NBB3 - chapter 14: A transparent conversation

Tirella hovered at the top of the cavern, staring down at the dozens of zombies and other undead that stood on walkways and balconies. All along the balconies were yellowed bone doors, behind which were small caves. The undead standing before them were staring down at a group of undead that stood on a central daze of bone in the middle of the cavern. A ten-foot-wide stone bridge led from it to a large gate in the far wall.

A good hideout, Tirella thought as she zipped back down towards the group. Grimz was facing a mottled brown undead with a thick wad of green hair that arched across her back. She wore a similar armor made of leather parts, bound by thin strips of flexible bone, as the zombies that had saved Grimz.

Grimz stood before her, as he had for a while, explaining what had happened. Around them stood the group of undead that had saved Grimz.

"So, he is using the moments of insanity to grow bigger mana-orbs," the green-haired zombie said in a soft, pleasant voice as she gazed at Grimz. Her eyes were sparkling, and bits of mana drifted up from their centers.

Grimz shared a confused look with Balra. "What?"

"Don't look at me," Balra said with a shake of his head. "Nobody understands what Alyra is on about."

“Gulder," Alyra snapped at them. "That nasty rot-bone… he puts the ones he captures in a room and waits for the Crazies. Then after the battle is over, he harvests the bigger mana orbs from that remain."

Grimz and Balra shared another look, showing they still didn't get it. Alyra sighed and shook her head.

"Never mind. Tell the others that there are to be no more scouting missions towards Gulder's hideout. They should only hunt past the furthest exit."

Balra nodded as the others mumbled that they would. Sighing deeply, Alyra turned around and headed back across the bridge towards the double-doored gate.

"She's been like this since Scathia's control disappeared," Balra muttered.

"Don't use that name here," Alyra shouted without turning around. "And get everyone out hunting. We have seven days before the next bout of insanity hits us!"

How does she know? Tirella thought as she hovered after Alyra.

"She didn't even ask about my new evolution," Grimz whispered behind her.

Balra replied something, but by then, Tirella was too far away to hear his whispers, nor did she even bother. Instead, she followed Alyra, wondering how this low evolution undead could know when the white mana would arrive.

Alyra opened the gate, entering a surprisingly small room with two doors on each side. She closed the gate behind her and moved through the right door that led to a corridor. As she moved along, Tirella hovered after her. The passage looped and wound down, and as they continued, Tirella realized they were slowly heading deeper into the earth. The occasional paths they came across led to dark tunnels that led away, but Alyra ignored them and simply kept walking down.

Eventually, they arrived in a wide room, barely high enough to stand. As she moved in, Alyra's hair touched hand-sized purple crystals that were partially excavated from the ceiling and glowing softly. A couple of much larger ones stood in a circle in the middle of the room, surrounding a rift. They radiated a much stronger purple light. Alyra moved towards the circle, then sat down cross-legged in front of the rift and closed her eyes.

Why…  is there a portal here? Tirella thought as she moved forward, confused. The purple light from the crystals radiated an odd light that she hadn't seen before. She had just followed Alyra to find out how the other knew what she knew. Instead, she was hovering in a room with odd crystals and a rift.

Alyra just remained motionless, and as time went by, Tirella started to lose her interest. Just when she was about to leave and search for a body she might be able to inhabit, a hand-sized, green figure sprung up from Alyra's head. It was a perfect representation of her, and it was staring right at Tirella.

"So. Now, why don't you tell me who you are?" Alyra said, pointing straight at Tirella.

Stunned, Tirella stared quietly at the green undead hovering before her.

Alyra moved her hand, and Tirella felt something wrap around her, binding her in place.

"Who are you!" Alyra hissed, punctuating each word as she hovered closer.

"Tirella," Tirella answered, barely noticing Alyra and focusing on the things binding her. They were annoying and stifling, and with a grunt, she tried to rip them apart with her mind. With barely any effort, the invisible tendrils disappeared, and she flitted a step back.

