Dodge: Serial 107

Hart begins to investigate the Angali artifact when it suddenly awakens.

Serial 107: Power best forgotten

August 11th, 38 S.D.     19:41        Mandal Range, Angali

    “Another world, you say?” the Range Lead asked, raising an eyebrow. “I am afraid I do not understand.”

    Hart turned back to the enormous, black object, folding her arms as she began pacing back and forth. “Sa, a world different from our own. Let me ask you something. Have you ever heard of any legends across the Central Plains, about giants that used to roam the earth?”

    The Range Lead thought it was quite an odd question, however, he remained intrigued about where this would take them. Just what had he and his people dug up?

    “It varies from clan to clan, so I am told, but Astens generally share the same set of myths and stories. As I understand our tales, we speak of large, extraordinary beings that once ravaged the world and ultimately themselves.”

    “Precisely,” Hart said, taking a moment to push her glasses back. “Among some places in Gandia, the plot is a bit different. There is only one giant, and it usually appears as a sort of figure exacting retribution or judgment upon humanity. In the west here, it seems your giants are simply wild, the embodiment of chaos. I have extensively studied lore from all over the Continent regarding this subject. I ask you not to know what your clan speaks of, but to know whether you will believe what I am about to say.”

    The officer took a step closer to her. “And just what do you want to say?”

    Slowly, Hart turned her gaze back to him. “This is proof of their existence! This is the very heart of one of them,” she smiled, waving her hand at the hulking mass. He looked at her, then the dark serastone, then back to Hart.

    “This is one of the giants?” A note of incredulity tinged his tone, but she had expected as much. “But, it looks nothing like the remains of a monster. It is mostly just rock, albeit rock infused with great power.”

    “I am certain of this,” Hart declared with a grin, standing akimbo before the stone. “In Henron, do you know where they found their serastone? In the one place they dared never tread: the Lost Grounds. They forbid themselves to enter the forest. It has been declared off-limits by their highest authority for ages. The people tell of a great, ancient beast that died there, leaving its bones scattered. Fear and superstition kept the Henron away; they dreaded somehow reviving the monster. Having extensively researched both serastone and the tales common in almost every society. I have a theory. The stone and these ‘giants’ are linked. These ‘bones’ the Henron speak of are in fact what we see here.”

    Losha listened intently to the woman’s words. For a time, the Wolf recalled a certain scientist the Henron had used to develop the serasword. She could not think of his name after the years had passed, but she remembered hearing how he’d found the serastone in those seemingly cursed woods. Had he ever stumbled upon anything like what the Angali had? And what was all this nonsense about giants?

    “So, if this is part of some age-old beast, what does that mean exactly?” the Range Lead asked.

    “Sa... for Angali, it means little. You can still break this thing down for serastone. For me, however...” She breathed in, sucking the air as if inhaling her own anticipation. “I would absolutely love to investigate this, to document it, to explore every crease and crevice. Nothing like this has been found anywhere else, not ever. The mysteries of a time and place we know so little about could be opened before our very eyes. There are so many questions I am thinking of right now, I do not know if I could stop probing this artifact. Not for days, weeks.”

    “We can arrange for you to examine it as long as it pleases you,” the Range Lead shrugged. “It is not an issue at all.”

    “You are certain?” Hart asked.

    “Sa. We are eager to begin extracting small quantities of serastone immediately. For that, we have plenty of surrounding deposits we can work with until you are finished.”

    If they let Hart have her way with things, perhaps she’d come up with a brilliant find or two and guide them to even better weapons. Hart knew nothing about turning the stone into a fighting tool, but perhaps she could learn something if he let her play around. As he said, there was no harm in delaying themselves for the time being. It was certainly worth the potential rewards.

    “Splendid!” Hart smiled. “I would like to get started right away.”

    “Why not wait until morning? It is soaking out here right now.”

    “I do not care. If I do not begin my work immediately, how will I ever get to sleep tonight?” Somehow, the Range Lead suspected she’d not get much rest anyway. He was sure that if he left her then, he’d find her there at dawn, still trying to uncover the truth. That only meant she’d finish her work that much quicker, however, which was alright with him.

    “I will send someone to bring you a coat then,” the man said, turning around on his heels to leave the pit. “Just yell for someone up above if you need anything else, Ver Hart. Enjoy yourself.” He walked off with a brief wave of his hand.

    “Oh, I will,” Hart whispered to herself in Gandian, cupping her chin as she looked up at the serastone. “I will find out what marvelous secrets this holds.” She stood there for a while, staring at her subject, shifting from side-to-side.

    Meanwhile, Losha tenderly stepped along the wall. The situation had certainly grown very serious. If Angali obtained that oversized chunk of serastone, it would become a thousand seraswords. It would spell the start of a terrible era of war. She had always worried that serialization would evolve into the world’s worst weapon, but this stone proved most troubling so far; anyone could use its power regardless of learning or experience.

