NBB2 - The Chaos Rifts - Chapter 23

Sig hung in the darkness of the ceiling, examining the narrow cavern below. Small pockets of red light spread out along the dusty stone walls, highlighting a stream of undead that moved along the path, further down into the mine. This cavern was a waypoint on the road down into the earth, one of many.

Sig frowned as he listened to the soft murmurs flowing up. They all dealt with the same topic, and he tried to push his worry away.

When he realized he wouldn't get any more details, he made his way back to the others. As he phased through the rock, he wondered when soaring through solid matter became as easy as moving through the air. Well, most solid matter. He still couldn't get through the bone in the tower.

Passing through two more chambers and a massive, empty cavern, he finally arrived in a square room with a long, simple staircase leading up. Tatjie and Derin sat on simple chairs in the middle, their eyes locked on Tirela. The orange-skinned undead sat with her legs folded while her short-cropped yellow hair stood on end. A small orb of rapidly rotating earth lay on her extended hands. The room's only light came from a few small red orbs that Tatjie and Tirela had taken.

"So, any more news?" Tatjie said, shattering the previous silence with a look of relief.

Sig landed on a chair beside her and nodded gravely. "Yes..." he said, frowning as he collected his thoughts.

" There are rumors that a large grey undead with green hair fought his way into Scathia's palace."

"Finally! He arrived!" Tatjie shouted, jumping up and prancing about, without noticing Sig's worried face.

"That means we can finally get out of these horrid caverns and head back to Skulltown, where we don't have to hide or fight all the time!"

Derin and Tirela didn't reply but silently looked at Sig, ignoring the jumping Tatjie.

When it remained silent, Tatjie finally realized something was wrong and turned to Sig.

"What is it now? You look like someone stole your last mana-orb!"

"They say Scathia captured Solus and took him up her tower. That was yesterday, and there hasn't been another sighting of him."

Derin struck the side of his stone stool, hairline cracks appearing around his fist. "Bile and brains, how is that possible? How can anybody capture him?"

"There are ways," Sig said, before turning to Tirela. "How far are you with learning to shape the stone?"

Without answering, Tirela raised the orb. The stone turned into a small chair followed by a crude imitation of Sigs head.

"Good. Can you do it without touching yet?"

Tirela shook her head, frowning. "No. I think I need another pattern for that, and for that, I need Solus."

Derin leaned forward, the plates on his legs clattering softly. "Why do you ask? Shouldn't we get the big guy out?"

"Get him out? Are you brainless? If he can't get himself out, what are we going to do?" Tatjie shouted before turning to Sig.

"Let's just go back to Skulltown and report to Drys! He'll know what to do."

It was silent for a while, then Sig sighed. "We can't."

"Why not?" Tatjie asked, throwing her arms up, her hands slamming into the ceiling.

"Because the other news was that rifts have opened up around Tendraal. I can probably get back, but I can't carry you the entire trip."

Tatjie sat down with a shocked look on her face.

It was quiet in the room for a while. Everybody lost in their own thoughts. Finally, Tirela was the first to speak.

"We need to find where she is holding him and how. Then break him out."

Sig nodded, staring at her intensely. He barely recognized her anymore. Compared to when she crashed out of the portal, barely capable of speech and easily manipulated, the pattern Solus had given her had changed her. She reminded him in many ways of Drys. Calm, calculating, and with a quick mind.

"And how do you suppose we do that?" he asked, curious what she had planned.

"Start at step one. Find him," Tirela replied, rising and stretching herself. Her pitch-black eyes seemed to absorb the red light. "Then, find a way to create a distraction, and lastly, get enough mana-orbs so Solus can replenish his strength when we do get to him."

Sig looked into her black eyes for a bit before nodding.

"She is right," Derin said, getting up. "And I think there's only one way to find out where he is. Find someone who knows, capture them, and get them to tell us."

Tirela nodded while Sig smiled sadly. It was the same idea he had come up with, and he had hoped they would think of something less dangerous and faster. The idea of leaving Solus incarcerated didn't sit well with him. Although he had long since regained his free will, a lingering desire to keep Solus safe had somehow always remained.

