“Back, get back!” Ulgrin called, making the wise decision to get the hell out of there.
He and the others ran for the stairs. Thorn howled in fear, the first one to reach the exit. Silent, wrathful skeletons chased after them. “Raelza, get Wreath up first. We’ll hold a line here!” For once the dwarf wished he had a proper shield. That was the first priority when they got back.
For the time being, magic would have to do. He’d been working on this for a while now. “Gather. Force. Shape. Shield!” A glowing blue disc of force formed on his forearm just in time to meet the first clacking jaws of an undead. Beside him, Saezz reached out with a meaty fist and slammed the skull, body and all into the wall.
Ulgrin’s warhammer came up and smashed the ribcage of another, sending them sprawling to the ground in a pile of bones. “Hold!”
A danger-close explosion filled the air as Alyss let loose a thrown bomb. Ulgrin barely lifted his shield in time to avoid having his eyes poked out by an errant tibia. “Sorry!” She called, despite preparing another. Crazy human.
He and Saezz formed the first line of defense. Ulgrin took a step forwards to allow the foe to wash over him and be clogged up, while the lizardfolk used his greater height to punch over him. Raelza had already withdrawn here glaive, swinging it over both of them at any foes left open.
It was only due to the fact that skeletons weighed notably less than a person that he wasn’t already being overrun. Ulgrin’s boots scraped against the stone as he was pushed back by another wave crashing into him. Clacking jaws tried to bite him, while grasping hands scraped against his shield.
A moderate drain on his mana, but acceptable. Undead were hard to take down, though. Unless their bodies were shattered into pieces and scattered they would slowly pull themselves back together or just keep coming.
Already, he felt teeth bite down on his armored boot. One of them was missing its lower torso, yet still crawled at him.
Howling in anger, Ulgrin lifted his foot and stomped down, crushing its skull. “Keep holding! Just a little longer!” Waiting until the horde had reached significant mass, he raised a hand. “Raelza! Send Wreath in!”
She nodded and gave out a whistle. Above their heads, the thornshield took a few steps back and then crouched, powerful muscles building up strength. Then, with a rustle of wind over them, leapt into the crowd. Half a ton of dinosaur crashed into the horde of skeletons like a train.
Seeing them all scattered, Ulgrin let out his own warcry and raised his hammer. Ribcages broke, heads were cracked, and limbs went flying. Hands and claws grabbed for his armor, trying to peel him open like an orange.
Wreath spun his tail and more skeletons were sent flying, the bludgeoning instrument doing wonders against these undead.
With the four of them breaking the crowd into pieces, the battle eventually grew to a close. Ulgrin panted and sucked in air, realizing the last of the undead had fallen into bits. Only a few silent, baleful stares remained. The dead watched them, unable to kill as they so desired.
“Any injured?” Ulgrin asked, once had recovered. He willed the shield to dissipate, mana pool feeling a fair bit drained.
“A few loose scales and scrapes on Wreath.” Raelza said with a tsk. “But no real damage.” She lifted her glaive and scowled at it. “Gonna need a serious repair on my weapon after this. Lots of chipped bits. It’s meant for cutting flesh, not bone.”
“Saezz will buy you three glaives when this is done,” the lizardfolk replied, dropping a thigh bone he’d been using as a club.
Alyss stepped forwards cautiously, seeing the battle over for the most part. She absolutely freaked out when a decapitated head rattled at her. “Gaaaah! Why?!” A boot promptly kicked the offending undead, sending it flying into a wall. “I hate this place. Soooo much.”
Ulgrin nodded, seeing everyone hale and hearty. “Well, we still need to go further inwards. So suck it up, princess.”
“You wish. If only I had such a dramatic backstory.” The human sighed, brushing a lock of messy hair aside for flair. “Call me the Princess of Explosions. My country of origin? Bombvania.”
Amused, he turned to the pile of bones. “We’ll need to do something about these bodies. Bury them and hope it solves the problem? Shame none of us are properly of the cloth.”
Saezz raised a hand at that. “He may have a solution. It is unorthodox, but Saezz knows some of the secrets of the Spirits.” He began gathering the bodies up, pushing them into a crude pile. Lacking any other idea, Ulgrin followed suit. It took some time but eventually they had every bit in one place.
The lizardfolk stood over the pile, taking a calming breath. Then, he spoke in a low, guttural tone that Ulgrin had come to know as the reptilian tongue.
Saezz began to pray.
