Savage Awakening 491. The Lost Ruins (II)

A/N:

Hey folks--no chapter again on Tuesday. I thought I could get back in rhythm faster than I could. Still not right fully in the head w/ personal life stuff, sorry about that--I'm just going to have to ask for your patience, this is on me. It's easier this week than last. I'm making progress, just slower than I'd like. I'll get back to it as fast as I can. Also to the folks who sent kind messages, I read them all and really do appreciate it!

//

The Sage was enthusiastically stripping meat off a bone when Zane crashed in. As soon as he saw him, he tossed the bone and leaped to his feet. He tackled Zane in a bear hug.

“About damned time!” he roared.

“It’s good to be back,” said Zane, grinning too.

“You’ve been eating well these past few years, huh?” He gave Zane’s shoulders a pat.

“Yeah. Lots of dreamsteel.”

“Good. You’ll be needing all the steel you can get where we’re going. Damn, but it’s been a while since I stretched these legs… feels like I’ve got rust all the way down to the bone.” He frowned, then grinned again. “Well! How’ve you been, lad?”

“Pretty great,” said Zane. The Sage had an infectious energy. “When do we head out?”
“Right about now, I figure.” The Sage scratched his chin. “First, just let me grab a few things. I’ve done a hell of a lot of prep work for this, I tell you—wait here.”

He disappeared behind a mountain and came back with a giant sack, stuffed full of blocky items. Zane wasn’t really sure why he bothered when bags of holding would do just fine.

“You ready, then?”

Zane patted his own bag of holding. “Let’s do it.”

He did like how to-the-point everything with the Sage was.

“Right then! Fluffy!”

And Fluffy came roaring over the mountains.

Fluffy was a bit bigger than he’d remembered. There was a new pattern to her scales—lots of strange symbols drawn on, as though by chalk. She made a happy screech.

“Fluffy here just hit half-step Empyrean!” said the Sage happily. “She’s been training real hard these last few years—she’s taken in a good chunk of treasure, too. Even had a little Bloodline awakening along the way, if you can believe it.”

Fluffy screeched again and gave Zane a big lick.

The Sage smacked his own head. “Damn! Nearly forgot. Here—”

The Sage tossed Zane a giant block of steel—he caught it, staggering a bit. The thing was heavier than it looked, and it looked extremely heavy. It was run through with faded runes and misshapen, too, like it’d been ripped clean out of some ancient building. He felt a fierce force wrenching at him as he caught it, almost staggering him. At first, he thought it might be magnetic. Then he saw it was ripping the same way at reality itself.

It felt like gravity. It was some heavy stuff, sure—but there was more to it than just that… Zane wasn’t the easiest guy to budge.

This stuff held a Concept.

Steel of the First Ones [Legendary (D)]

“That ought to last you a good while,” said the Sage, nodding.

“You got this thing in the ruins?” Zane inspected it. His stomach rumbled.

“That’s right. Go on—have a taste.”

Zane did. He munched thoughtfully for a few seconds, then swallowed and wiped his mouth.

“Pretty good,” was his verdict.

“Give it a bit,” said the Sage, grinning. “We’re not done yet! You feeling it yet?”

Zane kept munching, frowning. He wasn’t sure what he was supposed to be feeling. Another few seconds passed—just him munching. Then—

“…I think there’s a tingle.”

“That’s the stuff.” The Barbarian Sage looked pleased.

At first, he thought maybe it was just him. But no—it was definitely there. Getting stronger too…

He feltthat pull in his gut. Just a little of it, but enough to intrigue him.

“The Ancients knew things about working with this kind of stuff. The real heavy-hitters in the Divine Profound class—stuff we couldn’t even begin to imagine,” said the Barbarian Sage. “Even ol’ Steelheart can’t make steel like that!For stuff this high-grade, there’s only one way you can work it. By pounding in that special stuff.”

Zane chewed some more. “Tastes like gravity.”

“Right. Feels like a pull, eh? It’s not really a pull. More like… put something heavy on a cloth, and it sags. Everything else on that cloth falls into it. That’s how I like to think of it, anyway.”

Zane nodded. Made sense.

“That’s Stellar Gravity for you,” the Sage said cheerfully. “One of the strongest Concepts there is at Tier 6. It’ll serve you damned well if you can master it. Right! You pocket that thing and keep on munching. We'll get going. Might be a few months ‘til we get to the rim of the known world—make good time, and you’ll finish it up. By the time we come out of it, you’ll be well on your way into that Concept.”

Zane was happy to take another bite. “Will do,” he said through a mouthful.

The Barbarian Sage made some final checks.

Fluffy was saddled with two lines of giant sacks—quite a few empty. She had on a harness and everything. Then the Sage and Zane settled into two big saddles strapped tight to her back.

“I’ve got a good feeling about that Ruin,” said the Barbarian Sage. “From the feel of it, there’s a chunker of a haul down there. Right! FLUFFY!”

Fluffy screeched.

