The New World

Chapter 81: Rift Keeper

A colossal rumbling shook beneath me, knocking the core from my grasp. I stumbled backwards before falling off the pillar. Twisting around as I fell, I landed onto my feet, crushing the stone beneath me. I glanced up, wondering what the fuck was going on.

Above me, the elder’s shack shook back and forth. A black tendril of mush shot out of the wood. A sickening gurgle growled from within before ebbing to nothing. Screaming shouted around us. Near the pillar, a black tentacle lifted the writhing body of a child. The Eltarian child leaked blood from its mouth, the black spreading through its body.

The small Eltari melted into the black, consumed by the living shadow. The high-pitched howls lessened as the mouth that made them collapsed into the pit of black. Elders howled from within the shack. I gritted my teeth at my own naivety. The Drikah hadn’t been this dungeon’s boss. He was something else, like a corrupted god. That moving blob of black was the real rift keeper.

Like all eldritch, the disgusting monster reached out to eat whatever it could. Jass hobbled out of the shack, leaping off the side of the wood. She glided away for a moment before another tendril of black wrapped around her. Hod leapt out of the shack, gliding towards her as he removed his mask. Without the toxic air to fuel his reformation, he remained normal.

Hod wasn’t that inept without his monstrous form, however. He spun through the air before slicing a talon through the black tendril grasping Jass. A tiny cut formed in it before he spun again and fired his two hooks towards the monster. The black tentacle rived, splitting in two. The tentacle stayed wrapped around Jass as she fell onto the ground while howling in agony.

They bled into her, melting her skin and eating her blood. Hod scrambled towards her before I charged at the monster. Hod grabbed her and pulled her from the tentacle, the blackened burns reaching down to her bones in places. Once her eyes met Hod’s eyes, she ceased her crying. The stern Jass returned. Hod grabbed the side of her face,

“Jass be fine. Hod save you. Hod not let you die. Hod need Jass. Hod love Jass…Please, don’t leave Hod. Please.”

The desperation leaking into his voice only strengthened the look of stone on Jass’s face. During their struggle, I reached the pillar the monster latched to. As it reached out with its tentacles, I molded oppression onto the limbs. The writhing tendrils retracted whenever I moved oppression over them. I stopped the tentacles from taking anymore villagers instead of trying to fight the monster.

As I did, Althea leapt out of the building. She spun through the air before landing beside us. She turned to me then Jass and Hod. A look of seething hatred raced onto her face. She bent down, her body reforming. Muscles expanded. Bones and joints popped in and out of place. Metallic plates formed over her head, hands, and feet.

As she transformed, Jass reached up a hand and placed it on the side of Hod’s face. Her hand shook as she lifted it towards him, but the firmness of her resolve carried her fingertips to his face. Tears fell down Hod’s jaw as he stared at her. As they landed on Jass, she winced but didn’t shout. She didn’t have time for shouting.

She wiped away a tear from his cheek, “Hod, my child, stay calm.”

With frenzy in his eyes and voice, Hod looked around, “Hod get help. Hod find doctor. Hod heal you. Hod save you.”

Jass placed her hand over his mouth, “Shhhhhh. There’s no saving me now. I’m not young anymore, and none of our doctors could heal me even if I was young. I’ve lived a full life as the caretaker of this village. I’ve done all I could to keep us safe.”

Her hand fell down, blood spreading out from around her, “The village, it’s changing. Our people don’t need some old seeker stuck in her ways. They need someone who isn’t so ancient and unchanging. They need someone like you.”

Hod shook his head, his voice shaking, “No, Hod not smart enough. Hod can’t lead village. Village need Jass. Hod need Jass.”

Jass frowned, “You don’t give yourself enough credit. You’ve defended our village as a true warrior. This is a time of war and battle. Shouldn’t the greatest warrior of our village lead us then? Even without your talents in war, your thoughts are simple yet wise. Who else would steer our village during this time?”

Hod shook her shoulders, dead skin ripping in his hands, “Jass! Village need Jass. Hod need Jass. Jass mother to Hod. Please, don’t leave Hod. Please.”

Jass grinned, a tear spilling down the side of her cheek, “And you’re a son to me Hod. Your mother and father would be proud of who you’ve become. Make us even prouder in the future.”

Her white eyes dimmed, “Protect our people, and tell our story to your dying breath. In your memory, I will live on. Keep me close to your heart, and I will watch over your shoulder from the sky. I join the sun now.”