Tatjie laughed. "You are all brainless. How do you suggest we even find anybody who knows?"

"We already do… we just have to find him," Sig responded.

"Borl," Tirela said.

Sig got up and moved to the side of the room to stare at the wall for a moment. In reality, he could see partially through it, not far enough to be beneficial yet, but he found it a good way to focus.

While the others muttered behind his back, he slowly formed a plan.

"Alright. We will go with Tirela's plan, but we will split up to cover more ground. Derin, go with Tirela. Search through the mines. Tirela is right. When we find him, we will need a massive distraction," Sig finally said, moving towards Tatjie.

"I'll go with Tatjie and see if we can find Borl or another way to locate Solus."

"Oh bile no. You ain't bringing me along for another of those vomit-inducing rides!" Tatjie growled. "Go take Derin. I'll go with Tirela."

Sig stopped, looking at her for a second before studying Derin, who just shrugged.

"Fine." Without the slightest warning, he changed into a thick cloud that filled half the room.

"We meet back here when it's night, and keep an eye out for someone who knows where Solus is kept."

Tirela nodded and moved towards a wall. Sig surged up, disappearing and taking Derin with him.

"Great, and we get to hunt underground…again!" Tatjie grumbled, moving after Tirela, who walked into a tunnel that hadn't been there before.

--

A deep howl reverberated through the enormous bone room, followed by a loud thud as an unmoving black shape slammed into the far wall.

"It's been days. Why don't you stop resisting!" Scathia hissed, staring at Solus, who sat in the middle of the invisible barrier.

"Because I don't trust you one bit!" Solus roared back, cracking his neck. Small black scorch marks covered his face and torso.

Scathia howled again, turning to a group of four black skeletons. A thick liquid oozed across their bones, constantly flowing around without moving and leaving small marks on the ground.

"You have one more day to get me his mana-core, or you will follow his example!" she spat, pointing at the unmoving shape at the other side of the room. Then she turned and stomped away, continuing her railing. "You're mana won't hold out forever! Eventually, you will be too weak to resist!"

With a last hateful glance at Solus, she exited the room.

It was quiet for a moment when a voice echoed around Solus' head.

"You should do as she says."

"Why? Because you don't want her to turn you into splinters?" he spat, glaring at his four remaining tormentors.

"No, because another rift opened up in front of the city. The Yellowplates are still managing to clear the chaos-undead, but for how long? Do you wish to be responsible for the end of this world?"

Solus didn't bother to reply but looked at the wall, gritting his teeth. A moment later, a torrent of small drops of tar-like liquid struck his skin. Wherever it hit, he felt another burn added to the canvas of agony that was his skin. They had been relentless in their attack since they arrived, stopping only to regain energy from the pile of mana-orbs that lay beside them. Solus preferred it when they were attacking because then they weren't asking him why he didn't want to save the world.

He had found that he could get even get used to pain if it lasted long enough. Dozing off, trying hard to ignore a spatter that hit his closed eyelid, he wondered if they were right. He had no good idea how to close the rifts, besides one at a time, and that was most likely not going to be fast enough. He didn't want to cease existing, but he also didn't want to be responsible for the end of the world. The problem was, he didn't trust Scathia. Somehow, he knew there was something she wasn't telling him, and it probably involved a solution that didn't involve him giving his mana-orb. Or core… why did she call it that anyway?

As the torrent of thick liquid continued, he scanned around, trying to find some way to get out of the infernal prison she had locked him away in.

--

Tirela shook her head, staring at Tatjie. "No. You need to stay in the cave," she said, pointing at a small tunnel in the wall beside her.

"Oh, come on! Why? Just because I accidentally-"

"Quiet! There was nothing accidental about what you just did. Just look at it!" Tirela pointed at the ground behind Tatjie.

