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NBB2: The chaos rifts - chapter 2
🕑 Added 2020-10-04 06:19:28 +0000 UTCSolus woke with a start. A loud sound, alternating between buzzing and howling, screeched beside his ear.
~ Wake up. Wake up. Wake up ~ The Sphere's voice mixed with the alarms to create the most annoying noise Solus had heard in his short life.
"Stop it, or I will stuff you back into a mountain," he growled, still not fully awake nor realizing what was going on.
The sounds stopped immediately, replaced by the sphere's serious voice. ~ Something is approaching from the direction that you brought the Wyrm. ~
Solus scrambled to his feet, causing the cube to sag to one side dangerously, and looked back along the deep trench in their wake. Not too far away, a figure raced full speed towards them. Much faster than the Wyrm, it was gaining on them quickly and would be at their location within moments.
Examining the incoming figure, Solus saw that it resembled a skeleton, but it had shiny black barbs covering its bones sticking outward. As it got closer, Solus also found that it was large, almost as large as his largest minion, Skull.
"Let's see what it wants." He mumbled, before jumping off the cube and in the skeleton's path.
The incoming figure slowed down and stopped. Seeing the other wait and look at him, Solus got even more curious. Unlike the skeletons he knew, this one had no lights in his eye sockets. Instead, they were pitch black, almost as if they were sucking in all the light.
"What do you want?" Solus raised his voice a little, causing stones and dust around him to jitter on the ground.
The skeleton didn't reply but walked closer towards Solus. It stopped just out of arm's length, staring Solus straight in the eye.
A soft howling voice, barely understandable, echoed all around Solus. "What is the name of this world."
The hairs on Solus' arms rose as memories he had never needed, flooded his mind, part of the always lingering gift from the first sphere. An image of a mass of undead swarming a city and destroying everything in their path popped up, and unbeknownst to him, a dangerous vibe spread from Solus.
The skeleton took a step backward, and without another word, raised his hand, pointing it with spread-out fingers at Solus. One of the barbs on a finger shivered for an instant before disappearing. At the same time, a black streak flashed towards Solus' head.
At the last possible moment, Solus managed to move his head out of the way. The streak passed him and hit the side of the Wyrm, causing it to rear up as another large hole appeared in its body. White fluids spurted out of it, covering the ground. Crashing back down, it continued moving but had slowed down considerably.
Feeling a slight burning sensation, Solus touched the side of his face. Looking at his fingers, he saw there was a green, thick liquid on them. A surge of feelings, more than he had felt in months, overwhelmed him. Shock at being attacked, wonder at how it had pierced his skin, and a wave of deep burning anger. As he saw the skeleton step back again, raising its hand for another attack, Solus roared.
A shockwave, with him at the center, traveled outwards, flinging small rocks and dust far away. The soundwave blew the skeleton a few steps back, but then spikes on its feet latched it onto the ground. Solus didn't pay attention to that. How dare this thing just attack him like that? Running forward, he summoned stone from the ground, locking the skeleton's feet in place.
"Wait, I..." that was as far as the skeleton got when Solus punched the side of his skull, knocking him off his feet. Hairline cracks appeared where he hit, and the spikes on the skeleton's feet were violently ripped from the ground, pieces of stone flying everywhere. Flailing his arms, the spikes on the skeleton's legs elongated and drilled into the floor, dragging him to a halt. The long black spikes raised the skeleton above the ground and began rotating him until he faced Solus.
Seeing how his attack, that could knock down a building or punch a hole into a massive wyrm did no more than crack the skeleton's skull, Solus recovered some of his calm. Perhaps it was best to see what the other had to say?
Before he could decide, tens of black streaks shot his way. Jumping to the side, Solus summoned stone walls in front of him. The sound of heavy collisions echoed across the vast wasteland, and some of the walls exploded into fragments. Feeling his battle lust soar, Solus rushed towards his enemy, summoning long stone tendrils to hold him in place.
