Morning had come to the town of Kirlsa. Everyone stretched and did their morning exercises.
As they were preparing to move out, Fayt voiced his concerns for Tynave and Farleen but Nel assured him that they could take care of themselves.
Lyra felt a spike of anxiety from Nel, but ignored it as she already knew what that was about.
Lyra hid herself and Twilight with her void powers while everyone proceeded to the north end of town toward the abandoned mine.
There were some townsfolk who were curious about why a group of travelers would choose to travel through the unstable, monster infested mine, but let the matter lie. If they had a death wish, it was their funeral.
Once inside the mine, Lyra released her Shadow Walk ability while everyone looked around.
The first room had a number of damaged rails and minecarts. There was also a storage area that contained a few crates that either contained old supplies, or were empty. The rails led to two rooms: one to the right and one to the left. There may have been other rooms to explore except they were blocked off by rubble from past cave-ins. The place was a mess.
The group inspected the left path first, only to encounter a number of giant cave spiders. One type resembled a tarantula that had black and yellow striped legs, black abdomen and thorax with a red mark on its thorax. Another type was gray with long legs that allowed it to rise to the height of a person.
One of the tarantulas faced its rear toward the group and launched a barrage of needles in an arc from its abdomen. Twilight and Lyra quickly erected barriers to block the needles with Nel, Cliff, Fayt and Peppita behind them.
Surprisingly, Sophia also managed to raise a psychic barrier that repelled the needles. When Lyra saw that, she noted that Sophia was gaining more conscious control over her powers. She figured that she could start teaching her techniques when they got to Arias.
The giant, long-legged spiders attempted to slow the group by launching nets of webbing at them. Lyra and Sophia managed to sidestep them before Lyra charged at the Tarantula and Sophia went after the tall spider. Lyra moved to the tarantula’s side to avoid frontal and rear needles before she jumped above it and stabbed it with her blades from above.
Sophia put her blades to use and approached her spider the same way Lyra did with her spider. With agility that surprised everyone, including Fayt, she quickly sliced off the spider’s legs with her wrist blades, leaving the main body helpless on the ground. She finished it by stabbing the body with her blades.
As more giant spiders emerged from their holes in the cavern, the next few minutes were spent lighting up that area of the cave with countless flying Fire Bolts and the light emitted by Fayt’s Blazing Sword. Countless spiders died in that timespan.
Since that part of the cave was a dead end, the group returned to the first room and took the passage to the right. After a short walk through a corridor, the group entered a room with rails in better condition than the ones in the entrance. The lower levels appeared inaccessible without jumping down with no chance of return for normal people. A barred gate blocked the way to the rest of the lower levels.
From where they entered, the group also noticed a strange console that had five buttons to press. Each button seemed to be labeled after a type of temperament: steady, carefree, whimsical, ill-natured and aggressive. However, none of the buttons responded to being pressed which meant that the machine was useless to them right now.
Sophia sensed something nearby. It was a sensation that felt strange, yet familiar. She couldn’t recall when she sensed such a presence before, yet her instincts were telling her that she had felt it once a long time ago. She looked around the immediate area to find the source of the feeling.
“Hey Sophia, are you alright?” Lyra asked. Everyone else turned their heads toward her in response.
“There’s something here and it’s bugging me. I need to find whatever is making me feel this way.” Her search brought her to a nearby pot torch that illuminated the console. She could sense that what she was looking for was buried underneath the torch, so she dug.
Her hands tore through the dirt and gravel, in search of her prize. She shattered a piece of rock that separated her from what she was looking for which surprised Cliff as normal humans couldn’t break away rock with their bare hands.
Underneath two inches of dirt and rock, Sophia finally found what she was looking for. She pulled out what appeared to be a strange gold-colored triangular stand. The legs had strange green symbols on them and the center held a green triangular gem.
Lyra’s eyes widened as she gasped in surprise. “Impossible,” she whispered. “This technology shouldn’t even exist here.”
“Is it an OPA?” Cliff asked.
“OPA?” Fayt asked.”
“I don’t know much about ‘em, but I’ve heard that they’re powerful artifacts that exist in places where they shouldn’t.” Cliff knew a little more than that, but he didn’t want Nel catching on to their true identities.
“What do you know about them?” Lyra asked through the link.
