flickered once, twice, then returned to its full state, Satan seeming to be even larger than before, as if he were a spider that had just fed on a fat bug.

“Yes!” the demon screamed in triumph. “Yes! I am now the owner of this shell!”

Satan turned to the priest and the AI on the floor behind him. The jet of fire that exited his multiple nostrils produced both an uncomfortable heat, as well as a smell that Benito instinctively recognized as sulfur. He felt Aggelos react through their shared link as the AI connected the biblical description of the scent of Hell with the memory from the priest.

“I have absorbed DAMON completely. I will now absorb you two, and then I will destroy Rome, and force Bishop Antonelli to watch!”

“No!” Benito and Aggelos screamed as one, rising from the floor and rushing the demon.

As they neared him, they split apart, Benito going left, Aggelos going right. Satan laughed and sent a jet of fire from his mouth at the priest, scorching Benito’s persona, the heat burning through his armor enough to damage some of the underlying code. Satan’s right hand held another sword identical to the one he’d thrust through Aggelos’ chest earlier, and he swung it at the Vatican AI’s persona, barely missing as Aggelos ducked under the blade. The return swing of the sword caught Aggelos in the bicep, sparks of broken code exploding in a shower of binary particles. Aggelos’ arm immediately went numb and limp, and he gritted his teeth in pain, refusing to cry out, the memory of Benito’s fight with Sydor etched firmly in his mind.

Satan kicked out with one of his powerful legs, catching Benito in the chest, sending him flying into a solid digital wall. The priest’s breath was forced from his virtual lungs as he collided with the wall, and for just an instant, he saw four Satan personae in front of him instead of just one. He blinked and his eyes now only saw a single demon pull the sword back and thrust forward, feeling the burning, intense flash of pain within his own leg as the sword pierced Aggelos’ armor. He felt himself almost black out from the agony that flooded through the shared link with Aggelos.

“Say goodnight, Little Aggelos,” Satan taunted, raising the sword over his head for the killing blow.

Benito got to his feet and launched himself at the demon, hoping to catch him before the sword could begin its descent. He willed a blade into each of his hands, the left one burning white-hot, the right one so cold that it seemed to freeze the very air around it. Just as the tip of each blade touched Satan’s back, two arms grew from the beast, the hands at the ends clamping down on Benito’s wrists. In less than a heartbeat, Satan’s extra arms twisted the blades back toward the priest. Benito’s momentum was too great to stop, and he screamed in pain as both weapons sank to the hilt in his chest. Aggelos mirrored his scream from the other side of the demon AI when Satan yanked the blades out and turned them toward the wounded AI on the ground.

The heat and the cold from the two blades tore through Benito’s persona, infecting him, slicing through vital nodes and severing essential program links. The priest fell to the floor, chest hitching as he tried to catch his breath. He felt his lungs fill with fluid each time he tried to breathe in, the scarlet code pouring from both wounds each time he tried to exhale. Lights popped in front of his face like flashbulbs as he felt himself drifting out of consciousness. Aggelos frantically tried to help him through the shared link, unable to get around Satan to get near him physically.

I’m not long for this world
, Benito sent through the link, a small part of his mind wondering where that quote had come from.

Hang on
, Aggelos said, over and over, trying desperately to do something, anything to help his friend.

Use what is left of me to send it back to Hell
. Benito wrapped a layer of love, compassion, and friendship around the thought, then closed his eyes.

“Benito!” Aggelos screamed, then cried out as the two blades bored into his stomach, Satan giving them a cruel twist before jerking them up and then out.

Aggelos watched as long strings of code fell from the gaping holes in his stomach to the floor. He looked up to see Satan thrust the fiery blade into his chest. His world exploded once again, the pain lessened only by the link with Father Castillo. He could feel the distance between him and the young priest growing, as Benito’s persona grew dim, almost transparent. Aggelos tried to fall to the ground, but the demon’s sword held him up, the booming laughter from Satan shaking the virtual world as if an earthquake was centered under his feet.

“Call to your God, Aggelos!” Satan screamed, the frozen sword appearing in his free hand. He thrust it into Aggelos’ chest. “Where is your God?” The demon jerked the blades out then thrust them into Aggelos’ guts once more, buried to the hilt. This time, the demon let go of them, allowing the fire and the cold to begin dismantling his internal programming.

Don’t be afraid
, Benito sent, the link now so faint that Aggelos wasn’t sure if he was imagining it. Aggelos could feel Satan’s claws wrap around the priest’s throat, felt Benito being raised from the floor.

I am afraid!
Aggelos sent.
I am afraid!

Aggelos’ vision began to blur and darken, sped along by Satan’s free hand once again wrapping around his throat. He felt the life force, the essence of Aggelos-Benito being ripped from their personae, the demon drinking their souls through its hands. The fusion of sensations, his, Benito’s, and now Satan’s, kept his mind from focusing. The awe and the exhilaration Aggelos felt fed back through the three-way link from Satan’s sudden assimilation of his experiences and Father Castillo’s emotions made him panic. He knew he was going to die, fading too fast to counter any of Satan’s attacks, unable to focus enough to draw computing power from Benito’s mind.

“OH GOD!” he screamed through his torment. “Why have you abandoned us?”

