Yggdrasil Fallen, LitRPG Series
Book 1, Part 1: Obsidian
Chapter 31: Gjiildaen
Andre crept, as quietly as he could through the seemingly abandoned streets of the suburban town he’d found himself in after the prior evenings realm jump. The neighborhood reminded him much of the richer areas just outside any of the bigger cities back in his world. What he guessed to be houses were all seemingly quite expansive, sitting on large lots of well-groomed land, with a surprising amount of room between them. As the sun had breached the horizon an early morning cacophony of avian calls had started, ranging from melodic twittering to shrill squawks that reminded him of hungry magpies.
The “Houses” as he had determined them to be all looked like they had all been built from the same set of blueprints: cookie cutter in their dome shapes with the accompanying spires to either side. The biggest difference he could see between them were the vines that seemed to have been incorporated into the very structure of the towers and domes. Each house had a different growth pattern across its surface with different varieties and colors of flowers that seemed to have just opened, blooming in the morning light. What had struck him more than anything else was the sheer number of trees that grew around each of the house-like structures, each sitting on a lot lush with a distinctly arranged micro forest.
The road itself, if Andre could call it a road more resembled an extra-wide bike path rimmed with brilliantly green plant life, it resembled something like clover that had been bred with horizontally growing creeping vine. Tiny purple and white flowers speckled the verdant growth, like stars on a forested matte.
As he crept along, he couldn’t help but shake the feeling he was being watched, while he couldn’t see anyone or anything in any of the buildings he passed; the feeling seemed to multiply as he moved through the neighborhood. It wasn’t until he reached a wide-open, well-kept field with what he could only guess was a sort of playground equipment that he heard the first sounds of life other than the very talkative birds that overpopulated the heavily wooded neighborhood. It started like a breeze through a large number of bamboo windchimes of vastly varying sizes. Andre froze in place, looking around trying to locate the origin of the noise, which seemed to have him entirely surrounded.
The noise grew louder, as the source seemed to draw closer to where he was crouched. Andre burst forwards towards the field, in as fast a spring as he could muster. His feet and legs a borderline cartoonish blur he leapt, launching himself over a low fence and far into the open area, sprinting as fast as he could for the other deeply wooded other side. From what he could tell there were no houses past the tree line. The melodic timbre matched his pace as he attempted to flee whatever was chasing him.
*Alert: “Ascended’s Travel Cloak” new ability discovered: “Transdimensional Translation”: Instinctually understand and speak any language you encounter outside your own originally spoken tongue. *
Andre dismissed the text box after a quick read as he crossed the halfway mark of the field and as he was approaching what he estimated to be about three quarters of the way through a voice that sounded like 1000 harmonizing rang through his head.
“That is quite enough, halt yourself and sit down nicely so we can have ourselves a little bit of a chat.”
Andre felt his muscles lock up, his left foot falling hard with his right refusing to follow. He tumbled forwards into a hard roll, his momentum carrying him 50 bouncing feet before he came to rest in a stiff muscled heap. He lay where he fell for several minutes, a bewildered heap before he rolled to a cross-legged sitting position.
“Much better, now doesn’t that Elderbloom vine feel quite nice underneath you.”
Andre hadn’t noticed just how soft, fragrant and cool the grass felt on his skin. He could almost feel the delicate greenery delicately caressing his hands and arms as he unknowingly slowly sank down.
“Do those flowering blooms not just intoxicate your senses, make you wish you could whittle away the hours in the inebriation of warm sun and washing breeze of spring aromatics.”
Andre, drunk on the pollen that began wafting around him sank deeper to the ground, failing to notice the vines creeping over him binding him.
“ALERT: You are currently under the effect of a Psycho-neurogenic attack, failure to combat or resist could result in absolute loss of control.” ALIAS’ panicked voice rang out, though it came as almost a moaning whisper, quickly hushed out by the abundance of drowning voices overlaying it.”
“It is time to sleep, intruder. Sleep and never wake.”
Andre’s vision swam, as the pendant around his neck began to grow hot against his skin quickly sobering his senses. Feeling the creeping vines grip he began to squirm, fighting back against their crawling embrace. The pendant burned hotter, Andre could feel his skin beginning to blister against it as he wrestled himself loose.
