NBB3 - chapter 31: Reset

Solus kneeled beside Norg's motionless body and inspected his friend. Within moments deep hopelessness emerged. Norg didn't react at all to being freed, and his body was so drained that it reminded him of a skeleton with a thin layer of skin. He quietly examined the dull purple crystals one at a time, looking for the signs of more of Gouldiv's offspring. Within moments he saw a dozen, and his mood worsened.

Behind them, the roaring and slamming died down, and as he was looking at the final crystal on the side of Norg's face, Oytach's heavy footsteps carried him next to them. The Kaot Lord didn't speak, and after Solus counted even more offspring, he looked up in despair. Oytach was frowning as he looked at Norg, seemingly unconsciously rubbing one of the red crystals on his neck.

"Oytach?" Solus whispered, causing the other to blink then look at him.

"Do you know what they've done to him?" Solus asked.

Oytach dropped his hand and looked at the other bodies strung up on the wall.

"What they tried to do to me and failed... directly infect him with Gouldiv's crystals and constantly drain his mana. They only keep him strong enough so he won't break down."

Solus sighed, noting Vingria's worried glance. He quickly translated.

Vingria's head snapped up, her eyes wide. "How do we fix it?"

Solus had a bad premonition but asked Oytach, who looked at Norg, then at Vingria. "I have no idea."

"But he said they failed to do that to him! So he has to know how!" Vingria shouted before Solus could translate.

Solus sighed, gazing at Norg.

"Can we fix him as you did yourself?" he asked, getting the feeling he knew the answer.

"No," Oytach said. "I never fixed myself. When I evolved into a Burzith, my mana-field forcefully adapted, resisting the drain and creating a form that prevented Gouldiv from doing anything to me."

Solus nodded, quickly translating for Vingira, who groaned as she began poking at the purple crystals. "What if we remove them?" she asked.

"It will end him," Oytach said after Solus asked him. "I don't know of any way to fix this…"

Solus quietly sat on his haunches, dully looking at Norg. Vingria's hands were opening and closing as she knelt beside his friend, her face warped in panic and anger.

Memories of when he had first met Norg played through Solus' mind. He thought back to all the odd things he and Norg had gone through, eventually remembering the last time Norg had been in trouble. His friend had a knack for getting into trouble. That time he had changed from a talkative, ignorant brute into a vicious and violent ghoul after he had been caught and experimented upon.

Wait!

Solus shot to his feet, his mind spinning. That time, Drys had changed Norg's pattern, managing to keep some parts and fixing those that made him constantly aggressive. What if they did that? He could try to evolve Norg again! All they needed was a mana-core, and half a dozen Kaot Lords were hanging on the wall beside them!

"What?" Vingria hissed as she looked at him with slight hope.

Solus turned to Oytach. "Can you show me your pattern?"

The Kaot Lord stepped back, a slightly angry look on his face. "Patterns are what keep us alive! If I show you-"

"I'll show you mine," Solus hissed as he pulled up his mana-field and displayed it. Oytach gasped as he looked around, and slowly his shock changed to wonder. His eyes roamed the intricate parts of Solus' manafield, incredibly dense and impressive as small as it was.

"So strange..." Oytach whispered as he stared at the status-screen part. "So complex and so different from mine!" Then he turned to Solus and nodded firmly. "Fine, but why do you want to see my pattern?"

"Perhaps I can use parts of it on Norg and fix him," Solus said.

"Impossible," Oytach rumbled as he frowned. "He is unconscious. How are you going to wake him so he can put the pattern on his body."

Solus made his mana-field disappear again. "I can do that," he said, staring into the other's deep red eyes.

Oytach was quiet, then nodded. "Fine. You've surprised me before. Let's see what more you can do."

A massive mana-field erupted from the Kaot Lord, barely fitting inside the confines of the massive cave. Split into six sections; each was densilly filled with complex and chaotic patterns. Odd lines and shapes created forms that Solus had never seen before.

Bile… where is Drys when you need him, Solus thought as he looked at the pattern.

"Leave it for a bit. I need to examine it," Solus said as he moved to a section of the pattern and tried to understand how it worked.