Despite the entirely mundane act, Ulgrin could sense a change in the air. He could sense magic building up, an offering. A distant sound of drum beats. The smell of a forest. Taste of copper on his tongue. A fresh kill.
With one last hiss, Saezz drew his blade and sliced into his own hand. Clenching it for a moment, he lashed it outwards and sprayed blood all over the pile. Spots of crimson formed over stark white bone. A moment of silence, and then each droplet ignited into a dark green flame.
They all watched in awe as the burning flames slowly flew toward the ceiling, ignoring the stone as if it wasn’t even there and flying upwards. Beyond, to somewhere else. Hopefully a better place.
“And so they return to the cycle.” Saezz spoke in a low tone, now talking in common. “As we all shall one day.” He grit his teeth and closed his hand, blood seeping out from the cut.
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Alyss promptly fussed over the big lizard, “You didn’t have to do that, you big dumbass.” She withdrew a bandage and pulled at his arm, forcing the lizardfolk to comply despite being half his size at least. “Hold still. My friends are a bunch of self-sacrificing assholes, I swear.” She let out a huff.
“Saezz means no trouble.” The lizard said with a great deal of embarrassment. “It is the simplest method that he knows. A hunting ritual.”
“Maybe ask first,” Raelza mused, chuckling. “Our medic doesn’t enjoy stitching us back together.”
“If that’s settled,” Ulgrin said once they were all looked after. “We should head further in and be on the lookout for more undead.” He sent a glance to the stains below. The scratches and gouges in the stone.
Whoever had sought refuge here had been trapped. Locked in the dark, the deep. They had tried to escape and likely died after succumbing from dehydration. At least those who had survived the original bloodbath.
He didn’t like the gnaw marks on the bones. Not one bit. It painted a dark image.
Moving past the antechamber, the party arrived in a large lounge. Tables had been flipped over, couches destroyed, and painting ruined. Ulgrin then noticed a light hissing sound. The vents carved into the walls had activated, previously being silent. Air was starting to flow again.
Was that how everything was so well preserved? A tomb turned into a vacuum, perfectly kept in the same state.
Keeping airflow going in mountainhomes was important. Typically, it was best dealt via mundane means but those often left holes for things to get in. Magic was another way, but if that failed then an entire city could begin to suffocate. It would take days for the air to be used up, but if they didn’t fix it in time…
Here, though, it seemed to automatically kick in with their presence. Some kind of intelligence was in play here.
Bloody prints turned an ugly dark brown led them further in. Signs of someone’s survival, so long ago. He hoped they weren’t dealing with what he was thinking of. But at the bottom of his heart, he knew what they would find.
The hall led to a central atrium from which every other path branched away from. What had once been a forum for discussion and debate was now ruined and abandoned. After pulling up his notes, Ulgrin found there to be three major branches. The first was for a ‘Residential’ sector, the second a ‘Habitation Systems’, and the third a ‘Repository’.
He was surprised that those words were on the translation list. Had his Grandfather encountered a place like this before? He knew their ancestors had gone underground to survive the Shattering. In places like these?
After a brief moment of debate, they decided upon the second route first.
The first set of rooms seemed to be some kind of farm. Rows of planters laid out in large, open rooms. Soil filled them, and the remnants of dead, decayed plants could be found. He cast his gaze around and found bone-dry reservoirs that must have been full of water once, long ago.
After that they discovered an area dedicated towards animal husbandry. The bones of dead creatures lay scattered in their pens. Some had been carefully butchered, each bone sawed open to extract marrow. Later, all signs of skill had been thrown away in lieu of the corpses being hacked apart for sustenance.
Rabbits seemed to be the main animal for raising, but he also saw dead pets. Shame.
Moving onwards, they encountered what must have been the source of water. A large gemstone, as large as his torso, sat in the center of a large basin. Faded sigils covered its shape, but a massive crack had formed right down the middle. Pipes radiated off and away from the reservoir to feed the others.
They had lost their only source of water. Without it, they couldn’t keep their crops fed. Without their crops, they would begin to starve. One could only sate your thirst off of animal blood for so long, and they had quickly run out. Rationing such things would have let them stay alive longer but…
A death knell had hit the entire bunker the moment the gem had been cracked. Some twist of cruel fate, he surmised.
They would come back here later for the object in question. Despite the crack, it was still a giant fucking amethyst bigger than their heads. Even without the treasure trove of inscriptions carved into it, the gem alone would grant them immense riches.
