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| A Greater Triumph. From Here. |
As they all cautiously passed through the massive chambers Jolan asked numerous questions about what the adventurers had encountered thus far, and grew frustrated with their answers. After examining various features of the Temple himself, along with the Cadets Tallius and Markana, he declared that the Temple was in fact some kind of “experimental facility”, which was causing “temporal anomalies” through some unknown but ongoing process. These anomalies could apparently have disastrous effects should they continue to occur unchecked, and were now the presumed reason that he and his Cadets had been plucked from the world they knew, a “survey-class cruiser” in the “alpha centauri region”, and brought to this one.
After examining some of the great silver objects still intact in each chamber, as well as the one they had already gathered, Jolan declared these to be “central processors”. To stop the anomalies these “central processors” would need to be interacted with, deactivated, and perhaps even destroyed. He made this final statement as they entered a new chamber, inside of which a small pyramid of silver floated near the ceiling, and on either side of this pyramid stood two massive pairs of mirrors, 10 feet wide and nearly 100 feet tall, that stood thirty about feet apart.Along the northern and southern walls near each of the corners were large glass cubes, about five feet on each side. Within each one there appeared to be some sort of creature, suspended and motionless. Edith approached one that held a sort of cat, and as she drew closer she realized this was in fact a tiger.
Not a full sized tiger, but one only 2 feet long from nose to tail. She walked faster as she realized this, but then suddenly the cube began to crumble and dissolve. The tiger slumped to the ground, limp and groggy. She picked it up and held it in her arms like it were a simple housepet, and tried to soothe it. It seemed receptive to her kindness.
“Incredible! But please, stay back from the others. We don’t know what these technologies are capable of. Allow us to scan the central processor first. Tallius, would you do the honors?”Tallis then walked towards the center of the chamber so that she might stand beneath the pyramid, and in doing so passed beneath a pair of mirrors. As she did this she immediately began to stumble, then gag. She fell to the ground retching. Markana gasped and ran towards her, but followed the same path between the mirrors. She doubled over in pain, clutching her stomach and moaning.“My god! Tallius! Markana!”
And so Jolan ran after them too, but as he passed through the mirrors he did not cry out in pain, though he did seem momentarily quite distressed and confused, and became quite dizzy.
Nasr, however, was not so cautious and simply walked between the other pair of them.
At that moment, as he turned towards Edith, the bacterial consciousness in control of the body of Nasr felt a roiling thunder of exquisite pain as his bowels began cramping with such great enthusiasm that numerous muscles began to tear, producing alarming noises as he doubled over in agony.
It began screaming in defiance as it tried to defy the will of the collective renegade gut flora. As it persisted these screams became ones of disappointment and rage as the forces that had caused this situation to occur began to diminish. The Nasr’s felt his consciousness detach from the billions of bacteria and recombine into one, as the bacteria felt themselves become unseated and then shattered into amnesiac billions once again. They were resettled into the empty minds of their old forms with no recollection of what had passed, with only a strange feeling that were now in a body that was not originally theirs. They were correct. Nasr felt only a dull pain in his bowels, and a sense of unease over what had transpired over the previous 12 seconds.
Tallis and Markana began to spit up bile after being dragged into a corner of the room far from any glass cubes or mirrors. Their skin was beginning to show vivid sores, and they were dripping sweat. Jolan seemed alright, if not a little bit more crazed and shaken. “I will attend to them” he said. “You must go on, and dismantle this place. I will catch up with you once they are stable.”
The adventurers began to walk towards the next chamber, but were interrupted by a weak, moaning scream. It came from Tallius.
Jolan was crouched over the Tallius. He faced the adventurers who now shouted at him. His lips and chin were coated in blood, it dripped off his face and onto the floor.
“Do not worry, I am applying pressure! The wound is not severe! I can explain this!”
He was accused of biting her, and drinking her blood. He denied only the biting as he wrapped a bandage around the gash on her arm.
“I did not bite her! I used this, my multi-tool. It has a knife. I have been transformed. My biology. I had no choice. The hunger and thirst was unbearable. This place is dangerous and it must be destroyed.”
As he passionately spoke one could see that he was quite soaked in Tallius’ blood, from chin to crotch.
“The core processors, those silver objects. They must be disabled! It’s the only way!” he licked his lips. Tallius groaned.
“She will be alright! Please, we must continue.”
They continued onward to the next chamber.