Yellowplates lay everywhere, ripped apart, limbs and heads scattered throughout the small cavern. A light grey zombie with a big wad of purple hair sat in the middle, shivering, his eyes locked on them.

"Tirela, come on. I won't do it again! I just lost control a bit…" Tatjie whined, looking at the small tunnel with obvious distaste.

"That's what you said last time!" Tirella snapped.

"I promise you; it won't happen again.

After an uncertain moment, Tirela nodded, closing the tunnel behind her.

"Fine. But if you do it again, I am bringing Derin next time, and you can go with Sig on his search for where Solus is held."

"Yes! You won't regret it!" Tatjie roared, turning around and jumping towards the zombie. "Now come 'ere you!"

Tirela sighed as she watched Tatjie throttle the zombie while screaming questions about Solus in his face.

She has no self-restraint, she thought, smiling slightly at the absurdity of her thought, and how ridiculous her old companions would have found it if she said that.

As she thought back to the ragtag group she had run around with for such a long time, her shoulders sagged. Back then, she hadn't been able to appreciate what she had or let the others know how much she liked being with them. And now that she understood, it was too late. She almost wished Solus hadn't given her a better pattern, which let her realize this…almost.

She ran forward and grabbed Tatjie's fist mid-swing before it could decapitate the zombie. It had been trying to speak, but Tatjie was so hyped up that she hadn't noticed. Holding the wrist, Tirela felt the momentum lift her from her feet, and she was flung forward.

"Wha?" Tatjie rumbled as she slammed Tirela full force into the zombie. Something snapped, and then Tirela and the zombie rolled across the floor.

"Stop it! He was trying to say something!" Tirela shouted, turning to the zombie whose neck bones were sticking out of its neck. A thick stream of purplish fluid leaked out, and his eyes had rolled up in his sockets.

"... great…" Tirela sighed.

She stared at Tatjie with accusing eyes. "You just said you would calm down moments before, and now look at this! How can he answer our questions like this?"

Tatjie didn't respond, shuffling her feet.

Tirella shook her head and turned to the wall. "Never mind, let's go back. It's late. We can try again tomorrow."

Tatjie followed her quietly through the tunnels she made.

"Will you really bring Derin next time?" she finally muttered.

Tirela didn't reply, glaring ahead as she created the last remainder of the tunnel. She was so angry she couldn't even enjoy the act of shaping the stone.

"Tirela?" Tatjie whined.

"Yes," Tirela snapped before continuing. "You better hope they aren't back again today, or you can go with Sig and roam the streets to find that Borl character."

Tatjie sighed and didn't say anything.

When they arrived in the small chamber that they used as a base, they found it empty.

"I hope they stay in the city for the night," Tatjie muttered as she lay down.

Tirela ignored her and sat in the middle of the room, focusing on shaping the stone bracelets she always had with her.

--

"You're so lucky Derin didn't return yesterday!" Tirela snapped, glaring at Tatjie in a fury.

"I can't help it! They attacked me first!"

Tirela had to resist creating an opening below the other undead and locking her in the ground until she was done for the day. She looked up at the high and narrow ceiling, trying to think of a way to get Tatjie to control her raging outbursts.

Beside her, Tatjie sighed, examining the patrol of Yellowplates that lay around her in pieces. When she opened her mouth to speak, a loud stomping from a corridor on the far end of the cavern interrupted her. Her eyes gleamed, and she swirled around, raising her immense fists.

A group of three heavyset undead ran into the cavern. Thick, protruding orange veins covered almost every inch of their bodies, while a large triangular plate covered their lower arms. The point protruded beyond their clenched fists, and when they saw the destroyed Yellowplates, they stopped. Drool dripped from their thick lower lip, and they seemed confused.

One of them saw Tirela and Tatjie and stepped forward with eyes wide in surprise.

"Wa ab you don?" His garbled voice was hard to understand as if his tongue was glued to the top of his mouth.

Tatjie grinned widely, knocking her fists against each other. "Why don't I show you?" She tried to step forward, but her legs didn't move, and she fell flat on her face.

