The Citadel remained silent, as always. As did the Servants, who watched their master with barely understood curiousity.

XIX: I Have Gone And Learned Of The Injustices That Have Been Brought Upon My Realm By Both Time And The Vile Invading Forces As Well As Witnessed The Results Of These Events Which Take The Form Of A Ravaged Landscape And A Broken World
XX: Now Shall Commence The Era Of Reclamation In Which We Shall Recover Restore Rebuild Reclaim And Finally Retaliate

Chalybis had finally made up His mind completely. He would restore His realm - or failing that, at least the Citadel and its plethora of forges - to an operational state, after which He would use it to strike at those who harboured His foes, reclaiming the materials that had been stolen from His realm so long ago - with an appropriate 'interest' applied - and finally removing the Systemarch race from existence forever.

Book II: The Era of Reclamation
I: Your First Priority Shall Now Be To Restore The Citadel To Its Original State As Remembered By KNO1 No Matter The Difficulty Of This Task Or The Time It Might Take To Accomplish

The Servants stood silent.. this was too much information for their tired, tired, clockwork minds to understands. They just wanted to rest. They wanted to die. As much as they felt, they felt despair.

Morale, as it manifests through the people of Chalybis, is at an all time low.

This was not what Chalybis had intended to happen at all. The Servants should have sprung into action the instant He had ordered them to do His bidding, not stand around like a herd of pitiful organic creatures pretending to be tired - another concept He did not understand - of labouring, which was all they were supposed to do. He then recalled a similar problem that had occurred before His Departure. Whilst He had created the Originals to act as fully obedient slaves, they had eventually gained a semblance of sentience and dared to defy His will. Unfortunately, He couldn't quite remember how that situation was eventually resolved...


It seemed that their current imperfect physical condition was the cause of their internal faults though, and He could solve that without much effort. He would not simply give into their demands like that though. He was their sole lord and master, so He was the one who did the demanding, and they were the ones who did the obeying, not the other way around. Still, this situation needed to be resolved. He thought, and for several minutes, the entire site was utterly silent, until He saw KNO1 standing in a slightly less ravaged condition than the others, and knew what He had to do.

III: The Reward For Servitude Is Eternal Existence In Eternal Perfection He immediately declared, reaching down to  KNO1 - a first since His return - and putting His index finger upon it. Immediately, the rusty steel shell shattered, showing the inner workings of KNO1 for a moment, after which these too fell apart, revealing the spark of life that served as KNO1's essence. The parts swirled around the essence, scraping the rust of one another and slowly smoothing out the wear and tear they had received during aeons of neglect. Moments later, the whirlwind of parts calmed down again, recombining into the machinery that made up KNO1's body and floating back into place. The result was the complete recreation of KNO1's structure, now a shining beacon of impeccable steel standing amongst the otherwise dark and withered realm...
This message was last edited by the player at 20:36, Thu 03 Sept 2009.

The Servants were silent. Soon, however, they slowly began to move towards their Lord, crowding him. They did not speak. It was obvious what they wanted: recreation. Perfection anew.

IV: The Restoration To Perfection Is A Reward And Rewards Can Only Be Earned By Loyal Servitude Towards Your Master Instead Of Being Demanded Or Taken By Force
V: Those That Perform Their Duties As Chalybis Commands Them And Obey His Will Shall Be Rewarded With Renewed Perfection And Something Far Greater Than That Whilst Those That Defy Him Shall Forever Perish Under Rust And Corruption Without End
VI: Obey!

As the horde of Servants crowded around His legs, clambering up onto each other to get closer to His divine light, Chalybis was beginning to grow somewhat 'annoyed' with the behaviour of His Servants, considering they were still not acting in accordance to His wishes despite His attempts to remedy this. He had attempted to make a positive example that could serve as a 'motivation' to continue working for His sake, but if this insolence would continue for much longer, He would be forced to resort to other - more destructive - measures to make it clear that He did not exist to serve them, but that they existed to serve Him instead. If they would continue to refuse to do so as mechanical lifeforms, He would be forced to make them do so as raw materials instead...

The Servants stopped, silent. He was surrounded by masses of immobile iron. He did not sense a reaction from any 'living' being, machine or not.

'Now what...' Chalybis thought as His Servants now ceased functioning altogether. This was an improvement over their blatant disobedience, but still, not quite what He had in mind when He had told them to obey. What had gotten into them anyway? This behaviour was highly unusual, so He began to suspect that His - recently declared but aeons-old - enemies had something to do with this. Perhaps either the Conclave or the Systemarchs had done something to His Servants that caused this change. That would be yet another crime for which He was to seek retribution against them...


