NBB3 - chapter 25: Denial of service

Solus stopped talking, and it remained quiet in the dusty room as the undead gazed at him. He was lying on the table, his head on his paws, and the others stood or sat in a half-circle around him. Drys was looking a little better while two piles of dust lay below the armrests of his bone chair. Two new mana-orbs glowed dimly in his hands. Sig sat beside him, in a similar position, and the table with mana-orbs behind them showed a massive dent in the middle.

Tirella sighed and shook her head. "You won't like what is out there," she said as she looked up at the grey dust ceiling of the room. "I don't have any of those connections you talked about, so all I could do was float around."

Solus saw how her eyes narrowed and she clenched her jaw.

"I've been in the blackness around the world," she finally said as she got up and walked to the window.

It was pitch black outside, the pale green light of the lanterns on the walls outside not reaching the top of the tower as she looked up into the night sky. The weak light from the nebula was blurry.

"There is an enormous Kaot-lord there, moving towards us," she whispered.

A gasp came from Sig, but Tirella didn't show a reaction as she pointed at the green and blue nebula that were visible in the night sky.

"That's a large cloud of different types of mana, swirling upon itself. It drifted in at some point, followed by massive undead. They move around and through it, absorbing the mana. They look a bit like wyrms, but bigger and with fins."

Tirella turned to Solus and frowned. "They look like whales… have you seen images of those?"

The word caused a wave of images to play through Solus' head, and he nodded after a moment. "Big grey things that lived in the sea?"

"Yes," Tirella said.

The rest just looked at them in confusion, although Drys frowned after a while, and his eyes widened.

"There are Kaot lords there, hunting those things, and one of them is moving towards us. I think that's the pressure you are feeling."

"How close is it?" Drys asked as he pushed himself to the edge of his seat.

"Four weeks, maybe a bit more," Tirella said, causing a confused frown to form on Drys' face.

"Weeks?" he muttered.

"Seven days in a row," Solus said, jumping off the table and moving beside Tirella. His head reached her chest, but she didn't pet him again. Glad for it, he looked at the nebula. The thin atmosphere made them much easier to see than he knew from the images.

"We won't be able to stop it," he muttered, looking up at her. "Our bodies won't be ready in time."

"How powerful do you think it is?" Drys asked as he looked at Tirella. "The same as those Kaot lords that came through the portals?"

Tirella barked a laugh and shook her head. "No, those were tiny in comparison. These are far more powerful. I don't think any of you can stop it."

Drys grunted and moved towards the machine. "We need to get another mana-core," he said, turning to Solus. "We need to find a way to make this work."

"What if we can't?" Solus said, looking dubiously at the machine. "We can't risk all on that contraption. And worse, I wonder if any of you will be strong enough to stop that thing even if you evolve another time!"

Drys stared blankly at the machine for a while, then began pacing through the room. After a long time, he sighed and looked up. "There is one other way...."

Solus shook his head in surprise, wondering why Drys only mentioned that now.

"What?" he asked.

Drys continued passing, his legs swinging aggressively as he did. "We didn't close all the portals."

Solus hissed as he moved away from the window while looking at the long grey undead. Anger rose sharply.

"What? Did these changes damage your brain? You know what is-" Solus stopped mid-sentence as he realized what was beyond the portals.

"Exactly," Drys said. "There are Kaot-lords on the other side, Kaot-lords with mana-core's in their head. Enough for not one, but perhaps many of us, to evolve. If one of us isn't strong enough..."

"You won't make it," Tirella snapped angrily. "None of you have been through those portals. You have no idea how dangerous the other planets can be! Some are invested with hordes of kaots that are churning mass of carnage, while others have flying Kaot Lords roaming the skies, ready to drop on anything that exits a portal."

Everyone was looking at her, Drys having stopped moving.

"Well..." he finally said.

"Wait! You've been through a portal?" Solus shouted.