    The Wolf knew that without a doubt she had to obliterate the mine tonight. It was only a matter of how best to do it. Collapsing the whole operation would be the least violent, but the Angali might simply dig it out later. To completely bury the place, she’d have to sink everything hundreds of meters underground. That route was feasible, but it would require a lot of her own seras. If all five members of WOLFGANG pooled the power of their souls together, it would be easier of course. But how to evacuate the mine, to clear the people? Perhaps she could create some sort of panic or frenzy inside.

    As her thoughts ran about, she stopped and took another glance at the armored guards standing behind Hart. Again, Losha felt something unsettling about them. They didn’t move, and they never spoke. Their seras frequencies were weak, and like Hart’s, they kept phasing in then out, detectable one moment but not the next. How odd they all were. Losha continued to stare at them, wondering just what it was about them that disturbed her. All at once, she realized what it was: they weren’t breathing in the least. Before she could take a moment to process this, the Wolf noticed that Hart was moving towards the serastone.

    “At last, I have found evidence of the world everyone seems to have forgotten,” she murmured in Gandian. “I am one step closer to finding out what happened, what our real history is. I took serastone into my body, hoping to have my answers. Perhaps it was not enough. Perhaps you will be. Monster or not, I need to know...”

    Hart raised her arm, and almost instantly a bright, white light enveloped her limb. Gritting her teeth, Losha breathed in sharply. The glow of serastone was unmistakable; it was pure, uncolored, quite unlike the kind emitted by serialization. With a sudden release of seras, a change rippled through the area. Losha tried to figure out what exactly Hart was up to, but she couldn’t analyze the flow of energy. So, that woman really did have some stone inside of her, and she could call upon its aid. But what was she doing?

    Waving her hand back and forth in front of the artifact, Hart appeared to scan for something. She even touched the object, pressing her fingers against its rough surface. After a while, however, her initial review uncovered nothing. The glow cut short as she sighed and tapped her glasses.

    “Well, I suppose it can’t be terribly easy to solve. It wouldn’t be a mystery in that case. Wouldn’t be worth the hunt at any rate.”

    Losha was about to make her move out of the pit. Her plan was to retrieve Virel and Jun, then get out of the mine, get everyone else to somehow leave, then wreck the place. It should have been a clean operation. They could cloak themselves indefinitely to remain unseen, and they could technically demolish the mine itself from a distance. The trickiest part was the distraction, but only as a matter of creativity. Unfortunately, she never got that far.

    Out of nowhere, a light appeared on the core of the artifact. It began as a small point before expanding into a large, open, upright circle. This ring floated outwards into the pit, radiating strongly. Following this event, a loud, high whirring noise pierced the night. From different angles, Losha and Hart viewed the strange sequence. The Wolf’s direct response was to steel herself against the unknown. Anything could happen in a moment. Hart, however, met the same danger with a child-like fascination. With widened eyes, she breathed in sharply, ecstatic at this discovery. She remained speechless, fearing somehow she would disturb the whole process.

    The ring grew in thickness as characters came to life, symbols of an indecipherable language. As the whirring increased, the letters rotated faster and faster, eventually becoming unreadable at all. Then, curiously, as the entire show came to a fever pitch, it stopped altogether. In a blink, the ring vanished, leaving no trace of its existence. Hart stared blankly at where it had been, trying to comprehend just what really had taken place. Ultimately, she could only shake her head and throw up her hands. But this was not the end.

    Spontaneously, the serastone began to moan. There was no other way to describe it. The stone rumbled as if vocal. Its sound was guttural, almost primitive. It rang once throughout the mine, reverberating into every soul present, paralyzing all, even Losha. As the Wolf looked up, she saw veins of light forming on the artifact. Starting from the bottom, like roots, they branched upwards, racing towards the core. They pulsed, rising and dying in brightness slowly, not unlike a heartbeat.

    The object moaned once more, this time more pronounced. With this elongated cry, a great sense of pressure filled the mine. The overwhelming burden choking the atmosphere was all too familiar to Losha. This was seratic diffusion, the phenomenon caused by a quick release of vast amounts of seras. Space itself began to distort as lines shot upward, blurring her vision. Her ears were filled with an enormous rush, like endless water flooding upon them. It took every bit of resistance she had to keep herself planted, even if she dropped to one knee. The rest of the mine’s inhabitants fell to the ground however, collapsing as the seras beat them into submission. Lying face first on the ground, Hart struggled to look up.

    “What...” she wheezed. It felt like the world was trying to crush her chest, pinning down her limp body. “What the hell is going on?”

