Chapter 7: Howls through the pipes.
The year is 2025. Most of the planet Earth lies in ruins. Mankind almost completely vanished from the surface. Insanity and Wreckoning have tainted cities and turned them into uninhabitable wastelands. Beyond their borders, some say, are dry wastelands and steaming jungles plagued with horrors that had adapted to this new world. Yet no one knows for sure what resides on the other side. The civilization slowly fades away. And the memories of humanity's former glory are slowly turning into myths.
Roughly twenty years ago had the first Wreckoning wavelength circumnavigated the world. Now the hazardous miasma is throbbing through the atmosphere. Roughly twenty years ago HE emerged from the deepest shade. Mankind relinquished its supremacy to more deserving beings. Entities of bottomless insanity and blind rage. Beings that are far better suited to rule this world and continue the legacy of evolution. A somewhat mutated evolution.
The age of man is over.
But the survivors refuse to give up. Their race, still so young compared to the preceding rulers of Earth, throws all its ignorance against the facts of their crumbling existence.
Scattered across the planet, some hide within vast bunker complexes, dales, metros, sanitation and artificial caverns.
It's a world without a tomorrow. Dreams, ideas, hope. All these things are long forgotten. Emotions and intellect have yielded to instincts. Survival. Of the fittest.
"Hmm..." Kenji still felt uncomfortable as the waves splashed past him. They were riding on the back of Krohm. The ancient immortal used its own body as a vessel to bring the entire group safe and sound across the tides. Nila and Kenji sat at the front and observed how Krohm chased across the sea with stunning velocity. Chaos had crawled into what would one call the middle of the platform. She also felt uncomfortable and already reached out for her blood chalice in hopes of finding relaxation by draining away redundant blood.
Draco had set up a small table with various dark cards of forgotten gods and outcast lore spread across it. Suzumi and Zira sat next to him and watched how the young disciple of shades mused in silence about the odds he discovered. Rickter and Damion were busy keeping Miku from jumping off Khorm's back since she wasn't quite willing to ride on this behemoth.
Nila's partner, Kenji, cleared his throat before he continued. "When we arrive at Desertascar, we just have to find that one item and you'll pick us up again?"
"Ya mon. It that easy." Krohm's deep thundering voice was, in respect of such discrepancy to his cheery mood, something unusual for an immortal. "There has to be a rub in it. GAHBAH~" Nila frowned as a fish slapped in her face.
"Oh yah. Desertascar is home now to another fella." Lucien who had remained silent ever since they've boarded Krohm's back had now found interest again but Khrohm's remark about 'another fella' stirred up his curiosity at last. "Another immortal?"
"Yah mon. A member of the Chronosphere clan." Momo's eyes suddenly widened in excitement. "Nila! Oh Nila! What's a Photonsphere?" The young weapon eagerly pulled at Nila's artificial dress and caused a few, loose ice-shards to fall off.
"Chronosphere." came the mutter. "Chroniclesphere." Chaos and Draco bit their tongues in unison. Bursting out in a laughter now would cause them to have an angry Momo channeling all her devious thoughts onto one notion. Murder.
"Sigh. Bother Kenji with that please." The Meister waved casually with her hand and pointed at her partner who had been looking at the grey sky. "Wait, what?"
"We almost be there. I see coast ya." Krohm cheered. The group was only a mile away from their new quest. A journey across the vast desert of a newborn island. Born though a fight between deities where insanity and savagery clashed with all their might, with all their glory, with all their hatred for each other.
"This place ... the atmosphere ..." Suzumi rubbed her arms as she looked over Draco's shoulder. The sun had been following them since early morning, but now, as they get closer to Desertascar, dark clouds and a strange tension within the air lay their weight onto their shoulders.
Lucian sighed. "Tainted by the bottomless despair of this world." Chaos nodded and calmly closed her eyes as her blood gracefully streamed into the chalice. "Tainted?" Momo looked at Lucian in awe. "The glorious time of hunting Pre-Kishins under Shinigami-sama's rule is over. The last Meisters and Weapons try to escape this hell. Medusa's rise with her Rikishin hive is just the tip of the iceberg ..."
"So." Nila bluntly cut into Lucian's exclaim. "How do you guys think we should start searching for this item. We lack a map, let alone a clue." Rickter raised his hand. "Donk said that if we want to use the tower to kill that Disturbati, which is already covering half of New M, we have to find a screw-wrench and an attachable leverage. Doesn't sound too hard."
