COI C226
An AI is controlling the vessel, watching over and protecting what holds the last surviving creatures that inhabit the central continent of this world. The robots tried to secure the unwanted visitors, and it also brought those parasites.
“. . . Analyzing, spirits remained invading the facility. Duration took place. 565 cycles, or proximately to years is. Warning! Data incomplete. Enemies are approaching, three sections are in the breach. Warning! Jammer over write!”
Inside the facility, another spark appeared. Not from those usual outside phenomena within the city, it happened inside the vessel itself. The rip of fabric in space opened like any magic portal. Unstable, and unpredictable if it will hurt the one who uses it. Then sudden cut, where four people appeared out of nowhere. Fully equipped as they are prepared. Wearing breathing mask and runes as their armor. Other than the normal adventurers’ appearance. They wore a more modern/sci fi uniform. As one of them carried an electronic device, the other with electrical weaponry, and the two with their runes.
The breath of their breathers shows the filtered toxicity drop down like falling dust. The putrid air here is so dense that it would be impossible for someone to breath in short period of time. The man polarizes the dust into his hand, easily moving it as there are a lot of metal dust coming from it.
“Flashes, we are definitely inside the vessel”
“All of us know it, Magnet. They’ve already been here before”
Hito leans to Miss “Have you guys got in here?”
“They wish. Everything around here is different compare from Rune Isles”
Flashes brings out his audio and plays it.
“I’ve chosen you people because of your past achievements. I don’t need the best to get in there and settle what treasures lie inside. The mission is simple, destroy the jammer. And let me remind you again. This is not the time to test our arsenal what you’re going to face. If what I heard from the goblin is true. Chances are that the enemy have no reason to fight us. They are just protecting their secrets. Remember! Destroy the jammer!”
The audio stops. They first find a corner to rest. Where they lay down, they found scraps after scraps scattered around as there was a battle going on here. Hito was curious and tries to reach it. His hand polarized and yanked back up. Magnet taps Hito’s back and signals him his warning. Flashes takes a picture, the sensors on his lens find more than Magnet warned Hito. Those scraps were not junk, but pieces in hibernation mode. The runes hidden in such small detail ready to start up whenever it’s ready. If Flashes guessed, it means they will rose up, combine themselves, and ambush them.
They didn’t waste time to check it out whereas more of them will surely get them. Magnet senses energy around him, actively and not a single circuit is breaking. His polarity aura is able to sense the electromagnetic waves to see the machines condition. Miss stays silent as she tries to get herself straight. The runes around her in a form of scraps, she lingers it with her own spell on the runes. Steadily not letting any of them link together. There she reads the writings are. It is so close to understand a little bit. She turns to Flashes
“Were you a programmer before?”
“Somehow, but why asking me right now?”
“Those pile of junks are offline. From how far I can understand”
Magnet agrees with her “She is right, but we can’t seem to describe it properly”
Flashes watches them trying to figure it out, and only their own abilities and UIs are giving them the warning. The cult leader is right. It is difficult to understand anything here. He then sees Hito. Hito is rather quiet and his return to Fuku City is a mystery of himself. His past, Hito never mention it, and it is for the best like the rest of them. Even waiting like this, makes him recap how far they got here.
Flashes, himself. His double is been doing a lot lately. After that convention, he is actively being annoying to him to research what his double brought. Miss, the rune breaker specialist. Her involvement in the defense is rememberable, because of her double is blabbering about it. She is one of many unlucky defectors to have partnered with snobs. Compared between his and hers, his double is improving. This makes him worried. His eyes play grim for his double’s plan.
Magnet is a different matter, taking the identity who is already dead, and fresher from getting his revenge. Or so he heard by the surviving defectors. The rapist from what he heard Magnet is one of them, he assumed. It was impossible for let them live after such a humiliating encounter. An ugly bastard, with the fame of the bastard’s name, the Perb. This is nothing more of an ego thing, yet, they kill themselves from that experience. None of the victims will tell their stories. Not wanting to face the rapist again as they hid, and only remains are the people who wants to get rid of that crazy man. Sadly, the rumors say he still out there.
