Double length chapter!

Day 62

(Rick POV)

Shit, shit, shit, shit, shit...

I didn't even notice?! They were acting absurdly unusual, for them. Niala coldly greeting me without even a hug? Minke sleeping alone?

Believing the little girl is natural, she's terrified. Her words are absurd but I've been dealing with Minke who possesses a touch based future sense and my own power.

Whispers? And this monster on top of it... obviously from Kitten's story the Whispers are something that are as common and widespread a phenomena as monsters. I dare say they are connected with some or all of the bizarre elements of this maze. I don't know where the connection ends between this so called 'scream' and this new monster.

However what I am really having troubles with is the nature of this current enemy.

Is it invisible? Intangible? Extra-dimensional? Ethereal? Paranormal? A gaseous entity?

I don't know.

But Kitten can see it. Assuming her ability to detect these things isn't supernatural then she's working with senses beyond human or even my own, then I could try to replicate them. That said... the way she explains detecting the Whispers sounds closer to telepathy or perhaps an empathic psychic power. Only she's only getting half the transmission or less, like seeing the title of an email rather than the content... perhaps it is too foreign to understand? Or they encrypt it? We're dealing with a complete mystery here.

I wanted to avoid doing weird stuff to my body, since I'm a little worried I'll end up like that stone glaive I over-melded and caused to fall apart permanently. However, if I'm smart about this perhaps...

First things first. I need weapons. I need to be able to detect and hurt this monster.

I have no clue if this thing kills those it captures or not. I don't know a damn thing.

If I go back there half-cocked I'll be done for. So I'm going back to the desert room I just discovered for materials. I have a few ideas that should solve both problems. I'm not going to attack the possessed unless I have no other options. If this is the cause of their deaths, these Whispers...

“...I'll destroy them.” [Rick snarling]

If it is a weapon, I can make it. Even if it has to destroy a world. A Devil. A God. I will motherfucking make their end as miserable as possible. The list of possible enhancements available to me now that my skill is advanced...

“Destroy the 'Kurnam'?” [Sara holding my hand]

“Not just that... the Whispers too.” [Rick]

“They can't be hurt.” [Sara]

“Oh, I'll find a way.” [Rick smiling but exuding nothing but malice]

“The whispers are talking again; they are asking each other if you can really hurt them.” [Sara]

“I can and I will if they do not release the others.” [Rick shrugging] “You hear me, you phantom assholes?!”

“They say you can't.” [Sara] “I don't know if they can be angry... please don't make them angry.”

…

For now... the monster. But later I'm definitely coming for you.

Hey, she's crying.

(sniffle) “They're so scary! You can't hurt them, you can't even touch them.” [Sara] “They're everywhere and nowhere!”

“Yes, they are scary. But they don't sound like they are all-powerful or all-knowing. They make mistakes and can be ignorant. They're living beings, not spirits, ghosts, demons or gods. You can kill anything that lives. Remember it.” [Rick] “That is a truth in all worlds. Even if you can't touch them, you can kill them. You just need the right weapon and angle of attack.”

I look out at the deadly desert.

For example: let's try a change of approach.

A handful of sand is what I need. With my power I modify myself. I'm a little sad about this... gah! It hurts!

I cut out my right eye with my claws and then immediately replace it with a set of lenses crafted from the sand, turned glass. It connects directly to the optic nerve. With this I should be able to see into the infra-red and ultraviolet spectrum, as well as polarized light frequencies. If this bitch is in any way visible I'll see it. Hell, switching through spectrums I can even see the streaks of gamma rays and x-rays piercing the rock. These usually come from quasars and blackholes. I'm able to see cosmic radiation if I wish. I just had to add the 'true sight' ability, didn't I?

Shit, my modifications are a notch above what they used to be. This thing is beyond superman's X-ray vision. My short and long range vision ranges from microscopic to telescopic in every spectrum.

I can see the trapdoor spider buried in the sand. It isn't a spider. It's some kind of chimera. It has wasp wings and several pairs of legs.

The scorpions that wander in the distance: they are actually a crab-like creature with a long tailed insect on it's back.

The REALLY interesting thing?

