79 Migh (1/2)

Jass leaned onto her cane, “Are they the Harbingers that came?”

I raised an eyebrow, “I don’t know exactly, but why are you calling them Harbingers?”

Her eyes and nose scrunched, the wrinkles shifting on her old face, “What do you mean why? They are bringers of change. You have that aura about you as well.”

I glanced back at the tablets. My eyes narrowed. The etchings and patterns on the tablets mimicked the markings of the runes. There was no difference in how they were made, yet they held none of the world warping effects of the other runes. Picking one up, I turned to Jass,

“Do you mind if I take one of these?”

She glimpsed towards the ruins, then back towards me, “There’s no point.”

I waved the tablet at her, “I need this to figure out more about those runes.”

Jass walked over towards a chair, “I told you there’s no point because I’m going to tell you what you want to know.” She sat down,

“Those runes and ruins, Hod’s parents are the ones who created them.”

I sat down on a chair made of molded armor, a gravity well above me, and some telekinesis, “I figured.”

After glancing beneath me a few times, Jass just accepted my invisible chair and continued, “Ahem, as I said, they created them. Their tampering brought the…what did you call them?”

I opened my spacial ring, the portal looking like space as I shoved the stone tablets into them, “The sentinel and Overseer?”

She pointed at me, a quick flick of a gesture, “Yes, that’s it.” She leaned back into her chair,

“We killed the parents of Hod so that the machines would spare us. When they first came, the Eltari flourished. We had cities that touched the skies. We mastered flight, and we loved the sun as our eternal sister in the sky. Now we are trapped here, beneath the soil. I am the only one who still survives and remembers those times.”

She glanced towards a wall, staring into the distance, “I was a girl then. Our people had already discovered the language you saw within those runes. The machines didn’t take kindly to this knowledge. After they came, giant squares turned the sky red, and with this change came the toxic air. Our people breathed it in, and no matter how advanced our masks were, the poison found its way in.”

Pain leaked into her voice, “I watched our people fall apart. It took less than a dozen years before we turned to nothing but shells of our former selves. Only our small, tiny enclave survived...All due to this core.”

The pain left her voice, “Now another Harbinger has come and wishes to create another change in our world. A younger me would have fought. This older self will just ride the winds of change. Where we land is fate’s decision.”

I shook my head, “Don’t go pushing off responsibility that’s your own.” I stood up, raising a tablet in front of my face, “It won’t do you any good. Regardless, from what you just told me, Schema fucked your planet up, all because of these little scribbles. The question is why…”

Jass sighed, “I only wish I could have known. Perhaps we’d still be at our former glory.”

I shrugged, “Eh, hard to say. Schema probably did what he did for a reason. Who’s to say harmless, weird rooms were the only things the Eltari were doing after all?”

Jass nodded, “Is that why you study the markings then?”

I waved my hand back and forth, “Naw, I want to know what my armor is. I’m searching for answers.”

She grimaced, “You might not like the answers you find.”

I rolled my shoulders, a grin leaking onto my lips, “I get it. Some doors are better left unopened. Worse still, some doors can never be closed. The thing is, I have a plan for just such an occasion.”

With a biting sarcasm, she frowned, “Mind sharing it with an old seeker? I’m always looking for bits of wisdom.”

I smashed my hands together, echoing a loud clank, “I’ll beat the shit out of what’s on the other side.”

A look of profound confusion covered Jass’s face for a moment. The pause passed, and the sardonic frown snapped. Jass relished a long, hearty laugh. After wiping away a tear, she pointed her cane at me, “Now I see why you’re a Harbinger. Just remember youngling. I’m old. Whatever happens, I don’t have to live with it.” She poked my chest with her cane,

“You do.”

I stood from my invisible chair, “I’m ready for it. Knowledge is never evil anyways. It’s who uses it that matters.”

I turned outside, “Speaking of which, I’m thinking about killing a giant sandworm soon. Wish me luck.”

She rolled her eyes, “Good luck then. I hope you get eaten. Would be good to see you humbled.”

I laughed before heading out. Jass had a quiet way of handling things, just going with the flow now. Either that, or she was just giving me control of the problem. It didn’t matter to me. I knew what I needed to do now – kill a motherfucking sandworm.

With that in mind, I picked up two more tablets and closed the trapdoor. After saying goodbye and heading out, I reached up the tunnels and back into the ruins. I used my skill Knowledge Maker to do so. It let me use my photographic memory with efficiency. It took quite a bit of effort to do so, but I got to the ruins much faster than running around at random.

Once up there, I planned on taking down some crows to power level. Taking the sandworm at my current level would prove arduous, so getting a bit of a power bonus would be excellent. Before leaving, I met up with Althea for a late lunch.

We met up on the eastern side of the ruins. Beside us, a waterfall churned the water into a pool of white water and bubbles. Beside the waterfall, the ground was flat, perfect for sitting. Beside it, Althea sliced the tops off two boulders, giving us a pleasant set of seats. The ruins weren’t eerie anymore. We’d been here too long for that.

The harsh light came into the room through the beams as we enjoyed a meal of rations. Sitting on the sliced boulders, I told her about the revelations from the elder’s hidden stash. Once I hit the part where I mentioned power leveling, Althea gave me a sinister smile,

“You’re going to struggle with that.”

I raised an eyebrow, “Why?

She pointed a thumb towards herself while puffing out her chest, “Because I killed tons of those bird monsters.”

I shrugged, “I’m sure you missed a few.”

Althea shook her head, “Nope. I flew for miles and miles and miles. I’ve been killing them the whole time we’ve been here.”

I scrunched my eyebrows together, “Wait, you’re telling me…No way.”

I glanced up at her, identifying her status,

Althea Tolstoy (lvl 1143) – An unknown who sports enormous strength and damage output, Althea Tolstoy has gone missing from the clutches of Yawm. Her build’s exact specs are unknown, but she sports tremendous power in her rifle and during her transformed state. Her ability also gives her tremendous potential for creative solutions to problems. She’s a very difficult opponent for most.

Her Achilles heel is her squishiness. Her natural bulk simply isn’t optimized, so she struggles against tanky bruisers. Your current build matches up well against hers, just always be aware when you're near her. Her assassination bonuses are excellent and can make a devastating blow into a fatal one, even against your defensive specs.

I stood up from my boulder, “No fucking way. You’re over one hundred levels above me. What the fuck?”

She finished her last bite before throwing the empty tray to her side. She raised her hands, “Hahahaha! I told you that you’d have problems finding any of them left. And I mean any for like, fifty miles.”

I flopped back onto the boulder, “Fuck man. You got me with this one.”

As my ass landed on the boulder, I cleaved the rock in two before falling backwards. I raised my face and hand while the rest of me rested on the ground, “I’ll catch up yah hear?”

Althea giggled before walking up, offering a hand. She pulled me up,

“You’ll jump back in the lead after killing the Drikah anyways. I just didn’t want to fall too far behind.”