“Well that’s certainly different than the last ruins we saw.” Tormund said, staring at the large structure in front of them.

  The group had hiked through the woods for several days before stumbling upon a smallish teired pyramid structure. It was made of a rusted and faded blue hued metal that Jesse nor Golem could identify. On the front of it was a massive double door with intricate engravings on it.

  The door stood open, appearing to have been blown open by some sort of explosion. The damage didn’t look recent however. The structure was remarkably well preserved given how long it had been since it received any proper maintenance, though it did crumble in some areas where rust overtook the weather-worn structure.

  “Yeah at least we don’t have to jump in a hole this time.” Jesse said back with a grin. This caused the resistance men with them, of which there were eight, including lord Valrith and Cleb, to frown at the two. The larger formerly lackadaisical man had lost most of his relaxed demeanor, never really gaining it back since the death of his friend. Jesse felt for him but didn’t dwell on it for too long. He had more important tasks ahead.

  With them was also Echo, the half transformed necrescent. She had refused to leave Jesse’s side since her rescue so he reluctantly had agreed for her to come. He wasn’t given much choice, as he didn’t really want to restrain her. She was now dressed in the leather and chain armor that the resistance was fond of wearing on these types of outings.

  “Well let’s get to it.” Jesse finally said after a moment. He approached the door, which was topped in a crystal much like previous doors in the ruins they had been in. This crystal was a purple however, almost as if it had not finished transforming into the crimson hue of the original crystals. Beside the door lay a pedestal where a screen had likely been located, though the control tablet was absent.

  They walked forward, slowly and remaining on guard. Jesse tried to be quiet, he had even put a boot on his metal feet in hopes of dampening the sound it made. It still didn’t do much to soften the heavy metallic footfalls however and he could only sigh and continue.

  As the group entered the building Cleb let out a soft whistle while looking around. The building comprised primarily of one room. There was a large sloped ramp in the center of it going down into the earth. There were large doors lining the back wall. These were all sealed shut and had terminals next to them. The terminals were, of course, dark. Jesse noted that nearby there was a sort of camp set up. It had several makeshift beds set up and the remnants of a campfire. Jesse’s brow furrowed.

  “Are there people here?” He asked the group.

  “It certainly looks like it.” Lord Vlarith said.

  “That fire is recent.” Tormund commented.

  “Do you think the Archon has this place guarded?” Jesse asked.

  “It would be a violation of his own law but I doubt that would stop him.” Lord Valrith said with a shrug.

  “Let’s just proceed carefully.” Jesse said. “Let me know if you detect anyone Golem.” He said mentally, receiving a sort of mental nod back from his AI.

  The group began moving down the ramp at a slow and careful rate. Each step Jesse took ran with metallic echoes down the long descent. The coverings weren’t dampening the noise nearly enough, likely due to the weight of the exoskeleton. He was still getting used to walking with the additional weight and it had certainly changed his gait, but it was well worth it to be able to walk at all and for the added capability. Just walking around he had already thought of a dozen different ways to improve the design. He likely would have to do a branching design, with certain exoskeletons for specific tasks.

  Eventually the ramp flattened out into a long hallway, much like the one in the first ruins they encountered. Jesse idly wondered if the spirit thing would show up again like it had before. Lining the walls were again murals depicting various aspects of the ancient peoples lives. Many of them depicted ordinary scenes of children playing or people working. Some depicted more exotic things like a construct lifting a huge crate or mechanical soldiers marching in a neat line. None of the murals had writing however.

  As the door at the end of the hall came into view, Jesse could see that it was already open. The console next to it had light on it and appeared to be powered on. “One of you go ahead and see if anyone is up there.” He whispered. “They will hear me coming. If they haven’t already.”

  Cleb ran forward, surprisingly silent for his size. He peeked in the door and ran back. “There is a group of soldiers.” He reported. Jesse readied his weapon but the man didn’t stop. “They are acting strangely though. They are just standing there staring at the wall.”

  Jesse felt a spike of alarm at that. Was it the aberration that had pulled them into visions causing this? Were there more than one? Jesse couldn’t drop the feeling that something was off with this ruin.

  “Okay, get ready to fight. Let’s go.” He said, stomping forward. Aegis tailed him quickly and the others followed a few steps behind. When he got to the door he noted that on the lit console he could read some of what it said due to Golem's translation. It was a simple door mechanism that included commands for open, close, and lockdown. Currently open was selected. Interesting that this side had these commands, indicating they foresaw a reason to lock the next chamber from the outside.

