by J. Carrarn
Solus got up, glaring angrily at the sphere. "You had no right to do that!"
"Don't worry yourselves. Hastra will be fine," the sphere replied, sounding calm and collected.
Drys moved to stand beside Solus. They shared a look of mutual understanding, and Drys nodded.
"What is it that you want?" Drys asked as he looked at Domain.
Domain's voice lifted in pitch as he spoke with an odd accent. "What an odd question!" he exclaimed pompously. "Why, I want to be a real boy, of course!"
Solus blinked. What is wrong with him? Has he gone mad? Before he could ask, Domain spoke again in his normal voice.
"Don't look so confused! Isn't it obvious? I want to be able to walk around, do things, and not be stuck in this damned sphere!"
Drys stepped forward, appearing to have finally lost his patience. "And you are willing to take someone's body without their consent to get what you want?"
A blueish beam shot out of the sphere, projecting an intricate and extremely complex pattern on the wall behind it.
"It isn't that simple. I can't just take what I want. I need the cooperation of a willing subject."
Solus remembered when Domain had asked him to let him inscribe his program on his mana-field. So you say… he thought before focusing his attention on the projected pattern.
The entire pattern was foreign to Solus. The only thing he could remotely compare it to was the small, dense pattern that made up his status window. Drys seemed to be totally absorbed by it, even going as far as to take a step toward it and tracing small parts of it with a long finger.
"So, what is this?" Solus finally asked.
"This is me, my program. I need a mana-field large enough for it to fit on."
Solus frowned and resisted summoning his own mana-field. The pattern on the wall could fit in one segment of his mana-field easily enough.
"It's not that big," he muttered.
"This is but a small part of it…" The pattern shrunk, the density increasing while more of it appeared around the edges. It continued zooming out until the individual parts weren't readable anymore. The whole wall was densely covered with scribbles, and there was barely any white space between them.
"Your mana-field is big enough to hold the smallest version of my program. What I really need is an even bigger mana-field, at least ten times the size of yours."
"And why should we help you?" Drys said, echoing the thought that had popped up in Solus's head.
"Because, if I do this, I will lose most of my knowledge. I can only take enough with me to stay myself. So, before I do that, I will help you create a library without equal. An immense archive containing every pattern in my databases!"
Drys's eyes lit up, silvery light radiating outward and causing the whole room to brighten considerably.
The look of rapture on Drys's face told Solus he would not take kindly to a no from his side. Not that he didn't like the idea, the prospect of having all of those patterns seemed great. There was, however, a problem.
"And where do you suppose we find an undead with such a giant mana-field? Even if we could find one, how would we get it to agree to your proposal?" Solus asked dryly.
The sphere's accent changed yet again. "Why, from the rifts, old sport! That one we met on the road was almost as powerful as you are."
Solus barked out a short, harsh laugh. "I managed to end it without much trouble!"
"Only because you had the advantage! If he hadn't let you come so close, how would you have fared?" Domain's voice returned to his usual way of speaking mid-sentence.
As he remembered the battle with the barbed undead, Solus became uncomfortable. Domain was right, and he knew it. He might have still won, but it would have cost him a lot more effort.
"Are you suggesting there are even more powerful ones on the other side of those rifts?" Drys said as he stared at Domain.
"Isn't that obvious?" Domain asked in a derisory tone. "What we need to figure out is just how powerful they are and how to predict when and where they will appear! As luck would have it, we know someone who will be able to give us that information. Scathia the Litch."
Silence reigned in the room as Solus resisted the temptation to run off and find Vingria so he could throttle her. He ignored Dry's curious look.
"Did I miss something?" Domain asked, suddenly sounding a lot less sure of itself.
"Someone ended Scathia's shell," Solus said with a shrug.
"..."
A blue light scanned over Solus quickly.
"You are not joking…"
"One of ours knew Scathia. There was a bad history between them. When she saw Scathia, she lost it and ended her shell in a fit of rage," Solus said, looking at the wall. He was feeling a new emotion, one he didn't like at all. Shame. It made him almost unable to look up at Drys. After a second, the feeling abated.
"Great. Fabulous. So now we have to go to her and figure out what she knows," Domain mused as he projected another image onto the wall.
Although he had never seen one, Solus knew immediately that it was a map. Miniature buildings and a wall surrounded a small red dot in the middle. All around that were hills, but the image cut off there. Only a single, large patch of empty land continued, finally ending at a vast mountainous area.
"So, where did she come from?" Domain asked.
Solus stood up and moved toward the map with heavy thudding paces. He put his finger on a spot far to the right, in an area that wasn't drawn in yet. "This is where Sig said her city was…or at least in this general area."
"That's something at least. So, what are we waiting for? Let's go out there and find her!"
Solus looked at the map for a moment before shaking his head. "I will need to think about this."
"And how long will that take?" Domain asked.
Solus ignored him and trudged to the far side of the room. With the sphere on his stone bed, he would just have to make do. He lay down below where his hammer was displayed, his hands behind his head.
