Dark Matter Ascension-Chapter 55B2 - : Third gig, violating vaults

Priam walked just a few steps behind Greg. His dark vision allowed him to make out the plain yet blocky designs on the walls and ceiling. An ancient story written in his home world’s tongue. He was quietly reading it out loud to his allies as they pushed into this forgotten tomb that: for some reason: had not correctly incorporated into The Cosmic System.

Yhan-vor-oth, the defiler of bones was once an ancient sorceress who venerated the god of the dead. However, she uncovered the means to defeat death itself, and so she forsook her deity and stole a fragment of its power. She became the first necromancer, and the gods sealed her inside the tomb.

“It sounds like that lich guy you told me about,” Greg said as they got through the front antechamber.

Priam nodded, “Very similar in principle. Just divine-magic and not pure-magic. Stealing from the gods is a big no-no. It makes sense why a bunch of them banded together to seal her away.” He grinned, “And I think I know why they couldn’t kill her.”

“Why?” Dee asked as she walked next to Priam, absorbed in the story of the necromancer’s life.

“Well, if she stole the power of a god, she can’t really be killed by gods. That’s one of the kind of ‘rules’ of this world. People can kill gods, but gods can’t kill gods.” He tapped his chest, “And only my clan can put them to rest.”

Greg held up his hand, “Wait, I hear something.”

Priam stopped talking and focused on his sense of hearing. He, too, could hear the telltale clattering of footsteps on stone. “Just some undead. Should be easy enough to deal with.”

As soon as the words had left his mouth, dozens of figures fell from the ceiling onto the trio.

Jace did not bother activating his Dark Matter Cloak as he wound his way through the city streets. They were bustling, and he was just one more traveler amongst thousands. Ollie gave him a short history of the world as he walked to the Commerce Quarter, where the vaults that the merchant families kept their items to trade.

The whole world was shrouded by a black nebula cloud, and so the planet evolved under odd circumstances. The native species, the Yittka, were once various jungle cats that over time evolved much as humans did on Earth. But they were not the apex predators. Enormous dinosaur-like creatures were the dominant species, and so the Yittka fled to high plateaus where the creatures could not reach them. And they built their cities on those plateaus, venturing into the jungles below when needed.

The largest of these cities was The Spirals, which was not just a single plateau, but multiple that were interconnected by bridges of stone erected centuries ago by pure-magic users. “And that is why it is most likely that we will find the cult headquarters in this city,” Ollie concluded. “The odds of those with spells-turned-Skills, even if they are Civilians, is much higher.”

Jace reached the Commerce Quarter in a little under an hour. He felt like he was walking into an otherworldly bazaar. The enormous space was open to the sky minus a few ropes strung across the expanse, with lanterns hung all about that glowed with a soft, orange hue. There was no network above as the area was too large for it to span the distance.

Every type of trade good he could have imagined was on display. As he walked, he heard hundreds of voices: arguing, bartering, laughing. It was the most vibrant display of life that he’d seen before. Just people living their lives. And they were of all different classes. Judging by the attire he saw people that were poor and some that were rich: all comingling with each other.

It’s a far cry from the megacorps on Earth, he thought. They’re all seeming to get alon- his thoughts were interrupted as a fight broke out, and he deftly stepped around it as a richly-dressed man began pummeling a smaller, more-well-dressed man. Ok, maybe they don’t get along. He chuckled to himself as he kept walking past the scene that drew a small crowd.

Stopping in a handful of places he snagged some odd, hexagon-shaped fruit for only 1 Stardust. It was an odd flavor; vanilla mixed with lavender, and the flesh of the fruit was almost like a firm cream. Ollie tapped his head and pointed, “Over there are the vaults.”

Jace followed the otter’s paw pointing out a tall building with spikes upon the roof. There was a single arch to allow entry, and it was heavily guarded. An enormous, metal gate that could allow one person at a time to enter or leave was the only point of egress. There was a line of merchants waiting to enter. Dark Matter Cloak (Rank 3), Jace thought as he vanished.

He had been shown the symbol of the merchant family he was to steal from. A spool of golden thread, with a metal rod stuck through it at an angle. According to Silverpaw, each of the major merchant families who ran their businesses rented out vault space for this enormous marketplace. And, as this was the main market in the largest city on the world, having goods close by to access was vital.

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Jace walked over to the gate and looked up at it: ignoring the guards standing nearby who were alert and glancing in all directions for incoming threats. “Best way to get in?” he asked Ollie as he glanced at the line of merchants and the single-person-sized door.

“You have the Void at your fingertips. Just go to the back of the building and disintegrate a hole.”

Smart, Jace thought as he left the gate and used his grapnel to get on top of the building. The spikes were wickedly sharp, but his prosthetics were of higher quality and suffered no damage as he stood atop them. The roof was slightly slanted, and the spikes were spaced out in various angles; not all upright. Interesting security design, he thought. Curling his legs under him, he jumped to the highest point of the sloped roof, and looked down at the back alley behind the building.

