The orb's blue light cast a cool hue over the group.
It watched them in a still demeanor, not moving a single inch. The group shifted into an offensive stance, Liam carefully loading a dark blue and orange magnum from behind his back.
"What is it doing?" Whispered the man.
"I don't know, though anything created with that unit is made to destroy...so probably nothing good." Replied Kade.
Immediately after he finished his sentence the orb bolted toward them with mach speed. A bolt of electricity discharged out its front optical and flared the area in a flash of light. Kade quickly pushed Taph and the man aside before the bolt hit as a purple allow erupted from his palm and melded into a greatsword and sprouted pairs of seraph wings. Although his slice was swiftly paced the probe had dodged before it even got close. Liam swung the magnum out and shot a single bullet which perfectly shattered into the probe's optical.
"Everyone step back," Taph announced while dashing toward the stunned probe. An inferno of demonic green flames emerged from her palm, forming a scythe made of decaying bone with a blade of caustic crystals. The scythe formed an arching sickle of boiling abyssal flame, immediately turning the probe into melted scrap and alloy.
"There that took care of it." Better watch out though, probably more incoming."
The group moved on to the tunnel and took a few minutes to reach the next cross path. No interactions were held through those stalling minutes, well, everyone including Laurence just wanted to get this task done as fast as possible. Throughout the tunnels he could hear slight mechanical clicks or rumbles echoing from out the walls, filling the quiet space with unnerving uncanniness.
Reaching the end of the tunnel they were left in a wide, open space blanketed in darkness. Taph set a grimflame over her hand to illuminate the area. Below the tunnel edge was a steep cliff leading to a ruin site full of escalating elevating cliffs and ridges. Worn cottages and storied towers constructed out of coral stood still, half merged into the cavern walls or ceiling. A capital building was built on a huge line of stairs, possibly made out of marble.
The group decided to set up a base near the center of the ruins, around a collapsed stone pillar. Liam gathered dried-up kelp strips to burn in a fire while Kade mapped out the area, dragging Vulcan behind him. Laurence and Taph were told to stay at base to ward off any basilisks or stormlions. Everything approaching Taph was strangely quickly paralyzed with fear and rapidly scuttled away.
"So you're an eidolon...huh, I've never seen one that's half human though. How can you move so easily with parts of your body so distorted?" Taph said, trying to fill in the silence.
"I dunno, they feel fine to me. Maybe some parts of my body are just fully possessed by mana at this point. Otherwise, I would most likely be in a ton of pain."
"Trapped in a mortal state is strange. Pain through injury is a feeling I still can't fully describe. It just feels, uncomfortable, but on a much higher level."
"What? Whadya mean?"
"I used to be a reaper. Demons who collect the souls of the living after they decease. That's what we're born and expected to do. However, a precept was broken when we choose to kill without natural cause, punishable by banishment."
The two sat around the fire, silent.
"Umm, you guys might wanna come to see this," Kade shouted from across an arch hallway.
Guiding Taph and Laurence to the marble structure he pulled them up the staircase. The structure had huge holes seemingly drilled into it. Along with the walls giant pores gaped out like open wounds. The three stepped through the pillars to find Liam and Vulcan standing beside a tunnel drilled down from the center of the building—dusky clouds of burning fumes emitted from the tunnel, along with constant mechanical clicks and snaps.
"Probes keep coming out of this hole, Liam has already taken down a few."
Another probe floated out, shooting its lasers at the crew, quickly dispatched by Liam's hand cannon. Yet they persisted, more and more of them coming out in clouds and forming huge rays of light with each strike.
"There's no use, we'll need to cover it up." Said Liam
"But what if this is the only way to the thing?" Said Kade
The two argued whilst Vulcan picked up pieces of probe shrapnel scattered around the pillars. Laurence and Taph just stood by the side, watching the commotion while taking out a few probes in the process. The tremors began to shake quicker now, causing loose bricks to fall off and small wildlife to scutter about. The noise of each armored plate shaking against each other sounded from every corner of the cavern, followed by a deep, mechanical roar. A collective chorus of sentient giggles and cackles tore out of the tunnels.
"Laurence...bring me Laurence...living...I will kill him...follow correctly, and you earn freedom..." The voices announced.
"What is that, what is it saying?" Questioned Liam,
Laurence approached the tunnel and looked right down the hole. Faint indigo lights rattle at the end, blinking with every snap.
"What? What do you want from me?!" He said,
"ᴴᵉʰᵉʰᵉᵉ...You're sooo naïve, you can't just hide your past behind you...you can never run... ʸᵒᵘ ᶜᵃⁿ ⁿᵉᵛᵉʳ ʰⁱᵈᵉ..."
"I don't know what kind of bullshit you're trying to pull off, but it's not working,"
The mechanical rattles began to pace quicker and giggles turned into maniacal laughter of thousands of voices. The ground began to uproot itself as the cavern shook with tremendous quakes. A segment of the machine erupted out the left walls, causing a landslide of gravel and boulders to hurl down towards the group. Each lens of the unit snapped in like eyelids and snapped back open, as a huge siren wailed from its head.
"EVERYBODY RUN!"
The attack was so bright the group couldn't see anything but white for several seconds, and it was even worse after being blinded. A wall of lasers beaming out of every lens of the machine slid across the marble building like a knife across butter. Kade grabbed all of them and managed of slid through the thin blind spots of the wall. The entire building alongside the stones it was built on was thinly cleaved into fine pieces, causing thousands to millions of broken rocks to tumble down its shattered staircase as they made a run for it.