"Not me," Drys said. "But when we found out the problem, the AI suggested going through to find a world with weaker Kaot Lords so we can get mana-cores. We had closed most of the portals by then, but after some searching, we found some we had missed. One of them is hidden in a small cave in the north hills, far beyond the city. The others are deep in the caverns below the city, and the last are far out in the wasteland. There are likely more, as we didn't travel further than a few days."

"Who did you send inside?" Solus asked curiously.

Drys looked at him, and Solus saw a glimmer of fear in his eyes. "Vingria and… Norg."

"You what?" Solus snapped as a deep growl echoed through the room, drowning out what anybody else might have said.

Solus glared at Drys. Of all the undead he knew, Norg was his oldest friend and the one he had gone through most of his early un-life with. Besides that, he clearly remembered when Norg and Vingria had battled the Kaot Lord when the rifts began going crazy, and it hadn't ended well. Those two were far too weak to battle kaot lords.

"We had no choice!" Drys said. "We tried sending some of the others through, but they never returned. Besides, Vingria was bored and causing trouble! So when she came to me and said she was going through, I didn't think it a bad idea."

"And Norg wouldn't let her go alone," Solus added angrily. "Tell me what happened!"

Drys nodded, sagging back in his bone chair.

"We sent them through one of the portals in the wasteland, and they returned within a few minutes covered in cuts and bruises. They said there was a violent Kaot Lord on the other side, attacking them with tentacles, so we closed that portal. Although they were hurt, they wanted to try again, and they continued through more portals unsuccessfully, and we closed them. Eventually, we reached that portal north of the city, and they were gone for a long time. When they finally returned, they had a large Kaot Orb with them, one with sharp edges. The AI called it a pseudo-mana-core."

Solus found himself turn curious the more he heard, slowly forgetting about the dangers. Long ago, he had played with the idea of exploring the other sides of the portals before, and part of him was… jealous? He savored the uncommon emotion for a moment before turning his attention back to Drys.

"So, what are they doing now?"

Drys frowned as he began pacing again. "That's the problem. I've been so busy that I haven't had a chance to keep track. The last message said that they were almost always on the other side of the portal, tracking some Kaot Lord."

Solus moved to a table and jumped back on as he thought. He wanted to find Norg and help, but then there wouldn't be anyone to try and make the mana-core here. Besides, his current body wasn't strong enough, and a quick look at Tirella showed she wasn't either. As he looked at her, an idea began to play in his mind. What if they tried to control the flow of the mana together? Perhaps that would make it more doable?

"I'll go and help Norg and Vingria."

Sig's voice caused Solus to look up at his friend. He was still draining mana-orbs, but he looked better than he had before.

"That might be a good idea," Drys said. "You are more powerful than anyone here, and you can easily escape situations none of us can."

Solus agreed with Drys, but he had just saved Sig from his tomb. The idea of him setting out again this soon, when he wasn't even fully healed, irked him.

"But first, I need wyrm orbs," Sig said as he waved the small mana-orb around. "These aren't helping me enough."

Drys nodded and walked to the exit, hanging down the staircase. Solus' ears picked up his projected voice at the bottom of the stairs.

"Bring me all of the wyrm orbs we have left!"

"That reminds me, there is one more option," Tirella exclaimed suddenly.

Beside her, Greggor surged up at her sudden shout, looking around and noticing everyone staring at him. He quietly returned to his chair, looking at the ground between his feet.

Tirella grinned, then turned to Solus. "Wasn't there a big wyrm somewhere?"

"You are right, but it's too far," Solus said with a shake of his head. "Sig might make it there fast enough, but he can't end that wyrm alone and..."

He fell quiet as he recalled the moment he had awoken. Laron had been talking with the massive Wyrm, and something about that had snapped him awake.

It took him a moment to recall, but then he rose to his feet, standing on the table. He had recognized the voice of the Wyrm!

He growled softly as he dumbly stared at the window. How could he have forgotten this? That Wyrm had sounded like the AI in the sphere that had given him his first status pattern. What if it was that AI? Perhaps it could help!

"Solus?"

Drys' voice snapped him out of it, and he looked up to see the grey undead stand before him, waving with his hands.

"What is wrong?" the grey undead asked worriedly.

