The Watchmaker glowed with an inner vigor the belied his apparent age as he manipulated the pieces of glowing culmination about, each one flitting through the air and settling into its proper place. The hypnotic patterns they formed slowly reduced as the merged elegantly into a pyramid shape the size of a man. Its glow matched the glow of the Librarious in which he stood, a massive collection of pillars and pathways all interconnected by a spiderweb of blue light. He paused for a second, admiring his handiwork before plunging the construct into its socket with his force of will, its sides matching perfectly with those of the core of the facility. Upon contact a blue fire spread along the groves in it, and information began to flow.
"Athen, the adjustments are complete."
"Exellent," Athen appeared next to him, forming out of the floating crystals scattered throughout the air.
"Now we can prepare the next version of the Network." He glanced around ,"Imagine, actual matter transmitted via a culmination uplink, no longer limited to mere information. If this works, its could change everything. It could give us the advantage we need." He walked over to the core, a giant pillar the size of a mountain and began to examine the new addition.
"Certainly, but Trias is worried that it will be too slow to be useful." The Watchmaker glanced away, summoning a diagram of a humanoid before him and proceeding to edit the pattern it contained. "While he can't put a stop to it, he does have those who respect his wishes. That could make it difficult to standardize culmination uplinks across the Legion."
Athen froze the crystals whirring about him for a moment. "Its really is cruel what power does to people. He was my best friend when he was Sevante, which is why I saved him and him alone."
Athen moved his perspective to the edge of the facility and gazed out into space. "But ever since he gained Culmination, his behavior has varied increasingly from the man I thought I knew."
The Watchmaker was next to him,"we do what we must, remember that. We have to morals to steer by, the gods are all corrupt, it is up to us to decide what is right. If Trias believes that the Network can't work, then perhaps it won't. Void knows we don't understand half of the limitations of Culmination."
Athen watched as the Generator spun, its intense blue light a beacon to all the planets in orbit around it. Each one had been saved from the jaws of the Extemos, each one granted a new life by Athen and the Watchmaker.
"Trias really does care about defending these worlds, not so much saving new ones as protecting the ones in our care. That's probably why he commissioned the construction of the Coreworld."
The Watchmaker pushed his work to the side,"and a thing of beauty it will be when . . ."
An alarm went of somewhere inside his mind and information was transferred.
"Athen, time to go. This one looks like its going to be pretty bad. That one anomaly will most likely present itself again."
"Then I have no choice," Armor of the clearest crystal blue burst into existence around Athen before he took off from the library, already traveling at near light speed on his way to combat the Extemos.