"Doesn-. You gotta be- That's just bull-. GRRR! It's basically looking for a needle in the biggest haystack EVER!" Zira frowned. "Why don't you just twist the valve, Krohm?" Lucian stood up and looked at the coast of Desertascar that was coming closer ever since their discussion began. "Hoho. I tried. Now my arm has gone and me be stealing anchor for replacement. Ya see?"
The behemoth lifted it's arm and the group once again caught sight of the massive anchor that was pouched into the flesh of the immortal. "Awesome pressure. No use with vigor." Nila sighed. "It's no use." Krohm slowly decreased his velocity as the coast was only a few meters distant and slowly raised his gargantuan body upright.
"The valve blocks the steam that currently escapes into other pipes. As soon as we open that valve and Donk has the leverage to trigger a specific mechanism he mentioned, we are going to be able to use Solaris' Pride to purge that horror." Kenji smirked in triumph.
Lucian and the others jumped into the cool water and quickly found themselves on the dark sands of the coast. They were at the very south. "No map right?" Suzumi's hope didn't die just yet. "No. Obviously there was no time to draw a map for these two new islands. I'm certain that all the cartographers were busy surviving rather than drawing a bit more." Lucian's snide comment caused Suzumi to sigh.
"We'll search by spiraling this island. From the very edge to the very center of this damnation. The wrench or the leverage will show up eventually." Draco had finally raised his voice after he tossed multiple voodoo dolls attached to a thread behind his shoulders.
Lucian shook his head in denial alongside Kenji and Rickter. "That will take a year at the very least you cretin." Draco groaned. "Got a better idea Mister Depressed?" Damion and Mikune were ambling along the beach with Momo. They were too carefree to bother with such arguments.
"I be going then. If you have wrench or lever, give sign ya. Bai bai." And with that, the thundering immortal vanished between dark, powerful waves of cold water. The group hadn't made any progress but Krohm seemed certain of their success. Or was he just being desperate and hoped for the best?
A cool gust rushed through the new island visitors and the cold air surprised the group. They hadn't changed their clothing to better adapt to any weather swings, let alone had a meal. "Brrr... We'll have to look for some shelter." Chaos, having finished her daily ritual of blood relief, pointed at the cliffs. "We're being watched. I suggest getting started isn't a bad idea at all." Within a blink of an eye, the others launched their gaze at the addressed cliff but to no effect. Petty stones were crumbling and came crashing down.
Lucian took the lead. "Grab Damion and the others. We'll start with our spiral right here." Kenji slowly walked up to the tall Lucian and slowly sought out eye contact. "Do you think that some people actually live here?" The addressed warlock gave a faint grunt. "I don't know. But even if, living here or anywhere else won't make a difference. Hell is everywhere." The Demon Weapon shuddered at Lucian's grim remark.
The waves splashed onto the coast and crawled back into the vast sea, stones and sand were pushed forward and backwards whilst they slowly began to set their improvised plan in motion. "It's simple" Rickter began. "We will look for some tools and first distill some water." A good idea as the cold, salty water isn't a healthy choice, at all. "Then we'll travel from shadow to shadow and avoid the sun during daytime and with some self-made blankets we'll stay warm at night since I read that deserts get very, very cold when the sun had dropped."
Nila scratched her head. "A landscape that becomes oppressively hot and deathly cold? Why didn't we pick the other island then?" A slap raced across Nila's forehead. "Baka. We have to search for the other item here eventually, so I rather waste my energy on this forsaken land now instead of swimming in stinking swamps." Chaos hissed and withstood Nila's dire gaze.
"The weather isn't that bad right now anyway" added Zira. "Um... what tools do we require for the water by the way?" Draco turned and fruitlessly looked at the others. "Really now ..." his voice was drugged with irritation and annoyance. "A fire place, obviously. Some pot-like objects and something that can work as a caulker. Sigh. Rickter, Draco. You two happen to be the only cretins with common sense, follow me and we'll get things prepared. The rest of you can dwell here."
"Oooooh I just ... smack him... argh." Zira bombed along. She hastily turned her face so that Lucian couldn't look at her fierce expression. "Damion! Let's see who is better!" Momo picked up a stone and sent it flying towards the waves. One would say that stones dap best on dead water, but Momo's powerful thrust caused the stone to fly off with enough power to at least penetrate a wave. "Ha! You think you got a chance?"