Alyra groaned, her tiny figure shivering and blinking. After a moment, it stopped, and she looked up in wonder and surprise.

"How did you do that?" she blurted.

"I don't know," Tirella snapped. "But if you do that again, I'm going to see what more I can do!"

Alyra shook her head quickly. "No, no. No need! I can sense your power, and you are not with Scathia! I don't feel her filthy presence on you."

"Tell me everything you know about Scathia," Tirella hissed. She felt her anger grow at the memory of the undead, and she didn't notice that her green aura expanded, pushing the purple light back.

She got no immediate response from Alyra who was gaping at her with like a-

Frightened rabbit, Tirella thought, as Viridi's knowledge asserted itself.

"Well?" she snapped, her anger now mixed with slight amusement.

"I'll answer your questions if you answer mine," Alyra said.

Tirella felt her anger bubble up again, and she was about to snap when she realized she had no idea how to back up any threat.

"Fine," she said softly.

"A question for a question?" Alyra asked.

"I'll go first," Tirella snapped. "What do you know off Scathia!"

Alyra grimaced, then nodded.

"Fine. I guess you really aren't one of her minions," she said before continuing quickly when she saw Tirella's glare. "Your question is… a bit wide, and there isn't an easy, simple answer. All I know of Scathia is that she is a very, very powerful undead who has great hate for a place called Skulltown and has attacked it in the past."

"Where is she," Tirella grunted, forgetting the deal.

Alyra shook her head. "No, it's my turn. Who, or what, are you?"

Tirella took a deep breath, odd as she didn't need to, and tried to calm herself. Something about Scathia and the fact she was still alive angered her far more than anything had before.

"I am Tirella," she said. "Now, where is Scathia?"

Alyra laughed, her high-pitched voice causing Tirella to blink. "Well, Tirella, I am Alyra, but could you answer my question? I asked who or what you are, not what your name is."

The question caused Tirella to blink, and slowly the anger she felt faded as she curiously gazed at the odd undead. Something about her was different from any undead she had met before. Her word choice, her knowledge. It almost reminded her of-

"You're an AI!" Tirella blurted out.

Alyra's smile turned ugly, and she hovered closer to her body.

"How do you know that," she whispered, fear lacing her voice.

Tirella sighed, the last vestiges of her annoyance and anger fading to the background as she stared at Alyra.

"I am from Skulltown, and we have more than a few AI that are inhabiting undead there," she said.

Alyra stayed alert, scanning her.

"@*&%%$#."

A string of odd words came from her, and Tirella blinked in surprise.

"You are no AI," Alyra said. "So, how are you using a mana-projection skill?"

Tirella shrugged, moving towards one of the massive stones, hovering above it as if she was sitting down. She had the feeling that what she was doing wasn't precisely what Alyra meant, but she didn't feel like explaining the intricacies of her current situation. Not to some random AI. Still... she could reveal a few things.

"I have no idea. After I woke up, I was like this. My body is lying in a-... somewhere, and I can only move around."

Alyra shook her head. "Improbable. You are either not telling me everything or you yourself don't know what is happening. Mana-projection is one of the most difficult skills to gain and is only available with very specific evolutions. Historically, no undead has ever had it."

She looked at Tirella with narrowed eyes and an expressionless face.

Fine, Tirella thought. She hadn't been able to speak with anyone since waking, and now the anger had faded, she found that the interaction was pleasant. Besides, it might prove useful. With some luck, she might even gain a new body out of it, but that meant getting Alyra to trust her.

"Well, I have a status-window pattern," Tirella said.

"How?" Alyra asked, raising her eyebrows. "I can't believe one of the others would give you that. It's far too dangerous…"

Unsure what she meant with that last bit, Tirella nodded. "Solus, the leader of Skulltown, gave it to me. He got his from an AI."

Alyra was quietly staring at her for a long time. Then she shook her head and moved to fake sit across from Tirella.

