Laurence L. LaRouche was practically buzzing. His hands sweating and eyes dilated with unbidden and unbridled ecstasy at the idea of what was taking place. His lips, chapped just moments ago as the light had shone on him in his stale and monotonous college course, were licked with the barely held-back image of the things to come, the events he knew were to take place.
Before him, in a bit of a surprising turn, was the hunched back of a massively modified creature of metal and whirring gizmos. His breath was filtered through tubes that led to a tank set into his back, sounding labored and echoing through the reticulated tunnels that fed him his oxygen. Paradoxically, however, the voice of the creature was smooth -- silken even -- and spoke to them with a kind confidence that belied the shifting gears and spider like spike-legs that carried its churning, heaving form.
That was a bit of a hiccup in the image, Laurence wouldn’t be put out with admitting that.
“All of you are quite lucky, you know.” The machine man said, the ‘Grand-Technic’ was named by the twin speakers from before. “The light chooses those worthy of it, but also those who are bound to meet their end, their fate as it were. Luck luck luck, you know, found you and blessed you. That, and the Four Greats -- for whom you should and will learn of their greatness. But but but! There are many things to learn, and surely you are in the midst of confusion. It is fine, one of the Four shall bless you, though that will of course be -- what am I saying? You don’t know!” he turned with the flexibility of a snake, his hunched back twisting and creaking with a nightmarish length to look at each of them while still walking. “Do you?” he asked, the blue-lit apertures of his eyes focusing and unfocusing with curious interest.
“I think I do!” Laurence couldn’t help to answer. He thought he would act cool, be cool, in a moment like this but he could barely keep himself together. The whole transfer from his stupid, senseless world to this -- the Isekai world -- had left him speechless for a moment (something he usually prided himself on not being) but after the explanation from the twins, the dazzling show of ‘vibe’ from the King and now the tour from the Grand Technic had brought him back to the wonderful world he found himself. And, of course, led him back in his old habits -- namely over-excitability.
“Hm?” the Grand Technic raised a false eyebrow, connected with levers and showing some of the bolted-in machinery below the false and scary mask he wore. “Perhaps you do…” the eyes darted to the boring middle-aged man that walked with them, detached and dull eyes staring ahead as if he couldn’t care less about the hanging chandeliers of glowing crystal, the wall sconces of decorative cast-iron, the many arcs and bands of passing glass windows over them only to plunge them into illuminated darkness as the windows pass overhead.
“We were summoned to do battle with the demons of that Eastern Continent that those twins talked about, right?” Laurence looked over to the girl that he had, regrettably, corrected before. She mutely nodded, not listening and in her own world. He shrugged and looked back to the Grand Technic.
“Hm.” nodded the creature, the end of the tunnel coming into view as light blinded them to reveal a massive tank of glowing blue liquid and three separate baths around the room that were filling up with the liquid.
“This is where we make you [Hero]es! This is the medium that the blessings of the Four shall bring you to the power to shape the world! Now --” as the Grand Technic instructed them the boring looking man sighed, walked to one of the pools, and began to strip.
“Ah, well, you’ve got the idea. Strip down the clothes of your otherworld! Strip away what the light recreated upon you and dip yourself into the blessed waters of the Great Four.” commanded the Grand Technic. Laurence and the girl looked at each other (he didn’t have a better way to describe her, she looked a bit older than him but nothing in comparison to the older man that was already resignedly dipping himself in the filling water and sighing with a morrose and farseeing depression). She shrugged, her eyes still dialated from the admittedly elating speech of the King with Laurence high off the idea of Isekai itself.
The machine that pumped the fluid into the pools was a thing of brass and steam, shoots of the milky clouds exiting through an open window at the top of the glass dome that made up half the room -- billowing out to cover much of the gaseous galactic clouds and twinkling stars that painted the sky with a more artistic bent. If Laurence focused on them, they seemed to turn -- as if they were aware of them.
Laurence threw out the idea, a shudder running through him as the images that had passed by his mind were something of a terror -- something that he couldn’t name nor describe beyond passing adjectives layered on top of each other. Something that could only really be described in piled-on nonsense that would never really be anything of substance.
Laurence thought back to his summoning. The light that shone on him as he walked down the street. The semi-truck that veered off the road and drew a bead on him. The smash into his body, eyes popping from their sockets, and the eventual discorporation into beads of nothing as the light disassembled him and brought him here. His excitement, even now, was not something he could quite put into words. He just smiled, and stripped his clothes.
And, following the lead of the two others, got into the pool.
It was a while before anything happened -- it felt quite pleasant, actually. Like a bubblebath and hot-tub, Laurence laid back and relaxed while the blue-tinted liquid dyed his own skin the same color.
Then, all at once, pain shot through him like a toothache. He shot up, or tried to, but found himself paralyzed as panic began to set in. His limbs didn’t respond. He looked up to see the Great Technic bent over the pipe laden pools and watched with the cold unfeeling eyes of a camera.
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“Fear not, young [Hero]. Your blessing arrives soon." The Great Technic looked as if he were shifting his face into a smile, but it was hard to tell. It was like the approximation of a smile. Like the mask couldn’t flex enough to appropriately mimic the emotion. Or maybe not. It was too hard to think. Laurence was slipping into the pool, unable to keep himself upright.
