by J. Carrarn
"Wake up!"
Scathia's eyes shot open, widening further at the sight of Tirella. A moment later, her surprise turned to a glare.
"So, you have evolved."
Tirella lowered herself to her haunches, a deadpan look on her face, her brown lips a thin pursed line. "Undo what you did to Solus, or I'll separate your head from your shoulders."
"Why do you help that fool? He would have this whole world end with him! Just give me his mana-core, and I can stop these rifts from appearing," Scathia hissed.
"I see that I haven't been clear enough," Tirella said as she moved her hand toward Scathia's face in a slow and deliberate motion. The previously pure orange skin was now a smattering of orange and brown, and tiny lines, like cracked earth, covered it. All along her arms and chest sat fine hairs, brown, shiny and sharp like needles.
Just before her hands wrapped around Scathia's neck, the thin undead growled deep in her chest.
"What is wrong with all of you? What does it matter what happens to another, as long as we can stop the Kaot Lords from destroying this world?"
"I already know how to close the rifts. You will release Solus! Or I'll make you."
Tirella smiled her still completely black eyes glistening dangerously.
Scathia's hand shot up so fast its movements were blurred, and she grabbed Tirella's wrist.
"Fool! I'll take yours then!"
A sickly white glow emanated from Scathia, then stopped, her smile freezing on her face.
"No! That's impossible, how did you-" her voice was cut off as Tirella grabbed her neck and squeezed.
"Last chance," she said.
"Never!" Scathia hissed, and Tirella shrugged. With a flick of her hand, she snapped the Litch's neck, and with another, she ripped off her head. Black ichor flowed from the two jagged ends, tarnishing her skin.
"Urgh, disgusting!" she exclaimed, dropping the head and wiping her hands on the body of the unmoving Scathia.
A soft groan came from the end of the tunnel behind her, and she swirled around.
"Are you finally awake again? Glad to see that this worked," she said with a laugh as she moved to Solus's side.
—
Solus's head was pounding, and it felt as if every part of him was battered and beaten. He heard Tirella say something, but it was like a soft mumble coming from a great distance. Why was he awake? He could feel his mana regeneration kicking in, and a surge of energy was rippling through him. It alleviated some of the pain and reduced the pounding in his head until it was bearable.
Besides his mana regeneration, he also felt a trickle of energy from another source. He couldn't exactly pinpoint it, but it was nearby. Opening his eyes, he saw the familiar green glow of the stone. Spreading his senses outward, he started. He was incredibly far below the ground, much farther than he had ever been. A mighty presence, familiar and peaceful, hovered not too far from him, examining him.
Where am I? he thought in shock. A rumbling in the earth came as a reply.
"STILLLL WEEEEAAKKKK, BUTTT NO LONGGGERRR ALONNEEEEEE!"
The world elemental's voice was louder than before and seemed to surround him, but it didn't seem as powerful as it used to. Solus noticed a weak undertone, despite the volume.
"So, if that thing is talking with you, it means you're awake? How about you stop ignoring me then?" Tirella's voice came from beside him, a bit rougher than before, and he could hear the joy in it. Just the sound caused something inside him to shiver, and he turned to look at her.
"You've changed!" he blurted out, his deep voice sounding high pitched and humble in comparison to the world elemental's rumbling. He stared at Tirella's orange and brown skin and the prickly hairs covering it. Her previous orange coloring had deepened in places, turning brown now, but her black eyes hadn't changed at all. What surprised him most, though, was that he could see the stone and minerals inside her skin. She practically glowed from the inside out.
"So, did I pick the right evolution?" Tirella asked, raising her hand.
A ball of shiny metal dropped from the ceiling and landed in her palm. It quickly changed into a dozen different shapes: a ferocious Wyrm, a tall tower, an intricate tree, and a perfect replica of Solus. She tossed the statue to him with a grin, and as he caught it, he felt the weight.
