NBB2 - The chaos rifts - chapter 35

Solus walked through Skulltown, staring at the mana-core in his hand. Although it was larger than a mana-orb, it didn't look that special. He worried if it really was what everybody wanted. Perhaps this was something else? He suppressed the desire to absorb it. First, he had to discuss things with Drys and Tirella.

Creating a larger container on his leg, he placed the mana-core inside and increased the container's density as much as he could, stopping right at the point that it would start draining his mana.

A series of explosions came from above. He started and dropped to a battle-stance, quickly searching for the attacker. Another pair of Ygdra flew over his head, pelting the barrier.

"I'm going to have to end those," Solus muttered as he glared after the Ygdra that flew off. He was about to turn his attention away when the two Ygdra screeched and stopped firing blasts. They banked sharply, heading south, towards the main gate. Almost right after, he heard a loud horn blast from the main gate, signaling undead approaching from the hills.

Now what, he thought, wondering if it was another Kaot attack. With a sigh, he turned to the gate. It would be fine if he just went for a quick look.

Halfway there, another horn blast came, and he began running. One was a warning. Two meant trouble.

He sprinted through the city and reached the open area bordering the main gate. There were dozens of blackguards in front of the gate, looking at it.

A third horn blast sounded.

It's an attack! Solus continued for the gate, jumping up and over the blackguards. He landed on the top of the wall beside a group of zombie mages that were looking at each other while talking worriedly. They turned to him as he slammed down.

He ignored them and stepped towards the other side of the broad wall, wondering what was attacking that had warranted the third horn blast.

"Solus! There is a large group of undead incoming from the hills, and those flying things are attacking them!" one of the zombies shouted.

Solus didn't bother to reply. He could see the situation spread out in front of him, a group of a few hundred undead sprinting towards Skulltown. His eyes widened when he spotted a burly yellow zombie in the lead.

Borl!

He suddenly remembered seeing the AI turned zombie in the vision that Viridi had shown him. A massive host of Kaots was chasing them, the faster ones picking off the undead at the back of the group. Four Ygdra flew low across the group. He saw one of them grab two undead before landing on the nearby hills to devour them.

I need to help them. About to jump forward, he remembered what had happened last time.

"Can I jump outside, or will I hit the barrier?" he roared at the loudly chattering zombies that now stood beside him.

They jumped back in fright, one shaking its head violently.

"No, no! No barrier from this side. That only happens if you try and-" a thick boom shoved the zombies into a pile that tumbled upon each other as Solus jumped through the barrier towards the group.

Mid-air, Solus saw that the Kaot host was about to swarm across the better half of the fleeing undead and quickly focused on the ground that still separated them. A wall shot out of the ground between the two groups, spreading left and right, and it quickly increased in height. The fastest Kaots made it passed, but those a step slower slammed into it with such a force that Solus felt the wall shudder and almost immediately start to crumble. Drawing up more stone, he thickened and hardened the wall as fast as he could, as blow after blow struck it.

The upwards motion of his jump gone, he was angling down right when a few Kaots emerged above the wall, having climbed up using talons.

Remembering what Tirella had done, Solus grinned wickedly. The wall's top split into two and lines of stone teeth showed at the edges like a giant, rectangular mouth. It snapped at the Kaots climbing across the top, biting their arms off, and the undead disappeared with a loud screech, swallowed by the wall.

Solus slammed into the ground halfway to the incoming refugees and saw that the Ygdra were coming in for another round. His concentration was stretched thin from strengthening the wall and moving the vicious mouth on top of it, and he couldn't do anything elaborate or risk the wall crumbling. Running forward, he thought of something and felt a headache popup as he split his attention four-ways. A small boulder formed in front of him, and he snatched it mid-run. Focusing on the incoming Ygdra, he came to a sliding halt and hurled the boulder towards it.

The Ygdra was hovering above the refugees, focused on his next target, and the boulder slammed into the back of its head. With a loud screech, it plummeted down, crashing into the middle of the fleeing undead.