Half an hour later, when he was moving to another part, he wasn't as hopeful anymore. His mind was trying to juggle the different parts of the hard-to-understand pattern. Although he was slowly getting a general feel of it, he had no idea which part made Oytach resistant to the drain.

As he read another part, a soft ping came from his status window, and he froze. Hope sprang up as he summoned his status window.

> A new, previously unknown pattern has been detected

> Allow scanning? Yes/No

Solus immediately picked yes, and his own mana-field sprang back, minuscule compared to that of Oytach. A beam came from it and started crawling across the pattern.

"What's that?" Oytach rumbled, sounding scared and annoyed.

"Don't worry. It's my skill! It will check your pattern," Solus said hastily.

"It won't change it, right?" Oytach asked, looking at the beam with trepidation.

"No!" Solus said. "Just analyze it."

Oytach looked at him dumbly, his lips forming the foreign word. After a moment, he just nodded, but he continued to follow every movement of the beam of light.

The speed at which the beam scanned the pattern was such that within a few minutes, it finished, disappearing with an accompanied ping.

> High-grade S class pattern scanned

> ERROR: no connection to the main server was found

> Please find our nearest physical office and upload this pattern! You will be richly rewarded!

> Pattern added to the local status-window database

Although he was slightly confused by the high-grade part, something he had never seen before, Solus ignored the messages and immediately searched through his database. It took a while to find it, but eventually, he noticed a new filter called local patterns. As soon as he selected it, the massive list changed to a much shorter one, and he saw only a single, unnamed S class pattern on it.

> High-grade S class pattern: Detailed information available after uploading to the central database

Solus hissed in annoyance, then noticed a small word beside the name.

Examine.

When he selected it, a miniature version of the pattern appeared. It was cut up and labeled. The labels were categorized as racial patterns, class patterns, and additional.

Gritting his teeth, Solus sat down and inspected the hundreds of labels with corresponding details.

How long it took, he would probably never know, but when he finally found what he was looking for, he jumped up with a shout. Oytach stood beside him, his pattern still out for all to see, but the Kaot Lord's eyes were closed, and a soft rumbling came from him.

"Oytach, I'm done," Solus said.

Oytach's eyes snapped open, and his massive mana field vanished, the room once again turning purple.

"Can you help him?" Vingria asked, sitting beside Norg.

"We will find out soon," Solus said as he looked at the wall. He needed one more thing, and he wasn't sure how Oytach would feel about it. He turned to the large Kaot Lord.

"Can you get me the mana-core in one of those?" he asked as he pointed his snout at the Kaot Lords hanging on the wall.

Oytach was quiet, then he nodded. "Yes, but I will take the rest."

Solus' mind spun as he remembered why he had come here, and he scanned across the bodies, counting nine of them.

"I need two," he finally said.

Oytach turned to him and frowned. "Why?"

"One to fix Norg, and the other to bring back through the portal-"

"You are from a portal?!" Oytach roared as he stepped forward with a surprised look.

Solus froze, carefully studying Oytach to see if he was angry. The other seemed surprised and happy, though.

"Yes," he finally said.

Oytach was quiet, then looked at the wall. "You can have two… if you take me with you!"

Solus thought about it for only a second, then nodded. "You can come, but you have to absorb those mana-core's before you go through," he said. If Oytach proved a problem, he was pretty sure Drys, Sig, and Skull could stop him together, but not if he evolved again. Luckily he wouldn't fit if that happened.

Oytach frowned, then shook his head. "If I do that, I might grow too much to fit. Can't I just bring the mana-cores?"

"What are you two talking about," Vingria hissed. "Norg needs help!"

Solus nodded, then looked at Oytach. "We have… problems on the other side. If you bring those mana-cores, these problems might increase."

"But you are bringing one!" Oytach said with a frown.

Solus nodded. "Yes, to give to someone waiting on the other side so he can evolve immediately!"

Oytach nodded as he grinned. "Fine, I'll bring them and absorb them immediately after we reach the other side."

His words seemed final, and Solus groaned. Oytach was right, but he had hoped the other wouldn't grow any more powerful than he already was. He tried to come up with a way to reject when he thought of Sig. If Sig evolved,  he could absorb Oytach and take him through another portal, leaving him there! He shoved away some nagging doubts.

"Fine. Just make sure you absorb them right away," he said.

