by J. Carrarn
When it finally disappeared, he turned around and saw Drys and Tirella stare at the sphere and Borl, who were having a lively conversation.
"-telling me you can just upload onto a mana-field like that? Why don't I have any knowledge of this in my databases?" Sam said, her voice sounding stunned.
"Yes, Sam, it's easy! I'd love to show you. It's so nice having someone intelligent to converse with. It's been so terrible as the only civilized being amongst these primitive..." he suddenly looked at Drys and Solus and laughed in a high-pitched voice. "Ahah… Present company excluded, of course!"
Solus grinned and moved to the couch, sitting down beside Tirella.
"You were right," he said, looking at Drys.
Drys just nodded, examining him for a while. The tall undead's gaze switched between Solus and Tirella, and a knowing smile played around his thin grey lips.
"So, what did Grav tell you?" Solus asked, wondering what was going on in Drys's mind.
Drys's smile evaporated, and he scowled. "Nothing. He wouldn't speak to us unless we found a way for him to be able to stay here."
Solus sighed, shaking his head. He had hoped Grav knew something useful.
A series of loud explosions from outside made him turn to the window. At first, he wanted to brush it off as another Ygdra assault, but then the explosions became louder and faster.
"Now what?" he sighed, running to the window with the others.
The blue barrier was fully active, and long red tendrils of energy lashed against it. Solus followed them to their point of origin and shivered. An arm ten times the size of his body was sticking through a rift on the top of the easternmost hill. The tendrils emerged from dark purple nails tipping the claw-like paw. They weren't just hitting Skulltown either, but all around the rift, and as he watched, one of them dragged a captured, struggling figure toward the hand. The hand grabbed it as soon as it came close, and the figure disintegrated with a flash of light. Energy rippled from the hand to the rift that widened slightly.
"A Kaot Lord!"
A weak voice said from behind them. Turning around, Solus saw Grav on his feet, swaying from side to side. His eyes that had been glowing red before now glowed a deep orange that mirrored the color of the symbols on his mana-field.
"We are too late… even if I create a dampening rift, it won't stop this one from growing." Grav's voice sounded tired. Then he turned around and walked toward the exit.
"Where are you going?" Drys said, and Solus saw him get ready to rush after Grav.
Grav turned and looked back in confusion. "To find a rift and flee of course." He shook his head as he continued muttering. "It really is a shame. I'll need to revert to my old form. No time to use that pattern I found."
Before Solus could say something, Drys stepped forward, shaking his head. "Not happening. Tell me what a dampening rift is."
Grav hesitated, and Solus, Drys, and Tirella rose, glaring at him. Grav sighed and shook his head. "Fine, not that it matters. I will explain, and flee after that."
Moving toward one of the many empty bone tablets on one side of the room, Grav began carving a pattern into it. It wasn't small and intricate like the ones Solus had seen the AI use, or chaotic and odd like the ones the undead seemed to form as they became stronger. It was simple, flowing, and oddly beautiful.
"That's an ancient form of hieroglyphics!" Borl shouted as he rushed forward to get a closer look.
A blue ray of light shot from Sam's sphere, following the pattern as Grav was drawing it.
It took a while for Grav to finish, and Solus kept an eye on the rift with the Kaot Lord's arm sticking out of it as he worked. When Grav stepped back, the entire tablet was filled with a circular array of patterns.
Borl and Sam were quietly inspecting the pattern.
"If you draw that on the mana-core, a new rift will appear. Nothing will come through, and nothing can go in, but as soon as it's been opened on a world, no new big rifts can appear there."
Solus felt his hope rise as he stared at the pattern. If they used that, he wouldn't have to stay at the core of the world! Then he remembered what Grav had just said.
"What did you mean when you said it's too late?"
Grav pointed out of the window. "That Kaot Lord is coming through. As soon as it's here, it will feast on anything it can find here until this world is dead and empty. After that, if no others show up to battle it for dominance, it will just rip open one of the small rifts and leave. There is nothing we can do to stop it."
