[Player Log Start!]
[Log Holder: Benedict Carrey]
[Level: 2]
Verity’s brain had been hijacked, Feathertooth was nowhere in sight, they were all trapped in a mound of earth and grass that was going to collapse at any moment, and these angry crows were the only things keeping them from the exits.
Ben could safely say that the crisis had reached critical levels of shit.
“Listen, you don’t want to do this.” She coaxed them, “We’re all in danger, and the least we can do is get out before it all burns down, don’t you think? You can kill us after.”
“We’d rather kill you now.” The few crows in the flock that could speak English intoned in unison. There went her attempt at diplomacy. If only she had Lucky and Jared’s Compulsion Cards on her, then she would’ve been able to stop this foolhardy nonsense.
One of them, the largest, standing at nearly the same size as Verity, pointed its beak angrily towards the desiccated body of a long-dead raven, “This was Landon. He was one of the first corvid in our recorded history. He was a hero, dedicating his life to the advancement of the ravens by being able to create shelter outside the reach of the squids. And you have killed him.”
How was Ben supposed to respond to that? She didn’t even know anything about how this cocoon thing worked. The thing inside Verity, however, puffed up their chest, “Maybe so.” They acknowledged, “But are you willing to give up your lives for the spirit of nothing? Because dawdling will result in nothing but death, when your numbers are already so shattered. Your Main Nest is here, kept afloat through The Cocoon’s combined power. Are you willing to toss them all aside to win this stupid battle?”
This caused the birds to hesitate. Looking amongst themselves and cawing their opinions. Without even bothering to translate their decision, they all turned to leave through various passageways, cawing what could only be warnings.
“They’ll be back to hunt us, once the majority of the Nest is warned.” The thing inside Verity said, “This was merely a diversion in their eyes.”
“Fine by me.” Ben replied, “Michael, get us out of here.”
The boy nodded shakily, putting his hands out and letting out a burst of energy to blow the roof open further than the narrow slit Verity had created. The blast itself came out with much more power than necessary, and it seemed that even Michael was shocked, with the way he nearly disbalanced himself from the recoil. He looked at his hands, still radiating purple and green, “W-what?”
“That’s the power of the cocoon’s fluids. A power enhancer unlike any seen before.” Not-Verity explained, “Stop gawking and float us out of here!”
“Alright, alright!” Michael agreed, powering up more Sorcery, this time as a Floatation Spell, and whisking them out into the honeyed skies. They were on the very tip of the pendant shaped nest, and all around there, there was a wave of black, sometimes speckled with blue or red, as corvids fled the base.
From the flock, one of them separated, and came up to fly with them. Ben was already dreading the fight that was about to start because these stubborn birds didn’t know when to quit. But then her worries melted as she recognized the curve of the beak and the beady intelligence in those eyes.
It was Feathertooth.
“Were you successful in your part?” She asked, before it could even start with a snide comment about how badly they’d messed up. She knew that they’d messed up, alright, she knew.
“No. But I believe I came close.” Feathertooth replied, “More information could’ve been extracted, but there wasn’t any time with the Nest coming down around us. How did you even manage that?” Even early interventions hadn’t managed to stop those snide remarks, it seems. More’s the pity.
“They had nothing to do with this.” Not-Verity interrupted, “All of this was of the Cocoon’s doing. In their desperation to snatch up a viable host, they failed to take a lot of things into account. Such as how much energy is released when the liquid that has been containing even one human soul is turned back into pure energy and electrical impulses.”
Feathertooth tripped slightly on thin air, “How dare you implicate-” It recovered itself, looking her up and down as it glided through the air, “You are not the Harbinger I am familiar with.”
“I am not a Harbinger at all.” She concurred.
“Then what are you? And what connection do you have to the Sacred Cocoon?” It asked, hovering around her.
“For nearly a century, I lived inside it, dependent on the membrane and the fluid to keep my consciousness alive, even as the body grew stale around me.” Not-Verity replied, “We were waiting for a viable host to come through. After it became clear that no humans had survived the apocalypse, we set our sights on the birds. Though that was not very effective. Verity Monroe was a precious boon thrown our way.”
Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.
“She wasn’t a boon.” Michael muttered darkly, “She was my friend.”
“No need to start whipping the past-tense out yet, boy.” Not-Verity assured him, too flippant to come off as anything except condescending, “She’s still alive. Doing her damnedest at it, even. It’s almost annoying, but then again, our predictions for this soul transference operation were built upon the assumptions that we would be transferring into husks or mannequins, or other similarly soulless creatures. We could not have known that this would be the outcome.”
“Then let her out!” Michael demanded, and his rage made the Floatation Spell flicker, sending them bobbing up and down. Below them were blue waters, with not a crow to be seen left behind. The nest had been left half a mile back, now teetering sideways and about to come apart at the seams.
“Okay, buddy, try and take deep breaths, will you?” Ben tried to calm him, “We need you to keep your shit together because otherwise, we’ll drown.” Her crisis management voice needed some work, because that was not how people were supposed to act.
