The Riftborn crashed down at the base of the steps, right behind where Zhou was standing. It struck the floor in a thunderous collapse, body shattering apart upon impact, scattering its limbs across the chamber in broken fragments.
Once the impact’s echo settled, a low tremor rattled the exhibit. Its pieces clattered on the floor. Shining black lines of mana slithered across the stone, running through the pieces like raw sinew. The stones snapped together, vertebra by vertebra, each one locking in place with sharp, ugly clicks. The rest of the parts clamored in place hastily. Ribs bent into place, limbs jerked back into sockets. A jaw clattered across the ground, dragged in by a string of mana, until it clicked against its skull.
What rose wasn’t a statue anymore, but something strung together by writhing black mana where flesh ought to be. The assembled humanoid form stood at the base of the steps, a few feet away from Zhou, its back to his. It looked directly at Nico with a grin plastered across its split face.
Nico suddenly became cognizant that he was much farther away from the altar than he remembered being. He must have instinctively been taking steps backwards, despite his gaze being locked on the creature for the entire duration of its show.
Nico stood there, stunned, brain cell rattling, as the newly remodeled Riftborn bent one knee to the ground. It curled forward with arms in front, looking down to complete its lean into a sprinter’s stance.
CRKK
It’s face abruptly lifted back up, the crack sounding off like a starting gun. It shot forward—straight at Nico.
THUMP THUMP THUMP THUMP
Fuck!
|| SKILL ACTIVATED || [Arc Lash (A) | stuns on direct hit | "lightning whip"]
A whip of gold mana cracked from his palm, slashing lightning against the stone floor as he maneuvered it towards the charging thing. It turned on its heel at the last instant, dodging the line of electricity by twisting its torso way too far around. A screeching grind sounded off as it pivoted into the floor.
Nico tore the whip sideways in its own shriek, continuing to gouge the floor in a shower of sparks. The thing dodged easily. It already found its flow back into a sprint, pumping its arms furiously at a locked 90 degree angle with straight palms—an impeccable running form.
Foxfire wisps darted overhead, marking paths in the gloom so Nico’s eyes could stay on the grudge’s cousin.
THUMP THUMP THUMP THUMP
Its stone heels slammed the ground with an earsplitting rhythm, each step leaving cracks in the floor. He felt the force vibrate through the floor, up his legs, into his ribs.
He shook it out and hastily blew a line of flame into his palm.
|| SKILL ACTIVATED || [? Flame Lance (A) | Projectile | "throw fire"]
The javelin tore forward, distorting the air with its heat. Flame smashed against the sprinter’s ribcage, spraying embers across its chest, setting some mana sinew a light. The force, however, barely made a dent in its sprint. Nico threw his hand up again.
|| SKILL ACTIVATED || [? Ember Recast (B) | Secondary | "detonate lingering embers"]
The embers ignited across its chest and detonated in concussive flame, bursting the thing’s limbs from the sockets, flinging grit and smoking debris through the air. Its torso was dislodged across the floor with stunning momentum. Some bones tried to click together but the connective mana caught fire instead, reducing to ashes. The lingering haze of dust and smoke drastically reduced visibility in the chamber. It fell silent for a heartbeat.
Click.
“Shit.”
Click-click. Click. Clickclickclickclick.
The sound needled down his spine.
Tak tak taK TAK TAKTAKTAK
Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator.
It was in motion within the haze.
SSKKKKKKRRRRR
It abruptly slid out of the smoke on all fours in a tight drift, hands and feet scraping gouges into the stone floor, a trail of dust blown opposite its path. Its head swayed loose from its neck by a single mana sinew.
But it never lost its toothy grin, since it was still happy to see Nico.
The mana reeled its head back into its neck, snapping it into place with a sharp pop—upside down. Making it apparent it got onto its fours by bending backwards, stomach facing up. It proceeded to flail all four limbs up and down, breaking into a weird scuttling dash.
TAKTAKTAKTAKTAKTAK
It had the grace of a spider forced to wear shoes.
Why. Why would it reform like that.
Well, actually–
|| SKILL ACTIVATED || [? Lycanthropy]
Claws tore from his hands and his muscles surged as he fell forward. The fox bolted, his claws sparking against the floor as he pushed off into his own sprint toward the creature. Before they made contact, he vaulted onto the wall and ran its length, passing the horror in a blur.
When he hit the floor again he risked a glance back. Bending at its core, it rose to a stand, head already oriented to make eye contact with Nico. Its directed grin indicated it probably wasn’t about to yield. It fell forward onto its arms.