Seeing the dozen or so undead flattened by the Ygdra, Solus groaned. Still, he couldn't think of another way to help them right now. A second boulder rose from the wasteland, and he grabbed it, throwing it at another Ygdra. The massive beast easily dodged the projectile, turning its attention on Solus.

Tossing another boulder and missing again, Solus roared in anger. "Hit already!"

Loud thumps came from behind him, and he swirled around with another boulder still in his arms. He saw something massive and white flash passed him, and then there was a loud explosion as Skull jumped up and flew through the air. The massive skeleton flew higher and further than Solus had ever seen him do.

Like one of Solus boulders, the skeleton shot towards the Ygdra, and Solus immediately realized Skull wouldn't hit his target.

Solus took a quick glimpse at the wall and saw that the refugees were a good distance from it now. He loosened his concentration on the wall, the mouth atop dissipating, and the headache disappearing. Below Skull, a stone hand shot up from the ground. It began reaching up, the stone arm growing longer and longer until the hand grabbed Skull mid-flight. The skeleton roared in surprise as he was hurled to the nearest Ygdra with such speed it didn't get a chance to dodge.

Solus laughed as Skull slammed into the Ygdra and wrapped his thick arms around its neck. A moment later, the Ygdra's neck snapped and almost doubled back on its own body. The wings stopped flapping, and the monstrosity plummeted to the ground.

Turning his attention back to the wall, Solus saw that it was broken in two spots. Kaots were spilling through, while even more were climbing across it. They began rushing after the fleeing undead again.

Gouging the distance between the two groups, Solus nodded. Borl and his group should be safe for the moment.

He felt the ground shake as something slammed into the ground not too far away. Looking around, he saw Skull crawl up from where the Ygdra had crashed into the ground. Solus grinned and created another hand, plucking Skull from the back of the downed Ygdra. He heard Skull shout but ignored it. The other Ygdra's were diving towards the fleeing undead, who had almost reached him. With some focus, he hurled Skull towards the nearest Ygdra before turning to the fleeing undead.

Borl had seen him already and was heading straight for him.

"Run to the city. I'll take care of this!" Solus shouted.

Borl nodded vigorously as he ran past Solus, a ragtag group of undead close behind him.

A screech came from above, and Solus looked up. An Ygdra was diving down, heading towards two large fleshy undead at the back of the group.

Solus jumped forward, ignoring the shockwave it produced and intercepting the Ygdra. He slammed into the skeletal body, gripping the thick bones. Absently he noted there was actually flesh below the bones, green and grey, and oozing some pungent liquid. He ripped one of the ribs apart with a tug and slammed his entire arm into the flesh beneath. A soft tingling came from his arm, and suddenly red arcs of energy traveled up his arm and across his body. The Ygdra was hovering mid-air, its massive wings flapping as it bit at him.

He yanked his aching arm back and struck the incoming head. Cracks appeared on the exposed skull, and the Ygdra stopped flapping for a second causing it to plummet down.

Solus climbed up along the ribcage and got on the Ygdra's back, holding on with his legs. In a single motion, he grabbed his hammer from his waist and slammed it down on the back of the Skull. It cracked and split, grey matter pulsating below. A second strike splattered it across Solus' chest, and with a final cry, the Ygdra stopped moving entirely.

The ground was coming towards them fast, and he created another stone hand, picking himself up a split second before the Ygdra crashed into the ground.

Looking around, he saw that Skull was standing in the middle of a massive army of Kaots, grabbing them and ripping them apart in a frenzy. Far behind him, the fleeing undead were almost at the gate, where a group of defenders had amassed. The Ygdra were flying after the feeling undead, firing their red crackling orbs but appearing reluctant to get closer.

He focused and had the arm fling him forward towards Skull. As he angled towards a dense pocket of Kaots that were shooting fiery blue balls at Skull, he felt calm and collected. There was none of the battle-frenzy he had felt so many times. And none of the anger. Why not? He was beside himself around Grav, but with these Kaots, there was no problem. Seeing the Kaots and ground come closer, he shoved his questions away.

"Skull, stop playing around and get out of here!" he roared as he crushed two skeletal Kaots below his feet. He summoned another stone wall, separating Skull from all but a few of the Kaots who continued pelting Skull. The skeletal behemoth effortlessly shrugged off bolts, tendrils, and barbs shot and made short work of the dozen remaining Kaots.