VII: Chalybis Commands You To Return To Your Duties At Once He spoke, pushing away some of the Servants around Him so that He might be able to return to a more dignified position - standing in a pile of metal was just not very appropriate for a being of His stature. Then it struck Him; the only way to ascertain once and for all what the exact cause of this situation was. He stopped at once, and picked up the nearest of the Servants, lifting it up until it was directly in front of His eye. His red gaze instantly narrowed to a thin bright beam that stared right through the hull of the metallic being, accessing the mind that lay within. In mere moments, He went through the mind to find the information He was looking for, the information that would explain everything to Him.

And then, He knew...
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The Servants - slowly at first, but gathering momentum, as in every action - began to move. They were in no hurry, but soon went about their original designated tasks, clanking and grunting in their own way as they did so.

As this happened, knowledge filled Chalybis's mind..

.. and he saw that, for most of them, he was their leader. There was something else though.. a directive? A compulsion?

'I rule 'Most' of them? That implies something else is attempting to rule at least 'some' of them...'

Although it was a good thing to see His Servants going back to work - even if it was not quite in the vigorous way He would have preferred to see - Chalybis was not exactly pleased when He learned that there was some other force that was controlling at least some of them. This undermined His absolute authority within His realm, and was not acceptable. Keeping the struggling Servant in front of His gaze, He began to extract the information regarding the strange directive, simultaneously erasing this blasphemous data from the Servant's artificial mind. He was the only ruler of this place, and all that defied His rule were doomed...

Chalybis learnt that a rogue 'intelligence' - as the Servant referred to it - had infiltrated his Realm a few days before Chal's own appearance, and had started a pseudo-cult that revered freedom and humanity amongst the machines - alien, and thus exotic, concepts. It's name was MATTHIAS, but the Servant didn't know where it could be found. It was not native to the Remnants, however.

After learning about this grave blasphemy, Chalybis dropped the Servant to the ground again - at which point it rapidly scurried off to work, its brain once more freed from any blasphemous concepts - and looked around Him. There appeared to be another 'being' within His realm, on this very Segment even, that was attempting to cause a revolt amongst His Servants. This was disturbing, and utterly unacceptable. That individual would soon feel the divine wrath of Chalybis, for this was His realm and these were His people, and He would not tolerate any other being to rule it in His place.

He turned to KNO1 - which had been standing around silently, its appendages unfit for any physical labour - again, this time to demand information about any recent events that might be related to the iconoclast who had intruded His realm. In particular, He wanted to know exactly where the other Servants had been when their cognitive state had been significantly altered, presumably by the mere presence of this foul invader. He would begin His search for 'Matthias' at this point immediately, not resting until He had found it and erased its very existence from His realm.

KNO1, being an older breed of Servant, didn't know much of this MATTHIAS and had not personally gazed upon him.

After searching for many hours, Chalybis found no obvious trace of MATTHIAS, and was beginning to doubt it's existence.

Chalybis realized that His current method of searching was an inherently futile effort - even this Segment on its own was too large to search through personally, and if the 'Matthias' knew that He was coming, it could easily avoid Him - so ceased it at once. Although He was not the least bit intent on giving up His hunt, He needed a better way to find this individual within His realm. What He needed was a lure, something which assured that the individual would be drawn towards the area He was in without noticing it until it was too late...

As His gaze went over the surface before Him, He knew what to do. This realm was His and, even without sentience, would obey His commands flawlessly. As He fixed His gaze upon the filth-covered wrecks of Servants that had been deactivated centuries ago, they slowly began to stir, ancient remains of clockwork being called to duty once more. Gradually, the group of Servants arose from the surface again, looking no different from the ones that were still active at this time, but lacking the spark of life that kept them active. Right now, Chalybis' divinity would provide a crude substitute for this spark, forcing the bodies of the Servants into motion by pure force of will.

'Now, let that foolish mortal come to me...' He thought as the small horde stood around Him, and within moments the bright glow of His own gaze dulled to virtually nothing, the yellow eyes of the reanimated Servants shining brightly once more. They began to fan out in groups, performing various insignificant tasks in the area - as far as their current state would allow such a thing. Meanwhile, Chalybis stood silent, concentrating on the machines His spirit was now possessing, and awaiting the iconoclast's attempts to convert one of them...

Soon, it happened. Chalybis, his conscious mind within the shell of a Servant, came across a static - yet ever-moving - thing within his vision. It looked human, but too white, too pale.. it's eyes were like daggers, and it spoke in blurs.

"Hello, friend," it screeched. "I am MATTHIAS."

'And now, the capturing begins...' Chalybis thought as He eventually became aware of the iconoclast. All He had to do now was to make the reanimated Servants occupy it until He could arrive at the scene Himself and dispose of it. This was somewhat easier said than done though, as He had to mimic the normal mindless behaviour of His Servants whilst doing so. Still, He was not intent on allowing this being to elude Him again and convert a single other Servant within His realm. Whilst His concentration remained on the Servants, His figure began to slide over the surface once more, very slowly heading in the direction of the discovery.

