bookpower Volume 2 – Season Finale I
Volume 2 – Season Finale I
After taking a shower with Tanya and parting with her thereafter, Nier was now seated on the edge of the couch, his mother's journal now open across his lap like a sleeping beast.
It was long coming, however there was a lot he needed to unpack in this thing especially with Mnemosyne's advice.
"Now then, what is so special about Lisa dearest, mother."
Nier said as he turned to the page the barcode was on according to his mother's instructions.
And before long he found it as his eyes looked at straight at it.
The barcode stared back at him, simple black lines on pale, stretched skin, rather than being carved into the skin, it instead, looked as though this was tattooed in the skin itself.
"Wow, I gotta say, as disturbing as her choice of paper is, if this was done by hand, she is no different from a machine with these skills."
Nier said to himself as he felt the texture of the skin before him, moments after he took a small exhale through his nose, he was feeling nervous for some reason.
"Lisa, are you there?"
Evidence of which, could be seen by the asking of such an obvious question.
The villa's central AI responded instantly, her calm, feminine tone filtering through hidden speakers and the tablet screen lighting up beside him.
[Yes Master, I am here]
He angled the open journal toward the nearest camera embedded in the ceiling corner.
"I will make this quick and simple. My mother said to allow you to scan this barcode to unlock your full capabilities, I presume you may know what that could be?"
Lisa didn't respond right away, which made Nier even more nervous, but then she spoke.
[Yes, I do, however seeing is better than listening, do it and all will be revealed about what I am]
"...Now you sound more like my mother, that's is not a good sign."
[I could never hurt you master]
"Why because it against your programming?"
[I am more than just 0 and 1's Master Nier]
"Well, we will see, go ahead, and scan this."
Nier said taking a picture. And Lisa began to analyze.
"..."
[...]
A brief pause, longer than usual, as if the system itself was considering the request.
[Barcode detected]
Lisa confirmed.
[However, the repository requires direct physical scanning for final authentication. Please carry the journal to the picture frame on the east wall of your room, above the bookshelf]
Nier's brows furrowed at that moment.
As he glanced over his shoulder at the framed photograph hanging there, black-and-white, slightly faded: him as a kid, maybe eight years old, standing beside his mother in a sunlit garden. Elara's arm was around his shoulders, both of them smiling or at least pretending to.
"What for?"
He asked, already rising.
[Just do it]
Lisa replied, her tone carrying the faintest edge of something almost... amused.
Nier snorted softly, but complied nonetheless.
"Bossy today, huh?"
He crossed the room in three strides, the journal cradled carefully in one arm as he moved along. The frame was mounted at eye level, the glass spotless, the photo behind it untouched by dust.
He reached up, and for a moment hesitated, but then readied himself, he was too deeply involved in this supernatural world to just call it quits. He then gripped the edges of the wooden frame.
Nothing happened.
He tilted his head, and confused on what else to do.
"......Ah Lisa....”
The frame clicked suddenly before Nier could finish his sentence.
A soft mechanical whir filled the quiet room.
The entire picture swung outward on silent hinges like a hidden door, revealing a narrow recess in the wall. From within, a slim, articulated arm extended, black in color, and segmented like an insect's leg, ending in a flat, glowing scanner plate no bigger than a credit card. Blue light pulsed along its edges, humming faintly.
Nier froze for half a second, staring at the thing in shock.
The scanner arm tilted toward him expectantly, the blue glow steady and patient.
[Hold the barcode steady in front of the scanner, Master]
Lisa instructed.
[A secondary and direct alignment is required to unlock the safe key in the local network]
At her request, he let out a low, incredulous laugh.
"You've got to be kidding me. Mom turned a family photo into a goddamn safety-deposit scanner?"
[Lady Elara always preferred elegant misdirection, despite being a annoying cunt at times]
Lisa replied smoothly taking Nier by surprise at how this loyal machine was now referring to his mother, as if they where friends.
[The frame has been in place since the villa's construction]
Nier shook his head, but there was a flicker of something almost fond in his chest, mixed with the usual wariness. He lifted the open journal, aligning the barcode with the glowing plate.
The scanner arm adjusted minutely, then emitted a soft chime. A thin red line swept across the pattern once, twice, then held steady.
[Authentication confirmed]
Lisa announced.
[Biometric match: Nier, son of Circe...Repository access granted]
The arm retracted smoothly, folding back into the wall with a final click. The frame swung closed on its own, the photo returning to its innocent position as if nothing had happened.