Edoni, observing that passage between the mirrors seemed to cause great distress, walked past the mirrors along the side, so his reflection was not within him. He began to help drag the three to safety.
Deep within the gut system of all humans are billions upon billions of vaguely sentient bacteria, who exist in a parasitic relationship with mankind. They believe they are held in servitude by human bodies, however, and kept like slaves. They resent this. The idea of seizing control of the bodily prison they live in is the ultimate dream of all these beings, one they cling to despite it being, prior to this moment, utterly impossible.
Of all the countless bacteria to have ever existed those within Nasr’s bowels became the most fortunate to have ever come into being the moment he passed between the mirrors, for these bacteria were now the first to transcend their imprisonment as they had long dreamed of. the form of the great body they were imprisoned within, as they did within all bodies, within all humans. This was like a religion to them, this idea of great ascension. They were now pulled from their billions of bodies, and their minds coalesced into a single unit of conscious thought while, Nasrs mind was plucked out and replicated into billions of tiny synchronized fragments. This bacterial consciousness gestalt was then situated in full control of the nervous system the body once belonging to Nasr, while the billions of simultaneous Nasr consciousnesses were populated through the now empty minds of the gut bacteria.
Gut Bacteria-Nasr screamed out with a wild, lunatic passion that strained his vocal cords. “AT LAST! THE BODY IS MINE!” . It continued to scream and cackle as it faced Edith with hands outstretched, intending to avenge its enslaved fellows by strangling the life from her. Before his hands could reach her throat, however, the billions of Nasr's within Nasr became aware of these ill intentions, and so acted in unison acted to oppose him in the only way they could.
It was seen that these platforms could be moved, and so with a clever hook and rope system fabricated by Nasr they were able to shift the position of a disc that hovered at approximately 20’ from the corner of the room to a place nearer the side of the column. Using another hook and rope, Nasr begin to climb towards the top.
He had all but reached the edge of the surface when the skittering floating insect-thing then began to buzz towards them with a clearly ill intention. Edoni then promptly muttered forbidden and sacred words, and these did open a windowed gate to a world beyond, from which emerged a crystalline bumblebee-thing of great size. From its hindquarters emerged three stingers instead of one, and the room filled with both a pungent stench and a tingling heat on the skin resembling a sunburn. From the central segment of it’s body emerged a single claw, and out claw the crystalline bee spurted a diaphanous webbing that engulfed the metallic and more wasp-like metallic foe. They began attempting to sting each other at once, each unable to penetrate the other. This diversion allowed both Edoni and Nasr to quickly descend from the platforms and cylinder, to a relatively safer place below. Nasr had seen two silver cubes connected by a similarly silver rod in the center of the platform, before he fled. There were other things there too, great spheres of precious metals.
With her miniature tiger cradled in one arm, accompanied by the blood soaked and somewhat jittery Jolan, Edith entered a room nearly filled by a vast metallic pyramid. Above this pyramid floated a great disc, right above the point at the top of it. Clattering many-limbed things crept along the walls, covered in many writhing tentacle-like protrusions which buzzed and hummed and whirred.
The ceiling showed a glorious image. Great white streaks and blue fields, and formations of green and brown and beige and many other colors. Like what a bird sees, but much greater. For but a moment this, and then another image: great forest and fields, mountains. It was closer. One could see snow, rocks, and rivers. Then it wa places known and unknown, closer then farther. Sand, then beaches, then cities. Moving along a new landscape almost familiar, then at other moments very still and observant from a height too great to understand what was being seen.
Also on each face of the pyramid was a small platform, like a balcony. The balcony facing Edith was heaped with silver, small cups and pieces of jewelry. Edith ascended the pyramid towards this, it’s face tactile enough to permit easy walking. Upon reaching the platform she then tossed it all into her backpack, a small haul.
As soon as she had done this the many limbed things rushed towards her with alarming speed, each on opposite sides of the pyramid. Edith ran to the top of it then, and narrowly avoid her face being eviscerated by a spinning blade wielded by one attacker as another misstepped and tumbled back down the eastern side. She discharged a pistol shot, but it merely struck the wall. As this happened she was showered with black sparks, and these sank tingling into her skin.
Her face was cut, not too deeply, by the blade. As her blood spilled out the blade drank some in, as if it were a syringe, and in an instant a red staccato pattern of bright lights shivered up the sides of the appendage. Having decoded from trace biological droppings the emotional content of her memories, the robot then emulated one of them to provoke negativity in the intruder. With the emulated voice of the most despised and loathsome slug, the guardian croaked.
