NBB2 - The chaos rifts - chapter 7

When the first rays of light created long shadows through-out the room, Solus sat up. Rubbing his bleary eyes, he stretched and moved towards Domain's sphere. Anger, fear, and reluctant acceptance warred in his mind.

"Have you decided what you want to do?"

Solus put his hand on Domain before replying in a soft voice laced with anger. "Would you have taken over my body if I had let you engrave your program on my mana-field?"

"No. I can only put a small amount of my program on your mana-field, barely enough to see what you see and experience what you experience. I don't want such a half-life."

Solus had thought as much, based on what Domain had said before, but he still wasn't completely at ease. "So, why did you want to engrave something on my pattern?"

"Distrustful, are we? Well, fine. I guess I can understand that. I want to come with you, experience things beyond this confined space. Besides, if you leave me here like this, Drys won't stop bothering me!"

"Alright, and how big does the mana-field have to be for you to come along?"

"Your's will be fine."

Grinning to himself, Solus shook his head. "Probably, but you aren't allowed on. Now tell me, what is the minimum size? Would something like a Blackguard do if you override their existing patterns?"

Domain was quiet for a while before a soft sigh filled the room. "Fine. Perhaps I went about things the wrong way… Yes, something like a Blackguard will probably do, but are you sure you don't mind me taking one?"

"You are not getting a Blackguard! Wait here for a moment." Solus said before he turned around and rushed out of the room.

"Stay here, he says...?"

He could hear Domain's annoyed comment on his inability to move. It wiped away most of the remainder of his bad mood.

Solus ran down the tower stairs, ignoring the cracks that appeared from his passing. He would fix those later. Shoving the door open, he stared at the enclosed container that stood forgotten and abandoned on the square. His lips curving up again; he grabbed it and created a small opening. Six pairs of glowing red eyes glared at him, stuffed together in a hunched bundle.

"Hi there, how do you guys feel about evolution?"

Not getting or expecting a reply, he focused on the stone below him. A tentacle grew from the ground and shot through the small hole. As soon as it was wrapped around one of the Darkhunters, the opening grew, and the stone tentacle jerked the Darkhunter out moments before the opening closed again, blocking the others from escaping.

Examining the struggling, growling thing, Solus saw no semblance of intelligence in its eyes. Only uncompromising hunger. That'll do nicely!

The stone wrapped around the creature, binding its limbs close to its body, and Solus picked the bundle up. It was surprisingly heavy, something he hadn't realized while pushing the prison around the day before.

Grinning widely, he walked back inside.

--

"Are you crazy? You want to turn me into a lapdog?" Domain almost screamed the first time Solus had heard so much emotion from the AI.

Shrugging, Solus tapped the side of the Darkhunter's head, causing it to snap at his finger, a double row of triangular teeth missing his grey flesh by an inch.

"I can not give you one of the undead in my city. Those rift-undead are-"

"Chaos undead." Drys' voice interrupted him as the tall, slender undead flew in the same way he had come from.

Solus blinked, staring at the armful of mana-orbs Drys was carrying. He wanted to ask what Drys was doing with those and what he meant with chaos undead.

"I thought you would come up with something like this, although I imagined you would have brought a Wyrm."

"A WYRM?" Domain snapped, disbelieving, and fear obvious in his voice.

Solus ignored the sphere, ponding for a second as the idea of a sentient wyrm that he could ride around played through his mind. Then he shook his head sadly. Domain was unlikely to act as he wanted if he had a wyrm. Besides, those probably had immense mana-fields, and that meant Domain would be even more dangerous. No, having him in a small vessel would suit Solus much better. He turned to the sphere.

"So, how about it?"

Domain was quiet for such a long time that Solus almost thought he wouldn't reply, but eventually, a ray of blue light struck the Darkhunter between its eyes, causing it to yelp. A milky-white mana-field shimmered into existence, reddish lines running around in odd, chaotic patterns.

"He is too weak. The mana-field would need to almost double in size before I can engrave the minimal program on it."