The damaged Servant that had discovered the iconoclast stopped near - and presumable in front of - Matthias, staring blankly at the white being as it blurred around its vision with its sole unblinking eye. Although its body stood completely motionless, small cognitive gears churned heavily within it, increasing in speed until they eventually died down completely once more. Its yellow eye flickered for a moment, indicating that it had just reached a conclusion, and finally it spoke with a voice comparable to the loud grating of steel upon steel.

...MATTHIAS...?

Meanwhile, the other Servants under Chalybis' control lay down their insignificant tasks and began to approach the scene, herding around MATTHIAS as if they were mesmerized by its bright white form. It was not long before they began to echo the cry of their comrade, and soon an entire cacophony of loud metallic voices filled the area, each of the Servants continuously crying out the name of the iconoclast as if they were asking for a definition of this strange and unknown word.

The white thing buzzed, seemed to flicker, and smiled silently.

"My brothers," he said. "I thank you."

And he was gone.

MATTHIAS was gone.

'Brothers?'

Such a word implied that the iconoclast saw His Servants as equals, or even some kind of relatives. That was rather strange, but then again, its speech had also been one more similar to that of a mechanical creature than to that of an organic being. This concerned Chalybis greatly, as the presence of machinery not under His control within His realm was potentially more harmful than organic invaders - His Servants would not automatically see other sentient machines as a threat without being specifically warned by Him to do so.

However, there was something else that bothered Him right now. Although the iconoclast had apparently left His realm without resistance, it had also done so on its own and without His involvement. This meant that the possibility of its return still existed, and Chalybis did not desire any further intrusions into His realm. However, He knew there was nothing He could currently do to prevent hostile inter-dimensional travel within His realm, or at least not alone. He felt that the missing presence might have some influence on this if He were to restore it somehow...

He continued concentrating on His control of the reanimated Servants for a bit longer, deciding that their lifeless husks might as well be put to a greater purpose. They followed Him back to one of the few active forges that remained, the column marching behind Him in perfect unison, the mindlessness of death keeping the shells blissfully unaware that this would be their death march. Eventually, He stopped and moved aside, but they marched onwards steadily, right into the flaming mouth of the forge ahead of them. One by one, they stepped over the edge and hurtled down into the pit of molten metal below, unflinching as their bodies were slowly molten down to become part of the underground rivers of slag that ran beneath the surface of Telluratus.

PM

PM

And it was done.

The mass suicide was, ultimately, for the good for Chalybis and the Remnants, but despite this the God of Industry still felt every death as if it was a miniature of his own. The rivers of slag ran black with hot iron.

With all of the remaining 'loose ends' now cleaned up properly, Chalybis was pleased, and He returned to the base of His Citadel again to inspect what the rest of His Servants had been up to during His short 'expedition' to rid His Realm of the iconoclast. Of course, the fact that the iconoclast might not actually have been a vile organic pest concerned Him, but that it too was a mechanical being, albeit one who had not quite understood that He was the sole ruler of this place. Perhaps future 'interaction' would not require its immediate destruction after all. The issue was not of immediate concern, as it appeared to have departed, but He had to make up His mind before the iconoclast returned.

Right now, He was merely intent on returning to the other Servants, inspecting and judging their progress towards the restoration of His Citadel, and possibly rectifying any unacceptable situations He came across during any of these three steps. Once the Citadel was restored, everything would run a lot more smoothly within His realm, so this was His main priority until it became functional once more.

The Servants weren't working. It was as if they were staring at some invisible object in the distance.

'This is becoming somewhat offensive...' Chalybis thought as He saw that His Servants were suffering from disobedience again. This was a rather unhealthy condition, so He hoped that they would recover from it soon. This time, there was a more clear reason for their condition though, as they were all staring blankly in the same direction, one in which nothing was to be seen. Apparently, there was either something there which was attempting to elude His senses whilst captivating those of His Servants, or something had been there which had affected His Servants, then left. Either way, this insolence would end here...

The red cone of His gaze shivered for a few moments, gradually changing colour until it became a disturbing blend between many of them - or rather, the cone simply gazed, revealing multi-coloured strands of light in the area in front of it. When His gaze stopped shivering and became solid, the strands in His sight began to move, slow at first but increasingly fast as He continued to stare at them, drawn towards His eye and disappearing therein. He focused His gaze on the Servants at first, to remove any strands that might be attached to them, then swept it further into the direction of the invisible object, shredding apart whatever foul energies might keep it hidden from Him.

The Servants, unperturbed, continued to stare. The effect, it would seem, was not magical..