"Can't we fight it?" Tirella asked, a frown on her face.
"Fight it? No. You can flee from it, hide from it, or be ended by it," Grav said, sounding amused at the notion. He took a last look at them before he turned to the door.
"If you want any chance to grow stronger, you will flee now. It won't be long before it sends bigger Kaots through to increase the speed at which the rift opens." Grav's voice came from the empty doorway, and his footsteps moved down, quickly picking speed.
Solus stared at the empty entrance for a moment, the tremors telling him Grav was now running down the stairs as fast as he could.
"We don't have a choice, do we?" he said, turning to Tirella. "We need to get another mana-core fast, and-" A core! He rushed to the window and looked at the rift. The arm was slowly drawing back. Was that what Virili had meant? Could those larger Kaots have mana-cores? But even if they did, those would be corrupted. What use would they be?
"Be glad you didn't create that dampening portal, as he called it."
Sam's voice snapped Solus awake.
"What do you mean?" Drys asked, staring at the sphere.
"What she means is that it's not a dampening pattern!" Borl answered before Sam could, looking at the hieroglyphs with disgust. "It will definitely stop other rifts from forming, but only because it would draw in the chaotic undead energy causing the rifts in the first place. At some point, it would be saturated and create an enormous explosion, wiping out everything on this world!"
"He is correct," Sam said.
"Course I am! I might have lost most of my databases, but I still have some common sense left!" Borl replied as he grinned at Sam's sphere.
"Something is coming through!" Tirella said, her eyes wide.
Snapping his attention back to the rift, Solus saw that the arm had disappeared, and a massive thing was now clawing its way through the rift. It barely fit; its body was bunched together, and its limbs wrapped tightly around it. It seemed to become stuck after a moment, and Solus almost sighed in relief when something seemed to push the massive Kaot through from the other side.
It slammed into the ground, quickly scrambling up, and stretched its arms wide. It had a triangular fleshy body, with four massive legs below. A long tail swiped behind it and slammed into the ground. Solus could feel the tremor through the base of the tower.
"We need to find a way to end that thing right now," he said and quickly focused on the window. The stone shivered and began pulling away until the window grew large enough for him to move through.
"There's another problem," Drys said as he stepped beside him.
Solus shook his head before turning to Drys. "What else can possibly go wrong?"
Drys pointed at something in the hills far to the side of the rift. "Vingria has spotted the Kaot Lord, and she and Norg seem to be attacking it."
Solus's head snapped in the direction Drys was pointing. Two tiny figures were running over the hills, heading straight for the immense monstrosity.
"Damn those fools!" Solus roared, running forward and leaping away from the tower.
Going down
"No! You stay here and coordinate the defense!" Solus roared at Drys as he bounded his way through the city at full speed. Buildings crumbled in his wake and undead fled in panic. It didn't matter. He could fix that later.
Drys flew beside him, his face strained and moving as fast as he could. "Are you sure? If that thing has any abilities that you can't handle, what will you do
?"
"I'll be there!" Tirella shouted as she jumped up beside them.
Drys finally gave in as they leaped over the wall. He hung back, his projected voice following them as they sprinted across the wasteland before Skulltown.
"Alright! If you get another mana-core and then go down into the depths of the earth, will the rifts close?"
"The rifts won't ever close! They just won't be able to grow any bigger! After we go down, you'll have to find a way to close them yourself, as I explained. I'll try and close this one if I can, but I don't know how much time I have left."
"Very well. I'll have a talk with Borl and Sam! Hopefully, the three of us can figure out how to seal the rifts faster!"
"That's a good plan, but you must hurry," Solus projected back.
Then he focused on increasing his speed. Using the earth to propel himself forward, he was impressed to see how quickly Tirella copied and mastered his technique.
"Another one is coming through!" Tirella shouted.
Looking ahead, Solus saw a second massive Kaot trying to force its way through the portal. At present, only its head and shoulders had been able to come through the rift, but Solus had a feeling that it would just be a matter of time before the rest of the Kaot Lord managed to shove itself through the portal.
