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Nothing But Bones 2: The chaos rifts - chapter 1
🕑 Added 2020-09-26 17:47:23 +0000 UTCGrey dusty foothills stretched out towards the horizon. Large crevices and boulders marred the flowing hills, creating a chaotic landscape. Far in the distance, a tall mountain reached for the sky. Amongst the hills, something was rushing forward, moving at such a pace that it was hundreds of meters away before the dust settled. Looking closer, it became apparent a figure was running at the tip of the dust trail. Limbs moving in a blur, the figure seemed unwilling to stop for anything, jumping across everything in its path.
Hours later, with the sun still high in the sky, the hills in the distance became lower and soon gave way to a seemingly endless wasteland.
The figure slowed to a halt and looked around. Green hair framed a rough-hewn grey face, and nothing covered its muscular frame. All along the arms and legs, short green hair made for a stark contrast with the darker grey skin. Penetrating green eyes seemed to glow as they looked around the wasteland.
"Where are you..."
The dust on the ground began to bob up and down a bit from the low and vibrating voice.
Solus subconsciously resisted the urge to stomp his foot on the ground. He noticed how easy it was getting, compared to months ago, when he kept causing destruction whenever he got upset. It almost seemed natural now to maintain control. But, he thought, sometimes it was just too much fun just to let loose.
Closing his eyes, he concentrated for a while before rumbling deep in his mind. "STATUS"
A shaky blue screen blinked into existing in front of him. It was jittery and seemed barely able to stay in one piece, the blue sometimes changing to black. After a while, it began slowly stabilizing, and letters started appearing. Reading the blurry, occasionally moving text, Solus felt the onset of a headache.
"> Malfunction! Malfunction! The status window is only partially available. Please follow the designated line to the nearest repair facility."
A few moments later, a small arrow appeared and pointed off into the distance. It lasted for only a second before it disappeared, taking the window with it and leaving Solus with a throbbing headache.
Looking in the direction the arrow had pointed in, Solus saw the tall shadow of a mountain. A grimace spread across his face.
"It had to be a mountain again…"
Not wanting to waste any more time, he surged forward. It took only a moment before he was running full speed towards the mountain, drawing another long dust trail behind him.
--
Standing at the bottom of the mountain, Solus craned his neck to look at the top. Although he had seen mountains before, this one was by far the tallest. Annoyed by the prospect of more headaches, he summoned his status again and waited until the arrow came back.
This time it seemed to point up the mountain, and Solus moaned.
"And of course it is on the top again. This time that stupid repair facility better still be there. Otherwise, Drys will just have to fix it himself, no matter how hard he says it is."
Crouching down, he leaped tens of meters up the side of the mountain, landing on a small outcrop that began cracking when his feet crashed into it. An enormous crater had formed behind him, rubble and small debris still hitting the ground. Ignoring it, Solus kept jumping up, destroying parts of the mountain as he went.
About halfway up, he stopped at a broad, solid ridge and turned towards the wasteland behind him. From this height, he could see farther than he ever had before, and enjoying it, he stared off into the distance. He had no idea how long he had been standing there when he saw something move in the corner of his eye. Interested, he examined the white spec, quickly realizing what it was.
It was an enormous wyrm traveling away from him, leaving behind it a perfectly straight line of dust. Knowing there was no time to get distracted with it now, he decided he would see if he could find it later. Trying to see if he could find where the Wyrm was heading, the grin returned to his face when he saw a small city. It was too far to see any details, but he knew it for what it was because there was nothing else that square and tall. Making a mental note of the location, Solus summoned his status window.
After a moment, the arrow returned, pointing straight forward, through the side of the mountain in front of him.
"The other side…" Exasperated, Solus shook his head before he resumed jumping up. He knew he would have to cross the mountain.
--
From the summit, Solus gazed down at where he hoped he would finally find what he had been searching for the last few months.
Build along the side of the mountain was a white building. Mostly intact, it seemed to have hidden initially away deep in the mountain. Over the ages, something had cracked open the side of the mountain that had covered it, revealing what was inside.
Jumping down, Solus summoned a few stone pillars from the side of the walls. Like ribs, they stretched outwards from the solid rock, giving a sturdy feel. Hopping from one to the other, Solus stopped when he was at the same height as the building. He was glad he had stopped jumping down on top of things. The first time he had done that, he had accidentally destroyed a similar place. Eyeing the rusted metal parts that attached the part of the construction to the wall, he knew it might still fall if he wasn't careful.
