136 Rain in the Nigh (1/2)

Zoey came to a stop a short distance away from the defensive reptilian warrior, who she know knew was from a race called the Carzivore, thanks to her interface and a mental search. Max was still by her side, holding on to the hem of her poncho, and Viridi was sniffing about curiously.

”I'm a hunter, and that creature you fought was what I was hunting,” Zoey said to the warrior.

The Carzivore was still skeptical as he eyed Zoey. ”A girl, a boy, and a big cat out hunting horrors like that? With not a weapon in sight?” He shook his head in disbelief.

”I have my ways,” Zoey replied with a smile behind her mask.

The warrior sighed in exasperation and finally lowered his axe. ”Well, if you were here to kill us you would have let the creature consume us instead of killing it, so... I guess there may be some truth to what you are saying.”

He turned around to the dazed man still sitting on the ground and pulled him to his feet before turning back to Zoey.

”I need to get him to the healers, are you three sticking around?” he asked.

Zoey shrugged and nodded. She didn't know what she would find here, but Max's mother had deemed it important enough to send him to her, so she would stick around to see what she could learn.

”My name's Ssaul, I'll be a little busy but I'll come talk to you when I can,” said the big Carzivore as he pulled the dazed man back up the canyon, leaving Zoey and the others on their own.

Before Zoey followed him, she approached the smoldering remains of the corrupted that she had put down. She pulled out her blade, the Mk1 Prototype Armament and used it to poke through the remains until she found the corrupted essence stone that had been left behind. Gingerly, she picked it up and rotated it so she could inspect it.

Whatever the original color and essence of the stone was, it was completely unrecognizable now. It was a fist sized stone crisscrossed by intersecting lines of corrupted energy that sizled when she touched them with her hands. Inside the stone was a swirling mass of filth and darkness, and if you looked too long into its depths you would start to see horrifying faces that screamed out for release. It was quite disturbing.

Zoey opened her interface to the inspection window and took a look at the stone.

[ITEM: Rank 4 *##$! Essence Stone

[ELEMENTAL AFFINITY: WARNING: CORRUPTED

[HOST COMPATIBILITY: WARNING: CORRUPTED

[DESCRIPTION: Essence stone corrupted by foul energy of unknown origin. The original statistics of this essence stone have been completely destroyed by the corruption. Attempting to absorb this essence stone will result in the corruption within the stone attempting to take over the host. Purification is possible with large concentrations of pure energy.

Zoey placed it inside of her inventory with the other corrupted essence stone that she had taken from the last corrupted creature. That one had been a Rank 3 corrupted, and the essence stone description had been similar to this one. Both of them had been corrupted to the point that the origin of the essence stones were completely destroyed.

She had no intention of putting the stones to use or trying to purify them at the moment. She wanted to wait until Sethrii returned from whatever was keeping her before she attempted anything of the sort.

She put away her weapon and patted Max's head. He had been watching studiously next to her while she had worked. He couldn't see Zoey's interface, but Zoey figured that he had a general idea about what she had been doing.

Their next step was to head back up the canyon to the Asurai camp and see what they could learn. As the came to where the defence line had been the scout there eyed them suspiciously, but still let them past. Ssaul had likely told him to let them through.

They walked through the area where the warriors were resting first, and the three of them got to see first hand the terrible state that the Asurai were in. Zoey had seen a little through her drones, but that did not compare to seeing it in person.

They saw old wound's and smelled the scent of rotting flesh, missing limbs and other injuries that had not been healed. The gaunt faces, tired eyes, gear in disrepair... all of it reminded Zoey of the faint memories she had of that time...

The last days of Gaia, the last bastion of human resistance fighting against an enemy that had no end until the food ran out and the ammunition stocks were empty. Though she could not remember the names, those faces were forever seared into her mind.

Zoey's emerald eyes grew hard behind her mask. Even if the situation was different, she saw the same helpless determination in the faces of these warriors. They knew that there was no way out, yet they had something to protect. And so they stood in the path of the enemy with defiance. She found it commendable that they still had the strength to stand.