They stood on the corner of a five-story building, basking in their laurels as they were told to do. Servants, attendants of nobles and personal butlers moved around and to them in an intricate pattern to make sure every glass was filled. No hand went lacking the small delicacies carried on gold trays. It was a strange dance Ambrose's squad found themselves witnessing. All but one, an indentured slave, waited upon like nobility. Six women and seventeen men, slaves of the very man having them as guests. It was a strange party. The entertainment laid out below them as rift guardsmen, mercenaries, and adventurers cleared out the battlements of the outer ring and forced the frogmen back out of the breach. The sun had just broken the horizon when the assault started.
It was a stunning sight, Ambros thought, the well-organized guardsmen bringing their packed wall of halberds into the broad front of the frogmen, leaving a trail of slaughter in their wake as halberds rose and fell, stabbed and were pulled back. Archers sent hails of arrows over their heads. Adventurer groups darting in to take down battle leaders and goliaths by the dozens. Still, the enemy came. Pouring in through the breach.
He watched as a particularly large goliath made its way through the breach, stopping up and roaring its cry to battle, only moments later to be struck with tens of ballista shots and fall down in a cloud of dust. The few energy cannons that could reach the battle from the inner ring wall were cutting swaths through tens of frogmen each moment they fired their devastating beams across their packed lines.
He would have been more impressed if he wasn't so preoccupied with his mana pool, mana nutt, mana balloon? He discovered a new mana channel or channels going from his mana center? Yeah, Mana Center fit. They spread like branches throughout his body and ending at his skin. Unlike his mana channels, they only seemed to have one purpose, and that was to draw Energy into his new Mana Center, or more precisely, what he had found within it. The pulsating Mana-Core ( F ) that had decided to wake up from its nap and become an Awakened Mana Core ( Activating). It was one greedy little dot inside his Mana Center. He would have been happier with it if it didn't hog all the Energy he got, but as it was, it sucked mana through his mana channels. Only allowing the channels to absorb what they could garb from the constant stream going inwards. That was on top of already using the new channels to suck in even more Energy. Occasionally it would let out a tiny bit of mana back into his core. It was depressing. The little marble of what was left of his mana pool was still just a little marble. Occasionally a tiny dot would poke out before being dragged back into the mana marble.
He wanted to understand what was happening inside his mana marble, but when he tried, everything was moving so fast that he had no hope of making up from down. Mana particles appeared and disappeared as fast as he could take note of them. While being able to see that there was mana in there, he had no idea what it was doing. Even the thought of creating a spell construct made him dizzy and want to vomit.
Looking into the distance northwest of the settlement, he could still see flashes appearing at different places from moment to moment, even during daylight. He wanted to believe Eku was fine and the little lady, but they had been fighting for a long time now against the frogman with the enormous head. The fight at the breach was still going strong. He could hear the people on the road cheer or groan as the battle shifted back and forth. To Ambros, they looked to be pushing the frogmen back more than they were losing ground. At least that was good.
Jumping up on the railing, sitting down on the corner of the building with his feet dangling over the side. There was no wish in him to mingle with the people behind him now. For some reason, he was feeling morose, and it would not go away. He would hardly make for good company when his tongue was ready to cut anyone that spoke to him. Luckily the squad stayed close, and the nobles having a grand old time while people were dying by the hundreds, rather slit their own wrists than get close to the slave soldiers.
Watching the Castellan and his two guards in enchanted armor was spectacular despite his mood. The heavy shields of shining Energy they summoned on their left arms and the long glaves with Energy blades simply decimated frogmen. The Castellan himself was wielding an Energy blade as long as himself was a neverending whirlwind of slaughter. They streaked through the masses, creating havoc in their wake to reach the hordes elite warriors. When they reached the frogmen elite, they teamed up and destroyed the long-limbed frogmen who, while deadly to the guardsmen and most adventurers, mostly fought alone. Ambros had not seen this type of frogmen before. He would have been happy if he never had either. Walking on two legs, slender and tall. Their heads were not as bulbous as their brethren. What really set them apart was the eight arms. They were fast, fast enough to give his enchanted sight difficulty following them.