Deciding he wasn't going to take the risk, Solus concentrated, and more stone grew out of the mountain, dropping dust and small rocks towards the depths below. Gingerly the rock wrapped around the bottom of the building. Only when the entire base was resting on a strong foundation did Solus dare move forward. Not even slightly tired, he summoned forth more rock, creating a bridge towards a large hole. From what he could tell, another part of the building was torn off, probably resting at the bottom. He hoped what he needed wasn't destroyed in the process.
Walking towards the entrance, Solus stuck his head inside and looked inside a long corridor. It was dark and small, and he felt the hairs on his head touch the ceiling. Further down, he saw the hallway disappear off into the depths of the mountain. Moving in, he followed the corridor, trying to take light steps and keeping his head bend so he wouldn't hit anything. He noted that the entire thing looked and felt almost the same as the other buildings he had been too during the last half-year.
The only notable differences were that the walls were almost white instead of dusty grey and didn't glow, indicating they weren't made of any rock. As he headed further inside, it became darker, and the walls blocked the light he usually got from the surrounding stone. Soon all he could see were the vague green outlines of the walls green.
The hallway began sloping up, and after a few bends and twists, he rounded a corner and stopped. In front of him was an enormous chamber carved inside the mountain, many different entrances and exits lining its walls. The entire thing was the same almost white material, but cracks had formed, and he could see stone shining through. Small rocks had fallen inside, creating pockets of illumination that made it easier for him to see.
Many pathways leading outward were positioned at set intervals up the wall with no easy access, and Solus realized there must have been floors dividing the space in front of him.
Not for the first time, Solus wondered what it must have been like when all this was still in one piece. After enjoying the view for a little longer, he finally got bored and checked the arrow. It pointed towards an opening in one of the farthest walls. Solus barely managed to catch himself from jumping there in one bound. Grumbling a bit, he instead climbed there, trying not to disturb anything and cause the whole thing to come down.
When he reached the entrance, he felt his heart race. Gingerly climbing inside, he looked around the short hallway. There were two openings on each side and another one at the end. The side rooms all seemed the same, small and filled with corroded metal objects. Not impressed, Solus put his hopes on the last room and moved to the back of the hallway.
The next room got his heart racing because it was similar to something he had not seen in a very long time. Empty and square, it had a single pedestal in the center with a sphere on top of it. He ducked to get inside and noticed everything seemed much smaller in this room. Perhaps the other one was more important? Narrowing his eyes, Solus moved towards the center sphere and hesitated.
Should he put his hand on it? What if it tried to draw energy from him and explode? Could that happen? Sticking out a single finger, he carefully pressed it against the side of the sphere.
~ Dost thou think I will break?" A loud, clear voice echoed through the room. ~
Blinking, Solus froze, using every ounce of his self-control not to shout out and stomp the thing. He had come so far. He wasn't going to bring down this entire room accidentally.
~ )(*&&^%^%" Another string of sounds flowed into the room. It was short and harsh.~
"I understood the first one," Solus tried to whisper, his rumbling voice causing a low resonance in the room.
A soft green glow came from the sphere and suffused the room. The walls seemed to shimmer for a moment, glittering lights appearing everywhere.
~ Thou can speaketh normally now. I has' t strengthen'd the field 'round us.~
Groaning, Solus rubbed the side of his head. Was this thing for real?
"Ok?" Keeping some control over his voice, Solus spoke louder than the first time. Nothing happened, not the resonance or any shaking and things falling.
"How did you do this?" Solus' voice cracked through the room, but everything stayed whole.
~ I doth not understand this question.~
A loud bang sounded through the room, followed by a small rumbling somewhere deep in the ground as Solus sat down.
"Can you talk like I do?"
No answer came for a while until the voice responded in a snappy tone.
~ Fine. Don't like meh accent, do yah? You try being alone for untold millennia! Ahh, if I had anything better to do, I would just ignore you. Bah! ~
Understanding nothing he said would change the sphere's reactions, Solus decided to just ask his questions and be done with the thing. For the first time in months, he summoned his mana-field, causing the entire room to be bathed in bright green light.
"I have a broken pattern on my mana-field. Another sphere gave it to me shortly after I awoke. Can you repair it?"
~ REALLY!? After untold millennia, someone manages to find me and… FIX IT?! ~
The sphere began cursing without rest for a long time, using many words Solus had never heard before, and every time he tried to interrupt it, the sphere would just talk louder. As his anger flared up, constantly increasing, Solus finally snapped.
"ENOUGH YOU USELESS BALL!"
His voice roared through the confines of the small room, echoing horrifyingly around him and blasted through the opening behind him. From outside, crumbling sounds were followed by things crashing into the ground. A soft shaking was noticeable even inside the room.
~ What are you doing?! Do you plan to tear this mountain down? ~
The sounds coming from the outside cooled Solus down almost immediately, and he felt some regret. Still not there yet.