Solus hadn't expected anything else, and he grabbed two of the mana-orbs Drys was carrying. Holding them in front of the Darkhunters nose made it alert and sniffed before it snapped forward, trying to get to the orb. Solus instinctively held his hand flat, not bothered by the teeth, and the Darkhunter gobbled the sphere up in a single bite.

It's sleek grey body convulsed, and the mana-field disappeared. With a sudden jerk, its body grew a bit, and then everything was quiet. A moment later, it jerked again, growing another bit, while hair lines appeared in the stone that bound it.

Solus sat down on the ground, waiting patiently for the thing to evolve, curious what it would turn into.

Roughly twenty bursts of growth later, the Darkhunter's eyes shot open again, and it tried to break free. It had grown almost half as large again as it was before, easily coming to Solus' waist now. Not much else had changed, though. It was still black, sleek, and with red eyes that promised it would ravage them if it got free.

"Try again?"

The blue beam shot from Domain, who had been silent all the while. The mana-field that appeared was almost twice as large as the previous one, and a soft sigh came from Domain.

"So, that should be fine then?" Solus said, grinning at Drys, who had a mock smile around the corners of his thin lips.

"Yes. But you better help me get a better body as soon as possible. This is just degrading."

"We will," Solus said, feeling a lot less sure than he sounded. "So, how long until you are ready?"

"A few hours. I'll be ready to go in the middle of the day somewhere, " Domain said, before intense beams of light began shooting at the mana-field, wiping away lines wherever they touched them.

Solus shivered as he looked at it. If Domain could do that to him, he would have no chance at all. Turning to Drys, he pointed at the door, and the two-headed out of the room and down the stairs.

"Do you trust Domain?" Drys asked when they were halfway down the tower.

"No. But it is the only thing we know with that kind of information, and we need it. This world is getting more dangerous by the second, and we need those patterns." Solus continued down without stopping.

"Did you improve the pattern?"

"Not all of it, but I've shown the bonemenders what to do, and they are now working on completing it."

Arriving at the bottom floor, Solus took another look at the hole that led to the caverns below Skulltown. He focused, and the stone of the hole shrunk until it vanished, leaving only a slightly less dusty spot on the floor. The entire tunnel down did the same thing, turning back to solid rock, similar to the rest below his tower. If he had to leave for an extended time, leaving it open would be too dangerous. He moved outside, onto the quiet and desolate square.

There were usually undead roaming around at this time, either to speak with Drys or with one of the bonemenders who usually congregated in the buildings around the square.

"How many losses did we have…?" Solus muttered as he spread his senses to feel the tremblings of undead walking around. He barely sensed any. Only far out, at the edges of the city, were thousands of padded feed moving around.

Drys didn't respond but walked towards the outer area of the city. His head was turning around as if he was looking for something.

Solus quickly caught up. "Drys?"

"I don't know. Some of the undead were almost as strong as Skull and Vingria, and they rampaged like crazy. At first, the undead resisted, which made things worse."

~~

The shade looked at the two dangerous ones as they moved through the city from its vantage point on the highest stone building in the area.

It was annoyed, something it didn't remember being before. A whole night spent in the place with the tablets of squiggly lines, and it was none the wiser what to do. Without knowledge of what they did, it dare not inscribe anything on its pattern. What it needed was the ability to watch others and learn.

No, it would stay close to the dangerous ones, observe them, and when they inscribed the patterns, it would learn. Gazing down, its eyes following every minute movement, it floated from the building to the next as fast as it could so it wouldn't be spotted in the open.

~~

Solus and Drys quietly continued through the city. After a few streets, they came across the first group of undead, a trio of brawny zombies with long black hair tied behind their back. As soon as they saw Solus, they rushed forward, looks of relief on their white puckered faces.

One of them had a large rip across the white plates that covered her chest, while the corners of her mouth were ripped open, stepped so close she almost touched Solus. "Solus! Is everything fine now? Did you end those enemies?"

A wave of an odd feeling surged through Solus. He had felt it a few times before, usually when he was close to fleshy female undead. Drys had said it was the initial reaction that might grow into what the undead with multiple evolutions were experiencing. So far, it hadn't yet, and Solus wasn't interested in experiencing it either way. Stepping back, he ignored the question.