TAKKATAKTAKTAKTAKTAK
Arms and legs alike bent as wrong as possible to keep up with Nico’s dash, it's impacts echoing off the walls.
Why had it honed in on him when the Sage had been so much more accessible? Maybe it liked showing off its grotesque chasing capabilities?
Whatever the reason, it followed the fox disturbingly well, both of them sprinting on all fours. Every time he looked back its grin was closer, and closer again, rapidly closing the distance between them. Maybe it was time to admit he was fucked.
CRRRRRCK. TAK Tak tak t a k
The deep grind of stone locking in place cut across the chamber. The damning stride pursuing him slowed to a halt.
Nico turned his body with a few skips to break out of his momentum, lungs heaving. He watched the begrudged Riftborn stagger as its limbs seized mid-stride. Its frame shivered; the mana threading through it was getting cut one ligament at a time. Eventually, it collapsed in front of him.
This time its parts crumbled into sand as they struck the floor. The grains drifted across the stone, magnetically drawn back towards the altar. They gathered at the pedestal, forming into a statue of a human that gracefully reached up towards the sky.
Zhoumin stood clear at the altar’s edge, lavender foxfire steady in his palm. The glow framed him in a calm light, highlighting the satisfied glimmer in his amethyst eyes.
From the start, Zhou had lingered longer than seemed necessary at each alcove, tilting the foxfire into every recess. The glyphs he read through must’ve collectively informed him on how to complete the final inscription that would restore the statue—or something like that.
“You kept it occupied,” Zhoumin said evenly, brushing dust from his sleeve as he walked past Nico to exit the chamber.
“…Yeah.”
Nico gave a fluffy, full body shake, tail and ears flicking and all, to remove the fine grit and dust collected in his fur.
***
After resolving the other remaining rooms together, the passage to the true observatory released with a hiss of air. Stone doors dragged open, their weight vibrating through the floor as the chamber beyond revealed itself.
All the panels of veined stone were present inside the observatory 's dome. They sealed off what little light the distorted sky allowed. Where once stars would have been charted, there was only darkness. The air smelled of dust and the metallic bite of unstable mana.
At the chamber’s center loomed a fractured cylinder of metal and crystal, strung by chains to either side. The rift had tried to create its own telescope. Through the cracks, white light could be seen pulsing within.
On the alchemists' approach, light oozed out of the structure in jagged bundles of glyphs. As they fell, they sorted into lines that raced across the floor.
|| System Notification ||
[Core Guardian: Ancient Stone Sentinel is manifesting! (｀?ω?′)?]
Light climbed the walls and then ripped them apart. The two alchemists sidestepped as plates of stone and metal tore free from the observatory’s frame. Lines of glyphs retracted in sharp sequence, drawing the fragments inward and dragging them into the telescope’s orbit. Pieces slammed back against the structure, clanging as they compacted into a single mass. Chains lashed tight around the gathering body, binding the fragments long enough for blackened mana to finish its work, weaving everything into cohesion. A massive, lurching form of stone completed itself. The telescope's crystalline lens was left exposed on its back, set there like a vulnerable heart.
With a grinding roar, the chains tore free from the ceiling and dropped the sentinel to the floor. Marble split beneath its weight, the shock rolling outward through the building. Fractured stone shook loose from its body as mana flowed in behind it, sealing joints and locking the mass together. Beneath the armored plates, light traced through the stone in clustered patterns, mana glowing like constellations bound to the earth.
The chains that once suspended the telescope now served as its arms, each length burdened with boulders. They swung with brutal, uneven force. Wherever they struck sent cracks racing outward across the stone.
Zhou took a quick survey of the chamber illuminated by foxfire, scanning what was left of the room for raw material. He slid his thumbs into his pants pockets and took a few steps back. “Not a great matchup for me,” he admitted curtly.
Nico had noticed the same. The sentinel fought with brute force; common theme in Tellur it seemed. There were no elementals for Zhou to redirect with his aether affinity, and the stone revealed under the paneling was too soft against the guardian’s hardened shell. The sentinel’s body was made of earth, but it was bound by its own law. Manipulating it would be like trying to bend the blood in another human. Regardless, Nico pushed back.
“I mean… it’s not great for me either," Nico asserted.
“Someone has to do it though," Zhou countered.
“…”
Nico turned, calling a wisp closer to light his own face, so Zhou could see he was being stared at.