HTG - Chapter 181

Kalon

Chapter One-Hundred-Eighty-One: Dama - Part Three

Planet: Etheria

***

Present Time

***

Something is strange, my thoughts feel muddled… I remember going through gates… we were going somewhere…

Dreams fill my mind, flashes of images, glowing golden eyes in the abyss, the very essence of my existence vibrating. There is a pull from the dreams, the images becoming blurred as I am dragged back towards the realm of reality. Soon the contents of what I have seen elude me, no matter how hard I try to grasp them, they slip away.

I hear Krotha’s voice whispering into my head now as my body stirs.

Arise Champion of the Abyss

A dripping noise near my head is the first thing my ears take in. My body aches as though it has been hammered with blunt objects. My eyes open slowly, taking in the light. I am in a cave of some kind, I can barely make it out with what wraps my head. The only light source is from a fissure in the ceiling of the cave. Water trickles down the sides of it from above, slowly dripping into puddles below. The air is thick, and there is something sticky on my skin. It takes me a moment, but I realize I am upside down. There is a small pain in my chest, and the areas surrounding it throbs dully.

What happened? Where is Arrum? Where is Kotina? My memories are a blur of images. I feel blood dripping from my head.

I try to shift my body, but whatever wraps my face also wraps my torso and legs, making it difficult to move. There is a heavy stench in the air, putrid like the smell of decomposition. My mind tries to parse what is going on, questioning where I am, how I got here, where are Arrum and Kotina… the last thing I remember, what was it?

Before I can even think further on it, I hear a loud hissing noise accompanied by some kind of vibrations that rattle the thick air. It is coming from further down the cave, echoing towards me. There is an eerie thudding of movement. The hairs on the back of my neck begin to rise as my heart beats faster, the movements are not from a person, but from a creature of some kind.

It reminds me of the Emperor Scorpions from the Colosseum, except the thudding is less abrasive and smoother in its rhythm. Sekat. It is almost here. I take a deep breath and try to find the calm as my eyes grow wider. The ends of massive, curved hairy legs jut out from the shadows, I can see thick joints that allow the legs to bend. My heart slows with the slower exhale of breath, in defiance of the fear that wishes to grip me.

The creature hisses again, the large hairy legs retracting back into the shadows, a shuffling of thuds back from where it came. There is a roar of some kind, from another creature in the distance. Now is my chance. I thrash in the sticky fibers that hold me, managing to get my arm free enough to slide down to my waist, where I have a small blade hidden inside the belt clasp. Turning the blade on the fibers, I begin to cut, they are tough, the blade barely sliding through each strand.

More noises in the distance, the loud hissing and strange vibrations again, and another roar… then a whimper.

Vek…

My hands move faster, cutting into the fibers until my arm is fully out. I cut deep, cutting some of my flesh as I move the blade downwards. There is no time to be careful, I hear the now uneven tempo of the thuds once more. The sound of something large being dragged behind the hairy-legged creature. Amon’s voice slides into my mind in a low whisper.

It is a Narok

Be still and wait for opportunity

My body grows still as it comes into view. Warm blood rolling down my cheek towards my hair. There is a deep whimpering coming from what the hairy legs drag behind it. My stomach churns as the rest of the beast comes from the shadows in the cave. In the old tongue, Narok means simply – Web Maker.

Huge, bristled hairs all over its legs plume from the joints, it has a massive abdomen that could fit six men inside it with room to spare. Each of its eight curled legs is longer than double my height. As large as the Emperor Scorpion’s were, perhaps even larger. I cannot make out its front half, it works upon that which thrashes on the ground.

The beast in its grasp weakly whimpers as the colossal Narok begins to wrap it in its web. More roars from where the Narok came from. It stops rolling the whimpering beast, hissing loudly, sending tremors into the ground by vibrating its massive body.

The blood that rolled from my cheek to my hair now falls towards the ground, striking softly in a puddle. The Narok beast freezes, then begins to slowly turn towards me, lifting up its front half. My eyes take in the horror of its existence. This creature before me is a thing of nightmares, from the hairy abdomen connects the large bent frame of a person that begins to bend upwards unnaturally, turning its gaze upon me fully now.

Grey skin with shorter bristling hairs line its man-shaped upper body, its face a demented creation that even the darkness would recoil from, eyes jut out from its forehead and cheeks, its mouth the hole in which horror itself was born. It tilts its head sideways at me unnaturally, my skin crawls as my heart begins to thud in my chest. It has an extra set of arms upon its torso, the hands extend into sharp pointed fingers that look like small spears.

Roaring from the other side of the cave echoes, and the thudding of heavy steps follows. The Narok creature hisses, its fangs dripping as it turns and moves towards the noise. Amon’s voice rises in my mind again.

