NBB3 - chapter 17: Mysterious machine

Tirella streaked through the air, the hills far below quickly growing in size and clarity. The massive city of Skulltown sprawled across the basin of a deep valley, the building-line at the back and sides already reaching the foothills. Concentric walls, the inner ones of the stone and the outer ones of bone divided the city into rings, with orderly rows of buildings inside the center ones, while those in the outer rings a chaotic mess.

Tirella's mana-overlay showed a constant mist of green mana oozing from the ground, infusing the buildings and the tens of thousands of bright dots moving throughout the city. Most were bright-green, some larger than others, and the occasional fiery-red and crystal-blue were scattered between them. High concentrations of a darker, muddled red sat in specific places in the city in the center. To the side of the city, halfway up a hill, was a single, massive green dot; glowing like the sun. Mana that oozed from the ground around it was sucked towards it, disappearing into the center like a small maelstrom.

What is that? Tirella thought as she looked at it. It wasn't that far from the path she had planned to take, and she changed her trajectory to head towards the massive green dot.

A few moments later, the hills flowed below her, and she saw a hulking bone brute sitting on a rock, examining the city in the distance.

Skull?

Tirella slowed down, stopping some distance away from Skull. His gaze was on the city, and the glow from his eye was dim.

Is he changing in one of those lethargic ones? Tirella wondered, slowly moving closer.

Skull's eye-sockets blazed brightly, and he stood up, looking around.

"Feel thing again," Skull muttered. "What there?"

Skull began looking around, his eyes passing over Tirella, who looked at him in surprise and wonder. Could he sense her?

"Skull! It's me, Tirella! Can you hear me?" she shouted, hope slowly growing at the prospect of finding someone who could hear her.

"Weak little zombie back?" Skull muttered, and he bent through his knees before leaping sideways up a higher outcrop of the hill.

Tirella followed after him, watching him scan the surrounding hills, as if expecting something. After a few moments, he stopped and plopped back down on the ground, causing a small landslide of stone from the impact.

"Skull?" Tirella tried again, but the lumbering skeleton didn't respond, and slowly his eye glow turned dim again.

Tirella took one more look at Skull, then turned and flew towards the city, slightly let down. As she disappeared in the distance, Skull's head cocked up as his eyes blazed bright again.

"Gone. Like before…"

--

The last stretch to Skulltown took only seconds, and Tirella slowed down as she crossed from the dusty valley floor and over the city territory. She gazed down at the chaotic districts with bone-building that lay scattered around the nearest inner wall. Although there were some guard towers, everything seemed very unlike the previous, well-maintained, orderly walls that she remembered from her short stay in Skulltown.

Don't they need the barrier wall anymore? she wondered as she gazed from left to right in interest.

The last place she had been was Gulder's hideout, which was tiny compared to Skulltowns sprawling reaches. As she moved further into the city, skirting low across the roofs, she thought about what to do next. She needed a body to speak with Drys, but she also needed to find where he was.

She didn't recall much of her previous trip through the city, at least not the route Solus and the others had taken. Buildings stood everywhere, narrow paths and larger streets crossing throughout to create something close to a maze. If she had to find her way there on foot, she would get lost in no time.

First, to find Drys, she decided as she began speeding up towards the center of the city. It was easier to find him like this.

As she passed across the first inner wall of stone, which she recognized as the outer wall many years ago, she saw skeletons patrolling its length. Most were covered in wyrm-hide armor while wielding bone shields and four-foot-long spears. The spears glowed with bright turquoise mana that radiated out and infused the arms with which the guards wielded them.

Inside the walls, the buildings stood far more orderly, but the streets were no less bustling. If at all, there seemed to be more undead in the inner city than in the outer, each radiating more mana. This close, she noticed that although no two undead had the same mana signature, most seemed divided into size categories. Outside the walls, they had been mostly small, but here most were what she decided was medium while a few were large. However, none came even close to what she had seen surrounding Skull. The occasional smaller mana aura's roamed the streets. As she zipped across a large square with a few dozen of the undead with small mana signatures grouped together on the far end, she stopped, frozen in midair.

Solus?

She rushed forward, barely noticing that the weak undead were sitting in front of a statue, staring up. A foot from the statue, she stopped hovering at about head height. It resembled Solus' previous form before he had gone with her below ground.

