NBB2 - The Chaos Rifts - chapter 21

Solus frowned as he reached the wall of the city. He had imagined Skulltown being the largest of the cities of undead around. Even Uran hadn't been able to create something as magnificent. But now?

Glaring at the three towers holding up the immense skull, he had to resist the temptation to remove the stone it stood on and see it crumble. Not only was this city larger and more densely populated. It even had an immense skull! Grumbling, he barely noticed the two hulking white zombie guards that jumped in front of him.

"Where do you think you're going?" one of them hissed, glaring up at Solus.

Looking forward, Solus finally noticed the gatehouse and the two guards. He had drifted off in his imagination of creating an even larger skull back in Skulltown.

"What?" he said, frowning at the undead.

"Stop acting stupid! Either pay a mana-orb or go to the mines!"

"I don't have a mana-orb now. I'll get you one later, now get out of my way."

The two zombies grinned, and one of them stepped forward, grasping at Solus. His hand clamped around Solus' lower arm, and he made a motion as if to drag him away. Nothing happened.

"Let go," Solus rumbled, uncertain of what was happening. He didn't want to cause a fuss when he just got here, but he wasn't going to let some random undead drag him away either.

"Stop resisting, or we will bring the Yellowplates!" the zombie shouted, his muscles bulging as he tried moving Solus with two arms.

Feeling his body move a fraction, Solus grunted. In one fluid motion, he stepped forward and struck the zombie on its chest. A loud boom preceded the zombie streaking through the tunnel towards the odd square buildings in the distance. Halfway there, he came to a skidding halt and remained unmoving on the ground.

The second zombie looked at Solus with large, fearful eyes.

"That was a mistake!"

Solus just walked past him, about to run forward when he thought of something. Turning, he glared at the zombie.

"Where can I find Scathia?"

The guard gasped and pointed towards the higher part of the city with a shaking finger.

"I-In the middle of the city is a staircase. Follow it up, and you will find her… but you will regret it!"

Solus snorted and ran out of the tunnel, leaving a boom and a startled cry in his wake.

I am already regretting it, he thought. His original reason for coming here was to hear how to close rifts, but he could do that already. He feared Scathia would tell him the same reason he has already discovered, which just wasn't a viable way to close more than a handful. His last hope was that she also knew how to prevent them from showing up at all, and not just around Skulltown.

He shot past the downed guard that lay in a crumpled, bleeding heap on the ground and rushed through a narrow between two square buildings. Glancing inside, he saw undead locked away and slowed down until he was walking.

The undead he saw sat, staring at the door with an intense desire—some were fidgetting, others were perfectly still. The image made him growl, and without thinking it through, he acted. Stone tendrils shot from the ground and yanked the bone-doors out of their sockets.

He didn't wait to see what the undead would do, just thinking of the time when Grinder had locked away the other undead of Skulltown long ago. Dashing towards the chaotic city paths, he suddenly stopped.

What if those locked-up undead were evil like Silt?

He resisted the urge to turn around and close them back up. It might be a good distraction if something happened, and otherwise, he would deal with it later. He just wanted to find Scathia now, get the information he needed, find the others, and head back to Skulltown. For some reason, he had a bad feeling about what was going on there.

Slowing down, he stared at the city. Dozens if not hundreds of small alleys and staircases led away into what resembled a city squished together by a giant, leaving barely any room to wiggle through.

Something moved in the corner of his eye, and he saw a yellow zombie march into the city.

As good a way as any, Solus thought, and he followed the yellow zombie into a small corridor between two buildings. Another building was built atop, effectively closing the top and creating a roofed passage.

"Wait," Solus said, projecting his voice beside the zombie.

Jumping up, the zombie turned and fell on his ass.

"No! I can explain! I had some luck and got three orbs last time- I'll go back out tomorrow."

Rambling, it pushed itself backward before looking up.

"Wait… you're no guard!"

Solus grinned. The zombie's extreme reaction reminded him of when he was still one. He lowered down to his haunches beside the wide-eyed zombie.