Searching further, they found collections of seeds, mundane tools, and facilities to repair with. Why had they relied on simple methods when their downfall was a single source of magic? Couldn’t they have made automatons to do the farming for them? It was folly in his eyes.
Moving along, they returned to the atrium and went down the path towards the ‘Repository’.
Rather than a place of knowledge as the name might have suggested, the path led only to a single room. Not a small one, though. It was a quite large room, filled from wall to wall with carved pillars of what appeared to be entirely crystallized magic.
Crystallized magic was not an easy thing to make. Aetheric energy naturally wanted to remain a liquid and intangible. Forcing it into a different state of matter required great control. To think they could make dozens of pillars of the stuff was insane. Then again, only magicrystals could have enough of an affinity towards channeling aether. Gold was good, but not a hundred percent.
Sitting at the center of the room was a deceptively small pearl of metal. Floating there, a few feet off the ground. For a moment he thought it to be platinum, but his eyes widened as he recognized the shade to be palladium. Rarer than gold, silver, and platinum combined.
The orb, roughly the size of his fist, was surprisingly bare. Only a single rune blessed its surface.
Lorekeeper, his notes told him.
More worryingly enough, someone had died here. A great bloodstain covered the floor, splatters of it everywhere. What they had died for was unknown, but it felt wrong to sully such a place.
Slowly, Ulgrin stepped forwards. A hand on his shoulder caused him to pause.
Alyss stared at him with great concern. “Be careful, okay? We have no idea what this thing is.” She cast worried glances at the orb, the room, likely the only other who could understand the grand nature of such a place with her own knowledge of magic. Magicrystals were valuable alchemical components.
“Aye.” He took a deep breath, steadied himself, and moved closer.
When he got within ten feet of the orb, a yellow light flashed on its rune. The light flashed yellow, then red, then blue, then green, and back to yellow. He froze, preparing himself for a fight.
Illusory magic built up within the orb, seamlessly flickering through half a dozen sigils.
In front of him formed the image of a… child? Presumably a human one, short of stature and rather small. Wide, expressionless eyes stared up at him. She appeared slightly translucent, similar to a ghost or specter. A gray head of hair was braided up in a bun, leaving two bangs to fall over her similarly gray eyes.
The girl sat seiza style, hands in her lap. A mantle of black and white decorated with the waves of an ocean completely covered the rest of her body, concealing it. She stared at him for a moment and then spoke.
“Ah. I can’t understand ye.” He said after a moment’s pause.
She tilted her head curiously. More languages were attempted. He shook his head in response, unsure of what to do here. Why the hell had a child just come into existence? He knew more than enough about reproduction to know this wasn’t how it was normally done.
Besides, he was fifty years too young to have a kid.
Seemingly exhausting her spread of knowledge, the child held out a hand with a frown. He cautiously stepped forwards and took it. Instantly he was hit by a wave of mana, incredible power washing over him like he was a single fish in an entire sea. Lost and drifting aimlessly.
Just touching it with his magical senses was enough to overload him. He barely even noticed as a single string stretched between the two of them and connected with his head.
[Hello.] A voice spoke to him, breaking him out of his trance.
“Eh… Hello.” He replied, swallowing. “Who are you?”
[My designation is Lorekeeper.] The voice seemed to be coming from inside his mind, some kind of link having been established. [It is nice to meet you.]
“Likewise.” He replied awkwardly. How else were you supposed to respond?
She gave a nod. [It is good you arrived. In approximately one thousand, two hundred, and ninety five days my records state that the world will experience a catastrophic total causal breakdown. There isn’t much time left. Would you like to know more?]
Another big reveal. Ancients had magitech artificial intelligence! Surprisingly, this one didn't go rogue despite a thousand years of seclusion. Lorekeeper is just built different. Also there is now an official countdown timer, as if things weren't stressful enough.
Lexicon of Words and Terms Used:
Magicrystal - Aetheric energy shifted from a liquid state to a solid state. As the name suggests, it is practically one hundred percent capable of support enchantments. Difficult to create and requires the hand of an archmage if you want to make a good amount.
Palladium - Roughly fifteen times rarer than platinum, Palladium is probably the best material to use when making enchantments. It actually has an efficiency of over a hundred percent, meaning it always produces more than what is put in. This is a material that Artifacts are made out of. When combined with Adamantine, it creates an even stronger alloy called Aetherium and removes its inability to support many enchantments.