There was a pressure holding him down. It didn’t feel like it came from a single source, it came from all around him, it enveloped him completely. Trying to move proved futile— his entire body felt encased and damp. As he opened his mouth and flared his nostrils to inhale, something else entered both. Trying to cough proved useless, whatever had entered his mouth had burrowed deep.
Suddenly, his surroundings began to shift. It wasn’t a great force that caused the movement, but it was noticeable. Slowly, he felt himself begin to rise, small somethings poking his underside. As he rose, the taste of what had invaded his mouth became clear.
This is dirt, he thought.
----------
Alex, with stone-covered fists, rushed to the door. As he reached for the handle, the stone that covered his palm became thinner and flatter, allowing him to grasp the door handle with ease.
Behind him was Anna, sword in hand, ready to strike at anything that got past Alex. The rest of the people that were inside the wooden warehouse, who were free to move, just stood there, watching what would happen. If anything got past both Alex and Anna, then they wouldn’t make much of a difference.
The pounding at the door grew louder and increased in urgency. Alex wound his arm back and swung the door open, ready to strike at whatever was behind the door.
Instead of a threat, the door opened to reveal a man covered in dirt—not just dry dirt that you got from falling to the ground, but thick, damp soil that clung to him like he had just emerged from deep underground, where the earth was normally moist.
Alex lifted his gaze slowly. It took him a second to see behind all the layers of damp dirt and the tangled pieces of greenery that covered the man’s face. But eventually, he was able to make out the owner of the face.
“Tony?” Alex muttered with quiet surprise. “How are you here? You—”
“That was the other thing I forgot to say,” Lydia interrupted, cutting off Alex’s question. “One of the gods that came apparently had an interest in the graveyard, but I didn’t know what to make of it. I guess this answers that question.”
Stella hurriedly walked toward the door, yanked the still groggy Tony inside, and stepped out ready to reassure everyone that everything was okay. Though to her surprise, no one really appeared to be panicking. It appeared that the screaming was more due to surprise than anything else.
When Stella thought about it, someone had to have directed Tony toward the warehouse, so at least some people were already fine with him, regardless of his appearance or previous state.
A college student that had been rescued from labs approached Stella cautiously. “Is that… Tony?” she asked, her voice hesitant, as though embarrassed to even voice the question.
Stella nodded in response.
“Oh, thank god,” the young woman said, clutching her chest. “Thought I was going insane for a second there. Well, better get back to it,” she added as she turned and walked away from Stella.
Stella was stunned, she had heard from Lydia and others from the city, that the people in Solace were odd. As time passed, some of those same people also noticed the same oddities in those they arrived with.
They were adapting far too quickly to their new conditions. Stella had seen it firsthand and even recognized it in herself, but she was always left a little baffled when she saw such a blatant display like the one just now. Shaking it off, she nodded to herself and walked back into the warehouse, closing the door behind her.
Once the door closed, Lydia walked toward the newly revived Tony and lifted her hand, placing it on his chest, a faint golden light enveloped him. She took a step back, narrowed her eyes, and shook her head. She once more approached Tony and repeated what she had just done.
She repeated the process until finally, Tony’s eyes, who up until this point had been vacant, devoid of any life, finally gleamed, showing a spark of consciousness.
“Was he not, you know,” Marcus gestured toward Tony, “fully alive or something? And what did you do? We haven’t really finished a single topic, have we?” he added, the words escaping his mouth as he thought about the various topics they’d had up until this point.
Lydia had said that the gods made a plan to remove Eric from Solace, all so that they could gain entry. She had also said that, according to god she had spoken to, Eric was still alive. However, whether that was true or not was still unknown.
She also mentioned that something went wrong with the gods’ plan, with someone meddling with an artifact they created, the book that clung to Caleb’s thigh. Apparently, whatever was done to it had corrupted Caleb and made him do things beyond what the book was supposed to do. Caleb was still unconscious, but his momentary awakening seems to support what Lydia said.
Related to that, they established that the three people from labs that were currently tied up, were genuine believers in what a corrupted Caleb wanted to do. So that was also another problem to handle.