Then the liquid invaded him, made him drink of it and become as something else. Laurence couldn’t describe it, this burning and itching and breaking of him. He could only scream with great billows of bubbling fear that billowed from his mouth in the same way as the steam billowed out the top of the dome. Even in the fizzing liquid Laurence could hear the shared screams of his fellow [Hero]es -- a scream shared by the sudden exit of steam from the great machine that kept pumping and pumping and pumping the pool. He drank of the liquid and still the pool was full. He kept screaming and thrashing -- or trying at least -- and eventually passed out.
[Blessing Complete -- Will of the Blade]
[CONGRATULATIONS HERO!]
Laurence choked down more of the liquid, eyelids fluttering down in exhaustion.
[HERO OF THE BLADE!]
[LET CRY THE HEART AND BEAT AMONG THE STARS!]
[PREPARE FOR WAR!]
Laurence passed out, not at all sharing his former wonderment.
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Fear was a great motivator, as Thomas had tested when running from the cave creatures, but terror (the big brother of fear) was something else entirely. Especially when an enigmatic and detached spirit began to hyper-ventillate. That was something that would get you to get up and go.
The bat-dragon and surrounding lizards were creatures of synchronized purpose, honed to a single reason of being. Kill Thomas.
Thomas had a differing opinion. That, and the unbridled terror coursing through his bones made him sprint ever faster, not daring to look back and keeping a keen eye forward on the approaching ruins. He surprised himself, especially with the now panicking Guiro chanting “run, run, run!” while pumping his arms up and down like a mix of cheerleading and frantic horror.
The great beasts had turned, and their descent was quicker than before. He heard behind him the now-muted cries of the cave dwellers while each creature in front of him arrayed themselves as some kind of screen, similar to the screens from before, flashed in front of his eyes.
[MODE (00)] - [ACTIVATE?]
Thomas confirmed with his mind and a wave of renewed strength washed over him -- now apparent as he shone from the inside out. The lines like a circuit board were alight and each of his footsteps made him dash forward faster than he could have ever dared before. The winged lizards descended with those same outstretched claws, but claimed only air as their talons found no purchase except a trail of shining green blood that had been leaking from his arm -- with even that beginning to close rapidly.
“Into the ruins! Quickly!” screamed Guiro, constantly looking up at the lumbering descent of the bat monster and other things that were higher up in the air. The great celestial thing stared many starry eyes upon the form of Thomas and looked on in disgust with what he saw. He was judged, sent hounds after him, and so dealt with.
The ruins, an interlocking of smooth faced cubes with once-decoration long since cast away from the weathering of time, came into pure focus as Thomas’ eyes set onto a dim-lit doorway that was soon to be upon him.
Yet before he could step there, get there, to the freedom that the impromptu bunker could (maybe) provide a huge form crashed into the ground. The bat dragon, the thing of huge proportion that wasted no time in opening its mouth and trying to devour him. It’s eyes were white with light, other flying creatures acting the same as they tried to kill and eat him.
Thomas leapt up, unthinking, and climbed the bat with a grace that was unrestrained and surprising. He leapt from a tooth to the nose of the creature, its jaws snapping shut and sounding out a loud bang as Thomas was left to float in the air.
Taking advantage of the momentary vulnerability, the winged lizards dashed forth with their own (smaller) mouths open and claws waiting.
[MODE (00)] - [ACTIVATE]
This time it activated without thought, and with a more surprising event. His arm, a bulbous thing of forearms with very little biceps and triceps, launched forward like a grappling hook into the face of the nearest lizard -- reaching deep into its throat and gripping something squishy inside. He clutched it, pulling both he and the lizard at the same time towards each other, and found himself launched forward and smacked into it with such force that he saw stars for a moment.
He heard the woosh of air as the bat dragon had opened its mouth again, rearing back to consume him, the lizard, and everything else with one cavernous gulp. Panic set in as Thomas used his other arms to grip something, anything, on the ground to dash away from the lumbering and ponderous movements of the great bat dragon. He threw the lizard he held at another, using his other arm as a grappling hook to grab onto yet another lizard as he watched the one he threw explode into gory chunks along with the lizard he hit with the body -- both descending in a spiral of trailing blood and bits that sprayed the others around them.
This time, when the lizard rocketed with surprised eyes towards Thomas he contorted his body to throw the lizard at the bat below and behind him. Then, on the ground, he saw a jut of rock that he threw his arm at, chaining the movement and pulling himself to the ground.
And not too soon either, as a second whoosh of displaced air clapped out from behind him as the bat dragon nearly swallowed him again. He looked behind, seeing that the cloud of winged lizards had dispersed and lessened as some of them still struggled in vain in the maw of the greater beast.
He didn’t waste time, the door was ahead, and he lashed his arm and gripped the side of the frame with it -- adrenaline coursing through every part of his body as he heaved himself through the door. A great crash into it came afterwards as the hot breath of the bat beast huffed inside and shook chunks of stone off.
Thomas didn’t pay attention to anything else as he dashed deeper into the dark of the building, deeper and deeper below the earth.