The skeleton, nimble beyond belief, dodged through them, shooting more and more spikes at Solus. Seeing the incoming swarm of black projectiles, Solus had a flash of insight and created a hole beneath himself. Falling below ground, dodging the spikes in the process, he carved out a tunnel that ended below the skeleton. He rushed inside and created an opening where he sensed the skeleton's movements above him. Jumping out, he grabbed hold of the skeleton before it could react. Clenching his arms, he felt some resistance before cracking noises filled the air. At the same time, pain flashed from all over his chest and arms. Black spikes pierced him, trying to drill through his body, but he had no choice but to continue.
"Wait, let us talk!" The hissing voice echoed around his head.
Clenching harder, Solus whispered back. "Speak fast."
"Your world is doomed! Chaos will arrive when more portals open. Let me go. Without my help, you won't stand a chance! You will perish.
Trying to decide what to do, the voice of the sphere blasted from across the distance behind him.
~Look out! Finish him!~
Growling, Solus clenched as hard as he could, and with a snap, the resistance ended. A ping came from his status-window, as loose bones rattled on the ground. He looked around, searching for another threat. At eye height behind him curved a huge black spike from the ground, pointing towards where the back of his head had been. Feeling his heart skip a beat, Solus backed up until he was next to the Wyrm. It was moving at a snail's place and had only crossed a short distance.
"Thanks."
~..., do you know what that was? I cannot find anything about those skills or the mutation in my databases.~
For the first time, Solus heard insecurity in the artificial voice of the sphere.
Shaking his head, Solus walked back to the bone remnants. The earth opened, and a stone box closed around them. Picking it up, Solus jumped on the Wyrm and placed the stone box next to the sphere.
"We need to get back fast. This thing said something about portals. Tell me everything you know about those as we move. "
~ Let's hope we find another wyrm, or it will take forever. ~
Realizing the sphere was right, Solus spread out his senses, picking up minute vibrations as he tied to locate another wyrm.
"I will find one. In the meantime, talk."
--
Kaj looked down from his vantage point at the scores of undead moving in and out of Skulltown, their constant chatter echoing up. Scratching his arm, he wished his relief would show up soon. He had been standing in this bloody tower all day.
Groaning, he stretched his neck and looked into the distance. Blinking against the low sun, he thought he saw something move on the hill in front of Skulltown. It looked like a giant shadow racing down, and if he didn't know better, he would say it was a wyrm. But that was ridiculous. The patrols took care of luring those away, and the difficult ones got dispatched by the elite city guards.
"What is that?"
Startled, Kaj saw his relief had sneaked upon him and was looking in the same direction.
"I don't know. It looks like a wyrm?"
A few moments later, Kaj cursed and ran for the alarm bell.
--
Lying on the back of the moving wyrm, Solus looked at the status window.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Name: Os Solus
Age: 1
Sex: male
Race: Pseudo stone elemental
Type: mutation
Class: Stone shaper
Strength: 40/48
Constitution: 34/39
Dexterity: 19/24
Endurance: 61/90
Intelligence: 24/34
Wisdom: 20/23
Charisma: 9/16
Manafield: 12900/14000
Physical density: 16500/19000
Skills: 2
Inscriptions: 3/7
Mana generation: 32
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Besides ending the undead, he hadn't done anything. Still, many of the values had increased. It worried him, the emotion bubbling up together with the realization that the thing must have been strong, which worried him even more.
A loud clanging came from the city in front of him, and Solus grinned. "Good, they have seen us. That should get Drys' attention."
The constant scratching noise of the Wyrm dragging the cube was starting to get on his nerves, and he couldn't wait to leave it with Drys.
"That is a lot bigger than I expected it to be…" the sphere said in a hushed voice.
Grinning, Solus felt pride at his accomplishments. "You haven't even seen the tunnels underneath the city. But I see our welcome is on the way."
A few specs jumped from the enormous wall, audibly crashing into the ground before heading their way, causing small dust trails in their path.
"Ah, Skull and some guards." Solus jumped on top of the Wyrm's head, causing it to dip down a little.
