“Come in…”
The door opens and through the door frame squeezes an obscure creature. At first it needs to bend down to get its head through. The four Horns do not help in any way.
Next the two pair of arms squeeze themselves in the room. The body muscular and strangely sensual came afterwards and with heavy fur covered Legs ending in two enormous Hooves finishing the grotesque show.
Sadly the Room itself is not large enough to have them stand. They are more than three Meters tall and then there are still the Horns. The Face looks like a Goat… Or Ram? Well they have a beard like a Goat so Goat head. Three Eyes one in the Middle of the Forehead shows how the Fusion was not fully perfect, but it looks more like they themselves wanted to lead their Body to become what they are now. Strange guys, like their cultist Parents…
“We greet you, Lord. We have a Message that should be told to you after we were born anew.”
The Voice is a duet out of a male and a female voice. Baa and Pho fused into their new body but still… are they fused or are they just having one body while sharing it?
“What is it Baphomet?”
“Is this our new Name? We like it. The Message is about the way back to your place. You need to create a way with a child born out of tar, a shot into the dark while harmonizing the speck of dust and casting the hidden incantation in reverse.”
“...Anything else useless?”
“We understand your plight. Let me elaborate more. The Child might be a Minion created by you in something that does not belong to this world but the other. So are our deductions of the words of our rather cryptic brethren. The speck of dust…”
“…Is the piece of the World that those Idiots forgot inside my soul, but the Incantation I do not know.”
“You are smart. We know about where one part of Incantation may lie.”
“And you know that, because…”
“Never did Fate show us any favour into making us Slaves. Now we can see beyond Dimensions. We can see where the World twists. We might help you forming Worlds.”
“And how?”
“Your twisting of Dimensions to put Pieces in stasis. We can do that too. Also we can help you find the reason why your Rails of Teleporters do not enter your own World while helping you with a better Ring into your own Realm.”
“Sounds good! You are hired!”
“We would have never leaved anyway.”
“Okay, ominous but helpful. You should maybe wear something you are…”
They have rather voluptuous Breasts and have a rather heavy tackle down there. Both genders are in their new body. I still do not understand why they wanted to get fused like that, but helps me understanding the anatomical challenges of fusing different sexes.
“We would rather not hide our perfect Body. Just give us a place where we can be ourselves.”
That would be deep under the Castle. Now I can build deep down without problems. That Geode of doom is not messing any more with my Presence there.
By the way that was also the reason I forgot about those two. Focusing on beating something into submission while finding my own soul in total disrepair makes one forgetful, might I add.
…
“This… THING was…”
“Just a special kind of Beast person.”
“And you think I would believe you?!”
“Sister Annette, it is the truth, so I can not make it any more obvious. Baphomet is a special case of a sad birth. You can see how they would be ostracised, anywhere else, do you not?”
“… And you just took that in? How can you be so brazen!”
“I took all the Orphans in too. I do what I can to help the less fortunate. Without my large heart, you all would not be here.”
“...Can you at least warn us before the children might see something, that will haunt their nightmares?”
This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
“Does it even? They were scared by seeing Baphomet, but afterwards they were more curious and nothing seems to have made them have nightmares.”
“I have… never mind…”
So all of this tantrum is, because you nearly lost consciousness by seeing Baphomet… Do not roll your disdain onto the children, that shows you in a rather bad light Sister Annette.
…
Baphomet really made themselves a place under the Castle… I was kidding at first, as this place would be filled with ground water, but they just bend space in a way that makes water move in the other direction. I am learning so much!
The way to create a reverse Waterfall is interesting. Water flows upwards but only on the place where the space was bent. It flows now right into the channels for the Fish men to traverse. Also the excess flows up in a new built Fountain right in the middle of the Entrances to the Greenhouse, Hedge Maze and Foyer.
Looks great and the Children sometimes come and play in the water or relax after their work. You guys have a whole pool but… Well I understand the fun of going through the curtain of water, so have fun you rascals.
Also the waterways were redrawn to give the Maze and Greenhouse a bit more Water.
While playing and working on the whole renovation I also came closer to a new breakthrough. I got a piece of shell from our Entity! The process was extremely laborious and only got me a small piece but it is enough. The more I test on it the more I am sure the Shell was especially made to resist Void.
If I make a cocoon, the test subject I send in a few years might even survive the travel. That would be nice, as I do not know, how many I can send before this World is only a miasmic dump.
On the thought of miasmic dump, I finally have improved Tinhead. With his now stable Body I should be able to look what is below Death Peak. For this I start digging a new Entrance to the western Mountain range.