Hod grabbed her hand and pressed it against his chest. Her eyes dimmed completely. Tears spilled from his unblinking, blank eyes. He raised his head and cried out, a deep mourning. He lost the person closest to him, and in his voice was that ocean suffering. There was so much pain in his howl, you could drown in the pain it held. Even I winced at the scene. Beside me, Althea kept reforming herself as several tears streamed down her cheeks.

She turned invisible, the camouflage leaking onto her skin like blobs of ink spreading on paper. Hod stood behind me as I wrestled to contain the growing black void. Hod turned to the monster. His voice could have ground through stone,

“Hod will kill you. Hod will kill your memory and feast on your children. Hod hate you. Hod hate, hate, hate.”

The black energy leaked onto his claws without needing the toxic air to support him. The white of his eyes bled with red energy. The red consumed the normally white eyes, like a full moon eclipsing with red. The black expanded over the rest of his skin, reaching his now red eyes. At the edges of his black skin, a white aura emanated. It created a distinct outline around his otherwise depthless shape.

He stepped forward, no light showing on his body. It was like a 2-D shape with a white glow, moving in our dimension. He roared with thunder in his chest and iron in his voice. The black drool dripped from his mouth as he spread out his arms. The talons grew, like daggers made of black. From behind him, a set of wings shifted out of his body.

He flapped them, wind spreading in every direction at the force of his flight. An explosion ebbed from the black creature within the shack. Green acid covered a third of the creature before another acid bomb exploded on the monster. The corrosive smells burned my nose and throat, but I grinned. Althea got this fucker good.

It wasn’t as good as Hod, however. Hod dived towards the monster. The monster reached out a black tendril towards Hod, but Hod’s own shadow devoured the black of the other monster. An unearthly squeal radiated from the monster as Hod’s jaws and talons ripped it apart.

With each swipe, Hod’s shadow eclipsed the monster’s own shadow. The savage fury of Hod’s anger unleashed as he sheared the shadow. His hate took a physical form, his darkened form growing in power with each of his attacks. The hulking Hod chomped and bit. He ripped and roared. He mauled with might. He slammed and sliced. He crushed and crumbled.

The monster was no longer a monster. It turned into the victim of Hod’s relentless rage, like the wave of a river overwhelmed by the fury of a flood. The shack covering the monster disintegrated under Hod’s onslaught. Anything Hod’s shadows touched was erased, disappearing entirely. It tried escaping him, but I pinned it into his grasp using oppression.

The dissipating shadow drained into Hod, growing his size and strength. Within a minute, the pillar behind the monster appeared. It shrunk down into a smaller and smaller blob before reached the size of a person. It lashed out towards Hod, but Hod stabbed his talons forward. Hod’s talons sliced the shadow apart, tearing it to nothing.

His hand traveled into the pillar. Hanging from the arm, he turned to the village. He thundered out in a deep voice like far off thunder,

“Hod kill the killer of Jass. Jass memory live on inside of Hod. Jass memory live on in Eltari.”

He raised a fist made of shadow as the Eltari roared in applause. I retracted oppression, pulling the aura in as I sighed. A second later, Hod grabbed his chest, coughing up the black drool. He stiffened up before his claws unlatched from the pillar. He fell down towards the ground. Before he slammed into the ground, Althea appeared beneath him.

She caught him before sprinting towards me. I met her halfway, pulling my helmet off my face before she set Hod down. As if in a daze, the black drool oozed from his eyes. He turned back and forth, his chest heaving for air. I looked up at Althea,

“What the fuck is going on?”

She blinked, “I…I think it’s a mana saturation. He’s broken his limits on holding mana. Now the mana is tearing his body apart.”

I spread out my arms, “Really? Mana saturation?”

She nodded, “It’s the same thing that happened to me when we met. The difference is that my mana turns me into a monster. Hod’s mana is making this shadow stuff, and I think that’s melting him or something.”

I tapped my hand against my head before I lifted both my hands. An idea had sprouted in my mind.

“I got it.”

I pressed a palm against Hod’s chest. My armor pierced into him, draining his mana. The red surrounding his eyes waned. The shadow covering his skin retracted. Over the next five minutes, Hod returned to normal.