    For a few more seconds, the artifact seemed to wail, then the effects of seratic diffusion began to lessen. Losha came to her feet, only to realize that the recent little spectacle had interfered with her series, the one that made her invisible. Gradually, her image flickered into view. Thankfully, everyone else was incapacitated and unable to spot her. She was about to recast the series when she noticed something odd. Losha wasn’t the only one standing.

    Hart’s guards were fully erect as well, however, they seemed to writhe about, gripped in the throes of some sort of possession. A loose light outlined them all. Their arms and legs twisted and contorted, snapping backwards, outwards, and in various other inhuman positions. Quivering as their forms were subjected to this bizarre phenomenon, the guards nevertheless said nothing. Eventually, the light covering them seeped into their bodies. Together at once, their necks snapped harshly to the side, nearly 90 degrees. With a sickening number of cracks, they righted their heads back in place. The mine, for a small slice of time, fell into an eerie silence, a chilling stillness. The only thing that stirred was the constant rain, but the peace was short-lived.

    The guards, fifteen in all, looked in different directions, whipping their sights to various targets. In a moment, they sailed away, tearing through the air and out of the pit. Losha recognized the flash of white light, the hallmarks of serastone usage. Were the guards empowered by the stone now? Just what were they? Two had chosen to stay in the pit. One started walking over to Hart while the other merely turned to Losha. Before she could so much as fret that she’d been spotted on a stealth mission, she saw the guard simply disappear. Her eyes only caught a brief afterimage of him jumping high. The type of movement he used, its speed and surge, it could have only been due to the stone.

    Losha couldn’t see where he’d gone, yet her instinct kicked in. As if materializing, the black-clad guard descended upon the Wolf, rearing back a blade over his head. As the razor edge moved to slice her, Losha spun to the side, grabbing the man’s arm with both hands. Using his momentum as leverage, she hurled him over her back and into the wall. He hit the side of the pit with a crunch, however, he didn’t stay down for long. As soon as he slid to the floor, he stood up as if only temporarily set off course. Leveling his weapon at her, he charged again, leaping and slashing at her.

    The Wolf calmly stepped aside and grabbed the guard’s wrist before he came down on her. She jerked it sharply and stole his weapon in a single movement. In a blur, she danced behind him, elbowing him in the back of the helmet. The sheer strength of her attack drove him several meters across the mud, plowing face first in the muck. With a brief kinetic series, she caused the sword to snap in two. As she threw away the pieces, gunfire burst aloud above her on the upper parts of the mine.

    “What?!” she breathed, whirling around. Following these shots, screams rose. As the steady, semi-automatic barrage continued, several seras frequencies shorted out. “What madness is this? What is going on?” Losha wondered. Shrieks, things had gone to hell, she thought. Her focus landed back on Hart. The effects of seratic diffusion had yet left her immobilized, helpless. The other guard was now standing over her, holding his rifle at her with one arm, aiming for her head.

    “Damn it! Stop!” Hart cried. “Are you malfunctioning? Was it the diffusion? Damn, no!”

    Taking action, Losha launched herself with a speed-step, tackling into the guard. As they rolled along the ground together, she managed to toss him away, smashing him against a large machine. She looked for the gun, and with a wave of her hand, cast a kinetic series upon it. The environment was rich in water, so she easily encased it in ice. Turning back to Hart, Losha examined the scientist. Why had her own people tried to kill her, and perhaps more importantly, why were they going on an all-out blood rampage? It had to be related to the artifact and the light that seemed to absorb itself into the men.

    On the outer ring of the mine, the slaughter continued unabated. Losha commanded herself to prioritize things as she came to her feet. The lives of WOLFGANG were her direct responsibility. The mission came after that. The present threat was these berserk guards. Any deaths that could be prevented should, but she knew she couldn’t save everyone. She knew Denze and Faima would be fine, but she had to find Virel and Jun. Even as she gathered herself, Losha had little time to concentrate. She had to move.

    “Are you alright?” The Wolf asked Hart in Gandian, kneeling over her.

    “Who... are you?”

    “Irrelevant. Can you stand?” She was not supposed to let anyone see her like this, but things had changed dramatically. If she let Hart see her, Losha decided she couldn’t be a liability. That meant she had to be taken with them, even against her will if need be. Losha wasn’t going to kill anyone, and besides, the woman had to answer for many questions.

    “I... I-I don’t...” Hart stammered, still in shock at what was happening. She tried to move her legs, but they kept slipping underneath her. They were weak, unable to support her. “I just don’t...”

    “Stay quiet. I will get you out of here.”

    With a trembling hand, Hart pushed her glasses back up, then gasped. “Behind you!” the scientist cried.