"What are the three of you doing here?"

One of them, a bit taller than the others and with one empty eye socket, almost squealed and began hopping up and down. "It's because it's because…" she began jittering incoherently until the last one slapped her up the head, causing her to shut up.

"Will the two of you be quiet? He will think something broke when we evolved!" Staring at the other two down, who slowly backed off while looking at the ground, she finally turned to Solus.

"We are here to find two others. When those mindless ones popped up and tore everything apart, we got split up. The last time we saw them, they were running this way."

Solus inspected the last of the zombie. She had an intelligent look in her eyes as she spoke with him and acted a lot less jittery than most. Although obviously a zombie, she seemed to have a good handle on her emotions, better than any zombie he had seen so far, really.

"Alright. There might be more of those… Chaos undead roaming around, so be careful."

The intelligent zombie turned about to leave when Drys stepped forward. "Wait. What are your name and pattern?"

The zombie looked surprised at the question but answered without a hitch. "The others call me Lezli, and I have the zombie Invoker pattern." At the last part, she raised her chin a bit, a proud smile on her lips.

Solus knew she was proud of her pattern, and she had a right to be. It took a lot of mana-orbs to be allowed to pick one of the better evolutions, and most undead in the city never got that far.

Drys just nodded after taking one more look at her, and then he turned to Solus. "We need to hurry. There are too many things left to do."

Solus turned on his heel and moved off in the direction of the school building. "Be careful out here, Lezli!"

The three zombies began muttering between each other before they were out of earshot. Solus didn't pay any attention, though. His mind was whirring as an idea formed.

Two streets further, they found another few undead skeletons moving with obvious purpose and didn't stop when they saw Solus and Drys. Soon more and more undead began moving around, and when they were almost at the school, the city almost had a semblance of normality.

Stepping between two towering bone buildings, Solus stopped as he stared at the school. Drys walked a few steps further before noticing he had stopped.

"What's wrong?"

"I want you to change all the undead you think can help into the strongest forms we have. Give them any pattern they can use… wait, not the one Silt had."

Drys stared at him with raised eyebrows, but realization quickly formed, and he grimaced. "I should have thought of that. If more of that chaos undead show up, we will need more defenders. I'll take care of it…"

Solus felt reassured, although he also knew it meant Drys would have to stay behind. He couldn't come, which meant he had to do most of it himself again.

Across the square, they moved towards the school. The guards that had been there the previous night were gone now, only a few of the stronger undead hovering around the square.

"Why did we come here, anyway?" Drys asked, but he stopped when Solus stepped in the building and called out.

"Basil, where are you?" His deep voice caused the building to vibrate a little, and dust fell from the stone ceiling on the many tables and benches that filled the spacious room. Before the rumbling of his voice could dissipate, an incredibly muscular undead rushed out of a building at the end of the room.

"Well, if it isn't the big man himself! Solus, it's good to see you back here. I hope you are going to stay for a while this time?" The undead stomped forward, stopping in front of Solus and looking up a bit with a grin on his face. He gripped Solus' shoulder, squeezing it and Solus' copied him, making sure not to pulverize the other's flesh.

Such an odd custom…  Solus thought before turning his attention on the undead in front of him.

"Sumil left a recruit with you, a red-eyed one?"

Ared-eyeds words, Drys gasped and stepped forward. "A red eyed one? Where did you find that?"

Remembering the situation at the bone forest, Solus laughed. "I brought him from Uran's place. His searchers had just found him."

Basil watched the two, waiting for them to fall silent before scraping his throat with a disgusting wet sound. "Solus, I'll get the one you are talking about right away. He calls himself Samus now, and he should be in the pillar room, absorbing energy. An interesting one that, almost as fast at learning things as Derin was. He is already ready to evolve, a record if you ask me." As he continued talking, Basil moved to one of the side entrances and disappeared into the depths of the building.

"Samus?" Drys said with a grin and a shake of his head. "Seems you left an impression!"