"We must stop it from coming through completely!" Solus roared back.
When they had reached the foot of the hills, they lost their view of the Kaot Lord and the rift. Solus hurried up the hillside. Halfway up, explosions and high-pitched screeching rang from above, followed by an angry roar. He recognized that immediately: it was Norg, and he was furious.
As he and Tirella bounded over the last hill, they saw the Kaot Lord strike at Norg, who nimbly dodged out of the way. Every time the Kaot Lord failed to hit him, Norg turned and slashed at it from afar. Long green lines of energy flew from his nails, slamming into the creature. They only left long thing lines that faded quickly, but it still seemed to infuriate the great beast.
Where is Vingria? Solus thought as he closed the distance between himself and the battle.
"Someone is already trying to stop the other one from coming through!" Tirella shouted, and Solus looked at the rift.
Vingria stood there, slamming a massive boulder against the Kaot Lord that was trying to slither through. Every time it managed to get one of its many paws on the ground, she would ram it back in. Still, the boulder was starting to crack and break, and Solus wasn't sure how long Vingria would be able to keep this up.
"I'll go and help the other one. You go and close that rift!" Tirella shouted as she landed not too far from where Norg was standing.
Solus took one look at Norg and frowned worriedly. The other was blinded by battle rage; his scowling visage was focused intently on the large Kaot as he slashed at it again and again.
"Alright. Keep him in one piece," Solus shouted.
"I will; now go!"
Solus jumped towards the rift and landed beside Vingria. He immediately solidified the boulder she was holding, hollowing it out in the middle to strengthen and harden the outside.
"What took you so long?" Vingria yelled, grinning madly as she slammed the boulder into the Kaot's hideous face.
Solus stepped forward, his mana-field blazing outward, enveloping the rift.
"This isn't the time to show off! Why don't you just shove this guy back through?"
Ignoring her, Solus felt a great amount of resistance as he tried to close the rift. It felt as if something big was pushing back, hard. Growling, he summoned a stone tendril, making the tip as dense as possible, and then stabbed it at the Kaot Lord. The tip pierced into its chest, but the wound was only skin deep.
He created more and more tendrils, but none got further in than a hand's length.
This thing has a tough hide! Have to push it back somehow, Solus thought.
"Back up!" He shouted before starting to suck in air. When Vingria had gotten out of the way, he roared at the Kaot as it tried to struggle through the slowly expanding rift. A massive funnel of shimmering air struck it in the middle of its gaping, drooling maw, shoving it back a bit.
Vingria began to cheer but stopped when she saw that Solus was out of breath and the Kaot was still partially sticking out.
"Again!" she shouted, and Solus once more took a deep breath and roared. It took four whole roars, leaving him dizzy and lightheaded before he managed to push the last part of the Kaot back through to the other side. Once he was sure that he had succeeded in forcing back the horror completely, he immediately summoned his mana-field.
After a short moment of struggling against the other thing beyond the rift, the rift shuddered. It began to shrink slowly, but a massive claw shot out of it before it could become much smaller.
Solus barely managed to dodge to the side. A loud, startled cry behind him caused him to spin around. The hand had grabbed Vingria by her leg and was heaving her up in the air. As he watched, she was slammed back to the ground.
Solus cursed, grabbed his hammer, and jumped atop the massive arm. He struck at the elbow joint, but the hammer just bounced off, barely leaving a mark. As the arm snapped up and down, he was hurled off and slammed into the ground nearby. Solus quickly got up and saw that Vingria was barely moving now. Her eyes were closed, and a green liquid was splattered across her face.
Not good!
Solus snarled and summoned stone tendrils from the earth and tried to lock the arm in place. It seemed to hold for a second, but then the arm slammed Vingria into the ground again, and the stone just crumbled apart and fell away.
Vingria had stopped moving, but the hand just continued to slam her into the ground over and over.
