‘No. I don’t want anything, I don’t need anything. The opportunity to return back to my home world, my reality and to fulfill my dream would be preferred though. Would you agree with that request if I asked it of you?’ said Carissa to the suitcase and the strange man who was a walking anathema to her senses.
In front of her was a bowl of steaming hot spicy meat noodles. The scent of it was both familiar and unfamiliar to her senses, there was a pureness about the quality. She smell of it was telling her senses that it was delicious and saliva formed on her mouth regardless of her intent to ignore them. Carissa had been given a warning by the Ocean God calling himself Oannes, who while not a direct threat had helped and given her cause to hate him in equal measure.
‘Welcome, come on, take a seat or don’t. I'm not pushy usually. Either of you want to try a bowl of freshly cooked home-made soup noodles? My own special recipe. Well your friend can’t eat yet. I’ll just throw it inside his stomach to digest as he’s healing up. Said the man.'
He’d said that he owed a favour to a being who liked hot noodles. For all she knew this was simply a game of another bored god who decided to intervene in the life of mortals for his own amusement.
The sentient and talking suitcase was a nice trick though. The fact that it was overly polite and acted like a servant and sidekick to the man in front of her was a refreshing change.
‘Ah, Casey, did I forget to introduce myself? Sorry, sorry. I'm Horus. I work for the Tourism Board. I got in a tiny bit of trouble and they dumped me here for a while to cool down. All the water...you get it? An entire flooded plant to cool me down? No?' said the man.
The fact that it was sitting on the next chair to her happily chatting as it occasionally floated over to Matthias and back again as though checking on his condition. The young man with platinum hair remained sleeping, Carissa was tempted to check on him but she experienced a change, a shift in the Ocean Gateway System which she couldn’t describe.
There was an emptiness in her form, the grey suit refused to listen to her and alter in any form and after trying to open her own spatial bag it simply failed to open.
[In response to your question Ms Acqua. We could do it. You would be dead within twenty-four hours of organ failure but it is easily done. Your self-constructed technology and altered genetic structure are fascinating by the way, seldom does true genius show itself but you have clearly surpassed it. We could reactivate your entire form for your time here if you prefer. Master Horus tries his best but he makes mistakes as do we all. Please forgive his nature. Are you sure you wouldn’t prefer any refreshments? We can even change the environment if you prefer. I do believe that Master Horus had a favour to ask you, nothing onerous though. He treats most he meets with relative kindness and understanding. In that way the both of you are fairly similar. He’s an outsider as well. He has his own story to share, not place to tell really. Master Horus? Our guest is waiting and has been for some time. To make her wait further is considered rude.]
Carissa decided to ask for a protein style drink of her own design she had remembered making once when she had been younger, full of passion and energy. When she had first met Liam at university, before they had argued and broken apart when he had sold off her technology, her ideas and made the both of them wealthy beyond their imaginations.
Strange thing. Appears as a suitcase, talks like a servant but offers politeness and requests understanding. The Ocean Gods hate technology, they made that clear. So why are we inside a desert on a drowned world?
‘Give me a moment Casey, thinking in five dimensions and then enacting it all at the same time is only difficult when you can operate at minimal capacity. I can’t afford a reprimand from the board so I’m trying my best to be subtle while using a degree of force on their jury-rigged system. Remind me to visit that dungeon with the player-god freaks again. I think the main character in their little drama would create an interesting world if he managed to escape the place. Sorry Carissa. Can I call you that or would you prefer Ms Acqua? I’m sorry about the divorce. And the scars, good job with the work though. Very impressive especially for self-surgery.’ said the strange, walking anathema of a man as he stood on a sand dune waving his hands around.
Carissa sighed inwardly to herself.
‘I would like to be left alone. Or you can set me above the gods if you have so much power and I’ll simply imitate them on Terrus if you’d prefer. Carissa is fine and thank you for your attempts at kindness. What exactly are you doing?’ asked Carissa.
The man had changed the skies above the arid desert, above their comfortable red chairs showing the man who had taught and supported her a little. Even brought her down to the Deep Temple after giving her advice and a single item.
The view had been interesting, the size of the screen being the sky meant that Carissa was able to observe every action clearly, Sherry and Chas had built or rather grown a boat from their supplies and parts of the structure which she had been inside and loaded it with supplies. Ropes, bindings and floating crates had been strapped to the sides of the boat which bobbed in the water alongside.
From a larger perspective she could see fins in the water and large shapes moving just under the surface getting closer to the position. The view for her zoomed in and out across the skies of the desert as she focused on each part and person in turn.
‘To make it short? I’m hijacking the rough system they cobbled together with the permission of that ocean god who seems to support you. I mean, he knows better than to cross me but power and reality work in interesting ways. Too much breaks one or the other, then even I’d be in trouble. I do not want to be sent to a nuclear irradiated hellhole filled with zombies again. Nothing new to see, nothing new to cover and frankly a waste of my time. Casey, you take over. I’m too blunt for this type of work.’ said Horus.
