17 Chapter 17

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'What is this thing?'

Kent Nelson's internal voice was quiet and fearful. The colossal rhomboid shape, like a massive, black diamond, completely exceeded his understanding.

As he observed the strange, glowing letters, flowing across the obsidian surface, he was suddenly struck by a revelation.

'Where you responsible for this, Nabu?'

He couldn't help but think back to the mystical 'signature' the entity had detected. It was what'd led them to the Grimm estate in the first place. Nabu had said it was 'his own'. Now that he was staring at the resplendent inscriptions, Kent recognized the similarities to his companion's usual style.

However, after a few moments of silence, he received no response.

'Damn, I almost forgot he shut me out!'

Left without a choice, he could only observe the structure through their shared vision.

'How big is it, and how big is this cavern?'

He was both awestruck and terrified. In all his time spent as an archeologist and a professor of ancient history, he'd never encountered anything like this. From his study of mankind's mystical past, he knew much of their knowledge was lost, but no matter how he wracked his brain, he couldn't imagine the ancients were ever capable of producing something like this.

The cavern itself was a curiosity as well, given that the structure seemed to float in the darkness without touching the floor, walls or ceiling. It was difficult to estimate its size without something to compare it to, but as they approached the spinning rhomboid, Kent guessed it was around seven hundred yards long, from top to bottom.

Suddenly, his gaze was attracted to an anomalous area on the surface of the black pyramid. On one of its eight sides, the flowing, golden script was blemished. More accurately, the symbols were bent and warped around a point, revealing the only area free of any inscription.

Nabu seemed to have noticed it as well, because the entity immediately accelerated, heading for the oddity.

When they arrived in front of it, something incredible was revealed—other strange symbols were inscribed there, in the form of a ring. They seemed to be holding back the golden text, like some kind of seal.

'THE CULTISTS HAVE INFILTRATED THE TOMB!'

Nabu's involuntary exclamation revealed both anger and distress.

Kent's curiosity had grown to such an extent that his outrage over the earlier calamity was almost forgotten. Right now, he was willing to lower his head as long as it meant getting some answers out of Nabu.

'Can you hear me, Nabu? If you're willing to, please explain what the hell is going on here! You said this thing is a tomb, but for who, exactly?'

Surprisingly, the spirit actually responded. Maybe it didn't care that much about him kicking up a fuss in the first place.

'THE LAST SCHOLAR OF COLUAN.'

The entity's tone was grave.

The archaeologist didn't recognize the name at all, but he was happy about the fact that he was no longer being shut out.

'Who the hell is he? Why is his tomb down here, and why did you inscribe it with these strange symbols?'

Kent's head was full of so many questions that he felt like it was about to burst open.

Nabu didn't respond immediately. Instead, he floated over to the gap. It was difficult to see from far away, but now that they were in front of it, something surprising was revealed—a hole, in the shape of a hexagon, had been created on the surface of the pyramid. It stretched into the interior for an indeterminate distance, like a long shadow.

Without hesitation, Nabu went inside.

'THE SCHOLAR'S ORIGIN IS NOT OF THIS WORLD. BEFORE THE FIRST HUMAN WAS BORN ON THIS PLANET, HIS PEOPLE WERE ALREADY TRAVERSING THE STARS.

THE MINDS OF COLUAN WERE UNMATCHED EVEN THEN, AND FOR A TIME, IT SEEMED NOTHING WAS BEYOND THEIR REACH. HOWEVER, ALL THINGS MUST COME TO AN END. DESPITE THEIR GENIUS, THEY WERE UNABLE TO AVOID THEIR DOOM.

THERE WAS ONE AMONG THEM WHO REFUSED TO ACCEPT THE INEVITABLE. HIS MIND WAS EXCEPTIONAL, MORESO EVEN THAN THE REST OF HIS KIND. TO DO THE IMPOSSIBLE, HE SOUGHT KNOWLEDGE WHERE KNOWLEDGE WAS BETTER LEFT ALONE.

UNFORTUNATELY, WHEN HE EMERGED FROM HIS SECLUDED LABOROTORY WITH A SOLUTION, VRIL DOX… WAS THE LAST SCHOLAR OF COLUAN.'