  As he entered the room he found a group of five soldiers standing near the door. They had a blank expression and stared around them in random directions. They didn’t register his rather loud footfalls.

  Jesse rounded some rubble that was positioned in front of the door to get a better look at the room as a whole. It was almost an exact mirror of the one they had teleported out of earlier. Fascinating! Was this a standardized design across their empire or just the same architect?

  “I detect the entity from the ruins before. It circles above.” Golem rang out in Jesse’s mind. Jesse looked up and as he did the creature slowed and stared down at him. It slowly turned red and swooped towards him in a blur.

  “Get behind that kiosk over there!” Jesse yelled indicating a counter area, that if he was honest looked like an information desk from a transit station on earth. Jesse had only seen one though, travel wasn’t common back there and only really done if the consortium wanted you somewhere else.

  The group ran and ducked behind the counter. Of course this did nothing to stop the entity, but Jesse knew it wouldn’t. He just wanted to be out of sight for when the people woke up. The spirit moved through the wall next to them and passed through Jesse. It felt freezing, much colder than it had before. He instinctively drew in a sharp breath as the world turned bright white. When his vision cleared he was in the past once again.

  “Do you want me to stop this?” Golem asked him mentally.

  No, not unless we are in danger. Jesse responded, looking around. The people looked much the same as the previous visions except, well he could only describe it as more ragged. They milled about but didn’t use the portal archways in the room. Jesse noticed something else as well, there were no longer any constructs. A loud explosion rocked the room and the people began to panic and run around. Some soldiers ran towards the door that they entered through. Jesse noticed that some of these soldiers had metal limbs, much more refined than his own. He watched them disappear up the ramps.

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  The vision cleared with another flash. He blinked.

  “We should report this.” He heard a voice.

  “What the hell was that thing?” Another asked.

  “The Archon isn’t going to like this.” A third said.

  “Yeah but he won’t like it if we don’t tell him about it more. He said if we see anything change at all then we report back. This is a pretty damn big change.” The first said.

  Jesse thought for a moment and then made a decision. “We have to kill them.” He whispered to his allies. Tormund gave Jesse an odd look.

  “Are you sure?” He asked. “We will be gone before they bring more people.”

  “What if we aren’t? It may take longer for us to leave this place than we think. We could have an army coming down on us.” Jesse said back. He stood and used his newly empowered legs to launch forward. He slammed into the first guard with his left arm. The sheer weight of his new exoskeleton slamming into the man would have been deadly, but the strike contained the force of his empowered leap. Jesse could hear numerous bones snap as the man launched into the one standing next to him. The two continued their motion, flying into a nearby pile of rubble. Neither moved.

  Lord Valrith was behind another in an instant, impaling the man with his sword. Just like that they had killed three men. Jesse found that he didn’t feel as bad about it, as if it was getting easier. He found that concerning. How many had he killed at this point?

  Aegis launched at the next nearby guard, tackling him to the ground and tearing into him. The man screamed as she tore at his throat. The final guard began to move towards the ramp they had just descended, but was quickly struck with a bolt of lightning. The man collapsed in a twitching heap.

  “The entity is approaching again.” Golem reported.

  Jesse glanced up to see the ghostly entity flying towards him. Only this time it was a deep crimson. It took the shape of a human once more and was scowling at him. What was going on? Why was it so focused on him? He got the distinct feeling he did not want this thing touching him. He dove to the side with a crash of metal on stone and it passed through the space he had been a moment before.

  “Traitor!” It hissed. “The corruption will be cleansed!” It’s voice came from all directions and was raspy, almost a whisper.

  “What’s it talking about?” Tormund asked, readying lightning to strike at the creature.

  “I have no idea.” Jesse said in return. It circled above before diving, but not for them. Instead it sank into the floor.

  “Shit! Where did it go?” Lord Valrith said, spinning around.

  “Can you detect Golem?” He asked. He received the mental equivalent of a shrug and a shake of a head.

  Jesse suddenly felt an ice cold wave pass through him as the creature rose from the floor directly beneath him. It was colder still than the last time it passed through him. He felt his fingers on his right hand go numb. A vision began to form but dissipated in a flurry of white spots as Golem refused to allow it to take hold. He sensed the danger now too it seemed. Tormund released a bolt of lightning but it had already reentered the floor a few feet away.