As Carissa blinked the man simply appeared sitting back in the chair near her as though he hadn’t just been standing on a massive sand dune in the surrounding desert.
The changing skies drew her attention and Carissa knew that the view was attuned to her mind, to her will, at least temporarily.
‘Have a go Carissa. Focus on what you want to see and you’ll see it. Not that there’s much to see, a bunch of the same fools in exactly the same nuclear submarine scenario completing or failing in different ways. I’m going to have to restrict viewing to the intermediate and high-level players except for your old friend there. Just a taste will do.’ said Horus.
When she wanted to see Mike, she saw a tanned man in his mid-fifties with an angry expression clearly visible on his face with the same muscular stomach turning into fat. He stood a little taller than before, his shoulders were back and his posture was straighter but he didn’t hold a weapon in his hands as he climbed steadily up the top deck where he had beaten her and then dropped her into a pool of water.
Although the memory and emotional trauma from his actions had been altered somewhat Carissa still held lingering feelings of distaste for the man. As she paid attention to him, Mike looked up in the sky and with one hand off the ladder as he climbed made a gesture in a random direction.
‘He can see us? See me and Matthias?’ asked Carissa as she watched the massive view of the man in the sky as he continued to climb the ladder and then at the top stretched and began to pull out large barrels from his own ocean storage backpack.
She had never seen the man wearing it before but after he began to place them around the decking of his Driftwood Enclave structure she had been houses in for a single night she gained an idea of what the man was planning to do.
‘A true leader this one. I would have called him a contender for one of the thrones of the ocean gods except for his last attempt with his group didn’t go so well. I’d tell you but I don’t think he’s appreciate it. Would you like Matthias to wake up and enjoy the view as well? I promise you that he’s presently in more of a healing sleep, Casey fixed the worst of the damage but we’re not allowed to interfere. Not usually anyway. Ah look, he’s pulling out some fuses, going for the old blow it all up and let the gods sort it out trick. Interesting. Old and overly used but interesting. Carissa?’ asked Horus as he looked in her direction.
You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.
Without turning his attention to the view of Mike which was displayed across the entire skies above his head he was able to describe exactly what was happening.
The entire desert surrounding them as she sat on her own red leather chair was silent as Carissa closed her eyes and willed the image of Mike to leave. While she was mildly interested in seeing the situation she wanted answers to questions.
Herself and Matthias had tried to enter the main structure of the Deep Water Purification Facility before they had been enclosed in a small sandstorm and brought to a desert where a man dressed in some type of nuclear protection suit and a floating and sentient suitcase had met them.
‘No. Just….let him do what he needs to do. Or stop him blowing himself up if you can do to that much. I’m sure sure of what your purpose is, either with me or in this dead world but I’d prefer if you left. I don’t want anything, I don’t need anything and I’d appreciate if if your suitcase friend doesn’t ask me about Liam. I’ve already met one dead friend and I don’t want experience that sensation again. Whether you’re one of the ocean gods or their creators I’m not having any of it. Send us back to the construct we were in, we had goals to meet and a place to explore.’ said Carissa.
Horus nodded his head.
‘Yeah, the problem is that you were entering a death trap. Literally. Oannes made a few changes here and there to keep you safe and lower the difficulty a little but to be honest your only ally in the place was delayed. Seriously, you think you can walk into a top-secret military grade mad science research facility and wander around with lab coat items hoping to bluff your way through checkpoints? Nope. They planned to kill you, Oannes might have a few tricks but he’s barely one of the ocean gods. Don’t worry though, you’ll get back to that place when you level up a little. You want to fight? Not an issue, you and your sleeping friend will have a decent fight before you enter a Floating City. Or you’ll both die. I can only influence so much. Well, actually, I could do whatever I want, including vaporising all the water on this planet and turning it into a real life desert. Or turn it into a planet full of ducks. I’d pay for it though. The game has to run for one more time before a decision above my pay-grade is made. You realise that we allowed an entire planet to be used for an artificial production environment to create ocean gods. All that death for value. I didn’t let it happen but those I work for encouraged it. They wanted an alternative style flooded post-apocalyptic world with a twist. I did stop any idea of a breeding program though. Killing off a planetary population is one thing. Turning them into eternal slaves is another. Cost me a lot to make it stop. Casey will tell you. Any questions Carissa? Casey, is her teammate almost healed? I need to put the Ocean Gateway System back in place. Oh, Mike is going all out. Shall we have a quick look?’ said Horus.
Far above the desert, out of reach of their comfortable red chairs, Carissa looked up at the sky on which the view of Mike had shrunk to a more manageable size for her sense of vision.
When she had been looking at entire sky the sense of it gave her a reverse sense of vertigo and her eyes and head simply ached. This time it was the size and shape of a cinema screen showing the older man pulling out even more barrels before he lined them up and orange smoke rose in the distance on a far edge of the screen.
The man ignited the fuses or flares he had been holding and stabbed each one into a barrel and he shook his head and his mouth moved.
‘I didn’t play audio for this one. I mean, I could but everyone deserves some privacy sometimes. I’m sure you’d agree. Casey keeps lecturing me on good manners.’ said Horus.
Carissa stared at the screen in the sky before she opened her own mouth to talk.
‘Help him escape. He’s obviously more diminished than before.’
Despite the fact that he stood taller and straighter there was a clear image of his face which expressed pain. Carissa recognised the expression, she had experienced it enough times during her own self-surgery and genetic alteration. The older man was suffering.
Horus nodded.
‘Screw it. Just this once. I’m not going to be able to do this again.’
As a fire began to rapidly spread across the structure and the barrels melted through the roof and fell through Carissa saw Mike preparing himself for a run up before he vanished from her view and then the screen switched to a ramshackle type of houseboat with various cargo and boxes trailing along.
Carissa saw him seated with a drink in his hand and new clothes on his body as Sherry approached him and a beverage appeared in her own hand.
Then she saw Mike pass out with a smile on his face. She spoke softly to the desert air, not talking to anyone but herself but a fondness for the man passed her mind. He had tried to help her in his own way, perhaps he would do so in the future. All she had in the moment was an unconscious Matthias who she now wanted to wake up and leave this place.
‘Sleep. You need it old man.’ said Carissa.
She recalled that Mike had mentioned an old teammate of his called Veronica but she had died and he was touchy about the subject. She turned her attention to the boat on the cinema style screen in the desert sky instead.
The structure of the ramshackle boat was an interesting one. There was no mast or visible means of propulsion but it simply flowed through the water as a good speed as visible large forms and fins just beneath the surface of the waves moved towards the larger sinking structure of the Driftwood Enclave that had been her home for a single night and a morning.
She considered how much they had left behind and abandoned but she needed to focus on her own situation. When she turned her attention towards Matthias he had appeared standing next to her, his eyes were visibly open and he was standing guard with a hand on his hilt but other than that he failed to move before he collapsed to the sand by her feet.
In front of her the red chairs had vanished, as had the strange man who had worn protective environmental clothing but the floating suitcase remained as it turned in her direction.
[Your companion has been fixed Ms Acqua. I believe that you have regarded as having successfully completed a starter level construct. Congratulations are in order if you are able to survive your first true trial by combat with a randomly selected demi-god. A word of advice, you don’t always need to kill them to beat them. Master Horus has sadly been recalled for his actions despite his good intentions for a peer review by the Tourism Board. You’ll find the Ocean Gateway System will be operating back to its current capacity soon and Master Horus has asked you for a small favour when you return to your home world of Terrus. Would you care to listen or alternatively you are both entirely free to leave. Your companion is waking from a most pleasant dream of beating his mentor in a sword competition.] said Casey.
Hurriedly looking about her, Carissa realised that she was becoming diminished one more. Inside the desert, either seated on the red chair or standing her body was entirely her own. There was an invisible pressure pushing down on her as her senses were reduced to base human levels once more and the technological implants deep within her were entirely deactivated.
A spark remained though, a fragment of power which reminded her that at least one small part of her designs was functioning. Reaching for her spatial bag she pulled out a water bottle and tearing it open poured it on the skin of her palm and she watched water evaporate and bubble when she concentrated.
[Master Horus instructed me to leave you with a minor parting gift. He is unable to break the rules but he can provide you with a little leeway and an advantage he hopes will grow. In his words, magic and technology make for the best destroyed worlds. Would you listen to his request?]
Carissa stood up from the red chair as it transformed into sand as she gently shook the shoulder of Matthias as the Ocean Gateway System took her into it’s grip once more.
‘As you want. I appreciate the gift from your master. When I return to Terrus I’ll try and meet his request as long as it doesn’t discomfort me. Return me and Matthias to the next stage, we have a demi-god to challenge.’
Matthias blinked his eyes a few times as he dropped the hand on his hilt and turned towards Carissa and the sight of the floating suitcase and surrounding desert. To his credit he sent Carissa a direct message through their own group messaging system asking her a personal question and re-checking she wasn’t possessed or an imposter.
Carissa scanned it her mind’s eye and sent the response before she saw him visibly relax.
[You’ll enter a preparation area as soon as I finish. Master Horus simply asks you to find a man called Johan Wolff on Terrus and tell him he can’t escape the broken dungeon until he owns it. That is all. Goodbye Miss Acqua, Master Matthias. Good luck.]
The surrounding desert began to vanish as the scent of ocean air filled their nostrils as the pair entered their next challenge.