“They say the Great Tsar was once among the Corpse-Legions, the countless millions of vat-grown men with identical faces and identical fates. What great irony then that he, sentenced to a half-life riddled with cancers and decay would become the first true immortal, all from a single vision from God.” -Translated fragment of a Europan sermon transcribed by Elder Bluescale of the Spiked Shore 488AA: ten years prior to the Great Famine.
The world itself warped, the very light twisting and folding into itself along angles that shouldn’t have existed. Ancient scrap seemed to strain against the forces bringing long-dead mechanisms to life, and for a moment it seemed as though the rust-ruined technology might mercifully fail.
Such fortune did not exist in this world for them.
In a horrifying instant otherworldly light flooded the badly abused walls of the vault, as bright as day despite the death of all other sources of light nearby. A great suction pulled everything inwards toward the gate, forcing all gathered to grab onto hand- and footholds in order to escape being siphoned into the depths of the unknown. With a sinking heart, Cobalt wondered if they had lost, especially as the ruined body of the machine man was whisked away into the light.
“No. You aren’t getting away.” Artos said with more anger than she thought it capable, as lightning flickered through its body. Still injured, the slimy coating was mixed with blood and easily conducted electricity into his flesh. Before she knew it, they were gone, too, with only an afterimage left behind.
Huge cracks spread in the walls, with water flooding in. Ah, that reminds her… this all was under a lake wasn’t it? Thankfully a large amount of the water flowed straight through the portal, but it wasn’t enough to prevent a steady stream from starting to flood the room inch by dangerous inch.
The split-woman, Elder Fisher if memory served, immediately took action to seal the cracks. Sending forth swarms of strange golems of tooth and viscera throwing themselves against the tide and lodging themselves into the holes, flesh expanding quickly as they fused together like tumours. Still, with the intense pressure and the extensive damage they could not stem all of the tide, and so long as the gate remained open…
“What are you standing there for? Destroy it!” The split-faced Elder yelled, spitting blood from her central cavity. Fighting on with disrupted meridians was dangerous even for someone of her calibre, they say Abberants control the flow of their Si consciously and there was only so much a human brain could manage at once. She was right of course, and in any other circumstance she would agree, but there was one thing she was neglecting.
Grunting as she pulled herself up, wounds still in the process of stitching themselves together and fighting against lingering necrosis, she made one thing crystal clear. “Even if we destroy the gate the key is inside! If we don’t secure it, all this may be for nothing!”
“What do you propose then, daughter of crane?” The Elder asked from her second mouth jutting at a painful angle from the central cavity where her faces met.
Looking at her friends, and seeing the understanding flicker on their faces, she allowed herself to smile. They wouldn’t leave John alone, or even whoever was in his body right now. For the short time they had known each other, it was clear they would be around for even this.
“We go in. You wanted to be rid of us, and you will get what you want. The enemy is weakened, and is unaware of the dangers that lie beyond the gate. If there was ever a time for this it would be now.”
“The dangers that lie beyond?”
“I wish I had time to elaborate on that… but right now we don’t have the luxury…” She grunted. “Before I leave though, allow me a moment of selfishness…”
“The seals are just about complete but entirely reliant on my power and will until more robust material is provided. If we are not to destroy the gate right now outright, I grant you three minutes before my patience runs too thin.”
Nodding, Cobalt wasted no time and moved towards her mother who seemed to have been struggling to slither away with the reduced traction her serpentine body had in the altered gravity. Her nails, like small tree branches, anchoring herself step by step. In contrast, Cobalt shifted her feet, expanding them to her warped size and extending knife-like claws that would dig into the concrete below with ease. In mere seconds she was already ahead of her mother, leaving the woman with no choice but to talk.
“You actually saved my life… I didn’t expect that.” She admitted.
Seeing that there was probably no easy way out of this, Saha gave a small annoyed grimace and grumbled. “It was kracking stupid, nearly got myself killed for a gamble.”
“And yet you took it.” Cobalt noted.
“I could have died if that thing killed you. It should have been dead with all the damage it took, and yet it still carried on deadly as ever.” Saha explained, and indeed she knew that was objectively correct. Yet still…
“Somewhere under there, under all that animal survival instinct, greed and vapidness you actually gave a shit didn’t you? Like with that guy, Tom, you crave connection but are so broken that you actively push everyone in your life away unless they push through that back. What I am saying is, you have to try very hard to not care don’t you?” Cobalt mused.
Saha hissed, forked tongue flickering. “I don’t want to hear this from my own fucking brat!”
“Don’t think that makes me like you either. Just because I understand you doesn’t mean we are anything, especially since you don’t want us to be anything either.” Cobalt said. “Be glad then that we are out of your hair soon.”
Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
Saha did not meet her eyes, staying silent for a heavy moment, before scowling and throwing her a familiar bag with such speed and lack of care only her enhanced reflexes allowed her to catch it. “I believe this belongs to you.”
“And the rest of the medicines mother?” She asked, raising a brow.
“Nothing gets past you, does it?” She grumbled, throwing several small balls of Forest-Kin fungal tonics that she caught with her freshly acquired bag.
“Goodbye, Mother.” She said without further fanfare.
