“I think I somehow missed the moment when it was decided we’d be using sleighs...”
“Well, White thought it’d be good to use the fact that the river had frozen over...” Greek replied, shrugging. “I used to ride a motorcycle before shit went down, but that was nowhere near close to this! When the wolves turn sharply and the sleigh skids...” He shuddered. “Not to mention that the reins on the left side are loose!”
“Be that as it may... You’re doing the faction a great service. You know we don’t have much time...”
“There’s barely any...”
“Yeah, yeah... C’mon, hop on.” Greek waved his hand and was about to set off when he suddenly grinned and slapped his forehead. “I almost forgot! About those worms of yours... They can speed up one really boring process...”
“Really?” I asked, surprised.
“No, no! I won’t tell you now! Don’t even try to get it outta me!” he exclaimed and pulled on the reins. The sleigh shot forward, heading toward the Mountain, near which the first columns of smoke were beginning to rise.
***
I had no clue what Greek had in mind, but if he had a way of controlling the worms, then he’d save us a lot of trouble. The mobs were basically living drills that worked without fuel and made little noise and mess.
Good as that was, I was currently more focused on the Sage, in the center of which, if the Compass was right, there was a portal leading to the next fragment.
***
And the Compass was right. Under the old tree, set in the middle of a snow-covered plain, was a portal — an iridescent lilac oval, on the other side of which lay the unknown.
The tree trunk was empty on the inside and there were even conveniently placed holes to put your hands and feet into. A short descend led us to an underground cave.
Ivan stood still for two solid minutes, taken aback by the whole thing, looking at the portal, fascinated.
“Stop staring. C’mon, let’s get going.”
“It’s like a huge TV... No, no! Like a 5D movie!”
“Just get in already!”
Ivan, still in shock, slowly walked up to the portal and stretched out his hand. His palm hit a solid surface and tiny sparks flew from under his hand. He turned to me, eyes filled with childish delight.
“I told ya it’s magic,” I replied. “Now, get ready... System, activate Portal Operator!”
Portal Operator activated.
Portal No: CVBD-12345_fwfd
Please prepare for teleportation.
Units: 2 players, 1 mob
“Oh, my God!” Ivan suddenly exclaimed when his hand passed through what had been a solid surface just a moment ago.
“What do you feel?” I asked once his hand had completely disappeared inside the oval.
“I... I don’t know,” he whispered. He pulled back his hand and examined it carefully. “I think... I think there’s water there...”
“Water?”
“Water... Or something warm and wet... Some liquid,” he replied thoughtfully and suddenly stepped into the portal.
“Ivan!”
But he couldn’t hear me anymore. After a few seconds, a bright light flashed in front of my eyes.
1 player has been successfully transported.
Successful use of skill [Portal Operator].
Reward: +1 Portal Operator
“What should I do now?” I wondered. It was just me and Rat in the cave now. The pet looked up from a piece of elk meat that he was eating and stared in surprise at the place where Ivan was standing a moment ago.
“Damn it... Ivan!”
I let out a breath and took a running leap straight into the lilac mass, which bent under my body like soft rubber.
Attention! Transportation initiated...
Fasten your seat belts and enjoy the ride.
“Very funny, System, very funny...”
The feeling was... interesting: like humping into a jar of jam. I moved through it and saw bright rays passing through the water surface.
“Wait... Water?”
I immediately coughed, trying to free my airways from the water that was rushing into my body (how was I supposed to know that I needed to hold my breath immediately?!) and, desperately waving my libs, swam to the surface. A dark silhouette glided by... Rat! He scooped me up and, using the tentacles as propellers, swam up.
Fortunately, the body of water we had found ourselves in wasn’t that deep.
***
Clearing my throat and rubbing my eyes, I gasped. We were surrounded by a desert. Golden sand, hilly dunes, cloudless sky, and the bright sun. The hot, dry air warmed me up in no time but I could feel that it could soon turn into a problem.