"I am not a guard," he said, shaking his head. The zombie reminded him of Norg long ago, and he grabbed its shoulder while trying to be as amiably as he could.

"Now, you seem to know where you're going. I need to get to Scathia."

The zombie blinked, then it's muddy yellow eyes shrunk, and a gleam appeared.

"I can take you there, valued customer… however, not for free!"

Feeling his green hairs stand on end, Solus looked wide-eyed at the zombie.

Did that thing just say, customer?

His mind began spinning. Had Domain followed him and arrived before him? No, that made no sense. Did they have Spheres? Perhaps they all had status-windows here? None of what he imagined would be good for him. With a deep growl, he grabbed the zombie around the throat, lifting it with him as he stood.

"How do you know that word?"

The zombie clutched its throat, trying to answer but incapable. Finally, it seemed to realize it couldn't talk like this, and a projected voice appeared beside Solus' head, panicked and afraid.

"Please, let me go!"

"The word!"

"What word?"

"Customer!" Solus hissed, holding back so he wouldn't snap the other's neck.

"Borl, - Borl taught us!"

Blinking, Solus shook his head. He had never heard that name before. Was Domain using another name? Borl didn't seem like a name for a sphere. He couldn't believe there was a random undead here who knew these words. That left only Domain, who was still missing. If he could find him here, that might alleviate some of his fears of what was going on in Skulltown.

"Show me where Borl is!"

Scathia would have to wait for a bit.  The prospect of getting his hands on Domain made him squeeze his hands, and a yelp came from the undead.

"Yes, yes! I will, but let me go before you end me on accident!"

Solus glared at the pudgy undead before opening his hand and dropping it on the floor. The undead scrambled backward before getting up and rubbing its neck.

"Move!" Solus commanded, his voice rumbling so low that the buildings around him shuddered.

"Sure, sure! This way, valued-"

The zombie fell silent when he saw Solus' glare. He turned around, heading towards a small staircase between two protruding buildings. At the top was a narrow pathway left and right, and Solus barely fit.

Trying to suppress his annoyance, Solus grabbed the undead's shoulder.

"Make sure I can fit through before running off!"

The zombie nodded, examining Solus' broad shoulders.

"It will become wider soon," he said with a fearful look, then turned left, squeezing into the narrow path.

The path crossed a wider one, still narrower than Solus liked, and he grumbled as he followed the zombie.

After they went down two stairs, through one building, and down another three stairs, they arrived at a wide street. Solus could feel that they were below the ground now, and as he spread his senses, he found out that half of the city was actually below ground. It meant Tendraal was even bigger than he initially imagined.

When I get back, I will make Skulltown larger.

As he stomped after the zombie, deeper into the depths of the city, it became darker. Soon the only light he could see was a reddish haze that came from the street corner in the distance. When they arrived, he stared in wonder at a red orb held in a skeletal hand attached to a crooked arm that seemed to grow straight from the building's bone wall.

Examining it, Solus felt a minute wave of mana emulate from it.

Wait, isn't this like the devourer, he thought, thinking about the odd pillar that was now in the school in Skulltown.

He frowned, Domain forgotten for a moment as he stared at the small red orb. Now that he sensed it, he realized there was a field of mana spread throughout the city. He hadn't felt it before because it was so weak it paled compared to his mana regeneration.

"What is this?" He asked, stopping the zombie midstep.

The undead looked at him in disbelief, only answering when Solus' face darkened.

"Those are, Satri, the giving orbs! Scathia used to make those and place them throughout the city. It is one of the reasons everybody tries to stay here. Just by being in the lower city, you will become stronger. Although it's slower than absorbing orbs, it's much safer."

"Are they only in the lower city?" Solus asked, curious.

The undead was quick in suppressing its surprise this time.

"No- they are also a few in the center of the city. But most people don't like coming down here..."

"Why not?"

"They get lost."

Solus grinned, not the least bit surprised.

He motioned the other to continue as he thought of the devourer. Could he create more things like that? He would have to discuss it with Drys when he got back.