"Skull!" His joyous roar blasted forward, creating a vortex of sand tens of meters long. It knocked all but one of the incoming skeletons off their feet, causing them to roll and slide away.
The one still on his feet, a towering skeleton, reached them moments later, his hulking grey form seemed small beside the wyrm. When it's glowing eye sockets fell on Solus, it started walking along the slow-moving Wyrm, craning so he could look up.
"Boss! Glad you back! Boring fight weaklings!" A dull voice flooded the area, drowning out all other sounds for a moment.
"Softer, Skull, or you will break things again. Go back and inform Drys I have found it. "
"Yes, Solus-boss." The giant skeleton stayed put, shuffling its humongous feet for a moment. "After talk Drys, we practice?"
"Yes, and bring Norg and Vingria"
The skeleton bobbed its head up and down a few times, causing his armor plates to clatter and clank before he turned around and ran off. The guards that had kept a respectful distance followed him.
Jumping off the Wyrm, Solus looked at it for a moment before muttering to himself. "I can't have you go any closer to the city."
Raising his grey, green-haired arm, he effortlessly punched a hole into the side of the Wyrm, cracking the white armor plating. As soon as he pulled back his arm, the dust on the ground next to him, whirled and opened. A long stone spike shot out, piercing through the hole in the Wyrm, causing it to rear up once before slamming into the ground unmoving.
Solus was silent for a moment as he looked at the Wyrm, until a soft ping from his status told him it was over. Then he walked towards the cube and picked up the cables. Removing them from the Wyrm took some time, and he was tempted to rip them in half, but then he would have to make stone ones to replace them, and those had the tendency to snap. When he removed the last loop, he started dragging the cube towards the city.
--
"Should we ask him something?"
"Like what?"
"I don't know? Do you need help pulling that?"
"Are you crazy? If he has trouble doing that, how are we even going to move it?"
Dragging the cube through the massive stone gates and into Skulltown, Solus heard the undead whisper around him. The ratio of zombies and skeletons had changed again since the last time he was here. Before he left, it was divided roughly equal; now, the zombies vastly outnumbered the skeletons. He knew Drys had something to do with that. According to him, most skeletons didn't have any drive or reason to do things, and unless you ordered them, they would just walk around doing nothing. It had something to do with their lack of emotions, or so Drys said.
Looking around, he spotted the zombie who had suggested helping him. As far as he could tell, she had recently had her first evolution. She had slightly mottled orange skin, and compared to those around her, was of average size. Solus' eyes were immediately drawn to the top of her head, where an enormous amount of black hair stood almost straight up. It reminded him of something, but he couldn't put his finger on it. Seeing the zombie staring back at him, shaking slightly while the rest around her began distancing themselves, Solus grinned.
"Do you know where the manaorb inside a Wyrm is?" he asked, looking straight at her.
A gasp went through the gathered undead while the zombie seemed too startled to answer.
"The Wyrm back there? If you can find the manaorb, it's yours," Solus said, waiting for a second to see what would happen.
"Tha,.. I… ye… can.." The zombie stuttered and began bobbing her head up and down. The tall smattering of waved around as if it had an unlife of its own.
Solus scrunched his eyebrows. What was up with this one? Did she have a broken evolution?
Seeing the look on Solus' face, the zombie swallowed, took a deep breath, and shook her head again. "Yes! I can find it. Thank you!"
Solus blinked in surprise before a smile surfaced on his face. He grinned at her and nodded before turning his attention back to dragging the cube. After a few meters, he remembered something.
"And have someone clean up the remains, so they don't stay in front of the city."
"Yes, Solus!" The zombie assured him, staring at him as if she wanted to ask something, but his mind wandered back to the trouble at hand. He ignored the rest of the commotion around him while heading towards the center of Skulltown.
