Lord Joyde The Madman: Heylo, everybody! How are you all doing?
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Blech.
Writing at 3:15 in the morning, but I finally managed to get myself into the mood.
Must be the coffee.
Or maybe its just that today is a special day. One of the rare days that I woke up feeling good.
Anyways, here comes the next chapter of Euphoria! I sincerely hope that you all enjoy, let us begin!
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Don't mind me guys and girls! I'm just a line break...
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Back with Leonardo... - Unknown Place - A few minutes later...
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Perhaps its because the gravity of this world is nearly double in strength when compared to that of the Earth.
Or maybe its because my own powers have grown since the last time I used Ether-Walk or flew using psionic energy to anywhere.
But it only took me a few minutes to reach a new, unknown shoreline after leaving the island of my rebirth, ah- sorry, my *re-forging*. The first thing I noticed on this beach is how untamed it was. There were zero traces of any kind of civilization nearby, with trees as tall as five story homes and errant greenery covering every inch of solid ground.
Speaking of solid ground, even though this is a beach, there was not a whole lot of sand. In fact, there only seemed to be a few patches of it wherever the land was in intimate contact with the ocean water. The large majority of the shore however, was a fjord; that is to say completely littered with small rocks, some of which were multicolored crystals.
All kinds of interesting pieces of precious stones littered the beachhead. Rubies, diamonds, sapphires and even a few bits of gold could be found around. I had to suppress the urge to collect everything, yet I didn't manage not to at least take the stones into my hands for a while.
Which is how I noticed that I can't really feel the stones like I'm used to. Y'know, with flesh and touch.
With a massive sigh escaping me and after pointlessly, dramatically crushing the piece of ruby that was in my hand, I doused my body in psionics and QI, forming the mutating energy known as Sanguinite. Molding the power with intent, I refashioned myself for the first time ever, replacing my infernal body of stone and metal for one of flesh and bone.
To be fair, I kept my organs as they were. My current insides were far more efficient than the ones I'm used to and there's no need to fix what ain't broken.
Wait...
This body wasn't broken.
So... why did I just transform myself back to flesh?
Because.. I am used to being flesh?
... No.
I scratched my head in confusion and promptly spat out liquid metal onto the ground. Something beyond my current ability to see was most definitely influencing my actions on this planet. Wonder what that could be?
Speaking of sight, it seems that my little act of refashioning has left me with the ability to use my Auspex once more. The activation of said ocular power allowed me to notice a large gathering of unknown life-forms a little off the shoreline. Shrugging and deciding to follow my sudden interests, I started walking in the direction of the crowd.
As I did this, I couldn't help but notice how almost everything around me had its place in the world. And I don't mean that as in a place within the circle of life, but literally every blade of grass was taking only the most efficient amount of ground for itself, leaving the rest for others of its kind. Every tree was at least ten meters apart from the other, even if their leaves intertwined on a regular basis... Looking at the leaves a little closer, I could notice an exchange of matter and energy between the trees. They did not appear to be physically connected per say, but energy was being deliberately sent from one tree to the next.
Perhaps this is a strange new method of plant reproduction? I mean, I don't exactly see or hear any bees buzzing around. Or birds, now that I think about it.
The tree's themselves seemed to be a relative of the oaks back on earth, except their bark was an ashen grey and the leaves dark blue. Picking up a fallen leaf off of the ground and consuming it, I realized that the leaves have bits of uranium within them... and that they use radioactivity instead of sunlight to produce energy?
A tap on the ground confirmed that the trees did have roots, ones which spread entirely downwards, like a massive bark spear, which in turn had plant-like tendrils, protrusions for seeking out a supply of deep water or maybe even minerals. Well, whatever their direct purpose, they provide the tree with elements that cause the bark to adopt an ashen color.
I'd have to consume an entire tree to learn more but I don't feel like doing that right now. Instead, I'm just gonna name these things grey-barks.
Walking through a forest of suspiciously perfect flora.
... Ah, fuck it.
I'm just gonna say it.
Everything around me has nanomachines inside of it.
Help support creative writers by finding and reading their stories on the original site.
Literally.
Everything.
Well okay, not the rocks.
Or the ground.
Every living thing around me so far has had traces of nanomachines rushing through its body. I guess this means that some of the nanomachines from the tree managed integrate themselves into other life-forms. Adolf was created with the intent of forming a symbiotic relationship with its host, which is what these nanomachines have done and have been doing for God only knows how long.
Thing is, they aren't sapient.
They're running on a program.
A protocol that seems to be tailored to each and every organism. Yet... they aren't interconnected.
There's no floral network. There is no reason for every plant to know and accept its place in the forest.
Why is there no Chaos?!
The entire place just screams UNNATURAL.
... which is kinda ironic when I think about it.
Also, I have yet to find even a single insect. Some random life-forms ran past me a while ago. They were too large to be anything other than animals. I did not bother to look closer because I was nearing my current objective. Which is to say, I finally arrived to where all the life-forms were.
But before I leap into the fray and meet up with the natives, maybe I should wear some clothes?
On that note, my refashionment left me in what I used to call my Chaos Form. Aka, my skinless self. Oh yeah, the skin-suit doesn't actually come with this form! That was something Aria always sew together for me. Oh well, shouldn't be too hard.
First try at creating a complex piece of clothing: failed. A piece of ragged, dried-up skin was thrown aside.
