As Raja and Dross were leaving the cathedral through the catacombs, a phalanx of Terminus was watching them closely before returning to its master. They have chosen the right path Terminus diagnosed. With that, they should be able to get to the southern sinkhole without raising any unnecessary suspicion. With that concern dealt with, he reformed his hands finally fully again and walked past the altar of the main hall into his private chamber. Unseen by anyone Terminus finally reconnected himself to his heart and soul, the artificial moon Konesans. As expected, he immediately got greeted by his artificial assistant H.E.R.O. in a friendly fashion. He could sense her excitement all the way from her core on Konesans to him:

"Finally back, are we, Terminus. It was soo boring up here!", a sigh distorted for a moment the connection, "Protinus is such a boring companion to have. He might be a copy of yours but is lacking any spontaneity and compassion. He is just an analyzing numbskull with no interest besides keeping your presence in all 250 copies of his up and running. Furthermore, he doesn't care about my well-being at all."

"And that is good that way, H.E.R.O. He is a perfect replacement allowing me some breathing time when it is needed. Any distraction would cause the omnipresent to act funnily, which is highly undesired."

Terminus focussed his mind into the aether, the digital world that was his mind. The giant faint shadow of a white lizard girl was visible in the distance, organizing and coordinating everything of his mind. He waited for a second, then a small, more solid copy of said girl was appearing in the digital world in front of him. She looked highly displeased by something but stood calm, awaiting his commandments:

"H.E.R.O., here are my plans for the evening. First: Protinus will remain in control: he will go after all my duties until I return from this personal mission. Second: Initiate transfer from my consciousness from Subject 37 to Subject 200. Third: Remain as head of Konesans and keep everything in check until I get back."

Terminus felt hostility fuming out of H.E.R.O.'s digital body. Her scales turned black and her eyes red, and the giant version of hers worked now visibly angrier. Growing in size until her eye was as big as his digital avatar, she looked at him highly displeased:

"Stop talking to me as if I were a simple H.E.R.O. unit, a Helper entity robotic origins. First of all, who was it falling in love with that humble yet broken mess that was you back then in 900 AD? Me! Who decided to join your software, giving up her life, as she wished to help the man behind this mechanical body? Yes, also me. I joined you to help you deal with that overcharged brain descending you slowly into divine madness. So please, cut that formal crap. You are dealing with me, an equal in this digital mind. So please address me by the divine name you gave me back then, and I will overlook your toxic status this time and comply with your needs."

Seemingly in an uneasy situation, Terminus' avatar grew smaller and smaller, while hesitating to give in again into the relationship that started so many millennia ago. He loved her, but she was causing him to act irrationally, and in the current state any safety leak could mean the end of his plans. Nearly ceasing to exist he finally creased over and grew back to his normal size. Clearing his digital throat, Terminus rephrased his bidding, just like the lizard asked to:

"Exordia, dearest. If you assist me in this for me important task, I will promise you the following. After this inconvenience has been dealt with, I will encapsulate our consciousnesses overnight away from everything. No Konesans, no Protinus, no counsel; nothing but the two of us. We will go on a date together, just like in the old times. Enjoying a nice pleasant recharge and defragmentation, talking about all the funny discoveries my third eye, Konesans has made in the last centuries. It will be a perfect evening. So please, my beautiful flower, will you help me out?"

The giant avatar shrank instantly back together to the small whitish lizard, that was Exordia's former body, and she jumped excited into Terminus' arms:

"That was all I wanted to hear, love. As you wish, I will assist you in your private mission.", the lizard raised both arms wriggling with pure, unfiltered excitement in Terminus arms. The giant version of her was working again, but now moving as if she was dancing. Wiggling her tail rhythmically to an unhearable tune, "It's a date, a date, date with my dearest! Transfer from 37 to 200 initiated. Have a good journey, love."