Nabu's tone was incomparably sober as he told the brief story of the one who lay entombed inside the black pyramid.

'He's never this forthcoming with information. Perhaps he's trying trying to give context to his actions from earlier? I'm not sure. However, one thing is certain—if Nabu is this worried about the pyramid, then the guy inside probably isn't totally dead.'

There was another issue—the implications of a relic, produced by a civilization capable of making the vast cosmos their playground, wasn't lost on him.

What would happen if mankind got a hold of something like this? How would they interact with an artifact more technologically and thaumaturgically advanced than anything they could've ever imagined?

He didn't know. However, what he did know was that, whenever a more advanced civilization interacted with a less advanced civilization, the short term outcome was nothing less than disasterous. History had proven that to be the case.

'IT IS FAR MORE SERIOUS THAN THAT. WHAT LAYS INSIDE THE TOMB IS SOMETHING CAPABLE OF BRINGING ABOUT THE DESTRUCTION OF THE UNIVERSE ITSELF.'

Nabu's words made Kent's scalp turn numb.

'How is that possible? What exactly… is this guy?'

Silence stretched as Nabu remained quiet. Eventually, he replied.

'WHEN VRIL DOX REALIZED THE LIMITS OF MATERIALISM, HE TURNED TO MORE… IMMATERIAL PERSUITS. HIS GENIUS, ALONGSIDE HIS DISREGARD FOR MORALITY, TURNED HIM IN TO A MYSTACIST WITHOUT EQUAL. IT WASN'T LONG BEFORE HE EXPLORED THE VERY NATURE OF REALITY ITSELF.

THIS IS SOMETHING YOU MUST UNDERSTAND, KENT NELSON—OUR WORLD IS SIMPLY A REFLECTION, A MIRROR IMAGE OF ANOTHER. AT THE BOTTOM OF OUR UNIVERSE IS A DARK SEAL, SEPERATING US FROM A PLACE OF NIGHTMARE.

IN HIS SEARCH FOR KNOWLEDGE, THE SCHOLAR DUG TOO DEEP. WHAT HE RELEASED INTO THE COSMOS WAS SOMETHING THAT COULDN'T BE ALLOWED TO EXIST. A TERRIBLE WAR FOLLOWED, INSIGATED BY THE FORCES OF ORDER TO PURGE THE EVIL VRIL DOX HAD CREATED. IN THE END, WE WERE VICTORIOUS. I PERSONALLY SEALED HIS CORPSE INSIDE THIS FORTRESS—IT BECAME HIS TOMB.

WHY IT IS HERE, I CANNOT SAY. AFTER I SEALED IT, I PLACED IT IN A LOCATION NONE BUT I SHOULD BE ABLE TO ACCESS.

HOWEVER IT APPEARED HERE, IT IS CLEAR SOME SCAVANGERS HAVE CHANCED UPON IT. TO MAKE MATTERS WORSE, THEY SEEM TO BE ILL-NATURED.

I MUST SECURE THE TOMB, NELSON, NO MATTER WHAT THE COST.'

When the final, ominous sentence was spoken, they arrived at the other end of the tunnel. It was sealed off by a hexagonal door, made out of six triangles. On its surface, many patterns were carved, indecipherable to Kent's eyes, but not to Nabu's. The entity could clearly see the image, hidden within them. It was the same, coffin-like structure, with many tubes entering and exiting it, like the one present on the surface of the pyramid.

When the light of their glowing form shone onto its surface, they discovered something that struck them both dumb—a familiar, boyish figure hobbled towards the door, like a zombie. Its was naked, having had its clothes burned off by the earlier explosions. Also, much of its skin was damaged and thin, silvery wires could be seen through the gaps. It almost looked like a robot.

It only took a second for Dr. Fate to recover from its torpor, but when the entity shot forward, illuminating the tunnel like a burning firework, it was already too late.

A thin, pale hand touched the surface of the door. When it did, countless dark-purple lights flared into existence, running along the swirling patterns, like an enormous, glowing circuit. In the blink of an eye, the boy vanished, leaving the good doctor behind to stare helplessly at the inert portal.