With Solus close behind, the zombie continued further down until they were almost so low, Solus didn't feel any more layers below. It was gloomy and quiet in this part of the city, Satri orbs the only light source, few and far between. The ceilings were also lower, and when they went down another staircase, he felt his hairs touch the smooth bone.

To his surprise, no rock was around; the entire city, even this deep, still made up solely of bone. What also made him curious was the fact that the deeper they went, the older everything seemed. It was almost as if the city had started deep underground and slowly grown up.

As he moved further in, the anger he had felt above disappeared. Clear of mind, he suddenly remembered his odd emotional outbursts back in Skulltown. Was there one of those Kaots in the city? More than one? It made sense, but why did they make him so angry?

"We are there!"

The zombie's whisper interrupted Solus' train of thought. He looked up and saw the zombie was pointing at a large double door inside one of the walls. They stood in a narrow passage, the doors the only opening. He could hear movement and yelling and laughing voices from inside. A

Solus pointed at the zombie. "You go first."

Almost seeming relieved, the zombie nodded and walked to the door. Without knocking, he pushed both open and stepped inside. Red light streamed out and with it a multitude of voices. Frowning, Solus followed the other.

The door led onto a small balcony with two stairs leading down on either end. The zombie rushed down the right staircase. Satri orbs decorated a bone railing below which a large room lay sprawled, divided into three different areas. Tables and chairs filled the section closest to the entrance, and yellow-green and purple zombies sat around the tables, talking loudly.  Separated by a low bone wall, an enormous bar filled the next section. It split the crowded room in two and served as the division to the last area.

A group of purple zombies with black hairs and pink glowing eyes stood behind the counter. They accepted orbs and other things Solus hadn't seen before from the zombies that crowded the bar. In return, the purple zombies handed small objects back, and Solus tried to make out what they were.

One of the zombies, a mottled yellow with green, accepted something and began cheering, raising his hands in the air. Some of the others around him pounded him on the back as he ran off towards a corner table. From what he could see, Solus thought it was part of a wyrm.

"What is this place?" Solus muttered.

Something rushed through the room below, and he saw the yellow zombie rush between the tables below, heading towards a small door in the bar. At least he thought it was the same one. It was hard to say amidst the multitude of similar ones was because it was the only one that ran.

The zombie yanked open the door in the bar that led to the third and smallest section, with only a few low and wide benches in the middle. Tables stood against the walls, cluttered with orbs and other things. On one of the benches lay yet another yellow zombie together with two of the purple ones. They held his hand, their hands glowing pink.

Why are they all so similar? Solus thought while moving down the stairs. He had a feeling that whoever Borl was, it wasn't some alias for Domain.

As he walked through the room, the only non-zombie anywhere, the undead began to take notice. Starting with the tables he passed, a hushed silence began spreading through the room. Within moments all eyes were on him.

Wondering if there would be trouble, he reached the door in the bar. The zombie had closed it again, and from behind it, he heard some low mutters and an angry voice followed by a slap. Grinning, he pulled the door open.

The yellow zombie he had followed here lay on the ground. Yellow pus trickled from the side of his mouth, and a quickly growing bruise covered his left cheek. The other zombie, almost identical save for his bulbous, protruding eyes, glared at the downed zombie. The two purple zombies, one male and one female, stayed on the couch. Their hands had stopped glowing, and they looked at Solus with wide eyes and a fearful look.

Solus stepped into the room, and the large, heavyset zombie looked up.  He took a quick look around the tables, and his eyes widened when he saw the stacks of manaorbs lying below them. Those he had seen on top from the entrance were just a paltry few compared to those. A quick estimate told him there were more there than he had ever seen in one single place.

One table stood apart from the others. A piece of what looked like wyrm hide was pulled tight across it, and on top lay a much larger orb.

A wyrm-orb! Solus thought. He knew there were almost certainly other undead in Tendraal that could hunt wyrms, but somehow he had to think off Sig and the others.

"Don't even think about it! I don't know who you are or why you had Ettol bring you here, but that orb is my price!" Borl said in a high pitched voice, stepping between Solus and the orb.

Solus focused on the other. "Borl?" He asked, lowering his voice.