Other than the three fanatics, they also had to figure out what had happened with Lydia. And now, they also had to make sense of what was going on with Tony, who literally came back from the dead.
Everyone, excluding the three captives, let out a collective sigh, with it they expressed the amount of weight that they just felt fall upon their shoulders. They exchanged glances, showing tired expressions.
Even though Anna and Alex had high enough endurance that a single night of not sleeping would barely faze them, their eyes conveyed the same level of exhaustion. The stress that worry and fear generated in them was more than enough to exhaust them, not only mentally but also physically.
“It’s clear that I know more than the rest, so I’ll start,” Lydia said, eager to get this over with. She took a breath, her eyes scanning the group for their attention. “First things first, I didn’t really have a conversation with a god. That is how I remember it, but I think that’s just my mind trying to make sense of something that it doesn’t understand. It was more like understanding was pushed into my head. Which now that I think about it, explains the pain.” She instinctively grabbed the side of her head, wincing as memories of her first moments of waking up flooded back.
Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.
“Regarding what my eyes and what I can do, I will tell you later,” she added, pointing at Stella. Everyone nodded, satisfied by that answer.
“In regard to what I did to Tony,” she continued, her speed increasing, “while it was a healing miracle—yes it was a miracle—it wasn’t healing anything. It was more like I was hastening his awakening. Just imagine waking up from a coma, but worse. He should be fine now,” she said, turning to face Tony, who had his head down, massaging his temples. He raised his arm and gave a thumbs up, confirming her words.
“Whether Eric is still alive or not, as long as the zone doesn’t change owner or go through a drastic change, I think it serves as an indicator of whether he is alive or not.” She turned to Stella who was already going through her menus.
“Everything is still the same,” Stella said, relief clear in her voice. Internally, she was admonishing herself for not having considered something so basic and she wasn’t the only one.
All four friends had experience with related fictional works and should have come to a similar conclusion, but they hadn’t.
“So, that’s a yes,” Lydia said, as she resumed, her cadence increasing even more. “Who knows how Caleb will awaken. The madman needs a cure, and the fanatics are just that—fanatics. Neither I nor the god I spoke to have any idea, or better yet, an opinion as to what to do with them. Though I can help you,” she added, looking directly at Stella.
“That solved most of the questions I had,” Marcus said as he sat on the ground, feeling the tension leaving his body. “Now what?” he asked, not knowing what to do. His eyes looked at the floor, vacant, empty of any drive to continue.
He wasn’t the only one. The four friends had been driven by the need to solve all the issues that had recently plagued them, mainly figuring out what had happened to Eric. With all of that mostly solved, the tension that had clung to their bodies mostly dissipated.
Whatever unease remained, did so by clinging to the possibility that they would never see their friend again.
Stella closed her eyes and took a deep breath, calming her mind. She turned to Alex and gestured toward Tony. Alex returned a question gaze. Stella, knowing that Alex was unsure about what to do, shifted her attention to the now fully alert Tony.
“Plant or tree powers, right?” she asked, confident in her assumption.
Tony frowned. “I don’t—”
“Then check,” Stella said, hurrying him, her tone a mix of impatience and encouragement..
With a slight nod, Tony looked through his status, concentrating on his class and skills. “Trees, yeah,” he confirmed, lifting his head with a hint of surprise.
“Okay. Here’s what we’ll do for now,” she said decisively. “You,” she pointed at Tony, “will go with Alex to the carpenters. My guess is that you’ll level up quicker there or discover something unique to you, so it’s better to find out sooner rather than later.”
She then turned to Alex. “You will tell Han to make a small prison. It doesn’t have to be impenetrable or anything, it just has to hold our prisoners until we figure out what to do with them.”
Alex raised an eyebrow. “Including Caleb? What if he wakes up and he’s normal?”
“We would still need to observe him for some time. Make sure that he is in fact normal,” Connor said, swiftly answering Alex’s question.
Stella nodded, appreciating Connor’s insight. “Exactly. You two,” she said, this time pointing at Anna and Connor, “keep an eye on the people here. We can’t afford any surprises.”
