[Sol Date: 16 Septimus 3414 | Location: Swarm Home System, Planet S-WD7A9-002 | Private Chambers of the first Queen]
He was dead. The one known to her minions as the 'kin-bane' was finally dead. But it was all for naught. The First Solar Legion was knocking at her door, so she had no choice. She pressed the hidden level, opening a tunnel deep beneath her nest, down to a cavern older than the swarm. She did not know who had made the path to the cavern, nor did she know who had carved the horrible images into the hall.
The stone, more ancient than even the genetic memory of the Queen caste, was covered in images of beings unlike any she had ever found. Each had strange, elongated limbs and faces on different parts of their bodies. Each face wore a strange expression, one filled with pain, fear, and suffering. But somehow also delight and near orgasmic bliss. As she descended the stairs, the images went from rough carvings to grand masterworks of art that would be nigh impossible to replicate in the modern era. But they all told similar stories.
These beings took turns kneeling on an altar made of something dark and unforgiving. There, they would plunge a knife into their body, offering their very life essence to the idol. As she finished her descent, she paused at a pair of doors made so perfectly smooth and dark you would not be able to see them if you did not know they were there. Each door bore the same symbol, a circle with three tentacles radiating outwards from it. The queen studied herself and then entered the chamber, pushing the smooth material of the door open.
In the chamber, a small bit of light emanated from a golden crystal in the ceiling, yet shadows swarmed across the floor, hugging the walls, fighting the oppressive sliver of light back. The Queen stepped up to a small stone platform and knelt, dropping to all four of her knees and looking at the ground. She only looked up when he spoke to her.
"Good evening, First Queen." The strange being she called only 'the Agent' said.
"Good evening, Agent." The First Queen said, raising her head. He was strange; he wore human clothing, and despite taking on a vaguely human form when he left this place, here, The First Queen saw him as he was naturally. His arms and legs were strangely distended. His face slipped down to be on his chest, his body punctured by a thousand self-inflicted knife wounds.
"And how can I help you?"
"We had a deal. You took him too late. Now, we can not stop his forces." The First Queen said cautiously. She knew this thing could kill her any time it wished.
"We did have a deal, and I followed it. Tell me, what was the wording of our deal?" The Agent asked.
"To remove him before he set foot on my homeworld, but his troops..."
"HIS TROOPS ARE OF NO CONCERN OF MINE LITTLE QUEEN!" The agent roared, his voice shaking the stones beneath her. "I killed Marcus Terno, and now, because of some upstart child Goddess, I have to deal with him in another multiverse having power that would make what he was capable of here seem like a joke."
"Then he is not dead! You did not uphold our deal!"
"Aht!" The Agent Said, a long arm shooting out to grab the queen around the neck. "What was the phrasing?"
The first queen was choking. "To 'emove him..."
The agent tossed her across the room into the wall with a heavy thud. "Correct, I removed him, and it will be billions of years before anyone from this multiverse or the one that he is in even gets close to traveling between the two. So he is not your problem. I have upheld the deal."
"Then I desire another deal." The first queen said.
"I must warn you, Your Highness," he said mockingly, his eyes roaming across her distinct insectoid form, his tongue slipping out in a strangely predatory way to lick his lips, "that last time I let you offer what you thought was worth the death of Marcus Terno, this time I will not allow you to choose, I will demand what I want."
The First Queen shuddered. For the death of Marcus Terno, she had given this thing seven of her daughters, queens all. She did not know what he had done to them, but she had heard them screaming for weeks before they seemed to vanish without a trace. She closed her eyes, resigning herself to do what was needed. "Very well. I agree to your terms if you can fulfill my request."
"And what is it that you willing to pay, oh so dearly for?" The Agent said, taking a knife from somewhere, plunging it into his own body, and pulling it back out, his dark life essence beginning to flow out and back to the wall behind him.
"I want you to utterly and completely destroy the Solarium Marines before they kill me or anyone on this planet." The First Queen said.