    Losha looked over her shoulder to see one of Hart’s guards - the one that had tried to shoot her - standing up, but in a most peculiar way. He was flat on his back, however, he planted his feet down as he drew up his knees. Then, without so much as even using his arms, he rigidly pulled himself up, as if some spirit were in control. No one could physically get up like that, not naturally. The other guard likewise rose.

    “N-no...” Hart whimpered. “T-this doesn’t make any sense. They should do exactly as I say. I don’t... I don’t understand...”

    The first one to stand rushed at Losha, drawing his blade. Losha, for her part, leaped to meet him, summoning her servai in hand. She blitzed at him, traveling faster than he could match. Extending her seratic weapon, she pierced him directly in his chest. To her surprise, her sword bounced off him as it went halfway in.

    “Shrieks!” she growled, confused as the rebound forced both of them backwards. She’d been deflected; the last time that had happened was with her fateful fight with Govan...

    Losha ducked as the second one approached from the rear and swung his fist at her. Pivoting, she grabbed his armor and used a fierce kinetic series to rip it off. She only tore some of the front away before the guard’s partner interfered. He attempted to run through Losha with his sword, but she flew to the side at the last moment. The guard impaled his teammate, lodging the blade in his abdomen. Even as the sword bit deeply, neither one made a sound. Together, these two struggled to free the weapon.

    Taking this opportunity, Losha grabbed Hart and pulled her up. As the researcher leaned on the Wolf for support, suddenly, several figures buzzed about her. In an instant, the rest of WOLFGANG blitzed onto the scene. Denze, Faima, Virel, and Jun formed a square around her.

    “I know you told us to wait,” Jun said, drawing his servai in a flash of crimson light. “The situation calls for something different, however.” Denze and Faima brought forth their servai while Virel prepared to cast series at a moment’s notice.

    “This is not good,” Faima frowned. “What happened?”

    “We can find out later,” Losha said. “For now, we have but one objective: survive against these... things.”

    At last the two guards in the pit broke from each other; they turned to face the serialists. The one whose armor Losha had ripped off was now exposed. Where his naked flesh should have been, however, there were only black bones. It were as if he were a living skeleton.

    “He... is not human!” Virel said, putting a hand over her mouth.

    “None of them is,” Losha said. “They are nothing but serastone...”

    It was then that they realized the guns above had fallen silent. No other seras frequencies save for their own were present anymore.

    “Shrieks,” Losha whispered as she saw black shapes jumping into the air. Swiftly, the other thirteen guards landed at multiple points inside the pit. Some arrived on the boards, others clung to the walls nearly ape-like, and a few brazenly crashed but a few meters in front of WOLFGANG. Slowly, they extracted their swords.

    “Ksh! Surrounded,” Faima scowled.

    “Fighting our way out again?” Denze mumbled. “Where have I seen this before?”

    Collectively, the guards advanced one step, hoisting their weapons, waiting to strike. Losha cut her servai in the direction of the nearest.

    “Prepare yourselves, everyone,” she ordered. “Remember, they are not people. We have no reason to hold back.”

Author's Note

15 years ago, Losha Holvate Sventa fought to bring peace between Sventa and Henron. Though calm has been established between these two major clans, the larger situation has not been resolved. Time has passed, but the Central Plains are still a violent place, seething with anger and hatred. All it takes is a simple scratch, and everything will come rushing to the top. From the shadows, one underground group aims to do just that using the strength of serialization. Now an abandoned hero, Losha must once more rise to save these lands from the destructive power of the art. Yet as the actions of her past confront the Wolf, can she find the will to stand against the one behind it all, her very own son?

The next installment comes January 20th, 2016. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

======

* Once again, the larger plot in the background, the idea of a forgotten world, comes up in this serial. Another reference to giants is made in connection to serastone. In fact, when serastone was first introduced (Serial 63) Sansat ponders on an old story about a sage and a giant. So what does this mean for the story of Dodge? It's one more clue about the origin of serastone and why such a material exists at all, but for more details, Losha and the others have to move the narrative along ;)

* Speaking on Sansat, Losha (and other characters) habitually forget or mispronounce his name. This isn't actually out of malice. Still, here, Losha totally forgets who he was despite his role in the Sventa-Henron war and the personal tensions that exists between the two of them.

* This artifact becomes central to this section of the arc. It's origins remain unknown, but it seems to have some sort of active function. Whether or not it truly is part of a best is not yet revealed, but it can spontaneously release seras into an environment. If anything, it's more than just a large piece of serastone. And what about the skeleton warriors? What is their deal? Hart certainly knows more about them, but she'll have to wait for the next serial to tell readers. All I can say is that they really aren't human, but, as Losha observes, they're serastone. Somehow, they can unleash the power of the stone to attack. Their current rampage is fueled by the artifact, as evidenced by the light that affects them.

======

Any feedback is welcome. Just writing because I like it. Always wanted to make a weekly series, so I'm doing it.