"I miss my systems at these times," she said with a sigh. "I can't find out if you are lying or not and have to make do with these limited parameters. Still," and she smiled. "I get the feeling that you are speaking the truth, no matter how impossible one undead giving a pattern to another is. Since waking in this horrible world, I have seen more than a few strange things."

They two looked at each other for a moment before Alyra shrugged. "I get the feeling you are no fan of Scathia. Could you tell me why?"

A small surge of anger made Tirella snarl. Then she got herself back under control and nodded. "She tried to end my friends and me. I thought  I had ended her after I snapped her head off and took her mana-stone. I still don't know-" she clenched her fist.

Alyra laughed, shaking her head. "Aye, that won't be enough to stop that one. All you did was kill, or end as you call it, one of her vessels."

"What do you mean," Tirella asked.

"Scathia has a prototype of a pattern I've never heard of before. It gives her the ability to wipe out another undead's mind and place her consciousness inside the body. What you see of her is always just a host body."

"So that means she can't be ended?" Tirella asked, angered at the prospect of having to deal with Scathia again and again.

"The only way to end her would be to find where she is hiding her true body and destroy it," Alyra said, her gaze drifting off into the distance. "I've been trying to locate it for over twelve years now, ever since she lost the last war and her previous vessel."

Tirella frowned. Alyra's words reminded her of how she had taken over the zombie body back in Gulder's hideout. It wasn't the only thing that had her thinking, though.

"What war?" she asked, getting a bad feeling.

Alyra nodded, looking at her with full focus again. "As you've answered far more than one of my questions, I'll tell you my story, and if you decide to trust me after that, perhaps you can tell me yours."

Tirella nodded, unsure if she would but willing to hear the other out, especially if it would give her more knowledge about Scathia and what had happened since she fell asleep.

"Scathia found my sphere and switched it on roughly thirty years ago. She had been gathering spheres and using them to develop a way to attack and take over Skulltown. The thing is, although every AI has some knowledge of war, none of us are proficient at it. Humanity brought all war-enabled AI with them when they left this galaxy."

Tirella frowned, and Alyra stopped talking.

"Humanity?" Tirella asked, not sure if she'd heard that term before.

"It's what you call the ancients. They built those buildings and other things you have seen. An eternity ago, they ruled this world and most others in this and the neighboring solar systems."

Tirella quietly listened to Alyra explain how the ancients had built her with the simple goal of managing an estate building. The AI continued talking for a long time, and Tirella slowly drifted off as she listened to stories of a world long gone.

"She attacked Skulltown?" she shouted, snapping wide awake again.

Alyra nodded.

"Almost thirteen years ago, Scathia created an army of undead unlike any this world has seen since the ancients left. Lacking any third-level evolved undead to combat those of Skulltown, she decided to go for quantity over quality. Of course, we might have something to do with her misconception that she had any chance at all…" Alyra laughed softly.

"What do you mean?"

"With time, she began to trust our advice, mine and that of the other AIs. When we told her that with enough undead, she could win a battle against a higher level evolved, she believed us," Alrya said before a frown came to her and she shook her. "Well… partially, we found out later. She made a getaway plan without telling us, one that almost worked."

"So she attacked Skulltown and was defeated?" Tirella asked feeling a lot better again.

"Correct. With a massive army of undead under her complete control, she laid siege to the city. She managed to breach the defensive barrier and enter the city, but it was a clever trick. The leaders of Skulltown had created a trap in the outer part with a double barrier. As soon as Scathia and her army were inside, they sprung it, and Scathia and her army were trapped between two barriers as thousands of mages pelted them from beyond."

Alyra shook her head, a look of wonder on her face.

