Savage Awakening 492. The Lost Ruins (III)

Once they found a quieter stretch of void, the Barbarian Sage made a little fire on Fluffy’s back. He got out some yams and raw jerky and the like, and something that looked like green spam preserved in these big vats of oil—oil soaked in essence. They roasted it all and ate. Pretty salty stuff, but surprisingly rich. 

Then they took turns keeping watch. There wasn’t really a day-night cycle down here. 

The Sage scratched his chin. 

“You don’t know much about where we’re going, do you?”

“Naw,” said Zane, working down a bone. “Just that it’s got something to do with the First Ones.” 

He was quite curious. But he just figured he’d find out once he got his hands dirty in there. He didn’t mind a pleasant surprise.  

“Well! Guess we might as well do a brush-up, while we’ve got time. That’s right—that first settlement, the First Ones that came to Dragonspire—it’s all in these ruins. That includes the founders of the Nine Great Factions! Well—that’s the lore, anyway.” 

He grinned. “There’s so much damned lore you can hardly tell what’s really down there! Just that it’s survived a hell of a long time. Chaos Cycles, even…” 

 He licked some oil off his fingers. “Some of the strongest Empyreans there’s ever been lived down there. Back then it was much easier to get strong—lots of essence leftover from the birth of the universe. It was anyone’s for the taking. And I don’t mean just humans. There were some real heavy-hitters among the dwarves, earth dragons, dark elves… just a whole bunch. ‘Course—some damned tough Ancestor Rhinos too.” 

The Sage crossed his hands behind his head, gazing wistfully into the skies. “Just really a whole mini-Dragonspire. Think the fiercest, baddest of every damned species! …‘till the Monsters got to ‘em, that was.” 

He scowled. 

“It’s all ruins now… most of those Monsters are dead now too. But from what I’m feeling… we’ll have to stay sharp, lad. Expect surprises. With that much history, it’d be surprising if there weren’t.” 

Zane nodded. “Did you find anything down there?” 

“Nothing I saw straight-up. Haven’t gone in yet. But you can feel it at the entrance. Something damned fishy’s gotten its hooks in there.” The Sage had a dark look on his face. “I’ve had some sketchy tussles just clearing out the entrance! The Monsters I had to beat down there—well—you’ll see. They’re not like any other, I’ll tell you.”

“…Stronger?” said Zane, a tad hopefully. 

He did feel a little like raw steel, too—he’d done a lot of eating. He wanted to temper himself. 

He’d also done a lot of sitting down, too, these last twenty years… at some point, he could really do with stretching his legs. 

The Sage ruffled his head. “You’ll see. I’ll tell you one thing. Might not be sure what’s down there, exactly—but if that aura signature’s any sign of things… that place’s a godsdamned treasure trove like nothing this Galaxy’s seen ‘till now. And I mean, stuff rings can’t even carry—‘cause they’d break!” 

He affectionately patted the giant bags he’d strapped to Fluffy. 

“That’s what these’re for.”  

*** 

Months passed on this strange highway. Chatting, and chewing jerky strips, and napping, and blasting away Bone Monster hordes when they got close. 

The Monsters’ levels kept creeping up. 670s, 680s—they even came across a few peak True Gods. 

It wasn't long before Zane started feeling himself in here. Sometimes he felt like he was some mercenary on one of those old-timey trains, fighting off raidres that came close. There was something about blasting Monsters at high speed that scratched a primal itch in his brain. 

Four months into the trip, they spotted their first half-step Empyrean. 

It was a two-legged giant skeleton with ram’s horns. It stood about the size of the Empire State building. It stalked slowly toward them but every stride covered huge ground. It tried taking a swipe at them.

Zane quite enjoyed socking it in the face. 

It was a giant target and he put in a huge explosive force—it took the blast straight to the Dome.

It was also just quite satisfying seeing it slowly topple over, seeing the bones explode one by one, sending shrapnel ripping through reality, back into the real world. Another nuclear hammer blasted it to the midsection, tearing out a crater. That sent it flailing on over. 

“That’s what I'm talking about!” guffawed the Sage.

Zane grinned too. 

