Mask of Humanity

As they entered the final room, Jo paused at the doorway and turned to watch the exit the undead had vanished through. Nicolai shook his arm as he moved, finding it now half-numb and half infected by a painful buzzing like pins-and-needles. He pried his clothes open and pulled his shirt up to look at his flesh, and saw that his arm was pale and clammy, but didn’t seem otherwise damaged. However, he still struggled to move it, and it was difficult to reload his weapons. In the end, he decided it would be better to recruit Beth’s help rather than keep on struggling to do it himself whilst she watched.

As she reloaded the guns for him his focus moved inwards. His Soul Sense was noticeably weaker, and his Node was burning Oma rapidly in an attempt to heal his Soul. He saw little progress being made. He took the time to more carefully look over the black stain the undead had inflicted him with. It was a black mark in the shape of a hand, a print left where it had grabbed him.

Whatever the undead had done to him, it had been effective. How long would this last? Was it permanent?

‘Wait,’ said Nicolai, ‘and watch him.’ He gestured Beth over to Maric. She moved over and levelled her gun at the skeleton who observed the weapon with wary curiosity. By now, Maric must have seen enough to understand the threat behind the gesture.

Nicolai left Threat Analysis to monitor his senses and the drones while he focused on the black handprint, studying it first physically, then his eyes closed and he focused inward.

The black mark stretched into his Soul, on his Soul’s arm in just the same place as on his body. But inside, it was bigger, the stain not just on the outside of his Soul’s arm but pressing inward, too. That entire part of his arm seemed stained black.

His Node was sending a continual supply of Oma to repair his Soul, and a battle was occurring there, one that required no input from Nicolai. It reminded him of the natural fight of the bodies cells against an infection. In a similar manner, his Soul was fighting back, pulling Oma and using it to do so.

After watching for some time he determined the black print was not growing any smaller. His Soul was not going to naturally repair itself, not against this. But it didn’t seem to be getting any bigger, either.

‘That thing left a black mark on the arm of my Soul,’ he said to Maric. ‘What do you know of this?’

‘A black mark? Mmm. Sounds like Soul rot.’

‘What do I do about that?’

‘It’s not a big deal. It’s on your arm, right? So you just chop that part of your Soul off. Not great for your Soul, you’ll have to regrow, but you’re only Tier 1. Easier to recover from Soul injuries when you’ve a weaker Soul. Do it later, though, there’s no rush. For now…’ Maric cast a look to the glowing barriers of light within the room. Nicolai felt honest dismissiveness from the undead, which suggested to him it was as the creature said; not a big deal. He could tell it was getting worse but only slowly, he could leave it until later.

Nicolai flexed his hand, then arm. He seemed to be recovering, the tingling pain and numbness fading. The damage was more to his Soul than to his flesh. Gradually, the limb was getting better, and he kept shaking his arm, opening and closing his fist to get more blood moving through it whilst tugging another Oma crystal out to replenish his Node.

Nicolai approached one of the flickering barriers, behind which he saw a book on a podium, and extended his Soul Sense to test it. The barrier was a solid pane of energy, but it didn’t feel like it would strike out at him. He touched it, and golden light shimmered on his fingertips.

Shimmering Lights Barrier

A barrier created through a combination of Symbiotes, set into place and powered by a constant flow of Oma.

A constant flow? Perhaps he could interrupt that flow. His Soul Sense ran over the walls around the barrier, but he found them similarly impenetrable, wrapped by some spell of their own. No luck.

Next he turned to Maric, who was staring at the book on the podium in the centre of the room, the only one not behind a barrier. ‘How do we get through this?’ Nicolai asked, pointing a thumb at the barrier.

‘Very simple,’ said the skeleton, starting towards the book in the centre. ‘I will simply write my name in this, and then I will be able to pass through the barriers and deactivate them from the other side.’

Nicolai moved quickly, getting between the skeleton and the book, which he glanced down at. He could see short lines of text filling the pages. It looked like a list of names.

‘Not just yet,’ he told Maric, warding it off with a raised hand. With his other he examined the book.

Book of the Raised

The Book of the Raised is a central tool of each Castle. Any undead who writes their name in this book gains freedom from the Core, for a time. It is used to test undead who show promise. A little freedom is enough for them to prove their worth, or lack thereof.

These named undead are granted access to areas normally closed to them, allowing them to fulfil their chosen duties.

If these undead are to have their Souls cut loose from their physical form, they will lose their special privileges and be re-integrated by the castle Core.

It could be Maric was telling the truth. But Nicolai had a feeling. The shadows beneath the undead were angry, roiling. They didn’t trust the skeleton, and neither did he. He found a strand of darkness moving through him, but he left it. A little wasn’t too bad. It told him useful things.

There was a writing implement by the book and he picked it up, writing his name on the page while interacting with it via Soul Sense. Nothing appeared to happen.

‘That won’t work. You’re not undead,’ Maric told him.

Nicolai moved over and pressed a hand to the barrier regardless, then tried to push his Soul Sense at it and tell it he was a named. It didn’t work, the barrier remaining firm.

Nicolai returned to the book then, and moved to Maric. ‘I need to check something,’ he said and reached out to touch Maric, his hand shimmering with golden light as he Examined the skeleton.

Maric, the Scholar Vagabond

A thief and scoundrel who prefers information to trinkets.