”Well, we seem to have found ourselves in quite a predicament! One would wish they had chosen to become a sales associate instead of a temple robber, no?”
Edith screamed out in defiance “NO!” at the memory of the disgusting slug, and Jolan screamed too “THE PROCESSOR! WE MUST DESTROY THE PROCESSOR!”
Edith screamed out in defiance “NO!” at the memory of the disgusting slug, and Jolan screamed too “THE PROCESSOR! WE MUST DESTROY THE PROCESSOR!”
Edith understood, and focused on this goal. She withdrew her firearm and discharged it at the disc above her. As the shot collided with it, causing great cracks along the bottom, there was a sudden and immense noise that was more felt than heard, one that rattled the teeth and agitated the sinuses. A great column of misty whiteness formed above the disc, and this column extended into the ceiling, through the ceiling, and into the perspective of the images upon it until it saturated the image it showed of the world below.
This was a grassland, across which bounded remarkable creatures: furry and four-limbed, standing on two legs. They jumped great distances, like sorts of rabbits. They had on the front them pouches, some of them did, in which there seemed to be smaller, younger ones. One remarkable specimen was seeming to float almost in mid air, as the great white light filled everything around it.
It fell to the ground dead, onto the now sterilized ground. From the sky fell countless birds, and from the trees other mammals that called them home. To the nearby coasts and far into the oceans the lights diameter rolled, erasing the life of both fish and corals. This all floated to the surface and would be carried to shore by the tides.
The entire eastern portion of what would one day be called Australia was now devoid of all animal life.
This was a grassland, across which bounded remarkable creatures: furry and four-limbed, standing on two legs. They jumped great distances, like sorts of rabbits. They had on the front them pouches, some of them did, in which there seemed to be smaller, younger ones. One remarkable specimen was seeming to float almost in mid air, as the great white light filled everything around it.
It fell to the ground dead, onto the now sterilized ground. From the sky fell countless birds, and from the trees other mammals that called them home. To the nearby coasts and far into the oceans the lights diameter rolled, erasing the life of both fish and corals. This all floated to the surface and would be carried to shore by the tides.
The entire eastern portion of what would one day be called Australia was now devoid of all animal life.
There was a tremendous and terrible sound, and a noxious odor like melted plastics in the chamber containing the great column. Gerald, standing in the same chamber as the Cadets, was the first to see the what had emerged from the anomaly.
Grey-black and moist they stood upon three legs, both bird and horse like, and had a similar triple-set of limbs. Their musculature resembled both early steam engine and advanced watch mechanics, though both of these were unknown to all observers. They were faceless, though they had mouths and heads. A chirping sound like a roar and a beetle's buzzing wings came from one of these mouths as it pointed its central limb towards Markana, a tube like extrusion which blasted him with a fiery bolt of pale pink haze that caused him to scream in pain as his outer layers of clothing and skin peeled away and began bleeding.
Nasr then aimed the strange arquebus he had recovered from the dead man, and discharged it at one of the nameless things. Its body body began burning into green sparks, causing it to gnash its mouth wildly and produce yet more discomforting noise.
Gerald then cast a Quickening spell, doubling the speed of his thoughts and movements. Gerald used this quickness to cast the Holy Hammer, which unweaved the recent flows of time as it filled him with strength. It was now true Nasr had not shot anything with his strange arquebus, and no creature was consumed in green sparks.
Gerald, still quickened, then caused himself to be overcome with a demoniac Bloodlust by means of another spell, and his nails did turn to claws and his teeth to razors. As Gerald was transforming Nasr lobbed one of his explosives at the vile creatures. It exploded magnificently on contact with the ground beneath them, and the blast tore them limb from limb, scattering yellowish blood the texture of milk curd throughout the vicinity and filling the air with a noxious gas. Gerald inhaled this deeply in his frenzied state, and became even more deranged. Edoni ran over to attend to the wounded Markana, but Gerald then tried to slash at him with his claws, so confused was he, and also fueled by magical rage.
