by J. Carrarn
First, though...
A group of thirty or more Sigmitons stood before him, precariously balancing on the broken concrete and buildings. They stared at him mutely, and he sighed. They looked so weak; he was almost afraid to get too close, lest he end them by breathing too hard.
Like the signal from before, he sent a second command, this one more intricate than the first. As one, small, barely overlapping mana-fields came into view. They were so tiny that even though the Sigmitons were close together, the fields didn't overlap.
So small, Solus thought, before shaking his head and commencing with his plan. One after another, he inscribed his basic skeleton pattern on them.
When he had finished with the last one, he climbed up the side of the nearest destroyed building. Although it might be dangerous to leave the Sigmitons alone, he needed more mana-orbs for his plan. He hoped it would work, but he hadn't seen a single one that seemed to stand out. Not like Sig or Sumil had.
—
"Try again," Solus said through clenched teeth as he stared at the group of skeletons.
"Like this?" an emotionless voice answered from all around him.
Solus let out a weary sigh.
Finally!
This must be the densest group of undead yet. It had taken hours for even a single one to succeed in speaking. Now he remembered why he had stopped gathering more Sigmitons for Skulltown in the first place. It was tedious!
"Yes. Now explain to the other ones how it is done," he said, hoping the skeleton would be able to do what he wanted.
The skeleton turned, its soft voice echoing throughout the small room, while a group of almost thirty skeletons stared at it with green glowing eye sockets. Behind them, covering the ground in the corner of the room, was another group of roughly sixty unawakened Sigmitons.
Solus walked out of the small building that he had made amidst the ruins. Most of it was below ground, while the part that stuck out was well hidden amongst the ruins. He focused and created a second building in front of the other, deep in the ground and with a single simple entrance.
As he moved inside, the sounds from outside faded, and he sighed contently. He could have created a second story below the first building, but he knew the constant chatter that would soon erupt would annoy him.
Looking around the room, he created two slabs of stone in the middle, then, after a moment, two more behind them. Time to choose, he thought, and started sifting through the list of basic tier evolutions. His attention quickly fell on one.
> Rank B class evolution:
> Greater skeletal warrior (Strength+, Dexterity)
Nodding, he copied it onto the first of the slabs. When he had finished, he looked at the stone slab behind the first. His second choice took a bit longer to make, as he now planned on selecting one from the list of second-tier evolutions.
> Rank B class evolution:
> Skeletal brute (Strength++, Constitution)
> Requires: Any base skeletal warrior pattern
Content with his choice, he turned to the second pair of slabs and quickly inscribed a pattern on the first one.
> Rank B+ class evolution:
> Skeleton mage (Intelligence++)
The last choice was by far the hardest, mainly because he feared putting something too powerful out into the wild. After finally making up his mind, he ended up picking a class pattern above a B+ grade.
> Rank A racial evolution:
> Skullwielder (Intelligence++, Constitution+)
> Requires: Skeletal and Mage class
Skimming the description, he nodded. He needed to be sure that his plan would work, and that meant not holding back too much. Remembering the few Skullwielders he had seen in Skulltown, he knew they would make short work of the Sigmitons and might even stand a chance against any Kaots that had wandered out this far. Their battle capabilities versus anything made solely of bone were outstanding.
Feeling he had done enough, he turned around and headed back to the first building. Numerous soft voices and muted explosions came from inside, and he sighed. He really disliked this part.
Stomping inside, he saw the skeletons standing in the middle, haphazardly explaining how to speak to each other.
"Quiet," he said.
His deep voice drowned out the softer projected voices, and the skeletons all turned to him.
"Master, where are we?" one of the skeletons asked, stepping forward.
"I don't have time for that right now. I awoke you for a reason!" Solus said, moving toward a small stone container at the side of the room. It opened at his approach, and he lifted out a handful of small mana-orbs.
"These are mana-orbs. If you take one, you can absorb its energy and become more powerful."
The skeletons stared at his hand, and he could feel a sense of hunger coming from a few of them.
"Call 'status' in your mind," he said. Immediately half of the skeletons mumbled the word out loud, and he sighed.
"There are two numbers on there," he said, drawing two numbers on the wall beside him. "Probably something like this, divided by a stripe."
All of the skeletons began speaking at once, but he just raised his voice a bit.
"When you absorb one of the orbs, the first number will increase until it's as high as the second. When that happens, you are ready to evolve. Now, follow me!"
He moved back to the other building. Moments later, he stood between the first two tablets, with the sigmiton-turned-skeletons in front of him.
"These patterns will allow you to evolve! Half of you pick this one," he pointed at the tablet with the Skeleton Warrior pattern. "The other half should select this one. After you evolve, summon your status again. The second number will have changed. Absorb more orbs until they are equal again, and then come back here."
He took a step back and pointed at the second pair of tablets.
"The second time you can evolve, use the pattern behind the initial tablet you chose. Don't," and Solus pointed from the front left to the one behind the right one, "go from this one to that one. You will end if you do."