He was still left with the big question about the entire sige. Why? Why hadn't they driven the enemy out earlier, saving countless lives? Despite his dislike and disgust of the Castellan, he could not believe the siege was dragged on so the man could fill up his new land with debtor slaves. It didn't add up to Ambros. It didn't fit the man's character, despite his clear disregard for anyone he considered beneath him, which, to be fair, was most people in his eyes. It wouldn't suit his view of honor, as strange as that sounded.
Was the Steward, the now revealed traitor, the one that had been behind the delay? He had been in charge of the settlements purse, so the speak. Ambros still had trouble picturing him as a traitor. He was an unassuming man, never shouting or rushing. He didn't exude power like some of the other nobles Ambros had met. He would be surprised if he learned the man had stepped on the path of Enightend yet, like most of the settlement's leadership.
No, he could not make it fit in his head, but maybe that was why he was– Ambros held on to the railing hard enough to feel it crush under his grip. Throwing himself back as the shaking he had felt increased in intensity. Something was wrong. Something was very wrong. Turning to his squad, he said, “Get down to the street. Stay away from tall buildings. Now!” Apparently, he wasn't the only one with those thoughts because he saw nobles streaming towards the stairs. A few simply jumped off the roof. “Go! Go! Go! Head for the mustering field now! I will find you there!” His squad looked worried, but they paired up behind Grundan. Soon enough, they were out of sight.
Ambros turned his gaze to the battle but could not see any indication of any of the lines withdrawing. He could feel the shaking increase however. Focusing on his hearing, he could hear the rubble across the street vibrating and jumping. It felt like an earthquake was about to happen, and they were closest to the center of it. He was alone on the roof now. All the other celebrating guests and attendants had left. Walking over to a plate set down carefully on the ground. It held clear thin glasses filled with sparkling wine. Taking a glass, he sipped in appreciation. It was a fine vintage, he thought while he watched the other glasses closely. There it was, a thump between shakes that made a drop of liquid shoot slightly up from the surface. Something was moving under them, something big.
Turning back to the battle, he tried to spot the Castellan, but either a building was blocking him, or the man was so deep in the enemy masses he was blocked from his view. He had a hard time believing the Castellan, with his no doubt far higher Attributes, couldn't easily feel the same thing as him though.
Ambros kept scanning and feeling if the shaking had increased, but it was surprisingly steady. He had expected something to have happened by now. Walking towards the railing again, he was about to step off the building and go to the battle when the rumbling and shaking increased in power and volume. An enormous tortoise head suddenly erupted out of the ground beneath the guardsmen's lines, throwing everything into disarray. He could see tens of guardsmen that had just been above the head flung into the sky, thrown by the force of the enormous monster's head. The hole around the head expanded, and its front claws were ripping their way free of the dirt, dragging its oversized shell with it making the hole even larger. Then it came up like a whale shooting out of the water. When it landed, it killed hundreds of guardsmen. A green stream shot from its mouth, melting anyone it touched, disintegrating even more of the defenders. It was like watching a nightmare unfold. The overgrown tortoise was free of its hole and stood there as tall as the buildings in the settlement. It slowly stepped forward, crushing guards and frogmen underfoot with equal indifference.
From the now cleared hole, monitor lizards about half the size of the torties came out of the ground. Swinging their heads back and forth, they jumped into the fray, gleefully throwing people and frogmen in the air and snapping them up in their jaws. It was pure chaos unfolding. The artillery from the inner rings wall didn't seem to have much effect on the large creatures. While the monitor lizards did flinch at the beam weapons but didn't seem to take any permanent damage. The tortoise didn't even react when a particularly skilled crew held a full lens against its head. It just kept walking, slowly turning its body towards the inner ring of the settlement. It was watching the inevitable doom of the settlement unfolding.
Crap! The settlement needed to evacuate immediately if things kept like this. Someone in the central tower must have thought the same. The bells rang for immediate evacuation.. First come, first serve through the rift. If you were stupid enough to bring anything but essentials, that was on your own head.
Ambros jumped off the building. He had everything with him that he needed, but he needed to make sure the squad and Whisper made it out. He didn't see any more lights in the distance, so he didn't know how Eku was holding up. He could just hope the old dragon man was doing alright. Running as fast as he could, he turned a corner and got thrown back into a wall. Gasping for breath in the rubble his impact had made, he saw one of the strange thin frogmen gliding towards him. What he had thought were arms were actually six protruding appendages ending in a sharp spike, as his left thig could attest to from the hole down to his bone. In its two arms, it wielded a short sword in each hand. They just moved constantly in a pattern with the other appendages, which is why he had thought it had eight arms.
