Yggdrasil Fallen, LitRPG Series
Book 1, Obsidian
Chapter 16: Lockdown
“Adult Caucasian male, early thirties, 180 lbs, 5’11”. Brought into our care with severe dehydration and possible head trauma. EKG, CT, MRI and X-ray are clear: there is no evident injury to be the cause of his current coma, family relation is currently unknown.” An unknown voice spoke reading basic medical statistics off his chart.
“He was brought in 6 days ago after a brief search and rescue; three members of the search party found him collapsed against a cliff face 1000 feet from where his vehicle was parked. He has since developed a low-grade fever alongside the indeterminate blistering rash on his back and right arm present when he was brought in. The rash presents as possible 3rd degree burns, but site examination by the PD did not determine a possible cause, so for now we’ve ruled it out. The cause of severe dehydration has not been determined despite a constant flow of IV fluids, though we are still running tests. We have been treating the blistering rash with a course of IV antibiotics, and antihistamine ointment refreshing bandages with every reapplication of ointment despite the blisters not oozing; he has shown minimal improvement since we began treatment 48 hours at admittance. “The first voice concluded.
“Thank you for the update. Has the specialist been through to see him yet?”
“No sir, though I received a call this morning telling us to expect her this afternoon. I can let you know when she arrives.”
“See that you do. Until then continue the current course of treatment.”
“I can do that sir.”
The second gentleman turned and left the room, leaving the first to his duties. On the other side of the door, staring through a one-way mirror into the room at the young man lying in the bed stood Silderson. Turning to face the man as he exited the room, he spoke softly:
“You did a fantastic job getting him diverted here. I was certain they were going to airlift him to Denver. When is Tilton due to arrive?
“That feat was achieved in no small part to your acting. Feeling so “Guilty” you just had to cover all his medical expenses, just so long as he stays at one of your private facilities to receive top care? Pure *Chefs Kiss* brilliance. With regards to Tilton, the doctor claims she’s due to arrive this afternoon.”
“Good, I have a lot of questions for this kid. That door should have opened for the architect. I suspect he found a way to stumble through it; such things have happened before at other sites. Though those who were unfortunate enough to make it into one of those god-forsaken hellholes alone were never seen again; and we have certainly never been locked out of one. Even after clearing the Alpha Beast we were able to farm artefacts, materials and aspect pieces until the dungeons eventually ran out of mana and subsequently collapsed. Somehow this little prick has not only managed to, at least we surmise, overcome the trials. But, he managed to reseal the entry; preventing anyone else from entering it. We have lost an immeasurably valuable site; a chance to find the artefact “Kingsman” has been looking for and I think Andre has the answers as to why.”
“I’ve heard that’s why he founded the company, he’s desperate to find some unknown artefact apparently only he and Architect can control. Why are you so certain this cabin was protecting such a location?”
“Documents discovered in our archives had marked a general location for several entrances, though it took our diviners a while to pinpoint the cabin as the entrance to this one. Buying up the land around it was a minor feat in comparison. After Initial arial mana-topographic surveys had shown the area to contain all the same defenses as prior dungeons we decided to purchase it and thoroughly investigate. The discovery of a Greater Living Wall was all the Architect needed to be convinced to attempt an opening. Unfortunately, I’m sure you heard all about my blunder with regards to the “renovations” fiasco.” Silderson grimaced as his partner chuckled before moving on:
“Do you think it’s possible this kid was just hurt by the Living Wall Detonation and had a delayed reaction to it? He could have wandered off in a concussed confusion after this “Curt” rushed himself to their local hospital. In my opinion that would explain why he wasn’t far from the cabin, and it would explain the symptoms he’s currently experiencing; especially that nasty rash.” Silderson drew a deep, frustrated breath:
“Listen Killen, that was our initial determination but in monitoring his condition the Architect has stated Andre’s state to be caused by aspect scarring of an element we have not seen before. In addition, we did a bit of digging in the pack he had with him when he was found, there were some objects of… interesting quality of which we’ve taken several to the lab for experimentation. From this we’ve determined he did in fact make it into the dungeon and somehow made it back out, whether he succeeded in slaying the Alpha Beast; we can’t be certain. But I will say he has a most interesting artefact we were unable to remove from around his neck, a choker we determined to be from the Obsidian Legion by the clawed crest.”
“…did you say Obsidian Legion!?”
“Yes, that artefact alone lends credence to his defeat of the Alpha.” Killen was silent for a while after Silderson finished speaking.
“Last time we encountered them, we would have lost a full battalion if it weren’t for the Architect… and you say this boy managed to defeat at least one alone?”
“That is correct, an item like that could only have been taken from the corpse of a high ranking soldier. Unless little Andre here got obscenely lucky and found a Shadow Chest near the entrance.”