For a short time she just gazed at him, not really seeing the statue but remembering times that seemed long ago. Somehow, the time she had slept still seemed to have affected her, although she couldn't say how or why.

After a while, she began noticing the undead, mumbling amongst themselves, and she listened.

"I heard Birbiron won't be coming back here," a pale-skinned, red-haired zombie said to the zombie beside him. Lesions covered her skin and blisters the top part of her bare chest. They pulsated faintly as if ready to burst.

The one beside him was greyish brown, like the surrounding hills, with skin that reminded Tirella of bark.

"What? Why not? Did he finally succumb to one of those loudmouthed hunters' lies?"

The pale one nodded. "He left with a group of Kaot hunters yesterday."

"Then you are right. He won't be coming back. The Kaots will feast on his mana-orb. What a rotbrain, no matter how small the chance is that the rumors are true or how long we have to wait. Sitting here, at least we won't be turned to someone else's meal."

"Some say the disease comes from here…" a zombie that sat beside the pair chimed in, looking at them with startling orange eyes set in a face as black as night.

The surrounding undead fell silent, the muted conversations over as they looked at the orange-eyed one.

"No one knows the reason yet," the bark-skinned one said, gritting his teeth causing snapping sounds from inside his mouth. "Last year they said it was because of the new patterns from the pattern-hall, before that they said it was because of the Kaot poisoning, and before that revenge from Scathia," as he spoke, the others hissed, and his companion struck him on the chest.

"Don't use that name, you puss-sack!"

The bark-skinned one grunted, then turned back to Solus' statue. "What? You believe those crazed ones in the outer city? She was destroyed long ago, and if she wasn't, she isn't coming back," he said. Nevertheless, his voice was more muted than before.

"Did you hear about the most recent incident in the lethargic district?" one of the other undead muttered, seeming keen on changing the subject. His jaw hung low, almost as if it wasn't secured and could open too wide. It caused his voice to be oddly hollow.

"What is there to hear," the orange-eyed one said. "They wake at random times and start attacking everyone! Since they herded them all into the Stone District, they can't break out anymore."

"No! Not this time," the first one said, his jaw wobbling from left to right as he spoke. "A group of them somehow gathered in one of the abandoned buildings in the east district! They rushed out and ended many before the green guard managed to subdue them."

Tirella stopped looking at Solus and examined the undead below. So, the moments of insanity happened here too? That wasn't surprising, but she wondered why Drys and the others weren't taking appropriate countermeasures.

"It's another reason to stay there," one of the undead said as he put his attention back on the statue. "No matter how small the chance, I prefer staying here until Solus grants me a better pattern. One that isn't as limiting as those the pattern hall offers."

The others nodded, the bark-skinned one grinning. "Or as expensive. Did you hear that the prices went up to five mana-orbs or ten kaot-orbs?"

Agreement ran from some, while others shouted in dismay. Slowly the conversation derailed into complaints about the pattern hall.

Tirella frowned as she hovered away and headed further into the city. She moved slowly and tried to pick up more of the conversations. Something was different from the last time she was here: the undead seemed afraid and restless, but also less... emotional. She didn't see a single outburst or rage-fit.

Ten minutes later, when she reached the inner city, a well-ordered, completely stone-built area with large, towering structures and wide open squared, she was worried. Most conversations dealt with the lethargic ones and the increased presence of Kaots in the northern hills, but she also picked up bits and pieces of something else.

According to some of the guards, Drys hadn't been seen since the previous time that the lethargic ones turned insane. Norg and Vingria had gone on a secret mission to the north hills and hadn't returned. That was months ago, and they too hadn't returned. Besides all this, there were rumors of explosions and disturbances in and around the tower of the AI.

Dryss, what is going on? she thought as she shot across the square towards the pattern hall. As she did, a red glow suddenly burst out from the tallest tower in the area. It lasted for only a moment, and then it disappeared. Some of the undead looked up, then resumed what they were doing, and none seemed surprised.

Tirella frowned as she inspected the tower and the building beside it.  She recognized it. Fifty years ago, it had covered the side of the square, but since then, the building had become bigger, connecting to the other buildings around the square. Now, all the buildings around the square were part of it, and bone constructions bridged and connected the buildings.

