//------------------------------// // Savage Wastes // Story: Worlds Apart: The Chosen of the Prognosticus // by GMBlackjack //------------------------------// Water was easy to come by in the frozen wastes, Vivian made buckets of it just by melting the ice. She was no longer tunneling since that took a ton of energy, so she had to specifically melt sections of the ice to get the needed water, but they didn’t get thirsty that often. Most of her fire went to keeping herself warm. However, food was a problem. They’d had at least two weeks worth of food left on Mo’cookies when it was blown up, and now they had none. It had now been a full day since they landed, and nothing edible had appeared. Not even some kind of penguin. It was all endless, unrelenting ice. Under normal circumstances all of them could probably go a month without food. However, they were exerting themselves continually in the immense cold, even with their massive fur coats. Vivian’s fire was taxing her immensely. Without food, she was going to run out of fuel eventually, no matter how much ambient magic existed in the Northern Wastes. But they trudged on. What else could they do? Their goal was the north pole. They knew not how far it was. All they knew was that they were far enough north that the sun no longer set, eternally staring down at them. However, it was the red moon that dominated the sky. Vivian knew enough about how orbits worked to realize this didn’t make any sense—moons did not get bigger when you got further north. But it got bigger anyway, and it moved around the sky less, too, because apparently it thought the laws of physics and consistency were just suggestions and not strict limitations built into the fabric of reality. Vivian didn’t think about it too much. She was too weak to waste time pondering such a thing. All she had was spent on keeping her warm. So, naturally, she didn’t see the desert until Luigi pointed it out to her, a short way to the east. “What in the…?” Vivian cocked her head. “It bears investigation,” Caspian said. They diverted course, coming to a circular section of the ice that wasn’t. It was filled with sand—and very hot sand, at that, melting the snow around it into a sort of miniature moat. Crossing over, all three of them found that the cold was all but gone, replaced with the oppressive heat of a desert in an equatorial region. Within the sands there were several tall cactuses, a pillar of worn down rock, and a single owl that hooted at them from within its burrow. Caspian took off his winter hood and revealed his face. Snapping his fingers, he pointed at a cactus. “Cacti are edible.” He pulled out his sword and started hacking at the tall plant like it was a tree. Once it was damaged enough, Luigi smacked it with his hammer and down it came, crashing into the ground with an immense thud. Caspian ran to the top of the cactus first—while the body was edible, it wasn’t as succulent as the fruits that grew at the top. He cut off the red prickly pears and gathered them in his coat, depositing them in the middle of the group a short while later. Vivian flash-cooked them. Without much care for how good they tasted, they dug in, careful not to prick their fingers on the spines. Even so, they ate every last one of them in record time, demolishing all the succulent fruits with ease. “Right…” Vivian said, taking a breather once they finished. “Now, why is there a desert in the middle of the arctic?” “Chaos,” Caspian said. “We were warned that strange things happened around the portal. Visions of other worlds. Mutations. Daemons.” “So we must be getting close,” Vivian said. Luigi shivered, despite still wearing all of his coats in the extremely hot desert. “Into the belly of the beast…” As they continued talking, Caspian carved up the rest of the cactus. It wouldn’t taste anywhere near as good as the fruits, but it would serve as an excellent source of food on the road. Very dense in fiber, though notably lacking in certain nutrients. Luckily, they didn’t exactly need a complete meal, just enough to keep them going toward the northern Chaos Portal. Vivian took out the Pure Heart, smiling at its purple glow. “Looks like we’ll be needing to use this, soon.” “So, uh… how do we use it?” Luigi asked, scratching his head. “I’ve never been clear on that.” “The Pure Heart is defensive in nature. It rejects those who are not chosen, and if we’re right its pure power will just purge daemons completely.” “If the Emperor was right…” Luigi shuddered. “Well, we’re about to find out!” To be clear, she meant they’d find