The portal was located at the very bottom of a small pond, tucked away in the middle of the endless sands. The portal was vertical and the pond horizontal — no wonder I lost my orientation, things got turned upside down without warning.
Oasis
“Yeah, no shit, Sherlock...”
The oasis was rather small: a lake fed by underground water, a few palm trees that gave the location some shade, and the yellowed skeleton of some unfortunate creature that resembled a two-headed monkey. The skeleton lay sprawled on the wet sand at the edge of the pond, its paws spread wide.
It looked like whoever it belonged to lost their strength upon exiting the pond and died, their corpse left to dry in the scorching sun. Judging by the amount of sand and the yellow tint of the bones, the thing had died a long, long time ago. The lack of a name implied that this wasn’t a player but a mob of some kind. Perhaps two-headed monkeys were indigenous to this place.
Ivan had already climbed out onto dry land and was standing with his mouth open next to a pile of skulls that still had bits of dried flesh on them.
“I guess we’re not the first ones here,” I said, thinking that he was surprised by the skeletons. “Ah, if bones could talk... Who knows what they’d tell us?”
Ivan silently pointed behind me, and I could tell by the direction of his gaze that he was looking somewhere up. I turned around and froze in place.
To the north of the oasis was a...
The Desolate Tower
***
The Tower, to put it bluntly, was amazing. It wasn’t as high as it seemed at first glance: the highest dunes were only slightly shorter than it. But still... A tower in the middle of a desert! I mean, I heard that in some countries they built factories in deserts but a tower wasn’t a factory, was it now?
On the other hand, the Tower could be similar to the Hall. In the sense that it was built by the System and hidden from prying eyes. As if to confirm my theory, the Compass began to point in the direction of the giant structure.
I exchanged glances with Ivan and Rat, and smiled.
“We’re going on an adventure, friends.”
***
Sand. Nothing but sand for miles. It got into our nostrils, mouth, and eyes. There was no escaping it. The only thing I managed to do was find a translucent shell in the Lab that could protect my eyes. However, it was impossible to see anything through it so I had to give it up.
Ivan was having it worse than me: he hadn’t installed any eyelashes when he was creating this body, so he had to walk with his eyes closed, occasionally opening them just a tiny bit so he could see where he was going, or pulling his shirt over his head in a desperate attempt to escape from the sand and wind that were beating his face. The only place he could use the Lab was at the base.
Rat, on the other hand, felt wonderful: he had impressive damage resistance and neither the grains of sand, nor the rays of sun, nor even the hot sand under his feet bothered him. Ivan and I had to endure and, gritting our teeth, pushed on.
The journey to the Tower took about an hour and a half, during which we enjoyed the delights of desert life, cursed the wind, the hot sand, our burning feet, the scorching sun, and even the System and the creators of the Game.
“Damn dunes!” Ivan growled. After a two-w
eek stay on his hind legs, he switched back to walking on all limbs and was now climbing up a rather steep dune. Sand kept slipping out from under him, and he almost rolled down a couple of times.
But we didn’t have a lot of options. The alternative route would’ve taken us another hour, and we hadn’t remembered to bring water with us, and we were already thirsty. Who knew how long we’d have to stay in the tower. I cursed myself for not thinking.
***
The dunes hid our goal from us. We couldn’t even see its conical top... so imagine our surprise when, having finally climbed to the top, we didn’t find the Tower.
“Um...” Ivan drawled, looking at the mini-map. “It should... It should be right in front of us...”
I also opened the map and stared at it equally confused. The red marker was right in front of the three blue dots that represented Ivan, Rat, and me. But instead of a Tower, there was a huge crater in front of us, as if some giant had come over and plucked the thing out of the sand and ran off with it.
“Third Eye.”
The additional eye appeared on my neck. Slowly scanning the surroundings, it highlighted Ivan and Rat in yellow and pale yellow, respectively, looked up, straight at the bright sun, and then down, revealing the outlines of the structure.