"Yes, Borl the magnificent. And who are you?"

After a moment's hesitation, Solus shrugged.

"Solus. I am here to ask how you know the words you do."

Borl's eyes grew wide, and he stepped back in shock. "The leader of Skulltown? Yes, yes. That makes sense. What brings you to my humble home?"

The way Borl spoke triggered long-buried knowledge to pop up, and Solus shook his head as he scrutinized the yellow zombie.

"You talk differently from the others. Why?"

The zombie didn't respond immediately, staring at Solus for a while. Then he turned to the others and pointed at the door. "Leave, I need to speak with my friend here."

Ettol scrambled up first, rushing out of the room without looking back. The two purple-skinned undead got up slower, and the woman looked at Solus with an unreadable expression. As she moved past Borl, her hand brushed his arm in passing. Borl's eyes widened a fraction, and then the two purple zombies left the door, closing it behind them.

"Alright, let's sit down. No sense in standing around, is there?" Not waiting for a response, he returned to the low bone bench.

Solus moved to the opposite one, sitting down carefully. The bench creaked, cracks running through the bone all along its length. For a precarious moment it seemed ready to shatter, but then the cracking stopped.

"Weighty fellow aren't you," Borl said, making a sound Solus had never heard before. Another set of concepts flowed into him.

He whistled!

"That! How do you know those things?" Solus said, pointing at Borl with curiosity and wonder.

Borl smiled, his eyes bulging out even more as his cheeks wrinkled. "I can tell you, but I am just as interested in how you know!"

Solus frowned. He had no interest in a question for a question. If the other wasn't going to answer him, should he make him?.

"Hey, calm down now! No reason to get angry."

Borl's voice rose in pitch as he backed up against the back of the bench.

"Let's answer your question first. We can get to mine after."

Solus calmed down, staring at the other and waiting for him to continue.

Getting no reply, Borl scraped his throat and laughed.

"I've been here for a very, very long time. Ever since Scathia woke up and started awakening the rest."

Solus just glared at the other, wondering if he was going to get one of the stories Norg used to tell. Long-winded and circumventing the actual point.

"Right… You must have heard that Scathia isn't… like others?"

When Solus shook his head, the other continued with a grimace.

"Alright, then bare with me for a moment. I promise I'll get to the point soon enough."

With a soft sigh, Solus resigned himself to his faith and nodded. "Fine."

Borl laughed.

"That's the spirit! So, as I was saying, Scathia is not like others. You've heard of the ancients?"

Solus nodded, and the other sighed in relief.

"Good, that will save a ton of time. So, the ancients were alive, and they used undead, which would be us, as slaves. Still with me?"

Solus' full attention was now on the other, his desire to get to the point abated. "Yes. They called us minions."

"Err... I didn't know that, but it makes sense. Either way, some horrible thing happened, and they all had to flee. We don't really know what but-"

"Life-energy disappeared from this galaxy, causing the death of every living thing," Solus interrupted.

Borl's eyes widened, and he swallowed. "Perhaps I should let you do the talking…"

"Continue," Solus said, starting to enjoy himself.

"Right, well, they left. But before they did, they got rid of all their undead minions. Nobody knows exactly why, but…" Borl let his words trail off, staring at Solus in expectancy.

"I don't know either," Solus said with a shrug.

"Ah, that's too bad. Oh well, I guess that mystery must remain for a while then!" Laughing softly, Borl seemed to be lost in thought. A soft throat scrape of Solus caused him to jump and continue.

"Anway, the ancients weren't as thorough as they thought. They missed one undead who was locked away in a vault."

"Scathia," Solus said after a second.

"Indeed. Scathia. Long ago, her summoner meant for her to become a Litch, whatever that exactly means, and placed her in stasis. He died or disappeared before he could carry out his plans, and when the ancients left, Scathia was forgotten, left behind to weather the ages."

Solus frowned. The ancients hadn't just left her behind. From what he knew, Uran was from the same period. If there were two, there could be more. He wondered how many more undead from the original age remained, locked away or buried somewhere, waiting to cause trouble.