out in the next few hours or perhaps days, not right that instant. Her words turned out to be more immediately prophetic. A red hand erupted from the sand with six fingers, three of which had mutated eyes somewhere on them. The sharp, black nails dug into Luigi’s leg while the creature beneath the sand let out a deep, guttural growl. Luigi let out a panicked yell, swinging his hammer down on the hand, smashing it and squishing oozing green slime over the sand. The hand was forced to release Luigi, but it wasn’t done. Another hand burst out of the sand and began to pull the full behemoth from the depths. Grains poured off the monstrous humanoid form, catching in its oversized mouth that was utterly filled with bloody, jagged teeth. Muscles rippled along its limbs, each pulsing at a seemingly random rate, giving the entire body a twisting, chaotic feel. Its lengthy tongue flicked out, making a sound as though it were burning the air itself. With a roar, it jumped Luigi, teeth bared. Vivian held out the Pure Heart. The daemon let out a screech of agony as its hands were vaporized into nothingness by an invisible barrier. It took a few steps back, stared at its stumps in disbelief, and then decided to charge again. This particular daemon wasn’t the smartest in the world. It dissipated into dust mid-jump. “...It works,” Vivian reported. “No kidding…” Caspian said, sheathing his sword. “I am not certain I could have taken that beast.” “Luigi, is your leg fine?” Luigi nodded. “Didn’t get through the coat!” “I guess you’re lucky you kept your coat on, then.” Vivian handed the Pure Heart to Caspian. “Hold it, and keep it close to us. I’ll be using fire.” From that point on, they always remained close to each other, with Caspian holding the Pure Heart to protect them all. Even when they sat down to eat the cactus rations, he never took his hand off the Heart. It soon became very obvious that they would all be dead without it. ~~~ The daemon was the size of a skyscraper and it carried with it a lash suitable for attacking cities. It swung the building-thick ropes down at the group of three, who were currently huddling together under Caspian. He held the Pure Heart high, vaporizing the section of the daemonic weapon the moment it made contact with the invisible aura. The massive daemon was confused by this so it swung a few more times until its lash was absolutely nothing. Cursing its weapon in a tongue that made Caspian’s head hurt, it decided to stomp on them. This was quite possibly the dumbest thing it could have done. It collapsed into a heap as the barrier ate through its leg, disintegrating it from the inside out. Once it had lost enough of its mass, it just dissipated into chaotic particles of red dust, blowing in the wind. “Wh-wh-wh…” Luigi stammered. “We’re alive,” Caspian said, trembling slightly. “We need to keep moving. I’d hate to see what would happen if one of those things gets smart and just throws a normal boulder at us.” “There might not be normal boulders soon enough,” Vivian said, pointing forward. The polar climate was once again giving way to another, but this upcoming area wasn’t like the deserts, jungles, oceans, moon rocks, or caves they had encountered on the way here. No, this appeared to be a field of pulsating flesh with bones poking up instead of trees. The land rose and fell as though it were breathing. When they arrived, they found that the Heart reduced the ground to dust. “This is going to make it difficult to walk across,” Caspian said. “Guess we’re going around…” Vivian sighed. “There has to be a better way.” “There is!” The three of them looked up. Standing several yards away from them was a purplish daemon with a beak and three claws on each hand. “Yes, I’m the one who spoke.” Vivian narrowed her eyes. “Why would you help us?” “Simple, really. I’d rather not die to the destruction of all worlds.” Vivian cocked her head. “Your world doesn’t have the Void in it.” “Our Lord Tzeentch informs me that the threat is real and present to our world. Therefore, I wish to extend a hand of… friendship.” The bird somehow managed to smile, filling Caspian with a sense of unease. “If not friendship, then at least a sense of mutual cooperation against a common enemy.” Vivian frowned. “...I’m listening.” “We daemons of the waste can open portals directly into the Warp. You need not march all the way to the North Pole. Just enter and continue your journey.” “And it could be a trap,” Caspian said. “I don’t exactly trust you.” “Understandable! So how about this alternative: I order the mutant