Speaking of rumors, Hito moved somewhere else before the last siege strike. His disappearance led to many of the residence reporting of people went missing. Flashes spits to the side of the corner after remembering that lie.
Hito is disgusted “Come on, be a little more discreet”
Flashes knows Hito changed. His tired expression becomes lively. Even he has some improvement on the back of his shoulder, but it aged badly wherever he sees it. Thank goodness that the cult leader’s organization provide Hito with help.
More memories to remember in this boring resting corner as time goes by. He starts to look around and brings his remote-control flying drone. It hovers into the air with a camera on it. The drone scouts the area, where it guided with the map made from the city guild. Corner to corner, there he sees what he was being warned. A level to where go down, where many robots are focusing the invasion of the rituals. Both reports from the city guild and the goblins are truly in awe to behold. It passes by many fights after fights, whereas the robots are still wining.
Finally, when the spirits were able to get at least one of the robots. The spare parts where it at their side begin moving. Rolling itself to the battlefield, only one or few go down, and use to repair itself. While the broken parts carried back here, and begin repairing again. The ceiling begins to open and starts the process of repairing. Crystallized to clean it and mid forge the damaged pieces then so on. All recorded on his drone, and still hard how is this logical.
He whispers to himself “Just unjam the internet”
Magnet and Miss have already show their distaste when they see it repaired. They learn from random trivia, but not with magic. While Hito have already given up the idea to understand anything inside this vessel. Miss watches the parts repairing itself again
“. . . That gangster’s advice is getting on my nerve, Magnet”
Magnet looks at Miss. He is trying to understand her expression whether it was a joke or sarcasm. This is no joke, their heads already have zero understanding how this world goes.
Flashes hears a beep where the drone have found another route. He said to them
“Are you guys done talking? Good, stick closer as we are going to zoom into the next room”
Hito dashes to his side while the others normally moving closer to him. Their bodies pixelated and transfer into the next room. A robot walks in before they disappeared. It looks at the parts continue being repaired, and momentarily banging metals together for no reason. It turns around and mysteriously disappeared.
The drone had been going around and see nothing but battles between shamanism and robots, and this is the one of other places are very secluded. The defenses were hardly been seen or even coming after them. This is the safe bet as they are being teleported, and right in front of them is the panel terminal. Magnet scans his surroundings. Miss readies her disruptive rune magic. Hito powering up his electrical move sets. Lastly, Flashes with his escape routes planned. With all of them prepared, they quickly access the terminal where on screen shows locked.
Miss speaks the obvious “Figures, and I thought is this one of those games moment. Flashes, let’s go somewhere else”
“No can do, this is the place”
“What?”
Flashes hears an alarm and shows them something they didn’t see other than shamanism. Corpse of dead bodies, monsters got exposed by the moon light. Seen on screen, capable to go through this toxic vessel. Abomination to their eyes as Miss holds her mouth
“Undead?”
“It looks kind of obvious, but there is more”
Flashes’s drone found dripping from the vents, toxic fumes coming out forming a face of goblin spirits. Dropping bits of pieces covered in crystallized dust, freed and revealed. The body is formed with horrible rituals. Its own body and walks among the others.
Hito can’t keep himself quiet “This place!? What is this place?”
Magnet, Miss, and Flashes can’t answer that. The mission was simple until they learn more than they shouldn’t. They have to move fast before those nightmarish spirits found them.
Miss says to Flashes again. “I didn’t hear anything why we can just teleport away. They will be exterminated easily by the defenses”
“Like I said, I can’t”
“They are just undead. What they can do to stop you from using your gadgets?”
“We’re already here! The jammer”
“FUCK!”
The monsters are coming, they smell the stench of fresh life. The nightmarish creatures recognized those stenches. The goblins’ lives tainted among them. Rages on to find them as their blinded rage pursues. Distracted by the defenses, there ceaseless advance won’t stop as more of the dusts crystallized flesh is breaking free. More of them is coming, and all of their purposes to get here changed into a frenzy. The robots taking the advantage as less those spirits are, they will slowly notice them.