He hissed in surprise as he recognized it as metal, but not which kind. Not gold, something else, lighter. Focusing, he tried to change its shape and found that he could do it easily. He changed it into a dozen shapes until he settled on Tirella's, and tossed it back.
Why can I shape metal now?
"BECAUSSSEEE YOU ARRREEE TOGETTHEERRRRR."
The world elemental's voice sounded joyful, even in its weakness.
"GOOO UPP, FINNDDDDD STRENGTTTTTH!"
The words weakened at the end, and Solus felt the presence vanish. He looked down, wanting to ask it to stay.
"Let it go!" Tirella said, sounding rushed. "It's dying, and every time it comes this far up, it weakens considerably."
He looked at her, stunned. "You could hear it?"
Tirella nodded and laughed at his shocked expression, but Solus could feel her sadness beneath. Wait, why could he sense her emotions?
"We need to get back to Skulltown and find that mana-core, fast. We will need it if we are going to stop the rifts from spewing out Kaot Lords."
As Tirella spoke, she moved toward the end of the tunnel they were in, and it lengthened ahead of her, angling up slightly.
"Come, we must hurry!"
Solus scrambled to his feet, feeling his hammer press against his leg. Its presence comforted him.
"Tirella?" Solus called after her. "Skulltown is the other way," he said with laughter in his voice as she turned to face him.
The calm before the chaos
Deep under Tendraal, in a tomb undisturbed by the destruction above, a loud scream tore through the silence. The single line of red orbs that sat on the walls blinked and shuddered as if disturbed by the sudden eruption of rage.
A skeletal form, covered in a decaying white leather robe, rose from a bone altar in the middle of the room. A thick layer of dust flowed off it, scattering in the air as the figure stood up. Its movements were stiff and uncoordinated.
"Damn her! I will end her for this, her and that fool! Their mana-cores will be mine! They will writhe in agony as I scrape their cores from their skulls!" Scathia's voice was laced with hatred.
Her red glowing eye sockets focused on a line of tables lining one side of the room. On it lay dusty and unmoving forms: some small, others large.
Scathia moved toward one and examined it. Its dry flesh was jet black and drawn tautly over its muscular, lithe, and feminine form. Curled up below it was a thick bed of black, shiny hair.
"Very well! I had wanted to continue experimenting with that summoner shell, but it has too many drawbacks. If physicality is what is required, then I will be more than happy to oblige!"
Scathia moved toward a small alcove and removed a large mana-orb from it, and held it in the middle of her palm. Erratic at first, her fingers drew patterns on it. As she continued, her movements became more practiced until they flicked gracefully over the large mana-orb, inscribing eldritch patterns all over its surface. When not a single spot was left free of inscriptions, she turned to the obsidian body and placed the mana-orb between its closed eyes. Nodding to herself, she moved back to the bone altar and lay down on it.
"I will make you pay dearly for what you have taken from me, and after I have had my vengeance, I will claim that pathetic city of yours! I will wipe away any memory of you!" Scathia hissed before closing her eyes. An eerie pale glow began to radiate from her, and the mana-stone flared up brightly in response.
After a short time, one of the obsidian undead's arms twitched before it arose. Soft laughter rang through the tomb.
—
"... and then the pain as it happened, it was horrible!" Tirella said with a half-smile.
Solus nodded, re
membering when the world elemental had helped him with his botched evolution.
He was lying on the platform, staring at the ceiling speeding by. His senses told him that it would be a while longer before they reached the hills around Skulltown, so he focused on moving the stone plate forward. Ahead of him, he could sense Tirella's energy manipulating the ground, clearing a free path for them. With her making the tunnel, he only had to focus on one thing, and he could feel his mana regenerate at an extraordinary pace. It was much faster than it ever had been, almost as if he was slowly draining a mana-orb.
Together, huh? It must have something to do with her, he thought as he remembered the world elemental's words. He glanced at Tirella. She was staring into the distance and seemed to be lost in thought.