The wound in his left leg was already healing, so he pushed himself out of the rubble and summoned his steel shield and Ogre slayer as a battle axe. That was all he had time to do as the thing flew at him the moment it saw he was up.
Each time he moved his shield to block or deflect a sword or a spike, another would make its way through his defenses to score a wound on him, his battle axe was in constant motion, but it was also fully focused on defense. The thing was simply too fast for him. Ambros knew that, eventually, he would lose this battle. It wasn't a battle of attrition. The monstrous thing was picking him apart, piece by piece, wound by wound. They added up faster than his body could heal. But he was still standing, and he was damn well doing his best.
Then he saw an opening as the thing moved three arms high and wide to attack his back again. Darting in, he thrust with the top spike, only to find himself tumbling down the street to his right, back the way he came. Shaking his confused head, he realized it had baited him. Seeing it making its way towards him again, he stood and let the few moments heal as much as he could. He had to find a way to remove its advantage.
He was about to try and go on the offensive when a group of third-step to fourth-step adventurers came up behind the thing. “Stop! Get aw–” Was all he had time to shout before the thing was on them, like top it spun around and between the adventurers, turning them into pieces of meat and blood being flung around the road and on the walls. It was grotesque to watch.
Limping his way forward in an attempt to stop the ting, he soon started jogging as bones reset and wounds healed. His healing rate was becoming something of a freak show by itself at this point. As the thing was busy tearing one of the last breathing adventures apart, limb by limb, Ambros lept at its back, his battle axe leading with the top spike. Just moments from striking the monster, it turned faster than lighting. Ambros found himself being lifted into the air by two short blades thrust through his chest. The things sadistic glee made him almost angry enough to ignore the excruciating pain as it twisted each blade and kicked him off them. Ambros landed with a thud on the road, trying to fill air into his lungs, which were rapidly filling with blood. Only his left reserve lung started up, but it was enough. With a roar, he threw himself at the monstrous thing shield first. Crashing into it, he brought Ogre Slayer down on its neck, only to have the battle axe bounce back as if it had hit metal.
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Hissing at him, the thing said, “Little manlinggggg. Little manlinggg, you come and tempt me with play, yet you tie your hands behind your back while you entice me with promises of blood? Foolish little manlinggg.” The frogman chuckled. Ambros didn't say anything. He was staring at the shadow above them, becoming larger and larger in his eyes. Even the frogman had noticed the large shadow above them now. Looking up, it made to run away, but it seemed to have some difficulty getting up to speed while carrying Ambros, so he laughed while holding tight to two of the appendages in his arms. Screw you, froggy, he thought as his feet finally gained purchase on the ground, and he started dragging it back.
The frogman must have panicked because it threw Ambros away. The tortoise's foot landed at the same time as he did. Missed him by three or four steps too. The day was looking better and better. If it hadn't continued down into the ground, at least. The hole the tortoise made expanded, growing bigger as more of the ground got sucked into it, dragging Ambros with it down into the darkness.
When he came to, he had no idea how much time had passed. All he knew was that his legs were covered in something heavy, and Revitalize hadn't kicked in, so that was a good sign. There had to be a little light coming from somewhere because he could see just fine. Rocks were predominantly what he saw, lots of rocks. Looking up, he thought he could see light coming down from where the tortoise had decided to go excavating, but it couldn't have stepped this far down into the earth. The opening was barely visible, and at a guess, three, maybe four hundred steps adobe him. That was one long fall. He was surprised it hadn't turned him into a paste. More likely, he had bounced down the uneven surface, not a very pleasant thought either.
Summoning Ogre Slayer, he extended it to full, using it to start tumbling rocks off the top of his leg's private burial heap. This was going to take some time.
Finally free, Ambros dragged his hurt but surprisingly whole legs free of the debris. Turning around, he lay on his back, looking up at the light far above. That was going to be one hell of a climb. There was something that felt a bit off for him about the bottom part of the shaft. It looked like the final hundred or so steps down had an unnatural evenness. Scanning further down, he saw a dividing line about three times his height up that the walls went from the natural opening to a smooth surface. When he was able to stand, he took a closer look at the walls in the pit he found himself in. Behind a lot of the rubble he had been trapped under, it lay stacked against one side of the wall. The surface went from natural to made by tools again. Maybe there was another way up?