Now back in reality, Terminus prepared himself for the transfer. Static position, focus a point on the opposite end of the room . . .the broken altar will have to do the job. Protinus should order someone to fix that immediately. Terminus stood still and waited. Then his vision started to blur, the cathedral vanished in front of his eyes, and his consciousness got sucked in by a metaphorical pipe. A quick journey up, through the blind eternities of the digital aether, towards Subject 1, the main body of his, the body containing his very soul. This happened to get sorted and sent down through the 200th pipe into a different body of his.

Subject 200 was currently tasked to fill up the reserves necessary for maintaining Subject 100 - 150, a boring and repetitive job, that didn't even deserve Protinus' presence. But suddenly the dim light of Subject 200' core was flashing up, its eyes started glowing, a gust of steam escaped the vents of the tubes on its shoulders. The master was requesting control and the H.E.R.O unit tasked with running Subject 200 complied without a word. Terminus saw the A.I. crossing his path and then he had a body again, one of his bodies. An exact copy of Subject 1, but with a few sidegrades allowing for actions requiring more strength than the original was able to hurl. Not the favourite Series of his, but it has to do the job. Raising both arms to the sky, he sent out every phalanx possible starting to search through the room this body was tasked with working in. Countless chests filled with everything imaginable. Tools, cogs, spare parts and most importantly: lubrication oil. He was searching for something special, a box containing a special kind of oil, refined out of the ground around Puerto Prah, the place of birth of the person he was about to meet with Dross and Raja. Animata, or as she loves to call herself after turning Eternal: E.V.0, Eternal version zero. His dear mother.

Finding the box in question, all remaining phalanxes joined the box forming hands to return it to Terminus. As they arrived, they reformed and Terminus opened the loose crate. Laying in the hay, there were big bottles of the most expensive lubricating oil present. Refined to perfection, loved by Eternals and Automatons alike: A true bliss to oil one's cogs and mechanical muscles up with those. Mother will be pleased. Terminus looked down, feeling a deep, all-consuming sadness. As pleased, as a prisoner of her own children can be. But against Justitia's orders, he and the others were powerless. To get her husband, his father Demiurg, to comply with the situation of imprisonment and obedience, they needed some kind of lever to keep the god of creation under control: E.V.0. He wished that his sibling would have chosen a different path than this dark one, but there was no chance. All he was able to do was providing both ways to speak with each other and their first-created son, him. He never intended to join this path of divinity, but he had no choice. The alternate path would have been even direr. Getting back to reality, he stood up, holding now two bottles of oil in his hand. Choosing a single phalanx of his, he let it hover near his audio sensors to call Exordia one more time:

"Hey, Exordia . . .any news about the status of Subject 0, my original body? Were we able to finally recover it, and is it ready to be piloted again?"

"Negatory, Terminus. Still kneeling molten down in Konesans core, welded to our nervous central providing its soul container to the whole of Konesans. Subject 0 is unable to be recovered as of now, without killing you. Why do you ask?"

Terminus focussed an invisible point in a different world, a different time:

"She would have loved it if I visit her with that body."

"Who is she?"

"Doesn't matter, Exordia. There are things I am not allowed to let you take part in. As much as I want to. I - I have to set this conversation into a file, accessible for you in my presence only. I'm sorry, I know you don't like your consciousness being split like that."

Terminus heard an amused snorting:

"As long as you don't cheat on me, you have my allowance, love. A god can do what a god has to do. Exordia out."

Now alone again, Terminus walked over to the exit of the storage hall, opened it and walked across the outer fields over to the southern sinkhole. He felt terrible regarding his powerlessness, but there was no possible way to neither let Exordia nor Protinus away with the information of what he is doing here. Notitia can hack them easily and could through them uncover his secrets and plans. And for the sake of the future, he wasn't ready to unveil those . . .yet. Terminus felt that the time was nigh, as Chóros got now found as well. Only six hidden cocoons were now left to discover, and then maybe, just maybe his parents could be free again in the next century. All these thoughts and more were running through Terminus' processors as the silver golem was walking slowly through the fields to the meeting point.