"What did the world elemental tell you?" Solus asked.
She had dodged the question a few times now, and he was getting more and more curious. She didn't respond, still staring in the distance.
Not interested in waiting any longer, he tried again. "You said you ended Scathia because you already knew a way to stop the rifts from appearing…"
Tirella flinched, and he frowned, pushing himself up on his elbows. "That bad, huh?"
This time she turned around, and he saw the troubled look on her face. Her black eyes were even harder to read than usual.
"You know the world elemental is dying, right?"
"Yes."
Tirella nodded, and he saw her sigh deeply.
"The only way the elemental knows to stop the rifts from appearing is for someone to replace her…"
Solus shot upright, staring at her in consternation. She couldn't mean what he thought she meant? An image of being locked away, deep underground for all eternity, played through his mind. Alone and without light. The memories of being lost in the Sigmiton caves came rushing to the fore of his mind. He didn't mind being under the ground right now, but that was only because he knew he could get back out!
"Are you alright?"
Tirella's voice finally penetrated the panicked scenario that was playing through his mind. Looking forward, he saw she was standing in front of him. He could see from the slight wrinkles and her pursed lips that she was worried. How could he read her so easily now?
The stone plate they were on had slowed down and was constantly hitting the edges of the tunnel. He quickly reasserted his control by moving the plate back to the middle of the tunnel and increasing its speed.
"I am alright," he said, forcing a smile.
"No, you're not. You just panicked… why? Being underground isn't that bad, is it?"
Solus sighed, lying back down. Quietly he began to tell her about his existence before he was able to mold stone; how he had been locked under the ground, without any way to escape. Alone in the darkness, hunted by Sigmitons for what seemed like months until he had finally been able to evolve and escape back to the surface.
When he finished, Tirella quietly examined him. Then she nodded.
"I'll explain what the elemental told me," she said before frowning. "Well, it's more what it showed me. There weren't that many words involved."
She sat down, turning toward him. "Those rifts open up because of the great amount of undead energy that is still coagulating in the galaxy. As it draws in upon itself, it creates… rips in the fabric of space that connect one spot that's rich in undead energy with another."
Tirella's frown deepened. "From what I could understand, this will last for at least another thousand of this planet's years."
"And after that, the rifts won't form anymore?" Solus asked, wondering if they couldn't just survive that long.
"No, there will be no more new rifts. But those that are already open will remain. I didn't learn how to close them."
As they quietly sat on the slab, listening to the sound of the air whip by as they shot through the tunnel, Solus wondered how he was going to stay below the ground for a thousand years. Perhaps he could sleep?
"So, how does the elemental stop the rifts from coming here?"
"Her presence close to the planet's core does something to the… magnetic field of this world. Don't ask me to explain what a magnetic field is. I've never heard of something like that, but for some reason, I have information about it in my mind." Tirella shook her head in confusion.
Solus knew it had to be because of the status window he had given her, and he laughed sourly. As he did, he felt the fear of being locked under the ground fade a little. It didn't disappear completely however, and lingered in the back of his mind.
"I already know about those things," he said, the concepts having popped in his mind when she had mentioned them.
"That's good, and you'd better explain to me how and why later," Tirella said sharply. Seeing his eyebrows raise, she grinned at him.
"So, the elemental does something to the magnetic field, or makes another, I'm not sure. Either way, it acts as a barrier to keep the energy on other worlds from connecting to the energy hotspots on this world."
"So, all I have to do is stay underground until those rifts stop appearing?" Solus said, feeling tired. He knew he should have continued evolving as a skeleton.
Tirella just stared at him for a while before she shook her head. "No. We both have to go."
Solus's mouth fell open as he looked at her, but she quickly continued.
"Because there is no life force, neither of us can evolve into a true world elemental and replace the elemental. After we absorb a core, we need to stay below ground together…" She half-smiled at him, but he could see the worry in her eyes.