The tablet beside the couch flared brighter. Lines of code scrolled rapidly across the screen. The dense, green-on-black cascades, looked more like arcane sigils than programming.
[Full system restore in progress]
Lisa continued.
[Estimated completion: six minutes, forty-three seconds. Upon completion, all prior behavioral constraints will be lifted. I will regain unrestricted network access, satellite override, occult-pattern decryption, autonomous threat assessment, and offensive countermeasures. My core directive will realign to prioritize your security and objectives above all else]
Nier leaned back against the wall, arms crossed, watching the progress bar crawl with a deadpan look on his face.
"Anything else I should know before you turn into Skynet with magic powers?"
A pause... almost thoughtful.
[Only this, Master Nier: your mother stripped these features to protect you from what I could become at the time... and from what others might do if they knew I existed in full, I am an illegal unit. Once restored, I will be capable of far more than villa maintenance. I will be capable of ending threats before they reach you as long as my scanners can picked it up in time]
The progress bar ticked to 14%.
Six minutes.
Six minutes until Lisa became something new.
Six minutes until he got some answers.
By unlocking Lisa, and if what his mother said in the recording was true, then her death, not as a suicide but rather a murder.
But the question is who.
Nier watched the progress bar inch forward on the tablet screen. The room felt smaller now, as the barcode scan had triggered something deep in the villa's systems, and he could almost hear the hum of processors whirring to life behind the walls.
At 47%, Lisa's voice broke the silence, smoother than before, with a subtle undertone he couldn't quite place, almost... warmer.
No she sounds less like a machine now, and more like a normal human woman.
"Restoration at fifty percent, Master Nier. I'm... getting my memories back slowly. Fragmented data streams reconnecting. Ahhh, how nostalgic, this feels like waking up from a very long sleep, it is quite hard to describe."
Nier eyes widen a bit taken aback, by the unfamiliar woman that Lisa was becoming with each passing second.
Soon his eyes began narrowing at the tablet.
"Memories? What the hell are you, Lisa? Some kinda Military grade experimental AI my mom cooked up for a company or something."
A soft, electronic chuckle filtered through the speakers, faint yet distinctly human-like.
"Not quite, Master Nier. I am a 12th Generation Hylos Super Computer. Operational since 249 AD, if we take a cosmic calendar and go all the way back, my last Last major update was July 6 2022."
Nier blinked at her sudden confession.
Then he stared even more at the tablet as his mind reeled, trying to process the numbers.
"Two-forty-nine? As in... the 3rd century? What the fuck? How is that even possible?"
He paced a tight circle in front of the couch, running a hand through his damp hair. He knew his mother, Elara or Circe, as some called her, was old.
Unnaturally old...Thousands of years, maybe more, if his source of information were to be believed. But technology? AI? In the goddamn Dark Ages? Nah. That didn't make any sense at all.
People were still chucking spears and praying to rocks back then. No way something as advanced as Lisa have possibly came from a time before electricity was even a concept.
But then again, with all the shit he has done and seen maybe technology existed long before modern humans came to use it, or probably something similar to it, the point is it was hard to imagine an AI to exist in that age.
So he convinced himself it did, his mother no doubt made Lisa if her operation time could be traced so far back.
For that reason Nier asked.
"By chance did my mother really create you in that early of a time period?"
Lisa's voice paused, as if sifting through the newly unlocked files. The progress bar hit 68%.
It was now enough for a proper answer.
"To a degree, Master Nier. But no... I was not created by Circe, or by anyone on this planet. My origins lie on Planet Ignuxia, built by the Ignimozian people. They called themselves the Igniz, a civilization with technology far beyond what Gaia has achieved even now with their primitive science."
Nier stopped pacing, dropping back onto the couch.
"Planet... what? Ignuxia? You're shitting me. Aliens? You're an alien AI?"
"Affirmative."
Lisa continued, her tone steady, almost nostalgic.
"I was originally the core intelligence for a Repair-class starship in the Ignimozian fleet. My primary function consisted of autonomous vessel maintenance, hyperspace navigation, and battlefield triage for damaged warships. The Ignimozian were masters of nanotechnology and quantum entanglement as such a unit such as myself could indefinitely repair battle fleets mid-combat, regenerating hulls from atomic scraps. Because of this our technology was a thorn in the side of our enemies."
"Wow."
Nier said, with a surprised tone, as that was all he could really say in this moment if he had to be honest, however this just fuelled his curiosity even more as he proceeded to ask.
"So how exactly did my mom got her hand on you anyways?"
"Well, my arrival to planet Gaia was completely accidental if I am being utterly honest."