“Half-step….” The Sage scratched his chin. “And that's how you know we're getting close. I swear I can almost smell that ol’ smoke…” 

Before long they started seeing the cracks. Shining, jagged cracks ripping open the seams of space. 

“Edge of the Galaxy,” said the Sage. “Not the most stable place! But it’s a damned good sign… means we’re nearly there.” 

Before long—

“There she is!” 

He pointed to one big scar in the fabric of reality. This X carved into nowhere, spanning tens of thousands of miles… it looked like a chalk drawing made on a blacktop—just etched into space. Held open by Destruction.

A scar that gave way to the outside—and essence flowed through, as dense as any he’d ever seen—a silvery mist seeping through. Just breathing it in stirred him. 

“Put it up so I wouldn’t forget,” said the Sage, hands on hips. “Right! You ready to make the jump, girl?” 

Fluffy screeched and barreled through headfirst. 

***

They crash landed through an asteroid. Fluffy ate the bulk of it just fine. Zane and the Sage also got blasted to the face, but they were a pretty hard headed crew, all told. 

With that out the way, they took in the sight. 

It looked like a quarry—but with worlds’ worth of dirt and stone and steel excavated. At the very bottom he saw a swirling mass of purple-black. It looked a little angry—just the way it swirled. He got the sense it was trying to seal shut. It just couldn’t. 

Something was wedging it open. 

“…Are those pillars?” 

They looked like they’d been ripped out of some impressive cathedral. Their ends were bound with clusters of frayed rope—each thicker than a bridge pylon. There was a great deal of tape involved too, it looked like. 

The Sage scratched his head. “The thing was about to close,” he explained. “Couldn’t figure out how to keep it open, so I just wedged some stuff in. Just kept wedging.” 

He grinned. “The way I like to see it, it’s like a doorstop between dimensions. That’s the Concept, anyway.” 

“Where’d you get them?” Zane found this somewhat baffling. 

“I always keep some spare rubble on hand. Never know when you might need it.”

The Sage considered his contraption and grinned. “Gets the job done, eh?” 

He hopped down, and Zane followed. Fluffy tried coming too, but he gently stopped her. “You just stay put, alright, girl? You take down any ugly bastard that tries following us in. Can you do that for me?” 

Fluffy made a noise like she wanted to come. But ultimately she let out a screech and rolled over. 

With that, Zane and the Sage made their way down to the gate. 

This close he could feel the Laws streaming out—suffusing the air like smoke. 

“You feel that?” said the Sage casually. 

Zane considered it. 

“Feels like death,” he said. Undead Laws—very high-level ones, too. Higher-leveled than any he’d seen—he knew instantly what it was. It just felt wrong to his body.  

But there was something else, too. 

He narrowed his eyes. “…That Corruption doesn’t feel right.” 

“Picked up on that, did you?” chuckled the Sage. “Sharp senses. Well, that’s right. Doesn’t quite feel like any other Monster, does it?” 

“No.” 

“Here’s the thing,” said the Sage. “Malzareth’s the source of all Monsters in Dragonspire. We know that. But it wasn’t the first Monster that tried to take a crack at this Galaxy. The Monsters that went for the First Ones—mostly fought ‘em to death, mind you—they came with something older.” 

He and Zane both took a moment to contemplate that swirling mass.

“That’s a lot of time down there. If there’s any still left…you’ve got to imagine they’ve gotten pretty damned strong.” 

Zane nodded thoughtfully. “Should be a good time.” 

The Sage laughed. He held out a hand, and his spear dropped to his fist—Skypiercer, tipped by that ebony shard of a Bone. Zane remembered seeing that thing ages ago—he remembered feeling an incredible aura streaming out. Now he knew it had to be a 10 million year bone. And a strong one at that. 

The Sage took a moment to pause. “…We should figure out a plan, eh? Before we go in. Seems like a good idea.”

“Sure.” 

They thought about it for ra second. 

“Eh,” said the Sage, shrugging. “I’ll take the really big ones. You wreck everything else. How’s that?” 

Zane grinned too. “Let’s do this thing.” 

With that, they slapped weapons and headed on in.