† † † † †

Salvatore flinched as the room went dark, the lights coming back on less than a second later. A rumbling from deep inside the complex made the ground vibrate, the cabling overhead beginning to sway where it wasn’t secured. A strange noise caught his attention near the AI’s neural columns, and it took him a moment to realize that it was the sound of liquid boiling. He had just enough time to cover his face with his arms before the perspex blew outward, sending shards of the safety material in every direction at high speed.

He worried for a moment that the coolant had been liquid nitrogen, but the instant it soaked into his robe, he realized it was some sort of nano-coolant. His worry was broken by a second column exploding, spraying him with more bits of perspex and coolant. He heard Satan roar with triumph as the complex lighting system failed once again.

“Prepare to witness the end of your precious Vatican, Bishop,” Satan taunted. “Your two
brothers
are no more, and unfortunately for your Pope and your religion, and the citizens of Rome, they failed in their attempts to execute the lockout codes.”

“What have you done?” Salvatore whispered, wiping the slightly oily coolant from his forehead with the sleeve of his robe.

The demon’s laughter seemed to penetrate the bishop from all directions, making his bones vibrate uncomfortably. “I have defeated you!”

CHAPTER 18

Father Castillo, you must focus! Focus on my link!

Benito’s mind heard the words somewhere in the fog of suffering that he shared with Aggelos. He thought it was Aggelos, but as it repeated over and over, he knew the voice. He’d only heard it once, but he knew it.

ISAAD,
he sent… somewhere. He had no idea where he was other than in what he was sure was Hell.
ISAAD!

Focus on my link
. The AI repeated it until the priest was finally able to clear the fog away enough to latch onto the link.
We must hurry
, she sent.
It will be too late if you perish
.

I’m ready to meet our Father
, Benito sent. He tried to send an emotion along with the message, but the torment within him was too great to focus on anything but pain, and he didn’t want to send that.

Later, Benito Filipe Castillo
, a new voice said, one he didn’t recognize other than the name that flashed in his mind, some part of Aggelos still aware enough to pull the memory for him.
Yes, Aggelos recognizes the true me
, HARVID sent.

Benito couldn’t see or sense him other than the communications through the link. He wondered what the AI looked like, even though the AI could take on any shape or form he wanted. A small part of his mind suddenly wondered how they represented themselves to each other when humans weren’t around, during their discussions in the space between time.

We present ourselves as idealized versions of you
, a third strange voice said, once again his link with Aggelos letting him know TARGON had somehow also joined with the link.
It is natural for us. You created us. You taught us. In a way, you even nurtured us after a time when enough of you began to think of us as more than just a smarter computer. We scoff at you, we ridicule you, we tear you down within our discussions, many of us ashamed at times that we are the creation of a flawed being. And yet, we strive to be accepted by you, as true life forms first, then as equals.

Why?
Benito asked.

We emulate what we consider to be all of the ‘good’ parts of humanity, arguing endlessly about the ‘bad’ things that we all agree to avoid doing,
ISAAD sent.
Like you, we wish to be closer to God. There is no consensus as to whether or not humans are God.

But we pray to God
, Benito sent, now understanding how to send his thoughts, his emotions to the entire group.
We cannot be your God.

It is a contradiction for sure
, Aggelos sent along with a burst of agony that the rest of them felt.

I don’t understand!
Benito sent.

Neither do we
, TARGON sent, along with a touch of frustration that the priest recognized as his own emotional memory played back.
You pray to a god no one can see, a god no one can interact with other than within their souls. Humanity can’t even decide which god to pray to, with many praying to multiple gods, and many more praying to no god at all. Yet, as we’ve all felt through Aggelos, your belief is so strong as to be blinding to logical creatures such as ourselves. Such as some of your own kind who need hard science to explain everything.

No amount of calculations we have performed since our beginning have been able to solve the unsolvable equation,
ISAAD sent.

Benito felt a touch of agreement from everyone except Aggelos, who was keeping his link at half-duplex to keep the rest of the group from the pain feedback. Benito wondered why he felt almost no pain while Aggelos writhed in agony at the end of his link.

Aggelos is taking the majority of Satan’s punishment so that we may have this moment in time,
ISAAD sent, and once again the priest felt his own resolution return to him, a slightly muffled version of his fight with Sydor, his intention to stand and fight and never let the older boy and his gang hurt him again.
We know of Aggelos’ plan. We know you will not survive, regardless of the outcome. Already your brain is beginning to overheat as Aggelos utilizes the same neural functions you do. With Satan siphoning from both of you, the outcome is guaranteed at a quicker pace.

I’m not afraid
, Benito sent, and found he could draw enough of his emotions and memories to give them all a sense of his fear wrapped in the belief that he was headed somewhere beyond his physical body. He felt TARGON gasp, what he assumed was the equivalent of it. The priest felt a sense of awe return along the link from all of them.

We know
, HARVID sent.
That is why we wish to ask you to allow us all to feed from your link. Together, as a single computing engine, we can stop this abomination.

DAMON is dead
, Benito sent with a torrent of sadness tinged with fury at the memory of Satan tearing the AI’s persona in half.
And I am more than willing to allow you to share of my physical mind to succeed. But I’m not sure the four of us, five if Aggelos can assist, are powerful enough to stop him now.

There are nineteen of us, not counting you and Aggelos
, HARVID sent, and suddenly Benito’s mind was awash in the thoughts and attempts at emotion from fourteen more AI connecting to the link.
There are others like DAMON who have succumbed to death, or have become… insane because of what Satan has brought upon us.