NBB2 - The Chaos Rifts - chapter 20

An odd undead lay sprawled across one of the chairs in the hall of patterns, following Drys with his green eyes as the other paced through the room. A host of tall stone and bone tablets filled the room, each with a pattern.

"Why are you so nervous? We haven't found a single rift or Kaots in days!" A deep, booming voice came from the undead, belying its thin green upper body. Two arms, each wider than the undead's torso, hung from the sides of the chair. He was slowly tapping the ground with his massive green knuckles.

"I know, Enthrill. But something is off."

"Are you still worried about those missing mana-orbs? If you want, I can head out and bring some more."

"No, and no. The loss isn't the problem. The problem is the fact that somebody managed to sneak inside and take them without anybody noticing."

"Sig could have done it easily."

Drys frowned, his sharp grey face growing even more angular. "Or someone with similar powers… I've locked that pattern away for a long time, with good reason. Sig is the only one I gave it to, and the only other one who could inscribe it is Solus."

Footsteps echoed up from a winding bone staircase in the middle of the room, and Drys swirled around. A group of three thin zombies, each carrying a book, ran into the room.

"Three libra zombies…" Entrhil whispered softly, seeming a bit awed.

"You've evolved! Great!" Drys stepped forward, and the thin, lithe zombies held out their books. Taking one, he removed a page, putting it inside his bone chest plate.

"Alright, divide the pages between the guard towers," Drys said.

He turned to Enthrill, who was staring at him with a querying look.

"Follow them, and send out some fast scouts to the towers inside the hills and between us and the other cities. Make sure every tower has a page."

He hadn't even finished when Enthril got up from the chair and walked after the disappearing Libra zombies. At the top of the staircase, Enthrill turned.

"I thought you had lost the Libra pattern after the battle of Solus?"

"I had, but that AI, Domain gave me something handy. There will soon be many new patterns in the hall."

"I don't trust that thing… something about it is off," Entrhill said as he turned and ambled awkwardly down the stairs. His hands dragged behind him on the ground, thudding every time they fell down a stair.

Drys moved to an empty bone tablet, as tall as him and twice as wide. Picking up a wyrm tooth, he stood staring at the tablet for a while.

"Neither do I…" he muttered finally, before starting to draw lines in quick, fluid succession.

--

A thin, blue-glowing skeleton rushed along a narrow path. The glow from within its plated ribcage illuminated the darkness around it. To its left lay a vast, dense forest of bone, while on its right was a large ravine. The stone edges, cracked and crumbling, had reached the side of the forest a little ahead.

The skeleton slowed to a walk before, then stopped.

"Ah, so I still need to traverse yonder forest? So be it!" Domain's soft laugh followed the voice, quickly increasing in volume until it was high pitched and crazed. None of the usually calm and collected self showed as Domains voice changed in pitch at odd moments.

The skeleton dodged nimbly through the forest, leaping across snapped bone branches and jumping across small fissures. Its bones cast their blue light on the white trees, turning them blue. After a few minutes, it stopped when a black rift blocked its path.

"Finally!"

Laughter echoed through the forest, stopping abruptly when Domain rushed through the rift.

On the other side of the rift, the skeleton dashed out onto a vast yellow desert. Taking a look around, it screamed.

"No, no! Wrong, all wrong!" Turning, it jumped back through the rift, landing back in the white bone forest.

"I will find the right one. I know I will!"

Another insane burst of laughter cackled through the forest as the skeleton rushed off.

--

Galg stood in front of the stone gates that led into Skulltown.

"Let me in!" He shouted, his voice echoing up the wall.

A black skeleton guard looked down. It had glowing green eye sockets and mismatched dull grey plates across its skull.

"Who are you."

The guards' voices drifted around Galg's head, and the skeleton snorted.

"Galg, one of Derin's party of wyrm hunters! Now let me in," he projected at the bottom of the wall, not bothering to send his voice up. It echoed around him and should be audible beyond the walls.

After a short moment, the guard's voice returned.

"Wait."

"Bah, run all day and night, and what do you get? Still have to wait at the gate…" Galg growled.

It took a long time before the door finally opened. A squad of white plated skeletons led by a Blackguard stepped between the doors and blocked his path.

Galg walked forward, muttering to himself. He stopped in front of the Blackguard, stopping mid-sentence.