Oytach laughed as he turned around and moved towards one of the strung-up Kaot Lords. He jumped up and grabbed the unmoving shape with hungry eyes. Without any obvious hesitation, he jammed his hand at the other's face, cracking it into pieces as if it was made of thin stone. A moment later, he pulled his hand back with a small object which he inspected before hissing.

"Just a pseudo-core," he grumbled as he tossed it over his shoulder.

Solus saw it fly and instinctively jumped forward, spitting out the crystal shard he had been carrying all this time. He snatched the small, slightly angular pseudo orb from mid-air. He was about to absorb it, when he realized that wouldn't help if he was going to leave this body here. He turned to Vingria and put the core beside her hand.

"Absorb that. Don't give it Norg yet- we don't know what will happen if we increase his mana."

Vingria didn't reply but snatched up the pseudo-mana-core.

For a moment, Solus thought she was going to ignore him and give it to Norg, then she gripped it tight, and bright light burst through her fingers. It lasted for only a second before dust trickled away.

"What?" Vingria muttered in surprise.

"They are so drained, they barely hold anything," Oytach said as he moved beside them. He had a frown on his face as he turned to Solus.

"It's probably why none of the stronger Kaot Lords come here, as they don't dare absorb the mana-orbs of Gouldiv's minions, and these are useless," he continued as he dropped a handful of pseudo cores before staring at Solus in annoyance.

"If I'd known there were only three, I'd not have agreed to give you two," he said as he held up his other hand. On his massive palm rested three large angular mana-core's, glowing softly.

Solus dumbly stared at the mana-cores, barely believing that he actually saw three in the same place. Then he hissed and moved towards Nog.

"Place one on Norg's chest," he said before turning to Vingria. "Step back, and whatever you do, don't touch his body!"

Vingria glared at him but scooched away. Oytach carefully placed a mana-core on Norg's chest.

"This friend's thing is pretty great," he muttered. "I hope if I ever need it, you will go to other worlds and find me mana-cores too!"

Solus stared at the massive Kaot Lord, surprised by how agreeable he was. For a moment, he wondered if it was all an act. It didn't seem like it, but who knew?

"Don't interfere or let anything else interfere," Solus repeated to each of them before sitting down. "I'm going to stop moving for a bit, and I'm not sure what my body might do… if it behaves aggressively or weird, hold it tight and make sure you don't destroy it."

"What?" Oytach muttered as he took a step back.

"I'll explain later," Solus said, getting a nondescript look from Oytach and a snort from Vingria. Then he closed his eyes and focused on his true self. It had been a while since he last voluntarily exited his body, and for a moment, he wondered if he even could this farm away on another world.

The world turned into a mix of purple and green mana as his mana-projected self shot out of the body. As it happened, his mind seemed to clear up, a dim fog he hadn't noticed, vanishing.

Before he could say or do anything, the large canine shape of his body struggled up and looked around with a snarl.

Bile! Solus thought, almost jumping back in as he watched the original consciousness of the body reassert itself.

Before he could, Oytach stepped forward and grabbed the black, hound-like Uridummu's neck, drew it close, and hugged it to his chest. The spines on the hound's back vibrated, and before Solus could shout a warning, they burst out, clinking harmlessly against Oytach's dark skin.

"Solus, you are the oddest Gzin I've ever seen," Oytach rumbled as he almost gently hit the Uridimmu between the eyes. The Uridimmu's eyes glazed over and it turned slack in Oytach's arms.

"That had better not end him," Vingira hissed.

Oytach just looked at her and shrugged. "I don't know what you just said, but you look angry… He will be fine. I just stunned him."

Solus sighed, took one more look at them, and then moved towards Norg's body.

This had better work, he thought before floating inside. A hammer blow turned the world dark.

--

Who are you?

A soft thought woke Solus, and he tried to move but couldn't. He felt like he was stuck in stone, able to feel his -no Norg's- body but unable to move even an inch.

I feel inside that body! Who or what are you?

Solus tried to find the source of the voice, but all he found was that his mind was muddled, thoughts coming slow.

Answer me, or I'll dissolve your consciousness, the whispered through changed into a snarl that snapped through Solus' mind. The jolt cleared some of the fog from his mind, and slowly he realized who the voice likely was.