Solus forced himself to relax. "That Wyrm isn't just a Wyrm," he said as he turned to Tirella. "It can speak, and it speaks as those AI do!"

"So it was true…" Drys whispered in stunned surprise.

Solus looked up in disbelief. "You knew?"

Drys began pacing again. "A few years after you left, a rumor started spreading about an AI that had taken over a Wyrm's body. Some undead drifted in from deep in the wasteland, having never been to Skulltown spoke of a Giant Wyrm that ate the others and sometimes helped undead. Borl and the others went out to find it, but they never managed. They experimented with the idea themselves, going as far as to capture a wyrm, but failed. The AI mind that attempted it turned feral."

Solus nodded as he listened, able to understand most of what Drys said. However, he saw Greggor and Sig stare at Drys with their mouths open.

"Borl said it only T2 or higher AI might be able to do that, and the only one of those we know is Domain," Drys finished.

"Did they find out why it turned feral?" Solus asked.

"Borl and Sam both agreed that it is likely that a Wyrm has too low of intelligence, making its mana-field unsuited to house an AI program. Based on the experiment, they said that an AI would lose any intelligence they had. They wouldn't even be able to speak. Most of what concluded matched with the final result."

"This one spoke," Solus said. "And it sounded highly intelligent."

Dyrs stopped and looked out of the window. "Then we need to find and talk to it. If that AI can do that, perhaps it knows of a way to create a mana-core."

Solus jumped from the table and moved back to the window, looking outside. "Now, we just need a way to get there in time."

Nobody spoke for a while.

"I could go," Tirella finally said, breaking the silence. "I can leave this body here and try and get a new body when I get there."

Solus looked at her, slightly angry. That would make the second of his friends to leave within moments after he found them. He hadn't even had a chance to talk to her yet. Then he recalled his previous idea and shook his head.

"I need your help with the machine," he said. "Together, we should be able to control the mana flows."

"Can't someone else do that?" Tirella asked as she moved to the window beside him. "There isn't anybody here that can get to that AI wyrm as fast as I can..."

"Nobody else is powerful enough," Solus said as he looked up at her unfamiliar face, wondering why she was so insistent on leaving.

"We can do both," Drys said, interrupting his thoughts.

The grey undead moved to the machine. "I should be able to start it again tomorrow morning. Perhaps we won't even need the Wyrm..."

"Alright," Tirella said. "How long until you can start that thing up again?"

"Some sleep and I should be fine tomorrow," Drys said.

"Alright," Solus said quickly. "Let's all get some rest, and we will try that as soon as you are ready."

He turned to Tirella and gestured with his head to another table at the far side of the table. Tirella grinned and nodded as she headed there, and he fell in line with her. Behind them, the others found places to sleep. Within moments the large room of Drys was silent.

Just as Tirella sat down and Solus jumped on the table, heavy footsteps came up the stairs. A burly armored guard stepped inside, his hands filled with half a dozen large mana-orbs.

"Put them on this table," Sig ordered, pointing at the table next to him.

As soon as the guard did as he bade, Sig started draining the large orbs. Solus looked at it for a moment, and he was surprised at how fast the first one turned dark. There used to be so much more mana in those orbs!

Drys wasn't wrong when he said the amount of mana in them has gone down, he thought as he wondered what that would mean for the other undead. Evolving was going to be a whole lot more difficult from now on.

"What did you do after waking?" Solus whispered as he gazed at Tirella.

Tirella's eyes sparkled as she grinned at him.

"Well, I found ice," she said and slowly began telling every that had happened to her.

--

A shadowy figure hid in one of the room's corners, looking at the silent undead while listening to Tirella. When she finally stopped talking, and she and Solus fell asleep, it slithered across the ceiling and towards the window. It took a final look at Solus before disappearing over the edge.

--

Solus woke up and immediately noticed how quiet it was in the room.  He opened his eyes to see the red glow of dawn painting the bone-white room ruddy. Tirella was still sleeping in the chair across from him, and he grinned. After talking for so long, the oddity of her new body had slowly left. Still, he couldn't wait for them both to wake so they could explore this planet and the others around it. From Viridi's memories, he knew they would be able to travel through space, something that he could barely wait for.