“I suppose… chests do tend to have rare and valuable gear… but that begs another question: how exactly did he go about harvesting his kills? From your description he lacks the skills and knowledge of our diviners.”
“I do not have an answer for that question… regardless, we will not have a chance at the truth of the matter until he wakes up.” Silderson grunted.
“Should we inform the doctor as to exactly what is wrong with his patient, bring him into the loop in case something unexpected happens?”
“No, the council decided long ago to keep most of doctors we hire in the dark, would make for too messy a situation should they decide to leave and sadly this particular physician won’t be with us much longer.”
“I see” Killen answered, before asking:
“Do think we’re taking a big risk then, should he wake and has magical abilities… that could be quite troublesome.”
“The Architect and his lead Diviners have determined its highly unlikely that Andre has any capacity to convert and use mana and its extremely likely his recovery is going to take quite some time; unless Tilton has anything to say about it. But that is a bridge we will cross should we come to it.” Both men had become so engrossed in their conversation, they failed to notice the situation in Andre’s room had rapidly changed. They both stood agape when bright flashes of light threatened to blind them as electricity arched around the room.
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“Uh, boss… it appears we have a bit of a situation.”
“Son of a bitch!” Silderson yelled as he bolted for the door.
“Feels like a dragon French kissed my back!” Andre thought to himself while licking his dry, cracked lips as he listened in on the conversation currently happening at the foot of the bed he was currently strapped to; he had regained consciousness while the two men were discussing his status. A text box had popped up, but he’d quickly dismissed it before he or ALIAS could read it. He struggled to stifle a relieved, slightly demented laugh as they talked; clearly had no clue what was going on with him.
“At least they had the courtesy of tying me up on my left side.” He had made the decision to pretend to still be unconscious, hoping the machines currently monitoring him wouldn’t give his change in consciousness. This decision proved to be valuable as it had given him enough time to fully take stock of his situation, while listening to the end of their conversation.
“Wait, specialist?” He felt dread creep in, he had a feeling this was not a good kind of specialist, coming to determine the cause of his injuries and help develop a plan towards recovery. One of the men turned away, opening the door to leave the room as the other turned back to check a monitor near his bedside.
“Ah, it’s about time you rejoin us in the land of the living. Can you talk?” The man who turned to face him had a cold, yet oddly comforting way of talking; his demeanor was that of a well-seasoned veteran in his field, despite looking like he couldn’t have been much older than Andre himself. Opening his dried/cracked lips to speak, Andre was stung by a dry burning sensation that spread from his lips to deep down his esophagus as though he’d attempted to swallow a cotton covered cactus seasoned with hot sauce whole.
“So, my back was just that fire-breathers foreplay eh?” Musing to himself; he strained to turn his face to the man whom he assumed was his doctor.”
“W…w.aa.tt.e…rrr….” He managed to croak out, opening his eyes and straining his neck to face the man whom he assumed to be his doctor.
“That should be alright.” He replied, turning to the sink against the far wall he filled a paper cup. Grabbing a straw from a drawer nearby he returned to Andre’s side holding the straw to his face for him to drink.
“Take it slow, now while the IV has been pumping fluids into you, your body is still in a state of extreme dehydration and its been at least 6 days since your stomach has had anything pass through it.” Andre drank slowly letting the cool fluid wash down his throat, saturating the parch but not dousing the fire.
“Ok, I think that’s enough for now.” The doctor said as he pulled the cup and straw away.
“Now do you have any recollection about what happened after your boss left you standing in the driveway at the cabin.”
Andre considered the man for a minute, trying to gauge how he should respond.
“I’ll certainly be checking into a padded room for an extended stay if I even remotely described what I’ve been through: The sisters, the tunnel, the chamber… hell even that damned wavy wall would spell a certain stay in the asylum for me. That is if I could even speak a word about it.” He thought to himself as the burning sensation in his mouth and throat continued to throb; a box popped back into his as ALIAS read it out:
“Alert: You are suffering from the effects of an unknown affliction; natural biosynthesis rate has been drastically reduced due to the nature of the damage caused by this affliction. Additional support will be needed if you wish to accelerate recovery and restore natural biosynthesis rate.”
“Alert: You are in a situation of extreme danger, it is highly advised to carefully consider all possible ramifications of every action and word, before you take any action.” ALIAS rang out, the shrill panic not even remotely masked.
Heeding the warning, Andre painfully shook his head. It was true that he had absolutely no idea how he had come to be in what he assumed was a hospital bed when his last memory was that of collapsing on the floor of the chamber, discounting his meeting with Tione.
“Do dream state conversations actually count as memories in this context?” He assumed no one could have possibly delved into the chamber after him and he certainly didn’t crawl out of there in his state, with the likelihood of beasts still around.
