by Isaac Hooke
Tane froze.
A dweller had spoken that. Tane knew it without a doubt because of the patchwork nature of the individual words. However the sounds were garbled almost to the point of unintelligibility, as if passing through liquid before reaching Tane’s ears. He wasn’t sure if that was because of the atmosphere of this planet, or something else.
The speakers in his helmet passed on the directional information of any sound waves recorded by the external microphones, so he recognized immediately that the source came from somewhere behind him. Tane slowly turned around to face the building Positron had crouched upon.
Standing in front of it was a dweller unlike any Tane had seen before.
The first thing his mind processed was that it wasn’t wearing a suit. No, this dweller was frequenting the world in all its naked, eight-legged, sideways-jawed, carapace-tentacled glory. It seemed a rather small specimen, its legs knobby and bent, its fly trap head hunched on that carapace. The skin itself seemed leathery and ashen, withered by age, with no hint of color at all on the carapace, which proved a dark, wrinkly gray. A small metal box was attached at the base of the head, just above the tentacles, likely the source of the words Tane had heard. It was surrounded by a translucent energy field that formed a tight sphere around the dweller, and hued everything inside a slight yellow.
Motion drew his eye to another dweller that floated forward from an alley on the opposite side of the building. Unlike the first, the feet of this dweller didn’t touch the ground, and it hovered a quarter of a meter above the dead grass. It appeared to be in even worse condition than the first, the skin on its carapace stretched over the bony protrusions underneath, its limbs so gnawed away at the joints that they seemed ready to fall off. It was missing half of its tentacles, and its maw was tightly wrapped in a dark cloth, perhaps to hold it together and prevent it from crumbling away. This dweller was also surrounded in an energy sphere, though it had no metal box attached under its head.
Tane instinctively knew that the translucent spheres weren’t shields: the dwellers were lugging around the necessary liquid atmospheres they needed to survive in this universe. A distant memory that was not his own told Tane that there were only a few dwellers strong enough to exist in our universe without the need for protective suits like that, dwellers who could shape a supportive environment out of the Dark Essence itself.
“The Fifteen!” Lyra said.
The ground fell away underneath Tane, but he didn’t fall. He looked down to find himself gazing into a hole that overlooked the outbuildings in another part of the dome. A distortion tunnel. It had to be Lyra’s doing: she was trying to get him out of there.
But he wasn’t moving.
The hole abruptly sealed and Tane once more stood on the dead grass. Lyra, meanwhile, collapsed.
“Weak,” the dweller with the metal box gargled. “Like the flies your dead attract.”
Lyra reached into her storage pouch and produced a large silver staff, no doubt formed of Chrysalium. With it, she hauled herself to her feet.
“Surprised to see us?” the dweller continued, apparently addressing Lyra. “Your prison weakens. The others will break free in the coming weeks. The time of our return is nigh.”
“Fire,” Lyra hissed.
Jed unleashed his pistol at the two dwellers, and a moment later Sinive joined in. The plasma bolts deflected harmlessly from the spheres of Dark Essence that swaddled the dwellers in their protective environments.
Lyra launched a succession of large Essence Missiles from her staff. The missiles, a blinding white, tore through the air, trembling the clearing and cutting a runnel into the ground underneath where they passed. Thanks to the planet’s atmosphere, Tane could hear the thundering impact as those missiles struck both dwellers in turn.
But the aliens remained unharmed.
“I told you the humans would not welcome us, M’Jaelinthenus,” the dweller said. “I told you we should kill them all. It is only out of courtesy to the Doomwielder that we let them live.”
Tane retreated a pace as the others continued to fire. He couldn’t bring himself to lower his D18 and attack. He felt a strange kinship toward these dwellers. Thanks to his new memories, it seemed like he had trained for years with one of their kind. The aliens weren’t as bad as everybody thought.
“Run, Tane!” Lyra said. The staff abruptly flew from her hands and she was hoisted into the air by invisible forces. She hung there spread-eagled in her spacesuit.
Jed abruptly disappeared.
Sinive continued to fire until the pistol was wrenched from her hands by some unseen Essencework. She promptly lowered the S4 from her shoulder, but before she could shoot the rifle was yanked from her grasp as well.
A blue blade flashed into existence a moment later as Jed attempted to attack one of the dwellers. The sword deflected harmlessly from the shell of Dark Essence. The rest of Jed appeared and he was sent flying backward.
The Bander tried to get up, but then a large fist of dark energy visibly appeared above him and smashed down on his power armor repeatedly, sending up plumes of dust with each impact. Wait, that wasn’t dust, Tane realized, but pieces of the Bander’s disintegrating armor.
Jed kept trying to get up until finally the fist beat him into submission.
When a crack appeared in the Bander’s faceplate, Tane shouted: “Stop!”
The dark fist vanished. But Jed didn’t get up.
“Why haven’t you started running?” Sinive told him. She placed herself in front of him.
“Sinive, no—” Tane said.
A tornado began to form in front of Sinive. No doubt she was using her Chrysalium armband to supply the Essence she needed for such a powerful work. He vaguely wondered if she was using some version of the Air Current skill.