A look around showed that the others were still asleep, and the pile of wyrm orbs beside Sig had disappeared.

Let's hope that was enough, Solus thought as he looked at Tirella again.

Her long, metallic hair had pierced innumerable small holes into the bone, and as she moved in her sleep, a scraping sound filled the room.

A dangerous evolution, Solus decided. He got up and moved to the window, staring out at the city. Even this early, there was already movement in the streets as the undead went about their business. Drys had told him that many things had changed since he fell asleep. He barely got there when a sound of shuffling made him turn around. Sig was getting up from below the table he had been lying under and quietly joined him at the window.

"I'll go find Norg after you attempt this. Even if you succeed, it might be better for them to return for what is to come," Sig said.

"That is assuming you can get to him and find a Kaot Lord you can end," Solus said as he quietly looked out of the window. "But you are right. We need many more mana cores. From what Tirella told me, a fourth level evolved won't be enough. Someone will have to evolve to a fifth-level evolution."

Sig didn't respond, and after a while, Solus looked at the tall undead.

"Something is wrong with my pattern," Sig whispered. "Draining those wyrm-orbs filled up my mana, and I had hoped that would fix it, but it hasn't. I can't gain mana without draining orbs."

"Interesting," Drys said, startling both of them as he appeared beside them.

Solus stared at the grey undead's feet, wondering why he hadn't heard him move. Then he saw they were floating above the ground an inch.

"Show me your mana-field," Drys continued, ignoring their reaction.

Sig shrugged, and a moment later, a massive, dark grey mana-field enveloped them and part of the room. One of the areas of the pattern was dull, parts of the thin glowing lines scratched and worn.

Surprised, Solus moved towards that section, followed by Drys. Side by side, they examined it. Absently he noticed that Gregor and Tirella had woken up, gazing at the mana-field.

"Have you seen something like this before?" Solus asked as he turned to Drys.

"No… nothing like this. It resembles what happens if an undead bodges its evolution, but this? It is as if a part of the pattern was damaged. I know his evolution was perfect when it was put on," Dryss said as he bent closer to the damaged area.

"Let me try something," he muttered, and his own grey mana-field flowed out of him like a wave. The two overlapped, causing the grey to darken and the patterns to oddly mingle. Drys frowned and waved his hand oddly, causing all of his patterns to fade, except for the area around the damaged parts of Sig's pattern.

"What are you-" Sig whispered, then froze. His mouth remained partially open as his body shivered rapidly.

"What are you doing?" Solus completed Sig's question as he looked at Drys.

Drys frowned, moving his hands in twitchy gestures, then he sighed, and his mana-field disappeared. Sig shivered again then surged into motion, falling backward and against the wall.

"I wanted to see if I could fix that, but I can't. It's as if part of his pattern has disintegrated. And it hasn't stopped either. The damage is slowly growing."

"Can we fix it?" Sig asked as he pushed himself upright again, staring at Drys.

Drys didn't respond immediately, staring at the floor as his hands twitched again. "I don't know," he finally said. "Perhaps if you evolve again, it will fix itself."

Everyone remained silent, most staring at Sig.

"Then let's see if we can use that device of yours," Tirella finally said as she got up and joined them. "What do I do?"

Solus moved beside her. "Drys will start the machine and direct mana inside. We will cover the machine with our mana fields to control the flows and keep it moving through the arms and inside the machine. If it goes out of control, we fail," he said.

"Alright," Tirella said, turning to Drys. "Let's start. If we fail, I want to head out towards that AI Wyrm as fast as I can."

That Kaot Lord must be frightening, Solus thought. He couldn't remember seeing Tirella this worked-up, and although it might be because of this body she was in, he didn't think it was that easy.

Drys moved towards the machine and placed kaot orbs on the different arms. As he did, the atmosphere in the room changed.  Greggor backed up to the exit, followed by Sig, while Solus and Tirella stepped closer to the machine.

"Get ready," Drys said as he raised his arms.

