The Enchanter (Project Stellar Book 2): LitRPG Series

by Roman Prokofiev

  We rode remarkably fast, delving deeper into the A-zone’s most perilous areas which were marked purple on Miko’s map. The landscape was changing, the familiar terrain giving place to surreally alien views. Here, A-energy was king. It remodeled matter and the laws of physics themselves, transforming the fundamental principles of existence.

  I saw the ruins of yet another megalopolis dissected by a deep crevice; I saw its spires green from vegetation and the translucent medusa-like creatures hovering over them like behemoth zeppelins.

  I saw stone and metal bent at impossible angles; saw giant levitating structures wound into intricate patterns perfect in their inhuman harmony. I saw a river flowing freely through the air, and pulsating geysers spouting forth cascades of light.

  Some things were hard to grasp: it must have been the proverbial restructuration of reality Miko had told me about. It was as if some parts of a strange, alien world — which our five senses could not perceive in their entirety — had permeated our world and worked themselves into our perceivable reality, forming a complex, illogical mosaic.

  We rode past copses of giant purple plants which rippled in the absence of wind like colossal algae; past lakefuls of translucent glass; past the needle-sharp clusters of crystalline growths – red, emerald and purple – surrounded by glowing auras. Hundreds of Voids swarmed around them — some tiny like hummingbirds, others huge like sailing ships. Just like all the other A-Morphs who kept walking alongside us, they ignored us too.

  The strength of Azure radiation kept growing. I didn’t need an interface to sense it. We were approaching the source of the Call.

  There must have been a large vaulted dam here once which had blocked what once had been an immense water storage lake. The remains of its grandiose walls and hydraulic facilities still towered hundreds of yards over our heads. Now the lake had become a desert, its dunes studded with rusty barnacled skeletons of multi-leveled ships. The canyon itself, which used to serve as a bottleneck to divert the water, had become a giant graveyard.

  It was filled with thousands of heaped-up skeletons – from monstrous titans whose ribs stood so wide apart you could ride a tank between them — to completely tiny ones, the size of a bird or a mouse, which crunched into dust underfoot.

  All the bones had been picked clean, layer upon layer of them. The lower ones had long disintegrated into fine yellow sand. How many thousands of creatures had found their deaths here?

  We dismounted the giant snake and stood slightly aside from all the others. All kinds of monsters crowded nearby, completely ignoring us. I wasn’t surprised: we’d all arrived here, summoned by the Call.

  Finally, the sun went down. The pale-blue glow of the Black Moon began to intensify as it climbed to its zenith.

  Then it came.

  The Daat.

  I’ve no idea how to describe it. It appeared – poured out? — from the black mouths of the collapsed waterworks. A springy almost transparent jelly filled with little glowing stars. Was it material or ethereal? It flowed slowly out of many tunnels at once, its giant tentacles enveloping the monsters crowding the graveyard until they disappeared within its thick viscous mass and began to melt.

  I watched meat fall off the bone as it got dissolved, leaving clean white bones behind. The creature was feeding by devouring flesh and absorbing the monsters’ Azure. It didn’t arise any kind of surprise or protest within me — on the contrary, it felt like the reason of our existence. Alice and I stood calmly, brushing shoulders, waiting for our turn.

  Like a giant amoeba, the creature flowed down into the graveyard, completely filling it up. Deep inside I realized that it must have been enormous and that its bulk was still lurking in the underground waterworks tunnels. Our inferior eyesight could only see a fraction of it, and its very shape had been chosen by the thing for our convenience.

  Finally, the surging wave of glittering protoplasm consumed the giant snake we’d been riding and turned to us. I sensed its jelly envelop us, cool and welcoming, seeping under our clothes and filling all of my body’s natural orifices. I sensed no pain or fear; I didn’t feel as if my life was coming to an end at all. The monster’s psi field was in full control of our minds.

  For a brief moment, I felt one with that monstrous mind, becoming part of it.

  It didn’t think the way we do – if you could call it thinking at all. There were no words to describe the processes unfolding in its – his — mind. We seemed to exist on different planes of sentience; our frames of reference didn’t match. How can an ant describe something that’s out of its grasp, like a tree, a house, or a mountain?

  Time flowed differently for him, much slower – either that, or he could change his perception of time to suit his current needs, adjusting his “playback speed”. Within a split second, he’d taken my body apart, studying each molecule and every atom, laid out my soul and scanned the entire contents of my brain, sorting through my memories. The interface, Stellar system, all the upgrades my anima had received – nothing appeared to be a secret for him. He sieved through them, studying and rearranging them like a funny jigsaw puzzle.

  Then something changed. He must have delved deeper into the black chasm of the past which Miko had blocked from me. He studied my forgotten incarnations, ruthlessly accessing what I’d been denied. There, he must have found something that distinguished me from his other victims.