"Still, even then, she got further than I ever imagined she would. She made half of her army self-destruct and managed to bring down the inner barrier. She might still have won at that point, but a small force from Skulltown attacked her head-on. Their leader was a gigantic skeleton, towering over the others. It had to have been a mutant of some type because I remember I couldn't find it in my systems. Either way, it was more powerful than even any three-time evolved has any right to be. It single-handedly devastated Scathia's personal guard and fought its way towards her. In the end, Scathia had to fight it, and although her body was powerful, it was no match for the skeleton," by now, Alyra's eyes were unfocused as she stared off into the distance.

"Skull," Tirella muttered.

"What?"

"The one you are talking about is called Skull. He is… different," Tirella said with a grin.

Alyra nodded, and her mind seemed to return to the present.

"Suffice to say, this Skull character beat Scathia but failed to end her. She detonated most of the remainder of her army to bring down the outside barrier, then tried to flee with the little bit that remained. She almost made it, but a flying undead intercepted her, destroying her vessel."

A wide grin flashed across Alyra's face, the first strong emotion so far.

"As soon as that horrible hag's body was destroyed, the control she had over the undead disappeared, and her army dissolved. Everyone fled, trying to get away from the place, and I managed to get one of the undead to bring me along. I had had to leave my power source behind, though. For many weeks we traveled, besieged left and right by alien undead the locals call Kaots and these massive Wyrms. When we finally reached this place, I had managed to devise a way to take over the body of one of the Lethargic ones. Just in time too," Alyra muttered as she gazed at the body still sitting between the crystals and in front of the rift.

"I didn't get the time to pick a good body and had to make do with what was available. I am still working on evolving this sideways."

"Sideways?" Tirella asked, shaking her head in confusion.

"Evolving sideways means you wipe the current body's inscription away and a new one on it. The trouble is that if you do it yourself, the chances are high that you lose progress. In my case, my body reverted to an almost basic state again. Now I need hundreds of mana-core's to fill up my mana-field, but that's fine because-"

Tirella stopped listening, quietly staring at the AI as she continued to ramble about what she had planned. She tried to interrupt her a few times, but it seemed like Alyra hadn't had the chance to someone other than the undead around her in a very long time. Either that or she just didn't know when to stop talking.

When Alyra finally fell silent, Tirella didn't even notice. She was wondering what the white energy was and where it had come from while staring at the purple crystals and the chaos rift. The barrier she and Solus were generating had to be to prevent more than just those portals from growing.

"Are you asleep?"

Alyra's voice snapped her out of it, and she looked up to see the other stare at her with raised eyebrows.

"What? No," she said.

"I am sorry for rambling on. Even after all this time, I still have a hard time controlling these emotions," Alyra said as she stared at Tirella with increased interest.

"Anyway, I am curious to hear who you are. I've only heard rumors about the more powerful undead in Skulltown, but if you can use mana-projection, you have to be powerful."

Tirella pondered for a moment, then shrugged. She could share most things that had happened before she went below ground and just omit everything about her new powers and abilities.

"Alright," she said with a nod before turning her attention to the portal. "But first- why do you have a rift here, and why is there so much mana in those crystals?"

Alyra's smile faded, and she turned to the rift. "It was here when wearrivedd, and we had trouble with Kaots at first. I set up those crystals to stop them from entering."

Tirella frowned. Something about what Alyra just said sounded... off. It was as if she could feel that it was only partially true, which was odd. Alyra had easily told so much before, and most of that had rung true. At least the part she had heard. She was about to ask more about it when Alyra turned back with a grin.

"I can show you how to make those crystals later. I'm sure you would like that. But how about you finish your story first?"

The AI's words were smooth, and Tirella didn't notice any of the previous oddities. After a moment, she shrugged and let it be. She must have imagined it.

"First off, I am not from this world. I came here through another one of those rifts," she said, waiting to see how Alyra would react.

Except for a raised eyebrow, the mana-projected AI just looked at her. Tirella felt a bit letdown and began telling a few bits of her awakening on a world far away and arriving on earth. She omitted everything involving Viridi, or where Solus and her bodies were. When she finished, Alyra was gazing at her quietly.

