Chapter 08-01

“What the hell do we have here?” Alex asked straightening himself up after climbing up through the narrow shaft.

“It’s so dark.” Obsidian said as they both peered around the large seeming empty dark cavern. There were sparkles of light near the roof far off above them almost looking like the night sky.

The light that Alex pulled off of the wall shone a few feet before it succumbed to the darkness. Looking at the ground Alex found what looked like a path that trailed off to the north of the cavern.

“I found a path.” He said pointing his finding out to Obsidian.

“Lead the way boss man.” She said.

Their light gave them about ten feet of leeway to see in front of them as the walked. The pathway that they followed was lined on either side with stalagmites. Alex started to notice that the jagged stone was changing as they moved to become more uniform until they looked to be manmade.

After another ten minutes of walking the almost manmade pillars had become full blow stone crafted pillars that stretched up beyond the max reach of the light. The path that they walked on turned from packed earth to stone tiles.

“Are we there yet?” Obsidian groaned as they walked.

“God, I hope so.” Alex said with a scoff.

Their eyes began to adjust to light that was coming up on the path. In the coming distance a structure began to rise. It was constructed of reflective black stone and resembled an old temple of ancient times from Earth. Alex had seen 3D models of old Greek and Roman temples that had been long destroyed by the machine monsters to crush humanities history.

The outside of the large stone structure was surrounded by dozens of pillars made from the same reflective material. The whole structure was nearly the same height of a six-story building

“Yeah, this looks amazing.” Obsidian said. Her words dripped with sarcasm.

“I mean, couple of fire basins and torches and I think it would be an amazing summer getaway.” Alex jokingly said.

“Yeah maybe for Dracula.” She said with a scoff and shook her head.

“I didn’t say for who.” Alex said with a shrug.

Large doors opened spilling light out into the seemingly never-ending darkness. They could see a silhouette of a man standing in the door way. He took a few steps out into the darkness with Alex and Obsidian casting an even longer shadow.

“Are my new vessels here?” The man said with a medium pitched voice that seemed to be a few octaves too high.

“Who are you calling a vessel?” Alex asked crossing his arms.

“Where is Volitorin?” The man asked. They couldn’t quiet make out the look on his face.

“Who is Volitorin?” Obsidian asked.

“How did you find this place?” The man demanded.

“Brilliant tactics of deduction.” Alex said in a cocky tone. He flicked the end of his nose with his thumb and sniffed.

“Well, I’m sure that you will understand that I can not allow you to leave.” The man said clenching his fist.

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“Are we going to fight?” Alex asked clenching his own fist. He focused on a rock about the size of a football in an attempt to use his new power.

“I’m going to defe…” the man started but was cut off when the rock crashed into the side of his head.

“Oh shit!” Obsidian said covering her mouth.

The man’s body locked up as he fell to the side with a thud. Alex and Obsidian walked over to investigate further.

“Function can you pull up images of the miners that went missing in this mine?” Alex asked when he noticed that the main was wearing work clothing that looked like some of the people who had been dispersing from the town hall when they had arrived.

“Accessing missing persons reports…” Function said. Information began flashing on Alex’s HUD. Function began to build profiles on the people that had been reported mission and built an interactive timeline.

Alex turned the man so that he could get a good look at his face while shining the light at him. He compared the face to the images on the profiles. There was finally a matched when he got to the first entry in the timeline.

“Marcus Tooly.” Alex said letting go of his head.

“One of the men that went missing from the mine?” Obsidian asked.

“The first.” Alex said with a nod. He stood up from the body and took a step towards the open doorway.

“You sure you want to do that?” Obsidian asked. She turned the body over and pulled a zip tie out from her pocket.

“How do you always have so many of those?” Alex asked. He stopped and turned back to look at her.

“I always want to be prepared.” She said with a shrug.

Before she could get the zip tie around the man’s hands he reached up and wrapped his fingers around her next in a whip crack of a movement. He was on his feet and held her dangling a few inches off of the ground. Obsidian chocked and sputtered as she tried to get a breath.

Alex leapt into action balling his fist. He drew back and punched the man in the gut. It was like he punched a brick wall. That was when Alex noticed that Marcus’ skin was glowing with the same purple light that Obsidian’s did when she was using her ability.

Jumping a few feet back he took a deep breath. Obsidian managed to get her arms wrapped around Marcus’s arm and kept from passing out.

“Hey Marky boy, you don’t want to do this.” Alex said trying to figure out what he was going to do.

“This is not my name. I am Colvontra!” He said lifting Obsidian even higher.

“Bro you can call yourself whatever you want, but please put the girl down.” Alex said holding out his hands in an attempt to calm the situation that admittedly was completely his fault in the first place.

It seemed as if he was somehow either using Obsidian’s powers or he had the exact same power. A quick check of the extensive profile that Function had put together showed that he hadn’t had any powers before he was taken.

The man calling himself Colvontra tightened his grip on Obsidian’s neck and lifted her even higher. Alex grit his teeth with limited options he made a choice. He had no desire to lose Obsidian, so he was going to have to test something that he’d wanted to investigate for a while. Could her ability stand up to his seismic punch?

“Alright Colvontra, tell me about yourself.” Alex said holding his hands up. He moved close to the man an inch at a time. The sounds of Obsidian chocking and struggling tore at his heart and his head.

“I am the leader of the Fallen Eternum.” Colvontra said with unwavering conviction.

“Sure, sure. And what is the Fallen Eternum?” Alex said clearing his throat.

Colvontra’s face snapped from looking into Obsidian’s eyes to looking at Alex. He considered Alex for a moment like he was a complete fool.

“Do you really not know of the Fallen Eternum? Do you really not know of the grand Colvontra?” He demanded of Alex like he’d committed a terrible atrocity.

“No, but to be fair, I didn’t really pay attention to the story when I played the game before, so if this was part of it, I don’t know.” Alex said with a shrug. He was banking on the verbiage that would make perfect sense to another player confusing Colvontra.

“Wha…” the full word didn’t even come out of his mouth. Alex had reached minimum executable distance for his punch and had activated his ability in a flash. Blue streamers of light radiated from Alex’s fist as it flashed through the air. The attack collided with Colvontra’s stomach. His body collapsed and thankfully his hand release Obsidian’s neck as opposed to dragging her along with him.

Alex watched Colvontra’s body as it tumbled away for a split second but turned quickly to Obsidian. She was on the ground and she wasn’t moving. Skidding to a halt beside her he dropped down on his knees and check to see if she was breathing. Thankfully she was still among the living.

He had no way to directly check her HP level and she was not awake to tell him, so Alex decided to use a health serum even if might have been a waste. He stabbed the injector into her thigh and pressed the button to the sound of a loud hiss. Her breathing became stronger after a few seconds and Alex felt much better about her situation.

Grabbing ahold of her arms Alex moved Obsidian away from the building and leaned her against one of the pillars that lined the side of the pathway.

“Sleep it off.” He said gently slapping the side of her face.