"Can you, or can you not repair my pattern?" One at a time, Solus bit out the words trying hard to keep the volume down.
~ Yes, fine, sure. I am most likely the last fully powered tier four AI left in the world. I can, without a doubt, repair whatever simple pattern you have on your low-grade mana-field. Let me see it again then. ~ A tired sigh followed the sphere's order.
Summoning his mana-field, Solus tried to focus and see if he could sense anything from the sphere. As his mind calmed, he began hearing the soft crumbling stones from outside the room, and he saw the dust billow into the room from outside. Green lines from the sphere began scanning across his mana-field. He tried following them, but after a while, he noticed they were just studying the different areas repeatedly.
Time passed, and Solus felt himself grow tired. He had been running around for days without stopping, and sitting still like this had a soothing effect on him.
--
~ I take back what I said, you have some fascinating patterns. ~
The clear voice shook Solus awake, and he snapped upright, looking through the room. All around him, dust was swirling and drifting from the ceiling. The sounds from outside had died down, and the green beams from the sphere had retracted back into it.
Looking at his aura, Solus saw the status window pattern had not changed.
"You can't repair it?" He muttered, staring at it and wondering if he had come all this way for nothing.
~ Of course I can! But the problem isn't that one, ~
A beam of blue light illuminated a particular area on Solus' mana-field.
~ The issue is with this one, the Pseudo stone elemental one. A requirement for it, or so everybody thought, was for the undead to gain a semblance of life. However, there is no more life force anywhere in this accursed galaxy. How you managed to survive the attempts to connect to the life force is baffling. ~
"Do you mean when it hurts my head?"
~ I don't know, but it could be. ~
"Can you fix it?" Solus asked, feeling his emotions fluctuate again.
~ No. ~
"..."
"Didn't you say you could fix my pattern?" Solus felt his anger slowly returning. Was this thing playing with him?
~ I can fix the status information display. The other one? You will have to figure that out yourself. My records show a situation like this has never happened before. ~
Slowly shaking his head, Solus forcefully calmed himself.
"Then repair my pattern."
The sphere didn't immediately reply, and Solus was about to ask again when the sphere began speaking.
~ I want something in return. You can't expect me to repair it, then hear you say bye while you walk off, leaving me here for who knows how much longer? And my power source will outlast the life of this galaxy, so that will be a very long time. Wait, should I say the death of this galaxy? How confusing… ~
Surprisingly enough, Solus noticed he wasn't getting angry this time. Instead, his roiling emotions calmed down as he began pondering. If he could bring this sphere including its power source to Skulltown, how great would that be? Drys would have someone else for his endless stream of questions and leave him alone!
With glittering eyes, Solus rose and looked down on the sphere.
"I suppose I can bring you along to my city. But how do we move your energy source?"
~ Well, about that. Are you capable of shaping the earth yet? ~
Solus nodded, wondering what the sphere was getting at.
~ Good, good. Then there is nothing to worry about. I will repair your pattern when we arrive at my new destination. ~
Solus had learned a lot in the last year, and one of the things he had found was that others said a lot of things while doing another.
"How do I know you will do as you say?"
~ Oh come now, why would I lie? ~
"Because you want me to take you away from here?"
The sphere didn't respond right away, and Solus decided he needed to thank Norg and Vingria for trying to get him to do stuff all the time. Without them, he might have just brought the sphere along without second-guessing it.
~ Fine, how about this. I will partially 'repair' your pattern. That way, you can use most of it, but not all. Then after you bring me away from here, I will fix the rest. ~
A wide grin surfaced on Solus' face.
"Deal! Now, repair it and show me where your energy source is!"
---
Digging his toes into the earth, Solus slowly moved forward, dragging his load through the wasteland. He left behind a long deep trail.
Forcing himself to keep moving, a loose rock caused his foot to slide backward, and he slid forward, letting go of the cable just fast enough to catch himself on his hands. Lying on the ground, his chest heaving, and spitting out dirt, Solus knew he'd been had.
"I need to rest." He uttered in a ragged voice, too tired to become angry.
Rolling on his back, he looked at the massive metallic cube behind him. It was three times as high as he was and many times longer, and he was sure it must weigh as much as his tower in Skulltown.
~ I thought you were stronger than this, ah well. Take your moment of rest. ~ The sphere's voice, currently the most annoying thing in Solus' world, harped.
It was mounted on top of the square, held there by long cables that disappeared inside the cube. Another, thicker, cable stuck through a hoop on the side and led to Solus. He was using the cable to pull the cube through the wasteland.