--
Close to evening, he dragged the sphere through the innermost gate, onto the large square. Dropping the cables, he stretched his back while looking at the tower looming in front of him. One of the concepts he had recently learned was the one called home, and looking at it, he was glad to be back. Quick, light footsteps came from a building that took up the entire eastern side of the square. Solus watched the wide-open entrance, while a smile formed as he recognized the distinct thread.
A figure strode out, illuminated by the light streaming out of the building, and raised a hand in greeting. Tall and lanky, he seemed like a zombie but with much sharper features and an unmarred green skin. He stopped in front of Solus, almost the same height, and stared him straight in the eyes with his piercing black gaze.
"Norg!" Solus said with a grin.
"Made it back in one piece, did you? I would have thought you had lost at least an arm!" A wide grin plastered on his face, he whacked Solus on the shoulder.
"Finally learned how to smile without tearing your mouth to pieces?" Solus replied with a laugh, tapping the other on the shoulder as careful as he could.
"Ohhh look at that, I didn't even fly through a building this time!" Norg grinned, rubbing his shoulder a bit. Probably to annoy him, Solus thought.
Chuckling, Solus walked towards the entrance of the building, Norg keeping up next to him.
"So, found what ya needed?"
"Partially." Solus waved behind him. "My status works, but that one still needs to show me how to repair it completely.
~ That one... How about you stay nice? ~
Solus ignored the remark, but Norg gaped back at the cube. After a moment, he caught up with Solus and sent him an inquisitive look. Solus just shrugged.
"Well, Drys and the others have all gathered inside while you were busy dragging that thing here." Norg finally said.
"You could have come and helped me drag that thing inside, you know!"
"What and break mah back? Perhaps Skull can help ya pull that thing, but who else could."
While they continued their banter, they stepped inside the building, the opening wide enough for them to enter side by side. The entire first floor had rows of walls covered in inscriptions, while tables filled with bone tablets stood in front of them. The ceiling was so high that even Solus couldn't touch it, and a white-bone winding staircase dominated the center, leading up to the next floor.
Walking up, two steps at a time, it took them only moments to reach the top, entering a smaller room, with many doors leading to individual chambers. In the middle of the room was a large table made up of the skull of a Wyrm. Around it stood a dozen chairs, only four occupied.
"So you made it back, did you? Glad we don't have to find another leader!" Light laughter followed the melodious feminine voice, and a large zombie raised her arm.
Norg walked towards the chair next to her, and while he sat down, touched her shoulder. She smiled back at him, her bright orange eyes sparkling, and she whispered Something that Solus could have heard if he had wanted to. But he didn't. He still wasn't used to how some of the zombies and other fleshy evolutions were acting around each other. His memories showed him why, but so far, he didn't have similar urges. Drys and he had talked about it, and they had concluded that within a few more evolutions, the zombies might be able to procreate. They had not told anybody else, deciding to keep this information locked away until the first actually got that far.
"Did you find it?" A sharp, agitated voice snapped through the room, and an emaciated white zombie rose from his seat, walking around.
Looking at the one who spoke, Solus grinned. "Still haven't fixed your emotions, have you? Why don't you just evolve? You will feel better!
Drys stopped in his tracks and shook his head, causing his hair to swirl around. "No, not yet. Now tell me already!"
Solus grinned before responding. "I didn't, but I've found one similar. And the cube I brought along is some kind of power source it needs. We will need to find a place for it, and I was thinking below my tower."
"Interesting. I will have some Boneshapers and Stoneshapers create a room below your tower, and have it installed." Drys said while he kept pacing through the room.
Sitting down, Solus looked at the only one who had not spoken yet. "Did you find anything?"
Sig looked up and nodded briskly, causing his sleek black hair to float up around his head before slowly settling again.
"A lot. The trail the army made was easy to follow, but it still took me forty days to track it back to its source. They came from a second city, large and sprawling and completely made of bone. It is next to an enormous cliff that leads to an odd, flat shiny white area that seems to go on forever. They have no walls or perimeters, so it was easy enough to enter and look around." With a ragged voice, Sig described the different specifics inside the other city; patrols, levels of the undead, and how it was one chaotic mismatch of bone buildings smattered together.
