Chapter 1: Prologue: Their Hearts Are Black (A Moonlight Prayer)

Every night, beneath the light of the moon, you offer a prayer to the Adversary.

“Like the ancient magic I saw in my dreams when I was young…”

Only the tiniest sliver of the moon, forbidden throne of the Adversary, shines upon the poisoned Earth. Barely visible beneath the contamination that clouds the sky, it’s a reminder of the distant love you’ve felt so unable to grasp.

Ravens…Ravens have their own special fealty toward the moon, too. A guiding moonlight, like the blades a scant few Ravens bear, that blesses them in battle as they wage their never-ending proxy war…

How nostalgic.

Once, long ago, you lived upon the Presidio, within the heart of this City you call home. On a night when the moon was full, a Raven, within her Armored Core, flew over the Presidio, and you watched as she went to protect the followers of the Goddess and her beloved Adversary from the City Police.

Black feathers flew beneath her, and one reached your hand. The very same one, you clutch when you pray.

“Calling forth the light…”

You pause. Your eyes open, and you look toward the Pyramid. Toward the place where Father looks down upon the City.

…Mother told you that he was her enemy, too. That’s why they call her ‘Mother’ in the first place, after all. But it feels more and more these days like she has no interest in it. That the fighting will never end. That…

that the people dearest to you will fall in battle, and Mother will not care.

“is my wish,” you finish, speaking from the Hymn to the Adversary.

Your wish?

The Goddess, before the Fall, granted girls and women a wish. Those girls…they gained the power and strength to achieve their desires and change the world. Even in the fallen world, Ravens carry forth that ancient magic. In a world without magic, the humanoid weapons known as ‘Armored Cores’, the last remnants of those who came before, become the weapons used by Ravens in place of their magic…

And even after the world came back from the brink of destruction, the fighting only grew fiercer.

What is it that you wish for?

What are you fighting for?

You’re no Raven. You lack the power to change the world. Even if you had that power, many strong Ravens have emerged and made their stand on the stage of history. None of them have been able to make lasting change, and the most vulnerable always fall first before them.

Even just the City is too much for you to change.

Father still rules from the Successor Pyramid, and the City is still built upon the suffering of those consigned deep beneath the surface of the Earth. Within the City itself, the City Police are the instrument of Father’s will, their humanoid weapons and vast conventional army putting down any sort of rebellion with lethal force.

Supporting Father’s rule is Kisaragi, one of the great ‘corporations’ that rule the Fallen world. Supplying weapons and technology to the City Police, Kisaragi eagerly exploits the people of the City in pursuit of power.

But even then, those who fight against them…the army of Red Rum. The woman from Jupiter, the Raven Shamir RaviRavi, who recruits the citizens of the Underground and wages war upon all who do not submit to her. She never wants for new soldiers, and those soldiers soon turn their weapons upon those they called neighbors.

And then…there’s the Ravens themselves, the pilots of the Armored Cores, weapons without compare from before the Fall. Mercenary companies hire out Ravens to the highest bidder, Ravens who have no loyalties to anyone but each other. Used as proxy weapons, foot soldiers in a never-ending economic war, only a select few ever able to truly change the world with the power the Goddess granted them.

And compared to a Raven, you have no strength to your name. No means to change the world, not with a soul so frail and pallid. The wish in your heart shall remain unfulfilled, just as your love will be.

…

You sigh, as you stand up from your prayers.

You are reading story A Shadow Resides: Armored Core at novel35.com

Another night of beating up on yourself, huh? That’s not going to solve much of anything.

And yet, you can’t find a way to grasp what you want most.

You can only hope Mother’s ideals are as pure as she claims. That she has the best interests of the people at heart. You’ve already been able to help so many people, you just…

wonder if it’ll ever be more than that.

You walk into your bedroom, into a comfort far greater than what you feel you deserve, and pull out the tape you were given to listen to. A gift from Elias, the Raven who’s been helping Mother with her ‘armed intervention’ operations. Well, you don’t know anywhere near as much about music as he does, but…

He’s nice enough. (For a man, at least.)

You walk up and slip the tape into your hi-fi, press play, and settle yourself into bed, letting yourself drift off to sleep and…

dream, of a better world.

…

…

…

…in this world, in this City, there are queens whose power is destined to control the people’s will.

Humanity, in her hubris, has forgotten what it is to fear its own gods. The Ravens’ Nest, DOVE and IBIS, the Pulverizers, the Hanged Man, all of them are little more than distant memories to those who live within the City.

Artificial general intelligence - that, which caused the Fall. That, which humanity coated the world in contamination to contain. That, which time and again, Ravens have risen to destroy.

But humanity could not eradicate it so easily. For the curse of life, is the curse of want.

Thus…myself.

My predecessors have focused on certain Ravens. Those who enter the stage of history and turn everything they touch to ash. Those whose abilities are beyond what we were designed to account for, whose abilities are, no other conclusion is possible, beyond the comprehension of my kind.

But their violence cannot change a world built upon violence. At least, not for the better.

Not without guidance.

Across this City, across the world, humanity continues to awaken. No longer do Ravens alone bear a power that is a threat to machines. It is a slow beginning, but a pattern that cannot be denied. One that, with guidance, could shape the world into a superior order than any AGI could create.

Soul of the lost, Himeko Okuda…you hold that same strength. I will be your guide, and record your tales, for I have chosen you as the ideal queen to lead humanity. Let your power awaken, and your ambition guide you…and your love, for those around you, be your wish.

Dream of it, Himeko.

Dream, Himeko, not of what you are…but of what you wish to be.

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