“Marcus should go and bring back some food,” she continued, glancing at Marcus, “but then return to work on the electricity issue.”
“Might have already solved it,” Marcus said, some energy returning to him as he reached into his pocket. He pulled out the crystal Alex had given him. He quickly imagined himself taking a hot shower, and not just cleaning himself with water from a bucket.
“Good. And you, Lydia, let’s go and talk in my office. I really want to know what this whole thing is about,” Stella said, waving her finger in an erratic motion to indicate she meant everything. With a clap, she and Lydia were the first to leave.
----------
The sound of hammering echoed through a large chamber, where lava—or something resembling it—flowed like a river, interrupted only by small stone paths leading to a circular platform with various blacksmithing tools, a small pond for quenching, and an anvil.
“Have you still not figured out who messed with the artifact?” the old God of Abundance, Historia, said as she appeared out of nowhere, startling the small robotic gnome and dwarf pair.
The dwarf stopped his hammering, but there was still sound of something moving somewhere and constantly.
Standing at his full height, the dwarf was as tall as the old hunched-over woman, easily meeting her eyes. “It didn’t happen here, so stop asking,” he replied, his every word releasing enough heat to melt planets.
“You can’t be so sure, Draven. I can get in here easily enough,” Historia said as a cane appeared in her hand, which she used to tap the floor. “See?”
“That’s because we allow you to,” Draven answered. “Even you would be burned if we didn’t allow you to be here.” He felt something boring into his skull and turned toward the gnome who had a frown. “Yes, I’ll tell her, don’t worry.” He let out a sigh. “He says Memoria hasn’t finished paying for the book’s material yet.”
“She hasn’t?” Historia asked with feigned surprise. “Last time I leave Harmonia in charge of anything regarding the little one.”
“Yeah, yeah. Just make sure to pay up,” Draven said. “Timepiece over there hates dealing with debts.
Historia shuddered at the mere mention of Timepiece, the small robotic construct made of an unknown silver metal that Draven, the smith god, never made again. Its appearance was made to resemble that of his deceased best friend.
Historia had never seen Timepiece in action, but if he held even a fraction of the power of the one he was modeled after, well, the mere thought made her shudder. She could only imagine the damage such a thing could inflict on her.
Draven narrowed his eyes. He never asked what commissions were used for, but even he felt what happened recently. His curiosity was piqued, so he couldn’t hold back and neither could the gnome construct.
“Though, I might be willing to forget the debt if you were to share what exactly it was used for,” he said, examining the old god intently.
“What happened to customer privacy and all that?” Historia said with a smirk. There was a brief moment of silence, and she continued speaking. “But what’s a secret between friends,” she added while looking at Timepiece.
The construct only tilted its head in response and caused Draven to turn his head.
“Just let her speak,” Draven said, turning back to speak to Historia. “Rumors say that even the Old Blade was paying attention to whatever you were doing. And the frontier suddenly got a lot of new interested parties. Which is saying something, considering that both the Flamebearers and Followers, were already headed there anyway.”
Draven began to sit at the same time that the stone beneath him changed and morphed into a metallic chair.
“I normally don’t know what happens, being all the way out here and all.” He inched toward the edge of his chair, leaning forward. The running lava-like liquid halted in place, the sound of movement completely ceasing. Suddenly, the lava and tools began to behave in a strange fashion, floating aimlessly. “But even I felt that whatever it was that you redirected with what I gave you, was strong enough that it disrupted the System’s protection temporarily.”
For a brief moment, the old Draven that she hadn’t seen since their war against the Titans shined through. She remembered what earlier iterations of the lava-like liquid had done to their enemies and smiled.
“You still behave like a brat,” she said as she hit him with her cane, causing everything to return to normal. “Respect your elders.” She looked around. “Where’s my chair? You don’t expect me to speak while standing, do you?”
Draven smiled, as the ground beneath Historia morphed into a metallic rocking chair. Next to them, the floor morphed into a small table on which Timepiece appeared sitting.