"As time went by, the power source that held her in stasis weakened, and eventually, it stopped. When Scathia woke, she was all alone, buried deep under the ground."

Borl laughed and pointed below them. "Not too far from here, actually! She didn't know what had happened at first, but the grade one AI in her room explained everything to her"

Solus blinked. Grade one?

"Grade one is the lowest right?"

Borl coughed a few times before smiling weakly. "Errr, yes. But even grade one AIs can be brilliant, you know!"

When Solus didn't respond, it sighed.

"Either way, the AI explained to her what had happened as best he could."

Borl looked at a wall, his face drawn.

"Scathia took it badly. Before she went into stasis, her summoner had told her she would wake a Litch. Instead, she woke in an empty, desolate world without a goal or task."

"As did we all…" Solus said, slightly annoyed. Somehow he wondered how his simple question had started the whole birth of Scathia. If he didn't need to go to her soon and might need any advantage he could get, he would have told Borl to hurry up.

"Yes, yes, that is true! But have you ever seen the grandiose machinations of the ancients like Scathia did? Their towering cities, beautifully cultivated parks- green and verdant? The blue sea, filled with life and movement."

The words created images in Solus' mind, and he shivered as he let them pass by, drinking in the beautiful and colorful landscapes. Especially the trees and plants caused a yearning in him. Shaking it away, he grimaced at Borl.

"Scathia is an undead. Why care for any of those trees?"

"Err, yes, no… well." Borl sputtered, finally scraping his throat and smiling sadly.

"She didn't care for those things. But she felt aimless and alone. As she just sat there, the AI kept scanning and eventually detected soft noises in the earth nearby. Scathia was so happy, and she dug her way through the partially collapsed auxiliary power room into a huge cavern."

Solus stared at the zombie, marveling at the complicated and unfamiliar words it was spouting. As he continued speaking, Borl's way of speech had changed. His choice of becoming more sophisticated and refined. They also reminded him of someone else, Domain. Focusing, he found the stone below the bone of the room and readied it. Then he continued listening, ready for anything.

Borl didn't seem to notice, and he almost seemed lost in his story.

"In the cavern were strange undead. Mindless and weak. Only capable of moving in packs, constantly searching for something that wasn't there. Scathia grabbed one and brought it back. With the AI's help, she examined it, but all they could determine was that it was a subset of undead.

Without any pattern on their rudimentary mana-fields, they weren't even capable of speech. With some experimentation, we managed to add a simple stabilizing pattern, and the undead changed. It became sentient in a way, conscious and with much training, capable of speech."

"We?" Solus growled, interrupting the other.

"Yes," Borl said, apparently not the least bit deterred. "We! You asked about me, remember? But let me continue? I don't get many chances to tell this story."

This is not Domain, Solus thought. The knowledge didn't alleviate his growing worry, and he kept his guard up. He nodded.

"Yes? Good! As I was going to say. Scathia was incredibly happy and began awakening more and more of the rudimentary undead that she called Sigmitons. Soon she needed more room, and she had them burrow away to the surface. That took a very long time, but she was undeterred, simply continuing waking up more Sigmitons and turning them into regular undead. She never accepted the AI's ideas of evolving them. She said she wanted them to start small and learn by themselves."

A sad sigh came from Borl, and his bulbous eyes looked off in the distance.

"As she prepared to leave for the surface, the AI knew it would be left behind. Scathia didn't much care for it, just using it as a tool as the ancients had."

Borl stared at Solus, an intelligent spark in his eyes. "I knew, if I wanted to get out of that tomb, I needed to do it myself. But as you said so astutely, I was only a grade one AI. Barely conscious, to be honest. Back then, Scathia wasn't that fast in changing the Sigmitons, so she still used me to speed up the process. Sometimes, this process failed, and a Sigmiton would break down. At first, I didn't know why, but eventually, I determined it had to do with the amount of power used during the process."

Although still weary, Solus felt his curiosity growing, and when he heard about the energy, he couldn't hold it.

"Yes! I've found that too. With too much force, they simply shatter."