I pulled my armor out, satisfied once the shadow was gone. He stopped breathing before I shoved my palm against his chest. The black liquid spewed out over Althea and I. Hod raised his head, turning towards us both,

“What happened to Hod?” He picked up his arms, “Hod back to normal. Shadow gone. Good.” He looked at us again, “Harbinger, Lady Friend…You both need bath.”

He reached his wings around us, “No need to worry. Hod show you where best water spot is. Water still cold. Not as cold as normal water spot though.”

I laughed before Althea followed suit. A nervous laughter radiated through the village. I fell backwards, breathing out a sigh of relief,

“Jesus Christ Hod. I thought you were dead as hell.”

Hod let Althea go, waving away my concern with a hand, “Hod understand Harbinger’s worry. Hod thought Hod dead too. Hod remember Jass last words. Jass want Hod to live, so Hod live.” He glanced down,

“Jass with sun now. The sun always warm and never cold.”

He sighed before standing up. In the distance, a wail echoed through the cavern. A thinner, more feminine Eltari leaned near the pillar. The tears of white poured from her lidless eyes. They fell down her face plate and tapped against the ground. The weeping tore through the fleeting peace. Hod walked over towards her. He placed his hand on her shoulder,

“Hod feel your loss. Hod lose Jass too. Hod know son live with sun now, like Jass.”

He lunged onto a single knee as she looked at him. Hod continued, “Hod know son warm now, not colder. No more struggle for food. Son watch you. Son want mother to smile. Be strong for son. Son watch you, even now.”

She wiped her tears, “Ok…I’ll try.”

She stifled her loud weeping, turning it into a quiet sob. As she sniffled, Hod walked up to me, “Hod believe village need time. Village need to mourn. Harbinger wait for mourning?”

I stood up and nodded, “Of course. If you need a few weeks, that’s fine. We’ll just start eating the rats and stuff. No big deal. Take your time.”

Hod shook his head, “No need for weeks. Eltari grieve little. Eltari strong. Eltari fight in new world. Give Eltari three days. Eltari leave then.”

I nodded before wiping the black liquid off my face. Althea did as well. After getting it off, she walked up to Hod. She hugged him, “I’m sorry about Jass.”

Hod glanced down at her, and a white fog grew out of his eyes a little. He raised both his arms, “Lady Friend! No need to hug Hod. Hod covered in muck. Hod get Lady friend dirty.”

She squeezed him a bit harder, lifting him off the ground. Hod continued, “Lady Friend hug appreciated. Lady Friend hurt Hod with Hug. Please set Hod down.”

She let go of him before smiling, “You’re sweet.”

Hod scratched the side of his face, obviously embarrassed, “Uh, Hod thank Lady Friend too. Both Harbinger and Lady Friend have been kind to Hod, save village from monster, and slay Drikah. Many good things for village. Hod return favor.”

He spread his arms, “Hod grant Harbinger and Lady Friend anything in village for three day stay. Enjoy till heart content.” He let his arms down, “Though village not have much.”

Althea and I looked at each other. We gave each other one of those glances that held a conversation of details in them. I turned to him, “Sure. A break sounds damn nice. It’ll be like a vacation.”

Hod nodded before a chunk of the core pillar fell. It caught everyone’s attention before Hod frowned, “Good time to leave village. Village about to fall apart anyway.”

With the fight over, the villagers dispersed to lick their wounds. My oppression aura kept the deaths minimal though. Instead of throngs of the villagers dying, only two did. While that still sucked, at least the damage was kept to a minimum. For me, it was a resounding success compared with the Bloodbull incident. That was an unmitigated disaster.

The resulting chaos of this event paled by comparison. Before three hours passed the village went back to normal duties. The main difference was the collection of yellow flowers and fallen feathers. While they atteneded to their own kind of mourning, Althea and I enjoyed the sights and scenes of the village.

The main attraction was the marketplace at the middle of everything. Eight shopkeepers sold a variety of goods, each of them known by all the villagers. One of them sold trinkets or gifts, kind of a like a shop for oddities. The others focused on more pragmatic goods, so we only picked up what we needed from them.

Despite how interesting some of the Eltari’s shops were, we spent most of our time talking with villagers. The way they saw me and her surprised us both. Most of them revered me as some messiah. Others saw me as just a good guy. I preferred that opinion personally. Being a messiah was a lot of pressure.