That stopped The Agent cold. He seemed to cock his head to the ceiling as he listened to something only he could hear. "This I can not do. Marcus Terno and his First Legion have given much power to two gods who, if they entered the fray in any serious way, would not only spell your end but also the end of a thousand other species who are working for the dark one as well."
"But..."
"HOWEVER..." The Agent roared, glaring daggers at The First Queen, "I can do something different. I can give you the power to create a new cast of warriors. Warriors, the likes of which your people have never known. Would you like to see it?"
The First Queen hesitated but nodded and extended a hand. The Agent took it, and suddenly, the Queen found herself on a sunlit plain. Before her stood a single warrior. She tilted her head all the way back to gaze up a the imposing figure.
The agent began talking. "Standing at nearly eleven feet in height and weighing nearly five hundred pounds, their exoskeletons are reinforced with carbon fibers that naturally grow inside them. They are capable of traveling almost three times as fast as your fastest scout caste members. When it comes to strength, these beings are no slouch. They are perfectly capable of picking up a Legion Support Tank and flipping it."
Behind the warrior, a support tank emblazoned with the insignia of the hated First Solar Legion. The warrior turned and ran at the tank with a fluidity that was almost disturbing. In the process of getting there, the warrior took a shot from the tank head-on and kept right on moving.
"These warriors are the pinnacle of your species. If you had another three hundred million years, you might get to this level by yourself, but I can offer you this today, and I only want two things from you." The Agent said, smiling at the First Queen.
"What is it you want, Agent?" The First Queen said wearily. She had no more children to give, and there were not many people left in her species.
"First, there will come a time when I call on you to fight a battle with me. When I call, you will bring the entire force of your power, no matter what it will cost you. You and all your people must come."
The Queen hesitated, then took a look at the towering Warrior watching her, waiting for an order. "Very well. What is the second thing."
"Every one of these that you birth will be given a debt. They must sacrifice ten humans in the name of my god." The Agent said, his smile becoming malignant.
"What is the name of your god?" The First Queen asked hoarsly, almost dreading the answer without knowing it.
"Zi-Ko, the dark one." The agent said, and the walls of the place they were in vanished, returning her to the chamber where she knelt on a stone platform.
You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.
The walls of the strange temple they were in seemed to vibrate at the mention of the dark one's name.
The Fist Queen swallowed, "Very well, I agree."
"Stand." The Agent said, coming to stand in front of her. She stood and suddenly found it hard to breathe. She looked down and saw The Agent's arm embedded into her body, blood oozing around it. He pulled that dagger from wherever he kept it and cut off his own arm. The wound in The First Queen's body closed up, keeping The Agent's arm inside her.
"Go forth, First Queen, and birth a new world for your people." The Agent laughed as The First Queen stumbled from the temple of the Dark One.
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[Avardum: Day 029 | Location: The Divine Relam | Elina]
Elina would be lying if she said she wasn't a little bit worried. One of her first creations, Ged, was moving towards Marcus. Ged was a good boy and always took care of her planet as if it were his own. She watched the initial contact between the two and listened in on the conversation.
"I am here to help at Elina's request. I was not always a Dungeon Core. I was once a man from another realm, on another planet, in another reality. There was a time when I was the Legatus Legionis Primae Legio Solaris, in the old language of my homeworld, that means 'Supreme commander of the First Solar Legion.' I commanded troops in the extermination of an enemy we had named the Swarm. The Swarm took my wife and daughter, and for hundreds of years, I fought them. I remember it all, so I can only promise you one thing, Ged, Father of the earth." Marcus said, making Elina proud. She knew she had nothing to do with his creation, but she cared for Marcus now, especially after watching how diligent he was.
Suddenly, without any change in anything, Ged seemed to explode. Elina screamed.
Bellona suddenly materialized in the room, waving her hand and slowing time for everyone on Elina's world, including Marcus. "Elina! What is going on?"