Solus felt amazed at Skull's progress and the ease at which it moved. Feeling the wall shake under a barrage of strikes, while Kaot heads showed up above the wall, he turned and ran for the city.

"Move," he roared when he didn't hear Skull follow him, frowning as he looked behind. Skull was taking a last look at the wall before turning and sprinting after him.

"I come!" he bellowed.

They reached the city's main gate before the Kaots had a chance to ram through the stone wall. As soon as they ran inside, the gates snapped shut behind them.

Coming to a halt, Solus looked at the mass of undead standing before them, Borl in the lead. As soon as the chunky zombie saw him, it walked forward.

"You're a sight for sore eyes! I never thought we'd make it, you know? The amount of Kaots in those hills is staggering! What did you do, tell them there are free mana-orbs here?" Borl said as he stopped in front of Solus, a wide smile on his face.

"This is a nice little city you have, by the way! It reminds me a lot of the cities of the ancients, a lot more than that pale imitation Scathia created."

The undead pointed at the stone wall and a few stone buildings around.

Trying to get in a word to silence the other, Solus finally couldn't hold back and growled. It was loud enough for a shockwave to push everyone, including Borl, a few steps back.

"Errr… is something wrong?" Borl asked, the fat on his face jittering and flowing oddly.

"We have a problem. Come with me. I might need what you know," Solus said before turning to one of the Blackguards that had been staring at him.

"Take these undead to some abandoned buildings, so they have a place to stay, and explain how things work around here."

The Blackguard nodded and turned to the undead.

"But, I need to take care of my friends!" Borl insisted as he pointed at the dozens of yellow undead that resembled like.

"They will be fine, don't worry," Solus said, turning to Skull.

"Guard the gate. If those Kaots come anywhere near them, destroy them. But make sure you don't lose any of ours!"

Skull stared at him for a moment before nodding. "I guard gate and end smelly undead!" His voice sounded a bit confused, but then he turned and leapt atop the wall.

Smelly? Solus wondered what the other meant and how he could even smell anything without a nose. Then he sighed, stuffing the question amongst the continually expanding list of unanswered questions in the back of his mind.

"Follow me," he said, grabbing Borl's arm and dragging him along.

"Sure, sure, whatever you say," Borl muttered.

--

Standing in front of the Hall of Patterns, Solus hesitated. If they were still speaking with Grav, he didn't want to go inside. If he went into a frenzy and ended Grav before he could tell Drys what they needed to know? He shook his head at the thought.

He looked up, projecting his voice as far as he could beside the top of the tower. "Are you done?"

It took a moment, but then Tirella's head appeared in one of the windows.

"You can come in!"

Solus nodded and moved inside, Borl right behind.

"Holy crap! Those are a lot of patterns! I haven't seen this many since... well, since I lost the bigger part of my database," Borl said, making a whistling sound.

As they moved further up the buildings, he sounded more and more impressed.

"You're going about it in a much smarter way than Scathia was," he finally said as they climbed the winding staircase to Drys' room.

"What do you mean?" Solus asked.

"If you just keep the patterns to yourself, lording it over the common undead, you will end up being nothing but a petty thug," Borl said.

A host of new impressions and knowledge bubbled up in Solus' mind, and he felt a small headache grow. The second that day.

Talking with these AI was always such a chore. Why couldn't they just speak plainly? Pushing open the door, the first thing he saw was Tirella, blocking his view.

"Listen. Grav is still here, and you will probably still want to end him. But Drys thinks-"

"I know!" Drys interjected behind her.

".. thinks that he knows how to solve that." Tirella continued almost without a hitch. "When you evolved me, you cleared some dark stuff from my mana field, remember?"

Solus nodded. He wouldn't quickly forget how disgusting it was. "So if I can clear that stuff off, I won't feel like ripping his head off all the time?"

Tirella smiled, her white teeth flickering like opals in the light while her black eyes stared into his. "Hopefully!"

"But I didn't feel like ripping you apart when I first saw you..." Solus said, staring at her intently.