Flashes goes to the panel, and uses his gadget to hack through it. An experimental device supposed to hack the ships in Rune Isles in the future, now it is tested with their lives. The locked screen disappears and shows a loading bar. As it loads, right in front of them, the open space forms thunderous sound and a rip into empty air. A room is being teleported. A vortex sending in the parts of the ship release abnormal amount of power. The burst of light pushes them forward from its immense force. Magnet polarized it and makes it into a barrier
“Everyone, get behind me!”
Miss sees the vortex opening and the structure is coming out in molten form. “This is hard to believe that you hacked to make something like this”
“I don’t know, I just place the panel there and hoped those smartasses can do”
“Eh, typical”
“AAAH!” The monsters lunge forward in mid-air as they couldn’t reach Flashes from the force. Flashes took a surprised as he trips and pushes away from his team. Hito comes to the rescue as he dashes back and forth with tremendous speed bringing Flashes against the force. The two pass them as Hito can’t stop. Then they were crossline by Miss’s spell as they roll over then fall to the ground.
“Two typical then” Miss rubs her arm from the pain.
Both Flashes and Hito knock unconscious. Miss’s eyes went pale
Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
“Oh fuck! That’s right, my runes. Shit! Magnet, I hope you can help me bring these guys back up. Because it’s going to be the two us fighting here”
Magnet steadily holds the polarized barrier and points her to Flashes’ cameras and other unfamiliar devices.
“Then go learn these things. Change your RAPs and understood all what these are”
“My RAPs are supposed to be help me keep awake”
“That’s what you get for forced it instead of taking care of yourself”
“Because that bitch is sufferable for my personal time”
Rage fills into her runes to balance her unstable powers. A random monster formed by the toxic air. Accidentally got hit from her menacingly enrage fist, she gives it a strong hook as she screams out of her own mind
“Why shouldn’t be that bitch’s face?!!!”
The toxic air spirits forced into the appearance of her double. That sweet must be beaten in her almighty strength kicks in and blow off in one hit. The toxic fumed spirit laughs at her as it thought she wasted her strength on it itself. However, it failed. Miss is not going to stop.
“You laughed, bitch!? FINE!”
Miss pops out her UI and change every detail needed for her to know about Flashes’ equipment. There is a saved file of the list that Flashes prepared for her and the rest of their team. Her body feels worn out and her sleepy eyes weighing down as she feels the consequences of her own health. For the past few weeks, her double is being calling her for some reason about not going out while she is debuting in the internet. She can’t go her usual night lifestyle, she is easily riled up, and she frustratingly abusing herself with her own RAPs.
It was unnecessary though. Miss didn’t let it go. It is her favorite time in the night and where the best bars open that time. Obviously, she knows it. Then again, during this moon cycle is one of the worst by far in her experience. She is glad that Fuku City keeps away such problem. For Miss, this builds up so much when the internet suddenly dies a few days ago. Isolated in her room, quarantined, and continue of her time thinking, her double. That’s where her problems going through her own powers. That punch is more than just a tired hook. It’s the beginning of their doom.
Her mana spreads and reaches the robots from below. Mechanical runes made by archscience. Miss hides within her sleeves. Within her breather where something on her lips and teeth bit on it. The breather releases out the air, fumes with different colors. The fumes reach at the robots and spirits, changing colors, and it sips inside as fast as it could. Tainting its plating and spirits’ bodies, removing the paint and its essence. There exposed hidden and engraved by rune writings and ritual writings. Her hands raise to release the secret item on her sleeves. A stick, and she breaks it into two.
It explodes as it cracks, causing a fuse eruption from the fumes going into both the robots and the spirits in a short time. The runes inside of the robots enhanced in such a large margin. The robots are receiving such strength as they climb up. Improving their runes give them more capability. Miss needed that, as runes are greater than any mana inside of them. The monsters possessed in spirits have their writings and drawings gone. But Miss knows they are not gone. The ruins have thought the citizen of the feral spirits endless return, there she learned from it from cult’s leader secret lab.