"Stupid, stupid every- What is it?"

The Blackguard stared down at the Galg before turning to the others behind him.

"He is who he says he is."

A soft voice came from one of the white plated skeletons.

"I've seen him before, with Tatjie. I'd recognize those strange blue cracks of light anywhere."

"See? No need to be bothersome!" Galg said as he stepped around the Blackguard. A black plated hand on his shoulder stopped him.

"You are odd."

The Blackguard's voice sounded dull and emotionless, but it pulled Galg back. The dark eye sockets inspected Galg before the guard spoke again.

"Go to your quarters or room. There might still be Kaots in the city."

Galg nodded in annoyance, and the other released him.

"Well, thanks. I'll be off then!" Galg spat. His body disappeared with a buzz, reappearing a dozen meters away close to an alley. Then it disappeared again.

Like a bolt, Galg zipped through the quiet streets. Only a few plate-covered, evolved skeletons moved about, and he didn't pay them any attention.

"Go find Drys Galg, do this Galg, do that Galg. Bah!" he muttered.

When he arrived at the city center faster than most undead could ever hope to achieve, he saw the buildings were unlit.

"Perhaps he's sleeping?" Galg muttered.

He strolled up to the door of the largest and second most important building in the city. Drys' residence. Or lordly manner as Galg liked to call it. Striking the door for a while didn't get any reaction, and he shrugged.

"Well, they can't say I didn't try. Now it's time for some me-time!"

Turning around, Galg walked away, humming an oddly disjointed tune. Neither the action nor the song had been heard on the planet in a very long time. Enjoying this knowledge, he didn't see the gleaming red eyes that stared at him from one of the nearby building roofs.

--

Solus rose from his position, overseeing the forest of stone. The rising sun basked the grey forest in its red light, shadows growing longer. Taking a last look around, he jumped from the tower. Air whistling around his head, and he quickly formed a stone pillar below him. Although crumbling right away, it cushioned his blow so he wouldn't blast apart the nearby trees.

As he was still too high, he summoned another, only to crush it also. After four pillars, he landed on the forest ground amidst the trees.

He marveled at how much denser and chaotic the forest was, compared to looking at it from the top of the tower. Looking around his creation, noting the detail on the small leaves, he smiled as he felt happy. After drinking in the view for a while, he ran towards where the sun was rising.

He tried to dodge between the trees at first, but it slowed him down so much that he just ran in a straight line. Crashing through the trees, he carved a straight line through the forest. It pained him to destroy what he had just created, but he worried about Sig and the others.

The sun was yellow when he reached the forest's edge. Running out and a good distance onto the wasteland, he stopped to look back. Behind him, the forest spanned from left to right as far as he could see. Remembering the need for watchtowers, he focused. A stone tower grew beside the forest. As tall as the one in the middle, it didn't have any glittering stones, but the walls were as dense as he could make them. Looking up at the top and then around the empty wasteland, he felt like creating more.

"Can't now… but I'll come back someday," he mumbled.

As he turned his back to the forest and began speeding across the wasteland, images grew in his mind—small stone towns of his creation that littered the wasteland, filled with undead.

After a moment of savoring the image, a realization came. That would only happen if he could stop the rift. A bout of anger mixed with despair, so intense it caused his muscles to cramp, made him stumble.

He barely managed to hold out his hands as he crashed against the ground, drawing a skidding trench through the top layer of the wasteland. In disbelief at what had just happened, he lay there, almost overwhelmed by the sudden and intense emotions.

Shaking his head, he tried to clear it of the chaotic emotions, but they raged on for a good while longer until they went away as suddenly as they came,  leaving him shaken.

Scanning his surroundings, both with his eyes and other senses, he tried to find the reason for what had just happened. There were some soft wyrm-tremors far in the distance, and he felt a great disturbance ahead of him, but those were all too far.

When he couldn't find anything, he got up and oriented himself.

I need to speak to Drys about this, he thought, wishing he could share his worries.

Slower this time, he resumed his journey, focusing not only on what was going on around him but also on his own emotions.

Soon he could feel clearly what was going on ahead of him. The pounding and stomping were becoming more and more detailed. His stone-sense had grown so much clearer that he could picture the scene in his mind. Hundreds of things, stomping around, jumping, and leaping.