Damion cleared his throat, picked up a stone and ... "Wait a minute..." "EEeeeek!" Momo yelped. "What, what? The hell...?" Chaos cocked her head to the side but she couldn't hold her jaw any longer. Nila's jaw dropped as well whilst Kenji jerked up. "Where is ... the water?" "The sea?" "Ocean?" The beach, the coast that felt so dark and depressing, cold and unwelcoming. The few plain rocks and stones, the cool waves and the uncomfortable atmosphere. Everything had disappeared and made room for a vast savannah that spread across the entire horizon.
"There, another one! Up there, the left pipe!" A spotlight had been ripped out of its retainer, furiously jerking like a hanged man, and spread its cutting light across the scenery. Sometime it selected a bowed frame, then it hid the figure again within the shade, yet again it blinded the yelling persons. Deceiving shadows danced on the walls with irritating velocity, their shape horribly warped and delusive, thus one could not differ between Rikishin or man.
This position was quite convenient since here two tunnels merged together. Shortly before Dais and Veijka had split Madagascar asunder, the local plumbing company had begun with repairs but they were never finished. They had fortified this pathway heavily in order to safely travel through these dark places, past the rusty pips and sewers, but today the beasts had something else in mind.
Three heavy-machine guns shrieked through the subway, a grenade detonated not far away from them and amid the turmoil someone cried for the medic. Even if one is armed to the teeth, toes and nose hairs all along, multiple waves of Rikishin happen to be a nigh unstoppable force.
The gunman on the far left kept shouting despite his dry throat. A vast shadow rushed towards him, but the shade soon warped into a behemoth and back into a rather humanoid frame. He gasped, reloaded and nearly dropped his clip. When the comforting noise of the released safety catch could be heard, the soldier raised his G36 and fired into the darkness. Deep grumbling was the response until the Rikishin finally revealed itself.
A hound-like creature with chitinous plates covering its head and entire back launched itself towards the man. The horse-sized Rikishin had elongated fangs and a long tail that ended in a scythe shaped stinger. It lacked visible eyes, but its lethal claws and teeth never missed their target nonetheless. "SCHEISSE! TÖTET DAS MISTVIECH! AAAARGH!" The massive fangs penetrated the soldier's bullet-proof west easily and as his gun smashed on the floor, he felt how his ribs yielded to the powerful teeth of the Rikishin.
"RENÉ! NEIN VERFLUCHT!" Another man shrieked with all his power into the direction of his mortally wounded friend. The Rikishin jerked its head up with enough power to tore his ribcage open. A crimson tide splashed across the brown pipes and dirtied ground. However, before the Rikishin could throw its tail at the man, a powerful slash from Momo's karambit form split the monster in two.
Nila and the others stood amid the turmoil and engaged the Rikishin with ice-cold precision. Within mere seconds the other four Rikishin were slain as well, but not before another two men had been killed. "Gottverdammt! Sie sind wieder bei Bewusstsein... Alles in Ordnung? Wer lebt noch? René? Deis? Kevin? Leute, Status!"
"Shit... what the hell is going on... why..." Zira transmuted back into her human form but unfortunately her clothes were soaked with purple, and crimson blood. "My head..." Suzumi sobbed and held her mouth shut after her eyes raced across the badly maimed corpses. The Meisters and Weapons swiftly gathered together, accompanied by confused whimpering, sobs, tears and headaches.
"René hat es erwischt... Mark und Falko sind ebenfalls tot." The remaining soldiers gathered not far away from them. "Dreckmist! Florian und Maxim haben es auch nicht geschafft..."
"Where are we ...?" Kenji reached for his forehead. "I'm getting tired of this constant 'where are we, who are you, why this and what there', you freaks better explain me RIGHT NOW what the effing hell is GOING OOON!" Thundering with tremendous power, Zira grabbed a soldier by his neck and forcefully choked him."Wir sind... oh.. eeh.. uh.. We-we. We found you, on the ... the beach, yes. We, we thought you were washed ashore so we, brought you, eh, carried here, we carried you. And we were going to our place, our hideout."
"Curses, we left Lucian, Rickter and Draco behind!" Nila facepalmed. "This is just getting better... and better."
Yours faithfully,
Skadow