I am not that stupid and throw my new robot body into that grinder they have in Trashtown. Better make my own way. The Polymer holding the Mana and Miasma will be valuable for me, and the Miasma can be transformed by me into new Mana. I need enough Mana for the Teleport, so better be safe than sorry.
…
“KEEP THE DOOR CLOSED, AFTER I ENTERED. THIS PLACE IS TOO DANGEROUS FOR ORGANIC ENTITIES.”
“Sure Null. But I am still miffed, that I can not go with you.”
“I CAN NOT ASSURE YOUR SAFETY AND FOR THIS I NEED TO GO ALONE.”
“...Okay, but be safe.”
“TINHEAD IS EXPENDABLE. YOU ARE NOT.”
“Aw… Okay I understand your feelings. Still strange how you can make me blush while in a metallic being.”
“I AM ON MY WAY. IF SOMETHING IS PROBLEMATIC MESSAGE ME.”
And I am off. The Voice synthesiser has no Volume control, but otherwise I am fine. Fine as in I can not regulate my strength and have still problems with the conservation of Energy, but as I use a tethered Core, I do not need some kind of Fuel Cell, luckily.
Now what is hiding below this ominous Mountain.
…
Disappointment. That is hiding here.
This place is boring as watching paint dry. The sensors I created for Tinhead are wrecking havoc but that is it. Miasma is normally rather easy to find, but this kind of Miasma everywhere is subtle. No wonder, the liquid Polymer is holding the Miasma and Mana bound. Only the finest specks can escape that net. And that seems to be the reason for the heavy problems for organic creatures.
If you get damaged by the Miasma you will not even notice it but the Body needs to repair. So fever and rapid ageing is the outcome. Parts that can not repaired get black and rot away. We had something similar in our World, called radioactivity. It rips away at the seams of cells. This makes it similar but on the spirit level. If the Spirit is damaged, the Body tries to repair it and we have similar results.
Death Mountain is a death sentence for nearly every Creature. Now I have to find the pumps and storage places. Maybe I can get samples to find a way to recycle the stuff. I have some nice effects with Void Oil. Maybe I can create a reaction to unleash the Miasma from the Fuel into a Grinder.
Searching for a while I know now how hollow this Mountain is. This must have been a Quarry or mine before they started to use it as a dump. Looks like they dug too deep, when the Fungi started to appear.
Searching the areas I try to find the way to the source of the heavy miasmic radiation, but I have a hard time, as my miasmic sensors are MAXED OUT! How the hell is this even possible? The whole place is filled with so much Miasma only my hidden pocket Dimension could compete with it, and it is still not forming into matter. Tinhead is now fully radioactive and can only be described as a glow stick. Literally, as the Body started to shine bluish purple. He might be a lost cause.
After searching for about three Days I finally found something I did not expect here. A Facility right before a gigantic hole down below. Maybe I can find answers here.
…
Entering the Facility was rather easy. The whole thing works! It might only be a tiny Facility but it seems to be the control room of the pump system. Pipes run directly into the depths and while many of the needles are way to far into the red and warning lights are blinking, the Facility works perfectly.
The only question I have is HOW?! We are next to the impact zone, how can this thing even… It is the Miasma, isn’t it? Miasma has strange properties. Some of them bend Space, some bend time and some Reality. That place here is filled with it. I could imagine the cataclysmic Shockwave just going through a different fold of reality or being absorbed by the dense Miasma.
I give up, I have no Idea how Miasma really works. I fumble around and still wonder how something so destructive can be so weird… Still I need to find better ways to filter Miasma and right now I am growing hopefully the best ways in vats. Those guys will never be able to leave my Realm, at least in this World, but might help me finally to limitless Mana! Explanations, after they are born and working like they meant to be working… Now back to what I am doing here.
Tinhead starts to not be so glowing any more. The Runes filter the Miasma right out of my body and even nag on my core a bit. Great thing! I just need to find out how that works. Later, now exploring the place.
Magic Orbs working like monitors are showing the depth of this hole and most of them are broken. One is still barely working and shows how overflowed the bottom is. There were tanks down there. Not any more, they broke open and flooded the deepest parts fully. Holes go even deeper and those are filled to the brim. I can not say how deep down those holes go, but I bet they are not shallow. That is an enormous amount of Miasma…
The next rooms are strange. One is a room, that resembles outside. While the walls are painted blue, the Light has enough UV for plants to grow, and someone or something made it completely into a… Garden. There is even a chicken coop with live chickens!
I did not think there would be people living here. This might be more dangerous than I thought…
In the next room were containers and many spare parts for… Robots. Those Robot parts look exquisite and only below the quality of that damnable Toaster I still do not understand.
While looking at the parts I was a fraction too late to notice the Guards coming in and aiming their weapons at me.