Solus and Tirella summoned their manafield, then looked at Drys. A moment later, streams of green energy rippled around Drys' arms before flowing towards the machine. When it touched, the machine hummed, and the arms started spinning around the central container. Energy rushed from the kaot-orbs, through the arms, and into the transparent container in the middle, where a translucent sphere formed. Almost immediately, the mana streams became volatile.

"Follow my lead," Solus whispered as he started guiding the chaotic mana along the arms, keeping it in check.

He somehow sensed Tirella's mental presence as she looked at what he was doing. As he struggled with the stream, on the other side of the machine, another surged away.

"I'll get it," Tirella said, and Solus felt her grab the energy and struggle until it was back in line.

The energy continued coming, increasing quickly, and Solus stopped looking at Tirella as he kept his full focus on keeping the mana-flows in check. Still, it was much easier than the first time, as he only needed to focus on half of the orbs.

"Better," Drys muttered, a grin widening on his face.

Seconds turned to minutes, and slow the mana-core in the container turned into a solid object. Solus sensed the mana around the core begin to pulse.

"Look out," Sig's shouted.

A split-second later, something shot through the window, screeching loudly. The energy rippled under Solus' control, fighting to get free, and he barely saw Drys' eyes widening when something slammed into his back. He felt flesh tear apart, and he was knocked into the ground. On the other side, Tirella was similarly blasted away, skidding across the ground like a stone.

Solus lost control of the mana streams, and the energy immediately rippled out of control. The machine rumbled as the mana exploded back out from the container as a billowing cloud.

"No," Drys roared as he stepped forward, then stumbled and caught himself with his hands.

Solus scrambled up and turned around just as Sig shot past him, turning into a dark roiling wave of mist. Two undead stood in the window opening, small yellow fleshies with glowing red eyes. Crackling balls of red energy formed in their hands, and before Sig reached them, they hurled them at the machine.

"Noooo!" Drys roared as he crawled forward.

The machine exploded into small bits and chunks that ticked and clattered everywhere, some striking Solus on the head and back.

The grey cloud that was Sig almost reached the undead when they jumped backward and out. Without stopping, Sig surged out after them.

Solus stared at the window, at the machine, then at Drys.

"What had just happened?" Greggor muttered, crouching next to an unmoving Tirella.

"Scathia," Solus muttered as he stumbled towards the window. His back hurt, and he was exhausted from keeping control of the mana for that long.

Before he reached the window, Sig's cloud appeared before, flowing back in the room.

"I've captured one of them," Sig's voice projected in the room. "The other turned into a shadow and moved away faster than I could chase."

Faster? Solus thought as he felt the hairs on his body stand on end. He knew of almost nothing that was faster than Sig, not even himself.

Drys grunted, and Solus looked up to see him move to the stair, and Solus heard the whisper of his projected voice far below.

"Bilderbin, get up here. Now!"

An immediate scrambling and thudding came from beneath, then something ran up the stair, creating a massive racket.

The bald, heavy-set undead barged into the room, looking around with his massive fists raised and eyes blazing.

"There was in instruction," Drys hissed as he pointed to the cloud that was Sig. "He captured one, but we are too weak to hold him down. As soon as a yellow-skinned undead appears from the cloud, grab it!"

Bilderbin's mouth fell open as his eyes widened, then it snapped shut, and he thudded towards Sigs cloud.

"Ready," he said.

Sig didn't reply, but the cloud solidified into his normal shape while a yellow figure dropped to the ground with a thud. It instantly tried to scramble away, but Bilderbin grabbed its arm and head, raising it in the air.

"Stop moving, or I'll rip you apart," Bilderbin roared beside the zombie's head, and the struggling form froze.

"She's not waking up!"

Greggor's voice came from the other side of the room, and Solus looked up in shock. Tirella still lay crumpled on the ground, her back turned to the door, and he couldn't hear any sound from her. He moved towards her, struggling to put one foot in front of the other. When he reached it, he saw that her back was a bleeding mess of tangled flash, with bones poking out through the flesh.