  Did I sense recognition? The loose atoms and molecules of my body came back together, piecing me back to my original form. My body, submerged into the viscous pool of protoplasm, became whole again.

  I was in a cave, its outlines consumed by darkness. I was sitting on a flat stone. A nice little fire crackled by my feet.

  Opposite me sat a man in a khaki cape, his face concealed by the hood.

  Most importantly, the Call was gone. I didn’t sense the presence of a psi field next to me. I realized clearly what had just happened.

  Horror flooded over me. The Daat had simply devoured us alive like a huge carnivorous amoeba that he was. My ruthless memory had preserved the scene in every detail.

  Where was I now? How had I gotten here? What had happened to Alice? My interface was dead. I warily felt my body. Everything seemed to be in its place.

  I pinched my wrist. Damn it hurt!

  The man opposite threw a few twigs in the fire and said with a chuckle,

  “No good you pinch yourself.”

  “Who are... you?” I asked, studying him inconspicuously.

  He seemed to be near and far at the same time. His figure kept getting out of focus the moment I tried to take a better look.

  “It doesn’t matter, does it? As if you can understand,” the stranger’s voice rang with annoyance. “What does matter is who you are.”

  “Where am I? Where’s Alice?”

  “That’s irrelevant, either. I have a more important question to ask you.”

  His voice seemed familiar. “What’s that?”

  “Why did you have to come back?”

  I paused, trying to work out what was going on. Was it a dream? Or my dying mind playing games? I seemed unable to wake up. Who was this man and what did he want from me?

  Or was this...

  A new wave of chilling terror surged over me. Was this man a personification of the Daat I’d just seen, the enormous pool of transparent goo that for some reason decided to have a chat with me?

  “Good guess,” the man said with a small nod. “But that’s also irrelevant. So why did you have to come back?”

  I paused, then replied in all honesty. “I don’t know.”

  He heaved a sigh. “Oh yes you do. It’s just that you can’t remember. You’ve forgotten it all, haven’t you? All lost, all forgotten... even your own name.”

  “D’you know who I am?”

  A chuckle came from under his hood. “I suppose I could guess. You came to see me once before.”

  “Tell me, then.”

  “Oh really? Just like that?” the “hood” lau
ghed. “You reset yourself back to zero, you block your own memory and send yourself back to retrace your own footsteps. And now you want me to ruin it all for you?”

  “Ruin what?”

  “That’s irrelevant. Why did you have to come back?”

  Why was he so insistent about it? Was it some kind of game? Why had I come back, really? My predecessor must have had his own agenda when he’d wiped my memory clean. He must have had a plan. That’s why he’d left me all those instructions and even told me where in the City to look for his stash. But really, what had he wanted? Why had he had to come back? I had no idea.

  “Oh yes you have. You know it very well. What is it you want, in the grand scheme of things?”

  I frowned, trying to focus. What did I want? Why was I doing all this? Was it for my own sake? Or it wasn’t?

  A flock of images flitted through my mind. Tara’s dead face, noble and serene; the agony of despair in Alice’s eyes as she sank to her knees and pointed the Crusher’s muzzle at her own forehead; the stifled hope in the gaze of the hologram that used to be Zac Carraghan...

  “I want to help other people,” I breathed out.

  “That’s funny. You already tried once, didn’t you? It didn’t work, if I remember rightly. They walked all over your banners and forgot your very name. And you still found a loophole and wormed your way back in. Not just that – now you’ve come to see me again.”

  “It wasn’t like that...”

  “I don’t care. You’re here now,” he rose. “I’ve seen what I wanted to see. I’ve got my answers. I might actually do what you asked me for. It might be... funny, sort of.”

  “I didn’t ask you for anything.”

  “Oh yes you did. You just can’t remember, that’s all.”

  I rose too. The two of us were of the same height. I reached out and ripped his hood off. A very familiar face stared back at me.

  My own face.

  “Who are you?”

  “And who are you?” my lookalike echoed. “You don’t know. You can’t remember. You don’t understand. So do we agree on the price?”

  “Which price?” I asked, uncomprehending.

  “Last time you were here, we struck a deal. You promised to give me something... if you got what you wanted.”

  “I don’t understand.”

  “That’s irrelevant. You’ll know it when the time is right. Do we agree on the price?”

  The man with my face waited patiently for me to reply.

  I couldn’t understand anything. All this had something to do with my past. The past which I didn’t remember. My predecessor must have been here once before. Had he struck a deal with this creature? But what kind of deal was that? And what kind of price was he talking about?

  “And what if we don’t?” I said.

  “Then it’s all over, I’m afraid. I’ll claim your bodies and imbibe your souls.”

  “You mean death is the only other option?”

  “Death, which death? You two have been dead a long time.”

  “What kind of deal are you talking about?” I finally asked. “How are you gonna help us and what kind of price do you want?”