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It was natural for water to flow downwards, from frozen mountain caps into streams and rivers, only to eventually end up in the ocean. In time, that same water would evaporate, forming clouds that would blow over the land, back to the mountains from whence they came.

Perhaps it was just the way of things to return to their origin, given the passage of time. Or perhaps there was a different explanation for why Arthur, despite his unconscious state, had journeyed into the depths of the black pyramid.

Through inscrutable hallways, he wandered. He passed rooms, filled with unknowable devices, machines and McGuffins, things not even his modern knowledge would help him understand. All the while, it was not him doing the walking, but his body alone, made out of innumerable silvery tendrils… or wires.

It could've been minutes, hours or days when he finally reached his destination. It was impossible to tell the time inside the mind-warping space of the pyramid, like infinite fractals, breaking apart into shards, splinters and slivers. Each plane was more intricate than the last, as if it was all taking place inside a Mandelbrot set.

At last, Arthur made it into the heart of the tomb, where a coffin was laying, upside-down. It was a reverse shape, larger at the bottom, but growing thinner towards the top. The casket had no lid, so it was possible to see the corpse inside. It was humanoid, but inhuman. It seemed to have once belonged to a living creature, but was more like an organic machine—a perfect fusion between metal and flesh.

When Arthur's body neared it, the silvery wires inside him suddenly shot towards the coffin, piercing through his skin like a storm of needles. They surged into the corpse.

Its chest was already split open, exposing its metallic ribcage, like a grasping claw. The chest-cavity was filled with mysterious, withered organs, appearing completely different from that of a human. However, the silvery wires bypassed the dry flesh. Instead, they travelled into the corpse's spinal chord, following the pathway of bone until it reached the empty skull. There, it found a piece of black glass, fused into the frontal section of the skull.

Suddenly, a message appeared on the black tablet inside Arthur's mind.

[Control Module Acquired: Integrating…]

At this time, the youth was finally starting to wake up. The changes on the tablet, bound to his mind, forced him into wakefulness. However, his rebooting consciousness was unable to make sense of what he was seeing.

'What the hell is happening…?'

As soon as he had that thought, the tablet abruptly expanded until it completely swallowed up all the space in front of his eyes. Countless scripts, like machine code, appeared one after the other. The microscopic symbols were written in an alien language that he couldn't make heads nor tails of. After a few moments, the mad rush of information ceased and all the code suddenly disappeared.

A new line of text, surprisingly written in English, appeared in front of his eyes.

'[ANIMA print recognized. Identifying user... success! Welcome, Vril Dox.]'

Arthur felt like his eyeballs were about to pop out of their sockets from surprise, but before he could do so much as twitch a finger, the corpse in the coffin suddenly jerked into motion. A surge of multicolored light shot out of its eye sockets and into his own, seemingly interacting directly with the tablet.

'[Control Module Override Detected. Initiating Merger!]'

In an instant, something inconceivable happened. Arthur's entire body abruptly dissolved into silver wires, like a rope fraying into threads. When he'd transformed into a wriggling, humanoid mass, all the tendrils suddenly shot into the coffin. After the last tendril had disappeared inside, a black, featureless lid descended from the ceiling, like a floating magnet. It landed on the coffin, sealing it and expelling pressurized air with a 'hiss'.

The entire room abruptly lit up in a retro-futuristic, ultraviolet color. Like a heart pumping blood into veins, circuits conducted energy towards the coffin from somewhere unknown. A strange, pulsating sound became audible, like the low, alternating hum of a generator. It was both high-pitched and low bass—if a human was present, the vibrations would've caused their brains to liquidate and flow out of their ears.

The coffin was lifted by an invisible force, rotating until it hovered upside down in the middle of the room. Sections of the glassy, black surfaces were transformed into rod-like structures, reaching towards the coffin like fingers. Simultaneously, they emitted arcs of ultraviolet light that struck the casket like bolts of black lightning.

Eons after his death, the time had come for the last scholar of Coluan to be reborn.

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