“I mean, supposedly I’m something “Special”, engineered to take on these beasts, humans aren’t even supposed to be able to enter those places… so how the hell did I get out?”
“Andre? Are you with me?” The concern breaking through; overwhelming his doctor’s voice. Andre looked him in the eyes and nodded.
“Do you think you can talk now?”
He shook his head.
“Would you like some more water?”
He nodded, slowly drinking the offered water.
“Are you in pain?
He nodded again, as vehemently as he could.
“Ok, I’m going to give you an NSAID for your pain, we want to try and keep you awake for at least a while, but there’s no reason for you to be hurting through that time.” The doctor had grabbed a syringe of something from a cart sitting nearby and began injecting it through a port in his IV. As the plunger pressed in, he felt the cold liquid begin disbursing itself through his veins.
“ALERT!: the toxin being injected is of unknown origin and has been determined to likely to cause severely deleterious effects to your aspected nature. An Unknown Affliction is taking effect. Defense protocols have triggered to limit damage and affects. Activating Convergence Ability “Blissful Storm”.” ALIAS screeched as yet another box popped up:
“Convergence Ability: “Blissful storm”: Gentle rains fall around you, purging one affliction effect while applying a moderate heal effect to all biological entities marked as friendly within a 10 foot radius, biological entities marked as hostile within the area of effect are struck with dispersed volt energy, stunning them for 0-20 seconds depending on resistances; no damage is inflicted from this ability. Effects to non-biological objects within range varies. Activating this convergence ability places both used abilities on a reduced cooldown. Volt aspect cost: Moderate, Aqua aspect cost: Moderate”
The ability had taken effect long before Andre could dismiss the box and stop ALIAS from triggering it. While he felt significantly better: the cold feeling from the injection vanishing almost as soon as it had begun. The searing pain that traced from his arm to his back only flared in intensity, though his lips, mouth and throat seemed to be calmed in the rain. The same could not be said for the doctor. He had been caught up in the flashes of Volt energy that emanated from around Andre. He crumpled to the floor as the misty rain fell around them, electricity sparking from the medical equipment around the bed and additional volt strikes dancing around the room. As quickly as it had begun, silence fell through the room; the door bursting open with two men shoving their way in.
“Lockdown the facility NOW and get me a security detail to the medical wing!” A familiar voice roared into the phone he was holding, as Silderson stared at a rain-soaked Andre, the electronics still crackling and smoking around him. Alarms began blaring around them, as a well-dressed man he quickly recognized began to smoothly speak:
“I’m glad to see you have finally awoken Andre. It would seem we really do have a lot to talk about, now don’t we?” Silderson casually stepped around the unconscious doctor to place his hands on the bars at the foot of Andres’ bed; cold eyes gleaming with triumph in the low light of the room.” From the door Andre heard the other man speak, his voice tremulous with shock at the scene:
“I thought you said he couldn’t convert mana?!”
“Don’t you dare say another word!” Silderson growled at the man.
“Sil…si…silde….Silderson…?!” Andre managed to gasp out as the burning along his arm and back intensified. Staring into the menacingly cold eyes, his world began to spin; fading to black at the periphery.
“Alert: loss of consciousness likely, it is imperative you take actions to prevent this from occurring, or detainment is certain.”
“ALIAS, Activate “Blissful Rain” please, I don’t have the strength to do it.” Andre weakly pleaded with his partner.
“Unable to comply, while the cooldown for “Blissful Rain” has recently elapsed, you have insufficient Aqua mana to activate the ability.” ALIAS coolly replied. With a thought Andre opened his character screen only to be greeted by a new bar on the left-hand side of his screen, this one rimmed a vibrant Violet. Along with the aquamarine-colored bar, it was blinking, both appearing to only be about 10 percent full.
“Damnit, what can I do?!” He thought desperately.
“Calculating.”
“W..wh…why are you here?!” he choked out, realizing his prolonged silence.
“That is not something you need to concern yourself with for now, little boy. I had a feeling you’d be an interesting individual, I’m quite gladdened to see I was right. My boss will be quite pleased when I report in.” He almost hummed out, seemingly giddy. Andres’ head slumped to the pillow as the squeezing darkness pressed in around him.
“ALERT: Loss of consciousness eminent, detainment likelihood: 100%. I will continue to strategize an escape plan.” ALIAS resignedly whispered in the back of his mind, it seemingly fading along with Andre.
“Well, it looks like your little act while it was quite impressive, was a bit too much for you to handle. Rest now and when you wake well have more… specialized means to discuss recent events.” Silderson spoke as a sly grin crept across his mouth. The darkness pressing in on Andre succeeded in swallowing him whole, leaving his fate in the hands of those around him.