“NO! What do you think you are doing! Embrace the tranquility, allow yourself to submit to the peace we know you desperately crave!” The voices rang in a panicked song, echoing through Andre’s head, seeming to have lost their perfect harmony.
Through his newly enhanced strength stat, Andre found it relatively easy to rip through the vines encompassing him, throwing the shredded remains to the side he gripped his head as the cacophony of voices rang again:
“NO! You will submit to us! Your Obsidian emblem pales to the rising tide of our natural force, vile demon!” Shaking his head in an attempt to dismiss the voices Andre rose to his feet, drawing both of his weapons with the motion, charging Shildras with as much Radiant energy as it could handle, while imbuing his machete with Volt. Andre began his localized assault: in series of slashing arcs he spun, mulching all the creeping vines, while firing off a long series of rounds that resembled oversized white hot tracers. One of his rounds connected to an invisible form and in a flash of light, he saw a squat form flop over into the viny grass.
“Was… was that radiance!? What member of the Obsidian Legion can harness the power of Andastrea?! Is this a new incarnation?! WE ARE NOT PREPARED!” The panicked voices seemed to ring around him now, as opposed to in his head.
“Alert: Secondary effects of item: “Choker of the Greater Hellborne Knight” has allowed you to break free from the effects of a localized psycho-neurogenic attack. You are no longer at risk of total loss of control.”
“Thank you, ALIAS, now, can you tell me anything about whatever it is we are currently facing?”
“No information is currently available on our current aggressors; you must expose them to prompt an adequate analysis of our current circumstances.”
Andres’ eyes had been trained on the spot where he saw the squat figure fall when his Radiant round made contact. Striding towards the spot, he swung his leg out in a sharp, fierce kick. His foot contacting a surprisingly soft form that was sent skipping across the ground. The voices rang out around him in alarm, as he strode to where whatever it was he had kicked came to a rest. Andre stepped down, planting his boot on the extremely squishy object that began to squirm and squeal like a stuck pig.
“Please, do not hurt us, we pose you no real threat.” The voices screeched in desperation.
“We didn’t mean any harm to you!”
“Bullshit you didn’t mean me any harm, ya marshmallow fuck.” Andre snarled leveling Shildras at the ground near his feet, rage at the situation beginning to build in his chest.
“What exactly did you mean by your sleep comment then.”
“It speaks our language! It knows! We meant nothing!! Only to rest! We watched you not sleep all night, we meant only to lull you to peaceful rest, where we could…. Uhhhh study you?” The panicked voices scrambled for words to placate him. Andre flipped his weapon skyward firing off a series of rounds. Pointing the weapon back towards the ground he flooded it with all three aspects he could currently channel.
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“Oi mate, I thinkin dis squashable fuck is toyin wit ya, gimme a taste o dat terra “mana”, as ye call it, an less spike dis fuck.” Shildras gleefully spoke.
“Not quite yet, but here… I’ll give ya a nice pre-charge just in case…” Andre replied, as he allowed Terra aspected mana to flow into the greedily ravenous weapon.
“Reveal yourself, and I’ll consider healing the wound I know you have.” He spoke down to the “creature” writhing beneath his firmly planted foot.
“Noooooo we can’t expose ourselves! It goes against our very existence to be viewed by outsiders; we really do not wish to do that!” The grip held tightly in his hand; Andre’s finger pressed firmly against the trigger, the weapon beginning to thrum with power.
“This is your last chance, to all of you. If you do not wish to see your friend spiked and painted across the ground; reveal yourselves.” A loud discordant babbling chitter echoed around him, as though all the voices had lost total cohesive unity and began arguing amongst themselves. The noise was beginning to give him a headache.
“QUIET ALL OF YOU!” He roared; his frustrated anger having reached its apex, he pointed Shildras into the air and fired off a series of crackling bursts, silencing the voices once more. As the vibrant pulsing balls of crackling violet energy faded into the sky Andre once more lowered Shildras, pointing at the squishy mass under his boot.