"Drys, take Hastra and bring him to the Bonemenders. Find out if Vingria and Norg have managed to clear the city. Then get a start on the improvements to the wall to keep out further incursions."
"Alright, but don't go and do anything foolish, like running off with Domain," Drys said, as he effortlessly lifted Hastra off the ground and walked toward the plateau that stretched out between the Wyrm-jaws.
Solus didn't bother to reply but watched as Drys jumped out into the darkness of the night. Instead of falling, he flew forward, disappearing quickly out of sight.
I hope I can do that someday…
Shoving the thought away, he pondered what to do now. He summoned his status window, poring over the values.
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: 69/90
Intelligence: 24/34
Wisdom: 20/23
Charisma: 9/16
Mana-field: 13900/14000
Physical density: 16900/19000
Skills: 2
Inscriptions: 3/7
Mana generation: 32
Although his stats had increased again, probably from the battle at the bone forest, he was far from his next evolution. Besides, what would he evolve into? Evolutions! He thought loudly, and the status window blurred for a second before showing him a message that still made no sense to him.
> Potential evolutions pending…
> Unusual mutation detected in the current inscriptions, calculating possible paths …......
> Time remaining: Four days, three hours, and ten minutes
Luckily, it wouldn't take that long. He needed the time to increase all of his attributes.
Thinking about what Drys had said about adding skills, he frowned at the remaining space fo
r inscriptions. How did he summon his skills? Skills! He thought. The window changed again, turning into a list like those for evolutions.
> Skill choice disabled while calculating.
> Current skills
> Racial skill: Booming Voice
> Original skill changed due to racial-pattern change.
> Passive: Increase the volume of the user's voice to dangerous levels.
> Active: Shouting will create a blast attack that pushes back anything not bolted down. Light creatures will be blown back. Damages weak enemies, potentially shattering their bones.
> Class skill: Manipulate Stone+
> Original Emotional construct skill was merged into Manipulate Stone+
> Passive: Stone-sensing
> Active: User can manipulate and change any stone within range. The range is based on the size of the mana-field and any natural affinity with earth. The volume of the manipulation and change depends on wisdom.
Was that it? Thinking back to his abilities when he was a Valiant Zombie, he wondered what had happened to his shield summoning skill. He didn't really need it; he could create a shield with stone, but the fact that it had just disappeared seemed odd. As soon as he had a chance, he would need to see if he could choose any more skills.
Summoning his status window again, he frowned as he inspected the attributes. Now how am I going to increase these things? he thought. A host of ideas started playing through his mind, and with them, a plan formed.
—
The shade dashed between the hundreds of stone tablets that decorated the locked room. The plethora of glowing lines and scribbles around it baffled its mind. Beyond the rift and across all the worlds it had been to, never had it seen this. The lines always came from observing others as they inscribed, mostly random experiments on their mana-fields. Only the Chaos Lords had pre-defined lines.
It stopped before an enormous tablet, holding a pattern unlike any it had seen before. The density and size were so enormous it knew it wouldn't be able to put even half of it on its field.
Trying to memorize as much as it could, it continued to the next, barely aware of the time that passed.
Domain ready
Solus sat up as the first rays of dawn crept slowly through the windows of his room. Rubbing his bleary, sleep-filled eyes, he stretched and moved toward Domain's sphere. Trepidation, fear, and reluctant acceptance battled each other for dominance of his thoughts.
"Have you made a decision?"
Solus put his hand on Domain before replying in a soft voice laced with anger. "Would you have taken over my body if I had let you inscribe your program on my mana-field?"
"No. I can only inscribe a tiny amount of my program on your mana-field, barely enough to experience what you experience. Such a half-life simply would not do."
Solus had thought as much based on what Domain had said before, but he still wasn't entirely at ease. "So why did you want to inscribe something on my pattern?"
"Distrustful, are we? Well, fine. I guess I can understand that. I want to come with you, experience things beyond this confined space. Besides, if you leave me here, Drys won't stop bothering me with his endless questions!"
"Alright, and how big does the mana-field have to be for you to come along?"
"Yours will be fine."
Grinning to himself, Solus shook his head. "Probably true, but I am not going to allow you to go anywhere near my mana-field. Now tell me, what is the minimum size? Would something like a Blackguard do if you override their existing patterns?"
Domain was quiet for a while before a soft sigh filled the room. "Fine. Perhaps I went about things the wrong way… Yes, something like a Blackguard will probably do the trick. Are you entirely sure that you don't mind me taking one?"
"You are not getting a Blackguard," Solus said shortly before turning around. "Stay here for a moment," he added as he rushed out of the room.
"Stay here he says... Not like I have a choice," Domain grumbled.
Solus heard Domain's reply as he moved down the stairs, and it removed the black clouds of doubt from his mind, cheering him up. He ran down the stairs, ignoring the cracks that appeared in the steps he landed on. Once he reached the bottom of the tower, he shoved open the makeshift door and sped across the square.
A while later, he returned, shoving the cart that carried the darkhunters. Upon reaching the tower, he stopped, and the cart came to a halt, dropping to the ground. Its wheels had turned to debris that littered the ground. Solus crouched in front of it and created a small opening. Six pairs of glowing red eyes glared at him, stuffed together in a hunched bundle.
"Hi there! How do you guys feel about evolution?"
Not waiting for or expecting a reply, he focused on the stone below him. A tentacle grew from the ground and shot through the small opening. It wrapped around one of the darkhunters, and the opening grew as the stone tentacle pulled the darkhunter out. Before the others could think of escaping, Solus quickly closed the opening. Then he examined the struggling, growling thing. There was no semblance of intelligence in its eyes. Only uncompromising hunger.
This'll do nicely!
The stone wrapped around the creature, binding its limbs close to its body, and Solus picked the bundle up. It was surprisingly heavy, something he hadn't noticed while pushing the cart around.
Grinning widely, proud of his cleverness, he walked back inside.
—
"Are you crazy? You want to turn me into a lapdog?" Domain screamed in dismay.
It was the first time Solus had heard so much emotion from the AI.
With a shrug, Solus tapped the side of the darkhunter's head. The darkhunter snapped at his finger, a double row of nasty triangular teeth missing his grey flesh by an inch.
"I cannot give you one of the undead in my city. Those rift-undead are—"
"Kaots."
Drys's voice interrupted him as the tall and slender undead flew in through the room's Wyrm-maw opening.
Solus blinked, mulling over the unfamiliar name and staring at the armful of mana-orbs Drys carried.
"Kaots?" he muttered, suddenly remembering that was what the undead at the start had called them.
"That's what the Skulltowners are calling them. I tried to get to the bottom of it, but all I could find was that some of those undead had been screaming it as they fought."
"Fine… At least it's shorter than rift-undead," Solus said, wondering for a moment how the name was spread through Skulltown. Then Drys distracted him.
Drys pointed at the darkhunter. "I thought you would come up with something like this, although I had imagined you would have brought a Wyrm."
"A Wyrm?" Domain snapped in disbelief.
Solus ignored the sphere, pondering this for a second, as the idea of a sentient Wyrm that he could ride around on danced through his mind. Then he shook his head. Domain would be hard to control if he gave him a Wyrm's body. Besides, those things probably had immense mana-fields, not to mention their physical strength. It would be far too dangerous. No, having him in a small vessel like the darkhunter would suit Solus just fine.
He turned to the sphere. "So...how about it?"
Domain was quiet for such a long time that Solus almost thought he wouldn't reply, but eventually, a ray of blue light struck the darkhunter between its eyes, causing it to yelp. A milky-white mana-field shimmered into existence, reddish lines running around in odd, chaotic patterns.
"He is too weak. The mana-field would need to almost double in size before I could engrave the smallest possible program on it."
Solus hadn't expected anything else, and he grabbed two of the mana-orbs Drys was carrying. Holding them in front of the darkhunter's nose made it alert. It sniffed a few times and bit forward, trying to get to the orb. Solus instinctively held his hand flat, not bothered by the teeth that scratched at his palm as the darkhunter snatched the orb.
The darkhunter gobbled the orb up in a single bite, and its sleek grey body convul
sed. The mana-field disappeared, and with a sudden jerk, the darkhunter grew a bit. A moment later, it jerked again, growing another bit, while hairline cracks appeared in the stone that bound it.
Solus sat down on the ground, waiting patiently for the thing to evolve, curious as to what it would turn into.
Roughly twenty bursts of growth later, the darkhunter's eyes shot open again, and it tried to break free. It had grown almost half as large again as it was before. If Solus were standing, it would have reached his waist. Not much else had changed, though. It was still black, sleek, and with red eyes that glinted dangerously with the promise of violence.
"Try again?"
The blue beam shot from Domain, who had been silent all the while. The mana-field return, but this time it was almost twice as large as the previous one.
Domain sighed softly.
"So, that should be fine then?" Solus said, grinning at Drys, who had a mock smile on his thin lips.
"Yes. But you better help me get a better body as soon as possible. This is just degrading."
"We will," Solus said, a lot less certain than he sounded. "So, how long until you are ready?"
"A few hours," Domain replied shortly before intense beams of light shot from his sphere at the mana-field, wiping away lines wherever they touched.
Solus shivered as he looked at it. If Domain could do that to him, he would have no chance at all. Turning to Drys, he pointed at the door. Drys nodded curtly. Solus could see the same fears and doubts in his eyes.
The two quickly moved out of the room and down the stairs.
"Do you trust Domain?" Drys asked when they were halfway down the tower.
"No, and neither do you, but we need its knowledge. This world is getting more dangerous by the second, and we must have those patterns," Solus said.
"Did you improve the pattern?" he asked after it became apparent Drys had nothing to add.