“The readings… they don’t make sense… time and time again the technology has displayed properties far beyond what we have designed it to achieve. The only real explanation is it is interacting with something beyond our ability to currently measure or categorise, but what? I heard the Soviets had been working on something similar since the 40s, unfortunately, we have no access to their data and even if I did even perusing that information would likely get me classed a traitor. As for now, preliminary tests show…” -Recovered excerpt from data packet excavated from an unknown ruin.
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Squeezing through hundreds of panicked, mostly mortal bodies Cobalt dragged the body of John through the caves according to the instructions left behind by Aunt Cinnabar. She didn’t dwell on the fate of the woman who was practically her mother, that would probably destroy her right now. She had grabbed some bare essential supplies before heading off, a satchel of Spirit Stones and little coins of Spirit Metals, a common relic known as a Geiger Counter that should help her identify the location of the cache, and enough necessities to likely last the two of them perhaps a week or two of regular travel and a month if she stretched. Enough had been kracked up by her own impulsiveness and inability to process things healthily at this point, she had to do this, if she didn’t how could she live with herself? Still, with how chaotic evacuations had been already and how chaotic they were likely to continue to be considering the constant beating of gunshots and cultivator battles outside it was more than a little bit of a nightmare to get through the entrance to the cave, let alone deep enough in that they could navigate the winding tunnels.
After a little distance down into the depths light could not penetrate, dim lantern light and a few electric lamps lit the way for a sea of barely coordinated bodies. Every now and then someone would almost slip and cause a domino effect, knocking over several others in a row, if not for the hiding formation it would doubtless it would have been impossible to hide the movement of so many in such little space, already it was stretching the imagination to comprehend how this was even functioning. Finally, the cave opened wide into several paths, the familiar face of Nicole, ever the matron, was leading the evacuees down the right path that would otherwise be indistinguishable from the twisting maze of stone. The extremely short woman seemed to notice Cobalt’s arrival and floated some distance over, enormous eyes examining the duo carefully.
“I am glad you made it out in one piece Cobalt, John too, though the boy seems a bit shaken given how his mind is an indiscernible mess. I had thought you had taken part in that suicidal last stand as well.” She admitted with clear relief. Cobalt didn’t really have the heart to break the truth, though she knew the woman could probably wring it out of her mind if she felt so inclined. “Where is that other boy who is always with you? The one other successful Aspirant in the last set of Trials…”
Tears brimmed in Cobalt’s blood red eyes, her skin instinctively blending into the background before she stopped herself with a tensing of all muscles. Hiding would do no good now. “He… he went to fix the broken bits of the formation a-and he bought some time for the rest of us…”
Before she could elaborate much further small, spindly arms reached over and wrapped themselves warmly across her waist. The tiny woman patting the much larger Cobalt’s back rhythmically and comfortingly. “Aw, don’t push yourself Cobalt dearie… I know how hard it is…”
“T-thank you… Matron…” Cobalt stammered out instinctively, mind going back to all those years ago when she partook in the trials as a child, 10 summers old and barely into the Eighth step of the Wretch realm. “Forgive me… everyone has gone through so much already… I need not weigh any more on your mind…”
She was shushed both physically with a single long finger and psychically by a sudden weight imposed on her mind. “I know you had to grow up fast Cobalt dearie, but it’s alright to be vulnerable, to be weak even. You cannot make something strong while hiding the cracks, there is no need to be ashamed for my sake!”
Slowly, hesitantly, Cobalt nodded. Providing, apparently, all the answer Nicole needed. After a brief nod, the woman spoke again. “My duties will call me back soon, but is there anything else you need to ask Cobalt? I am assuming John is out of it, he doesn’t look or read like he has much going through his head, but your brain is practically burning.”
She shot a harsh look at Artos in John’s body as it opened its mouth in an attempt to speak, evidently, it had enough awareness to recognise it needed to obey this particular instruction as its lips quickly sealed shut. Sighing deeply she rubbed the residue of tears off her face and sniffed, before facing Nicole once more. “I… I will be going deeper into the caves. There is something vital I need to do, and because I need to keep a close eye on John he is coming with me too. In all honesty, I am nervous, scared and I still haven’t fully processed the last days’ worth of events… but I can’t afford to rest or stop now. This is nothing you can help with but I-”
“You needed someone to listen, right?” Nicole answered for her in understanding, recognising Cobalt’s oncoming futile rant. “It’s quite alright dear, I have a few guesses myself what you are going to do, and while I don’t like it I recognize the necessity. Allow me to give you something before you go, will you?”
Cobalt nodded, and without any further delay, Nicole fished out a few small vials and puked up a few concoctions of vile smelling liquid. “Some medicine, for the road. I wish I could offer more, but for now, this will have to do. Safe travels Cobalt, I hope to see both of you in the future, whatever that may mean.”
Cobalt gulped and let in a deep breath as she prepared her answer, a simple yet firm. “Thank you, I hope so too.”
And with that, Nicole returned to her post guiding the chaos of the evacuation into a more organised stream, and Cobalt turned down the winding passageways of the underground to secrets hidden far deeper beneath. All the while the artificial thing puppetting her last true friend’s body stared with eerie cracked eyes, glistening with something resembling metal.
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They wound down what must have been miles of smooth water-carved limestone and impossibly tight tunnels that Cobalt struggled to contort her body through even at its smallest, how her forebearers had managed to get this far she had no clue. Light was not an issue at least with her ability to give off a constant glow through some minor alterations to her skin and allowing her Si to poke through, and somewhat impressively even with someone else pulling the strings, John’s body seemed inherently at home in these dank cracks, squeezing near effortlessly through them as though by instinct, the metallic Relic on his right arm disturbingly shifting as though made out of water to fit through the worst of the gaps. It was admittedly a disturbing sight, almost as disturbing as the knowledge it wasn’t really John in there, highlighted by its unnatural silence. There wasn’t even the sound of breathing, the air simply being filtered through a layer of slime over what looked like new gills.