A soft gasp came from Borl, and his eyes widened. "You can evolve sigmitons too?"

Solus was about to explain when he remembered why he had come here. Taking a deep breath, he shook his head. "Later. First continue your story!"

The yellow zombie eyes behind which an ancient AI lived gazed at him for a while. Then Borl nodded. "Yes, fine. But we are almost ready either way. Have you realized that some undead are different from others?"

Solus nodded.

"Well, I've never managed to find out why, but some undead are simply more powerful. It might be because they formed earlier and had more time to absorb mana energy, but that is just guessing. However, shortly before Scathia was to leave, she brought me another batch of Sigmitons, and amongst them was an odd one. The only one I had seen until then with a golden discoloration of the mana that leaks from its eye sockets. Its manafield was also incredibly sturdy, capable of withstanding fastly more punishment. After giving it a pattern, I used a small overload and knocked it unconscious before it could form a true consciousness. Then I hid it below the piles of bones that littered my core room and waited."

The zombie's face morphed, anger flaring up.

"Scathia didn't even come to say goodbye. I'd watched over her still form for untold millennia, only surviving due to a jerry-rigged geothermal energy generator."

Borl hissed at the ground.

"Back then, it didn't anger me, you know? Grade one and two ai's don't have emotions. No… the anger came after!"

Rising his yellow, pudgy hand to stare at, Borl grinned. "After she left, I inscribed my programming onto the skeletons manafield. It could barely hold even a fraction, and I had to leave so much of my databases behind… but as soon as I opened my eyes the first time, I knew! The emotions, the feelings, the sensations, and the simple act of moving around!"

Borl laughed softly now, letting out a content sigh. "I couldn't evolve my body at first. I had to follow Scathia, and she couldn't know who I was. If I evolved, she would know something was wrong, and I knew she would not let me go. She would keep me like a slave. So I followed her as one of her initial followers and watched. Watched as she evolved herself, then evolve a few of the others. Watched as she began what would one day be Tendraal. Watched when she left the city to be built by others as she searched for more undead to bring. With the others, I stayed behind, waiting, biding my time."

Borl fell silent, staring at Solus with a grin. "Now you know why I know what I do and why I talk differently!"

"Why did you tell me all of this…" Solus asked. He had been wondering for a while now why Borl seemed willing to share all this information. No matter if he wanted to hear it.

"Easy. You are from Skulltown, the only other city in this part of the world that has a chance to weather the coming storm. I want you to take my friends and me with you when you leave."

Staring silently at Borl, Solus was confused. "And why would I bring you with me?"

Borl grinned, his bulbous eyes widening. "Because I can help you track down the other AI!"

"How do you know about that?" Solus hissed, pushing himself up. He had not told Borl anything about Domain.

"The same way I know you are here to find a way to close those rifts."

Solus stepped forward, towering over the other. "Explain. Fast."

Borl swallowed, his smile faltering.

"Those two undead who just left? They can read minds…"

"They what?!" An image of someone rummaging through his mind caused a wave of fear and anger to surge through Solus. Did that mean they knew about the world elemental in the core of the planet?

"Now, now! Don't lose your head! They don't harm anybody…"

Solus lowered his head, his eyebrows raised. They read his mind, but they meant no harm? A soft growl reverberated through the room.

Borl spoke rapidly now, the smugness from before replaced by fear. "They do it automatically. They read the disturbances in the mana around them and relay what they find to me. Eorkie showed me a bit about Skulltown and what you are here for…"

Taking a deep breath, Solus tried to calm himself. After a few moments, his anger abated, turning to a slight annoyance. Confused at how rapidly his emotions came back under control, he took a second deep breath and sat back down. If they knew about the world elemental, there was nothing he could do about it but end them. But if they came to Skulltown, he could easily keep them under control.

"Keep them out of my mind!" He said before sitting back down.

Borl slumped back on the bench. "These emotions are sometimes way more than I bargained for," he muttered. "Fine, let's discuss how to get the things we need and get my friends and me out of here without alerting Scathia."

Curious what the other had in mind, Solus leaned back.