“Don’t let yourself get thrown! Might be you’ll end up a thousand light-years in the middle of nowhere,” said the Sage.

Before Zane could figure out what that meant, the Barbarian Sage yanked hard on the reins and roared.

Fluffy achieved lift-off. A heartbeat later, she was screaming into the sky, blurring past the stars—fiery streaks blurred over her head, like an asteroid falling through the atmosphere. The fabric of reality started to tear around her. Cracks ripped open like a wake.

She head-butted thin air.

And a great maw of void ripped open.

Like that, Fluffy broke through—and was gone.

He felt a wrench of vertigo the moment he made it through. His ears popped—sound wasn’t gone, but muffled. He could still see, but it was a bit disorienting—all around him, streaking into the distance, were souls, ghostly faces whistling by, mostly in a ghoulish blur. What looked like giant eyes blinked in the distance, eyeing them—but they blurred away too, vanishing behind… all around them, it was like the night sky was extended infinitely and riddled with cracks and the stuff of souls, all blurry and bleary. Nothing here felt quite solid.

“Void-walking!”shouted the Barbarian Sage, a big old grin on his face. Zane could barely hear him over the sounds of soul-screaming.

“You get certain Space Laws, you can try it too! Or just get strong enough as an Empyrean you can rip open space anywhere. That damned snake’s done it a few times, you might remember. Nasty surprise, that.”

The Sage scowled. “Anyway. No teleport portals where we’re going, and it’s a hell of a lot faster than on land.”

It felt kind of like riding a motorbike on a highway—a highway that rode that sliver of reality that sat between worlds, a line that ran between the stitches of reality.

He also saw some Eldritch horrors. These great blobs with lots of tentacles and eyes. There were others—these big serpents with lots of eyes too, kind of like Fluffy. They screeched happily once they saw her; Fluffy screeched back. Lots of glass-shattering sounds going on.

“It’s the Eldritch Horrors’ homeland! Lots of ‘em graze here,” said the Barbarian Sage cheerfully. “It's the one place folks aren't trying to hunt them down all the time. The one place they’re safe—ever since ancient times. Well—‘til recently, that is.”

He scowled into the distance.

It wasn’t long before Zane sensed them. Something darker than even the void, making ink-stains in the night sky…

“They’ve got their hooks in here too.”

The Barbarian Sage gave a nod. “See, this here’s an in-between,” said the Sage. “Stuck between the living and the forces of Corruption—neither’s really meant to be here. Now, though, that damned snake’s trying all he can think of to take it over too. Bastard can’t leave well enough alone.”

He grinned. “Well. We’ll just have to beat the brakes off of ‘em, eh?”

“I’m up for it.”

Zane felt a clash up ahead—fireworks of dark essence going off. It wasn't long before they caught sight of it—a herd of Eldritch Horrors wrestling against giant mammoths of bone. Liches spraying black sleet, throwing down black lightning, breaking open the world, ripping Horrors out into the real world…

Then all those Monsters froze.

Their heads swiveled to face him and the Sage.

There was a devilish hissing.

“Ready?” said the Barbarian Sage. He bared his teeth.

Zane’s hammers were already in his fists.

Then the Monsters were charging them, a Bone Mammoth stampede—clubbed feet trembling with momentum, their necromancy Distortion Fields blotting out the view, making ghoulish coronas…

Bone Mammoth

Essence Level 650

Bone Mammoth

Essence Level 668

Bone Mammoth

Essence Level 677

“Show me what you’ve got, lad!” roared the Sage.

They came hurtling straight for Fluffy—making a collision course, trying to derail them. Thirty of them, an avalanche of collapsing bone—but Fluffy charged bravely ahead, screaming her defiance.

Zane wound all the way back.

And let loose a single hammer.

That single stroke blazed out—and torched the void.

And connected with the biggest, meanest mammoth. The one at the head of the pack.

Then the explosion ran through.

He could barely hear it over the void screeches—sound was a bit muffled in here. But they all felt the heat. The light, too; saw the world flash white, felt their galactic highway teetering, trembling with new cracks as the blast raged through…

He was pleased with that one. After Nuclear Fusion, the explosiveness had gone up nearly ten times.

He was pretty sure it was enough to get the job done.

The only trouble was—they were charging straight into the blast.

The Sage thrust out a palm. Gravity welled in the air—and all that energy wrenched sideways, like there was some dark force field around Fluffy’s head. They barreled on through unharmed—leaving only a wreckage of void in their wake.

Level up!

Essence Level 571 -> 572

The Barbarian Sage let out a cheer. He slapped Zane on the back—“That’s what I’m talking about!”

Zane let out a breath. “Are there more?”

“Haven’t had your fill, have you? Don’t you worry—it only gets stronger closer to those damned ruins. Pretty soon you’ll need your A-game, I figure.”

Zane grinned. “Bring it on.”

The Sage laughed. “Giddyup!”

Fluffy screeched.

They kept on rocketing through the void.