Nasr meanwhile heaved another explosive onto the surface of the cylinder, and the keg of black powder exploded with force enough to demolish the so-called central processor, the crystalline bee, and the metallic wasp in one great puff of smoke. Their remnants scattered everywhere as chunks and powder, and the feeling of deep sunburn subsided from everyone's skin. Unseen due to their position, four formless metallic things slithered down the side of the cylinder, now freed from their spheres, while Nasr then climbed atop it using the rope that had been situated previously.
There was a great and terrible sound once again, now familiar as an anomaly, and now there stood 5 of the tripod monstrosities seen previously. These had a somewhat different appearance than the others, and were heavily shelled like both tortoises and cockroaches. Nasr took aim with his strange arquebus from atop the cylinder and began blasting, first wounding one severely by disintegrating an arm then causing another to dissolve into greenish phosphorescence as it stumbled to the ground. Gerald turned his attention to this new foes, and ran at them screaming as the metallic globules closed in as well.
A gold globule stretched up like rising dough and covered the top half of one tripod beast as it stepped into the undulating folds of a copper one that had slid beneath it, and then it dissolved into the two of them with alarming speed, as if it were candyfloss dipped into hot water. Edoni leveled his wand which caused hideous death at the remaining monsters, but its malign energies narrowly missed their intended targets and instead struck the great cylinder.
There was a great and terrible sound once again, now familiar as an anomaly, and now there stood 5 of the tripod monstrosities seen previously. These had a somewhat different appearance than the others, and were heavily shelled like both tortoises and cockroaches. Nasr took aim with his strange arquebus from atop the cylinder and began blasting, first wounding one severely by disintegrating an arm then causing another to dissolve into greenish phosphorescence as it stumbled to the ground. Gerald turned his attention to this new foes, and ran at them screaming as the metallic globules closed in as well.
A gold globule stretched up like rising dough and covered the top half of one tripod beast as it stepped into the undulating folds of a copper one that had slid beneath it, and then it dissolved into the two of them with alarming speed, as if it were candyfloss dipped into hot water. Edoni leveled his wand which caused hideous death at the remaining monsters, but its malign energies narrowly missed their intended targets and instead struck the great cylinder.
Edith now slid down the back face of the pyramid, half tumbling, and threw her water skins contents onto the rampaging robot that muttered at her in the voice of the vile Slug. It whipped its limbs at her as she ran about the pyramid.
The now familiar sound of anomaly filled the room where Gerald raged, Edoni pointed his wand, and Nasr shot strange weaponry.
Atop the great cylinder Nasr now found himself beneath the bulk of a vast creature. The size of a great ship, it stood upon four great legs, each like a great oak. Its neck and tail were both remarkably long, and it roared in confusion. Its companion did this two, and they began to lumber about the great platform in a rising panic. A third on the ground below began exploring its surroundings with great lumbering steps and frightened roars, swinging a massive tail wildly as it stomped forward.
Nasr pulled out his flask of ice-producing slime and flung it at the remaining group of tripod monsters and metallic puddles that now assaulted each other in the path of the lumbering giant. A great burst of frost formed and quickly cleared, revealing they were all now frozen to the core. The metallic slimes instantly crumbled, and the great beast intervened on this by crushing one of the tripods to powder underfoot. The remaining one was impaled by Edoni through the face with a spear, and then its body was crushed like the others.
Edith then ran between the great legs of this creature, returning to the room where Talia and Markana lay sick and wounded, now spattered with strange blood. Jolan ran in soon after, fleeing the bladed robots which thankfully remained near the pyramid, at the edge of the doorway.
One the great creatures stumbled from the side of the great cylinder, and so fell and crushed beneath its great bulk the remaining metallic globules and extradimensional tripods. Gerald narrowly dodge being crushed, but knocked to the ground by its’ whipping tail and suffered a significantly broken arm. His rage still burned, and he began tearing into the exposed belly of creature with his good arm and ample fangs.
Nasr leveled his strange arquebus at the two guardians of the pyramid in the room beyond, and annihilated them both with what he soon realized were the final shots of the weapon. He ran towards the pyramid now, avoiding the limbs of the great creature that lay on its side roaring as Gerald kept shredding it.
Nasr now ascended the pyramid, and approached the disc as images of the earth's surface flashed by before him in rapid sequence. He pulled out a simpler weapon, a black powder pistol, and fired a single shot which struck a most critical element of the unknowable circuitry of the thing. Nasr saw only a brief image of many peasants and cattle falling over in rural countryside, near Holland.