It was sealed off on both ends, and the surrounding walls and building across the way were also covered in spikes. Down below, in that alley, were a series of cages and stalls that held exotic looking animals. Descending with his grapnel, he saw a back door that was lightly guarded but closed. Going down the line of cages, he got to the farthest end and faced the back wall of the vault building.

“Time to try this out. Void Beam (Rank 1) [Limited Range].” The Cosmic Power symbol on his hand flared purple for an instant before all color ceased. A beam of energy, fifty inches wide, manifested from some space above-and-behind his shoulder, shooting at a slightly downward angle and hitting the wall. Unlike Dark Energy Beam, where he could see the dust from the disintegrated form, he saw…nothing. The wall was there, and the next second, a perfectly round hole was there.

He felt slightly winded, like he had just done a few pushups, but it was relatively little energy expenditure. This seems really dangerous, he thought. If the beam touches something it just…stops existing?

Ollie tapped him on the head, “Hey, come on. Get going.”

Jace nodded and ducked through the hole, entering a vault filled to the brim with trade goods of all types of woodcraft. Not the right one, he thought, knowing that the merchants he was supposed to be robbing dealt with clothing. “Ollie, is there any easy way to figure out where their vault is?”

“Not really. And that main hallway is going to be very heavily guarded, as well.”

I’m going to grab someone’s attention, he thought. The metal door in front of him was locked tightly, and kneeling down he pulled out his lockpick set. The contraption was something he had never seen before. “Umm…okay this is beyond me.”

Ollie coughed slightly, “We could just pull up a tutorial video.”

“Wait, you can do that?”

“Yup! The Cosmic System has all knowledge that has been committed to paper or database. Here, let me find the schematics…” his eyes went black, and he drooped slightly on Jace’s head like a fuzzy beanie. A few seconds later he stiffened and his eyes flicked back on. “So now I have the schematics, I can put it through a program that I have access to and we can get a ‘how-to’ video.”

A tiny screen appeared in the corner of Jace’s vision, and he saw a tutorial video that showed him step-by-step how to pick this type of complex lock. Following the instructions, he was able to get about halfway through before he had to pause the video and figure out the right pin-set positions. It took a good thirty minutes, but eventually he got the twenty-cylinder pin lined up correctly.

Only to discover that there was another one of them he had to deal with as the video kept playing. He groaned internally as he kept at it.

“Incoming!” Greg shouted as he brought his sharp, sparking stick to bear against the creatures that fell from above.

Priam recognized them well. Skeletons. The most basic type of undead. But these ones had red bones. Which meant they were not just basic, Tier 0 undead. They were empowered. He ducked the vicious swing of one’s scimitar, and another one that attacked him from behind began to strike his barrier.

Thanks to Greg’s Skill, the blows transferred to him, and at a reduced efficacy. His golden, honeycomb barrier barely began to fracture and show signs of stress.

Priam raised his hand, “Wrath of the Gods (Rank 1)!” he shouted out the Skill as it activated and a thirty-foot sphere around him, centered on him, exploded with divine, yellow light. The skeletons were blown backwards against the walls.

Dee was laughing like a madwoman and pointing over and over at the various skeletons. Each time she pointed, a blast of acidic, green nebula clouds burst out and melted the bones down into a slurry. Huh, I guess that divine energy isn’t the only way to keep undead down forever, Priam thought.

He knew the principles behind it well enough. Undead could not be destroyed unless divine energy was involved. But it could be applied a minute before, during, or after it was re-destroyed to keep it down for good. Melting it into goop though, I don’t think it could come back from that.

Priam repeated his Skill use, and another burst of golden energy slammed into the skeletons. He could see the bone begin to wither away as divine radiance burned them. That, combined with Dee’s Nebula Blasts, and Greg’s damage intercept-and-reflect Skills meant that in short order all of the assailants were dealt with.

“That’s fourteen,” Priam said as he dusted himself off. “Fourteen more to go, including Than-Vor-Oth who is, I’m guessing, the whole reason that this place wasn’t integrated correctly.”

Greg was about to respond when a blast of dark, green energy slammed into him and threw him back against the wall. To Priam’s shock, his barrier was instantly popped like if Jace’s [Astral Annihilator] had hit it. And Greg’s rocky shell crumbled away as well. His armor took the hit, but he was badly injured.

Priam ran over to Greg, “Seraph’s Soothe (Rank 1).” The golden hue spread from Priam’s hand and suffused Greg’s body.

“Look out!” Dee shouted.

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Greg teleported away thanks to his Call to Guard, appearing next to Dee. Right where he had been blown against the wall, an enormous sphere of lava had impacted. The heat singed Priam’s fur, and he jumped back and away. Looking where the blast came from, Priam saw a withered husk of an Oslia dressed in tattered robes of an ancient priesthood.

And she was flanked by more of the skeletons that rushed forward.