Gouldiv? Solus asked.

He hadn't tried to speak loudly, but his voice boomed through his mind, causing echoes that faded slowly, and instantly the remaining fog that clogged his thoughts vanished. The echo's also highlighted an oddity in his mind, like sand flowing around a rock. A thing that shouldn't be there.

As he saw it, the mental shape pushed at him, but it felt weak and powerless. Solus wrapped his mind around the small thing and began clamping down.

Stop! How are you doing this? No! It hurts!

Solus released his hold slightly as he felt the thing weaken rapidly.

Are you Gouldiv? he asked.

No, yes. A fraction of him, part of his memories!

His offspring? Solus asked, suddenly curious.

A surprised reaction came from the small mind, then it answered. Yes!

Solus scanned his mind for more of the oddities. He felt none, which surprised him. He had seen far more of those tiny purple mana specs in the crystals that marred Norg's skin.

Where are the others? Solus asked.

They were weak… I consumed them!

A cold loathing and hunger laced the response.

Solus felt conflicted suddenly. He wanted to help Norg, but he also had a chance for information here, and Norg's body seemed stable, if so weak it couldn't even move. After a short deliberation, he decided to ask a few questions, then destroy Gouldiv's offspring.

What does Gouldiv want with the ones he captures? he asked, curious if Oytach had spoken the truth.

The minds and the mana for sustenance, and the bodies as a host, the voice responded immediately. Will you release me now? It asked hopefully. Let me return to the fold?

Solus ignored its question. A host? What does that mean?

A wave of irritation flowed out from the small thing in his grasp, and he clenched harder. Instantly the irritation was replaced by fear.

To spread! Spread and survive!

Solus hissed in annoyance and clenched again. Explain, he rumbled in his mind.

One Gouldiv is weak, but many are strong, the consciousness howled. Gouldiv makes more Gouldiv and sends them through the world rifts!

Solus got a mental image of bodies with purple crystals on them tossed through the rifts, infecting the worlds they reached. A seed of fear came to him, and he asked another question.

Is this the first Gouldiv?

First? No… not first, not second! Many… many times we split!

The fear grew as Solus thought of what would happen if Gouldiv were to reach his world.

Did you enter the portal outside the cavern yet? he asked.

A bout of confusion came from the small mind, and it didn't answer.

Solus slightly clenched again. Did you enter that portal?

No? The origin portal it is!  The portal we came from, the mind howled.

Wait. Did you come from that portal? Solus hissed as he tried to project an image from the portal outside the cave.

Yes, yes! The memories have faded, but we remember! We came from there. Dangerous world, ruled by a mighty being… green and brown! It tried to crush Gouldiv and hunted it! One seed only escaped to this harsh, dead world!

Solus wished he could talk to Viridi, who he imagined was the green and powerful being. Why hadn't she told him? Wait… when did this happen?

When did the first Gouldiv come here? he asked.

Not first, but long ago… many, many circles around the sun, the mind said.

Solus felt his fear fade. If it was that long ago, Viridi would probably have still been powerful enough to stop it, although… had there even been rifts that long ago?

How did Gouldiv come here if there were no rifts? he asked, more curious than thinking the mind was lying.

No rifts? No chaos rifts! Gouldiv makes world rifts, the mind replied.

How? Solus asked, very interested suddenly.

A skill, the mind said, but it sounded uncertain, confused. Wondering if it was holding back, Solus clenched it slightly, and it mentally yelped.

I don't know! I'm just an offspring, not fully grown! The knowledge comes later, as I grow!

Solus mentally nodded, then pondered what else he needed to ask. Finally, just when he was about to destroy the small mind, he thought of one.

How do I remove an offspring from a body?

The small mind jolted, trying to struggle free as it panicked, and Solus gripped it tighter until it finally relented.

Lure it out, or destroy it, the small mind howled, confirming what Solus had expected.

Good, he said as he clenched his mental fist. The tiny fragment of Gouldiv screamed before vanishing. An odd, faint mana stain where it had been was all that was left, and Solus wiped it away until all was gone.

Although he didn't feel anything about ending the mind, he did feel worried. Something about it had unnerved him greatly, and the fact that it was a copy or fragment of a whole didn't make it any better. Still, he was relieved that it was gone from Norg's body and wished he could remove the one in the Uridimmu's manafield. Determined to try that later, he called up Norg's status window.