  “We’ve already discussed all that. The terms remain the same. It’s up to you. You’re running out of time.”

  He finally looked me straight in the eye.

  The reflection of my own gaze showed me a flitting image of the truth. Two bodies, mine and Alice’s, trapped deep within the shimmering mass of translucent goo and entwined with a complex web of glowing threads so fine that they permeated our every atom.

  The Daat could indeed do everything he’d promised. He could take us apart and put us back together again; he could also do many other things which our feeble minds couldn’t even begin to conceive.

  The icy arrow of a dreadful epiphany impaled me as I realized who he was. I choked on my own horror.

  “Very well. I agree. I confirm the deal,” I forced myself to say.

  My Daat lookalike nodded slowly. I don’t think he’d doubted my reply.

  “You too will receive what you asked me for,” he said. “Right now. Remember: you agreed on the price. Don’t try to destroy me. I’ll be back when the time is right.”

  The rest I remembered fitfully – brief moments of resurfacing from my mind’s slumber. It felt as if I was switched off and taken to pieces, then reassembled and turned back on for a quick test. Apparently pleased with the result, they then took me to a warehouse like some kind of finished product.

  I remembered the feeling of flying through the air; the gusts of icy wind; the starry sky looming above. Remembered the translucent tentacles which had transformed into micron-thin threads strong as steel, carrying me through the night, slicing through the air at an inconceivable speed.

  I awoke with a warm gentle touch. I opened my eyes. A sunray had pushed its way through the mess of giant green leaves and was tickling my face.

  Alice lay next to me, half-concealed by the vivid emerald-green grass. Her eyes were closed; her chest rose and dropped. She was asleep.

  I lifted myself on my elbows and gingerly felt my head, arms and legs. Everything seemed to be in one piece. The torn jumpsuit I’d gotten on board Avenger, all my gear, the dagger, even the cryptor on my ring finger – everything was present and correct. My Azure counter showed a weak radiation level: less than 1 Azure per minute.

  My interface was working fine as if nothing had happened. All of it – the Call, our voyage to see the Daat, my conversation with my lookalike and the mysterious deal I’d struck with him – all of it seemed to have been a nasty nightmare. For a few brief moments, I was desperate to believe that this was the case.

  There was one way to find out.

  “Wake up, Miko!”

  My disabled neural network gave a delicate yawn, covering her mouth with her little hand. She opened her huge eyes wide in surprise and gave me an uncertain smile.

  “Morning, Incarnator. Did I fall asleep?”

  Not bothering to explain, I focused, channeling her the bright yarn of my memories of everything that had happened last night.

  She ouched and pressed her hands to her cheeks as if trying to take it all in. When she spoke, her voice was stern and serious.

  “That wasn’t a dream, Incarnator. We came across a paranormal class-Daat entity capable of restructuring reality. How it does it remains a mystery. We must have struck some kind of deal with him in the past, and he must have done something to us now. Full scan of all body systems in progress... Alterations of system functions detected! Incarnator? I can’t flippin’ believe it!”

  Chapter 20

  MY VIRTUAL ASSISTANT grabbed at her head, tousling her own hair in desperation. She seemed to be in shock, not knowing whether to panic or celebrate.

  “Miko, what’s going on?”

  “I’ve found three major alterations. The DNA chain has been replicated. The Daat has removed the number of genome slots restriction and raised the Source’s potential. Plus, there’s a new system function... oh no, you’d better look for yourself.”

  Reluctant to believe my ears, I opened my interface, mechanically noting that I had two new neurospheres which must have formed while we’d been in the A-zone, and a 14750/25300 on my Azure counter. A welcome addition, but that wasn’t the main thing.

  My DNA spiral which was comprised of a great many empty genome globules seemed to have split in two. It had also become denser. That wasn’t an optical illusion – the number of genome slots available to me without undergoing Evolutions had increased. Before, I could only use three; after my first Evolution, that number would grow to six, then twelve, thirty-two being the absolute limit. And now I had twice as many slots: six, twelve, etc. respectively. The Daat had doubled the number of genomes I could implant myself with!

  “This is a major system function modification, Incarnator. The number of genomes available to one’s host is limited, simply because the human body can’t take more. It’s always been considered
impossible...”

  “Because you might lose your humanity?” I asked, remembering the warning from my old self.

  “Not in this case, you can’t. The Daat somehow upped your resistance to chimerization. What an incredible, impossible transformation!”

  I did a quick check of my Genomes. Even though this was an extremely important modification which considerably enhanced my potential, it wasn’t going to be such a global improvement in the short run, as all the powerful Genomes still required achieving one of the first two Evolutions. But at least now I could implant Hydra’s class-Gold Genome plus two simpler ones. Even though I still needed two Blood Circulation upgrades and a neuronucleus, it still was wonderful news.