59 Creation (1/2)

I dropped from the pillar before slamming into the ground. The echo rippled through the chamber, my feet digging into the stone. I glanced up,

“What do you mean made you into what you are?”

Althea’s hands shook, like literal fear was crawling across her skin. It was like watching a war victim who couldn’t handle the sound of gunshots. I walked towards her before raising my palms to her,

“Hey, calm down. Focus. You can do this. You’re a fierce, strong woman. Not a little girl anymore. There’s no reason to be afraid.”

She closed her eyes, and sighed. Her hands steadied,

“Yeah, ok. Just, when you reached for it, it all came rushing back and I didn’t know what to do.”

Her arm turned to normal, her combat fatigues folding against the touch of her silver skinned hands,

“I uh…Don’t touch those things. If you touch them too much, then you won’t be normal anymore.”

I crossed my arms, “Alright, please give me some details. How do you know all this?”

“Because that’s what the lab put on me. They would put the uh…the energy that’s pouring off that, they would infuse that with me. After enough exposure, I wasn’t the same. I started to have nightmares, then those nightmares would come to life…You know, how my body…deforms.”

I nodded, “Yeah, so you’re scared that shit will happen to me too?”

She nodded. I shrugged, “I doubt it.”

“Why?”

I tapped my armor with a knuckle, “Because of this. It’ll just absorb the energy. Torix didn’t even tell us about this. I'm guessing he didn't want to have to negotiate with me about it.”

Althea nodded. She shook her arms for a second before raising her rifle and firing several spears at the pillar. They made a makeshift staircase.

“Use those to climb the pillar. Sorry about the freakout. Just…bad memories.”

I nodded, “Well I wouldn't apologize too much. It could definitely be a good thing for me to have a bit more fear.”

Turning towards a spot of noise, Two beetles cannibalized one of their own, fighting over the corpse. They ripped it apart as I sighed, “Besides, this place can’t be good for either of us.”

Althea raised her rifle, firing two more bolts at the beetles. The insects died while she nodded, “Yeah, let’s get out.”

I turned and jumped up the spaced-out steps that Althea made with her spears. She could control how deep her spears pierced, something I hadn't known about till just now. It gave her some useful utility in the future.

Once I reached the top of the steps, the spire of white light was blinding. The core rippled, the horns grasping for anything that dared touch it. I tried using a telekinetic tether to pull it out. My magic couldn’t even begin to get through the cloud of energy pouring around the core. Gritting my teeth, I reached out my hand, my armor smiling without me doing so as well.

When my hand touched the energy, it was cold. An icy numb that was like needles piercing deep down to your bones. The needles couldn’t get into my bones anymore though, since the bones were mostly eldritch eating armor by then. My armor began feasting on the energy, disrupting the flow of energy pouring out of the dungeon core. With a quick jolt, I shot my hand into the flow of energy and grasped the core.

The frigid numb crawled up my arm, into my shoulder, even etching a few inches up my neck. My armor caught up with the sudden flux of energy, gorging with an open appetite. A few moments later, the horns of the core scratched my armor. The core voraciously gored my hand, attempting to tear my limb to pieces. With my flesh and body being tough as it was, the core did so with a grand struggle.

The core stopped turning after a few more seconds, like gears in an engine breaking. Once my hand gripped across the whole thing, I pulled out the core. It screamed, the noise paralyzing like an ambulance’s alarm blaring right beside your ear. I kept pulling before the core ripped out. I fell backwards before catching myself with telekinesis on the pillar.

I let myself swing downwards before my feet planted into the pillar, the telekinesis supporting me like a rope. The core’s red vibrancy died down, the red giving way to black as the core of it expanded. By the time I lowered myself from the pillar, the core looked like a normal red core from any other dungeon. Well, besides for the steam and intense heat radiating from it.

Glancing up, the flow of energy radiating above destabilized. Wobbling like a guitar string, it shifted back and forth. With each vibration, the fluctuating flow turned more and more chaotic until it could no longer sustain itself. The energy snapped.

Once the energy disappeared, the roof collapsed along with the pillar. With a surprising finesse in my movements, I shot out a series of telekinetic bursts. Each wave hit boulder after boulder of rock, deflecting them away from me. Althea ran towards me, getting inside the safe zone I was creating.

A bead of sweat poured down my forehead before I barely deflected the last boulder falling on top of us. The shell of rock that made the top of the mountain was gone, piles of the blue magma pooling up in the crater. Glancing up, at the sky, a perfect square formed. It changed the red sky to rock. Another square appeared, outlined by blue energy.

Hordes of these squares appeared in sync moments later. They webbed outwards from where the beam of white light had crashed against the sky. Within seconds, a cave formed around us. The air changed in scent and flavor. It was harder, more ordered. The ground grew softer, like normal rock. Before I knew it, the giant cavern closed in, becoming a much tighter corridor.

It was surreal watching the matter warp with such ease. Althea gazed at the wonder as well, her eyes glazed over at the spectacle, just like mine. We were now in a cave, much like BloodHollow. The blue magma traveled in streams overhead and underfoot. Sheets of clear crystal let us see them, keeping the blue magma from pouring on top us.

Glow worms hung from the roof, mixing the blue light with a green glow. The transition was beautiful, like watching order crush chaos under its heel. A moment later, a finger appeared out in the center of the air. It hung on nothing before pushing downward. An almost casual rip in dimensions appeared beside us.

From it, the overseer I found talking with Torix walked out from the portal. With giant hands, the enormous figure, and with his hair made of electronic cords, he nodded,

“Impressive. I stand corrected. The lich was correct.”