Name: Norg

Age: 69

Sex: Male

Race: Mutated Ghoul

Type: custom

Class: -

Strength: 25/25

Constitution: 31/31

Dexterity: 37/37

Endurance: 29/29

Intelligence: 15/19

Mana-field:1200/1200

Physical density: 900/900

Skills: 1

Inscriptions: 1/4

Mana generation: 7

He is old, Solus thought, slightly surprised. He'd known Norg was likely older than him, but he'd never expected it to be this much. What didn't surprise him was that most of Norg's stats had maxed out. Only intelligence was left. Norg had been running around, hunting and fighting for dozens of years since he last saw him.

He will just have to start again, Solus thought as he realized he was about to wipe away years of progress.

He summoned the list with potential upgrades, quickly filtering it until he found the one he was searching for-the Kaot's racial pattern. Examining it one last time, he sighed sadly. He had hoped the drain resistance would be in the class or something else. It hadn't been. Instead, it had been on the racial pattern, meaning he had no other choice. He would wipe away Norg's patterns, hopefully including anything that might have taken root in them, and use the mana-core to give him the same racial pattern as Oytach.

Taking a deep mental breath, Solus forced Norg's mana-field in the open. A cry came from Vingria and Oytach, followed by stunned silence. He barely noticed as he stared at the horrible affront that was once a pattern. Purple and black blotches marred almost every inch of the mana field, and tiny specs of purple mana moved across the mana field like gnats.

So there are more left? They almost destroyed him, Solus thought as his anger towards Gouldiv soared. Focusing on his own mana field, a small green version of it appeared inside of Norg's.

"Two mana-fields?" Oytach rumbled in surprise.

Solus didn't bother to reply but concentrated. His mana-field was weak, and as he tried to erase the pattern below the spot it hovered, he felt resistance. The purple blotches began pulsating as if struggling against what he was doing, and the tiny purple specs rushed around erratically. He forced more power onto the spot of Norg's mana-field that he tried to clear, and finally, something snapped. One of the purple blotches dissipated, taking with it a small section of Norg's pattern.

After this first step, Solus could move his mana-field easier, and it moved across that of Norg. Everywhere it passed, he forcefully removed the blotches and the pattern. He barely heard the confused questions from Oytach as his mind was stretched thin by what he was doing.

Hours passed until he finally removed the last bit of Norg's pattern. His friend's manafield was fluctuating oddly, and Solus felt it destabilize.

"Hurry with the new pattern!"

Solus was surprised by Oytach's voice and his remark, but he wholeheartedly agreed. He wasn't sure what would happen, but the way Norg's manafield was wobbling and vibrating didn't promise anything good.

He opened his status window again and selected Oytach's pattern. He wished he had the power to draw it himself so that he could make tweaks, but that would take his full power.  Instead, he got a confirmative beep and a beam of energy shot from outside of his vision and began drawing a new pattern on Norg's manafield. As soon as it started, the fluctuation slowed, and the mana-field seemed to stabilize rapidly.

Besides some soft ticking and clacking, it was quiet in the cavern, and Solus knew the rest was probably staring at the pattern being drawn.

It took less time than erasing the old one had, and when it was finally close to finished, Solus steeled himself. When the final line began, he stepped out of Norg's body so his mind wouldn't harm his friends.

As he hovered above Norg, he gaped at the massive changes. Gone was the gaunt, greenish shape. Instead, a heavy-set figure lay in its place, still rapidly growing and expanding. Muscles curled across the chest, and slight tears appeared in the skin. The mana-core on the rapidly darkening green chest was glowing like a bright sun, its power flowing into the body below powering the massive changes. Bright, lime-green crystals pushed themselves from the tears in the skin as growths like those Oytach had poked through.

"He is like me," Oytach muttered as he crouched down and gazed closely at Norg. "But… different. How does he have green mana?"

Solus sighed, wishing he could reply. Instead, he gazed at his Uridimmu body. It lay unmoving in Oytach's massive fist, as it had since he began. He hoped the massive Kaot Lord hadn't ended it. He needed to speak with Norg.