Second try at creating a complex piece of clothing: failed again. A set of human arms was buried into a grey-bark tree.
Fuck this shit.
I gave up on trying and made a pair of pants and a shirt of human skin grow out of myself before ripping them out. Why did I even think that sewing something out of nothing with psionics is a good idea?
Shaking my head in annoyance, I lastly made my usual combat boots grow out of my feet. I tested the feeling of the hard ground beneath my new boots. It felt... strange, somehow.
Like I was walking on concrete, yet it was clearly soil. Anyways, coming closer to what now seemed to be a battleground between two small war-bands, I found myself noticing my own reflection upon a clear crystal."Hmm..." I hummed to myself.
And then promptly grew on a coat, some gloves and recolored my outfit crimson."There we go. Now I look properly horrid." I sang mostly to myself as I finally got out of the perfect underbrush and...
Um.
There's a lot more life around here than I thought.
A blink.
No.
Its just that one of the two war-bands clashing in front of me seems to be made entirely out of the walking dead. Or undead, whichever you prefer.
Hmm, I wonder if there are necromancers on this world? Ah, magic has already been confirmed, why am I even asking if there are any corpse-lovers on this planet?
Shambling bones and flayed flesh aside, the living war-band seemed to be formed out of small, grey-skinned humanoids. They have gill-like tears on their cheeks, perhaps a remnant of their oceanic upbringing? Oh, the humanoids don't seem to have any nanomachines inside of them. Well, neither do the undead, but you get my point.
Their feet have only four toes each, even if their hands have five fingers. They're also all very short. Like, the biggest guy around is a meter and twenty centimeters tall.
The most striking difference between males and females, yes they have humanoid genitalia, seems to be that only the females have hair. On that note, there does not appear to be any form of non-head hair on their bodies."URAS-KATAR!" One of the short-stacks suddenly exclaimed and pointed towards me, his squadron quickly directing their spears in my general direction. On his command, they began throwing said spears at me, each of which was deflected off of my psionic barrier, one which I barely remember forming around myself.
My powers have been acting strangely ever since I got on this planet. Gonna have to check this out soon.
Anyways, there is a little something else that is bothering me right now. What the little grey one screamed out: URAS-KATAR.
Why...
Why exactly do I know what this means? Abomination of flesh.
Clearly, they think I'm one of the undead and honestly, who can blame them?
I closed my eyes and focused on my powers. The psionic energy around me seeped into everything around me, scanning and analyzing everything it could reach. ... Is my energy, no my brain, imitating what is usually being done by my nanomachines? Or perhaps, now that they're gone, new powers are beginning to surface.
They did use up around thirty percent of my cranial capacity, after all. Maybe this would explain all the other strangeness too.
But let us not jump to conclusions."GREAAARHHHhhh..." An undead thing leaped at me and was swatted aside before I could even register the way it looked. On that note, the undead war-band was made out of the same grey-skinned creatures as the other one.. except, you know, dead and stuff.
I let out a massive sigh.
Not having a bunch of sapient machines whirling around in my head and making sense of everything is making things surprisingly difficult. Adolf, Aria... you guys have really fucking spoiled me rotten, haven't you?
Making everything so damn easy...
"Cheh." Flicking my fingers towards the undead horde made a wave of gravitational force erupt outwards, cracking earth and shattering the walking dead in front of me. Grinning widely and showing off my metallic teeth, I leaped into the fray. My hands, spread like claws, tore through rotting flesh and frayed bones, showing the earth in ashes as the dead returned to where they should be.
Into the ground."Quickly, subdue the rampaging abomination!" A pack of the grey ones rushed closer to me. They were robed males, carrying staves and weaving magic. I felt their mana collecting together and then blasting against my mind. This made me fall to my knees, to my shame.
Fuck.
If even these background nobodies managed to bring me down with magic... I really need to beef up on my skills.
That said."You shouldn't have done that." My voice seemed to tear through reality itself as psionic energies surged from my brain and entered theirs, promptly causing their heads to explode. By consuming the remains of the necromancers, I finally learned the name of these strange, gray creatures.
The Ifry.
Though... that seems to be the end of that for some reason?
... huh, its like someone or something is limiting me, showing me only selective information at any given time. Perhaps then, the culprit is life?
Or maybe my ever-so-supportive and loyal nanomachines are more useful than I ever truly realized? Sigh, I should give Adolf and Aria a reward when I get back home.
In the meantime, lets continue slaughtering these wretched undead. If life is the one limiting my powers and empowering me at the same time, then killing off the unliving might put me in its good graces."C-C-CHAAAAAAAAAARGE!" A multitude of voices ruptured behind me as the living warriors screamed out tired war-cries.
Even with renewed vigour, one could easily tell that these guys were on their last legs. Ah, man, I did it again, didn't I?
Another good deed to add to my collection!
Fuck.
Guess I should slaughter the remainder of these walking corpses and their masters with as much brutality as I can muster in order to compensate...
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Don't mind me guys and girls! I'm just a line break...
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Ay feth.
Really wanted to write some more.
But I haven't written in quite some time so my wrists and fingers hurt.
Also, since I haven't slept in about 24 hours, my knees feel like they're being carved out of my body.
Everything hurts.
Good night.
And thank you for reading!
I'll fix mistakes tomorrow...
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Anyways, good morning/day/night to you all! ADIOS FOR NOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!