Milo stood at the precipice of a valley. Milo had to admit he didn't entirely trust the flowing river nearby. His time at the Forgotten Shore solidified a general distrust in any body of water that could submerge him.
Regardless, he crouched down. His prosthetic turned into a pick, and Milo swung it downwards. As the pick embedded itself into the slope, he allowed it to descend.
'The benefits of controlling machinery with your mind.'
Milo's goal was to reach the cave entrance nearly halfway down the slope. Calling it an entrance might've been generous, it was more or less just a hole in the side that led to a cave.
Milo had temporarily sent his arm down there earlier to get a feel around it. It was much bigger then he expected, and so now he wanted to explore it.
His original plan was to follow the valley to try and see if any Nightmare Creatures would reside nearby it, however this cave seemed much more promising.
Stopping at the entrance, he created some momentum and swung inside. It was dark, Milo's night vision activated automatically. The first thing he noticed was the mossy growth within. The texture wasn't anything unpleasant, in fact it was the opposite.
Milo retracted a gauntlet from his right hand and reached out to the moss, the particularly softness he couldn't quite put a name to.
Letting his gauntlet come back, Milo stepped further into the cave, the once somewhat narrow corridor expanded and expanded to nearly thirty feet in width. The walls also seemed... unnaturally developed.
'So I stumbled upon a ruin.' Milo had read through the logs on the Moonriver Plains that he had downloaded from the [Proof of Cooperation Lite] before coming here. He knew that it was a place with ruins and rough rivers and other such things, perhaps he had stumbled across some ruins.
"The real question is how in the hell did this moss grow in this desolate cave?" Milo questioned aloud, his voice slightly echoing through the cavernous hall. The echo continued on and on...
"Alright, big cave, moss growth, likely an ancient ruin... Not a problem at all. Probably."
Milo continued down the hall. Eventually the cave wall stopped looking like walls at all, stone bricks took their place with weathered inscriptions. Milo couldn't understand them, so he took snapshots and moved on.
Then, more decorations kept appearing. Unlit torches hung on the wall, small altars carved from granite. The more Milo explored the desolate ruins, the more he discovered. It had an odd sense of beauty seeing architecture like this overrun with plant life. However there was rarely a moment where any organic life wasn't a threat.
While exploring, Milo found two large stone doors closed shut. He walked up against them and pressed gently, the stone doors grinded slightly... but at the end they didn't budge.
So, Milo planted his feet. A low hum coming from his prosthetic and legs as [Overclock] activated on the greaves of the [Mobile Suit] and his own prosthetic. Milo began to push, his stone doors began to move. Milo pushed forward and forward until a solid gap had been created.
Satisfied, Milo dismissed [Overclock] and scanned the room he had just entered. A row of smoothly carved benches filled the hall. At the center was a statue of some figure. An sharp angled shaped head with two thin narrow lines that ran horizontally along the head itself. A cloak that concealed the chest and most of the waist, leaving only armored legs and arms exposed.
It looked like Milo's armor... only better in fact. Milo with cautious steps walked towards the statue. Reaching the foot of the statue, he saw a small tablet with actually recognizable runes on them that read.
"Carmen... Ancestor... Architect... *@&^"
Milo flinched, it was that stupid censor again. His brain flickered with the nausea that had once plagued him back when Reina took on her true form. Milo's [Mobile Suit] filtered out the text, meaning he could look at the tablet fully.
"Carmen, Ancestor of the Architect of Tomorrow, Reader of ■■■■■■ ■■■■■"
Milo stared at the tablet, then looked back up at the statue of Carmen.
'...'
Milo formed a shoulder mounted cannon, firing at the statue's head. A piece of it flew down. Milo fired again and again until the head was destroyed completely.
"Ancestor my ass."
Milo turned around, and his eyes widened beneath the helmet of the [Mobile Suit]. Though the chairs had been completely empty before, now they were filled with people.
'No, not people... constructs?'
They were made out of the same material of the walls and statue of this place. The constructs were also repetitive in nature, simply carved into the shape of a basic human with no real bulk or weapons. The only thing that constituted as a weapon were there broken down arms.
Moss and vines ran along the bodies, holding them together. Perhaps the scariest part was they were all staring at Milo. Milo couldn't read their body language.
Milo swallowed, then began walking down the grand hall. His head constantly turned in all directions, he almost got whiplash from the amount of times his body did a complete 180.
Luckily, or unluckily, the constructs just continued staring at him. Their bodies didn't turn to follow him, only their heads did. Milo's paced sped up as he approached the exit. The moment he broke through the crap he stumbled to the floor. His chest heaving with heavy breaths.
"H-holy shit... haha, that was scary." Milo remarked, he turned back to the doors, and peaked into the room.
For a split second, he saw them in motion, then just as quickly they stopped...
"...What the-"
Then, one of them, still in a seated position, dived from the stone bench. It began a chain of countless constructs running towards Milo at full speed.
"Oh fuck! Fuck, fuck!" Milo yelled while pulling the stone doors back into their original place. The constructs were approaching rapidly.
Milo stacked [Overclock] on [Overclock], rapidly draining his essence as it strengthened his prosthetic and legs.
"Come on!" The doors were almost closed, a hand shot through the narrow crack and...
BOOM
The doors shut with a large thud, the construct's hand separated from its body. The hand flailed for a small fleeting moment before going still. The moss at the wrist and finger joints suddenly shook, running towards the walls and settling on them.
Milo watched with horror, suddenly the soft texture wasn't so appealing anymore.
"What in the world did I just stumble across?" Milo murmured, now every step of his was measured and weighed. Frankly, he was on edge.