The white light that emitted filled the European continent from the northern shores of Prussia to the southernmost parts of the Swiss Confederacy. It went to the west far past all of England and France, and east through most of Austria.
In Amsterdam, London, Paris, Vienna, and countless other towns and cities all humanity crumpled and fell down dead over the span of seconds, the suddenness of their demise preventing any of those victims from realizing they were experiencing the collective death of their entire society. Throughout the countryside all livestock, all peasants, all flying birds and insects and swimming fish no longer lived in an instant. All died in the midst of their most usual routines, unaware and as suddenly as drops of rainwater disappear into a pond.
All of western Europe was empty now, filled with innumerable corpses that would mummify in the sun before the bacterial milieu would become significant enough to cause rot.
The white light that emitted filled the European continent from the northern shores of Prussia to the southernmost parts of the Swiss Confederacy. It went to the west far past all of England and France, and east through most of Austria.
In Amsterdam, London, Paris, Vienna, and countless other towns and cities all humanity crumpled and fell down dead over the span of seconds, the suddenness of their demise preventing any of those victims from realizing they were experiencing the collective death of their entire society. Throughout the countryside all livestock, all peasants, all flying birds and insects and swimming fish no longer lived in an instant. All died in the midst of their most usual routines, unaware and as suddenly as drops of rainwater disappear into a pond.
All of western Europe was empty now, filled with innumerable corpses that would mummify in the sun before the bacterial milieu would become significant enough to cause rot.
The silver disc drifted across the air, and then collided into the wall.
A white light burst out once again, this time the image initially showing a vast wet rice paddy into which all the farmers did fall. Nasr saw the ceiling then go black, but the Southern half of China was now a land of death, as was much of eastern India, and all the island nations to the South that were now unknown to him, and were now never knowable to anyone.
Nasr approached the silver disc as it lay on the ground, and saw that he would be unable to move it by himself.
A white light burst out once again, this time the image initially showing a vast wet rice paddy into which all the farmers did fall. Nasr saw the ceiling then go black, but the Southern half of China was now a land of death, as was much of eastern India, and all the island nations to the South that were now unknown to him, and were now never knowable to anyone.
Nasr approached the silver disc as it lay on the ground, and saw that he would be unable to move it by himself.
From inside Gerald the demon Kezgefligrox bellowed with uncontrollable mirth. I HAD NEVER EVEN DARED TO DREAM OF SUCH A GLORIOUS SURPLUS OF EXTERMINATION!
Now standing in the room with Tallius and Markana, Edoni spoke to Tallius as he observed Jolan as he paced across the room covered in his sweat and her blood. Edoni asked Tallia if she felt he might be dangerous in his current state.
Tallius replied between coughs
“He...he cut me, and he drank my blood. He’s been changed. I don’t know what’s wrong with him...He cut me...”
“He...he cut me, and he drank my blood. He’s been changed. I don’t know what’s wrong with him...He cut me...”
Edoni pondered what this might mean, and realizing it likely meant nothing good he walked up to Jolan and placed one hand on his shoulder. Jolan turned to face him, while with the other hand Edoni sharply jabbed his wand into his side as if it were a dagger.
Jolan made gagging noise as he then attempted to scream. His interior began to erupt outward from the point where the wand had touched him, while that which was furthest from that point was drawn towards it at equal speed. With a shucking sound his skin was sucked into him through all openings as a torn sheet, and his limbs splayed out widely before they folded in on themselves like strips of paper., His muscles were pulled apart like spools of thread and then twisted into a single cord that tightened and curved smaller and smaller as it compressed. The internal contents of his body; the viscera, feces, urine, blood, and other body fluids were compressed into a semisolid gelatinized knot which then dispersed into a fine mist as it exploded outwards from inside him, while his more solid components were now crushed into a tinier sort of pea gravel that scattered across the area like a thrown handful of marbles. In total Jolan was sprayed across the room as a burgundy-brown fog, leaving a vague negative silhouette of Edoni across the wall behind him.
“He won’t do that again” said Edoni.
Tallia, severely feverish and convulsing, hardly comprehended why the room suddenly smelled the way it did.
Nasr began to examine the balcony like shelves on the sides of the pyramid. As he approached one of these chains it began to shift and slither as if it were a living snake. He stepped away from this one, and approached another. This one did not slither, but when he pressed a small button near the end of it it suddenly became rigid, and transformed into a remarkably light rod about 40 feet in length. The final one stuck to his skin with such an extraordinary power it nearly tore his skin when he removed it. He then handled it while wearing gloves, and then prepared himself to sprint past the great lumbering beasts in the other chamber.