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
Though, remembering how she tore through the bodies of men, the ecstasy that followed… maybe she wasn’t one to talk…
Following the path drilled into her memories by the efforts of Aunt Cinnabar the party of two were led to a winding chasm in which the geiger counter relics practically screamed in her rucksack. Down below was a deep pool of water illuminated an unnatural blue by ancient Si mechanisms yet to die out completely even after centuries. If this wasn’t the place nothing would be. The main issue being now, getting down.
The rock face was sheer and slick with centuries of water and mysterious slime, any handholds would have been precarious at best. To a mortal this would have been a lethal fall, even to her it would likely be unpleasant to slip. Especially with the risk of falling straight into a body of water so suffused with Si she doubted even someone two steps above her in cultivation well into the Wanderers Stage would have been able to dodge the Curse. Even from here, insulated from the direct contact by who knows how much water, she could feel the familiar burn circulate in her meridians. Thankfully, however, she did have options.
Extending her claws and allowing the muscles of her arms and back to spasm to inhuman proportions she turned around and jumped backwards into the chasm, sinking her claws deep into the stone before she could fall very far. The stone seemed to handle her mass fine, even considering the fact she was admittedly denser than any mortal woman, and with a sigh of relief, she looked up at the blank, unsettling stare of her companion.
“Are you hopping on or not?” She asked, though she would never admit it aloud she would actually much rather prefer if she didn’t have to make contact with Artos. Something about it just screamed wrong to her instincts, but likewise, she didn’t trust it with John’s body as was. So this seemed like a worthy compromise.
It looked at her with a blank expression that despite totally lacking in emotion pissed her off more than if it had shown active disdain, a look that silently asked the question ‘You are wasting both our times’. “I think I can handle this, actually.”
With a horrific squelch, Artos extended its right arm a massive distance, sinking metal plated fingers into rock as dozens of distended eyes spun around in all directions to search for new anchor points. With a series of movements far more graceful than anything it had exhibited before it swung safely down to the bottom with impressive efficiency. Was its previous clumsiness just a facade then? Or was it simply getting more used to being in control? Cobalt couldn’t decide which answer she liked less. So begrudgingly she simply stayed silent and followed it down to the bottom.
They now stood together on the shore of a truly massive underground lake, though it appeared as though it wasn’t always one. At the shore little fragments of rusted metal and the bones of quite possibly the largest Ohs she could have imagined littered the ground, living Ohs swarmed in the water in the largest numbers she had ever seen, slender pink bodies darting amidst ancient wreckage almost like a parody of birds in a forest, and from the edge of the shore to deep beneath the bottom of the lake the silhouette of a truly titanic structure twisted throughout the background like the corpse of some gargantuan Spirit Beast. What must this place have been like in its prime? At the height of the Golden Age?
“There appears to be an airlock down there, at a bearing of 140 degrees approximately one hundred feet away.” Artos spoke analytically, pointing towards a structure jutting from the side of the cave wall deep in the lake. “Lacking data to make a definitive statement of functionality, but most likely to be best existing entrance without exposing ourselves to lethal doses of radiation, even considering our enhanced physiologies.”
She growled even as she nodded, there was no arguing against that judgement, even the implanted memories in her seemed to suggest that was probably the best way.
“Alright, let’s go.” She said as she took a deep breath, and plunged into the unnaturally warm water. Shortly behind her, she heard Artos follow.
She almost expected Artos to sink like a stone, but it rapidly adjusted its bulky right arm into a strange shape that wrapped around its body with protrusions formed from stretched fingers almost acting like fins. John could likely never even imagine this on his own she thought, Artos evidently knew itself well, in fact, it knew far more than it really should have. Did all machines of the Golden Age have this potential? Did this say anything about the machines currently at war with the Empire? There were so many questions, but painfully not likely to be many useful sources of answers.
She gritted her teeth before she could taste any more metallic water in her mouth, pushing through the burning she launched herself at the sealed airlock and forced it open, shortly behind her came Artos soaring through the water like it belonged there. Her body burned through oxygen far faster than most, so even with her prodigious lung space she realised she needed air fast. Artos did not have that problem, on account of the gills carved into its neck, but if she didn’t find air on the other side she would have to go back up to the surface, and she didn’t know if she could make it that far. Either that or allow Artos to enter the ruins first… alone and unsupervised with Spirits knows what from the Golden Age.
Against all her better judgement she tore forward and ripped the second door of the airlock off its hinges, causing a massive torrent of water to flood the dark complex.
“WARNING. FLO-ING D–ED FR-M MAINT-A-CE AC-SS T-NNEL 12, SE-LING AREA” A cracked, ancient alarm system blared. How was it even working after so long? Golden age tech was as amazing as it was terrifying. Red lights flashed across the roof, and as several large blast doors began to shut as the room flooded with water Cobalt’s fascination was replaced by terror. Who knows how long it would take to get something that heavy open, especially with air in short supply?
Before she could even react Artos had rushed over in the blink of an eye, using its morphed right arm as a splint to hold the door open. It stared at her with that unsettling expression, and contorted its face into what was almost a smile.
“Your injury or death would likely be suboptimal for the long term health of the host.” It spoke bluntly. “Please stop dawdling and get over here, this arm can hold an estimated 12 more seconds and you will have another three of air after the blast door shuts.
It was right, she didn’t trust it, but there was no use getting distrust in the way of the success of the mission or her health. Doing her best to push away her ugly emotions she ran through the door, into the unknown.