Moving through the corridors, he kept his eye out for any sign of constructs anywhere. Luckily, most of them seemed to be trapped in that cathedral hall, which led Milo to question a lot of things.
'Did Carmen have a church? Was he a willing leader or did they just idolize him? Why in the Moonriver Plains, the database had no mention of this.'
Carmen was actually something Milo had been very curious about. Reina's elusive partner that seemed friendly but that statue... it just got under Milo's nerves. Milo knew it was likely the case, but the fact that his entire life since he saved that classmate had been created to help destroy Fate.
He seemed to have an Aspect based around creating things, not too different from Milo's own Aspect. However, he seemed to be much more knowledgeable. That wasn't even acknowledging how in the world he reached places like the Forgotten Shore, which was behind a Death Zone. Nor did it explain his presence in the Moonriver Plains. If his goal was to leave care packages for Reina, then why do anything in the Moonriver Plains, a place which only had minor mention in the database.
'Take one question at a time.'
If the very sloppy map on the database was correct, then the Forgotten Shore and Moonriver Plains were only separated by the Hollow Mountains. Likely meaning that Carmen had started in the Moonriver Plains, gathered power until he could cross the Hollow Mountains, then went about his work in the Forgotten Shore.
'But why all this worship stuff?'
Milo knew there was really only one way to get his answer, and he needed to get something out of this expedition... so he went even deeper.
Outside of more hollowed out corridors with nothing inside, along with the occasional alter, Milo discovered nothing of interest.
Though, his gut instinct told him that whatever room he was about to walk into was bound to have something.
A small archway wooden door, the first piece of wood Milo had seen for hours. Milo didn't bother with the small favor of being gentle, he ripped the door off its hinges and tossed it aside.
The first thing of note was the fact that his night vision was now blinding him, so he quickly disabled it.
The sight and sound now playing in front of him was... oddly comforting. A simple yet humble man-made forest stood before him. With grass laying at his feet and trees still standing tall. Milo reached down and picked a blade of grass.
'It's fake.'
The forest was also accompanied by a peaceful melody, along with the sound of birds chirping and a gentle stream moving. Milo looked around only to notice that there was a small stream, but it wasn't moving, it likely never had been.
Moving forward, Milo saw a single wooden rocking chair on a small precipice, overlooking the sunrise. An artificial, buzzing light replaced the sun in this scenario. Sitting right next to the chair was what looked like an old piece of technology that Milo had seen in a museum before. Technology from the world of old.
'I think it was called a cassette player?'
Milo walked towards the small precipice, the audio of the ambience getting louder as he did. Reaching the cassette player, Milo tried to interface with it only to no avail. So, instead he had to fumble around the cassette player until... a rectangle popped out, the ambience was gone, now the only sound was that buzzing from the light.
"So this is the cassette tape."
Milo pulled it out, and looked at the labeling.
Written in bold lettering were words in English, a language mostly lost.
Luckily, Milo's database wasn't limited to just what was in the [Proof of Cooperation Lite].
So, his interface translated it into "Reminder of Home."
Milo let out a sigh. Then he summoned the [Frigid Cooler]. Sticking both items inside, he closed the box and dismissed it.
"They were just victims at the end of the day..."
Milo took some time to explore the forest, just to see if Carmen had hid anything. Sure enough, Milo found something.
Hidden behind a fake tree was a small, rusted toolbox. Milo cracked the lock on its handle and opened it up.
There was only a single dilapidated key within, Milo picked it up.
[You have received a Memory, Osiris' Key]
Milo quickly opened up the runes. It was only a Dormant tier one Memory, and the description stated the obvious with one important detail.
Memory Description: [A key belonging to Osiris, High Priestess of the Church of Gears.]
'So you did start a cult, filthy bastard... and I almost felt bad for you... that doesn't explain anything though.'
As far as Milo had encountered, there was nothing mechanical here at all, only weird living moss. So why the hell was the cult called the Church of Gears? Was this a starting base and therefore they hadn't developed the proper means of mechanics yet?
"For every answer, there's like five more questions. Does any of this stuff even matter? I'm here to get parts and soul shards, not uncover a mystery."
Milo dismissed his worries and pressed forward. Yet again being met with a pair of stone walls that served as doors, except they were already open, and more importantly... something was fighting in the room.
Milo quickly allowed his prosthetic to change and stepped in cautiously.
His cautiousness seemed to be worthless as a blur of grey and black flew towards one of the stone doors, hitting it. Strangely, the impact made no sound. Yet there definitely was one as the figure stumbled to the ground, and struggled to get back up.
The figure was wearing some sort of bulky grey armor, not too different from what Milo imagined a Memory from one of the stone construct's would look like. It was like a much more graceless version of Reina's stone armor. The armor itself was also cracked in multiple places, blood spilling from a few seams in the rock.
Alongside that, the figure wore a mask that depicted a demon? The mask was made out of wood and had three horns, yet there was no mouth, just a blank slate except for the two eyeholes that nestled darkness within. The darkness within seemed to shift in intensity as the figure was in a lot of pain, the darkness within had reacted. In their hand was a very stylish red and black dagger with gold inscriptions.
'Is that a Nightmare Creature or an Awakened?'
Milo turned back to what threw the figure, and he finally understood why this place was called the Church of Gears.
A nearly thirty foot tall, hulking machine. It was made out of a mix of steel and stone combined. The moss and vines Milo had seen all throughout the ruins spread across the machine itself, parts of it were held together by the moss, others by its own pistons and locks.
Milo looked at the person to his right, and they seemed to not be hostile. So, Milo just turned back and summoned the [Prototype] in his right hand, his prosthetic shifting in the left.
'Let's get what I came for.'