“Goodbye Cobalt.” Saha returned as curtly as her own farewell.
With that she turned to the portal, seeing Gorekin and Faith already carefully making their way over. The furred giant gripping the smaller woman so that she would not trip and be dragged in early.
With no more words left to be said, taking a deep breath, Cobalt jumped in.
Grrkkn had no idea what to expect when diving into the other world, from the descriptions Cobalt and John gave he expected the ruins he loved to rummage through but… more. Grander, an entire world of them. Rust and scrap and lost bits of history as far as the eye can see.
Somehow they undersold it if anything.
A thick layer of water covered the ground where they landed, a small lake formed because whatever ground was present clearly had not felt the touch of liquid in who knows how long. Parched earth did not accept readily, as the old fungus-tenders liked to say. From what he could see it seemed that there was once fertile soil here, but now it was a dry and poisoned thing, devoid of any possibility of harbouring life.
Instead what was here was infinite fields of broken metal. A veritable forest without life, mountains of ruin bustling with history he could only speculate on.
It was a shame that they were not here to sightsee or research.
“Where’s John?” Faith asked, looking around uneasily.
As though summoned on cue, a spirit emerged. Not quite a shadow, a far cry from something physical, it seemed like an outline of a person. A suggestion that there was something human-shaped rather than a real, breathing person like Cobalt or Faith.
“Spirit leave us! By the Golden Promise leave us be!” Faith recited, a prayer to her God.
“Wait! John?” Cobalt asked.
“Yes. I believe so.” The shade said with an eerie coldness, more in line from what he expected from the machine Artos than the hot-blooded John. “I feel different here, things have changed quite a bit, but despite everything, it’s still me.”
“How can you be so sure it’s him?” Faith hissed.
“No. Hear of this before.” Grrkkn assured the girl, drawing upon the memory of his time as a cub being taught the lessons of his elders. “Forest-kin have legend on this. Soul have mind not of body, in other world they live. Could be this world, Cobalt say thing like that too.”
“Demons take familiar forms to deceive…” Faith whispered.
“I assure you, Faith, if I had come here with the intention of deceiving you I wouldn’t be wasting my time right now.” The shade of John said bluntly. “Anyway, you are all wondering where my body and that other guy are right now right?”
Cobalt nodded. “I was expecting them to be here… but it’s surprisingly quiet.”
“I understand, but first… I recommend you step away from any water or metal as soon as you possibly can.”
Wasting no time, the three of them leapt as far as they could onto a small island of earth and shattered concrete. Unfortunately, Grrkkn’s bulky body proved just slightly too slow…
A small stream of bubbles from the water was all the warning they got, before an explosion of steam and electricity rocked the small lake that had formed in the murky flooded depths of the ruin-choked pit they were standing on the brink of.
Red hot pain flushed through his system, thankfully it would hardly be lethal, but he felt the fungi nestled in his fur and flesh start to sear. Fungi do poorly in heat, the Mother Forest having grown only where it was most cold, only lesser offshoots adapted to heat by sacrificing presence and enormity capable of growth in the South. It was only for a fraction of a second, but with the protection of the Mother Forest’s blessing loosening its grip for that infinitesimal fraction of time he saw… something.
An image of startling immensity, a forest of decaying flesh forming a face that was not quite Forest Kin, not quite Human… its mouth formed shapes that mirrored his native tongue.
He was no lip-reader, and without the distinct throaty growls that defined Forest-Kin language lips weren’t enough in the first place, but he could read well enough the words.
“I’m so sorry…”
And as suddenly as it came on, he felt something wrench his spirit back towards his body, soaring through the dead air over endless wastes of scrap towards his own unconscious form. With a jolt, consciousness returned.
“GOREKIN! THANK THE SPIRITS YOU ARE AWAKE!” Cobalt said breathlessly.
“It was only a few seconds but… your eyes went white and I saw something leave your body…” Faith gasped.
“Like… him?” Grrkkn asked, pointing at John’s shade.
“No… brighter, more solid actually.” Faith said.
“Indeed, appears to be a species difference.” The voice of Artos added, emerging from the depths with a thoroughly fried homunculus in tow. “My apologies… I was not anticipating your arrival so soon.”
“Whatever! We can figure this all out later! We just need to-” Cobalt started before noticing the very distinct absence of anything coming from the portal they entered from. “DOX-SHIT!”
Sure enough, the electric surge seemed to have shut off the gateway, leaving them stuck here as it seemed.
Taking the immobile husk of the Homunculus and ripping a charred digit off its skeletal elbow, Artos in John’s body absorbed the finger in a motion as fluid and fascinating as it was disturbing. Like carrion-worms swarming over a meal. It reached out towards the ring… but nothing.
“It seems this gateway is inoperable now.” they noted. “Thankfully we know that there are other exits… but we must move quickly. Uncertain what occurs when we spend too long in this realm, and evidence points to the insects remaining a problem.”
“I saw them before… they don’t seem to go after me when I am not solid.” John’s shade said. “I don’t know when they’ll sniff us out but they’re right, we need to move now.”
Body still aching from the shock and mind reeling from the vision, Grrkkn reached down to cup some rusty water and drink deeply to soothe his parched throat. “Yes… go now…”