Bile, what a mess, Solus thought as he examined her.

He immediately knew there was nothing he could do for her. With one last look, he sighed and looked around. She was probably hovering somewhere nearby, looking at them.

"Solus, I'll get all the information I get from this one. You can take care of her," Drys said.

"Solussss, there you are! And here I thought I'd never see you again," a high-pitched voice rang out.

Solus froze as a familiar high peal of laughter came from the undead in Sig's hand. It was feminine and filled with spite and totally didn't match the undead. As he recognized the voice, his mind turned fuzzy with hate.

"Scathia," he hissed, moving towards the undead.

"Still remember me? Good! You don't look too good... Don't tell me this weak minion actually managed to hurt you? Perhaps I need to reevaluate my plan."

Drys stomped forward, and grabbed the undead's face, ripping it from Bilderbin's grip.

"Why did you do that," he shouted, waving at the machine. "We needed that to-"

"You needed that," Scathia screamed back. "Your pathetic problems don't bother me!"

"Are you crazy?" Drys roared.

Solus looked at his friend, the anger and fury on the other's face surprising him so much that his own anger faded slightly. He hadn't seen Drys this out of control since he was a zombie long ago. Well, not taking into account when he had gone crazy during the event from the day before. Was that why he was acting like this?

"There is a powerful Kaot rushing towards us to devour all of us, and if that wasn't enough without another evolution, none of us, not even you, will survive this Lethargy that plagues us," Drys shouted.

The small undead struggled in Drys' vicelike grasp, but the voice of Scathia didn't seem at all affected as she laughed.

"Fool… finally found out about that little gift of the ancients? Took you long enough!"

Drys pulled her closer, a look of utter unbelief on his face. "You knew?"

"Of course I did…, and here I thought you were the smart one," Scathia growled.

Solus moved closer, growling deep in his chest. "Even if you know, how do you even think you will survive the Kaot Lord that arrives here? It will wipe you out with the rest of us!"

"What Kaot Lord?" Scathia sniffed disdainfully. "This mysterious Kaot Lord that is supposedly coming to us from beyond the planet? Don't think everyone will just believe your made-up stories!"

Drys snarled and waved the undead around, sounds of snapping bones coming from the body. "I will find you and finish you!" he hissed.

"You've tried for years and aren't even close!" Scathia laughed.

The green pus oozing from the undead's pale lips didn't seem to bother her.

Solus stared at the undead in disbelief, slowly realizing that she was even madder than before. Was there anything he could learn from her, something she would tell him?

She won't tell the truth, he thought as he lowered his canine head.

"End it," he said emotionlessly while turning back to Tirella's dead body.

Insane laughter came from Scathia, cut short as Drys snapped her head like a dry bone in the white bone forest.

Solus looked at Scathia's body, then looked up and around.

"Tirella… if you are still here, go to the AI Wyrm and see if you can get it to help us. I'll put some Lethargic bodies here so you can take one if you come back," he said.

There was no reply, which he hadn't expected, and after a moment, he turned to Drys, who was moving through the debris that had been the machine.

"Can you repair it?"

Drys looked up with a piece in his hand, dropping it to the ground. "Even if I could, it will take too long," he said, defeated.

"Then we need to find Norg and Vingria," Solus said as he turned to Sig. "We are going to that portal in the hills and see if we can find them and get a mana-core."

"Now?" Sig asked.

"Yes, now. Even if we can't find enough to evolve someone to the fifth tier, you and Drys need mana cores," Solus said.

Sig nodded slowly, and he turned around and looked at Drys. "We need to find Scathia before she interferes more!"

"I know!" Drys snapped as he began pacing through the room, kicking debris through the room. "But she is right. We've been trying to find her for years, and she keeps hiding."

"Perhaps you should stay here to help?" Sig asked.

"No," Solus said. "I want to attempt taking over a Kaot Lord body."

Drys and Sig stared at him with wide eyes, and Drys shook his head in disbelief. "You won't be able to fit through the portal."

"Perhaps, but I'll be able to end other Kaot Lords for more orbs," Solus said with a predatory snarl.