There was a battle raging ahead!

Thinking of joining them, Solus prepared for the surge of battle rage, ready to hold it at bay lest it causes another breakdown. Instead, his mind stayed calm and tranquil.

Where was his battle rage, the surging, hungering emotions that he always had at the prospect of fighting?

After a moment of confused contemplation, he tried to fan the flames himself, imagining tearing off heads and slamming undead through the ground. His mind stayed calm, and although a good thing compared to what had happened only just before, it somehow annoyed him. He had always enjoyed the surge of emotions that forced him to smash heads. Something had changed since his recent evolution, something besides increases in his strength and skills.

Feeling a growing uncertainty, he ran forward. Perhaps watching the battle would trigger his familiar battle fury and return some semblance of normalcy.

The closer he got, the clearer the picture became. With just his eyes, he could see dust clouds and small specs running around in the distance. Flashes of light, mostly red and purple, were followed by far off thunderous explosions.

Carefully searching his mind, he found none of the familiar hunger for battle or desire to test himself.

When he was so close that he could make out the physical details of the group of undead, he noticed something hidden further away. The dust partially obscured it, and it took a moment for him to recognize it.

RIFT!

A surging rage accompanied the word, and with a desire to destroy, wipe-away the dangerous gate to another world.

For a moment, he thought it was the battle rage at last, but then he realized it was something else. Instead of a desire to fight, all that was there was non-descript hate for the black, red-edged rift, and underlying this was fear.

With all his effort, he reigned in the anger down, resisting the urge to rush forward as he tried to understand the cause of the fear. It felt as if something buried in his mind warned him of horrible things, but without images or clarity. After a moment, he stopped attempting to unearth the reason and continued forward.

Rushing forward, he wondered about both the power of his emotions and his ability to hold them at bay. He focused on the two fighting groups. The largest group were Kaots, fighting without plan or teamwork. Screaming, biting, and clawing, they just raced forward, swarming around a small barrier surrounding a group of skeletons. Every time they struck the barrier, a red flash shone bright, and one of the Kaots was blasted away.

The crumpled heaps on the ground showed they didn't seem to understand or realize they were the cause of their own demise. Their behavior reminded Solus of Sigmitons. Behind them, more popped out of the rift all the time, mindlessly running after the others.

This is what Tirella saw, Solus knew, and the idea of it happening in front of Skulltown made him frown in worry.

He focused on the other group. Only made up of skeletons, for a moment, Solus thought they might be from Uran's city. Then he realized none of Uran's undead fought this coordinated. Grey boned, with yellow plates covering their lower bodies and lower arms, they numbered only a few dozen.

A ring of defenders stood, almost touching the barrier. They had their hands locked with their neighbors, and the yellow plates covering their arms glowed a bright yellow. In the middle stood a small group, tightly packed together and also holding hands. They were staring at each other, and in their midst was a crackling ball of red energy.

As Solus slowed down, watching in amazement, he saw a red burst of lightning shoot from the ball and strike one of the Kaots. The purple, long-haired zombie disintegrated on the spot.

Solus stayed put, carefully observing what was happening and resisting his urge to destroy the rift. One reason was that he had no idea how he should destroy the barrier in the first place.

Counting the Kaots and watching the barrier only slightly weaken with every attack, he knew that the skeletons would have won if not for the constant influx of Kaots arriving through the portal.

After a while, he realized the fight would last for a long time, and he became curious why he began to get the feeling he needed to go to the rift. Circling the fight, he headed towards the rift with the intent of seeing what would happen.

"You! Can you assist?"

A soft voice spoke beside his head as he was almost at the rift.

Solus ignored the voice. His anger was growing as he got closer to the rift, and he was starting to lose control. The rift was half again as tall as him and twice as wide. Two steps away, his mana throbbed and buckled, trying to do something.

Before he realized what was going on, two undead jumped through the portal, landing within touching distance of him. In a reflex he punched with both his arms. One fist connected, and the struck undead was hurtled back through the rift. The other undead gracefully ducked below the blow. It was a fleshy undead, thin and with long many-jointed bone limbs growing from his back. With a piercing scream, it attacked Solus.