humans of this land to build you a bridge out of non-chaotic materials?” Vivian scratched her chin. “And… what would we give you?” “Just your ear. So I may speak. Serve as your guide to the Warp and Chaos…” Vivian nodded slowly. It seemed reasonable enough. After all, even monsters liked to live. If Tzeentch really had found the Void somewhere—perhaps in the Warp itself—no doubt it would ask its servants to stop it however possible. “I think we’ll take that bridge ide—” “No,” Caspian said, putting a hand in front of Vivian. “Vivian, your nightmares have been getting worse.” “Yes, how does th—” “It still wants you. Helping us allows this daemon to get close to you. To fill your mind with disgusting thoughts.” The bird daemon shrugged. “And what if that is true? Is it really so bad to listen to the words of Tzeentch? It’s just a… different point of view.” Vivian withdrew a few paces. “No… I’m not letting you.” “Are you certain, little shadow? I assure you, the power of the Changer of Ways will be a huge boon in your mission to save the worlds…” “I said no!” Vivian threw a pink fireball out of her fingers that hit the daemon and disintegrated him in an instant. She stared at her hand in disbelief. “...That’s not…” “We need to get you out of here,” Caspian said, shaking his head. “We need to find a way around.” Vivian nodded absent-mindedly, still staring at her trembling finger. What is it doing to me? ~~~ They eventually did find a way around the biome made of meat, taking a walk through a perfectly normal jungle. This close to the north pole, there was hardly any polar climate at all. Had they not come through the Northern Wastes themselves they would never have known this was in the middle of the planet’s ice cap. They passed through the jungle and found a desert, then a canyon, then a river that flowed to nowhere, a realm made entirely of purple geometric shapes, and an ocean of mercury. All was chaos. The deeper they went, the more disordered it became. All the life aside from the three of them was horribly mutated. Trees developing fleshy nodules, animals growing second heads, and fleshy monstrosities scooting around, hungering for blood. However, the more mutations something had, the more painful it was for them to be near the Pure Heart. Nothing that attacked them could do so for very long. But Vivian still had to use her fire sometimes. The pink fireballs were coming more and more often the deeper they went into the chaos, and every time she cast a spell she felt something gnaw at the back of her mind. The worst part? She knew it should be much, much worse than it was. But none of them were getting any mutations, even though occasionally they would watch a tree mutate before their very eyes. The Pure Heart was their lifeline. The only purity in the entire Chaos Waste. Vivian hoped—prayed—that they were almost at the portal. She wasn’t sure how much more of this she could handle before she lost it. And she was pretty sure that was exactly what Tzeentch wanted. Let there be light at the end of the tunnel let there be light at the end of the tunnel let there be… They crested a hill and, to their shock, they found a village. Built out of various colors of wood, stone, and strange mucus-like substances, the houses were otherwise akin to what one would find in a normal human village. There was a well, a few barns, and some farms. Granted, the farms were growing mutated crops and no two barn animals looked the same, but it was a life of sorts. The inhabitants of the town were human, once. Every last one of them suffered from multiple heavy mutations; be it another arm, eyes all over their skin, extra heads, or metallic skin. Some looked oddly beautiful in a way, such as a woman with scales instead of skin and four eyes. Others were hideous, such as the girl that was little more than a head with spidery legs skittering around. When they saw Vivian and the others, they recoiled from the Pure Heart out of fear. “Oh, how terrible…” Vivian put her hand to her mouth. “If we go in there, we hurt them…” “We’ll go around,” Caspian said. “I’m more shocked that these people are alive. The daemons surely would feast readily on a settlement this large.” A tall, snake-like mutant rang a bell. In response, a humanoid in a yellow outfit burst out of the largest building, holding a weapon in his hand, pointed directly at Vivian and the others. Vivian’s jaw dropped. “Data!?” Data, still in his Starfleet uniform and completely unmutated, lowered his phaser. “Oh, it is you. It is good to see you again. Welcome to my village.”