Closing his eyes, Solus felt a trickle of energy from ground flow into his body. Then a slow, tired grin surfaced on his face, wiping away the annoyance.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"STATUS"
> Warning! Warning!
> There was an issue while upgrading to the full version. Please contact the nearest service point.
Name: Os Solus
Age: 1
Sex: male
Race: Pseudo stone elemental
Type: mutation
Class: Stone shaper
Strength: 39/48
Constitution: 34/39
Dexterity: 18/24
Endurance: 61/90
Intelligence: 24/34
Wisdom: 19/23
Charisma: 9/16
Manafield: 12900/14000
Physical density: 16500/19000
Skills: 2
Inscriptions: 3/7
Mana generation: 32
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Looking at the blue screen in front of his eyes, Solus examined the different numbers. It had been such a long time since he last saw it that he kept summoning it at every moment now. He couldn't completely recall what the numbers had been the last time he checked, but he was sure the new ones were much higher.
~ That should be enough of a rest right? Now, come come. I want to leave this wretched no man's land! ~ The sphere's chipper voice pierced through his pleasant fuzzy feelings.
Groaning, Solus got up and unsummoned his status before flexing his arms and neck. Plopping and cracking sounds caused him to sigh before he picked up the cable.
Just when he was about to begin pulling, he felt a soft shiver in the ground. Curious, he looked around. Something was moving far off in the distance. He leaped on top of the square to get a better view.
A small dust trail on the horizon moved almost in the same direction as he was. Remembering the ruined city he had seen from the mountain, he guessed it must be a wyrm. Then he had an idea, and a wicked smile slowly spread across his face.
"Stay here, I will be right back," he yelled. As he dashed off, he created a tall stone pillar next to the cube as a marker. From behind, he heard the sphere shouting something, but he was already out of earshot.
At top speed, Solus raced across the wasteland, quickly closing in on what was indeed a wyrm. About average sized for a wyrm, he quickly noticed something weird. Large gaping wounds covered one of its sides, and it was moving slower than usual. Digging his feet in the ground, Solus stopped and felt a sudden interest in what had done this to the Wyrm.
The wounds seemed fresh, but apart from the city he had seen nothing anywhere near here. Besides, who was capable of doing this? Scrunching his eyebrows, an involuntary act he had picked up from the zombies in Skulltown, he scanned his surroundings. All he saw was the familiar vast stretch of wasteland, dotted with some boulders and low hills — nothing out of the ordinary.
Seeing the Wyrm stagger away, he moved closer, inspecting it. About four times as high as he was, it was covered in dirty white plates that interlocked, giving the feeling of an impenetrable suit of armor. Where the wounds were, white liquid oozed out, causing long lines in the dust. The ordinarily aggressive tongue was hanging listlessly out of the mouth, the second smaller tongue hiding between the razor-sharp teeth, barely showing any reaction to Solus' presence.
Running next to the Wyrm, Solus decided it wasn't the right time to investigate this now. He needed to get the sphere back to Skulltown. Moving so close he could touch the Wyrm, he shoved it. Even though it was much bigger than he was, the Wyrm slid to the side, and Solus grinned. A few more pushes later, it was heading in the direction of the sphere. Speeding in front of it, Solus made his way back to prepare for his plan.
~ How can you just leave me here! What if one of those wyrms came along and devoured me? ~ The sphere was speaking in a somewhat whiny tone, making Solus cringe.
"I got you a ride."
~ A what? Wait, what is that thing heading this way. Oh no! Hurry, kill it! No, wait, it's already dead. Destroy it then! ~
Ignoring the sphere, Solus summoned a mass of stone from the ground. The dust on the wasteland started shaking as rips appeared in the soil surrounding the large cube. Stone chains rushed out and wrapped around the cube, binding it securely, leaving a few long pieces on the ground next to Solus.
Picking up the ends, Solus looked at the Wyrm. It would take a while before it was there, but that was fine.
~ Please tell me, you are not going to do what I think you are? ~
Solus didn't reply.
--
~ … ~
"Still angry?" Solus tried to sound like he cared, but he had a hard time keeping in his laughter. He sat on the cube next to a simple stone container. Inside was the sphere hidden away securely.
Getting no response, Solus grinned and sat back, enjoying the fact he didn't have to pull anything. In front of him was the back of the Wyrm. It had a chain wrapped around its tail, and it slowly dragged the cube forward. Solus had nudged it in the direction of Skulltown. He estimated it would take twice as long compared to if he were doing it himself, but he didn't mind. The cube swayed gently from side to side, following the movement of the Wyrms tale, and he felt himself grow drowsy.
"Wake me up if anything happens," he mumbled, before lying down on his back and closing his eyes. He thought he heard the sphere mutter something just before he fell asleep.