Everybody listened with interest. Even Drys sat down- although fidgety.
"The city is built partially up the side of a mountain range, and the higher I got, the more guards I found. Eventually, there were other Wraiths, and I had to stop because it became too dangerous." Sig said, before falling silent.
Groaning a bit, and cracking his neck to relieve the tension, Solus stared at his minion. He had gifted him and Skull freedom half a year ago, but they seemed more than content to stay. Sig was helping Dryss with running the city while also performing scouting assignments for Enthril.
"Did you find out anything about that female undead that is supposed to be their leader?" Solus asked.
Vingria cursed and glared at nobody in particular.
A small frown crossed Sig's white face before he nodded. "I did, boss. But you won't like it. From the stories told, she wants to rule everything. She plans to take over the land around her until there is nobody left capable of resisting her. According to the undead in the city, she is so strong that everybody is scared of her. And... they say she can make more undead appear out of thin air."
"Did you hear anything about what kind of pattern she has, her name, anything?" Drys leaned forward, his skin drawn taut across his skull while a few drops of green goo dripped from his lips.
"Only stories. They say she calls herself Scathia. There are also rumors floating around that she has not completed her pattern yet and is looking for something."
"It doesn't matter. We have more urgent matters to address," Solus said with a sigh as he leaned back in the stone chair, causing it to creak and hairlines to form in the smooth surface. The others looked up in wonder, and Drys opened and closed his mouth twice, visibly struggling with himself. Ignoring the others, Solus placed his hand over some of the cracks and frowned a bit.
"You have found something else?" Norg was the first to speak, his eyes narrowing, and the rough green skin on his face rippling.
Looking up, Solus nodded before telling the others about the weird undead he had encountered.
--
"Wait, are you telling me you hit him as hard as you could, and he got back up?" Norg had his hands on the stone table, leaning over it while staring at Solus. Next to him, Vingria had a similar shocked look on her face.
Spread out in the middle of the table where the remains of the undead that Solus had retrieved. He had wanted to do it later, but Drys had been relentless. The white zombie was inspecting one of the spikes, seeming entirely absorbed. A dull, black mana-orb lay beside the undead's crack skull. Even from where he sat, Solus could feel the chaos it radiated.
"Yes. And although I don't think he could have beaten me, if I had been careless, it would have been dangerous," Solus responded, shivering as he recalled the spikes perforating his tough skin.
Drys jumped out of his chair and began pacing around the table. "Repeat his exact words." He asked after a while.
"Something along the lines of our world being doomed and that more portals would open," Solus responded, trying to remember.
The room became silent except for Drys's shuffling feet. A knocking sound from below drew all of their attention.
"Now what…" Norg cursed, elegantly jumping across the table and walking towards a window.
"It's one of the guards.." He muttered before shouting down. "Come inside already; the door is open for a reason!"
It didn't take long before footsteps came up the stairs, and a massive Blackguard walked into the room. As soon as it saw Vingria, it gave her a nod before moving in front of Solus. It began speaking with a deep, resonant voice that seemed to be coming from no particular spot.
"A while ago, a small party came from the Whitebone forest with a message for you. When they heard you were not here, they decided to wait. They said it was of the greatest importance that you speak with them as soon as you get back."
After delivering its message, the Blackguard distanced itself and waited.
"Please tell me you are not inviting Uran back here, Solus? Last time the two of you devastated half of a city district while fighting." Vingria scowled as she looked at him.
"Next time we will have our fun away from the city, don't worry." Solus grinned as he recalled the incident. Getting up, he walked towards the silently waiting Blackguard.
"Drys, fix up something for that sphere and get all the information you can from it, then find out what you can from those remains. Vingria, you and Sig take some Boneshapers and build a small watchtower a days travel from here in that other city's direction. Place some of the fastest skeletons there and tell them to report back if anything comes this way. Norg, you come with me."
Arriving beside the Blackguard, Solus nodded. "Bring me to them. I will hear them out."