Tirela's smile widened. "Probably because I didn't have that much of the dark stuff."

Blinking a few times, Solus nodded lamely and moved forward. She stepped out of his path at the final moment, and he saw Drys standing beside Grav. A torrent of fury rushed through his mind, and his jaws clenched shut with a loud snap. Growling deep in his chest, he slowly walked forward.

"Mana-field, now!" he snapped, barely getting the words out.

Grav, a fearful look on his face, didn't hesitate, and a red-stained grey mana-field enveloped the room, dark red patterns of symbols everywhere. Thick black sludge seemed to ooze across big sections of it, and the red symbols around it were pulsating between a sickly red and the dark red of the untainted symbols. Seeing it almost made Solus snap and attack.

Closing his eyes for a moment, he willed himself to keep from attacking. Only when he regained a small amount of self-control did he summon his own mana-field. It made a soft, whooshing sound as it expanded, quickly filling the room before disappearing through the walls. It was much bigger than he remembered. As soon as his mana-field overlapped Grav's mana-field, both began burning bright.

Like a stone, Grav dropped to the ground while Solus focused on the black areas.

It felt like closing one of the rifts, but it cost even more mana. His hearing dulled, then vaded entirely, and the only thing he could see was Grav's mana-field. His anger was fading slowly. Whatever upsetting him so seemed content with eviscerating the black stuff from the mana-field.

When the last blotch finally disappeared, Grav's mana-field brightened for a moment, all of the patterns turning to a deep orange before the mana-field disappeared. Looking at Grav lying on the ground, Solus knew Drys had been right. The anger and desire to end Grav was gone. Solus' mana-field pulled back slowly as if it wanted to remain in the open.

When it finally disappeared, he turned around and saw Drys and Tirela stare at the sphere and Borl, who were having a lively conversation.

"-telling me you can just download 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 been so terrible as the only civilized thing amongst these undead…" he suddenly looked at Drys and Solus and laughed in a high-pitched voice. "Present company excluded, of course!"

Solus grinned, moved to the couch, and sat 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 a few times, 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' mind.

Drys' 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 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 shield was fully active, red tendrils of energy lashing against it from far away. Solus followed them to their origin and shivered. An arm ten times the size of his body stuck through a rift on the top of the easternmost hill. The tendrils emerged from dark purple nails tipping the claw-like hand. They weren't just hitting Skulltown either, but all around, and as he watched, one of them dragged a captured, struggling figure towards 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 glowed red before now glowed a deep orange that mirrored the symbols' color 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, walking to 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. "Find a rift, and flee, of course." He shook his head as he continued muttering. "Too bad. 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 Tirela rose, glaring at him. Grav sighed and shook his head. "Fine, not that it matters. I will explain, and after that flee."

Moving towards one of the many empty bone tablets on one side of the room, Grav began carving a pattern inside. It wasn't small and intricate like the ones Solus had seen the AI's 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.

A blue ray of light shot from Sam's sphere, following the pattern as Grav drew it.

It took a while for Grav to finish, and Solus kept an eye on the rift with the arm 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 on a world, no new big rifts can appear."

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 that Grav had said it was too late, and he turned to the other.

"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 any undead it can find here until this world is 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. But not fight it," Grav said, sounding amused as 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 Vireli had meant? Could those larger Kaots have mana-cores? But even if they had, 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 explode like some enormous bomb!"

"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 the arm was gone, and a massive thing clawed its way through the rift. It barely fit, its body hunched together, dozens of arms wrapped close around its waist. After a moment, it seemed stuck, and Solus almost sighed in relief when something seemed to push the massive Kaot through.

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, slamming into the ground. Solus could feel the tremor through the base of the tower.

"We need to end that thing right now," he said and quickly focused on the window. The stone shivered, and then 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 be wrong?"

Drys pointed at something in the hills far to the side of the rift. "Vingria has spotted it, and she and Norg seem to be attacking."

Solus head snapped in the direction Drys was pointing. Two specs were running across the hills, heading straight for the immense monstrosity.

"Damn those rotbrains!" Solus roared, running forward and leaping away from the tower.