The flickers Kitten mentioned... I see them. Two. I looked at a freeze-frame image of them I took with my eye. They are glowing in the infra-red spectrum. They don't look alive, but they are moving... some kind of local anomaly, skill or (spit) magic?

I prescribe to the Asimov statement: “Science sufficiently advanced would appear to be magic.”

So this maze, these monsters, myself. None of it is 'magic'.

I don't know how it works, exactly but I have ideas. My current suspicion? These are probes that act as the eyes and ears of our Whispers. They're nearly invisible and seem to be following us. Yes, I'll keep that as the assumption for now.

I create two more unusual things from the sand, which are currently useless. They're just components.

I return to the garden room to collect a decent amount of plant matter which I compress and heat using my power until I form crude oil, then refine this into polymers. I'm relying entirely on the power to work out how to do this to create the most useful composite materials for my device.

Thus I now have a working fibre-optic cable. (Glass wires + Polymer layers)

Following this I tramp over to a small room I hadn't exploited yet, a room of metal pillars. Why haven't I used it yet? They're precious metals. Silver, gold, platinum, nickel... this is the reason I settled in the area. Payment materials for my big constructions.

Ugh. I can't believe I'm doing this again...

And so I create a golden golem.

A little differently.

This one is actually a nickel/gold/silver alloy made with a completely different form. I'm going for durability, so the nickel content of this design is highest. The difference from the last one: it has mechanical components rather than being a moving blob of metal. It won't be as solid as the last but that is because I don't expect it to take part in close combat. It is a bipedal mecha standing roughly three metres tall.

Incidentally, I don't have any 'elemental cores' so it isn't a true golem. It's a pseudo-golem, which is controlled through several silicone 'core facsimiles'. In essence I created micro-processors out of the sand and gold I have. The big difference with this redesign: Remote Control!

I've slaved it to me, so that I can actually remote pilot the golem through my new eye and existing body modifications.

The final touches are also placed on my new weapon designs. The golem itself is just a torso and legs with additional slots for weapons to be added on as 'arms'. The primary weapon is built into the torso and fills the majority of the hollow internal structure. The golem also has the same eye system as the one I am now using and several other sense organs, so it is a body substitute that is replaceable. In addition it has some fairly good mobility too, since the design is built around the body shape of a flightless bird. After all I can't get the sight of the Butcher that damn near killed me out of my head.

Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

I wonder did the Whispers send that too?

I add on a set of simple arms tipped with claws built around an electro-magnetic device, but they are just stand-ins for the real things I'll add on when I have time.

The little kitten is quite impressed. I remote control it and give her a ride. Mostly to hurry back home, since she can't run very fast.

She's been hearing the screams again, since she met me and I can only assume this means the remaining cats are being assimilated. I hate that I had to leave them like that, but I would only die leaping to the rescue like some half-wit hero.

After all, how do you defend yourself from mental and/or spiritual attacks? The only way I know is simply to not be there. Hence the golem.

So there... a drone. Now the chances of being possessed dropped significantly.

I connect it to the fibre optic cable and then lead it to the passage near the door. I plug in the other end of the cable, into my chest. Panels slide open around the main weapon of the machine as I send it a massive supply of photons. The weapon whines as it powers up.

I test the rotary barrel and note all three modes are fully powered.

I have the right arm key the lock on the gate and march inward. I immediately see a scene of carnage as the cats are fighting each other.

“Help!” [Myna begs as two cats corner her]

I flick through vision modes...

There we go...

“YOU ARE ALL POSSESSED. CEASE THE CHARADE.” [Mecha relaying my voice]

I see you, you son of a bitch.

On a low frequency of polarized light you stand out like you are a neon sign, monster. There is still only one of you, with tendrils attached to all of the cats. I give the room a quick scan, to avoid surprise attacks from above. Once was enough. Thankfully there is no surprise attack squad in hiding. The creature seems genuinely stunned by the fact I can see through the trick. Or is that the Whispers that control the beast?

The creature itself is isolated from the puppets, sitting passively in the center of the room. Huge and gelatinous, it appears to move using the tendrils as well. I don't see jaws or even bones... jellyfish?

Still I'm not sure my weapons work.

Experiment time.