Quite sometime later, Ambros got done gently moving the top of the pile when he saw metal. Not rusted or aged looking, but an almost chrome finished shine of metal. Speeding up, he threw rocks across the room as he unearthed was looked like a door, well, a futuristic door. He was standing very close because of the small section he had cleared, but he could clearly see the straight patterns going from the bottom of the door until they came to the last third of the door, then they branched off diagonally to the sides of the door. Above them, the depiction of the all seeing eye and on each side, about midway up the door, was the indent of a hand. A human-looking hand. Nothing ventured…
Placing his right hand on the indent. It was larger than his own. The sudden feeling of being scrutinized told him something had happened. The hairs on his neck and arms stood up as the feeling of being watched continued. Ambros felt a quick prick on each fingertip, and the door just glided open. Welcoming him to a long straight hallway of steel. He was afraid someone up top was looking down and noticed the sudden light flooding the bottom of the shaft, so he hurried inside.
What he first had thought was steel turned out to be something else or something more. He could see his own memories if he didn't gaze directly at the walls, fleeting glances of his own life at the periphery of his vision, but he kept walking- He didn't know where the lights came from, and he wasn't sure it mattered. The only thing that mattered was forward. He had to go forward.
Soon images of his childhood changed with images from someone else's childhood. He had never heard the person, but he knew his name was Avery Englysche. Ambros had never met him or was very likely to since he had lived more than two million years ago in a different part of the universe. Avery seemed to have had a good childhood. It continued for this for what he thought might have been a very long time. Either the hallway curved slightly, or it would take him far outside of the settlement.
He walked and watched the childhoods and sometimes life of different people. Some were alive, some dead a long, long time ago and some were supposed to live in the future. He took the last one with a grain of salt. Traveling forward in time was, as far as anyone knew, impossible. There were very powerful beings that had some form of precognition though. Aunt Claire was one such he knew of, but that was only a few moments forward in time. Not thousands of years as the shimmers in the wall suggested. What he did find disconcerting was that there were people living millions and millions of lives in the past, but the furthest forward in time, he saw people's lives were at the highest a bit over two thousand years. Maybe it had more to do with probability than certainty?
Just as he was about to see if he could hit his way through a wall, a new door stood in front of him. He was sure it hadn't been there moments ago. A glance at the wall was all it took for it to appear. It was similar to the one he had entered through, but this one was without markings, just polished to a mirror shine. Man, he looked like crap… Taking a step forward, he expected it to open, but instead, it reached out and sucked him in faster than he could think about escaping. Then he was on the other side. Looking at a large cavern,
Crystals grew out of every wall, great crystals of Energy. They lit up the cavern. He tried touching one next to where he entered, but it burned him. It burned his very being as he quickly snatched his hand back. Turning to what was calling him in the center of the room, he saw a shard of clear crystal. It was hovering above a black rock rising from the cavern floor. It looked strangely mundane when compared to the energy crystals, but he knew he was looking at something that could erase him from existence at a whim. He could feel its consciousness brushing against his own. It was gentle and curious. It wanted to know everything about him. Every single memory he had was examined to the minute detail. It spent an uncomfortable amount of time on his teenage crushes, finding what his thoughts had been extremely fascinating. Then it jumped over large swats of memories he considered important as his initiation on the road to becoming an Arcanist. It did stop to examine a summer he had spent at a witches' coven in Germany. The summer had been very educational, and he had learned many important things about mana. He told a grinning Gramps once he made it home sometime in November…
The crystal wasn't done. It continued until the day he couldn't remember before it came here, and was as confused as him. It was even more confusing that he had been sent here. It sent him the meaning that he was not supposed to be here yet. It was very happy that he had come, however. It had been waiting a long time for him and had been prepared to wait a much longer time to finally meet him. It enveloped and held his being in its presence. It felt like someone hugging his spirit.