Althea and I couldn’t even comprehend him. Everything happened so fast. The Overseer glanced at us,

“Excellent work, harbinger. Being able to stabilize an opened rift…impressive.”

I shook my head, clearing my head. I glanced up at the overseer,

“Uh, yeah. Of course. Glad to help…”

The overseer opened a menu screen just like ours. Instead of being blue though, it was red with glowing white outlines. It was like the edges of his menu screen were drawn in with liquid light.

“I will add this feat towards your total reward after Yawm is dealt with. You will receive Schema’s favor for clearing out the infected, killing named ones, and clearing out the opened rifts then.”

I nodded my head, my focus coming back after the initial shock subsided,

“Why wait till after I kill Yawm? I could use the rewards to help kill Yawm.”

Four other screens appeared, the overseer multitasking,

“Most of the rewards are related to galactic status and protection. They will not assist in destroying Yawm.”

“Oh.” I glanced at Althea. She kept her head low. I turned my gaze back towards the overseer, “What-“

The overseer spoke at the same time, but his voice overwhelmed mine. It wasn’t an interruption, however. It was more like whatever he had to say was obviously more important than whatever I had to say,

“That…armor of yours. It does offer quite an advantage when paired with an ambitious mentality, doesn’t it?”

For once, I wasn’t the one asking questions.

“I suppose…”

“I read up on your file. This was supposedly the creation of an eldritch…A shell for someone else that you stole?”

“Stole is a strong word I think. It’s more like I stole it from him before he stole it from someone else. A free for all if anything.”

The overseer glanced at the rock walls of the cavern. He nodded, taking his time before speaking once more,

“In time, you will become one of the many swords that Schema has at his disposal.” He glanced at Althea, “You may be as well. Keep this in mind, younglings.”

He glanced upwards at the glowing lights of the cavern’s roof,

“There’s plenty of beings that despise Schema. They believe him cruel, uncaring, and unkind. In a way, they are correct. Schema is a force of nature, like wind or rain. The question isn’t whether or not Schema is bad or good. The question is if you choose to work around him. Imagine an example of other natural forces.”

He waved a hand. A hologram appeared around us, lifelike in its detail. A valley was present with two rustic houses. On one side, the house was built out of sticks. On the other, it was made of stone. Above the stone house, a windmill spun.

“Do you see these homes?”

Althea chimed, “Yes sir.”

“Now watch as I introduce rain.”

The rain poured in a torrent. The insides of both homes appeared, a man and woman in each of them. In the stone home, no leaks or drops of water poured in. The wind battered against their house and windmill, powering their stone mill as they sat beside a warm fire. Behind their house was a well. The view of the house panned above it, showing how it was filling up.

“This home uses a well to wield the water of the rain. Their windmill is powered by the storm’s wind. They will rest easy, protected by the sturdy walls they built, in each other’s arms. The gentle crackle of the fire and the pattering of the rain of their roof will be a symphony of ease to their ears.”

The perspective melted before the other home appeared. Wind leaked in through cracks in the walls. Leaks let water pour in from every nook and cranny. With no fire, the man and woman froze, each of them balled up. They weren’t together, they were alone. Their house was built too low on the plain, at the bottom of a hill. Therefore, a portion of their house was flooded.

They shivered, alone and dirty.

“Two families given the same circumstance, yet one triumphs among adversity. The other wilts into nothing. One family took the time to work until their future was assured. The other did just enough to live. The two of you can decide if Schema is the wind keeping you cold and the rain that chills your bones.”

The image melted, showing us the warm, orange light of the fire,

“Or you turn Schema into a force that grinds the grain that you bake to bread and the rain that waters the crops you turn to plenty.”

The overseer turned to us, the hologram melting back into the backdrop of the cave surrounding us,

“How I do love telling stories. Farewell, and good hunting.”

Althea and I watched as he stepped back into the black abyss that was a tear in dimensions. As quickly as he came, he left, leaving us there.

Althea nodded, “Wow. He sounds a lot like you.”

I nodded, staring at where the overseer was, “Yeah he does…Hell yeah.”

A moment later, and another tear in dimensions appeared. Instead of a finger, a spearhead tore through this dimension. Instead of being a black abyss, the portal opened into a world of violet light. A sentinel stepped out, standing two heads taller than I. It glanced down at us as the dimensional tear closed behind it.

It slammed it’s spear, a line appearing in front of us. It spread open, revealing an area just outside of the dungeon’s entrance in the field. No longer was it a fleshy, disgusting crevice. It was an orderly set of stairs leading towards a different doorway. The sentinel pointed at this dimensional opening,

“Leave.”

Not wanting to argue, Althea and I stepped outside. The wind flowing through the stadium brushed against us. The soft feel of earth and grass pressed against our feet. The warmth of sunshine bristled against us. A series of notifications appeared in the corner of my screen. I glanced around, finding Kessiah and the guards still standing at one of the entrances to the stadium.

Kessiah put her hands on her mouth,

“Well that was fast.”

I cupped my own hands around my mouth, “How long where we gone?”

“You guys weren’t even gone for fifteen seconds. You jumped into the portal then walked out after a few seconds later.”

I lowered my hands and pursed my lips. It looked like the eldritch portal might have dilated time a bit. Like the hyperbolic time chamber or some shit.

It’s uses were no doubt interesting, but that was food for thought later. Althea and I ran towards the others, the dungeon core still in my hand. We jumped up through the stadium bleachers before reaching the others.

Kessiah grabbed me under her arm, a tattoo made of elegant lettering in a language I didn’t know creasing. Kessiah picked me up, hugging me as she said,

“See? Told yah you could handle exile. You’re gonna be fine.”

The stone beneath her cracked. She set me down,