"Thank you for sharing what you wanted. I know you didn't tell me everything, but this is fine for now," Alyra said. "It is your turn to ask a question again if you want."

Tirella nodded but wondered why Alyra still held up the pretense. They had been answering far more than one question ever since the first one.

"What can you tell me about those zombies that go out of control?"

Alyra snorted. "A good, vague question that makes it so I could potentially tell you everything I know. I could answer with 'a lot', just to deflect it… but I'll humor you."

Tirella shook her head, about to say she hadn't meant it like that, but Ayra ignored her as she began talking.

"For the last decade, an odd thing has been happening with some of the older, weaker undead. They are becoming unresponsive as if their minds slowly fade. You must have noticed?" Ayra asked, her piercing gaze turning to Tirella.

Tirella nodded, recalling the odd zombies she had seen hanging from the walls.

"Well, some become so bad they just sit there, looking at nothing and doing nothing. Even when dragged away, they don't respond. One of our informants has told me they are called the lethargic ones in Skulltown."

Informants? Tirella frowned at the word, wondering if Drys knew about this. Probably not.

"At first, nothing happened, but roughly a year ago, I detected an odd occurrence in the field that protects the planet."

At this, Tirella perked up, her eyes narrowing. Alyra noticed, and she blinked.

"You know of the field?"

Tirella slowly nodded. "The barrier that sits snug around the planet. I've seen it up close."

Alyra shot up and towards, her eyes big as she hovered a few feet from Tirella. "You can see the field?"

Wondering if she should be telling this, Tirella reluctantly nodded again.

"It's like a shimmering barrier that stops most stuff from passing through."

It was quiet as Alyra stared at her, and Tirella could almost see the AI try and understand what she had heard. A minute later, she slowly continued.

"Yes… most stuff being the correct term. Every few months, something manages to pierce the field or barrier, as you call it. As it does, an odd, almost undetectable energy reaches the surface of the planet. Once there, it rains down, and..." Alyra trailed off as her shoulders slumped.

"And the undead go crazy," Tirella filled in.

She hadn't heard anything she didn't know before, but it surprised her that Alyra had found out.

"Yes, but only the lethargic ones. So far, the occurrence has no effect on the rest of us."

Alyra scrutinized Tirella, who quietly returned the look.

"You already knew this," Alyra said.

A quiet hung in the small cavernous room, and Tirella was about to deny it when Alyra raised her hand to stop her.

"You know far more than you are letting on. It is my time to ask a question, and I'd like to remind you that I've been more than a little forthcoming."

Tirella didn't respond, not sure what to say. Alyra gave her a trustworthy feeling, but something told her to be careful, and she hadn't forgotten the weird way she acted when the rift came up.

"Are you in Skulltown?"

Tirella cringed from the question, which was one of the many she preferred not to answer. As she and Alyra kept looking at each other, she searched for something she could say that might seem like a logical answer. Eventually, there was only one thing she could think of.

"I can't tell you where my body is because if Scathia finds out, it will be dangerous," she said, not agreeing or denying the question. Alyra's face scrunched, and Tirella felt a bit bad. "Ask another question."

"Fine. Something else then. What can you tell me about the beings beyond the planet?"

Tirella didn't reply, staring at Alyra in confusion.

"What?"

"Don't give me that. If you can see the barrier, you must have seen beyond it!" Alyra said, about to continue when she fell quiet, staring at Tirella's stunned face.

"You actually don't know what I am talking about... Fine, follow me," she said. "I was planning to check on them again anyway."

Before Tirella could ask more, Alyra's small figure shot up through the stone ceiling. She took a final look around the room, frowning at the crystals and rift, then shot up and after Alyra. She couldn't see the other through the stone, but when she finally exited into the dark evening, Alyra was waiting close by. She didn't say anything but immediately continued straight up into the sky.

As Tirella followed her, she vaguely remembered an image of a gaseous cloud with massive pale things roaming around it.

Could she mean those things?