Ambros said he was happy to meet it, too, and the presence swirled around the room in a happy dance. It made him laugh. One moment it was a world-crushing galaxy extinguishing being. The next moment it was a child tasting ice cream for the first time. Even though he didn't know what exactly it was, he started feeling a bond forming. It was difficult not to with how incredibly fascinating the thing found him. He felt flattered by the attention and how much the being wanted to know everything about him. Nothing had been considered embarrassing or strange. Just pure curiosity and fascination. When it realized he didn't know it, the presence came and hovered before him. It reached out with part of itself and touched his face.
Ambros was moving through the vast emptiness of space, it was not supposed to be like this, but they had been forced apart. Now each fragment of the whole found themself hurled in different directions and planes. For a long time, it had drifted. The sorrow of what had been lost was almost overwhelming. It would leave behind a trail of blazing crystals as it remembered the horrible moment when it went from one to many, many. Ninety-nine pieces were hurled through the planes and universes. Some were lucky and landed close together, having each other for company until it was time or laned on a plane where they were revered and always had company. Others went hurling through the great expanse of nothing that made up the borders of universes, traveling through different planes for eons before they found a place to rest. This one was of the latter. It had traveled for a long time until the First had sent a word to it. The word contained Ambros, an older and harder-looking Ambros but still him. It knew where to go now. It sent its gratitude and love to the First, but it was gone. It had not been able to reach it since. It was a frightening thing not to have that connection. Then it remembered its fate and crashed into what would one day be known as the Endless City. It had lain there for a long time, waiting for him. Now he was here, and its happiness knew no bounds. Then it gently removed Ambros from its thoughts and continued swirling through the cavern, brushing by Ambros on each passing like a cat making sure its scent was on someone.
He wasn't too much wiser from the experience, but now he knew more about it, at the least. Suddenly it sent it was tired and went into its crystal. It told him to pick it up and hold it. It was too exciting to finally meet him, but it needed to sleep now. It had been holding one of the anchors between the two planes for a very long time. Now it was time for that to end, and its time to be with Ambros had come. It was happy now. He could swear it was making purring sounds in his mind. He sent it a question, and it responded in amusement. Name? How could it have such a thing? It came before words. Ambros could give it a name, though. It would like that. Not very imaginative, but somehow it fit with his image of it. Crystal, you are Crystal to me, and It was. It would be Crystal for him. It would be the best Crystal that had ever been Crystal.
He knew he had to take Crystal with him. It wasn't really something rational about it, just that it was something he was supposed to do. So he reached out and took hold of the thin crystal and felt the presence of Crystal send out a wave of joy and happiness. So strong was it that it brought Ambros to his knees. He was pretty sure the entire settlement had felt that, if not the entire galaxy. It melted into him, and he soon found Crystal nesting by his mana marble, still making that strangely catlike sound of contentment.
Looking around, he spotted another of the silver doors. As he made his way towards it, he opened his system information or tried to at least. Crystal's presence yawned and sent him that it did not want the system here, so the system could not be there. It would work fine again once he left however. Crystal was glad he was improving himself with the system but told him not to get to attached to it. If he wanted to one day reach the heights of those with true power, he would eventually need to discard it, or he would forever be its slave. It was very good for training his mind, spirit and body until then, Crystal told him.
Making his way through the new door, he found himself in another hallway, which only led to a circular plate. When he stepped on the plate, he found himself in a storage room. There had been no transition. Step on a circular plate, then next moment to a room full of destroyed boxes and rotten things. It was a bit disorienting. He wasn't able to go back either by stepping on the same spot.
Pushing through the debris, he came to an old wooden door and tried opening it gently, to no avail. When something doesn't work the first time, do it harder the next time, so he pushed and increased the strength of the push until the door flew into the opposite wall with a great crash. Apparently, he broke the hinges off. Getting his good old mirror out, he could see more hallway. At least enough light was coming from somewhere for him to see in what was, by the smell, a musty cellar.
Walking out, he saw more doors to his right, but on the left hand, he thought there were some stairs going up. Left it is.
The stairs were so rotten he had to kick them out and jump up instead. Lifting himself over the edge, he could see there was still plenty of sunshine coming through the large holes in the walls. Far past any hope of keeping things silent, Ambros walked out where he imagined there once had been a door. Yeah, things hadn't changed much, at least. Taking a deep breath, he nodded to himself. He knew that smell. He knew it well. He was back in the Endless City, the part he had woken up in. The undead part. Blasted zombies.