Cursing himself for being so slow-minded, Solus retracted the ground below her impact point. The stone groaned and cracked as it shrunk down, and the arm uselessly flung her through the air a few times, no longer able to reach the ground. Then it stopped and tossed Vingria aside as it began probing its surroundings to get its bearings.
Solus backed up, out of reach of the arm. He took a quick look at Vingria but knew that he didn't have the time to check up on her. He needed that thing to back off, or he wouldn't be able to close the rift!
A loud gong from the city made him roar in anger and frustration. What was it now?
Dozens of white dots hung above the hills at the other side of the valley in which Skulltown lay. A stream of running and jumping figures was rushing down. In the lead was a yellowish figure, jumping far and high as he quickly outpaced the rest of the army.
"Uran…" Solus muttered in confusion. Somehow, he had the feeling the ancient skeleton wasn't here to lend them a helping hand. Still, he needed to stop him from reaching Skulltown.
Leaping away from the portal, he sucked in a deep breath as he stared at the distant figure. Not using his skill this time, he just roared as loud as he could.
"Uran! Get over here if you want a mana-core!"
The yellow skeleton stopped dead in its tracks and turned towards him. A moment later, the army behind him slowed down, and the yellow figure sprinted towards Solus, six of its flying minions following him.
Thinking of Vingria, Solus quickly looked at her mangled, unmoving body lying halfway down the hill. With Uran heading this way, things were bound to become even more dangerous, and he needed to make sure she wasn't caught in any crossfire. Norg wouldn't be too happy if anything happened to her. The ground below Vingria flattened out, forming a square surface before lowering her into the ground. When she was out of sight, the stone closed above her. He had left a few holes in it, so she would know how to get out when she woke up.
If she wakes up at all, he thought as he remembered her mangled shape.
Pushing his concern for Vingria aside, Solus turned back to the giant arm that was still flailing around and searching for something to attack or grab hold of. He tried again to bind it with stone, but it was far too powerful, so he waited for Uran to arrive.
He didn't have t
o wait too long, and the immense skeleton's arrival was paired with a sonic boom as he landed not too far from Solus. The flying monstrosities began circling above them, and a single look at them caused a word to pop up in Solus's head. Dragons. With it came a host of images and concepts that caused him to groan.
Flying beasts that can breathe fire, just what I need right now.
"Give me that mana-core, or I'll reduce your ugly little city to rubble!" Uran growled, glaring menacingly at him.
Solus pointed at the arm behind him. "That thing will come through if we don't stop it. When it does, it will destroy everything on this planet, you included!"
Uran turned his yellow skull to the arm before a derisive grunt followed. "I don't believe you. It's just some overgrown Kaot that I'll easily destroy if it does manage to come through."
Solus blinked, looking at Uran with disbelief, before barking out a mocking laugh. The whole idea of Uran trying to rip apart the immensely powerful Kaot Lord seemed far too ridiculous.
"Is the Great Uran really this stupid? Just look at it, you bonehead!" He was about to scold him some more when he stopped. Uran had proven himself capable of more things he hadn't imagined possible. What if he had some trick up his sleeve? Taking a deep breath, he stared intensely at Uran.
"If you can rip that arm apart, I will gladly hand over the mana-core," he said, pointing at the arm.
Uran was quiet for a bit and then let out a burst of crazed laughter.
"Ahhh, young one, you know so little of true strength! Very well, it seems that a demonstration is in order!"
Uran jumped forward, landed on the arm, and slammed his massive fists down on top of it. When they struck, they glowed with a dim yellow light. The flesh on the arm where Uran had hit began to smoke and bubble as if it were being cooked from the inside out. The flailing, grasping arm froze as one of its fingers snapped up and back, sharp-edged bone sticking through its skin. Uran laughed again.
"See? Flesh is weak! There is only power in-"
Uran's words were cut short as the arm drew back and rotated in one abrupt motion, palm up. Uran landed in the middle, and immediately the fingers clamped shut. Uran roared and struggled as he was squished into an awkward position.