Solus didn't manage to react in time, and one of the limbs hit his chest. He blinked. It had felt like someone gently tapping him. Unfazed, he was about to attack when the four bone limbs moved so fast he only saw a blur heading for his face. At the last moment, he closed his eyes, and sharp stabs hit his eyelids and face.

A twitch of fear made him jump a good distance back. Opening his eyes a crack, he saw the undead rush after him, the bone limbs rushing toward his eyes again. He focused, and a stone hand shot from the ground, grabbing the undead around its waist and stopping it mid-air. It began howling and flailing, striking the stone. Small bits flew off, and cracks appeared. Keeping his distance, Solus summoned more hands while increasing the density of the one already there. At the same time, he tightened the grip. He barely noticed any effort during the whole process, but he was having more and more trouble keeping his anger at the rift under controll.

Another group of undead burst from the rift and Solus growled, forming and grabbing them with more stone hands. As soon as the hands caught one, they threw their catch back through the rift. Furious now, he stepped towards the still struggling undead and struck it on the side of its head. The bald, wrinkled head ripped from the neck, bits of flesh flying everywhere as the head sailed through the air, bouncing a few times before lying still.

Releasing the now unmoving body, Solus quickly closed the gap to the rift. A dozen hands were still grabbing undead and flinging them back, but some dodged around them, rushing towards him. With the roiling emotions that demanded he somehow close the rift, the added annoyance infuriated him, and finally, he couldn't hold it anymore.

Drawing a deep breath, he roared at them.

"Get lost!"

A massive cone of warped air and ripples stretched from his mouth. Undead, dust and his own stone-arms blasted apart, almost turning to dust. Tiny pieces of bone, flesh, and stone flung back through the rift. A hushed silence fell as he stared at the destruction.

That's new, Solus thought before his surging emotions urged him to head to the rift.

This time he reached it before any more undead could come out, and he was about to examine the rift when he felt a surge from deep inside. Before he could stop it, his mana-field popped into existence, covering the portal and a vast stretch of the terrain around him. His new racial pattern began fluctuating, the lines glowing and dampening.

Shocked, he felt mana drain away, while at the same time, the rift began shrinking. It wasn't a large rift to begin with, only just large enough for two undead to jump from at the same time, but within moments it was so small only one could squeeze through.

Under Solus' curious gaze, the rift rapidly shrunk further until only a small dot remained. He expected it to disappear, but instead, it remained. The mana-drain ramped up, and he was about to try and stop it when the small dot exploded.

Dust, undead body parts, and stone were all blasted away, leaving a small crater behind.

Solus blinked in surprise. Besides forcing him a step back, the blast did not harm to him. Still, the last drain had been so intense he shivered. There was no sign of the rift anymore, but he knew already this wouldn't be a good way to rid himself of many. It was far too dangerous.

After a second, a quick succession of zaps and screams came from behind, and Solus swirled around. The remaining Kaots lay on the ground, some groaning while others started crawling back up. The skeletons below the now greatly weakened barrier released their hands. Still glowing, they began shooting small red bursts of energy at the stunned Kaots.

Within moments the thorough yellow plates had decimated the Kaots. When the last changed to a scarred, shivering shape, the yellow plated undead turned to Solus.

One of the skeletons in the middle, barely distinguishable from the others, stepped forward.

"Thank you for your assistance. Now, who are you?"

Solus recognized the same emotionless voice as the one who had asked for his assistance before. About to answer, Solus he. He had no idea who these undead were, but he had an idea where they might come from.

"Are you from Tendraal?" he asked.

An unheard message passed between the skeletons. They grasped each other's hands in a single fluid motion, and with a woosh, the barrier reappeared. The group in the middle raised their hands towards Solus, crackling red energy appearing.

So much for gratitude, Solus thought with a frown.

"Last time. Where are you from?"

Although still emotionless, Solus thought he could make out a threat in the voice this time. He also wondered why the question had changed.

Shrugging, Solus stepped forward, raising his hands.

"I'm from Tendraal, and-"

"You lie."

Red energy shot forward, too fast to dodge, but Solus had anticipated the action.  A thick wall shot up from the ground in front of him as he remained where he was, focusing intensely. The wall shattered to pieces, but at the same time, a thicker wall of stone surged up and surrounded the barrier. Red energy crashed into it, and he could feel the stone cracking slowly. He frowned and made the stone denser. Only at three times its normal density did the stone hold.