I scratched my head. The Tower was, somehow, buried in the sand. A closer inspection of the crater confirmed the Eye’s discovery: at the crater’s base was a smooth, solid surface — the Tower’s cone-shaped roof.
But how were we supposed to get in? Were we supposed to dig through the roof and find a ladder leading down or something? That’d be difficult as the sand would constantly fill up the hole. Being buried alive in a desert wasn’t in our itinerary.
“Loki!” Ivan suddenly shouted. Jumping down into the crater, he looked at the stone from which the Tower’s roof was made with interest. “There are some symbols here...”
Sliding down the sandy slope, I found myself next to him. Ivan had dug out a strangely familiar metal slab located at the very top of the structure. My eyes widened. It was the same slab that I found near the Hall, protecting its entrance.
Without thinking, I drew my scimitar from its scabbard and slashed the blade across my palm.
“Loki? The fuck are you doing?!” Ivan exclaimed in surprise but I interrupted him by raising my hand.
Blood dripped onto the slab. There was a barely audible hum as the mechanism began to turn. A few seconds later, the Tower began to rise from under the thick layer of sand with a deafening screech. Ivan stood with his mouth open, eyes wide in shock. In all honesty, I shared his sentiment. It was one thing for a single metal slab to slide aside, opening the way to the Hall, and quite another for a huge tower made of solid stone to move up.
Rat jumped onto the makeshift elevator. I was about to suggest that we leave the tower and wait for it to rise, so that we could go through the door rather than the roof, but this mysterious structure suddenly screeched up, giving us no chance to try to jump away without breaking our bones.
But the Tower reached the highest position in just a few seconds. The sudden rise almost made my insides churn even though I used to be a fan of roller-coasters. Though I never rode them in a desert... under the scorching rays of the sun in its zenith.
Rat, who had been nervous during the ascent, moved like a bullet to the very center of the cone-shaped roof, which was fenced around the perimeter with a low parapet. In shape, it resembled those on medieval castles, only smaller and more decorative. I turned to look at the pet: the huge thing was afraid. I was afraid too! I could see fear in the Rat’s eyes, and a second later the System sent me a message that my pet was frozen with fear.
Of course, I could use my abilities to get the Rat to do anything, even jump off the roof but I didn’t want to do that. Next to it was a spiral staircase leading to the top floor of the tower. It was there that he darted after a split second.
“Loki, there seems to be movement southwest of us,” Ivan said warily, wiping sweat from his forehead.
I approached him. In front of us was a magnificent view of thousands of dunes stacked next to each other, illuminated by the bright rays of the hot sun. And below, the sand glittered menacingly, ready to catch us if we risked leaning too far off the roof to see the landscape. I wasn’t afraid of heights but I had no desire to die by being stupid. So the sight of Ivan standing at the edge of the roof of the Tower made me a little nervous.
“There's nothing there. It’s probably just the wind playing with the sand,” I reassured him.
***
After standing on the roof for a few more minutes, we followed Rat. But Ivan, who had turned around to enjoy the view for the last time, suddenly grabbed me by the armor.
“Look! I told you!”
I looked at where he was pointing and froze.
A silhouette flashed between the high dunes. Ivan ran up to the edge of the roof, almost falling off.
“Who the fuck lives in a middle of a desert?!”
The silhouette flashed again and I felt fear overtake me.
It was the Giant.
The metal body reflected the sun’s rays, making it seem like the titan was made of mirrors and not metal. But the helmet and the scratched mask were clear.
“Get down!” I yelled at Ivan over Mental Transmission, and sprawled flat on the roof, hiding behind the low parapet.
Ivan collapsed next to me and whispered:
“Who’s that?”
“It’s not who but what! Ivan, that’s the Giant!”
How did I not realize it earlier?! The cone-shaped building from my vision was the top of the Tower and the two black figures I saw were Ivan and me!
Now we could only pray that the Giant wouldn’t follow the vision and look around the Tower, but continue its mad dash across the endless sands toward the Black Mountain.