“C’mon maaan, lemme blast the bitch. Ye know we aint gonna get a right thing outta these cunts lest we make our point clear.” Shildras spoke to him.
“I disagree, I believe your sudden appearance in their realm startled the local inhabitants. Their reaction is well within the realm of normal expectations for the sudden appearance of a weapon wielding “alien” able to overwhelm their peaceful restraint tactics. It also appears their fear response regarding your choker has only escalated tensions. I strongly suggest you sheath your weapons and take a more peaceful approach now that the situation is in hand.” ALIAS spoke.
“You know… ALIAS, that’s a damn good point… I hadn’t even considered the fact that we might find in stable realms with actual societies and in those circumstances, we would be viewed as aliens… even hostile invaders.” Andre replied aloud as he removed his foot from the struggling form. He felt a woosh of air as it shot away. A light breeze blew rustling the grass and leaves in trees around them, the only sound as even the chatty birds had fallen silent after the electric bursts.
“Alright, let’s start over here: I am called Andre where I come from, I apologize for appearing in your city in the manner I did. I was not expecting to find any stable societies… my apparently flawed understanding was that any realm I traveled to would either have either fallen to corruption or would be well on its way.” Andre began.
“Be careful with what you say, do not reveal too much. We know nothing of these creatures we are currently dealing with.” ALIAS chided.
“I’m not exactly sure what you would call me. But in my own language I am called a Human, though I am far from a typical example of my species. If it is possible, please reveal yourselves, or at least one of you so we may converse face to face in a peaceful manner.” He continued.
“Not exactly what I would call a good first contact conversation or situation… but I guess for someone like you it was about what could be expected. We will have to work on that for possible future encounters.” ALIAS spoke in a way that Andre could almost feel its eyes rolling.
“Very well, “Human”. We cannot guarantee you will even be able to process our forms with your rudimentary eyes. But have it your way.” All around him the air began to shimmer, a pale haze filling his vision. The haze began to swirl, condensing and thickening into amorphous blobby clouds with several multi-colored orbs floating in them. Andre looked around, it was difficult to differentiate the forms as they hovered around as they seemed to blend, separate, re-blend and change as he watched. Shaking his head he looked around trying to process what he was seeing.
“Now was that so hard? Now, about that promise” Andre spoke, as he activated his “Blissful Rain” ability. A cool, misty rain began falling around them, the beings having stopped shifting around, their orbs seeming to stare in awe at the rain. Andre holstered Shildras, without breaking line of sight with as many of forms that surrounded him as possible.
“A-a-a…ascended…! ASCENDED! This is the first time an Ascended has graced our realm, long have we watched the rise and fall of your kind, long have we wished to study one of you.” The voices had almost completely returned to their cohesive, uniform manner of speaking; only a few voices remained out of sync, trepidation skewing their harmony.
“Rise and fall, study? What exactly are you going on about?” Andre’s voice came gruff, suspicious with an edge.
“Ascended are strange creatures, with simple wants and desires bound in primal forms completely unaware of the majesty in which they reside. Until one day, they begin the change… and change they do, If they only knew…” they responded; harmonization having fully returned. The form Andre once had pinned to the ground now floated amongst the greater mass, almost entirely disappearing amongst them, save for a still slightly apparent discoloration that held bruise-ish shape and color.
“They rise to see their fellow “evolved” species cannot see their world for what it is, but for what it holds for them to take. Sadly, this has held true across all worlds we have watched, throughout all time and incarnations. They hold little regard for any life but their own, mass consumption and struggles for dominance the only driving force they abide by.” Andre had sheathed his machete and was listening intently as the voices rang around him.
“Every time the ascended watch and act, unable to halt each of their signals of the ends to come. The realities final attempt to purge the affliction and stem its hemorrhage: unleashing beasts of aspect nature to balance the consumption; lest its threads fray and vanish. We have long wished to examine an Ascended, determine whatever it is that makes them different from the rest of their kind, why they are able to harness the energies around them without perishing. We wish to know how they survive when their realities go dark and how they form their little… strongholds.” The voices fell silent, seemingly hanging in a contemplative prose. Andre’s mind spun, the battery of voices and the sudden shift in conversation overwhelmed him, leaving him unbalanced.