It doesn't make sense… Solus shook his head. The world elemental had never told him any of this, but it had helped him. It must have known he couldn't evolve into a true world elemental before. Why go through all the effort if it wouldn't work?
"I don't know," Tirella said as if she could read his thoughts, and he looked at her in wonder.
"You thought it didn't make sense?" she asked, a smile smoothing over the wrinkles around her eyes and on her forehead.
"How?"
Could she read his mind like Borl's friends? He tried probing her, but he couldn't feel anything aside from a slight sense of hilarity and weariness. Wait… how could he even feel that? Probing again, he realized he could sense her emotions. Not all, but the stronger ones, on the surface. Like a reflection on unpolished metal, blurry and indistinct.
"It must be because we are both pseudo world elementals?" Tirella said, and he felt something push his probing away from her direct presence.
"How did you do that?" he said, realizing he couldn't sense her emotions anymore.
"I don't know. It started after I evolved and has become stronger as we stayed closer together."
Solus didn't reply but closed his eyes. He was confused, more so than ever before. His other emotions were overwhelmed, pushed away by this turmoil. Although he still enjoyed all emotions, it wasn't the same as it had been before. It was as if he couldn't enjoy them as he once had, reveling in the sensation. Now it seemed that they often came with a heavy and painful price tag attached.
By sensing around him, he knew they were still some way from Skulltown, but he could already feel the hills in the distance. They grew in the earth like massive stone trees that connected to the deeper bedrock. Scanning further down, he realized his stone sense flowed easier and much faster than it had before. He had never checked the limits of his strength after evolving into a world elemental. Trying to distract himself, he pushed his senses down, further and further.
Long ago, he had tried to reach the world elemental. Back then he had been too weak, but how far would he get this time? As his presence dove deeper into the mantle of the world, he felt the temperature beginning to rise. More and more metal and mineral deposits appeared, and the pressure of the surrounding stone increased. He could sense it groan in protest against the pressure of his will.
Further down he went, and still, he barely felt any strain. Far in the depths, he noticed the presence,
an enormous beacon of green and golden light. It was so bright he could barely stand to look at it with his mind's eye. He also noticed that it was fading on the edges; the light frayed as if many Sigmitons had nibbled away at it.
As he neared the presence, he finally felt a strain. His mind began to hurt a little, telling him that he was reaching his limits, stretched like-
"LIKE A RUBBBERRRR BANDDDD."
The world-elemental voice was like roaring thunder, and he instinctively tried to cover his ears, but without hands or ears, this was impossible.
"Softer!" he roared back as loud as he could.
After a moment, he felt something encompass his mind, connecting to him. Then everything changed, and with a jarring shock, he was suddenly standing on a wide grassy plain.
He immediately knew he wasn't really here, but he couldn't sense the connection with his body or anything else.
A massive forest stretched out before him, green and vibrant, while birdsong filled the air. The sound of the wind rustling through the leaves and distant animal noises stunned him into silence. New concepts constantly bubbled up in his mind. Looking around, he saw more forests and an immense lake. He could barely see the other side. The blue water, brilliant and glittering like crystals in the sun, made him suck in his breath. As it passed through his mouth, the air was sweet and fresh, and he could almost taste the water in it.
"So, you've finally made it, Little Pebble. I've wanted to talk to you ever since I found your bright light amongst the others."
A deep, feminine voice came from behind him. It radiated warmth and energy and made him feel safe—a feeling he had never experienced, not like this. Turning around, he saw a tall, wide-shouldered… undead? No… she was more than that. With smooth brown skin and green leaves growing across her arms and legs, he knew right away that she was not dead, and never had been. A thick layer of vines with tiny leaves grew from her back and circled around her body, wrapping it in green.
Her glowing green eyes looked at him, a smile on her green lips, and she beckoned for him to come closer.