Ivan hurriedly slid down to the spiral staircase and soon disappeared on the top floor of the Tower. I cautiously peered out between the battlements... and spotted the Giant, which had changed course and was now coming toward us.
“Damn it! It noticed us!”
Lifting clouds of dust into the air, the Giant was speeding toward us like a train. Only now did it become clear how much speed the giant had gained. If I had any doubts before that it’d be able to cover the distance to the coniferous forests in a short time, now there were none at all.
Fortunately, the Giant didn’t seem to suspect that there was an oasis near the Tower, with a portal that led directly to its goal. Unfortunately, Ivan and I would never know whether it reached the Black Mountain or not, because our heads would be crushed between its metal palms in just a couple of moments.
***
There was a deafening roar of engines near the Tower. The titan approached the building and slammed its fist into it, smashing through the stone wall.
The structure staggered. Somewhere on the top floor, Rat ran away in terror. Ivan’s voice broke through the comm channel.
“Jesus, Mary, and Joseph, why... Why us?! Oh, our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name... Aagh!”
The second blow.
The Tower swayed with such force that it seemed as if it was about to fall and bury us under stone and sand.
***
The roar of engines grew louder. I glanced down and followed Ivan’s example.
The Giant was gathering strength for the third and final blow.
Chapter 12
MONKEY BRAINS
Did the Giant realize that we belonged to the faction it was aiming to destroy? Or did it simply decide to kill anyone it saw on its path? It didn’t matter now.
We were trapped. Going further down meant exposing ourselves, and jumping off the roof meant certain death.
Salvation came out of nowhere. Lightning flashed in the cloudless sky, whizzing straight at the reddish antenna peeking out of the Giant’s helmet. It was heated to its melting point... and the Giant froze mid-blow. It then suddenly turned around and, engi
nes roaring, ran north, and soon disappeared from sight.
When the desert was silent once more, I got to my feet and stared blankly ahead as I slowly made my way to the spiral staircase. Ivan was waiting for me, and Rat, who still didn’t want to go up to the roof, peeked at us from the hole.
I exchanged a blank look with Ivan and shrugged.
***
I didn’t know what caused the Giant to suddenly change its mind, but I did know that we got insanely lucky.
One more blow and the Tower would’ve collapsed like a house of cards so I was thankful to whomever (or whatever) that had saved us. I had seen the Giant receive information via the antenna before in my dream half an hour before reaching the Tower when it broke into a run.
And now, the System (or someone else) had made it clear to the Giant that it shouldn’t be distracted. Luckily for us, it listened and left. Had it known that there were two players and a pet hiding in the Tower, I was sure that nothing would’ve stopped it from killing us. I could only thank God that I had managed to tell Ivan to hide in time to hide the name of our faction.
***
The spiral staircase led us to a fairly spacious room. It was slightly smaller than a basketball field and in no way inferior to the caves in our Mountain. There were no partitions and the ceiling was about six feet high so Ivan had to duck. Just like in the Hall, torches lining the walls lit up the moment we stepped foot into the room.
The room was empty save for a strange installation in its center: three red tables and the skeleton of another two-headed monkey... without the heads this time. The corpse lay with its arms and legs spread wide. Like the first one, it wasn’t marked by the System meaning that the thing had died a long time ago.
I shifted my gaze to the three tables upholstered in red velvet. On two of them rested the severed heads, and on the third was a strange-looking dagger with a piece of glass encased in blue metal attached to its hilt.
Cautiously stepping over the skeleton, the bones of which, although a pristine white, had been gnawed on, we found ourselves at the tables with the heads. Unlike the skeleton, they were perfectly preserved, and the monkey’s glassy eyes stared blankly at us. But that wasn’t all: there were beads of sweat on its brow. It was hot in the Tower, there was no denying that, but how would a severed head sweat?!
Reborn: Evolution: A LitRPG Series (Warlock Chronicles Book 3) Page 13