“Hold up, hold up. You need to slow down a little bit. First off, who exactly are you… all? If you’ve watched countless, how is it I’m the first you’ve met? Why not just ask me these questions instead trying to kill me, or put me to sleep… or whatever it was you were trying to do. Seems that was a bit of an elaborate stunt you were trying to pull off.” Andre rapidly fired off his questions, an uneasy pressure emanating from the amorphous masses around him. Andre felt a cold tingle beginning to run throughout his body, starting from his abdomen, running throughout his limbs.
“…We are Gjiildaen, watchers of the innumerable branches, caretakers of the roots of the tree of worlds. We exist outside the constructed formations of the aspected realms, a place untouchable by anything, everything… and everyone. You the first ever non-Gjiildaen to have traversed the Moonblossomed paths, to process our air, experience the solar rays we so enjoy. There are no known possible paths to here, so how you ended up here is quite the fortuitous mystery; as now we have the chance to fulfill our curiosities.”
“If I allow it” Andre said, fingering the weapon hanging off his hip.
“You speak of viewing countless ascended across as many worlds, what happens to them if they fail to protect their worlds?” He continued.
“When they fail, the scamper off like scared mice through whatever holes in their realities they can find, oftentimes set off on a meandering path of hopelessness until they wash ashore at one of the strongholds their ilk call home.” The Gjiildaen spoke.
“Strongholds?” Andre asked.
“Yes, last bastions of hope for those who make it there, chunks of realities knitted together through sheer force of spirit and will where the scared rodents hide awaiting the final end of times. Alas not many do make it, most torn apart in monster suffused realities. Not even the protectorate depots are enough to aid their journeys to fruitful ends.” Their unfeeling words washed over Andre, a frosty chill reverberating throughout his being, shaking him to his very soul. Looking around at all the clouded orbs hovering in an obscure, chaotic two-step he thought to himself.
“ALIAS, do you have any information on these Gjiildaens?”
“I do not, I have added them to the collective knowledge and will continue actively gathering any information they reveal throughout our interactions. I do suspect they are being entirely truthful, your rather savage attack on one of them left it critically injured and had it not been for your Blissful Rain, it would have surely perished.”
“Thank you, ALIAS. Shildras, do you know anything about these things?” Shildras had been surprisingly silent since ALIAS had suggested peaceful measures. Andre was sure the moody bastard was pissed it didn’t get to blow a hole in one of the “Gjiildaens”… or maybe it was something else, he couldn’t be sure at the moment.
“Shildras?”
“It would seem our way-wearied companion has lost the desire to directly interact with us, for the time being at least.” ALIAS had spoken in place of their other companion, an edge of concern hanging on every note.
“Well… I’m here for you, should you decide to go full savage asshole again.” Andre thought, an edge of amusement hanging onto his words.
“What, I’m not enough asshole for you?!” ALIAS chimed out insistently.
“You’re more bitch, less asshole.” Andre responded, bemusedly caught up in his internal monologue, unawares of the creatures ever so slowly closing in around him.
“Uh, Andre, you may consider actually paying attention to your surroundings… remember we are not alone.” ALIAS rang out.
Shaken from the conversation by ALIAS’ alert Andre kicked hard off the ground, a long high backflip over the encroaching cloud forms as he drew Shildras. Landing at the backside of the group, he shouted out to them:
“Just what do you think you are doing?!”
“Just beginning our… analysis” they responded.
“I never agreed to anything, bit rude of you to just assume you could do as you wish with me, just because I am here.” He shot back, his anger growing once more.
“If you wish to take a good look at me, let us first arrange some terms, or we’ll be playing a good long game of hide and seek until I vanish from your realm, with no intent to return.”
“Very well, let us discuss the terms by which we get to… study you.” They responded in a dejected tone, as if it were at all possible.
“Good, I have a ton of questions no one seems to want to answer.” Andre spat out, as though he’d tasted something foul.
“Let us begin setting terms for our agreement.” He continued as he holstered Shildras once again, noting that he had been unable to imbue any energy into his now silent companion.