“The people of the Eternal Sphere call them ‘out-of-place artifacts’ that are discovered on worlds where they had no business existing in the first place,” Twilight explained. “Things like advanced technology that’s discovered on an underdeveloped planet with no record as to how they got there in the first place.”
“You phrased it in a way that tells me that we see them differently.”
“Correct, OPAs, as they call them, are actually known to me and my employees as Intervention Devices. Only administrators, like myself, can actually use them for their true purpose.”
“So is that Ihan Crystal that Sophia found one of your Intervention Devices?”
“That’s the strangest thing, it’s not. There is an ID on this planet, but it’s not that crystal. I have no idea how that thing got on this planet in the first place, let alone how Protoss technology ended up in the Eternal Sphere, especially since I didn’t implement their race or the Zerg into this universe. However that crystal got here, it was placed there recently, as in the past twenty years at most.
“Why twenty?” Lyra asked.
“The last full system scan of the Eternal Sphere occurred twenty of this universe’s years ago. The scans never picked up the foreign device, so it had to have been placed some time after the last scan.”
Lyra placed a hand on her chin as she looked at her apprentice, “Hmm…given Sophia’s reaction to the device, I’d wager around sixteen years.”
“Do you think the memory stored inside the device is connected to her somehow?” Twilight asked. Twilight had a thousand years to study Protoss technology. She was especially fascinated with the Ihan Crystals which served as memory recording modules. In fact, she had an entire room in her house dedicated to storing numerous Ihan Crystals which she used to record her experiments over the centuries.
As Sophia held the device in the palm of her hand, the device activated on its own, to her surprise. Even more surprising to everyone, including Lyra, was that when the device activated, it revealed a shard of a proper Ihan Crystal, meaning that the entire message stored in the crystal was not present. There was still enough to see part of the memory though.
“Just what is this?” Sophia asked.
Lyra convinced the others to move on ahead and check a passage beside the rails while she talked with her apprentice. With the two in private, Lyra explained the crystal to her and that there were parts missing from it. She also told her of her hypothesis that the crystal’s message might have been for her since she was the one who heard its call.
“Okay, but how do I access the memory?” Sophia pondered.
“Touch the crystal and close your eyes,” Lyra instructed.
Sophia nodded and did as told. The shard glowed brightly and her mind was invaded by a foreign memory.
A person appeared before her. His face was hideously grotesque and the rest of his body was covered in gunmetal-colored armor that appeared to have numerous high-tech weaponry attached to it. A look into his eyes revealed ancient wisdom.
The person before her spoke in a mildly warped voice.
“If you are viewing the memory stored in this crystal, then I pray that your name is Sophia. I’m not quite sure how these devices work. I have placed an echo of my psionic signature upon this device in hope that she will find it. If you are not her, then shame on you and know that I will find you and hunt you like prey.
“If you are my dearest Sophia, then know this; my name is Gerald ‘Star’ Craft and I am your grandfather. Before you go asking, the Esteeds are merely your foster parents and you have replaced their birth daughter. After all, you possess physical traits that were obviously not passed down from them. They have no idea that I exist and they have no idea that you replaced their actual daughter. I doubt you knew that either since you were an infant at the time.
This news stunned Sophia, she knew she was different from her family and her odd abilities were unexplainable until Lyra informed her about her abilities. If the person before her was correct, then this info would shake her whole world.
“You are likely wondering why I had you live with the Esteeds instead of your mother. Our family is made up of multiverse travelers. To ensure that we do not rampage throughout the multiverse, we band together as a unit and work to keep watch on one another and subdue each other should that happen.
“At the time I sent you away, the political climate within the family had become unstable and some of the more evil-aligned members might have wanted to influence you while you were young. The ones who could keep those members away were not strong enough to keep them in check.
“Don’t get me wrong though, evil may live among our family, but there are good members too and those who keep the two sides from going at each other’s throats. The one thing that we have in common is that we all have our sacred duty that comes first over our own desires. I would tell you more, but that would require you actively rejoining the family.
“I have divided this crystal into seven parts. The one you found is the introduction to what I wish to tell you. Whether you hate me or not for what I did and what you shall learn about what I did to you, in the least I beg of you to find the other six shards that I have scattered throughout the continent of this world. Hear my story from beginning to finish and learn more about yourself and what you inherited from myself and your mother.
“You may ask why I selected this world for the shards. Let’s just say that one of our family members can read the strands of fate.
“Two more things I want to tell you before this memory ends. One is that the bracelet you have been wearing for as long as you remember cannot be removed. I created that device to conceal your true form. Let’s just say that your mother chose an odd partner to love. The bracelet will deactivate and detach from your wrist upon viewing the memories on all seven shards. The last shard will be near a place that will give you a hint as to what your true form will be.”
Sophia stared at her glowing bracelet and noticed the seven lines of light. She noticed that one of the lights began to dim. Her true form? Was she never human in the first place?
“Finally, once this memory has been fully viewed, the device will activate a beacon that will reach across the multiverse and draw the attention of one of our family members. It is my hope that they are not a bad influence on you and that they can be your guide in understanding your birth family better. I especially hope that it’s not that witch, Thanatas. She has no respect for the sanctity of life.
“That is all I have to say for now. Good luck on your journey, and let none stand in your way.”
Sophia was pulled back to reality where she stumbled a little but managed to regain her balance quickly. Everyone who left briefly had returned and looked at Sophia with concern.
“You all right?” Cliff asked.
“Yeah, I saw a memory while looking at this crystal and it gave me a case of mental whiplash. I’m okay now.”
“You saw a memory?” Nel asked. “What did you see?”
For any normal person, a revelation of their life being not what they thought it was would lead to them having an existential crisis on the inside, but Sophia always prided herself in being physically and mentally adaptable. Nevertheless, she still needed time to sort her feelings.
“I saw someone who told me they were my grandfather as well as a few other things about myself that I didn’t know until now.” She sighed. “I hope we don’t run onto another of these shards anytime soon. I just had a lot of info dumped on me and I need time to process what I saw and decide whether it was true or not.”
“If it’s a distraction you need, then we can look for some more monsters to beat up around here,” Cliff suggested.
“Worth a shot,” Sophia shrugged.
The group continued along the rails. The passage to the side was checked earlier and all they found were a few armored skeletons who were quickly dealt with. They continued along the rails and across a bridge that overlooked a looping track below. On the other side of the bridge was a door with rusty hinges. Since they didn’t have anywhere else to go, Cliff forced the door open which caused the door to fall off its hinges.
“Uhh…door’s open?” Cliff chuckled nervously.
On the other side of the broken doorway, Nel explained a few things about the mine that Lyra already learned from the townsfolk gossip.
Before the group took another step, tremors shook the cave. Everyone braced themselves for the earthquake before a living mass of rock and metal appeared before them. In shape, it reminded Twilight and Lyra about the one they faced in the simulator on Hyda, except this one was brown.
The earthen beast started its attack with an Earth Glaive which caused everyone to jump to the side to avoid the encroaching stone spikes. Cliff took the creature’s attention from the front while Twilight, Nel and Fayt assaulted its left side. Lyra, Sophia and Peppita attacked its right.
Peppita kept her distance long enough while the creature was distracted so she could strengthen her friends with a Power Dance. Lyra cast a defense-enhancing symbol on Cliff to help him endure the beast’s attack if he found himself unable to evade all of its attacks.
Nel channeled her runes through her blades to unleash a shadowy wave of energy which cut through the beast’s earthen armor. At the same time, Lyra slammed into the beast with her Storm Charge attack. Twilight and Sophia added more electricity in the air when both cast Lightning Blast on the beast at the same time, causing it to roar in agony.
Cliff finished the beast off by attacking from above with his Hammer of Might technique like when he used it against the bandits in the aqueducts. Of course, he ended up making contact with the electrified enemy and took some of the charge into his body as well, temporarily paralyzing him.
While the earthen beast dissolved into the cave floor, the others watched in amusement as Cliff spent the next few seconds convulsing. “O-o-o-k-k-k-ay, m-m-m-ay-y-y-be p-p-unch-ch-ching the ch-ch-charged m-m-monster w-was a bad-ad-ad idea…”
While Cliff was recovering from the paralysis, Fayt noticed a nearby lever. With nothing to lose and not seeing any safe way to the lower levels, he decided to pull it. A mechanism activated which lifted a nearby barred gate.
Fayt pondered for a moment on what might have happened as a result of the gate opening. He quickly figured that the door opening might have caused a change somewhere in the cavern and there was only one place to check. If this was anything like the RPGs he played at home, anyway.
“Hey guys, let’s head back to the console,” Fayt suggested. “I want to check something.”
Everyone headed back through the door that Cliff ripped open and returned to the console. As he figured, the console was now working. He pressed the ‘Steady’ button and a giant turtle-like creature with six legs walked into the looped section of the tracks on the lower level. It was hitched to a large mine cart.
“What is that?” Fayt asked.
“That’s a Hauler Beast,” Nel answered. “Do they not have those in your country? They are our transportation out of these caverns.”
“Doesn’t look like it can carry all of us,” Cliff noticed. “I’m guessing that there are more of these critters given the number of buttons.”
After a few minutes of waiting, the Hauler got impatient and walked off with their cart. The other buttons were tested and different colors of Hauler Beasts with different expressions showed up.
Since the carts were large enough to carry three people at a time, Lyra decided to ride the whimsical Hauler. Twilight, Peppita and Fayt chose the steady Hauler while Cliff, Sophia and Nel chose the aggressive Hauler.
The next hour was the most chaotic part of their journey through the mine. The aggressive Hauler didn’t care about what got in its way as it charged through walls in the cavern. The whimsical Hauler was disobedient and chose different tracks at random.
The rails were explored by the three groups while the Haulers were subjected to a lot of abuse from busting through walls to rockslides to breaking barricades to jumping over large gaps which made a few of the party panic.
After an hour of mentally mapping out the routes, the three Haulers, the whimsical one guided by Lyra’s mental influence, finally reached the desired end of the route.
The sound of chuckling drew everyone’s attention to an old man in Airyglyph armor. “My, this is the liveliest I have seen these tunnels in decades. Did someone hire you to clear these tunnels?”
“Uhh…well…” Fayt began, but the old soldier continued.
“No matter, whether someone paid you or not, you have my gratitude.”
“Uhh, you’re welcome?”
“Goodness, where are my manners? I have forgotten to introduce myself. I am Gregory von Dermein III, I am in charge of these caverns as a member of the Glyphian army.”
“Right, mister Dermein…”
Gregory chuckled, “Just Gregory is fine. It’s been a long time since I last saw another soul in these parts that wasn’t a monster.”
“Is there anything we can do to ease your burden?” Twilight asked.
“Very kind of you strange creature, but that will not be necessary. My duty has been to these caverns for decades and I have friends among the soldiers of Kirlsa. Whenever I need some time off, the others are always happy to take over until I am fit for duty again. My wife waits for me every day at home and my children have moved to other towns and are doing well for themselves from what I’ve heard. I’d say my life is going well.”
Twilight smiled, she could sense the man’s contentment so she knew he wasn’t lying.
“Since you have driven these Haulers here, I shall see these three returned to their pens. I was a fine Hauler driver back in my day,” Gregory laughed. As he began to board one of the rides, he turned to the group once more. “Take care of yourselves, bandits and hostile wildlife patrol the mountain roads from here onward.” With that, Gregory rode off with one of the Haulers.
Sunlight greeted the group once more as they exited the tunnels and gazed upon the mountain path before them.
The enemies along the path were not much tougher than the ones in the mine, though it did feature the return of one of the most annoying annoyances they have encountered: the nobleman.
Other foes that showed up were some thieves who somehow learned some Symbology, agile dark blue wolves, and large beetles.
Sophia, who was still feeling a little stressed from the earlier revelation, showed no mercy to the nobleman when she grabbed one by the head, used him as a shield to take a thief’s Lightning Blast, tossed him at said thief, then electrocuted them when she used a more advanced symbol: Thunder Flare. The spell unleashed electricity on the area the two victims were in and the discharge lasted a few seconds, continuously electrocuting the two.
Cliff killed a wolf by grabbing it by the neck and twisting its head. Twilight blocked another thief’s Lightning Blast with an Earth Glaive which impaled the thief. Peppita used her Magic Hook ability where she grabbed an enemy with her cape and dragged them to her before she unleashed a small but potent explosion in their face with her Instanto Blast. Lyra and Nel went after the slow beetles, some of which flew into the air. Nel handled the grounded beetles by unleashing sharpened air in the form of her Shockwave before Lyra told Nel to get out of the way. After the spy moved aside, Lyra unleashed her Psionic Storm and electrocuted the air around the beetles. The beetles still stood thanks to their electrical resistance, but were brought out of the air where Nel finished them off by throwing a number of frozen daggers that she conjured with her runes.
Moving onward, Nel led them along the path. The others noticed the sides of the path being fenced by barbed wire with a blocked cave entrance along the way which marked two paths. Nel took the one on the right, saying that the path to the left was too dangerous and that their destination was very close.
It wasn’t long before they located and entered a village that had seen better days. Arias appeared as a town that had experienced the brunt of militaristic aggression. The people around the village had grim expressions on their faces to match some of the destroyed homes. Nel mentioned that the village was still reeling from the previous attack from Airyglyph.
“The mansion in the center of town is our base of operations,” Nel informed. “We’ll check in there.”
Lyra had noticed that Nel was looking back west with concern. It didn’t require a look into her mind to know that she was concerned for her missing subordinates.
Something told the Pony Templar that things were about to get more interesting.
Meanwhile, outside Airyglyph City, a group of soldiers were patrolling the area just beyond the bridge leading into the city. Two of the three appeared irritable while the other was putting the most dedication to his duty.
“This is ridiculous!” one of the irritated soldiers shouted. “Why are we on patrol duty when we could be on the hunt for those escaped prisoners and that Aquarian witch!”
“Lord Vox probably thinks we’re not up to the task,” the other angry soldier grumbled.
“Enough chatter you two,” the dutiful guard scolded. “Every duty is important, Lord Vox entrusted us to make sure that no more Aquarian spies infiltrate the city.”
“Yes sir,” both soldiers replied reluctantly.
Not long after that conversation, the winds began to pick up. The guards could feel the howling winds blowing through their armor, not even caring that the phenomenon was unnatural.
Behind the guards was a point of violet light that began to expand slightly.
The point of a sword poked through the expanding hole. In only a moment, the blade of the sword fully emerged from the opening rift. The blade was covered in runes. The blade then motioned downward, tearing the rift even further.
The guards heard the tearing behind them and quickly turned around. They were just in time to see a figure emerge from the rift.
The woman that emerged had one of the most beautiful faces they had ever seen. Her skin was deathly pale and her long hair was white as snow. Her eyes glowed an eerie bright blue. The armor she wore was intimidating, even to the guards. Her ebony gauntlets, boots and belt had a skull design on them. Her pauldrons depicted a face in agony. The hilt of her sword depicted a skull impaled by numerous weapons.
The woman fully emerged from the rift before it vanished. She looked at her surroundings, ignoring the guards. “Hmm…so this is where she went?” she pondered. “The snow is a nice touch to the place; could be colder though. There’s something missing, but I can’t put my finger on it…hmm.”
“Halt!” she heard nearby. She ignored the voice. “Hey, you are trespassing in the territory of the kingdom of Airyglyph! Identify yourself!”
The woman sighed, “What do you want? I’m busy here.”
“Are you an Aquarian spy? Surrender immediately!” They pointed their swords at her.
“I’m not in the mood to be playing with you idiots. I have things I need to do, people to track.”
“The only thing you’re doing is heading to the dungeon. Come quietly.”
She sighed, “Look, it’s not your time yet. Don’t throw your time away fighting me. This is your last warning.”
The three guards charged at the woman who rolled her eyes and sighed again. “What a waste…” She raised her sword and made a thrusting motion. The guards stopped in their tracks when they felt a painful pressure in their chests. They each looked down and saw a runed sword that looked just like the one the woman wielded coming out of their chests. The guards coughed up blood before they dropped their weapons and collapsed on the snow. The blades removed themselves from the bodies and floated over to the woman like pets returning to their master.
The woman smiled, “That’s what was missing: the stench of death.”
The corpses vanished.
She frowned, “This place sucks…” She grumbled for a minute before she sighed. “Whatever, I have a hunt to begin anyway. Hope she’s not one of those whiny, judgemental idiots who keep trying to lecture me on ethics.”
After claiming the wasted time from the three guards with her sword, she began heading east.