Now

My hand does not wait for my mind to catch up, it slides the blade as fast as it can through the webbing which binds my body. When my other hand is free, I manage to grab another blade from my boot. Hacking and slashing in a fervor until I fall to the ground, there is pain as I stand. The gravity of this planet is a cruel mistress upon my bones. Still, I am stronger than I was before. Enough so that I can move almost as well as I normally would.

Arrum though… how will Arrum fare in such a world’s gravity? Worry threads my existence, weaving into my tapestry of pain.

I hear the beasts fighting in the distance, there is no time to think, I look around the cave seeing many bundles of webs tied in sacs strung to the ceiling. There must be something here, something I can use besides these small blades. There is a high-pitched squealing followed by a whimpering, much like the beast which lies still upon the floor, covered in web. This Narok will win, my gut tells me this. Sekat, think. My eyes adjust to the light as I look up to the fissure in the cave’s ceiling, there are vines growing at the edges of it. The fissure is small enough that the Narok won’t be able to follow. Amon’s voice comes into my head once more.

Climb

I run towards the side of the cave, grabbing at the rocky face of the cave wall. My hand pounds into the rock making a holding place for my hands and my boots. I hear the hissing of the Narok creature coming closer as I finally reach out to grasp the vine. Relief washes over me as it holds my weight. As I climb, I see the glint of something metallic in one of the bundles of webs. Blue hair coming from the holes in it, the frame of a large person tightly wrapped. There is only one person I have known with a shade of hair that color besides Lunara when she dyed it.

Kotina, I am sure of it, the size of the bundle makes it clear. I hear Krotha in my mind again, her voice not soft as she speaks loudly.

Leave them

You must survive

At any cost

The sound of battle fades in the distance, more whimpering…

***

Nine Hours Ago

***

Each time we pass through the gates I feel like there is understanding on the edge of the words that are spoken. Who were these ancients? Even the gods pay reverence to their creations. Technology that allows one to traverse the stars. The thought of it is ludicrous. When I asked Kotina how it worked, she simply shrugged and said someone tried to explain the theory to her once, except she fell asleep before the end. She said if I want to know how many drop pods can successfully latch to a hull at full speed, that’s something she’s familiar with. Even what terminal vector of entry is. Barring things that have to do with warfare and troop movements, she was never interested enough to learn it. She said they have people for that type of stuff.

I am curious how it works though. Curious to know what powers such a massive thing. Curious to know who built them, and why? Where did they go? Why did they leave?

“Runt, you look like you’re brooding again, stop it,” Kotina sighs as she walks by.

She is not wrong. There is little to do except wait, she told us that if we jump too frequently without proper dampeners, it can have… adverse effects.

Arrum has been silent, his gaze not finding mine. There is anger in him, bubbling in the way he wrings the cords of rope that hang from the wall. It was not so long ago that we clung to rope together when we descended the derelict ship. He risked his life for me that day, and many others. As I have done for him.

“This Etheria, what can you tell us about it?” I ask Kotina.

She muses it as she checks our gear for the third time, “It is unlike what you have known. It is a sacred place, older than the Imperium, older than the reign of the Kuwathi, and older still than whatever came before. I was surprised she wanted you to come here.” She turns to look at Arrum for a moment, “I was more surprised that they let him come as well. Though I suspect that fucker Dargo had some say in it. Still can’t believe they let that slaghole become an elder, such a pompous prick. Anyway he must like Arrum more than his apprentice Solara I’d wager.”

“I doubt that,” Arrum says, looking at the floor, “She is like a daughter to him.”

“I’ll admit, your mana tracing has improved since you arrived,” Kotina says, changing the subject, running her hand through her short blue hair, “But it’s still not on par with a highborn’s skill level at your age.”

“We were not taught mana tracing in the normal way, to judge Arrum by their standards would be…” I begin, but Arrum tosses a loose bolt onto the ground, like in the way he used to throw pebbles when he was thinking.

“I do not need you to defend me.”

There is a silence that hangs for a few moments, Arrum breaks it.

“I will improve, ma’am,” he says.

“See that you do,” she nods with a strangely warm smile, “Need good fighters in our house, and if you’re anything like this one,” she points at me, “We need as many as we can get.”

Arrum nods resolutely.

“Back to the question, Etheria is a blessing, and a fucking curse,” Kotina begins, sitting in her command chair, “It is both the best place to train with Etheric mana, and perhaps the worst… if you’re not careful.”

“What do you mean?” I ask.

She puzzles her brow, “Most people don’t know this, because they never come in contact with enough Etherium, but prolonged exposure to the levels that Etheria has… it can change people. Like the inverse of Krothaspawn.”

A timer beeps on her holopad.

“Right, we can talk about it after the next jump, there’s only two left,” she sighs, cracking her neck again, “Pucker up.”