Michael listened, however, and the Floatation Spell restabilized. Not-Verity relaxed somewhat, and Ben wasn’t her biggest fan right now, but she hoped that this would make her more pliable to questioning.
“Why aren’t there any landmasses here?” Michael asked, glaring at the blue abyss spread out below them, all roiling and churning in the promise of certain death, “There have been islands everywhere!”
“There weren’t any major mineral deposits or mines in the area when the Apocalypse happened.” Not-Verity explained, “The debris from the ones that were blown up eventually resettled into the islands that you might be referring to.”
Ben took a sharp breath. Feathertooth had said as much about the islands, but to have it explained so callously was jarring. An entire continent, maybe more, had been wrecked. All for-
“Wait, what?” She looked at her, “Why would it matter if there weren’t any mineral deposits or mines in the area?”
Michael grimaced, “But guys, seriously, I don’t know how long this spell will hold up. We need to get to safe ground before we crash into the ocean and let the squids rip us apart for Verity’s war crimes.”
“There is an island big enough to serve as a platform for you, a few miles in that direction.” Feathertooth glided over the wind, “You may slowly bring us down at an incline, allowing the wind to guide us.” Michael nodded and wrung out his hands.
[Michael Kapok is Applying Sorcery…]
[Spell: Windbreaker!]
A strong wind picked up, guiding them downwards, while a soft updraft made sure not to send them hurtling into the water. He was getting better at controlling the spells, at least.
“So your Apocalypse came in the end of… precious minerals exploding?” Ben guessed, once she had readjusted to the sensation of being moved around by thin air.
Not-Verity shook her head, “Not quite. They were looking for the minerals, more like. Blowing it up to make access easier.”
“They?” Michael asked, “Who’s they?”
Whoever they were, they had apparently ruined the entire world in a bid to get their hands on some paltry scraps of metal. Which hadn’t even been successful. She didn’t need to know more than that. Other than the possibility that they were still alive. That was horrifying.
Wait, the others. They’d gone after a possible lead for more people. And they hadn’t even made any attempt to contact them or send a DM or anything. That couldn’t mean anything good.
Not-Verity, however, was unaware of her ruminations. She continued with a frown, “We were unable to ascertain their origins, but they were not of this world. All I know was that they appeared in the sky, in droves of metal and overseen by a few sparse people, heading towards the areas where minerals were rich and plentiful.”
The Developers were behind this too, Ben realized. Another world wrecked by their meddling. But this time, a more solid target that they were after. Resources. Mineral ones. There must be a need for those in their schemes. But what that scheme could be other than destroying other Realms, Ben was unsure.
“You guys got looks at their faces?” Michael asked, “Or the people’s powers? Maybe we can identify them. Or at least work to prepare in case these guys show up.”
Not-Verity’s face twitched, but she wasn’t too expressive anyway, so that was no admission of guilt, “This was more than seventy years ago.” She pointed out, “And I understand that Verity is from another world, as are all of you, but I doubt that human lifespans are different there.”
“They’re not.” Ben confirmed, “But those guys? They probably weren’t human. If the Developers were using the same tactics as of now, those would be Apocalypse Harbingers. Close to human, but no cigar.”
Not-Verity nodded, absorbing this information, “Verity Monroe was a Harbinger?” She asked, out of nowhere, “My memories say that that is the case.”
Michael nodded, and they all were flung sharply off-course in response to his emotional state, “She was. But she was also my friend. And she was a good person. Would’ve given up her life for us, even though we never asked that of her.” He was just ranting on his behalf now.
“That was the intention of agreeing to enter the Cocoon.” Not-Verity confirmed, before tacking on, “She’s not entirely gone. Still flitting about in there, and I don’t think she’s going anytime soon.”
“Really?!” Michael asked, his head shooting up. They whipped up as the updraft picked up more speed. He sobered quickly, bringing the wind into control, “Sorry, sorry, is she alright? Can I talk to her? Is this like a plurality situation? Can you switch?”
Not-Verity shrugged, “Unknown. I haven’t even been here for an hour. Don’t know how to properly run in this body, even. She’s… much shorter and muscly than I’m used to. I was a nurse before.” She supplied, before Ben could ask.
“You’re not at all like her.” Ben laughed, “You sure the Hippocratic Oath didn’t break the second you entered her body?”
Not-Verity frowned, and Ben was just attuned enough to her mannerisms to know that she was uncertain, “I’m not sure how this works? The science for it is still on unsteady terrain. I’m surprised that it even worked at all.” She leaned forward, looking at the seas below, “Hey, is that land?”
Ben looked down, unsure how she had missed it. But yes, there was in fact a small island in the middle of the ocean, covered almost in green algae. An oasis of respite. She could feel her shoulders loosening already in relief.
“Thank God. This couldn’t have come quickly enough.” Michael said, the veins in his arms bulging from exertion, “You mind if I bring us down a little faster? I don’t it’s going to last much-”
He was cut off by a pillar of water and solid purple flesh bursting out exactly where he was. The only warning she got was the feeling of the displaced air, sending ripples all around them.
The tentacle the size of a tree trunk wrapped around Michael, and fell back into the depths, sending water splashing up.
[Player Log End!]