Only a single entrance led onto the square, guarded by four massive bald behemoths. Vingria's eyes widened as she inspected them, knowing she had never seen evolutions as they had before. Their necks were so heavily muscled that they seemed thicker than their heads, and they wore scale-covered, wyrm-hide pants.

Pure physical, she thought as she looked at the dull, dimwitted looks from their eyes. Perhaps another one of Dryss's experiments?

A constant stream of undead moved through the gate, either heading towards or from the pattern building.

Tirella frowned as she scanned the mana patterns, moving her gaze across the buildings and focusing on the tower that Drys had once called his home. She should be able to recognize him. The green-colored streaks of stone reinforcement that Solus had once wrapped it in were still there, but little else of the tower remained the same. Bone now replaced most of the stone, and the tower was larger and taller than she remembered. She saw bright dots moving around, some going up, others down. A single bright green one sat in the top room.

Drys, she thought as she hovered up, leaving the bustling square far below.

The wind howled this high, and large windows sat at the top of the tower.

Without waiting, Tirella flitted in through one and into a massive open room. Shelves lined the sides, covered in wyrm-leather bound tomes with runic images on their spines. A balcony sat halfway, and tables covered with bone tablets, ancient-wold devices, and some piles of mana-orbs lay everywhere. On the left wall from Tirella stood a cage made of thick bone bars with chains covering the walls. The cage was empty, the door slightly ajar.

In the middle of the room stood a massive device of bone parts with arms stretching to all sides that held more mana-orbs. The main container to which everything attached was a wyrm-skull from which the front had been removed. A transparent container sat in the middle, filled with a crystalline liquid that shimmered as it reflected the light of the glowing blue stones that covered the rounded ceiling.

A tall and gaunt grey shape moved from a table, carrying a heavy-looking piece of bone shaped like an odd wrench. Concepts and words filled Tirella's mind when she saw the tool, but she barely noticed. All her attention was on the one carrying it. Drys' eyes glowed with an insane inner light, and this close, she saw that his bright green mana-aura was stained by small blotches of ugly black gunk that glowed red at the edges. The spots reminded her of the rifts she had traveled through many years.

"This has to work. It just has to," Drys whispered.

His voice echoed dully through the room as he clicked the wrench to the side of the bone machine and around what looked like a foot-wide screw. His thin arms flexed; the muscles appeared like thin cords as he pulled the wrench down softly. A soft whine came from the machine as gears began turning on the bottom, and the arms started rotating slowly. As they did, Drys slung the wrench aside, stepped back, and raised his arms.

A wave of black tainted, green mana rippled from him and towards the machine. The arms began spinning around with a jolt, and the mana-orbs began glowing with a dull red light. Tirella's eyes widened as she realized they weren't mana-orbs. Most of them were Kaot-orbs!

The kaot-orbs burned brighter and brighter, and a small stream of mana flowed from them and through the arms. Soon the light illuminated the corners of the room, and the center of the transparent container began pulsating with a similar red light. An indistinct red haze formed in the middle that became clearer as the mana-orbs increased in brightness.

A weary moan came from Drys as the mana he sent out turned into a torrent that swirled around the device. The red haze in the middle of the container turned into the rough outline of a massive angular mana-orb.

It's a mana-core! Tirella thought in surprise as she hovered a bit closer.

The whine of the machine increased in pitch as the red mana-streams began to fluctuate. Then one almost escaped from the arm it flowed through, and Drys roared. The stream returned, and a moment later, a burst of red light spread from the orbs bursting from the windows and blinding Tirella and likely anyone who was looking. The spread of green and red mana made her mana-overlay give her a piercing headache. The red glow blinding glow continued unabated as Drys' panting filled the room.

"Almost, almost!"

Suddenly three streams escaped from their arms, and an explosion of mana erupted from the orbs. Drys screamed, and the red light disappeared all at once as the kaot-orbs turned to dust that trickled to the ground. Drys crumpled to the ground, his breathing ragged and his eyes unfocused. The almost formed mana-core melted back into the liquid.

Tirella stared at Drys, noting a few new black blotches had appeared on his aura.

"Curse those Kaot spawn," Drys shouted as he suddenly struck the ground. "And the ancients even more," he roared even louder, striking again.

Minute crack lines spread from the point of impact, and Drys sat glaring at the damage. Then he groaned and floated up, his hair sticking out like rigged bone. "How long will it take?" Drys howled, glaring at the machine.