I activate the electro-mag right arm and pull a few iron weapons over from the back of the train, before launching them using both arms like a crude rail gun. The weapons, a few knives and steel bolts are all that would come to this scale of magnet, huh? Well, it is still only an experimental design.

I aim at a cluster of tendrils and try to sever the linkage to some of the puppets... the weapons however pass cleanly through the creature like it is smoke.

Damn. I was really hoping this was just invisibility.

The possessed are running at the mech...

I walk it forward, lightly flinging them away with the arms.

… they pass the mech and try to enter the tunnel.

Oh dear. Sorry guys. I used the cube. Look up. One step out here and you'll be eating roof. That's a fifteen foot drop. Hmm. Well they do have Niala. I can't tell if the abilities they possess are available to the 'Kurnam'. So I won't go easy on them.

The puppets hesitate... oh? You're holding them back, or do they still have self-preservation instincts?

Well now blob, let's see if you're fine with something more... precise.

Full power to the PULSE LASER CANNON!

The beam itself is usually invisible, but then I have the 'eye of true sight' so naturally I can see it just fine. A nice if somewhat unusual reddish, greenish, purplish color... damn it is hard to describe other spectrums of light...

A beam of concentrated light, funnelled directly from my chest by the fibre-optic cable through a focusing device on the main weapon systems of the golem. This was not the kind of laser you could find on Earth. In a sense, my skill of mine pushed my creation to the limits of modern technology. This weapon is in the range of 30 gigawatts... that's powerful enough to sink a ship or shoot down a plane. From orbit.

Fuck you, blob! Be cut to pieces and die!

I slash streams of light at the creature but still it shows no significant damage.

How about this then? I slide the laser down one of the tendrils and it squirms and pulls back twitching.

HA! You can be hurt!

You CAN be killed.

So prepare yourself bitch, I'm just getting started!

Hahahahaha... you can't take heat perfectly huh?

One of the cats, drops. Too busy to care which.

I stride the drone to a distance of two feet from the still creature.

Oh, you can't move?

Then DIE WHERE YOU STAND!

I send a different energy supply and crank the power of the arms to full. A powerful electro-magnetic pulse flies out from my mech for several feet.

Nothing huh? I kinda hoped it'd affect you...

Well then... next!

I shut off the magnetic systems and channel pure electricity down the cable... (I added a core of copper nickel wire to the cable).

The golem lights up as streams of lightning-like arcs leap out.

The blob writhes and the puppets turn and try to attack.

Hmm. I send a low amp pulse of electricity out from the golem, trying to incapacitate the puppets. Like a taser.

They drop quickly. I have the golem shift them back to the far wall. Because I'm afraid they'll get caught in the middle of the fire.

The main weapon barrel rotates and the second weapon comes out to play.

If you can't take heat... then fry! Eat PLASMA DEATH!

Using the magnetic field of the arms and a bundle of plastic refined from crude oil I created the legendary energy weapon! The super-heated bullet is launched quite slowly by the simple electro-mag arm system. However the creature itself is quite slow. It is only just starting to retreat.

At about the speed of a human walking.

Far too slow.

The flaming bullet burns through the creature... I don't hear a thing but Kitten squeezes my arm, digging in claws. I smile.

The bullet itself is additionally quite a useful thing as the electro-mag system allows me to remote detonate the plasma... like this.

BOOM!

The pellet of intense fire, flares in an energetic reaction in the center torso of the blob. The plasma bullet was held together by the magnetic field on launch as it clings to a core of nickel. That core is molten metal right now. By simply extending the magnetic field to 'catch' the bullet in mid air for a second the inertia causes it to fly apart. It sprays like a shotgun blast and bathes all that it touches in fires beyond magma or even the surface temperature of the sun.

The creature collapses in agony, the tendrils writhing as it tries to extinguish the flames.

Burn you sonovabitch.

It is quickly devoured by fire... so you were a living gas, huh?

Well you're a dead smear of ash now.

Huh. Didn't even have to use the final barrel of the main weapon, thank God. An anti-matter weapon is really overkill for something like this.

I glance at the quivering kitten who looks at me with admiration.

“So... these Whispers. Do you want them boiled, fried or seared?” [Rick]

What we learned:

Rick's power is now an absolute BEAST.

What else do you want? Get out of here!