As he ran past Gerald, who still frothed with rage, the tail of one beast collided with Nasr and knocked him to the ground. He quickly rose to his feet and ran, realizing to his horror that not only was the adhesive chain now stuck around a portion of his arm, but that another end of it was attached to the tail of the behemoth. He still ran, and held his arm aloft. The whipping motion of the creature's tail then pulled the chain off of him at great speed, and it then whipped around the elongated neck of the beast and began to choke it as it pulled its tail up and back most terribly.
Gerald at this moment, drenched in the blood of a vast lizard, came to his senses. Upon realizing the agonies these creatures were in he decided it would be just to euthanize them. He pulled out the strange tusk he had recovered from the place where Dietrich was torn in half by a crocodile, and jabbed it into the creature laying before him. He than carefully ran past the other, and also jabbed the tusk into it.
The first one began shuddering, its movements slowing as if it were carrying a great burden. The second began to struggle as it was overcoming with a strange lightness, and then it began to drift unstoppably up. For both of them their breathing became labored as they struggled to move even a single foot a single inch in a direction different from the one they were pulled it. Soon they lay as flat as they were able on their respective surfaces, and then their bodies began to compress as if beneath a weight much greater than their own.
The creature that was wrapped with the adhesive chain was pressed into the ceiling with such a great force that its neck was nearly severed as the chain was pressed into it, and then the chain began to be pushed through the great bulk of its tremendous body. All blood was pushed up into the ceiling, eventually forming a great circle.
The other, meanwhile, was gradually being pressed into a sort of pile on the floor, and then a puddle, by a vast and invisible weight in the opposite direction. Its skull began to be crushed under the weight, and the hissing and sputtering of its collapsing body filled the room with a most terrible noise as the floor became covered in a evenly dispersed sludge made of its compressed body.
Gerald then pierced the third creature, and it too floated. It floated up from its edge of the chamber towards the center, and was then levitating between the two seas of meat on floor and ceiling. It rotated there gently for a moment, but then it could be seen that small droplets with shooting outward from its body. From every minute injury on the creature at first a small spurt, and then a vast torrent of blood sprayed directly outwards from the creature, and then tiny flecks of all metallic particles within its body did fly out, and all its blood began to coat the walls as far from the center of the mass of the creature as was possible. It’s carcass curled into a sphere like shape after it was exsanguinated, 30 tons of dead flesh set between 60 more.
As he ran past Gerald, who still frothed with rage, the tail of one beast collided with Nasr and knocked him to the ground. He quickly rose to his feet and ran, realizing to his horror that not only was the adhesive chain now stuck around a portion of his arm, but that another end of it was attached to the tail of the behemoth. He still ran, and held his arm aloft. The whipping motion of the creature's tail then pulled the chain off of him at great speed, and it then whipped around the elongated neck of the beast and began to choke it as it pulled its tail up and back most terribly.
Gerald at this moment, drenched in the blood of a vast lizard, came to his senses. Upon realizing the agonies these creatures were in he decided it would be just to euthanize them. He pulled out the strange tusk he had recovered from the place where Dietrich was torn in half by a crocodile, and jabbed it into the creature laying before him. He than carefully ran past the other, and also jabbed the tusk into it.
The first one began shuddering, its movements slowing as if it were carrying a great burden. The second began to struggle as it was overcoming with a strange lightness, and then it began to drift unstoppably up. For both of them their breathing became labored as they struggled to move even a single foot a single inch in a direction different from the one they were pulled it. Soon they lay as flat as they were able on their respective surfaces, and then their bodies began to compress as if beneath a weight much greater than their own.
The creature that was wrapped with the adhesive chain was pressed into the ceiling with such a great force that its neck was nearly severed as the chain was pressed into it, and then the chain began to be pushed through the great bulk of its tremendous body. All blood was pushed up into the ceiling, eventually forming a great circle.
The other, meanwhile, was gradually being pressed into a sort of pile on the floor, and then a puddle, by a vast and invisible weight in the opposite direction. Its skull began to be crushed under the weight, and the hissing and sputtering of its collapsing body filled the room with a most terrible noise as the floor became covered in a evenly dispersed sludge made of its compressed body.