Waiting for a second, he knew most wouldn't have understood all of his explanation. He also remembered a way that prevented him from having to explain it a dozen times, however. He would have to thank Sumil for that when he saw her again.
"Which of you understood all of that? Raise your arms."
Only two arms rose, and he looked at both. "Both of you pick this one as the first evolution," he said, pointing at the mage-pattern. "Now, go and explain to the others what they have to do. More skeletons will wake up in the first room. When they do, explain all of this to them."
It took only a little while longer to get the two skeletons to understand, and he was surprised at their intelligence. They hadn't been any faster with learning to speak, but somehow they grasped what he had just said just fine.
Almost done, he thought.
"After you have evolved, or when the orbs are all gone, search throughout these ruins. You will find many, many small skeletons that will attack you. Those are called Sigmitons."
He waited to see if he got any response, wondering if any of them remembered being Sigmitons like Sumil did. When none of the skeletons spoke up, he continued. "They are dangerous, but they have mana-orbs inside their skulls. End them and then use their orbs to evolve."
Once more, a cacophony of questions erupted as the skeletons began to babble all at once, and he raised his hand, shaking his head. He quickly looked at the two smarter skeletons.
"Did you understand?"
Both raised their hands, and he blinked. This time he had expected them to perhaps come up with questions, but instead, they were both among those who had remained quiet. He was almost tempted to bring them back to Skulltown when this was over. Then he remembered what might be waiting for them if he did, and he shook his head. They would be better off here.
"I need to leave. Soon, I will send someone to collect you. They will be able to bring you to a s
afe place with many other undead... but only if you end all the Sigmitons in these ruins."
He added the second part as an afterthought. He needed them motivated, and that was a hard thing with skeletons from what Drys had told him. If he hadn't known how emotional and volatile zombies became, he might have chosen to create a host of zombies instead.
As he was leaving, he remembered something and stopped at the door.
"If you find bigger mana-stones on the Sigmitons or inside the Wyrm carcasses, don't absorb them right away! Place them in the container, and only absorb them after you evolve with the second pattern! Otherwise, you will explode…"
He wasn't sure if it would be that bad, but it couldn't hurt to make them wary. He had put a lot of effort into this plan, and didn't want them to end themselves due to over-absorption. As he moved away, he heard a few soft voices behind him.
"What are Wyrms?"
"I don't know."
"I don't know either."
"Who was that?"
"I don't know."
Grinning, he took a last look at the two buildings before jumping on top of a nearby wall. It was still partially intact, and it gave him a good view of the area. Noting how defenseless the two buildings seemed, he focused again. The rubble around them shivered and rumbled, dust falling away as a wall formed around the two buildings, a single exit in the middle. It was lower than the surrounding debris, and something might be able to jump over it, but he was afraid that making it higher would just draw unwanted attention.
Good luck. You will need it, he thought before jumping away. He hoped this would solve the massive Sigmiton infestation, or at least slow it down. If not, he could always come back later and take care of it himself. Right now, though, he had bigger concerns and little time to worry about this.
He didn't even turn to look at the great Wyrm again. The whole idea of fighting it seemed so farfetched he wouldn't even bother contemplating it again any time soon.
Now, how am I going to get Scathia to talk? he thought, fearful of the answer.
Sudden changes
Solus knew there was something wrong the moment he cleared the last part of the rubble and got a clear view of the city's outskirts and the place he had left Tirella and the others.
Black scorch marks marred the building he had made to hold Scathia, and it had partially collapsed. From where he was, he couldn't see any movement. Fear for what might have happened clouded his judgment, so he raced over the last few piles of rubble between him and the building.
"Tirella, Sig?" he called, rushing into the building. Half of the room had caved in, and more scorch marks covered the remaining segments of wall.
Where are they? Solus thought, his emotions becoming more turbulent as he ran back out of the building.
Deep scars and holes marred what was left of the building and its surrounding area as if there had been a series of explosions. In the dust and debris surrounding the fallen structure were footprints, and he inspected them quickly. A few dozen tracks were leading out into the wasteland in the direction of Skulltown.
He grabbed one of the four wyrm orbs from his pouch and kept it at the ready in his hand, ready to drain it if needed. As he took a closer look at the area, he saw a large hole and upturned earth behind the square building he had trapped Scathia in. Hopeful, he ran toward it. A tunnel just like the ones he could make was surrounded by smaller, ragged holes as if something had clawed its way down.
Tirella got away!
Jumping down into the large hole, he saw that it came to a fork. The left went a short distance and ended under Scathia's prison. The right led further away before leading up again sharply and then disappearing from view. The walls were cracked and broken in places, and he could see tracks.
Tirella tried to hide herself and the others underground, but something came after them, he thought as he ran through the tunnel toward the end. Jumping out, he saw he wasn't that far from the buildings, and the tracks he had seen led past the hole.
Something followed them underground, while the rest came after them when they popped back out.
Looking at the tracks, he tried to calm himself. He jumped as high as he could, and as he shot up into the air, he looked in the direction of the tracks. Even at the apex of his jump, he couldn't see anything except the trail of tracks leading away.