Miss hands follow the hand gesture to form a skill, like she is directing something where she controls the runes. The empowered robots are getting closer as they move forward bypassing the immense force. She pointed them down, as the hovering and climbing robots are forced to the ground. The taints of her fumes and powered the robots at the same time. They tried to open fire, but Magnet polarized the projectiles away. He feels the difference of their fire power.
“Miss!? What did you do the robots? Its attacks are heavier than the last time”
“I’m one versus them, you think that the Fuku City will solve all of our problems”
“Flashes! Hito! Help her . . .”
Miss checks them, they are still both knock out. She shakes her head trying not to regret it and by thinking it as those two as stress relievers. Her fatigue kicks in as her RAPs are utilizing Flashes’ gadgets. A yawn from her mouth, where she momentarily sees the robot charging forward. Miss uses the same arm that crossline them both. The robot mimics the same roll over as it flies up and gets polarized out.
The torn-up robot ripped Miss’s clothes on her arm, and revealed that she forgotten about. A magic item with basic effects boosting the enemies furthest reach of their body’s speed. Like hitting Flashes and Hito’s head, it boosts the speed from the farthest part of their body. It is their feet and fingers. That’s how they roll over such full revolution. The robot though with little neutral mana it had, shouldn’t spinning like that, unless Magnet is involved.
“. . . Ah forget it, it’s here!”
Magnet did help her out. But Miss shrugs it
Another blasting of light from the vortex as the silhouette is form. It materialized with molten glow in light blue, slowly cooling off then suddenly materialized in a flash as the vortex stops. Miss uses Flashes’ camera and teleported them to the entrance. Magnet lays his hand on the door. The burning molten fire scorched his hands. His protective gloves stop the flames melting into his hands. With his magic to try pry open the door with his polarization spell. An unstable vibration coming into the lock trying the resist the break in.
The robots are coming on the floor, with the taints from Miss’s fumes. The runes have fully corrupted. Tired without her RAPs to keep her awake and only filled her mind with knowledge of Flashes’ gadgets. She calls out the electronic devices with her own magic to manipulate the robots before reaching them. The robots froze by the flash. Teleported in pixilation then appeared next to each other, bumping them off the railings as they fall. The drone comes in watching over from above. She sees the remains of the monsters are now recovering. The spirits are returning again once more as she expected.
The drone continues to monitor both her rune controls on the robots and the restoration of the monsters. Miss’s casts her spell on Magnet, enchanting him to boost up his powers and range.
“There! I buff you up. Help me get this platform down”
“I’m busy here. Are those two ever going to wake up”
“Those two are out cold”
“They still didn’t wake up?! We are in Flashes’ crazy actions and he let us do all the work” “Ugh! Just get that door open. I hope you know how to get in”
“My RAPs are set to do this. How do you think I was able to polarized archscience tech!”
A few robots attacked, but caught from the polarization and sends into the air. Miss casts her spell and pushes them back. She knocks back only a couple of them until the rest able to catch them. The lasers fired at them as they charge. The energy attacks froze in place with a flash. The static of the energy is losing with frequencies. Waves of electromagnetic impulse trying to distort the laser. The laser keeps itself in a straight line as this one possessed a lethal shot.
Miss tells Magnet “Use your ultimate!”
Magnet can’t distort the laser and quickly uses his ultimate with Miss’s buff, without even to channel it first. Miss’s power is moving pass into his body.
“You should’ve told me that you used your ult on me!”
“Now!!!”
Magnet shouts at his ultimate “Magnetic Meteor!”
“Oh, you son of a . . .”
The meteor fires forward in full speed. The robots got caught and collectively pulled into its core. The magnetic meteor stood still whereas Miss takes control. The tainted runes of the robot stretch forward thinly to reach the monsters’ bodies. The spirits restored the monsters as they rose up. Pulled or pierced into the rune parts to the station magnetic meteor. They all revolved around it as the biomatter and machines are forced together.