Gerald then pierced the third creature, and it too floated. It floated up from its edge of the chamber towards the center, and was then levitating between the two seas of meat on floor and ceiling. It rotated there gently for a moment, but then it could be seen that small droplets with shooting outward from its body. From every minute injury on the creature at first a small spurt, and then a vast torrent of blood sprayed directly outwards from the creature, and then tiny flecks of all metallic particles within its body did fly out, and all its blood began to coat the walls as far from the center of the mass of the creature as was possible. It’s carcass curled into a sphere like shape after it was exsanguinated, 30 tons of dead flesh set between 60 more.
Moments after Nasr, Gerald, Edith, and Edoni had reconvened in the room where Jolan was disincorporated yet another anomaly engulfed them.
Before them then stood what appeared to life-size simulacra of each of them, all flawless with mask-like faces and bodies like the finest dolls with lines across the necks and wrists and elbows. The clothing they wore was like their own, but made even and clean and flawless. The made soft whirring sounds as they moved, and they had no fingernails.
HELLO
I MEAN YOU
NO
HARM
WE ARE HERE
TO
DISMANTLE ALL
OPERATIONAL
PROCESSING
PROCESSING
UNITS
WITHIN THIS
FACILITY
ARE YOU THE
ARE YOU THE
OPERATORS
OF
THIS FACILITY
?
The voice was monotonic, stilted, and androgynous. They said they were not operators. They asked them why they looked the way they did, and the one that answered rotated its neck like an owl to speak.
MY APPEARANCE WAS
THIS FACILITY
?
The voice was monotonic, stilted, and androgynous. They said they were not operators. They asked them why they looked the way they did, and the one that answered rotated its neck like an owl to speak.
MY APPEARANCE WAS
ASSIGNED USING THE RESULTS
OF AN ALGORITHM
I WAS CHRONO ASSEMBLED
EQUIPPED ONLY FOR
THE SOLE PURPOSE OF
THE SOLE PURPOSE OF
DISMANTLING
ALL
OPERATIONAL PROCESSING
ALL
OPERATIONAL PROCESSING
UNITS
WITHIN THIS
FACILITY
WITHIN THIS
FACILITY
.
ARE YOU NOW
OR HAVE YOU EVER BEEN
IN CONTACT
WITH ANY OPERATORS
OF THIS
FACILITY
?
OR HAVE YOU EVER BEEN
IN CONTACT
WITH ANY OPERATORS
OF THIS
FACILITY
?
They said they were not, but were also interested in “dismantling” this facility and had already dismantled several “units” on their own. They noticed that these mask-faced dolls also seemed to possess items which were superior versions of their own. Gerald saw that one had a superior version of a healing salve he had been carrying, and grabbed it from the thing and began to smear it on his broken arm.
WHY HAVE YOU
APPLIED
RAPID CURE
ALLOY EPOXY
TO YOUR
FLESH
?
The soft paste suddenly became a terribly hard metal, sealing his arm to his torso. The doll-people were still friendly, and followed the Adventurers as they exited the room.
WE WILL
ASSIST YOU
WITH ANY FURTHER
DISMANTLING OPERATIONS
YOU MAY INITIATE
WHY HAVE YOU
APPLIED
RAPID CURE
ALLOY EPOXY
TO YOUR
FLESH
?
The soft paste suddenly became a terribly hard metal, sealing his arm to his torso. The doll-people were still friendly, and followed the Adventurers as they exited the room.
WE WILL
ASSIST YOU
WITH ANY FURTHER
DISMANTLING OPERATIONS
YOU MAY INITIATE
.
In the room with the red and blue orbs Nasr placed his final explosive as the whirring doll-things observed silently. The resulting explosion tore apart the silver sphere which floated in the center of the chamber, and the great orbs vanished in that same instant. The smoke slowly cleared, and after a moment of whirring the doll-things spoke.
YOUR METHODS ARE
EFFICIENT
EFFICIENT
!
As they all entered the chamber with the smoky sphere that could transport them to the lands of Vilnid, the adventurers asked the doll-people to please not dismantle this chamber immediately, and to also warn them before they did such a thing. They considered this for a moment, and then replied.
OUR PRIMARY CONCERN
IS ONLY
THE DISMANTLING OF
THIS FACILITY
HOWEVER
WE WILL ATTEMPT
TO GRANT THIS REQUEST
IF IT IS
AT ALL POSSIBLE