The tornado began to grow larger and larger as Sinive continued to feed it, and for a moment Tane felt himself losing his footing as the suction from the twister became impossible to resist. But then an invisible force slammed into him, rooting him in place. Was it Sinive doing the latter, or the dwellers?
Around her, pieces of steel tore away from the buildings, sucked into the tornado as it continued to grow. Like Tane, the others remained rooted in place. It was the kind of work he would have expected from Lyra—if she hadn’t exhausted herself trying to create a distortion tunnel for Tane’s escape.
Finally Sinive released it.
The twister hurtled toward the dwellers, swerving around where Jed still lay on the dead grass. When it reached the aliens the tornado promptly dispersed.
Sinive collapsed, obviously exhausted. The external portion of her armband fell away, disintegrating. Tane didn’t think the dwellers had done anything to the Chrysalium accessory—it’s deterioration served only to confirm his earlier suspicions that the armband was too good to be true.
These thoughts all came only vaguely to Tane, as he was concentrating on the dwellers now, trying to decide what to do.
“So very weak,” the dweller said. “If these are the people you align yourself with, it’s no wonder you are lost and aimless.”
Tane stepped forward. “What do you want?” He glanced at Lyra, who was still strung up in the air. “Let her go.”
The Volur dropped. She slumped to the grass beside Sinive and didn’t get up.
“We’re going to teach you how to use the power that has awakened inside of you,” the dweller said. “You have some memories now, but they will fade. Come with us. We will become your teachers. We will show you the path…”
Tane hesitated. He needed a teacher. With P’lotholemus, he had only scratched the surface of what the Dark Essence could do. If these dwellers were as virtuous and just as P’lotholemus had been, then they were worthy of the task. And in fact, he would almost prefer to train with dwellers rather than Volur. At least they wouldn’t have any hidden motives. Lyra was wrong about them. They didn’t want to control him. They wanted to help him.
But apparently the dwel
lers mistook his hesitation for refusal, because Sinive abruptly called out in agony. An invisible force hoisted her into the air, and her arms were bent backward at an obviously painful angle.
Tane felt no fear in that moment. Instead, a sudden anger filled him. How dare these dwellers treat Sinive like this?
“How important are the lives of your friends?” the dweller said.
Tane smiled grimly. “Blackmail? You would threaten the lives of my friends to force me to serve you?”
He shook his head, unable to believe he had actually considered joining them. These dwellers were nothing like his teacher. P’lotholemus taught that the Dark Essence must only ever be used for good. His teacher would’ve never used it to force someone to do something against their will, especially not by threatening to harm his friends. To P’lotholemus, the bonds of friendship were some of the most important ties in the world. To threaten one’s friends was tantamount to threatening all-out war as far as P’lotholemus was concerned.
Tane had a sudden puzzling thought.
Why aren’t they striking at me? Why attempt to bargain with me, using the lives of my friends? Why not capture me outright and force me to obey?
And then the realization struck him.
They’re afraid of me.
He still had a shield generator, four incendiary grenades, a D18 hanging from his shoulder, and an Essence Energy Sword clipped to his belt. But those would all be useless against foes like these, he knew.
There was only one way to defeat these dwellers.
Fight fire with fire.
He could Siphon the Dark Essence directly, and use it against these dwellers, but undoubtedly the aliens were much stronger than he was. Or at the very least, far more skilled. He needed an advantage.
His eyes drifted to the artifact.
“You wish to teach me?” Tane said. He took a step forward. “You wish to show me the path?” Another step. “Then you will release the girl.” Another. “And all of my friends.” Another.
He was within touching distance of the artifact.
“And if not, you will die,” Tane said.
He slammed his gloved hand into the black surface and filled his mind with chaos. He reached through the artifact, this dark equivalent of Chrysalium, and touched the Dark Essence as his alien teacher had taught him.
Heat seared his core as translucent black flames erupted into existence all around him. These aliens would soon learn firsthand what it meant to face the wrath of the Doomwielder.
No one harms my friends.
There were far more flames around him, and the fires were far bigger, than anything he had ever encountered in the memories the artifact gave him. He struggled to contain them all as a notification appeared on his HUD:
Siphoning bonus. All Dark Essenceworks are enhanced 570% percent due to Siphoning through Dark artifact.
Filled with the Dark Essence, Tane suddenly saw the connections the dwellers had to the same power. He could see the dark threads emerging from their bodies, translucent filaments that traveled upward away from the planet and into space. The dwellers weren’t drawing the Essence from the planet as his teacher had taught.
“The Dark Essence is funneled from the Umbra via gravity wells,” P’lotholemus said. “When you reach for the Arcanum directly, though it feels like you are reaching inside yourself, in fact you are reaching into the core of whatever planet you reside upon, or are nearest to. When you develop some skill, you can funnel the Dark Essence from more powerful sources, such as stars. And when you are really good, you can link yourself to the reservoir of your choice—a star, a rift—and no matter where you are in the galaxy, you will have that source at your fingertips.”
Tane had translucent black strands emerging from his own spacesuit, these connecting him to the artifact itself.