"What the-?" she growled.

Tirela just grinned, walking towards the trio of zombies. Behind her, Tatjie looked at her legs, sunken to the knee into the massive rock.

"Tirela!"

Tirela ignored the whining complaints and stopped in front of the zombie.

"Have you been above recently?" She asked, wondering for a moment how she was going to get them to tell her anything. If they even knew anything.

"Ya…" The zombie said, looking at Tatjie. "Wa wrong wi't her?"

"Nothing, she just likes staying grounded!" Tirela said with a laugh. "Say, did you hear about that big grey undead that was captured a few days ago?"

A scraping sound filled the room as the zombie scratched its chin, staring at the two others. His companions just looked at him with wide eyes, drool dripping from the points of their chins.

The smile on Tirela's face slowly turned ugly as she tried to keep it in place. "Solus? Big and grey with green hair?"

"O.. ou mean tair crusha!" One of the three shouted. A big smile spread across all three of their faces, and their heads bobbed up and down. "Tair crusha!" They roared in unison, repeating the word as if it was a great joke.

A loud crack came from behind Tirela, and a moment later, Tatjie stepped beside her. She didn't seem interested in bashing heads anymore and just gaped at the three.

"What is wrong with these knuckleheads?"

"I think they got a no-intelligence pattern," Tirela said with a frown.

"A what?"

"Never mind, I'll explain another time."

Staring at the three, Tirela tried to make sense of their words. Tair crusha… stair crusher? Remembering what Sig had said, she nodded.

"The stair crusher, yes. Where is he?"

"Tair crusha!" the three roared again, laughing and stomping their feet.

"Can I hit them now?" Tatjie asked, uncertain.

"No!" Tirela hissed.

The three continued laughing and shouting, 'tair crusha' for a bit longer before she finally got them to shut up.

"Where is he?" she asked again, this time avoiding using the word stair crusher.

"Da toweh!" one of them said, his eyebrows rising to the top of his bald head as he pointed at the ceiling. "Drippahs with im!"

Tirela resisted the urge to hit the zombie. Drippahs? She sighed as she tried to understand their half-baked words. After a moment, she shook her head. It didn't matter who was with him, at least now she knew for certain where he was!

She and Sig had feared it was where Solus must be, but they couldn't get inside to verify. Without being certain, the risk of going inside had been too big.

"What are Drippahs?" Tatjie rumbled, seeming upset that she couldn't understand.

"Drippahs!" The three roared, putting drool on their fingers and flinging it away. Some spattered on Tatjie's chest.

"What was that for?!" she roared, stepping forward, her face angry.

The three just laughed loudly, roaring Drippahs while flinging more drool and spit at them.

"Enough!" Tatjie stepped forward and struck one of the three on the chest.

"No!" Tirella groaned, already picturing the zombie struck in half.

A deep boom echoed through the cavern, followed by a grunt as the orange veined zombie looked down at the fist on its chest. His feet slid back a short distance in the ground, but that was all.

"Why hit meh..?" he said, his eyebrows lowering and forming a thick unibrow above his suddenly dimly glowing orange eyes.

"Oh mucusbreath..." Tatjie muttered as she stepped back. She wasn't fast enough, and the zombie stepped forward, his fist moving with surprising speed.

Another boom echoed through the chamber as the zombie hit Tatjie, who didn't budge an inch. Instead, she stared at her chest for a second as her eyes began glittering. With a loud laugh, she jumped forward, fists up.

Please be back next time, Derin… Tirela groaned as she jumped back.

The two other zombies jumped forward, and a loud booming resounded throughout the room as Tatjie, and the three numbskulls started slugging it out.

Wondering if she should help, Tirela didn't move when she saw the enormous grin on Tatjie's face. It dawned on her that the massively powerful Tatjie hadn't been able to fight anybody on equal grounds since Solus evolved her.

Fine, let her have her fun, she thought, leaning with her back against the wall.

The brawl lasted for a long time, and Tirela was amazed that nobody came to check what was going on. The roaring, screaming, and slamming of bodies against walls and floor should be audible far away.

It ended with Tatjie sitting atop one of the zombies and pounding his face. The other two lay in crumpled heaps on the ground, their faces battered and bruised. They were still breathing, however, a testimony to their resilience.

"I think you they are done…" Tirela said loudly, and Tatjie stopped mid-swing.

Her breathing was ragged, and she looked tired.

"Yeah," she grunted as she struggled up, taking a last look at the unconscious zombie.

"Do you think all the undead in here are this tough?"

"Of course not," Tirela said, frowning at the other. Did she get hit in the head too much?

"Those Yellow-plates went down in moments, remember? Anyway, we've been here too long, and someone is bound to come and look what happened, " Tirella continued as she walked towards the corridor from which the zombies had come. Tatjie's stumbling footsteps came after her.

"Where are we going? Let's go back and wait for the others to tell them where Solus is!" Tatjie groaned in her deep voice.

"Not yet. We've never been this far down yet. I want to find the bottom and see what they are up to," Tirela said. Tatjie followed her, grumbling about being tired, but she ignored it.

There must be a reason why they are digging here, she thought as she walked through the corridor. It was dozens of meters long and ended in a double split, two left and two right. There wasn't any movement in either. Having no idea where to go, Tirella tried listening to the vibrations in the earth. It didn't work most of the time, but sometimes she managed to get an odd feeling where to go.

After a moment of concentrating, she thought she felt something shake the earth to one side, through the top left corridor.

"This way," she said, sounding surer than she actually felt.

The corridor led to another split, and then another. Every time she tried to sense something, and she navigated to the slowly stronger earthshaking. Some of the corridors they passed seemed to double back on previous paths, while others ended in stairs leading up or down. They continued until the shaking changed to a thudding sound that even Tatjie could hear. It came from a tunnel with chairs that led down.

"This way," Tirela said, no longer sure if she could even find her way back to where they had come from. She hoped Tatjie had memorized, although it seemed unlikely.

The stairs ended in a tunnel that quickly widened and ended on a stone ramp that circled a large pit. An enormous chain of interlocking pieces of bone hung down from the top.

Tirela looked up to see where the chain went. It continued on until it disappeared in a minuscule spot of light.

Loud thumbs came from the pit.

Tirela saw Tatjie look at her with raised eyebrows, and she nodded as she lowered to her haunches. Tatjie copied her, and together they inched to the edge.

The massive chain lowered almost to the bottom of the pit and connected with four slightly thinner ones. Those on their turn were attached to a thick bone plate that lay on the ground and was partially covered with stone and rubble.

All around, standing and moving throughout the dimly lit bottom were hundreds, if not thousands of undead, digging into the ground. Clouds of stone dust swirled around and obscured much of the edges. They seemed thicker in the places where undead were hammering the stone.

Tirela felt wonder as she looked at the busy spot, with more undead in one spot than she had seen since her times in Bastion. There were skeletons, zombies, and a host of undead that reminded her of those she had seen in Bastion. Most used hands, claws, or feet, but she did spot a few using bone tools.

Of all the undead, one stood out, and she gazed at it in wonder. Twice as tall as the others and brown like the dirt, it had four legs and four arms that all ended in long, taloned claws. Small bone-chains connected its hind legs to two massive stone pillars.

Its a prisoner? Tirela thought, and she felt a wave of annoyance.

The chained undead was digging in the center of the group, and none of the others came anywhere near it. Ripping out large sections of stone, it hurled them across its shoulders onto a large pile.

A dozen small white-plated skeletons rushed from and to the center plate, skittering around to drag loose stone onto the plate.

"What are these numbskulls up to?" Tatjie whispered, her voice sounding like a stone rolling down a distant hill.

I wish I knew, Tirela thought with a frown. Putting her hands on the ground, she tried to sense something through the stone. Unlike her auditive sense, it felt like she now had an extra set of eyes that could relay what was in the ground around her, but they could only see a short distance. She could barely see below the stone where the undead were digging, and all she felt was more stone.

"I don't know," she said, pulling her hands back.

Perhaps we should grab another undead, see what they are digging for, she thought. She tried to ignore the fact that she could have asked this of the undead they had found during the last few days. Trying to locate an easy target, she saw many undead moving in and out of the dig site. They climbed up the pit's sides onto the winding ramp she and Tatjie stood on before disappearing into one of the many tunnels. Looking left and up the ramp, she saw a few undead heading down towards them. They were still far away and didn't seem to have noticed them or didn't care.

"Let's go grab those and ask what they are up to!" Tatjie said, pointing up at a group of five skeletons and mirroring Tirela's thoughts. Her previous weariness seemed to have vanished as if never there.

"Ok, but you need to promise to keep your cool! If you break them all into pieces, we can't ask them questions!" Tirela said, trying hard to resist dumping Tatjie into a pit in the ground.

"I will! I am too tired to fight," Tatjie replied as if that made up for everything.

Hoping she was talking the truth, Tirela walked up the slope. If she does something stupid again, I'll leave her here to dig for a night! she thought.

--

Staring at the dark city below him for another moment, Sig shook his head.

"Let's go back. We've been out here for three days and haven't seen or heard anything about Borl. It's as if he vanished."

Derin sat beside him, leaning against the one side of a small building. He yawned as he got up, stretching his body. "Finally! Next time I am going with the others," he groaned. "There's nothing I can do up here, and your constant carrying me around is making me dizzy."

Sig nodded and turned into a cloud. As he absorbed Derin, there was a weary sigh from the purple undead. Sig floated towards the edge of the city, passing the immense bone construction that led down to the shining white plane that stretched below. He hoped the others had gotten more luck.

Streaking down, he counted to three before stopping and gliding into the wall. Flowing through the stone for a while, it took him a while to relocate the room Tirela had made.  When he glided in, he found it empty. Only the small red orb was still softly glowing in a corner.

Reforming, Derin cursed as soon as he appeared, grabbing a wall to stop from falling over.

He, too, saw the room was empty, and he grunted at Sig. "They should be back soon. Tirela hates being out after dark."

Sig didn't reply but changed back into his cloud form. "I'll go find them." Then he flowed through the wall and away.

"Sure, and I'll stay here. Waiting. Again!" Derin sighed, sitting down with his back against the wall.

He waited for what seemed like forever before Sig rushed back in and changed to his normal form. Tirela and Tatjie appeared beside him.

"Rotbrain! I Told you to let us walk!" Tatjie cursed, then she suddenly stood straight. " I  feel sick…" she muttered before moving to the side of the cavern. Wett gagging noises came from where she stood.

"So, did you find anything?" Derin asked, staring at Tirela.

Tirela frowned and nodded, staring at him for a moment. "We know where Solus is."

"You do? Finally!" Derin jumped up in surprise while Sig turned to her.

"Scathia is holding him in the top room of that bone tower," Tirela said, quickly explaining what they had found out.

It was quiet after she fell silent, and then Sig sighed.

"That's a problem. I've scouted that place a few times, but there are hundreds of Yellowplates guarding it day and night."

"So? Go fly inside and grab him and let's get out of here!" Tatjie moaned from the side, wiping some yellow sludge from the corner of her mouth.

Sig just shook his head, and for a moment, a hopeless and angry look crossed his face. "Something is still blocking me from entering that room, remember?"

"Right... So how are we going to get him out?" Tatjie said as she stumbled back to them.

There was no answer, and Derin sat down in the chair, staring at the opposite wall. The others followed his example.

After a long time, Tirela suddenly looked up at Sig.

"You can't move through that bone, but can't you break it apart? Or bring us there, so we can do it?"

Sig gazed back at her, stunned, before jumping up and disappearing into the wall like a black streak. A soft, "I'll find out!" hung in the room.

"He could have brought us along…" Tatjie muttered before blinking and shivering as she realized what she just said. "On second thought, never mind!"