When he struck the ground, he didn't dampen his landing at all. The ground cracked, a ripple moving away from him that reached the sides of the buildings. Tears and fissures appeared on the walls. He squeezed the handle of his hammer as a helpless, powerless feeling made him roar in anger and frustration.
It took some time for him to collect himself, and when he finally did, he cursed himself for wasting time. Turning to the tracks, he propelled himself forward. Within moments he had left the now devastated buildings far behind.
Had Scathia done something? Or had the Kaots found them? There were so many tracks; it had to be Kaots or... Sigmitons? No, those wouldn't stand a chance against Tirella or Derin.
Had Tirella been caught off guard by Scathia? Derin had still been there, right? As he tried to come up with a plausible scenario, another option occurred to him. What if Tirella had double-crossed him like Domain had?
No. Impossible. I don't believe that.
He tried to think of another possibility, but no matter how hard he tried, the idea kept rearing its ugly head. For the first time since he could recall, he was angry at himself and his own emotions. Tirella hadn't done anything! He decided that it was pointless to speculate and focused on running. He would find out what had happened soon enough.
An hour later he still hadn't caught up to his companions, and he frowned. He hadn't been in the city for that long, had he? He tried to recall, but his memory wasn't cooperating. Looking ahead, he could almost picture the hills in the distance. At his current pace, it would take him only a day to reach Skulltown.
Ahead of him, the tracks changed course abruptly. The tracks turned left at a sharp ninety-degree angle away from Skulltown, almost as if the group of undead and Kaots tracking them had suddenly decided on another route. Another wide band of tracks joined the first; it looked like these had come from the direction of Skulltown.
He looked in both directions several times, and thought about the implications. It took him a moment to realize what lay that way, and then he shivered.
The Bone forest and Realdeep! Are they heading toward Uran?
Confused, he resumed the chase.
—
"Don't stop! Keep going!" Tirella yelled at Tatjie, who was staggering behind her. She couldn't help her, not while she was carrying Sig. Staring down at the silent dark shape with a large wyrm-orb clutched in his hands, she felt like cursing.
Why won't you wake up?
Incoherent shouting and screaming came from behind her, and she took a quick look over her shoulder. A chaotic battle was raging not too far off. Dozens of Kaots howled as they attacked Scathia's two remaining Cherocs. Far behind the skirmish, a seemingly unending stream of slower Kaots were running after them.
I hope those Cherocs can hold out, she thought. They were the last distraction they had left.
"Can't you make more of those things?" she yelled at Scathia, who was bundled up in Derin's arms. Although powerful in her own right, she lacked physical strength and couldn't run fast enough.
"Not without source material," Scathia replied in an annoyed voice. One of her hands rested on Derin's shoulder, glowing weakly.
Tirella didn't know what Scathia was doing, but ever since she had laid her hand there, Derin had been able to keep up. She hoped it wouldn't have any nasty side effects, but they didn't have any other choice but to accept whatever help Scathia could give at this point. Even she felt weary, although she knew she could continue running almost indefinitely.
Not too long after Solus had left, these Kaots had shown up, and they had been on the run ever since. Looking behind her at the flagging Tatjie, she knew the weakened zom
bie would soon fall. They needed to lose their pursuers quickly and find a safe place to hide.
"You are sure there is something in this direction?" she shouted at Derin.
"The Bone forest! I am positive! You should be able to see it soon."
Tirella hoped he was right. Running ahead, she wondered how Solus was doing and if he had succeeded in retrieving the great Wyrm's mana-core.
—
At the sight of the looming forest ahead of him, Solus slowed down. The tracks disappeared into the forest between a grove of broken trees—snapped branches, cracked trunks, and a few that were completely torn out of the ground.
He scanned the edge of the forest; it stretched out further than he could see. It shouldn't be this far out yet, he thought. The fact the forest was here meant that it had grown again, monstrously and rapidly so. It also meant he had no idea where Realdeep was. Sensing ahead of him, he felt soft tremors and rumbling coming from deeper inside the forest.
He walked into the forest, hoping Uran hadn't evolved, or at least if he had, that he had become more reasonable. They had been close to equal in strength before, and his own latest evolution had done little to increase his prowess in battle. The trail of destruction led him deeper into the forest. The trees were so massive here that Solus doubted if even he could uproot one. Staring at one the size of a small tower and just as wide, he wondered how big they would eventually become.
A muffled explosion, and then another and another came from somewhere ahead of him. Gripping the handle of his hammer tightly, he charged forward. As he weaved through the closely packed trees, the explosions became louder. Soon he heard the screams and roars of combatants locked in battle. He hoped the others hadn't been caught in the middle.
As he rushed around a massive white trunk, he suddenly cleared the trees and ran out into an open clearing. Ahead of him lay Realdeep, or what was left of it. Dust filled the air, and the clamor of battle rang out as pockets of Kaots engaged in combat with the defenders of Realdeep. Many of the domes, the top of the buried skull buildings, were cracked open, and from the deep rumbling, Solus knew the struggle was occurring below the ground as well as above.