An entire mountain's worth of dust rushed down the cliffs and covered the ruins in a blanket of debris. Kade tugged all of them behind one of the coral housings and ducked down while stones fell flying into pillars and walls. Buildings were knocked apart like stacked cans, their bricks pelting into other stones. They could see cnidrions and basilisks bolting away from the landslide as small lizards and insects buried themselves into the sand. Kade peeked his head to the side as three approaching boulders descended directly toward them.
"Vulcan...do it..." Said, Kade.
"What?! Do I really have to? I mean it-"
"JUST DO IT ALREADY!"
Vulcan reluctantly raised his right forearm and gripped it with his other hand. The forearm began to creak like rusted metal as his grip tightened, Laurence inches away. Cracks rose over his skin as it began to look more like sanded metal than flesh, the creaking becoming louder and louder. Vulcan slid out into the open as his wrist completely snapped into pieces, the sound like a hammer to steel. Hundreds of shrapnel shards and sparks of his wrist were sent flying in a shotgun blast, Shattering the boulders within seconds. The stone fragments bashed against the building, breaking down several segments of the walls.
"Owwwww...that REALLY hurts y'know..."
Half of his forearm was now completely dismembered, the broken edge looking like cracked mixes of alloy and the bone within a thick rod of rebar. Kade quickly pulled him back to the safety of the wall and waited for the rockslide to disperse. The uncanny clicks and snaps of the machine passed through the thick clouds of dust, the segments of it burrowing back into the walls.
Once the slide had dispersed, the group crept out of the safe space and dusted the sand out of their clothing. Half of the ruined city was completely ravaged into nothing but piles of bricks and stone, with occasional buildings still standing. They passed by the streets that led back to the camp and took a seat to devise a plan."That machine said something about Laurence here, or so I think it was the machine." Said, Kade.
"The unit is infused with the souls of valiant and brave beings," Explained Taph, "they won't go after us face to face until we accept a fair fight."
"Well, what do they want from me? I don't remember pissing off any souls ever."
"I'm not quite sure, but we might find out soon enough."
"Why don't we just follow their instructions?" Said Liam, "That thing has already caused enough destruction, we should just kill him here anyways..."
"Nobody here is killing Laurence. Mana levels examined from his past days in the abyss show he mostly knows how to control his abilities. Plus how do we know we can trust them?" Replied Kade.
"These types of souls never use deception to win, their entire thought process is focused on winning with pure skill."
"Well, I guess we need to survive long enough to make up a plan to kill that thing."
"Survive? what can we even eat or drink here? We won't last 5 days here without a water source!" Shouted Liam,
"Exactly, we all have around three to four days until we die of dehydration. Hmmm, Laurence, how many days have you gone without eating or drinking?"
"Huh? Oh...um, I don't know...like a month now?"
"Okay, Taph and Liam, you guys are on task for finding any food or water sources. Laurence, Vulcan, and I will map out the area."
The group parted ways and the three began their tour across the ruins. The ancient coral streetways easily made them picture busy crowds cluttered through the alleys. Now the streets were completely devoid of any life, the once colorful coral housing was bleached to pale bones, and the cobblestone road was now mounds of gravel and stone. While crossing out into the open, a cnidrion treaded across their path, looking too dreary to even pose a threat. The air was suffocated with thick clouds of dust that razed across their lungs like sandpaper. Kade pulled out a crumpled sheet of paper from his bag and sketched over the alley they just passed. Vulcan dug across the gravel to find scrap pieces of metal, melting to molten lava as he cast it onto his shattered wrist.
"My god this place sucks...when can we get out?" complained Vulcan,
"Well, if you want to leave so badly, just hop right into that hole on top of the pillars, that'll send you straight out of here!" Responded Kade.
The three relentlessly trudged through the ruins for hours upon end, mapping out every single street and walkway. By the time they had only finished a-fourth of the entire area, they were already dead inside. Laurence's kneecaps felt like they were one step from falling off and Kade and Vulcan were starved of any food or water by the insufferable clouds of dust in the air. They decided to head back to the camp and catch up on their updates.
upon reaching the camp the entire group looked as if they were dying.
"There's a large water pocket buried under around the west corner, but'll we'll probably die before we finish digging to it," Explained Liam, "We found one rock lobster and two cups of muddy water."
The group (besides Laurence) cooked every chunk of meat they could have and divided them into equal quadrants. Each member was only served a tiny piece, not bigger than a small cookie. There was too much debris left in the water they just decided to drink it half-purified.
As the others talked the plan over the fire, the man quietly sneaked out into an alleyway while they were distracted.
Alright, what was that thing rambling all about, and why does it want me?
That old piece of scrap is the last remnants of the Godkiller's old knights, their souls infused in its mainframe. The reason why they want to is something I yet have not learned, however, doesn't sound anything good.
Then how do you say we kill this thing? I don't care about those assholes but I at least would prefer Kade to survive.
Your fellow mortal acquaintances are tenfolds more skilled than you are, but your sheer power in your lacerates can overwhelm small gods. Let your team create the plans and you do battle.
I don't know...pretty sure Liam would rather land a bullet through my skull than let me do anything here...
Just stick to my commands.