"Look!" Elina said with tears unreservedly running down her face. "Something happened. Marcus had just made friends with Ged when suddenly Ged exploded into a mana storm, and now Marcus is trying to fight it."
Elina started crying in earnest when suddenly she felt a soul, her first crafted soul, return to her. "Oh Ged! What happened? I..."
She trailed off, listening to the request of the little soul in her hands.
"If that is your wish, I will help Marcus out of this situation." Elina said, and then looked up at Bellona, who was holding forward a skill with a smile. "thank you, Bellona."
"I told you, Elina, I made a promise to save you, and I will. I'm just also glad that you seemed to have taken a liking to Marcus."
"He is very diligent and very serious, and I find it rather endearing," Elina said defensively as she cast the skill down to Marcus, along with the message Gen wanted to pass on.
"Well, let's hope he pulls it off," Bellona said, sitting down to watch everything that would take place.
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[Avardum: Day 029 | Location: Unknown | The Agent]
Within the desolate temple, its walls adorned with twisted symbols and flickering torchlight casting long shadows, the last priest of the Zi-Ko stood with grim resolve. Clad in tattered vestments that bore the weight of ages, he cradled a ceremonial dagger, its blade etched with profane inscriptions. He longed to pierce his own flesh with the dagger as he had a thousand times before, but today, he was not here to worship. Instead, he, The Agent, knelt before Zi-Ko and prostrated himself to his god.
"Rise, my agent." Zi-Ko said, "Have you any news on the whereabouts of the First."
"No, my lord, I do not. I have confirmed that Marcus Terno does have his blessing, however. And I have taken steps to have Marcus removed."
"Good," Zi-Ko said, biting into the stage meat he seemed to always have a supply of, "and were you successful?" '
The Agent hesitated. "Unfortunately not, my lord. I had thought to move against Marcus and the last nation of Mana on Avardum, Ged. But alas, it did not work."
"Alas, it did not work?!" Zi-Ko hissed, his power radiating out to lash The Agent with every word. "Do you not yet understand why Avardum must fall to my power? Do you not understand that Marcus Terno is a thorn in my side that must be dealt with?"
"I do, my lord. I am sorry. I shall rectify it, I swear. I ..." The Agent trembled as he saw his god stand.
"You know nothing," Zi-Ko said, patting The Agent on his strangely misshapen back. "But you can be taught."
Before he could speak another word, The Agent found himself adrift in a realm of darkness, unlike anything he had ever experienced before.
In the suffocating atmosphere of this strange and dark place, Zi-Ko appeared before a trembling Agent. The air seemed to condense as three tentacles of hideous black power formed behind Zi-Ko, snaking through the air like eels through the water.
"My lord, I swear I will fix it. Please, one more chance, I beg!" The Agent said, pleading desperately.
In a voice that shook The Agent to his core, Zi-Ko spoke. "you have failed me before this, have you not?"
"Yes, I have, and I have repented for those..."
"Then it is high time you learn a lesson." Zi-Ko said, shooting a tentacle forward to skewer The Agent, "Suffer and die here to be reborn anew. Be reborn into the life I demand."
The Agent was spitting up blood but somehow managed to nod. "Of course, my God."
The Agent started screaming and screaming until he died.
The next thing he knew, The Agent was waking up in the temple of the Dark One and preparing to depart on his next task, killing Marcus Terno.
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[Avardum: Day 030 | Location: Howling Plains | Marcus, Janel ]
Marcus came in a rush; his AI once again provided him with knowledge of what happened while he was out, but it was nothing. Immediately, he found Janel. She looked well and breathed a sigh of relief.
"Aurora, can you compile a list of my skills, at least my top skills, and the new ones, not the ones I don't really use," Marcus asked.
"Of course, give me a moment."
Moments later, he felt the packet of data come to him, and he opened it up, planning what his next steps would be with his newfound abilities.