As he watched Norg change, his desire for his own body grew. The idea of moving around in that four-legged thing bothered him, and the fact that it was infected and he had to leave it behind soon made it worse. Still, he needed to talk with the others- tell them what to expect.

The changes to Norg's body slowed down, and he saw it wasn't as large as Oytach was.

Norg will have to raize his attributes from almost nothing, he thought.

He shrugged and entered his Uridimmu body. The transition was abrupt, and as he entered, he felt something heavily resist his presence. A mind, vicious and angry, began pushing and struggling.

The original shadow stalker mind? Solus thought as he pushed it down until it was no more than a distraction. As control over the body returned, he felt Oytach's massive fingers clenched around his neck.

"You can let go now," he projected.

Oytach's fingers stiffened, then released him, and the massive Kaot Lord stepped back.

"You are Solus?"

Solus scrambled up, a dull throbbing headache forming.

"Yes. We need to leave as soon as Norg is awake."

"What did you do?"

Vingria's voice was laced with worry and anger as she rushed at him and almost pushed her face in his snout.

"His mana-field was infected," Solus said. "There was only one way to fix it, and that was by removing it and giving him the same pattern Oytach has."

"But won't he change into a Kaot?" Vingria hissed, turning around to gaze at Norg.

"No," Solus said. "I checked the pattern, and although it is foreign, there is nothing wrong with it. Being a Kaot depends on the color of your mana…" as he said it, his gaze slowly drew to the red crystal growths and the eyes of Oytach. The Kaot Lord's mana was red, but was it exactly the same as the Kaot's mana? He frowned as he realized he wasn't sure. Something seemed... different about it.

"Will he be… be the same?" Vingria softly asked, the worry in her face making Solus turn around as he realized he didn't know. He hadn't thought of the possible changes to Norg's mind at all! The last time Norg had evolved, his personality had taken a massive shift, from a somewhat dumb, highly emotional, and talkative zombie into a volatile, hypermobile ghoul.

"I don't know," he finally said, just as the mana-core's glow stopped, and it crumbled to dust across Norg's thick chest. "But we will find out in a moment."

Vingria moved away, hovering beside Norg, and staring down at him. The shadow hunter struggled suddenly, trying to dig out from under Solus' mind, and it took him a moment to shove it back down.

I can't stay like this much longer, he thought, annoyed as the problems kept piling up.

A soft groan came from Norg, and a moment later, his arms twitched before they shot up as if to ward off some attack.

"Wa- where, wh..o…" a slurred but familiar voice muttered.

He sounds the same, Solus thought.

Norg rolled over and pushed himself up. Two intensely black eyes with lime-colored sparkles gazed around. When he noticed Vingira, he blinked.

"..gria, Vingria, where are we? What happened?" he muttered, his voice slowly losing the slur.

Vingria didn't wait but rushed forward and wrapped an arm around Norg. "You are the same," she said, her voice shaking.

"Wha? Course I am the same! Why wouldn't I be?" Norg said as he looked around in confusion. When his eyes locked onto Solus, then the massive black and red Oytach, he stood in shock, pulling Vingria up.

"Who are you?" Norg snapped as he took a step back and released Vingria.

"Calm down," Solus said, trying to make his voice familiar. "I might look a bit odd, but so do you!"

Norg's eyes widened as they left Oytach and gazed at Solus.

"Solus?" he muttered, taking a step forward. "How… why?"

"I can't explain right now," Solus said. "We had to evolve you to fix what those black sludge things did to you… it might take you a bit to get used to it."

Solus was about to continue when the shadow hunter struggled heavily. With great effort, he forced it back down. He wondered if leaving the body had triggered it, strengthened it somehow. He couldn't recall ever feeling the other's mind before.

Norg straightened himself, taller than Vingria but dwarfed by Oytach.

"I feel…slow and strong," he muttered, staring at his arm and poking at some of the green crystals with a finger.

"No time for that now," Solus said as he struggled with the shadow hunter spirit. "He turned around and gazed at Oytach. "We need to get to the portal, fast…"

"Alright," Oytach said, his gaze still lingering on Norg. Then he turned and moved across the room towards the hole they had entered.

"Let's get out of here then!"

"Follow me," Solus said as he turned to Norg and Vingria. "And listen carefully… we don't have much time."