Machines and decay formed together as the spirits trapped into the runes while the robots endlessly cleaning itself from the biomass. Both sides won’t give in and cause a cycle of repairing and damaging themselves. The putrid smell stretches and at the same time getting cooked by the energy of the robots. Miss watches them struggle. Her strength is getting weaker and the meteor finally moves forward. The polarity goes against the wall. The vessel resists Magnet’s ultimate, without leaving a scratch. As the fight ends, three of them are out. Magnet continues to open the door, and finally the door broke open.
Magnet pulled them in and closed the door as he repaired with his magnetic spell. It was taken too long and he is used the materials on his inventory to make it a barrier instead of fixing it. They are inside of the jammer. Magnet turns around and sees pillars, but he was not easily fooled from its ancient structure look alike. It was more of computers stacked vertically. There was a reason for its design. The discs are pointing to the center. It must be the signal waves focusing into one node. Or whatever he can understand by looking at it.
The signal waves though, it shows frequency that easily for any human eye to see. Mostly electromagnetic waves can’t be seen in a human eye. But this one can let you see it. A familiar color though. The waves are sending frequencies to each other. Then a face is formed out of nowhere. Magnet uses his magic to catch it, but his neutral mana couldn’t touch it. There he tries another way. He picks up his device and ready to take a picture. One snap as the face appears again. It was a definitely a face, but nothing to compare for goblin shamanism.
It looks different, there usual laughing face is nothing but an emblem of some sort. He sits down and complicated on the matter. Tired from what is happening, and the mission is already right in front of him. Hesitated as he is the last one standing. He waited for his team to recover. He pulls out a magic item and concealed them from any enemies they might come across. Soon, they will be going to finish it and escape this hard-to-understand sci fi world.
The jammer is materializing. A robot is materializing within the signal waves from within. It is bringing out parts of metal slowly falling down to the ground without a sound. It continues to fall over the materials needed as the body. Later, it was enough then signal out with the jammer inside the vessel. It calls out the robots and the robots follow it. The frequencies gathered the robots. They move as fast as it could but lost track where it came from.
There, the two robots coming out from the containment room. The room that filled with living creatures sealed away into the crystals and sealed runes. These robots were seen to fight security of this vessel. The mysterious robots that fought its own without understanding why they did it. They gather to the door and wait for the room to open. It didn’t, it was barricaded. Parts slip into the corner of the entrance as ritual spells able to rematerializing the parts and into the robots.
They build each other up. Throwing away the excess parts and putting together the most powerful piece of equipment into them. Carefully and wasting it all by their numbers into a few of them. It was enough, the spirits that control the robots are satisfied. Then they hear a call of the spirits.
“Dujin”
Finally, they heard it. The voice of other spirits coming into the reality of this world. Their ritualized components are under its control. Their body formed. Everything else still lost their sight of any living. They can finally call out in their new speakers
“METUL!”
The robots, contaminated together by the biomass of the spirits. Heard the roars of the other spirit tribes. Their warning signals calling out to the vessel about their return. The biomass spirits heard them too. They given up their valuable dried-up corpse and let the robots destroy them. The spirits scattered and follow the voice of goblin spirit.
“Dujin”
Rivalries of spirits come forth as the three divide tribal spirits are all together here, inside this vessel. The robots tried to finish repairing themselves. It was too late.
A bomb slide towards before them. Scratched with ritual writings and inside of its spirit is ready to collect. An electrical magnetic impulse push tried to short circuit the robots’ circuit grid. It usually breaks the electrical components, but it made out of runes. The robots push the bomb away and quickly charge at the enemy robots. As the two faces each other, the robots see the full developed structure of the opposing machine. Humanoid like body, waiting for them to strike. As one enhanced with a bulk attack. It immediately shuts down.
The bomb was able to short circuit them, but it wasn’t their system broke down. But the archscience needed piece of the types of mana: Shamanism. The ritual is pulled away the shamanistic power it has, losing what makes the robots function, sort of. The vessel’s AI sees it and immediately forces the robots to self-destruct. The robots explode as their parts are secretly spread and taken away before those spirit robots to get a hold of them. After the explosion has been cleared, the spirits robots are also blown off, and with their own parts scattered but not taken. They pulled each other together with the spirits collecting it for them.