‘Hey,’ Maric said, flinching. The skeleton moved to brush Nicolai’s hand away, but he’d already pulled back. ‘What did you do?’ it asked, frowning at his hand which had shimmered briefly gold.

Nicolai smiled and waved Maric forwards. ‘Go on then,’ he said, ignoring its question. As the skeleton passed Nicolai gave the undead an encouraging clap on the back, then a second lower down, which pulled a confused look from it.

Maric quickly picked up the writing implement. It wrote a scrawl in the book then stared down, the blue light in its skull throbbing.

‘Done!’ Maric said, and there was a laugh in its hollow voice.

Nicolai’s Mark pulsed and flickered, and he saw that he’d completed Maric’s quest, a Reward Shrine available. He watched the undead carefully, but Maric merely started towards the nearest barrier. He let it go.

Maric passed through without any issue, and continued straight towards the book on the podium. The skeleton flipped it open and stopped, staring down. Reading.

Nicolai drew closer to the barrier, watching the undead. Over Local, he checked his connection to something, and was pleased to find the connection persisted, not blocked by the barrier Maric had moved through

‘Not going to open the barrier?’ he asked Maric, tapping at the wall of light.

‘Feel free to leave. You’ve done your part,’ said the skeleton, flipping a dismissive hand at him.

‘Eh?’ Beth appeared beside Nicolai. ‘Hey, you’ve got to open the barrier!’

Maric laughed, and Nicolai chuckled.

‘He’s not going to open it,’ he told her. ‘He tricked us.’

‘That’s right,’ said Maric. It glanced at him, giving him a thoughtful look. ‘You seem unsurprised. But… no matter. Vicious as you are, you can’t touch me in here. Now, I’d like to focus on this. So… go away.’

‘Cover your ears and turn away from him,’ Nicolai told Beth.

She frowned at him, nonplussed. ‘Why?’

‘Trust me,’ he said, putting his own hands on his ears and turning away, calling out to Jo to do the same

When the other two had done so he activated the stun grenade he’d stuck to Maric’s back.

A deafening boom and flash of light rolled through the room, the sound echoing and echoing off the walls.

When it ended, Nicolai turned back to see Maric sprawled writhing on the floor, its robes burning on the back. The stun grenade hadn’t done any real harm, but detonating right on its back like that it had applied quite some force.

Maric struggled to its feet, staggering until it found the podium to lean on. ‘What did you do?!’ it yelled at him.

‘I put two devices on your back,’ Nicolai explained. ‘The first, which I just detonated, was a stun grenade. It just makes a big noise and a flash of light. The second, is an explosive fragmentation grenade. When it detonates, there will be a much more powerful explosion that will launch shards of metal at great speeds in all directions. On your back as it is, a lot of those shards will go through you. Still, I’m sure the castle Core can put you back together. When it re-integrates you.’

Maric stared at him silently throughout his speech. Nicolai was pretty sure that being re-integrated was precisely what Maric was afraid of, based on some of its words in their first meeting. It had told him that if it were to die, it would be just like the other undead. Perhaps it had previously been named in the book, but that naming had been wearing off, thus the need to renew? He wasn’t sure, but either way, death should still see it re-integrated.

‘Then, I just need to take it off,’ hissed the skeleton, and it began reaching its hands over and pawing at its back, before frantically attempting to remove its robe.

‘Even if you took it off, it will still be in that room. More than close enough to kill you,’ Nicolai helpfully explained. ‘But even so, I’m going to require you keep it on. You have five seconds to open this barrier, or I blow you up.’

He started counting, backing up and gesturing for Beth to do the same, and he decided that when he hit zero he would indeed blow the undead up. If this wasn’t going to work he needed to turn his attention to finding other methods to get through the barriers, therefore it was best to end this quickly.

‘Five. Four. Three. Two.’

‘Wait!’ squealed Maric, giving up on its robes which it had made little progress in removing, its movement slowed by panic. ‘I’ll do it! I’ll do it!’

‘One—’

The undead lunged across the room and its hand touched a glowing spot on the wall. The barrier disappeared.

Nicolai had already pulled out another sticky grenade and he grabbed the undead the moment the barrier was gone, dragging it out of the space. ‘Open up,’ he told it as he pulled its lower jaw down then shoved the grenade inside the struggling undead’s skull, a place it would be difficult to remove from, before towing it across the room and pushing it through the next barrier.

‘We can talk about this—‘ Maric gurgled at him.

‘Shut up or I blow you up! Go, go, go!’ Nicolai screamed and the skeleton hustled towards the glowing spot, quickly pressing it.

‘Go grab the books,’ he said aside to Beth. Maric re-emerged and he seized the undead and repeated the process.

He didn’t want to give the Maric time to think, time to exit its current panicked state. If he gave it that time it might manage to think up something clever.

To prevent this, he moved it roughly, shoving it, grabbing it, kicking it when it wasn’t fast enough, and yelling about how the explosion would blast it into parts so small perhaps even the Core couldn’t put it back together, how he would seize its Soul and rend it to pieces.

Maric emerged from the final alcove. If it had been alive he was sure it would have been red faced and panting.

‘There,’ the skeleton said, arms raised defensively. ‘I did it, now let’s—‘ It froze, staring at him, seeming to sense just how very much danger it was currently in. It took a careful step backwards.

Nicolai stared at it, his eyes empty, and thought on its value, and the risk of letting it live, and how it all stacked up with the pleasure of breaking it into pieces.