  “There will be severe internal damage if the cold increases the next time it passes through you.” Golem reported.

  “Yeah I felt that.” Jesse said with a shiver. “Let’s make sure that doesn’t happen.” The world slowed to a crawl as Jesse mentally commanded the AI to slow his perception..

  “Alright we have to fight that thing!” Jesse yelled. “Ideas?”

  “No clue.” Lord Valrith said.

  “Uh, try hitting it?” Cleb said.

  “Lightning seems to at least deter it.” Tormund reported.

  Jesse hated conversing while his perception was slowed. The words caveat a snails pace. It was a necessary annoyance however. Jesse watched the floor for the apparition to appear. After a few moments he saw a finger slide up slightly behind and to the left of him. His mechanical leg shot him to the side in a blur, reacting much faster than his human limbs could have, and much more in time with his enhanced speed of thought. Jesse decided it was time to activate one of his aces. On his right exoskeleton arm a long blade extended from above his fist. The blade crackled with electricity. Jesse swung it through the ghostly figure. It screamed in pain and shot away from him, passing through an unfortunate soldier in its flight.

  The man collapsed, his skin forming frost. He appeared to still live but Jesse wouldn’t be surprised if he had some sort of frostbite from the contact. Jesse watched as the creature stopped not far away. “Heretic! Traitor!” It hissed at him.

  “What are you talking about?” Jesse yelled back.

  “You bear the corruption of a fused soul. You are a traitor to humankind!” It hissed back, launching itself at him, face contorted in rage.

  This time a bolt of lightning struck the creature. It hissed and contorted. It blurred into a ball of light and flew at high speeds around to the ceiling. It swooped at Jesse almost faster than he could track, even with his AI enhanced perception. His left arm, the one that was truly mechanical and not just covered in an exoskeleton, moved just as fast and slammed into the glowing ball. His fist actually connected with the thing and sent it spiraling into the floor.

  Golem? Did you do that? Jesse asked mentally. He honestly couldn’t tell if it had been the AI or just adrenaline fueled reflexes.

  “Yes I did.” The AI responded. Again Jesse was struck with a feeling that he didn’t quite like the AI taking over parts of his body. Again he squashed this feeling down, look how useful it was!

  The ghostly figure rose from the floor, back in humanoid form. It was still crimson red. It snarled at them.

  “What are you?” Jesse asked.

  “I am all that remains!” It spat at him. “I am the first of the people and now the last of the people.” It paused for a moment then continued. “Maybe… maybe not the last. My memory… it doesn’t make sense.”

  “Why do you attack us?” Jesse asked it, just happy to be conversing instead of fighting in some strange stalemate.

  It’s glow dulled somewhat and color began to swirl between red and blue. “I…” it shook its head. “I don’t know. You are corrupted! I fight the corrupted!” It began to bleed into a crimson red again.

  “Would the corrupted be talking to you?” Jesse asked, taking a gamble.

  It hesitated. “No… yes? I do not know. My memories. They are… fleeting. I feel as though I should know things that are beyond my grasp. I am… old. My soul spread thin across centuries of half life.” It rasped out.

  “What happened to you?” Jesse asked.

  “I had to buy time. Yes that was it… I sought our salvation…. From a death of our own making.” It said, though it didn’t make any sense to Jesse.

  “Will you let us go? We must use those portals.” Jesse said.

  “Use the portals? No….” It shook its head. “No no no no no no. You will wake them! Draw them. You will provoke them. Though… the other didn’t. Why was that? I can’t… I can’t remember!” It yelled the last words, growing angry once more. It’s form bled into a deep crimson and it stalked forward towards them. “I am Tor’selvar. First of the people! You will not defile our home any longer! You cannot fool me, corrupted one!” It screamed as the figure blurred as if shaking in rage.

  It shot towards Jesse again as Tormund shot another bout of lightning at it. It continued its pace unfettered, screaming in agony. “Die traitor!” It yelled. As it neared Jesse a monstrous claw shot forward as Echo interposed herself between the entity and him. The ethereal being froze as it struck the claw. Jesse watched as the aberration screamed as its red light began to dim. It took only moments before the ghostly man was no more, having been absorbed completely into the void of Echo’s being.