Slower than the robots of this vessel repairing it. The marked of their rituals grew stronger with every hole and broken piece of equipment is replace with rituals. One of them has restored its sensors and look at the jammer room. As one bit of its piece of component start to function.
It speaks “Hi ya shaman. Saved by the lifeless ones”
Then it turns to look at the others being repaired. More spirits are returning after the vessel’s robots loses their shamanism.
“Can’t see the live ones, our brother spirits somehow get us out from our prisons, mahn”
A whisper from the other spirits reaches its ears “Ah see mahn, then our wee brothers would be doing the talking”
Mix rituals come alive both metul and the forgotten ritual. It’s horrible broken stature to go where that goblin is. The goblin assassin watches through the camera how fast it goes.
“This is going to give me nightmares. The restless spirits are truly won’t restore themselves until they find rest. Those vengeful spirits entered the vessels are the start, but freeing spirits from the robots surprised me”
He looks at the screen where the new room is. It was unimaginable how it links and the cameras are functional over there after years of never been used. The rooms thought it was sealed forever, maybe forever keep intact from what the goblin assassin is thinking. He was kind of lucky those four tired themselves out before destroying that room. If the vessel is a living thing (AI controlled) and might hurt itself and dug down again, but there is more problem he had to see. This place he is in, he is too far from any people who tried to get in.
The thought to be a dungeon will be good for everyone. But it was not. He finds out that this place is more sacred and preserved for any right to be. There he reads unfamiliar language from the past eras.
He makes himself wonder “Why those two humiskis didn’t see these on the magic board thing? The pictures moving is good enough for me to understand, but why didn’t they see it while they left me out to the dust. Hmm”
“Hmm indeed, mahn”
He turns around and sees the robot slips in with its robotic limb.
“Respect your ancestry, mahn. Let your spirits come and watch over you”
“AAH!” The goblin assassin tries to escape
Two spirits meet each other at last. The Metul spirit with the freed spirit saw the primitive spirit of the goblin assassin. The childish ‘NO’ speaks out from the surviving spirits. No reasons, no wisdoms, and no link to the worlds origins of ritual might. The present is cursed. No wonder they can’t be reach from the void or anywhere to the emptiness of life. The manically laughter from the back is ringing to the old spirits’ damnation. It is the view they have envision before these have happened. The robot said to him again
“Then I’ll give you good teeth. Collection of strong bodies”
“Strong bodies!”
The goblin assassin heard legends about it. There are spirits among the goblins who chose of being seers. But they didn’t possess such power. He was being tempted. His spirits are arguing inside his head, but his accursed mind won’t listen. He supposed to escape, yet he remains.
The robot gets in then stops “Would you mind to move elsewhere? We’re blind. Metul spirits control this body”
“Metul spirits. Are they the shakas among the legends?”
The goblin moves away and the robot gets close to the computer.
The spirits gathered all of their voices and said to the goblin assassin’s spirits “Slave spirits, as they as you were”
The goblin assassin feels the rage of his spirits running amok. They charge in with every powerful ritual it had. The robot resists it with its own rituals. The goblin assassin’s spirits failed miserably, and it was the sheer insult that stops goblin assassin to join in. Confused, how his spirits quickly acting out and their wisdom were quickly broken and not realized they are fighting their own. No lethal attacks would harm each other spirits.
The robot says to the goblin “We don’t have much time. Even you will hold the lore of the past. You dolts will ruin it anyway. Now listen here, you lone wee mahn. I’ll give you the strong bodies right here”
It opens its ritual chambers and a vortex is open. Molten piece of weapon materialized and said to him
“Change your rights to our tribe, and you will break free from your curse”
The goblin assassin sees a weapon, a very unknown tempting weapon. Calling him idiots make him hesitate, but the feeling of a goblin kicks in. He reaches out and says his name
“I will, I am . . . Stilpok”