He raised his hand as if to strike the machine, then lowered it again as he drew in a ragged breath. "I can't last much longer…" he muttered, shaking his head.

As Tirella stared at him, Drys gazed at the machine for a long time before turning away and to a nearby pile of kaot-orbs. He picked them up, placing them on the arms before bending below the machine and partially entering an opening. He crawled back out a moment later, shaking his head in misery. With a single look around, he moved towards a door in the side of the room that led down and moved down.

Tirella gazed after him, her eyes flashing from the machine to the glowing bright green dot that was Drys and back.

He has been infected by the Kaots, she thought as she gazed at the machine.

What was he trying to accomplish? Create a mana-core? Was that even possible, and why did it matter to him so much? It wouldn't remove the infection on his mana field. Her hope that Drys would help develop a way to end the incoming Kaot lord faded slightly as she stared at the machine without seeing it. The manic look in Drys' eyes told her he had only a single thing on his mind right now. Then she remembered the massive size of the Kaot lord as it shot towards the planet, and she looked up. It didn't matter what Drys was doing or why. If that thing came here, it would all be for nothing. She would talk with him, if she would, and otherwise find the AI in the tower. Perhaps those could help her.

She turned and shot out of the tower, not bothering to pass through the window this time.

Time to find a body, she thought as she flew up while scanning for the nearest high concentration undead.

--

Gregor stepped forward, glaring at the dusty street as he stomped through the crowd of undead moving about. Ahead of him lay what was now called the Lethargic district, and he couldn't believe he had to go there again.

How could they increase the price for the pattern a day before I go there, and for the second time in a row? he thought, clenching his fists as he recalled the day before.

He wasn't prone to anger, but even he began shouting at the Librarian who had told him. Only the Goliarn guards had prevented him and the others from rushing into the Patternhall to grab what they wanted. Still, he had managed to calm down sooner than the rest and disappeared to the back of the crowd before the Goliarns came and forcefully dissipated the angry mob.

With the new prices, he would need to guard a building filled with chained-up lethargic ones for at least another month. Perhaps he should head back out? For a moment, he contemplated searching like-minded undead and forming a new hunting group, then he remembered what happened last time and shook his head. He wasn't going out until he had evolved a second time! He needed to get far more powerful if he was to survive amidst the ever-increasing dangers of the wasteland.

The crowd dissipated a few streets later, and only he and a few other undead remained. They didn't talk to each other, which suited him just fine. A hastily built gatehouse locked the street at the end, and a couple of Goliarn stood beside it examining those who moved towards them. They must have gotten descriptions because they didn't stop anybody, and as Gregor passed them, he noticed bone tablets in the gatehouse with pictures of undead inscribed in them. He blinked in astonishment as he saw the uncanny likeness of himself on one.

"Keep moving," a deep voice rumbled.

Gregor looked up at one of the Goliarn. She was staring at him with two intensely black eyes that radiated a cold desire for violence. He averted his gaze and quickened his step.

The district only held one main street and a half-dozen small alleys that led to three-story stone buildings typical in this part of the city. His goal was the furthest building where he was to relieve the top-floor guard.

The building had the same layout as the others he knew, and as he entered the shadowy entrance, he nodded at another undead that sat beside a door of bone. Through the small opening at eye height, he saw lines of undead chained to the wall.

So many already, he thought as he recalled there had barely been enough to fit one room a few months ago.

As he moved up the stairs, he passed another floor until he reached his goal. A heavyset zombie sat before a bone door, blocking it with his back. As soon as he saw Gregor, he scrambled up.

"Twook you wong enough," he said with a lisp. His tongue kept poking out from his mouth as he spoke.

"What are you talking about," Gregor replied and pointed out of the window beside them. "They said to arrive here before dark."

The zombie just grunted and banged into him with his shoulder as he passed by, his eyes rolling around aggressively. Gregor recognized the over-emotional vibe immediately and didn't respond. The chances of the other attacking him were too large, and although he didn't think he would lose, he wasn't interested in the trouble it would bring.

He waited until the zombie disappeared down the stairs, then sat down at the same spot before the door.

Stupid, aggressive old ones, he thought. Get a new pattern already!

Taking a deep breath, he closed his eyes and prepared for another boring guard duty.