As he watched, some of the dark threads leading from the dwellers began to curl inward, attaching themselves to the artifact. The aliens were trying to seize control of the artifact away from him, and take its Siphoning bonus for themselves. If they succeeded, with their knowledge they would be unstoppable, and Tane would have no choice but to yield.
They still hadn’t released Sinive, he noted.
He ground his teeth and focused all of his attention on one of the dwellers. The one with a cloth tightly wrapped around its sideways head. He searched his mind for some sort of Dark Essencework he could use against it, but found nothing. He had only imprinted the memories needed for Dark Siphoning, apparently.
Tane didn’t know how he did it, out of instinct, or some subconscious knowledge the artifact provided him with, but as he concentrated on the body of that dweller, and the threads emerging from its body, the planet and dwellers fell away underneath him. He somehow found himself physically moving along the length of those threads, the stars of deep space streaking past as he headed toward the source. Not only was his whole body, spacesuit and all, carried along, but the artifact itself.
34
The constellations snapped back into place and Tane found himself floating with the artifact in deep space. His stomach immediately tossed and turned from the weightlessness, but the nausea felt distant, as the Dark Essence still seared through him and he fought to control the many ethereal fires that continually sprang up around him.
The thin threads he had followed here proceeded onward, heading toward their source: a huge black smear that ate up the stars. It was broad, that smear, stretching from one side of the system to the other, its infinite blackness tearing through the vey fabric of spacetime. It was far larger than the rift he had used to travel to the Umbra aboard the Red Grizzly.
It had to be the Anteres Rift.
Dweller vessels emerged from the rift and into human space as he watched, confirming that this was indeed the Anteres Rift, as that was the only known place where dwellers could enter our universe. There were hook ships, pincer ships, and several more whose designs he had never witnessed before: spheres, cubes, birds, darts, and on it went. The ships kept coming. There had to be thousands of them out there.
It was obviously an invasion.
The alien ships in the vanguard provided physical cover for those vessels behind them, presumably making up for the short period of time the energy shields rebooted immediately following rift traversal. Not that the shields would help against Essence weapons.
The lead ships fired dark balls of energy from their Essence thrower equivalents. Tane followed the trajectory of those malignant spheres, pulling his body across the surface of the artifact until he was on its far side and had a view of what they were shooting at.
An opposing fleet awaited them: about two hundred torpedo-shaped vessels. TSN. They returned fire with white beams of light from their Essence lances.
Dark balls struck some of the human ships and they tore apart instantly. Other craft managed to activate their Essence deflectors in time.
On the alien side of the battlefield, the incoming Essence lances drilled through some dweller ships, obliterating them. Many of the alien vessels activated their equivalents of Essence deflectors and diverted the white beams. One of those reflected lances struck a neighboring dweller ship, which had no time to raise its deflector and was torn apart.
It soon became obvious as the battle continued that the human ships were hopelessly overwhelmed. For every dweller vessel that went down, three human ships were destroyed. Plus, more dwellers were emerging from the rift all the time.
Some of the human ships began jumping out of the system. Dwellers fired disruptors, preventing many of them from fleeing, but a few got away. Those would summon reinforcements, no doubt. But by the time the cavalry arrived the battle would be over, and the dweller ships would have already jumped to their next destination. They could cause significant damage like that, leaping from system to system and ravaging whatever colonies they found, and jumping before the TSN could intervene. Billions of lives would be lost.
Unless they were stopped here and now.
He noticed a tenuous dark thread emerging from the artifact. It receded into the distance behind him, next to the filaments he had followed here. Somehow he knew that thread was his lifeline to Remus, lightyears away. His way back. He now fully understood exactly how to traverse that thread and return, the memory given to him by the artifact.
But he couldn’t go back yet. Not until he helped humanity. He wouldn’t let billions die to these invaders. It was obvious to him that these dwellers were closer to the Fifteen in morals than his teacher: they weren’t using their power to do good. They meant to destroy humankind.
The flames of the Dark Essence still flickered around him, and his subconscious mind continued to keep them at bay. It was draining his stamina, but the effects seemed somehow less severe than when drawing the White Essence.
The power beckoned to him, but he still knew no Dark works of the Essence, and the artifact wasn’t enlightening him. Would Essence Missile, a work of the Esoterum, actually work? His skill was only level one with that Branchwork, but with the artifact to boost the amount of Essence he could use in its making, he might actually be able to cause some damage.
He tried to create the Branchwork like he would with the White Essence, but he found that the Dark Essence behaved far differently. When he tried to push out from inside one of the flames, for example, intending to create an offshoot or Branch, nothing happened. What he did find was that he could group the flames together into larger fires. But that didn’t help him, not when he didn’t know what groupings to use to actually create something.
He considered just Siphoning the White Essence directly, but his unboosted level one skill would create useless Essence Missiles.
Tane realized he was drifting in space toward the human fleet. In fact, one of the ships—a Decantium class cruiser, according to his chip—was less than two kilometers away, and approaching. With that massive Chrysalium hull, he would have access to more than enough Esoterum to create formidable Essence Missiles… the problem was hanging onto the artifact and its lifeline when he impacted—because without it there was no return. But perhaps a bigger problem was not splattering himself against the approaching ship in the first place.