Despite that pressure, the thanks I got was a nice change of pace. Normally, I leave a thick, bloody trail of death and destruction in my wake. Not on purpose mind you. This time was an exception, and the villager’s good will served as our reward for it. The villagers even gave us a house with a place to sleep.

While a straw bed wasn’t ideal, it was a hell of a lot better than stone. Althea brought an expanding mattress with her, so it wasn’t a problem for her. The food turned out pretty decent too. Who knew roasted rat on a spit was actually pretty good. Put some pepper and paprika on it, and it might even be restaurant worthy.

Regardless, the three days passed by fast. We organized with Hod to make sure the villagers were ready to leave and that they knew what to expect when we got to earth. We pretty much told them that there would be a ton of zombies. That, and they would need to go through the sewers to meet up with the steel legion.

Once there, we’d be able to rendezvous with Torix and company. The plan was to train the Eltari and give them weapons. An efficient and effective aerial force would be a massive augment to the legion’s lacking forces. Combine that with the physical superiority of the Eltari, and we had a recipe for Spawn of Yawm destruction.

With all those plans finished, there was only one thing left for closure’s sake. The night before we all left, the Eltari held a funeral for the two lost members. Jass’s body was burned, cremated to ash. Althea and I joined the ceremony as they walked up high atop the mountain. At the very peak of it, the wind blew with tremendous intensity.

There the Eltari took the yellow flowers and put the spare feathers between the petals. Once night time arrived, the family of the boy tossed many of the flowers into the air. The feathers kept them afloat as they flowed with the wind. They symbolized the boy’s passage into the sky and union with the sun, or so I was told.

They did the same with Jass’s ashes. Hod was the one to throw them. After watching the gray scatter, Following a mantra, Hod announced without his usual odd way of speaking,

“Jass floats with the sun at her back and the wind on her wings. May she and Kal fly forever.”

The congregation raised each of their right wings, staring at the sky. They said in unison, “May they fly forever.”

Their featureless, glowing eyes turned the dark mountaintop into a cluster of tiny lights. It kind of looked like a starry sky. With the ritual finished, Jass and the boy’s deaths took on a finality. As we walked back towards the village, the aura of the group wasn’t one of sorrow. It was a more of a determined kind of feeling, like they were moving on.

The atmosphere fit in with the next morning perfectly. All the Eltari had their packs at the ready. Before leaving, I leaned against the core holding pillar, checking out my status screen with Althea beside me. I wanted to invest my points before heading back. As I opened my status screen, I saw 347 levels gained from the sand worm, but I also gained 15 from the shadow monster.

It turned out that the boss was conglomeration of the corrupted seekers. Seekers never died of old age, the toxic air sustaining them. When they lost control of themselves, they would be put into a prison built beneath the shack. Whenever I pulled on the core, it awakened the boss, leading to Jass’s death. The boss’s escape was an inevitability, so the villagers were thankful that Althea and I were there to help handle it.

The fifteen levels the shadow monster gave me was a nice bonus for leveling. Combine them both and I ended up with 362 levels gained. After a little over three days of relaxation, the attribute points had uploaded, all 1012 of them.

That’s right. One thousand and twelve fucking attribute points. It was an astronomical number. Both obliterator trees gave me 8 extra attributes every five levels. A normal person gains five attribute points and a single perk point every five levels. That perk point converted into an attribute point most of the time, meaning it was effectively six attribute points every five levels.

Now I gained over double the norm. As I grinned at the fact, Althea saw my smile and analyzed my status. The last time she checked, she was still a higher level. Once she saw my completed level, she punched my shoulder before pouting in frustration.

I laughed at her, “Guess who’s got a higher level now?”

She hugged her legs to her chest, “Dammit…It was lot of fun being stronger than you.”

I glanced at my status screen, soaking in the numbers, “All good things must come to an end.”

She put her chin on her knees, “I’m going to miss it…Out leveling you that is.”

I rubbed my hands together, “Let’s see the spoils.”

I dug my face into my status screen. With how I set up my stats feeding each other, the framework for Endurance made it a do all attribute. I got the most from it when compared with any other stat. Taking full advantage, I began putting the attribute points into endurance. The perk screen appeared after placing six points into endurance.

Congratulations on reaching level one thousand! Only 32.67% of current sentients have reached this level of achievement. Extra options, information, and settings are unlocked for your status. Data upload now allowed (1 terabyte of data per level over 1000.) Extra rights are unlocked for a higher status sentient.

Perks for being over level 1000 include: