Jayce stood over what he counted as the beast’s lips, the bit of metal before the lines of teeth began. He stared into the dreadful cavern “Looking for heat in an iron giant…I must be going insane.” He told himself before turning around, and that’s when he heard it.
A ticking noise was coming out of the machine, the sound ticked seemingly every second. Like nothing he had ever heard before, the sound continued on without end. Jayce felt drawn to it, his curiosity crushing him from the inside.
“What in the oasis…” he mumbled out whilst turning back to face the cavern, glancing about he noted that the Wyrm was still disabled so…”It couldn’t hurt to check…”
Jayce entered the beast’s maw, stepping around the finely shaped blade-like teeth which he remembered rotating about in several rows. He stopped as the cavern got darker, taking out a small device from his pocket. His most treasured item, a multitask tool that helped him in all of his creations.
It was like a short metal blue pen, with a white tip on each end. Jayce pressed one of the many smooth buttons on its side and one end suddenly lit up like a wide flashlight. He continued onwards, the tool now lighting his way.
Jayce glanced around as he walked through the Wyrm’s metal throat, seeing that at one angle there was a path of sorts for some reason. Else all he could see was rings of metal which made up the Wyrm’s insides, all connected to each other with what seemed like some sort of elastic material to allow the machine’s insane flexibility. Whatever allowed the machine to flex at all, Jayce figured was within the rings themselves.
He delved deeper and deeper for several minutes, the entire thing was massive so it took him a while to even reach the massive hole the other Wyrm had made in this one’s side. On this side though the damage was minimal, a few scattered chunks of missing metal in the rings.
Jayce walked up to the closest one, aiming his flashlight inside to see. What he saw baffled him, mechanisms that he couldn’t recognise filled the Wyrm. What seemed like electronics at first, on closer inspection were revealed to be organic. Like very tiny pipes with a glowing greenish liquid flowing through them, the wiring was entirely out worldly.
Jayce backed off from the hole, confused at what he had seen “I can’t even…begin to understand how this thing was even made!” he chuckled, amused by his own ignorance. He continued on deeper, as the ticking sound got slightly louder.
“The Tinkerers would throw a fit at all this…” He grinned madly while glancing back at the holes he left behind, before turning to see where he was going…Only to be met with a wall.
Jayce stared at the flat metal wall in front of him with raised brows, surprised at the sudden dead end. But on further inspection of the wall Jayce saw a metal door following the path he had seen before, upside down to his right and several meters higher than he could reach.
“Hm…I could…” Jayce thought for a moment, inspecting the path closer. The path popped out of the rings, laying a few feet out. It was made of the same material as what lay between the rings of metal that made up the Wyrm, a solid yet flexible substance.
Jayce took several steps back, taking a few deep breaths before charging towards the path. The Wyrm was massive, so much so that it’s cylindrical innards allowed Jayce to run up the side and grab onto the bars holding the path away from the actual rings.
He put the flashlight behind his left ear and like threading monkeybars in a playground, he swung towards the wall. Reaching it after a dozen or so swings, he grabbed onto the doorway’s side which was a few feet inward and pulled himself up into it.
Jayce held his back to the metal door, looking downwards he whistled “Getting back down is going to be…less simple.” He noted for later not to forget the fall.
He then glanced around the doorway, looking for a touch pad, keypad or something that controlled the door’s system. Beneath himself Jayce found a strange green pad, it popped out a centimetre or two from the doorway walls and had a greenish tint to its iron grey.
There were no buttons on it, and Jayce highly doubted it was a touch pad.
Taking the flashlight from behind his ear Jayce pressed another button and the shining end elongated then bent around like a cane, allowing him to flip it and still see wherever that end was aimed at. Pressing a third button, the other end opened up and from within came out a pointed tip like a pen’s.
Jayce pressed the tip to the panel’s side and it suddenly shone red with heat, he began to slowly cut around the pad. Reaching back where he began to cut, the panel fell off revealing what lay within…more confusing organic wiring which Jayce had no clue about.
Jayce sighed as he stared into the open panel.
There were many theories as to what exactly the Rusts were. From a machine based lifeforms that long ago invaded their world to someone’s invention gone wild. In reality, nobody really knew. Jayce was the first from his people to ever get this close to one, and as close as he was anybody back home would consider him dead a million times over.
“When in doubt…” Jayce said as he pulled the pen back slightly “Start fucking around.” He then said…and began cutting wiring at random. Or at least that was his plan…before he cut the first one.
Suddenly the green wires sprung out and wrapped around his hand “What the f-” Jayce backed off and pulled his arm with the wires along “F-Fu-” his voice suddenly changed, as his eyes opened wide “F-Error, massive system failure. Immanent full Body shut dow-New Body detected.”
With the momentum, Jayce had pulled his arm out and torn the wires off and out of the panel…his eyes returned to normal when he did and he took a sudden long breath as if he had been unable to. He glanced down at the transparent tiny pipes dripping the green liquid, confused “What did…did I just say?”
He stared at his own arm, noticing the wire he had cut first was inside his skin. In a panic, Jayce pulled on the wire and it smoothly came out from his flesh. He threw the wiring aside and began caressing his arm, entirely spooked “The fuck!?”
If he wasn’t afraid before, Jayce was terrified now as he stared at the panel leaking the strange glowing green liquid “Did…did that enter my sys-” he shuddered at the thought. When suddenly the door next to him slid wide open.
Surprised and still spooked, Jayce stood up only to bump his head hard into the all too short doorway above him. “Blasted…” He groaned in pain, falling to the side and through the door without his knowing. As he did so, Jayce fell a few meters from the severely off-angled room he had entered.
You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.
He hit the ground…wall with a loud thump. It was hard metal, and it hurt like a bitch.
“Oh…ohoh…F-f-fuuckk…” said Jayce as he forced himself to stand, bend back as he felt every bit of it on his back where he had hit the floor. As he did so he could see the doorway above himself, the door was closed.
His eyes widened as he finally glanced around, finding himself in a metal room full of strange machines pumping large amounts of the glowing green liquid…seemingly out of a singular tank in the very centre of the room. The entire place was lit up by the green light, mainly coming from the tank.
And Jayce noticed, the ticking noise was also coming from said tank of liquid. Along with the ticking, the green light dimmed and brightened with. He was entranced by it, as it suddenly permanently dimmed and the ticking stopped. Jayce was speechless from the fear, yet his curiosity prevailed and he approached the tank.
He was a mere foot away from the seemingly glass cylinder, the glow dimming further the closer he got until the liquid within was entirely clear. Jayce stared inside, his eyes widened, his entire body petrifying with shock as he saw what floated within.
It was a head.
A severed human head.
Staring straight at him.
And it fucking blinked.
“Ah…Uh…Wa…” Jayce muttered pointlessly as he continued to stare at the head. It seemed male from the bulky features, entirely hairless with bright green eyes. Its skin was filled with pulsating veins of green light, unlike normal veins though these were…systematic, like a circuit.
“Hello.” The head spoke.
Jayce felt like he was going to barf, pass out and cry at the same time. As he took a long step back, all too long as he ended up falling onto his ass.
“Hola?” the head spoke once more with question and seemingly a raised brow “Здравствуйте?” it spoke again…”Nǐ hǎo?” then again.
“What the actual fuck…” said Jayce as he paled considerably, crawling back a few steps while continuing to stare into the tank.
“English…right.” The head said, comprehendible to Jayce once more “Listen kid, I don’t got much time so I’ll explain this as quickly as I can. Your world is about to be turned up side the fucking down and there is nothing you can do about it.”
Jayce tilted his head slightly to the left, his eyes still wide, his mouth half open and his face paper pale “Huh?”
The head sighed soundlessly “Don’t say I didn’t try, good luck kid. This machine has decided I’m no longer useful…and you’re available. I can’t stall it any longer, and I doubt a lanky ass twerp like you can control this…’thing’. If I were you, I’d try to blow my brains out within the next ten…nine…Eight…Seven.”
Jayce stood up quickly and ran towards the wall, slamming both his hands onto the metal as he shouted “LET ME OUT! LET ME THE FUCK OUTA HERE!” banging on it with both fists as tears rushed down his terrified expression.
“Three…Too…Two…Late…One” the sound of a loud pop from behind him reached Jayce’s ears and he quickly turned to look back…the head had exploded all over the cylinder’s inside. Skin, bone, flesh and green brain matter was splattered all over the glass, slowly dissipating…seemingly disintegrating into nothingness within the liquid.
Then it all happened at once.
The glass tank melted away into the same green liquid it contained, as did the rest of the room around him. The liquid came from every side at once, engulfing Jayce entirely. Jayce sank and drowned within the bright green liquid, as he saw right in front of his own wide open eyes...cybernetic-like lines flowing through it.
The liquid wasn’t liquid at all, it didn’t feel wet nor dry. It wasn’t either cold or warm, he just didn’t feel it at all other than the pressure it was putting on his entire body.
Suddenly Jayce’s mouth was forced open by some unknown force, he was unaware that the liquid was flowing into him…through every single orifice available. That is, until he felt the pressure of the flow on…each one.
He wiggled, squirmed and shook around randomly. Panicked, confused and utterly afraid.
He watched through his eyes as they too were forced to remain fully open, as the entire Wyrm melted around him from the inside out. And the liquid all converged on him, a never-ending stream of bright see-through green that flowed into his body.
Until finally, after several moments. The stream of liquid ended, with the last tendrils of green flowing into his eyes, mouth, ears, nose and clothing.
“Computing.” Jayce said in a mechanical voice not his own, his face becoming a blank slate “Central processing organ 30% loaded.”
Jayce suddenly twitched, grabbing hold of his head as his expression warped to agony “Ah!!” he screamed in pain “Get the fuck out! Get out! Get out!”
Before twitching back into emptiness “Central processing organ 40% loaded.”
Then again, back to screaming and wriggling in pain “No! Get out! Get out of my fucking he-”
And again returning to his blank expression, with wide hollow eyes staring off at nowhere in particular “Central processing organ 50 per-Firewall computing.”
Jayce twitched once more, slamming his head into the sand beneath him as he shouted “No!”
The switching between these two states continued for Jayce, getting faster and faster…
“Firewall resisting take-over, Central processing or-”
“Ahh!! The fuck!? Wh-”
“Firewall res-”
“M-My-”
And finally, Jayce fell limp. He lay there unmoving, making not a single sound, his eyes wide open as his face lay in the sand. As slowly green circuit like bright veins began forming all over his skin.
And suddenly, he began to grow. Elongating, widening and…aging. Jayce began to age, his body growing older as the veins spread. With this change his eyes also began to shine a bright green, his hair raising straight to the very tips as the black dye dissipated briefly revealing the dark crimson.
Within the dark red hair, some began turning to a bright green. For several hours these changes went through his body, slowly, he was being altered.
Until the sun finally began to rise behind the village built over the oasis, off in the distance.
And with it, the changes ended. Which is when Jayce began to stand, calmly he stood up.
An entire foot taller, once the age of fourteen now closer to his mid-twenties. His hair, a mix of dark red and bright green hairs. His eyes, a deep green with yellowish methodical line patterns. His skin, full of green veins in the same pattern as the yellow in his eyes…as slowly both faded away before disappearing completely.
Jayce took a long breath “Firewall resisted invasive element. Element has been assimilated…computing.” He looked down as he raised both his arms into view, clenching his fists as he smiled coldly “Invasive element is no more…yet neither is the one known as Jayce…Hm.”
The creature chuckled, was it human? Was it machine? Or was it something else and neither?
“This one needs a personifier, an identifier, a name. Hm…” the being spoke to itself, seemingly entirely ignoring the shifting sand to its right. “This one shall merge old identifiers, human name Jayce and…invasive element name? Element identifier? CyberDNA.V.4.3.2178…Cyber Jayce?...Insufficient. Reprocessing…recalibrating vocal patterns too.”
“Hm…” it hummed thoughtfully when suddenly the sand to its right exploded outwards, as a Wyrm burst out several meters away. Its massive form ripping through the sand and heading directly towards him, its teeth rotating threateningly as they approached him.
He raised his right arm towards the looming Wyrm, as it deformed into the green liquid and then reformed into a metallic claw-like arm with a single antenna protruding out of the palm and the three clawed fingers surrounding it.
The antenna buzzed with green electricity, as the energy surged into the claws and then suddenly forwards in a burst of lightning. The electricity collided with the incoming Wyrm, melting it to green liquid as the energy passed through its entire body.
He was splattered with the green liquid which quickly changed colour to blood-red, then evaporated away into nothingness.
“Huh…a thought does come to mind.” The being continued talking to itself, as if nothing had just happened “They call these creations of element…Rust Wyverns? Wyverns, mythological creatures of frenzy. I am…in part, of similar make. Then I should be called…something also out of myth…Dragon? Draco? No…Angel?...Nah…”
He thought it over for a few moments, while glancing around…until his gaze fell upon the village as the sun rose behind it…
Suddenly anger flashed within, before his better judgement flushed it out “Hmph, I am no Angel but a Dragon is not enough…Ah!...“ he grinned widely, revealing his now perfect teeth “I shall be called after what they should call me!”
Wickedly he smiled, whilst staring at the village “After what I’ll do to them…for what they did to me. Demon...Devil?...Daemon.” he chuckled as he raised his claw arm to lay in between his sight and the village. ”I’ll be called Daemon.”
Electricity sparked viciously through his claws.
“And I’ll turn this entire oasis into my personal hell pit.”