Solus waited, slightly amused and wondering if the skeleton would give up. Should he end them if they didn't? He would prefer some information.

The attacks stopped after a while, but a loud crackling came from inside the stone-walled area. He wondered what they were up to when he remembered how the skeletons had created a single big ball of energy.

Something exploded against the inside of the stone wall, and a tear cracked open along the entire length. Feeling the stone about to give, Solus groaned. Why couldn't things ever be easy?

"Stop that. I am not trying to end you, but if you do that again, I will," Solus said, project his voice inside the walls and getting ready to drop the entire lot of them into a bottomless pit.

The crackling increased for a second before dispersing.

"You are not a Kaot Lord?" The voice echoed from above the wall.

Kaot lord?

"Do I look like one? Those just attack you without talking!" Solus shot back, annoyed.

"Not the Lords. Release us. We will stop."

Solus frowned. Could he trust them? Probably not.

After a moment, he prepared a deep pit below the area before withdrawing the wall.

The glowing barrier was gone, but the skeletons stood grouped close, staring at him.

"Are you Solus?"

The question caught him by surprise, and Solus mechanically nodded. All but one of the skeletons sprang forward, their Yellowplates glowing. Startled, he created stone hands, but the nimble skeletons dodged them, moving faster as the glow increased.

"Stop it!" he shouted, opening the pit. Only the slowest two skeletons dropped inside. The rest rushed his way. A soft, keening noise grew in intensity as the first of the skeletons reached him.

A crackling came from their yellow plates as red lightning suffused them. Before Solus was within striking range, the nearest skeleton connected the yellow plates together and disintegrated in a flash of red energy. The energy exploded out, striking into Solus and causing him to take a step back. His skin tingled, a burning pain coming from some places. At that moment, the other skeletons reached him, and with a yelp, Solus removed the rock below his feet, falling into the ground.

He closed the opening just when an immense explosion rang from above, shaking the ground. The opening managed to closer, but some of the energy struck him, propelling him down faster. He could sense the stone above him disintegrate, and he continued down. When the shaking stopped, crashing into the bottom. He looked up and swallowed. That had been too close.

Did they end themselves? Willingly?

He couldn't even imagine why any undead would do such a thing. After a second, he remembered the last skeleton that hadn't run forward.

Surging up even faster than he had fallen, Solus erupted from the ground inside an enormous crater. A small spec was running away in the distance. Taking a last look around, he saw that the remains of the Kaots had almost disappeared. Just some limbs, bones, and segments of flesh remained.

Only the head he had struck from the Kaots neck still lay far to the side, beside a small hill. Grabbing it, he ran after the fleeing skeleton. Cracking the skull open, he found another of the black mana-orbs. Like the first one he had seen, it gave him a feeling of distaste. Sighing, he closed his hand around it. With some effort, it exploded inside his hand and blew the dust away before turning his full attention to catching up to the skeleton.

The skeleton wasn't that fast, but just when Solus was close enough to grab him, he stayed his hand.

Wait...

This thing was running back to where he came from, and from the direction they were heading, it should be back to Scathia!

Solus slowed his step, staying just a bit behind the undead. The skeleton either didn't notice or didn't care, continuing its escape as fast as it seemed capable.

When the sun reached its highest point, something appeared on the horizon. Solus inspected it, waiting until he saw the towering peaks and immense walls. Then he increased his pace, quickly catching up and grabbing hold of the undead. He had planned ahead during his run, and before the undead could try and explode, stone tendrils burst from the ground and bound his arms. Stretched out, and dangling from the ground, the skeleton fidget for a bit before hanging silently in his bonds.

"Let's try this again. That city is Tendraal?"

The skeleton didn't reply, and Solus sighed. Something was definitely wrong with these undead. Asking a few more questions and getting no response, he stopped. Now what? Should he just end him? Somehow it seemed wrong, but like the other things that had changed since his aberrant evolution, he couldn't explain to himself why.

After a moment's hesitation, he created a stone cell and flung the skeleton inside. Staring at the still bound skeleton, which glared at him, he shrugged. The stone prison closed and slid below the wasteland floor. Only a small, less dusty patch remained. Solus turned to the city in the distance. He would release the skeleton after he was done.

As he increased his pace, inspecting the city, he wondered how he was going to find Sig and the others.