Solus ignored him and looked around the room; he hadn't been here that many times and the large room had changed since he was last here. The main area was still filled with bone and stone tables and benches, but the room also had two stairs leading to a slightly elevated area. The area there was dominated by an enormous bar behind which hung pieces of wyrm flesh. Names were carved in the side of the bar, with numbers behind them. Solus knew about the custom, although this was the first time he saw the bar. The numbers were the amount of new awoken the hunting-parties had brought back.

Solus smiled as he examined the rest of the school building, the many halls that led away to different chambers. How far this little scheme of Drys had come!

It had started out as an experiment to quickly increase the awareness of the new arrivals while showing them their options and increasing the overall power of Skulltown. After the enormous battle that had ended half the undead in the city, it had been closed while the remaining undead of Skulltown had actively searched for new awoken, quickly bolstering their numbers. However, searching around for more undead was a tedious job, and most of the new undead felt little desire to go back out with the danger of running into a wyrm or something else that would end them. Especially the skeletons, most without emotions, had little desire for anything, and many just sat around unless attacked. This left the more evolved undead to continue getting more undead, and they quickly grew tired of it. Soon, only a handful of undead continued searching.

Knowing they needed more undead in case another army came to them, either Sigmitons or other, Drys and Solus had tried coming up with a solution. Finally, a few months after the battle, Drys had come up with a plan. He had reinstated the school, but besides teaching the new undead things about patterns and mana-fields, they had also been told a simple thing. After they were done learning, they would get one handful of mana-orbs with which they could either grow stronger or pay for staying in Skulltown and using its facilities. If they wanted to stay in the city, enjoy the safety of its walls, the company of others, or the battle-inn, they would have to earn more mana-orbs.

It hadn't taken too long for the new undead to get used to the idea, and within another month, hunting parties were again actively setting out. Now the school was more than just a place skeletons were told how to speak. It was also the place they could bring new awoken and get paid in mana-orbs, find more undead to bolster their parties, and gloat about their recent successes.

Loud stomping from the hallway snapped Solus awake as Basil stomped back inside. Behind him followed a simple skeleton, red eye-sockets glowing brightly as he stared at Solus and Drys.

"Right, Samus. You know Solus already. The tall one is Drys." Basil stepped to the side, making no indication of leaving and grinning as he stared at Solus.

The skeleton was quiet as he stood before the others; dwarfed by their size he didn't show any signs of fear.

Solus stepped closer, lowering his head a bit to stare in the red eye-sockets. "Samus, I will be leaving soon to take off some things. While I am away, Drys will take care of you, teaching you things. Currently, we are in dire need of highly evolved undead, so you are getting a chance that not a lot of undead get."

"Not interested." A soft voice echoed around Solus and Drys as the skeleton shook his head.

A stunned silence caused the noise from the city around them to become more noticeable.

Solus wasn't sure what to say, the reaction something he hadn't ever anticipated. As he tried to think of a response, Drys snorted and stepped forward. "And why not?"

"I want to decide for myself what to do. I want to look around the city and find out what is out there beyond it."

Drys snorted again, louder than the first time. "What's out there is dangerous. If you go as you are now, you won't get far before you are eaten by a Wyrm or hunted by a Darkhunter and end up as someone's mana-orb."

"Still not interested," Samus said before turning and walking back to the hallway he came from.

Solus' temper flared up, and he was about to step after the other when Drys raised and arm to bar his path.

"Leave him be. You go do what you have to do, and I will see if I can't change his mind. In the end, having someone here who doesn't want to be here might be more dangerous than having too few people." Drys said before turning to Basil. "If he leaves, let me know and have him followed."

The large undead nodded. The smile had vanished from his face, and he was shuffling his feet. "Sure, sure. Sorry about this, Solus. I had no idea, or I would have warned you beforehand…"

Solus turned and walked out of the building as he replied. "It's alright, Basil. Just do what Drys said."

As he stepped out of the school, Solus looked around the square, not sure what to do. He had planned on getting Drys acquainted with Samus and leaving them to figure things out, then going back to Domain to see how far he was.

"Let's go and see if Vingria and Norg are back at the battle-inn."